Sir Thomas Overbury came to his End The Statute of the Sovereign Lord Richard the â—econd Late King of England in the Thirteenth Year of his Reign or any other Statute Act Ordinance Proâ—ision Restriction to the contrary â—hereof notwithstanding In Testimoâ—y whereof c. Witness c. Francis Bacon Anno Dom. 1621. An. Reg. Jac. 19. An Order of the Privy Council Whitehall January 18. 1621. Present Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer L. President L. M. Hamilton Earle Marshall L. Vis Falkland Lord Digby Lord Brook Mr. Treasurer Mr. Secret Calvert Mr. Câ—anc Excheq Master of the Rolls Whereas his Majesty is Graciously pleased to enlarge and set at Liberty the Earl of Somerset and his Lady now Prisoners in the Tower of London â— and that nevertheless it is thought fit that both the said Earl and his Lady be consined to some convenient place It is therefore according to his Majesties Gracious Pleasure and Command Ordered That the Earl of Somerset and his Lady do repair either to Grayâ— or Cowsham the Lord Wallingford's Houses in the County of Oxon and remain confin'd to one or either of the said Houses and within three Miles compass of either of the same until further Order be given by his Majesty The Duke of Buckingham ' s Answer to the Spanish Ambassador's Informations c. Anno Dom. 1624. in the 22d of King James From the Original written by Sir Edward Coke's then Attorney General own Hand MY Master 's known Wisdom Justice and constant Favour towards me attended with Confidence in my own Faith and Innocency may make it seem both needless and unfit by any Defence to shew respect to a Libellous Information which reflecteth wholly upon the Author's Dishonour For who will not abhor this deplored Art of Calumniating boldly Because no Aspersion how false soever can be wash'd off so clean but some discolouring will remain Besides tho' Conspiracy be a Work of Darkness hardly to be cleared because in it Suspitions go for Proof yet my Youth and manner of Life and even that Character of Irregular Freedom which the Accusers set upon me will by Caesar's known Judgment acquit me thereof And therefore if my Personal Disgrace or Danger were the Marks they aim at I would stand or fall by his Knowledge of me who hath made me what I am and hath both Right and Power to unmake me at his pleasure But as that Wife King well understood that when his Brother demanded the Shunamite he sought not her but the Kingdom so his Majesties piercing Judgment will discover my Name to be the Mask Himself his Royal Children and his Kingdomes to be the true Subjects of this practicing Complaint And tho' the Particulars thereof are forged partly by Jesuites and their Factions at Home and partly by corrupt Ministers and Emissaries Abroad yet the Workmen that manage them are Publick Ministers of State of whose Offices and Sway amongst us we already feel the smart and have cause to prevent the Danger that may ensue especially considering they are Engines of that affected Monarchy which hath inlarged it self by Negotiations more than by Arms And which by advantage of late Treaties hath not lately invaded the Patrimonies of his Majesties Children but procured such Liberty and Connivance with his own Kingdoms as they supposed would produce a Rebellion not to be appeased without the help of their Arms. And since their Designs by God's Providence are now brought to light what could Malice it self have attemped more pernicious than by such Infectious Breaches fury-like to stir Jealousies betwixt the King his People and most obliged Servants and which is more horrible betwixt the Bark and the Tree Nay betwixt the Tree it self and all the Branches thereof Now in respect of these Consequences altho' my Person be of no Consideration and happily by saying nothing or doing easie Offices might redeem their Displeasure Yet where my Duty is so deeply engaged I in my Heart cannot hold and therefore for their Interests for whom by my humble thankfulness and Faith I account the chief Hopes and Fruits of my Life yet so as the World shall bear me Witness I plead my Cause the demonstration that his Majesty commanded these Informations first to be told and then to be written in the Letters they alledge whereby they excuse themselves of being Informers as of a Practise too base for Persons of their Rank But the Truth redoundeth only to his Majesties Honour For as in their Treaties they ever drew us on by making us rich and happy in general Promises so now by such general contriving of strange Conspiracies and Plots among our selves they endeavour to divert us from any further Discovery or Prevention of theirs And this his Majesty perceiving First pressed them to Particulars finding their Verbal Charges uncertain and subject to Inlargment or Restriction at the Peoples Pleasure he then commanded them to be written so as now they are fixed and no more in their Power but may be examined and judged by all men of Understanding to whose Construction and Censure I willingly submit both them and my Answer For what can be the Danger When in the very Entrance of my Accusation they acknowledge that the matters objected against me are not such as may be cleared by Judicial Proofs And must his Majesty then take them merely upon Trust Indeed Ambassadors have an Honourable Trust for their Masters Affairs and if they obtain a like Trust with those Princes to whom they are imployed what will they not persuade Shall not the Restitution of the Palatinate the Marriage and Dispensation and the Portion be made Articles to be added to our Creed But the Original Sin and Root of all Treasons and Offences laid to my Charge is that by eating the forbidden Fruit in Spain mine Eyes have been opened to discover the Evil as well as the Good and so to trust them no further than they deserve And yet I will not here take them too short for they say they have Witnesses but such as for fear of my Power do withdraw themselves such as dare not speak and deliver their minds though commanded by the King and though thereby they suffer the best King in the World to be brought into Extremities and such as neither will nor dare speak if first they be not freed from Jealousie and Fear yet these they pronounce to be his Majesties Most Faithful Subjects Surely of our Faith they cannot be which holdeth them Traytors Faithless and Perjured that prefer not the Safety and Honour of their Prince and Country before the Fear and Respect of any person whomsoever And if this Fear proveth them to be of their Faith how can they think the Entring into the Ambassador's House to be so heinous a matter as here is pretended Doth not all the World know the Liberty they give and which as Papists have taken beyond Examples in this kind They are not then Mass-Papists but perhaps of Higher Rank having Place and Access
under Gods favour we shall comfortably enjoy the same to us and our posterity for ever Next to Religion and peace with God we will Remember that Universal peace of State both at home and abroade which under your Christian and prudent Government we enjoy whereof we have the less reason to doubt any interruption when we behold the Greatness and reputation of your Majesties power and the goodness and Excellency of your Royal disposition whereof the latter is not like â—o give the cause or occasion and the â—ormer is likely to abate the Courage â—nd forces of any hostile attempts And â—astly we cannot but with unspeakable â—oy of heart consider of that blessing which having respect to later times in â—his state is rare and unwonted which â—s the blessed fruit and Royal Issue of â—ingular towardness and comfort which God hath given your Majesty with â—reat hope of many the like these being â—ndeed as arrows in the hand of the Mighty able to dant your Enemies â—nd to assure your loving subjects and â—o safe-guard your Royal person and to sheild and protect each other and to be a pledge to us and our posterity of future and perdurable felicity The benefits and blessings dread Soveraign amongst many others as we gladly acknowledge to your Majesties great honour and our great comfort So nevertheless having upon mature advice concluded to present to your Majesty a gift in proportion and speed of payment exceeding all former presidents of Parliament and the times of Peace considered we do further think fit to add and express those reasons special and extraordinary which have moved us hereunto lest the same our doing may be drawn into President to the prejudice of the State of our Countrey and our posterity A first and principal reason is thaâ— late and monstrous attempt of that cursed crew of desperate Papists to have destroyed your Excellent Majesty the Queen and your Royal Progeny together with the Reverend Prelates Nobility and Commons of this Land â—ssembled in Parliament to the great confusion if not subversion of this Kingdom the barbarous malice in â—ome unnatural subjects we have â—hought fit to check and encounter with the certain demonstration of the â—niversal and undoubted Love of your Loyal and Faithful Subjects not only for the present to breed in your Maâ—esty a more confident assurance of our uttermost aides in proceeding with a princely resolution to repress them and to furnish your Majesty against hostile attempts both by Sea and Land out also for the future times to give â—heir Patrons and partakers to understand that your Majesty can never want in this Kingdom meanes of defence of your rights revenge of your wrongs and support of your estate A second reason is that memorable benefice wherewith it hath pleased the Divine providence in great grace and favour to bless this Nation in your Majesties person by addition of another Kingdom whereby both ancient hostilities are quite extinguished and all footing and approaches of any For rainer in this Island are excluded and your Majesties other Dominions the more secured which happy event was nevertheless attended with sundry rare and necessary circumstances of charge now at your Majesties first entrance and setling such as the like hath not been in former times nor is like to be in suceeding ages A third and most urgent reason is the great and excessive charge which the unnatural Wars of Ireland newly finished before our late Renowned Queens decease did necessarily impose upon your Majesty by drawing with it a long traine of after expences even in your Majesties time till the peace thereof were throughly setled and assured which Kingdom is now since your Majesties time become in the vastest Province thereof capable of the plantation of Religion Justice Civilty and Population and may in longer time arise to be a most profitable and opulent member of your Imperial Crown A fourth reason ariseth from the great contentment and joye which we have in the remembrance of your Majestiâ— most gracious disposition to the good of your people testified as well at your first entrance into this Kingdom by your Princely care you took out of your own Royal mind to free them by your Proclamation from any burdens of Monopolies and other unlawful things which then remained in use as also of late your comfortable messages sent unto us dureing this Session of Parliament purporting the continuance of like gracious intention towards them where just occasion of grief should appear which joye of ours hath bred a desire in us to express in more then ordinary manner our extraordinary and humble thankes unto your Majesty for the same and to make it appear on our parts that we will at no time omit any Testimonies of Love and Duty toward your Majesty that may procure or deserve the perfecting and accomplishing of so Princely a work so well begun of Grace and favor towards us it being far from our dispositions to entertain any such unthankfulness into our hearts as not chearfully to assist with our goods and substance and all other duties of Subjects such a Soveraign by whom we find our selves so tenderly regarded Thus Gracious Soveraign out of those extraordinary Reasons and considerations as also out of our great Love and affection towards your Majesties person vertues and felicities we do with all humble and chearful affections present to your Majesty three subsidies and six Fifteenths and Tenths and we do most humbly beseech your Majesty that it may be enacted by Authority of this present Parliament in manner and form following Anno. Dom. 1605. An. Reg. Jac. 3. The Declarations of the opinions of the Non-conformists as it was delivered to King James himself on their behalf in the third year of his Reign 1. WE hold and maintain the same Authority and Supremacy in all causes and over all persons Civil or Ecclesiastical granted by Statute to Queen Elizabeth and expressed and declared in the Book of Advertisements and Injunctions and in Mr. Bilson against the Jesuites to be due in full and ample manner without any Limitation or Qualification to the King and his Heirs and Successors for ever neither is there to our knowledge any one of us but is and ever hath been most willing to subcribe and Swear unto the same according to form of Statute And desire that those that shall refuse the same may bear their own iniquitie That 2. We are so far from Judging the said Supremacy to be unlawful that we are perswaded that the King should sin highly against God if he should not assume the same unto himself and that the Churches within his Dominions should sin damnably if they should deny to yield the same unto him yea though the Statutes of the Kingdom should deny it unto him 3. We hold it plain Anti-Christianism for any Church or Church-Officers whatsoever either to arrogate or assume unto themselves any part or parcel thereof and utterly unlawful for the King to give away or
where so much as in us lies to â—oot out and extirpate and Hereticks so convict to punish with Condigâ— Punishment holding that such an Hâ—retick in the aforesaid Form Conviâ—â— and Condemned according to thâ— Laws and Customs of this our Kingdom of England in this part accustomed ought to be Burned with Fireâ— We command thee that thou cause the said Edward Wightman being iâ— thy Custody to be committed to the Fire in some publick and open Placeâ— below the City aforesaid for the Cause aforesaid before the People and the same Edward Wightman in the same Fire cause really to be Burned in the Detestation of the said Crime and for manifest Example of other Christians that they may not fall into the same Crime And this no ways omit under the Peril that shall follow thereon Witness c. Anno Dom. 1616. An. Reg. Jac. 14. â— Order of the King 's Privy Council sent to the Peers of the Realm for the Tryal of the Earl and Countess of Somerset Whitehall Apr. 24. 1616. AFter our very hearty Commendations to your Lordship â—hereas the King 's Majesty hath reâ—ved that the Earl of Somerset and â—e Countess his Wife lately indicted â—f Felony for the Murder and Poyâ—ning of Sir Thomas Overbury then â—s Majesties Prisoner in the Tower â—all now receive their Lawful and â—ublick Tryal by their Peers immeâ—ately after the end of this present â—aster Term. At the Tryal of which â—oble Personages your Lordship's â—resence as being a Peer of the Realm â—nd one of approved Wisdom and Inâ—grity is requisite to pass upon them â—hese are to let your Lordship understand that his Majesties Pleasure â—â— and so commandeth by these our Leâ—ters that your Lordship make youâ— repair to the City of London by thâ— Eleventh day of the Month of Mâ—â— following being some days before thâ— Tryal intended at which time youâ— Lordship shall understand more of hiâ— Majesties Pleasure So not doubtinâ— of your Lordships Care to observe hâ— Majesties Directions we commit yoâ— to God Your Lordships very loving Friends G. Cant. T. Ellesmere Canc. Fenton E. Wotton Tho. Lake Lo. Dare. C. Edmonds E. Worcester Lenox P. Herbert R. Winwood F. Grevyll J. Caesar â—he Speech of Sir Francis Bacon at the Arraignment of the Earl of Somerset the Countess having received the King's Pardon â—T may please your Grace my Lord High Steward of England and you â—y Lords the Peers You have here â—efore you Robert Earl of Somerset â—â— be Tried for his Life concerning â—e Procuring and Consenting to the â—oysoning of Sir Thomas Overbury â—â—en the King's Prisoner in the Tower â—f London as an Accessary before the â—act I know your Honours cannot beâ—old this Noble Man but you must â—emember the great Favours which â—he King hath conferred on him and â—ust be sensible that he is yet a Memâ—er of your Body and a Peer as you â—re so that you cannot cut him off â—â—om your Body but with grief and â—herefore you will expect from us that give in the King's Evidence sound â—nd sufficient matter of Proof to satisfie your Honours Consciences As for the manner of the Evidence the King our Master who amongst other his Vertues excelleth in that Vertue of the Imperial Throne which is Justice hath given us Command that we should not expatiate nor make Invectives but materially pursue the Evidence as it conduceth to the points in question A matter that though we are glad of so good a Warrant yet we should have done of our selves For far be it from us by any Strains of Wit or Arts to seek to play Prizes or blazon our Names in Blood or to carry the Day other ways than on sure grounds We shall carry the Lanthorn of Justice which is the Evidence before your Eyes upright and so be able to save it from being put out with any grounds of Evasion or vain Defence not doubting at all but that the Evidence it self will carry that Force as it shall need no Advantage or Aggravation First My Lords The Course that will hold in delivery of that which shall say for I love Order is First I will speak something of the Nature and Greatness of the Offence which is now to be Tried not to weigh down my Lord with the greatâ—ess of it but rather contrariwise to â—ew that a great Offence needs a â—ood Proof And that the King howâ—ever he might esteem this Gentleâ—an heretofore as the Signeâ— upon his â—inger to use the Scripture Phrase â—et in such a Case as this he was to â—ut it off Secondly I will use some few words â—ouching the Nature of the Proofs which in such a Case are competent Thirdly I will state the Proofs And Lastly I will produce the â—roofs either out of Examination â—nd matters of Writing or Witnesses â—iva voce For the Offence it self it is of Crimes â—ext unto High Treason the greatest is the foulest of Felonies It hath â—ree Degrees First It is Murder by Impoysonment Secondly It is Muâ—der committed upon the King's Prisoner in the Tower Thirdly I might say it is Murder under the colour â— Friendship but that it is a Circumstance Moral and therefore I leavâ— that to the Evidence it self For Murder my Lords the firâ—â— Record of Justice which was in thâ— World was Judgment upon a 〈◊〉 therer in the Person of Adam's First born Cain and though it was not punished by Death but Banishment and marks of Ignominy in respect of the Primogenitors or the Population oâ— the World yet there was a severâ— Charge given that it should not gâ—â— unpunished So it appeareth likewise in Scripture that the Murder of Abner by Joab though it were by David respited in respect of great Services past or reason of State yet it was not forgotten But of this I will say no more because I will not discourse It was ever admitted and ranked in God's own Tables That Murder is of Offences between man and man next unto High Treason and Disobedience to Authority which sometimes have been referred to the first Table because of the Lieutenancy of God in Princes the greatest For Impoysonment I am sorry it should be heard of in our Kingdom It is not nostri generis nec sanguinis pecâ—atum it is an Italian Comfit fit for the Court of Rome where that person that intoxicateth the Kings of the Earth is many times really intoxicaâ—ed and poysoned himself but it hath three Circumstances which makes it grievous beyond other matters The First is That it takes a man away in full peace in God's and the King's peace that thinks no harm â—ut is comforting of Nature with Reâ—ection and Food so that as the Scripture saith his Table is made a Snare The Second is That it is easily committed and easily conceal'd and on â—he other side hardly prevented and hardly discovered For Murder by violence Princes have Guards and Private Men have Houses Attendants and Arms. Neither can such Murder be committed but Cum sonitu with some