Walker To the Reader HE must rise betimes saith the proverb who will please all which may cease our wonder that the Common-wealth is so displeasant to some which hath gotten up so late yet better late than never But though some dotarts square all by antiquity supposing none so wise which are not so old and guesse at the understanding by the gray hairs which in truth are rather a badge of imperfection and the declension of nature and which came into the world at the back doore being a part of that fatall offspring begot between the Serpents craft and our first Parents disobedience I speak not this in scorn of age which I honour when found in the way of righteousnesse and truth nor in deniall of its advantage over youth by experience but to oppose that errour spred amongst many that all wisdome deceased with their Grandsires and they are onely to travell in their tracks an opinion more agreeable to a pack horse than a man endued with a rationall soul which is not to lie idle and which indeed the word of God and universall experience which even make fools wise contradicts the one infallibly declaring that in the latter dayes the Spirit of Truth shall more abundantly be poured forth into earthen vessels the other visibly informing us of the daily advantages we have above our ancestors to attain Knowledge for admit they were such Gâ—y ants in understanding yet we poore dwarfes being upon their shoulders may see further than they but I say though some doe thus yet the sons of reason measure by another standard as knowing that if worth should be prised by antiquity the rotten would becom of more value than the ripe to such therefore do I present this Discourse who judge by reason not passion which so often makes the Crow seem white the Bells to tink as the fools do think and in confidence Reader that thy ingenuity is such that no byas of interest will wheel thee narrow and thy capacity able to draw thee from running wide of reason the only mark men in civil games should bowl at I have taken the pains to present thee with a map of Englands condition under her Monarchs wherein thou mayst view how justly Magna Charta is cast in our Governours teeths to beget a belief of their being more tyrannous than our Kings were admit it be not observed in every tittle now what are we the worse when some fresher and more apposite remedy is applyed to heal us let us consider that it was constituted under another Government and so cannot square to the present and that the makers of it were but men nay and such as had not that roome to act in as we have and so could not foresee or at best provide for all that now providence hath wrought amongst us but I shall not detain thee with a long Preface from the Book wherein an ingenuous and rationall spirit will discern that if our present Governours had been bound up to former rules we could never have attained that estate which now by Gods mercy and their prudence we enjoy and may so still if our own perversnesse hinder us not Truly that Fahle in Pliny of certain monstrous people in Africk which had one foot and that so big that they covered and shaded with it their whole body may be a perfect embleme of our Kingly Government which being at first instituted for a firm basis and prop to the body politick what by the fatall sloath and stupidity of the people and the industrious craft and activity of Monarchs was turned topsie turvie and had got so between heaven and us that it wholly deprived us of that free light and happinesse which God and nature held forth unto us and thus in stead of a support was become a burden under the weight of which the whole groaned nay was almost pressed to death but thou being a member and sound canst not but be as sensible of this as I and for dead slesh and rotten limbs corrosives and cuttings are onely proper it will be weaknesse in me therefore to doubt of the plaudit to the Common wealth so farewell till we meet in the book Anglo-Tyrannus Or the Idea of a Norman MONARCH c. FAtall and Bloody have Crowns and Scepters been in generall to all Nations in particular to this in England and that not only in regard of the strife between competitours who in pnrple gore deeply dyed their regall roabs and by the slaughtered carcasses of their Rivals and partakers ascended the Imperiall throne but in respect of the iterated contests between Prerogative and Liberty the Kings aiming at uncontrolable absolutenes the people claming their Native Freedome The verity of this assertion we may see deeply imprinted in bloody Characters throughout the whole series of English history yea so deeply that it may even create an envy in us of the Turkish happinesse and beget a wish after their bondage who though they go for absolute slaves yet cannot shew such dire effects of tyranny as we and our ancestors have felt and groaned under That policy of State impious and inhumane enough of destroying the younger Brothers of the Ottoman line though decried by us and all who write Christians yet compared with our Monarches politick arts and actings may seem to have been founded on the advice of their own and mankinds better genius to prevent the efusion of blood and deliver millions from the shambles there a few males of his own Family fall a victime to their Tyrant when whole Hecatombs can scarse appease the thirsty ambition of an English pretender ther one house suffers here none escapes as but to instance in one contest between Henry the sixth and Edward the fourth wherein was fought ten bloody battles besides all lesser scirmishes thousands of Lords Gentlemen and Commons slaine and one halfe of the Nation destroyed to set up a King to trample upon the other for in that quarrell between the Houses of Lancaster and Yorke fell 80998. persons 2. Kings 1. Prince 10. Dukes 2. Marquesses 21. Earls 2. Viscounts 27. Lords 1. Prior 1. Iudge 1 39. Knights 441. Esquiers this hath been the happiness and peace which a successive and hereditary Monarchy hath afforded England For our liberty we can indeed shew many of our Kings large and good deeds but few or none of their actions their hands alwaies having been too hard for their Seals Parchments and Charters we purchased of them with the price of Millions both in Blood and Treasure but let us but pass by their promises and view their performances and we may set aside Turkie and term England the slave and this appears in our Chronicles where though in the Theorie and System the English Government hath been limited and bounded by good and distinguishing lawes yet in the exercise and practic part of every Kings raign we shall find it deserve as bad a name as others who are called most absolute The Poets fable of Tantalus
hath been verified in us who though we have been set up to the chinne in freedom and have had liberty bobbing at our lips yet never could we get a drop to squench our thirsts or a snap to stay our stomacks this being added to our sufferings to want in the midst of seeming abundance and as the vulgar have it to starve in a Cooks shop a trick those Lords we term absolute were never ingenuous enough to torment their slaves with Were there then no more but this we might well command those Roman and Turkish Tyrants with a Cede Majoribus to give place to ours How much of a punie did thy wish savour dull Caligula that all Rome had but one neck that thou mightest smite it off at a blow How short of art doth thy rage fall unskillfull Sultan with a Bowstring or Scymiter to snach life from an offending slave Behold and blush you who weare the title of Master Tyrants at the Norman exactnesse which hath thought it beneath a Princes anger to give sudden death a quick riddance and not worth the name of slavery unlesse he can make his vassals feel the lingring effects of his Tyranny it was not enough for us to be slaves unless we knew it lest otherwise not desiring freedom we should not have been so sensible of their power we must with Erasmus be hung between Heaven and Hell that we might see our losse as well as feel it but yet this was not enough something must be added to make their Tyranny most exquisite for we could not enjoy this condition unlesse we paid soundly for it how many Battles have been fought for a piece of Parchment to instruct us but with our miseries and how many millions granted to our Kings but to play the Hocus-pocusses and cheat us to our faces Happy and thrice happy may England call the condition of Turke Russe or Moor who depending only upon their Tyrants wils know no Law but their Commands a head now and then paies the shot there when two and twenty of the chiefest Lords heads must off at once here besides thousands of Gentlemen and Commons butchered for but acting according to those Lawes which their King and his predecessors had an hundred times sworn to grant and maintain inviolable as but to instance in the Raign of Edw. 2. omitting the innumerable carcasses of Englands noblest Sonnes which have bin so often forced to rampire in parchment liberty from the fury of other Tyrant and as their last wills to deliver a few writen Charters to their sons who were also to fight and pay for them as they did and be as much the better then too as they were For to sum up all these our so dear liberties were of no other use than to drein our purses as well as veins that when Englands generous bloud seemed encreased too to tamely suffer Norman Lords to trample on her upon this pretence it might be let out or when her Kings wanted mony they might by these lures draw subsidies to their fists and so hang them by till the next occasion but I humbly conceive that if our Ancestors had taken that course a Naturall once did when he was chosen to judg between a Cook and a Country-man and as their Kings fed them with a sight of Liberty supplied them againe with chinking of money have executed justice without respect of persons they had in all probability diverted those plagues which the crying sins of oppression and murder have brought down from Heaven upon this Nation But let us descend from Generalls and view but the Raign of Henry the third the very Idea of Tyranny and exact copie after which all other Kings have writ especially the last and we shall not only behold the map of our Ancestors miserie and folly but also perceive our own happinesse and Gods mercie in not suffering us to be deluded and baffeled as they were In the midst of the civill flames kindled between Tyranny and liberty King Iohn expiring his sonne Henry the third a child of nine years of age by the power of William Marshall Earl of Pembrook and the consent of most of the Barons ascends the Throne and here we may observe the unadvised lenitie of the English Lords who not considering what was bred in the bone would not easily out in the flesh so easily accepted of the Sonne though the Father had plaid the Tyrant and Traitor to the height giving the Crown to the Pope he would be a slave himself rather than they should not trampling upon the people yea detesting the whole Nation as his grief because Corne was so cheap when he thought he had wasted al may make out But Gods time was not come and he was pleased to set their example to guide posterity from splitting on that Rock I mean such of them who when they have eyes will make use of them But to say the truth they were Lords whom Kings knew so well to cajole or at worst set so together by the ears that they could command them into their traps at list let but one have that Earldome the other this Lordship and their turns were served others may shift for themselves if they can besides it was none of their interest to stub up Tyranny by the roots for then down had gon their branches too for they knew that when that tree was feld the Rooks nest must to ground with it but we may be silent in this and give experience leave to speak for us And yet let us but look a litttle further than the gilded and embroydered superficies and we shall perceive that these Lordlings estate was but even by so much more free and happy than the Commons by how much that King of Cypresses condition was bettered when his Iron shackles and chains were converted into silver fetters they enjoyed a little more gaudie servitude and to speak to the capacity of our Countryman were as the Fore-horses in the teame which though they weare the Feather and have the Bels about their eares yet must draw themselves as well as those that follow nay and if they did seem unwilling to lead they were sure to be lash'd by the Royall Carters till the bloud came and have their gay trappings to boot pul'd over their eares and this the wise and generous of them knew and often endeavoured to remedy but were still prevented by the envy and jealousie one of another which was created and cast in among them by their Kings as partly will appeare in the following story Henry being thus Crowned at Glocester and many great Barons daily resorting to his party moved both by the proud carriage of the Frenchmen and the confession of the Viscount Melun That Lewis had taken an Oath and all his Lords to destroy the English Nobility raiseth a great Army defeateth at Lincolne his enemies and forceth Lewis to condescend to an accord depart the Land and abjure his claim to the Crown which for two
The Lords netled with this Prelats peremptorinesse which the King bore him out in depart with more indignation vowing to spend their Lives in this cause concerning their liberties so much hereupon the K. sends for whole Legions of Poictovins then summons them to appear in the Parl. called on purpose to intrap them but they were so wise as to avoid the snare so resolute as to send him word That unles he would mend his manners by the common Counsel of the kingdom they would expell both him and his evil Councellors the Land But all this avayled them not for upon their refusall to repair to him at Glocester the King without the judgment of his Court or their Peers causes them to be proclamed Out-Laws seizes upon all their Lands which he divides among his Poictovins the Panisaries that guarded and boulstered out this Grand Sultan and his Visier Basha Winchester in their tyrannies and directs out Writs to attach their Bodie But now give me leave a little to digresse and shew how our bloud-hounds have run counter on the same foile have acted the most of this scene in our dayes For thus though our King wanted not so great a stock of strangers to set up with there being so many base spirited Englishmen which would be instrumentall in enslaving their Countrey a thing our noble and generous Ancestors abhorred to do yet German horse were to have bin brought over to help to improve the Trade and lye for factourage of Tyranny in every County Thus the Earl of Straffora tels the King he had an Army in Ireland which might be brought over to bring England under the yoak a Counsel which cost the Giver his Head Thus were Swedes Danes French Scots Irish and Dutch sent for over and invited by the King to help him Thus the Members were illegally proceeded against the Lords summoned to York and the Parliament commanded to Oxford and all that refused handled without mittens their Estates being conferred on those who would engage for Tyranny and themselves proclamed Traytors and Rebels indeed these things considered it was no marvell God was so often called to witnesse that Tyranny was not intended and impiety used to create credulity God mocked that men might be abused sith no reason could be given to gain our belief and make us give our own eyes the lye The Lords though much weakned by the revolt of some of themselves the King having won the Earl of Cornwall and Winchester with a thousand marks bought the Earls of Chester and Lincoln to his party repair into Wales at that time very sensible of their oppression and the Earl of Kent to cry quittance with the K. and make amends for his former faults breaks prison and joyns with them hereupon the K. in person marches against them but he is beaten and forced to retreat with dishonor to Glocester his Foraigners also being again sent against them runne the same chance their Generall and thousands of them being slain on the place being frustrated therefore in his design of force the King employes a Fryer to cajole the Earl of Pembroke General of the Forces raised by the Barons but all the flatteries promises and threats of that crafty instrument could not shake the constancy of that Noble Lord who gallantly told him That he feared no danger nor would ever yeeld to the Kings will which was guided by no reason that he should give an evill example to relinquish the justice of his Cause to obey that will which wrought all injustire whereby it might appeare he loved worldly possessions more than Right and Honour Thus the promise of restauration of his former estate with the addition of great Lands in Herefordshire nothing prevailed with him in whose heroik Mind Honour and his Conntryes good were Commanders in chief No way therefore now being left but that the King tryes what may be done by Treachery and takes a truce with them in the mean while seizing all those great possessions which were left the Earl in Ireland by his famous Ancestor the Earl Strongbow that thereby he might draw the Earl over thither this design takes effect and the Earl endeavouring to regain his livelihood lost his life circumvented by treachery Thus noblest souls are soonest intrapt who measuring others their own thoughts are the least suspicious but his death wrought such effects as caused the King to disown the businesse and lay the load upon his Counsellors shoulders In a Parl. at Westminst. the King being plainly told his own the Bishops threatning to proceed by Ecclesiasticall censure both against him and his Counsellors and seeing no way to subsist and get his ends but by temporizing consents to them calls home the Lords removes the strangers and brings his new officers to account now the storm fals so violently that Winchester with his Bastard are forced for shelter to take Sanctuary untill by large Fines the King was appeased who to get money was very ready to doe any thing Escuage is granted toward the marriage of his Sister whom he bestowed on the Emperour with 30000 marks for a Dowry besides an Imperiall Crown and other Ornaments to a great value The King marries Elianor Daughter to the Earl of Provence a match which beside the distance of the place was infinitely disadvantagious having no Dowry getting a poor kindred which must needs draw means from this kingdome A Parliament also is assembled at London which the King would have held in the Tower but that the Lords refused to come in which Sheriffs were removed for corruption and the new ones sworn to take no bribes Now the King endeavours to change his officers and to take the Seale from the Chancellor the Bishop of Chichester who refuses to deliver it which he had by the Common Councell of the kingdom without assent of the same and having carryed himself unblamably in his office is much favoured by the people Also he receives some old cast officers into favour such was his levity and irresolution moved with any Engine to doe and undo and all out of time and order wherein he ever loses ground and goes about by the Popes Authority to revoke his former Grants which addes to the already conceived displeasure of the people In another Parliament or the same adjourned the King demands relief and upon promise to confirm the Charters and not seek to infringe them upon any pretence as want of the Popes confirmation c. a thirtieth part of all moveables is granted yet upon condition that it should be gathered by four Knights in every shire and laid up in Abbies or Castles that if the King performed not his promise it might be returned that he should leave the Counsell of Aliens and use only that of his Naturall Subjects Which being done and to make shew on his part some old Counsellors suddenly removed and others chosen which were sworn to give him good and faithfull advice yet I hope he
had a Negative voice and might chuse whither he would hearken unto them and be no King or no the Parliament concluded and with it ended all his goodly Promises For he presently hastens to Dover receiving a Legat without acquainting the Lords with the cause of his comming exacts the Subsidie contrary to order is wholly swayed by the Counsell of his Queens Vncle an Alien sends for his father in Law to help away with his monie marries Simon Mountford to his sister the Widdow of William Earl of Pembroke a professed Nunne and of a banished Frenchman makes him Earl of Leicester But the Legat and Earl of Leicester proved better than was expected no thanks to the King who doubtlesse was no Prophet the one endeavouring to pacifie not foment divisions which before was held a property inseparable from his office The other becomming a most earnest assertor of the English Liberties as the Sequele will manifest The Lords incensed with these perfidious and tyrannous dealings Remonstrate against him and tell him of the profusion of his Treasure gotten by Exaction from the Subject and cast away upon strangers who onely guide him of the infinite sums he had raised in his time how there was no Archbishoprick or Bishoprick except York Lincoln and Bath but he had made benefit by their vacancies besides what fell by Abbyes Earldoms Baronies and other Escheats and yet his Treasure which should be the strength of the State was nothing encreased Lastly That despising his Subjects Counsels he was so obsequious to the will of the Romans that he seemed the Popes feudary the King hearing this harsh note and perceiving the Londoners and whole people ready to rise against him first by the Legat attempts to win his Brother now the head of the Lords party to side with Him but failing in this he cals a Parliament whether the Lords come armed Whereupon to gain time the businesse is referred to the order of certain grave personages Articles drawn sealed and publikely set up with the eals of the Legat and divers great men the King taking his Oath to stand to their determinations but whilst the businesse was debating he corrupts his Brother and the Earl of Lincoln whereby the Lords are weakned the businesse is dash'd and the miseries of the Kingdom continued Simon Montford is thrown out of favour and the Seal taken from him and his brother Geoffrey a Knight Templer put out of the Counsel Men much maligned as evil Counsellors so inconstant are Tyrants in their favours they lost their places for refusing to passe a grant of 4 pence upon every sack of wool made by the King to the Earl of Flanders the Queens Vncle to whom the next year he gave a pension of 300 marks per annum out of the Exchequer and here by their dejection we may observe that Officers under bad Princes are not alwayes so bad as men account them and that when the Master playes the wreaks the servant bears the burden But it seems one Gulph sufficed not to swallow up the substance of the Kingdom and therefore the Pope adds extortion to the Kings exaction and sends to have 300 Romans preferred to the next vacant benefices in England which mandate so amazed the Archbishop of Canterbury that seeing no end of these Concussions of the State and liberties of the Church he gives over his Sea and payes 800 marks to the Pope for his Fine We need never doubt sure but that they paid well for it who were to have it when so much was given by him that left it He demands a tenth also of the Clergy who flying to the King for protection against the Popes rapine were referred to the Legat yea and the chief of them offered to be delivered up unto him by the King who joyned with the Pope we may see to aw and punish the Kingdom and though they in the Councell then called stood out for a while against the Legat yet at length by the Treason of division the body of the Councel is entred into and the Pope prevails in this businesse Neither was Pope and King enough the Queenes kindred must have a share one of whose Vncles comes into England is feasted sumptuosly Knighted and the Earldom of Richmond with other gifts bestowed on him and the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury conferred on his Son but the poor Jews fasted for this who were forced to pay 20000 marks at two Terms that year The King being set agogg to be doing in France by his Father in Law and others the authors of his first Expedition summons a Parliament and moves the matter therein but it was generally opposed as a design not feasible and expensive besides the unlawfulnesse of breaking Truce Money also was denyed though the King came in person most submissively craving their aid with a letter from the Pope to boot in his hand Neverthelesse what by gifts and loans from particular men by begging and borrowing he scraped so much together that he carryed over with him 30 barrels of Stirling Coin and yet before the end of the year he got Escuage toward his charges which he lay spending at Bourdeaux to little or no purpose He sent for Grain Bacon had 10000 quarters of Wheat 5000 of Oates and as many Bacons shipt away most of which perished by Ship-wrack the very Elements seeming discontented as well as the English Lords at his unworthy carriage in undervaluing their Counsels and preferring strangers upon whom he consumed his treasure in such sort as caused his Brother and most of the English Lords to desert him and come over the wiser they for the Earl of Leicester and others which staid behind ranne behind hand too as wel as the King by borrowing large sums to defray their expences at last He was driven to make a dishonorable Truce with the French King and return having not gained so much as 30 emptie barrels were worth The Stangers having made up their mouths of him abroad follow him hither also so greedy were these Harpies after prey and so easy and ready was he to be made one to them and now the Countesse of Provence the Queens Mother bringing another doughter with her arrives at Dover is sumptuously entertained and sent away richly rewarded her daughter being immediately bestowed on the Earle of Cornewall who it seemes had as good a stomack to forraigne flesh as the King his brother that he could fall too so soone without sauce but the Earle was well beforehand in the world and so might the better dispence with the want of a portion Next slips in Martin the Popes collectour furnished with such ample power of cursing suspending excommunicating pardoning having whole droves of blanke Bulls which might be filled up according to occasion and all other accoutrements belonging to and necessary for St. Peters successors trade which was fishing for money not men that the former Legats were but fleas if compared with this horseleech who sucketh so
the provident example of his Brotheâ— who absolutely refused it in regard it lay so far off so many Nations between the cavils of the Popes the infidelity of the People and the power of the pretenders They also repeat the Kingdoms grievances The breach of his promises and most solemn Oathes the insolence of his Brethren and other strangers against whom by his Order no Writ was to pass out of the Chancery how they abounded all in riches and himself was so poor that he could not repress the Welsh who wasted his Countrey but going against them was forced to return with dishonor The King seeing his friend Necessity was at his Elbow humbles himself tels them how he had often by evil Counsell been seduced and promises by his Oath which he takes on the Tombe of Saint Edw. to reform all these Errors but the Lords not knowing how to hold this ever-changing Proteus for security adjourn the Parliament to meet at Oxford in which time they provided for their own and the Kingdoms safety The King in the mean while is put to his shifts and upon promise of high preferment gets the Abbot of Westminster to put his and his Covents Seal to a Deed obligatory as a surety for threehundred marks sending by Passeleave this Deed with his Letters unto other Monasteries to invite them to do the like but notwithstanding his threats telling them how all they had came from the benignitie of Kings â—nd how their Soveraigne was Lord of all they had They refused to yeeld to any such deed saying They acknowledged the King to be Lord of all they had but so as to defend not to destroy the same And now the Parliament meets at Oxford and in this it is Enacted that the Poictovins and strangers should avoid the Land with many other profitable Laws for that time The Charters are confirmed and the King and Prince sworn to restore the ancient Lawes and Institutions of the Realm and to observe inviolable the Ordinances of that Parliament Now the chief Iusticiar Chancellor and all other great and publike Officers are elected by the common and publike Counsell which power was as we may see before usurped by the Norman Tyrants and worn as an especiall flowr of their Crowns and fruit of our slavery for it is manifest to any unlesse such as will wink that our English Kings were but as Generals in War without any other great jurisdiction our wise Ancestors knowing such a trust enough for one and therefore kept the Election of other Great Officers in their own power untill it was wrested out of their hands by the Norman Tyrants and that not so much by the Sword as by craft thus though William sirnamed the Bastard had defeated Harold in the field yet upon his Coronation he swore to maintain the ancient Laws Liberties and Customes of the English Nation and again renewed his Oath and granted the same too by Charter but when he was throughly setled in his seat he perfidiously broke all imposed the Norman Lawes and those in the Norman tongue as a badge of our slavery and a means to entrap the English who not understanding them knew not how to avoid the incurring the penalties whereby his Normans mouths up were made with their Estates thus his Successors were forced to swear and forswear to maintain themselves in their Kingships The Poictovins and strangers being banished presently followes the death and sicknesse of divers Noblemen who had been poysoned by their practice and a Steward of the Earl of Glocesters was executed for it he having received a great sum of VVilliam de Valence the head of the Poictovins to work the feat And though the Kings Favourites cryed out that he was condemned only upon presumption yet the evidence will appear very strong if we consider that his Lord and his Lords brother were poysoned the latter dying the former lying sick a long while having his body swell'd his nails and hair fallen off and this Steward convinced to have received a great sum of the Poictovin their Enemy for whom he could make out no service to be ever done unlesse what was layed to his charge besides a Iew being converced a little after confessed the poyson was prepared in his house The Earl of Cornwall now King of the Romans returns into England and upon his arrivall takes an Oath to observe inviolably and obey the Statutes and Ordinances made by the late Parliament at Oxford A Parliament was summoned at Westminster wherein were read and confirmed all the Statutes of Oxford and such pronounced acursed by the Prelats which should attempt in word or deed to infringe any of the same Whereupon Escuage is granted to the King forty shillings of every Knights Fee a very considerable sum in those dayes for there were above forty thousand Knights Fees in England at that time But the King having an intent to break more Oaths and knowing that now it would not so easily be done makes a Voyage over Sea to conclude a peace with France that he might not be interrupted in the game he ment to play at home having dispatched Messengers secretly to Rome for absolution of his Oath and to Scotland for aydes to be ready upon occasion When he had concluded with the King of France having made an absolute resignation of the Dutchy of Normandy the Earldoms of Anjou Poictou Tourenne and Main upon the receipt of 300000 Crowns and a Grant to enjoy what he had in Guien Xantongue c. doing homage and fealty to the Crown of France He returns and comes to London where he presently fortifies the Tower caused the Gates of the City to be Warded and then to pick a quarrel commands the Lords to come to a Parliament to be holden in the Tower which they refusing as he knew they would he takes an Oath of all above 12 years of age in London to be true to Him and His Heirs and sets armed men to defend the City Gates For fear sure the Parliament should have come in and so spoyled the design For neither Henry or any of our former Kings were ever so daring as to contest with a Parliament in the field or set up their standards against it but were alwayes forced to grant its demands or quietly sit down without having their own turne served when the Parliament was willing to dissolve And now Henry being provided for the work causes the Popes Bull purchased for absolving himself and all others sworn to maintain the Statutes of Oxford to be read publickly at Pauls-Crosse and makes Proclamation that all should be proceeded against as Enemies to his Crown and Royal dignity who should disobey the absolution and such was the blindnesse and slavery of many in those times that one Bull begot thousands of Calves in an instant and yet it seems veal was never the cheaper for his Son the Prince was forced to rob the Treasury at the New Temple to buy him
Provision every one refusing to lend him or the King a groat so great credit had their perfidie got them Many being clapt up in prison who would not be perjured the Lords and others whose consciences were more tender both of their Oath and Liberties than to believe the Pope or trust the King assemble together in arms for defence of themselves and their liberties and first they send to the King humbly beseeching him to remember his many Oathes and promises but when that would not availe them they advance towards London where the King lay in the Tower waiting the gathering of his forces and the comming over of strangers which he expected and now the Bishops who as they were seldom in any good so would be sure to be cheif in every bad action make such a stir to prevent bloudshed forsooth of which their tendernesse hath alwaies been well enough knowne that the controversy must be referred to the French King to decide much honour got England and much liberty was like to get by such an Arbitratour while she is forced to creep to forraigners to know whether they will please to let her enjoy liberty or no after 47 years oppression under Henry besides what his good Father and Grandsiers had loaded her with But the Lords being perswaded that their Liberties and Rights depended not upon the will of any one Man refused to stand to the partiall award of the French in the English Tyrants behalfe Thus concluded this business as all others commonly did which Bishops had a foot inâ—â— with a mischief to the Common-wealth the King gaining by it not only time for raising but a seeming justice for his using of Forces to compell the Lords to stand to the sentence by which their liberties were adjudged from them No doubt those wise and generous Barons not only disliked but disdained such an Vmpire as being sensible of the advantages Henry of the dishonour their Countrey and of the discommodity their cause would reap by him but that those Fathers in evill under the angelical shape of peace-makers necessitated them to accept of him to avoid the obloquy of being Incendiaries the involvers of their Country in a miserable civill war Let the English High Priests then to their eternall infamy carry a frontlet engraven with Mischeif to England on their foreheads who were the fatall instruments of enforcing their Country to submit her liberty to a forraigne Tyrants decision whose corrupt interest lay in adding fewell to the flames which consumed the Noblest Fabricks the uprightest and firmest pillars in the English Nation Yet that Henry might make a little better market for himselfe he Summons a Parliament at Westminster where whilst openly nothing but redressing grievances composing differences exclaiming against jealousies raised to scandalise the King good man as if he intended to leavy War against his people by factious spirits proceeds from Henry he underhand prepares for War endeavouring to divide the Barons and strengthen himself by all the plots and clandestine tricks he could at last having by sprinkling Court holy-water and promising fifty pound Lands per annum to such as would desert the Lords party drawn divers to revolt unto him he secretly withdraws from Westminster to Windsor and from thence to Oxford so on traversing the Country to patch up and peece together an Army And here we may see it was no new thing which was acted by his late successor who in al his actions made it appeare that he was a right chip of the old block Now pretences of the Barons insolencies against the King and oppressions of the Subjects Declarations of his being forced to take up arms for defence of the just Lawes and Liberties of the people and his own safety with protestations of his good intentions and divers other such knacks are every where on the wing as we have had flying up and down at the tayss of the Royall paper Kites of our times The Lords being thus left in the lurch are not wanting in preparing for defence being unanimously backt by the citizens of London who have hitherto had the honour of bravely standing for Liberty yet first they send to the King putting him in mind of his oathes and promises and desiring him to observe the great Charter and Oxford Statutes but the Drums and Trumpets make such musick in his ears that Henry will heare no talk of any Law but what his will and Sword shall give and for their good Counsell returnes them as tokens of his love the title of Rebels and Traytors which he as frankly bestows on their persons as he doth their Lands on his followers By these course Complements the Lords perceiving which way the game was like to go leave off putting their confidence in the King and trust their cause to God and their good Swords then choosing the Earls of Leicester and Glocester for their Generalls whose hands no manacle of alliance could lock from defending their Countries Liberties though the first had married the Sister the second the Neece of the King they take the Feild may Towns are taken by each party and many skirmishes passe wherein sometimes the one party sometimes the other get the better at length divers Scotch Lords and others with great forces being joyned to the King he marches against Northampton where he heard Peter Montford was assembling forces for the Barons the Town was very resolutely defended untill by the Treachery of some Monks within say some by the subtilty of the Kings Forces say others who advancing close under the Wall undermined it whilst the Captains within parlying with the King on the other side a breach was made so large that forty Horse might enter a brest by which Henry gained it by assault This Town being taken ran the same fortune Leicester lately did for Henry drunk with successe and rage like a violent Torrent swept all before him killing burning and spoiling where ever his Army came but here so unmanly was the cruelty of the Tyrant that he would have hanged all the Oxford Schollers a band of which were in the Town for their valour shewed in the brave resistance of his forces had not some of his Counsellers perswaded him from so doing for feare the only curb to an ignoble soule of exasperating their freinds against him by his cruelty many of the Schollers being young Gentlemen of good quality Here by the way we may observe the miserable effects of bad Governours in the Vniversities by whom such degeneratenesse was wrought in our youth that none in our times were found more desperate engagers against the cause of Liberty than young Schollers who heretofore were the most resolute Champions for it Let us therefore make no sinister constructions when we see our Governours diligent in purging the fountaines if we desire to have the streams run cleere But Northampton put a period to Henries fortune for although he caused the Barous to raise their siedge from Rochester yet in the
that had before in the eighth year of his Raign made himself of age for his own ends yet now is not ashamed upon the same score to pretend nonage in the ninth year wherein he confirmed both the Charters Thus if the King say 8. is more than 9. the people must believe it for it is treason no doubt to question their Soveraignes words or actions and Rebellion to chop Logick with him And now this cancelling having annulled all hopes of a subsidie He hath a new shift to drain the peoples purses by making a new Seal and forcing all which held any thing by the old to renew their Patents fining at the pleasure of the Chief Iusticiarie not according to their ability It seemes the Old Seal was under age too and for this he had a Bul but whether from the Pope or somebody else is the question These perfidious and oppressive courses so incense the people that the Lords appoint a Randezvouz at Stamford intending it seems to bait these Buls by force to keep them from goring The King is startled at this news hearing his Brother the Earl of Cornewall was also joyned to them and by feare brought to promise a redresse and so pacifies them at Northampton and buyes his brother to side with him with his mothers Dower and all the Lands in England belonging to the Earl of Britain and late Earl of Bullogne These are the uneven paths which necessity forces Tyrants to stagger through scraching up here and leaving a piece there using the Rake with this hand and the Fork with that Peter must be rob'd to pay Paul these pilled and polled to bribe the other but these shifts will be quickly thredbare by which what is got in the Hundred is lost in the Shire The King having bound himself by his Procurators at Rome to the payment of Tenths it seems the Pope would not do a job of journeywork for nothing cals a Parliament that the Legat might demand them but though the Legat was impudent enough to ask the question yet the Laity were so modest as to deny him the Clergy being over-reachd by Segrave one of the Kings Counsell consented and found a very hard bargain of it for the ravenons Legat exacted them at a set day and those that miss'd it were sure to be hit home with an Excommunication Thus between the Lyon and the Wolf the Flock went to wrack for no doubt but the King had a feeling in the cause or his Counsell would never have beene so diligent in the businesse but all this would not do he therefore exacts great summes of the Clergy whom the Pope could rule and would it being his turn now and the City of London for redemption of their liberties an excellent way to make them free for they seldom are so of themselves yet have they given down largely in this Cause to their Honour be it spoken and may they be so moderate as not to kick over the palle in the upshot and forces the Iews to pay the third of all their moveables to maintain his Warres he then began in France whither he goes leaving them to pray that he might deal more Christianly with them for the future But his evill gotten goods thrived not and the King besides an infinite expence of treasure having lost divers Nobles and valiant men without any glory returns home bringing with him the Earle of Britaigne and many Poictovins to suck up what could further be wrung from the poor people of England and in order to this calls a Parliament wherein upon pretence and promise of sending supplyes into Spain against the Saracens he obtains a fifteenth of the Laity and Clergy but the Popes turn it seems was come who falls a cursing all that had any hand in with-holding Tithes from those multitudes of strangers which he had preferr'd to benefices and the King makes a strict inquisition after them forces them all to runne to Rome for absolution of this horrible sin of resisting his Pastors in the main work of their Ministery few of them having more English than would serve to demand their tithes but it was enough with the Pope they had that whose special care was to see the Flock might be fleec'd for teaching that might have spoyl'd devotion to Rome which ignorance is the sirurest Nurse too a strange way to Heaven that the blindest hit best Christs servants are the Children of Light Sure then his Holinesse must be Vicar to the Prince of Darknesse whose best Subjects see least A Parliament also is called at Westminster which expecting deeds from him before they would do any thing and he not being poor enough nor so shiftlesse as to fall to mending so soon breaks up with a flat denyall of any money Hereupon by the advice of the Bishop of Winchester sith the Parliament was so drie he fals to squeeze his own Spunges and amongst the rest his darling Hubert de Burgh Earl of Kent and his Chief Iusticiarie feels the weight of Kingly kindnesse which loves a man so long as he is usefull but if any advantage shall accrue it is very Rebellion should affection be so saucy as to plead privilege against Royall profit and naw kenning of Kingcraft for Kings to be more nice than wise O the wretched estate of that man who to curry favour with a Tyrant cares not how he acts nor what he does aside he is thrown so soon as his great Master hath served his turn on him and being down is sure to be trampled on to some purpose by the enraged people who in the servants misery seek a recompence for the Masters tyranny and this hath been told us by a King and Prophet long ago Put not your trust in Princes men of high degree area lye And now the Bishop of Winchester is the Court Minion but as he tript up the Earl of Kents heels so will he be laid on his back shortly and the same noose he made for others will catch the Woodcock himselfe ere long who was returned from the Holy Wars abroad to begin it seems wicked discord at Home for he shewing the king that Foraigners were the only journey-men to drive on his trade of Tyranny and fittest instruments to keep the English in slavery causes him who for his own ends cared neither whom nor what he made use of to displace all the chief Counsellors and Barons of the kingdom and to bestow all places of concernment either Military or Civill on strangers These strains of so strange and insufferable violences so exasperate the Nobility that many combine for defence of the publique and the Earl of Pembroke in all their names tels the King how pernicious and dangerous these courses would prove whom the Bishop of Winchester insolently answers That it was lawfull for the K. to call what strangers he would to defend his Crown and compell his proud rebellious Subjects to their due obedience that is tame slavery
height of his jollity he was defeated at Lews such was the wages of Pride and Rage And thus the Sunne setting at Leicester went down at Naseby upon Charls whose successe kept time with his presumption and cruelty And now Henry is pitched down at Lewes where the Barons petitioning for their liberties and desiring Peace are answered by his proclaming them Rebells and Traitors and sending his own his Brothers and Sons Letters of defiance unto them But this was too hot to hold for the Lords perceiving what they must trust to notwithstanding the great numbers of the Enemy the Banished Poictovins being returned with great forces for his aide bravely resolve to give him battel and as gallantly perform their resolutions for fighting like men for their Liberties they gain the day and take Him his Brother and his Sonne with many English and Scotch Lords prisoners This victory was received with such universall joy that when news came of the Queens having a great Army of strangers ready to set sale for England such multitudes appeared on Barham Down to resist them that it could hardly have been thought that so many men were in the Land and at this appearance of the English the forreiners vanish and are disperst being terrified to hear the English were so unanimous in the defence of their Country and its freedome Oh were we but thus united now within our selves we need never fear the combination of forreiners But these noble souls being more valiant than wary more pitifull than just upon a few feigned shews of amendment and fawning promises of not entrenching upon their liberties receive the Snake into their bosomes which will reward their kindnesse with their ruine assoon as he is able For in the Parliament assembled at London the cry of blood and oppression being stopt and smothered up Henry again is seated on the Throne upon that poore and Thread-bare satisfaction of himself and his sonne taking their Oaths to confirm the Charters and Statutes before at Oxford and those now newly made sure Mercury was ascendent at Henries nativity so potent were his starres in deluding those who had been so oft mock'd and beguil'd before when in reason we might suppose his former frequent violations and reiterated perjuries should have taught them what trust was to be given to a Kings oath in whose eye Tyrranny was so beautifull that he never dallied to make market both of soul and body so he might but purchase his desired Paramour These oaths being past in order to the performance after the royall mode the Earl of Glocester is tampred with to leave the Barons and by the artifice of those masters in the art of Division who in all times knew how to work upon the covetous ambitious and envious humours of great men drawn to desert the cause of liberty and of this we our selves have had a sad and fatall experience how many great ones were cajold by Charles at Newcastle Holâ—bie and the Islle of Wight even to the great danger of our Cause nay the very House was not free as those Tuesday nights votes may and the Fridayes had informed us with a witnesse had not Providence wrought miraculously for us for it can be made out by good witnesse that there was a resolution to have dissolved the Parliament and proclamed the Army Traitors had they all met But Gold was too drossie to make Glocesters towring soul stoop and his free spirit could not be shackled with silver fetters some other Lure must be used to bring him down and now Leicester was mounted to so high a pitch in the peoples favour that Glocesters weaker wings could not reach him which whilest with an aspiring eye he gazes after his sight was so dazzled with the others motion us gave check to his pursute of the game The crafty Prince marking his advantage so works upon the weaknesse of this young Lord that by it he effects what he could not do by his own force thus Diamonds are cut by their own dust and the Champion of Englands liberty must be the man can ruine it accursed be that sorceresse envy so fatall then to Englands freedome so mischievous lately to the same whose menacing power had it not been stopp'd by the new modell had totally routed the Parliaments whole force so many Divisions of them being charged through and through and needs must that Army become a Chaos wherein Commanders consist of jarring Principles Glocester now being come to his fist away flies Edward to the Lord Mortimer notwithstanding his assurance given not to depart the Court that fable of the wise men of Gotams hedging in the cuckow hits many of our ancestors home who with oaths and promises went about to keep in their Kings when one of the Norman brood could flie over such a fence with the very shell upon his head and as the first part of that storie may be applyed to us so the second is not altogether insignificant for our Kings whom we shal alwayes find together with such as sing after them in one tune crying out disloyall dissoyall as if they could say as well as do nothing else yet a Christian may conceive such a found should make them tremble by bringing the sinnes of their fathers and their own iniquities into their remembrance did they but believe there were a God who will measure the same measure out unto them which they have meted to others and will visit the sinnes of the fathers upon the children Glocester and Edward having done the Prologue the Tragedy begins wherein the Scenes were so well laid that every actor was ready to enter and each had his part so well by heart that it is plain they had been long conning their lessons for no sooner were these two gone but the Earles Warren Pembroke with a whole shoale of Poictovins and other strangers come to land in Wales which with the scattered reliques of the battell at Lewes gathered from all parts embody in great numbers before the Lords who stood faithfull were aware of them yet they prepare for them as fast as they can but their fortune was now in the wane their pity and credulity had brought them into the snare and their lives must go for suffering him to escape whom God had delivered into their hands for to condemne the innocent and absolve the guilty are equally abominable in the sight of heaven and our ancestors to their cost have made experience of the truth of the Proverb Save a thief from the Gallows and he shall be the first will cut your throat First the Armies meet at Killingworth where the Lord Simon Montford sonne to the Earl of Leicester is defeated this bad newes meeting Leicester in Wales hastens him to repair the breach made in their fortunes and he meets the enemy near Evesham where in a bloody field fighting most valiantly he loses life and victory both and with him many more of the most noble English fall a victime to perjured