accordingly The Parliament met on Monday March the 19th and a Debate hapning in the House of Commons about the Return of the Election of Sir Francis Goodwin and Sir John Fortescue for Knight of the Shire for the County of Bucks the Commons Friday the 23d upon a full hearing determined Sir Francis to be lawfully elected and returned An. Reg. 2. An. Dom. 1604. Tuesday March the 26th The Lords by Sir Edward Coke and Dr. Hone sent a Message to the Commons that the former Committees may in a second Conference to be had have Authority to treat touching the Case of Sir Francis Goodwin the Knight of Bucks first of all before any other Matters were proceeded in The Commons returned Answer that they do conceive that it did not stand with the Honour of this House to give an Account of their Proceedings and Doings but if their Lordships have any Purpose to confer for the Reâ—due that then they will be ready at such time and place and such number as their Lordships shall think meet Sir Edward Coke c. delivered from the Lords that their Lordships taking notice in particular of the Return of the Sheriff of Bucks and acquainting his Majesty with it his Highness conceived himself engaged and touched in Honour that there might this be some Conference of it between the two Houses and to that end signified his Pleasure unto them and by them to House The Commons by their Speaker give their Reasons to the King why they cannot confer with the Lords The King in return charges the Commons to admit a Conference with the Judges the Commons give Reason and answer Objections why they cannot confer with the Judges and the 3d of April deliver them at the Council-Chamber by Sir Francis Bacon desiring that their Lordships would be Mediators in behalf of the House for his Majesty's satisfaction the King in return commanded as an Absolute King that there might be a Conference between the House and Judges The House upon return hereof resolved to confer with the King in presence of the King and Council and named a select Committee for the Conference but the Success being doubtful Sir Francis Goodwin fearing this might cause a Rupture between the King and the House and to remove all Impediments to the worthy and weighty Causes which might by this time have been in a good furtherance desired another Writ of Election for a Member in his stead Hereupon and other Accidents succeeding wherein the Commons supposing themselves aggrieved the Commons upon the 16th of June in an humble Apology to his Majesty represent their Privileges and wherein they conceive themselves aggrieved The Stubborness of the Commons for so the King would have it so dissonant from the Flatteries he had constantly sounding in his Ears and of being an Absolute King by Inherent Birth-right put the King so out of Conceit with Parliaments that in all his Life till the last Parliament of his Reign when necessity brought him to it he was never reconciled to them But that we may more clearly see what followed we will look back into the Reign of Queen Elizabeth There were three things which the Queen was impatient of being debated in Parliament the Succession of the Crown after her Death her Marriage and the making any Alterations in the Church as it was established in the first Year of her Reign But the Commons having a fearful Eye of a Relapse into Popery after the Nation had been freed from it and the Queen of Scots being zealously addicted to the Romish Religion and having not only assumed the Arms of England as next Heir to Queen Elizabeth but upon her Return from France into Scotland by many Embassies solicited Queen Elizabeth that she might be declared her Successor in case Queen Elizabeth died without Heirs of her Body To prevent this the Commons in manifold Addresses to the Queen petitioned her to marry and declare her Successor and after the Duke of Norfolk's Conspiracy and the Rebellion in the North under the Earls of Northumberland and Westmoreland wherein it appeared the Queen of Scots was privy and consenting in all the Parliaments I think from the 9th of Elizabeth to the Queen of Scotland's Death the Commons were importunate with the Queen to cut her off which you may read at large in the Journals of the Parliaments of Queen Elizabeth set forth by Sir Simon D' Ewes The Queen fixed in these Resolutions did often forbid the Parliament upon their Allegiance to enter into Debates upon them yet some zealous Members the principal of which was one Mr. Peter Wentworth as well in the case of the Queen of Scots as for some Reformation in the Church did several times endeavour to have them debated upon which the Queen committed them to the Tower tho soon after they were discharged This the Commons in their Apology to the King take notice of and pray that this be no Precedent for the future but that their Debates in Parliament may be free but they shall find that this King 's little Finger and his Son 's after him shall be heavier upon them than Queen Elizabeth's Loins However this Apology of the Commons tended to a Rupture between the King and them within yet the King was resolved to have Peace without the Kingdom how inconsistible soever the Terms were and to that end upon the 18th of August following being the second Year of his Reign he concluded a firm Peace with Philip the 3d of Spain and Albert and Isabel Arch-Dukes of Austria c. and also a Treaty of Commerce which as it was the most beneficial to the English Nation so it was difficult if not impossible to observe the Peace the King as he had managed it made the Treaty of Commerce to be but little beneficial to the Nation For the Year before the King had renewed the Treaty of Alliance which Queen Elizabeth had made with the Dutch States where tho the King was not obliged to maintain such a number of Men for the Dutch Support against the Spaniards to be repaid at the end of the War whereby the Treaty with the Queen Anno 1598. the Dutch were not only to pay but to repay the Queen yearly 100000 l. till a Peace was made with Spain when they were to pay her two Millions of Money with the Interest of 10 per Cent. deducting the 100000 l. per Annum they were to pay yet by the fourth Article of the said Treaty it was agreed That neither the Kings of England nor Spain shall themselves give or shall consent to be given by any of their Vassals Subjects or Inhabitants Aid Favour or Counsel directly or indirectly on Sea Land or fresh Waters nor shall supply or minister or consent to be supplied or ministred by their said Vassals Inhabitants or Subjects unto the Enemies or Rebels of either Part of what Nature or Condition soever they be whether they shall invade the Countries and Dominions of either of them
Lord Keeper par 2. fol. 14 15. tit 14 15. The Lord Keeper at Woodstock was censured by the Duke and his Creatures for this the Keeper therefore unsent for comes to Woodstoock and thus applies himself to the Duke My Lord I am come unsent for and I fear to displease you yet because your Grace made me I must and will serve you though you are one that will destroy that which you made let me perish yet I deserve to perish ten times if I were not as earnest as any Friend your Grace hath to save you from perishing The Sword is the Cause of a Wound but the Buckler is in fault if it do not defend the Body You brought the two Houses hither my Lord against my Counsel my Suspicion is confirmed that your Grace will suffer for it What 's now to be done but to wind up a Session quickly The Occasion is for you because two Colleges in the Vniversity and eight Houses in the Town are visited with the Plague Let the Members be promised fairly and friendly that they may meet again after Christmas requite the Injuries done to you with Benefits not Revenge for no Man that is wise will shew himself angry with the People of England I have more to say but no more than I have said to your Grace above a Year past at White-hall confer one or two of your great Places upon your fastest Friends so shall you go less in Envy and not less in Power Great Necessities will excuse hard Proposals and horrid Counsels St. Austin says it was a Punick Proverb in his Country Ut habeas quietum tempus perde aliquid At the Close of the Sessions declare your self to be forwardest to serve the King and Commonwealth and to give the Parliament Satisfaction Fear them not when they meet again in the same Body whose ill Affections I expect to mitigate but if you proceed trust me with your Cause when it comes into the House of Lords and I will lay my Life upon it I will preserve you from Sentence or the least Dishonour This is my Advice my Lord if you like it not Truth in the end will find an Advocate to defend it The Duke replied no more but I will look to whom I trust and flung out of the Chamber with Menaces in his Countenance Mr. Rushworth fol. 202. says that the Keeper told the Duke in Christ-Church when the Duke rebuked him for siding against him in that he engaged with William Earl of Pembroke to labour the Redress of Grievances That he was resolved to stand upon his own Legs and that the Duke should answer If that be your Resolution look you stand fast Where Mr. Rushworth had this I cannot tell but this being so unlike the Keeper's Carriage to the Duke both in King James's time and after and also to the Narrative before set forth by the Bishop of Litchfield who being the Keeper's Chaplain could have a better Inspection herein than Mr. Rushworth could have had but especially since the Reasons which the Keeper put into the King's hands which you may read in the Life of the Keeper par 2. tit 18. to satisfy the King of his Carriage while the Parliament sate at Oxford being so contrary to what Mr. Rushworth says I incline rather to believe the Bishop However the Commons presuming to enquire into Buckingham's Actions are censured at Woodstock for spiteful and seditious and therefore not fit to continue but to be dissolved which being understood by the Keeper with Tears and Supplications he implored the King to consider there was a time when his Father charged him in the Keeper's Hearing to call Parliaments often and to continue them though their Rashness might sometimes offend him that by his own Experience he never got good by falling out with them But chiefly Sir said he let it never be said that you kept not good correspondence with your first Parliament do not disseminate so much Unkindness through all the Counties and Boroughs of your Realm The Love of your People is the Palladium of your Crown Continue this Assembly together to another Session and expect Alteration for the better if you do not the next Swarm will come out of the same Hive The Lords of the Council did almost all concur with the Keeper but it wanted Buckingham's Suffrage who was secure that the King's Judgment would follow him against all the Table Thus far the Bishop But there was another Cause which the Bishop does not mention but Mr. Rushworth does fol. 336. which caused the hasty Dissolution of this Parliament Captain Pennington was come to Oxford from delivering the Fleet into the French Power to give an Account of the Reason of it but by the Duke's means was drawn to conceal himself and not to publish in due time his Knowledg of the Premises as it shortly after appeared and if this should have been made known it would not have been in the Power of the Keeper to have brought off the Duke from Sentence or the least Dishonour so upon the 12th of August the Parliament was dissolved but before their Dissolution the Commons made this following Declaration WE the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House of Parliament being the Representative Body of the whole Commons of this Realm abundantly comforted in his Majesty's late gracious Answer touching our Religion and his Message for the Care of our Health do solemnly vow and protest before God and the World with one Heart and Voice that we are resolved and do hereby declare that we will ever continue most Loyal and Obedient Subjects to our most Gracious Soveraign Lord King Charles and that we will in a convenient time and in a Parliamentary way freely and dutifully do our utmost Endeavours to discover and reform the Abuses and Grievances of this Realm and State and in like sort to afford all necessary Supply to his most excellent Majesty upon his present Occasions and Designs Most humbly beseeching our said dear and dread Soveraign in his Princely Wisdom and Goodness to rest assured of the true and hearty Affections of his poor Commons and to esteem the same to be as we conceive it is indeed the greatest worldly Reputation and Security that a just King can have and to account all such as Slanderers of the Peoples Affections and Enemies to the Commonwealth that shall dare say the contrary But the mighty Buckingham shall not only dare to say but dare to do the contrary so much easier is it in such a Reign for a Favourite to ruine a Nation than for a Nation to have Justice against a Favourite Here let 's stay a little and see what state the King had brought himself to within less than five Months after he became King First he took Mountague to be his Chaplain a virulent seditious ill-natur'd Fellow to protect him from his Contempt against his Metropolitan and the Parliament for publishing new-fangl'd Opinions to the Disturbance of the Peace
at the Duke of Buckingham and wonders what had altered their Affections to him when in the last Parliament of his Father's time he was their Instrument to break the Treaties for which they did so honour and respect him that all the Honour conferred upon him was too little He wot not what had chang'd their Minds but assures them that the Duke had not meddled with or done any thing concerning the Publick but by his special Directions and was so far from gaining any Estate thereby that he verily thinks the Duke rather impaired the fame He would have them hasten the Supplies or it will be the worse for them for if any Ill happens he thinks he shall be the last that shall feel it The Commons had yet fresh in Memory the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford about six Months before and what Trust there was to this King's Word for Redress of Grievances so as it was done in a dutiful and mannerly Way after they had given Money and therefore they little altered their Course from what they had done at Oxford yet more than Parliaments heretofore did to have Grievances first redress'd and then to give Supplies for they voted to proceed upon Grievances and to give the King three Subsidies and three Fifteenths This gave the Duke little Satisfaction so that the King himself became the Duke's Advocate and told the Commons in a Speech which you may read in Rushw fol. 225. that he came to inform the Commons of their Errors and unparliamentary Proceedings so that they might amend their Faults which was enlarged by my Lord Keeper Coventry who told them of the King's Necessities and his Patience in Expectation of Supplies and of the King's Promise of Redress of Grievances after Supplies were granted That the Enquiry upon sundry Articles against the Duke upon Câ—nanâ—n Fame was to wound the Honour and Government of his Majesty and of his renowned Father and therefore it was his Majesty's final and express Command that they yield Obedience to those Directions which they formerly receiv'd and cease their unparliamentary Proceedings against the Duke and leave to his Majesty's Care Wisdom and Justice the future Reformation of those things which they supposed to be otherwise than they should be and that the King took notice that they had suffered the greatest Council of State The Duke and Laud to be censured and traduced by Men whose Years and Education cannot attain to that Depth Why then were the old Members kept out of the House which could have better informed them and that the three Subsidies and three Fifteenths were no ways proportionable to supply the King's Necessities c. and concludes that his Majesty doubts not but after this Admonition they will observe and follow it which if they do his Majesty is most ready to forgive all that is past Then the King added that in his Father's time by their Perswasion he was their Instrument to break off those Treaties and that then no Body was in so great Favour with 'em as the Man they seem now to touch but indeed his Father's Government and his and that Parliaments are altogether in his Power for their Calling Sitting and Dissolution and as he finds the Fruits they are to continue or not to be But if the Commons Proceedings against the Duke were erroneous and unparliamentary and through the Duke's Sides wounded not only the King's Government but that of his renowned Father and that the young Men in this House of Commons had censured and traduced the King's highest Council of State you shall now hear of an old Statesman in the House of Lords which shall not only cease the Wonder which caused the Parliament in the 21st of King James so to applaud the Duke but shall wound the whole Story which begat that great Applause to the Duke You have heard before how the Earl of Bristol was stopp'd at Calais from coming over into England after his Return out of Spain and after he came to Dover when the Duke could not prevail upon Marquiss Hamilton and the Earl of Hertford to have the Earl sent to the Tower upon his Arrival in England how he was stopp'd by a Letter from the Lord Conway that he should not come to Court nor to the King's Presence till he had answered to some Queries which his Majesty would appoint some of the Lords of the Council to ask him which was not done till the Parliament was adjourned and never met more and how after King James's Death the Earl was not only kept from his Liberty and the King's Presence but removed from all his Offices and Employments and not suffered to come to an Account for the Moneys expended in the King's Service and not permitted to come to the Parliament which was dissolved at Oxford Upon the King's Summons of this Parliament the Earl petitions the King to have his Writ of Summons which was never denied to any Peer to assist in the House of Peers but he received an Answer by the Lord Conway That the King was no ways satisfied in it and propounded to the Earl Whether he would rather sit still and enjoy the Benefit of the late King's Pardon in Parliament or to wave it and put himself upon Trial for his Negotiation in Spain and one of these he must trust to and give a direct Answer The Earl in Answer said He had been already question'd upon 20 Articles by a Commission of the Lords and had given such Answers that their Lordships never met more about that Business and that he did not wave the Pardon granted by King James in Parliament These Letters you may read at large in Rushworth fol. 138 139 140. Hereupon the Earl petitions the House of Lords shewing that he being a Peer of this Realm had not received his Writ of Summons to Parliament and desires their Lordships to mediate with his Majesty that he may enjoy the Liberty of a Subject and the Privilege of his Peerage after almost two Years Restraint without any Trial brought against him and that if any Charge be brought against him he prays he may be try'd by Parliament Hereupon the Lords petition the King that not only the Earl of Bristol but all such other Lords whose Writs are stopt except such as are made uncapable to sit in Parliament by Judgment of Parliament or some other legal Judgment may be summoned This nettled the Duke to the quick so that he told the House the King had sent the Earl his Writ but withal deliver'd such a Letter which the King sent to the Earl which I care not to transcribe but you may read it in Rushworth fol. 241. wherein this great Statesman Buckingham would have the Earl judged and censured by the King without hearing the Earl and thereby forestal the Judgment of the Lords against the Earl It 's true indeed my Lord Keeper Coventry sent the Earl a Writ of Summons to attend in Parliament but withal signified by a Letter
their Prince Notwithstanding the former Abuses of this Reign they proceeded with no Censures and Punishment of the King 's evil Ministers except Dr. Manwaring but only to represent to the King the Grievances of the Nation and did not impeach the Duke of Buckingham as they did in the last Parliament nor proceed upon it but only remonstrated to the King the Evils which the exorbitant Greatness of the Duke brought upon the King and Nation and how unsafe it would be to the Nation to grant Aids to the King which were misemployed for the exalting the Grandeur of the Duke However before they entred upon Grievances they voted the King five entire Subsidies which was the greatest Tax that ever was before given to any King of England at once and to be paid in the shortest time Now let 's see tho but in Epitome how these things were changed and what Returns the King made the Parliament and Nation The Unanimity of the Commons in the Gift was not less than the Gift was great being nemine contradicente which so pleased the King that he sent them word by Secretary Sir John Cooke that he would deny them nothing of their Liberties which any of his Predecessors had granted them Then the Commons fell upon Grievances and voted the Imprisonment of any Free-man by Warrant from the King or Council without a Cause alledged to be a Grievance and that the raising Monies by Loan and imposing an Oath upon the Subject to discover the Value of his Estate the Billeting of Soldiers and exercising Martial Law in time of Peace were Grievances Then several Debates arose in the House how the Subjects should be secured against these in time to come And upon the Motion of Sir Edward Coke the House agreed to sue to the King by Petition the most antient and humble Address in Parliament that his Majesty would give his People Assurance of their Rights by Assent in Parliament as he uses to pass other Acts. And hereupon the House ordered Sir Edward to draw a Petition accordingly The House agreed to the Petition and ordered Sir Edw. Coke Sir Dudley Diggs Mr. Selden and Mr. Littleton to carry it up to the Lords The Duke of Buckingham and his Creatures were zealous to stop the Petition in the House of Lords but he was much fall'n from his Lustre since his dishonourable Expedition to the Isle of Rhee last Summer and his Expedition to Cales So as his Sway in the House of Peers was much abated Besides the Bishops were not at this time all of a piece for Arch-bishop Abbot urged his own Case how he was banished from his Houses at Croydon and Lambeth while the Duke was prosecuting his Voyage to the Isle of Rhee and confined to a moorish Mansion-place at Ford to kill him and debarred from the Management of his Jurisdiction and no Cause given for it And Dr. Williams gave most learned and elegant Arguments for the Petition which you may read at large in the second Part of the History of his Life fol. 77 78 79. But this stuck close to him that neither the King nor Laud ever after forgot it which you may read fol. 96. tit 93. The Lords would not proceed to any determinate Vote before they had heard the King's Counsel against the Petition and the Commons Defence of it wherein no less time was spent than six Weeks The Managers for the Petition were Sir Edward Coke Mr. Selden Sir Dudley Diggs Sergeant Glanvile Sir Henry Martin and Mr. Mason Besides Magna Charta the Commons fortified the Petition of Right with six other Acts of Parliament explanatory of Magna Charta viz. The Statute made in the Reign of Edward I. commonly called Statutum de Tallagio non concedendo the Statute of 25 Edward III. where it is declared That from thenceforth no Person shall be compelled to make any Loans to the King against his Will because such Loans were against Reason and the Fanchise of the Land The third was the Statute of 28 Edward III. That no Man of what Estate or Condition soever should be put out of his Lands or Tenements nor Taken nor Imprisoned nor Disherited nor put to Death without being brought to Answer by due Process of Law The fourth Statute the 25 Edw. III. 9. and the sixth 9 Hen. III. 29. against exercising Martial Law in times of Peace These Statutes were so well managed by the Commons in Defence of the Petition that Sir Robert Heath who was Attorney-General and the rest of the King's Counsel pleading tho eagerly yet impertinently had nothing to say materially against them but submitted to the Judgment of the Peers However the Lords before they would put the Vote entred into a Committee of the whole House when my Lord Say moved That those Lords who stood for the Liberties of the Nation might make their Protestation and that to be upon Record and that the other opposite Party should with the Subscriptions of their Names enter their Reasons to remain upon Record that so Posterity might not be to seek who they were that so ignobly betrayed the Freedom of our Nation and this done they should proceed to Vote This struck such a Daunt upon the other Party that not one of them opposed it The Lords agreed to the Petition of Right but with this Addition or Saving We present this our humble Petition to your Majesty with the Care not only of preserving our Liberties but with due Regard to leave entire that Soveraign Power wherewith your Majesty is trusted for the Protection Safety and Happiness of the People But the Lords did not make any determinate Vote in it but sent it to the Commons to advise upon The Bishop of Lincoln was a great Stickler for this Addition to qualify what he had said before in the Defence of the Petition which did him no good the other sticking alta mente When this Addition or Saving came down to the Commons Mr. Noy said To add a Saving is not safe doubtful Words may beget ill Construction and the Words are not only doubtful and Words unknown to us but never used in any Act or Petition before And Sir Edward Coke said This is the Multum in parvo this is propounded to the Conclusion of our Petition it is a Matter of great weight and to speak plain it will overthrow all our Petition it trenches on all the parts of it it flies at Loans at the Oath at Imprisonment and Billeting of Soldiers this turns all about again Look into all Petitions of former times they never petitioned wherein there was a Saving of the King's Soveraignty I know Prerogative is part of the Law but Soveraign Power is no Parliamentary Word In my Opinion it weakens Magna Charta and all our Statutes for they are absolute without any Saving Power and should we now add it we shall weaken the Foundation of the Law and then the Building must needs fall Take we heed what we yield unto
of Right the King as Norton the Printer said commanded the printing of the Petition with other Additions besides the King's Answer and that he had printed 1500 Copies with the King's Answer without the other Additions but these were suppressed by Warrant and the Attorney General commanded no more should be printed and those which were should not be divulged These were the Just and Religious Acts of this pious King and can any Man believe the Parliament at their Meeting should without Breach of a publick Trust sit still and not represent these things to the King The Parliament did meet according to their Prorogation the 23d of January 1628. and debated these Practices against Church and State which hapned since the 26th of June before but now see the Artifice of this little Prince rather than hear of any thing in this kind he commands the Speaker Sir John Finch the late Lord Chancellor Finch's own Uncle to put no Question upon Debates of Grievances So that the House could do nothing but sit still or adjourn and this continued till the 2d of March when the Commons met and urged the Speaker to put the Question concerning Grievances who answered I have a Command from the King to adjourn the House till the 10th of March and put no Question and endeavouring to go out of the House he was held by some Members till the House had made this Protestation 1. Whosoever shall bring in Innovation of Religion or by Favour or Countenance seem to extend or introduce Popery or Arminianism or other Opinions disagreeing from the Truth and Orthodox Church shall be reputed a Capital Enemy to this Kingdom or Common-Wealth 2. Whosoever shall counsel or advise the taking or levying the Subsidies of Tunnage and Poundage not granted by Parliament or shall be an Actor or Instrument therein be likewise reputed an Innovator in the Government and a Capital Enemy to the Kingdom and Common-wealth 3. If any Merchant or Person whatsoever shall voluntarily yield or pay the Subsidies of Tunnage and Poundage not being granted by Parliament he shall likewise be reputed a betrayer of the Liberties of England and an Enemy to the same This Act consisted in two Parts the Speaker and the House the Speaker's of three Parts a Command by the King to put no Question to adjourn till the 10th of March and an endeavour to go out of the House In the former Session of this Parliament Secretary Cook the 10th of April from the King desired the House not to make any Recess those Easter Holy-days that the World may now take notice how earnest his Majesty and We were for the publick Affairs in Christendom which would receive Interruption by this Recess To which Sir Robert Phillips answered that the 12th and 18th Jac. the House resolved it was in their Power to adjourn or sit and that this may be put upon them by Princes of less Piety and that a Committee consider of the House's Right Sir Edward Coke said the King makes a Prorogation the House adjourns it self That a Commission of Adjournment the House never read but say the House adjourns it self yet here the Speaker verbally says I am commanded by the King to adjourn till the 10th of March. His second Command was to put no Question So here was a Speaker which might not speak what did he there then He sits there by the King in his Highest and Regal Capacity under the broad Seal to put the Question and now if you 'll take his Word he says he has a Command from the King to put no Question The third Act was his Endeavour to go out of the House which the House conceiving him to be their Servant would not suffer Here you may understand that the King had privately made Peace with France though not proclaimed at Paris till June following and soon after with Spain so that in his Speech this meeting he did not begin with The Times are for Action and the Eyes of all the World are upon us and therefore demands Supplies in the first place but that without loss of Time they would pass the Bill of Tunnage and Poundage but the House seeing the Dangers of the Church and State in not only pardoning but preferring Mountague and Manwaring and seizing Merchants Goods and imprisoning their Persons even in this Recess they resolve to secure their Religion and redress Grievances before they grant the Customs of Tunnage and Poundage in both they could not but take notice of the Orders of the Star-Chamber Privy-Council Judges and Customers And these were the Invasions upon the King's Perogative Royal which for the future he resolved never to suffer yet he shall live to hear more of them But in regard it may seem strange that Customs of Tunnage and Poundage ever since the Reign of Richard the 3d had been granted to the Kings and Queens of this Realm for securing the Soveraignty of the narrow Seas and of the English Merchants yet was not granted to this King The Reason was this the House of Commons in their Grievances in the two first Parliaments of this King and the former Sessions of this complained that the Duke of Buckingham being Lord High Admiral of England neglected to guard the Seas to the Dishonour of the King and endangering the Trade of England and feared if the Duke were not removed the End designed by the Parliament would be diverted to supply the intolerable Pride and Luxury of the Duke but the King rather than endure this dissolved the two former Parliaments and prorogued this when they were upon settling the Duties of Tunnage and Poundage That the Parliament had Reason for this it appears in their Charge against the Duke in the 2d Year of this King and that in ten Years time he had received of King James and this King 284395 l. besides the Forest of Leyfield the Profits of the third of Strangers Goods and the Profits of the Moiety of the Customs of Ireland besides the Tricks he used to get Money as he was Lord High Admiral of England and Ireland Master of the Horse Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and the Members thereof Constable of Dover Castle Justice in Eyre of all his Majesty's Forests and Chases on this side of Trent Constable of Windsor Castle and Gentleman of the King's Bed-Chamber To these might have been added the Duke's Venality in selling all Places in Church and State at least preferring such Men in Church as should propagate Arminianism and such Judges as shall do what the King and he bid them Objection But the Duke was now dead in this Session of Parliament and so the Reason ceasing the Duties of Tunnage and Poundage ought to have been granted Answer The King would not suffer the Commons to come at it neither in the last Sessions nor this for the Religion of the Church of England and the Laws and Liberties of the Subject being so shaken in this Recess the Commons
ensue upon such tumultuous Concourse of Men. And why was not this a reasonable Excuse for the King to leave the Parliament and City when they countenanced these Tumults and the King had not Power to suppress them Mr. May goes on and says Vpon this ground twelve Bishops at that time absenting themselves entred a Protestation against all Laws Votes and Orders as Null which in their Absence should pass by reason they durst not for fear of their Lives come to perform their Duties in the House having been rudely menaced and assaulted And why might not the Bishops enter such Protestation for if it be a Maxim in all Assemblies that Plus valet contemptus unius quam consensus omnium then does the Contempt and Affront of a whole Order of Men who have a Right of Suffrage much more render the Actions of the rest invalid However Mr. May goes on and says Whereupon it was agreed by both Lords and Commons that this Protestation of the Bishops was of dangerous Consequence and deeply entrenched upon the Privilege and Being of Parliaments they were therefore accused of High-Treason apprehended and committed Prisoners to the Tower And I say a time shall come when in Parliament these Men who run thus high against the Bishops and established Church of England shall be prosecuted by a contrary Extream and the Church by Law exalted higher than it was before Mr. May goes on and says Thus was the Parliament daily troubled with ill Work whereby the Relief of Ireland was hindred If they were thus troubled they may thank themselves for beginning these Troubles as well by the Commons Remonstrance against the King and Lords as by their countenancing the Tumults By this time things were so envenom'd as would admit of no Lenitives especially by the Commons and the King went from London to Hampton-Court and sent a Message to the Parliament and advises them To digest into one Body all the Grievances of the Kingdom and send them to him promising his favourable Assent to those Means which should be found most effectual for Redress wherein he would not only equal but excel the most indulgent Princes The Parliament thank'd him but nothing but having the Militia at their Disposal would secure their Fears and Jealousies This was as new in England as the perpetuating the sitting of the Parliament and if the King should grant it it would be a total Subversion of the Monarchy For the Parliament being perpetual and having the Power of the Militia the Government must be either a Commonwealth or an Oligarchy and the King insignificant in it yet have it the Parliament would notwithstanding other Grievances and the deplorable State of Ireland And therefore upon the 26th of February they tell the King plainly That the settling the Business of the Militia will admit no more Delay and if his Majesty shall still refuse to agree with his two Houses of Parliament in that Business and shall not be pleased upon their humble Advice to do what they desire therein that then for the Safety of his Majesty of Themselves and the whole Kingdom and to preserve the Peace thereof and to prevent future Fears and Jealousies they shall be constrained of themselves without his Majesty to settle that necessary Business of the Militia See Whit. M. f. 54. a. Here 't is observable That as the King feigned a Necessity to raise Ship-money for the Good and Safety of the Kingdom in general when the whole Kingdom is in danger the Judges gave their Opinion That the King may by his Writ under the Broad Seal of England command all his Subjects of this Kingdom to provide and furnish such Number of Ships with Men Victuals and Ammunition and for such time as the King shall think fit for the Defence and Safeguard of the Kingdom from such Peril and Danger and that by Law the King may compel the doing thereof in Case of Refusal and Refractoriness and that in such Case the King is sole Judg both of the Danger and when and how the same may be prevented and avoided So now the Parliament pretending a Necessity for the Safety of the King and of Themselves and the whole Kingdom and to preserve the Peace thereof will tear the Militia from him In this State things could not stand long at a Stay Mr. May p. 47. will have the Queen 's going into Holland with her Daughter and carrying with her the Crown-Jewels of England and pawning them there whereby she bought Arms for the War which ensued that it was then designed by the King against the Parliament but if Mr. May had been sincere he should have told too as Mr. Whitlock does f. 59. a. how the Parliament took 100000 l. of the 400000 l. they voted to be raised for Ireland and whether this was not for the War which ensued in England Mr. May p. 48. recites three Votes of Parliament 1. That the King's Absence so far remote being then at York from his Parliament is not only an Obstruction but may be a Destruction to the Affairs in Ireland 2. That when the Lords and Commons in Parliament shall declare what the Law of the Land is to have this not only questioned and controverted but contradicted and a Command that it should not be obeyed is a high Breach of the Privilege of Parliament 3. That they who advised the King to absent himself from the Parliament are Enemies to the Peace of this Kingdom and justly to be suspected to be Favourites of the Rebellion in Ireland But Mr. May should have added that it is not the King's Presence in London or any other Place but his assenting to Bills presented to him which he may do by Commission as well as Personally that enacts them into Laws and that the King after he went from London passed the Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament and that no Clergy-Man should exercise any Temporal Jurisdiction which the King did with remorse enough and only to humour and appease the Temporal Lords and Commons in Parliament and the Bishops in Parliament are one of the 3 States of England The King moreover in his Absence upon a Motion by the Parliament put Sir John Byron from being Lieutenant of the Tower and Sir John Conniers to succeed him and refers the Consideration of the Government and Liturgy of the Church wholly to the two Houses see Whitlock's M. f. 53. b. But nothing less than the King 's parting with the Militia would satisfy the Parliament which the King would not part from so now it 's left fair for indifferent Men to judg whether the King or Parliament or both designed the ensuing War And to proceed to set forth who began it I have said in the first Page of this King's Reign or p. 153 That the first Fifteen Years of it were perfectly French and such as were never before seen or heard of in the English Nation this brought on a miserable War in all the Three
that upon the second of June he offered the Duke his Friendship the use of his Purse to the assisting of him against the Designs of his and the Duke's Enemies and protested their Interests were so close linked together that those who opposed the one should be looked upon as Enemies to the other with much more as you may read in the Duke's Letter to Le Chaise the 29th of June 1675. Tho the French could not fight against the Dutch in Conjunction with the English yet without the English they can fight the Spaniard and Dutch For the Spaniard having block'd up Messina in Sicily by Land which last Year revolted to the French agreed with the Dutch to send a Fleet of Men of War to join the Spanish to block up Messina by Sea which the Dutch this Year did under De Ruyter but were so niggardly in it that the French beat both Dutch and Spanish Fleets and killed De Ruyter This was a just Reward returned to the Dutch for building the French six great Men of War six or seven Years before Just so Richlieu served the Spaniard in 1637 for joining with the French in expelling the English out of the Isle of Rhee Tho the King were the first in the Triple League for the Guaranty of the Treaty of Aix for the Preservation of Flanders and tho the King in his Declaration at the beginning of this War had engaged to support the Peace made at Aix yet the French King this Summer took the City of Limburg being the chief of one of the Spanish Provinces which the King not only takes no notice of but tells Sir William Temple newly commanded out of Holland by the King that some warm Leaders in both Houses had a mind to engage him in a War against France which they should not do because he was sure they would make use of it to the Ruin of his Ministers If the King were unhappy in his Declaration he was not less in saying this to Sir William to whom the Year before he promised to be the Man of his People but is now of his Ministers And sure he was the first Prince that ever profest it Upon the 13th of October the Houses met and the King asked a Supply for building of Ships and to take off the Anticipation upon his Revenue In the Interval of this Recess the Debates of the Abhorring Oath became publick which so nettled the Court and Church-Party being the more numerous that since they could not prevail by Reason they would by Fire and therefore ordered them to be burnt which made the Debates so much more to be enquired into and hereby received a greater Light The Commons had before them several Bills for preventing future Mischief viz. The Habeas Corpus Bill A Bill against sending Men Prisoners beyond Sea Against raising Money without Consent in Parliament Against Papists sitting in either House For more speedy convicting of Papists And for recalling his Majesty's Subjects out of the French Service These Bills being so diametrically contrary to the French and Popish Designs and the Commons now more peremptorily than before opposing the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals from Chancery so that they voted Whosoever shall solicite or prosecute any Appeal against any Commoner of England from any Court of Equity before the House of Lords shall be deemed and taken a Betrayer of the Rights and Liberties of the Commons of England and shall be proceeded against accordingly And the Commons having commanded the Counsel who pleaded before the Lords to the Tower How much is the case now altered the King took thereby an occasion to prorogue the Parliament from the 22d of November 1675 to the 16th of February 1676 which is above a Year in which time by a Law in Edward the Third's time a Parliament was to be called and as it was without Precedent so it caused new Debates and Heats in both Houses when they met In this long Recess I find but few Motions of the French and Popish Councils more than what appeared in Sir Gascoin's and other Trials For Coleman's last two Years Letters were supprest as was his Book of Entries and the Commotions raised in Britany and Guiene by the Impositions imposed upon the Inhabitants hindred the French this Year from their usually more early opening their Campagn than the Confederates so that every where the Confederates prevailed against the Tureen's Army was distressed by Montecuculi and himself killed yet the Army got on the French side of the Rhine by the Bravery and bold Stands of the English The Dukes of Lunenburg routed Marshal Crequy's Army and after took Triers and made Crequy Prisoner and the Imperialists also took Philipsburg the Elector of Brandenburg routed the Swedes in Pomerland entred into a League with the King of Denmark who took Wismar from the Swede and the Prince of Orange took Binch from the French and rased it But the Progress of all these Victories were stopt by the unaccountable Retreat of Montecuculi out of Alsatia with his whole Army back over the Rhine it was said by express Orders from Vienna thereby leaving Alsatia in the Power of the French to the breaking of the old Duke of Lorain's Heart who at that time had and never before so fair a Prospect of the Recovery of his Country If the Commotions in Britany and Guiene retarded the French opening the Campagn last Year the King shall make amends in this For having provided Stores for Horse and Man in his Frontier Garisons in February 167 6 7 he block'd up Valenciennes and Cambray and committed such Ravages by burning and destroying those Parts of Germany which lay opposite to him on the other side of the Rhine as if he made War not to conquer but to destroy tho this were at a time whilst they were in a Treaty of Peace with the Empire and King of Spain Upon the 17th of March he notwithstanding the extream Coldness of the Season took Valenciennes and from thence marched to Cambray and laid Siege to it and St. Omers and after the opening of his Trenches Cambray surrendred but not the Citadel our King looking on as if he had not been concerned in the Guaranty of the Treaty of Aix Nor could the Prince of Orange prevent this the Spanish Garisons being ill provided and the Confederates being so slow in getting into Bodies to oppose the French or if they had been to be got together they could not have kept the Field for want of Provisions for Horse and Man However tho the Prince could not come time enough to relieve Cambray and Valenciennes yet with the single Forces of the States the Spaniard not so much as supplying him with Guides marched to the Relief of St. Omers but the Duke of Luxemburg joining with the Duke of Oleance met the Prince at Mount-Cassel where at first the Dispute was brave but the first Regiment of the Dutch Infantry breaking and falling into Disorder the Prince rallied them
several times and renewed the Charge but could not prevent their plain Flight yet made so brave a Retreat which wanted little of the Honour of a Victory so both the Citadel of Cambray and St. Omers upon the 20th of April fell into the French Hands and thereby the main Strength of the Frontier to the Dutch Netherlands lost And by these Conquests the French King not only delivered his own Subjects from the Contributions they paid to these Cities but enlarged his upon the Residue of the Spanish Netherlands Upon the 15th of February 167 6 7 the Parliament met again and from the Variance between the Houses about Appeals from Chancery to the Lords they fell at Variance in both Houses whether this long Prorogation were not a Dissolution The Contest was highest in the House of Lords and the Duke of Buckingham the Earls of Salisbury and Shaftsbury and Lord Wharton where committed close Prisoners to the Tower for their Reason alledged yet the Lords who voted their Commitment this Session were as zealous the last to petition the King to dissolve the Parliament when the Commons contested their Jurisdiction in Appeals from Chancery But tho the Commons being in love with their sitting resolved the Parliament not to be dissolved yet they committed none of their Members for debating whether the Parliament were not and granted the King an Additional Duty upon Beer Ale and other Liquors for three Years for now was the time to secure Religion and Property said my Lord Chancellor But whether the Parliament were dissolved or not the Commons were mightily alarm'd at the French Progress in Flanders and therefore upon the 23d of May resolved that an Address be made to the King to enter into a League Offensive and Defensive with the States General of the Vnited Provinces and make such other Alliances as he should think fit against the Growth and Power of the French King and for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands It seems the Ministers were as fearful of a War as the Commons were of this Peace wherein the Spanish Netherlands were in such Danger and therefore the King in his Answer upon the Twenty eighth of May told the Commons They had so intrencâ—â— upon so undoubted a Right of the Crown that in no Age it will appear when the Sword was not drawn the Prerogative of making War and Peace had been so dangerously invaded with a great deal more of suâ—â— Stuff and therefore assures them that no Condition shall make him depart from or lessen so essential a Part of the Monarchy A Man I think may swear out of what Quiver this Arrow was shot As if any King were less a King for being well advised especially by those who can best assist him To advise and to act 〈◊〉 different The Commons did not in this Address treat either 〈◊〉 War or Peace but only advised or counselled the King excited to it by their own as well as the King's Danger by the Growâ— of the French And sure Princes have not such a Prerogative a not to take Advice or Counsel in less Actions than of War and Peace If you look upon the King 's former Actions what Glorious Wars and Honourable Peaces he had made you had little reason to think it so dangerous to his Prerogative to advise him For my part I wonder the Commons should make any Address to him about them since they could have no Security in any Answer he should make to their Address For was not the King a Guaranty in the Treaty of Aix for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands before the Swede entred into the Triple Alliance And did not the King in the Beginning of this War declare he would observe the Treaty of Aix which he might do tho the Swede were out of it And was not the King by the last Peace with the Dutch obliged to withdraw his Subjects out of the French Service yet did not only continue them but permitted nay pressed his Subjects to recruit and encrease them In the first Dutch War which was designed for the Overthroâ— of the Protestant Interest then the Commons Advice was embraced and thankfully entertained but in this for the restraining the boundless Ambition of the French King is an unheard of Usurpation of the King's Prerogative However by this the Commons might perceive what Thanks they had from this King for their Restoration of him and for the manifold Millions they had poured upon him for the maintenance of his Prodigality and Luxury and how much he preferred the Enjoyment of his Minions and Flatterers above his own Honour the Safety and Welfare of himself the Nation or Christendom The King to shew his further Indignation to the Commons and to take French Counsels for Reparation of their dangerous Invasion of his Prerogative signified to the Commons that they should adjourn till the sixteenth of July following which was so absolutely obeyed by the Speaker then Mr. but now Sir E. S. that without the Consent of the House or so much as putting the Question he adjourned them to the sixteenth of July though Sir John Finch was impeached for the same thing of High Treason in Parliament in 1640. So that if the Parliament were not dissolved by the last long Prorogation another Question may now arise whether it was not so by their Separation without either Prorogation or Adjournment But in this time of War it seems the French King was not at leisure to give Counsel therefore when the Parliament met on the tenth of July Mr. Secretary Coventry signified that it was his Majesty's Pleasure they should be adjourned to the Third of December which Mr. Speaker did again by his own Authority But before the Third of December the King issued out his Proclamation that he expected not the Members Attendance then but that those about the Town might adjourn themselves to the Fourth of April 1678 yet when the House met the third of December Mr. Secretary Coventry delivered the House a Message from the King that the House should be adjourned but to the fifteenth of January 1677 which Mr. Seymor this third time did Thus did the Speaker make a threefold Invasion upon the Privilege of the House for the House's once presuming to invade his Majesty's Prerogative of making War and Peace In this Jumble of Adjournments the Prince of Orange about the End of September came into England and from Harwich rode Post to New-Market where the Court then was his Business was twofold a Wife and a Treaty with the King for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands terribly shaken by this last French Campagn Sir William Temple was sent into Holland by the King in July 1674 to mediate a Peace between the French King and States and after that to offer the King's Mediation for a general one between the Confederates and French King The Spaniards were fearful of this and the Prince jealous of it so that the Governour of the Spanish Netherlands
not foreknown and ordered to be taken into Custody tho in Northumberland and Yorkshire and rarely I think any of them were discharged without paying their Fees but what Fees was what the Serjeant pleased nay the Commons outrun all which was ever thought of before For on Tuesday the 14th of December having voted one Mr. Herbert Herring to be taken into Custody and Mr. Herring absconding from being taken the House resolved That if he did not render himself by a certain Day they would proceed against him by Bill in Parliament for endeavouring by his absconding to avoid the Justice of the House Though I doubt the Lords in the Temper they were in nor the King neither would have passed such a Bill It was strange methought that the Commons should be so zealous against any Arbitrary Power in the King and take such a Latitude to themselves which puts me in mind of a Story I have heard of an old Usurer who had a Nephew who had got a Licence to preach and the Uncle having never done any thing for his Nephew he resolved to be revenged upon his Uncle in a Sermon which he would preach before his Uncle in the Parish where he lived and made a most invective Sermon against Usury and Usurers but after the Sermon was done the Uncle thank'd his Nephew for his good Sermon and gave him 2 Twenty-shilling Pieces the Nephew was confounded at this and begg'd his Uncle's Pardon for what he had done for he thought he had given him great Offence No said the Uncle Nephew go on and preach other Fools out of the Conceit of Vsury and I shall have the better Opportunity of putting out my Money Yet so zealous were the Commons against Popery and Arbitrary Power that upon the 15th of December they resolved that one Mean for the Suppression of Popery is That a Bill be brought in to banish immediately all considerable Papists out of the King's Dominions And that a Bill be brought in for an Association of all his Majesty's Protestant Subjects for the Defence of his Majesty's Person the Defence of the Protestant Religion and for the Preservation of his Majesty's Protestant Subjects against all Invasions and Oppositions whatsoever and for preventing the Duke of York or any other Papist from succeeding to the Crown And upon the 16th of December the Commons read another Bill the first time for exempting his Majesty's Protestant Subjects dissenting from the Church of England from the Penalties imposed upon the Papists and upon the 18th ordered a Bill to be brought in to unite his Majesty's Protestant Subjects In this Ferment of the Commons this Parliament they run counter to the Commons of the last Parliament for then they chose Mr. Edward Seymour to be their Speaker and when the King refused him they were much disgusted but in this Parliament the Commons the 25th of November impeached him upon four Articles and a Motion was made for an Address to be made to remove him from his Majesty's Council and Presence And in the last Parliament the Commons would not proceed to the Trial of the Popish Lords in the Tower before the Lords should give their Judgment upon the Earl of Danby's Plea whereas in this Parliament they proceeded to the Condemnation of my Lord Stafford without taking any notice that I can find of having the Lords Judgment upon the Earl's Plea The Commons took Care also to prosecute and impeach all those that countenanced the Popish Plot or were Abhorrers of petitioning the King for the Meeting of the Parliament in the manifold Prorogations of it and voted That it is and ever hath been the undoubted Right of the Subjects of England to petition the King for the Calling and Sitting of Parliaments and Redress of Grievances And that to traduce such petitioning as a Violation of Duty and to represent it to his Majesty as tumultuous and seditious is to betray the Liberty of the Subject and contributes to the Design of subverting the antient legal Constitutions of this Kingdom and introducing Arbitrary Power The first that fell under these Votes was Sir Francis Withens after made a Judg a Member of the Commons whom they voted to be a Betrayer of the undoubted Rights of the Subjects of England and ordered him to be expelled the House for this high Crime and to receive the Sentence at the Bar of the House kneeling which he submitted to The next was Sir George Jefferies then Recorder of the City and ordered that an humble Address be made to the King to remove him out of all publick Offices and that the Members which served for the City should communicate this Vote to the Court of Aldermen Upon this Account tho the Commons discriminated the Crime they ordered Sir Giles Philips and Mr. Coleman to be sent for into Custody of the Serjeant at Arms for detesting and abhorring the petitioning for sitting of the Parliament and voted it a Breach of Privilege of Parliament the like the Commons did by Captain William Castle Mr. John Hutchinson Mr. Henry Walrond Mr. William Stavel Mr. Thomas Herbert Sir Thomas Holt Serjeant at Law and Mr. Thomas Staples and because Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Common Pleas advised and was assisting in drawing up a Proclamation against petitioning for the sitting of the Parliament the Commons voted That it was a sufficient Ground for the House to proceed against him for high Crimes and Misdemeanours The like Vote passed against Sir Thomas Jones one of the Judges of the King's Bench and Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer I do not find these Votes went further but the Commons actually impeached Sir William Scroggs of High Treason for discharging the Grand Jury of Middlesex before they had finished their Presentments and for the Order made in the King's Bench against Care 's Pacquet of Advice from Rome 〈◊〉 the History of Popery that it should be no more printed or published by any Person whatsoever I do not find the Articles particularly recited but they were ingrossed upon the 7th of January and the Impeachment carried up to the Lords by my Lord Cavâ—â—dish and received by the Lords Note in this common Danger the Commons ordered Leave to bring in a Bill for a general Naturalization of all Protestant Aliens giving them Liberty to exercise their Trades in all Corporations Now it 's time to see wherein the Lords and Commons did agree and wherein they ran counter The Lords agreed with the Commons in repealing the Act of 35 Elizabeth viz. for Payment of 20 l. per mensem for every Man who resorted not to his Parish-Church being so terrible a Law that it lay dormant above 80 Years and in the Feuds between the Tories and Whigs it was begun to be put in Execution which the Commons apprehending would make a Breach so wide as to let in Popery which would make no Distinction between Dissenters and the Sons of the Church they brought in a Bill
Lords in their Petition set forth That the King by divers Speeches and Messages to both Houses of Parliament declared to them the Danger which threatned his Person and the whole Kingdom from the mischievous and wicked Plots of the Papists and the sudden Growth of a foreign Power from which no Remedy could be provided unless by Parliament and the uniting the King's Protestant Subjects That upon the 21st of March 1679 his Majesty having chosen a Council of many honourable Persons declared to the Parliament and whole Nation That being sensible of the Evil of a single Ministry or private Advice for the future he would refer all things to that Council with the frequent Advice of his great Council of Parliament That to their unspeakable Grief that Parliament was soon after prorogued and dissolved before it could perfect their intended Relief and Security to the Nation and tho another were called yet they were not permitted to sit till the 21st of October last when his Majesty declared That neither his Person nor the Kingdom could be safe till the Plot was gone through yet upon the 10th of January following it was prorogued whereby all their pious Endeavours to save the Nation were overthrown and the good Bills for uniting his Protestant Subjects brought to nought the Discovery of the Irish Plot stifled and the Witnesses to prove the same discouraged whereby the Strength and Courage of our Enemies both at home and abroad are encreased and our selves and Country left in Danger to be lost and brought to Desolation That in these Extremities under God they had nothing to comfort them but the Hopes of the Parliament's meeting at the Day to which they were prorogued but that not only failed by their Dissolution but to call another at Oxford where neither Lords nor Commons can be in Safety but exposed to the Swords of Papists and their Adherents of whom too many were crept into his Majesty's Guards the Liberty of Speaking destroyed and the Validity of their Acts left disputable That the Straitness of the Place could not admit of the Concourse of People which follow the Parliament That the Witnesses to give Evidence against the Popish Lords and others would be put to great Charges which they cannot bear nor trust themselves under the Protection of the Parliament which it self is under the Power of Guards and Souldiers and therefore pray that the Parliament may meet and sit at Westminster Sir W. J. adds another Reason That the Meeting of the Parliament at Oxford would have the Inconvenience of making use of the Journals of the Houses and other Records I do not find what Answer the King gave the Lords but he expressed his Displeasure by a Frown and how loose soever he was in all his Promises to the Parliament you 'll see him steddy in this of the Parliament's meeting at Oxford yet not forget the Lords that petitioned him whereof the Duke of Monmouth the Earls of Bedford Essex and Shaftsbury were four But before we proceed to discover what was done in this short Interval between the Dissolution of this last Westminster Parliament and the meeting of that at Oxford it will not be amiss to take the Resemblance which was between the Tories and Whigs at this time with the Prerogative-Men and Puritans during Laud's Regency in the Reign of King Charles the First In those Times the Prerogative and high-flown Church-men however they were countenanced and preferred by the Court yet of all Factions were the least considerable in the Nation and had the least Interest in it even less than the Papist and when they had by their Extravagancies and tyrannical Dominion given such a Reputation to the Puritan Party as by Contradiction or Opposition of them to be able to raise a War in the Nation they were not only less assisting the King in it than the Papists but generally ran counter and they and their Sons joined with the Puritans against the King So that the King being assisted in the War by the Nobility and Gentry who desired to preserve the Constitutions of the Church and State and by the Papists the Storm fell upon them without Distinction so that these equally exasperated against the Factions upon King Charles's Restoration were easily reconciled to join against them and thus it continued not only in the Body of the Nation but in the Parliament for the first ten Years after the King's Restoration But then the Popish Designs at Court beginning to appear almost bare-fac'd the Commons began to tack about but so did not the Lords especially the Lords Spiritual who could not forget the Injury done not only to their Persons but their whole Order as well in throwing them out of the Lords House as extirpating Episcopacy and the King having multiplied a Nobility of his Favourites these joined with the Bishops who yet maintained the King's absolute Power under a new Title of Passive Obedience to it had a great Majority opposite to the Commons As Laud's Instruments had the Dominion of the Press whereby they vented all their Spight against the Puritans and persecuted them if they made any Answer so did the Tories and as Laud's Faction stigmatized all others except Papists which were not of their Faction with the Name of Puritans so did the Tories all other but Papists with the Name of Whigs But herein the Tories in this Reign had a great Advantage above the Prerogative-men in King Charles the First 's Reign for this Prince was of a more parsimonious Nature not at all becoming so great a Prince and had not one third of the Revenue which his Son had who profusely scatter'd it amongst his Minions and Favourites and sure it will set an ill Character upon his Memory to have it left upon Record by what strange ways to Honour and Justice he made himself a Drudg to his Favourites to get Money from his Subjects to support them whilst he became a Pensioner to the French King himself and was so loose in all his Leagues which he made with all other Princes and States After the Popish Plot broke out and the King had dissolved the Long Parliament the whole Genius of the Nation became quite altered as plainly appeared in their Election of the Commons in these two succeeding Westminster Parliaments who for their Quality were equal to any House of Commons that ever was before and the Tories have now as little an Interest in the Nation as the Prerogative-men had in King Charles the First 's Reign iâ— Laud's Regency However the Tories were balked of the Expectation of their Pensions by the Commons giving no Money in these two last Parliaments yet they abated nothing of their Impudence in making all but themselves and the Papists to be Whigs and that aâ— was now running back to Forty One and into a Commonwealth In this Disguise since the Meal-Tub Plot had no better Success one Fitz-Harris the Son of Sir Edward Fitz-Harris both Irish and Papists sets up
intend to make Lord-Lieutenant in Ireland an independent Commission to reform the Army in Ireland and to take the Troopers Horses Pistols Swords and Boots and the Arms and Clothing of the Foot which they had bought and paid for without paying for them I then told you I would endeavour to preserve the Church and State of England as established by Law but now I tell you that I have employed some Officers in the Army not qualified according to the late Tests and will deal plainly with you I will neither expose them to Disgrace nor my self to the want of them The Militia is not sufficient for my Occasions nothing but a good Force of disciplin'd Troops in constant Pay will do it and to that purpose I think it necessary to encrease the Number to the proportion I have done viz. double for which I ask your Assistance in giving me a Supply answerable to the Expence it brings along with it Tho I have disbanded the Army in Ireland which were as true Passive-Obedience-Men as could be got for Love or Money yet were they not fit for my Occasions and tho I have encreased my Army in England to such a Proportion as you now see and officer'd with such Officers as are not qualified by the late Tests yet they are not fit for my Occasions and for which I ask your Assistance in giving me a Supply answerable to the Expence it brings along with it yet let no Man be so wicked as to hope this may put a Difference between you and me but consider what Advantages have arisen to us in a few Months by the good Understanding we have hitherto had and the wonderful Effects it hath already had Now let 's see what Influence this King's Speech had upon the Members The Lords hand over head ordered Thanks to the King for his good and gracious Speech but it did not pass so hastily with the Commons but they debated it Paragraph by Paragraph and because the Militia had not been so forward as the King would have them they voted that they would take into their Consideration how to make it more useful in time to come in case such dangerous Attempts should be made as in Monmouth's Rebellion and upon the 16th of November made this Address to the King Most Gracious Sovereign WE Your Majesty's most Loyal and Faithful Subjects the Commons in Parliament Assembled do in the first place as in Duty bound return Your Majesty most humble and hearty Thanks for your great Care and Conduct in the Suppression of the late Rebellion which threatned the Overthrow of this Government both of Church and State and the uttter Extirpation of our Religion as by Law established which is most dear to Vs and which Your Majesty has been graciously pleased to give Vs repeated Assurances You will always Defend and Support which with all grateful Hearts we shall ever acknowledg We further crave leave to acquaint Your Majesty that we have with all Duty and Readiness taken into our Consideration Your Majesty's gracious Speech to Vs and as to that part of it relating to the Officers in the Army not qualified for their Imployments according to an Act of Parliament made in the 25th Year of the Reign of Your Majesty's Royal Brother of Blessed Memory Intitled An for preventing Dangers which may happen from Popish Recusants We do out of Our bounden Duty humbly represent unto Your Majesty that these Officers by Law be uncapable of their Imployment and that the dangers they bring upon themselves thereby can no ways be taken off but by Act of Parliament Therefore out of the great Deference and Duty we owe unto Your Majesty who has been so graciously pleased to take notice of their Services to you we are preparing a Bill to pass both Houses for Your Royal Assent to Indemnify them from the Penalty they have now incurred and because the continuance of them in their Imployments may be taken to be a Dispensing Power with that Law without Act of Parliament the Consequence of which is of the greatest Concernment to the Rights of all your Majesty's Dutiful and Loyal Subjects and to all the Laws made for security of their Religion We therefore the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of your Majesty's House of Commons do most humbly beseech Your Majesty that You would be graciously pleased to give such Directions therein that no Apprehension or Jealousies may remain in the Hearts of Your Majesty's Good and Faithful Subjects This Address was like the shutting the Stable-door when the Steed was stoln these Commons had no such Apprehensions when they heaped such an exorbitant Revenue upon the King to enable him to maintain an Army of 40000 Men to ride them and the Nation when he pleased and now they see the King drives a Way which tends to the Nations as well as their Destructions they tell the King such Ways may give Apprehensions and Jealousies in the Hearts of His Majesty's good and faithful Subjects Did not the Commons in all the four Parliaments in King Charles the 2d's Reign declare what would be the Consequences of the Duke of York's coming to the Crown and did the Duke's Actions while he was Regent in Scotland any ways alleviate those Parliaments Fears Could this Parliament as 't was called now they were got together again and saw Colonel Talbot with an independent Commission from the Lord Lieutenant so barbarously disbanding the Army in Ireland because guilty only of being Protestants yet believe the King would admit of no Papists in his Army in England Could they believe that once professing of the King who was a Jesuited Papist that he would maintain the Church and State as by Law established would wash out all the Jesuit Principles which had taken such deep root in him that no Faith is to be kept with Hereticks which the King esteemed these who had prostituted him with such a vast Revenue and all the Nation besides who were not of his Faction to be but that by Fire Faggot and all other such means they were to be rooted out and grow no more upon the Face of the Earth The Bishops retained fresh in memory during the Reign of King Charles the 2d the Indignities the Factions in the late times had shewed to their Persons and Revenues so that they were not only opposite to the Commons in passing the Bills which the Commons had prepared for uniting the King's Protestant Subjects when they perceived the Danger the Nation was in by the Popish Designs but stifly opposed the passing The Bill of Exclusion against the Succession of the Duke of York and all along King Charles his Reign countenanced the Doctrine of Passive Obedience as thinking themselves and their Order most secure under it but herein their Politicks failed them For now the Bishops perceived a more terrible Storm coming upon them by a Faction who never shewed Mercy to any opposite to them whenever it came in their Power and the
a long and particular Remonstrance which you may read at large in Mr. Rushworth's Collections fol. 40 41 42. setting forth the dangerous State of the Nation and of Christendom by the Alliances of the Pope and Popish Princes especially the King of Spain chief of the League and what dismal Consequences would follow by the Marriage of the Prince with the Infanta c. yet resolve to grant the King another Subsidy for carrying on the War for the Recovery of the Palatinate but withal humbly desired his Majesty to pass such Bills as shall be prepared for his Honour and the general Good of his People accompanied with a general Pardon as is usual concluding with their daily Prayers to the Almighty the great King of Kings for a Blessing upon their Endeavours and for his Majesty's long and happy Reign over them and for his Childrens Children after him for many and many Generations The Noise of this Remonstrance so disturbed the King in his Pleasures at New-market which all his Cares for the Preservation of his Son-in-law's Patrimony could not do that upon the 3d of December he wrote to Sir Thomas Richardson Speaker of the House of Commons this Letter which because of the Rarity of it by any King of England to his Parliament before we will give verbatim Mr. Speaker WE have heard by divers Reports to Our great Grief that Our distance from the Houses of Parliament caused by our Indisposition of Health hath imboldned the fiery and popular Spirits of some of the Commons to argue and debate publickly of Matters far above their Reach and Capacity tending to Our high Dishonour and breach of Prerogative Royal. These are therefore to command you to make known in Our Name unto the House that none therein from henceforth do meddle with any thing concerning Our Government and deep Matters of State and namely not to deal with Our dear Son's Match with the Daughter of Spain nor to touch the Honour of that King or any other of Our Friends and Confederates and also not to meddle with any Man's Particulars which have their due Motion in any of Our ordinary Courts of Justice And whereas We hear they have sent a Message to Sir Edwin Sandys to know the Reasons of his late Restraint you shall in Our Name resolve them that it is not for any Misdemeanor of his in Parliament but to put them out of doubt of any Question of that nature that may arise among them hereafter you shall resolve them in our Name that We think our self very free and able to punish any Man's Misdemeanors in Parliament as well during their Sitting as after which We mean not to spare hereafter upon any Occasion of any Man 's insolent Behaviour there that shall be ministred unto Vs And if they have already touched any of these Points which We have forbidden in any Petition of their which is to be sent to Vs it is Our Pleasure that you tell them That except they reform it before it comes to our Hands We will not deign the Hearing nor Answering of it The Commons having a publick Trust reposed in them and truly apprehensive of the dangerous State of the Protestants in Christendom as well as of the Kingdom and that not only the King's remisness in taking care of both but the Designs he prosecuted were equally dangerous to both in a most humble and supplicant Remonstrance represent to the King his recommendation of the Affairs of the Palatinate to them and the dangerous State of Christendom in discourse whereof they did not assume to themselves any Power to determine of any part thereof nor intend to encroach or intrude upon the Sacred Bounds of his Royal Authority to whom and to whom only they do acknowledg it does belong to resolve of Peace and War and of the Marriage of the most noble Prince his Son but as his most loyal and humble Subjects do represent these things to his Majesty which otherwise could not so clearly come to his Knowledg c. They beseech his Majesty that they may not undeservedly suffer by the Misinformation of partial and uncertain Reports which are ever unfaithful Intelligencers and not give Credit to private Reports against all or any of their Members whom the House hath not censured until his Majesty hath been truly informed from themselves that they may stand upright in his Majesty's Grace and good Opinion than which no worldly Consideration can be dearer to them c. Which you may read at large in Mr. Rushworth's Collections Fol. 44 45 46. The King having cast the Sheet-Anchor of all his Hopes upon the Spanish Match whereby he should not only re-establish his Son-in-law in the Palatinate and get more Money than he could hope for in Parliament furled all his Sails and resolved to ride out this Storm of the Commons notwithstanding his Pleasures and Indisposition of Health in a long Invective against them in a Scotisâ— Dialect which you may read at large in Rushworth's Collections the Heads whereof were 1. That he must repeat the Words of Queen Elizabeth to aâ— insolent Proposition made by a Polonian Ambassador Legatuâ— expectabamus Heraldum accepimus that he had great Reason to have expected better from them for the 37 Monopolies and Patents called in by him since the last Recess and for the three whereof Mompesson and Michel were censured but of these he heard no news but on the contrary Complaints of Religion tacitely implying his ill Government 2. That the taxing him with trusting to uncertain Reports and partial Informations concerning their Proceedings was needless being an old and experienced King and in his Conscience the freest of any King alive from hearing or trusting to idle Reports That in the Body of their Petition they usurp upon his Prerogative Royal and meddle with things far above their Reach and then protest to the contrary as if a Robber should take away Man 's Purse and then protest he meant not to rob him 3. That his Recommendation of the War for regaining the Palatinate was no other than if it could not be recovered otherwise which can be no Inference that he must denounce War against the King of Spain break his dearest Son's Match and match him to one of our Religion which is all one as if we should tell Merchant we had great need to borrow Money of him for raising an Army and that thereupon it should follow that we were bound to follow his Advice in the Direction of the War That this Plenâ—potency of theirs invests them with all Power upon Earth lacking nothing but the Pope's to have the Keys both of Heaven and Purgatory That it was like the Puritans in Scotland to bring all Causes within their Jurisdiction or like Bellarmine's distinction of the Pope's Power over Kings in ordine ad Spiritualia whereby he gives them all temporal Jurisdiction over them 4. That he expected the Commons would have given him Thanks for the long maintaining a setled
Treasurers to receive the Money and a Council of War to disburse the same But the Commons having granted these Subsidies drew up a Petition against the Licence the Popish Party had taken during the Treaty with Spain He was so nettled at it that he called it a Stinging One and hearing the Commons were entring upon Grievances he could not endure it and upon the 29th of May adjourned the Parliament to the 2d of November 1624 and from thence to the 7th of April lest the King should hear of another stinging Petition or a Disturbance in the French Treaty but at this Adjournment he told them at their next Meeting they might handle Grievances so as they did not hunt after them nor present any but those of Importance yet I do not find the Parliament ever met again at least never did any thing However the King passed a General Pardon and the Parliament censured Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer for Corruption in his Office 50000 l. to the King and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's Pleasure which was but three days after the Adjournment of the Parliament for upon the first of June he was set free Whilst these things were doing in Parliament the Earl of Bristol was recalled from his Embassy but before his Arrival the Duke dealt by all means that the Earl might be committed to the Tower before he should be admitted to the King's Presence But fearing the Marquiss Hamilton and my Lord Chamberlain would oppose him herein the Duke pressed them that they would concur in it vowing as Somerset did to Sir Thomas Overbury he intended the Earl no hurt but only feared that if he should be admitted to the King's Presence he would cross and disturb the Course of Affairs but neither of these Lords would condescend thereunto This was attested by my Lord Chamberlain before the House of Lords This Deâ—â—gn of the Duke's failing the Duke to terrify the Earl from returning into England writ to him that if he kept not himself where he was in Spain and laid hold of the great Offers which he heard were made unto him the Earl it should be the worse for him At Bourdeaux the Earl heard of the Aspersions cast upon him by the Duke in Parliament of which the Earl did boldly afterward in the House of Lords in the second Parliament of Car. 1. and in the Presence of the Duke affirm That there was scarce any one thing concerning him in the Declaration which was not contrary to or different from Truth From Bourdeaux the Earl took Post to get into England to vindicate himself from the Asperâ—ons which the Duke had cast upon him in Parliament but when he came to Calais tho he sent over to have one of the King's Ships allowed him and for which publick Orders were given and tho the King James had Ships which lay at Boloign which might have every day been with him in three Hours and the Wind fair yet none came tho the Earl waited for one eight Days so that he was forced to pass the Sea to Dover in a Boat and six Oars When the Earl was landed at Dover he was by a Letter from my Lord Conway a Creature of the Duke's commanded in the King's Name to retire to his House and not to come to Court or the King's Presence until he had answered to certain Questions which his Majesty would appoint some of the Council to ask him but this was not out of any ill meaning to him but for fear the Parliament should fall too violently upon him and this the Duke said to some of his Friends was the Reason of the Earl's Restraint Hereupon the Earl humbly petitioned the King he might be exposed to Parliament and that if he had not served the King honestly in all things he deserved no Favour but to be proceeded against with all Severity but received Answer from the King That there should be but few days past before he would put an end to his Affairs but the Parliament was adjourned before the few days passed nor did he ever put an end to them You may read the further Contrivances against him by the Duke in Rushw from fol. 259 to 265. After the Adjournment of the Parliament or if you will the Dissolution of it tho the Earl of Bristol could not obtain Admission into the King's Presence yet he obtained Leave to answer to all the Duke had in his Absence charged upon him in Parliament and withal wrote to the Duke that if he or any Man living was able to make Reply he would submit himself to any thing which should be demanded which tho the Duke presumptuously said That it is not an Assertion to be granted that the Earl of Bristol by his Answer had satisfied the King the Prince or himself of his Innocence yet it so satisfied the King that when the Duke after pressed the King that the Earl might submit and acknowledg his Fault the King answered I were to be accounted a Tyrant to engage an innocent Man to confess Faults of which he was not guilty Tho the Earl said he could prove this upon Oath yet the Duke wrote to him that the Conclusion of all that had been treated with his Majesty was that he the Earl should make the Acknowledgment as was set down in that Paper tho at that time the King sent him word that he would hear him against the Duke as well as he had heard the Duke concerning him and soon after the King died which Promise of the King 's the Earl prayed God did the King no hurt however the Earl obtained Leave of the King to come to London to follow his private Affairs Mr. Rushworth therefore errs a little in point of time where he says fol. 149. the Earl was committed to the Tower in King James his time for he was not committed till the 15th of January 1625. in the first Year of King Charles as you may see in Stow's Life of King Charles fol. 1042. We have now done with the Spanish Match at least during this King's Reign yet the King's Desires of seeing his Son married which he shall never see were as impatient as those of getting the Infanta's huge Portion and to that end before the Meeting of the Parliament and while the Treaty with the Infanta was yet breathing the King sent my Lord Kensington after Earl of Holland to feel the Pulse of the French Court how it beat towards an Alliance between the Prince and Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter of Henry IV. of France A serene Heaven appeared in France upon the Motion not a Cloud to be seen in all the French Horizon Lewis the King telling my Lord Kensington he took it for an Honour that he sought his Sister for the sole Son of so Illustrious a King his Neighbour and Ally only he desired he might send to Rome to have the Pope's Consent for the better Satisfaction of his Conscience And now you
Months dead to be made the King's Chaplain in Ordinary to be thereby protected from Justice But if it be asked how it does appear that Laud was concerned in this Act and Promotion of Mountague I answer there is a threefold Reason to induce the Belief of it First the end for which this Book was wrote for Promotion of Arminian Tenets whereof Laud was so great a Stickler Secondly none else but Laud could have such an Ascendant in things of this kind and to cause to early a Promotion for such a piece of Service but Thirdly which clears the Question when the King's Necessities caused him to call another Parliament about six or seven Months after Laud fearing the Commons falling again upon Mountague as they did Laud sounded the King by Buckingham whether the King would leave Mountague to the Parliament and finding the King determined to do it in great Zeal said I seem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God in his Mercy dissipate it as you may read in Rush f. 203. as if the questioning a seditious and a disobedient Fellow to his Superiour in the Church were a Cloud to threaten the Church of England If Laud was the first that sowed Dissension between the King and Parliament upon the Pretence of the Church of England Buckingham shall be the second upon the Account of the Church of Rome and herein you 'll see the Temper of Buckingham to any which should presume to give him good Counsel The Dissension between the King and Commons began with Mountague at London where the Plague than raged and all England over so that most of the Members shrunk away to flee the Danger of it and those that staid were in danger of their Lives This put the King into a marvellous Strait what to do for his Necessities as Buckingham managed Affairs and his being imbroiled in the Spanish War were such as the Subsidies granted the King his Father the last Year and those granted the King now could not support Hereupon the King calling a Council at Hampton-Court what to do the King proposed upon the 10th of July to adjourn the Parliament to Oxford which was mainly favoured by the Duke my Lord Keeper Williams opposed the Proposition for two Reasons First That the Infection had overspread the whole Land so that no Man that travelled from his own Home knew where to lodg in Safety that the Lords and Gentlemen would be so distasted to be carried abroad in so mortal a time that it 's likely when they came together they would vote out of Discontent and Displeasure that his Majesty was ill counselled to give Offences in the Bud of his Reign tho small ones Secondly the Parliament had given two Subsidies at Westminster tho they removed to Oxford it is yet the same Sessions and if they alledg it is not the Use of the House to give twice in a Sessions tho I wish heartily they would yet how shall we plead them out of Custom if they be stiff to maintain it It is not fit for the Reputation of the King to fall upon a probable Hazard of a Denial The Duke which heard this with Impatience said That publick Necessity must sway more than one Man's Jealousy The Keeper hereupon besought the King to hear him in private and acquainted the King That the Duke had Enemies in the House of Commons who had contrived Complaints and made them ready to be preferred and would spend time at Oxford about them And what Folly were it to continue a Sessions that had no other Aim but to bring the Duke upon the Stage But if your Majesty think that this is like an Hectick quickly known but hardly cured my humble Opinion is That the Malady or Malice call it what you will may sleep awhile after Christmas there is no time lost in whetting the Sithe well I hope to give an Account by that time by undertaking with the chief Sticklers that they shall supersede their Bitterness against your great Servant and that Passage to your weighty Counsels may be made smooth and peaceable But why said the King do you conceal this from Buckingham Good Sir said the Keeper fain would I begin at that End but he will not hear me with Moderation And because it was the Mishap of the Keeper to give the first Notice of this Storm that was gathering the Duke in Defiance bid him and his Confederates do their worst and besought the King that the Parliament might be continued and he would confront the Faction tho he looked upon himself in that Innocency that he presumed they durst not question him Buckingham's Will must be a Law so on the 10th of July the Parliament was adjourned to Oxford to meet the first of August But to sweeten them the Keeper in the Presence of both Houses in the King's Name promised them That the Rigour of the Law against Popish Priests should not be deluded Here see the Levity of the King and the Dominion Buckingham had over him for upon the 12th of July the King caused a Warrant to be sealed to pardon six Roman Priests When the Parliament met at Oxford the Speaker had no sooner taken his Chair but a Western Knight enlarges the Sense of his Sorrow that he had seen a Pardon for six Priests bearing test July 12th whereas but the Day before it when they were to part from Westminster the Lord Keeper had promised in the King's Name before them all that the Rigour against the Priests should not be deluded Hereupon the Members were in such a Heat that they strived who should blame it most What! their Hope 's blasted in one Night But for the Lord Keeper that brought the King's Message and knew it best and for a Bishop to set the Seal to such a Warrant for him to do wrong to Religion it was enormous Hereupon Mr. Bembo a Servant to the Clerk of the Crown confess'd he brought the Writ to the Keeper to be sealed but it was stopt Mr. Devike Servant to Sir Edward Conway brought it from his Master but it could not speed It was my Lord of Buckingham's hard Hap to move the King to command the Warrant to be sealed in his Sight at Hampton-Court the Sunday following The Commons hereupon turned about to clear the Keeper and commend him but what pleased the Parliament at Oxford did not please the Court at Woodstock where this had not pleased the King The Commons in this Heat desired a Conference with the Lords in Christ-Church-Hall in the Afternoon where Sir Edward Coke open'd the Complaint sharply against my Lord Conway and like an Orator did slide away with a short Animadversion upon the Duke the Commons enlarged hereon that the Duke that put the King upon this was the highest in the King's Favour and that all the important Places of Honour and Offices by Sea and Land were in his Disposal which you may read at large in the Life of the
to the Earl that it was his Majesty's Pleasure withal no doubt but by the Advice of his highest Council of State that the Earl should continue in the same Restraint he was so that he forbear his personal Attendance in Parliament But since the Duke could no longer otherways keep the Earl out of the House of Lords the King by my Lord Keeper signified to the Lords that his Pleasure was they should send for the Earl as a Delinquent to answer Offences committed against him before his going into Spain and since his coming back and his scandalizing the Duke of Buckingham immediately and by Reflection upon himself with whose Privity and Direction the Duke guided his Actions and without which he did nothing And now Sir Robert Heath the King's Attorney-General exhibited eleven Articles against the Earl it was thought fit to leave out the other nine which the Earl had answered to King James without any Reply and in the last of these the Earl is charged with giving the King the Lie in offering to falsify that Relation which his Majesty affirmed and thereunto added many things of his own Remembrance to both Houses of Parliament which you may read at large in Rushworth's Collections from fol. 153 to 158. Hereupon the Earl exhibited a Charge of High Treason and Misdemeanours in twelve Articles against the Duke and another against the Lord Conway of High Misdemeanours which you may read at large in Rushworth from fol. 266 to 270. And upon the Delivery of them the Earl desired a Copy of the King's Charge against him in Writing and time allowed to answer and Counsel assigned him and said there was a great Difference between the Duke and him for the Duke was accused of Treason and at large and in the King's Favour and that he being but accused of that which he had long since answered was a Prisoner and therefore moved the Duke might be put in equal Condition which tho the House did not yet were not satisfied to commit the Earl to the Tower and order'd That the King's Charge against the Earl should be first heard and then the Earl's against the Duke yet so that the Earl's Testimony against the Duke be not prevented prejudiced or impeached The King in a Message to the Lords by my Lord Keeper would have blasted the Earl's Articles against the Duke for two Reasons if they may be called so The first was That the Narrative made in the 21 Jac. in Parliament trenches as far upon him as the Duke for that he went therein as far as the Duke But what then Shall not the Earl be heard in his Defence against that Declaration which was designed to blast the Earl's Honour and Integrity and Justice is no Respecter of Persons The other was That all the Earl's Articles have been closed in his Breast now these two Years contrary to his Duty if he had known any Crime of that nature against the Duke and now he vents it by Recrimination against the Duke whom he knows to be a principal Witness to prove his Charge against the Earl This is strange for his Majesty's Reign was scarce yet a Year old and all this while the Earl was under a Restraint and not permitted to come to the Parliament which ended at Oxford and in his Father's Reign after the Earl had answered all the Duke's Articles against him without any Reply King James promised him he should be heard against the Duke as well as he was against him tho he lived not to make good his Promise Now let 's see the Levity of this Prince the necessary Concomitant of Wilfulness and which he pursued in every step of his Reign without any Remorse that I could ever find for the Lodgment of the King's Charge against the Earl in the House of Lords was scarce cold whenas it was endeavoured to take the Earl's Cause out of the House and to proceed against him in the King's-Bench But why must this be at this time of day and while a Parliament was sitting And why was not this done in the King's Father's Life or in this King's Reign And why must two years pass and this way of charging the Earl never thought of which now must be done in all haste But the Lords put a full stop to this and for these Reasons 1. For that in all Causes of moment the Defendants shall have Copies of all Depositions both pro and contra after Publication in convenient time before hearing to prepare themselves and if the Defendants will demand that of the House in due time they shall have learned Counsel to assist them in their Defence And their Lordships declared they would give their Assents thereto because in all Causes as well Civil as Criminal and Capital they hold that all lawful Help could not before just Judges make one that is guilty avoid Justice and on the other side God defend that an Innocent should be condemned 2. The Earl of Bristol by his Petition to the House complained of his Restraint desiring to be heard here as well in point of his Wrongs as in his Accusations against the Duke whereof his Majesty taking Consideration signified his Pleasure by the Lord Keeper April 20 That his Majesty was resolved to put his Cause upon the Honour and Justice of this House and that the Earl should be sent for as a Delinquent to answer the Offences he committed in his Negotiations before his Majesty's going into Spain whilst his Majesty was there and since his Return and that his Majesty would cause these things to be charged upon him in this House so as the House is fully possessed of the Cause as well by the Earl's Petition as the King's Consent and the Earl brought up to the House as a Delinquent to answer his Offences there and Mr. Attorney hath accordingly delivered the Charge against him in the House and the Earl also his Charge against the Duke And now if the Earl be proceeded withal by way of the Kings-Bench these dangerous Inconveniencies will follow 1. He can have no Counsel 2. He can use no Witness against the King 3. He cannot know what the Evidences against him will be in convenient time to prepare for his Defence and so the Innocent may be condemned which may be the Case of any Peer 4. The Liberty of the House will be thereby infringed the Honour and Justice of it declined contrary to the King's Pleasure expresly signified by my Lord Keeper all which are expresly against the Order 5. The Earl being indicted it will not be in the Power of the House to keep him from Arraignment and so he may be disabled to make good his Charge against the Duke Therefore the way to proceed according to the Directions and true Meaning of the Order and the King's Pleasure signified and preserve the Liberties of the House and protect one from Injury will be To have the Charge delivered into the House in Writing and the Earl to set down his
might not another Parliament upon better Information alter what the Parliament 21 Jac. had done Which neither of these Parliaments did but granted and voted him and his Father greater Supplies than ever before were given to any of his Predecessors in three-fold the time But when the King enter'd into a View of his Treasure he found how ill provided he was to proceed effectually with so great an Action It seems by this one Action the King only designed the War against Spain But why does not the King set forth the Causes why his Treasure was so ill provided It was not ten Months before his Father's Death that the Parliament 21 Jac. which gave his Father three Subsidies and three Fifteenths was adjourned and his first Parliament gave him two Subsidies more within two or three Months after his Father's Death And what came of all this but the raising ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse under Mansfield the Expedition against the Rochellers and to Cadiz to neither of which latter he was ever invited by his Father or any Parliament The King makes the â—lague to be the Cause of the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford yet he might as well have secured the Members by a Prorogation as Dissolution And in this Parliament he tells how the House of Commons voted him three Subsidies and three Fifteenths and after four Subsidies and three Fifteenths and of the Letter he sent them the 9th of June to speed the passing these Supplies and how that the House being abused by the violent and ill-advised Passion of a few Members never so much as admitted one Reading to the Bill of Subsidies but voted a Remonstrance or Declaration which they intended to prefer to him tho palliated with glossing Terms containing many dishonourable Aspersions upon his Majesty and upon the sacred Memory of his deceased Father which his Majesty taking for a Denial of the promised Supplies upon mature Advisement he dissolved them But from whence should this mature Advisement come We do not find the Privy Council had any hand in it and the House of Lords petitioned against it But lest the Credit of this Declaration should not find Faith enough against the Commons Representatives the King sends a Proclamation after it wherein he takes notice of a Remonstrance drawn by a Committee of the late Commons to be presented to him wherein are many things to the Dishonour of himself and his Royal Father of blessed Memory and whereby through the sides of a Peer of this Realm they wound their Soveraign's Honour and to vent their Passions against that Peer and prepossess the World with an ill Opinion of him before his Case was heard who hinder'd it had scatter'd Copies of it Wherefore the King to suppress such an unsufferable Wrong upon pain of his Indignation and high Displeasure commanded all who had Copies thereof to burn them But why was not the Duke's Cause heard and who dissolved the Parliament to prevent it Had not the Earl of Bristol answered every Particular of the King 's and Duke's Charge against him And was there not an Order of the House of Lords the Duke should answer the Earl's Charge against him Where is this Answer to be found and why was it not Now see the Justice of this King and how he made good his Promise in his Declaration that he would so order his Actions as should justify him not only in his own Conscience but to the whole World for the very Day the Parliament was dissolved he committed the Earl of Bristol Prisoner to the Tower and left the Duke free to pursue his ungodly Designs Here I 'll stay a little and add this Augmentation of Honour to the Escutcheon of this noble Earl notwithstanding this Usage For when the Long Parliament in 1640 had put a full Stop to the King 's Absolute Will and Pleasure which if it had not God only knows where it would have ended and after that this King's Flatterers and Favourites his Lord Keeper Finch and Secretary Winde-bank had run into other Countries to save themselves from being hanged in this and that the Earl of Manchester after he had flatter'd this King and his Father in all the Shapes of Earl Viscount Baron Lord Chief Justice Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer and Lord President of the Council and his Son and the Earls of Pembroke and Holland and both the Sir Henry Vanes Father and Son and Sir Henry Mildmay c. sided with the Parliament against the King yet this noble Earl followed the King in all his Adversity however he had been persecuted by him in his Prosperity The late Keeper as he gave his Opinion against the War with Spain in King James's Reign so did he against the Expedition against Cales in this King's Reign his Reason was which you may read in the second Part of his Life fol. 65. That the King must make himself sure of the Love of his own People at home before he bid War to such a rich and mighty Nation But the Keeper's Counsels were as much feared and hated by the Duke as Bristol's and the Commons Articles were against him and therefore he resolved to be rid of them all and pursue the King 's and his own Designs without any Controul and the very same Day the Parliament was dissolved he caused the Earl of Bristol to be committed to the Tower as you may see in Stow's Chronicle fol. 1042. Nor would he have his Renown and Valour less known abroad than his Justice at home and France shall now be the Theatre upon which he will act it in spight of Spain or the Parliament and Nation of England without whose Assistance he will act Wonders by his own Power and in Vindication of his own Honour however some Cause must be shewed by others since the Duke concealed the true Cause Rushworth fol. 427. makes the Causes of this War to begin between the Priests of the Queen's Family and the Bishops by Articles of Agreement upon the Marriage and that the Pope had declared them Apostates if they should seek for any Establishment from the King being an Heretick and that the Queen sided herein with the Priests against the King and that Unkindnesses hereupon grew between them so as the King informed his Brother of France he could no longer bear them And much to this purpose has Mr. James Howel in the Life of Lewis XIII fol. 75. But these were but Pretences for this War the Cause was of another Complexion And herein we will cite the Authority of the great Nani who had better Means to enquire into the Causes than either Rushworth or Howel and was not biass'd by Interest Affection or Flattery You have heard before of the Emulation between Richlieu and Buckingham and of their Inclinations for the Queen's Favour and of the Queen 's noble Aversions to them both but I think Nani was therein a little mistaken for if I be not misinformed as I think verily I
Particulars not in General Did you ever know the King's Message to a Bill of Subsidies all succeeding Kings will say You must trust me as well as you did my Predecessors and trust my Messages but Messages never came into a Parliament Let us put up a Petition of â—â—ight not that I distrust the King but that I cannot take his Trust but in a Parliamentary way Hereupon the Commons desired a Conference with the Lords which was managed by Sir Edward Coke who said My Lords it is evident what necessity there is both in respect of your selves and your Posterity to have good Success in this Business we have acquainted your Lordships with the Reasons and Arguments and after we have had some Conference we have received from your Lordships Propositions and it behoves us to give your Lordships some Reasons why you have not heard from us before now for in the mean time as we were consulting this weighty Business we have received divers Messages from our great Soveraign the King and they consisted of five Parts 1. That his Majesty would maintain all his Subjects in their just Freedom both of their Persons and Estates 2. That he will govern according to his Laws and Statutes 3. That we shall find much Confidence in his Royal Word I pray observe that 4. That we shall enjoy all our Rights and Liberties with as much freedom as ever Subjects have done in former times 5. That whether we think fit either by Bill or otherways to go on in this great Business his Majesty would be pleased to give way tâ— it These gracious Messages did so work upon our Affections that we have taken it into deep Consideration My Lords what we had these Messages I deal plainly for so I am commanded by the House of Commons we did consider what way would be our most secure way nay yours We did think it the safest way to go on in a Parliamentary Course for we have a Maxim in the House of Commons and written in the Wall of our House That old Ways are the safest and surest Ways And at last we did fail upon that which we think if your Lordships did consent with us the most antient of all and that is my Lords the Via fausta both to his Majesty to your Lordships and to our selves For my Lords this is the greatest Bond that any Subject can have in open Parliament Verbum Regis That is a high Point of Honour but this must be done by the Lords and Commons and assented to by the King in Parliament This is the greatest Obligation of all and this is for the King's Honour and our Safety Therefore my Lords we have drawn the Form of a Petition desiring your Lordships to concur with us therein for we do come with an unanimous Consent of all the Commons and there is great reason your Lordships should do so for your Lordships be involved in the same Danger and then the Petition was read Upon the 20th of May the King wrote a Letter to the House of Lords wherein he said That as he had given leave to free Debates upon the highest Points of his Prerogative Royal which in the times of his Predecessors were ever restrained as Matters they would not have discussed yet he finds it insisted upon that in no Cause whatsoever he and his Council could commit without Cause shewed which if granted would dissolve the Frame of the Monarchy That as he had made fair Propositions to the Commons which might easily preserve the Liberty of the Subject so he thought good to let their Lordships know that without the overthrow of the Soveraignty he could not suffer his Power to be impeached yet that he will extend it beyond the just Rule of Moderation c. which he thought good to signify the rather to shorten the long Debates upon this great Question the Season of the Year being so far advanced and his great Occasions of State not lending many more days for the continuance of the Session The same day the Lords communicated the Letter to the Commons upon which Sir Thomas Wentworth said it was a Letter of Grace but the People will only like that which is done in a Parliamentary way and the Debate upon it would take up much time neither was it directed to the Commons and the Petition of â—ight would clear all Mistakes for some give out as if the House weâ—â— to pinch the King's Prerogative and so the Letter was laid aside These were while the Petition was in debate and before it was agâ—â—ed to by both Houses but after it was agreed upon the second of June the King came into the House of Lords and having sent for the Commons said Gentlemen I Am come hither to perform my Duty I think no Man can think it long since I have not taken so many days in answering your Petition as you have spent Weeks in framing it I am come hither to shew you that as well in formal Things as in essential I desire to give you as much Content as in me lies Then the Lord Keeper said MY Lords and ye the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons the King hath commanded me to say unto you That he takes it in good part that in Consideration of settling your own Liberties ye have generally professed in both Houses that ye have no intention to lessen or diminish his Majesty's Prerogative wherein as ye have cleared your Intentions so now his Majesty comes to clear his and to subscribe a firm League with his People which is ever likely to be most constant and perpetual when the Conditions are most equal and known to be so These cannot be in a more happy State than when your Liberties shall be an Ornament and Strength of his Majesty's Prerogative and his Prerogative a Defence of your Liberties in which his Majesty doubts not but that both he and you shall take a mutual Comfort hereafter and for his part he is resolved to give an Example in using his Power for the Preservation of your Liberties that hereafter you shall have no cause to complain and that they here read their own Petition and his Majesty's gracious Answer Then the Petition was read to which the King answered The King willeth that Right be done according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm and that the Statutes be put in due Execution that his Subjects may have no cause to complain of any Wrong or Oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties to the Preservation of which he holds himself in Conscience as well obliged as of his Prerogative This Answer no ways satisfied the Commons whereupon Sir John Elliot made a pathetick and lively Representation of the Grievances of the Nation within and of the Danger and Weakness of it by the Mismanagement and Abuse of the King's Ministers and therefore wished that it might so stand with the Wisdom and Judgment of the House that these Dangers and Grievances
may be drawn into the Body of a Remonstrance and therein humbly exprest with a Prayer to his Majesty for the Safety of himself and for the Safety of the Kingdom and for the Safety of Religion that he would be pleased to give the House time to make perfect Inquisitions thereof or to take it into his own Wisdom and there give them such timely Reformation as the necessity of the Cause and his Justice does import Sir Edward Coke seconded Sir John Elliot 's Motion and propounded that a humble Remonstrance be presented to the King touching the Dangers and Means of the Safety of the King and Kingdom which was agreed to by the House and thereupon the House turned themselves into a grand Committee and the Committee for the Bill of Subsidies was ordered to expedite the said Remonstrance But this King rather than hear of what he had done did not care what he did and therefore the Speaker brought a Message from the King That his Majesty having upon the Petition exhibited by both Houses given an Answer so full of Justice and Grace for which we and our Posterity have just cause to bless his Majesty it is now time to draw to a Conclusion of the Session and therefore his Majesty thinks fit to let them know That he does resolve to abide by that Answer without further Change or Alteration and so he will Royally and Really perform unto them what he had thereby promised And further That he resolves to end this Session upon Wednesday the 11th of this Month and that this House should seriously attend those Businesses which may bring the Session to a happy Conclusion without entertaining new Matters and so to husband the time that his Majesty may with more Comfort bring them speedily together again at which time if there be any further Grievances not contained or expressed in the Petition they may be more maturely considered than the time will now permit But this did not disturb the Commons but they proceeded in their Declaration against Dr Manwaring and the same day presented it to the Lords at a Conference which was managed by Mr. Pym. The Commons impeached the Doctor upon these three Points in his Sermons of Allegiance and Religion 1. That he affirmed that the King is not bound to keep and observe the good Laws and Customs of this Realm concerning the Rights and Liberties of the Subjects and that his Royal Will and Command in imposing Loans Taxes and other Aids upon his People without common Consent in Parliament does so far bind the Consciences of the Subjects of this Kingdom that they cannot refuse the same without peril of Eternal Damnation 2. That those of his Majesty's Subjects that refused the Loan did therein offend against the Law of God and against his Majesty's Supream Authority and by so doing became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty Rebellion and Disobedience and liable to many other Taxes and Censures which he in the several Parts of his Book does most falsly and maliciously lay upon them 3. That the Authority of Parliament is not necessary for the raising of Aids and Subsidies that the slow Proceedings of such Assemblies are not fit to supply the urgent Necessities of State but rather apt to produce sundry Impediments to the just Design of Princes and to give them occasion of Displeasure and Discontent Whereupon the Commons demanded Judgment against the Doctor not accounting his Submission with Tears and Grief a Satisfaction for the Offence charged upon him and the Lords gave this Sentence 1. That he should be imprisoned during the Pleasure of the House 2. That he should be fined 1000 l. to the King 3. That he should make such Submission and Acknowledgment of his Offences as shall be set down by a Committee in Writing both at this Bar and the House of Commons 4. That he shall be suspended for the Term of three Years from the Exercise of the Ministry and in the mean time a sufficient preaching Minister shall be provided to serve the Cure out of his Livings this Suspension and Provision to be done by the Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction 5. That he shall be disabled hereafter to have any Ecclesiastical Dignity or Secular Office 6. That he shall be disabled hereafter ever to preach at Court 7. That his Book is worthy to be burnt and that for the better effecting of this his Majesty may be moved to grant a Proclamation to call in the said Books that they may be burnt accordingly in London both the Vniversities and for the inhibiting the printing thereof upon a great Penalty This Censure immediately succeeding Sir Elliot's Representation of Grievances startled Laud as much as Sir John's Representation did the Duke of Buckingham and the King that he might not hear of any more Business of this kind upon the 5th of June commanded the Speaker to let the House know that he will certainly hold to the day fixed for ending the Session viz. the 11th and therefore requires them that they enter not into nor proceed in any new Business which may spend greater time or which may lay any Scandal or Aspersion upon the State-Government or the Ministers thereof This put the House into a fearful Consternation whereupon the House declared That every Member of the House is free from any undutiful Speech from the beginning of the Parliament to that day and ordered the House to be turned into a Committee to consider what was to be done for the Safety of the Kingdom and that no Man go out of the House upon pain of being committed to the Tower But before the Speaker left the Chair he desired leave to go forth which the House granted Then Sir Edward Coke spake freely We have dealt with that Duty and Moderation that never was the like Rebus sic stantibus after such a Violation upon the Liberties of the Subjects let us take this to Heart In 30 Edw. 3. were they then in any doubt to name Men that mislead the King They accused John of Gaunt the King's Son the Lords Latimer and Nevilâ—or â—or misadvising the King and they went to the Tower for it now when there is such a downfal of the State shall we hold our Tongues How shall we answer our Duty to God and Men 7 Hen. 4. Parl. Rot. 31 32. 11 Hen. 4. Numb 13. there the Council are complained of and removed from the King they mewed up the King and disswaded him from the common Good and why are we turned from that way we were in Why may not we name those that are the Cause of all our Evils In the 4 H. 3. 21 E. 3. 13 R. 2. the Parliament moderated the King's Prerogative and nothing grows to Abuse but this House hath Power to treat thereof What shall we do Let us palliate no longer if we do God will not prosper us I think the Duke of Bucks is the Cause of all our Miseries and till the King be informed thereof we shall neither go out with
Honour nor sit with Honour here That Man is the Grievance of Grievances let us set down the Causes of all our Disasters and all will reflect on him As for going to the Lords that is not via Regia our Liberties are now impeached we are concerned it is not via Regia the Lords are not participant with our Liberties Mr. Selden advised That a Declaration be drawn under four Heads First To express the House's dutiful Carriage to the King Secondly To tender the Liberties violated Thirdly To present what the House was to have dealt in Fourthly That that great Person viz. the Duke fearing to be questioned did interpose this Distraction All this time said he we have cast a Mantle on what was done last Parliament But now being driven again to look on that Man let us proceed with that which was then well begun and let the Charge be renewed that was last Parliament against him to which he made an Answer but the Particulars were sufficient that we may demand Judgment upon that Answer only In Conclusion the House agreed upon several Heads concerning Innovations in Religion the Safety of the King and Kingdom Misgovernment Misfortune of our late Designs with the Causes of them and when the Question was putting that it should be instanced that the Duke was the principal and chief Cause of all those Evils the Speaker came in and said that the King commands for the present that the House adjourn till to Morrow and that all Committees cease which was done accordingly And upon the 7th of June the King in Parliament passed the Petition of Right whereupon there was an universal Joy all over the City and the Commons returned to their own House with unspeakable Joy and resolved so to proceed as might express their Thankfulness and order the grand Committees for Religion Trade Grievances and Courts of Justice to sit no longer but that the House proceed only in Consideration of Grievances of most moment which was their Remonstrance to the King of the weak distracted and dangerous State of the Kingdom which was done in the most pathetick and humble manner which could be expressed and presented to the King in the Banqueting-House upon the 17th of June It 's very long and consisted of these six Branches 1. The Danger of the Innovation and Alteration of Religion This occasioned by First The great Esteem and Favour many of the Professors of the Romish Religion receive at Court Secondly Their publick Resort to Mass at denmark-Denmark-House contrary to his Majesty's Answer to the Parliament's Petition at Oxford Thirdly Letters to stay Proceedings against them Lastly The daily Growth of the Arminian Faction favoured and protected by Neal Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of Bath and Wells whilst the Orthodox Party are silenced or discountenanced 2. Dangers of Innovation and Alteration in Government occasioned by Billeting Soldiers by Commission of procuring 1000 German Horse and Riders for the Defence of the Kingdom by a standing Commission granted to the Duke to be General at Land in time of Peace 3. Disasters of our Designs as the Expedition to the Isle of Rhee and that lately to Rochel wherein the English have purchased their Dishonour with the waste of a Million of Treasure 4. The Want of Ammunition occasioned by the selling 36 lasts of Gun-powder at low Rates 5. The Decay of Trade by the Loss of 300 Ships taken by the Dunkirkers and other Pirates within the three last Years 6. The not guarding the narrow Seas whereby his Majesty has almost lost the Regality Here note That none of these except Billeting of Soldiers which was yet continued were contained in the Petition of Right Of all which Evil and Dangers the principal Cause is the Duke of Buckingham his excessive Power and Abuse of that Power and therefore humbly submit it to his Majesty's Wisdom whether it can be safe for himself and Kingdom that so great Power should be trusted in the hands of any one Subject whatsoever It 's observable how cross the King set himself against the Commons in this Remonstrance for in the last Parliament when the Commons impeached the Duke and the Earl of Bristol exhibited Articles against him the King ordered the Attorney-General to exhibit an Information against the Duke in the Star-Chamber for the great Misdemeanours and Offences complained of against him by the Commons and Earl thereby to have stopt their Proceeding against the Duke in Parliament as he would have taken the Earl's Cause out of Parliament and proceeded against him by Indictment But the King hearing of this Remonstrance of the Commons against the Duke the Day before the Commons presented it viz. upon the 16th of June caused the Attorney-General to take the said Information and all the Proceedings to be taken off the File for that his Majesty was fully satisfied of the Duke's Innocency in all those things mentioned in the Information as well by his own certain Knowledg as by the Proofs taken in the Cause This was the first Fruit the Parliament and Nation reaped by the Petition of Right Now let 's see the next and whether the Commons deserved such a Censure as the King made upon them at the Prorogation of the Parliament After the Commons had presented a Remonstrance of their other Grievances to the King they then took into Consideration the preparing a Bill for granting his Majesty a Subsidy of Tunnage and Poundage as might uphold the King's Profit and Revenue in as ample a manner as their just Care and Respect of Trade would permit But this being a Work of Time and would require much Time and Conference with Merchants and others and being often interrupted by Messages from the King and the Shortness of Time limited by the King for concluding this Sessions and fearing the King might be misinformed of this Particular they were forced by the Duty which they owed to his Majesty to declare That there ought not any Imposition to be laid upon Goods of Merchants exported or imported without Common Consent by Act of Parliament For Manifestation whereof they desired his Majesty to understand That tho the Kings of this Realm had often Subsidies granted them upon divers Occasions especially for guarding the Seas and Safeguard of Merchants yet the Subjects have been ever careful to use such Cautions and Limitations in these Grants that they did proceed not from Duty but the free Gift of the Subjects and that heretofore they used to limit a time for such Grants and for the most part but short as for a Year or two and at other times it has been granted upon occasion of War with Proviso that if the War ended in the mean time then the Grant should cease and of course it has been sequestred into the hand of some Subject to be employed for Guarding of the Seas very few of the King's Predecessors had it for Life until the Reign of Hen. VII who was so far from conceiving he had any Right
January and the same Day issued out Writs for a new one to meet at Westminster the 6th of March following which was just 40 Days between the Test and Return In this Interval the Blaze of the Parliament's Vote of their Apprehensions of a damnable and hellish Popish Plot had taken deep Impressions in the Minds of Men in general and the Whigs taking Advantage of it in this short Interval run down the Tories without Opposition nay even the King himself apprehended there could be no Hopes of attaining his Ends in the next Parliament but by seeming zealous in the prosecuting the Discovery of the Popish Plot and that he would not longer be governed by Favourites and single Councils There had been several Debates in the House of Commons of the dangerous Consequences in reference to the Duke of York's Succession to the Crown and that the Bottom of the Popish Plot centred in the Duke's being a Papist and the presumptive Heir to the Crown but I do not find they came to any Vote upon it yet resolved upon the 8th of November to make an Address to the King That the Duke might withdraw himself from his Person and Councils and in Conformity therewith the Duke went or was sent into Holland and upon the meeting of the Parliament the King acquainted them how great things he had already done for the preventing the Progress of the Popish Plot as the Exclusion of the Popish Lords from their Seats in Parliament and the Execution of several Men upon the Score of the Plot as well as the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey but above all that he had commanded his Brother from him because he would not leave malicious Men room to say he had not removed all Causes which could be pretended to influence him toward Popish Counsels and tells That as he had not been slack in putting the present Laws in Execution against Papists so he was ready to join in making such further Laws as may be necessary for the securing the Kingdom against Popery and then demands a Supply and concludes with his Desires to have this a healing Parliament The House chose Mr. Seymour the Speaker of the last Parliament to be their Speaker in this but the King rejected him which was no good Presage of a healing Parliament and so the Commons chose Mr. Serjeant Gregory and the King accepted him The Commons began where the last Parliament left in prosecuting their Impeachments against the Earl of Danby and the Popish Lords in the Tower but who should be first tried and what were the Jurisdiction of the Bishops Right of Voting in their Impeachments and their Judgments in Cases of Blood run quite through this Sessions wherein the Lords and Commons seldom agreed There were two things which made the Earl of Danby's Case more favourably spoken of one That tho he was prosecuted several Weeks after the Popish Lords were committed yet the Commons would not proceed in their Impeachments against the Popish Lords before the Lords had given their Judgments upon the Earl's Plea The other was a Vote of the Commons upon the 9th of May That no Commoner whatsoever should presume to maintain the Validity of the Earl of Danby ' s Pardon without Leave of the House first obtained and that the Persons so doing shall be accounted Betrayers of England and there was no Nobleman a profest Lawyer so that tho the Earl's Plea upon his Pardon was Matter of Law yet no Commoner must presume to plead his Cause The King besides his sending the Duke of York beyond Sea that the World might now see how otherways he was become a new Man for the future upon the 20th of April 1679 made this Declaration in Council and in Parliament and after publish'd it to the whole Nation how sensible he was of the ill Posture of his Affairs and the great Dissatisfaction and Jealousies of his good Subjects whereby the Crown and Government were become too weak to preserve it self which proceeded from his use of a single Ministry and of private Advices and therefore professed his Resolution to lay them aside for the future and be advised by those whom he had then chosen for his Council in all his weighty and important Affairs together with the frequent Advice of his great Council in Parliament and indeed in this Council were many worthy Members my Lord of Shaftsbury was President of it and the then Sir Henry Capel and Sir William Temple Members of it But this Declaration of the King 's added to the sending the Duke of York into Holland had not the King 's desired Effect the Commons besides the Dread of the Popish Plot as well at present but more in consequence after the King had declared he would not alter the Succession of the Crown in the right Line were no ways satisfied with the Disbursements of the Money nor the disbanding the Army yet were resolved it should be done and voted another Sum of 26462 l. for it but it was not carried without some Difficulty that these Monies should be paid into the Exchequer but Chamber of London however the Commons carried That the Money so raised should be appropriated to that Use and to that End appointed Commissioners to disband the new-rais'd Army and so voted That the Continuance of any standing Forces in this Nation other than the Militia to be illegal and a great Grievance and Vexation to the People hereby meaning the King's Guards They also ordered a Bill to be brought in for annexing Tangier to the Imperial Crown of England and voted That those who did advise the King to part with Tangier to any foreign Prince or State or were instrumental therein ought to be accounted Enemies to the King and Kingdom But how jealous soever the Commons were of the King yet they conceived it was his Life which secured them from the Fears they dreaded of the Duke's coming to the Crown and therefore upon the 11th of May voted Nemine contradicente That in Defence of the King's Person and the Protestant Religion this House does declare that they will stand by his Majesty with their Lives and Fortunes and that if his Majesty shall come to an untimely End which God forbid they will revenge it upon the Papists It seems the Commons had more Care of the King than he had of himself for he not only countenanced the Plotters but ridiculed the Plot. In his Speech at the opening this Parliament he told them he had not been idle in discovering the Plot and in the last he told Sir William Temple he was displeased with the Earl of Danby for bringing the Popish Plot into Parliament against his absolute Command Oliver's Professions and Actions never appeared so hypocritical and deceitful as this King 's and all this after the Parliament had voted there was a hellish Conspiracy by the Papists against his Life and this proved by a Cloud of Witnesses agreeing in the Manner and Circumstances of it as Oates
the Covenant and burnt several Acts of Parliament made against it and for establishing Prelacy since the Year 1660 and would have affixed their Declaration at Glascow but were prevented by the King's Forces for that time This Rebellion of the Covenanters initiated by so horrid a Fact did not extend so far as the Covenanters in their Frenâ—â— and Zeal imagined yet upon Sunday the 1st of June they rendezvouz'd about fifteen hundred Men upon Louden-Hill onâ—â— Wier commanded the Foot and the Horse was under Robert Hamilton one Patron with Balfour and Hackston which two 〈◊〉 assassinated the Arch-bishop With this Force they took the City of Glasgow and to sheâ— how all Crowns and Scepters must vail to them they published two Proclamations The first of which was We the Officers of the Covenanted Army do require and command 〈◊〉 the Inhabitants of the Burgh of Glasgow to furnish us with 24 Carts and 60 Horses for removing our Provisions from this Place to 〈◊〉 Camp where-ever we shall set down the same and to abide with us for that End during our Pleasure under pain of being reputed our Enemies and proceeded against accordingly The other was We the Officers of the Covenanted Army do require and command the Magistrates of Glasgow to extend and banish forth thereof all Arch-bishops Bishops and Curates their Wives Berns Servants and Families and Persons concerned in the King's Army within 48 Hours after publishing hereof under highest Pains And then they published a long Declaration of their taking up Arms for a free General Assembly and free and unlimited Parliament to redress the manifold Grievances there enumerated and humbly to request his Majesty to restore all things as he found them when God brought him home to his Crown and Kingdoms that was to the Dominion the Rump-Parliament in England had over them which you may read at large in the aforesaid Author from pag. 67 to 74. To these Declarations the said Author p. 17. adds they barbarously treated the dead Body of one Graham whom they had killed at a Conventicle They committed insufferable Insolencies in the Houses of the regular Ministers and Loyal Gentlemen as they marched along to Glasgow stabbing and gashing his Majesty's Picture where-ever they found it They behaved themselves barbarously in the House of the Arch-bishop of Glasgow where they burnt his Books cut in pieces his best Furniture and Hangings and almost kill'd a Gentlewoman with Blows who was left to keep the House for saying Gentlemen I hope you 'll remember you are in an Arch-bishop's House They sacrilegiously entred the Cathedral of Glasgow and finding a Tombstone over two of the Children of the Bishop of Argile with an Inscription of a Modern Date they digged up their Bodies run them through with their Swords and left them lying above Ground In the mean time the Council of Scotland were not idle but raised an Army and quartered it at a place called Blackborn to prevent the Covenanters Approach to Edinburgh and gave the King an Account of these things and expected his Majesty's further Orders And now I 'll tell a wonder which will scarce be believed in future Generations The King sent the Duke of Monmouth from London upon the 20th of June and the Duke rode above three hundred Miles upon that day and the two next days and upon the 23d ordered and disposed the King's Army raised by the Council that he fought the Covenanters and routed them killing about seven hundred of them and took above eleven hundred of them Prisoners and now it may be you will hear of a Wonder in Consequence after this Fight as great as the Fight and the Duke's Journey before it I do not question but the Design of the Court in sending the Duke of Monmouth into Scotland to suppress the Covenanters was by it to make him odious to the Presbyterians and other Dissenters from the Church of England in case he suppressed the Covenanters which tho the Duke did yet the End designed by the Court in it did not succeed For the dreadful Apprehension of the Duke's Succession to the Crown of England had taken a deep Impression in another sort of Men besides Dissenters and where Men are fearful of Danger they will seek all means how to prevent the Danger especially where the Power of doing ill is greater and therefore another sort of Men no Whigs might have their Eyes upon the Duke of Monmouth as the only means to prevent the Duke of York's Succession to the Crown his Title to the Crown of England if he could get an Act of Parliament for it being as good as that of John alias Robert Stuart the Son of Elizabeth Moore from whom the King and the Duke of York were both descended and in whose Right they claimed the Crown of Scotland if not those of England and Ireland However this gave the Lie to the Tories that all those were Commonwealths-Men who would not submit to the Illegal and Arbitrary Will of the King and their Doctrine of Passive Obedience and that Kings Jure Divino may do what they list tho God has set Laws and Bounds to all the created Bodies of Heaven and Earth and all other Creatures in them But how mischievous these Doctrines have proved to these three Kings of the Scotish Nation has been already said and I say it has been such flattering Doctrines as those that ruined all these Kings and Kingdoms except the Gibeonites Joshua 9. the State of Venice and that of Geneva for Du Salez was a just and vertuous Prince from which Commonwealths arose Who ever before King James and King Charles the First 's Reign in England heard of talking of Common-wealths in England and the several sorts of Governments viz. Monarchy Aristocracy Democracy which two latter tho they have the same Names yet no two of either in their Constitutions were like one the other And as these Commonwealths took their Rise from the Tyrannies of Kings and Princes so the exploded Government of the Rump if it were a Democracy or Common-wealth gave Life to all those Confusions Perjuries Breach of Leagues and devilish Practices of this Reign which would have been intolerable in any other and would have been opposed if not by rising in Arms against them yet at least in not so profusely pouring out Money for not continuing and carrying of them on The Popish Faction were more jealous of the Duke of Monmouth than the Tories were of a Commonwealth and the rather because there was a Pamphlet printed that the King was married to the Duke's Mother and rumoured abroad that Sir Gilbert Gerrard had a Black Box in which the Marriage of the King with the Duke's Mother was fully proved and made out and the fear of the Duke of York's Succession was so fix'd in Mens Minds that the Story of the Black Box was generally divulged and for ought I know believed by those who were fearful of the Duke of York's Succession If this could be
1693 towards a Supply for Repairs of the Navy and providing Stores for the Navy and Ordnance and other his Majesty's weighty and important Occasions They shall soon find the weight and importance of his Majesty's Occasions But this was not the only Reason the Customs which were 800000 l. per annum as granted to his Brother and a greater Revenue than any King of England except the religious Houses granted to Henry the VIII had before would have done this They add their thankful Acknowledgment of his Majesty's favourable and tender regard of his Commons They had but little experience of it yet and shall find less afterward The 4th Act grants in Imposition upon all Tobaccos and Sugars from the 24th of June 1685 to the 24th of June 1693 for the Repairs of the Navy and providing Stores for the Navy and Ordnance and the payment of Debts due to his late Majesty's Servants and Family and other the King 's weighty and important Affairs But this Act being represented to be dangerous to the Trade of our Plantations some of the Members said for the King if it succeeded so the King promised not to collect them so the Act passed But the Plantations being sore oppressed by this Act claimed the Benefit of the King's Promise but were answered It was Insolence in any Subject to challenge the King of his Promise which was all the Benefit they reaped by it The 5th Act granted the King an Imposition on all French Linens and all East-India Linen and several other Manufactures of India and French wrought Silks and Stuffs and all Brandies imported from the first Day of July 1685 to the first day of July 1690. The reason of this Act was the Duke of Monmouth's Rebellion and the Acknowledgment of his Majesty's favourable and tender regard of his Commons And that there might be a nearer Conjunction between the King and his dear Brother of France for carrying on their great and important Affairs the Parliament repealed the Prohibition of French Wine Vinegar Brandy Linen Cloth Silks Malt Paper or any Manufactures made or mixed with Silk Thread Wool Hair Gold or Silver or Leather being of the Growth and Manufacture of France by the 29th and 30th of King Charles the Second The 9th Act enables the King to make Grants Leases and Copies of Offices Lands Tenements and Hereditaments of the Dutchy of Cornwal or annexed to the same and if this were not enough it confirms the Grants already made so that all the sacred Patrimony of the Crown which was not squandred away by his Brother this King is intituled to do by Law Yet after all this that this good King might be at no unnecessary Charges the 10th Act makes provision for necessary Carriages for him in his Royal Progress and Removal how grievous soever to the Subject The 11th Act provides Carriages by Land and Water for the use of his Majesty's Navy and Ordnance And after all this the 12th Act grants the King five Shillings per Tun extraordinary upon every Voyage which any Foreign Ship shall make from Port to Port in England and twelve pence per Tun for every Voyage which a Foreign built Ship not free shall make I have heard this Revenue with the Hereditary Excise and the other Revenues of the Crown computed at 2400000 l. per Ann. to which Revenue if you add 150000 l. per Ann. which the King had when he was Duke of York the whole will amount to two Millions five hundred and fifty thousand Pounds per Ann. which was threefold more than ever any King of England except Hen. VIII had before this King's Brother But Quorsum haec for except the Tumult which the Duke of Monmouth raised the Nation was at Peace abroad so that by granting the King this Revenue one of these two Consequences would necessarily follow either the King might maintain an Army of forty thousand Men to ride the Nation as he pleased or if he would contract his Expence to 700000 l. per Ann. which I say was a greater Revenue than ever King of England except Hen. VIII had before his Brother he might in less than seven years time hoard up more Money in his Exchequer allowing ten Millions to be in England than was in the Nation and thereby render the Nation in as bad a State as Egypt was in the Reign of Pharaoh in the seven Years Famine when the Egyptians were forced to sell the King their Land to buy them Bread Now let 's see to whom this Revenue was given and who gave it This King was a profest Jesuited Papist whose Principles are That not only the Givers of this Revenue but the whole English Nation except the Popish Faction are Schismaticks Sacrilegious Persons and Hereticks with whom no Faith is to be kept and could any Man believe this profuse Donative which these Men gave who called themselves a Parliament could change the King's Nature and the Principles of the Jesuits which forsooth must be infallible so that the King should neglect these and imploy this Revenue for the benefit of Schismaticks Hereticks and Sacrilegious Persons And if in all free Assemblies a Violence or Contempt upon any one who hath a Right of Suffrage invalidates all the Acts of that Assembly what then shall be deemed of this House of Commons where such Violences were offered in the Election of the Knights of Shires and where so many Corporations were either over-aw'd to surrender their Charters or had perfidiously against their Oaths given them up to take new ones as the King pleased And if the first Act of Henry IV. repealed all the Acts of the 21 Rich. II. because they intrenched upon the fundamental Rights of the Nation I 'm sure there is more Reason for the Parliament to repeal the Acts of this pretended Parliament where so many Violences and Frauds were done before their Assembly which we do not read were done before the Parliament of 21 Rich. II. met And as this grave Assembly heaped such a Revenue upon the King without redress of one Grievance so they took no care to secure the Nation by a general Act of Grace or Pardon for time past but left all to the King 's good Nature who had promised to imitate his good and gracious Brother but especially in his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People And now the Parliament had done the King's work they had done their own too and for the time to come he will do what he pleaseth without them yet at present he only prorogued them till November following when they shall hear more of his Mind And now 't is time to see what the King acted between The first Act of Gratitude which the King testified to the Memory of his good and gracious Brother was his obscure and mean Burial of him as you have heard before And after the King had defeated the Tumult raised by the Duke of Monmouth his next Act of Gratitude to his kind Brother was to