two Armies and kept up the Bohemians till the King 's coming to Prague were not only neglected but the Prince of Anhalt whom the King brought with him was made not only Generalissimo of the Army the King brought but of the Armies raised by de la Tour and Mansfield besides the King tho he had got a vast Treasure was niggardly in paying the Souldiers which necessitated them to take free Quarters upon the Bohemians In this disgusted State with the Bohemians the King having withdâ—awn so great Forces out of the Palatinate left it exposed to the Ravages of the Spaniards who under the Command of Ambrose Count Spinola General of the Spanish Army under the Arch-Duke Albert whom the King in the Treaty of the 2d Year of his Reign calls His renowned and dear Brother made terrible Wars in the Palatinate Here you may see how unhappy King James was in the Peace or Truce he procured the King of Spain and the Arch-Dukes to make with the Dutch in 1609 for twelve Years for in this Interval the Dutch did not only retrieve their Cautionary Towns out of the King's Possession but the Truce still continuing the Arch-Duke had not only an Opportunity to assist the Emperor but to send Spinola with an Army to invade the Palatinate and the Emperor by an imperial Ban had proscribed the King's Son-in-law a Traitor and Rebel to the Empire and thereupon forfeited his Electoral Dignity and Estate which he gave to Maximilian Duke of Bavaria and committed the Execution of it to the Arch-Duke Albert the Elector of Saxony and Duke of Bavaria King James was startled at this Return to his Proposition at Vienna that his Son-in-law shall possess the Crown of Bohemia and now complains that his Childrens Patrimony would be lost and that he would not sit still and take no further Care in it and therefore sent another Ambassadour to the Arch-Duke at Brussels to expostulate the matter and this was the utmost he was able to do and was forced to strain his Credit for it but lest this should not do tho sore against his Will he resolved to call another Parliament and try their Good Will towards it But that we may take all things before us as they stood at the Meeting of this Parliament the King notwithstanding the Attempt of Sir Walter Raleigh upon the Spanish West-Indies had still by Sir John Digby continued the Treaty of Marriage between the Prince of Wales and the Infanta Maria of Spain with the same Confidence of Success as if the King of Spain had not been concerned in Sir Walter 's Expedition But the Court of Spain to check the King 's forward Desires demand high Privileges for the Romanists which amounted to little less than a Toleration and that the Pope must be satisfied in his Conscience before he could grant a Dispensation for the Infanta to marry with an Heretick Prince both which the King and Prince agreed to and were signed by them both though afterwards But however the Agreement between the Pope King and Prince was not much known the Liberty granted to the Roman Catholicks was generally taken notice of and beside the Generality of the Nation notwithstanding the Benefits received by the Spanish Trade still retained an Aversion to the Spaniards which made the Spanish Match hated and feared by them and how much more they hated and feared the Spaniards so much more zealous were they for the King's Assistance of his Son-in-law in his Title to the Kingdom of Bohemia as well as in the Preservation of the Palatinate now invaded by the Emperor and King of Spain Thus things stood when the King's Necessities forced him to the unwilling Resolution of calling another Parliament but they did not stay here for upon the 9th of November happened the fatal Battel at Prague fought by above 60000 Combatants wherein tho the Bohemians were superior in Number the Imperialists were in Discipline and Valour and tho the King was the principal Object of the War yet he thought not fit to engage in the Battel but stood at a distance out of Harm's way to observe the Event of it After two hours Fight the Bohemians were utterly overthrown and routed 6000 being killed and more taken Prisoners with all their Colours Baggage Guns and Ammunition and scarce 300 of the Imperialists killed the Prince of Anhalt was the first who gave the King notice of his Overthrow with Advice to provide for his Safety which the King thought to do by flying back into Prague but found no Safety there For the Duke of Bavaria General of the Imperialists followed him close and summons him to surrender the City and quit his Claim to the Kingdom The King demands 24 Hours respite to answer but Bavaria only grants him 8 to which without any Reply next Morning the King with the Queen big with Child and their Children fly out of Prague and by unfrequent Ways by almost a Miracle escape to Vratislavia leaving the Heads of his Party in Prague to be Victims after an horrible Sacrifice to their enraged and bloody Enemies and all that inestimable Wealth which he had got together and was so niggardly of to his Souldiers to be a Prey to his Enemies also In this disasterous State Frederick driven out of Bohemia the Palatinate invaded and overrun by Spinola and having lost all his Wealth as well as Kingdom and Country retires with his Wife and Children into Holland more supported by the Dutch Prince of Orange and some of the English Nobility and Arch-Bishop Abbot than by the King whose Bounty lay another way and since he could not obtain Aids from his Father-in-law for the Preservation of his Country yet he became a Suitor to the King to solicite the Imperial Court for the Conservation of the Palatinate which the King did but did him no good and further the King would not go but vainly promised to himself he could do it by the Marriage of his Son to the Infanta of Spain and get two Millions of Money for her Portion to boot Though the English Nobility patiently truckled under the Ambition and Covetousness of Buckingham yet the same Genius was not found in the French Princes of the Blood and Nobility under the prodigious Pride and exorbitant Promotions of Luynes to restrain them or it may be to force Luynes from the King's Favour the Queen-Mother made a League with the Count of Soissons a Prince of the Blood the Count Vendosm and Grand Prior of France both natural Sons of Henry the 4th of France against him and the Dukes of Longuevil Main and Espernoon joined with them so did those of the reformed Religion under the Duke of Rohan and his Brother Sobiez Princes of the Blood of the Line of Navarr But these Commotions being sudden and ungrounded were soon supprest and the King was reconciled to the Queen and Popish Nobility and the greatest Loss fell upon those of the Reformed Religion who lost St. John de
7. would have justified all his Subjects who fought for him But the Members would not submit to this being to divest themselves of the Power they thought they had in their hands nor the Scots because their Solemn League and Covenant was enacted by no Law in England nor least of all would it please the Army who nourished Designs against the King Members and Scots To such a deplorable state is this poor King and Kingdom fall'n past all humane Relief yet it 's admirable to consider how Divine Justice pursued the Causers of it even in the Series by which they were promoted The King who would not have the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation to be the Rules of his Subjects Obedience but his Prerogative and Absolute Will and Pleasure cannot now by it command one Servant He who before against Law committed so many of his best Subjects close Prisoners whereof several died in Prison for asserting his Subjects Rights without any Benefit of Law is now by his Subjects made close Prisoner against Law and without any Benefit of it He who before dissolved four Parliaments because they in all dutiful Ways would have addressed unto him to be reconciled to his Subjects is now denied under Penalty of High Treason to have any Address made to him by any of his Subjects He who before had so many Forests for his Pleasure yet not contented with what the Law and his Ancestors had left but would break the Bounds of them that his Subjects Inheritance might become a Prey to wild Beasts has not now a Horse Hound or Beast to take Pleasure in But these things will not stay here for it is the unhappy Fate of Princes rarely in their declining state to stay till they fall to the bottom And here we end the Year 1647 and hereafter shall observe the Divine Justice overtaking the other Promoters of the Miseries both in England Scotland and Ireland And if I shall ill perform it yet it may be a Ground-work for another to do it better In this Confusion the Nation began to forget the times under the King's Government now they saw no end of these And tho the Essex-Men who had the Bounds of their Forests broke down and were the first who petition'd the Parliament to redress Grievances and bring Delinquents to condign Punishment yet they are now the first who petition the Commons for a Personal Treaty with the King and then the Surrey-Men but were differently received and some of the Surrey-Men kill'd This was in May 1648. The Scots too offended that they and their Solemn League and Covenant were not taken notice of in the Preliminary Treaty with the King call a Parliament and order the Raising an Army to deliver the King out of Prison The rude Entertainment of the Essex and Surrey-Men was so far from quelling them that they rise in Arms in Essex Kent Suffolk Norfolk Wales and the North and declare for the King and People Sir William Batton too who was Vice-Admiral of the English Fleet goes over to Prince Charles with 17 Men of War and declare for the King having set Rainsborough made Admiral by the Army on Shore This was in May and June and soon after viz. in June the Surrey-Men rise being headed by the Duke of Buckingham and his Brother the Lord Francis with the Earl of Holland But it was decreed that this Prince who for 15 Years had violated the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation and without any Law or just Reason had so often imprisoned his best Subjects for endeavouring to reconcile him to his Subjects should now himself being made a Prisoner against Law find no Relief by Law or Endeavours of his Loyal Subjects For Cromwel sends Horton into Wales against Major-General Laughorn and Colonel Poyer who headed the Welch and had seized Pembrook and Tenby-Castles Fairfax marches into Kent and Rainsborough into the North where the Northern-Men had seized Pontfract-Castle and the Members restore the Earl of Warwick to be Admiral and fit out a Fleet under him to suppress that which joined the Prince of Wales Horton beats the Welch and took Laughorn and Poyer Prisoners and besieges and takes Pembrook and Tenby but whilst he besieged these Hamilton who the Year before was released from being a Prisoner in Pendennis-Castle by the King for holding Correspondence with the Covenanters while he was Commissioner now comes into England to discharge the King from his Imprisonment with a numerous Army of Scots which Sir Marmaduke Langdale Major-General Massey and many English join against these Cromwel after the Surrender of Pembrook and Tenby marches and utterly routs them and takes Hamilton Prisoner Nor were the Fate of the Kentish Essex and Suffolk Men better for Fairfax fights and beats the Kentish Men at Maidstone the Remainder under my Lord Goring whom the King had made Earl of Norwich cross the Thames at Greenwich and join the Essex Men headed by Sir Charles Lucas and march to Colchester where my Lord Capel and many Suffolk Men joined them Fairfax pursues them and after a stubborn Siege of 11 Weeks forces it to surrender being reduced to extream Famine and after caused Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle to be shot to Death Equal to this was the Success of the Surrey-Men for they were routed by Sir Michael Lewesly and my Lord Francis killed near Kingston But the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Holland with those which were escaped fled over Kingston-bridg and were pursued by Colonel Scroop and overtaken at St. Neots where Major-General Dolbier is killed the Earl of Holland taken Prisoner but the Duke of Buckingham escaped But the Northern-Men besieged in Pontfract Castle are not so easily subdued on the contrary a Party of about 30 Horse break through the Besiegers and surprize Rainsborough in his Bed at Doncaster about 12 Miles from Pontfract and kill him because he refused to be carried off a Prisoner but Pure Famine at last forced the Besieged to surrender The revolted Fleet now commanded by the Princes Rupert and Maurice partly cajol'd by the Earl of Warwick their former Admiral and unwilling to forsake their Country Wives and Children in great part return to the Parliament the rest were after pursued by Blake and Popham to Ireland from thence to Portugal from whence they were forced by Blake to Carthagena where Blake run the Princes Ships on shore yet the Princes having then but three Ships left and having no Port in Europe to protect them seek for one in the West-Indies where Prince Maurice is lost in a Hurricane and Prince Rupert after got into France and sold the Remainder of this miserable Fleet being two tatter'd Ships to Mazarine to fit out himself for other Adventures Whilst the Army was thus busied abroad the Members having got possession of the Fleet and the City of London being well affected to them they join with the Scotish Commissioners and rescind the Votes of Non-Addresses to the King
he was over parsimonious ill becoming so great a Prince He laid the Foundation of an unhappy Reign before he became King not only in his Dissimulation in the Treaty of Marriage with the King and Infanta of Spain to the Displeasure of his Father but much more in the French Treaty not only in submitting to grant a Toleration of the Popish Religion and that his Children should be brought up under their Mother till they were twelve Years old but by engaging to assist the French King with a Fleet against the Reformed in France which he did tho the French broke their Faith in denying Mansfield to land the Army at Calais raised for the Recovery of the Palatinate Unlike his Predecesâ—or Henry the Fifth who so soon as he became King banished all his Flatterers and loose Companions and betaking himself to grave and wise Counsel he became the most Renowned and Victorious of all our English Kings Charles became more wilful and gave himself to be more governed by Favourites after he became King than before So that the insite Piety and Affection which is due to Parents and usually exprest in some mournful Demeanour upon their Death took no Impression in him after his Father's Death but contrary Passions against his Father's Counsel and Will prevailed upon him For next day after his Father's Death only the King and Buckingham present the Keeper Williams coming to wait upon him the King asked him whether the Parliament were dissolved upon his Father's Death Which when the Keeper told him it was the King commanded him to issue out new Summons for calling another and not to stay a day for Subsidies must be had for carrying on a War against Spain and when the Keeper advised him to consider a little hereof and that before Writs were issued out Interest should be made about Elections the King in Displeasure turn'd from him Which you may read in the second Book and second Folio of the Keeper's Life And these two things were observable in this Prince That when any advised him against his Will he would never ask it after or be Friends with him and that in all his Reign as well in Prosperity as in Adversity he would never own any one of his Irregularities to be so but justified them all to his Death As Henry was the most self-denying of all his glorious Actions ascribing them only to God so Charles upon all occasions in all his irregular Actions gloried he was accountable to none but God for them After he was married he became the most uxorious Husband of all our English Kings except Henry the Sixth and being intangled by the Articles of Marriage which the Queen fostered and the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation contrary to them which his Parliaments stedfastly asserted he became both ways uneasy and to reconcile them was impossible But to me it seems how uxorious soever the King was yet during Buckingham's Regency for so it may be truly called he had an Ascendency over the Queen as appears by the French War in the second Year of the King notwithstanding all the Power of the Queen against it He was unaffable in his Conversation and Approaches to him very difficult and those with such strained Submissions as were never required by any of his Predecessors As his Actions were without Counsel sudden and inconsiderate so were his Resolutions as variable and uncertain so that oftentimes he would change them the same day And as his Actions were without Counsel so were his Designs without Secrecy which blasted them as well at Home as Abroad He was so superstitiously addicted to the Arminian Clergy which flatter'd him that I do not find except Juxton Bishop of London that he preferr'd any others in the Church till he fell into Adversity In his adverse Fortune he would betake himself to contrary Extreams yet be as inconstant in them as in his Actions in Prosperity He was only constant in his Affections to the Queen after he had given up his Favourites in his prosperous Fortune to the Parliament and her Counsels fixed stedfast in him tho in his Declarations to the Kingdom and Parliament he profess'd otherwise and herein he was as unhappy as he was before in his Designs in his Prosperity for they whether by Fate or his own Imprudence became known to his Enemies who blaz'd them abroad not only to the Nation but all the World so that the sincerity of his Promises and Declarations became suspected as well by his Friends as Enemies and all Accommodation with them more difficult whereby it came to pass that his Armies being subdued by them and thereby falling into the Hands of his Enemies he became a Sacrifice to them in the 49th Year of his Age having reigned 23 Years ten Months and three Days leaving six Children three Sons Charles Prince of Wales James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester whereof the two elder were Exiles and three Daughters Mary Princess of Orange and Elizabeth a Virgin who not long survived him and Henrietta Maria born at Exeter So that as King John and his Son Henry the Third lost all Normandy and the greatest part of Aquitain to the French by endeavouring a more than Legal Jurisdiction over their Subjects whereby they lost their Love and Obedience so these two Princes Father and Son by raising and Arbitrary Power over their Subjects not only lost their Honour Abroad but with their own Subjects and for want of whose Assistance this King lost his Life and suffered the French to grow so great as to endanger the Safety of their own Subjects in the Realms of England Scotland and Ireland I 'll conclude this Story with one which a learned Gentleman who liv'd in those Times affirmed When the Duke of Buckingham was stabb'd by Felton 1628 the Earl of Portland was then newly made Lord Treasurer and the King to manifest his Affection to the Duke order'd the Treasurer to issue out of the Exchequer 30000 l. I think for a solemn Funeral for the Duke but the Treasurer unwilling the King should be at so hateful an Expence at a time when the King was at War with France and Spain told the King that the Sum laid out in erecting a stately Tomb for the Duke would be a more lasting Monument of his Favour to the Duke than a Funeral-Expence which would be but the Work of a Day and soon forgot The King assented and several Patterns were brought and what the King lik'd the Treasurer dislik'd till at last the King pitch'd upon one which he said he would have but then the Treasurer said Sir what will the World say that you should be at such an Expence for a Favourite when your Father has not a Stone to cover him which struck the King so as he proceeded no farther in it I remember I think it was in 1669. that the Commons voted 50000 l. for the Charge of taking up this King's Body and the solemn Funeral
Gaunt's elder Brother So that of the Succession of 14 Kings after the Conqueror there were but four viz. Richard the First Edward the First and Second and Richard the Second which succeeded as Heirs to the Conqueror or his Heirs Admit Edward the 4th succeeded right as Heir to Phillippa Daughter of the Duke of Clarence yet if it be true which Richard the 3d says and which is confirmed by the Authority of the Act of Parliament 1 Rich. 3. that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before he married Elizabeth then did not Edward the 5th if it may be called a Succession succeed right nor could Henry the 7th claim any Right to the Crown of England in Right of his Wife Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth But whether it be true or not that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before his Marriage yet Richard the 3d succeeded not as Heir Edward Earl of Warwick the Son of George Duke of Richard's elder Brother being then alive Of all the Kings of England that succeeded the Conqueror Henry the 7th had the least Pretension to any Title to the Crown for tho he were supposed to have been descended from John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster yet it was the Duke's Paramour Katherine Swinford whose Issue by the Duke tho by Act of Parliament they were legitimated to all other purposes yet were not capacitated to succeed to the Crown of England but if the Title of Lancaster had been preferable to that of York and Henry had been of the legitimate Line yet could not he have succeeded as Heir his Mother under whom he claimed being then alive and out-lived her Son Nor did the King's Marriage with Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the 4th improve his Title to his Succession the Marriage being subsequent to it and before it the Crown by Act of Parliament was entailed upon Henry the 7th and the Heirs of his Body and after Marriage he never used her Name in calling any Parliament or in any Proclamation or the Coin or passing any Act of Parliament and as he reigned without her before Marriage so he did after her Death for he out-lived her tho she left two Sons Arthur and Henry after Henry the Eighth and two Daughters Elizabeth Queen of Scotland and Mary after Queen of France It seems to me that Ferdinand King of Castile and Arragon had the same Opinion which Richard the 3d and the Parliament had that the Issue of Edward the 4th were not legitimate for he would not assent to the Marriage of his Daughter Katherine with Arthur Prince of Wales so long as the Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence lived and there a fine Trick was found out to put the poor Prince to Death for endeavouring to make his Escape out of the Tower with Perkin Warbeck and in him ended the Masculine Line of the Race of the Plantagenets who had governed the English Nation after Stephen to Henry the 7th above 340 Years So that from the Conqueror to Henry the 8th scarce one of four of the Kings of England succeeded in a right Line as Heirs to the Conqueror As the Saxon Dynasty ended in Edward the Confessor and the Norman began in the Conqueror so it seems to me that the Norman ended in Richard the 3d and another of the British was erected in Henry the 7th who was the Son of Edmund of Hadham the Son of Owen Tudor by Katherine Daughter of Charles the 6th of France Wife of Henry the 5th of England and Mother of Henry the 6th So that Henry the 7th's Title to the Crown of France was better than that to the Crown of England for that of England was from a Maternal Ancestor Margaret Countess of Richmond no otherwise related to the Crown of England than descended from John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford his Paramour Tho I do not find that Henry the 7th or any of his Descendants ever assumed the Sirname of Tudor So that tho the Crown of England neither in the Saxon nor Norman Race of Kings was always Hereditary so neither was the Succession to the Crown elective For in elective Kingdoms after the Death of one King there is an Establishment of the manner of Elections and in the mean time there are Custodes Regni appointed whose Power ceases upon the Election of a King but neither of these were ever heard of in either of the Saxon or Norman Race and tho sometimes it 's said the Kings were chosen as of Edward the Son of Alfred by the Nobles and so of Athelstan and so in the Norman Race Henry the First was said to be chosen for that he promised to abrogate all the Oppressions and Errors brought into the Government by his Father and Brother tho his eldest Brother Robert was then alive and restore the good Laws of Edward the Confessor and Stephen was chosen by the Clergy and Londoners yet this was rather a form of Speaking in those days than any formal Election and the manner differed according to the different Humours of the Times Nor do we read that ever the Parliament meddled with the Succession of the Crown before Henry the Fourth for tho the first Parliament of Edward the Third renounced their Allegiance to Edward the Second and are said to have chosen Edward the Third yet they went no further and such an Election was no more than a Declaration of their Submission as when the Council declared James the Second King But whether the Crown of England was Hereditary in the Saxon and Norman Race it 's evident it was not so in this British Race for as it began in Henry the Seventh so it was entailed by Act of Parment upon him and Heirs of his Body before his Marriage with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth So the inheritable Right of Edward's Issue and all the Norman Race was barred by this Act. Before we proceed in the Succession of the British Race we 'll take a view of the Genealogy of it John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford had Issue John created Earl of Somerset who had Issue John created Duke of Somerset who had Issue Margaret After the Death of Henry the Fifth Katherine his Wife Sister of Charles the Sixth of France married Owen Tudor a Welch Gentleman who had Issue Edmund of Hadham created Earl of Richmond who married Margaret Daughter and Heir of John Duke of Somerset who had Issue Henry the Seventh Henry the Eighth succeeded his Father without any Contradiction for the Wars between the houses of York and Lancaster had destroyed the whole legitimate Lancastrian Line and Richard the Third after the Murder of his Brother Clarence and Death of Edward the Fourth had murdered his two Nephews Edward and Richard Sons of Edward the Fourth and himself was killed in the Fight in Bosworth-fields and after that Henry the Seventh had put Edward Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence to Death none of all
next Year gave Reputation to these Rumours and here we end this Year 1615. being the thirteenth Year of King James his Reign Tho Turner Weston Elvis and Franklin were convicted and hanged last Year for the poisoning of Sir Thomas Overbury yet the Trial of the Earl of Somerset and the Countess was put off till the 24th of May this Year yet the Earl being a Prisoner and utterly cast out of the King's Favour the young Favourite Villiers having now no Competitor rose as fast upon the Earl's Ruin as he fell and began to appear in his own Colours from being Sir George and of the Bed-Chamber to the King in the beginning of the Month of January to be made Master of the Horse and upon the Conviction of the Earl and Countess the King seized upon the huge Estate of the Earl only allowing him 4000 l. per Annum during his Life as was said for the King reprieved the Earl and Countess too not only from Death but Imprisonment and the Earl 24 Years after saw his Daughter married to the now Duke of Bedford who proved to be the Mother of many Children whereof my Lord Russel cut off by King Charles the Second was one and a Lady of great Honour and Vertue The seizing of Somerset's Estate at present afforded a plentiful Harvest to our young Favourite and that proportionable Honours which were no burden to him might attend him upon the 17th of August he is created Viscount Villiers and Baron of Whaddon We will stay a little here and look abroad and see what Dishonour the King by his Prodigality to his Favourites and his ill Terms with his Subjects brought upon himself This Year seven of the twelve Years Truce made between the King of Spain the Arch-Dukes and the Dutch States in 1609. were worn out and now the Dutch hugely swelled their Tradeâ— not only in Europe and Africa but in the East-Indies and to Turkey but they could never be truly esteemed High and Mighty so long as the English possest the Brill Rammekins and Flushing which were the Keys of their Country and opened the Passages into and out of the Maese Rhine and Scheld They could not now pretend Poverty as they did to Queen Elizabeth for not payment of the Money with Interest upon Interest at 10 per Cent. which being two Millions when upon the Account stated between the Queen and them due Anno 1598. besides the Payment of the English in Garison in the Cautionary Towns this Year did amount to above six Millions of Money and how to get rid of this Debt and get the English out of the Cautionary Towns was the Design of Barnevelt and the States Barnevelt had his Eyes in every corner of the Court he observed the King was wholly intent upon his Pleasures exalting his Favourites and writing against Bellarmine and Peron against their King-killing and Deposing Doctrines and otherwise utterly neglected his Affairs both at Home and Abroad and by how much longer the King continued these Courses so much better might the States make a Bargain with him about restoring their Cautionary Towns but not as Merchants but Bankrupts The Truce between the Spaniard and them was above half expired and if the English should keep their Towns till the War broke out again the King might impose what Terms he pleased upon them Barnevelt also observed the ill Terms which the King was upon with his Subjects upon the Dissolution of the last Parliament about 14 Months before and imprisoning the Members for representing the Subjects Grievances which the King made worse by a Proclamation forbidding Men to talk of State-Affairs and that he doted upon and was wholly governed by Viscount Villiers a raw and unexperienced Gentleman in State-Affairs scarce of Age Upon these Considerations Barnevelt advised the States not to pay the English in Garison in their Cautionary Towns tho this was expresly contrary to the Agreement they made with Queen Elizabeth in 1598. The English debarred of their Pay apply themselves to the King for Relief the King was incensed at the Dutch and talked high what he would do but upon Repose he advised what to do the Lord Treasurer Suffolk told him there was no Money in the Exchequer to call a Parliament would be a work of Time and in the mean while the Souldiers in Garison in the Cautionary Towns must either starve or revolt besides the Wounds which the imprisoned Members had were so green that the Parliament in all likelihood would rather seek to cure them than supply the King's Necessities and starve or revolt the Souldiers might rather than the King would abate any thing of his Bounty to his Favourites Hereupon it was agreed That the King should enter into a Treaty with the Dutch concerning the Delivery of their Cautionary-Towns the Dutch expected it and had given Orders to their Ambassador here called the Lord Caroon to treat about it and what they would give the King must take and Caroon's Instructions were to give two hundred and forty eight thousand Pounds in full Satisfaction of the whole Debt which was scarce Twelve Pence in the Pound but was greedily accepted of by the King and his Favourites But how well this Agreement did sort with the Treaty made with the King of Spain and arch-Arch-Dukes in August 1604 where in the 7th Article the King swears and promises in the Word of a King That in a competent time he would assign a Treaty with the Dutch States to acccept and receive Conditions agreeable to Justice and Equity for a Pacification to be had with the renowned Princes his dear Brethren which if the States shall refâ—se to accept his Majesty from thenceforward as being freed from former Conventions will determine of those Towns according as he shall judg it to be Just and Honourable wherein the said Princes his loving Brethren shall find there shall be no want of these good Offices which can be expected from a friendly Prince let the World judg Tho the Bargain were agreed yet the King and Courtiers were in fear the Money should not be paid accordingly and therefore the King wrote to the States in a Stile far differing from that he used to the Parliament for says my Author William de Britain fol. 12. the King told them He knew the States of Holland to be his good Friends and Confederates both in Point of Religion and Policy one as true as the other for the Religion of the Dutch was Presbytery which the King hated nor did he ever imitate their Policy therefore he apprehended not the least fear of Difference between them In Contemplation whereof if they would have their Towns again he would willingly surrender them So tho the Dutch got their Towns again yet the King got not all the Money for my Lord Treasurer Suffolk kept back so much of it as he was fined 30000 l. in the Star-Chamber for it and had not scaped so if Sir Francis Bacon then Lord Chancellor had
the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoign and Guienne General Governor of the Seas and Ships of the Kingdom Master of the Horse to the King Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and of the Members of the same Constable of Dover-Castle Justice in Eyre of all the Forests and Chases on this side of Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Gentleman of his Majesty's Bed-Chamber one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council in his Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter But tho all others worshipped this prodigious Favourite yet Arch-bishop Abbot a Prelate of Primitive Sanctity and Integrity would not flatter neither the King nor his Favourite in their Courses so dangerous to the Church and State and dishonourable to the King and tho in Disgrace he wrote this following Letter to the King which you may read in Rushworth fol. 85. May it please your Majesty M I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it has pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in But now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my Duty to your Majesty and therefore freely to give me leave to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you to take into your Consideration what that Act is what the Consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up the most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How hateful will it be to God and grievous to your Subjects the Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath so often and learnedly disputed and written against those Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those wicked Doctrines which your Pen hath to the World and your Conscience tells your self are superstitious idolatrous and detestable and hereto I add what you have done by sending the Prince into Spain without the Consent of your Council the Privity or Approbation of your People and altho you have a Charge and Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh yet the People have a greater as Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty are their Eyes fixed and their Welfare depends and so tenderly is his going apprehended as I believe however his Return may be safe yet the Drawers of him into this Action so dangerous to himself so desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestion'd and unpunished Besides the Toleration which you endeavour to set up by your Proclamation cannot be without a Parliament unless your Majesty will let your Subjects see that you will take to your self the Ability to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure What dread Consequence these things may draw afterwards I beseech your Majesty to consider and above all lest by this Toleration and discountenancing the true Profession of the Gospel wherewith God hath blest us and this Kingdom hath so long flourished under it your Majesty doth not draw upon this Kingdom in general and your self in particular God's Wrath and Indignation I have heard my Father say that King James kept a Fool called Archy if he were not more Knave whom the Courtiers when the King was at any time thoughtful or serious would bring in with his antick Gestures and Sayings to put him out of it In one of these Modes of the King in comes Archy and tells the King he must change Caps with him Why says the King Why who replies Archy sent the Prince into Spain But what said the King wilt thou say if the Prince comes back again Why then said Archy I will take my Cap from thy Head and send it to the King of Spain which was said troubled the King sore But if we look back into Spain we shall see things of another Complection than when Buckingham came into it For now he is disgusted he put the Prince quite out of the Match as that tho all things were agreed upon the coming of the Dispensation from Rome so as King James said all the Devils in Hell could not break the Match yet his Disciple and Scholar could tho the Duke had certified the King the Match was brought to a happy Conclusion and the Match publickly declar'd in Spain and the Prince permitted Access to the Infanta in the Presence of the King and the Infanta was generally stiled the Princess of England and in England a Chappel was building for her at St. James's and the King had prepared a Fleet to fetch her into England which only proved to bring back his Son How things especially actuated by Love should stay here may seem strange yet such an Ascendant had Buckingham over the Prince that the Affront put upon him Buckingham must quite deface the Prince's vowed Love and Affection to the Infanta but how to prevail with King James to comply might have an appearance of some Difficulty since the King had set his Rest upon it and had quarelled with the Parliament and dissolv'd them in great Anger and Fury for but mentioning it After the Duke had gained the Prince to break or at least not to observe the Conditions of the Treaty of the Marriage with the Infanta so solemnly sworn to by both the Kings and the Prince let 's now see how he behaved himself to King James afterwards but this will be better understood if we look back and see how things stood before the Prince's and Duke's Arrival in Spain The Prince's going into Spain was not only kept secret from King James ' s Council but from my Lord Keeper Williams tho the King confided in his Abilities above all the other of his Council but when it had taken vent the King asked the Keeper what he thought Whether the Knight Errant's Pilgrimage meaning the Prince's would prove lucky to win the Spanish Lady and to convey her shortly into England Sir answered my Lord Keeper If my Lord Marquess will give Honour to Conde Duke Olivares and remember he is the Favourite of Spain or if Olivares will shew honourable Civility to my Lord Marquess remembring he is a Favourite of England the Wooing may be prosperous but if my Lord Marquess should forget where he is and not stoop to Olivares or if Olivares forgetting what Guest he hath received with the Prince bear himself haughtily and like a Castilian to my Lord Marquess the Provocation may be dangerous to cross your Majesty's good Intentions and I pray God that either one or both do not run into that Error The Answer of the Keeper took such Impression upon the King that he asked the Keeper if he had wrote to his Son and the
Marquess clearly and upon what Guard he should stand Yes said the Keeper and to that purpose I have dispatched some Pacquets Then continue says the King to help me and them in those Difficulties with your best Powers and Abilities and serve me faithfully in this Motion which like the highest Orb carries all my Raccalta's my Counsels at present and Prospects upon the future with it and I will never part with you Which you may read in the first part of the Keeper's Life fol. 115. tit 127. The Keeper hereupon continues to prosecute this Advice to the Marquess after Duke but hereby lost the Duke's Favour who ever after sought all means to ruin the Keeper which tho he could not effect in King James his Reign he did it in the first Year of his Son 's But when the King understood that the Contraventions of the Duke with Olivares and Bristol was like to make a Rupture in the Treaty he then began seriously to consider with himself the fickle State he stood in both at home and abroad if the Marriage succeeded not all the two Subsidies he had granted him by the Parliament and the Benevolence he had raised after upon his Subjects by his own Authority was expended and a great Debt contracted besides he also besides the Benevolence stood upon ill Terms with his Subjects for petitioning him against the Spanish Match and asserting their Privileges by imprisoning them after he had dissolved the Parliament the like whereof was never before done by any of his Predecessors and now Buckingham had so violently caused a Rupture of the Match wherein he placed his sole Felicity he had not Courage so much as to frown upon him who could contribute no Relief whereas he dissolved the Parliament and imprisoned the Members upon their Advice against the Match who could have relieved him in his Necessities besides he now saw that Buckingham by his Audacity more worshipped the Sun in its Rise than in its Declination Now did he not know to whom he should complain nor was there any about him but the Keeper who durst give him any Advice In case a Rupture happened the King after all this wild Expence of Foreign Embassies and the Charge of his Son's Voyage to Spain would be despised by all Foreign Princes and States in case he did not endeavour to recover his Son-in-law's Patrimony which would in all appearance bring on a War between him and the Emperor and King of Spain who kept nothing from him and therefore had no cause to make War upon either Besides in case the King made War for the Recovery of the Paâ—atinate he could not hope to do it upon his own single account but in Conjunction with Foreign Confederates and above all with the States of the Vnited Netherlands who now had renewed the War against the King of Spain the Truce made between them and the King of Spain in 1609 being expired But how uniust would this be for the King to make War upon the Emperor and King of Spain who kept nothing from him and join with the Dutch herein who against the Treaty made between the King and them but three Years before viz. in 1619 kept from the King and his Subjects the Isles of Amboyna Seran Nero Waire Rosingen Latro Cambello Mitto Larica Lantare Polaway and Machasser in the East-Idies and Cabo de Bon Esperanza in Africk But the Impolicy of such an Alliance would be as great as the Injustice of it for hereby the English must lose the benefit of the Spanish Trade which above all others enriched the Nation and the King his Customs which above any other did arise from it These Considerations fixed in the King's Mind fearful of any War so cleft his Heart That as the Bishop of Litchfield observes he effected neither yet he submitted himself to be ruled by some whom he should have awed by his Authority but wanted Courage to bow them to his Bent. A Prince that preserves not the Rights of his Dignity and the Majesty of his Throne is a Servant to some but a Friend to none and least to himself as you may see in his Book fol. 167. tit 173. In these Perplexities the King saw no visible Means under Heaven to relieve him but by closing with his next Parliament and it was observed that some Impressions were gotten into the King's Mind that he was so resolved to be a Lover of Parliaments that he would close with the next that was called nor was there any likelihood that any Man's Incolumity tho it were his Grace himself should cause an unkind Breach between him and his People This Resolution of the King 's was not concealed from a Cabinet or Cabal of the Duke's which met at Wallingford-House who hereupon set up to consider what Exploit the Duke should commence to be the Darling of the Commons and as it were to re-publicate his Lordship and to be precious to those who had the Vogue to be the chief Lovers of their Country and resolve that all Attempts would be in vain unless the Treaty of the Spanish Match were quash'd and that the Breach thereof should fall upon the Duke's Industry so that what the Duke did before in spite to Olivares and Bristol he now pursues for his own Safety tho the King had little reason to thank him for it See the first Part of the Keeper's Life fol. 137. tit 147. And this took such Impression in the Duke that the Bishop heard the Duke afterward in the Banqueting-House before the King and both Houses of Parliament ascribe to himself the sole Glory of breaking the Spanish Match and you will soon see how the Prince and Duke after their return from Spain over-awed the King and made his Authority bow to their Bent for notwithstanding Buckingham blasted all the Raccalta's of his Counsels and the Prospect of his future Happiness placed in the Spanish Match yet he shall become the Duke's Advocate herein and note his Fidelity Constancy and Conduct in breaking it off and from his Disciple become his Master and teach him that Dolosus versatur in Generalibus and also keep back the Earl of Bristol from coming to the Parliament that he might not spoil the â—ine Tale the Duke had told yet at other times the King would say If he had sent Williams into Spain with his Son he had kept Heart-ease and Honour both which he lacked See the first part of the Bishop of Litchfield fol. 168. tit 174. The Duke thus doubly engaged resolved to break the Spanish Match and to dispose the King James to it the Prince writes to him That he must look upon his Sister the Queen of Bohemia and her Children never thinking more of him and forgetting he ever had such a Son Though it be evident the generous Spaniards were far enough from entertaining such a thought however Buckingham's Behaviour might have prompted them to it that by the Authority of Litchfield and Rushworth they entertained him
with all imaginable Esteem as a truly noble discreet and well-deserving Prince however the Prince himself had given them Cause sufficient to have detained him if the Prudence of Bristol had not been greater than Buckingham's Rashness and Zeal to break off the Match solemnly sworn to by the Prince and Buckingham himself and this upon the Day when the Prince parted from the King of Spain from the Escurial as you may see in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Dr. Williams and Rushworth fol. 284 285. For though the King of Spain and the Prince had solemnly sworn to accomplish the Marriage and to make the Espousals within ten Days after the Ratifications should come from Rome to which purpose the Prince made a Procuration to the King of Spain and Don Charles his Brother to make the Espousals in his Name and left it in the Earl of Bristol's hands yet he the Prince left in the Hands of one of the Duke's Creatures Mr. Edward Clarke a private Instrument with Instructions to the Earl of Bristol to stay the Delivery of the Proxies till farther Direction from him But when this private Instrument was delivered to Bristol he told Buckingham's Favourite that it must for a time be concealed lest the Spaniard coming to the knowledgâ— of it should give Order to stay the Prince So that the Duke left the Earl's Instrument as perplexed and confounded when he went out of Spain as he had made the Treaty of Marriage when he came into it The Temper and Dissimulation of the Duke is so strange at his taking leave of Olivares as is I believe without all Example and also without any Care of the Safety of the Prince for the Duke told him after he had delivered the Instrument to stay the Delivery of the Proxy That he was obliged to the King and Queen and Infanta in an eternal Tie of Gratitude and that he would be an everlasting Servant to them and endeavour to do the best Offices for concluding the Match and strengthning the Amity between the two Crowns but as for himself Olivares he had so disobliged him that he could not without Flattery make the least Profession of Friendship to him Nor was the Ingratitude and Dissimulation of the Prince less than that of Buckingham for when the King of Spain had brought the Prince to the Escurial where the Prince and Duke after the delivery of the Instrument for staying the Proxy solemnly swore the Treaty of Marriage as you may read in Rushworth fol. 285. and the King and Prince had sworn a perpetual League of Friendship as the Bishop of Litchfield says the King at their Departure declared the Obligation which the Prince had put upon him the King by putting himself into his Hands a thing unusual with Princes and protested he earnestly desired a nearer Conjunction of Brotherly Affection for the more intire Unity between them The Prince answered him magnifying the high Favour which he had found during his Stay in his Court and Presence which had begotten such an Estimation of his Worth that he knew not how to value it but would leave a Mediatrix to supply his own Defects if he the King would make him so happy as to continue him the Prince in the good Opinion of her his Dear Mistress Yet the Prince so soon as he came on Ship-board was observed to say That it was a great Weakness and Folly in the Spaniards after they had used him so ill to grant him a free Departure and soon you 'll see both the Prince and the Duke urge the King James to break off the Match so solemnly sworn by them all and make War upon the Spaniards which was so dangerous to the Parliament to mention Having thus taken a View of the Duke's Prudence and deep Insight in Mysteries of State in managing this Match where King James's Proclamation could not restrain Men from talking of State-Affairs We will now take a View of the Duke's Profession in Religion that another may better judg whether he were more eminent in Religion or State-policy and herein I will take the Earl of Bristol's Charge upon him to be a full Proof since the Earl answered the Duke's Charges against him twice first before King James and afterward in Parliament in the 2d of King Charles without any reply and King Charles his dissolving the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to a Tryal upon the Articles which the Earl exhibited against him 1. The Earl in the said Articles charges the Duke that he did secretly combine with the Conde of Gundamor Ambassador from the King of Spain Anno 1622 to carry the Prince into Spain to the end he might be informed in the Roman Religion and thereby have perverted the Prince and subverted the true Religion established in England 2. That Mr. Porter was made acquainted therewith and sent into Spain and such Messages at his Return framed as might serve for a Ground to set on foot this Conspiracy the which was done accordingly and thereby the King and Prince highly abused and their Consents thereby gotten for the said Journey viz. after the Return of the said Mr. Porter which was about the latter end of December or beginning of January 1622. whereas the Duke plotted it many Months before 3. That the Duke at his Arrival in Spain nourished the Spanish Ministers not only in the Belief of his being popishly affected but did both by absenting himself from all Exercises of Religion constantly used in the Earl of Bristol's House and frequented by all other Protestant English and by conforming himself to please the Spaniards in divers Rites of their Religion even so far as to kneel and adore the Sacrament from time to time give the Spaniards Hopes of the Prince's Conversion the which he endeavoured to procure by all means possible and thereby caused the Spanish Minister to propound far worse Conditions for Religion than had been propounded by the Earl and Sir Walter Ashton setled and signed under the K. and Prince's Hand with a clause of the K. of Spain's Answer Dec. 12. 1622 that they held the Articles agreed on sufficicient and such as ought to induce the Pope to grant the Dispensation 4. That the Duke having several times moved and pressed the King James at the Instance of the Conde of Gundamor in the presence of the Earl of Bristol to write a Letter to the Pope and to that purpose having once brought a Letter ready drawn wherewith the Earl of Bristol by his Majesty being made acquainted did so strongly oppose the writing any such Letter that during the Abode of the said Earl in England the Duke could never obtain it but not long after the Earl was gone he the Duke procured such a Letter to be written from the King James to the Pope and to have him stiled Sanctissime Pater 5. That the Pope being informed of the Duke's Inclination and Intention in point of Religion sent unto him a particular Bull
in Parchment for to perswade and encourage him in the Perversion of the Prince But how steady soever the Duke was in his French Garb in Spain and of Compliance with the Spaniard in the Popish Religion yet he was not so when he returned into England for then he turns quite contrary and assumes a popular Way and joins with the Prince and thereby over-ruled the King as they pleased and closed with the Nobility and Puritan Party opposite to Spain As you may read in Rushworth fol. 107. Nor was the Duke's Covetousness and sacrilegious Desires of robbing the Church's Patrimony less than his Hypocrisy in Religion for whilst he was in this Godly Fit he treats with Dr. John Preston Head of the Puritan Party how the King might seize the Dean and Chapter Lands as you may read in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Doctor Williams 1st Part fol. 202. After the Return of the Prince and Duke into England and Bristol left in Spain both contrive how to ruin the Earl of Bristol bound up with contrary Instructions and to dissolve the Prince's Match with the Infanta so solemnly sworn by both Kings and the Prince and could find no other Pretence to do it but by the King's Letter to the Earl of Bristol before he delivered the Powers for consummating the Marriage to procure from the King of Spain either by publick Act or under his Hand and Seal a direct Engagement for the Restitution of the Palatinate and Electoral Dignity by Mediation or Assistance of Arms but in regard this must be now insisted upon let 's see how this stood during the Treaty In all the Treaty for this Match the Restitution of the Palatinate was laid aside as Rushworth observes fol. 91. and my Lord of Bristol in his Defence against the Duke's or King's Charge fol. 302. says that his Instructions from King James the 14th of March 1621 were express that he should not make the Business of the Palatinate a Condition of the Marriage and that of the King 's of the 30th of December 1623 I think it was 1622 were fully to the same Effect But now the whole Treaty which was so solemnly agreed upon and sworn to by both Kings and the Prince and that the Marriage should be consummate within 10 days after the Dispensation came from Rome which it did about the beginning of December 1623 must be all dasht without the Restitution of the Palatine to his Country and Electoral Dignity which being perplext with such Variety of Interests as the Duke of Bavaria's having possest himself of the upper Palatinate and the Restitution of the Palsgrave being an Act of the Emperor and Empire was not in the King of Spain's Power Nay the Proxies left with the Earl would not admit of a Treaty in this Case for the Marriage was to be consummate within ten Days after the Arrival of the Dispensation from Rome The Earl of Bristol for not obtaining these new impossible and inconsistible Conditions is recalled from his Embassy and a new Treaty of Marriage between the Prince and the Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter of Henry the Fourth of France is as suddenly set on Foot as that of Spain abruptly broke off and that by this time the King of Spain and the Earl had frequent Advice of the Prince and Duke's Designs to ruin the Earl The King of Spain therefore made a threefold Proffer to the Earl either to write to the King James and if need were to send a particular Ambassador to mediate for him to satisfy the Earl's Fidelity and Exactness in all the Treaty or to make him a Blank wherein the Earl should set down his own Conditions both in Title and Honour in Spain whereunto the Earl answered He was sorry and afflicted to hear such Language and desir'd they should understand that neither the King nor Spain were beholden to him For whatever he had done he thought fit to do for his Master's Service and his own Honour having no Relation to Spain and that he served a Master from whom he was assured both of Justice and due Reward nothing doubting but his own Innocence would prevail against the Wrong intended by his powerful Adversaries and were he sure to run into eminent Danger he had rather go home and cast himself at his Majesty's Feet and Mercy and therein comply with the Duty and Honour of a faithful Subject though it should cost him his Head than be Duke or Infantado of Spain and that with this Resolution he would employ the utmost of his Power to maintain the Amity of the two Crowns and to serve his Catholick Majesty and thirdly the King of Spain desired him in private to take 10000 Crowns to bear his Charges but the Earl answered one would know it viz. the Earl of Bristol who would reveal it to his Majesty King James Now if any Man can shew in any Authority antient or modern wherein a Treaty of this Nature was thus begun thus managed and thus broken off wherein a Noble Lady of highest Birth and noblest Fortune adorned with all the Excellencies of Beauty in her Person and the more excelling Virtues of her Mind in all the Perfections requisite in her Sex was thus baulkt and see her self made a Stale to advance the Avarice and covetous Desires of others he shall be my great Apollo So we 'll leave this Affair here and see what Comfort King James had of his Affairs elsewhere In the Year 1619 King James and the Dutch States entred into and concluded a Treaty of Trade between the English and Dutch in the East-Indies at this time and for many Years before the English had at Amboyna one of the Scyndae or Setibe Islands lying near Seran which had several smaller Islands depending upon it five several Factories two at Hitto and Lerico and two at Latro and Cambello in the Island of Seran but the principal of them was at Amboyna Amboyna was and is the principal Place in all the East-Indies where Nutmegs Mace Cinamon Cloves and Spice grow and from these Factories the English supplied not only England and Europe with Spice but Persia Japan and other Countries in the East-Indies The Treaty of Commerce between the King and the Dutch States was scarce three Years old when the Dutch in the East-Indies contrive how they may dispossess the English of the Spice-Trade which above all others is the best in the East-Indies at least which was then or now is known It seems says my Author William de Britain in his Treatise of the Dutch Usurpation fol. 14. that the English in all these Islands were better beloved than the Dutch and had built a Fortress in Amboyna for the Safety of Trade which the Dutch having two Hundred Soldiers there forced from the English and thereupon feigning a Plot between the English and Japonesses I think he means the Natives of Amboyna to betray the Fortress again to the English the Dutch with Fire and Water in an
a narrow point but there is no point in Generalities relying upon their general Propositions of which I do not find neither the King nor the Prince or Buckingham after him named one he found when they came there the Matter proved so raw as if it had never been treated of they generally giving them easy way to evade and affording them means to avoid the effecting any thing But it seems there were Particulars which the King would not then discover but left them to the Prince and Buckingham to relate As for a Toleration of the Roman Religion As God shall judg him he said he never thought nor meant nor never in word expressed any thing that savoured of it How was Arch-bishop Abbot mistaken when he wrote his disswasive Letter against the King's Proclamation for the Toleration of Religion to Roman Catholicks See Rushworth fol. 85. And how was my Lord Keeper Williams mistaken after the King had directed him and other Commissioners to draw up a Pardon for all Offences past by Roman Catholicks with a Dispensation for those to come obnoxious to any Laws against Recusants and then to issue forth two general Commands under the Great Seal the one to all Judges and Justices of Peace and the other to all Bishops Chancellors and Commissaries not to execute any Statute against them and tho the Keeper past the Pardon as fully and amply as the Papists could desire to pen it yet the Keeper put some stop to the vast Prohibition to the Judges and Bishops for the Reasons he gave First Because the publishing of this General Indulgence at one push may beget a general Discontent if not a Mutiny but the instilling thereof into the Peoples knowledg by little and little by the Favours done to Catholicks might indeed loosen the Tongues of a few particular Persons who might hear of their Neighbours Pardon and having vented their Dislike would afterward cool again and so his Majesty might by degrees with more convenience enlarge his Favours Secondly Because to sorbid the Judges against their Oaths and the Justices of Peace who are likewise sworn to execute the Laws of the Land is a thing unprecedented in this Kingdom and would be a harsh and bitter Pill to be digested without some Preparative But this Delay disgusted the Spanish Ambassador which you may read in Rushworth fol. 101. And as God was his Judg he never thought nor meant nor ever in Word expressed any thing that savoured of a Toleration of the Popish Religion So God was his Judg and he spake as a Christian King Never any wayfaring Man that was in the Desarts of Arabia and in danger of Death for want of Water to quench his Thirst more desired Water than he did thirst and desire the good and comfortable Success of his Parliament and Blessing upon their Counsels that the good Issue of this may expiate and acquit the fruitless Issue of the former and prayed God their Counsels may advance Religion and the publick Weal and they of him and his Children You may read the Speech at large in Rushworth fol. 115 116 117. But tho the King gloried that he had ever endeavoured to procure and cherish the Love of his People to him which the Lords and Commons did represent yet the Commons could remember a time not out of mind with the King for they chose that honourable Gentleman Sir Thomas Crew newly returned from his Exile into Ireland whither the King had sent him as one of the ill-tempered Spirits who advised him against the Spanish Match and presumed to assert the Privileges of the Commons for their Speaker After the Ceremonies of Opening the Parliament and the Choice of a Speaker was over the first thing that appeared upon the Stage of Affairs was the Narrative of the Proceedings in the Spanish Match made by the Duke of Buckingham and assisted by the Prince Which you may read at large in Rushworth from fol. 119 to 125. I shall not descant upon this long Narrative but leave the Answering of it to the Earl of Bristol but only take notice of the Preamble of the third Article of the Duke 's Narrative and the latter part of the fourth The Preamble of the third Article is It is fit to observe this Passage which is the thing whereupon all his Highness's the Prince's subsequent Actions did depend He had never staid a Sennight longer in Spain he had never left any Proxy with Bristol he had never taken the Oath at the Escurial or ever so much as have written a Letter of Compliment to the Lady but that he had still before his Eyes as his Cynosure the Promise made by the Conde I think the Duke meant Olivares for the Restitution of the Palatinate Why was this Treaty between King James and the Conde Or if the Restitution of the Palatinate were the Foundation upon which the whole Treaty moved Why was it not so much as mentioned in all the Treaty so solemnly sworn to by both Kings the Prince and Buckingham himself Nay King James himself by two several Expresses to the Earl of Bristol the first of the 14th of May 1621. and the other of the 30th of December 1623. commanded him That he should not make the Business of the Palatinate a Condition of the Marriage as you may read in Rushworth fol. 302. For the better understanding of Buckingham's Narrative in the fourth Article it is fit to take notice That the Reason in the Instrument for not pursuing the Proxies of the Marriage so solemnly sworn to by the Prince and Buckingham himself was not for the Restitution of the Palatinate but forsooth for fear the Infanta might retire into a Cloister and so deprive the Prince of a Wife tho the Infanta so far as the Gravity of the Spaniards would permit ever expressed an entire Affection to the Prince so that when the Prince took leave of the Infanta she seemed to deliver up her Heart to him in as high Expressions as that Language and her Learning could with her Honour set forth for when the Prince told her His Heart would never be out of Anxiety till she had passed the intended Voyage and were safe on the British Land she answered with a modest Blush That if she were in danger upon the Ocean or discomposed with the rolling brackish Waves she should chear up her self and remember all the way to whom she was going As you may read in the Life of Williams Lord Keeper fol. 161. tit 168. And Mr. Rushworth fol. 104. says She caused many divine Duties to be performed for the Prince's Return In the Proxies left with the Earl of Bristol there was a Clause inserted De non revocando procuratore as much as to say irrevocable And because the Earl did in his Letter to the Prince of the First of November in 1623 press this vehemently to the Prince the Prince vowed openly before both Houses that he had never by Oath nor Honour engaged himself not to
revoke those Powers more than by the Clause De non revocando procuratore inserted in the Instrument it self and then he conceived the Clause to be matter of Form and tho essentially of no binding Power yet usually thrust into every such Instrument and that the Civilians hold That it is lawful by the Civil and Canon Law for any Man to revoke his Proxy of Marriage notwithstanding it hath the Clause De non revocando procuratore inserted in it Therefore the Duke concluded as to this point That the Earl of Bristol in charging this Matter so highly upon the Prince had much forget himself Can any Man believe that when the Prince made the Procuration to the King of Spain and his Brother to his Espousals with the Infanta in his Name and left it in the Earl of Bristol's hands with the Clause De non revocando procuratore that he then had consulted with the Civilians that he might revoke it when he pleased or that this Marriage nine Years in treating was not founded upon the Honour and Oaths of the Kings the Prince and of Buckingham himself but upon the Niceties and Quirks of the Civilians Or did it become the Prince or the Duke either who when he parted from the King of Spain at the Escurial solemnly to swear the Treaty of Marriage and the Furtherance of it by all that was in his Power in the presence of the Earl of Bristol and Sir Walter Ashton as you may read in Rushworth fol. 285. and now in the face of the King and Parliament to plead a Nicety of the Civilians to absolve the Prince and himself Now let us see what the Earl of Bristol says for himself for the Duke's Charge upon him for Proceedings upon this Match His Reasons were 1. For that he had a Warrant under the Prince's hand for his Proceedings to consummate the Match 2. It was the main Scope of his Embassy 3. He was enjoined by the King and Prince's Commission under the Great Seal 4. He had positive Orders under his Majesty's hand King James since 5. It was agreed by Capitulation that it should be within so many days after the coming of the Dispensation 6. The King James and Prince signified by their Letters to him at the same time when they discharged him of his Commandment touching the Infanta's entring into Religion that they intended to proceed in the Marriage which Letters bear date the 8th of October 1623. 7. The Proxies were to that end left in his hands and after again renewed after the Prince's return into England 8. That he the Earl had overthrown the Marriage without Order for tho Sir Walter Aston and himself had used all possible means for gaining time and deferring the Desponsories yet the King of Spain caused it to be protested that in case the Earl should insist upon the deferring the Desponsories he would free himself from the Treaty by the Earl's infringing the Capitulations And in truth altho the King of Spain should have condescended to have prolonged the Desponsories until one of the Days of Christmas as by the Letter was required yet the Prince's Proxies had been before that time expired and he durst not without a precise Warrant put such a Scorn upon so noble a Lady whom he then conceived was like to have been the Prince's Wife as to nominate a Day of Marriage when the Proxies were out of date and he himself had sworn to the Treaty 9. He the Earl could not in Honour and Honesty but endeavour to perform that publick Trust reposed in him when the Proxies were deposited in his hands with publick and legal Declaration with an Instrument by a Secretary of State to the King of Spain leading and directing the Use of them and the same being then Instrumentum Stipulatum wherein as well the King of Spain was interested by the Acceptation of the Substitution as the Prince by granting the Proxies he could not in Honesty fail the publick Trust without clear and undoubted Warrant which so soon as he had he obeyed See Rushworth fol. 301 302. The Duke 's stating the Question super totam materiam was Whether this being the full Effect and Product of this Negotiation he had opened to them the Parliament be sufficient super totam materiam for his Majest to rely upon with any Safety as well for the Marriage of his only Son as for the Relief of his only Daughter Or that these Treaties set aside his Majesty were best to trust in his own Strength and to stand upon his own Feet So the Duke ended That if the bringing us from Darkness to Light did deserve any Thanks we must wholly ascribe it to his Highness the Prince Here is a Tale finely told parte inaudita altera but the Duke shall hear more of it and indeed it was a Net so spread in the sight of every Bird that it was a wonder it should catch any for at this time the Match was quite broke off with Spain and another entered upon with France when it must be suposed forsooth the Spanish Match was in Treaty and now must be broken off by Advice in Parliament which was before such a Mystery of State as not to be meddled with in Parliament But while the Prince and Duke were wrapt up in security of the Parliament as well as the King's Affections and that now the Duke was become as well the Peoples as the King's Favourite a new Accident happened out of which if the Prince and Duke had not been extricated by the matchless Wit and lively Industry of the Keeper in all appearance it would have put both Prince and Duke out of the King's Favour and Affections dissolved this beloved Parliament and have brought such a train of mischievous Consequences as could not have been foreseen or prevented I desire to be excused if I do not cite the Bishop of Litchfield's words in the Life of the Lord Keeper for I think the Case will more clearly appear without his Paraphrases and Glosses While the Marriage between the Prince and Infanta was in Treaty the King of Spain sent Don John Marquess Inoiosa his Ambassador to be resident in England a Man of true Spanish Gravity and Severity and a most rigid Promoter of the Popish Interest in England so that he was taken notice of to be the most surly and unpleasing Man that ever came to the Keeper about any Business If this Man were thus during the Treaty it could not be expected he would become better natur'd upon the breaking of it and the Duke of Buckingham was as jealous of him that he should spoil the Narrative he had made of the Proceedings in the Spanish Match as he was of the Earl of Bristol and therefore would never admit the Marquess to have any private Audience of the King in the Duke's Absence so that Sir Walter Aston wrote from Spain that it was complained of that Marquess Inoiosa had advertised thither he had not been able
to procure a private Audience of the King tho he often desired it but what the Duke assisted at Inoiosa impatient of any longer Delay about the latter end of April 1624 contrived this Expedient to put the following Paper into the King's Hand he and Don Carlo de Colonna came adventurously to White-Hall and whilst Don Carlo held the Prince and Duke in earnest Discourse Inoiosa put this Paper into the King's Hand with a Wink that the King should put it into his Pocket wherein 1. He terrifies the King that he was not or could not be acquainted with the Passages either of his own Court or of the Parliament for he was kept from all faithful Servants that would inform him by the Ministers of the Prince and Duke and that he was a Prisoner as much as King John of France in England or King Francis at Madrid and could not be spoken with but before such as watched him 2. That there was a strong and violent Machination in hand which had turned the Prince a most obedient Son to a quite contrary Course to his Majesty's Intentions 3. That the Council began last Summer at Madrid but was lately resolved on in England to restrain his Majesty from the Exercise of the Government of his Kingdoms and that the Prince and Duke had designed such Commissioners under themselves as should intend great Affairs and the Publick Good 4. That this should be effected by beginning of a War and keeping some Companies on foot in this Land whereby to constrain his Majesty to yield to any thing chiefly being brought into Straits for want of Monies to pay the Souldiers 5. That the Prince and Duke's inclosing his Majesty from the said Ambassador and other of his own Loyal People that they might not come near in private did argue in them a fear and distrust of a good Conscience 6. That the Emissaries of the Duke had brought his Majesty into Contempt with the potent Men of this Realm traducing him for slothful and unactive for addiction to an inglorious Peace while the Inheritance of his Daughter and her Children is in the Hands of his Foes and this appear'd by a Letter which the Duke had writ into Holland and they had intercepted 7. That his Majesty's Honour nay his Crown and Safety did depend upon a sudden Dissolution of the Parliament 8. They loaded the Duke with sundry Misdemeanours in Spain and his violent Opposition to the Match 9. That the Duke had divulged the King's Secrets and the close Designs between his Majesty and their Master King Philip about the States of Holland and their Provinces and laboured to put his Majesty out of the good Opinion of the Hollanders 10. That the Duke was guilty of most corrupt dealing with the Ambassadors of divers Princes 11. That all these things were carried on in the Parliament with an head-strong Violence and that the Duke was the cause of it who courted them only that were of troubled Humours 12. That such Bitterness and Ignominies were vented in Parliament against the King of Spain as were against all good Manners and Honour of the English Nation The 13th is a flat Contradiction to the Precedents wherein they made the Prince privy to dangerous things yet in this they say That the Puritans of whom the Duke was Head did wish they could bring it about that the Succession of the Kingdom might come to the Prince Palatine and his Children in right of the Lady Elizabeth In a Postscript the Paper prayed the King That Don Francisco Carondelet Secretary to the Marquess Inoiosa might be brought to the King when the Prince and Duke were sitting in the Lords House to satisfy such Doubts as the King might raise which was performed by the Earl of Kelly who watch'd a fit Season at one time for Francisco and for Padre Maestro a Jesuit at another time who told their Errand so spitefully that the King was troubled at their Relations How far the Spanish Ambassador Carondelet and the Jesuit Maestro could make good this Paper I cannot tell nor does the Bishop say however the King was apprehensive that the Parliament was solicitous to engage him in a War for the Palatinate which he so dreaded that as the Bishop says he thought scarce any Mischief was so great as was worth a War to mend it wherein the Prince did deviate from him as likewise in his Affection to the Spanish Alliance But he stuck at the Duke more whom â—e defended in one part to one of the Spanish Ministers yet at the same time complaining That he had noted in him a turbuleâ—â— Spirit of late and knew not how to mitigate it so that casting up the Sum he doubted it might come to his turn to pay the Reckoning These Thoughts so wrought upon the King that his Countenance fell suddenly that he mused much in Silence and that he entertained the Prince and Duke with mystical and broken Speeches this nettled them both and enquiring the Reason they could not go further than that they heard the Spanish Secretary and the Jesuit Maestro had been with the King and understood that some in the Ambassador's House had vaunted that they had nettled the Duke and that a Train would take fire shortly to blow up the Parliament In this Perplexity the King prepared to take Coach for Windsor to shift Ground for some better Rest in this Unrest and took Coach at St. James's Gate and the Prince with him and found a slight Errand to leave Buckingham behind as the King was putting his Foot into the Coach the Duke besought him with Tears in his Eyes and humble Prayer that his Majesty would let him know what could be laid to his Charge to offend so good and gracious a Master and vowed by the Name of his Saviour he would purge it or confess it The King did not satisfy him but breathed out his Disgust that he was the unhappiest alive to be forsaken of them that were dearest to him which was uttered and received with Tears from his own Eyes as well as the Prince's and Duke's and made haste to Windsor leaving the Duke behind this was upon Saturday at the end of April The Duke forlorn retires to Wallingford-House and was in such Confusion and Distraction that when my Lord Keeper who had notice of all these things and was more careful of the Duke than he could be of himself came to him he found the Duke lying upon his Couch in that immoveable Posture that he would neither rise up nor speak tho the Keeper invited him to it twice or thrice by courteous Questions The Keeper told him by the Faith of a deep Protestation that he came purposely to prevent more Harm and to bring him out of that Sorrow into the Light of the King's Favour That he verily believ'd God's directing Hand was in it to stir up his Grace to advance him to those Favours which he possessed to do him Service at this Pinch of Extremity
The Keeper besought the Duke to make haste to Windsor and to shew himself to the King before Supper was ended to deport himself with all amiable Addresses and not to stir from him Day nor Night for the Danger was that some would thrust themselves to push on the King to break up the Parliament and the next degree of their Hope was upon the Dissolution of the Parliament to see his Grace committed to the Tower and then God knows what would follow the Keeper besought him to be secret and be quick and judicious in the Prevention More might not be said because the Loss of Time might lose all The Duke thankt him and made haste to Windsor before he was lookt for and was as inseparable from the King as his Shadow The Fineness of the Keeper's Wit in unriddling this Mystery is equal to that of Cicero in finding out the Bottom of Catiline's Conspiracy and by like means viz. by Women tho after a different manner For Fulvia of her own accord discovered Catiline's Conspiracy in Spite and Emulation to Sempronia but the Keeper bribed one of Fulvia's Stamp to get an Insight into this Design which so perplext the King It seems to me that the Prince and Duke had a Jealousy that the Spanish Ambassador might infuse something into the Keeper which might spoil the Narrative which the Duke made in Parliament of the Spanish Match and therefore the Keeper had given express Orders that neither the Spanish Ambassador nor any of his Train or Followers should come at him whereby the Keeper had been secluded for a Month from any Intelligence from thence But before Don Francisco Carondelet the Ambassador's Secretary was frequently at the Keeper's he was contrary to the Ambassador as well by Birth for he was a Walloon not a Castilian and Arch-Dâ—aâ—on of Cambray as by Nature being learned and of a free and pleasant Dispoâ—â—tion whereas the Spanish Ambassador was most austere and sowr so as there was a great Intimacy between the Keeper and him and out of him the Keeper got what a Servant the Secretary was to some of our English Ladies of Pleasure but above all to one in Mark-lane who by her Wit so managed the Secretary that he could keep no Secret from her which she would have had made known With her the Keeper held Correspondence and presented her bountifully though he told the Prince he had never seen her and by her the Keeper had the rough Draught of the Deâ—â—gn of the Paper which the Ambassador had put into the King's Hands The Keeper had also notice of an English Priest who lived in Drury-lane which the Secretary loved above any other and was dearer to him than his own Confessor but whether the Keeper came to the Knowledge of this by the Lady in Mark-lane or from the Secretary himself the Bishop does not say The Commons had drawn up a Remonstrance against the Liberty which the Priests assumed which the King called a Stinging one and which put the Priests into a great Terror and in this Terror he sent his Pursevant Captain Toothbie to seize the Priest in Mark-lane and not to commit him to Prison but to keep him at his own House till further Order The Secretary soon heard of this and was confounded what to do for the Priest's Delivery he knew no other means to do it but by my Lord Keeper and from him he was banished yet in this Extremity he sent to the Keeper to beg of him to see his Face but that Day tho he never saw him more this was it the Keeper deâ—â—red yet he seemed very unwilling to admit him however if the Secretary came about eleven of the Clock at Night the Keeper would order one of his Servants to let him in at the back-Door of the Garden When the Secretary came into the Keeper's Presence he told the Keeper That nothing but a Matter as dear to him as his own Life should have forc'd him to break Rule to offend his Lordship with his Presence and bewailed the Disaster of his Confrere's Attachment and most passionately implored the Keeper to compass his Deâ—iverance And would you have me says the Keeper run such an Hazard to set a Priest at Liberty a dead Man by our Statutes when the Eye of the Parliament is so vigilant upon the Breach of Justice especially in this kind to the sadding of godly Men who detest them that creep hither out of Seminaries above all other Malefactors because they come with an intent to pervert them who have lived in the Bâ—som of our Church My Lord says Francisco accenting his Words with passionate Gesture let not the Dread of this Parliament trouble you for I can tell you if you have not heard it that it is upon Expiration and then the Keeper pickt out of him the Heads of the Articles in the Paper the Ambassador had given the King with all the Reasons Circumstances and distorted Proofs and Expositions to confirm them and about two in the Morning dismist the Secretary and ordered the Pursevant to release the Priest with Caution that he should cross the Seas that Day or the next The Keeper was as happy in his Memory as in his Wit and Invention for after the Secretary was gone he neither slept nor stirred out of the Room till he had digested all the Secretary had told him in Writing with his Observations upon each Particular and when he had trimmed up a fair Copy but what it was the Bishop says not he carried it to the Prince at St. James's This was upon Tuesday morning after the King went to Windsor The Prince read the Charges and admired at the Virulency of them with the Antiscripts of the Keeper which were much commended whereupon he caused his Coach to be made ready but before he went the Keeper humbly begg'd of him to conceal the Matter for two Reasons First for searching into the King's Counsels which he would not should be opened Secondly that when he had found them out to discover them tho to his Highness which the Prince promised and then went to Windsor When he came there he called for the Duke and shewed him the Paper privately with the Apology in the other Column the Duke humbly thankt the Prince that his Case was interwoven with his Highness and their double Vindication put into one Frame and besought the Prince to know what Vitruvius had compacted a Piece of Architecture of such Vicinity in so short a time but could not obtain it So they forthwith desired a private Hearing of the King and gave the Schedule to his Majesty's Consideration the King read it deliberately and at many Stops said 't was well very well and drew the Prince and Duke near to him and embraced them both protesting he sorrowed much that he had aggrieved them with a Jealousy fomented by no better than Traitors And that you may know said the King how little you shall pay me for Reconciliation I ask no
more but to tell me who is your Ingineer that struck these Sparks out of the Flint to light the Candle to find the Groat which was lost The Prince stood mute and the Duke vowed he knew not the Author Well said the King I have a good Nostril and will answer mine own Question my Keeper had the main finger in it I dare swear he bolted the Flower and made it up into Past Sir said the Prince I was precluded by my Promise not to reveal him but I never promised to tell a Lie for him your Majesty has hit the Man And God do him good for it says the King I need not tell you both what you owe him for this Service he has done himself this Right with me that I discern his Sufficiency more and more This you may read in the Keeper's Life Part 1. from fol. 195 to fol. 200. and much more of the Bishop but I think but little more of the Keeper And tho the Spanish Ambassador received a sore Rebuke here and was sent back into Spain the Bishop says he received no Frown nor Disfavour there Now let 's see how the Duke requited the Keeper for his Service which was but in May In the beginning of Michaelmas-Term following the Duke perswaded my Lord Chief Justice Hobart to tell the King or give it under his hand that my Lord Keeper was not fit for the Place and he would undertake to cast the Keeper out and put my Lord Hobart into his place but my Lord Hobart said Somewhat might have been said at first but he should do my Lord Keeper great wrong that said so now See fol. 201. However such was the Temper of the Times that both Houses chimed in with the Duke in his Narrative and justified him against the Spanish Ambassador who took great Offence at the Duke's Relation as reflecting upon his Master's Honour and demanded his Head for Satisfaction The King was so pleased with the Parliament's Justification of the Duke as we have shewed before that as he had been his Favourite Somerset's Advocate to plead his Cause against the Opinion of Archbishop Abbot to make the Countess of Essex to be virgo intacta and so a fit Wife for Somerset so now he becomes his Disciple Buckingham's Advocate to make him a Favourite to the Nation and because of the Excellency and veracity of his Speech which should dispose the Nation to it we 'll give it you verbatim as it is to be seen in Rushworth fol. 127. My Lords and Gentlemen I Might have nothing to speak in regard of the Person whereof you spake but in regard of your Motion it were not civil for if I be silent I shall neither wrong my self nor that Noble Man which you now spake of because he is well known to be such an one as stands in no need of a Prolocutor or Fideâ—ussor to undertake for his Fidelity or well carrying of the Business And indeed to send a Man upon so great an Errand whom I was not to trust for the Carriage thereof were a Fault in my Discretion scarce compatible to the Love and Trust I bear him It is an old Saying That he is a happy Man that serves a good Master and it is no less true That he is a happy Master that enjoys a faithful Servant The greatest Fault if it be a Fault or at leastwise the greatest Error I hope he shall ever commit against me was his desiring this Justification from you as if he had need of any Justification from others towards me and that for these Reasons First Because he being my Disciple and Scholar he may be assured he will trust his own Relation Secondly Because he made the same Relation to me which he did afterwards to both Houses so as I was formerly acquainted with the Matter and Manner thereof and if I should not trust him in the Carriage I was altogether unworthy of such a Servant He hath no Interest of his own in the Business He had ill Thoughts at home for his going thither with my Son altho it was my Command as I told you before and now he hath as little Thanks for his Relation on the other part he has the Thanks of the Parliament yet he that serves God and a good Master cannot miscarry for all this I have noted in the Negotiation these three remarkable things Faith Diligence and Discretion whereof my Son has born Record unto me yet I cannot deny That as he thought to do good Service to his Master he has given an ill Example to Ambassadors in time to come because he went this long Journey upon his own Charge This will prove an ill Example if many of my Ambassadors should take it for a Precedent He run his Head into the Yoke with the People here for undertaking the Journey and when he had spent there 40 or 50000 l. where should he have this Money never offered his Account nor made any Demand for the same nor ever will I hope other Ambassadors will do so no more I am a good Master that never doubted him for I know him to be so good a Scholar of mine that I say without Vanity he will not exceed his Master's Dictates and I trust the Report not the worst he made because it is approved by you all and I am glad he hath so well satisfied you and thank you heartily for taking it in so good part as I find you have done Did ever any old experienced King as he stiles himself so dote upon a young raw and unexperienced Gentleman bred up in no sort of Learning or Business and scarce before he became a Courtier unless in his Infancy breathed any other than French Air as in the face of the Nation to magnify an invidious Tale told by the Duke to the Offence not only of the Spanish Ambassador conversant in the whole Affair but also without hearing the Earl of Bristol who was the greatest Statesman of England if not in Europe and who had so honourably performed several Embassies to the Honour of the King so far as the thing would bear and so manifoldly owned by the King That this Scholar of the King 's unacquainted with the Treaty should break in upon the Earl and not only unravel all but quarrel with him and in another King's Court with the prime Minister of State by whom he might best have attained his End if he designed any However the Parliament address themselves to the King and represent to him That he cannot in Honour proceed in the Treaty of the Match with Spain nor the Palatinate and the Commons offer the King three Subsidies and three Fifteenths for carrying on the War for the Recovery of the Palatinate in case the King will break off the Treaties which the King accepted protesting to God a Penny of this Money should not be bestowed but upon this Work and by their own Committees and the Commons took him at his Word and appointed
Treasurers to receive the Money and a Council of War to disburse the same But the Commons having granted these Subsidies drew up a Petition against the Licence the Popish Party had taken during the Treaty with Spain He was so nettled at it that he called it a Stinging One and hearing the Commons were entring upon Grievances he could not endure it and upon the 29th of May adjourned the Parliament to the 2d of November 1624 and from thence to the 7th of April lest the King should hear of another stinging Petition or a Disturbance in the French Treaty but at this Adjournment he told them at their next Meeting they might handle Grievances so as they did not hunt after them nor present any but those of Importance yet I do not find the Parliament ever met again at least never did any thing However the King passed a General Pardon and the Parliament censured Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer for Corruption in his Office 50000 l. to the King and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's Pleasure which was but three days after the Adjournment of the Parliament for upon the first of June he was set free Whilst these things were doing in Parliament the Earl of Bristol was recalled from his Embassy but before his Arrival the Duke dealt by all means that the Earl might be committed to the Tower before he should be admitted to the King's Presence But fearing the Marquiss Hamilton and my Lord Chamberlain would oppose him herein the Duke pressed them that they would concur in it vowing as Somerset did to Sir Thomas Overbury he intended the Earl no hurt but only feared that if he should be admitted to the King's Presence he would cross and disturb the Course of Affairs but neither of these Lords would condescend thereunto This was attested by my Lord Chamberlain before the House of Lords This Deâ—â—gn of the Duke's failing the Duke to terrify the Earl from returning into England writ to him that if he kept not himself where he was in Spain and laid hold of the great Offers which he heard were made unto him the Earl it should be the worse for him At Bourdeaux the Earl heard of the Aspersions cast upon him by the Duke in Parliament of which the Earl did boldly afterward in the House of Lords in the second Parliament of Car. 1. and in the Presence of the Duke affirm That there was scarce any one thing concerning him in the Declaration which was not contrary to or different from Truth From Bourdeaux the Earl took Post to get into England to vindicate himself from the Asperâ—ons which the Duke had cast upon him in Parliament but when he came to Calais tho he sent over to have one of the King's Ships allowed him and for which publick Orders were given and tho the King James had Ships which lay at Boloign which might have every day been with him in three Hours and the Wind fair yet none came tho the Earl waited for one eight Days so that he was forced to pass the Sea to Dover in a Boat and six Oars When the Earl was landed at Dover he was by a Letter from my Lord Conway a Creature of the Duke's commanded in the King's Name to retire to his House and not to come to Court or the King's Presence until he had answered to certain Questions which his Majesty would appoint some of the Council to ask him but this was not out of any ill meaning to him but for fear the Parliament should fall too violently upon him and this the Duke said to some of his Friends was the Reason of the Earl's Restraint Hereupon the Earl humbly petitioned the King he might be exposed to Parliament and that if he had not served the King honestly in all things he deserved no Favour but to be proceeded against with all Severity but received Answer from the King That there should be but few days past before he would put an end to his Affairs but the Parliament was adjourned before the few days passed nor did he ever put an end to them You may read the further Contrivances against him by the Duke in Rushw from fol. 259 to 265. After the Adjournment of the Parliament or if you will the Dissolution of it tho the Earl of Bristol could not obtain Admission into the King's Presence yet he obtained Leave to answer to all the Duke had in his Absence charged upon him in Parliament and withal wrote to the Duke that if he or any Man living was able to make Reply he would submit himself to any thing which should be demanded which tho the Duke presumptuously said That it is not an Assertion to be granted that the Earl of Bristol by his Answer had satisfied the King the Prince or himself of his Innocence yet it so satisfied the King that when the Duke after pressed the King that the Earl might submit and acknowledg his Fault the King answered I were to be accounted a Tyrant to engage an innocent Man to confess Faults of which he was not guilty Tho the Earl said he could prove this upon Oath yet the Duke wrote to him that the Conclusion of all that had been treated with his Majesty was that he the Earl should make the Acknowledgment as was set down in that Paper tho at that time the King sent him word that he would hear him against the Duke as well as he had heard the Duke concerning him and soon after the King died which Promise of the King 's the Earl prayed God did the King no hurt however the Earl obtained Leave of the King to come to London to follow his private Affairs Mr. Rushworth therefore errs a little in point of time where he says fol. 149. the Earl was committed to the Tower in King James his time for he was not committed till the 15th of January 1625. in the first Year of King Charles as you may see in Stow's Life of King Charles fol. 1042. We have now done with the Spanish Match at least during this King's Reign yet the King's Desires of seeing his Son married which he shall never see were as impatient as those of getting the Infanta's huge Portion and to that end before the Meeting of the Parliament and while the Treaty with the Infanta was yet breathing the King sent my Lord Kensington after Earl of Holland to feel the Pulse of the French Court how it beat towards an Alliance between the Prince and Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter of Henry IV. of France A serene Heaven appeared in France upon the Motion not a Cloud to be seen in all the French Horizon Lewis the King telling my Lord Kensington he took it for an Honour that he sought his Sister for the sole Son of so Illustrious a King his Neighbour and Ally only he desired he might send to Rome to have the Pope's Consent for the better Satisfaction of his Conscience And now you
she should take other French Catholicks in their Places but nevertheless by the Consent of the King of Great Britain That the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales his Son should oblige themselves by Oath not to attempt by any means whatsoever to make her change her Religion or to force her to any thing that might be contrary thereto and should promise by writing in the Faith and Word of a King and Prince to give Order that the Catholicks as well Ecclesiastical as Secular who have been imprisoned since the last Edict against them should be set at Liberty That the English Catholicks should be no more enquired after for their Religion nor constrained to take the Oath which contains something contrary to the Catholick Religion That their Goods that have been seized since the last Edict should be restored to them And generally that they should receive more Graces and Liberty in Favour of the Alliance with France than had been promised them in consideration of that of Spain The Deputation of Father Berule Superior General of the Fathers of the Oratory to his Holiness to obtain the Dispensation for the aforesaid Marriage THE Instructions which were given to Father de Berule were to render himself with all Diligence at Rome to obtain the Pope's Dispensation and to this Effect to represent to his Holiness That the King of Great Britain having demanded of the King his Sister Madame Henrietta Maria for a Wife for the Prince of Wales his Son his Majesty hearken'd the more willingly to this Proposition in that he esteem'd it very profitable towards the Conversion of the English as heretofore a French Princess married into England had induced them to embrace Christianity but the Honour which he had vowed to the Holy See and particularly to his Holiness who baptized him in the Name of Pope Clement VIII did not permit him to execute the Treaty without having obtained his Dispensations That this Marriage ought to be look'd upon not only for the Benefit of the English Catholicks but of all Christendom who would thereby receive great Advantage That there was nothing to be hazarded for in Madame seeing that she was as firm in the Faith and in Piety as he could desire That she had a Bishop and 28 Priests to do their Duties That she had not a Domestick that was not Catholick and that the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would oblige themselves by Writing and by Oath not to solicit her directly or indirectly neither by themselves or by Persons interposed to change her Religion On the contrary having nothing to fear for her he had great Cause to hope that she being dearly beloved of the King who was already well enough disposed to be a Catholick and of the Prince of Wales she might by so much the more contribute to their Conversion as Women have wonderful Power over their Husbands and their Fathers-in-law when Love hath given them the Ascendant over their Spirits That she was so zealous in Religion that there was no doubt but she would employ in this pious Design all that depended upon her Industry and that if God should not bless Intentions in the Person of King James and of the Prince of Wales it was apparent that their Children would be the Restorers of the Faith which their Ancestors had destroyed seeing she would have the Charge to educate them in the Belief and in the Exercises of the Catholick Religion till the Age of 13 Years and that these first Seeds of Piety being laid in their Souls cultivated with Care at the time when they should be more susceptible of Instructions would infallibly produce stable and permanent Fruits that is to say a Faith so firm that it may not be shaken by Heresy in a riper Age. That after all the Catholicks of England would receive no small Profit at present since the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would both oblige themselves upon their Faith and by Writing no more to enquire after them nor punish them when they should be discovered to enlarge all those that had been imprisoned and to make them Restitution of Money and of other Goods that had been taken from them since the last Edict if they were yet in being and generally to treat them with more Favour than they could have expected from the Alliance with Spain And further He had Orders to let the Pope understand that to render more Respect to the Church it had been agreed that Madame should be affianced and married according to the Catholick Form and agreeable to that which was followed at the Marriage which Charles IX made of Madam Margaret of France with the late King Henry IV. then King of Navarre All these things spoke themselves and appeared so visibly that they would admit of no doubt so this Father that wanted neither Spirit nor Fire represented them dexterously to the Pope and his Holiness made him hope for a speedy and favourable Answer c. See the Life of Cardinal Richlieu printed at Paris 1650. fol. 14 15. How does this agree with the King's Speech at the opening of the Parliament in the 18th Year of his Reign That if the Treaty of the Match between his Son and the Infanta of Spain were not for the Benefit of the Established Religion at home and of the Reformed abroad he was not worthy to be their King And how does this agree with that part of the King's Speech at the opening of this Parliament That as for the Toleration of the Roman Religion as God shall surely judg him he said he never thought nor meant nor never in Words expressed any thing that savoured of it Do not Religion Truth and Justice support the Thrones of Princes and Hypocrisy Falshood and Injustice undermine and overthrow them What future Happiness then could either the King or Prince hope to succeed this Treaty sworn to by them both so diametrically contrary to the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation wherein the Majesty of the King as well as the Safety of the Nation is founded and to govern by these and observe this Treaty will be impossible What Peace could the Prince find at home even in his Bed when an imperious French Wife shall be ever instigating him to break his Coronation-Oath to truckle to that imposed upon him by her Brother of France These Pills how bitter soever must be swallowed by the King rather than his Son shall be baulk'd a second time nay it seems they were very sweet to him For Mr. Howel in the Life of Lewis III. says fol. 66. that King James said passionately to the Lords of the Council of the King of France My Lords the King of France has wrote unto me That he is so far my Friend that if ever I have need of him he will render me Offices in Person whensoever I shall desire him the Truth of this you will see by and by Truly he hath gained upon
thereupon referred this Business to my Lord Keeper Williams my Lord Treasurer Cranfield the Duke of Richmond Marquess Hamilton the Earl of Arundel the Lord Carew and the Lord Belfast who all agreed that they could not say that the King of Spain had done the part of a Friend in the Recovery of the Palatinate as he had professed nor could find that he had acted the Part of an Enemy declaredly as the Duke objected and indeed my Lord Keeper's Reasons against the War governed all the rest that saw no Expediency for War upon the Grounds communicated by Buckingham And 't was more observable that during the whole Treaty while Buckingham was in Spain the Business of the Palatinate was never mentioned and now he is come out of it it must be the Cause of a War with the King of Spain The Keeper's Reasons were Vpon whom shall we fall Either upon the Emperor or King of Spain the Emperor had in a sort offered the King his Son-in-law's Country again for Payment of a great Sum of Money in recompence of Disbursments but where was the Money to be had yet it might be cheaper bought than conquered before a War was ended For the King of Spain he saw no Cause to assault him with Arms He had held us indeed in a long Treaty to our Loss but he held nothing from us and was more likely to continue the State of things in a State of Possibility of Accommodation because he disliked the Duke of Bavaria's Ambition and had rather stop the Enlargement of his Territories The King embraced this Advice nor did he stay here yet did not stay long but spake hardly of Buckingham who would have put him upon making War upon the King of Spain and the King's Censure upon him was so bitter Cabal Page 92. that it was fit to be cast over-board in Silence says the Bishop of Litchfield f. 169 170. tit 175. This Resolution of the Council was so little to the Duke's Satisfaction that the Bishop says in the same Tit. that it made the Duke rise up and chafe against them from Room to Room as a Hen that had lost her Brood and clucks up and down when she has none to follow her Nor did the Duke stop here but notwithstanding the fierce Anger of the King and his not answering one of the Keeper's Reasons he appealed from the Judgment of the Council to the Parliament Sure he durst not have done this if he had not been sure of the Prince to second him against the Opinion and Anger of his Father This was the third inexpiable Crime the Keeper had committed against the Duke the first was his Advice to the Duke when he was in Spain to hold a good Correspondence with the Earl of Bristol and Olivares but finding the contrary by a Letter to the Duke of the 28th of June which you may read in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Bishop Williams fol. 136. tit 146. and another of the 22d of July tit 155. fol. 147. where he in gentle manner informed the Duke as from the King himself how zealous the King was not only of fair Terms between the Duke and Earl but of a nearer Alliance This was such a piece of Impudence in the Keeper that the Bishop says in the next tit that it removed the Duke's Affections from the Keeper for ever nor could this State-Minister contain his Displeasure but wrote to my Lord Mandevile that the first Action he would imbarque himself in when he came home should be to remove the Keeper out of his Place And the next Crime of the Keeper was The Duke was afraid of his Wit See the Bishop tit 156. However this Counsel took such Effect with King James and he was so satisfied that he had no Colour of Title to make War against the King of Spain that when the Parliament after gave him three Subsidies and three Fifteens for the Recovery of the Palatinate and when he had raised an Army of 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse to be commanded by Count Mansfield the King not only made it a Condition that Mansfield with the Army should not commit any Hostility against any of the Dominions which by Right appertained to the King of Spain or the Infanta Isabella Princess of the Low Countries or the Spanish Netherlands and in case he did so from that time the King was not longer to continue Payment of the Army but also took an Oath of Mansfield to observe the Conditions So that how powerful soever the Duke was over King James yet in none of these Particulars could he obtain his End viz. in not prevailing upon the King to make War upon the King of Spain nor in removing the Lord Keeper nor in having the Earl of Bristol committed to the Tower After the breaking of the Spanish Match it was observed that King James's Temper was quite so altered that he forgot his Recreations of Hunting and Hawking at New-Market but whilst he was there he remained as in an Infirmary and in a Fit of Melancholy told the Earl of Carlisle that if he had sent Williams into Spain with his Son he had kept Hearts-ease and Honour both which he wanted See the Bishop of Litchfield lib. 1. tit 174. King James then began to look back upon his former Actions in having lost the Affections of his Subjects and now intangled in the Difficulties which he saw inevitably coming upon him charged the Prince often in the hearing of the Lord Keeper Williams to call Parliaments often and to continue them tho their Rashness sometimes did offend him That in his own Experience he never got any Good by falling out with them See the Bishop of Litchfield lib. 2. f. 16. tit 16. How well King Charles observed his Father's Advice in any of these nay how diametrically he went contrary and contrary to all good Advice given him in the very first Year of his Reign will soon appear and the miserable Effects which followed I have heard my Father tho not a Courtier yet acquainted with many Courtiers say that they would oft pray to God that the Prince might be in the right Way where he set for if he were in the wrong he would prove the most wilful of any King that ever reigned Tho all must stoop to mighty Buckingham yet that he might stand surer who must be his only Support but Laud Bishop of Saint Davids who from picking Quarrels in Lectures at Oxford and being an Informer before now is become Vice-gerent to Buckingham A List of all the eminent Men for Promotion in the Church is given in those whom Laud would have promoted were noted O for Orthodox and whom he liked not were marked P for Puritans these two stopt up both the King's Ears from any other Doctrines in Church or State but what was infused by them so early did King James's Prophecy to my Lord Keeper Williams when he was so importunate to have Laud preferred begin to be fulfilled
to the Earl that it was his Majesty's Pleasure withal no doubt but by the Advice of his highest Council of State that the Earl should continue in the same Restraint he was so that he forbear his personal Attendance in Parliament But since the Duke could no longer otherways keep the Earl out of the House of Lords the King by my Lord Keeper signified to the Lords that his Pleasure was they should send for the Earl as a Delinquent to answer Offences committed against him before his going into Spain and since his coming back and his scandalizing the Duke of Buckingham immediately and by Reflection upon himself with whose Privity and Direction the Duke guided his Actions and without which he did nothing And now Sir Robert Heath the King's Attorney-General exhibited eleven Articles against the Earl it was thought fit to leave out the other nine which the Earl had answered to King James without any Reply and in the last of these the Earl is charged with giving the King the Lie in offering to falsify that Relation which his Majesty affirmed and thereunto added many things of his own Remembrance to both Houses of Parliament which you may read at large in Rushworth's Collections from fol. 153 to 158. Hereupon the Earl exhibited a Charge of High Treason and Misdemeanours in twelve Articles against the Duke and another against the Lord Conway of High Misdemeanours which you may read at large in Rushworth from fol. 266 to 270. And upon the Delivery of them the Earl desired a Copy of the King's Charge against him in Writing and time allowed to answer and Counsel assigned him and said there was a great Difference between the Duke and him for the Duke was accused of Treason and at large and in the King's Favour and that he being but accused of that which he had long since answered was a Prisoner and therefore moved the Duke might be put in equal Condition which tho the House did not yet were not satisfied to commit the Earl to the Tower and order'd That the King's Charge against the Earl should be first heard and then the Earl's against the Duke yet so that the Earl's Testimony against the Duke be not prevented prejudiced or impeached The King in a Message to the Lords by my Lord Keeper would have blasted the Earl's Articles against the Duke for two Reasons if they may be called so The first was That the Narrative made in the 21 Jac. in Parliament trenches as far upon him as the Duke for that he went therein as far as the Duke But what then Shall not the Earl be heard in his Defence against that Declaration which was designed to blast the Earl's Honour and Integrity and Justice is no Respecter of Persons The other was That all the Earl's Articles have been closed in his Breast now these two Years contrary to his Duty if he had known any Crime of that nature against the Duke and now he vents it by Recrimination against the Duke whom he knows to be a principal Witness to prove his Charge against the Earl This is strange for his Majesty's Reign was scarce yet a Year old and all this while the Earl was under a Restraint and not permitted to come to the Parliament which ended at Oxford and in his Father's Reign after the Earl had answered all the Duke's Articles against him without any Reply King James promised him he should be heard against the Duke as well as he was against him tho he lived not to make good his Promise Now let 's see the Levity of this Prince the necessary Concomitant of Wilfulness and which he pursued in every step of his Reign without any Remorse that I could ever find for the Lodgment of the King's Charge against the Earl in the House of Lords was scarce cold whenas it was endeavoured to take the Earl's Cause out of the House and to proceed against him in the King's-Bench But why must this be at this time of day and while a Parliament was sitting And why was not this done in the King's Father's Life or in this King's Reign And why must two years pass and this way of charging the Earl never thought of which now must be done in all haste But the Lords put a full stop to this and for these Reasons 1. For that in all Causes of moment the Defendants shall have Copies of all Depositions both pro and contra after Publication in convenient time before hearing to prepare themselves and if the Defendants will demand that of the House in due time they shall have learned Counsel to assist them in their Defence And their Lordships declared they would give their Assents thereto because in all Causes as well Civil as Criminal and Capital they hold that all lawful Help could not before just Judges make one that is guilty avoid Justice and on the other side God defend that an Innocent should be condemned 2. The Earl of Bristol by his Petition to the House complained of his Restraint desiring to be heard here as well in point of his Wrongs as in his Accusations against the Duke whereof his Majesty taking Consideration signified his Pleasure by the Lord Keeper April 20 That his Majesty was resolved to put his Cause upon the Honour and Justice of this House and that the Earl should be sent for as a Delinquent to answer the Offences he committed in his Negotiations before his Majesty's going into Spain whilst his Majesty was there and since his Return and that his Majesty would cause these things to be charged upon him in this House so as the House is fully possessed of the Cause as well by the Earl's Petition as the King's Consent and the Earl brought up to the House as a Delinquent to answer his Offences there and Mr. Attorney hath accordingly delivered the Charge against him in the House and the Earl also his Charge against the Duke And now if the Earl be proceeded withal by way of the Kings-Bench these dangerous Inconveniencies will follow 1. He can have no Counsel 2. He can use no Witness against the King 3. He cannot know what the Evidences against him will be in convenient time to prepare for his Defence and so the Innocent may be condemned which may be the Case of any Peer 4. The Liberty of the House will be thereby infringed the Honour and Justice of it declined contrary to the King's Pleasure expresly signified by my Lord Keeper all which are expresly against the Order 5. The Earl being indicted it will not be in the Power of the House to keep him from Arraignment and so he may be disabled to make good his Charge against the Duke Therefore the way to proceed according to the Directions and true Meaning of the Order and the King's Pleasure signified and preserve the Liberties of the House and protect one from Injury will be To have the Charge delivered into the House in Writing and the Earl to set down his
see what Fruits the Petition of Right passed but the Year before had and the King 's repeated Declarations to maintain the Laws of the Land and the Liberty and Property of the Subject But if this Prince has not kept his Word for the time past he will keep it he says for the time to come in the Declaration he made for the Dissolution of this last Parliament I do not find the Date of it yet it begins with the usual Prologue However Princes are not bound to give an account of their Actions but only to God In this the King says nothing of the Eyes of all Christendom being upon him but tells how the Aids granted this last Parliament were for Payment of his Fleet and Army and that with part of those Monies he began to supply his Magazines and Stores and to put his Navy into a constant Form and Order and that notwithstanding the Provocations of evil Men whose Punishment he reserves to a due time he will maintain the Established Religion and Doctrine of the Church of England and the antient and just Rights and Liberties of the Subject Yet as he will maintain the Subjects Rights so he expects that they yield as much Submission and Duty to his Royal Prerogative and as ready Obedience to his Authority and Command as had been performed to any of his Predecessors Then wills his Ministers not to be terrified by the harsh Proceedings strained against them for as he will support them by his Authority and Prerogative so he expects they should obey him and that he will receive the Customs and the Duty of Five in the 100 and if any factious Merchants refuse to pay they shall be assured he will find honourable and just means to support his Estate and Soveraignty and preserve the Authority God had put into his Hands and for this his Subjects ought to acknowledg their own Blessedness and for the same to be thankful to God the Author of all Goodness For this you must take the Prince's Word for the next twelve Years But being thus great and happy at Home let 's see what is doing Abroad The War against France was not more inconsiderately begun about two Years before than the Peace made with it was secret The first time it was made known was when the French King besieged Privas he proclaimed the Peace with his good Brother of England The Reformed were astonished and confounded that the King of England who brought them into the War should leave them out of the Peace Hereupon Privas surrenders so does Castres and Nismes the great Rohan is forced to submit and disband The Power of the Reformed thus rooted up and while the King of England is making War against the Members of Parliament Richlieu marches with an Army into Italy and takes Salusses and Pignerol from the Duke of Savoy Richlieu having thus secured the King of England took no less care that the Empire should not put a stop to the swelling Ambition of his Master and to this purpose enters into a Confederacy with the Protestant Princes of Germany to call the King of Sweden in to Germany who next Year entred into it where for eighteen Years the French Protestant Princes joining the Swede a most dreadful War was raised all over Germany so as the French had no cause to fear any Danger thence on the contrary they took Brisac and other Places and had opportunity to wrest Lorain from that Duke But King Charles prospering as he thought in his Domestick War having taken more Prisoners in it I mean the Members of Parliament and Constables of Hertfordshire than his Father and he had done in all their Wars against France Spain and the Empire for the recovery of the Palatinate was very unwilling to enter into a Foreign and therefore in a kind of petitioning way sends Sir Henry Vane his Ambassador to the King of Sweden to take care of the Patrimony of his Brother but with no better Success yet in a more rough scornful and dishonourable manner than his Father's Ambassadors had with the Emperor But that he might seem to do something the King sent Marquess Hamilton with 6000 Men to assist the Swede who tho every-where else victorious yet this Army under Hamilton had worse Success than that under Mansfield being starved and mouldred away almost to nothing and yet fought not at all and being reduced to two Regiments the King of Sweden would not permit King Charles to name the Officers See Whitlock's M. f. 15. and Franklin's Anno 1630. The ill Success of Hamilton's Army put the King out of all Conceit of prosecuting any Foreign War and therefore wholly makes it his Business to make himself more Absolute at Home There is but one Rub in the way viz. the great Prop of the Church the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Abbot a Prelate of most eminent Learning whose upright Integrity stood as an unshaken Rock against the Innovations both in Church and State which were now so fiercely push'd on by the Arminians I find but little Action in this Year 1631 things were only preparing to what followed yet altho Arch-bishop Abbot was living the Torrent run so high in the University of Oxford that several of the Members were proceeded against and censured for Sermons preach'd against Arminianism and expell'd the University and the Book of Sports and Pastimes upon the Lord's-day was republished Judg Richardson was so hardy as to repress them but the Bishops took this as an intruding upon the Ecclesiastical Power and Bishop Laud complained thereof to the King and the Judg was check'd for it See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 16 17. But in the Year 1632 this Reverend Prelate died and thereby left room for Laud the Fire-brand of Arminianism to take Possession Before we see what follows let 's look back upon what went before He being of a restless aspiring Temper in the beginning of King James his Reign got to be Chaplain to Mountjoy Earl of Devonshire and to shew he would be great upon any account he marries the Earl to the Lady Rich tho her Husband was then alive and had many Children by her viz. Robert then Earl of Warwick and Henry Earl of Holland which Act so displeased King James that the Earl fell into his Displeasure and tho Laud hanker'd near twenty Years after the Court to get Preferment principally under the Countenance of Neal Bishop of Winchester yet the King would never endure to hear of it But at last by the Importunity of Neal and others Williams Bishop of Lincoln and Lord-Keeper was prevailed upon to intercede for him without any Success till at length the Keeper told the King It would be hard to serve a King who could not forgive one Fault At last he got the King to prefer Laud to the Bishoprick of St. Davids but he had not been scarce one Year in his Bishoprick before he became Williams his bitter Enemy and Prosecutor as you may read in the second Part
so grave an Author as the Bishop of Litchfield had not reported it in the Bishop of Lincoln's Life See the second Part fol. 138. The Writs for Ship-Money are now issued out the Proceedings against the Officers for not collecting the Assessments as Constables Bayliffs and other Officers were to bind them over to answer at the Council-board and Commitment if any refused to give Bond but if Sheriffs neglect to collect all such Assessments in their Year they shall stand charged with the Arrears Thus things at present stood but the breaking the Bounds of the Forests was but in Embrio yet in a hopeful Production Thus things stood in the State about the end of the Year 1634. In the Church the Arch-Bishop had the sole Supremacy not only in England but in Scotland having got a Warrant from the King to hold Correspondence with the Bishops and also in Ireland being chosen Chancellor of the University of Dublin and having got Sir Thomas Wentworth to be Lieutenant of Ireland who was now as much his intimate Confident as Noy was before In England the Arch-bishop's Injunctions for wearing the Surplice receiving the Sacrament kneeling and placing the Communion-Table Altar-ways and railing it about c. were vehemently prosecuted with the opprobrious Names of Puritan and Schismatick fixed upon Nonconformists with Deprivations and Censures upon Lecturers and Chaplains who refused to come up to them if they did they must forsake their Patrons Patronesses and Flocks who provided them Bread so that they contended pro Aris Focis and otherways no Provision was made for them On the contrary they retorted on the Bishops and promoted Clergy with bitter Terms of Popishly affected and Rags of Superstition and Idolatry so that the Contentions all over the Kingdom were as fierce as in the Universities But it had been happy for this Nation if the Effects of these Contentions had been terminated in the Bounds of it For the Arch-bishop in his Metropolitan Visitation this Year 1634 summoned the Ministers of the Dutch and French Churches to appear before his Vicar-General where all the Natives viz. born in England were enjoined to repair to their several Parish-Churches to hear Divine Service and Sermons and perform all Duties and Payments required in that behalf The Descendants of those Walloons persecuted by Alva and of the French by Henry II. of France had for near ninety Years been allowed their several Congregations by Queen Elizabeth King James I and had the Royal Word of King Charles for enjoying of them But now at once they must be turn'd out of them When these Injunctions were to be put in Execution at Norwich the Dutch and French Congregations petitioned Dr. Matthew Wren that these Injunctions might not be imposed upon them but finding no Relief appealed to the Arch-bishop who return'd a sharp Answer that unless they would submit he would proceed against them according to the Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical Here take notice that as the Spanish Trade was the most enriching Trade to this Nation so the Trade to Hamburg and the Countries and Kingdoms within the Sound with our Woollen Mafactures was the best the English had for Employment of People Shipping and Navigation The Company which traded into the Sound was called the East-Country Company and Queen Elizabeth and after her King James to honour them called it the Royal Company This Trade the English enjoyed time out of mind and the Cloths which supplied it were principally made in Suffolk and Yorkshire And Ipswich as it was the finest Town in England and had the Noblest Harbour on the East and most convenient for the Trade of the Northern and Eastern Parts of the World so till this time it was in as flourishing a State as any other in England The Bishop of Norwich straining these Injunctions to the utmost frighted thousands of Families out of Norfolk and Suffolk into New-England and about 140 Families of the Workers of those Woollen Manufactures wherewith Hamburg and the Countries within the Sound were supplied went into Holland where the Dutch as wise as Queen Elizabeth was in entertaining the Walloons persecuted by the Duke of Alva established these English Excise-free and House-Rent free for seven Years and from these the Dutch became instructed in working these Manufactures which before they knew not The Consequence whereof shall be shewn hereafter But the Care of the Arch-bishop for Reformation of the Church of Scotland was not less than for that of England and to that end got the King to sign a Common-Prayer Book for the Use of the Church of Scotland and gave order to the Bishops there to compile certain Canons for the Government of the Church and there to be imposed by Regal and Episcopal Authority and to this end Laud held Correspondence with the Arch-bishop of Saint Andrews and other Bishops of Scotland Whilst these things were brewing in England and Scotland you need not fear Ireland now Sir Thomas Wentworth was Lieutenant there a most dreadful War overspread Germany and Philip the 4th a weak lascivious Prince reigned in Spain so as Richlieu had a fair Opportunity to subdue Monsieur the King's Brother and overthrow the Forces raised by the Duke of Momerancy to assist Monsieur wherein the Duke was unhappily taken Prisoner and had his Head cut off being a young Prince of greatest Hope the most antient of the French Nobility and the last of his Line But the Cardinal did not rest here but built more and better Men of War than had been before in France and Spain shall first find the Force of them in return of their Kindness in joining their Fleet with the French in relieving St. Martins in the Isle of Rhee besieged by the English And this Year 1634 Richlieu trickt Charles Duke of Lorain out of his Dutchy and the next the King of France proclaims open War against Spain by Sea and Land and in 1638 ten Years after the Spaniards joining with the French against the English the French besieged Fontaraby by Land which the Spaniards intending to relieve by Sea the Spanish Fleet is encountred by the French and beaten the French took eleven great Ships whereof six of them were richly laden for the Indies and burnt two Gallions upon the Stocks and six others entirely finished In the Ships taken besides their Equippage and other Ammunition of War the French took an incredible Number of Cannons 100 whereof were Brass with the Arms of the House of Austria upon them Afterward the French and Spanish Fleet fight in the Mediterranean Sea where the Spaniard is again beaten by the French and by Land the French take from the Spaniard Landrecy Beaumont and de la Valette in the Spanish Netherlands Perpignan the Key of Spain on the Foot of the Pyrenean Hills in the Country of Rousillion and Barcelona a good Port and the capital City of Catalonia In England this Year 1635 there was great Contrivance between the Arch-bishop Laud and Bishops of Scotland
and sure never was there such a Generation who so impudently out-braved Truth and all that may be call'd Sacred If you could force a Belief into them they first told you they fought for King and Parliament then they declared for the King and People against the Parliament and now they have taken off the King if you will have any Benefit of their Protection you must engage to their Government without King or House of Lords and be content with a piece of the Commons call'd the Rump Not content with the Death of the King the Rump proceeds to abolish Monarchy and place the original Power of Government in the People whose Representatives they are if you 'll take their Word and voted it High Treason to restore Monarchy or to assist or pray for Charles Stuart or any of that Line overthrow the King's Statue with an Exit tyrannus Regum ultimus Nor are they satiated with the Blood of the King but erect another High Court of Injustice whereof one Lisle an ignorant Fellow was President who condemns the Marquess Hamilton Earl of Holland and Lord Capel for raising Arms against the Parliament which themselves had destroy'd But tho the Rump and Army were establish'd upon these strange Principles yet being the Instruments of Divine Vengeance like a Torrent broke loose from raging Seas in less than five Years time they overwhelm not only England but Ireland and Scotland almost pull'd the Dutch States up by the Roots and made France and Spain tremble But that we may observe what follow'd let 's see what went before The Scots were the first who invaded England against the King to impose their Solemn League and Covenant which was more against the English Laws and Constitutions than Laud's Service-Books Canons and High-Commission were against the Scotish In July last the Scots invaded England commanded by the Marquess Hamilton in August Cromwel routs and utterly overthrows this Army and takes Hamilton Prisoner So the Scots who began these Wars first are the first chastised by this English Army But this is but the Earnest of what shall follow The secluded Members who first join'd the Scots beginning first with an equivocal Protestation but after downright joined with the Scots in their Covenant are now not only turned out of the House by the Rump but kept in nasty Prisons till they became as little dangerous as The House of Lords The horrid Irish Massacre and Rebellion succeeded in the third place And now the Rump having established themselves by subduing of the Scots under Hamilton and deposing the secluded Members are laying Rods in Piss to scourge these abominable Irish But before we proceed let 's see how things stood in Ireland In October 1641. the Irish Massacre was which succeeded in a Rebellion in which Richlieu's Scarlet was as deep dyed as in the Scotish and English Commotions The Head of this accursed Crew was John Baptista Pennuncio the Pope's Nuncio who in his Passage through France threatned he would suffer no Man to live in Ireland that wished well to the King or to the English Affairs Thus you see how all the Factions conspired against the King the Laws and Constitutions of England But for these last seven Years viz. so long as the Distractions were continued in England the War was pursued but by halves in Ireland King Charles in his Life-time had made the Marquess of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland who in 1643 made a Truce with the Irish that the King might make use of the English in England But the Irish kept their Faith no better in it than the Scots had before with the King in the Peace in 1639. For on a sudden they rise against the Marquess now the English are sent into England and had surprized him if he had not been informed before and escaped into Dublin and being in no Condition to defend it but obliged to deliver it up either to the English sent by the Parliament or to the Irish he gave it up to the English who make Colonel Jones Governour and so Ormond leaves Ireland After the Marquess was withdrawn the Nuncio behaved himself like a Church-Man with such a Despotical Tyranny that he became intolerable even to the Irish themselves who being press'd by Jones Coot and Monk combine in a Body and send to the Queen and to the Prince of Wales for then the King was close Prisoner in the Isle of Wight to return the Marquess of Ormond and they would submit to his Authority and join to expel the Scots and Parliament's Forces The Nuncio taking this for an Affront to his Authority being that of the Apostolick See which is infallible threatens Excommunication to them who should not obey him but neither he nor his Excommunication were obey'd but was forced to Capitulate with the Irish themselves to procure his Departure which was as shameful as his Entrance was proud and insolent Upon the Marquess's Return he enter'd into most dishonourable Articles with the Irish which yet would not please Owen Ro Oneal who join'd with the Parliament's Forces and reliev'd Londonderry then besieg'd by the Lord Ardes After this Pacification with the Irish such as it was Ormond raises a numerous Army and by my Lord Inchiqueen routs a Party of Jones's going to Drogheda who takes the Town and Dundalk Green-Castle Newry and Trim and returns Victorious to the Marquess Hereupon the Marquess besieges Dublin but unfortunately sends my Lord Inchiqueen into Munster with if not the greatest the best part of the Army Jones falls upon the Remainder and utterly routs them This was in August 1649. And the same Month Cromwel lands at Dublin with an Army of 15000 old Soldiers Upon this Disaster the Irish no more to be reconciled to the English than the Scots Covenanters to Episcopacy quarrel with the Marquess which was never after composed So the Marquess left Ireland again leaving the Earl of Clanrickard Deputy Cromwel after his landing first storms Drogheda or Tredah with a most terrible Execution and after in less than one Year all Ireland upon the matter is reduced to the Obedience of the Rump who take dreadful Vengeance upon all the Irish who could be found to have had any hand in the Massacre of the English The King Charles II. having lost England and Ireland with all their Dependencies except the Isles of Guernsey Jersey Man and Scilly and the Plantations in America which shall soon follow set up for Scotland and makes the Marquess of Montross his Commissioner who having got together about 400 Swedes Danes Poles and Germans lands them at the Wick of Cathness in April 1650 and takes Dumbeath But Lesley having sent Major-General Straughan with 300 choice Horse he set upon this ill composed Body of Montross and utterly routs them Montross fled but was betrayed by the Laird of Aston who had formerly served him The Covenanters to shew their Clemency and Humility bind the Marquess in a Chair planted backwards on a Cart that all
8. The French Progress in Flanders more nearly concerned the Dutch than the English the Spanish Netherlands being the Barrier to secure the United Netherlands from sinking under the Power of France and therefore the Dutch States readily complied with Sir William's Proposals and Sir William waited upon the King to give him an Account of his Negotiation and within 5 Days after was sent back with Powers to conclude a stricter Defensive League than that at Breda between England and Holland either by Mediation or Force to stop the further Progress of the French Army in the Spanish Provinces And because the Swedes soon after entred into it it was called the Triple Alliance This preserved what the French had left untaken and the Spaniard was forced to sit down by the Loss But whatever the Spaniard lost by the French Ravages the English gained this Benefit by it That one Brewer whose Parents were said to be English with about fifty Walloons who wrought and died Fine Woollen Cloths came into England and the King after the Example of two of his wisest and most renowned Predecessors Edward III. and Queen Elizabeth entertain'd them against our Barbarous Law or rather Usage against Foreigners partaking the Benefit of Natural-born English and by them the English in a few Years time were instructed to make and dye fine woollen Cloths cheaper by 40 l. per Cent. than they could do before not only to the Benefit of the English at home but in foreign Vent abroad which before the Dutch had I think it was this Year the French sell into the Franche County of Burgundy and took Dole and Besanzon but this being a Barrier to the Swiss against the French Power as the Spanish Netherlands are to the Dutch the Swiss recalled their Subjects out of the French Service and ordered the levying Sixty Thousand Men to expel the French out of the County of Burgundy and now it was not time for the French King to contend against the Triple League and the Swiss too so he gave up Dole and Besanzon again to the Spaniards and withdrew his Forces out of the County Thus was Spain saved by others when they could not help themselves The banishing the Chancellour Clarendon did palliate but the Triple League reconciled all Difference between the King and Parliament as if no Dutch War or Miscarriages had been and for the Triple League they granted the King a Treble Supply viz. 20 Car. II. c. 1. 301000 l. upon Wines and Liquors Secondly an additional Duty of 8 l. per Tun on French Wines c. and 12 l. per Tun on Spanish Wines for eight Years which amounted to 560000 l. this was the 22 Car. II. And also cap. 3. an Act for sale of the Fee Farm Rents to the Value of 1300000 l. An. Dom. 1668. But you 'll see these dear bought Joys soon will fade for the great Clarendon and noble Southampton now are gone and another Generation is springing up and that with such forward Growth as all Weeds do that upon the Joy of the Triple League the House of Commons having given the King the 301000 l. Mr. Clifford after Lord Treasurer in April following told a Friend of Sir Temple's that for all this great Joy it must not be long before we have another War with Holland and this very Year a French Man gave my Lord Arlington the Design of laying another Holland's War and the Advance of it by the Practice of Monsieur Colbert upon the Ministers of our Court. An. Reg. 21. Dom. 1669. However the Devil will play at small Games rather than stand out for now the French King's Hands are tied up by the Triple League and Treaty at Aix la Chapelle from taking more Towns in the Spanish Netherlands Yet he exacted great Contributions from the Dutchies of Limburgh and Luxemburgh and confiscated the Estates of those in his Conquests who would not forswear their Allegiance to the King of Spain and endeavoured to surprize the Town of Hainault And tho by the Pyrenean Treaty the Duke of Lorain was to be restor'd to his Dutchy yet the Duke tho a Friend to the King was rejected from entring into the Triple League which he endeavoured and therefore incurred the French King's Displeasure who in the Year 1669 seized upon the poor Remainders of his Country and ordered one of his Generals to seize his Person and bring him either dead or alive And tho by the Treaty of Breda the French King was to restore the English to their Plantations in St. Christophers which the French had taken from them yet hitherto he refused to do it In this trifling which the Hector of France did only to keep his Hand in ure he did not sleep otherways the Triple League stuck sore in his Conscience which unless broken would set Bounds to his boundless Ambition In its infant State Monsieur Colbert in the first Year had made some Steps towards it but the next Year made such Advances that he had almost brought the Destruction of it to Perfection To facilitate this hopeful Project Madam the King 's beloved Sister came in June 1670 to Dover with full Powers to conclude this desired Business The King was not long behind but with equal Desire and extraordinary Affection meets his Sister where all things are concluded which tho as dark as Hell yet were as secret as Witchcraft which would have no Light but by their Consequences and that this well-laid Design might not be forgotten the Princess left her Woman Madam Carwel after Dutchess of Portsmouth with the King to put him in mind of it but the Princess was unhappy in this for Monsieur her Husband entertained a furious Jealousy in his frantick Brain that something else besides this hopeful Project was designed by the Princess so that though she were in perfect Health and never more pleased than when here yet upon her Return she in the Glory of her Age but Twenty six Years old died suddenly so that the Cause of her Death was as dark as the Design she came for But there is neither Sister Father or Mother with Kings and Kingdoms The sudden Death of Madam put no stop to the ratisying the Business she came for but the Marquess of Bellefonds is sent hither and an honourable Person is sent into France for both Kings Ratification of it Hereupon the French King descended from his Stiffness and delivered the English their Grounds in St. Christophers to Sir Charles Wheeler yet destroy'd all the Plantations plundered and carried away all that was portable laid the whole Country waste and left it in a much worse Condition than if it had never been planted The French King by his English Pensioners did not only keep the Emperor and Duke of Lorain out of being desirous to enter into the Triple League but he enters into a stricter League with the Arch-bishop of Collen and the Bishop of Munster two Princes of the Empire against the Dutch and now began to
sit out a greater Fleet of Men of War than ever any French King did before Nor were the Dutch behind-hand but made proportionable Advances not doubting but the King would make good his Proportion according to the League so lately made between the King and them in case the French King made any Attempt upon them Upon the 24th of October 1670 the Parliament met again and notwithstanding all the Aids granted the King in April before my Lord-Keeper Bridgman told the Parliament the great Care his Majesty had of them and the Kingdom since their last Recess and that besides the triple Alliance he had made many advantagious Alliances both for Security and Profit of Trade with the Swede Dane Spaniard and Duke of Savoy But since the Dutch and French made such vast Naval Preparations it was necessary for the Safety and Honour of the Nation that the King should at least keep equal Pace with them which could not be done without great Supplies which must be speedily granted for the King intended to put an End of this Session before Christmas but the Success of this Speech so ill agreeing with the Premises it was not permitted to be printed yet you may read it at large in Mr. Marvel's Growth of Popery But whatever Treaties of Commerce were made with other Princes the Keeper finds none with France where neither the advantagious Treaty made by Oliver was observed nor any new one made but the French King did use the English with all imaginable Oppressions without any Redress from the King However this Speech wrought so pathetically with the Parliament that they gave the King one Shilling in the Pound of the real Value of all the Lands of England for one Year and an Additional Excise upon Beer and Ale for six Years and the Law-Bill for nine Years which three Bills were computed at two Millions and a half And now this dark Design founded in such deep Dissimulation Hypocrisy and Perfidiousness as Oliver Cromwel would have been ashamed of and blush'd at begins to receive Light For the Parliament having granted the King the Aids were in Consequence prorogued and did not meet to act till the fourth of February 167 1 2. But in regard that not only the extirpating the Protestant Religion but the Subversion of the Western Parts of Europe was now designed which extended as far as the Baltick Sea and the Bounds of the Turkish and Tartar Empires we will be a little particular in it But what is most amazing is that the King in appearance a Protestant and a free independent King so used by the French King in his Exile and since his Restoration should be so forward in joining with a Faithless and Boundless Ambitious Neighbouring Prince which if his Design had succeeded had involved the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland in the same Condition with the rest of Christendom The Vizard-Mask under which the Popish Party covered their Hypocrisy in propagating their Catholick Cause for plain-dealing must never be expected in it in King Charles the First 's time was Arminianism which then had the Ascendant in Laud's Regency but since the King's Restoration the Protestant Dissenters being so fiercely prosecuted by the Parliament it was judged that the dispensing with Penal Laws against Dissenters from the Church of England would conjoin the Protestant Dissenters Interest with the Popish and this not only appeared by Practice but by Design in Coleman's Letters to Father Ferier and La Chaise the French King's Confessors As before the first Dutch War the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence for dispensing with the Penal Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs in the Interval of the sitting of the Parliament so did he before the second War It seems to me that the Designers of this War got some secret Oath or Promise from the King that he should not do the like again for the King told the House of Commons he would stand by his Declaration of Indulgence and sure nothing but Queen Money would have got him off However these Conspirators were more zealous than politick for before the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence in England upon the 26th of February 1671 he issued out his Proclamation in Ireland wherein he granted general Licence to all Papists to live in Corporations exercise Trades there and enjoy the same Privileges as other Subjects ought to do which was a greater Privilege than his Protestant Subjects had for by their Charter all who were not free of the Corporations could not have the Benefit of their Privileges But that the Catholick Design might take deeper Root and Continuance the Duke of York's Sons being dead and the Princesses his Daughters being bred up in the Protestant Religion Care must be taken to establish the Popish for the time to come for which it was expedient the Duke should marry some Popish Princess and to this end the Arch-Dutchess of Inspruck was propounded and a Treaty entred into upon it But tho the Princess's Religion pleased the French King yet the Interest this Marriage would bring with it did not So that tho the Treaty were far advanced yet the French King who ruled all the Roast propounded the Princess of Modena the Daughter of a little Italian Prince and a Dependant of the French King's yet had a great Interest in the Court of Rome and this against all Endeavours of the Parliament and to the Dishonour of the Treaty with the Arch-Dutchess prevailed the French King having adopted her a Daughter of France and given her a Portion But while these Designs are laid in the dark here in England the French King bare-faced by his Ambassador at Vienna in a solemn Speech declared that his Master had undertaken the War against Holland for propagating the Catholick Cause and that all good Christians were bound to join with him to extirpate Heresy and that he would restore all his Conquests to re-establish the true Worship banish'd out of the Holland's meaning the Vnited Netherlands Territories which you may read more at large in Mr. Secretary Trevor's Appeal c. Now let 's see how agreeable these Mens Morals were to their Religious Pretences in laying the Scene for this designed Dutch War The Treasury since the Death of my Lord Treasurer Southampton was managed by Commissioners and if the Aids granted by the Parliament were not sufficient for carrying on the King's Designs the French King is to supply him further but things were not ripe enough yet for these Monies to be returned into the Exchequer lest they might give cause of Suspicion and therefore between six and seven hundred thousand Pounds were received by Mr. Chiffins he to have two Pence in the Pound to be disposed of as the King shall order If you doubt this you may examine Mr. Chiffins's Accounts when he was advised to pass them and take his Quietus out of the Exchequer Tho by the Defensive League between the King and States when the Triple League
that upon the second of June he offered the Duke his Friendship the use of his Purse to the assisting of him against the Designs of his and the Duke's Enemies and protested their Interests were so close linked together that those who opposed the one should be looked upon as Enemies to the other with much more as you may read in the Duke's Letter to Le Chaise the 29th of June 1675. Tho the French could not fight against the Dutch in Conjunction with the English yet without the English they can fight the Spaniard and Dutch For the Spaniard having block'd up Messina in Sicily by Land which last Year revolted to the French agreed with the Dutch to send a Fleet of Men of War to join the Spanish to block up Messina by Sea which the Dutch this Year did under De Ruyter but were so niggardly in it that the French beat both Dutch and Spanish Fleets and killed De Ruyter This was a just Reward returned to the Dutch for building the French six great Men of War six or seven Years before Just so Richlieu served the Spaniard in 1637 for joining with the French in expelling the English out of the Isle of Rhee Tho the King were the first in the Triple League for the Guaranty of the Treaty of Aix for the Preservation of Flanders and tho the King in his Declaration at the beginning of this War had engaged to support the Peace made at Aix yet the French King this Summer took the City of Limburg being the chief of one of the Spanish Provinces which the King not only takes no notice of but tells Sir William Temple newly commanded out of Holland by the King that some warm Leaders in both Houses had a mind to engage him in a War against France which they should not do because he was sure they would make use of it to the Ruin of his Ministers If the King were unhappy in his Declaration he was not less in saying this to Sir William to whom the Year before he promised to be the Man of his People but is now of his Ministers And sure he was the first Prince that ever profest it Upon the 13th of October the Houses met and the King asked a Supply for building of Ships and to take off the Anticipation upon his Revenue In the Interval of this Recess the Debates of the Abhorring Oath became publick which so nettled the Court and Church-Party being the more numerous that since they could not prevail by Reason they would by Fire and therefore ordered them to be burnt which made the Debates so much more to be enquired into and hereby received a greater Light The Commons had before them several Bills for preventing future Mischief viz. The Habeas Corpus Bill A Bill against sending Men Prisoners beyond Sea Against raising Money without Consent in Parliament Against Papists sitting in either House For more speedy convicting of Papists And for recalling his Majesty's Subjects out of the French Service These Bills being so diametrically contrary to the French and Popish Designs and the Commons now more peremptorily than before opposing the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals from Chancery so that they voted Whosoever shall solicite or prosecute any Appeal against any Commoner of England from any Court of Equity before the House of Lords shall be deemed and taken a Betrayer of the Rights and Liberties of the Commons of England and shall be proceeded against accordingly And the Commons having commanded the Counsel who pleaded before the Lords to the Tower How much is the case now altered the King took thereby an occasion to prorogue the Parliament from the 22d of November 1675 to the 16th of February 1676 which is above a Year in which time by a Law in Edward the Third's time a Parliament was to be called and as it was without Precedent so it caused new Debates and Heats in both Houses when they met In this long Recess I find but few Motions of the French and Popish Councils more than what appeared in Sir Gascoin's and other Trials For Coleman's last two Years Letters were supprest as was his Book of Entries and the Commotions raised in Britany and Guiene by the Impositions imposed upon the Inhabitants hindred the French this Year from their usually more early opening their Campagn than the Confederates so that every where the Confederates prevailed against the Tureen's Army was distressed by Montecuculi and himself killed yet the Army got on the French side of the Rhine by the Bravery and bold Stands of the English The Dukes of Lunenburg routed Marshal Crequy's Army and after took Triers and made Crequy Prisoner and the Imperialists also took Philipsburg the Elector of Brandenburg routed the Swedes in Pomerland entred into a League with the King of Denmark who took Wismar from the Swede and the Prince of Orange took Binch from the French and rased it But the Progress of all these Victories were stopt by the unaccountable Retreat of Montecuculi out of Alsatia with his whole Army back over the Rhine it was said by express Orders from Vienna thereby leaving Alsatia in the Power of the French to the breaking of the old Duke of Lorain's Heart who at that time had and never before so fair a Prospect of the Recovery of his Country If the Commotions in Britany and Guiene retarded the French opening the Campagn last Year the King shall make amends in this For having provided Stores for Horse and Man in his Frontier Garisons in February 167 6 7 he block'd up Valenciennes and Cambray and committed such Ravages by burning and destroying those Parts of Germany which lay opposite to him on the other side of the Rhine as if he made War not to conquer but to destroy tho this were at a time whilst they were in a Treaty of Peace with the Empire and King of Spain Upon the 17th of March he notwithstanding the extream Coldness of the Season took Valenciennes and from thence marched to Cambray and laid Siege to it and St. Omers and after the opening of his Trenches Cambray surrendred but not the Citadel our King looking on as if he had not been concerned in the Guaranty of the Treaty of Aix Nor could the Prince of Orange prevent this the Spanish Garisons being ill provided and the Confederates being so slow in getting into Bodies to oppose the French or if they had been to be got together they could not have kept the Field for want of Provisions for Horse and Man However tho the Prince could not come time enough to relieve Cambray and Valenciennes yet with the single Forces of the States the Spaniard not so much as supplying him with Guides marched to the Relief of St. Omers but the Duke of Luxemburg joining with the Duke of Oleance met the Prince at Mount-Cassel where at first the Dispute was brave but the first Regiment of the Dutch Infantry breaking and falling into Disorder the Prince rallied them
refused Sir William a Guard to go to the Prince and the Prince declined Sir William's coming to him so as Sir William was forced to return to Holland and wait for the Prince there till the Campagn was over After the Prince returned to the Hague Sir William acquainted him with the Powers the King had given him and that the King desired to act in concert with the Prince and therefore desired so soon as might be to understand the Prince's Opinion therein The Prince's Opinion was That the States with any Faith could not make a separate Peace and thereby expose the Confederates who had saved the States to the Mercy of the French King nor could a general Peace be made unless Flanders was left in a Condition to defend it self That it was in the King's Power to induce France to what was just and that the Prince must perform what his own Honour as well as what the States were engaged to for their Allies let it cost what it would This Answer was coldly received by the King so as he made no Reply to it My Lord Arlington possest the King that it was Sir William's ill Management that the Prince was not pliable to the King's Desires but if the King would imploy him in the Affair by the Benefit of his Lady's Relations the Prince might be better disposed So in November following the King sent my Lord Arlington upon this Affair to the Prince and my Lord Ossery who had married Madam Beverwort the Countess of Arlington's Sister My Lord Arlington treated the Prince with that Authority Arrogance and Insolence and so artificially that the Prince who was of a plain and free Disposition could not bear it but said the King never intended he should treat him the Prince after that manner Sir William and my Lord too had Instructions to sift the Prince to a Discovery of Applications made to him by discontented Persons in England and to enter into secret Measures with the Prince to assist the King against Rebels at home and to sweeten all my Lord Ossery gave the Prince Hopes of a Match with the Princess Mary the Duke's eldest Daughter but the Prince would not treat of a separate Peace was obstinate against the second said that the third was a Disrespect to the King to think that he was so ill beloved and that his Fortunes were not in a Condition for him to think of a Wife so that my Lord Arlington every way failed of his Expectation lost much of the King's Favour and utterly dissolved the Friendship and Confidence he believed he had in the Prince On the contrary though my Lord Ossery had above any other more bravely fought against the Prince's Interest by Sea in this last War with the Dutch yet the Sympathy of their noble Natures begot a Friendship which no Power less than Death could dissolve and my Lord became Partaker with the Prince in that glorious Attempt against the Duke of Luxemburg upon the Relief of Mons the Success of which was stopped by the unhappy separate Peace the States made with France and the Proposition which my Lord made of the Match between the Prince and the Princess made such an irresistible Impression in the Prince's Mind that would admit of no other Relief but Enjoyment Though the Prince could not suppress yet he concealed his Desires of matching with the Princess Mary till a little before the opening the Campagn 1676 when he disclosed them to Sir William Temple but before he made any Paces towards the attaining his Desires he desired Sir William's Opinion of the Person and Disposition of the Princess Sir William who was glad to find the Prince's Resolution to marry being a Debt due to his Family and the rather because he was the only one of the Masculine Line of it replied That he knew nothing of his own Knowledg of the Disposition of the Princess but had always heard his Wife and Sister speak with all the Advantage that could be of what they could discern in a Princess so young and more by what had been told them by her Governess Hereupon the Prince resolved to write to the King and Duke and beg their Favours to him in it and that my Lady Temple being to go over into England upon Sir William's private Affairs should deliver his Letters to both and desired that my Lady during her Stay in England would endeavour most particularly to inform her self of all that concerned the Person Humour and Disposition of the young Princess About two or three Days after the Prince brought his Letters to my Lady Temple he went to the Army my Lady Temple into England and about the beginning of July Sir William to Nimeguen to assist with Sir Lionel Jenkins as Mediators for a General Peace The States were desirous of Peace yet durst not break from their Confederacy not trusting England enough nor France at all so as to have Dependency upon either after the Peace made The French knew the States were bent upon Peace but the Prince against any but what was consisting with his Honour and the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands so as to be a secure Barrier to the States against the Power of France The French Designs under the Covert of the general Peace to be treated at Nimeguen were to break the Confederacy and therefore their Ambassadors the Marshal D'Estrades and Monsieur Colbert accosted Sir William and told him they had express and private Orders from their King to make particular Compliments to him upon the Esteem their King had for his Person They told him they knew that the States were bent for Peace which could not be had unless the Prince of Orange would interpose his Authority which was so great with the Allies that they were sure the Allies would consent to whatever Terms the Prince should propose for a Peace and therefore there was no Way to procure a happy Issue but for the Prince privately to agree with France upon the Conditions in which the Prince might make use of the known Temper of the States to bring it to a separate Peace in case the unreasonable Pretences of the Allies should hinder a general one that the Duke of Bavaria had so acted his part with France at the Treaty 〈◊〉 Munster whereby he owed the Greatness of his House that b◠pursuing the same at Nimeguen it would be in the Prince 〈◊〉 Orange to do the same for himself and his Family and that 〈◊〉 what concerned the Prince's personal Interests their Master had given them Assurance he should have a Carte Blanch to write his own Conditions that tho they had other ways of making these Overtures to the Prince yet their Orders were to do it by none but Sir William if he would charge himself with 〈◊〉 that they knew the Confidence the Prince had in him and how far his Opinion would prevail with the Prince and that 〈◊〉 Sir William would espouse this Affair besides the Glory of having
alone given Peace to Christendom he might reckon upon what he pleased from the Bounty and Generosity of the King their Master Sir William in a well-composed Answer acknowledged his Obligations for their King 's good Opinion of him but that his Instructions were for a general not for a private Peace For the Prince of Orange he assured them it was his Opinion That the Prince had none for his or any Man 's else further than their Arguments prevailed upon his Judgment The Attacks upon Sir William not succeeding Monsieur d'Estrâ—des turned his Battery upon Pensioner Fagel to the same purpose the Ambassadors had done to Sir William of all the Advantage to the Interest of the Prince How these wrought upon the Pensioner Sir William does not say but says all the Offers of Advantages made to the Interest of the Prince met with no other Reception than what the Prince had foretold tho at this time the Prince struggled under great Difficulty by reason of the Frenchâ—â— â—â— great Treasure and great Order of disposing it The French Magazines were always filled in the Winter so as it enabled them to take the Field as they pleased in the Spring without fearing the Weather for their Foot or expecting Grass for their Horse On the other side the Spaniards wanting Money and Order left their Troops in Flanders neither capable to act by themselves nor in Conjunction with others upon any sudden Attempt nor to supply with Provisions either Dutch or Germans that should come to their Relief and their Towns were ill fortified and worse defended so that the French King in April took Conde in four Days and in May the Duke of Orleans took Bouchain and the Prince of Orange besieged Maestricht without Success But neither the good Success of the French this Campagn nor the ill Success the French Ambassadors had upon the Prince of Orange to induce him to a separate Peace retarded the French from pursuing of it for the French by their Emissaries in Holland but especially at Amsterdam offer such a Reglement of Trade as the People could desire the Restitution of Maestricht and all Satisfaction to the Prince of Orange he could pretend to upon his Loss or their Seizures in the War This put the Mob into a Ferment of having a separate Peace nor could any thing have allayed it but the noble Constancy of the Prince of Orange which stood unshaken in opposing it in all these Difficulties However this Campagn the Elector of Brandenburg in several Encounters beat the Swede and was in a hopeful State to have expelled them out of Germany and it had been just they had been so for the King of England and the King of Sweden were Guarantees in the Triple League at Aix la Chapelle for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands against the French King whereas the King of England stood still only looking on whilst the French Arms by Piecemeals devoured them and the King of Sweden in Conjunction with the French King assisting him in the War Put not your Trust therefore in such Princes The Prince of Orange however his Constancy in opposing a separate Peace was unshaken yet in the distracted State of the Confederates and the violent Humour of the Peoples running into it saw it was impossible to keep them out of it unless the King of England would interpose his Authority further than by being a bare Mediator and acquainted the King with it But the King in a long Letter under his own hand instead of an Answer complained That the Confederate Ministers in England caballed with Parliament-Men and raised all Mens Spirits against Peace as high as they could so that it was difficult for him to make any Steps with France towards a general Peace unless the Dutch Ambassador Van Beningham would put in a Memorial pressing the King from the States to do it and declared that without it all Flanders would be lost The Prince to comply with the King replied how willing he was that Van Beningham should put in such a Memorial from the States and that if the King pleased to have a sudden Peace the Prince thought it must be done upon the Foot of the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle which he would have the more Ground for because it was a Peace which he both made and warranted Sir William at this time was at the Hague when his Colleague Sir Lionel Jenkins wrote to him That there was a Negotiation of a separate Peace treating between the French Ambassadors and Beverning the Dutch Agent at Nimeguen without any Communication of it to the Mediators upon which Sir Lionel acquainted the Court of England with it Whereupon Orders were dispatched That in case a separate Peace was concluding or concluded the Mediators should publickly protest against it in his Majesty's Name This Sir William Temple wrote to my Lord Treasurer and Secretary Coventry That he could not understand the Reason of such a Protestation for if a separate Peace were thought so dangerous at Court as he knew it was in the Country the King might endeavour to prevent it and had it still in his Power as he had had a great while but if it were once concluded any other Effect of such a Protestation unless it were to irritate both Parties and bind them the faster by our being angry at their Conjunction could not be expected Nor did he know what Ground could be given for such a Protestation for tho the Parties had accepted the King's Mediation for a General Peace yet none of them had obliged themselves to the King not to treat of a separate one without his Mediation or if they had he did not see why the same Interests that could make them break through so many Obligations to their Allies should not make them as bold with a Mediator That as to prevent the thing may be a very wise and necessary Counsel so the King's Resolution in it ought to be signified as early as can be where it is like to be of that moment to France But if the thing should be first done as he could not tell how well to ground any Offence so he could as little how to seek Revenge and it would be to stay till we were struck and then trust to crying out That his Opinion was it were better to anger one of the Parties before a separate Peace than both of them after and if we must strain any Points of Controversy with them to do it rather by making a fair and general Peace than by complaining and protesting against a separate one But our Counsels at Court he says were so in Ballance between the Desires of living at least fair with France and the Fears of too much displeasing the Parliament upon their frequent Sessions that our Paces upon the whole Affair look'd all like cross Purposes which no Man at home or abroad could well understand and were often mistaken by both Parties engaged in the War as well as by both
Parties in the House of Commons till the thing was wrested out of our hands Upon the 5th of January 1676-77 Sir William received Answer from the King to his last Dispatches by the Prince's Direction which consisted of two Parts the first an Offer of the King's Entrance into the strongest Alliance with the States thereby to secure them from all Apprehensions from France after the Peace should be made the second was the King's Remarks rather than Conclusions or Judgment upon the Terms propounded by the Prince for a Peace that he the King believed it might be compassed with France upon the Exchange of Cambray Ayre and St. Omer for Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Conde and Bouchain This Answer was so different from what the Prince proposed so illusive and of so little Security to the Dutch that the Prince told Sir William that he would rather die than make such a Peace and complained that the Offer of Alliance was wrote to him by the King 's own Hand but this about the Terms of Peace from the Secretary's Hand which was in a Stile as if he thought the Prince a Child and to be fed with Whipp'd Cream That since all this had been before the foreign Committee he knew very well it had been with the French Ambassador too and that the Terms were his and were a great deal worse than if they had directly come from France But the French King 's wheedling our King and the Dutch about a separate Peace no ways abated the Vigour of his Prosecution of the War whilst Peace was mediating for in the beginning of the Year he takes the Field with a huge Army and block'd up Cambray and Valenciennes about the End of February and having provided sufficient Magazines for Subsistence of his Forces which neither the Spaniard nor Germans had broke into Flanders and into the Parts of Germany on the other side of the Rhine and with the most cruel Ravages of burning and spoiling those Parts of Germany that could be exercised and such as had not been used on either side since the War began The Allies made Complaints of this new manner of making War to his Majesty as Guarantee to the Treaty at Aix la Chapelle who employed his Offices towards France to hinder such Proceedings but the Things was done and the Point gained which was by an entire Ruin of those Countries from hindring the Imperialists from finding any Subsistence for their Troops if they should march into Alsatia and thereby divert those Forces the French resolved to employ in Flanders before the Dutch could take the Field and march to the Relief of those Places they intended to attack Before any Dutch Spanish or German Army could be brought into the Field the French took Valenciennes and laid Siege to St. Omer and Cambray But before they had taken St. Omer the Prince of Orange with the Forces of the States the Spaniard assisting him with no Forces not so much as Guides resolved to relieve it tho with the hazard of a Battel But the Duke of Orleance leaving a part of his Forces to defend the Trenches and joining with the Duke of Luxemburg with all the Troops the French King could send met the Prince at Mount Cassel where after a sharp Dispute the first Regiment of the Dutch Infantry began to break into Disorder The Prince went immediately to that Place where the Shock began rallied them several times and renewed the Charge but at last was born down by the plain Flight of his Men whom he was forced to resist as Enemies and fall in among them with Sword in hand and cut the first over the Face and cried out aloud Rascal I 'll set a Mark on thee at least that I may hang thee at last But neither Voice Action Threats nor Example would give Courage to Men that had already lost it so he was forced to recoil to those Troops which stood firm and made so brave a Retreat as was near equal to a Victory So as Flanders had only Mons and Namur for a Frontier by Land and Newport and Ostend by Sea However the Prince made an Attempt upon Charleroy which did not succeed Hereupon the Prince seeing all Attempts against the French would be in vain unless the King came in to assist the Confederacy of the Allies sent Monsieur Bentink into England to desire the King's Leave to make a Journey into England so soon as the Campagn was over to which he received this cold Answer That the Prince would first think of making the Peace and rather defer his Journey till that were concluded Could any Man now believe any other Prince should be so supine as not to apprehend the imminent Danger his Nephew stood in and in consequence his own Dominions And tho all the World but he saw and dreaded this yet the King as at the End of the first Dutch War would not This was about the beginning of June and about the middle of it Sir Temple's Son brought him Letters from my Lord Treasurer That he should come over and enter upon the Secretary's Place which Secretary Coventry had offer'd to lay down upon the Payment of 10000 l. and that the King would pay half the Money and the Treasurer must lay down the rest at present but did not doubt but the King would find a way of easing him of that too What could be expected in such a Reign where Secretaries of State who are the Eyes of the King and Kingdom to take Care of all foreign and domestick Affairs which cannot be carried on without Charges should purchase their Places and thereby not only disable them in the Performance of their Office but utterly to neglect it and make it their Business how they may be Gainers by their Purchase they had so dearly bought But Sir William excused it as not being able to raise 5000 l. now his Father was alive And tho Secretary Coventry came cheap enough by the Place it seems he was either unwilling Sir William should succeed him in it or that he would not trust to the 5000 l. to be paid by the King unless he might chuse his Successor who it may be would have given him 15000 l. for it After Sir William came over and the Bargain for the Secretary's Place not succeeding the King had often Conferences with him about the Peace and the Prince's coming into England he had a great Desire for the first but not for the other till the first were done He said his Parliament would never be quiet with him while the War lasted and then leave him in it unless they might have their Terms in removing and filling Places which he should be very loth to be so much at their Mercy and that the longer the War continued the worse it would be for the Confederates and worse for Flanders and therefore would have the Prince make a Peace for them if they would not do it themselves and that if the Prince and he would fall
into Terms about it he was sure it might be done and desired Sir William to make a short Turn to the Prince and try if he could perswade the Prince to it But Sir William excused it and desired Mr. Hide now Earl of Rochester who was then at Nimeguen might do it but I don't find any thing came of it About the latter End of September as before noted the Prince took his Journey for England and landed at Harwich and from thence came to New-Market where the Court then was where he was kindly received by the King and Duke who both invited him often into Discourse of Business which the Prince avoided industriously so as the King bid Sir William ask the Prince the Reason of it the Prince told him he was resolved to see the young Princess before he enter'd into that Affair and get to proceed in that before the other of Peace whereupon the King to humour him left New-market some Days sooner than he intended and came to London The Prince at first sight was so pleased with her Person and all those Signs of such a Humour as had been before described to him that he immediately made his Suit to the King and Duke which was well received and assented to but upon Condition the Terms of Peace abroad might be first agreed to between them The Prince excused himself and said he must end his first Business before the other The King and Duke were both positive otherwise that that of Peace should precede but the Prince continu'd resolute for the former and said His Allies were like to have hard Terms of Peace as things stood and would be apt to believe he had made this Match at their Cost and for his part he would never sell his Honour for a Wife But the King and Duke continued in their Resolution for three or four Days In the Obstinacy of these contrary Resolutions between the King Duke and Prince Sir William Temple chanced to go to the Prince one Evening after Supper and found him in the worst Humour he had ever seen him in and told Sir William he repented he ever came into England and resolved he would stay but two Days longer if the King continued in his Mind of treating upon the Peace before Marriage and that before he went the King must chuse how they must live hereafter for he was sure it must be like either the greatest Friends or the greatest Enemies and pressed Sir William to let the King know so next Morning and give him an Account what he should say upon it Next Morning Sir William told the King all the Prince had said to him and the ill Consequences of a Breach between them considering the ill Humours of so many of his Subjects upon our late Measures with France and the Invitations made to the Prince by several of them during the late War The King heard Sir William with great Attention and when he had done said Well I was never deceived in judging of a Man's Honesty by his Looks and if I am not deceived in the Prince's Face he is the honestest Man in the World and I will trust him and he shall have his Wife and you shall go immediately and tell my Brother so and that 't is a thing I am resolved on Sir William did so and the Duke at first seemed a little surpriz'd but when Sir William had done the Duke said the King shall be obey'd and I would be glad all his Subjects would learn of me to obey him From the Duke Sir William went to the Prince and told him all this Story At first the Prince seem'd diffident but soon embraced Sir William and told him he had made him a very happy Man and that unexpectedly and so he left the Prince to give the King an Account of what passed and in the Prince's Ante-Chamber met my Lord Treasurer who undertook to adjust all the rest between the King and the Prince which he did so well that the Match was declared that Evening at the Committee before any other in the Court knew any thing of it When the Match was known the Nation entertained it with an universal Joy yet the French Ambassador and my Lord Arlington were displeased at it the French Ambassador because he had not given his Master an Account of it and my Lord Arlington because nothing of near such moment had passed and he not acquainted with it and within two or three Days after the Marriage was consummate The Prince having so happily gained the first part of his Design in coming into England the Terms of Peace were agitated immediately and Sir William Temple was admitted to be present at the Debates The Prince insisted upon the Strength and Enlargement of a Frontier on both sides of Flanders otherwise he said France would end this War with the View of beginning another and carrying Flanders in one Campagn The King was content to leave that Business a little looser upon Confidence that France was so weary of the War that if they could get out of it with Honour they would never begin another in this Reign that the King was past his Youth and lazy and would turn to the Pleasures of the Court and Buildings and leave his Neighbours at quiet But the Prince thought France would not make a Peace now but to break the present Confederacy and to begin another War with more Advantage and Surprize that their Ambition would never end till they had all Flanders and Germany to the Rhine and thereby Holland in an absolute Dependance upon them and us in no good one and that Christendom could not be left safe by the Peace without a Frontier as he proposed for Flanders and the Restitution of Lorain as well as what the Emperour had lost in Alsatia Sir William Temple told the King that in the Course of his Life he had never observed Mens Natures alter by Age or Fortune but that a good Boy made a good Man a young Coxcomb an old Fool and a young Fripon an old Knave that quiet Spirits were so and unquiet would be so old as well as young that he believed the French King would have always some Bent or other sometimes War sometimes Love sometimes Building but was of the Prince's Opinion that he would ne'r make Peace but with a Design of a new War after he had fixed his Conquests by the last The King approved of what Sir William had said and the Points of Lorain and Alsatia were easily agreed to by the King and Duke but they would not hear of the Restitution of the County of Burgundy tho it were part of the Spanish Netherlands which the King was obliged to protect against France by the Treaty of Aix as what France would never be brought to yet the Prince insisted much upon it which the King imagined was by reason of the Prince's own Lands in that Country which are greater and more Seignurial than those of the Crown of Spain there
and thereupon the King told the Prince That for his Lands there he would charge himself that the Prince should enjoy them as safe under France as under Spain or if the Prince would part with them the King would undertake to get him what Price he would value them at to which the Prince generously reply'd That he would not trouble himself nor the Peace about that matter and that he would be content to lose all his Lands there to get one good Town more for the Spaniard upon the Frontier of Flanders So here the King and Prince agreed But then another Debate arose between the King and Prince one pretending France would never be brought to this Scheme the other that Spain would never be brought to it but at last it was agreed that the Peace should be made upon these Terms All to be restored by France to the Emperor and Empire that had been taken in the War and the Dutchy of Lorain to the Duke and all on both sides between France and Holland and to Spain the Towns of Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Courtray Tournay Conde Valenciennes St. Gillain and Binch which were nine Towns that the King shall endeavour to procure the Consent of France and the Prince of Spain And to this purpose the King should send some Person immediately over with the Proposition who should be instructed to enter into no Reasoning upon it but demand a positive Answer in two Days and after that term immediately return And then the King ordered Sir William within two Days to make himself ready to go and acquaint the French with it At this Agreement between the King and Prince none were present besides the Duke my Lord Treasurer and Sir William Temple so as the French Ambassador was as much surprized in it as before he was at the Marriage of the Prince but this could not be longer conceal'd from him than when it began to be put in Practice yet it seems to me he was acquainted with it before and that the King had taken other Resolutions than what was agreed upon but the Day before For Sir William having prepared all things in a Readiness to go the Evening before he met the King in the Park St. James's who call'd to him and told him he had been thinking upon Sir William's Errand and how unwelcome he should be in France as well as the Message and that having a Mind to gain Peace he was unwilling to anger them more than needs besides the thing being not to be debated or reasoned any Body else would serve the Turn as well as he whom he had other use of Sir William was very glad of it knowing how ungrateful a Messenger he should be upon this Account Then the King asked Sir William what he thought of my Lord Duras a French-man and a great Favourite of the Duke's and since Earl of Feversham It seems the King asked Sir William's Opinion only for Form and Fashion sake for the thing was the Morning before agreed upon at the Desire of the Duke upon pretence that France would accept of the Terms and that he had a Mind to have the Honour of it by sending a Servant of his own So my Lord Duras went immediately after with the Orders and some few Days after the Prince and Princess embarked for Holland where Affairs pressed his Return beyond the Hopes of my Lord Duras from France the King assuring the Prince he would never part with the least part of the Scheme sent over and would enter into a War with France if they refused it But pudet haec you 'll soon see another Face of Affairs after the Prince was gone nay before he went it was a great Mortification to him to see the Parliament prorogued till the next Spring which the French Ambassador had gained of the King to make up some good Meen with France after the Prince's Marriage and before the Dispatch of the Terms of a Peace to that Court I should not have ventured to say this if that honourable Gentleman Sir William Temple in his second Memoirs which are printed fol. 302. had not said it before But how honourable and sincere soever the Prince's Actions were in the Management of this whole Affair the outward Face of things had another Appearance which caused great Jealousies of him not only among the Amsterdamers and Common People in Holland but even among the Consederates for the Prince sending Monsieur Bentink privately over into England about the beginning of June and Sir William Temple so soon after following and the Prince's raising the Siege before Charlâ—râ—y the next day after my Lord Ossory came to his Camp and the Prince's going in September following into England these things thus concurring passed not without many Reflections not only in Holland but among the Allies as if there were Intelligences between the King and him which were heightned by the Marriage the main Business of the Treaty made by the King and Prince about the Peace being yet in Embrio so as the Prince and Princess were coldly received in Holland upon the Prince's Return and these Jealousies encreased more upon the Transactions between the English Court and France But sacred Truth and the Integrity of the Prince shall vindicate his Honour even among those who most suspected him and were so jealous of his Actions The Noise of a Peace with France so soon after the proroguing the Parliament raised a Ferment in the Nation of some Design of the Court as dangerous to the Nation as the Dutch Jealousies that their Liberties were in by the Prince's Treaty and Marriage with a Daughter of England And now the Prince was gone and out of Sight he was out of Mind too by the King in respect to the Terms of Peace agreed to and the solemn Promise the King made to the Prince upon his Departure that he would never parâ— with the least Point in the Scheme sent into France and make War upon it if it were refused For upon my Lord Duras's Arrival at Paris the Court were surprized at least seemed so both at the thing and more upon the manner of it yet made good Meen upon it took it gently and said The King of England knew very well he might be always Master of the Peace but some few Towns in Flanders seemed very hard especially Tournay upon whose Fortifications such vast Treasure had been expended and that they would take some short time to consider of the Offer But my Lord Duras told them he was tied to two Days stay but when that was out was prevailed upon to stay some few Days longer which he durst not have done without secret Orders from our Court contrary to his Instructions and at last came away without any positive Answer Hereupon the King instead of declaring War against France as he so solemnly promised the Prince entred into a Treaty with the French Ambassador at London which by French Artifice was so spun out in length without any
positive Refusal that the Blow came to be eluded which could not otherwise be avoided as Sir William Temple says tho I believe it was intended even when the Prince went out of England However about the latter end of December 1677 the King sent to Sir William Temple to the Foreign Committee and told him he could get no positive Answer from France and therefore resolved to send him into Holland to make a League there with the States for forcing France and Spain into a Peace upon the Terms proposed if either refused To which Sir William told the King what he had agreed was to enter into a War with all the Confederates in case of no direct and immediate Answer from France That this perhaps would satisfy the Prince and Confederates abroad and the People at home But to make such a League with Holland only would satisfy none of them and disoblige both France and Spain Besides it would not have such an Effect or Force as the Triple Alliance had being a great Original of which this seemed an ill Copy And therefore excused himself from going And so the King sent Mr. Thyn with a Draught of the Treaty to Mr. Hide who was then come from Nimeguen to the Hague upon a Visit to the Princess which was done and the Treaty signed the 16th of January tho not without great Dissatisfaction to the Prince This Tergiversation of the Court set fire to the Jealousies in Holland especially at Amsterdam that the Prince by this Marriage had taken Measures with the King as dangerous to the Liberties of Holland and make it there believed that by this Match the King and Duke had wholly drawn the Prince into their Interests and Sentiments The French hereupon proposed other Terms of Peace to the Dutch far short of the King 's and less safe for Flanders restoring only six Towns to the Spaniard and mentioning Lorain but ambiguously which would not have gone down in Holland but for the Suspicions raised by the Prince's Marriage among the People there who had an incurable Jealousy of our Court and thereupon not that Confidence in the Prince that he deserved If we take this Reign as one thing you 'll find it made up of almost infinite Confusions and Disorders and scarce one regular Act in it and now we are come to one which is without any Precedent which was this You heard before how the King to gratify the French Ambassador for not acquainting him with the Marriage with the Prince had prorogued the Parliament to the 8th of April next viz. 1678. And now Mr. Thyn had made this League with the States the King thought this a good occasion to get Money from the Parliament upon it and was loth to stay till the 8th of April for it and therefore by his Proclamation commands the Parliament to meet upon the 15th of January before the 8th of April Prorogations of Parliaments are new and I think were never heard of in England before the Reign of Henry VIII and are said to be the Acts of the King but Adjournments the Acts of the House to a certain Time and Place and both Houses must be sitting and in being when they are either so prorogued or adjourned I remember upon the discovery of Câ—leman's Letters the Court were mightily surprized at it and the Parliament was to have met some few days after upon a Prorogation which the King in that Surprize unwilling they should did therefore call a Council to advise whether he might not prorogue them to a further day without the Houses meeting and 't was said my Lord Chancellor Finch was of Opinion he might and thereupon Sir Edward Seymour Speaker of the House of Commons having Occasions in the Country went out of Town but some body acquainted the King of the Doubtfulness of the Chancellor's Opinion and desired the King to advise with old John Brown who had been Clerk of the Parliament for near forty Years the King did so and John Brown was positive that in case the Houses did not meet at the Time and Place appointed the King by his Proclamation could not prorogue them but it would be a Dissolution of the Parliament Whereupon the Speaker was sent for back again and so many of both Houses met as would make a Parliament which it 's said is forty Commoners and seven Lords and then the King prorogued them But this Consideration was not that I find taken notice of by either House tho both met according to the King's Proclamation The Houses thus met the King acquainted them with the League he had made with Holland and demanded Money of them to carry on the War against France in case France did not comply with the League whereupon the Parliament granted him a Tex by Poll and otherways which amounted to 1200000 l. not for Peace but to enter into an actual War with France But this Tax shall only beget another to disband an Army raised upon that Pretence tho no War was entred into against France But so far was the French King from giving up any Towns notwithstanding the Agreement the King had made with the Prince or the League he had made with Holland that about the latter end of January he had made an Attempt upon Ipre and threatned Ostend and in March following by open Force takes both Ipre and Gaunt yet the French Ambassador here continued his Court and Treaty with all the Fairness that might be The French having now taken Ipre and Gaunt were so far from proceeding in any Treaty either with England the Confederates or Holland or in the Treaty at Nimeguen that about the first of April the French King made publick Declaration of the Terms upon which he resolved to make Peace which tho very different from those agreed upon between the King and Holland and more from the Pretensions of the Allies yet this way of treating the French pursued in the whole Negotiation afterwards declaring such and such were the Conditions which they would admit and no other and upon which the Enemies might chuse either War or Peace and to which France would not be tied longer than the 10th of May after which they would be at Liberty to change or restrain as they should think fit But how imperious soever the French were abroad yet they dreaded a Conjunction of England either with the Dutch or Confederates and therefore thought fit to wheedle our Court till the Affairs of the Confederates should become so desperate as to submit to what Terms the French King should impose upon them And to this purpose Mr. Mountague now Earl sent a Pacquet to my Lord Treasurer giving an account of a large Conference Monsieur Louvoy the French King 's grand Minister of State had with him by the King his Master's Order wherein he represented the Measures they had already taken for a Peace in Holland upon the French Terms and that since they were agreed there they hoped his Majesty would not be
against it That however France had ordered him to make his Majesty the Offer of a great Sum of Money for his Consent tho the thing was already accepted by Holland and wherein his Majesty was consequently not concerned The French Ambassador at London confident this Bait would take the King began to change his Language That his Majesty should be Arbiter of the Peace But now being assured his Master had agreed with Holland he seem'd to wonder and expostulate why the King should pretend to obtain better Terms for the Spaniards than the Dutch their Allies were content with You have heard the Agreement between the King and Prince before he went into Holland as well on the behalf of the Empire and Duke of Lorain as of the Spaniards and how it was not observed by the King and of the time when the Prince arrived in Holland and of the unjust Jealousies had upon the Prince thereby as well by the Confederates as by the Dutch and of the separate League the King made with the States for enforcing the French to come up to the Agreement between the King and Prince of Orange and how the King had got twelve hundred thousand Pounds of the Parliament for entring into an actual War with France and how the French King in defiance of the King and States instead of giving up any Towns had taken Ipre and Gaunt as well contrary to this Agreement and League as to the Treaty of Aix Now let 's see how the King proceeded after the Dutch contrary to the League with the King had accepted the French Terms Having got the Money of the Parliament for making the League with the Dutch upon the Terms agreed upon by the Prince he now saw no reason why he should not get the Money the French offer'd him if he would agree to the Terms he had made with the Dutch and to that purpose order'd Sir William Temple to treat upon it with the French Ambassador who had Orders to that purpose Sir William would have excused it but the King told him he could not help seeing him for the Ambassador would be at his House next Morning by seven a Clock and then he came but Sir William told him he had been very ill in the Night and could not enter into Business so the Ambassador was disappointed of his Design at that time However the Bargain went on not only for the Money but something else so that Sir William Temple says p. 321. There was one Article in this private Treaty the King took such Indignation at that he would never forget it whilst he lived There was but one Accident favourable to the Confederates in all these Treaties viz. the French apprehensive of a Conjunction between the English and Dutch who at this time were much more powerful at Sea than France thought they might block up Messina by Sea while the Spaniard besieged it by Land and so might lose all the Cannon Provisions and Stores they had in it to prevent which they abandoned it while it was in their Power to secure their Effects there and left the Messinians their Confederates to the Mercy of the Spaniards Beverning was the Agent which managed this Treaty upon the French Terms and Beverning was sent to the French Camp where the Terms of Peace were concluded about the latter end of June and a Cessation of Arms for six Weeks that the Spaniards might come into the Peace upon the Terms proposed But if they should not his most Christian Majesty assured the States that he would always provide such a Barrier in Flanders as they thought necessary for their Safety and after the Peace should be made and the antient Amity restored he would be ready to enter into such Engagements with them as should for ever secure their Repose and their Liberties viz. he would be the Fox that should preserve these Geese Indignation will not suffer this to pass over without Reflection that the World may see what Trust is to be given to French Faith Did not he make this War upon the Dutch only because of the ill Satisfaction he had of the Dutch Behaviour toward him being risen to that degree that he could no longer without Diminution of his Glory dissemble his Indignation against them c. and therefore resolved to make War against them by Sea and Land Did he not in the beginning of this War by all French Artifice court the Prince of Orange to take upon him the Soveraignty of the Dutch Provinces Did not his Ambassadors court Sir William Temple Pensioner Fagel and the Dutch themselves and that the Prince should make what Terms he pleased so as to make a separate Peace And now he is making a separate Peace with a pack of factious Dutch of the Louvestein Faction opposite to the Prince to wheedle them that after the Peace was made he would enter into such Engagements with them as should for ever secure their Repose and their Liberties meaning to depose the Prince from having any Power or Authority with them In this hopeful Security of this Faction relying upon French Faith the Marquess de Balbaces proposed when the six Towns in Flanders should be given up to the Spaniard upon the French Terms to which the French Ambassador answered That his Master being obliged to see an entire Restitution made to the Swede of all they bu◠lost in the War could not restore the Towns in Flanders to th◠Spaniard till those to the Swede were likewise restored So that now the Dutch by this separate Peace must only stand still and loo◠on if the King of Denmark and the Elector of Brandenburg wil◠not deliver the Towns they had taken from the Swede which 〈◊〉 like they would not nor could the Dutch compel them while 〈◊〉 French take all Flanders and impose what Terms they please upon the rest of the Confederates Beverning could not tell what to say to this and acquaints the States with it the States were confounded at it and could neither tell what to do nor to whom to complain To the Confederates they were asham'd to complain who had so generously entred into the War for their Preservation when otherwise they had 〈◊〉 under the French Tyranny without possibility of Relief and therefore had great reason to be offended at their endeavouring to make a separate Peace thereby to expose them to the Fury and Tyranny of the French Arms and the Counsels of the Court of England were so loose that no Reliance could be had upon them But it was Hobson's Choice that or nothing That we may take all fair before us let 's now see the Fruits the Dutch had of their Cessation of Arms for six Weeks to try if they could bring in the Spaniard to comply with the Terms which the French had imposed upon Beverning and his Faction for restoring six of the nine Towns to the Spaniard which was agreed upon between the King and Prince and also by the League which
the Determination of the States themselves This Bait these Gudgeons swallowed as if no Hook had been in it so that several Towns and Provinces proceeded with a General Concurrence to the Ratifications of the Peace that they might lie ready in their Ambassadors Hands to be exchanged when that of Spain's should be signed and so diligent was Beverning in carrying on the French Designs now they were thus entertained in Holland that they huddled up the Treaty between France and Spain and by the twentieth of September the Ratifications of it were exchanged with the usual Forms and now the Dutch Ambassadors are become Mediators of or Conspirators in this Treaty whilst Sir Lionel Jenkin the King 's Mediator only stood still looking on and having no Hand in it and all the Ambassadors of the other Allies as well as the Spaniard enraged and exclaiming against it During this Conspiracy the French Troops made Incursions into the rich Parts of Flanders which had been covered in the time of the War and there exacted so great Contributions and made such Ravages where they were disputed that the Spanish Netherlands were more ruined between the signing of the Peace and the Exchange of the Ratifications than they had been in so much time during the whole Course of the War At last the Outcries and Calamities of the poor Flemins moved the Spaniards out of their slow Pace so that they were forced to accept of the Terms the French and Dutch would give them And now the Dutch had done the French Work with Spain the will do the rest without the Dutch and piece-meal made the Duke of Lorrain the Emperour and King of Denmark and all the Princes of the Empire submit to such Terms as the French pleased The Particulars and manner of it you may read in the second part of Sir Temple's Memoirs which are printed And now the French King had by the Help of the Dutch made his Market by the Peace at Nimeguen let 's see how he improved it after The French King sets up a Court of Claims in Alsatia and Flanders to determine the Dependences upon those Towns which he kept by the Treaty of Nimeguen both in Flanders and Alsatia where he is sole Judg and executes his Judgments by Military Execution It 's scarce credible the Ravages he made hereby and what Titles he set up I 'll give but one Instance herein mentioned by Sir William Temple p. 370. The Town of Tournay was to have been given up to the Spaniard by the Agreement made between our King and the Prince this was left out in the French Terms accepted by the Dutch and Aeth was to be one of the six Towns to be delivered up to the Spaniard by the Dutch Terms with the French and the French had dismembred above sixty Towns which were dependent upon Aeth and added them to the Chatellence or Bailywick of Tournay and were thus belonging to Aeth when the Spaniard transferred Aeth to the French by the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle but now Aeth must be restored to the Spaniard in the Condition they left it and not what they found it So that by these Acquisitions which the French got by this Treacherous Peace he got more in Consequence than by the War CHAP. IV. A Continuation of this Reign to the End of the Oxford Parliament WHen the Parliament had given the King 1200000 l. for carrying on an actual War against France in January last the Popish Plot was then in Embrio and the Parliament were so mortified by the Answer which the King made to them upon the twenty eighth of May before for advising him to enter into a League with the States General of the Vnited Provinces against the Growth and Power of the French King and Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands c. that they never durst meddle more in it and it may be concurred more readily in giving the King 1200000 l. for carrying on the War against France upon the League which he had made at the Hague by Mr. Thyn though Sir William Temple refused to have any Hand in it as is said before The Commons in Parliament for the first ten Years of this Reign were Tories and all their Business was against the Protestant Dissenters from the Church scarce taking notice of the Papists till the Breach of the Triple Alliance the second Marriage of the Duke of York the second Indulgence for Liberty of Conscience the Attempt upon the Smirna Fleet the shutting up of the Exchequer and the King 's making War upon the Dutch in Conjunction with the French these thus successively acted opened the Eyes of the greater part of the Commons that for their own and the Nation 's Safety they became more numerous in the House than the Tory Party yet retained their Loyalty to the King I verily believe as firm as any English Men before them But out of the House the Feuds of the Tories and Whigs were as invenomed as those between the Guelphs and Gibelines which for three hundred Years involved Germany and Italy in intestine Wars The Tories cry'd up the Court and the Court countenanced them and the Tories having the Dominion of the Press printed all Sorts of Irritating Libels against the Whigs and if the Whigs answered they were prosecuted for printing Illicite when the Tories could make no other Reply but that the Whigs were running back to 1641. The Tories had got a new invented Doctrine of inconsistible Terms called Passive Obedience I would willingly be informed in the Grammatical Construction of these two Words how a Noun Adjective or Participle can alter the Signification of a Noun Substantive for if any one be subject to another and be commanded or forbidden by this other it is Disobedience if he does not the Command of this other How therefore Passive joined to Disobedience can make it Obedience had need of a better Interpretation than what the Tories give which is if you cannot obey you must suffer But this is another Proposition and so Disobedience here is Disobedience still and the true Construction of Passive Obedience is Disobedience and be hang'd for it The Tories and Whigs in these Feuds were apt to take Fire and divulge â—ay it may be invent Stories of one another and the Popish Party nourished Designs against both and being countenanced by the Tory Party in the Interval between the Prorogation of the Parliament which met by Anticipation as Sir William Temple calls it in January 1677-78 made a great Outâ—ry which was blazed by the Tories That there was a Design by the Whigs of killing the King but it happened Mr. Hawles says in Fitz-Harris's Trial f. 3. to be in such a Place and Manner as afterwards Oates discovered the Papists intended to have done it Hereupon Mr. Oliver's Son-in-law was imprisoned in the Tower the Place you 'll see where the Papists acted all their Designs for designing to kill the King and in Trinity Term 1678 Mr. Cleypole had
Bedlow Prance Dangerfield Bolron and Mowbray many of which had never seen one the other before they gave their Testimonies Objection These were Witnesses of suspected Fame therefore no Credit ought to be given to them But admit this were true which is not for except Dangerfield and while Prance was frighted with Terror there was no Objection against Oates Bedlow Mowbray and Bolron it will admit of a twofold Answer 1. Truth is one and consists in entire parts whereas Error and Falshood is infinite and therefore it had been impossible that Mowbray and Bolron who had never seen Oates or Bedlow before they gave their Testimonies and Bedlow who had never known Mowbray Bolron nor Oates should concur not only in the Design of killing the King but in the Manner Place and Circumstances of it 2. Admit these Mens Evidence might not have been credited in other Cases yet it 's fit to consider Witnesses in civil or criminal Cases in civil Cases Men may make Elections of what Witnesses they please and it is their Fault if they make not use of Men of know Integrity and Repute that more Credit may be given to their Evidence and the End of civil Actions and Contracts is that they may be known but immoral and wicked Actions are Deeds of Darkness and contrived so as that they may not be known so that the Knowledg of them comes to pass either by Accident or from the Conspirators themselves as if only one Man sees a Murderer or a Thief kill or rob another if his Testimony shall not be taken because otherwise an ill Man Multitudes of Murders and Thefts might pass unpunished So if Cicero when Fulvia first discovered Catiline's Conspiracy to him had told her she was a Whore and no Credit could be given to any thing she said Rome might have been in a Flame as London was and all the Senators Throats might have been cut But admit no Credit could be given to any or all these Mens Testimonies who were all Roman Catholicks I would know what Objection could be against Mr. Jenison a Gentleman of Birth and Quality who gave no Evidence at Ireland's Wakeman's Piâ—kering's or Grove's Trials and changed his Religion when he heard that Ireland who was his Father Confessor at his Death denied that he was in Town but in Staffordshire when Oates and Grove's Maid said he was in London in August 1678 and printed it and the Reasons of it and also at my Lord Stafford's Trial in open Parliament deposed That Ireland told him there was but one that stood in the way and that it was an easy thing to poison the King and that Sir George Wakeman might easily and opportunely do it and that in August 1678 when Ireland at his Death declared he was in Staffordshire Ireland told Mr. Jenison in London when he was newly returned from Windsor how easily the King might be taken off and asked Mr. Jenison if he would be one of them who should go to Windsor and assist at the taking off the King and proffered Mr. Jenison to remit 200 l. which he owed Ireland if he would Then Ireland asked if he knew any stout Irish-men who answer'd he knew Captain Levallian Mr. Kerney Brohal and Wilson Ireland told him he knew Levallian and Wilson and then Ireland asked him if he would go with them and assist them in taking off the King after this Ireland told Mr. Jenison he was going to the Club where Mr. Coleman Mr. Lavallian and Kerney would be and he wanted 80 l. which he desired Mr. Jenison to return him Mr. Jenison further deposed That his Brother Mr. Thomas Jenison a Jesuit said If C. R. will not be R. C. which he interpreted to be Si Carolus diuâ—â—ret â—â—ret Rex Carolus and that it was no great Sin to take him off Mr. Jenison desiring a new Commission in the new rais'd Army his Brother told him he would procure him one from the Duke of York and that there was another Army to be raised but this was not to be till the King was taken off and this I say that about this time there was a general Rumour of a Page being kill'd upon a Couch in the Night at Windsor where the King was laid but a little before and that the King upon the Fright of it came next Morning to London and that it was Prince Rupert who with much Importunity got the King having been drinking hard before from the Couch and put him to Bed and that the Page who was killed asleep upon the Couch was wrap'd up in the Cloak the King was in The Commons likewise resolved Nemine contradicente That the Duke of York being a Papist and the Hopes of his coming as such to the Crown have given the greatest Countenance and Encouragement to the present Conspirators and the Designs of the Papists against the King and Protestant Religion But the Designs of the King was how to get Money for providing a Fleet for our common Security now in time of such a Peace as the French King had granted Christendom after the King had taken his Money to join in it and after he had taken the Parliament's Money to enter into an actual War against France and after the Parliament had twice given Money for disbanding this Army which not succeeding the Commons dreading how Monies given at this time of Day might be employed took no more Care in it than the King did in the Discovery of the Popish Plot so he prorogued the Parliament upon the Twenty seventh of May to the Fourteenth of August and upon the Twelfth of July dissolved them We shall better take a View of what followed the Prorogation of the Parliament in England if we take a Step into Scotland and see what 's doing there Upon the 3d of this Month of May John Balfour of Kinlock David Hackston of Rathilelet George Balfour of Gilston James Russel in King's Kittle Robert Dingwall a Farmer 's Son in Caddam Andrew Guillon a Weaver in Balmerinoch Alexander Henderson and Andrew Henderson Sons of John Henderson of Rillbrachment and George Flemming Son to George Flemming of Balbuthy murdered Doctor Sharp Arch-bishop of St. Andrews who before the King's Restoration had held an exalted Place in the Scotish Presbytery and was in high Esteem among them in as vindictive a manner as was that of the Marquess of Montross about twenty one Years before as being a perjured Apostate Prelate a Villain a Persecutor of the Godly a Betrayer of Jesus Christ and his Church and which augmented the Horror of the Fact if my Author of the second Address to the Free-men of England pag. 58. says true Thâ—â— they several times beat down the Arch-bishop's Daughter upon her Knees begging her Father's Life and trampled upon heâ— and wounded her This barbarous Act was a Prelude to what followed for upon the 29th of this Month a Party of about 80 of the Covenanters met at Ragland in Scotland well mounted and well armed and proclaimed
Dangerfield's Evidence and told the Jury that Treason must be proved by two Witnesses and if they doubted upon one it was his Opinion it was but a single Evidence These Prisoners thus discharged the next Design to crown the Work was to make a Precedent That no future Prosecution should be made for convicting Roman Recusants and to that end in Trinity Term 1680 before the Parliament met the Chief Justice Scroggs discharged the great Inquest of Oswaldston before they had given in their Presentments of several Bills of Indictments against the Duke of York and other Roman Catholicks I do not find that in all these Transactions the King made use of the Council which he chose the twentieth of April 1679 where my Lord Shaftsbury was President and Sir Henry Capel Sir William Temple and many other noble Persons were Members of it when he declared in Council and Parliament and to the whole Nation How sensible he was of the ill Posture of his Affairs and the great Dissatisfaction and great Jealousies of his Subjects whereby the Crown and Government was become too weak to preserve it self which proceeded from a single Ministry and of private Advices and therefore profess'd his Resolution to lay them wholly aside for the future and to be advised by those able and worthy Persons whom he had then chosen for his Council and by the frequent Advice of his Parliament in all his weighty Affairs I do not find when he dissolved this Council yet I am confident none of these things were done by their Advice yet this I find that none of these were present when the King in Council the third of March 1679 declared against his Marriage with the Duke of Monmouth's Mother and this was within the Year after the twentieth of April 1679. How the Duke of York carried on the Design of the Discovery of the Popish Plot and endeavoured the Suppression of Popery in Scotland at this time is not yet ripe to be declared but in this Posture things stood in England when the Parliament met the twenty first of October 1680. Upon the opening of the Parliament the King told them The several Prorogations he had made had been very advantagious to our Neighbours and very useful to him for he had employed that time in making and perfecting an Alliance with Spain sutable to that which he had before made with the States of the Vnited Provinces and they also had with Spain consisting of mutual Obligations of Succour anâ— Defence So then it was not for the Transactions aforesaid and the sending the Duke of York High Commissioner into Scotland which no doubt but the Parliament if they had been sitting would have boggled at but for making and perfecting Alliances with the States of Holland and if any such Alliances were making or made what would the sitting of the Parliament have hindred them I 'm sure they might and would have advanced them It was in November 1677 that by the Agreement between the King and Prince of Orange the French should deliver up to the King of Spain the Towns of Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Courtray Tournay Valenciennes St. Gillain and Binch Lorain to that Duke and the Towns which the French had taken in Alsatia to the Emperor and in case of Refusal within two days after by the French King our King was to declare War against the French King and join with the Dutch States and Confederates to compel the French to it and at the Prince's Departure promised him never to depart from the least Point of it It was not two Weeks before the King brake this Promise and to amuse and raise a Jealousy among the Confederates by Mr. Thyâ— Sir William Temple refusing to have any hand in it about the latter end of December following made a separate League with the Dutch States upon the Parliament's giving him 1200000 l. to enter into an actual War against France In May following viz. 1678. the King took French Money to join with a Faction in Holland to make a separate Peace with France upon delivery of six of the nine Towns to the Spaniard whereof two of the three not to be delivered to the Spaniard were Tournay and Valenciennes worth all the rest and the Duke of Lorain and the Emperor left loose and uncertain In July following upon the French refusal to deliver up these six Towns to the Spaniard the King would declare War against France and join with the Dutch and the rest of the Confederates in it Hereupon Sir William was sent to the Hague and in six days time concluded a League with the States that if within fourteen days after the Date of it France did not declare to evacuate these six Towns Holland engaged to proceed in the War against France and Sir William sent over the Conditions to be ratified by the King During these Transactions in Holland and it may be before the League came over to be ratified by the King the King sent Du Cres with Instructions to Sir William Temple to remove from the Hague to Nimeguen and to divulge that the King and French King had absolutely agreed and consented to a Peace and that he had brought Orders to Sir William Temple to go straight to Nimeguen where he should meet with Letters from my Lord of Sunderland the King's Ambassador at Paris with all the Particulars concluded between them The Fourteen Days for the French Agreement to evacuate the Towns running so fast away in the mean time that Beverning and his Faction upon the last of the Fourteen Days pleaded a petty Necessity of huddling up that treacherous Peace which left Christendom to the Mercy of the French Would not one think it strange now that the Dutch and poor Spaniard should have such a mutual Confidence in our King's Faith and to trust to his mutual Obligations of Succour and Defence Or that the King should be so staid in making this League for it was above eighteen Months after the Prorogation of the last Parliament to the Meeting of this and above Fifteen Months from the Dissolution of it and yet so hasty in all his other Leagues After the Benefits which Christendom as well as England may reap by these Alliances if our Divisions at home do not make our Friendship less considerable the King thought fit to renew all Assurance that can be desired for Security of the Protestant Religion which he is resolved to maintain against the Conspiracies of our Enemies Can any Man who reads the Transactions between the Prorogation of the last Parliament and the Meeting of this force a Belief of this And concur with any new Remedies which shall be proposed which may consist with preserving the Succession of the Crown in its due and legal Course of Descent That is Let the Wolf be Shepherd and let the Sheep make what Laws they please for their Preservation Was it not known that the Duke of York was a Jesuited Papist whose Maxims are That no Faith is to
of Luxemburgh from the Spaniard notwithstanding the late Treaty of Mutual Assistance between the King and Spain and had encreased his Men of War at Sea to be more and greater than those of the King 's and his New-found-land Fishery to be twenty fold more than it was 1660. and the English fallen not to 1 ◠of what it was yet in this dreadful State the Feuds of Whig and Tory no ways abated and both so stupid as if neither were concerned in this Design common to them both But though this most religious and gracious King for so the Tories will have him to whom all their nonsensical Doctrine of Passive Obedience is due had by the help and indefatigable Industry of the Tories laid this Foundation for the Ruine and Destruction of this Church and State yet he lived not to compleat this goodly Structure for he died upon the sixth of February 1684-85 it may be the sooner because he made no more haste to do it in the thirty seventh year of his Reign computing it from his Father's Death after he had lived fifty four Years eight Months and eight days The Character of King Charles II. HIS Person was of a very well composed Structure tall above the ordinary Stature of other Men not much much more resembling his Grandfather Henry IV. of France by his Mother than his Father or his Grandfather King James And as in his Person he more resembled Henry than either his Father or Grandfather James so did he in his Humours for both had lively and pleasant Wits and would be wondrous facetious and pleasant with those which humour'd them in their Pleasures and were of free Access whereas King Charles the Father was grave and severe in his way hard of Access and that by such strained Terms of Submission as were never heard of before in England and I believe no where else and King James was slovenly in his Behaviour and more servile to his Favourites than they to him Like his Grandfather Henry Charles gave himself up to all sensual Pleasures without any Controul but unlike his Father who was temperate and chaste Like his Grandfather Henry in Profession of his Religion for both seemingly professed that which neither believed Unlike his Father who while he did what he would was severely addicted to what he professed Unlike to his Father and Grandfather Henry in Covetousness but like his Grandfather James in profuse Prodigality to his Favourites but unlike his Father and Grandfather Henry in Parsimony ill becoming so great Kings like his Father and Grandfather James in laying the Foundation of the Ruin of the Grandure of England abroad and the Church and State at home unlike his Grandfather Henry who laid the Foundation of the Grandure of France Tho Henry and Charles were esteemed Clement and Merciful Princes till the Rage of the latter end of Charles's Reign yet both were most vindictive against any who reproached their licentious Liberty in their lustful Pleasures as appears by Henry's putting the Duke of Biron to Death more as Sir Walter Raleigh observes for the Taunt he gave when Henry brought Madam Gabriel to the Siege of Amines That she was the Fortune of France than for Biron's Conspiracy with the Duke of Savoy and by that of cutting off Sir Coventry's Nose for the Report which was of Sir John that he asked the Question Which of the King's Favourites Men or Women Unlike to both Father and Grandfather James Charles was to his own Cousin-German the Elector-Palatine for they both at least seemingly endeavoured to have restored the Prince's Father to his Country after he was dispossessed of it by the Emperor and King of Spain whereas after this Prince was restored to a part of it by the Treaty of Munster this King without any Offence or Provocation given him by the Elector assisted the French to ruin and destroy it But he 's gone God knows by what means and the Possession of the Crown takes away all Attainders And now he 's gone he left the Nation more vitiated and debauched in their Manners than ever it was before by any other King having not only squander'd away the antient Revenues of the Crown which were esteemed sacred and which should have supported it against foreign Force and intestine Discord but left such a Debt upon it as never before was heard of nor contracted by such means having prostituted the Majesty of his Crown in becoming a Pensioner to France and advancing that Interest to be as formidable and dangerous to the rest of Christendom as to his own Dominions and embroiled 〈◊〉 Subjects in intestine Feuds and Discords as if thereby he designed them an easy Prey to the French and Popish Interest and having by Bribery and Corruption so vitiated all publick Offices both Sacred Civil and Military that they became habitual and so fix'd that it would become difficult if possible to reform them And as this King's Actions were little and dark so was his Funeral for never any King who died possest was so obscurely and meanly buried hurried in the dead of the Night to his Grave as if his Corps had been to be arrested for Debt and not so much as the Blue-Coat-Boys attending it his Brother then King shewing as little Gratitude to him for all his Favours as he had done to the Nation for all their Loyalty and incredible Sums of Money poured upon him And as his Father and Grandfather had not a Stone to cover their Graves thereby to preserve their Memories in future Generations so neither had he nor any of his Name hereafter is like to have as King of England But now he is gone all the dreadful Presages of the four last Parliaments are come upon the Nation and nothing left to secure the Nation 's Fears unless that the Crown being so in Debt and the Excise for the King's Life dying with him the Parliament would not be so prodigal of their Bounty as to grant this King's Successor such a Revenue which might enable him to attain his Ends by the Ruin of the Church and State of England The Good Deeds of King Charles II. 1. HIS dispensing with the Act of Navigation in the first Dutch War whereby he was enabled to continue the War against the Dutch two Years longer than he did and the Dutch otherwise might have fired the Ships in our Harbours a Year sooner and forced the King to a more inglorious Peace than that he made in the Year 1667 whilst the Parliament in the Temper it was in sat still and took no notice of these things Objection If the King has Power to dispense with the Act of Navigation by the same Reason he may dispense with other Laws and so the Laws of the Nation will be loose and subject to the King's Will at his Pleasure Answer I. I wish all Legislators in passing Laws would be of another Temper than when the Rump made this Law which was in spight of the Dutch without
so in Extreams yet his Actions so diametrically opposite to his Profession Here you see a Jesuited Prince pleading for Liberty of Conscience to the breaking down the â—aws which before he had so often professed to maintain and for such a sort of Men whom but little before he had slaughter'd banished and imprisoned as if he had designed to extirpate the whole Race of them If to reconcile these to Truth or Reality be not as great a Miracle as is in any of the Popish Legends I 'll believe them all and be reconciled to the Roman Catholick Church how inconsistible soever the Terms be The generality of the Protestant Dissenters having for near seven years together been so severely treated by the Tories were as forward to congratulate the King for his Indulgence in manifold Addresses as the Tories were in King Charles his time in their Addresses of Abhorrence to petition the King to call a Parliament to settle the Grievances of the Nation However this Declaration was so drawn in the sight of every Bird that of my knowledg many of the sober thinking Men of the Dissenters did both dread and detest it That this Declaration might be more passable Popish Judges were made in Westminster-Hall and Popish Justices of the Peace and Deputy-Lieutenants all England over the Privy Council was replenished with Popish Privy Counsellors the Savoy was laid open to instruct Youth in the Romish Religion and Popish Principles and Schools for that purpose were encouraged in London and all other Places in England Four Foreign Popish Bishops as Vicars Apostolical were allowed in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction all England and Wales over From instructing the St. Omers Boys how to behave themselves in their Evidence to prove Oates was at St. Omers all April and May in 1678 my Lord Castlemain is sent Ambassador to the Pope to render the King's Obedience to the Holy and Apostolical See with great hopes of extirpating the Northern pestilent Heresy In return whereof the Pope sent his Nuncio to give the King his Holy Benediction yet I do not find that he beforehand sent for Leave to enter the Kingdom as was observed by Queen Mary Henry VIII and before The Judges in their Circuits had their private Instructions to know how Men were affected with the King 's Dispensing Power and those who were disaffected to it were turned out from the Lieutenancy and Commission of the Peace Justice Judgment and Righteousness support the Thrones of Princes but these were Strangers to this King's ways other Means must be found out to support and carry them through a standing Army is judged the best Expedient and as the King told the Parliament at their second Meeting he had encreased his Army to double what it was before so he made his Word good that he would employ Men in it not qualified by the late Tests and to this end Tyrconnel having disbanded the English Army in Ireland qualified by the Tests sends over an Army of Irish not qualified by the Tests to encrease the Army in England This Army thus raised against Law committed all manner of lawless Insolences though the King by several Orders would have had their Quarters restrained to Victualling-Houses Houses of publick Entertainments and such as had Licences to sell Wine and other Liquors the Officers too when they pleased would be exempt from the Civil Power And though the King had no other Wars but against the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation yet he would have the Act of the 1 2 Edw. 6. 2. which makes it Felony without Benefit of the Clergy for any Souldier taking Pay in the King's Service in his Wars beyond Sea or upon Sea or in Scotland to desert from his Officer to extend to this Army thus raised by the King And because the Recorder of London Sir J. H. would not expound this Law to the King's Design he was put out of his Place and so was Sir Edward Herbert from being Chief Justice of the King's Bench to make room for Sir Robert Wright to hang a poor Souldier upon this Statute and afterward this Statute did the Work without any further dispute Thus this Prince did not only assume a Power to controul the Laws of the Nation at his pleasure in Civil Affairs but when he pleased made them bend to his Will to establish an illegal Army and countenance the Effusion of Christian Blood but you 'll soon see God will blast these ungodly Ways and that not the Arm of Flesh but Judgment Justice and Righteousness establish the Thrones of Princes Thus Affairs stood in England Scotland and Ireland in the year 1687. wherein I suppose no History mentions so great and violent Alterations in so little time as in this King's Reign all tending to introduce a Foreign Power and to enslave the Nation yet so patiently endured by it but the Dangers of these Designs were not circumscribed within the bounds of this Nation but extended into France where for above twenty years a Conspiracy was carried on for promoting these Designs thus far advanced so that the Year 1688 had a much more terrible Aspect upon England than the Year 1588 had when Philip the II. designed the Conquest of it for then the Nation was firm and intire for its own Interest whereas this Year it was not only torn in pieces by internal Discords but had an Army and Fleet designed to join with the French King in propagating his boundless Ambition not only upon England but upon the Empire of Germany Spain Holland the Duke of Savoy and other Princes of Italy About the beginning of the year 1688 a Gentleman of High Jesuited Principles told me The States of Holland were Rebels against the King of Spain and that I should soon see the King of France would call them to an Account for it and humble them and that the French King would assist our King with Men of War I took more heed to this because I knew that he was frequently visited by several Jesuits in whose Counsels I believe the French King's Designs this Year were locked up for my Lord of Sunderland in his Letter recited in the History of the Desertion fol. 32. protests he knew nothing of a League between the King yet you will see it come out another way But my Lord of Sunderland says that French Ships were offered to join with our Fleet which was refused however this shews there was a Design contriving by these Princes yet at present the Affairs of France seemed to look another way and a French Fleet and Souldiers in them are sent to Canada the Design and Success you will soon hear of The King having thus as he thought laid a Foundation tho it proved a very Sandy one of his Designs and to shew how Absolute he would be in them upon the 4th of May passed an Order in Council that his Declaration of Indulgence should be read in all Churches and Chappels in England and Wales in time of Divine
of Indulgence was an unlawful Act and that if they had submitted to the King's Will to have enjoined it to have been read in all Churches and Chappels of their respective Diocesses it had been an unlawful Act which was one Reason they could not comply with the King's Will and that this Declaration was not intended a Favour to the Protestant Dissenters but a Design to ruin the established Religion and Church of England and the enjoining the Bishops to have read was a Design upon their Persons as well as the Declaration was upon the Church and that the King professed himself to be of the Popish Religion which they believed and declared to be Idolatry in the worshipping Images and derogatory to God's Honour by Invocation of Saints whereby they grant to Creatures an Omniscience which is inseparable from God and only to be ascribed to him and that the King had owned the Papal Power which not only claims a Dominion over all Kings and Kingdoms to be at the Pope's disposal and who had declared the Church of England to be Heretical Schismatical and Sacrilegious Persons with whom no Faith is to be kept but had assumed a Power equal or superiour to God himself in dispensing with God's Laws and setting its own above them by sending his Ambassador to the Pope and receiving his Nuncio With what Conscience then could the Bishops approach God's Altars in their highest Acts of Devotion and in the Prayer for the Parliament declare to God that he is their most religious King and in the Litany to pray to God to keep and strengthen the King in the Worship of God or Religion which the King profest And how could they delare to God he is their most gracious Sovereign when he had imprisoned them for not submitting to his unlawful Will and had owned a Power which had declared them Hereticks Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Persons who were by all ways and means to be extirpated from the Face of the Earth Yet the Bishops by their Canonical Obedience were as much obliged hereto and to enjoin the Clergy in their respective Diocesses to offer these Praises to God as they were not to obey the King's Will by enjoining the King's Declaration of Indulgence to be read by all the Clergy in their Diocesses To this Dilemma had the flattering Church and State in King Charles the II's Reign tho intending it against the Presbyterians by their Act of Vniformity brought the Church and State too in the Reign of King James But lest this establishing of Popery should have no longer support than in the King's Life a new Miracle is to be added to the Legend for the next day after the Bishops were committed to the Tower the Queen was brought to Bed of a Prince of Wales so that now they had got a Prince of Wales and the Queen received the Consecrated Clouts and the Pope by his Nuncio is become God-father a Foundation so infallible is laid for exalting the Papal Chair and extirpating the Pestilent Northern Heresy that it's Heresy to doubt it But Man purposes and God disposes and in truth without God's special Assistance not only these Dominions of England Scotland and Ireland but all the Western Parts of Europe were not to be retrieved out of I may say even a desperate State for in England the King had a standing Army of above 20000 Men and the Whigs were but too forward to congratulate the King in his Designs and in humouring him in giving him up their Charters as the Tories in King Charles his Reign in their Abhorrences of the King 's calling a Parliament and as forward then as the Whigs now in surrendring their Charters The Protestant Army in Ireland not only disbanded by Tyrconnel and a Popish Army set up but the Protestants disarmed and Scotland so perfectly subdued that there the King 's Absolute Will without reserve must pass for Law The King of Spain so weak as not able to defend himself much less relieve others the Empire engaged in a War against the Turks in the East so as the Western Parts were in no Condition to repel the Impression the French should make upon it The Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark remote and at such natural Enmity with one another that if one should side with France or England the other would engage against it and tho Holland were considerable elsewhere at Sea yet their Strength at Sea was inferiour to the English but much more in Conjunction of the French with the English However something must be done for Modesty in this State had been the highest Crime and of all Foreign Princes the Prince of Orange was most immediately concerned not only in the Oppression of the French King upon his Principality of Orange and the Dangers which threatned the Vnited Provinces by the swelling Grandeur of the French but by the King 's Arbitrary Proceedings in England for the Princess was the Presumptive Heir to the Crown of England and Scotland And since it is the Laws and Constitutions which erect these Nations into Kingdoms whereof the King is the Head then if the King destroys the Laws and Constitutions he is neither King nor the Princess of Orange Presumptive Heir to them besides since the King had assumed a Power of Dispensing with the Laws he might as well in Dispensing with the Succession and the Prince was well assured neither those about the King nor the Pope would much favour his or his Lady's Title to the Crown nor was the introducing the Prince of Wales into the World intended to have either the Prince or Princess come to the Crown of England The Prince of Orange thus injured by both these Kings and being denied the Benefit of any Humane Laws for redress has recourse to God and his Sword for relief and opposes the Justice of his Cause against the Potency of his Adversaries Nor does he take up his Sword to vindicate his own Rights only but for restoring the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to their antient Rights Laws and Privileges invaded by King James and to put a stop to the French King 's boundless Ambition and Tyranny in Murdering Ravaging and Destroying rather than making a War upon all his neighbouring Princes not dispossest and ruined by him A Design so great by so little a Prince as no less than a Divine Power could inspire him to such an Undertaking The Prince these two last years had several Conferences with the Electors of Brandenburg Saxony and the Princes of the House of Lunenburg and other Princes of Germany it 's believed in concerting Measures how to behave themselves against the Designs of these two Kings but the Results were so secret that I find no mention of them But how secret soever these Results were yet the Preparations to put them in Execution could be no Secret especially the Naval Preparations by Sea though the Dutch Ambassador assured the King they were not intended against him yet refused to communicate
the Crown her Father Brother and Sister in debt and the Navy Royal neglected and out of Repair yet the Revenues of the Crown besides the Court of Wards and the Dutchy of Lancaster I say the Profits of the Kingdom were but 188179 l. 4 s. See Sir Robert Cotton ' s Means of the Kings of England p. 3. the Kingdom imbroiled in intestine Heats in Religion and Philip the second of Spain aspiring to an unlimited Dominion in and out of Europe Calais notwithstanding the united Interest of England with Spain but some Months before lost to the French and Francis the Dauphin of France in right of his Wife Mary Queen of Scotland laying claim to the Crown of England Whereas when King James came to be King of England the Kingdom was in intire Peace within and in a Martial State and full of Honour and Reputation abroad the Royal Navy not only Superior to any other in the World in Strength but in good Repair few Debts left charged upon the Crown yet if the Exchequer were not replenished with Money the King received Three entire Subsidies and six fifteens of the 4 Subsidies and eight Fifteens granted to the Queen for suppressing the Irish Rebellion and carrying on the War against Spain some Months before though both the Rebellion and War with Spain ceased that Year he became King the Customs for supporting the Navy more than fivefold they were in the Beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and above two Millions and four hundred Thousand Pounds due from the States of Holland or the Vnited Netherlands but how the States became discharged of it it 's fit to premise it there and how it became due to Queen Elizabeth and so to the Crown of England Queen Elizabeth though she refused to accept of the Sovereignty of the Vnited Provinces when she took them into Protection after the Expulsion of the Duke of Anjou and the Death of the Prince of Orange yet she entred into a Treaty with the States Anno 1585. wherein it was agreed That the Dutch should repay her all the Monies which she should expend for their Preservation with Interest at 10 per Cent. when the War was ended with Spain and that two English whom the Queen should name should be admitted into their Council of State and for Security whereof the Dutch should deliver up to her Flushing Rammekins and the Brill which were the Keys of their Country Upon this Agreement the Queen for the Dutch's further Encouragement gave them Licence to fish upon the Coast of England which she denied them when they continued in their subjection to King Philip and removed the Staple of the English Woollen Manufactures from Antwerp in the Power of the King of Spain to Delf in the Dutch Power and it is scarce credible how in so short a time after viz. scarce thirteen Years the Dutch entertaining all sorts of People who were persecuted upon the Account of not submitting to the Papal Usurpations called Religion swelled their Trade and Navigation not only in Europe but in the East and West-Indies The Queen considering this Encrease of the Dutch Trade and Navigation was as much to the lessening of the English and being provoked by the Ingratitude of the Lovestein Faction whereof one Olden Barnevelt was the Head a Fellow as factious and turbulent as ungrateful by whose Counsel another Assembly was erected at Amsterdam called The Convention of the States General wherein they managed all the secret and important Affairs of their State and out of which they excluded the English The Queen I say highly incensed at the Ingratitude of this Faction which now governed all in Holland and yet continuing to support them at the Charge of 120000 l. per Ann. as Camden observes in his Eliz. Reg. Ann. 1598 signified to the States her Intention of making Peace with the King of Spain which if she did it would be impossible for them to continue their War with Spain and recover their Cautionary-Towns from the Queen Hereupon the States sent my Lord Warmond as they called him as their humble Supplicant to the Queen and in the lowest Posture of Humility acknowledged themselves obliged to her for infinite Benefits and that as her Majesty excelled the Glory of her Ancestors in Power so she excelled them in Acts of Piety and Mercy but pleaded Poverty for not repayment of the Money the Queen had expended for their Preservation they might have said their Exaltation The Queen in Answer to them said she had been often deceived by their deceitful Supplications and ungrateful Actions and Pretence of Poverty when their Power and Riches confuted them and that she hoped God would not suffer her to be a Pattern to other Princes to help such a People who bear no Reverence to Superiors nor take care for the Advantage Reputation or Safety of any but themselves The Dutch were confounded at the Queen's Answer submitted themselves to such Terms as the Queen should lay upon them and the Queen wisely considering if she should cast them off Henry the 4th of France who the last Year viz. 1597 had concluded a Peace with Spain at Vervins by the Interposition of the Pope's Nuncio and sought to be Protector of the States whereby the Queen would not only be in danger to lose their Dependance but the Monies she had expended in their Support they the Queen and States came to this Agreeement 1. That upon an Account stated there was eight Millions of Crowns or two Millions Sterling due to the Queen for which they were to pay Ten per Cent. so long as the War lasted 2. That during the War they should pay the Queen one hundred thousand Pounds yearly and the Remainder when Peace with Spain was concluded and then to have their Cautionary Towns surrendred back to them 3. That till this Agreement was performed the States were to pay Fifteen hundred English in Garison in them We leave this Agreement here till we hear more of it hereafter There were but thirteen Months between this King's Birth and Reign his Mother being deposed to make Room for his coming to be King and by this Title he reigned twenty Years in his Mother's Life and during that time he never made use of her Name in the Coin of Scotland nor in any Proclamation or Law and after her Death continued his Reign by this Title to his dying Day which was inconsistent with the Flatteries which his Favourites buz'd continually in his Ears That he was King by inherent Birth-right and that he held his Crown from God alone and so pleasing was this Doctrine to him that above all other things he set himself upon it not only in magnifying himself herein in his Speeches in Parliament but in his Writings against Bellarmine and Peron against the Pope's deposing Kings In his Infancy and Minority the Regents and Nobility made Havock of the Crown and Church Revenues so as when he came to Age he had but little left
Rome The Bohemians having this farther strain of their Crowns being disposed of to another and dreading the Disposition of this Ferdinand assembled at Prague the Regal City of Bohemia and demand a General Diet of the Kingdom to bring their Grievances thither herein they did not apply themselves to Ferdinand as their King but to Matthias the Emperor but Matthias denied or deferred it to use Nani's words who tho a Venetian seems to me to be very partial against the Bohemians whereupon the Bohemians upon the 23d of May 1618 parted in a Rout and believing the Counts Martinitz Slavata and Philip Fabritus most zealous Papists to be the Motives of Matthias his Denial flung them out of the Windows of the Castle of Prague but they escaped by a Miracle as Nani says lib. 4. p. 127. The Count de la Tour in this Commotion makes a most pathetick Oration to the Bohemians wherein he sets forth how the Privileges of the Kingdom were violated and the Exercise of their Religion forbid and made to descend upon the Will of Princes That the usurped Crown of Bohemia passed from Head to Head as the Revenue and Inheritance of one House and to establish an everlasting Tyranny being ravished before its time from Successors in spite of Death is never suffered to be vacant c. And then goes on What have we not yet suffered The use of Life comes now to be denied us and the Vsufruit of our Souls contested but all our past Miseries will not be able to call to Remembrance but some imperfect Representations of the Calamities to come In sum Rodolph lived amongst us Matthias has reaped us as the first Fruits of his ambitious Desires for Matthias had forced Rodolph to resign the Crown of Bohemia to him as Ferdinand had done to Matthias But what may we expect from Ferdinand unknown to us and in himself rigorous directed by Spanish Counsels and governed by that sort of Religious Priests and People who detest with an equal Aversion our Liberty and Belief He was born and bred up in the Abhorrence of us Protestants and why should we be so forward to make trial of it Since the Persons banished the Families displanted the Goods violently taken away demonstrate too cruelly to us that he would abolish our very Being if he could as easily command Nature as he uses Force Wo to you Bohemians to your Children to your Estates to your Consciences if you suffer this Ferdinand to keep his footing in the Throne And when will you attempt to shake off the Yoke if you have not Courage to do it at a time when without Power without Guard the Kingdom is in your own Power and that you have two Kings to oppose you one whereof is fallen and the other toâ—ters c. which you may read at large in the fourth Book of Nani and concludes The Lot is drawn Liberty or the Hangman If Conquerors we shall be Just Free and Princes if overcome Perâ—idious Perjured and Rebels The Inhabitants of Prague before disposed took fire at this Oration of De la Tour and chose a Magistracy of Thirty with the Title of Directors to carry on a Government in opposition to Ferdinand and what happened in Prague was no sooner divulged through the Kingdom but all was in a Revolt drawing also the Provinces of Lusatia and Silesia adjoining to them into their Confederacy Matthias had a Counsellor named Gleselius upon whose Advice and Integrity Matthias relied above all other Men who advised Matthias by all fair means possible to compose the Commotions of the Bohemians for if he should come to a Rupture with them and Matthias be compelled to raise an Army the Interest of Ferdinand was such not only in the Spanish Councils but the Popish in Germany and the hereditary Countries that he would command it and thereby be in a Condition to ravish the Empire from him as he had done the Crown of Bohemia and Matthias feeling yet this Flesh-wound feared that mortal one if Ferdinand were put on the Head of an Army Hereupon Ferdinand without any regard to the Majesty and Authority of Matthias resolved to arrest Gleselius and separate him from giving any farther Advice to Matthias and one day being called to Council where the King was with one Ognate Gleselius was seized upon by d' Ampiere and Prainer and put into a close Coach and guarded by an hundred Horse hurried away to Inspurg Matthias was astonished at this bold Insolence which struck at his Authority in the tenderest part and now without any Council left in the Hands of his Cousin who designed to rise out of his Ruin became so overwhelmed with Melancholy that both asleep and awake he could not be with-held from crying out with a loud Voice That Gleselius might be brought back again but all to no purpose for he shall never live to see him again and in these Agonies he had some thoughts to have cast himself into the Arms of the Bohemians but it was not in his Power to do it These things were in 1618 at the end whereof Matthias died These Commotions in Bohemia and other parts of the Empire encreased after the Death of Matthias so that the Election of an Emperor was controverted till the 30th of August 1619 when Ferdinand was chosen having by large Promises prevailed upon George Duke of Saxony to vote for him But however the Bohemians were stiff in opposing his Election to the Kingdom of Bohemia and offered the Crown to Charles Duke of Savoy tho a Popish Prince and who had a better Title to the Crown of Bohemia than Ferdinand his Mother being a younger Daughter of Maximilian the 2d but prevailed upon by the Pope and Spanish Councils he refused it as did the Duke of Saxony and then they chose Frederick Count Palatine hoping to receive great Assistance from King James his Father-in-law but were mistaken in the Man Upon this Election Abbot Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was all on Fire to perswade the King to assist his Son-in-law and to that purpose wrote a long perswasive Apology to the King concerning it which you may read at large in Rushworth's Collections fol. 12. but the King and Bishop were not of the same Opinion for the King would have it that the Election of his Son-in-law was upon the Score of Religion not Right and therefore disswaded him from it but being a mighty Man of Embassies as well as Words Nani says fol. 138. published that he would assist his Son-in-law and dispatched an Ambassador to Vienna proposing that Bohemia should remain to Frederick But if his Authority by words would not settle his Son-in-law King James could not go further Frederick thus forsaken by his Father-in-law raised upon his own account 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse and entred Prague and was crown'd King on the Fourth of November 1619 and was no sooner crown'd but laid the Foundation of his own Ruine for the Counts De la Tour and Mansfield who had raised
to do it Yet this Adventure must be run because Buckingham would have it so so pur-blind nay stark-blind does Poverty and Covetousness make Man's Understanding and Reason But that we may take all before us let 's see in what Esteem King James was with the Spaniards which might encourage him to pursue this Adventure In their Comedies in Flanders they imitated Messengers bringing News in haste that the Palatinate was likely to have a numerous Army shortly on foot For the King of Denmark would shortly furnish them with a thousand Pickled-Herrings the Hollanders with one hundred thousand Butter-Boxes and England with one hundred thousand Ambassadors They pictured King James in one place with a Scabbard without a Sword in another with a Sword which no body could draw out tho divers Persons stood pulling at it In Brussels they painted him with his Pockets hanging out and not one Penny in them and his Purse turned upside down In Antwerp they pictured the Queen of Bohemia like a poor Irish Mantler with her Hair hanging about her Ears with her Child at her Back and the King James carrying the Cradle after her and every one of the Pictures had several Motto's expressing their Malice Such Scorns and Contempts were put upon the King James and in him the whole Nation See the Preface to the History of the first 14 Years of the Reign of King James and Wilson fol. 192. But tho Buckingham pursued this Match with such Eagerness yet when it came to his Management in Spain where the King's Proclamations forbidding Men to talk of State-Affairs had no effect he proceeded wrong in every step of it and to gratify his Ambition and Personal Disgusts was the first and principal Instrument to break it off but that we may not insist upon Generals 1. The Prince's coming to Spain and thereby putting himself into the King of Spain's Power brake all the Earl of Bristol's Measures whereupon the Negotiation and all the Particulars of the Marriage was settled and the Negotiation was put into a new Form See Rushw Collect. fol. 286. Objection This was but a Charge by the Earl of Bristol against the Duke who prosecuted the Earl of High Misdemeanors and therefore no Proof against the Duke Answer Yet the Honour of so great a Statesman and faithful a Counsellor as the Earl was who had so honourably served the King in seven foreign Embassies and had by the Expence of 10000 l. saved Heidelburg from falling into the Hands of the Spaniard and having upon the Dissolution of the last Parliament given the King 500 l. upon the Benevolence and never received a Check from the King in all his Negotiations but always honourable Testimonies from him for his faithful Services before Buckingham broke in upon him may go a great way But it seems to me to be a clear Proof upon Buckingham for Bristol twice answered Articles preferred against him without any Reply whereas rather than Buckingham should answer Bristol's Charge King Charles dissolved his second Parliament 2. Buckingham had not learned the Verse which is taught to every School-boy Quum fueris Romae Romano vivito more for being French bred he appeared in a French Garb most hateful to the Spaniards and by his Familiarity with the Prince he seemed rather the Prince's Guardian and Companion than Follower which disrelished the Court of Spain and the Spaniards in general who are grave sober and wary 3. He by contrary Methods opposed all the Earl of Bristol's Methods nay fell at odds with him tho without Comparison he was the ablest Statesman in all King James his Councils 4. Whereas all other Ambassadors and Statesmen in all great Affairs make their Court to the King's Council and prime Ministers of State to attain their Ends Buckingham fell at open Defiance with Olivares prime Minister of State in Spain and 't was generally said made his Court to the Countess which she acquainted her Husband with and instead of the Countess put a tainted Whore to Bed with him 5. The Earl of Bristol in the 9th Article of his Charge against him shews what a Scandal Buckingham gave by his Personal Behaviour in Spain and also employing his Power with the King of Spain for procuring Favours and Offices which he bestowed upon base and unworthy Persons for the Recompence and Hire of his Lust These things as fit neither for the Earl of Bristol to speak nor the Lords to hear he left to their Lordships Wisdom how far they please to have them examined It having been a great Infamy to this Nation that a Person of the Duke 's great Quality and Employments a Privy-Counsellor and Ambassador eminent in his Majesty's Favour and solely in Trust with the Prince should leave behind him in a Foreign Court so much Scandal as he did by his ill Behaviour 6. The Earl of Bristol's sixth Article against Buckingham is That his Behaviour in Spain was such that he thereby so incensed the King of Spain and his Ministers that they would admit of no Reconciliation nor farther Dealings with him Whereupon he seeing the said Match would be to his Prejudice he endeavoured to break it not for any Service to the Kingdom nor of the Match it self nor for that he had found as since he pretended the Spaniards did not really intend the said Match but out of his particular Ends and Indignation And the 7th Article says 7. That after he intended to cross the said Match he put in practice divers undue Courses as making use of the Prince's Letters to his own Ends and not as they were intended as likewise of concealing things of high Importance to the King James and thereby to overthrow the King's Purposes and advance his own Ends. Nor had my Lord Keeper Williams any better luck in this Adventure of Buckingham's than the Earl of Bristol or Olivares for tho the Prince's going into Spain was concealed from the Keeper as well as Council yet after the Duke was gone the Keeper's Letters followed him to Madrid wherein the Keeper advised him to be circumspect in all his Actions that no Offence might be taken at any of them by the King and Ministers of Spain and to be advised by the Earl of Bristol not only as a most able Statesman but above all others the most experienced in the Manners of the Spaniards and Court of Spain but this Buckingham took as ill Manners in the Keeper and was an occasion of his quarrelling with him as you may read in the Life of the Lord Keeper written by the Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry But neither the danger of the Prince in Spain nor the cross-grain'd going of the Match any way abated the King's Favour to his beloved Scholar and Disciple Buckingham but he sent after him the Patent of being created a Duke there being not another of England So that now he is become Duke Marquess and Earl of Buckingham Earl of Coventry Viscount Villiers Baron of Whaddon Great Admiral of
to fish without Licence they punished them with Loss of Life and Limb and were obliged to repair to Berghen and pay their Duties into the King's Exchequer there as appears by the Danish Records and other Monuments preserved in England and this avowed to have been practised consantly time out of mind Ann. 1432. Afterwards upon the Marriage of James 3. of Scotland with Margaret the Daughter of Christian 1. of Norway the Rights of the Fishery upon Schetland was transferred to the King of Scotland and his Heirs Anno 1470. and William Walwed a Scots Lawyer c. 3. de Dominio Maris says That in the past Age after a most bloody Quarrel between the Scots and Hollanders about the Fishery the Matter was at last composed in this manner That in time to come the Hollander should keep at least eighty Miles from the Coasts of Scotland And if by Accident they were driven nearer by the Violence of the Weather they paid a Tribute at the Port of Aberdeen before their Return where there was a Castle built and fortified for this and other Occasions Dr. Stubbe says that Gerard Malinus a most inquisitive Person informed him That after the Agreement between the King of Scotland and the Hollanders that the Dutch should not fish within eighty Miles of the Scots Coast lest the Shoals of Herrings should be interrupted King James before his coming to the Crown of England did let the Fishing upon the Coast of Scotland to the Hollanders for 15 Years And if this happen'd in the Year 1594 when Prince Henry was born then in the Year 1609 the Term expired when King James by his Proclamation enjoined the Dutch which fished upon the Coast of Scotland to take Licences But certain it is that the Dutch to caress King James the more at the Christning of Prince Henry were his Godfathers and presented the Prince with 400 Ounces of fine Gold and a Deed sealed whereby the Prince was yearly to receive 5000 Florins out of Camp-vere Mr. Stubbe says pag. 131 I believe from Authors truly cited by him The King of Denmark receives at his Ward-House in the Sound one Dollar for a Licence and for the Seal or Rose a Noble of every Ship and for every Last of Herrings being 12 Barrels one Dollar In Russia many Leagues from the Main or Land the Fishermen pay great Taxes to the King and in most places none but the Natives are permitted to fish but where the Hollanders are permitted to fish they pay the tenth Fish to the Emperor The King of Sweden amongst the Regalities of that Crown hath that of the tenth Fish caught in his Seas or if not that a Composition for the Fishery he has also several Districts Channels or Veins Royal in his Seas which are appropriated to his particular Use Nor is there any Fishing permitted in the open Seas there but by Leave and Direction of the Governour of the neighbouring Ports And Page 132 he says the same is practised by the King of Portugal in the Kingdom of Algarsues and the Natives pay a certain Tribute for their Liberty to fish And in Spain the Duke de Medina Sidonia does rent out of the Maritime Jurisdiction what he hath in reference to Fishing for 80000 Ducats of yearly Revenue Has not Grotius a fruitful Brain to find out those Usages by Princes and States in all Ages to be Usurpation against natural Right which lib. 1. sect 10. tit 5. de jure Belli Pacis is immutable by God himself and which never any Man before presumed to question But before we enquire into the Causes from which Grotius assumes to himself a Power which he denies to be in God Almighty let 's see how the Case stood with the Dutch when Grotius wrote his Mare Liberum both at home and abroad Tho the Seas were free Jure naturali as Grotius says yet I have seen a Dutch Placart printed the Year before Grotius wrote his Mare Liberum viz. 1632 and which Grotius might have seen as well as I wherein the States prescribe when and where the Dutch shall begin and proceed in their Fisheries and wherein they forbid the Use of French Salt in all their Fisheries and that Salts used in all of them shall be three times revised in three several Offices upon Penalty of Forfeiture of Fish and Salt which by Grotius's Doctrine is an Usurpation of the Natural Right which every Man has in the Sea and immutable by God himself Dr. Stubbe Page 132 says That the Fishermen in one Year paid the States 300000 l. for the Herrings and Codfish taken upon the Coasts of England and Scotland besides the tenth Fish and Cask paid for Waftage which comes at least to as much more which are Duties proper to the Kings of England and Scotland So that if what the Kings of England ever claimed by immemorial Prescription be an Usurpation against natural Right by Grotius's Doctrine I would be willingly informed by any of Grotius's Disciples by what Right then do these new States impose these things upon the Dutch who fish in these Seas If the Sea be free Jure naturali let any Man shew a Reason how the Dutch erect their East-India and West-India Companies only to trade in the East-Indies Africk and the West-Indies exclusive to the rest of the Dutch without a Violation of the natural Right of the other Dutch which Grotius says is immutable by God As Grotius's Title Mare Liberum is absurd and contrary to the Practice of his Country-men so his Manifesto of it is not less arrogant and intolerable viz. To the Princes and free People of the Christian World without so much as the Addition of sending greeting An Arrogance which no Pope ever assumed yet done by Grotius an exotick and proscribed Traitor for raising Arms and endeavouring to subvert the establish'd Church and State of his native Country The Topick whereon he founds his Manifesto is general and such as no Thief or Rogue ever pleaded to save their Lives viz. It is an Error not less old than pestilent which many Mortals but those especially who most abound in Wealth perswade themselves that Just and Vnjust is not distinguished by its own Nature but by an empty Opinion and Custom of Men and that all Right is to be measured by the Will and the Will by Profit But who these are who maintain these Opinions Grotius names none if they were his Acquaintance which I believe none of the Kings or Free People were except his Country-men were he should have convinced them to their Faces and not sneakingly have cavill'd at them behind their Backs I say I find this by no Nation or People so much practised as by the Tripolins Tunis Algier and Sally-men and his Country-men as will appear And if this will not oblige all Christian Princes and Free People to abandon all their Rights of Dominion to the Seas whereof they have been possessed by immemorial Prescription and leave all free for the
Exchequer where he pleaded and the King's Counsel demurring the Point in Law came to be argued on both sides Mr. Whitlock has a remarkable Passage of Judg Croke concerning his Opinion in the Case of which he speaks knowingly viz. that the Judg was resolved to give his Judgment for the King and to that end had prepared his Argument yet a few Days before he was to argue upon some Discourse with some of his nearest Relations and most serious Thoughts of the Business and being heartned thereto by his Lady who was a good and pious Woman told her Husband upon this Occasion That she hoped he would do nothing against his Conscience for fear of any Danger or Prejudice to him or his Family and that she was content to suffer Want or any Misery with him rather than be an Occasion for him to do or say any thing against his Conscience or Judgment Upon these and many the like Incouragements but chiefly upon better thoughts he suddenly altered his Purpose and Arguments and when it came to his turn contrary to Expectation he argued and declared his Opinion against the King and so did Judg Hutton after however the rest of the Judges gave their Opinions against Mr. Hambden However the King this Year to sweeten the Judges Opinion for levying Ship-Money set out a Navy of sixty Men of War to disturb the Dutch Fishing on the Coasts of England and Scotland under the Command of the Earl of Northumberland who seized and sunk several of the Dutch Busses whereupon they sued to the King for leave to fish promising to pay an Acknowledgment of 30000 l. per Annum But this ill agreed with the King's Reason for levying Ship-Money which was that Pirats infested our Coasts to the indangering the Safety of the Nation See William de Britaine f. 16 17. But if the Dutch were thus bold upon our Coasts by the Liberty granted them by Hugo Grotius they were much bolder in the East-Indies where they stile themselves Soveraigns of all the Seas in the World for Anno 1620 they seized upon two Ships of the English called the Bear and the Star in the Straits of Mallaca going to China and confiscated Ships and Goods valued at 150000 l. I suppose Grotius could not give a like Instance of any Dutch Ships so used for passing through the Channel and last Year viz. 1635 an English Ship called the Bona Esperanza going towards China by the Straits of Mallaca was violently assaulted by three Dutch Men of War the Master and many of the Men killed and the Ship brought into Mallaca and there the Ship and Goods were confiscate valued at 150000 l. and this very Year the Dragon and Katherine two English Ships of Sir William Courten valued at 300000 l. besides the Commanders and others who had great Estates in them were set upon by seven Dutch Men of War as they past the Straits of Mallaca from China and by them taken the Men tied back to back and thrown over-board the Goods taken out of the Ships which were sunk and seized for the State The State and Church of England thus established in Doctrine and Discipline the Arch-bishop's next Care was to have the same in Scotland and herein he was so absolute that the King told the Marquess Hamilton when he was his Commissioner in Scotland that the Arch-bishop was the only English-man he entrusted in the Ecclesiastical Affairs in Scotland and no Care need be had of the Church of Ireland since my Lord Viscount Wentworth was Lieutenant there who to all Intents pursued the Arch-bishop's Instructions Here let 's see how the Church stood in Scotland before the Arch-bishop undertook to reform it James the 5th of Scotland died the 13th of December 1542 leaving only one Daughter Mary but five Days old by Mary of Lorain his Wife Sister to Francis Duke of Guise and Charles Cardinal of Lorain two the most powerful Princes in France after King Henry the 2d and the most zealously addicted to the Popish Religion After the King's Death Cardinal Beaton got a Priest Henry Balfour to forge the King's Will whereby the Cardinal the Earls of Huntley Argile and Murray were to have the Government during the Queen's Minority but the Nobility not believing it chose the Earl of Arran Governour and Henry the King of England desiring to unite the Kingdoms by marrying his Son Edward with the Infant-Queen sent a solemn Embassy to the Governour and Council of Scotland to consent to this Marriage which was done only the Queen Dowager and the Cardinal dissenting and this was confirm'd by the Parliament convened at Edinburgh the 13th of March following Yet the Queen-Mother and Cardinal got the Queen to be married to Francis the Dauphin Son of Henry the 2d of France In this Parliament the Scots were permitted to read the Scripture in the English Tongue till the Prelates should publish one more correct But in the Year 1559 the Scots began their Reformation in Religion at Perth the intervening Accidents of the Scots Endeavours to reform and the Opposition by the Regent the Cardinal and the Prelates you may read in Bishop Spotswood's History of the Church of Scotland and Sir Melvil's Memoirs To suppress the Progress of this Reformation the Queen-Mother who was Regent calls in an Army and Navy of French to oppose them The Reformers call in an Army and Navy of English the English Fleet fire the French Ships in their Harbour and compel the French to leave Scotland and in 1560 the Queen Regent died leaving Scotland in a kind of Interregnum In August following a Parliament convened at Edinburgh by a Warrant from the King and Queen wherein the Mass and Popery were suppressed and the Reformation of the Kirk of Scotland in Doctrine and Discipline established but the King and Queen now of France as well as Scotland refused to confirm either nor was this Kirk-Doctrine and Discipline confirmed till the Queen was deposed and Murray made Regent in 1567. The Reformation was purely after the Mode of Calvin and Church of Geneva a Common-Prayer was ordained not strictly to be observed but as a Pattern of Prayer In it were ordained four sorts of Assemblies viz. National Provincial Weekly Meetings of Ministers and the Eldership of every Parish Superintendents were likewise established whose Office was to visit the Kirk within limited Places these had Power to cite and deprive Ministers but must be assisted by some grave Ministers next adjoining as also to ordain Ministers But the Hierarchy of the Church of Scotland as they were esteemed one of the States in Parliament was not then nor after taken away by Parliament nor their Power of Ordination and Visiting within their Diocesses yet in Visitation and Ordination the Superintendents had a concurring Power with the Bishops and the Bishops were subject to be cited and proceeded against for Scandal neglect of their Office Symony c. by the General Assemblies This Reformation viz. 1581 was subscribed by
Lesley gave all for lost But the Prince as he did before at Edghill pursuing the Enemy too far gave an Opportunity to Sir Thomas Fairfax to rally his Men and joining with Cromwel's Regiment of Lobsters armed with Pot Back and Brest fell upon the Right Wing of the King's Army and routed them and also the rest of the King's Foot destitute of Horse and obtain'd a compleat Victory In this Fight above 7000 were slain 3000 of the King's part taken Prisoners and 25 Ordnance 47 Colours 10000 Arms two Waggons laden with Carabines and Pistols 130 Barrels of Powder with all the Bag and Baggage After this the Parliament's Generals returned to the Siege of York and summoned it which was delivered up to them by Sir Thomas Glenham and the Marquess of Newcastle went beyond Sea Thus was all the North reduced to the Parliament by the fatal Rashness of the Prince who might have avoided the Fight and joined with the Marquess of Montross and Col. Clavering who were with 6000 Foot within two Days march of him The North thus subdued upon the Matter Essex by the Perswasion of my Lord Roberts marches into the West but a different Fate attended him For the King followed him and joining with Prince Maurice followed Essex into Cornwal where he block'd up all the Avenues so as Essex must either fight or be starv'd but in regard that the King had possest himself of all the Passages Essex could not fight without an apparent Hazard of the Loss of his Army However Sir William Balfour with 2300 Horse brake through the King's Army and got to Salt-Ash and from thence to Plimouth which held for the Parliament Now were the Parliament's Foot in a wretched State the King closely pursuing them and the Countrey People rising upon them Hereupon Essex deserts them and with divers of his Officers by Sea got to Plimouth leaving Skippon to take care of the rest who upon the 2d of September capitulated to deliver up to the King all their Artillery with all the Bag and Baggage no Person under a Corporal to wear any kind of Weapon all Officers above to wear only Sword and Pistol And so Skippon marched to Pool which was in the Parliament's Power The Ill Success of Essex in this Expedition was the Cause of Essex his Fall tho the Parliament at present seemed to be otherwise disposed and of the Rise of Cromwel as we shall observe Whilst these things were doing in the North and West other Actions of less Consequence happened Sir Thomas Middleton having taken Mountgomery-Castle the King's Forces advanced in a much greater Body to retake it whereupon Sir Thomas retreated But being joined with Sir William Brereton Sir John Meldrum a Scot and Sir William Fairfax returned and charged the King's Party and took Prisoner M. G. Broughton Lt. Col. Bludwel M. Williams nine Captains many inferiour Officers and 1500 common Soldiers Of the Parliament's Party Sir William Fairfax was slain with Eleven Wounds Maj. Fitz-Symons and about 40 Souldiers and 60 wounded Monmouth Town and Castle were surprized by Massey with the Loss only of Six Men. Lieut. Gen. Lesley in the North fell upon the Forces commanded by Sir Philip Musgrave kill'd divers upon the Place and took 100 Prisoners My Lord Herbert Son of the Earl of Worcester was beaten by Massey who killed 50 and took 60 Prisoners and Massey fell upon a Party of the King 's near Beachy killed 70 and took 170 Prisoners and Col. Charles Fleetwood took two Troops of the King's Horse near Belvoir Castle From these lesser Actions we now advance to tell of Greater The Parliament's Army every where victorious in the North Lesley had now an Opportunity to return to New-Castle which he summoned to yield which being refused he stormed and took it by Force whereupon Sir John Marlay the Mayor and others fled to the Castle and would have capitulated but were denied and so were forced to surrender at Discretion But how successful soever the Parliament's Forces were in the North after the Fight at Marslon-Moor the King reaped but little after the Parliament's Foot had delivered up their Arms in the West for Essex having joined Manchester and Waller resolved to hinder the King's Return to Oxford and upon the 23d of October rendezvouz'd the Army at Aldermaston-Park and next Night privately passed the Water at a Ford near Padworth and next Morning to Bucklebury-Heath near Newberry where the King then was and about 12 a Clock drew down their whole Army between Thatcham and Shaw and skirmished with the King's Horse Manchester's Troops and the London Train'd-Bands crossed the River Kennet between Newberry and the Hill and forced the King's Party which kept the Pass from thence with some Execution but Sir Bernard Astley Son of Sir Jacob or the Lord Astley coming to their Rescue forced the Parliamentarians back again In the Afternoon 4000 of Essex and Waller's Horse and Dragoons with 500 Foot charged the King's Forces on the West of Newberry and forced them to retreat in some Disorder and some of the King's Field-Pieces were taken Essex followed the Success and charged the King's Life-Guard whom he overpowered and had much more endamaged if the Lord Bernard Stuart had not come to their Assistance and secured their Retreat but the Parliamentarians every way advancing beat the King's Army out of the Field with the Loss of many Colours and two Pieces of Cannon Sir Anthony St. Leger Lieutenant-Colonel Leak Lieutenant-Colonel Topping and Captain Catclyne elder Brother of Sir Nevil Catclyne my worthy Friend were killed and the Earl of Cleveland and some few others taken Prisoners If the King's Affairs succeeded so ill in the West they did worse in the North for Leverpool submitted to the Parliament and Lesley had Tinmouth-Castle a Place which hereafter he shall be better acquainted with tho not in the Quality of a General of an Army but a Prisoner surrender'd upon Articles After this Janus's Temple was shut this Year if you begin it at January And now a Treaty of Peace at Vxbridg is set on foot at the Desire of the King but no Success attended it This Year tho the Princes Rupert and Maurice followed the King in his Wars against the Parliament yet the Elector Palatine Frederick their elder Brother petitioned the Parliament that he might come over and take the Covenant which tho at first they refused yet afterwards they admitted him and allowed him 8000 l. per Annum out of my Lord Petres and other Delinquents Estates and so he continued till after the Treaty at Munster 1648 where he led a Life not becoming a Prince in Adversity The Treaty of Peace at Vxbridg not succeeding the Parliament took the Town of Shrewsbury which as it is one of the most famous of all the Towns of England so it stopt on that part the Entercourse of Wales with the Counties of Salop Chester and Worcester But to throw a little Water into the Wine of the Parliament's
third of June following the English Fleet commanded by the Duke of York Prince Rupert Admiral of the White and the Earl of Sandwich of the Blue fought the Dutch off the Coast of Harwich where the Dutch were put to flight Opdam their Admiral was blown up and Cartinere Stillingwolf and Stamp Flag-Officers killed and eighteen of the Dutch Fleet sunk and taken and if it had not been for fear of disturbing the Duke in his next Night's Sleep it 's believed the whole Dutch Fleet might have been destroy'd But in this Fight the English lost the renowned Earl of Marlborough who tho Admiral in King Charles the First 's Reign died a private Captain in this Fight Rear-Admiral Sanson was killed in it and Vice-Admiral Lawson soon after died of his Wounds The Duke of York was of too estimable a Value to be ventur'd any more in this War for in his Person the Hopes of this War and Declaration of Indulgence resolved So the Earl of Sandwich was made Admiral Sir Thomas Allen of the White and Sir Thomas Tiddiman of the Blue Squadrons The Dutch were so damaged in the first Fight that they were not in a Condition to set out another Fleet this Year But the Dutch having lodged their East-India and other Fleets in Bergen in Norway the English Fleet sailed thither to attack them in it But Sir Thomas Tiddiman who was ordered to do it did not sail into the Harbour as he might have done upon his first Approach but sent to the Governour of the Castle to treat without the Dutch within alarm'd at the Danger set all hands on work that Night so that by the Morning they had so fortified the Castle that it was impossible for the English to force a Passage and the Weather growing boisterous it being towards the latter end of September the English Fleet was forc'd to return nor could the Dutch Fleet stay in Bergen and in their Return home two of their richest East-India Ships and about 80 Sail of their other Ships fell to the English share but tho they were deep laden when the English took them they became much lighter before they came into the English Harbour It seems God was not pleased with these things for this Year he sent a horrible Plague which raged over almost all the Parts of England The greatest Plague which happened since Edward the Third's time in England was in the first Year of this King's Grandfather yet a greater in the first Year of his Father's Reign and now a greater than either in the sixth Year of his actual Reign And as the Plague drove the Parliament to Oxford in his Father's Reign so did it now in his But neither the Mourning of the Land because of Oaths the Plague this Dutch War nor the King's Declaration of Indulgence for dispensing with the Penal Laws against Dissenters could abate the Parliament's Zeal in prosecuting Protestant Nonconformist Ministers but they made a Law called the Five-Mile-Act whereby they were banished five Miles from any Corporation or Market Town and had this Oath imposed upon them I A. B. do declare That it is not lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking up Arms by his Authority against his Person or any that are commissionated by him in pursuance of such Commission And I do swear that I will not at any time to come endeavour the Alteration of the Government either in Church or State So help me God The poor Non-conforming Ministers did quietly submit to this in England but the Presbyterians did not so to the High Commission erected in Scotland for about this time they rose in Arms at Pentland against the Persecution of the Prelates who disturbed them in the Execution of their Ministry but were soon broken and a terrible Execution follow'd upon them as Traitors and Rebels In England the Parliament at Oxford granted the King 1250000 l. for carrying on the War against the Dutch and in the Spring 1666 the Plague ceasing the King set forth a Fleet under the Command of Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle Sir Thomas Allen Admiral of the White and Sir William Berkley of the Blue But the Dutch and French now try to do that by Craft which they could not do by Force and Plain-dealing And to this purpose it was given out that the French had fitted up a strong Fleet to join the Dutch and this so prevailed upon the King and Council that upon the 29th of May a remarkable Day when the English Fleet was riding in the Downs Prince Rupert in all haste was ordered with the White Squadron to sail to the West to fight the French Fleet coming to join with the Dutch I desire to be particular in some part of what followed because I had it from Sir John Harman himself who was Vice-Admiral of the Blue At the same time Prince Rupert sailed from the Fleet the Dutch put out to Sea the Wind at North-east a fresh Gale this brought the Dutch Fleet on the Coast of Dunkirk and carried the Prince to St. Helens on the Isle of Wight but the Wind suddenly turning into the South-west blew a strong Gale which brought the Dutch and Duke to an Anchor when Captain Bacon of the Bristol by firing of his Guns gave notice to the Duke of the Approach of the Dutch Hereupon the Duke summoned all the Captains on board him not to consult whether to fight the Dutch but to order them to weigh Anchor and fight the Dutch This was the 1st of June the Wind at South-west blowing a stiff Gale so that the Dutch were forced to cut their Cables not having time to weigh Anchor and tho the English had the Weathergage of the Dutch yet the Wind so bowed the English Ships that they could not use their lowest Tire when they came up to fight the Dutch Sir Berkley's Squadron led the Van but the Duke when he came on the Coast of Dunkirk to avoid running on a Sand made a sudden Tack which brought his Top-mast to the Board whereupon he was forced to lie by 4 or 5 Hours till another was set up but the Blue Squadron knowing nothing of this sailed on fighting through the Dutch Fleet which were 5 to 1 of the Blue Here Sir William was killed and his Ship the Swiftsure a second Rate and all her Guns Brass taken so was the Essex a Frigat of the third Rate and Sir John Harman in the Henry got among 9 Ships of the Zeal and Squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral Everts and these so disabled the Henry that Everts offered Sir John Quarter if he would yield but Sir John told him 't was not come to that yet and gave him a Broadside and killed Everts Hereupon this Zealand Squadron sailed to assist their Fellows behind and only left Sir John to the Mercy of 3 Fireships one of which grappled the Henry on her Starboard Quarter The Dutch
should be Lord on both sides of the Spanish Netherlands could be to protect them against the Power of the French Good God! Did these Men believe Heaven or a God! But all Moral Vertues and whatsoever may be called sacred must give way to the Advancement of the Catholick Cause By this time the French King by the Benefit of the Act of Navigation Oliver's Peace with France and War with Spain our King's supine Negligence and the Addition of twelve great Men of War built by the Dane and Dutch in the former Dutch War had got a Navy equal to the Dutch or English yet how to damage or destroy these and to instruct his Men to fight is the French Game now to be play'd And therefore for this time the French permitted the English to have the Red Flag and the French were content with the White Yet here it 's observable That in all the former Fights with the Dutch when the French and Dane joined against the English except that when the Fleet was divided the English put the Dutch to flight whereas in all the Fights which were four wherein the French joined the English the English came off with more Loss than the Dutch Things thus order'd the Duke of York was Admiral of the Red or the whole Fleet Monsieur D'Estree of the White and my Lord of Sandwich of the Blue And thus they rode at Anchor in Sould-Bay the 28th of June 1672 the Wind blowing at North-East a stiff Gale And upon that day there was a mighty Sacrifice to Ceres and Bacchus on board the Fleet by the Flag-Officers and at the same time the other Captains in imitation of their Admiral went on Shoar to perform the same at Alborough Dunwich and Sould. In their Jollity on Board my Lord Sandwich not at good Terms either with the Duke or with the French said that as the Wind stood the Fleet rode in danger of being surprized by the Dutch and therefore thought it adviseable to weigh Anchor and get out to Sea The Duke retorted upon him as if this had been said out of Fear which the next day 't was thought was the loss of the Earl and the brave Ship the Prince Royal. The Sacrifice ended and when all were Vino somnoque sepulti the Thunder of the Cannon of the Scout-Ships about two in the Morning gave Notice that the Dutch Fleet was approaching to call the English to an account for their Yesterday's Jollity Now all things were in Confusion our drowsy Officers were in no case to go to Counsel nor had time for weighing Anchor the Cables therefore were cut to avoid being burnt by the Dutch Fire-Ships and the Long-boats were sent near the Shoar to wait upon their sleepy Officers Here was no time to draw into a Line of Battel but it happened that about four in the Morning a Calm fell which continued till after six whereby the Captains had time to get on Board tho not to consider how to fight And I have heard experienced Sea-men say if this Calm had not happened the whole English Fleet had been in danger to be stranded or burnt The Coast of Sould-Bay lies near North and South the North-most part inclining into the East called Eastonness being the most Eastern Part of England but towards the South it inclines into the West The French lay South the Duke's Squadron in the midst and my Lord Sandwich on the North so as the French had most Sea-room and the Blue least When the Dutch engaged the Fleets the Wind was South-East and the Dutch did not fight close with the French yet the French shot furiously but their Shot fell short But with great Courage the Dutch fell upon the Duke's Squadron and more fiercely upon the Blue the Dutch having near one third more than the English and thus the Fight held till about 11 when the French by this time might have weathered the Dutch and disingaged the English but did not Now the Wind had got North-East and Van Gent the Dutch Vice-Admiral with three Men of War whereof one lay across his Haulser sorely distressed my Lord Sandwich when Sir Joseph Jordan Vice-Admiral of the Blue who might have disengaged the Earl sailed to the Red to assist the Duke and it 's believed the Earl might have done so too if his great Spirit could have digested his yesterday's Taunt So this noble Earl and his brave Ship perished with many young Gentlemen besides Mariners Towards two the English got the Weather-gage of the Dutch and then the Fight ended nor did the French serve the English better in any of the other Sea-Fights which let others tell I have had enough of this Tho the Dutch could thus cope with the English and French at Sea yet they found another kind of Task of it by Land And let 's look back a little and see how this Calamity came upon them and some things we are necessitated to resume here tho mentioned before upon another occasion to make Matters more plain and obvious There is no Man conversant in the Stories of those Times but understands that the Foundation of the Dutch States was laid by William Prince of Orange Father of Maurice and Henry Frederick Grand-father of King William who and his Brothers all lost their Lives in establishing it with the Assistance of Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth however she made use of the Dutch to curb the aspiring Dominion of the Spaniard knew their Nature so well as never to trust them and therefore bridled them by keeping the Brill Ramakins and Flushing the Keys of the Maeze and Scheld in her Dominion The Queen in assisting the Dutch made one Article That two such English Men as she should name should sit and vote in their States But the Dutch growing mighty by her Assistance and withal ungrateful formed a private Cabal at Amsterdam where they managed all the secret Affairs of their State and in this Barnvelt was the Head The Queen incensed herewith in the Year 1598 called the States to an account for all the Monies she had expended in their Support which was 8000000 Crowns or two Millions Sterling the Dutch pleaded Poverty and their Inability of Payment and beseeched her that as she excelled all others in Glory and Power so she would continue her Mercy and Pity to these distressed States The Queen answered them She had been often deluded by their deceitful Supplications and ungrateful Actions and pretences of Poverty and that they bare no Reverence to Superiors nor took any Care but for themselves The States were confounded with this Answer and to appease her promised to pay her the whole Debt after the War and during the continuance of it to pay her 100000 l. per Annum and that the English Garisons in the Brill Ramakins and Flushing should be paid by the States The Queen tho not much trusting the States yet wisely considering that if she refused these Offers the States might alter and put themselves under
marched with a mighty Army to Wise a small City upon the Maez in the Bishoprick of Liege where he staid a Fortnight for further Instructions from Mombas The Dutch now roused out of their stupid Security to take Counsel what to do the Prince of Orange's though they had forsworn him Stâ—dtholder yet allowed him a Place among the States Counsel was to put ten Thousand Men into Mastricht and to encamp with the rest at Bodegrave whose Situation was most advantageous to cover Holland and to abandon the rest of the Places above the Rhine Monsieur Opdam and Celidreck who spoke for the Nobility were of the same Opinion But De Witt and his Faction little versed in Military Affairs yet ruled all the roast would keep all or lose all and so they did and tho the Garisons upon the Rhine were weak and ill provided they made them much weaker by detaching great Numbers out of them to put into Mastricht Mombas gave the French King an Account of all this and how easily all the Towns upon the Rhine might fall into his Power The French King nicks the Opportunity and passed the Maez and easily put to flight some Troops which the Dutch had advantagiously posted to oppose him and came before Orsoy which next day was surrendred to him From thence he marched to Rhinburgh and Dossery both which surrendred and Dossery without shooting one Cannon for which the Governour lost his Head Wesel was delivered to the Prince of Conde after the Trenches had been opened for a day or two and the Governour had a Sword passed over his Head by the Hangman for making so feeble a Defence Barick at the same time was taken by Marshal Turenne and the Prince of Conde advancing took Deudekom Rees and Emerick with the same Facility as he had done Wesel Thus you see these De Witts or without Wits after their supine Negligence of preserving their Country for twenty Years by their Ignorance or stubborn Opposition to the Prince made the French King's Passage more easy to destroy their Country Here the French Arms seem to stop for the Issel by reason of its Depth not only forbad the French a farther Progress but the strong Retrenchments on the other Side where the River is more fordable when two Gentlemen of the Neighbourhood of Tolhuys came to the Prince of Conde at Emerick and promised to shew him a Passage over the Rhine where there were but one Hundred Paces swimming The Prince of Conde hereupon sent the Count De Guiche to try the Truth hereof with the two Men who brought the Count opposite to the Tol-huys where plunging into the Water the Count followed them and found what they had said to be true The Prince hereupon acquainted the French King who came that Night and supped with the Prince and ordered his Army to march towards the Rhine whither they came about half an Hour before day You have seen how easy a Conquest the French King made of all the Towns on the Rhine by the Advice of these witless De Witts now you shall see how by their Advice they gave him as easy a Passage over the Rhine to the Ruin and Loss of all their Up-land Towns and Country on this side of it The Prince of Orange who in this Exigence Witt 's Faction permitted to be General not knowing the Man sent Mombas with a Body of Horse and Foot to guard the Passage over the Rhine those of the Issel being already secured from the Passage of the French but Mombas seeing this might prevent the French King's Passage wrote to some of the Deputies of the States that there was no Likelihood of the French passing the Rhine but if they pleased he would put himself into Nimeguen where he believed they bent their March which these Deputies ordered him to do At this time the Prince was gone out from the Camp with a Detachment and upon his Return was surprised with what Mombas and the Deputies had done and forthwith sent Wartz with some Troops to the Tol-huys to intrench himself there bâ—â— though Wartz made all the Haste he could the French appeared on the other side of the Rhine which caused him to intrench his Infantry and caused the Cavalry to advance along the Rhine The French King caused his Cannon to play upon Wartz's Cavalry who sheltered themselves from the Shot among the Trees upon the River whilst the French passed it though some were drowned in it which Wartz's Cavalry did not hinder but when they perceived some of the French Troops had come over and began to form a Squadron they came from the Shelter of the Trees but instead of pressing upon the French they made a Halt and made their Discharge at so great a Distance as did no Execution and thereby gave the French an Opportunity of joining those who were before come over The Foot divided from the Horse and discouraged by their base Cowardise and not having time to intrench themselves demanded Quarter which the Prince of Conde granted in case they laid down their Arms. But the Duke of Longueville advancing to the Brink of the Dutch Retrenchment fired his Pistol whereupon the Dutch discharged a whole Volley upon the French and killed a considerable Number of them whereof Longueville was one and the Prince of Conde wounded Hereupon the French stormed the Trenches wherein they found some Resistance and put all to the Sword but those who escaped by Flight and took and plundred the Castle of Tol-huys and put all the Isle of Betue under Contribution The Disaster of the Dutch ended not here for the Dutch which guarded the Issel fearing the French would fall upon them behind fled from their Posts and left the Passage free to the French so as the King in Person took Doesburg and Turesune Nimeguen Swoll Daventer Grave Arnheim Skinenschon and Creveceer and the Bishop of Munster Coventer Whilst the King besieged Doesburg the Burgomasters of Vtrecht surrendred the Keys to the King who sent the Marquess of Rochfort to take Possession of it who made such Haste that he neglected to take Muiden then abandoned whereby he might have bridled Amsterdam Thus you see what a deplorable State the Ingratitude and Perfidiousness of these Men had brought their Country to and you 'll soon see that these Men who had sworn to exclude the Prince from being Stadtholder shall themselves be deposed from being States and no other visible Hopes left to free their Country from the Calamities which they had brought upon it but by exalting this Prince which they had formerly sworn never to do And 't is more observable that both the De Witts were massacred by the Rage of the People in whom the De Witts and Barnvelt before them placed all Soveraignty and might do as they pleased To compleat the miserable Condition of the Dutch Provinces the King had raised an Army commanded by Marshal Schomberg who had done what he could for the French in Portugal the
either by their Ambassadors at Nimeguen or such as the Dutch should send his most Christian Majesty at St. Quintin or Gaunt The Dutch Ambassadors gave an Answer in writing declaring it was a Matter no longer entire since upon the Difficulty raised about the Evacuation of the Towns the States their Masters had been induced to sign a Treaty with England from which they could not recede nor from the Day therein fixed for the determining the Fate of War or Peace and as there was no Time so there could be no Deputation to St. Quintin or Gaunt nor any other Expedient besides the Consent of France to evacuate the Towns The Dutch Ambassadors having blown off his Chaff the French Ambassador then declared to the Dutch that they found the King their Master was resolved at the Desire of the Swedes to retard the Peace no longer upon their Consideration and would consent to evacuate the Towns upon Condition the States would send their Deputies to treat upon the Ways of securing the future Satisfaction to Sweden which was by both intended But the Dutch Ambassadors continued peremptory there could be no Deputation made by their Masters and if the Term fixed by the late Treaty with England should elapse there was no remedy but that the War must go on to which the French Ambassadors replied That their Hands were bound up from further proceeding without such a Deputation Whilst the French were thus wheedling with the Dutch to elude the Term fixed for the French evacuating the Towns at the same time Luxemburg pressed Mons and Schomberg seemed to threaten Cologn when the fatal Day came whether a sudden Peace or long War were to be reckoned upon in Christendom when Boreel came early that Morning from Amsterdam to the Dutch Ambassadors at Nimeguen which were Beverning and one Haren and then Boreel went to the French Ambassadors and after some Conference with them the French Ambassadors and Boreel went immediately to those of Holland and declared to them that they had received Orders to consent to the Evacuation of the Towns and thereupon to sign the Peace and that very Day at Night tho late Beverning signed a Treaty of Peace and Commerce Sir William Temple and Sir Lionel Jenkins refusing to join in it and the Confederates exclaiming against it The next day after this Peace was thus signed came an Express to Sir William Temple from our Court with the Ratificationâ— of the late Treaty between the King and States with Orders immediately to proceed to the Exchange of them whereupon St. William went from Nimeguen to the Hague and the next Day after his Arrival made an Exchange of the Ratifications Now was Holland in as much Disorder as the Confederates were at Nimeguen the Pensioner and several of the Deputies were as much dissatisfied with Beverning's Peace as the Confederates were and said he could not sign the Peace before he had acquainted the States with it and received new Orders there upon it and talked of calling him into Question for it and of disavowing what he had done and thereupon of having recourse to the Treaty made with the King which they now ratified But the Deputies of Amsterdam with whom others joined declared their Satisfaction of the Conclusion of the Peace made by Beverning and argued the Weakness of their Confederates especially Spain and the Unsteadiness and Irresolution of England had made the Peace absolutely necessary to Holland But however this Confusion and indeed the Fate of Christendom were the Consequences of Cross's Pacquet and his acquainting the Deputies with a Peace made between the two Kings yet how dishonourable soever this was to the King he was not at all concerned at it that I can find but pleasantly told Sir William Temple Thâ—â— the Rogue Du Cross had outwitted them all Could this be believed if the great Authority of Sir William Temple had not said it During these Brawls both at Nimeguen and all Holland over the Prince of Orange upon the Fourteenth of August stormed Luxemburg's Camp before Mons wherein the brave Duke of Mâ—mouth and the noble Earl of Ossery were Partakers in the Glory of it and notwithstanding the French Posts were fortified with all imaginable Art and that the Prince's Army had undergone the Fatigue of a hard March attack'd them with a Resolution and Vigour that at first surprized them and after an obstinate-Fight so disordered them that though the Night prevented the further Prosecution of the Action yet it was generally concluded That if the Prince had been at Liberty next Day to have pursued the Action with seven or eight Thousand English who were ready to have joined him he might in all Appearance not only have relieved Mons but have made such an Impression into France as had been often designed but could not be done before And I dare say if Luxemburg had had the like Advantage over the Prince the Dutch would have heard further of it but the Prince was bound up by a limited Authority and so could not pursue the Advantage he had acquired against the French The Success of the Battel at Mons though the Prince's Army were withdrawn gave new Life to the Spaniards and Confederates that the War would go on according to the Ratification of the Treaty at the Hague exchanged the Day before the Fight by Sir William Temple and the States whereas Beverning's Peace at Nimeguen was concluded without the States besides English Forces arrived daily in Flanders as if the King were now resolved to join with the Dutch in carrying on the War pursuant to the League which made the Confederates as well as the Spainards refuse to agree to Beverning's Peace Besides neither the French Pretensions to the County of Beaumont and the Town of Bovignes nor in what Plight the six Towns should be delivered up whether demolished or in the Plight they then stood nor the Dependences upon the Six Towns were adjusted by Beverning's Peace But this Hope of the Spaniards and Confederates shall cost them dear and only serve to advance the French Terms and intolerable Ravages of the French upon them For the French cared little for the Confederates in Disjunction with the Dutch and as little for the Dutch when he had obtained his Ends upon the Confederates and therefore the French fall to their wheedling Trade again with the Dutch and the French King sent a Courier to Nimeguen to satisfy the States in those Clauses of the Treaty wherein they seemed justly to except against Beverning's Conduct thereby to cover the Credit of that Minister who had been so affectionate an Instrument in the Progress of the Treaty and gave them the States Liberty a little to soften the Rigour the French had as yet exercised in the smallest Points contested with the Spaniards and at last dispatched an Express to the Dutch Ambassadors with Power to remit all the Differences which obstructed or retarded the Conclusion of the Treaty between France and Spain to
Man be asked his Opinion of any Law or Point in Law and he gives it according to the best of his skill shall this be taken for Treason and depraving of the Law and a Man be in danger of his Life for it This was the Earl's Case he was called upon by the Duke to take the Test with his Explanation before he did it and whereas Mackenzy says there was no Force upon the Earl I 'm sure if my Author says true the Earl refused to give in the Paper whereof he is indicted and proffered to lay down his Offices upon it till the Duke peremptorily commanded him to do it if this were not Force I would know what is I 'm sure there was no Force but Corruption and Bribery upon the Advocate to enter into this villanous Conspiracy against this Noble Earl to murder him under the Pretext of Justice which is to be esteemed sacred And let any Man read his whole Harangue and see if there be any thing in it but forced and strained Inferences or any one Proof against the Earl within the Act 60 Parl. 6. Mary or the 9 Act. Par. 20. Jac. 6. which makes it Treason to make false Construction of Laws to others with a Design to raise Sedition and Dissension among the King's Subjects so that some Overt Act or Speech to others with a Design to raise Sedition c. must be proved and not what is said in the Council or any Court of Judicature However as was the Advocate such were the Assizers whereof the Marquess of Montross the Earl's Father's most bitter Enemy was the Fore-Man and the rest of the Pack of the same Stamp who with one Voice found the Earl guilty of Treason Leasing-making and Leasing-telling but like conscientious Men having made the Earl to have forfeited his Life Honour and Estate by a Majority they find the Earl innocent of Perjury which they could get nothing by So that the Noble Lord Lorn is become the Forlorn late Earl of Argyle yet the Earl not to be wanting to himself in this deplorable State next day but one viz. December the 15th by a Friend humbly intreated to speak with the Duke who returned Answer It was not ordinary to speak with Criminals except with Rogues on some Plot where Discoveries might be expected By this you may see what Spirit governed this Prince and what might be expected from him if he became King The next Day after the Earl's Sentence viz. December the 14th the Council gave the King notice of it and expected his further Pleasure now the Work is done to his Hand but it seems his Highness was very impatient till he had the Earl's Blood for he said If the Express from the King came not timously he would take upon himself what was to be done by which you may see what an Ascendency the Duke had over the King However the Earl upon the sixteenth petitioned the Duke that he might send a Petition to the King which was refused Things brought to this Extremity and the Earl hearing that some Troops and a Regiment of Foot were to be brought down from the Castle to the Common Goal from which Criminals were usually brought to Execution he resolved to try to make his Escape and the rather because about seven at Night he had notice that new Orders were given for further securing him and that the Castle Guards were to be doubled and that none were suffered to go out without shewing their Faces and therefore a Friend advised him not to attempt it No said the Earl now is the Time and so he attempted it and it pleased God he escaped Hereupon the Lords of Assize upon the twenty third of December pronounced the Earl guilty of the Crimes of Treason Leasing-making and Leasing-telling for which being detained in the Castle of Edinburgh out of which since the Verdict having made his Escape therefore they adjudged the said Earl to be executed to Death and his Name Memory and Honours to be extinct and his Arms to be riven forth and delete out of the Book of Arms swa that his Posterity may never have Place nor be able hereafter to bruick or joyse any Honour Offices Titles or Dignities within this Realm iâ— time coming and to have forefaulted all his Lands and Tenements c. But tho the Earl be escaped out of Prison whereto shall he flee For Terras I 'am sure Britannicas Astraea reliquit he had some thoughts of casting himself at the King's Feet but those soon vanished for the same Counsel which governed in Scotland raged all England over and so privately he passed into Holland where for some time we leave him and see what 's doing in England Mr. Hawles in his Remarks upon Fitz-Harris's Trial F. 18. out of Tully's Offices lays this down for a Rule That nothing is profitable but what is honest for which Tully gives many Reasons but nothing so convincing as the Examples he brings in publick and private matters and tho the Empire was vast and he bore a great Figure in it and was very knowing in the Greek and Roman Histories yet was he not able to bring a hundredth Part of Examples to prove his Position as had been in this little Island in the space of eight Years And in his Preface gives six Reasons for the Disaffection to the late Government viz. Exorbitant Fines cruel and illegal Prosecutions outragious Damages dispensing with the Test and penal Laws and undue Prosecutions in criminal but more especially in capital Matters But these I take to be the Effects of those Councils which governed in England ever after the King's Restoration tho they did not so manifestly appear till the Duke was sent into Scotland and after the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford and for these first six Years after the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford the Tories in England as well as in Scotland were the Tools which the Popish Faction made use of for carrying on their Designs then they were laid by and the Whigs set up as they thought to finish the Work The Tories were so far from being suppressed by the Proceedings of the Commons against them last Westminster Parliament that they only so much more irritated them against the Whigs after the Dissolutions of the last Westminster and Oxford Parliaments and this was what the Popish Party desired The King's Declaration signed Francis Gwyn was not only obeyed by the Tories but entertained with unexpressible Joy and celebrated with manifold Returns of Thanks to his Majesty and now nothing but Halcyon Days were expected and an absolute Dominion over the Whigs and the King to gratify the Tories in their Jollity and after the Bill for repealing the Act of 35 Eliz. was taken out of the House of Lords before it was passed which little sorted with the King's Declarations of Indulgence has this Law now put in Force against the Dissenters and prosecuted with that Violence that many thousands of Families