the rack let them down and give them cordials and spiritfull liquors that they may be the longer and more sensibly tormented which was made good in the next Kings raign viz. Richard the Second who presently dashes and utterly nips these blossoms that sprung out in the former Kings raign devoting himself to all uncivill and lewd courses and to enable him the better unto it layes on sad and miserable taxes on the people without so much as a mention or hint of their liberties and as the parallel of Edward the second both lived and died It s enough to decypher his raign by his end for he was deposed by the universal consent of the people in Parliament as a tyrannical and cruel Governor and not a good word spoken of him to commend him in his Government and its pitty to aggravate his misery after his death and yet as we say Seldom comes a better when one is cut off another like the Hidra's head springs up in his place Henry the fourth who overthrew him in battel and was made King in his stead though by a wrong title at first promised the new modelling of Laws to the peoples ease and did as in a complement rather to secure his title then out of affection to the people or sense of his relation redress many grievances which were more gross and less concerning the Common-wealth and as he did strive by these common acts to engage the people to him so as one that had continuall sence of guilt on him he got the deposed King to be barbarously murthered in the Castle of Pomfret that no competition might endanger his title by his life He spent most of his raign incontinuall wars about his title and was often opposed as both a Tyrant and Usurper but he still got ground on both the liberties and laws formerly granted yet not so sensibly as in the former Kings raigns that the people may be said to have a little respite from the violence heighth of Prerogative by him but they may thank the unjustness and brittleness of his title for that he being more in fear of of loosing it then out of love with the excess of his ancestors I shall only add one story to conclude this Kings raign which is universally reported by most of our Historians worth observation because it hath much of ingenuity in it and because they were his dying words Being cast into an Apoplexie and nigh his end he caused his Crown to be placed by him on his Pillow least in the extremity of his sickness it might have been delivered to some other who had better right thereunto then he had But when his attendants through the violence of his distemper supposed him to be dead the young Prince of Wales seised on his Crown whereat the King started up raising himself on his arms demanded who it was that had so boldly taken away the Crown the Prince answered that it was he the King fell back into his bed and fetching a deep sigh and sending forth many a pensive groan replyes thus my son what right I had to this Crown and how I have enjoyed it God knows and the world hath seen But the Prince ambitious enough of a Diadem answered him thus Comfort your self in God good Father the Crown you have and if you die I will have jt and keep it with my Sword as you have done and so he did soon after maintaining his Fathers injustice by his own And now comes up his Son Henry the Fifth as the next heir who though while a Prince was given to many wicked practises yet when a King became moderate and hath better commendation then most of his Ancestors the people had two advantages and comforts by him first that his reign was short and that he was much imployed in the war with France for regaining a title to that Crown which he accomplished and so they were free of Civil wars though they had still heavie taxes yet they thought it better to pay for maintaining war abroad then at home and truly the people thought themselves very happy in this Kings reign though their priviledges were laid asleep that they had a little breathing time from Domestick and Civil wars and had hopes to regain by degrees a reviving of their Spirits But the next King Henry the sixth makes up what was wanting of Tyranny and Oppression in his fathers raign He was Crowned King about the eighth or ninth moneth of his age and so had not present oppertunity to shew his royalty Until he came to age the Kingdom was well governed by his three Uncles Humphrey Duke of Glocester John Duke of Bedford Thomas Duke of Excester who by their wisdom and justice kept up the flourishing estate of the English Nation but when his years of nonage were expired and he came to weld the Scepter with his own hands what as some favorably think out of weakness for he was no Solomon all things went presently out of order and Prerogative breaks forth beyond bounds which gave occasion to Edward Duke of York to try conclusions for his title against the House of Lancaster and making use of the discontents of the people through his evil Government opposed him and afterwards deposed him and raigned in his stead by the name of Edward the Fourth and so by Conquest he got the title to run through the House of York having cut it off by his Sword from the house of Lancaster notwithstanding actuall possession of three descents many overtures of war were yet between them for Henry was not yet dead though for the present outed but as a dying man strove for life but being quite overthrown was imprisoned and afterwards murthered to secure the Title there was in these two Kings raign but meerly for a title fought ten bloudy Battles besides all lesser skirmishes wherein many thousands of Lords Gentlemen and Commons were slain and yet not one jot of advantage gotten by it for the peoples liberties It being the misery and folly of the people to venture all they have to set up those over them who afterwards prove most tyranni call and to sow seeds of future misery by spilling their bloods for a usurped title In this Kings reign as in the former the whole land was miserably rent by unnaturall divisions against his title and government and though neither or these two had a just title if we will begin from the root yet all the bloud of the Nation is thought too little to be spilt to maintain their pretences yet we may not reckon this King among the worst had it not faln out that his title must be kept up with expence of so much blood and ruin of the English Nation yet in his last five yeers he laid on such extraordinary taxes and changed the form of Laws that he lost the love of all his Subjects For Edward the Fifth his Son who succeeded him in title we need but mention him for he had but
his losses with a thorough subjection of their persons and suppression of their liberties I need relate no more of this King nor make observations the Reader will be amazed at the repetition he at least 20 times gave his promise for the confirmation execution of these just decrees contained in Magna Charta and as many times was perjured notwithstanding all the solemnities both Civil Moral and Ecclesiastical used in the acts of ratification this may learn us how to trust the most positive Engagements of Princes which cross their own interest and what to think of that word and promise they call Royall this King reigned fifty six years the longest of any King of England But we have had too much of the story of him as he had too long a time to rule considering his temper and design It s well if we can be wary for the future and be more cautious then to trust the most promising and insinuating Princes with our liberties and priviledges which can be no longer expected to be preserved by them then they may serve as footstools to advance them in the Throne of absolute Majesty But no more of this King never were there more hard strivings and wrestlings between tyranny and liberty with such bad success to the people I onely conclude his raign with the exhortation of the Psalmist Psal. 146. 3. O put not your confidence in Princes surely men of high degree are a lye King Henry is by this time layd in his grave and one would think Magna Charta buried with him His Son Edward who was his right-hand in his wars against the Barons and the principal Agent in their ruine succeeds him in the throne and instead of lessening goes on and makes an higher improvement of that royalty which his Father left him having in his own person got the victory over the Peoples Libertyes in his Fathers time and having wonne or worne out the greatest of those which opposed and being long experienced in the world so secured and advanced the Prerogative that as one sayth he seemed to be the first conqueror after the Conqueror that got the domination of this State in so absolute and eminent a manner as by his government appears He layd unsupportable Taxes both on the Clergy and Laity even unto Fiveteens and halfs of their Estates As for Tenths that was comparatively accounted easy the Barons and People for a long time durst not move for removal of greivances untill that the King being always in wars in France Flanders Wales and Scotland and so needed continually vast sums of mony called a Parliament wherein he demanded a great treasure of mony from the People that he might give them somewhat in lieu of their expences confirmed the two great Charters on the Petition of the Barons and People and so stopped their mouths and this he did as often as he had extraordinary occasions for mony But like all other royall promises they were performed by leasure Never was Royalty more Majestick and glorious then in this Kings raign and the people less able to oppose he was always so watchful and eager to enlarge his own power I shall end his raign also with what Daniel that impartiall and witty Historian saith of him He was more for the greatness of the Kingdom then the quiet of it and never King before or since except our last Charls shed so much Christian bloud within this Isle of Britain and was the cause of more in that following and not one grain of benefit procured unto the people by all their expences on him which was but to make themselves more perfect slayes The next King was Edward the Second his Son who though more vicious then the Father yet not more tyrannicall he gave more advantage to the people thorough his lewd life and unmartiall nature to seek the confirmation and establishment of Magna Charta and other good Laws which were utterly supprest and darkened in his Fathers reign This Prince gave himself over to all wicked courses and surrendred his Judgement and the management of all affairs of State unto evill and corrupt Counsellors especially to one Peirce Gaveston who had both his ear and heart unto whom he was so much endeared that he ventured the loss of Kingdom and all the hearts of his Subjects for his company and preservation and though the Barons had by often Petitions and earnest sollicitations prevailed with the King to banish him yet he soon after sent for him home and laid him more nigh his bosom then before on this the Barons raise an army against the King and send him word that unless he would observe the late Articles which they had formerly by much ado got him to sign in Parliament and put from him Pierce Gaveston they would rise in Arms against him as a perjured Prince the King whom they found was apt to be terrified yeilds again to his banishment with this clause that if he were found again within the Kingdom he should be condemned to death as an enemy of the State All places were now dangerous to Gaveston both Ireland where he formerly was protected France also too hot for him in this extremity finding no security anywhere else he again adventures on England and puts himself once again into the Kings bosom a Sanctuary which he thought would not be polluted with blood and there he is received with as great joy as ever man could be the Lords with more violence prosecute their suite to the King for delivering up or removing him once more but to no purpose they therefore set forwards with an Army say siege to the Castle wherein Gaveston was took him and notwithstanding the Kings earnest sollicitation for his life they condemned him to the block and took off his head this obstacle being removed out of the way the Lords having now the better end of the staff make advantages of it for demanding the confirmation and execution of all those Articles formerly granted threatning the King that if he would not consent to it they would force him by a strong hand with this message they had their swords also drawn and march towards London A Parliament is called where the King after a submission by the Lords to him for that act done against Gaveston contrary to his consent and will grants the Articles and pardon to them But the King goes on his old way adheres to wicked counsel waving the grave advice of his Parliament and is ruled by the two Spencers who acted with mighty strain of injustice which caused the Lords again to take up arms and stand for their Liberties but are through the revolt of some and the treachery of others overthrown at Burton upon Trent and two and twenty Noblemen the greatest Peers in the Realm executed in several places for nothing but opposing his evil Counsellors this was the first blood of Nobility that ever was shed in this manner in England since William the first which being so
end her raign with this Character That she was the best Queen that ever England had and the glory of her Sexe to all Ages The English Line is now ended we must go into Scotland to seek for a King because a daughter of Henry the seventh was married to James the fourth King of Scotland but I will not question his title King James the sixth of Scotland and first of England succeeded on the English Throne A Prince that had many advantages to set up Prerogative which he improved he was too timorous to act but most subtile in Councel and designs and no King did more insensibly and closely undermine the Liberties of England then himself he gave us cause to remember from whence he came but his peaceable raign was the rail to his design and did choak suspition we were brought by him very nigh Rome and Spain and yet knew it not he had an inveterate hatred against Puritans as he had a fear of Papists and made more of Bishops then ordinary by remembrance of the Scots Presbytery He had as much of Royalty in his Eye as any Prince could have but had not so much courage to prosecute it the Puritan alwayes lay in his Spleen the Papist on his Lungs that he durst not that he could not breath so clearely and strongly against them but the Bishops lay in his heart I will not rip up his personal failings after his death he was the most profane King for oaths and blasphemies that England had besides c. He now grows old and was judged only fit to lay the Plot but not to execute it the design being now ripe and his person and life the only obstacle and Remora to the next Instrument he is conveyed away suddenly into another world as his son Henry was because thought unsuteable to the Plot it being too long to waite untill Nature and Distemper had done the deed We are now come to our last Charls who is like to end both that race and its tyranny the perfect Idea of all the rest and the most zealous prosecutor of the designs of all his ancestors who if Divine Providence had not miraculously prevented had accomplished the utmost of their intentions and for ever darkned the glory of the English Sun so much I must say of him that he got more wisedom by action then could possibly be expected by his nature experience that teacheth fools made him wise he endeavoured to act what others designed he dissembled as long as he could and used all parties to the utmost But his zeal and hardiness brought him to his death He needed no physick for his body had he remembred his soul But what need I mention him he is the last of English Monarchs and the most absolute monument of Monarchy and example of tyranny and injustice that ever was known in England he would have been what other Kings are and endeavoured to attain what others would be he lived an enemy to the Common-wealth and died a martyr to Prerogative Thus you have seen a faithfull representation of the Norman race under which we have groaned for about six hundred years the first Title made onely by the Invasion and Conquest of a Stranger and Bastard continued by usurpation and tyranny that take away but two or three persons out of the list and yet these bad enough if we consider all things and all this while England neither had a right heir or good King to govern it and yet by delusion and deceit we must be bound to maintain that Title as Sacred and Divine which in the beginning was extorted and usurping as if gray hairs could adde reverence to injustice England hath now an advantage more then all its Ancestors of freeing it self from this successive slavery and interrupting that bloody line and after an apprentiship to bondage for so many hundred yeers Providence hath given us our own choice If we take it we are made if not the old judgement of God lies on us for our stupidity and blindness For my part as I do not give much to that Monkish Prophecy from Henry the Seventh times Mars Puer Alecto Virgo Vulpes Leo Nullus yet I wonder how the Devil could foresee so far off and must needs say that it hath yet been literally fulfilled both in the Characters of the persons and the issue yet I must so far give way to the power of divine actings on my faith as to think that either we shall never have a King more or else we shall have one sent of God in wrath as the Israelites had seeing we are not contented that way which God hath from Heaven led us to As for the Title of this Prince who would fain be accounted the right heir Let us but remember from whence he had it and how it s now tainted were it never so just the Treason of the Father hath cut off the Son and how unwise an act besides all other considerations will it be for England to set up the Son to propagate both his Fathers design and death We may prophecy soon what a Governor he is like to be which hath both suck't in his Fathers principles and his Mothers milk who hath been bred up under the wings of Popery and Episcopacy and doubtless suckt both brests one who was engaged from the beginning in the last war against this Parliament who hath the same Counsellors his Father had to remember him both of the design and the best wayes of effecting it one who hath never yet given any testimony of hopefullness to this Nation who was in Armes when a Subject against the Libertyes which England and Scotland spilt much blood for to maintain one who hath both his Fathers and his own scores to cleer and is fain to make use of all Medium's though never so contrary attended with all the crew of Malignants of three Nations who is so relatively and personally engaged that both old and new reckonings are expected to be payd only by him To his Father He is endebted for His Crown and bound to pay His Debts both Ecclesiastical and Civil which will amount to no small summe To the Papists He is engaged for their old affections and hopes of new besides the obligation of duty to his Mother and freeing her from her Monastry and Hermitage To the Prince of Orange he owes more then his ransom besides the States courtesies to Ireland he is in more arrears then his Kingdom of Scotland will be able to pay and to Scotland for his entertainment and enstalment more then England for present or in many years can repay without a morgage or community of lands and liberties besides what he owes England for helping his Father to make the Parliament spend so many millions of treasure besides blood which would have weighed down all expences besides and helping as a prime Agent the utter destruction of England all which must be reckoned for with much seriousness and if men have so
end of government hath been inverted and subverted upon all occasions and that which was made for the good of the whole hath been so contracted and circumscribed in one person that the great and soveraign use and end of it by practise and custom hath been rather to set up the pomp and state of one man and his Family then to promote or propagate the profit and happiness of the Universe and whereas of right to its constitution It should have a free Election as its originall and common good for its end and just and equall Laws for its rule it hath had usurpation for its Principle and tyranny and bondage for its medium and end As to this day we may see in the greatest part of the world where all the liberties of millions of men of all sorts of conditions and ranks are buryed in the glory and splendor of one Family through which narrow channels all honor and justice all Law and reason are to run up and down the world And whereas the goodness and beauty of government consists in the harmonious temperature of power and obedience of authority and liberty it hath been quite otherwise inverted by practise and made apparent to lie in the Majestie and greatness of the Monarch and the absolute subjection and servitude of the people and the excellency and sweetness of it rather to be seen in the presence-Chamber and the magnificence and grandeur of the Court then in the Courts of Justice and the rich and flourishing estate of the Kingdom nothing being accounted more politicall and glorious then to have the Prince high and the Subjects beggars and yet this Ceremoniall way of Government hath took most place in the world and got almost divine adoration and hath thrust out all other forms of Government equally sacred with it self and most proportionable to the nature and benefits of societies and the Fee-simple of all the liberties of the people which are as their bloud and spirits in their veins sold to maintain its State Besides many causes and grounds of this degeneration whereby so much misery hath overflowed the Nations of the world I find two which at present are principally to be mentioned the first is the neglect of a right sence and the often inculcating the originall and end of government and the next a lineal succession or continuation of government by a natural and supposed heirship For want of the first neither the people know their own rights or how to maintain them or the Governour his use and end nor how to keep himself within the just bounds and limits of his creation for what between the stupidity and ignorance of the people in not knowing their primitive priviledges that they are the originall and end of vernment and the pride and ambition of men when once they have got power forget both how they came by it and to what end they are distinguished from other men government comes both to be usurped and tyrannicall Did the people but know that their choice and election is the foundation of just authority that none can rule over them but whom they appoint they would not then be drawn into controversies and debates whether it be treason in them to cast off a bad Governour who have the only power of choosing a good one and on the other side if Kings and Princes for to reduce all to them who have been most guilty of the abuse of government had but the continuall sence of the root from whence they sprung and the duties annexed to their Offices they could not look on themselves as rulers but tyrants when they acted for their own private Prerogative in distinction from and contrarie to the liberties and freedoms of the people but these considerations have been by time and prescription worn out of the mind and memories of both partly through continual insinuations of Court Maxims and the spirit of bondage in the people and by force and usurpation in the Magistrate whereby it hath gone a long while for currant that the people have no power nor the Prince no account to give but to God from whom they challenge an immediate title as if Kings and Princes all their names and successions were let down from Heaven in the same sheet that the beasts were in Peters vision and had not their root in the earth as all other Magistrates besides We have had much ado of late but to beat off from these Royal notions both by pens and swords and yet still they have too strong a hold in most mens hearts though to their own undoing Whereas all men are equally born free and naturaliz'd into all the priviledges of freedom and just liberty no man can obtain a speciall power over any but either ex pacto aut scelere either by willing agreement and consent which is the right and just way of title and most naturall or by conquest and usurpation which is most exotick and unjust for the original of Kingly power in the Scripture we all know it came in as an effect of the wantonness and discontents of the Israelites against that speciall way of government God himself had set over them And view the Character God gives to them of that government and not a blessing he gives them with it for its rise among the heathens and nations which knew not God among whom that government most prevail'd it was certainly first good and grounded on the exorbitancies and excess of other Magistrates and a high opinion of the justice and vertue of some particluar persons as Cicero lib. offic. 2. excellently expresseth it Mihi quidem non apud Medos solum ut ait Herodotus sed etiam apud majores nostros servandae justiciae causa videntur olim bene morati Reges constituti nam cum premeretur initio multitudo ab iis qui majores opes habebant ad unum aliquem confugiebant virtute praestantem As if taking it for granted that among all nations that Preservation and execution of justice with injoyning of vertue was the first ground of the constitution of Kings But they having got by their own goodness chief power and authority use that favour they had gained from their own deserts to advance their own family and having got in the affections of the people through the sence of their own present worth what by power and force and what by policy and craft got the same power entailed on their heirs and so by custom have made succession the onely right or at least the most just to Crowns and Scepters A principle which hath more hindred the advance of Government and run it on more hazards and mischiefs then any other where by a fatall Custom people must be irreparably content with what they can finde and reducing all to a blinde Fate Fortune be he good or prove bad talis qualis give up both their own Wills and Liberties to such a succession not only by a natural necessity but a divine
men for if there be any defect of the male line the female succeeds and that feeble and weaker sex whom God nature have ordained to be onely particular helps and good Subjects only to keep up the name of a Family must be invested with the highest authority over the choisest and most select spirits of many Nations and all further thoughts of bettering the State of things utterly extinguish'd by a female pretence And which is most desperate by this succession and its plea of the only and absolute right the fundamental liberties of the people are not onely insensibly undermined but absolutely rooted up and that birth-right priviledge of the people their Election and choice then which they have nothing more naturall and which is far more hereditary to them and theirs then by all the Laws of God nature and reason Crowns can be to Kings and their heirs is quite extinguished For pass by the first King who it may be as with us it hath been came in by Conquest you must go back in some Kingdoms five hundred in others a thousand years ere you can but recover the clear notion of a free election wherin the peoples power and priveledge is alone and peculiarly seen and yet that so faintly and hardly extorted from them as great loans of mony from a cruel miser without use or advantage and though Election must be acknowledged at last the first just ground of government yet custom in successions soon wears out its right and transfers it on the next bloud And though in England it appears by the Coronation Oath that there is even in succession a kind of election yet it s so limited in the line that it s as good as nothing and so weak and implicitely manifested that it s but a meer customary Ceremony which always is pursued by the natural title and onely used to deceive the people and as a step to the further confirmation of a more fundamentall and sure right and its easie to demonstrate it for our Kings soon forget it ere they come from Westminster to Whitehall or from the chair of Inauguration to the Presence Chamber In a word what gives all this ground of such an inevitable and successively insensible incroachment on the laws and liberties of Nations but this lineall title whereby the Son without remedy goes on where the Father left off and by a divine pretence seiseth on what by nature is due to the meanest subject as to himself And what makes the present Kings so daring and venturous to raise their own prerogative but this that that they know there can be no alienation of the Crown from his heirs and that they may make it better that is more tyrannicall but surer they cannot And thus there is a constant hope and possibility by continuation and propagation of principles and designs backed with title and authority that what cannot be done in one Kings reign may be done in the next and so on For the minds of Princes are not usually contracted or contented with present enjoyments especially if there be any restraint on their wills or more of heighth or advancement to be attained unto Yea this is one of the main reasons that in our times can be rendred why we have had such uneven actings and such strange alterations in several Kings Raigns the principles and laws the people have been always the same who are capable of small or no variation or change but as higher and supream influences move them of which none hath been so powerfull as Princes who as they are Stars of the first magnitude so of the strongest operations and though the people be compared to the Sea yet as the Sea they have no turbulent motion of their own but what is occasioned by violent and uncertain winds but the great change hath been by the temper and actings of Princes and commonly the next successor hath been the omen and fate of the times if any way good then the Nation smiled and his raign began the Spring if probable there was hopes and yet both these at first promised but at length frustrated and however the beginnings were yet the succession of acts demonstrated how the title was created for untill they have made their succession sure none have been more fair and promising but afterwards both Laws and Liberties like favourites have been advanced ad placitum and what they have got an interest in by nature that by prerogative they have centred in their own proper persons even the most fundamentall priviledges of the people and have only granted Leases unto the people of their own inheritances and dated them not for life which would have been too great a mercy but as long as the Royall pleasure lasts which changes alwayes with advantages Yea by this succession Tyranny is so intailed and all things so necessarily acted as if the Prince were not onely the civil but natural Parent of the people and that Kings had begot the people as so many Bastards to obey as they do beget one lawfully to raign over them It s too well known that good and wise men are the fewest of the sons of men and are commonly pickt out here and there as rich pearls on the shoar of violent torrents but to expect in one Line and Family a succession of good wise and governing men is almost as probable to Christians as to expect Mahomets second coming among the Turks after so many hundred years delusion and although it must be acknowledged that there have been some good Kings yet they have been so few that as their names from the beginning of the world can hardly make up the Dominical letters in the Almanack or possibly supply the Holydayes in the year so a little goodness hath gon far and at the best we shall finde it but comparative good Kings instead of better Governors as some of the Roman Cesars chose those to succeed them who were worse then themselves that they might commend and set off their own Raign though tyrannicall enough in it self and we may without any passion demonstrate that the design by succession hath been rather to keep up the Governors and palliate their vices then ever to maintain or highthen the glory and splendor or carry on the benefit of the Government it Self in the execution of good and righteous Laws But to come nigher home and leave generals granting Succession in it self to be a good title let us view without partiality the succession of the Kings of England whereby they plead their title to the Crown and we shall find in our Histories that nothing hath been more commonly interrupted then a succession of the next Heir and for this seaven or eight hundred years if not more we have not had succession continued in any even line or just right and no title was ever more broken and unjust then of our Kings if they make a Lineall and Hereditary succession the foundation of their right Let us look but
widow and died without issue and having sworn all the Nobility especially Stephen to her ordained her her issue to be his successors in Englands Throne and married her again to Jeoffrey Plantagenet the son and heir apparent of Fulk then Earl of Anjou by whom she had three sons Henry Jeffrey and William to Henry the Crown belonged as next heir after his mother by the usurped title of his father yet Stephen Earl of Mortain and Bulloign son to Adelincia the third daughter of William the Conqueror by Maud his wife notwithstanding his oath to the last King gets the Crown set on his own head and excludes her and her issue for the present yet after he died Henry called the second sirnamed Shortmantle though his mother was alive enjoys it This Henry had six sons William Henry Richard Jeoffrey Philip John the two first dying Richard the third son the first of that name Sirnamed Ceur de Lyon succeeded his father this Richard dying without issue his yongest brother John usurps the Crown notwithstanding Jeoffrey his elder brother had left a young son named Arthur Plantaganet King of Brittain who was heir apparant to the Crown and after he dyed Henry his son the third of that name succeedes him though Arthurs sister was then alive though in prison who was next to the title such as it was after him Edward sirnamed Longshankes called Edward the first layes hold on the Crown and wore it with much majesty and after him Edward the second his son goes on but still on the old account and on the ruine of the most proper heirs this Edward was deposed by the Parliament for his ill government as anon shall be more fully related and his son Edward the third of that name set up in his room after him followed Richard the second son to the black Prince who was also deposed after whose dethroning Henry called the fourth son to John of Gant Duke of Lancaster and uncle to the former King snatcheth up the Crown though of right it was to discend to Edmund Mortimer Earle of March the son and heir of Lionel Duke of Clarence the third son of Edward the third and an elder brother of John Duke of Lancaster and thus we have nothing hitherto but interruption and usurpation and those which in their own reigns can pretend a divine title by succession which must not be altered can for their advantage put by the succession of the issue of others But to go on Here now began the bloody wars and contests between the house of Lancaster and York which made the world to ring of the misery of the civill wars of England and all about a title and neither of them if seriously weighed had a right title by succession if the first title of their Ancestors were to be the originall But that custome might be the best right he got in his son Henry who was the fifth of that name to succeed and his son Henry the sixt though an infant takes his place untill Edward Duke of York overthrew his Army in the battle at Towton Field and got him deposed and was proclaimed King by the name of Edward the fourth though the title had been carried on in the House of Lancaster thorow three discents thus favor and fortune not lineall succession alwayes gave the best title this Edward left two sons behind him to maintain the succession of the House of York Edward and Richard Duke of York and five daughters His eldest Son Edward who was the fifth of that name succeeded him in claim title but rather lived then raigned being an infant had never any actuall exercise of his government for Ric. Duke of Glocester and Uncle to this Infant and made his Protector that he might set up himself causeth both the young titular King his Brother these two Royall Infants to be barbarously murthered in their beds and so wears the Crown himself by the name of Richard the Third untill Henry Earl of Richmond a twigg of a Bastard of John of Gaunt by his valour at Bosworth field having overthrown his Army slew the Tyrant himself and created by his sword for other he had none a new title to himself and was Crowned King by the name of Henry the Seventh who what by his power and by a marriage of the Lady Eliz. the eldest daughter of Ed. the Fourth confirmed his succession from him do all our later Princes derive their Title as Henry the Eighth Edward the Sixth Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth King James and our last Tyrant Charls This Henry the foundation of our great ones was himself but a private man who as Speed says had scarce any thing of a just title or of a warrantable intention but to remove an Usurper besides there were many naturall heirs of the house of York which were children of Edward the Fourth and George Duke of Clarence Richards elder brother who had better right but when once a title is made it must be maintained and if it can but get thorow two or three Successors it s presently proclaimed to be jure divino and pleaded as the onely just title and right Thus you have a faithfull and true account of the succession of our Norman Monarchs we can onely say we have had so many persons raigning and as Kings of England but for a title by lineal succession there is none but what every man may make aswell as any man and what is as proper to a stranger as to an heir power and favour murther and deceit being the most common principles of the right of most of our Kings to their government over us If it be asked as Speed doth What right had William the Conqueror then it must follow What right had all the rest but supposing his right What right had these who so many times cut off the line and made themselves the Stock of future succession and what misery is it that this broken and usurped title must still be forced on us even by an Ecclesiasticall and Divine Institution who have now a way of redeeming our liberties and bettering our conditions and following the direct line of just and true titles the Election and choice of the people Is not five or six hundred year enough for England to be under the succession of a Norman Bastard pardon the expression its true though plain and to be sold with all its liberties from usurpation to usurpation as well as from generation to generation I need not be very zealous in application the history is enough to make all wise men consider by whom we have all this while been governed and upon what terms How tyranny and usurpation comes to be adored if it have but a royall name added to it Shall the Parliament of England be now blamed for cutting off that race of usurpers and tyrants and reducing affairs to their first naturall and right principle or will the people of England after all their experiences centre
beams attracted most dazled others the Barons and people who were then unanimous through mutual oppressions fall more close and severe on their principles and wil not endure either delays or delusions and therefore effectually to redress their grievances came very well armed to a Parliament then holden at Oxford intended rather for getting Subsidies then removing oppressions in which Assembly they put the King to it urge their former complaints with more zeal and reason and with an addition of a mighty Spirit demand the absolute confirmation of Magna Charta and in a larger edition wherein are comprised those gallant priviledges of the Commons of England which have yet been but kept by Ink and Parchment and not trusting the King got his son Prince Edward to seal it with an addition of twenty four some write twelve Peers which Fabian stiles the douze Peeres not only to see these priviledges truly observed but to be as joynt Regents with the King and all the Lords and Bishops in Parliament took a like Oath to maintain these Articles inviolable yea and all that would have any benefit of residence in the Kingdom were enjoyned to take the same But these were too strict bonds for such a Princes wil he soon finding advantages as he sought them recals all gets a dispensation from the Pope for his forced Oath and to countenance his perjurie and acts in the old account the Barons again stand up with the people stoutly for the performance of the Articles of Oxford and sometimes brought him into straits yea fully defeated him in many bloody battles and regained the confirmation of the same laws with security that all the Castles throughout England should be delivered to the keeping of the Barons that the provisions of Oxford be inviolably preserved that all strangers should be dismist the Kingdom but those which by generall consent should be thought fit to remain this necessitous act though as it gave the people some peace and hopes so it gave the King time to consider of new mediums and therefore still to delay and blind he Assembles a new Parliament at London where having by the sprinkling of Court water won many Lords to take his part begins to surprise as many of the Barons as he could get and spoiled their Castles and Houses that success and authority grows strong on his side and the Barons with some calme provisoes mediate a peace insisting onely in generall that the Articles of Oxford might be observed But the King relying on his strength defies them as Traitors which done the peoples two Generals the Earls of Leicester and Glocester seeing no other means but to put it to a day supply their want of strength by their wit and diligence and carefully and artificially placing their battel which was fought at the Town of Lewis in Sussex overthrew the Kings Army took the King the Prince the Earl of Cornwal and his son Henry the Earls of Arundel Hereford with many other Lords and Gentlemen both English and Scottish And now having the King and Prince and most of the Nobles and a new confirmation of all one would think the great Charter was out of danger either of blotting or razing especially if we consider the solemnities formerly used in the ratification of it as Daniel excellently relates it in his history p. 169. The people knowing that no civil promises or verbal professions would hold in Kings raptured by Prerogative devoted to perjury to maintain their tyranny take a more Ecclesiasticall and divine way of obligation swearing to excommunicate all that should be found infringers of that Charter when the people with the King and all the great Nobility were assembled with all the Prelates and the chief Bishops in their reverent ornaments with burning Candles in their hands to receive that dreadfull sentence the King having one great Candle in his hand gives it to a Prelate that stood by saying it becomes not me being no Priest to hold this Candle my heart shall be a greater testimony and withall laid his hand spred on his breast all the while the sentence was pronouncing which was Authoritato omnipotentis Dei c. which done he caused the Charter of King John his Father to be read and in the end having thrown away their Candles which lay smoaking on the ground they cryed out so let them that incurre this sentence be extinct and stinck in Hell And the King with a loud voice said As God help I will as I am a man a Christian a Knight a King Crowned and Annointed inviolably observe these things Never were Laws saith he whose words express the thing most emphatically amongst men except those holy Commandments from the Mount established with more Majestie of Ceremony to make them reverenced and respected then these were they wanted but thunder and lightning from heaven which likewise if prayers could have effected they would have had it to make the sentence ghastly and hideous to the breakers of it the greatest security that could be given was an Oath the onely chain on earth besides love to tye the conscience of a man and humane societie together which should it not hold us all the frame of Government must needs fall quite asunder yet so almost a miracle though over common among our Kings saith Master Prin out of Mat. Paris the Parliament being thus dissolved by a sacred and most solemn conclusion the King presently studies how to infringe all the premises his Parasites telling him the Pope could soon absolve him for a summ of mony which afterwards the Pope did and the King returned to his former oppressive courses with more violence and hardness and taking advantage by the division of the Barons two Generals the Earls of Leicester and Glocester the latter of which joyned with the young Prince Edward and Sir Roger Mortimer the Kings wicked Counsellor a new and potent Army is raised by them against the Earl of Leicester who had the King prisoner and those which kept constant with him for the Peoples Liberties and he with the rest of the Barons are overthrown and immediately after a Parliament is called and all these laws and decrees made voyd and that Parliament held at Oxford wherein all these Laws were first confirmed by him called Insanum Parliamentum the mad Parliament and all these Patents Commissions or Instruments made to ratifie these Articles were brought forth and solemnly damned and so bright and resplendent did Prerogative break forth that it was Proclaimed Treason in any but to speak or mention any of these Grants with the least approbation and because the City of London had engaged with the Barons and People as a principal part of the whole he would needs have burnt the City had not some wise and potent Favorites interposed and yet they could hardly disswade him from that barbarous and impolitick wickednesse But what he spared in their houses that he gott out of their purses and made up all
much opened veines for more to follow and now the beam of power being turned regality weighs down all But by degrees through the continuation of his ill government whereby he daily lost the peoples hearts the Lords get an Army and take the King prisoner and by generall consent in Parliament deposed him as a tyrant and elected his son Edward the third to succeed and his son was crowned before his eyes Thus ended his raign but not his life Poor England which had laboured so long and successively under so many tyrants and had contested so long with Royalty for their dearly purchased liberties might now hopefully expect at least a dawning of Reformation especially when they had got so much power as to depose Authority and began as it were on a new account and the truth is affairs were now promising and distempers seemed to wear away with the former Governor yet the condition of the Kingdom had but a new face on it and grievances were rather not aggravated or multiplied then any whit removed and oppressions may be rather said to be changed from one shoulder to another then abolished Prince Edward who succeeded who was crowned in his fathers life had observance enough to remember his fate and was much warned by it both to prevent and suppress insurrections knowing by experience the full state of the controversie and therefore began his Government very fairely and with much applause onely to prevent factions and sidings he privately caused his father the deposed King to be cruelly murdered and so sate more securely though with more guilt upon the Throne his raign was fifty years odd months the longest next Hen. the third he spent most of his time in the wars of France to regain his titile to that Crown which the poor Subject felt in their estate and families and it was a happiness say some that he was so much abroad for when ever he came home as he wanted money to supply his expences so the people got ground to urge their Priviledges Magna Charta was at least twelve times ratified in this Kings Raign and so often broken yet because he goes under the name of the best Prince that raigned so long and so well let the Reader take but an Instance or two concerning his engagements to perform the grand Charter This King in the first Parliament made the fifteenth year of his raign had granted the enacting of divers wholsom and seasonable Laws which he willed and ingaged unto for him and his heirs that they should be firmly kept and remain inviolable for ever for the ratification of Magna Charta and other good Laws formerly enacted and that all the Officers of State as Chancellor Treasurer Barons of the Exchequer Judges c. should at that present in Parliament and for ever after take a solemn oath before their admission to their Offices to keep and maintain the point of the great Charter and the Charter of the Forrest c. But no sooner was the Parliament dissolved but the very same year he publikely revoked these Statutes pretending that they were contrary to the Laws and Customs of the Realm and to his Prerogative and Rights Royal c. wherefore we are willing saith he providently to revoke these things we have so improvidently done because saith he marke the dissimulation of Princes even in Parliaments We never really consented to the making of such Statutes but as then it behoved Vs We dissembled in the Premises by Protestations of revocation if indeed they should proceed to secure the dangers which by denying the same we feared to come with many more such passages and yet this King is the Phoenix of our more antient Monarchs but the Reader may still learn what the best of our Princes have been and what weak assurances any ingagements from them are where power is wanting from them and advantages present to them Another instance of his actings we may take up from the successe of his first siege of Tourney in France having laid on heavy and excessive taxes to maintain that war and the people seeing no fruits of all promises for executing the Articles of Magna Charta they refuse to pay any more without more faithfull performance of his Vows and solemn engagements to them whereby he wanting mony was fain to quit the place and return for England full of revengefull thoughts and in much fury breaths out destruction to all the refusers But the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury told him publikely but plainly that he had oftentimes as well as his Father offered manifest violences to the Liberties of the English Nation comprehended in that grand Charter and if he expected Subsidies from the people he must more carefully maintain their priviledges so justly due But the King vexed with such language both storms against the Arch-Bishop and as much as possibly he then could sought the ruine of all that had made any refusall of payment of these taxes although he had not in any manner performed his own promises Yet I will end his raign because he hath a name of a good King though as Speed saith by the Generall vote of Historians he committed many foul errors in his government with a good act he did at the fiftieth yeer of his age which he kept as his Jubilee he called a Parliament and there freely heard the grievances of the people and redressed many especially a Petition of the Commons against the doublings of Lawyers he caused the pleas which were before in French to be made in English a necessary Law saith Speed if it had been as carefully observed especially if he had ordered saith he that the same should not have been written in French That the Subject might understand the Law by which he holds what he hath and is to know what he doth But all this is not for nothing for as he imparted grace unto his people saith the same Auther for so all acts of Justice are termed whâ—n granted by Kings so he took a care to replenish his own purse by it that the poor Commons obtain not any thing which they pay not too dearly for Here ends the Life of the best reputed Prince and yet you see wherein his excellency lay the best happiness the people had in his raign was that they had more engagements for their liberties with more cost and the remembrances and sense of the goodness of them more fresh and sweet by the often repetition of them but for execution or addition to them they were as far to seek as in former times And if it do possibly happen that in one Kings raign either through the goodness of his nature or rather want of advantages there be an intermission of oppressions for that is the utmost to be expected yet the next King will be sure to make it up and if they give the people a little breath it s but that they may sow for the next to reap or as they do with men on