Selected quad for the lemma: land_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A48106
|
A letter humbly addrest to the most excellent father of his country, the wise and victorious prince, King William III by a dutiful and well-meaning subject.
|
Dutiful and well meaning subject.
|
1698
(1698)
|
Wing L1551; ESTC R22015
|
8,497
|
26
|
A LETTER Humbly addrest To the most Excellent Father of his Country THE Wise and Victorious Prince King William III. By a dutiful and well-meaning Subject LONDON Printed by J. Darby in Bartholomew-Close 1698. SIR A Well-meaning and dutiful Subject humbly begs your Majesty to read this Letter which is written with no other design but only to set before you I. What was the antient Foundation of the English Monarchy II. How it was remov'd from off its natural Foundation III. By what Expedients it has bin supported since that Removal IV. By what Expedient your Majesty may support the Monarchy during your Reign which I pray God may be long and happy and also raise it to as high a degree of Glory as ever it has attain'd heretofore I. The Monarchy of England was setled upon an over balance of Lands vested in the King the Nobility and the Church who antiently possess'd above two thirds of the whole English Territory But the Noble-men held their Lands upon condition that they should assist the King upon all his Occasions with certain Quotas of Men well arm'd and paid And then these Noblemen let out their Lands to their Tenants upon condition that they should always be ready to follow their respective Lords to the War as often as the King should have any occasion for their Service So that very small Rents were demanded by the Lord from the Tenants because he had contracted for their Personal Service 'T was this disposition of Lands which enabled our former Kings to raise great Armies when they pleas'd and to invade France their natural Enemy with success and hereby it was that the Nobility upheld the Grandure of the King at home as well as abroad and at the same time they were a shelter and defence to the common People if the King were inclin'd to make any Incroachments upon them For the over-balance of Propriety and consequently their greatest natural Power was vested in the middle state of Nobility who were therefore able to preserve both King and People in their due bounds Thus the English Monarchy stood upon a natural Foundation the King being the great Landlord of his People who were all bound by their Tenures in subordination to one another to support his Crown and Dignity II. This antient Foundation of the English Monarchy was sap'd and undermined by K. Henry the Seventh who having seen the Imperial Crown of England dispos'd of at the pleasure of the Lords who had maintain'd a War against the Crown for near 400 years could not but be much concern'd at the over-grown Power of the Peers who sometimes would pull down and set up what King they pleas'd and this Consideration made K. Henry the Seventh seek after ways and means how to lessen the Power of the Lords which had bin so prejudicial to the Crown and seeing that their over grown Power was supported by the great Territories of Land of which they were possess'd and which they could not alienate from their Heirs He by the help of his Parliament found out a way to change the Tenure of Lands in such a manner that the Tenant should be oblig'd only to pay a Rent instead of Personal Service to his Landlord and also a way was found out for the Lords to alienate their Lands from their Posterity This was done to the end that the Lords might be encourag'd by an expensive way of living to sell their Lands and that the Commons who liv'd thristily might be enabled to purchase them Hereby it came to pass that at the end of King Henry the Eighth's Reign in whose time most part of the church-Church-Lands were also sold to the People the common People of England had near two thirds of the Lands of England in their proper Possession and the King Lords and Church little more than one third part whereby the Balance was turn'd on the side of the Commons who were therefore able to make War upon the King Lords and Church together as appeard afterwards in the Reign of King Charles the First Thus it appears that the antient Foundation of the English Monarchy was remov'd in the Reign of K. Henry the Seventh and the over-balance of Lands falling from the Lords to the Commons 't is evident that the Monarchy has ever since stood not upon an Aristocratical but a Popular Foundation and such a Foundation dos naturally support none but Commonwealth Forms of Government Wherefore a Monarchy supported on such a Foundation may properly be call'd a Government of Expedients because it is by Expedients and Inventions and not upon any bottom of its own that it subsists Now what Expedients our Kings have us'd to support the Monarchy is the next thing to be consider'd Wherefore III. The Balance of Lands being chang'd by the end of K. Henry the Eighth's Reign from the Lords and Church to the Commons of England 't is past all doubt but that Queen Elizabeth discover'd the popular bottom of the Monarchy because she found out the only wise Expedient by which the Monarchy upon its new Foundation was capable of being supported in its antient Lustre and Glory Her Expedient was her Popularity by which she accommodated her personal Administration to the true Genius of the Monarchical Constitution as it then stood For the whole Reign of that Queen of Glorious Memory tho long but not tedious was past over in a constant Courtship to her People in which not only all her Actions but sometimes her very Words expressed her knowledg that the Monarchy was then founded on their Affections In what Glory she supported her self and the English Monarchy by that Expedient of Popularity notwithstanding very great Oppositions from the preeminent Powers of Europe her History do's sufficiently explain King James the First was not in his nature inclin'd to persue this honourable and proper Expedient but his thoughts seem'd to be set upon his own Power more than upon his Peoples Good whereby it came to pass that the Flattery of the Court was more pleasing to him than the general Interest of his Kingdom And having gotten some superficial skill in the Arts and Sciences and a profound knowledg as he thought in Theology he made his Court to the Divines of the Church of England that they being appriz'd of his great Learning might in their Writings celebrate his Fame and insinuate to the People his great Knowledg in all sorts of Divine and Human Learning Hereupon at his first coming to the Crown of England he industriously assisted the Bishops and Church-Party against the Puritans whom the Church look'd upon as no less than her Enemies because tho they could endure yet they did not admire her Bishops and Ceremonies And in this manner that King found out his Expedient in the Church-party which admir'd and almost ador'd his deep Learning oftentimes comparing him to King Solomon for Wisdom and indeed omitted no opportunity which might gain him an extraordinary Reverence among the People 'T is not then
to be wonder'd at that King Charles the First trod in the steps of his Father and persued the same Expedient which had been successful to his Father especially having derived from him the same Temper of Mind and being well pleas'd to have for his Flatterers the gravest of Divines whose Courtship ever tended to aggrandize the King by enlarging the Royal Prerogative and to set it above the Laws of the Realm by virtue of some political Doctrines which they drew from the Word of God From hence sprang the Divine Right by which those Kings were said to reign over us and a Divine Right of Succession to the Crown of England was derived to their Posterity But yet King Charles the First laid too great a weight upon his Expedient and encouraged it too much even when the People began to be sensible that the Pulpit-Law did build the Kings Prerogative upon the Ruins of the People's Liberty And herewith began the quarrel of the People against that King in which he lost his Life and the Monarchy losing its Expedient of the Church party was likewise overthrown After this an Essay was made to introduce a Commonwealth-form of Government but it was interrupted by a Standing Army which with their arbitrary and uncertain ways of Administration at last tir'd out the People that they restor'd the Monarchy in the Person of King Charles the Second who being the Son of the Royal Martyr was intitled to all that Assistance which the Church was capable of giving and there was one thing more which made the Church-men exert all their Powers with the greatest vigor in favour of their restor'd King which was this The Clergy and their Party having bin ill treated since the downfal of King Charles the First and being again restor'd with Charles the Second to their former Dignities they were highly animated against the Presbyterians by whom they had bin provoked in the late Interregnum so that nothing was more in their Desires than to be avenged of their Enemies and this Master-passion of theirs was so well gratified by their King who granted severe Laws against all Dissenters from the Church that no Prince ever gain'd the Hearts of the Clergy and their whole Party more entirely to his Interest than Charles the Second No Vice or Lewdness could stain the Reputation of the Martyr's Son but tho he were the greatest Encourager of all Profaneness and Immorality in the most open manner yet still he was our most Religious and Gracious King In his time all Atheists Debauchees and loose Persons own'd the Church of England for their Mother which numerous Party enlarging the Pale of the Church assisted very much to advance the Power of the King upon the foundation of a Divine Right which it was said God had given him so that the universal Acclamation was viz. Great is Diana of the Ephesians and great is the Jure divino King the Image which fell down from Jupiter But notwithstanding this loud Acclamation the cautious King who in his Youth had bin forc'd to travel into foreign Countries and was unwilling to take such another Journey did not think fit to rely wholly upon this Church-Expedient but to give it greater strength he twisted into it a Court-party who by their Places and Pensions were oblig'd to assist his Royal Pleasure by their Votes in both Houses of Parliament and thus the Monarchy had its Foundation laid in Place and Pension which by angry People is call'd BRIBERY But let that be as it will 't is certain that Men can never act so vigorously for a Bribe as out of mere Inclination Besides this mercenary Men are soon discover'd in their Designs and the discovery of their Principle forfeits all their Credit with the People So that a small steady Country Party in Parliament were a great clog upon the Projects of Church and Court which tho so closely united together prov'd but a lame Expedient to support the Monarchy in the Person of King Charles the Second so that between these two stools he fell at last to the ground but not without thoughts of the only Expedient by which he might had he liv'd have establish'd himself upon the foundation of the People of England King James the Second would not trust to any of the fore-mention'd Expedients because none of them could be sufficient to carry him thro all his Designs especially thro that of introducing Popery Nothing less than a standing Army could support his Tyranny but Popery was too great a weight for the Army to stand under So that whilst he was subduing the people to Popery by a Protestant Army he lost both People and Army in consequence whereof he was lost himself And that the loss of him may by means of your Majesty's happy Reign be a Gain to England it is to be consider'd IV. By what Expedient your Majesty may support the English Monarchy during your Reign and by which you may raise it to as eminent a degree of Glory as it hath ever attain'd heretofore Your Majesty may remember that the original foundation of the Monarchy was the great Territory of Land possessed by the King but your Majesty is also sensible that there are but very small Remainders of this Territory in your present Possession even the very accidental additions of Lands to the Crown have bin alienated to the Favorites of the Scotish Line So that there is need of an Expedient now as much as ever for the support of the Monarchy Be pleas'd therefore to review the Expedients of former Princes and see if any of them be sutable to your particular Circumstances or proper for your Majesty to depend upon for the Support and Glory of your Throne And As for the Church-party which was the darling Support of the Scotish Line it is so much worn out by a Succession of three Kings that 't is very weak and 〈◊〉 at present The Craft of the Priest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in framing such Interpretations of holy Scripture as serve an indirect Interest was never discover'd so much as of late and no Person has so much contributed to the discovery hereof as your own self who by the Revolution you have lately made have revers'd all the Political Divinity which the Clergy have bin propagating since the Reign of King James the First 'T was the Church-Clergy and Party who by their preaching and voting oppos'd the Bill for excluding James D. of York a known Papist 'T was this Party who impos'd upon the Nation the Doctrine of Passive Obedience to a Tyrannical King upon pain of eternal Damnation They always avow'd the divine right of a Lineal Succession to the Crown by which yout Majesty is excluded and that all Kings are of God's not the Peoples making From these Principles some of 'em openly refus'd to swear Allegiance to your Majesty and those of 'em who yield a passive Conformity to your Title and Government have bin found in several differing stories about the ways