There are particular Histories of the Reformation enow and fresh in every one's Memory having had an occasion not long since to review them and consider them afresh There are Plays and Novels also of the other to gratify the Female Politicians who whether they ought to be severe upon him or not I know not and leave to them to determine This is besides my Design as being out of all Ordinary Rules of Civil Policy Therefore waving all Enquiry into the Reasons or Provocations of one or t'other though I know some are assign'd and remark'd to his Disadvantage others to his Advantage I shall dismiss my self with this general Remark upon the Qualities of a Man or King That when Either have once broke through the first Obligations of Justice or Virtue he makes but little difficulty in the proceeding upon Attempts of the same Nature Though after all to speak impartially and without Reflection I am not satisfied but the first Occasion of Divorce and Reformation too was in its self justifiable though the Circumstances inducing it are suspected and it was concluded a Reason sought not offer'd But certainly Sir Walter Raleigh's Character of him is not to be justified who says That if all the Pictures and Paterns of a Merciless Prince were lost in the World they might all again be painted to the life out of the Story of this King And that of Sir Robert Naunton is as ill-natur'd viz. Having a Design to marry within the Degrees Unlawful he set his Learned Men at work to prove it lawful and after a while being cloy'd and desiring Change set them again on work to prove it unlawful He never spared Man in his Anger or Woman in his Lust This is Satyrically said but not truly For he had no mind to marry at first where he did but did it in Obedience to his Father's Will and against the Grain with himself And he liv'd with this first Wife Twenty Years and never took notice of the Unlawfulness of that Marriage till it was objected against him again and the President of Paris started and moved it on the Proposal of Marriage between the Lady Mary his Daughter by Katherine and the Duke of Orleance the second Son to the French King And as to the Cruelty towards Men the Death of the Lord Cromwell and that of the Duke of Norfolk's Son Henry Earl of Surry sound most of Severity yet as to the first he had rais'd him from a Smith's Son he was Cardinal Woolsey's Pupil and trod in his Steps He was Attainted by Parliament and the Record says for Crimes of Heresy and Treason perhaps the Advice of the Match with the Lady Ann of Cleve but I think it doth not argue Cruelty in the King neither towards him or her He dismiss'd her with a gentle Farewel after her Marriage was declared Unlawful by the Convocation and adjudged so in Parliament and she lived sixteen Years after and died in the Fourth Year of Queen Mary As to the other It is plain it was not to gratify his Personal Cruelty For being no Lord of Parliament he was Arraigned at Guildhall before a Special Commission and found guilty by a Jury the Charge of bearing Arms which belonged to the King and Prince may seem somewhat slight yet it is always dangerous to play with Edged Tools and the Ragion di stato may in part excuse it In the main he appears a King of a great deal of Honour not without a Good-natur'd Generosity He was careful also to maintain the Civil Constitution and devout to the Privileges of Parliament He carried it fair with his Subjects in the general and was never Ill-natur'd or Froward as far as I can perceive without some Colour of Justice I know not whether I can justify him in his Politicks so well in his contradicting by the Will the Disposition of the Crown and its Succession which he had before Established in Parliament especially to bring in Queen Mary after his Subjects had sworn to the Parliamentary Succession of his Daughter Elizabeth Besides That this was subsequently by Implication to affirm the Legitimacy of his Mariage with Katharine of Spain which was with so much Solemnity laboured and declared Unlawful All that can be said is That he might in respect to the Mother be unwilling to suffer the Daughter to be Bastardised And we always ought to construe the Actions of Princes in mitiori sensu and to take them by the best part of the Handle in History To speak well of them if we can any ways justify it and to be silent in Doubtful Characters if we cannot Commend EDWARD VI. I Am at a loss in speaking to the Short Reign of Edward the Sixth He seems born and design'd for the Advancement of Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity and to be snatched away to the Disappointment of Human Expectations to intimate That there is no Establishment of Happiness to be relied on here below However that Government which might have come to something in himself was Unfortunate in the Administration of the Councel which his Father with so much Care had assign'd him and impertinently enough shuffled between the Aspiring Conduct of the Great Men and the Foolish Ambition of Pretending Women These interrupted the Wisdom of Councels though the Protector did his part well enough at first till he came to pull down a Church and two Bishops Houses in the Strand to make him a Mansion-House c. For after the Disturbances of the Nation on the Account of Religion and the Inclosures at Home and with relation to the French and Scots Abroad had been managed with Prudence and Honour and the Kingdom began to appear with a Face of Peace and Satisfaction How vain are Mortal Considerations Behold the whole Oeconomy is on a sudden Discomposed and the Frame of Government Subverted And a Frivolous Pretence of Place between two Women Unhinges the Constitution and first exposes and then destroys and ruins the Husbands by vertue of the False Designs of a Third Person behind the Curtain who grafted Villany artificially upon their Follies and at last as was suspected brought in the King himself whose Death also is laid at the same Door What the Sense of our Neighbours was concerning it you may read in Mezeray France and England held pretty good Correspondence when Death cut the Thread of Young King Edward's Days It was believ'd to proceed from a slow Poyson and John Dudley Duke of Northumberland was suspected guilty of the Crime he having suggested to him to Institute Jane of Suffolk for Heiress to the Crown However it were it prov'd a Fatal Policy to the poor Lady Jane and himself too I confess I cannot see why Edward the Sixth might not make bold with Mary as well as his Father had done before him and dispose of the Crown by Will as he did especially for the Propagating and Establishing the Infant Reformation if that Age had been serious and well agreed in the
can only attribute this to the Character Stow gives of him viz. That he advanced Persons to Dignities for Merit only and who did excel others in Innocency of Life RICHARD II. SOME Princes have Erred upon a mistaken Consideration some through a wilful and rash Inconsideration some have taken Measures by Advice of Friends as they thought and have been deceived by Misrepresentations these may be pittied Others have Miscarried by hearkening only to Minions and Favourites are head-strong and resolvedly deaf and obstinate against Advice But the Actions and Conduct of this King are so Unaccountable that it would puzzle a Matchiavel to assign him a Character or to fix him in any Rule or Principle of Government Good or Bad. The Rebellion of John or Wat Tyler ought not to be laid at his Door it is called an Accident though it had some dismal Effects in it but the occasion which appears was the Abuse of a Collector who gathered the Poll-Money yet it may teach Kings that it is a ticklish and dangerous Experiment to let out a Revenue or Tax to Farm so that it may be scrued up into what may be called in the Country Oppression This King's first Misunderstanding in earnest or Misdemeanor if I may so speak after his coming to Age was imposed upon him by way of Surprise and Artificial Insinuation of Favourites it might be the result of a hot Indiscretion not of a premeditated Violence or Invasion of Ill-natur'd Policy And if the Duke of Ireland Michael de la Pool the Chancellor or the Archbishop of York were in fault on the one side neither was the Duke of Gloucester the Bishop of Ely c. to be altogether excused on the other and the Parliament imposing on the King Thirteen Lords to have oversight under the King as they called it was an unsufferable Encroachment on the Spirit of a Young Prince And he had reason to have recourse to the Judges for their Opinions and Directions touching what had passed in that Parliament as to their Participation of the Government with him whose Opinion though they had the misfortune to suffer for it was not so Illegal but Justifiable by the Laws saving only in Two or Three of the Questions to which they gave their Answers But Law is not always measured by its own Rule it stands or falls according to the Circumstance of Times A Man may at some time sooner and better Steal a Horse as they say than look on at others This first Affront so put upon the King gave him a prejudice to Parliaments ever after and consequently put him upon indirect Means and Practices to Debauch the Constitution and we may be sure Kings will never want Tools fit for their purpose Hence were conceived those prejudices also against the Duke of Glocester and the other Lords the King had Reason to be out of Tuition when he came to be of full Age 'T is true the Attempting of the Duke of Glocester's Life in that Treacherous manner was not to be excused neither was his Behaviour to be pardoned towards the King he reproached him too severely on all Occasions for though he was the King's Uncle he was not always to be his Governor they were both in Fault no doubt and both equally Unfortunate in their End 'T was an unhappy Reign divided between too haughty Subjects and Ill-designing Favourites too powerful for a Young Inconsiderate King to Manage with Prudence and equal Power Whether Chief Justice Tresilian did according to Law or not 't is certain his Death was not according to Law and as the Duke of Glocester had taken his Life so his own was soon after taken away without Trial also in an Arbitrary manner And the Earl of Arundel had the same Measure he meeted to Calvery one of the Queens Esquires The Banishing the Duke of Norfolk and Hereford and the Archbishop of Canterbury was rather a fault in the Politicks of those times for it seems it was the Custom then to Punish the Faults of Great Men only with Banishment but an ill-advised Custom than want of Consideration in the King Sir John Bushy the Speaker of Parliament was the most in fault in attributing Vain and almost Blasphemous Titles to the King Titles fitter as is observed for the Majesty of God and putting him upon a piece of Omnipotence in Recalling his Pardons which the Lords Spiritual and Temporal Adjudged in the Affirmative That the King might Revoke but the Lawyers and Judges having been burnt before designed to give Judgment t'other way and had no mind to Determine of Transactions in Parliament any more nor of the Kings Prerogative in such Ticklish Times Though at the next Parliament at Chester the Judges were drawn in to give another Extraordinary Judgment viz. That when Articles are propounded by the King to be handled in Parliament that if other Articles are handled before those are determined it is Treason in them that do it What was there Extravagant that was not done in this Parliament He brought it about as the History says That he obtained the whole Power of the Parliament to be Conferred upon certain few Persons who proceeded to Conclude upon many things which concerned generally the things of the whole Parliament to the great Prejudice of the State and dangerous Example in time to come What could we expect from a King who was Taught That the Laws of the Realm were in his Head and his Breast By reason of which fantastical Opinion he Destroyed Noblemen and Impoverished the Commons which was one of the Articles against him and which was much such a worthy fancy as Wat Tyler had who putting his Hand to his Lips said Before Four Days come to an End all the Laws of England should proceed from his Mouth But I am weary of the Medley of this King's Story In short if we survey him in his Taxations in his Laws and Ordinances after all and in the Station of a Christian and Man as well as King we shall with a little Charity or good Nature conclude him Blameable rather by Accident than natural Temper And as to his Conditions That they were more the Fault of his Education than Inclination and at the bottom those Failings that were in him retained the tincture of the light Inconstancy of his Mother He is another unfortunate Instance of the Instability and Misery of a King when he leaves the Track of Law and Justice for the Ways of Humour and Passion Sir Robert Cotton Observes That Bushy's Contrivance of Compounding with Delinquents wrought such Distaste in the Affections of the People that it grew the Death of the One and Deposition of the Other HENRY IV. IN the next Six Reigns during the Divisions of the Houses of York and Lancaster the Kingdom was scarce ever cool enough for Observations of Civil Polity and Administration The Thirteen Years of this King were divided between Conspiracies and Wars And as he came to the Crown without a Title with
put Men and Kings too often upon poor spirited Actions But letting this pass Another touch of his over-Wisdom viz. his Disposition to squeeze Money out of his Subjects Purses by Forfeitures on Penal Laws was an Excess of Policy scarce to be excused and as is said without all doubt proved the Blot of his Time and as Sir Robert Cotton observes There is no string will sooner jarr in the Commonwealth than this if it be generally touched This was that which passed for the Disgrace of his Reign though what may pass under the Name of Severe Justice And though he escaped the Violent Consequences of it himself yet the fatal Return overtook Empson and Dudley in the beginning of the next Reign who were both executed for Treason for extending this Summum Jus to Violence and Injury and turning Law and Justice into Rapin Though it will puzzle a Lawer to determine what Species of Treason this is unless it be against the Laws by traiterously betraying the Trust reposed in them But no Government King or Person is without some Failing and Wisdom it self may be overacted HENRY VIII I Am not to determine how it came about yet it may be observable That though this King came to the Crown by an Undoubted Right of Succession as Heir of the House of Lancaster by his Father and of the House of York by his Mother yet upon his Coronation the People were ask'd Whether they would receive him for their King But I know this will be thought a trivial Matter of Form not worth taking notice of It is said his first Years were a Reign by Book having come from the Instruction and Contemplation of Good to Action his Notions stuck by him some Years And not to pretend to single Sufficience at those Years at least That he might know how to perform his Coronation Oath he chose a Wise Councel to direct him in the Observation of the Laws and as they generally do in all New Reigns He redress'd the Grievances of the former by making Examples of the Oppressors in the last He did not enter into the War with France upon his own Head neither upon the Advice of his Privy Council but had it debated in Parliament where it was resolved That Himself with a Royal Army should invade France and then for that purpose an Extraordinary Subsidy was willingly granted towards the Charges thereof These were the beginnings of his Reign and he might have finish'd it with the same Honour and Wisdom if Woolsey had not piously told him He might lay aside the use of his Understanding and his own Consideration no doubt to rely on his That he should not need to trouble himself with frequenting the Council-Table but might take his Pleasure c. Admirable Councel for a Priest And he himself would give him Information c. Thus he ingrossed the King disobliged the King's Friends caus'd the Archbishop of Canterbury Bishop of Winchester Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk to withdraw from Court and Topp'd his Prerogative upon the King 's and led him away by the Misdirections of his own False Oracle persuades and puts the King upon Lending the Emperor Money who was poor and Insolvent because forsooth the French King had withheld the Revenue of the Bishop of Tourney that is his Own After he had tired the People with his Civil Justice before he sets up for an Arbitrary Spiritual Power in himself Obtains an Office from the Pope to dispence with Offences against Spiritual Laws and erects a Trade for Sin to make Virtue and Religion Venial and betrays the King into the Restoring or Surrendring Tourney for great Gifts and greater Promises after that he found it did not turn to Account and he could make nothing of it by way of Yearly Income And thus dishonour'd the King and Nation and like a very Godly Prelate dissolv'd the King and Court into all sort of Luxury and the Priesthood it self into Licentiousness and Disorder And so far the Artificial Malice and Villany of this Sawcy and Bloody Butcher's Son went who had neither Honour or Religion That he persuaded the King to sacrifice his Nobility to him and the Duke of Buckingham must be made an Example and Martyr to his Revenge for only pouring a little Water into his Shooes when he had the Impudence to dip his Hands in the Bason whilst the Duke held it to the King to wash He alone could create Misunderstandings between the King Lords and Commons by vertue of his Lies and Misrepresentations of Matters from one to the other altho' he had been caught in them more than once He dissolv'd Convocations by vertue of his Power Legantine which were convok'd by the Archbishop and calls Him and all the Clergy to another Place according to his own Imperious Fancy diverts the Laws of the Land and seeks to raise Money by Commission which the People opposed and the King was afterwards forced to Disclaim On the other hand abuses the King's Grace and takes it upon himself alters the State of the King's House Retrenches the Allowance of his Servants and in short arrogates the Power over Servants and Master also and assumes the Power and Honour of the King and Stiles and Directs Ego Rex meus in his Writings and Letters to Rome and Foreign Parts This could an humble Successor of the Apostles do And by the bye It may be worth observing how far Pride can inspire these Prelatical Sparks with Presumption who pretend to be but the Representatives of the Apostles to exalt themselves above and Lord it over Kings whom yet they themselves acknowledge to represent God I regard not their Distinctions neither before nor since their Compliment of the Supremacy which they would resume if they could without a Pope But it happen'd the Cardinal carried on the Scene and State of Pageantry too far even to his own Ruin and the King's Eyes were open'd at length after that the Cardinal had cut him out a way for the Ruin or Reformation rather of the Church as well as himself and by his Exorbitant Behaviour had open'd the Door to the Parliament to Redress the Grievances and provide for a Remedy against them by restraining and wholsome Laws I am the more particular upon this Prelate because he was the Hinge upon which every thing turn'd and would set a Mark upon him for Kings to know whom to avoid and for what Reasons And would upon all Occasions also remind them how wretched and inconsiderable a Creature a King is when he abdicates his own Reason to submit it to another's and waves the Publick for any private Whispers of Admonition I desire to be excused from medling with the long Story of the King's Quarrel with the Pope and the Occasion and shall pass over the Alterations in Religion in this King's time or what was more considerable the Change and Dissolution of Religious Houses I have nothing to do with his Shifting and Dissolving of Wives neither
Englishmen remember That we now have an Act of Parliament of our side which Asserts the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and hath Establish'd the Settlement of the Crown and which incapacitates any Papist or Person Marrying a Papist from having and enjoying it which Act is only Defective in this That it is not Order'd to be Read in the Churches twice at least every Year and upon Penalty of Deprivation If such a Law had been made in Edward the VIth's Time it might have sav'd some Blood and Trouble since the Reformation WILLIAM III. THE Lord Chancellor Notttingham in the Case of the Duke of Norfolk and Charles Howard Esquire c. hath in my Mind a notable Expression viz. Pray let us so Resolve Cases here that they may stand with the Reason of Mankind when they are Debated abroad Shall that be Reason here that is not Reason in any part of the World besides In truth we are apt to be peculiarly Artificial in our Thoughts and way of Argument and our Reasonings are too Municipal Thus every little Pedant can Settle and Establish the Affairs of Religion and Government and can Resolve all the great Mysteries of Church and State as he thinks in his narrow Study But if a Man looks Abroad and takes a general survey of the World and reflects upon the Universal Notions and Customs of Mankind his Soul will become more enlarged and will not determine so Magisterially upon the Principles of any particular Sect or Society The Case of King WILLIAM in it self is perhaps the most Glorious and Generous Cause that hath appeared upon the Stage of Human Actions yet hath been sullied by dire Representations by poor-spirited and precarious Arguments which have been brought in for its support His Title to the Crown of Great Britain stands Firm and is justifiable upon Natural and Sound foundations of Reason without Props But hath been so oddly maintained by the manner of its Defence that it hath been the Justification only that hath Disgrac'd the Revolution Doctrina facit Difficultatem We have been running out of the way to fetch in Aids from Art and Learning whilst Nature presents us with obvious and undefiled Principles of Reason Thus the King's Accession to the Throne hath been introduced by shuffling between Providential Settlement Conquest Desertion Abdication and topping Protections of Power whilst Men of Honour and People of Honest Plain Understandings stand Amazed instead of being Convinced and hang back when Allegiance comes to be explained and a Recognition demanded an Association proposed frights us as a thing strange and impious which shews our Allegiance was not rightly founded but looks like a thing of Fancy built upon a forc'd and fictitious bottom All these ungrateful Terms have been ingeniously exposed by Mr Johnson except only Abdication which with submission is also too Artificial a Word not to be found in the Alphabet of Spelman a Civil Law Term used almost in Fifty several Senses and therefore an uncouth Expression of the Common Laws of this Realm to speak in The Word Forfaulture seems to have a plainer Signification to our common Understanding This as Forisfacere Forisfactum Forisfactura and Forfacere Forfactum Forfactura c. we find in Spelman and it signifies Rem suam ex delicto amittere sibi quasi extraneum facere Rem culpâ abdicere alterique Puta Regi Magistratui Domino abjudicare Forisfacere pro Delinquere peccare transgredi Injuriam inferre LL. Edw. Confess cap. 32. ut Codex noster MS. legit Aliqui stulti improbi gratis nimis consuetè erga vicinos suos foris facebant This agrees with the Sense of King James the I st his Speech to his Parliament viz. A settled King is bound to observe the Paction made to his People by his Laws in framing his Government agreeable thereunto And a King Governing in a settled Kingdom leaves to be a King and degenerates into a Tyrant as soon as he leaves off Governing according to the Laws In which Case the King's Conscience may speak to him as the Poor Widow said to Philip of Macedon Either Govern according to your Law aut ne sis Rex And if a Subject's Conscience may not speak the same thing King James's Words signify nothing The other Words carry an Odious or suspected Construction in them the First in the Convocationstyle implies Guilt and at best creates but a Transylvanian Allegiance the Second is a Jest and false in Fact besides 't is what the King himself disowns the Third is an idle Sham as stated and the Fourth is also a little strain'd as I concieve and we might for ought I see as well have call'd it a Cession especially if King James was a Spiritual Person of the Society of Jesuits as hath been said But what need we any Term of Art Let the matter express it self by Periphrasis in its own genuine Phrase It is fairly stated in the Prince's Declaration And our Case is no more nor less than this A King contrary to his Coronation-Oath dispenses with and breaks through all the Established Laws of the Land Invades and Subverts the Rights Liberties and Properties of the People which he Swore to maintain inviolably and Dissolves the Constitution of Church and State in an Arbitrary Tyrannical manner the People therefore in Defence of their Laws Rights and Religion and the necessary Preservation of them Oppose the violent proceedings of such a Prince I put the Case at the worst and also apply themselves to a Neighbouring Prince who hath an Expectation of a Right to the Crown and pray in Aid of him to assist them in the Maintaining and Defending their Legal Rights together with his own Title to the Succession who in his own Words makes Preparation to Assist the People against the Subverters of their Religion and Laws and also Invites and Requires all Persons whatsoever All the Peers of the Realm Spiritual and Temporal and all Gentlemen Citizens and other Commons of all Ranks to come and assist him in order to the Execution of this Design against all such as shall endeavour to Oppose them to prevent all those Miseries which must needs fall upon the Nations being kept under Arbitrary Government and Slavery and that all the Violences and Disorders which have overturn'd the whole Constitution of the English Government may be fully Redressed in a Free and Legal Parliament to secure the Nation from relapsing into the Miseries of Arbitrary Government any more Upon which appearance of mutual Defence for Self-preservation the Conscious King Retires first leaves his Army which no Man I will be bold to say would do without Guilt or Cowardice and I 'm sure a Prince that had been Brave or acted upon Principles of Honour would have Fought it out with but Ten Regiments or with One at his Heels which was Richard the IIId's Case in the first sence though not in the later and after leaves the Realm for Reasons best known to