neither was he less singular in his Fortune then his Glory having united the Lilies of France to the Roses of England and made of both one Diadem to place on the Head of his Son XV. date of accession 1422 HENRY VI. who whilst he was a Child could have no sense of the honour or happiness he was born to and when he came to be a Man so despis'd it that every Body thought him fitter to be a Priest then a King only those of the House of York thought him fitter to be made a Sacrifice then a Priest and accordingly crook-back'd Richard murther'd him to make way for his elder Brother XVI date of accession 1460 EDWARD IV. the first King of the House of York descended from the fifth Son of Edward the Third who made the White Rose to flourish as long as Henry the fourth did the Red and had kept it flourishing much longer had he not been more unfortunate by the Ambition of those of his own then those of his Enemies Faction his two Sons XVII date of accession 1483 EDWARD V. that should have succeeded him with his innocent Brother being both murther'd by their unnatural Uncle who yet call'd himself their Protector XVIII date of accession 1483 RICHARD III. Duke of Gloucester who having kill'd one King before to make way for their Father kill'd them afterward to make way for himself but his Usurpation lasted a very little while both Nature Providence agreeing to deny him any Children of his own for that he had so ill treated those of his nearest Relation so that for want of Issue rather then want of Success the Crown came to the House of Lancaster in the Person of XIX date of accession 1485 HENRY VII a Prince that was observ'd to be no great Lover of Women and yet all his Greatness came by that Sex that is to say his title to his Confirmation in and his Transmission of the Crown to his Posterity whose Advent to the Crown being foretold by no less then two Kings Cadwallader and Henry the Sixth the one prophesying his union of the Britains and Normans the other his joyning of the two Roses together 't is no marvel his Son XX. date of accession 1509 HENRY VIII Heir by his Fathers side to the House of Lancaster by his Mothers side to the House of York entred with so general a satisfaction to all at home and with so great a terrour to all abroad that they submitted to make him great Arbiter of Christendom his Son XXI date of accession 1547 EDWARD VI. being very young when he dyed and dying before he was sixteen years old had not time to lay a sutable Superstructure upon his Foundation whereby the glory of his Family past away to his Sister XXII date of accession 1553 MARY who wasted as much blood to shew her self to be Defender of the Faith as her Father before to make good his being Head of the Church her Successor XXIII date of accession 1558 ELIZABETH worthily intitled her self to both declining the being a Mother of Children to the end she might be a Nursing Mother of the Church which having defended with great honour and success for forty six years together dying she bequeath'd a Peace to her Kingdoms and her Kingdoms to that pacifick Prince James the Sixth of Scotland who began the next Dynasty The only Province refus'd to swim down the common stream of Servitude were those of Kent the first Invaders when the English came in the last Invaded at the coming in of these Normans who yet only made a Pause as it were to file their Fetters smoother and make them easie by such Conditions which pleasing themselves might not be distastful to him After this there were some attempts to set up Edgar by some of the discontented Nobility who though they appear'd to be but like Drones which make a great noise without being able to sting yet they provoked him so far that every Body expected he would take that occasion to make himself a real instead of an imaginary Conqueror nothing so much advancing Soveraignty as unsuccessful Rebellions but as the Lion disdains to fall upon those Beasts that crouch and prostrate themselves at his feet so he scorning that any who submitted to him should have so much the better of him as not to be pardon'd prevented their Fears by a general Indempnity in which he did not except against his very Rival Edgar who however he had in respect to his Title of Athelin which was as much as to say the Darling some place in his Caution was it seems so much below his Jealousie that when he came to render himself as after he did with all humility upon his knee he receiv'd him with that magnanimous declaration Petits se vengent je pardonne his Generosity so far vying with his Magnanimity that as he pitied so he preferred him making up in happiness what he denied him in greatness whilst he allowed him a competent support to maintain the respects due to his Birth secur'd from the danger of suspition But it was not in the power of his Clemency Courage or Wisdom so to oblige over-awe or satisfie the common People but that Envy Ignorance or Malice found out frequent occasions of complaint and murmur some repining at the new Laws they understood not others at the continuation of the old they understood but too well amongst which that of the Burrough-Law seem'd to be no small grievance in respect they were so bound for each other or rather one to the other that like tedder'd Horses they could not break out of their bounds all thinking it grievous so hard of digestion is every thing that savours of Conquest to be wrested from their present usages and forms of Sâ—ate though the change was much for the better as when he confin'd the Bishops to the rule of Souls only who before assisted with the Greve or Alderman as he was then call'd that is the Earl of every County were absolute Judges in all Cases and over all Persons and when in the room of the Greve he constituted Judges of Oyer and Terminer by special Commission to decide all matters of Law assisted by * vid. Holinshed 8 but some Lawyers are of opinion Justices of Peace came not in till the time of Edw. 1. neither is the name of Justices of the Peace to be found in Terminis till the Stat 36. of Ed. 3. c. 12. till when they were nam'd Justices Itinerant or Justices in Eyre Justices of the Peace as he call'd them taken out of the Minores Nobiles of every County who were made Judges of Record and from henceforth had the power de Vita de Membro as the Lawyers express it the mighty Current of the Earl's Power that had over-born whomever he had a mind to destroy was on the sudden sunk so low by the running down of Justice and Judgment in so many lesser streams that every man how mean soever could
Neither is it so in the Case of a particular Person only but if the whole Body of the people of this Nation should take upon them to do the like absque assensu Regis The Judges holding that where a War shall be so declared against any in League with the King without his consent and allowance the League is not thereby broken The like holds in all cases of Confederacies and Combinations which forced the late Rebels in the time of Charles the First to declare this Kingdom a Common-wealth before they could prevail with any Forrain Princes to treat with them and very few did it then Wherefore it is recorded as a wise answer of that Parliament in the Seventeenth of Richard the Second who when that King out of a necessitous compliance with the People offer'd them leave to take into their consideration some concerns of War and Peace Replied It did not become their Duty neither in Truth durst they presume ever to Treat of matters of so Transcendent Concernment No doubt then can there be of that Jus Foecialis 5. Jus Foecialis or right of Legation in directing sending and receiving all Embassies which Curtius calls Jus Regium a Power so Singular and Absolute that as (b) Bod. de Repub. Bodin and (c) In State Christ printed Anno 1657. H. Wotton both men of sufficient Authority affirm divers of our Neighbour Princes who yet call themselves absolute as the Kings of Hungary Poland Denmark Bohemia c. have nothing like it being bound up to consult with their People about all publick concerns before they can make any Conclusion of Peace or War Whereas all Addresses of State are made to Our Kings as I shewed in part before without any Obligation of their parts to communicate any thing to any of the Members of their great Council Privy Council or Common Council much less to either of the Ministers of State whether Secretaries or others however sworn to Secrecy and Trust Nor needs there a more pregnant Instance of the Kings inherent and determinate Prerogative in this point than that verbal Order of King Henry the Eight to the Lord Gray Governour of Bullen who upon a dispute about demolishing a Fort the French were then erecting by the name of Chastilons Garden contrary to the Sence of all the Lords of his Council expressed in Scriptis and which was more the formality of his own Letters confirming their Order did by a verbal Commission only privately whisper'd to him Justifie him in flinging down that Work which was a manifest breach of the Peace with the French and consequently a Capital crime in the Governour had not the same breath that made him forfeit it given him his life again which President as it was very remarkable so it proves that which follows 6. Jus Vitae Necis 26. Jus Vitae Necis that highest power of Life and Death to be only in the King being signaliz'd by the Ceremony of carrying the Sword before him in all publick Processions and is in truth so antient and undoubted a Right of the Crown that upon this Account only we find all the Pleas touching life and member to be call'd by the Lawyers Placita Coronae and all Capital Offences of high treason are termed Crimina Laesae Majestatis in proceeding whereon no Original Writ is necessary as in civil Causes but every Constable as the Kings Deputy may Ex Ossicio without any Process seize on any Murtherer Traytor or Felon and till the Statute of Magna Charta 17 of King John it is manifest that every mans Person was so subjected to the King by his Oath of Allegiance from those words De vita de membro that the (d) Vita Membrasunt in Potestate Regis Bracton l. 1. fol. 6. Cap. 5. Sect. 18. King at his pleasure might Imprison any man without process of Law or giving any cause for it and however the King has been pleas'd to circumscribe himself by Law since for the greater assurance of his Grace to his People yet the Judges have still so far respect to the Kings honour in this particular that upon the Commitment of any person by the Kings Command or by Order of the Lords of his Council they do not take upon them as perhaps by strictness of Law they might to deliver the Person till the Cause be first shewn and then expecting a Declaration of the Kings further pleasure bind him to answer what may be objected in the Kings behalf 7. Jus Rerum Sacrarum 27. The last and highest Prerogative as being purely Spiritual is that Jus Rerum Sacrarum to which no Princes in the World had a fairer Pretence than those here if considered as the only Christian Kings foster'd with the milk of a distinct National Church The Kings of great Britain the only Kings of a distinct national Church that may as properly be called the Sister as those of France Germany and Italy are call'd the Daughters of Rome and therefore the Pope when he naturaliz'd as I may say all the Christian Nations within the bosom of the Church he declared the Emperour to be Filius Major the French King Filius Minor but our King Filius Adoptivus neither matters it much though they prove our Church to be the younger Sister that disparagement if any it be being abundantly recompensed by being as indeed she is the most innocent the most beautiful and perhaps the most fruitful Parent of the two having Matriculated no less than eight Nations now as great almost as her self in the first Ages of Christianity and been the Foster-Mother to as many more in this last and most knowing age The Protestant Religion more properly called the Catholiâ—k Religion than that of Rome whereby the Reformed Religion as it is now vulgarly called to difference it from that of Rome is become as universal as that they call with so much Ostentation Catholick which if confined within the Range of the Church of Rome is not above a (c) Purchas Pilgrim cap. 13. lib. 1. fourth part of Christendom if so be the Computation of our modern Geographers be not mistaken who put Sweden in the Scale against both the Iberia's Italy and Spain and England Denmark and the Hans Towns against France which yet we know is Checquer'd in their Religion having divers Towns of the Reformed Judgment besides those Lesser Congregations in Poictou Gascony Languedoc and Normandy and take out of Germany suppos'd to be the third part of Europe two intire parts the whole being divided into three that at this day are integrally Protestant that is to say in the East Poland Lithuania Livonia Podolia Russia minor with divers Parts of Hungary and Transilvania even to the Euxine Sea in the West the Cantons of Swizzerland the United Provinces with the Grisons and the Republick of Geneva the South and North parts being yet more intirely Protestant and the heart of it every
notwithstanding his great good Fortunes as to see his Glory unravel'd as well as his Happiness in great part there being nothing left him of all his great Gettings abroad purchased with so much Travel Expence and Bloodshed but only the poor Town of Calais which signified no more then a Gate of a City left open when all the rest is possest by too potent an Enemy But we must look on 't as a Curse that he inherited with his Crown not to be permitted to dye till he saw himself as his Father was forsaken of every Body but a poor Priest that only tarried to torment him with the remembrance of his Sins and left him at last as he left the World in such a state of uncertainty that our Historians are yet to seek whether to place him amongst the rank of our fortunate or unfortunate Princes the fatal divisions of his Posterity which took their first rise from his weakness being so pernicious to the whole Kingdom as well as to themselves that if the Dead know any thing of what is done amongst the Living he needed no other Hell to torture his guilty Spirit then the vision of those murthered Princes of his own Blood whose Ghosts just led one another where ere they met HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT Now as it is easie to kindle a great Fire with very little blowing when the matter is fitly dispos'd to burn so it happen'd very unluckily that from the casual Rudeness of an inconsiderable Tax-gatherer that came into the House of a poor Tiler of Deptford and would have turn'd up the Coats of his young Daughter to see whether she were of Age to pay her Poll-mony there was occasion'd so over-grown a Riot as bearing down all respect of Laws Order or Government was not to be appeas'd with the Blood of three of the principal'st Ministers of State that is to say the Chancellor although he were Arch-bishop of Canterbury the Treasurer and the Lord Chief Justice and came at last so near to Majesty it self for some of the Rebels were little less rude with the Kings own Mother then his Officer had been with their Captains Daughter that 't was thought nothing could deliver the King himself from the approaching Danger but meeting it half way which he did with so well temper'd a Courage as never King before him shew'd except Caesar and he but once or his own Father at the Battel of Poctiers when begirt with as many perhaps but not so insolent nor unworthy Foes This being as much beyond the expectation of his Years as of his Enemies charmed them into a Submission for a while but the Distemper being universal and raging and the Contagion spread insensibly through so many parts of the Kingdom it was not possible to heal the Evil with a Touch only However one would have thought so hopeful a Prince as this was the Son of so brave a Father and fortified with so unpregnable a Title could not likely have miscarried but must have stood firm as a Mountain whose top was above all Storms but the same Stars ruling at his Birth that govern'd his Great-grand-fathers Nativity 't is no marvail being of the same temper he should fall under the same fate to be kept by Flatterers from the knowledge of himself till being not himself he too late saw his Error in the experience of their Falshood The first ten years of his Government which were the better though not the longer part of it he reign'd with great splendor if so be we may properly say he reign'd whiles he was under the dispose of others taking all occasions to let those that attempted to disturb him both at home and abroad especially his right and left-hand Enemies the French and Scots feel the sharpness of his Sword and the weight of his Power forcing the first to quit their chief Design having prepar'd a Navy of 1287 Ships to invade him the other to quit their chief City which he thereupon reduced into Ashes to make a Bonefire that might give the whole Kingdom notice of his Victory But after he came to be of Age to do all himself he began very visibly to undo himself hastning the slow pace of his Deâ—â—iny by quarrelling with his Parliaments who being actuated by the subtilty of his emulous Uncles gather'd strength by the discovery of his weakness and taking all advantages against him in point of Right or Reputation urged their Priviledges so far in derogation of his Prerogative that he could not forbear telling them the very next Sessions after he was out of his Wardship as he was wont to call it that he perceived they had a mind to rebel and therefore thought he could do no better then to ask Aid of his Cosin the King of France into whose hands he said he had rather fall being a Prince then submit to his own Subjects A rash and unadvised Reply which however it seem'd to be the Result of a proud and vindictive Stomach was in truth so abject and low so unlike himself and so like his little Great-Grandsire Henry the Third that they taking Example from the Nobility of that time as he from that King immediately put the Government into the hands of thirteen Lords of whom his turbulent Uncle Gloucester was the Chief who having Divisum Imperium lookt like a great Wen upon the Face of the State that drew all the ill humours of the Body Politick to it The Duke of Ireland that was the principal Councellor of his party and his Uncle by Marriage was so amaz'd at the sudden birth of this Oligarchy that not daring to give any Opinion of his own in the Case although he were a man of sufficient Courage and Authority he put him upon advising with all the Judges possibly that what himself should think fit might pass for Law out of their mouths and accordingly Questions were fram'd to be propos'd to them by which it was easier understood what the King would have to be Law then what in truth was so To all which having receiv'd positive Resolves on the Kings side the next Consultation was how to frame such a House of Commons as might be brought to take part with the King against the Lords and forthwith Letters were directed to all the Sheriffs and Justices of Peace in every County to interpose their Credit and Authority for the chusing of such Persons Knights and Burgesses for the next Sessions as the King and his Councel had nam'd in a List sent to them This look'd like so dangerous an Industry that the Regency took the Alarm at it and trusting to no other remedy flew to Arms. The King thereupon demanded Aid of the City of London but they failing his Expectation the Lords grew so bold as to send to him to deliver up his ill Councellors whom they call'd Traytors and Seducers Upon this there were very great and grave Deliberations each man