Pieces some of which had a figure of a Shield embost and on that side a certain Image the Device being within which kind of Coin was in use in no other part of the World except in some places belonging to Greece Buildings The Buildings of the Sea-coast Britains were many and like to those of the old Gauls The Inlanders had no Houses but certain cumbersome Woods stood them instead of Cities and Towns for when they had by felling of Trees encompast a spacious round plat oâ— Ground and fortified it with Rampires and Ditches they built there for themselves Huts and Cottages and for their Cattel set up Stalls and Folds making thither their Retreat and Resort to eschew the Invasions of their Enemies Arms. The Britains being as we have observed a People very swift of foot never burdened themselves with an Armor which they could not a their pleasure fling off Their Defensive Arms were only Shields for Offensive Weapons they had short Spears at the lower end of which was fastneâ— a round Bell of Brass which at thâ— beginning of a fight they shook with great Courage conceiting that such a ratling Noise did dismay the Enemy They had also Daggers and Swords which those who went naked girt about their Bodies with Iron Chains The different Interests of the many petty Princes Manner of Fighting amongst whom this Island was divided keeping them in continual Wars the Britains must of necessity be well-experienced Souldiers But their Manner of fighting was so peculiar to themselves that Caesar related it for a Wonder in the Western Parts They fought in a Body called Caterva or Caturfa as the Romans had their Legion and the Macedonians their Phalanx Their usual manner of fighting was in Chariots of which they had several sorts the most remarkable whereof were the Covinus and the Essedum The Covinus was a sort of Chariot carrying no men at all but only him that guided it It was exceedingly well harnassed and armed having at both Ends of the Axletrees Hooks and and Scyths fastned so that driving furiously into the Enemies Battel they made whole Lanes of slaughtered men the Scyths cutting off those in the middle who did not speedily make way and the Hooks catching up those that had escaped the Scyths The Essedum carried many persons who as the Charioteer rode through all the parts of the Battle bestowed their Darts which with the terrible appearance of the Horses and the ratling Noise of the Wheels usually brake the Ranks of their Enemies When they had wound themselves in amongst their Enemies they leapt out of their Chariots and fought on foot the Charioteers in the mean time driving out of the Battle and drawing up their Chariots whither they retired when over-powered by the Enemy In the managing their Chariot-Horses daily Practice had rendred them so expert that driving forcibly down a steep Hill they could stop and turn short in the midst of their Career run upon the Beam stand upon the Harness and skip presently back into their Chariots The Horses used by the Britains in their Chariots were small and swift their Harness was not only substantial but also curiously wrought engraven as may be gathered from these Words of Propertius Esseda caelatis siste Britanna jugis The Britains began their day at Sun-set Computation of Time which Custom they are supposed to have learnt from the Phaenicians who as all other Eastern Nations used the same manner of Computation which they received from the Jews who were taught by Moses that the Evening and the Morning were the first Day Thus what the Romans called Septimana is in the British Tongue to this day called With-nos and in English a Sennight the Abbreviation of Seven Nights From the same Original also was their Observation of the New Moon in whose first Quarter they began not only their Months and New Years but their several Ages likewise which were comprehended in a Cycle of thirty Years CHAP. IV. Of Government of Monarchy its Original and Excellency Britain alwayes governed by Monarchs Government OF Government there neither are nor can be more than three Species For the Soveraign Command of a State must either reside in one which is Monarchy or in some principal persons which is Aristocracy or in the whole Body of the People which is Democracy Monarchy Of these the best and only perfect not to say only lawful kind of Government is the Monarchical not only as having the nearest Resemblance of the Divinity but as being the first and only Natural Government of Mankind and under which the Subject has ever found the greatest Happiness and suffered â—he fewest Inconveniences Original The Original and first Institution of this most excellent Government was from GOD himself who having created Adam commanded him to multiply and replenish the Earth and subdue it and to have Dominion over all Creatures constituting him thereby Monarch of the Universe The Posterity of Adam had no Right to possess any thing but by Grant or Permission from him or Succession to him who when his Children grew up and came to have Children of their own over whom they also had a Command and Power assigned them their distinct Territories by Right of private Dominion yet still with Subordination to himself who was Lord-paramount over his Childrens Children to all Generations Absurd therefore is the Fancy of those who imagin an independent Multitude having a natural Right to Community A thing which never had any Being but in the Chimaerical Brains of the Assertors An Opinion this is which cannot be maintained without the great Scandal of Christianity and opening a Door to Atheisme by denying the Creation of Adam Adam then was Father King and Lord over his Family a Son a Subject a Servant a Slave were then one and the same thing Nor was he tied to govern by any Laws but that which was by his Creator implanted in his Breast called therefore the Law of Nature which if he transgressed he as all succeeding Monarchs was accountable to GOD alone from whom he received it From Adam this Right of Soveraignty was to descend to his eldest Son to whom GOD himself even in his Fathers Life-time speaking of his younger Brother said Vnto thee shall his Desires be subject and thou shalt rule over him This was the Foundation of Government before the Universal Deluge which washing away all the rest of Mankind from the face of the Earth left this Universal Soveraignty to Noah who with his Wife his Sons and their Wives only remained alive By Noah was the whole World divided amongst his three Sons From one of which their Sons or Nephews scattered abroad after the Confusion of Babel do most of the civilest Nations of the Earth labour to deduce their Original The Posterity of Noah to secure themselves as they thought from being destroyed by another Flood went about to erect a Tower the Top whereof they intended should
BRITANNIAE SPECULUM OR A Short View OF THE Ancient and Modern State OF Great Britain And the adjacent Isles and of all other the Dominions and Territories now in the actual possession of His present Sacred MAJESTY King CHARLES II. Treating of Britain in General LONDON Printed by Thomas Milbourn for Christopher Hussey at the Flower-de-Luce in Little Britain M.CD.LXXXIII THE PREFACE THis little Treatise is but the first Part of an intended larger Work the Design whereof as appears in the Title-Page is to exhibit as in a Mirror a view of the ancient and modern State not only of this our Island of GREAT BRITAIN but also of Ireland and all other His MAJESTIES Dominions and Territories not by writing a continued Chronicle or History of all the Kings or Princes reigning successively in them but only by giving an Account of such signal Mutations as made any considerable Change in the Administration of the Government either in Church or State In this part which treats of Britain in general after a short Description of the Island and a brief Account of the ancient Inhabitants thereof from whom not only our present Cambro-Britains but those also of Armorica or little Britain in France are descended is inserted a Discourse which tho it may seem a Digression is neither long nor impertinent touching the Original and Excellency of Monarchical Government to which and none other this our Island has been so fortunate as to have been Subjected from its very first being inhabited to this very Day Hereunto I was forced by the audacious Scribles of certain profligate Wretches who that they may the easilier instigate the Vulgar to a contempt of the Sacred Authority of their Prince and thereby make way for the overturning of this famous Monarchy and the introducing of Popular Tyranny in its place endeavour to debase Monarchy it self affirming the most High and Sacred Order of Kings which is the Ordinance of GOD himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Texts both of the Old and New Testaments to be a meer human Creature taking its Original from the Consent of the People by whom Soveraignty is conveyed unto Kings in trust only and by Communication and consequently that the People may whensoever they please resume this Power and call their Trustees to an account These are the pernicious Maxims which so lately intoxicated the three Kingdoms and are now again for the like purpose taken up by our present Republicans and daily disperst by the scurrilous Pamphleteers of these times one of which who insolently presumes to dedicate his treasonable Libels to a most Noble and Loyal Peer falls foul upon the Learned Sr. Robert Filmer for deriving the Regal Authority from the paternal instituted by GOD himself tho this verity be not only expresly delivered in the Holy Scriptures which declare that the first Government in the World was Monarchical in the Father of all Flesh but was by the very glimmerings of Natural Reason discovered by Aristotle who speaking of the Original of Monarchy saith The first Society made of many Houses is a Village which seems most agreeable to nature as being a Colony of Families which some call Foster-brethren or Children and Childrens Children Therefore at first Cities were and now also Nations are Governed by Kings because such came together as were under Kingly Government For the eldest in every House is King and so for Kindred sake it is in Colonies that is in more Families which are descended from the same House whence Homer saith Every man gives Laws to his Wives and Children Hence it is by all ancient Writers acknowledged that the first Commonweals were governed by Monarchs nor indeed was there any other Government known in the World for above three thousand years till some ambitious Fellows among the giddy Grecians a People alwayes delighted in Novelties rebelled against their Soveraigns and usurped their Authority as was lately here done by the Rump-Parliament and is now again aimed at by the Factors for the Good-Old-Cause The better to excite my fellow Subjects to a dutiful Submission to our common Father the King I have reminded them that all those Rights and Priviledges to the Preservation whereof tho neither infringed nor in danger of being so the popular Demagogues pretend to call them forth when their real design is utterly to destroy and take away both the Regal Prerogative and the Peoples Liberties are originally the Concessions of their Princes and therefore that as it is the height of Ingratitude to employ the Favours of their Soveraign to the disturbance of his Government so it is an excess of Folly to think to secure their Liberties by the pulling down or weakning that Authority which as it first gave them so is alone capable to protect and maintain them This tho it may seem strange to those that have their Heads filled with the Chimerical Conceits of the natural Freedom and Equality of Mankind and the first founding of Government by the Multitude upon such Terms and Conditions as to their Wisdoms seemed fit is yet clearly manifest from the Histories and Records of all Ages and Nations and particularly of this Kingdom of England of which it was well observed by the late Lord Keeper Bridgman then Lord chief Baron at the Tryal of the Regicides It is true we have as great Liberties as any People have in Christendom in the World but let us own them where they are due We have them by the Concessions of our Princes Our Princes have granted them and the King now He in them hath granted them likewise After this Account of the Original and Excellency of Monarchy to which Government alone I briefly shew that this Island has been alwayes subjected I proceed to the Conquest thereof by the Romans and thence to such other Mutations as hapned therein unto the time of Cadwalladar who in the Year 689 quitting his Kingdom of which the Saxons had gotten the best part a Period was put to the British Monarchy the very Name of King of Britain not being so much as heard of till the happy Vnion of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland by the Succession of His Majesties Grandfather King James of famous Memory to the Crown of England whose Genealogy from Cadwalladar I have here set down clearly demonstrating his present Sacred Majesty to be the true and undoubted Heir of the said British King as he is also of the Saxon Norman and Scotish Kings and consequently to have a clearer Right to this Monarchy than any private man can pretend to his Estate After this Relation of such Mutations as concern Britain in general I give a general Account of the present Government of this Island And here according to my Duty and the Oath of Supremacy which declaring the King to be the only Supreme Governour admits neither Equal nor Superior I assert the Soveraignty of our Lord the King and shew that there is not in our nor can
knew no Shore on the North with the Deucalidon Seas and on the South with the English Chanel parting it from France It is in form triangular but by some said to have the Resemblance of a great Snake the Head whereof with a wide-gaping Mouth looks toward Norway and part of Denmark his Tail extending to the West It is said to have been divided by Brutus into Loegria Division now called England Cambria Wales and Albania Scotland But it was found by Julius Caesar divided into several petty Provinces or Kingdomes the Names whereof follow 1. Cantii or the Inhabitants of Kent 2. Regni Sussex and Surrey 3. Durothriges Dorsetshire 4. Damnonii Devon and Cornwall 5. Belgae Somerset Wilts and Hampshire 6. Attrebatii Berkshire 7. Dobuni Oxford and Glocestershire 8. Catieuchlani Warwick Bucks and Bedfordshire 9. Trinobantes Hartford Essex and Middlesex 10. Iceni Suffolk Norfolk and Cambridgshire 11. Coritani Northampton Lincoln Leicester Rutland Derby and Nottinghamshire 12. Cornabii Stafford Worcester Cheshire and Shropshire 13. Brigantes Parisii Lancashire York Richmond Durham Westmorland and Cumberland 14. Ordovices Flint Denbigh Merioneth Caernarvan and Montgomeryshire 15. Silures Hereford Radnor Brecknock Monmouth and Glamorganshire 16. Dimetae Pembroke Cardigan and Caermardenshire 17. Ottadini Northumberland Teifidale Twedale Merch and Louthien 18. Selgovai Lidesdale Eusdale Eskdale Annandale and Niddesdale 19. Novantes Kile Carick Galloway and Cunningham 20. Damnii Fife Renfraw Cluydsdale Lennox Striveling and Menteth 21. Caledonii Gadini Perth Strathern Albin Argile and Lorne 22. Epidii Cantire 23. Vicemagi Murray 24. Venricones Mernia Anguis Mar. 25. Tazali Buquhane 26. Cantae Creones Cerontes Rosse Southerland 27. Carnonacae Carini Carnabii Stratnavern 28. Simertae Logi Caithnes After Britain was conquered by the Romans it was by them divided into Britannia Prima Britannia Secunda and Maxima Caesariensis The first of these containing the South parts the second all that Western part now called Wales and the third the Northern parts beyond Trent It was afterward divided into Britannia Major now called England and Minor which is Scotland The Britains having received the Christian Faith did for the better Government Ecclesiastical divide the same into three Provinces or Archbishopricks viz. the Archbishoprick of London containing Britannia Prima the Archbishoprick of York comprehending Maxima Caesariensis and the Archbishoprick of Caerleon upon Vsk under which was Britannia Secunda The Heathen Saxons afterward over-running the South part of this Island and dividing it into seven Kingdoms the King of Kent being first converted to the Christian Faith by St. Austin the Archiepiscopal See of London was removed to Canterbury that of Caerleon was translated to St. Davids in Pembrokeshire and at last subjected to the See of Canterbury the Archbishoprick of York under which was the North of England and all Scotland keeping still its first place The Britains being by the prevailing Saxons forced to retire into the Western parts beyond the River Severn that part of the Island was by the said Saxons called Walishland since Wales the Southern part by them inhabited named England and the Northern part Scotland and the Name of Britain seemed in a manner lost till such time as the Crown of England by indubitable Hereditary Right descending on the Royal House of Scotland King James of happy memory Grandfather to our present Dread Soveraign reuniting the Kingdoms restored also the ancient Name of Britain adding thereto the Epithet Great the better to distinguish it from Britannia Armorica a Province in the Realm of France The Air Ayr. tho different according to the many Climates through which it runs is generally milde and temperate the continual Breezes and gentle Winds from the Sea the very often Interposition of Clouds between the Sun and Earth and the frequent Showers of Rain qualifying the Heats and Droughts in Summer and the warm Vapors of the invironing Seas mitigating the Cold in Winter whose Frosts serve only to meliorate the cultivated Soil and its Snow to keep warm the tender Plants And tho in the most Northern parts of Scotland the Cold is much sharper in Winter than in any other place of the Island yet the great Plenty of Wood and other Fewel hinders the Inhabitants from suffering much thereby In a word the Cold is neither so piercing nor the Heat so scorching as that there should be need of Stoves in Winter or Grottaes in Summer Soyl. As the Ayr is kind and temperate so the Soyl is fertil and wholsom abundantly watered with Springs and Streams and in many places with great Navigable Rivers the most eminent whereof are the Thames Severn and Humber There are especially in the South part thereof called England few barren Hills or craggy Rocks and tho the Northern parts of Scotland are somewhat mountainous yet there want not even there fruitful Valleys apt for Grain Grass or Wood. Nay that very Ground which lies wast and neglected in England is by men of no small Judgment thought far to exceed the Soyl of many Provinces on the Continent The excellency of the Soyl is manifested by the Complexion of the Inhabitants who therein exceed all other Nations of the Universe It is attested also by those transcendent Elogies given her by Antient and Modern Writers O happy Britain said an antient Panegyrist in the time of Constantine the Great and blessed above all other Regions Nature hath enriched thee with all the Benefits both of Heaven and Earth wherein there is neither extreme Cold in Winter nor scorching Heat in Summer wherein there is such abundant Plenty of Corn as may suffice both for Bread and Wine wherein are Woods without Wild Beasts and Fields without noysom Serpents but infinite numbers of Milch-Cattle and Sheep weighed down with rich Fleeces And that which is most comfortable long Dayes and lightsome Nights And long before that it was called by Orpheus The Seat of Queen Ceres as since by Charles the Great The Storehouse and Granary of the whole Western World So that not undeservedly does our English Lucan sing The fairest Land that from her thrusts the rest As if she car'd not for the World beside A World within her self with wonders blest Commodities As this our Island is separated from the rest of the habitable World so Nature like an indulgent Mother has furnished it with so great abundance of all things necessary for the life of Man that it may easily subsist without the Contribution of any other part of the World Insula praedives quae toto vix eget orbe Et cujus totus indiget orbis ope Insula praedives cujus miretur optet Delicias Salomon Octavianus opes said old Alfred of Beverly speaking of Britain And should I here go about to enumerate the several sorts of Grain it bears its vast abundance of Cattel yielding wholsom and substantial Food its great Plenty and Variety of Fish Fowl Fruit edible Roots and Herbs I might be thought by Strangers rather to reckon up the Works
of GOD and all Natural Laws Which Answer of the Duke of York and h s Claim to the Crown was by the same Parliament expresly recognized and declared to be Good True Just Lawful and Sufficient And when in the same year Edward Earl of March eldest Son to the said Duke of York upon the death of his Father took possession of the Crown by the Name of King Edward the IVth his Title was in full Parliament by all acknowledged in these Words Knowing also certainly and without doubt and ambiguity that by GODs Law and the Law of Nature He viz. the said King Edward and none other is and ought to be true R ghtwise and Natural Liege and Soveraign Lord And that he was in right from the Death of the said Noble and Fam us Prinee his Father very just King of the same Realm of England And so little Respect was given to the aforementioned Act of Entail that it was not so much as repealed being esteemed from the very beginning null and void in it self Nor indeed were any Acts of Henry the IVth Vth. or VIth stiled Kings in Deed and not of Right deemed to be in force but such as were expresly confirmed by Edward the IVth in the same manner as his Sacred Majesty now reigning confirmed the judicial Proceedings of the late Usurpation As little Success had that Monster of Nature Richard Duke of Glocester who being by the Interest of several factious Lords chosen Protector to his Nephew the young King Edward the Vth having by that means gotten into his hands the military Force of the Nation pretending that the Children of his Brother King Edward the IVth were illegitimate laid claim to the Crown which he not only entailed by Act of Parliament upon himself and his Issue but the better to secure it in his Line caused the Innocent young King and his only Brother the Duke of York to be barbarously murthered in the Tower yet did he within three years lose both his Crown and Life to Henry Earl of Richmond on whom and his Heirs it was again by Act of Parliament entailed which yet would little have availed him or his Posterity had he not prudently acording to his promise by which several of the Nobility were induced to assist him married Elizabeth eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth and immediate Heiress of the Crown whereby happily turning his Usurpation into a lawful Sovereignty he secured himself in the Throne But that his Issue by any other Lady could not have had better Success against the Princely House of York than Adonijah had against Salomon may more than probably be presumed if we shall consider what Fate attended the many mad Acts made by Henry the VIIIth about the Succession This haughty Prince whose capricious Humor none of his Parliaments durst gainsay having after above twenty years Cohabitation divorced his Queen a chast and vertuous Lady did in the twenty fifth year of his Reign disinherit by Act of Parliament the Lady Mary his Daughter by her settling the Crown by special Words for want of Issue Male on his Issue Female by the Lady Anne Bullen To the observation of which Act the whole Nation was obliged by an Oath imposed the year following the Refusal of which Oath was adjudged Misprision of Treason And yet in the twenty eighth year of his Reign he bastardized and made illegitimate to all intents and purposes as he had done formerly the Issue of Queen Katherine the Issue betwixt him and the Lady Anne Bullen barring them to claim challenge or demand any Inheritance as Lawful Heir or Heirs to him by Lineal Descent making it Treason for any one notwithstanding their former Oath by Words Writing Printing or any other exterior Act directly or indirectly to call any of the Children born under the unlawful Marriages of Katharine and Anne Bullen legitimate and enacting that in case he had no Issue by Jane his then Queen he might dispose of the Crown to whatsoever person or persons he pleased the whole Nation being bound to the observance of this Law by the Sanctimony of an Oath the refusal whereof was made High Treason After all this in the thirty fifth year of his Reign he by another Act entailed the Crown on himself Prince Edward and the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth without repealing the former Acts or taking the least notice of their being so signally bastardized and for default of Heirs of their Bodies on such person or persons as he should nominate by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or by his last Will in writing signed by his most Gracious Hand the whole Nation being again sworn to observe his pleasure herein Consequently whereunto he by such his last Will and Testament solemnly bequeathed the Crown upon failure of his own Issue to the House of Suffolk being the Issue of his younger Sister Mary excluding by that means from the Throne as much as in him and his Act of Parliament lay the Issue of his Elder Sister whose Royal Blood he affirmed the cold Air of Scotland to have frozen up in the North. Yet when after the Death of his three Children reigning successively these disinheriting Statutes the last whereof was confirmed by Act of Parliament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth in whose thirteenth year there passed also an Act That it should be Treason during her Life and a Praemunire afterwards to assert that the Imperial Crown of England could not be disposed of by Act of Parliament came to the Test they had not the Honor to be repealed but were held null and void from the beginning as being notoriously repugnant to the Laws both of GOD and Nature and the common Customs and Constitutions of the Realm And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons assembled in Parliament notwithstanding all these unrepealed Acts having confest the Inestimable and unspeakable Blessings accrewing from the Vnion of England and Scotland under one Imperial Crown in the Person of King James lineally rightfully and lawfully descended of the most Excellent Lady Margaret Eldest Daughter of the most renowned King Henry the VIIth and the high and noble Princess Queen Elizabeth his Wife eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth proceeded to the Recognition of his Title in these Words We being bounden thereunto both by the Laws of GOD and Man do recognize and acknowledge that immediately upon the Dissolution and Decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most Excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And that by the Goodness of GOD Almighty and lawful Right of Descent Your Majesty is under one Imperial Crown of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty