to amuse than inform the Understanding But Elegancies in expression though I am not able to reach them my self I admire in others especially if they run in a smooth Chanel and keep that mediocrity that they overflow not the bank But while I am pleading for Mediocrity I find my self in a Labyrinth betwixt too little Pamphlets our Kings Court and his Kitchen and I know not by what Clue to avoid it They are like two extremes Scylla and Charybdis therefore to pass by and not be indangered by them I will shape my Course in the middle betwixt both and Truth shall be my Gale For I protest without passion I lean to no Faction or side but set down plainly what my Conscience and Knowledg dictates to me Nor do I intend to asperse Noble Families Where is there one as that famous Orator the Lord Verulam said that like a fair Pomegronate hath not some corrupted Cornel And may not that be pickt out from the rest but it must taint them all And how can Truth be known but by the good savour it leaves behind For a good Name is like a precious Oyntment Never any thing of History should be left to Posterity if men may not be spoken of when they are dead And if their Actions be genuinely related there will be an intermixture of Good and Bad professedly allowed according to the good or ill Comportment of the person presented though as I said tenderly to be dealt with for Man is of no Angelical nature But it is easie to daub over the foulest Deformities and make them appear Beautiful For as Ulpian said of the Laws of his time so I say of Historical Relations Nulla veritas ita diserte ulla de re cavere potest ut malitios a calliditas locum fraudi non inveniat But this stirring of the Waters is only to make the Truth less perspicuous when time shall settle them all things will appear clearly Records and publick Actions within Memory cannot sink though the Dregs and muddy water thrown in to trouble them may But I will steer steady and avoid them both hoping to arrive at some happy Port if I can pass the Shallows of Ignorance or Rocks of Prejudice that lie in the Way The Authors PICTURE drawn by Himself AS others print their Pictures I will place My Mind in Frontispiece plain as my Face And every Line that is here drawn shall be To pencil out my Souls Physiognomy Which on a Radiant height is fixt My Brow Frowns not for these Miscarriages below Vnless I mean to limit and confine Th' Almighty Wisdom to conceits of mine Yet have no envious Eyes against the Crown Nor did I strive to pull the Mitre down Both may be good But when Heads swell men say The rest of the poor Members pine away Like Ricket-Bodies upwards over-grown Which is no wholsome Constitution The grave mild Presbyter I could admit And am no Foe to th' Independent yet For I have levell'd my intents to be Subservient unto Reason's Soveraignty And none of these State-Passions e'r shall rise Within my Brain to rule and tyrannize For by Truth 's sacred Lamp which I admire My Zeal is kindled not Fanatick fire But I 'll avoid those vapours whose swoln spight And foaming Poyson would put out this light Vain Fuellers they think who doth not know it Their light 's above't because their walk 's below it Such blazing Lights like Exhalations climb Then fall and their best matter proves but slime For where conceited Goodness finds no want Their Holiness becomes Luxuriant Now my great trouble is that I have shown Other mens faults with so many of my own And all my care shall be to shake off quite The Old Mans load for him whose burthen's light And grow to a full stature till I be Form'd like to Christ or Christ be form'd in me Such Pieces are Grav'n by a Hand Divine For which I 'l give my God this Heart of mine Contemnit linguas vita probanda malas UERA EFIGIES PRUDENTISSIMAE PRINCIPIS ELIZABETHAE ANGLIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBE REGINAE ETc ELIZABETHA REGINA Lo heare her Type who was of Late Spains foile faiths shield queene of state In briefe of women neere was seene So great a Prince so good a queene Are to be sould bi ROger Daniell at the angell in lumbard streete THE LIFE REIGN OF JAMES THE FIRST KING OF Great Britain THE various hand of Time began now to sheath the Sword of War that had been long disputing the Controversie which Religion and Policy that Princes mix together had for many years so fiercely maintained The wearing out of that old but glorious and most happy Piece of Soveraignty the late Queen bating the Spanish Violence and ending with the Irish-Rebellion and submission of Tirone as if the old Genius of Iron-handed-War were departed and a New one Crowned with a Palm of Peace had taken possession of the English Nation Iames the sixth King of Scotland was proclaimed King of England For though Princes that find here a Mortal Felicity love not the noise of a Successor in their life-time yet they are willing for the Peace of their people to have One when they can hear no more of it That which the Queen could not indure from others She was well pleased to express her self and bequeath in her last Will as a Legacy to this then Happy Nation He was thirty six years of Age when he came to the Crown How dangerous the passage had been from his very Infancy to his Middle Age is not only written in many Histories but the untamed and untractable Spirits of most of that Nation are a sufficient Witness and Record The wise Queen found many petty Titles but none of that Power any other Hand that should have reacht for the Crown might a caught a Cloud of Confusion and those Supporters and Props that held up her Greatness loth to submit to Equals made Scaffolds to his Triumphs In the Wane or last Quarter of the late Queen the Court Motions tended by an Oblique Aspect towards this Northern Star and some of her great Council in her Presence would glance at the King of Scots as her Successor which would make her break into Passion saying Was this imputed to Essex as a Crime and is it less in you Yea Cecil himself held his Correspondencies which he was once like to be trapt in For the Queen taking the Air upon Black-Heath by Greenwich a Post summoned her to enquire from what Quarter his business came and hearing from Scotland She staid her Coach to receive the Pacquet but the Secretary Sir Robert Cecil being in the Coach with Her fearful that some of his secret Conveyances might be discovered having an active Wit calls for a knife suddainly to open it lest put offs and delays might beget Suspition and when he came to cut it he told the Queen it looked and smelt ill-favouredly coming out of many nasty Budgets and
Title of Roaring Boys Bravadoes Roysters c. commit many insolencies the Streets swarm night and day with bloody quarrels private Duels fomented especially betwixt the English and Scots many Discontents nourished in the Countries betwixt the Gentry and Commonalty about Inclosure the meanest gaping after new hopes growing in some places to a petty Rebellion Daily discords incident to peace and plenty betwixt private Families Papist against Protestant one Friend against another the Papists being a strong and dangerous Faction missing their hopes strove to make the Scots more odious than they could make themselves though some of them went so high as to counterfeit the Kings Privy-Seal and make Addresses thereby to Foreign Princes for which one Thomas Dowglas taken in the fact was executed in Smithfield Others were so insolent as to quip and jear the English Nobility and other misdemeanours which caused secret heart-burnings and jealousies betwixt the Nations But then comes a Proclamation like a strong Pill and carries away the grossest of these humours Something yet stuck especially in the Consciences of the Popish Party that could not be purged away without a Toleration which they Petition for but not being granted they contrived one of the most Horrid and Stupendious Mischiefs that ever entred into the Hearts of Men For their heat of malice would not be quenched with the Blood Royal but the Nobility and Gentry the Representative Body of the whole Kingdom United at Westminster must be shattered in pieces and dis-membred by the blast of six and thirty Barrels of Gun-powder which those dark Contrivers had hid in a Cellar under the Parliament House being discovered by a light from Heaven and a Letter from one of the Conspirators when the fire was already in their hands as well as rage in their hearts to put to the Train The principal of these Contrivers was Robert Catesbie a Gentleman of a good plentiful Estate who first hatched and brooded the Plot and promised to himself the glory of an Eternal Name by the Propagation of it making choyce of Thomas GUY FAWKES Executed in the Year 1606. for the GUNPOWDER PLOT Percy Robert Winter Thomas Winter Iohn Grant Ambrose Rookwood Iohn Wright Francis Tresham Sir Everard Digby and others Gentlemen of good Estates for the most part and spirits as implacable and furious as his own who like combustible matter took fire at the first motion their zeal to the Roman cause burning within them which nothing but the blood of Innocents can quench The design thus set afoot they bind themselves to secresie by those Sacraments which are the greatest ties upon the Soul and Saint Garnet the Iesuit was their Confessor The foundation being laid every man betakes himself to his work some to provide money some materials Percy was to hire the Cellars under the Parliament House to lay Wood and Coal in for his Winter-provision Guido Faux a desperate Ruffian who was to give fire to the Train was appointed to be his man to bring in the Wood and Coal The Gunpowder provided in Flanders is brought from Lambeth in the night and covertly laid under the Wood. Thus they prepare all things ready for a Burnt-offering against the day the Parliament should meet which was to be upon the seventh of February But the King for some Reasons of State which at that time the dictates of Providence did much approve of prorogued the Parliament of the fifth of November following which scattered the Contrivers at present and they were at their wits end and some of them went beyond Seas because they would not beat too much about the Covert their materials being fitted others that staid here persisted with Patience made a Vice by them and met often to consult how they should manage their great business if it took effect They looked upon the King and Prince as already sacrificed to their Cruelty And Percy undertook to dispatch the Duke of York But because they must have one of the Blood Royal that must serve as a center to adhere to to keep all from Confusion they meant to preserve the Lady Elizabeth and make her Queen that under her minority and innocency they might the better establish their bloody Principles of Piety and Policy They had designed the fatal day to be upon the fifth of November when the King and both Houses were to meet and that day they appointed a great Hunting-match at Dunsmore-beach in Warwick-shire to be nearer the Lord Harington's House where the Lady Elizabeth was And they had by their horrid Art and Experience so fitted their Matches that were to convey the fire to the Powder that they could know a hundred Miles off to a minute when that Monstrous Fiery Exhalation would break out Solacing themselves in this bloody expectation and thinking their Conveyances under ground were not seen above by the Divine Discoverer they stood like Vultures gaping for their Prey when behold one tender-hearted Murderer among the Pack willing to save the Lord Monteagle writ this Letter to him MY Lord out of the love I bear to some of your friends I have a care of your Preservation therefore I would wish you as you tender your Life to forbear your attendance at this Parliament for God and Man have concurred to punish the wickedness of this Time And think not sleightly of this advertisement for though there be no appearance of any stir yet I say they shall receive a terrible blow this Parliament and yet they shall not see who hurt them This Counsel is not to be contemned because it may do you Good and can do you no Harm for the danger is past as soon as you have burnt this Letter I hope God will give you grace to make use of it to whose Holy Protection I commend you THOMAS PERSI NOBILIS ANGLVS MAGNIBRITANNIAE REGIS STIPENDIARIVS ANNO 1605 Haec est vera prima originalis editio ThoÌ„ae Perci Os vultumq vides Thomae cognomine Percy Inter Britannos nobileis noâ—…ssimi Queis rebus 〈◊〉 ambitione superstitioso Animo nefandam machinatur dum necem Regi Regina Ordinibus diprenditur ipsum Deo volente seclus in auctorem 〈◊〉 A Thomas Ichryâ— Capâ—â—â—runt B Tho IehrusÌ„ Regi adduxerit C Tho Persi in Arce fugit D Thomas Persi sagittatus mortuus Execution of the Conspirators In the Gunpowder Plot in the Year 1606. This Prodigious Contrivance did not only stupifie the whole Kingdom with amazement but Foreign Princes made their Wonderment also And though for the Propagation of the Catholick Cause they might have Conscience enough to with it had taken Effect yet they had Policy enough to Congratulate the Discovery and some of them to take off the asperity of the Suspect sweetned their Expressions with many rich Gifts and Presents to the King and Queen But this bloody Design found in the hand of the Malefactors grasping the Mischief and confirmed by their own Confessions being such Spirits as were fit
free Trumpet sending into England with the Prince Don Mendosa de Alcorcana to our King to congratulate the Princes happy Voyage into Spain and his safe return into England And from thence he had instructions to go into Flanders Germany and Italy to make known to all Princes and Potentates Allies to the King of Spain how neer the Treaty of Marriage betwixt the Prince of England and the Infanta of Spain was to be consummated And the Polonian Ambassadour at Madrid that solicited to have the Infanta for the Prince of Poland when he saw such preparations for the Match with England fainted in his Hopes and returned home For as soon as the Dispensation came from the new Pope which was in the Beginning of December Bonefires were made throughout all Spain for joy and the great Ordnance every where thundred out the noise of it The ninth of the month was prefixt for the Mariage day a Tarras being erected betwixt the Court and the next Church almost a quarter of a mile in length covered with Tapestry for the more magnificence and all things appointed in the highest State for so great a Solemnity Presents were providing in the Court of Spain for Our King and Prince the Infantas family to take into England was setled and established She had used her best skill among the Sweets of Spain as one of the Principal of them to cloth her Lord and Husband with some suits of perfumed Amber leather some imbroidered with Pearl and some with gold she had practiced long the English tongue to make it natural by the help of her two Iesuit Tutors Wadsworth and Boniface and began to draw the letters which she intended to have written the day of her Espousals to the Prince her Husband and the King her Father-in-law Her journeyinto England being resolved on about the Beginning of March In this State and perfection were the affairs of Spain when Our King's commands like a Cloud overshadowed the Brightness of them For Bristol had now Order to declare positively to the King of Spain that without the Restitution of the Palatinate and the Electoral Dignity the Treaty should proceed no further Four Messengers viz. Mr. Killigrew Gresly Wood and Davies followed each other at the heels which raised such a dust of Discontentment among the people at Madrid that as some report they wished they had broken their necks by the way so highly were the Commonalty of Spain affected with the Match And if they felt the Influence of this cloudy Message what did the Lady Infanta and the King do The one to lose her Lover the other to lose his Honour She whose Heart was affected and He who found himself affronted But his answer to Bristol was The Palatinate was none of his to give and the Electorate was in the Power of another but if the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria would not yield to reason he would Arm himself on our King's part against them But this would not satisfie fair Promises having now lost their Virtue and the King of Spain discerning a Breach towards by this Various Motion sent to the Earl of Bristol to demand no more Audience of him to deliver no more Letters to the Infanta and gave command that none should call her hereafter Princess of England This was the end of seven years Treaty Wherein the King of England a King of Peace in spight of all the Spanish Armadoes got the Victory and Spain for many years did not receive so great an overthrow Yet they were paid in their own Coin For at the first and in the highest Progress of the Treaty when Our King was so eager for the Match in all likelyhood they never intended it But the Prince's Presence gaining much with both Sexes his Journey into Spain being esteemed among them so glorious an action and the hopes they had now by this Marriage to propagate the Catholick Cause finding the Prince as they thought something inclined that way better digested their first intentions and brought it to the state from whence it declined The Duke of Buckingham by the insinuation of a long converse having brought the Prince up to his own Humor taught him to look back to the Beauty he had seen in France which was neerer to him that he might remember the Spanish no more now esloigned from him But the Treaty with Spain must be first dissolved to give a tincture of Honor to a proceeding with the other and nothing but a Parliament shall do that which thâ—y had fore-determined For a Parliament taking away the cause which was a Treaty of Peace were best able to make good the effect which would be a War that must follow it Therefore a Parliament was summoned to meet the 12 th of February but a sad accident intervened which made it to be deferred for some few daies That morning the Parliament was to begin the King missed the Duke of Richmond's attendance who being a constant observer of him at all times the King as it were wanted one of his Limbs to support the Grandure of Majesty at the first solemn meeting of a Parliament and calling for him with earnestness a Messenger was dispatched to his Lodgings in Hast where the King's Commands and the Messenger Importunity made the Dutchess his wife somewhat unwillingly go to the Duke's Bed-side to awake him who drawing the Curtain found him dead in his Bed The suddenness of the affright struck her with so much Consternation that she was scarce sensible of the Horror of it and it was carried with that violence to the King that he would not adorn himself that day to ride in his Glories to the Parliament but put it off to the nineteenth of February following dedicating some part of that time to the Memory of his dead Servant who might serve as a fore-runner to the King and an Emblem to all his People That in the dark caverns of Man's Body Death often lurkes which no Humane Prudence or Providence is able to discover For the Dutchess to some of her intimates confessed afterwards that She found the effects of his full Veines that night that he was found dead the next Morning The portraiture of the illustreous Princesse Frances Duchess of Richmond and Lenox daughter of Thomas LD. Howard of Bindon sonne of Thomas Duke of Norfok. whose mother was Elisabeth daughter of Edward Duke of Buckingham Anno 1623. When She was Countess of Hertford and found admirers about her She would often discourse of her two Grand-Fathers the Dukes of Norfolk and Buckingham recounting the time since one of her Grand-Fathers did this the other did that But if the Earl her Husband came in presence she would quickly desist for when he found her in those Exaltations to take her down he would say Frank Frank How long is it since thou wert Married to Prannel which would damp the Wings of her Spirit and make her look after her feet as well as gawdy Plumes One
perfection in his excellent and incomparable History but when Liberty turned it to Action it taught him to roam so as the event proved fatal to him This Conspiracy put on such a face that few or none could discover or know what to make of it That the muddy waters were stirr'd was apparent but it was with such a mixture that little could be visible in it The Lord Grey Cobham and Sir Walter Rawleigh were Protestants why should they strive to alter Religion though the Priests Markham Bainham and others might But it seems they joyned together in a Politick way every one intending his own ends Discontent being the Ground-work upon which they built this slight Superstructure A great mischiefe intended to the Kings Majestie at his first entrance into the Kingdome of England before his Coronation Watson Clark Priests administring Oaths of secresie and applanding the project It came to nothing by Gods mercy The Kings Majesties clemency towards the Conspiratours after judgment past upon them No treason in England attempted but had a Romish Priest in the practise Watson Seducing Noblemen that being hudled together could not stand long Rawleigh's greatest Accuser was a Letter of Cobhams which some say after he denyed to be his hand Some of the Conspirators it may be desired to seem formidable venting their Anger so for being slighted others strove to make themselves so that they might have the glory of enlarging the Roman Power and they joyned together thinking their single strength would not prevail In this Cloud looking for Iuno they begot a Monster which having neither head nor foot some part lived the other dyed While these were provoked with Neglects others were incouraged with Favours Many of the Gentry that came out of Scotland with the King were advanced to Honours as well as those he found here to shew the Northern soyl as fruitful that way as the Southern But Knights swarmed in every corner the Sword ranged about and men bowed in obedience to it more in Peace than in War this Airy Title blew up many a fair Estate The Scots naturally by long converse affecting the French Vanity drew on a Garb of Gallantry meeting with a plentiful soyl and an open-handed Prince The English excellent for imitation loth to be exceeded in their own Country maintained their follies at their own charge All this came accompanied with a great Plague which hapned this year in London whereof above thirty thousand dyed Yet who will not venture for a Crown For in the heat of it on the five and twentieth of Iuly being the day dedicated to Saint Iames the King with his Wife Queen Anne were both crowned at Westminster fulfilling that old Prophecy or rather Fancy current among the Scots as they report before Edward the first brought the Royal Chair out of Scotland with the Stone in it and placed it at Westminster to Crown our Kings in Which Stone some old Saws deliver to be the same that Iacob rested his head on Ni fallat Fatum Scoti hunc quocunque locatum Inveniunt lapidem Regnare tenentur ibidem Englished Fate hath design'd That wheresoe'r this Stone The Scots shall find There they shall hold the Throne But how the Stream of Time runs through the Chanel of these Prophetical Fancies experience shews For 't is true if the Scots came so near the Throne as to enjoy the Stone or Chair where the English Kings are Inaugurated they may hold the Crown But being only grounded upon Conjecture these Conceits are commonly made up before they are half moulded or like Abortives are shaped after they are born When these Ceremonies were past the King retired from this croud of Infection gave some admission to Ambassadors that from all the neighbouring Princes and States came to congratulate his happy Inauguration For besides the ordinary Ceremony among Princes their Reason might tell them that if his Predecessors were able to graple with the growing Monarchy of him that coveted to be Vniversal and to assist and relieve her Neighbours and Confederates from his oppression He would be much more formidable bringing with him if nothing else Bodies of men Warlike and industrious hardned with cold and labour and active in the difficultest attempts however of late by what Divine Judgment I know not utterly disheartned to be Helpers who were formerly Hinderers to all the English Expeditions so that in him they courted their own Conveniences For certainly if ever the English Monarchy were in its true Glory and Greatness it was by this Union But there is a Period set to all Empires The Prince a little before this was installed Knight of the Garter the Earl of Southampton and the young Earl of Essex were restored to the right of Blood and Inheritance and Honours were conferred so thick as if the King intended a new kind of Conquest by a proceeding that tended to their and his own Ruin For to subdue the greatness of the Nobility who formerly could sweep such a Party of People to them with their long trains and dependencies that they were able to graple with Kings He by a multiplicity of them made them cheap and invalid in the Vulgar opinion For nothing is more destructive to Monarchy than lessening the Nobility upon their decline the Commons rise and Anarchy increases HONORAT Do CAROL BLVNT CO DEVON BA R MOVNTIOY The RIght honourable CHARLES BLVNT Earle of Deuon Baron Mountioy and Knight of the Garter As the Papist was different from the Protestant Religion on one side so was the Puritan as they then called pious and good men on the other both which were active to attain their own ends and the King had the command of himself not bitterly to oppose but gently to sweeten their hopes for His thinking himself unsecure betwixt them The latter were now solicitous for a more clear Reformation This the Bishops opposed as trenching too much upon them and the King listen'd to having experience of it in Scotland how much it had incroached upon Him For He thought their dissenting from the established Government of the Church was but to get that Power into a great many mens hands which was now but in one and that one had dependance upon him with whom He might better grapple The Prelates distilling this Maxim into the King No Bishop no Monarch so strengthning the Miter by the same Power that upholds the Crown Yet to satisfie the importunity a Conference is appointed at Hampton-Court where the Bishops Opponents Doctor Reynolds Doctor Sparks Mr. Knewstubs and Mr. Chadderton men eminent in Learning and Piety in themselves as well as in the opinion of the people did desire in the name of the rest of their party That the Doctrine of the Church might be preserved in Purity That good and faithful Pastors might be planted in all Churches That Church-Government might be sincerely administred That the Book of Common-Prayer might be fitted to more increase of Godliness Out