a long and particular Remonstrance which you may read at large in Mr. Rushworth's Collections fol. 40 41 42. setting forth the dangerous State of the Nation and of Christendom by the Alliances of the Pope and Popish Princes especially the King of Spain chief of the League and what dismal Consequences would follow by the Marriage of the Prince with the Infanta c. yet resolve to grant the King another Subsidy for carrying on the War for the Recovery of the Palatinate but withal humbly desired his Majesty to pass such Bills as shall be prepared for his Honour and the general Good of his People accompanied with a general Pardon as is usual concluding with their daily Prayers to the Almighty the great King of Kings for a Blessing upon their Endeavours and for his Majesty's long and happy Reign over them and for his Childrens Children after him for many and many Generations The Noise of this Remonstrance so disturbed the King in his Pleasures at New-market which all his Cares for the Preservation of his Son-in-law's Patrimony could not do that upon the 3d of December he wrote to Sir Thomas Richardson Speaker of the House of Commons this Letter which because of the Rarity of it by any King of England to his Parliament before we will give verbatim Mr. Speaker WE have heard by divers Reports to Our great Grief that Our distance from the Houses of Parliament caused by our Indisposition of Health hath imboldned the fiery and popular Spirits of some of the Commons to argue and debate publickly of Matters far above their Reach and Capacity tending to Our high Dishonour and breach of Prerogative Royal. These are therefore to command you to make known in Our Name unto the House that none therein from henceforth do meddle with any thing concerning Our Government and deep Matters of State and namely not to deal with Our dear Son's Match with the Daughter of Spain nor to touch the Honour of that King or any other of Our Friends and Confederates and also not to meddle with any Man's Particulars which have their due Motion in any of Our ordinary Courts of Justice And whereas We hear they have sent a Message to Sir Edwin Sandys to know the Reasons of his late Restraint you shall in Our Name resolve them that it is not for any Misdemeanor of his in Parliament but to put them out of doubt of any Question of that nature that may arise among them hereafter you shall resolve them in our Name that We think our self very free and able to punish any Man's Misdemeanors in Parliament as well during their Sitting as after which We mean not to spare hereafter upon any Occasion of any Man 's insolent Behaviour there that shall be ministred unto Vs And if they have already touched any of these Points which We have forbidden in any Petition of their which is to be sent to Vs it is Our Pleasure that you tell them That except they reform it before it comes to our Hands We will not deign the Hearing nor Answering of it The Commons having a publick Trust reposed in them and truly apprehensive of the dangerous State of the Protestants in Christendom as well as of the Kingdom and that not only the King's remisness in taking care of both but the Designs he prosecuted were equally dangerous to both in a most humble and supplicant Remonstrance represent to the King his recommendation of the Affairs of the Palatinate to them and the dangerous State of Christendom in discourse whereof they did not assume to themselves any Power to determine of any part thereof nor intend to encroach or intrude upon the Sacred Bounds of his Royal Authority to whom and to whom only they do acknowledg it does belong to resolve of Peace and War and of the Marriage of the most noble Prince his Son but as his most loyal and humble Subjects do represent these things to his Majesty which otherwise could not so clearly come to his Knowledg c. They beseech his Majesty that they may not undeservedly suffer by the Misinformation of partial and uncertain Reports which are ever unfaithful Intelligencers and not give Credit to private Reports against all or any of their Members whom the House hath not censured until his Majesty hath been truly informed from themselves that they may stand upright in his Majesty's Grace and good Opinion than which no worldly Consideration can be dearer to them c. Which you may read at large in Mr. Rushworth's Collections Fol. 44 45 46. The King having cast the Sheet-Anchor of all his Hopes upon the Spanish Match whereby he should not only re-establish his Son-in-law in the Palatinate and get more Money than he could hope for in Parliament furled all his Sails and resolved to ride out this Storm of the Commons notwithstanding his Pleasures and Indisposition of Health in a long Invective against them in a Scotisâ— Dialect which you may read at large in Rushworth's Collections the Heads whereof were 1. That he must repeat the Words of Queen Elizabeth to aâ— insolent Proposition made by a Polonian Ambassador Legatuâ— expectabamus Heraldum accepimus that he had great Reason to have expected better from them for the 37 Monopolies and Patents called in by him since the last Recess and for the three whereof Mompesson and Michel were censured but of these he heard no news but on the contrary Complaints of Religion tacitely implying his ill Government 2. That the taxing him with trusting to uncertain Reports and partial Informations concerning their Proceedings was needless being an old and experienced King and in his Conscience the freest of any King alive from hearing or trusting to idle Reports That in the Body of their Petition they usurp upon his Prerogative Royal and meddle with things far above their Reach and then protest to the contrary as if a Robber should take away Man 's Purse and then protest he meant not to rob him 3. That his Recommendation of the War for regaining the Palatinate was no other than if it could not be recovered otherwise which can be no Inference that he must denounce War against the King of Spain break his dearest Son's Match and match him to one of our Religion which is all one as if we should tell Merchant we had great need to borrow Money of him for raising an Army and that thereupon it should follow that we were bound to follow his Advice in the Direction of the War That this Plenâ—potency of theirs invests them with all Power upon Earth lacking nothing but the Pope's to have the Keys both of Heaven and Purgatory That it was like the Puritans in Scotland to bring all Causes within their Jurisdiction or like Bellarmine's distinction of the Pope's Power over Kings in ordine ad Spiritualia whereby he gives them all temporal Jurisdiction over them 4. That he expected the Commons would have given him Thanks for the long maintaining a setled
them with Men of War to guard their Fisheries and to do it whether he would or not A Prince that by his dissolute Life and prophane Conversation debauched and effeminated the Genius of the English Nation whereby it became more scandalized for Swearing and Drinking than in any Age before A Prince that broke all the Measures by which Hen. 8. and Queen Elizabeth were the Arbitrators of Christendom A Prince fearful of all his Enemies abroad while he was only great by exercising a Tyrannical Arbitrary Power over his Parliaments and Subjects who could only have made him great abroad and honoured at home whereby he became little beloved at home and suffered the Dutch to redeem their Cautionary Towns upon their own Terms and to dispossess the English at Amboyna and their other Factories in the East-Indies and Africa He only stood still looking on while the French upon the Matter supprest the Reformed in France and suffered Ferdinand the 2d to over-run and near subdue the Protestant Princes in Germany as well as his own Son-in-law And tho he were the 6th of that Name King of Scotland from John alias Robert Stuart the Son of Robert Stuart by his Paramour Elizabeth Moor yet if Sir James Melvil says true that Cardinal Bethoun poisoned James the 5th he was the first of that Name who died a natural Death if he did so for James the first was murdered by his Uncle the Earl of Athol his Grand-father's legitimate Son in his Queen's Arms with eight and twenty Wounds the Queen receiving two to defend him This was in the Year 1436. James the II. was killed by the breaking of a Piece of Cannon while he besieged the Castle of Roxburgh the 3d of Aug. 1460. James the III. having his Army routed by an Army headed by his Son James was killed at Bannoch-Burn by the Lord Gray and Robert Sterling of Ker after Sir Andrew Brothick a Priest had shriven him This was in 1488. James the IV. was killed the 9th of December 1514 at Flowdenfield by the English commanded by the Earl of Surrey and his Body never found and if James the 5th was poisoned then none of these Jameses died a natural Death neither did King James his Mother being put to death Ann. 1587 for conspiring the Death of Queen Elizabeth After the Dissolution of the Spanish Match the King as greedily prosecuted the French and tho he lived not to see it settled yet he saw the Army raised under Count Mansfield for the Recovery of the Palatinate ruined by trusting to the French Faith in this very Treaty When he died he not only left an empty Exchequer but a vast Debt upon the Crown yet was engaged in a foreingn War and the Monies given by the Parliament for carrying it on were squandred away in carrying on the French Treaty and the Nation imbroiled in intestine Feuds and Disorders At his Death he left a Son and Heir and one Daughter Before he died he saw his Son over-ruled by his Favourite against his determinate Will and Pleasure and the Prince's own Honour and Interest which was a great Mortification to him and which he often complained of but had not Courage to redress and so strongly was 〈◊〉 Favourite possessed of his Power over his Son in the King's Life that the Prince little regarded his Father's Precepts or the Counsels of any else after his Death whereby he encreased the Internal Feuds Jealousies and Discords of the Nation which ended in a sad Catastrophe both of the Favourite and the King At the King's Death his Daughter with her Husband and her many Children were driven into Exile and Poverty in the Dominion of the Dutch States where they were more relieved by the States the Prince of Orange and some Bishops and Noblemen of England than by either of the Kings Father or Son A DETECTION OF THE Court and State of England During the Reign of King CHARLES I. c. BOOK II. CHAP. I. This Reign detected to the Dissolution of the Parliament Tertio Car. 'T WAS a strange Reign this As this King's Father's Reign was introduced with a horrible Plague so was this King's with a greater and such as no Records of any Times before mention the like The first 15 Years of his Reign were perfectly French and such as never before were seen or heard of in the English Nation this brought on a miserable War in all the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and Destruction upon the King whenas it was not in the Power of those which first raised the War against him to save his Life which they would have done Baptista Nani in the sixth Book of the History of Venice An. 1625 f. 221 observes That after the Marriage of King Charles with the Daughter of France the Interest of State or rather the Passion of Favourites converted the Bonds of Affection into Causes of Hatred Europe in those times reckoned it amidst its unhappy Destiny that the Government of it fell upon three young Kings yet in the Flower of their Age Princes of great Power desirous of Glory and in Interest contrary but in this alone by Genius agreeing that they committed the Burden of Affairs to the Will of their Ministers for with equal Independency France was governed by Richlieu Spain by Olivares and Great-Britain by Buckingham confounding Affections with Interest as well publick as private Betwixt the Cardinal and Buckingham open Animosities discovered themselves for Causes so much more unadvised as they were more hard to be known When King James died the Nation was rent into four Parties viz. The Prerogative which exalted the King's divided Will from the Laws and Constitutions above his Royal and Legal Will The Country or Legal Party which stood for the Legal Establishment of Church and State and the Puritan and Popish Parties After the Treaties of Marriage between the Prince and the Daughters of Spain and France the Popish and Prerogative Parties joined for carrying on the Court-Designs and were opposed by the Country and Puritan Parties and as the Prerogative and Popish Factions grew more insolent so the Puritan Party gathered Strength and Reputation among the Vulgar or ordinary People insomuch that in Number they became more than all the other three We shall take a better View of this Reign if we look a little back into the former After the Treaty of the Match with Spain was broken off King James was perplext what to do he had neither Money nor Courage to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate and the Wounds which he had given the last Parliament by Imprisoning their Members for advising him to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate were yet fresh and bleeding and yet Buckingham whom he durst not offend not content to satisfy his Spite against Olivares by breaking off the Match was notwithstanding all Difficulties nay Impossibility of Success still pushing on the King to declare War against the King of Spain The King
next Year gave Reputation to these Rumours and here we end this Year 1615. being the thirteenth Year of King James his Reign Tho Turner Weston Elvis and Franklin were convicted and hanged last Year for the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury yet the Trial of the Earl of Somerset and the Countess was put off till the 24th of May this Year yet the Earl being a Prisoner and utterly cast out of the King's Favour the young Favourite Villiers having now no Competitor rose as fast upon the Earl's Ruin as he fell and began to appear in his own Colours from being Sir George and of the Bed-Chamber to the King in the beginning of the Month of January to be made Master of the Horse and upon the Conviction of the Earl and Countess the King seized upon the huge Estate of the Earl only allowing him 4000 l. per Annum during his Life as was said for the King reprieved the Earl and Countess too not only from Death but Imprisonment and the Earl 24 Years after saw his Daughter married to the now Duke of Bedford who proved to be the Mother of many Children whereof my Lord Russel cut off by King Charles the Second was one and a Lady of great Honour and Vertue The seizing of Somerset's Estate at present afforded a plentiful Harvest to our young Favourite and that proportionable Honours which were no burden to him might attend him upon the 17th of August he is created Viscount Villiers and Baron of Whaddon We will stay a little here and look abroad and see what Dishonour the King by his Prodigality to his Favourites and his ill Terms with his Subjects brought upon himself This Year seven of the twelve Years Truce made between the King of Spain the Arch-Dukes and the Dutch States in 1609. were worn out and now the Dutch hugely swelled their Tradeâ— not only in Europe and Africa but in the East-Indies and to Turkey but they could never be truly esteemed High and Mighty so long as the English possest the Brill Rammekins and Flushing which were the Keys of their Country and opened the Passages into and out of the Maese Rhine and Scheld They could not now pretend Poverty as they did to Queen Elizabeth for not payment of the Money with Interest upon Interest at 10 per Cent. which being two Millions when upon the Account stated between the Queen and them due Anno 1598. besides the Payment of the English in Garison in the Cautionary Towns this Year did amount to above six Millions of Money and how to get rid of this Debt and get the English out of the Cautionary Towns was the Design of Barnevelt and the States Barnevelt had his Eyes in every corner of the Court he observed the King was wholly intent upon his Pleasures exalting his Favourites and writing against Bellarmine and Peron against their King-killing and Deposing Doctrines and otherwise utterly neglected his Affairs both at Home and Abroad and by how much longer the King continued these Courses so much better might the States make a Bargain with him about restoring their Cautionary Towns but not as Merchants but Bankrupts The Truce between the Spaniard and them was above half expired and if the English should keep their Towns till the War broke out again the King might impose what Terms he pleased upon them Barnevelt also observed the ill Terms which the King was upon with his Subjects upon the Dissolution of the last Parliament about 14 Months before and imprisoning the Members for representing the Subjects Grievances which the King made worse by a Proclamation forbidding Men to talk of State-Affairs and that he doted upon and was wholly governed by Viscount Villiers a raw and unexperienced Gentleman in State-Affairs scarce of Age Upon these Considerations Barnevelt advised the States not to pay the English in Garison in their Cautionary Towns tho this was expresly contrary to the Agreement they made with Queen Elizabeth in 1598. The English debarred of their Pay apply themselves to the King for Relief the King was incensed at the Dutch and talked high what he would do but upon Repose he advised what to do the Lord Treasurer Suffolk told him there was no Money in the Exchequer to call a Parliament would be a work of Time and in the mean while the Souldiers in Garison in the Cautionary Towns must either starve or revolt besides the Wounds which the imprisoned Members had were so green that the Parliament in all likelihood would rather seek to cure them than supply the King's Necessities and starve or revolt the Souldiers might rather than the King would abate any thing of his Bounty to his Favourites Hereupon it was agreed That the King should enter into a Treaty with the Dutch concerning the Delivery of their Cautionary-Towns the Dutch expected it and had given Orders to their Ambassador here called the Lord Caroon to treat about it and what they would give the King must take and Caroon's Instructions were to give two hundred and forty eight thousand Pounds in full Satisfaction of the whole Debt which was scarce Twelve Pence in the Pound but was greedily accepted of by the King and his Favourites But how well this Agreement did sort with the Treaty made with the King of Spain and Arch-Dukes in August 1604 where in the 7th Article the King swears and promises in the Word of a King That in a competent time he would assign a Treaty with the Dutch States to acccept and receive Conditions agreeable to Justice and Equity for a Pacification to be had with the renowned Princes his dear Brethren which if the States shall refâ—se to accept his Majesty from thenceforward as being freed from former Conventions will determine of those Towns according as he shall judg it to be Just and Honourable wherein the said Princes his loving Brethren shall find there shall be no want of these good Offices which can be expected from a friendly Prince let the World judg Tho the Bargain were agreed yet the King and Courtiers were in fear the Money should not be paid accordingly and therefore the King wrote to the States in a Stile far differing from that he used to the Parliament for says my Author William de Britain fol. 12. the King told them He knew the States of Holland to be his good Friends and Confederates both in Point of Religion and Policy one as true as the other for the Religion of the Dutch was Presbytery which the King hated nor did he ever imitate their Policy therefore he apprehended not the least fear of Difference between them In Contemplation whereof if they would have their Towns again he would willingly surrender them So tho the Dutch got their Towns again yet the King got not all the Money for my Lord Treasurer Suffolk kept back so much of it as he was fined 30000 l. in the Star-Chamber for it and had not scaped so if Sir Francis Bacon then Lord Chancellor had
to procure a private Audience of the King tho he often desired it but what the Duke assisted at Inoiosa impatient of any longer Delay about the latter end of April 1624 contrived this Expedient to put the following Paper into the King's Hand he and Don Carlo de Colonna came adventurously to White-Hall and whilst Don Carlo held the Prince and Duke in earnest Discourse Inoiosa put this Paper into the King's Hand with a Wink that the King should put it into his Pocket wherein 1. He terrifies the King that he was not or could not be acquainted with the Passages either of his own Court or of the Parliament for he was kept from all faithful Servants that would inform him by the Ministers of the Prince and Duke and that he was a Prisoner as much as King John of France in England or King Francis at Madrid and could not be spoken with but before such as watched him 2. That there was a strong and violent Machination in hand which had turned the Prince a most obedient Son to a quite contrary Course to his Majesty's Intentions 3. That the Council began last Summer at Madrid but was lately resolved on in England to restrain his Majesty from the Exercise of the Government of his Kingdoms and that the Prince and Duke had designed such Commissioners under themselves as should intend great Affairs and the Publick Good 4. That this should be effected by beginning of a War and keeping some Companies on foot in this Land whereby to constrain his Majesty to yield to any thing chiefly being brought into Straits for want of Monies to pay the Souldiers 5. That the Prince and Duke's inclosing his Majesty from the said Ambassador and other of his own Loyal People that they might not come near in private did argue in them a fear and distrust of a good Conscience 6. That the Emissaries of the Duke had brought his Majesty into Contempt with the potent Men of this Realm traducing him for slothful and unactive for addiction to an inglorious Peace while the Inheritance of his Daughter and her Children is in the Hands of his Foes and this appear'd by a Letter which the Duke had writ into Holland and they had intercepted 7. That his Majesty's Honour nay his Crown and Safety did depend upon a sudden Dissolution of the Parliament 8. They loaded the Duke with sundry Misdemeanours in Spain and his violent Opposition to the Match 9. That the Duke had divulged the King's Secrets and the close Designs between his Majesty and their Master King Philip about the States of Holland and their Provinces and laboured to put his Majesty out of the good Opinion of the Hollanders 10. That the Duke was guilty of most corrupt dealing with the Ambassadors of divers Princes 11. That all these things were carried on in the Parliament with an head-strong Violence and that the Duke was the cause of it who courted them only that were of troubled Humours 12. That such Bitterness and Ignominies were vented in Parliament against the King of Spain as were against all good Manners and Honour of the English Nation The 13th is a flat Contradiction to the Precedents wherein they made the Prince privy to dangerous things yet in this they say That the Puritans of whom the Duke was Head did wish they could bring it about that the Succession of the Kingdom might come to the Prince Palatine and his Children in right of the Lady Elizabeth In a Postscript the Paper prayed the King That Don Francisco Carondelet Secretary to the Marquess Inoiosa might be brought to the King when the Prince and Duke were sitting in the Lords House to satisfy such Doubts as the King might raise which was performed by the Earl of Kelly who watch'd a fit Season at one time for Francisco and for Padre Maestro a Jesuit at another time who told their Errand so spitefully that the King was troubled at their Relations How far the Spanish Ambassador Carondelet and the Jesuit Maestro could make good this Paper I cannot tell nor does the Bishop say however the King was apprehensive that the Parliament was solicitous to engage him in a War for the Palatinate which he so dreaded that as the Bishop says he thought scarce any Mischief was so great as was worth a War to mend it wherein the Prince did deviate from him as likewise in his Affection to the Spanish Alliance But he stuck at the Duke more whom â—e defended in one part to one of the Spanish Ministers yet at the same time complaining That he had noted in him a turbuleâ—â— Spirit of late and knew not how to mitigate it so that casting up the Sum he doubted it might come to his turn to pay the Reckoning These Thoughts so wrought upon the King that his Countenance fell suddenly that he mused much in Silence and that he entertained the Prince and Duke with mystical and broken Speeches this nettled them both and enquiring the Reason they could not go further than that they heard the Spanish Secretary and the Jesuit Maestro had been with the King and understood that some in the Ambassador's House had vaunted that they had nettled the Duke and that a Train would take fire shortly to blow up the Parliament In this Perplexity the King prepared to take Coach for Windsor to shift Ground for some better Rest in this Unrest and took Coach at St. James's Gate and the Prince with him and found a slight Errand to leave Buckingham behind as the King was putting his Foot into the Coach the Duke besought him with Tears in his Eyes and humble Prayer that his Majesty would let him know what could be laid to his Charge to offend so good and gracious a Master and vowed by the Name of his Saviour he would purge it or confess it The King did not satisfy him but breathed out his Disgust that he was the unhappiest alive to be forsaken of them that were dearest to him which was uttered and received with Tears from his own Eyes as well as the Prince's and Duke's and made haste to Windsor leaving the Duke behind this was upon Saturday at the end of April The Duke forlorn retires to Wallingford-House and was in such Confusion and Distraction that when my Lord Keeper who had notice of all these things and was more careful of the Duke than he could be of himself came to him he found the Duke lying upon his Couch in that immoveable Posture that he would neither rise up nor speak tho the Keeper invited him to it twice or thrice by courteous Questions The Keeper told him by the Faith of a deep Protestation that he came purposely to prevent more Harm and to bring him out of that Sorrow into the Light of the King's Favour That he verily believ'd God's directing Hand was in it to stir up his Grace to advance him to those Favours which he possessed to do him Service at this Pinch of Extremity
Treasurers to receive the Money and a Council of War to disburse the same But the Commons having granted these Subsidies drew up a Petition against the Licence the Popish Party had taken during the Treaty with Spain He was so nettled at it that he called it a Stinging One and hearing the Commons were entring upon Grievances he could not endure it and upon the 29th of May adjourned the Parliament to the 2d of November 1624 and from thence to the 7th of April lest the King should hear of another stinging Petition or a Disturbance in the French Treaty but at this Adjournment he told them at their next Meeting they might handle Grievances so as they did not hunt after them nor present any but those of Importance yet I do not find the Parliament ever met again at least never did any thing However the King passed a General Pardon and the Parliament censured Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer for Corruption in his Office 50000 l. to the King and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's Pleasure which was but three days after the Adjournment of the Parliament for upon the first of June he was set free Whilst these things were doing in Parliament the Earl of Bristol was recalled from his Embassy but before his Arrival the Duke dealt by all means that the Earl might be committed to the Tower before he should be admitted to the King's Presence But fearing the Marquiss Hamilton and my Lord Chamberlain would oppose him herein the Duke pressed them that they would concur in it vowing as Somerset did to Sir Thomas Overbury he intended the Earl no hurt but only feared that if he should be admitted to the King's Presence he would cross and disturb the Course of Affairs but neither of these Lords would condescend thereunto This was attested by my Lord Chamberlain before the House of Lords This Deâ—â—gn of the Duke's failing the Duke to terrify the Earl from returning into England writ to him that if he kept not himself where he was in Spain and laid hold of the great Offers which he heard were made unto him the Earl it should be the worse for him At Bourdeaux the Earl heard of the Aspersions cast upon him by the Duke in Parliament of which the Earl did boldly afterward in the House of Lords in the second Parliament of Car. 1. and in the Presence of the Duke affirm That there was scarce any one thing concerning him in the Declaration which was not contrary to or different from Truth From Bourdeaux the Earl took Post to get into England to vindicate himself from the Asperâ—ons which the Duke had cast upon him in Parliament but when he came to Calais tho he sent over to have one of the King's Ships allowed him and for which publick Orders were given and tho the King James had Ships which lay at Boloign which might have every day been with him in three Hours and the Wind fair yet none came tho the Earl waited for one eight Days so that he was forced to pass the Sea to Dover in a Boat and six Oars When the Earl was landed at Dover he was by a Letter from my Lord Conway a Creature of the Duke's commanded in the King's Name to retire to his House and not to come to Court or the King's Presence until he had answered to certain Questions which his Majesty would appoint some of the Council to ask him but this was not out of any ill meaning to him but for fear the Parliament should fall too violently upon him and this the Duke said to some of his Friends was the Reason of the Earl's Restraint Hereupon the Earl humbly petitioned the King he might be exposed to Parliament and that if he had not served the King honestly in all things he deserved no Favour but to be proceeded against with all Severity but received Answer from the King That there should be but few days past before he would put an end to his Affairs but the Parliament was adjourned before the few days passed nor did he ever put an end to them You may read the further Contrivances against him by the Duke in Rushw from fol. 259 to 265. After the Adjournment of the Parliament or if you will the Dissolution of it tho the Earl of Bristol could not obtain Admission into the King's Presence yet he obtained Leave to answer to all the Duke had in his Absence charged upon him in Parliament and withal wrote to the Duke that if he or any Man living was able to make Reply he would submit himself to any thing which should be demanded which tho the Duke presumptuously said That it is not an Assertion to be granted that the Earl of Bristol by his Answer had satisfied the King the Prince or himself of his Innocence yet it so satisfied the King that when the Duke after pressed the King that the Earl might submit and acknowledg his Fault the King answered I were to be accounted a Tyrant to engage an innocent Man to confess Faults of which he was not guilty Tho the Earl said he could prove this upon Oath yet the Duke wrote to him that the Conclusion of all that had been treated with his Majesty was that he the Earl should make the Acknowledgment as was set down in that Paper tho at that time the King sent him word that he would hear him against the Duke as well as he had heard the Duke concerning him and soon after the King died which Promise of the King 's the Earl prayed God did the King no hurt however the Earl obtained Leave of the King to come to London to follow his private Affairs Mr. Rushworth therefore errs a little in point of time where he says fol. 149. the Earl was committed to the Tower in King James his time for he was not committed till the 15th of January 1625. in the first Year of King Charles as you may see in Stow's Life of King Charles fol. 1042. We have now done with the Spanish Match at least during this King's Reign yet the King's Desires of seeing his Son married which he shall never see were as impatient as those of getting the Infanta's huge Portion and to that end before the Meeting of the Parliament and while the Treaty with the Infanta was yet breathing the King sent my Lord Kensington after Earl of Holland to feel the Pulse of the French Court how it beat towards an Alliance between the Prince and Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter of Henry IV. of France A serene Heaven appeared in France upon the Motion not a Cloud to be seen in all the French Horizon Lewis the King telling my Lord Kensington he took it for an Honour that he sought his Sister for the sole Son of so Illustrious a King his Neighbour and Ally only he desired he might send to Rome to have the Pope's Consent for the better Satisfaction of his Conscience And now you
Strangeness of the Discovery of Prance by Bedlow who had never but once seen Prance before and that by Candle-light and in a Peruke should yet upon the first Sight of him know him again without Peruke the other is the Clearness of Sir Godfrey's being murdered and the Body's being in Somerset-house upon Monday after the Murder the Saturday before and from hence it was that Prance became an Evidence in this Discovery Now let 's see how things stood upon the Meeting of the Parliament upon the 21st of October 1678 both abroad and at home And herein both Houses were as warm in Enquiry into them as the Court was cold It was but in January before that the Parliament had given the King 1200000 l. for carrying on a War against France in Conjunction with the Dutch and their Allies and upon their Meeting they found a treacherous separate Peace made by a Faction of the Dutch with the French and upon French Terms wherein the King had taken Money of the French to join with this Dutch Faction in it Besides the King's Guards which he might encrease as he pleased as well as keep up those he had there was now another Army raised which now it was of no further Use abroad they dreaded as much as they did the French Arms now he had subdued the Confederates by the Dutch Disjunction from them and the Discovery of the Popish Plot carried on at home whilst these things were thus agitated abroad was to them a Demonstration the same Councils which governed abroad did so at home And if the Parliament were thus amazed at their Sitting it was no way lessened when as they found that in this very Month no less than 57 Commissions were discovered for raising Soldiers granted to several Romish Recusants with Warrants to muster without taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test countersigned by Sir J. W. Secretary of State whereupon the Commons committed him to the Tower yet the King next Day discharged him with a Reprimand to the Commons but upon the Commons Address to the King about it the King as before in his Declarations of Indulgence promised to recal them However the Commons appointed a secret Committee to enquire to the Bottom of the Popish Plot who having made some Progress in it upon Friday the 1st of November came to this Resolution Nemine contradicente That upon the Evidence that has already appeared to this House this House is of Opinion That there hath been and still is a damnable hellish Plot contrived and carried on by Popish Recusants for assassinating and murdering the King subverting the Government and rooting out and destroying the Protestant Religion Which being the same Day communicated to the Lords they unanimously and readily concurred with the Commons in it and upon the 5th the Commons impeached the Earl of Powis the Viscount Stafford and the Lords Arundel of Warder Petre and Bellasis of High Treason The Commons having proceeded thus far in searching into the Popish Plot upon the 27th of November proceeded in their next Fear of the Army raised and now indeed in Flanders where the French Army raged after the Dutch had made their separate Peace without Opposition and the English Army only a Burden to the Country and of no Use to restrain the French Ravages and Voted 1. That it is necessary for the Safety of his Majesty's Person and preserving the Peace of the Government That all the Forces which have been raised since the 29th of September 1677 and all others which have been since that time brought over from beyond Seas from foreign Service be forthwith disbanded 2. It is the humble Opinion of this House That the Forces which are now in Flanders may be immediately called over in order to their disbanding 3. That the House would to Morrow Morning resolve it self into a Committee of the whole House to consider the Manner of disbanding the Army The five Popish Lords had been impeached by the Commons about a Fortnight and no Articles exhibited against them when the King gave the Commons an Account that he had given Order for seizing Mr. Mountague's Papers upon Information that he had held several Correspondences whilst he was Ambassador in France with the Pope's Nuncio without any Direction or Order of his Majesty But Mr. Mountague the same Day produced two Letters from my Lord Treasurer whilst he was Ambassador in France which being read the House resolved to impeach the Treasurer and the same Day ordered a Committee to draw up Articles against him which on Saturday the Committee did and on Monday following impeached the Treasurer upon them whereas the Commons had not yet exhibited any against the Popish Lords This was upon the 23d of December But if the Treasurer was constant to himself I do not understand how the Commons Impeachment of him in the 4th Article could consist with the King's Displeasure against him for the quite contrary viz. That he suppressed the Evidences and reproachfully discountenanced the King's Witnesses in Discovery of the Popish Plot And Sir William Temple says pag. 391. That the Treasurer was fallen into the King's Displeasure for bringing the Popish Plot into Parliament against the King's absolute Command However the Parliament granted the King 693388 l. to disband the Army and also an Additional Duty upon Wines for 3 Years but no more Money being like to come this Sessions upon Monday the 30th of December he prorogued the Parliament to the 4th of February next and then told them That it was with great Vnwillingness that he was come to tell them that he intended to prorogue them that all of them were Witnesses he had not been well used the Particulars of which he would acquaint them with at a more seasonable time but when will that be for he never saw them after In the mean time he would immediately enter upon the disbanding the Army and do what Good he could for the Kingdom and Safety of Religion and that he would prosecute the Discovery of the Popish Plot to find out the Instruments of it and take all the Care that is in his Power to secure the Protestant Religion as it is now established How well this was performed you 'll soon see and before the 4th of February he dissolved this Eighteen-year-old Parliament The Vogue went It was upon the Account of my Lord Treasurer tho I believe upon severer Thoughts it will seem rather to have been done upon the Account of the Popish Lords and Popish Plot. These Feuds in the Nation and Jealousies between the King and Parliament stifled the Apprehensions of the dreadful growing Power of the French King and made fair Weather for him to prosecute his boundless Ambition without any Regard of his Faith or Honour where-ever he could extend it Never did one Parliament succeed another so early as the next did this long Parliament for the King by his Proclamation dissolved the Long Parliament upon the 25th of