Selected quad for the lemma: prince_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
prince_n	lord_n	son_n	wales_n	2,774	5	10.0959	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40071	An answer to the paper delivered by Mr. Ashton at his execution to Sir Francis Child ... together with the paper itself.	Fowler, Edward, 1632-1714.; Ashton, John, d. 1691.; Child, Francis, Sir, 1642-1713.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1690 (1690)	Wing F1695; ESTC R30132	19,700	32

White-Hall March 18. 1690. Let this be Printed SYDNEY AN ANSWER To the PAPER Delivered by M r ASHTON at his Execution TO Sir Francis Child SHERIFF of London c. Together with The Paper it self LONDON Printed for Robert Clavell at the Peacock in S. Paul's Church-Yard 1690. M r. Ashton's Paper Mr. Sheriffe HAVING observed that the Methods of making Speeches at the place of Execution was not alwayes attended with the designed Success And thinking it better to imploy my last Minutes in Devotion and Holy Communion with my God I have prepared this Paper to leave in your Hands as well to assert my Principles as to testifie my Innocency As to my Religion I professe by God's Grace I dye in the Faith into which I was baptized that of the Church of England in whose Communion nothing doubting of my Salvation thro the Merits of my Saviour I have alwayes thought my selfe safe and happy according to her Principles and late much esteemed Doctrines tho now unhappily exploded I have regulated my Life beleiving my selfe obliged by my Religion to looke upon my rightfull lawfull Prince whatever his Principles were or his Practises might be as God's Vicegerent and accountable if guilty of Male-administration to God only from whom he received his Power and alwayes beleiving it to be contrary to the Laws of God the Church and the Realme upon any pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against him and let all the World take notice in this Beleife I dye But I have more particular Obligation to the King my Master whom I have had the honour to serve and received many signal Favours from him for sixteen years past so that Gratitude a thing not much esteemed at this time as well as Duty and Religion Commanded the utmost Service I could pay him and when I add these Considerations that we were born his Liege Subjects that we have solemnly professed our Allegiance and often confirmed it with Oaths That his Majesties Usage after the Prince of Orange's arrival was very hard severe and if I may so say Unjust And that all the new Methods of settling this Nation have hitherto made it more miserable Poor and more exposed to Foreign Enemies And the Religion we pretend to be so fond of preserving now much more than ever likely to be destroyed There seems to me no way to prevent the Impending evils and save these Nations from poverty and destruction but the Calling home our Injured Sovereign who as a true Father of his Country has notwithstanding all his Provocations and Injuries a natural love and tenderness for all his Subjects and I am so far from repining at the loss of my life that had I ten thousand I should think my self obliged to sacrifice them all rather than omit any just and honest means to promote so good and necessary a work and I advise and desire all my fellow Subjects to think of their Duty and return to their Allegiance before the severe Iudgment of God overtake them for their Perjury and Rebellion but certainly the good and Interest of these Nations abstracted from all other Considerations will ere long convince them of the necessity of doing it Having thus frankly declared my Principles I know the Inference will be that I have acted accordingly and consequently that am I now justly condemned but as I ingenuously own the Premisses so as I positively deny the Consequence for whatever my Inclinations or Actions have been yet as to the Matter I was sentenced to dye for I declare my self innocent and will appeal even to the Iudges themselves whether or no upon my Tryal there appeared the least proof that I knew a tittle contained in the Papers but Presumption was with the Iury thought sufficient to find me guilty tho I am told I am the first Man that ever was condemned for High Treason upon bare Suspicion or Presumption and that contrary to my L. Coke's and other eminent Lawyers Opinions The knowledg of my own Innocency as to the Indictment and Charge against me was that that armed me with so much assurance and occasioned my casting my Life upon the first Twelve Men of the Pannel without challenging any But tho I have I think just reason to complain of the severe Charge given by the Iudges and hard measure I have received not to mention my close Imprisonment the hasty and violent Proceedings against me nor the Industry used in the Return of fitting Persons to pass upon me the denying me a Copy of the Pannel c. Yet as I hope for Pardon and Forgiveness at the hands of my God so do I most heartily pray for and forgive them and all my Enemies all the World nay even that Iudg and Iury-Man who did so signally contrary to common Iustice expose themselves to destroy me But let the Will of God be done I rely wholly upon his Mercy and the Merits of my blessed Saviour for Salvation I do chearfully and entirely resign my self into his Hands as into the Hands of a faithful Creator in sure and certain hopes of a happy Resurrection Bless protect and strengthen O Lord God my good and gracious King and Master in thy due time let the Virtue Goodness and Innocency of the Queen my Mistress make all her Enemies blush and silence the wicked and unjust Calumnies that Malice and Envy have raised against her make her and these Nations happy in the Prince of Wales whom from unanswerable and undoubted Proofs I know to be her Son restore them all when thou seest fit to their just Rights and on such a bottom as may support and establish the Church of England and once more make her flourishe notwithstanding the Wounds she hath received of late from her prevaricating Sons Forgive forgive O Lord all my Enemyes bless all my Friends comfort and support my deare afflicted Wife and poor Babes be thou a Husband and a Father to them for their sakes only I could have wished to live but pardon that Wishe O good God and take my Soule into thy everlasting Glory Amen JN o ASHTON The ANSWER THE Paper which passeth under the Name of Mr. Ashton's SPEECH seems to me to be composed with too much Art and Care to be the Work of one who professeth he thought it better to employ his last minutes in Devotion And if he was so illiterate and unskilled in the Law as he said at his Tryal Fol. 111. one may justly wonder not only at such Terms as Impending Prevaricating Premisses and Consequènce c. but at such a peremptory Judgment as he gives about the Laws of the Realm in a Case that must be acknowledged by all ingenuous men of his own Party to have a great deal of Difficulty in it But there are some Men who think to bear down all others by their Confidence and would have it taken for granted that the whole Nation themselves excepted is under the guilt of Perjury and Rebellion These are the modest Terms in this

Subjects hath published that the Queen hath brought forth a Son tho 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 these Kingdoms do vehemently suspect that the pretended Prince of Wales was not born of the Queen And it is notoriously known to all the World that many both doubted of the Queens Bigness and of the Birth of the Child and yet there was not any one thing done to satisfie them and to put an end to all Doubts And since our Dearest and most entirely beloved Consort the Princess and likewise we our selves have so great an Interest in this matter and such a Right as all the World knows to the Succession to the Crown And since the English Nation hath ever testified a most particular Affection and Esteem both to our Dearest Confort and to our Selves We cannot excuse our Selves from espousing their Interests in a matter of such high Consequence and from contributing all that lies in us for maintaining both of the Protestant Religion and of the Laws and Liberties of those Kingdoms and for the securing to them the continual Enjoyment of all their just Rights Here we have an Hereditary Right to the Crown asserted both remoter in Himself and nearer in the Queen who was unquestionably the next if there were no Heir Male It was possible this Right might be really defeated by a Prince of Wales and it was possible it might be pretended to be so when it was not For there have been many Instances in History of suborned and supposititious Princes and therefore there was reason that sufficient Evidence should be given in a Case of such Importance and which was under so great Suspicion But if there was no reasonable care taken to prevent or remove these Suspicions then the Parties most concerned have a Right to assert their own Pretensions in such a way as the Law of Nations doth allow And in this Case no private Depositions or confident Affirmations of such as are Dependents or otherwise liable to Suspicion can in Reason be taken for satisfactory Evidence for let any one consider what the Laws of Nations have thought sitting Evidence in a Case of this Nature and he will soon find how very much short such proofs are of what the Nature of the Thing hath been thought to require The Civil Law is very strict where there is any occasion of Suspicion It requires notice to be given twice a Month to the Parties concerned that they may receive full satisfaction That the Mother is to be kept in a House by itself That thirty Days before she expects to be delivered she must give Notice of it to those who are most concerned that they may send such as they can trust to be present that there ought to be but one Door where she is to Lie in and if there be more they must be done up that at that Door there are to be Three Men and Three Women and Two Assistants That all Persons are to be searcht who go in especially at the Labor at which time there must be sufficient Light in the Room When the Child is born it ought to be first shewn to the Parties concerned and great care is taken about the Persons in whose Hands he is put and Satisfaction must be given from time to time that it is the same Child and if Satisfaction be not given as to these things the Roman Law doth not allow any Right of Possession By the Old Common Law of England in case of Suspicion a Writ of Inspection was allowed the Form whereof is in the Books and if there were any doubt the Woman was to be put into a safe place where no Suspicious Persons were to come near her till she was delivered This was then thought so reasonable a thing that the Old Law Books have a Chapter on purpose De Partu Supposito wherein Directions are given to prevent and discover a Subornation These things I mention to show what Satisfaction is necessary to be given in case of Suspicion and the higher the Persons are and of so much greater Importance as the Succession is so much clearer ought the Evidence to be that no occasion of Doubt may remain But if no such care was taken If the principal Persons concerned had not the least Satisfaction given them If the whole thing were managed with Secrecy and suspicious Circumstances then I can see no Reason to exclude those who are most concern'd from a Right of demanding Satisfaction by Force of Arms. But Mr. Ashton thinks he hath cleared this matter when he affirms that he knows there was no Supposititious Birth by unanswerable undoubted Proofs and this is put into his Prayer that it might look like an appeal to God as to the Truth of what he said This is one of the boldest and most artificial Strokes of the Penner of this Speech not barely to make him af firm it with so much assurance but to do it in his Prayer too But a matter of so great Consequence is not to be determined upon the Testimony of any single Wittness although he were the most competent Witness as to such a matter which doth not in the least appear as to Mr. Ashton For how could he know it by unanswerable and undoubted Proofs when considering the Circumstances that were in this Case it was hardly possible to produce such Proofs as would pass for unexceptionable Evidence upon a Legal Trial For there hath been such a Trial here in England within the Memory of Man wherein the Father and Mother and Midwife have all sworn to the Truth of the Birth of a Son and yet the Jury upon hearing the whole Evidence have given Judgment that it was Supposititious Therefore bare Affirmations of some Persons concerned are not Evidence sufficient in Case of strong and vehemont Presumptions to the contrary and such Evidence ought to have been given as might have either prevented or removed any just grounds of Suspicion But since no such unanswerable undoubted Proofs were made to those who were most concerned the same just Right doth remain to the undoubted Heir of the Crown as it did in the former Case to the next Heir at Law who upon a fair Trial and the Verdict of the Country recovered the Estate But between Princes there are no such ways of Trial or Courts of Judicature and therefore in such Cases the Right of War is allowed by the general Consent of Mankind Secondly There was a further just Occasion for that Expedition which was the Design to subvort our Religion and Civil Liberties As to the Particulars they are fully set down in the Declaration and need not to be repeated that which I am to make out is that the then Prince of Orange by his Relation to the Crown had a just Right to concern