the North the fift penny In the two and thirtyeth year he had a subsedy freely granted In the three and thirtyeth year he confirmed the great Charter of his own Royall disposition and the states to shew their thankfulnesse gave the King for one year the fift part of all the revenues of the land and of the Citizens the sixt part of their goods And in the same year the King used the inquisition called Trai le Baston By which all Justices and other Magistrates were grievously fined that had used extortion or bribery or had otherwise misdemeaned themselves to the great contentation of the people This Commission likewise did enquire of entruders barators and all other the like vermine whereby the King gathered a great masse of treasure with a great deal of love Now for the whole raigne of this King who governed England 35 years there was not any Parliament to his prejudice COUNS. But there was taking of armes by Marshall and Hereford JUST That 's true but why was that because the King notwithstanding all that was given him by Parliament did lay the greatest taxes that ever King did without their consent But what lost the King by those Lords one of them gave the King all his lands the other dyed in disgrace COUNS. But what say you to the Parliament in Edward the Seconds time his successor did not the house of Parliament banish Peirce Gaveston whom the King favoured JUST But what was this Gaveston but an Esquier of Gascoine formerly banisht the Realme by King Edward the first for corrupting the Prince Edward now raigning And the whole Kingdome fearing and detesting his venemous disposition they besought his Majestie to cast him off which the King performed by an act of his own and not by act of Parliament yea Gavestones own father in Law the Earle of Glocester was one of the chiefest of the Lords that procured it And yet finding the Kings affection to folow him so strongly they all consented to have him recalled After which when his credit so encreased that he dispised and set at naught all the ancient Nobility and not onely perswaded the King to all manner of outrages and riots but withall transported what he lifted of the Kings Treasure and Iewels the Lords urged his banishment the second time but neither was the first nor second banishment forced by Act of Parliament but by the forceable Lords his Enemies Lastly he being recalled by the King the Earle of Lancaster caused his head to be stricken off when those of his party had taken him prisoner By which presumptuous Act the Earle and the rest of his company committed Treason and murder Treason by raising an Army without warrant murder by taking away the life of the Kings Subject After which Gaveston being dead the Spencers got possession of the Kings favour though the younger of them was placed about the King by the Lords themselves COUNS. What say you then to the Parliament held at London about the sixt year of that King JUST I say that King was not bound to performe the acts of this Parliament because the Lords being too strong for the King inforced his consent for these be the words of our own History They wrested to much beyond the bounds of reason COUNS. What say you to the Parliaments of the White wands in the 13th of the King JUST I say the Lords that were so moved came with an Army and by strong hand surprized the King they constrained saith the story the rest of the Lords and compelled many of the Bishops to consent unto them yea it saith further that the King durst not but grant to all that they required to wit for the banishment of the Spencers Yea they were so insolent that they refused to lodge the Queen comming through Kent in the Castle of Leedes and sent her to provide her lodging where she could get it so late in the night for which notwithstanding some that kept her out were soon after taken and hang'd and therefore your Lordship cannot call this a Parliament for the reasons before alleadged But my Lord what became of these Lawgivers to the King even when they were greatest a Knight of the North called Andrew Herkeley assembled the Forces of the Countrey overthrew them and their Army slew the Earle of Hereford and other Barons took their generall Thomas Earle of Lancaster the Kings cozen germane at that time possessed of five Earledomes the Lords Clifford Talbort Moubray Maudiut Willington Warren Lord Darcy Withers Knevill Leybourne Bekes Lovell Fitz williams Watervild and divers other Barons Knights and Esquiers and soon after the Lord Percy and the Lord Warren took the Lords Baldsemere and the Lord Audley the Lord Teis Gifford Tucoet and many others that fled from the battaile the most of which past under the hands of the hangman for constraining the King under colour and name of a Parliament But this your good Lordship may judge to whom those tumultuous assemblies which our Histories falsely call Parliaments have been dangerous the King in the end ever prevailed and the Lords lost their lives and estates After which the Spencers in their banishment at York in the 15th of the King were restored to the honors and estates and therein the King had a subsedy given him the sixt penny of goods throughout England Ireland and Wales COUNS. Yet you see the Spencers were soon after dissolved IUST It is true my Lord but that is nothing to our subject of Parliament they may thank their own insolencie for they branded and dispised the Queen whom they ought to have honored as the Kings wife they were also exceeding greedy and built themselves upon other mens ruines they were ambitious and exceeding malicious whereupon that came that when Chamberlain Spencer was hang'd in Hereford a part of the 24th Psalm was written over his head Quid gloriaris in malitia potens COUNS. Well Sir you have all this while excused your self upon the strength and rebellions of the Lords but what say you now to King Edward the third in whose time and during the time of this victorious King no man durst take Armes or rebell the three estates did him the greatest affront that ever King received or endured therefore I conclude where I began that these Parliaments are dangerous for a King JUST To answer your Lordship in order may it please you first to call to mind what was given this great King by his subjects before the dispute betwixt him and the house happened which was in his latter dayes from his first year to his fift year there was nothing given the king by his Subjects in his eight year at the Parliament at London a tenth and a fifteenth was granted in his tenth year he ceased upon the Italians goods here in England to his own use with all the goods of the Monkes Cluniackes and others of the order of the Cistertians In the eleaventh year he had given him by Parliament a notable
pleas'd notwithstanding that the great Officers should take an oath in Parliament to do Iustice. Now for the Parliament of Westminster in the 17th year of the King the King had three markes and a half for every sack of Wooll transported and in his 18th he had a 10th of the Clergie and a 15th of the Laity for one year His Majestie forbare after this to charge his Subjects with any more payments untill the 29th of his reigne when there was given the King by Parliament 50 for every sack of Wool transported for six yeares by which grant the King received a thousand markes a day a greater matter then a thousand pounds in these dayes and a 1000l a day amounts to 365000l a year which was one of the greatest presents that ever was given to a King of this land For besides the cheapenesse of all things in that age the Kings souldiers had but 3d. a day wages a man at armes 6d a Knight but 2s In the Parliament at Westminster in the 33th year he had 26s 8d for every sack of Wooll transported in the 42th year 3 dismes and 3 fifteens In his 45th year he had â—0000l of the Laity and because the Spiritualty disputed it and did not pay so much the King chang'd his Chancellour Treasurer Privy Seal being Bishops and placed Lay men in their roome COUNS. It seems that in those dayes the Kings were no longer in love with their great Chancellors then when they deserved well of them JUST No my Lord they were not and that was the reason they were well served and it was the custome then and in many ages after to change the Treasurer the Chancellour every 3 years and withall to hear all mens complaints against them COUNS. But by this often change the saying is verified that there is no inheritance in the favour of Kings He that keepeth the figge-tree saith Solomon shall eate the fruit thereof for reason it is that the servant live by the Master JUST My Lord you say well in both but had the subject an inheritance in the Princes favour where the Prince hath no inheritance in the Subjects fidelity then were Kings in more unhappy estate then common persons for the rest Solomon meaneth not that he that keepeth the figge tree should surfet though he meant he should eat he meant not he should break the branches in gathering the figs or eat the ripe and leave the rotten for the owner of the tree for what saith he in the following chapter he saith that he that maketh hast to be â—ich cannot be innocent And before that he saith that the end of an inheritance hastily gotten cannot be blessed Your Lordship hath heard of few or none great with Kings that have not used their power to oppresse that have not growne insolent and hatefull to the people yea insolent towards those Princes that advanced them COUNS. Yet you see that Princes can change their fancies IUST Yea my Lord when favorites change their faith when they forget that how familiar soever Kings make themselves with their Vassals yet they are Kings He that provoketh a King to anger saith Solomon sinneth against his own soul. And he further saith that pride goeth before distruction and a high mind before afall I say therefore that in discharging those Lucifers how dear soever they have been Kings make the world know that they have more of Iudgement then of passion yea they thereby offer a satisfactory sacrifice to all their people too great benefits of subjects to their king where the mind is blown up with their own deservings and to great benefits of Kings conferr'd upon their Subjects where the mind is not qualified with a great deal of modesty are equally dangerous Of this later and insolenter had King Richard the second delivered up to Iustice but three or four he had still held the love of the people and thereby his life and estate COUNS. Well I pray you go on with your Parliaments IUST The life of this great King Edward drawes to an end so do the Parliaments of this time wherein 50 years raigne he never received any affront for in his 49th year he had a disme and a fifteen granted him freely COUNS. But Sir it is an old saying that all is well that ends well Iudge you whether that in his 50th year in Parliament at Westminster he received not an affront when the house urged the King to remove and discharge from his presence the Duke of Lancaster the Lord Latimer his Chamberlaine Sir Richard Sturry and others whom the King favoured and trusted Nay they pressed the King to thrust a certain Lady out of Court which at that time bare the greatest sway therein IUST I will with patience answer your Lordship to the full and first your Lordship may remember by that which I even now said that never King had so many gifts as this King had from his subjects and it hath never grieved the subjects of England to give to their King but when they knew there was a devouring Lady that had her share in all things that passed and the Duke of Lancaster was as scraping as shee that the Chancellour did eat up the people as fast as either of them both It grieved the subjects to feed these Cormorants But my Lord there are two things by which the Kings of England have been prest to wit by their subjects and by their own necessities The Lords in former times were farre stronger more warlike better followed living in their Countries then now they are Your Lordship may remember in your reading that there were many Earles could bring into the field a thousand Barbed horses many a Baron 5. or 600. Barbed horses whereas now very few of them can furnish twenty fit to serve the King But to say the truth my Lord the Iustices of peace in England have oppos'd the injusticers of war in England the Kings writ runs over all and the great Seal of England with that of the next Constables will serve the turn to affront the greatest Lords in England that shall move against the King The force therefore by which our Kings in former times were troubled is vanisht away But the necessities remain The people therefore in these later ages are no lesse to be pleased then the Peeres for as the later are become lesse so by reason of the trayning through England the Commons have all the weapons in their hand COUNS. And was it not so ever IUST No my good Lord for the Noblemen had in their Armories to furnish some them a thousand some two thousand some three thousand men whereas now there are not many that can arme fifty COUNS. Can you blame them But I will onely answer for my self between you and me be it spoken I hold it not safe to mantain so great an Armory or Stable it might cause me or any other Nobleman to be suspected as the preparing of some Innovation IUST Why so my
Justice and good order being more learned in the Law than in doing right and that he had by far more knowledge than conscience Certainly the unjust Magistrate that fancieth to himself a solid and untransparable bodie of Gold every ordinarie wit can vitrifie and make transparent pierce and discern their corruptions howsoever because not daring they cover their knowledge but in the mean while it is also true That constrained dissimulation either in the proud heart or in the oppressed either in publick estates or in private persons where the fear of God is not prevalent doth in all the leisure of her lurking but sharpen her teeth the voluntarie being no less base than the forced malitious Thus it fared between the Barons of England and their Kings between the Lords of Switzerland their people between the Sicilians and the French between the Dolphin and John of Burgoign between Charl the Ninth and the French Protestants and between Henry the third his successor and the Lords of Guise hereof in place of more particulars the whole world may serve for examples It is a difficult piece of Geographie to delinate and lay out the bounds of Authority but it is easie enough coÌ„ceive the best use of it and by which it hath maintained it self in lasting happiness t hath ever acquired more honour by perswading than by beating for as the bonds of Reason and Love are immortal so do all other chains or cords both rustâ—e rot Noble parts of their own Royal and Politick bodies But we will forbear for a while to stretch this first string of Civil Justice for in respect of the first sort of Men to wit of those that live by their own labour they have never been displeased where they have been suffered to enjoy the fruit of their own travels Meum Tuum Mine Thine is all wherein they seek their certaintie protection True it is that they are the Fruit-Trees of the Land which God in Deuteronomie commanded to be spared they gather honey and hardly enjoy the wax and break the ground with great labour giving the best of their grain to the easefull idle For the second sort which are the Merchants as the first feed the Kingdome so do these enrich it yea their trades especially those which are forcible are not the least part of our Martiall Policie as hereafter proved and to do them right they have in all ages and times assisted the Kings of this Land not onely with great sums of money but with great Fleets of Ships in all their enterprises beyond the seas The second have seldome or never offended their Princes to enjoy their trades at home upon tolerable conditions hath ever contented them for the injuries received from other Nations give them but the Commission of Reprisal they will either Right themselves or sit down with their own losse without complaint 3. The third sort which are the Gentrie of England these being neither seated in the lowest grounds and thereby subject to the biting of every beast nor in the highest Mountains thereby in danger to be torn with tempest but the Valleys between both have their parts in the inferiour Iustice being spread over all are the Garrisons of good order throughout the Realm Sir WALTER RALEIGH'S LETTERS Sir Walter Raleigh's Letter to Mr Secretary Winwood before his Iourney to Guiana Honourable SIR I Was lately perswaded by two Gentlemen my ancient Friends to acquaint your Honour with some offers of mine made heretofore for a Journey to Guiana who were of opinion That it would be better understood now than when it was first propounded which advice having surmounted my dispair I have presumed to send unto your Honour the Copies of those Letters which I then wrote both to his Majestie and to the Treasurer Ceuill wherein as well the reasons that first moved me are remembered as the objections by him made are briefly answered What I know of the riches of that place not by hear say but what mine eyes hath seen I have said it often but it was then to no end Because those that had the greatest trust were resolved not to believe it not because they doubted the Truth but because they doubted my Disposition towards themselves where if God had blessed me in the enterprise I had recovered his Majesties favour and good opinion Other cause than this or other suspition they never had any Our late worthy Prince of Wales was extream curious in searching out the Nature of my offences The Queens Majestie hath informed her self from the beginning The King of Denmark at both times of his being here was throughly satisfied of my innocencie they would otherwise never have moved his Majestie on my behalf The Wife the Brother and the Son of a King do not use to sue for men suspect but Sir since they all have done it out of their charitie and but with references to me alone Your Honour whose respect hath onely relation to his Majesties service strengthened by the example of those Princes may with the more hardnesse do the like being Princes to whom his Majesties good estate is not lesse dear and all men that shall oppugne it no lesse hatefull then to the King himself It is true Sir That his Majestie hath sometimes answered That his Councel knew me better than he did meaning some two or three of them And it was indeed my infelicitie for had his Majestie known me I had never been here where I now am or had I known his Majestie they had never been so long there where they now are His Majestie not knowing of me hath been my ruine and his Majestie misknowing of them hath been the ruine of a goodly part of his estate but they are all of them now some living and some dying come to his Majesties knowledge But Sir how little soever his Majestie knew me and how much soever he believed them yet have I been bound to his Majestie both for my Life and all that remains of which but for his Majestie nor Life nor ought else had remained In this respect Sir I am bound to yield up the same life and all I have for his Majesties service to die for the King and not by the King is all the ambition I have in the world Walter Raleigh Sir Raleigh's Letter to his Wife from Guiana Sweet Heart I Can yet write unto you but with a weak hand for I have suffered the most violent Calenture for fifteen days that ever man did and lived but God that gave me a strong heart in all my adversities hath also now strengthened it in the hell fire of heat We have had two most grievous sicknesses in our Ship of which fourtie two have died and there are yet many sick but having recovered the land of Guiana this 12 of November I hope we shall recover them We are yet two hundred men and the rest of our Fleet are reasonable strong strong enough I
published that all men might plead it for their advantage but a Charter was left in deposito in the hands of the Archbishop of Canterbury for the time and so to his successours Stephen Langthon who was ever a Traytor to the King produced this Charter and shewed it to the Barons thereby encouraging them to make war against the King Neither was it the old Charter simply the Barons sought to have confirmed but they presented unto the King other articles and orders tending to the alteration of the whole commonwealth which when the King refused to signe the Barons presently put themselves into the field and in rebellious and outragious fashion sent the King word except he confirmed them they would not desist from making war against him till he had satisfied them therein And in conclusion the King being betrayed of all his Nobility in effect was forced to grant the Charter of Magna Charta and Charta de Forestis at such time as he was invironed with an Army in the Meadowes of Staynes which harters being procured by force Pope Innocent afterward disavowed and threatned to curse the Barons if they submitted not themselves as they ought to their Soveraigne Lord which when the Lords refused to obey the King entertained an army of strangers for his own defence wherewith having mastered and beaten the Barons they called in Lewes of France a most unnaturall resolution to be their King Neither was Magna Charta a Law in the 19. of Henry the 2d but simply a Charter which hee confirmed in the 21. of his reigne and made it a Law in the 25. according to Littletons opinion Thus much for the beginning of the Great Cbarter which had first an obscure birth from usurpation and was secondly fostered and shewed to the world by rebellion JUST I cannot deny but that all your Lordship hath said is true but seeing the Charters were afterwards so many times confirmed by Parliament and made Lawes and that there is nothing in them unequall or prejudicial to the King doth not your Honour think it reason they should be observed COUNS. Yes and observed they are in all that the state of a King can permit for no man is destroyed but by the Lawes of the land no man disseized of his inheritance but by the Lawes of the land imprisoned they are by the prerogative where the King hath cause to suspect their loyalty for were it otherwise the King should never come to the knowledge of any conspiracy or Treason against his Person or state and being imprisoned yet doth not any man suffer death but by the Law of the land JUST But may it please your Lordship were not Cornewallis Sharpe and Hoskins imprisoned being no suspition of Treason there COUNS. They were but it cost them nothing JUST And what got the King by it for in the conclusion besides the murmure of the people Cornewallis Sharpe and Hoskins having greatly overshot themselves and repented them a fine of 5 or 600l. was laid on his Majesty for their offences for so much their diet cost his Majesty COUNS. I know who gave the advice sure I am that it was none of mine But thus I say if you consult your memory you shall find that those Kings which did in their own times comfirme the Magna Charta did not onely imprison but they caused of their Nobility and others to be slain without hearing or tryall JUST My good Lord if you will give me leave to speak freely I say that they are not well advised that perswade the King not to admit the Magna Charta with the former reservations For as the King can never lose a farthing by it as I shall prove anon So except England were as Naples is and kept by Garrisons of another Nation it is impossible for a King of England to greaten and inrich himself by any way so assuredly as by the love of his people For by one rebellion the King hath more losse then by a hundred years observance of Magna Charta For therein have our Kings been forced to compound with Roagues and Rebels and to pardon them yea the state of the King the Mouarchie the Nobility have been endangered by them COUNS. Well Sir let that passe why should not our Kings raise mony as the Kings of France do by their letters and Edicts onely for since the time of Lewes the 11. of whom it is said that he freed the French Kings of their wardship the French Kings have seldome assembled the states for any contribution JUST I will tell you why the strength of England doth consist of the people and Yeomanry the Pefants of France have no courage nor armes In France every Village and Burrough hath a castle which the French call Chasteau Villain every good City hath a good Cittadell the King hath the Regiments of his guards and his men at armes alwayes in pay yea the Nobility of France in whom the strength of France consists doe alwayes assist the King in those leavies because themselves being free they made the same leavies upon ther Tennants But my Lord if you marke it France was never free in effect from civill wars and lately it was endangered either to be conquered by the Spaniard or to be cantonized by the rebellious French themselves since that freedome of Wardship But my good Lord to leave this digression that wherein I would willingly satisfie your Lordship is that the Kings of England have never received losse by Parliament or prejudice COUNS. No Sir you shall find that the subjects in Parliament have decreed great things to the disadvantage and dishonour of our Kings in former times JUST My good Lord to avoid confusion I will make a short repitition of them all then your Lordship may object where you see cause And I doubt not but to give your Lordship satisfaction In the sixt year of Henry the 3d there was no dispute the house gave the King two shillings of every plough land within England and in the end of the same year he had escuage payed him to wit for every Knights fee two marks in silver In the fifth year of that King the Lords demaunded the confirmation of the Great Charter which the Kings Councell for that time present excused alleadging that those priviledges were exhorted by force during the Kings Minoritie and yet the King was pleased to send forth his writ to the Sheriffes of every Countrey requiring them to certifie what those liberties were and how used and in exchange of the Lords demaund because they pressed him so violently the King required all the castles and places which the Lords held of his and had held in the time of his Father with those Manors and Lordships which they had heretofore wrested from the Crown which at that time the King being provided of forces they durst not deny in the 14 year he had the 15. peny of all goods given him upon condition to confirme the Great Charter For by reason
delivered in English Histories and indeed the King not long before had spent much Treasure in aiding the Duke of Britain to no purpose for he drew over the King but to draw on good conditions for himself as the Earle of March his father in law now did As the English Barons did invite Lewes of France not long before as in elder times all the Kings and States had done and in late years the Leaguers of France entertained the Spaniards and the French Protestants and Netherlands Queen Elizabeth not with any purpose to greaten those that aide them but to purchase to themselves an advantageous peace But what say the Histories to this denyall They say with a world of payments there mentioned that the King had drawn the Nobility drie And besides that whereas not long before great summes of money were given and the same appointed to be kept in four Castles and not to be expended but by the advice of the Peeres it was beleeved that the same Treasure was yet unspent COUNS. Good Sir you have said enough judge you whether it were not a dishonour to the King to be so tyed as not to expend his Treasure but by other mens advice as it were by their licence IUST Surely my Lord the King was well advised to take the money upon any condition and they were fooles that propounded the restraint for it doth not appear that the King took any great heed to those overseers Kings are bound by their pietie and by no other obligation In Queen Maries time when it was thought that she was with Child it was propounded in Parliament that the rule of the Realme should be given to King Philip during the minoritie of the hoped Prince or Princesse and the King offered his assurance in great summes of money to relinquish the Government at such time as the Prince or Princesse should be of age At which motion when all else were silent in the House Lord Daâ—res who was none of the wisest asked who shall sue the Kings Bonds which ended the dispute for what other Bond is between a King and his vassals then the Bond of the Kings Faith But my good Lord the King notwithstanding the denyall at that time was with gifts from particular persons and otherwise supplyed for proceeding of his journey for that time into France he took with him 30 Caskes filled with Silver and Coyne which was a great Treasure in those dayes And lastly notwithstanding the first denyall in the Kings absence he had Escuage granted him to wit 20s of every Knights Fee COUNS. What say you then to the 28th year of that King in which when the King demanded reliefe the States would not consent except the the same former order had bin taken for the appointing of 4 overseers for the treasure as also that the Lord chief Iustice and the L. Chancelor should be chosen by the States with some Barons of the Exchequer and other officers JUST My good Lord admit the King had yeelded their demands then whatsoever had been ordained by those Magistrates to the dislike of the Common-wealth the people had been without remedie whereas while the King made them they had their appeal and other remedies But those demands vanished and in the end the King had escuage given him without any of their conditions It is an excellent vertue in a King to have patience and to give way to the furie of mens passions The Whale when he is strucken by the fisherman growes into that furie that he cannot be resisted but will overthrow all the Ships and Barkes that come into his way but when he hath tumbled a while he is drawn to the shore with a twin'd thred COUNS. What say you then to the Parliament in the 29th of that King IUST I say that the Commons being unable to pay the King relieves himself upon the richer sort and so it likewise happened in the 33. of that King in which he was relieved chiefly by the Citie of London But my good Lord in the Parliament in London in the 38th year he had given him the tenth of all the revenues of the Church for 3 years and three marks of every Knights Fee throughout the Kingdome upon his promise and oath upon the observing of Magna Charta but in the end of the same year the King being then in France he was denyed the aides which he required What is this to the danger of a Parliament especially at this time they had reason to refuse they had given so great a summe in the beginning of the same year And again because it was known that the King had but pretended war with the King of Castile with whom he had secretly contracted an alliance and concluded a Marriage betwixt his Son Edward and the Lady Elenor. These false fires do but fright Children and it commonly falls out that when the cause given is known to be false the necessitie pretended is thought to be fained Royall dealing hath evermore Royall successe and as the King was denyed in the eight and thirtieth year so was he denyed in the nine and thirtieth year because the Nobilitie and the people saw it plainely that the K. was abused by the Pope who as well in despite to Manfred bastard Son to the Emperour Frederick the second as to cozen the King and to waste him would needes bestow on the King the Kingdome of Sicily to recover which the King sent all the Treasure he could borrow or scrape to the Pope and withall gave him letters of credence for to take up what he could in Italy the King binding himself for the payment Now my good Lord the wisdome of Princes is seen in nothing more then in their enterprises So how unpleasing it was to the State of England to consume the Treasure of the Land and in the conquest of Sicily so far off and otherwise for that the English had lost Normandie under their noses and so many goodly parts of France of their own proper inheritances the reason of the denyall is as well to be considered as the denyall COUNS. Was not the King also denyed a Subsidie in the fortie first of his reigne IUST No my Lord for although the King required money as before for the impossible conquest of Sicily yet the House offered to give 52000 marks which whether he refused or accepted is uncertain and whilst the King dreamed of Sicily the Welsh invaded and spoyled the borders of England for in the Parliament of London when the King urged the House for the prosecuting the conquest of Sicily the Lords utterly disliking the attempt urged the prosecuting of the Welshmen which Parliament being proroged did again assemble at Oxford and was called the mad Parliament which was no other then an assembly of rebels for the royal assent of the King which gives life to all Lawes form'd by the three estates was not a royall assent when both the King and the Prince were constrained to yeeld to the
condition that for one whole year no subsedies should be demanded but this promise was as suddenly forgotten as made for in the end of that year the great subsedy of Poll mony was granted in the Parliament at Northampton COUNS. Yea but there followed the terrible Rebellion of Baker Straw and others Leister Wrais and others IUST That was not the fault of the Parliament my Lord it is manifest that the subsedy given was not the cause for it is plain that the bondmen of England began it because the were girevously prest by their Lords in their tenure of Villenage as also for the hatred they bate to the Lawyers and Atturneyes for the story of those times say that they destroyed the houses and Mannors of men of Law such Lawyers as they caught slew them and beheaded the Lord chief Iustice which commotion being once begun the head mony was by other Rebels pretended A fire is often kindled with a little straw which oftentimes takes hold of greater timber consumes the whole building And that this Rebellion was begun by the discontented slaves whereof there have been many in Elder times the like is manifest by the Charter of Manumission which the King granted in hec verba Rich. Dei gratid c. Sciatis quod de gratiâ nostrâ spirituali manumissimus c. to which seeing the King was constrained by force of armes he revoked the letters Pattents and made them voide the same revocation being strengthened by the Parliament ensuing in which the King had given him a subsedy upon Woolls called a Maletot In the same fourth year was the Lord Treasurer discharged of his Office and Hales Lord of St. Iohns chosen in his place in his fift year was the Treasurer again changed and the Staffe given to Segrave and the Lord Chancellour was also changed and the staffe given to the Lord Scroope Which Lord Scroope was again in the beginning of his sixt year turned off and the King after that he had for a while kept the Seal in his own hand gave it to the Bishop of London from whom it was soon after taken and bestowed on the Earle of Suffolke who they say had abused the King and converted the Kings Treasure to his own use To this the King condiscended and though saith Walsingham he deserved to loose his life and goods yet he had the favour to go at liberty upon good sureties and because the King was but young that the reliefe granted was committed to the trust of the Earle of Arundell for the furnishing of the Kings Navy against the French COUNS. Yet you see it was a dishonour to the King to have his beloved Chancellour removed IUST Truly no for the King had both his fine 1000l lands and asubsedy to boot And though for the present it pleased the King to fancy a man all the world hated the Kings passion overcomming his judgement yet it cannot be call'd a dishonour for the King is to believe the generall counsell of the Kingdome and to preser it before his affection especially when Suffolke was proved to be false even to the King for were it otherwise love and affection might be called a frenzie and a madnesse for it is the nature of humane passions that the love bred by fidelity doth change it self into hatred when the fidelity is first changed into falshood COUNS. But you see there were thirteen Lords chosen in the Parliament to have the oversight of the government under the King IUST No my Lord it was to have the oversight of those Officers which saith the story had imbezeled lewdly wasted and prodigally spent the Kings Treasure for to the Commission to those Lords or to any six of them joyn'd with the Kings Counsell was one of the most royall and most profitable that ever he did if he had bin constant to himself But my good Lord man is the cause of his own misery for I will repeat the substance of the commission granted by the King and confirmed by Parliament which whether it had bin profitable for the King to have prosecured your Lordship may judge The preamble hath these words Whereas our Sovereigne Lord the King perceiveth by the grievous complaints of the Lords and Commons of this Realme that the rents profits and revenues of this Realme by the singular and insufficient Councell and evill government as well of some his late great Officers and others c. are so much withdrawen wasted given granted alienated destroyed and evill dispended that he is so much impoverished and void of treasure and goods and the substance of the Crown so much diminished and destroyed that his estate may not honorably be sustained as appertaineth The King of his free will at the request of the Lords and Commons hath ordained William Archbishop of Canterbury and others with his Chancellour Treasurer keeper of his privy seal to survey and examine as well the estate and governance of his house c. as of all the rents and profits and revenues that to him appertaineth and to be due or ought to appertain and be due c. And all manner of gifts grants alienations and confirmations made by him of lands tenements rents c. bargained and sold to the prejudice of him and his Crown c. And of his jewels goods which were his Grandfathers at the time of his death c. and where they be become This is in effect the substance of the commission which your Lordship may read at large in the book of Statutes this commission being enacted in the tenth year of the Kings reigne Now if such a commission were in these dayes granted to the faithfull men that have no interest in the sales gifts nor purchases nor in the keeping of the jewells at the Queens death nor in the obtaining grants of the Kings best lands I cannot say what may be recovered and justly recovered and what say your Lordship was not this a noble act for the King if it had been followed to effect COUNS. I cannot tell whether it were or no for it gave power to the Commissiouers to examine all the grants IUST Why my Lord doth the King grant any thing that shames at the examination are not the Kings grants on record COUNS. But by your leave it is some dishonour to a King to have his judgement called in question IUST That is true my Lord but in this or whensoever the like shall be granted in the future the Kings judgement is not examined but their knavery that abused the King Nay by your favour the contrary is true that when a King will suffer himself to be eaten up by a company of petty fellows by himself raised therein both the judgement and courage is disputed And if your Lordship will disdain it at your own servants hands much more ought the great heart of a King to disdain it And surely my Lord it is a greater treason though it undercreep the law to tear from the