Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
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A41183
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A letter to a person of honour, concerning the kings disavovving the having been married to the D. of M's mother
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Ferguson, Robert, d. 1714.
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1680
(1680)
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Wing F750; ESTC R13882
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16,478
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24
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the seclusion of the Duke of Monmouth from all Title to the Crown may be judged sufficient inducements to have prevailed with him if not to have asserted the said Dukes Bastardy yet to have been silent in the case and not to have proclamed the Legittimacy And yet that very Lord being in danger of an Impeachment in Parliament for advising and perswading the King to a Marriage with Queen Katherine excused himself from all sinistrous ends in that affair by affirming That his Majesty had a lawful Son of his own by a former Marriage specifying by name the D. of M. to succeed to his Crown and Dignity Now though it may be supposed that a person may sometimes lye for his Interest yet no man can be thought to do so in order to the prejudice as well of himself as his whole Posterity And if we believe men speaking falshoods in subserviency to their Honour and Profit Shall we not give credit to them when they speak Truth to their own damage and that of all those who are dear unto them Certainly the positive Confession and Testimony of this one Person being against the Interest of his whole Family of more weight than the denyals of any number whatsoever when meerly to promote their safety and advantage or to serve the Exaltation of the Papal Cause These are but few of the many particulars I could acquaint your Lordship with relating to the confirmation of a Marriage between the King and Mrs. Walters But it is a piece of necessary wisdom at this juncture to know what not to say as well as to understand what to say And to tell you plainly I 'm more a Servant and a Friend to my Country than by pretending to plead the Dukes Cause and to be useful to the Nation to discover the Witnesses which are in reserve or betray the farther Evidences which are to be produced when this matter shall come before a competent Judicature Sixthly 'T is matter of no small trouble to such as truly love his Majesty that the Kings Integrity and Honour should be brought to stake in a matter wherein both the present Age and the succeeding may take occasion to question and bring into examination his Truth and sincerity For though it is not impossible but that Princes considering the Temptations with which they are surrounded may sometimes through inadvertency and at other times upon State Motives endeavour to impose upon the credulity if not abuse the Faith of their People Yet the veracity of a Supream Governour is of that importance to himself and so necessary to the Veneration which his People ought to maintain for him that he is not to bring his Credit to Pawn unless it be in such Cases wherein his People may if not apologize for yet connive at the indiscretion and weakness of their Ruler should he be found to delude them Nor hath any thing obstructed the affairs of Princes more and prevented their Peoples believing them when they spake their most inward thoughts than the forfeiture of their Credit in matters wherein their Subjects relyed upon the Honour and Truth of their Word For they who do not mean as they speak when People are prepared to hear them must not expect that their words should be much relyed upon when their Tongues are the true Interpreters of their minds And let me tell your Lordship that this last Declaration hath caused multitudes of his Majesties best Subjects to reflect upon and take a view of many of his former Declarations that from them they may be furnished with reasons for justifying themselves in the suspension of their assent to this And I wish there had not been that cause administred by foregoing ones which may with too many lessen the value of the Royal Word in that bearing date the second of June The first of this kind he ever published after he came in view of being restored to the Sovereignty over these Kingdoms was that dated at Breda the 4 th of April 1660. wherein he promised Liberty to all tender Consciences and engaged the sacred word of a King That no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences in matter of Religion provided they did not disturbe the Peace of the Kingdom Now though I will not dispute about the sence wherein this Declaration was meant nor concerning the End for which it was calculated and fram'd yet this I may be allowed to say that there are a great many of his Majesties Liege People who have tasted dealings directly repugnant unto it and may justly complain of some faileur in the accomplishment of it 'T is true his Majesty is not originally to be blamed that it had not the hoped for effects but withal that Prince that can be over-ruld to recede from a Promise which contributed so much to his happy and peaceable Restoration may be supposed capable of such Impressions from men of ill minds as may make him venture his Royal Word in other cases beyond the measures of Justice But seeing it were a business of too much Fatigue to call over all the Declarations since his Majesty actually occupied the British Throne I shall therefore remind your Lordship only of two more Whereof the first is that of January the second 1671 wherein the King upon shutting up the Exchequer Declares on the Word of a Prince That the restraint put upon payments out of the Treasury should continue no longer than till the last of Decemb. 1672. And yet the fulfilling of this is still Prorogued though it be now above Nine Years since the Royal Word was pledg'd for making it good The other that I shall refresh your memory with is that of the the Twentieth of April 1679. Wherein his Majesty having shrived himself and craved absolution for all past matters solemnly declareth that he would for time to come Lay aside the use of any single Ministry or private Advices or Forreign Committees for the general direction of his Affaires and that he would afterwards Govern his Kingdoms by the Advice of that Counsel which he had then chosen together with the frequent use of his great Council of Parliament as being the true and antient Constitution of this State and Government Far be it from me to blame his Majesty for the disappointment of those hopes which the People had so universally conceived upon that Declaration which was so full of ingenuity and candor and so adapted to the Honour Safety and Interest both of King and Kingdom but this may be said without the least umbrage of irreverence that the same pestilent men who were able to cause his Majesty to violate such a Declaration wherein he spake the most like a wise and good Prince that ever he did may be also able by the same ascendant influence to wrest an unadvised and bad one from him The same Councils which prevailed upon him to go against both his Royal Word and all the Maxims of Pollicy with which he is so richly
with this blot in his Scutcheon The Person I mean is Edw. the fourth who being a sprightly and amorous Prince was suddenly Contracted and Married to Elianor Talbot Daughter of the Earl of Shrewbury and that not only without any witnesses save Dr. Thomas Stillington Bishop of Bath into whose hands the Contract was made and who officiated at and celebrated the Marriage but besides the poor Doctor was strictly enjoyned by the King to conceal it and you may easily suppose the timorous Prelate would not fail in his duty to Majesty at least so long as he knew the King in a condition to punish and avenge the Discovery Now Ed. 4. finding thereupon admission into the embraces of the Lady and having satiated himself a while by secret injoyments and withall reckoning that none could or at least durst detect by what holy ties he was bound unto her he did some years after notwithstanding the Person to whom he was Affianced still survived both deny what was so solemnly transacted in the ptesence of Almighty God betwen them and withal Married another Woman namely my Lady Eliz. Gray Your Lordship may see the story both in Buck's Life of Richard the Third pag. 16 c. and in Comines's History of â—ewis the 1â— th And without making any application of it to the present Case I shall crave liberty to make these Remarks upon it I. That it is possible for Princes especially such as have accompanied with many Women to have weak Memories and to forget upon what Terms they contracted their first Friendships with them For finding how their Familiarity arose with others of that Sex they may grow by degrees into a kind of perswasion that their Interest in all was established upon no better terms Or if they should not be supposed so forgetful as this amounts unto yet the Love of change may make them stifle their knowledg especially when the Objects of their freâ—h Amours cannot be otherwise brought to entertain their flame but with a provision for their own Honour 2. That the denyals of Kings are not to be subscribed unto with an implicite Faith but that we ought to use the same discretion in believing or not believing what they say that we esteem our selves priviledged to use towards others in the credit which they require we should give unto them For though Princes be not lyable to be impleaded in our Courts nor be subject to Penalties that transgressing Subjects are yet seeing they may be guilty of the same facts which would both leave a reproach upon common men and make them obnoxious to punishments it cannot rationally be expected that their bare words should restrain the freedom of our Thoughts or give law to our Understandings in the Judgement that we are to make of Cases and Things 3. I would observe That though the Judicial Courts could not and the Parliaments during Edwards Reign would not take cognisance of that Kings contemning and violating the Ordinance of God by disclaiming his lawful Wife yet the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth in a little while after animadverted severely on the Offence For not only his two Sons whom he had by the Lady Gray were murdered by their Uncle but the Kingdom was translated from his Family and not only bestowed upon the chiefest enemy of his House but upon one who among all that for a long series before had been Rivals for the Crown had the weakest Title 4. It is not unworthy also of our Notice that notwithstanding King Edwards denying his first Marriage and assuming another Lady unto his Conjugal Bed yet all this could neither prevent the future enquiry into this matter nor the Parliaments recognizing the Marriage with Elianor Talbot 1. of Rich. 3. And besides the imputation of a Bigamist which is thereby stampt upon him to all Ages his Children by the second venture were Bastardised by Statute and an occasion from thence taken so place the Scepter in the hand of Richard Fifthly Nothing in this Declaration can preclude the Duke of Monmouth or any other true Englishman from enquiring when time serveth by legal and due wayes into the truth or falshood of the Kings marriage with Mrs. Walters For the D. cannot be denyed the same right which appertains to every person in the Kingdom namely the justifying his own legitimacy in due course and form And should he chuse to sit down with the imputation of a Bastard with all the other Losses which attend it Yet there are those in the Nation who preferring their duty to God their Country Themselves and an injured Gentleman before a Reverence to one man especially acting under the Influence of a Popish Brother will bring that whole business into an impartial examination before such where a single Negative will not be allowed as a sufficient proof to invalidate affirmative Testimonies providing such can be had And should that marriage hereafter be authentically proved how ill will they be found to have deserved both of the King and Kingdom that have either surprised cajol'd or threatned his Majesty to bring such a slur upon his Honour and Reputation as this Declaration will to all Ages Entail And my Lord Is it not strange if there was never any such Marriage that Mrs. Walters should not only when in travel with the said D. but at many other times particularly in her last hours when in the Prospect of approaching Death and ensuing Judgement affirm it with that positiveness which she did And is it not more surprising if there had been no such Marriage That Dr Fuller late Bishop of Lincoln should so often and in Verbo Sacerdotis declare to divers worthy Persons That he Married them Nay What should byass the Inkeeper at Liege to make it the great Mystery with which he entertained his English Guests That the Marriage was cellebrated and consummated in his House and that both he and his Wife were eye and ear Witnesses of it Moreover if it were such an Idle Story as the Declaration represents it how came it to pass that when some persons lately examined about the Black Box declared that they had heard of such a thing as the Kings being Married to that Gentlewoman they should be immediately commanded to withdraw and told that this was not the business they were interrogated about Besides My Lord as all who were abroad with his Majesty at that time knew the Passion the king had for that person so some of us can remember how through immoderate love to her being reduced to a condition that his Life was dispaired of and the late Queen his Mother recieving intelligence both of his Disease and the Cause of it she consented to his espousing of her rather than that he should consume and perish in his otherwise unquenchable flames Moreover as there were few had better opportunities of being acquainted with this whole affair than my late Lord Chancellor Hide so I 'm sure the advantages likely to accrue to his off-spring by