Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	earl_n	lord_n	viscount_n	3,048	5	12.2365	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96861	Anglo-tyrannus, or the idea of a Norman monarch, represented in the paralell reignes of Henrie the Third and Charles kings of England, wherein the whole management of affairs under the Norman kings is manifested, together with the real ground, and rise of all those former, and these latter contestations between the princes, and people of this nation, upon the score of prerogative and liberty. And the impious, abusive, and delusive practises are in short discovered, by which the English have been bobbed of their freedome, and the Norman tyrannie founded and continued over them. / By G.W. of Lincolnes Inne.	Walker, George, of Lincoln's Inn.	1650 (1650)	Wing W340; Thomason E619_1; ESTC R203987	46,665	64

Walker To the Reader HE must rise betimes saith the proverb who will please all which may cease our wonder that the Common-wealth is so displeasant to some which hath gotten up so late yet better late than never But though some dotarts square all by antiquity supposing none so wise which are not so old and guesse at the understanding by the gray hairs which in truth are rather a badge of imperfection and the declension of nature and which came into the world at the back doore being a part of that fatall offspring begot between the Serpents craft and our first Parents disobedience I speak not this in scorn of age which I honour when found in the way of righteousnesse and truth nor in deniall of its advantage over youth by experience but to oppose that errour spred amongst many that all wisdome deceased with their Grandsires and they are onely to travell in their tracks an opinion more agreeable to a pack horse than a man endued with a rationall soul which is not to lie idle and which indeed the word of God and universall experience which even make fools wise contradicts the one infallibly declaring that in the latter dayes the Spirit of Truth shall more abundantly be poured forth into earthen vessels the other visibly informing us of the daily advantages we have above our ancestors to attain Knowledge for admit they were such G●y ants in understanding yet we poore dwarfes being upon their shoulders may see further than they but I say though some doe thus yet the sons of reason measure by another standard as knowing that if worth should be prised by antiquity the rotten would becom of more value than the ripe to such therefore do I present this Discourse who judge by reason not passion which so often makes the Crow seem white the Bells to tink as the fools do think and in confidence Reader that thy ingenuity is such that no byas of interest will wheel thee narrow and thy capacity able to draw thee from running wide of reason the only mark men in civil games should bowl at I have taken the pains to present thee with a map of Englands condition under her Monarchs wherein thou mayst view how justly Magna Charta is cast in our Governours teeths to beget a belief of their being more tyrannous than our Kings were admit it be not observed in every tittle now what are we the worse when some fresher and more apposite remedy is applyed to heal us let us consider that it was constituted under another Government and so cannot square to the present and that the makers of it were but men nay and such as had not that roome to act in as we have and so could not foresee or at best provide for all that now providence hath wrought amongst us but I shall not detain thee with a long Preface from the Book wherein an ingenuous and rationall spirit will discern that if our present Governours had been bound up to former rules we could never have attained that estate which now by Gods mercy and their prudence we enjoy and may so still if our own perversnesse hinder us not Truly that Fahle in Pliny of certain monstrous people in Africk which had one foot and that so big that they covered and shaded with it their whole body may be a perfect embleme of our Kingly Government which being at first instituted for a firm basis and prop to the body politick what by the fatall sloath and stupidity of the people and the industrious craft and activity of Monarchs was turned topsie turvie and had got so between heaven and us that it wholly deprived us of that free light and happinesse which God and nature held forth unto us and thus in stead of a support was become a burden under the weight of which the whole groaned nay was almost pressed to death but thou being a member and sound canst not but be as sensible of this as I and for dead slesh and rotten limbs corrosives and cuttings are onely proper it will be weaknesse in me therefore to doubt of the plaudit to the Common wealth so farewell till we meet in the book Anglo-Tyrannus Or the Idea of a Norman MONARCH c. FAtall and Bloody have Crowns and Scepters been in generall to all Nations in particular to this in England and that not only in regard of the strife between competitours who in pnrple gore deeply dyed their regall roabs and by the slaughtered carcasses of their Rivals and partakers ascended the Imperiall throne but in respect of the iterated contests between Prerogative and Liberty the Kings aiming at uncontrolable absolutenes the people claming their Native Freedome The verity of this assertion we may see deeply imprinted in bloody Characters throughout the whole series of English history yea so deeply that it may even create an envy in us of the Turkish happinesse and beget a wish after their bondage who though they go for absolute slaves yet cannot shew such dire effects of tyranny as we and our ancestors have felt and groaned under That policy of State impious and inhumane enough of destroying the younger Brothers of the Ottoman line though decried by us and all who write Christians yet compared with our Monarches politick arts and actings may seem to have been founded on the advice of their own and mankinds better genius to prevent the efusion of blood and deliver millions from the shambles there a few males of his own Family fall a victime to their Tyrant when whole Hecatombs can scarse appease the thirsty ambition of an English pretender ther one house suffers here none escapes as but to instance in one contest between Henry the sixth and Edward the fourth wherein was fought ten bloody battles besides all lesser scirmishes thousands of Lords Gentlemen and Commons slaine and one halfe of the Nation destroyed to set up a King to trample upon the other for in that quarrell between the Houses of Lancaster and Yorke fell 80998. persons 2. Kings 1. Prince 10. Dukes 2. Marquesses 21. Earls 2. Viscounts 27. Lords 1. Prior 1. Iudge 1 39. Knights 441. Esquiers this hath been the happiness and peace which a successive and hereditary Monarchy hath afforded England For our liberty we can indeed shew many of our Kings large and good deeds but few or none of their actions their hands alwaies having been too hard for their Seals Parchments and Charters we purchased of them with the price of Millions both in Blood and Treasure but let us but pass by their promises and view their performances and we may set aside Turkie and term England the slave and this appears in our Chronicles where though in the Theorie and System the English Government hath been limited and bounded by good and distinguishing lawes yet in the exercise and practic part of every Kings raign we shall find it deserve as bad a name as others who are called most absolute The Poets fable of Tantalus

had a Negative voice and might chuse whither he would hearken unto them and be no King or no the Parliament concluded and with it ended all his goodly Promises For he presently hastens to Dover receiving a Legat without acquainting the Lords with the cause of his comming exacts the Subsidie contrary to order is wholly swayed by the Counsell of his Queens Vncle an Alien sends for his father in Law to help away with his monie marries Simon Mountford to his sister the Widdow of William Earl of Pembroke a professed Nunne and of a banished Frenchman makes him Earl of Leicester But the Legat and Earl of Leicester proved better than was expected no thanks to the King who doubtlesse was no Prophet the one endeavouring to pacifie not foment divisions which before was held a property inseparable from his office The other becomming a most earnest assertor of the English Liberties as the Sequele will manifest The Lords incensed with these perfidious and tyrannous dealings Remonstrate against him and tell him of the profusion of his Treasure gotten by Exaction from the Subject and cast away upon strangers who onely guide him of the infinite sums he had raised in his time how there was no Archbishoprick or Bishoprick except York Lincoln and Bath but he had made benefit by their vacancies besides what fell by Abbyes Earldoms Baronies and other Escheats and yet his Treasure which should be the strength of the State was nothing encreased Lastly That despising his Subjects Counsels he was so obsequious to the will of the Romans that he seemed the Popes feudary the King hearing this harsh note and perceiving the Londoners and whole people ready to rise against him first by the Legat attempts to win his Brother now the head of the Lords party to side with Him but failing in this he cals a Parliament whether the Lords come armed Whereupon to gain time the businesse is referred to the order of certain grave personages Articles drawn sealed and publikely set up with the eals of the Legat and divers great men the King taking his Oath to stand to their determinations but whilst the businesse was debating he corrupts his Brother and the Earl of Lincoln whereby the Lords are weakned the businesse is dash'd and the miseries of the Kingdom continued Simon Montford is thrown out of favour and the Seal taken from him and his brother Geoffrey a Knight Templer put out of the Counsel Men much maligned as evil Counsellors so inconstant are Tyrants in their favours they lost their places for refusing to passe a grant of 4 pence upon every sack of wool made by the King to the Earl of Flanders the Queens Vncle to whom the next year he gave a pension of 300 marks per annum out of the Exchequer and here by their dejection we may observe that Officers under bad Princes are not alwayes so bad as men account them and that when the Master playes the wreaks the servant bears the burden But it seems one Gulph sufficed not to swallow up the substance of the Kingdom and therefore the Pope adds extortion to the Kings exaction and sends to have 300 Romans preferred to the next vacant benefices in England which mandate so amazed the Archbishop of Canterbury that seeing no end of these Concussions of the State and liberties of the Church he gives over his Sea and payes 800 marks to the Pope for his Fine We need never doubt sure but that they paid well for it who were to have it when so much was given by him that left it He demands a tenth also of the Clergy who flying to the King for protection against the Popes rapine were referred to the Legat yea and the chief of them offered to be delivered up unto him by the King who joyned with the Pope we may see to aw and punish the Kingdom and though they in the Councell then called stood out for a while against the Legat yet at length by the Treason of division the body of the Councel is entred into and the Pope prevails in this businesse Neither was Pope and King enough the Queenes kindred must have a share one of whose Vncles comes into England is feasted sumptuosly Knighted and the Earldom of Richmond with other gifts bestowed on him and the Arch-Bishoprick of Canterbury conferred on his Son but the poor Jews fasted for this who were forced to pay 20000 marks at two Terms that year The King being set agogg to be doing in France by his Father in Law and others the authors of his first Expedition summons a Parliament and moves the matter therein but it was generally opposed as a design not feasible and expensive besides the unlawfulnesse of breaking Truce Money also was denyed though the King came in person most submissively craving their aid with a letter from the Pope to boot in his hand Neverthelesse what by gifts and loans from particular men by begging and borrowing he scraped so much together that he carryed over with him 30 barrels of Stirling Coin and yet before the end of the year he got Escuage toward his charges which he lay spending at Bourdeaux to little or no purpose He sent for Grain Bacon had 10000 quarters of Wheat 5000 of Oates and as many Bacons shipt away most of which perished by Ship-wrack the very Elements seeming discontented as well as the English Lords at his unworthy carriage in undervaluing their Counsels and preferring strangers upon whom he consumed his treasure in such sort as caused his Brother and most of the English Lords to desert him and come over the wiser they for the Earl of Leicester and others which staid behind ranne behind hand too as wel as the King by borrowing large sums to defray their expences at last He was driven to make a dishonorable Truce with the French King and return having not gained so much as 30 emptie barrels were worth The Stangers having made up their mouths of him abroad follow him hither also so greedy were these Harpies after prey and so easy and ready was he to be made one to them and now the Countesse of Provence the Queens Mother bringing another doughter with her arrives at Dover is sumptuously entertained and sent away richly rewarded her daughter being immediately bestowed on the Earle of Cornewall who it seemes had as good a stomack to forraigne flesh as the King his brother that he could fall too so soone without sauce but the Earle was well beforehand in the world and so might the better dispence with the want of a portion Next slips in Martin the Popes collectour furnished with such ample power of cursing suspending excommunicating pardoning having whole droves of blanke Bulls which might be filled up according to occasion and all other accoutrements belonging to and necessary for St. Peters successors trade which was fishing for money not men that the former Legats were but fleas if compared with this horseleech who sucketh so