might not another Parliament upon better Information alter what the Parliament 21 Jac. had done Which neither of these Parliaments did but granted and voted him and his Father greater Supplies than ever before were given to any of his Predecessors in three-fold the time But when the King enter'd into a View of his Treasure he found how ill provided he was to proceed effectually with so great an Action It seems by this one Action the King only designed the War against Spain But why does not the King set forth the Causes why his Treasure was so ill provided It was not ten Months before his Father's Death that the Parliament 21 Jac. which gave his Father three Subsidies and three Fifteenths was adjourned and his first Parliament gave him two Subsidies more within two or three Months after his Father's Death And what came of all this but the raising ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse under Mansfield the Expedition against the Rochellers and to Cadiz to neither of which latter he was ever invited by his Father or any Parliament The King makes the â—lague to be the Cause of the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford yet he might as well have secured the Members by a Prorogation as Dissolution And in this Parliament he tells how the House of Commons voted him three Subsidies and three Fifteenths and after four Subsidies and three Fifteenths and of the Letter he sent them the 9th of June to speed the passing these Supplies and how that the House being abused by the violent and ill-advised Passion of a few Members never so much as admitted one Reading to the Bill of Subsidies but voted a Remonstrance or Declaration which they intended to prefer to him tho palliated with glossing Terms containing many dishonourable Aspersions upon his Majesty and upon the sacred Memory of his deceased Father which his Majesty taking for a Denial of the promised Supplies upon mature Advisement he dissolved them But from whence should this mature Advisement come We do not find the Privy Council had any hand in it and the House of Lords petitioned against it But lest the Credit of this Declaration should not find Faith enough against the Commons Representatives the King sends a Proclamation after it wherein he takes notice of a Remonstrance drawn by a Committee of the late Commons to be presented to him wherein are many things to the Dishonour of himself and his Royal Father of blessed Memory and whereby through the sides of a Peer of this Realm they wound their Soveraign's Honour and to vent their Passions against that Peer and prepossess the World with an ill Opinion of him before his Case was heard who hinder'd it had scatter'd Copies of it Wherefore the King to suppress such an unsufferable Wrong upon pain of his Indignation and high Displeasure commanded all who had Copies thereof to burn them But why was not the Duke's Cause heard and who dissolved the Parliament to prevent it Had not the Earl of Bristol answered every Particular of the King 's and Duke's Charge against him And was there not an Order of the House of Lords the Duke should answer the Earl's Charge against him Where is this Answer to be found and why was it not Now see the Justice of this King and how he made good his Promise in his Declaration that he would so order his Actions as should justify him not only in his own Conscience but to the whole World for the very Day the Parliament was dissolved he committed the Earl of Bristol Prisoner to the Tower and left the Duke free to pursue his ungodly Designs Here I 'll stay a little and add this Augmentation of Honour to the Escutcheon of this noble Earl notwithstanding this Usage For when the Long Parliament in 1640 had put a full Stop to the King 's Absolute Will and Pleasure which if it had not God only knows where it would have ended and after that this King's Flatterers and Favourites his Lord Keeper Finch and Secretary Winde-bank had run into other Countries to save themselves from being hanged in this and that the Earl of Manchester after he had flatter'd this King and his Father in all the Shapes of Earl Viscount Baron Lord Chief Justice Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer and Lord President of the Council and his Son and the Earls of Pembroke and Holland and both the Sir Henry Vanes Father and Son and Sir Henry Mildmay c. sided with the Parliament against the King yet this noble Earl followed the King in all his Adversity however he had been persecuted by him in his Prosperity The late Keeper as he gave his Opinion against the War with Spain in King James's Reign so did he against the Expedition against Cales in this King's Reign his Reason was which you may read in the second Part of his Life fol. 65. That the King must make himself sure of the Love of his own People at home before he bid War to such a rich and mighty Nation But the Keeper's Counsels were as much feared and hated by the Duke as Bristol's and the Commons Articles were against him and therefore he resolved to be rid of them all and pursue the King 's and his own Designs without any Controul and the very same Day the Parliament was dissolved he caused the Earl of Bristol to be committed to the Tower as you may see in Stow's Chronicle fol. 1042. Nor would he have his Renown and Valour less known abroad than his Justice at home and France shall now be the Theatre upon which he will act it in spight of Spain or the Parliament and Nation of England without whose Assistance he will act Wonders by his own Power and in Vindication of his own Honour however some Cause must be shewed by others since the Duke concealed the true Cause Rushworth fol. 427. makes the Causes of this War to begin between the Priests of the Queen's Family and the Bishops by Articles of Agreement upon the Marriage and that the Pope had declared them Apostates if they should seek for any Establishment from the King being an Heretick and that the Queen sided herein with the Priests against the King and that Unkindnesses hereupon grew between them so as the King informed his Brother of France he could no longer bear them And much to this purpose has Mr. James Howel in the Life of Lewis XIII fol. 75. But these were but Pretences for this War the Cause was of another Complexion And herein we will cite the Authority of the great Nani who had better Means to enquire into the Causes than either Rushworth or Howel and was not biass'd by Interest Affection or Flattery You have heard before of the Emulation between Richlieu and Buckingham and of their Inclinations for the Queen's Favour and of the Queen 's noble Aversions to them both but I think Nani was therein a little mistaken for if I be not misinformed as I think verily I
Provision made for him The 6th is That if a Corporation maintain a Lecturer that he be not permitted to preach till he take care of Souls within the Corporation How this can be I don't understand unless the Lectuâ—er have a concurring or distinct Power from the Incumbent The 7th is That none but Noble-men and Men qualified by law may keep Chaplains Yet in your Religious Care you take no care how otherways they may subsist The 8th is That Emanuel and Sydney Colleges in Cambridg which are the Nurseries of Puritanism may be from time to time furnished with Grave and Orthodox Men for their Governors viz. Such as shall do the Arminian Work without any regard to the Statutes of the College All these Considerations must be taken for Acts of the Church of England and a Neglect or Breach of them sufficient for an Information in the High Commission where he is assured he shall shortly judg and therefore his Majesty in the 9th Consideration 〈◊〉 to countenance the High Commission by the Presence of some of the Privy-Council at least so often as any Cause of Moment is to be settled The 10th Consideration is That Course may be taken that the Judges may not send so many Prohibitions Which if they do from any of his Censures in the High Commission he will proceed against them by Excommunication Thus you see this Icarus is not only content to take a Flight out of his Diocess but over the whole Provinces of York and Canterbury in Ecclesiastical Affairs and extends it as he pleases over the Civil These were the Seeds which this Bishop planted while he was Bishop of London you may be sure he 'll reap a good Crop now he 's become Metropolitan of all England During the time of his being Bishop of London he was look'd upon as the Rising Sun which the flattering Students in both Universities worshipped but after he became Arch-Bishop the Learning of both Universities were Brawls about Arminian Tenents in the Schools and Sermons The Arminians treating their Opponents with all taunting and reproaching Terms and if their Opponents retorted they were had up into the High Commission where the Arch-Bishop presided assisted by his Ecclesiastical Judges and Ministers of the Prerogative Court and some of his Majesty's Privy-Council but I do not read of one cited for maintaining Arminian Tenents It 's scarce credible how the Business of this Court the Star-Chamber and Council-Table swelled and what cruel and unheard of Censures were made especially in the Star-Chamber against all sorts of People who did offend either against the King's Prerogative Royal or the Arch-bishop's Injunctions which must be obeyed as Articles of the Church of England The Thunder of them was not restrained within the Bounds of England but terrified almost all Scotland who were bitter Enemies to Arminianism At this time of day the Court-Bishops disclaimed all Jurisdiction from the King in Bastwick's Censure who was to pay 1000 l. Fine to be excommunicated debarr'd of his Practice of Physick his Books to be burnt and his Person imprisoned till he made a Reclamation and all this for maintaining the King's Prerogative against the Papacy See Whitlock's Memoirs The Bounds of England were too narrow to restrain this Man's Ambition and therefore before he had been two Months Arch-bishop viz. the 8th of October 1633. he advised the King 〈◊〉 make a Reformation in the Church of Scotland not by Confeâ—â— in Parliament but by his Prerogative Royal the Beginning 〈◊〉 this Reformation must begin at the King's Chappel Royal wheâ— the English Service the Surplice and the receiving the Sacramentâ— is enjoined and that the Lords of the Privy Council the Lord of the Sessions and the Advocate Clerks Writers to the Privâ— Signet and Members of the College of Justice be commandeâ— to receive the Sacrament once every Year in the said Chappeâ— and the Dean to report to the King who does or who does 〈◊〉 obey and the Arch-bishop had a Warrant from the King to 〈◊〉 Correspondence with the Bishop of Dunblane and to communicate to him his Majesty's farther Pleasure herein And so we leave the Affairs of the Church here for a while and see how Affairs stood in the State since the Dissolution of the last Parliament In the last Parliament among many famous Members Sir Thomas Wentworth and Mr. Noy excelled Sir Thomas for his admired Parts and natural and easy Elocution Noy as a most profound Lawyer both zealous Patriots for the Rights and Liberties of the Subject And upon the 12th of February 1628. when the Debates for granting Tunnage and Poundage to the King was in the House of Commons Mr. Noy argued We cannot safely give unless we be in Possession and the Proceedings in the Exchequer be nullified as also the Information in the Star-Chamber and the Annexion to the Petition of Right for it will not be a Gift but a Confirmation neither will I give without the Removal of these Interruptions and a Declaration in the Bill that the King has no Right but by our free Gift if it will not be accepted as it is fit for us to give we cannot help it if it be the King 's already we do not give it So that these two must be reckoned among those Vipers which the King declared at the Dissolution of the Parliament and must look for their Reward of Punishment The Reward of Punishment which these two Vipers had was that Sir Thomas Wentworth was made Lord President of the North and Mr. Noy Attorney General Sir Thomas strained the Jurisdiction so high that it proved the Ruin of the Court and the Rise of the Fame of Mr. Edward Hâ—de after Chancellour of England for the Speech he made in 1641 against the Abuses committed in it whilst Sir Thomas was President and Noy now he is become Attorney is become the most intimate Confident of the Arch-bishop and as forward in Informations in the Star-Chamber High Commission and Council-Table as Sir Robert Heath was who is made Chief Justice in the Common Pleas to make room for Noy to be Attorney General But while the King was erecting this new Principality over his Subjects which none of his Ancestors or Predecessors before his Father and himself ever pretended to in England it 's fit to look a little abroad and see how the Case stood there The Dutch the next Year after that his Father had given up the Cautionary Towns which Queen Elizabeth kept and delivered up to him by her Death well knowing the Poverty of King James and the ill Terms between the King and his Subjects took the Boldness to fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland with their Busses and other Vessels guarded by Men of War in Defiance of him and now Grotius no doubt set on work by some of his Country-men perceiving how intent King Charles was in erecting his new Dominion over his Subjects that he became careless of all his Foreign Affairs took the Impudence to
It was by two Judges only and but two Arguments upon it and no Reason given of it And Thirdly it was ushered in but two Days before by pretending the discovering of a Plot to amuse the Nation so as no Man presumed to take notice of the Legality of this Judgment for fear of being prosecuted for Arraigning the Justice of the Nation and flying in the Face of the Government Hereupon Swarms of the richer Sort of Corporations surrendred their Charters and took new ones as the King pleased and paid dear for them and the King in return of their Kindness granted them new Fairs and Markets but tho the richer Sort of the Corporations could pay the Keeper North and Attorney Sawyer sound Fees for their Purchase yet a Multitude of the meaner Sort could not come to their Price and without Money no New Charters could be had which put a Rub to the compleating this Work in King Charles his time yet the good Will of the Members of these petty Corporations was not less The King's Care for the Knights of Shires was less than for the Corporations for the Sheriffs Lords and Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of Peace being of the King's Nomination and the Tory Party having perfectly subdued the Whigs the King by the same Power which made North and Rich Sheriffs could have what Knights of Shires he pleased King James made good his Word he promised his Privy Council that he would never depart from the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown of which no Question is to be made but those which his good and gracious Brother had left him possest of were the principal and how hasty soever he was after in his Actions yet he took great Care how to exercise the Prerogative his Brother assumed in modelling Corporations to improve it to his utmost Advantage and therefore though his Brother died upon the 6th of February 1684-85 yet no Parliament met till the 19th of May and then they did not sit to act before the 28th which is much more than threefold the time from the issuing out of the Writs and the 40 Days of their Meeting In the mean time all Hands are set on work to chuse such Members as should do the Court's Work they were sure enough of such Corporations as had surrendred their Charters and bought new ones the beggarly ones which could not come up to the Price of renewing their Charters were graciously promised to have new ones Gratis as they after had if they behaved themselves well in the Choice of their Members The Lords and Deputy-Lieutenants were as imperious in the Choice of Knights of the Shire as my Lord Mayor was in the Choice of North and Rich for Sheriffs But that we may take a better View of the Acts of the Parliament of King James it 's fit to consider how the Case stood with the King King James while he was Duke of York was observed to be constant to his Word and a true Friend which made him more courted than his Brother he had a Revenue of near 150000 l. per An. and was a frugal and careful manager of it and this he brought as an Accession to the Crown when he became King K. Charles had more built and better furnished his Royal Palaces which he had not given away than any King of England before and the Parliament about six Years before his Death had given him 600000 l. for building thirty new Men of War to make his Fleet more formidable than that of the Dutch or French King and the Nation in Peace unless among our selves so that it might have been reasonably expected a much less Revenue than what King Charles had added to that of the Duke's might have supported the ordinary Expence of the Crown if no extraordinary should happen Notwithstanding all this the King upon the 28th of May told the Members such as they were the same things he told his Privy Council that he might not seem to have said it by chance and in return thereof he expected they should settle his Revenue because he had taken it without them during his Life as it was in the time of his Brother for the Well-being of the Government which he must not suffer to be precarious which I believe was the first time any King of England so caressed a Parliament but these if they were worthy to be called a Parliament being made to his Hand the King might do and say to them what he pleased Before the Kings of the Scotish Race came to bear rule over us the Methods of Parliaments were to represent the Grievances of the Nation and upon Redress of them the Parliament gave the King a Gratuity which before the 35th of Queen Elizabeth did never exceed one Subsidy and two Tenths of Fifteenths and the King in return granted an Act of Pardon to his Subjects Thus a mutual Correspondence was entertained between the King and Kingdom But when King James the first came to the Crown the representing the Grievances of the Nation by his disorderly Reign was Language intolerable to him so that of four Parliament which were all he had in his Reign in the last he boasted He had broke the Neck of three of them and his Son broke the neck of the four first Parliaments of his Reign yet such was the Temper of those Times that to humour thâ—se Princes the Parliament of 18 Jac. I. and the 1st Car. I. altered the Methods of Parliament and that of the 18th gave King James two entire Subsidies and that of the 1st Car. I. gave King Charles two entire Subsidies before Grievances were redressed King James I. in return of their kindness not only brake the Neck of the Parliament but committed many of the worthiest Members close Prisoners to the Tower for preâ—â—ming to debate them King Charles did not commit any Members of this Parliament tho he did in his 3d and 4th Parliament but brake the Neck of the Parliament rather than they should enquire into the Duke of Buckingham's Actions and the imbezelling the Monies given by the Parliament for the Support of the Palatinate Heretofore Grievances were in the Nation whereas at the Death of King Charles the II. the whole Nation was in a most grievous and dangerous State which the Parliament of King James if it be worthy to be so called took so little notice of that instead of representing the State of the Nation to King James they without redressing any gave him a Revenue to enable him to ruin Church and State upon the Foundation which his Brother had laid The 1st Act was to settle the Customs and temporary Excise upon the King as it was settled before upon his Brother but the King had little reason to thank them for that for he took both before they gave them and called them by that Title His Revenue The 3d Act was an Imposition upon Wines and Vinegars imported between the 24th of June 1685 until the 24th of June
the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoign and Guienne General Governor of the Seas and Ships of the Kingdom Master of the Horse to the King Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and of the Members of the same Constable of Dover-Castle Justice in Eyre of all the Forests and Chases on this side of Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Gentleman of his Majesty's Bed-Chamber one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council in his Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter But tho all others worshipped this prodigious Favourite yet Arch-bishop Abbot a Prelate of Primitive Sanctity and Integrity would not flatter neither the King nor his Favourite in their Courses so dangerous to the Church and State and dishonourable to the King and tho in Disgrace he wrote this following Letter to the King which you may read in Rushworth fol. 85. May it please your Majesty M I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it has pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in But now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my Duty to your Majesty and therefore freely to give me leave to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you to take into your Consideration what that Act is what the Consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up the most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How hateful will it be to God and grievous to your Subjects the Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath so often and learnedly disputed and written against those Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those wicked Doctrines which your Pen hath to the World and your Conscience tells your self are superstitious idolatrous and detestable and hereto I add what you have done by sending the Prince into Spain without the Consent of your Council the Privity or Approbation of your People and altho you have a Charge and Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh yet the People have a greater as Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty are their Eyes fixed and their Welfare depends and so tenderly is his going apprehended as I believe however his Return may be safe yet the Drawers of him into this Action so dangerous to himself so desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestion'd and unpunished Besides the Toleration which you endeavour to set up by your Proclamation cannot be without a Parliament unless your Majesty will let your Subjects see that you will take to your self the Ability to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure What dread Consequence these things may draw afterwards I beseech your Majesty to consider and above all lest by this Toleration and discountenancing the true Profession of the Gospel wherewith God hath blest us and this Kingdom hath so long flourished under it your Majesty doth not draw upon this Kingdom in general and your self in particular God's Wrath and Indignation I have heard my Father say that King James kept a Fool called Archy if he were not more Knave whom the Courtiers when the King was at any time thoughtful or serious would bring in with his antick Gestures and Sayings to put him out of it In one of these Modes of the King in comes Archy and tells the King he must change Caps with him Why says the King Why who replies Archy sent the Prince into Spain But what said the King wilt thou say if the Prince comes back again Why then said Archy I will take my Cap from thy Head and send it to the King of Spain which was said troubled the King sore But if we look back into Spain we shall see things of another Complection than when Buckingham came into it For now he is disgusted he put the Prince quite out of the Match as that tho all things were agreed upon the coming of the Dispensation from Rome so as King James said all the Devils in Hell could not break the Match yet his Disciple and Scholar could tho the Duke had certified the King the Match was brought to a happy Conclusion and the Match publickly declar'd in Spain and the Prince permitted Access to the Infanta in the Presence of the King and the Infanta was generally stiled the Princess of England and in England a Chappel was building for her at St. James's and the King had prepared a Fleet to fetch her into England which only proved to bring back his Son How things especially actuated by Love should stay here may seem strange yet such an Ascendant had Buckingham over the Prince that the Affront put upon him Buckingham must quite deface the Prince's vowed Love and Affection to the Infanta but how to prevail with King James to comply might have an appearance of some Difficulty since the King had set his Rest upon it and had quarelled with the Parliament and dissolv'd them in great Anger and Fury for but mentioning it After the Duke had gained the Prince to break or at least not to observe the Conditions of the Treaty of the Marriage with the Infanta so solemnly sworn to by both the Kings and the Prince let 's now see how he behaved himself to King James afterwards but this will be better understood if we look back and see how things stood before the Prince's and Duke's Arrival in Spain The Prince's going into Spain was not only kept secret from King James ' s Council but from my Lord Keeper Williams tho the King confided in his Abilities above all the other of his Council but when it had taken vent the King asked the Keeper what he thought Whether the Knight Errant's Pilgrimage meaning the Prince's would prove lucky to win the Spanish Lady and to convey her shortly into England Sir answered my Lord Keeper If my Lord Marquess will give Honour to Conde Duke Olivares and remember he is the Favourite of Spain or if Olivares will shew honourable Civility to my Lord Marquess remembring he is a Favourite of England the Wooing may be prosperous but if my Lord Marquess should forget where he is and not stoop to Olivares or if Olivares forgetting what Guest he hath received with the Prince bear himself haughtily and like a Castilian to my Lord Marquess the Provocation may be dangerous to cross your Majesty's good Intentions and I pray God that either one or both do not run into that Error The Answer of the Keeper took such Impression upon the King that he asked the Keeper if he had wrote to his Son and the
resolve that Religion shall have the Precedency in their Debates and make this Vow WE the Commons in Parliament assembled do claim protest and avow for Truth the Sense of the Articles of Religion which were established by Parliament in the 13th Year of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth which by the Publick Acts of the Church of England and by the general and currant Exposition of the Writers of our Church have been delivered unto Vs And we Reject the Sense of the Jesuits and Arminians and all others wherein they differ from us But the true Reason why the King would not take the Duties of Tunnage and Poundage from the Commons was for fear the Commons should not grant the Duties imposed by his Father and taken by him which he was resolved to continue whether the Parliament would or not The House had a Petition from the Printers and Booksellers in London complaining that Laud Bishop of London who had been so but from the 15th of July last had restrained Books written against Popery and Arminianism and the contrary allowed of only by him and had sent Pursevants for many Printers and Booksellers who had printed Books against Popery and that Licensing Books was only restrained to the Bishop of London and his Chaplains This is the Patron and Saint-like Martyr of the Church of England And all this Ado in the House of Commons was upon Sir Elliot's Speech against Neal Bishop of Winchester a zealous Promoter of Arminianism and Weston Lord Treasurer a Papist in whose Person he said All Evil is contracted acting and building upon those Grounds laid by his great Master the Duke and that his Spirit is moving to these Interruptions and they for fear break Parliaments lest the Parliament should break them That he finds him the Head of all the great Party That Papists Jesuits and Priests derive from him their Shelter and Protection c. But the Speaker upon Motion of the House refused to put the Question being he said otherwise commanded by the King Whereupon the House adjourn'd till Wednesday the 25th and from thence to the 2d of March when the Speaker again refused to put the Question the Success whereof was said before What now was the Crime of the House It was their Endeavour to preserve the Religion of the Church of England and the Laws and Liberties of the Subjects of England and since the Speaker refusing to do his Office they could not represent their Duty to the King they made their Protestation in the Defence of the Church and State And Masters oft-times upon Disobedience of their Servants do that which at other times they would not have done The King having made Peace abroad was resolved now to prosecute a vigorous â—ar at home against those Noble Gentlemen who in a Parliamentary Way had asserted the established Religion and Laws of England The Duke of Buckingham who was stabb'd the 23d of August before you need not fear had furnished the King with Judges Privy-Counsellors and Star-Chamber-Men who should do the King's Work and now let 's see the Order and Method by which it was carried on Upon this very Day viz. the 2d of March a Proclamation was drawn for the Dissolution of the Parliament but not proclaimed the King afterwards doing it himself in Person upon the 10th But next Day Warrants were directed from the Privy-Council for Denzil Hollis Sir Miles Hobert Sir John Elliot Sir Peter Hayman John Selden William Coriton Walter Long William Stroud and Benjamin Valentine Esquires to appear before the Council next day Mr. Hollis Sir John Elliot Mr. Valentine and Mr. Coriton appeared and for refusing to answer out of Parliament for what was said or done in Parliament were committed close Prisoners to the Tower and Warrants were given for sealing up the Studies of Mr. Hollis Mr. Selden Sir John Elliot Mr. Long and Mr. Stroud who not then appearing a Proclamation was issued out for apprehending of them The 10th of March the King comes into the House of Lords and tells the Reasons of his Dissolution of the Parliament that it was the undutiful and seditious Carriage in the lower House but says not wherein calls them Vipers who must look for their Reward and Punishment but promises the Lords the Favour and Protection that a good King oweth to his loving and faithful Nobility and then the Lord Keeper dissolved the Parliament CHAP. II. This Reign detected to the Second Parliament in 1640. JUstice like Truth is one and consists in entire Parts and will not admit of more or less but Injustice like Falshood and Error is distracted into infinite Discord and Confusion King James upon the Dissolution of the Parliament of the 12th and 18th Years of his Reign without any Trial but only by the Prerogative of his own Will commits several Members of Parliament to Prison for presuming to represent the Grievances of the Nation to him for Redress without Bail or Main-prize But this King puts a face of Justice upon his fining and imprisoning the Members of Parliament for their Debates and Transactions in it which was so much worse than his Father's Actions by how much the affixing a sacred Character to a bad Act and Justice is sacred renders the Act so much worse as Perjury is a greater Crime than simple Falshood and to murder a Man under pretence of Justice a greater Crime than simple Murder The Members thus close imprisoned after the Dissolution of the Parliament viz. in Trinity-Term following Mr. Selden was brought by Habeas Corpus to the King's-Bench with the Cause of his Detainer and also the same day Sir Miles Hobert Mr. Benjamin Valentine and Mr. Hollis appeared by Habeas Corpus directed to their several Prisons with their Counsel to argue their several Cases But when the Court were prepared to give their Opinions the Prisoners were not brought according to the Rule of Court Then Proclamation was made to the Keepers of the several Prisons to bring their Prisoners but none appeared But the Marshal of the King's-Bench said that Mr. Stroud was removed out of his Custody the day before to the Tower by the King 's own Warrant and so it was done by the other Prisoners But in the Evening the Judges received a Letter from the King containing Reasons why he would not suffer the Prisoners to appear yet that Selden and Valentine should appear the next day and about three Hours after the Judges received other Letters that upon mature Deliberation neither Selden nor Valentine should appear And the same Term four Constables of Hertfordshire pray'd Corpus's to several Pursevants to whom they were committed by the Lords of the Privy-Council which were granted but then they are committed to other Pursevants and so they were upon every other Habeas Corpus so that the Constables could have no benefit of them The Members as well as the Constables being thus shifted from one Prison to others to prevent the Returns of their Corpus's by special Order from
how to erect a High Commission Court in Scotland by the King's Authority without Consent in Parliament for proceeding against such as would not submit to the Common-Prayer Book and Canons enjoined by the King and Bishops of Scotland and upon the 28th of February the Arch-bishop consecrated Dr. Manwaring Bishop of St. Davids a worthy Successor to so Saint-like and pious a Predecessor for this Bishoprick was Laud's first Preferment You have seen his Grace of Canterbury's Temper towards the King's Subjects now see how it was towards the King His Grace being as high as England could admit viz. Metropolitan and first Peer thereof would visit both Universities by his Metropolitan Right and not by Commission from the King and signified so much to both to which both answered That to admit it without a Warrant from the King was a Wrong to the Vniversities his Grace was Chancellour of Oxford and the Earl of Holland of Cambridg The Cause came to a hearing before the King and Council the 21st of June 1634 where the Attorney General Banks was for his Grace against the King Mr. Gardener the Recorder of London â—or Cambridg and Serjeant Thyn for Oxford the Cause was shortly this Both sides agreed in this that both Universities were of the King's Foundation and so might be visited as they had often been by Commission from the King But this would not do with his Grace he would to use his own Words visit by his own Right Serjeant Thyn urged against this the King's Foundation of the University of Oxford and that never any Arch-bishop so visited But the Recorder could not say so of Cambridg which happened upon this Occasion In the Reign of Richard the Wickliff's Doctrine prevailed much in both Universities and Arundel then Arch-bishop of Canterbury as zealous to suppress the Wicklevites as Laud was the Puritans to suppress them did visit Jure Metropolitano but Oxford opposed him forti Manu Upon this Arundel appeals to the King who being a weak Prince and as zealous for the then Church as King Charles was for Laud's declares the Right to be in the Bishop so did Henry the 4th the Current running against Wickliff which was after confirmed in Parliament but Cambridg was not in it Yet never before did any Arch-bishop visit Oxford nor Cambridg since the Year 1404 Jure Metropolitano as his Grace would do and so the Cause went for the Arch-bishop Plum'd thus in his own Feathers all black and white without one borrowed from Caesar whereby the more he assumes to himself the less he leaves the King he now soars higher the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury in their own Names enjoin the Removal of the Communion Table in the Parish-Churches and Universities from the Body of the Church or Chancel to the East of the Chancel and cause Rails to be set about the Table and refuse to administer the Sacrament to such as shall not come up to the Rails and receive it kneeling that the Book of Sports on Sundays be read in Churches and enjoin Adoration I do not find that Adoration was ever enjoined before nor any of the fore-named Injunctions in any Canon of the Church sure I am they were never publickly put in Execution so that whether these were any of the Canons of the Church or not was not understood by one of 10000 and the Lecturers Chaplains and School-masters who had no Maintenance from the Church being principally struck at by these Injunctions make all the sinister and worst Constructions they could invent against them so that though those Injunctions had been founded in the Canons of the Church yet the contrary was believed and so had the same Effect as if they had not been founded in the Church-Canons Here I cannot omit one Passage That several were deprived by the Bishop's Authority for refusing to read the Book of Sports on Sunday Whereas King James the 2d allowed the seven Bishops a legal Trial for refusing to enjoin the Clergy to read his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and the Bishops were acquitted That the Legality of these Proceedings might be manifest a Proclamation was issued out that it was the Opinion of the Judges that the Act of the 1 Edw. 6. 2. which ordains that Bishops should hold their Ecclesiastical Courts in the King's Name or by Commission from him was repealed by the 1st of Queen Mary though this Act was repealed by the 1 Jac. 25. and so the Act 1 Edw. 6. 2. was revived and so resolved upon a full Debate in Parliament 7 Jacobi The Thunder of those Canons the terrible and unheard of Execution of them in the Star-Chamber against all Opposers by Speech or Writing so terrified the Puritans which would not submit that incredible Numbers of them left the Kingdom to inhabit in foreign Plantations especially in New-England where these Ecclesiastical Canons could not well play upon them But to restrain the further Evasion of them the King by Proclamation the 30th of April 1638 stops all the Ports of England to keep them in it The Reason was no doubt that they might be better instructed in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England here than elsewhere But Ship-Money notwithstanding my Lord Keeper Coventry's Charge to the Judges last Year that in their Circuits they should give Charge how justly the King required Ship-Money for the common Defence and with what Alacrity and Chearfulness they the Subjects are bound in Duty to contribute yet this did not pass-for true Doctrine with all for Mr. Hambden upon Advice with Holborn St. John and Whitlock denied the Payment whereupon several other Gentlemen refused also Hereupon the King was advised by the Lord Chief Justice Finch to require the Opinion of his Judges which he did in a Letter to them and after much Solicitation by the Chief Justice promising Preferment to some and highly threatning others whom he found doubting he got from them in Answer to the King's Letter and Case their Opinion in these Words We are of Opinion that when the Good and Safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger you may by your Writ under the Great Seal of England command all your Subjects of this your Kingdom at their Charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victuals and Ammunition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the Defence and Safeguard of the Kingdom from Peril and Danger And that your Majesty may compel the doing thereof in case of Refusal or Refractoriness And we are also of Opinion that in such Case your Majesty is sole Judg both of the Danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided This Opinion was signed by Davenport Denham Hutton Croke Trevor Bramston Finch Vernon Berkly Crawley and Weston See Whitlock ' s Memoirs f. 24. The King having previously extorted the Judges Opinions exparte gave order for the Proceedings against Mr. Hambden in the
purpose 3. Oates said Turbervile said a little before the Witnesses were sworn at the Old-Baily That he was not a Witness against Colledge nor could give any Evidence against him and that after he came to Oxford he had been sworn before the Grand Jury against Colledge and that the Protestant Citizens had deserted him and God damn him he would not starve John Smith swore Colledge's speaking scandalous Words against the King and of his having Armour which he shewed Smith and said These are the things that will destroy the pitiful Guards of Rowley and that he expected the King would seize some of the Members of Parliament at Oxford which if done he would be one should seize the King that Fitz-Gerald had made his Nose bleed but before long he hoped to see a great deal more Blood shed for the Cause that if any nay Rowley himself came to disarm the City he would be the Death of him 4. To confront this Evidence Blake testified that Smith said Haynes's Discovery was a Sham-Plot a Meal-Tub-Plot Bolron said Smith would have had him swore against Sir John Brooke my Lord Shaftsbury and Colledge things of which he knew nothing and told him what he Bolron should swear lest they should disagree in their Evidence Oates testified Smith said God damn him he would have Colledge ' s Blood and Mowbray testified that Smith tempted him to be a Witness against Colledge and Sir John Brooke and said if the Parliament did not give the King Money and stood on the Bill of Exclusion that was Pretence enough to swear a Design to secure the King at Oxford And Everard and others testified Smith said he knew of no Presbyterian or Protestant Plot and said Justice Warcup would have perswaded him to swear against some Lords a Presbyterian Plot but he knew of none These were the material Evidences thus confronted which should prove Colledge's Treason and Misdemeanour for taking away his Life But this Evidence was so baffled that for Shame the King's Counsel never play'd them after against any other but my Lord of Shaftsbury but were forced to set up for new against my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney c. Objection In criminal Cases especially of Treason if Evidence did not arise from the Conspirators who are supposed to be ill Men scarce any other means can be found for preventing or punishing these and that Dangerfield was of an ill Fame and Dugdale Smith and Turbervile were Witnesses in Discovery of the Popish Plot and so their Evidence is to be credited as well in this as in the Popish Plot. Answer Nor would the Popish Plot have been believed if it had no Foundation but the Credit of the Witnesses but Coleman's Letters Sir Godfrey's Murder and Harcourt's Letters of it that Night to Evers my Lord Aston's Confessor c. gave more than sufficient Evidence of the Popish Plot beside the Evidence in the Popish Plot did arise from the Evidence of their own Accord not hired and sought to give it as in this And can any Man believe that Colledge so zealous a Protestant should design the Destruction of the King and contrive it by Papists to whom he was so averse And it were Madness to think Colledge could do this alone for none of all the Evidence swear any other to be concerned with him in it There were other Evidence against Colledge viz. Mr. Mâ—sters Sir William Jennings about Words which Colledge should speak and Atterbury Seywel and Stevens concerning finding Pictures in Colledge's Possession when they seized him but as Mr. Hawles observes these by no Law in England could be made Treason admitting all they said to be true But tho at Colledge this Scene began and he was executed as a Traitor it did not end in him as he prophesied For Colledge's Blood was too mean a Sacrifice to appease the offended Ghosts of the martyred Roman Saints and was but an Inlet to spill nobler Blood therefore upon the 31st of August he was executed and upon the 24th of November following 1681. the Earl of Shaftsbury had a Bill of High Treason at the Sessions of the Old-Baily London preferred against him I will not here curtail any of the Remarks which Mr. Hawles has made upon this Bill or the Trial of my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney's Mr. Cornish's and Wilmer's Trials but leave them entire to the Reader it 's enough for me to shew how well the King by these Trials made good his Declaration of preserving the Protestant Religion and his utmost Endeavour to extirpate Popery yet I shall make some Remarks upon my Lord Shaftsbury's Case which Mr. Hawles either has not or not so fully Upon the 20th of April 1679 the King after he had sent the Duke into Holland dissolved his old Privy Council and chose a new one whereof the Earl of Shaftsbury was President and in Parliament declared the ill Effects he had found of single Councils and Cabals and therefore had made Choice of this Council which next to the Advice of his great Council of Parliament which he would often consult in all his weighty and important Affairs he would be advised by this Privy Council and to take away all Jealousy that he was influenced by Popish Councils he had sent his Brother beyond Sea But now quanto mutatus No more Parliaments so long as this King lives The Council whose Advice next the Parliament he would take is now dissolved and the President 's Life is sought for the Duke of late sent away that he might not influence the King's Councils is now returned and governs all and made High Commissioner of Scotland where at this time he is contriving the Destruction of the noble Earl of Argile whilst his Brother is doing that of my Lord of Shaftsbury and both act their Parts under the Vail of sacred Justice But how to bring the Earl of Shaftsbury upon the Stage was Matter of great Inquiry other Evidence besides Irish and those Colledge had so baffled could scarce be found and this Evidence 't was feared would no more prevail upon a London Grand Jury than before it did when the Bill was preferred against Colledge Captain Henry Wilkinson was a Yorkshire Gentleman who having served King Charles I. in his Wars and been very instrumental in the Restoration of King Charles II. being fall'n into Decay a Fate usually attending the Cavaliers who served either of those Kings was for his Sufferings Integrity and Honesty preferred by the Earls of Craven and Shaftsbury to be Governour of Carolina and one of his Sons to be Surveyor-General of it and another a Register Captain Wilkinson made use of the little Stock he had left and such Credit as he could procure to fit himself upon this Account and hired a Ship called the Abigail of a hundred and thirty Tuns and victualled her for the Master and ten Men and such other Passengers as he should take in In this Number one Mr. John Booth desired that he and his
Family might accompany the Captain to Carolina which was agreed to but the Captain being under several Disappointments and the charges of the Ship of four Months lying in the River insupportable the Captain was arrested and thrown into the Compter from whence he removed himself to the King's Bench. The Captain 's Necessities were equal or more than those of the Irish Evidence but the Captain at least as he supposed had no need of a Pardon for any thing designed against the King or Government as the Irish Evidence had so the first Attempt upon the Captain was to hire him to give Evidence against my Lord of Shaftsbury If Empson and Dudly were so zealous to fill Henry the 7th's Coffers by straining the Penal Laws to utmost Rigour as the Vogue went Graham Baynes and Burton were as zealous to pack Juries and procure Evidence for carrying on this black Design but I do not find Burton was in this upon Captain Wilkinson Upon the eighth of October Baynes made his first Attack upon the Captain and told him that he had been lately with Mr. Graham who had a great Interest with my Lord H. and that the Captain could not but know much of my Lord Shaftsbury's Designs and that he had now a desired Opportunity to discover them and urged the Captain not to deny the proffer and that he need not fear his getting a Pardon but the Captain was constant that he knew nothing of any such Design By this time Booth was a Prisoner in the King's Bench as well as the Captain and upon the eleventh Booth attack'd the Captain and told him he might have 500 l. per annum or 10000 l. if he would discover what he knew of my Lord Shaftsbury's Design against the King and that the Captain should appear at Court and have Assurance of it from Persons of Honour but this wrought not upon the Captain neither Upon the thirteenth Baynes Booth and Graham renewed the Promises Baynes and Booth had made and that he should have the King's Promise for the same and his Royal Word for a Reward for his Sufferings and that Graham was sent by some of the Council to bring the Captain to the King and that he had an Order for it but all would not do for the Captain was resolved not to go to White-Hall if he could help it Upon the fourteenth Booth told the Captain that Mr. Wilson my Shaftsbury's Secretary who was a Prisoner in the Gate-house had sent to the Council that he would come and discover all he knew and therefore he urged the Captain to have the Honour of being the first Discoverer and that to the former Promises the Captain should have 500 l. per Annum settled on him in Ireland by the D. of York but all to no purpose Upon the fifteenth Booth and Baynes attackt the Captain again the Captain asked Baynes why he was so urgent for his Testimony Baynes answered That as yet they had none but Irish Evidence which would not be believed but if the Captain came to it he was not blemished in his Credit and then Baynes told him if he would not go he Baynes had a Habeas Corpus from my Lord Chief Justice Pemberton to carry him to White-Hall In the Afternoon the Captain was carried by his Habeas Corpus to Whitehall and examined in the Secretary's Office by my Lord Conway and Secretary Jenkins and in his Examination in comes the King into the Office as before he had done into the Dutchess of Portsmouth's Chamber when my Lord H came to kiss her Hand and there the King told the Captain he had served his Father and him faithfully and hoped he the Captain would not now decline his Obedience to which the Captain answered he never deserved to be suspected then the King told him he had not the Opportunity to serve his Friends but hoped he might then the King examined him what he knew of my Lord Shaftsbury's having a Design against his Person but the Captain upon his Oath denied he knew any thing so the King left him to the further Examination of Secretary Jenkins But this Business did not stay here for the Captain was carried into another Room where were present the King my Lord Chancellor the Lord Chief Justice Pemberton and several other of the Nobility with Graham Baynes and Booth where my Lord Chancellor was very sharp upon the Captain and put several Questions to the Captain which he could not answer and told the Captain there were two sorts of Advancements and that the Captain was like to come to his Trial before the Lord Shaftsbury The Business was Booth had sworn that the Captain had a Commission from my Lord Shaftsbury for a Troop of fifty Men to be my Lord's Guards against the King and that Booth was listed in it This Booth had sworn but was so unfortunate in it as to swear this was when the Parliament was at Oxford at which time the Captain was making his Preparations for his intended Government of Carolina but whether the King believed the Captain or Booth is unknown but it stop'd here and the Captain was no higher advanced upon Booth's Oath nor could be prevailed upon to be a Witness against my Lord Shaftbury though his Wife was as much tempted to have it so as the Captain was so the Captain 's only Advancement was to be remanded to Prison However it was resolved that my Lord Shaftsbury should be prosecuted and so upon the 24th of November a Bill of High Treason was preferred against him to the great Inquest at the Sessions-House in the Old-Baily and Baines proved a true Prophet though Booth sware to the Captain's Command of Fifty Men to be a Guard to my Lord for the Jury neither believed him nor the Evidence so baffled at Colledge's Trial nor the Irish Evidence added to that and so returned an Ignoramus upon it Suetonius in the Life of Tiberius says he could never have made such Ravages upon the Roman Empire and exercised such Cruelties if he had not been backt by an Officious and flattering Senate which carried the Face of Justice in it and tho it be evident that for near Eighty Years these three Kings of the Scotish Race had been endeavouring to establish an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government over this Nation yet except King James the First who if his Necessities had not forced him would have never had a Parliament after the first and who by his own Authority created so many Monopolies and Benevolences and in the Parliament of the 12th and 18th Years of his Reign without any Colour of Justice imprisoned so many worthy Gentlemen without the Benefit of Corpus's for their Debates in Parliament yet these other two pretended to raise their Tyrannies under the Form of Justice and therefore Charles the First after he for Fifteen Years together had not only exceeded his Father in granting Monopolies and raising Money by Loans Benevolences Coat and Conduct Money but also
the next Step was to satisfy the Nation the Earl murdered himself and to this Purpose the Coroner's Inquest must necessarily sit and give their Verdict but so the Business was ordered that before the Jury was impannelled the Earl's Body was taken out of the Closet where 't was pretended he murdered himself and stript of his Clothes which were carried away and the Closet washt and when one of the Jury insisted upon seeing my Lord's Clothes in which he died the Coroner was sent for into another Room and upon his Return told the Jury it was my Lord's Body not his Clothes they were to sit upon and when it was moved that the Jury should adjourn and give my Lord's Relations Notice Thaâ— if they had any thing to say on my Lord's Behalf it was answered The King had sent for the Inquisition and would not rise from the Council-Board till it was brought I do not find that when the like Practices were used and wheâ—â— the Coroner's Inquest found Sir Thomas Overbury died a Natural Death in the Tower that two Years after when Reves the Apothecary's Servant made the first Discovery of Sir Thomas his being poisoned that Reves was prosecuted for flying in the Face of the Government and questioning the Justice of the Nation as Mr. Speke and Mr. Braddon were for endeavouring to discover the Murder of my Lord of Essex I 'm sure their Inducement for the Proofs of it were manifoldly more than Reves's were of Sir Overbury's and I wish I understood what their Crimes were more than Reves's but that being for the King and Justice of the Nation they ought to have been encouraged if there had been no foul dealing in the Earl's Death After the Death of these Noble Persons the rest of the Game was plaid without scarce any Rub Colonel Sidney Bateman Walcot Hone and Rouse followed for Treason all and all of different Complexions and where Treason could have no Colour actually to take away the Lives of the Opponents of Popery and Arbitrary Power Misdemeanours are set on foot to take away their Means of living Fines from 10000 to 100000 l. for words against the Duke though by Magna Charta a Salvo Contenemento is reserved for Misdemeanors against the King Graham and Burton would find Juries for all and the Sheriffs would return them to do the Work But the Rage and Tyranny against the Opponents of Popery and Arbitrary Power was not more illegal than the Indulgence to the Lords impeached by Parliament for the King resolving to have no more Parliaments upon the present Constitution made Judges to take Bail for them to appear next Parliament Hereby as much invading the Rights and Jurisdiction of Parliament as the Judgments against Fitz-Harris Colledge my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney c. were illegal which though at Common Law they might have been Treason yet by the Statute of the 25th of Edward the Third the Judges in Westminster-Hall were prohibited to take Cognisance of them and by the Act of 13 Car. 2. c. 51. wherein the Prosecution ought to be within Six Months after the Fact and the Indictment within three Months after Though the City of London and many other Cities in England those their Sheriffs yet the Sheriffs of all the other Shires and Counties of England were named by the King so that the King 's next care was how to subvert the Constitution of Parliament and like Oliver Cromwel have a House of Commons of his own making For the House of Commons is compunded of five hundred and thirteen Members whereof but ninety two are Knights of Shires so that near 5 6 are Burgresses Citizens and Barons of the Cinque Ports The Generality of the Corporations which send these Members are poor decayed places and so not able as the City of London to contest their Charters or if they could they had little hope to keep them now London could not hold theirs Yet this would cost the Court a great deal of time to bring Quo Warranto's against above two hundred Corporations and now all Hands are set at work to prevail upon these poor Inhabitants and mighty Rewards are promised to those who should surrender them but because Money was scarce Bargains were made with Multitudes of them to have Grants of Fairs for surrender of their Charters and those which refused had Quo Warranto's brought against them To humour the Court and in perfect hope that in time the Mountains would bring forth a Multitude of Corporations or rather some loose vain Men who assumed the Names of the Corporations by heaps surrendred their Charters and at excessive Rates I cannot say renewed but took new ones whereby the King reserved to himself the Power of disposing of all Places of Profit and Power which at present was intrusted in their Hands who had betrayed their former Trust nor did these Men care for the expence of purchasing their new Charter tho it were to the starving the Poor of their Corporations who should have been fed with the Monies expended in the Purchase But a Multitude of lewd Fellows who in meaner Corporations were all as willing to betray their Charters as the Richer yet had not Money to purchase new ones and without it nothing could be had and never was King furnished with such a Lord Keeper for by this time North who had drawn the King's Declaration against petitioning for a Parliament and for which he was impeached in Parliament and had so highly merited in Colledge's Trial was made Lord Keeper and Attorney General for taking Money with both Hands though by their Oaths they ought to have to the best of their Skill informed the King of the Justice and Lawfulness of all those things which were to pass the Seals and this put some stop to the hurry of the surrender of Charters But in these Corporations there were some Members who made a Conscience of their Oaths and betraying their Trusts and according to the Obligation to both performed their Duties but these were prosecuted as Rioters and Tumultuous Persons and fined extravagantly even to their undoing and imprisoned till payment and bound to their good Behaviour These things were not carried on with that Security but some Umbrages of fear there were that some Disturbances might arise before they could be brought to Perfection to quell them if they should happen The Duke had secured Scotland and had 20000 Foot and 2000 Horse and a Year's Pay to be assisting upon all Occasions a greater liberty was given to the Irish than ever and to crown the Work Tangier is demolished and the Garison which was a Nursery of Popish Officers and Souldiers is brought over and placed in the most considerable Parts of England Whilst the King is framing this goodly Structure the French King against his Faith at the Treaty of Nimeguen by foul and base Treachery seizes upon Strasburg on the Rhine the most considerable City of Germany and by plain Force took Courtray and the City
sign a Warrant of Execution for the Duke his Brother's beloved Son without any Trial or Process of Law against him But his Grandfather James the First had either done the like or at least not unlike it when he came to Newark upon Trent in his Passage to London at his first coming to the Crown one was said to cut a Purse whereupon the King without more ado signed a Warrant for his Execution to the Sheriff and the poor Fellow was executed accordingly The Duke suffered upon the 15th of July but the Issue of Blood did not stanch with him for towards the latter end of August a Special Commission of Oyer and Terminer was granted to Sir George Jefferies and four other Judges to try the Duke of Monmouth's Adherents in the West But as the Duke suffered without any Trial and so was unjustly put to Death so I believe this Commission was initiated by such a Trial as can scarce be parallel'd by any other and this was the Case Alicia Lisle a Woman of extream Age was Wife of Lisle one of King Charles the First 's Judges and who was President of the High Court of Justice as 't was then called in the Trials of Duke Hamilton the Earl of Holland and my Lord Capel and also in the Trial of Sir Henry Slingsby Dr. Hewet c. and had entertained after the Defeat of the Duke of Monmouth one Hicks a Non-Conformist Minister who was with the Duke not in any Proclamation that he was so and one Richard Nelthorp a Stranger to Mrs. Lisle who was in the Proclamation and Out-lawed of High Treason for which she was tried at Winchester for High Treason for comforting and assisting Rebels It appears by the publick Prints the Jury were so unsatisfied by the Evidence Hicks not being in any Proclamation and Nelthorp unknown to Mrs. Lisle that they thrice brought her in Not Guilty at last upon Jefferies Threats they brought her in Guilty of High Treason and so had Sentence passed upon her accordingly which in Women is to be burnt but the Execution was by beheading of her so that whether the Sentence was just or not the Execution was unjust for though the King may pardon or mitigate the Punishment of any Crime against him as to pardon Treason or to mitigate the Execution to beheading which is part of the Sentence yet he cannot alter the Punishment into any other than the Law prescribes but the Convention after King William came in were so dissatisfied in her Case that though they could not restore her to Life yet they reverst the Judgment for her Death From this uncertain Justice Jefferies and his Brethren make haste to proceed in their Commission Summo Jure and from Winchester by Salisbury upon the 3d of September a day fam'd for Oliver's Victory over the Scots at Dunbar over King Charles the II. at Worcester and for his Death arrives at Dorchester and because time was precious the next day Jefferies contrives this Stratagem to shorten his Work Thirty Persons being found by the Grand Inquest to have assisted the Duke of Monmouth when they came upon their Trials and before they had pleaded Jefferies told them that whosoever pleaded Not Guilty and was found so should have little time to live and if any expected Favour he must plead Guilty But the Prisoners trusted little to what Jefferies said and pleaded Not Guilty yet 29 were found Guilty and immediately Sentence was passed upon them and a Warrant of Execution signed upon Monday following after which a couple of Officers were sent to the Goal to take the Names of all the Prisoners who told the Prisoners if they confest they might expect Mercy otherwise none was to be hoped for these wretched Men thus wheedled pleaded Guilty and so at one Sentence Jefferies condemned 292 whereof 80 were executed From Dorchester Jefferies proceeded to Exeter and used the same Stratagem as at Dorchester for one Mr. Fower Acres being arraigned and pleading Not Guilty yet being found so had immediately Sentence passed upon him and Execution awarded upon it whereupon 243 pleaded Guilty and by one Sentence had Judgment passed upon them From Exeter Jefferies marched to Taunton where some few pleaded Not Guilty but being found had immediately Sentence and Execution awarded the rest terrified pleaded Guilty and had Sentence passed upon them and thence Jefferies marched to Wells where he finished his bloody Assize where and at Taunton he condemned above 509 whereof 239 were executed and had their Heads and Quarters set up in the principal Places and High Roads of Somerset and Dorsetshires to the terror of Passengers and annoyance of those Parts In these Executions I find one remarkable Story it 's printed in a Treatise called The New Martyrology fol. 478. Colonel Holmes and 11 more of those condemned at Dorchester were carried from Dorchester to Lime towards their Execution by six in a Coach and six in a Cart and at Lime they were put in a Sledg prepared to carry them to be executed but the Horses could not be driven to go but turned backward whereupon the Coach-horses were taken from the Coach and put to draw the Sledg but then the Sledg broke so the poor Men were forced to go on their Feet to their Execution I will not dispute the Justice of these Executions but I say Justice ought to look forward viz. to terrify others from committing like Crimes never backward to take Pleasure in punishing and a black Brand is set upon the Reigns of those Princes which shed much Blood nor do we read in any Story such a Sea of Blood flowed from Justice as did in less than eight Months after this King began his Reign and that which rendred it more remarkable was the King's Profession to his Privy Council and after to the Parliament That he would imitate his good and gracious Brother but above all in his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People But if Justice look'd forward in Jeffries's Executions it did not in Kirk's who was one of King James's Major-Generals in the Expedition against the Duke of Monmouth who when after the Duke's Defeat he came to Taunton caused 90 wounded Men who had been taken Prisoners not permitting their Wives or Children to speak with them to be hang'd with Pipes playing Drums beating and Trumpets sounding and after their Bowels to be burnt their Quarters to be boiled in Pitch and hang'd in several parts of the Town and I have heard that when afterwards Kirk was charged with this Inhumanity he excused it that he could do no less it being but part of the Instructions he had from the Right Honourable the Earl of F General in this famous Expedition As yet no Pardon could be hoped for to any one but by those which could purchase it by the Ruin of their Estates and those which could not purchase one were sold for Slaves to the Plantations When Justice could take no further place then out comes a Pardon
Doctrine of Passive Obedience had made a plain and easy Passage for the Popish Faction to take Possession of this Power The Bishop of London therefore after the Lords had voted an Address of Thanks to the King's Speech moved in the name of himself and all his Brethren that the House would debate the King's Speech which as it was extraordinary and unusual in the House so was it not less surprizing to the King and Court who now dreaded the Lords would concur with the Commons in their Address to prevent which the King first prorogued and then dissolved the Parliament and never called another in all his Reign And thus the King made good to the Parliament in his Speech to them the 28th of May That the best Way to engage him to meet them often was to use him well and did expect that they would comply with him in what he desired and that they would do it speedily that it might be a short Sessions and that he and the Parliament might meet again to all their Satisfactions and for the Bishop of London the King shall remember his Motion in due time when he shall plead no Privilege of Parliament The King having so ill performed his Promise to the Parliament of often meeting of them where he might hear of it again which by no means he would endure after he had dissolved them had a fair Field without any Rub to do what he pleased and to petition him or represent the Grievances of the Nation out of Parliament shall be a great Crime next to High Treason And now 't is time to observe the Steps the King proceeded by to maintain the Church and State of England as by Law established His Brother had laid the Foundation of making a Parliament felo de se by hectoring and making Bargains with Corporations to surrender their Charters and taking new ones from him whereby he reserved a Power that if they did not send such Members as pleased him he would resume the Charters he granted them and herein he made a great Progress till his Keeper and Attorney General refused to grant Patents to such poor Corporations as could not pay their Fees so as a new Keeper or Chancellor and Attorney-General must be had who would grant Patents gratis or a Stop would be made in the Progress of so noble a Design In a lucky Hour my Lord Keeper N died at Astrop-Wells I think when Jeffries was in his March to the West and for a Reward of my Lord Jeffries's Clemency that he shewed had the Seals given him with the Title of Lord Chancellour but the Attorney was not so lucky but lived to be turned out and another put in his Place which would perform his Office more charitably to these indigent Corporations which could not pay their Fees in taking new Patents after they had perfidiously betrayed their old But this was but one Step towards this Holy Work the King to make a thorow Reformation will make the Judges in Westminster-Hall to murder the Common Law as well as the King and his Brother designed to murder the Parliament by it self and to this end the King before he would make any Judges would make a Bargain with them that they should declare the King's Power of dispensing with the Penal Laws and Tests made against Recusants out of Parliament However herein the King stumbled at the Threshold for it 's said he began with Sir Thomas Jones who had merited so much in Mr. Cornish his Trial and in the West yet Sir Thomas bogled at this and told the King He could not do it to which the K. answered He would have Twelve Judges of his Opinion and Sir Thomas replied He might have Twelve Judges of his Opinion but would scarce find Twelve Lawyers of his Opinion The Truth of this I have only from Fame but I 'm sure the King's Practice in reforming the Judges whereof all except my Lord Chief Baron Atkins and Justice Powel were such a Pack as never before sat in Westminster-Hall gave credit to it But if the Lord Chief Justice Thorp for taking a Bribe of 100 l. was adjudged to be hanged and all his Lands and Goods forfeited in the Reign of Edward the 3d because thereby as much as in him lay he had broken the King's Oath made unto the People which the King had intrusted him withal and if Justice Tresilian was hanged drawn and quartered for giving his Judgment that the King might act contrary to one Act of Parliament and if Blake the King's Counsel Vsk the Under-Sheriff of Middlesex and five more of Quality were hanged in the Reign of Henry the 4th for but assisting in Tresilian's Judgment What then did these Judges deserve which made Bargains with the King before-hand to break the King's Oath he had made to the People and entituled the King to a Power to subvert the Laws and gave Judgment before-hand to act contrary to them Andrew Horn in his Mirror of Justice tells us That King Alfred the Mirror of Kings hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and 40 Judges more because they judged in particular Causes contrary to Law But sure this was not more to Alfred's Honour than it was to the Dishonour of King James to make Bargains before-hand with Judges to give Judgment contrary to the Laws themselves and unless they would break the King's Oath to his People they should not be his Judges The Laws and Constitutions of this Nation as has been already noted make it a Kingdom whereof the King is Head and the Nation the Body so that if you take away the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom there is neither King nor Kingdom Did not the King then descend from his Majesty in rending himself from his Kingdom by breaking Laws whereby he ceases to be a King and the Nation to be a Kingdom And what was it for that the King would not be content with the Soveraignty he had over the Nation wherein his Majesty consisted but would strain it into a Tyranny over the Nation It was to introduce a foreign exploded Dominion of the Pope denied by our Saviour and asserted by the Devil whereby how absolute soever the King would be over his Subjects yet himself and Kingdom must be at the Pope's Disposal to be deposed and destroyed as the Pope pleased Bishop King in the State of the Protestants in Ireland fol. 18. gives this Account of one Moore a Romish Priest who preached before the King at Christ's Church in Dublin in the Beginning of the Year 1690 where he told him to his Face that he did not do Justice to the Church and Churchmen and amongst other things said That Kings ought to consult Churchmen in Temporal Affairs the Clergy having a Temporal as well as Spiritual Right in the Kingdom but Kings had nothing to do in the Management of Spiritual Affairs but were to obey the Orders of the Church Thinking Men could not conceive this dispensing with the Penal Laws
so in Extreams yet his Actions so diametrically opposite to his Profession Here you see a Jesuited Prince pleading for Liberty of Conscience to the breaking down the â—aws which before he had so often professed to maintain and for such a sort of Men whom but little before he had slaughter'd banished and imprisoned as if he had designed to extirpate the whole Race of them If to reconcile these to Truth or Reality be not as great a Miracle as is in any of the Popish Legends I 'll believe them all and be reconciled to the Roman Catholick Church how inconsistible soever the Terms be The generality of the Protestant Dissenters having for near seven years together been so severely treated by the Tories were as forward to congratulate the King for his Indulgence in manifold Addresses as the Tories were in King Charles his time in their Addresses of Abhorrence to petition the King to call a Parliament to settle the Grievances of the Nation However this Declaration was so drawn in the sight of every Bird that of my knowledg many of the sober thinking Men of the Dissenters did both dread and detest it That this Declaration might be more passable Popish Judges were made in Westminster-Hall and Popish Justices of the Peace and Deputy-Lieutenants all England over the Privy Council was replenished with Popish Privy Counsellors the Savoy was laid open to instruct Youth in the Romish Religion and Popish Principles and Schools for that purpose were encouraged in London and all other Places in England Four Foreign Popish Bishops as Vicars Apostolical were allowed in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction all England and Wales over From instructing the St. Omers Boys how to behave themselves in their Evidence to prove Oates was at St. Omers all April and May in 1678 my Lord Castlemain is sent Ambassador to the Pope to render the King's Obedience to the Holy and Apostolical See with great hopes of extirpating the Northern pestilent Heresy In return whereof the Pope sent his Nuncio to give the King his Holy Benediction yet I do not find that he beforehand sent for Leave to enter the Kingdom as was observed by Queen Mary Henry VIII and before The Judges in their Circuits had their private Instructions to know how Men were affected with the King 's Dispensing Power and those who were disaffected to it were turned out from the Lieutenancy and Commission of the Peace Justice Judgment and Righteousness support the Thrones of Princes but these were Strangers to this King's ways other Means must be found out to support and carry them through a standing Army is judged the best Expedient and as the King told the Parliament at their second Meeting he had encreased his Army to double what it was before so he made his Word good that he would employ Men in it not qualified by the late Tests and to this end Tyrconnel having disbanded the English Army in Ireland qualified by the Tests sends over an Army of Irish not qualified by the Tests to encrease the Army in England This Army thus raised against Law committed all manner of lawless Insolences though the King by several Orders would have had their Quarters restrained to Victualling-Houses Houses of publick Entertainments and such as had Licences to sell Wine and other Liquors the Officers too when they pleased would be exempt from the Civil Power And though the King had no other Wars but against the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation yet he would have the Act of the 1 2 Edw. 6. 2. which makes it Felony without Benefit of the Clergy for any Souldier taking Pay in the King's Service in his Wars beyond Sea or upon Sea or in Scotland to desert from his Officer to extend to this Army thus raised by the King And because the Recorder of London Sir J. H. would not expound this Law to the King's Design he was put out of his Place and so was Sir Edward Herbert from being Chief Justice of the King's Bench to make room for Sir Robert Wright to hang a poor Souldier upon this Statute and afterward this Statute did the Work without any further dispute Thus this Prince did not only assume a Power to controul the Laws of the Nation at his pleasure in Civil Affairs but when he pleased made them bend to his Will to establish an illegal Army and countenance the Effusion of Christian Blood but you 'll soon see God will blast these ungodly Ways and that not the Arm of Flesh but Judgment Justice and Righteousness establish the Thrones of Princes Thus Affairs stood in England Scotland and Ireland in the year 1687. wherein I suppose no History mentions so great and violent Alterations in so little time as in this King's Reign all tending to introduce a Foreign Power and to enslave the Nation yet so patiently endured by it but the Dangers of these Designs were not circumscribed within the bounds of this Nation but extended into France where for above twenty years a Conspiracy was carried on for promoting these Designs thus far advanced so that the Year 1688 had a much more terrible Aspect upon England than the Year 1588 had when Philip the II. designed the Conquest of it for then the Nation was firm and intire for its own Interest whereas this Year it was not only torn in pieces by internal Discords but had an Army and Fleet designed to join with the French King in propagating his boundless Ambition not only upon England but upon the Empire of Germany Spain Holland the Duke of Savoy and other Princes of Italy About the beginning of the year 1688 a Gentleman of High Jesuited Principles told me The States of Holland were Rebels against the King of Spain and that I should soon see the King of France would call them to an Account for it and humble them and that the French King would assist our King with Men of War I took more heed to this because I knew that he was frequently visited by several Jesuits in whose Counsels I believe the French King's Designs this Year were locked up for my Lord of Sunderland in his Letter recited in the History of the Desertion fol. 32. protests he knew nothing of a League between the King yet you will see it come out another way But my Lord of Sunderland says that French Ships were offered to join with our Fleet which was refused however this shews there was a Design contriving by these Princes yet at present the Affairs of France seemed to look another way and a French Fleet and Souldiers in them are sent to Canada the Design and Success you will soon hear of The King having thus as he thought laid a Foundation tho it proved a very Sandy one of his Designs and to shew how Absolute he would be in them upon the 4th of May passed an Order in Council that his Declaration of Indulgence should be read in all Churches and Chappels in England and Wales in time of Divine
against the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals from Chancery 502 504. Their Bills to prevent the French Designs c. 503 555. Address the King for a League with the Dutch 505. Their Votes for disbanding the Army 536. for the King's Safety 539. against the Tories c. 552. concerning the Revenue 558 559. Confederates their Success against the French 504. Complain to our King of the French Ravages 513. Exclaim against the separate Peace 529. Convention act hand over head in restoring Charles II. c. 423 424. Sent him 50000 l. 425. Convocation frame an Oath to preserve the Church and grant the King a Benevolence 273 367. Cooke Rob. a Pythagorean his manner of living c. 664. Cornish Alderman his hard Vsage is murder'd 622 624. Corporation-Oath see Oaths Corporations unjust in excluding Foreigners 27 658. Cotton Sir Rob. his Advice to the King 199 200. Covenant see Scots Covenanters rise in Scotland their Proclamations c. 542. Their Actions are routed 543. Coventry Lord-Keeper his Speech on the King's behalf 184. Mr. Henry breaks the Triple-League is made Secretary of State 477 478. Offers to sell his Place 514. Cowel his Interpreter incenses the Commons 59 60. Croke Judg a remarkable Story of him 259. Cromwel Lord his Letter to Buckingham 157. Oliver his Pedigree and Character how he rais'd himself 301 302. Designs against him 303 305. His first Success and Loss 310. Treats with the King his Ambition therein 322 323. Intercepts the King's Letters 323. Storms Drogheda and reduces all Ireland 344. Is declar'd General of all the Forces his Success against the Scots 345 346. and at Worcester 346. Contrives how to set up himself 348 358 361. Summons several great Men about settling the Nation with their Opinions 348 349. Furiously dissolves the Rump with Remarks thereon 362 363. His first Manifesto to the Nation 370. Summons a Council to govern the Nation his Speech to them 372 373. Gets rid of 'em 377 378. Appoints another Council is declar'd Protector his Instrument of Government with Remarks 379 380. Treats with the Dutch his Design against the Pr. of Orange 381 382. His Selfishness c. 383 387. His pretended Parliament and Speech to 'em 385. Is highly disgusted and dissolves 'em 386. Makes an unjust War with Spain with the ill Success of it 387 388. Assists the French against them 389 390 401. His Ways to raise Money 392. Is ill belov'd under great Disquietudes his Misfortune by a Coach 397 402. His third Parliament 398. His House of Lords 399. Is attempted to be kill'd ib. Compar'd with the greatest Tyrants 399 401. His fourth Parliament 401. His ill Success at Ostend 402. His Army of Volunteers and Death 403. His good Deeds 404 405. Rich. declar'd Protector 405. Has 90 Congratulatory Addresses presented him 406. Recogniz'd by his Parliament which he is forc'd to dissolve and thereupon is depos'd 407 408. D. DAnby Earl impeach'd by the Commons 536 538. Dangerfield discovers the Meal-tub-Plot is vilified by the Chief Justice 546. His Trial barbarous Punishment and Death 638. Dean Admiral slain by the Dutch 371. Sir Anth. sent into France to build Ships 497. Delinquents first use of the Word 274. Denbigh Earl sent to relieve Rochel but did not 225. Derby Earl routed and beheaded 347. Deserters hang'd against Law 643. Dewit John his Character and Actions 484 485. He and his Brother assassinated by the Mob 487. Digby Earl of Bristol his noble Character and severe Charges against Buckingham 109 110 118 137 187. His Ruin design'd by the Prince and Buckingham his Defence of himself is recall'd from Spain 119 138 139. Refuses the K. of Spain's generous Offers 120. His Reasons for his Proceedings in Spain 128 129. Is confin'd and petitions the King 139 175 185. Petitions the Lords for his Writ whereon 't is sent him 186. Is accus'd by the King c. ib. Is committed to the Tower 192 193. Follow'd Charles I. in all his Adversity 193. Discords in Religion often arise from Kings 17. Dispensing Power see James II. Dissenters a Bill for their Ease past the Commons but fiting out by the Lords 490. Fierce Laws against them in Scotland ib. Severâ—ly persecuted by the King and Tories 587. Too forward to address K. James 642 647. Dover Treaty 474. Dumbar Fight 345. Dunkirk sold to the French 429. Dutch declar'd Free States 26 61 339. Much in our Debt 32 33 54. Pay Tribute for fishing 32 61. Get their vast Debt remitted and their Cautionary Towns 80 81. What they detain'd from the English 115 121 249 250 338. Dispute the Sovereignty of the Seas with the English 244 c. Refuse a Coalition with England 350 374. Their Engagements at Sea with the Rump 351 354 356 371 372. Their pretended Excuses c. therein 351 352 358 372. Animate Cromwel against the Rump 361 371. Are in great Confusion 374. Their advantageous Theaty with Cromwel 383. Court Charles II. to a League 426. An Account of their former Encroachments c. 450 452. Their double-dealing 452. Their Engagements at Sea with Charles II. 457 461. Enter the River and burn our Ships 468. Get a beneficial Peace with K. Charles 469. yet their Smirna Fleet set upon send Deputies to the English and French Kings 478 479. whose Fleets they rout 481. Recapitulation of their History 482 483. Make a separate Peace with France 523 527. Complain to the English Court of the French 524. Assist the Pr. of Orange in saving these Nations 649. Their Answer to Albeville's Memorial 650. E. EAst-India Company incorporated by Cromwel 338. Edghill Battel there doubtful 296. Education of Youth 23 240 448 665. Egerton Lord Chanc. refuses to sign Somerset's Pardon 76. Eikon Basilike disown'd by Charles II. 425. Elector Palatine see Frederick Elizabeth Queen forbid French and Dutch building Ships 30. Granted the Dutch Licence to fish 32. Her sharp Answer to them 33. Allow'd K. James in Scotland a Pension 34. Elliot Sir John against the Court 189 213 231. Information against him in Star-Chamber 234 235. Essex Earl the Parliament's General 296 297 303. His ill Success 307. Lays down his Commission 310. Essex Earl murder'd in the Tower 601 602. Exchequer shut up by the King and his Cabal 478. F. FAirfax Sir Tho. for the Parliament 298 300 306. Is made General 310. Lord favours Monk 412 414 416. Falkland Lord slain his Character 299. Felton stabs Buckingham 225. Is threatned with the Rack 227. Finch Sir Joh. refuses to put any Question concerning Grievances with Remarks thereon 229 230 232. Is made Chief Justice and complies with the King 's illegal Actions 253. Made Lord-Keeper 266. Sir Heneage made Lord Chancellor c. 492 493. His Veracity Speeches 493 501. Fines excessive granted the Duke of York 602. Fire of London with Notes upon it 461 462. Fishing Trade and fishing on our Coasts 32 61 83 87 243 364 376 390 391 450 653 654 675 676 679. Increases Navigation 390 676. Fitton an infamous
A DETECTION OF THE Court and State OF ENGLAND DURING The Four Last REIGNS And the INTER-REGNUM Consisting of Private Memoirs c. With Observations and Reflections AND AN APPENDIX discovering the present State of the Nation Wherein are many SECRETS never before made publick As also a more impartial Account of the CIVIL WARS in England than has yet been given In Two Volumes By ROGER COKE Esquire The Third Edition very much corrected With an Alphabetical Table London Printed for Andr. Bell at the Cross-keys and Bible in Cornhill MDCXCVII AN APOLOGY TO THE READER THAT Man has lived long enough who has out-lived the Love and Piety he owes to his Native Country by my Native Country I do not mean the fertile and pleasant Soil of Britain nor the sweet and temperate Climate of it nor the manifold Varieties which it naturally abounds with for the use and conveniencies of humane Life nor yet the pleasant and excelling Rivers which water it nor the noble Havens and abundance of most open Ports from which it supplies other Parts of this our habitable Globe with the super-abundance of those Commodities wherein it excels and whereof the Inhabitants of those Parts stand in need and where the Waters flow as well as ebb as if they invited the World to trade with us as well as we with them But by my Native Country I mean the Constitutions and Laws of the English Monarchy which have continued for near Nine hundred Years viz. since King Egbert made a Decree that laying aside the Names of Britains and Saxons the whole Nation of that part of Britain under his Dominion should be called England Vnder these Constitutions and Laws have all English Men ever since without any Act of their own Will been born in Subjection and by them have been protected in their Lives Liberties and Estates and to govern by these Constitutions and Laws have been the Claims of our Hereditary Monarchs who have ever since governed England and though the Succession of the Kings of England have been often changed in the Saxon Danish and Norman Race of Kings yet these Laws and Constitutions have been ever since preserved notwithstanding the Attempts of many of the Kings of the Norman and I may say of the Scotish Race too to have subverted them which I believe is more than can be said of any other Monarchy in the World out of Britain So that in our English Government the Constitution and Laws of it are as well the Rules of the King's Dominion as of the Subject's Allegiance to the King and when the Majesty of the King is arrayed in Judgment Justice and Mercy then for his Subjects to resist him is High Treason in this World and Damnation in that to come and I think I may truly say no People in the World are more Honourers of their Kings yet more jealous of preserving their Constitutions and Laws than the English whereby they have preserved their Government now France and Spain whose Government was like ours have lost theirs But when the Kings of England will not make the Laws and Constitutions of England to be their Will but their Will differing from these to be the Laws and Constitutions of it then a divided Dominion will necessarily follow and it will be impossible for the Subject to obey both The King hereby puts himself out of God's Protection whose Vice-Gerent he is in governing by the Laws and misplaces his Majesty which is founded in the Honour Love and Obedience of his Subjects upon Minions and Favorites whose Servant he makes himself and these shall be the first who shall forsake him when any Adversity shall come upon him Our Chronicles give Instances hereof in the Reigns of King John Hen. 3. Edw. 2. and Rich. 2. And the design of this Treatise is to shew the Consequences that have been produced hereby in the Reigns of the Kings of the Scotish Race In this regular Monarchy the Kings of England do not abrogate old Laws or impose new or raise Monies from the Subject above the Revenues of the Crown without Consent in Parliament and hereby the Kings of England reign in the Love and Obedience of their Subjects and are freed from the Imputation of Tyranny in Sanguinary Laws and from Oppression in the Taxes granted in Parliament which no absolute Monarch is and are more absolutely obeyed in both than any absolute Monarch who makes his Will the Law of his Subjects The Division of the Will of a King of England does not only distract the Allegiance of his Subjects so that the divided Will of the King must necessarily prevail over the Laws and Constitutions of it or these prevail against the divided Will for both are incompatible and cannot subsist together But this Distraction gives Life and Motion to the ambitious Humour of Male-contents who are impatient as well of Regal Government as of submitting to the Laws and Constitutions of it And I submit my self to the Judgment of any Impartial Reader if this Divided Will in the Prince did not give that Life and Motion to the Ambition of the Factions in England Scotland and Ireland which not only raised Civil Wars in all of them but brought destruction upon K. Charles the First as well as the Laws and Constitutions of them However I will take Notice of the Loyalty of the English Nation both to K. James the first and K. Charles the first that tho these Kings were foreign born to our Laws and Constitutions yet it patiently submitted to their Vsurpations for above 35 Years whereas when King Charles the first thought he had wholly subdued this Kingdom to his Will and endeavoured to have done the same in Scotland his Native Country the Scots would not endure it so many Weeks as the English had done Years but rose against it first in Tumults after in open Arms and the discontented Parties in England joining with them however disjoined from one another brought on those Civil Wars in all the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland which procur'd Destruction to the King as well as the Kingdoms In writing this History I cannot say with the noble Baptista Nani I have any Command from my Prince or any other to do it neither will I pretend to such great Advantages as he had gratis by a free access to the Records and most secret Counsels of my Country tho I must not say I have been wholly destitute of some for else such an Vndertaking would render me guilty of the highest Arrogance but what those have been I judg not pertinent here to relate they will best appear by the Work it self Yet I can say with Nani that I have not suffered my self to be defiled with Partiality which hath so prevailed in all the Writers of the late and present Times that I have seen but passing by the Privilege of venerable Antiquity which to a face of Truth hath another close adjoining that of Falshood I have chosen to expose my self
them tho at this time not only the Roman Emperours but all Kings and those in Authority were Heathen and Idolaters that we may lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty for this is good and acceptable in the Sight of God our Saviour who will have all Men to be saved and come to the Knowledg of the Truth for there is one God and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus If therefore by Divine Precept or Command from God Supplications Prayers Intercessions and Thanksgiving be to be made for Heathen Kings and Magistrates much more are Christians obliged to make all these for Christian Kings and Magistrates All Kingdoms consist in the mutual Office of Commanding and Obeying so that it is as well the Duty of Kings and those who are in Authority to command as it is of the Subjects to obey and no Obedience can be where there is no Command to which it is due for where there is no Law there is no Transgression or Omission Tho these Offices be distinct in their Relations to the Governors and Governed yet the Rules of these Offices are the same and common to both so as that they ought to be foreknown as well to those in Authority to command as those who are subject to them these Rules are the Laws and Constitutions of every Kingdom and Country which unite them into one Incorporeal or Intelligible Body and under these is Mankind in different Places in divers manners maintained in Society and Concord The Offices of Commanding and Obeying are not only restrained to Moral Speech and Actions but extend to Religious for the Fear of God is the beginning of Wisdom as well in all publick as private Actions So that all Civil Nations to whom God had not revealed himself however they misplaced their Deities in Osyris Isis Jupiter c. worshipped their Gods in publick manner and had those Rites and Ceremonies which were performed by separate Persons ordained thereto As God governs the World and all Creatures in it so does he govern the Kingdoms in the World and has-set fatal Periods to them as well as to the Life of Man and all other Creatures yet as he has not in vain given Laws to Man to govern his Intentions Speech and Actions by and made him to subsist in the Labour of his Body and Cares of his Mind or both so has he not in vain commanded all Kingdoms and Nations to honour and serve him and to live justly and peaceably with one another and under these only can Kingdoms and Nations hope for Peace and God's Blessing upon them So that it is not the extent of the Territories of Kingdoms and Nations which is the Strength of them but the number of People in them nor is it their well-peopling only but their Unity in Religion and Civil Government for by these small Dominions increase upon others which are in Distraction and Dissension and where Kingdoms or Nations become distracted or divided either in Religion or Civil Government they become how great soever they be so much more enfeebled and tending to outward and intestine Dissolution as these shall be more These Discords in Religion and Justice have their Beginnings oft-times from Kings and those in Authority and often from the Subjects It was Solomon's Wives 1 Kings 11. that turn'd away his Heart from the Religion which God commanded which was the Cause ver 11. that God rent his Kingdom of Israel from him and gave it to his Servant Jeroboam and it was Jeroboam's Idolatry which distracted the Israelites into Factions which in time brought the Babylonish Captivity upon them from which they never returned And as Discords in Religion often arise from Kings and those in Authority which enfeeble the Strength of Kingdoms and Nations so does the Oppression and Injustice of Kings and Magistrates when they are not God's Ministers for their Subjects good make Kings Instruments of their vile Ends to the damage of their Subjects Thus Rehoboam to humour his Favourites bred up with him preferred them before his Subjects and threatned to oppress them more than his Father did whereby he lost the Dominion of ten of the twelve Tribes of Israel not only from himself but from his Father's House for ever and became so poor and feeble that the King of Egypt took Jerusalem and made Spoil of all the wonderful Riches which his Father had left him It was Ahab's Covetousness and Injustice in the Murder of Naboth and seizing his Vineyard that God not only disinherited his Posterity but rooted them out from the Face of the Earth 1 Kings 21. 21. And as this Discord in Religion and Justice may begin with the King and those in Authority so it may from those subject to them It was the People contrary to God's immediate Command forsook the Religion and Worship which was commanded them and set up the Molten Calf to be adored and worshipped Exod. 32. and it was the People which twice conspired to depose Moses from ruling over them Numbers 16. which brought so great a Destruction upon them I do not question but it was the intolerable Tyranny and Oppression of Dioclesian Maximinian Maximin and Maxentius as well as their horrible Persecution of the Christians so livelily described by Lactantius which gave so great a Reputation to the Christians and made Constantine's Passage to the Roman Empire more desirable not only by the Christians but even by the Gentiles Nor was the Roman Empire at any time of a greater extent unless under Trajan than when Constantine became sole Emperor Whereas this Roman Empire in the Body of it was never in so distracted and feeble a State for tho Constantine in regard of the Excellency of his natural Disposition was universally acknowledged Emperor yet above all things endeavouring the Propagation of Christian Faith and Religion and by his own Authority without the Concurrence of the Senate he granted an universal Toleration of Religion to all Sects of Christians as well as Jews and Gentiles and not only discharged the Christian Clergy which by the Constitutions of the Empire when they were not otherwise persecuted were subject to give their Attendance upon defraying the Lustral Sacrifices and watch and ward for Security of the Pagan Temples but made the Christians capable of receiving Legacies and of all publick Imployments so as the Christians were not only in an equal but better Estate than the Gentiles and upon all occasions had the Preference of Constantine's Favour But however this displeased the Gentiles it did not content all sorts of Christian Hereticks and Schismaticks who were so obstinate in their Opinions that all the Endeavours Constantine could use would not reconcile them For besides the Nicene Council he called four more viz. at Gaul Ancyra Neo Caesarea and Laodicea But when the Hereticks and Schismaticks would not submit to these Constantine restrained them from the Privileges he before granted them and left them in the same
Match to oppose the turbulent aspiring Faction of Harold and his Family named William Duke of Normandy his Successor but none of these were Reasons for the Deposing the Earls of Athol and Strathern being for ought I find much better qualified to reign than either John or Robert the Issue of Elizabeth Moor for John was of a heavy and unactive Disposition not fit to govern which made the King his Father to constitute his younger Brother Robert Vice-Roy a Man of a violent and inveterate Disposition So that these three Dynasties viz. the Norman Bâ—itish and Scotish were all derived from spurious Originals and as Henry the 7th was descended from John of Gaunt who was never King by Catherine Swinford so is the Race of Scotland from Robert Stuart the first of that Name before he was King by Elizabeth Moor. But though the Parliament erected this Dynasty of the Kings of Scotland yet this did not cease their Power of altering the Succession of it in a right Line For James the 2d had two Sons James the 3d who succeeded him and Alexander Duke of Albany Alexander married two Wives the first was a Daughter of the Earl of Orkney by whom he had a Son named Alexander and after married a Daughter of the Earl of Bulloign by whom he had a Son named John yet in James the 5th his Reign John was by Parliament declared the second Person of the Kingdom and next Heir to James the Fifth notwithstanding the Claim and Protestation made by John's elder Brother against it And the Scots out of Parliament assumed a Power not only of altering the Succession of their Kings but of deposing them For in the Year 1567 they deposed Queen Mary the Daughter of K. James the 5th and set up King James the 6th after King James the 1st of England an Infant scarce 14 Months old in her stead and by this Title he reigned in Scotland twenty Years in his Mother's Life and to his dying Day owned this Title Yet this King and his Son and two Grandsons after him gloried in declaring their Titles to be by inherent Birth-right and that they were accountable only to God for all their Actions Here how truly let the Reader judg the Scene was laid upon which they played their designed Game which did not end so I do not account the Dynasty of the Kings of England in the Scotish Race since Queen Elizabeth to be new in the Succession of the Persons of the four last Kings I mean King James the 1st King Charles the 1st King Charles the 2d and King James the second yet I say it was new in the Exercise of it and such as none of the Saxon Danish or Norman Race since Henry the 3d or of the British Race ever pretended to claim But in regard it has put the Nation into such a Ferment for above 80 Years and which if God pleases not to put an end to may prove as fatal to these Nations as the Feuds between the Guelphs and Gibelines did for above 300 Years overwhelm Germany and Italy in most horrible Blood-shed and Devastation we are more particular in taking a View of the Original of it From the time of the King 's coming to London May the 7th to the 11th of January little more than eight Months Stow takes notice of twelve Proclamations and upon the 11th of January out comes another for calling a Parliament which though new for the manner yet more new for the Substance and such as never before was heard of in England And that we may the better take a view of the success of the Parliaments of England in this King's Reign from this we will stay a little and consider the Constitution of a Parliament and the principal Ends of its meeting The King is the Head Principle and End of the Parliament the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons which are made up of Knights of the Counties of England and Wales Citizens sent from Cities Burgesses sent from Corporations and Barons sent from the Cinque Ports which do not differ from Burgesses but only in Name are the Body the Temporal Nobility sit in Parliament in their personal Capacities but the Spiritual Nobility do not so but in right of their Bishopricks which they hold of the King by Barony and the Commons are said to be the Representative-Body of all the Commons in England not Noble by Birth or in their Politick Capacities as the Bishops are and in this Assembly resides the Supreme Authority of the Nation which as they make Laws for the publick Benefit for are they loose from them and are not obliged to them As the King is freed from the imputation of Tyranny in sanguinary Laws and of Oppression in taxing the Subjects for how can the Subjects complain of either when their Representatives in Parliament promote them So does a Parliament discharge the great Objection against Hereditary Monarchies that tho Princes see only with their own Eyes and hear with their own Ears as other Men do yet so as it is impossible without a true Representation of the State of their Subjects they can see or hear of the true State of them whereas Minions and Flatterers whose Interest is different from that of the Kingdom not only conceal the true State of the Nation but make false Representations of it to raise themselves tho out of the publick ruine but the Parliament is the Eye of the Nation which sees the Abuses which Flatterers by abusing the King's Name and making it subservient to their Interest impose upon it The great Ends of the Meetings of Parliament are first to redress the Grievances of the Nation if any be by representing them to the King Secondly to punish Men which are out of the reach of the ordinary Rules of Justice which either abuse the King's Name to attain their Ends or may prove dangerous to the Government Thirdly to make Laws against growing Evils and to repeal Laws which have been found inconvenient to the Nation And fourthly to supply the King upon extraordinary Occasions for Support of the Nation as Times and Accidents may happen Heretofore the Meetings of Parliament were so frequent that Sir John Thompson in his Preface to the Earl of Anglesey's Memoirs takes notice that from the first of Edward the 3d to the 14th of Henry the 4th which was but 85 Years there are 72 Original Writs for the Summons of Parliament so that if you allow forty Days from the Tests of the Writs to the Returns and but one Month for the Sittings of Parliament there will not be a Year's Interval between the Dissolution of one Parliament and the Summoning another and Mr. Johnson proves that they were annual and fixt to meet on the first or the Kalends of May which continued down to Edward the 1st how or whether discontinued by Edw. the 2d I cannot tell however there are two Laws yet in force for the annual Meeting of the King in Parliament
or withdraw themselves from their Obedience and Subjection any Souldiers Provision of Victuals Monies Instruments of War and whatsoever Aid else to maintain War and the five Articles renounce all former Leagues Confederacies Capitulations and Intelligences to the contrary But tho these two Articles pointed as directly as the Wit of Man could devise and to which King James sware to withdraw the English and Scotch out of the Dutch Service against the Spaniard yet had the King no more Courage to do it than he had to demand the 600000 l. now due from the Dutch to him by their Treaty with Queen Elizabeth in 1598. And King James to palliate this made it worse by granting the King of Spain Licence to raise what Forces he could in any of his Dominions to fight against the Dutch so prodigal was the King of the Expence of his Subjects Blood Abroad to keep an unsettled Peace at Home wherein he might follow his Pleasure and Luxury and aspire to a Dominion over his Subjects which none of his Predecessors ever claimed King James in the 7th Article excuses the delivery of Flushing Brill Rammekins and other Forts in the English Possession in the Netherlands to the King of Spain because of the Contracts made between Queen Elizabeth and the States by which she being engaged in Faith and Honour it was not free for him to restore the same to the Arch-Dukes yet on the Word of a King he promises to enter into a Treaty with the said States wherein he will assign a competent time to them to accept and receive Terms agreeable to Justice and Equity for a Pacification with the Arch-Dukes to whom the King of Spain had assigned the Dominions of the Low-Countries which if the States shall refuse his Majesty from henceforth as being freed from the former Conventions will determine of the said Towns according as it shall be just and honourable wherein the said Princes his loving Brethren shall find there shall be no want in him of those good Offices which can be expected from a Friendly Prince How well the King performed his Promise you will hear hereafter but I find no time set by the King when he entered into any Treaty herein with the States As the King of Spain and Arch-Dukes got but little by this Treaty of Peace so did the English Nation as the King had ordered it get as little by the Treaty of Commerce for if you consider Man in his Nature he is born naked and the generality of Mankind have nothing to feed clothe provide an Habitation or defend themselves with but as they are assisted by other Men and as they are born to nothing but what they get from others so if any rob or steal from another any thing this will be an Injury to that other Nor does Man born in this poor State know how to get or be supplied by another with either Food Raiment or an Habitation but as he shall be taught or instructed by another so that after all the generality of Mankind in their most perfect State eat their Bread by the Sweat of their Brows and in the Cares of their Mind To debar therefore any Man from his honest Labours whereby he gets his Subsistence is a greater Violation of the Law of Nature than to rob another and equal to the depriving another by Injustice of an Estate whereon a Man lives and is a greater Injury than the Tyranny of Pharaoh over the Children of Israel in compelling them to make Brick yet denying them Straw for this imposed upon the Israelites a greater Hardship how to live whereas that denies poor Men their Means of living and by Consequence it is a greater Tyranny and Injustice for any Man or Company of Men either by Law or without Law to arrogate to themselves a Monopoly in any lawful Imployment exclusive to other Men than to rob any of them for this but hinders them in their Livelihood whereas that takes from them all their Means of living Nor are Monopolies less impolitick than injurious for the restraining the Labours and Industry of Men in any Profession Art or Mystery in any Country to a few does not only hinder the Improvement of them in that Country but makes open a Way to the People of other Countries not only to enlarge but improve them as much to their Benefit as to the Loss of that Country where they are restrained to a few And if Monopolies be so wicked impolitick and injurious in restraining the Labours and Industry of Men the monopolizing the Product of Mens Labour by Navigation in Foreign Trade is not less but more for no Man will labour who cannot enjoy the Fruits of his Labour and the great Benefit herein which England enjoys is that being the greater and better part of the Isle of Britain it abounds with more noble and better Ports except Ireland to vend the Product of Mens Labours upon the Materials which it abounds with than any other Country To monopolize therefore the Foreign Vent of our Manufactures to any Men or Company of Men is doubly injurious not only to our Artificers in them but to those Countries which might otherwise reap the Benefit of them and by this Restriction gives other Countries the opportunity of supplying them Nor does the Injury and Impolicy of restraining the Foreign Vent of our Manufactures stay here for by it infinite People might be supplied with manifold things from other Countries as Pitch Tar Hemp Flax Bees-wax Elephants Teeth Raw Silks all sorts of dying Stuffs c. whereof the Nation stands in need which being restrained to a few the Nation cannot be supplied by them and so multitudes of Manufacturers are denied the Fruits of their Labours and hereby they become so dear that those who imploy themselves in them cannot without extraordinary Pains subsist and thereby give the Foreign Vent of them to other Nations where these are more plentiful and cheap Nor does the Injury and Impolicy of monopolizing of Foreign Trades end here for as the Riches of England are derived from our Foreign Trades so is the Strength and Glory of it founded in Navigation which Trade being a principle to it will be so much lessened as the Foreign Vent of our Manufactures and their Returns are restrained We have thought â—it to premise this that a better View may be had of what follows The first day the King came to London after the Death of Queen Elizabeth viz. the 7th of May he issued out a Proclamation to cease the exacting all Monopolies and Protections that hindred Mens Suits in Law and to forbid the Oppressions done by Salt-Peter-Makers Purveyors and Cart-takers but this was too hot to hold For the Treaty of Peace and Commerce with Spain was no sooner made but the King made a Monopoly of the Trade to Spain and Italy by incorporating it in a Company exclusive to other Men Hereupon the Parliament then sitting made that memorable Law founded upon those
had the Ascendant of the King's Favour far transcending all other Favourites yet the King's Necessities were never so great and the Exchequer so poor and the King so much in debt so as he had so much less means to gratify his new Favourite as his Affections to him were more and here it will not be amiss to take some part of a View of the King's Prodigality or if you please Bounty to some of his former Favourites the Earl of Somerset had amassed if my Author of the Historical Narration of the first 14 Years of King James cap. 34. says true in Money Plate and Jewels two Hundred Thousand Pounds besides 19000 l. per Ann. The Earl of Salisbury but a younger Son of Treasurer Burleigh leâ—t an Estate besides the noble House and Seat of Hatfield equal nay superior to most of the other Nobility the Earl of Northampton a younger Brother of the Duke of Norfolk and born to little or no Estate built that noble Structure in the Strand now called Northumberland House and being unmarried left a very great Estate to the Earl of Arundel and others of his House the Earl of Suffolk youngest Son of the Duke of Norfolk who had no Estate but what he derived from the Crown besides his other Estates built Audley-Inn Palace the noblest Structure ever built by any Subject in England except Hampton-Court by Cardinal Woolsey which by reasonable Estimates cost above 190000 l. besides the Largesses given to the Duke of Lenox Sir Alexander Hays and other Scotish Favourites Sir Henry Rich and other English Favourites These had only themselves to take care for but this new Favourite had a Mother two Brothers and a Sister to pully up into Honours and Estates tho their Parts could not entitle them to any other than Court-Preferment but besides these I do not find he regarded any other of his Father's Family no more than they did him However until the Discovery of Overbury's Murder he contained himself within the Bounds of Modesty as well as Courtship Somerset till then being a kind of Check upon him However the King in his Poverty of Affairs gave him 1000 l. and upon the 23d of April made him one of the Gentlemen of his Bed-Chamber and next Day knighted him Sir Overbury's Murder had been about twenty Montâ— concealed when about the middle of August it was brought 〈◊〉 light but the Manner how was variously rumoured Some taâ—â—ed that Sir Thomas his Servant gave notice of it to Sir Edwarâ— Coke others that my Lord of Canterbury had got knowledge of it and made it known to Sir Ralph Winwood one of the Secretaries of State and that by searching in a certain Place he should find a Trunk wherein were Papers which would disclose the whole Business which Sir Ralph did and found it so The King at this time was gone to hunt at Royston and Somerset with him and when the King had been there about a Week next day he designed to proceed to New-Market and Somerset to return to London when Sir Ralph came to Royston and acquainted the King with what he had discovered about Sir Overbury's Murder the King was so surprised herewith that he posted away a Messenger to Sir Edward Coke to apprehend the Earl I speak this with Confidence because I had it from one of Sir Edward's Sons Sir Edward lay then at the Temple and measured out his time at regular Hours two whereof were to go to Bed at Nine a Clock and in the Morning to rise at Three At this time Sir Edward ' s Son and some others were in Sir Edward ' s Lodging but not in Bed when the Messenger about one in the Morning knockt at the Door where the Son met him and knew him Says he I come from the King and must immediately speak with your Father If you come from ten Kings he answered you shall not for I know my Father's Disposition to be such that if he be disturbed in his Sleep he will not be fit for any Business but if you will do as we do you shall be welcome and about two Hours hence my Father will rise and you then may do as you please to which he assented At three Sir Edward rung a little Bell to give notice to his Servant to come to him and then the Messenger went to him and gave him the King's Letter and Sir Edward immediately made a Warrant to apprehend Somerset and sent to the King that he would wait upon him that Day The Messenger went back Post to Royston and arrived there about Ten in the Morning the King had a loathsom way of lolling his Arms about his Favourites Necks and kissing them and in this Posture the Messenger found the King with Somerset saying When shall I see thee again Somerset then designing for London when he was arrested by Sir Edward's Warrant Somerset exclaimed that never such an Affront was offered to a Peer of England in the Presence of the King Nay Man said the King if Coke sends for me I must go and when he was gone Now the Deel go with thee said the King for I will never see thy Face any more About three in the Afternoon the Chief Justice came to Royâ—â—on and so soon as he had seen the King the King told him that 〈◊〉 was acquainted with the most wicked Murder by Somerset and 〈◊〉 Wife that was ever perpetrated upon Sir Thomas Overbury and that they had made him a Pimp to carry on their Bawdry and Murder and therefore commanded the Chief Justice with all the Scrutiny possible to search into the Bottom of the Conspiracy and to spare no Man how great soever concluding God's Curse be upon you and yours if you spare any of them and God's Curse be upon me and mine if I pardon any one of them The Chief Justice as well by his Place as the King's Command imprisons Weston Mrs. Turner Sir Jervis Elvis Franklin and Sir John Munson and examines them and also Munson's Servant Weston's Servant c. against them Whereupon they were all except Munson arraigned condemned and executed in the Months of October and November following all of them I say except Munson whom Justice Dodridg and Justice Hide as well as the Chief Justice declared to be as guilty of the Murder as any of the other You may read the Trials at large in the Narrative of the first fourteen Years of King James his Reign entituled Truth brought to light by time There was a general Rumour that the Chief Justice making a severe Inspection into Overbury's Murder found some Papers about the poisoning of Prince Henry and Sir Anthony Weldon in his History of the Reign of King James says That the Chief Justice had blabb'd abroad so much I am sure there was never any such Acquaintance between the Chief Justice and him that he should blab it out to Weldon whether this were true or false I cannot tell but sure the displacing Sir Edward Coke the
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
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
Molestation other than by Censure of the House it self for or concerning any speaking reasoning or declaring any Matter or Matters touching the Parliament or Parliament-business And that if any of the said Members be complained of and questioned for any thing done or said in Parliament the same is to be shewed to the King by the Advice and Consent of all the Commons assembled in Parliament before the King give Credence to any private Information If the King was alarmed at the Commons Remonstrance this Protestation of the Commons was such an Invasion upon his Sacred Prerogative Royal that neglecting his Pleasures and Health which he took such care to preserve by retiring into the Country up he now comes to London and upon the 30th of December and in a full Assembly of Council and in the Presence of the Judges declares the said Protestation invalid annull'd and void and of none effect Manu sua propria takes the said Protestation out of the Journal-Book of the Clerk of the Commons House of Parliament and commanded an Act of Council to be made thereupon and this Act to be entred in the Register of the Council-Causes And on the 6th of January the King by his Proclamation dissolved the Parliament Shewing that the meeting continuing and dissolving of Parliaments does so peculiarly belong to him that he needs not give any account thereof to any other yet he thought fit to declare that in the Dissolution of this Parliament he had the Advice and Vniform Consent of his whole Council and that some particular Members of the Commons took inordinate Liberty not only to treat of his High Prerogatives and sundry things not fit to be argued in Parliament but also to speak with less respect of Foreign Princes That they spent their time in disputing Privileges and descanting upon the Words and Syllables of his Letters and Messages and that these evil-temper'd Spirits sowed Tares among the Corn and by their Carriage have imposed upon him a necessity of discontinuing this present Parliament without putting to it the Name or Period of a Session And lastly he declared That tho the Parliament were broken off yet he intended to govern well and shall be glad to lay hold on the first occasion to call another CHAP. IV. A Continuation of this Reign to King James his Death THE first Act the King did to make good his Promise in his Proclamation to govern well was his Commitment of Sir Edward Coke and Sir Robert Philips to the Tower and Mr. Selden Mr. Pym and Mr. Mallery to other Prisons and Sir Dudley Diggs Sir Thomas Crew Sir Nathaniel Rich and Sir James Parrot into Ireland Sir Thomas Overbury had a Cause assigned for his Commitment to the Tower but yet it was observed an Hardship upon him without any Precedent that he should be confined a close Prisoner for a Contempt whereas these were not only confined but close Prisoners for ought I can find I am well assured Sir Edward Coke was not only without any Cause shewed but for performing a publick Trust reposed in them Nor did the Commons only suffer under this Fury of the King for performing their Duty but the Noble Earl of Southampton was imprisoned for his freedom of Speech and for rebuking Buckingham for his disorderly speaking in the House of Lords as you may see in the first Part of Keeper Williams's Life fol. 62. tit 8. But of all others this Storm fell most severely upon Sir Edward Coke and by several ways his Ruin was contrived First By sealing up the Locks and Doors of his Chambers in London and in the Temple Secondly By seizing his Papers by virtue whereof they took away his several Securities for Money as a learned Lawyer Mr. Hawles hath observed Thirdly It was debated in Council when the King would have brought in the General Pardon containing such Points as he should think fittest by what ways they might exclude him from the benefit of it either by preferring a Bill against him before the Publication of it or by excepting him by Name Fourthly If the King's Name were used by Northampton and Somerset to confine Sir Thomas Overbury so close that neither his Father nor Servants should come at him so was the King's Name used here that none of Sir Coke's Children or Servants should come at him and of this I am assured from one of Sir Edward's Sons and his Wife Fifthly In this Confinement the King sued him in the King's-Bench for 30000 l. 2 s. 6 d. for an old Debt pretended to be due from Sir William Hatton to Queen Elizabeth and this was prosecuted by Sir Henry Yelverton with all Severity imaginable but herein the King's Counsel were not all of one piece for when a Brief against Sir Edward was brought to Sir John Walter I think then Attorney-General he returned it again with this Expression Let my Tongue cleave to the Roof of my Mouth whenever I open it against Sir Edward Coke however after the Trial the Verdict was against the King Mr. Selden got his Liberty by the favour of my Lord Keeper Williams but the rest must abide by it till the breaking of the Spanish Match necessitated the King to call another Parliament But lest the King's Word in his Proclamation for governing well should not pass currant and without dispute the King ordered the Judges in their Circuits to give this in their Charges That the King taking notice of the Peoples liberal speaking of Matters far above their reach and also taking notice of their licentious undutiful Speeches touching State and Government notwithstanding several Proclamations to the contrary the King was resolved no longer to pass it without severest Punishment and thereupon to do exemplary Justice where they find any such Offenders The King having in the ninth Year of his Reign borrowed 111046 l. upon Privy-Seals which the Writer of the Historical Narration of the first 14 Years of King James his Reign Tit. Monies raised by him fol. 14. says were unrepay'd Now since he could receive no more Money in Parliament orders the Privy-Council to issue out an Order for raising Money out of Parliament for the Defence of the Palatinate and also sent Letters to the Justices of the Courts in Westminster-Hall and Barons of the Exchequer to move them and perswade others to a liberal Contribution for the Recovery of the Palatinate according to their Qualities and Abilities Nevertheless if any Person shall out of Obstinacy or Disaffection refuse to contribute thereto proportionably to their Estates and Means they are to certify their Names to the Council-Board Letters to the same effect were directed to the High-Sheriffs of Counties and Justices of Peace and to the Mayors and Bayliffs of every City and Corporation within the Kingdom requiring them to summon all before them of known Abilities within their Jurisdictions and to move them to a chearful Contribution according to their Means and Fortunes in some good measure answerable to what others well
in Parchment for to perswade and encourage him in the Perversion of the Prince But how steady soever the Duke was in his French Garb in Spain and of Compliance with the Spaniard in the Popish Religion yet he was not so when he returned into England for then he turns quite contrary and assumes a popular Way and joins with the Prince and thereby over-ruled the King as they pleased and closed with the Nobility and Puritan Party opposite to Spain As you may read in Rushworth fol. 107. Nor was the Duke's Covetousness and sacrilegious Desires of robbing the Church's Patrimony less than his Hypocrisy in Religion for whilst he was in this Godly Fit he treats with Dr. John Preston Head of the Puritan Party how the King might seize the Dean and Chapter Lands as you may read in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Doctor Williams 1st Part fol. 202. After the Return of the Prince and Duke into England and Bristol left in Spain both contrive how to ruin the Earl of Bristol bound up with contrary Instructions and to dissolve the Prince's Match with the Infanta so solemnly sworn by both Kings and the Prince and could find no other Pretence to do it but by the King's Letter to the Earl of Bristol before he delivered the Powers for consummating the Marriage to procure from the King of Spain either by publick Act or under his Hand and Seal a direct Engagement for the Restitution of the Palatinate and Electoral Dignity by Mediation or Assistance of Arms but in regard this must be now insisted upon let 's see how this stood during the Treaty In all the Treaty for this Match the Restitution of the Palatinate was laid aside as Rushworth observes fol. 91. and my Lord of Bristol in his Defence against the Duke's or King's Charge fol. 302. says that his Instructions from King James the 14th of March 1621 were express that he should not make the Business of the Palatinate a Condition of the Marriage and that of the King 's of the 30th of December 1623 I think it was 1622 were fully to the same Effect But now the whole Treaty which was so solemnly agreed upon and sworn to by both Kings and the Prince and that the Marriage should be consummate within 10 days after the Dispensation came from Rome which it did about the beginning of December 1623 must be all dasht without the Restitution of the Palatine to his Country and Electoral Dignity which being perplext with such Variety of Interests as the Duke of Bavaria's having possest himself of the upper Palatinate and the Restitution of the Palsgrave being an Act of the Emperor and Empire was not in the King of Spain's Power Nay the Proxies left with the Earl would not admit of a Treaty in this Case for the Marriage was to be consummate within ten Days after the Arrival of the Dispensation from Rome The Earl of Bristol for not obtaining these new impossible and inconsistible Conditions is recalled from his Embassy and a new Treaty of Marriage between the Prince and the Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter of Henry the Fourth of France is as suddenly set on Foot as that of Spain abruptly broke off and that by this time the King of Spain and the Earl had frequent Advice of the Prince and Duke's Designs to ruin the Earl The King of Spain therefore made a threefold Proffer to the Earl either to write to the King James and if need were to send a particular Ambassador to mediate for him to satisfy the Earl's Fidelity and Exactness in all the Treaty or to make him a Blank wherein the Earl should set down his own Conditions both in Title and Honour in Spain whereunto the Earl answered He was sorry and afflicted to hear such Language and desir'd they should understand that neither the King nor Spain were beholden to him For whatever he had done he thought fit to do for his Master's Service and his own Honour having no Relation to Spain and that he served a Master from whom he was assured both of Justice and due Reward nothing doubting but his own Innocence would prevail against the Wrong intended by his powerful Adversaries and were he sure to run into eminent Danger he had rather go home and cast himself at his Majesty's Feet and Mercy and therein comply with the Duty and Honour of a faithful Subject though it should cost him his Head than be Duke or Infantado of Spain and that with this Resolution he would employ the utmost of his Power to maintain the Amity of the two Crowns and to serve his Catholick Majesty and thirdly the King of Spain desired him in private to take 10000 Crowns to bear his Charges but the Earl answered one would know it viz. the Earl of Bristol who would reveal it to his Majesty King James Now if any Man can shew in any Authority antient or modern wherein a Treaty of this Nature was thus begun thus managed and thus broken off wherein a Noble Lady of highest Birth and noblest Fortune adorned with all the Excellencies of Beauty in her Person and the more excelling Virtues of her Mind in all the Perfections requisite in her Sex was thus baulkt and see her self made a Stale to advance the Avarice and covetous Desires of others he shall be my great Apollo So we 'll leave this Affair here and see what Comfort King James had of his Affairs elsewhere In the Year 1619 King James and the Dutch States entred into and concluded a Treaty of Trade between the English and Dutch in the East-Indies at this time and for many Years before the English had at Amboyna one of the Scyndae or Setibe Islands lying near Seran which had several smaller Islands depending upon it five several Factories two at Hitto and Lerico and two at Latro and Cambello in the Island of Seran but the principal of them was at Amboyna Amboyna was and is the principal Place in all the East-Indies where Nutmegs Mace Cinamon Cloves and Spice grow and from these Factories the English supplied not only England and Europe with Spice but Persia Japan and other Countries in the East-Indies The Treaty of Commerce between the King and the Dutch States was scarce three Years old when the Dutch in the East-Indies contrive how they may dispossess the English of the Spice-Trade which above all others is the best in the East-Indies at least which was then or now is known It seems says my Author William de Britain in his Treatise of the Dutch Usurpation fol. 14. that the English in all these Islands were better beloved than the Dutch and had built a Fortress in Amboyna for the Safety of Trade which the Dutch having two Hundred Soldiers there forced from the English and thereupon feigning a Plot between the English and Japonesses I think he means the Natives of Amboyna to betray the Fortress again to the English the Dutch with Fire and Water in an
a narrow point but there is no point in Generalities relying upon their general Propositions of which I do not find neither the King nor the Prince or Buckingham after him named one he found when they came there the Matter proved so raw as if it had never been treated of they generally giving them easy way to evade and affording them means to avoid the effecting any thing But it seems there were Particulars which the King would not then discover but left them to the Prince and Buckingham to relate As for a Toleration of the Roman Religion As God shall judg him he said he never thought nor meant nor never in word expressed any thing that savoured of it How was Arch-bishop Abbot mistaken when he wrote his disswasive Letter against the King's Proclamation for the Toleration of Religion to Roman Catholicks See Rushworth fol. 85. And how was my Lord Keeper Williams mistaken after the King had directed him and other Commissioners to draw up a Pardon for all Offences past by Roman Catholicks with a Dispensation for those to come obnoxious to any Laws against Recusants and then to issue forth two general Commands under the Great Seal the one to all Judges and Justices of Peace and the other to all Bishops Chancellors and Commissaries not to execute any Statute against them and tho the Keeper past the Pardon as fully and amply as the Papists could desire to pen it yet the Keeper put some stop to the vast Prohibition to the Judges and Bishops for the Reasons he gave First Because the publishing of this General Indulgence at one push may beget a general Discontent if not a Mutiny but the instilling thereof into the Peoples knowledg by little and little by the Favours done to Catholicks might indeed loosen the Tongues of a few particular Persons who might hear of their Neighbours Pardon and having vented their Dislike would afterward cool again and so his Majesty might by degrees with more convenience enlarge his Favours Secondly Because to sorbid the Judges against their Oaths and the Justices of Peace who are likewise sworn to execute the Laws of the Land is a thing unprecedented in this Kingdom and would be a harsh and bitter Pill to be digested without some Preparative But this Delay disgusted the Spanish Ambassador which you may read in Rushworth fol. 101. And as God was his Judg he never thought nor meant nor ever in Word expressed any thing that savoured of a Toleration of the Popish Religion So God was his Judg and he spake as a Christian King Never any wayfaring Man that was in the Desarts of Arabia and in danger of Death for want of Water to quench his Thirst more desired Water than he did thirst and desire the good and comfortable Success of his Parliament and Blessing upon their Counsels that the good Issue of this may expiate and acquit the fruitless Issue of the former and prayed God their Counsels may advance Religion and the publick Weal and they of him and his Children You may read the Speech at large in Rushworth fol. 115 116 117. But tho the King gloried that he had ever endeavoured to procure and cherish the Love of his People to him which the Lords and Commons did represent yet the Commons could remember a time not out of mind with the King for they chose that honourable Gentleman Sir Thomas Crew newly returned from his Exile into Ireland whither the King had sent him as one of the ill-tempered Spirits who advised him against the Spanish Match and presumed to assert the Privileges of the Commons for their Speaker After the Ceremonies of Opening the Parliament and the Choice of a Speaker was over the first thing that appeared upon the Stage of Affairs was the Narrative of the Proceedings in the Spanish Match made by the Duke of Buckingham and assisted by the Prince Which you may read at large in Rushworth from fol. 119 to 125. I shall not descant upon this long Narrative but leave the Answering of it to the Earl of Bristol but only take notice of the Preamble of the third Article of the Duke 's Narrative and the latter part of the fourth The Preamble of the third Article is It is fit to observe this Passage which is the thing whereupon all his Highness's the Prince's subsequent Actions did depend He had never staid a Sennight longer in Spain he had never left any Proxy with Bristol he had never taken the Oath at the Escurial or ever so much as have written a Letter of Compliment to the Lady but that he had still before his Eyes as his Cynosure the Promise made by the Conde I think the Duke meant Olivares for the Restitution of the Palatinate Why was this Treaty between King James and the Conde Or if the Restitution of the Palatinate were the Foundation upon which the whole Treaty moved Why was it not so much as mentioned in all the Treaty so solemnly sworn to by both Kings the Prince and Buckingham himself Nay King James himself by two several Expresses to the Earl of Bristol the first of the 14th of May 1621. and the other of the 30th of December 1623. commanded him That he should not make the Business of the Palatinate a Condition of the Marriage as you may read in Rushworth fol. 302. For the better understanding of Buckingham's Narrative in the fourth Article it is fit to take notice That the Reason in the Instrument for not pursuing the Proxies of the Marriage so solemnly sworn to by the Prince and Buckingham himself was not for the Restitution of the Palatinate but forsooth for fear the Infanta might retire into a Cloister and so deprive the Prince of a Wife tho the Infanta so far as the Gravity of the Spaniards would permit ever expressed an entire Affection to the Prince so that when the Prince took leave of the Infanta she seemed to deliver up her Heart to him in as high Expressions as that Language and her Learning could with her Honour set forth for when the Prince told her His Heart would never be out of Anxiety till she had passed the intended Voyage and were safe on the British Land she answered with a modest Blush That if she were in danger upon the Ocean or discomposed with the rolling brackish Waves she should chear up her self and remember all the way to whom she was going As you may read in the Life of Williams Lord Keeper fol. 161. tit 168. And Mr. Rushworth fol. 104. says She caused many divine Duties to be performed for the Prince's Return In the Proxies left with the Earl of Bristol there was a Clause inserted De non revocando procuratore as much as to say irrevocable And because the Earl did in his Letter to the Prince of the First of November in 1623 press this vehemently to the Prince the Prince vowed openly before both Houses that he had never by Oath nor Honour engaged himself not to
she should take other French Catholicks in their Places but nevertheless by the Consent of the King of Great Britain That the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales his Son should oblige themselves by Oath not to attempt by any means whatsoever to make her change her Religion or to force her to any thing that might be contrary thereto and should promise by writing in the Faith and Word of a King and Prince to give Order that the Catholicks as well Ecclesiastical as Secular who have been imprisoned since the last Edict against them should be set at Liberty That the English Catholicks should be no more enquired after for their Religion nor constrained to take the Oath which contains something contrary to the Catholick Religion That their Goods that have been seized since the last Edict should be restored to them And generally that they should receive more Graces and Liberty in Favour of the Alliance with France than had been promised them in consideration of that of Spain The Deputation of Father Berule Superior General of the Fathers of the Oratory to his Holiness to obtain the Dispensation for the aforesaid Marriage THE Instructions which were given to Father de Berule were to render himself with all Diligence at Rome to obtain the Pope's Dispensation and to this Effect to represent to his Holiness That the King of Great Britain having demanded of the King his Sister Madame Henrietta Maria for a Wife for the Prince of Wales his Son his Majesty hearken'd the more willingly to this Proposition in that he esteem'd it very profitable towards the Conversion of the English as heretofore a French Princess married into England had induced them to embrace Christianity but the Honour which he had vowed to the Holy See and particularly to his Holiness who baptized him in the Name of Pope Clement VIII did not permit him to execute the Treaty without having obtained his Dispensations That this Marriage ought to be look'd upon not only for the Benefit of the English Catholicks but of all Christendom who would thereby receive great Advantage That there was nothing to be hazarded for in Madame seeing that she was as firm in the Faith and in Piety as he could desire That she had a Bishop and 28 Priests to do their Duties That she had not a Domestick that was not Catholick and that the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would oblige themselves by Writing and by Oath not to solicit her directly or indirectly neither by themselves or by Persons interposed to change her Religion On the contrary having nothing to fear for her he had great Cause to hope that she being dearly beloved of the King who was already well enough disposed to be a Catholick and of the Prince of Wales she might by so much the more contribute to their Conversion as Women have wonderful Power over their Husbands and their Fathers-in-law when Love hath given them the Ascendant over their Spirits That she was so zealous in Religion that there was no doubt but she would employ in this pious Design all that depended upon her Industry and that if God should not bless Intentions in the Person of King James and of the Prince of Wales it was apparent that their Children would be the Restorers of the Faith which their Ancestors had destroyed seeing she would have the Charge to educate them in the Belief and in the Exercises of the Catholick Religion till the Age of 13 Years and that these first Seeds of Piety being laid in their Souls cultivated with Care at the time when they should be more susceptible of Instructions would infallibly produce stable and permanent Fruits that is to say a Faith so firm that it may not be shaken by Heresy in a riper Age. That after all the Catholicks of England would receive no small Profit at present since the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would both oblige themselves upon their Faith and by Writing no more to enquire after them nor punish them when they should be discovered to enlarge all those that had been imprisoned and to make them Restitution of Money and of other Goods that had been taken from them since the last Edict if they were yet in being and generally to treat them with more Favour than they could have expected from the Alliance with Spain And further He had Orders to let the Pope understand that to render more Respect to the Church it had been agreed that Madame should be affianced and married according to the Catholick Form and agreeable to that which was followed at the Marriage which Charles IX made of Madam Margaret of France with the late King Henry IV. then King of Navarre All these things spoke themselves and appeared so visibly that they would admit of no doubt so this Father that wanted neither Spirit nor Fire represented them dexterously to the Pope and his Holiness made him hope for a speedy and favourable Answer c. See the Life of Cardinal Richlieu printed at Paris 1650. fol. 14 15. How does this agree with the King's Speech at the opening of the Parliament in the 18th Year of his Reign That if the Treaty of the Match between his Son and the Infanta of Spain were not for the Benefit of the Established Religion at home and of the Reformed abroad he was not worthy to be their King And how does this agree with that part of the King's Speech at the opening of this Parliament That as for the Toleration of the Roman Religion as God shall surely judg him he said he never thought nor meant nor never in Words expressed any thing that savoured of it Do not Religion Truth and Justice support the Thrones of Princes and Hypocrisy Falshood and Injustice undermine and overthrow them What future Happiness then could either the King or Prince hope to succeed this Treaty sworn to by them both so diametrically contrary to the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation wherein the Majesty of the King as well as the Safety of the Nation is founded and to govern by these and observe this Treaty will be impossible What Peace could the Prince find at home even in his Bed when an imperious French Wife shall be ever instigating him to break his Coronation-Oath to truckle to that imposed upon him by her Brother of France These Pills how bitter soever must be swallowed by the King rather than his Son shall be baulk'd a second time nay it seems they were very sweet to him For Mr. Howel in the Life of Lewis III. says fol. 66. that King James said passionately to the Lords of the Council of the King of France My Lords the King of France has wrote unto me That he is so far my Friend that if ever I have need of him he will render me Offices in Person whensoever I shall desire him the Truth of this you will see by and by Truly he hath gained upon
me more than any of his Predecessors and he may believe me that in any thing that shall concern him I will employ not only my Peoples Lives but my own Bravely spoken and like K. James and whosoever of his Subjects Lewis's shall rise against him either Catholicks or others shall find him James a Party for him Lewis 'T is true if he be provoked to infringe his Edicts he shall impart as much as in him lies by Counsel and Advice to prevent the Inconveniencies Who ever expected he should do more or ever did But Venus must not have the only Ascendant in this Treaty for the Cardinal will have Mars to be in Conjunction with her and 't was high time for at this time Monsieur Sobiez had provided a great Fleet of Men of War as Times went then with the French and had entered and surprised the Fort of Blavet in Bretaign and took and carried away six of the French great Men of War out of it and also taken the Isles of Rhe and Oleron which he began to fortify and being absolute Master of the Sea triumphantly with a Fleet of 75 Men of War of all sorts landed a considerable Force at Medoc near Bourdeaux The Court of France was never so alarmed as at this notwithstanding all the King's Victories over the Reformed by Land and therefore the Cardinal threw another Article into the Treaty That King James should lend the French a Fleet of Ships to repress Soubiez and in lieu thereof the French should permit Mansfield who had raised an Army of 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse in England to land at Calais where the French should join him with another Body of Horse and Foot for the Recovery of the Palatinate But see the French Faith and how well Lewis made good his Promise to King James to render him all Offices in his own Person whensoever King James should desire him for at this time the Army being shipt at Dover and put over to Calais where being denied Entrance and having no other Instructions and wanting Provisions they lay neglected at Sea and in this Distress a Pestilence raged among them so that they were forced to sail to Zealand where having no Orders they were denied Landing there and this being the most terrible Season of the Year in December what by Hunger Cold and Pestilence above two thirds of them perished before Leave could be obtained to land them in Holland so that they never did the King of Spain near so much Hurt as they had done in England before they were shipt living upon Plunder and Free-Quarter These were sad Presages of future Happiness from the designed Marriage yet these things no ways discomposed the quiet Repose of our pacifick King so as he might see his only Son married to a Daughter of France was all his Business no matter how The Thirst which God was his Judg and as he was a Christian King he had contracted equal to that of the wayfaring Man in the Desarts of Arabia and in danger of Death for want of Water for the good Success of the Parliament is now asswaged by the granting of three Subsidies and three Fifteenths Here 's no mention of marrying his only Son with the Tears of his only Daughter and he is still ready with the Lives of his Subjects and his own to assist the most High most Excellent and most Puissant Prince his most dear and most beloved Brother Cousin and antient Ally Lewis The Managers of this Treaty were Hay a Scots-man created Earl of Carlisle and the Lord Kensington for the more Honour of it created Earl of Holland two of the King's Favourites of the second Rate but who bare no proportion to the Sagacity Wisdom and Integrity of the Earl of Bristol Bristol was all Heare of Oak and would not bend to Buckingham's Pride and Ambition but they were Willows that were liable to every Nod and Wind of Buckingham's Breath But how comes Buckingham who must have an Oar in every Boat to be absent from this Treaty The Reason was tho he were not wise yet he was jealous lest King James in his Absence should hear Bristol against him as the King had promised as well as he had heard Buckingham against him which was so dangerous a Rock as our Land-Admiral would not venture to run against Notwithstanding all this Haste for consummating this desired Marriage the Thread of the King's Life was spun out before for upon the 27th of March Ann. 1625. he died at Theobalds in the 58th Year of his Age having reigned twenty two Years compleat Having had an Ague the Duke of Buckingham did upon Monday the 21st before when in the Judgment of the Physicians the Ague was in its Declination apply Plaisters to the Wrists and Belly of the King and also did deliver several quantities of Drink to the King tho some of the King's Physicians did disallow thereof and refused to meddle further with the King until the said Plaisters were removed and that the King found himself worse hereupon and that Droughts Raving Fainting and an intermitting Pulse followed hereupon and that the Drink was twice given by the Duke 's own hands and a third time refused and the Physicians to comfort him telling him that this second Impairment was from Cold taken or some other Cause No no said the King it is that which I had from Buckingham I confess this was but a Charge upon the Duke upon the Impeachment of the Commons as you may read in Rushworth fol. 355 356. yet it was next to positive Proof for King Charles rather than this Charge should come to an Issue dissolved the Parliament which was a Failure of Justice tho the Commons had voted him four Subsidies and four Fifteenths before it was passed into an Act. The Character of King James He was the first of that Name King of England and the first King of the whole Isle of Britain and the first King since Henry the first that was born out of the Allegiance to the King of England and was the first at least since Rich. 2. that affected and endeavoured to introduce an Arbitrary Power in England foreign to the Laws and Constitutions of it and in all his Reign was more governed by Flatterres and Favourites than by the Advice of his Parliament or a wise Council His Flatterers and Favourites seldom spake of him but under the Appellation of Most Sacred rarely I think or never before used to any of the Kings of England and of the Solomon of the Age though never were two Kings more unlike unless it were in their Sons Charles and Rehoboam for Solomon died the richest of all the Kings of the World King James the poorest Solomon was inspired above all other Kings with Wisdom and his Proverbs Divine Sentences for Improvement of Vertue and Morality whereas this King's Learning wherein he and his Flatterers so much boasted was a Scandal to his Crown for all his Writings against Bellarmine and
Months dead to be made the King's Chaplain in Ordinary to be thereby protected from Justice But if it be asked how it does appear that Laud was concerned in this Act and Promotion of Mountague I answer there is a threefold Reason to induce the Belief of it First the end for which this Book was wrote for Promotion of Arminian Tenets whereof Laud was so great a Stickler Secondly none else but Laud could have such an Ascendant in things of this kind and to cause to early a Promotion for such a piece of Service but Thirdly which clears the Question when the King's Necessities caused him to call another Parliament about six or seven Months after Laud fearing the Commons falling again upon Mountague as they did Laud sounded the King by Buckingham whether the King would leave Mountague to the Parliament and finding the King determined to do it in great Zeal said I seem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God in his Mercy dissipate it as you may read in Rush f. 203. as if the questioning a seditious and a disobedient Fellow to his Superiour in the Church were a Cloud to threaten the Church of England If Laud was the first that sowed Dissension between the King and Parliament upon the Pretence of the Church of England Buckingham shall be the second upon the Account of the Church of Rome and herein you 'll see the Temper of Buckingham to any which should presume to give him good Counsel The Dissension between the King and Commons began with Mountague at London where the Plague than raged and all England over so that most of the Members shrunk away to flee the Danger of it and those that staid were in danger of their Lives This put the King into a marvellous Strait what to do for his Necessities as Buckingham managed Affairs and his being imbroiled in the Spanish War were such as the Subsidies granted the King his Father the last Year and those granted the King now could not support Hereupon the King calling a Council at Hampton-Court what to do the King proposed upon the 10th of July to adjourn the Parliament to Oxford which was mainly favoured by the Duke my Lord Keeper Williams opposed the Proposition for two Reasons First That the Infection had overspread the whole Land so that no Man that travelled from his own Home knew where to lodg in Safety that the Lords and Gentlemen would be so distasted to be carried abroad in so mortal a time that it 's likely when they came together they would vote out of Discontent and Displeasure that his Majesty was ill counselled to give Offences in the Bud of his Reign tho small ones Secondly the Parliament had given two Subsidies at Westminster tho they removed to Oxford it is yet the same Sessions and if they alledg it is not the Use of the House to give twice in a Sessions tho I wish heartily they would yet how shall we plead them out of Custom if they be stiff to maintain it It is not fit for the Reputation of the King to fall upon a probable Hazard of a Denial The Duke which heard this with Impatience said That publick Necessity must sway more than one Man's Jealousy The Keeper hereupon besought the King to hear him in private and acquainted the King That the Duke had Enemies in the House of Commons who had contrived Complaints and made them ready to be preferred and would spend time at Oxford about them And what Folly were it to continue a Sessions that had no other Aim but to bring the Duke upon the Stage But if your Majesty think that this is like an Hectick quickly known but hardly cured my humble Opinion is That the Malady or Malice call it what you will may sleep awhile after Christmas there is no time lost in whetting the Sithe well I hope to give an Account by that time by undertaking with the chief Sticklers that they shall supersede their Bitterness against your great Servant and that Passage to your weighty Counsels may be made smooth and peaceable But why said the King do you conceal this from Buckingham Good Sir said the Keeper fain would I begin at that End but he will not hear me with Moderation And because it was the Mishap of the Keeper to give the first Notice of this Storm that was gathering the Duke in Defiance bid him and his Confederates do their worst and besought the King that the Parliament might be continued and he would confront the Faction tho he looked upon himself in that Innocency that he presumed they durst not question him Buckingham's Will must be a Law so on the 10th of July the Parliament was adjourned to Oxford to meet the first of August But to sweeten them the Keeper in the Presence of both Houses in the King's Name promised them That the Rigour of the Law against Popish Priests should not be deluded Here see the Levity of the King and the Dominion Buckingham had over him for upon the 12th of July the King caused a Warrant to be sealed to pardon six Roman Priests When the Parliament met at Oxford the Speaker had no sooner taken his Chair but a Western Knight enlarges the Sense of his Sorrow that he had seen a Pardon for six Priests bearing test July 12th whereas but the Day before it when they were to part from Westminster the Lord Keeper had promised in the King's Name before them all that the Rigour against the Priests should not be deluded Hereupon the Members were in such a Heat that they strived who should blame it most What! their Hope 's blasted in one Night But for the Lord Keeper that brought the King's Message and knew it best and for a Bishop to set the Seal to such a Warrant for him to do wrong to Religion it was enormous Hereupon Mr. Bembo a Servant to the Clerk of the Crown confess'd he brought the Writ to the Keeper to be sealed but it was stopt Mr. Devike Servant to Sir Edward Conway brought it from his Master but it could not speed It was my Lord of Buckingham's hard Hap to move the King to command the Warrant to be sealed in his Sight at Hampton-Court the Sunday following The Commons hereupon turned about to clear the Keeper and commend him but what pleased the Parliament at Oxford did not please the Court at Woodstock where this had not pleased the King The Commons in this Heat desired a Conference with the Lords in Christ-Church-Hall in the Afternoon where Sir Edward Coke open'd the Complaint sharply against my Lord Conway and like an Orator did slide away with a short Animadversion upon the Duke the Commons enlarged hereon that the Duke that put the King upon this was the highest in the King's Favour and that all the important Places of Honour and Offices by Sea and Land were in his Disposal which you may read at large in the Life of the
the French to carry on the Cardinal 's ambitious and ungodly Designs after the King had so prodigally expended not only his Father's Treasure but doubly more than the ordinary Revenues of France upon his Favourites and the manifold Wars both at home and abroad which Richlieu had entangled him in Let any Man compare the Keeper's Speech at the opening the first Parliament of King Charles which you may read in the Keeper's Life the second Part f. 9 and 10. with that of Richlieu's and judg if the Rhetorick and Elegancy of it comes any way behind that of his after the King's Father and this King had squandered much more than the Revenues of the Crown upon their Favourites and this King had entangled himself in the Articles of the French Match and without Means engaged himself in a War with Spain and that against his Father's and the Keeper's Advice in exciting the Parliament to a Compliance with the King's Will tho with a different Fate for Richlieu attained his Ends by his Speech whereas the Keeper's Downfal was a Consequence of his But above all the Keeper excelled himself if I may be Judg in three things one was in his Speech in the House of Peers about the Peers taking the Oaths the second his Reasons he gave the French Ambassador Vollâ—cleer against dispensing with our Penal Laws against Romish Priests which you may read at large in the first Part of the Keeper's Life fol. 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222. The third Speech was when the Earl of Essex moved the House of Lords in the Year 1640 that the Bishops might be expell'd the House not their Persons but their Order which you may read at large in the second Part of the Keeper's Life from fol. 168 to 176. And sure the History of the Keeper's Life had been a nobler Work if it had been related without the loose and impertinent Glosses of the Bishop of Litchfield whereby he does so often disturb and break the Thread of the Story and by preaching himself more than writing his History makes it confounded so as it is difficult to pursue it See the Speech in the first Part of his Life f. 76 77. After the Parliament was dissolved at Oxford all Heads were set at work to find some fault against the Keeper to out him of his Place but none could be found hereupon they made a Proposition which the Keeper made to King James That the Office of Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper should be Triennial so that after three Years the King should make another and the Keeper having enjoy'd the Place above four Years to be the Reason that he should surrender the Seal When the Keeper had notice of this in a pathetical Letter to the King which you may read in his Life in the second Part f. 24. he implores his Majesty's Favour that he may retire with an Assurance of his Majesty's Grace and be admitted into his Presence to make some humble Requests to him which the King granted The first of his Requests was for the King's Favour in general which the King granted and gave him his Hand twice to kiss upon it Secondly That the King would take away none of his Church-Preferments as he had graciously promised till he had given him better in lieu of them the King answered It was his Intention Thirdly That the King would remember his Father's Promise seconded by him that he would place him the Keeper in as good a Bishoprick or Arch-bishoprick as he could the King said There was no such place void when any fell it would be then time enough to make his Request Fourthly That his Majesty would dismiss him freely and absolutely without any Command from the Table but to leave it to the Keeper's Discretion to forbear the King said He ever intended it so and never said a word to the contrary but expected he should not offend by voluntary Intrusion Fifthly That the King would declare to the Lords that the Keeper had willingly and readily yielded to his Majesty's Pleasure and that he parted in the King's Favour and good Opinion and was still his Servant the King said He would but that he looked that no Petitions be made for him by any Man at that time but only for his Favour in general Sixthly The Keeper besought the King to make an Atonement with the Duke upon or without Examination of the Information which the Duke received against him the King said It became not him a King to take up Quarrels between his Subjects and that the Duke had never exprest any such Enmity to him against him the Keeper Seventhly The Keeper besought the King that whereas the Keeper had a Pension by Direction of the King's Father and wherewith the King was acquainted of 2000 Marks per Annum to the Viscount Wallingford and had disbursed 3000 l. down upon it either to buy the said Pension or extinguish it or to assign it to be paid out of the Tenths or Subsidies of his Bishoprick as before he had appointed to receive it out of the Exchequer the King said Assignments were naught but he would take Order with his Treasurer to buy it or pay for it as should be most convenient Eighthly The Keeper besought the King to bestow the next Prebendary in Westminster upon his Library-keeper as his Father had promised or that he might resume his Books again the King said It was full of Reason Ninthly The Keeper besought the King to ratify a Grant made by his Father of four Advowsons to St. John's-College in Cambridg whereof two he had bought with his Money and two the King gave him for the good of the Society the King said He would ratify the Grant and give way to amend any Errors in the Form or in passing of it Tenthly The Keeper besought the King that he might retire to a little Lodg which my Lord Sandys lent him where the Lord Conway might receive the Seal which the King granted Lastly The Keeper besought the King that the King would not be offended with him if upon his Discharge Reports were made that he was discontented which he protested he was not giving over so comfortably the King said He would do him that Justice and that he little valued Reports and thereupon gave the Keeper his Hand to kiss at parting which you may read in the second Part of the Keeper's Life Tit. 28. But the Bishop says in the next Tit. the forlorn Keeper felt the Heaviness of this Lightness who thought he had obtained much but excepting the four Advowsons confirmed to St. John's-College he mist all that he sought for and expected nor could he ever get a Farthing of his Pension nor bring it to an Audit to his dying-day nor did the Keeper's Enemies stop here but sought to provoke against him the King's Displeasure with things which were neither consistent with the King's Honour nor scarce to be born by the Temper of Human Nature and were so
to the Earl that it was his Majesty's Pleasure withal no doubt but by the Advice of his highest Council of State that the Earl should continue in the same Restraint he was so that he forbear his personal Attendance in Parliament But since the Duke could no longer otherways keep the Earl out of the House of Lords the King by my Lord Keeper signified to the Lords that his Pleasure was they should send for the Earl as a Delinquent to answer Offences committed against him before his going into Spain and since his coming back and his scandalizing the Duke of Buckingham immediately and by Reflection upon himself with whose Privity and Direction the Duke guided his Actions and without which he did nothing And now Sir Robert Heath the King's Attorney-General exhibited eleven Articles against the Earl it was thought fit to leave out the other nine which the Earl had answered to King James without any Reply and in the last of these the Earl is charged with giving the King the Lie in offering to falsify that Relation which his Majesty affirmed and thereunto added many things of his own Remembrance to both Houses of Parliament which you may read at large in Rushworth's Collections from fol. 153 to 158. Hereupon the Earl exhibited a Charge of High Treason and Misdemeanours in twelve Articles against the Duke and another against the Lord Conway of High Misdemeanours which you may read at large in Rushworth from fol. 266 to 270. And upon the Delivery of them the Earl desired a Copy of the King's Charge against him in Writing and time allowed to answer and Counsel assigned him and said there was a great Difference between the Duke and him for the Duke was accused of Treason and at large and in the King's Favour and that he being but accused of that which he had long since answered was a Prisoner and therefore moved the Duke might be put in equal Condition which tho the House did not yet were not satisfied to commit the Earl to the Tower and order'd That the King's Charge against the Earl should be first heard and then the Earl's against the Duke yet so that the Earl's Testimony against the Duke be not prevented prejudiced or impeached The King in a Message to the Lords by my Lord Keeper would have blasted the Earl's Articles against the Duke for two Reasons if they may be called so The first was That the Narrative made in the 21 Jac. in Parliament trenches as far upon him as the Duke for that he went therein as far as the Duke But what then Shall not the Earl be heard in his Defence against that Declaration which was designed to blast the Earl's Honour and Integrity and Justice is no Respecter of Persons The other was That all the Earl's Articles have been closed in his Breast now these two Years contrary to his Duty if he had known any Crime of that nature against the Duke and now he vents it by Recrimination against the Duke whom he knows to be a principal Witness to prove his Charge against the Earl This is strange for his Majesty's Reign was scarce yet a Year old and all this while the Earl was under a Restraint and not permitted to come to the Parliament which ended at Oxford and in his Father's Reign after the Earl had answered all the Duke's Articles against him without any Reply King James promised him he should be heard against the Duke as well as he was against him tho he lived not to make good his Promise Now let 's see the Levity of this Prince the necessary Concomitant of Wilfulness and which he pursued in every step of his Reign without any Remorse that I could ever find for the Lodgment of the King's Charge against the Earl in the House of Lords was scarce cold whenas it was endeavoured to take the Earl's Cause out of the House and to proceed against him in the King's-Bench But why must this be at this time of day and while a Parliament was sitting And why was not this done in the King's Father's Life or in this King's Reign And why must two years pass and this way of charging the Earl never thought of which now must be done in all haste But the Lords put a full stop to this and for these Reasons 1. For that in all Causes of moment the Defendants shall have Copies of all Depositions both pro and contra after Publication in convenient time before hearing to prepare themselves and if the Defendants will demand that of the House in due time they shall have learned Counsel to assist them in their Defence And their Lordships declared they would give their Assents thereto because in all Causes as well Civil as Criminal and Capital they hold that all lawful Help could not before just Judges make one that is guilty avoid Justice and on the other side God defend that an Innocent should be condemned 2. The Earl of Bristol by his Petition to the House complained of his Restraint desiring to be heard here as well in point of his Wrongs as in his Accusations against the Duke whereof his Majesty taking Consideration signified his Pleasure by the Lord Keeper April 20 That his Majesty was resolved to put his Cause upon the Honour and Justice of this House and that the Earl should be sent for as a Delinquent to answer the Offences he committed in his Negotiations before his Majesty's going into Spain whilst his Majesty was there and since his Return and that his Majesty would cause these things to be charged upon him in this House so as the House is fully possessed of the Cause as well by the Earl's Petition as the King's Consent and the Earl brought up to the House as a Delinquent to answer his Offences there and Mr. Attorney hath accordingly delivered the Charge against him in the House and the Earl also his Charge against the Duke And now if the Earl be proceeded withal by way of the Kings-Bench these dangerous Inconveniencies will follow 1. He can have no Counsel 2. He can use no Witness against the King 3. He cannot know what the Evidences against him will be in convenient time to prepare for his Defence and so the Innocent may be condemned which may be the Case of any Peer 4. The Liberty of the House will be thereby infringed the Honour and Justice of it declined contrary to the King's Pleasure expresly signified by my Lord Keeper all which are expresly against the Order 5. The Earl being indicted it will not be in the Power of the House to keep him from Arraignment and so he may be disabled to make good his Charge against the Duke Therefore the way to proceed according to the Directions and true Meaning of the Order and the King's Pleasure signified and preserve the Liberties of the House and protect one from Injury will be To have the Charge delivered into the House in Writing and the Earl to set down his
away the Merchants Ships so that they may not easily catch and light upon the West-India Fleet. A Jesuit and nine Priests were taken with this and many other Papers which were delivered to Sir John Cook Secretary of State the Jesuit was condemn'd but reprieved by the King because Sir John Cook said The King delighted not in Blood and afterward the nine Priests were released by special Warrant from the King and the King in his Reasons for dissolving the Parliament makes the House of Commons Enquiry into this Business to be an exorbitant Encroachment and Usurpation such as was never before attempted by that House By this you may see the Religious care this pious Prince had for the Church of England and how much he regarded the Laws of England or minded the Support of the poor Protestants in France or the Re-establishment of his Brother-in-law in the Palatinate Thus stood things when the Parliament met the 17th of March when the King as Men in a deep Lethargy no ways sensible of their Pain or the dangerous State they are in not considering the dangerous State he was in both abroad and at home Abroad in that he had made War upon the King of Spain without any Declaration of War and that against his Father's Advice and of his Council and upon the King of France wherein himself and his Favourite Buckingham were the Aggressors at Home by his unheard of Invasions upon the Fortunes and Liberties of his Subjects never before done by any King of England in the short Interval of these two Parliaments scarce being 9 Months upon the Opening of the Parliament far unlike his Father in the last Parliament of his Reign when his Case was not near so dangerous as this King's tho their Necessities were equal to get Money by Parliaments when they could get it no other Way begins his Speech My Lords and Gentlemen THese Times are for Action wherefore for Example sake I mean not to spend much Time in Words expecting accordingly that your as I hope good Resolutions will be speedy not spending Time unnecessarily or that I may say dangerously for tedious Consultations at this Conjuncture of Time are as hurtful as ill Resolutions I am sure you now expect from me both to know the Cause of your meeting and what to resolve on yet I think there is none here but knows that common Danger is the Cause of this Parliament and that Supply at this time is the chief End of it so that I need but point to you what to do All this but of Supply is Mysterious and General and had need of an Interpreter The King goes on and says I will use but few Perswasions for if to maintain your own Advices and as the Case now stands for the following thereof the true Religion Laws and Liberties of this State never so violated by any King of England before him and the just Defence of our true Friends and Allies be not sufficient then no Eloquence of Men or Angels will prevail What Parliament or any other Council but that of Buckingham advised him to make War either upon the King of Spain or France search all the Records of the Journals of Parliament of 21 Jac. and Rushworth Franklin and Bishop of Litchfield and see if in any one of them there be one Sentence of making War against the King of Spain but only to break off the Treaty with the Spanish Match and for the Palatinate But admit the Parliament had upon the Misinformation of the King and Duke advised the King to have made War upon the King of Spain yet since the Earl of Bristol so shamefully blasted the whole Story not a Year since in open Parliament without any Reply How was this Parliament obliged to have made good what that had done And since the King dissolved the last Parliament rather than the Duke should be brought to Trial upon the Earl's Charge which was a Failure of Justice sure it had been more to the King's Honour not to have mention'd this to the Parliament than that what he had done was by their Advice Did this Parliament or any other ever advise him to put the Fleet under the Command of Vice-Admiral Pennington into the French King's Power to subdue the poor Rochellers who never did him any wrong to the Ruin of the Reformed Interest in France and to be the Foundation of the French Grandeur by Sea and then on the contrary make War upon the French King when he was the Aggressor Did ever this or any other Parliament advise him to take his Subjects Goods by force without and against Law and imprison their Persons by his Absolute Will and Pleasure denying them the Benefit of their Corpus's the Birth-right of the Subject and to continue them Prisoners during his Will without allowing them a Trial by the Laws whether they were guilty of any Crime or not Or to execute Martial Law impose new Oaths and give Free-Quarter to Soldiers in his own Kingdom in time of Peace However the King goes on and says Only let me remember you that my Duty most of all and every one of yours according to his Degree is to seek the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth and certainly there never was a time in which this Duty was more necessarily required than now Was the Discharge of the Pack of Jesuits conspiring the Ruin of Church and State with Impunity for the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth Or was the Commission which the King granted the next Day after the Writs for the Assembling the Parliament to raise Monies by Imposition in the nature of Excise to be levied throughout the Nation for the Maintenance of the Church and State And at the same time to order my Lord Treasurer to pay 30000 l. to Philip Burlemac a Dutch Merchant in London to be by him returned into the Low-Countries by Bill of Exchange to Sir William Balfour and John Dalbier for the raising of 1000 Horse with Arms both for Horse and Foot for the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth of England And also to call a Council for levying Ship-Money now he had by his own Will taken the Customs without any Grant of Parliament for the Maintenance of the Church and State I therefore judging a Parliament to be the antient speediest and best way in this time of Common Danger to give such Supply as to secure our selves and save our Friends from imminent Ruin have called you together Every Man must do according to his Conscience wherefore if you as God forbid should not do your Duties in contributing what the State at this time needs I must in Discharge of my Conscience use those other means which God has put into my hands to save that which the Follies of particular Men may otherwise hazard to lose It 's certain a Parliament is the best way in time of Common Danger to give Supplies and secure the Nation from imminent Ruin the Nation being most
concerned in it yet what Parliamentary Advice did the King take the last nine Months If the Nation and the King's Friends be in such imminent Ruin the King should have declared who those Friends were and who they were which threatned this Ruin When his Father died he was at Peace with all the World and it was his own Wilfulness that without any other Counsel but that of Buckingham he made War upon France and Spain and let any Man read the Passages of the short time of his Reign and judg if the imminent Ruin of the Nation were not from himself within as well as without and if the granting him further Supplies would not more endanger the Nation in carrying on his Designs in both Here note Tho the King had made no Conscience of what he had done yet he now tells the Parliament If they shall not do their Duties in contributing what the State at this time needs he must in Discharge of his Conscience use those other Means which God hath put into his hands to save that which the Follies of particular Men may other ways hazard to lose The King should have explained what other ways God put into his hands to govern his Subjects than by Justice Judgment and Righteousness for all other ways are unjust and wicked And how any Man how great soever can plead Conscience to perpetrate Injustice and Wickedness must be unfolded by Laud Neal Sibthorp Manwaring Mountague Wren Heylin c. The King proceeds and says Take not this for a Threatning for I scorn to threaten any but my Equals but an Admonition from him that both out of Nature and Duty has most Care of your Preservations and Prosperities This is Humano capiti cervicem jungere equinam What a Monster does the King here make a Parliament the Head so incomprehensively big and the Body so scornful and little But if it ill becomes any Man to glory in his own Actions it worse becomes him to glory in that which he himself had not done So that admit the King had been so superlatively great as to scorn all the World besides yet it would better have become any other to have said it than the King A Parliament is a Political Body whereof the King is the Head and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Representatives of the Commons the Body and What is the Head without the Body Are not all the Members of every Body of Use for the Head And does not the Head stand in need of every Member of the Body But if the Head be overgrown and too big and the Body too scornful and lean is not this not only monstrous but a Symptom of the Imperfection of the whole and that it is in a declining and dangerous State Yet the King tells them The End of calling this Parliament was for Supply And did ever King or other Man before him tell those from whom he expected Supply or any other Benefit that he scorn'd them and if they do not their Duties he would use other Means which God had put in his hands without telling what those other Means were and call them Fools and particular Men if they do not their Duties to save what they may otherwise hazard to lose whereas heretofore the Kings of England ever thank'd the Parliament upon a Bill for Aids But after all this the Parliament must not take it for a Threatning but an Admonition An Admonition may be taken in a double Sense either to instruct another in his Duty or to menace or threaten another if he continues obstinate in some Fault or Crime committed by that other But this Admonition of the King 's in the Parliament must not be taken for a Threatning of them therefore it must be for their Instruction ignorant of their Duties A Parliament was called by the Saxons Wittenage-Mote or the Conventus Sapientum the Meeting of Wise Men who met together to deliberate of the arduous and urgent Businesses of the Kingdom and concerning the State and Defence of the Kingdom and Church of England and is called the Common Council of the Kingdom and the General Council of the Kingdom and the Council of the Kingdom See 4th Institute 2. And tho the Writ of Summons of Parliaments be Ad Tractandum Deliberandum de certis arduis Regni negotiis pro statu defensiâ—e Regni Ecclesiae Angliae concernentibus yet the Parliaments of England unlike the Convention of the State of Scotland are not tied up to those things only which the King propounds but are free to treat and deliberate of all things which other ways concern the Kingdom and Church of England So that the great End of the Meeting of Parliaments is to advise the King And all our Saxon Norman and British Kings had ever Parliaments in so high an Esteem that we do not read any where before these two Kings of the Scotish Race came to reign over us that ever any King and Parliament parted in Disgust whereas since King James came to be King five or six parted in Disgust and God knows what would have become of the other if King James had not died before the Parliament met again Did ever any King of England before tho he scorn'd to threaten the Parliament yet admonish them of their Duties or otherwise he would use those other means than by Parliament which God had put into his hands But Quorsum haec or where will the Designs of this young King stop However you may see by this Speech of the King 's that those who govern'd him were as little Politicians as Orators But good Laws often arise from corrupt Times and bad Manners for Magna Charta did arise from the Usurpations of K. John and Henry III. above the Laws and Liberties of this Nation so did the Petition of Right the Magna Charta of this Age from the Usurpations of this King since the Dissolution of the last Parliament to the Meeting of this little more than nine Months And as the old Magna Charta was no new Law but a Declaration of the old restored by Henry II. King John's Father called the Avitae Leges so neither was the Petition of Right which enumerates the Breaches the King had made of Magna Charta and manifold other Laws before it prays Relief against them But these Charta's were obtained after different manners the old by cruel Wars The Doctrines of Passive Obedience and submitting to the Absolute Will and Pleasure of the King were Strangers to those Days and the Bishops were so far from those Doctrines that they were the chief Promoters of Magna Charta and stigmatized the Infringers of it the King himself not excepted with a dreadful Anathema Whereas neither Rome nor Athens could ever glory in such an Assembly as the Commons of this Parliament were for their Vertue and Learning nor any Age produce such a number of Men of the like Integrity to their Country and humble Obedience to
may be drawn into the Body of a Remonstrance and therein humbly exprest with a Prayer to his Majesty for the Safety of himself and for the Safety of the Kingdom and for the Safety of Religion that he would be pleased to give the House time to make perfect Inquisitions thereof or to take it into his own Wisdom and there give them such timely Reformation as the necessity of the Cause and his Justice does import Sir Edward Coke seconded Sir John Elliot 's Motion and propounded that a humble Remonstrance be presented to the King touching the Dangers and Means of the Safety of the King and Kingdom which was agreed to by the House and thereupon the House turned themselves into a grand Committee and the Committee for the Bill of Subsidies was ordered to expedite the said Remonstrance But this King rather than hear of what he had done did not care what he did and therefore the Speaker brought a Message from the King That his Majesty having upon the Petition exhibited by both Houses given an Answer so full of Justice and Grace for which we and our Posterity have just cause to bless his Majesty it is now time to draw to a Conclusion of the Session and therefore his Majesty thinks fit to let them know That he does resolve to abide by that Answer without further Change or Alteration and so he will Royally and Really perform unto them what he had thereby promised And further That he resolves to end this Session upon Wednesday the 11th of this Month and that this House should seriously attend those Businesses which may bring the Session to a happy Conclusion without entertaining new Matters and so to husband the time that his Majesty may with more Comfort bring them speedily together again at which time if there be any further Grievances not contained or expressed in the Petition they may be more maturely considered than the time will now permit But this did not disturb the Commons but they proceeded in their Declaration against Dr Manwaring and the same day presented it to the Lords at a Conference which was managed by Mr. Pym. The Commons impeached the Doctor upon these three Points in his Sermons of Allegiance and Religion 1. That he affirmed that the King is not bound to keep and observe the good Laws and Customs of this Realm concerning the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects and that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans Taxes and other Aids upon his People without common Consent in Parliament does so far bind the Consciences of the Subjects of this Kingdom that they cannot refuse the same without peril of Eternal Damnation 2. That those of his Majesty's Subjects that refused the Loan did therein offend against the Law of God and against his Majesty's Supream Authority and by so doing became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty Rebellion and Disobedience and liable to many other Taxes and Censures which he in the several Parts of his Book does most falsly and maliciously lay upon them 3. That the Authority of Parliament is not necessary for the raising of Aids and Subsidies that the slow Proceedings of such Assemblies are not fit to supply the urgent Necessities of State but rather apt to produce sundry Impediments to the just Design of Princes and to give them occasion of Displeasure and Discontent Whereupon the Commons demanded Judgment against the Doctor not accounting his Submission with Tears and Grief a Satisfaction for the Offence charged upon him and the Lords gave this Sentence 1. That he should be imprisoned during the Pleasure of the House 2. That he should be fined 1000 l. to the King 3. That he should make such Submission and Acknowledgment of his Offences as shall be set down by a Committee in Writing both at this Bar and the House of Commons 4. That he shall be suspended for the Term of three Years from the Exercise of the Ministry and in the mean time a sufficient preaching Minister shall be provided to serve the Cure out of his Livings this Suspension and Provision to be done by the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction 5. That he shall be disabled hereafter to have any Ecclesiastical Dignity or Secular Office 6. That he shall be disabled hereafter ever to preach at Court 7. That his Book is worthy to be burnt and that for the better effecting of this his Majesty may be moved to grant a Proclamation to call in the said Books that they may be burnt accordingly in London both the Vniversities and for the inhibiting the printing thereof upon a great Penalty This Censure immediately succeeding Sir Elliot's Representation of Grievances startled Laud as much as Sir John's Representation did the Duke of Buckingham and the King that he might not hear of any more Business of this kind upon the 5th of June commanded the Speaker to let the House know that he will certainly hold to the day fixed for ending the Session viz. the 11th and therefore requires them that they enter not into nor proceed in any new Business which may spend greater time or which may lay any Scandal or Aspersion upon the State-Government or the Ministers thereof This put the House into a fearful Consternation whereupon the House declared That every Member of the House is free from any undutiful Speech from the beginning of the Parliament to that day and ordered the House to be turned into a Committee to consider what was to be done for the Safety of the Kingdom and that no Man go out of the House upon pain of being committed to the Tower But before the Speaker left the Chair he desired leave to go forth which the House granted Then Sir Edward Coke spake freely We have dealt with that Duty and Moderation that never was the like Rebus sic stantibus after such a Violation upon the Liberties of the Subjects let us take this to Heart In 30 Edw. 3. were they then in any doubt to name Men that mislead the King They accused John of Gaunt the King's Son the Lords Latimer and Nevilâ—or â—or misadvising the King and they went to the Tower for it now when there is such a downfal of the State shall we hold our Tongues How shall we answer our Duty to God and Men 7 Hen. 4. Parl. Rot. 31 32. 11 Hen. 4. Numb 13. there the Council are complained of and removed from the King they mewed up the King and disswaded him from the common Good and why are we turned from that way we were in Why may not we name those that are the Cause of all our Evils In the 4 H. 3. 21 E. 3. 13 R. 2. the Parliament moderated the King's Prerogative and nothing grows to Abuse but this House hath Power to treat thereof What shall we do Let us palliate no longer if we do God will not prosper us I think the Duke of Bucks is the Cause of all our Miseries and till the King be informed thereof we shall neither go out with
Honour nor sit with Honour here That Man is the Grievance of Grievances let us set down the Causes of all our Disasters and all will reflect on him As for going to the Lords that is not via Regia our Liberties are now impeached we are concerned it is not via Regia the Lords are not participant with our Liberties Mr. Selden advised That a Declaration be drawn under four Heads First To express the House's dutiful Carriage to the King Secondly To tender the Liberties violated Thirdly To present what the House was to have dealt in Fourthly That that great Person viz. the Duke fearing to be questioned did interpose this Distraction All this time said he we have cast a Mantle on what was done last Parliament But now being driven again to look on that Man let us proceed with that which was then well begun and let the Charge be renewed that was last Parliament against him to which he made an Answer but the Particulars were sufficient that we may demand Judgment upon that Answer only In Conclusion the House agreed upon several Heads concerning Innovations in Religion the Safety of the King and Kingdom Misgovernment Misfortune of our late Designs with the Causes of them and when the Question was putting that it should be instanced that the Duke was the principal and chief Cause of all those Evils the Speaker came in and said that the King commands for the present that the House adjourn till to Morrow and that all Committees cease which was done accordingly And upon the 7th of June the King in Parliament passed the Petition of Right whereupon there was an universal Joy all over the City and the Commons returned to their own House with unspeakable Joy and resolved so to proceed as might express their Thankfulness and order the grand Committees for Religion Trade Grievances and Courts of Justice to sit no longer but that the House proceed only in Consideration of Grievances of most moment which was their Remonstrance to the King of the weak distracted and dangerous State of the Kingdom which was done in the most pathetick and humble manner which could be expressed and presented to the King in the Banqueting-House upon the 17th of June It 's very long and consisted of these six Branches 1. The Danger of the Innovation and Alteration of Religion This occasioned by First The great Esteem and Favour many of the Professors of the Romish Religion receive at Court Secondly Their publick Resort to Mass at Denmark-House contrary to his Majesty's Answer to the Parliament's Petition at Oxford Thirdly Letters to stay Proceedings against them Lastly The daily Growth of the Arminian Faction favoured and protected by Neal Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells whilst the Orthodox Party are silenced or discountenanced 2. Dangers of Innovation and Alteration in Government occasioned by Billeting Soldiers by Commission of procuring 1000 German Horse and Riders for the Defence of the Kingdom by a standing Commission granted to the Duke to be General at Land in time of Peace 3. Disasters of our Designs as the Expedition to the Isle of Rhee and that lately to Rochel wherein the English have purchased their Dishonour with the waste of a Million of Treasure 4. The Want of Ammunition occasioned by the selling 36 lasts of Gun-powder at low Rates 5. The Decay of Trade by the Loss of 300 Ships taken by the Dunkirkers and other Pirates within the three last Years 6. The not guarding the narrow Seas whereby his Majesty has almost lost the Regality Here note That none of these except Billeting of Soldiers which was yet continued were contained in the Petition of Right Of all which Evil and Dangers the principal Cause is the Duke of Buckingham his excessive Power and Abuse of that Power and therefore humbly submit it to his Majesty's Wisdom whether it can be safe for himself and Kingdom that so great Power should be trusted in the hands of any one Subject whatsoever It 's observable how cross the King set himself against the Commons in this Remonstrance for in the last Parliament when the Commons impeached the Duke and the Earl of Bristol exhibited Articles against him the King ordered the Attorney-General to exhibit an Information against the Duke in the Star-Chamber for the great Misdemeanours and Offences complained of against him by the Commons and Earl thereby to have stopt their Proceeding against the Duke in Parliament as he would have taken the Earl's Cause out of Parliament and proceeded against him by Indictment But the King hearing of this Remonstrance of the Commons against the Duke the Day before the Commons presented it viz. upon the 16th of June caused the Attorney-General to take the said Information and all the Proceedings to be taken off the File for that his Majesty was fully satisfied of the Duke's Innocency in all those things mentioned in the Information as well by his own certain Knowledg as by the Proofs taken in the Cause This was the first Fruit the Parliament and Nation reaped by the Petition of Right Now let 's see the next and whether the Commons deserved such a Censure as the King made upon them at the Prorogation of the Parliament After the Commons had presented a Remonstrance of their other Grievances to the King they then took into Consideration the preparing a Bill for granting his Majesty a Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage as might uphold the King's Profit and Revenue in as ample a manner as their just Care and Respect of Trade would permit But this being a Work of Time and would require much Time and Conference with Merchants and others and being often interrupted by Messages from the King and the Shortness of Time limited by the King for concluding this Sessions and fearing the King might be misinformed of this Particular they were forced by the Duty which they owed to his Majesty to declare That there ought not any Imposition to be laid upon Goods of Merchants exported or imported without Common Consent by Act of Parliament For Manifestation whereof they desired his Majesty to understand That tho the Kings of this Realm had often Subsidies granted them upon divers Occasions especially for guarding the Seas and Safeguard of Merchants yet the Subjects have been ever careful to use such Cautions and Limitations in these Grants that they did proceed not from Duty but the free Gift of the Subjects and that heretofore they used to limit a time for such Grants and for the most part but short as for a Year or two and at other times it has been granted upon occasion of War with Proviso that if the War ended in the mean time then the Grant should cease and of course it has been sequestred into the hand of some Subject to be employed for Guarding of the Seas very few of the King's Predecessors had it for Life until the Reign of Hen. VII who was so far from conceiving he had any Right
c. and hac vice This was 7 Ric. 2. 4. Sometimes to have Intermission and to vary lest the King should claim them as Duties as 2 s. 18 d. 3 s. 5 Ric. 2. 9 Ric. 2. 10 Ric. 2. 5. 3 s. for Tunnage of Wine and 2 s. 6 d. for Poundage for one Year 11 Ric. 2. 6. 3 s. for Tunnage of Wine and 1 s. for Poundage hac vice 13 Ric. 2. 7. 6 d. for Poundage and 18 d. for Tunnage of Wines for three Years 14 Rich. 2. 8. 8 d. for Poundage and 2 s. for Tunnage of Wine 2 Hen. 4. 9. 12 d. for Poundage and 3 s. for Tunnage of Wine for three Years 4 Hen. 4. 10. 12 d. for Poundage and 3 s. for Tunnage of Wines for several times upon Condition sometimes for one Year 6 Hen. 4. 11. 12 d. for Poundage and 3 s. for Tunnage of Wines for four Years 1 Hen. 5. 12. The like Subsidy was granted to Hen. 5. in the third Year of his Reign for Life for carrying on the War against France 13. Tunnage of Wine and Poundage was granted to Edw. 4. for Life with no Retrospect but for time to come 4 Edw. 4. These were continued to all the Kings and Queens of England after Edw. 4. to King Charles 1. but these were of Wines only but these were always granted for the guarding the Seas and of the free good Will of the Subject So that the first Grant of these Duties of Tunnage and Poundage for Life began at Hen. 5. but that was but for that part of his Life for time to come being granted in the third Year of his Reign and so were those in the Reign of Edw. 4. which were granted in the fourth Year of his Reign and Hen. 7. would not take them till they were granted by Parliament and Sir Robert Phillips who was a Member of Parliament Primo Jac. says in his Speech in Parliament Mr. Rushworth mentions it fol. 644. that by reason of the Sickness primo Jac. the Parliament was prorogued and then some were so bold as to demand the Duties of Tunnage and Poundage for which they were questioned in Parliament But after the Duties of Tunnage and Poundage were given to King James and settled by a Book of Rates King James which none of his Predecessors ever did before imposed higher Duties upon several sorts of Merchandise than were granted in Parliament by his own Will and so continued them to his Death and after his Death his Son by his own Will took not only those Duties granted by Parliament but those imposed by his Father neither would he permit the Parliament to sit to establish a Book of Rates but prorogu'd or dissolved them before they could accomplish it And this was the Right he charges the Commons to endeavour to take away by his granting the Petition of Right The King goes on and says This the Right to Tunnage and Poundage alledg'd to be given away by the Commons is so prejudicial to me that I am forced to end this Session some few hours before I meant being unwilling to receive any more Remonstrances to which I must give a harsh Answer And since I see that the House of Commons begins already to make false Constructions of what I granted in your Petition lest it be worse interpreted in the Country I will now make a Declaration concerning the true Intent thereof The King should have declared whether he saw this false Construction of the Commons with his own Eyes or the Eyes of another if with his own Eyes Why does he not declare wherein the Commons made this false Construction of his Grant Or if he saw or heard of this false Construction of the Commons from another the King should have said who told him so Now let us see if the contrary of what the King so injuriously charges the Commons with be not true The Commons say No King of England ever claimed these Customs but by the free Gifts of his Subjects Does the King deny this or shew that ever any King of England claimed them otherways or by any other Right The Commons say His Father raised them to the height they then were without Act of Parliament or free Gift of the People Does the King deny this to be true And that the King continues to take these Customs without any Act of Parliament or Gift of the People Does the King deny this Do not the Commons tell the King That out of their Zeal to his Service and especial Regard to his pressing Occasions they had under Consideration so to frame a Grant of a Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage to his Majesty that he might have been the better enabled for the Defence of his Realm and Subjects by being secure from all undue Charges for the Security of Trade the Profit of the King and Strength of the Kingdom Does the King deny this With what Conscience and Justice then does the King say the Commons made false Constructions of his Answer alledging he had given away his Right to the Customs by his Answer to the Petition of Right When or where is any such Allegation in any part of the Remonstrance The Commons say that since the King will not permit them to finish their intended Subsidy they have no Course left without manifold Breach of their Duty to his Majesty and their Country save only to make this humble Declaration That the receiving Tunnage and Poundage and other Impositions not granted by Parliament is a Breach of the Fundamental Liberties of this Kingdom and contrary to your Majesty's Answer to the Petition of Right Does the King shew that it was not the Commons Duty to represent this to him or that the Commons alledged he had any Right to the Duties which he had given away by his Answer to the Petition of Right Now let 's see the King's Declaration of the true Intent of his Answer to the Petition of Right The Profession of both Houses in the time of the Hammering spoke like a King this Petition was no ways to trench upon my Prerogative no more it did saying They had neither Intention or Power is hurt it therefore it must needs be conceived that I have granted to new but only to confirm the antient Liberties of my Subjects Yet to shew the Clearness of my Intentions that I neither repent nor mean to recede from any thing I have promised you I do here declare my self That those things which have been done whereby many have had some Cause to expect the Liberties of the Subject to be trenched upon and indeed was the first and true ground of the Petition shall not hereafter be drawn into Example for your Prejudice and from time to time on the Word of a King ye shall not have the like Cause to complain But as for Tunnage and Poundage it is a thing I cannot want and was â—ever intended by you to ask nor meant by me I am sure to grant Nor did
the King the Attorney-General Sir Robert Heath preferred an Information in the Star-Chamber against Sir John Elliot and others of the Members therein named setting forth their Misdemeanours in the late Parliament and all those Proceedings But Mr. Long ' s Charge was different from those of the other Members viz. Not for Misdemeanours in Parliament but that contrary to his Oath being when he was made Sheriff and was by his Oath to keep within his County yet he did come to Parliament and serve as a Member there and in the time of Parliament resided out of his County To this Mr. Long pleaded that the Oath of a Sheriff to reside in his County does not exempt him from obeying the King's Commands out of the County when the King requires it and that by the King's Command in his highest Capacity he being chosen a Member of Parliament was obliged as well by the King's Command as by a Trust reposed in him by his County to serve as a Member of Parliament Yet by a Sentence in the Star-Chamber he was fined 2000 Marks to the King to be imprisoned in the Tower and to make a Submission But the Attorney-General putting the Question to the Judges upon the Proceedings Ore tenus in the Star-Chamber against the Parliament-Men the Judges held it the juster way not to proceed Ore tenus And Justice Whitlock did often and highly complain against this way of sending to the Judges for their Opinions beforehand and said that if Bishop Laud went on this way he would kindle a Flame in the Kingdom Mr. Hollis Selden Stroud and Valentine having been brought to the King's-Bench Bar by several Corpus's and Cause of their Commitment returned one on a Warrant from the Council another on a Warrant from the King for Sedition and Contempts and whether this was a good Return or not was argued The Judges were perplexed about the Habeas Corpus and wrote a humble and stout Letter to the King That by their Oaths they were to bail the Prisoners but thought fit before they did it or publish their Opinions therein to inform his Majesty thereof and humbly to advise him as had been done by his noble Progenitors in like case to send a Direction to his Justices of his Bench to bail the Prisoners But the Lord Keeper Coventry would not acknowledg to Justice Whitlock who was sent to him from the rest of his Brethren about this Business that he had shewed the Judges Letter to the King but dissembled the matter and told him that he and his Brethren must attend the King at Greenwich at a day appointed Accordingly the Judges attended the King who was not pleased with their Determination but commanded them not to deliver any Opinion in this Case without consulting the rest of the Judges who delayed the Business and would hear Arguments in the Case as well as the Judges of the King's-Bench had done and so the Business was put off to the end of the Term Then the Court of King's-Bench being ready to deliver their Opinions the Prisoners were removed to other prisons and a Letter came from the King to the Judges That this was done because of their insolent Carriage at the Bar and so they did not appear The Judges of the King's-Bench were sent to by the Lord-keeper to be in London on Michaelmas-day and the Chief Justice and Justice Whitlock were sent for to the King at Hampton-Court who advised with them about the imprisoned Members and upon the first day of the Term Mr. Mason moved for the Members to have the Resolution of the Court All the Judges declared that they were contented the Prisoners should be bailed but that they must find Sureties for their good Behaviour If this Addition of finding Sureties for the Members good Behaviour were part of the good Offices which the Judges did as Mr. Whitlock says to bring the King to heal the Breaches the Members had little Reason to thank them for their Pains Mr. Selden pray'd that his Sureties for his Bailment might be taken and the Matter of the good Behaviour omitted as a distinct thing So did the rest of the Members whereupon the Court remanded them to the Tower which I suppose is extraordinary the Court having them in their Power and the Tower no Prison of theirs in such Cases In the same Term the King's Attorney Heath exhibited an Information against Sir John Elliot Mr. Hollis Selden and Valentine in the King's-Bench setting forth the Matters in effect as were in the Information in the Star-Chamber to which the Defendants pleaded to the Jurisdiction of the Court because the Offences are said to be committed in Parliament and ought not to be punished in this or any other Court except the Parliament The King's Attorney moved the Court to over-rule the Plea tho he did not demur to it but the Court would not and gave a day to join in Demurrer and to have the Point argued and in Hillary-Term the Judges over-ruled their Plea and the Defendants were ruled to plead further but they would not whereupon Judgment was given against them upon a Nihil dicit That they should be imprisoned and not delivered till they had given Sureties for their good Behaviour and made a Submission and Acknowledgment of their Offences and they were also fined and what their Fines were you may read in the Appendix of the first Part of Rushworth's Collections But herein the Judges were not all of one piece for that venerable and honourable Gentleman Sir John Walter Chief Baron of the Exchequer and who was no placito-man dissented from the rest of the Judges whereupon the King discharged him from his Place I have heard my Father say that when Sir John received the King's Message he returned Answer that he was intrusted by the King in that Office quam diu bene se gesserit and that the Law was free for any Man to prosecute him if he had ill demeaned himself in it but to forsake his Station any other way implied Guilt which he was not conscious to himself of and therefore tho the King sent him his Quietus yet he retained the Perquisites of his Place to his Death A little before the Members Sentence in the King's Bench the King's Attorney exhibited an Information against one Chambers a Merchant for saying Merchants have more Incouragement and are less screwed up in Turkey than in England Chambers confest the Words but he spake them of the under Officers of the Customs who had much wronged him without reflecting upon the Government yet the Court fined him 2000 l. and to make a Submission which he refused as unjust and false The Fine was estreated into the Exchequer where he pleaded Magna Charta and other Statutes against the Fine it not being by legal Judgment of his Peers nor saving his Merchandise but the Barons would not suffer his Plea to be filed and afterwards he brought his Habeas Corpus but the Judges remanded him Thus you
Fleet and an Army in readiness to compel the Covenanters to Obedience but not to consent to the calling of a Parliament or General Assembly till the Covenant be given up that now his Crown and Reputation for ever lies at stake that he had rather suffer the first which time would help than the last which is irreparable that the Explanation of the damnable Covenant makes him to have no more Power than a Duke of Venice which he will rather die than submit to Yet without dying he did submit to the Revocation of the Service-Book Canons High-Commission and the Articles of Perth forsakes the Bishops and by a Proclamation Sept. 22 1638 commands the Covenant to be subscribed by the Privy-Council and all his Scotish Subjects but this would not content the Covenanters because it came not from a General Assembly and because the Band of mutual Defence was not in the Proclamation Having gone thus far there was no going back and the King's Army and Navy was not yet ready the King therefore indicts a General Assembly to be held the 21st of November 1638 at Glasgow and a Parliament to meet at Edinburgh the 15th of May following The General Assembly met accordingly but the Marquess and the Assembly were at Variance about the Elections and Votes of the Lay-Elders and the Bishops sitting in the Assembly and the Votes of the King's Assessors in it But what the Marquess would have the Covenanters would not whereupon the Marquess on the 28th dissolves the Assembly upon Penalty of High-Treason The Covenanters and General Assembly protest against this Dissolution and sit notwithstanding yet profess all Duty and Obedience to the King in its due Line and Course which in plain English is They 'll do what they will and if the King will do what they would have him they will be obedient Subjects And in this Session they depose and excommunicate all the Bishops of Scotland To this State within less than two Years has his Grace of Canterbury brought the Church of Scotland and a terrible Cloud hangs over that of England whereby his Grace will have the Glory of becoming a Martyr in it Weston Earl of Portland died in the Year 1634 and Dr. Juxton Bishop of London was made Lord-Treasurer by whose prudent Management it 's said that in less than five Years he had lodged 900000 l. in the Exchequer and now the King had raised an Army of about 20000 Horse and Foot made the Earl of Arundel General Lord Viscount Wentworth Lieutenant-General and Earl of Holland General of the Horse and had fitted up a Navy with 5000 Land-Men commanded by Marquess Hamilton to compel the Scots to their Obedience and marches at the Head of this Army himself It was time for the Scots were up in Arms too had seized the Regalia at Dalkeith and brought them to Edinburgh taken Dumbarton and routed the Scots who took the King's part at Aberdeen which they likewise took This King 's good Nature never more appeared than in his Necessities so that when he came to York by Proclamation he recall'd 31 Monopolies and Patents formerly granted by him he not before understanding how grievous they were to his Subjects The Scots that the English might have no Jealousy of an Invasion had resolved not to come within ten Miles of the Borders with their Army When the King came to Berwick the Earl of Holland made two vain and inconsiderate Incursions into Scotland and upon the Approach of the Scots retreated and these were the only Actions of this War by the English Upon the Retreat of the Earl the English Army was contemned by the Scots who advanced to the Borders and pitched their Tents in sight of the English before any notice was given of their Motion this raised a Murmur all over the English Army where Provisions were not only scant but their Bread and Biscake mouldy nor was there any prospect of a further Supply However the Scots propose a Treaty of Accommodation which the King's Necessities compell'd him to submit to which being made the Terms you may read in Rushworth's and Franklin's Collections the King disbands his Army and withdraws his Navy this was all the Scots cared for for the Treaty being upon equivocal Terms the Scots were resolved to make their own Interpretation and stand by it and to that purpose hold Correspondence with the French King and stile him Au Roy and also with the discontented in England and buy Arms and Ammunition at Bremen and Hamburg To forment these Jealousies and propagate the Popish Interest Cardinal Richlieu employs one Chamboy or Chamberlain in Scotland and Con or Cunaeus his own Chaplain in England whose chief Confidents were the Earl of Arundel General of the King's Army and his Countess Sir Francis Windebank Principal Secretary of State Sir Toby Mathews Endymion Porter English and one Read and Maxwel Scots See this at large in Rushworth's Collections fol. 1318 1319 1320 1321 to 1326. This Year my Lord-Keeper Coventry died and Sir John Finch chief-Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas was made Lord-keeper of the Great Seal no doubt for promoting the Legality of Ship-money and enlarging the Bounds of the Forests The Cloud rising so thick in the North presaged a Storm which to dissipate the King summons a Parliament to meet the 23d of April 1640. the Arch-bishop and the Earl of Strafford giving out according to the Advice which Sir Robert Cotton gave the Duke of Buckingham that they were the first Movers of it At the opening of this Parliament the King lays before them his Necessities for Money in the first place as he had done in all the three Parliaments before and that Delay was all one with a Denial and communicates to them the Covenanters Letter to the French King imploring his Assistance But the House of Commons having found the Effects of giving Money before Grievances were redrest both in the 18th of his Father's Reign and in the first of his began at Grievances now multiplied by the Additions of Ship-Money breaking the Bounds of the Forests and Monopolies multiplied without end the Arbitrary Power of the Star-Chamber and High-Commission against those who opposed the Proceedings of the Innovations brought into the Church and the Imprisonment and unheard-of Censures of their Members for their Proceedings in the House last Parliament so that instead of enjoying any Benefit by the Petition of Right the Church and State was in a manifold worse State than before they had now found by Experience that no Laws or Judgments in Parliament could bind the King's Prerogative but that he would act quite contrary as in the Cases of Mountague and Manwaring c. and how could the Parliament rely upon his Royal Word which he would upon all occasions give when they found no Assurance in any Law nor so many Declarations of his observing them However the Commons upon the 2d of May resolved to take care of supplying the King upon the 4th when Sir Henry Vane
find he ever repented of any of them But admit the King had this Power and also that the Opening Adjourning and Proroguing Terms and granting Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and times of their Sitting and Continuance for Executing Justice be Prerogatives inseparable to the Imperial Crown of which he is accountable to God only Yet if he shall not open the Terms or grant Commissions of Oyer and Terminer or if he does refuse to have Justice done between himself and Subjects or between his Subjects but instead thereof prorogue or adjourn Terms and withcall his Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and declare to Him only belongs the Power of opening the Terms and of granting Commissions of Oyer and Terminer and that he is only accountable to God for all his Actions would not this be a Failure of Justice and can any Man believe that he would be God's Vicegerent herein for the Good and Benefit of his Subjects The Act of the 25 of Edward the III determines what Treasons are cognisable by the King's Judges but the other Treasons at Common-Law are only determinable in Parliament and one of the chiefest Ends in calling Parliaments is when the Judges themselves or Ministers of State becoming corrupt and too great for the ordinary Courts of Justice they may be punished in Parliament it is therefore greater Injustice and infinitely more dangerous to the King and Subjects to deny the Nation this Right than to deny Justice to particular Subjects The King is Head of the Common-wealth and the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation unite them into one Body which if they cease there is neither King nor Common-wealth and by the 4 Edw. 3. c. 4. Parliaments shall be holden every Year and by 36 Edw. 3. c. 10. Parliaments shall be holden once a Year and oftner if need be that Grievances and Mischiefs be redrest How then does it become the King to glory that the Calling Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving Parliaments are undoubted Prerogatives inseparably annexed to the Imperial Crown which in plain English is to say It is a Prerogative inseparable to the Imperial Crown to rend himself from his Subjects and to make himself neither King nor the Nation his Subjects But if the King be accountable only to God for his Actions how comes it that he so often appeals to the People by these Declarations against their Representatives or rather against the People and their Representatives to his own Minions and Flatterers which are worse than any other Rebels and Traitors for these appear barefac'd what they are whereas those steal away the Love and Obedience of his Subjects and provoke them either to be Rebels and Traitors or careless to assist him against such as are And this was the Case of Edward the 2d and Richard the 2d and now it comes fast upon this unhappy King for so hereafter he will ever be In September this Year the Dutch fell upon a Fleet of the Spaniards in the Downs so furiously as being 53 in Number made them cut their Cables and run 23 of them on Shoar whereof 3 were burnt 2 perished on the Shoar the Remainder of the other 23 were deserted by the Spaniards and mann'd by the English to save them from the Dutch the other 30 put to Sea of which only 10 escaped Yet the King however he gloried in being stiled Soveraign of the British Seas took no Care to vindicate this against the Dutch to whom he was now become as contemptible as to his Scotish Subjects Now let 's see how things stood in Scotland After the Pacification between the English and Scots yet full of Jealousy on either Part the King sent for 14 of the principal Covenanters to come to him at Berwick which the Scots refused and only sent Montross Lowden and Lowthian these three Lords seemed much mollified by what the King had granted and promised all Obedience to the King The King urged Hamilton to be his Commissioner which he refusing he made Traquair but tied him up to close Instructions and in August he indicts a General Assembly the Bishops protest against it and the Covenanters supplicate the Commissioners and Council that Episcopacy be declared unlawful and the Covenant subscribed by all the Scotish Nation which the Commissioners verbally consented to Here you must understand that the Covenanters make the Kirk a distinct Table or Body from the Civil of which Christ Jesus is the only Head and that the Parliament is obliged to pass all the Acts of a General Assembly so that though by many Acts of Parliament the Bishops Sitting and Voting in Parliament is ordained and confirmed yet the voting Episcopacy to be unlawful hath rescinded all those Acts of Parliament for Sublata Causa tollitur effectus Upon the 30th of October in 1639 the Parliament met but upon the Difference between the Houses and the Earl of Traquair about naming Lords of the Articles the Earl prorogues them to the 14th of November which the Parliament protest against and declare all Proceedings in Parliament to be as valid as if no Prorogation had been The Parliament hereupon appoint a Committee to represent this to the King and in the mean time to expect the King's Answer and make the Earl of Dumfermling and the Lord Lowden their Deputies to do it who coming without Warrant from the Earl of Traquair were commanded back again without Audience Then the King commands the Commissioner Traquair to prorogue the Parliament to the second of June in 1640 and that Traquair should come and give an account of the Matters proposed in Parliament and Traquair having gotten one of the Letters which the Covenanters had sent to the French King for his Protection and Assistance of the Covenanters subscribed by Rothes Montross Lesley Mountgomery Lowden and Forester brings this with him and delivers it to the King for which the Scots would never forgive the Earl but ever after deemed him an Incendiary This yet being unknown to the Covenanters they petition the King to permit them to send some of their Members to vindicate their Proceedings which the King did and they sent the Earl of Dumfermling and Lowden again The King when they came to London claps Lowden close Prisoner in the Tower and expected that this Confederacy between the Scots and French would be a means to procure the Parliament to assist him more powerfully against the Scots but the King having dissolved the Parliament he as suddenly dismist him as before he had committed him which did the King no good This unhappy King would as easily be excited to give harsh language as be put upon sudden Actions and as soon leave them and often proceed quite contrary And now the King taxes the Scots Proceedings to be Traiterous and Rebellious and causes a Paper published by the Scots after the Pacification to be burnt by the Hand of the common Hangman but the Scots insisted their Proceedings to be according to the Covenant which they could not
Never was Nation shuffled into such unhappy Circumstances for to join the King was to return to his Prerogative Royal and Absolute Will and Pleasure and I have oft heard several of those who followed the King in the War say They as much dreaded the King's overcoming the Parliament-Party as they feared to be overcome by them And the Houses had broken the Fundamental Constitution of the Nation so as no Man could tell where they would stay Now are things brought to that pass Richlieu design'd them viz. England and Ireland in Civil Wars and Scotland Pensioners to France so as he might now securely carry on his Designs of advancing the Grandeur of France without any Fear of Disturbance from hence And now you may see the miserable Condition the King's Minions and Favourites had brought upon the King and all his Kingdoms Yet it is observable how great the Loyalty of the Nobility and Gentry was to the King that from so low Beginnings in all Appearance they would have subdued the Parliament-party if the Scots next Year had not come to their Assistance whereas in the Reigns of Edward the 2d and Richard the 2d though the Grievances of the Nation were more in one Year of this King's Reign than in both their Reigns yet both were expelled and lost their Lives their Subjects not drawing a Sword in their Defence An Apology BEfore we enter upon the War between the King and Parliament it will not be amiss to enquire into the Causes of it and who first began it and whether the King or Parliament or both designed it And I am the rather induced hereto because I am told that I have unjustly charged the Parliament with beginning the War and that the contrary appears by a Treatise written by Tho. May Esq of the Causes and Beginning of the Civil Wars in England So that the Question between us is not who first designed the War but who began it But because Designations and Intentions precede Action I will begin so far as appears to me Whether the King or Parliament first designed this War or whether it were not intended by both And give me leave to shew a little of Mr. May's Partiality in the Business I say Mr. May is partial where page 13 he says after the Pacification made with the Scots 1639 that when the King came to London his Heart was again estranged from the Scots and Thoughts of Peace he commanded by Proclamation that Paper which the Scots avowed to contain the true Conditions of the Pacification to be disavowed and burnt by the Hands of the common Hangman So that he makes the Scots Parties and Judges in their own Case without mentioning the Articles of the Pacification or what the Scots avowed to contain the true Conditions of it We will therefore set forth the Articles of the Pacification and let another Judg whether the Scots observed them or had any Thoughts of Peace The Articles were 1. The Forces of Scotland to be disbanded within 24 Hours after the Agreement 2. The King's Castles Ammunition c. to be delivered up 3. His Ships to depart after the Delivery of the Castles 4. All Persons Ships and Goods detained by the King to be restored 5. No Meetings Treaties or Consultations to be by the Scots but such as shall be warranted by Act of Parliament 6. All Fortifications to desist and be remitted to the King's Pleasure 7. To restore to every Man their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means The Articles were signed by the Scots Commissioners and a present Performance of them on their Parts promised and expected The King justly performed the Articles on his part but the Scots kept part of their Forces in being and all their Officers in pay and the Covenanters kept up their Fortification at Leith and their Meetings and Councils and inforce Subscriptions to the late Assembly at Glasgow contrary to the King's Declaration they brand those who had taken Arms for the King as Incendiaries and Traitors and null all the Acts of the College of Justice as you may read in Mr. Whitlock's Memoirs f. 29. So that tho the King performed all the Articles of Pacification on his Part the Scots performed not one on their Part. Nor did the Scots stay here but published a Paper very seditious against the Treaty which is that which Mr. May speaks of I do not find the Copy of it but even Mr. Whitlock no great Friend to the King's Cause calls it so Nor did the Scots stay here but levied Taxes at ten Marks per Cent. and made Provision for Arms as you may read in Sir Baker's History f. 408. and more at large in the second part of Rushworth's Collections and all this before the King commanded the Scots Paper to be burnt by the Hand of the Common Hangman And therefore the King justly commanded the Scots Paper to be burnt by the Hand of the common Hangman And Mr. May says The honest People of both Nations began to fear another War But why does Mr. May say the honest People began to fear another War Was it honest in the Scots to break all the Articles of the Pacification to keep their Forces in a Body and their Officers in Pay contrary to the Pacification to raise Taxes and make Provision of Arms and after all these honest Men to begin to fear another War Mr. May goes on and says The King in December told the Council he intended to call a Parliament in England in April following But rational Men did not like it that it was deferred so long and that the Preparations for a War in Scotland went on in the mean time The last part is gratis dictum by Mr. May nor does he mention any Preparation for a War in any one particular nor do I find this said by any other But admit the King had made Preparation for a War with Scotland yet by all Laws of God and Man the King might justly have done it after the Scots had broken all the Articles of Pacification kept an Army on foot against it levied Taxes by their own Authority and made Provision of Arms without the King's Authority which besides the Perfidiousness of the Scots is Treason in the highest degree And I would be glad to be informed by what other means the King could vindicate his Honour or relieve his oppressed Subjects otherwise than by a War Mr. May goes on and says They these rational Men were likewise troubled that the Earl of Strafford Deputy of Ireland a Man of deep Policy but suspected Honesty one whom the King then used as a bosom Counsellor was first to go into Ireland and call a Parliament in that Kingdom And what then Why might not the King call a Parliament in Ireland as well as in England or Scotland And if these rational Men did not like it as he says that a Parliament should be deferred so long in England why should these rational Men be so troubled that the King
Northumberland side by force of them passed the Tine and killed and took 300 English Prisoners and after took New-Castle and seized four great Ships of the English laden with Corn and imposed a Tax of 350 l. a day upon the Bishoprick of Durham and 300 l. a day upon the County of Northumberland upon pain of Plundering and the Scots committed many Injuries and Insolencies upon the English where the Scots quartered as you may read in Mr. Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 34 35. Thus was the state of things altered Mr. May says pag. 34. it should be pag. 18. And that War which was intended for an Enslavement of both the Nations truly said but untruly intended became the Bond of Concord between them God defend the Nation for time to come of such Concord or such Causes of it The Parliament Mr. May says began with Matters of Religion divers Ministers who had been of good Lives and Conversations conscientious in their ways and diligent in their Preaching and had by the Bishops and those in Authority been motested and imprisoned for not conforming to some Ceremonies which were imposed on them were now by the Parliament relieved and recompensed for their Suffering and others who had been scandalous either for loose wicked living or else Offenders in way of Superstition both which to discountenance the Puritans had been frequently preferred were censured and removed Here Mr. May is right but yet partial in that he does not tell how that the Orthodox Clergy as the Bishops of Lincoln Williams Dr. Hall of Norwich Dr. Prideaux of Worcester Dr. Brownrig of Exeter Dr. Morton of Durham c. and all the Orthodox Anti-Arminian Heads of both Universities and also Dr. Saunderson Dr. Featly and many others underwent the same Fate with those Ministers which Mr. May speaks of Pag. 38. which should have been 24. Mr. May says That the Parliament ordered that the Scots should be recompensed for all their Charges and Loss by that mischievous War which the King had raised against them Here Mr. May is not only partial and unsincere but the contrary hereof is true for the Scots in the former War took up Arms and seized the Regalia at Sterlin took Towns in Scotland and other ways committed Acts of Hostility before the King raised Arms to suppress them as is before and so they did in this latter raise Arms in Scotland before they invaded England before the King raised any Army See Whitlock's Mem. fol. 276. Where Mr. May had this unless framed by himself I cannot tell but Sir Richard Baker recites the Demand at large and the Commons Answer to them And this Mr. May speaks of is the sixth Demand Wherein they desire from the Justice and Kindness of the Kingdom of England Reparations concerning the Losses which the Kingdom of Scotland hath sustained and the vast Charges they have been put unto by occasion of the late Troubles To which the Commons answer That the House thinks fit that a Friendly Assistance and Relief shall be given towards the Supply of the Loss of the Scots and that the Parliament did declare that they did conceive that the Sum of 300000 l. is a fit Proportion for their Friendly Assistance and Relief formerly thought fit to be given towards the Supply of the Loss and Necessities of their Brethren of Scotland and that the Houses would in due time take into Consideration the Manner how and when the same shall be raised Now let any Man shew out of Mr. May where that mischievous War which the King had raised against them is to be found If Mr. May had been a faithful Historian he should have made Truth and not the Distempers of a distracted Time nor the Clamours of his prejudic'd Brain to have been the Measures of his Story He should have set forth how like Pedlars they treated the English in their Particulars in their 8th Demand of 514128 l. 9 s. besides the Loss of their Nation to 440000 l. Yet they did not give in that Account with an Intent to demand a total Reparation of all their Charges and Losses but were content good Men in some measure to bear a Remnant Mr. May should have set forth how perfidiously the Scots dealt with the English Nation when in their Remonstrance at their first coming in they professed that they would take nothing of the English but for Money or Security whereas they plundered and taxed Northumberland New-Castle and the Bishoprick of Durham so that those Places could not recover their Losses in 20 Years as Sir Benjamin Rudyard in open Parliament charged them and that the English formerly established the Scots Reformation at their own bare Charges whereas the Scots presumed to require a greater Sum than was ever given the King Which you may read more at large in Sir Rich. Baker fol. 417. These are the Parliament's Brethren for whose Brotherly Assistance they voted 300000 l. towards a Supply of the Losses and Necessities note that of our Brethren of Scotland and that the Parliament would in due time take into Consideration the Manner of raising and Days of Payment and in the mean time leave New-Castle Northumberland and Durham a Prey to these devouring Scots But lame-footed Vengeance shall overtake this Fraternity and that by no visible Power at present but what shall arise from among themselves I could add many more Particulars of Mr. May's Partiality and Insincerity but this already said is sufficient And now it 's time to enquire whether the King or Parliament or both designed the ensuing War and who first designed it tho the Distemper of the Times was so distracted and variable that it 's hard to judg of Intentions by Actions The Royalists excuse the King from any Intention of a Civil War in England in that he protected no Man from the Justice of the Parliament and that he had put away all those which the Parliament called Evil Counsellors both in Church and State having made Mr. St. John his Attorney and Mr. Holborn his Solicitor both which were his Antagonists in imposing Ship-Money and upon his going into Scotland made the Earl of Essex Chamberlain and General of his Forces on this side Trent and in the Church reversed all the Proceedings in the Star-Chamber against the Bishop of Lincoln and preferred Dr. Hall from Exeter to the Bishoprick of Norwich and made Dr. Brownrig Bishop of Exeter and Dr. Prideaux Bishop of Worcester who were the most Learned of the Church of England and most opposite to the Arminian Tenets and of most exemplary Life and Piety and before his going into Scotland passed all Bills presented to him by the Houses even that of not dissolving the Parliament without their Consent which he would never have done if he had had any Intention of raising a War against them or a Civil War in England Mr. May p. 43. it should be p. 25. tells us of a twofold Treason against the Parliament if you 'll take his word and that the
King was knowing of both one was to have delivered the Earl of Strafford out of the Tower but Sir William Balfour the Lieutenant would not consent to it Here note The King made Balfour a Scot Lieutenant of the Tower one of the greatest Places of Trust in England without any Complaint of the Parliament whenas the Parliament of Scotland in their second Demand made to the King would have no Stranger to command or inhabit in any Castles of the King 's without their Consent The other part of this Treason chief of all the rest But why all when but two Mr. May says was a Design to bring up the English Army which was in the North and not yet disbanded this Army they had dealt with to engage against the Parliament's sitting and as they alledg to maintain the King's Prerogative Episcopacy and other things against the Parliament it self This Charge is so false as well as partial as no Man who had any regard to Truth Honesty or Fairness would have so expos'd himself for if the King's Prerogative be not maintain'd he can neither govern his Subjects nor protect them from Foreign Enemies and Episcopacy is one of the Constitutions of the Nation and how the maintaining these can be against the Parliament had need of a wiser Head than Mr. May's to shew But these two are not all Mr. May says but there were other things against the Parliament if there had been other things I do not think Mr. May would in Modesty have conceal'd them but since Mr. May has not given the Causes of this chief Treason I will do it and not follow Sir Richard Baker nor Franklin lest they should be deemed to be partial to the King's Cause but Mr. Whitlock whom no Man believes to be so who fol. 44. b. says June 19th It was voted that the Scots should receive 100000 l. of the 300000 l. the Scots by a Paper pretended Necessity for 125000 l. in present the Parliament took off 10000 l. of 50000 l. which they had appointed for the English Army and order'd it for the Scots The Lord Piercy Commissary Wilmot and Ashburnham Members of Parliament sitting together and murmuring at it Wilmo◠stept up and said That if such Papers of the Scots could procure Monies he doubted not but the Officers of the English Army would soon do the like and this caused the English Army to say The Parliament had disobliged them The Officers put themselves into a Juncto of sworn Secrecy and drew up some Heads by way of Petition to the King and Parliament for Money for the Army and not to disband before the Scots to preserve the Bishops Votes and Functions and to settle the King's Revenue The Army tainted from hence met and drew up a Letter or Petition which was shewed to the King approv'd and signed by him with C. R. and a Direction to Captain Leg that none should see it but Sir Jacob Ashley it should have been Astly the main drift was That the Army might be call'd up to attend the Safety of the King's Person and Parliament's Security or that both Armies might be disbanded Where is this chief Treason lodg'd unless in Mr. May's Brain Or where is the King's Prerogative mention'd But as the Times then went Mr. May took liberty to say what he list to humour them the Scots must be obey'd in whatsoever they demand and it must be chief Treason in the English to petition Mr. May p. 32 33. will have the King 's going into Scotland to be a Design to raise War against the Parliament of England and to that end tells a Story of a Scots Writer that published that it was to engage the Scots against the Parliament of England with large Promises of Spoil and offering Jewels of great Value for Performance of it but he names not the Scot and leaves it uncertain for the Reader to judg by what fell out afterward But if he the King did it was a matter of great Falshood Mr. May says having as yet declar'd no Enmity against the English Parliament From the same Author he says it was to make sure of those Noblemen of that Kingdom he doubted of as not willing to serve his turn against England and true it is that about September Letters came to the standing Committee at Westminster that a Treasonable Plot was discovered there against the greatest Peers of the Kingdom but says not which Kingdom upon which the standing Committee fearing some Mischief from the same Spring placed strong Guards in divers Places of the City of London But in all this the Fox is the Finder and Mr. May as partial and false as in all he said before The truth was Jealousies and Fears were fomented by the Parliamentarians and even by the Members themselves against the King and Royalists But Mr. Whitlock tho of like Affection with Mr. May yet a much more impartial Representer of the Actions of those Times fol. 49. a. represents it thus The Marquesses of Hamilton and Argyle withdrew from the Parliament in Scotland upon Jealousy of some Design against their Persons but upon Examination of that matter by the Parliament there it was found to be a Misinformation yet the same took fire in our Parliament upon the Surmises of some whereupon the Parliament here appointed Guards for London and Westminster and some spake 〈◊〉 without Reflection upon the King The Royalists charge the Parliament at least the Commons with a Design to raise War against the King and to make him odious to the People after he had granted all the Parliament desired of him and given up those whom they call'd evil Counsellors to their Justice for their Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom after the King's return out of Scotland which because of the Extraordinariness of it we will recite it verbatim as is said by Mr. Whitlock f. 49. b. The House of Commons prepared a Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdom wherein they mentioned All the Mistakes Misfortunes Illegalities and Defaults in Government since the King 's coming to the Crown the evil Counsels and Counsellors and a malignant Party that they have no hopes of settling the Distractions of this Kingdom for want of a Concurrence with the Lords This Remonstrance was somewhat roughly penn'd both for the Matter and Expressions in it and met with great Opposition in the House insomuch as the Debate of it lasted from three a Clock in the Afternoon till ten next Morning and the sitting up all Night caused many of the Members through Weakness or Weariness to leave the House and Sir B. R. I think he means Sir Benj. Rudyard to compare it to the Verdict of a starv'd Jury When the Vote was carried tho not by many to pass the Remonstrance Mr. Palmer and two or three more made their Protestation against this Remonstrance for which they were sent to the Tower This Remonstrance was presently printed and published by the Parliament contrary to the King's Desire
and before his Answer made to it which came forth shortly after to all the Heads of it Now let any shew a Precedent when one State in Parliament appealed to the People and arraigned the King and the other two States unheard and against the King's express Desire and he shall be my great Apollo And if the End be first consider'd in every Action what could be the End of publishing this Remonstrance Or how could it tend to the settling the Distractions of the Kingdom I make this difference between Reproof and Reproach Reproof is privately to admonish another of such Speeches and Actions as tend to the hurt of his Reputation and Fortune so as this other may avoid them for the future Reproach is to divulge the Speeches and Actions of another to the lessening of the Fame and Credit of that other Reproof is the Act of a Friend Reproach of an Enemy And was this a time of day for the Commons thus to reproach the King for his past Actions after he had redressed all their Grievances and given up his Evil Counsellors to their Justice Or was it ever known before that when the King had redressed Grievances they should be after rip'd up to reproach him The first Effects of this Remonstrance Mr. Whitlock mentions is That during this time and taking the opportunity from these Differences between the King and Parliament divers of the City of the meaner sort came in great Numbers and Tumults to Whitehall where with many unseemly and insolent Words and Actions they incensed the King and went from thence in like Posture to Westminster behaving themselves with extream Rudeness towards some of the Members of both Houses and tho the King sent to the Lord Mayor to call a Common Council to prevent these riotous Assemblies yet I do not find the Commons took any Care herein and how these Actions of the Commons tended to settle the Distractions of the Nation or the Relief of Ireland let any impartial Man judg But of all this Mr. May takes no notice yet does of the Parliament's petitioning the King for a Guard for the Security of their Persons being informed of a Plot contrived against them such another as that of Scotland and the Earl of Essex to command it which tho the King denied he promised to take care for their Safety Since Mr. May had no better luck with his Scotish Plot he 'll be sure of one now by the King 's entring into the House of Commons attended by 300 Gentlemen and seated in the Speaker's Chair and demanded five Members viz. Mr. Hollis Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Pym Mr. Hambden and Mr. Stroud to a fair Trial and would be as careful of their Privileges as ever any King of England was But in regard Mr. May is so short and partial in this we 'll state the Case as reported by Mr. Whitlock f. 50. a. The King being informed that some Members of Parliament had private Meeting and Correspondence with the Scots and countenanced the late Tumults from the City he gave a Warrant to repair to their Lodgings and to seal up the Trunks Studies and Chambers of the Lord Kimbolton Mr. Pym Mr. Hambden Mr. Hollis Sir Arthur Haslerig and Mr. Stroud which was done but their Persons were not met with The King caused then Articles of High Treason and other Misdemeanours against those five Members to be exhibited 1. For endeavouring to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Government and deprive the King of his Legal Power and to place on Subjects an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Power by foul Aspersions on his Majesty and Government to alienate the Affections of his People and 〈◊〉 make him odious 2. To draw his Army to Disobedience and to side with them i◠their Traiterous Designs 3. That they traiterously invited and encouraged a Foreign Power t◠invade England 4. That they traiterously endeavoured to subvert the very Right and Being of Parliament 5. For endeavouring to compel the Parliament to join with them 〈◊〉 their Traiterous Designs and to that end have actually raised and countenanced Tumults against the King and Parliament This great Breach of Parliament-Privilege Mr. May says happened in a strange time to divert the Kingdom from relieving Ireland And did not the Commons Remonstrance against the King and House of Lords do so too And when Men especially Princes are reproached and defamed regular Actions are not always consequent The Censures of the King's Act was variously scanned by Men of different Affections The Royalists said Privilege of Parliament extends not to Treason Felony or so much as Breach of the Peace And the Commons frame and publish a Declaration That there was never such an unparallell'd Action of any King to the Breach of all Freedom not only in the Accusation of their Members ransacking and searching their Studies and Papers and seeking to apprehend their Persons but now in a Hostile Way He the King threatned the whole Body of the House This was Jan. 5. 1641. And after the Commons published another Vote That if any arrest a Member of Parliament by Warrant from the King only it is a Breach of Privilege and that the coming of Papists and Souldiers to the number of 500 armed Men Mr. May says but 300 and Mr. Whitlock says with his Guard of Pensioners and follow'd by about 200 of his Courtiers with the King to the House was a traiterous Design against the King and Parliament They vindicate the five Members and declare That a Paper issued out for apprehending them was false scandalous and illegal How could they tell before they heard both Parties and they ought to attend the Service of the House and require the Names of those who advised the King to issue out that Paper and the Articles against the five Members Which if the King had done they would have been exposed to more Violences of the Rabble than those which befel the Bishops and other Members of Parliament by a great Number of Persons which came from the City to Westminster where they offered many Affronts to the Bishops and others in a tumultuous manner See Whit. Mem. f. 51. a. But of this no notice was taken by the Commons or Lords that I can find so that as the Temper of the Times then went it was a notorious Breach of Privilege in the King to demand five Members to answer Articles of High-Treason but none in the Rabble in a tumultuous manner to affront and use Violence to the Bishops and others who were coming to do their Duties and Service in Parliament These Actions Mr. May p. 41. calls petitioning by the Rabble and many times to utter rude Speeches against some Lords whom they conceived to be evil Advisers of the King which however it was meant produced ill Consequences to the Commonwealth and did not so much move the King to be sensible of his grieving the People as arm him with an Excuse of leaving the Parliament and City for fear of what might
Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and Destruction upon the King when is was not in the Power of those which first raised the War against him to save his Life which they would have done I am told that the last Part of this Paragraph is an unjust Charge upon the Parliament in that they acted defensively in this War and that the King first raised Arms and this by the Authority of Mr. May. If I be mistaken I have the Authority of him who could best know I mean the King at his Death who declared That he never did begin the War with the two Houses of Parliament as all the World knows that they began with him it was the Militia they began upon they confest that to be his but they thought fit to have it from him and to be short if any body will look into the Dates of those Commissions theirs and his and likewise to the Declarations they will see clearly that they began these unhappy Troubles not he See Whit. Mem. f. 369. a. and all the Writers of those times If this be not Authority sufficient to shew the Parliament began the War the first Scuffle between the King and Parliament was about the Business of Hull where the Parliament had committed the Charge of the Town and Magazine to Sir John Hotham one of the Members of the Commons who was sent down thither to remove the Magazine to London but the Country of York petitioned it might still remain at Hull for securing the Northern Parts especially the King residing there Hereupon the King taking a Guard of his Servants and some Neighbouring Gentry upon the 23d of April went to Hull but contrary to Expectation found the Gates shut and the Bridges drawn up by Sir John and his Entrance denied though but with 20 Horse which so moved the King that he proclaimed Hotham a Traitor and sends to the Parliament for Justice against him To this the Parliament return no Answer but justify Sir John Hotham and order that the Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace do suppress all Forces which shall be raised or gathered together against Hull or to disturb the Peace nor did they stay here but put the Power of the Militia in Persons nominated by them excluding the King in ordering any thing together with them and authorized Hotham by his Warrants to raise the trained Bands in Yorkshire to march with their Arms into Hull where he disarmed them and turned them home again See Whit. Mem. f. 55 56. So I submit this to Judgment whether this was not raising Arms against the King being done by Subjects and contrary to the King's Command and if the King did encrease his Guards yet this was subsequent to the excluding the King from having Power in the Militia and Hotham's Raising Arms and Disarming the Trained Bands of Yorkshire Mr. May says p. 55. the Parliament being then intent upon settling the Militia by Land took care also to seize the Navy into their Hands and ordered the Earl of Warwick to be Admiral to put this in Execution but the King had chosen Sir John Pennington to that place instead of the Earl of Northumberland and sent a Command to the Earl of Warwick to resign the Place to him Pennington But the Earl chose rather to obey the Ordinance of Parliament and with great Courage and Policy got the Fleet into his Hands tho many of the Captains stood out against him but the Earl deprived them of their Commands and possest himself of the Ships taking shortly after another Ship called the Lyon of great Import coming out of Holland and laden with Gun-power which proved a great Addition to his Strength So here was a double Beginning of the War by the Parliament both in seizing the Fleet and taking the Lyon and this before the King committed any Act of Hostility And for the carrying on this War which Mr. May calls the Cause the Parliament upon the 10th of June made an Order for bringing in Money and Plate to raise Arms for the Cause and the Publick Faith for Repayment to them which brought it in So here the Parliament raised Money as well as Forces for carrying on the War before the King levied any And so I leave it to Judgment who first began the War Objection The Parliament raised Arms for their own Defence and Security of the Nation Answer This is said but of no kin to Truth or Reason for Men defend what they are possest of and the King was possest of the Militia and Fleet when the Parliament ravish'd both from him nor did the King use either against the Parliament when they invaded them Besides the King at least as he declared endeavoured to defend the established Religion and Laws of the Land whereas the Parliament contended to abolish the Established Religion and to exalt themselves above the Laws of the Land Objection 2. That the King had so often violated the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation and governed so Arbitrarily that the Parliament could have no Security for the future to prevent his so doing again so long as the King was possest of the Militia Answer The Case was not the same then when the King resolved to have no more Parliaments as now when the King had made this Parliament perpetual and had passed the Triennial Bill for Parliaments to meet whether he would or no And tho Favourites and Flatterers instill'd those things into the King when they were without any Fear or Apprehension of being questioned by a Parliament yet now the Parliament had so severely prosecuted and punished such Men and being perpetual or at least to meet Three Years after every Dissolution none would presume to advise the King in things derogatory to his Honour and the Interest of the Nation And now we proceed to the ensuing War The Parliament before the King set up his Standard at Nottingham Aug. 22 Voted That an Army should be raised for the Defence of the King and Parliament that the Earl of Essex should be Captain General of the Army and the Earl of Bedford General of the Horse The War began first between the Marquess of Hartford for the King in the West and the Earl of Bedford for the Parliament the Earl being worsted by the Marquess at Sherborn-Castle Goring got into Portsmouth and held it for the King but could not hold it long for the Country joining with Sir John Meyrick forced him to surrender who thereupon went into Holland and my Lord Say St. Johns and Weemen with Colonel Whitlock enter Oxford and keep it for the Parliament But the Face of Affairs soon changed for the King having made the Earl of Lindsey his General and the Parliament the Earl of Essex upon the 23d of October the Armies met and fought at Edghil with uncertain Victory which both sides claimed the Earl of Lindsey was mortally wounded and taken Prisoner the Right Wing of the King's Horse commanded by Prince Rupert brake the Left
7. would have justified all his Subjects who fought for him But the Members would not submit to this being to divest themselves of the Power they thought they had in their hands nor the Scots because their Solemn League and Covenant was enacted by no Law in England nor least of all would it please the Army who nourished Designs against the King Members and Scots To such a deplorable state is this poor King and Kingdom fall'n past all humane Relief yet it 's admirable to consider how Divine Justice pursued the Causers of it even in the Series by which they were promoted The King who would not have the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation to be the Rules of his Subjects Obedience but his Prerogative and Absolute Will and Pleasure cannot now by it command one Servant He who before against Law committed so many of his best Subjects close Prisoners whereof several died in Prison for asserting his Subjects Rights without any Benefit of Law is now by his Subjects made close Prisoner against Law and without any Benefit of it He who before dissolved four Parliaments because they in all dutiful Ways would have addressed unto him to be reconciled to his Subjects is now denied under Penalty of High Treason to have any Address made to him by any of his Subjects He who before had so many Forests for his Pleasure yet not contented with what the Law and his Ancestors had left but would break the Bounds of them that his Subjects Inheritance might become a Prey to wild Beasts has not now a Horse Hound or Beast to take Pleasure in But these things will not stay here for it is the unhappy Fate of Princes rarely in their declining state to stay till they fall to the bottom And here we end the Year 1647 and hereafter shall observe the Divine Justice overtaking the other Promoters of the Miseries both in England Scotland and Ireland And if I shall ill perform it yet it may be a Ground-work for another to do it better In this Confusion the Nation began to forget the times under the King's Government now they saw no end of these And tho the Essex-Men who had the Bounds of their Forests broke down and were the first who petition'd the Parliament to redress Grievances and bring Delinquents to condign Punishment yet they are now the first who petition the Commons for a Personal Treaty with the King and then the Surrey-Men but were differently received and some of the Surrey-Men kill'd This was in May 1648. The Scots too offended that they and their Solemn League and Covenant were not taken notice of in the Preliminary Treaty with the King call a Parliament and order the Raising an Army to deliver the King out of Prison The rude Entertainment of the Essex and Surrey-Men was so far from quelling them that they rise in Arms in Essex Kent Suffolk Norfolk Wales and the North and declare for the King and People Sir William Batton too who was Vice-Admiral of the English Fleet goes over to Prince Charles with 17 Men of War and declare for the King having set Rainsborough made Admiral by the Army on Shore This was in May and June and soon after viz. in June the Surrey-Men rise being headed by the Duke of Buckingham and his Brother the Lord Francis with the Earl of Holland But it was decreed that this Prince who for 15 Years had violated the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation and without any Law or just Reason had so often imprisoned his best Subjects for endeavouring to reconcile him to his Subjects should now himself being made a Prisoner against Law find no Relief by Law or Endeavours of his Loyal Subjects For Cromwel sends Horton into Wales against Major-General Laughorn and Colonel Poyer who headed the Welch and had seized Pembrook and Tenby-Castles Fairfax marches into Kent and Rainsborough into the North where the Northern-Men had seized Pontfract-Castle and the Members restore the Earl of Warwick to be Admiral and fit out a Fleet under him to suppress that which joined the Prince of Wales Horton beats the Welch and took Laughorn and Poyer Prisoners and besieges and takes Pembrook and Tenby but whilst he besieged these Hamilton who the Year before was released from being a Prisoner in Pendennis-Castle by the King for holding Correspondence with the Covenanters while he was Commissioner now comes into England to discharge the King from his Imprisonment with a numerous Army of Scots which Sir Marmaduke Langdale Major-General Massey and many English join against these Cromwel after the Surrender of Pembrook and Tenby marches and utterly routs them and takes Hamilton Prisoner Nor were the Fate of the Kentish Essex and Suffolk Men better for Fairfax fights and beats the Kentish Men at Maidstone the Remainder under my Lord Goring whom the King had made Earl of Norwich cross the Thames at Greenwich and join the Essex Men headed by Sir Charles Lucas and march to Colchester where my Lord Capel and many Suffolk Men joined them Fairfax pursues them and after a stubborn Siege of 11 Weeks forces it to surrender being reduced to extream Famine and after caused Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle to be shot to Death Equal to this was the Success of the Surrey-Men for they were routed by Sir Michael Lewesly and my Lord Francis killed near Kingston But the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Holland with those which were escaped fled over Kingston-bridg and were pursued by Colonel Scroop and overtaken at St. Neots where Major-General Dolbier is killed the Earl of Holland taken Prisoner but the Duke of Buckingham escaped But the Northern-Men besieged in Pontfract Castle are not so easily subdued on the contrary a Party of about 30 Horse break through the Besiegers and surprize Rainsborough in his Bed at Doncaster about 12 Miles from Pontfract and kill him because he refused to be carried off a Prisoner but Pure Famine at last forced the Besieged to surrender The revolted Fleet now commanded by the Princes Rupert and Maurice partly cajol'd by the Earl of Warwick their former Admiral and unwilling to forsake their Country Wives and Children in great part return to the Parliament the rest were after pursued by Blake and Popham to Ireland from thence to Portugal from whence they were forced by Blake to Carthagena where Blake run the Princes Ships on shore yet the Princes having then but three Ships left and having no Port in Europe to protect them seek for one in the West-Indies where Prince Maurice is lost in a Hurricane and Prince Rupert after got into France and sold the Remainder of this miserable Fleet being two tatter'd Ships to Mazarine to fit out himself for other Adventures Whilst the Army was thus busied abroad the Members having got possession of the Fleet and the City of London being well affected to them they join with the Scotish Commissioners and rescind the Votes of Non-Addresses to the King
and in September appoint a Conference with the King at Newport in the Isle of Wight to continue for 40 Days and to that purpose take the King out of Prison and allow him the Liberty of the Island and the King upon the Matter with Reluctancy enough grants the Scots and Members their own Demands But neither the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation nor the Endeavours of his Loyal Subjects nor the joint Desires of the Scots and Members who had brought the King to this Condition could protect this unhappy Prince from his approaching Ruin for the Army every where victorious over the Scots and Royalists draw together and make a Remonstrance against all Peace with the King that Justice may be done upon him that the Crown and Church-Lands be sold to pay their Army and that the present Parliament be dissolved and another called which they present to the Members the Twentieth of November And herein Cromwel and his Son-in-law Ireton were the principal Promoters But the Members were intent upon the King's Answer to their Propositions and laid aside the Army's Remostrance which they take as a slighting of them and then seized the King in the Isle of Wight and make him Prisoner in Hurst-Castle an unhealthy Place and march to London puâ—â—â—â— Garisons into Whitehall Noble-Mens Houses and posted themselves about the Palace Yard Notwithstanding the Memberâ—nâ—â— upon the first of December and vote the King's Concessions to be a sufficient Ground for a Peace and then adjourn for a Week But when the Members were to meet again they found all the Avenues to the House beset with Soldiers who exclude all which were not of their Faction from entring the House which were not one fourth part and make the Residue Prisoners So that if the Mayor Sir John Gage and the Aldermen his Brethren were guilty of High Treason for committing a Force upon the Parliament viz. for continuing the Militia of London in the City the Year before how much more was it High-Treason in Cromwel and his Agents to keep back by Force three Fourths of the Members from entring the House and making them Prisoners that the Rumps of the rest might do his Journey-work So farewel Presbytery and all the Scotish Trumpery in England nor shall these secluded Members ever meet more but to dissolve themselves and make room for another Parliament which shall legally persecute them and their Solemn League and Covenant as much as they by it persecuted the King and their fellow Subjects against Law Nor was Presbytery much longer liv'd in Scotland where they shall never see it restored by this now Race of Kings which shall plague them with the Exercise of Archbishops and Bishops which by their Covenant they are sworn to abolish and cut off the Head of the principal of their Faction allowing them as little place for the Exercise of Presbytery as they now do the Episcopal Party Having tho but in Epitome seen the various Accidents in War whereby the King came to be in this Distress before we declare his End and the manner of it it 's fit in short to take notice of the several Treaties of Peace between the King and Parliament and the Improbability of the good Success in any of them The first Propositions for Peace which the Parliament sent to the King was June the 2d when the King was at York before the War broke out which were Nineteen which you may read at larger in Sir Richard Baker f. 518. a. b. In these Propositions no mention is made either of the Scots Covenant or abolishing Episcopacy yet some of them were so inconsistent with Monarchy and Arbitrary in the Parliament as the King in Honour and Conscience could not condescend to them I say the King could not in Honour or Conscience condescend to the 9th Proposition 15 and 16 Propositions to settle the Militia as the Parliament have ordered without the King That all Forts and Castles of the Kingdom be disposed of by the Parliament viz. The Houses and that the King discharge all his Guards and Forces and not to raise any but in case of actual Rebellion But how could this be done by the King when the Militia and Forts of the Kingdom were in the Power of the Houses So here the King who by Virtue of his Office is obliged to preserve the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation and to suppress all Disturbers of them at home and to defend the Nation from all Foreign Invasion has no means to do any of them Objection But the King had so often violated the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation by being armed with these Powers that the Nation could be in no Safety if they were continued in him Answer It 's true the Nation was in a very calamitous Estate herein But if the Members had only made it their Business how to have restrained the King herein and to have preserved the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation it would have had another Face than now when the Members are setting up themselves to do the same thing which they feared the King should act I say the King could not in Honour or Conscience agree to the 13th Proposition That the Justice of Parliament viz. the Members should pass upon all Delinquents and they to appear and abide by their Censure For Delinquent is a Word unknown to our Laws and so equivocal that it may signify whatever the Members pleased So that if the King had agreed to these Propositions he would have been a King that could neither have executed Justice nor shewed Mercy and the Houses have an unlimited Arbitrary Power to do whatever they pleased To the Propositions the King returns a sharp Answer That the Houses contrary to Law had pressed their Ordinances upon the People wrested from him the Command of the Militia countenanced the Treason of Hotham and had directed to the People Invectives against his Government and asperst him with favouring Papists and therefore protested that if he were utterly vanquished and a Prisoner in a worse Condition than any of his most unfortunate Predecessors had ever been reduced to he would never stoop so low as to grant these Demands and to make himself of a King of England a Duke of Venice But when the Covenanters in Scotland sent their Proposition to his Majesty he returned Answer he would rather die than submit to them and from a King of England make himself a Duke of Venice Yet the next Year of his own Accord went into Scotland and by Act of Parliament granted the Covenanters all they desired which yet perplext all the subsequent Treaties of Peace in England and more as the Case now stood The next Treaty was at Oxford in the beginning of 1643 which broke off the 15th of April and nothing agreed to upon this Score The Parliament Commissioners gave such Reasons for the King to assent to one of the most material Points of the Treaty that the King assented to it but
assume to themselves the Supream Power of Ordering the English Affairs confirm the Vote of Non-Addresses to the King and raze the Votes of having a Conference with the King and the Declaration that the King's Concessions were a sufficient Ground for a Peace out of the Journals of the House And vote first that all Power resides in the People Secondly That the Power belongs to the Peoples Representatives in the House of Commons Thirdly That the Votes of the Commons have the Force of a Law without the King Fourthly That to take Arms against the Representatives of the People or the Parliament is High-Treason Fifthly That the King himself took up Arms against the Parliament and therefore is guilty of all the Blood shed in this Civil War and ought by his own Blood to expiate it The Nation was astonished at these Votes for the Person of the King of England was ever esteemed Sacred and therefore tho his Ministers were always accountable in Parliament for using or abusing the Name of the King to gratify their Ambition and wicked Designs against the King or Kingdom yet in no time was any King of England arraigned and judged to die by his own Subjects and tho Edward the Second Richard the Second Henry the Sixth and Edward the Fifth were murdered by wicked Men yet none of these suffered upon pretence of Justice But lame-footed Vengeance shall overtake both Rump and Army and as they both joined by Force to impose these upon the King and Nation so both without Force or any Man kill'd in their Defence shall be cashier'd with all imaginable Ignominy and Reproach These Men whom nothing but the King 's and his Loyal Subjects Blood could satiate against Law shall by Law have their own Blood shed in the most terrible manner the Law can inflict these Men who would have the Crown and Church-Lands for their Avarice shall either die or be hang'd as a Company of Beggars Oliver's Heir being undone to pay the Charge of his Father's Funeral or those who had Estates shall forfeit them to encrease the Revenues of the Crown The Regicides to put the best Face they could upon this audacious Act send the Bill for Trial of the King up to the Lords for their Concurrence but so far were the Lords from concurring that they threw the Bill over the Bar Hereupon the Rump vote the Lords dangerous and useless yet Henry Martin said they were useless but not dangerous Then the Rumpers advise with the Judges about the Trial of the King who unanimously declare it against Law and the Scots Commissioners protest against it But neither Authority Law nor Reason would take place with those Men so they erect a new Court never heard of before called a High Court of Justice for the Trial of the King to consist of I think Seventy two thirds of which were Souldiers who by putting the King to Death expected the Reward of the Inheritance both of the Crown and Church If it be Misery to have been happy to what a miserable State have these cursed Minions Flatterers and Sycophants brought one of the greatest and most high-born Princes in the Western World to gratify their Ambition Lust and Avarice for this Prince whom they would have to rend his Subjects from their Laws has now no Subjects who dare protect him by the Laws He who before so often gloried that to him alone belonged the Power of Proroguing Adjourning and Dissolving Parliaments who never did him Wrong but met to assist him against those who wronged him and to have reconciled him to his Subjects has now no Power to dissolve this Rump of a Parliament which will not be reconciled to him He who before so often called his truly Loyal Subjects Undutiful Seditious and Vipers Terms unusual in Princes shall hear himself call'd Tyrant Murderer and Traitor by his implacable Subjects He who before so often gloried he was only accountable to God for all his Actions shall be now called to an Account by a company of Men for Actions whereof they themselves were much more guilty and be sent to God to pass his Accounts there also For upon the 20th of January the King was haled before this Assembly where he was charged of Treason Tyranny and Murder for raising War against the Parliament and People of England Tho it 's evident the Members seiz'd the Militia the Tower of London and Fleet which Powers were inherent in the King and shut him out of Hull and granted Commissions for levying Souldiers before the King set up his Standard at Nottingham But admit the King did first raise Arms to have forced the Parliament and first actually set up his Standard against them and that was a Crime yet was the Regicides Crime greater who had forced the Parliament and set up themselves instead of it The King now too late flies to the Laws of the Land for his Protection protests against the Jurisdiction of the Court as established by no Legal Authority and declares his Life was not so dear to him as his Honour and Conscience and the Laws and Liberties of his People and that he will lose his Life rather than submit to such a Tyrannical Court And at last the King desired to be heard before the Lords and Commons in some things which concerned the Peace of the Kingdom and Liberty of the Subjects but this too was denied And so the 4th day after this Appearance Bradshaw the President gave Sentence upon him to lose his Head all the Court to the number of 67 owning it by standing up Which Sentence was executed the 30th of January The Character of King Charles the First THus fell one of the greatest and most high-born Princes of the Western World In his Person he was somewhat more than ordinarily tall and the Composition of it was framed in most exact natural Proportion of Parts so that he was very active and of a fine Mein in his Motion which was commonly more than ordinarily fast yet he appeared best on Horse-back and excelled in managing his Horse so that when he was in Spain in sight of the King Queen the Infanta's and the Infanta Maria whom he courted or at least seemed to do so and innumerable other Spectators he took the Ring in his first Course His Visage was long and appeared best when he did not speak for he had a natural Impediment in his Speech and would often stutter in it especially when he was in Passion To these Natural Endowments may be added a Temperance in Eating and Drinking and Chastity tho his Enemies unjustly traduced him otherways rarely to be found in Princes He was born in Scotland about two Years before his Father became King of England and being bred from his Infancy in a most luxurious and flattering Court tho he avoided the Luxury of it yet the Flattery of it took such deep Root in him that he would never permit free Counsel to take any Impression in him In his Nature
Men might see him the Hangman with his Hat on riding before and upon the 28th of May 1650 by a Sentence pronounced the Day before by the Lord Lowden was hanged upon a Gibbet 30 Foot high at the Cross of Edinburg for three Hours after which he was quarter'd and his Head set upon the Talbooth and his Legs and Arms over the Gates of Sterlin Glasgow Dundee and Aberdeen But see the Piety and Commiseration of these humble People They order in the Sentence that if he repented so that his Excommunication should be taken off the Trunk of his Body should be buried in the Grey-Friars otherwise in the Burrough-Moor the Common Burial of Malefactors But Vengeance shall soon overtake these cruel Proceedings For the Kirk sore afflicted for their deposed Brethren in England now in nasty Prisons whereby Heresy Schism and Profaneness raged and the Throne of Presbytery was defaced but being unable of themselves to restore their Brethren before Montross's Death had agreed to have the King proclaimed King of Scotland England France and Ireland yet so as to take the Solemn League and Covenant to give Signs of Sorrow and Repentance for his Father and Mother's Sins and banish and turn out of his Court all who had not taken the Covenant or taken up Arms for his Father But the Kirk could not have found a Plant so unlikely to produce the Fruit of Repentance or to establish the Throne of Presbytery as this King However they 'll try what 's to be done and to this end send Commissioners to treat with the King at Jersey not yet reduced by the Rump and a Treaty is agreed to to be at Breda in Holland The King was perplex'd what to do for to be a King in Fact he desired above all things but to forsake his Mother and Father's Friends was grievous to him and to come to the Stool of Repentance was full sore against his Will Yet to be a King as a Man does for a Wife he forsakes Father Mother and his dearly beloved Friends and comes to Breda There the News comes of Montross's tragical Defeat and Execution which had like to have spoil'd all but over Shooes over Boots on he goes having submitted to all the rigid Terms the Kirk-men imposed upon him And in June 1650 arrives in Scotland to be anew instructed in the Discipline of the Kirk The Rump in the mean while were not idle you must think for having spued up Presbytery in England they scorn'd to chew the Cud of it from Scotland and therefore Fairfax having refused to command an Army against the Scots they send for Cromwel out of Ireland by this time is good as reduced by him and declared him General of all the Forces of England Scotland and Ireland who about the latter end of June 1650 enters Scotland with a well-disciplin'd rather than a numerous Army and having taken many Places of small moment and often beat the Scots in Skirmishes upon the 3d of September utterly overthrows the much more numerous Kirk-Army at Dumbar commanded by their old General Lesley 3000 Scots killed 9000 taken Prisoners all their Baggage and Ammunition and above 200 Colours which as Trophies were hung up in Westminster-Hall where the English and Scots had before taken such Pains and Care to unite both Nations in their Solemn League and Covenant Whilst these things were doing the Kirk at Edinburg were close at their Devotion hourly expecting the Feet of those which should bring the glad Tidings which were at hand when Lesley the same Day brings Tidings of their utter Overthrow Now was all their Joy turned to Lamentation and Wo and the Songs of Sion are like to be sung in a strange Land To augment these Miseries the King who could not submit to the rigid Discipline of the Kirk runs from Schole to the House of the Lord Dippon intending for the Highlands where he might go to School with more Liberty Now all is in a Hurlyburley After the King runs Montgomery from the Kirk promising the King if he would return the Kirk would remit part of their Discipline upon which the King returned to St. Johnstons The King thus returned did not please the Kirk-men for being beaten by the English they rail against those that called the King in too hastily before he had given Marks of his Repentance and Conversion to God and that it was not lawful for any who were truly Godly to take up Arms for him and for the Advancement of the Kirk made Kerr and Straughan Generals of the Kirk-Forces But Straughan runs to Cromwel and Kerr is utterly defeated wounded and taken by Lambert Whilst these things were thus doing in Scotland let 's see what was doing in England In January this Year the Rump erected a High Court of Justice whereof one Keeble an ignorant Petty-fogging Lawyer was President in Norfolk upon pretence of an intended Insurrection for bringing in of the King where 24 were condemned and 20 executed whereof one Mr. Hobbard Brother or near Kinsman to Sir John Hobbard who after married Cromwel's Niece and Widow of Col. Hammond was one And in March following the Rump erected another High Court of Justice which condemned Sir Henry Hide for taking the King's Commission to be his Ambassador at Constantinople The Kirk-Party now lose their Reputation they had nothing left but to preach and pray and rail and now the Parliament and General Assembly take in all who will take the Covenant but all to no purpose For Cromwel having taken Edinburgh Town and Castle Jedworth Reslan and Tantallon Castle sends Overton and Lambert in Boats over the Frith who rout Sir John Brown and Major General Holborn kill 2000 of their Men and take 1200 Prisoners and Brown himself with 42 Colours Now though Scotland were a cold Climate 't was too hot to hold the King and his Army and therefore with them he slips into England by the Way of Carlisle leaving the Kirk in Lamentations and Woes that Heresy and Schism had overspread the Beauty of Holiness now Profaneness and Superstition had left it Harrison and Lambert followed the King and Cromwel soon after who at Worcester that Day Twelve Month after he had routed the Scots at Dunbar utterly again routs the Scots and English kills 3550 with Duke Hamilton and General Forbes and takes 5000 Prisoners with the Earls of Rothes Kanwarth Kelly the Lord Sinclare and Montgomery General of the Ordnance and soon after David Lesley who fought not or but little in the Battel is routed by Lilburn and taken Prisoner with Lauderdale who held Correspondence in England with the Covenanting Scots and the Lords Kenmore and Middleton Yet the King by a Miracle escaped to be restored King Charles II. But the same Fate did not attend the Noble Earl of Derby who coming out of the Isle of Man with about 250 Foot and 60 Horse to have assisted the King which he joined with about 1200 raised Men in Lancashire where he was highly
Son is our Enemy Widdrington But the late King's third Son the Duke of Glocester is still among us and too young to have been in Arms against us or infected with the Principles of our Enemies Whitlock There may be a day given for the King 's eldest Son or for the Duke of York his Brother to come in to the Parliament and upon such Terms as shall be thought fit and agreeable both to our Civil and Spiritual Liberties and a Settlement may be made upon them Cromwel This will be a Business of more than ordinary Difficulty but really a Word much used by him I think if it may be done with Safety and Preservation of our Rights both as Englishmen and as Christians that a Settlement of somewhat of Monarchical Power would be very effectual So that the Soldiers were for a Republick except Fleetwood who knew not what to say the Lawyers for a mix'd Monarchy and many for the Duke of Glocester to be King but then Cromwel designing for himself still put off the Debate to some other Point so the Company part without any Result at all yet Cromwel discovered by this Meeting the Inclinations of the Persons which spake for which he fished and made use of what he thus discerned But this Point was too tender to be further pressed at this time and so we leave it till Cromwel shall give a further Occasion In October this Year Haines reduced Jersey to the Rump and in January the Isle of Barbadoes was surrender'd to Askew sent thither by the Rump and in this Month an English Man of War meeting with some Dutch Fishermen demanded the tenth Herring as a Duty for their Fishing in these Seas which the Dutch denying the English sunk one of their Ships and all the Men were lost see Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 487. b. and here began the first Quarrel between the Rump and Dutch The Rump thus every where Victorious at home yet it may be fearing they had disgusted all Christian Princes by the Death of the King and already the Czar of Muscovy had revoked all the Privileges of Trade which had been granted to the English in the Reigns of Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth and continued in the Reigns of King James and King Charles and banished the English out of his Dominions for putting the King to Death upon the 11th of March sent the Chief Justice St. John and Mr. Strickland to treat of a Coalition with the Dutch whose Title and Government were the same or not unlike to the Rump's and if this could be obtained both Republicks being incomparably superiour to all the Kings in the World by Sea they need not fear any Enemies abroad But the Dutch fearing this Coalition with England where the Harbours for Shipping are more and much better than those in Holland would rob them of the Trades they were possessed of and that their rich Merchants in case of a Coalition would be tempted to lay out their Monies upon real Securities in England rather than to venture them in the contingent Accidents of Trade not only refused to enter into a Coalition but rudely treated St. John whose haughty Spirit ill brooking such Affronts made a Report of his Embassy little to the Dutch Advantage Hereupon the Rump made the Act of Navigation designing thereby to have in a great measure lessened the Dutch Trade and encreased the English tho both succeeded quite contrary as hereafter we shall make it appear Yet the English by virtue of this Law took Occasion to search the Dutch Vessels and often to make Prize of them whereupon the Dutch sent over four Ambassadors Catz Van de Peere Sharp and Newport to pacify the Rump which they were so far from effecting that the Rump upon their first Audience upon the 15th of April demand the Arrears for the Dutch Fishing upon the Coasts of England and Scotland that the Survivors of the Dutch assisting in the Massacre of the English at Amboyna should be given up to Justice and a free Trade up the Scheld The Dutch Ambassadors were surprized at these Demands having no Instructions thereupon or if they had could not have given any reasonable Answer against them Yet still they continued to make great Protestations of their Love and Affection to the Commonwealth of England and their most ardent Desire of propagating and encreasing the true Reformed Religion yet privately gave the State an Account how little was to be expected from the Rump by a Treaty Hereupon the Dutch prepare for a War nor was the Rump herein behind hand with them The Dutch in May set out a Fleet of Men of War commanded by Van Trump pretending for the Security of Trade but with Instructions not to strike Sail to the English Flag and upon the 17th of May came into Dover Road with 45 Sail of Men of War where Trump rode at Anchor as if he defied what the English could do to him Blake the English Admiral had but 15 Men of War yet resolved to have an Account of Trump what he had to do in Dover Road and sailed directly to him hereupon Trump stood to the East-ward and by that means being become Head-most of the English Fleet bore directly upon them and being come within Musquet-shot of the English Blake gave Order to fire at Trump's Flag which was done thrice but instead of striking it Trump poured in a Broad-side upon Blake and Major Bourn at this time coming to Blake's Assistance with 8 Men of War both Fleets engaged from four in the Afternoon till Night wherein there were not less than 2000 Shot exchanged upon one and the other side and the Dutch had one Man of War taken and another sunk and 150 Men slain but the English had not one Ship lost or disabled and very few Men killed This Fight was the 19th of May. Van Trump in the Night drew his Ships on the Back of the Goodwin Sands and next Morning sailed back to Zealand instead of securing the Dutch Trade Hereupon the Rump set a Guard upon the Dutch Ambassadors at Chelsey but tho the English Fleet in this Fight received little Damage yet that of the Dutch was so batter'd as made it unfit to fight About this time Virginia submitted to the Rump but not New-England nor ever after did that I can find The Dutch thus balk'd in their Expectation of great things to be done by Van Trump and finding the contrary Success sent a Paper to their Ambassadors in England which was presented to the Council of State the 20th of June therein taking God the Searcher of all Hearts to witness that the most unhappy Fight of the Ships of both Commonwealths did happen against the Knowledg and Will of the Lords States-General of the Vnited Netherlands and that with Grief and Astonishment they received the fatal News of that unhappy rash Action A likely matter as if Van Trump should dare to do such an Action without their Order and they not punish him for
the Lords during their Absence and soon after the King passed a Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament so little Success had the Clergy in their Convocation-Oath As the Clergy without Consent in Parliament imposed the Convocation-Oath upon the rest of the Clergy So the Parliament I mean the Lords and Commons without the Consent of the King imposed upon the Subjects a Vow and Protestation to maintain and defend so far as lawfully may be the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England and according to the Duty of the Allegiance to his Majesty's Royal Person Honour and Estate to defend the Privileges of Parliament and Liberties of the Subject and by all just and honourable Ways endeavour to preserve the Union and Peace of the Three Kingdoms and neither for fear nor other respect relinquish the Promise Vow and Protestation See Baker's History fol. 508. b. But the Lords and Commons were not constant to their Vow for within less than two Years after they impose their Solemn League and Covenant being basely imposed upon them by the Scots upon the rest of their Fellow-Subjects with all the Scotish Cant and c. too and this is observable that the Presbyterians who so bitterly inveighed against the c. in the Convocation-Oath without any scruple swallowed the c. in their Solemn League and Covenant It 's scarce credible by what Severity this Covenant was after the Scots Temper imposed upon all other sorts of Men as well Dissenters from the Church of England as those of the Church This Temper was too hot to last long for about three Years after the Independents outed the Presbyterians and set up the Engagement to be true to the Rump without King or House of Lords nor did this Engagement last five Years but was outed when Cromwel set up himself and imposed the Recognition for establishing himself Now let any shew how in any Nation since the Creation in less than 13 Years time Men so often swear and forswear Governments which were so often changed and he shall be my great Apoâ—â—â— The Secluded Members and the Rump if you 'll take their Words were the Representatives of the People but without a Head and could not be dissolved by the King without their Consent yet O. Cromwel and his Myrmidons without their Consent dissolved them both And as these were Bodies without a Head so Cromwel and his Army like that of the Egyptian Mamalukes were a Monstrous Head without any Body of the Nation yet with this Difference the Mamalukes chose their Sultan but Cromwel exalted himself without the Army's Choice The first Manifesto that Cromwel made known to the Nation was this I Oliver Cromwel Captain General and Commander in Chief of all the Armies and Forces raised and to be raised within this Commonwealth c. So here Cromwel by his own Authority makes the Army perpetual having deposed the Parliament which were made perpetual by Act of Parliament I have often admired upon what Bottom Cromwel stood when he presumed to do these things for the Sectaries and Monarchy-Men who were the Creatures whom he at first most relied upon when they perceived his Ambition then became his utter Enemies the Presbyterians and Independents hated him for the Violences he put upon them and the Royalists both dreaded and hated him All Kings of England in their Coronation-Oath before sware to govern by the received Laws and Constitutions of the Nation but Cromwel having subverted these neither says nor swears by what Laws or Rules he 'll govern and tho both in the Saxon and Nâ—rman Dynasties the Hereditary Succession of the Kings was often changed yet none succeeded which was not of the Royal Blood which cannot be said of the Caroline and Capusian Lines of France nor in the Succession of the Race of the Kings of Spain yet Cromwel without Law or being of the Royal Blood made himself more absolute than any of our Kings before him Now Terras I am sure Britannias Astraea reliquit Justice Truth and Plain-dealing is fled the Land and Dissimulation Hypocrisy Intriguing and Designs rove all England over and Cromwel to support his ill-establish'd Greatness sets all his Agents and Sycophants on work to congratulate and approve his Actions and to stand by and assist him One of the first of these was from the Officers of the English Army in Scotland no doubt but excited by Monk in the State he stood then with Cromwel So that as from Scotland our Civil Wars first began and from thence their solemn League and Covenant was so rigidly imposed in England so from thence now come Congratulatory Addresses to Cromwel for overturning all they had done and a time shall come when a Storm shall come from Scotland which shall disperse and unravel all that the Covenanters Rump and Cromwel had done thus you 'll see how lame-footed Vengeance shall overtake them all Having seen how Cromwel established himself we 'll proceed to see the Success The Dutch above all things dreading the Rump animated Cromwel to dissolve them promising greater things to him than they had done to the Rump in case he would do it which being done the Dutch not unreasonably hoped by the Disorders which would arise in England by it they should be better able to deal with Cromwel than the Rump and notwithstanding their calling God to witness of their sincere Love and Affection to the English Nation and desire of propagating the true Reformed Protestant Religion with all imaginable Diligence set out a greater Fleet to Sea than they had done before and Trump gave out he would fire the English Ships in their Harbours and the Downs before the English Fleet should get out But the Rump who well understood what Faith or Credit was to be given to the Dutch Protestations were not behind-hand with the Dutch in their Naval Preparations which Cromwel found ready to fight with the Dutch and sooner than the Dutch look'd for the English Fleet commanded by Monk and Dean Penn Vice-Admiral and Lawson Rear-Admiral upon the second of June engaged the Dutch and at the beginning Dean was kill'd by a Cannon-Ball but the Dutch sore pressed upon by the English bore away and made a running Fight having a Ship of 42 Guns sunk by Lawson and 140 Men in her but the Winds blowing cross the English could not that day do much more Execution Next day Monk engaged the Dutch Fleet again and sunk six of their best Ships two were blown up and eleven taken one Vice-Admiral and two Rear-Admirals with two of their Hoys and thirteen hundred and fifty Prisoners and of the English not one Ship was lost or disabled and besides Admiral Dean but one Captain killed The Dutch thus balk'd of their Expectation of firing the English Ships in their Harbours and in the Downs send Beverning Newport Vande Parro and Jonstal to Cromwel and the new Council of State for Cromwel had discharged
Ringleaders of these were Bidle Cops Fry Erbury Saltmarsh c. But more blasphemous than these was one James Naylor I saw him when he stood in the Pillory before Westminster-hall who personated our Saviour and was like his Picture in his Words and Gestures and so mad was he and many of his Crew that getting upon a Horse-Colt an Ass would have becom'd him better he came riding to Bristol his Sect strewing his way with Leaves and Boughs of Trees crying Hosanna Blessed is he who cometh in the Name of the Lord. Nor did he stay here but imitated our Saviour in affecting his Divinity as that he could Raise the Dead Heal the Sick and Fast 40 Days In these Distractions without to prevent which Cromwel took little Care Cromwel had little Peace within He was obey'd by none for Love had no Title to his Greatness but by Barebone's Parliament of his own making his own Will and the Flattery of some of the Officers of his Army yet the Body of the Army and a greater part of the Officers look'd upon him as a Tyrant and Usurper and with these the Generality of the Commonwealth Party agreed The Presbyterian Party hated him and he knew the Royalists would never obey him if ever they could find an Opportunity to get rid of him The Crown-Lands and the established Revenues he reserved by his Instrument of Government would not near maintain the Charges of his Intelligence and Army which in a manner lived upon Free Quarter and the Decimation of the Royalists bore no Proportion to support them His Expendition to Hispaniola from which he expected Mountains of Gold proved not only dishonourable but thereby he contracted so great a Debt as he could never live to overgrow In these Disquietudes of Mind his Looks were intent upon new and unusual Spectacles He took particular notice of the Carriage Manners Habit and Language of all Strangers especially if they seemed joyful He never stirr'd abroad without strong Guards wearing Armour under his Clothes and offensive Arms too never came back the common Road or the same Way he went and always passing with great speed had many Locks and Keys for the Door of his Houses seldom slept above three Nights in one Chamber nor in any which had not two or three Back-doors and Guards at all of them To these Dr. Bates in the second Part of his Elenchus adds this That Cromwel being much troubled with the Stone used sometimes to swill down several sorts of Liquors and then stir his Body by some violent kind of Motion as riding hard on Horseback jolting in a Coach c. that by such Agitation he might disburden his Bladder Wherefore one Day he took with him his Secretary Thurlow that they two might privately use this Exercise in a Coach in Hide-Park When they came thither Cromwel got into the Coach-box drawn by six brave Horses lately presented to him by Count Ollenburg and so soon as Cromwel began to snap his Whip the Horses ran away and the Postilion was thrown off the Fore-horse the Horses fretting and growing unruly tost Cromwel from his Seat upon the Pole and falling from thence upon the Ground was intangled in his Coat and dragged up and down till he received many Bruises a Pocket-Pistol in the mean time going off â—â—d his Coat rent but a Guard of Horse which waited at the â—ate seeing the Disaster hasting toward his Assistance disâ—â—tanâ—ed him out of the Danger However Cromwel to establish his ill-acquired Greatness in his Family makes his Son Henry Lieutenant of Ireland and fain would have made his Son Richard Governour of Scotland but Monk would not budg there which it may be was as great an Affliction to Cromwel as all those he laboured under before Now was Cromwel driven to a Forc'd-put if a Parliament could not help him he had lost his Game So he in September 1656 sets up a new Bawble call'd a Parliament Cromwel set his Wits upon Tenterhooks to have those chosen for England to be for his Turn he cared not so much for those sent from Scotland and Ireland being sure of them To this purpose his Major-Generals used all their Endeavours equally to hinder the Elections of Royalists and Republicans for neither would sute with Cromwel's Designs However Cromwel would not suffer any to enter the House before he subscribed to the Authority of the Protector These Men chose Sir Thomas Widdrington Speaker who June 1657 begirt Cromwel in Protectorean Robes for King he would not be and told him That the Robe of Purple is the Emblem of Magistracy which imports Righteousness and Justice the Robe of Mixt Colour Justice and Mercy and a great deal more of such Stuff which Cromwel regarded no more than he did Barebone's Parliament and his Instrument of Government To ease Cromwel of the Trouble this Parliament put down the Major-Generals who were become troublesome to Cromwel himself as well as the Nation in general and made it Treason to conspire Cromwel's Death and that the Royal Family should be renounced These gave Cromwel the Customs and a Triennial Tax upon all Houses built upon New Foundations in London and within ten Miles round that every one of them should pay Cromwel a Year's Rent And to endear him the more this Parliament gave Cromwel Leave to name his succeeding Protector which he kindly accepted By this you may see the Nature of the Beast for when Cromwel's former Parliament disputed the Authority of his Instrument of Government he told them It was the Foundation of Government upon which they must build and not destroy and therefore it was unalterable by Act of Parliament and by the Instrument his Council was to chuse a Successor But now 't is for his Turn the Parliament may alter his Instrument and give him Power to name his Successor This Alteration of naming a Successor had another Effect too for Lambert who expected to succeed Cromwel and therefore told Cromwel's former Parliament That unless they would confirm it they the Officers of the Army would call another and a third and fourth till the Instrument of Government was confirmed Now his Hopes of Succession were balk'd he tack'd about and seem'd to join with the Republican Party Hereupon Cromwel took away Lambert's Commission and made his Son-in-law Fleet-wood Lieutenant-General in his place So that tho Cromwel got a Power after his Death he distracted his Power whilst he was alive And as Pedlars which have not Gold yet will shew something which may glister like it so Cromwel that his Parliament may seem like a Parliament will have a House of Lords too but these are not Lords with Titles but Lords of the Lord knows what If you 'll take the Measures of the rest I 'll give you a List of some of them There was Pride the Brewer Huson the Shooe-maker Barkstead the Thimble-seller Cooper an Haberdasher of small Wares Whaley a Broken Clothier c. Yet these Lords must not be
Articles of Agreement were agreed upon between the supposed Conspirators and the Cardinal in April 1658 but here Cromwel was at greater Charge for his Fleet than Mazarine for his Army and Cromwel had out-bid Mazarine for the Bargain but little Money was to be paid before the Town was surrendred The Agreement being made upon the 14th of May 1658 the Fleet appeared before Ostend and the Garison in the Fort permitted the French to pass and land but the Governour fearing if the English Fleet should enter they might endanger the Town with his own Hands pulled down the white Flag and set up the bloody Flag but before the English Fleet could tack about it was sore galled by the Artillery planted upon the Fort before it could get out of their reach and the French which landed were killed or taken every Mother's Son to the number of 1500 the Marshal was of the number of the Prisoners This Story is pleasantly and particularly printed in Spanish by one of the Agents translated into English under the Title of Harm watch Harm catch Mazarine with much ado got his Men again which were not killed but how shall Cromwel get his Money again of which he had more need than Mazarine had of his Men nor would Mazarine part with one Groat he had been out of Pocket too much to redeem the French By this time Cromwel was in ill Plight hated of all Factions as much as of the Royalists he had nothing to trust to but a Mercenary Army which he could not pay and above half of these would have been content to have his Throat cut His Means would not pay for the Intelligence he was forced to buy at home and abroad to discover the Practices which were every day hatching against him So as he had no Security but in the general Fear which all the Factions as well as he had that their Discords might give an Occasion of restoring the King to the ruine of them all Nor were their Fears without Ground for at this time there was an Inclination of the Royalists in all parts of England to rise and the Marquess of Ormond was sent by the King to encourage it having gotten a Company of Men together beyond Sea under the Command of General Marsin to assist them But Cromwel had his Spies every where who betray'd all the principal of these Spies was Sir Richard Willis who was always upon his Discovery of these Plots one of the first committed to the Tower and one Corker who had served King Charles the First and was one who assisted in killing Rainsborough at Doncaster so as Cromwel nipp'd all in the Bud before they moved Yet notwithstanding all his Diligence Ormond made his Escape only to give the King an Account of the Discovery and Ruine of his Design Though the Royalists could draw no Blood from Cromwel yet he resolved to take some from them yet would not do it by Juries having had such ill Luck with them but by a Court of Justice of his own Creatures and Nomination headed by Lisle Before these were haled my Lord Mordant Sir Henry Slingsby Dr. Hewet the two Staleys Woodcock Mallery Rivers Dike and many others Dr. Hewet denied their Jurisdiction and was condemned for Contumacy Sir Henry Slingsby pleaded yet was condemned my Lord Mordant was acquitted by the Majority of one Vote when â—ride came in who if he had been there had turned the Scales and Woodcock behaved himself so well as he was acquitted The rest were condemned yet some for Money got their Pardons and others who had not so much Money for somewhat less and swearing themselves out of the Plot saved their Lives Sir Henry Slingsby and Dr. Hewet were beheaded others hanged and quartered Yet this good Success gave little Comfort to Cromwel for to all his former Disturbances were added the Disorders of his own Family his Son-in-law Fleetwood and Brother-in-law Desborough caballing with the Republicans and Dissenting Officers so as they rarely visited him tho Cromwel to sweeten Fleetwood promised to name him his Successor and to these Lambert since his Discarding joined Cromwel having so little Dependance on his Army sets up another of Voluntiers to have Eight â—ounds a Year apiece to be ready to serve him These were a Company of Fellows who as their Pay was little so were their Horses Jades and lean and a Troop of any Army-Horse would beat ten of them yet they served Cromwel so far as to seize Malignants whenever he sent them and were Spies over all suspected Persons and to inform him of their Demeanour All the Joy Cromwel had in these Anxieties and Inquietudes was in his beloved Daughter Cleypole who even to his Heart-breaking died the 6th of August 1658 and upon the third of September following he himself followed her in a terrible Storm of Wind a day upon which at Dâ—nbar in Scotland and Worcester in England he had sent so many thousands before for which he then was to give an Account However Cromwel lived yet when he died all the Flattering Poets strained their Wits to that Pitch to celebrate his Encomiums so as that they could never after arrive to it The Good Deeds of Oliver Cromwel THUS in some measure and in Epitome you have seen if not the Life yet the Rage of Cromwel in his Usurpation in which as I have said nothing of him for Spite having never done me any Wrong but what was common to all the Nation so I think in Justice I ought to do him Right wherein as I conceive he deserved well of the Nation 1. By Blake he more humbled and subdued the Algerine Tripoli and Tunis Pirates than ever any before or since did 2. Westminster-Hall was never replenished with more learned and upright Judges than by him nor was Justice either in Law or Equity in Civil Cases more equally distributed where he was not a Party 3. When the Norway Traders represented to him the Mischief and Inconveniences the Act of Navigation brought upon the Nation which may be at large said elsewhere Cromwel during his time dispensed with it and permitted the English to trade to Norway for Timber Masts Pitch Tar and Iron as before the Act And by a Law made in Cromwel's Third Parliament in June 1657 which was but five Years after the Rump's Act of Navigation Licence is given to transport Fish in Foreign Bottoms See Whitlock's Memoirs f. 661. a. So little then was the Act of Navigation regarded 4. Tho Cromwel play'd the Fool in making War upon Spain and Peace with France yet he made a more advantageous Treaty of Commerce for the English to France than before they had I have not seen it but had this from our English Merchants who traded to France 5. Tho Cromwel joined Forces with the French against the Spaniard yet he reserved the Sea-Towns conquered from the Spaniard to himself so had Dunkirk and Mardike delivered up to him and would have had Ostend if the Garison
had not cheated both Mazarine and him thereby to be Arbitrator over the French as well as Spaniard when he pleased 6. Cromwel out-vied the best of our Kings in rendring our Laws to the Subject in the English Tongue for tho Edward the Third the most Excellent of our Kings permitted Pleading in the English Tongue yet he went no further whereas Cromwel rendred not only the Pleadings but Practice and Laws themselves into the English Tongue and herein he imitated our Saviour common Justice and the Practice of the most Learned and Civilized Nations I say he imitated our Saviour who after his Ascension wrought his first Miracle by inspiring his Apostles to speak all Languages to teach the Gospel to all Nations in their Native Tongue and by the same reason all Nations ought to be instructed in their Laws in their own Tongue I say this is conformable to common Justice for all Laws ought to be a Priori for where there is no Law there is no Transgression and if Laws be rendred in a Tongue not understood it 's all one to those who understand not the Language as if there had not been Laws The Romans and Grecians who were the most Learned and Civiliz'd of all Nations would never endure a Foreign Word in any of their Laws lest the Subject through Ignorance of it might be unjustly punished when 't was not his fault When Caesar was murder'd in the Senate and the Senators were ready to cut one another's Throats Cicero cried out Let there be an Amnestia and for the future the Power to reside in the Senate And you may read in his second Philippicks the long Apology he makes for suddenly using this Foreign Word in the Senate And Tiberius asked leave of the Senate to use Monopolion because 't was foreign to the Latin And the Romans as well as Grecians not only instructed Youth in their Laws but in all Arts and Sciences in their Mother-Tongue and thereby became the most Learned of all Nations But these good Deeds of Cromwel you 'll soon see will not long out-live him CHAP. III. A Continuation of this Treatise from the Death of Cromwel to the Restoration of King Charles the Second AFter the Death of Cromwel there was some Grumble between the Republican Officers of the Army and Protectorian who should succeed Those said that Cromwel when he was well promised his Son-in-law Fleetwood that he should succeed but these said That tho Cromwel was sick yet he declared his Son Richard his Successor and that this was his last Will And besides Cromwel's Council which by the Instrument of Government had the Power had elected Richard and so Richard was proclaimed Protector in all the publick Places of England Scotland and Ireland Richard thus seated not only the Protectorian but the Officers of the Republican Faction congratulate him and under their Hand-writing promise to be true to him and what Cromwel so industriously obtained from the Mercenary Officers of the Army in England and Scotland to congratulate him in his assuming the Protectorian Dignity and to assist him in it with their Lives and Fortunes is now voluntarily done by numerous Companies of Sycophants from all Parts of the Nation to the number of ninety Congratulatory Addresses which Richard had as little good of as King James II. had from those above thirty Years after When they flatter'd that Prince in those things which tended to the Subversion of the English Constitution both in Church and State But Richard's wandring Joys faded in the Bud For after his Father's Funeral the Pomp whereof undid him the Republican Officers cabal and conspire to depose Richard and exalt Fleetwood and in two respects they say Fleetwood ought to be Protector one that he was truly Godly and an expert Leader and had been tried to be so in many Difficulties The other Cromwel had by his last Will when he was Compos Mentis design'd him his Successor whereas Richard was substituted in a surreptitious manner by the Craft of some of the Council when Cromwel had lost his Senses Lambert after he had been discarded by Cromwel betook himself to Wimbleton-House where he turned Florist and had the fairest Tulips and Gelliâ—â—owers that could be got for Love or Money yet in these outward Pleasures he nourished the Ambition he entertain'd before he was cashier'd by Cromwel And in these Dissensions as Tortoises do upon the approach of the Spring he comes abroad and becomes a prime Ring-leader in the Cabal and in due time shall be the Ruin of them all The first thing they agree upon was to restore the common Souldiers to their former Pay which Cromwel had retrench'd two Pence a day And herein they shew their good Will as Dego did but how to pay the Souldiers they could no more tell than how Dego's Executors should pay his Legacies In this Kindness to the common Souldiers the Officers did not forget themselves and charge the Memory of Cromwel that he ruled over them with a Tyrannical and Despotical Power turning out and putting in Officers by his own Will therefore they petition Richard That for the future no Souldier be turned out of his place without a Council of War nor any Action brought but by Martial Law That no Souldier be tried in any Criminal Case but in a Court-Martial and that the Souldiers have Power to chuse their own General Richard was Head of no Faction as his Brother Fleetwood was nor was his gentle and easy Nature a â—it Match to encounter the intriguing Designs of Lambert or resist the rude Attacks of his Clownish Uncle Desborough and so foresees no Help to be had for his Security but from a Parliament Therefore Richard summons a Parliament to meet at Westminster upon the 27th of January 1658 of the Composition made by his Father of this and t'other House this to consist of 400 English 30 Scots and as many Irish This and t'other House met accordingly when this House fell at Variance with t'other House by what Right they sat there Nor did this House agree better with the Scots and Irish sitting there having no Right to sit and vote with the free-born English they being conquer'd Slaves and Creatures of the Protector Nor did the Republican and Protectorian Factions agree better However all agreed to recognize Richard Protector of England Scotland and Ireland yet would not agree to Cromwel's Instrument of Government but inveighed bitterly against it as being extorted from a lame Parliament that was neither â—ull nor free But they recalled Overton who was imprisoned in Jersey by the Arbitrary Will of Cromwel and made an Ordinance against the meeting of the Officers of the Army to hold Consultations till the Parliament should determine Affairs This Ordinance stung the Caballing Officers to the quick so that they resolved to be rid of Richard and his Parliament too but how to do this or where to begin admitted of great Debate For to begin at Richard now the Parliament
before we will lay to the Charge of Cardinal Mazarine We will therefore see if the French King was not as little a Slave to his Word in this League as Mazarine was in any before and you 'll see that in all the Leagues this King after made he was as little a Slave to his Word as in this Treaty We have in the former Book set down particularly the Article whereby the French King upon his Honour and the Faith and Word of a King did promise neither directly nor indirectly to assist Portugal against Spain yet at the beginning of the Treaty they secretly conveyed Troops into Portugal in several Bodies And when upon Complaint of the Marquess de la Fuente they sent publick Orders to the Governours of their Ports not to suffer any Souldiers to embark for Portugal they did not abstain by Connivance under-hand to let them pass Nay when Marshal Turene made publick Levies to assist Portugal it being complained of by the Marquess de la Fuente they answered it was a particular Act of the Marshal and the Court of France had no Hand in it And also continually supplied Portugal with Corn and all sorts of Ammunition And France also fomented the Obstinacy of Portugal to continue the War when Spain offered them advantagious Terms of Peace This and much more you may read in the second Article of The Buckler of State and Justice Nor did the French King stay here but being become the dearest Confident with his Brother of England almost as soon as the King was settled the French sent Monsieur Courtin to move the King not to abandon Portugal nor did he yet stay here but Mazarine dying much about the latter end of Summer having a Stone in his Heart so the French Pasquils said in September or beginning of October the Queen-Mother came over seemingly to treat with her Son for a Marriage between Monsieur of France and her fair Daughter Henrietta Maria the King 's beloved Sister Yet it seems to me the Marriage of the King with the Infanta of Portugal was not less designed than that with Monsieur And besides these you will soon hear of something else which brought the Queen-Mother into England As the Designs of the Queen's coming over were dark so I acknowledg I have not seen any of the Treaties or Transactions concerning them but must take Measures by what followed and so far as I had Light from what went before yet in all of them it seems evident to me that the Queen shewed her self to be more affectionate to her Daughter than Son and to be more a Daughter of France than Queen of England But before I proceed it will be convenient to take notice of the deplorable State of Spain which their Ambition in seeking so many Foreign Dominions and a Tyrannical Government had brought it to For before the Accession of their American Dominions which they acquired by unjust War and unheard-of Cruelties in all the ten Years War between Ferdinand and Isabella with the Moors who had seven hundred Years been possessed of the Kingdoms of Granada Murcia and a great part of Andaluzia every Year the Moors and Christians brought near a hundred thousand Men into the Field to fight one with another yet the Kingdoms of Arragon Navar and Portugal were Neutral in all the War Whereas now all the Kingdoms of Spain except that of Portugal were united under this King Philip the Fourth yet out of them all he could not raise an Army to fight the Portuguese but trusting to the French Faith in the Pyrenaean Treaty sent the Army in Flanders under the Command of the Marquess Caracene to do it The King imbraced the Overtures of both Marriages and now the French King doubly if not trebly assured of his Brother of England as well by the Treaties of these Marriages as by his Message by Courtin no longer acts covertly in assisting the Prince Regent of Portugal against Spain but bare-fac'd sent Marshal Schomberg with an Army and Fleet to their Assistance yet this Army was not sufficient to make an Offensive War against Spain but Portugal stood only upon the Defensive The Want of Money a little retarded the Marriage of the Princess with Monsieur but this might be easily help'd if the King would give up Dunkirk to the French whereby he might pay 200000 l. for his Sister's Portion which was more than his Father had with his Mother and also receive 200000 l. more for himself Nor was this all he might save the Charges of maintaining a Garison there yet the Parliament in the Hereditary Excise allowed him 60000 l. per Annum for the Support of it I do not find this mentioned in the Body of the Act yet several Members assured me it was so intended in the passing the Act. All this the King agreed to and so Dunkirk and Mardike Fort were given up to the French against all the Laws of Humanity Justice and Prudence I say it was against all the Laws of Humanity for the Spaniard entertained and relieved the King when the French had expelled him and joined with Oliver the Usurper of all his Dominions It was against Justice for the Soveraignty of Dunkirk was of Right and Justice the Spaniards And against the Rules of Policy and Prudence the French Nation being the Natural Enemies of the English and the next Neighbour to it and of all Nations the most formidable It had been happier for the poor Spaniard and the English Nation if the Unkindness of the King to the Spaniard had ended in his giving up Dunkirk to the French but it ended not here for the King imployed the Army which should have kept Dunkirk against the Spaniard in Portugal and with these and another Band of the disbanded English Army joined to them the French Portuguese and English or rather the English without them routed the whole united Army of the Spaniard at the Fight of Elvas So as now the French had a new Inlet into Flanders and the Spaniard no Army to defend it This was a foul Blot in the Spanish Politicks by their King 's trusting to the Faith of his Brethren of England and France But this will not stay here as hereafter you will see Here I take leave so well as I can to vindicate the Memory of my Lord Chancellor Hide from two Aspersions as I conceive cast upon him one That he was the Adviser of the giving up Dunkirk to the French The other That he was the Procurer of the King's Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal For the first I was assured by a credible Person tho a Confident of my Lord Chancellor's that he was so far from advising the King to give up Dunkirk to the French that only he and my Lord Treasurer Southampton upon whose Honour my Lord Chancellor relied more than any other of all the Council entred their Protestations against it The Truth of this may be resolved by inspecting the Privy-Council's Books It 's true
paid or was one tenth part so highly caressed by their Subjects in a time of Peace Was it not strange then that the King should be in such Necessities for Money as to borrow such great Sums of the City for carrying on this hasty War before the Parliament should meet to supply him Whereas when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown her Revenue besides the Court of Wards and the Dutchy of Lancaster was but 188179 l. per Annum and the Crown left in Debt by her Father Brother and Sister which she afterwards paid and for the four first Years of her Reign the Parliament gave her but one Subsidy and two Fifteens about 120000 l. Yet in these Years she fitted up her Navy Royal so as it was not only superiour to those of all the Neighbouring Nations but of any Prince in the World and also sent a Fleet and Land-Army into Scotland with which she expelled the French out of it And the Parliament in the fifth Year of her Reign gave her but another Subsidy and two Fifteens wherewith she assisted the Princes of the Reform'd Religion in France Whereas the Parliament in the fifth Year of this King 's actual Reign gave him 2467500 l. for carrying on the War against the Dutch I will not dispute the Justice of this War yet sure never was any made with such Precipitancy and Inconsideration both abroad and at home for as the King entred into no Alliances or Confederations abroad in it so on the contrary France and Denmark our next Neighbouring Nations join'd with the Dutch against the King and that tho the Spaniard stood Neuter in it yet the King had little reason to expect any Benefit from him having been so used in the King's Sale of Dunkirk to the French and joining with the Portuguese and French against the Spaniard And as the King had made no Foreign Alliances abroad so had he not laid up any Naval Stores at home and which is worse he had the Act of Navigation tho made by the Rump yet the Parliament 13 Car. II. confirmed it or set the Royal Stamp upon it to struggle with to supply himself with Naval Stores for carrying on the War For the Rump were as hasty in making the Act of Navigation as the King was in entring into this War and made it general without any Consideration of Time either in War or Peace and herein their Zeal to make this Law outrun their Wit or Memory for these very Men about ten Years ago viz. 16 Car. I. 21. which yet stands unrepealed taking notice of the manifold Mischiefs tho in time of Peace which happened by reason the Importation of Gunpowder was prohibited contrary to Law viz. That the Price of Gunpowder was excessively raised many Powder-Mills decayed the Kingdom much weakned and endangered the Merchants much damnified many Mariners and others taken Prisoners and brought into miserable Captivity and Slavery many Ships taken by Turkish Pirates and many other Inconveniences thereby ensued and like to ensue Therefore this Act made the Importation of Gunpowder Salt-petre and Brimstone free to Strangers as well as Natives and a Premunire to hinder it Whereas in this War if the East-India Company shall set double or treble the Price upon Salt-petre or if their Ships should miscarry yet by this Act it is Confiscation of Ship Goods Tackle Apparel and Ammunition for the Subjects of any other Nation to import Salt-petre or Gunpowder The King tho this were a Naval War having laid up no Stores for it yet if the Swede from any Port of Norway but Gottenburg or if the Bradenburgher Lubeker Hamburgher or Emdenber should import any from any Port of Norway or any rough Hemp or Flax from Leifland or Prussia for making Cordage or Sails this had been Confiscation of Ships Goods Guns Tackle Ammunition and Apparel by this Act. This Act restraining the English in the Newcastle Trade and to the Plantations to navigate their Ships by three fourths English the King was forced to man his Fleet with pressed Men the greater part whereof were Land and Water-Men Whereas if it had been free for the English during the War to have imployed Foreigners in these Navigations the King might have above twenty thousand of his best Sea-men more than he had to man his Fleet and the City of London and other Parts of England throughly supplied with Coals at half the Prices and with more Security The King by reason of this Act in the first Year of this War was forced in the dead of Winter to send Sir John Harman to Gottenburg with a Squadron of Men of War for Masts Pitch and Tar where by the Coldness of the Season some of the Ships were frozen up and many of the English lost their Noses and were benumm'd in other Parts with the Cold Yet all agreed if the King had not been supplied with Naval Stores by this Fleet he could not have fitted out a Fleet next Year These things tho evident to any Stander-by yet the Parliament took no notice of them However the King wisely dispensed with the Act of Navigation so far as it related to the Importation of Naval Stores and Hemp and Flax with this different Success that tho the Parliament the Year before boggled at the King 's dispensing with the Penal Laws against Dissenters yet they took no notice of the King 's dispensing with the Act of Navigation Tho this War was thus hastily begun yet was it managed more carelesly and prodigally than ever any was before The Officers of the Fleet like those of the Guards bought their Places to sell their Lives the poor common Sea-men not paid and wanting Money to pay their Quarters were forced to take Tickets for less than half their Wages whilst Favourites swelled into incredible Riches by the Ruin and Spoil of the Nation The innumerable Prizes taken from the Dutch were so far from contributing to the Charges of this War that many of them were given to Women and Favourites and became a Charge to the King no Inspection must be into the defraying the Monies given for the War for this was to distrust the King The Officers who had bought their Places in the Fleet instead of minding their Business made it their Business how to be Gainers for the Purchase of their Places and caballed how they might improve their Interest at Court However the King receiving no Satisfaction from the Dutch for the Injuries done to Sir William Courten and Sir Paul Pindar upon the 17th of May 1665 granted Letters of Reprisal to Sir Edward Turner and George Carew their Executors c. against the Dutch till they should be satisfied 151612 l. This Grant to stand in force notwithstanding any Peace to be made till Sir Edward Turner c. were fully satisfied of the said Sum with all their Costs and Damages Sir Thomas Allen opened the first Sea Campagn by falling upon the Smirna-Fleet and took four of them richly laden and the
Offices he was capable of and that the Duke was fully convinced that their Interests were one and the Parliament was not only unuseful but dangerous both to England and France and that it was the Duke's Opinion That if his most Christian Majesty would write his Thoughts freely to the King upon this Subject and make the same Offer of his Purse to dissolve this Parliament as he made to the Duke to call another he did believe it very possible for him to succeed and from this time to the breaking out of the Popish Plot you shall see the Parliament call'd prorogu'd and adjourn'd by Order from France or French Ministers and Pensioners That this Design may be carried on in Masquerade the whole Band of Pensioners make it their Business to possess whom they could perswade that the Church is in danger truly said but untruly intended and that the Nation was running into Forty One All Countenance and Hopes of Preferment were promised to those who would support the Church from the Danger of Forty One This was blaz'd abroad and encouraged by all sorts of printed Pamphlets and if they met with Opposition the Authors and Printers were persecuted for publishing unlicensed Pamphlets Mr. Roger L'Estrange was the Champion and Pensioner of the Cause Never did Man fight so to force the Whig into the Church and when he was there made a Trimmer of him and would have him out again Forty One was his Retreat against all who durst contend against him and the Government This was the Licenser of the Press but never was there such a Press Rifler For propagating this holy Cause Sir Francis North is made Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir Richard Rainsford Chief Justice of the King's-Bench William Mountague Chief Baron Vere Bartue a Baron of the Exchequer Sir William Scrogs a Justice of the Common-Pleas and Sir Thomas Jones of the King's-Bench Men all durante bene placito You need not fear the Chancery for at this time there were four Chancellors and Lord-Keepers alive The Parliament was to have met the 10th of November 1674 but the Instructions from France were not yet sufficiently ripened so 't was put off till the 13th of April 1675. At the opening of this Session my Lord-keeper told the Houses No Influence of the Stars no Configurations of the Heavens are to be feared so long as these two Houses stand in good Disposition to each other and both in a happy Conjunction with their Lord and Soveraign but they ought not quieta movere nor res parvas magnis motibus agere The House of Commons had been sullen these two last Sessions and proceeded contrary to the Humour and Design of the Court and therefore a Bill was brought into the House of Lords eâ—tituled An Act to prevent the Danger that may arise from Persons disaffected to the Government which was the same imposed upon the dissenting Clergy by the Oxford five-Mile-Act this my Lord-keeper said was a moderate Security to the Church and Crown which no honest Man could refuse and who did gave great suspicion of dangerous and Antimonarchical Principles This Oath or Abhorrence or Test is mentioned before and is now set on foot to be taken by all who enjoy'd any Beneficial Offices Ecclesiastical Civil or Military to which were added Privy-Counsellors Justices of the Peace and Parliament-Men It 's strange to me that Princes or indeed other Men who have any Piety or Fear of God should think to be secure in unjust Actions by Mens swearing to observe them For tho Human Actions be voluntary yet the End and Design by them is not in Human Power Paul may plant and Apollos water but only God can give the Blessing with what reason then can Man expect a Blessing from God because his Name is profaned and made as a stalking-Horse to attain it What Security had the Presbyterians by their Covenant or the Rump Parliament by their Engagement or Oliver or his Son by their Recognition And more I think the King could not expect hereby Whereas Princes whose Thrones are establish'd by Justice and Righteousness have a nobler Security than can be hoped for by Mens previous swearing to get Offices and Employments so that Trajan who was truly called the Just put his Sword into the Prefect's Hands and bid him draw it against him whenever he should attempt any thing against the Publick Good This King had a way never gone by any of his Predecessors to be present in the House of Lords at Debates and would solicit Lords for their Votes This was first declaimed against by my Lord Lucas as an Awe upon the Peers in their Debates and Votes This Oath being the Gap to let in the Popish Designs you cannot think the King would now be away but give all Countenance to the passing of it the Bishops to a Man were for passing of it so were all the Court-Lords or those who hoped for Preferment so as these were the much greater Part Yet the Country Lords when they debated it in Paragraphs made it inconsistent with the present Constitution of the Nation vain and superfluous and inconsistent in it self which held for seventeen days together But the Debates were laid aside by the Commons Votes against the Jurisdiction of the Lords in Appeals from Chancery These Debates you may read at large in Print in a Tract intituled A Letter from a Person of Quality to his Friend in the Country But because my Lord-keeper will have an ill-meant Distinction between the King 's Natural and Politick Capacity I 'll put one Case which I do not find in all these Debates The one Part of the Oath is I declare That it is not lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that I do abhor that Traiterous Position of taking Arms by his Authority against his Person or against those who are commissionated by him in pursuance of such Commission Suppose Duke Lauderdale should have a Commission from the King to bring his twenty two thousand Scots into England and you cannot believe the Scots Law to do it was made to no purpose and plunder and dispossess the English of their Estates and the Sheriffs of the Counties should raise the Posse to suppress them and compel them to keep the Peace as the Sheriff by his Commission and Oath is bound to do On which side does the Abhorrence of the Traiterous Position of taking up Arms against those commissionated by the King lie But you 'll say this cannot be imagined and I say the Design of imposing this Oath makes this not only imaginable but believed to be intended In the Debates the Commons raise a Storm against the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals from Chancery upon which the King prorogued the Parliament to the 13th of October 1675. Tho the Duke lost Ground in the House of Commons and was disappointed in carrying the abhorring Test in the House of Lords yet he gained so much upon the French King
the others were so that they proceeded where the last Commons left and sat but seven Days wherein they had these foâ—â— Considerations under their Debates first the preparing a 〈◊〉 against the Duke of York's Succession the second the taking the Bill of the Repeal of the Act of 35 Eliz. out of the House of Lords the third an Inquiry into Fitz-Harris's Business the fourth a Prosecution against the impeached Lords in the Tower The Commons spent the three first Days in choosing their Speaker and confirming him and in taking Oaths as the Laws direct so that it was Thursday the twenty fourth of March before they entred upon any Business and being dissolved upon the Monday following they could make but little Progress upon the four Particulars aforesaid and each of them was so green that the Court would not endure much Enquiry into any one of them Upon the Debate of Fitz-Harris's Business one of the Members reported how that one Hubert had confessed that he had fired the City of London upon which the House resolved to examine him next Morning but before the House sat next Morning Hubert was hanged to prevent it and they remembred there was a Design to have tried the Popish Lords in the Tower by Indictment to prevent which the Commons exhibited general Impeachments against them with that Success that the Lords were never tried upon Indictments and the Judges gave their Opinions they could not Hereupon the Commons ordered an Impeachment of Fitz-Harris upon Friday the twenty fifth of March and ordered Sir Lionel Jenkins to carry it up to the Lords who at first refused it saying The sending of me upon this Message reflects upon my Master the King and do what you will I will not go Hereupon seveveral moved to call him to the Bar and several Speeches were made of his Offence but at last he relented and carried up the Impeachment to the Lords but the Lords threw it out But the Lords having thrown out the Impeachment the Commons the next Day being Saturday the twenty sixth ran high in their Debates upon it One said this was to have no further use of a Parliament but to serve a present Purpose Another said Indictments were brought against the Lords in the Tower yet that was no Impediment against their Impeachment in the Lords House and the last Day of the last Sessions of Parliament the Lords accepted an Impeachment of the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs and that this Denial of Justice by the Lords was greater than my Lord Chief Justice Scroggs's Denial of taking Presentments from the Grand Inquest of Middlesex by how much the Commons of Parliament are the great Inquest of the Nation Another said this is a new Plot against the Protestants of which Fitz-Harris is accused and the Commons impeach him and the Lords say We will not hear it and that if it were not for the Lords Fitz-Harris might have discovered all the Conspiracy and the Protestant Religion might have been saved and therefore moved That the denying this Impeachment tends to the Subversion of the Constitution of the Parliament and of the Protestant Religion Another said That this was a Confirmation of the Design to murder the King and the Duke consenting to destroy his own Brother and our King and therefore moved That if any Judg Justice or Jury proceed upon Fitz-Harris and he be found Guilty That the House would declare them guilty of his Murder and Betrayers of the Rights of the Commons of England to which was added upon the Motion of Sir W. J. or that any Inferiour Court shall proceed c. which was passed The Reason of these Votes were That if Fitz-Harris were tried upon an Indictment he must have been tried singly upon the Fact whether he were guilty or not of contriving and dispersing the Libel but upon an Impeachment the Commons might enquire into the whole Conspiracy Sunday March 27. The Houses sat not and the next Day Monday 28 in the Morning the King came suddenly and unexpectedly to the House of Peers and sent for the Commons and dissolved the Parliament and immediately took Coach and drove to Windsor leaving both Houses in an Amaze and the City of Oxford in a Hubbub If it were Sir William Jones who wrote the just and modest Vindication of the two last Parliaments viz. the last Westminster Parliament and this at Oxford pag. 393. he says The Peers at Oxford were so wholly ignorant of the Council that they never thought of a Dissolution till they heard it pronounced yet the Dutchess of Mazarine published the News at St. James ' s many hours before it was done If the Nation as well as the Parliament and City of Oxford were amazed at this Dissolution and Manner of it they were not less with the Declaration that followed it which though the King did not communicate to the Council till Friday the eighth of April yet the next Page says Monsieur Barillon the French Embassador read it to a Gentleman upon the fifth of April before and demanded his Opinion of it which the Embassador might better remember because of the great Liberty the Gentleman took in ridiculing it to his Face It 's observable that that Declaration was printed in French as well as English and many Gallicisms in it and particularly That it was a Matter extreamly sensible to us which was a Form of speaking peculiar to the French and unknown to any other Nation The Substance of the Declaration contained the Dissatisfaction the King took at the two Westminster Parliaments that they gave him no sutable Return to support the Alliances which he had made for the General Peace of Christendom nor for the further Examination into the Plot nor for the Preservation of Tangier and for their Votes That no Man should lend any Money upon any Branches of the Revenue or buy or pay any Tally of Anticipation upon any part of the King's Revenue This was not so for the Commons restrained them to the Custom Excise and Chimney-money given for other Ends see the Votes that they passed a Vote That the prosecuting of Protestant Dissenters was a Grievance to the Subject c. by which they assumed to themselves a Power of suspending Laws So the Commons might do any other Law found by Experience to be grievous and dangerous to the Subject and must do so in order to repeal such Laws and did not the King do so twice before by his Declaration of Indulgence though to a contrary End to what the Commons intended That these Proceedings caused him to dissolve that Parliament and to assemble another at Oxford who had warning given them of the Errors of the former and were required to make the Law of the Land their Rule and adding that he would not depart from what he had formerly declared concerning the Succession yet declared he was ready to hearken to any Expedients by which the Religion established might be preserved yet the Monarchy preserved viz. How
in taking the Customs without Grant of Parliament and such as were never granted by Parliament and in further raising Ship-Money and imprisoning the Members of Parliament without Benefit of their Corpus's yet he thought best to do it by such Judges as he should make So this King in the Executions of Fitz-Harris and Colledge would have the Colour of Justice by a Form of Law for which there was no Law But as the Knights of Malta could make Knights of their Order for eight Pence a-piece yet could not make a Soldier of Sea-man So these Kings tho they could make what Judges they pleased to do their Business yet could not make a Grand-Jury from whom the Judges in all criminal Cases between the King and Subject must take their Measures these Grand-Juries in London are returned by the Sheriffs and the Sheriffs are chosen by the Livery This Difficulty after my Lord Shaftsbury's Case put the Court to their Trumps and at present a Stop to their Proceedings The Assistance of the Duke of York was necessary but at this time he was as busy in Scotland about my Lord of Argyle as his Brother was in England about my Lord Shaftsbury The City upon the Dissolution of the Four last Parliaments were aware of the Designs of the Court and chose Sheriffs accordingly when Colledge's Bill was preferred Mr. Cornish and Bethel were Sheriffs and now another such was preferred against 〈◊〉 Lord of Shaftsbury Sir Thomas Pilkington and Mr. Shute were Sheriffs who tho at other times Sheriffs would rather fine than serve yet at this time none refused to serve so that unless Sheriffs of another Stamp were chosen all would be to no Purpose It 's scarce credible what a Noise the not finding my Lord Shaftsbury's Bill made all Justice now the Tory Party cried was stopped if these Ignoramus Juries were not set aside R. L. S. proclaimed Forty one would inevitably return and this countenanced by the Court flew out of the City all the Country over so that scarce any other thing was to be heard but of Ignoramus Juries and what would follow from them It was the latter End of Michaelmas Term the great Inquest returned an Ignoramus upon the Bill of High Treason preferred against my Lord Shaftsbury and in the Vacation all Wits were set on work how to take the Election of the Sheriffs of London out of the Power of the City and no other Expedient could be found out but by taking away their Charter which if it could be done would not only entitle the Court to making of Sheriffs but open a Gap to their making a House of Commons for near 5 6 of the Commons are Burgesses and Barons of the Cinque Ports who would not dare to contest their Charters if the City of London could not hold theirs So that in Hilary Term following a Quo Warranto was brought against the City for two hainous Crimes viz. That they had made an Address to the King for the Parliament to sit for Redress of Grievances and to settle the Nation yet King Charles the First thought the Parliament's Vote of non-Addresses to him was a Deposing of him and that the City had raised Money towards repairing Cheapside Conduit ruined by the Fire of London The City pleaded their Right and the King replied upon which there was a Demurrer but Judgment was not given upon it till Trinity Term 1683. However the Novelty of the thing caused an Amusement upon the Generality of the City and Nation too whereto this tended In the mean time the Duke having done his Work in Scotland was returned to London and his Zeal for promoting the Catholick Cause outwent his Patience for the Court's Judgment upon the Demurrer to the Quo Warranto so that Courtiers of the First Magnitude appeared barefaced for the next Election of Sheriffs and Sir Dudley North Sir Francis's own Brother and Sir Peter Rich were returned one by a shameless Trick the other by open Force Tho the Court had gained this Point they thought not fit to push it further till the Demurrer to the City Charter were determined in which such Haste was made that only two Arguments were permitted on either Side one in Hilary Term 1682-83 and the other in Easter Term following and so Judgment was given in Trinity Term next after against the City The Judgment against the City was as strange as the Election of the Sheriffs for it was without any Reason and by two Judges only one was Sir Francis Withens who had heard but one Argument and I believe understood but little of that and who after in the Absence of Sir Edward Herbert delivered that for his Opinion which Sir Edward when present disowned and Sir Thomas Jones However they said Justice Raimond was of their Opinion and so was Saunders the Chief Justice tho he was past his Senses and only had Sense enough to expostulate with them for then troubling him when he had lost his Memory But the Court of Kings Bench were not so ripe for this hasty Judgment as that at White-Hall was for Discovery of Plots against the Government and Justice of the Nation of which they set three on Foot viz. A Plot to surprize the Guards the Rye-Plot to murder the King and Duke as they should come from New-Market and the Black-Heath Plot for the People to rise upon a Foot-Ball Match if those Sheriffs would not do the Court's Work you may be sure the next should where the King should have the Nomination but these were as trusty as any the King could make and it was now Graham and Burton's Work to find Good Jury-Men and then the Sheriffs would be sure to return them In all these Plots for ought I can find the Fox was the Finder my Lord H and Rumsey in that of the Guards Lee and Goodenough in that of Black-Heath Keeling and West in that of the Rye-Plot Lee was set to trapan Rouse and Baker in the Black-Heath Plot. Rumball at whose House 't was said the Rye-Plot was to be acted upon his Death denied he ever knew of any But the Great Design was upon my Lord of Essex and my Lord Russel one the most eminent of the Nobility for his great Honour and all eminent Vertues the other of the Commons and both zealous Protestants and Opponents to the Design of introducing Popery and Arbitrary Power I will not again curtail Mr. Hawles's learned Remarks upon my Lord Russel's Trial on the Thirteenth of July 1683. yet I must observe how that that Day whether my Lord of Essex killed himself or was to be killed the King and his Brother were both in the Tower when the Act was done and immediately Notice was sent to the Old-Baily to give Notice of it to the Court that in the worst Sense Use might be made of it by the King's Counsel against my Lord Russel The Blaze of the Earl's having murdered himself having had its designed Effect upon my Lord Russel's Trial
but so ridiculously cruel as will scarcely be believed for not only those who escaped were excepted but a Company of Girls some of 8 or 9 Years old who had made some Colours and presented them to the Duke of Monmouth while he was at Taunton these were excepted by Name and no Pardon could be purchased for this Treason till the Girls Parents had paid more for it than would have provided a Marriage Portion when they should come of Age. But suppose the King did imitate his good and gracious Brother in his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People and that Justice only looked forward in these Executions yet we will give Instances wherein this King did not imitate his good and gracious Brother in his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People Alderman Cornish tho he had committed two horrible Crimes in the Reign of King Charles one in presuming to examine Fitz-Harris while he was a Prisoner in Newgate before he was hurried from thence to the Tower to prevent his further Examination the other that he testified at Fitz-Harris's Trial that King Charles told Mr. Cornish that the King did countenance Fitz-Harris in his Design and had given him Money yet King Charles was so good and gracious as not to take away Mr. Cornish's Life But the offended Ghosts of Coleman Ireland Harcourt c. were no ways appeased by the Blood which flowed from the Stripes of Oates's Sentence nothing less than a Sacrifice of humane Blood must be offered to them and this to be performed by affixing Sacred Justice to it Upon Tuesday the of October Mr. Cornish having no dread of any Accusation upon him for any Crime but freely following his Profession was clapt up close Prisoner in Newgate without use of Pen Ink or Paper till Saturday Noon when he had notice of an Indictment of High Treason against him on Monday following and could get no Friend to come to him till 8 a clock at Night Next Day Mr. Cornish's Children petitioned the King to have his Trial put off which was referred to the Judges who you may be assured had their Instructions who denied it tho he knew not whether his Trial were for Treason against this or the late King and his most material Witness was above 140 Miles off and was also denied a Copy of the Pannel of his Jury The Charge of High Treason against him was That in the Year 1682 he had promised to be assisting to James late Duke of Monmouth William Russel Esquire and Sir Thomas Armstrong in their Treasons against King Charles II. The only Witness to prove this was Colonel Rumsey who swore That about the latter end of October or beginning of November at Mr. Sheppard's House Ferguson told Mr. Cornish that he had read a Paper to the Duke of Monmouth Lord Russel Lord Grey and Sir Thomas Armstrong which they desired should be read to Mr. Cornish that Mr. Sheppard held the Candle while it was reading and afterward they asked him how he liked it who said he liked it very well He remembred two Points in it very well one was for Liberty of Conscience the other was That all who would assist in that Insurrection who had had Kings Lands or Church Lands should have them restored to them Rumsey did not hear all the Paper but observed only these two Points it was a Declaration on a Rising and when the Rising was to have been it was to have been dispersed abroad there was a Rising intended at that time and Mr. Cornish said He liked the Declaration and what poor Interest he had he would join in it Rumsey had sworn at my Lord Russel's Trial that Mr. Cornish was not at the Reading or the Declaration by Ferguson and being tax'd for it in this said it was out of Compassion to the Prisoner and Mr. Sheppard who was subpoena'd for the King testified Mr. Cornish was not there Richard Goodenough was the other Witness which was about Words foreign to Rumsey's Testimony about seizing the Tower and a Rising in the City which if what Goodenough said had been true yet Mr. Cornish could not have been found Guilty of Treason for tho by the first Act of Parliament after the Convention of King Charles II. Words were made Treason against the King during his Life yet were they to be prosecuted within six Months and the Person to be indicted in three Months after whereas these Words were pretended to be spoken in Easter Term in 1683 which was two Years and a half before Add hereto the Words were imperfectly said by Goodenough and might be applicable to a pretended Riot wherein Mr. Cornish was concerned and that Goodenough was upon ill Terms with Mr. Cornish because he would not trust Goodenough to be his Under-Sheriff You may read the Trial at large with Mr. Hawles his fine and learned Remarks upon it and how rudely Mr. Cornish and his Witnesses were used at his Trial and how notwithstanding his Quality after Conviction he was tied as if he had been a boisterous and dangerous Rogue and that by Order and executed with the utmost Rigour of the Law for this far-fetch'd and ill-proved Treason But these Tories shall soon see they labour for others not for themselves and these whom they now persecute shall have the Ascendant over them And I observed this of Sir Thomas Jones who was Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and most active in this Trial that he was one of the first if not the first who was turned out of his Place for giving his Opinion the King could not dispense with the Test and Penal Laws The Design thus deep stained in humane Blood first budded in Ireland but whether it was in Affirmance of the King's Promise to his Privy Council and after repeated by him in Parliament that he would make it his Endeavour to preserve the Church and State of England as by Law established let any Man who reads the following Story judg The Book stiled the State of the Protestants in Ireland said to be written by Bishop King fol. 58. says That King James was no sooner settled in his Throne but he began to turn out some Officers who had been most zealous for his Service and had best deserved of him meerly because they had been counted firm to the Protestant Religion and the English Interest such as my Lord Shannon Captain Robert Fitz-Gerald Captain Richard Coote Sir Oliver St. George and put in their places Kerney one of the Russians designed to murder Charles II. Anderson a mean Fellow Sheldon a profest Papist and one Graham and fol. 59. saith the Duke of Ormond was sent for abruptly and divested of the Government and immediately the modelling of the Army was put into the Hands of Colonel Richard Talbot a Man of all others most hated by the Protestants and who had been named by Mr. Oates in his Narrative for this very Employment so that many who believed nothing of the Plot before gave Credit to
Service and that all the Bishops in their respective Diocesses should take care to have this done accordingly The Bishops who knew the Declaration of Indulgence was designed to conjoin the Protestant Dissenters with the Popish to ruin the Established Church easily foresaw that the Order to them was to pick a Quarrel with them for the King might have ordered it to be read without as well as by them And besides the Injustice of it it was deemed an undecent thing that the Fathers of the Church in time of Divine Setvice should be the Instruments to give a Liberty to all whether they should come to Divine Service or not Besides the Bishop of London who stood suspended thes Bishops viz. the Archbishop of Canterbury the Bishops of Bath and Wells Ely Peterborough Chichester St. Asaph and Bristol were in or about the Town and this Order of Reading the Declaration in Churches was served upon them The Bishops in a humble Petition to the King gave their Reasons in Writing but so cautiously that after it was drawn up they would let no other Man see it before they presented it why they could not comply with the Order of Council The Chancellor tho he thought his Commission big enough to suspend the Bishop of London and Vice-Chancellor of Cambridg and expel the Master and Fellows of Magalen College in Oxford yet it seems did not think it sufficient to suspend these Bishops and therefore advised the King 't was said to try them upon an Information of High Misdemeanour in the King's Bench and in order to it they were committed Prisoners to the Tower Accordingly the Bishops were tried in the King's Bench in Trinty Term following upon an Information of High Misdemeanour for their Petition to the King but how secure soever the King and Chancellor thought themselves of the Judges and tho Sir Robert Wright who was Chief Justice and Sir Richard Allibone a known Papist were two of them yet they were not all of a Piece for Mr. Justice Powel both learnedly and stoutly defended the Bishops Cause If we look down to the Bar we shall see as strange a mixture as in the Bench for the late Attorney-General Sawyer and Solicitor Finch who were so zealous to find my Lord Russel Colonel Sidney and Mr. Cornish c. guilty of High Treason and for Surrender of Charters now they are turned out are as zealous for the acquittal of the Bishops and the then Solicitor-General of a most zealous Prosecutor of Abhorrers and Searcher into the bottom of the Popish Plot as zealous for finding their Misdemeanour However the Jury acquitted the Bishops Unless it were when Monk came into the City the 12th of February 1659-60 and Colonel Cloberry told the Citizens at Guild-Hall they should have a free Parliament or when King Charles came into London the 29th of May following never were such loud Acclamations of Joy exprest as upon the Acquittal of the Bishops nor did the Bounds of the City terminate this Joy but it flew like Lightning to Hounslow Heath where the King would be present to see the Army exercised wherein he trusted more than in Justice and Righteousness to accomplish his Design It seems the King was treated that Day by my Lord of Feversham General of the Army in his Tent when the News of the Bishops Acquittal arrived at the Army which entertained it with a general Shout the King 't was said was startled at it and sent the Earl to enquire the Cause the Earl in return told the King 't was nothing but the Souldiers Joy for the Acquittal of the Bishops And call you that nothing replied the King who was much discomposed upon it and well he might for now he saw how little Confidence was to be imposed in the Army he so much relied upon It 's a Duty incumbent upon Mankind to honour and worship God and give him Thanks for the Benefits received from him and to petition and pray to him for continuance of them Next after God it 's the Duty of all Subjects to honour the King for the Benefits they receive by his Justice and Protection and to petition and pray Relief from him for Oppressions and Injuries which cannot be redressed by the ordinary Course of Law or where the Ministers of the Law either cannot or refuse to do Justice It 's therefore the Wisdom of our Constitution that Parliaments frequently meet not only to receive Petitions against Oppressions or Injuries received which were not or could not be redressed by the King's Ministers of the Law but also to correct and punish the King's Ministers themselves if they transgressed or neglected their Duty But tho frequent Parliaments are the most proper Expedients for the Subjects herein yet oftentimes Accidents may be which will not stay for relief by Parliament as in Case of the Bishops In May they are ordered to have the King's Declaration of Indulgence read in all Churches and Chappels of their respective Diocesses and to do it and to give no Reasons why they could not do it would have been a manifest Contempt of the King's Authority they could not do it either in Honour or Conscience and by an humble Petition and Address represent this to the King and for ought appeared then the King never intended to call another Parliament till he had modelled them as much to his Will as Cromwel did Barebone's Parliament This Petition is made a High Misdemeanour and the Bishops committed upon it and Father Petre the Club of Jesuits the Attorney and Solicitor-General Graham Burton c. are all plotting how to make it so So as now the Kingdom is without all hopes of a free Parliament and yet it is a High Misdemeanour to address to or petition the King And that this Order upon the Bishops to enjoin the Reading of the King's Declaration for Indulgence was a Design upon their Persons as well as upon the Church is apparent for after their Acquittal Orders from the Commissioners of Ecclesiastical Affairs were sent into all parts of England to return an Account to the Lord Chancellor of those that refused to read the Declaration of Indulgence that they might be proceeded against for their Contempt but the Reign and Rage of these Commissioners was too hot to last long and now let 's see what return of Praises and Thanksgivings the Bishops can make to God for their Deliverance God requires Truth in the inward Parts and that it should govern all the Intentions Speech and Actions of every Man in his Conversation with Man yet more in his Prayers and Petitions to God and if it be an High Crime of Hypocrisy to speak or act contrary to a Man's Knowledg or Belief for the end designed thereby is to deceive another though God cannot be deceived it 's a greater Crime to approach his Omniscience with Prayers and Petitions contrary to a Man's certain Knowledg or firm Belief I take it for granted that the Bishops understood the King's Declaration
of Indulgence was an unlawful Act and that if they had submitted to the King's Will to have enjoined it to have been read in all Churches and Chappels of their respective Diocesses it had been an unlawful Act which was one Reason they could not comply with the King's Will and that this Declaration was not intended a Favour to the Protestant Dissenters but a Design to ruin the established Religion and Church of England and the enjoining the Bishops to have read was a Design upon their Persons as well as the Declaration was upon the Church and that the King professed himself to be of the Popish Religion which they believed and declared to be Idolatry in the worshipping Images and derogatory to God's Honour by Invocation of Saints whereby they grant to Creatures an Omniscience which is inseparable from God and only to be ascribed to him and that the King had owned the Papal Power which not only claims a Dominion over all Kings and Kingdoms to be at the Pope's disposal and who had declared the Church of England to be Heretical Schismatical and Sacrilegious Persons with whom no Faith is to be kept but had assumed a Power equal or superiour to God himself in dispensing with God's Laws and setting its own above them by sending his Ambassador to the Pope and receiving his Nuncio With what Conscience then could the Bishops approach God's Altars in their highest Acts of Devotion and in the Prayer for the Parliament declare to God that he is their most religious King and in the Litany to pray to God to keep and strengthen the King in the Worship of God or Religion which the King profest And how could they delare to God he is their most gracious Sovereign when he had imprisoned them for not submitting to his unlawful Will and had owned a Power which had declared them Hereticks Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Persons who were by all ways and means to be extirpated from the Face of the Earth Yet the Bishops by their Canonical Obedience were as much obliged hereto and to enjoin the Clergy in their respective Diocesses to offer these Praises to God as they were not to obey the King's Will by enjoining the King's Declaration of Indulgence to be read by all the Clergy in their Diocesses To this Dilemma had the flattering Church and State in King Charles the II's Reign tho intending it against the Presbyterians by their Act of Vniformity brought the Church and State too in the Reign of King James But lest this establishing of Popery should have no longer support than in the King's Life a new Miracle is to be added to the Legend for the next day after the Bishops were committed to the Tower the Queen was brought to Bed of a Prince of Wales so that now they had got a Prince of Wales and the Queen received the Consecrated Clouts and the Pope by his Nuncio is become God-father a Foundation so infallible is laid for exalting the Papal Chair and extirpating the Pestilent Northern Heresy that it's Heresy to doubt it But Man purposes and God disposes and in truth without God's special Assistance not only these Dominions of England Scotland and Ireland but all the Western Parts of Europe were not to be retrieved out of I may say even a desperate State for in England the King had a standing Army of above 20000 Men and the Whigs were but too forward to congratulate the King in his Designs and in humouring him in giving him up their Charters as the Tories in King Charles his Reign in their Abhorrences of the King 's calling a Parliament and as forward then as the Whigs now in surrendring their Charters The Protestant Army in Ireland not only disbanded by Tyrconnel and a Popish Army set up but the Protestants disarmed and Scotland so perfectly subdued that there the King 's Absolute Will without reserve must pass for Law The King of Spain so weak as not able to defend himself much less relieve others the Empire engaged in a War against the Turks in the East so as the Western Parts were in no Condition to repel the Impression the French should make upon it The Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark remote and at such natural Enmity with one another that if one should side with France or England the other would engage against it and tho Holland were considerable elsewhere at Sea yet their Strength at Sea was inferiour to the English but much more in Conjunction of the French with the English However something must be done for Modesty in this State had been the highest Crime and of all Foreign Princes the Prince of Orange was most immediately concerned not only in the Oppression of the French King upon his Principality of Orange and the Dangers which threatned the Vnited Provinces by the swelling Grandeur of the French but by the King 's Arbitrary Proceedings in England for the Princess was the Presumptive Heir to the Crown of England and Scotland And since it is the Laws and Constitutions which erect these Nations into Kingdoms whereof the King is the Head then if the King destroys the Laws and Constitutions he is neither King nor the Princess of Orange Presumptive Heir to them besides since the King had assumed a Power of Dispensing with the Laws he might as well in Dispensing with the Succession and the Prince was well assured neither those about the King nor the Pope would much favour his or his Lady's Title to the Crown nor was the introducing the Prince of Wales into the World intended to have either the Prince or Princess come to the Crown of England The Prince of Orange thus injured by both these Kings and being denied the Benefit of any Humane Laws for redress has recourse to God and his Sword for relief and opposes the Justice of his Cause against the Potency of his Adversaries Nor does he take up his Sword to vindicate his own Rights only but for restoring the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to their antient Rights Laws and Privileges invaded by King James and to put a stop to the French King 's boundless Ambition and Tyranny in Murdering Ravaging and Destroying rather than making a War upon all his neighbouring Princes not dispossest and ruined by him A Design so great by so little a Prince as no less than a Divine Power could inspire him to such an Undertaking The Prince these two last years had several Conferences with the Electors of Brandenburg Saxony and the Princes of the House of Lunenburg and other Princes of Germany it 's believed in concerting Measures how to behave themselves against the Designs of these two Kings but the Results were so secret that I find no mention of them But how secret soever these Results were yet the Preparations to put them in Execution could be no Secret especially the Naval Preparations by Sea though the Dutch Ambassador assured the King they were not intended against him yet refused to communicate
my self of the Difficulties I labour under in these Expedients For a Reformation of State Affairs cannot be made but to the Hinderance of many particular Men whose Education it may be has placed them in their Stations these are known and by these I am sure to meet with all possible Opposition whereas in contending for the Benefit and Security of the Nation every body's Business is no body's Business and not one in ten thousand will concern themselves in it however Truth is sacred and a divine Air attends it and what is neglected in the present time may prevail in succeeding Generations And I will beg but one thing of my Opponents viz. That they will not answer me by Clamour but by Reason and not Reason in Extremes for thereby we shall differ and wrangle in the Means without end and let this stand for a Maxim That the Publick in all Business of this Concern is to be preferred before the Private and the Safety of the Nation before any Man 's particular Interest The Security of every Country depends upon the Strength of one Country against another in case of War between them and herein Countries are to be considered as they are placed in reference to each other The Bounds of Inland and Mediterranean Countries are Rivers Lines and Forts which are esteemed sacred and a Violence done to them is esteemed a just Cause of War and so long as these are preserved the Countries within are secured from foreign Wars Britain is an Island which knows no Bounds but the Ocean and the Kings of it are Soveraigns of those Seas which beat upon the British Shores and in preserving this Soveraignty Britain is more secure from foreign Invasion than any other Kingdom in the World how great soever which is on the Terrene Continent But this Dominion hath been of late disputed by the Dutch and is at present by the French nor shall the King of Britain be secure of the Soveraignty longer than he is able to defend it against the French and Dutch whereas at present the French contend for this Soveraignty against the English in Conjunction with the Dutch But suppose by an Accident of the Times in these Circumstances the French had joined the Dutch as they did in the first Dutch War in King Charles II's Time not 30 Years since what a Condition had these Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland been in And I say the King of England shall never be able to maintain the Dominion of the British Seas and thereby secure the Safety of the Nation unless he be able to defend it against the French in Conjunction with the Dutch I 'm a Lover of Mathematical Learning because it premises its Principles before Men begin to learn or reason from them whereas otherwise where Men begin Disputing they proceed and end in Contention and Wrangling and I say that Trade is a Principle to Navigation but above all the Fishing Trades and therefore as you encrease your Trades so you may infinitely encrease your Navigation and as Trade is a Principle to Navigation so is Navigation a Principle to maintain the Dominion of the Seas and therefore so much as the Trades of England be lessened so much will the King be less able to maintain the Dominion of the Seas upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and this will be in a double proportion for so much as we lose in either the French and Dutch will gain as well to the Loss of England as to the endangering the Safety of it against foreign Enemies How therefore we may preserve the Trades which we now enjoy and encrease them by our selves and where we cannot do by our selves by the help of others is the main Design of these Expedients Expedient I. That the King establish his Throne in Religion Justice and Mercy and that herein the Subjects Fear God and honour and obey the King for if either stray from hence they will fall either into Confusion or Tyranny whereby the Nation will become divided in it self to the endangering the Safety of it from within and without and never be happy till it be restored to what it was before Expedient II. 1. That for the Conservation of the Trades we now enjoy and for the Employment of our English Natives Foreigners continue to be excluded from our American Plantations and herein neither French nor Dutch have any Reason to complain for the Dutch do the same in their Spice Trade and so do both French and Dutch in their African and American Plantations but herein it 's not fit for the English to be restrained to English-built Ships as well for the Inconveniences which have been shewed before as for that we may want English Timber for this and our other navigating Trades and the King for building and repairing his Navy Royal wherein our English Men of War built of English Timber excel all other being more tough and less liable to splinter whereby the English Men of War built of English Timber will endure a Battery which Ships built of foreign Timber will not 2. That the home-vent of our Newcastle and Sunderland Trades in times of Peace be driven by the Natives of England exclusive to Foreigners as also our other Trades from Port to Port in England and also to Ireland tho these be impoverishing Trades to the Nation for the Pitch Tar Masts Cordage and Sails generally used in these Trades are foreign Commodities to the Nation and for acquiring which we return very little of our Manufactures and the digging the Coals out of the Pits and burning them in London and other Places no ways enriches the Nation to supply the foreign Expence for Pitch Tar c. used in them nor are either old Men Women or Children employed in these Trades but only young and lusty Men and that but half the Year so that Ipswich and other Coast-Towns which depended upon these Trades are almost quite unpeopled by reason the rest of the Inhabitants find no Employment in them However I 'm confident that this Newcastle and Home-Trade and that to our American Plantations employ above four fifths of all the Ships in all the Trades we drive by Navigation and therefore we 'll take care to keep these by excluding Foreigners out of them in times of Peace and unless Foreigners beat us out of these Trades they cannot get them from us For ought I know the Newcastle and Sunderland Trades are better carried on in English-built Ships than foreign because Coals being a bulky Commodity and lying loose in the Hold of the Ships in stormy Weather and rolling Seas batter the sides of the Ships and the English Timber being tougher than the foreign it better endures this than those foreign built but it were Arrogance for any to say because of one Convenience no other Ships shall be employed in this Trade for hereby the King may want English Timber to build and repair his Men of War besides all Arts and Sciences are
Speech against the Commons concerning Tunnage and Poundage with Remarks on it 219 224. Makes a Papist Lord Treasurer 226. Commands the Speaker to put no Question concerning Grievances 229. Imprisons several Members of Parliament 232 233. who are denied Bail 234 235. Displeas'd with the Judges Determination thereon 235. His threatning Declaration at dissolving the Parliament 236 237. Makes Peace with France to the ruin of the Reformed 237. Sends 6000 Men to assist the Swede 238. His great Fickleness 239 271 279 298 311 330. Disturbs the Dutch fishing Trade 259. His Instructions concerning the Scots solemn Covenant 264. Summons a General Assembly and Parliament in Scotland ib. Sends a Fleet and Army against the Scots 265. Boasts of his Prerogatives in calling Parliaments which is descanted on 268 270. Marches against the Scots is petition'd for a free Parliament treats with them 272. Is forsaken by his Friends 274 275. Begins his Reformation too late 275 286. Establishes Presbytery in Scotland 277. Long before he declar'd the Irish Rebels 277 278. Demands five Members of the Commons 278 290. Is advis'd to stay at London but would not 278. Is refus'd Entrance at Hull sets up his Standard at Nottingham join'd by the Nobility 279. Is worsted at Brentford 297. Summons his mungrel Parliament at Oxford makes Cessation of Arms with the Irish withdraws his Forces from Ireland 300 343. His ill Success 306 308 313 315. His Counsels with the Queen discover'd 312. Deals privately with the Irish 312 314. His Commission to Glamorgan 314. Submits to the Scots 316. who sell him Is confin'd 317. Is seiz'd by the Army 318. His Letters to the Queen threatning Cromwel by whom he 's remov'd to the Isle of Wight 323. Treats with the Parliament 324. Remarks on his sad State 316 317 325 327 333 334. His Death and Character 334 337. A Story of him concerning Buckingham's Funeral 337. Charles II. takes the Covenant and is proclaim'd in Scotland 344 345. Flies into England is routed at Worcester 346. Assists at the Pyrenean Treaty and is slighted by the French 422. Sends Letters from Breda 425. Is restor'd without Terms with an extravagant Joy rejects Cromwel's Treaty of Commerce with the French 426. whom he imitates in his Guards 427. Delivers them up Dunkirk and assists 'em against the Spaniard 429. His Luxury Debauchery c. 430. Calls a Parliament ib. Restores Episcopacy in Scotland 445. Grants a Toleration 447. Afterwards takes it off 448. Makes War on the Dutch 452. His Speech to the Commons on that occasion 452 453. His vast Revenues 453. compar'd with Q. Elizabeth's 454 455. His slight Preparations for the War 455 456. Is careless and prodigal therein 456 467 468. His ill Success in the second Fight 459 460. Makes a dishonourable Peace with them 469 495 497. Enters into a League with the Dutch and Swede 472. but breaks it off by means of his Sister who soon after dies 474. His deep Perfidiousness and Dissimulation 475. Is a Pensioner to France 477 522 523 548 561. Shuts up the Exchequer 478. Makes War again on the Dutch without Cause 478 479. Suffer'd Marsilly whom he employ'd in Switzerland to be murder'd at Paris 479. Raises an Army under Schomberg and Fitz-gerald 487. Sends 3 Lords to the French on a dark Design 488. His Demands at the Treaty at Cologn 492. Assists the French with vast Stores 498. Mediates a Peace betwixt France and the Confederates 498. Breaks his Promise to Sir W. Temple 499 503. His unprecedented Prorogation of Parliament 504. Insisted on by the Lords to be a Dissolution 505. His Rage at the Commons for their Advice descanted on 506. Adjourns them without their Consent 506. Endeavours a separate Peace betwixt France and the States 507 515. His Answer to the Pr. of Orange concerning it 511. and to Sir W. Temple 512. Treats with them 516 517. Sends Lord Duras into France 518 519. Treats about a War with France 524 525. Is govern'd by French Counsels sends Du Cross to supplant Sir W. Temple 526 527. Calls his second Parliament which met in 40 days pretends Zeal in discovering the Popish Plot 537. Chuses a new Privy-Council and promises to be ruled by his Parliament c. 538. His great Hypocrisy and Deceit 539 548 559. Declares himself a Whore-master 544 545. His dissembling Speech to the Parliament after many Prorogations with Remarks on it 547 552. Summons a Parliament at Oxford 559. Is concern'd in Fitz-Harris's Plot 564. His Declaration at dissolving the Oxford Parliament descanted on 566 568. His Death and Character 604 606. His obscure Burial and good Deeds 606 608. Died a Papist 610. Charter of London ravish'd by the Court 600 601 614. and those of other Corporations taken and surrendred 603 615 633. Children more in England than employ'd 27. Clergy when too numerous the Cause of Factions 240 241 449. Cromwel's Son-in-law imprison'd for a pretended Plot 532. Clifford foretels another Dutch War 473 Made Lord Treasurer 478. But being a Papist is forc'd to resign 491. Cobbet Colonel taken Prisoner 412. Cockain's Project for dressing Cloths monopoliz'd and the Consequences of it 65. Coke Sir Edw. grants a Warrant for seizing Somerset 78. Remov'd from being Chief Justice and why 79 82. Is prosecuted 103. Imprison'd without Cause assign'd and sued by the King who is cast 105. Not admitted into his Presence 164. Is made Sheriff and why 180. Moves for the Petition of Right c. 207 209. Is against trusting to the King 's Verbal Declaration 211 212. His sharp Speech against Buckingham 215 216. His Papers seiz'd at his Death 253. His Books made use of by the King's Party tho printed by the Parliament 279. Coleman holds Correspondence with the Jesuits 500. His Papers c. convey'd away 532. Colledge Stephen clear'd by the Grand Jury of London but basely murder'd at Oxford under a Colour of Justice 591 595. Cologn Treaty there propos'd by the Swede 492. Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs by K. James 633 637. Committee of Safety 410. Agree with Monk 412. Are threatned by Lawson 414. Commons insist on deciding Elections 52. Alarm'd at the Growth of Popery c. 97 98 493 531. Present Remonstrances to the King 98 100 217. Their stinging Petition against Papists 134 138. Zealous against them 166 168 169. Grant the greatest Tax ever given before 206. Fall upon Grievances 207 216 231 266. Their Declaration against Tunnage and Poundage 218 219. Protest against paying Money not granted by Parliament 229. Their Vow concerning Religion 231. Zealous against Delinquents 274. Their Remonstrance of all the King's Miscarriages 278 289. Inflam'd at his demanding the 5 Members 278 291. whom they vindicate 291. Pass the Self-denying Ordinance 310. Deliver up the Militia of London to the Army which is petition'd against 320. Treat with the King at the Isle of Wight 327. Refuse to grant Supplies before the Nation is secur'd 493 531. Their Votes against the King's evil Counsellors c. 494.
488. His Success against the French 492 495. Fights the French at Mount Cassel 505 513. Comes into England 507 515. Opposes a separate Peace 507 508 511. Advises concerning the Lady Mary 509. His brave Resolution against the King's Answer at which he 's much disgusted 515. Is married 516. Treats of a Peace with France 516 517. Is suspected by the Confederates and why 518 520. but afterwards clear'd 525. Routs the French before Mons 528. His generous Design to save these Nations from Ruin 648. Orleans Dutchess see Dover Ormond Marquess makes Peace with the Irish 343. His Design for the Prince defeated 402. Ossery Lord his Friendship with the Prince of Orange 508. Overbury Sir Tho. his Story is destroy'd by the King's Favourites 62 64 68 70. His Advice to Rochester 64. His Murder discover'd and how 77 79. Overton Col. conspires against Monk 396. Oxford Parliament see Parliament Treaty there broke off and why 314. P. PApists to be tolerated 674 675. see Popish Parliaments their Constitution Ends c. 48. Ought to be Annual 49. Vsed to redress Grievances before they gave Money 49 97 616. Never dissolved in Anger till the Stuarts 205 267. Endeavour'd to be overthrown by Char. II. 614 630. Parliament in 1640 redress the Nation 's Grievances 276. Enter into a Protestation 277. Charg'd with beginning the War 280 286 296. Take the Militia from the King 293 294. Seize the Fleet 295. Raise an Army 296. Their ill Success the two first Years 296 298. Treat with the Scots for Assistance 298 Take their Covenant 299. Place no Trust in the King 315. Send an Army into Ireland 317. Their Affairs inverted by the Army 319 320. Order the King to London 321. Send Propositions to him 322. Their warm Votes concerning no further Treaty with him 324. See Commons Parliament of Char. II. their first Acts 430 431 439. Address against the King's Indulgence 447. Their Severity to Dissenters 448 458. Prohibit the Importation of Irish Cattle 462. Grant a Tax for the War against Holland 467. for the Triple League 473. for a War against France 475. Pass a Bill against Papists enjoying Places 491. See Commons at Oxford Lords petition against its meeting there 559 560. Sits but 7 days their Proceedings 564 566. K. James's pack'd one 615 616. Scarce deserv'd the Name 616 617 619. Their Acts 617 618. The Commons Address concerning Popish Recusants 628. Remarks upon it 628 629. Passive Obedience unknown to our Fathers 206. It s Inconsistence 531. Peers Jurisdictions in Appeals question'd by the Commons 502 504. Penruddock Col. beheaded after Articles granted him 386. Pensioners in Parliament 490 500. Pentland Scots rise there but are terribly routed 458. Petition of Right oppos'd by Buckingham c. defended by Williams c. 207. The Lords Saving to it oppos'd by the Commons 208 209. Is passed 210 216. but broken by the King 218 227 228 236. Is printed by the King with his Answer to it 228. Philip III. of Spain his Character 36. Philips Sir Rob. against the Court 174 180 229. Plague a great one in 1 Jac. I. 37. A greater in 1 Car. I. 153. A yet greater in II's Reign 458. Pontfract Castle surrendred to the Parliament 327. Popery some of its Antichristian Doctrines 149 150. Is promoted by K. James 642. Pope's Nuncio heads a Rebellion in Ireland 277 343. His Despotick Tyranny there 343. One arrives in England 642. Popish Party conceive great hopes of England from the Match with Moderna 499 500. Have Commissions for raising Souldiers 535. Are favour'd by K. James see James II. Plot the Parliament's Votes concerning it 535 557 587. The Evidence in it justified 539 540. Some Account of it 540 541. It s Discovery supprest and how 546 547. Ports excellent ones in England 658. Portsmouth surrendred to the Parliament 296. Dutchess who she was 474. Prague see Frederick Presbyterians join with the Royalists 409. Printers petition against Laud 231. Privileges of Parliament discust 552 554. Proclamations against talking of State-Affairs 96 97. Prorogations of Parliament not used till Hen. 8. Account of one in Char. 2d's time 520 521 533. Protestants in France suffer by James I. 96. and by Charles I. see Char. I. and Rochel Puritans increase 154. Oppos'd by Laud c. 122 157 227. Persecuted by him 258. Pyrenean Treaty 421 422. Broke by the French K. 427 428 471. Q. QVeen proclaim'd Traitor by the Parliament 298. Arrives in England on some dark Designs 428. Quo Warranto see Charter R. RAcking Men declar'd to be against Law 227. Raleigh Sir Walter his Story 82 85. Is beheaded the he had been pardoned 85. Rents whence their Fall 463. Republicans conspire against Cromwel 386 399. Restore the Rump 408. Revenue of Q. Elizabeth 32. of James II. which see Richlieu some Account of him 141 142 176. Is parallel'd with Laud 239 240. Promotes the Contentions in England and Scotland 265 272 279. Engag'd in the Irish Massacre 277 343. Rochel Fleet subdued by the French English and Dutch 174. Not reliev'd by the English as promis'd 225. Miserably reduc'd 226. Roman Empire the Causes of its Ruin 17 24. Rothes Earl Commissioner in Scotland 454. Rump Parliament their Votes concerning the King with Remarks 332 333. Erect High Courts of Justice one of which takes off the King 333 346 347. Abolish Monarchy 342. Their prodigious Acts ib. Their Success in Ireland 343 344. in Scotland c. 345 347 350. against the Dutch 351 353 356. Propose a Coalition with them 350. Their Demands of them ib. 353. Their Answer to the Dutch Excuses 352 353. Their Letter to the States of Holland 357. to the States General 358. Are turn'd out by Cromwel 362. Their Character c. 363 364. Are restored by the Republicans 408. Turn out Lambert c. and constitute a Council of War 409. Are turn'd out again 410. and put in again by Fleetwood 416. Send to Monk ib. Rupert Prince lost several Battels by his Rashness 297 307 311. Forc'd into France 327. Saves the King's Life at Windsor 541. Rushworth commended 8. Russel Lord murder'd 601. S. SAndwich Earl affronted by the Duke of York is slain 480 481. Scotland Account of its Church-state 260 263 440 441. It s Alteration endeavour'd see Laud. Great Persecution there see Lauderdale Scots oppose Common-Prayer c. and enter into a solemn Covenant against it 263. Vp in Arms propose an Accommodation 265. Declare against Episcopacy 270. Declar'd Traitors enter England 271. Keep not the Articles of Pacification 280 281. Began the War 280 286. Break their Word with the King and join the Parliament 300 331. Murder in cold Blood 316. Sell the King 317. Their Government not lik'd in England ib. Are routed by Cromwel which see Their Government chang'd by the Rump 347. Have four Citadels built to curb them 410. Their happy State under Monk ib. Parliament appoint May 29. an Anniversary Thanksgiving 443 444. Their other Acts abolish Presbytery 444 447. Grant
the King a great Revenue and pass the humble Tender 454. Scroggs Chief Justice illegally discharges the Grand Inquest 547. Is impeach'd of High-Treason 556. Sea its Dominion maintain'd by Navigation 660. Sea-men refuse to fight against Rochel 159 162. Are increas'd by the Fishing Trade 390 654. Secluded Members restor'd summon a Free Parliament 419 421. Selden Mr. for the Petition of Right 209. His Speech concerning Grievances 216. Self-denying Ordinance 309 310. Seymour Mr. invades the Commons Privilege 507. Is impeach'd by 'em 555. Shaftsbury see Ashley Cooper Sham-plots of the Court for which good Men are murder'd 601 602. Sharp ABp of St. Andrews murder'd 541 542. Sheriffs instrumental to save honest Mens Lives 590 600. Illegally chosen in London 600 611. Siâ—thorp for the King 's absolute Will 197. Slingsby Sir Henry beheaded 403. Sobiez his Success at Sea on behalf of the Reformed 146. Somerset see Carr. Southampton Lord Treasurer his Death and Character 470. Spain how bounded 1 Jac. I. 11 25. It s Barrenness in People and its Causes 25. Never recover'd its great Loss in 1588 c. 28. It s low State 428 471 472 652. Spaniards their Success against France 389. Spanish Trade tho beneficial forbid by Charles I. 174. Standing Army a Grievance 539. Kept up by K. James 642 643. States of England Three not King Lords and Commons 8. but Nobles Commonalty and Clergy 57. Strasburgh treacherously seiz'd by the French 604. Succession to the Crown in England 38 47 550. Surinam taken by the Dutch 467. but regain'd 468. Surrey-Men rise for the King but are routed 326 327. Sweeds join with the French at War against Brandenburg 499 511. T. TAlbot his Barbarity and Falshood in Ireland 624 625. Is made Lord Lieutenant 641. Tangier the Commons Votes concerning it 539 557. Temple Sir William employ'd in the Treaty at Nimeguen 472 478. in the Peace with the Dutch 495. His Conference with the King 498. Treats of a Peace with the French and Confederates 499. Is highly complimented by the French 509 510. His Thoughts of the Protestation against a separate Peace 512. Is admitted to the Debates with the King concerning the Peace 516 517. His going to France prevented 518. Test in England reflected on 501. In Scotl. with Remarks 570 575. Tiddiman Sir Tho. his Neglect at Bergen 457. Tories charge the Whigs with a Design to kill the King 532. Promote the Popish Designs 544 586. Their Impudence 562. Tour De la Count his Heroick Speech to the Bohemians 91 92. Trade in Market-Towns 27. To Spain gainful 165 387 389 463. to France prejudicial 166 389 463 672. In Wool how we lost it 338 339 662. To Greenland Newfoundland Norway c. 653 656. To America Newcastle 661. To Ireland 656 666. In Timber 669. In Companies and to East-India c. 670. Ought to be free 663 670 674 679. Traquair Lord Treasurer in Scotland 264 266. Prorogues the Parliament there which is protested against 267. Treason made a Stalking Horse 322. Treaty at Munster 339 340. Treaties Account of all between the K. and Parliament 328 332. Treâ—or Secretary his Queries concerning Buckingh c. 489. Triple League 472. Trump Van Admiral for the Dutch see Dutch Tunnage and Poundage see Charles I. and Commons V. VAne Sir Henry opposes the Scots Covenant 299. Promotes Lambert's Interest 409. Villiers his Descent comes into favour 73. Advanc'd by Somerset's Fall 74. His affable Carriage at first 76. Is promoted 77 86 111. Marries the greatest Fortune in England 88. His great Titles 111. Disswades the Prince from his Match with the Infanta 113. Sets up to be popular 115 118 125. His base Dissimulation in Spain 116 117 158. Charg'd with being a Papist and endeavouring to seduce the Prince 118. His Narrative of Proceedings in Spain with Remarks 127 129. Loses the King's Favour by means of the Spanish Ambassador 132 133. Restor'd to it again by the Keeper's fine Contrivance 133 134. Eager for a War with Spain 155. His base dealing with the Rochellers and the Merchants whose Ships he hired 159 163. His Behaviour at Paris 157 163. Is impeach'd by the Commons 189 190. Procures a War with France 193 196 198. His false Steps therein 198. Is routed 198 199. Is stabb'd 225. Vsurer a Story of one 555. Utrecht surrendred to the French 487. W. WAgstaff Sir Jos seizes the Judges at Salisbury 386 Wales its pretended Prince 647. Waller Sir William for the Parliament 298 306. See Fitz-harris Walloons persecuted by Laud 254 255. Settle in Holland 255. Come again into England and encourag'd by Char. II. 472 473 607. Walter Sir Joh. dissents from the Judges and is discharged 236. War with Holland projected by the French 450 473 478 484. War and Peace-making claim'd by the King 506. Warwick Earl Admiral for the Parliament 295. Wenthworth Sir Tho. a true Patriot 209 212. but made President of the North to his Ruin 243. and Lieutenant of Ireland 254 260. Weston Sir Rich. made Lord Treasurer tho a Papist 226. Whigs and Tories 531 532. Compar'd with the Prerogative-men and Puritans in Laud's time 560 561. Whitlock Serjeant his Thoughts of Cromwel c. 304 305 348 349 359 361. Advises to bring in the King 415. Wilkinson Capt. his Story his noble Constancy 596 598. Williams Lord-Keeper his Thoughts of the Spanish Match 113. His Ruin intended by Laud c. 124 179 253. Stops the King's Prohibition to the Judges and Bishops 126. His curious Contrivance on Buckingham's behalf 133 c. Is commended by the King for it 135. Ill requited by Buckingham 136 155. His Reasons against a War with Spain 155. His Advices to the King 168 170 302. to Buckingham 169. His Character 176 177. His Requests to the King c. 177 178. Is fin'd and imprisoned by Laud 239. Willis Sir Cromwel's Spy 393 402. Windebank Sir Fr. seizes Sir Coke's Papers favours Popery 253. Woollen Manufactures the Inconveniences they labour under 666. Worcester Fight 346. Workhouses 665 677. FINIS BOOKS sold by Andrew Bell at the Cross-keys and Bible in Cornhil THE General History of England as well Ecclesiastical as Civil from the earliest Accounts of Time to the Reign of his present Majesty King William Taken from the most Antient Records Manuscripts and Historians Containing the Lives of the Kings and Memorials of the most Eminent Persons both in Church and State With the Foundations of the Noted Monasteries and both the Universities Vol. I. By James Tyrrel Esq Fol. A New History of Ecclesiastical Writers Containing an Account of the Authors of the several Books of the Old and New Testament and the Lives and Writings of the Primitive Fathers An Abridgment and Catalogue of all their Works c. To which is added A Compendious History of the Councils c. Written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin Doctor of the Sorbon In seven Volumes Fol. An Essay concerning the Power of the Magistrate in Matters of Religion wherein all the Arguments for Persecution and against Toleration are examin'd and refuted With the most proper Method of destroying all Schisms Heresies c. A Detection of the Court and State of England during the four last Reigns and the Interregnum Consisting of Private Memoirs c. with Observations and Reflections And an Appendix discovering the present State of the Nation Wherein are many Secrets never before made publick as also a more impartial Account of the Civil Wars in England than has yet been given By Rog. Coke Esq The third Edition much corrected with an Alphabetical Table Scotland's Soveraignty asserted Being a Dispute concerning Homage against those who maintain that Scotland is a Fee Liege of England and that the K. of Scots owes Homage to the K. of England By Sir Tho. Craig Translated from the Latin Manuscript with a Preface containing a Confutation of that Homage said to be performed by Malcom III. to Edward the Confessor and published by Mr. Rymer By Geo. Ridpath Ridpath his Shorthand yet shorter or the Art of Short-writing advanc'd in a more swift easy regular and natural Method than hitherto The second Edition A Discourse on the late Funds of the Million Act Lottery-Act and Bank of England Shewing that they are injurious to the Nobility and Gentry and ruinous to the Trade of the Kingdom By J. Briscoe The third Edition Mr. John Asgil his Plagiarism detected c. Emblems by Fra. Quarles with the Hieroglyphicks All the Cuts being newly illustrated The History of Genesis illustrated with 40 Copper Plates Advice to the Young or the Reasonableness and Advantages of an Early Conversion In three Sermons on Eccles 12. 1. By Joseph Stennett The Groans of a Saint under the Burden of a Mortal Body A Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. John Belcher late Minister of the Gospel from 2 Cor. 5. 4. By the same Author Several Practical Pieces of Mr. Daniel Burgess viz. Rules for hearing the Word of God The Sure Way to Wealth The most difficult Duty made easy Foolish Talking and Jesting describ'd and condemn'd The Christian Decalogue or the Gospel's ten Commandments The Church's Triumph over Death a Funeral Sermon on Mr. Robert Fleming A Funeral Sermon from Job 14. 14. on Mrs. Sarah Bull. Holy Union and Holy Contention describ'd and press'd In single Tracts or bound up together Fleming's Fulfilling of the Scripture Rutherford's Letters An Exposition with Practical Observations on the Book of Ecclesiastes By Alexander Nisbet A Directory of Prayer being a Commentary on the 20th Psalm By R. Campbel Chamberlen's Midwifery the third Edition Artamenes or the Grandâ—Cyrus In 10 Vol. A Birchen Rod for Dr. Birch being an Answer to his Sermon before the Commons Jan. 30. A Defence of the Arch-bishop's Sermon on the Death of the Late Queen and of the Sermons of the late ABp Bp of Lichfield and Coventry Bp of Ely Bp of Salisbury Dr. Sherlock c. on that and other Solemn Occasions against the Aspersions of two Jacobite Pamphlets A Tragedy called the Popish Plot reviv'd Wherein are several Letters c. of Dr. Oates to the Late Kings and other Great Men. The Rye-house Travestie The History of the Late Jacobite Plot in a Letter to the Bp of Rochester by T. Percival * Aesar in the Tuscan Tongue is a God See Suet. c. 97. in the Life of Augustus
one the 4th of Edw. the 3d c. 14. the other 36 Edward 3. c. 10. and when Parliaments thus frequently met Grievances were nipt in the Bud the Courts of Law kept to the Administration of Justice uprightly the Ambition of great Men restrained Factions and Innovations suppressed and when the Parliament met thus frequently the King had an Account of the State of the Nation and upon Redress of Grievances if any were the Parliament in acknowledgment of their Duty gave the King a Gratuity sometimes a Fifteenth other times a Subsidy and at other times a Subsidy and a Fifteenth and sometimes a Subsidy and two Fifteenths but never more before the 35 of Eliz. and the King in return granted a general Pardon to his Subjects with such Exceptions as the Parliament pleased and thus a mutual Love and Understanding between the King and his Subjects was nourished and encreased Whereas by the long discontinuance of Parliaments Grievances multiply and take Root so as they become so much more difficult to be redressed by how much longer the Discontinuances last The Favourites by their flattering the Prince not only keep him in Ignorance of the State of his Subjects but fix the Prince so to their Will that it becomes so habitual in him that the Prince prefers them before his Subjects and their Flatteries before the Advice of his Parliament and often takes their parts before that of the Parliament and Nation These long Intervals of Parliaments you 'll see will beget long Parliaments and the Members get to be chosen by the Favour of great Men and vast Expence so that the Grievances with the Parliament should redress become diffused into the Body of the Parliament than which nothing can be more dangerous to the Constitution of Parliament Besides that the publick Business may not be interrupted during the Sessions of Parliament the Members of both Houses have Privileges whereof they are the only Judges both in their own Persons and of their Servants whereby they are exempted from Arrests or any Process at Law which is not only grievous to the Subjects but oft the Ruine of them But now it 's time to see what the King's Proclamation for calling his first Parliament tended to Before King James his coming to the Crown of England the Election of Members in the House of Commons was so free that the Letters of the King or any Noble Man to chuse a Member was judged Cause sufficient to render the Election void but the King by this Proclamation gives order what Sorts of Men and how Qualified should be chosen by the Commons and concludes We Notify by these Presents That all Returns and Certificates of Knights Citizens and Burgesses ought and are to be brought to the Court of Chancery and there to be filed upon Record and if any be found to be made contrary to this Proclamation the same is to be rejected as unlawful and insufficient and the City or Borough to be fined for the same and if it be found that they have committed any gross or wilful Default or Contempt in the Election Return or Certificate that then their Liberties according to the Law are to be seized as forfeited And if any Person take upon him the Place of a Knight Citizen or Burgess not being duly elected and sworn according to the Laws and Statutes in that behalf provided and according to the Purport Effect and true Meaning of this our Proclamation then every Person so offending to be fined and imprisoned for the same Never was such a Prelude to the Meeting of a Parliament by any of the Kings of England either of the Saxon Danish Norman or British Race and if the King in the Beginning thus extends his first Note above ELA to what Pitch will he strain his Prerogative hereafter However since Forfeitures of Charters Fining and Imprisoning of Members not elected and returned according to this Proclamation were the Penalties imposed by it for the better Execution it might have been declared who should judg of these Elections and Returns or by what Law It fell out unluckily I think I may say designedly that upon the opening of the Parliament several of the House of Commons one of which was Sir Herbert Crofts coming to hear the King's Speech in the House of Lords had the Door shut upon them and were repulsed by a Yeoman of the Guard one Bryant Cash with the uncivil and contemptible Terms of Goodman Burgess you come not here The King in a long and tedious Speech which you may read at large in Stow's Chronicle after he had expressed his Thanks to the whole Nation for their Universal Acclamations in receiving him for their undoubted Sovereign which so much conduced to their Happiness in the Union of all Claims in his Person being the undoubted Heir of Hen. 7 and Elizabeth the Eldest Daughter of Edward the 4th wherein the Titles of the Houses of York and Lancaster were reconciled He tells them the Wonders which he will do both in reference to the inward and outward Peace of the Kingdom which how well he performed you will hear hereafter But as to the Glory which he ascribes to himself of being King by inherent Birthright from Hen. 7. and his Queen I think he could not have taken a worse Topick for what he so much gloried in For no hereditary Monarch has a better Title to his Crown than the Ancestor from whom he first claims had and it is evident Henry the 7th had no Colour of Title to the Crown of England by Inheritance being only descended from John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford his Concubine when John of Gaunt's Wife was alive nor could the King claim any Title from the Wife of Henry the 7th for Henry himself would never own she had any reigning not only during her Life without naming her in the Coins Proclamations or Laws but after her Death and was not only crowned without her but called a Parliament without her ere he was married to her and had the Crown entailed upon him and the Heirs of his Body before he married her Besides there is no Averment against an Act of Parliament and the Act of the first of Richard the 3d declares all the Issue of Edward the 4th by the Lady Grey the Mother of Henry the 7th's Wife to be Illegitimate and so uncapable of any Inheritance to the Crown of England But how edified soever the Commons were with the King's Speech they were little pleased with the Yeomen of the Guards usage of their Members which in due time the King shall hear of However the King who since his coming in had been acquainted only with Flatteries introduced with the Epithet of most sacred which I find rarely applied to any of his Predecessors and how properly applied to him giving himself up to a dissolute and prophane Life let another judg was buoyed up with a mighty Expectation of the Success of his Proclamation and Speech which did not succeed
two Treaties which were for the Spanish Match and Recovery of the Palatinate and that his Father being thereby engaged in a War for the Recovery of the Palatinate they would now assist him in the carrying of it on The Speech you may read in Rushworth fol. 175 176. But Mr. Rushworth is mistaken and I wonder Nalson and Franklin took no notice of it that my Lord Keeper Coventry did second it for it was my Lord Keeper Williams whose quaint and learned Speech you may read in the second Book of the Life of the Keeper by the Bishop of Litchfield fol. 9 10. Nor was Williams displaced till the 23d of October following as you may see fol. 27. The Commons before they enter'd upon Grievances Sir Edward Coke moving it to ingratiate themselves with the King voted him two entire Subsidies and the last Parliament but the Summer before gave his Father three Subsidies and three Fifteens which were more than ever any Parliament granted the King in threefold the time before But that we may better look forward look a little back King James upon the Rreach of the Spanish Match put forth a Proclamation for putting the Laws in Execution against Popish Recusants but upon the first of May King Charles sent this Warrant to my Lord Keeper Williams Charles Rex RIght Reverend and Right Trusty c. Whereas we have been moved in Contemplation of our Marriage with the Lady Mary Sister of Our dear Brother the Most Christian King to grant to Our Subjects Roman Catholicks a Cessation of all and singular Pains and Penalties as well Corporal as Pecuniary whereunto they be subject or any ways may be liable by any Laws Statutes Ordinances or any thing whatsoever or for or by reason of their Recusancy or Religion in every Matter or thing concerning the same Our Will and Pleasure is and we do by these Presents authorize and require you upon the Receipt hereof That immediately you do give Warrants Order and Directions as well unto all our Commissioners Judges and Justices of the Peace as also unto all other our Officers and Ministers as well Spiritualas Temporal respectively to whom it may appertain that they and every of them do forbear all and all manner and cause to be forborn all manner of Proceedings against our said Subjects Rom. Catholicks and every of them as well by Information Presentment Indictment Conviction Process Seizure Distress or Imprisonment or any other Ways and Means whatsoever whereby they may be molested for the Causes aforesaid And further also That for time to come you take notice of and speedily redress all Causes and Complaints for or by reason of any thing done contrary to this our Will and this shall be unto you and to all to whom you shall give such Warrant Order or Direction sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that Behalf And this is so much more remarkable that this Warrant was granted when Buckingham was so busy in setting out the Fleet against the Rochellers Here was a Suspension of the Laws with a Witness by the King 's absolute Will and Pleasure notwithstanding all the Officers by Law were under the Obligations of their Oaths to the contrary and for the first-Fruits of this Warrant the King granted upon the 10th of May a special Pardon to twenty Roman Priests of all Offences committed by them against the Laws Can any Man now believe that the Parliament 18th Jac. should be so jealous that the Spanish Match would be a Door to let in a Toleration of Popery and therefore advised the King to break off the Match with Spain and yet this Parliament should be so purblind as not to see this put in Execution at the Instance of the French in this King's Reign especially whenas the Spaniards unless in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth were the English Friends and Allies and with whom the English had a most beneficial and gainful Trade for 22 Years in King James's Reign whereby they became doubly more enriched than in the 44 Years Reign of Queen Elizabeth whereas the French as they were a Neighbouring Nation were ever faithless and Enemies to the English Nation and with whom it always had a Trade to the English Loss as much to the enriching France as to the impoverishing the English Hereupon the Commons sent Sir Edward Coke with a Message to the Lords to desire their Concurrence in a Petition to the King against Recusants which was agreed to and presented to the King who answered That he was glad the Parliament were so forward for Religion and assured them they should find him as forward that their Petition being long could not be presently answered Nor were the Commons less alarmed at the countenancing the Arminian Sect whose Tenets next to Laud Mr. Richard Mountague propagated and about the latter end of King James his Reign published a Book entituled A new Gag for an old Goose which the Parliament took notice of and referred it to the Archbishop of Canterbury who disallowed it and sought to suppress it and ended in an Admonition given to Mountague but after King James his Death who was an Enemy to these Tenets Mountague then printed it again and dedicated it to King Charles now Buckingham and Laud ruled all Hereupon the Commons brought Mountague to the Bar of their House and appointed a Committee to examine the Errors therein and gave Thanks to the Arch-bishop for the Admonition to Mountague whose Books they voted to be contrary to the Articles established in the Parliament to tend to the King's Dishonour and Disturbance of the Church and State and took Bond of Mountague for his Appearance But the King intimated to the House that the things determined concerning Mountague without his Privity did not please him for he was his Servant and Chaplain in ordinary and that he had taken the Business into his own Hands whereat the Commons seemed much displeased This was the first Breach between the King and Commons and here let 's see what hasty Steps Laud took to fulfil King James his Prophecy of him in making Dissensions and to be a Fire-brand to set the Nation on fire by fomenting and exasperating the Factions in it In this Act of Mountague you may observe a twofold Crime First his Contempt and Disobedience to the Church of England which Laud pretended so much to exalt and to the Parliament that his Book being questioned in Parliament and by the Commons committed to the Arch-bishop who not only disallowed and suppressed it but Mountague being admonished against it he should upon King James his Death presume to reprint it in Defiance to the Metropolitan of England contrary to his Canonical Obedience and to the Commons thereby to make a Dissension between the King and them And secondly his being so audacious as to dedicate it to the King thereby to engage the King in defence of his Arrogance and Disobedience and for a Reward of this special Piece of Service before King James was two
told them that the King of his Grace and Favour upon their granting 12 Subsidies to be paid in three Years would forbear levying Ship-Money and abolish it and for their Grievances they should rely upon his Royal Promise and give as much time now as may be and after at Michaelmas next and that the King expected a positive Answer Hereupon the House was turned into a grand Committee and spent the whole Day upon the Message but came to no Resolution and desired Sir Henry Vane to acquaint the King that the House would next day proceed upon the King's Supply But next Morning early Secretary Windebank in actual Correspondence and Conspiracy with Richlieu's Chaplain for subverting our Religion and introducing Popery commanded the Speaker to Whitehall and the same Day the King dissolved the Parliament and the next Day the Lord Brook's Study Cabinet and Pockets were searched for Papers and Mr. Bellasis and Sir John Hotham were convened before the Council to answer concerning Passages in Parliament and giving no satisfactory Answer were committed Prisoners to the Fleet till further Order from the King and Council and Mr. Crew was committed close Prisoner to the Tower till further Order from the Council and no Cause shewed in either of these Warrants The greatest Objection against Hereditary Monarchy is that Princes Ears are always open to Minions Flatterers and Sycophants whereby they rarely understand the state of their own Affairs or of their Subjects To attemper this the Wisdom of our Constitution ordains That Parliaments be frequently held to represent to the King the state of the Nation and so to inform him of Grievances that they may be redressed And so inviolably has this mutual Correspondence between the King and Parliament been observed in all Ages that I do not believe any King or Queen of England and of the English Race since Henry 3. ever dissolved one Parliament in Displeasure before King James whereas of eight Parliaments these two Kings of the Scotish Race dissolved seven in Displeasure Yet never did Parliaments in any Reign demean themselves more chearfully to any King than to these two and I challenge any one to shew that in any one respect they intrenched upon any just Prerogative of either of these Kings or did any Act not warranted by former Precedents It 's true Queen Elizabeth would not endure to have the Parliament to meddle with the state of the Church as 't was established nor hear of declaring a Successor and when either of these were moved contrary to her express Order she would commit the Members but easily dismiss them otherwise I believe in no Age any Member of Parliament was ever committed or censured by any King of England before King James for debating or reasoning of the state of the Nation or Church In the 20th of Edward 3. John of Gaunt the King's Son the Lords Latimer and Nevil were accused in Parliament for misadvising the King and were sent to the Tower for it and Henry 4. Rot. Parl. 5. upon the Complaint of the Commons against four of his Servants and Counsellors that they might be removed declared openly That tho he knew nothing against them in particular yet he was assured that what the Lords and Commons required of him was for the Good of himself and Kingdom and therefore he banish'd them and at the same time declared he would do so by any other who should be near his Royal Person if they were so unhappy as to fall under the Hatred of his People Whereas this King tho the Duke of Buckingham were accused of more Crimes in Parliament than is recorded of Pierce Gaveston and the Spencers in 2d's time and of the Duke of Ireland Tresilian and Belknap in 2d's time and of the Death of this King's Father to boot yet rather than the Duke shall be brought to Trial the King dissolves the second Parliament of his Reign And in his Declaration for dissolving the three Parliaments calls the questioning his Ministers an Invasion upon his Prerogative and that through them they endeavoured to wound their Soveraign's Honour and Government Since the Statute De Tallagio non Concedendo in the Reign of Edward the I I think no mention has been made that ever any King of England taxed the Subject before this King and his Father except Edward the IV by Benevolence for which his Memory is bitterly stained in the Parliament-Roll of the second Chapter of Richard the III tho it be not in the printed Statutes and by a Loan demanded in the Reign of Henry the VIII by Cardinal Wolsey the raising of which had near raised a Rebellion which when it came to the King's Ear he laid the Blame upon the Cardinal and said he would not rend his Subjects from the Law and forbid further proceeding in it Arch-bishop Abbot excepts against his Licensing Sybthorp's Sermons for that the King 's taxing Loans by his own Authority was neither by the Laws nor Customs of England the King in his Answer says He did not stand upon the Laws and Customs of England for he had a Precedent for it and would insist upon it The Arch-bishop replied He thought it was a Mistake and feared there was no such Precedent and that Henry the VIII desired but the sixth part of Mens Estates but the King required the full six Parts so much as the Men are set at in the Subsidy-Book And when the Commons in the third Year of his Reign made a Remonstrance against the King's taking Tunnage and Poundage not granted by Parliament the King calls this a detracting from their Soveraign and commands all who have or shall have any Copies of it to burn them upon Pain of his Indignation and high Displeasure The King for Causes of dissolving this Parliament the last he shall ever dissolve begins with the usual Stile That he well knows that the Calling Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving Parliaments are undoubted Prerogatives inseparably annexed to his Imperial Crown of which he is not bound to give any Account but to God alone no more than of his other Regal Actions But quid gloriaris Did ever any King of England say this before his Father and himself Or in what common-Law or Acts of Parliament is this to be found Or if he had such Power Why does the King so often boast of it Sure it had been better done by another than himself Is this a time of day when this Prince had lost all his Honour abroad to magnify himself that he has Power to dissolve Parliaments at home and thereby obstruct those Ways by which he might unite himself to his Subjects and then glory that he is only accountable to God for all his Actions Nebuchadnezzar's Boast Is not this the Babel which I have built was but a Bauble to this He said this but once and God sent him seven Years among Wild Beasts and he saw his Pride and he repented This King upon all Occasions makes his Boasts but I do not