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king_n	contrary_a	house_n	knight_n	140,483	5	12.1613	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91269	The second part of A seasonable legal and historical vindication, and chronological collection of the good old fundamental liberties, franchises, rights, lawes, government of all English freemen; their best inheritance and onely security against all arbitrary tyranny and Ægyptian taxes. Wherein the extraordinary zeal, courage, care, vigilancy, civill, military and Parliamentary consultations, contests, to preserve, establish, perpetuate them to posterity, against all tyrants, usurpers, enemies, invaders, both under the ancient pagan and Christian Britons, Romans, Saxons. The laws and Parliamentall great councils of the Britons, Saxons. With some generall presidents, concerning the limited powers and prerogatives of our British and first Saxon kings; ... are chronologically epitomized, ... By William Prynne of Swainswick, Esquire.; Seasonable, legall, and historicall vindication and chronologicall collection of the good, old, fundamentall, liberties, franchises, rights, laws of all English freemen. Part 2	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1655 (1655)	Wing P4072; Thomason E820_11; ESTC R203292	115,608	151

be desired by the House for this breach of Privilege and though the Northern Army nor their Officers ever advanced towards or offered the least violence to the Houses or their priviledges by Petition or otherwise Then certainly the Parliaments own Army Officers Counsels manifold ●high printed Declarations of Aug. 18. 1647. Sept. 6. 1648. ●and others before and since their professed open Oppositions Impeachments against the very Proceedings Votes Orders Ordinances Members of both Houses of Parliament which first raised them principally for their defence b See their Impeachments printed in their Books of Declarations The History of Indepency and my Speech in Parliament their Impeachment of eleven Members of the House of Commons and sundry Lords at once their securing of above 40. and secluding of above five parts of six of the whole House of Commons at once their avowed marches with the whole Body of the Army in Battalia severall times to force the Houses seise their Members overaw affright dismember dissolve the Parliament it self and their own new erected Junctoes since and justification of it to all the world in print See their humble Answer touching the secured and secluded Members Jan. 3. 1648. The free state of the life of the Common-wealth of England 1654. and their Declarations concerning their dissolution of their two Jun after these Misdemeanours of the King without the least repentance for them must needs bee farre more execrable unwarrantable and criminall than the Kings and deserve a severer censure than his Peccadilioes in respect of their crimes And if by the whole armies printed Remonstrance August 18. 1647. the tumult of some unarmed London Apprentices who offered some small force to the Houses to the violation of their Priviledges without securing or secluding any one Member deserved a speedy and exemplary capitall proceeding against the principall contrivers and Actors in it as they then declared and vehemently urged again and again in that Remonstrance Nay if by their own late printed Instrument of the Government of the Common-wealth of England c. Articles 14. 16. all and every person and persons who have aided advised assisted or abetted in any war against the Parliament since the first day of January 1641. unlesse they have since been in the Service of the Parliament and given ●ignal testimony of their good affections thereunto shall be disabled and be uncapable to be elected or to give any Vote in the Election of any Member to serve in the next or in the three succeeding trienniall Parliaments and all Votes and Elections given to the contrary shall be null and void And if any person so made uncapable shall forfeit one full years value of his reall estate and one full third part of his personall estate in case he shall give his Vote for election of Members to serve in Parliament as they there adjudge though such persons as they intend thus to disable never waged any actual war against the Parliament it self or its Members immediately but onely against the Forces raised by the Parliament and so mediately and indirectly only against the Parliament the case of all the late Kings adherents and assistants not within the letter but meaning of these Articles then doubtlesse those Army Officers souldiers and their Confederates who advised aided assisted abetted in one or more warres against the Parliament Houses and Parliament Members themselves whom they immediately assaulted forced secured secluded dissipated dissolved destroyed and have justified it severall times in print without giving signall testimony of their good affections to the Parliament and in this their Instrument have laid many Chains clogs restraints on all new future Parliaments of their own framing inconsistent with the Honour freedome priviledges and being of real Parliaments are by their own verdict and Instrument totally disabled as much as the archest Malignants and Cavaliers by the very letter of these Articles to be elected or give any vote for the election of Members in the four next succeeding Parliaments and those who have given their Votes in the late Elections have thereby forfeited at least one full years value of their reall and one full third part of their personall estates and deserve as high if not an higher censure as any sequestered or other Delinquents condemned formerly by them for bearing arms levying and abetting any war but onely mediately against the Parliament and as high an uncapacity to be put not onely on themselves but their Heir males to serve in Parliament as the Statute of 21 R. 2. c. 6 imposed heretofore on others for a farre lesse offence to secure the Members and Priviledges of all succeeding Parliaments from such unpresidented forcible violences ruptures dismembrings and dissolutions as the last Parliament sustained by the Armies outrage and confederacy against them of which I desire onely to make them truly sensible And farther to convince the Army-Officers souldiers of their late great injustice to and affronts contempts against the Parliament which raised them in relation to our ancient fundamentall Government and chief Members of the Parliament I shall desire them and all their confederates in cold blood seriously to consider whether they have not by their undutifull violent proceedings against them contrary to the Votes Declarations Remonstrances of the PARLIAMENT endeavoured as much as in them is to falsifie this clause in in both Houses Declaration Nov. 2. 1642. Although they would perswade his Majesty That there is little confidence to be placed in our Modesty and Duty yet AS GOD IS WITNESSE OF OUR THOUGHTS SO SHALL OUR ACTIONS WITNESSE TO ALL THE WORLD that TO THE HONOR OF OUR RELIGION and OF THOSE WHO ARE MOST ZEALOUS IN IT so much strucken at by the contrivers of that Declaration under odious names we shall suffer more for and from our Soveraign then we hope God will ever permit the malice of evill Councellers to put us to And although the happinesse of this and all Kingdomes dependeth chiefly upon God Yet WE ACKNOWLEDGE THAT IT DOTH SO MAINLY DEPEND UPON HIS MAJESTY and THE ROYALL BRANCHES OF THAT ROOT that as WEE HAVE HERETOFORE SO WE SHALL HEREAFTER esteem no hazard too great no reproach too vile but that we shall willingly go through the one and undergo the other That we and the WHOLE KINGDOME MAY ENJOY THAT HAPPINESSE which we cannot in an ordinary way of providence expect FROM ANY OTHER FOVNTAIN OR STREAM then those from whence were the poison of evill Councels once removed from about them no doubt but we and THE WHOLE KINGDOME SHOVLD BE SATISFIED MOST ABOUNDANTLY And on the contrary have they not fully and actually verified in respect of themselves and their Confederates in the Houses this Odious aspersion then only in prediction cast by the KING on the PARLIAMENT but by them at that time renounced with greatest detestation and drawn those sad consequences on the whole Kingdome wherewith both HOUSES conclude that Declaration in these words 7. That the

Iceni famous for his riches which he had been a long time gathering by his will made Claudius and his own two daughters his heir thinking by his flattery to make his Kingdom and house sufficiently secure from Injurie which fell out quite contrary for his Kingdome by the Roman Centurions and his house by Slaves was seised on and spoyled as lawfull booty his wife Boadicia whipped his Daughters deflowred the chiefest persons of that Province dispossessed of their lawfull Inheritance and the Kings kindred reputed and used as slaves Hereupon the Icenians began seriously to discourse of their present bondage and miseries made subject to a Lieutenant which sucked their bloud and to a Procurator that sought their substance whiles with a servile fear they yealded to please the meanest Souldier as though the Heavens had framed them only for servitude and the earth appointed to bear their injuries unrevenged and meeting together in secret consultations they ripped up their wrongs and oppressions and aggravated them to the highest saying that no other good was to be looked for by their sufferance but that more grievous burdens should be imposed upon them still as men ready to bear all willingly c. That the Roman Souldiers from whose unsatiable avarice and unbridled lust nothing was free were but a handfull in respect of the Britons that if they would but endevour to follow the prowess and valour of their Ancestors and not be dismayed with the doubtfull successe of one skirmish or two they would soon enforce them to recede out of the Island c. In fine they resolved That Liberty was to be preferred though bought with their lives and Bondage to be avoided if not otherwise then by their deaths Whereupon chusing Boadicea for their Leader they suriously fell upon the insulting oppressing Romans slew no lesse then seventy thousand of them and their confederates sacked and plundered their free Town Verolamium resolving to extirpate and drive them out of the Island Upon this Suetonius the Roman Governor collecting all the Forces he could raise against her She made a most gallant encouraging Oration to her Britons thus aggravating their oppressions What abuse can be so vile that we have not suffered or indignity so contemptible that we have not borne my stripes yet felt and seen against their own Laws do witnesse well what Government they intend Your wealth is consumed by their wastfull wantonnesse your painfull travels upholding their idlenesse do seal the issues of our succeeding miseries if not timely prevented by one joynt endevour You that have known the Freedome of life will with me confesse I am sure that Liberty though in a poor estate is better then fetters of gold and yet this comparison hath no correspondency in us for we now enjoy no estate at all nothing being ours but what they will leave us and nothing left us that they can take away having not so much as our very heads tole free Other subdued Nations by death are quit from Bondage but we after death must live servile and pay tribute even in our graves Have the heavens made us the ends of the world and have not assigned us the ends of our wrongs Or hath nature among all her free works created us only Britons for bondage Why what are the Romans are they more then men or immortall Their slain carcasses sacrificed by us tell us they are no Gods But you will say they are our Conquerors Indeed overcome we are but by our selves our own factions still giving way to their invasions Our dissersions have been their only rising and our designes been weakned by homebred Conspiracies We have as much to keep as birthright can give us that is our Island possessed by our Ancestors from all antiquity ours by inheritance theirs by intrusion claimes so different in the scale of Justice that the Gods themselves must needs redresse Whereupon the Britons fighting valiantly lost eighty thousand of their lives to redeem their Liberties and Boadicea seeing her Army routed chose rather out of a noble spirit to end her life and miseries together by poyson then to live under the Roman bondage and see her Country languish under their intolerable oppressions About the year of our Lord 179. or rather 185. Lucius King of Britain who succeeded his Father Coillus by descent being converted to the Christian faith with most of his Nobles and Subjects the first Christian King and Kingdom in the world petitioned Pope Eleutherius as the marginall Authors testifie Ad Petitionem Regis et procerum Regni Britannie assembled no doubt in a general Councell when they made and sent this Petition to send a copy of the Imperial Roman Laws to govern the people by who returned the King this answer in writing You have requested from us that the Laws of Rome and Caesar might be sent over which you desire to use in the Realm of Britain The Roman and Caesars Laws we may alwayes reject but the Law of God in no wise You have received of late through Gods mercy in the Realm of Britain the law and faith of Christ y●u have with you in the Realm both Testaments out of them by Gods grace per consilium Regni vestri sume ●egem by the Councell of your Realm take a Law and by it through the patience of God govern your Realm of Britain For you are Gods Vicar in the Realm c. The Kings children are the Christian Nations who live and consist in the Realm under your protection and peace according to that in the Gospell As the hen gathereth the chickens under her wings the Nations and people of the Realm are yours which being divided you ought to congregrate into one t● reduce to concord and peace and to the faith and Law of Christ and to the holy Church to foster maintain protect governe and always to defend from injurious and malicious persons and from enemies Woe to the Realm whose King is a childe and whose Princes eat in the morning I call not a King a child from his Nonage but for his fol●y iniquity and madnesse according to the royall Prophet Bloudy and deceitfull men shall not live out half their dayes c. A King is denominated from ruling not from a Kingdome Thou shalt be a King while thou rulest well which unlesse thou shalt do the name of a King shall not appear in thee and thou shalt lose the name of a King which God forbid Almighty God grant you so to rule the Realm of Britain that you may reign for ever with him whose Vicar you are in the Realm aforesaid This Epistle shewes that the power of making Laws was vested only at that time in this Popes judgment in the King and his great Councel of the Realm and that Kings only ought to rule and govern their people righteously according to the Laws of God and the Realm as Gods Vicars upon earth and to protect them from all violence wrong and enemies

Iames was no King at all before his Coronation and that therefore they might by force of Arms lawfully surprise his person and Prince Henry his Son and imprison them in the Tower of London or Dover-Castle till they inforced them by duress to grant a free toleration of their Catholike Religion to remove some evil counsellors from about them and to grant them a free Pardon for this violence or else they would put some further Project in execution against them to their destruction But this Conspiricy being discovered The Traytors were apprehended arraigned condemned and Watson and Clerk two Iesuited Priests who had drawn them into this Conspiracy upon the aforesaid Pretext with some others executed as Traytors all the Iudges of England resolving that King Iames being right Heir to the Crown by descent was immediately upon the death of Queen Elizabeth actually possessed of the Crown and lawful King of England before any Proclamation or Coronation of him which are but Ceremonies as was formerly adjudged in the case of Queen Mary and Queen Iane 1 Mariae there being no Interregnum by the Law of England as is adjudged declared by Act of Parliament 1 Iac. c. 1. worthy serious perusal 8. By their horrid Gun-powder Treason Plot contrived fomented by Garnet Superiour of the English Iesuites Gerard Tesmond and other Iesuites who by their Apostolical Power did not onely commend but absolve from all sin the other Iesuited Popish Conspirators and Faux THE SOULDIER who were their instruments to effect it Yea the Iesuitical Priests were so Atheistical as that they usually concluded their Masses with Prayers for the good success of this Hellish plot which was suddenly with no less then 36 Barrels of Gunpowder placed in a secret Vault under the House of Lords to have blown up and destroyed at once King Iames himself the Queen Prince Lords Spiritual and Temporal with the Commons assembled together in the Upper-House of Parliament upon the 5 of November Anno Dom. 1605. and then to have forcibly seised with armed men prepared for that purpose the persons of our late beheaded King then Duke of York and the Lady Elizabeth his Sister if absent from the Parliament and not there destroyed with the rest that so there might be none of the Royal Line left to inherit the Crown of England Scotland and Ireland to the utter overthrow and subversion of the whole Royal Family Parliament State and Government of this Realm Which unparallel'd inhumane bloody Plot being miraculously discovered prevented the very day before the execution in perpetual detestation of it and of the Iesuits and their traiterous Romish Religion which both contrived and approved it the 5 day of November by the Statute of 3 Iacobi ch 1. was enacted to be had IN PERPETUAL REMEMBRANCE that ALL AGES TO COME might thereon meet together publickly throughout the whole Nation to render publick praises unto God for preventing this infernal Iesuitical Design and keep in memory THIS JOYFUL DAY OF DELIVERANCE for which special forms of publick Prayers and Thankesgivings were then appointed and that day ever since more or less annually observed till this present And it is worthy special observation that had this Plot taken effect it was agreed by the Iesuites and Popish Conspirators before-hand THAT THE IMPUTATION OF THIS TREASON SHOULD BE CAST UPON THE PURITANS TO MAKE THEM MORE ODIOUS as now they father all their Powder-Plots of this kinde which they have not onely laid but fully accomplished of late yeers against the King Prince Royal Posterity the Lords and Commons House our English●Parliaments and Government upon those Independents and Anabaptistical Sword-men reputed PURITANS who were in truth but their meer under Instruments to effect them When as they originally laid the Plots as is clear by Campanella's Book De Monarchia Hisp c. 25. and Cardinal Richelieu his Instructions at his death to the King of France And it is very observable that as Courtney the Jesuite Rector of the English Jesuits Colledge at Rome did in the yeer 1641. when the name of Independent was scarce heard of in England openly affirm to some English Gentlemen and a Reverend Minister of late in Cornwal from whom I had this Relation then and there feasted by the English Jesuites in their Colledge That they now at last after all their former Plots had miscarried they had found out a sure way to subvert and ruine the Church of England which was most formidable to them of all others BY THE INDEPENDENTS who immediately after infinitely increased supplanted the Prebyterians by degrees got the whole power of the Army and by it of the Kingdom into their hands and then subverted both the Parliament King and his Posterity So some Independent Ministers Sectaries and Anabaptists ever since 1648. have neglected the observation of the 5 of November as I am credibly informed and refused to render publick thanks to God for the deliverance thereon contrary to the Act for this very reason which some of them have rendred That they would not mock God in publick by praising him for delivering the late King Royal Posterity and House of Lords from destruction then by Jesuites and Papists whenas themselves have since destroyed and subverted them through Gods providence and repute it a special mercy and deliverance to the Nation from Tyranny and Bondage for which they have cause to bless the Lord Peforming that for the Jesuites and Powder-Traytors which themselves could not effect The Lord give them grace and hearts to consider how much they acted the Jesuites and promoted their very worst designes against us therein what infamy and scandal they have thereby drawn upon all zealous Professors of our Protestant Religion and what they will do in the end thereof 9. To omit all other forraign instances cited in Speculum Jesuiticum p. 124. to 130. where you may peruse them at leisure By their poysoning King James himself in conclusion as some of them have boasted 10. By the Popes Nuntio and Conclave of Jesuites Conspiracy at London Anno 1640. to poyson our late King Charles himself as they had poysoned his Father with a poysoned Indian Nut kept by the Jesuites and shewed often by Conne the Popes Nuncio to the Discoverer of that Plot or else to destroy him by the Scotish wars and troubles raised for that very end by the Jesuites in case he refused to grant them a universal liberty of exercising their Popish Religion throughout his Realms and Dominions and then to train up his Son under them in the Popish Religion To which not onely heretofore but now likewise they strenuously endeavour by all possible means to seduce him as appears more especially by Monsieur Militierre his late book dedicated to him for that purpose Surely all these premised instances compared together will sufficiently inform the world that the late unparellel'd capital Proceedings against our Protestant King Parliament Members Peers House and forced

against such detestable treasonable violences for the future destructive to all Parliaments if permitted or silently pretermitted without question censure righting of the imprisoned members or any provision to redresse it for the future Our prudent Ancestors were so carefull to prevent all violence force arms and armed men in or near any places where Parliaments were held to terrifie over Qaw or disturb their proceedings or members That in the Parliament of 7 E. 1. as you may read in Rastals Abridgement Armour 1. Provision was made by the King by common consent of the Prelates Earls and Barons by a geciall act That in all Parliaments Treaties and other Assemblies which should be made in the Realm of England FOR EVER every man shall come without Force and withour Armour well and Peaceably to the honour of the King and of the peace of him and of his Realm and they together with the Commonalty of the Realm upon solemne advise declared That it belonged to the King and his part it is by his Royal Signiory strictly to defend wearing of Armour and all other Force against his peace at all time when it shall please him especially at such times and in places where such Parliaments Treaties and Assemblies are held and to punish them which shall do contrary according to the Laws and usage of the Realm And hereunto they are bound to old the King as their Soveraign Lord at all seasons when need shall be Hereupon our Kings ever since this statute by virtue thereof and by the Law and Custome of the PARLIAMENT as Sr. Edward Cook in his 4 Institutes c. 1. p. 14. informs us did at the beginning of every Parliament make a speciall Proclamation prohibiting the bearing of arms or weapons in or neere the places where the Parliament sat under pain of forfeiting all they had Of which there are sundry presidents cited by St. Edward Cook in his Margin whereof I shall transcribe but one which he omits and that is 6. E. 3. Rot. Parliament n. 2. 3. Because that before these dayes at the Parliaments and Councels of our Lord the King Debates Riots and commotions have risen been moved for that people have come to the places where Parliaments have been summoned and Assembled Armed with privy cotes of plate spears swords long knives or daggers and other sort of arms by which the businesses of our Lord the King and his Realm have been impeached and the great men which have come thither by his Command have been affrighted Our Lord the King willing to provide remedy against such mischiefs defendeth that no man of what estate or condition soever he be upon pain of Forfeiting all that he may forfeit to the King shall be seen armed with a Coat of Male nor yet of plate nor with an Halberd nor with a speare nor sword nor long knife nor any other suspicious arms within the City of LONDON nor within the Suburbs thereof nor any place neer the said City nor yet within the Palace of WESTMINSTER or any place neere the said Palace by Land or Water under the foresaid pain except onely such of the kings men as he shall depute or by his command shall be deputed to keep the peace within the said places and also except the Kings servants according to the Sta●ute of Northampton And it is not the intention of our Lord the King that any Earle or Baron may not have his Lance brought to him in any place but onely in the Kings Presence and in the place of Councell The like Proclamations were made in the beginning of the Parliaments of 9. 13 17 18 20 25. Ed 3. and sundry others more necessary to be revived in all succeeding English Parliaments now then ever heretofore since the unpresidented forces upon the late Members of both Houses and the Parliament it self by the Army-Officers and souldiers raised to defend them from violence The Treasonablenesse and Transcendency whereof being at large related in my Epistle to the Reader before my Speech in Parliament 4 December 1648. I shall not here criminally presse or insist on but referre them thereunto However for the future security and freedome of our Parliaments from violence I must crave liberty to imform these Army Parliament-drivers forcers dissolves habituated to this trade That if the late Kings march to the House of Commons accompanied onely with some of his Pensioners and others armed with Pistols and Swords meerly to demand but five Members thereof to be delivered up to Justice particularly impeached by him of High-Treason some dayes before to wit That they had traterously endeavoured to Subvert the Fundamentall Laws and Government of this Kingdome To deprive the King of his Royall power To place over the subjects an Arbitrary and Tyrannicall power To Subvert the very Rights and being of Parliaments and by force and terrour to compell the Parliament to joyn with them in their designs for which end they had actually raised and countenanced Tumults against the King and Parliament Or if the Kings bare tampering with some Officers of his own Northern Army to draw a Petition from them to the Houses or march towards London from their quarters not to seise upon force or dissolve the Parliament or its Members but only to overaw them and impeach the freedome of their debates Votes touching Episcopacy Church-Government and the Kings Revenews were such high transcendent violations of the Priviledges and Freedome of Parliament and unsufferable injuries as both Houses of Parliament seperatly and joyntly proclaimed them to all the world in severall Declarations during his life Or such capitall crimes as those who condemned and executed him for a Traytor and Tyrant have published in the Declaration of 17. March 1648. touching the grounds of their proceedings against him and setling the Government in the way of a Free State without King or House of Lords since his beheading in these very words But above all the English Army was laboured by the King to be engaged against the English Parliament a thing of that strange impiety and unnaturalnesse for the King of England that nothing can answer it but his being a Forraigner neither could it have easily purchased belief but by his succeeding visible actions in full pursuance of the same as the Kings comming in Person to the House of Commons to seise the five Members whether he was followed with some hundreds of unworthy debauched persons armed with swords and pistols and other arms and they attending him at the door of the House ready to execute what the Leader should command them This they charged against the King as the highest of his unparralleld Offences for which they appeal to all the world of indifferent men to judge whether they had not sufficient cause to bring him to Justice Though neither he nor his followers then seised secured secluded injured any one Member when they thus went to the Commons House Yea presently retracted and offered all satisfaction that should

expelling the Barbarians to dispose of it at his pleasure and restore his Country to it pristine estate which had formerly subdued to it Kingdomes far remote To which the King answered I formerly would have accepted of this offer of the Kingdome of Britain but in respect of its present misfortunes it is made more contemptible to me and odious to my Princes But above all other evils the Roman power hath so much prejudiced it that no man can enjoy a stable dignity within it but be must lose his liberty and be burdened with a yoake of servitude and who would not possesse lesse elsewhere with liberty then enjoy the wealth of Britain under a yoak of bondage Notwithstanding because my Grandfather and great Grandfather have enjoyed that Island I will deliver to you my Brother Constantine with 2000. Souldiers which by Gods permission will free the Country from enemies and being there crowned King shall possesse the Kingdome with glory and honour Whereupon Constantine undertaking the expedition the Archbishop used these words to him Christ hath conqueted Christ reigneth Christ commandeth let the grace of Christ be therefore present with our King of Britain who is our defence our hope our joy that he may restore the miserable Island to its pristine liberty Constantine taking shipping arrived at Totnes with 2000. Souldiers to whom the dispersed Britons creeping forth of their holes and dens where they hid themselves repaired from all parts and fighting with their enemies obtained a great victory over them by the diligence and valour of their new King After which facta in Cicestria concione calling an assembly at Chichester they made Constantine King and gave him a wife extracted out of the linage of the noble Romans educated by Guithelin Anno 445. King Constantine being slain by a Pict suborned by Vortigerne as he was hunting there arose a dissension among the Nobles which of them should be made King for Aurelius Ambrosius and Vther the Kings Sons were sent over into little Britain to be educated and if they had been present they could not reign by reason of their childhood Whereupon Vortigerne Consull of the Gewis●i who aspired after the Crown with all his endevour going to Winchester and taking Constans a Monk Son of Constantine out of his Cloister brought him to London and there made him King the people scarce consenting to it because he was a Mo●k and acting the part of a Bishop Guithelin being dead he set the Crown on the Kings head with his own hands The King thus crowned referred the managing of all affaires to Vortigerne alone who craftily committed all the Castles and Forts of the Realm to his own Souldiers and having gotten all the Forts and Power of the Realm into his own hands he cunningly devised how he might destroy the King and get the Crown for himself Whereupon he seised upon the Kings treasures augmented the number of his Soldiers and servants and perswaded the King to intertain a Guard of one hundred Picts who were at his own command and ready to execute any Treason and treachery he should prescribe them to guard his person day and night from enemies The King at his perswasion entertaining these Picts Vortigerne so inriched them with stipends and feasted them with most delicate meats that they did in a manner adore him and aryed openly through the streets that he was worthy to Reign When he had thus highly ingratiated himself in the favour of them all he made them all drunk on a certain day and then told them with tears that he would depart out of Britain seeing he had not enough of his own to maintain 50. Souldiers After which departing as it were sorrowfull to his lodging he left them drinking in the hall which the Picts hearing of murmured one to another saying Why do not we slay the Monke that Vortigerne may enjoy the throne of the Kingdome Rising up therefore being drunke they made an assault upon the King and slew him and brought the Kings head to Vortigerne Which when Vortigerne understood he feigning himself to be very sorrowfull brake forth into a weeping that he might palliate the treason committed under the vaile of tears Then calling the Citizens of London together he acquainted them what had hapned and commanded those Picts to be slain and beheaded that he might render his own fraud exeused from this wicked act At last when he saw no man equall to himself he set the Crown of Britain on his own head and overwent al the Princes He being thus advanced the contagion of all wickednesse began to increase scurrilous wickednesse hatred of truth contempt of God wrangling contention riot villany grew outragious so as Vortigerne alone might seem to be a vessell of all wickednesse and that which is most contrary to royall honesty Nobiles Deprimens depressing the Nobles and advancing ignoble persons both for manners and bloud he became odious to God and Men. Anno 447. When the iniquity and levity of minde of King Vortigerne was divulged to all Nations round about the Scots and the Picts one hundred of whose fellow Citizens Vortigerne had slain for that Treason which he suborned them to act that he might get the Crown rose up against him and most grievously infested him and impunged the Realm of Britain for consuming all things with the sword fire preyes and rapines they ground to powder the sinfull Nation because it favored this Vsurpers royall estate and thus the common people contaminated together with the King communi percellitur ultione is pierced through with a common revenge And as the sword devoured many on the one hand so the Pestilence did more on the other so as the living were not sufficient to bury the dead The King therefore with the desolated people tyred out with warlike incursions not knowing what he might do against the irruptions of their enemies inclined to desolation for Vortigerne hereupon awaked with the cryes of the people assembled a Councell or Parliament to consult what they should do in this publick distresse requiring the advice of his Nobles therein Which our Historians thus relate Super statu publico in medium consulit sententias magnatum suorum explorans So William of Malmesbury Britanni injerunt consiium quid agendum so Henry Huntington and Ethelwerdus placuit omnibus cum rege suo Vortigermo or as Ethelwardus records it Concessit tota Nobilitas c. At last they all agreed and all the Nobility together with King Vortigerne granted and resolved that they should call in the Saxons and English out of Germany to their aid being valiant in armes and then fixed in no setled place by which they conceived they should reape a double benefit for being invincible in armes they would easily repulse their enemies and being unsetled they would reckon it for a very great benefit if they might receive some barren squalid soile and cliffs to inhabit and that they would never attempt

them seeing they deserted their defence when we substracted them from their Power The whole Council of Kings and Nobles present assenting fully to this his opinion and resolution promised him their assistance in this cause against the Romans Whereupon he returned Answer to the Roman Emperours by the said Messengers THAT HE WOULD BY NO MEANES RENDER THEM TRIBUTE NEITHER WOULD HE SUBMIT HIMSELF TO THEIR JUDGEMENT CONCERNING IT NOR REPAIR TO ROME yea that he demanded from them that which they had decreed by that their judgement to demand from him And hereupon some say he writ this Letter unto the Senate of Rome in answer of theirs Vnderstand among you at Rome that I am King Arthur of Britain and FREELY IT HOLD and SHALL HOLD and at Rome hastily will I be not TO GIVE YOU TRUAGE Tribute but to have Truage of you For Constantine that was Helens Son and others of mine Ancestors CONQUERED ROME and thereof were Emperours and that they had and held I shall have and hold by Gods grace Whereupon Lucius Tiberius by command of the Senate raising great forces amongst the Eastern Kings to subdue Britain was encountred and slain by King Arthur with all his Roman forces in the valley of Soisie in France Anno Dom. 537. since which this Tribute was never demanded This History whether true or seigned as it declares by the Resolution of thirteen Kings and a great multitude of Princes Dukes Nobles Prelates Souldiers that Titles and Tributes gotten by Force Violence Conquest are both irrational unjust and illegal So it resolves That the Matters of Warre Peace and other great Affaires of the Realm were determined in Parliament That the Kings Princes and Nobles were the onely Parliaments and Parliament men of that age That the Realm and Kings of England are neither tributary nor subject nor responsible to any Forraign Powers Jurisdictions or Courts whatsoever and that no Tribute or Tax can justly be imposed on or exacted from the Inhabitants of this Island but by their own voluntary Grants and Consents even by the Lawes and Customes of the Realm in the Britons times and that whatever Tax or Possession was then gained by force conquest or armed power without just right and Title was both unjust and unreasonable And so ought to be reputed now Quod ab initio non valet tractu temporis non convalescit being a Principle in our Law I read in the Lawes of King Edward before the Conquest c. 35. in Mr. Lambards Archaion fol 135 136. and Sir Edward Cook his 7 Report Calvins Case fol. 6 7. That this most famous King Arthur first invented and inacted this Law That all the Princes Earles Nobles Knights and all Free-men of the Realm of Britain ought to make and swear fealty to their Lord the King in the full Folkemote or Leet in this form commonly used in Leets till within the six yeares last past You shall swear that from this day forward you shall be true and faithfull to our Soveraign King Arthur and HIS HEIRES and truth and faith you shall bear to him of life and member and terrene honour and you shall neither know nor hear of any ill or dammage intended to him that you shall not defend So help you God And that by Autherity of this Law King Arthur expelled the Saracens it should be Saxons for no Saracens ever invaded Britain and Enemies out of the Realm And by Authority of this Law King Etheldred in one and the same day slew all the Danes throughout the whole Realm Surely such Oathes of Fealty Loyalty and Homage are very ancient as our Histories manifest King Arthur being mortally wounded in the battell he fought with his Nephew Mordred who usurped the Crown in his absence Mordred being slain in the fight Arthur despairing of life gave the Crown of Britain to Constantine his Kinsman Anno Dom. 542. who together with the rest of the British Kings neglecting all Lawes and Justice warring against each other and degenerating into Tyrants Usurpers Murderers Perjurious Persons Oppressors and the like declined daily in their power the Saxons continually incroaching upon them in all parts and about the year of our Lord 586. they were quite driven out of their Kingdomes together with their British Subjects by the Saxons into Wales Cornwall and Little Britain in France and reduced to the extremity of all misery as you may read at large in Gildas de Excidio Conquestu britanniae and others out of him Who thus describes the Tyrannies and vices of those times Vngebantur Reges non per Deum sed qui caeteris crudeliores extarent paulo post ab unctoribus non pro veri examinatione TRUCIDABANTUR ALIIS ELECTIS TRUCIORIBUS Si quis vero eorum mitior veritate aliquatenus pronior videretur in hunc quasi Britanniae Subversorem omnium odia telaque sine respectu contorquebantur omnia quae displicuerint Deoque placuerint aequali saltem lance pendebantur si non graviora fuissent displicentia Sicque agebant cuncta quae saluti contraria fuerunt ac si nihil mundo medicina a vero omnium medico largiretur c. Ita cuncta veritatis Justitiae moderamina concussa ac subversa sunt ut corum non dicam fastigium sed ne monimentum quidem in supra dictis propemodum ordinibus apparent exceptis paucis valde paucis c. Reges habet Britannia sed TYRANNOS Judices habet sed impios saepe praedantes concutientes sed innocentes vindicantes patrocinantes sed reos latrones CREBRO JURANTES SED PERJURANTES VOVENTES CONTINUO PROPEMODUM mentientes belligerantes SED CIVILIA ET INJUSTA BELLA AGENTES per patriam quidem fures magnopere insectantes eos qui secum admensam sedent non solum amantes sed munerantes in sede arbitraturi sedentes sed raro recti judicii regulam quaerentes innexios humilesque despicientes sanguinarios superbos parricidas commanipulares qui cum ipso nomine certatim delendi sunt pro ut possunt efferentes vinctos plures in carceribus habentes quos dolo sui potius quam merito proterunt catenis onerantes inter Altaria jurando demorantes hoec eadem ac si lutulenta paulo post saxa despicientes Cujus tanti nefandi piaculi non ignarus est immundae Leaenae D●mnoniae tyrannicus Catulus Constantinus Hoc anno post horribile juramenti Sacramentum quo se devinxit nequaquam d●los civibus Deo primum j●requejurando Sanctorum demum choris Genetrice comitantibus frelis facturum in duarum venerandis matrum finibus Ecclesia earnalisque sub sancti Abbatis amphibalo Latera regiorum tenerrima pucrorum vel praecordia crudeliter duum totidemque nutritorum inter ipsa ut dixi sacrosancta Altaria nefando ense hastaque prodentibus laceravit c. Quid tu qu●que catule Leonine Aureli Canine agis Nonne pacem Pa●riae mortiferum ceu