and spun out two days time It was managed by Eight Members and Sixteen more as Assistants The Eight cheif managers were Sir Dudley Diggs Mr. Herbert Mr. Selden Mr. Glanvile Mr. Pym Mr. Sherâ—and Mr. Wandesford and Sir Iohn Elliot Sir Dudley Diggs by way of Prologue made this Speech My Lords THere are so many things of great importance to be said in very little time to day that I conceive it will not be unacceptable to your Lordships if setting by all Rhetorical Affectations I onely in plain Country Language humbly pray your Lordships favor to include many excuses necessary to my manifold infirmities in this one word I am Commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House to present to your Lordships their most affectionate thanks for your ready condescending to this Conference which out of confidence in your great Wisdoms and approved Justice for the service of his Majesty and the welfare of this Realm they desired upon this occasion The House of Commons by a fatal and universal Concurrence of Complaints from all the Sea-bordering parts of this Kingdom did finde a great and grievous interruption and stop of Trade and Traffick The base Pirates of Sally ignominiously infesting our Coasts taking our Ships and Goods and leading away the Subjects of this Kingdom into Barbarous captivity while to our shame and hindrance of Commerce our enemies did as it were besiege our Ports and block up our best Rivers mouths Our friends on slight pretences made Imbargoes of our Merchants Goods and every Nation upon the least occasion was ready to contemn and slights us So great was the apparent diminution of the antient Honor of this Crown and once strong Reputation of our Nation Wherewith the Commons were more troubled calling to remembrance how formerly in France in Spain in Holland and every where by Sea and Land the Valors of this Kingdom had been better valued and even in latter times within remembrance when we had no Alliance with France none in Denmark none in Germany no Friend in Italy Scotland to say no more ununited Ireland not setled in peace and much less security at home when Spain was as ambitious as it is now under a King Philip the Second they called their Wisest the House of Austria as great and potent and both strengthned with a malitious League in France of persons ill-affected when the Low-Countreys had no Being yet by constant Councils and old English ways even then that Spanish pride was cooled that greatness of the House of Austria so formidable to us now was well resisted and to the United Provinces of the Low-Countreys such a beginning growth and strength was given as gave us honor over all the Christian World The Commons therefore wondring at the Evils which they suffered debating of the Causes of them found they were many drawn like one Line to one Circumference of decay of Trade and strength of Honor and Reputation in this Kingdom which as in one Centre met in one great Man the cause of all whom I am here to name The Duke of Buckingham Here Sir Dudley Diggs made a little stop and afterwards read the Preamble to the Charge viz. The Commons Declaration and Impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham FOr the speedy Redress of great Evils and Mischeifs and of the cheif cause of these Evils and Mischeifs which this Kingdom of England now grievously suffereth and of late years hath suffered and to the honor and safety of our Soveraign Lord the King and of his Crown and Dignity and to the good and welfare of his people The Commons in this present Parliament by the Authority of our said Soveraign Lord the King assembled Do by this their Bill shew and declare against George Duke Marquess and Earl of Buckingham Earl of Coventry Viscount Villers Baron of Whaddon Great Admiral of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and of the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoigne and Guienne General-Governor of the Seas and Ships of the said Kingdom Lieutenant-General Admiral Captain-General and Governor of his Majesties Royal Fleet and Army lately set forth Master of the Horse of our Soveraign Lord the King Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and of the Members thereof Constable of Dover Castle Iustice in Eyre of all the Forests and Chases on this side the River Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Gentleman of his Majesties Bed-Chamber one of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Council in his Realms both in England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most Honorable Order of the Garter The Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences Crimes and other Matters comprised in the Articles following and him the said Duke do accuse and impeach of the said Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences and Crimes My Lords THis lofty Title of this Mighty Man methinks doth raise my spirits to speak with a Paulò Majora Canamus and let it not displease your Lordships if for Foundation I compare the beautiful structure and fair composition of this Monarchy wherein we live to the great work of God the World it self In which the solid Body of incorporated Earth and Sea as I conceive in regard of our Husbandry Manufactures and Commerce by Land and Sea may well resemble us the Commons And as it is incompassed with Air and Fire and Sphears Celestial of Planets and a Firmament of fixed Stars all which receive their heat light and life from one great glorious Sun even like the King our Soveraign So that Firmament of fixed Stars I take to be your Lordships those Planets the great Officers of the Kingdom that pure Element of Fire the most Religious Zealous and Pious Clergy and the Reverend Judges Magistrates and Ministers of Law and Justice the Air wherein we breathe All which encompass round with cherishing comfort this Body of the Commons who truly labor for them all and though they be the Foot stool and the lowest yet may well be said to be the setled Centre of the State Now my good Lords if that glorious Sun by his powerful Beams of Grace and Favor shall draw from the Bowels of this Earth an exhalation that shall take Fire and burn and shine out like a Star it needs not be marvelled at if the poor Commons gaze and wonder at the Comet and when they feel the effects impute all to the incorruptible matter of it But if such an imperfect mixture appear like that in the last age in the Chair of Cassiopeia among the sixed Stars themselves where Aristotle and the old Philosophers conceived there was no place for such corruption then as the Learned Mathematicians were troubled to observe the irregular motions the prodigious magnitude and the ominous prognosticks of that Meteor so the Commons when they see such a blazing Star in course so exorbitant in the Affairs of this Commonwealth cannot
called to the Councel-board at Hampton Court about some things which were complained of in reference to the Customs did then and there in an insolent manner in the presence or hearing of the Lords and others of his Majesties Privy Council then sitting in Counsel utter these undutiful seditious and false words That the Merchants are in no part of the World so skrewed and wrung as in England That in Turky they have more incouragement By which words he the said Richard Chambers as the Information setteth forth did endeavor to alienate the good affection of his Majesties Subjects from his Majesty and to bring a slander upon his just Government and therefore the Kings Attorney prayed process against him To this Mr. Chambers made answer That having a Case of silk Grogerams brought from Bristol by a Carrier to London of the value of 400. l. the same were by some inferior Officers attending on the Custome-house seized without this Defendants consent notwithstanding he offered to give security to pay such Customs as should be due by Law and that he hath been otherwise grieved and damnified by the injurious dealing of the under-Officers of the Custome-house and mentioned the particulars wherein and that being called before the Lords of the Council he confesseth that out of the great sence which he had of the injuries done him by the said inferior Officers he did utter these words That the Merchants in England were more wrung and screwed then in forreign Parts Which words were onely spoken in the presence of the Privy-Council and not spoken abroad to stir up any discord among the people and not spoken with any disloyal thought at that time of his Majesties Government but onely intending by these words to introduce his just Complaint against the wrongs and injuries he had sustained by the inferiour Officers and that as soon as he heard a hard construction was given of his words he endeavoured by petition to the Lords of the Council humbly to explain his meaning that he had not the least evil thought as to his Majesties Government yet was not permitted to be heard but presently sent away prisoner to the Marshalsea and when he was there a prisoner he did again endeavour by petition to give satisfaction to the Lords of the Council but they would not be pleased to accept of his faithful explanation which he now makes unto this honourable Court upon his Oath and doth profess from the bottom of his heart That his speeches onely aimed at the abuses of the inferiour Officers who in many things dealt most cruelly with him and other Merchants There were two of the Clerks of the Privy-Council examined as Witnesses to prove the words notwithstanding the Defendant confessed the words in his Answer as aforesaid who proved the words as laid in the Information And on the sixth of May 1629. the Cause came to be heard in the Star-Chamber and the Court were of opinion that the words spoken were a comparing of his Majesties Government with the Government of the Turks intending thereby to make the people believe that his Majesties happy Government may be tearmed Turkish Tyranny and therefore the Court fined the said Mr. Chambers in the sum of 2000 l. to his Majesties use and to stand committed to the prison of the Fleet and to make submission for his great offence both at the Council-board in Court of Star-Chamber and at the Royal Exchange There was a great difference of opinion in the Court about the Fine and because it is a remarkable Case here followeth the names of each several person who gave sentence and the Fine they concluded upon viz. Sir Francis Cottington Chancellour of the Exchequer his opinion was for 500 l. Fine to the King and to acknowledge his offence at the Council-board the Star-Chamber-Bar and Exchange Sir Tho. Richardson Lord chief Justice of the common pleas 500 l. Fine to the King and to desire the Kings favour Sir Nicholas Hide Lord chief Justice of the Kings Bench 500 l. and to desire the Kings favour Sir Iohn Cook Secretary of State 1000 l. Sir Humphry May Chancellour 1500 l. Sir Thomas Edmons 2000 l. Sir Edward Barret 2000 l. Doctor Neal Bishop of Winchester 3000 l. Doctor Laud Bishop of London 3000 l. Lord Carlton principal Secretary of State 3000 l. Lord Chancellour of Scotland 2000 l. Earl of Holland 1500 l. Earl of Doncaster 1500 l. Earl of Salisbury 1500 l. Earl of Dorset 3000 l. Earl of Suffolk 3000 l. Earl of Mountgomery Lord Chamberlain 1500 l. Earl of Arundel Lord High Marshal 3000 l. Lord Montague Lord Privy Seal 3000 l. Lord Connoway 2000 l. Lord Weston Lord Treasurer 3000 l. Lord Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal 1500 l. So the fine was setled to 2000 l. And all except the two Chief Justices concurred for a submission also to be made And accordingly the copy of the submission was sent to the Warden of the Fleet from Mr. Atturny General to shew the said Richard Chambers to perform and acknowledg it and was as followeth I Richard Chambers of London Merchant do humby acknowledge that whereas upon an Information exhibited against me by the Kings Atturney General I was in Easter Term last sentenced by the Honourable Court of Star-Chamber for that in September last 1628. being convented before the Lords and others of his Majesties most Honourable Privy-Council Board upon some speeches then used concerning the Merchants of this Kingdom and his Majesties well and gracious usage of them did then and there in insolent contemptuous and seditious manner falsly and maliciously say and affirm That they meaning the Merchants are in no parts of the world so skrewed and wrung as in England and that in Turky they have more incouragement And whereas by the sentence of that Honorable Court I was adjudged among other punishments justly imposed upon me to make my humble acknowledgment and submission of this great offence at this Honorable Board before I should be delivered out of the Prison of the Fleet whereto I was then committed as by the said Decree and Sentence of that Court among other things it doth and may appear Now I the said Richard Chambers in obedience to the Sentence of the said Honorable Court do humbly confess and acknowledg the speaking of these words aforesaid for the which I was so charged and am heartily sorry for the same and do humbly beseech your Lordships all to be Honorable intercessors for me to his Majesty that he would be graciously pleased to pardon that graet error and fault so committed by me When Mr. Chambers read this draught of submission he thus subscribed the same All the abovesaid Contents and Submission I Richard Chambers do utterly abhor and detest as most unjust and false and never to death will acknowledge any part thereof Rich. Chambers Also he under-writ these Texts of Scripture to the said Submission before he returned it That make a man an offender
the Ambassadors person as some are said to have done yet for using railing speeches against him calling him Divel or words to that purpose it was His Majesties pleasure that that fellow without any further delay on the morrow in the forenoon be publickly and sharply whipt thorow London beginning at Algate and so through the streets along by the place where the affront was offered towards Fleetstreet and so to Temple-Bar without any manner of favor The people were enraged at Gondomar through a perswasion that he abused the King and State to advance the designs of Spain By means of his power with the King he had transported Ordinance and other warlike Provisions to furnish the Spanish Arsenals and it was believed that he underhand wrought the sending of Sir Rob. Mansel into the Mediterranean Sea to fall upon the Pirates of Algier The Merchants of this Kingdom by them much infested being also induced to move for this Expedition wherein the English fleet performed gallantly and advancing within the reach of Cannon and small shot which from the Land showred like Hail upon them fired the Pirates ships within their own Harbor Nevertheless hereby our Strength was diverted our Treasure exhausted and the Spanish fleet and Merchants secured from those Robbers and Spain left at liberty to assist in subduing the Palatinate In the mean while our Kings Affairs in Germany notwithstanding the many Complaints grew more and more desperate In Bohemia the Emperor having well nigh subdued and setled the Country proceeded to the Tryal and Execution of the Authors of the late Commotions some were condemned to perpetual imprisonment and others to death and the Heads of many eminent persons were fixt on the Towers in Prague and their bodies quartered After this the Emperor began both in Austria and Hungaria to imprison divers that assisted the Bohemians and caused Proces to be made against them The Marquess of Iagerndorfe who stirred in the County of Glatsburgh and raised forces by Commission from the Elector Palatine published Letters against the Executions in Bohemia as cruel and barbarous The Emperor put forth an Answer and said That the Marquess published those things maliciously forasmuch as in Bohemia was the Original sedition and the head that infected the members That some few persons Authors of the troubles not in hatred of their Religion but for their Rebellion have been punished by the hand of Justice And he declared further That the like exemplary Justice should not be done in other places but that the Articles of the Peace should be observed By this time the Parliament having sate about four moneths King Iames was desirous to give them a time of vacancie The Lord Treasurer by the Kings command declared unto the Houses That his Majesty by the advice of his Privy Council thought fit to adjourn the Parliament lest the season of the year by the continual concourse of people should cause Infection Also that the Lieutenans and Justices might be in the Country And the Adjournment keeping the Parliament still in being was better then Proroguing That his Majesty had already redressed corruption in Courts of Justice and by his Proclamation called in the Patents of Inns of Osteries and of Gold and Silver-Thread and cherished the Bill against Informers and Monopolies The Commons were troubled at this Message and desired a Conference with the Lords and moved them to petition the King to forbear the Adjournment The King takes notice of it and the Treasurer acquainted the Lords that a Petition of this nature could not be pleasing to his Majesty it seeming to derogate from his Prerogative who alone hath power to call adjourn and determine Parliaments The Commons at a further Conference declared their hearty sorrow and passionate grief at the Kings resolution which they said cut off the performance of what they had consulted and promised for the Publique weal. The Lords sitting in their Robes the King came and made a Speech takes notice of his Message to both Houses and gave their Lordships thanks for obeying the same and acknowledging his power to call adjourn and dissolve Parliaments and for refusing to join with the Commons in the Petition for Non-adjournment And whereas some had given out that no good had been done this Parliament He put them in mind that the two Patents grievous to the Commonwealth were called in and that the Parliament had censured the Offenders for an example to all ages And if they desired it he offered them eight or ten days longer sitting to expedite Bills but said that at the request of the Commons he would not grant it The Lords had a Conference with the Commons after which they moved the King to continue their sitting for fourteen days which was granted and the Commons were satisfied with the resolution of Adjournment A Committee of both Houses afterwards attending the King he told them how ill he took it that the Commons should dispute his reasons of Adjournment all power being in him alone to call adjourn prorogue and dissolve Parliaments And on Iune 4. he declared for an Adjournment till November following And that he will in the mean time of his own authority redress Grievances And his Majesty as General Bishop of the Land did offer his prayers to God for both the Houses and admonished them That when they go into the Country they give his people a good accompt and satisfaction both as to the Proceedings and to the Adjournment of the Parliament The House of Commons immediately before their recess taking to heart the miseries of the Palatinate resolved that the drawing back in so good a Cause should not be charged on their slackness And thereupon drew up this following Declaration with an universal consent THe Commons assembled in Parliament taking into most serious consideration the present state of the Kings Children abroad and the generally afflicted estate of the true Professors of the same Christian Religion professed by the Church of England in Foreign parts And being touched with a true sense and fellow féeling of their distresses as Members of the same Body do with unanimous consent in the name of themselves and the whole body of the Kingdom whom they represent declare unto his most excellent Majesty and to the whole World their hearty grief and sorrow for the same and do not only join with them in their humble and devout prayers unto Almighty God 〈◊〉 protect his true Church and to avert the dangers now threatned but also with one heart and voice do solemnly protest That if His Maiesâ—â—â— pious endeavors by Treaty to procure their peace and safety shall not take that good effect which is desired in Treaty Wherefore they humbly beseech His Majesty not to suffer any longer delay That then upon signification of His Majesties pleasure in Parliament they shall be ready to the utmost of their powers both with their lives and fortunes to assist him so as that by the Divine
of England And that the arduous and urgent affairs concerning the King State and Defence of the Realm and of the Church of England and the maintenance and making of Laws and redress of mischiefs and grievances which daily happen within this Realm are proper subjects and matter of Councel and Debate in Parliament And that in the handling and procéeding of those businesses every Member of the House of Parliament hath and of right ought to have freedom of spéech to propound treat reason and bring to conclusion the same And that the Commons in Parliament have like liberty and fréedom to treat of these matters in such order as in their judgments shall seem fittest And that every Member of the said House hath like freedom from all Impeachment Imprisonment and molestation other then by Censure of the House it self for or concerning any speaking reasoning or declaring of any matter or matters touching the Parliament or Parliament-business And that if any of the said Members be complained of and questioned for any thing done or said in Parliament the same is to be shewed to the King by the advice and assent of all the Commons assembled in Parliament before the King gave credence to any private information But how the King was moved by the Protestation of the House of Commons will appear by this Memorial Whitehall Decemb. 30. 1621. HIs most Excellent Majesty coming this day to the Council the Prince his Highness and all the Lords and others of His Majesties Privy Council sitting about him and all the Iudges then in London which were six in number there attending upon His Majesty the Clerk of the Commons House of Parliament was called for and commanded to produce his Iournal-book wherein was noted and Entries made of most passages that were in the Commons House of Parliament and amongst other things there was written down the form of a Protestation concerning sundry Liberties Priviledges and Franchises of Parliament with which form of Protestation His Majesty was justly offended Nevertheless His Majesty in a most gracious manner there expressed That he never meant to deny that House of Commons any lawful Priviledges that ever they had enjoyed but whatsoever Priviledges or Liberties they had by any Law or Statute the same should be inviolably preserved unto them and whatsoever Priviledges they enjoyed by Custom or uncontrolled and lawful president His Majesty would be careful to preserve But this Protestation of the Commons House so contrived and carried as it was His Majesty thought fit to be razed out of all Memorials and utterly to be annihilated both in respect of the manner by which it was gained and the matter therein contained For the manner of getting it First in respect of the time For after such time as His Majesty out of his Princely grace and to take away all mistakings had directed his Letters to Secretary Calvert dated at Royston 16 Decembris and therein had so explained himself in the point of maintaining the priviledges of the House of Commons as that most of the said House rested fully satisfied and freed from any scruple of having their liberties impeached And after that by His Majesties Letters directed to the Speaker dated 18 December being Tuesday His Majesty at the humble suit of the House of Commons condescended to make this Méeting a Session before Christmas and for that purpose had assigned Saturday following Now upon this very Tuesday and while the Messengers from the House of Commons were with His Majesty at Theobalds to return thanks unto His Majesty and therewith an excuse from them not to make it a Session in respect of the strait of time whereunto they were driven which deferment His Majesty admitted of at their desires and thereupon gave order for the adjournment of the Parliament until the Eight of February next which was the first day formerly appointed by His Majesty for the méeting together of the Parliament And whilst their messengers were with His Majesty and had received a gracious Answer to return unto their House even that afternoon a Committee was procured to be made for taking their Liberties into consideration And this afternoon a Protestation was made to whom appears not concerning their Liberties and at six a clock at night by candle-light the same Protestation was brought into the House by the Committee and at that time of night it was called upon to be put to the Question there not being the third part of the House then present whereas in all matters of weight their usual custom is to put nothing of importance to the Question till the House be full And at this time many of them that were present expected the Question would have been deferred to another day and a fuller House and some then present stood up to have spoken to it but could not be seen nor heard in that darkness and confusion Now for the matter of the Protestation it is penned in such ambiguous and general words as may serve for future Times to invade most of Rights and Prerogatives annexed to the Imperial Crown the claim of some priviledges being grounded upon the words of the Writ for assembling the Parliament wherein some words viz. Arduis Regni are cunningly mentioned but the word quibusdam which restraineth the generality to such particular Cases as His Majesty pleaseth to consult with them upon is purposely omitted These things considered His Majesty did this present day in full assembly of his Council and in the presence of the Iudges declare the said Protestation to be invalid annulled void and of no effect And did further manu sua propria take the said Protestation out of the Iournal-book of the Clerk of the Commons House of Parliament and commanded an Act of Council to be made thereupon and this Act to be entred in the Register of Council-causes On the Sixth of Ianuary the King by Proclamation dissolved the Parliament shewing that the assembling continuing and dissolving of Parliaments doth so peculiarly belong unto him that he needs not give an accompt thereof unto any Yet he thought fit to declare That in this Dissolution he had the advice and uniform consent of his whole Council And that some particular Members of the House of Commons took inordinate liberty not only to treat of his high Prerogatives and sundry things not fitting to be argued in Parliament but also to speak with less respect to Foreign Princes That they spent the time in disputing Priviledges descanting upon the words and syllables of his Letters and Messages And that these Evil-tempered spirits sowed tares among the corn and by their cunning devices have imposed upon him a necessity of discontinuing this present Parliament without putting unto it the name or period of a Session And lastly he declared That though the Parliament be broken off yet he intended to govern well and shall be glad to lay hold on the first occasion to call a Parliament again at convenient time The King was
Potentissimo Principi ac Domino Philippo Quarto c. SErenissime Potentissime P. Frater Consanguinee Amice Charissime Quum aliquot abhinc annis pro affinitate nostra arctiori totiusque orbis Christiani bono deliberatio suscepta fuerit de Matrimonio inter Charissimum silium nostrum Carolum P. Walliae Illustrissimam Infantem Dominam Mariam Serenitatis vestrae sororem natu minorem contrahendo quod superstite adhuc R. Philippo Tertio felicissimae memoriae Patre vestro eo per gradus devectum erat ut ille si non expirasset hoc multo antehac consummatum iri spes esset nunc denuo Serenitatem vestram interpellandam duximus jam tandem ut velit operi bene inchoato fastigium imponere expectato deliberationes praeteritas exitu coronare Matura jam filii aetas filii Unici rerumque temporum ratio conjugem videntur efflagitare nobisque in senectutis limine constitutis felicissimus illuceret dies quo cernere liceret posterorum etiam amicitiam optato hoc affinitatis foedere constrictam Misimus itaque ad Serenitatem vestram Legatum nostrum Extraordinarium Praenobilem virum Iohannem Digbeum Baronem de Sherbone Consiliarâ—um Vice-Camerarium nostrum jam olim de hac affinitate Domus Austriacae honore bene meritum cui una cum Legato nostro Ordinario quicquid reliquum est hujus Negotii tractandum transigendum absolvendumque Commisimus Quicquid illis illic videbitur ratum hic habituri Utinam etiam vestre Serenitatis bonitate levaretur aliquando altera illa nostra de Palatinatu Sollicitudo de â—ilia genero insontibus eorum liberis ex avito jam extorribus Patrimonio Quam vellemus vestiae Potissimum Serenitati beneficium hoc in solidum debere cujus tot modo experti sumus ea in re Amicissima Officia Non nos unquam capiet tantae benevolentiae oblivio Posterisque Haereditarium studebimus relinquere amorem illum quo vestram Serenitatem memoriae optimae Patrem semper sumus amplexi semper amplexuri Unum hoc superest ut si quid aliud in re quacunque proposuerit Legatus hic noster eam ei fidem adhibere ac si nos praesentes essemus dignetur Serenitas vestra Quam Deus Optimus Maximus perpetuo incolumem conservet Serenitatis vestrae Frater Amantissimus Jacobus R. Dat. è Regia nostra Theobald 14 Die Martii An. Dom. 1621. Iames c. To the most Serene and most Potent Prince and Lord Philip the Fourth c. MOst Serene and Potent Prince Kinsman and Wel-beloved Friend Forasmuch as some years ago for our nearer Alliance and the good of the whole Christian World we had resolved to make a Marriage between our Wel-beloved Son Charls Prince of Wales and the most Illustrious Infanta the Lady Mary your Serenities yongest Sister which in the life time of your Father King Philip the Third of most happy memory was so far advanced That if he had not died it had been brought to perfection long ere now We have therefore thought good to Treat now again with your Serenity that at length you would put a period to a work so well begun and crown our by-past Deliberations with an expected issue The age of our Son arived now to maturity and he our onely Son besides the condition of the times and our affairs doth require him to marry And we being at the brink of old age it would rejoyce us to see the day wherein our Posterities Friendship should be bound up in this most desired Bond of Affinity We have therefore sent unto your Serenity our Extraordinary Ambassador the Right Honorable the Lord Digby Baron of Sherborne our Counsellor and Vice-Chamberlain who has formerly deserved well of this Alliance and the honor of the House of Austria unto whom together with our Ordinary Ambassador we have intrusted the remainder of this business to be treated transacted and finished and shall be ready to ratifie and approve here what ever they shall agree upon We wish likewise that your Serenity out of your goodness would ease our other care touching the Palatinate which concerns our Daughter and Son in Law and their innocent Children banished from their Ancestors Inheritance How gladly would we ow this good turn solely to your Serenity who have already done us so many friendly offices in that business No Oblivion shall ever blot out of our minde the acknowledgment of so great a favor and we will endeavor to transmit to our Posterity that Hereditary good will wherewith we have ever affected your Serenity and your Royal Father of most worthy memory and shall ever affect you One thing remains That if this our Ambassador shall propose any other matter touching what business soever your Serenity will be pleased to give him Credence as if we our self were present The most gracious and great God ever preserve your Serenity in safety Your Serenities most Loving Brother J. R. Given at our Pallace of Theobalds 14 March 1621. Prince Charls to the King of Spain MOst Serene and Potent Prince and wel-beloved Kinsman some years ago our most Serene Parents begun to treat about a Match between us and the most Serene our dearly beloved Princess the Lady Mary your Majesties most honored Sister The condition and success of which affair and treaty our most Serene and Honored Lord and Father out of his Fatherly affection towards us was pleased upon all occasions so much the more willingly to impart unto us by how much greater propension and apparent signs of true affection he discovered in us thereunto For which cause the Baron Digby his Majesties Vice-Chamberlain and Extraordinary Ambassador and one of our Privy Chamber being now bound for Spain with most ample Instructions to bring unto an happy issue that which was prosperously begun advanced before your most gracious Father our Uncle of happy memory departed this life We thought it no less becoming us by these our Letters most affectionately to salute your Majesty who if you shall perswade your self that we highly esteem of your affection as we ought to do and that by a most near bond of affinity we desire to have it inlarged and confirmed towards us that very perswasion will not a little adde to the measure of our love It remains that we intreat your Majesty to give full credit to such further Proposals as the Baron Digby shall make in our name In the mean time we will hope for such a success of the principal business as may give us occasion to use a more familiar stile hereafter in our Letters as an argument of a nearer relation which if it shall happen this will also follow That we shall most readily embrace all occasions whereby to evidence unto your Majesty the progress and increase of our affection as well towards your self as your most Serene Sister The most great and good God preserve your Majesty long in safety Your Majesties
the Articles of several High Treasons and other great and enormous Crimes Offences and Contempts supposed to be committed by him against our late Soveraign Lord King James of Blessed Memory deceased and our Soveraign Lord the Kings Majesty that now is wherewith the said Earl is charged by his Majesties Attorney-General on his Majesties behalf in the most High and Honorable Court of Parliament before the King and the Lords there And not acknowledging any the supposed Treasons Crimes Offences and Contempts wherewith he is charged in and by the said Articles to be true and saving to himself all advantages benefit and exception to the Incertainty and Insufficiency of the said Articles and of the several Charges in them contained And humbly praying that his Cause may not suffer for want of Legal form whereunto he hath not been used but may be judged according to such real and effectual Grounds and Proofs as may be accepted from an Ambassador the ground of the Charge growing thence and that he may have leave to explain himself and his own meaning in any thing that may seem of a doubtful Construction For Answer saith as followeth I. THe First Article he denieth and because the Matters contained in the said Article consist of several parts viz. The loss of the said Palatinate and the Match with the said Lady of Spain and of the several Employments as of one Extraordinary Ambassage to the Emperor and another to the King of Spain in the years 1621.22 and 23. He humbly craves leave of this most Honorable Court to separate the businesses and distinguish the times And beginning with the Palatinate first to give an account of his Ambassage to the Emperor and so to make as brief a Deduction as he could of the whole carriage in that business from the beginning of his employment to the time he left it in his Ambassage to the Emperor he propounded all things faithfully according to his Instructions and the Answers which he returned to his late Majesty of Blessed Memory were the very same and no other then such as were given by the Emperor under his Hand and Imperial Seal the which according to his duty he faithfully sent unto his said Majesty and withal did honestly and truly advertise his said Majesty what he understood and thought then upon the place but was so far from giving to his Majesty any ill-grounded hopes in that behalf that he wrote unto the Lords of the Council here in England from Vienna 26 Iuly 1624. in such sort as followeth I Am further to move your Lordships That there may be a Dispatch made presently into Spain to his Majesties Ambassador and Mr. Cottington that they deal effectually for the repairing and ripening of the business against my coming that they use some plain and direct Language letting the Ministers there know That the late Letter sent by the King of Spain to the Emperor was colder and more reserved then his Master had reason to expect I shall conclude with telling your Lordships That although I dispair not of good success in that knotty business yet I hope his Majesty and your Lordships lay not aside the care of all fitting preparations for a War in case a Peace cannot be honorably had And amongst other things I most earnestly commend unto your Lordships by your Lordships unto his Majesty the continuing yet abroad for some small time of Sir Robert Mansels Fleet upon the Coasts of Spain which in case his Majesty should be ill used will prove the best Argument we can use for the Restitution of the Palatinate And this his Advice he saith was wholly intended by his Actions by being the cause as he returned homeward out of Germany to bring down Count Mansfield whereby the Town of Frankendale was relieved by supplying of his Majesties Army then in great distress with Moneys and Plate to the value of 10000 l. meerly out of his zeal and affection to the good of the King and his Children having no Warrant or Order but that his heart was ever really bent in effects more then in shews to serve the Kings Son-in-law and his cause as by the discourse of this business will appear And how acceptable these Services were will more appear by the Letters of the Queen of Bohemia in these words following My Lord HAving understood from Heidelburgh how you have shewed your affection to the King and me in all things and in the help of Money you have lent our Soldiers I cannot let so great Obligation pass without giving many thanks for it by these lines since I have no other means to shew my gratefulness unto you Howsoever assure your self that I will never be forgetful of the Testimonies you give me of your love which I intreat you to continue in doing the King and me all good Offices you can to his Majesty You have been an eye-witness of the miserable estate our Countreys are in I intreat you therefore to solicite his Majesty for our help you having given me an assurance of your affection I intreat you now to shew it in helping of us by your good endeavors to his Majesty and you shall ever binde me to continue as I am already Your very affectionate Friend ELIZABETH Which Letters were seconded with others about the same time both from the King of Bohemia and Council of Heidelburgh to the same effect And how much satisfaction his late Majesty received in that behalf and touching that business will plainly appear several ways and particularly by his Speech in Parliament And the said Earl likewise appealeth to both Houses of Parliament to whom by his late Majesties Order he gave a just and true accompt of that employment with what true zeal he proceeded and how he pressed that single Treaty and Promises no longer be relied on but that a fitting preparation for War might go along hand in hand with any Treaty of Accommodation And for a conclusion among many of his late Majesties approbations of his carriage in this employment he humbly desireth that a Letter of the Duke of Buckinghams under his own hand bearing date the Eleventh of October 1621. may be produced being as followeth My Lord I Am exceeding glad that your Lordship hath carried your self so well in this employment that his Majesty is infinitely pleased for your Service you have done for which he commanded me to give your Lordship thanks in his Name until he see you himself You of all men have cause to commend his Majesties choice of such a man that unless your heart had gone with the business you could never have brought it to so good a pass Amongst other things his Majesty liketh very well the care of clearing his Honor whereof he will advise further with your Lordship at your next coming over I hope you will not finde your Negotiation with the Infanta of such difficulty as you seem to fear in your Letter seeing my Brother Edward hath brought with him a Letter
from his Majesties Son in Law whereby he putteth himself solely to his Majesties advice and pleasure for his Submission as you will perceive by the Copy of the Letter it self which I here send your Lordship wherein though there be many things impertinent yet of that point you may make good use for the accomplishment of the business wherein I have written to the Spanish Ambassador to use his Means and Credit likewise which I assure my self he will effectually do especially seeing the impediments are taken away by Count Mansfields Composition and the Conformity of his Majesties Son in Law to this Submission For the Money your Lordship hath so seasonably laid forth his Majesty will see you shall sustain no loss holding it very unconscionable you should suffer by the care of his Service which you have shewed so much to his contentment to the great joy of your Lordships faithful Servant Geo. Buckingham Having given this Accompt of his employment with the Emperor he humbly craveth leave to make it known in what sort before this his employment he endeavored to serve the Prince Palatine and his Cause which will best appear by his Majesties own Testimony upon the going of Sir Francis Nethersole to the Prince Palatine at which time his Majesty being out of his Royal and just heart desirous to do a faithful Servant right commanded Sir Francis Nethersole to let the Prince Palatine understand how good a Servant the said Earl had been unto him and how Active in his Affairs as will best appear by a Dispatch of Sir Francis Nethersole written all with his own hand to Sir George Calvert dated in Prague August 11. 1620 and sent by his late Majesty to the said Earl for his comfort being as followeth Right Honorable THat you may be the better assured that I have neither forgotten nor neglected the Commandments received from his Majesty by your Honor you will be pleased to have the patience to hear me report what I said to this King upon the delivery of my Lord Deputies Letters to his Majesty which was That the King my Master whose Iustice is so renowned over the World did use to shew it in nothing more then in vindicating his Servants from wrongfull Opinions whereof he knew noble hearts more sensible then of Injuries done to their Persons or Fortunes That out of his Royal Disposition his Majesty having found my Lord Digby mistaken by some of his own people at home by occasion of his being by him employed in the Affairs with Spain having thereupon conceived a jealousie that the same noble Lord might be also misreported hitherto his Majesties hands in that respect gave me a particular commandment to assure his Majesty he had not a more truly affectionate Servant in England And for proof thereof to let his Majesty understand That whereas the Baron of Doncaster now his Majesties Ambassador for England had since his coming hither obtained but three great Boons for his Majesties service viz. The Loan of Money from the King of Denmark the Contribution in England of the City and Countries and the sending Ambassadors to the contrary parties that my Lord Digby had been the first propounder of all those to the King my Master before his Majesties Ambassador or any other of his servants in England although his Lordship were contented that others who were but set on should carry away the thanks and prayers because his Lordship being known to be the first mover therein might possibly weaken the credit he hath in Spain and to render himself the more valuable to serve both his own Master and his Majesty in which respect I humbly prayed his Majesty to keep this to himself By which testimony it may appear as the said Earl conceiveth how he the said Earl bestowed himself before his Ambassage and in his said Ambassage with his said late Majesties approbation thereof Now he humbly craveth leave to give your Lordships accompt how he proceeded after his return from the Emperors Court Assoon as he came into England he discovered unto his Majesty and the Lords of the Councel in what great wants he had left the Forces in the Palatinate and sollicited the present sending away of money thereupon Thirty thousand pound was borrowed of Sir Peter Vanlore Sir Baptist Hicks and Sir William Cortine and presently sent unto the Palatinate besides the Ten thousand pounds which he lent for which he paid the interest out of his Purse for six moneths having also given not long before Five hundred pounds by way of benevolence to the service of the said Palatinate Now in the interim betwixt his return from the English Coasts which was in November 1621 and his going into Spain in May 1622 he first gave his Accompt as aforesaid of his Ambassage to both Houses of Parliament and moved them as effectually as was possible for the supplying of his Majesty and that the money might wholly be imployed for the Succor of the Palatinate The Parliament being dissolved he sollicited with great care and industry the setling of some Course for the supplying of the Palatinate and his Majesty was perswaded to maintain Eight thousand Foot and Sixteen hundred Horse under his own Standard and at his own purse in the Palatinate to establish a certain course for due payment of the said Army The Lord Chichester was upon the said Earls motion sent for out of Ireland and the said Earl by his Majesties command took order for his Dispatch In this estate the said Earl left his Affairs at his departure towards Spain in May 1622 nothing doubting but that all things would have effectually constantly been pursued according to the order which was setled and resolved on at his departure At his arrival at the Court of Spain he presently proceeded according to his Instructions pressing the business of the Palatinate as effectually as he could and faithfully labored and effected from time to time as far as to the point of Negotiation all particulars that were given him in charge as it will appear by his late Majesties Letters upon every particular occasion and if by the accidents of War for that Summer the Marquess of Baden the Count Mansfield and the Duke of Brunswick received each of them an overthrow the ordering of whose Affairs his Majesty so far complained of to his Son-in-law as to give order for the withdrawing of his Forces as will appear by his Majesties Letters on the third of Iune 1622 and also by his Letters unto Sir Horace Vere and the Lord of Chichester of the same date if there were not a speedy redress if by any of those accidents those businesses have miscarried the said Earl hopes he shall not be liable to the blame it having no relation to him or to his imployment having so far and so honestly with his best affections imployed his care and utmost services in the businesses as his Majesty was pleased by many several Letters upon several Actions to signifie
Wales and for the Office of General-Governor of the Seas and Ships of the said Kingdoms and for the Surrender of the said Offices then made to the said King by the said Earl of Nottingham being then Great Admiral of the said Kingdoms and Principality and General-Governor of the Seas and Ships to the intent the said Duke might obtain the said Offices to his own use the sum of Three thousand pounds of lawful Money of England and did also about the same time procure from the said King a further Reward for the Surrender of the said Office to the said Earl of an Annuity of One thousand pounds by the year for and during the life of the said Earl and by the procurement of the said Duke the said late King of Famous memory did by his Letters Patents dated the Seven and twentieth of Ianuary in the said year of his Reign under the Great Seal of England grant to the said Earl the said Annuity which he the said Earl accordingly had and enjoyed during his life and by reason of the said sum of Money so as aforesaid paid by the said Duke And of his the said Dukes procurement of the said Annuity the said Earl of Nottingham did in the same Moneth surrender unto the said late King his said Offices and his Patents of them and thereupon and by reason of the premisses the said Offices were obtained by the Duke for his life from the said King of Famous Memory by Letters Patents made to the said Duke of the same Offices under the Great Seal of England dated the Eight and twentieth day of Ianuary in the said Sixteenth year of the said late King And the said Offices of Great Admiral and Governor as aforesaid are Offices that highly touch and concern the Administration and Execution of Justice within the provision of the said Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom which notwithstanding the said Duke hath unlawfully ever since the first unlawful obtaining of the said Grant of the said Offices retained them in his hands and exercised them against the Laws and Statutes aforesaid III. The said Duke did likewise in or about the beginning of the Moneth of December in the Two and twentieth year of the said late King Iames of Famous memory give and pay unto the Right Honorable Edward late Lord Zouch Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and of the Members thereof and Constable of the Castle of Dover for the said Offices and for the Surrender of the said Offices of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of the said Castle of Dover to be made to the said late King of Famous memory the sum of One thousand pounds of lawful Money of England and then also granted an Annuity of Five hundred pounds yearly to the said Lord Zouch for the life of the said Lord Zouch to the intent that he the said Duke might thereby obtain the said Offices to his own use And for and by reason of the said sum of Money so paid by the said Duke and of the said Annuity so granted to the said Edward Lord Zouch he the said Lord Zouch the Fourth day of December in the year aforesaid did surrender his said Offices and his Letters Patents of them to the said late King And thereupon and by reason of the premisses he the said Duke obtained the said Offices for his life from the said late King by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England dated the Sixth day of December in the said Two and twentieth year And the said Office of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and of the Members thereof is an Office that doth highly touch and concern Administration and Execution of justice and the said Office of Constable of the Castle of Dover is an Office that highly concerneth the keeping and defence of the Town and Port and of the said Castle of Dover which is and hath ever been appointed for a most eminent place of strength and defence of this Kingdom which notwithstanding the said Duke hath unlawfully ever since this first unlawful obtaining of the said Office retained them in his hands and exercised them against the Laws and Statutes aforesaid These Three Articles were discoursed upon by Mr. Herbert and touching Plurality of Offices he observed That in that vast power of the Duke a young unexperienced man there is an unfortunate complication of Danger and Mischeif to the State as having too much ability if he be false to do harm and ruine the Kingdom and if he be faithful and never so industrious yet divided amongst so many great places whereof every one would employ the industry of an able and provident man there must needs be in him an insufficiency of performance or rather an impossibility especially considering his necessary attendance likewise upon his Court places To the Second and Third namely The buying the Office of Admiralty and Cinque-Ports both which he comprised in one he said That to set a price upon the Walls and Gates of the Kingdom is a Crime which requires rather a speedy remedy than an aggravation and is against the express Law of 5 Edw. 6. upon this foundation That the buying of such places doth necessarily introduce corrupt and insufficient Officers And in the Parliament of 12 Edw. 4. it is declared by the whole Assembly That they who buy those places these are the express words binde themselves to be Extortioners and Offenders as if they pretended it warrantable or as if they did lay an Obligation upon themselves to sell again And though the buying of such places be not against any particular Law enjoyning a penalty for them the breach whereof is a particular Offence yet as far as they subvert the good and welfare and safety of the people so far they are against the highest Law and assume the nature of the highest Offences IV. Whereas the said Duke by reason of his said Offices of Great Admiral of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and of the Principality of Wales and of Admiral of the Cinque Ports and General Governor of the Seas and Ships of the said Kingdoms and by reason of the trust thereunto belonging ought at all times since the said Offices obtained to have safely guarded kept and preserved the said Seas and the Dominion of them and ought also whensoever there wanted either Men Ships Munition or other strength whatsoever that might conduce to the better safeguard of them to have used from time to time his utmost endeavor for the supply of such wants to the Right Honorable the Lords and others of the Privy Council and by procuring such supply from his Soveraign or otherwise He the said Duke hath ever since the dissolution of the two Treaties mentioned in the Act of Subsidies of the One and twentieth year of the late King Iames of Famous memory that is to say the space of Two years last past neglected the just performance of his said Office and Duty
the Ship to be out of their Jurisdiction if the Warrant come from the Lord Admiral they will pretend it to be within the Jurisdiction of the Cinque Ports And so whilst the Officers dispute the opportunity of the service is lost 7. When the Kings Ships lie near the Ports and the men come on shore the Officers refuse to assist the Captains to reduce them to the Ships without the Lord Wardens Warrant 8. If the Kings Ships on the sudden have any need of Pilots for the Sands Coasts of Flanders or the like wherein the Portsmen are best experienced they will not serve without the Lord Wardens or his Lieutenants Warrant who perhaps are not near the place 9. When for great occasions for the service of the State the Lord Admiral and Lord Warden must both joyn their Authority if the Officers for want of true understanding of their several Limits and Jurisdictions mistake their Warrants the service which many times can endure no delay is lost or not so effectually performed For these and many other Reasons of the like kinde the Duke not being led either with ambition or hope of profit as hath been objected for it could be no encrease of Honor to him having been honored before with a greater place nor of profit for it hath not yielded him in any matter any profit at all nor is like to yield him above Three hundred pounds per annum at any time but out of his desire to make himself the more able to do the King and Kingdom service and prevent all differences and difficulties which heretofore had or hereafter might hinder the same He did entertain that motion and doth confess that not knowing or so much as thinking of the said Act of Parliament before mentioned he did agree to give the said Lord One thousand pounds in money and Five hundred pounds per annum in respect of his Surrender he not being willing to leave his place without such consideration nor the Duke willing to have it without his full satisfaction and the occasion why the Duke of Buckingham gave that consideration to the Lord Zouch was because the Duke of Richmond in his life time had first agreed to give the same consideration for it and if he had lived he had had that place upon the same terms And when the said Duke of Richmond was dead his late Majesty directed the Duke of Buckingham to go thorow for that place and for the Reasons before-mentioned to put both these Offices together and to give the same consideration to the said Lord which the Duke of Richmond should have given and his late Majesty said he would repay the money And how far this act of his in acquiring this Office accompanied with these Circumstances may be within the danger of the Law the King being privy to all the passages of it and encouraging and directing it he humbly submitteth to your judgement and he humbly leaves it to your Lordships judgments in what third way an antient servant to the Crown by age or infirmity disabled to perform his service can in an honorable course relinquish his place for if the King himself give the Reward it may be said it is a charge to the Crown if the succeeding Officer give the Recompence it may thus be objected to be within the danger of the Law And howsoever it be yet he hopeth it shall not be held in him a crime when his intentions were just and honorable and for the furtherance of the Kings service neither is it without president that in former times of great employment both these Offices were put into one hand by several Grants To this Article whereby the not guarding of the Narrow Seas in these last two years by the Duke according to the trust and duty of an Admiral is laid to his charge whereof the consequence supposed to have been meerly through his default are the ignominious infesting of the Coasts with Pirats and Enemies the endangering of the Dominion of these Seas the extream loss of the Merchants and the decay of the Trade and Strength of the Kingdom The Duke maketh this Answer That he doubteth not but he shall make it appear to the good satisfaction of your Lordships that albeit there hath hapned much loss to the Kings Subjects within the said time of two years by Pirats and Enemies yet that hath not hapned by the neglect of the Duke or want of care and diligence in his place For whereas in former times the ordinary Guard allowed for the Narrow Seas hath been but four Ships the Duke hath since Hostility begun and before procured their number to be much increased for since Iune 1624. there hath never been fewer then Five of the Kings Ships and ordinarily Six besides Pinnaces Merchants Ships and Drumblers and since open hostility Eight of the Kings Ships besides Merchants of greater number and Pinnaces and Drumblers and all these well furnished and manned sufficiently instructed and authorised for the service He saith he hath from time to time upon all occasions acquainted his Majesty and the Council-Bord therewith and craved their advice and used the assistance of the Commissioners for the Navy in this service and for the Dunkirkers who have of late more infested these Coasts then in former years he saith There was that Providence used for the repressing of them that his Majesties Ships and the Hollanders joyning together the Port of Dunkirk was blocked up and so should have continued had not a sudden storm dispersed them which being the immediate hand of God could not by any pollicy of man be prevented at which time they took the opportunity to Rove abroad but it hath been so far from endangering the Dominion of the Narrow Seas thereby as is suggested That his Majesties Ships or Men of War were never yet mastered nor encountred by them nor will they endure the sight of any of our Ships and when the Duke himself was in person the Dunkirkers run into their Harbors But here is a necessity that according to the fortune of Wars interchangeable losses will happen yet hitherto notwithstanding their more then wonted insolency the loss of the Enemies part hath been as much if not more then what hath hapned to us and that loss that hath faln hath cheifly come by this means that the Dunkirkers Ships being of late years exercised in continual hostility with the Hollanders are built of a Mold as fit for flight as for fight and so they pilfer upon our Coasts and creep to the shore and escape from the Kings Ships But to prevent that inconvenience for the time to come there is already order taken for the building some Ships which shall be of the like Mold light and quick of sail to meet with the adverse party in their own way And for the Pirates of Sallie and those parts he saith it is but very lately that they found the way into our Coasts where by surprise they might easily do
special Charge and Direction so soon as the said Fleet or the greatest thereof shall be reassembled and joyned together then presently with the first opportunity of wind taking into his Charge also the Ships stayed and prepared at Portsmouth and Plimouth together with such fire Ships and other Vessels as shall be provided for this expedition to return to Rotchel with all possible diligence and do his best endevor to relieve the same Letting his Lordship know that order is taken for the victualling of the Fleet by Petty warrant so long as it remaineth in Harbor for the sparing and lengthening of the Sea victuals And if it so fall out that the Earl of Denbigh do set forward on his voyage towards Rotchel before the whole Fleet shall be joyned with him we pray your Grace to give him such Direction that he may leave order that the Ships which are behind shall follow him with all speed Monday 2 Iune The King came to the Parliament and spake thus in brief to both Houses Gentlemen I Am come hither to perform my duty I think no man can think it long since I have not taken so many days in answering the Petition as ye spent weeks in framing it And I am come hither to shew you that as well in formal things as in essential I desire to give you as much content as in me lies After this the Lord Keeper spake as followeth MY Lords and ye the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons his Majesty hath commanded me to say unto you That he takes it in good part that in consideration of setling your own Liberties ye have generally professed in both Houses that ye have no intention for to lessen or diminish his Majesties Prerogative wherein as ye have cleared your own intentions so now his Majesty comes to clear his and to subscribe a firm League with his People which is ever likely to be most constant and perpetual when the Conditions are equal and known to be so These cannot be in a more happy estate then when your Liberties shall be an ornament and a strength to his Majesties Prerogative and his Prerogative a defence of your Liberties in which his Majesty doubts not but both he and you shall take a mutual comfort hereafter and for his part he is resolved to give an example in the using of his power for the preservation of your Liberties that hereafter ye shall have no cause to complain This is the sum of that which I am to say to you from his Majesty And that which further remains is That you hear read your own Petition and his Majesties gracious Answer The Petition Exhibited to his Majesty by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in this present Parliament assembled concerning divers Rights and Liberties of the Subjects with the Kings Majesties Royal Answer thereunto in full Parliament To the Kings most Excellent Majesty HUmbly shew unto our Soveraign Lord the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled That whereas it is Declared and Enacted by a Statute made in the time of the Reign of King Edward the first commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo That no Tallage or aide shall be laid or levied by the King or his Heirs in this Realm without the good will and assent of the Archbishops Bishops Earls Barons Knights Burgesses and other the Freemen of the Commonalty of this Realm And by Authority of Parliament holden in the five and twentieth year of the Reign of King Edward the third it is Declared and Enacted That from thenceforth no person should be compelled to make any Loans to the King against his will because such Loans were against Reason and the Franchise of the Land and by other Laws of this Realm it is provided That none should be charged by any Charge or Imposition called a Benevolence nor by such like Charge by which the Statutes before mentioned and other the good Laws and Statutes of this Realm your Subjects have inherited this Freedom That they should not be compelled to contribute to any Tax Tallage Aid or other like Charge not set by common censent in Parliament Yet nevertheless of late divers Commssions directed to sundry Commissioners in several Counties with instructions have issued by means whereof your People have been in divers places assembled and required to lend certain sums of Money unto your Majesty and many of them upon their refusal so to do have had an Oath administred unto them not warrantable by the Laws or Statutes of this Realm and have been constrained to become bound to make appearance and give attendance before your Privy Councel and in other places and others of them have been therefore Imprisoned Consined and sundry other ways molested and disquieted And divers other charges have been layed and levied upon your People in several Counties by Lords Lieutenants Deputy Lieutenants Commissioners for Musters Iustices of Peace and others by command or direction from your Majesty or your Privy Councel against the Laws and free Customs of the Realm And where also by the Statute called The great Charter of the Liberties of England It is declared and enacted That no Freeman may be taken or imprisoned or be disseised of his Freeholds or Liberties or his free Customs or be Outlawed or Exiled or in any manner destroyed but by the lawful Iudgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land And in the eight and twentieth year of the reign of King Edward the third it was declared and enacted by Authority of Parliament That no man of what Estate or condition that he be should be put out of his Land or Tenements nor taken nor imprisoned nor disherited nor put to death without being brought to answer by due process of Law Nevertheless against the tenor of the said Statutes and other the good Laws Statutes of your Realm to that end provided divers of your Subjects have of late been imprisoned without any cause shewed and when for their deliverance they were brought before your Iustices by your Majesties Writs of Habeas Corpus there to undergo and receive as the Court should order and their Keepers commanded to certifie the Causes of their detainer no cause was certified but that they were detained by your Majesties special Command signified by the Lords of your Privy Councel and yet were returned back to several Prisons without being charged with any thing to which they might make answer according to the Law And whereas of late great companies of Soldiers and Mariners have been dispersed into divers Counties of the Realm and the Inhabitants against their wills have been compelled to receive them into their houses and there to suffer them to sojourn against the Laws and Customs of this Realm and to the great grievance and vexation of the people And whereas also by Authority of Parliament in the 25 year of the reign of King Edward the third
bring in Popery and the professors of those opinions the common disturbers of the Protestant Churches and incendiaries in those States wherein they have gotten any head being Protestants in shew but Iesuites in opinion which caused your Royal Father with so much pious wisdom and ardent zeale to endeavour the suppressing of them as well at home as in the neighbour Countreys And your gracious Majesty imitating his most worthy example hath openly and by your Proclamation declared your mislike of those persons and of their opinions who notwithstanding are much favoured and advanced not wanting friends even of the Clergy near to your Majesty namely Doctor Neale Bishop of Winchester and Doctor Lawd Bishop of Bath and Wells who are justly suspected to be unsound in their opinions that way And it being now generally held the way to preferment and promotion in the Church many Schollars do bend the course of their Studies to maintain those Errors Their Books and opinions are suffered to be printed and published and â—n the other side the imprinting of such as are written against them and in defence of the Orthodox Church are hindred and prohibited and which is a boldnesse almost incredible this restraint of Orthodox Books is made under colour of your Majesties formerly mentioned Proclamation the intent and meaning wherof we know was quite contrary And further to encrease our feares concerning Innovation of Religion we finde that there hath been no smal laboring to remove that which is the most powerful means to strengthen and encrease our own Relgion and to oppose both those which is the diligent teaching and instruction of the people in the true knowledge and worship of Almighty God And therefore means have been sought out to depresse and discountenance pious and painful and Orthodox Preachers and how conformable soever and peaceable in their disposition and carriage they be yet the preferment of such is opposed and instead of being encouraged they are molested with vexatious courses and pursuits and hardly permitted to Lecture And in those places where are no constant preaching Ministers whereby many of your good people whose souls in this case we beseech your Majesty to commiserate are kept in ignorance and are apt to be easily seduced to error and superstition It doth not a little also encrease our dangers and fears this way to understand the miserable condition of your Kingdome of Ireland where without controll the Popish Religion is openly confessed and practised in every part thereof Popish Iurisdiction being there generally exercised and avowed Monasteries Nunneries and other superstitious Houses newly erected re-edified and replenished with men and women of several Orders and in a plentiful manner maintained at Dublyn and most of the great Towns and divers other places of the Kingdome which of what ill consequence it may prove if not seasonably repressed we leave to your Majesties wisdome to Iudge But most humbly beseech you as we assure our selves you will to lay the serious consideration thereof to your royal and pious heart and that some speedy course may be taken for redresse therein And if now to all these your Majesty will be pleased to adde the consideration of the circumstances of time wherein these courses tending to the destruction of true Religion within these your Kingdomes have been taken here even then when the same is with open force and violence prosecuted in other Countreys and all the reformed Churches in Christendome either depressed or miserably distressed We do humbly appeal unto your Majesties Princely Iudgement whether there be not just ground of feare that there is some secret and strong co-operating here with the enemies of our Religion abroad for the utter extirpation thereof and whether if those courses be not speedily redressed and the profession of true Religion more encouraged we can expect any other but misery and ruine speedily to fall upon us especially if besides the visible and apparent dangers wherewith we are compassed about You would be pleased to remember the displeasure of Almighty God always bent against the neglect of his holy Religion the stroaks of whose divine Iustice we have already felt and do still feele with smart and sorrow in great measure And besides this feare of Innovation in Religion we do in like faithful of charge of our duties most humbly declare to your Majesty that the hearts of your people are full of feare of Innovation and change of Government and accordingly possessed with extreame griefe and sorrow Yet in this point by your Majesties late Answer to our Petition of Right touching our Liberties much comforted and raised againe out of that sadnesse and discontent which they generally had conceived throughout the whole Kingdome for the undue courses which were the last year taken for raising of moneys by loanes then which whatever your Majesty hath been informed to the contrary there were never any moneys demanded nor paid with greater grief and general dislike of all your faithful Subjects though many partly out of feare and partly out of other respects yet most unwillingly were drawn to yeeld to what was required The Billeting of Souldiers did much augment both their fears and grief wherein likewise they finde much comfort upon your gracious Answer to our petition of Right and to that we presented to your Majesty concerning this particular Yet we most humbly beseech your Majesty that we may informe you that the still continuance and late re-enforcing of those Souldiers the conditions of their persons many of them not being Natives of this Kingdome nor of the same but of an opposite Religion the placing of them upon the Sea Coast where making head amongst themselves they may unite with the Popish party at home if occasion serve and joyne with an invading enemy to do extreame mischief and that they are not yet dismissed doth still minister cause of Iealousie in your loving Subjects For that the Souldiers cannot be continued without exceeding great danger of the peace and safety of your Kingdom The report of the strange and dangerous purpose of bringing in German Horse and Riders would have turned our doubts into despaire and our feares into a certainty of confusion had not your Majesties gracious message for which we humbly give you thanks comforted us by the assurance of your Royal word that they neither are nor were intended by your Majesty for any service in England but that they were designed for some other forreigne employment Yet the sight of the Privy Seale by which it seemeth they were to be leavied the great summe of money which upon examinations we found to be paid for that purpose gave us just cause of feare That much about the same time there was a Commission under the Great Seal granted unto the Lords and others of the Privy Councel to consider of other ways for raising of moneys so particularly by impositions gave as just cause to suspect that whatsoever was your Majesties gracious intention yet there wanted not those
per Annum by raising a certain value upon their Lands and some other impositions which requiring a long Discourse by it self I will omit it here setting it down in my Instructions it will save your Majesty at least One hundred thousand pounds per Annum to make it pain of death and confiscation of goods and lands for any of the Officers to cousen You which now is much to be feared they do or else they could not be so rich and herein to allow a fourth part benefit to them that shall find out the cousenage Here is not meant Officers of State as the Lord Treasurer c. being Officers of the Crown The summe of all this account amounteth unto two Millions or Twenty hundred thousand pounds per Annum Suppose it be but one Million and a Half as assuredly your Majesty may make by these courses set down yet it is much more then I promised in my Letter for your Majesties service Besides some sums of mony in present by the courses following Imprimis By the Prince's Marriage to make all the Earls in England Grandees of Spain and Principi with such like priviledges and to pay twenty thousand pounds apiece for it 2. As also if you make them Foeditaries of the Towns belonging to their Earldoms if they will pay for it besides as they do to the King of Spain in the Kingdom of Naples And so likewise Barons to be made Earls and Peers to pay ninteen thousand pounds a piece I think might yield five hundred thousand pounds and oblige them more sure to his Majesty 3. To make choice of two hundred of the richest men of England in estate that be not Noble-men and make them Titulate as is used in Naples and paying for it that is a Duke thirty thousand pounds a Marquis fifteen thousand pounds an Earl ten thousand pounds and a Baron or Viscount five thousand pounds It is to be understood that the antient Nobility of Barons made Earls are to precede these as Peers though these be made Marquesses or Dukes this may raise a Million of pounds and more unto your Majesty To make Gentlemen of low quality and Francklines and rich Farmers Esquires to precede them would yield your Majesty also a great sum of mony in present I know another course to yield your Majesty at least three hundred thousand pounds in mony which as yet the time serveth not to discover untill your Majesty be resolved to proceed in some of the former courses which till then I omit Other courses also that may make present mony I shall study for your Majestie 's service and as I find them out acquaint you withall Lastly to conclude all these discourses by the application of this course used for your profit That it is not onely the means to make you the richest King that ever England had but also the safety augmented thereby to be most secure besides what shewed in the first part of this Discourse I mean by the occasion of this Taxation and raising of monies your Majesty shall have cause and means to imploy in all places of the Land so many Officers and Ministers to be obliged to you for their own good and interest as nothing can be attempted against your Person or Royall State over land but some of them shall in all probability have means to find it out and hinder it Besides this course will detect many disorders and abuses in the publick Government which were hard to be discovered by men indifferent To prohibite gorgeous and costly apparell to be worn but by persons of good quality shall save the Gentry of the Kingdom much more mony then they shall be taxed to pay unto your Majesty Thus withall I take my leave and kiss your gratious hands desiring pardon for my error I may commit herein Pasc. 5. Caroli Regis B. R. The Reports of the following Arguments were taken by Mr. Widdrington of Gray's-Inn UPon the Habeas Corpus out of this Court to bring here the body of one William Stroud Esq with the cause of his imprisonment to the Marshall of the Kings Bench it was returned in this manner That William Stroud Esq was committed under my custody by vertue of a certain Warrant under the hands of twelve Lords of the Privy Councill of the Lord the King the tenour of which Warrant followeth in these words You are to take knowledge that it is his Majesties expresse pleasure and commandment that you take into your custody the body of William Stroud Esq and keep him close-prisoner untill you shall receive other order either from his Majesty or this Board for so doing this shall be your Warrant Dated the 2 d of April 1629. And the Direction thereof was To the Marshall of the King's Bench or his Deputy He is likewise held in prison by vertue of a certain Warrant under the hand of the King himself the tenour of which Warrant followeth in these words Carolus Rex Whereas you have in your custody the body of William Stroud Esq committed by the Lords of Our Privy Councill by Our speciall command you are to take notice that his commitment was for notable contempts by him committed against Our Self and Our Government and for stirring up of Sedition against Us For which you are to detain him in your custody and keep him close-prisoner untill Our pleasure be further known concerning his deliverance Given at Greenwich the 7 th of May 1629. in the 5 th year of Our Reigne And the direction was To Our Marshall for Our Bench for the time being And these are the causes of the taking and detaining of the foresaid William Stroud c. And upon another Habeas Corpus to the Marshall of the Houshold to have the body of Walter Long Esq he made the same Return as above Ask of the Inner Temple of Counsell with Mr. Stroud moved That the Return was insufficient The Return consists upon two Warrants bearing severall Dates which are the causes of the taking and detaining of the Prisoner For the first Warrant which is of the Lords of the Councill that is insufficient because no cause is shewn of his commitment which is expresly against the resolution of the Parliament and their Petition of Right in the time of this King which now is to which he had likewise given his assent so his taking by vertue of the said Warrant is wrongfull And for the second Warrant it is insufficient also and that notwithstanding that it be the Kings own for the King himself cannot imprison any man as our Books are to wit 16 H. 6. F. Monstrance de faits 1 H. 7.4 Hussey reports it to be the opinion of Markham in the time of Edw. 4. and Forrescue in his Book de laudibus Legum Angliae cap. 18. And the reason given is because no action of false imprisonment lies against the King if the Imprisonment be wrongfull and the King cannot be a wrong doer The Statute
see his Children dispossessed of their Hereditary Rights and hopes his Son in Law will make Overtures of Peace which if slighted by the Emperor he will not lose the season to prepare for the defence of the Palatinate But if his Son will not hearken to his advice he shall be inforced to leave him to his proper Counsels Notwithstanding this open wary and tender proceeding with all care and patience to observe the Spanish humors our State Ministers that were most addicted to Spain discerned their trifling with us which they did not spare to censure and resolved to use a freer Language yet still discovered a willingness to wait their further leisure for the English Patience seemed invincible In the mean time the Privy Council having an eye to the support of the Palatinate began the raising of Moneys by way of free gift and directed Letters of the tenor following to divers Earls Viscounts Bishops and Barons the same Letter being sent to each respectively YOu may formerly have heard how the Palatinate being the ancient Heritage of the Count Palatine his Majesties Son in Law and to discend to his Majesties Grand-children is now invaded by a Foreign Enemy many principal Towns are surprised a great part of the Countrey in the possession of strangers and the inhabitants forced to take an Oath against their Natural Prince Whereupon his Majesty out of considerations of Nature Honor and State hath declared himself in the course of an Auxiliary War for the defence and recovery of the same the occasion being so weighty and pressing hath moved his Majesty by the general advice of us his Council to think of some course for provision of that nature as may serve as well to the maintenance and preserving of the present succors already sent as for the reinforcing them out of those Countries as the occasion of the War shall require And for that the swiftness of the occasion would not permit a supply by other means for the present so readily as was needful we have all concurred to begin with our selves in offer of a voluntary gift unto his Majesty for the advancement of the present occasion nothing doubting but that your Lordship being a Peer of the Kingdom will chearfully and readily follow the example of us begun And if there were much alacrity and readiness found in the Nobility and others to contribute at the motion of his Majesties Sons Ambassador at what time the Palatinate was not invaded neither had his Majesty declared himself you will much more and in a better proportion do it now these two weighty Motives do concur and so nothing doubting of your Lordships readiness herein we bid c. To the Marquess of Winchester To the Earl of Cumberland To the Earl of Darby To the Earl of Northumberland c. Also a Letter of the same form was written to the Lord Major of London But the short Reign of King Frederick was near its period The Imperial Forces under Bavaria Buquoy and D. Balthazar advance towards Prague and the Bohemians quit their Garrisons to make their Army the more compleat Yet neither Count Mansfield nor the English Forces were there On the Eighth day of November being the Lords day both Armies met for the fatal decision of the great Controversie The Bohemians stood upon the advantage-ground betwixt the Imperialists and Prague But the Enemy breaking through scattered and ruined their whole Army and pursued the Victory The King and Queen surprised with this Discomfiture among a wavering people in a City not very defensible were constrained to â—lie the next morning Diminution of Honor was added to the Calamity of this Prince because he suffered his Soldiers to mutiny for Pay when he had a mass of Money by him which was left behind to augment the Enemies Conquest Neither was Anhalt the General a fit person for the high trust reposed in him who not long after the Defeat sought and obtained the Emperors favor and was made one of his Generals to debel the Protestant cause and party But Count Mansfield whom Anhalt slighted and closed not with him to bring him up to this Fight made good his fidelity and with his Flying Army became a continual vexation to the Emperor harasing his Countries and forcing Contribution King Iames upon the news of the Palsgrave's overthrow and upon a Narration of the state of Affairs in those parts made unto His Majesty by the Earls of Oxford and Essex newly returned from the Palatinate was pleased to call a full Council together to consider of this great and weighty affair The Order ensuing relates the particulars At the Court at Whitehall Jan. 13. 1620. Present Lord Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Chancellor Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal Lord Steward Lord M. Hamilton Lord Chamberlain Earl of Arundel Earl of Kelly Lord V. Doncaster Lord V. Falkland Lord Carew Lord Digby Mr. Treasurer Mr. Secr. Naunton Mr. Secr. Calvert Mr. Chanc. of the Exchequer Master of the Rolls Master of the Wards HIs Majesty being resolved to make some Royal preparations for the Recovery and Protection of the Palatinate being the antient Inheritance of his Majesties Son in law and Grandchildren did in his high wisdom think méet to appoint some persons of knowledge and experience in the Wars to consider of and give their Advice in such Propositions as shall be made unto them by the Board for the better expediting of that service To which purpose the Earl of Oxford and the Earl of Essex the Earl of Leicester the Lord Uiscount Wilmot the Lord Danvers the Lord Calfield Sir Edward Cecyl Sir Richard Harrison Knights and Captain Danbingham were called to the Table and made acquainted with His Majesties pleasure That they or any Five or more of them together with Sir Horace Vere and Sir Edw. Conway Knights if they return into England while this Committee doth continue shall undertake this service and have their méetings and assemblies in the whole Council-chamber here in Whitehall touching the affairs above-mentioned And that for their better assistance they call unto them such others of experience whose advice and opinion they shall think fit to make use of in their several Consultations upon such things as shall be so referred unto them from the Board Which they are to prosecute without intermission or delay And they shall make Report of their Opinions which is to be done in writing under Five of their hands at least The Particulars offered to their Consideration are these First What proportion or number of men as well Horse as Foot with Munition Victuals Shipping and Treasure will be sufficient for that Enterprise And secondly By what time it will be meet that their Forces be in readiness And where the Arms Munition and Victuals may best be provided with such other Circumstances as are incident to any of these Heads For the better direction herein Mr. Secretaries will acquaint them with such Intelligences as they have received touching the
of thrée honorable Lords to impart unto us the weighty occasions moving your Majesty thereunto and from them we did understand these particulars That notwithstanding your Princely and pious endeavors to procure peace the time is now come that Janus Temple must be opened That the voice of Bellona must be heard and not the voice of the Turtle That there was no hope of peace nor any truce to be obtained no not for a few days That your Majesty must either abandon your own Children or engage your self in a War wherein consideration is to be had what Foot what Horse what Money will be sufficient That the Lower Palatinate was seised upon by the Army of the King of Spain as Executor of the Ban there in quality of Duke of Burgundy as the Upper Palatinate was by the Duke of Bavaria That the King of Spain at his own charge had now at least five Armies on foot That the Princes of the Union were disbanded but the Catholick League remained firm whereby those Princes so dissevered were in danger one by one to be ruined That the estate of those of the Religion in Foreign parts was miserable and that out of these considerations we were called to a War and forthwith to advise for a supply for kéeping the forces in the Palatinate from disbanding and to foresee the means for raising and maintaining the Body of an Army for the War against the Spring We therefore out of our zeal to your Maiesty and your Posterity with more alacrity and celerity than ever was presidented in Parliament did Address our selves to the service commended unto us And although we cannot conceive That the honor and safety of your Maiesty and your Posterity the Patrimony of your Children invaded and possessed by their enemies the welfare of Religion and State of your Kingdom are matters at any time unfit for our déepest consideration in time of Parliament And though before this time we were in some of these points silent yet being now invited thereunto and led on by so iust an occasion we thought it our duties to provide for the present supply thereof and not onely to turn our eyes on a War abroad but to take care for the securing of our peace at home which the dangerous increase and insolency of Popish Recusants apparently visibly and sensibly did lead us unto The consideration whereof did necessarily draw us truly to represent unto your Maiesty what we conceive to be the causes what we feared would be the effects and what we hoped might be the remedies of these growing Evils among which as incident and unavoidable we fell upon some things which séem to touch upon the King of Spain as they have relation to Popish Recusants at home to the Wars by him maintained in the Palatinate against your Maiesties Children and to his several Armies now on foot yet as we conceived without touch of dishonor to that King or any other Prince your Maiesties Confederate In the Discourse whereof we did not assume to our selves any power to determine of any part thereof nor intend to incroach or intrude upon the Sacred Bounds of Your Royal Authority to whom and to whom onely we acknowledge it doth belong to resolve of Peace and War and of the Marriage of the most Noble Prince your Son But as your most loyal and humble Subjects and Servants representing the whole Commons of your Kingdom who have a large Interest in the happy and prosperous estate of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity and of the flourishing estate of our Church and Commonwealth did resolve out of our Cares and Fears truly and plainly to demonstrate these things to your Majesty which we were not assured could otherwise come so fully and clearly to your knowledge and that being done to lay the same down at your Majesties féet without expectation of any other Answer of your Majesty touching these higher points then what at your good pleasure and in your own time should be held fit This being the effect of that we had formerly resolved upon and these the Occasions and Reasons inducing the same Our humble suit to your Majesty and confidence is That your Majesty will be gratiously pleased to receive at the hands of these our Messengers our former humble Declaration and Petition and vouchsafe to read and favorably to interpret the same and that to so much thereof as containeth our humble Petition concerning Iesuits Priests and Popish Recusants the Passage of Bills and Granting your Royal Pardon you will vouchsafe an Answer unto us And whereas your Majesty by the general words of your Letter séemeth to restrain us from intermedling with Matters of Government or Particulars which have their motion in the Courts of Iustice the generality of which words in the largeness of the extent thereof as we hope beyond your Majesties intention might involve those things which are the proper Subjects of Parliamentary occasions and discourse And whereas your Majesty doth séem to abridge us of the Antient Liberty of Parliament for Fréedom of Spéech Iurisdiction and Iust Censure of the House and other procéedings there wherein we trust in God we shall never transgress the bounds of Loyal and Dutiful Subjects a Liberty which we assure our selves so Wise and so Iust a King will not infringe the same being our antient and undoubted Right and an Inheritance received from our Ancestors without which we cannot fréely debate nor clearly discern of things in question before us nor truly inform your Majesty In which we have béen confirmed by your Maiesties most gratious former Spéeches and Messages We are therefore now again inforced in all humbleness to pray your Maiesty to allow the same and thereby to take away the Doubts and Scruples your Maiesties late Letter to our Speaker hath wrought upon us So shall we your loyal and loving Subiects ever acknowledge your Maiesties Iustice Grace and Goodness and be ready to perform that service to your Maiesty which in the true affection of our hearts we profess and pour out our daily and devout Prayers to the Almighty for your Maiesties long life happy and religious Reign and prosperous Estate and for your Royal Posterity after you for ever The King having rejected the first Petition gave to the later this Answer following WE must here begin in the same fashion that we would have done if the first Petition had come to our hands before we had made a stay thereof which is to repeat the first words of the late Queen of famous memory used by her in answer to an Insolent Proposition made by a Polonian Ambassador unto her that is Legatum expectabamus Heraldum accipimus For we had great reason to expect that the first Message from your House should have been a Message of Thanksgiving for our continued gratious behavior towards our people since your last Recess not onely by our Proclamation of Grace wherein were contained Six or seven and thirty Articles all of several
points of Grace to the people but also by the labor we took for the satisfaction of both Houses in those three Articles recommended unto us in both their names by the Right Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and likewise for the good Government of Ireland we are now in hand with at your request but not onely have we heard no news of all this but contrary great complaints of the danger of Religion within this Kingdom tacitely implying our ill Government in this point And we leave you to judge whether it be your duties that are the Representative Body of our people so to distaste them with our Government whereas by the contrary it is your duty with all your endeavors to kindle more and more a dutiful and thankful love in the peoples hearts towards us for our just and gratious Government Now whereas in the very beginning of this your Apology you tax us in fair terms of trusting uncertain Reports and partial Informations concerning your proceedings we wish you to remember that we are an old and experienced King needing no such Lessons being in our Conscience freest of any King alive from hearing or trusting idle Reports which so many of your House as are nearest us can bear witness unto you if you would give as good ear to them as you do to some Tribunitial Orators among you And for proof in this particular we have made your own Messengers confer your other Petitions sent by you with the Copy thereof which was sent us before Between which there is no difference at all but that since our receiving the first Copy you added a conclusion unto it which could not come to our hands till it was done by you and your Messengers sent which was all at one time And if we had had no Copy of it before-hand we must have received your first Petition to our great dishonor before we had known what it contained which would have enforced us to return you a far worse Answer then now we do for then your Messengers had returned with nothing but that we have judged your Petition unlawful and unworthy of an Answer For as to your conclusion thereof it is nothing but Protestatio contraria facto for in the Body of your Petition you usurpe upon our Prerogative Royal and meddle with things far above your reach and then in the conclusion you protest the contrary As if a Robber would take a mans purse and then protest he meant not to rob him For first you presume to give us your advice concerning the Match of our dearest Son with some Proâ—â—stant we cannot say Princess for we know none of these fit for hâ—m and disswade us from his Match with Spain urging us to a presenâ— War with that King and yet in the conclusion forsooth ye protest ye intend not to press upon our most undoubted and Regal Prerogative as if the Petitioning of us in matters that your selves confess ye ought not to meddle with were not a meddling with them And whereas ye pretend That ye were invited to this course by the Speeches of Three honorable Lords yet by so much as your selves repeat of the Speeches nothing can be concluded but that we were resolved by War to regain the Palatinate if otherwise we could not attain unto it And you were invited to advise forthwith upon a Supply for keeping the forces in the Palatinate from disbanding and to foresee the means for the raising and maintenance of the Body of an Army for that War against the Spring Now what inference can be made upon this that therefore we must presently denounce War against the King of Spain break our dearest Sons match and match him to one of our Religion let the World judge The difference is no greater than if we would tell a Merchant that we had great need to borrow Money from him for raising an Army that thereupon it should follow that we were bound to follow his advice in the direction of the War and all things depending thereupon But yet not contenting your selves with this excuse of yours which indeed cannot hold water ye come after to a direct contradiction to the conclusion of your former Petition saying That the honor and safety of us and our Posterity and the Patrimony of Our Children invaded and possessed by their enemies the Welfare of Religion and State of our Kingdom are matters at any time not unfit for your deepest considerations in Parliament To this generality we answer with the Logicians That where all things are contained nothing is omitted So as this Plenipotency of yours invests you in all power upon Earth lacking nothing but the Popes to have the Keys also both of Heaven and Purgatory And to this vast generality of yours we can give no other answer for it will trouble all the best Lawyers in the House to make a good Commentary upon it For so did the Puritan Ministers in Scotland bring all kinde of causes within the compass of their jurisdiction saying That it was the Churches office to judge of slander and there could no kinde of crime or fault be committed but there was a slander in it either against God the King or their Neighbor and by this means they hooked into themselves the cognisance of all causes Or like Bellarmines distinction of the Popes power over Kings in Ordine ad Spiritualia whereby he gives them all Temporal Jurisdiction over them But to give you a direct Answer to the matter of War for which you are so earnest We confess we rather expected you should have given us thanks for the so long maintaining a setled Peace in all our Dominions when as all our Neighbors about are in miserable combustion of War but dulce bellum inexpertis And we indeed finde by experience that a number of our Subjects are so pampered with Peace as they are desirous of change though they knew not what It is true that we have ever professed and in that minde with Gods grace we will live and die that we will labor by all means possible either by Treaty or by force to restore our Children to their ancient Dignity and Inheritance And whatsoever Christian Princes or Potentates will set themselves against it we will not spare any lawful means to bring our so just and honorable purpose to a good end neither shall the match of our Son or â—ny other worldly respect be preferred to this our resolution For by our credit and intervention with the King of Spain and the Arch-Dutches and her Husband now with God we preserved the Lower Palatinate one whole year from any further conquering in it which in eight days space in that time might have easily been swallowed up by Spinola's Army without any resistance And in no better case was it now at our Ambassador the Lord Digbies coming through Heidelburgh if he had not extraordinarily succored it But because we conceive that ye couple this War of the Palatinate with
most loving Kinsman C. P. Given at Our Palace of Saint Iames 14 Martii 1621. To the Right Honorable the Lord Balthazar of Zuniga Right Honorable and Wel-beloved Friend BEcause we have divers times been informed by your Friends of your singular propension and zeal towards our Affairs we neither will nor ought to leave you unsaluted at this time you have so well deserved of us But it will be no small accession of your good will if you continue as you have begun to promote by your assistance our concernments with his Majesty our Welbeloved Brother which by what way it may best be done our Ambassador the Baron John Digby will be able to direct you to whom we have intrusted the residue of that matter And if during his residence there he may make use of your singular Humanity and Favor with the King in his Negotiation it will be most acceptable to us and render us who were by your deservings already forward to oblige you most forward for the future to deserve well of you which we shall most willingly testifie as occasion offers not onely in word but in deed J. R. Given at our Palace of Theobalds March 14. 1621. Sir Walter Aston the Leiger Ambassador had managed that Treaty by directions received from Digby and now Digby remained at large in it and had communication of the Passages from him The Spaniards proceed in the Match with a very formal appearance for at this very time the Emperors Ambassador in Spain had discoursed of a Marriage between his Masters Son and the Infanta but was presently answered That the Kings hands were tied by a Treaty on foot with the King of Great Brittain and in this particular they seemed as said the English Agent to deal above board In the mean time the Privy Council by the Kings Commandment consulted about the raising of Moneys to defend the Palatinate They appointed the Keeper of the Records in the Tower to search for all such writings as concerned the Levies of Men at the Publick charge of the Countrey from the time of King Edward the Third until this present Likewise they directed Letters of the tenor following to the Justices of the Courts at Westminster and to the Barons of the Exchequer WHat endeavors his Majesty hath used by Treaty and by all fair and amiable ways to recover the patrimony of his Children in Germany now for the most part withholden from them by force is not unknown unto all his loving â—ubjects since his Majesty was pleased to communicate to them in Parliament his whole proceedings in that business Of which Treaty being of late frustrate he was inforced to take other resolutions namely to recover that by the Sword which by other means he saw no likelihood to compass For which purpose it was expected by his Majesty that his people in Parliament would in a cause so nearly concerning his and his Childrens interest have chearfully contributed thereunto But the same unfortunately failing his Maâ—esty 〈◊〉 constrained in a case of so great necessity to try the dutiful affections of his â—â—ing Subjects in another way as his Predecessors have done in former times by propounding unto them a voluntary contribution And therefore as your selves have already given a liberal and worthy example which his Majesty doth take in very gratious part so his pleasure is and we do accordingly hereby authorise and require your Lordships as well to countenance and assist the service by your best means in your next Circuits in the several Counties where you hold General Assizes as also now presently with all convenient expedition to call before you all the Officers and Attorneys belonging to any his Majesties Courts of Iustice and also all such others of the Houses and Societies of Court or that otherwise have dependence upon the Law as are meet to be treated withal in this kinde and have not already contributed and to move them to joyn willingly in this contribution in some good measure answerable to that your selves and others have done before us according to their means and fortunes Wherein his Majesty doubteth not but beside the interest of his Children and his own Crown and Dignity the Religion professed by his Majesty and happily flourishing under him within this Kingdom having a great part in the success of this business will be a special motive to incite and perswade them thereunto Nevertheless if any persons shall out of obstinacy or disaffection refuse to contribute herein proportionably to their Estates and Means you are to certifie their names unto this Board And so recommending this service to your best care and endeavor and praying you to return unto us Notes of the names of such as shall contribute and of the sums offered by them We bid c. Letters to the same effect were directed to the High Sheriffs and Justices of Peace of the several Counties and to the Majors and Bailiffs of every City and Town-Corporate within the Kingdom requiring them to summon all of known Abilities within their Jurisdictions and to move them to a chearful contribution according to their Means and Fortunes in some good measure answerable to what others well-affected had done before them And to make choice of meet Collectors of the Moneys and to return a Schedule of the names of such as shall contribute and the sums that are offered by them that his Majesty may take notice of the good inclinations of his Subjects to a cause of such importance as likewise of such others if any such be as out of obstinacy or disaffection shall refuse to contribute About this time George Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury began to fall into disgrace at Court his enemies taking the advantage of a late sad misfortune for shooting at a Deer with a Cross-bow in Bramzil Park he casually killed the Keeper Upon this unhappy accident it was suggested to the King who already disgusted him for opposing the Match with Spain That in regard of his eminent rank in the Church it might administer matter of Scandal which was aggravated by such as aspired unto his place and dignity The Bishop of Lincoln then Lord Keeper informed the Marquess of Buckingham That by the Common Law of England the Archbishops whole estate was forfeited to the King and by the Common Law which is still in force he is made irregular ipso facto and so suspended from all Ecclesiastical Function until he be restored by his Superior which was the Kings Majesty in this rank and order of Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction To adde affliction to the afflicted said he will be against his Majesties nature yet to leave a man of Blood Primate and Patriark of all his Churches is a thing that sounds very harsh in the Old Councils and Cannons and the Papists will not spare to censure it The King made choice of the Lord Keeper the Bishops of London Winton Rochester St. Davids and Exeter Sir Henry Hobart Justice Doderidge Sir Henry Martin
by the King and Prince was as followeth WE Ratifying and confirming the aforesaid Treaty and all and every Capitulation contained and specified in the same do approve applaud confirm and ratifie of our certain knowledge all and every of these things in as much as they concern our Selves our Heirs or our Successors And we promise by these presents in the word of a King to kéep fulfil and observe the same and to cause them to be kept fulfilled and observed inviolably firmly well and faithfully effectually Bona fide without all exception and contradiction And we confirm the same with an Oath upon the Holy Evangelists in the presence of the Illustrious and Noble John de Mendoza Charls de Colona Ambassadors of the most Gratious Catholick â—ing residing in our Court. In Testimony and Witness of all and every the premises we have caused our Great Seal to be put to those Articles subscribed by our Hands there in the presence of the most Reverend Father in Christ George Archbishop of Canterbury Primate of all England and the Reverend Father in Christ John Bishop of Lincoln Lord Kéeper of the Great Seal of England Lionel Cranfield Cheif Treasurer of England Henry Uiscount Mandevil President of our Council Edward Earl of Worcester Kéeper of the Privy Seal Lewis Duke of Richmond and Lenox Lord Steward of our Houshold James Marquess Hamilton James Earl of Carlisle Thomas Earl of Kelly Oliver Uiscount Grandeson c. and George Calvert Knight one of our Cheif Secretaries of State and all of our Privy Council Given at our Palace of Westminster c. JACOBUS Rex After this the King did swear to certain private Articles in favor of Papists and for the advancement of the Roman Religion JAMES by the grace of God of Great Britain King Defender of the Faith c. To all to whom this present-writing shall come gréeting Inasmuch as among many other things which are contained within the Treaty of Marriage betwéen our most dear Son Charls Prince of Wales and the most renowned Lady Donna Maria Sister of the most renowned Prince and our welbeloved Brother Philip the Fourth King of Spain It is agréed That we by our Oath shall approve the Articles under-expressed to a word 1. That particular Laws made against Roman Catholicks under which other Vassals of our Realms are not comprehended and to whose observation all generally are not obliged as likewise general Laws under which all are equally comprised if so be they are such which are repugnant to the Romish religion shall not at any time hereafter by any means or chance whatsoever directly or indirectly be commanded to be put in execution against the said Roman Catholicks and we wil cause that our Council shall take the same Oath as far as it pertains to them and belongs to the execution which by the hands of them their Ministers is to be exercised 2. That no other Laws shall hereafter be made anew against the said Roman Catholicks but that there shall be a perpetual Toleration of the Roman Catholick Religion within private houses throughout all our Realms and Dominions which we will have to be understood as well of our Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland as in England which shall be granted to them in manner and form as is capitulated decreed granted in the Article of the Treaty concerning the Marriage 3. That neither by us nor by any other interposed person whatsoever directly or indirectly privately or publikely will we treat or attempt any thing with the most renowned Lady Infanta Donna Maria which shall be repugnant to the Romish Catholick religion Neither will we by any means perswade her that she should ever renounce or relinquish the same in substance or form or that she should do any thing repugnant or contrary to those things which are contained in the Treaty of Matrimony 4. That We and the Prince of Wales will interpose our authority and will do as much as in us shall lie that the Parliament shall approve confirm and ratifie all and singular Articles in favor of the Roman Catholicks capitulated between the most renowned Kings by reason of this Marriage And that the said Parliament shall revoke and abrogate particular Laws made against the said Roman Catholicks to whose observance also the rest of our Subjects and Vassals are not obliged as likewise the general Laws under which all are equally comprehended to wit as to the Roman Catholicks if they be such as is aforesaid which are repugnant to the Roman Catholick Religion And that hereafter we will not consent that the said Parliament should ever at any time enact or write any other new Laws against Roman Catholicks MOreover I Charls Prince of Wales engage my self and promise that the most Illustrious King of Great Britain my most honored Lord and Father shall do the same both by word and writing That all those things which are contained in the foregoing Articles and concern as well the suspension as the abrogation of all Laws made against the Roman Catholicks shall within thrée years infallibly take effect and sooner if it be possible which we will have to lie upon our Conscience and Royal honor That I will intercede with the most illustrious King of G. Britain my father that the ten years of the education of the children which shall be born of this marriage with the most illustrious Lady Infanta their mother accorded in the 23 Art which term the Pope of Rome desires to have prorogued to twelve years may be lengthened to the said term And I promise fréely and of my own accord and swear That if it so happen that the entire power of disposing of this matter be dâ—volved to me I will also grant and approve the said term Furthermore I Prince of Wales oblige my self upon my faith to the Catholick King That as often as the most illustrious Lady Infanta shall require that I should give ear to Divines or others whom her Highness shall be pleased to employ in matter of the Roman Catholick religion I will hearken to them willingly without all difficulty and laying aside all excuse And for further caution in point of the frée exercise of the Catholick religion and the suspension of the Law above-named I Charls Prince of Wales promise and take upon me in the word of a King that the things above promised and treated concerning those matters shall take effect and be put in execution as well in the Kingdoms of Scotland and Ireland as of England The Privy-Councellors Oath was this I A.B. do swear That I will truly and fully observe as much as belongeth to me all and every of the Articles which are contained in the Treaty of Marriage betwéen the most gracious Charls Prince of Wales and the most gracious Lady Donna Maria Infanta of Spain Likewise I swear that I will neither commit to execution nor cause to be executed either by my self or by any inferior Officer serving me any
Lordships according to the unanimous Advice of all the Iudges of England and his Majesties pleasure signified therein That the First Article propounded viz. You shall do all your pain and diligence to destroy and make to cease all manner of Heresies and Errors commonly called Lollaries within in your Bayliwick from time to time to all your power and assist and be helping to all Ordinaries and Commissioners of the Holy Church and favor and maintain them as oftentimes as you shall be required shall be left out in the Oath to be given to Sir Edward Cook and shall ever hereafter be left out in all Oaths to be given to the High Sheriffs of Counties hereafter And their Lordships do likewise Order according to the unanimous Advice of all the Iudges of England That the other thrée Articles doubted of shall stand in the said Oath to be ministred to the said Sir Edward Cook and to all other High Sheriffs as heretofore hath béen accustomed and that the Lord Keeper do give order to such Officers and Clerks in the Court of Chancery to whom it appertained to make out the Oath for the time to come according to present Order The expectation of a Parliament gave encouragement to the Bishop of Lincoln who yet retained the name of Lord Keeper notwithstanding his Sequestration several moneths before from the presence of the King the Council Table and the custody of the Seal to make an Address to his Majesty for a favorable interpretation of his actions But his carriage towards the Duke at the Parliament at Oxford was fresh in memory where the Bishop told the Duke in Christ-Church upon the Dukes rebuking him for siding against him That he was engaged with William Earl of Pembroke to labor the Redress of the Peoples Grievances and was resolved to stand upon his own Legs If that be your resolution said the Duke Look you stand fast and so they parted and shortly after that he was sequestred though the Seal was not disposed from him till the Thirtieth of October at which time it was given to Sir Thomas Coventry at Hampton-Court who was that day sworn of the Privy Council and sate there and sealed some Writs and afterwards came to the Term at Reading and sate there as Lord Keeper and heard Causes The King being pressed with his own Necessities and the Cry of the Nation against the Fruitless Voyage of Cadiz summoned a Parliament to meet in February and before the time of meeting his Majesty enjoyned the Archbishops and Bishops in both Provinces to proceed against Popish Recusants by Excommunication and other Censures of the Church and not to omit any lawful means of bringing them to Publick Justice especially he recommended to their vigilant care the unmasking and repressing of those who were not professed Papists yet disaffected to the true Religion and kept close their evil and dangerous affection and by secret means and slights did encourage and advance the growth of Popery This Command was seconded by a Proclamation requiring That all Convicted Papists should according to the Laws of this Realm remain confined to their dwelling places or within five miles thereof unless upon special Licences first obtained in Cases necessary Immediately before the Parliament Bishop Laud procured the Duke of Buckingham to sound the King concerning the Cause Books and Tenets of Mr. Richard Montague and understanding by what the Duke collected That the King had determined within himself to leave him to a Tryal in Parliament he said I seem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God for his Mercy dissipate it About the same time the King declared his purpose to celebrate the Solemnity of his Coronation on Candlemas-day at the Palace of Westminster and required all persons who by reason of their Offices and Tenures were bound to perform any Duties at the Solemnitie to give their attendance and to be furnished in all respects answerable to an action of so high State according to their places and dignities Wherefore by a Commission under the Great Seal of England Sir Thomas Coventry Lord Keeper of the Great Seal Iames Lord Say High Treasurer of England Edward Earl of Worcester Keeper of the Privy Seal Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey Earl Marshal of England William Earl of Pembroke Lord High Chamberlain Edward Earl of Dorset and Sir Randol Crew Cheif Justice of the Common Pleas were authorised to receive and determine the Claims exhibited by any Person concerning Services to be performed at the approaching Coronation And the more to credit the Solemnity the King resolving to make certain of his Servants and other Subjects in regard of their Birth good Service and other Qualities Knights of the Bath Authorised Thomas Earl of Arundel and Surrey and Earl Marshal of England William Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain to perform in his Majesties Name and behalf all the Rites and Ceremonies belonging thereto At the same time Writs were directed to all Sheriffs in the Realm of England and Dominions of Wales commanding them to make Proclamation That all such as had Forty pounds a year or more of Lands or Revenues in their own hands or the hands of Feoffees for their use for the space of Three years and are not yet Knights do at their perils prepare to present themselves in his Majesties Presence by the One and thirtieth of Ianuary to receive the Order of Knighthood Upon the asswaging of the great Pestilence through the Mercy and Goodness of God in withdrawing and almost removing the Scourge the King by His Royal Authority ordained a Publick and General Thanksgiving to be celebrated upon the Nine and twentieth of Ianuary being the Lords day in the Cities of London and Westminster and the places adjacent and on the Nineteenth of February in all other places of the Kingdom the manner and form whereof was prescribed by a Book composed by the Bishops according to his Majesties special Direction The Contagion ceasing the restraint enjoyned to the Citizens of London from resorting to Fairs for a time was taken off The number of those that died this year within and without the Walls of the City of London and in the Liberties and Nine out Parishes from the Sixteenth of December 24. to the Fifteenth of December 25. Was in Total Fifty four thousand two hundred sixty and five whereof of the Plague Thirty five thousand four hundred and seventeen On Candlemas-day King Charls was Crowned Bishop Laud had the cheif hand in compiling the Form of the Coronation and had the honor to perform this Solemnity instead of the late Lord Keeper Williams who through the Kings disfavor was sequestred from this Service which belonged to his place as he was Dean of Westminster Mr. Iohn Cosens as Master of the Ecclesiastical Ceremonies kneeled behinde the Bishop when the Prayers were read and directed the Quire when to answer The Ceremony in going to and all the
then he desired their Lordships not to think it tedious for him to proceed and lay open his Case unto them which being granted he began as followeth HE said that he had the honor to serve the late King his Master of happy memory for the space of twenty years and a long time as a Counsellor and in seven Forein Ambassages In all which time in point of his Negotiation he had never received one check or rebuke until the return of the Duke of Buckingham out of Spain and therefore from thence he would begin his present Narration The very day that his Majesty departed from Spain he was pleased to tell him That he had no wayes offended him but did him the honor to trust him with the custody of the powers for his Marriage and after his return into England wrote unto him some Letters which did in no kinde express any distrust or displeasure against him About the same time he wrote unto his Majesty several Letters as in duty he was bound not for any earthly respect whatsoever to conceal from him the true state of his Affairs in which Letter he set down truly and honestly That he conceived that the distastes grown there betwixt the King of Spain and his Ministers and the Duke of Buckingham would disorder and utterly overthrow all his affairs if his wisdom prevented it not hinc illae lacrymae The Duke of Buckingham got a sight and knowledge of the Letters and fearing lest the Earl at his return should discover unto his said late Majesty his practises and misdemeanors in Spain he resolved That his access to the King was no wayes to be admitted and therefore labored and endeavored that he might be committed to the Tower presently upon his arrival and conceiving That the Lord Maquess Hamilton in regard of his Friendship with the Earl and the Alliance which was then intended between them might oppose this course he earnestly pressed him therein and moved him to deal with my Lord Chamberlain to the same purpose vowing That there was no hurt intended to the Earl but onely that he feared that if he should be admitted to the King he would cross and disturb the Course of Affairs but they were so honorable that neither of them would condescend thereunto and so that intention of his took no effect and therein the Earl desired my Lord Chamberlain that he would be pleased upon his Honor to deliver his knowledge This Design of the Duke not taking he fell upon other things indeed to have frightened the Earl out of his Country and honor and thereupon laid some great and sinister aspersions upon him in both Houses of Parliament thinking thereby to have terrified him that he should not return saying That if he kept not himself where he was and laid hold of those great offers which he heard were made unto him in Spain it would be worse with him Then the Earl of Bristol proceeded and said That the knowledge of these aspersions cast upon him in the Parliament came first unto him at Burdeaux in France where he was coming home at leisure in the company of his wife and family having formerly sent a Post of purpose to the Lord Conway to know if his speedy return would be any way useful to his Majesties service Who answered him That he might very well return at leisure with his family And in the mean time he was fallen upon by the Duke of Buckingham in Parliament in such sort as your Lordships well remember of whose Declaration he said he would boldly affirm unto their Lordships that there was scarce any one thing concerning him in it which was not contrary to or different from the truth From Burdeaux the Earl took Post making haste for that he hoped to clear his Honor in Parliament before it should break up and being arrived at Calis he sent over to have one of the Kings Ships for which there was publick Order given but although both wind and weather were as fair as could be and the Kings Ships lay at Boloign having carried over Count Mansfield and might every day within three hours have been with him yet the Ship came not in eight days expectance so that the Earl fearing the Parliament would be dissolved was enforced to pass the Sea in a Boat with six Oars as he did having with him Thirty or Forty thousand pounds of the Kings Jewels Upon his landing at Dover hoping that if his Arrest should have been deferred until his coming to London he might have gotten directly to the Kings presence which the Duke resolved was by no means to be admitted The Earl was there by a Letter of the Lord Conway's delivered unto him by a Servant of his in his Majesties name commanded to retire himself to his House and not to come to the Court or the Kings presence until he should have answered to certain Questions which his Majesty would appoint some of the Lords of the Council to ask him Hereupon he sent presently to his Majesty who sent him word That his restraint was neither for any ill meaning unto him nor that it should last long but was intended for his good to keep the Parliament from falling violently upon him And the same reason the Duke alleadged to some of his Friends and all those his troubles which have followed upon his first restraint have been procured by the Dukes Art under colour of Favor But the Earl having received his Message from the King became a most humble Suitor unto his Majesty that he would expose him to the Parliament for that if he had not served him honestly in all things he deserved no favor but to be proceeded against with all severity And in this particular he pressed the King as far as could stand with duty and good manners but received answer from his Majesty That there should but few more days pass before he would put an end to his affairs And about this time the Parliament was dissolved He still continued his sollicitation to be admitted to the Kings presence Who sent him word and confirmed it by oath That as soon as he should have answered the Questions which the Commissioners were to propound to him he would both see him and hear him and wondred that he should so much doubt thereof He then sollicited with all earnestness to have the Questions sent unto him which was promised should be within few days In the interim his Majesty being desirous that the business should have been accommodated sent secretly to him by a Gentleman who is ready to depose it this Message That he should write a fair Letter to the Duke and leave the rest to Him Hereupon the Duke sent a Gentleman one Mr. Clark with fair Propositions offering to procure him whatsoever he could reasonably pretend only he must not be admitted to the Kings presence for some time and that the Duke would have the disposing of his Vice-chamberlains Place having been therein formerly
Edward 4.6 or by Bill and an Act of Parliament to attaint the Party An Order was made in the Upper-House of Parliament 21 Iac. That any Peer shall have Counsel in case Criminal or Capital and upon the Accusation of the Earl of Bristol in Parliament he made a motion for Counsel which matter was commended to the King by the Lords with voucher of the said former Order The King returned Answer that this was contrary to the Fundamental Laws of the Realm but inasmuch as it was for his Benefit and Prerogative with which he may dispence therefore out of his grace he would allow the Earl of Bristol to have his Counsel with protestation that he would advise in the general and the same Order was made without his privity and without hearing the Justices or his Counsel And upon the Trial of the Lord Middlesex in a Case Criminal and not Capital afterward that is to say Friday after upon the assembly of all the Justices the Attorney of the King by commandment of the King demanded their opinion and they with one voice agreed That where the Trial is upon Indictment no Counsel in Fellony or Treason is to be allowed unless a matter of Law happen or upon the Indictment or upon Plea of the Defendant or upoâ— Evidence and in such Cases the Prisoner may have Counsel but not otherwise The Lords by Order referred to the Justices this Question Whether the King may be a Witness in case of Treason Secondly Admit that this be for Treason done when he is privy Whether in this case he may be a Witness or not and before the Resolution this Message and Command came from the King to the Justices that in this general Question they do not deliver any opinion but if any point come in particular they upon mature deliberation may give their advice And this was declared by the Cheif Justice in the Upper House of Parliament and the said Matter surceased Sitting this Parliament the Duke of Buckingham was deputed Procurator by several Peers whose Votes on any occasion he had power to make use of viz. By the Earls of Bath Exeter Cumberland Northumberland Lord Teinham Colchester Tunbridge Evers Darcy Meynel Noel St. John of Basing Mansfield and Roberts Whereupon the House of Peers made an Order That after this Session no Lord of this House shall be capable of receiving above two Proxies nor more to be numbred in any Cause voted About a fortnight after the Charge was given in against the Earl of Bristol the Earl gave in his Answer which we have chosen to insert here for the Readers more conveniency though a little out of time And having the Answer in his hand ready to deliver to their Lordships he did crave leave that by way of Introduction he might speak a few words and began thus I Am not insensible upon what disadvantages I come to tryal in this Cause For first I am faln into this Majesties heavy displeasure and am to encounter with a potent Adversary highly in favor and am accused for Treason for which all Counsel and Friends abandon me as a man infected with the Plague I am become bound and under restraint whereas a man who is to encounter for his life and honor and with a strong Adversary had need to come upon equal terms But as to the Matter I finde my self charged with divers Articles of High Treason but looking into them with the eyes of my best understanding with the opinion also of my Council lately assigned me and taking them apart one Article from another I finde not any thing in them like Treason or that hath so much as the shew or countenance of a fault either in act or words onely by laying all things together and by wresting the wrests with a strained Construction directly contrary to the true sence and meaning of them and the occasion whereupon they were spoken it is informed and that by way of inference onely That the intent was evil and the matter to prove the intent to be evil depends upon two props viz. Ill affection to Religion and too much affection to Spain which if I shall clear the Inference grounded upon these props will fall of it self Therefore I crave leave of your Lordships before I give my Answer to the Charge that I may give you an account of these two particulars and I humbly beseech you that what I shall speak in my just defence may not be conceived to proceed of vain ostentation And first for Religion I was in my Childhood bred in the Protestant Religion and rather after the stricter manner then otherwise When I grew in years fit I travelled into France Italy and Rome it self In all which Travels I can produce some that I consorted withal who will witness with me that I ever constantly used the Religion I professed without the least prevarication no man being able to charge me that so much as out of curiosity I ever was present at any of the exercises belonging to the Roman Religion or did the least act of Conformity to any of their Rites or Ceremonies Secondly After my return home I was received into the service of his late Majesty of Blessed Memory whom I served some years as a Gentleman of his Privy Chamber and Carver in which time none of his Majesties Servants received the Holy Sacrament frequented Sermons and other exercises of our Religion more then I. Thirdly In that time of my youth not to avoid idleness but out of affection to Religion I translated that excellent Book of our Faith and great Points of our Religion Written by Monsieur Moulins which his late Majesty having sometimes after seen approved so well that he would needs have it Printed which accordingly was Printed in the name of Mr. Sampford my Chaplain to whom I gave the honor But it was my own act as Mr. Sampford will not deny though to this hour I had never before spoken of it Fourthly About Seven or eight and twenty years of my age I was employed Ambassador into Spain in that great business of the Treaty of the Marriage and whereas others before me carried with them but one Chaplain I had two viz. Mr. Sampford and Mr. Boswel and at my arival at the Court of Spain I caused it to be published that such a day God willing I purposed to have a Communion to the end that such English as were in the Town might resort thither Whereat the Duke De Lerma and other the great Ministers of Spain took offence and told me they might well perceive I brought no good affection to the business I came about that would so publickly and avowedly in that Court where never the like was done proclaim there a Communion and with high expression perswaded me to decline it Whereunto I answered I came to do my Master service which I would heartily and effectually endeavor but would not omit my service to God no though my Master commanded And at
then to believe That the said ships were never meant or any way in danger to be imployed against the Rochellors or those of our Religion in France and herein he did great injury and disservice to his Majesty to the great scandal and prejudice of our Religion and Affairs and highly abused both the Lords and Commons by this cautelous and subtile Speech and Insinuation and thereby gave both Houses occasion to forbear Petitioning or suing to his Majesty for Redress in this Business while the time was not then passed for the ships were not as then actually imployed against the Rochellors albeit in truth they were then delivered into the French Kings power And the same time before the Parliament was dissolved Captain Pennington who could have opened the whole truth of the business for the Service of the King and the Realm came to Oxford but was there drawn to conceal himself by means of the Duke and not to publish in due time his knowledge of the Premisses as was there shortly after reported The truth whereof the Lords in this Parliament may be pleased to examine as they shall see cause the Parliament at Oxford being shortly after viz. Aug. 12. unhappily dissolved In or about September 1625. The said ships were actually imployed against the Rochellors and their Friends to their exceeding great prejudice and almost utter ruine It hath been said by some of the French that the Vantguard she mowed them down like grass To the great dishonor of our Nation and the scandal of our Religion and to the disadvantage of the great affairs of this Kingdom and all Christendom Also the Ships themselves were in eminent peril to be utterly lost for lack of sufficient Cautions If they be come home since this Parliament sate down long after the matter was here expounded and taken into examination It may be well presumed that it is by some underhand procuring of the Duke and the secret complying of the French with him to colour out the matter which the Lords may examine as they see cause The one and onely English-man that presumed to stay in one of the Ships and serve against the poor Rochellors of our Religion at his return was slain in charging a Peece of Ordnance not by him well sponged In February last 1625. Monsieur de la Touche having speech with Master Thomas Sherwell a Member of the Commons House of Parliament at Salisbury as he was coming up to the Parliament and Monsieur de la Touche going down into Somerset-shire to Master John Pawlets to Monsieur Sobysa He told Master Sherwell in the hearing also of one Master Iohn Clements of Plymouth who is now in Town the words that the Duke had spoken to him the last Summer touching these Ships and thereupon used these words Ce Duque est un meshant homme Upon this whole Narration of the Fact touching the manner of Delivery of the Ships to the French divers things may be observed wherein the Dukes offences do consist As In betraying a Ship of the Kings Royal Navy unto a Foreign Princes hand without good Warrant for the same The dispossessing the Subjects of this Realm of their Ships and Goods by many artifices and subtilties and in conclusion with high hand and open violence against the good will of the Owners In breaking the duty of Lord Admiral and Guardian of the Ships and Seas of this Kingdom In varying from the original good Instructions and presuming to give others of his own head in matters of State In violating the duty of a sworne Privy-Counsellor to his Majesty In abusing both Houses of Parliament by a cautelous Misinformation under a colour of a Message from his Majesty And in disadvantaging the Affairs of those of our Religion in Foreign parts Offences of an high and grievous nature For the proof of some parts thereof which are not the least I offer to your Lordships consideration the Statute of the 2 3 E. 6. touching the Duke of Somerset wherein is recited That amongst other things he did not suffer the Piers called the Newhaven and Blackerst in the parts beyond the Seas to be furnished with victuals and money whereby the French were encouraged to invade and win the same Aud for this offence amongst others it was Enacted That a great part of his Land should be taken from him And if Non-feazance in a matter tending to lose a fixed Castle belonging to the King be an high offence then the actual putting of a Ship Royal of the Kings into the hand of a Foreign Prince which is a moveable and more useful Castle and Fortress of the Realm must needs be held a greater offence I will forbear to cite any more Presidents of this kind because some of those who have gone before me have touched at divers Presidents of this nature which may be applied to this my part Only because the abuse of the Parliament which is the chiefest Council of State and Court of Judicature in the Realm is not the least offence in this business I shall desire your Lordships to take into consideration the Statute of Westm. 1. cap. 30. whereby such as seem to beguile Courts of Justice are to be sore judged in the same Courts and punished as by that Statute appeareth So he concluded and left the Duke to their Lordships equal Justice The Ninth and Tenth Articles were read next IX Whereas the Titles of Honor of this Kingdom of England were wont to be conferred as great Rewards upon such vertuous and industrious Persons as had merited them by their faithful service The said Duke by his importunate and subtile procurement hath not only perverted that antient and most honorable way but also unduly for his own particular gain he hath enforced some that were rich though unwilling to purchase Honor As the Lord R. Baron of T. who by practice of the said Duke and his Agents was drawn up to London in or about October in the Two and twentieth year of Reign of the late King Iames of famous memory and there so threatened and dealt withall that by reason thereof he yielded to give and accordingly did pay the sum of Ten thousand pounds to the said Duke and to his use For which said sum the said Duke in the moneth of Ianuary in the Two and twentieth year of the said lake King procured the Title of Baron R. of T. to the said Lord R. In which practice as the said Lord R. was much wronged in his particular so the Example thereof tendeth to the prejudice of the Gentry and dishonor of the Nobility of this Kingdom X. Whereas no Places of Judicature in the Courts of Justice of our Soveraign Lord the King nor other like Preferments given by the Kings of this Realm ought to be procured by any Subject whatsoever for any Reward Bribe or Gift He the said Duke in or about the moneth of December in the Eighteenth year of the Reign of the late King Iames of famous
see them earthed before me My Answer to the several points in Charge I shall crave leave to deliver in brief and in form of Law but as naked as truth loves to be and so I leave my self and my cause to your Lordships Justice The humble Answer and Plea of George Duke of Buckingham to the Declaration and Impeachment made against him before your Lordships by the Commons House of Parliament THe said Duke of Buckingham being accused and sought to be impeached before your Lordships of the many Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences and Crimes wherewith he is charged by the Commons House of Parliament and which are comprised in the Articles preferred against him and were aggravated by those whose service was used by that House in the delivery of them Doth finde in himself an unexpressible pressure of deep and hearty sorrow that so great and so worthy a Body should have him suspected of those things which are objected against him whereas had that Honorable House first known the very truth of those particulars whereof they had not there the means to be rightly informed he is well assured in their own true judgments they would have forborn to have charged him therewith The Charge touching Plurity of Offices To the first which concerneth Plurality of Offices which he holdeth he answereth thus That it is true that he holdeth those several Places and Offices which are enumerated in the preamble of his Charge whereof onely three are worthy the name of Offices viz. The Admiralty the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports and Mastership of the Horse the other are rather titulary and additions of Honor. For these Offices he humbly and freely acknowledgeth the bounty and goodness of his most Gratious Master who is with God who when he had cast an Eye of Favor upon him and had taken him into a more near place of service about his Royal Person was more willing to multiply his Graces and Favors upon him then the Duke was forward to ask them and for the most part as many honorable persons and his now most Excellent Majesty above all others can best testifie did prevent the very desires of the Duke in asking And all these particular places he can and doth truly affirm his late Majesty did bestow them of his own Royal motion except the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports onely and thereto also he gave his approbation and encouragement And the Duke denieth that he obtained these places either to satisfie his exorbitant ambition or his own profit or advantage as is objected against him And he hopeth he shall give good satisfaction to the contrary in his particular Answers ensuing touching the manner of his obtaining the places of the Admiralty and the Wardenship of the Cinque Ports whereunto he humbly desireth to refer himself And for the Mastership of the Horse to his Majesty he saith it is a meer domestick office of attendance upon the Kings person whereby he receiveth some profit yet but as a conveniency to render him more sit for his continual attendance and in that place the times compared he hath retrenched the Kings annual charge to a considerable value as shall be made apparent And for the number of places he holdeth he saith That if the Commonwealth doth not suffer thereby he hopeth he may without blame receive and retain that which the liberal and bountiful hand of his Master hath freely conferred upon him And it is not without many Presidents both in Antient and Modern times That one man eminent in the esteem of his Soveraign hath at one time held as great and as many Offices But when it shall be discerned That he shall falsly or corruptly execute those places or any of them or that the Publick shall suffer thereby he is so thankful for what he hath freely received that whensoever his Gratious Master shall require it without disputing with his Soveraign he will readily lay down at his Royal Feet not onely his Places and Offices but his whole Fortunes and his life to do him service But the integrity of his own Heart and Conscience being the most able and most impartial witnesses not accusing him of the least thought of disloyalty to his Soveraign or to his Country doth raise his spirits again to make his just defence before your Lordships of whose Wisdom Justice and Honor he is so well assured That he doth with confidence and yet with all humbleness submit himself and his cause to your Examinations and Judgments before whom he shall with all sincerity and clearness unfold and lay open the secrets of his own actions and of his heart and in his Answer shall not affirm the least Substantial and as near as he can the least Circumstantial point which he doth not believe he shall clearly prove before your Lordships The Charge consisteth of Thirteen several Articles whereunto the Duke saving to himself the usual benefit of not being prejudiced by any words or want of form in his Answer but that he may be admitted to make further explanation and proof as there shall be occasion and saving to him all Priviledges and Rights belonging to him as one of the Peers of the Realm doth make these several and distinct Answers following in the same order they are laid down unto him For his buying of the Admirals place the said Duke maketh this clear and true Answer That it is true that in Ianuary in the Sixteenth year of his late Majesties Raign his late Majesty did by his Letters Patents under the Great Seal of England grant unto the Duke the Office of Admiralty for his life which Grant as he well knoweth it was made freely and without any Contract or Bargain with the late Lord Admiral or any other and upon the voluntary Surrender of that Noble and wel-deserving Lord so he is advised it will appear to be free from any defect in Law by reason of the Statute of 5 Edw. 6. mentioned in this Article of his Charge or for any other cause whatsoever For he saith the true manner of his obtaining this Office and of all the passages thereof which he is ready to make good by Proof was thus That Honorable Lord the late Earl of Nottingham the Lord Admiral being grown much in years and finding that he was not then so able to perform that which appertained to his place as in former times he had done to his great Honor and fearing lest his Majesties service and the Commonwealth might suffer by his defect became an humble and earnest Petitioner to his late Majesty to admit him to surrender his Office His late Majesty was at the first unwilling unto it out of his Royal Affection to his Person and true Judgment of his worth But the Earl renewed his Petitions and in some of them nominated the Duke to be his Successor without the Dukes privity or fore-thought of it And about that time a Gentleman of good place about the Navy and of long experience
to be guided by ordinary Presidents In like manner the Lord Major and Commonalty of London petitioned the Council for an Abatement of the Twenty Ships rated upon them unto Ten Ships and two Pinnaces alleadging disability whereunto the Council gave this following Answer That the former Commandement was necessary the preservation of the State requiring it and that the charge imposed on them was moderate as not exceeding the value of many of their private estates That Petitions and Pleadings to this Command tend to the danger and prejudice of the Commonwealth and are not to be received That as the Commandment was given to all in general and every particular of the City so the State will require an accompt both of the City in general and of every particular And whereas they mention Presidents they might know that the Presidents of former times were Obedience not Direction and that Presidents were not wanting for the punishment of those that disobey his Majesties Commands signified by that Board which they hope shall have no occasion to let them more particularly understand Hereupon the Citizens were glad to submit and declared their consent to the Kings Demands and by Petition to the Council had the favor to nominate all the Officers of those Twenty Ships the Captains onely excepted the nomination of whom appertained to the Lord High Admiral of England Then there were likewise issued forth Privy Seals to several persons to others the way of Benevolence was proposed And because the late Parliament resolved to have given the King Four Subsidies and Three Fifteens the sums which the King required were according to that proportion And to prevent misunderstandings it was declared unto the Countrey That the Supplies now demanded were not the Subsidies and Fifteens intended to be given by the Parliament but meerly a free gift from the Subject to the Soveraign upon such weighty and pressing occasions of State The Justices of Peace in the several Counties were directed by the Privy Council to send for persons able to give and to deal with them singly by using the most prevailing perswasions Amidst these Preparations the Kingdom being exposed to dangers both Forein and Domestick a general Fast was observed on the Fifth of Iuly in the Cities of London and Westminster and places adjacent and on the Second of August throughout the Kingdom to implore a blessing upon the endeavors of the State and the diverting of those judgments which the sins of the Land deserve and threaten And for the defence of this Realm threatned with a powerful Invasion extraordinary Commissions were given to the Lords Lieutenants of the several Counties to Muster the Subjects of whatsoever degree or dignity that were apt for War and to try and array them and cause them to be armed according to their degrees and faculties as well Men of Arms as other Horsmen Archers and Footmen and to lead them against publick Enemies Rebels and Traytors and their adherents within the Counties of their Lieutenancy to repress slay and subdue them and to execute Martial Law sparing and putting to death according to discretion And in case of Invasions Insurrections Rebellions and Riots without the limits of their respective Counties to repair to the places of such Commotions and as need required to repress them by battel or any forcible means or otherwise either by the Law of this Realm or the Law Martial In like manner lest the deserting of the Coasts Ports and Sea Towns should expose those places to become a prey and invite the Enemy to an Invasion the Inhabitants and those that had withdrawn themselves to Inland places were required to return with their Families and Retinues and there to abide during those times of Hostility and Danger And for securing of the Coasts from Spain or Flanders some of the Kings Ships were employed in the River Elbe to prevent the furnishing of Spain from those parts with materials for shipping which occasioned a great discontent in those of Hamburgh for that their Neighbors of Lubeck and other Towns of the East Sea were free from this restraint insomuch that they resolved to force their passage by a Fleet of Fifty or threescore sail of Ships Whereupon the Lord Admiral informed the Council that his Majesties charge at Hamburgh was expended to little purpose except also the Sound could be shut up against all shipping that should carry prohibited Commodities especially since the Hamburgers send their Commodities by Land to Lubeck to be transported from thence into Spain and that the States and the King of Denmarks Ships are departed from the Elbe and have left the English alone Moreover the King prepared a Royal Fleet which was now at Portsmouth ready to put to Sea under the command of the Lord Willoughby and given out to be designed for Barbary The King of Denmark having put forth a Declaration of the Causes and Grounds wherefore he took up Arms against the Emperor declared one cause thereof to be FOrasmuch as the Elector Palatine by the procurement of the King of Great Britain and him the King of Denmark had offered his Submission to his Imperial Majesty and to crave Pardon and thereupon was in hopes to have his Patrimony with the Dignities of his Ancestors restored Yet notwithstanding the Emperor did still commit great spotles and acts of hostility in his Countrey giving no regard to the said Submission and had much damnified the Lower Saxony by the Forces which he had brought thither under Tilly. Whereupon he sayes the Princes of the Lower Saxony have desired the aid and assistance of him the King of Denmark to settle the Peace and Liberty of Germany who was resolved to take up Arms and with whom he was resolved for to joyn having the like assurance from the King of Great Britain who had déeply engaged to assist in this War for the restitution of the Elector Palatine Therefore the King of Denmark declares That séeing all Prayers Mediations and Accessions cannot prevail with his Imperial Majesty he will endeavor to procure a peace and settlement by force which he should have béen glad would have béen ordained unto him upon fair terms of Treaty In the beginning of the year divers Towns were taken by the King of Denmark and some retaken by Tilly but the Seven and twentieth of August decided the Controversie on which day the King of Denmark upon the approach of Tilly desiring to decline battel with the Emperors old Soldiers many of his own men being new levied Soldiers endeavored to make his retreat but Tilly followed so close his Rear-guard that he kept them in continual action till the King of Denmark saw no remedy but that he must either fight or lose the Rear of his Army and Train of Artillery Whereupon his Commanders advised him to resolve of a place of advantage and face about and give battel which accordingly they did and both Armies drew up near Luttern
Judgment and Execution of such Offenders as in time of War and some were executed by those Commissions Nevertheless the Soldiers brake out into great disorders they mastered the people disturbed the peace of Families and the Civil Government of the Land there were frequent Robberies Burglaries Rapes Rapines Murthers and Barbarous Cruelties Unto some places they were sent for a punishment and where ever they came there was a general outcry The High-ways were dangerous and the Markets unfrequented they were a terror to all and an undoing to many Divers Lords of the Council were appointed to repair into their several Countreys for the advancement of the Loan and were ordered to carry a List of the names as well of the Nobility and Privy Counsellors as of the Judges and Serjeants at Law that had subscribed to lend or sent in money for the Publick service to be a Patern and leading Example to the whole Nation But Sir Randolph Crew shewing no zeal for the advancing thereof was then removed from his place of Lord Chief Justice and Sir Nicholas Hide succeeded in his room A person who for his parts and abilities was thought worthy of that preferment yet nevertheless came to the same with a prejudice coming in the place of one so well beloved and so suddenly removed but more especially by reason the Duke appeared in his advancement to express a grateful Acknowledgment to that Knight for the care and pains he took in drawing the Dukes Answer to the Impeachment in Parliament against him This business of the Loan occasioned a Complaint to the Lords of the Council against the Bishop of Lincoln for publickly speaking words concerning it which was conceived to be against the King and Government Whereupon Sir Iohn Lamb and Dr. Sibthorpe informed the Council to this purpose That many were grieved to see the Bishop of Lincoln give place to unconformable Ministers when he turned his back to those that were conformable and how the Puritans ruled all with him and that divers Puritans in Leicestershire being Convented his Lordship would not admit proceedings to be had against them That Dr. Sibthorpe being desired to stay at Leicester this year as Commissary for the High Commission there the Countrey being much over-spread with Puritanism Sir Iohn Lamb and the said Doctor did inform the Bishop of Lincoln then at Bugden what Factious Puritans there were in the County who would not come up to the Table to receive the Communion kneeling and that there were unlawful Fasts and Meetings kept in the County and one Fast that held from nine in the Forenoon till eight at night and that Collections for moneys were made without Authority upon pretence for the Palatinate And therefore they desired leave from the Bishop to proceed against those Puritans Ex Officio The said Bishop replied He would not meddle against the Puritans for his part he expected not another Bishoprick they might complain of them if they would to the Council Table for he was under a Cloud already and he had the Duke of Buckingham for his Enemy and he would not draw the Puritans upon him for he was sure they would carry all things at last Besides he said the King in the First year of his Reign had given Answer to a Petition of the Lower House in favor of the Puritans It appeared also by the Information of others who were present at the Conference at Bugden That Sir Iohn Lamb and Dr. Sibthorpe did notwithstanding the Bishops aversness again press the Bishop to proceed against the Puritans in Leicestershire the Bishop then asked them what manner of people they were and of what condition For his part he knew of none To which Sir Iohn Lamb replied Dr. Sibthorpe being present That they seem to the World to be such as would not Swear Whore nor Drink but yet would Lie Cozen and Deceive That they would frequently hear two Sermons a day and repeat the same again too and afterwards pray and sometimes fast all day long Then the Bishop asked whether those places where those Puritans were did lend money freely upon the Collection of the Loan To which Sir Iohn Lamb and Dr. Sibthorpe replied That they did generally resolve to lend freely Then said the Bishop no man of discretion can say That that place is a place of Puritans For my part said the Bishop I am not satisfied to give way to proceedings against them At which Dr. Sibthorpe was much discontented and said He was troubled to see that the Church was no better regarded These Informations being transmitted to the Council Table were ordered to be sealed up and committed to the Custody of Mr. Trumbal one of the Clerks of the Council nevertheless the Bishop of Lincoln used such means as he got a Copy of them For which and some other matters an Information was afterwards preferred against him in the Star-Chamber Of which more at large when we come in our next Volume to treat of the great and high proceedings of that Court. Bishop Laud not long before this Passage with the Bishop of Lincoln was informed That the Bishop of Lincoln endeavored to be reconciled to the Duke and that night that he was so informed he dreamed That the Bishop of Lincoln came with Iron Chains but returned freed from them That he leaped upon a Horse departed and he could not overtake him The Interpretation of this Dream may not unfitly be thus applied His Chains might signifie the imprisonment of the Bishop of Lincoln afterwards in the Tower his returning free to his being set at Liberty again at the meeting of the Parliament his leaping on Hors-back and departing to his going into Wales and there commanding a Troop in the Parliaments Service and that Bishop Laud could not overtake him might portend that himself should become a Prisoner in the same place and be rendred thereby incapable to follow much less to overtake him At this time the King had Six thousand Foot Soldiers in the Service of the United Provinces under the Command of Sir Charls Morgan Sir Edward Herbert Sir Iohn Burlacy Sir Iames Leviston c. for the assistance of the States against the increasing power of Spinola Upon the present occasion these Forces were called off from the States services to joyn with the King of Denmark under the Command of Sir Charls Morgan against the common enemy the King of Spain and his adherents Some few moneths after One thousand three hundred foot more were embarqued at Hull to be transported by Captain Conisby to the Town of Stoad in Germany and there to be delivered over to the charge of the aforesaid Sir Charls Morgan General of the English Forces in the service of the King of Denmark a person of known Valor and fit for conduct of an Army But the Assessment of the general Loan did not pass currantly with the people for divers persons refused to subscribe their names
have of late faln out You say well saith the Secretary Would you that I should tell the King so much Yea said I if you please I hold it not unfit that his Majesty should know it What he reported therein I do not know but matters proceeded in the former course as if there were no regard had of any such thing The Lord Conway being gone from me for two or three days I expected to hear the resolution to what place in Kent I should betake my self and receiving no news I tossed many things in my minde as perhaps that the King desired to hear somewhat from the Duke how he sped in his journey or that peradventure he might alter his purpose upon report of my ready obeying or that it might so fall out that some of the Lords at the Court understanding upon the Secretaries return from Croyden that which was formerly concealed from them might infuse some other Councils into the King These thoughts I revolved at last not forgetting the courses of the Court and imprinting that into my heart That there was no good intended towards me but that any advantage would be taken against me I sent a man to Whitehal whether the King was now come for a night or two and by him I wrote to the Lord Conway in these words My very good Lord I Do not forget the Message which you brought unto me on Thursday last and because I have heard nothing from you since that time I send this Messenger on purpose to know what is resolved touching the House or Houses where I must remain there belong to the Archbishoprick three Houses in Kent one at Canterbury another Five Miles beyond called Foord and a third on the side of Canterbury but two Miles of the name whereof is Becksburn I pray your Lordship to let me know his Majesties pleasure Whether he will leave the choice of any of those Houses to me to reside in I have reason to know the resolution hereof because I must make my Provision of Wood and Coals and Hey for some definite place and when I shall have brewed it is fit I should know where to put it or else it will not serve the turn It is an unseasonable time to Brew now and as untimely to cut Wood being green in the highest degree and to make Coals without all which my House cannot be kept But when I shall know what must be my Habitation I will send down my Servants presently to make the best Provision that they can And so expecting your Lordships Answer I leave you to the Almighty and remain Your Lordships very loving Friend G. Cant. Croyden Iuly 10. 1627. He made my Servant stay and when he had gone up to know the Kings further pleasure he returned me the Answer following May it please your Grace I Am ashamed and do confess my fault that I wrote not to your Grace before I received your Reproof though a Gratious one but in truth I did not neglect nor forget But the continual oppression of business would not permit me to advertise to your Grace the Kings Answer His Majesty heard seriously your Professions and Answers and commanded me to signifie unto you That he knew not the present differences between you and the Town and if he had he would not have cast you into that inconvenience He was well pleased you should go to your house at Foord and said He did not expect when the Question was ended between your Grace and the Town that you should go to Canterbury And he further said He would not tye you to so short a time as might be any way inconvenient but doth expect that your Grace will govern it so as his Majesty shall not need to warn you a second time I will not fail to move his Majesty to give you Liberty to chuse either of your Houses you name and give you knowledge of his pleasure and in all things be ready to obey your Commandments or take occasion to serve you in the condition of Your Graces most humble Servant Conway Whitehal Iuly 10. 1627. I could not but observe therein that passage That the King doth expect that your Grace will govern it so as his Majesty shall not need to warn you a second time I needed no Interpreter to expound those words and therefore did take order that one of my Officers was presently dispatched unto Foord to see the House ready While Necessaries were caring for and I lay for some days at Croyden and afterwards at Lambeth the City of London was filled with the Report of my confining for so they did term it and divers men spake diversly of it I will not trouble my self to mention some idle things but some other of them require a little consideration A main matter that the Duke was said to take in ill part was the resort which was made to my House at the times of Dinner and Supper and that oftentimes of such as did not love him My Answer unto that is That by Nature I have been given to keep a House according to my Proportion since I have had any means and God hath blessed me in it That it is a property by Saint Paul required in a Bishop That he should be given to Hospitality that it is another of his Rules Let your Conversation be without Covetousness and those things I had in mine eyes Besides I have no Wife nor Childe and as for my Kinred I do that for them which I hold fit but I will not rob the Church nor the Poor for them Again It is so rare a fault in these days that men not feeding on the Kings Meat but of their own charge should frankly entertain their Friends when they come unto them that I deserve to be pardoned for it But this is not all When King Iames gave me the Bishoprick he did once between him and me and another time before the Earl of Salisbury charge me that I should carry my House Nobly that was his Majesties word and live like an Archbishop which I promised him to do And when Men came to my House who were of all civil sorts I gave them friendly entertainment not sifting what exceptions the Duke made against them for I knew he might as undeservedly think ill of others as he did of me But I meddled with no mans quarrels and if I should have received none but such as cordially and in truth had loved him I might have gone to Dinner many times without company There frequented me Lords Spiritual and Temporal divers Privy Counsellors as occasion served and Men of the highest rank where if the Duke thought that we had busied our selves about him he was much deceived Yet perhaps the old saying is true That a Man who is guilty of one Evil to himself thinketh that all men that talk together do say somewhat of him I do not envy him that happiness but let it ever attend him As for
it will make him Honorable that promoteth it Lyes may shadow it but not darken it They may blame but never shame it By this small President his Majesty shall see himself abused and it may be a means for him to reflect both upon men and matters The men slain are no less injured by concealing their Names whose lives were lost for King and Country The Romans would have held it the highest Honor for their friends and posterity so to die And a Parliament may fear that those that stick not so palpably to wrong a King may as unjustly cast Aspersions upon the House and other his loving Subjects There is no remedy left for these misreports but a freedom of Speech in Parliament For there is no wise man that speaks but knows what and when to speak and how to hold his peace Whilst Subjects tongues are tyed for fear they may reach him a rap whose conscience cries guilty the King and his people are kept from understanding one another The Enemy is heartened abroad and the Malignant humor of Discontent nourished at home and all for one who is like a Dragon that bites the ear of the Elephant because he knows the Elephant cannot reach him with his trunk and Princes are abused by false Reports whispered in their ears by Sycophants and Flatterers Diogenes being asked what beast bit sorest answered Of wilde beasts the Back-biter of tame the Flatterer Now to descend to Grievances which are of two kinds some concerning the Kingdom in general some in particular which have relation to the general The Grievances in general are so many in number as will serve for every Member of the House to present Two apiece to your views And because I cannot be admitted amongst you my self yet in regard I have been a Member of you I will prsume so far as to rank my self with you and to tender the number of Two unto unto your consideration My first Complaint is of Titles of Honor and in two kindes First in respect of the Parties themselves their Estates and Parentage Secondly in respect of the manner of their attaining thereunto which is mercenary base and corrupt which in reason should not hold For by Law the consideration is unlawfull Trajanus commended Plutarch for his Precepts in School when he taught that men should labor to deserve Honor but avoid the getting of it basely For if it were Reputation to have it by Desert it were Infamy to buy it for Money In that Age where Rich men were honored Good men were despised Honor is not to be valued according to the vulgar opinion of men but prized and esteemed as the Sirname of Vertue ingendred in the minde and such Honor no King can give or money can purchase He that will strive to be more honorable then others must abandon Passion Pride and Arrogancy that so his Vertue may shine above others For Honor consists not in the Title of a Lord but in the opinion people have of their vertue For it is much more honor to deserve and not to have it then to have it and not deserve it There is one of three things that commonly causeth mans advancement Desert Favor and Power The first makes a man worthy of it the other two are but abuses For Favor is but a blinde fortune an ounce of which at Court is better then a pound of wisdom Fortune never favoreth but flattereth She never promiseth but in the end she deceiveth She never raiseth but she casteth down again And this Advancement is meeter to be called Luck then Merit That Honor that is compassed by Power takes unto it self Liberty and desires not to be governed by wisdom but force It knows not what it desireth nor hath a feeling of any Injury It is neither moved with sweet words nor pitifull tears such men leave not to do evil because they have a desire to it but when their power faileth to do it The true Honor among the honorablest is where Fortune casts down where there is no fault But it is Infamy where Fortune raiseth where there is no Merit Examine the State and condition of men raised to Honor these 25 years past and whether it be desert favor or power that hath preferred them Enter into the mischief the Kingdom hath suffered and doth suffer by it and the cause of his Majesties great wants will soon appear If you collect with your selves how many hungry Courtiers have been raised to the highest top of honor After this examine their Princely expence in these Twenty five years their Estates in present and what is requisite to maintain them in their future degrees of honor to themselves and their Posterity and you shall finde his Majesties annual Revenues consumed and spent upon those unworthy persons Besides the impairing and impoverishing of the State it brings with it the contempt of Greatness and Authority it breeds an inward malice in Gentlemen better deserving of their Country and better able to maintain the degree of honor without charge to King or Kingdom and whose Houses and Alliance may better challenge it then the best of them The Character of a covetous man is that he getteth his goods with care and envy of his Neighbors with sorrow to his Enemies with travel to his body with grief to his Spirit with scruple to his conscience with danger to his soul with suit to his children and curse to his heirs his desire is to live poor to die rich But as these vices are made vertues even so is he honored for them with Title of Nobility When Philip the second King of Spain entred with Arms upon his Kingdom of Portugal and though with his sword he might have made fitting Laws yet were there some few Priviledges which the Portugals besought they might enjoy one whereof was That the King would make no unworthy person Noble or without their approbation which was granted them and to this day they hold that Freedom which keeps that Kingdom in the ancient State Honor and Dignity that is to say two Dukes one Marquis and Eighteen Earls And thus much for the point of Honor. The second Grievance I will recommend to your views is The carriage of our Wars the excessive charges vainly spent therein the unworthiness of the people imployed the grave and experienced neglected the designs not warranted by reason and discretion and the executions worse performed with many other circumstances that depend upon it But before I proceed herein I must crave leave to speak to two Points The one to declare the property and condition of Impostors and Deceivers of Princes In the other I must clear the House of Parliament of an Imputation cast upon it Abusers of Princes are they that perswade them to War to become poor when they may live in Peace and become rich when they may be loved cause them to be hated when they may enjoy their lives surely put them in hazard of cross fortune rashly and lastly having
ad idem dash not the Common-wealth twice against one Rock We have Grievances we must be eased of them who shall ease us No Nation hath a people more loving to the King then we but let the King think it and believe it there is a distance betwixt him and us before we can have his heart we must remove it Our disease is not so great but that it may be cured it is the Kings Evil which must be cured with Gold let us imitate Iacob who wrestled with the Angel and would not let him go I would we could wrestle with the King in duty and love and not to let him go in this Parliament till he comply with us We must take heed of too much repetition and over-beating of Grievances it is dangerous and it may make a further separation He that talks too much of his Grievance makes the party that is the cause of it make an apology and to justifie it and that is dangerous let us do as Poets in a Tragedy that sometimes have Comical Passages and so a generous mind will sink presently Sure a due presentation of such Grievances to such a King with moderation will take place with him In all deliberations go the safest way The old way I have heard is first to remove Grievances we must not ty and bind our selves by all that was done before I have gone over the Thames in former times on foot when it was all an Ice but that is no argument to perswade me by to do the like now because I did so once THe House waving the Debate of the Propositions proceeded with Grievances by Confinement and Designation for forain imployment in which points several Gentlemen delivered their opinion COnfinement is different from Imprisonment and it is against the Law that any should be confined either to his House or elswhere I know not what you can call a Punishment but there is some ground of it or mention thereof in Acts of Parliament Law-books or Records but for this of Confinement I finde none indeed Jews have been confined in former times to certain places as here in London to the old Iury The Civilians have perpetual Prisons and coercive Prisons upon Judgements in Court Carcer domesticus is a confinement for madmen I Was imployed in 88. in that service it was then thought fit that Recusants should be confined in strong places but it was not held legal and when the Navy was dispiersed they were set at liberty and the Parliament petitioned the Queen for a Law to warrant the Confinement Hereupon it was resolved That no freeman ought to be confined by any command of the King or Privy Councel or any other unless it be by Act of Parliament or by other due course or warrant of Law And then the House proceeded to the Debate concerning Designation to forain Imployment TOuching Designation to forain Imployment Sir Peter Hayman opened his own Case I have forgot my imployment unto the Palatinate I was called before the Lords of the Councel for what I know not I heard it was for not lending on a Privy Seal I told them if they will take my Estate let them I will give it up give I will not When I was before the Lords of the Councel they laid to my Charge my unwillingness to serve the King I said I had my Life and my Estate to serve my Countrey and my Religion They put upon me if I did not pay I should be put upon an imployment of Service I was willing after ten weeks waiting they told me I was to go with a Lord into the Palatinate and that I should have imployment there and means befitting I told them I was a Subject and desired means some put on very eagerly some dealt nobly they said I must go on my own purse I told them Nemo militat suis expensis some told me I must go I began to think What must I none were ever sent out in that kinde Lawyers told me I could not be so sent having that assurance I demanded means and was resolved not to stir upon those tearms and in silence and duty I denied upon this they having given me a Command to go after some twelve days they told me they would not send me as a Soldier but to attend on an Ambassador I knew that stone would hit me I setled my troubled estate and addressed my self to that Service THis is a great Point that much concerns the Commonwealth if the the King cannot command a Subject to his necessary service and on the other side it will be little less then an honorable banishment to the Subject if he may Our Books say the King cannot compel any to go out of the Realm and an action brought against him he cannot plead in Bar that he is by command from the King in forein service but the King may give him his protection 5 E. 3. N. 9. in the Parliament Roll there was an Ordinance whereby the King had power to send some to Ireland it is ordained that such Sages of the Law and Soldiers where need shall be though they refuse to go and excuse themselves if their excuses be not reasonable the King may do to them according to right and reason If the King by Law could do this of himself and send them to Ireland his own Dominion he would never have taken power from his Parliament and if men do not according to that Law there is no imprisonment prescribed NO restraint be it never so little but is Imprisonment and forain imployment is a kind of honorable Banishment I my self was designed to go to Ireland I was willing to go and hoped if I had gone to have found some Mompessons there There is a difference when the Party is the Kings servant and when not 46 E. 3. this was the time when the Law was in its height Sir Richard Pembridge was a Baron and the Kings Servant and Warden of the Cinque-ports he was commanded to go to Ireland and to serve as Deputy there which he refused He was not committed but the King was highly offended and having Offices and Fees and Lands pro servitio suo impenso the King seized his Lands and Offices I went to the Parliament Roll 47. E. 3. where I found another precedent for forain imployment they that have Offices pro consilio or servitio impenso if they refuse those Lands and Offices so given are seized but no commitment IF any man owes a man displeasure and shall procure him to be put into forain imployment it will be a matter of high concernment to the Subject We know the Honor and Justice of the King but we know not what his ministers or the mediation of Ambassadors may do to work their own wrath upon any man IF you grant this Liberty what are you the better by other priviledges what difference is there between imprisonment at home and constrained imployment
yet acknowledged that the seven Statutes urged by the House of Commons are in force yet said that some of them are in general words and therefore conclude nothing but are to be expounded by Precedents and some of them are applied to the suggestion of Subjects and not to the Kings command simply of its self and that per legem terrae in Magna Charta cannot be understood for process of Law and original Writs for that in Criminal proceedings no original Writ is usual at all but every Constable either for Felony or breach of the Peace or to prevent the breach of the Peace may commit without Process or original Writ it were very hard the King should not have the power of a Constable They also argued That the King was not bound to express the cause of Imprisonment because there may be in it matter of State not fit to be revealed for a time lest the confederates thereupon make means to escape the hands of Justice Besides that which the Commons do say that the party ought to be delivered or bailed is a contradiction in its self for bayling doth signifie a kinde of Imprisonment still Delivery is a total freeing And besides bayling is a grace or favor of a Court of Justice and they may refuse to do it To this it was replyed That the Statutes were direct in Point and though some of them speak of suggestions of the Subjects yet they are in equal reason a commitment by command of the King as when the King taketh notice of a thing himself And for the words per legem terrae original Writs onely are not intended but all other legal process which comprehendeth the whole proceedings of the Law upon Cause other then trial by Jury and the course of the Law is rendred by due process of the Law and no man ought to be imprisoned by special command without indictment or other due process to be made by the Law And whereas it is said there might be danger in revealing the Cause that may be avoided by declaring a general Cause as for Treason suspicion of Treason misprision of Treason Felony without expressing the particulars which can give no greater light to a confederate then will be conceived upon the very apprehension upon the imprisonment if nothing at all were expressed And as for the bayling of the party committed it hath ever been the discretion of the Judges to give so much respect to a commitment by the command of the King or the privy Councel which are ever intended to be done in just and weighty Cases that they will not presently set them free but bail them to answer what shall be objected against them on the Kings behalf but if any other inferior Officer do commit a man without shewing cause they do instantly deliver him as having no cause to expect their leasure so that Delivery is applyed to the imprisoned by command of some mean minister of Justice Bailing when it is done by command of the King or his Councel and though Bailing is a grace and favor of the Court in case of Felony and other crimes for that there is another way to discharge them in convenient time by their trial but where no cause of imprisonment is returned but the command of the King there is no way to deliver such persons by trial or otherwise but that of the Habeas Corpus and if they should be then remanded they might be perpetually imprisoned without any remedy at all and consequently a man that had committed no offence might be in a worse case then a greater offender for the latter should have an ordinary trial to discharge him the other should never be delivered MAster Selden of the Inner-Temple argued next first making this Introduction Your Lordships have heard from the Gentleman that last spake a great part of the grounds upon which the House of Commons upon mature deliberation proceeded to that clear resolution touching the right of liberty of their persons The many Acts of Parliament which are the written Laws of the Land and are expresly in the Point have bin read and opened and such Objections as have been by some made unto them and Objections also made out of another Act of Parliament have been cleared and answered It may seem now perhaps my Lords that little remains needful to be further added for the enforcement and maintenance of so fundamental and established a Right and Liberty belonging to every freeman of the Kingdom The House of Commons taking into consideration that in this question being of so high a nature that never any exceeded it in any Court of Justice whatsoever all the several ways of just examination of the Truth should be used have also most carefully informed themselves of all former Judgements or Precedents concerning this great Point either way and have been no less careful of the due preservation of his Majesties just Prerogative then of their own Rights The Precedents here are of two kinds either meerly matter of Record or else the former resolutions of the Judges after solemn debate in the Point This Point that concerns Precedents the House of Commons have commanded me to present to your Lordships which I shall as briefly as I may so I do it faithfully and perspicuously to that end my Lords before I come to the particulars of any of those Precedents I shall first remember to your Lordships that which will seem as a general key for the opening and true apprehension of all them of record without which key no man unless he be verst in the entries and course of the Kings Bench can possibly understand In all cases my Lords where any Right or Liberty belongs to the Subjects by any positive Law written or unwritten if there were not also a remedy by Law for enjoying or regaining of this Right or Liberty when it is violated or taken from him the positive Law were most vain and to no purpose and it were to no purpose for any man to have any right in any Land or other Inheritance if there were not a known remedy that is an Action or Writ by which in some Court of ordinary Justice he might recover it And in this case of Right of Liberty of Person if there were not a remedy in the Law for regaining it when it is restrained it were of no purpose to speak of Laws that ordain it should not be restrained The Writ of Habeas Corpus or Corpus cum causa is the highest remedy in Law for any man that is imprisoned and the onely remedy for him that is imprisoned by the special command of the King or the Lords of the pâ—ivy Councel without shewing cause of the commitment and if any mâ—n be so imprisoned by any such Command or otherwise whatsoever though England and desire by himself or any other in his behalf this Writ of Hab. Corp. for the purpose in the Court of Kings Bench that Writ is to be granted to him
do verily believe he doth very well understand what a miserable power it is which hath produced so much weakness to Himself and to the Kingdom And it is one happiness that he is so ready to redress it For mine own part I shall be very glad to see that old decrepite Law Magna Charta which hath been so long kept and lien bed-rid as it were I shall be glad to see it walk abroad again with new vigor and lustre attended and followed with the other six Statutes questionless it will be a great heartning to all the people I doubt not but upon a debating conference with the Lords we may happily fall upon a fair fit accommodation concerning the Liberty of our Persons and Propriety of our Goods I hope we may have a Bill to agree in the point against imprisonment for Loans or privy Seals As for intrinsecal power and reason of State they are matters in the Clouds where I desire we may leave them and not meddle with them at all left by the way of admittance we may lose somewhat of that which is our own already Yet this by the way I will say of reason of State That in the latitude by which 't is used it hath eaten out almost not onely the Laws but all the Religion of Christendom Now I will onely remember you of one Precept and that of the wisest man Be not over wise be not over just and he gives his reason for why wilt thou be desolate If Justice and Wisdom may be stretcht to desolation let us thereby learn that Moderation is the Vertue of Vertues and Wisdom of Wisdoms Let it be our Master-piece so to carry the business that we may keep Parliaments on foot For as long as they be frequent there will be no irregular Power which though it cannot be broken at once yet in short time it will be made and mouldred away there can be no total or final loss of Liberties as long as they last What we cannot get at one time we shall have at another Upon this debate it was ordered That a Committee of Lawyers do draw a Bill containing the substance of Magna Charta and the other Statutes that do concern the Liberty of the Subject which business took up two whole days Thursday the first of May. MAster Secretary Cook delivers a Message from his Majesty viz. to know whether the House will rest on his Royal Word or no declared to them by the Lord Keeper which if they do he assures them it shall be Royally performed Upon this there was a silence for a good space Then Mr. Secretary Cook proceeded This silence invites me to a further Speech and further to address my self Now we see we must grow towards an issue for my part how confident I have been of the good issue of this Parliament I have certified in this place and elsewhere and I am still confident therein I know his Majesty is resolved to do as much as ever King did for his Subjects All this Debate hath grown out of the sense of our Sufferings and a desire of making up again those Breaches that have been made Since this Parliament begun hath there been any dispence made of that which hath formerly been done when means were denied his Majesty being a yong King and newly come to his Crown which he found ingaged in a War what could we expect in such Necessities His Majesty called this Parliament to make up the Breach His Majesty assures us we shall not have the like cause to complain He assures the Laws shall be established what can we desire more all is that we provide for Posterity and that we do prevent the like suffering for the future Were not the same means provided by them before us can we do more we are come to the Liberty of the Subjects and the Prerogative of the King I hope we shall not adde any thing to our selves to depress him I will not divine I think we shall finde difficulty with the King or with the Lords I shall not deliver my opinion as Counsellor to his Majesty which I will not justifie and say here or at the Councel Board Will we in this necessity strive to bring our selves into a better Condition and greater Liberty then our Fathers had and the Crown into a worse then ever I dare not advise his Majesty to admit of that if this that we now desire be no Innovation it is all contained in those Acts and Statutes and whatsoever else we would adde more is a diminution to the Kings Power and an addition to our own We deal with a wise and prudent Prince that hath a Sword in his hand for our good and this good is supported by Power Do not think that by Cases of Law and Debate we can make that not to be Law which in experience we every day finde necessary make what Law you will if I do discharge the place I bear I must commit men and must not discover the Cause to any Jaylor or Judge if I by this Power commit one without just Cause the burthen falls heavy on me by his Majesties displeasure and he will remove me from my place Government is a solid thing and must be supported for our good Sir Robert Philips hereupon spake this That if the words of Kings strike impressions in the hearts of Subjects then do these words upon this occasion strike an impression into the hearts of us all to speak in a plain language we are now come to the end of our journey and the well disposing of an Answer to this Message will give happiness or misery to this Kingdom Let us set the Commonwealth of England before the eyes of his Majesty that we may justifie our selves that we have demeaned our selves dutifully to his Majesty And so the day following they had further Debate upon that matter the House being turned into a Grand Committee and Mr. Herbert in the Chair Some say that the Subject has suffered more in the violation of ancient Liberties within these few years then in Three hundred years before and therefore care ought to be taken for the time to come Sir Edward Cook said That that Royal word had reference to some Message formerly sent his Majesties word was That they may secure themselves any way by Bill or otherwise he promised to give way to it and to the end that this might not touch his Majesties Honor it was proposed that the Bill come not from the House but from the King We will and grant for us and our Successors and that we and our Successors will do thus and thus and it is the Kings Honor he cannot speak but by Record Others desired the House to consider when and where the late promise was made was it not in the face of both Houses Cruel Kings have been careful to perform their promises yea though they have been unlawful as Herod Therefore if we rest upon his Majesties promise
House fearing a sudden dissolution fell into consideration of the weak estate of the Kingdom and of our Friends and Allies abroad of the great strength of the House of Austria and the King of Spains ambition aspiring to an universal Monarchy and his present great preparations for war Hereupon the House was moved to name a select Committee to represent these things to his Majesty with the danger like to insue to this Kingdom if the Parliament be dissolved without a happy conclusion But being satisfied by the Lords of the privy Councel that there was no such cause of fear as the House apprehended the naming of a Committee was for that time deferred Having met in our Collections with a Letter of Mr. Allureds to old Mr. Chamberlain of the Court of Wards and being a concurrent proof to the Passages this day in the House We have thought fit here to mention it viz. Sir YEsterday was a day of desolation among us in Parliament and this day we fear will be the day of our dissolution Upon Tuesday Sir John Elliot moâ—ed that as we intended to furnish his Majesty with money we should also supply him with Counsel which was one part of the occasion why we were sent by the Countrey and called for by his Majesty And since that House was the greatest Councel of the Kingdom where or when should his Majesty have better Counsel then from thence So he desired there might be a Declaration made to the King of the danger wherein the Kingdom stood by the decay and contempt of Religion the insufficiency of his Generals the unfaithfulness of his Officers the weakness of his Councels the exhausting of his Treasure the death of his men the decay of Trade the loss of Shipping the many and powerful Enemies the sew and the poor Friends we had abroad In the enumerating of which the Chancellor of the Dutchy said it was a strange language yet the House commanded Sir John Elliot to go on then the Chancellor desired if he went on that himself might go out whereupon they all bad him begon yet he stayed and heard him out and the House generally inclined to such a Declaration to be presented in an humble and a modesâ— manner not prescribing the King the way but leaving it to his Iudgment for reformation So the next day being Wednesday we had a Message from his Majesty by the Speaker that the Session should end on Wednesday and that therefore we should husband the time and dispatch the old businesses without entertaining new intending to pursue their Declaration they had this Message yesterday morning brought them which I have here inclosed sent you which requiring not to casâ— or lay any aspersion upon any Minister of his Majesty the house was much affected to be so restrained since the House in former times had proceeded by finding and committing John of Gaunt the Kings Son and others and of late have medled with and sentenced the Lord Chancellor Bacon and the Lord Treasurer Cranfield Then Sir Robert Philips spake and mingled his words with weeping Mr. Prynne did the like and Sir Edward Cook overcome with passion seeing the desolation likely to ensue was forced to sit down when he began to speak through the abundance of tears yea the Speaker in his Speech could not refrain from weeping and shedding of tears besides a great many whose great griefs made them dumb and silent yet some bore up in that storm and incouraged others In the end they desired the Speaker to leave the Chair and Mr. Whitby was to come into it that they might speak the freer and the frequenter and commanded no man to go out of the House upon pain of going to the Tower Then the Speaker humbly and earnestly besought the House to give him leave to absent himself for half an hour presuming they did not think he did it for any ill intention which was instantly granted him then upon many Debates about their Liberties hereby infringed and the eminent danger wherein the Kingdom stood Sir Edward Cook told them he now saw God had not accepted of their humble and moderate carriages and fair proceedings and the rather because he thought they dealt not sincerely with the King and with the Countrey in making a true Representation of the causes of all these miseries which now he repented himself since things were come to this pass that he did it not sooner and therefore he not knowing whether ever he should speak in this House again would now do it freely and there protested that the author and cause of all those miseries was the Duke of Buckingham which was entertained and answered with a chearful acclamation of the House as when one good Hound recovers the scent the rest come in with a full cry so they pursued it and every one came on home and laid the blame where they thought the fault was and as they were Voting it to the Question whether they should name him in their intended Remonstrance the Sole or the Principall cause of all their miseries at home and abroad The Speaker having been three hours absent and with the King returned with this Message That the House should then rise being about eleven a clock and no Committees stould sit in the afternoon till to morrow morning What we shall expect this morning God of Heaven knows We shall meet timely this morning partly for the businesse sake and partly because two days since we made an Order that whosoever comes in after prayers payes twelve pence to the poor Sir excuse my hast and let us have your prayers whereof both you and we have here need So inscribling haste I rest Affectionately at your service Thomas Alured This 6. of June 1628. The Message mentioned in this Letter of the 6. of Iune is already before expressed Friday 6. Iune Mr. Speaker brings another Message from the King the day following IN my service to this House I have had many undeserved favours from you which I shall ever with all humbleness acknowledge but none can be greater then that testimony of your confidence yesterday shewed unto me whereby I hope I have done nothing or made any representation to his Majesty but what is for the honour and service of this House and I will have my tongue cleave to my mouth before I will speak to the disadvantage of any Member thereof I have now a Message to deliver unto you Whereas his Majesty understanding that ye did conceive his last Message to restrain you in your just Priviledges to complain of any of his Ministers These are to declare his intentions that he had no meaning of barring you from what hath been your Right but only to avoid all scandals on his Councel and Actions past and that his Ministers might not be nor himself under their names taxed for their Counsel unto his Majesty and that no such particulars should be taken in hand as would ask a longer time of consideration then what
well-beloved Sir VVilliam Balfoure Knight and Iohn Dolbier Esquire or either of them for levying and providing certain numbers of Horses with Armes for Horse and Foot to be brought over into this Kingdome for our service viz. for the levying and transporting of one thousand Horse fifteen thousand pounds for five thousand Muskets five thousand Corslets and five thousand Pikes ten thousand five hundred pounds and for one thousand Curaseers compleat two hundred Corslets and Carbines four thousand five hundred pounds amounting in the whole to the said summe of thirty thousand pounds And this our letter shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalf Given under our Privy Seal at our Palace of Westminster the 30th of Ianuary in the third year of our Reign Iune the seventh the King came to the Lords House and the House of Commons were sent for And the Lord Keeper presented the humble Petition of both Houses and said MAy it please your most excellent Majesty the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons in Parliament assembled taking into consideration that the good intelligence between your Majesty and your people doth much depend upon your Majesties answer unto their Petition of Right formerly presented With unanimous consent do now become most humble Suitors unto your Majesty that you would be pleased to give a clear and satisfactory answer thereunto in full Parliament Whereunto the King replyed The answer I have already given you was made with so good deliberation and approved by the judgements of so many wise men that I could not have imagined but it should have given you full satisfaction But to avoid all ambiguous interpretations and to shew you there is no doublenesse in my meaning I am willing to pleasure you as well in words as in substance read your Petition and you shall have an answer that I am sure will please you The Petition was read and this answer was returned Soit droit fait come il est desire C. R. This I am sure said his Majesty is full yet no more then I granted you in my first Answer for the meaning of that was to confirm your liberties knowing according to your own Protestations that ye neither meane nor can hurt my Prerogative And I assure you my Maxime is That the Peoples Liberties strengthen the Kings Prerogative and the Kings Prerogative is to defend the Peoples Liberties You see how ready I have shewed my self to satisfie your demands so that I have done my part Wherefore if this Parliament have not a happy conclusion the sin is yours I am free from it Whereupon the Commons returned to their own House with unspeakable joy and resolved so to proceed as to expresse their thankfulnesse and now frequent mention was made of proceeding with the Bill of subsidies of sending the Bills which were ready to the Lords of perfecting the Bill of Tunnage and Poundage and Sir Iohn Strangeâ—â—ies also expressed his joy at the answer and further added Let us perfect our Remonstrance King Iames was wont to say He knâ—w that by Parliaments which otherwise he could never have known After the granting of the Petition of Right the House ordered that the Grand Committees for Religion Trade Grievances and Courts of Justice to sit no longer but that the House proceed only in the consideration of Grievances of most moment And first they fell upon the Commission for Excise and sent to the Lord Keeper for the same who returned answer that he received Warrant at the Councel Table for the sealing thereof and when it was Sealed he carried it back to the Councel Table The Commission being sent it was read in the House viz. CHarles By the Grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To Sir Thomas Coventry Knight Lord Keeper of the Great Seale of England To James Earl of Malburg Lord High Treasurer or England Henry Earl of Manchester Lord President of our Councel Edward Earl of Worcester Lord Keeper of our Privy Seal George Duke of Buckingham Lord high Admiral of England William E. of Pembrook Lord Steward of Our Houshold Philip Earl of Mountgomery Lord Chamberlain of Our Houshold Theophilus Earl of Suffolk Edward Earl of Dorset William Earl of Salisbury Thomas Earl of Exeter John Earl of Bridgwater James Earl of Carlisle Henry Earl of Holland William Earl of Denbigh George Earl of Totnes Sir George Hay Kt. Lord Chancellor of Scotland William Earl of Morton Thomas Earl of Kelley Thomas Earl of Mellers Edward Uiscount Conway one of our principal Secretaries of State Edward Uiscount Wimbleton Oliver Uiscount Grandison Henry Falkland Lord Deputy of Ireland To the Lord Bp. of Winchester Wil. Lord Bp. of Bath and Wells Fulk Lo. Brook Dudley Ash Lord Carlton Uice Chamberlain of Our Houshold Sir Thomas Edmonds Treasurer of our Houshold Sir John Savil Controler of Our Houshold Sir Robert Nanton Master of the Court of Wards Sir John Cook one of the principal Secretaries of State Sir Richard Weston Chancellour and under Treasurer of our Exchequer Julius Caesar Master of the Rolls and Sir Humphrey May Kt. Chancellour of Our Dutchy of Lancaster Greeting Whereas the presâ—nt Conjuncture of the general affairs of Christendom and our own particular interest in giving assistance unto our oppressed Allies and for providing for the defence and safety of our own Dominions and People do call upon Us to neglect nothing that may conduce to those good ends And because Monies the principal sinâ—ws of War and one of the first and chiefest movers in all great Preparations and Actions are necessary to be provided in the first place and We are carefull the same may be raised by such ways as may best stand with the State of Our Kingdoms and Subjects and yet may answer the pressing occasions of the present times We therefore out of the experience We have had and for the trust we repose in your wisdoms fidelities and dutifull care of your service And for the experience we have of all great Causes concerning us and our State both as they have relation to Foraine parts abroad and as to our Common-wealth and People at home Ye being persons called by us to be of Our Privy Councel have thought sit amongst those great and important matters which so much concern us in the first and chiefest place to recommend this to your special care and diligence And we do hereby authorise and appoint and strictly will and require you that speedily and seriously you enter into consideration of all the best and speediest ways and means ye can for raising of Monies for the most Important occasions aforesaid UUhich without extreamest hazard to Us our Dominions and People and to our Friends and Allies can admit of no long delay the same to be done by Impositions or othâ—rwise as in your wisdoms and best Iudgments ye shall find to be most convenient in a case of this inevitable necessity wherein Form â—nd
agreed in one that he ought not by the Law to be tortured by the Rack for no such punishment is known or allowed by our Law And this in case of Treason was brought into this Kingdom in the time of Henry 6. note Fortescue for this Point in his Book de laudibus legum Angliae see the preamble of the Act 28. H. 8. for the Trial of Fellony where Treasons are done upon the Sea and Statute 14. Edw. 3. Ch. 9. of Jaylours or Keepers who by duresse make the prisoners to be approvers Since the last Session of Parliament certain Merchant who traded in Wines had been committed to the Fleet for the non-payment of an Imposition of 20. s. the Tun and were now at liberty upon their entring into bond for the payment of that Imposition Moreover the King in full Councel declared his absolute will and pleasure to have the entry of 2. s. 2. d. the hundred upon all Currens to be satisfied equally with that of 3. s. 4. d. before the landing of that Commodity it being a duty laid by Queen Elizabeth who first gave being to the Levant Company and which had been paid both in his Fathers time and his own and that their Majesties were equally possessed of the whole summe of 5. s. 6. d. the hundred by a solemn and Legal Judgement in the Exchequer and he straightly charged his Councel to examine the great abuse in this point and to make a full reparation to his Honour by inflicting punishment as well upon Officers as Merchants that for the future they may beware of committing such contempts And Divers Merchants of London having forcibly Landed and endeavoured to carry away their Goods and Merchandises from the Custom-house Key without payment of duties were summoned to the Councel-table And the Councel was informed against them that they had caused great and unlawful assemblies of people to be gathered together to the breach of the Kings Peace and Mr. Chambers was committed to prison by the Lords of the Councel for some words spoken at that time Michaelmas 4. Car. Richard Chambers being in Prison in the Marshalsie Del hostel de Roy desired an Habeas Corpus and had it which being returable upon the 16. day of October the Marshall returned that he was committed to prison the 28. day of Septemb. last by command of the Lords of the Councel The Warrant verbatim was That he was committed for insolent behaviour and words spoken at the Councel-Table which was subscribed by the Lord Keeper and twelve others of the Councel The words were as information was given though not expressed in the Return That such great Customes and Impositions were required from the Merchants in England as were in no other place and that they were more screwed up then under the Turk And because it was not mentioned what the words were so as the Court might adjudge of them the Return was held insufficient and the Warden of the Prison advised to amend his Return and he was by Rule of the Court appointed to bring his prisoner by such a day without a new Habeas Corpus and the Prisoner was advised by the Court That in the mean time he should submit to the Lords and Petition them for his enlargement The Warden of the Prison bringing the Prisoner in again in Court the 23. day of October Then Mr. Iermin for the Prisoner moved That forasmuch as it appeared by the Return that he was not committed for Treason or Felony nor doth it appear what the words were whereto he might give answer he therefore prayed he might be dismissed or bailed But the Kings Attourney moved That he might have day untill the 25. of October to consider of the Return and be enformed of the words and that in the interim the Prisoner might attend the Councel-Table and Petition But the Prisoner affirmed that he oftentimes had assayed by Petition and could not prevail although he had not done it since the beginning of October and he prayed the Justice of the Law and the inheritance of a Subject Whereupon at his importunity the Court commanded him to be bailed and he was bound in a Recognizance of four hundred pounds and four good Merchants his Sureties were bound in Recognizance of one hundred pound a piece that he should appear here in Crastino animarum and in the interim should be of the good behaviour And advertized him they might for contemptuous words cause an Indictment or Information in this Court to be drawn against him if they would The Lords of the Councel were much dissatisfied with the Bailing of Chambers Whereupon the Judges were â—ent for to the Lord Keeper at Durham House where were present besides the Lord-Keeper the Lord Treasurer Lord Privy Seal and the Chancellor of the Dutchy And the Lord Keeper then declared unto them that the said enlargement of Chambers was without due regard had to the Privy Councel in not first acquainting them therewith To this the Judges answered that to keep a fair correspondency with their Lordships they had by the Lord Chief-Justice acquainted the Lord Keeper in private therewith before they baild the party And that what they had done as to the bailing of the prisoner was according to Law and Justice and the conscience of the Judges To this it was replied that it was necessary for the preservation of the State that the power and dignity of the Councel Table should be preserved and that it could not be done without correspondency from the Courts of Justice so they parted in very fair tearms On Thursday the 27. of November Felton was removed from the Tower to the Gate-house in order to his tryal and was the same day brought by the Sheriffs of London to the Kings-bench Bar and the indictment being read he was demanded whether he were guilty of the murder therein mentioned he answered he was guilty in killing the Duke of Buc. and further said that he did deserve death for the same though he did not do it out of malice to him So the Court passed sentence of death upon him whereupon he offered that hand to be cut off that did the fact but the Court could not upon his own offer inflict that further punishment upon him neverthelesse the King sent to the Judges to intimate his desire that his hand might be cut off before execution but the Court answered that it could not be for in all murthers the Judgement was the same unlesse when the Statute of 25. E. 3. did alter the nature of the offence and upon a several indictment as it was in Queen Elizabeths time when a Felon at the Bar flung a stone at a Judge upon the Bench for which he was indicted and his sentence was to have his hand cut off which was accordingly done and they also proceeded against him upon the other indictment for Felony for which he was found guilty and afterwards hanged and Felton was afterwards hung up
in these words We cannot safely give unless we be in possession and the proceedings in the Exchequer nullified as also the information in the Star-Chamber and the annexion to the Petition of Right for it will not be a gift but a confirmation neither will I give without the removal of these interruptions and a Declaration in the Bill that the King hath no right but by our free gift if it will not be accepted as it is fit for us to give we cannot help it if it be the Kings already we do not give it Hereupon the House ordered that the Barons of the Exchequer be sent unto to make void their injunction and order concerning the staying of Merchants goods to which the Barons returned this answer Whereas the Honourable House of Commons by order of the 12. of this instant February have appointed that notice shall be given to the Lord Treasurer Chancellor Barons of the Exchequer of a Declaration made by Sir Iohn VVolstenholme Abrah Dawes and Rich. Carmarthan in the House of Commons that the goods that the Merchants brought into the Kings Store-house and laid up there for his Majesties use were detained as they conceive onely for the duty of Tunnage and Poundage and other sums comprized in the Book of rates which notice was given to the end the said Court of Exchequer might further proceed therein as to justice shall appertain Now the Lord Treasurer Chancellour and Barons out of their due respect to that honourable House and for their satisfaction do signifie that by the Orders and Injunctions of the said Court of Exchequer they did not determine nor any way touch upon the right of Tunnage and Poundage and so they declared openly in Court at the making of these Orders neither did they by the said Orders or Injunctions barr the Owners of those goods to sue for the same in a lawful course but whereas the said Owners endeavoured to take the same goods out of the Kings actual possession by Writs or Plaints of Replevin which was no lawful action or course in the Kings case nor agreeable to his Royal Prerogative therefore the said Court of Exchequer being the Court for ordering the Kings Revenue did by those Orders and Injunctions stay those Suits and did fully declare by the said Orders that the owners if they conceived themselves wronged might take such remedy as the Law alloweth Richard Weston Iohn Walter Tho. Trevor Lo. Newburgh Iohn Denham George Vernon The Answer of the Lord Treasurer and Barons instead of satisfaction expected by the House was looked upon as a justification of their Actions whereupon a motion was made to go on to consider of their proceedings and whether ever the Court of Exchequer held this course before for staying of Replevins and whether this hath been done by Prerogative of the King in his Court of Exchequer A report was made from the Committee concerning the pardons granted by the King since the last Session to certain persons questioned in Parliament and the reporter informed the House that they do finde upon examination that Dr. Sibthorpe and Mr Cosens did solicite the obtaining of their own pardons and that they said the Bishop of Winchester would get the Kings hand to them and it did also appear to the Committee that the Bishop of Winchester did promise the procuring of Mr. Montagues pardon that Dr. Manwaring solicited his own pardon and that the Bishop of Winchester got the Kings hand to it Mr. Oliver Cromwell being of this Committee informed the House what countenance the Bishop of Winchester did give to some persons that preached flat Popery and mentioned the persons by name and how by this Bishops means Manwaring who by censure the last Parliament was disabled for ever holding any Ecclesiasticall dignity in the Church and confessed the Justice of that Censure is nevertheless preferred to a rich Living If these be the steps to Church preferment said he what may we expect A Petition from the Booksellers and Printers in London was also presented complaining of the restraint of Books written against Popery and Arminianism and the contrary allowed of by the only means of Dr. Laud Bishop of London and that divers of the Printers and Booksellers have been sent for by Pursuivants for â—rinting Books against Popery and that Licensing is only restrained to the Bishop of London and his Chaplains and instanced in certain Books against Popery which were denyed to be Licenced Upon which occasion Mr. Selden declared that it is true there is no Law to prevent the Printing of any Books in England only a Decree in Star-Chamber and he advised that a Law might be made concerning Printing otherwise he said a man might be Fined Imprisoned and his Goods taken from him by vertue of the said Decree which is a great Invasion upon the Liberty of the Subject The House of Commons being informed that an Information was preferred in the Star-Chamber against Richard Chambers and others concerning some matters that fell out about their refusal to pay Tunnage and Poundage since the last Session of Parliament because the same was not granted by Act of Parliament they referred the same to a Committee to examine the truth of their proceedings and that whither they ought not to have priviledge of Parliament in regard they had then a Petition depending in Parliament to protect them against the said proceedings and Sir William Acton Sheriff of London being examined before the Committee concerning some matters about the Customers and not giving that cleare Answer which he ought and as the House conceived he might have done was therefore committed to the Tower of London And a Question mas made in the House at that time whether the House had at any time before committed a Sheriff of London to prison to which Mr. Selden made Answer that he could not call to mind a president of sending one Sheriff of London to prison but he well remembred a president of sending both the Sheriffs of London to the Tower and instanced the Case Friday February 13. the Parliament fell into consideration of the great increase of Popery and it was moved to examine the releasing of the Jesuites that were arraigned at Newgate whereof one onely was condemned though they were ten in number and they all Priests and had a Colledge here in London about Clerken-well these men said some could not attempt these acts of boldness but that they have great countenancers Hereupâ—n Secretary Cook declared that a Minister of State having notice of these ten persons and this Colledge intended to be kept at Clarkenwell acquainted his Majesty with it and I should not discharge my duty if I should not declare how much his Mâ—jesty referred it to the especial care of the Lords of the Councel who examining the same sent those ten persons to Newgate and gave order to Mr. Attourney to prosecute the Law against them He further added
commitment was for notable contempts by him committed against Our Self and Our Government and for stirring up sedition against Us for which you are to detain him in your custody and to keep him close prisoner until Our pleasure be further known concerning his deliverance Given at Greenwich the 7 of May 1629. in the 5 yeer of Our Reign The direction being To the Marshal of Our Bench for the time being hae sunt causae captionis detentionis praedicti Gulielmi Stroud And upon another Habeas Corpus to the Marshal of the Houshold to have the Body of Walter Long Esq in Court it was returned according as the Return of Mr. Stroud was Mr. Ask of the Inner-Temple of Counsel for Mr. Stroud and Mr. Mason of Lincolns-Inn of Counsel for Mr. Long argued against the insufficiency of the Return which with the Arguments of the Kings Counsel we here forbear to mention lest it be too great a diversion to the Reader from the Historical part yet those and other Arguments we have nevertheless postponed at the end of this first Volume for the benefit of the Students of the Law which course as to Arguments in Law wherein the Prerogative of the one hand and Liberty and Propertie of the other hand are concerned we purpose to observe in our next and other Volumes as matter of that nature falls out in series of Time The seventh of May an Information was exâ—ibited in the Star-Chamber which because it is a remarkable Proceeding we give you here at large Iovis Septimo die Maii Anno Quinto Ca. R. To the Kings most excellent Majesty HUmbly sheweth and informeth unto Your most excellent Majesty Sir Robert Heath Knight Your Majesties Attorney General for and on Your Majesties behalf That whereas by the Ancient and Fundamental Laws of this Kingdom the high Court of Parliament consisteth of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Lords House and of the Knights Citizens and Burgesses in the Commons House of Parliament and those two Houses thus composed do together make up that great and honourable Body whereof Your most excellent Majesty as the supreme Soveraign is the head and whereas the Power of summoning and assembling of Parliaments and of continuing proroguing adjourning and dissolving thereof within this Realm at Your good pleasure is the undoubted Right of your Majesty and the Liberty and Freedom of Speech which the Members of the said Houses of Parliament have according to the Priviledges of those several Houses to debate consult and determine of those things which are propounded amongst them is and ever hath been and ought to be limited and regulated within the bounds of Moderation and Modesty and of that Duty which Subjects owe to their Soveraign and whereas Your Majesty for many weighty Causes and for the general Good and Defence of the Church and State of this Your Kingdom lately summoned a Parliament to be holden at Your City of Westminster the seventeenth day of March in the third year of Your Majesties Reign which continued from thence by prorogation until the twentieth day of Ianuary last from which day until the twenty fifth day of February following the said Houses continued sitting And although the great part of the House of Commons being zealous of the Common Good did endeavour to have effected those good things for which they were called thither yet between the said twentieth day of Ianuary and the said twenty fifth day of February by the malevolent Disposition of some ill-affected Members of the said House sundry Diversions and Interruptions were there made and many Jealousies there unjustly raised and nourished to the disturbance of those orderly and Parliament proceedings which ought to have been in so grave a Council During which time of the said last meeting in Parliament as aforesaid so it is may it please your most excellent Majesty that Sir Iohn Elliot Knight then and all the time of the said Parliament being one of the Members of the said Commons House wickedly and malitiously intending under a feigned Colour and Pretence of debating the necessary Affairs of the present estate to lay a scandal and unjust Aspersion upon the right honorable the Lords and others of your Majesties most honourable Privy-Council and upon the reverend Judges and your Counsel learned and as much as in him lay to bring them into the hatred and ill opinion of the people after the said twentieth day of Ianuary and before the said twenty fifth day of February last did openly and publickly in the said House of Commons falsly and malitiously affirm That your Majesties Privy-Council all your Judges and your Counsel learned had conspired together to trample under their feet the Liberties of the said Subjects of this Realm and the priviledges of that House And further so it is may it please your most excellent Majesty that when your Majesty upon the twenty fifth day of February had by Sir Iohn Finch Knight then Speaker of the said house of Commons signified your Royal pleasure to the said house that the said house of Commons should be instantly adjourned until the second day of March then following he the said Sir Iohn Elliot and Denzil Holles Esquire Benjamin Valantine Gent. Walter Longe Esquire William Corriton Esquire William Strode Esquire Iohn Selden Esquire Sir Miles Hobert and Sir Peter Hayman Knights all Members at that time of the said Commons house conceiving with themselves that your Majesty being justly provoked thereto would speedily dissolve that Parliament They the said Sir Iohn Elliot Denzil Holles Benjamin Valentine Walter Longe William Corriton William Strode Iohn Selden Sir Miles Hobert and Sir Peter Hayman and every of them by unlawful Confederacie and Combination between them in that behalf before had did malitiously resolve agree and conspire how and by what means before that Parliament should be dissolved they might raise such false and scandalous rumours against your Majesties Government and your Counsellours of Estate attending your person that thereby as much as in them lyeth they might disturb the happy Government of this Kingdom by and under your Majesty interrupt the course of traffique and trade discourage your Merchants and raise Jealousies and Suspitions in the hearts of your people that the Sincerity of the true Religion professed and established in this Kingdom was neglected and in pursuance of this their Resolution and Confidence aforesaid the said Sir Iohn Elliot with the privitie and consent of the said Denzil Holles and all other the said confederates did prepare a paper or writing wherein he had written or caused to be written divers false and scandalous Assertions touching your Majesties Government and touching the persons of divers of your Privy-Council which he and they resolved and conspired and agreed should be delivered into the said house of Commons and there publickly read to the wicked and seditious intents and purposes aforesaid and not with any purpose or opinion that those things that were therein contained if
the Land had little effect in their execution to the increase of Murders Robberies Perjuries and Insecurities of all men living to the loss of their Lands and Goods to the great displeasure of Almighty GOD It was ordained for Reformation of the Premises by Authority of the said Parliament That the Chancellour and Treasurer of England for the time being and the Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King or two of them calling to them one Bishop one Lord temporal of the most honourable Council of the Lord the King and two chief Justices of the Kings Bench and Common pleas for the time being or two other Justices in their absence by Bill or Information exhibited to the Chancellour for the King or any other against any person for any other ill behaviours aforesaid have Authority of calling before them by Writ or Privie-Seal such Malefactors and of examining them and others by their discretion and of punishing such as they finde defective therein according to their demerits according to the form and effect of the Statutes thereof made in the same manner and form as they might and ought to be punished if they were thereof convinced according to the due course of Law And by a certain other Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the eighth held in the one and twentieth year of his reign reciting the offences in the aforesaid Statute of the said late King Henry the seventh beforementioned by Authority of the said Parliament it was and is ordained and enacted That henceforward the Chancellour Treasurer of England and the President of the most honourable Privy-Council of the King attending his most honourable person for the time being and the Lord Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King or two of them calling to them one Bishop and one temporal Lord of the most honourable Council of the Lord the King and two chief Justices of the Kings Bench and Common Pleas for the time being or two Justices in their absence by any Bill or Information then after to be exhibited to the Chancellour of England the Treasurer the President of the said most honourable Council of the Lord the King or the Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King for the time being for any misdemeanour in the aforesaid Statute of King Henry the seventh aforesaid before recited from henceforth have full power and authority of calling before them by Writ or by Privy-Seal such Malefactors of examining of them and others by their discretion and of punishing those that are found defective according to their demerits According to the form and effect of the said Statute of the aforesaid Lord King Henry the seventh and of all other Statutes thereupon made not revoked and expired in the same manner and form as they might and ought be punished if they were convicted according to the due order of the Laws of the said Lord the king And by the aforesaid Writ under the foot of the great Seal it manifesty appears that the said Fine was imposed by the Lord the king and his Council and not by the Legal Peers of the said Richard Chambers nor by the Law of the Land nor according to the manner of the pretended offence of the said Richard Chambers nor saving unto him his Merchandize nor for any offence mentioned in the said Statutes all and singular the which the said Richard Chambers is ready to verifie to the Court c. and demands judgment and that he be discharge of the said 2000 l. against the said Lord the now King and that as to the premises he may be dismissed from this Court Waterhouse With this Plea he annexed a Petition to the Lord Chief Baron and also to every one of the Barons humbly desiting the filing of the Plea with other Reasons in the manner of a motion at the Bar because he said Counsel would not move plead nor set hand to it as further appeareth The Copy of the Order upon Mr. Atturneys motion in the Exchequer the 17 Iuly 1629. after the Plea put in and order to file it Per the Lord Chief Baron TOuching the Plea put into this Court by Richard Chambers to discharge himself of a â—ine of 2000 l. set on him in the Star-Chamber Forasmuch as Sir Robert Heath Kniâ—â—â— his Majesties Atturney General informed this Court that the said Chambers in his said Plea recites divers Statutes and Magna Charta and what offences are punishable in the Star-Chamber and how the proceedings ought to be and upon the whole matter concludes That the said fine was imposed by the King and his Council and not by a Legal judgment of his Peers nor by the Laws of the Land nor according to the manner of his offence nor saving his Merchandize nor for any offence mentioned in the said Statutes Which Plea Mr. Atturny conceiving to be very frivolous and insufficient and derogatory to the honour and jurisdiction of the Court of Star-Chamber Humbly prayeth might not be allowed of nor filed It is therefore this day ordered That the said Plea shall be read on Saturday next and then upon hearing the Kings Counsel and the Counsel of the said Richard Chambers this Court will-declare their further order therein and in the mean time the said Plea is not to be filed nor delivered out In Michaelmas Term following Mr. Chambers was brought by a Habeas Corpus out of the Fleet and the Warden did return THat he was committed to the Fleet by vertue of a Decree in the Star-Chamber by reason of certain words he used at the Council Table viz. That the Merchants of England were skrewed up here in England more then in Turky And for these and other words of defamation of the Government he was censured to be committed to the Fleet and to be there imprisoned until he made his submission at the Council Table and to pay a fine of 2000. l. And now at the Bar he prayed to be delivered because this Sentence is not warranted by any Law or Statute For the Statute of 3 Henrici 7. which is the foundation of the Court of Star-Chamber doth not give them any authority to punish for words only But all the Court informed him That the Court of Star-Chamber was not erected by the Statute of 3 H. 7. but was a Court many years before and one of the most high and honourable Courts of Justice and to deliver one who was committed by the Decree of one of the Courts of Justice was not the usage of this Court and therefore he was remanded As a concurrant proof of these Proceedings concerning Mr. Chambers we shall insert here a Petition of his though out of time to the Long Parliament and afterwards renewed to the succeeding Parliament viz. To the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland The brief Remonstrance and humble Petition of Richard Chambers Merchant late Alderman and Sheriff of the City of
are but in the case of Premunire By the Statute of 13. Eliz. chap. 1. for the avoiding of contentious and seditious Titles to the Crown it is enacted by the said Statute That he that shall declare the Successor of the King shall forfeit the moity of his goods c. so that the said offence although it be seditious is not treason by the Common Law nor is made treason by the Statute of 25. E. 3. nor by the Statute of 13 Eliz. By the Statute of 23 Eliz. chap. 2. he that speaks seditious or slanderous news of the Queen shall lose his ears or pay 200 l. and the second offence is made Felony The Statute of 35 Eliz. chap. 1. 〈…〉 seditious Sectaries which absent themselves from the Church they are to be punished 10 l. by the month Out of all which Statutes it may be collected that the word Sedition is taken variously according to the subject in hand And C. 4. Lord Cromwell's case Seditious is referred to doctrine There are offences more high in their nature than sedition which were not treason unlesse so declared by act of Parliament Every rebellious act is sedition yet if such Acts be not within the Statute of 23 Ed. 3. they are not treason 17 R. 2. chap. 8. Insurrection of villains and others is not made treason which proves that before this Act it was not treason And this Act of 17 R. 2. is repealed by the Statute of 1 H. 4. By the Statute of 3 and 4 E. 6. chap. 5. to assemble people to alter the Lawes is made treason if they continue together an houre after Proclamation made This assembly of people was sedition at the Common Law and the very assembly if they after dissolve upon Proclamation made is not treason by the said Statute By the Statute of 14 Eliz. chap. 1. it is made Felony malitiously and rebelliously to hold from the Queen any Castles c. but because this relates not to the Statute of 25 E. 3. it is not treason 2. It seems clearly that this Case is within the Petition of Right in which Magna Charta and the Statutes of 25 and 28 E. 3. are recited The grievance there was That divers have been imprisoned without any cause shewed to which they might make answer according to the Law And upon this Return nothing appears to be objected to which he might answer It appears not what that Act which is called Sedition was This is the very grief intended to be remedied by this Statute To this he cannot answer according to Law It appears not whether this were a seditious act trespasse or slander or what it was at all The words are Sedition against the King This helps not for every offence is against the King against his Crown and dignity that which disturbs the Common-wealth is against the King seditious doctrine is sedition against the King as is before said In 28 H. 6. vide Postrat fol. 19. the Lords and Commons desire the King that William de la Pool may be committed for divers treasons and sundry other heinous crimes and the Petition held not good because too generall Whereupon they exhibit particular Articles against him And therefore upon the whole matter he concluded and prayed that Mr. Long might be discharged from his imprisonment On another day Barckley and Davenport the Kings Sergeants argued for the King That this Return was sufficient in Law to detain them in prison Barckley began and said That the case is new and of great weight and consequence and yet under favour the prerogative of the King and the liberty of the Subject are not mainly touched therein for the case is not so generall as it hath been made but particular upon this particular Return The liberty of the Subject is a tender point the right whereof is great just and inviolable The prerogative of the King is an high point to which every subject ought to submit I intend not to make any discourse of the one or the other I will onely remember what the King hath determined upon them both in his speech which he made upon the Petition of right to wit That the Peoples liberties strengthen the Kings prerogative and that the Kings prerogative is to defend the Peoples liberties Thi◠〈◊〉 settle the hearts of the people concerning their liberty The way which I intend to treat in my Argument is to answer to the objections and reasons which have been made and to give some reasons whereby this Return shall be sufficient The objections which have been made are reducible to four heads 1. By what the prisoner here shall be said to be committed and detained 2. That this Commitment is against the Petition of right 3. That the Cause which is here returned is generall and incertain 4. That the offences mentioned in the Return are but Finable and therefore notwithstanding them the party is bailable For the first it hath been objected that the commitment here was by the Lords of the Privy Councill and the signification of this cause is by the King himself But I say that there is a further matter in the Return for the Lords of the Councill do it by the command of the King and they onely pursue this command I will not dispute whether the Lords of the Councill have power to commit an offender or no it is common in experience 33 H. 6.28 Poignâ—â— case is expresse in it And in the Petition of right it is admitted that they may commit And this is not alledged there for a grievance but the grievance there was because the particular charge of commitment was not shewed Some Books have been objected to prove that the King though in person cannot commit any person 16 H. 6. F. Monstrance de faits 182. But the authority of that Book vanisheth if the case be put at large which was in trespasse for cutting of Trees The Defendant said That the place where c is parcell of the Mannor of D. whereof the King is seised in Fee and the King commands us to cut And the opinion of the Court was that this is no plea without shewing a specialty of the command of the King And there the whole Court saies That if the King command me to arrest a man whereby I arrest him he shall have trespasse or imprisonment against me although it be done in the presence of the King That the following words are to be understood as the principal case was of one command of the King by word and then such command by word to arrest a man is void And 1 H. 7.4 was objected Hussey saies that Markham said to King Edw. 4. that he cannot arrest a man for suspition of Treason or Felony because if he do wrong the party cannot have his action To this I say That the Book there is to be understood of a wrongfull arrest for there is spoken of an action of false imprisonment and a wrongfull arrest cannot be made by the
that it is but a Finable offence yet by the said Statute those which are imprisoned for open and notorious naughtinesse shall not be bayled the same naughtinesse is there intended high and exorbitant offence 2. It is fit to restrain the prisoners of their liberty that the Common-wealth be not damnifâ—ed It is lawfull to pull down a house to prevent the spreading mischief of fire it is lawfull to restrain a furious man And by the 14 H. 7. a Iustice of peace may restrain one rout Then the restraint of dangerous men to the Common-wealth is justifiable and necessary 24 E. 3.33 p. 25. Sir Thomas Figet went armed in the Palace which was shewed to the Kings Councell wherefore he was taken and disarmed before the chief Iustice shard and committed to the prison and he could not be bayled till the King sent his pleasure and yet it was shewed that the Lord of T. threatned him Out of which case I observe two things First that the Iudge of this Court did cause a man to be apprehended upon complaint made to the Council that is to the Lords of the Privy Council 2. That although he did nothing he is not mayn-pernable untill the King sent his pleasure because he was armed and furiously disposed So here UUherefore I pray that the Prisoners may be sent back again Davenport argued to the same intent and purpose and therefore I will report his Argument briefly 1. He said That the Return here is sufficient The Counsell on the other side have made fractions of this Return and divided it into severall parts whereas the genuine construction ought to have been made upon the entire Return for no violence ought to be offered to the Text. 7 E. 4.20 In false imprisonment the Defendant did iustifie and alledged severall reasons of his justification to wit because a man was killed and that this was in the County of S. and that the common voice and fame was that the Plaintiff was culpable And this was held a good plea although Bryan did there object That the plea was double or treble and the reason was because twenty causes of suspition make but one entire cause and indivisible unity in this ought not to be divided So C. 8.66 Crogates In an action of trespasse the Defendant justifies for severall causes and held good because upon the matter all of them make but one cause C. 8.117 It is said That it is an unjust thing unlesse the whole Law be looked into to judge and answer by propounding any one particular thereof and if it be unjust in the exposition of a Law it is uncivill in a Return to make fractions of it in the construction thereof especially it being a Return for Information and not for Accusation 2. Although the Counsell on the other side have taken this case to be within the Petition of Right yet this is Petitio principii to take that for granted which is the question in debate He said That he would not offer violence to the Petition of Right to which the King had assented and which shall really be performed But the question here is Whether this Return be within it and the Iudges are keepers not masters of this pledge and it seems that this Return is out of the letter and meaning of the said Statute 3. He said That this was the actuall commitment of the Lords of the Privy Councill and the habituall or virtuall commitment of the King But because upon these two matters he put no case nor gave any reason but what had been put or given in the Argument of the grand Habeas corpus Mich. 3 Caroli and afterwards in the House of Commons which was reported to the Lords in the painted Chamber all which Arguments I heard I have here omitted them And for the great respect which the Law gives to the commands of the King he put these cases 7 H. 3. Attachment of waste against the Tenant in Dower and the waste was assigned in the taking of fish out of a pond and the carrying them away The Defendant pleaded That her second husband by the command of the Lord the King took all the fish out of the said pond to the use of the Lord the King and held a good justification which proves that the command of the King there to her husband excused her of the said waste And yet it is clear that Tenant in Dower is liable to an action of waste for waste done in the time of her second husband But contrary is it where a woman is Tenant for life and took a husband who made waste and dyed no action lies against the wife for that waste And F. N. B. 17. A. If the Tenant in precipe at the grand cape makes default the King may send a UUrit to the Iustices rehearsing that he was in his service c. commanding them that that default be not prejudiciall to him and this command of the King excuseth his default be the cause true or no. 4. For the particulars of the Return it is for notable contempts against the Government But as to that it hath been said that the King hath sundry governments to wit Ecclesiasticall Politicall c. and it is not shewn against which of them This is but a cavilling exception they might as well have excepted to this Return because it is not shewen that these contempts were after the last generall Pardon that had been a better exception The last words of the Return are raising sedition against Us But as to this it hath been said That Seditio is not a word known in the Law and is alwaies taken either Adverbially or Adjectively and is not a Substantive To this he said That although it is not a Substantive for the preservation yet it is a Substantive for the destruction of a Kingdom And he said that he found the word Seditio in the Law and the consequent of it likewise which is seductio populi But it is not ever found to be taken in a good sense it is alwaies ranked and coupled with treason rebellion insurrection or such like as it appears by all those Statutes which have been remembred on the other side Therefore he prayed likewise that the Prisoners might be sent back Trin. 5 Car. B. R. THe first day of the Term upon Habeas Corpus to Sir Allen Apsley the Lieutenant of the Tower to bring here the body of John Selden Esq with the cause of detention He returned the same cause as above and Littleton of Counsell with him moved that the Return was insufficient in substance therefore he prayed that he might be bayled It is true that it is of great consequence both to the Crown of the King and to the liberty of the Subject But under favour for the difficulty of Law contained in it the case cannot be said Grand In my Argument I will offer nothing to the Court but that which I have seen with these eyes and that which
offence treason is baylable And that he is baylable here I will offer two other reasons 1 st The Return here is for sedition and there is an information in the Star-chamber against the Prisoner for seditious practises against the King and his Government I will not affirm that they are the same offence but there is some probability that they are the self-same and if they be the same offence then the sedition here intended is not treason and so the party is baylable 2 ly This Prisoner was ready at this Bar the last Term and here was a Grand-Iury at Bar the last Term and here was the Kings Counsell present who are most watchfull for the King and yet an Indictment was not preferred to them against this Prisoner Which things induce me to be of opinion that the offence here mentioned in this Return is not treason or so great as is pretended on the other side I will remember one case which perhaps may be objected and yet I think they will not object it and so conclude 11 R. 2. Parliament Roll 14. in the printed Statute c. 3. and 5. where it appears that divers questions were propounded by the King to Tresilian and Bealknap the two chief Iustices and to the other Iustices one of which questions was How they are to be punished who resisted the King in exercising his royall power c And the answer of the Iudges was una voce that they are to be punished as traitors and 21 R. 2. c. 21. this opinion was confirmed But afterwards in 1 H. 4. c. 3. and 4. and 1 H. 4. in the Parliament-Roll numb 66 67 the Iudges were questioned for their opinion in Parliament They answered That they were threatned and enforced to give this opinion and that they were in truth of the contrary opinion And Bealknap said That he acquainted and protested to the Earl of Kent aforehand that his opinion was alwaies to the contrary But the Parliament was not content with these excuses but they were all adjudged Traitors and Tresilian's end is known to all and Bealknap was banished for his Wife in 2 H. 4. brought a Writ without naming her husband because he was banished And the said Statute of 21 R. 2. was repealed Therefore upon the whole matter I conclude that the Prisoner ought to be bayled On the same day Sir Miles Hubbart and Benjamin Valentine and Densill Hollis Esquires were at Bar upon an Habeas corpus directed to the severall Prisons and their Counsell was ready at the Bar to have argued the case for them also But because the same Return was made as above they said That all of them would rely upon this Argument made by Mr. Littleton The case of the grand Habeas corpus for Mr. Selden and others was now argued by Heath the Kings Atturney Generall That this Return was good and that the parties ought not to be bayled And that within the Return there appears good cause of their commitment and of their detaining also The case is great in expectation and consequence and concerns the liberty of the Subject on the one part whereof the Argument is plausible and on the other part it concerns the safety and soveraignty of the King which is a thing of great weight The consideration of both pertaines to you the Iudges without slighting the one or too much elevating the other The Return which now is before you is entire but I will first consider it as divided in parts First The first Warrant which is that of the Lords of the Privy Councill is generall that it was by the command of the Lord the King and this in former times was held a very good Return when due respect and reverence was given to Government but Tempora mutantur And this Return is no way weakened by any latter opinion for notwithstanding that the first commitment of a man may be generall for if upon the Return the true cause should be revealed to the Gaoler by this means faults should be published and divulged before their punishment and so the complices of the fact will escape and it is not fit that the Gaoler which is but a ministeriall Officer should be acquainted with the secrets of the cause But when the cause is returned in Court more certainty is requisite for then as it hath been objected something ought to be expressed to which the party may answer and upon which the Court may ground their Iudgment And to this purpose it hath been much insisted upon the Petition of Right but the Law is not altered by it but remains as it was before And this will appear upon the view of all the parts of the Petition 1 st The occasion of the Petition and the grievance is shewed in these words Divers of your Subjects have been of late imprisoned without any cause shewed c. But in this Return there is a cause shewed to which the parties may answer Then secondly the prayer of the Petition is That no free-man in any such manner as before is mentioned be imprisoned or detained that is such manner of imprisonment the ground whereof doth not appear Then the answer of the King to the Petition was in sundry words 2 Jun. 1628. in these words The King willeth that right be done according to the Lawes and Customes of the Realm c. Which answer gave not satisfaction And afterwards his answer was in a Parliamentary-phrase Soit droit fait come est desire But afterwards on the 26 of June 1628. the King expressed his intention and meaning in the said Answer It must needs be conceived that I have granted no new but onely confirmed the antient liberties of My Subjects c. A Petition in Parliament is not a Law yet it is for the honour and dignity of the King to observe and keep it faithfully but it is the duty of the people not to stretch it beyond the words and intention of the King And no other construction can be made of the Petition then to take it as a Confirmation of the antient liberties and rights of the Subjects So that now the case remains in the same quality and degree as it was before the Petition Therefore we will now consider how the Law was taken before the Petition and for the discussing thereof we will examine the second part of the Return and in it two things 1 st if the Return as it is now made shall be intended for true 2. admit that it is true if there be any offence contained within it which is good to detain the Prisoners For the first It is clear that the cause shall be intended true which is returned though in truth it be false and so are 9 H. 6.44 and F. Corpus cum causa 2. and C. 11. Baggs case 2 ly It seems that there is such a crime contained in this Return which is a good cause for detaining the Prisoners It is true that it was confidently urged in Parliament
upon the suddain as occasion is offered And there is no necessity that the King should expect a new Parliament The Lords may grant Commissions to determine matters after the Parliament ended but the House of Commons cannot do so And also a new House of Commons consists of new Men which have no conusance of these offences 1 H. 4. The Bishop of Carlile for words spoken in the Parliament that the King had not right to the Crown was arraigned in this Court of high-treason and then he did not plead his priviledge of Parliament but said That he was Episcopus unctus c. 5 ly 4 H. 8. Strode's case hath been objected But this is but a particular act although it be in print for Rastall intitles it by the name of Strode so the title Body and proviso of the Act are particular 6 ly That this is an inferiour Court to the Parliament therefore c. To this I say That even sitting the Parliament this Court of B. R. and other Courts may judge of their priviledges as of a Parliament-man put in execution c. and other cases It is true that the Iudges have oft-times declined to give their iudgment upon the privileges of Parliament sitting the Court But from this it followes not that when the offence is committed there and not punished and the said Court dissolved that therefore the said matter shall not be questioned in this Court 7 ly By this means the priviledges of Parliament shall be in great danger if this Court may judge of them But I answer That there is no danger at all for this Court may judge of Acts of Parliament 8 ly Perhaps these matters were done by the Uotes of the House or if they be offences it is an imputation to the House to say that they had neglected to punish them But this matter doth not appear And if the truth were so these matters might be given in evidence 9 ly There is no president in the case which is a great presumption of Law But to this I answer That there was never any president of such a fact therefore there cannot be a president of such a judgment And yet in the time of Queen Elizabeth it was resolved by Brown and many other Iustices that offences done in Parliament may be punished out of Parliament by imprisonment or otherwise And the case of 3 E. 3.19 is taken for good Law by Stamf. and Fitzh And 22 E. 3. and 1 Mar. accord directly with it But it hath been objected that there was no plea made to the Iurisdiction But it is to be obser-served that Ployden that was a learned man was one of the Defendanâ—s and he pleaded not to the Iurisdiction but pleaded license to depart And the said Information depended during all the Reigne of Queen Mary during which time there were four Parliaments and they never questioned this matter But it hath been further objected That the said case differs from our case because that there the offence was done out of the House and this was done within the House But in the said case if license to depart be pleaded it ought to be tryed in Parliament as well as these offences here Therefore c. And the same day the Iudges spake briefly to the case and agreed with one voice That the Court as this case is shall have Iurisdiction although that these offences were committed in Parliament Afterwards the Parliament which met the 3d. of Novemb. 1640. upon Report made by Mr. Recorder Glyn of the state of the severall and respective cases of Mr. Hollis Mr. Selden and the rest of the imprisoned Members of the Parliament in tertio Caroli touching their extraordinary sufferings for their constant affections to the Liberties of the Kingdom expressed in that Parliament And upon Arguments made in the House thereupon did upon the 6th of July 1641. passe these ensuing Votes which in respect of the reference they have in these last mentioned proceedings we have thought fit though out of order of time to insert viz. Iuly the 6th 1641. REsolved upon the Question that the issuing out of the Warrants from the Lords and others of the Privy Councill compelling Mr. Hollis and the rest of the Members of that Parliament 3. Car. during the Parliament to appeare before them is a breach of the priviledge of Parliament by those Privy Counsellours Resolved c. That the Committing of Mr. Hollis and the rest â—f the Lords and others of the Privy Councill dureing the Parliament is a breach of the priviledge of Parliament by those Lords and others Resolved c. That the searching and sealing of the Chamber Study and Papers of Mr. Hollis Mr. Selden and Sir Iohn Eliot being Members of this House and dureing the Parliament and issuing of warrants to that purpose was a breach of the priviledge of Parliament and by those that executed the same Resolved c. That the exhibiting of an Information in the Court of Star-Chamber against Mr. Hollis and the rest for matters done by them in Parliament being members of Parliament and the same so appearing in the Information is a breach of the priviledge in Parliament Resolved c. That Sir Robert Heath and Sir Humphrey Davenport Sir Hennage Finch Mr. Hudson and Sir Robert Berkly that subscribed their names to the Information are guilty thereby of the breach of priviledge of Parliament Resolved c. That there was delay of Justice towards Mr. Hollis and the rest that appeared upon the Ha. Corp. in that they were not bayled in Easter and Trinity Tearm 5. Car. Resolved c. That Sir Nicholas Hide then chief Justice of the Kings Bench is guilty of this delay Resolved c. That Sir William Jones then being one of the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench is guilty of this delay Resolved c. That Sir Iames Whitlock Knight then one of the Justices of the Court of Kings Bench is not guilty of this delay Ordered That the further debate of this shall be taken into Consideration on to morrow Morning Iuly the 8th 1641. Resolved upon the Question That Sir George Crook Knight then one of the Judges of the Kings Bench is not guilty of this delay That the continuance of Mr. Hollis and the rest of the Members of Parliament 3. Car. in Prison by the then Judges of the Kings Bench for not putting in sureties of the good behaviour was without just or legall cause That the exhibiting of the Information against Mr. Hollis Sir Iohn Eliot and Mr. Valentine in the Kings Bench being members of Parliament for matters done in Parliament was a breach of the priviledge of Parliament That the over-ruling of the plea pleaded by Mr. Hollis Sir Iohn Eliot and Mr. Valentine upon the Information to the Jurisdiction of the Court was against the Law and priviledge of Parliament That the Judgement given upon a Nihil dicit against Mr. Hollis Sir Iohn Eliot and Mr. Valentine and fine thereupon imposed and
of Soldiers 546. His Answer to that Petition p. 552. The Lord Keepers Speech by his Command to rely on the Kings word p. 555. Secretary Cooks Speech thereupon on behalf of the King p. 555 556. Sir Benjamin Rudiards Speech concerning the Kings word p. 557. The King sends another Message by Secretary Cooke to know whether the Parliament will or no relie on his word p. 558 559. Several debates thereupon ibid. He sends another Message that he intendeth shortly to end that Session p. 560. Debates thereupon p. 561. The Speakers Speech in Answer to the Kings several Messages ibid. The Kings Answer thereunto p. 562. The King sends another Message to relie on his word p. 563. Several Debates thereupon ibid. The Petition of Right to be presented to the King delivered at a Conference p. 564. His Letter declaring that he will preserve Magna Charta c. communicated at a Conference p. 565 566. The Lords Addition to the Petition of Right to have a saving for Soveraign power p. 567. Several Debates and Conferences thereupon â—hewing the danger of such a Salvo p. 568 569 c. The Lords agree to the Petition of Right without the Addition p. 592. The Kings and Lord Keepers Speech at the presenting of the Petition of Right p. 596. The Petition of Right at large p. 597. The Kings Answer thereunto p. 598. Not satisfactory and several Speeches thereupon p. 598 599 c. A Message from the King to end the Session on such a day p. 601. He sends another Message that he will certainly hold his day to end the Session p. 613. Several Debates thereupon and the Duke declared the cause of all Grievances p. 613 614 c. The King commands the House to adjourn p. 616. The Lords Address to the King to prevent a dissolution ibid. The King sends another Message to qualifie his former Messages p. 622. Several Speeches thereupon p. 623. The Kings Privy-Seal for payment of monies to raise German Horse p. 624. Burlemachs Examination that they were to be imported into England ibid. The King receives a Petition from both Houses for a better answer to the Petition of Right p. 625. The Kings fuller Answer thereunto and his Speech ib. The Kings Commission for raising of Monies by way of Imposition p. 626. Debates thereupon p. 627. Debates about a Remonstrance to the King against the Duke p. 628. A Remonstrance to the King against the Duke p. 631 632 c. The King causeth the Proceedings in the Star-chamber against the Duke to be taken off the File p. 638. And causeth the Commission for Excise to be cancelled p. 640. A Remonstrance to him concerning Tonnage and Poundage ibid. The King ends the Session of Parliament p. 643. A Particular of such Laws as he passed that Session of Parliament p. 644. Suppresses Dr Manwaring's Sermon by Proclamation p. 645. Grants a Commission to compound with Recusants ibid. His Proclamation against the Bishop of Calcedon ibid. Sends Romish Priests to Wisbitch p. 646. Advances Sir Rich. Weston to be Lord Treasurer Bishop Laud to the Bishoprick of London and Montague to a Bishoprick ibid. Pardons Montague and Manwaring p. 647. Solicited to send Relief to the King of Denmark under Sir Charls Morgan p. 648. Adjourns the Parliament that was to meet the 20 of October to the 20 of January p. 650. Takes the advice of the Iudges about racking of Felton ibid. Declares his resolution about taking the Imposition upon Currants p. 651. Consults with certain of his Council concerning the ensuing Parliament p. 654. His Speech at the second meeting of the Parliament p. 656. Sends a Message about the Bill for Tonnage and Poundage p. 657. Sends a Message to give precedency to Tonnage and Poundage p. 658. Petition to him for a Fast p. 662. His Answer thereunto p. 663. Notwithstanding his Message precedency given to Religion ibid. His Answer to that Particular p. 664. His Declaration against Disputes about Religion debated p. 665. A Report concerning his Pardon to Manwaring and Montague p. 667. His Message about Customs p. 668. His Commission about it p. 669. His Declaration concerning the dissolving the third Parliament at large App. p. 1. Common Fame p. 221 222. Conway Lord p. 12 23 178 182 185 235 238 243 268 292 450 451 455 c. Cook Secretary p. 182 498 501 502 531 544 54 558 559 560 563. Cook Mr. p. 218 222 229 Cook Sir Edward p. 201 497 505 508 526 529 538 543 564 615 627. Corriton Mr. p. 660 Coronation p. 203 204 Cottington Mr. p. 9 13 18 76 122 Cotton Sir Robert p. 20 471 Coventry Sir Thomas made Lord Keeper p. 202. His Speeches in Parliament p. 206 225 481 555 567 592 596 623. Privy Council new sworn p. 169. They write to Dalbeir about disposing the German Horse p. 648. Creswel Mr. 502. Crew Sir Randolf displaced about the Loan p. 424. Crew Sir Thomas p. 55 117 149 150. Again made Speaker p. 176. Cromwel Oliver against the Bishop of Winchester p. 667. Cromwel Lord p. 199. Crosby Sir Piercy Lands with Supply of men p. 467. D. DArnel Sir Thomas about Habeas Corpus p. 462. Davenport Serjeant Argument App. p. 27. Dawes Mr. his Answer about Customs p. 668. Decimation projected 5 Car. App. p. 14. Denmark King his Declaration p. 421. His Battel ibid. His overthrow p. 422. Digby Sir John his discourse betwixt the Duke of Lerma about a Match with Spain p. 1. His advice to the King in that matter p. 2. Is authorised to treat and conclude the Match p. 3. Presents the first draught of Articles p. 4. Sent Ambassador into Flanders p. 23. The substance of his Ambassie to the Emperor and Duke of Bavaria p. 37. Gives an account in Parliament p. 39. Made Earl of Bristol p. 67 68. A Letter to him from the King p. 68. Gives the King hope of a Match p. 69. Hath a Proxy delivered to him by the Prince to consummate the Marriage p. 103. Receives also private instructions not to put it in execution p. 104. Labors to satisfie the Prince to recal his instructions but in vain p. 105. He and Sir Walter Aston again attempt it but in vain p. 106. Bristol sends his Apology to K. James for demurring upon the new instructions p. 112. Hath a tender of large offers from the K. of Spain p. 113. Protests against The Dukes Narration in Parliament p. 149. A Letter from the Lord Conway to him p. 238. His answer to the Lord Conway p. 239. His Petition for a Writ of Summons p. 240. The Kings Letter to him p. 241. He Petitions the Lords again about his Writ of Summons ibid. And desires to be heard in the Accusation of the Duke ibid. Sends a Copy of the Lord Keepers Letter p. 242. With his Answer thereto p. 243. A Message from the King concerning him ibid. He is brought to the Bar p. 252. Articles preferred against him by the Kings Command p. 253. His
take up their Winter Quarters A Letter of the Duke of Buckinghams to Gondomar touching King Iames his bent to the German War Octob. 25. Frederick's Forces totally routed in the Battel at Prague His calamity joined with loss of Honor. An Order at the Council-Table for recovering the Palatinate The Spaniards flatter the King Private Instructions to the Spanish Ambassador into England The King calls a Parliament The Protestant Union declines in Germany The Palatine propounds a Peace to the Elector of Saxony The King puts forth a Proclamation forbidding discourse of State-affairs The Kings Speech to the Parliament * Buckingham The Lo. Digby sent Ambassador into Flanders and Mr. Gage to Rome The Palatine and his Princess go into Holland The Emperor proceeds severely with the Bohemians Imperial Protestant Towns reconcile themselves to the Emperor and intercede for the Palatine but in vain Grievances proposed in Parliament Sir Giles Mompesson imprisoned but escapes beyond Sea 19 Iac. An. 1621. The Kings Speech to the Lords Sentence given against Sir Giles Mompesson And Sir Francis Michel his Compartner in Projects Lord Chancellor Bacon accused and convicted of Bribery Sir Henry accused by the Commons Gondomar reviled and assaulted in London streets Sir Rob. Mansel sent into the Mediterranean Sea The Emperor calls in question the Authors of the Commotions in Bohemia The King intends to adjourn the Parliament The Commons take it not well The King resents it The Commons Declaration touching the Palatinate The King by Proclamation reforms the late grievances handled in Parliament Puts forth another Proclamation against Talking of State-affairs The King is sollicited from Spain to enlarge his favors towards Catholicks The chief heads of the Lord Digby's Embassie to the Emperor The Emperors Reply to those Demands The L. Digby's second Proposal to the Emperor The Emperors Answer The English Ambassador goes to the Duke of Bavaria The Emperors Letter to Don Baltazar de Zuniga The Parliament begins again Nov. 20. The Substance of the Lord Keepers Speech Lord Digby's Speech Lord Treasurer's Speech The Commons Petition and Remonstrance to the King At this time the Protestants are ill treated in France The Kings Letter to Sir Tho. Richardson The Commons send the Remonstrance accompanied with another Petition The Kings Answer to the later Petition The Lord Keepers judgment touching the Kings sharp Answer The Lo. Digby to the Peers The Commons Protestation The King takes the Protestation out of the Journal-book with his own hand In the mean time the King dissolves them Some Eminent Members of the Parliament in Prisoned Others sent for punishment into Ireland The Council write to Judges concerning such as speak of State Affairs The Palatine spoiled of his hereditary dominions The terms which King Iames desires the Emperor to accept in behalf of the Palatine The Emperors Answer to King Iames Ian. 14. 1621. King Iames to Philip the Fourth of Spain King Iames his Letter to the King of Spain Prince Charls to the King of Spain King Iames his Letter to the Lord Balthazar of Zuniga The Privy Council by the Kings command issue out an Order for raising Money for the defence of the Palatinate Archbishop Abbot not relished at Court an advantage taken against him Bishop Laud suspected to incline to Popish Tenents while he was of Oxford as appears by a notable passage The Arminians begin to be favored by the King by means of Bishop Laud. Favors shewed to Recusants by the Kings Order Iacobi 20. 1622. The Lord Keepers Letter excusing the Kings favor towards Papists The Kings Letter to the Archbishop for regulating the Clergy Directions concerning Preachers The new K. of Spain Philip the Fourth procures the Popes assent to the Match The Infanta cools in tâ—e Palsgraves business The pretended Obstacles of the Treaty removed Heidelburgh besieged New Conditions demanded of the King before the Pope gives a Dispensation The Kings Answer to the said Demands The King sends his Resolution to Digby in Spain now made Earl of Bristol Likewise a Letter was â—ent to â—ondomar 〈◊〉 recalleâ— into Spain The Answer to the Memorial presented by the Earl of Bristol to the Spanish King Bristol gives the King hope of the Match Heidelburgh taken The King provoked sends his former Resolutions with anew dispatch into Spain In the mean time Manheim is taken The Emperors Intentions to King Iames not good Nor the King of Spains witness his Letter to Conde Olivares Olivares Answer Bristols Answer from the King of Spain The Popes Demands signed by the King and Prince Frankendale block'd up by Papenheim The King writes to Bristol The Electorate conferred upon the Duke of Bavaria in the Diet at Ratisbone The Protestant Princes plead for the Palatine's restitution The Catholick Princes reply The Protestants reassume the argument The Emperor takes up the debate Sir Dudley Carlton Resident at the â—â—gue sends his judgment of the matter to the Marquis of Buckingham The Prince and the Marquis of Buckingham go to Spain Buckingham visits Olivares and by him is conducted to the King Orders for the Prince's entertainment The Prince sees the Infanta Is entertained honorably by the King Makes his entrance publiquely into Madrid The King sends the Prince two Golden Keys The Grandees are commanded to attend his Highness The Marquis of Buckingham made Duke The people talk that the Prince is come to change his Religion Endeavors to make the Prince change his Religion * Quare Apostoliâ—is literis hortamur Catholicam Majestatem ut eum Principem redigere suaviter conetur sub Romanae Ecclesiae ditionem cui veteres Magnae Britanniae Domini coronatum caput imperii fasces Coelo plaudente submiserunt Quare te monemus ut ad Catholicum Regem religiosus Consiliarius accedas easque rationes despicias quibus insigne aliquod beneficium Britanniae Regnis Romanae Ecclesiae in praesenti rerum opportunitate comparetur Res ipsa magna atque gravissima est quare eum verbis amplificare non debemus Regnum Coelorum Britanniae Principi patefacere Regnum Britanniae sedi Apostolicae restituere incipiet qui Regii istius Adoloscentis animum Catholicae Religionis studio inflamaverit atque haeriticae impietatis odio impleverit c. The Pope's Letter to the Prince of Wales There is another Copy of the Princes Letter to the Pope published by several hands somewhat different from this Allurements to make the Prince change his Religion The Prince stedfast in his Religion Is not well dealt with in his Address to the Infanta The Dispensation is at last procured The Dispensation comes clogged Olivares proposes ways of Accommodation The King of Spain proffers to engage himself on the behalf of the King of England and the Prince His Ghostly Fathers approve his intentions The Match is declared publickly The Archbishops Letter to the King against Toleration of Popery Articles sworn to by the King Prince and Privy Council The Oath Private Articles sworne to by the King in
the zeal of our true Religion in which we have béen born and wherein by Gods grace we are resolved to die the safety of Your Majesties person who is the very life of Your people the happiness of Your Children and Posterity the honor and good of the Church and State dearer unto us then our own lives having kindled these affections truly devoted to Your Majesty And séeing out of our duty to Your Majesty we have already resolved to give at the end of this Session one intire Subsidy for the present relief of the Palatinate onely to be paid in the end of February next which cannot well be effected but by passing a Bill in a Parlâ—â—mentary course before Christmas We most humbly beséech Your Majesty as our assured hope is that You will then also vouchsafe to give life by Your Royal Assent to such Bills as before that time shall be prepared for Your Majesties honor and the general good of Your people And that such Bills may be also accompanied as hath béen accustomed with Your Majesties Gracious Pardon which procéeding from Your own méer Grace may by Your Highness direction be drawn to that Latitude and Extent as may best sort with Your Majesties bounty and goodness And that not onely Felons and Criminal Offenders may take benefit thereof but that Your good Subjects may receive ease thereby And if it shall so stand with Your good pleasure That it may extend to the relief of the old Debts and Duties to the Crown before the First year of Your Majesties Reign to the discharge of Alienations without Licence and misusing of Liveries and Oustre le Maine before the first Summons of this Parliament and of concealed Wardships and not suing of Liveries and Oustre le Maines before the Twelfth year of Your Majesties Reign Which gratious Favor would much comfort Your good Subjects and ease them from vexation with little loss or prejudice to Your own profit And we by our daily and devout Prayers to the Almighty the Great King of Kings shall contend for a blessing upon our endeavors and for Your Majesties long and happy Reign over us and for Your Childrens Children after You for many and many Generations The House had sufficient cause to set forth the danger of true Religion and the Miseries of the Professors thereof in Foreign parts when besides the great wound made in Germany and the cruelties of the prevailing House of Austria the Protestants in France were almost ruined by Lewis the Thirteenth being besieged at once in several places as in Montauban by the King and in Rochel by Count Soysons and the Duke of Guise And for their relief the King of England prevailed nothing by sending of Sir Edward Herbert since Baron of Cherbury and after him the Viscount Doncaster Ambassador for Mediation The King having Intelligence of the former Remonstrance wrote his Letter to the Speaker To Our Trusty and Welbeloved Sir Thomas Richardson Knight Speaker of the House of COMMONS Mr Speaker WE have heard by divers Reports to our great grief That our distance from the Houses of Parliament caused by our indisposition of health hath imboldned the fiery and popular Spirits of some of the House of Commons to argue and debate publickly of the matters far above their reach and capacity tending to our high dishonor and breach of Prerogative Royal. These are therefore to command you to make known in our Name unto the House That none therein shall presume henceforth to meddle with any thing concerning our Government or deep matters of State and namely not to deal with our dearest Sons Match with the Daughter of Spain nor to touch the honor of that King or any other our Friends and Confederates And also not to meddle with any mans particulars which have their due motion in our ordinary Courts of Iustice. And whereas we hear they have sent a Message to Sir Edwin Sandis to know the reasons of his late restraint you shall in our Name resolve them That it was not for any misdemeanor of his in Parliament but to put them out of doubt of any question of that nature that may arise among them hereafter you shall resolve them in our Name That we think our self very free and able to punish any mans misdemeanors in Parliament as well during their sitting as after Which we mean not to spare hereafter upon any occasion of any mans insolent behavior there that shall be ministred unto us And if they have already touched any of these points which we have forbidden in any Petition of theirs which is to be sent unto us it is our pleasure that you shall tell them That except they reform it before it come to our hands we will not deign the hearing nor answering of it Dated at New-Market 3 Dec. 1621. Hereupon they drew up another Petition which they sent accompanied with the former Remonstrance Most Dread and Gratious Soveraign WE your most humble and loyal Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses Assembled in the Commons House of Parliament full of grief and unspeakable sorrow through the true sence of your Majesties displeasure expressed by your Letter lately sent to our Speaker and by him related and read unto us Yet comforted again with the assurance of your grace and goodness and of the sincerity of our own intentions and procéedings whereon with confidence we can relie In all humbleness beséech your most Excellent Majesty that the loyalty and dutifulness of as faithful and loving Subjects as ever served or lived under a gratious Soveraign may not undeservedly suffer by the mis-information of partial and uncertain Reports which are ever unfaithful Intelligencers But that your Majesty would in the clearness of your own Iudgment first vouchsafe to understand from our selves and not from others what our humble Declaration and Petition resolved upon by the Universal voice of the House and proposed with your gratious Favor to be presented unto your Sacred Majesty doth contain Upon what occasion we entred into consideration of those things which are therein contained with what dutiful respect to your Majesty and your service we did consider thereof and what was our true intention thereby And that when your Majesty shall thereby truly discern our dutiful affections you will in your Royal Iudgment frée us from those heavy charges wherewith some of our Members are burthened and wherein the whole House is involved And we humbly beséech your Majesty that you will not hereafter give credit to private Reports against all or any of the Members of our House whom the whole have not censured until your Majesty have béen truly informed thereof from our selves And that in the mean time and ever we may stand upright in your Majesties grace and good opinion than which no worldly consideration is or can be dearer unto us When your Majesty had Reassembled us in Parliament by your Royal Commandment sooner then we expected and did vouchsafe by the mouths