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A56345 The true portraiture of the kings of England, drawn from their titles, successions, raigns and ends, or, A short and exact historical description of every king, with the right they have had to the crown, and the manner of their wearing of it, especially from William the Conqueror wherein is demonstrated that there hath been no direct succession in the line to create an hereditary right, for six or seven hundred years : faithfully collected out of our best histories, and humbly presented to the Parliament of England / by an impartial friend to justice and truth. Parker, Henry, 1604-1652. 1650 (1650) Wing P429; ESTC R33010 38,712 46

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widow and died without issue and having sworn all the Nobility especially Stephen to her ordained her her issue to be his successors in Englands Throne and married her again to Jeoffrey Plantagenet the son and heir apparent of Fulk then Earl of Anjou by whom she had three sons Henry Jeffrey and William to Henry the Crown belonged as next heir after his mother by the usurped title of his father yet Stephen Earl of Mortain and Bulloign son to Adelincia the third daughter of William the Conqueror by Maud his wife notwithstanding his oath to the last King gets the Crown set on his own head and excludes her and her issue for the present yet after he died Henry called the second sirnamed Shortmantle though his mother was alive enjoys it This Henry had six sons William Henry Richard Jeoffrey Philip John the two first dying Richard the third son the first of that name Sirnamed Ceur de Lyon succeeded his father this Richard dying without issue his yongest brother John usurps the Crown notwithstanding Jeoffrey his elder brother had left a young son named Arthur Plantaganet King of Brittain who was heir apparant to the Crown and after he dyed Henry his son the third of that name succeedes him though Arthurs sister was then alive though in prison who was next to the title such as it was after him Edward sirnamed Longshankes called Edward the first layes hold on the Crown and wore it with much majesty and after him Edward the second his son goes on but still on the old account and on the ruine of the most proper heirs this Edward was deposed by the Parliament for his ill government as anon shall be more fully related and his son Edward the third of that name set up in his room after him followed Richard the second son to the black Prince who was also deposed after whose dethroning Henry called the fourth son to John of Gant Duke of Lancaster and uncle to the former King snatcheth up the Crown though of right it was to discend to Edmund Mortimer Earle of March the son and heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third son of Edward the third and an elder brother of John Duke of Lancaster and thus we have nothing hitherto but interruption and usurpation and those which in their own reigns can pretend a divine title by succession which must not be altered can for their advantage put by the succession of the issue of others But to go on Here now began the bloody wars and contests between the house of Lancaster and York which made the world to ring of the misery of the civill wars of England and all about a title and neither of them if seriously weighed had a right title by succession if the first title of their Ancestors were to be the originall But that custome might be the best right he got in his son Henry who was the fifth of that name to succeed and his son Henry the sixt though an infant takes his place untill Edward Duke of York overthrew his Army in the battle at Towton Field and got him deposed and was proclaimed King by the name of Edward the fourth though the title had been carried on in the House of Lancaster thorow three discents thus favor and fortune not lineall succession alwayes gave the best title this Edward left two sons behind him to maintain the succession of the House of York Edward and Richard Duke of York and five daughters His eldest Son Edward who was the fifth of that name succeeded him in claim title but rather lived then raigned being an infant had never any actuall exercise of his government for Ric. Duke of Glocester and Uncle to this Infant and made his Protector that he might set up himself causeth both the young titular King his Brother these two Royall Infants to be barbarously murthered in their beds and so wears the Crown himself by the name of Richard the Third untill Henry Earl of Richmond a twigg of a Bastard of John of Gaunt by his valour at Bosworth field having overthrown his Army slew the Tyrant himself and created by his sword for other he had none a new title to himself and was Crowned King by the name of Henry the Seventh who what by his power and by a marriage of the Lady Eliz. the eldest daughter of Ed. the Fourth confirmed his succession from him do all our later Princes derive their Title as Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth King James and our last Tyrant Charls This Henry the foundation of our great ones was himself but a private man who as Speed says had scarce any thing of a just title or of a warrantable intention but to remove an Usurper besides there were many naturall heirs of the house of York which were children of Edward the Fourth and George Duke of Clarence Richards elder brother who had better right but when once a title is made it must be maintained and if it can but get thorow two or three Successors it s presently proclaimed to be jure divino and pleaded as the onely just title and right Thus you have a faithfull and true account of the succession of our Norman Monarchs we can onely say we have had so many persons raigning and as Kings of England but for a title by lineal succession there is none but what every man may make aswell as any man and what is as proper to a stranger as to an heir power and favour murther and deceit being the most common principles of the right of most of our Kings to their government over us If it be asked as Speed doth What right had William the Conqueror then it must follow What right had all the rest but supposing his right What right had these who so many times cut off the line and made themselves the Stock of future succession and what misery is it that this broken and usurped title must still be forced on us even by an Ecclesiasticall and Divine Institution who have now a way of redeeming our liberties and bettering our conditions and following the direct line of just and true titles the Election and choice of the people Is not five or six hundred year enough for England to be under the succession of a Norman Bastard pardon the expression its true though plain and to be sold with all its liberties from usurpation to usurpation as well as from generation to generation I need not be very zealous in application the history is enough to make all wise men consider by whom we have all this while been governed and upon what terms How tyranny and usurpation comes to be adored if it have but a royall name added to it Shall the Parliament of England be now blamed for cutting off that race of usurpers and tyrants and reducing affairs to their first naturall and right principle or will the people of England after all their experiences centre
beams attracted most dazled others the Barons and people who were then unanimous through mutual oppressions fall more close and severe on their principles and wil not endure either delays or delusions and therefore effectually to redress their grievances came very well armed to a Parliament then holden at Oxford intended rather for getting Subsidies then removing oppressions in which Assembly they put the King to it urge their former complaints with more zeal and reason and with an addition of a mighty Spirit demand the absolute confirmation of Magna Charta and in a larger edition wherein are comprised those gallant priviledges of the Commons of England which have yet been but kept by Ink and Parchment and not trusting the King got his son Prince Edward to seal it with an addition of twenty four some write twelve Peers which Fabian stiles the douze Peeres not only to see these priviledges truly observed but to be as joynt Regents with the King and all the Lords and Bishops in Parliament took a like Oath to maintain these Articles inviolable yea and all that would have any benefit of residence in the Kingdom were enjoyned to take the same But these were too strict bonds for such a Princes wil he soon finding advantages as he sought them recals all gets a dispensation from the Pope for his forced Oath and to countenance his perjurie and acts in the old account the Barons again stand up with the people stoutly for the performance of the Articles of Oxford and sometimes brought him into straits yea fully defeated him in many bloody battles and regained the confirmation of the same laws with security that all the Castles throughout England should be delivered to the keeping of the Barons that the provisions of Oxford be inviolably preserved that all strangers should be dismist the Kingdom but those which by generall consent should be thought fit to remain this necessitous act though as it gave the people some peace and hopes so it gave the King time to consider of new mediums and therefore still to delay and blind he Assembles a new Parliament at London where having by the sprinkling of Court water won many Lords to take his part begins to surprise as many of the Barons as he could get and spoiled their Castles and Houses that success and authority grows strong on his side and the Barons with some calme provisoes mediate a peace insisting onely in generall that the Articles of Oxford might be observed But the King relying on his strength defies them as Traitors which done the peoples two Generals the Earls of Leicester and Glocester seeing no other means but to put it to a day supply their want of strength by their wit and diligence and carefully and artificially placing their battel which was fought at the Town of Lewis in Sussex overthrew the Kings Army took the King the Prince the Earl of Cornwal and his son Henry the Earls of Arundel Hereford with many other Lords and Gentlemen both English and Scottish And now having the King and Prince and most of the Nobles and a new confirmation of all one would think the great Charter was out of danger either of blotting or razing especially if we consider the solemnities formerly used in the ratification of it as Daniel excellently relates it in his history p. 169. The people knowing that no civil promises or verbal professions would hold in Kings raptured by Prerogative devoted to perjury to maintain their tyranny take a more Ecclesiasticall and divine way of obligation swearing to excommunicate all that should be found infringers of that Charter when the people with the King and all the great Nobility were assembled with all the Prelates and the chief Bishops in their reverent ornaments with burning Candles in their hands to receive that dreadfull sentence the King having one great Candle in his hand gives it to a Prelate that stood by saying it becomes not me being no Priest to hold this Candle my heart shall be a greater testimony and withall laid his hand spred on his breast all the while the sentence was pronouncing which was Authoritato omnipotentis Dei c. which done he caused the Charter of King John his Father to be read and in the end having thrown away their Candles which lay smoaking on the ground they cryed out so let them that incurre this sentence be extinct and stinck in Hell And the King with a loud voice said As God help I will as I am a man a Christian a Knight a King Crowned and Annointed inviolably observe these things Never were Laws saith he whose words express the thing most emphatically amongst men except those holy Commandments from the Mount established with more Majestie of Ceremony to make them reverenced and respected then these were they wanted but thunder and lightning from heaven which likewise if prayers could have effected they would have had it to make the sentence ghastly and hideous to the breakers of it the greatest security that could be given was an Oath the onely chain on earth besides love to tye the conscience of a man and humane societie together which should it not hold us all the frame of Government must needs fall quite asunder yet so almost a miracle though over common among our Kings saith Master Prin out of Mat. Paris the Parliament being thus dissolved by a sacred and most solemn conclusion the King presently studies how to infringe all the premises his Parasites telling him the Pope could soon absolve him for a summ of mony which afterwards the Pope did and the King returned to his former oppressive courses with more violence and hardness and taking advantage by the division of the Barons two Generals the Earls of Leicester and Glocester the latter of which joyned with the young Prince Edward and Sir Roger Mortimer the Kings wicked Counsellor a new and potent Army is raised by them against the Earl of Leicester who had the King prisoner and those which kept constant with him for the Peoples Liberties and he with the rest of the Barons are overthrown and immediately after a Parliament is called and all these laws and decrees made voyd and that Parliament held at Oxford wherein all these Laws were first confirmed by him called Insanum Parliamentum the mad Parliament and all these Patents Commissions or Instruments made to ratifie these Articles were brought forth and solemnly damned and so bright and resplendent did Prerogative break forth that it was Proclaimed Treason in any but to speak or mention any of these Grants with the least approbation and because the City of London had engaged with the Barons and People as a principal part of the whole he would needs have burnt the City had not some wise and potent Favorites interposed and yet they could hardly disswade him from that barbarous and impolitick wickednesse But what he spared in their houses that he gott out of their purses and made up all
the rack let them down and give them cordials and spiritfull liquors that they may be the longer and more sensibly tormented which was made good in the next Kings raign viz. Richard the Second who presently dashes and utterly nips these blossoms that sprung out in the former Kings raign devoting himself to all uncivill and lewd courses and to enable him the better unto it layes on sad and miserable taxes on the people without so much as a mention or hint of their liberties and as the parallel of Edward the second both lived and died It s enough to decypher his raign by his end for he was deposed by the universal consent of the people in Parliament as a tyrannical and cruel Governor and not a good word spoken of him to commend him in his Government and its pitty to aggravate his misery after his death and yet as we say Seldom comes a better when one is cut off another like the Hidra's head springs up in his place Henry the fourth who overthrew him in battel and was made King in his stead though by a wrong title at first promised the new modelling of Laws to the peoples ease and did as in a complement rather to secure his title then out of affection to the people or sense of his relation redress many grievances which were more gross and less concerning the Common-wealth and as he did strive by these common acts to engage the people to him so as one that had continuall sence of guilt on him he got the deposed King to be barbarously murthered in the Castle of Pomfret that no competition might endanger his title by his life He spent most of his raign incontinuall wars about his title and was often opposed as both a Tyrant and Usurper but he still got ground on both the liberties and laws formerly granted yet not so sensibly as in the former Kings raigns that the people may be said to have a little respite from the violence heighth of Prerogative by him but they may thank the unjustness and brittleness of his title for that he being more in fear of of loosing it then out of love with the excess of his ancestors I shall only add one story to conclude this Kings raign which is universally reported by most of our Historians worth observation because it hath much of ingenuity in it and because they were his dying words Being cast into an Apoplexie and nigh his end he caused his Crown to be placed by him on his Pillow least in the extremity of his sickness it might have been delivered to some other who had better right thereunto then he had But when his attendants through the violence of his distemper supposed him to be dead the young Prince of Wales seised on his Crown whereat the King started up raising himself on his arms demanded who it was that had so boldly taken away the Crown the Prince answered that it was he the King fell back into his bed and fetching a deep sigh and sending forth many a pensive groan replyes thus my son what right I had to this Crown and how I have enjoyed it God knows and the world hath seen But the Prince ambitious enough of a Diadem answered him thus Comfort your self in God good Father the Crown you have and if you die I will have jt and keep it with my Sword as you have done and so he did soon after maintaining his Fathers injustice by his own And now comes up his Son Henry the Fifth as the next heir who though while a Prince was given to many wicked practises yet when a King became moderate and hath better commendation then most of his Ancestors the people had two advantages and comforts by him first that his reign was short and that he was much imployed in the war with France for regaining a title to that Crown which he accomplished and so they were free of Civil wars though they had still heavie taxes yet they thought it better to pay for maintaining war abroad then at home and truly the people thought themselves very happy in this Kings reign though their priviledges were laid asleep that they had a little breathing time from Domestick and Civil wars and had hopes to regain by degrees a reviving of their Spirits But the next King Henry the sixth makes up what was wanting of Tyranny and Oppression in his fathers raign He was Crowned King about the eighth or ninth moneth of his age and so had not present oppertunity to shew his royalty Until he came to age the Kingdom was well governed by his three Uncles Humphrey Duke of Glocester John Duke of Bedford Thomas Duke of Excester who by their wisdom and justice kept up the flourishing estate of the English Nation but when his years of nonage were expired and he came to weld the Scepter with his own hands what as some favorably think out of weakness for he was no Solomon all things went presently out of order and Prerogative breaks forth beyond bounds which gave occasion to Edward Duke of York to try conclusions for his title against the House of Lancaster and making use of the discontents of the people through his evil Government opposed him and afterwards deposed him and raigned in his stead by the name of Edward the Fourth and so by Conquest he got the title to run through the House of York having cut it off by his Sword from the house of Lancaster notwithstanding actuall possession of three descents many overtures of war were yet between them for Henry was not yet dead though for the present outed but as a dying man strove for life but being quite overthrown was imprisoned and afterwards murthered to secure the Title there was in these two Kings raign but meerly for a title fought ten bloudy Battles besides all lesser skirmishes wherein many thousands of Lords Gentlemen and Commons were slain and yet not one jot of advantage gotten by it for the peoples liberties It being the misery and folly of the people to venture all they have to set up those over them who afterwards prove most tyranni call and to sow seeds of future misery by spilling their bloods for a usurped title In this Kings reign as in the former the whole land was miserably rent by unnaturall divisions against his title and government and though neither or these two had a just title if we will begin from the root yet all the bloud of the Nation is thought too little to be spilt to maintain their pretences yet we may not reckon this King among the worst had it not faln out that his title must be kept up with expence of so much blood and ruin of the English Nation yet in his last five yeers he laid on such extraordinary taxes and changed the form of Laws that he lost the love of all his Subjects For Edward the Fifth his Son who succeeded him in title we need but mention him for he had but