at Cork in Ireland Anno 1381. EDMVND MORTIMER Earl of March had Issue Roger Mortimer Earl of March and Vlster Lord of Wigmor Trym Clare and Connaght who married Elianor Eldest Daughter and one of the Heirs of Thomas Holland Earl of Kent 1. Roger Mortimer died without Issue 2. Edmund Mortimer died without Issue 3. Anne Mortimer married to Richard Plantagenet Earl of Cambridge by whom she had Issue Richard Plantagenet Duke of York Earl of Cambridge March and Vlster Edward the IVth King of England and France and Lord of Ireland 1. Edward the Vth. King of England and France and Lord of Ireland murthered in the Tower left no Issue 2. Richard Plantagenet Duke of York murthered with his Brother King Edward left no Issue 3. Elizabeth eldest Daughter to Edward the IVth married to Henry the VIIth King of England and France and Lord of Ireland ELIZABETH eldest Daughter to King Edward the IVth by her Husband King Henry the VIIth had Issue 1. Arthur Prince of VVales died before his Father and left no Issue 2 Henry the VIIIth King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith 1. Edward the VIth King of England France and Ireladd died without Issue 2. Mary Q. of England France and Ireland died without Issue 3. Elizabeth Queen of England France and Ireland died without Issue 3. Margaret eldest Daughter to Henry the VIIth married to James the IVth King of Scotland by whom she had Issue James the Vth. King of Scotland Mary Queen of Scotland who was by her Subjects infected with Calvinism of which it is truly observed that it never entred into any Country but by Rebellion expelled her Kingdom and forced to fly for shelter into England where so implacable is Presbyterian Malice they never left persecuting her till they had brought her after eighteen years Imprisonment to end her dayes upon a Scaffold By her Husband Henry Lord Darnley Son to Mathew Stuart Earl of Lenox she had Issue James the VIth King of Scotland who after the Decease of Elizabeth Queen of England as next Heir enjoyed the Crown of this Realm whereof he was no sooner possest but he reassumed the Title of Great Britain 1. Henry Prince of Wales died before his Father and left no Issue 2. CHARLES the Ist King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith a Prince of incomparable Vertues and Endowments who was on the 30th of January 1648. barbarously and inhumanly murthered before the Gates of his own Royal Palace by a traitorous Crew of villanous Phanaticks so secure in their own Thoughts of having thereby extirpated Monarchy out of this Island that they insolently set up on the Royal Exchange in the place where his Statue which they maliciously decollated had been erected amongst those of his Predecessors this Inscription Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus 1. CHARLES the IId by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith now reigning Whō GOD long preserve 2. The Illustrious Prince James Duke of York and Albany 3. Mary Mother to the present Prince of Orange 4. Henrietta Mother to the present Queen of Spain 3. Elizaheth married to Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhine by whom she had a numerous Issue CHAP. X. Of the present Government of Great Britain in general OF Monarchies some are Hereditary the Crown descending either only to the Heirs Male as has long been practiced in France or to the next of Blood without Distinction of Sex as in Great Britain and Spain Others are Elective where upon the Death of every Prince another is chosen to succeed without any respect to the Heirs of the Predecessor as is used in Poland Of Hereditary Monarchies some are dependent holden of earthly Potentates to whom the Princes are obliged to do Homage for the same as is the Kingdom of Naples holden at this day of the Pope by the King of Spain Others are independent whose Princes acknowledge no Superior upon Earth but hold only of GOD and by their Sword Of this latter sort is the Empire of Great Britain being an Hereditary Monarchy consisting of two Provinces or Kingdoms governed by one Supreme Absolute Independent Undeposable and Unaccountable Head according to the known Laws and Customs of each Kingdom It is a Free Monarchy challenging above many other Europaean Kingdoms an Exemption from all Subjection to the Emperor or Laws of the Empi to which as the Northern Part of the Island or Kingdom of Scotland was never subject so the Southern part since called the Kingdom of England being abandoned by the Romans who had by force obtained the Dominion thereof the Right of Government by all manner of Laws reverted to the ancient Inhabitants to the last of whose Kings viz. Cadwalladar our present Sovereign is as appears by the precedent Genealogy by Lineal and Legitimate Descent the true and unquestionable Heir And as it is exempt from all forreign Jurisdiction and Dominion so likewise is it free from all Interregnum and many other Domestick Mischiefs whereunto Elective Kingdoms are ordinarily subject It is a Monarchy wherein the Grace and Bounty of its Princes rendring the subordinate Concurrence of the three Estates necessary to the making and repealing of all Statutes or Acts of Parliament in either Realm have afforded so much to the Industry Liberty and Happiness of the Subject and made the Yoak of Government so easy and its Burden so light that were it not for those malevolent and Fanatical Spirits which by sowing Jealousies amongst the People and raising Animosities in their Minds against their Prince endeavor to deprive us of the benefit of our Parliaments by rendring their Meetings unpracticable our Condition might well be envied by all other Nations of the Universe CHAP. XI Of the Monarch of Great Britain and therein of his Name Title Arms Dominions and Strength Of his Person Office Prerogative Soveraignty Divinity and Respect TO the Monarch of Great Britain is given in English which is the Language most generally spoken through his whole Dominions the Name King which hath its Original from the Saxon Word Koning and intimateth that Power and Knowledge wherewith every Soveraign should especially be invested The Modern Title used by the Monarch in all Treaties with forreign Princes and in all publick Affairs relating to his whole Dominions and stamped upon his Coin is By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith but in all Writs and other publick Instruments referring to the particular Concerns of either Kingdom of England or Scotland the two Kingdoms are distinctly named that Kingdom having the Precedency in such Instrument which is therein particularly concerned To the King alone belongs Dei Gratiâ taken simply and in the strictest sense as holding his Regal Dignity by the Favour of none but GOD the Archbishops and Bishops to whom that Title is also sometimes given must understand Dei Gratiâ Regis For tho their Character and
MARIA born the fifteenth of August 1682. and Baptized the day following by Dr. Henry Compton Lord Bishop of London her Godfather being the Duke of Ormond and her Godmothers the Countesses of Arundel and Clarendon Though the ambitious and designing Adversaries of His Royal Highness imploy their utmost Artifice to cloud and conceal from the eyes of the People his many admirable endowments and Princely qualities yet cannot they with any color of Truth deny him to be a most Glorious and Honourable Prince not only of a most high Spirit and invincible Courage but also a Commander of great experience both at Land and Sea where he has not only several times exposed his Life for the safety and honour of this Nation but also where-ever he appeared carried victory along with him which in his absence was not found He is of a quick apprehension and sound judgment sedulous and diligent in Business wary in Counsel speedy in execution and in his resolutions constant and inflexible He is a kind Brother a dutiful Subject an obliging Husband a tender Father a firm Friend and an excellent Master In his Word and Promises strictly Faithful and in payment of his Debts punctually just He is brave and generous liberal but not profuse manages his own fortune discreetly and yet keeps the best Court and Equipage of any Subject in Christendom He is affable and courteous to all and however the inveterate malice of his restless and factious Enemies may have possessd some credulous Persons to the contrary of no persecuting or vindicative Spirit nor hath any thing in his whole Conduct to be excepted against much less dreaded He is in a word what the French call un honneste homme A Person endowed with all the good Qualities that make a man truly valuable and seems born to retrieve the sinking glory of the English Nation Of the Prince of Orange AFter the Duke of York his Issue the next Heir to the Crown of Great Britain is William Frederick Henry of Nassaw Prince of Orange and Stadtholder of the united Provinces only Issue of the Princess Royal Mary Eldest Daughter of our late martyred Soveraign King Charles the I st and Wedded on the second of May 1641. to William of Nassaw only Son of Henry Prince of Orange then Commander in chief of all the Forces of the States General both by Land and Sea He was born at the Hague on the fourteenth of November 1650 being nine days after his Fathers decease He had for his Godfathers the Lords States General of Holland Zealand and the Cities of Delft Leyden and Amsterdam and for Godmothers the Queen of Bohemia and the old Princess of Orange His Governess was the English Lady Stanhope then Wife to the Heer Van Hemvliet Being eight years of Age he was sent to the University at Leyden On the fourth of November 1677. being then near Seven and Twenty years of Age he espoused the Lady Mary eldest Daughter to His Royal Highness James Duke of York His Revenue is about threescore Thousand Pounds Sterling per Annum besides Military advantages enjoyed by his Father and Ancestors amounting to about thirty thousand Pounds Sterling per Annum more He is a Prince of great valour and courage in whom the High and Princely Qualities of his Ancestors have always appeared and a great Lover of Souldiers Of the Queen of Spain THe next Heir after the forementioned to the Imperial Crown of Great Britain is Her most Serene Majesty the present Queen Consort of Spain Daughter of the Princess Henrietta youngest Sister to His present Sacred Majesty of Great Britain by the most illustrous Prince Philip now Duke of Orleans only Brother to the most Christian King Lewis the XIVth now reigning She was born in the year 1663. and was in December 1679 Married to Charles the IId King of Spain Of the Prince Elector Palatine THere being left alive no more of the Off-spring of King Charles the I st the next Heirs to the Imperial Crown of these Realms are the Issue and Descendents of Elizabeth late Queen of Bohemia only Sister to the said King who was on the fourteenth of February 1612 married to Frederick the Vth. Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine afterwards stiled King of Bohemia Of these the first is Charles the present Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine commonly called the Palsgrave from the High-Dutch Psaltzgraffe Palatii Comes Grandson to the said Queen by her eldest Son Charles Lodowick Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine lately deceased His Mother was the Lady Charlotte Daughter to William the Vth. Landgrave of Hesse and to Elizabeth Emilia of Hanaw He was born on the one and thirtieth of March 1651. and has lately married the Sister of Christiern the Vth. present King of Denmark This Prince hath a Sister named Louise born in May 1652 and now married to the Duke of Orleans only Brother to the present French King Of Prince Rupert NExt unto the Prince Elector Palatine and his Sister is the illustrious Prince Rupert Duke of Bavaria and Cumberland Count Palatine of the Rhine Earl of Holderness and Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter born at Prague on the seventeenth of December 1619 not long before that very unfortunate Battel there fought whereby not only all Bohemia was lost but the Palatine Family was for almost thirty years outed of all their possessions in Germany till that in the year 1648 by the Famous Treaty at Munster Charles Lodowick eldest Brother to this Prince had the Lower Palatinate restored to him for which he was constrained to quit all his right to the Vpper Palatinate and to accept of an eighth Electorship at a juncture of time when his Uncle Charles the I st King of Great Britain had he not been embroiled at home by an horrid Rebellion had been the most considerable of all other at this Treaty and the Prince Elector his Nephew would have had the greatest advantages there Prince Rupert at the age of thirteen years marched with the then Prince of Orange to the Siege of Rhineberg At the Age of eighteen he commanded a Regiment of Horse in the German Wars and being at the Battel of Lemgou in the year 1638 taken by the Imperialists under the command of Count Hatzfield he continued a Prisoner above three years About the beginning of September 1642 he came into England with his Brother Prince Maurice to offer his service to the King his Uncle against a factious Party of the two Houses then rebelling against him and being within a fortnight after his arrival put in command over a small Party of those Forces which the King had at that time gathered together marched with them into divers parts of Warwickshire Nottinghamshire Leicestershire Worcestershire and Cheshire his Forces still increasing as he marched Being about the middle of October following made General of the Horse to the King he soon after fought and defeated Colonel Sandys neer Worcester on the
BRITANNIAE SPECULUM OR A Short View OF THE Ancient and Modern State OF Great Britain And the adjacent Isles and of all other the Dominions and Territories now in the actual possession of His present Sacred MAJESTY King CHARLES II. Treating of Britain in General LONDON Printed by Thomas Milbourn for Christopher Hussey at the Flower-de-Luce in Little Britain M.CD.LXXXIII THE PREFACE THis little Treatise is but the first Part of an intended larger Work the Design whereof as appears in the Title-Page is to exhibit as in a Mirror a view of the ancient and modern State not only of this our Island of GREAT BRITAIN but also of Ireland and all other His MAJESTIES Dominions and Territories not by writing a continued Chronicle or History of all the Kings or Princes reigning successively in them but only by giving an Account of such signal Mutations as made any considerable Change in the Administration of the Government either in Church or State In this part which treats of Britain in general after a short Description of the Island and a brief Account of the ancient Inhabitants thereof from whom not only our present Cambro-Britains but those also of Armorica or little Britain in France are descended is inserted a Discourse which tho it may seem a Digression is neither long nor impertinent touching the Original and Excellency of Monarchical Government to which and none other this our Island has been so fortunate as to have been Subjected from its very first being inhabited to this very Day Hereunto I was forced by the audacious Scribles of certain profligate Wretches who that they may the easilier instigate the Vulgar to a contempt of the Sacred Authority of their Prince and thereby make way for the overturning of this famous Monarchy and the introducing of Popular Tyranny in its place endeavour to debase Monarchy it self affirming the most High and Sacred Order of Kings which is the Ordinance of GOD himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Texts both of the Old and New Testaments to be a meer human Creature taking its Original from the Consent of the People by whom Soveraignty is conveyed unto Kings in trust only and by Communication and consequently that the People may whensoever they please resume this Power and call their Trustees to an account These are the pernicious Maxims which so lately intoxicated the three Kingdoms and are now again for the like purpose taken up by our present Republicans and daily disperst by the scurrilous Pamphleteers of these times one of which who insolently presumes to dedicate his treasonable Libels to a most Noble and Loyal Peer falls foul upon the Learned Sr. Robert Filmer for deriving the Regal Authority from the paternal instituted by GOD himself tho this verity be not only expresly delivered in the Holy Scriptures which declare that the first Government in the World was Monarchical in the Father of all Flesh but was by the very glimmerings of Natural Reason discovered by Aristotle who speaking of the Original of Monarchy saith The first Society made of many Houses is a Village which seems most agreeable to nature as being a Colony of Families which some call Foster-brethren or Children and Childrens Children Therefore at first Cities were and now also Nations are Governed by Kings because such came together as were under Kingly Government For the eldest in every House is King and so for Kindred sake it is in Colonies that is in more Families which are descended from the same House whence Homer saith Every man gives Laws to his Wives and Children Hence it is by all ancient Writers acknowledged that the first Commonweals were governed by Monarchs nor indeed was there any other Government known in the World for above three thousand years till some ambitious Fellows among the giddy Grecians a People alwayes delighted in Novelties rebelled against their Soveraigns and usurped their Authority as was lately here done by the Rump-Parliament and is now again aimed at by the Factors for the Good-Old-Cause The better to excite my fellow Subjects to a dutiful Submission to our common Father the King I have reminded them that all those Rights and Priviledges to the Preservation whereof tho neither infringed nor in danger of being so the popular Demagogues pretend to call them forth when their real design is utterly to destroy and take away both the Regal Prerogative and the Peoples Liberties are originally the Concessions of their Princes and therefore that as it is the height of Ingratitude to employ the Favours of their Soveraign to the disturbance of his Government so it is an excess of Folly to think to secure their Liberties by the pulling down or weakning that Authority which as it first gave them so is alone capable to protect and maintain them This tho it may seem strange to those that have their Heads filled with the Chimerical Conceits of the natural Freedom and Equality of Mankind and the first founding of Government by the Multitude upon such Terms and Conditions as to their Wisdoms seemed fit is yet clearly manifest from the Histories and Records of all Ages and Nations and particularly of this Kingdom of England of which it was well observed by the late Lord Keeper Bridgman then Lord chief Baron at the Tryal of the Regicides It is true we have as great Liberties as any People have in Christendom in the World but let us own them where they are due We have them by the Concessions of our Princes Our Princes have granted them and the King now He in them hath granted them likewise After this Account of the Original and Excellency of Monarchy to which Government alone I briefly shew that this Island has been alwayes subjected I proceed to the Conquest thereof by the Romans and thence to such other Mutations as hapned therein unto the time of Cadwalladar who in the Year 689 quitting his Kingdom of which the Saxons had gotten the best part a Period was put to the British Monarchy the very Name of King of Britain not being so much as heard of till the happy Vnion of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland by the Succession of His Majesties Grandfather King James of famous Memory to the Crown of England whose Genealogy from Cadwalladar I have here set down clearly demonstrating his present Sacred Majesty to be the true and undoubted Heir of the said British King as he is also of the Saxon Norman and Scotish Kings and consequently to have a clearer Right to this Monarchy than any private man can pretend to his Estate After this Relation of such Mutations as concern Britain in general I give a general Account of the present Government of this Island And here according to my Duty and the Oath of Supremacy which declaring the King to be the only Supreme Governour admits neither Equal nor Superior I assert the Soveraignty of our Lord the King and shew that there is not in our nor can
indeed be in any Monarchy any Authority but what is derived from the Monarch in opposition to the pernicious Doctrine of Coordinacy daily by the Ringleaders of the Faction dispersed amongst the People and endeavored to be justified by the Author of Plato Redivivus and T. H. the former of which speaking of the late Parliamentary Rebellion saith This is certain that whereever two Coordinate Powers do differ and there be no Power on earth to reconcile them otherwise nor Umpire they will de facto fall together by the ears And the latter not only tells us in express terms that the Parliament derive their Power and Authority from the same Original the King derives His but by affirming that there are Treasons of State other than those that are declared by the Statutes and such as the King cannot pardon would prostitute the Lives of all his fellow Subjects to the Arbitrary Power of any prevailing Faction which may at any time happen to be in the two Houses of Parliament or perhaps in the House of Commons alone the onely part if we will believe the Author of Plato Redivivus which is now left intire of the old Constitution And because the Heads of the Faction that they might leave no Stone unturn'd which might be made use of for the battering down of this Hereditary Monarchy have essayed to subvert it by impeaching the Descent of the Crown in the Right Line I have treated upon the of late much controverted Point of the Succession which I have demonstrated to be unalterable by any Statute or Act of Parliament whatever and as such to have been acknowledged by all our Ancient Parliaments that were neither over-awed by Force nor seduced by Faction Having thus with what Brevity I could handled these foregoing matters I conclude this Part with a short account of the present Monarch of Great Britain Our Soveraign Lord the KING now Reigning whom GOD long preserve to the Consolation and Happiness of this Island of his Queen and the Princes of his Royal Blood And because the ill-willers to the Peace of this our Israel have raised in the minds of the unthinking Vulgar terrible Fears and Apprehensions of his Royal Highness whom the readilier to stir up against him the Animosity of the people they have audaciously loaded with all the Calumnies and Scandals which the Malice of Men or Devils could invent I have endeavoured by a true tho imperfect Representation of his Gests and Character to remove that Prejudice which these horrid and malicious Falsities may have created against him in the Spirits of the unwary If these my Endeavors shall prove useful for the reducing of any of my deluded Countrymen to that natural Obedience which we owe to our Soveraign I shall repute my self abundantly satisfied for my pains and shall be encouraged to compleat the rest of my designed Work THE TABLE A ABsoluteness of Paternal Jurisdiction 57 Act of Parliament in Scotland declaring the unalterableness of the Succession 241 Adam Monarch of the Universe 53 Adraste a Goddess of the Britains 27 Agricola Governour of Britain 103 Air of Great Britain 9 St. Albanus Protomartyr of Britain 131 Ambrosius King of the Britains 154 St. Amphibalus Martyred 132 Arbitrary Power necessary in all Governments 58 St. Aristobulus in Britain 119 Armor and Weapons of the ancient Britains 48 Arms of King Lucius 178 of King Vortigern ibid. of King Aurelius Ambrosius ibid. of Vter Pendragon ibid. of King Arthur ibid. of Cadwalladar ibid. of the King of Great Britain since the Union of England and Scotland 179 of the present Queen of Great Britain 268 Attire of the ancient Britains 42 B BAngor a Seminary of Learning 129 Baptism of the King 248 Bardiacus a Garment of the ancient Britains 43 Bards 28 Beauty of the British Women 41 Belerus a God of the Britains 27 Belisama a Goddess of the Britains ibid. Bill of Exclusion 236 Birth of the King 247 of the Queen 266 Boadicea Queen of the Iceni in Britain 101 Brachae a Garment of the ancient Britains 43 Britain quitted by the Romans 143 British Bishops at the Councel of Arles 139 at the Councel of Nice 142 British Monarchy restored by King James 156 Buildings of the ancient Britains 48 C CAligula's Attempt against Britain 93 Cassibelan 87 Chariots of the ancient Britains 49 CHARLES the Ist King of Great Britain murdered by his Phanatical Subjects 170 Children of King CHARLES the Ist 269 Christianity first brought into Britain 117 restored by Constantin 135 Cimbri first Inhabitants of Britain 20 Claudius Drusus the Emperor in Britain 98 Climate of Great Britain 3 Coming of the King into Scotland 251 Commodities of Great Britain 12 Community of Women amongst the ancient Britains 37 Computation of time by the ancient Britains 51 Conquest of Britain by the Romans 94 Constantius Chlorus the Emperor in Britain 133 Conversion of King Lucius to Christianity 123 Cornage 111 Coronotion of the King 260 Covinus 49 Court of the King when Prince of Wales 248 Cure of the Kings-Evil 219 D DEparture of the King out of England 250 Descent of King James from Cadwalladar 158 Diet of the ancient Britains 41 Dimensions of Great Britain 3 Discovery of Britain by the Romans 77 Disorder of popular Government exemplified in the Roman Democracy 69 Distinction of Monarchy into Despotical and Paternal groundless 57 Divinity of the King 212 Division of Britain 2 of Great Britain 5 Dominions of Princes anciently small 64 of the King of Great Britain 180 Druids 29 E EDucation of the King 249 End of Government 67 Episcopal Sees in Britain 125 Escape of the King from Worcester 252 Essedum 50 Excellency of Monarchy 67 Excommunication used by the ancient Britains 38 Extent of Britain taken in the largest Sense 1 F FRontinus Governour of Britain 103 G GAlgacus General of the Britains 108 Gauls in Britain 20 Gaunacum a Garment of the ancient Britains 43 Genealogy of the King 245 of the Queen 263 Giants in Britain 32 Gods of the ancient Britains 26 Government 52 of Britain always Monarchical 73 Government of Britain under the Romans 112 Civil as ordered by Constantin 113 Military 114 after the Romans Depature 144 present of Great Britain 172 Greeks in Britain 21 H HArdiness of the ancient Britains 37 Hesus a God of the Britains 26 Hues a God of the Britains ibid. I St. JAmes the Apostle in Britain 118 JESUS CHRIST the Saviour of the World born 116 Inhabitants of Great Britain 19 Invasion of Britain by the Romans 84 Jointure of the Queen 267 St. Joseph of Arimathea in Britain 120 Julius Caesar in Britain 77 Jurisdiction of the Druids 30 K KIng sole Legislator 204 supreme Landlord of all Lands within His Dominions 206 King supreme Administrator of Justice 209 has the sole Power of the Sword 211 L LAnguage of the ancient Britains 39 Laws of the ancient Britains 23 Limited Monarchy 62 M MAnners of the ancient Britains 35 Manner of Fighting used by the
to make use of that Arbitrary Power whereof tho in the exercise of it he may restrain himself yet he can never be divested to secure himself and people from the Contrivances of malicious and ill-designing Persons Those therefore that argue for Limited or Mixed Monarchies do in effect only plead for Anarchy and Confusion For either these Limits must be such Laws and Bounds as the Monarch has set himself to Govern by to the Observance whereof tho he may by Promise so far engage himself that he cannot as has been said ordinarily transgress them without the Sin of Injustice yet this Promise of his which is but an After-act of Grace not dissolving that absolute Subjection which preceded it his Power if he will sinfully put it forth to act is no less Arbitrary than it was before the making of the Promise Or if you will imagin these Bounds of the Monarchs Power to be ab externo and not from the free Determination of his own Will then the Subject as they say not being legally bound to subjection in case the Prince commands beyond the Law if there arise a Dispute between the Monarch and the meanest of his Subjects about the Legality or Illegality of his Commands either the Monarch himself must be Judge and then farewel Limitation or else the whole people or some part of them and then farewel Monarchy or else there must be no Judge at all and then farewell Government So likewise in that which they call a mixed Monarchy or a Government composed of Monarchy Aristocracy and Democracy either the Soveraign Power must be Originally in the Monarch and derivatively only in the others and then farewel the Mixture or else it must tho acknowledged to be an indivisible Beam of Divine Perfection be originally shared amongst them all and then farewel the Monarchy So also in this Mixture as they call it of Power if a Difference arise between the Prince and the States there being according to their Principles no Authoritative judge to determin it the Government is dissolved and every man left at liberty to side with that Part which in his Reason and Judgment stands most for publick Good more than which the Wit of Man cannot say for Anarchy The unlimited Jurisdiction of Kings is so strongly asserted in Scripture that it occasioned one who writ in justification of the late Rebellion to affirm That to make a King by the Standard of GOD's Word is to make the Subjects Slaves for Conscience sake Than which I know not whether any thing can be said more impious The Paternal Empire as it was in it self hereditary so was it as other Goods are alienable by Patent and seizable by an Usurper Thus amongst the first Fathers of Families dispersed by the Confusion of Babel was Nimrod who being no doubt by good Right Lord or King over his own Family and not contented therewith did against Right enlarge his Empire by violently seizing on the Rights of other Fathers of Families and laid the Foundation of the first of those great Kingdoms which for the vast Extent of their Dominions were called the four Monarchies of the World Yet this Power he got by Usurpation and not by any Election of or Faction with the People or Multitude The Dominions indeed of Princes anciently were but small consisting generally but of Cities apiece with the adjacent Teritories Thus in a little Corner of Asia nine Kings met at once in Battle In the small Circuit of the Land of Canaan Joshuah destroyed one and thirty Kings Adonibezek made seventy Kings whose Thumbs and Toes he had cut off to feed under his Table Two and thirty Kings came to Benhadad King of Syria and seventy Kings of Greece went to the Wars of Troy But in process of Time partly by Conquest partly by Lineal Succession and partly by the Cession of many little Princes these Petty Kingdoms were united and greater Monarchies erected Whence tho Kings are not now the Natural Parents of their Subjects yet they all either are or are to be reputed the next Heirs to those Progenitors who were at first the Natural Parents of the whole people and as such succeed to the Exercise of Soveraign Jurisdiction not only over their own Children but over their Brethren and all that were subject to their Fathers As long as the first Fathers lived they were properly called Patriarchs but when the Fatherhood it self was extinct and the Right only descended to the next Heir they were more significantly styled Kings and Princes If through Negligence the Knowledge of the true Heir to any Kingdom be lost for the Right it self never can yet does not the Supremacy devolve to the multitude who never yet had right to Rule or choose their Rulers but to the Princes and independent Heads of Families and because the Dependency of ancient Families is frequently obscure and worn out of Knowledge to such persons as the Wisdom of the precedent Monarchs thought fit to adopt for Heads of Families and Princes of Provinces These and none but these have it such Case alone Power to consent in uniting or conferring their Fatherly Right of Soveraign Authority oâ— whom they please Nor does the person thus elected hold his Power as a Donative from the People but from GOD from whom alone he receives his Royal Charter of Universal Father tho testified by the Ministry of the Heads of the People And altho I do not say that all popular Governments are so far unlawful as to oblige them things being as they are to subject themselves to Monarchy yet this I must aver as a most undoubted Truth that no other Government but Monarchy had ever any lawful Original there never having been any Nation which was not for many years governed by Kings untill Wantonness Ambition or Faction of the People made them attempt new wayes of Regiment which Mutations alwayes proved bloody and miserable to their Authors and happy in nothing but the short time of their Duration The Excellency of Monarchy is not only manifest by the Divineness of its Originall Excellency but also by the singular Advantages it has over any other Form of Government The chief End of Government is that the People may according to the Apostle Lead a quiet and peaceable Life in all Godliness and Honesty Consequently whereunto we find that in all Monarchies both before the Law of Moses under it and ever since whether Grecian or Barbarian Jewish or Pagan Christian or Turkish a singular Care has been taken for Religion the Priests whereof have been alwayes had in such Respect and Veneration as to have an eminent Share in the Administration of the Government But in all popular States their main Devotion being exercised only in opposing and suppressing Monarchy their next is to exclude the Clergy from medling with Government wherein the Vnited Netherlands and Venice of which it is commonly said that the one hath all Religions and the other none do at this day
that the Prince of Peace our ever-blessed Lord and Saviour JESUS CHRIST the only eternal Son of GOD was miraculously born of a pure Virgin in Bethlehem the City of David This our glorious Redeemer having for the space of three and thirty years led a Life no less poor and painful than holy and exemplary offered himself upon a Cross to his eternal Father for to expiate the Sins of Mankind in the eighteenth year of the Emperour Tiberius who having received an Account of the Death of this Saint of Saints as also of his great Vertue and stupendious Miracles from Pilat then Governor of Judea published it in the Senat by whom he would have had CHRIST admitted into the number of the Roman Gods but they displeased that Pilat wrote only to the Emperour and not to them would by no means consent thereunto The Emperour however forbidding upon pain of Death all persons to persecute the Disciples of JESUS Christianity brought into Britain the glorious Gospel preacht by his Apostles upon whom the better to enable them thereunto he had fifty dayes after his Resurrection conferred the Gift of speaking unknown Languages by the Descending of the Holy Ghost did even in the Dayes of this same Tiberius so far extend it self as to spread its bright Beams upon this remote and frozen Island of Britain St. James In the Year of CHRIST 41. being the third of Caligula the holy Apostle St. James returning out of Spain visited amongst other Countreys this our Island and here preached the Gospel the effects whereof were so prevalent that many stiff-necked Britains submitted themselves to the easy Yoke of our Redeemer Amongst these there is recorded one Suetonius born of noble Parentage who being converted to the Christian Faith here in Britain undertook a Voyage to Rome that he might be more perfectly instructed by St. Peter by whom being baptized and named Beatus he was after sufficient Instruction employed in the Apostolical Office of teaching others and became the first Planter of Christianity amongst the Helvetians St. Peter The great hope of happy Success is supposed chiefly to have induced St. Peter when the Jews were banished Rome by the Fmperor Claudius in whose second year he came thither to repair into Britain where he continued a long time converting several Nations and erecting many Churches till warned by Angels after he had constituted and ordained Bishops Priests and Deacons he returned to Rome and was there soon after crowned with Martyrdom A tedious impatience to see the horrible Actions of Nero forced St. Paul also to quit Rome St. Paul and disperse the precious Seed of the Gospel even as far as Britain This is expresly testified by Venantius Fortunatus who in his Poem upon the Life of St. Martin speaking of St. Paul saith Transit Oceanum vel quâ facit Insula Portum Quasque Britannus habet Terras atque ultima Thule With St. Peter or St. Paul St. Aristobulus one of whose Disciples he was is St. Aristobulus supposed to have come into Britain where being made a Bishop he preached the Gospel of CHRIST and having constituted Churches and Ordained Priests and Deacons here happily ended his Life St. Joseph of Arimathea About the latter End of Nero's Reign and before the blessed Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul were consummated by a glorious Martyrdom Suetonius Paulinus being Roman Lieutenant in Britain St. Joseph of Arimathea sent hither as some say by St. Peter or as others by St. Philip the Apostle with eleven Companions entring into this Island addressed himself to the British King Arviragus who not only gave them permission freely to convert his Subjects but extended also his Liberality to them affording them a place of Retreat in an Island called at that time Avalon or the Isle of Apples afterwards by the Britains Iniswytrin or the Glassy Island by the Saxons in the same sense Glastney and by the Latins Glasconia Here the Holy Men made it their first Work to build for the Worship of the only true GOD a Temple or Church which they dedicated to the Memory of the Holy Mother of GOD and perpetual Virgin Mary the Walls whereof were on all sides made of Rods watled or interwoven In this the Fervor and Piety of our primitive Christians was so great that it was deservedly called the Mother of Saints The Memory of this Building was preserved by an Inscription cut in Brass and heretofore fastned to a Pillar in Glastenbury Church which being rehearsed by Bishop Godwyn Sir Henry Spelman caused to be entirely transcribed and put into his Collection of British and English Councels To this their Solitude did St. Joseph and his Companions frequently repair both to repose themseves after their Labors and by undistracted Prayers to renew their Courage and Patience in their Apostolical Employment laying thus the Foundation and giving Example both of Active and Contemplative Life Here did St. Joseph after neer twenty years painful Labors change this mortal Life for an immortal one in the Year of our Lord 82. With him are said to have been buried two Silver Vessels which he had brought along with him filled with the precious Blood of our Saviour JESUS CHRIST The Faith thus planted by these Holy Apostles daily here encreasing the British Christians are said in the Year of our Lord 100. to have sent an Ambassadour to St. Clement then Bishop of Rome desiring him to communicate to them the Rites and Order of celebrating Divine Service About the latter end of Trajans Reign the Roman Bishop St. Evaristus sending a Message to the Britains exhorted them to the Christian Faith The verities whereof the better to propagate his Successor St. Alexander sent hither certain Apostolical Preachers amongst whom are thought to have been St. Marcellus afterwards Bishop of Triers and St. Timotheus Son of Pudens a Roman Senator and Brother to the Holy Virgins St. Praxedes and St. Pudentiana whose Mother is by many supposed to have been the Famous British Lady St. Claudia These gathered into a Flock the Remainders of those who had been converted by St. Joseph of Arimathea and his Companions confirming them in the same Faith which thus watered spread so far that Anno Domini 141. there are said to have been Baptized in Granta since called Cambridge nine Doctors and Scholars About the Year of the Lord 181. the British King Lucius Conversion of King Lucius who had hitherto been kept by its Poverty and want of Worldly Splendor from embracing the Christian Religion to a Liking whereof an Account of the constant Perseverance of the Christians at Rome amidst their great and horrible Persecutions had induced him being now by the Emperors Lieutenants Pertinax and Trebellius informed of the Favor shewn to the Professors of Christianity by the Emperor Marcus Aurelius who having obtained a famous Victory by the Christians Prayers set forth an Edict in their behalf as also of the Increase of their Number
by the Conversion of many of the chiefest Roman Senators began to hearken to the Admonitions of such as taught that Religion here in Britain the Fountain whereof understanding to be at Rome and not knowing of any Ecclesiastical persons in Britain of Authority sufficient to establish here a New Church sent Elvanus of Avallonia and Medwinus of the Province of the Belgae with Letters to St. Eleutherius then sitting in St. Peters Chair desiring from him more perfect Instruction and a greater Authority for setling the common Affairs of Christianity St. Eleutherius together with the same Messengers one of which to wit Elvanus he is said to have consecrated a Bishop sent over to him two Reverend Prelates whose Names were Phaganus and Diruvianus commissionating them not only to instruct and Baptize the King and such others as should embrace the Christian Faith but also to order and establish all Ecclesiastical Affairs in the Kingdom But whereas the King desired that his Messengers might bring with them the Roman Laws according to which he would order the Civil State of his Kingdom the holy Bishop sent him word that those Laws were not necessary for the Constitution of a Christian Common-Weal since that in them many things were established that ought not to be observed by the Professors of Christianity These Messengers being arrived the King his Queen his Sister St. Emerita and his whole Family were washt in the Laver of Baptism whose good Example a great number of his People soon followed A Testimonial of this Conversion is yet remaining in the Library of Sir John Cotton being a Coin of this King bearing his Image his Name LVC and the Sacred Sign of the Cross the common Badge of Christianity This done these four holy Men employd themselves in Preaching the Gospel of CHRIST through all the Provinces of the Kingdom disputing daily with the Druids and by the help of the Kings Authority and Zeal abrogating their abominable Superstitions whose horrid Sacrifices of humane Blood had caused the Romans long since to prohibit them in Gaul and consecrating Priests and Bishops and designing for Episcopal Sees those Places where formerly the chief of the Druids whom by a Title borrowed from the Romans our Historians writing in Latin frequently term Flamines and Archiflamines had their Residence The Names of the Cities that were then in Britain compassed with Walls and fortified with Towers and Gates for each of which a Bishop was intended are as followeth 1. Cair Guintwick now Winwick in Lancashire 2. Cair Mincip Verolam near St. Albans 3. Cair Liqualid now Carlile 4. Cair Meguaid now Meivod in Montgomeryshire 5. Cair Colun now Colchester 6. Cair Ebranc now York 7. Cair Seiont afterwards Cair Custeint near Carnarvon 8. Cair Caradoc in the Borders of Shropshire 9. Cair Grant now Cambridge 10. Cair Maunguid now Manchester in Lancashire 11. Cair Lundein now London 12. Cair Guorthigirn in Radnorshire 13. Cair Ceint now Canterbury 14. Cair Guiragon now Worcester 15. Cair Peris now Portsmouth 16. Cair Daun now Doncaster in Yorkshire 17. Cair-Legio now Westchester 18. Cair Guricon now Warwick 19. Cair Segeint now Silcester in Hampshire 20. Cair-Leon on Usk in Monmouthshire now quite demolished 21. Cair Guent now Winchester 22. Cair Britto now Bristol 23. Cair Lerion now Leicester 24. Cair Draiton now Dragton in Shropshire 25. Cair Pentavelcoit now Ilchester in Somersetshire 26. Cair Urvac now Wroxcester in Shropshire 27. Cair Calemion now Camelet in Somersetshire 28. Cair Lindcoit now Lincoln Three of these were designed to be Metropolitical Cities the Title of Archbishops not being then in use viz. London York and Cairleon upon Vsk the first whereof was York being at that time not only a Colony of the Romans but the Place where the Emperours Palace and Courts of Judicature were kept The first Metropolitan of London was St. Theanus for whom the King built a Church in the place called Cornhil which was consecrated to St. Peter In the Year of CHRIST 186. the holy Prelates Phaganus and Diruvianus going to Rome obtained a Confirmation of all they had done in Britain from St. Eleutherius from whom at their Return hither they presented the King with an hallowed Crown These Holy men being now come back there were more Churches built particularly that of Westminster which which was even from its first Foundation deputed for the Burial of our Kings and that of Winchester to which the King granted great Immunities setling on it ample Revenues and placing therein Monks living according to the Rule delivered by St. Mark the Evangelist Nor was the Devotion of King Lucius content only to build Churches and Monasteries but he erected also Seminaries of Learning of which that of Bangor was most remarkable wherein at the coming of St. Augustin into England there were more than two thousand Monks Christian Religion being thus setled in Britain King Lucius out of his Zeal to propagate the Gospel is said to have relinquished his Crown and passed over into Bavaria and Rhaetia together with his Sister St. Emerita where being Crowned with Martyrdom he was buried at Curia or Chur after whose Death the Romans suffered no more British Kings within their Province St. Phaganus and Diruvianus travelling over the whole Island teaching and baptizing the Inhabitants visited the Isle of Avallonia where they built another Oratory dedicated to St. Peter and St. Paul and having established there a Succession of twelve persons in memory of St. Joseph and his Companions are supposed there to have ended their Dayes Anno Domini 191. Persecution under Dioclesian The Christian Faith thus setled in Britain flourished here unmolested by any Persecution till the Year of our Lord 286. when Dioclesian being now in the third year of his Reign took for his Companion in the Empire Marcus Valerius Maximianus These two Emperors the former whereof assumed the Surname Jovius as the other did Herculius designing wholly to extirpate Christianity out of the World raised a more dismal Persecution against the Professors thereof than ever any of their Predecessors had done and this their supereminent Cruelty they extended so far that the Isle of Britain which in former persecuting Emperors times had been exempted from participating with the Sufferings of other Nations was now made a Scene of Blood and the very first Theatre whereon these bloody Emperours began to Act those Tragedies whereat Mankind stood amazed The first that suffered under their cruel Edicts was our glorious Protomartyr St. Albanus who being an Inhabitant of Verulam descended of an illustrious Roman Family and the Emperors Procurator in Britain courteously tho himself yet a Pagan entertained a certain reverend Christian Priest named Amphibalus then newly come from Rome into Britain by whom being converted to the true Faith he lent him at his departure his own Military Cassock woven with Gold that he might the better escape for which being accused before the Judge constituted for that purpose and owning himself
of Authority adventured himself to the River Tyber where he was drowned Soon after Constantin met Licinius at Milan to whom giving his Sister Constantia for Wife he prevailed with him not only to subscribe to an Edict for giving free Liberty to Christians and restoring to them all their Churches that had been seised on but also to joyn with him in a Letter to Maximinus Emperor of the Eastern Provinces to grant the same Freedom within his Dominions to which Maximinus tho with some unwillingness consented In the Year 314. Constantin then residing in Gaul was much distracted by the Factions of Schismaticks amongst the Christians For the repressing therefore of the Seditions raised by the Donatists he was necessitated to command a General Assembly or Synod of the Western Empire to meet at Arles where there were present above two hundred Bishops amongst whom were these three from Britain Eborius Bishop of York Restitutus Bishop of London and Adelfius Bishop of Colonia Londinensium or Colchester which some affirming Colon Londinens to have been mistakingly written by the Transcribers for Colon Camalodun interpret Maldon in Essex In the Year 317. Licinius contrary to his Covenant with Constantin beginning to presecute the Christians was by him in two Battles overthrown After which tho there was a new League made and all the Eastern Provinces together with Thrace assigned to Licinius yet he renewing the War was slain the next year and a firm Peace given to the Christian Churches all the World over Now began Constantin to publish Laws for the advantage of Christianity ordaining that Clergymen should be excused from all manner of Civil Offices and Duties to the end they might not by the envious Malice of any be withdrawn from the Service of GOD. For to encourage likewise the Love of Virginity and Single Life he abrogated the Roman Laws against Celibacy and appointed a certain Measure of Wheat yearly to be given to all Widows and those who observed a Virgin Life He ordained also that all Judges Inhabitants of Cities and Tradesmen should rest on the Venerable Day of our Lord but Countrymen were permitted to employ themselves in cultivating their Grounds because that many times no Day being more commodious for plowing or digging the Vines a common Good granted by Divine Povidence ought not to be lost He prescribed likewise a Form of Prayer to be used upon all Sundayes both by Citizens and others In the Year of our Lord 324. Constantin who according to a Custom frequently practiced by the Christian Converts of those primitive Times had hitherto delayed his Baptism to cleanse his Conscience stained with the Blood of many Innocents amongst whom was his own Son Crispus put to Death upon the false Accusations of his Stepmother Fausta was washt in the Laver of Regeneration being Baptized at Rome by the Holy Bishop Sylvester and while he was yet in his white Robes then usually worn for seven Dayes after Baptism made several Laws for the advancement of true Religion 1. He declared that CHRIST was the only true Lord and commanded that he should be adored throughout the whole Empire 2. He appointed severe Punishments to be inflicted on those who by word or deed should dishonor him 3. He ordained likewise Penalties for those who should persecute or molest any Christians He gave also Imperial Priviledges to the Roman and great Immunities to all other Churches and conferred many Gifts upon several Ecclesiastical Persons The year following to suppress the Heresy of Arius he caused a Council to be assembled at Nice of three hundred and eighteen Bishops where a Decree was likewise made for an Uniformity in the Observation of Easter about which the Church had been much disquieted Hereunto agreed those of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In the Year 326. died St. Helena Mother to the Emperor who with great Care and Industry having found out the Cross whereon our Blessed Saviour suffered and the Manger wherein he was born built in the same place a Church dedicated to Christian Devotion for which she was by the Jews Enemies to all that own any thing sacred in Memory of our Saviour despitefully called Stabularia About the same time Constantin returning into the East exprest his Zeal against Idolatry shutting up the Temples of the Heathens and making severe Laws against their Sacrifices CHAP. VIII Of the quitting of Britain by the Romans The State thereof after their departure IN this Island did the Roman Government continue till the time of the Emperor Honorius Britain quitted by the Romans in the fifteenth year of whose Reign being the Yeer of our Lord 410. and four hundred sixty and two yeers after the first Arrival of Julius Caesar on the British shore the Britains the Flower of whose Youth had been from time to time drawn out by the Romans whose Forces also were now called from hence for the defence of Italy against the Goths not having Power sufficient to defend themselves from the Incursions of their Northern Enemies sent their Messengers to the Emperor humbly craving his Protection But he not able to afford them any Assistance Rome it self being then besieged by Alaric by whom it was the same year taken sent them Letters exhorting them to stand on their own Guard and acquitting them of the Roman Jurisdiction State thereof after their Departure The Romans thus relinquishing all Care and Protection of Britain the Government devolved on its own petty Princes who independently ruled the several Provinces thereof But they unable to support themselves against the daily Inroads of the Picts and Scots again sent Letters to Honorius who compassionating their Miseries the Fear of Alaric being now over sent a Legion to their Assistance who having with great Slaughter driven back the Picts beyond the Marches and cleared the Frontiers caused a Rampire to be built cross the Island from the Frith of Edenborough to the City Alcluith on Dunbritton as Agricola formerly had done No sooner were the Romans departed to the defence of France but the Picts breaking down this Wall slightly cast up of Turfs only and pouring into the Province like a Torrent laid all waste whereever they came the Scots likewise out of their Carroghs or Leather vessels wherein they used to pass the Scitick Vale landing in whole Swarms and making havock of whatever came in their way The Britains thus bandied between two merciless and insolent Enemies yet once more sent Ambassadors to Rome who with rent Garments and Sand on their Heads mournfully supplicating Valentinian the third then Emperor that he would not suffer a Province which had been so serviceable to the Romans to be the Subject of Barbarian Scorn and Insolence excited in him such Pity of their Complaints that to succor them he sent certain Regiments who coming unexpectedly upon those ravenous Spoilers surprised them with terrible Slaughter The Britains thus rescued and the Province cleared of the Enemies the Romans gave them their help to build
perhaps against his Consent chose themselves a Leader against their Enemies as it was not justifiable nor yet approved by all the Britains many of which took not well this advancing of the Son against the good Liking of the Father so was it fatal to Vortimer himself who having six years enjoyed this Dignity lost both that and his Life being poysoned by the Procurement of Rowena After his Death Ambrosius returned again into Britain in France Hengist and his Saxons who under Pretence of a Treaty of Peace had slain three hundred of the British Nobility and by detaining Vortigern Prisoner had extorted from him the Counties of Essex Sussex Surrey Norfolk and Suffolk for his Ransom growing daily more and more powerful whilst Vortigern lurkt ingloriously in his Castle Generâ— amidst the inaccessible Mountains of the Countrey now called Cambria or Wales and the middle Provinces of the Realm left without any Defender being exposed to the fury of the Enemy the Britains deserted by their King were forced to seek one abroad They directed therefore Messengers into Little Britain to Ambrosius and his Brother Vter Pendragon beseeching them with all speed to quit that Country and repair into their own to the end that expelling both the Saxons and their hated King Vortigern they might receive the Crown of Britain The Princes upon this Invitation returned attended with Ships and armed Souldiers and being arrived here had a great Battel with Hengist wherein tho the Britains were worsted yet the Saxons received such Loss that they both gladly continued quiet The Fury of the Saxons thus allayed Ambrosius marched into Wales where setting fire to the Castle of King Vortigern he consumed both him and his to Ashes After whose Death by Consent of the Nobles he assumed the Crown Anno CHRISTI 481. In the Year of our Lord 496. Pascentius the Son of Vortigern with an Army of Germans came against Ambrosius by whom being discomfited he fled into Scotland Whence about five years after returning with an Army and understanding that Ambrosius lay sick he hired a certain Saxon named Copa who feigning himself to be a British Monk and a Physician poysoned the King Pascentius in the mean time and all his Captaines being slain by Vter Pendragon who in the head of the Kings Forces marched out against him The Line of Vortigern being thus extinct and Ambrosius now dead the Realm was without any Competitor governed by Vter Pendragon under whom and his Successors the Britains had continual Struglings with the Saxons by whom being at last outed of the best part of their Country they retired beyond the River Severn and in those parts fortified themselves a Period being put to the British Kingdom in the Year of our Lord 688. about two hundred seventy eight years after that Honorius had by Letters of Discharge quitted the Britains of the Roman Jurisdiction two hundred and fifty from the Reestablishing of the British Monarchy by the Election of King Vortigern two hundred thirty nine after the first Arrival of Hengist and his Saxon Auxiliaries and in the third Year of Cadwalladar who was the last that was dignified with the Title of King of Britain his Successors being stiled Kings and Princes of Wales CHAP. IX Of the Restauration of the British Monarchy by King James His Descent from Cadwalladar The British Monarchy restored by King James THe conquering Saxons having possest themselves of all the Southern parts of the Isle except what lies beyond the Severn and the mountainous Countrey of Cornwall whither they had forced the Britains to retire gave to the Countrey held by themselves first the Name of East Saxony beyond Sea and afterwards that of England That Part of the Island which was still enjoyed by the Britains they called Wales the Inhabitants Walsh or Welsh-men and their chief Governours Kings and Princes of Wales Hereby was the Name of Britain banished as it were the Island for above nine hundred years till such time as the Line of Henry the VIII th whose three Children Reigning successively died Issueless being extinct the Crown of England by indubitable Hereditary Right fell to James the VI th King of Scotland whose Great Grandmother was Margaret eldest Daughter to Henry the VII th King of England This famous Monarch as is manifest by his Genealogy hereunto annext lineally descending from Cadwalladar the last King of the Britains not only restored the British Line to the Throne but the Name of Britain also to the Island causing himself immediately upon his Coming to this Crown to be stiled King of Great Britain The KINGS And Princes of WALES Descent of King James fom Cadwalladar from whom is Lineally descended the Royal Family of the STVARTS now actually swaying the Scepter of GREAT BRITAIN CADWALLADAR King of Britain driven by the Saxons to forsake his Native Country sojourned with his Kinsman Alan King of Little Britain in France whence designing again for Britain he was by an Angel admonished in a Vision to go to Rome where he ended his dayes Anno Domini 688. With him died the British Monarchy Edwal Ywrch left by his Father at his Departure for Rome in Little Britain with his Cosen Alan who sent his Son Ivor with a Navy into Britain where he was the first King of Wales 1. Roderick Molwynoc who in the Year 720. succeeded his Cosen Ivor the Son of Alan in the Kingdom of Wales 2. Fermael who died without Issue in the Year 763. RODERICK MOLWYNOC King of Wales had Issue 1. Conan Tindaethwy King of Wales Esylht Queen of Wales married to a Nobleman named Mervyn Vrych descended in the right Line from Belinus Brother of Brennus King of Britain His Mother was Nest Daughter to Cadelh Prince of Powys whose Father was Brochwel Yscithroc Prince of Powys that in the Year 617. fought against the Saxons at Bangor 1. Roderick Mawr King of Wales who by his Wife Engharad Daughter to Meyrick Prince of Cardigan had a numerous Issue He divided Wales into three Talaiths or Kingdoms Giving to Anarawd his Eldest Son to whom the other two were Tributaries Gwyneth or Northwales to Cadelh his second Son Dehevbarth or Southwales to Mervyn his third Son Mathraval or Powys 1. Anarawd King of Northwales and Soveraign of all Wales died in the year 913. leaving behind him two Sons 1. Edwal Voel King of Northwales and Sovereign of all Wales who had a numerous Issue 2. Elise slain with his Brother King Edwal Voel in the year 940. Conan who died without Issue Trawst a Daughter married to a Nobleman named Sitsylht 2. Cadelh King of Southwales and after the Death of his Brother Mervyn of Powys from whom descended the Kings and Princes of Southwales 3. Mervyn King of Powys who being slain in the year 900. was succeeded by his Brother Cadelh King of Southwales 2. Gwyriad who together with his Brother King Roderick was slain in the Year 877. 2. Howel who rebeling against his Brother was by him overcome
and forced to fly into the Isle of Man where he died Anno. 819. TRAWST the Daughter of Elise by her Husband Sitsylht had Issue Lhewelyn who married Angharad the Daughter and Heir of Meredyth King of Southwales This Lhewelyn in the Year 1015. raised a great Power against Aedan the Son of Blegored who had usurped the Kingdom of Northwales whom with his four Sons having slain he took to himself the Name and Authority of King of Wales 1. Gruffyth who in the year 1037. having slain in battle Jago King of Northwales assumed the Kingdom to himself A Daughter not named married to Fleance Son of Bancho a Scotch Nobleman cruelly murthered by Mackbeth King of Scotland whose Fury Fleance escaping fled into Wales where being kindly received by King Gruffyth he privately married his Daughter whereat the King who by his Daughters being with Child had found out the Marriage was so highly offended that he caused Fleance to be kild and his Daughter imprisoned who was soon after delivered of a Son which was named Walter who going into Scotland grew into such Favor with King Malcolm the IIId that he was by him made Lord High Steward of Scotland receiving the Kings Revenues of the whole Realm by the faithful Discharge of which Office he merited for for himself and Posterity the Surname of Stuart 2. Rees slain at a place called Bulendune in the year 1053. 2. Conan slain with his Brother Lhewelyn in the year 1021. This was the Rise and Original of the Royal Family of the Stuarts which has now for above three hundred years been in possession of the Crown of Scotland and about fourscore the sole Monarchs of Great Britain But tho this Descent be of the Younger House as coming from Elise second Son of Anarawd the first King of Northwales yet that his present Majesty of Great Britain is by Right of Primogeniture the next and undoubted Heir to Cadwalladar will manifestly appear by the following Table representing The Progeny Of Cadwalladar continued from Edwal Voel the eldest Son of Anarawd to our present Dread Soveraign King CHARLES the IId now swaying the Scepter of Great Britain EDWAL VOEL King of Northwales and Sovereign of all Wales eldest Son of Anarawd first King of Northwales and Grandson of Roderick Mawr King of Wales had Issue 1. Meyric who was deprived of his Inheritance first by his Cosen Howel Dha the eldest Son of Cadelh first King of Southwales afterwards by his own Brethren Jevaf and Jago In the year 973. he had his Eyes put out by his Nephew Howel the Son of Jevaf and soon after died in Prison leaving behinde him two Sons 2. Jevaf who with his Brother Jago after the Death of Howel Dha usurped the Kingdom of Northwales being the Right of their eldest Brother Meyric About the year 967. he was Imprisoned by his Brother Jago and in the year 973. set at liberty by his Son Howel who chased Jago out of the Land and took the Kingdom to himself 3. Jago who together with his Brother Jevaf in the year 948. after the Death of Howel Dha usurped the Kingdom of Northwales which of right belonged to their elder Brother Meyric MEYRIC the Son of Edwal Voel had Issue 1. Jonaval who in the year 985. was slain by Cadwalhon the Son of Jevaf and left no Issue 2. Edwal who in the year 992. recovered his Grandfathers Inheritance and after six years was slain by Swayn King of Denmark Jago who being under Age at his Fathers Death was deprived of his Inheritance by Aedan the Son of Blegored slain in the year 1015. by Lhewelyn the Son of Sitsylht who being in the year 1021. kild by Howel and Meredyth the Sons of Edwyn Jago recovered his Kingdom but was in the year 1037. slain by Gruffyth the Son of Lhewelyn Conan who being by Gruffyth ap Lhewelyn driven out of his Inheritance fled into Ireland where he married the Daugher of Alfred King of Develyn Gruffyth who in the year 1078. bringing a great Army of Irishmen and Scots into Wales and joyning with Rees ap Theodor the Heir of Southwales recovered his Grandfathers Kingdom He is the last to whom the Welâ—… Historians give the Name of King GRVFFYTH Son of Conan had Issue Owen Gwyneth Prince of Northwales and Soveraign of all VVales He died in the year 1169. leaving behind him a numerous Issue 1. Jorwerth Drwyndwn deprived of Inheritance by his younger Brother David Lhewelyn Prince of Northwales and Soveraign of all VVales for his Heroick Acts surnamed the Great who in the year 1237. being weakned by a Palsy and vexed with the Rebellion of his Base Son Gruffyth sent Ambassadours to Henry the IIId King of England submitting himself to his Protection condescending to hold his Principality of him and promising upon all Occasions to assist him to the uttermost of his Power He died in the year 1240. 2. David who usurping the Right of his eldest Brother succeeded his Father in the Principality which he held till the year 1194. when he lost it to his Nephew Lhewelyn the right Heir LHEWELYN the Son of Jorwerth by his Wife Jone Daughter to John King of England had Issue David Soveraign Prince of VVales who submitted himself and his Principality to his Uncle Henry the IIId King of England doing him Homage and Fealty for the same He died in the year 1246. without Issue Gladys Dhu a Daughter married to Ralph Lord Mortimer of Wigmor by whom she had Issue Roger Mortimer Lord of VVigmor who ought to have succeeded his Uncle David in the Principality of VVales but the VVelsh Nobility out of their Aversion to the English not regarding his Right did their Homage to Lhewelyn and Owen Goch Sons of Gruffyth Bastard-brother to the last Prince who divided the Principality between them till that Lhewelyn in the year 1254. having taken his Brother Owen Prisoner in battel enjoyed alone the whole Principality But in the year l282 Lhewelyn being slain by one Adam Francton an Englishman all VVales was by Edward the Ist brought in Subjection to the Crown of England and has so continued ever since The Eldest Son of Roger Mortimer by his Wife Maud Daughter of VVilliam de Bruse Lord of Brecknock was Edmund Mortimer Lord of VVigmor EDMVND MORTIMER Lord of VVigmor had Issue Roger Mortimer Lord of VVigmor who married Jone Daughter and Heir of Sir Peter Genivil was created Earl of March by King Edward the IIId and afterwards attainted Edmund Mortimer Lord of VVigmor married Elianor Widow of VVilliam de Bohun Earl of Northampton one of the Daughters and Heirs of Bartholomew Badelsmer Lord of Leeds in Kent Roger Mortimer Lord of VVigmor restored by King Edward the IIId to the Earldom of March and all his Grandfathers Inheritance Honors and Possessions the Attainder being repealed Edmund Mortimer Earl of March and Lord of VVigmor married Philippa Daughter and sole Heir of Leonell Duke of Clarence in whose Right he was Earl of Vlster He died
that as their Persons were sacred and Spiritual so it was no less a part of their Duty to take care of the external Regulation and peace of the Church than of the Civil Government of their States Yet were there antiently none anointed but the two Emperors of the East and West the Kings of France England Sicily and Hierusalem amongst whom the Monarch of Great Britain may lay as ancient a Claim to this Holy Unction as any other Prince of Europe the very first Kings of this Island after it was freed from the Jurisdiction of the Romans having been anointed By reason of which Unction it was in the Reign of Edward the IIId declared that the Kings of England were capable of Spiritual Jurisdiction Of this Sacred Person of the King of his Life and Safety so singular a Care is taken that the Laws of both the Realms whereinto this Island is divided do herein agree that it is High Treason only to imagin or intend the Death of the King And because likewise by imagining or conspiring the Death of the Kings Councellors or Great Officers of his Houshold the Death of the Sovereign may ensue and is usually aimed at all such Conspiracies tho never taking effect are punished with Death tho in all other Capital Cases no man is put to Death unless the Act follow the Intent Nay in so high an esteem is the Kings Person had that to offend against those Persons and Things whereby he is represented as to kill some of the Crown Officers or any of the Kings Judges executing their Office to counterfeit the Kings Seals or his Moneys is made High Treason because by all these his Sacred Person is represented And so horrid is this Crime of High Treason that besides the Loss of Life and Honour the Criminal forfeits all his Estate Real and Personal his Wife loses her Dower his Children their Nobility and all their Right of Inheritance to him or any other Ancestor and are to be ranked amongst the Peasantry and Ignoble till the King shall please to restore them For so heinous is this Offence that the Law can hardly endure to see the Posterity of the Offender survive him And rather than Treason against the Kings Person shall go unpunished the Innocent shall in some cases suffer for if an Ideot or Lunatick who having no Will cannot possibly be said to offend shall during his Ideocy or Lunacy kill or go about to kill the King he shall be punished as a Traytor tho not being Compos mentis he can neither commit Felony Petit Treason or any other sort of High Treason So tender a Regard is moreover had of this most precious Person of the King that no Physick ought to be administred to him but what his Physicians prepare with their own Hands and not by the Hands of any Apothecary nor are they to use the Assistance of any Chirurgeons but such as are sworn Chirurgeons to his Person This Person of the King in his Natural as well as Politick Capacity is every Subject to defend with his own Life and Limbs For the King being Father of his Country it should seem a pleasant thing to every Loyal-hearted Subject to lose Life or Limb in defending him from Conspiracies Rebellions or Invasions or assisting him in the Execution of his Laws The Office of the Monarch of Great Britain and indeed of every Christian Prince Office was by the Holy Roman Bishop St. Eleutherius described to our first Christian King Lucius Which Description recorded in the Laws of St. Edward the Confessor King of England is as followeth A King being the Minister and Delegate of the Supreme King is appointed by GOD for this end that He govern this Earthly Kingdom and People of our Lord and above all that he govern and venerate his Church defending it from all who would injure it That he root out of it and utterly destroy all Evil-Doers For the better enabling themselves to discharge this great and weighty Office to the just and upright Performance whereof every King at his Coronation obliges himself by solemn Oath Prerogatives the Monarchs of Great Britain have reserved as inherent in their Crown certain extraordinary Powers Preeminences and Priviledges commonly called Royal Prerogatives some of the most remarkable whereof in which as being necessary for the Preservation of the Government and the Safety and Interest of the People the Laws of both Kingdoms agree do here follow The King solely and alone has by his Royal Prerogative without any Act of Parliament the absolute Power of declaring War making Peace sending and receiving Ambassadours entring into and concluding Leagues and Treaties with any Forreign Prince or State He has the sole Disposing and Ordering of the Militia by Sea and Land raising Forces Garrisoning and Fortifying Places setting out Ships of War and Pressing Men if need require He alone disposes of all Magazins Ammunition Castles Fortresses Ports and Havens and has the laying out and employing as he pleases of all Publick Monies or the Revenues of the Crown and Kingdom He appoints the Metal Weight Purity and Value of Money and may by his Proclamation make any Forreign Coin to be lawful and Current Money within his Dominions By his Royal Prerogative he may of his meer Will and Pleasure convoke adjourn prorogue remove and dissolve Parliaments and may to any Act passed by them give or refuse without rendring any Reason his Royal Assent without which a Bill is but a meer Cadaver a lifeless and inanimate Lump He may at his pleasure increase the number of the Members of Parliament by creating new Barons and bestowing Priviledges upon other Towns to send Burgesses to Parliament Yea he may call to Parliament by Writ any one whether Alien or Native whom he in his Princely Wisdom shall think fit and may refuse to send his Writ to some others that have sat in former Parliaments His Majesty alone hath the Choice and Nomination of all Magistrates Councellors and Officers of State of all Bishops and other high Dignities in the Church of all Commanders and other Officers at Sea and Land the bestowing of all Honors of the higher and lower Nobility the Power of determining Rewards for Services and Punishments for Misdemeanors He may by his Letters Patents erect new Counties Bishopricks Universities Cities Burroughs Hospitals Schools Fairs Markets Courts of Justice Forrests Chases and Free-Warrens He hath by his Prerogative Power to enfranchise an Alien and thereby to enable him to purchase Houses and Lands and to bear some Offices He hath Power to grant Letters of Mart or Reprisal Safe Conducts c. No Proclamation can be made but by the King Between which and a Statute as the Difference originally was not great the King making the latter by the Common Councel of the Kingdom whereas in the former he had but the Advice of his great Councel of the Peers or of his Privy Councel only So what Judgment Parliaments have formerly
for the Safety and Well-Government of his Subjects the abandoning tho for so short a time the Protection and Defence of the People committed to his Charge Whatever things are proper unto Supreme Majesty Scepters and Crowns Soveraignty the Purple Robe the Globe or Golden Ball and Holy Unction have as long appertained to the British Monarch as to any other Prince in Europe The Antiquity of anointing Kings in Britain has been already shewn out of Gildas and as for the other four they are by Leland a famous Antiquary ascribed unto King Arthur who began his Reign in the Year of our Lord 506. Which was as soon as they were ordinarily in use with the Roman Emperors The King of Great Britain is an absolute and unaccountable Monarch a Free Prince of Soveraign Power not holding his Kingdom in Vassallage nor receiving his Instalment or Investiture from another Nor does he acknowledge Superiority to any but to GOD alone He is not only the Supreme but sole Legislator within his Dominions The Power of making Laws whatever some Antimonarchists pretend to the contrary rests solely in him And altho the Gracious Condescension of our Kings has been such as to render the subordinate Concurrence of the Estates of each Realm a Condition requisite to the making of new or abrogating of old Laws within the respective Kingdoms yet are they not thereby admitted to any Share in the Soveraignty their Power being wholly derivative from the King who is Caput Principium Finis Parliamentorum the three Estates when assembled in Parliament being as much his Subjects as every particular Man of them is when the Meeting is dissolved All Bills passed by them are but so much dead matter till quickned by his Royal Fiat which alone gives Life and Form to all their Proceedings Nor is it ex debito Justitiae but of his Special Grace that he passes such Acts as are presented to him Thus Henry the IIId begins his Magna Charta with Know ye that WE of our meer and free Will have given these Liberties Thus we hear King Edward the Ist saying The King of his special Grace for Redress of the Grievances of His People sustained by his Wars and for the Amendment of their Estate and to the intent that they may be the more ready to do him Service the more willing to assist and aid him in time of need Grants 28. E. 1. c. 1. And altho of later times Laws are said to be made by Authority of Parliament yet if we look into our antient Statutes we shall find the meaning to be that The King Ordains the Lords advise and the Commons consent Those then are much mistaken who affirm the Parliament to be at the least as Essential a Part of the Government as the Prince Which if it were true whenever the Parliament is dissolved the Government would be so too But this with the Pernicious Maxim of Coordinacy or sharing the Soveraign Power between King Lords and Commons with other treasonable and Antimonarchical Doctrines daily dispersed amongst the People and with the utmost of his Art industriously asserted by the Author of a late seditious Book entituled Plato Redivivus together with his audacious Proposals aiming to take all the Flowers out of the Imperial Diadem of the British Monarch are most fitly to be answered in Westminster-Hall as tending no less to the subversion of our Government which being purely Monarchical may be without the two Houses whereas they cannot be without the King than those traitorous Designs for which Coleman and his Accomplices paid their forfeited Lives to the Justice of the Laws The King of Great Britain is Lord Paramount supreme Landlord of all the Lands within his Dominions all landed men being mediately or immediately his Tenants by some Tenure or other By the Laws and Ordinances of ancient Kings saith Sir Edward Cook in the first part of his Institutes and especially of King Alfred it appeareth that the first Kings of this Realm had all the Lands of England in Demesne and the great Manors and Royalties they reserved to themselves and of the Remnant they for the Defence of the Realm enfeoffed the Barons of the Realm with such Jurisdiction as the Court Baron now hath The King as it is evident by the Rolls of the Chancellery in Scotland which contain their eldest and fundamental Laws is Dominus omnium bonorum and Dominus directus totius Dominii the whole Subjects being but his Vassals and from him holding all their Lands as their over-Over-lord Thus none but the King hath Allodium and Directum Dominium the sole and independent Property in any Land Upon this Ground no doubt it was that Serjeant Heal in the three and fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth said in Parliament He marvelled the House stood either at the granting of a Subsidy or time of Payment when all we have is her Majesties and She may lawfully at her pleasure take it from us and that She had as much Right to all our Lands and Goods as to any Revenue of the Crown And he said he could prove it by Precedents in the time of Henry the IIId King John and King Stephen And upon the same Ground was it resolved by the Judges in the beginning of the Reign of King James when there was a purpose to have taken away Tenures by Act of Parliament That such a Statute had been void because the Tenures were for the Defence of the King and Kingdom And altho since that the Tenures which gave a Dependency upon the Crown and were the greatest Safety to the King and People have been taken away and thereby a great Blow given to Monarchy yet let those who have the Fee the Jus perpetuum and the Vtile Dominium have a care lest by following the mischievous Advice of Plato Redivivus and abusing the Grace and Bounty of the Prince by endeavoring to draw the Soveraignty to themselves they necessitate not their King for the Preservation of himself and People to have Recourse to his Prerogative which is a Preheminence in Cases of Necessity above and before the Law of Property or Inheritance For the Prevention whereof it is to be wished that either by an Act of Resumption of the ancient Demesns of the Crown which was a sacred Patrimony and by Law unalienable or by such other way as the Wisdom of the Nation shall think fit a Royal Support adaequate to the Charges of the Crown be made for the King to defend his Kingdom and protect his People so that he may not be reduced to the Infelicity of having a precarious Revenue out of the Peoples Purse and to be beholden to a Parliament for his Bread in time of Peace which is no good Condition for a Monarchy As the Legislative Power is solely in the King so he alone has the Soveraign Power in the Administration of Justice and Execution of the Law He is the Fountain of all Justice which by his Judges and
Vlpian for a Rule of the Civil Law Princeps Legibus solutus est The Prince is not bound by the Laws Agreeable whereunto is what is said in the Laws of England Potestas Principis non est inclusa Legibus The Power of the Prince is not included in the Laws Hence no doubt it was that Mr. Grivel in the Thirty first year of Queen Elizabeth said in Parliament That he wished not the making of many Laws since the more we make the less Liberty we have our selves Her Majesty not being bound by them Yet is not this so to be understood that Kings have hereby a right to do Injury but that it is Right for them to go unpunished by their People if they do it The King cannot be impleaded for any Crime No Action lieth against his Person For the Writ goeth forth in his Name and he cannot arrest himself If he should which God forbid violently seizâ— upon the Estate of any Subject having no Title by Law so to do the only Remedy is by Petitioning him to amend his Fault which if he shall refuse to do it will be Punishment sufficient for him to expect that GOD who has given him his Prerogative of being above all Laws for the good only of them that are under the Laws and for the Defence of his Peoples Liberties will severely avenge the Cause of oppressed Loyal Subjects But altho whatever the King shall do he is not questionable for it by his Subjects yet there are divers things which he cannot do Salvo Jure Salvo Juramento Salva Conscientia sua For by an Oath taken at his Coronation the King obliges himself and indeed without any Oath he is by the Law of Nature and Christianity as are all other Christian Kings obliged to procure the Safety and Welfare of his People to protect and defend them against their Enemies to maintain and preserve them in their Properties just Rights and Liberties to administer upright Justice with Discretion and Mercy and in order thereunto to consent to the enacting of good Laws and repealing of Bad. Thus the King can do nothing unjustly nor can he divest himself or his Successors of any part of his Regal Power Prerogative and Authority inherent in the Crown and necessary for the Government and Protection of his People Two things there are especially which having somewhat of Odium in them the King doth not usually do without the Consent of his Parliament that is make new Laws and impose new Taxes the one whereof seems and does but seem to infringe the Peoples Liberties and the other to entrench upon their Properties To take away therefore all Occasions of Disaffection to the Anointed of the Lord stiled in Holy Scripture the Breath of our Nostrils and the Light of our Eyes the Wisdom of our former Princes his Majesties Royal Ancestors has contrived that for both these there should Petitions first be made by the People to the King Tho these and divers other Prerogatives do rightfully belong unto and are enjoyed by the Monarch of Great Britain yet doth he ordinarily govern his people by the known Laws and Customs of his Kingdoms making use of his Royal Prerogative for the Benefit not Damage of his Subjects in some rare and extraordinary Cases only Hereunto may be added a singular and Miraculous Priviledge enjoyed by the Kings of Great Britain quatenus Kings conferred first by the Divine Benignity upon that Blessed King of England St. Edward the Confessor and ever since continued to his Successors which is by the Imposition of their Sacred Hands to drive away and cure that stubborn Disease called the Struma or Scrofula and by us commonly from this supernatural manner of its Cure the Kings Evil. Upon certain dayes almost every Week during the cold Seasons his Majesty graciously permits all that are afflicted with that Disease having been first carefully viewed and allowed by his Chirurgeons to be brought into his Royal Presence Where an appointed Form of Divine Service consisting of some short Prayers pertinent to the Occasion and two Portions of Holy Scripture taken out of the Gospel being read the King at the pronouncing of these Words They shall lay their hands upon the Sick and they shall recover gently draws both his Hands over the Sore of the sick person the same words being repeated at every Touch. And at these Words This was the true Light which enlightneth every Man that cometh into this World he putteth about the Neck of each Sick person a piece of Gold called from the Impression an Angel being in value about eleven Shillings Sterling This evident Cure is by many malignant Nonconformists those true Sons of Belial daily despising and speaking evil of Dignities ascribed to the Strength of Fancy and exalted Imagination but little do they reflect upon how many tender Infants no way capable of such Transports this stupendious Cure is effectually performed Respect In consideration of these and many other transcendent Excellencies to no Prince or other Potentate in Christendom is done more Honour Reverence or Respect than to the Monarch of Great Britain All his Subjects at their first Addresses kneel unto him At Table he is served on the knee All persons the Prince or other Heir apparent not excepted are bare-headed in his Presence In the Presence Chamber tho the King be not there all men are not only uncovered but do or ought to do Reverence to the Chair of State The Kings only Testimony of any thing done in his presence is of as high a Nature and Credit as any Record And in all Writs sent forth for the Dispatch of Justice hee useth no other Witness but himself viz. Teste meipso As the King of Great Britain is thus reverenced and respected at home so is he no less honored and esteemed abroad For if he be regarded solely as King of England we shall find that the Emperor was accounted Filius major Ecclesiae the King of France Filius minor and the King of England Filius adoptivus That in General Councels the King of France took place on the Emperors Right Hand the King of England on his Left the King of Scots having Precedency next before Castile And that tho since the time of the Emperor Charles the Vth. the Kings of Spain have challenged the Precedency of all Christian Princes which nevertheless they have within this twenty years yielded to France yet in the time of our King Henry the VIIth Pope Julius gave it to the English before the Spaniard But if looking upon him as succeeding to the ancient British Kings whose true and undoubted Heir he is by Lineal and unquestionable Descent we shall consider the Antiquity of his Predecessors either as Kings Reigning here above a thousand years before the coming in of the Romans His Majesty now regnant being from the first British Kings the hundred thirty nineth Monarch or as Christians this Island having not only shewn to the World the first Christian King
named Lucius whence the Title of Primogenitus Ecclesiae rightfully belongs to the King of Great Britain but given to the Church the first Christian Emperor even the famous Constantin here born of there-nowned British Lady St Helena by whose Example and Encouragement the Faith was generally received throughout the whole Empire The Independency and Absoluteness of his Authority holding of none but GOD and having in his own Dominions neither Superiour nor Equal The Eminence of his Royal Dignity State and Titles his Realm not having been only stiled an Empire and his Crown Imperial but this Island both in antient and later Times having been regarded as another World whereof the Monarch is sole Lord and Emperor The Martial Exploits and Achievements of his Ancestors abroad amongst whom is the first Christian Worthy and first Founder of Martial Knighthood the famous King Arthur in whose Heroick Acts there is Truth enough all that is thought fabulous being rejected to render him renowned to all posterity The Gallantry and and Stoutness of his People arising from their Freedom the Plentifulness of their Country and Generality of their Wealth His long-lined Royal Extraction wherein His Majesty now Reigning excels all the Monarchs of the Christian if not of the whole World The Hospitality and Magnificence of his Court than which no Court in Christendom is served with more punctual Attendance and State The Diversity of Nations and differing maternal Tongues subject to his Command The admirable Laws and Constitutions of his Government The Greatness of his Power by Sea and Land both Offensive and Defensive These and many other his Prerogatives considered We may well be permitted to affirm that besides the Preeminence he may challenge by his just Right to the Crown of France the Monarch of Great Brittain except the Precedency which he as all other Christan Princes acknowledges to the Emperor if he go not before yet at least ought not to come behind any King whatsoever CHAP. XII Of Succession to the Crown of Great Britain THE Monarch of Great Brittain has Right to the Imperial Crown of this Island by Inheritance according to the Laws of GOD and Nature and the fundamental Constitutions of the Realms of England and Scotland which both agree in this That upon the Death of the King the next of Kindred tho born out of the Dominions of Great Britain or born of Parents not Subjects of Great Britain is immediately King before any Proclamation Coronation Publication or Consent of Peers or People The Rule of Inheritance given by GOD himself to the People of Israel is this If a man dy and have no Son then he shall cause his Inheritance to pass unto his Daughter And if he have no Daughter then ye shall give his Inheritance unto his Brethren Agreeably to which Rule the Crown of Great Britain descends as an inalienable Heritage from the Father to the eldest Son and his Heirs for want of Sons to the Eldest Daughter and her Heirs for want of Daughters to the Brother and his Heirs and for want of Brethren to the Sister and her Heirs And so unalterable is this Course of Descent that no Act no Crime no Attainder of Treason can bar the next of Blood from being King in the instant of Time his Predecessor does not so much dye as by a State Metempsychosis transmit his Life his Breath or his Soul into the Nostrils the Body of his Successor For Hereditary Monarchy being as it has been clearly demonstrated an immediate Ordinance of GOD founded in the Prime Laws of Nature and the Laws of GOD and Nature being as all Christians acknowledge absolutely immutable it is a Madness to think that any Act of Parliament can change this unchangeable Law or with the least Color of Justice alter the Right of Succession This was well known to all our ancient Parliaments that were neither over-awed by any prevailing Faction seduced by designing Intreaguers nor yet vainly flattered themselves with an Omnipotent Power to create and annihilate Kings In one of which the States of the Realm unanimously answered King Edward the IIId asking their Advice in matters relating to the Crown That they could not consent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the Disherison of the King and his Heirs or the Crown whereunto they were sworn From whence Sir Edward Cook concludes That it is a Law and Custom of Parliament that no King can alien the Crown from the right Heir tho by consent of the Lords and Commons And elsewhere affirming King Johns Resignation of the Crown to the Pope to have been utterly void he alledges this Reason Because the Royal Dignity is an Inherent inseparable to the Royal Blood of the King descendable to the next of Blood to the King and cannot be transferd to another And altho by the Treasons and Conspiracies of ambitious disloyal and designing Persons the Crown has now and then been transferred from one Family to another yet does it appear in Story that since the time of the Norman Conquest the right Heir was never yet kept out beyond the second Descent And to the Honor of English Parliaments we can aver that never any Usurper tho armed with Power laid claim to the Crown in Parliament but by pretending to be of the Right Line nor did ever the Parliament allow of such Pretence if false but when awed by Fear and a vast Army And whenever the Terror of such armed violence being removed the true Heir was enabled to claim his Right the Parliament notwithstanding all such pretended Acts readily submitted themselves to their legitimate Prince as being bound thereunto by the Laws of GOD and Nature Thus altho Henry Duke of Lancaster backt by an Army of fourty or fifty thousand men under Pretence of a feigned Title from Edmund Crouch-back forced his Natural Soveraign King Richard the IId first to resign and afterwards to be deposed from his Crown which waving his former pretended Title he caused to be entailed upon himself his four Sons and the Heirs of their Bodies by Act of Parliament whereby he thought to have secured it to his Posterity for ever Yet notwithstanding these cautious Provisions seconded by the Valor and prodigious Success of that noble Prince Henry the Vth. when in the year 1460. this Entail was alledged against Richard Duke of York laying claim in Parliament to the Crowns of England and France as being the next Heir to Lionel Duke of â—larence elder Brother to John of Gaunt of whom the House Lancaster was descended the Duke of York unanswerably replied That if King Henry the IVth might have obtained the said Crowns of England and France by Title of Inheritance Descent or Succession he neither needed nor would have desired or made them to be granted to him in such wise as they be by that Act Which said he taketh no place neither is of any force or effect against him that is right Inheritor of the said Crowns as accordeth with the Laws
of GOD and all Natural Laws Which Answer of the Duke of York and h s Claim to the Crown was by the same Parliament expresly recognized and declared to be Good True Just Lawful and Sufficient And when in the same year Edward Earl of March eldest Son to the said Duke of York upon the death of his Father took possession of the Crown by the Name of King Edward the IVth his Title was in full Parliament by all acknowledged in these Words Knowing also certainly and without doubt and ambiguity that by GODs Law and the Law of Nature He viz. the said King Edward and none other is and ought to be true R ghtwise and Natural Liege and Soveraign Lord And that he was in right from the Death of the said Noble and Fam us Prinee his Father very just King of the same Realm of England And so little Respect was given to the aforementioned Act of Entail that it was not so much as repealed being esteemed from the very beginning null and void in it self Nor indeed were any Acts of Henry the IVth Vth. or VIth stiled Kings in Deed and not of Right deemed to be in force but such as were expresly confirmed by Edward the IVth in the same manner as his Sacred Majesty now reigning confirmed the judicial Proceedings of the late Usurpation As little Success had that Monster of Nature Richard Duke of Glocester who being by the Interest of several factious Lords chosen Protector to his Nephew the young King Edward the Vth having by that means gotten into his hands the military Force of the Nation pretending that the Children of his Brother King Edward the IVth were illegitimate laid claim to the Crown which he not only entailed by Act of Parliament upon himself and his Issue but the better to secure it in his Line caused the Innocent young King and his only Brother the Duke of York to be barbarously murthered in the Tower yet did he within three years lose both his Crown and Life to Henry Earl of Richmond on whom and his Heirs it was again by Act of Parliament entailed which yet would little have availed him or his Posterity had he not prudently acording to his promise by which several of the Nobility were induced to assist him married Elizabeth eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth and immediate Heiress of the Crown whereby happily turning his Usurpation into a lawful Sovereignty he secured himself in the Throne But that his Issue by any other Lady could not have had better Success against the Princely House of York than Adonijah had against Salomon may more than probably be presumed if we shall consider what Fate attended the many mad Acts made by Henry the VIIIth about the Succession This haughty Prince whose capricious Humor none of his Parliaments durst gainsay having after above twenty years Cohabitation divorced his Queen a chast and vertuous Lady did in the twenty fifth year of his Reign disinherit by Act of Parliament the Lady Mary his Daughter by her settling the Crown by special Words for want of Issue Male on his Issue Female by the Lady Anne Bullen To the observation of which Act the whole Nation was obliged by an Oath imposed the year following the Refusal of which Oath was adjudged Misprision of Treason And yet in the twenty eighth year of his Reign he bastardized and made illegitimate to all intents and purposes as he had done formerly the Issue of Queen Katherine the Issue betwixt him and the Lady Anne Bullen barring them to claim challenge or demand any Inheritance as Lawful Heir or Heirs to him by Lineal Descent making it Treason for any one notwithstanding their former Oath by Words Writing Printing or any other exterior Act directly or indirectly to call any of the Children born under the unlawful Marriages of Katharine and Anne Bullen legitimate and enacting that in case he had no Issue by Jane his then Queen he might dispose of the Crown to whatsoever person or persons he pleased the whole Nation being bound to the observance of this Law by the Sanctimony of an Oath the refusal whereof was made High Treason After all this in the thirty fifth year of his Reign he by another Act entailed the Crown on himself Prince Edward and the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth without repealing the former Acts or taking the least notice of their being so signally bastardized and for default of Heirs of their Bodies on such person or persons as he should nominate by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or by his last Will in writing signed by his most Gracious Hand the whole Nation being again sworn to observe his pleasure herein Consequently whereunto he by such his last Will and Testament solemnly bequeathed the Crown upon failure of his own Issue to the House of Suffolk being the Issue of his younger Sister Mary excluding by that means from the Throne as much as in him and his Act of Parliament lay the Issue of his Elder Sister whose Royal Blood he affirmed the cold Air of Scotland to have frozen up in the North. Yet when after the Death of his three Children reigning successively these disinheriting Statutes the last whereof was confirmed by Act of Parliament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth in whose thirteenth year there passed also an Act That it should be Treason during her Life and a Praemunire afterwards to assert that the Imperial Crown of England could not be disposed of by Act of Parliament came to the Test they had not the Honor to be repealed but were held null and void from the beginning as being notoriously repugnant to the Laws both of GOD and Nature and the common Customs and Constitutions of the Realm And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons assembled in Parliament notwithstanding all these unrepealed Acts having confest the Inestimable and unspeakable Blessings accrewing from the Vnion of England and Scotland under one Imperial Crown in the Person of King James lineally rightfully and lawfully descended of the most Excellent Lady Margaret Eldest Daughter of the most renowned King Henry the VIIth and the high and noble Princess Queen Elizabeth his Wife eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth proceeded to the Recognition of his Title in these Words We being bounden thereunto both by the Laws of GOD and Man do recognize and acknowledge that immediately upon the Dissolution and Decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most Excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And that by the Goodness of GOD Almighty and lawful Right of Descent Your Majesty is under one Imperial Crown of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty
King or Queen who actually Reigns the Subjects of that Kingdom are bound by Law Duty and Allegiance to obey the next immediate and lawful Heir either Male or Female upon whom the Right and Administration of Government is immediately devolved And that no Difference in Religion nor no Law nor Act of Parliament made or to be made can alter or divert the Right of Succession and Lineal Descent of the Crown to the nearest and lawful Heir according to the Degrees aforesaid nor can stop or hinder them in the full free and actual Administration of the Government according to the Laws of the Kingdom but obliged also His Majesty for the preservation of the Peace and Tranquillity of that Kingdom with Advice and Consent of the said Estates of Parliament to declare That it is High Treason in any of the Subjects of that Kingdom by Writing Speaking or any other manner of way to endeavor the Alteration Suspension or Diversion of the said Right of Succession or the debarring the next lawful Successor from the immediate actual full and free Administration of the Government Nor is it to be doubted but that the Commons of England who now begin to grow sensible of those Precipices of Ruine whereinto they were ready to tumble through the Contrivances of of those malicious Incendiaries that by terrifying the People with panick Fears of Popery and Arbitrary Power endeavoured to kindle a Fire of Rebellion in this Nation will whenever it shall please His Majesty to call a Parliament shew themselves no less Zealous than the Scots have done to assist and defend according to their Oaths the Kings Rights and Priviledges the chiefest whereof upon which all the rest depend as on a Corner Stone is the unalterable Hereditariness of the Monarchy and thereby defeat the Designes of those cursed Achitophels who labor by involving us in Confusion to establish their beloved Democracy the very worst of Tyrannies CHAP. XIII Of the present Monarch of Great Britain His Name Surname Genealogy Birth Baptism Court Education Departure out of England Coming into Scotland Escape from Worcester Restauration Coronation and Marriage Name THe now-reigning Monarch of Great Britain is CHARLES the Second of that Name His Name of Baptism in Latine written Carolus in English CHARLES in the German Language Karle is contracted from Car-eal which is it self an Abbreviation of the old Teutonick Gar-edel and signifies All or wholly Noble Not improperly then was this Name given to this Prince whose Subjects may justly glory in the Enjoyment of that Happiness for which Salomon pronounces a Land blessed that their King is the Son of Nobles Surname Tho Surnames are neither used by Soveraign Princes nor necessary to them as they are to other inferior persons whose Surnames preserve the Memory of their Relations and Families yet as Bourbon and Austria which were but the Possessions of their Progenitors are now generally esteemed the Surnames of the Present French and Spanish Royal Familyes So Stuart or Steward the Abbreviation of the Saxon Word Stedeward signifying the same as Locumtenens in Latin and Lievtenant in French which was originally but the Name of Office to Walter Son of Fleance by the Daughter of Gruffyth ap Lhewelyn King of Northwales and Progenitor to Robert the IId King of Scotland from whom our present King is descended who was by King Malcolm Canmore created Grand Seneschal or High Steward of Scotland has by Prescription of Time and long Vulgar Error so far prevailed as to be accounted the Surname of the now-Royal Family of Great Britain and of many other Families descended from him Nor is this Name unfit for any King as being in his Kingdom the Steward Lieutenant or Vicegerent of Almighty GOD. Our Soveraign Lord the King Genealogy now reigning does for Royal Extraction and long Line of just Descent excell all the Monarchs of the Christian if not of the whole World being lineally and lawfully descended from and by Right of Primogeniture next Heir unto the British Saxon Norman and Scotish Kings and Princes of this Island his Grandfather King James who by along Descent of Royal Ancestors was was derived from Malcolm Canmor King of the Scots and the Lady Margaret his Wife Sister and Sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons joyning the Saxon and Scotish Titles to the British and Norman already united in the Person and Posterity of Edward the IVth King of England He is from the first British Kings the hundred thirty ninth from the Scotish in a continued succession for almost two thousand years the hundred and ninth from the Saxon the forty sixth since the Norman Conquest the twenty sixth from the Uniting of the Royal Families of York and Lancaster the eighth and since the Union of England and Scotland the third sole Monarch He is the first that was born Prince or Heir apparent of Great Britain and hath in his possession larger Domininions than any of his Royal Ancestors His Father was Charles the Martyr and his Mother the Princess Henrietta Maria Daughter to Henry the Great Sister to Lewis the XIIIth and Aunt to the present Lewis the XIVth most Christian Kings a Lady who needeth no other Character than what is found in the seventh Chapter of that unimitable Book compiled by him that best knew her From these two Royal Stocks he hath in his Veins some of all the Royal Blood of Europe concentred This most Excellent Prince was born on the twenty ninth of May 1630. at the Royal Palace of St. James's Birth near Westminster over which there was the same day at noon by thousands seen a Star impending and soon after the Sun suffered an Eclipse which was by some even at that time regarded as a sad Omen that the Power of this Prince should for a while be eclipsed and that some Subject signified by the Star should have more than ordinary Splendor Baptism On the twenty seventh of June following he was baptized by Dr. William Laud then Bishop of London afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury who was in the year of our Lord 1644. by a pretended Ordinance of the rebellious long Parliament barbarously murthered for his Fidelity to his Soveraign His God-fathers were his two Uncles the most Christian King Lewis the XIIIth and Frederick Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine then called King of Bohemia represented by the Duke of Richmond and Marquess of Hamilton his Godmother being his Grandmother Maria de Medicis then Queen-Mother of France whose Substitute was the Dutchess of Richmond He had for his Governess Mary Countess of Dorset Wife to Edward Earl of Dorset In May 1638. he received the Order of Knighthood Court being immediately after made Knight of the Garter and installed at Windsor About which time he was by Order not Creation first called Prince of Wales having all the Revenews of that Principality with divers others Lands annexed and the Earldom of Chester granted unto
from my Lord Mordant of the disappointment of much of the design he went to Bulloign and thence to Reuen whither Dr. Allestry bringing him News of Sir Georges being in Arms he went thence by Caen to St. Maloes where being in preparation of a Vessel to transport him into England he received the fatal Tidings of Booths Defeat Thence his Majesty went to Fontarabia to be present at the Treaty of Peace managed upon the Borders between France and Spain by the two chief Ministers of those two Kings where he was with all imaginable respect entertained by Don Lewis de Haro Plenipotentiary for his Catholick Majesty from whom he received large Promises of Assistance both with men and money and a Present of twenty thousand Crowns for defraying the Expences of his Journey There receiving Advice from the Lord Mordant of the Disorders in England he returned through France toward Bruxels staying by the way some few dayes with his Royal Mother at Paris Restauration In the year 1660. Perceiving a general Inclination in his Subjects to receive him he providently upon Advice sent him by General Monk the late Duke of Albemarl removed from Bruxels to Breda within the Dominions of the Vnited Netherlands whence he sent Letters bearing date the fourteenth of April to the Lords to the Speaker of the House of Commons to the Generals Monk and Mountague and to the City of London together with a gracious Declaration for the composing and quieting the minds of his Subjects These were on the first of May read in Parliament and on the eighth he was with great Solemnity proclaimed in the Cities of London and Westminster The Tenor of the Proclamation agreed upon by the Lords and Commons clearly expressing the Hereditariness of this Monarchy and consequently the unalterableness of the Succession is as followeth Altho it can no way be doubted but that His Majesties Right and Title to his Crown and Kingdoms is and was every way compleated by the Death of his most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony or Solemnity of a Proclamation Yet since Proclamations in such cases have alwayes been used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testify their Duty and Respect And since the armed Violence and other the Calamities of many years last past have hitherto deprived Vs of any such Opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Councel of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to Our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim That upon the Decease of Our late Soveraign Lord King CHARLES the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to his Most Excellent Majesty CHARLES the Second as being lineally justly and lawfully next Heir of the Royal Blood of this Realm and that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty GOD He is of England Scotland France and Ireland the most Potent Mighty and Vndoubted King And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige Our Selves our Heirs and Posterities May the twenty third his Majesty after a magnificent entertainment at the Hague by the States of Holland and an humble Invitation of English Commissioners sent by the Lords and Commons then assembled at Westminster embarkt at Scheveling and with a gallant Fleet and gentle Gale of Wind landed at Dover on the twenty fifth and on the twenty ninth being his Birth day his Majesty then just thirty years of Age entred into London accompanied with his two Brothers attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of the three Kingdoms and received with the most Universal Joy Acclamations and Magnificence that could possibly be exprest This wonderful Restauration of his Majesty after so many years Dispossession his irreconcileable Enemies who were fully possest of the Government being supported by an Army of thirty thousand experienced and victorious Souldiers in Eng and all fostered up in an Aversion to Monarchy besides the trained Militia of the Nation amounting to a far greater number and wholly consisting of chosen men of the like Principles attempted and effected without Blood Blows Bargain or Obligation to any forreign Prince or Potentate by the Generosity and Prudence of that Noble Captain George late Duke of Albemarl whose Courage and Conduct this present Age cannot but admire and our Posterity will with difficulty believe was so signal a Dispensation of Divine Providence which not only raised up that Noble Instrumont but darted likewise on a sudden into the Hearts of the People a Desire of their Soveraign which like Lightning running over his Kingdoms made them burn with eagerness for his return that the Great Turk hearing thereof openly declared that if he were to change his Religion he would adore and worship the GOD of the King of Great Brtain Coronation On the two and twentieth of April 1661. His Majesty according to the ancient Custom of his Royal Predecessors made a glorious and splendid Cavalcade from the Tower to Westminster where the next day being the Festival of St. Geopge he was Crowned with great Ceremony by Dr. William Juxon then Archbishop of Canterbury to whom that Office belonged in right of his See the Coronation-Sermon being preached by Dr. George Morley then Bishop of Worcester now of Winchester On the eighth of May following began a Parliament at Westminster as remarkable for their Loyalty and Zealous Affection to the Service of their Soveraign as that of 1640. is notorious for Disloyalty and Sedition In this Parliament were condemned as illegal and destructive to the Government all those Factious and Antimonarchical Doctrins first broached by the Rebels of the late times to justify their audacious Impieties and now again revived no doubt for the same purpose by the scurrilous Pamphletiers of this our Age who by their more than Jesuitical Equivocations eluding the plain and express Words of an Oath purposely framed to countermine and prevent such seditious Opinions and Practices which as they formerly have so may again be made use of to involve us in Confusion and Misery endeavor as much as in them lies to render all Profession and Promises of Allegiance and Fidelity made by Subjects to their Prince invalid and of none effect Marryage On the twenty eighth of the same Month His Majesty declared to his Parliament his Intention to marry the Infanta of Portugal who accordingly in May 1662. being landed at Portsmouth was there espoused unto him by Dr. Gilbert Sheldon then Bishop of London lately Archbishop of Canterbury CHAP. XIV Of the Present Queen of Great Britain Her Name Genealogy Birth Marriage Portion Jointure and Arms. THE present Queen of Great Britain is Donna CATHARINA Infanta
Young 4. CATHARINE Dyed almost as soon as Born 5. HENRIETTA Born at Exeter on the sixteenth of June 1644. and at the surrendry of that Town brought to St. James's whence she was afterwards by her Governess the Lady Dalkeith conveyed into France to the Queen her Mother by whom she was Educated in the Roman Religion About the Age of Sixteen Years she came with the Queen-Mother into England whence after six Months stay returning into France she was Married to Philip Duke of Anjou only Brother to the present French King by whom she had Issue two Daughters the Elder whereof is Queen of Spain the Younger being deceased She was a Princess of incomparable Beauty and Gallantry of Spirit and Dyed suddenly at Paris in June 1670. being Six and Twenty Years of Age. Of the Duke of York HIS present Majesty of Great Britain having no Issue by his Queen and having by his Royal Declaration which he has caused to be Registred in Chancery and which not any good Subject nor indeed not any rational Man can choose but believe solemnly protested That he was never Married to any other Woman The first Prince of the Blood and Apparent or according to the new-coyn'd Distinction Presumptive Heir of the Crown is His Royal Highness JAMES Duke of York and Albany Earl of Vlster Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter third Son of CHARLES the Ist and and sole surviving Brother of our sacred Soveraign CHARLES the IId He was Born at Somerset-House in the Strand on the fourteenth of October 1633. was immediately at the Court-Gates proclaimed Duke of York On the four twentieth of the same Month he was Baptized having for God-fathers the King of Denmark represented by the Earl of Arundel and the Duke of Orleans by Prince Harcourt and for God-mother the Queen of Bohemia whose Substitute was the Dutchess of Buckingham He was in his Infancy committed to the Government of the Lady Hatton but when he grew up had for Governor Henry Lord Jermin now Earl of Saint Albans and for Preceptor Dr Broughton of Brazen-Nose Colledge in Oxford In February 1641. He was by the King his Father sent for from London to Greenwich that he might accompany him thence to York Having been by special Command called Duke of York from his Birth he was on the seven twentieth of January 1643. having the Year before received the Order of the Garter so Created by Letters Patents at Oxford but without the Solemnities usual in such Cases the Iniquity of those Times not admitting thereof After the Surrendry of Oxford to the Rebels in the Year 1646. His Royal Highness was conveyed thence to London and at St. Jameses committed with his Brother the Duke of Glocester and his Sisters the Princesses Elizabeth and Henrietta to the Tuition Care of the Earl of Northumberland and his Lady Here he continued unto the three and twentieth of April 1648. when having with Colonel Bampfield sent over purposely on that Design by the Queen his Mother contrived an escape after he had received the usual Visit of his Guardian the Earl of Northumberland he lingred out the remainder of the Evening that he might avoid the suspicion of his Attendants in the Chamber of his Brother the Duke of Glocester and at a fit Opportunity retiring into the Garden by the help of a Key which he had borrowed of the Gardiner he quickly got to the place where he was expected by the Colonel by whom being disguised in the Habit of a Girle he was conveyed to Dort whence he went immediately to his Sister the Princess of Orange and thence soon after to his Royal Mother then at Paris Thence he came to the Prince of Wales his Brother then endeavouring with part of the Navy which had submitted to him to rescue his Royal Father out of the Traitorous hands of the villanous Rebels by whom he was kept Prisoner in the Isle of Wight But that Design being disappointed his Royal Highness returned to the Court of France where he continued till he was about twenty Years of Age when going into the Campagne he performed under that great Commander the Mareschal de Turenne such eminent Services for the French King against the Spanish Forces in the Netherlands that before the Age of one twenty he was made Lieutenant-General of the whole Army and was by Turenne himself then lying desperately Sick recommended to his most Christian Majesty for the fittest person he could nominate to be General of his Army as being so Noble Valorous and fortunate a Commander that his Affairs could not in all humane probability but prove Successful under his Conduct Notwithstanding which upon a Treaty between the French King and the English Usurper Cromwel he was in the Year 1655. tho not without some Complements and Apologies for his Dismission advertized to depart with all his Retinue out of the French Dominions by a prefixed time Which he accordingly did having been first visited by the Mareschal de Turenne and divers other French Grandees as also by the Duke of Modena then in France about some important Affairs His Royal Highness then having taken His leave of the King and Court of France and being attended by the Earl of St. Albans and several other English Lords took His Journey towards Bruges in Flanders the Residence at that time of the King His Brother who having upon foresight of the Event of the Treaty prudently withdrawn himself out of France was by Don John of Austria Governour of the Low-Countries for the King of Spain solemnly invited into those parts The Duke in his way touchd at Bruxels where he was magnificently entertained by Don John to whom he proffered his service in the wars against the French King then leagued with the English Rebels against Spain Which being with many thanks accepted his Magnanimity and Dexterity in Martial Affairs wan him so much esteem that a little before his Majesties happy return he was offered in the Name of the Spanish King the high Dignity of Admiral of Castile In the year 1660 He returned with the King his Brother into England of which being Lord High Admiral and in the year 1665 in the War against the United Nether-Lands commanding in Person the whole Royal Navy he with unmatchable Valor and extraordinary Hazard of his Princely Person which was besprinkled with the Blood of those that fell by his side obtained after a sharp dispute on the Seas between England and Holland a signal Victory over the whole Dutch Fleet sinking many of their ships blowing up their Admiral Opdam and by sacking of Scheveling making Amsterdam it self to tremble For which great services so sensible was the Parliament how much the English Nation was indebted to him that as a small acknowledgment of his Merit and a grateful testimony of their Affections they made him a Present of an hundred thousand pounds In September 1666 the City of London labouring under a terrible Fire whether