KING WILLIAM AND QUEEN MARY Conquerors OR A DISCOURSE Endeavouring to prove that Their MAJESTIES have on Their Side against the Late King the Principal Reasons that make CONQUEST a Good TITLE Shewing also how this is consistent with that Declaration of Parliament King James Abdicated the Government c. Written with an especial Regard to such as have hither-to refused the Oath and yet incline to allow of the Title of Conquest when Consequent to a Just WAR Licensed January 11. 1693. Edmund Bohun London Printed for Richard Baldwin near the Oxford Arms in Warwick-Lane and at the Black Lyon between the Two Temple Gates in Fleet-Street 1693 THE PREFACE THE very hard measure that King Charles the First met with hath raised in the Minds of all good Men a just Abhorrence both of the Persons and Principles that caused his Sufferings And as it commonly falls out we have been apt to run into extreams on the other Hand We are not content to disown with Indignation the Barbarities that he endured but are apt to think that a Crowned Head can never ake but the Subject is in some fault let the Occasion be what it will The Church of England is very Loyal to all Kings by Principle but she was so to him likewise by the superadded Ties of Friendship And the singular Affection all her Members bore to that blessed Prince hath made them very favourable to the Sovereign's Cause however different from his and of this we have now a plain instance in the Adherence of so many of her Members to K. James in favour of whose Interest they are very partial even against their own K. Charles the First was a Friend to our Church and our Liberties and was ready upon Complaint to have redressed all our Grievances and to have confirmed our Rights before there appeared any armed Force to have compelled him But K. James the Second was the avowed Enemy of our Church and in order to her Ruin as well as out of a Desire of Arbitrary Power had many ways struck at the very Root of all our Civil Rights Nor did he ever shew the least Inclination to redress what had been done amiss it was so far from it that he threatned and imprisoned the Reverend Prelates for but petitioning to be excus'd from giving their helping Hand to the Destruction of the Church Themselves and the Laws until meer Necessity forced him to it and even then he gave us only Words some Superficial Promises of a Parliament to be held when we should have assisted him to drive our Champion out of the Nation ruin'd our Friends and left our selves wholly at his Disposal i. e. at the Mercy of the Jesuits And yet I am apt to think that one Reason that hath made some Men so very angry at such as were in Arms in favour of the Prince of Orange at his first Land was the black Idea of all Resistance against Sovereign Power formed in their Minds by that Rebellion against King Charles the First And I verily believe had not the Crown as well as his Life been most uunjustly ravished from him few would have hlamed the Estates for setting it upon the Head of his Grand-children after his Son had thrown it away However I mean not at this time at all to meddle with the Case of Subjects resisting their Sovereign much less to determine either way about it What I now intend is to assert the Right of King William and Queen Mary to the Crown of England and its Depednencies and consequently to the Allegiance of the Subject And I doubt not but to do it upon Principles not in the least Antimonarchical or suspected to be so without either asserting the Popish deposing Doctrine or that the People of England are the Sovereigns Masters and may call him to an Account and either depose or other ways punish him for his Misgovernments or even affirming that a King of England may be resisted there are other Principles not in the least scandalous that do intitle their Majesties to the Crown and to the Allegiance of the Subject But some will be ready to ask why I write on this Argument at this time of Day after the Matter hath been so canvassed and so many learned Men having already written upon it may be supposed to have aid all of Moment that is to be said upon it But my Answer is That notwithstanding all that hath been written a great many do yet remain unsatisfied And it grieves me to think that their Majesties who have run such mighty Hazards and done so much for us should still have so many secret Enemies in the Nation or if that be too hard a Character for some that have refused the Oath so many that are not yet such Hearty Friends as they ought to be That Protestants are so backward at making use of the fairest Opportunity of securing themselves and fencing against Popery that they have had these many Years which the Papists have given them by an over-active Zeal for their Destruction while Papists do readily embrace and make use of all Advantages against them tho never so foul That some who are seemingly zealous Sons of the Church of England should take such Measures as tend to her Destruction That such as have most bitterly declaimed against Separation from our Assemblies as a great Sin should themselves hold separate Meetings upon a meer State-point and as it seems to me be in the wrong Opinion too That any who mean honestly should be doing the French King's and the Papists Business at a time when the Protestant Cause and the Fate of Europe lie at Stake And lastly that any Conscientious and Learned Men should lose Preferments and that the Church should be deprived of the benefit of their Labours These are the Reasons that have at length overcome my great Aversion to writing The Argument I make use of hath indeed been lightly touched upon by some others and it could not well fall out otherwise within the compass of so much time as this Dispute hath been on Foot in But let not this Acknowledgment at the Entrance at all prejudice any Man against reading what I have written upon a Belief that I offer nothing new nothing but what he hath already met with and can answer for For any thing I know my manner of prosecuting it is different from what hath yet been published whether it be to better purpose or no the Reader is to judge But although it should not be so yet may it be of some use since oftentimes the same Arguments that have been rejected do prevail when urged in a different way although with a great deal less Skill But whether I have written better or worse upon this Subject than other Men is not at all the Question But whether or no I have made good my Undertaking I confess when I consider how subject all Men are to mistake and what Cause my after-thoughts have many times found of altering my
than I ask All I ask is what no reasonable Man can deny me viz. That under these Grounds of Suspicion it had been both a point of Wisdom and Justice to have given both the Prince and Princess of Orange and the Nation all the Satisfaction that the matter was capable of at the time of the Queen's Labour Supposing the Queen to have brought forth it might then easily have been proved beyond all Contradiction and if it was not proved it is very suspicious that it could not be proved I never heard any Man doubt but that it had been a Point of Wisdom to have proved it if they could and nothing need be said to satisfie an unbiassed Mind that it had been a Point of Justice too Is it not a Common thing in the case of an Heir to a Crown being born to give the Presumptive Heirs all the satisfaction imaginable And under these very suspicious Circumstances Previous to this supposed Birth ought it not if ever to have been done What great Matter had it been if an Ocular Demonstration had been given or at the least offered to the Princess of D. or to some other grave Ladies related to her by the Mothers side Where had been the Harm or Indecency of this Nay was it not highly necessary that it should have been done Would it not have quite confuted all the Pretences of malicious Hereticks and have rendred the Birth of the Prince indisputable And if they did not do it was it not very Suspicious that the Reason was because they could not For what other Reason can be given Shall we say it was an Oversight What the subtle Jesuits overseen in a Matter of this Consequence Suppose Father Petre wanted what many Polititians have was there never a Wise Man amongst them Were not those about Their Majesties Men chosen out for the carrying on of that great Work And had they not time enough before the Queen's Lying-in to consider the Suspicions that were raised the Reports that went about and to Fence against them Did it not stand them in hand to put the King in mind of laying hold of an Opportunity which if lost could never be retrieved Of giving that satisfaction that might for ever confute these Stories and secure his Son's Title and this mighty Advantage to the Catholick Cause Truly considering the Necessity of doing the thing and that those about their Majesties were no Fools it seems to me next to impossible that it should have been an Oversight But suppose we should grant that it might or might not be an Oversight For that is all that the Friends of the pretended Prince of W. can desire They can never evince that it was an Oversight nor ought they to expect we should grant it All they can reasonably ask is That we grant it might be an Oversight And if we should grant them that what will they gain by it e'en nothing at all For had their present Majesties any Reason to acquiesce in an It may be or a Perhaps To give up their Claim to three Kingdoms to a meer Peradventure Will it ever be possible at this rate to secure a Presumptive Heir against an Impostor Ought the Prince and Princess of O. to sit stall to have let this Birth justly suspected by five parts in six of the whole Nation go unquestioned and consequently to have lain under the Torment of believing while they should live and to have left it suspected to Posterity when they were dead that they had weakly given up their Right to these Kingdoms and the Protestant Interest to boot I say was this Reason Or rather was it not Reason that they who were thus far as is now supposed Overseen should reap the fruits of their own folly and suffer for their Oversight If it was not an Oversight the Prince and Princess of O. were wronged and he being a Soveraign Prince and no Subject of England had Reason to demand Satisfaction If it was onely an Oversight yet since it was never sufficiently proved to have been so by giving up the Prince of Wales they might have sustered loss but were not wronged because the Fault was their own For certainly in a doubtful Case we should conclude against those that are in all the Fault and in Favour of them that are in no Fault at all Since it cannot be proved either way their 's ought to be the loss who were guilty of perplexing Matters at this rate Or however Their present Majesties had Reason to demand that the Matter should be reviewed and lest to the determination of a Parliament the most competent Judge that could be pitched upon This cannot be denied And this is all that I ask at present because it is all that our present Soveraign asked in his Declaration at his first coming into England Some may think what is not indeed altogether improbable supposing it to be a genuine Prince that Matters were thus darkly carried on purpose to have provoked the Nation or rather some of the forwardest to a Rebellion that so they might have had an Occasion against us to fall upon us and take us for Bondmen The Principles of the Church of England were known to be so Loyal to all Kings in the General and she had done so much for King James in Particular in bringing him to the Throne and in keeping the Crown on his Head She had so lately given an undeniable Token of her Fidelity to him by what she had done in opposition to the Duke of Monmouth that the Popish party could not for shame fall foul upon her without some Pretence or other but if they could but provoke her or some part of her Members to a Rising then she would have cancelled all the Obligations that her former Loyalty had laid upon the Crown And then the Cry would have been Her Members are not more Loyal than those of other Sects or Religious when she is discontented or doth but fear that her Interest lies at stake And then there would have been just cause for the King to have adherâ—d to the Loyal Roman Catholicks who had never faiâ—ed him and to have set them uppermost Or supposing they had a Mind to bring in Arbitrary Power and make it an Handmaid to Popery then would any Stirs that they were resolved to call a Rebellion render it â—asy and hasten it And certainly as to Invade our Laws our Liberties and our Religion so openly was highly provoking So to impose upon us a Prince of Wales or which is all one to make us believe they had done it and so to rob us of our hopes of Ease when those blessed Princes our present Soveraigns should of right have succeeded the Crown was the readiest way to make us desperate And did I believe that the Child was really born of the Queen I should think this so fair an Account of their carrying it as if it was not that I should never pitch upon any other And methinks there
disband the Army and dismiss the Souldiers which was accordingly done telling him in his Letter that things being come to that extremity that he had been forced to send away the Queen and his Son that they might not fall into the Enemies Hands he himself was obliged to do the same thing And presently after his Majesty was taken by the Inhabitants of Feversham in a small Vessel endeavouring to go out of the Nation And after this it is manifest the Prince never considered him as King of England but as his Prisoner or as a Person conquered It is true the Lords invited him back to London but it was without the Prince's Consent and in all Likelihood without his Knowledg For although he treated him with all imaginable Respect as a Person so nearly related to himself and the Princess and with a due Regard to Majesty with which he had been so lately vested yet still it was but like a Person conquered For understanding he was at Rochester he sent to him to continue there by Monsieur Zulestein but he missing of him he sent another Order after him to remove from Whitehall whither he was gone to Ham. The Message was to be delivered by the Marquess of Hallifax the Earl of Shrewsbury and the Lord Delamere after the Prince's Guards were in possession of the Posts about Whitehall and a Note drawn up to that Purpose Likewise the Prince committed the Earl of Feversham to the Castle of Windsor who had been sent by the King to invite him to St. James's And if he committed the Servant to Prison it is not hard to determine in what Condition he judged the Master to be Princes do not use to imprison each others Servants sent on kind Messages while their Masters are free that is as King James in his Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester words it against the Practice and Law of Nations But the Truth is he considered him as a Prince conquered by him and treated him accordingly although with all imaginable Respect and with great Tenderness This is the plain meaning of such Actions and in this Sense King James understood them and therefore he sent to desire leave of the Prince to return to Rochester which was granted And in this Sense he interprets them in his Reasons for withdrawing himself from Rochester For having mentioned them he adds these memorable Words I was born Free and I desire to continue so Wherefore in his own Opinion his going privately from Rochester into France was no other than an Escape out of Captivity or rather out of a Conqueror's Hands whose Prisoner he was I insist the longer upon these things for the sake of such as own Conquest upon a just Quarrel to be a good Title as indeed it is but say the Prince did not make use of his Fortune but declined it by leaving the Matter to the Convention Of which I shall say more hereafter when I come to answer Objections In the mean time I will contract into a narrow Compass what I have said at large that so the Reader may at once take a View of it Here were violent Presumptions of an unsufferable Injury done to the Prince and a Refusal of giving reasonable Satisfaction to the last a marching down with an Army to oppose him when he came to examine the Truth Two Battels fought how much Blood spilt it matters not in both which the Prince had the better The King fled before the Prince to London from thence towards Gravesend went on board a Vessel in order to leave the Nation without deputing a Vice-Roy is brought back again but being used as he thought like a Prisoner makes his Escape a second time and leaves the Nation And now good Reader do not deceive thy self nor suffer thy self to be imposed upon by the little Pretences of such Men whose Interest it is never to be satisfied consider well and judg impartially What was there wanting in the Case of King James to make it fall short of a Conquest There can be no Objections against this as it seems to me of any great Moment however I will not pass by unanswered any Scruple that I can foresee and much less any Objection that I know hath been made In the 1st Place it hath been said The Prince by his fair Pretences in his Declaration stole away the Hearts of his Majesty's Subjects and Souldiers so that they forsook him and therefore he may be said rather to have been betray'd than conquer'd To this I answer two things 1st That the Prince's Declaration was most reasonable and thought to be so by the most considerable both for Learning and Quality of those that now refuse the Oath who therefore urged the King over and over to condescend without Fighting to his Demand of referring all Differences to a Free Parliament And since his Majesty's Refusal was a Refusal to give Satisfaction about the Rights and Liberties of the Nation which had been infringed and about the Succession to the Crown which was suspected to be in Danger of being altered It is more than any Man can prove that the Subject was bound to assist the King especially if we add that if he had got the Victory it must in all Probability have ended in the utter Subversion of our Laws and legal Government and in the Destruction of our Rights both Civil and Religious That Subjects may not resist the King although he indeavour their Destruction unjustly hath been taught and that is Loyalty enough in all Reason But that they are bound to assist him to destroy the main Body of a Nation is such a Notion of Loyalty as will not down with wise Men. But 2dly Supposing the King had been unjustly betray'd by his Subjects and Souldiers or deserted by them who ought to have stood by him in the Quarrel what was that to the Prince who was none of the King 's Subject but a Soveraign Prince It behoved the King to have assured himself of the Loyalty and Courage of his own Souldiers and People And if he did not and was therefore beaten it was never the less a Conquest over him because his Men either would not or durst not fight For when Princes take the Field the Question as to Right of Conquest is which overcomes not whether his Souldiers that is overcome fought or not nor whether his Subjects adhered firmly to him or not When Henry Duke of Lancaster came into England and gathered an Army traiterously against his Soveraign King Richard the Second who was then in Ireland the King sent the Earl of Salisbury before him into England to gather an Army against his Coming over But staying longer than the time by himself appointed the Army would no longer be kept together The King coming over and finding that they were dispersed and hearing that all the Castles from the Borders of Scotland and Bristol were delivered to the Duke and that the greatest part of
is a Passage in the Lord Churahil's Letter lest for King Jamâ—s when he went off from him at Salisbury which implies that he was either Privy to or smelled out some such Design His words are Heaven knows with what Partiality my dutiful Opinion of your Majesty hath hitherto represented those unhappy Designs which inconsiderate and self-interested Men have framed against your Majesty's true Interest and the Protestant Religion But as I can no longer joyn with such to give a Pretence by Conquest to bring them to Effect His Lordship best knows what he means by the Pretences by Conquest to bring those unhappy Designs to Effect But to me at present it seems that his words are capable of no other Interpretation than that they were resolved to provoke us to make some opposition that they intended to call a Rebellion the which being quelled they might pretend us to be in the state of a Conquered People and so over rule our Laws and make their own the Legal Religion And what greater Provocation could be given than to make us believe they had thus imposed upon us as to the Succession And if this be the Case as they that believe there was a Prince of Wales have great Reason to think it is then Righteous art thou O Lord and upright are thy Judgments For the Priests and Jesuits are sunk down in the Pit that they made in the Net which they had hid for us is their own Foot taken We can never enough adore the Divine Goodness and Justice and Wisdom in turning the Mischief that these Wretches intended against his Church upon their own heads For at the same time that they designed to render the Birth of the Child doubtsul that so they might provoke us to do what might minister to them an occasion to Destroy or Enslave us they likewise rendered it suspected to a Soveraign Prince nearly concerned to maintain the Succession who had both the Wit and Courage to sift out the Truth in this matter And how well these Sons of Wisdom carryed it when he came to make inquiry we have seen and shall consider by and by But however this be the most probable Reason of their perplexing things at this rate that any Man can think of who believes it was a Genuine Prince yet was not this to be owned for the Reason And therefore we have not forgotten that some of their then Majesties Friends bethought themselves of another They could not deny but that things were very strangely carryed and that they both might and ought to have dealt more above-board But they would have had us believe that the Reason why they did not was the late Queen's mighty Spirit She took it so very ill to be Suspected that she scorned to give any Satisfaction But what had not the King more Temper Had not their Ghostly Fathers more Or could not they who had inspirited their Majesties to run such mighty Risques for the Catholick Cause prevail with them in the space of Forty Weeks to give Law to their Passion when it was so necessary to the great Design and when the not doing of it was like to ruine all Or if they scorned to give Satisfaction to the Subject was it below them to give Satisfaction to a Soveraign Prince whose Consort was the Presumptive Heir of the Crown This Reason must I think be unsatisfactory to every indifferent â—â—dgment and I am sure notwithstanding this Allegation the then Prince and Princess of Orange had all the Reason in the World to inquire into this doubtful Birth For notwithstanding all that can be alledged since there were during the time of the Queens pretended Bigness such general and confident Expectations of foul Play some Men of Honour and Prudence of the Protestant Party Friends to the Succession of their present Majesties should have been admitted into the Room and placed so near the Queen as that they might have been able to have given positive home Evidence on her Majesty's side And it was but reason that the Princess of Denmark and a sufficient number of Ladies that were her Friends should have been convinced by a sensible Demonstration But now instead hereof how quite contrary were all things carried And this brings me in the Second Place To the very suspicious Circumstances that attended this doubtful Birth They are not yet forgotten and therefore I need only mention some of them in order that this Discourse may not be imperfect The Queen shifted her Lodgings to and fro at the expected time of Travail gave out That she would lye-in sometimes at White-Hall and sometimes at St. James's was delivered if at all in Bed in so short a Space that there was not time to find out a Trick supposing there had been any nor to make any Remarks how Matters were Few Witnesses called but such as were either Papists or so obnoxious to the Laws by their bâ—ing Parties to the illegal Proceedings that it stood them in Hand as much to have a Prince of Wales as if they had been Papists And the disinterested Protestants that were called so placed that they could only give Evidence Thaâ— they heard the Queen complain and that there was a Child But for speaking home to the Matter they were no more able to do it than as if they had been at some Miles distance I grant that some of these Circumstances might not be of their designing or ordering and that had they hapned alone they would have been of no moment to create a Suspicion But yet being joyned with the others that were undeniably of their Ordering and that might have been ordered other ways they are of very great weight And I am perswaded when a Man who is altogether disinterested considers all Circumstances laid together he will conclude that supposing there were foul Play Things must needs have been carried just as they were And they that suppose there was not can give no Reason why they were so carried but such as are altogether unsatisfactory and that notwithstanding all that can be alledged the Presumptive Heirs to the Crown had reason to expect the Matter should be looked into But it will be said No sooner did the Prince and Princess discover their Jealousie but the late King gave them all the Satisfaction that they could reasonably desire such as might and ought to have contented them For the King did not hear of the Prince's Preparation against him before the 9th or 10th of September 1688 and on the 22d of October he ordered the Council to be assembled and such of the Peers of this Kingdom both Spiritual and Temporal as were in Town together with the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London and the Judges and several of his Majesty's Council learned in the Law And Queen Dowageâ— and the Lords and Ladies and others that were present at the Queens Labour did appear and declare all of them except Queen Dowager upon Oath what they knew of the Birth of
the Nobility and Commons took part with him and that his principal Counsellors had lost their Heads he fell so utterly to Despair that calling his Army together he licensed every Man to be gone and to shift for himself After which he was made a Prisoner and frightned into a Resignation of his Crown which was unjustly accepted of and confirmed by a Parliament illegally called by the Duke in the King's Name Here was never a Battel fought nor a Stroak struck the King's Subjects and Souldiers forsook him and went to Henry who was indeed a Traitor and consequently an Usurper both which are far from being in the present Case And yet Henry being placed in the Royal Seat and possessed of the Regalia thought it necessary to assure them that he meant not to take Advantage against any Man's Estate as coming in by Conquest but that every one should freely injoy his own as in the times of lawful Succession Here are a great many ill Circumstances that make all this unlawful in H's Doings which do not accompany the late Atchievements of our glorious Prince which do even as to the Question of Conquest leave the Advantage plainly on our Soveraign's side and yet we see Henry thinks good to assure them that he will not make use of his Victory we are to understand him against any Man but the King A plain Intimation that supposing his Quarrel to have been just and justly managed he thought he had the Right of Conquest on his Side yea and that he thought they were of the same Opinion for whose sakes he gave his Assurance A like Instance we have in two other Princes of the same Names Richard the Third and Henry the Seventh The Duke of Buckingham King R's Subject and Bishop Morton his Prisoner plot together that Henry Earl of Richmond Heir of the House of Lancaster should marry the Lady Elizabeth Heiress of the House of York and also to depose King R. Many of the King's Subjects join in the same Conspiracy While Henry lay at Lichfield with his Forces and K. Richard with his at Nottingham part of King Richard's Forces revolted to Henry and in the King's March towards him Sir Walter Hungerford and some others withdrew themselves from King R's Party And Sir John Savage Sir Brian Stamford and Sir Simon Digby with their several Forces joined with the Earl The Treachery was so plain that it was written over the Gate of the Duke of Norfolk who was faithful to King R. the Night before the Battel Jacky of Norfolk be not too bold For Dickon thy Master is bought and sold. Nay in the very Battel the Lord Stanley who had been sent to levy Forces for the King comes in and joins with the Earl and yet notwithstanding King Richard being slain and I hope to shew that the Case had been the same if he had only been driven out of the Nation and Henry obtaining the Crown the Lord Bacon saith Besides his other two Claims that of Heir to the House of Lancaster in his own Person and that of Heiress to the House of York with whom he meant to marry he had also the Title of Conquest And although he chose not to make such use of the Title of Conquest as of that of Heir to the House of Lancaster partly because he came in upon Conditions and Agreements and partly because he knew that to claim as a Conqueror was to put as well his own Party as the rest in Fear as that which gave him Power of disannulling of Laws and disposing of Mens Foutunes and Estates and the like Points of absolute Power yet he made use of it to beat down open Murmur and Dispute And afterwards he got the Crown to be entailed upon him by Act of Parliament and the said Act to be confirmed by the Pope's Bull the Year following with mention nevertheless by way of Rooâ—tal of his other Titles both of Descent and Conquest So as now saith the same learned Author the Wreath of three was made a Wreath of five for to the three first Titles of the two Houses or Lines and Conquest were added two more c. So that Henry the Seventh as wise a Prince as ever sway'd the English Scepter of whose Opinion the Lord Bacon seems to be thought he had the Title of Conquest the which he might and did make use of as far as he saw convenient Although he brought over with him but two thousand Mercenaries a small Force in comparison of those that the Prince brought over with him and got the Crown almost purely by the help of King Richard's Subjects and by the Treachery of his pretended Friends many of which had been preferred by him and yet forfook him I grant indeed that King Richard was an Usurper and a cruel Prince But what of that Although his being so was a just reason why Henry who had been conveyed into Britain in the Reign of King Edward the 4th and never returned into England until that fortunate Expedition which made him King and consequently who had never sworn Allegiance to him might agree to marry the undoubted Heiress of the House of York and thereupon do his utmost to deprive him of his Crown yet did it not make the Success against him either more or less a Conquest It made it lawful to conquer him but it did not make the Victory ever the more a Conquest And further whatever Weight there is in that is likewise in the Title of their present Majesties For as Henry the 7th had a just Quarrel against Richard the 3d so also had their present Majesties against King James the 2d It is true in both these Instances there is a Mistake under which the Lord Bacon himself seems to lie in the Case of Henry the 7th viz. That the Victors are thought to have gained not only a Title to the Crown against the Vanquished Princes but also an Absolute Power over the Rights and Liberties of the Subject Whereas in these and all other such like Cases where the Nation stands Neuter no Man is conquered but the King and such as assisted him and therefore no Right is gained over the Laws or the Peoples Liberties But of this more hereafter At the present it is enough to observe that these two Instances make it plain to be the Opinion of those Times that to the Right or Title of Conquest it is not necessary that the Souldiers and Subjects of the Prince Conquered proved faithful to him it is enough that he be either slain or which I hope I shall prove to be all one rendred unable any longer to defend his Subjects and his Crown against the Victor And is it not likewise the general Opinion of these present Times Do not the Christian Princes now in a State of War with each other endeavour each to draw Assistance from his Enemies by Manifesto's Declarations Memorials And do not Souldiers daily desert one Prince whose natural Subjects
they are and run to another But is that thought a Reason why the Victors should quit any thing that their Swords do gain If their Declarations be untrue or in any respect unreasonable there is Sin in that and in making any Advantage of them but the Prince's was not and therefore as there was no Evil in it so is there no reason why he should quit any Advantage gained by it 2. But it may be said That the Nation was not conquered nor was it possible it should be by such a small number of Forces as the Prince brought over with him And that no Right of Conquest could accrue to the Prince so long as the King had Subjects enow able to have defended him Had the Nation done its utmost in defence of the King and yet been overpowred the Assertion had been true but it was so far from it that it was the Poisoned Nation K. James feared more than the Foreign Army A great part of the Nation took against the King and almost all the rest looked on while he was driven out of his Dominions And call you this a Conquest To this I reply 1. That this was much-what the Case in the two Instances I have given and yet as has been shewn it was the Opinion of those Times that the two Princes I have mentioned were conquered 2. As to the Nation 's standing Neuter or taking against the King I have considered it already and need not now repeat This Objection is much-what the same with the former only it appears in a different Dress 3. As to the Prince's conquering England I say he never pretended to it nor could he have done it justly for he had no Quarrel against the Nation It was so far from it that he never pretended any His Quarrel against the King was likewise the Nation 's Complaint against him and at the same time he asserted his own Right and in that very Particular he asserted the Right of the Nation For as he had a Right to be satisfied about the Succession so also had the Nation and the Nation too desired Satisfaction as well as he Nay he came not only to assert his own Right jointly with ours in this Particular but even all our Rights and Liberties which were struck at and in great danger of being utterly subverted So that this Glorious Prince was so far from being our Enemy that he was our Champion and Deliverer He conquered nothing but our Hearts And if he never pretended to be our Enemy he could not be said to conquer us Had he conquered the Nation he would have had a Right to somewhat else besides the Crown viz. to our Laws Liberties and Estates and we should have been in a very ill Condition until by submitting all to the Convention and suffering the Government to settle upon the Antient Basis he gave us all back again It is true many times the Quarrel of Prince and People are twisted together and then they stand or fall together but here they were severed and therefore the King fell by himself And although it be a hard Saying yet is it too true that his Fall was his Countrey 's Rise The Nation was never conquered since the Days of William the First supposing that may be called such a Conquest Nor is such a Conquest necessary to give the Victorious Prince a Right to the Throne of the Vanquished Enough it is that he be reduced to such a Condition as to be unable to help his Friends and they to help him Such a Conquest was that of Henry the 4th over Richard the 2d although he thought not to have made use of that Title because his Quarrel was not just nor his Success gained without Dissimulation and Perjury And such a Conquest was that of Henry the 7th over Richard the 3d. And yet both these as I have said thought they had good Titles as being Conquerors And such a Conquest was this of our present Soveraigns over King James the 2d 3. It may be said All this would be true were King James out of all possibility of ever helping his Friends or of receiving Help from them But he is only retired into a Neighbouring Kingdom And there he is within Call whenever the Nation 's Eyes shall be opened He only waits for a fair Opportunity of returning to succour his Friends and right himself To this I answer 1. King James is in such a Kingdom as we can expect no Good from and if ever he returns out of it we have reason to think he will succour no Friends but those of his own Religion and such as are for Arbitrary Power But as for all the rest which are the main Body of the Community we have great cause to fear they will be in a much worse Condition than they are under the present Government It is highly probable that he went away with hopes that the Distractions he took care to throw us into and our own mistaken Notions of Loyalty with the Assistance of the French King would in a short time bring him back a Conqueror upon the Necks of our Laws and our Religion And what Encouragment can a wise Protestant find in this to be undone by suspending his Allegiance to our present most gracious Soveraigns Shall we for the present make our selves miserable and do our utmost to make the Nation so too in hopes that e're long he will return and be in a Condition to make both us and it more effectually so But 2. It is not essential to a Conquest nor to the Right it gives that the Prince supposed to be conquered be out of all possibility of ever helping his Friends or of receiving Help from them No Prince is in such a Condition while he lives It is sufficient that the main Body of a Kingdom have submitted to the Conqueror and the greatest Part of such as have been required to fwear Allegiance to him have done it so as that he is fully possessed of the Government and that the vanquished Prince is not able to protect those that refuse to submit to him but that they may be ruined before he could come in to their Assistance and would be so were it not for the meer Mercy of the Conqueror For one great Reason why Conquest in a just Quarrel gives the Subject a rightful Liberty of transferring his Allegiance to the Conqueror is Because his former Soveraign is by his own Fault fallen into such a Condition as that he cannot to him answer the Ends of Government nor he to his Soveraign the Ends of Allegiance and Subjection And as it would be very hard that a King should be obliged to throw away himself for the sake of his Subjects when his doing so would not in the least advantage them so is it no less hard that Subjects should be obliged to throw away themselves for the sake of their King when their doing of it will not at all advantage him
his Royal Highness the Prince of Watos Of all which a particular Relation was published by the King's Order and this ought to have satisfied the Prince and Princess But I answer This was not reasonable Satisfaction for 1. It was not as it ought to have been the Satisfaction that the Prince desired 2. Nor was it sufficient in it self 1. It was not as it ought to have been the Satisfaction that the Prince desired He had just cause to suspect a Trick as hath been proved and therefore it cannot be denied but that he ought to have had the Privilege of chusing how he would have the Truth found out provided the Method he pitched upon were possible and reasonable Now it was both for he offered to refer the Matter in dispute to a Free Parliament The King might have called a Parliament had he pleased and have made it Free so that it was possible And who might more reasonably judg of the Matter than a Parliament The King and Prince were too much Parties to be either of them Judges And who then so fit as the Nation 's Representatives to decide a Controversy about the Succession Had not they formerly been the usual Umpires in parallel Cases And if they might not be so in this I know no other but the Sword For 2. The Satisfaction that the King gave by examining Witnesses was not sufficient in it self 1. Because few were called to the Queen's Labour but such as were either Papists or obnoxious to the Laws or absolute Creatures of the Court And the few disinterested Protestants that were there were not able to speak home to the Matter in question 2. The Witnesses were under too great an Awe to have their Evidence accounted free they were all the King's Subjects and his Majesty had all along before and did at that instant shew himself too passionately concerned to have it believed a Genuine Prince Had the King himself desired Satisfaction or but stood Neuter they might have been supposed to speak freely But it was quite otherwise for besides what he had done before to discourage all such as were dissatisfied there is one material Circumstance previous to the Depositions of the Witnesses which hath not as yet been taken notice of in Print that I know of that deserves to have a particular Remark set upon it and it is this Before the Examination of any one Witness his Majesty was pleased to express himself to this purpose I would have set down his Words but that I could not procure the Depositions however I believe I shall not vary from the Sense in any thing material to my present Design I was always with the Queen during her Bigness I constantly lay with her I could not possibly be imposed upon I knew her to be with Child And therefore if there were any foul Play I must needs be a Party to it And having said this he bids the Withesses speak their Knowledg Which was as much as to say Is there ever a Person here that dare accuse me of the greatest Folly and Injustice in the World Come tell me Am I your Soveraign guilty of this unnatural Villany Or have I so little common Sense as to be imposed on in a thing of this Nature I use these Expressions because his Majesty afterwards used them I confess I lay great Stress upon this and think this one Circumstance enough in all Reason to set aside all that was then sworn and make it go for nothing Indeed had the Prince been there as well as the King with a number of Guards equal to his Majesty's and the two Armies at equal distance as the Prince required in his Answer to the Lords sent by the King to adjust Preliminaries in order to the holding of a Parliament and consequently able to have protected any that should have given Evidence on his side as well as the King was to protect those that gave Evidence for the Party he was pleased to espouse all this had been no great matter But that the King should express himself in this Sense and with so much Warmth when he alone was present able to crush any Man that should offend him and the Prince with his Army on the other side the Sea is I think such a mighty Prejudice against all was thereafter sworn at that time that no wise Man will much regard it but will conclude that the Prince had still reason to adhere to his first Demand of having it lost to a Free Parliament He did so First he signified his Dissatisfaction in these Words There are great and violent Presumptions inducing us to believe that those Evil Counsellors in order to the carrying on of their ill Designs and to the gaining to themselves more time for the effecting of them for the encouraging of their Complices and for the discouraging of all good Subjects have published that the Queen hath brought forth a Son though there have appeared both during the Queen's pretended Bigness and in the manner in which the Birth was managed so many just and visible Grounds of Suspicion that not only we our selves but all the good Subjects of those Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born by the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the World that many both doubted of the Queen's Bigness and the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfy them or to put an end to their Doubts Then he declares for a Free Parliament and saith To this Parliament he will also refer the Enquiry into the Birth of the pretended Prince of Wales and of all things relating to it and to the Right of Succession But is K. James likewise willing to stand to their Determination No he is so far from it that whereas immediately after notice of the Prince's intended Expedition he endeavoured to wheedle the Nation with hopes of a Parliament by his Proclamation of September the 20th and did issue out Writs accordingly Having received more certain Intelligence of the Prince's coming he recalled the Writs by his Declaration of the 28th of September and could never be induced to consent to a Parliament until the Prince should be driven out of the Nation And how could a Parliament then have been Free or with what Freedom could they then have enquired into the Birth of the Child However in this fatal Resolution he persisted to the last And what was this but to decline the Decision of a Parliament and to put it to the Sword All his Proclamations are in pursuance of this Resolution And from it not the seasonable Advice of the Bishops nor the earnest Petition of several Lords both Temporal and Spiritual presented to him by the two Archbishops and the Bishops of Ely and Rochester nor the rising of several Bodies up and down the Nation who all declared for a Free Parliament can divert him But down he follows a