Countreys who have alwayes been and ought to be Governed according to the Oath taken by their Princes when they receive them conformable to their Priviledge and antient Custome having no power to infringe them besides that most part of the said Provinces have alwayes received and admitted their Princes and Lords upon certain Conditions and sworn Contracts which if the Prince shall violate he is by Right fallen from the Rule and Superiority of the Countrey c. And after they have made a Recital of his Cruelties Oppressions and Tyrannies they further proceed THat having duly considered all these things and being prest by extreme necessity We have by a General Resolution and Consent Declared and do Declare by these Presents the King of Spain ipso jure to be fallen from the Seignory Principality Jurisdiction and Inheritance of these Countreys and that we are Resolved never to acknowledge him any more in any matter concerning the Prince Jurisdictions or Demean of these Netherlands nor to use hereafter neither yet to suffer any other to use his Name as Soveraign Lord thereof according to which we Declare all Officers private Noble men Vassals and other Inhabitants of these Countreys of what Condition or Quality soever to be from henceforth discharged of the Oath which they have made in any manner whatsoever unto the King of Spain as Lord of these Countries or of that whereby they may be bound unto him c. Enjoyning and Commanding all Judges Officers and all others to whom it shall appertain That hereafter they forbear to use any more the Name Titles great Seal or Signet of the King of Spain and have Injoynned and Commanded and do Injoyn and Command that all the King of Spain Seals which are at this present within these Vnited Provinces shall be delivered into the Sates hands and that from henceforth the Name and Armes of the King of Spain shall not be put nor stampt in any Coyns of these Vnited Provinces but that there shall be such a figure set upon them as shall be appointed c. In like sort we Injoyn and Command the Presidents and Lords of the Councel and all other Chancellours Presidents Provincial Counsuls and all Presidents chief Masters of Accounts others of all Chambers of Accounts being respectively in these Countreys and also all other Judges and Officers as holding them discharged of the Oath which they have made to the King of Spain according to the Tenure of the Commissions that they shall take a New Oath in the hands of the States of the Provinces where they are or to their Deputies whereby they shall Swear to be faithful to us against the King of Spain and his Adherents according to the Form set down by us which Oath accordingly was taken by the Publick Officers and Magistrates of every Town and Province and is as followeth I Swear that hereafter I shall not serve nor yield obedience to Philip King of Spain nor acknowledge him for my Prince and Lord whom I do Renounce by these Presents and do hold my self Free from all Oaths and Bands by the which I might be formerly tyed unto him Whereof finding my self presently Freed I Swear anew and bind my self to the United Provinces and namely to them of Brabandt Guelder Hollandt Zealandt and their Allies and to the Soveraign Magistrates that are appointed to be Faithful and Loyal unto them to yield them all Obedience aid and Comfort with all my Power and means against the King of Spain and his Adherents and against all the Enemies of the Countrey promising as a good Subject of the Countrey to carry my self Faithfully and Loyally with shew of all Obedience to my Superiors So help me the Almighty God Many notwithstanding made great difficulty to Abjure the King and to take the New Oath among others a Councellour of Frieslandt a man of great Judgement and Experience called Raaâ—da hearing the Abjuration propounded in open Councel at Leuwarden and the renewing of the Oath whether it were through a sudden amazement or for the affection which he bare to the King of Spain was so troubled as he fell in a Convulsion and died presently Now impartial Reader that you have seen a short and true Narrative extracted out of antient and modern History whereby you may receive satisfaction of the causes wherefore the Romans and our Neighbours of the Netherlands Rejected and Renounced their Kings and kingly Office and how they provided against their ever returning to Rule over them upon the whole matter it may be queried whether the Parliament and good People of England after God had so signally and miraculously owned their Cause against the late King and Family have not had an equivalent or far greater Cause to Free these three Nations of the yoak of Monarchs and Monarchy then the Romans or the States of the Netherlands had which any one may easily be convinced of if he will but take the pains and time to read the History of the Reign of the Kings of England Scotland c. but especially from the coming of that Bastard brood to the late Tyrant What murthers rapines oppressions wars devastations cruelties ravishments and what not have been acted in the three Nations during that time I shall onely hint to some few as first of King John of whom the History relates that when he had endeavoured by force of Armes and by other barbarous cruelties to impose his yoak of bondage and slavery over his People whom he forced to take up Armes for his own defence and that after they had obtained several victories against him whereby he was reduced to great extreams yet would not grant them Peace till he had made Tryal of all manner of cruel wayes to subdue them by force one whereof was that rather then grant to the People their Liberties and Freedoms he sent to the King of the Moors and made him an offer that if he would send an Army in England he would deliver up his right and title to him But to come nearer our time what cruel Murtherer and Tyrant was Richard the third and Henry the 8th his own Queens and many of his Nobles could not escape his fury and that for no other crime but to satisfie his cruelty lust and pleasure so notorious was he that to this day the Proverb remaineth resent of him That he neither spared man in his fury nor woman in his lust Queen Mary another fury how many pretious Souls she caused to be brought to the stake and burned King James so little he esteemed the lives of the People although no man of War yet if by accident any one hindred his sport in Hunting or not opened a Gate as soon as he commanded he would curse and swear and give express command that such a one should be hanged And for his Son what wars desolations and miseries hath he been authour of in the 3 Nations how many thousands killed and ruined how many millions of Treasure exhausted
mightily inflamed the multitude that he caused the King to be deposed and degraded of his Royal State and dignity yea and to decree and enact that King Tarquinus and his Wife and Children should be banished for ever which accordingly was effected and after all the Armies and people had forsaken him Brutus being then appointed Consul and for fear least the Magistrates and people might at any time after be won by entreaty or moved by gifts on the Kings part he caused them to swear that they would never suffer any to be King at Rome after which the Senate was fil'd with such as took the same Oath in lieu of those that were murthered by the Kings command to the full number of three hundred so jealous were the people afterwards of their Liberties that one of their Consuls name being Tarquinus without they could have any other thing to say against him but his Name who they said was dangerous to a Free-State thereupon was perswaded to retire from the City and Brutus by an act and decree of the Senate proposed to the people That all the Race and Linage of the Tarquin's should be exiled and banished which was accordingly effected No man doubted then but that the Tarquins were about to take Arms but seeing that no man feared the Romans had like by Fraud and Treason at home to have lost and foregon their freedoms again and that the Reader may know that the very same thing endeavoured at Rome to restore the Tarquins is that which hath several times been and at present is endeavoured in England The story is briefly thus There were certain Youths of the flower of Rome descended of no low Degree nor Parentage who in the Kings dayes had lived like young Princes more loosely and at pleasure as Companions and play-fellows with the young Tarquins the Kings sons who seeking to enjoy the same licentious life still in this Equality of state wherein all others then lived made moan and Complained one to another that the liberty of others turned to their servitude The King say they Is a man at whose hand one might obtain somewhat as need requireth were the cause right or were it wrong where a man might find favour and friendship as who could be displeased and angry and also forgive and remit a fault and knew well how to make difference between a friend and a foe As for Laws they are deaf and inexorable more wholesome and commodious to the poor then to the rich and mighty affording no release or pardon if one chance to trespasse and transgresse and a ticklish Point it is and perilous for a man amongst so many errors whereto our frailty is subject to bear himself onely upon his innocent life being thus of their own accord already discontent as it may boldly be averred the young Nobility and others of the loose people of England are at this time upon the like account suddenly unlookt for came Ambassadors to Rome from King Tarquinus who without mention at all of return demanded onely their goods again and while the businesse was in debate in the Senate these Ambassadors privately sounded the minds of these young Gentle-men whom they found ready to conspire with them for the return of the King The Ambassadors having obtained the restauration of the Kings goods and ready to depart had private meetings with those young Gentle-men who for assurance of their fidelity to the King signed a Letter which they delivered to the said Ambassadors all which was detected by a bond-slave who had overheard them when they delivered the Letter presently giving notice thereof to the Consul who apprehended the said Ambassadors and found the said letter and thereupon all the Conspirators were apprehended And to see how much Pagans made esteem of their Oaths and Protestations Brutus then Consul having two of his Sons to wit Titus and Tiberius who were in the Conspiracy himself saw them executed and being bound at a Stake the people pittied them not so much for being punished as for deserving by their fact to be punished that they could find in their hearts and once let enter into their thoughts to betray into the hands of Tarquinus a proud Prince and then a cruel enemy and banished Rebel their Native Countrey lately and in that very year set free from Captivity and their Natural Father who set it free Now for the Kings goods which were ordered to be restored were flatly afterwards denied by the Senate who would not confiscate and bring them to the Publick Treasury but were given away amongst the Commons to the end they having once touched or seized on the Kings goods as a booty might for ever after be past all hope of any peace or favour with them Not long afterwards Tarquin obliged King Perceua with a cruel Army to march against Rome to endeavour the restoring of him to the Kingdom and to shew how much it conduceth to the safety of a Commonwealth that the People thereof should engage against the banished Kings and absolutely to abjure and renounce them and their line for ever and how far such an Oath doth engage a People to keep them out take this short story of King Porcena being with his Army at the very walls of Rome and in great hope to take it and restore Tarquin one Cajus Mucius afterwards surnamed Scaevola together with others of the Romans to the number of 300. engaged one with another to venture their lives in going to the Camp of Porcena and to kill him rather then suffer their Country to be again enslaved It fell to the lot of this Scaevola to go first and coming into the Camp with a scain hid under his garment he presseth in the thickest throng to stand near the Kings Tribunal it happened that then and their the Souldiers were receiving their pay and the Chancellor or King Porcenas principal Secretary sate together with the King in like aray Scaevola fearing to enquire whether of them two were Porcena least he should discover himself in lieu of Porcena he killed the Chancellor and afterwards with his bloody weapon making his way through the fearful multitude was laid hold on and brought before King Porcena sitting then upon his Throne to whom he said I am a Citizen of Rome and Cajus Mucius is my name a professed Enemy I confesse and an Enemy would I have slain as ready and willing am I to die my self as I was to kill another for both to do and suffer valiantly is the part of a Noble Roman and it s not I alone that carry this resolution against thee O King there is a long train behind of them that seek to win the same praise and honour make thee ready therefore and arm thy self if thou think good against this danger and reckon every hour to be in hazard of thy life and to have alwayes at the very Court gates thy Enemies sword This kind of War we youths of Rome denounce
what Plots contrived by him and his Queen to subvert Law and Religion in these Nations his inviting of the German Horse in time of Peace and in time of War pawn the Jewels of the Crown to bring over whole Regiments of Papists to kill destroy plunder ravish and barbarously use the Protestant People of this Nation And moreover of my certain knowledge their sending Sir Kelom Digbys to the Pope for Assistance c. The realty of these unparallel'd actings being seriously corsidered and all by-ends and self-interest laid aside and onely that of the Publick eyed upon then it must needs be acknowledged that besides those enormities that many Lucretias have been ravished by those Kings and their Interest and that their wars devastations and cruelties have far exceeded either those of the Tarquin's or Kings of Spain at Rome or in the Netherlands in Rome the ravishing of one Lucretia by the Kings son was the principal occasion of the Peoples banishing and abjuring the whole brood of their Kings and in the Netherlands the oppression and cruelty of the King of Spain occasioned the States of that Countrey to do the like Weigh but the one and the other together in the Ballance of Justice and Reason against the cruelties and licentious wills of our Kings and you will be sure to find them light and inconsiderable as to what hath been exercised here since the Normans subdued England under their heavy and oppressive yoak that in reason it must be acknowledged and granted that for the safety of the People the Parliament of England have after their so many signal Victories and their ownings of God for the same far more and justifiable reasons to renounce and cause to be renounced the whole Line of the Kings and kingship or other single Persons pretending any right or title of Chief Magistrates over these Nations then either the Romans or State of the Netherlands had in renouncing and abjuring their King and kingship against which Oath it may be Objected First That the Oath of Abjuration taken by the Romans and Netherlands could not be advantagious to them as for the keeping out their Kings from returning and that say some because any wicked man to bring his designs to pass will make no Difficulty nor Conscience to swallow any manner of Oaths To which it may be Answered that this short Narrative extracted out of the History is sufficient to remove that Objection for first It is not to be doubled had it not been for the Oath taken by the Romans against the return of their Kings undoubtedly they had never been kept out And secondly for the States of the Netherlands It was not onely useful to weed out of their Armies and Garrisons all the friends of the King of Spain and likewise out of the Courts of Justice and other places of eminent trust and certainly if the hearing of it read and proposed could have so much power as to kill that Great and Wise Counsellor how much more dreadful was it to all others of the King of Spains faction and party who several of them upon refusal of the said Oath were displaced out of their several imployments and besides it is very remarkable that after it was imposed upon all Military Officers there was neither Garrisons nor Forces betrayed to the King of Spain as formerly before it was daily observed there was whereupon the King of Spain was forced to make Peace with them And thirdly It is impossible for the rarest Artists of the world to erect any lasting Fabrick upon an old Foundation unless first the rubish and old ruine thereof be absolutely removed and cast out so likewise and comparatively it is impossible of a Monarchical Government to introduce and establish upon a sure basis a Democratical Government without first casting off and renouncing that old ruinous and rubish Government of King and kingship which if it had been effected in the year 1648 when these Nations were declared a Free State by imposing an Oath of that nature upon those Persons then eminently intrusted in Civil Military places there is sufficient ground to believe that Cromwell nor his Adherents would never have attempted to subvert and usurp the Government as they did which hath in a manner almost ruined both the Cause and Nation and for want of taking such an Oath we see what hopes the Family of the Stuarts and other single Persons have had and have still to return which will never be removed until in imitation of our Neighbours the Netherlands those back-doors be dammed up by taking such an Oath and moreover doth not at present the Royal Party dare with boldness assert and maintain laying Wagers to one that the Chief in Parliament and Army will refuse the same and upon that do openly declare their great hopes which would be soon over if those Worthies would be but sensible thereof and put no further delayes in a business of so great concernment to the settlement of the Nation and Commonwealth The second Objection which is found in the mouths of many which are no better then kinglings but would put it off upon a case of Conscience viz. That in case God who is the Omnipotent over all Governments of the world should in his Providence seem good to bring back some of the Line of the late King to be Ruler over these Nations then say they if we should take such an Oath of Abjuration or Renunciation we should be found to have resisted the Will of God For Answer God is Just and Righteous in all his Dispensations and Providences and for any Person that hath seen and several times returned thanks unto him for his wonderful and miraculous Providences in owning a Cause so much contended for by giving so many signal and marvellous Victories and Deliverances to this Parliament and their Forces against the late King Family in several conflicts and that at such a time when he was very formidable and his party and Armies consisted of most of the Nobility and Gentry of the three Nations and yet God by making use of a company of men of low Estate and condition and not brought up in the Military Art did in such wonderful manner own and prosper them in that War against the King and his Son that at length the Father was by his Divine Providence brought to the block and the Sons endeavours all blasted and brought to nought I say when men have been eye witnesses of such extraordinary Providences in not onely blasting and disowning Kingship in that Family but likewise in the late family of the Apostate Cromwells who attempted the same and that by a Parliamentary way And besides for such as have made War against Kingship and against that Family and Voted the Kingly office uselesse dangerous and chargeable making it Treason to promote Charles Stuart or any other to be chief Magistrate of England selling all the support of Kingship and all other Estate belonging to it And seeing
also the Parliament after several interruptions during which time several endeavours were used to bring kingship again to be miraculously restored to live to see God take vengeance of all those who had been chief Actors in endeavouring to inthrall us under the yoke of the Cromwells c. for such I say again after all this not to be convinced of the lawfulness of renouncing or declaiming that whole line and others pretenders to it is certainly to doubt of Gods constancy and Justice there being as much conscience or reason to plead the same providence against abjuring renouncing or declaiming the Popes Supreamacie over these Nations who for during far longer time had Dominion and Jurisdiction over them so that upon the whole matter it cannot be imagined that if the pleasure of God was such as to suffer any of that Family or other to Rule over these Nations that it can be to any other end then as a scourge and Plague to the Nations and to those persons in particular who are so incredulous and timerous who with many other in the Nation may be compared to those of the Israelites who after their wonderful deliverances from under the yoke of King Pharaoh did murmure while they were in the wilderness desiring to return to their former State and condition of slavery and bondage by reason they could not enjoy the Garlick and Onions of Egypt not minding the Land of Caanan and of plenty towards which they were going which is the condition of many murmurers in these Nations who cannot or rather will not see nor dive into the Freedom and plenty to be had and enjoyed under a Democratical or Free-state Government which is the thing now aimed and laboured hard for and which without doubt had long since been obtained and enjoyed but for the endeavours and desires of so many in the Nation to return to their Egyptian bondage and slavery Lastly An expedient is by some learned men proposed and offered in lieu of taking the Oath of Abjuration Renuntiation or Declamation of the Race of the Kings c. say such a Law may be made whereby it shall be declared to be high Treason for any person to propose help or endeavour the bringing any of that family or others to be chief Magistrates of England c. To which it is answered that such a Law without first imposing such an oath cannot oblige any person against the return of any of that line or the introduction of any other single Person and that for these reasons First Such a Law doth not bind the Consciences and persons of any as an Oath doth which is voluntary and personally obliging Secondly Because of late there hath been a sufficient experiment of the same in Cromwell and others assuming to themselves the Government of these Nations although it was here declared high Treason by a known Law so to do Thirdly Because such a Law although never so strict may be repealed which such an Oath can never be Fourthly Because if any one of that family or other should attempt by force to overthrow the Government of these Nations such a law obliges no man to oppose them which an Oath doth in â—erminis Lastly Because such a Law cannot discover who that is in the Commonwealth service that may be an Enemy to it which an Oath will soon discover and out all such Kinglings both out of the Courts of Justice as likewise out of the Army and Garrisons FINIS Vide the first Book of Titus Livius page 41 42. Vide The second Book of Titus Livius p. 44 45. Vide The same Book page 45 46 47. Vide The second Book of Titus Livius page 49 to 54. Vide The General History of the Netherlands written by Grimeston and Cross and Printed in the year 1627. Vide The 12 Book page 659. to page 666.