others all men of good Families and of as good Education one would have thought it a soberer and deeper design then it proved to be Some think their intention was to have seiz'd on the Persons of the King and Queen and their Children and so to have made Conditions with him for the Kingdom in general and perhaps for themselves in particular being perswaded by some cunning Casuist amongst them That it could be no Treason being enter'd into before the King was Crown'd and Anointed And in case they could not bring the King to their terms 't was said they resolv'd to set up the Title of the Lady Arabella as the next presumptive Heir to the Crown being sole Daughter of Charles Earl of Lenox younger Brother to the Kings Grandfather whom the King when her Father dyed put besides that Title as by Custom of Scotland he might being a Donation during his Minority to give it to his Cosin Esme Lord Aubigny the Heir Male of the Lord John the other younger Brother Now that which gave colour to this unreasonable Conjecture of setting up this Lady was the particular respect Sir Walter Rawleigh profest to her but if his enmity to Spain had not been a more unpardonable sin then his amity with her the Charge Count Gundamore brought against him could not have been so much more pressing upon him then the Attorney Generals upon his Fellows to make his much Merit no less criminal then their much Guilt and which was more unlucky to render him a greater Sufferer by the Kings Mercy then divers of them were by his Justice who having freed him after Condemnation was prevail'd with by the Spaniard to condemn him after that freedom contrary to the opinion of divers learned Gown-men who held that his Majesties Pardon lay inclusively in that Commission he gave him afterward upon his setting out to Sea it being incongruous that he should have had the disposing of the lives of others who was not clearly Master of his own But herein those that were his particular Friends and Relations were not more surpriz'd then all the World beside For as they expected to have been indebted to his Sword for bringing home more Gold then would have paid the price of his forfeited Head so every Body eâ—se hoped to have been no less indebted to his Pen for finishing that most excellent Piece of his The History of the Old World which ended as untimely as himself by attempting a Discovery of The new One Now as this Plot seems to have been as dark as the place it self where it was first hatch'd so it was made yet darker by the wisdom of the King who kept the Cause unknown to the intent it might have no Seconds However some have concluded from the appointment of that Conference of Divines which hapned not long after at Hampton-Court that whatever Reasons of State topt the Plot Religion lay at the bottom of it which being at all times a sure foundation for any treasonable practices was at this time so much more seasonably pretended by how much the King being as yet a stranger and unsetled not knowing whom to suspect much less whom to trust would necessarily be dâ—stracted with various apprehensions and not think himself secure in the Glory of being Defender of the Kingdom till he appeared to be The True Defender of the Faith here in England as well as Defender of the True Faith for so run his Title in Scotland Neither were they deceiv'd that took this measure of his Zeal or Fears it being well known that he was as ambitious to shew the first as other Princes were careful to conceal the last Witness the pleasure he took in wrestling as I said before with Pope Pius the Fourth not as Jacob wrestled with the Angel to obtain his Blessing but as he contested with Esau to shew how little he regarded his Cursing After which he entred the List to grapple with that more dreadful Monster the Presbyter who professing to hate the pomp of Superstition disdain'd to give Obedience to any kind of Order in the Church being like the Chymara which the * Vid. Ovid. Metam lib. 6. Poets feign'd to have breath'd out fire having the head and breast of a Lyon a bold voracious Creature but very dull with the belly of a Goat and therefore much followed by the Female Sex and the tail of a Dragon to sting the Consciences of those that follow him and make them spiritually mad Betwixt him and the Pope finding Religion to be placed as his own Arms were betwixt the Lyon and the Unicorn who trampled under their feet his Beati Pacifici with as much scorn as they have since Diâ—u Mon Droit He thereupon deferr'd the matter no longer but calling before him the ablest of those that took upon them to oppose the Monarchy of the Church he resolv'd to preside himself in the Controversie betwixt them and the Bishops He that was the Prolocutor of the Non-conformists hapning to be a man worthy a better imployment then that Religious Drudgery they had ingaged him in was so modest notwithstanding it was his business to oppose all Formality as to offer nothing that was altogether void of Form beginning with a General Discourse of the Necessity of a thorow Reformation he brought the Desires of his dissatisfied Brethren under four Heads beseeching his Majesty that there might be 1. An establishment of true Doctrine in the Church as if that receiv'd from Christ and his Apostles had not been as yet sufficiently clear'd 2. That there might be a settlement of true and faithful Pastors meaning men of known simplicity and plainness and if not Fishermen as were the Apostles yet of any other Trade or Occupation 3. That there might be a sincere Administration in point of Government meaning that the Presbyter might he joyn'd in Commission with the Bishop as Calves-head and Bacon are better meat together then either of them alone that by his letting in as many at the back door as the Bishop did at the fore door great might be the multitude of Preachers 4. That the Book of Common Prayer might be fitted to a more increase of Piety by lengthening the Prayers which as one of the Fraternity and doubtless a Taylor objected were like short shreds or ends of threds that were too quickly wrought off and spiritualizing them with some less intelligible Phrases to prevent praying by rote These Proposals of his being inforced by a not unlearned Discourse however more like an Orator then a Divine he concluded with sundry Objections 1. Against Confirmation as being altogether needless and unnecessary because it added nothing as he said to the Validity and Sufficiency of the Sacrament To which Answer was given That the Church held it no essential part of the Sacrament but judg'd it a thing most reasonabâ—e that Children who at their Baptism had made Profession of their Faith by others should so soon as they came to years of
from a Scorbutical Distemper which therefore we may venture to English Scurvy-grass-Ale the most excellent and ancient Drink of this Isle But however our Antiquaries do differ about the name of the Isle they all agree in the descent of the first Inhabitants affirming them as most of the Inhabitants on this side the World to be the off-spring of (a) Josephus Zonares vocant Gallos Cimbros 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gomari Gomer whose truly unlucky name if so be Melancthon interpret it rightly carried in it the Fate of his Posterity ominously denoting the disadvantages under which Nature and Providence had placed them amongst whom none were yet greater sufferers then the poor Britains who in respect of their extream remoteness from all the rest of the World there being none beyond them Westward but those of Ireland which Ptolomy makes to be a part of them unless that Terra Incognita mention'd by St. Brandon where the Souls of the just Saints touch in their way to Purgatory known by the name of O Brazil beyond the Isles of Arran so often discovered and lost again could never meet with any opportunities of glory to give them the least repute amongst their Neighbours in the Continent nor indeed any invitements of Ambition to shew they understood any Particle of Honour In so much that when the Romans those great Monopolizers of Fame came first hither they not only despised them as rude Barbarians but after better acquaintance with them took so little notice of any thing they did or suffered as not to think it worth recording to Posterity whereby it so happens that we have not one brave Example to copy after but what is decypher'd in so small Characters that it is scarce legible at this day Witness those gallant Resistances of Arviragus and Galgacus the one General of the South t'other of the North of this Isle when they first Invaded it whose actions though they possibly transcended whatever passes for wonder in our dayes are so slightly and confusedly delivered by the most exact of their Writers that it hath been doubted by some whether there were ever any such Men at least that the one is mistaken for Prasugatus t'other for Marius Neither have we much better accompt of that Free-born Sylurian Caractacus who was not inferior to any of their great Captains saving in Fortune only of whom we hear nothing beyond the bravery of his captivity which they set forth with that varnish of Ostentation on part of the Victors as shews they design'd to record their own rather then his Glory None of them acknowledging any of the circumstances of Dishonour under which Caesar twice suffer'd once at Land when he was disarm'd by (b) Which the British Historians confidently affirm Nennius fighting hand to hand afterwards at Sea when he was routed by a private Captain Neither had we ever known it had it not suited with the design of one of their own * Lucan Poets to bring in Pompey upbraiding him with it in that well known Verse Territa quasitis ostendit Terga Britannis But that which discovers a more intense prejudice and scorn of the Britains was the calling their Innocence Ignorance judging their Courage to be no other then an effect of Despair deeming their temperance stupidity their hardiness of Body brutishness A silly sort of People saith Diodorus Siculus because not so skilfull in the Art of Luxury as they his Country-men Naked Barbarians saith Dion the more shame their armed Legions were so bafled by them (c) In conjurat Catilinari Genus huminum agriste sine legibus sine Imperio libe um atque solutum An obscure People not known to any of the Civil part of the World saith another yet we find mention made of their Fame in the Greek (d) By no meanes an Author then Polybius who restifies that they drove a great Trade with the Graecians Annals from the very beginning of the first Olympiad A. M. 3720. which was 200 years before Christ at what time they themselves were not known to the Greeks if we may credit (e) Contr. Appâ—â—n lib. 1. Josephus at least not so well known as that Thucidides Herodotus or any Historians of the first Class thought them worthy of any mention by them it is true Strabo takes some notice of them but he reckons them as we find St. (f) Epist Roman Paul did many years after amongst the Nations that were esteemed Barbarous Now whether we consider the Britains as deriving themselveâ— from Phoenitian Greek or Gallick Stock or whether we allow them the priviledge of the most ancient Nations in the World to deduce a fine-spun Series from the Gods and so leave them as Aborigines either way they have the consent of Antiquity to support the Reputation of their being not only not obscure but as noble a Race of People as any other Gentile Nation whatsoever perhaps more then the most if we examine the Testimony of their Laws Language or Lineage 't is pity I cannot say their Liberties untainted to this day Maugre the Tyranny of Time and Chance the Body of our (g) Coâ—â—'s Preface to his Thiâ—d Book of Reports Common Law being compos'd of such Elements as were taken first by Brute out of the ancient Greek and Trojan Laws as one of the most Sagest in that profound Science tells us whose testimony is confirm'd by the learned (h) Jan. Angl. lib. 1. pag 17. Mr. Selden in that place where he proves that London had its Municipal Laws as soon if not (i) Languet before Rome it self Now how excellent those Statutes must be that have stood the shock of so many Ages and yet continued useful I need not labour to prove but will content my self with the Authority of (k) Pag. 39. Lib. Leg. Aâ—gl He was Lord Chief Justice of England under H. 6. Sir John Fortescue proves the same by Reason Quod si non optimae extitissent aliqui Regum novissimorum Justitia ratione seu affectione concitati eas mutassent aut omnino delevissent Now as the wisdom of any People is to be measur'd by that of their Laws so is their Nobility to be judg'd by the measure of their Wisdom for however we seem to be partakers with the rest of the world in the common Fate of being a Conquer'd Nation there being no Country in the whole Universe that have not been subdued as well as we by others or by themselves (l) Seneca Epist Ita fato placuit nullius rei eodem semper statu stare fortunam Yet our Ancestors had this to say in their behalf which perhaps no other conquer'd Nation can say That as they disputed their Freedoms as long as ever any did having spent above a million of lives before the Romans could prevail to cohabit with them so after all they made so good Conditions for themselves as to keep their own Kings and their own Laws being not obliged
was it long that the Protector bore up after his Brothers Fall the great care he took to build his * From his Tittle call'd Somerset-house House being no less fatal to him then the little care he had to support his Family whiles the Stones of those Churches Chappels and other Religious Houses that he demolish'd for it made the cry out of the Walls so loud that himself was not able to indure the noise the People ecchoing to the defamation and charging him with the guilt of Sacriledge so furiously that he was forced to quit the place and retire with the King to Windsor leaving his Enemies in possession of the strength of the City as well as the affections of the Citizens who by the reputation of their power rather then the power of their repute prevail'd with the King as easily to give him up to publick Justice as he was before prevail'd with to give up his Brother it being no small temptation to the young King to forsake him when he forsook himself so far as to submit to the acknowledgement of that Guilt he was not conscious of The Lawyers charged him with removing Westminster-hall to Somerset-house The Souldiers with detaining their Pay and betraying their Garrisons The States-men with ingrossing all Power and indeavouring to alter the Fundamental Laws and the ancient Religion But he himself charg'd himself with all these Crimes when he humbled himself so far as to ask the Kings pardon publickly which his Adversaries were content he should have having first strip'd him of his Protectorship Treasurership Marshalship and Two thousand pound a year Land of Inheritance But that which made his Fate yet harder was that after having acquitted himself from all Treason against his Prince he should come at last to be condemn'd as a Traytor against his Fellow-Subject whilst the Innocent King labouring to preserve him became the principal Instrument of his Destruction who by reconciling him to his great Adversaries made the Enmity so much the more incompatible who at the same time he gave the Duke his Liberty gave the Earl of Warwick and his Friends the Complement of some new Titles which adding to their Greatness he reasonably judg'd might take from their Envy The Earl himself he created Duke of Northumberland and Lord High Admiral of England and to oblige him yet more married up his eldest Son the Lord Dudley to his own Cosin the second Daughter of the Duke of Somerset whom he gave to him for the more honour with his own hand and made Sir Robert Dudley his fourth and his beloved Son the same that was after made by Queen Elizabeth Earl of Leicester one of the Gentlemen of his Bedchamber And to gratifie the whole Faction he made the Marquiss of Dorset Duke of Suffolk the Lord St. John Earl of Wilts and afterwards Marquiss of Winchester Sir John Russel who was Northamberland's Confident he created Earl of Bedford Sir William Paget another of his Tools he made Lord Paget This the good natur'd King did out of sincere Affection to his Uncle in hopes to reconcile him so thoroughly to Northumberland so that there might be no more room left for Envy or Suspect betwixt them But as there is an invisible Erinnis that attends all Great men to do the drudgery of their Ambition in serving their Revenge and observing the Dictates of their power and pride so it was demonstrable by the most unfortunate issue of this so well intended purpose that by the same way the King hoped to please both he pleas'd neither Somerset thinking he had done too much Northumberland thinking that he had done too little who having drunk so deep a Draught of Honour grew hot and dry and like one fall'n into a State-Dropsie swell'd so fast that Somerset perceiving the Feaver that was upon him resolv'd to let him blood with his own hand And coming one day to his Chamber under the colour of a Visit privately arm'd and well attended with Seconds that waited him in an outward Chamber found him naked in his Bed and supposing he had him wholly in his power began to expostulate his wrongs with him before he would give him the fatal stroke whereby t'other perceiving his intent and being arm'd with a Weapon that Somerset had not a ready fence for an Eloquent Tongue he acquitted himself so well and string'd upon him with so many indearing protestations as kept the point of his Revenge down till it was too late to make any Thrust at him Whereby Northumberland got an advantage he never hop'd for to frame a second Accusation against him so much more effectual then the former by how much he brought him under the forfeiture of Felony as being guilty of imagining to kill a Privy Counsellor for which he was the more worthily condemn'd to lose his Head in that he so unworthily lost his Resolution at the very instant of time when he was to vindicate his too much abus'd Patience thereby betraying those of his Friends that came to second him into the scandal of a Crime which had it succeeded would have pass'd for a magnanimous piece of Justice in cutting off one whom however he was content to spare Providence it seems was not reserving him to die a more ignoble death and by a worse hand The sorrow for his ignominious fall as it much affected the Consumptive King his Nephew who was now left as a Lamb in the keeping of the Wolf the Duke of Northumberland having got as high in Power as Title by ruining the Family of the Seymours so his end which was not long after put an end to the Reformation and made way for the Dudley's to aspire with incredible Ambition and not without hope of setling the Succession of the Crown in themselves For the Duke finding that the King languish'd under a Hectical Distemper and having better assurance then perhaps any one else could from his Son that alwayes attended in his Bedchamber that it was impossible for him to hold out long for Reasons best known to him he cast about how to introduce the far fetch'd Title of his other Son who had married the Lady Jane Gray eldest Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk by the Lady Frances one of the Daughters and Heirs of Charles Brandon by his Wife Mary Queen of France the second Daughter of Henry the Seventh And however this seem'd to be a very remote pretention yet making way to other great Families to come in by the same Line in case her Issue fail'd as to the Earl of Cumberland who had married the other Daughter of Charles Brandon and to the Earl of Darby that had married a Daughter of that Daughter and to the Earl of Pembroke that had married the Lady Jane's second Sister it was back'd with so many well-wishers that it was become not only terrible to the Kingdom but to the King himself However there were two Objections lay in the way the one the preference that ought to be
made Captain of his Guard All persons out-law'd for Treason had their Utlaries revers'd all the bad Subjects were declar'd good and some of the best declar'd Traytors A Treaty of Peace was concluded with England upon Conditions that the Queen-Mother should never be releas'd and in order to the bringing on her Tryal as after it fell out which Tryal of the Mother prov'd yet a greater tryal to the King her Son who having before lost his Father and Grandfather by a dismal Fate both privately murther'd was much more abasht to appear so much a King and no King as to be a helpless Spectator now of his Mothers Tragedy made away by such a publick Tryal as seem'd to proclaim his weakness and shame more then her guilt This seem'd to be the very dregs of that bitter Cup whereof he had drank so largely a little before but being as he hop'd the last draught he was to take of Infelicity he bore it with suitable patience as became a Christian and a King But his Destinies decreed that there must yet be one Throw more before the Birth of his Greatness For however his Majesty clear'd up from the time of his Mothers departure like the Sun after a stormy Morning which becomes brighter and brighter as it draws nearer its Meridian yet there happen'd after all this an Eclipse that lasting only half an hour had like to have extinguish'd all his Light and Glory if a Hand from Heaven had not rescued him For the young Gowry who at the time of his Fathers death and long after continued in Italy the Country where they are learn'd in the Art of Revenge having found an opportunity to draw him again into that fatal Castle where he was before Prisoner to his Father under pretence of shewing him some Chymical Rarities got him up into some higher Rooms whiles his Servants were retired to eat it being presently after he had dined himself where by the help of his younger Brother and another appointed to assist them they intended to have assassinated him had not he that was to do the horrid Deed not only relented at the very instant when he drew his Sword upon him but turn'd his point upon his Fellow Regicide and thereby gave him time to step to a Window and call for help which came so timely to him as to rescue him by the death of the two Gowrys This though it was the last of Treasons was not yet the last of dangers he met with For after this mov'd by what Obligations besides that of Love I know not which commonly is not so domineering a Passion over Princes as private men he run as much danger at Sea as he had before at Land exposing himself to the mercy of that unruly Element at the most dangerous Season of the year to fetch over his Queen the Daughter of Frederick II. King of Denmark who having attempted several times to come to him was drove back and as 't is said by the power of Sorcery into Norwey which hazard being afterward recompenced by the satisfaction he had in the Vertue of his Wife and the hopes conceiv'd of the Children he had by her two Sons and a Daughter as he had no further cause to Fear so he had nothing further to wish but that lucky hit that came by the death of the late Queen Elizabeth to have the Glory of bringing this Isle so long divided from all the World to be at Unity within it self And now to the end he might take the Inclinations of the People at the first bound wherein no man was ever more skilfull then he he abrogated the two names of Distinction England and Scotland and reconciled them to each other under the comprehensive Appeliation of Great Britain restoring England to its old Name as he from whom he claim'd had restor'd the Crown to its ancient stock Fain he would have brought them under the unity of the same Laws but finding neither Nation pleas'd with the Proposal either being partial to their own Constitutions as fitted with due and different respects to their different Tempers Interests and Proprieties he quitted that Design as a Labour of too hard digestion But however the Reasons of State varied he was resolv'd to reconcile the Polity of the two Churches as in an Union of Possession so in an Uniformity of Government and Worship Those of his own Country having then no other Form but that impos'd upon them by Boanerges Fox without taking Counsel of Prince or Prelate which was not otherwise to be made good but by the same Violence with which it was at the first introduced against the Will of any of the Nobility but such whose Ancestors were brib'd by the Alienation of the Church Lands But before he could impose any thing upon them understanding there were many here in England that followed that Classical way he resolv'd to have a free Conference with the ablest of their Demagogues to the end that sounding the depth of their Principles he might if possible fathom that of their Piety which no man could better do then himself being an universal Scholar as well read in Men as Books and so transcendently versed in the last that he was not improperly stil'd Rex Platonicus How confident he was of his skill in discussing all points Theological appears by his entring the List with Pope Pius the Fourth and making him give ground Neither was he a little provoked to this Spiritual Warfare by a clamorous Petition pretended from a thousand dissatisfied Ministers who not having yet matter enough of just Complaint made up the Cry by the number of Complainants To whom while he was considering what Answer to give or rather how to make them answer themselves as after he did by taking each of them apart and commanding him to set down in Writing what it was he singly desired which when compared altogether prov'd so contradictory and absurd that like men brought to cudgel one another in the dark they withdrew with broken Pates he was interrupted by the Discovery of a Treason which coming on so early in the Dawn of his Government could not well be discovered what it was nor whereto it tended For whereas most other Conspiracies are hatch'd by men of the same Faction Interest and Judgment this strangely involv'd People of all sorts and conditions without respect to any Repugnancy of Quality or Concern Priests and Laymen Papists and Puritans Noblemen and Ignoble Citizens and Country-men were all piec'd up together in the same Combination but whether ingaged by Faction Ambition Covetousness or Malice was not known or at least by the Kings Wisdom conceal'd However by the well-known Names of the Principal Conspirators the Lord Cobham who was Lord-Warden of the Cinque Ports the Lord Gray of Wilton who had a great Post in the late Queens Government Sir Walter Rawleigh Lord-Warden of the Stanneries Sir John Fortescue Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Griffith Markham Sir Edward Parham and several
probability of Return whereby he became so much at ease in his own thoughts that being upon the wing again he thought himself not only Master of himself but of every body else and now despising all after-claps he seized upon all the Dukes Estate to his own use which as it look'd like a Revenge now he was dead that might have past for a piece of Justice if he had been living so it gave many cause to pity the Duke his Son who otherwise could have been well enough content never to have seen him more Neither was this the worst on 't but apprehending from what the King did to him what possibly he might do to any of them they made his particular suffering the ground of their Publick Resentment which Hereford took upon the first bound and made that good use of it that when he came after to claim the Crown that it appear'd the best colour of Right he had was from this wrong whereof yet the King was no way sensible who as I said before despising all dangers at home directed all his Caution to those abroad only taking with him young Henry of Monmouth the Duke of Hereford's and since his Fathers Death Duke of Lancaster's Son and Heir into Ireland whither he went to suppress some Rebels This however it seem'd to be an occasion of Glory which the Bravery of his Youth could not suffer him to pretermit whilst those petty Kings who were eye witnesses of his disproportionate Power taught their undisciplin'd People Obedience by the Example of their own Submission yet it prov'd an empty Affectation and so much more fatal in the Consequence by how much it was scarce possible to conceal much less recover his Error till the Exil'd Duke of Lancaster took his advantage of it who finding him out of his Circle return'd into England with that speed as if he had been afraid lest Fortune should change her mind before he could change his condition Great was the concourse of People that congratulated his Arrival neither was their confluence less considerable for Quality then Number the Archbishop of Canterbury banish'd for being one of the Confederates with the Duke of Gloucester the Earls of Northumberland Westmoreland Darby and Warwick the Lords Willoughby Ross Darcy Beaumont and divers others besides Knights and Esquires of great Repute in their Countries who offer'd to serve him with their Lives and Fortunes and as they mov'd they increas'd so fast that the Duke of York left Regent during the Kings absence thought it convenient to attend him at Berclay Castle and from thence to Bristow where the first Tragedy began for there finding the Earl of Wiltshire the Lord High Treasurer with Sir Henry Ewin Sir Henry Bussy both men of great note of the Kings party they arraign'd them there for misgoverning of the King and having smote off their Heads proceeded to imprison the Bishop of Norwich Sir William Elmeham Sir Walter Burleigh and divers others upon the same account setting up a direct Tyranny which continued six Weeks before the King by reason of contrary winds heard any thing of it Upon the first notice given him he made a shew of being so little concern'd at it that he declar'd he would not stir out of Dublin till all things fitting for his Royal Equipage were made ready but understanding afterward that they had seiz'd several of his Castles he sent over the Earl of Salisbury to make ready an Army against his landing promising to follow him in six dayes after but the Wind or rather his Mind changing the Earls Forces believing he might be dead disbanded again and left their unfortunate General to himself Eighteen dayes after this the King arriv'd who finding how things stood for they had taken off the Heads of several of his chief Councellors imprison'd the principallest of his Friends and gotten the possession of many of his strong Forts and Castles his Heart so fail'd him on the sudden that he immediately gave Command to the Army that was with him to Disband and so degenerate were his Fears that when he could not prevail with them to quit him for they all resolv'd to dye in his Defence and being mov'd with no less Pity then Duty to see him so dejected solemnly vow'd never to leave him he most wretchedly gave them the Temptation to break their Faith by leaving them first withdrawing himself by night unknown to Conway Castle where he understood the Earl of Salisbury was But as a King can no more hide himself then the Sun which however eclipsed cannot be lost so it was not long ere the Duke of Hereford found him out and drawing his Forces to Chester sent from thence the Earl of Northumberland to assure him of his Faith and Homage upon Condition he would call a free Parliament and there permit Justice to be done to him Here Fortune seems to have made one stand more to give him time if possible to recover himself but he instead of giving an Answer worthy the Dignity of a King did what was indeed unworthy a Private man begging of the Earl to interpose with the Duke for him that he might only have an honorable Allowance to lead a private life deposing himself unexpectedly before t'other could have the time and opportunity however he might have the thought to do it solemnly The notice hereof did not a little surprize the Duke when he heard of it who doubting least there was something more in it then he perceiv'd wisely kept himself within the bounds of seeming Obedience and treated his Majesty with all imaginable respect till they arrived at London then under pretence of securing him he lodg'd him in the Tower where he made him the Instrument of his own destruction by calling a Parliament that had no other business but to arraign his Government and impeach him and accordingly Articles were drawn up against him which shew how small a matter turns the Scale when Power is put into the Ballance against Justice The chief of them were as followeth 1. That he had been very profuse a very grievous Crime in a King so young 2. That he had put some to death that conspired to depose him 3. That he had borrowed more money then he was well able to pay the first King that ever lost his Crown for being in Debt and yet was not to be said he was altogether a Bankrupt that had in his Coffers when he dyed the value of Seven hundred thousand pounds 4. That he said the Law was in his Breast and Head and perhaps the Lawyers would have made it good if they durst who have given it for an Axiome of the Law that the King is Caput Principium Finis Justitiae 5. That he chang'd Knights and Burgesses of Parliament at his pleasure by making those Peers of the Realm whom he thought worthy the honour 6. That he said the Lives and Goods of his Subjects were under his power which shews what confidence he had in their
it or had she kept the Second Son which she had in her own hands after she saw what was like to become of the eldest that was in his 't is possible the one might have been a security for the other since without taking both the Treason had not been worth the hazard much less the guilt of destroying t'other and 't is more than probable she might have stop'd him upon the very last step to the Throne But yet it is hard to call that the Mothers fault which might be the Sons fate design'd by Destiny for ought we know to a Death as private as his Birth who was born whilst she was in a Cloyster and his Father in Banishment Fain she would have recover'd her Error when it was too late craving Protection for her self and the younger Children in a Sanctuary but in vain seek they Refuge from The Treachery of others who have been of the Plot to betray themselves the Protector resolved to have them all into his hands to effect which he makes the Effect become a Cause for finding the young King more than usually melancholly with the Apprehensions he had of the danger of his present condition he made that Melancholly an important reason for his brother to be brought to keep him company and because this could not be done without the Queens consent but by offering some Violation to the rights of Sanctuary it being reasonably to be supposed that she would never let the Child go without apparent force upon her he singled out a Clergy-man to be the Picklock of Priviledge a grave State-drudge and by his degree no worse a man then an Arch bishop who having only so much Divinity as to know that Obedience was better then Sacrifice so far perswaded or rather terrified the disconsolate Queen into a Complyance that she consulting with her Fears only gave up the innocent Infant to his Grace who thereby had the honour to be the third great Instrument in that great Treason that followed The Monster having thus got his desired Prey within his own Denn did not yet think fit to devour them immediately but before he entred upon so solemn an act of horrour as the plunging himself into that fathomless Gulf of Cruelty he thought fit to wade in blood by degrees that sounding the depth of the danger as well as of the guilt he was to enter into he might at the same time harden and secure himself First then he cut off all their Friends beheading the Lord Rivers Sir Anthony Woodvill and the principal persons of the Queens Relations upon pretence of treachery against his Person and Government which being in some sense true for doubtless they meant to oppose his intended Usurpation he thought it a reasonable Justification for taking their Lives In the next place he charged the Queen her self with Sorcery making the poor Innocent Jane Shore to be her Hand-mate in the Inchantation with whom the Lord Hastings having had a known Familiarity from the time of the death of King Edward he most maliciously design'd him to be their Accuser who scorning to assist him in such dark purposes was himself made a Conspirator with them being deservedly executed as a Traytor because he refused to be one his Execution following so close upon his Sentence and the Proclamation of his Treason so close upon that that at the reading of it in the Street a stander by observing how fairly they had drawn the foul Charge against him being ingrossed at large in Parchment he cried out aloud That it was written by Prophecy Thus having clear'd the Foundation and sufficiently tamper'd his Mortar with blood to make it more strong and binding he laid the Ground-work of his Usurpation upon the Illegitimacy of the two young Princes pretending that the King their Father was never lawfully married to the Queen their Mother but was before God Husband to the Lady Elizabeth Lucy This as it had something of Truth in point of Fact for 't is said he was betrothed to her so being matter of Divinity in point of Right it was agreed that a Chaplain to the Duke of Buckingham who was his great Confident and bound to him by the stipulation of a Match betwixt their Children and a promise of equal partition of the Treasure of the Kingdom should open the Case at large in a Sermon at Paul's Cross who taking his Text from that place where 't is said that Bastard Plants shall not Inherit so over-acted his part that he not only made King Edward's Children but he himself a Bastard too and all the Children of his Father the Duke of York the Protector only excepted who he said was the express Image of his Father and pre-ordained by God to the great Charge of the Kingly Office But all this was delivered with so apparent flattery and dissimulation that not believing himself 't is no wonder the People gave so little credit to him who instead of crying out thereupon as 't was expected they should God save King Richard cryed out the Devil take the shameless Preacher This scorn put upon the Priest or rather upon him did not yet so deter him but that two dayes after he sent the Duke himself into the City to see whether his Authority might move any thing more then the Doctors Eloquence who confidently affirm'd to the Citizens at Guild-hall That all the Nobility judging the Issue of King Edward spurious had chosen him to succeed and only expected a Declaration of their Consents But as it was not likely that they who but two dayes before could not be moved when they were told the Lord from Heaven had made choice of him should now concur in the Election with any Lords on Earth so neither could the Rhetorick of his Greatness prevail for any other confirmation then what was couched sub alto silentio This gave little satisfaction to his Lordship for that he knew it would give none to his Master and therefore rather then depart without something like a Vote he secretly ordered some few of his own Servants at the lower end of the Hall to cast up their Caps and cry King Richard King Richard which impudence of theirs though it apparently abasht the greatest part of the Company there yet his graceless Grace taking it up at the first bound for an unanimous consent said it was a goodly Cry and such as shew'd their universal approbation requiring thereupon the Mayor and his Fraternity to meet him the next day at the Protectors Court in Baynard's Castle in order to Petition him to accept their freely offer'd Subjection And here I cannot but think it worth the notice although we that have lived in these latter times have seen perhaps more exquisite Scenes of Hypocrisie to observe the instability and levity of the common Peoples Faith who like the Sea to which they are compared have their fluxes and refluxes of Loyalty It was not two dayes since they shew'd as great Affections to the Son as
Land was divided into two Armies the one consisting of Two and twenty thousand Foot and One thousand Horse commanded by the Earl of Leicester whose Post was at Tilbury The other consisting of Four and twenty thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse which were the Guard of her Person were Commanded by the Lord Hunsden the Sea-ports being Garrison'd with Twenty thousand old Souldiers who were seconded by the Train'd Bands in the respective Counties where they lay The Guard by Sea consisted of One hundred and forty Ships divided into three Squadrons The two first consisting of Fifty each under the Lord Howard the Admiral and Sir Francis Drake the Vice-Admiral waited the coming of the Enemy in Plymouth Road The last Squadron of Forty Commanded by the Rere-Admiral the Lord Henry Seymour second Son to the Duke of Somerset rode between Dunkirk and Callais to prevent any Conjunction with the Prince of Parma With this great Body she design'd to shew the World her Grandeur but when she meant to shew her Power she made use but of Fifteen of them Now as it happens oftentimes that great Calmes precede great Storms so the Catholick King hoping to out-wit the Heretick Queen a little before his great Fleet was ready to come forth dissembling a passionate desire of Peace press'd hard for a Treaty but whilst he thought to deceive her he was deceiv'd by her For she to return the trick upon him consented to the Proposal and by the sending her Commissioners to Ostend so possess'd him of the suppos'd Advantage he had gotten by it that it's thought it made him appear a little sooner then he would for before they could enter into the business he was entred into the British Seas and was no less shock'd when he found her in readiness then he expected she should have been if he had taken her unawares This made them resolve rather to make a Chase fight then lye by 't though they had the advantage of the Wind their honour being preserv'd till they came to Callais for that it was suppos'd all the haste they made away tended only to the Conjunction with the Prince of Parma but after they cut their Cables having not the Courage to stay to weigh Anchor and made all the Sail they could to fly from only eight Fire-ships it then plainly appear'd they neither understood their own Strength nor hers But these Ships being the first of that kind that ever were seen we may allow them to be The Wonder that gave Name to that wonderful Year In this great Conflict were lost more then half of the Spanish Fleet of the English only one Ship and that of no great Consideration so that 't was believ'd having sounded the danger of our Dark Seas passing round by the North they had taken their final Leave of England However the Queen was resolv'd not to leave them so but after much mischief done them by several Privateers whom she permitted to go forth upon their own Charge she resolv'd to become her self the Aggressor and repay to him the great dishonour of his Invasion it being an Indignity not to be forgiven by Princes because it cannot be forgotten by their People who can never be discharg'd from the Fears they have of him who has once set upon them till there be some Confront given that may assure them their own Prince is not so weak as the Enemy by seeking him out would have the World believe The Fleet she set forth consisted of One hundred and fifty Sail yet was not call'd the Invincible though it prov'd so being commanded by the Earl of Essex as General at Land and the Lord Howard as General at Sea who setting upon Cales the second time took it and in it all the Wealth that may be imagin'd to be lodg'd in such a Store-house as that is and after having burn'd all the Ships they found there for which they were offer'd Two Millions of Ducats if they would spare them they spoil'd the whole Island and demolish'd all the Forts and did as 't is thought as much Damage as amounted to Twenty Millions of Ducats more To requite which the King of Spain rigg'd up another Navy and mann'd it with Irish Runnagado's but either their Skill or their Courage failed them at least the Winds did not so favour them but that the Expedition came to nought And now when all the Storms at Sea seem'd to have been blown over and past there rose a Cloud at Land which gave the Queen greater apprehensions of danger then ever she had before The French King who was joyn'd with her in a League Offensive and Defensive against Spain and had reap'd this good Effect by it to recover Amiens which the Spaniard had surpriz'd by the help of the English only yeilding to the Importunities of the Pope and his own People made his Peace without her who quitting his Religion at the same time he quit her Friendship 't was believ'd they would all joyn to set upon her at once Hereupon there were great Debates in Councel upon the point of her closing with the Spaniard who seem'd much to desire a Peace Essex the great Idol of the Sword-men was for continuing the War Burleigh who was the great Patron of the Pen-men was for the Peace And it seems they argued the matter so warmly that being scarce able to keep Peace amongst themselves 't was not likely they should obtain it abroad For Essex could not forbear unseemly Reflections upon the old man nor he from retorting them back as sharply who 't is said being more witty in his Anger call'd for a Bible at the Table and shewing him that Verse in the Psalms where 't is said The bloody minded man shall not live out half his dayes gave him grave warning by an ominous Presage of that which follow'd for we know how shortly after he swell'd and burst However the Queen mov'd with like Zeal to Religion as Essex was with hatred to the Spaniard inclin'd to his Opinion whereupon Cecil submitted to her Judgment but pray'd to have the Question put first to the States of Holland her Confederates Whether they would agree to her making Peace and knowing it to be against their Interest so to do he took the Advantage of their Refusal to demand an aid towards the carrying on of the War out of whom by that trick of State he did her this good Service against her will to screw Eight hundred thousand pounds which being to be paid by Thirty thousand pounds yearly for which the Queen had Cautionary Towns given as a Security it look'd so like a Tribute that after their having offer'd her the Soveraignty as they did 't is hard to prove it was not so And now casting up the Accompt betwixt her and the Spaniard who was her greatest and not to say her only Enemy for the Pope however he bore no less hatred to her yet being at that distance as he was he could not come to close
Discouragements Whilst those of the Royal Party impatient to see the King so much less then he should be thought it as necessary as just to attempt the making him something more then ever he had been but straining the Sinew-shrunk Prerogative beyond its wonted height disjoynted the whole Frame of Government and broke those Ligaments of Command and Obedience whereby Prince and People are bound up together Unhappy King to whom the love and hatred of his People was alike fatal who whilst himself was thus unhappily ingaged against himself was sure to be the Loser which side soever was the Gainer and so much the more miserable by how much even Victory it self must at once weary and wast him but great was his Prudence as great his Patience And next the Power of making Tempests cease Walleri Was in this Storm to have so calm a Peace Behold now the great Soveraign of the Seas expos'd as it were upon a small Raft to the raging of the People as a Shipwrackt Pilot to that of the Sea without any hope but what was next despair to recover some desolate Rock or Isle where he might rest himself in the melancholy expectation of being deliver'd as it were by Miracle So he being drove first from London to York from thence having in vain tryed to touch at Hull passed on to Nottingham where he set up his Standard but not his rest from thence he marched to Leicester so towards Wales and having a while refreshed himself at Shrewsbury after divers tossings and deviations fix'd at last at Oxford the famous Seat of the Muses ill Guards to a distressed King and perhaps no great Assistants to those about him who were to live by their Wits Here he continued near three years acting the part of a General rather then a King his Prerogative being so pinion'd and his Power so circumscrib'd that as none of his own People paid him Homage where he could not come to force it so the Neighbour States of the United Netherlands though they disown'd not a Confederation with him made so little shew of having any regard to his Amity as if it were Evidence enough of their being his Friends that they did not declare themselves his Enemies Only the Complemental State of France sent over a glorious * Prince liurcourt Ambassador who under the pretence of Mediating a Peace was really a Spy for continuing the War The only fast Friend he had was his helpless Uncle the King of Denmark who was so over-match'd by the Swede all that time that he could give little or no assistance to him During his abode here he did as much as the necessity of his streightned Condition would permit convening another Parliament there to Counter those at Westminster least it should be thought there was a Charm in the name where there appear'd no less then One hundred and forty Knights and Gentlemen in the lower House and in the upper House Twenty four Lords Nineteen Earls Two Marquesses and Two Dukes besides the Lord Treasurer the Lord Keeper the Duke of York and the Prince of Wales who if they were not equal in number as some think they were were much more considerable in quality then that other Parliament at London But being a Body without Sinews they sate as so many Images of Authority or if with decency we may say it like Legislators in Effigie Those at Westminster having in this the better of them that they had got into their hands that pledge of extraordinary Power the Dominion of the Sea which was a sufficient Caution for that by Land †Cic. ad Artic. lib. 10. Epist 7. Nam qui Mare teneat eum necesse est Rerum potiri This brought in Wealth that brought in Men the Men brought in Towns and Provinces under their Subjection so that we find they had an intire Association of divers whole Counties when the King could assure himself of no more then what he made Title to by his Sword Even Yorkshire it self the first County that he made tryal of entring almost as soon as he was gone out of it into Articles of Neutrality But notwithstanding all the disadvantages he had by want of Men and Money of Means and Credit yet we see he brought the Ballance of the War to that even poise that it rested at last upon the Success of one single Battel to turn the Scale either way for had they been beaten at Naseby where they got the day they had been as undoubtedly ruin'd as he was by loosing it which Battel being the last ended as Edge-hill did that was the first with that sinister Fortune to have the left Wings on each side routed by those of the right But the advantage the * So those who served the Parliament were call'd from the shortness of their hair as it was generally worn generally worn amongst those of the Puritan party Round-heads had in this was that they had not forgot the disadvantage of the former Fight but early quitting their pursuit return'd time enough to relieve their distressed Foot and so by their Wisdom recover'd that fatal advantage which the †The Kings Party were so call'd because those that appear'd first on his side were most of them Gentlemen on Horse-back Cavaliers lost by their Courage who pursuing their half-got Victory too far lost the whole unexpectedly In this Battel as in that the Royal Standard was taken and as the King lost his General then so he lost himself acting the Generals part now his Power crumbling away so fast after the loss of this Day for in less then four Months time twenty of his chief Garrisons surrendred General Goring was routed at Lamport the Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale near Sherborn which we know caus'd a more unlucky Rout after at Newark the Lord Wentworth was surpriz'd ar Bovy-tracy the Lord Hopton routed at Torrington the Lord Ashly at Stow upon the Wold that he was never able to repair the Breaches made daily upon him but was forc'd to quit his faultring Friends and cast himself into the hands of his fawning Enemies the Scots who having kept all this while hovering at a distance like Eagles that follow Armies for prey expecting what might be the Issue whilst the English were so busie in cutting one anothers Throats were resolv'd to let him know what value they put upon him and accordingly gave notice to the Parliament of his being with them which begot a hot dispute betwixt them for a while to whom of right the Royal Prisoner belonged till in the end it concluded with redeeming the good King by a good Sum who taught them thus to betray him by first betraying himself the failure of their Faith being grounded upon that of his own who had he kept upon the Wing as one observes whilst his Party was beating in the Covert might possibly have retreiv'd the Quarrey and by retiring into some place of present safety recover'd himself