for at my hands Thus the Beams of Majesty had an influence upon every branch and leaf of the Kingdom by reflecting upon the Root their Representative Body every particular expecting what fruit this Sun-shine would produce striving as much to insinuate into him as he did into the general so that there was a Reciprocal Harmony between the King and the People because they courted one another But when the Kings Bounty contracted it self into private Favourites as it did afterwards bestowing the affection he promised the whole people upon one man when the golden showers they gaped for dropt into some few chanels their passions flew higher than their hopes The Kings aims were to unite the two Kingdoms so that the one might corroborate the other to make good that part of his Speech by this intermixtion wherein he divides England and Scotland into halves But the English stumbled at that partition thinking it an unequal division and fearing that the Scots creeping into English Lordships and English Ladies Beds in both which already they began to be active might quickly make their least half the predominant part But he was Proclaimed King of Great Britain England must be no more a Name the Scotish Coyns are made currant and our Ships must have Saint Georges and Saint Andrews Crosses quartered together in their Flags all outward Ensigns of Amity But those English that had suckt in none of the sweets of this pleasant Stream of Bounty repined to see the Scots advanced from blew Bonnets to costly Beavers wearing instead of Wadmeal Velvet and Satin as divers Pasquils written in that Age Satyrically taunted at Which is not set down here to vilifie the Scots being most of them Gentlemen that had deserved well of their Master but to shew how cross to the publick Appetite the Hony-comb is that another man eats But the King like a wise Pilot guided the Helm with so even an hand that these small gusts were not felt It behoved him to play his Master-prize in the Beginning which he did to the life for he had divers opinions humours and affections to grapple with as well as Nations and 't is a very calm Sea when no billow rises The Romanists bogled that he said in his Speech They were unsufferable in the Kingdom as long as they maintained the Pope to be their Spiritual Head and He to have power to dethrone Princes The Separatists as the King called them were offended at that Expression wherein he professed willingly if the Papists would lay down King-killing and some other gross errors he would be content to meet them half way So that every one grounded his hopes or his fears upon the shallows of his own fancy not knowng yet what course the King would steer But these sores being tenderly dealt with did not suddenly fester but were skinned over The King desirous of the Title Pacificus did not only close with his own Subjects but healed up also that old wound that had bled long in the sides of England and Spain both being weary of the pain both willing to be cured The King of Spain sent the Constable of Castile with a mighty Train of smooth-handed Spaniards to close up the wound on this side where the old Enmity being well mortified they were received with singular Respect and Civility The King of England sent his High Admiral the Earl of Notingham with as splendid a Retinue of English to close it on that Who being Personages of Quality accoutred with all Ornaments suitable were the more admired by the Spaniards for beauty and excellency by how much the Iesuits had made impressions in the vulgar opinion That since the English left the Roman Religion they were transformed into strange horrid shapes with Heads and Tails like Beasts and Monsters So easie it is for those Iuglers when they have once bound up the Conscience to tye up the Vnderstanding also EARL OF NOTTINGHAM GEORGE CAREW EARL OF TOTNES And to satisfie the Kings desires about an Vnion betwixt England and Scotland the Parliament made an Act to authorise certain Commissioners viz. Thomas Lord Ellesmere Lord Chancellor of England Thomas Earl of Dorset Lord Treasurer of England Charles Earl of Notingham Lord High Admiral of England Henry Earl of Southampton William Earl of Pembroke Henry Earl of Northampton Richard Bishop of London Tobie Bishop of Duresme Anthony Bishop of Saint Davids Robert Lord Cecil Principal Secretary Edward Lord Zouch Lord President of Wales William Lord Mounteagle Ralph Lord Eure Edmund Lord Sheffeild Lord President of the Council in the North Lords of the Higher House of Parliament And Thomas Lord Clinton Robert Lord Buckhurst Sir Francis Hastings Knight Sir Iohn Stanhope Knight Vice-Chamberlain to his Majesty Sir Iohn Herbert Knight second Secretary to his Majesty Sir George Carew Knight Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen Sir Thomas Strickland Knight Sir Edward Stafford Knight Sir Henry Nevill of Berk-shire Knight Sir Richard Bukley Knight Sir Henry Billingsley Knight Sir Daniel Dun Knight Dean of the Arches Sir Edward Hobby Knight Sir Iohn Savile Knight Sir Robert Wroth Knight Sir Thomas Chaloner Knight Sir Robert Maunsel Knight Sir Thomas Ridgeway Knight Sir Thomas Holcroft Knight Sir Thomas Hesketh Knight Atturney of the Court of Wards Sir Francis Bacon Knight Sir Lawrence Tanfield Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Henry Hubberd Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Iohn Bennet Doctor of the Laws Sir Henry Withrington Sir Ralph Grey and Sir Thomas Lake Knights Robert Askwith Thomas Iames and Henry Chapman Merchants Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons or any eight of the said Lords and twenty of the said Commons Which Commissioners shall have power to assemble meet treat and consult with certain select Commissioners to be nominated and authorised by Authority of the Parliament of Scotland concerning such Matters Causes and things as they in their Wisdoms shall think and deem convenient and necessary for the honour of the King and common good of both Kingdoms Yet the good intentions of this Vnion took no effect as will follow in the sequel of this History But there were a great many good Laws made which are too voluminous for this place having a proper Sphere of their own to move in Thus the King sate triumphing as it were upon a Throne of his Peoples Affections and his beginnings had some settlement for being loth to be troubled he sought Peace every-where But our inbred distempers lay upon the Lee intermixt with other gross dregs that the Princes lenity and the Peoples luxury produced For the King minding his sports many riotous demeanours crept into the Kingdom the Sun-shine of Peace being apt for such a production upon the slime of the late War The Sword and Buckler trade being now out of date one corruption producing another the City of London being always a fit Receptacle for such whose prodigalities and wastes made them Instruments of Debaucheries divers Sects of vitious Persons going under the
the violence of foul weather split in pieces Mansfeldt and some of his followers with difficulty escaping in her long Boat got aboard a Pink that brought him into England the Captain and the rest of the company attending the Ships fate were swallowed up in the Sea While Mansfeldt remained in England after some few nights he was lodged at Saint Iames's the Prince's house served and attended in great State by some of the King's Officers and feasted by divers of the Nobility with much magnificence In which time a Press went through the Kingdom for raising twelve thousand foot which with some Cavalry that Mansfeldt expected in Germany and France would make up the Body of a considerable Mansfeldt's design was to go into Germany through France and he had fair Promises from thence not only of admission to pass through the Country but assistance from it These 12000 were digested into Six Regiments The Collonels were the Earl of Lincoln The Lord Doncaster eldest Son to the Earl of Carlile The Lord Cromwel Sir Charles Rich Sir Iohn Burrows late Governour of Frankendale and Collonel Grey a Scotchman that had been an old German Commander one that affected Buff in the time of Peace and wore it in the face of the Court which the King seeing him in and a case of Pistols at his girdle which he never well liked of he told him merrily He was now so fortified that if he were but well victualled he would be impregnable Two Troops of Horse were also raised for this service the Earl of Lincoln had the command of the one and one Gunter an ordinary Horse-Rider was thought the fittest man to command the other as if none could command Horse but such as could make them curvet in a Riding-House And the Ignorance of these times shews that unpractical Reason cannot put forth itself to the height being bound up for want of Exercise for we set a Valuation and esteem upon German and French Horse when like them we knew not our own strength for there are not in the World a more gallant Cavalry both for the Activity of the Riders and Ability of the Horses than may be formed in England as experience hath lately demonstrated These being already in Kent for Transport about the beginning of February and Shipping provided the French began to falter in their Promises notwithstanding Our intimate Correspondence by the Treaty of Marriage agreed on pleading many inconveniencies in the passing of an Army through the Country and the more because Our Men were so unruly in Kent where some of them were tryed by Marshal-Law what would they be then in a strange Country These being but demurs not denials the whole Army is Shipped and put over to Callais to wait the French leisure but the charge of Shipping being above a hundred Sail that attended that service required more speed than their faint and sickly Promises did expedite for the French dallying with them and delaying them happily upon Design the Queen of France being then more affected to the Spanish and a less enemy to her blood and kindred than they have found her since after a long stay Mansfeldt was forced to leave the hopes of his French Horse and sail with his Army into Zealand There the Soldiers lay at the Ramkins a long time in their Ships not suffered to land for the States not dreaming of such a Body of men could not determine suddenly what to do with them besides the Inland waters being frozen Provisions would grow short for their own Army much more for them After some stay in Zealand they sailed up to Guertenberg in Brabant which Town being not well provided with Victuals they were not suffered to land but continuing on Shipboard the Ships stuffed and pestred with men wanting Meat and all manner of Necessaries such a Stench and Pestilence grew among them that they were thrown into the Sea by multitudes so that many hundreds if I may not say thousands beaten upon Shores had their bowels eaten out with Dogs and Swine to the Horror of the Beholders Those bodies that drive up near those Towns where the English were had great pits made for them wherein being thrown by heaps they were cover'd with earth but upon those shores where they were neglected as they were in many parts of Holland a great Contagion followed And of Mansfeldt's twelve thousand men scarce the moity landed This Winter Quarter at Rosendale was also fatal to the Earl of Southampton and the Lord Wriothsley his Son Being both sick there together of burning Feavers the violence of which distemper wrought most vigorously upon the heat of youth overcoming the Son first and the drooping Father having overcome the feaver departed from Rosendale with an intention to bring his Son's body into England but at Berghen ap Zome he dyed of a Lethargy in the view and presence of the Relator and were both in one small bark brought to Southampton PRAENOBIL Dê° HENRIC VRIOTHESLEY COMI SOUTHAMPTON BAR TITCHFEILDIAE ETC. Right Honourable and most noble HENRY Wriothsley Earle of Southampton Baron of Titchfeild Knight of the most nob Ord of the Garter The Marquess Hamilton died before Our King suspected to be poisoned the Symptoms being very presumptuous his head and body swelling to an excessive greatness the body being all over full of great blisters with variety of Colours the hair of his Head Eye-brows and Beard came off being touched and brought the Skin with them and there was a great Clamor of it about the Court so that Doctors were sent to view the Body but the matter was hudled up and little spoken of it only Doctor Eglisham a Scotch-man was something bitter against the Duke as if he had been the Author of it The Marquesses Son had a little before married the Earl of Denbigh's Daughter who was the Duke of Buckingham's Neece and yet this Tie could not oblige a friendship betwixt them because thee Marquess was averse to the Marriage This Distance and other Discontents occasioned some tumorous Discourses which reflected much upon the Duke but they never broke out in this King's time being bound up close as it was thought more by the Duke's Power than his Innocency And not long after him whether our King's care for his Grand-children or the hazard and danger of his own Person at home being ever full of fears or his ingagement in a War abroad being contrary to his very Nature or whether his full feeding and continual use of sweet Wines which he abundantly affected set the gross Humors a work or what other Accident caused his Distemper is uncertain but he fell sick of a Tertian Ague which is not dangerous in the Spring if we believe the Proverb and had some few fits of it After which he fell into a Feaver which was too violent for him A little before his Death he called for the Prince his Son who rising out of his bed something before day and
the delights she suckt in there made his condition again known to her Father The old man being troubled with his Daughters disobedience imbitter'd her being near him with wearisome and continual chidings to wean her from the sweets she doted on and with much ado forced her into the Country But how harsh was the parting being rent away from the place where she grew and flourished Yet she left all her Engines and Imps behind her the old Doctor and his Confederate Mrs. Turner must be her two supporters She blazons all her miseries to them at her depart and moystens the way with her tears Chartley was an hundred miles from her happiness and a little time thus lost is her eternity When she came thither though in the pleasantest time of Summer she shut herself up in her Chamber not suffering a beam of light to peep upon her dark thoughts If she stirred out of her Chamber it was in the dead of Night when sleep had taken possession of all others but those about her In this implacable sad discontented humour she continued some moneths always murmuring against but never giving the least civil respect to her Husband which the good man suffered patiently being loth to be the divulger of his own misery yet having a manly courage he would sometimes break into a little passion to see himself sleighted and neglected by himself but having never found better from her it was the easier to bear with her Robert Earle of Essex his Excellence Generall of the Army etc For coming to London next Winter with this full sail loaden with lust she found the Viscount much prepared for her who being at first fastned on the Object absence and all those little Artifices that mischievous Women and cunning Impostures could devise had advanced him as much in his desires as they had hindred the other We could dispute the Nature of these Operations how far they are Contingent and how the fancy works with them though ignorant of them making their impulsions more active being the sparks that kindle this combustible matter for we will never allow there was any other Diabolical means used Nature being strong enough for such a production but being not pertinent to the Story will leave it and follow them that found the effects of it and had affections suitable to it which they made use of with an unbridled appetite yet meeting closely in corners Sin being at first shamefaced but afterwards they grew more bold and every hour that the Viscount could steal from his Royal Master he dedicated it to his Disloyal Mistris being caught in this Net of Adulation he becomes a willing Prisoner Lust only getting liberty to all looseness and licentiousness Places of frequent Meetings are daily renewed Persons fitted for such practices are employed and when Nature was exhausted Art her subtil Imitator brought in her store to contribute new Spirits purchased at any rate All outward Adornment to present Beauty in her full Glory were not wanting on both sides being Lusts fuel which tended to the Consumption of all Reason And among the rest yellow starch the invention and foyl of Iaundice Complexions with great Cut-work Bands and Piccadillies a thing that hath since lost the name crouded in and flourished among us Mrs. Turner being nominoted to be the first Contriver happily in England but the Original came out of France which fashion and colour did set off their lean sallow countenances Thus did the Viscount get the Conquest of two the King and this Lady but could not subdue his own lustful Appetite The Wheel of Fortune running towards the Scots turned by the Viscount Rochester was unhappily diverted upon the Lord Sanquir a Baron of that Nation and married to a good Family in England who some years before meeting with a sturdy Fencer one Iohn Turner who was a Master of the Weapon-Trade in his own School the young Lord strove to put some affront upon him making it no little Conquest to disgrace a Master in the Art as they termed it and the man apprehensive of the Attempt with a bold rudeness prest so hard upon him that he thrust out one of the Barons eyes This business was much regretted by Turner and the Baron being conscious to himself that he meant his Adversary some ill took the Accident with as much patience as men that lose one eye by their own default use to do for the preservation of the other Some time after being in the Court of the late great Henry of France and the King courteous to Strangers entertaining discourse with him askt him how he lost his eye he cloathing his answer in a better shrowd than a plain Fencers told him it was done with a Sword The King replies Doth the man live And that question gave an end to the Discourse but was the beginner of a strange Confusion in his working Fancy which neither Time nor Distance could compose carrying it in his breast some years after till he came into England where he hired two of his Country-men Gray and Carlile men of low and mercenary spirits to murther him which they did with a Case of Pistols in his own House in White-Fryars many years after the loss of his bodily eye thus the Baron lost the eye of his Reason This bold nefarious Act was very deeply resented at Court and the Kings Commands were so active for apprehension of the murderers that they were all three taken one upon the Borders of Scotland so far had his fears carried him another in a Ship bound for Hamburgh who scaping in a Storm the Seas delivered up and the Lord himself being obscured in this Tempest of his Soul hearing a thousand pound was offered to bring his Head so liberal was the King for Iustice threw himself into the Arms of his Mercy by the mediation of the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury to whom he presented himself an Object of pity but no intercession could prevail their lives satisfied the Law the Baron not having the honour of a Noble death Edward Earle of Dorset Lord Chamberlaine to the Queene etc. The Kings affections were not so monopolized but that his crafty Servant the Earl of Salisbury had a good hole as well in his Councils as Treasure And being not well pleased to see himself bearded by a Youth new started into the affairs of the World and mounted by the wing of love not of merit he cast out many mists before him to hinder and damp his passage so that the Viscount could not rise to that pitch during his life that he afterwards arrived at And one thing among the rest he obstructed was five thousand pounds the King had given him to maintain his Riot Which sum the Treasurer thought too great a bulk to be carried lightly away and therefore he desired the King might see what he did And having layd the money in Silver upon Tables in his Gallery at Salisbury-house he invited the King to dinner making
acted Overtly the other Covertly in dark Corners and she and her Agents find fit Ministers for both The Earl of Northampton resenting his Nieces grievances makes the King acquainted with her Maiden bashfulness how loth she is to divulge her Husbands infirmities and how long it is since her Marriage and yet she hath not enjoyed the happiness of a Wife that her Husbands inability must needs be an unnatural conjunction such as neither Law nor Reason can admit of and that there was a great affection betwixt the Viscount and her so as there seemed to be a more excellent sympathy and sweet composition of Soul in them more suitable Reason and Nature than in the state she was in Which was seconded by the Viscounts humble submissions to the Kings great wisdom who he acknowledged had not only raised him to what he is but may yet make him more happy by uniting him to a Lady of so much honour and vertue The King that took delight to compleat the happiness of them he loved commanded the Bishops to sue out a Divorce between the Earl of Essex and his Lady that the Viscount might marry her For he had been practised formerly in Scotland in his minority with the like experiment Elizabeth Daughter to the Earl of Athol being married to the Earl of March under pretence of impotency but meerly for lust as the Author reports was Divorsed from her Husband and married to the Earl of Arran the Kings Favourite who had been before a Partner in her Adulterous Sheets so current is the Parallel and so equally are lust and ambition yoked together that they both with full violence draw one and the same way The Bishops and others having a Commission under the great Seal of England to convent the Earl of Essex and his Countess before them sent out their Summons and they made their appearance accordingly But before they proceeded they caused a Iury of twelve discreet Matrons to be impannelled to search the Countess whether she were as she pretended to be and was reputed a Maid still for if she were a Maid they could fasten upon a Nullity and so separate them for the more honour of her Virginity The Countess being ashamed and bashful to come to such a Tryal would not expose her face to the light but being to appear before the Matrons under a Veil another young Gentlewoman that had less offended was fobbed into the place and she passed in the opinion both of Iury and Iudges to be a Virgin Then the Articles were drawn up where she accused her Husband of impotency and that he was hindred with a perpetual and incurable impediment whereby he is unable to have carnal copulation with her with frigiditas quoad hâ—nc often reiterated c. The good Earl willing to be rid of so horrid a mischief did acknowledge he had attempted to enjoy her many times but he never did nor could carnally know her and believed he never should Upon these Grounds the Iudges proceed to a Divorce Declaring That Robert Earl of Essex and the Lady Frances Howard contracted by shew of Marriage did cohabit in one House and lie together in one Bed Nudum cum Nuda Solus cum Sola and that the said Lady Frances did shew her self prompt and ready to be known of him and that the said Earl neither did nor could have knowledg of her although he did think himself able to have knowledg of other Women And that the said Lady Frances by inspection of her Body by Midwives expert in matter of Marriage was proved to be apt for carnal copulation with Man and yet a Virgin Therefore we the said Iudges deputed in the Cause first invocating the Name of Christ and setting God before our eye do pronounce decree and declare That the Earl of Essex for some secret incurable binding impediment did never carnally know or was or is able carnally to know the Lady Frances Howard And therefore we do pronounce have decreed and do declare the pretended Marriage so contracted and solemnized de facto between them to have been and to be utterly void and to no effect and that they did want and ought to want the strength of the Law And that the Lady Frances was and is and so ought to be free and at liberty from any Bond of such pretended Marriage de facto contracted and solemnized And we do pronounce that she ought to be Divorsed and so we do free and Divorce her leaving them as touching other Marriages to their Conscience in the Lord. Which our Definitive Sentence and Decree we ratifie and publish Thomas Wint. Lancel Elie. Rich. Coven Lichfield Iohn Roffe Bishops Iulius Caesar Thomas Parry Daniel Dun Knights These Bishops and the rest of the Judges could not be ignorant what scandalous reports of this Ladies actions flew up and down from lip to lip which however sweetned by the Partakers carried an ill savour with them in every honest understanding who were not blinded with wilfulness or deafned with prejudice which made the Bishops of Canterbury and London decline the business though nominated in the Patent But Kings will never want fit Ministers in corrupted Times both in Church and Common-wealth as long as there are Degrees and Places of Ascent to clime to And though these things floated awhile upon the Stream of Greatness yet there is One above that moves the Waters who did not only see what passed in the Bishops Palace but in the closest Prison which he discovered to the shame and ruin of the Actors For while this Wheel was turning at Lambeth the other Wheel had its motion in the Tower Mrs. Turner the Mistriss of the Work had lost both her supporters Forman her first prop dropt away suddenly by death and Gresham another rotten Engin that succeeded him did not hold long She must now bear up all her self But she wrought in a Mine of inexhaustible Treasure therefore she may buy instruments at any rate One Weston is thought on for this Vnder-work who was sometime Doctor Turners her Husbands man and hath a little experience in the nature of poysonous Drugs This venomous Plant is sent for out of the Country to be transplanted here and two hundred pounds promised to disperse his Venom so as it may be killing Sir Thomas Monson is made by the Countess to recommend him to Sir Iervis Ellowis and he to Sir Thomas Overbury to wait on him where he goes under the character of a right honest man making it good with a sober and fair outside the true vizard of Hypocrisie a fit Pipe for such corrupted Waters to run through which must be provided by one Franklin a swarthy sallow crooked-backt fellow who was to be the Fountain whence these bitter waters came THE Portracture of Sir THOMAS OVERBURY Knight AETAT 32 But these lingring operations do not suit with the Countesses implacable humor Weston is chid by Mrs. Turner for being so
and compunction asked him forgiveness and afterwards again of his own motion desired to have his like prayer of forgiveness recommended to his Mother who was absent And at both times out of the abundance of his heart confessed that he was to die justly and that he was worthy of death And after again at his Execution which is a kind of sealing time of Confessions even at the point of death though there were Tempers about him he did again confirm publickly that his Examinations were true and that he had been justly and honourably dealt with So here is a period of this man which was the subject of this calumny or affront of Iustice. Wherein Mr. Lumsden plays his part first who in the time between Westons standing mute and his Tryal frames a most odious and libellous Relation containing as many untruths as lines sets it down in writing with his own hand and delivers it to one of the Bedchamber to be put into the Kings hands falsifying all that was done the first day of Westons Arraignment turning the pike and point of his imputations upon the Lord Chief Justice of England whose name thus occurring I cannot pass by and yet I cannot skill of this same Flattery or vulgar Attribute but this I will say of him and I would say as much to Ages That never mans person and his place were better met in a business than my Lord Cook and my Lord Chief Iustice in the Cause of Overbury Now for the person of Master Lumsden I know he is a Scotch Gentleman and thereby more ignorant of our Laws but I cannot tell whether this doth extenuate his fault or increase it for as it may extenuate it in respect of ignorance so it doth aggravate it much in respect of presumption to meddle in that he understood not unless some other mans cunning wrought upon this mans boldness The infusion of a slander into a Kings ear is of all forms of Libels and Slanders the worst It is true that Kings may keep secret their information and then no man can enquire after them while they are shrined in their Breast but where a King is pleased that a man shall answer for his false information divers precedents of slanderous Petitions have been as severly punished as slanderous Libels For the Offence of Sir Iohn Wentworth and Sir Iohn Hollis which was to scandalize the Iustice already past or to cut off the thread of something that is to come these two Gentlemen came mounted on Horseback and in a ruffling and facing manner presumed to Examin Weston whether he did poyson Overbury or no directly cross to that which had been tried and judged For what was the Point tried That Weston had poysoned Overbury And Sir Wentworth's question was whether he did poyson him A direct Contradictory Whereupon Weston answered that he did him wrong and turning to the Sheriff said You promised me I should not be troubled at this time and yet nevertheless Wentworth prest him to answer that he might pray with him l know not that Sir Iohn Wentworth is an Ecclesiastick that he should cut any man from communion of Prayer and for all this vexing of the spirit of a poor man now in the gate of death Weston stood constant and said I die not unworthily my Lord Chief Iustice hath my mind under his hand and he is an honourable and just Iudg. Sir Iohn Hollis was not so much a Questionist but wrought upon the other Questions and like a Counsellor wisht him to discharge his Conscience and to satisfie the World What World I marvel It was the World at Tyburn For the World at Guildhall and the World at London were satisfied before Teste the Bels that rang every where But men have got a fashion now a-days that two or three busie bodies will take upon them the name of the World and broach their own conceit as if it were a general opinion Well what more When they could not work upon Weston Sir Iohn Hollis in an indignation turned about his horse as the other was turning to his death and said he was sorry of such a Conclusion That was to have the State honoured or justified Sir Iohn Hollis offence hath another Appendix before this in time which was at the day of the Tryal He presumed to give his Verdict openly That if he were of the Iury he would not doubt what to do Marry he saith he cannot well tell whether he spoke this before the Iury had given up their Verdict or after Wherein there is little gained for whether he were a Praejuror or a Postjuror the one was to prejudice the Iury the other was to attaint them The offence of these Gentlemen is greater and more dangerous than is conceived We have no Spanish Inquisition no Iustice in a corner no gagging of mens mouths at their death but they may speak freely to the last but then it must come from the free motion of the party not by tempting of Questions The Questions that are asked ought to tend to further revealing of their own or others guiltiness But to use a Question in the nature of a cross interrogatory to falsifie that which is Res judicata is intolerable That were to erect a Court or Commission of review at Tyburn against the Court of Westminster For if the Answer be according to the Judgment past it adds credit to Iustice if it be contrary it derogateth nothing yet it subjecteth the Majesty of Iustice to a popular vulgar talk and opinion My Lords these are great and dangerous offences for if we do not maintain Iustice Iustice will not maintain us Then the Examinations being read and further aggravated against these three Gentlemen there passed Judgment upon them of Fine and lmprisonment Sir Thomas Monson another of the Countesses Agents in this poysoning contrivance had past one days Tryal at Guildhall But the Lord Chief Justice Cook in his Rhetorical Flourishes at his Arraignment vented some expressions which he either deduced from Northamptons assuring the Lieutenant of the Tower that the making away of Sir Thomas Overbury would be acceptable to the King or from some other secret hint received as if he could discover more than the death of a private person intimating though not plainly that Overburies untimely remove had something in it of retaliation as if he had been guilty of the same Crime against Prince Henry blessing himself with admiration at the horror of such actions In which he flew so high a pitch that he was taken down by a Court Lure Sir Thomas Monsons Tryal laid aside and he soon after set at liberty and the Lord Chief Justices wings were clipt for it ever after And it was rumor'd that the King heightned to so much passion by this eruption of Sir Edward Cooks went to the Council Table and kneeling down there desired God to lay a Curse upon him and his posterity for ever if he were consenting to Overburies death But this
and laid such Foundation for the future that Posterity may for ever build on So his passions and pride so were predominant that boyling over he lost by them much of his own fulness which extinguished not only the valuation but respect to his merit So often is that heat that gives life to noble Parts by a circular motion the ruin of them Yet to cool his distemper and to bring him to himself he is within a short time called to the Council Table the King being loth to lose his abilities The Lord Chancellor Ellesmer also about this time weary of his publick imployment and weakned with age desired the Kings leave to retire that he might make use of the short time left him to cast up his accounts for another World The King gave the Seal and the place of Lord Chancellor to Sir Francis Bacon his Attorney Ceneral and the old Lord Ellesmer wore out the remnant of his life in quiet dying in a good old age and full of virtuous fame leaving a Noble Posterity who enjoy a great Estate with the Title of Earl of Bridgwater Time and Age had also worn out Sir Ralph Winwood the Kings able faithful and honest Servant and Secretary who dying Sir Robert Nanton and Sir George Calvert were made Secretaries men of contrary Religions and Factions as they were then stiled Calvert being an Hispaniolized Papist the King matching them together like contrary Elements to find a medium betwixt them But the greatest remove was the Lord Treasurers staff which was broken by Somersets fall the way being now made plain and laid open that discovered the Treasurers imperfections and his Wives corruptions The Lady keeping the Shop and Sir Iohn Binglie her Officer crying What d' ye lack as the new Lord Chancellor Bacon was pleased to express himself in the Star-Chamber whither the business being brought the sore was open'd and all the bad humours flow to the ill-affected part Bribery and Extortion is the matter that appears which is squeez'd out and aggravated by Sir Edward Cook newly perkt up such is the Worlds bucket who very learnedly cited many Precedents of Treasurers in former Kings Reigns that miscarried and their several punishments He begins with Randulphus de Britton Treasurer to King Henry the third who had mis-imployed the Kings Treasure deceived the King in his Office for which he was questioned his Lands and Goods seized into the Kings hands and sent prisoner to the Tower where he submitted himself to the King confest his fault gave up his place pro Gratia habenda saith the Record obtained Restitution of his Goods and Lands paying only three thousand pounds Fine This was a piece of Wisdom saith he as well as Humility alluding to the present Lord Treasurers stout heart that would not submit The second was Petrus de Rivallis who was Treasurer of Ireland and Chamberlain of England in Edward the firsts time who had taken Bribes in his Office Tam de Religiosis quam de Laicis Of which being convicted he lost his place and was put to his Fine and Ransom And in the same Kings Reign The Abbot of Westminster and his virtuous Monks took out of the Kings Treasure at Westminster many thousand pounds Ad inastimabile damnum Regis Regni The Abbot being sent to the Tower and the Monks disposed to several prisons and notwithstanding they pleaded Priviledg of Clergy-men for their Tryal yet in the Case of imbezelling the Kings Treasure they had no Priviledg but the Temporalities of the Abby were seized for satisfaction In King Edward the seconds time Walter de Langton a Bishop was Treasurer to the King He did take of the Earl of Montealto to be a friend to him in agendis negotiis versus dominum Regem a hundred pounds the said Earl being a prisoner to let him go free to do his business And this was given as the Record speaks De spontanea voluntate for a Gratuity ex curialitate sua for his courtesie yet this was adjudged Extortion and Bribery Again Iohn de Engam was indicted of Trespass by this Bishop for the Mannor of Fisbie whereunto the King pretended Title and was by the Bishop imprisoned for the Trespass But afterwards another Mannor was conveyed to this Bishop ob diversas curialitates for courtesies that he had done and so Engam was discharged of his Indictment and though that the Bishop pleaded that Voluntas Regis potius ad imprisonamentam quam ad sinem because it was the Kings pleasure rather to punish by Imprisonment than Fine yet this was adjudged Bribery Again the Bayliff of Oxford was committed for Arrerages of a hundred pounds in his Account and thereupon the Mannor of Calcot was conveyed unto the Bishop and the Bishop of his pure devotion did discharge him of that Imprisonment But these were Pleas and Flourishes of guilty men as the Record saith but they were all three judged Extortion and Bribery and for these the Bishop was put from his place fined and committed to the Tower William Lord Latimer in Edward the thirds time being appointed to pay the Kings debts did buy in some of them at lower rates than was due as eighty pounds for a hundred and thirty pounds for forty By which course he made the King a Bankrupt Compounder and for this he was fined and lost all his Offices In like case was the Lord Nevil who was trusted to pay the Army but he bought the debt of them and justified that they gave him the remainder of their free gift but for this he was fined and committed to the Tower These and many other precedents and examples armed with Authority and Antiquity were mustered up and the Lord Treasurers miscarriages exasperated especially for embezelling those Moneys the King lately received of the State of the Netherlands for the redemption of the cautionary Towns Flushing and Brill which the King was forced to relinquish again to the States because he had no money to pay the Soldiers there and that money being designed for the lrish Army which was also in great Want it was thought the more heinous and a double miscarriage being it was so dearly bought and so unduly spent But the Earl himself being a man of a noble disposition though too indulgent to his too active Wife had retained the Kings favour if he had taken Sir Edward Cooks counsel and submitted and not strove to justifie his own integrity which he maintained with a great deal of confidence till it was too late for then his submission did him little good But his Wives faults being imputed to him he was fined thirty thousand pounds and imprisonment in the Tower Sir Iohn Bingly fined two thousand pounds and imprisonment in the Fleet For it was thought the Lord and Lady could not have found the way into these obscure low and dark contrivances without the light of his help Which Sentence was pronounced by the Lord Chancellor Bacon who though he
neither acquainted with the Laws of Bohemia Quis me judicem fecit ROTTERDAM You may be informed of me in things in course of justice but I never sent to any of my Iudges to give Sentence contrary to the Law Consider the Trade for the making thereof better and shew me the Reason why my Mint for these eight or nine years hath not gone I confess I have been liberal in my Grants but if I be informed I will amend all hurtful grievances But who shall hasten after grievances and desire to make himself popular he hath the Spirit of Satan If I may know my errors I will reform them I was in my first Parliament a Novice and in my last there was a kind of Beasts called Undertakers a dozen of whom undertook to govern the last Parliament and they led me I shall thank you for your good Office and desire that the World may say well of our Agreement Physicians have an Aphorism Si caput infirmum caetera mem brum dolent This Head is not a weak one but subtil enough for the Body The Parliament knew well whom they had to deal with and managed their business in the beginning that they were the readier to grapple with him in the end They would not stir a Stone of that foundation his Prerogative rested on but those men that had wrought themselves in to supplant and undermine the Common Liberties they fell sore upon them The King was modest and almost ashamed to tell the Parliament how much Money the Viscount Doncaster's Jâ—urney cost therefore he minces it into a small proportion But this we know when he landed at Roterdam the first night and morning before he went to the Hague his Expences those two meals in the Inn where he lay came to above a Thousand Gilders which is a Hundred pounds Sterling And the Inn-keeper at the Peacock at Dort hoping he would make that his way into Germany made great Provisions for him upon no other Order but a bare Fancy and the Ambassador taking his way by Utricht the Inn-keeper of Dort followed him complaining that he was much prejudiced by his baulking that Town For hearing of a great Ambassador's coming and what he had expended at Roâ—erdam I made saith he Preparations suitable and now they will lye on my hands Which coming to Doncaster's ear he commanded his Steward to give him Thirty pounds sterling and never tasted of his Cup. And we have been assured by some of his Train that his very Carriages could not cost so little as Threescore pounds a day for he had with him a great many Noblemens Sons and other Personages of quality that the Germans might admire the glory of the English as well as the French did in his last Ambassage And he was out so long following the Emperor in his Progresses from City to Camp and from Camp to City a poor humble Solicitor if not Petitioner that his Expence could not amount to less than fifty or threescore thousand pounds When he was at the Hague had made his visits and filled the Town with the admiration of his bravery and feasts Some intimates to Maurice Prince of Orange advised him to feast the great English Ambassador Yes yes saith the Prince bid him come When the Prince's Steward had notice of the invitation from other hand for the Prince gave no order in it he comes to the Prince and tells him there will be great preparations expected for the Ambassador's ordinary meals were Feasts and he had an numerous and splendid Train of Nobles and Gentry that did accompany him Well said the Prince fit me a dinner such as I use to have and let me see the bill of fare When the Steward brought the Bill the Prince liked it well but the Steward said Sir This is but your ordinary diet now you should have some thing extraordinary because this is an extraordinary Ambassador The Prince thinking some reason in the Steward's Arguments and finding but one Pig nominated in the Bill commanded him to put down another Pig and that was all the additions he would make Which Dish as it is not very pleasing and acceptable to the Scots Nation for the most part so we know not whether it were by accident or on purpose to displease him But this is well known there could be nothing more contemptible to the morose and severe temper of the Princes spirit than this comportment of Doncaster's which most men interpreted to be pride and prodigality But truly set those vanities of Grandure aside for the honor though not profit of his Master He was a Gentleman every way compleat His Bounty was adorned with Courtesie his Courtesie not affected but resulting from a natural Civility in him His Humbleness set him below the Envy of most and his Bounty brought him into esteem with many A true Courtier for complying and one that had Language enough to be real as well as formal for he could personate both to the height of expression So that he was very fit for his imployment though it were purchased at a dear rate But to leave this digression Some small time after the Parliament began the King according to his intentions and expressions in his Speech to them dispatched away the Lord Digby Ambassador to the Emperor where he was to press for a punctual Answer whether the Palatinate might be recovered by Peace or War Sir Robert Cotton From an Original by P. Van Somer His Autograph from the Original in the Possession of John Thane The main things which the Parliament insisted on though many others came by the by were the three great Patents for Inns Ale-houses and Gold and Silver thred Upon every Inn and Ale-house there was a great Fine and Annual Revenue set throughout the Kingdom and they that would not pay so much as the Patentees assest them at their goods and persons were seised on till they gave them satisfaction according to their voraginous humours And they found out a new Alchimistical way to make Gold and Silver Lace with Copper and other sophisticate materials to couzen and deceive the people and no man must make or vent any but such Factors as they imployed so that they ingrossed all the whole trade of that Ages vanity which was enough and gave them counterfeit ware for their money And if any man were found to make any other Lace than what was allowed by them they were made to know to their dear experience the power of these Ingrossers And so poisonous were the Drugs that made up this deceitful Composition that they rotted the hands and arms and brought lameness upon those that wrought it some losing their eyes and many their lives by the venom of the vapours that came from it The chief Actors in this Pestilent business were Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Michel These two moved all the under-wheels Mompesson had fortune enough in the Country to make him happy if
hot and intemperate Region to soom cool Considerations If he should yield by Silence or Connivence to this Protestation it would remain as an impregnable Bulwark for the people to Posterity And what is this terrible thing their just Liberties If he should oppose it with Rigor it might produce such an intestine Division at home as with all industry he strove to prevent abroad Break the Treaty with Spain he would not his Heart was too much set upon it for he could find no Protestant Princess good enough the high and elated Extraction of Kings will raise the people up to a kind of Adoration as the old Heathens did the Race of their Gods and Heroes Whereas true Honesty and piety finds out such matches as may as well bring Glory to God as to man not worldly Blessings only but heavenly also Lose the love of the people he was loth for he thought his peaceable Reign gained upon them and that no King had ever deserved better of a People than he But Peace is a kind of Soft Rayment or Masking-dress not always to be worn Standing lakes beget Corruption The Pool of Bethesda had no Virtue till it was stirred War is necessary as Physick for unsound Bodies Iustum id bellum quibus necessarium When the King had weighed every particular scruple by the Ballance of his own Reason and Councel about him he took a Resolution to dissolve the Parliament which he did by Proclamation the sixth of Ianuary being fifteen days after the Protestation was made so much time he measured out by the Scale of consideration before he would pull down such a Structure of Love as never was built by the people for any of his Predecessors which he implies in his Proclamation laying there all the blame upon the House of Commons and not on them in general but on some ill-tempered Spirits as he called them that sowed Tares among the Corn and frustrated the Hopes of a plentiful Harvest Striving by these imputations to take away the Odium that such a Dissolution might produce The Parliament and consequently the Union between the King and People being thus dissolved every man's tongue is let loose to run Riot And though the King loved Hunting above all other exercises and had many good Hunters about him yet all those and the Strength of a Proclamation put out to forbid talking of State Affairs could not restrain them from mouthing out That Great Britain was become less than little England that they had lost strength by changing Sexes and that he was no King but a Fidler's Son otherwise he would not suffer such disorders at home and so much dishonour abroad So dangerous it is for Princes by a stegmatick remisseness to slacken the ligaments of the peoples tongues for such an overflux of bad Humor may bring their obedience to a Paralytick And the Story of David Ricius written by the King 's own Tutor Buchanan had died in every English Opinion if it had not had a new Impression by these miscarriages Edward Herbert Lord Herbert of Castle â—Land and Lord Hâ—rbert of Câ—â—erbery in England The Earl of Oxford was betrayed and accused by one White a Papist who was vulgarly called after in derision by the Name of Oxford-White to have spoken some words to the Dishonour of the King and disparagement of his Government and was committed to the Tower The Earl of Southampton was also committed to the Dean of Westminster Oxford lay by it a great while and being an Active man the King sent him at last to Sea to be one of Buckingham's Vice-Admirals for the English Coast while Sir Robert Mansell guarded the Coasts of Spain from being infested with the Turks of Algier and Sally Sir Edward Cook that was looked upon as one of the great incendiaries in the House of Commons is put from the Council Table with disgrace The King saying he was the fittest instrument for a Tyrant that ever was in England And yet in the House he called the King's Prerogative a great Over-grown Monster And how can these agree Unless because the King would not take his counsel he hanged himself on the other side But whether the King had cause to say the one I know not but he it seems found cause enough to say the other Sir Thomas Crew Sir Dudly Digges Sir Nathaniel Rich and Sir Iames Perrot men of great Repute and knowledge active in the House were sent into Ireland and joyned with others in commission to inquire into Misdemeanors committed there but it was thought as a punishment for what they had committed here for they were long detained from their own occasions under the colour of an honorable imployment And Sir Peter Hammon of Kent and others were sent into the Palatinate This kind of punishment beginning now to be in fashion and not long after this Sir Iohn Savile the Knight of York-shire that carried all the Country at a Beck and a powerful Man in the House is taken off by the King made Comptroler of his Household a Privy Councellor and not long after a Baron so the King found out two ways of silencing those that were able to do him mischief Active Spirits that come too near him must either come nearer to him or be sent further from him which he doubts not will take off the edge and bate the sharpness of the Humor another time And these preferments and punishments were also practised by his successor with this Experiment in both that the most popular men as soon as they wore the Court Livery lost the love of the people but those that suffered for them were the more beloved and admired by them The Commons of England having more than an ordinary Genius to support and strengthen the pillars of their Liberties And as these Troubles bred disturbance at home so they begot discredit abroad for now by this Breach they undervalued the King's power as much as they did before his Spirit yea even in the King of Spain's own Towns whilst this beloved Treaty was in heat they in their Comedies presented Messengers bringing News in haste That the Palatinate was like to have a very formidable Army shortly on foot For the King of Denmark would furnish him with a hundred thousand picked Herrings the Hollanders with a hundred thousand Butter-boxes and England with a hundred thousand Ambassadors And they picture the King in one place with a Scabberd without a Sword In another place with a Sword that no body could draw out though divers stand pulling at it At Bruxels they painted him with his pockets hanging out and never a penny in them nor in his purse turned upside down In Antwerâ— they pictured the Queen of Bohemia like a poor Irish Mantler with her hair hanging about her ears and her child at her back with the King her father carrying the Cradle after her and every one of these Pictures had several Motto's expressing their Malice Such