those how few went God's way So that he concluded the Devil to be a great Monarch having so many Kingdoms under his command and no doubt he had his Vice Roys Council of State Treasurers Secretaries and many other Officers to manage and order his affairs for there was order in hell it self which after he had mustered together he gives a character of every particular Officer who were fit to be the Devil's servants running through the body of the Court discovering the correspondencies with Iesuits secret Pensions from Foreign Princes betraying their Masters Counsels to deserve their Rewards working and combining to the prejudice of God's people And when he came to describe the Devil's Treasurers exactions and gripings to get mony he fixt his eye upon Cranfield then Lord Treasurer whose marriage into the house of Fortune and Title of Earl could not keep him from being odious to the people and pointing at him with his hand said with an Emphasis That man reiterating it That man that makes himself rich and his Master poor he is a fit Treasurer for the Devil This the Author heard and saw whilst Cranfield sat with his hat pulled down over his eyes ashamed to look up lest he should find all mens eyes fixt upon him the King who sat just over him smiling at the quaint Satyr so handsomly coloured over It seems Neile the Bishop of Lincoln was not by him then for when any man preached that had the Renown of Piety unwilling the King should hear him he would in the Sermon time entertain the King with a merry Tale that I may give it no worse title which the King would after laugh at and tell those near him he could not hear the Preacher for the old B. Bishop We must confess this Relation smells too rank but it was too true and hope the modest Reader will excuse it We having had divers hammerings and conflicts within us to leave it out seeing it proceeds not from any rancour of spirit against the Prelacy but to vindicate God's Iustice to Posterity who never punishes without a Cause and such like practices as these were doubtless put upon the score which after gave a period to that Hierarchy This man's hand helped to close up the Countess of Essex's Virginity when he was Coventry and Litchfield his heart had this kind of vanity when he was Lincoln and when he was Arch-bishop of York his head was so filled with Arminian impiety that in the next King's Reign he was looked upon by the Parliament to be one of the great Grievances of the Kingdom as will follow in the Tract of this Story Lionell Craufield Earle of Middlesex Baron Cranfield of Cranfield The King that either thought these instruments were not so active or that they would not be discovered was resolved upon a Parliament for the former Reasons which began the twentieth of Ianuary this year yet not being ignorant of some miscarriages that passed by his allowance he strives to palliate them and gives the Parliament some little touches of them by the way that when they should find them they might by his Anticipation appear the less And being loth to have the breach between him and his people made wider he thus strives to stop the gap MY Lords Spiritual and Temporal and you the Commons cui multiloquio non deest peccatum In the last Parliament â— made long Discourses especially to them of the Lower House I did open the true thought of my heart But I may say with our Saviour I have piped to you and you have not danced I have mourned and you have not lamented Yet as no man's Actions can be free so in me God found some spices of Vanity and so all my sayings turned to me again without any success And now to tell the Reasons of your Calling and this Meeting apply it to your selves and spend not the time in long Speeches Consider That the Parliament is a thing composed of a Head and a Body the Monarch and the two Estates It was first a Monarchy then after a Parliament there are no Parliaments but in Monarchical Governments for in Venice the Netherlands and other Free-Governments there are none The Head is to call the Body together and for the Clergy the Bishops are chief for Shires their Knights and for Towns and Cities their Burgesses and Citizens These are to treat of difficult matters and to counsel their King with their best advice to make Laws for the Commonweal and the Lower-House is also to petition the King and acquaint him with their grievances and not to meddle with their King's Prerogative They are to offer supply for his necessity and he to distribute in recompence thereof Iustice and Mercy As in all Parliaments it is the King's office to make good Laws whose Fundamental Cause is the peoples ill manners so at this time That we may meet with the new Abuses and the incroaching craft of the times particulars shall be read hereafter As touching Religion Laws enough are made already it stands in two points Persuasion and Compulsion Men may persuade but God must give the blessing Iesuits Priests Puritans and Sectaries erring both on the right-hand and left-hand are forward to persuade unto their own ends and so ought you the Bishops in your example and preaching but compulsion to obey is to bind the Conscience There is talk of the Match with Spain But if it shall not prove a furtherance to Religion I am not worthy to be your King I will never proceed but to the Glory of God and content of my Subjects For a supply to my necessities I have reigned eighteen years in which time you have had Peace and I have received far less supply than hath been given to any King since the Conquest The last Queen of famous memory had one year with another above a hundred thousand pounds per annum in Subsidies And in all my time I had but four Subsidies and six Fifteens It is ten years since I had a Subsidy in all which time I have been sparing to trouble you I have turned my self as nearly to save expence as I may I have abated much in my Houshold-expences in my Navies in the charge of my Munition I made not choice of an old beaten Soldier for my Admiral but rather chose a young man whose honesty and integrity I knew whose care hath been to appoint under him sufficient men to lessen my charges which he hath done Touching the miserable dissentions in Christendom I was not the cause thereof for the appeasing whereof I sent my Lord of Doncaster whose journey cost me three thousand five hundred pounds My Son-in-law sent to me for advice but within three days after accepted of the Crown which I did never approve of for three Reasons First for Religion sake as not holding with the Iesuits disposing of Kingdoms rather learning of our Saviour to uphold not to overthrow them Secondly I was no Judg between them
with Recriminations which was not her manner heretofore The sleight and frivolous answer given by the Marquess of Bedmar unto Our Ambassador when he acquainted him with the Siege of Heidelburg The quarrellous occasion taken by the Emperor for calling the Diet at Ratisbone contrary to his own promise which in his dispatch to Us he confesseth to have broken as you will see by the Copy All which and many more which your own judgment in the perusal of the Dispatches will suggest unto you do minister unto Us cause sufficient of jealousie on the Emperor's part as you shall plainly tell that King although We will not do him that wrong as to mistrust that He gives the least consent to it In this confidence with much earnestness We shall still solicit him that for the affection he bears us and the desire which We suppose he hath that there may continue for ever a perfect Amity betwixt Us and the whole House of Austria he will not cease to do all good Offices herein letting him know directly that in these terms We cannot stand with the Emperor but that if Heidelburg be won or the Siege continue or the Cessation be long unnecessarily delayed We must recall Our Ambassador from Bruxels and treat no more as We have already given order hoping that whatsoever unkindness We shall conceive against the Emperor upon these occasions it shall not be interpreted to reflect in any sort upon the entire affection that is at this present and as We hope shall always continue betwixt Us and the Crown of Spain And therefore as we have heretofore sundry times promised in testimony of the sincerity of Our proceedings and of Our great Desire to preserve the Amity inviolable between Us and the whole House of Austria That in case Our Son-in-law would not be governed by Us that then we would not only forsake him but take part and joyn Our forces with the Emperor against him so you may fairly represent unto that King that in like manner we have Reason to expect the same Measure from him that upon the Emperor's averseness to a Cessation and Accommodation he will likewise Actually assist Us for the Recovery of the Palatinate and Electoral Dignity unto Our Son-in-law as it hath been often times intimated from Spain To conclude We shall not need to say any more unto you touching this Point but to let you see that Our meaning is to carry all things fair with that King and not to give him any cause of Distrust or jealousie if you perceive that they intend to go really and roundly on with the Match Wherein nevertheless we must tell you that we have no great Cause to be well pleased with the Diligences used on that part when we observe that after so long an expectance of the Dispensation upon which the whole business as they will have it depends there is nothing yet returned but Queries and Oâ—jections Yet because we will not give over Our Patience a while longer until we understand more certainly what the effect thereof is like to be wherein we require you to be very Wary and watchful considering how Our Honour is therein ingaged we have thought fit to let you know how far we are pleased to inlarge Our self concerning those points demanded by the Pope and set down by way of Postil unto the Articles agreed upon betwixt Spain and Us as you shall see by the Power which Gage brought Us from Rome whereof we have sent you a Copy and our Resolutions thereupon Signed with our own hand for your warrant and Instruction And further then that since we cannot go without much prejudice inconvenience and dishonour to our self and our Son we hope and expect the King of Spain will bring it instantly to an issue without further delay which you are to press with all Diligence and earnestness that you may presently know their final Resolution and what we may expect thereupon But if any Respit of time be earnestly demanded and that you perceive it not possible for them to resolve until an answer come from Rome we then think it fit that you give them two Months time after your Audience that we may understand that King 's final Resolution before Christmas next at the furthest Wansted 9. Sept. 1622. This Letter doth not only discover the shuffling and Fox-like contrivances of the House of Austria to Work and Earth themselves in the Palatinate but also the scorns and reproaches put upon Our King and if I may so call them his Terriers who with little Bayings only let them work till they had got into their Fastnesses and strong holds and then they may Bay at leisure and blame their lazy Belief But notwithstanding our King threatens in his Letter if Heidelberg be lost and the Cessation delayed he will Treat no more yet the Desire of the Match was so radicated in his Heart that neither the loss of Heidleberg or Manheim that succeeded it nor the blocking up of Frankendale the last strong hold of his Son-in-laws Inheritance could Mortifie his Hopes But as the Emperor besieged these Towns with his Armies so he beset the King of Spain with his Treaties And the Lord Digby though quickned by this Letter did not lay open the cunning carriage of these contrivers which tended to root out the reformed Religion in Germany nor press home these particulars as he was injoined but only let the King of Spain know That his late Father by the advice of his Ecclesiasticks in Spain had consented to the Articles of Marriage in matters of Religion five months since yet there were demurs upon those points notwithstanding that the King of Great Britain complied in all things then demanded particularly what he would do in favour of the Catholicks But now after two years time the Pope of his own Accord without any intimation to Spain had sent directly for England propounding to the King his Master not only many alterations in the Capitulations before a Dispensation could be granted but intruded something new which the King would by no means yield unto wherefore to expedite the Business the King having neglected all other Treaties of marriage for his Son these six years past only in respect of this Treaty he is commanded to declare plainly to the King of Spain how far the King his Master may condescend in matters of Religion and if that will give content to proceed to a conclusion of the Marriage without more Delays seeing he hath yielded to much more than was capitulated in the late King of Spain's time if this will not satisfie that then without loss of more time the King his Master may dispose of his Son and the King of Spain of the Infanta as they please These things were ruminated on by the slow paced Spanish gravity and fair and plausible answers presented that like fruits of Dissimulation gave but small Nourishment to hope yet it kept it alive though in a
tidings and setled us in the fruition of all good things He whose depth of Knowledge as well as Conscience deserves the Title of Fidei defensor whose numerous Issue makes Foreign Princes study to keep their own not look abroad He that hath shut the back-door of the Kingdom and placed two Lions a red and a yellow to secure it who would have us live under our own Olive that we may laetari benefacere That none will wonder at the Want or startle at the supply but such as study to serve their own turns and believe nothing but what they find written in the stories of their own ignorance Among which those are to be reckon'd who hearing of an Order to bind up the printed Proclamations in a book that the better notice may be taken of the things contained in them have raised a bruit that it was intended this Parliament to make Proclamations equal to the Laws which never entred into the Kings heart who is so far from governing by will and power that he will yield to any motion from them wherein they shall hold a just Diameter and proportion among themselves and observe those Duties due to a great and gracious King Thus these Lords did please themselves and the King by striving to keep the people in the milky way of Obedience which they had long suckt in and found the sweet of it tending to nourishment not yet meeting any Callous or Brawny-constitution which must harden them by degrees nor yet finding their own Tempers grown Robust enough by so harsh a diet as afterwards they met with They therefore are willing to go on in the way pointed out to them as Pupils follow their Masters minding rather the smoothness of the Tract they saw than the roughness of the end Yet some of them whose hopes were not so high mounted and their spirits more spoke plainly That the whole wealth of England would not serve the Kings vast Bounty therefore it was a vain thing to give him that would give it away again That Gold and Silver in Edenburgh now in our Solomons time are like the stones in the streets never so much glittering there like a perpetual spring-time Besides they look upon the Kings incroachments upon the publick liberty by undermining the Laws taking notice of some expressions that fell from him publickly at his dinner in derogation of the Common Law extolling highly the Civil Law before it and approving a Book lately written by Doctor Cowell a Civilian against it Which netled our great Lawyers that had not some of them been raised so high that they could not with that Court-gag look downwards it had bred a contest The High-Commission also began now to swell into a Grievance which the Parliament complained of Seldom is Authority and Power exercised with Moderation Every man must conform to the Episcopal way and quit his hold in Opinion or safety That Court was the Touch stone to try whether men were metal for their stamp and if they were not soft enough to take such impressions as were put upon them they were made malleable there or else they could not pass current This was the beginning of that mischief which when it came to a full ripeness made such a bloody Tincture in both Kingdoms as never will be got out of the Bishops Lawn sleeves And though these Apples of strife thrown in the way did a little retard the course in hand yet they carried not the prize For the King according to his old wont like a cunning Hunter when they began to run counter called them off and at White-hall by one of his Lectures he strives to bring them into the way again By laying himself open as in a Glass wherein if they could not see his heart they might scent out his meaning and so follow the chace which was to be pursued He tells them though the Kings heart be in the hands of the Lord yet he will set it before the eyes of the people Assuring them that he never meant to govern by any Law but the Law of the Land though it be disputed among them as if he had an intention to alter the Law and govern by the absolute Power of a King He knew said he the Power of Kings resembling it to the Power Divine For as God can create and destroy make and unmake at his pleasure so Kings can give life and death judg all and be judged of none They can exalt low things and abase high things making the subjects like men at Chess a pawn to take a Bishop or a Knight But he left out the power of a Pawn to take a Queen or check a King And when he had raised the Kings power to the height with Vos dii estis he brings them down again with They shall die like men And that all Kings who are not Tyrants or perjur'd will bound themselves within the limits of their Laws and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common-wealth Yet as it is Blasphemy to dispute what God may do so it is Sedition in Subjects to dispute what a King may do in the height of his power And as he will not have his subjects discourse of what he may do so he will do nothing but what shall be consonant to Law and Reason Then he strives to mitigate the sharpness of the words dropt from him at his Table to the disparagement of the Common Law and assures them though he likes the Civil Law very well as being Lex Gentium which maintains intercourse with foreign Nations and sitted to the Ecclesiastical Courts Court of Admiralty and Courts of Request yet he is so far from disavowing the Common Law that he protests if he were to chuse a new Law for this Kingdom he would prefer it before any other National Law yea the Law of Moses nay without blasphemy the very Law of God Then he recalls himself and tells them That though for this Nation he had preferred the Common Law to the Law of God yet it is inferiour to the Iudicial Law For no Book or Law is free from corruption but the Book and Law of God And therefore he could wish that three things specially were purged out of Common Law First That it were written in the vulgar Tongue and made plain to the peoples understanding that they might know what to obey that the Lawyers in the Law like the Romish Priests in the Gospel might not keep the people in ignorance Secondly That the Common Law might have a setled Text in all Cases for being grounded upon old Customs Reports and Cases of former Iudges called Responsa prudentum which are not binding for divers times Iudges disclaim them and recede from the Iudgment of their Predecessors it were good upon mature deliberation that the Exposition of the Law were set down by Act of Parliament that the people might know what to depend upon Thirdly There is in
that came out of Germany with the prince Elector that must see the Glory of the English Court which was presented with so much eminency in gorgeous Apparel that the precedent mourning was but as a sable foyl the better to illustrute it The Prince Elector Palatine and Maurice Prince of Orange were made Knights of the Garter Lodowick Count of Orange being Maurice's Deputy and Prince Maurice took it as a great honour to be admitted into the fraternity of that Order and wore it constantly Till afterwards some Villains at the Hague that met the Reward of their Demerit one of them a French man being Groom of the Princes Chamber robbed a Ieweller of Amsterdam that brought Iewels to the Prince this Groom tempting him into his Chamber to see some Iewelr and there with his Confederates they strangled the man with one of the Princes blew Ribonds which being after discovered the Prince would never suffer so fatal an Instrument to come about his Neck In February following the Prince Palatine and that lovely Princess the Lady Elizabeth were married on Bishop Valentines Day in all the Pomp and Glory that so much Grandure could express Her Vestments were white the Emblem of Innocency her hair dishevil'd hanging down her back at length an Ornament of Virginity a Crown of pure Gold upon her head the Cognizance of Majesty being all over beset with pretious gems shining like a Constellation her Train supported by twelve young Ladies in white Garments so adorned with Iewels that her Passage looked like a milky way She was led to Church by her Brother Prince Charles and the Earl of Northampton the Young Batchelor on the right hand and the Old on the left And while the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was solemnizing the Marriage some eruscations and lightnings of joy appeared in her Countenance that expressed more than an ordinary smile being almost elated to a laughter which could not clear the Air of her Fate but was rather a fore-runner of more sad and dire Events Which shews how slippery Nature is to tole us along to those things that bring danger yea sometimes destruction with them She returned from the Chappel between the Duke of Lenox and the Earl of Notingham Lord High Admiral two married Men. The Feastings Maskings and other Royal Formalities were as troublesome 't is presum'd to the Lovers as the Relation of them here may be to the Readers For such splendor and gayety are fitter to appear in Princes Courts than in Histories GUILIELMUS LUDOVIC COMES A NASSAU CATZENELNB VIANDEN ET DIE But tired with Feasting and Jollity about the middle of April when the beauties of the Spring were enticing enough to beguile the tediousness of the way the Prince Elector willing to review and the Princess to see what she was to injoy After all the caresses and sweet embraces that could be between the King Queen and Princes that were to be separated so long and at such a distance And after all the Shews Pastimes Fire-works and other Artifices that could be devised and manifested they parted at Rochester The Lord Admiral being ready with a Royal Navy in the Downs for their passage and conduct The season smiled on them and they arrived the nine and twentieth of the Moneth in Flushing The Duke of Lenox the Earl of Arundel the Viscount Lisle and the Lord Harington with divers Ladies and persons of Quality attended them to Heydelburgh Their entertainment was great and magnificent in the Low-Countries not only suitable to the Persons but the place from whence they came The English having been ever a Bulwark to the Netherlands and now they were in full peace with Spain which gave the better rellish to their Banquetings And in every eminent Town in Germany as they passed they found that welcom which prolonged their time but made their travel the less so that with much ado they reached Heydelburgh And after some time spent there to see the beauties and delights of that Court and Country which were extended and put forth to the uttermost the Nobility and Ladies of England returned home only they left the Lord Harington behind them who dyed by the way A Gentleman much lamented in his own person but much more in his Sons who not long after survived him with whom were buried not only those excellent indowments that make Noble-men great indeed but the memory of a noble Posterity which makes them little or indeed nothing at all HENRY HOWARD End of Northampton From an Original Picture in the Collection of Mr. Harding The liuely Portraiture of the worthy Knight Sir William Wadd late Lieutenant of the Tower c. About the same time the King thinking fit to send an Ambassador into Flanders to the Arch-Duke some say into France the Viscount recommended Sir Thomas Overbury to the King for that Service extolling his abilities and fitness for the same publickly that more notice might be taken of the affront and the King made choice of him for that Imployment Which done the Viscount under the shadow of friendship imparts to Overbury what intentions the King had towards him but he thought it would not be so convenient for him to accept of it because he should not only lose his converse and company by such an alienation which he highly valued but many a fair opportunity of improving his respects to him in some better way of advancement Overbury had not been so little a Courtier or a man of so mean Reason but that he was sensible what displeasure he should pull upon himself by refusing the Kings Commands And therefore he told the Viscount that betwixt the Kings favours and his friendship he had a great conflict in his spirit being willing to retain both but how he should refuse the Kings commands with safety he knew not But the Viscount with fair promises prevailed with him to set up his rest at home upon higher expectations such a sweet bait is Ambition protesting to take off the asperity of the Kings anger from him and smooth his way so as should be for his better advantage When he had wrought Overbury in this forge he goes to the King and blows the fire incensing him with all the aggravations he could so that the poor Gentleman for his contempt was forthwith committed to the Tower And to prepare all things for his reception there Sir William Wade the late Lieutenant was removed and Sir Iervis Ellowis a Person more ambitious than indigent having made his way by money the common merit was admitted to the place Now the Countess like another Alecto drove furiously her Chariot having two wheels which ran over all impediments One was to sue a Divorce betwixt her and her Husband that she might marry the Viscount The other was to take away Overbury the blemish in her Eye and that laid such a stain upon her that nothing but his blood could expiate For these she hath several Engins the one must be
and the Infanta of Spain that was then in motion but to the infringement of the Peace and Amity established betwixt the two Crowns The King's fears being heightned to Anger he disavows the Action and lest others of his Subjects should by this example take the boldness to attempt the like Hostility against the King of Spain he puts out a Proclamation wherein he shews his detestation of such proceedings and threatens severe punishment to the enterprisers thereby to deter them Which gave Gondemar some satisfaction whose design being only to get Sir Walter Raleigh home after this brush vented little passion but so cunningly skinned over his malice that when Raleigh was in Ireland he found nor heard of no such great difficulties Dangers often flying upon the wings of rumor but that he might appear in England and the men not willing to be banished their own Country though some of them had France in their eye put in at Plimouth Raleigh was no sooner ashore but he had private intimation which gave him cause to suspect the smoothness of this beginning would have a rough end therefore he attempted an escape from â—hence in a bark of Rochel But being apprehended by Sir Lewis Stukly his Kinsman who had private warrant and instructions to that purpose so unnatural and servile is the spirit when it hath an allay of baseness there being many others sitter for that employment he is brought to London and recommitted to the Tower He was no sooner in the Tower but all his Transactions in this business are put to the Rack and tenter'd by his Adversaries They say he knew of no Mine nor did Kemish know that the Mine he aimed at was Gold but Kemish bringing him a piece of Ore into the Tower he fobb'd a piece of Gold into it in dissolving making the poor man believe the Ore was right that by these golden degrees he might ascend to Liberty promising the King to fetch it where never Spaniard had been But when Kemish found by better experience he was couzen'd by Raleigh he came back from the Mine And Raleigh knowing that none but Kemish could accuse him made him away This Vizard was put upon the face of the Action and all the weight of the Miscarriage was laid upon Raleigh's shoulders Gonaemar that looked upon him as a man that had not only high Abilities but Animosity enough to do his Master mischief being one of those Scourges which that old Virago the late Queen as he called her used to afflict the Spaniards with having gotten him into this Trap laid now his baits about the King There is a strange virtue in this spirit of Sol the intenseness makes men firm the ductilness brings them to be active French Crowns are not so pure not so piercing as Spanish Pistols Auri sacra fames quid non mortalia pectora cogis The King that loved his Peace is incensed by them that loved their Profit and the poor Gentleman must lay down the price of his life upon the old Reckoning Raleigh answered That he was told by his Council that Iudgment was void by the Commission his Majesty was pleased to give him since under the Great Seal for his last Employment which did give him a new vigour and life to that service The Lord chief Justice replyed that he was deceived and that the opinion of the Court was to the contrary Then he desired that some reasonable time might be allowed him to prepare for Death but it was answered That the time appointed was the next morning and it was not to be doubted but he had prepared himself for death long since Raleigh having a courageous spirit finding the bent of the King's mind and knowing Disputes to be in vain where Controversies are determined acquiesc'd was conveyed to the Gatehouse and the day following was brought to the Old Palace yard at Westminster and upon a Scaffold there erected lost his head He had in the outward man a good presence in a handsom and well-compacted person a strong natural wit and a better judgment with a bold and plausible tongue whereby he could set off his parts to the best advantage And to these he had the Adjuncts of general Learning which by Diligence and Experience those two great Tutors being now threescore years of age was augmented to a great perfection being an indefatigable Reader and having a very retentive memory At his Arraignment at Winchester his carriage to his Judges was with great discretion humble yet not prostrate dutiful yet not dejected Towards the Iury affable but not fawning not in despair nor believing but hoping in them carefully perswading them with Reasons not distemperately importuning them with Conjurations rather shewing love of life than fear of death Towards the King's Council patient but not insensible neglecting nor yielding to Imputations laid against him in words which Sir Edward Cook then the King's Attorney belched out freely and it was wondred a man of his high spirit could be so humble in suffering not being much overtaken in passion And now at his last when Deeth was presented before him he looked upon it without affrightment striving to vindicate his Actions by taking off the veil that false Reports had cast upon them especially the Imputation of his glorying and rejoycing in the fall at the death of the laâ—e E. of Essex which had stuck so many years in his breast this new miscarriage of Kemish's of a later date imputed to him for having provided himself privately for heaven clearing his Accounts with God before he came to the Scaffold He publickly at last reckon'd with man being to quit all soores and so made an end Times of Peace are accounted the happiest times and though they are great Blessings proceeding from the influence of supreme Mercy and the showers of Grace yet the branches of the Tree of Knowledge growing by this Sun shine for want of due pruning do often become so exuberant that their very fruits are not only their burthen but sometimes their ruin Prosperity is of an Airy constitution carried about with the breath of strange fancies which mount sometimes as high as Omnipotency but there finding-resistance they come down amain and beat the lower Region with a Tempest of Strife and Malice When the Romans wanted Enemies they digged them out of their own bowels Active Spirits will be set on work Our Neighbours of the Netherlands that had so long bounded the Spanish Power humbled their Pride so far as to acknowledg them a Free-State before they would so much as listen to an Overture of Peace had a fire kindled in their own bosomes It is now some time since the 12 years Truce betwixt Spain them began being in the Wain last Quarter While they had their hands full of business they had not their heads full of old Curiosities Now like Plethorique bodies that want letting blood they break out into distemper A Schism in the Church
drooping condition and it was only sustained till they could bring their ends about Which our King now suspecting as he had good cause from the constant intelligences given him of the diminution of his own Forces in the Palatinate and the Growing strength of the Enemy He dispatches this second Letter to the Baron Digby to let the King of Spain know how sensible he was of being abused and how loath he was to see it RIght Trusty c. There is none better knoweth than your self how we have laboured ever since the beginning of these unfortunate Troubles of the Empire notwithstanding all opposition to the contrary to merit well of our good Brother the King of Spain and the whole House of Austria by a long and lingering Patience grounded still upon his friendship and promises that Care should be had of our Honour and of our Childrens Patrimony and Inheritance We have acquainted you also from time to time since the beginning of the Treaty at Bruxels how crossly all things have there proceeded notwithstanding all the fair Professions made unto us both by the King of Spain and the Infanta and all his Ministers and the letters written by him unto the Emperor and them Effectually at least as they endeavoured to make us believe but what fruits have we of all these Whil'st we are Treating the Town and Castle of Heidelberg are taken by force our Garison put to the Sword Manheim besieged and all the Hostility used that is in the power of an Enemy as you may see by the Relation which we have commanded our Secretary to send you Our pleasure therefore is that you immediately as soon you can get Audience let that King understand how sensible we are of these Proceedings of the Emperor towards us and withall are not a little troubled to see that the Infanta having an absolute Commission to conclude a Cessation and suspension of Arms should now at last when all Objections were answered and the former solely pretended Obstacles removed not only delay the conclusion of the Treaty but refuse to lay her Command upon the Emperor's Generals to abstain from the Siege of our Garisons during the Treaty upon a Pretext of want of Authority so as for avoiding of further Dishonour we have been forced to recall both our Ambassadors as well the Chancellor of our Exchequer who is already returned to our Presence as also the Lord Chichester whom we intended to have sent unto the Emperor to the Diet at Ratisbone Seeing therefore that meerly out of Our extraordinary Respect to the King of Spain and the firm Confidence We ever put in the Hopes and promises which He did give Us desiring nothing more then for his Cause principally to avoid all occasions that might put Us in ill understanding with any of the House of Austria We have hitherto proceeded with a stedfast patience trusting to the Treaties and neglecting all other means which probably might have secured the Remainder of Our Childrens inheritance these Garisons which We maintained in the Palatinate being rather for Honour sake to keep a footing until the general accommodation then that we did rely so much upon their strength as upon his friendship and by this Confidence and Security of Ours are now exposed to Dishonour and Reproach You shall tell that King that seeing all those endeavours and good offices which he hath used towards the Emperor in this business on the behalf of Our Son-in-law upon confidence whereof that security of Ours depended which he continually by his Letters and Ministers here laboured to beget and confirm in Us have not sorted to any other issue than to a plain abuse both of his trust and Ours whereby We are both of Us highly injured in Our Honour though in a different Degree We hope and desire that out of a true sence of this Wrong offered unto Us he will as Our dear and loving Brother faithfully promise and undertake upon his Honour confirming the same also under his Hand and Seal either that the Town and Castle of Heidelberg shall within Threescore and ten dayes after your Audience and Demand made be rendred into Our hands with all things therein belonging to Our Son in law or Our Daughter as near as may be in the State they were when they were taken and the like for Manheim and Frankendale if both or either of them shall be taken by the Enemy while these things are in Treaty As also that there shall be within the said Term of seventy daies a Cessation and Suspension of Arms in the Palatinate for the future upon the several Articles and Conditions last propounded by Our Ambassadour Sir Richard Weston and that the general Treaty shall be set afoot again upon such Honourable Terms and Conditions as We propounded unto the Emperour in a Letter written unto him in November last and with which the King of Spain then as We understood seemed satisfied Or else in case all these Particulars be not yielded unto and performed by the Emperour as is here propounded but be refused or delayed beyond the time aforementioned That then the King of Spain do joyn his Forces with Ours for the Recovery of Our Childrens Honours and Patrimony which upon this Trust hath been thus lost Or if so be his Forces at this present be otherwise so imployed as that they cannot give Us that assistance which We here desire and as We think have deserved yet that at the least He will permit Us a free and friendly passage through his Territories and Dominions for such Forces as We shall send and imploy in Germany for his Service Of all which distinctively if you receive not from the King of Spain within ten daies at the furthest after your Audience a direct Assurance under his Hand and Seal without Delay or putting Us off to further Treaties and Conferences That is to say of such Restitution Cessation of Arms and proceeding to a General Treaty as is before mentioned or else of assistance and joyning his Forces with Ours against the Emperour or at the least permission of passage for Our Forces through his the said King's Dominions that then you take your leave and return to Our Presence without further stay Otherwise to proceed in the Negotiation for the Marriage of Our Son according to the Instructions We have given you This Letter was dated the Third of October And presently after it was sent away the King recollected himself and thought it good Policy to make some advantage of this Breach with Spain if there were One by letting his People see he would no longer wait the Spanish Delayes which they were impatient enough of therefore his Ambassadours to hinder the knowledge of it at home must conceal the Breach abroad stay still in the Spanish Court as if the Business were in full Motion and ripe for projection And he must break it to pieces here himself to make it the more acceptable either to get the more love or
were not well pleased with it which made them present him with this Petition thus Subsigned The Humble Petition of the Nobility of England THat whereas your Majesty at the importunity of some natural Subjects of this Realm of England hath been pleased to confer upon them Honours Titles and Dignities peculiar to other your Majestie 's Dominions by which all the Nobility of this Realm either in themselves their Children or both find they are prejudiced Our humble desire is that with your gracious allowance we may challenge and preserve our Birth-rights And that we may take no more notice of these Titulars to our Prejudice than the Law of this Land doth but that we may be excused if in civil courtesie we give them not the respect or place as to Noblemen strangers seeing that these being our Country Men born and inheritanced under our Laws their families and abode among us have yet procured their Translation into foreign names only to our injury But in this address to your Sacred Majesty it is far from Us to meddle with much less to limit or interpret the Power of your Soveraignty knowing that your Majesty being the Root whence all Honour receives Sap under what Title soever may collate what you please upon whom when and how you please Wherefore in all humbleness We present this to your gracious view confident of your Majesties equal favour herein 1. Oxford 2. Huntington 3. Essex 4. Lincoln 5. Dorset 6. Salisbury 7. Warwick 8. Abergavenie 9. Dacres 10. Darcie 11. Stafford 12. Willoughbie 13. Sheffeild 14. Windsor 15. Gray 16. Wentworth 17. Mordant 18. Scroop 19. Cromwell 20. Sturton 21. Howard 22. St. Iohn 23. Paget 24. Russell 25. Gerrard 26. Dudley 27. Hunsdon 28. Denny 29. Spencer 30. Haughton 31. Stanhope 32. Say 33. Noell Thus we see the Errors of Princes are sometimes put into the Scale and they bring with them so much trouble and vexation that they often weigh down their Glory and Happiness for no man can feel the load and burthen of it but he that wears a Crown The King was conscious to himself that he had done these Noblemen injury especially the Barons to advance their inferiours above them for a little profit either to himself or his Courtiers And if he had not heard of this Petition before such a Troop of attendance together might have startled him but being prepared for it he mustered up his Spirits thinking it too great an abasement for Majesty to stoop at their Summons being so publick an Action or to lesson or recall what he had done Yet he was troubled not knowing what quarrels the strife for place and precedency might produce or what ill blood the discontent of so many of the Nobility at one time might ingender Therefore he sent for them all or the most eminent and leading men of them some days after and expostulated the business with them one by one in private knowing he could deal best with them so beginning with some of them roughly yet still he closed with them at last his anger being as it were raised to make them humble and reconcile themselves to him that he might the better reconcile himself to them And to the Earl of Essex he vented this Expression I fear thee not Essex if thou wert as well beloved as thy father and hadst forty thousand men at thy heels Which words he uttered as if he had chid himself that they made an escape from him And though this Petition did not derogate from the Dignity of those creations past yet the King willingly restrained himself for the time to come But the House of Commons found the King's Letters to entangle the way rather than make a free passage to their Liberties for that which was their birth-right would now come to be derived from his Ancestors And for all the King's finenesses they thought Religion very un secure for as long as the bent of his Affections tended to the Spanish match there must needs be a wide Gap open as an inlet to Popery and if it may be made Treason for his Parliament to advise him from it they saw but a very small door left open to liberty But whatsoever befell them they resolved to leave to posterity some prints and footsteps of their Parliamentary Rights and Privileges left them by their great Ancestors that though they could not preserve them intire those that succeed them might at least find some Reliques and ruins of what they had Which made them make this Protestation recorded in their Iournal Book 19. Dec. 1621. THe Commons now Assembled in Parliament being justly occasioned thereunto concerning sundry Liberties Franchises and Privileges of Parliament among others here mentioned do make this Protestation following That the Liberties Franchises Privileges and Iurisdictions of Parliament are the ancient and undoubted Birth-right and inheritance of the Subjects of England And that the arduous and urgent affairs concerning the King State and defence of the Realm and of the Church of England and the Maintenance and making of Laws and redress of Mischiefs and grievances which daily happen within this Realm are proper Subjects and matter of Counsel and debate in Parliament And that in the handling and proceeding of those businesses every Member of Parliament hath and of right ought to have freedom of Speech to propound treat reason and bring to Conclusion the same And that the Commons in Parliament have likewise liberty and freedom to treat of these Matters in such order as in their judgments shall seem fittest And that every Member of the said House hath like Freedom from all impeachment imprisonment and Molestation other then by censure of the house it self for or concerning any speaking reasoning or declaring of 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 assent of all the Commons assembled in Parliament before the King give credence to any private information The King was again Alarum'd by this Protestation and he that naturally loved Peace both at home and abroad found a loud War in his own Breast which indeed was in effect raised by himself for no wisdom could resolve the Intricacies of his Resolutions but his own for he would have a War with the Emperor in Contemplation and a Treaty with the King of Spain in Action both at one time who were as it were one person and because the Parliament like wise Mathematicians would use the Practical part as well as the Theory he was enraged against them and his Prerogative stept in as a stickler and broke out like an Exhalation in thundring and terror to the Astonishment and fear of his people which made them shrowd themselves from those storms by creeping under the Shelter of their Native liberties And now the King flies from his
hot and intemperate Region to soom cool Considerations If he should yield by Silence or Connivence to this Protestation it would remain as an impregnable Bulwark for the people to Posterity And what is this terrible thing their just Liberties If he should oppose it with Rigor it might produce such an intestine Division at home as with all industry he strove to prevent abroad Break the Treaty with Spain he would not his Heart was too much set upon it for he could find no Protestant Princess good enough the high and elated Extraction of Kings will raise the people up to a kind of Adoration as the old Heathens did the Race of their Gods and Heroes Whereas true Honesty and piety finds out such matches as may as well bring Glory to God as to man not worldly Blessings only but heavenly also Lose the love of the people he was loth for he thought his peaceable Reign gained upon them and that no King had ever deserved better of a People than he But Peace is a kind of Soft Rayment or Masking-dress not always to be worn Standing lakes beget Corruption The Pool of Bethesda had no Virtue till it was stirred War is necessary as Physick for unsound Bodies Iustum id bellum quibus necessarium When the King had weighed every particular scruple by the Ballance of his own Reason and Councel about him he took a Resolution to dissolve the Parliament which he did by Proclamation the sixth of Ianuary being fifteen days after the Protestation was made so much time he measured out by the Scale of consideration before he would pull down such a Structure of Love as never was built by the people for any of his Predecessors which he implies in his Proclamation laying there all the blame upon the House of Commons and not on them in general but on some ill-tempered Spirits as he called them that sowed Tares among the Corn and frustrated the Hopes of a plentiful Harvest Striving by these imputations to take away the Odium that such a Dissolution might produce The Parliament and consequently the Union between the King and People being thus dissolved every man's tongue is let loose to run Riot And though the King loved Hunting above all other exercises and had many good Hunters about him yet all those and the Strength of a Proclamation put out to forbid talking of State Affairs could not restrain them from mouthing out That Great Britain was become less than little England that they had lost strength by changing Sexes and that he was no King but a Fidler's Son otherwise he would not suffer such disorders at home and so much dishonour abroad So dangerous it is for Princes by a stegmatick remisseness to slacken the ligaments of the peoples tongues for such an overflux of bad Humor may bring their obedience to a Paralytick And the Story of David Ricius written by the King 's own Tutor Buchanan had died in every English Opinion if it had not had a new Impression by these miscarriages Edward Herbert Lord Herbert of Castle â—Land and Lord Hâ—rbert of Câ—â—erbery in England The Earl of Oxford was betrayed and accused by one White a Papist who was vulgarly called after in derision by the Name of Oxford-White to have spoken some words to the Dishonour of the King and disparagement of his Government and was committed to the Tower The Earl of Southampton was also committed to the Dean of Westminster Oxford lay by it a great while and being an Active man the King sent him at last to Sea to be one of Buckingham's Vice-Admirals for the English Coast while Sir Robert Mansell guarded the Coasts of Spain from being infested with the Turks of Algier and Sally Sir Edward Cook that was looked upon as one of the great incendiaries in the House of Commons is put from the Council Table with disgrace The King saying he was the fittest instrument for a Tyrant that ever was in England And yet in the House he called the King's Prerogative a great Over-grown Monster And how can these agree Unless because the King would not take his counsel he hanged himself on the other side But whether the King had cause to say the one I know not but he it seems found cause enough to say the other Sir Thomas Crew Sir Dudly Digges Sir Nathaniel Rich and Sir Iames Perrot men of great Repute and knowledge active in the House were sent into Ireland and joyned with others in commission to inquire into Misdemeanors committed there but it was thought as a punishment for what they had committed here for they were long detained from their own occasions under the colour of an honorable imployment And Sir Peter Hammon of Kent and others were sent into the Palatinate This kind of punishment beginning now to be in fashion and not long after this Sir Iohn Savile the Knight of York-shire that carried all the Country at a Beck and a powerful Man in the House is taken off by the King made Comptroler of his Household a Privy Councellor and not long after a Baron so the King found out two ways of silencing those that were able to do him mischief Active Spirits that come too near him must either come nearer to him or be sent further from him which he doubts not will take off the edge and bate the sharpness of the Humor another time And these preferments and punishments were also practised by his successor with this Experiment in both that the most popular men as soon as they wore the Court Livery lost the love of the people but those that suffered for them were the more beloved and admired by them The Commons of England having more than an ordinary Genius to support and strengthen the pillars of their Liberties And as these Troubles bred disturbance at home so they begot discredit abroad for now by this Breach they undervalued the King's power as much as they did before his Spirit yea even in the King of Spain's own Towns whilst this beloved Treaty was in heat they in their Comedies presented Messengers bringing News in haste That the Palatinate was like to have a very formidable Army shortly on foot For the King of Denmark would furnish him with a hundred thousand picked Herrings the Hollanders with a hundred thousand Butter-boxes and England with a hundred thousand Ambassadors And they picture the King in one place with a Scabberd without a Sword In another place with a Sword that no body could draw out though divers stand pulling at it At Bruxels they painted him with his pockets hanging out and never a penny in them nor in his purse turned upside down In Antwerâ— they pictured the Queen of Bohemia like a poor Irish Mantler with her hair hanging about her ears and her child at her back with the King her father carrying the Cradle after her and every one of these Pictures had several Motto's expressing their Malice Such