Before a Year goes about you shall see Buckingham set the King at odds with the Parliament and yet engage him in a War against Spain and before another goes about engage the King in another against France to satiate his Spight and Revenge against Richlieu for crossing him in his Lust and after 13 Years Laud shall be the Fire-brand to set all the three Nations in the Flame of a Civil War as King James had foretold But it 's time to come to Particulars The first Enterprise which the Duke engaged the King in was not for the Recovery of the Palatinate as he pretended when he would have engaged King James in a War against the King of Spain but to express his Hatred against Olivares and therefore a Fleet must be rigged up to make War in Spain even when King James's Corps lay unburied and at so unseasonable a time when the Charges of King James's Funeral were so fast approaching and when the Charges of the King's Ambassadors the Earls of Carlisle and Holland ran so high at Paris to outvy the French Splendor for solemnizing the Marriage between the King and the Queen and these so much more augmented by the Duke's Preparations to fetch the Queen over which when the Duke shall come to Paris must outshine not only the Bravery of the English Ambassadors but all that Cardinal Richlieu could do From the Unseasonableness of this Expedition let 's see by what Counsels Buckingham managed this designed Expedition and herein take Light from a Letter which my Lord Cromwel wrote to the Duke and which you may read in Rushworth's Collections fol. 199. after the Fleet had lain so long that the Season of the Year was past and most dangerous for Ships to put to Sea The Letter is Verbatim THey offer to lay Wagers the Fleet goes not this Year and that of necessity shortly a Parliament must be which when it comes sure it will much discontent you It 's wonder'd at that since the King did give such great Gifts to the Dutchess of Chevereux and those that went how now a small Sum in the Parliament should be called for at such a time and let the Parliament sit when it will begin they will where they ended They say the Lords of the Council knew nothing of Mansfield's Journey or this Fleet which discontents even the best sort if not all They say it is a very great Burden your Grace takes upon you since none know any thing but you It 's conceived that not letting others bear part of the Burden you now bear it may ruin you which Heavens forbid Much Discourse there is of your Lordship here and there as I passed home and back and nothing is more wonder'd at than that one grave Man is not known to have your ear except my Good and Noble Lord Conway All Men say if you go not with the Fleet you will suffer in it because if it prosper it will be thought no Act of yours and if it succeed ill it might have been better if you had not guided the King They say your Vndertakings in this Kingdom will much prejudice your Grace and if God bless you not with Goodness to accept kindly what in Duty and Love I offer questionless my Freedom of letting you know the Discourse of the World may prejudice me But if I must lose your Favour I had rather lose it for striving to do you good in letting you know the Talk of the wicked World than for any thing else so much I heartily desire your Prosperity and to see you trample the ignorant Multitude under foot All I have said is the Discourse of this World and when I am able to judg of Actions I will freely tell your Lordship my Mind which when it shall not always incline to serve you may all my noble Thoughts forsake me The Success of this Expedition you will hear soon Thus was the King of Spain required for all the noble Favours he had shewn the King when he was in Spain This was the Return of Buckingham's Protestation to the King of Spain when they parted at the Escurial That he would be an everlasting Servant to the King of Spain the Queen and the Infanta and would do the best Offices he could for concluding the Business the Match between the Prince and Infanta and strengthen the Amity between the two Kingdoms to have War made upon him without any Declaration of it by King Charles so soon as it came in his Power to do it After Buckingham became Lord Admiral the English Navy lay at Road unarmed and fit for Ruin as you may see in Rushworth fol. 3. This was before the Treaty of the Spanish Match and after the breaking of the Spanish Match the Duke not only neglected the guarding of the Seas whereby the Trade of the Nation not only decayed but the Seas became ignominiously infested by Pyrates and Enemies to the Loss of very many of the Merchants and Subjects of England as you may read in the Fourth Article of the Charge of the Commons against him in Rushworth fol. 312. Objection But this was but an Accusation and therefore it does not amount to a Proof It ought not to be presumed the Commons would have charged this upon him without Proof and I say it is strong Proof upon the Duke since the King dissolved the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to a Trial upon it However the Navy lay thus neglected and Seas unguarded and tho the French had broken the Treaty of Marriage with France by not suffering Mansfield to land his Army at Calais yet the supplying the French with a Fleet to subdue the Rochellers must be performed And to this end even whilst King James lay unburied great Consultation between the Duke and the Marquiss of Efsiat was had how this might be done The King had no Men of War ready but the Vaunt-Guard and the French Necessities were urgent for all this while Sobiez rode triumphant at Sea the French not being able to encounter him and thereby Rochel upon all Occasions was relieved by Sea However the French must be gratified or this hopeful Marriage with France might be disturbed The Duke therefore by his Power of Lord Admiral besides the Vaunt-Guard pressed 7 Ships of the Merchants of England into the King's Service viz. The Great Neptune whereof Sir Ferdinando Gorge was Captain the Industry of 450 Tuns whereof James Moyer was Captain the Pearl of 540 Tuns whereof Anthony Tench was Captain the Marigold of 300 Tuns whereof Thomas Davis was Captain the Loyalty of 300 Tuns Jasper Dare Captain the Peter and John of 300 Tuns John Davis Captain and 7thly the Gift of God Henry Lewen Captain The Duke tho the Navy were unprovided with Stores and Ammunition could find Stores and Ammunition sufficient for furnishing this Fleet and upon the 8th of May caused a Warrant under the Great Seal to be issued to call the Companies aboard which had been raised
Provision made for him The 6th is That if a Corporation maintain a Lecturer that he be not permitted to preach till he take care of Souls within the Corporation How this can be I don't understand unless the Lectuâ—er have a concurring or distinct Power from the Incumbent The 7th is That none but Noble-men and Men qualified by law may keep Chaplains Yet in your Religious Care you take no care how otherways they may subsist The 8th is That Emanuel and Sydney Colleges in Cambridg which are the Nurseries of Puritanism may be from time to time furnished with Grave and Orthodox Men for their Governors viz. Such as shall do the Arminian Work without any regard to the Statutes of the College All these Considerations must be taken for Acts of the Church of England and a Neglect or Breach of them sufficient for an Information in the High Commission where he is assured he shall shortly judg and therefore his Majesty in the 9th Consideration 〈◊〉 to countenance the High Commission by the Presence of some of the Privy-Council at least so often as any Cause of Moment is to be settled The 10th Consideration is That Course may be taken that the Judges may not send so many Prohibitions Which if they do from any of his Censures in the High Commission he will proceed against them by Excommunication Thus you see this Icarus is not only content to take a Flight out of his Diocess but over the whole Provinces of York and Canterbury in Ecclesiastical Affairs and extends it as he pleases over the Civil These were the Seeds which this Bishop planted while he was Bishop of London you may be sure he 'll reap a good Crop now he 's become Metropolitan of all England During the time of his being Bishop of London he was look'd upon as the Rising Sun which the flattering Students in both Universities worshipped but after he became Arch-Bishop the Learning of both Universities were Brawls about Arminian Tenents in the Schools and Sermons The Arminians treating their Opponents with all taunting and reproaching Terms and if their Opponents retorted they were had up into the High Commission where the Arch-Bishop presided assisted by his Ecclesiastical Judges and Ministers of the Prerogative Court and some of his Majesty's Privy-Council but I do not read of one cited for maintaining Arminian Tenents It 's scarce credible how the Business of this Court the Star-Chamber and Council-Table swelled and what cruel and unheard of Censures were made especially in the Star-Chamber against all sorts of People who did offend either against the King's Prerogative Royal or the Arch-bishop's Injunctions which must be obeyed as Articles of the Church of England The Thunder of them was not restrained within the Bounds of England but terrified almost all Scotland who were bitter Enemies to Arminianism At this time of day the Court-Bishops disclaimed all Jurisdiction from the King in Bastwick's Censure who was to pay 1000 l. Fine to be excommunicated debarr'd of his Practice of Physick his Books to be burnt and his Person imprisoned till he made a Reclamation and all this for maintaining the King's Prerogative against the Papacy See Whitlock's Memoirs The Bounds of England were too narrow to restrain this Man's Ambition and therefore before he had been two Months Arch-bishop viz. the 8th of October 1633. he advised the King 〈◊〉 make a Reformation in the Church of Scotland not by Confeâ—â— in Parliament but by his Prerogative Royal the Beginning 〈◊〉 this Reformation must begin at the King's Chappel Royal wheâ— the English Service the Surplice and the receiving the Sacramentâ— is enjoined and that the Lords of the Privy Council the Lord of the Sessions and the Advocate Clerks Writers to the Privâ— Signet and Members of the College of Justice be commandeâ— to receive the Sacrament once every Year in the said Chappeâ— and the Dean to report to the King who does or who does 〈◊〉 obey and the Arch-bishop had a Warrant from the King to 〈◊〉 Correspondence with the Bishop of Dunblane and to communicate to him his Majesty's farther Pleasure herein And so we leave the Affairs of the Church here for a while and see how Affairs stood in the State since the Dissolution of the last Parliament In the last Parliament among many famous Members Sir Thomas Wentworth and Mr. Noy excelled Sir Thomas for his admired Parts and natural and easy Elocution Noy as a most profound Lawyer both zealous Patriots for the Rights and Liberties of the Subject And upon the 12th of February 1628. when the Debates for granting Tunnage and Poundage to the King was in the House of Commons Mr. Noy argued We cannot safely give unless we be in Possession and the Proceedings in the Exchequer be nullified as also the Information in the Star-Chamber and the Annexion to the Petition of Right for it will not be a Gift but a Confirmation neither will I give without the Removal of these Interruptions and a Declaration in the Bill that the King has no Right but by our free Gift if it will not be accepted as it is fit for us to give we cannot help it if it be the King 's already we do not give it So that these two must be reckoned among those Vipers which the King declared at the Dissolution of the Parliament and must look for their Reward of Punishment The Reward of Punishment which these two Vipers had was that Sir Thomas Wentworth was made Lord President of the North and Mr. Noy Attorney General Sir Thomas strained the Jurisdiction so high that it proved the Ruin of the Court and the Rise of the Fame of Mr. Edward Hâ—de after Chancellour of England for the Speech he made in 1641 against the Abuses committed in it whilst Sir Thomas was President and Noy now he is become Attorney is become the most intimate Confident of the Arch-bishop and as forward in Informations in the Star-Chamber High Commission and Council-Table as Sir Robert Heath was who is made Chief Justice in the Common Pleas to make room for Noy to be Attorney General But while the King was erecting this new Principality over his Subjects which none of his Ancestors or Predecessors before his Father and himself ever pretended to in England it 's fit to look a little abroad and see how the Case stood there The Dutch the next Year after that his Father had given up the Cautionary Towns which Queen Elizabeth kept and delivered up to him by her Death well knowing the Poverty of King James and the ill Terms between the King and his Subjects took the Boldness to fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland with their Busses and other Vessels guarded by Men of War in Defiance of him and now Grotius no doubt set on work by some of his Country-men perceiving how intent King Charles was in erecting his new Dominion over his Subjects that he became careless of all his Foreign Affairs took the Impudence to
Lords in their Petition set forth That the King by divers Speeches and Messages to both Houses of Parliament declared to them the Danger which threatned his Person and the whole Kingdom from the mischievous and wicked Plots of the Papists and the sudden Growth of a foreign Power from which no Remedy could be provided unless by Parliament and the uniting the King's Protestant Subjects That upon the 21st of March 1679 his Majesty having chosen a Council of many honourable Persons declared to the Parliament and whole Nation That being sensible of the Evil of a single Ministry or private Advice for the future he would refer all things to that Council with the frequent Advice of his great Council of Parliament That to their unspeakable Grief that Parliament was soon after prorogued and dissolved before it could perfect their intended Relief and Security to the Nation and tho another were called yet they were not permitted to sit till the 21st of October last when his Majesty declared That neither his Person nor the Kingdom could be safe till the Plot was gone through yet upon the 10th of January following it was prorogued whereby all their pious Endeavours to save the Nation were overthrown and the good Bills for uniting his Protestant Subjects brought to nought the Discovery of the Irish Plot stifled and the Witnesses to prove the same discouraged whereby the Strength and Courage of our Enemies both at home and abroad are encreased and our selves and Country left in Danger to be lost and brought to Desolation That in these Extremities under God they had nothing to comfort them but the Hopes of the Parliament's meeting at the Day to which they were prorogued but that not only failed by their Dissolution but to call another at Oxford where neither Lords nor Commons can be in Safety but exposed to the Swords of Papists and their Adherents of whom too many were crept into his Majesty's Guards the Liberty of Speaking destroyed and the Validity of their Acts left disputable That the Straitness of the Place could not admit of the Concourse of People which follow the Parliament That the Witnesses to give Evidence against the Popish Lords and others would be put to great Charges which they cannot bear nor trust themselves under the Protection of the Parliament which it self is under the Power of Guards and Souldiers and therefore pray that the Parliament may meet and sit at Westminster Sir W. J. adds another Reason That the Meeting of the Parliament at Oxford would have the Inconvenience of making use of the Journals of the Houses and other Records I do not find what Answer the King gave the Lords but he expressed his Displeasure by a Frown and how loose soever he was in all his Promises to the Parliament you 'll see him steddy in this of the Parliament's meeting at Oxford yet not forget the Lords that petitioned him whereof the Duke of Monmouth the Earls of Bedford Essex and Shaftsbury were four But before we proceed to discover what was done in this short Interval between the Dissolution of this last Westminster Parliament and the meeting of that at Oxford it will not be amiss to take the Resemblance which was between the Tories and Whigs at this time with the Prerogative-Men and Puritans during Laud's Regency in the Reign of King Charles the First In those Times the Prerogative and high-flown Church-men however they were countenanced and preferred by the Court yet of all Factions were the least considerable in the Nation and had the least Interest in it even less than the Papist and when they had by their Extravagancies and tyrannical Dominion given such a Reputation to the Puritan Party as by Contradiction or Opposition of them to be able to raise a War in the Nation they were not only less assisting the King in it than the Papists but generally ran counter and they and their Sons joined with the Puritans against the King So that the King being assisted in the War by the Nobility and Gentry who desired to preserve the Constitutions of the Church and State and by the Papists the Storm fell upon them without Distinction so that these equally exasperated against the Factions upon King Charles's Restoration were easily reconciled to join against them and thus it continued not only in the Body of the Nation but in the Parliament for the first ten Years after the King's Restoration But then the Popish Designs at Court beginning to appear almost bare-fac'd the Commons began to tack about but so did not the Lords especially the Lords Spiritual who could not forget the Injury done not only to their Persons but their whole Order as well in throwing them out of the Lords House as extirpating Episcopacy and the King having multiplied a Nobility of his Favourites these joined with the Bishops who yet maintained the King's absolute Power under a new Title of Passive Obedience to it had a great Majority opposite to the Commons As Laud's Instruments had the Dominion of the Press whereby they vented all their Spight against the Puritans and persecuted them if they made any Answer so did the Tories and as Laud's Faction stigmatized all others except Papists which were not of their Faction with the Name of Puritans so did the Tories all other but Papists with the Name of Whigs But herein the Tories in this Reign had a great Advantage above the Prerogative-men in King Charles the First 's Reign for this Prince was of a more parsimonious Nature not at all becoming so great a Prince and had not one third of the Revenue which his Son had who profusely scatter'd it amongst his Minions and Favourites and sure it will set an ill Character upon his Memory to have it left upon Record by what strange ways to Honour and Justice he made himself a Drudg to his Favourites to get Money from his Subjects to support them whilst he became a Pensioner to the French King himself and was so loose in all his Leagues which he made with all other Princes and States After the Popish Plot broke out and the King had dissolved the Long Parliament the whole Genius of the Nation became quite altered as plainly appeared in their Election of the Commons in these two succeeding Westminster Parliaments who for their Quality were equal to any House of Commons that ever was before and the Tories have now as little an Interest in the Nation as the Prerogative-men had in King Charles the First 's Reign iâ— Laud's Regency However the Tories were balked of the Expectation of their Pensions by the Commons giving no Money in these two last Parliaments yet they abated nothing of their Impudence in making all but themselves and the Papists to be Whigs and that aâ— was now running back to Forty One and into a Commonwealth In this Disguise since the Meal-Tub Plot had no better Success one Fitz-Harris the Son of Sir Edward Fitz-Harris both Irish and Papists sets up
ordered it that before the King should come at it he should pass through a Room wherein he had placed four Tables and upon each Table lay 5000 l. in Silver when the King came into the Passage he started and was amazed at the sight having never before seen such a Sum he asked the Treasurer the meaning of it who told the King It was the Boon he had given Sir Robert Carr Swounds Man the Oath he usually swore but five thousand should serve his turn and so for that time the Treasurer saved the King the other fifteen thousand Pounds To support these Favourites and other of the King's Country-men of less Note was all the King's Care notwithstanding his Foreign Affairs or his Proclamation at his first coming to London against Monopolies or his Speech at the opening of the Parliament But since Money cannot be had by Parliament other means must be found out There were many ways used for raising Monies during this Interval of Parliament First Monopolies which swarmed more than in any King's Reign before Secondly Payments for new invented Knighthoods never before heard of in England in Times of Peace called Baronets the Prince was 1000 l. and the King to quicken the Market promised to make but 200 of them tho when this Market was done he kept it up all his Life-time after Thirdly Tho the Baronets paid for their Honours yet the King issued our Commissions for reviving the old Obsolete Laws for making Men which could expend 40 l. per Annum to compound for not being Knighted Fourthly Payments for being made Knights of Nova Scotia Fifthly The purchasing of English Honours at certain set Prices a Baron at 10000 l. a Viscount at 15000 l. an Earl at 20000 l. Sixthly Payments for Scotish and Irish Honours I do not find set Prices of these Scotish Honours of the same Title to have the Precedence of an Irish as a Scotish Baron Viscount or Earl to have the Precedence of an Irish and tho an English Honour of like Degree had the Precedence of either of the other yet if either of the other had a higher Title he should precede an English Peer under a less as a Scotish or Irish Viscount shall precede an English Baron so such an Earl shall precede an English Viscount Seventhly Compositions upon defective Titles Eighthly Compositions for Assart Lands Ninthly Monies for making Prince Henry Knight Tenthly Monies to marry the Lady Elizabeth to the Palsgrave Eleventhly A Benevolence Twelfthly Monies borrowed upon Privy-Seals and never repaid besides Sales of Lands Woods and Fee-farm Rents c. During this Interval of Parliament was perpetrated a most horrible Murder upon the Person of Sir Thomas Overbury which is the more remarkable if it be considered how far tho the King detested the Fact Favourites had the Ascendant over the King and how the King influenced the Causes of this Murder and that the Story may more intirely consist it will be necessary to borrow a little of common Fame Sir Robert Carr was made Viscount Rochester the 25th of March 1610 and upon the 22d of April following was made one of the King's Privy-Council and having the Ascendant above all other Favourites over the King he chose a Council of some Persons how to advance himself in this great Power Of these Sir Thomas Overbury a Gentleman of brisk and lively Parts was the chief who had as much an Ascendant over the Lord Rochester as he had over the King and as Rochester was a Favourite so was Thomas Earl of Suffolk who had a Daughter named Frances married to Robert Earl of Essex Son of Robert cut off in the last Year of Queen Elizabeth who after was General of the Army raised by the Parliament in the late Civil Wars Tho of disagreeing Humours the Earl and Countess were of agreeable Years when they were married both about the Age of twelve Years and now had lived above ten Years without any Carnal Knowledg of one with the other as both confessed when the Countess sued for a Divorce whereto the Countess was intolerably bent and if publick Fame may be credited and which is attested by a Writer of the first 14 Years of King James his Life chap. 7. she entred into a Conspiracy with one Ann Turner to have poisoned the Earl But how cold soever the Countess was in her Affections to the Earl they were not less on fire to my Lord of Rochester and that these Flames might soar in an equal height the Countess by the help of Mrs. Turner procures one Doctor Foreman as he was called to bewitch Rochester into equal Desires of mutual Love with the Countess and now Familiarity between the Countess and Rochester becomes publickly scandalous However the Earl continued his Love to the Countess but withal acquainted her with the Dishonour she brought upon him and more upon her self by her loose Life which was now become so publickly taken notice of this was so far from reclaiming the Countess that it stung her to the quick and instead of Reformation she by Letters to Mrs. Turner who the Countess says is all her hopes of Good in this World and by her to Dr. Foreman whom she calls sweet Father and subscribes her self his Affectionate Daughter Frances Essex endeavours to procure the Doctor to bewitch the Earl to Frigidity towards her Sir Francis Bacon in his Charge against my Lord Rochester after Earl of Somerset at his Trial for the Murder of Sir Thomas Overbury gives Sir Thomas hard words as That there was little in him that was solid for Religion or Moral Vertue but was wholly possest with Ambition and vain Glory and was loth to have any Partners in my Lord of Rochester's Favour and that to flatter my Lord in his unlawful Love with the Countess of Essex Sir Thomas had made his Brags that he had won Rochester the Love of the Countess by his Letters and Industry But these stoln Pleasures could not satisfy the Countess's Desires and that she might enjoy them to be compleat she endeavours since the Design of poisoning the Earl did not succeed to make way to her Desires of marrying Rochester by suing out a Divorce against the said Earl which she acquaints Rochester with and Rochester and the Countess acquaint the Earl of Northampton who before was privy and consenting to the Familiarity between them and was easily induced to join in procuring a Divorce Tho this was agreed between them yet the Viscount would not proceed further till he had consulted Sir Thomas Overbury protesting he the Viscount would do nothing without his Advice Sir Thomas told him The marrying the Countess would not be only hurtful to his Preferment but helpful to subvert and overthrow him and who would being possest of so great Possibilities as he was so great Honours and large Revenues and daily in expectation of others cast all away upon a Woman noted for her Injury and Immodesty and pull upon himself the Hatred and Contempt
heard any thing without the prelude of Sacred Peaceful Wise Most Learned c. These made him careless both of his Domestick and Foreign Affairs the Thoughts of which disturbed his Pleasures and if at any time he was thoughtful or pensive his Favourites made it their Business to mimick or ridicule those things especially the Puritans whâ—m the King hated These Courses and the King's Favourites perpetually sucking his Treasures brought the King to great Necessities yet he had not Courage enough to demand the Debt due to him from the States of Holland neither Principal nor Interest so that after five Years interval a Parliament is agreed to be called to supply the King's Occasions and the principal Cause to excite the Parliament to give Money was for the Portion the King had paid for marrying the Princess Elizabeth to the Palsgrave and for his Entertainment whilst he was in England tho the King had collected Aid-Money all over England before But it rarely happens when Grievances be multiplied and the Kings become necessitous that then the King and Parliament attain their Ends the Ends being so different the Parliaments being to redress Grievances and the Kings to get Money and so it fell out in this Parliament for entring upon Grievances and remonstrating them to the King which was Language he was not acquainted with he in great Passion dissolves the Parliament and commits many of the principal Members of the Commons close Prisoners without Bail or Man-prize and though no Law was passed this Parliament nor any Notice had of it in the Statutes printed at large yet this Benefit came of it That the Commons voting Cockaine's Patent for Dressing and Dying English Cloths to be a Monopoly and a Grievance it was recalled and cancelled and the vent of White Cloths left free This was the greatest Violation and Invasion of the Privilege of Parliament that ever was done by any King of England before but though it began it did not end here neither in this King's Reign nor his Son 's after him For after the Dissolution of the Parliament the King extorted a Benevolence from the Subject and those who would not contribute were to have their Names returned to the Council CHAP. III. A further Account of this Reign to the End of the third Parliament in 1620. IF from the Parliament we look into the Court we shall see the King's Affections begin to alter towards his Favourites which began upon this Occasion My Lord of Northampton was Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports and by his Permission Romish Priests in great Numbers swarmed into England this was observed and great Clamours were made upon it which came to the Earl's Ears hereupon the Earl exhibits an Information against some of them these justify the Truth of what they were accused of the Arch-Bishop Abbot at the same time produces a Letter from the Earl to Cardinal Bellarmine wherein he says That however the Condition of the Times compelled him and the King urged him to turn Protestant yet nevertheless his Heart stood for the Catholicks and that he would be ready to further them in any Attempt This procured the King's Frowns and the Prisoners Discharge whereupon 't was said Northampton took such Grief that he made his Will wherein he declared He died in the same Faith wherein he was baptized viz. the Popish and died the 15th of June Now was Somerset left without his chiefest Support and soon after another shall rise up which shall turn him quite out of the King's Favour About this time one Mr. George Villiers appeared in Court the youngest Son of Sir George Villiers of Leicestershire by a second Venter whose Name was Mary Beaumont the Heraulds will tell you she was of the honourable Family of the Beaumonts and I will tell you what a Lady of Quality told me and one who might well know the Truth of what she said her youngest Sister by a second Venter being married to the Eldest Son of Sir George Villiers by Beaumont Mary Beaumont was entertained in Sir George Villiers his Family in a mean Office of the Kitchin but her ragged Habit could not shade the beautiful and excellent Frame of her Person which Sir George taking notice of prevailed with his Lady to remove Mary out of the Kitchin into an Office in her Chamber which with some Importunity on Sir George's part and unwillingness of my Lady at last was done Soon after my Lady died and Sir George became very sweet upon his Lady's Woman which would not admit any Relief without Enjoyment and the more to win Mary to it gave her 20 l. to put her self into so good a Dress as this would procure which she did and then Sir George's Affections became so fired that to allay them he married her In this Coverture Sir George had three Sons John after Viscount Purbeck Christopher after Earl of Anglesey and George and one Daughter after married to the Earl of Denbigh When Sir George died George was very young and Sir George having setled his Estate upon the Children born of his former Lady could leave the Issue by his Widow but very little and her but a Joynture of about 200 l. per Annum which dying with her nothing could come to these Children nor was it possible for her out of so contracted a Joynture to maintain her self and them so as to make scarce any Provision for them after her Death and the Issue of Sir George by his former Lady both envied and hated her so as little could be expected from them To supply these Defects she married one Thomas Compton a rich Country Gentleman whereby she became able to maintain and breed up her Children in a better than ordinary Education and George being of an extraordinary and exact Composition of Person was sent abroad and in France acquired those outward Advantages which more adorned the natural Parts which Nature had given him The King this Year about the Beginning of March 16 14 15 according to his usual Methods went to take his Hunting Pleasures at New-market and the Scholars as they called them of Cambridg who new the King's Humour invited him to a Play called Ignoramus to ridicule at least the Practice of the Common Law Never did any thing so hit the King's Humour as this Play did so that he would have it acted and acted again which was increased with several Additions which yet more pleased the King At this Play it was so contrived that George Villiers should appear with all the Advantages his Mother could set him forth and the King so soon as he had seen him fell into Admiration of him so as he became confounded between his Admiration of Villiers and the Pleasure of the Play which the King did not conceal but gave both Vent upon several Occasions This set the Heads of the Courtiers at work how to get Somerset out of Favour and to bring Villiers in but here it 's fit to look a little back and see
Ancre's Fate did not end with his Life for the next day after he was buried the Lacquies of the Court and Rabble of the City digged up his Coffin tore his Winding-Sheet and dragged his Body through the Gutters and hanged it upon the Gibbet he had prepared for others where they cut off his Nose Ears and Genitors which they sent to the Duke of Main Head of the Popish League the great Favourite of the Parisians and nailed his Ears to the Gates of Paris and burned the rest of his Body and hurled part of the Ashes into the River and part into the Air and his Wife soon after was condemned by the Parliament of Paris for a Witch for which she was beheaded In the Year 1618 a Blazon Comet appeared and the Marquess of Buckingham by the removal of my Lord Admiral Nottingham who was so in the famous Overthrow of the Spanish Armado in 1588. was made Lord Admiral being as well qualified for that Office as he was for being Prime Minister in State-Affairs It was no wonder that Lewis XIII th after the Death of the Marquess d' Ancre and his Wife should remove his Mother from State-Affairs and confine her to Blois to make room for Luynes to govern him more absolutely than the Marquess and his Wife had done his Mother for Lewis as he was of a feeble Constitution both of Body and Mind so Luynes was a kind of Governor to him appointed so by his Father Henry the 4th to humour him in all his Childish Toys and Pleasures So tho Rehoboam when forty Years old was governed by young Men not in Years but Understanding so neither was it any great wonder that Edward the 2d a young Man should be governed by Pierce Gaveston a Person of far more accomplished Parts than Buckingham for Gaveston was bred up with Edward and had so far by his Flatteries prevailed upon him that Edward could not enjoy any Pleasure in his Life without him But for an old King having been so for above fifty one Years to dote so upon a young Favourite scarce of Age yet younger in Understanding tho as old in Vices as any in his time and to commit the whole Ship of the Common-wealth both by Sea and Land to such a Phaeton is a Precedent without any Example But how much soever the Safety of the English Nation was endangered hereby yet the but mentioning any thing hereof was an Invasion of the King's Prerogative and meddling with State-Affairs which was above the Capacity of the Vulgar and even of the Parliament as you will soon hear But how absolute soever the King was at Home the face of Affairs Abroad stood quite contrary for the Dutch having retrieved their Cautionary Towns out of his Possession had the King in such Contempt that they neither regarded him nor his new Lord High Admiral and this Year says the Author of the Address to the Free-men and Free-holders of the Nation in his second Preface f. 13 14. The Dutch never before fished upon the Coast of England till they had begged leave of the King or Governour of Scarborough Castle but this was now thought beneath the Magnificence of the Hogan Mogans and therefore they refused it They had been formerly limited by our Kings both for the Number of their Vessels they should fish with and the time Now they resolve to be their own Carvers and in order to that denied the English the Sovereignty of the British Seas and as if this had not been enough drew nearer and nearer upon the English Shores Year by Year than they did in preceding Times without leaving any Bounds for the Country-People or Natives to fish upon their Princes Coasts and oppressed some of his Subjects with intent to continue their pretended Possession and had driven some of their great Vessels through their Nets to deter others by like Violence from fishing near them c. as Secretary Nanton January 21 1618. told Carleton the Dutch Ambassador And to justify all this they set out Men of War with their Fishermen to maintain all this by Force But it was not Fish our new Lord Admiral cared for nor did he care for the King's Soveraignty of the British Seas so as he might be Lord High Admiral in Name The Sails of Buckingham's Ambition were not full swelled till to the Title of Lord High Admiral the Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports was added to it tho he regarded the guarding the Coasts of England as little as he did the Soveraignty of the British Seas Nor did the accumulated Honours to himself alone satisfy his Ambition but a new Strain his Mother tho a professed Papist must be pullied up with him in a concurring Title of the same Honour by being created Countess of Buckingham And being thus exalted she forsook her Husband's Bed which she sanctified by being converted to the Church of Rome and as her Son governed the King so she governed her Son so that as Mr. Wilson observes fol. 149. tho her Son acted in appearance in all Removes and Advancements yet she wrought them in effect for her Hand was in all Actions both in Church and State and she must needs know the Disposition of all things when she had a feeling of every Man's Pulse for all Addresses were made to her first and by her conveyed to her Son for he looked more after Pleasure than Profit which made Gundamor who was well skill'd in Court Holy-Water among his other witty Pranks write merrily in his Dispatches to Spain that there were never more hopes of England ' s Conversion to Rome than now For there were more Oblations offered here to the Mother than to the Son Then he tells the Marquess's Behaviour to attain his Ends of Ladies how he married the Earl of Rutland's only Daughter the greatest Fortune in England but being a Papist how she was converted by Dr. White tho the Bishop of Litchfield attributes her Conversion to Dr. Williams Dean of Westminster but was brought back to the Church of Rome by the Countess of Buckingkam The next Year if you begin at January Queen Ann died the 22d of March but this is but a beginning of the King's Sorrows at least of his Troubles But this no way troubled our young Favourite but to encrease the Honour of his Family by Sir George's second Brood in June following he had his eldest Brother John created Baron Stroke and Viscount Purbeck tho I do not find he ever gave him one Penny to maintain these Titles Such disgust the King had taken at the Commons representing the Grievances to him in the last Parliament that in his Cups and among his Familiars upon all Occasions he would inveigh against Parliaments saying God is my Judg I can have no Joy of any Parliament in England and that he was but one King and there were alove five hundred in the House of Commons So as if he could have helped it he never would have been troubled with another but
thereupon referred this Business to my Lord Keeper Williams my Lord Treasurer Cranfield the Duke of Richmond Marquess Hamilton the Earl of Arundel the Lord Carew and the Lord Belfast who all agreed that they could not say that the King of Spain had done the part of a Friend in the Recovery of the Palatinate as he had professed nor could find that he had acted the Part of an Enemy declaredly as the Duke objected and indeed my Lord Keeper's Reasons against the War governed all the rest that saw no Expediency for War upon the Grounds communicated by Buckingham And 't was more observable that during the whole Treaty while Buckingham was in Spain the Business of the Palatinate was never mentioned and now he is come out of it it must be the Cause of a War with the King of Spain The Keeper's Reasons were Vpon whom shall we fall Either upon the Emperor or King of Spain the Emperor had in a sort offered the King his Son-in-law's Country again for Payment of a great Sum of Money in recompence of Disbursments but where was the Money to be had yet it might be cheaper bought than conquered before a War was ended For the King of Spain he saw no Cause to assault him with Arms He had held us indeed in a long Treaty to our Loss but he held nothing from us and was more likely to continue the State of things in a State of Possibility of Accommodation because he disliked the Duke of Bavaria's Ambition and had rather stop the Enlargement of his Territories The King embraced this Advice nor did he stay here yet did not stay long but spake hardly of Buckingham who would have put him upon making War upon the King of Spain and the King's Censure upon him was so bitter Cabal Page 92. that it was fit to be cast over-board in Silence says the Bishop of Litchfield f. 169 170. tit 175. This Resolution of the Council was so little to the Duke's Satisfaction that the Bishop says in the same Tit. that it made the Duke rise up and chafe against them from Room to Room as a Hen that had lost her Brood and clucks up and down when she has none to follow her Nor did the Duke stop here but notwithstanding the fierce Anger of the King and his not answering one of the Keeper's Reasons he appealed from the Judgment of the Council to the Parliament Sure he durst not have done this if he had not been sure of the Prince to second him against the Opinion and Anger of his Father This was the third inexpiable Crime the Keeper had committed against the Duke the first was his Advice to the Duke when he was in Spain to hold a good Correspondence with the Earl of Bristol and Olivares but finding the contrary by a Letter to the Duke of the 28th of June which you may read in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Bishop Williams fol. 136. tit 146. and another of the 22d of July tit 155. fol. 147. where he in gentle manner informed the Duke as from the King himself how zealous the King was not only of fair Terms between the Duke and Earl but of a nearer Alliance This was such a piece of Impudence in the Keeper that the Bishop says in the next tit that it removed the Duke's Affections from the Keeper for ever nor could this State-Minister contain his Displeasure but wrote to my Lord Mandevile that the first Action he would imbarque himself in when he came home should be to remove the Keeper out of his Place And the next Crime of the Keeper was The Duke was afraid of his Wit See the Bishop tit 156. However this Counsel took such Effect with King James and he was so satisfied that he had no Colour of Title to make War against the King of Spain that when the Parliament after gave him three Subsidies and three Fifteens for the Recovery of the Palatinate and when he had raised an Army of 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse to be commanded by Count Mansfield the King not only made it a Condition that Mansfield with the Army should not commit any Hostility against any of the Dominions which by Right appertained to the King of Spain or the Infanta Isabella Princess of the Low Countries or the Spanish Netherlands and in case he did so from that time the King was not longer to continue Payment of the Army but also took an Oath of Mansfield to observe the Conditions So that how powerful soever the Duke was over King James yet in none of these Particulars could he obtain his End viz. in not prevailing upon the King to make War upon the King of Spain nor in removing the Lord Keeper nor in having the Earl of Bristol committed to the Tower After the breaking of the Spanish Match it was observed that King James's Temper was quite so altered that he forgot his Recreations of Hunting and Hawking at New-Market but whilst he was there he remained as in an Infirmary and in a Fit of Melancholy told the Earl of Carlisle that if he had sent Williams into Spain with his Son he had kept Hearts-ease and Honour both which he wanted See the Bishop of Litchfield lib. 1. tit 174. King James then began to look back upon his former Actions in having lost the Affections of his Subjects and now intangled in the Difficulties which he saw inevitably coming upon him charged the Prince often in the hearing of the Lord Keeper Williams to call Parliaments often and to continue them tho their Rashness sometimes did offend him That in his own Experience he never got any Good by falling out with them See the Bishop of Litchfield lib. 2. f. 16. tit 16. How well King Charles observed his Father's Advice in any of these nay how diametrically he went contrary and contrary to all good Advice given him in the very first Year of his Reign will soon appear and the miserable Effects which followed I have heard my Father tho not a Courtier yet acquainted with many Courtiers say that they would oft pray to God that the Prince might be in the right Way where he set for if he were in the wrong he would prove the most wilful of any King that ever reigned Tho all must stoop to mighty Buckingham yet that he might stand surer who must be his only Support but Laud Bishop of Saint Davids who from picking Quarrels in Lectures at Oxford and being an Informer before now is become Vice-gerent to Buckingham A List of all the eminent Men for Promotion in the Church is given in those whom Laud would have promoted were noted O for Orthodox and whom he liked not were marked P for Puritans these two stopt up both the King's Ears from any other Doctrines in Church or State but what was infused by them so early did King James's Prophecy to my Lord Keeper Williams when he was so importunate to have Laud preferred begin to be fulfilled
they might But these were no Considerations where Buckingham and Laud govern'd all and those worthy and honourable Statesmen the Archbishop of Canterbury the Keeper Williams and the noble Earl of Bristol were not only discountenanc'd but disgrac'd and not permitted to come into the Council How unsuccessful soever the Expedition was yet another Fate attended that Fleet lent to the French for the Dutch joining a Fleet in conjunction with the French Fleet commanded by the Duke of Momerancy fought the Fleet of the Rochellers and utterly subdued it and then reduced the Isles of Rhee and Oleron to the French Power But tho the miserable Fate of the Reformed began here yet the Dishonour of the English Nation shall soon after follow it so that now Richlieu might write florebunt Lilia Ponto Tho the King dissolved the first Parliament to prevent their impeaching Buckingham yet it was not in Buckingham's Power to supply the King's Necessities but they put him upon the Necessity of calling another And here you may see the little Artifices the King 's grand Ministers of State put him upon for the attaining his Ends and how quite contrary they succeeded There were five Persons whom the Duke took to be his Enemies if they were not so he had given them Cause enough to be so two of them were Peers and three of them Commoners the Peers were the Earl of Bristol and Bishop of Lincoln the Commoners were Sir Edward Coke Sir Robert Phillips a Person whose Memory I revere and should be glad I knew any of his Descendants to whom I could acknowledg it and Sir Thomas Wentworth these Persons the Duke feared would be leading Men in both Houses and was resolved that to his Power he would keep them out He was sure the Earl and the Bishop as Peers of Common Right would have their Writs of Summons and was as sure the other three would be chosen Members of the House of Commons In looking a little back you 'll better see forward You have heard how by the Duke's Power in King James's Reign the Earl of Bristol was first kept back from coming into England and after he was come over was kept under Restraint and denied Admission into the King's Presence lest he should have spoiled the Duke's fine Tale in Parliament concerning the Spanish Match and also after he had answer'd every Particular of it without any Reply and that after King James had promised the Earl should be heard in Parliament against the Duke as well as the Duke had been against the Earl King James fell sick and died thereupon before the Parliament met again After King James's Death the Earl wrote a most humble Letter to King Charles imploring his Favour and desiring the Duke's Mediation which the Duke answered the 7th of May 1625 that the Resolution was to proceed against him without a plain and direct Confession of the Point which he the Duke had formerly required him to acknowledg and in a courtly manner told him That he would advise him to bethink himself in time what would be most for his good In the mean time the Earl received his Writ of Summons to the Parliament whereupon the Earl sent to the Duke that he would do nothing but what was most agreeable to his Majesty's Pleasure which the Duke answered I have acquainted his Majesty with your Requests towards him touching your Summons to the Parliament which he taketh very well and would have you rather make your Excuse for your Absence notwithstanding your Writ than to come your self in Person Hereupon the Earl desired a Letter of Leave under the King's Hand for his Warrant but instead thereof he received from the Lord Conway an absolute Prohibition and even to restrain and confine him as he had been in King James's time tho the Earl was freed from it by King James and in this Restraint the Earl continued three Quarters of a Year during which time he was remov'd from all his Offices and Places he held during that King's Life and tho he had laid out the greatest part of his Estate for their Majesties Service and by their particular Appointment he could never be admitted so much as to clear his Accounts yet hereof the Earl never made the least Complaint Upon the King's Coronation when Princes usually confer Acts of Grace and Favour the Earl addressed himself to the Duke and then became an humble Suitor to the King for his Grace and Favour to which he receiv'd an Answer so different from what the King's Father and the King himself had given him since the Earl's Return into England that the Earl knew not what Construction to make of it After the Writs of Summons for the meeting of this Parliament were out the Earl addressed himself to my Lord Keeper Coventry to be a Suitor to the King in his behalf that the Privilege which of right is due to every Peer might not be denied him which not taking effect the Earl petitioned the House of Peers to mediate to the King for his Writ which was granted but accompanied with a Letter from the Keeper not to take his Place in Parliament As Bristol was the worthiest Statesman in either of these King's Reigns and whose Integrity in all these Varieties of Employments none but Buckingham and Conway presumed at least that I can find or ever heard of so much as to carp at so Lincoln's quaint and excellent not pedantick Learning both in Divinity History the Civil and Canon Law and not a Stranger to our English excelled all others These were adorned with a lively and excellent Elocution and with a wonderful promptness and presence of Mind in giving Judgment in the most nice and subtile dark Points of State and accompanied with an indefatigable Industry in Prosecution of them These Parts were so well observed in him by King James that without any Solicitation of Buckingham or any other but whilst he solicited for another the King conferr'd the Lord Keeper's Place upon him as you may read in his Life fol. 52. tit 62. and after unsought for the King promised him the next Avoidance of the Arch-bishoprick of York or any other Ecclesiastical Preferment and so steddy stood he in King James's Favour that Buckingham's Attacks could no ways shake him in it In Chancery he mitigated the Fees and all Petitions from poor Men were granted gratis and was so far from prolonging Suits that in the first Year he ended more than in seven Years before yet with such Caution that he would have some of the Judges but principally Sir Henry Hubbard to be assisting so that notwithstanding his Celerity in Dispatch in all the five Years of his being Lord Keeper not one of his Orders neither by Parliament nor by the Court of Chancery were ever revers'd Cardinal Richlieu is much celebrated for the Speech he made in the Convention of Notables which you may read at large in Howel's Life of Richlieu f. 162 163 164. to excite
the French to carry on the Cardinal 's ambitious and ungodly Designs after the King had so prodigally expended not only his Father's Treasure but doubly more than the ordinary Revenues of France upon his Favourites and the manifold Wars both at home and abroad which Richlieu had entangled him in Let any Man compare the Keeper's Speech at the opening the first Parliament of King Charles which you may read in the Keeper's Life the second Part f. 9 and 10. with that of Richlieu's and judg if the Rhetorick and Elegancy of it comes any way behind that of his after the King's Father and this King had squandered much more than the Revenues of the Crown upon their Favourites and this King had entangled himself in the Articles of the French Match and without Means engaged himself in a War with Spain and that against his Father's and the Keeper's Advice in exciting the Parliament to a Compliance with the King's Will tho with a different Fate for Richlieu attained his Ends by his Speech whereas the Keeper's Downfal was a Consequence of his But above all the Keeper excelled himself if I may be Judg in three things one was in his Speech in the House of Peers about the Peers taking the Oaths the second his Reasons he gave the French Ambassador Vollâ—cleer against dispensing with our Penal Laws against Romish Priests which you may read at large in the first Part of the Keeper's Life fol. 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222. The third Speech was when the Earl of Essex moved the House of Lords in the Year 1640 that the Bishops might be expell'd the House not their Persons but their Order which you may read at large in the second Part of the Keeper's Life from fol. 168 to 176. And sure the History of the Keeper's Life had been a nobler Work if it had been related without the loose and impertinent Glosses of the Bishop of Litchfield whereby he does so often disturb and break the Thread of the Story and by preaching himself more than writing his History makes it confounded so as it is difficult to pursue it See the Speech in the first Part of his Life f. 76 77. After the Parliament was dissolved at Oxford all Heads were set at work to find some fault against the Keeper to out him of his Place but none could be found hereupon they made a Proposition which the Keeper made to King James That the Office of Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper should be Triennial so that after three Years the King should make another and the Keeper having enjoy'd the Place above four Years to be the Reason that he should surrender the Seal When the Keeper had notice of this in a pathetical Letter to the King which you may read in his Life in the second Part f. 24. he implores his Majesty's Favour that he may retire with an Assurance of his Majesty's Grace and be admitted into his Presence to make some humble Requests to him which the King granted The first of his Requests was for the King's Favour in general which the King granted and gave him his Hand twice to kiss upon it Secondly That the King would take away none of his Church-Preferments as he had graciously promised till he had given him better in lieu of them the King answered It was his Intention Thirdly That the King would remember his Father's Promise seconded by him that he would place him the Keeper in as good a Bishoprick or Arch-bishoprick as he could the King said There was no such place void when any fell it would be then time enough to make his Request Fourthly That his Majesty would dismiss him freely and absolutely without any Command from the Table but to leave it to the Keeper's Discretion to forbear the King said He ever intended it so and never said a word to the contrary but expected he should not offend by voluntary Intrusion Fifthly That the King would declare to the Lords that the Keeper had willingly and readily yielded to his Majesty's Pleasure and that he parted in the King's Favour and good Opinion and was still his Servant the King said He would but that he looked that no Petitions be made for him by any Man at that time but only for his Favour in general Sixthly The Keeper besought the King to make an Atonement with the Duke upon or without Examination of the Information which the Duke received against him the King said It became not him a King to take up Quarrels between his Subjects and that the Duke had never exprest any such Enmity to him against him the Keeper Seventhly The Keeper besought the King that whereas the Keeper had a Pension by Direction of the King's Father and wherewith the King was acquainted of 2000 Marks per Annum to the Viscount Wallingford and had disbursed 3000 l. down upon it either to buy the said Pension or extinguish it or to assign it to be paid out of the Tenths or Subsidies of his Bishoprick as before he had appointed to receive it out of the Exchequer the King said Assignments were naught but he would take Order with his Treasurer to buy it or pay for it as should be most convenient Eighthly The Keeper besought the King to bestow the next Prebendary in Westminster upon his Library-keeper as his Father had promised or that he might resume his Books again the King said It was full of Reason Ninthly The Keeper besought the King to ratify a Grant made by his Father of four Advowsons to St. John's-College in Cambridg whereof two he had bought with his Money and two the King gave him for the good of the Society the King said He would ratify the Grant and give way to amend any Errors in the Form or in passing of it Tenthly The Keeper besought the King that he might retire to a little Lodg which my Lord Sandys lent him where the Lord Conway might receive the Seal which the King granted Lastly The Keeper besought the King that the King would not be offended with him if upon his Discharge Reports were made that he was discontented which he protested he was not giving over so comfortably the King said He would do him that Justice and that he little valued Reports and thereupon gave the Keeper his Hand to kiss at parting which you may read in the second Part of the Keeper's Life Tit. 28. But the Bishop says in the next Tit. the forlorn Keeper felt the Heaviness of this Lightness who thought he had obtained much but excepting the four Advowsons confirmed to St. John's-College he mist all that he sought for and expected nor could he ever get a Farthing of his Pension nor bring it to an Audit to his dying-day nor did the Keeper's Enemies stop here but sought to provoke against him the King's Displeasure with things which were neither consistent with the King's Honour nor scarce to be born by the Temper of Human Nature and were so
away the Merchants Ships so that they may not easily catch and light upon the West-India Fleet. A Jesuit and nine Priests were taken with this and many other Papers which were delivered to Sir John Cook Secretary of State the Jesuit was condemn'd but reprieved by the King because Sir John Cook said The King delighted not in Blood and afterward the nine Priests were released by special Warrant from the King and the King in his Reasons for dissolving the Parliament makes the House of Commons Enquiry into this Business to be an exorbitant Encroachment and Usurpation such as was never before attempted by that House By this you may see the Religious care this pious Prince had for the Church of England and how much he regarded the Laws of England or minded the Support of the poor Protestants in France or the Re-establishment of his Brother-in-law in the Palatinate Thus stood things when the Parliament met the 17th of March when the King as Men in a deep Lethargy no ways sensible of their Pain or the dangerous State they are in not considering the dangerous State he was in both abroad and at home Abroad in that he had made War upon the King of Spain without any Declaration of War and that against his Father's Advice and of his Council and upon the King of France wherein himself and his Favourite Buckingham were the Aggressors at Home by his unheard of Invasions upon the Fortunes and Liberties of his Subjects never before done by any King of England in the short Interval of these two Parliaments scarce being 9 Months upon the Opening of the Parliament far unlike his Father in the last Parliament of his Reign when his Case was not near so dangerous as this King's tho their Necessities were equal to get Money by Parliaments when they could get it no other Way begins his Speech My Lords and Gentlemen THese Times are for Action wherefore for Example sake I mean not to spend much Time in Words expecting accordingly that your as I hope good Resolutions will be speedy not spending Time unnecessarily or that I may say dangerously for tedious Consultations at this Conjuncture of Time are as hurtful as ill Resolutions I am sure you now expect from me both to know the Cause of your meeting and what to resolve on yet I think there is none here but knows that common Danger is the Cause of this Parliament and that Supply at this time is the chief End of it so that I need but point to you what to do All this but of Supply is Mysterious and General and had need of an Interpreter The King goes on and says I will use but few Perswasions for if to maintain your own Advices and as the Case now stands for the following thereof the true Religion Laws and Liberties of this State never so violated by any King of England before him and the just Defence of our true Friends and Allies be not sufficient then no Eloquence of Men or Angels will prevail What Parliament or any other Council but that of Buckingham advised him to make War either upon the King of Spain or France search all the Records of the Journals of Parliament of 21 Jac. and Rushworth Franklin and Bishop of Litchfield and see if in any one of them there be one Sentence of making War against the King of Spain but only to break off the Treaty with the Spanish Match and for the Palatinate But admit the Parliament had upon the Misinformation of the King and Duke advised the King to have made War upon the King of Spain yet since the Earl of Bristol so shamefully blasted the whole Story not a Year since in open Parliament without any Reply How was this Parliament obliged to have made good what that had done And since the King dissolved the last Parliament rather than the Duke should be brought to Trial upon the Earl's Charge which was a Failure of Justice sure it had been more to the King's Honour not to have mention'd this to the Parliament than that what he had done was by their Advice Did this Parliament or any other ever advise him to put the Fleet under the Command of Vice-Admiral Pennington into the French King's Power to subdue the poor Rochellers who never did him any wrong to the Ruin of the Reformed Interest in France and to be the Foundation of the French Grandeur by Sea and then on the contrary make War upon the French King when he was the Aggressor Did ever this or any other Parliament advise him to take his Subjects Goods by force without and against Law and imprison their Persons by his Absolute Will and Pleasure denying them the Benefit of their Corpus's the Birth-right of the Subject and to continue them Prisoners during his Will without allowing them a Trial by the Laws whether they were guilty of any Crime or not Or to execute Martial Law impose new Oaths and give Free-Quarter to Soldiers in his own Kingdom in time of Peace However the King goes on and says Only let me remember you that my Duty most of all and every one of yours according to his Degree is to seek the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth and certainly there never was a time in which this Duty was more necessarily required than now Was the Discharge of the Pack of Jesuits conspiring the Ruin of Church and State with Impunity for the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth Or was the Commission which the King granted the next Day after the Writs for the Assembling the Parliament to raise Monies by Imposition in the nature of Excise to be levied throughout the Nation for the Maintenance of the Church and State And at the same time to order my Lord Treasurer to pay 30000 l. to Philip Burlemac a Dutch Merchant in London to be by him returned into the Low-Countries by Bill of Exchange to Sir William Balfour and John Dalbier for the raising of 1000 Horse with Arms both for Horse and Foot for the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth of England And also to call a Council for levying Ship-Money now he had by his own Will taken the Customs without any Grant of Parliament for the Maintenance of the Church and State I therefore judging a Parliament to be the antient speediest and best way in this time of Common Danger to give such Supply as to secure our selves and save our Friends from imminent Ruin have called you together Every Man must do according to his Conscience wherefore if you as God forbid should not do your Duties in contributing what the State at this time needs I must in Discharge of my Conscience use those other means which God has put into my hands to save that which the Follies of particular Men may otherwise hazard to lose It 's certain a Parliament is the best way in time of Common Danger to give Supplies and secure the Nation from imminent Ruin the Nation being most
how to erect a High Commission Court in Scotland by the King's Authority without Consent in Parliament for proceeding against such as would not submit to the Common-Prayer Book and Canons enjoined by the King and Bishops of Scotland and upon the 28th of February the Arch-bishop consecrated Dr. Manwaring Bishop of St. Davids a worthy Successor to so Saint-like and pious a Predecessor for this Bishoprick was Laud's first Preferment You have seen his Grace of Canterbury's Temper towards the King's Subjects now see how it was towards the King His Grace being as high as England could admit viz. Metropolitan and first Peer thereof would visit both Universities by his Metropolitan Right and not by Commission from the King and signified so much to both to which both answered That to admit it without a Warrant from the King was a Wrong to the Vniversities his Grace was Chancellour of Oxford and the Earl of Holland of Cambridg The Cause came to a hearing before the King and Council the 21st of June 1634 where the Attorney General Banks was for his Grace against the King Mr. Gardener the Recorder of London â—or Cambridg and Serjeant Thyn for Oxford the Cause was shortly this Both sides agreed in this that both Universities were of the King's Foundation and so might be visited as they had often been by Commission from the King But this would not do with his Grace he would to use his own Words visit by his own Right Serjeant Thyn urged against this the King's Foundation of the University of Oxford and that never any Arch-bishop so visited But the Recorder could not say so of Cambridg which happened upon this Occasion In the Reign of Richard the Wickliff's Doctrine prevailed much in both Universities and Arundel then Arch-bishop of Canterbury as zealous to suppress the Wicklevites as Laud was the Puritans to suppress them did visit Jure Metropolitano but Oxford opposed him forti Manu Upon this Arundel appeals to the King who being a weak Prince and as zealous for the then Church as King Charles was for Laud's declares the Right to be in the Bishop so did Henry the 4th the Current running against Wickliff which was after confirmed in Parliament but Cambridg was not in it Yet never before did any Arch-bishop visit Oxford nor Cambridg since the Year 1404 Jure Metropolitano as his Grace would do and so the Cause went for the Arch-bishop Plum'd thus in his own Feathers all black and white without one borrowed from Caesar whereby the more he assumes to himself the less he leaves the King he now soars higher the Bishops of the Province of Canterbury in their own Names enjoin the Removal of the Communion Table in the Parish-Churches and Universities from the Body of the Church or Chancel to the East of the Chancel and cause Rails to be set about the Table and refuse to administer the Sacrament to such as shall not come up to the Rails and receive it kneeling that the Book of Sports on Sundays be read in Churches and enjoin Adoration I do not find that Adoration was ever enjoined before nor any of the fore-named Injunctions in any Canon of the Church sure I am they were never publickly put in Execution so that whether these were any of the Canons of the Church or not was not understood by one of 10000 and the Lecturers Chaplains and School-masters who had no Maintenance from the Church being principally struck at by these Injunctions make all the sinister and worst Constructions they could invent against them so that though those Injunctions had been founded in the Canons of the Church yet the contrary was believed and so had the same Effect as if they had not been founded in the Church-Canons Here I cannot omit one Passage That several were deprived by the Bishop's Authority for refusing to read the Book of Sports on Sunday Whereas King James the 2d allowed the seven Bishops a legal Trial for refusing to enjoin the Clergy to read his Declaration for Liberty of Conscience and the Bishops were acquitted That the Legality of these Proceedings might be manifest a Proclamation was issued out that it was the Opinion of the Judges that the Act of the 1 Edw. 6. 2. which ordains that Bishops should hold their Ecclesiastical Courts in the King's Name or by Commission from him was repealed by the 1st of Queen Mary though this Act was repealed by the 1 Jac. 25. and so the Act 1 Edw. 6. 2. was revived and so resolved upon a full Debate in Parliament 7 Jacobi The Thunder of those Canons the terrible and unheard of Execution of them in the Star-Chamber against all Opposers by Speech or Writing so terrified the Puritans which would not submit that incredible Numbers of them left the Kingdom to inhabit in foreign Plantations especially in New-England where these Ecclesiastical Canons could not well play upon them But to restrain the further Evasion of them the King by Proclamation the 30th of April 1638 stops all the Ports of England to keep them in it The Reason was no doubt that they might be better instructed in the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England here than elsewhere But Ship-Money notwithstanding my Lord Keeper Coventry's Charge to the Judges last Year that in their Circuits they should give Charge how justly the King required Ship-Money for the common Defence and with what Alacrity and Chearfulness they the Subjects are bound in Duty to contribute yet this did not pass-for true Doctrine with all for Mr. Hambden upon Advice with Holborn St. John and Whitlock denied the Payment whereupon several other Gentlemen refused also Hereupon the King was advised by the Lord Chief Justice Finch to require the Opinion of his Judges which he did in a Letter to them and after much Solicitation by the Chief Justice promising Preferment to some and highly threatning others whom he found doubting he got from them in Answer to the King's Letter and Case their Opinion in these Words We are of Opinion that when the Good and Safety of the Kingdom in general is concerned and the whole Kingdom in danger you may by your Writ under the Great Seal of England command all your Subjects of this your Kingdom at their Charge to provide and furnish such number of Ships with Men Victuals and Ammunition and for such time as your Majesty shall think fit for the Defence and Safeguard of the Kingdom from Peril and Danger And that your Majesty may compel the doing thereof in case of Refusal or Refractoriness And we are also of Opinion that in such Case your Majesty is sole Judg both of the Danger and when and how the same is to be prevented and avoided This Opinion was signed by Davenport Denham Hutton Croke Trevor Bramston Finch Vernon Berkly Crawley and Weston See Whitlock ' s Memoirs f. 24. The King having previously extorted the Judges Opinions exparte gave order for the Proceedings against Mr. Hambden in the
start from and that therein they were the King 's most Dutiful Subjects Things could not long stay here but upon the 20th of August in 1640 the Scots enter England with an Army of about 22000 Men commanded by General Lesley to deliver a Petition for Reformation of Religion and State and to justify their Proceedings and begin as the King did at the opening of all his Parliaments with the Necessity of their Proceedings The King the same day the Scots entred England posts to York having made the Earl of Northumberland General of his Army the Earl of Strafford Lieutenant-General and my Lord Marshal the Earl of Arundel General of his Forces on the South-side of Trent When the King came to York his first Care was to stop the Scots from passing the River Tine and commanded the Lord Conway and Sir Jacob Astly to oppose them but the Scots having the advantage of the Ground and sixfold more in number than the English force their Passage at Newborn about five Miles from Newcastle to the West and take Newcastle and after Durham and tax the Counties of Northumberland and Durham at 850 l. a day but the Rents of the Papists and the Church of Durham they take over and above The King instead of fighting the Scots is encountred with Complaints from the Inhabitants of Yorkshire Durham and Northumberland of the Miseries of their Condition then with Petitions from many of the Nobility the City of London and other Places for a free Parliament upon this the King assembles a great Council of the Nobility to advise what to do Now things are brought to the Point Richlieu had designed them The King in these two Expeditions had spent all the 900000 l. he before had lodged in his Exchequer and now had two Armies to maintain in the Bowels of his Kingdom when he not only had no means to pay either but also without doubt the Scotish Army were Pensioners to France The Lords advise a Truce which is accepted and all agreed but how to pay the Armies till a Parliament meet was a Question the Scots coming for all the English Mens Gudes demand but 40000 l. per Mensem but like their Country Pedlars fall to 25000 l. which is agreed which with the Charge of the English Army would amount to 60000 l. per Mensem to save the Country from Free-quarter In this Treaty the King named the Earl of Traquair to be assistant to the English Peers but the Scots excepted against him as an Incendiary and one to be brought to Punishment the King submits and leaves him out But how to provide Money to pay both Armies till the meeting of the Parliament which was to meet the third of November is the Question The King had not Credit it could not be had but from the City of London which was upon ill Terms with the King for Alderman Atkins Sir Nicholas Ranton and Alderman Geere were by Order of the Council in Prisons in London and the Attorney-General had Orders to draw an Information against them in the Star-Chamber for refusing to return the Names of such as were able to lend upon a Loan of 200000 l. demanded by the King The Lords therefore of the Great Council write to the City of London signifying the King 's gracious Resolution of calling a Parliament wherein he promised all Grievances to be redrest the Miseries of the Country if the Armies were not paid and not less than 200000 l. could prevent them and the Lords would give their Bonds for the City's Security whereupon the City lent the Money and then the Treaty was adjourned from Rippon to London But that we may better see how things stood at the opening of the Parliament let us look back a little After the King had dissolved the Parliament May the 5th he left the Convocation sitting who frame an Oath wherein they swear never to consent to alter the Government of the Church by Arch-bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-deacons c. as it stands now established and as by right it ought to stand which was interpreted to be Jure Divino They also made sixteen Canons and Goodman Bishop of Glocester for refusing to subscribe the Oath and Canons was suspended Being encouraged by Mountague Bishop of Norwich and Laud ' s Creature who Goodman said had in his Person visited and held Correspondence with the Pope's Nuncio and received his Letters in behalf of his Son who was then travelling to Rome and by his Letters had extraordinary Entertainment there Nor did the Convocation stay here but granted the King a Benevolence of six Subsidies to be paid in six Years the Refusers to be suspended and excommunicated To such an Extremity did the Clergy push things in this techy and disorderly time But any Man may easily guess the Spring which set all these Wheels in motion And it is observable that the Clergy who now taxed their fellow Subjects without Consent of the Commons shall ever hereafter be taxed by the Commons without the Consent of the Clergy CHAP. III. A Continuation of this Reign to the Death of the King UPon the third of November the Parliament met and the Nation which for above fifteen Years had been ridden by a more than French Government now look upon the Parliament I mean the Houses to become their Redeemers and by how much more Honour the Nation gives them so much less they leave to the King And here again you may see the unhappy Fate of Princes who treat their Subjects as Enemies and Favourites as their only Friends and Confidents For the first that forsook the King and run beyond Sea was Canterbury's old Friend Secretary Windebank next after him flies Finch and after the Earl of Arundel and scarce one of his old Favourites I mean before the Scots Troubles stood by him except my Lord Cottington Secretary Cooke was either really or politickly sick Juxton Bishop of London indifferent and in all the Wars lived in the Parliament Quarters but all the rest sided with the Parliament against him Only Laud and Strafford are laid in Prison and after put to Death Nor were the Factions less pliable to entertain these Minions and Favourites than they were forward to join with them I 'll give you one Instance herein In this Parliament all those who would not join them were called Delinquents and upon a Debate in the House of Commons concerning an Order in the Star-Chamber signed by my Lord Privy-Seal Secretary Cooke and others it was moved to send for Secretary Cooke as a Delinquent Another Member my nearest Relation from whom I had this moved That since Sir John Cooke was aged and infirm and above a hundred Miles off and my Lord Privy-Seal in Town therefore that the House should proceed against my Lord To whom Mr. Pym reply'd That whatever my Lord 's ante Acta Vitae were yet since he now went right that all ought to be forgotten Nay so zealous were these new-converted Minions and Favourites
ensue upon such tumultuous Concourse of Men. And why was not this a reasonable Excuse for the King to leave the Parliament and City when they countenanced these Tumults and the King had not Power to suppress them Mr. May goes on and says Vpon this ground twelve Bishops at that time absenting themselves entred a Protestation against all Laws Votes and Orders as Null which in their Absence should pass by reason they durst not for fear of their Lives come to perform their Duties in the House having been rudely menaced and assaulted And why might not the Bishops enter such Protestation for if it be a Maxim in all Assemblies that Plus valet contemptus unius quam consensus omnium then does the Contempt and Affront of a whole Order of Men who have a Right of Suffrage much more render the Actions of the rest invalid However Mr. May goes on and says Whereupon it was agreed by both Lords and Commons that this Protestation of the Bishops was of dangerous Consequence and deeply entrenched upon the Privilege and Being of Parliaments they were therefore accused of High-Treason apprehended and committed Prisoners to the Tower And I say a time shall come when in Parliament these Men who run thus high against the Bishops and established Church of England shall be prosecuted by a contrary Extream and the Church by Law exalted higher than it was before Mr. May goes on and says Thus was the Parliament daily troubled with ill Work whereby the Relief of Ireland was hindred If they were thus troubled they may thank themselves for beginning these Troubles as well by the Commons Remonstrance against the King and Lords as by their countenancing the Tumults By this time things were so envenom'd as would admit of no Lenitives especially by the Commons and the King went from London to Hampton-Court and sent a Message to the Parliament and advises them To digest into one Body all the Grievances of the Kingdom and send them to him promising his favourable Assent to those Means which should be found most effectual for Redress wherein he would not only equal but excel the most indulgent Princes The Parliament thank'd him but nothing but having the Militia at their Disposal would secure their Fears and Jealousies This was as new in England as the perpetuating the sitting of the Parliament and if the King should grant it it would be a total Subversion of the Monarchy For the Parliament being perpetual and having the Power of the Militia the Government must be either a Commonwealth or an Oligarchy and the King insignificant in it yet have it the Parliament would notwithstanding other Grievances and the deplorable State of Ireland And therefore upon the 26th of February they tell the King plainly That the settling the Business of the Militia will admit no more Delay and if his Majesty shall still refuse to agree with his two Houses of Parliament in that Business and shall not be pleased upon their humble Advice to do what they desire therein that then for the Safety of his Majesty of Themselves and the whole Kingdom and to preserve the Peace thereof and to prevent future Fears and Jealousies they shall be constrained of themselves without his Majesty to settle that necessary Business of the Militia See Whit. M. f. 54. a. Here 't is observable That as the King feigned a Necessity to raise Ship-money for the Good and Safety of the Kingdom in general when the whole Kingdom is in danger the Judges gave their Opinion That the King may by his Writ under the Broad Seal of England command all his Subjects of this Kingdom to provide and furnish such Number of Ships with Men Victuals and Ammunition and for such time as the King shall think fit for the Defence and Safeguard of the Kingdom from such Peril and Danger and that by Law the King may compel the doing thereof in Case of Refusal and Refractoriness and that in such Case the King is sole Judg both of the Danger and when and how the same may be prevented and avoided So now the Parliament pretending a Necessity for the Safety of the King and of Themselves and the whole Kingdom and to preserve the Peace thereof will tear the Militia from him In this State things could not stand long at a Stay Mr. May p. 47. will have the Queen 's going into Holland with her Daughter and carrying with her the Crown-Jewels of England and pawning them there whereby she bought Arms for the War which ensued that it was then designed by the King against the Parliament but if Mr. May had been sincere he should have told too as Mr. Whitlock does f. 59. a. how the Parliament took 100000 l. of the 400000 l. they voted to be raised for Ireland and whether this was not for the War which ensued in England Mr. May p. 48. recites three Votes of Parliament 1. That the King's Absence so far remote being then at York from his Parliament is not only an Obstruction but may be a Destruction to the Affairs in Ireland 2. That when the Lords and Commons in Parliament shall declare what the Law of the Land is to have this not only questioned and controverted but contradicted and a Command that it should not be obeyed is a high Breach of the Privilege of Parliament 3. That they who advised the King to absent himself from the Parliament are Enemies to the Peace of this Kingdom and justly to be suspected to be Favourites of the Rebellion in Ireland But Mr. May should have added that it is not the King's Presence in London or any other Place but his assenting to Bills presented to him which he may do by Commission as well as Personally that enacts them into Laws and that the King after he went from London passed the Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament and that no Clergy-Man should exercise any Temporal Jurisdiction which the King did with remorse enough and only to humour and appease the Temporal Lords and Commons in Parliament and the Bishops in Parliament are one of the 3 States of England The King moreover in his Absence upon a Motion by the Parliament put Sir John Byron from being Lieutenant of the Tower and Sir John Conniers to succeed him and refers the Consideration of the Government and Liturgy of the Church wholly to the two Houses see Whitlock's M. f. 53. b. But nothing less than the King 's parting with the Militia would satisfy the Parliament which the King would not part from so now it 's left fair for indifferent Men to judg whether the King or Parliament or both designed the ensuing War And to proceed to set forth who began it I have said in the first Page of this King's Reign or p. 153 That the first Fifteen Years of it were perfectly French and such as were never before seen or heard of in the English Nation this brought on a miserable War in all the Three
Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and Destruction upon the King when is was not in the Power of those which first raised the War against him to save his Life which they would have done I am told that the last Part of this Paragraph is an unjust Charge upon the Parliament in that they acted defensively in this War and that the King first raised Arms and this by the Authority of Mr. May. If I be mistaken I have the Authority of him who could best know I mean the King at his Death who declared That he never did begin the War with the two Houses of Parliament as all the World knows that they began with him it was the Militia they began upon they confest that to be his but they thought fit to have it from him and to be short if any body will look into the Dates of those Commissions theirs and his and likewise to the Declarations they will see clearly that they began these unhappy Troubles not he See Whit. Mem. f. 369. a. and all the Writers of those times If this be not Authority sufficient to shew the Parliament began the War the first Scuffle between the King and Parliament was about the Business of Hull where the Parliament had committed the Charge of the Town and Magazine to Sir John Hotham one of the Members of the Commons who was sent down thither to remove the Magazine to London but the Country of York petitioned it might still remain at Hull for securing the Northern Parts especially the King residing there Hereupon the King taking a Guard of his Servants and some Neighbouring Gentry upon the 23d of April went to Hull but contrary to Expectation found the Gates shut and the Bridges drawn up by Sir John and his Entrance denied though but with 20 Horse which so moved the King that he proclaimed Hotham a Traitor and sends to the Parliament for Justice against him To this the Parliament return no Answer but justify Sir John Hotham and order that the Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace do suppress all Forces which shall be raised or gathered together against Hull or to disturb the Peace nor did they stay here but put the Power of the Militia in Persons nominated by them excluding the King in ordering any thing together with them and authorized Hotham by his Warrants to raise the trained Bands in Yorkshire to march with their Arms into Hull where he disarmed them and turned them home again See Whit. Mem. f. 55 56. So I submit this to Judgment whether this was not raising Arms against the King being done by Subjects and contrary to the King's Command and if the King did encrease his Guards yet this was subsequent to the excluding the King from having Power in the Militia and Hotham's Raising Arms and Disarming the Trained Bands of Yorkshire Mr. May says p. 55. the Parliament being then intent upon settling the Militia by Land took care also to seize the Navy into their Hands and ordered the Earl of Warwick to be Admiral to put this in Execution but the King had chosen Sir John Pennington to that place instead of the Earl of Northumberland and sent a Command to the Earl of Warwick to resign the Place to him Pennington But the Earl chose rather to obey the Ordinance of Parliament and with great Courage and Policy got the Fleet into his Hands tho many of the Captains stood out against him but the Earl deprived them of their Commands and possest himself of the Ships taking shortly after another Ship called the Lyon of great Import coming out of Holland and laden with Gun-power which proved a great Addition to his Strength So here was a double Beginning of the War by the Parliament both in seizing the Fleet and taking the Lyon and this before the King committed any Act of Hostility And for the carrying on this War which Mr. May calls the Cause the Parliament upon the 10th of June made an Order for bringing in Money and Plate to raise Arms for the Cause and the Publick Faith for Repayment to them which brought it in So here the Parliament raised Money as well as Forces for carrying on the War before the King levied any And so I leave it to Judgment who first began the War Objection The Parliament raised Arms for their own Defence and Security of the Nation Answer This is said but of no kin to Truth or Reason for Men defend what they are possest of and the King was possest of the Militia and Fleet when the Parliament ravish'd both from him nor did the King use either against the Parliament when they invaded them Besides the King at least as he declared endeavoured to defend the established Religion and Laws of the Land whereas the Parliament contended to abolish the Established Religion and to exalt themselves above the Laws of the Land Objection 2. That the King had so often violated the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation and governed so Arbitrarily that the Parliament could have no Security for the future to prevent his so doing again so long as the King was possest of the Militia Answer The Case was not the same then when the King resolved to have no more Parliaments as now when the King had made this Parliament perpetual and had passed the Triennial Bill for Parliaments to meet whether he would or no And tho Favourites and Flatterers instill'd those things into the King when they were without any Fear or Apprehension of being questioned by a Parliament yet now the Parliament had so severely prosecuted and punished such Men and being perpetual or at least to meet Three Years after every Dissolution none would presume to advise the King in things derogatory to his Honour and the Interest of the Nation And now we proceed to the ensuing War The Parliament before the King set up his Standard at Nottingham Aug. 22 Voted That an Army should be raised for the Defence of the King and Parliament that the Earl of Essex should be Captain General of the Army and the Earl of Bedford General of the Horse The War began first between the Marquess of Hartford for the King in the West and the Earl of Bedford for the Parliament the Earl being worsted by the Marquess at Sherborn-Castle Goring got into Portsmouth and held it for the King but could not hold it long for the Country joining with Sir John Meyrick forced him to surrender who thereupon went into Holland and my Lord Say St. Johns and Weemen with Colonel Whitlock enter Oxford and keep it for the Parliament But the Face of Affairs soon changed for the King having made the Earl of Lindsey his General and the Parliament the Earl of Essex upon the 23d of October the Armies met and fought at Edghil with uncertain Victory which both sides claimed the Earl of Lindsey was mortally wounded and taken Prisoner the Right Wing of the King's Horse commanded by Prince Rupert brake the Left
See the Life of General Monk p. 23 24. written by his Chaplain Dr. Gumble The Parliament having recruited the Earl of Essex's Army he forced his Passage and relieved Glocester the King's Army retreat to Newbury where it was charged by Essex and worsted and in the Fight the Ornament of the Age the learned and most ingenious Lord Falkland tho weary of his Life and presaging his own Destiny was slain as were the Earls of Sunderland and Carnarven If the King's Army had such bad Success before Glocester my Lord of New-Castle had worse before Hull for lying in a moorish unhealthy place in a sickly season of the Year viz. September and October the whole Army fell into Fluxes and other Distempers so as they were forced to raise the Siege having done nothing considerable in it besides at this time Lyn-Regis in Norfolk a Place near as considerable as Hull was seized by the Gentry of Norfolk and might have been relieved if New-Castle had not been engaged in besieging Hull Tho the English and Scotish Parliament agreed in their Solemn League and Covenant yet so did not Sir John Hotham and his Son with the Preferment of Sir Thomas Fairfax and others in the North so that Sir John Hotham refused to serve under Fairfax Hereupon the Parliament intended to have displaced Hotham which when he heard of both he and his Son treated with the Marquess of New-Castle to deliver Hull to the King and the Parliament suspecting the Design sent Sir Matthew Bromton Sir John's Brother-in-law to seize both Father and Son which Sir John little suspecting till it was too late fled to Beverly where he was seized by his own Soldiers and carried to Hull from whence Sir Matthew sent both Father and Son to London where soon after both lost their Heads When the Parliament sent Commissioners to invite the Scots to come to their Assistance the King sent Letters to disswade them from it urging the manifold Grants he had given to them when he was in Scotland last which compleated all they could ask and their solemn Protestations to be for ever his Majesty's most obedient Subjects See the Act cited by Sir Rich. Baker fol. 514. That it should be detestable Treason in the highest degree for any of the Scots Nation conjunctly or singly to raise Arms or any military Force upon any Cause whatever without the King's Commission But now unprovoked by the King and against his express Command they in open Hostility enter England a second time against him so little Faith or Honour was to be trusted to from these Covenanters for the Scots having made their Market with the King resolve to improve it with the Parliament and besides their Pay or Wages of Iniquity will have the Covenant and Kirk-Government imposed upon the English as well as Scots Nation and tho the King's Letters were signed by 19 Lords the Scots ordered them to be burnt by the common Hangman and in order hereunto General Lesley now Earl of Leven upon the 16th of January enters into England again with an Army of above 20000 Scots The King to add Reputation to his Arms summoned the Members of Parliament which followed him to meet at Oxford upon the 22d of January where they voted the coming of the Scots to be Treason and Rebellion but because they would not come up to the King's Desire in Voting the Members at Westminster to be no Parliament the King in great Displeasure with them and in his Letters to the Queen calls them his mungrel Parliament such was the Kindness the King shewed those Noble Lords and Gentry for sacrificing their Lives and Fortunes for his Service And to oppose the Scots the King makes a Cessation of Arms with the Irish and draws back into England the English which he sent to oppose the Irish but these were every where beaten 1500 of them cast away by Sea and the greatest Body of them commanded by Sir Michael Ernley Major General Gibson Sir Francis Boteler and Colonel Monk who shall unravel all the Parliament and Scots were now weaving were totally routed and dispersed by Sir Thomas Fairfax joining with Sir William Brereton near Nantwich and all these with Colonel Gibs Harmon Sir Ralph Dawns with 14 Captains 26 Ensigns and other inferiour Officers and 1500 common Soldiers taken Prisoners with the loss of their Cannon and Baggage So that as Serjeant Whitlock observes f. 79. a. these Irish never did the King any considerable Service But to sweeten this Prince Rupert at the close of this Year beat Sir John Meldrum a Scot who besieged Newark and his Army surrendred up their Arms Upon which the Parliament-Garisons in Gainsborow Lincoln and Sleford quitted these Places to the King's Forces And here we will end the Year 1643. and take notice how Mr. Serjeant Whitlock f. 64. b. errs in point of Time where he says the Scots passed the Tyne in 1642 under General Lesley to assist the Parliament and f. 67. a. he says the Queen was brought to Bed at Exeter of the Princess Henrietta Maria which for ought appears was before the Queen landed from Holland for she was born the 20th of June 1644. See Sir Baker's Hist f. 434. a. Anno Reg. 20. Dom. 1644. The Wonders which succeeded these two Years in England will better appear if a View be taken of the present Posture of Affairs as they stood in the beginning of this Year England and Scotland are united in one Solemn League and Covenant in January last Lesley or Leven enter'd England with an Army of 18000 Foot and 3500 Horse and Dragoons and soon after the Earl of Calendar enter'd England with an Army of 10000 Scots more these commanded by old and experienced Officers and the English Parliament's Armies were commanded by as brave and resolute Commanders as were to be found in Europe The Fleet wholly at the Parliament's Devotion and so was the City of London So that if you look upon the Superstructure nothing could appear more strong and lasting And all this time you hear little of Oliver Cromwel more than that he was a Captain of Horse and being of a bold and active Spirit secured the Town of Cambridg for the Parliament and was very diligent in obstructing several Levies for the King in Cambridgshire Essex Suffolk and Norfolk For these Services he had a Commission to be a Colonel of Horse and having an insinuating and canting way of preaching and seeming very Godly raised such a Regiment of Horse as was no where to be found the Riders spirited with Zeal to the Cause yet not of the Scots mode and to secure them without Oliver took care to provide them able Horses and to be well arm'd and accoutred so as every one of them beside Sword and Pistol had Pot Back and Breast Musquet-proof He was Nephew to Sir Oliver Cromwel who had a very great Estate but his Father being a younger Brother had not above 300 l. per Annum as was said Their
Successes Sir Marmaduke Langdale about the Beginning of March routed a great Body of the Parliamentarians in Yorkshire and defeated the Army commanded by my Lord Fairfax which besieg'd Pomfret-Castle and from thence marched into Leicestershire and defeated a great Body of the Parliament's Forces commanded by Colonel Rossiter Anno Reg. 21. Dom. 1645. We begin this Year with the Self-denying Ordinance tho Mr. Whitlock and Sir Richard Baker differ a little in point of time Sir Richard Baker says it was this Year Mr. Whitlock 1644. But the Lords refused to concur with the Commons herein so as this Ordinance began with a Rupture between the two Houses so you 'll see it shall be the Ruin of the Parliament's as well as the King's Designs Mr. Whitlock made a fine and learned Speech against this Ordinance which you may read at large fol. 114 115. of his Memoirs The pretended Reason for this Ordinance was the Thinness of the House which by Employment in the War would render them much thinner To which Mr. Whitlock answered It might be supplied by filling up the Commons by new Elections He objected against the Ordinance the Examples of the Grecians and Romans who had the greatest Offices both of War and Peace conferred upon their Senators because they having greater Interests than others were more capable to do them the greatest Services and that by passing this Ordinance they would lay aside the General Essex the Earls of Warwick Denbigh and Manchester the Lords Willoughby and Roberts and of their own Members the Lords Grey of Growby and Fairfax Sir William Waller Cromwel Mr. Hollis Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Brereton and Sir John Meyrick Tho the Commons passed the Self-denying Ordinance yet they dispensed with it in reference to Cromwel Skippon and Ireton and Sir William Waller Hereupon the Earls of Essex Denbigh and Manchester lay down their Commissions Here it 's observable That the Earl of Essex as he was the first which headed an Army against the King and whose Authority was so great that 't was believed if he had not done it the Parliament could not have rais'd an Army is now the first discarded by the Commons without giving any Reason In this new Establishment of the English Army Sir Thomas Fairfax was made General Cromwel Lieutenant-General and Skippon Major-General The Royalists conceived Mountains of Advantages to follow and that not improbably from the Divisions in the Parliament's Army which succeeded quite contrary For upon the 3d of April Fairfax having gathered his Army together at Windsor sent Cromwel with a Brigade of Horse and Dragoons to intercept a Convoy of Horse which Prince Rupert had sent from Worcester to fetch off the King from Oxford with a Train of Artillery to take the Field which Cromwel met at Islip and routed them took divers Prisoners and 200 Horse and from thence Cromwel march'd and took Bletchingdon-House commanded by Colonel Windebank Sir Francis's own Son by Surrender upon the first Summons for which Windebank was sentenced by a Court-Martial and shot to Death But Cromwel had not so good Success at Faringdon which he assaulted and was beaten off with the loss of 200 of his Men. The King understanding that Fairfax had a Design to besiege Oxford sent to Prince Rupert and General Goring to fetch him off which they did about the beginning of May and the King marched towards the Relief of Chester then besieged by the Parliament's Forces and Fairfax lays close Siege to Oxford The King relieved Chester and in his Return takes Leicester by Storm This put Fairfax to his Trumps so that if he continued the Siege of Oxford he would leave all the mid-land parts of England to the Mercy of the King So he raises his Siege and marches to fight the King's Army My Lord Astley was Lieutenant-General of the King's Foot whose Nephew was Sir Isaac Astley my Lord's eldest Brother's eldest Son who married a Cousin-German of mine and after the War was over my Lord Astley being at his Nephew 's in Discourse of the Wars my Lord told him That upon the Approach of the Parliament's Army the King called a Council of War where by the Advice of my Lord Astley it was resolved to march Northwards and destroy the Country Provisions and leave the Parliament's Army at their Election whether they would follow the King or besiege Leicester But next Morning quite contrary to the Order of Council Orders were given to prepare to fight the Parliament's Army when there was little time to draw up the Army so inconstant and irresolute was the King in this as of almost all his other Actions and so forward was the King herein that he marched to meet Fairfax's Army near Naseby in Northamptonshire This was upon Saturday June the 14th And if the Resolution to fight was inconsiderate and rash so was the Fight for Prince Rupert who commanded the right Wing of the King's Horse charged the left Wing of the Parliament's commanded by Ireton and routed them and wounded Ireton in the Thigh and as before at Edg-hill and Marston-Moor he pursued the Enemy so far that he left the rest of the Army exposed to the Assaults of the Enemy so here he followed the Chase almost to Naseby leaving the left Wing of the King's Army commanded by Sir Marmaduke Langdale open to be charged by Cromwel That which compleated the Parliament's Victory and the King 's utter Overthrow in this Fight was the not observing the Orders the Day before of the King's Retreat for Yorkshire being opprest by the Parliament's Forces Sir Marmaduke had Expectation of relieving the King's Party there which being cross'd by the Resolution of this Day 's Fight his Brigade as well as himself grew discontented so as he no ways answered the Gallant Actions which before he had atchieved And Cromwel having forced Sir Marmaduke to retreat joining with Fairfax charged the King's Foot who had beaten the Parliament's and got Possession of their Ordnance and thought themselves certain of the Victory but being in Confusion and out of Order and having no Horse to support them were easily over-born by Fairfax and Cromwel and so Fairfax's Army obtain'd a most absolute Victory over the King 's We hear no more of Prince Rupert in this Fight who 't was believed was the first Mover of it till of his Arrival at Bristol In this Fight the Earl of Lindsey the Lord Astley and Colonel Russel were wounded and 20 Colonels Knights and Officers of Note and 600 common Soldiers were slain on the King's side and 6 Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels 18 Majors 70 Captains 80 Lieutenants 200 Ensigns and other Officers and 4500 common Soldiers were taken Prisoners 12 Pieces of Cannon 8000 Arms 40 Barrels of Powder 200 Carriages with all their Bag and Baggage with store of rich Pillage 3000 Horse one of the King's Coaches with his Cabinets of Letters and Papers And the King fled towards Wales If the King were unfortunate in the
Success of this Fight he was not less in the Discovery of his secret Counsels with the Queen which were so contrary to those he declared to the Kingdom for in his Letter to the Queen he declared his Intention to make Peace with the Irish and to have 40000 of them over into England to prosecute the War here And in others he complained he could not prevail with his Mungrel Parliament at Oxford to Vote that the Parliament of Westminster were not a Lawful Parliament So little Thanks had these Noble Lords and Gentlemen for their exposing their Lives and Fortunes in Defence of the King in his Adversity What then might they expect if he should prevail by Conquest That he would not make a Peace with the Rebels the Parliament without her Approbation nor go one jot from the Paper she sent him That in the Treaty at Uxbridg he did not positively own the Parliament it being otherwise to be construed tho they were so simple as not to find it out and that it was recorded in the Notes of the King's Council that he did not acknowledg them a Parliament See Whitlock ' s Memoirs fol. 147. a. The Members having got these Papers not only printed and published them but order'd them to be kept upon Record and also made a publick Declaration of them wherein they shew what the Nobility and Gentry which follow'd the King might trust to The King's Army being overthrown the Parliament had two Armies and the King none but that which was commanded by General Goring which at that time besieg'd Taunton and sore distrest it but it being governed by Blake after the famous Admiral for the Rump and Cromwel by Sea it made indeed a wonderful Resistance And now you 'll see the King's Garisons surrender by heaps For two Days after the Fight at Naseby viz. June 14. Fairfax sat down before Leicester where my Lord Loughborough was Governour and made a large Breach towards Newark whereupon the Governour surrendred it After the Surrender of York the Year before the King made that noble Gentleman Sir Thomas Glenham Governour of Carlisle which he defended till the Garison were forced to eat Horse-flesh And the Town being besieged by the English and Scots Sir Thomas to throw a Bone of Dissension between them deliver'd it up to the Scots about a Week after the Surrender of Leicester From Leicester Fairfax marches to the Relief of Taunton whereupon Goring drew off and retreated to Langport where Fairfax routed Goring kill'd 200 of his Men took 1400 Prisoners and pursued the rest to Bridgwater which Fairfax besieg'd and had it surrender'd upon the 23d of July And about that time Pontfract Castle in Yorkshire surrender'd to M. G. Pointz and upon the 25th of July Sir Hugh Cholmly surrender'd Scarborough Castle to Sir Matthew Boynton and upon the 11th of September Fairfax storm'd Bristol and Prince Rupert surrender'd the Castle upon Terms Tho the City of Hereford bravely defended it self against General Lesley and his Scots from the 13th of July to the 1st of September and then forced Lesley to raise the Siege upon pretence of relieving his own Country then over-run by the Marquess of Montross yet it was soon after surprised by Colonel Birch and Colonel Morgan Nor were the King's Forces in the Field more fortunate than those in Garison for the King having got together a Body of about 5000 Men most Welch marched towards the Relief of Chester then besieged by Sir William Brereton and Colonel Jones but in his March he was fought by General Pointz at Routon-Moor within two Miles of Chester where the King was worsted and the Lord Bernard Stewart Brother to the Duke of Richmond kill'd The King's Affairs being thus desperate in England all the Hopes now were of Scotland where Montross had conquer'd it from one End to the other and had no visible Army to oppose him and the King to make Scotland secure commanded my Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale to join Montross with their Horse in pursuance whereof they marched to Sherborn in Yorkshire where they surprised 700 of the Parliament's Foot with their Arms and Baggage but staying for Carriages Col. Copley Lilbourn and Alured fell upon them and routed them killing and taking 100 Officers 300 Soldiers and 600 Horse with their Furniture and my Lord Digby's Coach And my Lord Digby marching on with the rest of his Forces was set upon at Carlisle Sands and utterly defeated from whence my Lord and Langdale escaped to the Isle of Man and after into Ireland From Routon-Moor the King got to Newark where Maâ—or-General Gerrard charged the Lord Digby lately defeated at Sherborn with Treason Prince Rupert and Maurice the Lord Hawley and Sir Richard Willis the Governour sided with Gerrard and the Lord Bellasis and many others with Digby and so did the King who displaced Willis and made the Lord Bellasis Governour This caused great Dissension not only in the Garison but in the Officers of the Army which the King brought with him so that the Princes Rupert and Maurice General Gerrard my Lord Hawley and Willis forsook the King and sent to the Parliament for Passes to go beyond Sea In this forlorn state the King left Newark and with 300 Horse got safe to Oxford where the Princes Rupert and Maurice not knowing whither else to go came and were seemingly reconciled to him but upon the Return of the King's Horse Pointz meets and routs them Here the King again sent to the Parliament for a Treaty of Peace which was rejected upon this Occasion Letters were taken in my Lord Digby's Coach after his Rout at Sherborn and also in the Pockets of the Arch-bishop of Tuam who was slain in an Overthrow of the Irish at Sligo in Ireland wherein the King offered the Irish a Toleration of their Religion themselves to choose a Governour of their own and to be entrusted with several Castles and Forts for their Caution upon Condition that they send 10000 Men into England to assist him against his Enemies And with these they found the Copy of the King's Commission to the Earl of Glamorgan impowering him to treat with the Rebels viz. CHARLES by the Grace of God c. To our Trusty and Well-beloved Cousin Edward Earl of Glamorgan We reposing great and especial Trust and Confidence in your approved Wisdom and Fidelity do by these Presents as firmly as under our Great Seal to all Intents and Purposes authorize and give you Power to treat and conclude with the Confederate Roman Catholicks in our Kingdom of Ireland If upon necessity any thing be condescended to wherein our Lieutenant cannot so well be seen as not fit for us for the present publickly to own therefore We charge you to proceed according to this our Warrant with all possible Secrecy and whatever you shall engage your self upon such valuable Considerations as you in your Judgment shall deem fit we promise in the Word of a King and Christian to
and sure never was there such a Generation who so impudently out-braved Truth and all that may be call'd Sacred If you could force a Belief into them they first told you they fought for King and Parliament then they declared for the King and People against the Parliament and now they have taken off the King if you will have any Benefit of their Protection you must engage to their Government without King or House of Lords and be content with a piece of the Commons call'd the Rump Not content with the Death of the King the Rump proceeds to abolish Monarchy and place the original Power of Government in the People whose Representatives they are if you 'll take their Word and voted it High Treason to restore Monarchy or to assist or pray for Charles Stuart or any of that Line overthrow the King's Statue with an Exit tyrannus Regum ultimus Nor are they satiated with the Blood of the King but erect another High Court of Injustice whereof one Lisle an ignorant Fellow was President who condemns the Marquess Hamilton Earl of Holland and Lord Capel for raising Arms against the Parliament which themselves had destroy'd But tho the Rump and Army were establish'd upon these strange Principles yet being the Instruments of Divine Vengeance like a Torrent broke loose from raging Seas in less than five Years time they overwhelm not only England but Ireland and Scotland almost pull'd the Dutch States up by the Roots and made France and Spain tremble But that we may observe what follow'd let 's see what went before The Scots were the first who invaded England against the King to impose their Solemn League and Covenant which was more against the English Laws and Constitutions than Laud's Service-Books Canons and High-Commission were against the Scotish In July last the Scots invaded England commanded by the Marquess Hamilton in August Cromwel routs and utterly overthrows this Army and takes Hamilton Prisoner So the Scots who began these Wars first are the first chastised by this English Army But this is but the Earnest of what shall follow The secluded Members who first join'd the Scots beginning first with an equivocal Protestation but after downright joined with the Scots in their Covenant are now not only turned out of the House by the Rump but kept in nasty Prisons till they became as little dangerous as The House of Lords The horrid Irish Massacre and Rebellion succeeded in the third place And now the Rump having established themselves by subduing of the Scots under Hamilton and deposing the secluded Members are laying Rods in Piss to scourge these abominable Irish But before we proceed let 's see how things stood in Ireland In October 1641. the Irish Massacre was which succeeded in a Rebellion in which Richlieu's Scarlet was as deep dyed as in the Scotish and English Commotions The Head of this accursed Crew was John Baptista Pennuncio the Pope's Nuncio who in his Passage through France threatned he would suffer no Man to live in Ireland that wished well to the King or to the English Affairs Thus you see how all the Factions conspired against the King the Laws and Constitutions of England But for these last seven Years viz. so long as the Distractions were continued in England the War was pursued but by halves in Ireland King Charles in his Life-time had made the Marquess of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland who in 1643 made a Truce with the Irish that the King might make use of the English in England But the Irish kept their Faith no better in it than the Scots had before with the King in the Peace in 1639. For on a sudden they rise against the Marquess now the English are sent into England and had surprized him if he had not been informed before and escaped into Dublin and being in no Condition to defend it but obliged to deliver it up either to the English sent by the Parliament or to the Irish he gave it up to the English who make Colonel Jones Governour and so Ormond leaves Ireland After the Marquess was withdrawn the Nuncio behaved himself like a Church-Man with such a Despotical Tyranny that he became intolerable even to the Irish themselves who being press'd by Jones Coot and Monk combine in a Body and send to the Queen and to the Prince of Wales for then the King was close Prisoner in the Isle of Wight to return the Marquess of Ormond and they would submit to his Authority and join to expel the Scots and Parliament's Forces The Nuncio taking this for an Affront to his Authority being that of the Apostolick See which is infallible threatens Excommunication to them who should not obey him but neither he nor his Excommunication were obey'd but was forced to Capitulate with the Irish themselves to procure his Departure which was as shameful as his Entrance was proud and insolent Upon the Marquess's Return he enter'd into most dishonourable Articles with the Irish which yet would not please Owen Ro Oneal who join'd with the Parliament's Forces and reliev'd Londonderry then besieg'd by the Lord Ardes After this Pacification with the Irish such as it was Ormond raises a numerous Army and by my Lord Inchiqueen routs a Party of Jones's going to Drogheda who takes the Town and Dundalk Green-Castle Newry and Trim and returns Victorious to the Marquess Hereupon the Marquess besieges Dublin but unfortunately sends my Lord Inchiqueen into Munster with if not the greatest the best part of the Army Jones falls upon the Remainder and utterly routs them This was in August 1649. And the same Month Cromwel lands at Dublin with an Army of 15000 old Soldiers Upon this Disaster the Irish no more to be reconciled to the English than the Scots Covenanters to Episcopacy quarrel with the Marquess which was never after composed So the Marquess left Ireland again leaving the Earl of Clanrickard Deputy Cromwel after his landing first storms Drogheda or Tredah with a most terrible Execution and after in less than one Year all Ireland upon the matter is reduced to the Obedience of the Rump who take dreadful Vengeance upon all the Irish who could be found to have had any hand in the Massacre of the English The King Charles II. having lost England and Ireland with all their Dependencies except the Isles of Guernsey Jersey Man and Scilly and the Plantations in America which shall soon follow set up for Scotland and makes the Marquess of Montross his Commissioner who having got together about 400 Swedes Danes Poles and Germans lands them at the Wick of Cathness in April 1650 and takes Dumbeath But Lesley having sent Major-General Straughan with 300 choice Horse he set upon this ill composed Body of Montross and utterly routs them Montross fled but was betrayed by the Laird of Aston who had formerly served him The Covenanters to shew their Clemency and Humility bind the Marquess in a Chair planted backwards on a Cart that all
Charles II. is my most Religious and Gracious King If he be so how came you to know it And if you do not know it how came you so unfeignedly to assent and consent that he is so But tho to get your Living you tell the Congregation so when you do not know it I think it 's dreadful for you to tell God Almighty he is so if you be not very well assured he is so But you 'll soon see what Care this King took of the Church of England which took such Care for him Was God well pleased with these things You shall soon see unjust Wars and dishonourable Peace Such Judgments of Plague Fire and Invasion into our Ports as never before were heard of And tho God's Judgments were in the Land the People did not learn Righteousness but continued a divided and factious Nation and a People laden with Iniquity The Honour of the Nation not only lost abroad but a joining with a neighbouring Faithless Boundless and Ambitious Prince to the endangering the Subversion of the Religion Constitutions and Liberties of the English Nation Now let 's see what is doing in Scotland If a Man reads Buchanan's and Drummond's History of Scotland they will better judg of General Monk's prudent Government and Conduct in it for eight Years together For from the Contest between Bruce and Baliol for the Succession to the Crown of Scotland about the Year 1280 till James VI. came to the Crown of England I scarce find five Years Peace together in any of the Reigns between And if for some time the Scots were freed from open War yet scarce at any time were they freed from Feuds among the Nobility or the Nobility at Discord and Variance with their Kings After the Reformation of Religion in Scotland which began in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth by her assisting the Nobility with an Army by Land and a Fleet by Sea whereby the French sent by Henry the Second of France Father of Francis the Dauphin who had married Mary the Scotish Queen to subdue Scotland to a Conformity to the Romish Church were outed the Kirk of Scotland set up a Jurisdiction as independent from the Civil as the Romish was and held it up during the Reign of Mary and after they had expelled her and chosen her Son James King about fourteen Months old in the Regency of Murrey they got their Church-Discipline established by Act of Parliament This was in the Year 1567. The Kirk being possest of this Power during the Minority of King James and several of the Nobility having got a great share of the Crown-Lands of Scotland the King upon his Majority was so poor that he was not in a Condition to keep up the State of a King much less to curb the Insolence of the Kirk the Nobility who had got the Crown-Lands joining with them Tho Queen Elizabeth did not love the Kirk-Party yet was she content to have Scotland in this State for thereby she preserv'd the English Borders free from the Depredations which the Scots usually made upon them and therefore secretly countenanced both the King and Nobility who had got the Crown-Lands However ever she allowed the King a Pension yearly whereby she kept the King as well as Kirk and Nobility depending upon her In this State England and Scotland stood till the Death of Queen Elizabeth but it was ill timed of King Charles I. to grant Commissions to enquire into the Crown-Lands usurped in his Father's Minority and soon after to endeavour to set up Laud's Injunctions and High-Commission in Scotland which made the Nobility as well as Kirk so fierce in opposing them King Charles offended at the Proceedings of the Parliament of England in 1641 goes into Scotland and establishes the Kirk in all their Pretensions and disclaims all Title to the Crown-Lands usurped in his Father's Minority which no ways mollified either But next Year the Scots sent an Army under Lesley made an Earl by the King against him in Aid of the English Parliament But tho the Kirk and Nobility were thus insolent against their Kings they patiently submitted to Monk during his Government in Scotland except some few Disturbances made by General Middleton For neither Cromwel nor the Rump before him trusted to the Scotish Oaths or Solemn League and Covenant but after they had subdued them bridled them with Forts built upon the principal Passages of Scotland and disarm'd all the Nobility and Gentry and thereby kept them in Peace which King Charles by all the Condescensions he submitted to could not procure And hereto that the common sort of Scots lived in more Freedom under Monk than under their Lords and Lairds so that neither the Kirk or Nobility could form the Body of an Army against the English Before the King was restor'd the Army which would have kept him out was dissipated the Year before by Monk and after his Restoration was disbanded and so the English Nation was restored to its former Government But it was not so in Scotland for not only the Forts which bridled them but the Army which conquer'd them was still kept up Nor had the Scots any hopes of being freed from these Fetters but by an intire Submission to the King Upon the King's Restoration many Debates were in the Council in England about the calling a Parliament in Scotland and the demolishing the Forts for keeping the Scots in Subjection but neither were so easily determined for in all Scotland after Montross was butcher'd I do not find there was one of the Nobility except his Son which were not Popish or Presbyterian and the Presbyterian Party had been so rigid against the King when he was in Scotland and intolerable to his Father that above a Year past before any Resolution was taken in either Lauderdale as before said was taken Prisoner after the Fight at Worcester and from that time kept Prisoner in Windsor-Castle from whence he was set free upon the King's Restoration but became so poor that it 's said he could not meet the King for want 〈◊〉 Money to pay for a Pair of Boots This Imprisonment was doubly happy to him for during the Restraint of his Body he enlarged the Faculties of his Mind and being a Man of Parts improved them by Contemplation and Study wherein he met with more Helps than it may be he could have found in Scotland whereby he became of greater Abilitie◠to serve the King than could be found in any other of his Countrymen and being in England found better Opportunities to have them known to the King than any of his absent Country-men could In the late Wars between the King and Parliament he with Sir John Cheesley were ordered Commissioners by the Kirk-Faction to the Parliament in England for propagating the Presbyterian Government But this being most detestable at Court Lauderdale to raise himself set himself with all his Skill to oppose it and by it at first got to be made Principal Secretary
sent a Squadron under Sir John Lawson to that end And the Dutch sent another commanded by De Ruiter seemingly but not designedly for to join Sir John against the Algerines For De Ruiter after he had entred the Straits abandoned Sir John Lawson and sailed to Cape Verd and dispossessed the English of their Factories nor did he stay there but sailing thence he attempted Barbadoes but was beaten off with loss But with better Success he sailed to Long-Island where he made great Depradations This Double-dealing of the Dutch alarm'd the Parliament so as they petitioned the King to make War upon the Dutch and the King was well disposed to it having before designed it as many thought and so took this Occasion for it nor were the City of London less forward than the Parliament for promoting this War and upon that Account furnished the King with several Sums of Money for which both Houses gave the City Thanks upon the Twenty Fifth of November 1665. The King the Day before made this Speech to the Commons Mr. Speaker and you Gentlemen of the House of Commons I know not whether it be worth my Pains to endeavour to remove a vile Jealousy which some ill Men scatter abroad and which I am sure will never sink into the Breast of any Man who is worthy to sit upon your Benches that when you have given me a Noble and Proportionable Supply for the Support of a War I may be induced by some evil Counsellors for they will be thought to think very respectfully of my Person to make a sudden Peace and get all the Money for my own Private Occasions But let me tell you and you may be confident of it That when I am compelled to enter into a War for the Protection Honour and Benefit of my Subjects I will God willing not make a Peace but upon the obtaining and securing those Ends for which the War is entred into and when that can be done no good Man will be sorry for the Determination of it But the War was not declared till the 22d of February following But here I observe that neither my Lord Chancellor Hide nor my Lord Treasurer Southampton were present in Council at it It may seem strange to any Man conversant in our Government that the King in less than four Years and a half after his Restoration should be in such a Necessity of borrowing such Sums of Money of the City for the disbanding of the Army was paid by the Convention and Parliament and the Parliament had settled the Excise on him which was cessed at 500000 l. per Annum and the Customs at 600000 l. and Chimney-Money worth 150000 l. per Annum and 12 Car. 2. c. 26. granted the King the Arrears of twelve Months Assessment commencing the 25th of December 1659 and C. 29. gave the King 70000 l. and C. 34. also the Post-Office worth 50000 l. per Annum and in the 13 Car. 2. cap. 3. vested in the King the Arrears of the Excise and new Imposts and in the second Session Cap. 3. the Parliament gave the King 1270000 l. and Cap. 5. a voluntary Contribution and C. 8. gave the poor Cavaliers 60000 l. that the King might never hear more of them and C. 9. granted a further Relief for the poor and maimed Officers which had served the King's Father and also Cap. 15. four intire Subsidies by the Laity and four by the Clergy besides all the forfeited Estates both in England and Ireland So that the Excise Customs Chimney-Money Post-Office and forfeited Estates at a moderate Computation may be computed at 1600000 l. per Annum a new Addition to the Crown which Queen Elizabeth had not only the Court of Wards was exchanged for part of the Hereditary Excise And if you compute but six Months Arrear of the twelve Months Assessment at 70000 l. per Mensem beginning at Christmass 1659 this will amount to 420000 l. and the Arrears of the Excise and new Impost at 300000 l. and 70000 l. granted the King 12 Car. I. 29. and the 1270000 l. 13 Car. II. 3. and the voluntary Contribution at 300000 l. and the four Subsidies granted by the Clergy and Laity at 400000 l. besides the new added Revenue of 1600000 l. per Annum to the Crown the King in less than four Years and a half received 2860000 l. or two Millions eight hundred and sixty thousand Pounds Yet the King paid no Debts of his Father's nor do I find he built any new Men of War nor made any War except that last Year against the Algerines It 's true he married his Sister but had twice her Portion of the French King for the Sale of Dunkirk and also 400000 l. Portion with the Queen Now let 's see how things stood in Scotland During the Earl of Middleton's Commission the Parliament of Scotland granted the King so great a Revenue that the King signified his Pleasure not to raise any more but tho Middleton in the general Opinion had done more in Scotland than could have been expected yet Lauderdale thought he had not done enough and therefore got the Parliament to be dissolved and a new one to be called in 1663 and the Earl of Rothes the Ring-leader of the Presbyterians in the Reign of Charles the First and was the first that subscribed the Letter to Lewis the XIII th for his Aid by the Appellation of Au Roy to be made Commissioner The King's Supremacy in all Ecclesiastial and Civil Matters and so great a Revenue as the King could ask being settled by Middleton one would have thought no more could be done yet another Law must be passed intituled the Humble Tender Whereby the Kingdom of Scotland is obliged to raise the King twenty thousand Foot and two thousand Horse sufficiently armed and furnished with forty days Provision to be in a readiness at his Majesty's Call And also that all Scots-Men from sixteen to sixty if the King should have further use of them should hazard their Lives and Fortunes as they shall he called by his Majesty for the Safety and Preservation of his Sacred Person Authority and Government to march into any part of Scotland England or Ireland for the suppressing any Foreign Invasion or Intestine Troubles or any other Service wherein his Majesty's Honour c. was concerned And this Law it may be was the Equivalent for which the Forts were demolished Tho Rothes was Commissioner when the Act passed yet Lauderdale assumed to himself the Glory of it and it 's observable this Act passed the same Year and about the same time the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence to the Dissenters in England Thus you see as the Parliament of Scotland outrun the Parliament of England in Loyalty to the King so at least they went hand in hand with them in grauting the King more Aids than he would ask of the Subjects of his antient Kingdom Never had Kings of England or Scotland their Debts so easily
that upon the second of June he offered the Duke his Friendship the use of his Purse to the assisting of him against the Designs of his and the Duke's Enemies and protested their Interests were so close linked together that those who opposed the one should be looked upon as Enemies to the other with much more as you may read in the Duke's Letter to Le Chaise the 29th of June 1675. Tho the French could not fight against the Dutch in Conjunction with the English yet without the English they can fight the Spaniard and Dutch For the Spaniard having block'd up Messina in Sicily by Land which last Year revolted to the French agreed with the Dutch to send a Fleet of Men of War to join the Spanish to block up Messina by Sea which the Dutch this Year did under De Ruyter but were so niggardly in it that the French beat both Dutch and Spanish Fleets and killed De Ruyter This was a just Reward returned to the Dutch for building the French six great Men of War six or seven Years before Just so Richlieu served the Spaniard in 1637 for joining with the French in expelling the English out of the Isle of Rhee Tho the King were the first in the Triple League for the Guaranty of the Treaty of Aix for the Preservation of Flanders and tho the King in his Declaration at the beginning of this War had engaged to support the Peace made at Aix yet the French King this Summer took the City of Limburg being the chief of one of the Spanish Provinces which the King not only takes no notice of but tells Sir William Temple newly commanded out of Holland by the King that some warm Leaders in both Houses had a mind to engage him in a War against France which they should not do because he was sure they would make use of it to the Ruin of his Ministers If the King were unhappy in his Declaration he was not less in saying this to Sir William to whom the Year before he promised to be the Man of his People but is now of his Ministers And sure he was the first Prince that ever profest it Upon the 13th of October the Houses met and the King asked a Supply for building of Ships and to take off the Anticipation upon his Revenue In the Interval of this Recess the Debates of the Abhorring Oath became publick which so nettled the Court and Church-Party being the more numerous that since they could not prevail by Reason they would by Fire and therefore ordered them to be burnt which made the Debates so much more to be enquired into and hereby received a greater Light The Commons had before them several Bills for preventing future Mischief viz. The Habeas Corpus Bill A Bill against sending Men Prisoners beyond Sea Against raising Money without Consent in Parliament Against Papists sitting in either House For more speedy convicting of Papists And for recalling his Majesty's Subjects out of the French Service These Bills being so diametrically contrary to the French and Popish Designs and the Commons now more peremptorily than before opposing the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals from Chancery so that they voted Whosoever shall solicite or prosecute any Appeal against any Commoner of England from any Court of Equity before the House of Lords shall be deemed and taken a Betrayer of the Rights and Liberties of the Commons of England and shall be proceeded against accordingly And the Commons having commanded the Counsel who pleaded before the Lords to the Tower How much is the case now altered the King took thereby an occasion to prorogue the Parliament from the 22d of November 1675 to the 16th of February 1676 which is above a Year in which time by a Law in Edward the Third's time a Parliament was to be called and as it was without Precedent so it caused new Debates and Heats in both Houses when they met In this long Recess I find but few Motions of the French and Popish Councils more than what appeared in Sir Gascoin's and other Trials For Coleman's last two Years Letters were supprest as was his Book of Entries and the Commotions raised in Britany and Guiene by the Impositions imposed upon the Inhabitants hindred the French this Year from their usually more early opening their Campagn than the Confederates so that every where the Confederates prevailed against the Tureen's Army was distressed by Montecuculi and himself killed yet the Army got on the French side of the Rhine by the Bravery and bold Stands of the English The Dukes of Lunenburg routed Marshal Crequy's Army and after took Triers and made Crequy Prisoner and the Imperialists also took Philipsburg the Elector of Brandenburg routed the Swedes in Pomerland entred into a League with the King of Denmark who took Wismar from the Swede and the Prince of Orange took Binch from the French and rased it But the Progress of all these Victories were stopt by the unaccountable Retreat of Montecuculi out of Alsatia with his whole Army back over the Rhine it was said by express Orders from Vienna thereby leaving Alsatia in the Power of the French to the breaking of the old Duke of Lorain's Heart who at that time had and never before so fair a Prospect of the Recovery of his Country If the Commotions in Britany and Guiene retarded the French opening the Campagn last Year the King shall make amends in this For having provided Stores for Horse and Man in his Frontier Garisons in February 167 6 7 he block'd up Valenciennes and Cambray and committed such Ravages by burning and destroying those Parts of Germany which lay opposite to him on the other side of the Rhine as if he made War not to conquer but to destroy tho this were at a time whilst they were in a Treaty of Peace with the Empire and King of Spain Upon the 17th of March he notwithstanding the extream Coldness of the Season took Valenciennes and from thence marched to Cambray and laid Siege to it and St. Omers and after the opening of his Trenches Cambray surrendred but not the Citadel our King looking on as if he had not been concerned in the Guaranty of the Treaty of Aix Nor could the Prince of Orange prevent this the Spanish Garisons being ill provided and the Confederates being so slow in getting into Bodies to oppose the French or if they had been to be got together they could not have kept the Field for want of Provisions for Horse and Man However tho the Prince could not come time enough to relieve Cambray and Valenciennes yet with the single Forces of the States the Spaniard not so much as supplying him with Guides marched to the Relief of St. Omers but the Duke of Luxemburg joining with the Duke of Oleance met the Prince at Mount-Cassel where at first the Dispute was brave but the first Regiment of the Dutch Infantry breaking and falling into Disorder the Prince rallied them
January and the same Day issued out Writs for a new one to meet at Westminster the 6th of March following which was just 40 Days between the Test and Return In this Interval the Blaze of the Parliament's Vote of their Apprehensions of a damnable and hellish Popish Plot had taken deep Impressions in the Minds of Men in general and the Whigs taking Advantage of it in this short Interval run down the Tories without Opposition nay even the King himself apprehended there could be no Hopes of attaining his Ends in the next Parliament but by seeming zealous in the prosecuting the Discovery of the Popish Plot and that he would not longer be governed by Favourites and single Councils There had been several Debates in the House of Commons of the dangerous Consequences in reference to the Duke of York's Succession to the Crown and that the Bottom of the Popish Plot centred in the Duke's being a Papist and the presumptive Heir to the Crown but I do not find they came to any Vote upon it yet resolved upon the 8th of November to make an Address to the King That the Duke might withdraw himself from his Person and Councils and in Conformity therewith the Duke went or was sent into Holland and upon the meeting of the Parliament the King acquainted them how great things he had already done for the preventing the Progress of the Popish Plot as the Exclusion of the Popish Lords from their Seats in Parliament and the Execution of several Men upon the Score of the Plot as well as the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey but above all that he had commanded his Brother from him because he would not leave malicious Men room to say he had not removed all Causes which could be pretended to influence him toward Popish Counsels and tells That as he had not been slack in putting the present Laws in Execution against Papists so he was ready to join in making such further Laws as may be necessary for the securing the Kingdom against Popery and then demands a Supply and concludes with his Desires to have this a healing Parliament The House chose Mr. Seymour the Speaker of the last Parliament to be their Speaker in this but the King rejected him which was no good Presage of a healing Parliament and so the Commons chose Mr. Serjeant Gregory and the King accepted him The Commons began where the last Parliament left in prosecuting their Impeachments against the Earl of Danby and the Popish Lords in the Tower but who should be first tried and what were the Jurisdiction of the Bishops Right of Voting in their Impeachments and their Judgments in Cases of Blood run quite through this Sessions wherein the Lords and Commons seldom agreed There were two things which made the Earl of Danby's Case more favourably spoken of one That tho he was prosecuted several Weeks after the Popish Lords were committed yet the Commons would not proceed in their Impeachments against the Popish Lords before the Lords had given their Judgments upon the Earl's Plea The other was a Vote of the Commons upon the 9th of May That no Commoner whatsoever should presume to maintain the Validity of the Earl of Danby ' s Pardon without Leave of the House first obtained and that the Persons so doing shall be accounted Betrayers of England and there was no Nobleman a profest Lawyer so that tho the Earl's Plea upon his Pardon was Matter of Law yet no Commoner must presume to plead his Cause The King besides his sending the Duke of York beyond Sea that the World might now see how otherways he was become a new Man for the future upon the 20th of April 1679 made this Declaration in Council and in Parliament and after publish'd it to the whole Nation how sensible he was of the ill Posture of his Affairs and the great Dissatisfaction and Jealousies of his good Subjects whereby the Crown and Government were become too weak to preserve it self which proceeded from his use of a single Ministry and of private Advices and therefore professed his Resolution to lay them aside for the future and be advised by those whom he had then chosen for his Council in all his weighty and important Affairs together with the frequent Advice of his great Council in Parliament and indeed in this Council were many worthy Members my Lord of Shaftsbury was President of it and the then Sir Henry Capel and Sir William Temple Members of it But this Declaration of the King 's added to the sending the Duke of York into Holland had not the King 's desired Effect the Commons besides the Dread of the Popish Plot as well at present but more in consequence after the King had declared he would not alter the Succession of the Crown in the right Line were no ways satisfied with the Disbursements of the Money nor the disbanding the Army yet were resolved it should be done and voted another Sum of 26462 l. for it but it was not carried without some Difficulty that these Monies should be paid into the Exchequer but Chamber of London however the Commons carried That the Money so raised should be appropriated to that Use and to that End appointed Commissioners to disband the new-rais'd Army and so voted That the Continuance of any standing Forces in this Nation other than the Militia to be illegal and a great Grievance and Vexation to the People hereby meaning the King's Guards They also ordered a Bill to be brought in for annexing Tangier to the Imperial Crown of England and voted That those who did advise the King to part with Tangier to any foreign Prince or State or were instrumental therein ought to be accounted Enemies to the King and Kingdom But how jealous soever the Commons were of the King yet they conceived it was his Life which secured them from the Fears they dreaded of the Duke's coming to the Crown and therefore upon the 11th of May voted Nemine contradicente That in Defence of the King's Person and the Protestant Religion this House does declare that they will stand by his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty shall come to an untimely End which God forbid they will revenge it upon the Papists It seems the Commons had more Care of the King than he had of himself for he not only countenanced the Plotters but ridiculed the Plot. In his Speech at the opening this Parliament he told them he had not been idle in discovering the Plot and in the last he told Sir William Temple he was displeased with the Earl of Danby for bringing the Popish Plot into Parliament against his absolute Command Oliver's Professions and Actions never appeared so hypocritical and deceitful as this King 's and all this after the Parliament had voted there was a hellish Conspiracy by the Papists against his Life and this proved by a Cloud of Witnesses agreeing in the Manner and Circumstances of it as Oates
but so ridiculously cruel as will scarcely be believed for not only those who escaped were excepted but a Company of Girls some of 8 or 9 Years old who had made some Colours and presented them to the Duke of Monmouth while he was at Taunton these were excepted by Name and no Pardon could be purchased for this Treason till the Girls Parents had paid more for it than would have provided a Marriage Portion when they should come of Age. But suppose the King did imitate his good and gracious Brother in his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People and that Justice only looked forward in these Executions yet we will give Instances wherein this King did not imitate his good and gracious Brother in his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People Alderman Cornish tho he had committed two horrible Crimes in the Reign of King Charles one in presuming to examine Fitz-Harris while he was a Prisoner in Newgate before he was hurried from thence to the Tower to prevent his further Examination the other that he testified at Fitz-Harris's Trial that King Charles told Mr. Cornish that the King did countenance Fitz-Harris in his Design and had given him Money yet King Charles was so good and gracious as not to take away Mr. Cornish's Life But the offended Ghosts of Coleman Ireland Harcourt c. were no ways appeased by the Blood which flowed from the Stripes of Oates's Sentence nothing less than a Sacrifice of humane Blood must be offered to them and this to be performed by affixing Sacred Justice to it Upon Tuesday the of October Mr. Cornish having no dread of any Accusation upon him for any Crime but freely following his Profession was clapt up close Prisoner in Newgate without use of Pen Ink or Paper till Saturday Noon when he had notice of an Indictment of High Treason against him on Monday following and could get no Friend to come to him till 8 a clock at Night Next Day Mr. Cornish's Children petitioned the King to have his Trial put off which was referred to the Judges who you may be assured had their Instructions who denied it tho he knew not whether his Trial were for Treason against this or the late King and his most material Witness was above 140 Miles off and was also denied a Copy of the Pannel of his Jury The Charge of High Treason against him was That in the Year 1682 he had promised to be assisting to James late Duke of Monmouth William Russel Esquire and Sir Thomas Armstrong in their Treasons against King Charles II. The only Witness to prove this was Colonel Rumsey who swore That about the latter end of October or beginning of November at Mr. Sheppard's House Ferguson told Mr. Cornish that he had read a Paper to the Duke of Monmouth Lord Russel Lord Grey and Sir Thomas Armstrong which they desired should be read to Mr. Cornish that Mr. Sheppard held the Candle while it was reading and afterward they asked him how he liked it who said he liked it very well He remembred two Points in it very well one was for Liberty of Conscience the other was That all who would assist in that Insurrection who had had Kings Lands or Church Lands should have them restored to them Rumsey did not hear all the Paper but observed only these two Points it was a Declaration on a Rising and when the Rising was to have been it was to have been dispersed abroad there was a Rising intended at that time and Mr. Cornish said He liked the Declaration and what poor Interest he had he would join in it Rumsey had sworn at my Lord Russel's Trial that Mr. Cornish was not at the Reading or the Declaration by Ferguson and being tax'd for it in this said it was out of Compassion to the Prisoner and Mr. Sheppard who was subpoena'd for the King testified Mr. Cornish was not there Richard Goodenough was the other Witness which was about Words foreign to Rumsey's Testimony about seizing the Tower and a Rising in the City which if what Goodenough said had been true yet Mr. Cornish could not have been found Guilty of Treason for tho by the first Act of Parliament after the Convention of King Charles II. Words were made Treason against the King during his Life yet were they to be prosecuted within six Months and the Person to be indicted in three Months after whereas these Words were pretended to be spoken in Easter Term in 1683 which was two Years and a half before Add hereto the Words were imperfectly said by Goodenough and might be applicable to a pretended Riot wherein Mr. Cornish was concerned and that Goodenough was upon ill Terms with Mr. Cornish because he would not trust Goodenough to be his Under-Sheriff You may read the Trial at large with Mr. Hawles his fine and learned Remarks upon it and how rudely Mr. Cornish and his Witnesses were used at his Trial and how notwithstanding his Quality after Conviction he was tied as if he had been a boisterous and dangerous Rogue and that by Order and executed with the utmost Rigour of the Law for this far-fetch'd and ill-proved Treason But these Tories shall soon see they labour for others not for themselves and these whom they now persecute shall have the Ascendant over them And I observed this of Sir Thomas Jones who was Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas and most active in this Trial that he was one of the first if not the first who was turned out of his Place for giving his Opinion the King could not dispense with the Test and Penal Laws The Design thus deep stained in humane Blood first budded in Ireland but whether it was in Affirmance of the King's Promise to his Privy Council and after repeated by him in Parliament that he would make it his Endeavour to preserve the Church and State of England as by Law established let any Man who reads the following Story judg The Book stiled the State of the Protestants in Ireland said to be written by Bishop King fol. 58. says That King James was no sooner settled in his Throne but he began to turn out some Officers who had been most zealous for his Service and had best deserved of him meerly because they had been counted firm to the Protestant Religion and the English Interest such as my Lord Shannon Captain Robert Fitz-Gerald Captain Richard Coote Sir Oliver St. George and put in their places Kerney one of the Russians designed to murder Charles II. Anderson a mean Fellow Sheldon a profest Papist and one Graham and fol. 59. saith the Duke of Ormond was sent for abruptly and divested of the Government and immediately the modelling of the Army was put into the Hands of Colonel Richard Talbot a Man of all others most hated by the Protestants and who had been named by Mr. Oates in his Narrative for this very Employment so that many who believed nothing of the Plot before gave Credit to
at the Duke of Buckingham and wonders what had altered their Affections to him when in the last Parliament of his Father's time he was their Instrument to break the Treaties for which they did so honour and respect him that all the Honour conferred upon him was too little He wot not what had chang'd their Minds but assures them that the Duke had not meddled with or done any thing concerning the Publick but by his special Directions and was so far from gaining any Estate thereby that he verily thinks the Duke rather impaired the fame He would have them hasten the Supplies or it will be the worse for them for if any Ill happens he thinks he shall be the last that shall feel it The Commons had yet fresh in Memory the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford about six Months before and what Trust there was to this King's Word for Redress of Grievances so as it was done in a dutiful and mannerly Way after they had given Money and therefore they little altered their Course from what they had done at Oxford yet more than Parliaments heretofore did to have Grievances first redress'd and then to give Supplies for they voted to proceed upon Grievances and to give the King three Subsidies and three Fifteenths This gave the Duke little Satisfaction so that the King himself became the Duke's Advocate and told the Commons in a Speech which you may read in Rushw fol. 225. that he came to inform the Commons of their Errors and unparliamentary Proceedings so that they might amend their Faults which was enlarged by my Lord Keeper Coventry who told them of the King's Necessities and his Patience in Expectation of Supplies and of the King's Promise of Redress of Grievances after Supplies were granted That the Enquiry upon sundry Articles against the Duke upon Câ—nanâ—n Fame was to wound the Honour and Government of his Majesty and of his renowned Father and therefore it was his Majesty's final and express Command that they yield Obedience to those Directions which they formerly receiv'd and cease their unparliamentary Proceedings against the Duke and leave to his Majesty's Care Wisdom and Justice the future Reformation of those things which they supposed to be otherwise than they should be and that the King took notice that they had suffered the greatest Council of State The Duke and Laud to be censured and traduced by Men whose Years and Education cannot attain to that Depth Why then were the old Members kept out of the House which could have better informed them and that the three Subsidies and three Fifteenths were no ways proportionable to supply the King's Necessities c. and concludes that his Majesty doubts not but after this Admonition they will observe and follow it which if they do his Majesty is most ready to forgive all that is past Then the King added that in his Father's time by their Perswasion he was their Instrument to break off those Treaties and that then no Body was in so great Favour with 'em as the Man they seem now to touch but indeed his Father's Government and his and that Parliaments are altogether in his Power for their Calling Sitting and Dissolution and as he finds the Fruits they are to continue or not to be But if the Commons Proceedings against the Duke were erroneous and unparliamentary and through the Duke's Sides wounded not only the King's Government but that of his renowned Father and that the young Men in this House of Commons had censured and traduced the King's highest Council of State you shall now hear of an old Statesman in the House of Lords which shall not only cease the Wonder which caused the Parliament in the 21st of King James so to applaud the Duke but shall wound the whole Story which begat that great Applause to the Duke You have heard before how the Earl of Bristol was stopp'd at Calais from coming over into England after his Return out of Spain and after he came to Dover when the Duke could not prevail upon Marquiss Hamilton and the Earl of Hertford to have the Earl sent to the Tower upon his Arrival in England how he was stopp'd by a Letter from the Lord Conway that he should not come to Court nor to the King's Presence till he had answered to some Queries which his Majesty would appoint some of the Lords of the Council to ask him which was not done till the Parliament was adjourned and never met more and how after King James's Death the Earl was not only kept from his Liberty and the King's Presence but removed from all his Offices and Employments and not suffered to come to an Account for the Moneys expended in the King's Service and not permitted to come to the Parliament which was dissolved at Oxford Upon the King's Summons of this Parliament the Earl petitions the King to have his Writ of Summons which was never denied to any Peer to assist in the House of Peers but he received an Answer by the Lord Conway That the King was no ways satisfied in it and propounded to the Earl Whether he would rather sit still and enjoy the Benefit of the late King's Pardon in Parliament or to wave it and put himself upon Trial for his Negotiation in Spain and one of these he must trust to and give a direct Answer The Earl in Answer said He had been already question'd upon 20 Articles by a Commission of the Lords and had given such Answers that their Lordships never met more about that Business and that he did not wave the Pardon granted by King James in Parliament These Letters you may read at large in Rushworth fol. 138 139 140. Hereupon the Earl petitions the House of Lords shewing that he being a Peer of this Realm had not received his Writ of Summons to Parliament and desires their Lordships to mediate with his Majesty that he may enjoy the Liberty of a Subject and the Privilege of his Peerage after almost two Years Restraint without any Trial brought against him and that if any Charge be brought against him he prays he may be try'd by Parliament Hereupon the Lords petition the King that not only the Earl of Bristol but all such other Lords whose Writs are stopt except such as are made uncapable to sit in Parliament by Judgment of Parliament or some other legal Judgment may be summoned This nettled the Duke to the quick so that he told the House the King had sent the Earl his Writ but withal deliver'd such a Letter which the King sent to the Earl which I care not to transcribe but you may read it in Rushworth fol. 241. wherein this great Statesman Buckingham would have the Earl judged and censured by the King without hearing the Earl and thereby forestal the Judgment of the Lords against the Earl It 's true indeed my Lord Keeper Coventry sent the Earl a Writ of Summons to attend in Parliament but withal signified by a Letter
ratifie and perform the same of that which shall be granted by you and under our Hand and Seal the Confederate Catholicks having by their Supplies testified their Zeal to Our Service And this shall be in each Particular to you a sufficient Warrant Given at Our Courtat Oxford the Twentieth Day of May 20 Car. Glamorgan had brought his Business to some Issue when State-Reasons enforced Ormond and Digby and the Council to imprison him but this gave Distaste to the Irish who thereupon suspected double Dealings and so neither sent over the promised 10000 Men nor any Aid to Westchester tho Glamorgan was quickly released upon the Bail of six or eight Irish Peers The Parliament hereupon was so incensed that they refused either to treat with the King or to admit him to come to London see Baker f. 473. or this Business to end here but rendred all the King 's subsequent Treaties with the Parliament suspected and the end of attaining the King's Propositions more difficult And here you may see how this King would prostitute his Honour and Christianity contrary to what he so often professed not only to the Parliament but also to the Duke of Ormond his own Party Now things every where go to wreck on the King's side Dartmouth was surrendred to Fairfax by Sir Hugh Pollard the Governor Sir William Vaughan with such Forces as he could get together marching to relieve Chester was utterly routed by the Parliament's Forces and Chester surrendred to Sir Will. Brereton Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire the Seat of the Earls of Rutland was surrendred to General Pointz by Sir Gervais Lucas the Governour my Lord Hopton is beaten by Fairfax in Devonshire whereupon Hopton accepted of Terms from Fairfax and disbanded his Army and went into France After which all the Garisons in Cornwal surrendred to Fairfax except Pendennis Castle and St. Michael's Mount Latham-House which the Countess of Derby bravely defended two Years against the Parliament was surrendred in December and Basing-House was taken by Storm And that which compleated the Ruin of all the King's Affairs in England was the Surprize and Defeat of my Lord Astley at Donnington near Stow on the Wold where he was taken Prisoner the 21st of March and when he was a Prisoner he told some of the Parliament Officers You have done your Work and may go play unless you fall out among you selves Anno Reg. 22. An. Dom. 1646. In this desperate State of the King's Affairs in England the King's Expectations in Scotland were much fallen too For after the Defeat of my Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale the Scots had little to do in the North so as General Lesley had leisure to march to Newark with his Foot to join M. G. Pointz who had block'd it up and David Lesley with the Horse to march into Scotland where Montross his Men after he had beaten Gen. Bailey at Philipshaugh being full of Plunder and being a Voluntier Army and not under regular Discipline disbanded in great Numbers and returned home when David Lesley set upon the Remainder and routed them and gave Quarter to the rest whom yet he murdered in cold Blood Here you may see the different Tempers of the English and Scots Nation for you find no such Acts done in England in the Heats of all the War In all the War in Scotland the Marquess of Huntley obstinately refused to join with Montross and after the Defeat of Montross's Foot Montross went in Person to entreat Huntley to join in their common Interest against the Kirk which Huntley not only refused but would not deign to see Montross yet this did Huntley no good for after Montross his Army was disbanded the Kirk-Party cut off his Head so as Montross was forced to retreat into the Highlands and act defensively Exeter upon the 13th of April surrenders to Fairfax which was followed by Barnstable Town and Fort St. Michael's Mount Dunstan Castle Woodstock and other Places of less Note Sir Thomas Glenham having honourably defended York and Carlisle the King thought no other so fit to be Governour of Oxford as he which being block'd up by the Parliament Forces the King thought himself in no Security in it for the Parliament refused to admit him to come to London unless he signed their Propositions Now the French Ambassador in the Scots Quarters advised the King to throw himself into the Scots Power herein you may observe that tho Richlieu were dead yet Mazarine continued the Correspondence between France and Scotland which yet were Pensioners to France This being Hobson's Choice the King only accompanied by one Hudson a Minister and Mr. John Ashburnham throws himself into the Power of the Scots then besieging Newark this was the fifth of May. Thus this poor Prince to avoid his present Condition seeks Protection from those which brought him into it which tho he got nothing by it yet the Scots instead of protecting him shall only make a Bargain and Sale of him for having him in their Power they resolve to make a double Market of him viz. To have him to order Montross to disband his Army and then to retire out of Scotland and then to sell him to the Parliament for so much as they could get that of Montross it was no sooner asked than granted but soon after he was gone the Covenanters seize Huntley and cut off his Head the Parliament too desire the King to give Order for the English Garisons to surrender which he granted so here we end the Wars in England and Scotland between the King and Parliament at present And now you 'll see how the ending of these Wars was the beginning of the Ruin of the Parliament and Scots Covenanters for the Scots having got their Ends by Montross his disbanding his Army yet the Bargain for the Sale of the King being a mighty Matter to the Scots required a longer time and the Scots would not lose one Scotish Pound they could get for him and therefore tho the King put himself into the Power of the Scots the 5th of May 1646 yet the Bargain was not concluded till January following and then the Scots flush of Money return home finding all things in Peace now Montross is gone and the Parliament having bought the King confine him to Holdenby-House a House of the King 's in Northamptonshire under the Guard of a select Company of Covenanters whereof Sir John Cooke Secretary Cooke's Son was one Thus this Prince who before had shifted the worthy Members of Parliament from one Prison to another that they might have no Benefit of their Corpus's and the Constables of Hertfordshire from one Messenger to another is himself shifted from one Place a Prisoner to another without any hope of an Habeas Corpus He that before by his absolute Will and Pleasure would without any Law seize his Subjects Goods and commit them to Prison cannot now enjoy his own Estate in his own House He that before arbitrarily raised Ship-Money
7. would have justified all his Subjects who fought for him But the Members would not submit to this being to divest themselves of the Power they thought they had in their hands nor the Scots because their Solemn League and Covenant was enacted by no Law in England nor least of all would it please the Army who nourished Designs against the King Members and Scots To such a deplorable state is this poor King and Kingdom fall'n past all humane Relief yet it 's admirable to consider how Divine Justice pursued the Causers of it even in the Series by which they were promoted The King who would not have the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation to be the Rules of his Subjects Obedience but his Prerogative and Absolute Will and Pleasure cannot now by it command one Servant He who before against Law committed so many of his best Subjects close Prisoners whereof several died in Prison for asserting his Subjects Rights without any Benefit of Law is now by his Subjects made close Prisoner against Law and without any Benefit of it He who before dissolved four Parliaments because they in all dutiful Ways would have addressed unto him to be reconciled to his Subjects is now denied under Penalty of High Treason to have any Address made to him by any of his Subjects He who before had so many Forests for his Pleasure yet not contented with what the Law and his Ancestors had left but would break the Bounds of them that his Subjects Inheritance might become a Prey to wild Beasts has not now a Horse Hound or Beast to take Pleasure in But these things will not stay here for it is the unhappy Fate of Princes rarely in their declining state to stay till they fall to the bottom And here we end the Year 1647 and hereafter shall observe the Divine Justice overtaking the other Promoters of the Miseries both in England Scotland and Ireland And if I shall ill perform it yet it may be a Ground-work for another to do it better In this Confusion the Nation began to forget the times under the King's Government now they saw no end of these And tho the Essex-Men who had the Bounds of their Forests broke down and were the first who petition'd the Parliament to redress Grievances and bring Delinquents to condign Punishment yet they are now the first who petition the Commons for a Personal Treaty with the King and then the Surrey-Men but were differently received and some of the Surrey-Men kill'd This was in May 1648. The Scots too offended that they and their Solemn League and Covenant were not taken notice of in the Preliminary Treaty with the King call a Parliament and order the Raising an Army to deliver the King out of Prison The rude Entertainment of the Essex and Surrey-Men was so far from quelling them that they rise in Arms in Essex Kent Suffolk Norfolk Wales and the North and declare for the King and People Sir William Batton too who was Vice-Admiral of the English Fleet goes over to Prince Charles with 17 Men of War and declare for the King having set Rainsborough made Admiral by the Army on Shore This was in May and June and soon after viz. in June the Surrey-Men rise being headed by the Duke of Buckingham and his Brother the Lord Francis with the Earl of Holland But it was decreed that this Prince who for 15 Years had violated the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation and without any Law or just Reason had so often imprisoned his best Subjects for endeavouring to reconcile him to his Subjects should now himself being made a Prisoner against Law find no Relief by Law or Endeavours of his Loyal Subjects For Cromwel sends Horton into Wales against Major-General Laughorn and Colonel Poyer who headed the Welch and had seized Pembrook and Tenby-Castles Fairfax marches into Kent and Rainsborough into the North where the Northern-Men had seized Pontfract-Castle and the Members restore the Earl of Warwick to be Admiral and fit out a Fleet under him to suppress that which joined the Prince of Wales Horton beats the Welch and took Laughorn and Poyer Prisoners and besieges and takes Pembrook and Tenby but whilst he besieged these Hamilton who the Year before was released from being a Prisoner in Pendennis-Castle by the King for holding Correspondence with the Covenanters while he was Commissioner now comes into England to discharge the King from his Imprisonment with a numerous Army of Scots which Sir Marmaduke Langdale Major-General Massey and many English join against these Cromwel after the Surrender of Pembrook and Tenby marches and utterly routs them and takes Hamilton Prisoner Nor were the Fate of the Kentish Essex and Suffolk Men better for Fairfax fights and beats the Kentish Men at Maidstone the Remainder under my Lord Goring whom the King had made Earl of Norwich cross the Thames at Greenwich and join the Essex Men headed by Sir Charles Lucas and march to Colchester where my Lord Capel and many Suffolk Men joined them Fairfax pursues them and after a stubborn Siege of 11 Weeks forces it to surrender being reduced to extream Famine and after caused Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle to be shot to Death Equal to this was the Success of the Surrey-Men for they were routed by Sir Michael Lewesly and my Lord Francis killed near Kingston But the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Holland with those which were escaped fled over Kingston-bridg and were pursued by Colonel Scroop and overtaken at St. Neots where Major-General Dolbier is killed the Earl of Holland taken Prisoner but the Duke of Buckingham escaped But the Northern-Men besieged in Pontfract Castle are not so easily subdued on the contrary a Party of about 30 Horse break through the Besiegers and surprize Rainsborough in his Bed at Doncaster about 12 Miles from Pontfract and kill him because he refused to be carried off a Prisoner but Pure Famine at last forced the Besieged to surrender The revolted Fleet now commanded by the Princes Rupert and Maurice partly cajol'd by the Earl of Warwick their former Admiral and unwilling to forsake their Country Wives and Children in great part return to the Parliament the rest were after pursued by Blake and Popham to Ireland from thence to Portugal from whence they were forced by Blake to Carthagena where Blake run the Princes Ships on shore yet the Princes having then but three Ships left and having no Port in Europe to protect them seek for one in the West-Indies where Prince Maurice is lost in a Hurricane and Prince Rupert after got into France and sold the Remainder of this miserable Fleet being two tatter'd Ships to Mazarine to fit out himself for other Adventures Whilst the Army was thus busied abroad the Members having got possession of the Fleet and the City of London being well affected to them they join with the Scotish Commissioners and rescind the Votes of Non-Addresses to the King
honoured and beloved was set upon by Col. John's elder Brother and routed the 29th of August where the Lord Widdrington Sir Thomas Tiddersly Col. Boynton Sir Francis Gamul Major Troâ—lop Sir William Throgmorton Col. Leg Col. Ratliff and Col. Gerard with some others were taken Prisoners but the Earl tho wounded escaped to the King at Worcester but it was his hard Fortune to be afterwards taken and tried by a Court Martial upon the 6th of October which consisted of 20 Officers and Captains five Colonels Maj. General Milton and Col. Mackworth President at Chester and upon the 22d was beheaded When Cromwel came into England he left Monk to command in Scotland who besieges and takes Sterlin-Castle by Surrender with all the Guns Ammunition and Arms Money Jewels and the Registers transferred from Edinburgh thither and quite defaced the lofty Inscription Nobis haec invicta dedere Centum sex Proavi About this time old General Lesley was raising an Army in Perth-shire Monk sends Morgan and Alured to prevent it who surprized them and take Lesley the Earls of Crawford and Lindsey the Lord Ogilby and many other Prisoners and after take Dunfrise At this time Monk besieges and takes Dundee by Storm with as terrible an Execution as Cromwel the Year before had done at Tredah Here it was and at Sterlin-Castle the Scots had lodged all their Plunder and Money they had got in England which was so plentiful that the English common Souldiers shared Money by Hatfuls The Terror of this Success frighted Aberdeen and all the other Towns in Scotland into Obedience nor did it stay here but all the Isles of Orcades and Shetland submitted which neither Roman nor English Force could ever accomplish Now the Kirk-Party are all in Yelling and Woes Heresy and Schism had overspread the beauteous Discipline of Reformation Now they cannot persecute other Men they exclaim and cry out they are persecuted themselves Their Nobles except Argile which are not killed are committed to Prison that they might share in the Tribulations as well as Triumphs of their Brethren in England But the Tribulations of the Covenanting Party did not end in Imprisonment only but extended to Life for upon the 22d of August Love and Gibbons two most zealous Covenanters were executed by a Judgment of a High Court of Justice as 't was called for holding Intelligence with their Brethren in Scotland so that this High-Justice or Summum Jus reached the Covenanters as well as the Royalists Now the Rump change the Fabrick of the Scotish Government and make Itinerant Judges part Scots part English and make a Council of State of that medly yet allow them 30 Commissioners to sit and vote in their Parliament at Westminster so that tho the Crown of Scotland were independent upon the Crown of England yet Scotland as well as Ireland and England must depend upon the Rump And that the Scots may be the more tamely ridden they are denied Arms and even Horses unless on necessary Occasions The Victory at Worcester swelled the Sails of Cromwel's Ambition brim full so that he began to entertain Thoughts of Setting up himself yet being a ticklish Point wherein he was sure to be opposed by the Factions as well as Royalists upon the 10th of December he called a Meeting of divers Members of the House and some of the Principal Officers of the Army and proposed to them That now the old King being dead and his Son defeated he held it necessary to come to a Settlement of the Nation and that he requested this Meeting that they might consider and advise what was fit to be done and to present it to the Parliament So much easier is it to destroy a Government than to erect another And now Cromwel and his Adherents had overturned the Government of Three Kingdoms they are to advise and consider how to erect another This was the good Fight which these Men fought to destroy and then knew not what to do However we 'll give the Account of these Mens Opinions verbatim as I find it in Whitlock's Memoirs f. 492. a. b. Lenthal My Lord who made him so This Company were very ready to attend your Excellency and the Business you were pleased to propound to us is very necessary to be considered God hath given marvellous Success to our Forces under your Command and if we do not improve these Mercies Blood Rapine and Murder to some Settlement such as may be to God's Honour and the Good of the Common-wealth we shall be very much blame-worthy Harrison I think that which my Lord General hath propounded as to a Settlement both of our Civil and Spiritual Liberties and so that the Mercies which the Lord hath given in to us may not be cast away how this may be done is the great Question Whitlock It is a great Question indeed and not suddenly to be resolved yet it were pity that a Meeting of so many able and worthy Persons as I see here should be fruitless and I would humbly offer in the first Place whether it be not requisite to be understood in what way this Settlement is desired whether by an Absolute Republick or with any Mixture of Monarchy Cromwel My Lord Commissioner Whitlock hath put us upon the right Point and indeed it is my meaning that we should consider whether a Republick or a mixt Monarchical Government will be best settled and if any thing Monarchical then in whom that Power shall be placed Sir Tho. Widdrington I think a mix'd Monarchical Government will be most sutable to the Laws and People of this Nation and if any Monarchical I suppose we shall hold it most just to place that Power in one of the Sons of the late King Fleetwood I think that Question whether an absolute Republick or a mix'd Monarchy be best to be settled in this Nation will not very easily be determined L. C. J. St. John It will be found that the Government of this Nation without something of Monarchical Power will be very difficult to be so settled as not to shake the Foundation of our Laws and the Liberties of the People Lenthal It will breed a strange Confusion to settle a Government of this Nation without something of Monarchy Desborough I beseech you my Lord why may not this as well as other Nations be governed by a Republick Whitlock The Laws of England are so interwoven with the Power and Practice of Monarchy that to settle a Government without something of Monarchy in it would breed so great an Alteration in the Proceedings of our Law that you will scarce find time to rectify nor can we well foresee the Inconveniencies which will arise thereby Whaley I do not understand Matters of Law but it seems to me the best way not to have any thing of Monarchical Power in the Settlement of our Government and if we should resolve upon any whom should we pitch upon The King 's eldest Son hath been in Arms against us and his second
the Lords during their Absence and soon after the King passed a Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament so little Success had the Clergy in their Convocation-Oath As the Clergy without Consent in Parliament imposed the Convocation-Oath upon the rest of the Clergy So the Parliament I mean the Lords and Commons without the Consent of the King imposed upon the Subjects a Vow and Protestation to maintain and defend so far as lawfully may be the true Reformed Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England and according to the Duty of the Allegiance to his Majesty's Royal Person Honour and Estate to defend the Privileges of Parliament and Liberties of the Subject and by all just and honourable Ways endeavour to preserve the Union and Peace of the Three Kingdoms and neither for fear nor other respect relinquish the Promise Vow and Protestation See Baker's History fol. 508. b. But the Lords and Commons were not constant to their Vow for within less than two Years after they impose their Solemn League and Covenant being basely imposed upon them by the Scots upon the rest of their Fellow-Subjects with all the Scotish Cant and c. too and this is observable that the Presbyterians who so bitterly inveighed against the c. in the Convocation-Oath without any scruple swallowed the c. in their Solemn League and Covenant It 's scarce credible by what Severity this Covenant was after the Scots Temper imposed upon all other sorts of Men as well Dissenters from the Church of England as those of the Church This Temper was too hot to last long for about three Years after the Independents outed the Presbyterians and set up the Engagement to be true to the Rump without King or House of Lords nor did this Engagement last five Years but was outed when Cromwel set up himself and imposed the Recognition for establishing himself Now let any shew how in any Nation since the Creation in less than 13 Years time Men so often swear and forswear Governments which were so often changed and he shall be my great Apoâ—â—â— The Secluded Members and the Rump if you 'll take their Words were the Representatives of the People but without a Head and could not be dissolved by the King without their Consent yet O. Cromwel and his Myrmidons without their Consent dissolved them both And as these were Bodies without a Head so Cromwel and his Army like that of the Egyptian Mamalukes were a Monstrous Head without any Body of the Nation yet with this Difference the Mamalukes chose their Sultan but Cromwel exalted himself without the Army's Choice The first Manifesto that Cromwel made known to the Nation was this I Oliver Cromwel Captain General and Commander in Chief of all the Armies and Forces raised and to be raised within this Commonwealth c. So here Cromwel by his own Authority makes the Army perpetual having deposed the Parliament which were made perpetual by Act of Parliament I have often admired upon what Bottom Cromwel stood when he presumed to do these things for the Sectaries and Monarchy-Men who were the Creatures whom he at first most relied upon when they perceived his Ambition then became his utter Enemies the Presbyterians and Independents hated him for the Violences he put upon them and the Royalists both dreaded and hated him All Kings of England in their Coronation-Oath before sware to govern by the received Laws and Constitutions of the Nation but Cromwel having subverted these neither says nor swears by what Laws or Rules he 'll govern and tho both in the Saxon and Nâ—rman Dynasties the Hereditary Succession of the Kings was often changed yet none succeeded which was not of the Royal Blood which cannot be said of the Caroline and Capusian Lines of France nor in the Succession of the Race of the Kings of Spain yet Cromwel without Law or being of the Royal Blood made himself more absolute than any of our Kings before him Now Terras I am sure Britannias Astraea reliquit Justice Truth and Plain-dealing is fled the Land and Dissimulation Hypocrisy Intriguing and Designs rove all England over and Cromwel to support his ill-establish'd Greatness sets all his Agents and Sycophants on work to congratulate and approve his Actions and to stand by and assist him One of the first of these was from the Officers of the English Army in Scotland no doubt but excited by Monk in the State he stood then with Cromwel So that as from Scotland our Civil Wars first began and from thence their solemn League and Covenant was so rigidly imposed in England so from thence now come Congratulatory Addresses to Cromwel for overturning all they had done and a time shall come when a Storm shall come from Scotland which shall disperse and unravel all that the Covenanters Rump and Cromwel had done thus you 'll see how lame-footed Vengeance shall overtake them all Having seen how Cromwel established himself we 'll proceed to see the Success The Dutch above all things dreading the Rump animated Cromwel to dissolve them promising greater things to him than they had done to the Rump in case he would do it which being done the Dutch not unreasonably hoped by the Disorders which would arise in England by it they should be better able to deal with Cromwel than the Rump and notwithstanding their calling God to witness of their sincere Love and Affection to the English Nation and desire of propagating the true Reformed Protestant Religion with all imaginable Diligence set out a greater Fleet to Sea than they had done before and Trump gave out he would fire the English Ships in their Harbours and the Downs before the English Fleet should get out But the Rump who well understood what Faith or Credit was to be given to the Dutch Protestations were not behind-hand with the Dutch in their Naval Preparations which Cromwel found ready to fight with the Dutch and sooner than the Dutch look'd for the English Fleet commanded by Monk and Dean Penn Vice-Admiral and Lawson Rear-Admiral upon the second of June engaged the Dutch and at the beginning Dean was kill'd by a Cannon-Ball but the Dutch sore pressed upon by the English bore away and made a running Fight having a Ship of 42 Guns sunk by Lawson and 140 Men in her but the Winds blowing cross the English could not that day do much more Execution Next day Monk engaged the Dutch Fleet again and sunk six of their best Ships two were blown up and eleven taken one Vice-Admiral and two Rear-Admirals with two of their Hoys and thirteen hundred and fifty Prisoners and of the English not one Ship was lost or disabled and besides Admiral Dean but one Captain killed The Dutch thus balk'd of their Expectation of firing the English Ships in their Harbours and in the Downs send Beverning Newport Vande Parro and Jonstal to Cromwel and the new Council of State for Cromwel had discharged
are commissionated by him So help me God So that from swearing Negatively to Belief in the first part of this Oath we come to swear Affirmatively in this part of it But this part not being Promissory of Time to come is an Assertory Oath too if any besides the taking God's Name in vain or worse An Assertory Oath is of what a Man knows to be certainly true and what was immediately the Object of Sense Here a Man swears not that he knows but abhors and what does he abhor That Traiterous Position of taking Arms by the King's Authority against his Person or those commissionated by him Is Traiterous Position the Object of Sense and immediate so as the Swearer knows what the meaning of Traiterous Position is Which I believe not one of twenty does Or is not some Inference deduced from some Law or Usage which cannot be the Object of Sense and so not to be sworn to The End of an Assertory Oath is to inform the Judg and Jury so that Justice may be determined by it but here is neither Judg nor Jury to inform What can be the end of this Swearing Why 't is because otherwise the Swearer cannot be a Member of the Corporation but if I cannot take his Word I 'll not take his Oath And he that swears most to get Places is least worthy of them And I dare say he so much less understands his Duty in any Place by how much the more he is ready to swear to get into it And you will see that those Men who are so ready to swear by this Oath which they did not understand to get to be Members of Corporations shall be more ready to forswear themselves in giving up their Charters which they had sworn to maintain and keep and which they understood they ought to do Religion Piety Judgment Justice and Righteousness are the ways by which God is honoured and Peace and Happiness established in Nations and Kingdoms And will God instead of these suffer his Sacred Name to be prostituted by vain Swearing so as to pass unpunished Did not the Prophet Hosea Ch. 4. v. 3. of old complain That the Land mourned because of Oaths And hath not our Land mourned ever since the Convocation after the Dissolution of the Short Parliament 1640 did enjoin the Oath I A. B. swear that I approve the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England as containing all things necessary to Salvation and will not consent to alter the Government in the Church by Arch-bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons c. to be taken by all the Clergy Was God well pleased that his Sacred Name should be affixed to such Stuff Or did this establish this Hierarchy Did not the Parliament about a Year after expel the Bishops out of the Lords House and imprisoned their Persons and made them and all Deans and Arch-Deacons uncapable of Temporal Jurisdiction And did not England and Scotland about two Years after join in a Covenant and swear to extirpate Arch-bishops Bishops Deans and Arch-Deacons Did not the Engagement expel the Covenant and the Recognition to Oliver out the Engagement till Men neither regarded what they had sworn nor cared what they swore to Monk before he came out of Scotland caused the Scots to abjure the King and his Interest So in his coming to London he did by the Officers of the Irish Brigade and the Rump died abjuring the King and Royal Family yet in less than four Months after the King was restor'd Before the Scots would admit the King to land in Scotland the 23d of June 1650 they made him with his Hands lifted up swear in the Presence of Almighty God the Searcher of all Hearts his Allowance and Approbation of the National Covenant and Solemn League and Covenant and Directories of Worship and not only to give his Royal Assent to Acts of Parliament enjoining the same in all his Dominions but to observe them in his private Family And upon his Coronation on the 11th of January 1651 repeated the same Oath Yet how little did this avail him or the Covenanters for in less than eight Months Cromwel drove him and his Covenanters quite out of Scotland And I dare say the King never after made use of them in his private Family nor ever after give his Assent to any Act of Parliament enjoining the Covenants tho he were restored to all his Dominions From swearing the Corporation-Oath the Parliament proceeds That all Members of Corporations declare against the Solemn League and Covenant in these words I A. B. do declare That I hold there lies no Obligation upon me or any other Person from the Oath commonly called the Solemn League and Covenant and that the same was in it self an unlawful Oath and imposed upon the Subjects of this Realm against the known Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom This Declaration is as vain and more wild than the Corporation-Oath for 't is but matter of Belief or Opinion and so no Issue can be taken upon it but if there could in him who declares yet none can be taken upon that part which declares there lies no Obligation upon another and I 'll put it upon this Issue that such a Declaration was never before enjoin'd by any Law And if the Covenant be an unlawful Oath in it self because imposed by no lawful Authority yet I say that no Authority under Heaven can make the taking God's Name in vain lawful much less to take a vain or superfluous Oath From new invented swearing and declaring to keep the King in the Kingdom the Church makes many new invented Prayers for him especially that for the Parliament wherein they tell God that the King is their most Religious and Gracious King as if he were so and God did not know it and if he were not so to perswade God he was so De Jove quid sentis Will God be mock'd Is not he Omniscient and knows the Secrets of every Man's Heart Has he any need to be informed what Man is Or did this King's manner of Life induce the Church to inform God that he was most Gracious or full of Grace Or his devout Behaviour at his seldom Presence in Divine Service declare him to be most Religious This King's Father and Grand-father's Flatterers went no higher than to flatter them that they were bound by no Laws and accountable to none but God for all their Actions and that their Subjects were bound to obey them in all under Penalty of Damnation They never went about to perswade God they were most Religious and Gracious in so doing The Parliament chimed in with the Church and by the Act of Vniformity enjoin That every one who holds an Ecclesiastical Promotion shall publickly declare before his Congregation his unfeigned Assent and Consent to every thing contained and prescribed in the Book entituled The Book of Common-Prayer c. Put these together I. A. B. do declare my unfeigned Assent and Consent That the King
8. The French Progress in Flanders more nearly concerned the Dutch than the English the Spanish Netherlands being the Barrier to secure the United Netherlands from sinking under the Power of France and therefore the Dutch States readily complied with Sir William's Proposals and Sir William waited upon the King to give him an Account of his Negotiation and within 5 Days after was sent back with Powers to conclude a stricter Defensive League than that at Breda between England and Holland either by Mediation or Force to stop the further Progress of the French Army in the Spanish Provinces And because the Swedes soon after entred into it it was called the Triple Alliance This preserved what the French had left untaken and the Spaniard was forced to sit down by the Loss But whatever the Spaniard lost by the French Ravages the English gained this Benefit by it That one Brewer whose Parents were said to be English with about fifty Walloons who wrought and died Fine Woollen Cloths came into England and the King after the Example of two of his wisest and most renowned Predecessors Edward III. and Queen Elizabeth entertain'd them against our Barbarous Law or rather Usage against Foreigners partaking the Benefit of Natural-born English and by them the English in a few Years time were instructed to make and dye fine woollen Cloths cheaper by 40 l. per Cent. than they could do before not only to the Benefit of the English at home but in foreign Vent abroad which before the Dutch had I think it was this Year the French sell into the Franche County of Burgundy and took Dole and Besanzon but this being a Barrier to the Swiss against the French Power as the Spanish Netherlands are to the Dutch the Swiss recalled their Subjects out of the French Service and ordered the levying Sixty Thousand Men to expel the French out of the County of Burgundy and now it was not time for the French King to contend against the Triple League and the Swiss too so he gave up Dole and Besanzon again to the Spaniards and withdrew his Forces out of the County Thus was Spain saved by others when they could not help themselves The banishing the Chancellour Clarendon did palliate but the Triple League reconciled all Difference between the King and Parliament as if no Dutch War or Miscarriages had been and for the Triple League they granted the King a Treble Supply viz. 20 Car. II. c. 1. 301000 l. upon Wines and Liquors Secondly an additional Duty of 8 l. per Tun on French Wines c. and 12 l. per Tun on Spanish Wines for eight Years which amounted to 560000 l. this was the 22 Car. II. And also cap. 3. an Act for sale of the Fee Farm Rents to the Value of 1300000 l. An. Dom. 1668. But you 'll see these dear bought Joys soon will fade for the great Clarendon and noble Southampton now are gone and another Generation is springing up and that with such forward Growth as all Weeds do that upon the Joy of the Triple League the House of Commons having given the King the 301000 l. Mr. Clifford after Lord Treasurer in April following told a Friend of Sir Temple's that for all this great Joy it must not be long before we have another War with Holland and this very Year a French Man gave my Lord Arlington the Design of laying another Holland's War and the Advance of it by the Practice of Monsieur Colbert upon the Ministers of our Court. An. Reg. 21. Dom. 1669. However the Devil will play at small Games rather than stand out for now the French King's Hands are tied up by the Triple League and Treaty at Aix la Chapelle from taking more Towns in the Spanish Netherlands Yet he exacted great Contributions from the Dutchies of Limburgh and Luxemburgh and confiscated the Estates of those in his Conquests who would not forswear their Allegiance to the King of Spain and endeavoured to surprize the Town of Hainault And tho by the Pyrenean Treaty the Duke of Lorain was to be restor'd to his Dutchy yet the Duke tho a Friend to the King was rejected from entring into the Triple League which he endeavoured and therefore incurred the French King's Displeasure who in the Year 1669 seized upon the poor Remainders of his Country and ordered one of his Generals to seize his Person and bring him either dead or alive And tho by the Treaty of Breda the French King was to restore the English to their Plantations in St. Christophers which the French had taken from them yet hitherto he refused to do it In this trifling which the Hector of France did only to keep his Hand in ure he did not sleep otherways the Triple League stuck sore in his Conscience which unless broken would set Bounds to his boundless Ambition In its infant State Monsieur Colbert in the first Year had made some Steps towards it but the next Year made such Advances that he had almost brought the Destruction of it to Perfection To facilitate this hopeful Project Madam the King 's beloved Sister came in June 1670 to Dover with full Powers to conclude this desired Business The King was not long behind but with equal Desire and extraordinary Affection meets his Sister where all things are concluded which tho as dark as Hell yet were as secret as Witchcraft which would have no Light but by their Consequences and that this well-laid Design might not be forgotten the Princess left her Woman Madam Carwel after Dutchess of Portsmouth with the King to put him in mind of it but the Princess was unhappy in this for Monsieur her Husband entertained a furious Jealousy in his frantick Brain that something else besides this hopeful Project was designed by the Princess so that though she were in perfect Health and never more pleased than when here yet upon her Return she in the Glory of her Age but Twenty six Years old died suddenly so that the Cause of her Death was as dark as the Design she came for But there is neither Sister Father or Mother with Kings and Kingdoms The sudden Death of Madam put no stop to the ratisying the Business she came for but the Marquess of Bellefonds is sent hither and an honourable Person is sent into France for both Kings Ratification of it Hereupon the French King descended from his Stiffness and delivered the English their Grounds in St. Christophers to Sir Charles Wheeler yet destroy'd all the Plantations plundered and carried away all that was portable laid the whole Country waste and left it in a much worse Condition than if it had never been planted The French King by his English Pensioners did not only keep the Emperor and Duke of Lorain out of being desirous to enter into the Triple League but he enters into a stricter League with the Arch-bishop of Collen and the Bishop of Munster two Princes of the Empire against the Dutch and now began to
Speech that they would not deign to debate it or one Paragraph in it Neither the Baâ—t of Tangier nor the King 's making Alliances with the Dutch and Spaniard if any such were in his Ramble of Prorogations of this Parliament would make the Commons give more Money This Parliament met in a contrary Humour to that of the Long Parliament and that from contrary Causes for that Parliament adored him as their Deliverer from the Rage and Persecution of the late times whereas this Parliament met in Dread and Terror of the Nation at present and were frighted at the Prospect of the Consequence of it after the King's Death The Commons heated by the Dissolutions of the two last Parliaments when they were searching into the Discovery of the Popish Plot and exasperated against the Tories for ridiculing the Popish Plot and for abhorring petitioning the King to let the Parliament sit in order to prosecute and secure the Nation against it c. proceeded in another Temper I think than any other ever before and in Truth I do not desire the Prosecution of the Commons in the Long Parliament in the first ten Years against the Protestant Dissenters and of the Commons of this Parliament against the Tories should be taken for Precedents by any Parliament in time to come When Parliaments met annually or at least frequently I think a Complaint cannot be found against any Man for Breach of Privilege but when there were long Intervals of Parliaments from whence the Consequence resolved into long Sittings of Parliaments which began in the Reign of Henry VIII then the Inconvenience I may say of Privilege of Parliament first began nor do I find any before the latter end of Henry VIII nor does Mr. Petit in his Precedents from Arrests and other Privileges of Parliament-men cite any before the Thirty fourth of Henry VIII in Case of Mr. George Ferrers Burgess for the Town of Plimouth being arrested for Debt and this was taken for such a Novelty that he takes up near seven Pages to recite the Proceedings of the Commons upon it and how the King being advertised thereof called the Chancellour the Judges the Speaker of the Commons and the gravest Persons of them wherein he commended the Wisdom of the Commons in maintaining their Privileges which he would not in any Point have infringed and that the Privileges of Parliament extend to the Servants of the Commons from Arrests as well as to the Persons of the Commons It 's worthy Observation with what Sobriety and Justice the Commons proceeded herein They ordered their Serjeant forthwith to repair to the Compter in Breadstreet wherein Mr. Ferrers was committed with his Mace to demand his Delivery which the Serjeant did to the Officers of the Compter who notwithstanding refused to do it and beat and hurt some of the Serjeant's Officers and broke his Mace and during the Brawl the Sheriffs of London came in who countenanced the Officers of the Compter and refused to deliver Mr. Ferrers and gave the Serjeant proud Language and contemptuously rejected his Message Hereupon the Commons commanded the Serjeant to demand the Sheriffs of London to deliver Mr. Ferrers by shewing them his Mace which was his Warrant for so doing whereupon the Sheriffs delivered him accordingly but then the Serjeant having further Command from the Commons charged the Sheriffs to appear personally on the Morrow by eight of the Clock before the Speaker in the nether House or of the Commons to bring thither the Clerks of the Compter and such other of their Officers as were Parties in the Fray and to take into Custody one White who had wittingly procured the said Arrest in contempt of the Privilege of Parliament The next day the two Sheriffs with one of the Clerks of the Compter and the said White appeared in the Commons House where the Speaker charging them with their Contempt and Misdemeanour they were compelled to make immediate Answer without being admitted to Counsel and in conclusion the Sheriffs and the said White were committed to the Tower and the Clerk which was the Occasion of the Fray to a place called Little Ease and the Officer which did the Arrest called Taylor with four other Officers to Newgate where they remained from the Twenty eighth to the Thirty first of March and then were delivered at the humble Suit of the Mayor and their other Friends The next Breach of Privilege reported by Petit is eight Years after viz. the fourth of Edward VI by one Withrington who made an Assault upon the Person of one Brandling Burgess of New-castle but the Parliament drawing towards an End the Commons sent Withrington to the Privy Council but the Council would not meddle in it and sent the Bill of Mr. Brandling's Complaint back again to the Commons according to the antient Custom of the House whereupon the Bill was sent to the Lords from the Commons when Withrington confest he began the Fray upon Dr. Brandling upon which he was committed to the Tower This was in the Year 1550. Mr. Petit finds not another Breach of Privilege till the Fourteenth of Elizabeth twenty one Years after which was done by one Arthur Hall for sundry lewd Speeches used as well in the Commons House as abroad who was warned by the Serjeant to appear before the Bar of the Commons to answer for the same and upon his Speech upon the humble Confession of his Folly he was remitted with a good Exhortation given him by the Speaker Here I observe these three Particulars 1. The Rarity of these Breaches of Privileges of Parliament in former times 2. The Justice of the Commons in their Proceedings of Breach of Privilege to cite the Person or Persons to appear before them to answer for themselves before the House passed any Censure upon them 3. That in none of these Censures they enjoined the Delinquent to pay their Fees to their Serjeant for the Serjeant is the King's Officer and by the 26th West 1. no Officer of the King 's shall take any Fee or Reward for doing his Office but what he receives from the King upon Penalty of rendring double to the Plaintiff and be further punished at the Will of the King And Sir Edward Coke in his first Inst Lib. 3. Sect. 701. Tit. Extortioners says this was the antient common Law and the Penalties added by the Statute and that tho some Statutes since have allowed the King's Officers in some Cases to take Fees for executing their Offices yet none other can be taken but what such Statutes allow and that all Officers of the King who take Fees otherwise are guilty of Perjury I would know by what Law the Commons Serjeant takes his Fees and how the Commons can absolve him from Perjury for taking such Fees Whereas in this Parliament rarely a Day passed wherein Men upon bare Suggestions and absent were not judged and Execution ordered for high Breaches and notorious Breaches of the Commons Privileges yet most of these
not foreknown and ordered to be taken into Custody tho in Northumberland and Yorkshire and rarely I think any of them were discharged without paying their Fees but what Fees was what the Serjeant pleased nay the Commons outrun all which was ever thought of before For on Tuesday the 14th of December having voted one Mr. Herbert Herring to be taken into Custody and Mr. Herring absconding from being taken the House resolved That if he did not render himself by a certain Day they would proceed against him by Bill in Parliament for endeavouring by his absconding to avoid the Justice of the House Though I doubt the Lords in the Temper they were in nor the King neither would have passed such a Bill It was strange methought that the Commons should be so zealous against any Arbitrary Power in the King and take such a Latitude to themselves which puts me in mind of a Story I have heard of an old Usurer who had a Nephew who had got a Licence to preach and the Uncle having never done any thing for his Nephew he resolved to be revenged upon his Uncle in a Sermon which he would preach before his Uncle in the Parish where he lived and made a most invective Sermon against Usury and Usurers but after the Sermon was done the Uncle thank'd his Nephew for his good Sermon and gave him 2 Twenty-shilling Pieces the Nephew was confounded at this and begg'd his Uncle's Pardon for what he had done for he thought he had given him great Offence No said the Uncle Nephew go on and preach other Fools out of the Conceit of Vsury and I shall have the better Opportunity of putting out my Money Yet so zealous were the Commons against Popery and Arbitrary Power that upon the 15th of December they resolved that one Mean for the Suppression of Popery is That a Bill be brought in to banish immediately all considerable Papists out of the King's Dominions And that a Bill be brought in for an Association of all his Majesty's Protestant Subjects for the Defence of his Majesty's Person the Defence of the Protestant Religion and for the Preservation of his Majesty's Protestant Subjects against all Invasions and Oppositions whatsoever and for preventing the Duke of York or any other Papist from succeeding to the Crown And upon the 16th of December the Commons read another Bill the first time for exempting his Majesty's Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties imposed upon the Papists and upon the 18th ordered a Bill to be brought in to unite his Majesty's Protestant Subjects In this Ferment of the Commons this Parliament they run counter to the Commons of the last Parliament for then they chose Mr. Edward Seymour to be their Speaker and when the King refused him they were much disgusted but in this Parliament the Commons the 25th of November impeached him upon four Articles and a Motion was made for an Address to be made to remove him from his Majesty's Council and Presence And in the last Parliament the Commons would not proceed to the Trial of the Popish Lords in the Tower before the Lords should give their Judgment upon the Earl of Danby's Plea whereas in this Parliament they proceeded to the Condemnation of my Lord Stafford without taking any notice that I can find of having the Lords Judgment upon the Earl's Plea The Commons took Care also to prosecute and impeach all those that countenanced the Popish Plot or were Abhorrers of petitioning the King for the Meeting of the Parliament in the manifold Prorogations of it and voted That it is and ever hath been the undoubted Right of the Subjects of England to petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redress of Grievances And that to traduce such petitioning as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as tumultuous and seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and contributes to the Design of subverting the antient legal Constitutions of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power The first that fell under these Votes was Sir Francis Withens after made a Judg a Member of the Commons whom they voted to be a Betrayer of the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and ordered him to be expelled the House for this high Crime and to receive the Sentence at the Bar of the House kneeling which he submitted to The next was Sir George Jefferies then Recorder of the City and ordered that an humble Address be made to the King to remove him out of all publick Offices and that the Members which served for the City should communicate this Vote to the Court of Aldermen Upon this Account tho the Commons discriminated the Crime they ordered Sir Giles Philips and Mr. Coleman to be sent for into Custody of the Serjeant at Arms for detesting and abhorring the petitioning for sitting of the Parliament and voted it a Breach of Privilege of Parliament the like the Commons did by Captain William Castle Mr. John Hutchinson Mr. Henry Walrond Mr. William Stavel Mr. Thomas Herbert Sir Thomas Holt Serjeant at Law and Mr. Thomas Staples and because Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Common Pleas advised and was assisting in drawing up a Proclamation against petitioning for the sitting of the Parliament the Commons voted That it was a sufficient Ground for the House to proceed against him for high Crimes and Misdemeanours The like Vote passed against Sir Thomas Jones one of the Judges of the King's Bench and Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer I do not find these Votes went further but the Commons actually impeached Sir William Scroggs of High Treason for discharging the Grand Jury of Middlesex before they had finished their Presentments and for the Order made in the King's Bench against Care 's Pacquet of Advice from Rome 〈◊〉 the History of Popery that it should be no more printed or published by any Person whatsoever I do not find the Articles particularly recited but they were ingrossed upon the 7th of January and the Impeachment carried up to the Lords by my Lord Cavâ—â—dish and received by the Lords Note in this common Danger the Commons ordered Leave to bring in a Bill for a general Naturalization of all Protestant Aliens giving them Liberty to exercise their Trades in all Corporations Now it 's time to see wherein the Lords and Commons did agree and wherein they ran counter The Lords agreed with the Commons in repealing the Act of 35 Elizabeth viz. for Payment of 20 l. per mensem for every Man who resorted not to his Parish-Church being so terrible a Law that it lay dormant above 80 Years and in the Feuds between the Tories and Whigs it was begun to be put in Execution which the Commons apprehending would make a Breach so wide as to let in Popery which would make no Distinction between Dissenters and the Sons of the Church they brought in a Bill
for repealing the said Act of 35 Eliz. which passed the Commons upon the 26th of November and was sent up to the Lords who agreed to it As the Lords joined with the Commons in passing this Repeal so did the Commons join with the Lords in their Vote the 4th of January viz. Resolved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled That they do declare that they are fully satisfied that there now is and for divers Years last past there hath been an horrid and treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion in Ireland for massacring the English and subverting the Protestant Religion and antient established Government of that Kingdom To which the Commons added That the Duke of York being a Papist and the Expectation that Party had of his coming to the Crown hath given the greatest Encouragement to the Popish Plot as well in Ireland as here But the Lords ran counter to the Commons in the Bill intituled An Act for securing the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging for after the Reading it the first time in the House of Lords and the Question being put whether it should be read a second time it was resolv'd in the Negative by above a double Majority of Votes If the Lords and Commons ran counter in some things the King and Commons ran counter almost in every thing The King 's main End in calling this Parliament was to get Money for the Preservation of Tangier and in perfecting the Alliance he had made with Spain The Commons would not give any Money upon the Account of Tangier for three Reasons One was For that as the state of the Nation stood it might augment the Strength of the Popish Party and encrease the Danger of the Nation Another was There were several Regiments besides the Guards in pay in England which might be transported to Tangier with little Charge and be maintained there as cheap as here And the third was That that Garison was the Nursery of Popish Officers and Soldiers The Commons would not give Money for the pretended Alliance of mutual Obligations of Succour and Defence with Spain for three Reasons 1. The Jealousy they had of the King's Sincerity in this Alliance and the more because the King did not declare to them what manner of Alliance this was and it might be more to the Prejudice than Benefit of this Kingdom or if it should have been to the Benefit of the Kingdom they could have no more Assurance of the Performance of it than they had of the Triple League that made with the Prince of Orange or that made between the King and States of Holland by Mr. Thyn on the King's Part which were all broken almost as soon as made 2. The Impossibility of any Benefit which could arise to England and Spain by such an Alliance for if all Christendom after the separate Peace which the King joined with the Dutch Faction in could not uphold Spain and the Spanish Netherlands from falling under the Dominion of the French how could the King in the feeble and distracted state of the Nation be in a condition to support it without them 3. The Unreasonableness of giving Money upon this Account for tho oftentimes the Kings of England have demanded Supplies for maintaining vast Wars yet never any King of England before demanded Supplies for making Alliances and not declare what such Alliances were But if any such mutual Alliances of Succour and Defence were made between our King and the King of Spain I 'm sure they were ill observed by the King for two Years after viz. 1682 the French blocked up the City of Luxemburgh and the next Year took Courtray one of the six Towns delivered back to the Spaniard by Beverning's separate Treaty from the Confederates and keeps it to this Day and so the French King does Luxemburgh which he took by plain Force from the Spaniard the next Year after viz. 1684. I wish I could find any mutual Succour of Defence the King gave the King of Spain in any of these either by this Alliance or as the King was Guarantee in the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle which in his Proclamation against the Dutch in the second Dutch War he declared he would maintain Nor did the Commons only run counter to the King's Designs of getting Money but considering the dangerous and weak state of the Kingdom as by the Debt the King had contracted by shutting up the Exchequer and his squandring away almost all the antient Revenues of the Crown and to prevent the like upon the Revenue settled upon the King since his Restoration upon the 7th of January resolved 1. That whosoever shall lend or cause to be lent by way of Advance any Money upon the Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Customs Excise or Hearth-money shall be adjudged a Hinderer of the Sitting of Parliaments and be responsible for the same 2. That whosoever shall accept or buy any Tally or Anticipation upon any part of the King's Revenue or whosoever shall pay such Tally hereafter to be struck shall be adjudged to hinder the Sittings of Parliaments and be responsible therefore in Parliament Now let 's see wherein the King run counter to both Lords and Commons After the Lords had agreed with the Commons in the Repeal of 35 Eliz. the Bill was taken from the Lords Table and never heard of after which no Man durst have done without the King's Command at least Privity Herein you may observe the Insincerity of the King's Indulgences for dispensing with the Penal Laws against Dissenters when he nourished those Ends by them which the Parliament dreaded and now the Parliament would have legally eased them the Bill must be ravished away Here is a greater Wonder yet to be told of this Parliament for notwithstanding all these Discords between the Lords and Commons and the King and the Lords and Commons yet they all reconciled in making the Act against the Importation of Irish Cattel c. perpetual thereby to perpetuate the Discords between the Kingdoms of England and Ireland as much as those between Whig and Tory. And in this posture of Affairs the King prorogu'd the Parliament from the 10th to the 20th of January 1681 and upon the 18th dissolved them This Dissolution caused a great Amazement in the Nation but in some measure to allay it the King summons another to meet the 21st of March following at Oxford This rais'd a Jealousy in the Nation and many of the Nobility that there was some hidden Design nourished in the Court which might have dangerous Influences upon the Nation and the Parliament too Hereupon 16 of the Nobility petitioned the King against the Meeting of the Parliament at Oxford and my Lord of Essex upon the Delivery of it made a short Speech which I believe was not forgotten afterwards The
were undone by it yet little of the Money levied upon them was brought into the Exchequer and you may be sure the Prosecutors would take their own share and it was no difficult Matter to get a Grant or at least a Pardon for the King 's Among the rest of the Worthies in this pious Business one Jenner a Lawyer was one who for this and other meritorious Acts was after knighted and made one of the honourable Barons of the Exchequer and Sir Dudly North the Keeper's own Brother was another and though these Men were excepted out of the Act of Indemnity made by this King and Informations against them in the Exchequer and among the rest against this Jenner yet upon pleading their Pardons I do find no great matttr came of them And now since the Meal-Tub Plot and that of Fitz-Harris had no better Effect the Court sets up another to throw the Popish Plot upon the Nonconformists You have heard before how there appeared to be a Popish Plot carried on in Ireland ever since the Year 1665 for establishing the Popish Religion and that several Witnesses were brought out of Ireland to prove it and how that the Lords in Parliament having throughly enquired into it did upon the sixth of January last viz. 1680-81 send this Message to the Commons Resolved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled that they do declare that they are fully satisfied that there now is and for divers Years last past hath been an horrid and treasonable Plot continued and carried on by those of the Popish Religion in Ireland for massacring the English and subverting the Protestant Religion and the antient Government of that Kingdom to which they desire the Concurrence of this House to which the Commons agreed The Evidence by which the Lords discovered this Plot were generally Irish and of the Popish Religion and it 's probable were Partakers of the Design of this Massacre and had not their Pardons or if they had they were poor and had no means to subsist now the Oxford Parliament was dissolved and no Prospect of another especially having now lost their Friends and Dependance for having given their Evidence of the Discovery of the Plot and were in a strange Country In this state the Court imployed a sort of Men partly by Terror and partly by their Necessities to work upon the Irish to pervert their Evidence another way And the Cause being the same it had the same Effect upon others as well as the Irish for the Oxford Parliament being dissolved and all Hopes of Enquiry further into the Popish Plot growing desperate Dugdale Turbervile and Smith not having that I can find gotten their Pardons and having lost their Dependances upon their having given their Evidence and being reduced to the same Necessities the Irish Witnesses were were easily wrought upon to smother the Popish Plot and to swear another upon the principal Inquirers into the Popish nay even my Lord H tho not in the like Circumstances could not procure his Pardon till his Drudgery of Swearing was over The Foundation thus laid now we proceed to shew how the King made good his Declaration for calling frequent Parliaments and in using his utmost Endeavours of extirpating Papacy and it is without any Precedent that ever any King before did truckle to such vile and mean things to invert his Declaration and his manifold repeated Promises to the Parliament The 28th of March the Parliament at Oxford was dissolved and upon the 27th of April following an Indictment of High Treason was preferred against Edward Fitz-Harris to the Grand Jury at Westminster for the Hundred of Oswalst but the Grand Jury having the Vote of the Commons of the 27th of March so fresh in their Memories desired the Opinion of the Court whether they might safely proceed upon it and you need not doubt but the Court gave their Opinion they might So the Grand Jury found the Bill From the time that Fitz-Harris was removed from Newgate to the Tower which was 10 Weeks before this Indictment he was kept so close Prisoner that his Wife nor any others were permitted to come at him whereas the Lords impeached in Parliament had the Liberty of the Tower and for any Man to visit them Yet Fitz-Harris's Wife foreseeing the Design of the Trial of her Husband had gone to Counsel and had a Plea drawn to the Jurisdiction of the Court to which the Attorney-General demurred and Fitz-Harris's Counsel joined in the Demurrer It were Vanity and extream Arrogance in me to judg of the nice Pleadings on both sides concerning the Form and Substance or to give a Reason why the Court over-ruled Fitz-Harris's Plea since the Court did not Yet I say the Reports of Coke Dier Plowden and others would have proved dry Businesses if the Courts of Westminster-Hall had given such Judgments as the King's Bench did in Fitz-Harris's Case And I say also That no Man lives out of Society and Commerce and that in every Country there are Laws for the Preservation of Mens Lives and to protect them in Society and Commerce and that in every Country there is a Power which is loose from these Laws and gives Laws to all the Subjects of those Countries But because all Laws are vain unless they be executed every Country has Judicatories wherein these Laws are executed which differ in different Countries The supreme Power of this Nation resides in a Parliament whereof the King is the Head and the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Representatives of the Commons are the Body These Courts of Judicature have their distinct Jurisdictions and are restrained to certain Rules and Methods the highest of these Courts are the Body of the Parliament viz. the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons which have distinct Jurisdictions but are not bound up in their Judicatories by such strict Rules as other Courts are Other Courts take Cognizance of civil and criminal Cases between particular Men but these Courts of Parliament take Cognizance of the State and Grievances of the Nation where only they find Relief and tho no other Courts take Cognizance of Matters transacted in Parliament yet either of these Courts take Cognizance of all Proceedings in other Courts and not only reverse all illegal Proceedings in them but punish the Judges of all other Courts for any Errors or Abuses committed by them so if any Person or Person shall grow so great as to be dangerous to the Publick tho they be out of the Reach of other Courts yet they are subject to these Courts of Parliament and by these Courts the English Nation have preserved their Liberties and Laws now France and Spain have lost them which before had their Assemblies of the States all one with our Parliaments and in losing them have lost their Liberty and Laws to the Arbitrary Will of their Princes The Jurisdiction of Parliaments hath been in all Ages in England esteemed sacred so that other Courts rarely