consent to abolish the Episcopal Government Octob. 2. 1648. p. 612 II. The Answer of the Divines to His Majesty's Reason Octob. 3. ibid. III. His Majesty's Reply to their Paper Octob. 6. 616 IV. The Rejoynder of the Divines to His Majesty's Reply Octob. 17. 621 V. His Majesty's final Answer concerning Episcopacy Nov. 1. 1648. 634 ΕΙΚΩΠΒΑΣΙΛΙΚΗ I. UPon His Majesty's calling this last Parliament page 647 II. Upon the Earl of Strafford's Death 648 III. Upon His Majesty's going to the House of Commons 650 IV. Upon the Insolency of the Tumults 651 V. Upon His Majesty's passing the Bill for Triennial Parliaments And after setling this during the pleasure of the Two Houses 654 VI. Upon His Majesty's Retirement from Westminster 656 VII Upon the Queens departure and absence out of England 658 VIII Upon His Majesty's Repulse at Hull And the Fates of the Hothams 659 IX Upon the Listing and Raising Armies against the King 661 X. Upon their seising the King's Magazines Forts Navy and Militia 665 XI Upon the Nineteen Propositions first sent to the King And more afterwards 667 XII Upon the Rebellion and Troubles in Ireland 671 XIII Upon the calling in of the Scots and their coming 674 XIV Upon the Covenant 677 XV. Upon the many Jealousies raised and Scandals cast upon the King to stir up the People against Him 680 XVI Upon the Ordinance against the Common Prayer-Book 684 XVII Of the Differences between the King and the Two Houses in point of Church-Government 687 XVIII Upon Vxbridge Treaty and other Officers made by the King 692 XIX Upon the various Events of the War Victories and Defeats 694 XX. Upon the Reformation of the Times 696 XXI Vpon His Malesty's Letters taken and divulged 699 XXII Upon His Majesty's leaving Oxford and going to the Scots 701 XXIII Upon the Scots delivering the King to the English and His Captivity at Holdenby 702 XXIV Upon their denying His Majesty the Attendance of His Chaplains 703 XXV Penitential Meditations and Vows in the King's Solitude at Holdenby 707 XXVI Upon the Armies Surprisal of the King at Holdenby and the ensuing Distractions in the Two Houses the Army and the City 708 XXVII To the Prince of Wales 710 XXVIII Meditations upon Death after the Votes of Non-Addresses and His Majesty's closer Imprisonment in Carisbrook-Castle 716 THE LIFE OF CHARLES I. CHARLES I. King of Great Britain France and Ireland was the Son of James VI. King of Scots and Anne his Wife a Daughter of Denmark By His Father descended to Him all the Rights together with their blood of all our Ancicient both Saxon and Norman Kings to this Empire For the Lady Margaret Sister and sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons being married to Malcolme Conmor King of Scots conveyed to his Line the Saxon and Margaret Daughter of Henry VII married to James IV. did bring the Norman titles and blood From this Imperial Extract He received not more Honour than He gave to it For the blood that was derived to Him elaborated through so many Royal Veins He delivered to Posterity more maturated for Glory and by a constant practice of Goodness more habituated for Vertue He was born at Dunfermeling one of the principal Towns of Fife in Scotland on Nov. 19th An. 1600. An. 1600 in so much weakness that his Baptism was hastened without the usual Ceremonies wherewith such Royal Infants are admitted into the Church Providence seeming to consecrate Him to Sufferings from the Womb and to accustome Him to the exchange of the strictures of Greatness for clouds of Tears There was no Observation nor Augury made at His Birth concerning the Sequel of His Life or course of Fortune which are usually related of such whose lives have different occurrences from those in others of the same state Either the fear of His Death made those about Him less observant of any Circumstances which curious minds would have formed into a Prediction He appearing like a Star that rises so near the Point of his Setting that it was thought there would be no time for Calculation Or He being at distance by his Birth from the Succession to the Crown Prince Henry then having the first hopes made men less sollicitous to enquire of His future state on whom being born to a private Condition the Fate of the Kingdom did not depend But in the third Year of His age when King James was preparing himself to remove to the English Throne a certain Laird of the Highlands though of very great age came to the Court to take his leave of him whom he found accompanied with all his Children After his address full of affectionate and sage Advice to which his gray hairs gave authority to the King An. 1602 his next application was to Duke CHARLES for in the Second year of his Age he was created Duke of Albany Marquess of Ormond Earl of Rosse and Baron of Ardmanock whose hands he kiss'd with so great an ardency of affection that he seem'd forgetful of a separation The King to correct his supposed mistake advised him to a more present observance of Prince Henry as the Heir of his Crown of whom he had taken little notice The old Laird answered that he knew well enough what he did and that It was this Child who was then in His Nurses arms who should convey his name and memory to the succeeding ages This then was conceived dotage but the event gave it the credit of a Prophecy and confirmed that Opinion That some long-experienced souls in the World before their dislodging arrive to the height of prophetick Spirits When he was three years old He was committed to the Care and Governance of Sir Cary's Lady An. 1603 as a reward for being the first Messenger of Queen Elizabeth's death whose long life had worn the expectation of the Scotish Nobility into a suspicion that the Lords of England would never acknowledge her to be dead as long as there was any old Woman of that Nation that could wear good cloaths and personate the Majesty of a Queen In the fourth Year An. 1604 after he had wrestled with a Feaver He was brought in October to the English Court at Windsor where on the Jan. 6. following having the day before been made Knight of the Bath He was invested with the Title of Duke of York An. 1606 and in the sixth Year was committed to the Pedagogie of Mr Thomas Murray a Person well qualified to that Office though a favourer of Presbytery Under this Tutor and confined to a retiredness by the present weakness of his Body He was so diligent and studious that He far advanced in all that kind of Learning which is necessary for a Prince without which even their natural Endowments seem rough and unpleasant in despight of the splendour of their Fortune His proficiency in Letters was so eminent that Prince Henry taking notice of it to put a Jest upon Him one day put the Cap
of the Archbishop Abbot who was then with the Prince and the Duke and other of the Nobility waiting in the Privy Chamber for the King 's coming out on his Brother's head adding That if He continued a good Boy and followed His Book he would make him one Day Archbishop of Canterbury Which the Child took in such disdain that He threw the Cap on the Ground and trampled it under His Feet with so much eagerness that he could hardly be restrained Which Passion was afterward taken by some over-curious as a presage of the ruine of Episcopacy by His Power But the event shewed it was not ominous to the Order but to the Person of the Archbishop whom in his Reign he suspended from the Administration of his Office An. 1611 In his eleventh Year he was made Knight of the Garter An. 1612 and in the twelfth Prince Henry dying Novemb. 6. He succeeded him in the Dukedome of Cornwal and the Regalities thereof and attended his Funeral as Chief Mourner on Decemb. 7. On the 14th of Feb. following He performed the Office of Brideman to the Princess Elizabeth his Sister who on that Day was Married to Frederick V. Prince Elector Palatine the Gayeties of which Day were afterwards attended with many fatal Cares and Expences His Childhood was blemished with a supposed Obstinacy for the weakness of his Body inclining him to retirements and the imperfection of His Speech rendring Discourse tedious and unpleasant He was suspected to be somewhat perverse But more age and strength fitting Him for Manlike Exercises and the Publick Hopes inviting Him from his Privacies He delivered the World of such Fears for applying Himself to Action he grew so perfect in Vaulting riding the great Horse running at the Ring shooting in Cross-bows Muskets and sometimes in great Pieces of Ordnance that if Principality had been to be the Reward of Excellency in those Arts He would have had a Title to the Crown this way also being thought the best Marks-man and most graceful Manager of the great Horse in the three Kingdoms His tenacious humour He left with his Retirements none being more desirous of good Counsel nor any more Obsequious when he found it yea too distrustful of his own Judgment which the issue of things proved always best when it was followed When he was sixteen Years old An. 1616 on Nov. 3. He was created Prince of Wales Earl of Chester and Flint the Revenues thereof being assigned to maintain his Court which was then formed for Him And being thus advanced in Years and State it was expected that He should no longer retain the Modesty which the Shades of his Privacy had accustomed Him unto but now appear as the immediate Instrument of Empire and that by Him the Favours and Honours of the Court should be derived to others But though Providence had changed all about yet it had changed nothing within Him and He thought it Glory enough to be great without the diminution of others for He still permitted the Ministry of State to His Father's Favourites which gave occasion of Discourse to the Speculativi Some thought He did it to avoid the Jealousies of the Old King which were conceived to have been somewhat raised by the popularity of Prince Henry whose breast was full of forward Hopes For Young Princes are deemed of an impatient Ambition and Old ones to be too nice and tender of their Power in which though they are contented with a Successor as they must have yet are afraid of a Partner And it was supposed that therefore King James had raised Car and Buckingham like Comets to dim the lustre of these rising Stars But these were mistaken in the nature of that King who was enclined to contract a private friendship and was prodigal to the Objects of it before ever he had Sons to divert his Love or raise his Fears Some that at a distance looked upon the Prince's actions ascribed them to a Narrowness of Mind and an Incapacity of Greatness while others better acquainted with the frame of his Spirit knew His prudent Modesty enclined Him to learn the Methods of Commanding by the practice of Obedience and that being of a peaceful Soul He affected not to embroil the Court and from thence the Kingdom in Factions the effects of impotent minds which He knew were dangerous to a State and destructive to that Prince who gives Birth unto them that therefore He chose to wait for a certain though delayed Grandeur rather then by the Compendious way of Contrasts get a precocious Power and leave too pregnant an Example of Ruine Others conceived it the Prudence of the Father with which the Son complyed who knew the true use of Favourites was to make them the objects of the People's impatience the sinks to receive the Curses and Anger of the Vulgar the Hatred of the Querulous and the Envy of unsatisfied Ambition which he would rather have fall upon Servants that His Son might ascend the Throne free and unburthened with the discontents of any This was the rather believed because He could dispence Honours where and when He pleased as He did to some of His own Houshold as Sir Robert Cary was made Lord Cary of Lepington Sir Thomas Howard Viscount Andover and Sir John Vaughan Lord of Molingar in Ireland The Evenness of His Spirit was discovered in the loss of His Mother An. 1618 whose Death presaged as some thought by that notorious Comet which appeared Nov. 18. before happened on March 2. Anno 1618. which He bewailed with a just measure of Grief without any affected Sorrows though she was most affectionate to Him above all her other Children and at her Funeral he would be chief Mourner The Death of the Queen was not long after followed with a sharp Sickness of the King wherein his Life seeming in danger the consequences of his Death began to be lamented Dr Andrews then Bishop of Ely bewailed the sad Condition of the Church if God should at that time determine the days of the King The Prince being then only conversant with Scotch men which made up the greatest part of his Family and were ill-affected to the Government and Worship of the Church of England Of this the King became so sensible that he made a Vow If God should please to restore his Health he would so instruct the Prince in the Controversies of Religion as should secure His affections to the present Establishment Which he did with so much success as he assured the Chaplains who were to wait on the Prince in Spain that He was able to moderate in any emergent Disputations which yet he charged them to decline if possible At which they smiling he earnestly added That CHARLES should manage a Point in Controversy with the best-studied Divine of them all In His 19th Year An. 1619 on March 24. which was the Anniversary of King James's coming to the Crown of England He performed a Justing at White-hall together with several of
the Supplies of Money being scanty and slow the Fleet could not go forth till Octob. 8. an unseasonable time in the British Seas and their first contest was with Winds and Tempests which destroying some scattered all the Ships When they met a more dangerous Storm fell among the Souldiers and Seamen where small Pay caused less Discipline and a Contempt of their General the Lord Wimbleton rendred the attempt upon Cades vain and fruitless This was followed by a Contagion to which some conceive discontented minds make the Bodies of Men more obnoxious in the Navy which forced it home more empty of Men and less of Reputation The Infection decreasing at London the King performed the Solemnities of His Coronation Feb. 2. with some alterations from those of His Predecessors for in the Civil He omitted the usual Parade of riding from the Tower through the City to White-Hall to save the Expences that Pomp required for more noble undertakings In the Spiritual there was restored a Clause in the Prayers which had been pretermitted since Henry VI. and was this Let Him obtain favour for this People like Aaron in the Tabernacle Elisha in the Waters Zacharias in the Temple give Him Peter ' s Key of Discipline Paul ' s Doctrine Which though more agreeing to the Principles of Protestantism which acknowledgeth the Power of Princes in their Churches and was therefore omitted in the times of Popery yet was quarrelled at by the Factious Party who take advantages of Calumny and Sedition from good as well as bad circumstances and condemned as a new invention of Bishop Laud and made use of to defame both the King and him After this He began a second Parliament Feb. 2. wherein the Commons voted Him four Subsidies but the Demagogues intended them as the price of the Duke of Buckingham's Blood whom Mr Cook and Dr Turner with so much bitterness inveighed against as passing the modesty of their former dissimulation they taxed the King's Government Sir Dudley Digges Sir John Elliot and others carried up Articles against him to the Lords House in which to make the Faction more sport the Duke and the Earl of Bristol did mutually impeach each other By these contrasts the Parliament were so highly heated that the Faction thought it fit time to put a Remonstrance in the Forge which according to their manner was to be a publick Invective against the Government But the King having notice of it dissolves the Parliament June 18. An. 1626. and the Bill for the Subsidies never passed An. 1626 This misunderstanding at home produced another War abroad For the King of France taking advantage of these our Domestick embroilments begins a War upon us and seiseth upon the English Merchants Ships in the River of Bourdeaux His pretence was because the King had sent back all the French Servants of the Queen whose insolencies had been intolerable But the World saw the vanity of this pretext in the Example of Lewis himself who had in the like manner dimitted the Spanish Attendants of his own Queen and that truly the unhappy Counsels in Parliament had exposed this just Prince to Foreign Injuries Which He Magnanimously endeavoured to revenge and to recover the Goods of His abused Subjects and therefore sent the Fleet designed for Justice upon Spain to seek it first in France But the want of Money made the Preparations slow and therefore the Navy putting out late in the Year was by Storms forced to desist the Enterprize So that what was the effect only of the malice of His Enemies was imputed by some to a secret Decree of Heaven which obstructed His just Undertakings for Glory The next Year the King An. 1627 quickened by the Petitions of the Rochellers who now sued for His Protection as well as by the Justice of His own Cause more early prosecuted His Counsels and sent the Duke of Buckingham to attach the Isle of Rhe which though alarmed to a greater strength by the last Year's vain attempt yet had now submitted to the English Valour had not the Duke managed that War more with the Gayeties of a Courtier than the Arts of a Soldier And when it was wisdom to forsake those Attempts which former neglects had made impossible being too greedy of Honour and to avoid the imputation of fear in a safe retreat he loaded his overthrow with a new Ignominy and an heavier loss of Men the common fate of those Who seek for Glory in the parcels lose it in the gross Which was contrary to the temper of his Master who was so tender of humane Blood that therefore He raised no Wars but found them and thought it an opprobrious Bargain to purchase the fruitless Laurels or the empty name of Honour with the Lives of Men but where the publick Safety required the hazard and loss of some particulars This Expedition being so unhappy and the Miseries of Rochel making them importunate for the King's Assistance His Compassionate Soul was desirous to remove their Dangers but was restrained by that necessitous condition the Faction had concluded Him under To free Himself from which that He might deliver the oppressed he doth pawn His own Lands for 120000 Pounds to the City and borrows 30000 l. more of the East-India Company but this was yet too narrow a Foundation to support the Charges of the Fleet and no way so natural to get adequate supplies as by a Parliament which He therefore summons to meet March 17. intending to use all Methods of Complacency to unite the Subjects Affections to Himself Which in the beginning proved successful for the modesty of the Subjects strove with the Piety of the King An. 1628 and both Interests contended to oblige that they might be obliged The Parliament granted the King five Subsidies and He freely granted their Petition of Right the greatest Condescension that ever any King made wherein He seemed to submit the Royal Scepter to the Popular Fasces and to have given Satisfaction even to Supererogation These auspicious beginnings though full of Joy both to Prince and People were matter of Envy to the Faction and therefore to form new Discontents and Jealousies the Demagogues perswaded the Houses that the King 's Grant of their Petition extended beyond their own hopes and the limits themselves had set and what He had expresly mentioned and cautioned even to the taking away His Right to Tonnage and Poundage Besides this they were again hammering a Remonstrance to reproach Him and His Ministers of male-administration Which Ingratitude He being not able to endure on June 26. adjourns the Parliament till Oct. 20. and afterward by Proclamation till Jan 20. following In the interim the King hastens to send Succours to Rochel and though the General the Duke of Buckingham was at Portsmouth Assassinated by Felton armed as he professed with the publick Hatred yet the Preparations were not slackned the King by His personal Industry doing more to the necessary furnishing of the Fleet in ten or twelve
changes of Government and Variety of reproachful Usurpers that they became the Scorn of Neighbouring Nations and the miserable Example of a disquiet Community so torn in pieces by Factions in the State and Schisms in the Church each party mutually armed to suppress its contrary and destroy the publick that it was impossible for them to re-unite or consent in common to seek the benefit of Society until they had submitted to Him as to the common Soul to be governed by Him in the paths of Justice He is now and long may He be so our Dread Sovereign CHARLES II. 3. James born in the same place Octob. 13. An. 1633. entituled Duke of York by His Majesty's Command at His Birth and afterwards so created He was a Companion of His Brother in Exile spending His time abroad both in the French and Spanish Camps with Glory and returned with Him into England 4. Henry Duke of Gloucester born in the same place Jul. 8. An. 1639. who after the Death of His Father was by the Parricides permitted to go beyond Sea to His Mother with the promise of an Annual Pension which they never intended to pay A very hopeful Prince who resisted the strong practices of some in the Queen's Court to seduce Him to the Church of Rome which His Brother hearing sent for Him into Flanders and He also attended Him to His Throne but not long after died of the Small Pox Sept. 13. An. 1660. 5. Mary born on Nov. 4. An. 1631. married to Count William of Nassau Eldest Son to Henry Prince of Orange by whom she was left a Widow and a short time after the Mother of the now Prince of Orange and coming over to visit her Brothers and the place of her Nativity she died also of the Small Pox Decem. 24. An. 1660. 6. Elizabeth born Jan. 28. An. 1635. who survived her Father but lived not to see the Restoring the Royal Family dying at Carisbrook the place of her Father's Captivity being removed thither by the Murtherers that the place might raise a grief to end her Days 7. Anne born Mar. 17. An. 1637. died before her Father 8. Katharine who died almost as soon as born 9. Henrietta born at Exceter June 16. An. 1644. in the midst of the Wars conveyed not long after by the Lady Dalkeith into France to her Mother and is now married to the Duke of Anjou only Brother to the King of France Having left this Issue He died in the forty ninth year of His Age and 23. of His Reign having lived Much rather than Long and left so many great and difficult Examples as will busie Good Princes to imitate and Bad ones to wonder at A man in Office and Mind like to that Spiritual Being which the more men understand the more they Admire and Love and that may be said of Him which was said of that Excellent Roman who sought Glory by Vertue Homo Virtuti simillimus per omnia Ingenio Diis quà m Hominibus propior Qui nunquam rectè fecit ut rectè facere videretur se dui a aliter facere non poterat Cuique id solum visum est Rationem habere quod haberet Justitiam Omnibus Humanis vitiis Immunis semper in Potestate suâ Fortunam habuit Vell. Paterc lib. 2. Thus Reader thou hast a short account how this best of Princes Lived and Died a Subject that was fit to be writ only with the point of a Scepter none but a Royal Breast can have Sentiments equal to His Vertues nor any but a Crowned Head can frame Expressions to represent His Worth He that had nothing Common or Ordinary in His Life and Fortune is almost prophaned by a Vulgar Pen. The attempt I confess admits no Apology but this That it was fit that Posterity when they read His Works for they shall continue while these Islands are inhabited to upbraid Time and reproach Marble Monuments of weakness should also be told that His Actions were as Heroick as His Writings and His Life more elegant than His Style Which not being undertaken by some Noble hand that was happy in a near approach to Majesty and so could have taken more exact measures of this Great Example for Mighty Kings rendred it in more full Proportions and given it more lively Colours I was by Importunity prevailed upon to imitate those affectionate Slaves who would gather up the scattered Limbs of some great Person that had been their Lord yet fell at the pleasure of his Enemies burn them on some Plebeian Pyle and entertain their ashes in an homely Urne till future times could cover them with a Pyramid or inclose them in a Temple by making a Collection from Writers and Persons worthy of Credit of all the Remains and Memoires I could get of this Incomparable Monarch Whose Excellent Vertues though they often tempted the Compiler to the Liberty of a Panegyrick yet they still perswaded him to as strict an observance of Truth as is due to an History For He praises this King best who writes His Life most faithfully which was the Care and Endeavour of Thine Richard Perrinchiefe THE PAPERS WHICH PASSED BETWIXT HIS SACRED MAJESTY AND Mr ALEXANDER HENDERSON CONCERNING THE CHANGE OF CHURCH-GOVERNMENT AT NEW-CASTLE MDCXLVI I. His MAJESTY's First Paper For Mr Alexander Henderson Mr Henderson I Know very well what a great disadvantage it is for Me to maintain an Argument of Divinity with so able and learned a Man as your self it being your not My profession which really was the cause that made Me desire to hear some learned man argue My Opinion with you of whose Abilities I might be confident that I should not be led into an Errour for want of having all which could be said layed open unto Me. For indeed my humour is such that I am still partial for that side which I imagine suffers for the weakness of those that maintain it alwaies thinking that equal Champions would cast the balance on the other part Yet since that you thinking that it will save time desire to go another way I shall not contest with you in it but treating you as my Physician give you leave to take your own way of cure only I thought fit to warn you lest if you not I should be mistaken in this you would be fain in a manner to begin anew Then know that from my Infancy I was blest with the King my Fathers love which I thank God was an invaluable Happiness to me all his daies and among all his cares for my Education his chief was to settle Me right in Religion in the true knowledge of which He made Himself so eminent to all the World that I am sure none can call in question the brightness of his Fame in that particular without shewing their own ignorant base Malice He it was who laid in Me the grounds of Christianity which to this day I have been constant in So that whether the Worthiness of my Instructor be considered
the Nobility wherein He acquitted Himself with a Bravery equal to his Dignity And on the Sunday following attending His Father to the Sermon at St Paul's Cross and to the Service inthe Quire He shewed as much humble Devotion there as He had manifested Princely Gallantry in his Justs admired and applauded by the People for His Accomplishments in the Arts both of War and Peace That he could behave Himself humbly towards His God and bravely towards his Enemy pleased with the hardiness of His Body and ravished with his more generous Mind that the Pleasures of the Court had not softned one to Sloth nor the supremest Fortune debauched the other to Impiety Confident in these An. 1622 and other evidences of a wise Conduct the King without acquainting his Counsel sends the Prince into Spain there to Contract a Marriage with the Infanta and as a part of the Portion to recover the Palatinate which His Sisters Husband had lost and was by the Emperour cantel'd to the Duke of Bavaria and the King of Spain And herein He was to Combate all the Artists of State in that Court the practices of that Church and put an Issue to that Treaty wherein the Lord Digby though much conversant in the Intriegues of that Council had been long cajoled To that Place he was to pass Incognito accompanied only with the Marquess of Buckingham Mr Endymion Porter and Mr Francis Cottington through France where to satisfy His Curiosity and shew Himself to Love He attempted and enjoyed a view of the Court at Paris and there received the first Impression of that Excellent Princess who was by Heaven destined to His Chast Embraces Satisfied with that sight no lesser enjoyments of any Pleasure in that great Kingdom nor Vanity of Youth which is hardly curbed when it is allyed to Power could tempt His stay or a discovery of His Greatness but with a speed answerable to an active Body and Mind He out-stripped the French Posts which were sent to stop Him although that King had intelligence of His being within his Dominions immediately after their departure from the Louvre The certain news of His safe arrival at Madrid drew after Him from hence a Princely Train and raised the Censures of the World upon the King As being too forgetful of the Inhospitality of Princes to each other who when either Design Tempests or Necessity have driven their Rivals in Majesty upon their Coasts without a Caution they let them not part without some Tribute to their Interest and a fresh Example of this was in the King 's own Mother who seeking Refuge in England with her Sister Queen Elizabeth from a Storm at Home did lose both her Liberty and Life This none daring to mind the King of his Jester Archee made him sensible by telling him He came to change Caps with him Why said the King Because replyed Archée Thou hast sent the Prince into Spain from whence He is never like to return But said the King what wilt thou say when thou seest Him come back again Mary says the Jester I will take off the Fools Cap which I now put upon thy Head for sending Him thither and put it on the King of Spain's for letting him return This so awakened the King's apprehension of the Prince's danger that it drove him into an exceeding Melancholy from which he was never free till he was assured of the Prince's return to his own Dominions which was his Fleet in the Sea and that was not long after For notwithstanding the contrasts of his two prime Ministers there Buckingham and Bristol which were sufficient to amaze an ordinary Prudence and disturb the Counsels of so young a Beginner in the Mysteries of Empire and the Arts of Experienced Conclaves the impetuous attempts of the Spanish Clergy either for a change of His Religion or a Toleration of theirs the Spleen of Olivares whom Buckingham had exasperated He so dexterously managed the Treaty of Marriage that all the Articles and Circumstances were solemnly sworn to by both Kings By a civil Letter to the Pope which His Enemies Malice afterwards took as an occasion of Slander He procured a civil return with the grant of a Dispensation baffled the hopes of their Clergy by his Constancy in his own Profession and vindicated it from the odious aspersions of their Priests by causing our Liturgy to be translated into the Spanish Tongue and by His generous mien enthralled the Infanta for whom He had exposed His Liberty Yet having an insight into the practices of that Court that they would not put the Restitution of the Palatinate into the consideration of the Portion but reserve it as a Super-foetation of the Spanish Love and as an opportunity for the Infanta to reconcile the English Spirits who were heated by the late Wars into an hatred of the Spaniards and that this was but to lengthen out the Treaty till they had wholly brought the Palatinate under their Power He conformed His mind to the resolves of His Father who said He would never marry his Son with a Portion of His only Sister's Tears and therefore inclined to a Rupture But concealing His Purpose and dissembling His Knowledge of their Designs He consulted His own Safety and Return which His Father's Letters commanded which He so prudently acquired that the King of Spain parted from Him with all those endearments with which departing Friends ceremoniate their Farewells having satisfied him by a Proxie left with the Earl of Bristol to be delivered when the Dispensation was come Which as soon as He was safe on Shipboard by a private Express He commanded him to keep in his hands till further Order His return to England An. 1623 which was in October 1623. was entertained with so much joy and thanksgiving as if He had been the happy Genius of the whole Nation and his entrance into London was as a triumph for His Wisdom their Bonfires lengthned out the day and their Bells by uncessant ringing forbad sleep to those Eyes which were refreshed with His sight Nor could the People by age or sickness be confined at home but despising the prescriptions of their Physicians went to meet Him as restored Health When He had given the King an account of His Voyage and the Spanish Counsels not to restore the Palatinate a Parliament was summoned which was so zealous of the Honour of the Prince that both Houses voted an Address to his Majesty that he would no longer treat but begin a War with Spain and desiring the Prince's mediation who was always ready to gratifie the Nation therein to his Father they assured Him they would stand by Him with their Lives and Fortunes but yet when the War with the Crown descended unto Him they shamefully deserted Him in the beginning of His Reign When neither a Wife nor Peace was any longer to be expected from Spain both were sought for from France by a Marriage with Henrietta Maria the youngest Daughter of Henry the IV.
The Love of whom the Prince had received by the Eye and She of Him by the Ear. For having formerly received impressions from the relations of His Gallantry when she was told of His passing through Paris She answered as it is reported that if He went to Spain for a Wife He might have had one nearer hand and saved Himself a great part of the labour In the midst of these Preparations for War and Love An. 1625 King James died at Theobalds Sunday March 27. An. 1625. and Prince CHARLES was immediately proclaimed at the Court-Gate King of Great Britain France and Ireland and so throughout all the three Kingdoms with infinite Rejoycings The people expecting all the benefits of the happiest Government under Him whose private and youthful part of Life had been so spent that it had nothing in it to be excused and where the eager Inquisitors for matter of Reproach met with no satisfaction An argument of a solid Vertue that could hold out against all the Vices of Youth that are rendred more impetuous by Flatteries and Plenty which are continually resident in great Courts For had any Debauchery polluted His earlier Days it had been published by those who in scarcity of just Accusations did invent unimaginable Calumnies Nor could it have been hid for in a great Fortune nothing is concealed but Curiosity opens the Closets and Bed-chambers especially of Princes and discovers their closest Retirements exposing all their Actions to Fame and Censure Nor did the King deceive their hopes they being the happiest People under the Sun while he was undisturbed in the administration of Justice His first publick Act was the Celebrating His Father's Funeral whereat He Himself was Chief Mourner contrary to the Practice of His Royal Predecessors and not conformable to the Ceremonies of State Either preferring Piety to an unnatural Grandeur or urged by some secret Decree of Providence that in all the Ruines of His Family He should drink the greatest Draught of Tears or His Spirit presaging the Troubles of the Throne He would hallow the Ascent to it by a Pious Act of Grief When He had pay'd that Debt to His Deceased Father He next provided for Posterity and therefore hastened the coming over of His Dearest Consort whom the Duke of Chevereux had in His Name Espoused at the Church of Nostre-Dame in Paris and He receiving Her at Dover the next Day after Trinity-Sunday at Canterbury began his Conjugal Embraces A Lady of most excellent Endowments who assumed to Her self nothing in His Good Fortune but the Joy and in His Evil bore an equal share for She reverenced Him not His Greatness Thus having dispatched the Affairs of His Family He applies Himself to those of His Kingdoms which too much Felicity had made unmanageable by a moderate Government And He seemed not so much to ascend a Throne as enter upon a Theatre to wrestle with all the difficulties of a corrupted State whose long Peace had softned almost all the Nobless into Court-pleasures and made the Commons insolent by a great Plenty The Rites and Discipline of Religion had been blotted out by a long and uninterrupted Prosperity and Factions crept from the Church into the Senate which were made use of by those that endeavoured the alteration of Government and the Resolves of that Council were the Dictates of some heady Demagogues who fed the Vulgar with hopes of Novelty under the name of Liberty so that the King could not endure their Vices nor they His Vertues whence came all the Obstructions to His Designs for Glory and the Publick Good The Treasury had been exhausted to satiate the unquiet and greedy Scots and the People were taught not to supply it unless they were bribed with the blood of some Minister of State or some more advantages for Licentiousness Each of these single would have ennobled the Care of an Ordinary Prudence to have weathered out but when all these conspired with the Traiterous Projects of Men of unbounded and unlawful hopes they took from Him His Peace and that which the World calls Happiness but yet they made Him Great and affording Exercises for His most excellent Abilities rendred Him Glorious The different states of these Difficulties when like Clouds they were gathering together and when they descended in showres of Blood divide the King's Reign into two parts The first could not be esteemed days of Peace but an Immunity from Civil War The other was when He was concluded by that Fatal Necessity either to part with His Dignity and expose His Subjects to the Injuries of numerous Tyrants or else to exceed the calmer temper of His peaceful Soul and make use of those necessary Arms whereby he might hope to divert if possible the Ruine of Church and State which He saw in projection In the first part He had no Wars at home but what was in the Houses of Parliament which though their first Institution designed for the production of just Counsels and assistances of Government yet through the just Indignation of Heaven and the practices of some unquiet and seditious Persons became the Wombs wherein were first conceived and formed those monstrous Confusions which destroyed their own Liberty caused our Miseries and the King's Afflictions His first Parliament began June 18. At the opening of which the King acquainted them with the necessity of Supplies for the War with Spain which they importunately had through His Mediation engaged His Father in and made it as Hereditary to Him as the Crown His Eloquence gave powerful Reasons for speedy and large summs of Money did also audit to them the several disbursements relating both to the Army and Navy that He might remove all Jealousies of misimployment and give them notice how well He understood the Office He had newly entred upon and how to be a faithful Steward of the Publick Treasure But the Projectors of the alteration of Government brought into Debate two Petitions one for Religion the other for Grievances formed in King James's time which delayed the Succours and increased the Necessities which at last they answered but with two Subsidies too poor a stock to furnish an Army with yet was kindly accepted in expectation of more at the next Session For the Infection seising upon London the Parliament was adjourned till August when they were to meet at Oxford and at that time He passed such Acts as were presented to Him At the next Session he gave a complying and satisfactory answer to all their Petitions and expected a Retribution in larger Subsidies towards the Spanish War But in stead of these there were high and furious Debates of Grievances consultations to form and publish Remonstrances Accusations of the Duke of Buckingham Which the King esteeming as reproaches of His Government and assaults upon Monarchy dissolves that Assembly hoping to find one of a less cholerick complexion after His Coronation This inauspicious Meeting drew after it another Mischief the miscarriage of the Designs upon Spain For