year there but the taking only one Town and besieging another which upon notice of the Disorders at home that a wise man might easily have foreseen and prevented he quit with no less disorder leaving the whole Action with as much precipitation as he took it up insomuch that his Wife and Sister that accompanied him and all their Attendants and Officers were forc'd to shift for themselves and get home as they could which Inconsideration of his met with that pitiful Event before mention'd to redeem him from which his People were fain to strain themselves beyond their abilities Lay-men and Clergy parting with a fourth part of their Real and a tenth of their Personal Estate all not being sufficient to make up his Ransome till they pawn'd and sold their very Chalices and Church Ornaments Being thus as it were un-king'd and expos'd naked to the Vulgar stript of his Honour as well as Treasure he thought himself not secure of the fai h and reverence due to his birth by any other way but a Recoronation which being as extraordinary as the rest of his Actions for he 's the first we meet with twice crown'd was notwithstanding the poverty of the Nation that had paid in two years time no less then jj hundred thousand Marks of Silver the vastness of which Sum may be guess'd at by the Standard of those Times when twenty pence was more then a Crown now perform'd with that solemnity as shew'd he had the same mind though not the same purse as when he began his great Adventures After this he fitted out a Fleet of 100 Sail of Ships to carry him into Normandy to chastize the Rebellions of his Brother John who incouraged by the King of France the constant Enemy of England had during his absence depos'd his Vice-roy Long-champ and forc'd him to lay down his Legatine Cross to take up that of the holy War and had put himself in so good forwardness to depose him too having brought the People to swear a Conditional Fealty to him that there wanted nothing to give him possession of the Crown which was before secur'd in Reversion but the consent of the Emperor to whom there was offer'd a Bribe of 150 thousand Marks to detain him or 1000 pounds a Month as long as he kept him Prisoner But such was the power of the Mother who was alwaies a fast Friend to the younger Brother and had indeed a greater share in the Government of the elder then consisted with the weakness of her own or the dignity of his Sex that she made them Friends and obtained an Indempnity for all the Faults committed during Longchamp's Reign who indeed was more a King then his Master so that his Indignation being wholly diverted upon the French King he began a new War that was like to prove more chargeable then the old which he had so lately ended To maintain which he had new Projections for raising Money but Providence having determin'd to put an end to his Ambition and Avarice offer'd a fatal Occasion by the discovery of some Treasure-trove out of which the Discoverer the Viscount Lymoges voluntarily tendring him a part tempted him to claim the whole and so eager was he of the Prey that being deny'd he besieg'd the Castle of Challons where he conceiv'd 't was hid from whence by a fatal Arrow shot from the hand of one whose Father and two Brothers he had kill'd with his own hand he was unexpectedly slain leaving no Issue either of his Body or Mind that the World took notice off excepting his three Daughters before mention'd father'd on him by the Priest by the disposal of which though it were but in jest we may see what he was in earnest For he bestow'd his daughter Pride on the Knights Templars his daughter Drunkenness on the Cestercian Monks and his Daughter Leachery he left to the Clergy in general which quickness of his as it savour'd of Irreligion so it made good that in him which makes all things else ill the comprehensive Vice of Ingratitude the Clergy being the only men to whom he was indebted for his Honour Wealth and Liberty but the unkindness he shew'd to them living was sufficiently requited to him dead by one of the same function who reflecting upon the Place where he receiv'd his fatal wound shot an Arrow at him that pierc'd deeper then that which slew him Christe tui Calicis Praedo fit praeda Calucis This mounted him on the wings of Fame but that unexpected height was attended with a fatal Giddiness which turn'd to such a kind of Frenzy as render'd him incapable of all advice So that intoxicated with the fumes of his Power he committed many outrages not sparing his own Brother Jeoffry Arch-bishop of York who using the freedom of a Brother in reprehending his Exorbitances had all his Estate taken from him and confiscated a whole year before he could recover it again by the help of all his Friends The Earl of Chester fair'd yet worse who was banish'd upon the like accompt of being too faithful a Counsellor Neither did the Lord Fitz-Walter suffer less then either because he would not consent to prostitute his fair Daughter Matilda to his Lust And whether he shew'd any foul play to his Nephew Arthur after he was his Prisoner is not certain who surviving his Imprisonment but a few dayes gave the World cause to think he was not treated as so near a Kinsman but as a Competitor and that which confirm'd this Opinion was the Judgment from Heaven that attended it for from that time he grew very visibly unprosperous loosing not only his ancient Patrimony the Dutchy of * Which his Ancestors had hâ—ld in despight of all the power â—f France and the rest of their potent Neighbours above 300 years Normandy and that as strangely as t'other did his life but with it all the rest of his Possessions on that side the Water all taken from him in less then a years space not so much by force of Arms as by process of Law whiles the King of France proceeded against him as an Offender rather then as an Enemy And to aggravate that by other Losses seeming less but perhaps greater he near about the same time not only lost his two great Supporters Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury and Fitz-Peter his Lord Chief Justice as wise and faithful Counsellors as any Prince ever had but her that was the Bridle of his Intemperance his Indulgent Mother Elinor a prudent Woman of a high and waking Spirit and therefore a most affectionate Promoter of his because it tended to the supporting of her own Greatness These stayes being gone he prov'd like a mounted Paper Kite when the string breaks which holds it down for taking an extravagant flight he fell afterwards as that usually doth for want of due weight to keep it steddy and being no less sensible of the shame then the loss instead of taking revenge on his Foes he fell upon
a dispute with the French and so neither at leisure as he thought to disturb him The third who claimed as the right Heir by descent as well as by the Will of his Uncle was Edgar Atheling Son of Prince Edward eldest Son of Edmond Ironsides but he being a Child and having no Friends nearer then Hungary he oppos'd to him the good Omen of his own †Harold in old Saxon signified Love of the Army Name only that is to say concluded to overcome Right by Might having besides the advantage of his Years and Experience two great Supporters to participate of the danger with him in case the other two should joyn with Edgar that was Morcar Earl of York and Edwin Earl of Chester both Brothers to his Wife who being the Relict of Llewellin Prince of Wales seem'd to be a Pledge given by Fortune to secure to him the affections of that People also Neither wanted he something like a gilded Title to dazle the Common Peoples eyes for besides that he was Heir to the Fame and Fortune of the great Goodwin the Champion of their Liberties descended from the Kings of the West-Sexe which gave him the preferrence of the Norman so by the Mothers side he had in him the Royal Blood of Denmark which by the advantage of his present possession gave him the Superiority of those Kings too Thus fortified and adorned he undertook to make the People as happy as they had made him Great and because Trisles please Children as well as greater matters he call'd himself Prince Edgar's Protector fooling those of his Party into a belief that he intended something towards him that might amount to a Surrender in convenient time or at least to a Confirmation of the Succession after him which they were well contented with Thus having by many Lines drawn to himself an universal Consent that made his Right of Desert equivalent with t'others Right of Descent he hung like a Spider by the slender thread spun out of his own Bowels which how weak soever it seem'd was strong enough to bear him up till he had put his Affairs into as good a Posture of Security as the present necessity would permit And it so fell out that the first that question'd him was the last that assaulted him his next Neighbour the Norman who pretending to a Conveyance of King Edwards Right to him to which as he said Harold himself was Witness and which was more sworn by Oath to defend he tax'd him upon his Allegiance to make good the same to which Harold return'd a short Answer That Oaths exacted par Duresse were not binding for taking his pleasure as it is said one day at Sea he was by contrary winds drove into Normandy and there detain'd till he took that Oath 2. He said that his private compact with the Norman was of no validity without the consent of the whole State of England 3. That no Act of King Edward's could pass the Crown away being himself intitled to it but by Election and so holding only in Trust Lastly that the Kingdom of England and Dukedom of Normandy were enough for two Persons and too much to be rul'd by one and therefore Nature had well placed a Sea betwixt them which Sea because he thought the Norman could not pass he concluded he would not devest himself of the Dignity Providence had given him with the consent of the People By this Duke William finding that Arms not Arguments must decide the Controversie resolv'd to drive out one wedge with another and accordingly working upon the Revenge and Ambition of Toustan Harold's younger Brother then in his Court who was tainted with an irreconcileable Enmity both to his Brother and Country to him for a Box of the Ear given him in the presence of King Edward to it for a worse blow in deposing him from his Government in Northumberland and forcing him into Exile whereby he was necessitated to appear rather like a Pirate then a Prince he prevail'd with him to make the first Invasion who assisted by the King of Scots and the King of Norwey then ingaged in taking in the Northern Isles landed in his own Province and thence pierc'd into the very Bowels of the Kingdom forcing his Brother Harold though with apparent hazard to leave London to make what speed he could to check their forwardness who accordingly advanc'd as far as Stamford where he put an end to the troubles of his Brother and the Norweygian but not to his own For as he was allaying this Storm in the North he had notice of a more dreadful one in the South the Norman having so tim'd his business that he landed that very day that his Confederates were fighting with whom came over the Great Earl of Flanders Father in Law to Toustan as well as to himself accompanied with the Earl of Bulloigne who had been so inhospitably treated at Canterbury by Harold's Father Harold tarried not to sheath his blood-stain'd Swords lest rusting in their Scabards they should be hardly drawn forth again But leading his men on weary as they were to compleat the first by a second Victory in less time then could be thought possible to have march'd so far he fac'd the Invaders with so much confidence that Duke William loath to venture all at one stake sent him the offer of referring it to the Pope or putting the trial upon a single Combat betwixt them two But Harold deaf to all Conditions of Peace having in his memory the fatal Success of that dispute between Knute and Ironsides on the like Occasion return'd him this Answer That none but that Power which gave it him should judge his Right and that he would support it with more then singâ—e Courage superstitiously believing that that day would prove auspicâ—ous to him because it was his Birth-day Neither was he worse then his word for that single Battel cost the English near Seven thousand Lives besides what were lost on the Norman side the just number whereof their Historians have not thought fit to let us know Men worthy to be as they were then made Immortal who bravely strove with Destiny to save their Country from the Ca amity of Forreign Servitude but finding that they couâ—d not do it as scorning to out live their Liberties they fell round the Body of their vanquish'd King which lay wrapt up in his Royal Standard instead of a Winding sheet with more wounds upon him then he had reign'd Months in such congested heaps as shew'd the Normans that they had wâ—th him subdu'd the Kingdom there being scarce so much Noble blood â—eft unspilt as to keep the State alive if he had quit them much less to make a second Resistance From which Catastrophe we may conclude that the advantage which the English got over the Britains in the first place was no more then what the Normans got over them in the last not by an inequaliâ—y of Courage but partiality of Fortune which like a
Neither is it so in the Case of a particular Person only but if the whole Body of the people of this Nation should take upon them to do the like absque assensu Regis The Judges holding that where a War shall be so declared against any in League with the King without his consent and allowance the League is not thereby broken The like holds in all cases of Confederacies and Combinations which forced the late Rebels in the time of Charles the First to declare this Kingdom a Common-wealth before they could prevail with any Forrain Princes to treat with them and very few did it then Wherefore it is recorded as a wise answer of that Parliament in the Seventeenth of Richard the Second who when that King out of a necessitous compliance with the People offer'd them leave to take into their consideration some concerns of War and Peace Replied It did not become their Duty neither in Truth durst they presume ever to Treat of matters of so Transcendent Concernment No doubt then can there be of that Jus Foecialis 5. Jus Foecialis or right of Legation in directing sending and receiving all Embassies which Curtius calls Jus Regium a Power so Singular and Absolute that as (b) Bod. de Repub. Bodin and (c) In State Christ printed Anno 1657. H. Wotton both men of sufficient Authority affirm divers of our Neighbour Princes who yet call themselves absolute as the Kings of Hungary Poland Denmark Bohemia c. have nothing like it being bound up to consult with their People about all publick concerns before they can make any Conclusion of Peace or War Whereas all Addresses of State are made to Our Kings as I shewed in part before without any Obligation of their parts to communicate any thing to any of the Members of their great Council Privy Council or Common Council much less to either of the Ministers of State whether Secretaries or others however sworn to Secrecy and Trust Nor needs there a more pregnant Instance of the Kings inherent and determinate Prerogative in this point than that verbal Order of King Henry the Eight to the Lord Gray Governour of Bullen who upon a dispute about demolishing a Fort the French were then erecting by the name of Chastilons Garden contrary to the Sence of all the Lords of his Council expressed in Scriptis and which was more the formality of his own Letters confirming their Order did by a verbal Commission only privately whisper'd to him Justifie him in flinging down that Work which was a manifest breach of the Peace with the French and consequently a Capital crime in the Governour had not the same breath that made him forfeit it given him his life again which President as it was very remarkable so it proves that which follows 6. Jus Vitae Necis 26. Jus Vitae Necis that highest power of Life and Death to be only in the King being signaliz'd by the Ceremony of carrying the Sword before him in all publick Processions and is in truth so antient and undoubted a Right of the Crown that upon this Account only we find all the Pleas touching life and member to be call'd by the Lawyers Placita Coronae and all Capital Offences of high treason are termed Crimina Laesae Majestatis in proceeding whereon no Original Writ is necessary as in civil Causes but every Constable as the Kings Deputy may Ex Ossicio without any Process seize on any Murtherer Traytor or Felon and till the Statute of Magna Charta 17 of King John it is manifest that every mans Person was so subjected to the King by his Oath of Allegiance from those words De vita de membro that the (d) Vita Membrasunt in Potestate Regis Bracton l. 1. fol. 6. Cap. 5. Sect. 18. King at his pleasure might Imprison any man without process of Law or giving any cause for it and however the King has been pleas'd to circumscribe himself by Law since for the greater assurance of his Grace to his People yet the Judges have still so far respect to the Kings honour in this particular that upon the Commitment of any person by the Kings Command or by Order of the Lords of his Council they do not take upon them as perhaps by strictness of Law they might to deliver the Person till the Cause be first shewn and then expecting a Declaration of the Kings further pleasure bind him to answer what may be objected in the Kings behalf 7. Jus Rerum Sacrarum 27. The last and highest Prerogative as being purely Spiritual is that Jus Rerum Sacrarum to which no Princes in the World had a fairer Pretence than those here if considered as the only Christian Kings foster'd with the milk of a distinct National Church The Kings of great Britain the only Kings of a distinct national Church that may as properly be called the Sister as those of France Germany and Italy are call'd the Daughters of Rome and therefore the Pope when he naturaliz'd as I may say all the Christian Nations within the bosom of the Church he declared the Emperour to be Filius Major the French King Filius Minor but our King Filius Adoptivus neither matters it much though they prove our Church to be the younger Sister that disparagement if any it be being abundantly recompensed by being as indeed she is the most innocent the most beautiful and perhaps the most fruitful Parent of the two having Matriculated no less than eight Nations now as great almost as her self in the first Ages of Christianity and been the Foster-Mother to as many more in this last and most knowing age The Protestant Religion more properly called the Catholiâ—k Religion than that of Rome whereby the Reformed Religion as it is now vulgarly called to difference it from that of Rome is become as universal as that they call with so much Ostentation Catholick which if confined within the Range of the Church of Rome is not above a (c) Purchas Pilgrim cap. 13. lib. 1. fourth part of Christendom if so be the Computation of our modern Geographers be not mistaken who put Sweden in the Scale against both the Iberia's Italy and Spain and England Denmark and the Hans Towns against France which yet we know is Checquer'd in their Religion having divers Towns of the Reformed Judgment besides those Lesser Congregations in Poictou Gascony Languedoc and Normandy and take out of Germany suppos'd to be the third part of Europe two intire parts the whole being divided into three that at this day are integrally Protestant that is to say in the East Poland Lithuania Livonia Podolia Russia minor with divers Parts of Hungary and Transilvania even to the Euxine Sea in the West the Cantons of Swizzerland the United Provinces with the Grisons and the Republick of Geneva the South and North parts being yet more intirely Protestant and the heart of it every
wade through a Suit without fear of being over-whelm'd it being impossible to suffer but by Judgment of his Inquest as it was then and hath been ever since call'd which consisting of twelve men could not have continued thus long after so many strivings and struglings for Liberty as have been since that time had not the wisdom of so many Ages judg'd it to be the greatest priviledge the Subject could be capable of being that indeed which no less Circumscribes the Soveraigns Power then the Subjects Obedience so that doubtless he hop'd to naturalize himself by it into their good opinion and liking But that which frighted them most was the black Censual Roll therefore call'd by that dismal Name of the Dooms-day Book which discovering the secrets of their Estates left them under strange apprehensions of ensuing Oppression and Tyranny however it was no otherwise intended then as an Instrument to confirm his own by establishing their Rights and Proprieties which having been before under a very uncertain Title and very odly qualified the Tenures of †That is by Charter or Writing Bokeland which they call'd Freehold belonging only to the Nobility being perchance no better then the ancient Fifes that depended on the Will of the first Donors he made absolute and hereditary The Tenure of ‖ Or the Land of the common Foâ—k Folkland which was without Writing and so much worse then Tenants at Will at this day that we need not doubt to call it Villenage he chang'd into Estates for Life which have since shew'd us the way to those in Tail neither did he clog their Estates with many Taxes however reputed very avaricious but found out many witty sleights to avoid the necessity of Land Taxes as knowing how clamorous and burthensome they are laying only that of Escuage upon them which yet was done by way of composition rather then imposition in lieu of which he took off that of Danegelt which was sufficient one would have thought to have abated the Grievance Yet such was their Obstinacy Ingratitude or Disdain that they never ceas'd to plot or practise Treason against him giving him renew'd Jealousies from their successive and like to prove successful Conspiracies which as great Waves came thick upon the back of one another never breaking but with so apparent danger as threatned him with a wreck in Port after his escape of all the storms at Sea First Edric the Forrester incouraged by the Welch after Edwin and Morcar Brothers to the late Queen incourag'd by the Scots thinking their splendor eclipsed by the interposition of so many stranger Princes as waited daily in his Court flew to Arms and drew many after them of the Lay Nobility whilst the two Arch-bishops who followed them were attended by as strong a Party of the Clergy the first pretended to make the war legal the last to render it meritorious and whiles he set himself to suppress this danger in the North a new Rebellion presented it self in the West The Citizens of Exeter and those of Oxford incourag'd by the report of new Forces brought out of Ireland by the Sons of Harold not only shut up their Gates but perswaded the Countries also round about to expostulate their Liberties with Swords in their hands and whilst he turns to these they of the North are reinforc'd again by the arrival of two Sons of Swain King of Denmark with a Fleet of no less then 300 Sail and whilst he sent another Party to confront these there rose a storm behind them out of the Isle of Ely and after all this the wide distent of these Tumors fed from many secret Veins swell'd up into a general Combination of all the Neighbour Princes together so that no less then six Kings drew upon him at once the King of France who had 100000 men in readiness to invade him in Normandy the King of Denmark who had prepar'd a Navy of 1600 Sail to invade him by Sea the King of Ireland who appeared with 65 Sail more to second him and the Kings of Scotland and Wales opening their Ports to let them in This though it made the danger seem so much the more considerable by how much it was scarce to be prevented without such a vast Expence of Treasure and Blood as might hazard an irrecoverable Consumption if not put him again to the winning of England yet the resolutions of his great Mind being prae-ordain'd for the great work he had undertaken he shew'd no manner of Consternation at all till at last a way was found to bring himself against himself by setting up his eldest Son Robert to disseize him of the Dutchy of Normandy without any colour of Right This Rebellion indeed was so much the more grievous to him because unnatural and therefore the only one he thought fit to repress by the Authority of his own Presence wherein he proceeded not as one that went to take revenge upon an Enemy or reduce a Rebel but as he ought to chastize an undutiful Son proceeding however with that calmness as if he designed to defeat his Enterprize and not him or in truth rather to surprize then subdue him casting about how he might make him more asham'd then afraid not doubting but like Caesar to overcome him as soon as he came over to him but such was the malignity of his Stars as to make his Son a double Conqueror over him first in commanding his life which shew'd his Power then in giving it back again to him which shew'd his Piety but this as it was too great a Gift to be acknowledged or forgotten so he receiv'd it with such inward indignation as shew'd he only pardon'd what he could not punish But it appear'd afterwards that it was not in the young Rebels power to give back the life he had proceeded so near taking away for the wound in his Spirit was so much deeper then any of those on his Body that it could never be cured however skin'd over bleeding inwardly unperceiv'd till he died which however it were not long after yet he out liv'd most of those great men that were Actors with him in his Undertakings and left not the world till he had sufficiently requited the King of France for this unpardonable injury of seducing his Son taking a slight occasion from a Jest to shew how much he was in Earnest in his Revenge For that King having scoffed at his great Belly saying That he lay in when he was sick at Roan he return'd him word That he should have notice of his Upsitting by the many Bonefires he would make in the heart of his Country Neither was he worse then his Promise for he depopulated all the Towns of note that lay in his way till he came to Mants in the destruction of which goodly City he got his own the Ream of his Belly being broke as 't is thought by a sudden leap of his Horse frighted at the sight of the Conflagrations as he passed by the
by taking off his Caution so that after Dinner he would needs go hunt in the New Forrest and taking his Bow to shoot a Deer in that ominous place where before a * His Brother Richard Brother and a †The Son of Robert Duke of Normandy his elder Broth r. Brothers Son of his had both met with violent Deaths Tyrel his Bow-bearer being plac'd right against him as the best Marks-man let fly an Arrow that glancing against a Bough miss'd the Deer and found out him Pectus dum perforat ingens Ille rapit calidum frustrâ de Vulnere Telum Unâ eademque viâ Sanguisque Animusque sequuntur Being thus quietly stated he sweetned his Government by taking off all Taxes to shew his Beneficence and some of the principal Taxers to shew his Justice By the first he pleas'd the Multitude in point of Relief by the other the better sort in point of Envy and Revenge gratifying their Spleen by sacrificing the griping Bishop of Durham a man who being rais'd from a base Condition by baser means had attained to the honour of being Chief Minister to his Brother King William and was grown learn'd in the Science of selling Justice by the distribution of whose Bribes he brib'd those whom he thought fit to make his own Ministers neither thought it he enough to be an English man himself without assuring the State that he intended all his Posterity should be so too and therefore to the end to make sure the wise men that were as apt to be jealous as the weaker sort to be querulous he married Maud Sister to the Scotch King and Daughter to Margaret Sister to Edgar Atheling the right Heir of the English Blood a Lady that brought him an Inheritance of Goodness from her Mother and a good Title of Inheritance from her Uncle Thus firmly did he intrench himself before his Brother whom he had made a King in fame only that he might the easier make himself a real one return'd home who arriving unlook'd for was welcom'd by the Nobility of Normandy with more then ordinary Joy by whom being inform'd of what was done in England he made it the business of the first year to provide an Army and in the second landed it at Portsmouth in order to the recovery of his lost Right whereof he was the more assur'd in respect of those of the Norman Nobility here as he thought inclin'd to him who mov'd with revenge or discontent would be glad of any Occasion to Revolt This as it was a storm King Henry saw at a distance so he provided so well for it by cutting off all Assistances that Duke Robert and those with him doubting the success and seeing themselves certainly lost if they prevail'd not it being in his power to fight them where he pleas'd and when upon his desire to save the effusion of Christian Blood yielded to Articles of Peace the Substance whereof was this That Henry being born after his Father was rightfully King and being now invested in the Crown by act of the Kingdom should enjoy the same during life and pay Robert 3000 Marks per Annum as an Earnest of the Reversion after his Death in case Robert out-liv'd him With these Conditions Robert rather blinded then satisfied returns back again into his own Country and it had been well if he had never been blinded otherwise But such is the frenzie of Ambition that it suffers not unhappy Princes to consider either what they ought to do or what to suffer whilst like the Superior Orbs they are hurried with restless Motion without understanding by what Intelligences they are actuated Finding himself fallen from the height of his Expectation into some degree of Contempt with his own Subjects he assai'd by Profusion which some call Liberality to raise his Reputation at least to disguise his Impotency spending so freely that the Nobility fearing the Revenues of the Dutchy would not suffice to support his vanity complain'd thereof to King Henry who to shew his own power and t'others weakness sent for him over to chide him and indeed reprehended him so sharply as if he had been his Father and not his Brother and as if he would have him to know he rather expected the Reversion of the Dukedome after his death then to be accomptable to him for the Kingdom after his own and whether it were that he threatned him with a Detention of his Pension or drew him being of a yielding Nature as most indigent men are to give him a release for some inconsiderable Sum of ready Mony is not certain but so it was that upon his return he could no longer conceal the indignation he had conceived at it but took the very first Occasion to shew it by joyning himself with some mutinous Lords who having before begun an unsuccessful Combustion in England had fled over thither to commit what Outrages they could there King Henry for a while pretended himself touch'd in Conscience with the foulness of a Fraternal War but was indeed apprehensive that such trivial Injuries as the taking a few Castles was not worthy the trouble of drawing him over in Person at least not worth the charge of entring into such a War as might justifie the requiring his Dukedom for a satisfaction but having let them alone till he believ'd his sufferance had elevated them beyond the temper of hearkning to any conditions he then took his time to chastise their folly and by one single Battle upon the very same day and in the very same manner as 't is reported that his Father just forty years before won England he won Normandy and having made his brother prisoner depriv'd him first of his liberty after of his country and lastly of that which was dearer than either the light of his Eyes requiting his attempt which was but natural to escape out of prison with a punishment that was of all other most unnatural and as much beyond death as it was short of it which inhumanity to his brother though it was perhaps but a just judgment from Heaven upon him for his inhumanity to his Father whose life he had twice attempted being wilfully blinded by the King of France yet 't was such as was altogether undeserv'd as from him for t'other had him fast enough within his power circumscrib'd by all the rules of Hostility besieged within a Fort and half starv'd he was so far from pressing upon him that he pittied him and broke with his brother Friend to save his brother Enemy Poor Prince Robert how was he betraied by the goodness of his own Nature and tempted like a Child to save the bird which was to pick out his Eyes How did he live to see himself buried before he was dead invelop'd in dark and dismal thoughts whilst he contemplated his Sons loss with more affliction than his own a forward Prince born to two Crowns but now reduc'd to that necessity to borrow one to buy him bread So long
much better success than he that the victorious Empress was forc'd to give place to the more victorious Queen and so hardly escaped that to save her life she was content to be reckon'd amongst the dead being carried off in a Coffin as if she had been kill'd and so forc'd to leave him a prisoner behind that was indeed the life of her Cause the Earl of Gloucester her Brother and her General whose liberty being set against that of the Kings both sides became even again in the list of their fatal Contention And now the Kings Party labours to recover what they had lost those of the Empress her Faction strove only to keep what they had gain'd till both having tired out and almost baffled the Courage of their partakers at home sought for recruits abroad Maud sends into Normandy the King into Flanders each side seems to fright from this time forward not so much for Victory as Revenge But whilst they fright the people with a noise of their great preparations the bubble of expectation swollen to its full height broak and the hopes of either side sunk so low by the death of Prince Eustace Son and Heir to the King and that of the Earl of Gloucester the only pillar which supported the Empress this the party by whom that the party for whom the War was first begun not to say miantain'd that they concluded a Peace for want of strength rather than of stomach all things ending as they began by determination of the free vote of the people who in an open Parliament at Winchester parted the Stakes as evenly as they could giving to King Stephen the Crown during life to Henry Son of Maud and as some think by him the reversion expectant after his death who if he were not his Natural was thereupon made his adopted Son and so ended the troubles of this King which seem to have been so agreeable to his nature that as soon as they ceased he ceased to live surviving the War no longer than just to take leave of his Friends being evicted by an Ejectione firmâ brought against him by Fate to let in the Son of his Enemy after he had held the possession notwitstanding the continual Interruption given him nineteen years with great prosperity though little or no peace witness those many works of Piety done by himsel or others in his time there being more Instances of that Nature during his short Raign than had been in many years before He was the first King of the Plantaginets and began his Raign as the Great Solomon who was near about his Age did his with the choice of wise Councellors to take off all objections against his youth with the expulsion of all Strangers to take off all objections against his being a forrainer with the resumption of all aliened Crown Lands to take of the fear as well as the necessity of Taxes which as it increas'd his reputation no less than his revenue so he pleas'd many with disgusting but a few After this he pluck'd down all those Castles which being erected by King Stephen's permission had proved the nurseries of the late rebellion and he did it with the less clamour in respect the people thought it contributed as much to their quiet as to his own Lastly by expelling those false Lords that contrary to their oath given to his Mother took part with the Usurper Stephen he at once satisfi'd his Revenge and confirm'd the opinion conceiv'd of his Justice and Piety Thus having got the start in point of honour as well as of Riches of all the neighbour Princes his Contemporaries one would have thought so prosperous a beginning must have concluded with as prosperous an ending but it sell out quite otherwise for to the rest of his Greatness was added that of having great troubles and troubles of that durance as ended not but with his life Nor could it well be otherwise for he was of a restless spirit seldome without an Army seldomer without an Enemy but never without an Occasion to provoke one for he was a great ingrosser of glory whereby being necessitated to set himself against every one every one set themselves against him and the confederations against him were so well timed that in one day they invaded him in England Normandy Acquitain and Britain but that which made his unhappiness seem singular was that the greatest part of his Enemies were those of his greatest Friends I mean not such as were of remoter relations as subjects servants confederates or allies c. but those of nearest propinquity his brother his wife his own children such as were flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone so that he could not possibly sight for himself without fighting against himself like those who to preserve life are constrain'd to dismember themselves wherein the malice of his Fate seem'd to exceed that of his Foes whiles it drew more cross lines over his Actions than Nature had drawn over his Face rendring all his undertakings so disasterous that even when he had the best on 't he seem'd yet to have the worst on it and lost his honour though he got his enterprize Thus when he recover'd the Earldome of Northumberland from David King of Scots and the Dukedom of Anjou from his brother Geoffry the first by the power of his Wisdom the last by the wise management of his power both which contests ended not without giving to each of them full satisfaction for their pretentions yet one brought upon him the clamor of injustice t'other the scandal of Avarice two vices ill beseeming any man worse a King So in the dispute he had with the Earl of St. Giles about the County of Tholosse which was his Right though t'others Possession he was fain to ask peace of one that he knew was unable to carry on the War and after he brought him to his own terms was himself so hamper'd with the same Fetters he put upon him that in conclusion he suffer'd no less in the opinion of his wisdom than he had before in that of his power So when he married his Son Henry to the daughter of his great Enemy the King of France with a prudent design of being reconcil'd to him in a nearer combination he found that instead of keeping him out of his Territories which was all he had to care for before the Match he had now let him into his House to do him more mischief with less difficulty there being more danger by his undermining than battering whiles himself permitted the pit to be made in which the foundation of his Sons greatness was to be laid to whom having given too early an expectation of his Kingdom by allowing him the title of King without being able to give him the Grace to tarry for his death he found when 't was too late that a Crown was no estate to be made over in Trust yet this he did not by chance neither as one transported by any Fatherly
Officers whom their places confirm'd that stuck close to him and serv'd him to the last by whose Assistance he not only recover'd Ireland reduced Wales and kept those of Scotland to their good behaviour but notwithstanding all the Troubles he had at home forc'd the Chief men of either Place to give him as the manner was in those dayes their Children to be pledges of their future Subjection by which may be guest how far he had gone in the Recovery of his Transmarime Dominions had not the cross-grain'd Barons stood it out as they did who refusing to aid or attend him until he was absolv'd by the Pope and after he was absolv'd stopt until he had ratified their Priviledges and after they had the Grant of their Priviledges declined him yet until they had back the Castles he had taken from them resolv'd it seems to have both Livery and Seisin of their ancient Rights but whilst they thus over-bent the Bow they made it weak and unserviceable the visible force us'd upon him in bringing him to that Concession unloosing the Deed and taking so much from the validity of so solemn an Act by the bare illegality of their Coertion that his new Friend the Pope to whom themselves forced him to reconcile himself thought it but a reasonable recompence of his Humility towards him to discharge him from all his Condiscentions towards them dispensing with his Oath by which all the Agreement was bound and by definitive Sentence declaring the whole Compact null which was confirm'd by the Excommunication of the Barons till they submitted to the Sentence Here the Scene chang'd again and now the Pope being ingag'd on the Kings side the French King on the Rebels behold the whole Kingdom in Arms but because there were so few to be trusted at home the King sends for Forces abroad whereof he had so great Supplies that had there not been which is almost incredible to relate no less then forty thousand Men Women and Children drown'd coming over Sea out of Flanders he had even eat his way out to a Conquest of his own People as universal but more miserable then that of the Norman for with those he had left he marched over most of the Kingdom in less then half a years space reduced all the Barons Castles to the very Borders of Scotland and made himself once more absolute Master of all the Cities of note London only excepted which in regard of their united Power being so desperate as they were he thought not safe to attack This Extremity of the Barons drew over the French King in person to their relief who making incredible speed to land at Sandwich as quickly became Master of all Kent Dover only excepted which never would yield through which marching up to London he was there received with such universal joy that several great Lords quitting King John came to render themselves to him In the mean time the Pope pursued him with an Excommunication to please King John who all this while acted the part of a General so well beyond that of a King that many who never obeyed him in Peace were content to follow him through the War It was near a year that this unhappy Kingdom continued thus the Theatre of Rapine and Cruelty enduring the oppression and horrour of two great Armies headed by two great Kings each chasing the other with alternate Successes through the most fertile parts of the Isle till it pleased Providence in Mercy to the innocent People to take off this Indomitable Prince whose heart long flaw'd with continual Crosses broke at last by the slight stroke of a small loss the miscarriage of some few of his Carriages which in passing the Washes betwixt Lynn and Boston were it seems overtaken by the Tyde a misfortune which though of no great Consideration yet falling out in such a juncture of time when the Indisposition of his Body added not a little to that of his Mind carried him out of the World with no less Violence then he forced into it who however born to make himself Enemies had yet perhaps been happy enough had not himself been the very greatest Enemy himself had Upon his Death the King was crown'd as his unfortunate Father and Uncle before him the second time being willing the World should know he was now arriv'd at a degree of understanding to rule by himself which occasion the jealous Barons took hold of to press again for the Confirmation of their Liberties the Denyal whereof had cost his Father so dear This put him to a pause and that discover'd his inclination though not his intent for by not denying he hop'd to be thought willing to grant and yet not granting he had the vanity to be thought not to yield But this cunctation of his which shew'd him to be his Fathers own Son plunged him into such a Gulf of mistrust before he was aware of it that it was nothing less then a Miracle he had not perish'd in it for as he could never get clear out of it all his Reign the longest that ever any King of England had so he was necessitated as all shifting men are that entertain little designes they are asham'd or afraid to own to make use from that time of such Ministers onely as in serving him would be sure to serve their own turns upon him which reduced him to that indigence that had he not found out a way to prey upon them as they upon the People he had undoubtedly perished as never King did being at one time come so near to Beggery that for want of Provisions at his own he was forc'd to invite himself shamefully to other mens Tables his Credâ—t being brought so low that he could not take up an hundred Marks and his Spirit so much lower that he told one that deny'd him that Sum that it was more Alms to give him then to a Begger that went from Door to Door A speech betraying so strange abjection that it takes off the wonder of those affronts put upon him afterwards when a weak Woman durst tax him to his face with breach of faith and honour and a pitiful Priest threaten him with being no King when a private Lord durst give him the Lie publickly and tell him he was no Christian and which is undecent to tell had it not been so well known one of his * Hubert de Bâ—ughâ— was charg'd to have said thus own servants call'd him Squint-ey'd Fool and Leaper The first great action he was ingaged in was the recovery of the Ground his Father lost in France into which he was drawn not so much out of affectation of Glory as by the Solicitation of his Father in Law Hugh Earl of March who having a quarrel with the Queen Dowager of France upon the accompt of some dispute that had pass'd between her and his Wife the Queen Dowager of England call'd in the King her Son to take advantage of the present discontent Divers of the
great men of Poictou Britain and Normandy being offended that the Regency of the young King should be committed to a Woman and a Spaniard But this design ending with like precipitation as it was begun after the Expence of some Blood and more Treasure neither of which he could well spare he return'd home attended with a petty Army of those Poictovins and Britains who by taking his part had forfeited their own Estates at home These therefore he conceiv'd himself obliged in point of honour to provide for and which way to do it but by displacing such of his principal Officers who were in places of greatest benefit he knew not These were his Cheif-Justiciary his High Treasurer and the Marshal of his Houshold upon whom therefore he permitted the envious Rabble to discharge a volly of accusations to the end that driving them out with shame and loss he might fill up their places with those strangers These great Pillars for they were men whose wisdom he had more need of then they of his favour being thus thrown down and broken to peices by their fall so shook the whole frame of his Throne that every body expected when he would have fallen himself too divers of the Nobility that were nearest to him removing themselves for fear of the worst Amongst the rest was that famous Richard who after the death of his brother William was Earl Marshal a man questionless of great honour and Probity who finding his violences to increase being heightned by the ill advice of the two Peters De Rupibus and De Rivallis the one a Britain t'other a Poictovin now become the two great Ministers of State combined with the rest of the English Nobility to fetch him off from these Rocks first intreating and after threatning him that unless he would put these and all other strangers from him they would remove both him and them and chuse another King Upon this bold menace the plainest and boldest that Subjects could give a Prince De Rupibus advised him to require pledges for their Allegiance which they refusing to give without any Process of Law he causes them to be Proclaym'd Out-laws and Seizes on all their Lands with the profits whereof he rewards the Poictovins This brought both Parties to Arm again with like animosity but more Cruelty then in his Fathers time So that for two years together there was no cessation from all the violences and depredations that usually attend a civil War till the Bishops finding by the much blood had been shed that the heat on either side was much abated interpos'd with the King to do the Barons reason and forc'd him to yeild though he could not consent to a restoration of their Lands and Liberties and to the banishment of all strangers This however proved to be but a temporary shift which the present necessity of his affaires drove him to for not long after the two great Incendiaries were admitted again to Grace and so near came he to the example of his Father as to endeavour a revocation of his Grants by the Popes Authority being done as he alleadged beyond his Power and without consent of the Church by which harsh Intention though it took not effect it is scarce imaginable how much he added to the conceiv'd displeasure of the People to whom however he had no regard till he had wasted himself so far by his profusion and supine Stupidity that he was reduc'd through extremity of want to truckle under his Parliaments who knowing their own Power and his dependence on them for money for as a modern * Sir R. Bakeâ— Vit. H. 3. writer observes his taxations were so many they may be reckon'd amongst his annual revenues scarce any year passing without a Parliament but no Parliament breaking up without a Tax as so many Tyrants press'd no less upon him one way then he upon them the other till at last he became as weary of asking as they of giving him supplies and having no other means to maintain his Riot after he had canvass'd his Officers by chopping and changing of places and rais'd what he could without right or reason he fell to selling his Lands mortgaged Gascoin pawn'd his Jewels and after his Crown and when he had neither Credit nor pawns of his own left he expos'd the Jewels and Ornaments of Saint Edwards Shrine to whoever would lay down most for them After this he preyd upon the Jews the People that always felt the weight of his necessities Neither were his Christian Subjects so free but that he found means to squeeze them by Loans Benevolences and New-years gifts all which not sufficing he fell at last to down-right Beggery and sent to the Clergy men for several Summes to be given him as Alms. And being reduc'd to this incredible lowness when he found he could not prevail upon their Charity he try'd how far he could work upon their piety by pretending to undertake the Cross but that Project failing him too the last and most fatal shift he had was to resign to the King of France whatever right he had in the Dutchy of Normandy the Earldoms of Anjou Poictou Tourene and Main and all for no more then three hundred Crowns and that of Anjovin money too a pitiful Summ to redeem a half lost Crown The Prince likewise unfortunately participating in the wants of his Father was driven to Mortgage several pieces of his Lands too to supply his Particular Necessities And now all things being gone that were valuable or vendible the Barons finding him naked and disarm'd thought not fit to delay the matter longer but being call'd to that fatal Parliament at Oxford in a hot season of the year when all their bloods were boyling and out of temper without more debate they first secur'd London the onely Magazine to begin a Rebellion by shutting up the Gates and after secur'd the Kingdom by shutting up the Ports to prevent the inlet of Strangers appointing twenty four Conservators as they call'd them to manage the Government whereof twelve were to be nam'd by the King twelve by themselves But he thinking it too great a Diminution of his Majesty to consent to any nomination of his own left their twelve call'd the Douze Peers to take the Reâ—ormation into their hands who displacing aâ—l whom they pleas'd to call Evil Counsellors left none about him that were able or perhaps willing to give him advice and grew so insolent at last as to banish amongst other Strangers some of his nearest Relations Out of these as it happens upon all Changes where the People are to be amus'd with Novelty there was chosen afterwards a Triumvirate to be Super-intendent over the Twelve These were the Earl of Leicester the Earl of Gloucester and the Lord Spencer to whom the three great Ministers of State the Chancellor the High-Treasurer and the Chief Justiciar were appointed humble assistants And because 't was believ'd that the Liberty of the People depended on the