Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
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A70678
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Some notes concerning the life of Edward Lord North, Baron of Kirtling, 1658 by Sir Dudley North Lord North.
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North, Dudley North, Baron, 1602-1677.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing N1286A; ESTC R678
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21,672
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50
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knew that this great King whose vertues were so many as they cannot find sufficient room in this small Treatise was before his marriage here provided of a Son to inherit his great Kingdom in case there had been issue by Queen Mary which issue nevertheless of hers should have enjoyed the Burgundian Provinces a great accession to his Crown and free from the inconvenience before mentioned And all other particulars were so well provided for in that business as there appeared little intermixture of the Nations in the government during the Queens life and no inconvenience at all upon her death For Edward Lord North he continued in good favour all the time of Philip and Mary for he held his Counsellourship and was powerfull with the Queen to obtain grace for others as may appear by the restitution in bloud of a person very highly descended and wrought by his mediation which also could not but be a matter of good profit to him And now this Queens reign not affording more matter relating to the subject of this discourse I must not leave untouched a reflexion indiscreetly cast upon this noble person by Mr. Fox in his Acts and Monuments which is this He saith that he himself spake with a Woman who told him that near the expected time of Queen Mary's delivery for she conceived her self to be with Child and the whole Kingdom was possessed with such an expectation the Lord North and another Lord came to her and would have prevailed with her to part with a child of hers newly born but that she utterly refused it and this Mr. Fox conceiveth to have been desired as a supposititious Child for the Queen The design it self is so unprobable either to have been truly such or to have been carried on by a person of so much honour and wisedom as it needeth little answer for the Queen her self was too vertuous and religious in her way to admit of such a thought Neither if there had been such an intention could it possibly have been concealed being the concernment of so great Princes and Nations And questionless the succeeding Queen would never have cast the least honour or placed any trust upon this Lord or his Son Roger Lord North whom she made a Privy-Counsellour and near officer about her if she had given the least credit to that Calumny It is therefore a wonder that Mr. Fox should insert in his History so trivial a thing and casting so great a Scandal having received it from a mean person in an extrajudicial way who perhaps might be hired to the affirmation for certainly he could not have found a more ready way to abate the credit of his other Narrations But however it was concerning Queen Mary's conception whether it were only fancied by her or in it self real with an abortion following it is certain that she lived not long after for she fell presently into a deep sadness of spirit and ended her days in the year 1558 having reigned but a short time and very unhappily even in her own opinion for she thought the loss of Calais which was the last footing of our Nation in France to be an irreparable blemish to her government yet was there much bloud shed at home for Religion which better might have deserved her sorrow but she according to the Prophecy of our blessed Saviour thought she did God good service in it She was a Princess very eminent for Vertue and Piety but too flexible a weakness incident to her sex which is not so fit to govern in publick matters referring almost all to others but especially in matters of Religion to her Prelates These she should have considered as too much interested and over-violent in things tending to their own power and greatness The subjects of a Tyrant who manageth his own affairs prove for the most part not so unhappy as of those of a mild Prince who putteth the whole care of Government upon some choice instruments for they become many Tyrants in stead of one and being of a more servile condition are usually steered by more sordid ends Yet is the Prince himself answerable for their faults and so certainly was this Queen and the rather because in respect of her engagement to uphold the Papal power she may be thought not to have given an unwilling consent to those horrid cruelties but Sanguis martyrum est semen Ecclesiae which saying it pleased God to verifie most strangely at that time as may appear in the Reformation perfected and settled immediately after Queen Mary's days Queen Elizabeth's entry upon her Reign was embraced with a general applause by the Protestants cordially for they concluded her well affected to their principles and by the Papists seemingly because she was yet theirs in outward profession as appeared by the Popish Ceremonies used at her Coronation yet these could not but be very distrustfull knowing her interest to be directly opposite to that of her Sister for if the Pope had power to Legitimate the marriage with Katharine of Arragon Mother to Queen Mary then that with Ann of Bullen Mother to Queen Elizabeth being solemnized living the other must of necessity be invalide This Queen presently made an alteration at the Council-Table retaining some and dismissing others Of the latter sort was Edward Lord North and whether or no it was his own desire by reason of age and infirmity we know not but certain it is that he was not under any great displeasure for the Queen finding it requisite to erect a Lieutenancy for command of the Militia and ordering of Musters in each County made choice of him for that trust in Cambridge-shire and the Isle of Ely This she did in the first year of her reign and by another Patent in her second year she confirmed it unto him But this power was soon resumed and as I conceive laid down generally for the present which giveth occasion to say something Historically of the Militia of this Kingdom Anciently the Martial forces were of two kinds extraordinary or ordinary The extraordinary consisted of Mercenaries serving for Pay and taken into service upon the occasion The ordinary were partly such as lay under an obligation by the tenure of their Lands to serve their Prince and this comprized all the Nobility and Gentry of the Land with their Tenants and these were they by whose help our Kings made so great Conquests and became so formidable abroad for if the Tenants answered not the expectation of their Landlord it was in the Landlord's power to turn them out of the Estates which they held but especially such as were Copyholders This power of great men as it was extremely usefull against Foreigners so it grew dangerous at home for that means there was great and frequent oppositions made against the Princes by Civil War managed by the Nobles whose Tenants were necessitated to serve them and this made the Kings so far to diminish this power upon Tenants at Will by frequent decisions of