a little back to those which preceded the Norman race especially among the Saxons and Danes the ancient competitors for the Government of this Nation and it will appear that the right Heir hath been commonly past by and Strangers or Usurpers preferred to go no further back then to Alfred King of the West Saxons and the twenty fourth Monarch of the Englishmen as soon as he died Athelstan his Bastard was preferred before his legitimate son Edmond after him got his own brother Edmond to succeed him and though this Edmond left two sons Edwin and Edgar yet as he his former brother had usurped the Goverment so Edred his brother stept into the Throne and put them by until he had finished his Raign then they took their turns Edwin first and Edgar after him this Edgar had two wives Ethelfled his first and Elfrida the second by the first he had issue Edward sirnamed the Martyr who succeeded his father in title but having hardly felt the Crown warm and fast on his head was cruelly murthered to make way for the second wives son Ethelred who succeeded him as Daniel well expresseth it whose entrance into his Raign was blood the middle misery and the end confusion and though he left his son Edmond sirnamed Ironside to succeed him yet Canutus the Dane by compact got half of the Kingdom from him and soon after the whole setting up his Danish title and murthering the two sons Edmund had left with his brother Edwin that no further pretence might be made by them of their title and now come the Danes to convey their title by Canutus and yet Harold his bastard gets the Crown before Hardicanute who was his legitimate son and among these three Kings for the Government under the Danes continued but twenty six years and only under these three was aone Usurper immediatly interrupted the right of succession And the Danes Government being ended which was but an intervall of conquest the Saxons regain their title and Edward called the Confessor the seventh son of Elthelred who came in with the murther of the right heir being kept as a reserve in Normandy is elected King and the Saxons title now begins to revive but soon it s extinguished not onely by the Norman pretence but by the next successor Harold the second son to Goodwin Earl of Kent who came in with the expulsion of Edgar Athlings the proper successor And with Harold ended the Saxon race which had lasted about five hundred years after the coming in of Hengist and their Plantation in this Kingdom and yet you see what have been the titles successively of these former Kings wherein the Line hath not onely been now and then through force and violence cut off and discontinued but usurpation solemnized with as much ceremony as any natural pretence but these Instances are but as representations of objects afar off which may seem otherwise then they are we will go on and review the title of our Kings from William the Norman Sirnamed the Conqueror and by whom not onely the line but all the whole fram of Laws and Liberties were not onely curtail'd but changed for though in the raigns of the former Kings every Conqueror made his impression and drew his Picture in England yet never was the whole Scene of State changed untill now and a new Modell so peremptorily and without repeal introduced as by him The first jus or right of his title the onely foundation of all the rest of our latter Kings we all know was by meer Conquest which as it is a disseisin in Law so an unjust title in Reason and common to one as unto another yet he though a Bastard and so had less title to his Dukedom then to England which he won by the Sword made himself the principal of that divine Succession we now stand upon and all our Kings have no other pretence then by the succession of his Sword and certainly if the Fountain and Head-Spring be corrupt the stream cannot be Christall and pure and yet as Baron Thorpe declares in his Charge given at the Assizes holden at Yorke the twentieth of March 1648. and now in Print of all these twenty four Kings which have King'd it amongst us since that William there are but seven of them that could pretend legalty to succeed their former predecessors either by lineal or collaterall title and he might have contracted that number and have been modest enough But that the Reader may not be prejudiced or wrap up his understanding in any expression let him but follow the discents of the Kings of England in the line and pardon the first strange and exotick way of right and he will discover that as the first title was created by force so the succession hath been continued by usurpation Speed too Royall a Writer gives us a hint to go on upon in the Life of Henry the Fourth page 746. asketh by way of Interrogation What right had Will the Conqueror the Father of all our glorious Tyrants What right we speak saith he of a right of equity had his son William Rufus and Henry the first while their elder brother lived and so he goes on But to give a more particular account to the Reader how every King came to his Crown Let us begin with the first of the first After that the first William who laid the foundation of his right in the blood of the English had left this world as well as his Kingdom great strivings there were who should succeed and though he left three sons Robert William and Henry yet could leave but one Heir which was Robert yet William surnamed Rufus gets the crown set on his head notwithstanding the elder brothers title and though Robert fights for his right yet being too weak in the field is fore't to a composition on these terms that he should injoy it after his decease if he hapned to survive and yet notwithstanding Henry the youngest brother called Henry the first steps in and makes use of his brothers absence to set up himself in his place and Robert yet surviving he weares it in his stead and however he strove to regain his right he at last was fain to yield up not only his title but his person to Henry who not only unjustly excluded him from the succession to the Kingdom but cruelly put out his eyes that he might only feel his misery and never see his remedy The line male of the Conqueror is now extinct as well as it was irregularly diverted as William got his right by his Sword so all his successors maintained it in imitation of him rather then by any legal pretence they could derive from him But Henry the first though he had come in over the back of his elder brother that he might make more sure work for a succession wanting issue male living pitcheth on Maud his daughter formerly married to the Emperor Henry the fourth who left her a
institution How the world came to be so blinded as thus to give away their Rights and Liberties and morgage their understandings and freedom as bankrupts do their lands is not to be determined but by supposal of a judgement of God and an over-reach of power and force or by an Ignis fatuus of Policie and subtilty For this naturall and hereditary succession which is now adored as the grand title if truly considered is nothing else but a continuation of conquest or a surprisall by the good nature of the people when they have been either low and in fear and taking advantage of their high esteem of some eminent person who hath been more then ordinary instrumentall to them have got the people to convey the same honor to their posterity after them the peoples consent being thus ravished from them It s made a law both civil and divine to after generations but the world is now or should be grown wise Let us consider the nature and use of this succession both in general and particular especially as it hath been acted in England Among all the Catalogue of vanities which Solomon reckons up in his sacred retractations there is none he puts such a character on as for a man to spend his time and strength in getting of riches and knows not who shall succeed him in the injoyment of the profit and good of his labour or whether he may be a wise man or a fool But what a misery and worse then vanity is this that the supream power of Government in the right execution of which all the concernments of millions of men are interested should be intailed on one man though never so deserving in his own person and the heirs of his body be he good or bad a wise man or very nigh a fool and so all their happiness depend on hap and hazard from generation to generation It cannot be rationally or spiritually supposed that any man should be born a Magistrate or Governor especially not successively when the best men and most choise spirits who have had the highest eminencies of vertue and best improvement of education and natural genius are hardly fit for so great a work If Kings have such a vis formativa in their loyns as to beget Kings in the likeness of their Office as children in the image of their natures it must be necessarily supposed that they must generate all these royall qualifications together with them and by the same naturall necessity transfer all their princely endowments to them also Whereas I had almost affirmed it and I hope no man can account it either Heresie or Treason that God himself cannot intail on any particular line of mankinde the power and authority of Government out of his wisdom and love to their happiness without he meant to do it in judgement and to plague the world and not give them sutable and successive qualifications also fit for that emploiment It being Gods use according to his wisdom and righteousness neither ordinarily nor extraordinarily to call out persons to any place but he anoints them with proportionable gifts to it And yet the poor people whom God hath naturally made free and to make use of their own understandings and affections for their own good are by this succession bound up from the improvement either of soul or body fain to be content with what they can get for present and to shift it out from age to age with the loss of all opportunities of choice only with what corrupt nature brings them forth which oftentimes travels sorely in pain with the curse of the Fathers who begat these Governors Hence also it comes to pass that oftentimes children are made Kings and though they are uncapable at present for the actuall exercise of that office yet are proclaimed as having the right and title and all things acted in their name and the whole Commonwealth it may be of many Nations must wait for his capacity with fear and hope which capacity is also at best to be judged by his years rather then fitness or qualification for so high a trust and in the mean while the Kingdom must be governed by some Favorites of the last King or some next kinsman to this and while the King is thus in pupillage we may well ask who governs the Kingdom And yet oftentimes it hath faln out that their Government hath been better ordered in their nonage by others then in their own by themselves as appears especially in the raign of Henry the third and Henry the sixth Kings of England the first being but nine years old when his father died the latter but nine moneths who while they were yong and under the protection of certain wise and sober men the Laws were administred uprightly and with much Justice but when they themselves came to the years of Kingship and Prerogative so Royalled that both Laws Liberties were soon altered and abolished as anon the Reader shall have a more exact account And how sad is it that when Government may be advanced as well if not better by others in their minority without their presence or influence the world must be at such vast charges for a title and to maintain it ere they can use it and which is worst that when they come to exercise it themselves should make their title the ground of their Tyranny But if it so happen for its a meer chance that the next heir prove somewhat more then ordinary capable yet what the next may prove who knows If he be an Infant as it many times falls out then there must be patient and hopefull waitings to see what he will be when grown up untill that there can be no further progress made in the alteration or reformation of affairs though of never so great and present concernment and when he comes to these years which Custom pronounceth him capable how unreasonable is it that nothing can hinder or exclude him from his Authority but that he is incapable of being beg'd for a fool It being enough if he can koow his own name and be able to write himself Rex though he knows little what belongs to the Office or relation of a King If he be one of riper years and stature on which this Suâ—â—â—ssion falls then must all the observation of his nature and the ominous and more then Astrological aspects of his constitution and education be forgotten and although silenced in his pretended title and a full complyance looked after though opprest with never so many fears and secret wishes of a more hopefull Governour yea and though he hath been never so active against the liberties of the people when but a Prince and given demonstrations what a Governor they may expect yet his succession must be his qualification and indemnity and his Title his vertue On this ground also it comes to pass that oftentimes women come to hold the rains of government and to steer at the Helm as wel as
men for if there be any defect of the male line the female succeeds and that feeble and weaker sex whom God nature have ordained to be onely particular helps and good Subjects only to keep up the name of a Family must be invested with the highest authority over the choisest and most select spirits of many Nations and all further thoughts of bettering the State of things utterly extinguish'd by a female pretence And which is most desperate by this succession and its plea of the only and absolute right the fundamental liberties of the people are not onely insensibly undermined but absolutely rooted up and that birth-right priviledge of the people their Election and choice then which they have nothing more naturall and which is far more hereditary to them and theirs then by all the Laws of God nature and reason Crowns can be to Kings and their heirs is quite extinguished For pass by the first King who it may be as with us it hath been came in by Conquest you must go back in some Kingdoms five hundred in others a thousand years ere you can but recover the clear notion of a free election wherin the peoples power and priveledge is alone and peculiarly seen and yet that so faintly and hardly extorted from them as great loans of mony from a cruel miser without use or advantage and though Election must be acknowledged at last the first just ground of government yet custom in successions soon wears out its right and transfers it on the next bloud And though in England it appears by the Coronation Oath that there is even in succession a kind of election yet it s so limited in the line that it s as good as nothing and so weak and implicitely manifested that it s but a meer customary Ceremony which always is pursued by the natural title and onely used to deceive the people and as a step to the further confirmation of a more fundamentall and sure right and its easie to demonstrate it for our Kings soon forget it ere they come from Westminster to Whitehall or from the chair of Inauguration to the Presence Chamber In a word what gives all this ground of such an inevitable and successively insensible incroachment on the laws and liberties of Nations but this lineall title whereby the Son without remedy goes on where the Father left off and by a divine pretence seiseth on what by nature is due to the meanest subject as to himself And what makes the present Kings so daring and venturous to raise their own prerogative but this that that they know there can be no alienation of the Crown from his heirs and that they may make it better that is more tyrannicall but surer they cannot And thus there is a constant hope and possibility by continuation and propagation of principles and designs backed with title and authority that what cannot be done in one Kings reign may be done in the next and so on For the minds of Princes are not usually contracted or contented with present enjoyments especially if there be any restraint on their wills or more of heighth or advancement to be attained unto Yea this is one of the main reasons that in our times can be rendred why we have had such uneven actings and such strange alterations in several Kings Raigns the principles and laws the people have been always the same who are capable of small or no variation or change but as higher and supream influences move them of which none hath been so powerfull as Princes who as they are Stars of the first magnitude so of the strongest operations and though the people be compared to the Sea yet as the Sea they have no turbulent motion of their own but what is occasioned by violent and uncertain winds but the great change hath been by the temper and actings of Princes and commonly the next successor hath been the omen and fate of the times if any way good then the Nation smiled and his raign began the Spring if probable there was hopes and yet both these at first promised but at length frustrated and however the beginnings were yet the succession of acts demonstrated how the title was created for untill they have made their succession sure none have been more fair and promising but afterwards both Laws and Liberties like favourites have been advanced ad placitum and what they have got an interest in by nature that by prerogative they have centred in their own proper persons even the most fundamentall priviledges of the people and have only granted Leases unto the people of their own inheritances and dated them not for life which would have been too great a mercy but as long as the Royall pleasure lasts which changes alwayes with advantages Yea by this succession Tyranny is so intailed and all things so necessarily acted as if the Prince were not onely the civil but natural Parent of the people and that Kings had begot the people as so many Bastards to obey as they do beget one lawfully to raign over them It s too well known that good and wise men are the fewest of the sons of men and are commonly pickt out here and there as rich pearls on the shoar of violent torrents but to expect in one Line and Family a succession of good wise and governing men is almost as probable to Christians as to expect Mahomets second coming among the Turks after so many hundred years delusion and although it must be acknowledged that there have been some good Kings yet they have been so few that as their names from the beginning of the world can hardly make up the Dominical letters in the Almanack or possibly supply the Holydayes in the year so a little goodness hath gon far and at the best we shall finde it but comparative good Kings instead of better Governors as some of the Roman Cesars chose those to succeed them who were worse then themselves that they might commend and set off their own Raign though tyrannicall enough in it self and we may without any passion demonstrate that the design by succession hath been rather to keep up the Governors and palliate their vices then ever to maintain or highthen the glory and splendor or carry on the benefit of the Government it Self in the execution of good and righteous Laws But to come nigher home and leave generals granting Succession in it self to be a good title let us view without partiality the succession of the Kings of England whereby they plead their title to the Crown and we shall find in our Histories that nothing hath been more commonly interrupted then a succession of the next Heir and for this seaven or eight hundred years if not more we have not had succession continued in any even line or just right and no title was ever more broken and unjust then of our Kings if they make a Lineall and Hereditary succession the foundation of their right Let us look but
man this is the misery of depending on royal promises and engagements which are usually nothing else but complementall engins to move up the peoples affections while they more easily and insensibly drain out their blood and purses this was the end of this Rough and Lionlike King who reigned nine years and nine months wherein he exacted and consumed more of this Kingdom then all his Predecessors from the Norman had done before him and yet less deserved it then any having neither lived here nor left behind him monument of piety or any publike work or ever shewed love or care to this Common-wealth but onely to get what he could from it we see hitherto what a race of Kings we have had and what cause we have to glory in any thing but their Tombs and yet if we expect better afterwards we shall be as much mistaken of their actings as they were of their right The next that raigned though without any hereditary title was King John Stephens Brother whose government was as unjust as his title for he having by Election out of fear and policy of State got the Crown with expulsion of Arthur the right heir ut supra embarked the State and himself in these miserable incumberances through his violence and oppression as produced desperate effects and made way to those great alterations in the government which followed the whole reign of this King was a perfect tyranny there is in History hardly one good word given him the Barons and Clergy continually opposed him strugling for a confirmation of their long desired liberties but were most commonly either cluded or defeated by promises which were never intended to be performed until at last being more entirely united with the Commons and stoutly resolved and confirmed by an Oath taken at St. Edmunds-Burie in a general Assembly they then swore on the high Altar never to lay down arms if King John refused to confirm and restore unto them these liberties the rights which this Kingdom was formerly blest with and which all the late Kings had cheated them of the King knowing their power and considering their engagements makes use of policy and desired time to answer them entertaining them with smooth and gentle language and courtesie untill he had got strength and then he began anew to try experiments of securing himself and frustrating their desires But the Lords continuing their resolution and knowing nothing was to be obtained but by strong hand assemble themselves with a great Army at Stamford from whence they marched towards the King who was then at Oxford sent him a Schedule of their claimed liberties with an Appendix of their absolute resolutions in case of his denyal this Tyrant having heard them read with much passion replies Why do they not demand the Kingdom as wel and swore he would never grant these liberties whereby himself should be made a servant The Barons upon his Answer being as Daniel saith as hasty as he was averse resolve to seaze on his Castles and Possessions and repairing to London being welcomed by the Citizens who had too long groaned under the same tyranny they get a great access of strength by new confederates and renew their spirits oaths for the thorow prosecution of the war the King seeing himself in a strait which by no ordinary strength he could evade by gentle and teeming Messages sent to the Barons he obtained a Conference in a Medow called Running-mead between Windsor and Staâ—es where armed multitudes came from all places crying nothing but Liberty Liberty so sweet was that tone to them then After many hard Conferences the King seeing it no time to dally that they would not trust him with any complemental expressions whom they looked on as formerly perjured grants their desires not only saith Speed for Liberties specified in Magna Charta Charta Forrestae but also for a kind of sway in the Government by five and twenty selected Peers who were to be as a check over the King and his chief Justiciar and all his Officers to whom any appeal might be made in case of breach of any article or priviledge confirmed by that Charter And now one would think the people were secure enough but though they seem now to have the livery yet they had not the seisin for presently the King having got now credit by the largeness of his grants gets liberty with less suspicion to undo all and in a short time pretending these grants to be acts of force having got power renounceth his engagement by them and afterwards repeals them and dispoiled all these of their lands and possessions who had any hand or heart in procuring the former grants and by new and additionall Laws made them more perfect slaves then ever they were before untill at last he was poysoned by a Monk instead of being deposed But though he be dead yet the miseries of this Nation ended not with him for his son Henry the third who succeeded him though he could not at first follow on his Fathers designs being an Infant yet at last did not onely imitate but outstrip him yet the English Nation who are much given to credulity and apt to be won by fair and plausible promises notwithstanding all the fathers iniquity imbrace the son having taken an oath of him to restore and confirm the liberties they propounded to his father which he had often granted and as often broken but for all his first oath they were fain not onely to remember him of it by petitions but oftentimes by arms and strength And though there was in this Kings Raign twenty one Parliaments called and many great Subsidies granted in confirmation of their liberties yet every Parliament was no sooner dissolved but the ingagement ceased a hint of two or three special Parliaments and their success will not be amiss to be set down in this place This King not being able to suppress the Barons and people by his own strength they having gotten not onely heart but power sends to forraign Nations for aid and entertains Poictovines Italians Almains Provincioes to subdue his own people and set them in great places which dangerous and desperate design the Barons much resenting raised their spirits and ingaged them in opposition to his Government and set them on with more courage to look after their liberties therefore they several times stand up against the violence of Prerogative but what through want of strength or caution they were commonly disappointed yet rather if we may speak truly from the unfaithfulness of the King then any other defect except it were their easiness to believe Kings when their Prerogative and the peoples liberties came in competition for after they had many times got or rather extorted many promises and confirmed them by oaths the best humane security they were put to new designs through either the suspention or breach of them witness these Instances after many foiles and tedious and various delusions by this King whose
beams attracted most dazled others the Barons and people who were then unanimous through mutual oppressions fall more close and severe on their principles and wil not endure either delays or delusions and therefore effectually to redress their grievances came very well armed to a Parliament then holden at Oxford intended rather for getting Subsidies then removing oppressions in which Assembly they put the King to it urge their former complaints with more zeal and reason and with an addition of a mighty Spirit demand the absolute confirmation of Magna Charta and in a larger edition wherein are comprised those gallant priviledges of the Commons of England which have yet been but kept by Ink and Parchment and not trusting the King got his son Prince Edward to seal it with an addition of twenty four some write twelve Peers which Fabian stiles the douze Peeres not only to see these priviledges truly observed but to be as joynt Regents with the King and all the Lords and Bishops in Parliament took a like Oath to maintain these Articles inviolable yea and all that would have any benefit of residence in the Kingdom were enjoyned to take the same But these were too strict bonds for such a Princes wil he soon finding advantages as he sought them recals all gets a dispensation from the Pope for his forced Oath and to countenance his perjurie and acts in the old account the Barons again stand up with the people stoutly for the performance of the Articles of Oxford and sometimes brought him into straits yea fully defeated him in many bloody battles and regained the confirmation of the same laws with security that all the Castles throughout England should be delivered to the keeping of the Barons that the provisions of Oxford be inviolably preserved that all strangers should be dismist the Kingdom but those which by generall consent should be thought fit to remain this necessitous act though as it gave the people some peace and hopes so it gave the King time to consider of new mediums and therefore still to delay and blind he Assembles a new Parliament at London where having by the sprinkling of Court water won many Lords to take his part begins to surprise as many of the Barons as he could get and spoiled their Castles and Houses that success and authority grows strong on his side and the Barons with some calme provisoes mediate a peace insisting onely in generall that the Articles of Oxford might be observed But the King relying on his strength defies them as Traitors which done the peoples two Generals the Earls of Leicester and Glocester seeing no other means but to put it to a day supply their want of strength by their wit and diligence and carefully and artificially placing their battel which was fought at the Town of Lewis in Sussex overthrew the Kings Army took the King the Prince the Earl of Cornwal and his son Henry the Earls of Arundel Hereford with many other Lords and Gentlemen both English and Scottish And now having the King and Prince and most of the Nobles and a new confirmation of all one would think the great Charter was out of danger either of blotting or razing especially if we consider the solemnities formerly used in the ratification of it as Daniel excellently relates it in his history p. 169. The people knowing that no civil promises or verbal professions would hold in Kings raptured by Prerogative devoted to perjury to maintain their tyranny take a more Ecclesiasticall and divine way of obligation swearing to excommunicate all that should be found infringers of that Charter when the people with the King and all the great Nobility were assembled with all the Prelates and the chief Bishops in their reverent ornaments with burning Candles in their hands to receive that dreadfull sentence the King having one great Candle in his hand gives it to a Prelate that stood by saying it becomes not me being no Priest to hold this Candle my heart shall be a greater testimony and withall laid his hand spred on his breast all the while the sentence was pronouncing which was Authoritato omnipotentis Dei c. which done he caused the Charter of King John his Father to be read and in the end having thrown away their Candles which lay smoaking on the ground they cryed out so let them that incurre this sentence be extinct and stinck in Hell And the King with a loud voice said As God help I will as I am a man a Christian a Knight a King Crowned and Annointed inviolably observe these things Never were Laws saith he whose words express the thing most emphatically amongst men except those holy Commandments from the Mount established with more Majestie of Ceremony to make them reverenced and respected then these were they wanted but thunder and lightning from heaven which likewise if prayers could have effected they would have had it to make the sentence ghastly and hideous to the breakers of it the greatest security that could be given was an Oath the onely chain on earth besides love to tye the conscience of a man and humane societie together which should it not hold us all the frame of Government must needs fall quite asunder yet so almost a miracle though over common among our Kings saith Master Prin out of Mat. Paris the Parliament being thus dissolved by a sacred and most solemn conclusion the King presently studies how to infringe all the premises his Parasites telling him the Pope could soon absolve him for a summ of mony which afterwards the Pope did and the King returned to his former oppressive courses with more violence and hardness and taking advantage by the division of the Barons two Generals the Earls of Leicester and Glocester the latter of which joyned with the young Prince Edward and Sir Roger Mortimer the Kings wicked Counsellor a new and potent Army is raised by them against the Earl of Leicester who had the King prisoner and those which kept constant with him for the Peoples Liberties and he with the rest of the Barons are overthrown and immediately after a Parliament is called and all these laws and decrees made voyd and that Parliament held at Oxford wherein all these Laws were first confirmed by him called Insanum Parliamentum the mad Parliament and all these Patents Commissions or Instruments made to ratifie these Articles were brought forth and solemnly damned and so bright and resplendent did Prerogative break forth that it was Proclaimed Treason in any but to speak or mention any of these Grants with the least approbation and because the City of London had engaged with the Barons and People as a principal part of the whole he would needs have burnt the City had not some wise and potent Favorites interposed and yet they could hardly disswade him from that barbarous and impolitick wickednesse But what he spared in their houses that he gott out of their purses and made up all
his losses with a thorough subjection of their persons and suppression of their liberties I need relate no more of this King nor make observations the Reader will be amazed at the repetition he at least 20 times gave his promise for the confirmation execution of these just decrees contained in Magna Charta and as many times was perjured notwithstanding all the solemnities both Civil Moral and Ecclesiastical used in the acts of ratification this may learn us how to trust the most positive Engagements of Princes which cross their own interest and what to think of that word and promise they call Royall this King reigned fifty six years the longest of any King of England But we have had too much of the story of him as he had too long a time to rule considering his temper and design It s well if we can be wary for the future and be more cautious then to trust the most promising and insinuating Princes with our liberties and priviledges which can be no longer expected to be preserved by them then they may serve as footstools to advance them in the Throne of absolute Majesty But no more of this King never were there more hard strivings and wrestlings between tyranny and liberty with such bad success to the people I onely conclude his raign with the exhortation of the Psalmist Psal. 146. 3. O put not your confidence in Princes surely men of high degree are a lye King Henry is by this time layd in his grave and one would think Magna Charta buried with him His Son Edward who was his right-hand in his wars against the Barons and the principal Agent in their ruine succeeds him in the throne and instead of lessening goes on and makes an higher improvement of that royalty which his Father left him having in his own person got the victory over the Peoples Libertyes in his Fathers time and having wonne or worne out the greatest of those which opposed and being long experienced in the world so secured and advanced the Prerogative that as one sayth he seemed to be the first conqueror after the Conqueror that got the domination of this State in so absolute and eminent a manner as by his government appears He layd unsupportable Taxes both on the Clergy and Laity even unto Fiveteens and halfs of their Estates As for Tenths that was comparatively accounted easy the Barons and People for a long time durst not move for removal of greivances untill that the King being always in wars in France Flanders Wales and Scotland and so needed continually vast sums of mony called a Parliament wherein he demanded a great treasure of mony from the People that he might give them somewhat in lieu of their expences confirmed the two great Charters on the Petition of the Barons and People and so stopped their mouths and this he did as often as he had extraordinary occasions for mony But like all other royall promises they were performed by leasure Never was Royalty more Majestick and glorious then in this Kings raign and the people less able to oppose he was always so watchful and eager to enlarge his own power I shall end his raign also with what Daniel that impartiall and witty Historian saith of him He was more for the greatness of the Kingdom then the quiet of it and never King before or since except our last Charls shed so much Christian bloud within this Isle of Britain and was the cause of more in that following and not one grain of benefit procured unto the people by all their expences on him which was but to make themselves more perfect slayes The next King was Edward the Second his Son who though more vicious then the Father yet not more tyrannicall he gave more advantage to the people thorough his lewd life and unmartiall nature to seek the confirmation and establishment of Magna Charta and other good Laws which were utterly supprest and darkened in his Fathers reign This Prince gave himself over to all wicked courses and surrendred his Judgement and the management of all affairs of State unto evill and corrupt Counsellors especially to one Peirce Gaveston who had both his ear and heart unto whom he was so much endeared that he ventured the loss of Kingdom and all the hearts of his Subjects for his company and preservation and though the Barons had by often Petitions and earnest sollicitations prevailed with the King to banish him yet he soon after sent for him home and laid him more nigh his bosom then before on this the Barons raise an army against the King and send him word that unless he would observe the late Articles which they had formerly by much ado got him to sign in Parliament and put from him Pierce Gaveston they would rise in Arms against him as a perjured Prince the King whom they found was apt to be terrified yeilds again to his banishment with this clause that if he were found again within the Kingdom he should be condemned to death as an enemy of the State All places were now dangerous to Gaveston both Ireland where he formerly was protected France also too hot for him in this extremity finding no security anywhere else he again adventures on England and puts himself once again into the Kings bosom a Sanctuary which he thought would not be polluted with blood and there he is received with as great joy as ever man could be the Lords with more violence prosecute their suite to the King for delivering up or removing him once more but to no purpose they therefore set forwards with an Army say siege to the Castle wherein Gaveston was took him and notwithstanding the Kings earnest sollicitation for his life they condemned him to the block and took off his head this obstacle being removed out of the way the Lords having now the better end of the staff make advantages of it for demanding the confirmation and execution of all those Articles formerly granted threatning the King that if he would not consent to it they would force him by a strong hand with this message they had their swords also drawn and march towards London A Parliament is called where the King after a submission by the Lords to him for that act done against Gaveston contrary to his consent and will grants the Articles and pardon to them But the King goes on his old way adheres to wicked counsel waving the grave advice of his Parliament and is ruled by the two Spencers who acted with mighty strain of injustice which caused the Lords again to take up arms and stand for their Liberties but are through the revolt of some and the treachery of others overthrown at Burton upon Trent and two and twenty Noblemen the greatest Peers in the Realm executed in several places for nothing but opposing his evil Counsellors this was the first blood of Nobility that ever was shed in this manner in England since William the first which being so
the rack let them down and give them cordials and spiritfull liquors that they may be the longer and more sensibly tormented which was made good in the next Kings raign viz. Richard the Second who presently dashes and utterly nips these blossoms that sprung out in the former Kings raign devoting himself to all uncivill and lewd courses and to enable him the better unto it layes on sad and miserable taxes on the people without so much as a mention or hint of their liberties and as the parallel of Edward the second both lived and died It s enough to decypher his raign by his end for he was deposed by the universal consent of the people in Parliament as a tyrannical and cruel Governor and not a good word spoken of him to commend him in his Government and its pitty to aggravate his misery after his death and yet as we say Seldom comes a better when one is cut off another like the Hidra's head springs up in his place Henry the fourth who overthrew him in battel and was made King in his stead though by a wrong title at first promised the new modelling of Laws to the peoples ease and did as in a complement rather to secure his title then out of affection to the people or sense of his relation redress many grievances which were more gross and less concerning the Common-wealth and as he did strive by these common acts to engage the people to him so as one that had continuall sence of guilt on him he got the deposed King to be barbarously murthered in the Castle of Pomfret that no competition might endanger his title by his life He spent most of his raign incontinuall wars about his title and was often opposed as both a Tyrant and Usurper but he still got ground on both the liberties and laws formerly granted yet not so sensibly as in the former Kings raigns that the people may be said to have a little respite from the violence heighth of Prerogative by him but they may thank the unjustness and brittleness of his title for that he being more in fear of of loosing it then out of love with the excess of his ancestors I shall only add one story to conclude this Kings raign which is universally reported by most of our Historians worth observation because it hath much of ingenuity in it and because they were his dying words Being cast into an Apoplexie and nigh his end he caused his Crown to be placed by him on his Pillow least in the extremity of his sickness it might have been delivered to some other who had better right thereunto then he had But when his attendants through the violence of his distemper supposed him to be dead the young Prince of Wales seised on his Crown whereat the King started up raising himself on his arms demanded who it was that had so boldly taken away the Crown the Prince answered that it was he the King fell back into his bed and fetching a deep sigh and sending forth many a pensive groan replyes thus my son what right I had to this Crown and how I have enjoyed it God knows and the world hath seen But the Prince ambitious enough of a Diadem answered him thus Comfort your self in God good Father the Crown you have and if you die I will have jt and keep it with my Sword as you have done and so he did soon after maintaining his Fathers injustice by his own And now comes up his Son Henry the Fifth as the next heir who though while a Prince was given to many wicked practises yet when a King became moderate and hath better commendation then most of his Ancestors the people had two advantages and comforts by him first that his reign was short and that he was much imployed in the war with France for regaining a title to that Crown which he accomplished and so they were free of Civil wars though they had still heavie taxes yet they thought it better to pay for maintaining war abroad then at home and truly the people thought themselves very happy in this Kings reign though their priviledges were laid asleep that they had a little breathing time from Domestick and Civil wars and had hopes to regain by degrees a reviving of their Spirits But the next King Henry the sixth makes up what was wanting of Tyranny and Oppression in his fathers raign He was Crowned King about the eighth or ninth moneth of his age and so had not present oppertunity to shew his royalty Until he came to age the Kingdom was well governed by his three Uncles Humphrey Duke of Glocester John Duke of Bedford Thomas Duke of Excester who by their wisdom and justice kept up the flourishing estate of the English Nation but when his years of nonage were expired and he came to weld the Scepter with his own hands what as some favorably think out of weakness for he was no Solomon all things went presently out of order and Prerogative breaks forth beyond bounds which gave occasion to Edward Duke of York to try conclusions for his title against the House of Lancaster and making use of the discontents of the people through his evil Government opposed him and afterwards deposed him and raigned in his stead by the name of Edward the Fourth and so by Conquest he got the title to run through the House of York having cut it off by his Sword from the house of Lancaster notwithstanding actuall possession of three descents many overtures of war were yet between them for Henry was not yet dead though for the present outed but as a dying man strove for life but being quite overthrown was imprisoned and afterwards murthered to secure the Title there was in these two Kings raign but meerly for a title fought ten bloudy Battles besides all lesser skirmishes wherein many thousands of Lords Gentlemen and Commons were slain and yet not one jot of advantage gotten by it for the peoples liberties It being the misery and folly of the people to venture all they have to set up those over them who afterwards prove most tyranni call and to sow seeds of future misery by spilling their bloods for a usurped title In this Kings reign as in the former the whole land was miserably rent by unnaturall divisions against his title and government and though neither or these two had a just title if we will begin from the root yet all the bloud of the Nation is thought too little to be spilt to maintain their pretences yet we may not reckon this King among the worst had it not faln out that his title must be kept up with expence of so much blood and ruin of the English Nation yet in his last five yeers he laid on such extraordinary taxes and changed the form of Laws that he lost the love of all his Subjects For Edward the Fifth his Son who succeeded him in title we need but mention him for he had but
the name of a King being an Infant and his reign may wel be called an Inter-regnum for ere he came to know what government was he was cruelly murthered with his Infant Brother by his Uncle Rich. Duke of Glocester who reigned both for him and afterwards for himself by the name of Richard the Third a bloody and cruel man rather a monster then a Prince his name stincks in the English dialect the shortness of his reign was the happiness of the people for after three yeers usurpation he was slain in the field by the Earl of Richmond who by his valour more then his Title got the Crown by the name of Henry the Seventh this was the best act that was done by him in easing the Kingdom of such a viper In his reign who is the first root of our Kings since the people had more hopes then benefits and were rejoyced and made happy more by expectations then enjoyments of any reall priviledge or liberty For though he took all the ways to secure his title by his marriage with the Lady Elizabeth daughter to Edward the Fourth yet many stratagems were laid to disturbe his peace which put him on acts of policy and diligence which he excellently demonstrated to free and extricate himself out of dangers and designs many sad divisions were stil in the Kingdom all men were not pleased either with his title or government and that they might but disturbe him or hazard his Crown they made Stage Kings drest up pretty lads in Princely robes and carried them up and down the Kingdom as puppets for the people to gaze one and admire all this while King Henry had not time to advance his prerogative while he was but securing his Title but after he had done that and now began to look on himself as free from either forraign or home competitors and the coast of State seeming cleer from all thickning weather he thinks of redeeming what he had lost by factions and imployes his wit for bringing down the height of the English Nation and plucking down their courage and was especially saith one jealous over his Nobility as remembring how himself was set up and how much more did this humor encrease in him after he had conflicted with such idols and counterfeits as Lambert Simnel Perkin Warbeck the strangeness of which dangers made him think nothing safe and thinking that the riches of the English occasioned their rebellions he took a course to empty their Coffers into his and the plot whereby he meant to effect it was by taking the advantage of the breach of penal Laws which he both found and made for that purpose his Instruments which for this work were pickt and qualified sufficiently were Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley men learned in the Law and of desperate and subtle heads and forward in executing the Kings commands these two attended by troops of base Informers Promoters Catchpoles Cheaters Knights of the Post c. went up and down the Kingdom cruelly polled and taxed all sorts of people and prosecute in every Shire the most deserving and generous men that the Kingdom in a little time was more beggard then by most of the former Civil wars and all this done by the Kings speciall command and countenance that we may see what was the reason he began not sooner to play Rex want of opportunity and fear of loosing his Crown while he was advancing it but the latter end of his raign was too soon and too long for such actings This King ends his raign with the greatest acts of tyranny he made himself a rich King by beggaring his Subjects after he had freed his own person out of danger he imploys all his wits to enslave the English the fruits both of his title and tyranny we have felt ever sence in these that followed him His son Henry the eighth of that name succeeds him in his first beginnings he seemed to be tenderly affected to the Common-wealth and redressed many grievances especially those which were laid on by his father and executed by Empson and Dudley doing Justice on them for their cruelty and oppression But those affections were too good and too violent to last long the sound of Drums and Trumpets soon quasht them and many encroachments grew on the peoples Liberties many tempestuous storms and controversies there were in this Kings raign but they were more Ecclesiastical then Civil and so more dangerous and strong In a word he was accounted a better Souldier then a Governor and more fit for a General then a King to govern by just and equal Laws the best act he did was the discovery of the wickedness of the Clergy and casting off the Popes Supremacy which yet he took to himself and annexed it to his own Crown as the most of his raign was ful of controversies and tempests so all affairs were managed in a ranting and turbulent maner not with that gravity soberness as becomes civil and prudentiall transactions he was very lascivious and delighted much in variety and changes of Laws as wives he oftentimes much pleased himself to be in the company and was over-familiar with swaggering and loose fellows and the people ever and anon found the power of his Prerogative at home as his enemies did of his Sword abroad Edward the sixth his onely son succeeds him a Prince that was too good to live long the Phoenix of English Kings had he had time to prosecute his intentions and mature his genius but the Sun in him did shine too bright in the morning God gave England onely the representation of a good King but would not in judgement let us be blest long with him Religion began to revive Liberty to bud forth the people to peep out of their graves of slavery and bondage and to have their blood fresh and blushing in their cheeks but all is presently blasted by his death and the people who have seldom more then hopes for their comforts are now fainting for fear England is benighted and hung with black Queen Mary that Alecto and fury of women succeeds and now both souls and bodies of the people are enslaved and nothing but bone fires made of the flesh and bones of the best Christians But it s too much to name her in the English tongue Queen Elizabeth succeedes her who being prepared for the Crown by suffering came in a most seasonable time both for her self and the people who were made fuel for the flames of her sisters devotion And now England begins to flourish again and to recover its strength many inlargements were granted both to the consciences and estates of the people yet if we speak impartially we were kept further off Rome then royalty yet doubtless she may be Chronicled for the best Princess and her raign the most even and best mannaged with more fruits to the people then any of the former Kings especially if we consider how long she governed this Nation I