City and Suburbs for the Relief of many Thousand miserable Wretches who would otherwise have perished and to encourage others to so needful a charity by his own example ordered several great Sums of Money to be issued out of his Treasury for that Purpose On the 23d of January being the first day of Hillary Term the Lawyers went over the Ice to Westminster and back again as familiarly as on the Land some on Foot and others in Coaches and there was for above a fortnight together a Fair or Mart kept between the Temple and that part of Southwark which is opposite to it This Year Vienna the Imperial City of Germany was closely besieged and greatly distressed by the Turks who brought it to the very last extremity but were then beaten off and forced to raise their siege by the Blessing of God upon the Valour of the King of Poland and the Duke of Lorrain in which Action the Lord Landsdown Eldest Son to the Earl of Bath behaved himself with so much Valour that he was afterward as a Reward of his Courage created a Count of the Sacred Empire And Tangier having cost the King abundance of Treasure to defend it against the Moors and make the Mole there he now resolved in regard the charges were so very great and the Expectation of Advantage very uncertain to relinquish it and therefore ordered the Lord Dartmouth to repair thither wih about 20 sail of Ships and demolish the Town Castle and Mole choak up the Haven to render it useless to any who might otherwise have thought the Town worth rebuilding and bring off the Inhabitants which was done accordingly About the middle of February 1684. was the Earl of Danby after a long and tedious Imprisonment admitted to Bail by the Eminent and Loyal Sir George Jeffrys who succeeded Sir Edward Sanders in the Lord Chief Justiceship of England all the Judges of the Kings-Bench having first given their several opinions about it and delivered their Reasons why he ought to be bailed and the other four Lords one of them viz. Peters being dead sometime before having just before his Death in a Letter to the King denied upon his Salvation his being any way Guilty of what he stood accused of being within the like Reasons were admitted to the like advantage and so was the Earl of Tyrone who had been almost as long a Prisoner in the Gate-house as they had been in the Tower The King having about the Year 81 appointed under him certain Deputies or Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Offices viz. The Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Bishop of London the Lord Radnor Hallifax Hide and Mr. Seymor to whom he delegated his Power to dispose of all such Ecclesiastical Preferments as were within his immediate Patronage was pleased this Year to revoke their Commission and take those preferments again into his own immediate disposal as likewise a commission formerly granted to several Persons to execute the Office of Lord High Admiral of Eugland which was now again fully enjoyed and exercised by his Royal Highness Acts of Hostility being this Spring-fiercely pursued between the French and Spaniards by Sea and Land he commanded by Proclamation that being at Amity with both those Nations the Peace should be kept inviolably by them whilst they were in any Roads Creeks and Ports of his Dominions and that his Commanders and Officers should oppose themselves against those who should presume to assault any of the Ships of his Allies in any of his Roads or Places under his Protection Oates the Salamanca Doctor and Plot-Master-General not content with having falsly charged his Royal Highness the Kings only Brother and Heir with divers base and improbable Stories as tho he had plotted with the Papists against the King his Brother suffered his Spleen to boil to such an exorbitant degree that he saucily and impudently abused him with base and scurrilous Language calling him Traytor declaring That he hoped to see him hang'd with divers horrid devilish and abominable Expressions The Dukes patience not being easily provoked bore long with him but finding that forbearance did but render him more bold and increase his malignity at last he brought his Action of Scandalnm Magnatum against him upon which he was arrested at the Amsterdam Coffee-house on the back-side of the Royal Exchange and carried to Woodstreet Compter and from thence removed by Habeas Corpus to the Kings Bench and having let Judgment go in the next Term by default a Writ of Enquiry was issued out and executed before the Lord Chief Justice in the Kings-Bench Court when the Jury upon hearing the Evidence to shew their detestation of such an unheard of impudence gave 100000 Damages The Hambrough Company out of Gratitude for some great Favour received from the King did this Spring erect a most elaborate and curious Statue of him in Gray Marble in the very middle or Center of the Royal Exchange cut by Mr. Grinlin Gibbons the most Famous Statuary that England ever produc'd and equal if not superior to the best at this Time in Europe in the Garb and Habit of a Roman Caesar It was placed upon a curious Pedestal made of the same Marble upon which was the following Inscription Carolo II Caesari Britanico Patriae Patri Regnum optimo Clementissimo Augustissimo Generis Humani Deliciis Vtriusque fortunae Victori Pacis Europae Arbitro Maris Domino Vindici Societas Meâ—catorum Adventur Angliae Quae per CCCC jam prope Annos Regia Benignitate floret Fidei Intemerata Gratitudinis Aeternaâ— Hoc Testimonium Venerabunda posuit Anno sal Humanae MDCLXXXIV The Council sitting on the 28th of May at Hampton Court as it used frequently to do when he was at Windsor as the most convenient place for his coming to it he told them that he thought it fit and did intend his Brother should be present at the Meetings of the Council who accordingly took his Seat that Day and ever after during his Brothers Life And in October following the King made a Review or Muster of his Land-Forces upon Putney Heath where there was a most gallant Military Appearance the Horse consisting of the Three Troops of Guards the Granadeers the Earl of Oxford's Regiment of Horse and the Lord Churchels Regiment of Dragoons and the Foot of two Battalians formed and the Regiment of Guards with their Granadeers one from the Coldstream Regiment of Guards and Granadeers one from the Earl of Dumbartons Regiment and another from the Admiral Regiment with their Granadeers the whole Number of Horse and Foot between 4000 and 5000 being all exactly trained and well cloath'd most of the Horse march'd in the morning in Gallant Order through the Streets of London and so over the Bridg to Putney This Michaelmas Terms several Factious Persons were convicted of speaking scandalous and seditious Words against the Government for which one Best commonly call'd the Protestant Hop-Merchant was fined 1000 l. and ordered to stand in the Pillory
Petition wherein the King is charged with obstructing the Justice of the Nation by proroguing the last Parliament Whether these were sufficient grounds of seizing their Liberties were argued Pro Con first by the Solicitor General and the Recorder of the City and then by the Attorney General and Mr. Pollixfen And Judg Jones the Lord Chief Justice being then sick having summ'd up all the proceedings in a very significant and solid Speech gave Judgment upon it and declared it to be the unanimous Opinion of that Court That the Liberties and Franchises of the City of London should be seized into the King's hands But Judgment was not entred up in regard the King had expresly commanded that should not be done till his pleasure was further known The City now finding the King was in earnest and that their Charter was condemned by Law began to think of humbling themselves at his feet and sue for Mercy And therefore at a Common-Council call'd for that purpose a Petition was ordered to be drawn up and presented to him at Windsor where he then was in which they acknowledg their hearty and unfeigned sorrow for the misgovernment of that City which had occasioned the Quo Warranto to be brought against them and Judgment to be past thereupon And thankfully acknowledged his great Favour in not requiring Judgment to be immediately entred thereon in which distressed condition they humbly cast themselves at his Royal Feet imploring his Princely Compassion and Grace begging his pardon for all Offences with most solemn promises and assurances of constant Loyalty and Obedience to him and his Successors and of a Regular Administration of his Government in that City for the future humbly begging his Commands and Directions therein This Petition was carried and presented by the Mayor and several Loyal Aldermen and Citizens Upon the Receipt whereof the Lord Keeper by the King's Command declared That for the sakes of so many of the present Magistrates and other Eminent Citizens who were of undoubted Loyalty and Affection to his Service he would show the City all the Favour they could reasonably desire if they would submit to such Regulations as he thought necessary forthe assuring the Loyalty and preserving the Peace of that City viz. That no person should be admitted to be Mayor Sheriff Recorder Common Serjeant Town-Clerk or Coroner of London or Steward of Southwark before they were approved by him under his Sign Manual And that after he had Twice disapproved the Mayor whom they should present to him he might if he pleased nominate one himself and so also for the Sheriff the Election being nevertheless to be still continued according to the ancient Customs and Usages of the City with some small Restrictions only then specified which gracious Offer was accepted by a Common-Council assembled on the 20th of June where the Question being propounded it was carried in the Affirmative by the Majority of Eighteen Voices And now came to light one of the basest and vilest pieces of Treachery that was ever hatcht in the World which seemed to point out and explain whereto the Bill of Exclusion and the Treacherous Association tended For those Factious and Designing Wretches having failed of accomplishing their Designs by those specious pretences resolved to attempt that by force which they now found they could not effect by Fraud and therefore entred into a Damnable Plot and Conspiracy to Murder the King and His Brother and alter the Government To effect which they had at several Treasonable Consultations resolved to Levy men and make an Insurrection For the management whereof they made choice of a Council of Six that were to direct and order the chief matters relating thereunto viz. the Duke of Monmouth the Earl of Essex the Lord Howard the Lord Russel Mr. Hambden and Collonel Sidney Besides which there was another Council of more Inferior persons whose business was to consult chiefly about the Assassination of the King and the Duke The King and the Duke being both at Newmarket they resolved to prevent their ever coming to London again by cutting them both off in their return To which end West by the appointment of the rest had provided several Musquets and other Arms which were to have been sent down to a House call'd the Rye inhabited by one Rumball about three Miles beyond Hodsden which was lookt upon as the most convenient place for that monstrous and hellish design in regard therewas by the house a narrow passage through which the King usually came when he went to and from Newmarket so that it would have been hard for him to have escaped But Heaven having preserved him from the many former Attempts of Men of the like Principles and disdaining that Hell should frustrate its designed blessings to these Nations as well in the remainder of his Reign as in his next Successors by cutting off its Principal Favourite resolved to render former Mercies the more compleat and full by adding a new one to their Number no less apparent and visible than his Preservation in the Oak had been And therefore a Fire which hapned there and consumed the greatest part of the Town forced him to return sooner than they expected and before they were ready for him whereby they were disappointed of their Barbarous Purpose and not a little confounded at the Strangeness of the Thing which altho it appeared at first sight to be purely accidental yet afterward was generally lookt upon to fall out by the special designation of Divine Providence But notwithstanding this remarkable disappointment and the consternation which at first seized them upon the news of it they still went on with their Plot and consulted about some other Time and Place for their Assassination But before they could bring their distracted Counsels to any conclusion Providence spoiled their Plot For one of the Conspirators whose Name was Keeling being convinced of the Wickedness of the design through the care of Heaven to prevent it by the remarkable Fire at Newmarket was so terrified that he could not rest till he had made a discovery of it Whereupon West a Councellor of the Temple was apprehended and a Proclamation issued out for the declaring Rumsey Rumball Nelthrop Wade Goodenough Wallcot Thompson Burton and Hone Traytors offering 100 reward to any that should discover them and another against Monmouth Grey Armstrong and Ferguson Rumsey the Lord Russel Essex Collonel Sidney Mr. Hambden the Lord Howard Walcot Rouse Hone and some others were taken but the rest made their escape beyond the Seas The Lord Grey indeed was taken but being after Examination by the King and Council committed to the Tower he found means to make his escape out of the Coach just as he came almost at the Tower Gate having made Deering the Messenger who had him in Charge so drunk as it was reported that he fell fast asleep and left him wholly unguarded The Lord Russel and Collonel Sidney were beheaded and Walcot Rouse and Hone
thrice and find security for his Good Behaviour during Life And one Butler of Northamptonshire for Presenting and Reading to the Knights of the Shire at the last Election for that County a seditious Paper of Address was fined 500 Marks and order'd to find Sureties for his Good Behaviour during Life And Dalby and Nicholson two Retainers to the Salamanca Doctor were ordered to stand in the Pillory for several false and scandalous Speeches utter'd by them But the most remarkable of all was the Business of one Roswell a Conventicle-Preacher about Redriff who was this Term tryed and convicted of High Treason in certain treasonable words spoken bâ— him in his Preachment on the 14th of September But some question arising about the Form of his Indictment which was argued by Council on both sides the Court took time to consider of their Judgment till the next Term before which time Roswel obtained the Kings Gracious Pardon who ever loved to endear his Subjects by Acts of Kindness rather than to terrifie them by Examples of Justice In this Term also was Oates indicted for Perjury in relation to Irelands being in London at the time sworn to by him at Irelands Tryal and being brought up to the Kings Bench-Bar to hear his Indictment read and pleading Not guilty his Tryal was appointed the next Term and at the Sessions which followed soon after at the Old-baily he was again Indicted upon a second Indictment for Perjury and upon pleading Not Guilty that was also appointed to be Tryed the next Term at the Kings Bench Court The Roads being now exrteamly infested with Robbers the King order'd for the ease and safety of his Subjects that all his Officers of Justice and others should with their utmost diligence endeavour the apprehending of High-way men and other Robbers promising That those who should apprehend any of them should have a reward of Ten Pounds for every Offender taken by them and delivered into Custody A little before Christmas when the minds of men in regard they were then to celebrate the Commemoration of the Incarnation and Nativity of the Prince of Peace shou'd have been wholly taken up with thoughts of Peace the restless and implacable Spirits of the factious and designing crew that were not yet so deprest as to be deprived of all hopes of reviving their Game were notwithstanding otherwise employ'd for about this time they dispers'd in a secret and clandestine manner a most wicked false and treasonable Libel relating to the Death of the late Earl of Essex Wherein they would have born the World in hand that he did not murder himself Strict enquiry was made after the Author and several of the Books seiz'd but the Author could not be discovered only Henry Danvers commonly called Collonel Danvers an Anabaptist by Profession and a Principal Officer in the late Rebellious Army was found to be the Author of a certain Sheet which was an abstract of that Libel wherein the very Qâ—intescence and Venom of it was crowded into a smaller Compass and a Warrant thereupon was sent out for his Apprehension but being an old cunning Fox he fled upon the discovery whereupon the King gave Publick Notice in the Gazette That whosoever should apprehend him and cause him to be deliver'd into safe Custody that he might be proceeded against according to Law for those dangerous and treasonable Practices should have a reward of 100l to be immediately paid by the Lords of the Treasury In the beginning of this Hillary Term Sir Scroop How one of the Knights of the Shire for the County of Nottingham in the late Parliaments appearing in the Kings Bench to answer to an Information exhibited against him for Words spoken against the King and his Brother pleaded Guilty confessing his Offence and with much sorrow cast himself upon the Kings and the Dukes Mercy whereupon being the next day introduc'd to them he was after his humble submission to them and promises of future Loyalty and Obedience receiv'd to Grace and being deeply affected with that unmerited favour acknowledg'd that he did in point of Gratitude for the Kings Goodness therein owe him his Life and Estate and would for the future dedicate Both to the service of him and the Royal Family But Englands Glorious Sun of Happiness and Tranquility which had shined bright and resplendent for near Five and Twenty Years together must now suffer a fatal Eclipse and be for some few days wrapt up in Black and Mournful Clouds and have it's Glory totally tho not finally obscur'd by the Lamented and much Deplored Death of this happy and wonderful Monarch for upon Monday the second of February he was suddenly taken with an Apoplectick Fit which was so violent that in all probability he would never have reviv'd again had not Doctor King who being one of his Physicians was then present having been that morning with some others of the Kings Physicians to look upon a sore Heel which he had for some time immediately let him blood by which and other proper means afterward used he seemed to be in so fair a way of recovery that the Lords of the Council thought fit for the preventing of false Reports to publish on Thursdâ—y That some Hours after the Kings being first taken an amendment appeared which wlth the Blessing of God improved by the Application of proper and seasonable Remedies was then so far advanc'd that the Physicians conceiv'd him to be in a condition of safety and that he would in a few days be freed from his Distemper The People in divers Places of the Country where it had been positively reported he was dead receiv'd this news of his Recovery with incredible joy exprest by the Ringing of Bells and Bonfires but in few days all was dampt again by the certain and unwelcome news of his Death For when neither the endeavours of men nor the invocations of Heaven could prevail he expired on Friday the Sixth of February having lain all that time in abundance of pain and misery which he endur'd with incredible Patience often lifting up his hands and eyes to Heaven and breathing forth the fervent desires oâ— his Holy and Pious Soul in several Short but sweet and Pathetick Ejaculations Kings in respect of their Office are stiled Gods in the Sacred Writ and are like him immortal and therefore can never die but their Persons being made of the same mouldring Principles with the meanest of their Subjects they must die like men and when the time appointed for their dissolution is come it is impossible either for men or Angels Physick or Physicians to detain them longer here for they may with as much ease dissolve the Covenant of the Night and Day keep the Sea from flowing and the Sun from shining as preserve Kings from being hurried as well as the rest of mankind to the place appointed for all Living As no King was ever better beloved by his Subjects whilst living so none ever died more lamented than