his Christning were the King of France and Prince Elector Palatine represented by the Duke of Lenox and Marquess Hamilton The Godmother was the Queen Mother of France whose Substitute was the Dutchess of Richmond But the more to binde the affections of this Pair Royal to a firm tie of Conjugal love on the fourth of November she blessed his Majesty and this Nation with the birth of her eldest Daughter the Princess Mary whereby she gave him pledges of both sexes which afterwards she encreased to a more numerous Issue For on the Thirteenth of October 1633. she was delivered of her second Son Christned James and by the Kings command styled Duke of York and so afterwards created by Letters Patents And on the 28 of December in the year 1635. was the Queen delivered of her second Daughter the Lady Elizabeth whose birth was congratulated by the United States of the Netherlands with a present of a massie piece of Amber-greece two fair and almost transparent China Basons a rare Clock of very excellent Art and four very admirable pieces of painting the Originals of Tintinet and Titian those incomparable Artists Thus farre had this Queen lived in all peace and prosperity enjoying the full and endeared love of her Royal Consort which there were no outward obstructions to hinder they enjoying all things wherewith peace and prosperity could cherish them besides a blessed Issue the delight of their eyes so that Fortune seemed to blow a gale upon them beyond their desires or expectations till unconstant as she is she turned the scale and involved them in as great a gulf of sorrow and misery as they had before been in the height of glory and greatness Yet the hard Fortunes they were subjected to did but the more illustrate and set forth those vertues which whilest their brows were encircled with prosperity were scarce discernable to vulgar eyes and judgements For though to bear ones self with even and noble spirit in the height of happiness and greatness be praise-worthy and admirable yet afflictions are the only trial of a great and magnanimous soul And that this Queen was a person of so great and magnanimous spirit none can doubt who shall consider with what a setled spirit she waded through those Afflictions with which God was pleased to chastize her and her Royal Consort The first time that she had occasion to shew herself ready and willing to endure a part of her Husbands afflictions was when his Majesty by reason of the Scots second Rebellion in 1639. notwithstanding his gracious Pardon and Pacification granted them but the year before was constrained by force of Arms to seek a course to reduce them to Obedience but by reason of the unwillingness of Parliaments to supply his extraordinary wants then and the great Charge which would accrue by his raising an Army to oppose them who were then ready to enter his Kingdom of England was forced to desire a Benevolence of those his Loyal Subjects of the Nobility and others who were willing to contribute towards his Necessities The Queen out of her meer motion and free will by her Substitutes Sir Kenelme Digby and Mr. Walter Montague negotiated with the Catholiques for a free and hearty Contribution And so free were those who though they were termed Recusants in point of Religion yet were not so but rather examples to others in point of loyalty few Catholiques then in the Kingdom that almost as great a sum was gathered from them as from the more numerous Protestants many of them proportioning their affections beyond their abilities Yet those Instruments which she had employed for the raising of those free and voluntary Contributions were after questioned by the House of Commons and their Collections though voluntary adjudged illegal there being a Law in England restraining all publique Collections but only what were made according to such and such Forms and Commissions which were to issue forth in Cases of such a general nature and though those Collections as was alleadged were rather Free Gifts then Collections yet the Collectors were like to have been punished Which together with the scandal cast upon her Majesty That she had been an Incendiary betwixt the King and his People and objections taken at the residence of the Popes Legate in England she by Letter acquainted that House That she had alwayes used her best endeavours for the removing of all misunderstandings betwixt the King and his People That she had effectually both by Letters and expresse Messages perswaded him to convoque that great Assembly That whereas there were exceptions taken at the residence of the Popes Legate in England she would take care to remove him speedily though he were here meerly for her own Conscience That touching the Collection if any thing were illegal in it it must be imputed to her ignorance of the Law being carried thereunto out of a dear and tender affection to his Majesty her Royal Spouse in so pressing an occasion but she would be more cautious hereafter not to do any thing but what might stand with Law That she was desirous to employ all the power she had to unite the King and People Therefore she desired them to look forwards and passe by such mistakes and errors of her Servants which respect of theirs should be repaid with all good Offices whereby they should finde real effects This complacent and gentle Message of the Queen mitigated the Parliaments resentments against her Collectors and upon further consideration all proceedings against them were suspended At the beginning of those second â—roubles in Scotland the Queen Mother of France who by the over-reaching power of the Cardinal Richelieu by her means and power advanced to that height wherewith he then swayed was not only expulsed out of her Dominion of that Kingdome but being likewise ignominiously led about the French Army in the manner of a Prisoner was after suffered to escape thence which she did first to the Cardinal d'Infanto Governour of Flanders and afterwards to the Prince of Orange from whence she was by our Queen her daughter compassionate of her miseries invited over into England where she arrived on the last of October 1638. just before the beginning of our sad and miserable troubles her coming over being upon unknown grounds imputed as a presage of all our future distractions she being accounted ominous to what place soever she came till the middle of the year 1641. when we began more visibly to be involved in our troubles she staid here when accompanyed with the Earl of Arundel she took her leave and journeyed through Zealand to Collen in Germany where soon afterward overwhelmed with age and miseries in a melancholy condition to see that Cardinal Richelieu whom she had raised from almost nothing to the whole administration the affairs of France this mighty Princesse expired During the being here of that Illustrious Princess the Queen was brought abed of a third
yet in the mean time will use her utmost power and interest by all ways imaginable to help him She likewise sends another Letter to the French Ambassadour resident to be delivered to the L. Gen. which she directs To her Trusty well-beloved Tho. Lord Fairfax Generall of the Parliaments Forces Therein imploring his aid and assistance to come over to the King her Husband to see him before he should be proceeded against by any Tryall or Charge and to have a Passe for her secure coming and returning This Letter was by the L. Gen. Fairfax sent to the House of Commons but they not so much as deigning to take it into consideration laid it aside And on they proceed in their intended traiterous design against the King her Husband condemning him by their pretended High Court of Justice to be murdered by severing his head from his body before his own Palace-gate of White-hall which accordingly they executed on that black day for ever to be rased out of the Kalender Tuesday the 30 of Jan. to the astonishment of the whole World and grief of all good men But with what unexpressible grief and sorrow to his Royal Consort must be left to imagination no pen being able to express that black cloud of distractions which so sad an accident must necessarily involve her in certainly had she been of the same Religion that those noble Roman Women were who scorned to survive their Husbands her magnanimous spirit had certainly followed their example But since her Religion though it could not restrain her sorrow for her murdered King and Husband restrained her from following him in death she is resolved to spend the rest of her time in Religion and therefore retired her self to the Monastery of Challons where she ceased not daily to lament both his and her own hard Fortune his in coming to so untimely an end by the treachery of his Subjects and her own in surviving him Till at length overcome by the importunities of the King and Qu. Mother of France she came to keep Court though with the most obscurity that could be in Pallace Royal a Pallace built by Cardinal Richelieu at Paris yet never interposing in any matters of Estate except what might be for the Promoting of the interest of her Son King Charles the Second who not only lost his Father but was deprived of his Kingdoms by his Fathers Murderers till it pleased God of late to restore him which sure does in a great measure comfort this disconsolate Princesse though Worlds cannot repair the loss of such a Husband A Prince he was of an incomparable piety and so rare a pattern of Conjugal love that he commanded the Princess Elizabeth the day before his death to tell her mother That his thoughts had never strayed from her and that his love had been the same to the last Nor were her Vertues less resplendant which should I undertake to Characterize I should wrong what King Charles himself hath done I therefore only conclude with this Wish May England ever be happy in such Princes but may never Princes of England be so unhappy in their Governments as the Malice and Rebellion of some men made Them to be FINIS The Queen born Prince Charls his Voyage to Spain His return K. James his Letter to the K. of France Letters sent to the Princess Henrietta Maria King James his Death Prince Charles succeeds Letters of Proxie to the Duke of Chevereux Buckingham and others sent to fetch the Queen K. James his Funerall The Qu. sets forward The Queen puts to sea Arrives at Dover The King and Queen set forward to Londen The Marriage proclaimed Occasion of discontent between the King and Queen The Qu. Servants dismissed Bishop of Menes Madam St. George offer a defence of themselves The Qu. extreamly disturbed at the sending away of her servants The Kings endeavour to pacifie her The French misdemeanours King of France resents the sending away of his Sisters servants Ambassadours sent to demand their restitution But in vain War with France unsuccessefull The Queen brought to bed before her time Prince Charles born The Prince baptized Princess Mary born And Duke of York The Queen raises a Benevolence amongst the Catholiques The Catholiques free supplyes The Collectors of her Majesties Benevolence questioned The Qu. message to the House of Commons The Qu. Mother arrives in England Her death Duke of Glocester born The Marriage of the Princess Mary with the Prince of Orange The Qu. accused of High treason The Queen goes for Holland The Parliaments endeavour to clear themselves The Qu. answer to their excuse The breach betwixt the King and Parliament The Parliament raise Arms The King likewise arms The Queen comes to England The Qu. Letter to the King about her escape at Burlington The Qu. goes to York Advances to Newark Her Majesties Forces Card Richelieu his death His birth extract Character Mazarine succeeds him Lewis 13. dies The Qu. and King meet at Edge hill Ambassadour from France The Qu. at Oxford Sir William Waller routed The Qu. intends to journey to the West Queen proclaimed traitor Sets forward towards the West Delivered of a daughter Queen passes into France Waller and Essex routed Nazeby fight the Kings ruine The King disguised leaves Oxford The Qu. desires to procure Lorrain to assist the King Oxford taken The Scots sell the King The Qu. Letter to the King And to the Lord Fairfax The King beheaded The Qu. goes into a Monastery at Challons
THE HISTORY OF THE Thrice Illustrious Princess HENRIETTA MARIA de BOURBON QUEEN OF England LONDON Printed by E. C. for Philip Chetwind 1660. TO THE Paragon of Vertue and Beauty her Grace The Dutchesse of AUBEMARLE c. May it please your Grace IN imitation of the Inscription of the golden Apple that Paris had to distribute among the Goddesses which was Let it be given to the fairest as a gift which only the greatest beauty was worthy of I humbly present to your Grace this small Mirror of Feminine yet Heroick Vertues as a glasse wherein none but the most vertuous are capable to dresse themselves A pattern not to be imitated by the Vulgar Your Grace may herein see briefly yet fully displayed the frailty and inconstancy of humane greatness and the heighth of goodness A Princesse of the greatest Extract the greatest Alliance the greatest Vertue that this Western World hath for many years boasted of reduced to the utmost of those miseries wherewith an adverse Fortune could afflict her yet in all of them bearing her self up with an unbyassed soul 'T is easie Madam whilest our Fortunes are constant to us to be constant to our Vertues That Pilot must certainly be very unskilled who with a fair and prosperous gale shall steer an indirect course Afflictions are the greatest tryal of a Noble Spirit and patience in them the chief of Vertues Yet was it not the greatest of this Queens unhappinesses that she was unhappy but that some men by malicious Scandals strove to make her guilty of somewhat they thought deserving so great Afflictions as if to be miserable must likewise include being wicked But were happiness Madam alwayes appropriate to goodness or did Vertue continually carry it's reward along with it we might have just reason to suspect and believe that some horrid wickednesses lately perpetrated amongst us were rather Pieties in the highest degree But her goodness and patience have overcome all scandals and as she hath lived the Mirror of the latter to all the World so she may be a pattern of the other to succeeding generations In the mean time that the Rising Sun of your GRACES Vertues and Honours may still soar higher but never know a declension is the earnest prayer of Your GRACES Most Humble And Most devoted Servant IOHN DAUNCY TO THE READER THIS late Age hath had so infinite Examples of Vices made Vertues and Vertues Vices that a clear display of actions in their true and genuine colours will hardly finde credit So long hath scandal had the predominancy over mens minds that the continual reiterating of them hath grounded in them as it were a serious opinion of their truth whilest they were Zealous to believe what was represented rather then what really and truly was This Illustrious and thrice Noble Princess hath not had the least share in this ill humour of the times whilest the basely imployed industry and disingenuity of some men hath endeavoured to represent her under a black Cloud of guilt who never knew how to wear other then a pure white and Angel-like Vest of Innocency Yet so powerfull were those scandals which were thrust upon this serene Queen that none durst adventure to convince them of falsity by demonstrating that the purity of all her actions were above the reproach of the blackest tongue for fear of running himself on Scilla or Charybdis of hazarding himself on the Rock of an Arbitrary Power or plunging himself in the gulf of a discredit so firmly had scandal rooted an ill opinion of her Majesty in the mindes of most people I need not now fear to fall upon the Rock and doubting not but that I shall escape that other inconvenience I have endeavoured to represent her as she is that is barely by her actions by which if I cannot perswade men to a belief of her goodness yet let them at least believe that character which was given her by him who of all men must needs know her best her Royal Husband Reader 't is the greatest uncharity in the world to give credit to that evil which malicious tongues would perswade us to be in any person and never inquire into those goodnesses wherewith they are really endowed For most certain it is Qui causam statuerit parte in audita altera Aequum licet quod statuerit haud aequum est Who judges ere he hear another tell His cause may judge right but shall nere judge well And that makes me the more confident that this small piece will finde a clearer reception whilest like the Welcome Sun it clears light out of darknesse and makes that appear truly fair as it is which was before spitefully beclouded THE HISTORY OF Henrietta Maria QUEEN of ENGLAND THat Philosopher certainly was either Foolish or Frantick who determined or at least started it as a question that there could be no Heroick vertue in Women no Age in the world having been deficient of some of that sex compleatly furnished both with Magnanimity and all other Vertues which might adorn the most Noble spirits some illustrious women having in all times left their precedents to the world of Valour Wisdome Chastity Courage and Magnanimity All Histories even the Holy Writ it self bearing witness of the Vertues of some of that sex whose Fames have endured and are to this present age recorded with honour and admiration Nor hath our age it self been wanting in examples of that nature but more particularly in that Phoenix of our times whose life I intend to treat of Henrietta Maria de Bourbon a Princess as of incomparable Vertues and endowments so of a mighty Birth and Alliance having been Daughter Sister Wife Aunt and Mother to Kings Daughter to the thrice Illustrious and renowned Prince Henry the Great King of France and Sister to his Son Lewis the Thirteenth Wife to Charles the First King of Great Britain and Ireland Aunt to Lewis the Fourteenth now King of France And Mother to our present most Gracious Soveraign Lord King Charls the Second To so many Kings hath she been so nearly allied But before we proceed to our story of her it will not be impertinent to touch something of her Fathers Vertues though not alwayes being often inherent to Posterity A Prince he was in whom nothing of worth was wanting a pattern of all that Heroick Nobleness which could accomplish either a Man or a King Not known to be subject to any Vice except that which overcame the strongest holyest and wisest of men too great a love to Women His wonderfull acts both in time of Peace and War had deservedly gained him the Title of GREAT By the first he enriched France with a greater proportion of Silk and Wooll by augmenting and encouraging a Foraign Traffique then ever before she was Master of besides adorning her with many famous Structures and accommodating her by cutting Navigable Sluces from River to River by the last he cured her distempers and by his Valour quieted those Civil Wars which
had for neer twenty years distracted and disturbed that Kingdome having been victorious in Four main Battels against the Guisan Faction and at length rooted out all those whose affections were more swayed to the Spaniard then to their natural Prince Yet was he in the end see the instability of humane Glory and Greatnesse by an obscure Villain in one of the principal streets of his chief City of Paris stabbed to death in his Coach in the midst of those triumphs which were prepared for his Queen the Illustrious Maria di Medices who then newly had her brows begirt with the Royal Diadem of France and when he had lyen in readiness a Potent Army in perfect Equipage and composed of stout and able old souldiers which made his Neighbours round about to tremble none knowing on whom the effects of so potent a Force would fall his intended design continuing a riddle to this day He was at his first coming to the Crown very much enclined to the Protestant Profession in which he had for the most part been nurtured but the necessity of his affairs and the strength of the Papists enforced him to make a publique Confession of the Roman Catholique Religion and condescend to them in Ecclesiastical affairs notwithstanding which he was soon after by a young Jesuite who after the fact confessed he did it because he thought him not yet well setled and grounded in the Catholique Faith but too much wavering towards the Hugonots stabbed in the mouth with a knife Which made one of his Confidents prophetically to tell him Sir You may see how just and punctual GOD ALMIGHTY is in his Judgements For I hope you have denyed the Religion you were first nurtured in but from the teeth outwards so he hath struck you there but take heed your heart go not from it for he will strike you there the next time Which proved exactly true The Villain which murthered him could by no extremity of Torments be induced to confess any other then himself abettor of his Crime which he did as he said out of an inward motion he had that King Henry was not yet fully confirmed in the Roman Faith a belief whereof he gathered out of the great benefits and Liberties still continued to the Protestants 'T was but a very short time before his violent death that his youngest Daughter and last Childe the Princesse Henrietta Maria was born So that she had neither the felicity to be an eye-witness of those extraordinary Vertues wherewith her Father was endowed nor the means to imitate them otherwise then as by an everlasting fame they were left to Posterity Yet falling under the care of the Illustrious Maria di Medices her Mother a Princess of most rare endowments to whom likewise the Charge of Government was committed till the succeeding King Lewis the Thirteenth should come to age she was educated suitable to her birth and greatness and those Vertues cherished in her which seemed to be innate as appearing almost in her very Cradle Nor was she less accomplished in that other adorner of Women beauty which though it out-shone not her Vertues yet it made them shine with the greater lustre whilest they likewise seemed to set it forth and blazon it like a cleer and unclouded Sun She was about the age of Fifteen years when Prince Charles first taking that Adventurous and therefore Renowned Journey into Spain to endeavour the conclusion of a Match between himself and the Royal Infanta in his passage through Paris he incognito beheld this Paragon of Vertue and Beauty and though he were then going about a business which must necessarily obstruct his inclinations towards her yet he seemed very much to like her nor was she in her affections lesse propense to him being reported to have said after she had heard about what business he was gone into Spain That he need not have gone so far for a Wife So that it seemed that this Match was concluded on in Heaven which no worldly endeavours could obstruct For after the fruitless endeavours of Prince Charles in Spain to regain the Palatinate without which he could not accept of the Infanta for his Wife King James alwayes saying That there should be no Match unless that were likewise restored for he would not marry Prince Charles in joy and leave his Daughter the Princess Elizabeth in tears was with safety to the great joy of the People returned into England and in stead of an Alliance a War proclaimed with Spain Lewis the Thirteenth King of France sent two Letters fraught with extraordinary expressions and strains of Princely love tacitely inviting some overtures of a Match with France to which King James returned answer thus MOst High most Excellent and most puissant Prince Our most dear and loving good Brother and Cousin and ancient Ally Although his late Majesty of happy memory was justly entituled the Great for having in effect re-conquered by Arms his Kingdome of France although it appertained to him as his proper Inheritance neverthelesse you have made a greater Conquest For the Kingdome of France although it was regained by the Victorious Arms of the King your Father yet belonged to him by Right and he therefore subjugated nothing but what was his own But you have made a greater conquest having by your two last Letters so full of true Cordial courtesie overcome your good Brother and ancient Allie and all the Kingdoms appertaining to him For we acknowledge Our selves so overcome by your brotherly affection that We cannot render you the like Only We can promise and assure you upon the Faith of an Honest man that you shall have power not only to dispose of Our Forces and Kingdoms but of Our Heart Our Person and the Person of Our Son if there be cause Praying you to rest assured that We shall be so far from thinking to cherish or give any countenance to any of your Subjects of what profession of Religion soever that shall forget their natural Devoirs towards you and if We can get the least light of any thing you shall be most faithfully advertized And you may promise your self in like case or in any other that may tend to the honour of your Crown that you shall have power to dispose freely of Our assistance as if the cause were your own and upon this truth that our Interests shall alwayes be common We pray God Most high most excellent and most puissant Prince Our most dear and most loving Brother Cousin and ancient Allie to have you alwayes in his protection This Letter was soon after followed by Letters both from King James and Prince Charles to the Princess Henrietta Maria which she refused to read till she had her Mothers leave which granted she put King James his in her Cushion or Cabinet but Prince Charles his she placed in her bosome which made King James say That though he would denounce War against her for not reading the Letters without her
Mothers approbation yet he must return her thanks for her after ordering them intimating thereby That she would rely and rest upon him but lodge his Son in her heart But before the Conclusion of this Treaty it pleased the Almighty to put an end to King James his dayes a Prince who all his life had kept this Kingdome in a continual Peace and quietness and had often been an Umpire in the difference of Neighbouring Princes who were in as continued Combustions about him whilest himself was never plunged in any War till now lately in one with Spain for the Restitution of the Palatinate Prince Charles upon the death of his Father is immediately declared his lawfull Heir and undoubted Successor whereof by his several Ambassadors he immediately acquaints all the neighbouring Princes But to the King of France he sends over the Earls of Carlisle and Holland not only to acquaint him with his Fathers death but to treat of an Alliance with the Princess Henrietta Maria which Negotiation was concluded in fewer months then Spain had spent years in her Treaty And soon after Letters of Procuration or Proxie were sent to the Duke of Chevereux of the House of Guise for espousing his Mistress and making her his Consort the Ceremony of which was celebrated on Sunday the First of May according to our stile but the Eleventh according to theirs in the Church of Nostre-dame at Paris with a great deal of pomp and magnificence she being given to the Duke of Chevereux in behalf of the King of England by her two Brothers the King and Mounsieur About a fortnight after the Duke of Buckingham put in Commission with the English Ambassadours there is with a train of the best quality to accompany him sent to attend the Queen and to bring her over to her Spouse in England whilest in the mean time King James's Funeral on the 14 of May was magnificently solemnized at Westminster King Charles himself contrary to the old custome attending the Obsequies On the second of June the now Queen of England set forward from Paris and at the Town of Amiens staid fourteen days by reason of the Queen her Mothers sickness and indisposition who would willingly have accompanyed her to the Sea side but at length was forced to leave her here and so with her Brother the Mounsieur she set forward towards Bulloigne a longer passage by sea to England then that of Calais but the infection there forced them to accept of this Here the Queen received the Duke of Buckinghams Mother with a Train of very many Ladies of quality from England whom Mounsieur so much honoured as to condescend to give her a visit at her Lodging for no other reason but her being Mother to the King of Englands chief Favourite and the Dutchess of Chevereux that great Princess both of Match and Blood was forced to give her the precedency The King had commanded a good part of his Navy Royal one and twenty Ships to attend the Queen on which she imbarques but in her passage findes the same rough and tempestuous weather which Mary Queen of Scots found when she was wafted over from Calais This some interpreted as an ill omen and have since taken it as a token of the succeeding tempests of her life Yet on Trinity Sunday the 13 23 of June she arrives at Dover about seven a Clock at night his Majesty the next Morning coming from Canterbury to meet her with joy received her at the top of the Stairs whilest she on her knee endeavouring to kiss his hand he seeming as it were surprized takes her up in his arms and salutes her with reiterated kisses And so conducting her into an inner Chamber after his congratulation of her safe arrival and expression of the sad fears of her danger at Sea finding her somewhat surprized and to let fall some tears to see her self now in the hands of a stranger whom she had never before seen he tells her That she was fallen into the effects of Gods Divine Providence to forsake her Kindred and cleave to her Spouse professing that he would be no longer Master of himself then he was a servant to her The Ceremony here was accomplished and the Duke of Chevereux having rendred her up to his Majesties bosom here and to his bed the same night at Canterbury they the next day set forward towards Gravesend the whole way being laned with millions of people who made the very air thunder with renumerated Ecchoes of God save their Majesties they were likewise accompanyed with a most gallant Train of the English Gentry who came from all parts of the Kingdom to wait upon their Majesties at so great a Solemnity At Gravesend on the Thursday after their Majesties entred into the Barge of State and accompanyed with an infinite number of other Barges and Boats went by water to Somerset-house whilest the Ships all the way being placed in ranks on both sides the River did volly out wellcomes to these two Princes The Third after their arrival at London their Majesties appeared in State to the Nobility both having seated themselves upon their royal Thrones And soon after the Marriage was publiquely proclaimed with excessive joy to all And from thence their Majesties by reason of the great infection then in and about London removed to Hampton-Court Where and in all other places they for many years lived in the greatest content and enjoyment of conjugal love that possibly could be The King most singularly indulgent of his Royal Consort and she correspondent with him not only in personal affection but also in bringing him forth a Progeny of Royal Princes and Princesses The best for Alliance and Stock that ever the Earth had being immediately descended from the blood Royal of England and France allied to the Emperour Kings of Spain and Denmark and all the most potent Princes of the Western World So that if ever any these might most properly be said to be sprung de semine Divûm of the seed of the Gods Yet there happened an accident on the first of July in the year 1626. which not only created a difference betwixt Lewis the thirteenth King of France and his Majesty of England but might likewise have caused a breach between him and his dearly beloved Queen and Consort had not her incomparable prudence taught her how to submit to her Husbands pleasure The King had several times been informed of misdemeanours committed by some of the Queens Domestiques towards her person and his Majesty and therefore on the first of July having the same day sent a Message commanding all the Queens Servants to be there in readiness he came to Somerset-house attended by the Duke of Buckingham the Earls of Holland and Carlisle and other principal Officers and tells them Gentlemen and Ladies I Am driven to that extremity as I am personally come to acquaint you that I very earnestly desire
Son who entred into the world on the twentieth of July 1640. and was Christned Henry and after created Duke of Glocester She had before been delivered of her third Daughter on the 17th of March 1636. who was Christned Anna and died before her Father And shortly after the Duke of Glocesters birth in the same year the Ambassadour Leiger of Holland made some overtures of a Marriage between the young Prince William of Nassau Prince of Orange and the Kings eldest Daughter the Lady Mary Which Overtures were willingly assented to by the King and likewise agreed upon by the Parliament who expressed much joy at the Kings inclinations to marry his Daughter to a Protestant Prince though somewhat inferior to her in birth and nobleness So on Sunday the second of May the Marriage was with a great deal of Solemnity performed in the Kings Chappell at White-hall Notwithstanding the Parliaments former suspension of all proceedings against the Kings servants who collected the Benevolence amongst the Catholiques for the Kings necessary supply in his Expedition against the Scots yet a strange report after there was of the Parliaments intentions to draw up Articles of High Treason against her And indeed some resolutions there were of the Parliaments upon a fond conceit that the Queen had so much power with the King as to misadvise him either to perswade her to withdraw her self aside by some fears wherewith they would possess her or else to drive her away perforce which the King finding and thinking the first the surest course thought it better to have her go as it were voluntarily and therefore acquainted the Parliament That he was pressed by the States Ambassadours to send the Princesse Maria into Holland to her late Espoused Husband and that the Queen desiring it he had given her leave to goe with her And so the good Queen was got out of their Clutches the King accompanying her and the Princess to the Sea-side at Dover and she carrying with her all the Jewels belonging to the Crown the Pawn of which afterwards with some additional supplyes from the Prince of Orange assisted the King in his extreamest necessities The King was extreamly troubled at the Queens departure which made him fall into this rare Soliloquie of her in which because he who knew her best gives the best Characters of her that possibly can be given I shall here insert it ALthough I have much cause says the King to be troubled at my Wives departure from me and out of my Dominions yet not her absence so much as the scandal of that necessity which drives her away doth afflict me That she should be compelled by my own Subjects and those pretending to be Protestants to withdraw for her safety This being the first example of any Protestant Subjects that have taken Arms against their King a Protestant For I look upon this now done in England as another act of the same Tragedy which was lately begun in Scotland the Brands of that fire being ill quenched have kindled the like flames here I fear such motions so little to the adorning of the Protestant Profession may occasion a further alienation of minde and divorce of affections in her from that Religion wherein we only differ Which yet God can and I pray he would in time take away and not suffer these practices to be any obstruction to her judgement since it is the motion of those men for the most part who are yet to seek and settle their Religion for Doctrine Government and good manners and so not to be imputed to the true English Protestants who continue firm to their former setled Principles and Laws I am sorry my relation to so deserving a Lady should be any occasion of her danger and affliction whose merits would have served her for a protection amongst the savage Indians whilest their rudenesse and barbarity knows not so perfectly to hate all vertues as some mens subtilty doth among whom I yet think few are so malicious as to hate her for her self the fault is she is my Wife All justice then as well as affection commands me to studie her security who is only in danger for my sake I am content to be tossed weather-beaten and shipwrackt so as she may be in a safe harbour This comfort I shall enjoy by her safety in the middest of my personal dangers That I can perish but half if she be preserved to whose memory and hopefull Posterity I may yet survive the malice of mine enemies although they should be satiated with my blood I must leave her and them to the love and loyalty of my good Subjects and to his protection who is able to punish the faults of Princes and no lesse severely to revenge the Injuries done to them by those who in all duty and Allegiance ought to have made good that safety which the Laws chiefly provide for Princes But common civility is in vain expected from those who dispute their Loyalty Nor can it be safe for any Relation to a King to tarry among them who are shaking hands with their Allegiance under pretence of laying faster hold on their Religion 'T is pity so noble and peacefull a Soul should see much more suffer the rudenesse of those who must make up their want of Justice with inhumanity and impudence Her sympathie with me in affliction will make her Vertues shine with greater lustre as Stars in the darkest nights and assure the envious World That she loves me not my Fortunes Neither of us but can easily forgive since we do not much blame the unkindnesse of the generality and Vulgar for we see God is pleased to trie both our Patience by the most selfpunishing sin the ingratitude of those who having eaten of our Bread and being enriched by our bounty have scornfully lift up themselves against us and those of our own Houshold are become our enemies I pray God lay not their sin to their charge who think to satisfie all Obligations to duty by their Corban of Religion and can lesse endure to see then to sin against their Benefactors as well as their Soveraigns But even that policy of mine enemies is so far venial as it was necessary to their designs by scandalous Articles and all irreverend demeanour to seek to drive her out of my Kingdoms lest by the influence of her example eminent for Love as a Wife and Loyalty as a Subject she should have converted to or retained in their Love and Loyalty all those whom they had a purpose to pervert The lesse I can be blest with her Company the more I will retire to God and mine own Heart whence no malice can banish her Mine Enemies may envy but they can never deprive me of the enjoyment of her Vertues while I enjoy my self Let the world then judge by this noble character given her by him who of all men in the world best knew her how ill she deserved those many scandals and reproaches upon
now drawing neer her time and it being generally believed that the Earl of Essex with his Forces had some aim at Oxford as the Seat Royal of the King the residence of his Court and Council and the Sanctuary of a considerable part of the Nobility Gentry and Clergy it was thought fit that the Queen should remove to Exceter lately taken in by Prince Maurice as a place more free from the power of the Enemies and not far from the Sea by which she might take shipping for France as occasion served Yet was it not fear that perswaded her magnanimous spirit to depart from Oxford though the Parliament at Westminster had proclaimed her Traytor and belched forth many scandalous falsities against her but over-perswaded by those who had a greater care of her safety then her self she went And on the sixteenth of April she began her journey towards Exceter conducted by the King Prince Duke of York and most of the chief Nobility and Gentry as far as Abingdon where she took her last leave of the King though neither of them without doubt had the least presage that that parting kisse should be the last that ever they were like to give each other Being parted from the King she was Convoyed on her journey by a sufficient strength of Horse purposely appointed for her security and at her arrival at Exceter was received by that City with all possible magnificence where soon after she was safely delivered of her fourth Daughter who was christned Henrietta The weakness and sicknesses incident to Childe-bearing being passed over the young Princess was committed to the charge of the Lady Dalkeith Daughter to Sir Edward Villiers one of the half-brothers of the Duke of Buckingham and Wife to the Lord Dalkeith eldest Son to the Lord Morton which having done she took Shipping at Pendennis Castle on the fifteenth of July 1644. and so passed into France there to negogotiate according to instructions received from his Majesty for some supplyes of Money Arms and Ammunition for the advance of his service in which if she could not prevail yet however to continue in the Court of the King of France till his his Majesties Affairs here might be brought into such a capacity that she might return again both with honour and safety In the mean time the Kings affairs in England went on with a great deal of seeming prosperity for not long after the Queens departure he gained a signal Victory over Sir William Waller at Cropedy-bridge and then marching after Essex who was with the other part of the Parliaments Army gone into the West to reduce those Counties to their obedience he followed him so close at the heels that at last he brought him into that straight that himself with Sir Philip Stapleton and some others escaped away in a Cock-boat leaving the whole Army to his Majesties mercy The Horse taking the occasion of a dark night made their way through and escaped but the foot came to Capitulation and had liberty to march away but their Arms Artillery Baggage Ammuntion were left to his Majesties dispose Severall other successes the King had by taking in of Garrisons c. and several Messages notwithstanding his success he sent to the Parliament for peace and accommodation but could not be hearkened unto But a hard destiny attended this pious King for whilest he solicites the Parliament with continual Messages of Peace they make all possible preparations for War and the next year viz. 1645. on the 14 of June at Nazeby gave the King his fatal and final overthrow making themselves masters of his Camp Carriages and Cannon amongst the rest of his Majesties Cabinet of private Letters which had passed between him and the Queen which to their own disgrace they published in Print A barbarity which very Heathens would be ashamed to be guilty of The King saved himself by flight from this battell and gathered together as many of his scattered Troops as he could but was never after able to make head against the conquerors but still losing one place after another was at last reduced to have Oxford only for his shelter where finding himself not safe without a Field Army on the 27 of April 1646. he in disguise leaves the City and throws himself upon the Scots Army at Newark who having taken that Town carryed him to Newcastle where they kept him in restraint The Queen after her departure from England had long time and with great industry laboured to bring a design to effect which was the procuring of the Duke of Lorrain who being at leisure with a rambling Army and Money in his Purse was in a capacity to assist any body who stood in need of him The Queen of England therefore treated with him for his assistance Many Debates there were which way his Forces which were then neer Collein should pass to the water-side through France or Holland and where they should land in England Westward or Northward but all came to nothing though there were hopes of his aid till the very time that the Kings ruine was consummate by his trusting himself with the Scots who had before been so basely treacherous to him And now the Parliament make their Victories over the King and his friends absolute Oxford is yielded up to the Parliaments Generall Fairfax and in it the Great Seal Privy Seal and Signet as likewise the Duke of York and the Princess Henrietta who were both sent to Westminster but both shortly after escaped the last conveyed by the Lady Dalkeith into France and the first by Capt. Bampfield in Womans apparel into Holland the Prince having before escaped thither from the Scillies The next design of the Parliaments was to get the King into their hands which Money was likely enough to effect three hundred thousand pounds does the feat and so his Majesty is delivered up into the hands of the English Parliaments Commissioners and with a strong party of Horse hurried from Newcastle to Holmby and so about from Prison to Prison betwixt Army and Parliament till at length the Independent Army having selected a choice Juncto of their own Gang and by force thrust those who accorded not with their murderous designs out of dores instruct these to vote That a High Court of Justice should be erected to try the King as a Rebell and a Traitor A design so horribly traiterous as not to be parallel'd in all preceding ages The Queen at Paris hearing of their wieked determinations writes to the King and with much diligence gets her Letter conveyed to him by one Wheeler servant to Major Boswell Wherein she expresses The deep sence and sorrow which she had of the Kings miserable condition in which the bonds of nature and affection enforce her to bear more then an equal share wishing with all her heart if it pleased God that she might die for him without whom she cannot nor will not live
her which even malice it self could hardly be induced to believe The Parliament had before the Queens departure endeavoured to clear themselves from any intention of drawing up any Articles against her and that it was only a scandal put upon them by some malicious Incendiaries To which excuse of theirs the Queen mildely returned answer That there was a general report thereof but she never saw any Articles in writing and having no certain Author for either she gave little credit thereto nor could she believe that they would lay any aspersions upon her who had ever been very unapt to misconster the actions of any one person and much more the proceedings of Parliament And should at all times wish a happy Union and understanding between the King and his people However the King thought it the best course to send her out of the way During the Queens absence broke out those irreconcilable discontents between the King and Parliament The first endeavouring to maintain the Fundamentall Laws of the Land the true professed Protestant Religion and his own due and proper Rights and Prerogatives whilest the latter endeavoured to subvert all of them by infringing and eclipsing that Royal Prerogative which had for above three hundred years adorned this Monarchy endeavouring to settle an arbitrary Power in themselves by subverting and overturning at pleasure the fundamental Laws of the Land making new ones according as their designs served them taking away from the King all power over the Militia his undoubted and inherent right surprizing and engarrisoning his Forts and Castles robbing him of his Ships and Navies denying him entrance into one of his own Towns and disposal of his Magazine of Arms and Ammunition there though bought with his own Money and intended to be imployed in reducing the Irish then in Rebellion for the generall good of these Kingdoms and all this under the large pretences of Reformation of Religion removing the King from such as they pleased to call evil Counsellours making him a happy and glorious King whilest indeed in stead of him as the event proved they intended to constitute themselves so many petty Athenian Kings to Rule and Domineer at pleasure over these three Kingdoms And to this effect they first raise Arms perswading the People That their intentions were only to bring the King again to his Parliament from whence by the violent proceedings of some Members in the Commons House who suggested jealousies and fears into the Suburbian Rabble of the City of London and induced them to come to his Court in tumultuous manner and threaten him at his very Palace-gate he was forced in honour to go away and retire himself to York where after many messages and sollicitations to the Parliament to come to an accord and agreement he likewise endeavoured to put himself into a posture of Defence But the Parliament having both the Magazine of Men Money and Ammunition the City of London in their hands were extreamly before-hand with him though the Queen used her utmost endeavours in Holland by the assistance of the Prince of Orange and those Jewels she carried over with her to raise him both supplyes of Money Arms and Ammunition by means of which and the Contributions and assistance of those Subjects which still continued loyal to him he gathered such an Army as was able for some time to oppose his enemies And on the sixteenth of February 1642. the Queen her self imbarques for England but was the first time by contrary windes and foul weather beaten back again into Holland But fearing no storms for her dear Consorts sake puts to sea again and on the nineteenth she with some hazard anchors at Burlington Bay and safely lands the two and twentieth with some supply of Officers Munition and Money But though she got safely to shore yet she endured there as great a Tempest if not worse then any she had done at Sea of which she thus by Letter acquaints the King THE next night after we came to Burlington four of the Parliament Ships arrived without being perceived by us and about Five a Clock in the Morning they began to ply us so fast with their Ordinance that it made us all to rise out of our Beds and leave the Village at least the Women One of the Ships did me the favour to flank upon the House where I lay and before I was out of my Bed the Cannon Bullets whistled so loud about me that all the Company pressed me earnestly to goe out of the House their Cannon having totally beaten down all the neighbouring houses and two Cannon Bullets falling from the top to the bottom of the House where I was so that cloathed as I could be I went on foot some little distance out of the Town under the shelter of a Ditch like that of New-market whither before I could get the Canon Bullets fell thick about us and a Serpent was killed within twenty paces of me We in the end gained the Ditch and stayed there two hours whilest their Canon plaid all the while upon us The Bullets flew for the most part over our heads some few only grazing on the Ditch covered us with Earth c. Yet notwithstanding their strenuous endeavours it pleased God to preserve this Illustrious Princess from their disloyal violence which they had not yet given over had not the ebbing of the Tide and some threats from the Admiral of Holland forced them to desist in the further pursuance of it The Queens Majesty was at Burlington met by the Earl of Montrose and the Lord Ogilby who with two Troops of Horse conveyed her to York where she uses her utmost diligence in promoting his Majesties affairs and in a short time raises a pretty considerable force which with an Amazonian courage she undertakes to command in person And with these Forces thus raised she first advances to Newark from thence to Weston and so to Ashby where she resolves to think upon what might most conduce to the benefit of his Majesties affairs having received intelligence that the Enemies Forces from Nottingham were retreated into Leicester-shire and Derby-shire to joyn with a greater force to oppose or intercept her Majesties passage which she endeavoured to make towards the King to conjoyn their powers But yet before she goes forward she takes a prudent care of preserving those Countries which she left behinde her and therefore she leaves Sir Charls Cavendish brother to the Earl of Newcastle with the command of three thousand Foot Arms for five hundred and twenty Troops of Horse to secure Lincolnshire and Nottingham-shire the better to preserve those who were already loyal from the enemies violence and to keep subject such whose volatile spirits were too subject to flie from their Allegiance as likewise to keep in awe those thousand Foot which the enemy had left engarrisoned in Nottingham And so her self marches forward accompanyed with three thousand Foot thirty
companies of Horse and Dragoons six pieces of Cannon two Mortar-pieces and one hundred and fifty Waggons of Money Provision and Ammunition Mr. Jermin now Earl of St. Albans as Coll. of her Majesties Regiment of guards commanded in Chief over the whole Squadron Sir Alexander Lesley who since indeed ever proved himself a traiterous murderous perfidious and cowardly Scot had the ordering of the Infantry and Sir John Gerrard commanded the Horse Capt. Leg the Artillery and her Majesties self Generalissima with an undaunted and more then Womanlike resolution in the head of her Army But let us look a little into her Majesties native Countrey where that famous or rather infamous Politician Cardinall Richelieu having by his Policies dipped his hands in the blood of so many innocent Peers of France is forced at length himself fato succumbere to yield to that Fate from which no subtilty could reprieve him He was born at Paris of Noble extraction and took his Orders at Rome where Pope Paul the fifth then sitting in the Pontifical Chair looking with earnestness upon his physiognomy told him That he should become the greatest Cheat in the World He was by the Queen Mother first preferred to be Bishop of Larone and then to the Kings Counsel whom she afterwards commended to the Pope who sent him the Cap and after the famous siege and forcing of Rochell by his policy and industry became the prime Minister of State in the Kingdome of France and the King growing up to age insinuated so much into his favour that he postponed filial duty and brotherly affection to his love towards him so his Policy taught him to be ingratefull in the highest degree to those breasts which had first cherished and advanced him His minde was esteemed by most to be of the same colour with his habit wholly sanguine and much of the temper of that Spanish Cardinal who affirmed That Gunpowder in the field gave as sweet a perfume as Incense at the Altar He was observed to be of an irreconcileable nature where he once hated he hated ever pardoning none from whom he either had or judged he might receive an injury The Marshal of Marillacks and many other prime Peers of France are examples of his revenge Yet his Counsels have been by many great Politicians esteemed of high conducement to the affairs of France for by them the Hugonots were suppressed who were looked upon as one of the greatest Weaknesses of France for by them either Forain Princes cherished their Invasions or potent Peers their Rebellions A great scourge he was to the Spaniard but greater to the Duke of Lorrain whom he chased out of his Countrey to seek another habitation He was looked upon as the greatest Incendiary and Fomenter of the Scottish and English Rebellions and Disturbances A man he was of an infinite contriving and sedulous spirit as solid as subtile a thing rare under the Gallick Clime insomuch that many have termed him the wonder and Prodigy of Prudence A mighty Change there was expected to follow in the Government of France upon his death but he had so well instructed his Pupil Mazarine that things went on still in their former frame This Mazarine who succeeded in that grand employment was a Sicilian by birth and are a wily subtile generation of mean Parentage but an highly extended Genius he was first servant to a German Count at Rome who much frequenting Plays at which he was an excellent Artist his servant Mazarincs quick spirit soon learned the Trade and Fortune likewise favouring him in a short time he raised himself to a Stock of a thousand Crowns when leaving his Master he gets into the service of Cardinal Barberino then chief in the Court of Rome by whom being soon observed to be of a nimble wit and tenacious judgement he was first employed in a small Legateship in Italy which place he performing even to admiration and the Court of Rome wanting a person whose cunning policies might circumvent Richelieu's designs in France he is by the Cardinal Barberino's means chosen and sent Legat thither but finding himself outwitted here he thought it better to joyn with Richelieu and become his Pupil to learn more then lose that opinion already had of his judgement And under him he so perfected his experience that it will be a hard question to determine whether his Predecessor before him or he since have managed the affairs of that Kingdom with greater subtilty Not long after the death of his Royal Favourite Lewis the 13th brother to the Queen of England and surnamed the just returning out of Catalonia extreme sad and melancholy bid adieu to the World having yet left behinde him two Heirs Males Children born to the wonder of the world after twenty three years barrenness in his Royal Queen and Consort Infanta once of Spain when he despaired to have seen a Childe of his own Heir to the Crown of France He was a Prince of himself of a very quiet and peaceable temper by which means Richelieu had the greater opportunity to carry on affairs of State as he pleased At his death he declared the Queen Regent or Governess of his young Son the King till he came to age recommending the Cardinal Mazarine whom she had long before received to her for counsel But let us return to the Queen whom we left marching towards the King and whom we may now expect to have met him at Edge-hill The first time which his Majesty had had the happiness for so I dare affirm he accounted it to see her since her forced departure to Holland what joy and congratulations there was at this meeting I leave the Reader to judge In the mean time Monsieur Harcourt came over Ambassador from France to treat of an accommodation between the King and Parliament but his Negotiation was by many rather looked upon as a flourish from the Policy of Cardinal Mazarine to pry into the actions of this great difference he being likely rather to widen that breach which was the Master-piece of Cardinall to make then any way endeavour to close it The Queen being by the King conveyed to Oxford stayed there till the beginning of the next year whilest the Kings affairs went on in a very hopefull posture for the same day that the Queen entred Triumphantly into Oxford was Sir William Waller the City Generall totally routed at Roundaway down and no Army in the field to oppose him had he not unadvisedly set down before the siege of Glocester whilest in the mean time Essex raised another Army and Sir William was recruited by the City the Scots invited in to assist their Brethren of England against the King when had his Majesty directly marched up towards London he had found no force to oppose him and so might have utterly quasht the Rebellion which had been better policy then the in vain attempting that beggerly and disloyal City The Queen