THE HISTORY AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE ENGLISH NATION More especially by their Representatives Assembled in PARLIAMENT In the Reign of King CHARLES c. Most Faithfully and Impartially Examined Collected and Compared together for the present Seasonable Use Benefit and Information of the Publick ALSO The Wonderful and most Solemn Manner and Form of Ratitifying Confirming and Pronouncing of that most dreadful Curse and Execration against the Violaters and Infringers of MAGNA CHARTA In the Time of HENRY the Third King of England c By a Person of Quality and True Lover of his Countrey LONDON Printed and are to be Sold by Richard Janeway in Queens-Head-Court in Pater-Noster-Row M.DC.LXXXIX Multum in Parvo AUT VOX VERITATIS c. THAT we are fallen into an Age wherein almost all sorts of Men amongst us are still setled upon their Lees there 's none of us all so happy as to be ignorant thereof and how that the Judgments and Sentiments of Men and more especially in this latter Age of the World are most strangely degenerated biassed enslaved and almost overwhelmed with pride vain-glory hypocrisie self-interest that great Diana and Goddess of this World ambition passion prejudice partiality faction rebellion the espousing of a party Et cum multis aliis c. And yet that which is most wonderful and matter of astonishment is this viz. That all these Parties in general or particular do declare and pretend That as to their several Transactions in the World wherein they are concerned and in opposition to the rest of their Neighbours is purely to manifest their great and fervent Zeal to the Honour and Glory of Almighty God and to promote as much as in them lyes a most firm exact and uniform Obedience not omitting at all times their specious pretences of their steady and untainted Loyalty to their Prince both in Church and State. But how these Gentlemen and specious Pretenders before mentioned will come off at the long run for as we usually say Finis coronat opus without a scratch't face and a blot in their scutcheons when-as their several Transactions shall be impartially examined and searched to the bottom is a kind of a pretty question to be started and indeed it would be a very ingenious and pleasant divertisement to any person that would make it his business to study the point and thoroughly and impartially to make an experiment thereof This small Treatise Courteous Readers peradventure may give you some small satisfaction in relation to the premises and it is more than probable that others hereafter of a more learned and more ingenious capacity may take example by this small and well-intended piece to enlarge thereupon and farther to explain what I have here succinctly intimated only for my own and for some others which I shall forbear to name present and seasonable satisfaction as to those grand Debates Councels and Transactions which are now in the midst of us upon the wheel and here I must beg that the Lord of his infinite Grace and Mercy would be pleased to send us at length a good issue upon them all both in Church and State. This I thought requisite to cite by way of Introduction and now will take leave to conduct you somewhat closer and nearer to our matter in hand Et honoi soit que mal y pense and herein we shall proceed in manner and form as followeth That we are fallen at present not only into a degenerate rebellious ambitious and stubborn Age but in particular into a very curious critical and obnoxious time in that age viz. Anno Domini 1680 and 1681 wherein as by experience is manifestly true a man is almost made though not in the edg of the Law but in the edg of some others who would be Law-makers a Capital offender for some words placing or speaking which peradventure may be very good orthodox and loyal in themselves until they come to be scanned weighed and interpreted by others in a quite different and contrary sense I know Courteous Readers you are most of you at least the best of you able and I hope willing to joyn issue with me herein as Attestators to the truth hereof But whether there be a fatality in these present years as there was about 40 years since which are by-past and gone and all things buried or at least ought to be forgotten in an Act of Oblivion as to the Transactions of those as we do usually call them rebellious times or whether this critical time doth portend good things to his Majesty of Great Britain's whom God of his infinite mercy long preserve for our peace and quietness sake affairs and concerns as to his present Government in particular or whether of any good consequence to the Subjects of his Three Kingdoms in general or whether this year the Lyon and the Lamb shall not lye down together according to an ancient Prophecy or whether His Majesties just Prerogative and his Subjects Priviledges shall go hand in hand together I am not able to determine although some pretend to give a shrewd guess thereunto as to future contingencies yet I will hope the best as being fully perswaded and convinced that the God and Father of our blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ who is the Author of Peace and Lover of Concord and of the Souls of them who are willing under their Magistrates whether Heathen or Christian to live quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty will be pleased at length to bring forth peace tranquillity and order out of all our disorders animosities and present confusions And herein let every true and Loyal-hearted Subject and English man say Amen But however this I am sure of as being able to attest that truth in particular viz. That humble Petitions and Addresses to His Majesty of Great Britain this year Anno Domini 1681 is A-la-mode and the very newest fashion and in my slender judgment and apprehension is a very comely decent and commendable fashion since the Dissolution of the late Parliament at Oxford and His Majesties late Declaration to all his Loving Subjects and Ordered to be read by the Reverend Clergy of the Land in all Churches and Chappels since which time Addresses and Humble Petitions have swarm'd in a main from all Points of the compass viz. from Cities Burroughs Towns-Corporate Lieutenancies Trained-Bands c. as if they were resolved to storm VVhitehall VVindsor-Castle Hampton-Court and His Majesty Himself God of Heaven preserve Him with no other weapons than steady and untainted Loyalty and with all dutiful and humble Allegiance unto His Majesties Government as it is now by Law established both in Church and State And for the which the Lord High Chancellor of England in the Person of His Majesty hath given them all his true and hearty Thanks for their so numerous and seasonable appearing at this present conjuncture in opposition to some others who it seems have not the good-hap with the rest of their
Between this disaffection and contempt in his People there was generated a general disposition to turbulent and boisterous darings and expostulations even against his darling Prerogative And though those dismal calamities which after befel his Son were ampliated doubtless by a superfetation of causes yet was their first and main existency derivative from those recited grounds Let Court-Pens extol the calmness of his Halcion Reign with all the artifice of Rhetorick Let them conclude the Parable and tell us God gave King James also as he did Solomon rest from all his enemies round about yet can they never truly deny but that admired severity had its set in a cloud and that he lest to his Successor a Crown of Thorns as being engaged to contend with two puissant Enemies First the mighty Monarch of the West the King of Spain Secondly the more invincible of the two an empty purse For that King who hath this Enemy to encounter shall never atchieve any thing of glorious production The death of this Famous Monarch caused no other interregnum than of joy his Son Charles being immediately by Sir Edward Zouch then Knight Marshal proclaimed at the Court-gate King of Great Britain France and Ireland His first Act of Regality was to dispatch Aviso's of his Fathers decease to Foreign Princes and States his Correspondents with whom he was in Amity Next he took into care the becoming Obsequies of the Royal Corps which removed from Theobalds to Denmark-house in London April the 23d was thence the 7th of May conveyed to Westminster and there inhum'd with the greatest Solemnities and most stately Ritualities could be devised Though grief had taken up the principal Lodgings of King Charles his heart yet did it not quite turn love out of doors but he had still an eye to France and held himself concern'd to let his Agents know he was mindful of the stock he had going there and to rear a firm assurance of his serious intentions He sent over Letters of Procuration for the Duke of Chevereux to espouse the Lady Henrietta Maria only he added this especial precaution That those Letters should not be resigned up until May the 8th when the Celebrities of his Fathers Funeral would be over for he would not that grief and joy things incompatible should justle But these instructions for what cause I know not were not in all points precisely observed for on May the 11th as others and the first as we compute six days before King James his Obsequies the Espousals were solemnized in the Church of Nostredame in Paris the Queen being given by her two Brothers the King and Monsieur the Nuptials past the Royal Bride prepared for England and to wait upon her with the greater splendor his Majesty dispatcheth over the Duke of Buckingham with the Earl of Montgomery and other Persons of Quality May the 24th they arrived at Paris and June the 2d the Queen after the iteration of most affectionate adieux reciprocated and interchanged between the King and her self set forward for Amiens where being attended with a most Princely retinue she was under the restraint of a Magnificent Entertainment till the 16 of that Month thence she dis-lodged for Bulloigne where she was to Embarque for England the Contagion then being much at Calais there she found ready to receive her 21 tall Ships sent from her dearest with a gallant Convoy of the Dutchess of Buckingham and other Ladies of Honour and Eminence to serve her June the 22d she set Sail for England and Landed safe at Dover after a turbulent and tempestuous passage His Majesty lay that night at Canterbury and next morning with joy incredible greeted his Royal Consort and conducted her to Canterbury where the Marriage was finally compleated the Duke of Chevereux his Majesties former Representative consigning up his precious charge to the King c. I have heard some who undertake to mate all events with their proper causes passionately ascribe Englands Calamities to those Internuptials and fetch that ireful stroke of Divine vengeance upon his late Majesty from his Marrying a Lady of mis-belief Grant I do that both England's and his Majesties Sufferings may in some sort be reductive to the casualty of that Match but that there was any intrinsick noxiousness in it either as French or Popish I am not yet convinced The same time while His Majesty was thus busied in his Amorous Negotiation abroad he plyed as well his Interest at home and while he Wooed his Royal Mistriss there he made Love to his People here by Summoning a Parliament that League being not more important to him as Man than this as King for as Man is without a female Consort so is a King without his Supreme Council an half-form'd steril thing the natural Extracts of the one procreated without a Wife are not more spurious than the Laws the politick Descendents of the other without the coition of a Representative The solemnity of this grand Match was commenced at VVestminster June the 18th At first interview it appeared under the scheme and fashion of a Money-Wedding and in truth the publick affairs did then implore no less Upon the opening the Parliament the King imparted his mind to the Lords and Commons to this effect My Lords and Centlemen YOV are not ignorant that at your earnest intreaty March 23. 1623 my Father of happy Memory first took up Arms for the recovery of the Palatinate for which purpose by your assistance he began to form a considerable Army and to prepare a goodly Armado and Navy-Royal But death intervening between him and the atchievement the War with the Crown is devolved upon me To the prosecution whereof as I am obliged both in Nature and Honour so I question not but the same necessity continuing you will cherish the action with the like affection and farther it with a ready contribution True it is you furnished my Father with affectionate supplies but they held no symmetry or proportion with the charge of so great an enterprize for those your Donatives are all disburs'd to a penny and I am enforced to summon you hither to tell you That neither can the Army advance nor the Fleet set forth without your aid Consider I pray you the Eyes of all Europe are defixt upon me to whom I shall appear ridiculous as though I were unable to out-go Muster and Ostentation if you now desert me it is my first attempt wherein if I sustain a foil it will blemish all my future Honour If mine cannot let your Reputations move deliver and expedite me fairly out of this War wherewith you have becumbred let it never be said whereininto you have betrayed me I desire therefore your speedy supply speedy I call it for else it will prove no supply The Sun you know is entring into his declining point so it will be soon too late to set forth when it will be rather not too soon to return Again I must mind you of the
Gods house were notwithstanding advanced to the highest grison of Church-Dignities And if this Narrative presents some Ecclesiasticks blame-worthy the inference is fallacious that therefore our times are worse than former or that the accrimination overspreadeth all No what St. Augustine said of some Enormitans in his time is no less true of ours That though our Church had cause to grieve for the blemishes of some yet might she glory in the Ornaments of more And so much shall serve for my present purpose as to the former part of this Authors Preface Et si constrista mur de aliquâ—bus Purgamentis tamen consolamu◠〈◊〉 pluribus Ornâ—mentis Aug Epist 137. wherein he doth endeavour to satisfie his Readers that he will carry an even hand between either side and steer his course aright and so far I shall endeavour as much as in me lyes to write after his Copy But yet where persons are blame-worthy I shall not be Meal-mouth'd but let them know their failings and embecillities until they give me better satisfaction than I have at present concerning their Reformation And now to transcribe some of this Authors Narrative concerning the Reign of King Charles the First so wise so vertuous so temperate so chaste so learned and so religious a Prince and a strong assertor of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England against the Old Gentleman at Rome and all his adherents yet that this Prince after his Death by the Pens-Militant instead of inserting this Parenthesis concerning him as they have done of many Princes after their decease of Ever blessed Memory should be constrained to counterchange their Dialect and say of Ever unfortunate and deplorable Memory I must confess is so profound a mystery unto me that I am not able to search and penetrate into the depth thereof and therefore must leave this I could wish I were not able to say so much by experience most unfortunate Prince though of Ever blessed Memory in some sense unto the searcher of all hearts and before whom all things are naked bare and open who worketh and wisely disposeth of all things both in Heaven and in Earth according to the infallible and most unerring Councel and Dictates of his own Will. But to proceed in my intended design to Transcribe from my Author some of the particular and most material Transactions as to matter of fact in those days and should I have transcribed the whole it would have been a new Edition of the said Narrative and would have swelled this small piece which was intended for no other in my primary cogitations unto a very large Bulk the which you may please to peruse in manner and form as followeth viz. King James surrendred his Soul to God and his Three Kingdoms to his Son at Theobalds Anno Domini March the 27th 1625. And now it will not be amiss saith the ingenious Historian nor vary from the usual ceremony ordained to the body of extinct Princes if I here represent in brief the pourtraicture of this Famous Monarch which I will do freely sincerely and with a spirit which equally disdains to libel or flatter him In the stile of the Court His Character he went for Great Britains Solomon nor is it any excursion beyond the Precincts of verity to say that neither Britain nor any other Kingdom whatsoever could ever since Solomon's days glory in a King for recondite learning and abstruse knowledge so near a match to Solomon as he And though he was a Universal Scholar yet did he make other Sciences their most proper imployment but drudges and servitors to Divinity wherein he became so transcendently eminent as he notoriously foil'd the greatest Clerks of the Roman See Nor did his Theological abilities more advantage the Cause of Religion abroad than at home they keeping the new-fangled Clergy aloof and at a distance as not daring to infuse into so solid a judgment their upstart and erroneous fancies no nor disquiet the Churches peace with Heterodox opinions by which it appears this Author and King James were both Calvinists as to their particular Sentiments in matters of Religion A stout adversary he was to the Arminians and Semi-Pelagians whom he called as Prosper before him and so doth the whole tribe of them ever since the Enemies of Gods grace And as slender a friend he was to the Presbytery here he intends in matters Ecclesiastical as to the form of Church-government and imposed Constitutions of whose Tyrannical and Antimonarchical principles he had from his cradle smart experience He was an excellent Speaker the Scheme of his Oratory being more stately than Pedantick and the Expressions argued him both a King and Scholar In his apparel and civil garb he seemed naturally to affect a Majestick carelesness which was so hectick and habitual in him as even in Religious exercises where the external demeanor is a grand part of that sacred homage he was somewhat too incurious and irreverent He was indulgent a little to his Palat and had a smack of the Epicure In pecuniary dispensations to his Favourites he was most excessive liberal yea though the exigence of his own wants pleaded retention Nor was Solomon himself more a Solomon according to the true notion of the word which imports a man of rest than he selecting for his Motto Beati Pacifici or the seventh Beatitude as most agreeable to his genius and natural constitution He was studious of peace somewhat over-much for a King in pursuit whereof Virtue flew to a lessening and in the opinion of many out of sight he incurring thereby the note of Pusillanimity very suspicious from his managing the Cause of the Palatinate for had not the thought of War been terrible unto him would he so long have endured his Son-in-law exterminated from his Patrimony while the Austrian Faction to his great dishonour cajol'd and kept him in delusory chat with specious fallacies Would he in those several Negotiations of Carlisle Bristow Belfast and Weston have spent so vast sums the moity whereof had they been disposed in Military-levies and preparations would have Modell'd an Army able when Hidleburgh Manhrein and Frankindale defended themselves to have totally dissipated all the forces of the Usurpers to have Master'd the imperious Eagle enforcing her to forego her Quary and reinstate the Paulsgrave Would he so tediously have courted the Alliance of Spain to the very great regret of his Subjects whom his Predecessor had so often baffled and whom England ever found a worse friend than enemy What stronger Evidence can be given in of a wonderful defect of courage As this faint-heartedness lost him the reputation and respects of his People so his heavy pressures upon them and undue Levies by Privy-Seals and the like alienated their affections especially considering how those Moneys were misemployed indeed rather thrown away partly in the two dishonourable Treaties of Spain and Germany and the consequential Entertainments and partly in Largesses upon his Minion Buckingham
House of Commons were Resolved into a Grand Committee when the Usher came from the Lords House with that Message and before they would permit the Solicitor then in the Chair to leave his seat they agreed upon a Protestation which Mr. Glanvill stood up and declared to this effect First To give his Majesty Thanks for his Gracious Answer to our Petition for Religion Next For his care of our health in giving us leave to depart this dangerous time Lastly A dutiful Declaration of our affections and loyalty and purpose to supply his Majesty in a Parliamentary-way in a fitting and convenient time This being done the Speaker took the Chair and admitting the Usher he declared his Message from the Lords concerning the Dissolution of the Parliament Now had the King an opportunity for his Summers past-time but that his own progress might not impede that of his affairs his Council were commanded to go along with him By whose general advice two things were most considerably resolved upon First That the Fleet should speedily be put to Sea. Secondly That a more strict Amity should be enter'd into with the States of the United Provinces Several were the Descants of such as pretended to judicious censure as fancy and affection swayed the ballance some blamed the Parliament for not supplying the Kings necessities whereby the Fleet put forth too late some reflected sinisterly upon the Duke saying It never was nor never will be well with England while the Sea is under the Command of an Admiral so young and withal so unexperienc'd others also made deduction from this miscarriage of Gades Voyage in reference to the King that because Commencements do often forespeak the qualification of future contingencies in the series and row of succeeding affairs they much feared this was but the earnest of some inauspiciousness which would attend the residue of his Reign Nor among the rest was Captain Brett's conjecture vain who told the Duke That the Fleet was never like to speed better wherein there went a long Bag without Money Cook without Meat and Love without Charity for so were the three Captains named and a great default there was doubtless of sufficient pay of wholesome meat and unanimity The Michaelmas Term was by reason of the infection at London translated to Reading from whence the King according to late Answer in Parliament issued out in November a Commission to the Judges to see the Laws against Recusants put in Execution This Commission was read in all the Courts of Judicature at Reading and withal a Letter was directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury enjoyning him to take special care within his Province for the discovery of Jesuits Seminary-Priests and other Recusants offenders against the Laws It was in truth high time for severe Proceedings against them they having contracted so much insolence and presuming upon protection by reason of the late Match that at Winchester and many other places they frequently passed through the Churches in time of Divine Service hooting and hallowing not only to the disturbance of that duty but to the scorn of our Religion yea and one Popish Lord when the King was at Chappel was heard to prate on purpose louder in a Gallery adjoyning than the Chaplain prayed whereat the King was so moved that he sent this Message too him viz. Either let him come and do as we do or else I will make him prate farther off On February the 2d this year Anno Domini 1625 the King was Crowned at Westminster with the usual though I cannot say Magnificent Ceremonies and Solemnities The Coronation being past the King prepareth for a Parliament now approaching the last he thought was somewhat uncivil towards the Duke and the Delinquents as he thought must be made examples Upon this account the Lord-Keeper Williams soon after the Dissolution of the late Parliament fell and his place was disposed of to Sir Thomas Coventry c. On the 16th of this February the Parliament met the Commons began their work where they last broke off at Oxford making Religion their first and which was their superlative care recollecting what a full and satisfactory Answer the King gave to their Petition against Recusants and his Commission issued out in pursuance of that Answer appointed a Committee for Religion impowring them most strictly to examine what abuses of his Majesties Grace had occurred since that time and who were the Authors and Abettors of the same The House of Commons being in expectation of some Discovery from their Committee at length Mr. Prin made a report of a Letter written to the Lord Mayor of York for reprieving some Jesuits Priests and other Recusants This Letter being under the Signet a sub-Committee was ordered to search the Signet-Office and compare it with the Original These Proceedings inwardly much displeased the King yet he smothered the indignity for a time though he did after intimate the same unto them among his other regrets And plying 〈◊〉 more important affairs with a most steady temper he sent a Message 〈◊〉 them by Sir Richard Weston to this effect viz. That his Fleet is returned and their Victuals spent the Men must of necessity be discharged and their wages paid them or else mutiny will follow which may be of dangerous consequence That he hath in readiness about 40 Ships to be set forth upon a second service which want a present supply of moneys That the Armies quartered on the Coasts want Victuals and Cloaths and they will Disband if not furnished The Companies of Ireland lately sent must speedily be provided for else they may be subject to rebel Lastly The season for providing healthful provision will be past if this Month of March be suffered through negligence to elapse And therefore he desired to know without more ado what present supplies he must depend upon from them that so accordingly he might shape his course Instead of a supply to his Message Mr. Clement Coke Son to Sir Edward Coke a Member of the House of Commons let fly this reply It is better to dye by a Foreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home and as if the Prerogative had not been sufficiently alarm'd by that expression one Turner a Doctor of Physick re-assaults it in these six Queries 1. Whether the King hath not lost the Regality of the Narrow Seas since the Duke became Admiral 2. Whether his going in the last Fleet as Admiral was not the cause of ill success 3. Whether the Kings Revenue hath not been impaired through his immense liberality 4. Whether he hath not ingrossed all Offices and preferred his kindred to unfit places 5. Whether he hath not made sale of places of Judicature 6. Whether Recusants have not dependance upon his Mother and Father-in-law This was uncouth language to a Princes Ear but who can expect that in so vast a Body and Mass of men all parcels should take salt alike and that no part should have rancidity in it Yet perhaps this clamour
I conceive it will not be unacceptable unto your Lordships if setting aside all Rhetorical affectations I only in plain Countrey language humbly pray your Lordships favour to include many excuses necessary to my many infirmities In this one word I am commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House to present unto your Lordships their most affectionate Thanks for your ready condescending to this Conference which out of confidence in your great Wisdoms and approved Justice for the service of his Majesty and the welfare of this Realm they desired upon this occasion The House of Commons by a fatal and universal concurrence of Complaints from all the Seabordering parts of this Kingdom did find a great and grievous interruption and stop of Trade and Traffick The base Pirates of Sally ignominiously infesting our Coasts taking our Ships and Goods and leading away the Subjects of this Kingdom into Barbarous Captivity while to our shame and hinderance of Commerce our Enemies did as it were Besiege our Ports and Block up our best Rivers Mouths our Friends on slight pretences made Embargoes of our Merchants Goods and every Nation upon the least occasion was ready to contemn and slight us So great was the apparent diminution of the ancient Honour of this Crown and once strong reputation of our Nation wherewith the Commons were more troubled calling to remembrance how formerly in France in Spain in Holland and everywhere by Sea and Land the Valours of this Kingdom had been better valued and even in latter times within remembrance when we had no Alliance with France none in Denmark none in Germany no Friend in Italy in Scotland to say no more united Ireland not setled in peace and much less security at home when Spain was as ambitious as it is now under a King Philip the Second they called their Wifest the House of Austria as great and Potent and both strengthned with a Malicious League in France of persons ill-affected when the Low-Countries had no being yet by constant Councels and Old English ways even then that Spanish pride was cool'd that greatness of the House of Austria so formidable to us now was well resisted and to the United Provinces of the Low-Countries such a beginning growth and strength was given as gave us Honour over all the Christian World. The Commons therefore wondring at the evils which they suffered debating of the causes of them found they were many drawn like one Line to one Circumference of Decay of Trade and Strength of Honour and Reputation in this Kingdom which as in one Centre met in one great man the cause of all whom I am here to name the Duke of Buckingham Here Sir Dudley Diggs made a stand as wondring to see the Duke present yet he took the Roll and read the Preamble to the Charge with the Duke's Titles which I shall here for the Readers Satisfaction insert and so proceed For the speedy Redress of the great evils and mischiefs The Preamble to the Impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham and of the chief causes of those evils and mischiefs which this Kingdom of England now grievously suffereth and of late years hath suffered and to the honour and safety of our Soveraign Lord the King and of his Crown and Diguities and to the good and welfare of his People The Commons in this present Parliament by the Authority of our Soveraign Lord the King assembled do by this their Bill shew and declare against George Duke Marquess and Earl of Buckingham Earl of Coventry Viscount Villers Baron of Whaddon Great Admiral of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and of the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoin and Guyen General Governor of the Seas and Ships of the said Kingdoms Lieutenant-General Admiral Captain-General and Governor of his Majesties Royal Fleet and Armado lately set forth Master of the Horse of our Soveraign Lord the King Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque-Ports and of the Members thereof Constable of Dover-Castle Justice in Eyre of all Forests and Chases on this side of the River of Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Lieutenant of Middlesex and Buckinghamshire Steward and Bayliff of Westminster Gentleman of his Majesties Bed-Chamber and one of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council in his Realms both of England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most Noble Order of the Garter The Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences Crimes and other matters comprized in the Articles following And him the said Duke do Accuse and Impeach of the said Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences and Crimes And now my Lords This lofty Title of this mighty man methinks doth raise my Spirits to speak with a Paulo majora canamus and let it not displease your Lordships if for Foundation I compare the beautiful Structure and fair Composition of this Monarchy wherein we live to the great work of God viz. the World it self in which the solid Body of incorporated Earth and Sea as I conceive in regard of our Husbandry Manufactures and Commerce by Land and Sea may well resemble us the Commons and as it is encompassed with Air and Fire and Spheres Celestial of Planets and a Firmament of fixed Stars all which receive their heat light and life from one great glorious Sun even like the King our Soveraign so that Firmament of fixed Stars I take to be your Lordships those Planets the great Officers of the Kingdom that pure Element of Fire the most Religious Zealous and Pious Clergy and the Reverend Judges Magistrates and Ministers of Law and Justice the Air wherein we breathe all which encompast round with cherishing comfort this Body of the Commons who truly labour for them all and though they be the Footstool and the lowest yet may well be said to be the setled Centre of the State. Now my Lords if that glorious Sun by his powerful Beams of Grace and Favour shall draw from the bowels of this Earth an Exhalation that shall fire and burn and shine out like a Star it needs not be marvell'd at if the poor Commons gaze and wonder at the Comet when they feel the effects and impute all to the corruptible matter thereof But if such an imperfect Meteor appear like that in the last Age in the Chair of Casiopea among the fixed Stars themselves where Aristotle and the old Philosophers conceived there was no place for such corruption The Meteor in 1680. is worth your observation upon this very account then as the learned Mathematicians were troubled to observe the irregular motions the prodigious magnitude and the ominous Prognosticks of that Meteor so the Commons when they see such a Blazing-Star in course so exorbitant in the affairs of this Common-wealth cannot but look up upon it and for want of Perspectives commend the nearer examination to your Lordships who may behold it
from the Kings great affection to the Duke I find him charged with deep imprudence and high oversight to hazard the Love of Millions for him only On Monday before this doleful disaster there happened a terrible and prodigious spectacle upon the Thames The Water near Lambeth-Marsh began about Three of the Clock in the afternoon to be very turbulent and after a while arising like a Mist it appeared in a Circular form about Ten yards Diameter and about Ten foot elevated from the River This Cataract or Spout of Waters was carried impetuously cross the River and made a very furious Assault upon the Garden-Walls of Tâ—â—â— house where the Duke was then building his new Water-Stain at length after a fierce attempt it brake asunder sending up a 〈◊〉 and dusky smoak like that issuing out of a Brewers Chimney which ascended as high as was well discernable and so vanisht and at the very same instant there was in the City of London so dreadful a storm of Rain and Hail with Thunder and Lightning as a great part of the Church-Yard Wall of St. Andrews Church in Holbourn fell down and divers Craves being thereby discovered many Coffins tumbled into the middle of the Channel Not long after this there fell out a difference between England and France and his Majesty in process of time being on every side on the â—â—â—ing hand he was much distressed in mind what course to take to discharge himself of those impendent Calamities should he call a Parliament the time whose every moment was precious unto him would not permit to stay for their Convention and when met The King in great want should they prove as it was odds they would as Dilatory and disgustful as the former he were in a worse condition than before In this perplexed difficulty at 〈◊〉 his Council agreed to set that great Engine his Prerogative at work Many projects were hammered on that forge but they came all to small effect First they moved for a Contribution by way of Benevolence but this was soon dasht Then a resolution was taken to advance the value of Coyn Two shillings in the pound but this also was soon argued down by Sir Robert Cotton But that which the Council stuck closest to was the issuing of a Commission dated October the 13th Raiseth money by Loan for raising almost Two hundred thousand younds by way of Loan and the more to expedite and facilitate this Levy the Commissioners were instructed to represent to the Subject the deplorable estate of Rochel then closely beleaguer'd by the Duke of Guise and if not speedily relieved would fall irrecoverably into the hands of the Enemies of the Protestant Religion These were plausible insinuations For Rochel though scituated in another Countrey yet was looked upon as in the same parallel Belief with us And what will nor men suffer for others of the same perswasion especially when Fame reports them sufferers because of the same perswasion But all would not smooth the asperity of this most Illegal Tax Rochel and all other Foreign Considerations must stand by and aloof off when homebred Liberty is disputed so thought the almost Majority of the Kingdom who opposed it to Durance Upon this account of refusal Many refuse Prisoners some of the Nobility and most of the prime Gentry were daily brought in by scores I might almost say by Counties so that the Council Table had almost as much work to provide Prisons as to supply the Kings necessities This year Learning lost two Luminaries of the greatest Magnitude that ever this Nation enjoyed viz. Dr. Andrews Bishop of VVinchester and Sir Francis Bacon Vicount St. Albans Lord High Chancellor of England The Commission of Loan not answering in its product his Majesties expectation the Papists began now to plot their own advantage from the Kings wants and under pretence of Loyalty they of Ireland propounded to him That upon consideration of a Toleration of their Religion they would at their own charge furnish him with a constant Army of five thousand Foot and five hundred Horse But this project to their great regret proved Dow-baked the Protestants countermining them For in the next Spring Doctor Downham Bishop of London-Derry Preaching before the Lord Deputy and the whole State April 22. 1627. taking for his Text Luke 1. 74. That we being delivered from the hands of our Enemies might serve him without fear In the midst of his Sermon he openly read this Protestation subscribed by the Archbishops and all the Bishops of that Kingdom 1. That the Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous 2. Their Faith and Doctrine Erroneous and Heretical 3. Their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration is to make our selves accessary to their abominations and to the perdition of their Souls But to sell them a Toleration is to set Religion to sale and with that their Souls which Christ hath redeemed with his most precious blood The Bishop having ended this Protestation added And let all the People say Amen which they did so as the Church almost shook with the noise The Deputy required of the Bishop a Copy of both his Sermon and Protestation who answered he would most willingly justifie it before his Majesty and feared not to read it And now although moneys came in but slowly yet was the Naval Force completed for expedition about Midsummer whereof the Duke appeared Admiral as ambitious of some meritorious service to earn a better gust or to correct the universal odium against him June the 27th he set Sail from Pertsmouth with about six thousand Horse and Foot and July the eleventh he published a Manifesto declaring the impulsive causes of his Majesties present Arming But the Duke had very ill success in this expedition for the English were routed at the Isle of Rhe The English routed at the Isle of Rhe. the sum of their loss were about fifty Officers but the greatest loss was that gallant man Sir John Burroughs who was slain by a Musquet Bullet from the Citadel while he was viewing the English works of Common Soldiers few less than two thousand Prisoners of Note thirty five Colours taken forty four hung up as Anthems at Paris in the Church of Nostredame our Honour lost The Prisoners Lewis graciously dismist home as an affectionate offertory to his Sister the Queen of England which made up another Victory superadded to the former and a conquest over us as well in the exercise of civilities as in feat of Arms only the Lord Montjoy was ransomed for the which he offering to the French King a round sum No my Lord. it is said the King replied your Redemption shall be only two couple of Hounds from England Some interpreted this a slender value of that Lord to be exchanged for a couple of Dogs but it was only in the King a modest estimate of his courtesie The Rechellers being besieged by the French King The Rochelers
crave our Kings aid in their distress hurrieth and ferrieth over their Deputies to England to solicit our King for fresh supplies before the prodigious work should be compleated who good Prince affected with their Miseries and desirous rather to protect them from being slaves than to enable them to be Masters condescended to assure them of what assistance he could make But alas what could his assistance signifie who was as necessitous as themselves Did they want Men Ammunition Ships So did he seeing he wanted that which was all these Money and how and where should that be had His last borrowing Commissions was a course so displeasing to the Subject as would not admit of repetition and it would prove an odd payment of that Loan arrears to demand another But the King was now the Subject of a greater Potentate than himself Necessity and this Necessity put him upon several projects First he borroweth of the Common-Council of London One hundred and twenty thousand pounds for which and other debts he assures unto them Twenty-one thousand pounds per annum of his own Lands and of the East-India Company Thirty thousand pounds and yet he wants Next Privy-Seals are sent out by Hundreds and a new way of Levy by Excise resolved to be executed by Commission Dated the 3d of February and yet he wants but the best and most taking project of all was a Parliament whereby he hoped not only to supply his necessities but also to give some better repose to his troubled spirit for he felt no inward contentment whilst he the Head and the Body were at a distance or like intersects and flies tackt together by a Mathematical line or imaginary thread therefore he seriously resolved for his part to frame and dispose himself to such obliging complacency and compliance as might re-consolidate and make them knit again This Parliament was Summoned to meet on the 17th of March 1627 King Charles his Third Parliament assembled March 17. 1627. and the Writs being issued out the Loan-Recusants appeared the only men in the Peoples affections none thought worthy of a Patriots title but he that was under restraint upon that account so that the far greater number of the Parliament was formed of them And as their Sufferings had made them of Eminent remark for Noble Courage so did they for External respects appear the gallantest Assembly that ever those Walls immured they having Estates modestly estimated able to buy the House of Peers the King excepted One hundred and eighteen thrice over Thus were all things strangely turned in a trice topside t'other way they who lately were confin'd as Prisoners are now not only free but petty Lords and Masters yea and petty Kings Some few days before this Session a notable discovery was made of a Colledge of Jesuits at Clerkenwell The first Information was given by one Cross a Messenger to Secretary Coke who sent a Warrant to Justice Long dwelling near enjoyning to take some Constables and other aid with him and forthwith to beset the house and apprehend the Jesuits entring at first door they found at stairs-foot a Man and a Woman standing who told them My Masters take heed you go not up the stairs for there are above many resolute and valiant Men who are well provided with Swords and Pistols and will lose their lives rather than yield therefore if you love your lives be gone The Constable took their counsel and like cowardly Buzzards went their way and told Secretary Coke the danger whereupon the Secretary sent the Sheriff to attack them who coming with a formidable Power found all withdrawn and sneakt away but after a long search their place of security was found out it being a Lobby behind a new Brick-wall Wainscoated over which being demolisht they were presently unkennel'd to the number of Ten. They found also divers Letters from the Pope to them empowring them to erect this Colledge under the name of Domus Probationis but it proved Reprobationis Sancti Ignatii and their Books of Accounts whereby it appeared they had Five hundred pounds per annum contribution from their Penefactors and had likewise purchased Four hundred and fifty pounds per annum they had a Chappel Library and other Rooms of necessary accommodation with Houshold-utensils and implements marked †S. What became of these Jesuits will fall in afterward and what would have become of the Secretary for his double diligence in their prosecution you should have heard had not the Duke been cut off by an untimely end to himself but timely to the Popular Gust The Parliament being met the King began thus to them My Lords and Gentlemen THese times are for Action The Kings Speech for Action I say not for Words and therefore I shall use but few and as Kings are said to be Exemplary to their Subjects I wish you would imitate me in this and use as few falling upon speedy consultation No man is I conceive such a stranger to the Common Necessity as to expostulate the cause of this Meeting and not to think Supply to be the end of it And as this Necessity is the product and consequent of your advice so the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of this State and just defence of our Friends and Allies being so considerably concern'd will be I hope arguments enough to perswade supply For if it be as most true it is both my Duty and yours to preserve this Church and Common wealth this exigent time certainly requires it In this time of Common danger I have taken the most ancient speedy and best way for supply by calling you together if which God forbid in not contributing what may answer the Quality of my occasions you do not your Duties it shall suffice I have done mine in the conscience whereof I shall rest content and take some other course for which God hath impower'd me to save that which the folly of particular men might hazard to lose Take not this as a Menace for I scorn to threaten my Inferiors but as an Admonition from him who is tyed both by Nature and Duty to provide for your preservations And I hope though I thus speak your Demeanors will be such as shall oblige me in thankfulness to meet you oftener than which nothing shall be more pleasing unto me Remembring the distractions of our last Meeting you may suppose I have no confidence of good success at this time but be assured I shall freely forget and forgive what is past hoping you will follow that sacred advice lately inculcated To maintain the Vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace The Parliament seemed at first exceeding prompt to close with the Kings desires and as complyingly disposed as could be wished but they had not forgot the many pressures which made the subject groan something they must do for them who sent as well as for him who called them thither and to anticipate all manner of dispute in point of Precedence between
of his Justice Mr. Hollis replyed I say of his Majesties Power my Lord. Sir John Elliot was next called in who was questioned for words he spake in the lower House of Parliament and for producing the late Remonstrance To this he answered That whatsoever was said or done by him in that place and at that time was performed by him as a publick Man and a Member of that House and that he was and ever will be ready to give an account of his Sayings and Doings in that place whenever he should be called unto it by that House where as he taketh it he is only to be questioned and in the mean time being now but a private man he would not now trouble himself to remember what he said or did in that place as a publick Man. Sir Miles Hobart was also questioned for locking the Parliament House Door and putting the Key in his Pocket to which he pleaded the Command of the House The other Gentlemen were questioned for reproving the Speaker and not permitting him to do that the King commanded him who all alledged in defence the Priviledg of the House After this they were committed some to the Tower and some to the Gatehouse and some to the Fleet And May the first the Attorney sent a Process out against them to appear in the Star-Chamber and to answer an information to be entred there against them but they refused as denying the Jurisdiction of that Court over offences done in Parliament which created the greatest and longest Controversie in Law that had been started in many years April the tenth Anno Domini 1630. dyed William Earl of Pembroke Lord High Steward of England of an Apoplexy He was the very Picture and vive Effigies of Nobility His Character His Person rather Majestick than Elegant his presence whether quiet or in motion full of stately gravity his mind generous and purely heroick often stout but never disloyal so vehement an opponent of the Spaniard as when that Match fell under consideration he would sometimes rowze even to the trepidation of King James yet kept in favour still for that King knew well enough that plain dealing was a Jewel in all men so in a Privy Councellor was an ornamental duty and the same true-heartedness commended him to King Charles with whom he kept a most admirable Correspondence and yet stood the firm confident of the Commonalty and not by a sneaking cunning but by an erect and generous prudence such as rendred him unsuspected of Ambition on the one side or of Faction on the other This universality of Affection made his loss most deplorable but men are lost when all turns to forgotten-dust That affection would not that he should be so nonpluss'd but kept his noble Fame emergent and alost and if this History shall bear it up I shall esteem it not more his felicity than my own April the twenty fifth of this year was Arraigned Convicted Anno 1631. Condemned and on May the fourteenth Executed upon Tower-Hill Mervin Lord Studley Earl of Castle-Haven for Rape and Sodomy In England fell two great Favourites of different parties Anno 1634. of the Commonalties one and of the Kings another Of the Commonalties Sir Edward Coke who died about the latter end of this Summer Sir Edward Coke departeth this life full of days he died most whereof he had spent in eminent place and honour His abilities in the Common Law whereof he passed for an Oracle raised him first to the dignity of Attorney-General to Queen Elizabeth Then of Lord Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench under King James His advancement he lost the same way he got it viz. by his Tongue so rare it is for a man very eloquent not to be over loquent long lived he in that retirement to which Court-Indignation had remitted him yet was not his recess inglorious for at improving a disgrace to the best advantage he was so excellent as King James said of him he was like a Cat throw her which way you will she will light upon her feet And finding a Cloud at Court he made sure of fair weather in the Country applying himself so devoutly to popular Interests as in succeeding Parliaments the Prerogative felt him as her ablest so her most active Opponent upon which account he was 1 Caroli made High Sheriff of Buckinghamshire on purpose to exclude him the ensuing Parliament there being an especial Nolumus and clause in his Commission prohibiting his Election notwithstanding which Elected he was in Norfolk and those words of Restraint upon the debate of the Question in the House of Commons Voted void On the Kings the Great Lord Treasurer Sir Richard Weston Sir Richard Weston Lord Treasurer of England dieth Earl of Portland this year and he almost expiring together he ending this life March the thirteenth a sad loss to the King and the sadder because he thought it irreparable The truth is he was a Person very able for the Office and the Exchequer was in the mending hand while he enjoyed that place for he had a most singular Artifice both in improving the incomes and in a frugal moderation of his Masters expence But the Kings sorrow was not so extreme for him but the Peoples joy was full as great for there was now grown so sad an antipathy between his Majesty and his Subjects that like those two Emperors Antonine and Geta they were always of contrary Senses and Minds rarely agreeing in any one particular The deportment whereby he so much disobliged the Commonalty was his promoting Monopolies and other advantages of Regality The Archbishop and he were usually at great odds this vacant place was at present entrusted to Commissioners until the King should otherwise dispose thereof September the 29th the Earl of Arundel brought up to London out of Shropshire one Robert Parr as the wonder of our times for long life he having attained to the age of near 160 and probably might have continued longer had not so tedious a journey and over-violent agitation of his aged Body accellerated his end so that it may be said he sacrificed some years to others curiosity In Michaelmas-Term was canvassed and debated the grand Controversie between the King and Subject about Ship-Money Anno 1635. The great Debate about Ship-money for the Ship-Writs having been issued out August the 11 to divers Counties many Inhabitants and among the rest Mr. Hambden of Buckingham-shire assessed by the Sheriff made default of payment whereupon the King equally hating to be either flattered into or frighted from the belief of its Legality wrote a Letter to the Judges demanding their Opinions upon the case stated To which the Judges delivered their Opinions as followeth May it please your most Excellent Majesty WE have according to your Majesties Command severally and every Man by himself and all of us together taken into our serious consideration the Case and Questions signed by your Majesty and inclosed in your
Letter And we are of opinion That when the good and safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger Your Majesty may by Writ under your Great Seal of England Command all the Subjects of this your Kingdom at their charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victual Munition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the defence and safeguard of the Kingdom from such peril and danger and that by Law your Majesty may compel the doing thereof in case of refusal or refractoriness And we are also of opinion That in such case your Majesty is the sole Judg. both of the danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided John Bramston John Finch Humphrey Davenport John Denham Richard Hotton William Jones George Crook Thomas Trever George Vernon Robert Barkley Francis Crauly Richard Weston These Opinions being subscribed by all the Judges and inrolled in all the Courts in Westminster-Hall the King thought he had now warrant sufficient to proceed against all defaulters and especially against Mr. Hambden who being summoned by process appeared and required Oyer of the Ship Writs which being read he demurred in Law and demanded the Opinion of all the Judges upon the Legal sufficiency of those Writs This great Case coming to be argued in the Exchequer the Major part of the Judges delivered their Opinions in favour of the Writs and accordingly gave Judgment against Mr. Hambden yet did not the question altogether so repose but Mr. Hambden observing some Judges viz. Crook and Hatton of a contrary sense held up the Contest still though all in vain all his inquietude not gaining him the least acquittal until an higher Power interposed About the beginning of January this year Anno 1639. Sir Thomas Coventry dyeth dyed Sir Thomas Coventry Lord-Keeper of the Great Seal of England a Dignity he had Fifteen years enjoyed if it be not more proper to say That Dignity had enjoyed him so long this latter affording not one every way of more apt qualifications for the place His front and presence bespake a venerable regard not inferior to that of any of his Ancestors His train and suit of followers was disposed agreeably to shun both envy and contempt not like that of the Viscount St. Albans or the Bishop of Lincoln whom he succeeded ambitious and vain His port was State their 's Ostentation they were indeed the more knowng men but their Learning was extravagant to their Office of what concerned his Place he knew well enough and which is the main acted according to his knowledg for in the administration of Justice he was so erect and so incorrupt as captious malice stands mute in the blemish of his same a miracle the greater when we consider that he was also a Privy Councellor A Trust wherein he served his Master the King most faithfully and the more faithfully because of all those Councils which in those times did so much deceive his Majesty and I pray God there were fewer at this juncture of time than there is he was an earnest disswader and did much disaffect those Sticklers who rather laboured to make the Prerogative tall and great as knowing that such men loved the King better than Charles Stuart so that although he was a Courtier and had for his Master a passion most intense yet had he also always of passion some reserve for the publick welfare An Argument of a free noble and right principled mind for what both Court and Country have always held as inconsistent is in truth erroneous and no man can be truly Loyal who is not also a good Patriot nor any a good Patriot the Ballance indispensably ought to be kept even who is not truly Loyal To this worthy Gentleman succeeded Sir John Finch formerly Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas. The Heer Somerdick An Embassador from the States of Holland Embassador from the States of Holland in the Month of January had Audience of the King He had with him Count William of Nassaw and the Rhine-Grave with a very splendid train his business was to give his Majesty satisfaction concerning the late Attack made upon the Spaniards by the Dutch Fleet in the Downs and the Embassy was sweetned by some overture of Marriage between the young Prince of Orange and the Kings Eldest Daughter On the Thirteenth of April A Parliament sits in England after near 12 years interval April 1640. A Parliament met and sate and the Deputy of Ireland being not long before Created Earl of Strafford and made Lord Lieutenant of that Kingdom was lead into the upper House by two Noblemen where he gave an account of his service in Ireland where he had obtained the grant of four Subsidies for the maintenance of an Army Mr. John Glanvil was chosen Speaker of the House of Commons and generally the choice of Members to that House was so good that great probabilitles were given of a happy Union betwixt the King and the Parliament Some few days after a Report was made to the Lords by the Lord Cottington who with Windebank and the Attorney General were sent by the King to the Lord Lowden to examine him concerning a Letter before mentioned that the Lord did acknowledge the Hand-Writing to be his and that it was framed before the pacification at Berwick and was never sent to the King but only prepared in a readiness should need require and that it was supprest upon that pacification nevertheless it was thought fit he should continue in the same state until clearer Evidence should be given either for or against him Soon after the King sent a message to the Lower House about Supplies representing unto them the intolerable indignities and injuries wherewith the Scots had treated him and withal declared unto them that if they would assist him sutable to the exigency of his sad occasion he would for ever quit his claim of Shipmoney and into the bargain give them full content in all their just demands But they replied as being somewhat deliberate in this affair of Money that they expected first security from his Majesty in these three particulars viz. 1. For the clearing the Subjects Property 2. For the Establishment of Religion 3. For the Priviledg of Parliament Many Conferences there was had between the Lords and Commons as to this old Contest which should precede The Lords after a strong division among themselves at length Voted for the King and the Commons for the Subject But it was not long before this unhappy difference was unhappily decided For Secretary Vane who was employed to declare the particulars of the Kings desires required twelve Subsidies whereas it was said his express order was for only six some there are who suspect this mistake to have been not involuntary but industrious in him as to his Majesties service but leaving that undetermined the House of Commons was raised by this Proposition The
Enemy of the Reformed Religion And your Majesty's Petitioners shall ever pray c. Concluded the 28th of August 1640. Francis Bedford Robert Essex Mulgrave Say and Seal Edward Howard William Hartford Warwick Bullingbrooke Mandevil Brook Paget The King's Answer BEfore the receipt of your Petition His Majesty well foresaw the danger that threatens himself and Crown and therefore resolved the 24th of this Instant to Summon all the Peers and with them to Consult what in this Case is fittest to be done for his own honour and safety of the Kingdom where they with the rest may offer any thing that may conduce to those ends According to this Resolution the Lord-Keeper had Directions from the King to issue out Writs of Summons for their appearing at York on the day prefixt which he punctually pursued Soon after the presenting of this Petition from the Lords came another from the Scots the substance whereof was a Desire That His Majesty would call a Parliament for setling a firm peace between the two Nations To this Petition the King replyed with signification of what he had ordered before in reference to himself and to the welfare of both Kingdoms And the Truth of it is it was high time for an Accommodation to be effected for Lesley now began to rant it in New-Castle and the parts adjacent as Brennus did at Rome with a Vae Victis He imposed a Tax of 350 pounds per diem upon the Bishoprick of Durham and 300 pounds upon Northumberland upon pain of Plundering and yet permitted Souldiers to rifle Houses break open Shops and act what insolencies they pleased seized upon four great English Ships laden with Corn as lawful prize they not knowing in whose possession the Town was till they enter'd the Haven The first day of the Lords Assembling at York it was resolved that a Parliament should be Summoned to convene at Westminster November the Third Then a Message was sent to the Scots desiring a speedy Treaty at York The Scots replied They held that no place of security for their Commissioners considering that the Lieutenant of Ireland who commanded His Majesties Army was one who had proclaimed them Traytors in Ireland before the King had done the same in England and who had threatned to destroy their Nation both Root and Branch and against whom as a chief Incendiary of the late Troubles they intended to complain whereupon it was concluded that the Treaty should be held at Rippon which accordingly took place The Parliament now approaching whose Convening was attended by this Kingdom with so much longing such impatience of desires as every moment which retarded it was interpreted as a kind of Grievance to the Subject for we began now to think that nothing could make us a happy People but a Parliament and that no Parliament could make us miserable This was the Sence of the greater part of this Nation and if this Parliament succeeded not adequate to some Mens Vote perhaps the miscarriage of their hopes may be somewhat imputed to this Sence Over-ruling Providence delights oft to order the Operations of free and natural Agents counter to Mans Expectations to teach us the vanity of that Faith which is founded upon Causes subaltern And oh that I could here but express to the life the high Expectations of the People from this Parliament which came with such a terrible swing after so long an Interval and so many Dissolutions that put the whole Nation into such a Consternation as I presume the like President cannot be produced out of the Records of Antiquity since William the Conqueror did first invade our English Territories But however Courteous Readers for your present Divertisement I will here make a small Attempt to express the present Thoughts and Expectations of that Parliament which in process of time brake forth into a Civil War and I pray God I may never live to see the like again the which I shall represent under the Emblem of a new â—â—ght and well-built Ship which upon the Launching was named The Bon Resolution although some would have it called The House of Commons others The Three Estates and others The Swiftsure and was immediately employ'd in His Majesties Service but being for some time wind-bound within the Harbor viz. about 12 days the Captain of the said Ship coming early out of his Cabin one morning and finding the Wind tackt about and blowing fair for his intended Voyage being upon the Quarter-Deck he knocks up his Seamen and salutes them after this manner viz. ARise you Mortals from your Dens of Sleep Neptune now calls to launch into the Deep The Wind blows fair it 's lately turn'd South-west And we must Sail directly to the East For Pearls and Diamonds Jewels of great Rate Which in the Acquest sometimes a broken Pate Hath been our Lot yet still we venture must You know our Shipwrights wherein so great a Trust Is now repos'd in us comes from Whitehall Our late Commission whence we may learn All Which way to steer our course and will direct Whom we must crush and whom we must protect In this our Voyage 'T is the Common-weal Of these Three Kingdoms That a Roaring Peal Of Small and Great Shot now aloud must Ring From this our Vessel To preserve the King In all His Legal Rights But to advance Against all those who have lead up a Dance As will in time if Heavens do not prevent Destroy both King and all the Parliament and in their stead set up a Scarlet Whore Of whose sweet Nature we have long before Known by Experience and now for to be cheated By their Sham-Plots again and to be defeated Huzza Brave Lads This thing shall never be We 'll rather chuse upon a Triple Tree To take our chance and now Heavens crown the Event And bless our Vessel and our good Intent Heavens bless us from the Sally Men of War Heavens bless us likewise that we do not jar Among our selves If such a thing should be And that our Seamen now should disagree And fight for Thimbles Bodkins and Gu-gaws Instead of fighting for the Good Old Cause Of Liberty and Property Oh! this Evil Would make us Zealots for the Pope and Devil More than for Christs true Church which now doth stand In danger much if these should have Command Within our British Isle which to prevent God bless our King and His next Parliament Which now approacheth whom we must defend And so our Ship the Lord Almighty send Into safe Harbor when that we shall bring Peace to the Church and Honor to the King And when our Pearls and Diamonds shall arrive We 'll fix them fast upon King CHARLES his Hive His Crown shall glister like the Rising Sun. Courage Brave Boys Our Wars shall then be done When we shall see those Fellows sent from hence With all their Tories to that place from whence They first did rise which was from that Grand Syre Who claims the Patent to be the great Lyar
And Forger of all Mischiefs both in Church and State But will at length get such a Broken Pate As will confound him and his Holy Church When as Old Nick shall leave him in the Lurch To him I 'll leave him and his Tory Crew And now proceed to what doth here ensue Tuesday Novemb. 3. being the day prefixt and the Parliament assembled His Majesty bespake them in these words My Lords THE knowledge that I have of the Scotish Subjects was the cause of my calling of the last Assembly of Parliament wherein if I had been believed I do most sincerely think that things had not fallen as We now see but it is no wonder that men are so slow to believe that so great a Sedition should be raised upon so little ground But now My Lords and Gentlemen the Honor and Safety of this Kingdom lying so heavily at stake And had His Majesty kept close to this resolution some think things had ne'er come to that extremity that afterwards they did I am resolved to put My Self freely upon the Love and Affections of my English Subjects as those of my Lords that waited upon me at York very well remember I there declared Therefore My Lords I shall not mention Mine own Interest or that Support I might justly expect from you till the Common Safety be secured though I must tell you I am not ashamed to say those Charges I have been at have been meerly for the securing the good of this Kingdom though the Success hath not been answerable to My desires Therefore I shall only desire you to consider the best way for the Security of this Kingdom wherein there are two things chiefly considerable 1. The chasing out the Rebells 2. That other in satisfying your just Grievances wherein I shall promote you to concur so heartily and clearly with you that all the World may see my intentions have ever been and shall be to make this a glorious and flourishing Kingdom There are onely two things more that I shall mention to you the one is to tell you That the Loan of Money which I lately had from the City of London wherein the Lords that waited on me at York assisted me will only maintain my Army for two months from the beginning of that time it was granted Now my Lords and Gentlemen I leave it to your Consideration what Dishonour and Mischief it might be in case for want of Money my Army be Disbanded before the Rebels be put out of this Kingdom Secondly The securing the Calamities the Northern People endure at this time and so long as the Treaty is on foot And in this I may say Not only they but all this Kingdom will suffer the harm therefore I leave this also to your Consideration for the ordering of the Great Affairs whereof you are to Treat at this time I am so confident of your Love to me and that your Care is such for the Honour and Safety of the Kingdom that I should freely leave to you where to begin Only this that you may know the better the State of all Affairs I have commanded my Lord Keeper to give you a short and free Account of those things that have happeued in this Interim with this Protestation That if his Account be not Satisfactory as it ought to be I shall whensoever you desire it give your Full and Perfect Account of every Particular One thing more I desire of you as one of the greatest means to make this an Happy Parliament That you on your part as I on mine lay aside Suspition one of another as I promised my Lords at York It shall not be my Fault if this be not a Happy and Good Parliament The King having ended the Lord Keeper in pursuance of His Majesty's Commands gave them a Summary Account and Relation of all Things relating to the Scottish Invasion I dare not say Rebellion for that the King represented them under that Disgustful Character was very ill resented by some considerable Peers whereof His Majesty having notice told the Parliament two days after He must needs call them Rebels so long as they have an Army that does invade England The remainder of this Week was spent partly in settling Committees for General Grievances and partly in set Speeches Rhetorically declaiming against and dissecting them The remainder of the particular Transactions of this year of the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament and of the year succeeding 1641. I shall not here relate at large but refer you to the Annals of King Charles the First written by this ingenious Author from whom I have borrowed and transcribed the major part of my precedent Relations who ends at the Death of the Earl of Strafford which was May the 12th 1641. And after that I must refer you for the remainder of that year unto Sir Richard Baker's Chronicle of the Kings of England c. But the particular heads of those Transactions as to matter of fact I shall be willing here to recite for your Courteous Readers present satisfaction in manner and form as followeth viz. 1. Several Petitions against Grievances 2. Priviledges of the Lords House Vindicated 3. The Lieutenant of Ireland Impeached of high Treason 4. The Northern Armies in want 5. Bishop of Lincoln Enlarged 6. Justice Howard assaulted by a Papist 7. Prinn and Bastwick enter London in Triumph 8. Secretary Windebanck flieth 9. Votes against Ship-money 10. The London Petition against Bishops 11. The late Canons damn'd 12. The Lord-Keeper Finch defends his Innocency 13. He is Voted Traitor upon four Considerations and thereupon he flyeth beyond Sea. 14. The Kings Speech for Bishops 15. One Goodman a Priest reprieved 16. A Remonstrance against Goodman the Priest 17. The Kings Answer to that Remonstrance 18. The Scottish Commissioners Demands and the Answer thereunto 19. A Match propounded between the Lady Mary and the Prince of Orange 20. The Kings Speech to the Lords concerning that Match 21. Some Plots of the Papists 22. The Earl Berkly Impeacht of High-Treason 23. The King passeth a Bill for Trienial Parliaments and his Speech concerning it 24. The Bill of Subsidies passeth at the same time and Bonefires and other tokens of joy were made that night in the City of London by Order of Parliament 25. William Laud Arch-Bishop of Canterbury accused of high Treason in fourteen Articles 26. The Lord Digbyes Speech for Episcopacy 27. The Charge against the Earl of Strafford is given and his Answers thereunto and Westminster-Hall is appointed for his Trial. 28. The Commons justifie their Charge by Law. 29. The Earl answereth by Councel 30. The Commons Vote him guilty of High-treason 31. The Commons Petition the King against Papists and the King's Answer 32. The Kings Speech to the Parliament in defence of the E. of Strafford 33. The Prince of Orange Marryeth the Lady Mary 34. A Tumult in Westminster crying for Justice against the Earl. 35. A Protestation framed by the Commons 36. A
Brittain should be this Person of Quality here intimated and described in this most wonder ful and Antient Prophecy a Prediction I must needs Confess most proper for such wonderful times as we now live in would you not all unanimously and with loud Acclamations throw up your Caps and Beavers into the Air and cry Vive le Roy or Currat Lex vivat Rex And if so for my own part I should yet hope to see if it shall please my Gracious God to lend me a little longer time of health and strength many Halcyon and most happy days in the Land and Nation of my Nativity before I go away hence and shall be seen no more And that an happy union and good correspondence between his present Majesty and his future Parliaments without the least suspition or jealousie one of another may yet come to pass in our days I do most humbly beseech thy Divine Majesty who art the Lord God Almighty to grant for thy great names-sake and for thy Vicegerents sake and for his Peoples sake who are truly Loyal and obedient Subjects in and through thy most dear and well beloved Son the Lord Jesus Christ in whom thou art well pleased and whom by thy free grace goodness and most stupendious mercy and compassion to thy poor creatures is the Lord and giver of everlasting Life to all those who shall most faithfully and most sincerely though but imperfectly obey him And now to him with thy eternal Majesty who art King Immortal Invisible and only wise God by the assistance of thy holy and for ever blessed Spirit of Grace I do most humbly desire to render give and ascribe all honour glory laud and praise might Majesty reverential fear and all humble adoration from this time forth and for evermore Amen And now in the close of all Whereas in my Title-Page I have there intimated how Magna Charta was most solemnly and most wonderfully even to the astonishment of the Spectators ratified pronounced and proclaimed and therefore must not now leave you in the dark as to that particular but refer you to the Packet of Advice from Rome Number 50. the which in my slender apprehension deserves to be written in Letters of Gold upon the Walls of both Houses of Parliament And for your present and I hope pleasant satisfaction I have here inserted and presented you with the same at large HAving presented the Reader with the most remarkable Transactions of Papal Tyranny in Foreign Parts down to the year 1254 't is time to look homewards and observe Ecclesiastic Occurrences in England our last Discourse of that kind terminating with the death of King John to whom succeeded his Son Henry the third of that name for though by reason of the Fewds between John and his Barons they had invited over Lewis the French King's Son and many had to him sworn Allegiance yet the Father being dead and his faults buried with him they did not think fit to yield up themselves to the French Man's Yoak who already began to exercise an insufferable Tyranny wherever he had Power And although the Pope had at first encourag'd the Barons in their Rebellion yet when once he had hector'd King John into a Resignation of his Crown he became his Patron and forbad Lewis from intermedling with the Kingdom as being then forsooth part of S. Peter's Patrimony and therefore excommunicated Lewis for the Invasion which engag'd most of the Clergy to oppose him And so Henry on the 28th of October 1216. was Crown'd being then in the 10th year of his Age and Lewis being routed at Lincoln was glad to come to a Treaty quit his Pretensions and most dishonourably retreat into France Yet 't is observable that the Clergy were then such fast Friends to their Head the Pope and so little regardful of the Descent in the Right Line that they would not accept Henry for their King without making him first do Homage to the Holy Church of Rome and Pope Innocent for his Kingdoms of England and Ireland and swearing to pay the 1000 Marks per Annum which his Father had promised to that See. Matth. Paris fol. 278. And besides to bring Grists to the Roman Mill the Pope's Legate at that time in England immediately on the Departure of Prince Lewis sent his Inquisitors all over the Realm and whomsoever they would discover to have sided with him Consensu etiam Levissimo Though in the least degree must atone the Crime with a large Sum insomuch as the Bishop of Lincoln before he could be restored to his Bishoprick was forc'd to pay 1000 Marks to the Pope's use and 1000 to the Legate for the little Rogue would have snips in the prey with the great One and many other Bishops and Religious Men were glad to empty their Pockets to him at the same rate Matth. Paris fol. 218. In the year 1220. the Pope was pleased to make Hugh formerly Bishop of Lincoln a Saint and since the manner of his Vn-Holiness's declaring the same may be Divertive to the common English Reader I shall give you the very words of his Letter Translated as I find it in Matth. Paris fol. 298. Honorius Servant of the Servants of God to all our well-beloved Sons the Faithful of Christ that shall inspect these Presents Greeting and Apostolick Benediction The worthiness of Divine Piety does make famous his Holy Ones and Elect placed in the Bliss of the Celestial Kingdom by the shining forth of their Miracles still upon Earth that the Devotion of the Faithful being thereby stirred up may with due Veneration implore their Aid and Suffrages since therefore we are fully satisfied that the Bounty of Heaven hath illustrated Hugh Bishop of Lincoln as well in his Life as after his Death with a multitude of Famous Miracles We have thought fit to Enroll him in the Catalogue of Saints and admonish and exhort you all in the Lord That you devoutly implore his Patronage and Intercession for you with Almighty God farther Commanding That the day of his Decease be henceforwards every year devoutly Celebrated as a Holyday Dated at Viterbium the 13th Calend of March in the fourth year of our Popedom But how much a Saint soever he was we meet with another Bishop as very a Devil for about this time a Quarrel happening between Richard Bishop of Durham and the Monks of the same Church they complain'd of him to the Pope who seem'd much concern'd at his many horrid Crimes and presently sent over a Letter in these Terms Honorius Bishop c. to the Bishops of Salisbury Ely c. Greeting and Aposlolick Benediction It is fit for us to be so delighted in the sweet Savour of a good opinion of our Brethren and Fellow-Labourers as not to connive at Vices in those that are Pestilent since it becomes not us for the Reverence of the Order to bear with Sinners whose Guilt renders them as worthy of as many Deaths as they transinit Examples of
Perdition to those that are under them who are too apt to imitate only the Depravaties of their Superiours Hence it is that since things too far dissonant from Episcopal Honesty have very often been suggested unto us concerning our Venerable Brother the Bishop of Durham being moved with such repeated Complaints we cannot suffer the said Bishop to continue in his Enormities to the Destruction of many for we are inform'd That since he was advanced to the Office of a Bishop he has been guilty of Blood and Simony and Adultery and Sacriledge and Rapine and Perjury A pretty parcel of Vertues for a Bishop and somewhat different from those 1 Tim. 3. That he hath oppress'd Clerks and Orphans obstructed the Testaments of the deceased that he observes not the Statutes of the Ceneral Council nor ever preaches tho Word of God to the People 'T is a wonder that small fault was mentioned hath often sworn before many that the Church of Durham shall never have Peace as long as he lives That a Monk complaining to him that his Servants had drawn him our of a Church and beat him till the Blood came He answered It had been well if they had beat out his Brains c. We therefore that we may not be guilty of the faults of others if we should wink at such Offences since the Clamour thereof has ascended so that we can dissemble it no longer think it agreeable to our Office to go down and see whether these things be so or no Therefore by these our Apostolical Writings we Command you our Brethren to examine and enquire into the premises and report the same to us under Seal that we may Decree therein as God shall order Dated at Viterb c. You see the Pope can Cant and pretend great Zeal to correct the Criminal but pray observe the end on 't These Bishops being met to examine the Business the Bishop of Durham presently Appeals to the Pope in Person and then they could proceed no farther but away both he and the Monks his Adversaries must trudge to Rome whither he privately sent beforehand two of his Clerks with a good Sum of Money which so sweeten'd the Pope that he receiv'd him very kindly Et post multas coram Papa Altercationes Immoderatis profusis Expensis c. And after many Wranglings before the Pope and vast Expences both Bishop and Monks were sent back as wise and honest as they were to agree together as well as they could But that which was most memorable in this Kings Reign was an Act which tho' respecting the temporal Good of the Kingdom yet it being Transacted chiefly by the Clergy and with Ecclesiastical Ceremonies it may not be improper to insert it into this Work. The Reader must note That when K. Hen. III. was become 16 years old the Pope took upon himself for a small Spill privately sent him by some corrupt Courtiers to declare him of Age to Govern himself and therefore all Castles were to be render'd up into the Kings hands This prov'd the Rock of Offence whilst some obey'd the Pope and oppos'd those as Rebels that put more confidence in their Castles than in the Kings good nature or rather in that of his upstart Counsellors Hence first sprang a Civil Broyl thence want of Money then a Parliament wherein the Grand Charter of England's Liberties once more was exchanged for a Sum of Money For only upon condition of renewing the same would the Estates allow Supplies many Promises the King makes and after that Oaths yet no performance but pretends Wars in France in Scotland and against Infidels But still his people finding them all but pretences and ill success to attend all his Enterprizes refuse to supply him for the Holy War Then he seems penitent and pours out new promises to observe Magna Charta and Seals it with the most solemn Execration that is to be found in the Womb of Story and so punctually Recorded as if God would have all Generations to remember it as the Seal of the Covenant between the King of England and his people It was done in Parliament where the Lords Temporal and Spiritual Clergy men Knights c. all standing with Tapers in their hands burning the King himself also standing with a chearful Countenance holding his open hand upon his Breast the Archbishop of Canterbury pronounc'd this Curse as it is verbatim Recorded by Matth. Paris fol. 839. By the Authority of God Omnipotent of the Son and of the Holy Ghost and of the Glorious Mother of God the Virgin Mary and of the blessed Apostles Peter and Paul and of all other Apostles and of the Holy Martyr and Archbishop Thomas and of all the Martyrs and of the Blessed Edward King of England and of all Confessors and Virgins and of all the Saints of God We Excommunicate and Anathematize and Sequester from our our Holy Mother the Church all those which henceforth knowingly and Maliciously shall deprive or spoil the Church of her Right and all those that shall by any Art or Wit rashly violate diminish or change secretly or openly in Deed Word or Council by crossing in part or in whole those Ecclesiastical Liberties or ancient approved Customs of the Kingdom especially the Liberties and free Customs which are contained in the Charters of the Common Liberties of England and the Forrests granted by our Lord the King to the Archbishops Bishops Prelates Earls Barons Knights and Freeholders And all those who have published or being published have observed any Statutes Ordinances or thing against them or any thing therein contained or which have brought in any Customs to the contrary or observed them being brought in and all Writers of such Ordinances or Councils or Executioners and all such as shall presume to judge according to such Ordinances All and every such persons as are or at any time shall be knowingly guilty of any such matters shall ipso facto incur this Sentence and such as are ignorantly guilty shall inour the same if being admonish'd they within 15 days after amend not For everlasting Memory whereof we hereunto put our Seals Thus far the words of the Curse nor was the manner of pronouncing it less dreadful for immediately as soon as the Charters and this Sentence was read and sign'd they then all throwing down their Tapers extinguish'd and smoaking said So let all that go against this Curse be extinct and stink in Hell And the King having all the while continued in the posture before mentioned said So God me help I will observe all those things sincerely and faithfully as I am a man as I am a Christian as I am a Knight and as I am a King Crowned and Anointed Pare but away some few Superstitions and search the History of all Ages you will not find a parallel hereunto so seriously compos'd so solemnly pronounc'd with an Amen from the Representative Body of the whole Kingdom put in Writing under Seal preserv'd to Posterity and give me leave to add vindicated by God himself in the Ruine of so many Opposers for never has any Prince Favourite Councellor or corrupt Judge from that time to this endeavour'd to act contrary to the Essentials of the said great Charter but first or last it has crush'd them into Ruine or great Calamity Yet how little this King Henry regarded it I shall acquaint you in the very words of the Historian Soluto Concilio Rex Confestim pessimo usus Concilio omnia praedicta Cogitabat Infirmare c. The Grand Council or Parliament was no sooner broke up but the King following lewd and pernicious Council contrived how to weaken and undo it for 't was told him That he would not be King or at least not Lord and Master of England if all those Liberties should be observ'd as John his Father had experienc'd who rather chose to dye than thus to be shackled and trampled on by his Subjects And these Whisperers of the Devil Susurrones Satanae so honest Matth. calls them added You need not value it if you do break your Vows and incur this Curse for the Pope for an hundred or two of Pounds will Absolve you 'T is well enough that by signing the Confirmation of these Characters you have got a Tenth which will amount to many thousand Marks and if you will but give the Pope a little portion of it he will Absolve you even though the Curse be ratified by himself for he that has Power to Bind can Loose Thus by the villany of ill Ministers and the knavery of the Pope this Prince was led into Deceit Perjury Injustice and Tyranny to his own continual Trouble and the unspeakable Damage of the Realm And if this honest and well-intended Narrative either in the whole or in part shall be deemed necessary and convenient at this juncture of time for the present and future satisfaction either of Prince or People or shall contribute any thing towards a firm and solid Foundation and Establishment upon the true Basis of Universal Love Charity and good will among the many contesting Parties at this day in the midst of us for sine procul dubio we shall never be happy till that time be accomplished I have my desire FINIS