Answer and pass'd it with a Droit fait come il est desire and this with Bells and Bonfires one would think should have silenc'd all former Disgusts and they gon on with a ready Supply and mutual Confidence on either Side whereas the next News we hear is a Remonstrance of all the common-Fame Stories Malice or Mischief could suggest and as herein the Duke of Buks led the Van so the whole contain'd only such old Cavils as were easily weathered being very trivial or very false But when the King found there was a second Remonstrance on the Anvil as to Tunnage and Poundage that he had superseded all Right thereto by granting their Petition of Right this struck him in so sensible a Part as he resolv'd to break thorough that Royal Patience which had been so long provok'd and put an End to that Session sometime sooner than he intended with this Declaration That since he was truly inform'd a second Remonstrance was preparing to take away Tunnage and Poundage one of the chief Supports of his Crown alledging he had given away his Right thereto by his Answer to their Petition which as it was very prejudicial to him so it discover'd that the House of Commons began already to make false Constructions of what he had granted already in that Petition which lest it should be worse interpreted in the Country he made this Declaration concerning the true Intent thereof That the Profession of both Houses in the Time of hammering that Petition was no way to trench upon his Prerogative saying they had neither Intention nor Power to hurt it wherefore it must needs be conceiv'd that he granted no New but confirm'd the Ancient Liberties of his Subjects concluding with this Command that they should all take notice of what he had there said to be the true Intent and Meaning of what he had granted in their Petition but more particularly the Iudges for to you only saith he under me belongs the Interpretation of Laws for none of the Houses of Parliament either Ioint or Separate what new Doctrine soever may be raised have any Power either to make or declare a Law without my Consent Thus did his Majesty freely Remonstrate unto them with Ten Thousand times more Sense and Truth than all their Harangues and Popular Allegations For at this distance of time when we may more Calmly judge of such Hot Debates it cannot but be thought more Gentile and Reasonable for the House to have confirm'd by Bill the Tunnage and Poundage in return for the Petition of Right than from a cross-grain'd Pretence to further the Breach making it the chief Subject of Debate next Session and cause of a Fatal a Final Separation During the Recess the Duke of Bucks was taken off by a wretched Hand in a most Babarous manner which 't was thought would have abated the Edge of their furious Prosecution As likewise Two or Three of the best parted Men amongst those Fiery Tempers began to Cool sensible as in Charity we are oblig'd to think what Confusions the Heats they had maintained must produce in the End and in due time came over to his Majesty's Service but as the former had little effect so the other was thought to exasperate their great Spirits that some few should run away with the Game which they had jointly assisted in Hunting down whereas 't is probable they design'd a proportionable Division amongst them all as it afterwards happen'd though then they fell out most cursedly about their several Shares We are now come to the last Session of this last Parliament who fell immediately to their wonted Work Grievances whereof Tunnage and Poundage was the Capital in the Prosecution of which they were resolv'd to Trounce all such Persons as had been imploy'd to Manage or Collect the same whereupon the King sent for them to the Banquetting House and declar'd that as he never look'd upon those Duties as Appertaining to his Hereditary Prerogative so he expected they should pass the Bill as had been always Customary in the time of his Ancestors which his Necessities had oblig'd him to Collect as They always did before the Bill was pass'd and this very Parliament had profess'd they wanted only Time not Will to grant them yet neither this nor a Message afterward could prevail with them to take the Matter into Consideration nay saith Mr. Rushworth the House was troubled to have the Bill impos'd upon them which ought naturally to arise from themselves a mighty Punctilio that But in short they would have the King own all the Right to be in them and then refus'd the Grant Whereas it had been all along rather Matter of Form than any thing else and for four Successions immediately Precedent pass'd without the least Dispute But when Men are resolv'd to Quarrel they will take occasion at the wagging of every Straw To be sure whoever stood by the King in defence of his Prerogative and just Right must expect the Extremity of their Rage and Fury to which purpose they began with Weston the New Lord Treasurer who was ten times worse than Buckingham Neal Bishop of Winton Laud of London and so doubtless would have gone the whole Court thorough but that the King perceiving they would neither Act with Temper nor attend to Reason stopt the Violence of their Curreer by a Dissolution How they behav'd themselves thereupon our Author Ludlow mentions Locking up the Door of the House of Commons and compelling the Speaker to keep the Chair till such Protestations were Voted as they thought fit and by this he would have it observ'd how highly the Pulse of the Nation beat for Liberty he might have more properly said Rebellion for that they were venturing at Pell-Mell and had not the King prevented it would have Acted 40. in 28. But let it be call'd what they please doubtless never any Assembly of grave and great Men as these ought to be suppos'd to be sure ought to have been carried themselves in such a Riotous Disobliging and Disobedient manner with such high Provocations and Indignities to that Sovereign Power by which they sat and whose undoubted Right it was not only to Dissolve but punish them too so that notwithstanding our Author seems much displeas'd whoever reads the manner of proceeding against them both in Star-Chamber and King's-Bench as Recorded by Rushworth though scandalously partial on that side must acknowledge it a Regular Course and that never any Men had fairer Play or came off more easily considering the Nature of their Crimes and Obstinacy of their Deportment But with him that Text of despising Dominions and speaking Evil of Dignities is not Canonical they could not have been good Patriots in his Sense had they not aspers'd his Majesty's Person and Government fomented Iealousies amongst his People with false and scandalous Reproaches upon all his faithful Subjects and Servants Neither was this Proceedure of the Kings however severely censur'd without a Precedent even in the happy times
of Queen Elizabeth who though she indulg'd Liberty of Speech to her Members yet if any dar'd to open or so much as quetch against her Prerogative or fall upon any Debates which did not properly come within their Sphere she never spar'd to express the height of her Resentment whereof take this single Instance One Morris a Member of Parliament and Chancellor of the Dutchy offer'd a Bill ready drawn for Retrenching the Ecclesiastical Courts into much narrower Bounds with several such like Alterations wherewith his busy Head was pregnant Of this the Queen having present Notice sends for Coke then Speaker of the House of Commons afterwards Lord Chief Iustice and a violent Beautifeu in these three Parliaments of King Charles by whom she order'd this Message to the House viz. That it was wholly in her Power to Call to Determine to Assent or Dissent to any thing done in Parliament that the calling of this was only that the Majesty of God might be the more Religiously observ'd by compelling with some sharpe Laws such as neglect that Service and that the Safety of her Majesty's Person and the Realm might be provided for that it was not meant they should meddle with Matters of State or Causes Ecclesiastical that she wondered any should attempt a thing so contrary to her Commandment and that she was highly offended at it And finally that it was her pleasure no Bill touching any Matters of State or for Reformation of Matters Ecclesiastical should be there Exhibited On the delivery of which Morris is said to have been seiz'd on in the House by a Sergeant at Arms however seiz'd upon he was and committed Prisoner kept for some Years in Tutbury Castle discharg'd from his Office in the Dutchy and disabled from any Practice in his Prosession as a Common Lawyer What would Ludlow have done had he been a Member in those happy Times Here at home either Tutbury or Tyburn would have been his Fate and if got abroad 't is a question whether Swisserland it self could have secur'd him from the long Arm of that great Virago CHAP. IV. Not any just Ground for Complaint of Grievances NEither had they better Authority for the several Grievances they made such a Noise about hunting after them with all the Earnestness imaginable receiving none so kindly as those who brought them Information of fresh Game though generally it proved a Brake-bush instead of a Hare That Disparity printed in Sir Henry Wotton's Remains between the Elizabeth's time and the Duke of Buckingham was sometime after discovered to be the first Essay of a Younger but much abler Pen the Person who writ it making as great a Figure during all the Troubles of Charles the I. and II. as any whatsoever and upon the Restauration was advanc'd according to his great Merits and Sufferings This Ingenious little Piece to make good the Disparity undertaken observes how great an Advantage the Earl had from the Temper of the Age and easy Good Natur'd disposition all People were then in 'T was saith he an ingenious uninquisitive Time when all the Passions and Affections of the People were lapp'd up in such an innocent and humble Obedience that there was never the least Contestations nor Capitulations with the Queen nor though she frequently consulted with her Subjects any further Reasons urg'd of her Actions than her own Will When there were any Grievances they but Reverendly convey'd them to her Notice and left the Time and Order of the rest to her Princely Discretion Once they were more importunate and formal in pursuing the Complaints of the Purveyors for Provision which without doubt was a crying and an heavy Oppression The Queen sent them Word they all thought themselves wise enough to reform the Misdemeanors of their own Families and whisht they had so good an Opinion of her as to trust her with her Servants too I do not find that the Secretary who delivered this Message received any Reproach or Check or that they proceeded any further in the Inquisition On the other side that of the Duke of Buckingham's Favour with King Iames and Charles the I. He tells us was a busy querulous froward Time so much degenerated from the Purity of the former that the People under pretences of Reformation with some Petulant Discourses of Liberty which their great Impostors scattered amongst them like false Glasses to multiply their Fears began Abditos Principis Sensus quid occultius parat exquirere extended their enquiries even to the Chamber and private Actions of the King himself forgetting that Truth of the Poet Nusquam libertas gratior extat quam sub Rege pio 'T was strange to see how Men afflicted themselves to find out Calamities and Mischiefs whilst they borrowed the Name of some great Persons to scandalize the State they lived in A general disorder throughout the whole Body of the Commonwealth nay the Vital Parts perishing the Laws violated by the Judges Religion prophan'd by the Prelates Heresies crept into the Church and countenanced All which they themselves must rectify without being beholden to the King or consulting the Clergy And give me leave to add proving there was any Truth in those Allegations they made such a Noise about Thus far that Great Man who hints likewise at the most probable Causes which might produce that Frenzy this World of ours was then got into As 1 st The heat of young Heads who are ever more forward to reform others than themselves 2 dly The Disappointments some of longer standings met with in reference to their own Advancement But more especially in the 3 d. place The Revolution of Time which had made them unconcern'd in the Loyal Fears that govern'd sixty Years since and the Nation too happy in that Spirit and Condition Unless more sensible of it and thankful for it From which stupid Humour it was that such as cry'd Fire most with the same Breath blew the Coals and would never give over till they had set all in a Flame One of these Grievous Cries was Tunnage and Poundage about which we have already mention'd his Majesty's just Resentments but withall his too great Condescention in hopes to give them Satisfaction So far beneath our self to use his own Words As we are confident never any of our Predecessors did the like nor was the like ever required or expected from them Notwithstanding which they continued their Proceedings and as the King goes on We endured long with much patience both these and sundry other strange and exorbitant Incroachments and Usurpations such as were never before attempted in that House Roger Coke is also very hot upon this Scent and gives a History thereof out of his Grandfather's Institutes so far as to serve his turn yet withall is forc'd to own that they had been continued to all the Kings and Queens since Edward the 4 th so that passing an Act was only Matter of Form for if Prescription long continued Custom be Common Law
Generation as besides their many Abettors amongst the Common People were not unprovided of some in the House of Commons which Mr. Cambden tells us the Queen took Notice of and much dislik'd their unquiet Humor greedy of Novelty and forward to root up things well Established to prevent which for the future she commanded the Severity of the Laws to be every where put in Execution And sometime after procured two New Acts one against the Papists and another against the Puritans on purpose to restrain the insolency of both Factions and by which several of them were afterwards adjudg'd to Death But such Turbulent Spirits are not so easily quell'd the same Historian continues the Complaint in a following Parliament 85. But nothing so much irritated her great Mind as their Villanous Deportment in 88. for thinking they had the Queen at an Advantage upon the Rumor of a Foreign Invasion beset her with greater Importunities than ever and play'd their Affairs with so much Confidence as if of Confederacy with the Spaniard never as Cambden goes on with the Complaint did contumacious Impudency and contumelious Malepertness advance it self more insolently giving an account what Scandalous Books they writ Belching forth such Calumnies and Reproaches therein as the Authors seem'd rather to be Scullions in a Kitchen than followers of Piety The present Course she thought fit to take with such unnatural Beautifeus was only to secure some of the most busy and chief amongst them in Wisbich Castle where many of the leading Papists were likewise secur'd But as soon as that Storm was over she resolv'd upon a more effectual Course to keep a constant Calm at home for in Feb. 92. a Parliament was call'd amongst other things to Enact such Laws as might restrain those Insolencies wherewith the Patience of the State had been so long exercis'd Wherein the Puckering's Speech to both Houses of Parliament is very Remarkable which amongst other things lets them know that they were Especially commanded by her Majesty to take heed that no ear be given nor time afforded to the wearysom Solicitations of those that commonly be called Puritans wherewithall the last Parliaments have been exceedingly importun'd which sort of Men whilst in the Giddyness of their Spirit they labor and strive to advance a new Eldership they do nothing else but disturb the good repose of the Church and Commonwealth And as the Case standeth it may be doubted whether they or the Iesuit do offer more danger or be more speedily to be redress'd with much more to the same purpose even Prophetical of the Mischiefs they have since produc'd Hereupon followed that formidable Act Tricesimo Quinto Elizabethae which was so closely hook'd into the Nostrils of this Spiritual Leviathan as though frequently endeavour'd they were never able to get it out till they had at one desperate Plunge freed themselves from all Regal Power as well as Ecclesiastical Discipline To be sure the remaining ten Years of this great Queen's Reign the swelling Humor of that haughty Faction was so taken down as they never made the least effort towards those Innovations either in Church or State which had been so uneasy to the Government before and so Fatal since In this Excellent Posture and Regular Subordination did this Prudent Princess leave an exact and practicable Model of the English Monarchy that her Successor as I observ'd before did not tread in the same steps take the same care and shew the like Courage Hinc Illae Lachrymae For coming to the Crown with a General Applause on every Side it was never considered that the brightest Sun-rise is soonest intercepted by a Cloud that Hosanna's from the Vulgar as well Great as Small naturally run into the contrary extream unless that Mercury of theirs be fix'd by such a well weigh'd Politick as knows how to temper them in both It was likewise no small Prejudice to our English Church that the King came accompanied with so great a Retinue of his own Country whose Kirk-Leven put our Puritans into a fresh Ferment made them Swell and Domineer with their usual insolence upon the least Countenance of Connivance from such as are in Power or have an Interest in the Government Upon this account I cannot but take Notice of a Passage in Hacket's Life printed before his Sermons He was born of Scotch Parents dwelling in London during the Queen's Time They were both true Protestants great Lovers of the Church of England constantly repairing to the Divine Prayers and Service thereof and would often bewail to their young Son after the coming in of their Country-men with King James the seed of Fanaticism then laid in the Scandalous neglect of the Publick Liturgy which all the Queen's time was exceedingly frequented the People then resorting as Devoutly to Prayers as they would afterwards to hear any famous Preacher about Town And his Aged Parents often observ'd to him that Religion towards God Iustice and Love amongst Neighbours gradually declin'd with the disuse of our Publick Prayers This Observation was made at first which we have since seen Fatally verify'd and cursedly Improv'd It was likewise no small prejudice to the Interest of our English Church that a Scotch Peer Top'd an Archbishop upon her no ways qualify'd with parts or principles for so great a Trust The Story stands thus Upon Bancroft's Death such as wish'd well to the Church Bishops and other great Men about Court recommended Bishop Andrews a Person every way unexceptionable to the King who approv'd so well of him as they thought their Business fix'd and neglected to press it further when the Earl of Dunbar a powerful Minister with the King saith my Author put in for his quondam Chaplain Abbot and got the King's Hand for passing the Instrument before the Matter was discover'd and then too late to prevent God grant Scotch Peers may never more recommend English Prelates Indeed the less any of them have to do with our Church the better although in this great Time of Tryal amongst them where all Religious Order is run into Enthusiasm and Madness there are several have signalis'd themselves with a Zeal truly Primitive not only to the spoyling their Goods but the loss of all their Fortunes and of some of their Lives For our New Metropolitan when in Place he fell very much short of what his own Admirers expected to be sure his Remiss Government and unexcusable Partiality towards the Puritans neglecting all those worthy Methods his two Predecessors Whitgift and Bancroft had prosecuted introduc'd those many Desolations Fractions and Schisms which the Church hath not yet and 't is a Question whether will be ever able to weather for whilst several worthy Prelates in his Time and his Successor who next came in Place endeavour'd to continue or revive such Articles Injunctions and Canons as had been fram'd in Q. Elizabeth's Time and to reduce the Church to the same Order and Regimen in which Abbot found it These forsooth must
would undertake the Fleet might be much better manag'd both as to Conduct and Charge and thereupon fell most rudely upon the Duke not sparing his Majesty in some By-reflections who perceiving their Heats to rise every Day higher than other and that no Supply was to be had unless he yielded to their unreasonable Cavils which no body could foresee how far they would extend or where end He sent a Commission to some of the House of Lords and dissolv'd them That he was not without great Regret forc'd upon this 't is easie to imagine considering the Posture of his Affairs and that Want of timely Supply detain'd his Fleet from going out till it should have been return'd into Harbor And indeed the Delays he met with where there was least Reason to expect them had they considered the Honor and Interest of the Kingdom not to say of the King tho they pretended much to both was the chief if not sole Cause of several Miscarriages which according to the Genius of that Age were otherwise very well design'd However giving some strict Orders about Recusants and whatever else there was any Shadow of an Exception against as likewise hoping on the other side those fiery Spirits might be somewhat cool'd and brought to a sober Consideration of their own and the Nation 's Reputation Another Parliament was call'd within the same Year which prov'd no Changlings beginning where they left off with Miscarriages Misgovernment Misimployment in short they would have all amiss whereas there was nothing so but themselves Neither could his Majesty's Letter to the Speaker have any Influence upon them tho' most passionately representing his pressing Occasions and how unfit it was to depend any longer upon Uncertainties whereby the whole Weight of the Affairs of Christendom was like to break in upon us on the suddain to the Dishonor and Shame of the Nation assuring them moreover that having satisfied his reasonable Demands he would continue them together at this Time as long as the Season will permit and call them shortly again to apply fit and seasonable Remedies to such just Grievances as they shall present unto him in a dutiful and mannerly way without throwing an ill Odor upon our present Government or upon the Government of our late blessed Father and if there be yet who desire to find fault we shall think him the wisest Reprehender of Errors past who without reflecting backward can give us Counsel how to settle the present Estate of things and provide for the future Safety and Honour of the Kingdom This was very much to the purpose but withal too home and true to meet with that Reception it ought to have had Neither had the Lords better Success in a Message they sent desiring them to take into Consideration the Safety of the Kingdom receiving this grough Answer That they desire to have a good Understanding with their Lordships and will be ever careful of the Safety and Defence of the Kingdom and maintain their own Privileges as is fitting And having sent this they immediately fell upon the Duke of Buckingham in order whereunto we find one Turner a Doctor of Phisick and Member of the House made the Factions Tool or rather Log to break the Ice by starting six Quaeres against the Duke grounded only upon common Fame and this produc'd another Quaere indeed a very requisite one Whether an Accusation upon common Fame be a Parliamentary Way And thereupon it was resolv'd That common Fame is a good way of proceeding for this House from whence alone that great Body of Articles was usher'd up to the Lords with as much Pomp and Rhetorick as give them their Due that House ever was or will be Masters of Yet no more than requisite to supply the Place of Argument for whoever considers impartially the Duke's Answer will find it so clear and apposite to every Particular alledg'd so consistent with the Reason of Things and Series of Affairs there mention'd as'tis more than probable their Impeachment was design'd only as a Ducquoy to get him into the Tower and then instead of proving their Articles would have proceeded by Bill of Attainder and voted it accumulative Treason as we know it was afterwards most barbarously done in the Earl of Strafford's Case In the mean while commend me to any Man or Body of Men who can have the Confidence to declaim against Arbitrary Power and yet proceed upon common Fame which was ever thought hard and therefore discontinued both in Civil and Canon Law where for some time it took place especially in an Age where Calumny and Slander were so scandalously rise as no honest Man could escape the devouring Words of their false Tongues Methinks such a Proceedure as this has some Affinity with that old Land Story of the Cook serving his Dog who said he would not hang him only give him an ill Name and thereupon threw him into the Street and cry'd a Mad Dog which made all the Rabble of two as well as four legg'd Curs fall upon and worry him to Death Yet how far this way of Prosecution might have been brought into Practice had these Gentlemen continued Rex no one can tell to be sure in the next Parliament when Neal Bishop of Winton and Laud of London were inveigh'd against by Sir Iohn Eliot and others an honest Gentleman stood up and said Now we have nam'd these Persons let us think of some Causes why we did it whereunto Sir Edward Coke reply'd Have we not nam'd my Lord of Buckingham without shewing Cause and may we not be as bold with them Common Fame would do the Business thoroughly But to return to the Duke they thought it enough to shew their Teeth for surely if they could have bit they would not have postpon'd the making good their Articles against him when he press'd them so earnestly thereto which notwithstanding they did as well as the King's Supply and fell to hammering a new Remonstrance which his Majesty having notice of anticipated by their Dissolution We shall have Occasion hereafter to observe what pass'd between this and the next Parliament which was March 17 th 1627. when his Majesty at their first assembling plainly told them That if his present calling them together did not answer the Quality of his Occasions they did not their Duties and he must rest content in the Conscience of doing his and take other Courses for which God had impower'd him to save that which the Folly of particular Men might hazzard to lose Hereupon they fell into long and tedious Debates whether a Supply or Grievances should first take place At length the former had the Preference out of Complement though last consummated for that Vote was no sooner pass'd but the People's Liberty must immediately be consider'd which produc'd the so much celebrated Petition of Right wherein the King humour'd them to every Punctilio though nothing but a Spirit of Opposition could have excepted against his first
Sir Edward Coke to Harangue the Lords upon the same Subject whose first and chief Exception was that 't was ordered after their Summons a sufficient Proof there could be no ill Design by it although it might likewise be considered that the Parliament was not so free to grant the King Supplies as he to Summons them and further yet that there were several Projects propounded to the King which he would never rashly close with but refer to the Consideration of his Counsel no mean Instance of his Prudence and Goodness too above what we deserv'd to recommend such as their Wisdoms and best Iudgments should find to be most convenient in a Case of this inevitable Necessity For those be the express Words in the Commission And hereto agrees what the Lord Keeper reported to the House of Lords That their Lordships had reason to be satisfied with what was truly and rightly told them by the Lords of the Council that this Commission was no more but a Warrant of Advice which his Majesty knew to be agreeable to the Time and the manifold Occasions then in Hand but now having a Supply from the Loves of his People he esteems the Commission useless and therefore though he knows no Cause why any Iealousies should have risen thereby yet at their Desires he is content it be cancelled and hath commanded me c. Yet I know this Reply will not pass tho upon his Majesty's Royal Word unless we can take off that potent Allegation of 30000 l. remitted over to Sir William Balfour and Dalbeir in Holland to raise a Thousand German Horse to enforce the Payment of this Excise and aw the Parliament soon to be Assembled as most of the Libellers expresly declare That such a Sum was remitted to raise Horse is certainly true but to be imploy'd here at home to the Ends aformention'd as certainly false to the making good whereof I must observe that the Low-Countries were at that time not only the School but Shop of War which furnish'd all the rest of Europe even the Spaniards themselves for a good Market with Arms Ammunition and whatever else was requisite to that Bloody Trade Neither was any thing more usual in Queen Elizabeth's Time than to take such English Forces as had been exercis'd and flesh'd in their Service when upon any great Expedition against Spain or elsewhere and supply them with new rais'd Men to maintain their Garrisons According to this Method the Lord Wimbleton was supply'd about two Years before in his Expedition against Spain And these 1000 Horse were doubtless design'd upon some Enterprise in defence of Rochel or otherwise to Annoy the French which upon new Councils and perhaps a Prospect of Peace for about that time it began to be secretly Agitated was laid aside To be sure had his Majesty design'd any thing of force upon this Nation he made choice of very improper Instruments in those two Commanders who notwithstanding their great Obligations to the King when the War brake out in 41. took Imployments under the Parliament because they had most Mony I presume and did them cursed Service The Defence saith Dalbeir was a Papist to reflect upon the King doubtless without considering what he did afterwards for his Parliament of 40. He was a German and had serv'd under Count Mansfield so that 't was more likely he was Lutheran or Calvinist But of what concern is that Man's Religion who Acts without a Principle of Gratitude or Common Honesty And therefore to attend the Fate of this unworthy Person a little farther when he had wrought Iourny-Work for the Parliament as long as the War lasted he was laid aside which regretting as a Souldier of Fortune ought to do engag'd upon the King's Account with the Duke of Bucks Lord Holland c. in that Design at Kingston which miscarrying they were persued to St. Neots in Huntingtonshire where some escap'd some were taken but Dalbeir was cut in pieces by his Brethren the Parliamentarians because he had been of their Side If Balfour did not come to the same End 't was pity for he was a true Covenanting Scot betray'd the King in the great Trust of the Tower committed to him and from thenceforward sided with the Parliament I had not been so Prolix in my Account of these two Men but to shew that had there been any such Design as an Excise and these German Horse to enforce the same 't is impossible but the two chief Commanders must have been privy thereto and would have consequently divulg'd it to their Patrons the Parliament indearing themselves more thereby than all their other Bloody Services I must beg leave to make this one Observation farther That it had been altogether as impossible for one Thousand Horse to enforce a General Excise as double the Number of the foremention'd Irish to Massacre the whole Nation Yet they had a more impertinent Maggot in 41 that there were Forces kept in Grots and Caves under Ground that should in the Night break out into the City and cut all their Throats And what was more prodigious and though ridiculous yet saith my Author had not a few Believers in London That there were Designs by Gun-Powder to blow up the Thames and choak them with the Water in their Beds May it not be here a necessary Quere Whether the Invention or Credulity be more Astonishing CHAP. V. No reason to complain of Favourites and evil Counsellors FAvourites and evil Counsellors were another of their Common-place Complaints with how little Reason or Truth is next to be made appear The Lord Bacon in his Essay of Friendship observes as a strange thing The high rate great Kings and Monarchs have set thereon and that not only the Weak and Passionate but the Wisest and most Politick that ever Reign'd whereof he gives several Instances To be sure at this time most Courts in Christendom had particular Favourites who notwithstanding the great Figure they made were really Participes Curarum as the foremention'd Lord judiciously terms them Drudges of State Screens of popular Odium and Discontent as in most if not in all Places they were made to find And hereunto amongst the rest King Iames seem'd very much dispos'd as appear'd by one or two in Scotland And in process of time his Inclination continued the same Bend here whereof one Car a Scotchman his Page was the first Instance who having a comely well built Outside the King hop'd he might be as well furnish'd within and accordingly took much pains in the Improvement of his Mind directed him in his Studies and all other things requisite to the Accomplishments of such a Person as he wish'd and hop'd he might prove All which is an extraordinary Instance of a good Master and a good Nature too And yet to make him appear a better Prince when he found all he had done was in vain that this new Creature of his was a Blockhead Insolent Ill-natur'd wretchedly Penurious and intollerably
Council were generally Members in one House or other and as well able to acquaint them with the true State and Interest of the whole Nation as any particular Member of that private Burrough he Represented and were credited accordingly which produc'd an exact Concord and Harmony between every Part of the Constitution On the contrary when the Members divide and jar one with another when all the King advise with must be suspected for Enemies to the Publick tho no such thing can be prov'd and he upbraided for consulting or imploying them and that by such as affect their Places or design to abridge his just Power what an Ocean of Mischiefs must this toss us in What but a Shipwrack can be expected at last As indeed it happen'd 'T is a pretty Remark and Simile of Sir W. T. who tells us he had observ'd All set Quarrels with the Age and pretences to Reform it by their own Models to end commonly like the pains of a Man in a little Boat who tuggs at a Rope that is fast to a Ship it looks as if he resolv'd to draw the Ship to him but the Truth and his meaning is to draw himself to the Ship where he gets in when he can and does like the rest of the Crew when he is there But this would not do in King Charle's Time there was not Room enough to hold all that pull'd to come in at leastwise Provision to support them when there For however Ludlow upbraids the poor King with the Profuseness of his Court the standing Revenue of the Crown was about 400000 l. per Annum too little by far to supply his great and urgent Occasions Would they have given him Mony plentifully some new Places might have been made or other Ways and Means found to gratify their Kindness but as they knew the King's Honor and Integrity would not Stoop to such indirect Courses so 't is probable 't was considered on the other side this would put them upon a worse extream instead of giving nothing they must give more than all Nevertheless some were taken in Sir Thomas Wentworth Mr. Noy and a while after Sir Dudly Diggs who had their several Posts assign'd them and behav'd themselves with great Honor and Resolution there which so incenc'd the rest as they became more implacable than ever plotted all Ways imaginable to seize upon the Vessel which at length having obtain'd they first threw the King and his whole Crew overboard and then sunk it All which the Good Man was advis'd of long before for in the heat of their Prosecution against the Duke there was a Letter put into his Hands ab Ignoto whereof Mr. Rushworth gives only a sneaking Abridgment like a partial Somewhat as he is for the whole deserv'd to have been Transmitted as well as any one thing in all his Volumes however 't is at large in the Cabala giving him an Account of their several Parties and dangerous Designs that King Iames had given too much way to their popular Speeches and Parliamentary Harangues which since the time of Henry the VI. were never suffer'd as being the certain Symptoms of subsequent Rebellions Civil Wars and Dethroning of our Kings Amongst others he tells him the Lawyers in general fomented these Heats for that as Sir Edward Coke could not but often express our Kings have upholden the Power of their Prerogatives and the Rights of the Clergy whereby their comings in have been abated And therefore the Lawyers are fit ever in Parliaments to second any Complaints against both Church and King and all his Servants with their Cases Antiquities Records Statutes Presidents and Stories But they cannot or will not call to Mind that never any Noble Man in Favour with his Sovereign was question'd in Parliament except by the King's leave in Case of Treason or unless it were in the Nonage and Tumultuous Times of Richard II. Henry VI. or Edward the VI. which happen'd both to the Destruction of King and Kingdom And that not to exceed our own and Fathers memories in King Henry VIII's Time Wolsie's exorbitant Power and Pride and Cromwell's Contempt of the Nobility and Laws were not yet permitted to be discus'd in Parliament though they were most odious and grievous to all the Kingdom And that Leicester's undeserved Favour and Faults Hatton's Insufficiency and Rawleigh's Insolence far exceeded what yet hath been tho most falsly objected against the Duke Yet no Lawyer durst abet nor any else begin any Invectives against them in Parliament This is clear Matter of Fact an impartial Account both of the Distemper and its true Original Cause I wish he could as easily have prescribed the Cure but it was now too late to remove what was so deeply rooted and become habitual King Iames might easily have prevented its rising to so high a Crisis had he observ'd that one Maxim of the Precedent Reign kept up his Prerogative and those other Arcana Imperij which were his Peculiar with as much Majesty and Resolution as Queen Elizabeth did who found this Pragmatical Spirit at work in her Time But so observ'd and kept it down as had the same Course been continued no Danger could have accrew'd thereby To ascribe any thing of Divinity to Princes above other Mortals will I am sure at this time of Day be censured for a gross piece of Pedantry yet really there are several Inducements would go a great way to perswade that this happy Queen was so far inspir'd as to see further into the Thoughts and Designs of Men than any or all about her especially that these busy Reformers affected a Parity in the State as well as Church design'd not only the Mytre but the Crown to be under their Check and Control which made her on all Occasions exert so briskly in defence of her Prerogative and other just Rights Insomuch as Roger Coke owns there were three things she was impatient of having debated in Parliament The Succession of the Crown after her Death Her Marriage and attempting any Alterations in the Church from its Establishment in the first Year of her Reign For the last of these I have had occasion already to mention how Morris burnt his Fingers by meddling therewith and the Iournal gives the like Account about the former how one Wentworth and some others were sent to the Tower for concerning themselves with the Succession but whereas Roger Coke saith they were soon discharg'd is one of his own Maggots and a shameful perhaps willful Blunder since the Iournal would have inform'd him that the House becoming humble Sutors to her Majesty for the release of such Members as were under restraint It was answered by the Privy-Counsellors then Members of the House That her Majesty had committed them for Causes best known to her self and that to press her Highness with this Suit would but hinder those whose Good it sought That the House must not call the Queen to an Account for what she did of her
De Propaganda Fide would take care enough should be insisted upon but that any such thing was comply'd with or hearken'd to as there is nothing extant to make it appear which would have been highly acceptable and most pestilently advantageous to the Faction's Calumnies so matter of Fact speaks quite the contrary For as soon as they came to be capable of Instruction their Education was wholly at the King's Direction and perform'd with extraordinary Care Piety and Judgment And whatever Clamours or Conjectures may be made to the contrary I have been inform'd by very judicious Observers that the Queen was very Passive therein and carried her self with a great deal of Deference to what the King Ordered If any of them Warp'd afterwards it was upon our compelling them into Exile and for that as I said before our selves must bear the Blame to force Princes abroad can never turn to Account for this Nation That other Libel too King Charles no Saint c. makes a mighty Pudder about the Match and gives us the precise Sums allowed to the several Ecclesiasticks of her Train amounting so high in the Total as I fancy it is nigh as much as the King could allow for the Expence of her whole Court which indeed ought to be somewhat Splendid in respect to both her Qualities Daughter of France and Queen of England yet was it withall very Regular and confin'd to such a Proportion as the King 's great Exigencies and small Revenue would admit He owns likewise upon the insolent Deportment of her French Domesticks the King dismist them a sufficient Argument she had not that Ascendent over him these Foul-mouth'd Blockheads prate of But that they return'd again to their former Post is absolutely false her Retinue for the future were mostly English and of that Communion too Neither from that time forward for the French did some ill Offices of that kind was there ever known a more agreeable Understanding between King and Queen or indeed any other Man and Wife than them two all the Obligations of Conjugal Love Respect and Duty so inviolably observ'd on either side as they were an Example to many and a Reproach to others in the Court and ought to have been so to the whole Kingdom thorough The Exposing his intercepted Letters shall be hereafter consider'd as the Unworthiest Act the basest Men could be guilty of One thing farther I shall propound to these Negative Make-bates who so violently oppos'd his Matching either with Spain or France Where would they have had him Match'd 'T was high time as to his Age and more highly requisite in that he was the only Male of the Royal Line that he should be dispos'd of somewhere and to what purpose was it for People to cry a Protestant Princess had been better when they could find none such agreeable to his Quality nor that mutual intercourse which such Alliances generally produce For tho' 't is true Kingdoms never Marry and we find a War broke out soon after and partly hereupon yet it might be also the sooner Accommodated upon the same account To be sure if there be few private Families of any Degree but have some Consideration of this Nature when they dispose of their Children we must allow the same to Crown'd Heads both in respect to one another and their several Neighbour Potentates who are never without Caballing Interests and other Intriegues of State Neither could that liberty of the Romish Rites indulg'd her and those of that persuasion in her Family have been any ways prejudicial had they who made such a Noise so violently complain'd against it jointly concur'd in the Confinement thereof to its proper Bounds or Modestly Address'd his Majesty whenever exceeded but the Froppishness of that Crooked Generation was for perverting every thing that Good Man did to the utmost extremity as he complains in the Declaration when his third Parliament was Dissolv'd Seu bene seu male facta premunt with Mischievous Men once Ill-Affected whatsoever seem'd Amiss is ever Remembred but good Endeavours never Regarded So likewise for the Nobility and Gentry of that Persuasion if they had any favour more than usual it was not so much from the Queen's Sollicitation tho' that was commonly objected as for that they frankly proffer'd to Advance Money towards the King's Necessities and thereby exasperated the Parliament as well in crossing their Designs as upbraiding their Refractory Humour although 't was rather their Iealousy than any real Effects the Loyal Gentlemen found of Kindness 'T is true there was a Commission issued out and Commissioners appointed to Treat with them about Arrears of Forfeitures and an Advance upon the same account for some years to come but 't is false what Rushworth saith That in pursuance of this Commission the Recusants did make their Composition upon very easy Terms as was afterwards complain'd of in Parliament for this Project never took effect Sir Iohn Savile to whom the Management thereof was chiefly entrusted thought it more Advantageous and therefore Advisable to Collect the Arrears of Thirds due to the King by Law which they the more willingly paid in Consideration of the Exigencies he then lay under and being generally as well bred and Understanding Gentlemen as most in the Kingdom must not be blam'd if they had some prospect of Advantage as well as Duty Yet whatever respect the King shew'd their Persons we see it would not excuse their Purses nor procure any Countenance to their Perswasions for whenever the Management of any young Heirs in such Families came under his hands either as Wards or otherwise there was effectual care taken of their Education amongst which that every way most Eminent the late Duke of Ormond was one But Popery was the Main Spoak in that Wheel of Revolution these pretended Government Menders were so bent to bring about and therefore tho' they made many a Faint yet would never close effectually with the King in suppression thereof Thus when both Houses Petition'd the King against Recusants propounding a provisional Law that their Children might be brought up in our Religion his Majesty most readily comply'd therewith and earnestly recommended the preparation of a fitting Law to that effect which notwithstanding the Debate fell asleep and was never after reassum'd And after the first heat as little Notice was taken of that Letter found amongst the Clerkenwell Iesuits whereby nevertheless it appear'd they equally studied the King's Ruine with the Naetions Confusions as Secretary Cook inform'd them from him and withall how the French Ambassador told his Master at home what he had wrought here last Parliament namely Divisions between King and People and he was rewarded for it A full discovery whose Tools they were whose Game they play'd which nevertheless they continued on so that one would think there was a design to accept the Iesuits Challenge and venture all upon a Trial of Skill whether were the best Artists in Mischief the
free exercise of their Religion and the abolition of such Laws as render the Catholicks uncapable of any Office Place Commodity or Profit to the extraordinary decay of their Estates Education and Learning From whence it is clear That tho' the design was laid before yet as to the Conduct and Management thereof they exactly copyed their Neighbours the Scots and the Devil could not furnish them with any other Precedent more proper for their Design The King likewise was proportionably abus'd in his Concessions and Favours for the leading men in this Rebellion having appear'd against the great Earl of Strafford and been countenanc'd by our violent Factions here in their Complaints of Grievance and Heavy Impositions the Lords Iustices who were then in the Supream Power must be order'd to caress the Gentlemen and comply in whatever insolent demands they should insist upon by which means some of the Popish Lawyers Members of that House of Commons the better to carry on that Rebellion they had in design were so impudent as to lay down these Maxims and vouch them for Law 1. That any one being killed in Rebellion tho' found by matter of Record would give the King no forfeiture of Estate 2. That tho' many thousands stood up in Arms working all manner of Destruction yet if they profess not to rise against the King that it was no Rebellion 3. That if a man were Outlaw'd for Treason and his Land rested in the Crown or given away by the King his Heir might come afterwards be admitted to reverse the Outlawry and recover his Ancestor's Estate These and many such like Rebel Tenents were publish'd that Session after the Murder of the Earl of Strafford an abundant confirmation how requisite his strict Hand was for such a loose People which to astonishment the Government did not see or would not take notice of till the Knife was at their Throats and many thousands of them cut although they must have all a-long observ'd how uneasie the Irish had been under their Conquest tho' better govern'd perhaps than had it been in their own hands how strangely influenc'd by their Priests and bigotted upon that account so that they might alledge the same pretence of Religion and Property with their Neighbours and have just the same reason to Rebell that is none at all But that which surpriseth me most is that these People should have liberty to sit in Parliament Comptrol and Vote against whatever Sanctions had been or were farther to be enacted in order to keep them the better in subjection the freedom of their Consciences might surely have been thought enough but the Freedom of Governing too must bring all to confusion as it here happen'd to a horrid degree But 't is not my Province to take notice of this or any of their other Rebellions farther than the Reputation and Memory of our Royal Sufferer is concern'd whose treatment as to these Irish Affairs was more barbarous and inhumane than all the rest as well from the Forgeries on their side to inveigle and abuse the People as the villainous spreading of them here where it requir'd some time to procure a right Information We must know therefore That when the Faction here had actually drawn their Sword against their Sovereign amongst many other Calumnies and Detractions laid to his charge in the several Declarations and Answers they sent abroad there were few without some secret Reflections as if the Rebellion in Ireland began by his Knowledge and Connivance from which intimations their impudent Agents and Emissaries the allow'd Scriblers and News Prints the Pest of that and all other Ages where permitted would have those many Massacres and Murders laid at his Door which the Good Man's Heart more unfeignedly lamented than all the Members of both Houses Nevertheless as His Majesty himself foretold concerning the many Iealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon him by his Enemies his Reputation like the Sun after Owls and Batts have had their Freedom in the Night and darker times brake forth and recover'd it self to such a degree of Splendor as those Feral Birds griev'd to behold and were unable to bear for as no good man believ'd any of those Calumnies at first so the next return or two of Post or Ship they were blown away with the same Wind which brought them hither and the Faction forc'd to rack their Wits for a fresh reproach wherewith the Devil never fail'd to supply them But that after several years of happy Sunshine another Sett of those nasty Birds should appear again hooping and howling the same notorious falsehoods to a Generation which was not then born and too little considering the mischiefs then wrought looks very ominous and God grant it doth not bode a greater darkness than any we then lay under The first reproach which this false and feather Bird Ludlow howls forth against the King is That whilst in Scotland he had News of the Irish Rebellion how the Papists throughout the Kingdom were in Arms c. and then closeth the Relation with this Villainous hearsay The News of this Rebellion as I have heard from persons of undoubted Credit was not displeasing to the King though it was attended with the Massacre of many thousands of the Protestants there p. 17. Though we are not to take his word for the Credit of the persons who related this yet we may take our measures from his relation that they were equally to be credited with himself that is not all for all this is gratis dictum without the least Authority any thing of a reason or so much as probable conjecture for so hellish an Aspersion Whereas there is express matter of Fact even to demonstration that never any thing more sensibly affected him in that upon the first notice thereof he sent Sir Iames Stewart to the Lords of the Privy-Council at Dublin with Instructions what he thought most proper to be done and furnish'd them with all that Money his present stores could supply He mov'd also the Parliament in Scotland to a speedy help but they desir'd to be excus'd till the States of England were consulted who if they thought fit to use any of their men propositions should be made in order thereunto designing to make a Market to themselves of their Neighbour Nations miseries wherein notwithstanding many of their own Countrymen were concerned At the same time likewise he sent Post to the Parliament of England where several Resolves were taken and Votes made but little effectually done till the King's Return To speak truly had Ludlow's reflection been made upon them there had been much more Credit for it since they laid hold of all advantages thereby not only to slander and abuse his Majesty but to help themselves forward in that Rebellion they were just ripe for acting as will by and by be made appear With the same Owl-light Credit he proceeds and tells us About this time great numbers of English Protestants flying from the Bloody hands
care taken of them as 't is beyond expression to relate how miserably they suffered for want of Victuals Stores Clothes Pay indeed whatever was requisite to their subsistence as Men or accommodation as Soldiers The Parliament being so wholly intent upon their English Rebellion could spare no time nor charge to prosecute that just War upon which scandalous neglect all Parties concerned more especially the Commanders and Soldiers earnestly begg'd leave of the King that they might be remov'd and engag'd against any Enemy whatsoever but Hunger And this amongst other inducements was the chief of that Cessation Ludlow inveighs so bitterly against p. 65. as likewise that the Earl of Leicester staid so long and did not go at last for he was always hastned by the K. and every thing restor'd more than he had occasion for or was really design'd thither But he meeting with many complaints from thence and observing how difficult it was to get a Supply by his Solicitation here and how much worse when gone thither upon that account did not stir What Ludlow further saith as to the Cessation that the King agreed to it contrary to his Engagement with both Houses not to treat with the Rebels unless they concurred p. 65. is of no validity that agreement was before the English were in actual Rebellion and his Majesty thought such compliance might prevent it but falling out otherwise 't is a pretty Supposition that when a Prince hath two Nations in Rebellion he must ask the one whether he shall treat with the other 'T is also absolutely false that this Cessation in Ireland induced the Parliament to treat with their Friends in Scotland to march to their assistance into England 't was the Prospect thereof induced the King to the Cessation which he was always advised of that notwithstanding the Condescentions he had yielded to and Protestations made by them they design'd only to take breath and would be ready at the first clinking of the English Money and if they had pretended no more there might have been something said as they were men of Fortune by way of Apology that having not repented their Rebellion the Lucre thereof might oblige their continuance but to continue the making Religion their property to Rebel against their King for imposing the English Liturgy or somewhat like it and now invade his Kingdom to impose their cursed Covenant is such a procedure as none but their own Country can give an instance of At Uxbridge Treaty the Irish concern was one main head wherein the Parliament as indeed in all other matters were so refractory and haughty as to exclude the King from being any ways concerned either in the management of War or Peace he must not so much as nominate his Deputy or one single Officer which therefore coming to an end without effect his Majesty had all the reason in the world to press that Cessation into a Peace wherein the Duke of Ormond and several of his Friends there were imploy'd as likewise Commissioners from them treating at Oxon but what with the Nuncio's Insolence and Bigottry of the Ecclesiasticks all came to nothing whereas would that Priest-ridden Nation have understood their own Interest and acted for their safety they might have expiated somewhat for their former bloodshed whereof many of their own Party were very much asham'd obtain'd a reasonable Liberty of Conscience with other immunities and prevented that utter desolation they were afterwards so justly brought into On the contrary they shuffled at such an idle rate play'd the Bogtrotters in Politicks too imposing upon every necessity they saw his Majesty really or likely to be under and so shuffled off and on till they lost him and in him themselves to a most deplorable condition as bloody Savages as they were And if there yet wants a farther confirmation of this our Martyr's Integrity and Detestation as to the premisses take this farther account Dr. Nalson in the Preface to his Collections mentions a Letter still to be seen in the Paper Office intercepted by a Party of the Parliament Army very much a propo it was from the Lord Digby by the Kings order to the Irish Catholicks as they must be termed or no treating with them wherein he lets them know how prejudicial their standing off had been to his Affairs and most prophetically foretells that Destruction the prosperous Rebels here wou'd bring home to their own doors Declaring withal that were the condition of his Affairs much more desperate than it is he would never redeem them by any concessions of so much wrong to his Honour and Conscience and yet his Affairs were now at a very low Ebb this being written soon after the Fatal blow at Naseby The Dr. relates farther that he found this Letter had been before the Committee which perus'd such as might most expose the King by being Printed and Indors'd with Rushworth's own hand that faithful Collector of whatever tends to Treason and Mischief Quere as to the Printing this Letter and a little after needless to be Printed 'T is much they did not order it to the Fire since 't is an irrefragable Testimony of the most unbyassed Sincerity any but the King of Kings could propound to walk by and this will stifle the last Effort of our Author 's rancorous spite in reference to the Irish Affairs who tells us the Earl of Glamorgan was impowred by private Instructions to promise the Liberty of the Romish Religion with diverse other advantages to the Irish Rebels c. P. 163. the Earl of Glamorgan was a zealous Romanist and had put himself very forward to be tampering in that Affair but still the Marquiss of Ormond was Supream in that Government and finding him to exceed his Commission confined him as Guilty of High-Treason and whatever he writ to his Lady had not all things gone to confusion would never have been able to justifie his proceedings nor Ludlow that vile suggestion that the Officers and Soldiers in Dublin obliged the Marquess of Ormond to treat with the Parliament Commissioners for putting that City into their hands P. 164. I know not what flam stories Sir Francis Willoughby might think to gratify Ludlow withall when he was Paramount in Ireland but cannot believe it was in his power to deliver that Castle without the Marquess's consent To be sure the whole matter was adjusted between the King and him some time before things came to the Extremity for we find in Doctor Burlace this intimation of his Majesty's pleasure That if it were possible for the Marquess to keep Dublin and the other Garrisons under the same intire Obedience to his Majesty they were then in it would be acceptable to his Majesty But if there were or should be a necessity of giving them up to any other Power he should rather put them into the hands of the English than the Irish which was accordingly done An Evidence even to Demonstration that though the King treated with the Irish and might
Army in prejudice to theirs which caus'd Commissary Wilmot who with some others was a Member of the House to tell them upon a Paper the Scots had presented to get Mony design'd for our Army that if Papers could procure Money he doubted not but the English Officers would soon do the same Neither were their Resentments less upon the King 's than their own account that after so many complyances and too great condescention they should still press forward to the overturning of all whereupon they entred into a confederacy obliging themselves by an Oath of secrecy to Petition the King and Parliament upon these Four Heads For Money for the Army not to Disband before the Scots To preserve Bishops Votes and Functions To settle the King's Revenue Which being shown to and approv'd by the King he sign'd all which appears both from Mr. Percy 's letter to the Earl of Northumberland his Brother that they resolved to act nothing which should infringe the Subjects Liberty or be prejudicial to the Laws As likewise from the foremention'd Manuscript of the Earl of Manchester which gives the same account And could Ludlow or any of his Partisans imagin there should be no Men of Courage and Resolution left in the Nation or that having Swords by their Sides they should keep their Hands in their Pockets and see Votes and Ordinances do more mischief than all the Gunpowder of a seven Years Campain and since the Parliament were resolv'd upon a War 't is Pity these Gentlemen parted with their Forces Had they come up and cut Ten or Twenty the lowdest Throats in the House it might have sav'd the effusion of a great deal more and much better Blood and preserv'd both King and Kingdom from Ruin To shew farther that the Parliament was always in danger the King continually plotting against them they never against him our Author tells us how a great number of loose debauch'd Fellows repair'd to Whitehall where a constant Table was provided and many Gentlemen of the Inns of Court tamper'd with to assist him in his Design and how briskly he took up one for speaking against the Fellows at Westminster who upon this fright desir'd leave to provide themselves a Guard and that the Militia might be at their disposing p. 21. To turn a Story or frame a Lie so as to make it serve their own turns hath been all along observ'd the peculiar Talent of our Commonwealth Men and of the whole Party Ludlow had most right to the Whetstone That the Fellow should be so impudent to charge the King with raising Tumults or threatning Force when all the World knows it was the chief Engine the Parliament had to carry on all their mischievous Enterprises and when any thing stuck with him or the Lords a Rabble of 5 or 6000 were immediately summon'd out of the City to affright and threaten all that would not comply according to their Desire and in their passage by Whitehall did the same to the King till their Insolencies grew so intolerable as he was forc'd to leave that and Parliament at once for which they had the confidence to charge him and yet would take no care he might be secure with them and this occasion'd what Ludlow relates Several Gentlemen about Town more especially at the Inns of Court were asham'd to see Majesty so scandalously affronted proffer'd their service for the security of Whitehall his Majesty and Family which was kindly accepted and some little Entertainment made for them from whence this vile Fellow rais'd his great Story And since he hath given me this just provocation it will be here very proper to give some small account of those many violences from the insults and tumults of the Rabble how necessary the Faction found them and thereupon what Encouragement they had The Bill of Attainder against the Earl of Strafford went on very slowly in the House of Lords and 't is probable but for the Menaces of the Mob had never pass'd whereof 5 or 6000 came up to Westminster fill'd the Palace-Yard posted themselves at all the Entrances to the Parliament House and stopped every Coach crying Iustice and Execution which upon a Sign given was repeated with such an hideous Noise as to create Amazement in the greatest Constancy Such Lords as they knew were averse to Humour them they threatned most severely and had the Impudence to add if they had not the Leiutenant's Life they would have the King 's whereof his Majesty complained by Message to the Lords they to the Commons and there it stuck For sometime after when they trudg'd away to cry no Bishops as Hudibras hath it and the Lords complained in a Conference with the Commons of their horrible Insolency Mr. Pim their chief Setter cry'd God forbid we should proceed to dishearten People from obtaining their just Rights and the rest of that cursed Cabal secretly whisper'd they must not discourage their Friends this being a time to make use of them which vile Abettings made them so Impudent as to threaten White-hall too and declare as they pass'd by there should be no Porters Lodg but they would come to speak to the King without Control and at their own discretion And when presently after there was another descent of the same Rout and some Opposition made upon their Attempt upon White-hall Gate till the Sheriffs of London and Middelsex with what Guard they could draw together seiz'd and committed some of them the Commons immediately posted up Mr. Hollis to the Lords complaining 't was a Violation of the Liberty of the Subject and an affront to the Parliament and so the Good Boys must be discharg'd 'T were too tedious to relate the several Insults of this kind both King and Lords were forc'd to put up the Commons underhand giving them all Encouragement imaginable and had their Setters in the City to be ready on the first Intimation whereof Dr. Cornelius Burges a Lecturing Beautifeu was chief seconded by a Lay Brother one Ven the Captain Tom of those Times the Dr. as he led up these Doughty Champions was wont to look back and cry These are my Ban-dogs I can set them on and I can take them off again by which means saith my Author four parts in five of the Lords and two parts in three of the Commons were frighted out of the House to leave the Faction absolute Masters thereof All these before unheard of Affronts to Majesty and Government our faithful Recorder of Memoirs takes no Notice of but a few honest Loyal Gentlemen asham'd to see such abominable Insults and therefore coming to defend if occasion serv'd their abused ay and threatned Prince must pass for a Plot upon the Parliament and they forsooth must have a Guard With like veracity he relates the Kingston Plot too where the Lord Digby with Colonel Lunsford in a Coach and Six and three or four Footmen attending pass'd for a Body of 500 Horse with many such like extravagant Rumors
rais'd on purpose that their Worships might be thought to stand in need of a Guard whereas if such a thing was wanting it must be to Guard the King and Government from them In that Divine Pourtraicture of his Majesty's Solitudes and Sufferings there are two Chapters one upon the many Iealousies rais'd and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against him The other upon the Insolencies of the Tumults in both which he doth so passionately set forth how abominably he and his Subjects were abus'd by their Lyes and Slanders as would Convince ay and Convert too any Reprobate whatsoever but a Republican As to the Tumults how just and reasonable is that Resentment of his I confess saith he when I found such a Deafness that no Declaration from the Bishops who were first foully insolenc'd and assaulted nor yet from Lords and Gentlemen of Honour nor yet from my self could take Place for the due Repression of these Tumults and securing not only our Freedom in Parliament but our very Persons in the Streets I thought my self not bound by my Presence to provoke them to higher Boldness and Contempts I hoped also by my withdrawing to give time both to the Ebbing of their tumultuous Fury and others regaining some degrees of modesty and sober Sense But his hopes were altogether frustrated they persever'd at the same Rebel rate till as he foretold the Just Avenger of all Disorders made those Men and that City see their Sin in the Glass of their Punishment which soon after happen'd in the same way they had offended But never was this Meteor Mob so high in Meridian Altitude as when the five Members were accus'd it was indeed the sole Support of that cursed Cause without which the King had curs'd them all to the Scaffold and so sent them to their proper Place where all Rebellions are first laid and in the end Punish'd Here then let us see how Ludlow palliates this Business which being clear Matter of Fact he had no way to flourish off but with his continu'd Impudence in reflecting upon the King whose violent Ways not succeeding he fell upon other Measures in appearance more moderate c. p. 20. and to colour his Proceedings with a Form of Law sent Sir Edward Herbert his Attorny General to accuse of High Treason in the name of his Majesty Mr. William Stroud c. and Lord Kimbolton accquainting them that he intended to proceed against them according to Law and then gives us the Articles which are foul enough yet not exact to the Original no where calling them Traytors as that justly doth But whatever he further saith as to the House of Commons is altogether a Chymera of his own there were no Foot-steps of it in all the Procedure His Words are these Upon this the House made answer to the Attorny General that they were the proper Judges of their own Members That upon his producing the Articles if they found Cause they would leave them to be Proceeded against according to Law but commanded him at his Peril not to proceed further against them or any other Member without their Consent After which they published a Declaration to the same purpose c. p. 24. upon which Relation of our Author give me leave to make these few Remarks as first This Charge of the General 's was given in to the House of Lords as a Court of Iudicature whereupon they fell to Debate 1 st Whether this Accusation of the Attorny General 's be a regular Proceeding 2dly Whether there were any such Proceedings ever before in this House 3dly Whether an Accusation of High Treason may be brought against a Peer of Parliament With some others and yet this blundering Fellow supposes all this to be done in the House of Commons and frames an Answer accordingly but any thing will pass with the Fanaticks from a confiding Brother who perhaps too will like it the better for being Preposterous and False 2 dly Supposing that to be their Answer as it was indeed the Sense of all their Votes Speeches and Declarations what Law made them Judges of their own Members From the beginning it was not so Nor 3 dly That a Member could not be proceeded against without their leave we have been told that formerly no Priviledges could secure any Member from Justice for Murder Felony and Treason but now having made Prerogative a Cypher they might add as many as they pleas'd to Multiply what they thought fit to call their Rights although in order thereunto methinks they should have repeal'd that scurvy Proverb of Asking ones Fellow whether he be a Thief 4 thly Had the Gentlemen accus'd been really Innocent they need not have made such a Noise and Pudder nothing could have been a greater Baffle to his Majesty than such an unjust Charge the contrary is therefore to me Demonstration 5 thly The Commons indeed when the King was gon fell upon the Attorny General and had him Interrogated at the Lord's Bar by a Committe of theirs whereto his Answer not being Satisfactory they made some angry Resolves but I cannot any where find he was sent to Prison for his Proceedings in that Matter as Ludlow saith Well the King finding the Lords afraid to burn their Fingers by questioning these Idols the Rabble so ador'd took another Course sent one Mr. Francis a Serjeant at Arms to the House of Commons to demand of them and Arrest of High Treason the five Members which was done as order'd and their Names declar'd whereupon four Members were order'd to attend his Majesty and acquaint him that the Message was a matter of great Consequence and the House would take it into Consideration with as much speed as the greatness of the Business will permit But notwithstanding their fair Words instead of complying herein Sir William Fleming and another Gentleman who by Warrant from the King had seal'd up the Studies and Trunks of the five Members were apprehended by Mr. Speaker's Warrant as Delinquents and Order'd to remain in the Serjeant's Custody till further Order so that it seems they could Commit though the King must not Neither of these Courses taking effect his Majesty resolv'd upon a Third which was to go to the House and demand them himself which he did with all the Tenderness and Regard imaginable for whatever Ludlow saith of 3 or 4 Hundred and amongst them several Desperados entertain'd at White-hall the whole number did not consist of above one the Gentlemen Pensioners in Course with other Lords and Gentlemen then in Attendance or about Court who were commanded to move no further than the Stairs nor offer any Violence though provok'd himself with the Elector Palatine only entring in where he found the Birds flown and the whole House as soon as he was withdrawn flew after them into the City with a grievous Complaint to their Protectors the Rabble that they could not speak and act Treason at Pleasure without being question'd by his Majesty
in short what a prodigious Advantage the Faction made of this just and reasonable Demand what Out-cries and Revilings follow'd there upon is altogether unimaginable by such as were not Witnesses thereof so that having fix'd their Party in the City by tarrying there some Days they return'd to Westminster accompany'd with an hideous cry of Rabble-Guards both by Land and Water His Majesty seeing it was absolutely impossible to have any Justice done against these accused Persons who were so surely Intrench'd in the Rabble's Favour that they were out of the reach of Law and finding also that he was in perpetual Danger of having his Person as well as Authority expos'd to the daring Affronts of the deluded People who ran up and down in Multitudes as if they had lost their Wits as well as Loyalty resolv'd notwithstanding several Gallant faithful Gentlemen proffer'd their Service to curb any Insolencies should be Attempted on him to withdraw himself and Family Queen and Children hoping that Time having allay'd their first Fury they might be brought to Reason and Temper And whosoever reads his Majesty's Paper upon this his going to the House of Commons must own there was never Prince so grosly abus'd had his Actions so abominably perverted with a total Subversion of all Law Iustice and Reason whatsoever Hereupon his Majesty retired to Hampton-Court from thence to Windsor whither none of those entertain'd at White-Hall repair'd except his own Family as Ludlow basely Suggests And since he owns likewise the Houses though I believe 't was only the House of Commons were about to accuse the Queen of High Treason can she be blam'd to withdraw into Holland And if she carried the Iewels of the Crown with her 't was much better than to have them seiz'd upon by the Parliament as they did whatever else belong'd to the King to carry on their Rebellion against him Ludlow tells us That during his absence many Papers pass'd between him and the Parliament the chief aim of those of the latter was to perswade the King to return to London and settle the Militia in such hands as they should advise Those from the King that he could not part with the Militia esteeming it the best Jewel of the Crown nor return to London with safety to his Person p. 27. all which is true and that is much as likewise that the Declarations on both Sides prov'd ineffectual wherein notwithstanding it was observ'd that the King 's had all the force of Law Reason and Argument their 's nothing but Cant popular Wheadles and false Suggestions He goes on to tell that the King's Designs both at home and abroad being grown Ripe he express'd his Dissatisfactions more openly and withdrew to York Had he said the Parliaments Designs there had been a great deal of Truth in it for so indeed it was they under pretence of a Guard had rais'd a considerable Force setled the Militia of London and Middlesex in confiding Hands sent down several Members to do the like in most Counties throughout the Kingdom could dispose of the Mony and Men rais'd for Ireland to what purpose they please and imploy'd them most shamefully to promote their Rebellion seiz'd upon his Majesty's Revenue Fleet Forts Magazins c. even to Hull its self where Hotham deny'd him entrance in the Name of his Brethren and was well rewarded by them The King on the other Hand was left destitute of all Things but the Hearts of Loyal worthy Gentlemen whereof he found more than his Enemies ever imagin'd and were not a little surpris'd at with which Stock alone and hopes of God's Blessing upon his just Cause he lay'd aside all Thoughts of Treating with those unreasonable Men for that he evidently saw they resolv'd to seize upou the Militia by Force since they could not obtain it by Perswasion and their many fine Pretences to Loyalty and Duty had been only to gain Time for ripening their Rebellion of all which he now resolv'd to let the World know how sensible he was by Publishing his Grand Declaration from York wherein he saith very truly 't was more than Time after so many Indignities to his Person Affronts to his Kingly Office and traiterous Pamphlets against his Government to Vindicate himself from those damnable Combinations and Conspiracies contriv'd against him giving a full Account of his own sincerity as to his many and too gracious Concessions since they on the other Side perverted all to Sedition and Treason Amongst other Charges he brings one against an Impudent Fellow call'd Sir Henry Ludlow who said Publikly That the King was not worthy to be King of England that he hath no Negative Voice that he is fairly dealt with that he is not depos'd that if they did that there would be neither want of Modesty or Duty in them upon which I shall only observe that our Author could be no Bastard The King there tells them further how they Committed his great Officers for doing their Duty Rais'd an Army and chose Essex General with Commission to destroy all that adher'd to him Converted the Mony given to discharge the Kingdom 's Debts and for Relief of Ireland to carry on their Rebel-War whilst his Levying a few Gentlemen for his Guard must be Voted waging War against the Parliament Now this Declaration was too much to the Purpose for Ludlow to take Notice of or indeed any thing else which gives an impartial Relation how the Rage and Fury of those Men engag'd the whole Nation to Lanch into a Sea of Blood Neither doth he mention how the King went into Lincolnshire Nottinghamshire c. to assure the Gentry of his upright Intentions and confirm them in their Loyalty Only his going into Leicestershire must be remembred because he had a Brother there one of the first in Rebellion against his King and first taken Prisoner and better us'd than he deserv'd But tho' Ludlow takes no Notice of the King's Declaration he would be sure not to omit the 19 Propositions sent by the Parliament which 't is strange he should say were intended that they might leave no means unattempted to perswade the King to return to them p. 30. whereas he immediately adds and more truly much of the Parliaments Intentions appear'd in them and they were in effect the principal Foundation of the ensuing War for which Reason he thinks it not amiss to recite them at large it had been more Candid and Historian like to have recited the King's Answer too so full and express as they never thought of any other Reply but by Essex's Army and therefore no wonder if omitted here Amongst other things the King tells them some of their Demands are in the Style not only of Equals but Conquerors and tend so far to the Subversion of this equal well-pois'd Government as to make him from King of England a Duke of Venice and this of a Kingdom a Republick And in that which we may call another Answer those Divine Meditations
Royal Authority that the Causes for which they were restrain'd might be high and Dangerous that her Majesty lik'd not such Questions neither did it become the House to deal in such Matters Upon which saith my Author the House desisted from interposing any farther in their behalf but left them wholly to the Queen by whom Wentworth was continued Prisoner some Years after 'T is probable indeed the others viz. Bromly Welch Stephens might be discharg'd sooner Thus did this Wise Princess hold the Reins of Government with so streight a Hand as whenever she found it biting the Bit and attempting to take head a suddain Check put a stop to the design'd Curreere Whereas King Iames was no sooner mounted but he left them strangely Loose and in effect gave them up his first Parliament where Roger Coke tells us the Commons in their Apology to him took notice of the Queen's Restraining their Debates as to several Matters and pray'd it might be no precedent for the future but that their Debates in Parliament might be free which the King however charg'd by the foremention'd Roger with Rehoboam's Stiffness so far comply'd with or was negligent in as that designing Faction got ground upon him every Day to his own and all his Ministers great Uneasiness with his Son's and Kingdoms ruin And this the foremention'd Letter too prophetically foretold that prevailing in one thing would but encourage them to attempt another till they had pull'd out all the Feathers of his Royalty and from impeaching his Ministers call him to an account for any thing he undertakes which doth not prosperously succeed For thus at last he himself was the Evil Counsellor and charg'd with all those Villanies and Mischiefs these Sons of Violence had brought upon the Nation CHAP. VI. Innovations in Religion never design'd BUt our pretended Patriots could not thoroughly have express'd their care unless they had made it the concern of God as well as the King for which Reason Religion must be taken in and every thing call'd an Innovation which tended to support the Church or conduc'd in any respect to Decency and Order in the Externals of Divine Worship And this Clamor of Redressing Religious Grievances altho by degrees it threw all open and brought in upon us an universal Deluge of Licentiousness Prophaneness Enthusiasm Atheism and what not yet the Factions are so impudent as to continue the Charge and with that false Mother care not how the Church be torn or cut in pieces so they may have their spiteful Wills Thus Ludlow will have it that the Clergy's influence upon the King was alwaies greater than could consist with the peace and happiness of England p. 2 d. whereas it was never happier than then and nothing but a regular Establishment in the Church could continue it so as the King knew very well which made him so earnest to Support it and the other Party knew it too which made them so earnest to pull it down Roger Coke likewise inveighs as much against the Arminian Bishops and Clergy of this King's Reign as his Grandfather when Attorny General did against Sir Walter Rawleigh Who is said by Osborn and the Tryal speaks as much to have Bawl'd him out of his Life And so in the same Manner the little Pamphletteers like Country Curs bark for Company Ye take too much upon you was that General and grand Charge Corah and his Accomplices brought against Moses and Aaron the Prince of the People and Priest of God And notwithstanding the Almighty's Vengeance so signally appear'd in that Quarrel as to send them all quick into Hell yet the Terror thereof hath not been able to affright such Children of Disobedience from Repeating their Provocations The Gates of Hell are continually Opening upon the Church and though never able to prevail against the whole may have sometimes Permission to chastise a part and do whatever else God in his Secret purposes hath resolv'd upon to which Unsearchable Will alone it must be referr'd That the Anointed of the Lord the great Defender of our Faith who best understood and best practis'd the Christian Religion of any Prince since the Prince of Peace was taken in their Nets and as the other Crucified so this by such like wicked Hands most barbarously slain And if the same Sovereign Disposer in this his great Displeasure proceeds farther to remove our Candlestick declare he hath no pleasure in us neither will accept an offering at our Hands we must notwithstanding acknowledge he is Righteous in all his Ways and Holy in all his Works For unto very nigh these Circumstances the many Sub and Super-Reformers have reduc'd what under the Auspicious care of its Royal Defender was the Glory of the whole Earth That therefore it may be known there was such a thing as the Church of England and as I said in a most flourishing Condition till these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 many Physitians or Quacks rather would be shewing their Skill I shall take leave to make a Retrospect and represent upon what bottom she was first fix'd at the Reformation what false Brethren they were who interrupted and disturb'd this Establishment and likewise by what Arts and Degrees they engag'd I may say bewitch'd the People to assist them in such Confusions as were at length brought upon her Though the Reformation of our English Church was founded and carried on upon those infallible Truths the Primitive Times and Antient Fathers had practis'd from Scripture without any regard to Foreign Proceedings or if any rather Luther and Melancthon than Calvin and Beza had the Preference yet the two latter would be frequently putting their Sickle into our Harvest and partly by Corresponding but more especially by conversing with several Exiles both Clergy and Lay retired into those Parts during Queen Mary's Persecution gain'd too many Admirers who returning home upon Queen Elizabeth's coming to the Crown cry'd up the Geneva Model as the very Pattern which the Lord had shown from that Mount and according to which the whole Reformation must be carried on or no Blessing from him would attend it It would be here too tedious to relate what Arts they us'd and what Interests they made in Country City and Court As they began to think of setting up their darling Discipline and that in so insolent a manner as to declare That if the Government would not assist therein they must do it whether the Queen and State will or no insinuating how many Thousands their Party consisted of and threatned if not comply'd with such Courses as should make all their Hearts to ake Queen Elizabeth had too great a Value for her own well weighed Estalishments to have them Superseded by every Factious Caprice and thereupon resolv'd firmly against them And nothing but that steady Resolution of hers could preserve both Church and State from being even then ruin'd For these pretended Children of Light had so much of this World were so wise in their