he was committed to the Governance of the Lady Cary as before is said And not long after for his better welcom into England he was on the sixth day of January next following commonly called Twelfth-day invested solemnly with the title of Duke of York by cincture of a Sword imposition of a Cap and Coronet of Gold upon his Head and by delivering unto him a Verge of Gold himself with ten others of eminent Nobility having been made Knights of the Bath with all the accustomed Ceremonies the day before 1606. In the sixth year of his Age he was taken from the charge of his Women though not from the Motherly superinspection of the Lady Cary and committed to the Pedagogy of Master Thomas Murray a Scot by Nation sufficiently qualified for that service but otherwise ill Principled in the Rites and Ceremonies in which the Church of England differed from the Kirke of Scotland 1610. Under this Tutor the young Duke advanced exceedingly in the way of good Letters the weaknesse of his lower parts which made him unapt for Exercises and feats of Activity rendring him more retired and studious and more intent upon his Book then he had been otherwise Which Prince Henry taking notice of as he the young Duke Dr. Abbot then newly made Arch-Bishop of Canterbury with many of the Nobility were waiting in the Privie-Chamber for the Kings coming out the Prince to put a jest upon him took the Arch-Bishops Square-cap out of his hand and put it on his Brothers head telling him that if he continued a good boy and followed his Book he would make him one day Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Which the child took in such disdain that he threw the Cap upon the ground and trampled it under his feet not being without much difficulty and some force taken off from that eagernesse This though at first it was not otherwise beheld then as an Act of Childish passion yet when his Brother Prince Henry dyed and that he was Heir apparent to the Crown it was taken up by many zealous Church-men for some ill Presage unto the Hierarchy of Bishops the overthrow whereof by his Act and Power did seem to be foresignified by it But in that their fears were groundlesse and their conjectures no better grounded then their fears there never being a more gracious Patron to the Church nor a more resolute Champion in behalf of the Hierarchy then he proved to be What is presaged if there were any presaging in it in reference to the Archbishops Person may be shewen hereafter 1611 1612. In the eleventh year of his Age he was made Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter and on the sixth day of November Anno 1612. he lost his Brother Prince Henry whom he immediately succeeded in the Dukedome of Cornwall with all the Royalties Rents Profits and Commodities of it according to the entail which was made thereof by King Edward the third when he conferred it upon Edward the black Prince his eldest Son The first solemn Act which he appeared in after this change of his condition was at the Funerall of Prince Henry on the 7. of Decem. following at which he attended as chief Mourner And on the 14 of February then next ensuing being Sunday and St. Valentines day he performed the Office of a Brideman a Paranymph the Grecians call him to the Princesse Elizabeth his Sister married upon that day to Frederick the Fifth Prince Elector Palatine A marriage which drew him afterwards into many cares and great expences of which more hereafter In his Childhood he was noted to be very wilful somewhat inclining to a perversenesse of disposition which might proceed from that retiredness which the imperfection of his Speech not fitting him for publick discourse and the weakness of his limbs and joynts as unfit for Action made him most delight in But now being grown both in years and state he began to shake off that retirednesse and betake himself to all manner of man-like exercises such as were Vaulting riding great Horses running at the ring shooting in crosse bowes Muskets and sometimes in great Pieces of Ordnance in which he became so perfect that he was thought to be the best Marks-man and the most comely mannager of a great Horse of any one in all three Kingdoms And as he shaked off this retirednesse so he corrected in himself the Peccancy of that humour which had grown up with it there being no man to be found of an evener temper more pliant to good Counsel or lesse wedded then he was to his own opinion 1616. On the third of November Anno 1616. He was at White-hall with all the accustomed Solemnities created Prince of Wales Earl of Chester and Flint and put into the actuall possession of all the Regalities Profits and Commodities belonging to them his Houshould being then formed and constituted and all the officers of State which belong unto him appointed to their severall places And now it was expected that he should break out into more glory then he had done formerly and take upon him as the Heir of so great an Empire But considering very wisely that the forward and enterprizing nature of his Brother Prince Henry the popularity which he affected and the great resort of young Noble-men continually unto his Court had been displeasing to his Father resolved to keep himself at a close ward and not to seem so great as he was that when time served he might appear greater then he seemed to be Old Princes do not love to have their eldest Sons too active and to tread too close upon their heels and therefore many times do enterpose the power of a favorite to keep them at the greater distance A policy much used by King James in the whole course of his Government who for that cause in the life-time of Prince Henry took Sir Robert Carr into his most especiall favour whom he first made Gentleman of his Bed-chamber and on the twenty fifth of March Anno 1611. Created Viscount Rochester and the same year made Knight of the Garter also conferring on him all the power and trust he was capable of that by the greatnesse of the one he might keep down the daring nature and confident Spirit of the other Prince Charles understood this well enough and carried himself with so much prudence that he disputed not the power of his Fathers favourites suffering all Honour Offices and other matters at the Court to be carried by them as best pleased the King Which though it was generally ascribed unto Pusillanimity and the defect of Spirit in him yet was it look'd upon as an Act of the greatest wisedom by more knowing men For had he any wayes crost the designs and Councels either of Carr then Earl of Sommerset or of the Duke of Buckingham his Fathers favourites who at that time did much out-shine him he had not only incurred the Kings displeasure but of necessity must have divided the Court and by consequence the
a present order taken for the sending of some of his Servants of all sorts to attend upon him in that Court that so he might appear amongst them in the greater Lustre But this lessened not the Cares and Feares of the English Subjects who could not be more glad to hear of his safety then they were afraid of the danger which he had incurred For having put himself into the power of the King of Spain it was at the Courtesie of that King whether he should ever return or no it being a Maxime amongst Princes That if any one without leave sets foot on the Ground of another he makes himself his Prisoner Philip the first of Spain and Duke of Burgundy being cast by Tempest on the Coast of England was here detained by King Henry the seventh till he had delivered up the Earle of Suffolk who had fled for Refuge to his Court and Mary Queen of the Scots being forced by her Rebellious Subjects to fly into this Realm was presently seized on as a Prisoner and so continued till her lamentable and calamitous death So in like manner Richard the first of England passing in disguise through some part of the dominions of the Arch-Duke of Austria was by him took Prisoner and put unto an heavy Ransome and not long since Charles Lodowick the now Prince Elector Palatine posting through France in hope to get the Command of Duke Bernards Army was stayed in the middle of his journey by the Kings command and kept so long under Restraint that he lost the opportunity of effecting his purprose This though it was the generall Fear and apprehension of the English Subjects yet no body durst acquaint the King with it but Archee the fool who going boldly to the King as he found him once in a good humour told him that he was come to change Caps with him Why said the King Marry saies Archee because thou hast sent the Prince into Spain from whence he is never like to returne But said the King what wilt thou say when thou seest him come back again Marry saies Archee I will then take off the fools Cap which I put upon thy head for sending him thither and put it on the King of Spains for letting him return At which words it is reported that the King became exceeding pensive never before so much apprehending the Danger of that Adventure as then and afterwards he did 1623. But the generous Spaniard intended to make no such Market of him but gave him all the Royall entertainment which a Princely Suitor might expect Nor was the Prince wanting for his part in all fit Compliances by which he might both gain on them and preserve himself For by his Courtly Garb he won so much on the Affections of the Infanta and by his grave and circumspect behaviour got so much ground upon the King and his Councel that the match went forward in good earnest The Articles of the Marriage with all the Circumstances thereof were agreed upon and solemnly sworn to by both Kings Nor was the Pope wanting in the grant of a dispensation without which nothing could be done writing a Letter to the Prince who returned to him a Civil answer which afterwards was reckoned amongst his Crimes by such as rather would not then did not know the necessity which lay upon him of keeping at that time a plausible Correspondence with the Catholick party But as for his Religion the change whereof was moved by the Pope and much hoped for by the Court of Spain at his first coming thither he shewed so many strong evidences of his constancy in it that those hopes soon vanished And that it might appear that he professed no other Religion then what was agreeable to the Rules of Antiquity and not much abhorrent from the formes then used in the Church of Rome the English Liturgie was by the care of the Lord Keeper Williams translated into the Spanish Tongue and so many Copies of the Book then printed sent into Spain as gave great satisfaction in that point to the Court and Clergy And this I must needs say was very seasonably done the Spaniards being till then perswaded by their Priests and Jesuits that when the English had cast off the Pope they had cast off also all Religion and became meer Atheists the name of God being never used amongst them but with a purpose to expose it unto scorn and prophanation Insomuch that the Constable of Castile being sent to swear the Peace concluded with Spain when he understood the businesse was to be performed in the Chappel where some Anthems were to be sung desired that whatsoever was sung Gods name might not be used in it and that being forborn he was content they should sing what they listed King James himself so relates the story in Arch-Bishop Spotswood fol. 530. But the Prince had another game to play namely the Restitution of the Palatinate which the Spaniard would not suffer to be brought under the Treaty reserving it as they pretended to be bestowed by the Infanta after the Marriage the better to ingratiate her self with the English Nation Which being a point of too great moment to depend upon no other assurance then a Court-Complement he concluded with himself that since he could not prevaile in the one he would not proceed unto the Consummation of the other And hereupon he was much edged on by the Duke of Buckingham who having conceived some deep displeasure against the Conde de Olivarez the speciall Favourite of that King desired rather that all Treaties should be broken off then that any Alliance should be made in which that Conde had appeared so instrumentall But it did concern the Prince so to provide for his own safety that no intimation might be made of the intended Rupture till he had unwinded himself out of that Labyrinth into which he was cast For which cause having desired of his Father that some ships might be sent to bring him home he shewed himself a more passionate lover then ever formerly and made a Proxie to the Catholick King and Don Charles his Brother in his name to espouse the Lady Infanta which Proxie he left with Digby not long before made Earl of Bristol by him to be delivered within some few daies after the coming of the expected dispensation But no sooner had he took his leave and was out of danger but he dispatcht a Post unto him commanding him not to deliver up the Proxie untill further order And having so done he hois'd Sails and came for England arriving at Portsmouth on Sunday the fifth of October Anno 1623. From whence by Post-Horses he past to London the next morning and so by Coach to the King at Royston to the great content of all the Kingdome declared by Bells Bonfires and all other the accustomed expressions of a publick joy The King being made acquainted with all particulars and that no Assurance could be had of the Restitution of the Palatinate by
A SHORT VIEW OF THE LIFE and REIGN OF King Charles The second MONARCH OF GREAT BRITAIN From his Birth to his Burial Tacit. Hist. Lib. I. Alii diutius imperium tenuerunt Nemo tam fortiter reliquit LONDON Printed for Richard Royston at the Angel in Ivy-lane 1658. A SHORT VIEW OF THE Life and Reign of KING CHARLES The second Monarch of Great BRITAIN from his Birth to his Burial OUr Chronicles tell us of a Man in Queen Elizabeth's time that wrote the Ten Commandments the Creed the Pater-noster the Queens Name and the year of our Lord within the compasse of a Peny and gave the Queen a paire of Spectacles of such an Artificiall making that by the help thereof she did plainly and distinctly discern every Letter The contracting of the Life and Reign of King Charles in so narrow a compasse as I have limited to my self may seem to be a work of no lesse difficulty And yet I hope to do it in such a plain and perspicuous manner that every one who runs may read it without the help of any such Spectacles as our Chronicles speak of To Brevity I am injoyned and it must be my businesse to avoid all Obscurity though I am conscious to my self that I shall draw this Picture with too much shadow But I take the Pencil into my hand and thus form my lines 1600. CHARLES the third Son of James the sixth King of the Scots and of Anne his Wife Daughter of Frederick the second and Sister of Christiern the fourth Kings of Denmark was born at Dunfermeling one of the principall towns of Fife in Scotland on the nineteenth day of November Anno 1600. derived by a long descent of Royall Ancestors from Malcolm Conmor King of the Scots and the Lady Margaret his Wife Sister and sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons So that his Title had been good to the Crown of England though he had borrowed no part of his Claim from the Norman Conquerour Which I observe the better to encounter the extravagant follies of some men in the book called Antinormanisme and some other Pamphlets of that time in which it is affirmed that this King had no other Right to the Crown then what he claimed from that Conquest and therefore that the English Nation having got the better of him by the Sword might lawfully free themselves from that subjection which by no other Title then the Sword of the Normans had been laid upon them At his first coming into the world he was so weak and unlike to live that his Christening was dispatcht in haste without attending the performance of those solemnities which are accustomably used at the Baptisme of such Princely infants And as the name of Henry was given to the Prince his Elder Brother with reference to Henry Lord Darnlie the Father of King James by Mary Queen of Scots so was this younger Son called Charles in relation to Charles Earle of Lenox the younger Brother of that Henry and by consequence Uncle to King James 1602. Having received some measure of strength he was at the Age of two years created Duke of Albany Marquesse of Ormond Earle of Rosse and Baron of Ardmanock of which four Titles the two first and the last are wholly at the Kings disposing to be bestowed on whom he pleaseth But the Earldom of Rosse falling unto the Crown in the time of King James the third was so setled in the Crown by Act of Parliament that it is not lawfull for the King to sell alienate or dispose the same unto any other then to the second Son of Scotland 1603. On the 26. of March next following Anno 1603. King James had news by Sir Robert Cary one of the younger Sons of the Lord Hunsdon who had stole a posting journey thither that Queen Elizabeth was dead contrary to the opinion of many of his Scottish Courtiers who being wearied with the tediousnesse of their expectation did believe at last that it should never be acknowledged by the Lords of England that the Queen was dead as long as there was any old woman of that Nation left to weare good Clothes and take the name of Queen upon her For bringing which news the Duke of Albany as if he were more concerned in it then all the rest of the Kings Children as indeed he was was afterwards committed to the Governance of Sir Roberts Lady and he himself from that time forwards of principall esteem and place about him This news being seconded by that of the Proclaiming of King James for her true and lawfull Successor in the Imperiall Crown of this Realm the King prepared himself for England At what time as I have been told by some Persons of Quality a certain Laird of the Highlands though of very great Age came to his Court to take his leave of him whom he found accompanied with all his Children the young Duke being then held in his Nurses Armes His Addresse unto the King consisted of Prayers for his long life and Prosperity and those Prayers intermixt with some desires that in the midst of the Felicities and Glories of the English Court he would not be unmindfull of his Native Countrey Which having said without taking any great notice of the Prince he applyed himself wholly to the Duke whose hands he kist with such an Ardency of Affection as if he meant they should grow for ever to his lips And when the King told him that he had mistook himself in his Addresses to the infant as not being his eldest Son and Prince of Scotland he answered that he knew well enough what he did and that it was this Child in whom his Name and Memory was to be perpetuated to succeeding Ages with other Speeches of like nature Which being then either unregarded or imputed unto age and dotage were called to mind after the death of Prince Henry and then believed to have something in them of a Prophetical spirit 1603. But to proceed On the fifth day of April in the year 1603. King James began his journey for England and in the end of May the Queen accompanied with Prince Henry and the Lady Elizabeth set forwards also finding at Berwick a Noble Train of Lords and Ladies sent thither from the Court to attend her coming and wait upon her in her journey 1604. The next year order was given for bringing the young Duke to the Court of England But before such as had the Charge of him could begin their journey the young Duke was taken with a feaver Which being signified to the King he sent thither Doctor Atkins one of his Physicians who in six weeks restored him to such a degree of health as made him fit to be removed to a Warmer Aire and a more comfortable Climate On the sixteenth of July this Remove began which brought him by short and easie stages in the first week of October to Windsor Castle where the King then was by whom
Kingdom also into severall factions each labouring to advance their own though to the Ruine and Destruction of the publick Peace Onely to take off somewhat of the imputation he made so much use of his power and interesse with the King as to prefer three of his servants unto Titles of Honour Anno 1621. viz. Sir Robert Cary Chamberlain of his Houshold to the Title of Lord Cary of Lepington Sir Thomas Howard second Son to the Earl of Suffolk and Master of his Horse to the Honour of Viscount Andover and Lord Howard of Charlton and Sir John Vaughan Controller of his Houshold to the Honour of Lord Vaughan of Molingar in the Realm of Ireland 1618. On the eighteenth day of November Anno 1618. There appeared a great blazing Star the fore-runner of many woful events in these parts of Christendom But the first sad effect thereof which we found in England was the death of Queen Anne which hapned on Tuesday the second of March next following A losse which the Prince bare with great equanimity or evennesse of Spirit neither banishing all shews of grief with a Stoical Apathie nor spending his time in too much womanish lamentation At the Funerall of this great Queen he was principall Mourner and it became him so to be she having always been to him a tender and indulgent Mother expressing more affection to him then to all the rest of her Children 1619. Not long after the death of the Queen King James fell very sick at Newmarket and having a desire to come to London advanced on his way as far as Royston where he was fain to stay till his sickness was over which at last became so dangerous that his death was feared At what time Dr. Andrews Bishop of Winchester attending on him bewailed with great Affliction the sad condition which the Church was like to fall into if God should take away his life the Prince being in the hands of the Scots which made up the greatest part of his Houshold and not well principled by those which had the tutelage of him either as to the Government or Liturgie of the Church of England The King acknowledgeing this sad truth and condemning his own negligence in it made a solemn vow that if God would be pleased to restore him to his health he would take the Prince into his own immediate care instruct him in the Controversies of Religion and set him on so right a bottome that there should be no fear of his disaffection either unto the Hierarchy or the rites and Ceremonies of the Church which he did accordingly And he did it so effectually that at such time as the Prince made his journey into Spain and that some principal persons in all the Places and Offices belonging to him were to follow after Dr. Maw and Dr. Wren two of his Chaplains being appointed for that service came to King James to know his pleasure and commands The King advised them not to put themselves upon any unnecessary Disputations but to be onely on the defensive part if they should be challenged And when it was answered that there could be no reason to engage in such Disputations where there could be no Moderator the King replied that Charles should moderate between them and the opposite party At which when one of them seemed to smile on the other the King proceeded and told them that Charles should manage a point in Controversie with the best studied Divine of them all and that he had trained up George so far as to hold the conclusion though he had not yet made him able to prove the Premisses 1619. On Friday the twenty fourth of March Anno 1619. The Prince with the Marquesse of Hamilton Marquesse of Buckingham divers Earls and others performed great Justing at White-Hall in honour of the day being the day of King James his happy coming to the Crown of England 1620 And on the Sunday after being Mid-lent Sunday he attended his Father to S. Pauls Crosse conducted in a most solemn manner from Temple Bar to that Church by the Lord Major and Aldermen and at the entrance into the Church received by the Dean and Chapter in their rich Copes and other Ecclesiasticall Habits and by them conducted into the Quire where having heard the Divine service for that day most solemnly performed with Organs Cornets and Sagbots they went to a prepared place where they heard the Sermon at the Crosse preacht by Dr. King then Lord Bishop of London and from thence unto the Bishops Palace where they were entertained with a Banquet Infinite was the concourse of People at both those Solemnities and all of them returned with great joy and comfort to see him so bravely accomplisht in the one so devoutly reverent in the other 1622. On Tuesday the eighteenth of February Anno 1622. Accompanied with the Duke of Buckingham M. Erdimion Porter and M. Francis Cottington he took ship at Dover arrived at Bulloign in France and from thence rode Post to the Court of Spain The occasion this Frederick Prince Elector Palatine had inconsiderately taken on himself the Crown of Bohemia An. 1619. and for so doing was by the Emperor deprived of his Ancient Patrimony the Electorall dignity together with the upper Palatinate being conferred on the Duke of Bavaria and the lower on the K. of Spain who possest himself of all of it except the towns of Heidelberg Frankendale and Manheim well manned and Garrisoned by the English For the preserving of which places and the recovery of the whole when all means else had proved ineffectuall it was held most expedient to negotiate a Marriage betwixt Prince Charles and the Daughter of Spain Which being first managed by the Leiger Embassadors in both Courts was afterwards prosecuted with more particular instructions by John Lord Digby well verst and studied in that Court whom the King sent as his Embassador extraordinary to conclude the match But Digby being fed with delaies from one time to another it was resolved by King James without making any of his Councel acquainted with it that the Prince himself should go in Person that he might either speed the Businesse or break off the Treaty According to this Resolution he began his journey no otherwise accompanied or attended then with those three persons above mentioned all of them passing in disguise to avoid discovery Being come to Paris they adventured to see the Court where at a Mask he had a view of that most excellent Princesse whom he after married But no sooner had he left the City then the French King had Advertisement of his being there who thereupon dispatcht away severall Posts to stay him in his journey and bring him back but the Prince had past beyond Bayonne the last Town in France without being overtaken by them and posting speedily to Madrid entred the Lord Embassadors Lodging without being known to any but his Confidents onely News of his safe Arrivall there being brought to the King there was
the advice of his Privy Councel dispatcht a command to the Earl of Bristol not to deliver up the Proxie unlesse the businesse of the Palatinate were concluded also The expectation whereof not being answered by Successe a Parliament is summoned to begin on the sixteenth day of February then next following to the end that all things might be governed in this great Affair by the publick Counsel of the Kingdom Not long after the beginning whereof the Duke declared before both Houses more to the disadvantage of the Spaniard then there was just ground for how unhandsomely they had dealt with the Prince when he was in Spain how they had fed him with delaies what indignities they had put upon him and finally had sent him back not onely without the Palatinate but without a Wife leaving it to their prudent Consideration what course to follow It was thereupon voted by both Houses that his Majesty should be desired to break off all Treaties with the King of Spain and to engage himself in a war against him for the recovery of the Palatinate not otherwise to be obtained And that they might come the better to the end they aimed at they addresse themselves unto the Prince whom they assured that they would stand to him in that War to the very last expence of their lives and fortunes and he accordingly being further set on by the Duke became their instrument to perswade his Father to hearken to the Common Votes and desires of his Subjects which the King prest by their continuall importunities did at the last assent to But in the conduct of this Businesse the Prince consulted more the Dukes passion and the pleasing of the Commons in Parliament then either his own or the Regall interesse For there is nothing more unsafe for a King of England then to cast himself upon the necessity of calling Parliaments and depending on the purse of the Subject By means whereof he makes himself obnoxious to the Humour of any prevailing Member in the House of Commons and becomes lesse in Reputation both at home and abroad The Commons since the time of King James have seldome parted with a peny but they have paid themselves well for it out of the prerogative And this appeared by their proceedings in this very Parliament For though they had ingaged the King in a War with Spain and granted him three Subsidies and three Fifteens toward the beginning of that War yet would they not suffer that grant to passe into an Act of Parliament till the King had yielded to another against Concealments Insomuch as it was affirmed by Justice Dodderidge at the next Publick Assizes held in Oxford that the King by passing that Act had bought those Subsidies and Fifteens at ten years purchase Nor dealt they otherwise with this Prince then they did with his Father those very Commons who had ingaged him in the Warre and bound themselves to make good that ingagement with their lives and fortunes most shamefully deserting him in the first Parliament of his Reign and after working more and more upon his necessities till they had robbed him of the richest Jewels in the Regal Diadem 1624. But to proceed the Treaty with Spain being like to come to a Rupture it was judged necessary to counterballance the Power of that King by negotiating a Match with the Princesse Henrietta Maria the youngest Daughter of France first set on foot by the Mediation of the Earl of Holland who found that Court inclinable thereunto and afterwards concluded at the coming over of the Earl of Carlile joyned in Commission to that purpose It was reported that when she was told that the Prince of Wales had been at the Court and was gone for Spain she Answered that if he went to Spain for a Wife he might have had one nearer hand and saved himself a great part of the trouble And I have read that receiving at one time two Letters from England the one from King James and the other from the Prince she put that from King James into her Cabinet and that from Prince Charles into her Bosom Of which King James being told he was exceedingly pleased with it saying that he took it for a very good Omen that she should preserve his Name in her Memory and lodge Charles in her heart 1625. During these preparations for War and Marriage King James departed this life at Theobalds on Sunday the twenty seventh of March Anno 1625. Immediately upon whose death Prince Charles was proclaimed at the Court-Gates to be King of Great Britain France and Ireland c. The like done presently after at London and by degrees in all the other Cities and Towns of the Kingdom with infinite rejoycings and Acclamations of the People The Funeralls of the deceased King were celebrated on the seventh of May his body being brought from Somerset-House with great Magnificence to Saint Peters Church in Westminster where he was interred the King himself being principall Mourner Which though it were contrary to the Custome of his Predecessours yet he chose rather to expresse his Piety in attending the dead body of his Father to the Funerall Pile then to stand upon any such old Niceties and points of State The Funerall being past he thought it was time for him to quicken the coming over of his dearest Consort to whom he had been married on the Sunday before at the Church of Nostre-Dame in Paris the Duke of Chevereux a Prince of the House of Guise from which House King Charles derived himself by the Lady Mary of Lorain Wife to James the fifth espousing the Princesse in his Name On Trinity Sunday late at night she was brought by a Royall Fleet of Ships from Bulloign to Dover which being signified to the King who was then at Canterbury he went to her betimes the next morning and received her with great expressions of Affection professing that he would be no longer Master of himself then whilest he was a Servant to her The same day He brought her to Canterbury where he gave himself up to those Embraces to which from that time he confined himself with such a Conjugal Chastity that on the day before his death he commanded his Daughter the Princesse Elizabeth to tell her Mother that his thoughts had never straied from her and that his love should be the same to the last On the Thursday after being the sixteenth of June they came from Gravesend to White-hall in their Royal Barges attended with an infinite number of Lords Ladies and other people who could get Boats to wait upon them the Ordnance from the Ships which were then preparing for the Wars those from the Merchants Ships and the Tower of London thundering her Welcome as she past But in the heat of these Solemnities and entertainments the King forgat not the main Concernments of himself and the Kingdome and to that end began his first Parliament on Saturday the eighteenth of June which fell out not unseasonably that
noise of a Declaration which they had then upon the Anvil he dissolved the Parliament on the eighteenth day of June then following No sooner was he freed from this but the necessity of his Affairs involved him in another Embroylment The French Priests and Domesticks of that Nation which came into England with the Queen were grown so insolent and had put so many affronts upon him that he was forced to send them home in which he did no more then what the French King had done before him in sending back all the Spanish Courtiers which his Queen brought with her But the French King not looking on his own example and knowing on what ill termes the King stood both at home and abroad first seized on all the Merchants ships which lay on the River of Burdeaux and then brake out into open war So that the King was fain to make use of those Forces against the French which were designed to have been used against the Spaniard and to comply with the desires of the Rochelers who humbly sued for his protection and Defence But the Fleet not going out till after Michaelmas found greater opposition at the Sea then they feared from the Land being encountred with strong Tempests and thereby necessitated to return without doing any thing but onely shewing the Kings good-will and readinesse toward their assistance 1627. But the next yeare this design was followed with greater vigour by the Duke of Buckingham who hoped thereby to make himself of some consideration in the eyes of the people The gaining of the Isle of Re which lay before the Town of Rochel and imbarred their Trade was the matter aimed at and he had strength enough both for Sea and Land to have done the work if he had not followed it more like a Courtier then a Souldier suffering himself to be complemented out of the taking of their chief Fort when it was almost at his mercy and standing upon points of Honour in facing those Forces which were sent from the French King to raise the siege when he might have made a safe retreat unto his ships without losse or danger In the mean time his Majesty neither neglected his Affairs at home nor his Friends abroad At home he found the Puritan faction to be much increased by the remisnesse of the goverment of Archbishop Abbot whom therefore he suspended from all his Metropoliticall Jurisdiction and confined him to his House at Ford in Kent committing the exercise thereof to the Bishops of London Durham Rochester Oxford Bath and Wells by Letters Patents bearing date the 9. day of October Anno 1627. Abroad he found the Princes of Germany wormed out of their Estates one after another by the Emperours Forces the King of Denmark whom they had made the Head of their League being driven out of the Countrey by Count Tilly and hardly able to defend his own Dominions No Prince so fit for the prosecution of that cause as Gustavus Adolphus King of Sweden whom therefore he elects into the Noble Order of the Garter and solemnly invests him with it in the midst of his Army then lying at the Siege of Darsaw a Town of Pomerella belonging to the Crown of Poland on Sunday the twenty third of October of the same year also At which time he laid the grounds of that Confederacy which being seconded by the French the States of the Vnited Provinces and the distressed Princes of the Empire brought that King into Germany where he gave the first great check to the Emperours fortunes and had restored the Prince Elector Palatine to his ancient Patrimony if he had not fallen unfortunately at the Battell of Lutzen 1628. Being thus ingaged and embroiled he gave a beginning to his third Parliament on the seventeenth of March and freely declares to them the necessities under which he lay in Answer whereunto the Commons voted five Subsidies but meant he should pay dearly for them before he had them Such grievances as they thought fit to insist upon were cast into the mold of a petition by them called a Petition of Right which if the King granted he must lose his prerogative if he denied it he must lose all hopes of their supply in his great extremities The consideration of which last induced him to yield to their desires and confirm that petition by Act of Parliament the Prerogative never so much descending from Perch to popular Lure as by that concession But though this Act of grace might have given satisfacton even to supererogation as one well observeth yet the Commons were not so contented but were preparing a Remonstance to take away his Right of Tonnage and Poundage as disclaimed by him in that Act which coming to the Kings knowledge on the twenty sixth of June he adjourns the Parliament till the twentieth day of October then next ensuing In the mean time the Duke prepares for the relief of Rochel both by Sea and Land and being ready to set sail was suddenly cut off at Ports-muth by the hand of one John Felton a discontented Officer of the last years Army alledging no other reason for that bloody act but that the Duke had been declared an Enemy to the Common-wealth in a Remonstrance tendred to the King in the former Session But such was the constancy of the Kings temper and the known evenness of his spirit that this sad Accident made little or no stop in the proceedings of the Fleet which at the last set forwards under the command of the Earl of Lindsey who found the Haven of Rochel so strongly barred that it was utterly impossible for his Ships to force their way though it was gallantly attempted and give relief to the besieged who thereupon set open their Gates and received their King into their Town without more delay To smooth his way to the next Session of Parliament adjourned again till the twentieth of January Arch-bishop Abbot is admitted to kisse his hand by whom he is commanded not to fail of his attendance at the Councel table Dr. Barnaby Potter a through-paced Calvinian is made Bishop of Carlisle and Mr. Mountagues book called Appello Caesarem for which he had been questioned and molested in the beginning of the Kings first Parliament must be supprest and called in by Proclamation But this little edified with the faction in the house of Commons who not onely took upon them the reforming of the Church and State but called the Customers in question for levying Tonnage and Poundage not then granted nor ever likely to be granted as it had been formerly by Act of Parliament and distraining such Merchants goods as refused to pay it And in this point they went so high that fearing they should be dissolved before they had vented their own passions in that particular upon the second day of March they lockt the Doors of the Parliament-house kept the key thereof in one of their pockets and held the Speaker by strong hand in his Chair till they had
following And it was intimated so long before-hand for these two reasons First that the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland might in the mean time hold a Parliament in that Kingdome which he did and managed so much to the Kings advantage that an Army of 8000 Horse and Foot was speedily raised and money granted by the Parliament to keep them in pay and furnish them with Ammunition Arms and all other necessaries Secondly that by the Reputation of a following Parliament he might be the better enabled to borrow money for the carrying on of the war in case the Parliament should fail him as it after did For being come together at the time appointed instead of Acting any thing in order to his Majesties service they were at the point of passing a Vote for blasting his war against the Scots To prevent which his Majesty was forced to dissolve them on the fifth of May the Convocation still continuing who granted him a Benevolence of foure shillings in the pound for all their Ecclesiasticall promotions to be paid six years together then next ensuing The Members of the dissolved Parliament inflamed the people in all parts of the Kingdome with such discontentments which actually brake out in Southwark into open sedition not pacified without much danger and the executing of the principal Leader In the middle of which Distempers his Majesty was blest with a third Son born on the eight of July Christned by the name of Henry and by his Majesties command called Duke of Glocester 1640. To welcome this young Prince into the world the Scots put themselves into Armes again and backt by a strong faction here thought that they could not do enough by standing on their defence at home unlesse they entred England also as they did accordingly But they took not his Majesty unprovided who had raised another gallant Army under the command of the Earl of Northumberland as chief Generall and the Earl of Strafford as the chief Commander under him himself with all speed posting towards the North as soon as the News of this invasion had been brought unto him But scarce was he well setled in the head of his Army but he was followed by a Petition from some Lords of England conformable in the main points of it to a Declaration of the Scots which they called the Intention of their Army So that the Cloud which gathered behind him in the South threatned more danger to him then the Northern Tempest which blew directly in his teeth Sailing thus between Scylla and Charybdis it concerned him to steer as even a course as he could and thereupon he summoned the great Councel of his Peers to attend him at York that doing nothing in this great businesse without their advice he might give himself the better hopes of their assistance as his occasions should require By their advice Commissioners are appointed to treat with the Scots to understand their Grievances the reasonablenesse or unreasonablenesse of their Demands and finally to make up the breach by such an Accommodation as might conduce to the peace and happinesse of both Kingdomes and his Majesties honour In the mean time he calls a Parliament to begin at Westminster the third day of November then next following which if it had been held at York as lying nearest to the danger and Scene of action might not have proved so fatall and destructive to him as it after did In the beginning of this Parliament he cast himself on the love and loyalty of his English Subjects in which he found himself deceived of his expectation For the first thing they did was to deprive him of the Counsels of the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland and the Archbishop of Canterbury and thereby to terrifie all others from adhering to him in the times of his greatest need These they impeacht of High Treason removed them from the House of Peers and committed them to the Tower of London where the Archbishop staid four years before any particular charge or any prosecution upon that charge was brought against him But with the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland they made quicker work inviting the People of all the three Kingdomes to bring them in such matter as they had or could devise against him and having made all things ready for a publick Tryal they brought him to the Bar before the Peers sitting in VVestminster-Hall on the sixth of April then next following but he so rationally pleaded in his own behalf and so fully satisfyed all objections which were made against him that the Commons were fain to desist from the Course which they had begun and to proceed against him in a Bill of Attainder For the better passing whereof the Commons framed a Protestation on the third of May in many things not unlike the Scotish Covenant before mentioned by which they bound themselves among other things to maintain and defend the Power and Priviledges of Parliament the lawfull Rights and Liberties of the Subject to endeavour to bring to condigne punishment all such as shall either by Force Practice Plots Counsels and Conspiracies or otherwise do any thing to the contrary amongst which they reckon the Earl of Strafford to be one and finally to stand unto one another and to every other person whatsoever in any thing he shall do in pursuance of the said Protestation Which Protestation being first taken by themselves was the next day taken also by the House of Peers and not long after obtruded on all the rest of the Kingdom But not finding this sufficient to effect their purpose they first forced the Lords by Tumults and afterwards the King by their importunities to passe that unhappy Bill of Attainder which having obtained they brought him to the Scaffold on Tower-Hill on the thirteenth of May where with as much Christian confidence and magnanimity as could be exprest by flesh and blood he delivered up his neck to the Executioner In order to this great work which they knew the Scots much laboured for and had declared so much in a Pamphlet called The intentions of their Army at their first coming into England the leading men in the house of Commons held a strict correspondency with the Scots Commissioners then residing in London and voted no lesse then three hundred thousand pounds by the name of a brotherly Assistance to be given to the Scots in generall under colour of repairing such damages as they had sustained in the time of this breach but in plain truth to bind them fast unto themselves And having made sure work with them they deprived the King by little and little of almost all the ancient and undoubted prerogatives which of right belonged unto his Crown The power of calling Parliaments in case of his neglect or refusall is put into the hands of Sheriffs and Constables his right to Tonnage and Poundage must be disclaimed by Act of Parliament the Bill of the Attainder of the Earl of Strafford and that for the continuance of this Parliament during
himself was taken prisoner and with him all the Kings hopes lost of preserving Oxford till he could better his condition 1646. In this extremity he left that City in disguise on the 27 day of April Anno 1646. and on the fourth of May put himself into the hands of the Scots then lying at the siege of Newark After the taking of which Town they carried him to Newcastle and there kept him under a Restraint The news hereof being brought to Oxford and seconded by the coming of the whole Army of Sir Thomas Fairfax who laid siege unto it disposed the Lords of the Council and such of the principall Gentry who had the conduct of the Affair to come to a speedy Composition According whereunto that City was surrendered on Midsomer day James Duke of York the Kings second Son together with the Great Seal Privy Seal and Signet were delivered up into the hands of the enemy by whom the young Duke was sent to Westminster and kept in the House of S. James under a Gard with his Brother and Sisters the Seals being carried into the House of Peers and there broke in pieces But long these young Princes were not kept together under that restraint the Princess Henrietta being in a short time after conveyed into France by the Lady Dalkieth and the Duke of York attired in the habit of a young Lady transported into Holland by one Captain Bamfield The Scots in the meane time being desirous to make even with their Masters to receive the wages of their iniquity and to get home in safety with that spoil and plunder which they had gotten in their marching and remarching betwixt Tweed and Hereford had not the patience to attend the leisure of any more voluntary surrendries They therefore pressed the King to give order to the Marquesse of Ormond in Ireland and to all the Governours of his Garrisons in England to give up all the Towns and Castles which remained untaken to such as should be appointed to receive them for the Houses of Parliament assuring him that otherwise they neither could nor durst continue him in their protection To this necessity he submitted but found not such a generall obedience to his commands as the Scots expected For not the Marquesse of Ormand onely but many of the Governours of Towns and Castles in England considered him as being under a constraint and speaking rather the sense of others then his own upon which grounds they continued still upon their guard in hope of better times or of better conditions But nothing was more hotly pressed by the Scots then that the Marquesse of Montrosse should lay down his Commission who with small strength in the beginning and inconsiderable forces when they were at the best had acted things in Scotland even unto admiration For besides many victories of lesse consequence he had twice beaten the Marquesse of Argile out of the field followed him home and wasted his Countrey with Fire and Sword He vanquisht Baily one of the best Souldiers of the Faction commanding over a well-formed Army in a set battell fought between them followed his blow and made himself Master of the City and Castle of Edenburgh releasing divers of his Friends who had been seized and imprisoned there when he first took Arms Had the Lord Digby's Horse come to him he had not onely perfected but assured the conquest of that Kingdome But instead of those aids which he expected he was unexpectedly set upon and his whole Army broken by David Lesley sent from the Scots Army in England with six thousand Horse to oppose the progresse of his fortune whose coming being known to the Earl of Roxborow and Traquair in whom the King continued still his wonted confidence was purposely concealed from him to the end that he being once suppressed and in him the Kings power destroyed in Scotland they might be sure from being called to an account of their former Treasons however he began to make head again and was in a way of well-doing when he received the Kings command to disband his Forces to which he readily conformed took ship and put himself into a voluntary exile These Obstacles removed his Majesty conceived some thoughts of finding Sanctuary in Scotland the Scots having first assured him as he signified by Letter to the Marquesse of Ormond before he put himself into their hands that they would not onely take his person but so many of his party also as repaired unto him into their protection and stand to him with their lives and fortune According to which hopes on his part and those assurances on theirs he had a great mind to return to his Native Countrey his Ancient and Native Kingdome as he used to call it there to expect the bettering of his condition in the changes of time But the Scots hearing of his purpose and having long ago cast off the yoke of Subjection voted against his coming to them in a full Assembly so that we may affirm of him as the Scripture doth of Christ our Saviour viz. He came unto his own and his own received him not The like resolution also was entertained by the Commissioners of that Nation and the chiefe Leaders of their Army who had contracted with the Houses of Parliament and for the summe of two hundred thousand pounds in ready money sold and betrayed him into the hands of his Enemies as certainly they would have done with the Lord Christ himself for halfe the money if he had bowed the Heavens and came down to visit them By the Commissioners sent from the Houses to receive him he was conducted to Holdenby a fair house of his own and one of the goodliest Piles in England scituate not far from Naseby to the intent that he might be continually grieved with the sight of the fatall place of his overthrow but kept so close that none of his Domestick servants no not so much as any of his own Chaplains were suffered to have Accesse unto him In the mean time a breach began betwixt the Presbyterian Party in both Houses and some chief Officers of the Army which growing every day wider and wider one Cornet Joice with a considerable party of Horse was sent to seize on his Majesties Person and bring him safe to their head Quarters There at the first he was received with all possible demonstrations of Love and Duty some of his Chaplains licensed to repair unto him and read the Book of Common-Prayer as in former times and the way open to all those of his party who desired to see him This made the Animosities between those of the two Houses and the Army to be far greater then before the City closing with that party of the Houses which desired the Kings coming to the Parliament and going down in a tumultuous manner required the present voting of a Personal Treaty This made the Speaker and such of both Houses as either held for the Army or had no mind to see the Kings Return
At first his Majesty conceived that the Bishop had made choice of that Chapter as being very agreeable to his present condition But when he understood that it was the Chapter which the Church had appointed for that day in her publick Kalendar he seemed to apprehend it with some signes of rejoycing No sooner had he done his Devotions but he is hurried to VVhite-Hall out of the Banqueting-house whereof a way was forced to a Seaffold on which he was to act the last part of his Tragedy in the sight of the people Having declared that he died a Martyr for the Lawes of this Kingdome and the Liberties of the Subjects he made a Confession of his Faith insinuating that he died a true Son of the Church of England he betook himself to his private Devotions and patiently submitted that Royal Head to an Executioner which had before been crowned with so much outward Pomp and Splendour The Members of both Houses had often promised him in their Petitions Messages and Declarations that they would make him a great and glorious King and now they were as good as their words changing his fading but painfull Crown of Thorns which they first platted for him to an immarcessible Crown of Glory At his first coming to the Crown one of his Chaplains in Ordinary and now a Bishop in this Church taking good heed unto the close contrivances of some and the seditious actings of others in his two first Parliaments thought fit to give him and his Council such an item of it as might awaken them to prevent those mischiefs which otherwise might ensue upon it And thereupon he preached before them on these words of S. Matthews Gospel viz But when the husbandmen saw the Son they said among themselves This is the heir come let us kill him and let us seize on his inheritance Mat. 21.38 In the dissecting of which Text he made such an Anatomy of the Husbandmen whom he had in hand with reference to some Plots and Practises which were then on foot and his whole discourse upon the same that he gave the King and those about him such Remembrances as might make them have an eye unto themselves and the publick safety But then withall though he carried on the matter with great care and prudence he drew so much danger on himself from some leading Members in the second Parliament who thought themselves as much concerned in the Sermon as the chief Priest and Pharisees did in the Parable that he was upon the point of leaving the Kingdome when he had news that his Majesty had dissolved the second Parliament in no small displeasure What he then preached concerning the said Husbandmen was after practised and that he then fore-signified was accomplished now Which shewes him to have been both a Priest and a Prophet if at the least the name of a Prophet may be given unto any man who foretelleth not of things to come by Divine Revelation but out of a deep insight into businesse But we return unto the King whom if we looke on in his Children the most lively Images and Representations of deceased Parents we shall find him to have been the Father of four Sons and five Daughters 1. CHARLES-JAMES born at Greenwich on Wednesday the 13. of May 1629. but died almost as soon as born having been first christened by Dr. Web one of the Chaplains in Attendance and afterwards a Bishop in Ireland 2. CHARLES Duke of Cornwall by Birth Prince of Wales in Designation and Knight of the Garter born at his Majesties house of Saint James neer VVestminster May 29. 1630. solemnly crowned King of the Scots at Edenburgh on the first day of January Anno 1650. But being invaded by an Army from England under the command of Generall Cromwell he was forced to quit that Kingdome and try his fortunes in the other so closely followed by the Army which compelled him to that Expedition he was fought with neer VVorcester on the third of September 1651. before the Earl of Darby and some others of his party here could come to aid him with their Forces In which Battel though he acted beyond the expectation of his Friends and to the great applause of his very Enemies yet it so pleased the Divine Providence that he lost the day and being miraculously preserved notwithstanding the diligent search which was made after him he passed safely over into France to the Queen his Mother Finding that Court unsafe for him he passed into Flanders accompanied with his Brother the Duke of York Anno 1654. where they have continued ever since 3. JAMES born in the same place on the 13. day of October Anno 1633. entituled Duke of York by his Majesties command at the time of his birth created so by Letters Patents bearing date at Oxford January 27. Anno 1643. and not long after made Knight of the Garter Taken prisoner at the surrendry of Oxford June 24. 1646. he was carried to his Majesties house of Saint James and there kept under a Guard with his Brother and Sister but being attired in the habit of a young Lady he was conveyed thence about two years after by one Collonel Bamfield who brought him safely into Holland and presented him a most welcome guest to the Princesse of Orange from whence he past afterwards into France to his Mother and Brother 4 HENRY born on the eighth of July designed to the Dukedome of Glocester and so commanded to be called Left by his Majesty at the House of Saint James the place of his birth at such time as he withdrew towards the North Anno 1642 he remained there till the Death of his Father and some years after and then upon the promise of an Annual pension was permitted to go into France to his Mother and the rest of the Kings Children But in the year 1654. almost as soon as his two elder Brethren had removed themselves into Flanders he found a strong practise in some of the Queens Court to seduce him to the Church of Rome whose Temptations he resisted beyond his years and thereupon was sent for by them into Flanders 5. MARY born on the fourth of November 1631. and married to Count VVilliam of Nassau Eldest Son to HENRY Prince of Orange on Sunday the second of May Anno 1641. conveyed by the Queen her Mother into Holland in February following where she stil remains Her Husband having succeeded his Father in all his Titles and Estates died young and left her the hopefull Mother of a Son now Prince of Orange 6. ELIZABETH born the twenty eighth of January 1635. survived her Father but died with hearts grief not long after 7. ANNE born the seventeenth of March 1637. died before her Father 8. KATHARINE who died almost as soon as born 9. HENRIETTA born at Exceter June the sixteenth 1644. conveyed not long after into France by the Lady Dalkeith to the Queen her Mother where she still remains It is observed of the VVolf that as