Thomas Weyland Adam Stretton and others who being by the Kings order Examined and found guilty of the Trespasses laid to their Charge were â—ither out-law'd and lost their goods or else long â—mprisoned and deeply Fin'd A large Catalogue â—f them and their Fines are to be seen in Stows 〈◊〉 whence 't is observable how suddainly vengeâ—nce over-takes Oppressors let them be never so Rich High and Mighty in Office Power or Authority as soon as ever the Kings mind is inspir'd from above to inspect their actions and punish their crimes Remarkable is the 19th Year for the Jews Banishment which we find bought of thâ— King by the Commons at the price of a Fifteen In the 21st year we hear of a Parliament held at London and of the King of Scot's coming thither with divers of his Lords The punishment inflicted on three men for rescuing a Prisoner from an Officer belonging to the Sheriffs of London by striking off their right hands at the wrist in Cheapside is noted for one of this years actions Hence let us leap to the 24th year and there among thaâ— years deeds we find mention made of a new subsidy levied by the King upon Wool going out oâ— England Fels and Hides for his War with thâ— French King of his Commanding the Mony before granted by the Clergy towards the defence oâ— the Holy Land to be brought into his Treasury upon the Report he had from Rome of Pope Boniface the 8ths manners of the grant he got of thâ— Clergy of half their Spiritual and Temporal Lands from a Benefice of 20 Marks and upwards to bâ— paid in three years And of the Tax he had also granted him by the Lay-fee viz. the Tenth penny of their movables to be paid in two years time If any one be desirous to certifie himself whaâ— Relation Scotland stood in towards England foâ— many ages before let him read through the Relation of this years actions in Fabian's Chronicle and there he may be satisfied if it will conduce to his satisfaction to find that Scotland even in Elder times in a sort depended on England and waâ— so far from giving Laws or an Example and Patern thereto that it's Nobles were fain to submit themselves to the King of England's Judgmenâ— and decree and do him Homage and Fealty in effecâ— by the submission of their King whom King Edward had appointed and set over them Memoâ—able is the six and twentieth year for that thereâ—n the Londoners obtain'd of King Edward newâ—y come from beyond Sea into England and so to Winchester a grant of their Liberties and Franchises which had in some part been kept from them by â—he term of twelve years and more so that they â—gain chose a Major of themselves whereas in â—he aforesaid time their Custos or Guardian was appointed by the King or by such as the King would assign But we are to understand by the Chronicle that this was not redeem'd without a great Sum of money Some Writers it seems fixing it at three thousand marks As this King had many Wars especially with Scotland which put him to great charges and had much money granted him by his Subjects so he ceased not to devise other ways to raise more and get what was denied him For as much as divers men â—ichly benefic'd in the Land refus'd to aid him with their Goods as others had and for that end had purchased from the Pope an Inhibition that they and their goods should be free from the King's Taxes he put them this year out of his protection a strain of State policy beyond some other Kings and seis'd their Temporalties permitting them to enjoy their Spiritualties till they agreed with him Though this was a warlike Prince and oft successful in his undertakings yet the Clergy's power so over-top't the Laity's that he chose rather to make use of his Wits than his Arms in dealing with them So have I read in William the Second's days how when his Unkle being both a Bishop and an Earl grew troublesome to him he seis'd upon the Earl and clapt him in hold whereby he caught and revenged himself on the Bishop too without openly pretending to meddle with a Clergy Man An offence esteem'd piacular in those days to such an height of Pride were the Popish Clergy grown An other practice of King Edward was his suddain Condemning certain Coines of Mony call'd Pollards Crocardes and Rosaries in his twenty seventh year and causing them to be brought to a new Coynage to his great advantage as testifies the Historian Among others may be also numbred that Inquisition he caus'd to be made throughout the Land in the twenty eighth year which was after nam'd Trailbaston This we find made upon Officers as Majors Sheriffs Bayliffs Escheators and many others who had misborn themselves in their Offices and had us'd Extortion or treated the people otherwise than was according to the order of their Offices So vigilant appeared this Prince and careful of his people that they might not be abused nor oppressed by their fellow Subjects when got into power under pretence of being his Majesties Officers a thing we know common enough in the world In the twenty eighth year we have mention made of the City of London's Splendor and Magnificence upon the account of their receiving the new Queen Margaret Sister to the French King Thus runs my Authors short Relation hereof The Citizens to the number of six hundred Rode in one Livery of Red and White with the Cognizance of divers Misteries broidered upon their sleeves and received her four Miles without the City and so conveyed her through the City which then was garnished and hanged with Tapestry and Arras and other Cloths of Silk and Riches in most goodly wise unto Westminster This is the year wherein Fabian makes the first mention of Pierce of Gaviston in his Chronicle upon Occasion of the Bishop of Chesters complaining to the King of him his Eldest Son Edward and others for breaking the Bishops Park and riotously destroying the Game therein For this was the aforesaid Edward and his Accomplices Imprisoned So that under this famous King the very next Heir apparent scap'd not the Lash of the Law when he had offended even to an actual Imprisonment so far were men in those days from asserting him to be above the Law and not Lyable to condign punishment because the next Heir Afterwards the King Banished the aforesaid Gaviston out of England for fear lest he should debauch his Son But this Banishment was after his death annulled by his Son Edward when King to the great trouble and vexation of the Land afterwards The twenty ninth may be esteemed not unworthy of remark for the Kings giving to Edward his Son the Principality of Wales whereunto he likewis'd joyn'd the Earldom of Cornwal newly Vacant and return'd to the Crown In the 33d year we read of the taking arraigning drawing hanging and quartering of William Waleys who of an unknown
his Name to the Place Those Monkish Writers scarce thinking their Hero's Valour sufficiently Celebrated unless they make them meet with and encounter some such Gygantick Adventures where the little Knight shall be sure to over-come the great Gyant Brute having bestowed Cornwal upon Corineus after he had throughly searched the Land for the Pleasure he took in Thames he laid There as we are told the Foundation of a City about the Second Year after his Landing in this Isle and in remembrance of Old Troy named it Troynovant which Name it held till the Time of King Lud near upon One Thousand and Sixty Eight Years from whom 't was named Lud's Town afterwards London as shall be declared in Process of Story What Repute and Esteem this City was of in those Days as being Builded by the First Founder of the British Empire I shall leave to the Reader 's Consideration who may find it honoured with the Sepulture of many of their Kings as of Brute himself and his Eldest Son Locrine to whom in the Division made by his Father fell Middle England for his Share wherein Troynovant was situated To whom may be added Cunedagius and Gorbodug the Father of Ferrex and Porrex the Last of Brute's Line But now the Coast begins to clear up a little more after the Storms of Civil Wars by the Success of Mulmutius Dunwallo Son of Cloton Duke of Cornwal This Dunwallo having vanquished the other Competitors and settled the Land caused a Temple to be builded in Troynovant and named it the Temple of Peace the same according to some Men's Opinions that now is called Blackwell-Hall a Place well known to the Clothiers His Fame is much increas'd by the many good Ordinances he made which were called Mulmutius's Laws and used long after his Decease That this City of Troynovant was of Repute and Renown in this so Famous a Man's Days is hardly to be doubted of by him that considers so eminent a Circumstance as the Building of a Temple of Peace within the Circuit of this City as an Effect of that Peace he had so happily settled in the Land and it may be in Gratitude to the Citizens who probably favour'd his Cause and so might much influence his Actions and Enterprizes In the same Temple of Peace was he laid after his Death which he had been the Occasion of Building in his Life In the Time of Belinus and Brennus his Sons after their Reconcilement Accord we read of their going to Troynovant with their Lords and Friends where after many things ordered for the Common Benefit of the Land they joyntly agreed to lead both their Hosts over the Sea to subdue other Countrys the Smart of which Voyage the Romans felt sufficiently under Brennus and his Gauls By Belinus we sind that an Haven was built in the same Troynovant with a Gate over it call'd even at this Day Belings-gate on whose Pinnacle was set a Brazen Vessel which contain'd the Ashes of his Body burnt after his Death In this City we likewise find that Gurguintus was Buried and also Guintellius his Son from whose Wife Marcia came the Marcian-Law fam'd long after â—mong the Britains and Saxons These being of some Eminency in their 〈…〉 Buried in this City after their Deaths It 〈…〉 safely be concluded That they 〈…〉 therein as their Principal City and 〈…〉 of the Realm Yet we read of other 〈…〉 Note in those Times and after as of 〈…〉 one where Archigallo before depos'd by his Loâ—â—s for his ill Government was through the Intercession of Elidurus his Brother then Reigning at a Councel of the Britains by him call'd restor'd to his former Dignity When the same Elidurus had gain'd the Assent of his Barons and the good Will of the Commons However Troynovant seems in those Days to have been esteem'd a Place of Security and mention of a Tower therein we find on Occasion of the same foremention'd Elidurus's being sent thither by his unkind younger Brothers to be safely kept as a Prisoner therein The succeeding Times are so barbarous that but little considerable is left upon Record concerning any Actions then done untill we come to the Reign of Lud Eldest Son of Heli which began about Sixty Six Years before our Blessed Saviours Incarnatâ—on according to Stow. This Man is much prais'd by the Historian for his Worthy Actions and Honourable Deeds for his Valour Liberality and Hospitable House-keeping and his repairing Old Cities and Towns Especially in Troynovant he is Recorded to have caused many Buildings to be made encompassing it also round with a strong Wall of Lime and Stone In the West-Part whereof stands a Gate by him Builded and known even at this Day by the Name of Ludgate For his Love to this City he used most to abide therein Whereupon it was called Caer-Lud or Lud's Town Whence by Corruption and shortning of Words comes the present Name London whereby it shall be called for the future and the former Name Troynovant laid aside in this following Relation Lud dying after an Honourable Reign he was Buried in the aforementioned Gate of his named Port-Lud or Lud-gate where are yet standing the Statues of Him and his Sons as a lasting Monument of his Memory In Cassibellan's Reign the next Successour but whether Son or Brother to Lud is not agreed upon by all Authors we find considerable mention made of London in the Story through Occasion of Cassibellan's Victory over the Romans newly Landed under the Leading of Julius Caesar and twice repelled by the Britain's Valour London was the Place appointed by the King to Celebrate this Victory return Thanks to his Gods and Rewards to his Valourous Knights Here therefore we read of a great Assembly held of his Lords and Knights and of the King 's keeping a Noble and Solemn Feast for all Comers and the Exercise of all kind of Games in those Days used But Difference arising at the Wrestling between a couple of Young Noble Knights allied One of them to the King and the Other to Androgeus Earl or Duke of London as he is somewhere called and from Words these Hotspurs coming to Blows occasion'd such sideing and variance amongst the Company that many were wounded and the Kings Nephew slain to the great disturbance of the Court. For Disgust hence growing between the King and Androgeus to whom the King had given the City of London with the Dukedome or Earldome of Kent besides an Honourable Education suitable to his Birth he being Lud's Eldest Son and so Heir to the Kingdom according to some Writers the other being but his Brother and this Disgust producing War wherein the King was likely to be much the stronger Androgeus recalls Caesar with his Romans to his Aid and assists them in their Landing and joyning his whole Power soon turn'd the Scales bringing Victory to the Romans and an Overthrow and Loss of their ancient Freedome to Cassibellan and his Britains So considerable was the Assistance that Androgeus with
declare the Oath for some few small minute petty fancied Inconveniences invalid and of no binding force But be it by the Power of the Sword or by whatsoever Claim else Canutus held the Crown we nevertheless find him to have Govern'd the Land honourably after that he came to be sole King and it may be to the Content of many of his Subjects for 't was the Memory doubtless of his Repute that set and kept the Crown upon the Heads of both his Sons otherwise of themselves of little Worth or Value if compar'd with their Father One remarkable worthy Act of Canutus's is recorded amongst others viz. That in the Nineth Year of his Reign he call'd a Parliament so my Author terms it at Oxford where amongst other things it was enacted That Englishmen and Danes should hold the Laws of Edgar lately King In the Transactions of these Times we may believe the City of London had no small Share aâ— being probably at length pretty well pleas'd with the Father's Reign whereupon the Citizem mav be supposed to conduce at least in some measure to the settling his Sons on his Throne For Harold Harefoot is said by some to have dyed at London after a Three Years Reign and the other of Canutus's Sons Hardicanute was joyfullâ— Receiv'd and Crown'd at the same City In Edward the Confessor's days the Land being not much troubled with intestine Broils there happ'ned but little Occasion for trying London's Strength And thereupon I find no great mention of that Honourable City unless in a Passage or two as about Edward the Outlaw's dying therein and of the King 's being there some time before with his Councill when Earl Goodwin was charg'd to come to Court and render into the King's Hands all his Knights-Fees-that he and Harold his Son held in England The Effect whereof was the Outlawing of the foremention'd Goodwin for his Disobedience and departure out of the Land with his Sons by Authority of a Parliament call'd alittle after In this King's Reign also we hear at both Ears of the evil Manners among the Bishops the Chief of the Clergy of their Voluptuousness Gluttony Leachery Covetuousness Wordly Pomp c. as also of their Endeavours to excuse their Manners by answering that they were suitable to the Times A generall Corruption among Men of a Religious Habit being the Common Forerunners of great Turns and Changes in a Land as it fell out here soonafter this King's Decease This is the King to whom according to the Annalist Stow we are indebted for the Common Law gather'd out of the Laws and Ordinances of the Mercian's West Saxons Danes and Northumbers What Spirit was in the Men of those Times is â—n part manifested in the Message sent to Harola by the Inhabitants of Northumberland when he was â—ent thither by the King to do Correction upon those who had risen against his Brother Tostus their Duke for a cruell Act by him committed taking away what he had and chasing him out of â—he Country Continuing together in a considerable Body they gave him to understand that they were freely born and freely nourish'd and might suffer no cruelness of Dukes That they had learned of their Elders and Sovereigns to maintain Freedom or to suffer Death and to live in quietness under an easy Duke Upon which Message their Pardon was procur'd them of the King and another Duke assign'd Within less then a year after Edward the Confâ—ssâ—r's Death we read of the landing of Duke Wâ—llâ—â—m with his Normans at Hâ—stings in Sussâ—x who came with a strong Army to demand the Crown of Harold who had no Title but what he claim'd by the Power of his Sword and the Dukes Claim also went but upon a limping Foot As great as the Duke's Host was enough it seems by the Event to help to win a Crown we find London so Strong as to hold him out when he and his Army came thereto till he had given good Assurance that he and his People would pass through the City without tarrying which was also observed accordingly When Harold was utterly over-thrown by these Normans and so room made for the Title of Edgaâ— Atheling to take place we find the Londoners among the chief of those who were upon Associating themselves each to other to defend his Right to thâ— utmost of their Powers This Agreement indeeâ— was afterwards broken but by the making of it we are well enough assured that the Câ—tys Strengtâ— was then esteem'd very considerable Another Argument let me produce out of Stow'â— Annalls where it is recorded that Edwin anâ— Marcar both then Powerfull Earles the One â—â— Mercia the other of Northumberland after Harold Death came to London and solicited the Citizen to erect one of them to the Kingdom Though this their enterprise was frustrated yet doubtless it may prove Londons Power otherwise 't is hard to believe these two potent Earls would have applied themselves to the Citizens that they would chuse one of them for King and upon the Failure of their Design would have quietly departed without shewing some resentment had not the City been too strong easily to be dealt with or slightly to be anger'd with Safety and Security The other more rightful Heir was the Person pitch'd upon But the other Nobles of the Realm not powerfully assisting and Edward Atheling not being it seems of Ability sufficient to manage his own Concerns himself and undertake so great a Charge 't is no wonder that this Renowned City suffering it self to be born down the Stream with the Times submitted it Self with the rest of the Land to Duke William who made some pretence to a Title Whereas Harold could shew nothing for his but his Sword And therefore it may be 't is that we read not in antient Histories that I remember of this Citys assisting him to defend himself against Duke William's Power Here now is a great Change indeed The Power and Strength of the Kingdom turned from both the Britains and Saxons and devolved upon the Normans by means of this King William the Date of whose Reign begins reckoning immediately after Harold's Death October the Fourteenth Anno Christi 1066 according to Chronology In this King who himself by the General consent of Writers was basely Born is founded the Succession for higher they care not much to go who keep such a stir about our Princes inheriting according to their Birth-right Though if this be made the fixt unalterable Rule of Twenty Six Kings and Queens reigning Successively upon recourse to the History of their Reigns we shall meet with a dozen at least of them who cannot be denied but to have come to their Crowns with Flaws in their Titles Nay if we reckon in the Number such as may have been controverted upon that Account we may safely add the other Half dozen That from the general Rules there are many exceptions we learnt almost as soon as we went to our Grammar-School This King William is
into his own Country there were hopes doubtless 〈◊〉 a happy peace to ensue and long to continue But seems those hopes were soon blasted For the 〈◊〉 next year viz. the 15 we read of the late agrâ—â— peace's being violated and broken by the King 〈◊〉 according to my Author persevering in his wroâ—â— would in no wise be induc'd to hold his own graâ—â— but to execute all things after pleasure nothing â—â—ter Law and Justice These violations produc'd new War between King John and his Nobles 〈◊〉 ended not till after the Kings Death So troublesâ—â— was it to the Nation so dangerous to the King 〈◊〉 he should have such ill Ministers about him 〈◊〉 were either authors or followers of no better adviâ—â— then what could not consist with the Kings keepiâ—â— his Royal Word That the Sheep were made 〈◊〉 for the Shepheard to clip shear pill and slay at own will and pleasure is a Doctrine that the 〈◊〉 quiet innocent harmless Sheep would no longer â—â—â—lingly assent to than while the Knife is held at 〈◊〉 throat how acceptable soever it may be to the 〈◊〉 Wolves and the degenerate Dogs of the 〈◊〉 When King John found himself too weak to â—â—tend with his Barons and yet it seems by the 〈◊〉 not willing enough to keep to his former 〈◊〉 he sent beyond Sea and call'd in strangers his Assistance We read that Northfolk and 〈◊〉 were the Lands promised to those strangers 〈◊〉 would come over to aid the King who had a little â—efore got the Pope to disannul the aforesaid Charter â—nd liberties granted ere while by him and excommuâ—icate the Barons We have mention made in Stow 〈◊〉 or 3 times of strangers coming over So many of â—hem were cast away at one time by Tempest who â—ere coming over Men Women and Children that â—â—'s said of 4000 not one escap'd alive So that we â—ay observe 't is an old trick to call in Foreigners â—pon the Natives when Arbitrary designs are on 〈◊〉 When the King was found to have invited â—trangers to his aid the Lords also sent into France â—or help and succour When two Women fall a scolâ—ing and pulling one anothers head-cloths whoever â—â—rst began the fray it is much but both will be in â—â—ult before it end London was the place where the â—ords kept themselves together till the expected aid â—nd succour from beyond Sea was brought to them â—nder Lewis the French Kings Son who landing 〈◊〉 England with a strong Army came afterwards to London and was there received Hence he with the Lords departing won many Castles in the Land and 〈◊〉 their return had the Tower of London given up to â—hem by appointment Tho the Tower held long for â—he King yet 't was the City it seems that bare the â—way and adhered to the Lords What a strength â—â—ey were of we may observe out of Stow where â—ing John is said to have made hast to besiege Lonâ—on but the Londoners were hereby so little daunted â—hat they set open their Gates and were ready to meet â—im ten miles off the City whereupon the King withâ—rew understanding their boldness and multitude â—hen the Major Roger Fitz. Alwyn was accused to be â—â—vourable to the Kings Party we find him quickly â—ischarg'd of his Office and one Serle Mercer chosen 〈◊〉 his place so great was the favour of the Citizens to the Barons and their Cause that they spar'd not their own head Officer and Ruler when he lay under thâ— suspicion of favouring Arbitrary designs so contrary to the mind of the Citizens The War still continuing and King John being not able to prevail tho thâ— Pope interceded by his Legaâ—e he had at last â—â— some writes all his Arbitrary designs quench'd with a Cup of Poyson at Swinstead Abby about Lincoln Tho another Author is said to affirm that he died â—â— the flux at another place Soon after this unhappy unfortunate King John death we meet with an eminent instance of Englisâ— mens Loyalty as well as of their love of liberty anâ— freedom for though the King and his Lords were 〈◊〉 so great a difference most of the latter part of hiâ— Reign and he left the Throne and his life at such 〈◊〉 time when his Barons were likely in outward appearance to be much too strong for him his his survâ—ving Heir being but then a Child of about 9 years 〈◊〉 age Yet as if all rancour and animosity against thâ— King and his Party was dead and buried with him 〈◊〉 his Grave the wheel of affairs was so turn'd as 〈◊〉 were in an instant that Lewis and his strangers weâ—â— disgusted and the young Fatherless Prince was proclaim'd and Crown'd King of the Land at an agâ— wherein he was not fit to be left to his own guidanâ—â— without a Tutor It 's plain enough by this instancâ— that English hearts were more loyal than naturallâ— to desire the ruine of their Prince and his Family 〈◊〉 at any time they appear'd in Arms against him in defence of their Lives Liberties and Freedoms hoâ— ready have they shewed themselves to accord anâ— submit as soon as those men of ill Principles and Aâ—bitrary practices were remov'd from their Princâ— who had rais'd those clouds of discontent betweeâ— him and his People The chief of those that so soon returned to their Allegiance were the powerful Earls of Pembroke and Chester who drew with them a very considerable reâ—inue They may be probably thought to hope to â—â—nfuse better Principles into their young Prince in his Nonage than appeared by former Arbitrary actions â—o have been in his Father and so model the Goâ—ernment into a better frame in the time of that powâ—r they were as the chief Nobles most likely to â—ave under the King in his younger days Neither â—o I know but somwhat might proceed from reâ—orse of Conscience The Earl of Chester in the 2d â—ear of the Kings Reign taking his journey into the Holy-Land the Religion of those times having made â—hat the usual way of Expiation Some such intent of â—he Earl stands likewise upon record in one of the Chronicles saith my Author Another very probaâ—le occasion of this sudden change of Affairs in the Kingdom may be supposed to have risen from the Death-bed confession of a French Nobleman who 〈◊〉 reported to have discovered Lewis's intent to 〈◊〉 destroy and quite root out those English Lords â—hat adhered to him as if in detestation of their disâ—oyalty to their own natural English Soveraign When â—he Barons came once to find that he whom they â—ad called in to defend them against their Kings Arâ—itrariness intended to violate and break their Coâ—enants established at first between them when he â—ould come to have opportunity and so turn their â—â—plored aid into their certain destruction they â—ight well think they had reason enough to disclaim 〈◊〉 Alliance and endeavour to frustrate his privy inâ—â—ntions by returning to their former Allegiance as 〈◊〉 as a fit season presented it self Conditional
much like that which I find in a modern Author thus Englished BY the Authority of God Omnipotent of the Son and of the Holy Ghâ—st and of the glorious Mother of God the Virgin Mary and of the blâ—ssed 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 â—oly 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 Counsel by crossiâ—g 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 thing against them or any thing therein contained which have brought in any Customs to the contrary or 〈◊〉 served them being brought in and all Writers of such Oâ—dinances or Councils or Executioners and all such as shâ— presume to judge according to such Ordinances All 〈◊〉 every such Persons as are or at any time shall be knowingly guilty of any such matters shall ipso facto incur thâ— Sentence such as are ignorantly guilty shall incur the saâ—â— if being admonished they within 15 days after amend 〈◊〉 For everlasting memory whereof we hereunto put our Seaâ— Thus far the words of the Curse Nor was the maâ—ner of pronouncing less solemn in open Parliament 〈◊〉 King with all the chief Nobility of the Realm in the Robes and the Bishops in their Vestments with buâ—â—ing Tapers in their Hands standing to hear this 〈◊〉 read and immediately as soon as the Charters and 〈◊〉 were read and signed all throwing down their Tapeâ—â— extinguished and smoaking cry out So let all 〈◊〉 who incur this Sentence and go against this Curse 〈◊〉 extinct and have no better savour than these Snuffs 〈◊〉 then the King having stood all this while with 〈◊〉 hand upon his Breast said with a loud voice So 〈◊〉 me help I will observe all these things sincerely and faitâ—fully as I am a man as I am a Christian as I am Knight and as I am a King crowned and anointed But what could any one think these so solemn 〈◊〉 would avail without a suitable Power and strength Arms to make them good per force When as 〈…〉 known that there lived in those days a Clergy-man Rome who pretended to dispense even with the Almigâ—ty's Laws whose Power was at that time openly prâ—fessed to be believed sufficient by the â—â—nerality of Eâ—rope to absolve all manner of Oaths and Covenantâ— and from whom Dispensations more than a good maâ— might be had for Money The confirmation of the foâ—mentioned Acts we may believe well paid for by the Parliament For we read of a Tax called Scutage that â—s 40 s. of every Knights Fee through England then granted to the King which extended to a large summ of Money viz. Six score Thousand Pounds or more For upon occasion of this large Tax I find the number of the Knights Fees in England at those days in possesâ—ion of Spiritualty and Temporalty summ'd up by my Author to 60000 l. and above Upon supposition that â—he Clergy paid nothing it is said that the Tax would â—ot have amounted over the summ of 64000 l. whereâ—y we may guess what a deal of the Land even almost â—ne half was then belonging to the Clergy Devotion as the times went then brought forth Riches and the Daughter since devoured the Mother Nov. the 6th we are told the King came to St. Pauls and commandâ—ng a Folk-moot to be assembled according to the forâ—er Ordinances made asked license of the Commonalâ—y of the City to pass the Sea and promised there in â—resence of a great multitude of People that he would â—e a good and gracious Lord unto the City by the â—outh of Sir Hugh Bygot Chief-Justice and to mainâ—ain their Liberties unhurt whereupon the People for â—y made an exceeding shout Observe here the turn of â—hings the Courtiers seem to have sought not long time â—â—nce to oppress the Head Rulers of the City by a Folk-â—oot of the Commons Now the King to prevent the â—ffect of ill mens advice hath bound himself to ask their â—ave before he goes out of the Land for a season E're while the Folk-moot or Common-Hall was abused to â—â—rve for a property to destroy their own Cities Liberâ—â—es Now the conservation of the whole Nations welâ—â—re is put into their hands What greater Evidence can â—e demanded to prove this Honourable Cities Power â—nd Influence than to find the Citizens entrusted by â—ing Lords and Commons with so high a charge We may presume the Reason of entrusting the Commons of the City with so large a Grant as the Kinâ— could not pass the Sea without License first obtain'â— of them was to prevent the Evil and Mischief thâ—â— might happen to the Land by advice of ill Counselloâ— who might be persuading the King at every turn to gâ— out of the Realm he having also Lands beyond the 〈◊〉 that they might have the better opportunity to 〈◊〉 out their own ends though to the Peoples oppressioâ— in his absence What trouble affliction and oppressioâ— the land suffered under this Kings Uncle Richard thâ— first 's Imprisonment at the Hands of the Kings Officeâ—â— who rak'd and pill'd what they could of Clergy 〈◊〉 Laity on pretence of raising Money for the Kings Râ—demption I had rather send the Reader back to pag. to satisfie himself where I have related somwhat of thâ— charge of the Kings Ransom than stay to repeat it ovâ—â— again A fuller description the curious may meet wiâ—â— in Neubrigensis l. 4 cap. 35. treating particularly therâ—of Some I believe may have observed in these unsettlâ—â— times that they have fared much better and more eâ—sily avoided the malitious attempts of their Fellow Suâ—jects who have liv'd as it were in the Sunshine of thâ— Kings presâ—nce than such who being many scores â—â— may be Hundreds of Miles distant have liv'd so â—â— phrase it in the shadow I know not but 〈◊〉 â—resence of the head Governour 〈◊〉 as needful always 〈…〉 as is the General in 〈◊〉 Army Certâ—in enough it is by the History that 〈◊〉 this Kinâ— Henry was thus absent from his Kingdom 〈…〉 ways in France that Dissention arose'â— Englaâ—d between the Kings Son Edward and the 〈◊〉 of Gloucestâ—r which might have immediately brougâ—â— no small trouble to the Land had not there been greâ—â— endeavours used to prevent it wherein this Honourabâ—â— City shew'd much of her
Citizens disâ—greement But if such was the effect of the Ciâ—izens contest what then may we think of those who â—urposely create those differences and stir up dangerâ—us animosities among them upon slight trivial â—orn out pretences that from the like cause or occasion the like effect may follow At Candlemas by discreet and wise peaceable means the forenamed Sir Walter Harvy was set in Authority as Major and so remained the whole year after In the third year the King confirmed the Liberties of the City and granted some new Thus you see after a storm comes fair weather In this year we meet with a Relation concerning Walter Harvy how that in the first year of this King after long controversy and strife with the Aldermen he was made Major of London at a Folkmoot or Common-Hall at Pauls-Cross and so continued that year but in this third year occasion was found to remember and as the event seems to intimate revenge it For being accused of divers perjuries and other detestable deeds contrary to his Oath for them and for making Assemblies of the Commons who favour'd him he was depriv'd of his Aldermanship and turn'd out of the City Council for ever and for keeping the Kings peace within the City for the term of his life was bound to the good behaviour upon the suretiship of twelve persons 'T is not unusual for the Commonalty and heads of the City to be at difference each with other Here 's one who seems a promoter of the Commons power over-power'd himself by his Enemies for making assemblies of the Commons and other Crimes objected to him true or feigned I know not however thence was taken a pretence to thrust him out of his former power These Folkmoots or Assemblies of the Commons seem to have been very unpleasing tâ— the chief Rulers of the City and their power disgusted as may be guess'd from the fore-pass'd transactions in King Henry's days where we may remember that the Commons were the men whâ— had power allotted them by the Parliament at their Folkmoot or Common-hal to grant the King Licence to depart out of the Land for a Season 'T were they who most firmly adher'd to the Barons standing up in defence of those Parliament Statues made at Oxford but few of the chief Rulers of the City comparatively are noted to have appear'd openly in that fam'd contest of the Barons War In the fourth year occasion was taken against Michael Tony upon some demeaours of his in the Welch War to accuse him of Treason of which he was arraign'd judg'd and condemn'd and after drawn hang'd and quartered This man doubtless had been a noted stickler in the Barons War for I find one of that Name among the five persons so long kept in Prison in Windsor Tower after the Barons overthrow till mony bought them out as is before related Princes once highly offended may openly profess to forgive the offending party but they do not however so soon forget him Tho David pardoned Shimei during his life and swore to him not to put him to death with the Sword yet as good a Man as he was he charg'd his Son Solomon to bring down his hoary head to the grave with blood and so accordingly we find an occasion was afterwards taken by Solomon to revenge his former cursing his Father David by commanding Benaiah who went out and fell upon him that he dyed This year was the famous Statute of Mortmain first enacted that no man should give Lands or Rents to the Church without the Kings Special Licence which Statute had afterwards many additions annext to it to make it the stronger For the Lay-fee was in great danger to be devour'd by the Spiritualty such Arts did the Clergy use on mens minds to augment their power and Riches Tho now our Courts of Law are fixt at Westminster yet in these Ancient times it was not so for we read that this King in his sixth year remov'd his Courts of Kings-Bench Chancery Common-Pleas and Exchequer to Shrewsbury and afterwards return'd them back again to the no small damage of the Records thus carried to and fro This King held his Parliament at London in his seventh year for Reformation of his Coyn much clip't and diminish'd This storm fell chiefly upon the Jews by reason of the Inquest charg'd in London to enquire of this matter Whereupon were cast two hundred and ninety seven persons before the Major and other Justices sitting at London and afterwards Executed at sundry times and places My Author hath left upon Record that among these there were but three Englishmen all the rest were Jews or Jews born in England Famous is the 12th year for the Conquering and subâ—â—â—â—ing of Wales to the English Scepter and divâ—sion of it bâ— King Edward into Shires whereupon were ordain'd Sheriffs and other Officers therein as were then us'd in England David Brother to Lewellyn late Prince of Wales who was condemned to be drawn hang'd and quarter'd as a chief â—â—irrer and beginner of the Welsh War in time of a Parliament held at Shrewsbury was shortly after Executed and his head sent to London to be sâ—t by his Brothers which had been order'd to be plac'd the â—ear before on London-Tower In this year was Edward of Carnarvan born the first of our English Kings since William the first that I read of publickly unking'd and depos'd by his own Subjects The great Conduit standing against Saint Thomas of Acres in Cheapside owes his foundation to this year The 13th year may be noted for the Kings seizing the Franchises and Liberties of London into his own hands on the day kept in Memory of Saint Pauls Conversion so that he discharged the Major Gregory Rokisle and admitted for Custos or Guardian of the City Stephen Sandewich who continued till the Monday following the Purification of the Virgin Mary when being discharg'd Sir John Breton sâ—ands upon Record charg'd for the residue of the year My Author writes that the cause of this displeasure the King bore to the City is not shewn of a certainty He mentions an old Pamphlet whereby it appears that the Major took bribes of the Bakers and suffer'd them to sell bread lacking six ounces in a penny Loaf for which the King was sore displeased but to him this seem'd no convenient cause that the Liberties of the City should be seiz'd for one man's offence Wherefore he rather supposeth it was for a more grievous cause However it is observable from History that it was a Common thing in Elder times to seize the Cities Charters on pretences slight enough of any sense till the Citizens grew so wise as at convenient seasons to procure new grants and graces to prevent such seizures for the future And that it is not still so feasable and practicable is the grief I believe and heart-burning of some in the world The 14th year of this King may be accounted famous for the Statutes called Additamenta Gloucestriae made at a
low birth became the head Leader of the Scots against the Kings Power and had Created him no little trouble in Scotland but now in revenge was his head set upon London-Bridge and his four quarters sent into Scotland to be set upon the Gates of some Towns in that Land About this time we hear likewise of several Nobles of Scotland coming to the Kings Parliament at Westminster and there voluntarily Sworn in the Presence of the King and his Lords to be true to the King of England and to keep the said Land to his use against all other Persons Among these is named Robert le Bruce who not long after sends to the Pope for a dispensation of his Oath raises more Commotions in Scotland and gets to be Crowned King thereof at Saint Johnstons Anno Thirty four But when King Edward had overthrown the Scots Army and taken many of the Nobles he sent the Bishop of Saint Andrews and Bastoon with the Abbot of Scoon to the Pope with report of their Perjury and how they were taken Armed in the field to shed the blood of Christian men And the Temporal Lords he sent into England to the Tower of London who were afterwards Arraigned at London and put to death and their Heads set upon London-Bridge The longest Sword carries away the Bell. If the Scots had prevail'd in the like sort against King Edward it 's a question whether they would not have done much after the same manner How would they have then vaunted themselves and their Cause for the most rightful whereas being Conquer'd they suffer'd as Rebels That the weakest goes to the Wall is a known saying Yet as strong powerful and succesful as this King Edward was we find he cared not to meddle himself with the Spiritual Lords taken in the field fighting against him but rather chose publikely to send them to the Pope with an high offence laid to their charge to be punished at his pleasure Whereby we may presume he gratified the Popes Ambition in making him as it were the sole Judge of their offences and yet thereby doubtless sufficiently secur'd himself against those men of the Church his late Enemies for the future Could the Pope in Civility and Gratitude refuse to revenge the King in punishing these Clergy-men for fighting against him who had thus highly mounted the power and Authority of the Triple Crown above his own in this matter to the publick view of the world If the Popish Clergy in those times were grown so formidable that this Triumphant King in the midst of his Victorious Arms thought it safer to remit these Clergy-men's offences to the Popes Correction than punish them himself for I think it was policy more than zeal that made him act thus what weak matches were the other Puny Princes to them in those days of their worldly Prosperity Pomp and Grandeur Now their wings are pretty well clipt by the escape of so many people Nations and Countries out of this Popish House of Bondage let Crowned Heads and free States be careful that they suffer not the Popes wings to grow again or permit their Sworn Vassals the Jesuits to imp them anew with fresh Feathers lest they mount up again over their heads to their Ancient greatness or take a flight higher than ever they did Now the French King through the base connivance of some others Treachery and many great Mens careless negligence is become Europe's Terror if Popish Plots and designs should â—nce so far take effect as treacherously to deâ—rive our present King of his life and Crown and â—ntroduce a Popish Successor into the English Throne how far they might in time proceed towards the extirpation of that pestilent Northern Heresy as Mr. Coleman out of his Extraordinary â—â—ndness to the Religion from which he himself â—postaliz'd has been pleased to term the Protestant Religion oâ—t of these parts of the world I submit â—o the better Judgments of more able Politicians Hast we now hence from this Edward the first who died in the five and thirtieth year of his Reign after a charge given to his Son in divers points upon his blessing and Oaths taken of some of his chief Nobles to keep the Land for his Sons use and to Crown him King as soon as they conveniently could after his death at Burgh upon the Sands beyond Carlile in his return into England unto Edward the Second where I could find matter enough to exercise my Pen were I minded to describe all the disorders and troubles that hapned throughout the Land under his unprosperous Reign We need not wonder that this Prince met with so unhappy a fate at his End when as we find him at the very beginning immediately transgressing his dead Fathers commands by recalling Gaveston from his Banishment contrary to his Father's charge on his Death Bed he entailing his curse on him if he should presume it as Stow tells us governing himself wholly by his advice affecting him so much as to affirm that he should succeed him in the Kingdom if he could effect it If I should endeavour perfectly to delineate thâ— many Crosses Losses Battails and Bloodshed thaâ— fell out in the Land under this King and to Writâ— in a stile and manner suitable to the matter â— know not but I might well dip my Pen in Blooâ— instead of Ink such were the misfortunes of thâ— Land and unfortunate fates of many Noblemeâ— thereof For in his Reign there were Beheaded anâ— put to death by Judgment upon the number of eighâ— and twenty Barons and Knights as Fabian Coâ—putes besides the Noble men slain in Scotland The number whereof one Author expresses to â— mount to two and forty besides sixty and sevâ—â— Knights and Barronets and two and twenty 〈◊〉 over that of name taken in that one Battel of Bannocksborn Unsteadfastness of manners and vileness of Conditions the refusing the Company of Lords and men of honour and haunting the Society of Villains and vile Persons The being given to great drinking and lightly discovering therein things of great Counsel with many other disallowable Conditions related by Historians were blots in this Kings Scutcheon Scarce was old Edwards Obsequies fully finished according to my Author but the young King sends in all hast for his old Companion Piers of Gaveston receiving him with all joy and gladness and advances him to much honour gives him the Earldom of Cornwal and Lordship of Wallingford rules all by his wanton Councel and follows the appetite and pleasure of his body not guiding things by order of Law or Justice Then he Revenges himself and his favourite Gaveston on the Bishop of Chester who had before complained of them and their Outrages in his Fathers Reign by commanding him to the Tower of London and keeping him there strictly many days after When by the means motions and words of many potent Lords of the Realm Gaveston was again sent out of the Land though contrary to the King's pleasure and banish'd
of the Realm so much by Conqueâ—â— as on Conditions accordingly here 's mentiâ—â— made of one Grant The Occasion of Stephen's coming to the Crowâ— contrary to his own former Oath swore to Kiâ—â— Henry and in prejudice to Maud's Claim is Râ—corded by one Author to have been the Oath one Hugh Bâ—got sometime King Henry's Stewarâ— who swore that the Late King in his presence little before his Death chose this Stephen for 〈◊〉 Heir by reason that he had received some discoâ—tent at his Daughters hands Whereunto the 〈◊〉 giving easy Credence admitted him King 〈◊〉 Favour of the Londoners did doubtless at thâ— time conduâ—â— not a little to his advantage in pâ—â—ferring him an able Man before a weak Womaâ— For Stow's Annals inform us That he was receivâ—â— by the Londoners when he had been repulsed at â—ther Places certainly it redounded to his 〈◊〉 Benefit afterwards as hath been related before Another Addition of Strength might be his not imposing heavy Taxes upon the People which it may be increased their Love to him and made so many side with him As indeed we find upon his first Admission that he sware among other things before the Lords at Oxford to forgive his People the Tax of Danegelt Neither do I read of any Taxes that he raised upon the Commons It is affirmed positively in the Câ—llâ—ction of Wonders and Remarkable Passages that he raised none with which Stow likewise agrees So that a King 's needless laying of many heavy and grievous Taxes upon his People occasions him to lose much of their Love and his forbearing it when he hath Power in his hands unites his Subjects Hearts the faster to him But instead of Taxes we read of this Kings permission given to his Lords to build Castles or Fortresses upon their own Grounds Many whereof we find pulled down in the next King's time they having been the occasion of many Miseries in the Land and the ready means to foment Civil Wars therein which generally brings greater Damages to the Commonâ—lty than a few Impositions and Taxes can be presumed to do This King Stephen was twice Crowned but for what cause or for what intent is not so easily known whether it was that he thought his Imprisonment had diminished somewhat of his Royalty or else thinking by a second Coronation to â—lude the Force of the Oath made at the first I find not delivered Certain it is soon after my Author tells of his taking away a Castle from the Earl of Chester who before had appeared against him on Maud's side with a very considerable Strength but had been afterwards reconciled to the King But what is much more considerable we read not long after of the King 's new danger and ill Success and of his Party being weaken'd particularly by the loss of London For Duke Henry after King coming into England with a great Army after some small Success gets up to London and wins the Tower as much by Policy and fair Promiâ—es saith my Author as by Strength Then he had Opportunity enough to caress the Câ—tizens being so near them and it may be he got not the Tower without their Consert if not by their Affistance Hereby we find that he retrieved what his Mother's Haughtiness before had lost and so having got the City's Affection and Power he was in a fair way to obtain his Desires as he did not long after For we quickly read of Mediators and Treaties of Peace between these two Competitors which took Effect at last though the Interest and Policy of some hindered it for a time In Conclusion the King was fain to consent to the adopting the Duke his Heir so that he might Reign during his Life Which justly to perform the King being sworn with his Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the next place we hear of their riding up to London as if to bind the bargain it was requisite to ask the consent of that Honourable City whose Favour seems to have been of so great weight in those unsettled Times as to turn the Scales twice once in the King's behalf and erewhile on the Dukâ—'s Such was their Influence such their Power as to pull down and set up in a manner whom the Citizens pleased Happy was this Agreement to the Land by settling peace therein as beneficial likewise was it to the Duke it being a fair Step to the Throne whereon we find him mounted within a little time For not long after this Accord we hear of the King's Death Whether the Troubles of his Mind or Diseases of his Body brought him to his End vexation for the disappointment of his Designs in being after a sort compelled to adopt his Competitor his Enemy for his Son and Heir or Grief for the loss of London's Favour which helped to effect so great a Turn in his Affairs I shall not determine It might be one it might be the other or neither or all conjoyned that became the occasional Causes so to phrase it of his Death I like not to be very positive where I am not very certain Stephen's Death making thus way for Henry to ascend the English Throne he became one of the â—reatest Kings that ever ruled this Land for the Largeness and Extent of his Territories if we reckon the Inheritance he enjoyed from his Father the Land he held by the Title of his Mother the Dowry he had with his Wife and what he obâ—ained by the Success of his Arms Yet notwithâ—tanding all this he lived not free from Troubles â—nd intestine Broils which sprung much out of his â—wn Bowels So that the Glory of his Youth beâ—an somewhat to be eclipsed by the Misfortunes of â—is elder Years He Crowned his eldest Son liâ—ing King sometime before the middle of his â—eign to the end as one Author affirms that he â—ight have full Power and Authority to rule this â—and and People while his Father was busied in â—ther Countrys where some of his Lands lay This â—ight be one Reason but the King having learnt 〈◊〉 experience to his Mother's Loss and his own â—ost how easy it was for Stephen to attempt and â—ain the Crown being present on the Spot while â—â—e right Heir was far distant in the vacancy of the â—hrone may be supposed in his intent to have designed the hinderance of such an Intrusion for the future by Crowning the next Heir King while he himself lived I read that Stephen had some such design to have Crowned his Son King in his own days as he declared at a Parliament called at London An. Reg. 17 to have fixt the Crown the surer to his Posterity But the Bâ—shops refused the Deed Which I do not find they did so much out of Conscience or in Favour to Mâ—â—d's Title as by the Command forsooth of the Pope who in those days was very apt to be clapping his Fingers into almost everâ— ones Pye where he thought any good pickinâ— might be had This King Henry got but little by Crowning
one that please may peruse at his leasure in the forecited Place We likewise find there declared the severaâ— Wards of the City as they stood in Fabian's Time together with the Parish-Churches and other Religious Houses within and without summed up to the Number of One Hundred Sixty Eight This King Richard in the Beginning of whose Reign we first hear of the Name of Bailiffs giveâ— to the Rulers of London having taken a Voyagâ— into the Holy-Land according to the Religion oâ— those Times and done his Devoir for the Recovery of it according to his Strength the Clergy-men had reason to esteem well of him to humour whose designs he had undertaken so chargeable 〈◊〉 Enterprize So accordingly we find that the Ecclesiastucks stuck as close to him as any of his Subjects in his Adversity For in his Return from the Holy War as 't was term'd Richard being Shipwrack't took and imprison'd by the Duke of Austria and long detain'd by the Emperour he was compell'd to redeem himself after a Year and three Month's Imprisonment at a large Ransom An hundred thousand Pounds were either presently paid or good Pledges left behind him to ascertain the full and true Payment A vast Sum in those days when Wheat was esteem'd at a high Price being sold at fifteen Shillings the Quarter as we find it in the fifth Year of King John's Reign about half a dozen Years after So that for this Ransom were sold the Ornaments of the Church Prelate's Rings and Crosses with the Vessels and Chalices of the Churches throughout the Land Wool of White Monks and Cannons and also twenty seven Shrines scrap't and spoil'd of the Gold and Silver laid on them in former Times No Priviledge of Church then regarded no Person spar'd A costly Voyage indeed it prov'd to the Land undertaken to satisfie the Clergy-men's Ambition and therefore they might well be content to bear much of the Charges and use their utmost Endeavours in the Imprison'd King's Vindication And so the Pope did as far as Curses would go to which was imputed those Mischiefs that befel the Duke of Austria and his Country a little after as the Effects of the Pope's Indignation The Power and Esteem of this City's Favour in those Times of the King's Captivity we need but remark out of Neubrigensis who acquaints us That when the Chancellour being then Bishop of Ely and Governour of the Land dreaded the Force of the opposite Lords who strove to suppress him for his Insolency and ill Government he retir'd to London and humbly intreated the Citizens not to be wanting to him in that point of time But they being not unmindful of his former Behaviour rather favour'd the other Party whereupon the proud haughty Prelate was compell'd to resign his Office which he had so ill manag'd and depart to the no small Benefit to the Land in those troublesome Times At London likewise was it that the Lords consulted together for the ordering the Land in the King's Absence which after the late ill Governour had been discarded and after an Oath of Fideliâ—y to the absent Prince was put into another's Hands When King Richard was delivered as soon as he landed at Sandwich we find him coming straightway to London as the fittest Place it seems to receive him and assist him So accordingly we read of his Reception there with all Joy and Honour in so splendid a Pomp that the German Nobles present beholding it affirm'd That if the Emperour had known of such Riches in England he would not have dimiss'd the Ransom'd King under an Intolâ—erabâ—e Price A little afteâ— we hear of his riding thence with a convenient â—â—râ—ngth to recover the Places that stood out 〈◊〉 him After this by a Councel of Lords call'd at Winchester having deprived his Brother John of his Honours and Lands for his Rebellion he took care to have himself crown'd King of England anew As if the Force of his former Coronation was impaired by his Imprisonment or else he thought by this politick Shift to take off all Obligations that might haply lie on him for any thing done before As indeed we quickly after read of a Resumption of all Patents Annuities Fees and other Grants mâ—de before his Voyage But then it 's affirmed to be done by the Authority of a Parliament call'd after his Coronation After these Passages two State-Informers are â—oted to have riâ—en up promising the King great Matters the Scenes of whose chief Acts were either laid or to have been laid at London One of them the Abbot of Cadonence warning the King of the Fraud of his Officers by vertue of a Warrant from him called divers Officers before him at London to yield to him their Accounts This Place was made choice of by him as the fittest it seems wherein to ingratiate himself with the common People by â—o plausible an Act as bringing offending Officers to conâ—igne Punishment But Death soon cut him off and so put an end to all his Designs The other Informer call'ed William with the Long Beard reported to be born in London of a sharp Wit having shew'd the King of the Outrage of the Rich who as he said in publick Payments spar'd their own and piâ—led the Poor and being upheld by him became the Patron and Defender of poor Men's Causes and stirred up the common People to a desire and love of Freedom and Liberty by blaming Rich Men's Excess and Insolence Hereupon he was followed with such numbers of People that being called before the King's Councel upon suspicion of a Conspiracy the Lords were fain with good words to dismiss him for the present for fear of the Multitude attending him and commanded certain to seize on him in the Absence of his numerous Abettors But those thus commanded mistaking the time and so failing in their intended Design he escaped and took Sanctuary in St. Mary Bow Church where his Strength quickly grew so great by the Access of the Multitude that he was not easily taken hold of nor without shedding of Blood However being at last taken after that the Heads and Rulers of the City had diminish'â— the People he with other his Adherents waâ— arraign'd before the Judges cast condemn'd anâ— hang'd very shortly after even the following daâ— saith the Chronicle so desirous were the rich anâ— great Men to have him out of the way as sooâ— as they could But as his Plea of Freedom was â—â— acceptable to the Commons in his Life-time thâ—â— he became a Terror to the Great so after 〈◊〉 Death he ceased not for a while to be a Dread 〈◊〉 many by reason of a Rumour raised and banded about among the Commons of his Innocencâ— and favourably received of the People even to 〈◊〉 approving of him as an holy Man and Martyr anâ— making Pilgrimages to the Place of his Execution to the no small trouble of those that had a hanâ— in his Death At last the Flame of this Devâ—tion was somewhat cool'd by the
juxta Dâ—veram coram H. Dublinensi Archiepiscopo Johanne Norwicensi Episcopo Galfrido filio Petri W. Comite Sarisberiae Willielmo Comite Pembroc R. Comite Bononiae W. Comite Warenne S. Comite Winton W. Comite Arundel W. Comite de Ferraijs W. Briwere Petro filio Hereberti Warino filio Geroldi xv die Maij An. Regni nostri decimo quarto In English thus JOHN by the Grace of God King of England c. to the Faithful in Christ that shall see this Paper greeting To you all We would it should be known by this Paper seal'd with Our Seal That since We have offended God and our Mother the Holy Church in many things and therefore stand in very great need of the Divine Mercy and are not able to offer any due satisfaction to God and the Church unless We humble Our Selves and Our Kingdoms Being willing to humble Our Selves for His sake who humbled Himself even unto Death for us through the Grace of the Holy Spirit inspiring Us not by force oâ— the Interdict nor compelled by Fear but of Our Own good and free Will and by the common Counsel of Our Lords We giveâ— and freely yield to God and to his Holy Apostles Peter and Paul and to Our Antient Mother the Holy Roman Church and to Our Lord Popâ— Innocent and to his Catholick Successors the whole Kingdom of England and the whole Kingdom oâ— Ireland with all Right and Appurtenances thereto belonging for the Remission of all Our sins and the sins of all Mankind aâ— well for the Living as for the Dead and from henceforth from him and the Roman Church as a Feodary receiving and holding them in the Presence of the Wiâ—â— Pandulphus Subdeacon and Servanâ— of our Lord the Pope From henceforth to the aforenamed Lord Pope Innocent and to his Catholick Successors and to the Church of Rome according to this Written form We have made and sworn Leidge Homage in the Presence of Pandulphus and if We could be before Our Lord the Pope We would do it to him Binding Our Successors and Heirs by our Wife for ever that in like manner to the Pope for the time being and to the Roman Church they perform Fealâ—y without contradiction and acknowledg Homage Moreover in token of this Our perpetual Obligaâ—ion and Grant We will and orâ—ain That out of Our proper and special Revenues of the aforesaid Kingdoms in lieu of all Service â—ustoms We ought to do for the â—ame always excepting Peterpence â—he Church of Rome receive Yearly a â—housand Marks sterling viz. At Michaelmas five hundred and 〈◊〉 Easter five hundred that is seveâ— hundred for the Kingdom of England and three hundred for thâ— Kingdom of Ireland saving to Uâ— and our Heirs our Justice Liberties and Royalties All which as abovâ— written willing to have ratified and confirmed We bind Vs and our Successors not to do contrary And if We or any of Our Successorâ— shall presume to attempt ought against these Presents who ever hâ— be unless being rightly admonished he repent he shall lose all Righâ— to the Kingdom And let thiâ— Charter of Our Obligation and Graâ—â— remain always firm Witness Oâ—â—Self at the House of the Knights-Templars near Dover before H. Arch-Bishop of Dublin John Bishop of Norwich Jeffery the Son of Peter W. Earl of Salisbury William Earl oâ— Pembrook R. Earl of Bononia W. Earl oâ— Warenne S. Earl of Winchester W. Earl â—â— Arundel W. Earl Ferrars W. Briwere Peteâ— the Son of Herebert Warine the Son of Gerolâ—â— on the Fifteenth Day of May in the Fourteenâ—â— Year of Our Reign And now ye Englishmen can ye be content to be 〈◊〉 Popes slaves you here see their title their claim â—hat they pretend to and if they can but once get 〈◊〉 upper hand assure your selves they will quickly 〈◊〉 their title a foot Nay may not you find this 〈◊〉 ground-work of their last grand Plot to 〈◊〉 our King and subvert the Government and â—ot out this Pestilent Heresie as they are pleas'd to 〈◊〉 the Protestant Religion out of this part of 〈◊〉 Northern world Are you willing your Native â—ountry shall once again become the Popes 〈◊〉 to bear all the Burthens these unmerciful 〈◊〉 shall think fit to lay on it If you value not 〈◊〉 Christian Religion have you so little esteem for 〈◊〉 Native Liberty your English freedom your â—â—â—thright as to sell it to Romes Chapmen for a mess of 〈◊〉 or barter it away to your fellow Citizens 〈◊〉 the husks they feed their Swine with If your 〈◊〉 be once compell'd to become Romes Tributaâ—â— and here you see their Plea you have little 〈◊〉 to expect that you shall continue any long time 〈◊〉 Look upon your French Neighbours on the other 〈◊〉 of the Sea and see how they groan under woâ—se 〈◊〉 Aegyptian Bondage enslav'd both in Bodies 〈◊〉 Souls See how lowly the poor oppressed Comâ—â—ns go in their wooden Shoes and Canvass 〈◊〉 How greedily they feed upon bare bread and 〈◊〉 and amidst your present plenty count how 〈◊〉 hungry meals they make upon that course 〈◊〉 if you have figures enough in your Arithmeâ—â—â— to number them Amidst the overflowing of 〈◊〉 Cups think how often they drink plain water the small sowre verjuice of their water'd Grapes 〈◊〉 the Kings Taxes have swept away 19 〈◊〉 of their Wine out of 20. To rise a little 〈◊〉 give me leave to tell you what I have sometime heard for here I profess to speak only 〈◊〉 hear-say having never made Tryal hereof in my 〈◊〉 particular nor so much as desiring ocular demonsâ—â—tion hoping that none shall ever live to see thâ— French Fruits growing upon English ground nor 〈◊〉 of their â—eed sown on my Native soil to prosper 〈◊〉 out of the mouth of one who liv'd amongst thâ— many years I shall take leave to acquaint you 〈◊〉 in the French Kings late Wars the Taxes roseâ— high that many would willingly have thrown their estates into the Kings Hands for the time 〈◊〉 impositions were to last but they were to be haâ—â— by the Kings Decree upon so doing So that 〈◊〉 must upon pain and perils of Death manage 〈◊〉 own Lands and what the Product of their Groâ—â—â— would not amount to must be procured some 〈◊〉 way towards their appointed Payments Whetheâ— be easy to make brick without straw judge ye 〈◊〉 you like to have a Vapouring Gentleman or a 〈◊〉 Soldier with Pistols in his Saddle bow come hâ—â—ring up to your Plow-tails and commanâ— you to leave your work and go along with to shew him on his way where you 〈◊〉 sometimes run along by his Horse side two 〈◊〉 three miles it may be without a penny for 〈◊〉 pains not so much as daring to shew any the 〈◊〉 of Regret for fear of tasting the mercy 〈◊〉 of his Pistols Will it please you do ye think to 〈◊〉 at home by turns every day one of you to giveâ— rections to every roaring swash Buckler that 〈◊〉 with Sword and
of Eâ—â—lish men Do you think they will alter their mâ—ners by shifting their Habitations That 〈◊〉 Blackamore will ever change his Skin by comâ— into a colder Climate Let us look a little upon the first Discoveries 〈◊〉 their late grand Plot so often inculcated upon 〈◊〉 Nation by His Majesties many Royal Proclamatiâ—â— and Speeches that no Loyal Spirits can any 〈◊〉 doubt of the Truth of it who give any deference deferencâ— the Word of a King and we shall find there 〈◊〉 â—ain Design after our King's Murder to have rooted â—ut the Gentry of the Nation whose Lives should it â—â—ems have been offered up as so many Sacrifices to â—ppease the injur'd Ghost of their Murder'd Prince â—ome of your Women perhaps they might have conâ—escended to have sav'd for their Lusts your little â—hildren for Slaves the Poor and bâ—ser sort for their â—ervants but the Men of Substance must in likelihood â—ave gone all to pot as Obstacles to their cruel inâ—â—nded Design And yet still 't is but a perhaps we 〈◊〉 not sure they would have spared any Nay raâ—â—er we are morally certain that all of any tolerable 〈◊〉 must have Died if the Deposition of Mr. Bedlow 〈◊〉 often credited remains yet of any value amongst 〈◊〉 from whose Attestation publickly sworn upon â—ath in Ireland's Tryal we find the extent of the â—esign besides the subversion of the Government to â—â—ve been the extirpating of the Protestant Religion 〈◊〉 that Degree which was alwaies concluded on in 〈◊〉 the Consults wherein he was that they would not â—â—ve any Member of any Heretick in England that â—ould survive to tell in the Kingdom hereafter that â—ere was ever any such Religion in England as the â—â—otestant Religion If discovered and so frustrated â—â—ntrivances may not sufficiently warn you to beâ—â—re of the Jesuits Intentions to youward Consider â—atters of Fact and see what hath already been 〈◊〉 in other places and so come from thinking what 〈◊〉 been done to what may be done and what 〈◊〉 should be done if some might have their 〈◊〉 minds and desires Cast a look or two upon â—â—â—emia that once flourishing Land under Wickliff's â—â—ctrine Famous for the Martyrdom of John Huss 〈◊〉 Jerom of Prague the Courage of blind Zisca 〈◊〉 his valiant Souldiers and noted also for their â—â—â—erty of Chusing their Princes See now how much of the Bohemians Antient Liberty or Religiâ—â— is yet remaining amongst them Enough of the pâ—â—ctices and devices the Jesuits used to new 〈◊〉 the Nation after they had once reduc'd it by 〈◊〉 of Arms you may find in the History of the 〈◊〉 Persecution London Printed by B. A. John Walker But to return to King John whence I have 〈◊〉 gressed after his Resignation and Reassumption of 〈◊〉 Crown at the yearly Rent of 900 or 1000 〈◊〉 Silver the Return of the Archbishop and the 〈◊〉 Exiles into the Land we read of the releasing 〈◊〉 annulling of the Interdiction which had lasted years odd months and days but it was not beâ— that the King according to one of the Articles made restitution to the sufferers which the 〈◊〉 saith amounted in the whole to 18000â— Marks would have thought after so much trouble the 〈◊〉 would have been weary of endeavouring after Aâ—â—â—trary Power But the Event may make us apt to 〈◊〉 that among other inducements to yield to the 〈◊〉 hard terms of Accommodation one mighâ— some hope to domineer the better over the 〈◊〉 he was reconciled to the Clergy and so take a 〈◊〉 revenge upon such as would not ere while assist against the Pope For not long after the late 〈◊〉 we find mention made of so great 〈◊〉 between the King and his Lords that much 〈◊〉 were raised on either part One occasion alledgâ—â— that the King would not hold Edward's Laws yet he had taken an Oath at the Return of Exil'd Clergy-men into England to call in all 〈◊〉 Laws and put in place of them the Law King Edward if Stow's Annals record the 〈◊〉 Another that the King would have Exil'd wiâ—â—â—aw the Earl of Chester for some Advice he given him relating to his Vices which the other did not well digest The King's Party being then the stronger the Lords took the City of London for their Refuge and remained therein Though we read of much harm done this year in London by Fire and of the burning a great part of the Burrough of Southwark yet it seems the City was strong enough to become the Barons Bulwark against the inrag'd King's Ire And siding with them so inhanced the Barons fame that as Stow tells us all except a few went to the Barons side so that King John durst not peep out of Windsor Castle At length by the Prelates Mediation a Peace was made for a while and to establish it the firmer the King and the Lords soon after met with great strength on either side on Berham Down where a Charter was devis'd made and sealed by the King to the Barons content A.C. 1214. according to Falian's account Henry Fitz. Alwyn continued then Mayor of London Ralph Egland and Constantine le Josne being Sheriffs in this 14th year of K. John's Reign Yet in Stow we read of a Meeting appointed in a Meadow between Stains c Windsor where the King granted the Liberties without any difficulty the Charter whereof is dated June 16. An. Reg. 17. As for the loud and clamorous Declamations of such who tell us that the grand Charter of our Lives Liberties and Estates our Properties and Priviledges was gain'd at first by Rebellion and would thus slily as it were insinuate that it was and is retained by like unlawful waies and means We would desire them to give us better proofs for what they say than their own bare Asseverations which will not yet go for currant Coin in all Markets That Edward the Confessor's Laws were very acceptable to the generality of the Nation we have great reason to believe from their continued desire to retain them That William the first granted the use of them to the Nation is sufficiently instanced above That Henry the first used them 〈◊〉 likewise mentioned before for so affirms the Chronicle That King John himself accorded to them at hiâ— coming to the Crown we may I doubt not reasosonably believe considering his Title and the Conteâ—â— he was like to have about it If a Negative may be admitted an Argument in the case I do not remember that I have read of any difference between hiâ— and his Lay-Barons about them till after that he was reconciled to the Pope by the resignation of hiâ— Crown and performance of the other conditions enjoyned him But after the King 's giving away hiâ— Crown and resuming it again upon a Foundatioâ— wholly and altogether new I know not but he mighâ— think all former obligations void and so would endeavour to have his Will of the Laity when he hop'd he had fixt the Clergy fast enough on his side by thâ— new condescension
he had lately made to the Pope'â— Ambitious desires and pretensions It was after this Reconciliation that we read in Stow of the Barons coming to St. Edmundsbury and producing the Charter oâ— King Henry the first which they had received oâ— the Archbishop Stephen However let the occasional Causes of making anâ— confirming this grand Charter of our English Libeâ—ties be what they will whatever were the grounds oâ— the Barons desiring or the motives of the King 's granting it Upon what Foundation soever so it be sound at the bottom stand these Pacts and Compacts between the King and his Subjects For my part I know no reason why Princes and Great men should not think it their Duty to keep their words firm and inviolable as well as persons of meaner rank and quality 'T was a Romish Cardinal an Italian a Papist living long in the French Government from whom I have heard come the Doctrine of not being a slave to ones word As the Duty so I believe it the Interest of Governours to be just and firm to their Promises otherwise it is a Question how long the people under them will continue firm to theirs when they think they have a convenient opportunity to break them Fear may do much but Conscience I fancy will do but little in this Case to keep the one Party fixt and firm to his Bargain when the other values not to perform the Conditions of their mutual Compact Such as love to talk of nothing but Conquerours and Conquests captivating and inslaving men to Arbitrary Powers as if at feud and defiance with all mankind but themselves and their own Party if my Advice may be taken they would do wisely to stifle such harsh unpleasing Doctrines in their own breasts and not openly produce them in publick view to all without distinction lest one bold confident brazen-fac'd felâ—ow or other should start up out of the Vulgar Herd and ask them why the people would not have as good a Title to their Power when they had got the upper hand as those Princes who claim only by Conquest A Question that at first view would seem very plausible to many if well stated without the previous consideration of Oaths Promises and Compacts As for the consequences that some may fancy hid in the belly of it â—ike the Armed Grecians in the Trojan Horse look they to them who find themselves concern'd on either side It 's well enough known what a large tract of ground the French King hath seis'd in the Spanish Netherlands within these few years and brought the People of those Provinces under his own Subjection by force That his title to those lands at first was none of the best is plain enough to such as know his Pretensions As for that shadow of claim which might be fancied to accrue to him by his Queen the late Spanish Kings Daughter that it is clear done 〈◊〉 as far as words and writings could go is manifeâ—â— by the Printed Articles of the Pyrenaean Treâ—â— The best Title I find he had to those Countries 〈◊〉 the Spanish Kings weakness to defend those Subjeâ—â— himself together it may be with some unwillingness let them look to the payment of as great an Army 〈◊〉 was thought needful for their defence out of thâ— own Mony by their own Officers He was made pâ—â—haps to fear lest the Soldiers should have been 〈◊〉 at the Devotion of such as paid them than at his 〈◊〉 rais'd them though he appointed such a 〈◊〉 such Officers and such Soldiers as he thought fit 〈◊〉 had had the sole ordering of them at his own 〈◊〉 and pleasure in all other things but naming the pâ—â—masâ—eâ—s Or rather was it not his prime Councellâ—â— the Spaniards loathness to lose the many pickiâ—â— they glean'd out of their Offices in those Countâ—â— by defrauding the Soldiers of their appointed 〈◊〉 and so cheating both King and Country 〈◊〉 good is much bandied up and down among 〈◊〉 words but in truth and reality private interest that which most oversways As for the rest of 〈◊〉 French Kings pretences that he makes use of thâ— for meer colours is evident by the novel inventioâ— Dependencies If need be we doubt not but 〈◊〉 Hamball passing over the rugged Alps with his 〈◊〉 my he can either find a way or make one be it 〈◊〉 such a one as his Manifestâ— at the beginning of late Wars with the Dutch tells us of viz. his 〈◊〉 Glory One of the truest pretensions I believe of Now put the Case and suppose that the Inhâ—â—â—tants of these late subdued Countries brought 〈◊〉 the French Kings Subjection by the force of Arms and all former right and title to them 〈◊〉 relinquish'd by their ancient Prince the King Spain in his late Treaties should one time or other â—y some unexpected unseen unthought of accident â—et such power into their hands as to break off these â—rench Chains of Slavery beat the French Kings Ofâ—â—cers and Soldiers out of their Country and keep 〈◊〉 at a Bay by the strength of their Arms the â—uestion would be among our Politick Casuists wheâ—â—er they would not have as good right and Title to â—â—ace the Government of their Country in what â—â—nds they pleased as the French King now hath in â—â—tual possession My meaning is of such who shall 〈◊〉 have pass'd away themselves by Oaths Coveâ—â—nts and Compacts That they sit down quietly â—â—der the French Government and do not publickly â—â—pose is but a silent argument a negative proof at 〈◊〉 They do not openly declare their dissent 〈◊〉 they assent and consent is such a conclusion that 〈◊〉 not well and cleverly follow from the premises â—hat such as are for the present French interest may â—firm let them likewise well prove but methinks 〈◊〉 English men should not be over-ready to disclaim 〈◊〉 Netherlands right when they call to mind that in â—â—een Elizabeths days our Governours thought good defend the poor distressed Provinces against the â—yrannical Arbitrary pretences of the Spanish King 〈◊〉 contrary to their ancient priviledges would have â—â—duc'd them all by force to Popery and Slavery to â—â—pose which their Neighbours especially England powerfully assisted them that the Spaniard was 〈◊〉 at last to declare he would treat with them as â—â—th free States before he could get a treaty of peace 〈◊〉 them Such as break ancient Covenants and 〈◊〉 the first stone had need stand upon safe and sure â—ound least they find too many stones flying about 〈◊〉 Ears before the end of the fray We moreoâ—â—â— have found the Spaniards within these few years coming into the assistance of these same new 〈◊〉 once his old Subjects against the French Kings Poâ—er ready in a manner to over-run them We 〈◊〉 have heard likewise of publick Addresses in behalf 〈◊〉 the same side made of late to our present King 〈◊〉 esteem'd the general Consent of the Nation After King John had granted the grand 〈◊〉 to his Lords and every one was departed peaceabâ—â—
proâ—ises not being very commonly reputed to bind the 〈◊〉 party when the conditions required are not performed by the other Whatever the true occasioâ— was London we find the place where this turn 〈◊〉 first publickly declared by proclaiming Henry Kiâ—â— throughout the City Oct. 20. so considerable was â—â—ven the reputed favour of the Citizens Lewis aboâ—â— there indeed afterwards a while and the Barous 〈◊〉 his side but his strength so diminished in a littâ—â— time that he was glad at last to take Money and 〈◊〉 away upon composition even in the 1st year of thâ— King or beginning of the 2d This K. Hen. being the Son of such a Father whoâ— practices too much betrayed his Principles and 〈◊〉 in so troublesom a time as his Fathers contest 〈◊〉 the Clergy we may be apt to believe he had a 〈◊〉 of his Fathers malady So full of troubles do we 〈◊〉 his Reign such complaints of the Government suâ—â— amendments endeavoured and reformations maâ—â— one while by the peaceable Councils of the Parâ—â—â—ment another while by the compulsive power 〈◊〉 the Barons Swords all which we may impute â—â—ther to his own natural inbred disposition or else the over-ruling advices of ill Ministers so 〈◊〉 working upon the Kings Good-nature as upon sligâ—â— pretences to make his power serve their own Interâ—â—â— to carry on their corrupt arbitrary designs So â—â—ny were the ups and downs risings and falls changâ—â— and turns of Fortune in these times such variabâ—â—ness and mutability of Councils in affairs and the 〈◊〉 of London so much concerned in most of the câ—â—siderable Actions then on foot now in the Kinâ— favour as soon again out of it one while enjoyâ—â—â— their ancient Priviledges and Customs another 〈◊〉 deprived of their Liberties and their Franchises 〈◊〉 upon slight occasions and anon again restored all with addition of new grants that I find it câ—â—venient through much of this Kings Reign to 〈◊〉 Annals after my Author In the 3d of this King is mention made of a Parâ—â—ament kept at London In the 4th were Proclamaâ—â—ons made in London and through the Land that all â—trangers should depart out of the Land except such 〈◊〉 came with Merchandize the intent hereof is said â—â— be wholly to rid the Land of such strangers as posâ—â—st Castles in it contrary to the Kings Will and Pleaâ—â—re This year also was the King Crowned the 2d â—â—me at Westminster In the 6th was detected a Conâ—â—iracy within London which the King is said to have â—â—ken so grievously that he was minded to have â—rown down the City Walls till considering that it â—as only a design of some of the Rascality and not 〈◊〉 the Rulers he assuaged his displeasure taken aâ—â—inst the City Robert Serle was then Mayor Rich. â—â—nger Ioseus 〈◊〉 Iosne Sheriffs An. Reg. 7. in a Counâ—â—â— kept at London Stow tells us the King was reâ—â—ired by the Peers Spiritual and Temporal to conâ—â—â—m the Liberties for which the War was made aâ—â—inst his Father and he had sworn to observe at the â—â—parture of Lâ—wis out of England whereupon the 〈◊〉 commanded the Sheriffs to enquire by the 〈◊〉 of Twelve lawful men what were the Liâ—â—â—ties in England in his Grand-fathers time and 〈◊〉 the Inquisition so made up to London Hence 〈◊〉 we observe that England had Liberties and â—â—ghts of their own before the Barons War in 〈◊〉 Iohn's days and therefore seem injuriousâ—â— upbraided as if they got them first by Rebelliâ—â— The good Government of England which as a â—â—dern Author words it was beâ—ore like the Law Nature only written in the hearts of men came â—pon obtaining the 2 Charters to be exprest in â—â—chment and remains a Record in writing though â—â—se Charters gave us no more than what was our 〈◊〉 before The 8th is noted for the grant made to the King by his Barony in Parliament of the Warâ— and Marriage of their Heirs A good advantage somâ—times for the King to fix Noble mens Estates in sucâ— Families as he best pleased A. R. 9. A Fifteenth was granted to the King to 〈◊〉 him in his right beyond the Seas and he by confirming the great Charter granted to the Barons anâ— People their rights The 11th year is of note foâ— many beneficial Grants made to London by the King The Sheriffwick of London and Middlesex was let 〈◊〉 farm to the Sheriffs of London for 300 l. yearly Oâ— Feb. 18. was granted that all Wears in Thames shoulâ— be pluckt up and destroyed for ever On March 1â—â— the King granted by his Charter ensealed that thâ— Citizens of London should pass Toll-free through thâ— Land and upon any Citizen's being constrained 〈◊〉 pay Toll in any place of England the Sheriffs 〈◊〉 impowered to attach any man of that place cominâ— to London with his goods and to keep and with-hoâ—â— till the Citizens were restored all such Moneys 〈◊〉 from them with costs and damages Aug. 18. 〈◊〉 granted to the Citizens Warren that is free liberâ—â— of Hunting within a certain circuit about Londâ—â— Yet notwithstanding we read in another Author this years History of the Kings compelling the Lâ—â—doners to lay him down a large sum of Money bâ—sides the 15th part of their moveables because 〈◊〉 sooth they had given Lewis who came to their aidâ— K. John's days with an Army 5000 Marks at his â—â—parture out of England It may be the King 〈◊〉 them some of these Priviledges which cost him â—â—thing to induce them to give down their Money 〈◊〉 more willingly and not too much to displease theâ— whose power was so well known in those days 〈◊〉 afterward experienced to some mens cost Roger 〈◊〉 Mayor Stephen Bockerel and Henry Cobham Sheriâ—â— this year and also the next viz. 12. when the Franâ—hises and Liberties of the City were by the King â—onfirmed and to each of the Sheriffs was granted to â—ave 2 Clerks 2 Officers to the Citizens that â—hey should have and use a common Seal This year 〈◊〉 read that the King in a Council held at Oxford â—roclaimed that being of age he would rule himself 〈◊〉 pleasure and forthwith cancelled the Charters of â—iberties as granted in his Nonage Whereupon it â—â—llowed says my Author that whoso would enjoy 〈◊〉 Liberties before granted must renew their Charâ—â—rs of the Kings new Seal at a price awarded But 〈◊〉 Barons shortly after declared to the King that â—â—cept he would restore the Charter lately cancelled â—â—ey would compel him by the Sword Such brisk â—ssertors were they it seems resolved to be of â—â—eir Liberties On the 13th while the Bishop of â—ondon was at high Mass in St. Pauls happened sudâ—enly such dark mists of Clouds and such a Tempest 〈◊〉 Thunder and Lightening that the People got out 〈◊〉 the Church and left the Bishop there in great â—ar with but a small attendance For all the many 〈◊〉 Papists make of their Mass and the wonderâ—â—l power and vertue they would fain persuade us to â—â—lieve there is in it it seems then
Chusing of Aldermen who â—hen had the Rule of the City and its Wards and â—ere yearly chang'd as are the Sheriffs In the 29th â—ear Nicholas Bat contrary to a former Ordinance â—eing Chosen Sheriff again was discharg'd and punish'd â—s being convict of Perjury The Mayor likewise Miâ—hael Tony Chosen anew for the following year was deâ—os'd and punish'd after that by Deposition of the Alâ—ermen he was found guilty in the said Crime Whatâ—ver were the grievances and faults committed in the â—est of the Land some we read complain'd of particuâ—arly among the Clergy the City-Officers shall be sure 〈◊〉 be watch'd if they were not of the side some would â—ave them In the 31th year Pyers Aleyn being Mayor John Voyle and Nicholas Bat Sheriffs the Franchises of London were seized on St. Bartholomews Eve for a Judgâ—ent pretended to be wrongfully given by the Mayor â—nd Aldermen against a Widdow woman named Marâ—aret Vyell and the Rule of the City committed to Will. Haveryll and Edward of Westminster till Lady day when the Mayor and Sheriffs were again admitted 〈◊〉 their Offices How ready were some to carp at the 〈◊〉 of this Honourable Society Rather than fail of an â—casion to diminish the Cities Liberties we find thâ— here wrongfully making a pretence for upon due Eâ—amination afterwards made the former Judgment 〈◊〉 found good and true In the 32th year Queen 〈◊〉 Wharf was Farm'd by the Commonalty of the City 〈◊〉 50 l. yearly and committed to the Sheriffs charge But 〈◊〉 Fabian's time the Profits were so diminished that 〈◊〉 was worth but little more than 20 Marks one yeâ— with another That sublunary things ebb and flow 〈◊〉 no strange thing to be wondered at it is so common 〈◊〉 observation Though the Citizens this year enjoy 〈◊〉 their Liberties without interruption the former pretenâ— proving vain and frivolous and falsly grounded yet 〈◊〉 King is said to have been grieved and displeas'd wiâ—â— them for that they would not at his request exchang the Liberties granted aforetime to them by the King 〈◊〉 Middlesex for others to be had in other places 〈◊〉 these Liberties were on either hand I have not found 〈◊〉 may be they had a suspicion they might be trappan'd 〈◊〉 so be loâ—ers by the change They were excellent good 〈◊〉 seems at hold-fast and did not like Childrens play giâ—â— and take Though some body should have come 〈◊〉 promis'd them in the King's Name that they should haâ—â— such and such Priviledges in exchange and be greâ—â— gainers by the Bargain yet how could they tell he 〈◊〉 sufficient Authority from His Majesty to make so largâ— a Promise Where were his Credentials I read of 〈◊〉 produced Therefore in my opinion they had but 〈◊〉 great reason to suspect to have had the Dy put upoâ— them should they have parted with present Priviledgâ—â— in hopes of future Graces A Bird in the hand is commonly reputed worth two in the bush But when thâ— Bird is carelesly let slip and flown who is that skilfâ—â— Fowler that can be sure of catching a better or perhaps any at all In the 34th year Simon Fitz Marr Alderman of London for his disobedience evil Counsel given to the above-named Widdow with other secret labour and matters by him intended to the City's hurt was discharg'd of his Aldermanship and put out of the Council of the City It behov'd them to turn out of their Society such a one who in contradiction to their former order had once before procur'd the King's Command to make them break it and had given such Advice against them that their Liberties were seized on and their own City Officers for a time discarded for no other than a pretended Crime wrongfully laid to their charge Such false Friends and secret Enemies are most carefully to be watched against as alwaies dangerous too too oft destructive to humane Societies In the 36th year was granted by the King that an yearly Allowance should be made of 7 l. for certain Priviledges or Ground belonging to Paul's Church which Fabian tells us continued also to be allowed in his days by the Barons of the Exchequer to every Sheâ—iff when they make their Accounts This same year was also granted for the Citizens more â—ase that whereâ—s before they us'd yearly to present their Mayor to the King in whatsoever place he was in England that henceâ—orth they should for lack of the King's presence at Westminster present the Mayor when Chosen to the Baâ—ons of his Exchequer there to be sworn and admitted as before-times he was before the King Joh. Toleson Mayor Will. Durham Tho. Wymborn then Sheriffs In the 37th â—ear was granted That no Citizen should pay Scavage â—that is Shewage or Toll for any Beasts by them â—rought as they before-time had The swelling of Thames this year drowned many houses about the waâ—er side to the damage of much Merchandise Thames is one of the best friends the City has by whose means their Riches grow and increase by importing and exporting her Citizens Wares 'T is also a fast friend even in adversity which the power and malice of her Enemies have never yet depriv'd her of and yet you here find that she sometimes receives damage even from so good a friend If the best friends may sometimes accidentally injure us what would our Enemies do were their power as large as their malice For these two last years past you may here perceive the favour K. Henry openly shew'd to the City by the beneficial Grants he made her Citizens Yet in the 38th that Tyde is turn'd by procurement of Rich. Earl of Cornwall the King's Brother for displeasure he bare to the City for exchange of certain Ground to the same belonging So that the King under colour that the Mayor had not done due Execution upon the Bakers for default in their Sizes seized the Liberties of the City The offence pretended in the 25th year was that the Mayor had received a certain Sum of Money of Bakers Brewers and other Victuallers which his Predecessors also had done before him In this 38th year here is another pretence found out What an easie matter is it for such to pretend faults who must not be contradicted or at least not without a great deal of caution and circumspection The manner of this Seizure according to the Author is thus to be understood That whereas the Mayor and Commonalty of the City had by the King's Grant the City to Farm with divers Customs and Offices for a stinted ascertained Sum the King at this time set in Officers at his pleasure which were accountable to him for all Revenues and Profits accruing and arising within the City But about the 19th of Novemb. the Citizens having agreed with the foresaid Earl for 600 Marks they were soon after restor'd unto their Liberties Oh the powerful commanding force of Money that can so often make enemies friends and friends enemies The Mayor this year Rich. Hardell being sent for with the
Sheriffs by the King newly come to London and lodg'd in the Tower fared better in this year's Mayoralty than he did within some few years after wherein he continued Mayor For being taxt by the King for the escape of one that had slain a Prior related to the King he put off the charge of this matter from himself to the Sheriffs for so much as to them belong'd the keeping of the City-Prisons Whereupon he returned home and the Sheriffs Rob. Belyngton and Ralph Aschewye were detain'd for a space Pâ—isoners and others chosen in their places but how they got off my Author sets not down In the 39th year Edw. the King's Son's Wife was honourably received at London by the Citizens and the City adorn'd with rich Cloaths for the more state Yet notwithstanding all this Respect it was not long before the King seiz'd their Liberties anew for certain Money which the Q. claim'd for her right of them So that about Martins-tyde they were in a manner necessitated to give her 400 Marks before their Liberties were restor'd them and the King's Under-Treasurer discharg'd who for the time was made Custos or Keeper of the City What had she no other way to recover her Money if it was due but the Cities Liberties must presently be seized on The King's Brother had got well the last year by falling out with the City and getting their Liberties seiz'd Was it not then do ye think cunningly done of the Queen to try the same trick over again 'T was it seems too gainful a project to suffer it quietly to lye still without further prosecution before it grew too stale Though the Citizens and their Franchises were thus carpt at by Court-Favourites yet we find them still continuing their wonâ—ed respect to the King and Queen when they came to London where they were honourably received this very same year and so convey'd to Westminster When the Citizens had to do with the Court and the King was pleased to interest himself in the affair History tells 〈◊〉 that they were more than once compelled to draw theâ— purses for Peace sake and Reconciliation but when they had their other fellow Subjects to deal with they proved Matches hard enough as particularly in their suiâ— with the Abbot of Waltham which was at last accorded in the 40th year to their own advantage Come we now to the 41th year a year not lightly to be forgotten by the worthy Citizens and such aâ— bear any respect to this honourable City by reason oâ— the many troubles that the Heads thereof underwent aâ— this time through the power and malice of some ill disposed Persons who bore no Good will to this ancienâ— foundation Hitherto we have met with but light Skirmishes a few trivial matters in comparison of whaâ— you shall here find related out of Fabian to have happened in the Mayoralty of Richard Hardell and Shrievalties of Rich. Ewell and William Ashwey A. C. 1257 The Relation is as followeth almost word by word In this 41th year and beginning of the same waâ— found in the Kings Wardrobe at Windsor a Bill or Rolâ— closed in green Wax and not known from whence it should come in which was contained divers Articles against the Mayor and Rulers of the City and that by them the Commonalty of the City was grievously taxed and wronged which Bill was presented at length to the King Whereupon he sent John Mansel one of his Justices unto London where on St. Paul's day by thâ— Kings Authority he called a Folk-moot or Common-Hall at Pauls-Cross there being present Richard dâ— Clare Earl of Gloucester and divers others of the Kingâ— Council Whereupon the said John Mansel caused the said Roll to be read before the Commonalty and afteâ— shewed to the People that the Kings pleasure and mind was that they should be ruled with Justice and thaâ— the Liberties of the City should be maintained in every point and if the King might know those Persons that so had wronged the Commonalty they should be grievously punished to others example That done John Mansel charged the Mayor that every Alderman in his Ward should upon the morrow following assemble his Wardmoots and that all those Wardmoots should assemble in one place and choose of themselves 36 Persons without any Counsel or advice of any of their Aldermen and present them before the Lords and him at the same hour the next day in the Bishops Pallace at Pauls Upon the morrow all was done according to his Command When the said 36 Persons were presented before the said John Mansel Henry Baa Justices and others he said unto them that they upon their Oaths should certifie all such persons as they knew guilty in the Articles before shewed to the Commonalty Whereupon the 36 answered that it was contrary to â—heir Liberties to be sworn so many for any matter of Trespass between the King and any of his Citizens Wherefore they required a sparing with which answer John Mansel being discontented warned them to appear before the Kings Council at Guild-hall upon the morrow following where they kept their day Thither â—ame the said Justices John Mansell and Hen. Baa Sir Hen. Wengham Chancellour of England Philip Lovel Under treasurer and divers others of the Kings Council Then the said John Mansell exhorted the said Persons â—o be sworn by many means as he the other day had â—one but all was in vain For they excused themselves â—at it was contrary to their Oath and Liberty of their City Wherefore the Kings Council departed from the Hall in part discontented and shewed to the King the â—id Citizens demeanour Upon Candlemas Eve the Mayor being warned that the King would come to Westminster he with the more part of the Aldermen â—ode to Knightsbridge and tarried there to salute the King and know his further pleasure But when thâ— King came near that place and heard of their beinâ— there he sent to them an Esquire of the Houshold anâ— charged them that they should not presume to come iâ— to his sight with which message they being greatâ—â— discomforted returned home to the City Afterwardâ— in the Octaves of the Purification Michael Tony anâ— Adam Basynge returned from Court who before weâ—â— sent by the Mayor to such Friends as they had in thâ— Court to know the cause of the Kings high displeasurâ— and brought word back that the King was well minded towards the City but he was in full purpose to havâ— such persons chastized that had oppressed the Commoâ—alty of the same Upon the morrow following came uâ— to the Guild Hall John Mansell with others of thâ— Kings Council who to the People there assembleâ— shewed many fair and pleasant words Amongst whicâ— he declared that the Kings Mind and Will was to coâ—rect all such persons as had oppressed the Commonalty of that his dearest beloved City and asked of the Coâ—mons whether they would be agreeable to the samâ— The which incontinently many such as knew littâ—â— what the
care and vigilance Whâ—â— the occasion of this difference was I have not yet read â—ut to appease it I find a Counsel of the Lords called 〈◊〉 Westminster Fabian gives it likewise the Title of a Parliament which continued Three weeks and more To this Council came the Lords with great companies â—articularly the two contesting Parties intending it seems 〈◊〉 have lodg'd within the City So desirous so ambitiâ—us of pretending to London's favour that such seem 〈◊〉 have thought the bare lodging therein might have â—dded to their strength But upon the Mayors consultâ—â—g with such as the King had left Rulers in his Abâ—â—nce and through the advice of the King's Brother it â—as concluded that neither the said Edward nor the said â—arl should come into the City there to lodge nor any â—â—at held upon either side And further it was proviâ—ed that all within the City of the Age of 15 years â—nd above should be in Arms to watch and keep the â—ity day and night and that the Gates should be kept â—ut by day and certain men in Arms keep every Gate 〈◊〉 the City For the further safeguard of the City and 〈◊〉 keeping of the Peace therein the aforementioned â—ulers came into London and there lodged with their â—ompanies and such other persons as they assigned to â—â—rengthen the City if need required Do people 〈◊〉 mathematical Demonstration Look here and see â—hat care's taken to keep the City safe and harmless â—nd in Peace as if then the Land must needs be in â—uiet too Preserve the City and its just Liberties and â—â—en the Nations Quietness Peace and Safeguard is â—â—rongly secured Behold here the Eyes of the Nation 〈◊〉 upon the City of London and her Actions and â—here's the party that dare strike while she Guards â—â—eps and preserves the Kings Peace while he is â—â—eased to busie himself in foreign Countries Such as â—ill not believe but what they see and so know let â—â—em here credit their own Eyes if they be not Popish Transubstantiators or shut them to keep the light 〈◊〉 After the King was returned to London from 〈◊〉 the Sea by his order many of their lodgings 〈◊〉 altered direction was taken between the aforesaid 〈◊〉 testing Parties and a new Assembly of Parliament 〈◊〉 signed Anno 44. William Fitz Richard being Mayor 〈◊〉 Browning Richard Coventre Sheriffs after Candlâ—â—â—â— by the Kings Command a Folk-Moot was called 〈◊〉 Pauls-Cross whither he came in person with his Bâ—â—ther Richard King of the Romans and many othâ—â— Nobles and commanded the Mayor that every strâ—â—ling of 12 Years and above should before his â—â—dermen be sworn the day following to be true to 〈◊〉 King and his Heirs Kings of England and that 〈◊〉 Gates of the City should be kept with armed Men 〈◊〉 before was determined Not long after this we 〈◊〉 of more suspicions of a breach between the King 〈◊〉 his Barons which in few years broke out into an 〈◊〉 War What did all this swearing then avail Those amoâ—â—â— the Children of men who look abroad into the world 〈◊〉 take notice of the common course of the Generality of 〈◊〉 living or are much conversant with the Monuments 〈◊〉 the dead may find it no very difficult matter to obserâ—â— that let men take never so many Oaths make never so â—â—ny Covenants Promises and Compacts that if they 〈◊〉 come to have Apprehensions that those to whom thâ— have sworn themselves endeavour to make use of thâ— religious Ties and Obligations designed at first 〈◊〉 mutual preservation to encroach upon their Liberâ—â— deprive them of their Priviledges their Propertiâ—â— their Birth-rights to the enslaving of them and thâ— whole Posterity all former Subscriptions Oaths 〈◊〉 Promises Pacts and Covenants will scarce avail 〈◊〉 with the most But if Experience should chancâ— legitimate their doubts and Fears by the others actual endeavours in the open face of the World it is rarely seen but that notwithstanding past transactions they will make the greatest opposition they can against the others arbitrary pretences And so all former religious Bonds are snapt asunder like Tow burnt by the Fire They who imposed Oaths for such ill intents might have considered if they pleased that many in such cases would not have scrupled at all to have broke them Or if any of the more devout had been a little â—â—icer they could not doubtless be ignorant in those days what Remedies might have been bought for Money out of the Popes publick Store-house if other common ways of Evasion would not have pass'd currant with them How many of that nature have â—affed up and down in the World it may not be unworâ—hy of our consideration sometimes to revolve in our minds if it be a thing feasible to bring them within â—hat compass True indeed quoth the subtile Sophiâ—ter I have sworn Allegiance but a latter lesser Tie 〈◊〉 invalid when a greater Obligation lies upon me True an Oath lies upon me but here 's my Liberty Life and Religion lying all at stake I was born free what can dispense with me to deprive me of my Birth-â—ight Life is sweet Self-preservation is near and â—ear to me by the Instinct of Nature 'T is natural to â—reated Beings to defend their Lives against such as â—â—ould destroy them what then can oblige me to sufâ—er my Life violently to be taken away by anothers inâ—â—ry whenas I dare not deprive my self thereof by my â—wn Endeavours unless I will run into so foul an Ofâ—â—nce so unnatural a Fact as to proclaim my self to â—â—e World a Self-Murtherer and so force my Soul to â—y out of my Body before I know 't is my Creator's â—ill she should My Religion is to obey God above â—â—d before Man my Soul is his that gave it me and where 's the Obligation that can impower me justly 〈◊〉 give away that which is not my own to bestow 〈◊〉 my Religion which I believe is according to the Laâ— of the Almighty stand or fall at another mans pleasure Must I take the matter manner and height of my Dâ—votions from the imperious dictates of another's 〈◊〉 and that too upon the account of my Oath Must destroy my Religion in effect or else I cannot keep in shew Besides know ye not that my Oath was coâ—ditional Mutual Bonds make mutual Obligation Service was vow'd where Protection was promised anâ— expected Can any but an Idiot be supposed to sweâ—â— away himself to be destroyed instead of being defended Must I still pay Obedience upon account of former Câ—â—venants where I cannot get due Protection and haâ—â— but little encouragement to expect it though it was 〈◊〉 first promised since that now thence I fear utter ruiâ—â— and infallible destruction instead thereof With 〈◊〉 Inventions some may chance to be full and it may 〈◊〉 to make them seem more authentick they can produâ—â— them under the Printer's Hand 'T is in Print an Aâ—gument which may sometimes weigh much with 〈◊〉 inconfiderate inobserving Persons who consider 〈◊〉 how
the City Market and have it two Pence in a Quarter within the Mayors Price and other Victuals after the â—ame rate And if he or any of his Officers would 〈◊〉 contrary to that Ordinance that then the Sheriffs â—hould make report to the Kings Council and withâ—â—and him in all that they might so that the King's â—eace were kept Here was Authority given to act â—gainst some commissionated by the King What folâ—y is it for every mean petty Officer to think to thwart â—â—is powerful City and hope to be too hard for her Citizens when their Liberties Priviledges and Franchises 〈◊〉 concerned This year silent murmurs passed up and down thâ— Land of War that was too too likely to ensue bâ—tween the King and his Lords in short process of time for the Bull of Dispensation before shewed in 〈◊〉 Realm But the mediation of good and wise men appeased and stilled those Emotions for a while that 〈◊〉 King agreed again to the maintenance of the aforesâ—â—â— Statutes and sent his Writs wherein the said Articlâ— were comprised into all the Shires of England givinâ— strict Commandment to all men to observe and keâ—â— the same and such other as were to them joined 〈◊〉 the discretion of some appointed to that end 〈◊〉 this again was shortly after revoked and denieâ— What Change in Councils what Uncertainty 〈◊〉 Fickleness of Mind was this Give and grant anâ— then recal What could be thought the end of 〈◊〉 variableness but Strife and Contention Hereupoâ— the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Star in that coâ—juncture of the first Magnitude in the English Firmâ—ment proves erratick For fearing what might eâ—sue like a cunning subtle worldly Politician 〈◊〉 makes an Errand to Rome and by License of boâ—â— Parties departs the Land and so keeps himself out 〈◊〉 the trouble was over He had been a main Instrument a few years ago in Cursing the Breakers of thâ— aforementioned Acts. Should he have sided with thâ— Kings Party he had openly contradicted his formeâ— Actions and in effect declared all his so solemn Cursâ—â— to signifie nought Had he sided with the Barons 〈◊〉 must have shewn himself an Assenter to their deeâ— partaken of all the Changes and Chances of War 〈◊〉 publickly slighted and contemned the Popes Dispensâ—â—tion A crime in those days of very dangerous Consequence to the offending Party Upon Midlent Sundâ—â— the Mayor and Commons being present at a Folk-Moâ—â— held at Paul's Cross before Sir Philip Basset and otheâ— of the Kings Council the Mayor was sworn to be â—rue to the King and his Heirs Kings Upon the morâ—ow at Guild-Hall every Alderman is said to have taken the same Oath in presence of the Mayor And so likewise upon the Sunday following we read that every Stripling of the Age of 12 Years and above was aâ—ew charged with the same Oath before his Alderman in his Ward Then according to my Author the Displeasure between the King and his Barons which a long while â—â—d been kept secret began to appear insomuch that diverse of them assembled in the Marches of Wales gathered unto them strong Power and sent a Letter â—nto the King under the Seal of Sir Roger Clyfford â—eseeching him to have in remembrance the Oath and manifold Promises that he had made for the observâ—ng of the Statutes made at Oxford with other Ordinances made to the Honour of God for Faith and Alâ—egiance to his Person Weal and Profit of all his Realm willing him further to withstand and defie all â—uch Persons as will be against the said Acts saving â—he Queen and her Children After this Letter thus â—ent and no Answer received we read of the said Baâ—ons going with Banners displayed against such as they â—new held against the Acts so often before mentioned The effect of their Fury at Hereford the Bishop and â—any of his Canons Aliens born soon felt to their great cost and damage Hence we hear of their going to other places where they supposed to find their Eneâ—ies keeping their course towards London this was the place it seems they desired so much to fix to â—heir Party bearing before them a Banner of the Kings Arms and encreasing with the access of much People as they held on in their Journey In this March as they found any that they knew to be against â—he Maintenance of the aforesaid Acts they imprisoned them and spoiled their Habitations were they Spiâ—â—tual or Temporal Men all the case to them at thâ— time In divers of the King's Castles they set in 〈◊〉 Persons as they pleased putting out such as were plâ—ced in by the King and gave to them an Oath thâ— they should be true and faithful to the King 〈◊〉 keep those Castles to his Use and to the Weal of 〈◊〉 Realm Here they seem to have outdid the Courtiâ—â— in their own way The Mayor Aldermen and â—thers of London were made of late to renew thâ— Oaths of Allegiance to the King and his Heirs as if 〈◊〉 weaken the Barons Party by a crafty sly insinuatiâ—â— that they went about to deprive the King and 〈◊〉 Heirs of their Right But as for those suggestions 〈◊〉 hold the Barons disappointing them by giving 〈◊〉 like Oaths to these of their own Party put into 〈◊〉 of publick Trust and thereby in effect declaring 〈◊〉 't was not against the King but against the ill Ministâ—â— of State about him whom they deemed the Authâ—â— of iil Advice that they thus took up Arms either 〈◊〉 remove them or deliver the King out of such 〈◊〉 mens hands About Midsummer when they drew near to Londâ—â— the Chronicle tells us that they sent a Letter unto 〈◊〉 Mayor and Aldermen under the Seal of Sir 〈◊〉 Mountfold willing to know of them whether thâ— would observe the Acts and Statutes made in the Pâ—â—liament called at Oxford or not or else would aid 〈◊〉 assist such persons as intended the breach of the saâ—â— and sent to them a Copy of the said Acts with a Pâ—â—viso that if any there specified were to the hurt of 〈◊〉 Realm or common-Weal of the same that they thâ— by discreet Persons of the Land should be altered 〈◊〉 amended See here the Influence the City had upâ—â— the Land the esteem the Barons had of London's 〈◊〉 and Authority and how desirous they were to 〈◊〉 it to their side and Interest The forementioned Copy was by the Mayor carried to the King then being at the Tower accompanied with his Queen his Brother Richard Edward his Son and others of his Council Then the King intending to know the Cities Mind asked the Mayor what he thought of those Acts and Ordinances who being refused time and leave to conâ—â—er with his Brethren the Aldermen and his Judgment demanded at that present season stands upon Record to have boldly answered the King that before-times he with his Brethren and the Commonalty of the City by his Commandment had been sworn to maintain all Acts made to the Honour of God to the Faith of the King
London there passed an Inquest of Twelve Knights of Middlesex sworn upon a Jury between the Abbot of Westminster and the City for certain Priviledges the Citizens of London claimed within Westminster where by the said Jury it was found before the Chief Baron of the Kings Exchequer that the Sheriffs of London at those days might lawfully enter into the Town of Westminster and all other Tenements that the Abbot had within Middlesex and unto the Gate of the said Abby and there to make Summons and distrain for lack of Appearance all and every Tenant of the said Abbot 'T is not now adays only that the Londone's stand so strong for their Priviledges whatsoever some may think of it as if out of stubbornness and opposition Their Fore-Fathers were like-minded and stood up couragiously in defence of their just Rights and Liberties against Arbitrary Encroachers above Four Hundred years ago Anno 1262. After this the former Complaint of the Aliens and others was declared before the King and his Lords in the Parliament at Westminster This is the Term Fabian gives it but whether on the same account as he did before when he expounded a Parliament by a Council of Lords in the 43d Year pag. I am not so certain as positively to determine Here the Chronicle tell us it was at last sentenced but by what means and Inducements is not there set down that the Barons should restore all such Goods as they and their Company had taken from all Persons before that day as well to Aliens as other men both Spiritual and Temporal and also that such Menial Servants as should be daily in the Kings House and about his Person should be such as the King would choose and admit himself But the dissenting Barons utterly rejected these Articles whereupon the Fire of Dissention was again kindled between the King and those his Lords In the 47th Year by procurement of the Barons we are told that the Commons of London chose unto their Mayor for that Year Thomas Fiz Thomas Robert Moumphere and Robert de Suffolk were Sheriffs and without Counsel of the Aldermen swore him at Guild-Hall upon Simon and Jude's day and made no presentment of him the morrow following to the King nor to the Barons of the Exchequer as had been the custom For which we may easily suppose the King was much discontented with the City Whereupon the King perceiving the City would take the Barons part having caused his Son to seise Windsor Castle by a Train early in a Morning a little before Christmas he rode thither from Westminster whither shortly after came also many of the Lords that were upon the King's party As fast likewise the Lords and Knights on the Earl of Leicester's side drew towards London so that on either part was much People assembled In the mean time some well disposed Mediators endeavouring a Concord between the King and his Lords it was finally agreed by both parties that all matters concerning the foresaid Articles of the Statutes and Ordinances made at Oxford and afterwards by the 12 Peers should be referred to the French King to judge which should be held and which not Upon this Agreement were Copies made of the said Statutes with Letters shewing the â—ffect of the former Agreement and sent unto Lewis the French King Over sails the King with his Sâ—n Edward and others of his Council on one side On the other were sent Sir Peter de Mountford and others as so many Sollicitors for their mutual Parties So that the Statutes were strongly argued before the French King by both sides In the end the French King Lewis calling before him both Parties on January the 24th and sitting in Judgment gave express Sentence that all and every of the said Statutes and Ordinances should be from that day forward utterly void and set at nought and all such Bonds and Promises that the King or any other had made for the maintenance of the same should be annulled and cancelled and the King and all others for any matter concerning those Statutes set at Liberty After this Sentence thus given the King returned into England and so to London February the 15th This King Lewis is named a Saint for that he was not I suppose so bad as other Princes too too commonly are or more probably for some deeds of his pleasing to the Popish Clergy as his sending to destroy the then accounted Heretical Albigenses his taking a Voyage once into the Holy Land and undertaking a second towards the same place at the Popes request For at that time the Holy War as 't is generally called was cried up in these Western parts of the World as a high piece of Devotion But whatever esteem Lewis had got in the World the Barons it seems continued not to have the same Veneration for him but were contrary wise much moved with his Sentence noting great Partiality in him thus to disannul all the foresaid Acts which were at first made in Parliament the King agreeing to them and had been variously confirmed by the Kings Grant his Oath and manifold Promises together with a solemn Curse denounced against such as would attempt in word and deed to break them It may be 't was the Fame of this King Lewis's Goodness that made the Barons consent to have him the Umpire as one concerned on neither party But what could be expected in the Case Could it be supposed that he a King would not favour his Brother King what he might rather than by confirming these Acts pretended so prejudicial to all Royal Prerogative give Example to his own Subjects to require the like at his hands or attempt to compel him thereto by force Had the Lords gotten an Umpire from among some disinterested Subjects of some other Land he perhaps would have adjusted the business wholly in their favour So hard had it been to have met with a just Arbitrator in the case who would not have declined to one or the other Party for fear nor favour King Henry having thus got a Verdict on his side and the Barons noting Partiality and therefore refusing to stand to the Judgment though the Chronicle intimates to us that they had promised assuredly to abide the French Kings Arbitration For King Lewis expresly excepting King John's Charter before granted the Barons persisted in defence of the Oxford Statutes as founded on that Charter What then remains but to commit all to the last Decision of the Sword and so the whole Arbitrement shall be cast more immediately into the hands of Providence Away from London go the Lords Westward into the Marches of Wales where drawing to them great Power they war upon the Lands and Castles of Sir Roger Mortimer to whose aid Edward the King's Son coming his People were distressed and he himself almost taken To redress these grievances a new Parliament was appointed at Oxford which Fabian says never came to effect Yet he mentions another Chronicle which affirms this Parliament
held at London within a short space though my Author writes that this never came to purpose So it seems that in those elder times a Parliament was the Subjects desire and as it were the last Refuge and means of Reconciliation to establish Peace and quietness in the Land Tuesday before Ascension-Day is the time named whereon the acceptable news of Peace were proclaimed between the King and his Barons in London and next day thither they came with the King his Brother and Son and the Two Princely Pledges were sent into safe Custody first to the Tower afterwards to Dover Castle In the time of these civil Distractions and before the Battle we find that the Wardens of the Cinqueports kept the Sea with Ships that no Stranger might enter the Land to the Kings aid against the Barons Sometime after the Battel we hear of Souldiers coming in great numbers unto Dover there to land But King Henry was induced to ride thither with a great power and force those Strangers to go back again and the Kings Brother sent Prisoner to Berkhamstead Castle till those Aliens were returned It stands upon Record in my Author that he and the Queen had sent over the Sea for them So that hence it had been manifest though the Relation of King John's Reign had not been extant that it is no late Device nor new Practice for Persons of Arbitrary Pretences to call in outlandish Souldiers when they fear they cannot raise assistance enough at home in their own Native Country to support and bring to effect their ill intended designs The Barons side stood firm for the Observation of the Parliament Acts The Kings party desired to have infringed them The Barons grew powerful and formidable the other side seem fearful that they should not be able to compass strength enough at home suitable to their Designs and desires and therefore sent abroad There being idle men enough to be had for mony in most places Soldiers were waged but there was a Sea to pass which required much time and a suitable Sail of Ships to waft them over and a considerable strength lay in the way to intercept them if they came not well provided for an attaque So that it was a day as it were after the Fair before they came and that was many hours too late whereupon they were compelled to return again without and against their first Intent This is the inconvenience some may think the great advantage others may conclude of an Island 's scituation that it cannot easily be over-run with forreign Forces as Lands upon the continent often are and with more facility If the shooing of themselves and their Horses with Cork would do the feat then they might happen more easily to pass the Sea but as things go in this Age of the World much time as well as a great Navy is requisite to transport an Army though little or no oppositioâ— be made Yet how difficult would it be to prevaâ—â— where among One Million Two Hundred Thousand One Million One Hundred and Fifty Thousand are on one side and Fifty Thousand on the other i. e. In Twenty four Twenty three parts against one part What could it avail if on some other fine neat pretence a good store of Forreigners might possibly happen to be introduced suppose Fisty Thousand Above Eleven to One would still be great odds If we should grant One Hundred Thousand could silently be let in under another Notion into how many little small Parcels must they be minutely divided at how many several Portâ— must they arrive what charge to keep and maintain them unless put upon present service And yet there 's still hazard enough in the World and to spare One Million one Hundred and Fifty Thousand against One Hundred and Fifty Thousands to every man an opposite and Ten-over Odds sufficiently at Foot-Ball if in a lesser number Were it not for the Law of the Land in how many places d'ye think the 9 Lay Sheaves would not devour the Parsons Tenth Sheaf England stands firm upon its old bottom of Freedom but France hath had Experience more than enough of the aforesaid truths 'T is well known the present French King keeps his poor enslaved Subjects under with a strong Force composed most of other Country Souldiers and by their assistance with some otherâ— connivance and the help of French Money is become the Terrour of Europe I doubt not but much of this his present greatness sprung at first from a successful attempt made in his younger days to introduce forreign forces upon his less wary Nobility and Gentry in hehalf and by the Guidance of a great Minister of State whom some of them had desired to be discarded from sitting at the Helm of Government Whereof his present Majesty I believe had no very pleasing nor desirable Experience 'T was in the time when Providence permitted our King to be injuriously kept out of his right by an Usurper that the French Nobles were urgent to have their King exile Mazarine and the better to effect it were ready to have appeared in Arms But their King in shew granting their desires and it may be through the mediation of our Gracious Prince who had too sad an Instance of his own to urge from his Fathers unfortunate Fate the Princes grew secure and laid aside their combined strength whereupon the exil'd Mazarine comes out of Germany so have I heard with a strong Army of many Thousands up to Paris and then order'd things at his own Pleasure and the Kings The deceiv'd Princes could never vindicate themselves since and our then almost friendless King shortly after thought good to leave the Country though the Place of his Mothers Original lest he should have been bid to depart and that disgusted States-man as may be suspected causes the K. to close with England's usurping Power and desert a poor distressed over-power'd Prince with no more regard to him or his till his Protestant what if I had also added Presbyterian Subjects recall'd him to possess his Fathers Throne wherein long may he live and flourish to the Nations good and his own continued Wellfare An. 48. Thomas Fiz Thomas Mayor Osbert Wynter Phil Taylor being Sheriffs The Lords of the Marches about Christmas assembled and did much harm â— the Manours of the Earls of Leicester and Glocestâ—â— the two noted Chiefs of the Barons Party thereabouts which occasioned the King to ride shortly after to Glocester where by a Council there called â—â— was enacted that such of the Lords that did not come in and yield to the King by the Octaves of Hilary should be exil'd Let the question here be whether these Lords known to have been of the K'â— Party both before and after this Transaction were guilty of Treason or Disloyalty in not coming in 〈◊〉 the King's Call yielding as the Barons party doubâ—less cordially desired with whom the K. was theâ— personally present Had they straightways obeyed and come in all
Parliament holden at Westminster But in these present papers I think it may be more noted for what I am going now to relate verbatim out of Fabian In this year a Citizen of London Named Thomas Pywelysdon the which in the time of the Barons War before in the story of King Henry shew'd had been a Captain and a great stirrer of the Commons of the said City for to maintain the Baron's party against the Kings was newly accused that he with others of evil disposition should make Conventicles and Assemblies to the new disturbance of the City whereof Report was made unto the King the which remitted the inquiry thereof unto Sir Ralph Sandewych then Custos or Guardian of the City Then the said Thomas with others was put in sure keeping till the matter was duly enquired of After which Inquisition made and found report was made unto the King Then the King sent down a Writ and commanded it to be proclaimed shortly after within the bounds of the City whereof the Effect was thus that the said Thomas Pywelysdon William de Heywood Richard de Coundris Richard le Cofferre Robert de Derby Albyne de Darby William Mayo Mercer and Ivo Lyng Draper with divers others to the number of fifty Persons should be banished out of the City for ever And if any of the said fifty eight Persons were at that time of the Proclamation voided the City for fear or otherwise that they should so remain and not return unto the City upon pain of Life losing These being thus discarded and exiled the City who it may be would have stood firm to the City's old Liberties and Priviledges the rest of the Chief remaining might perchance hope the eafier to keep the Commons in aw whatsoever new Customs they should introduce for their own lucre and advantage thâ— to other men's dammage Here you may perceive â—ow jealous Governours are of all Meetings and Assemblies but what are of their own constitution and ordering The Caviliers doubtless can relate many Stories of their own experience hereof in Olivers days Neither are many of our Coffee-houses and Clâ—b meetings I believe very grateful to some persons in the World though their open business there is mostly to drink smoke talk trade and the like By the aforesaid relation we may likewise observe Once counted an Offender and ever thought so Here Thomas Pyweldon or Pywelysdon for his name I find diversly Written though the same man be meant a noted man in the Barons War for which he had suffered deeply after their overthrow by long imprisonment and the charge of redeeming his Liberty for a great Sum of money of this same King Edward then only Prince was nevertheless after about sixteen years respite banished the City for ever on an accusation of attempting a new disturbance That any thing was prov'd against him I have not read besides the mention here of making Assemblies or Meetings Had there been any thing material found against him I scarce believe he should have scap't so well with his Life seeing old Crimes seem to have been remembred though new faults were pretended An Act of Oblivion is a very good Plaister in a publique Universal Offence But whatever Offender of Note thus pardoned out-lives the greatest number of those qually reputed guilty with him and times be so much turned that the ballance of the Nation leans very much on the governing side I think that man's life hangs but by a very slender thread whose safety and security depends only upon Pen Ink and Paper and not upon the Governours natural inclination to justice and honesty in the constant keeping and observing of his word and promise When in the late Wars on this side the World Messina in Sicily was reduc'd under the Spanish government by the French's forsaking it to whom the Messineses had before subjected themselves tho a general pardon was by the Spaniards publickly granted whereupon many return'd to the Cityâ— yet if my memory deceive me not there passed no long time before the publick news told us of the accusing and I think condemning of a Principal Man of that City for a new endeavour to stir up another Rebellion and Revolt therein New accusations and new offences pretended how unlikely soever may sometimes serve to blind the unthinking vulgar Herd but a man of thought doubtless will be apt to suspect that the old grudge lies at the bottom How easy and usual it is to suborn false Witnesses against a Man Jezabelâ— practice and the endeavour of the Chief Priests Elders and Council of a much later date may inform a Protestant Reader if he hath no experience in the world to instruct him The Citizens were accustom'd before this year to make good advantage to themselves by lodging Merchant strangers and selling their Merchandize for them for which they received so much in the pound But at this time by means of those Merchant strangers it was brought to pass that they hired Houses for themselves and their Wares so that no Citizen should intermeddle with them which was to the damage of many particular private men as well as to the hindrance of the Kings Custom and prejudicial as affirms the Book to the Realm in general by many deceits and frauds used by them Here was a new Custom disadvantagious to many of the Citizens introduc'd but for what reason at first permitted whether to advance Trade by drawing more Forreigners to the City or else to weaken their power and bring down lower the Citizens high stomachs by cutting off some of their gain and parting their Trade with others I pretend not to deliver until I meet with better Information my self than hitherto I have in the point Certain it is from the story that the King much advantag'd himself by searching into their fraudulent and deceitful dealings and punishing them for those offences by a considerable fine The 15th year was chargeable to the Jews who were fain to pay great sums of mony to the King which they were assessed at saith the Chronicle but out of an other Author it is recorded that the Commons of England granted to the King the fifth part of their movables to have the Jews banished out of the Land which to prevent the Jews of their own Wills gave the King great sums of mony Here then was taking mony of both sides A subtle Court way of Trading This year there was such a plenty of Wheat that according to my Authors Computation it was sold at London for Ten Groats the Quarter five pence the Bushel But the next year through distemperature of the weather we find the price raised up to 14 d. the Bushel after to 18 d. and encreasing yearly duâ—ing this Kings Reign and his Sons so that it stands upon Record to be sold at last for 40 s. the Quarâ—er and above The 18th may be remark'd by â—s for the Kings Honourable reception at London â—nd the punishment of divers offending Justices Sir
into Ireland Yet thither we hear of the Kings sending him oftentimes secret Messengers and comsorting him with many rich gifts and the next year we read of his being fetch'd home again to still the grudges springing up between the King and his Nobles and continue amity amongst them which prov'd but so much the more mischievous to the Realm For this exorbitant Favourite's power more and more encreasing he having the keeping of the Kings Treasure and Jewels convey'd many of them some of great value out of the Land and brought the King by means of his wanton Conditions to manifold Vices as Adultery and others whereupon by the Lords Counsel and Resolution taken at Lincoln he was shortly after exil'd into Flanders to the Kings great displeasure In comes Gaveston again though he had before abjur'd the Realm with this condition by the Barons added that if he were found again in any Lands subject to the King's dominions he should be taken as a Common Enemy and Condemned But being recall'd by the King he ventures on his favour and afterwards demeans himself worse and worse In so much that we read that he disdain'd the Lords of England and of them had many spiteful and slanderous words so that there 's the less wonder that the Queen and the whole Court were sorrowful because they saw the King as Stow words it not very sound so great was his Joy and Jollity for his receiving him in safety Whereupon the Lords of one mind saith my Author consented to put him to death which they soon after effected by taking the Castle wherein he was and so having him in their hands smote off his Head For this was the King grievously displeas'd with those Lords and vow'd we hear to revenge his Death so that after this he sought occasion against them to grieve and displease them If the foremention'd disorders with many before express'd by Authentick Writers to have fallen out under this King If Treachery Robberies Rapes Extortions Divisions Civil discords at home slights contempts and losses abroad and much blood-shed in Battels fought and lost both at home and abroad If murrain of Beasts and scarcity of Grain dearness of Victuals sickness and mortality of Men ravages and outrages of cruel insulting Enemies and almost a general desolation in several places of the Land be glories that can eternize a Man's memory to succeeding Generations I know not whether this Kings Name and Reign may ever be forgotten as long as England stands a fixt Island in the midst of the Ocean In the midst of these troubles and crosses you are not to suppose the City of London scap't free from partaking in the Common misery of the Land In the first of this King's Reign I find that he and his new Married Bride were received joyfully by the Citizens and so conveyed to Westminster but the times afterwards grew so cloudy and full of storms that I don't think they had over much reason to rejoyce more than the rest of their poor distressed fellow Subjects Yet Providence in good time delivered the City out of these troubles and with advantage too as may be observed and remark't in the end of this and beginning of the next Kings Reign Twice more particularly in this Kings Reign do we read of a breach made on the Cities Priviledges by constraining the Citizens at their own charges to raise and maintain a certain number of Soldiers and send them whether they were appointed but the last time it seems it was conditionally that it should not be made a President which possibly was to appease them when they refused to go out of the City to fight unless they might according to their liberties as Stow says return home again the same day before Sun-set For 't is plain how great soever their respect was towards their Soveraign that they had no great kindness for some about him And therefore when aid and assistance was requested of them against the Queen who with her Son Edward was newly Landed and pretended Reformation of abuses they made this plea or excuse as favouring rather Reformers than makers of Grievances yet with profession of due obedience and Honour to the King the Queen and their Son who was after his Father the Right and Lawful Heir to the Crown At the Parliament of Whitebands held in the twefth of this King whether the Barons came in Arms the Citizens were the Keepers of the Kings peace in the City a thousand of them well Armed by the Majors order watching by day and as many by night in divers Wards and at several Gates thereof under the inspection of two Aldermen with Officers assigned to Ride about every night to oversee them and the rest of the Citizens were enjoyned to have their Arms in readiness upon a very short warning for more surety And what pray now was the effect of all this but that the peace was kept the City guarded it and no disturbance hapned that I read of notwithstanding there was so great an Army then on foot Ill men were removed several things were ordained for the good of the Realm Transactions were carried on without violence or blood-shed the Parliament was peaceably dissolved and every one returned home in quietness safety and security But on the contrary afterwards in the later end of this Kings Reign when the Courtiers were much disgusted in the City by reason of many violences committed and much harsh dealing used by some towards their fellow Subjects in the time of their power under the wings of Authority and pretence of Law and Justice the Citizens were so far from keeping the King's peace as before that they soon shew'd openly their favour good will and kindness for the Queen who under the glozing pretence of reforming the ill Government was come into the Land with a considerable force of Soldiers and had sent to the Mayor and Commonalty for their aid help and assistance in carrying on this her pretended Reformation A work generally highly acceptable to all such as think themselves oppressed and glorious in the Eyes of the people but such is the misery fate and infelicity the frailty and imperfection incident to all sublunary attempts that it very seldom if ever fully answers the expectation of every one concern'd Neither was the Citizens affection to the Queen and her Party barely shewn in words and expressions but it went much farther and was publickly brought into Act by beheading such as they took to be the Queens enemies not so much as sparing the Bishop of Exeter himself a great man among the spiritualty who had been there left by the King to have the Rule of the City in his absence The occasion is said to have sprung from his stiff and peremptory demanding of the Keys of the City Gates by vertue of his Commission which highly exasperated the Commons against him and so much the more because as was the saying he had rais'd an Army to withstand the Queen a fault
then thought unpardonable by the Londoners who in words and deeds espoused the Queen's Cause seis'd on the Tower of London and kept it for the Queens use and not long afterwards received her into their City with great Joy and Honour A demonstrative evidence in my opinion of the City's strength and power For if London when she pleas'd could maintain the King's peace in the midst of Arms as was shewn above so inviolably as that none dar'd in opposition to break it and afterwards in the very same age and within the compass of half a dozen years did actually assert the Qeens cause and assist her in her proceedings as was pretended for Reformation of the Realm tho the Consequence thereof was in truth the unfortunate Kings resignation what greater instance can there be to shew her great influence upon the whole Nation in those unsetled times London having so visibly appeared in favour of the Queen the Prince and his party and contributed so much towards this notable revolution of affairs we have no reason to think but that out of Common gratitude her Citizens were to be aboundantly rewarded and that they themselves out of self interest and natural Prudence would so well and wisely look to their own affairs as to make hay while the Sun shines to the procuring new grants and Graces and so accordingly we find the event For in the first year of Edward the third Fabian tells us he confirmed the Liberties and Franchizes of the City making the Major Chief Justice in all places of Judgment within the same next the King every Alderman that had been Major Justice of Peace in London and Midlesex and such as had not been Justice in his own Ward Granting them also the Fee-farm of London for three hundred pounds and that they should not be constrained to go out of the City to â—o fight or defend the Land for any need A priviledge greater than what was claimed as their liberty in his Fathers days when unwilling to engage against the Queen and Prince they refused not to go out on condition of returning the same day as is related before But the most beneficial of all the grants was that the Franchises of the City should not be seized into the Kings hands but only for Treason or Rebellion done by the whole City It having before been a Common thing to have their Liberties seized on as hath been plainly manifested in the Precedent Relation on almost every petty disgust conceived by the Court against them were it but for the pretended offence of a particular Officer or for mony alledged to be owing by the City to some great ones at Court or some such like small trivial pretence But now at this time they took such care to have their Liberties setled and secured by this Royal Grant that it may be thought almost if not wholly a thing impossible for the City to forfeit her Charter and have it justly according to that grant taken from her The bringing of Southwark under the Rule of the City and the power allowed their Major to appoint such a Bailiff there as liked him best was a very advantagious favour at the same time by this King Edward bestowed on London but not comparable with the former grant which may most deservedly be esteemed Paramount to all others A particular Officer may offend and oftentimes does nay many may but for a City a whole City so great and glorious a City as London Traiterously to Rebel and so forfeit all her Liberties Priviledges and Franchises at one clap seems to me so great a contradiction as to imply little less than an Impossibility in Nature not to go a step or two higher This King being one of the most powerful Princes of his time and in the strength of his age very succesful in his Wars against the French King 't is not for us hastily to imagine there was any occasion given for so wise and good a King to contest with his Subjects much less with his Loyal Citizens We are rather to expect to hear of the City's Triumphs and glory the Joy and rejoyceing wherewith she often received her Victorious King returning Conquerour from France the frequent Justings Tiltings and Tournaments shewn thereat for his Recreation and entertainment the Wealth Riches and Ability of her head Officers whereof one to Londons great glory is said to have sumptuously feasted four Kings at once in the thirty first of this Kings Reign besides the famous Black Prince many Noble Knights and others to whom with the King he gave many Rich Gifts the splendor of the Citizens in general oâ— publick occasions and the harmonious concord of all in their own private and particular concerns relating more especially to the Cities good order and Government This King may be supposed too great and too good either to create or to permit differences and discord at home He had wherewithal to exercise his Wisdom and valour abroad in forreign Countries and such success too in his Enterprizes as might make him both feared and beloved by his Subjects at one and the same time Yet notwithstanding such still was Londons power strength and resolution to maintain her Liberties that this Victorious Prince Conquerour over others having sent out Justices into the Shires to make enquiry about his Officers offences and delinquences and the City of London not suffering as Stow tells us any such Officers to sit as Justices in their City as Inquisitors of such matters contrary to their Liberties he thought good rather to appoint those Justices their Sessions in the Tower for Inquisition of the damages of the Londoners and they refusing unless conditionally to answer there and a tumult thereupon arising among the meaner sort claiming their Liberties he esteemed it greater prudence to wave the Justices sitting as to that place and forgive all offences than to enter into a contest with such powerful tho Loyal Subjects as the Londoners were and such undaunted assertors of their own rights priviledges franchises and liberties For as 't is plain the City was very potent so we may as certainly perhaps conclude the Citizens no less suspicious of any thing done under the shadow of this Kings Authority if but looking towards the least breach of their Priviledges as the Commons of England in general seem to have appeared jealous of their Common liberty when upon this Kings laying claim to the Kingdom of France they procured a Law whereby it was enacted that the King should not Rule England as King of France and so Subject them to the insolencies of a fellow-Subjects Deputyship Would you know what esteem and respect the house of Commons in this King's reign had for â—he City Look in Cotton's abridgment of the Records â—n the Tower and there you may find the Commons â—ver and anon petitioning the King that the City â—f London may enjoy all her Liberties and the King's â—nswers generally to such petitions seem rather to â—rant than
For the Londoners being enraged at the Dukes threats and their fury increased against him for that in the Parliament the Duke being President a motion had been made in the Kings name over whom at that time 't is well known how great an ascendant the Duke had that there should be no more Major of London according to the Ancient Custom but a Captain appointed over it and the Marshal of England might therein arrest Offenders as in other places so that 't was in the Military Officers that the Duke seems to have plac'd most of his Trust and Confidence as doubtless his Creatures and Favourites in esse aut posse with many other things manifestly contrary to the City's Liberties at the encouragement of the Lord Fitzwalter who claim'd to be their Standard Bearer by inheritance they put themselves in Arms and acted with such an excess of rage and violence that had it not been for their own Bishop who pacified them for the time the Duke and his great favourite Piercy had that day saith the book lost their lives But they having timely notice fled from the people and applied themselves for safety to the young Prince and his Mother who undertook the business and sent to the Londoners to make peace with the Duke so kind and gracious was the good Princess as to mediate in his behalf who desir'd in his heart to dispossess her own Son of his right To her Messenger Answer was return'd by the Citizens that for her honour they would perform her Commands but as to what concern'd the Duke injunctions were laid on them to will him that he should suffer the Bishop of Winchester to come to his answer and to be try'd by his Peers and also permit Peter de la More Speaker of the last Parliament then by the Duke's means imprison'd to answer for himself after the Custom of the Law and as for the third they said they would account a Traitor wheresoever he should be found So run the words in Stow which being to the Duke reported he became not a little troubled and not without reason in my opinion at the Citizen's Answer and their indignation conceiv'd against him since that he interpreted what they had spoken of a Traytor to be meant by them of himself though as to that particular he denied himself to be one He had been mad I should have thought or foolish if he had presently confess'd and own'd the imputation However from the Citizens message and the Dukes interpretation thereof 't is easie to conclude how little they lov'd him and he soon found it to his trouble and vexation Jealousies and suspicions generally go a great way among the common people and are almost as prevalent as proofs especially when there is a great man in the Case whom they dare not openly accuse and impeach and cannot try for lack of safety and a good opportunity and he himself is not very willing to put himself upon a fair trial and thereby wipe-off all aspersions in the common legal way of his Country All his Tergiversations do foment rather than diminish the Heats of the people who have but the more opportunity and occasion to think and will commonly too think scurvily the less they have to act The rough Message the Londoners sent the Duke we have heard but that was not all They would away to the King too and acquaint him with the late proceedings And so accordingly upon a Councel held thereabouts they sent some of their chief Citizens either to justifie saith the Annalist or excuse what had hapned Long were these a suing to come to the Kings prescnce the Duke keeps them back For they might be apt to â—o tell Tales or at least remove the prepossessions wherewith the Duke and his party doubt-less had fill'd the credulous King's Head The Duke would fain have stopt their entrance and put them off but they would not be so serv'd The Duke tells them that the King was very ill at ease and his sickness might be encreast if he were mov'd to anger by their Speech A fine excuse but 't would not pass The Londoners were resolved on 't They were not come to encrease but mitigate his grief and their Commission from their fellow Citizens they sayd was not to be Communicated to any but to their Liege Lord the King himself They were for no Proxies Advocates nor Attorney-Generals of the Dukes providing They would be their own Spokesmen Well then at last after much ado they gain access and shew the King what had been published in Parliament as his Will against their Liberties and priviledges They excus'd likewise themselves of some of the Commonalties behaviour in the late Commotion as being the effect of some ill men among the rabble whereto they were neither privy nor consenting whereupon the King a little cheer'd up with their coming answer'd that he would not the diminishing of their Liberties No he was rather ready if need were to augment them neither did any such Resolutions ever come out of his Mouth and therefore willed them not to fear but to return and appease the Citizens and to keep them in Peace The Dukes faction would have made use of the Kings Name and Authority to deprive the City of her Charter of Liberties and endeavour'd to perswade the Parliament Men that it was the Kings good Will and pleasure to have it so but upon the Citizens application to the King they hear an other tale the King own'd no such thing never any such thing came out of his Mouth he tells them expresly Set a mark here Observe likewise the conseqâ—ence of the Citizens coming to the King he was alittle cheer'd somewhat better in mind possibly when he heard the truth of the matter Before perhaps he had heard strange tales of seditious meetings Insurrections Riots Tumults and the like as if none were for keeping the Kings Peace but the good Dukes good party such stories had they buz'd iâ— the ears of this weak old infirm sickly King and he as ready to believe all till disproved by the different Relations of as Credible witnesses To hear one side only and stop ones ears to the others defence is not only a manifest sign of extream partiality but also the ready way to be impos'd â—pon by the deceit of lying Tongues and to be kept always from the knowledge of the truth where those near us think it their interest to have â—t so About the time of the late uproar it 's said that â—he Duke's arms were hang'd up revers'd in sign â—f Treason in the principal streets of the City â—â—ch was the hatred the Londoners had conceived â—gainst him but 't was in those days as unknown â—ho did it as 't is at this time uncertain who cut â—e Picture of his Royal Highness the Duke of 〈◊〉 the other day at Guild-hal Whether there â—ere any Proclamations with promises of reâ—ard emitted to find out the Author and Actor â—f that deed I
in choosing their representatives Then were the Judges consulted Men as my Author writes learned chiefly in one point that is without considâ—ring Truth or Falshood to please those in high places who gave several extrajudicial opinions in favour of the Prerogative upon some Queries propounded to them by one of which viz. Whether the King might not at his pleasure dissolve the Parliament and command the Lords and Commons to depart we may guess what Exceptions and Resentments were taken against the Commons Request in the Second of this King before mentioned that the Parliament should not be dismist before a reasonable Answer was given to all their Petitions After this was my Lord Mayor of London required to give an account how many able men he could raise in the City who answered that he thought they could make fifty thousand men at an hours warning But when he went about it in good earnest the Citizens cried out they would never fight against the Kings Friends and the Defenders of the Realm Then were there endeavours privily to apprehend the opposing Lords singly by themselves but this design was disappointed and the Lords were quickly up in Arms to defend themselves When these devices would not hold water by the interposition of Mediators it was ordered that the Lords should come to Westminster to the King upon a day appointed them some Persons of Quality and Credit taking Oaths on the Kings part that no fraud or deceit should be used whereupon the Lords prepared themselves to come up according to agreement but soon stopt their Journy upon notice given them of an Ambusment laid for them in the Mews which made the King ready almost to tax them of breach of Covenant till he was told the reason viz. the Ambusment laid for them and then to clear himself as Stow relates it sware he knew of no such thing He might possibly be as innocent as the Child unborn as to any particular knowledge of this matter but certainly his Courtiers were much to blame and very bold thus to act in direct opposition to the former Agreement for that there was such a treacherous piece oâ— Service intended the Annalist assures us but that any of the prime Engineers and designing Actors were punished for acting thus without the Kings more especial Warrant Knowledge or Commission I do not find When these tricks would not do then fair words and promises were come in fashion again to sooth up the angry Lords who at last were come to Westminster with a sufficient Guard of Attendants and in the upshot the speedy calling of a Parliament was concluded on where the Accusers and Accused might meet face to face But the favourite Lords durst not attend the consequence of such a Meeting and therefore the Duke of Ireland and the rest of the Faction left the Court to be out of the way and an Army was after raised to conduct the Duke up to Court with which he hasted as fast as he could towards London but was miserably overthrown at Radcoat Bridge in Oxfordshire by the contesting Lords and so eâ—ded all his glory and a few years after his life Upon this defeat the Lords thought they had matter enough to justifie their Arms with forty thousand men up come they to London and were there received the King then keeping his Christmas in the Tower to whom they shew the Letter he had sent to the aforesaid Duke to raise an Army for their destruction and the Letters the French King had written to him to come into France there to do acts to his own dishonour and the Kingdoms These things we may well conclude bred a great deal of ill blood between the King and his Lords and that their Pulses beat extraordinary high is plain from the peremptory message they sent the King when they understood his mind was alter'd as to keeping his promise before made to them That if he came not according to his word they would chuse another King who should hearken to the faithful Counsel of his Lords This 't is easie to be thought toucht the King to the quick but being not then strong enough to oppose he esteem'd it his safest and securest course to condescend to the Lords desires and order the calling of a Parliament A Parliament comes and then it wrought wonders In Stow we meet with a Story coincident with these times concerning the Londoners how that they understanding that the French King had got together a great Navy assembled an Army and set his purpose firmly to come into England trembling like Leverets fearful as Mice they sought starting holes to hide themselves in even as if the City had been ready to be taken and they that in times past brag'd they would blow all the French men out of England hearing a vain Rumour of the Enemies coming ran to the Walls brake down the houses adjoyning destroyed and laid them flat and did all things in great fear not one Frenchman having then set foot on Shipboard But there 's not one word of the Author whence this was extracted which we commonly find in the Margin in other Relations What ground now there was for this pannick fear I cannot devise or rather reason for the relating of such a heedless story looking more like a conjectural report than an historical relation as if the Writer himself had been frenchified or imposed upon by some French Translator who was desirous to render his Country mâ—n terrible to the English by the Pen of an English Historian since they have been so ill able to do it by their own Swords For that the English neither overmuch lov'd nor fear'd the French Nation is evident from the Histories of ancient times and thâ— occurrences of later days and from the Commons Address to the Purbâ—ck Alarum How then the Londoners should come to be affraid of them so all of a sudden is a Riddle to me 'T is certain enough of late years that when they were burnt out of house and home and had little more perhaps to lose besides their lives upon an Alarum of the French coming and Papists rising they were like inraged Bears robb'd of their young Ones much more ready to fall on than the others to set upon them so far were they from standing in fear of the whole power of France though it should have been united with all their Popish Friends Favourers and Pensioners in England And that they had little or no grounds for such fear in those elderly times the long train of Victories gain'd heretofore in France puts us out of doubt Besides methinks the Instances in this Story which the Writer sets down as Arguments of fear are rather proofs of a provident care and foresight For what else can the running to the Walls and breaking down the Houses adjoyning import but a design and resolution to stand upon their own Guard which is the property of Courage not of Cowardise That there were intentions suitable to men of valour
Neither were indeed these latter proceedings attempted till after that by several tricks and devices as naming Sheriffs fit to serve turns and imposing such Representatives on the Borough Towns as would be byass'd to betray their Country besides a violent seizure of the Country Lords likely to oppose the Court had got a Parliament to their minds that would do their own business not the Nations and prefer the private gain of some few before the publick benefit of the whole Common-wealth What sort of Parliament this was and how fairly things were carried we may inform our selves out of Stow's Annals where we find it upon Record in the twenty first year of this King how that all of a suddain in the midst of a great calm and outward serenity the King caus'd the principals of the party thought most opposite to Court designes to be feiz'd on and imprison'd and among the rest his own Uncle as Chief so unsecure is Kindred and Alliance among Kings and Princes tells the Commons by Proclamation that their apprehension was founded on new Transgressions not old Crimes though these afterwards were the great offences laid to their charge procures their Indictment at Nottingham suborns several Nobles to impeach them in the next Parliament Assembles many Malefactors of the County of Chester in the nature of a Guard and then summons the Parliament Thither came the Nobles with an Armed Retinue for fear of the King such Knights are chosen Prolocutors as are described to be void of all manner of goodness as in whom nought was to be found but a natural Covetuousness unsatiable Ambition Intollerable Pride and Hatred of the truth and the Clergy upon pain of losing their Temporalties injoyn'd to chose them a Common Proctor who thereupon appointed Sir Henry Percy Steward of the Kings Houshold to assent in their Names to all things done in the Parliament How then things were likely to be ordered in the two Houses 't is no hard matter for us to guess especially when we remember that the Annalist tells us the Parliament House was compass'd about with four thousand of the Kings Archers who seem to have been ready prepar'd on all occasions for an Onset and once more particularly mistaking the noise usually made at the Parliament's Men coming out of the House for a Tumultous Broil and Contention with their Bows bent Arrows fitted and drawing they were upon the point of shooting to the terrour of all present till the Kings coming rectified their mistake and pacified them To tell of recalling of Pardons disannulling of Charters making void of Commissions revoking former Judgments impeaching arraigning condemning and actually punishing the opposite Party some with loss of Estates Lives and all others with forfeitures of all worldly Goods and perpetual irrevocable imprisonment I esteem a needless labour Suffice it therefore to remark how sollicitous the Court was at this juncture to render their own Party as Saints and the others as most guilty Criminals to take off the contesting Lords as disloyal Traytors and restore in the Eye of the Law the Reputation of Courtiers formerly condemn'd in the eleventh year of this King as if they had been the honestest and loyallest Subjects in the Nation and undo as much as in them lay what ever was then done in the Parliament that wrought wonders not withstanding that in many things they imitated that Assembly when they thought it for their peculiar advantage as in Lords Appellants Oaths to make all the Judgments Ordinances and Statutes unrepealable and Excommunication of the Breakers or Impugners of them but in others far out did it as in revoking all Pardons pleaded by the opposite Lords under the notion of being unlawfully made or so by the King granted unto them as not to be against himself and excusing those equally guilty of the same actions because look'd on at that time as useful Instruments in carrying on the Court Intreagues viz. suppressing the principal Assertors of Liberty and Property in passing a general Pardon with the Exception of fifty Persons not express'd by name whereby any one at pleasure might be made liable to censure as one of the Persons excepted if thought a Favourer of the contrary side and conserring the whole Power of the Parliament upon certain Lords and Commons fully to answer all Bills and wholly to determine all other matters mov'd in Parliament and not determined with all their Dependants as mischievous a President as Sylla's Proscription though 't is hoped not as practicable besides the prejudging and confining of Parliament Debates by the Judges Opinions That when Articles are propounded by the King to be handled in Parliament if other Articles be handled before those be first dâ—termined that it is Treason in them that do it Such being the Acts of this Assembly and the consequences of the Courts present success in taking off the Heads of the other Party who durst at every turn contest therewith in behalf of those freeborn English Twins Liberty and Property under which the Nation with silent murmurs languished and lamented when they so soon after the end of this Parliament at Shrewsbury and the Kings Progress into the West saw no less than seventeen Counties in East England indicted by the Kings command and as a grievous offence laid to their charge that they had been against him with the Duke of Glocester Earls of Arundel and Warwick the late Principals amongst the contesting Lords but now secur'd fast enough the two first under the undissolvable Bonds of Death the other under the Chains of a perpetual Imprisonment in the Isle of Man and several honourable Persons sent to induce the Lords Spiritual and Temporal to make a Submission by Writing seal'd with their own Hands acknowledging themselves Traytors to the King though they never offended him in Word or Deed Besides the compelling all the Religious Gentlemen and Commons to set their Seals to Blank-Charters that they might be oppress'd severally or all at once at pleasure some being made to pay a thousand Marks some a thousand Pounds And an Order issued out through every Shire in England that all Gentlemen and Men of Substance should be sworn firmly to maintain according to their power all the Statutes Articles and Constitutions ordained in the last Parliament We may easily conclude the Court thought the Citizens of London were not over much in love with these enslaving Statutes unaccustomed Oaths insnaring Blanks and inforc'd Submissions and suspected them ready enough upon occasion to oppose and withstand these manifest encroachments of Antinomian Prerogative upon the Liberty of the Subject and strive to strike off these Fetters and Shackles of Slavery upon the next opportunity before they were thorowly rivetted by Time and Prescription and therefore esteemed it their wisest Course to begin with them first by the usual Method of Indictments while they had the Reins of Government in their own hands and so consequently power enough to manage the Law as they themselves pleased to
wind and turn it about to their interests and bend it to their own irregular Desires and Designs since that they lik'd not to have them confin'd within the limits and bounds thereof This manner of acting however by the by appears to me the most beaten Path to Destruction and the high way to the Actors unavoidable Ruin and I think I have reason History and Experience all on my side This the City seems well to have understood and therefore with Prudence chose rather to yield to the times for a season than presently to strive against the running stream and immediately to fall a rowing against high wind and Tide but as soon as ever the flowing waters began to Ebb and the tide was a turning the City Barge struck in with the returning waves and assisted to steer the Ship of the Common-wealth to a quite different Haven from that whither the Court was furiously driving her before And then for the most favourable of the Citizens to shew themselves but faint Regardless friends was far less beneficial to the desolate forsaken King than for others of them to appear earnest Enemies in so critical a Juncture was disadvantagious to this unfortunate Prince as he may well be term'd either for having none but ill Councellors and faithless Trencher-friends about him and hearkning so much to their pernitious and destructive advice or else for the defect of his Judgment in not discerning between their private self ends and his own special and particular interest viz. Impartiality in doing Justice to all States and Persons from the highest to the lowest squaring all his own actions by the known Rules of the Law of the Land to the pleasing of his people not by the compass of other mens unstable fancies and anomalous Plat-forms to the loss of his Subjects love and affection and the unhappy fate that attended him upon this his ill conduct when he was violently thrown out of the Chair of State into a profound Abyss of miseries and infelicities and irrecoverably cast out of a Regal Throne into an unavoidable Prison between which and his grave he had but few steps to make For we are to know that as in the tuming of fortunes wheel the spoke that is got upermost presently begins to decline and so runs downwards till it comes to be the under-most of all or like as Sysiphus stone forc'd up e'en almost to the very top of the Hill presently tumbles down again to the bottom with a swiftness and violence not to be stop't by the strength of art or nature so this Prince arriv'd in a manner to the heigth of his desires by the Caprice of fortune or rather by the over-ruling power of a superior Being was suddenly and unexpectedly beyond Recovery hurl'd down from the Grandeur of a Potent King into the lowest Station among Men the Confinement of a Prison and that too occasion'd by the very same way and means whereby he thought to have secur'd to himself amore fixt and setled enjoyment of his greatness as comes now of course to be shewn in manner following After the suppression of the opposite Party under the shadow of Law and Justice diffention happening between the two Dukes of Norfolk and Hereford both then great at Court to the mutual accusation of each other the King greedily lays hold on the opportunity and instead of permitting them according to the Custom of those times where clear proofs were wanting to make good their accusations by the Sword in a single Combat as had been also before appointed unadvisedly banishes them both the Land the first for ever and the latter for a term of years with this hard measure into the bargain that they should not sue for a release of their Judgments on pain of Treason whereby he made both his Enemies and the latter so much the more dangerous the nearer he stood Related to the Crown and the more inveterate in that the King had procur'd the Letters Pattents before granted him to sue by Attorney for Lands descended to him to be revok'd by Assent of Parliament and declar'd to be against Law and had afterwards upon his Father John of Gaunts death violently seis'd on all his Estate whereto Hereford was Heir Then amidst the murmurs of the People for misgovernment and ill guidance of the Realm away goes the King for Ireland with a puissant Army when he thought he had left all things secure in England by the advantage he had made of the last Parliament by engrossing whatever he pleased into his own hands by the tricks found out to raise Money of the Subject by Blanks c. and the Subsidy he had gain'd in Parliament during his Life upon the continuance whereof without molestation he openly declar'd his general Pardon should stand and no otherwise and managed his Arms therewith success enough but ill news out of England that the Duke of Hereford by his Fathers death Duke of Lancaster was landed in England under colour of claiming his Inheritance and rais'd people as he went alarm'd him and bad advice afterwards which detain'd him longer than his promise in Ireland so loath were his Counsellors to spare his company under the shelter of whose Person and presence lay their greatest hopes of protection quite ruin'd him For coming over and finding the Army gone away which the Earl of Salisbâ—ry had rais'd against his coming and had newly voluntarily disbanded it self upon the Kings tarrying too long behind the Earl in Ireland his courage fail'd him and he trusting more to flight than fighting the treachery of his Principal Officers deceiv'd him and he himself also by soothing words and faiâ— promises was decoy'd into the Duke of Lancaster's hands who soon secur'd him fast enough withoâ—â— any intent to let him loose again in haste Now the King is in hold let us see how the Citizens behav'd themselves in this great Turn and Change of the Times They had in this Kings Nonage in his Grandfathers dayes appear'd the undaunted Assertors of his Right and Title and in the beginning of his Reign contributed much to his Security and Settlement on the THRONE But a new Generation being sprang up in Twenty Years space and their old Services at last so ill requited by new attempts on their Liberties by Inditements and blank-Charters instead of standing up with their Lives and Fortunes in the Kings Defence and Vindication they openly devoted themselves to anothers Service and became the known Favourers of that Party which assisted to Depose this unhappy Prince and set up in His Room the Duke of Lancaster under the Name and Title of Henry the Fourth As is provable both from Statute-Law viz. the Act made in the First of this New King to be seen in the Statute-Book Cap. 15. An. 1. H. 4. Where we find express mention of the good and lawful behaviour of the Mayor Sheriffs and Aldermen and all the Commonalty of the same City of London towards him and Stow's general Chronicle
Law to the Destruction of the Duke of Glâ—ucester and the Earls of Arundel and Warwick at Shrewscury For that the King against his Promise procured the Duke of Ireland sundry Rebells about Cheshire where diverse Murders by him were committed For that the King against his own Promise and Pardon at the Solemn Procession apprehended the Duke of Gloucester and sent him to Callice there to be choked and murdered beheading the Earle of Arundel and banishing the Earl of Warwick and the Lord Cobham For that the Kings Retinue and rout gathered out of Cheshire about the apprehension of those Nobles committed diverse Murders Rapes and other Fellonies besides refusing to pay for their Victuals For that the King condemned the Nobles aforesaid for divers rodes made within the Realm contrary to his open Proclamation For that the King doubly Fined Men for their Pardons For that the King to oppress his whole subjects procured in his last Parliament that the Power thereof was committed to certain Persons For that the King being sworn to Minister right did notwithstanding enact in the last Parliament that no mediation should be made for the Duke of Lancaster contrary to his said Oath For that the Crown of England being freed from the Pope and all other forraign Power the King notwithstanding procured the Popes Excommunication on such as brake the last Parliament in derogation of the Crown Statutes and Laws of the Realm For that the King banished the Duke of Lancaster for 10 years without any Cause as the same King openly affirmed For that the King unlawfully revoked the Letters Patents made to the said Duke of Lancaster in An. 21. For that the King contrary to the Laws and will of the Justices suffered Sheriffs to continue longer than one year and placed such therein as were unfit For that the King repayed not to his Subjects debts of them borrowed For that the King in the time of Truce and Peace exacted great Subsidies and wasted the same about frivilous matters For that the King refused to execute the Laws Saying that the Laws were in his Mouth and Breast For that the King by procuring by Statutes that he might be free as any of his Progenitors did under colour thereof subvert Laws according to his Will For that the King procured Knights of the Shires to be made to serve his own will For that the King enforced Sheriffs to be Sworn to execute all Commandemens under the Great Seal Privy Seal or Signet contrary to their accustomed Oaths For that the King to wrack mony from his Subjects procured 17 several Shires to submit themselves to his Grace whereby great sums of mony were Levied For that the King being Sworn to observe the Liberties of the Church notwithstanding at his Voyage into Ireland enforced diverse Religious Persons to give Horse Armour and Carts For that the Justices for their good Councel given to the King were with evil Countenance and threats rewarded For that the King of his own Will in passing into Ireland carried with him the Treasures Reliques and other Jewels of the Realm which were used safely to be kept in the Kings own Coffers from all hazard and for that the same King cancelled and razed sundry Records For that the King by writing to Forreign Princes and to his own Subjects is reputed universally a most variable and dissembling man For that the King would commonly say among the Nobles that all Subjects Lives Lands and Goods were in his hands without any forfeiture For that the King suffered his Subjects to be condemned by Marshal-Law contrary to his Oath and the Laws of the Realm For that the Subjects being only bound by their Allegiance were yet driven to take certain New Oaths for serving the folly of the King For that the King by his private Letters would charge the Ecclesiastical Ministers in any new Canonical matter to stay contrary to his Oath For that the King by force in his Parliament banished the Arch Bishop of Canterbury without any good Ground For that the King by his last Will passed under the Great Seal and Privy Signet gave unto his Successors certain Money and Treasure upon Condition to perform all the Acts and Orders in the last Parliament which being ungodly and unlawful he meant as ungodlily to dy in For that the King in the 11th of his Reign in his Chappel in the Manour of Langley in the presence of the Duke of Lancaster and Yorke and others received the Sacrament of the Lords Body that he would never impeach the Duke of Gloucester his Uncle for any thing before done and yet to the Contrary procured him to be murdered For that the King most fraudulently and untruely against his own Oath Banished the Arch Bishop of Canterbury and wasted his Goods in which Article in private Conference between the said Arch Bishop the King in a manner prophesied and doubted that the like would happen of himself and thereupon shewed a special Token to the Arch Bishop That if he sent the same at any time that the Arch Bishop should look that the King would come to him These were the Imputations laid to his charge and that they were then thought true or at least not contradicted is self-Evident all seeming highly desirous of a Change and few dispos'd to espouse the depos'd Kings Cause and Interest so furious and violent was the Current of the Times as to bear away well nigh all before it That Parliament being so full of the new Kings Favourers and so empty of the old Kings true and cordial Friends that I remember to have read of but one viz. the Loyal Bishop of Carlisle who after a little Demur of a few dayes time upon a Motion made in Parliament about the disposal of King Richard stood up boldly and undauntedly for his old Lord and Master in the midst of his professed and declared Enemies and known Deserters His Speech as a rare Example of Fidelity giving us the very Quintessence of Loyalty I shall venture to set down out of Sir Richard Bakers Chronicle with the Consequents as follows My Lords The Matter now propounded is of marvellous Weight and Consequence wherein there are two Points chiefly to be considered The First whether King Richard be sufficiently put out of his Throne The Second whether the Duke of Lancaster be lawfully taken in For the First How can that be sufficiently done when there is no Power sufficient to do it The Parliament cannot for of the Parliament the King is the Head and can the Body put down the Head You will say but the Head may bow it self down and may the King resign It is true but what force is in that which is done by force And who knows not that King Richard's Resignation was no other But suppose he be sufficiently out yet how comes the Duke of Lancaster to be lawfully in If you say by Conquest you speak Treason For what Conquest without Arms And can a Subject take Arms
slightness of their thin-spun pretences and weakness of their groundless Imputations A pretty device to make Riots and Insurrections and then accuse the contrary Party of them as if they had been so Fanatical as tumultuously to meet together vi armis without any Arms about them or Weapons in their hands to disturb the Kings Peace and with no worse design than the Warrant of annual Customs whereon some in an unheard of manner without Law or Reason and contrary to common sence intruded to deprive them of the benefit thereof Out of the forementioned Monkish Writer Stow tells us of an Army of Twenty Five Thousand that were to have met Sir John in St. Giles's Fields and yet for all this great Cry we find not One Hundred taken though he affirms Sixty Nine of them to be condemn'd of Treason upon such kind of proofs perhaps as these whereon the Composer of Sir Walter Rawleigh's Life makes him to have been found Guilty of Treason in the First of King James for which he had the honour to be Beheaded about Forty Years after upon his Return from his unsuccessful Guyana Voyage and Thirty Seven Hang'd But the Record out of the Kings-Bench the most authentick Evidence mentions only That Sir John Oldcastle and others to the number of Twenty Men call'd Lollards at St. Giles did conspire to Subvert the State of the Clergy this it seems then was the principal Offence the rest Aggravations without which the Scales could not have been well weigh'd down and to Kill the King and his Brother and other Nobles as any English Reader may see in Cottons Abridgment at the afore-cited Parliament of the Fifth of this King Where now are any good grounds for this malicious Out-cry upon the Dissenting Wicklivists for Traiterous Plotters and Conspirators And what 's become of the great Army that Fame and Report had Rais'd But perhaps the Inn-keepers in the adjacent Hamlets and neighbouring Villages were not only their familiar Friends but intimate Acquaintance as Mr. Bags ingenuity to the elevating and surprizing of our Minds hath taught us to express it how otherwise this Achilles and his dreadful Army of Mirmidons could have continued thus unseen and slipt away in Disguise seems not reconcileable to Sence and Reason And yet how such great Numbers could have lain hid within the compass of a Readmote or have been put like Homers Iliads in a Nut-shell is a thing that passeth all my understanding to conceive If ever such a thing was as doubtless it never hapned in Europe nor amongst either our antient or modern Reformers certainly then this unconceivable Wonder must have fell out in the Reign of Queen Dick King of no Lands upon the Terra incognita of some other of the Fairy Islands bordering upon Vtopia where Prince Oberon and Queen Mab liv'd in dayly dread and fear of King Arthur Sir Lancelot and Sir Tristram and the rest of the Knights of his round Table or miserably perplext themselves every hour and minute with needless Scruples Jealousies and Suspicions about the unimagin'd Designs of the Noble Duke Ogier to advance himself and his little Mervine who afterwards did such heroick Exploits upon the Souldan of Babylon and his bloody cut-throat Army of Sarazens when he turn'd to the Assistance of the famous Câ—arlemain and his Peers But laying aside these idle Stories of the Monkish Romancers I pass on from our famous win-All Henry of Monmouth to the unfortunate English lose-All Henry of Windsor a far better Man than King as being more intentive upon the Devotions of the Times than the Government of his Realm and better skill'd in his Beads than his Scepter and therefore seems rather cut out for a Priest than a Prince In this Kings Minority while such great States-men and Patriots as his most renowned Uncles Bedford and Gloucester sate at the Helm and steadily Steer'd the Ship of the Common-Wealth one by his Arms the other by his Arts Honour and Renown attended upon the English Banners in France and the Land at Home in peace and quietness Flourished under the benign Influence of their successful Councels for the most part free from civil Broils and Commotions King Henry being in actual Possession of both Crowns under the conduct of such noble and worthy Directors But when Death had snatch'd away one from his Regency in France and the other was dismist from his Protectorship in England through the course of time The King being grown in Years and come to ripeness of Age though not it seems to such a degree of understanding as might capacitate him to act the part of a King further than in Name and Shew his Affairs in forreign Parts soon went miserably to wrack and being turn'd out of almost all beyond Sea deadly Fewds and Annimosities the usual attendants of ill Success abroad encreast so fast at Home between the Nobles and great Persons of the Realm and such intestine Jars sprung up in the Nation that after many Battles fought and much Royal Blood spilt the York Party prevail'd over the Lancastrians and the poor King himself though the Miracle of Age for Devotion lost his Crown Life and All at last Whether 't was purely the ill success abroad or the ill management of the State at home the unhappy Fate attending the Kings Matching with Queen Margaret to the breach of a former Contract or the unseasonable stirring of her and her accomplices to Suppress Ruine and Root out the other Party whereby they were compell'd for their own Security to link themselves together in the strictest bonds of Confederacy and stand continually upon their own Guard Whether the weakness of the King or the restless Spirit of the Queen too Active for her Sex The much resented Death of the Duke of Glocester or the subtle Arts and Devices of the Duke of York into the particulars whereof I will not now descend as being the Subject of a distinct Treatise by it self and the Popularity of the great Earl of Warwick Whether 't was any of these single or all of them joyntly concurring or rather the over-ruling Providence of an Almighty Being that made this strange Alteration in the Face of things to the dethroning of one Prince the most devoted of his time to religious Exercises and exalting of another as much given to Women as the former to Religion whereby the White Rose overtopt the Red Certain it is the City of London had a great Influence upon these Transactions and the favour the Citizens bore to the Duke of York and his Party contributed highly to the advancing of his Interest above the King Regnants if they were not the only grand causes under Heaven that produc't such wonderful and stupendious Effects This the more clearly to demonstrate I shall not oblidge my self exactly to trace the whole Series of State affairs through the following Princes Reigns nor over-scrupulously confine my self to the Life of this or that King distinctly and apart But design to
redounded so much to his own advantage and the Interest of the York Family which he had for a long time before espoused by the favour he gained thereby among the Commons of the Realm in general and of the City in particular For when he came to London the Analist informs us he kept such an House that six Oxen were eaten at a Breakfast and every Tavern was full of his Meat and whoso had any acquaintance in his House might have had as much Sodden and Rost as he might carry upon a long Dagger All this notwithstanding when upon disgust and discontent he had turned to the other side and became a favourer of the Lancastrians he was never the less disappointed in his aims and expectations from the Londoners For though by his turning sides the York Party had been once routed King Edward taken Prisoner and King Henry resettled once more on the Throne and he had in a manner the whole power of the Land in his hands besides the general Love and Affection the Commons bore to him and the dread and terror the sound of his Name oft struck into his Enemies Hearts it having in effect altered the Fortune and turned the Scales in two Battels one in King Henry's days for the Yorkists another in King Edwards for the Lancastrians yet upon the return of King Edward from beyond Sea whither he had some time before escaped out of Custody into England to recover his Inheritance and regain his Crown and the News of his Marching up to London both sides saith Baker seeking to make the City their Friends the Citizens backwardness to take up Arms in Defence of Old King Henry his Crown and Dignity and inclination to Young King Edward was so apparent that Warwicks own Brother the Arch-bishop of York distrusting the Event secretly sought King Edwards Favour he himself was received into London King Henry was redelivered unto him and the Great Warwick slain not long after at Barnet in a pitch'd Battell to the utter Ruin of the Lancastrian Party for that Age the consequence of this overthrow being enough to read them their succeeding ill Fate at Tewksbury they themselves having sufficient Cause to be daunted with the loss of their most powerful friends and favourers and the Yorkists to be flush'd with their Success in gaining so important a Victory As the Citizens continued thus favourable to the King so I don't find them them chang'd and alter'd in ther Inclinations to the other side till some of the Yorkists themselves by their own hands began to loose and untye those Bonds of Amity Friendship and Fidelity the Late King's Children being dispossest by his own Brother the Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Richmond the surviving hopes of the Lancastrians had openly declar'd his Intentions and solemnly Sworn to marry King Edward's Eldest Daughter the rightful Heir of all the Yorkists Greatness which afterwards was as honourably as honestly perform'd whereby both Families became united in one Line and the two Roses happily inoculated each upon the other The expression I hope the ingenious Society of Gardiners and Florists will pardon me if harmlesly guilty of an absurdity in translating the term from fruits to flowers Did the Citizens of London appear so zealously on the Yorkists behalf and yield such powerful assistance to carry on their designs What other than can we expect with reason but that King Edward behaved himself very gratefully towards that City which Espoused his flaughtered Fathers Cause against even the Governing Party and contributed so considerably to his own Restauration Though it is but too commonly seen that as mean services are but meanly recompenced or else wholly ' slighted add forgotten so an excess of merit too great to be rewarded brings oftner danger than advantage to the party concerned Evident examples whereof our own and Foreign Histories can abundantly afford us and it is well if the City of London could produce no experience of her own in confirmation of their verity and validity while some others having gotten well by their services to the facilitating their ascent into high Places have no better improved them in the Eyes of the World than in keeping their Coaches their Horses and their Misses and made little other returns of thanks and gratitude to the City but some small slight acknowledgments and concessions and perhaps a few verbal promises and assurance or else forgetting their former needs and necessities have endeavoured most ungratefully to turn their power upon her which they may be thought to have gained chiefly and principally by her means But King Edward it seems or those about him had honester Principles in them or were better tempered For we find in Baker that he furnished his Councel Table for the most part with such as were gracious among the Citizens and we Read in Stow of no less than eleven Aldermen besides the Lord Mayor and Recorder Knighted by him at one time in the Highway betwixt Islington and Shoreditch upon his return from the Battel at Tewksbury in reward of the good service the Londoners had done him As for the jovial Entertainment of the Mayor Aldermen and Commons in Waltham Forrest by the Kings express order and appointment in his presence about an year before he dyed 't is a Subject Treated on by more English Historians than one with the circumstances and consequents thereof the pleasant lodge of Green boughs set up on purpose for them the Complemental condescention of the King in refusing to go to his own Dinner till he had saw them served the Hunting sport he shewed them the plenty of Venison he gave them at their departure and the noble Present of two Harts and six Bucks with a Tun of Wine he sent to the Lady Mayoress and her Sisters the Aldermens Wives to make merry with which they did afterwards at Drapers Hall where without all peradventure the Kings Health went all round the Table if it was then in Fashon but for this I will not put one finger in the fire If we dive into the reasons of the variation of the Pole at London and search into the occasional Causes of the manifest change and alteration of their Affections from thr Family of Lancaster to the House of York we may impute it partly to the losses crosses and unsuccessful management of Affairs under a weak King and a self seeking Court of Lancastrians but chiefly to the encrease of National grievances without timely care taken to redress them and the fixt Resolution of the Court Party to oppress their opposites the Yorkists any manner of ways by right or by wrong for we may easily observe from History and experience such to have been the usual motives to disgusts and the common incitements to discontent Therefore I presume I may draw hence better grounds and reasons of the Cities Love to King Edward than those alledged by Baker out of Comines viz. that he got the Love of the Londoners by owing them
in England and under the auspicious influence of her Reign the City flourish'd to such an height of Grandeur whether we respect the concourse of Forreign Merchants from abroad or the stateliness of her publick buildings at home the freedom and security of Traffick and the flowing in of Riches and Wealth thereby the famous exploits perform'd by her Citizens in other Countries and Climates and the foundation in those times laid for much greater atchievements by the necessary preparatives of skill and knowledge in Military affairs gain'd by the more frequent Musters and Warlike exâ—rcises of her Inhabitants than in former times or learn't at that Grand Nursery of Souldiers the Artillery Garden that 't is easie to conjecture how secure her Majesty was in the Ctiizens love and loyalty and how happy they thought themselves in the favour and protection of so good great and gracious a Princess 'T is not therefore to be expected that such turns and changes should occur in her days wherein the City might have occasion to interpose her Authority to settle and secure the Nation against the furious attempts of arbitrary Pretenders or lye under any unavoidable necessity of shewing her Power and Influence over it in contradiction to other mens aspiring and ambitious Designs However I am not destitute of an Instance to demonstrate the consequence of her Example and how much all England was influenced thereby to the manifestation of their zeal love and duty to their Soveraign In 88. a year so famous for the Spanish Invasion the Queens Counsel had demanded what the City would do for her Majesty and their Country and the Lord Mayor and Aldermen had referr'd it to their Honours to make their Proposals whereupon fifteen Ships and five thousand Men being required and two days respite at the Cities desire granted for Answer they returned in convenient time and season and entreated their Lordships in sign of their perfect love and loyalty to their Prince and Country they are Stows words kindly to accept ten thousand Men and thirty Ships amply furnished double the number of what was asked and even as London saith my Author gave President the whole Nation kept ranck and equipage so ready were the other Cities Counties Towns and Villages to follow where London went before A plain instance of her powerful influence deny it who can As to what concerns the frequency of the visits the Queen made to London and the great splendor wherewith they commonly welcom'd her home at the end of her Country progresses I pass them all over though undeniable demonstrations of the present content and satisfaction they took in Queen Elizabeths good Government Neither shall I take notice of the many Companies of Soldiers she several times rais'd at her own charges for her Soveraigns Assistance it having been commonly done before under Princes in whom she took delight because I would hasten to King James the first Monarch of great Britain in whose Person England and Scotland were first united though his present Majesty King James's Grand-son was the first born Heir of that happy Union that was Crowned King of both Realms and the first English King by Birth of the Scottish race that ever sate upon the English Throne that we read of To tell how this City flourish'd under this Prince in wealth and riches in a general encrease of trade by forreign Merchandizes and home-made Manufactures The great ornament she received from her publick and private buildings the strength that accrued to her by the numerousness of her Inhabitants and the enlarging her borders the conveniences procur'd her for water by Midleton's River for Recreations by Morefields and pleasantness by paâ—'d Streets and the various expressions she made of her glory in the many noble Entertainments of King James and other great personages Forreigners and Natives and the rich presents she frequently gave besides the renown she got abroad by sending greater Numbers of her Ships than formerly into all trading Parts of the World and planting Colonies of her own people in Ireland and Virginia would be tiresome perhaps to the Reader and needless for the Writer since that in Stows Chronicle continued by How these particulars have been so largely treated of whether the curious and inquisitive may apply themselves for further satisfaction Neither shall I trouble my self with making large remarks upon the great honour and dignity for the City's sake belonging to the Lord Mayor thereof of which we seem to have an Instance in the beginning of this Kings reign when Sir Robert Lee then Lord Mayor of London subscrib'd in the first place to the invitation sent the King to come into England before all the great Officers of the Crown and all the Nobility This great Magistrate upon the Kings death being said to be the prime person of England than which what greater honour can there be appertaining to a Subject I have indeed read in Cotton that upon a Poll Bill the Lord Mayor paid four pound as an Earl many years ago in King Richard the second days when but few of the Nobility if any besides the blood Royal bore any higher title And find since at our Kings Coronations that he hath had a principal place and part assigned him particularly at his present Majesties April 23d 61. and in the honourable Cavalcade made from the Tower to Westminster the day before in order thereunto where the Suppliment to Baker's Chronicle out of Elias Ashmole the Windsor Heralds Copy hath placed him between the principal Officers of the Crown and the Duke of York a place doubtless designed him as most suitable to his Dignity and the high Office he bore and yet I count none of these Honours comparable to that before mentioned which seems paramount to all others To be the highest by place in the Kingdom of course for a season sounds greater than to be a Second a Third or a Fourth and is more doubtless to the Honour Credit and Reputation of the City that conferrs this place as she pleases But the chiefest point I intend here to insist on with all convenient brevity and perspicuity is the Declaration of the Cities love and affection to King James and the requital made her by him in return The first I know not how it could be better expressed than by the wonderful readiness and hearty gladness as the Annalist words it of the great City of London where the Magistrates and all other inferior Citizens shewed all possible signs of perfect joy and contentment amidst the general applause of the whole English Nation when he was first proclaimed King of the Realm and we have further demonstrations thereof from the Kings honourable Reception when he came near to London by the Lord Mayor and Aldermen in Scarlet Robes and five hundred grave Citizens in Velvet Coats and Chains of Gold all very well mounted like the Sheriffs and their train one of which had threescore men attending him in fair livery Cloaks Another instance
was then hurried I shall not stand to shew how much she was Courted by Oliver and the rest of the Usurping powers on all emergencies and the great care was taken to secure her to their interest and party though both are touch'd upon in the supplement to Bakers Chronicle but passing all over I come now to demonstrate the great influence she had upon the Nation in that remarkable turn of the times which produc'd so unparallel'd a wonder as the peaceable Restauration of an exil'd Prince to his Father's Crown and Kingdom without blood Which to prove I need go no further than the aforesaid supplement where several evidences and convincing circumstances are to be found besides matters of fact already else where related and I doubt not but sufficiently demonstrative These to Marshal in their order I begin first of all with the Citizens discontentedness at the Committee of safety and Fleetwoods doubtfulness of them and proceed to General Monk's Letter sent to the Lord Mayor and Common Council some time after he had declared his Resolution to reduce the Military power under the Civil though principally intending we are since told the Kings Restauration to heigthen their diffâ—rences wherein upon a Declaration of his open intenâ—ions he expresses his Expectation of their Assistance lest it should be too late for them by their own strength to assert their freedom if he miscarried through the want of their timely aid and dishonourable if he succeeded for so Famous a City and so much concern'd that it's Liberties should be asserted without its own help In the next place comes the encouragement the Letter sent from some of the old Council of State privately met at London among whom we find Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper that Fam'd Earl of Shaftsbury a Principal Agent through the whole course of those affairs and an active Instrument in bringing in the King to Monk brought his Officers in Scotland and the reason given thereof viz. That the wisest of them did conclude from these appearances of action at London that their party was encreased in England imagining that otherwise they durst not have so openly acted Then follows the Intelligence he receiv'd when at Coldstream from his Brother Clarges that there were many great differences in London between Fleetwood and the City that the Prentices and several others in favour of him had many Consultations to make disturbances and were framing a Petition to the Lord Mayor and Common Council to press their interposition for the restoring the Parliament and preservation of Magistracy their rising in a Tumultuous manner upon a Proclamation emitted by the Committee of Safety to prohibit all gathering of hands to Petitions and the shutting up of Shops upon Hewson's coming to suppress them the affronts put upon his Soldiers by scornful reproaches and Hissings to that degree that they were asham'd to March and many Officers when they went into the City durst not wear their Swords for fear of the like and which was as material as any that the Lord Mayor and several Aldermâ—n had had many ineffectual Treaties with Fleetwood and the Chief of the Army and Committee of Safety the City deâ—anding the mannagement and conduct of their own Militia and the instant Restauration of the Parliament or the calling another which being refus'd much augmented their discontents These were Preparatives to the resitting of part of the Commons house which soon after was invited to reassume their former power Enter next to General Monk at Morpeth the Sword bearer of London with a very respectful Letter from the Lord Mayor and Common Council After this we hear of Clarges's Advice to Monk to get the Parliament Soldiers remov'd out of London and to march his own men in thither so to be Master of the City with the reason laid down that otherwise he could never expect to do any good for his Country since in all those times it had been experienced that to whatever was done at London where they hâ—d nine or ten thousand men to justifie their actions all the rest of the Regiments submitted Now follow Commissioners from the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of London to the General and their Proposition for the readmission of the sâ—cluded Mâ—mbers that the Parliament might be made full and free Then the discontented carriage of 〈◊〉 City the high debates in the Common Council about the Government and their resolution to pay no publick Taxes till the House were filled up with equal Representatives After this the Generals intercession to those then of the Commons House for a mitigation of their Commands laid on him among other severities to take down Londons Gates and Portcullices for this reason that such sâ—vâ—re acting would highly incense the City and the Compliment of thanks to please the Lord Mayor and Aldermen sent them from the House for their moderation in that time of disorder in the City But to close all with a sutable instance Clarges's Counsel to General Monk to endeavour the speedy recovery of the City's good opinion almost lost by his rough actings therein just before brings up the rear wiâ—h the effectual representation he made him of the ill Consequences of his proceedings in London and the prevalent motives urgent reasons and good grounds laid down by him to back his Advice As that the influence the City had by commerce and other Occasions all over England would quickly diffuse the Infamy of the Fact And all the Cities and Towns would be alarm'd believing if that great City should be made a Village that all their Franchises and Priviledges would be quickly subverted So that he had no way to redeem his Reputation but the very next morning to return into the City with his Army and declare for a free Parliament This Counsel presently followed terminated in a successful event and very happy to King and Kingdom by the Miraculous Restauration of his most gracious Majesty Charles the Second to his Patrimonial inheritance and the Throne of his Father Thus have I muster'd up my Evidences in Rank and File all which conjoyn'd like the old Country-man's rods in the Fable bound up together in one bundle will make doubtless a very convincing Argument of the great power and influence London had upon the Nation in this grand turn of the Times I shall therefore leave it to the Reader to make sutable remarks thereon it being so obvious to an unprejudic'd Person that great was the encouragement General Monk and his Officers receiv'd from London considerable was the hope and confidence he put therein when he undertook so Heroick an Enterprise as the freeing his poor Country from the Tyranical exorbitancies of the unruly Soldiers and thought of marching up thither in Arms with all convenient speed to that end and most highly advantagious to his Designs was the unanimous concurrence of this great honourable and powerful City which was not so furiously rash presently to attempt to run down the encroachers upon their
the cries of the wounded in our streets A Miraculous effect of the Cities influence For what parts of the Land are so inconsiderate to oppose when London is engag'd and resolv'd Former Examples may teach them future wisdom These having been the necessary preparatives in sixty one on Saint Georges day April the 23. comes the Kings Coronation the fairest day except the Preceding in which he made his Cavalcade through London the Nation enjoy'd both before and after if the supplementers Observation be well grounded notwithstanding it began to Thunder and Lighten very smartly towards the end of Dinner time and soon after that another meeting of King Lords and Commons at Westminster whither the Kings Writs had Summoned them to make a New Parliament the former Assembly having been dissolv'd the December before by his Majesties Order and Command How acceptable the Actions of that Assembly were to City and Country hath been hinted before and the concurrence of the King when restor'd was not wanting to Authorize their proceedings yet this new Assembly notwithstanding thinking the manner of it's Assembling not to be drawn into Example and that therewas some defect as to the necessary point of Legality in the Statutes then made or at least desirous to remove all doubts fears and scruples about them would not let several of those Acts pass without being formally ratified and confirm'd anew by it's own Authority And therefore consequently not trusting to the receiv'd opinion of the dissolution of the Parliament of forty by the late Kings Death nor relying on the House of Commons Act to dissolve themselves in fifty nine nor the dissolution of the Lords and Commons in sixty another Declaration was made in the point in these word To the end that no Man bereafter may be misled into any seditious or unquiet demeanor out of an opinion that the Parliament begun and held at Westminster upon the third day of November in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and forty is yet in being which is undoubtedly dissolved and determined and so is hereby Declared and Adjudged to be fully Dissolved and Determined And it was further Enacted by the same Authority That if any Person or Persons at any time after the four and twentieth day of June in the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred sixty and one shall Malitiously and Advisedly by Writing Printing Preaching or other Speaking Express Publish Vtter Declare or affirm that the Parliament begun at Westminster upon the third day of November in the year of our Lâ—rd one thousand six hundred and forty is not yet dissolved or is not yet determined or that it ought to be in being or hath yet any continuance or Existence that then every such Person and Persons so as aforesaid offending shall incur the danger and penalty of a Premunire mentioned in a Statute made in the sixteenth year of the Reign of King Richard the second Thus then were all disputes upon this point effectually stil'd and suppress'd by this Authority and Command of King Lords and Commons and the greatness of the penalty incur'd by the person offending which amounts to no less than to be put out of the Kings Protection and have his Lands and Tenements Goods and Chattels forfeited to the King and his Body Attach'd if to be found and brought before the King and his Council there to Answer the premises or that process be made against him by Praemunire facias and if return'd non est inventus than to be Outlaw'd Next I proceed to observe that 't was Petitioning and addressing that prepar'd the way for His Majesties Restauration and therefore doubtless the remembrance thereof should be always grateful and acceptable to the Loyal Such preparatories to great turns and changes being alwaies preferrable to the other rougher methods of drawn Swords and loaded Pistols which are the general effects of Civil Broils and Commotions while these are the rational results of Wisdom and Prudence With the King was that part of the English Clergy likewise restor'd which appropriates to it self the name of the Church of England A Term much gloried in by many as if none but themselves were the constitutive parts thereof and which some now adays pretend freer from Ambiguity than the more general Name of Protestants What we understand by that Term we know very well and are not asham'd thereof Yet by the way I don't think but 't is as lyable to exceptions where Cavils take place as the other title of Protestants so much of late turn'd into ridicule by some few pretenders to wit and sense above the vulgar For if by Church we understand barely an Assembly of Men met together in one place then doubtless without any incongruity it may be applied to many a civil meeting of Men together about their own private concerns If by Church we mean a society of Men conjoyn'd in Spiritual duties or the Ordinances of Divine Worship then I hope it will be no Solecism in common Speech to affirm many of the Dissenters meetings may reasonably lay claim to the Name And if a due Celebration of the Sacraments will make a Church why then may not the Denomination as well belong to some private Conventicles as to the publick Oratories If it should denote only the Association of many distinct Assemblies under the same Ecclesiastical Government what should hinder the Presbiterians from enjoying the Title in those places where they are allowed to exercise their power in Classical Provincial or National Synods Which Power they once exercis'd in England publickly within the Memory of Man But if the Law of the Land makes the difference and the established Government of the Country in Ecclesiastical affairs as with us in England then I am apt to beleive this Expression the Church of England is not without it's Ambiguities and may be a denomination comprehensive of Men of as many different modes and forms as some would fain have us think the word Protestant admits of Heretofore at the first planting of the Gospel in this Isle among the Britains we may call it the British Church When Austin the Monk came in bringing with him the Customs and Ceremonies of the Church of Rome and introduc'd them among the converted Saxons then we may term it the Romish Church When the Monks and Fryers like the Frogs in Egypt had over-spread the whole face of the Land then we may give it the Epithite of Monkish In succeeding Generations when Popery was arriv'd to its height we may name it the Popish Church In King Edward the sixth days it may properly be called Reformed Under the Marian Persecution 't was certainly Popish Queen Elizabeth brought back the Reformed Religion under an Episcopal Government and therefore I venture to give it the Name of the Reformed Episcopal Church A little before the late Wars when the Hierarchy was arriv'd at its highest pitch of Pomp and Grandeur by the Laudean principles and practises It was certainly