Gaunt's elder Brother So that of the Succession of 14 Kings after the Conqueror there were but four viz. Richard the First Edward the First and Second and Richard the Second which succeeded as Heirs to the Conqueror or his Heirs Admit Edward the 4th succeeded right as Heir to Phillippa Daughter of the Duke of Clarence yet if it be true which Richard the 3d says and which is confirmed by the Authority of the Act of Parliament 1 Rich. 3. that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before he married Elizabeth then did not Edward the 5th if it may be called a Succession succeed right nor could Henry the 7th claim any Right to the Crown of England in Right of his Wife Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth But whether it be true or not that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before his Marriage yet Richard the 3d succeeded not as Heir Edward Earl of Warwick the Son of George Duke of Richard's elder Brother being then alive Of all the Kings of England that succeeded the Conqueror Henry the 7th had the least Pretension to any Title to the Crown for tho he were supposed to have been descended from John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster yet it was the Duke's Paramour Katherine Swinford whose Issue by the Duke tho by Act of Parliament they were legitimated to all other purposes yet were not capacitated to succeed to the Crown of England but if the Title of Lancaster had been preferable to that of York and Henry had been of the legitimate Line yet could not he have succeeded as Heir his Mother under whom he claimed being then alive and out-lived her Son Nor did the King's Marriage with Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the 4th improve his Title to his Succession the Marriage being subsequent to it and before it the Crown by Act of Parliament was entailed upon Henry the 7th and the Heirs of his Body and after Marriage he never used her Name in calling any Parliament or in any Proclamation or the Coin or passing any Act of Parliament and as he reigned without her before Marriage so he did after her Death for he out-lived her tho she left two Sons Arthur and Henry after Henry the Eighth and two Daughters Elizabeth Queen of Scotland and Mary after Queen of France It seems to me that Ferdinand King of Castile and Arragon had the same Opinion which Richard the 3d and the Parliament had that the Issue of Edward the 4th were not legitimate for he would not assent to the Marriage of his Daughter Katherine with Arthur Prince of Wales so long as the Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence lived and there a fine Trick was found out to put the poor Prince to Death for endeavouring to make his Escape out of the Tower with Perkin Warbeck and in him ended the Masculine Line of the Race of the Plantagenets who had governed the English Nation after Stephen to Henry the 7th above 340 Years So that from the Conqueror to Henry the 8th scarce one of four of the Kings of England succeeded in a right Line as Heirs to the Conqueror As the Saxon Dynasty ended in Edward the Confessor and the Norman began in the Conqueror so it seems to me that the Norman ended in Richard the 3d and another of the British was erected in Henry the 7th who was the Son of Edmund of Hadham the Son of Owen Tudor by Katherine Daughter of Charles the 6th of France Wife of Henry the 5th of England and Mother of Henry the 6th So that Henry the 7th's Title to the Crown of France was better than that to the Crown of England for that of England was from a Maternal Ancestor Margaret Countess of Richmond no otherwise related to the Crown of England than descended from John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford his Paramour Tho I do not find that Henry the 7th or any of his Descendants ever assumed the Sirname of Tudor So that tho the Crown of England neither in the Saxon nor Norman Race of Kings was always Hereditary so neither was the Succession to the Crown elective For in elective Kingdoms after the Death of one King there is an Establishment of the manner of Elections and in the mean time there are Custodes Regni appointed whose Power ceases upon the Election of a King but neither of these were ever heard of in either of the Saxon or Norman Race and tho sometimes it 's said the Kings were chosen as of Edward the Son of Alfred by the Nobles and so of Athelstan and so in the Norman Race Henry the First was said to be chosen for that he promised to abrogate all the Oppressions and Errors brought into the Government by his Father and Brother tho his eldest Brother Robert was then alive and restore the good Laws of Edward the Confessor and Stephen was chosen by the Clergy and Londoners yet this was rather a form of Speaking in those days than any formal Election and the manner differed according to the different Humours of the Times Nor do we read that ever the Parliament meddled with the Succession of the Crown before Henry the Fourth for tho the first Parliament of Edward the Third renounced their Allegiance to Edward the Second and are said to have chosen Edward the Third yet they went no further and such an Election was no more than a Declaration of their Submission as when the Council declared James the Second King But whether the Crown of England was Hereditary in the Saxon and Norman Race it 's evident it was not so in this British Race for as it began in Henry the Seventh so it was entailed by Act of Parment upon him and Heirs of his Body before his Marriage with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth So the inheritable Right of Edward's Issue and all the Norman Race was barred by this Act. Before we proceed in the Succession of the British Race we 'll take a view of the Genealogy of it John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford had Issue John created Earl of Somerset who had Issue John created Duke of Somerset who had Issue Margaret After the Death of Henry the Fifth Katherine his Wife Sister of Charles the Sixth of France married Owen Tudor a Welch Gentleman who had Issue Edmund of Hadham created Earl of Richmond who married Margaret Daughter and Heir of John Duke of Somerset who had Issue Henry the Seventh Henry the Eighth succeeded his Father without any Contradiction for the Wars between the houses of York and Lancaster had destroyed the whole legitimate Lancastrian Line and Richard the Third after the Murder of his Brother Clarence and Death of Edward the Fourth had murdered his two Nephews Edward and Richard Sons of Edward the Fourth and himself was killed in the Fight in Bosworth-fields and after that Henry the Seventh had put Edward Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence to Death none of all
the Royal Line of the Plantagenets were left to be Competitors with him yet his Succession could not be Hereditary for his Grand-mother under whom his Father claim'd out-lived her Son and so Henry the Eighth could not claim from her Yet this is observable That as his Father Henry the Seventh entailed the Succession of the Crown of England upon the Heirs of his Body so by Act of Parliament 28 Hen. 8. Henry the Eighth might dispose of the Succession of the Crown by his Will for want of Issue of his Body so little was the inheritable Succession of the Crown of England regarded by these Kings of the British Race It seems the Council in Edward the Sixth's Reign had as little an Opinion of the Hereditary Succession of the Crown as the Parliament had in the Reign of Henry the Eighth for by the Advice of Edward's Council he by his Will disposed of the Succession to his Cousen the Lady Jane Gray Grand-daughter to Edward's Aunt Mary Queen of France contrary to the Will of his Father Henry the Eighth which ordained his Daughter Mary to succeed Edward in case he died without Issue I say that by the Law of Inheritance in England Queen Mary could not inherit the Crown from Edward she being but of half-Blood to him and by the same Reason Queen Elizabeth could not inherit to Queen Mary but Mary the Daughter of James the fifth of Scotland being of the whole Blood to Edward and descended from the elder Daughter of Henry the Seventh could For the Opinion of the Judges after King James came in that the Succession of the Crown of England differs from that of the Inheritance of Subjects in regard of an Alien born and those of half Blood may inherit the Crown it 's Gratis dictum and said to please the King for there never was any such usage in England nor any such Act of Parliament to warrant their Opinion But admit the Crown of England were inheritable from Henry the Seventh and Half-Blood no Bar to the Succession yet Mary and Elizabeth could not both succeed for one of them was Illegitimate Elizabeth being born in the Life of Katherine Queen Mary's Mother If the Parliament in the Reign of Henry the 8th had little or no Opinion of the Inheritable Succession of the Crown of England and therefore impowered the King to dispose of it by Will The Parliament in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth had less and therefore often petitioned her and that with Importunity to declare her Successor without Consent in Parliament and declared it 13 Eliz. Cap. 1. to be High Treason to affirm that the Crown of England might not be disposed of by Act of Parliament in her Life and a Premunire after her Death Here I make these Remarks upon the Race of the Plantagenets and the Succession of the British Line that as the Plantagenets inherited the Name from Jeffery Duke of Anjou who was never King of England so Henry the 7th if he had any Title derived it from John of Gaunt by an Illegitimate Succession who never was King of England From England we step into Scotland and see how the Hereditary Succession was observed there after the Reign of Alexander the 3d in whom the direct Line of the Race of their Kings failed which was so near as I can compute about the Year 1278 and leave the Succession of their 93 Kings before to the Scrutiny of the Scotish Antiquaries and Heraulds The Scots if they be not clearer in the Genealogy of their 93 Kings before Alexander the 3d than my Author is of retrieving it after the Death of Margaret Daughter of Alexander the 3d do make but a blind Genealogy of their 93 Kings before however we 'll take it as we find it David Brother of William King of Scotland but whether William was Father Brother or Uncle to Alexander the 2d my Author says not and Earl of Huntingdon had Issue by Maud Daughter to the Earl of Chester three Daughters Margaret married to Allen of Galloway the second not named was married to Robert Bruce the third to Henry Hastings Earl of Huntingdon Allen of Galloway had a Grand-daughter named Dornagil married to John Baliol. Bruce was Great Grand-child to the second Daughter of David Earl of Huntingdon but being a Male pretended he was to be King before Dornagil a Female though a Degree nearer and descended from the elder Sister Henry Earl of Huntingdon made no claim So the Right between Baliol and Bruce was referred to the Determination of Edward the first King of England who adjudged the Right to be in Baliol and soon after Baliol by Dornagil had a Son named Edward so that Bruce's Pretension of Title as being Son vanished by the Birth of Edward Baliol being descended from the eldest Sister But The Scots or a prevailing Party not liking Baliol's Reign in the Year 1306 crowned Robert Bruce King In the Year 1310 Bruce by Acts of Parliament had the Crown of Scotland entailed upon him and his Heir-male and for want of Issue to his Brother Edward This Robert had Issue a Son named David and a Daughter married to Robert Stuart and by Act of Parliament settled the Crown upon his Son David and for want of Issue by him to Robert Stuart his Grand-child by his Daughter So here is the Succession of the Crown of Scotland twice differently settled by Parliament to the disinheriting of Edward Baliol. But in the Year 1332 Edward Baliol the right Heir was received and crowned King of Scotland After that David Bruce recovered the Kingdom of Scotland and afterwards was taken Prisoner by the Queen of England in the Absence of her Husband Edward the 3d in France and being released he died Ann. 1370. Robert Stuart Grand-son of Robert Bruce by his Daughter succeeded David who married Euphemia Daughter of the Earl of Ross but before he was King had Issue by Elizabeth Moor his Concubine two Sons John and Robert and by the Queen he had Issue Walter Earl of Athol and David Earl of Strathern yet by Act of Parliament the King disinherited his Legitimate Issue and settled the Crown upon his Issue by Elizabeth Moor from which Issue all the Kings of Scotland have since descended This was the most unaccountable Accident if we consider the Cause and Consequence I think that is recorded in any History That a King and Parliament by the Importunity of a Slut should disinherit his Legitimate Offspring from the Succession to the Crown of Scotland to advance her spurious Issue It 's true for some Reasons of State the right Heir is set aside as Edward Son of Ethelred after the Confessor being young and not a fit Match to oppose the Danes Edmund Ironside tho Illegitimate for his Strength and Courage was said to be chosen King as most likely to withstand the Danish Invasions so Edward the Confessor observing the heavy and slow Nature of Edgar the Grandson of Edmund Ironside not to be a fit
Match to oppose the turbulent aspiring Faction of Harold and his Family named William Duke of Normandy his Successor but none of these were Reasons for the Deposing the Earls of Athol and Strathern being for ought I find much better qualified to reign than either John or Robert the Issue of Elizabeth Moor for John was of a heavy and unactive Disposition not fit to govern which made the King his Father to constitute his younger Brother Robert Vice-Roy a Man of a violent and inveterate Disposition So that these three Dynasties viz. the Norman Bâ—itish and Scotish were all derived from spurious Originals and as Henry the 7th was descended from John of Gaunt who was never King by Catherine Swinford so is the Race of Scotland from Robert Stuart the first of that Name before he was King by Elizabeth Moor. But though the Parliament erected this Dynasty of the Kings of Scotland yet this did not cease their Power of altering the Succession of it in a right Line For James the 2d had two Sons James the 3d who succeeded him and Alexander Duke of Albany Alexander married two Wives the first was a Daughter of the Earl of Orkney by whom he had a Son named Alexander and after married a Daughter of the Earl of Bulloign by whom he had a Son named John yet in James the 5th his Reign John was by Parliament declared the second Person of the Kingdom and next Heir to James the Fifth notwithstanding the Claim and Protestation made by John's elder Brother against it And the Scots out of Parliament assumed a Power not only of altering the Succession of their Kings but of deposing them For in the Year 1567 they deposed Queen Mary the Daughter of K. James the 5th and set up King James the 6th after King James the 1st of England an Infant scarce 14 Months old in her stead and by this Title he reigned in Scotland twenty Years in his Mother's Life and to his dying Day owned this Title Yet this King and his Son and two Grandsons after him gloried in declaring their Titles to be by inherent Birth-right and that they were accountable only to God for all their Actions Here how truly let the Reader judg the Scene was laid upon which they played their designed Game which did not end so I do not account the Dynasty of the Kings of England in the Scotish Race since Queen Elizabeth to be new in the Succession of the Persons of the four last Kings I mean King James the 1st King Charles the 1st King Charles the 2d and King James the second yet I say it was new in the Exercise of it and such as none of the Saxon Danish or Norman Race since Henry the 3d or of the British Race ever pretended to claim But in regard it has put the Nation into such a Ferment for above 80 Years and which if God pleases not to put an end to may prove as fatal to these Nations as the Feuds between the Guelphs and Gibelines did for above 300 Years overwhelm Germany and Italy in most horrible Blood-shed and Devastation we are more particular in taking a View of the Original of it From the time of the King 's coming to London May the 7th to the 11th of January little more than eight Months Stow takes notice of twelve Proclamations and upon the 11th of January out comes another for calling a Parliament which though new for the manner yet more new for the Substance and such as never before was heard of in England And that we may the better take a view of the success of the Parliaments of England in this King's Reign from this we will stay a little and consider the Constitution of a Parliament and the principal Ends of its meeting The King is the Head Principle and End of the Parliament the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons which are made up of Knights of the Counties of England and Wales Citizens sent from Cities Burgesses sent from Corporations and Barons sent from the Cinque Ports which do not differ from Burgesses but only in Name are the Body the Temporal Nobility sit in Parliament in their personal Capacities but the Spiritual Nobility do not so but in right of their Bishopricks which they hold of the King by Barony and the Commons are said to be the Representative-Body of all the Commons in England not Noble by Birth or in their Politick Capacities as the Bishops are and in this Assembly resides the Supreme Authority of the Nation which as they make Laws for the publick Benefit for are they loose from them and are not obliged to them As the King is freed from the imputation of Tyranny in sanguinary Laws and of Oppression in taxing the Subjects for how can the Subjects complain of either when their Representatives in Parliament promote them So does a Parliament discharge the great Objection against Hereditary Monarchies that tho Princes see only with their own Eyes and hear with their own Ears as other Men do yet so as it is impossible without a true Representation of the State of their Subjects they can see or hear of the true State of them whereas Minions and Flatterers whose Interest is different from that of the Kingdom not only conceal the true State of the Nation but make false Representations of it to raise themselves tho out of the publick ruine but the Parliament is the Eye of the Nation which sees the Abuses which Flatterers by abusing the King's Name and making it subservient to their Interest impose upon it The great Ends of the Meetings of Parliament are first to redress the Grievances of the Nation if any be by representing them to the King Secondly to punish Men which are out of the reach of the ordinary Rules of Justice which either abuse the King's Name to attain their Ends or may prove dangerous to the Government Thirdly to make Laws against growing Evils and to repeal Laws which have been found inconvenient to the Nation And fourthly to supply the King upon extraordinary Occasions for Support of the Nation as Times and Accidents may happen Heretofore the Meetings of Parliament were so frequent that Sir John Thompson in his Preface to the Earl of Anglesey's Memoirs takes notice that from the first of Edward the 3d to the 14th of Henry the 4th which was but 85 Years there are 72 Original Writs for the Summons of Parliament so that if you allow forty Days from the Tests of the Writs to the Returns and but one Month for the Sittings of Parliament there will not be a Year's Interval between the Dissolution of one Parliament and the Summoning another and Mr. Johnson proves that they were annual and fixt to meet on the first or the Kalends of May which continued down to Edward the 1st how or whether discontinued by Edw. the 2d I cannot tell however there are two Laws yet in force for the annual Meeting of the King in Parliament
and shaken that the Legions which governed Britain were recalled by Ecius the Roman General under Honorius and Valentinian the 3d to make Head against Attila the poor Britains disarmed and only made use of to serve their imperious Masters and so utterly destitute of Martial Discipline easily became a Prey to the Picts and Scots not subject to the Romans who treated them more intolerably and tyrannically than the Romans had done For Redress whereof the Britains sought Succours from the English Saxons who came to their Relief in the Year 409 as Bede says lib. 1. cap. 15. of the Ecclesiastical History of the English Nation but these Saxons used the poor Britains worst of all and expelled the whole Race of them out of that part of the Island now called England Tho the Saxons had their Wills of the Britains they were before the Heptarchy at continual Variance among themselves and so after that it is almost as unaccountable to give a History of the Succession of their Kings as it was of the Britains before Julius Caesar Egbert about the Year 800 viz. 391 Years after the Saxon Invasion was called the first of the Saxon Monarchs tho the Kingdom of the Mercians was not united to his Monarchy who by Merit as well as Birth obtained the Dignity and succeeded Brithric Ethelwolph succeeded Egbert in the Kingdom of Westsax but not to those of Kent Sussex and Eastsax or Essex these being given by Egbert to Egbert's younger Son Ethelwolph by his Will divided his Kingdoms between his two eldest Sons Ethelbald and Ethelbert to Ethelbald he gave the Kingdom of the West Saxons to Ethelbert the Kingdom of Kent and the Eastern Southern and middle Angles But there were two other Sons Ethelred and Alfred Ethelbert after the Death of Ethelbald succeeded him in the Kingdom of the West Saxons and after the Death of Ethelbert Ethelred succeeded in the whole viz. of the West Saxons and of the Kingdoms of Kent the Eastern Southern and Middle Angles Alfred after the Death of Ethelred by universal Applause the famous the youngest Son of Ethelwolph succeeded Edward Son of Alfred was chosen by the Nobles on Whit-sunday in 901. Athelstan after the Death of Alfred tho a Bastard was elected by the Nobles of whom 't was said there was nothing ignoble in him But Athelstan dying without Issue his younger Brother Edmund succeeded him without any Opposition and tho he left two Sons Edwy and Edgar yet Edmund's younger Brother succeeded him Edwy after Edred's Death Edred's elder Brother 's elder Son succeeded but being a vicious Prince the Mercians and Northumbrians chose Edgar his younger Brother King in the Life of Edwy and Edgar after the Death of Edwy became King of the whole Nation Edward Son of Edgar after his Death was chosen by the Bishops and Nobles by the Command of his Father Edgar but he being murdered by his Step-mother Edward's younger Brother Ethelred succeeded And after his Death the Saxon Monarchy being rent in pieces by the Danes and Saxons Edmund Ironside Son of Etheldred by an obscure mean Woman tho he had two half-legitimate younger Brothers Edward and Alfred born of Etheldred's Wife was chosen King by one part of the Nobility and Canutus the Dane by another Thus the whole legitimate Race of the Saxon Kings were excluded one part chusing Ironside a Bastard the other Canutus a Stranger to the Saxon Royal Race Edmund Ironside being treacherously murdered by his Brother-in-law Edric Edmund leaving two Sons Edwy and Edward Canutus the Dane became sole Monarch of the Saxon Monarchy So that this was the beginning of the Danish Dynasty which lasted not long Harold Son of Canutus succeeded him and Hardicanute his Brother succeeded Harold neither the Issue of Etheldred Edward or Alfred nor Edwy or Edward the Sons of Edmund Ironside so much as taken notice of with this Hardicanute ended the Danish Rule with the Slaughter and Expulsion of the Danes Edward Son of Etheldred called the Confessor Uncle to Edwy and Edward Sons of Edmund Ironside after Hardicanute was advanced to the Royal Dignity principally by means of Earl Goodwin a powerful and imperious Lord upon the account of Edward's marrying the Earl's Daughter so little was the Hereditary Succession of the Saxon Kings regarded And that Edward's Reign might be more secure this Earl Goodwin caused the Eyes of Alfred the King's Brother to be put out and some say took away his Life Edward the Confessor growing old having no Issue and the Family of the wicked Earl Goodwin growing not only insolent but intolerable to him declared Edward the Son of Edmund Ironside his Cousin his Heir And to the end he might better succeed the King sent to the King of Hungary to return his Nephew Edward whom the King of Hungary had married to his Niece Agatha Daughter to Henry Emperor of Germany which the King of Hungary did and upon Edward's return the Confessor declared that he or his Sons should succeed in his Hereditary Kingdom of England But the Confessor did not long hold in this Mind for his Nephew Edward soon after dying and leaving a Son Edgar unfit for Government either as to his Body or Courage he decreed that his Kinsman William Duke of Normandy tho a Bastard should succeed him in the Kingdom of England which came to pass and so a new Race of Kings have succeeded in England of the Norman Race whose original Title was from a Grant of a King of the Saxon Race and so the beginning creates little Title to an Hereditary Succession in the Norman Race And now we 'll see how an Hereditary Succession was observed in it yet as in the Saxon so in the Norman Kings none succeeded who was not of the Royal Blood as all the Kings of Judah were of the Family or Tribe of Judah William Rufus the second Son of the Conqueror succeeded his elder Brother Robert then alive So did Henry the First his elder Brother Robert living Stephen the Son of the Conqueror's Sister succeeded Henry tho Henry left a Daughter Maud or Matilda Henry the Second succeeded Henry's Mother yet living so his Succession was not Hereditary for Haeres non est viventis Richard the First succeeded Henry the Second John succeeded Richard Arthur the Son of John's elder Brother then alive Henry the Third succeeded Arthur's Sister then alive who was Heir before him So that of seven Successions after the Conqueror but one Richard the First succeeded as Heir to his Father or the Conqueror Admit Edward the First succeeded as Heir to Henry the 3d and Edward the 2d as Heir to Edward the First yet Edward the 3d did not succeed as Heir to Edward the 2d he being then alive Admit Richard the 2d was Heir to Edward the Black Prince eldest Son to Edward the 3d yet neither Henry the 4th 5th or 6th were Heirs from Edward the 3d but the Descendants of Phillippa the Daughter of Lionel Duke of Clarence John of
ordered it that before the King should come at it he should pass through a Room wherein he had placed four Tables and upon each Table lay 5000 l. in Silver when the King came into the Passage he started and was amazed at the sight having never before seen such a Sum he asked the Treasurer the meaning of it who told the King It was the Boon he had given Sir Robert Carr Swounds Man the Oath he usually swore but five thousand should serve his turn and so for that time the Treasurer saved the King the other fifteen thousand Pounds To support these Favourites and other of the King's Country-men of less Note was all the King's Care notwithstanding his Foreign Affairs or his Proclamation at his first coming to London against Monopolies or his Speech at the opening of the Parliament But since Money cannot be had by Parliament other means must be found out There were many ways used for raising Monies during this Interval of Parliament First Monopolies which swarmed more than in any King's Reign before Secondly Payments for new invented Knighthoods never before heard of in England in Times of Peace called Baronets the Prince was 1000 l. and the King to quicken the Market promised to make but 200 of them tho when this Market was done he kept it up all his Life-time after Thirdly Tho the Baronets paid for their Honours yet the King issued our Commissions for reviving the old Obsolete Laws for making Men which could expend 40 l. per Annum to compound for not being Knighted Fourthly Payments for being made Knights of Nova Scotia Fifthly The purchasing of English Honours at certain set Prices a Baron at 10000 l. a Viscount at 15000 l. an Earl at 20000 l. Sixthly Payments for Scotish and Irish Honours I do not find set Prices of these Scotish Honours of the same Title to have the Precedence of an Irish as a Scotish Baron Viscount or Earl to have the Precedence of an Irish and tho an English Honour of like Degree had the Precedence of either of the other yet if either of the other had a higher Title he should precede an English Peer under a less as a Scotish or Irish Viscount shall precede an English Baron so such an Earl shall precede an English Viscount Seventhly Compositions upon defective Titles Eighthly Compositions for Assart Lands Ninthly Monies for making Prince Henry Knight Tenthly Monies to marry the Lady Elizabeth to the Palsgrave Eleventhly A Benevolence Twelfthly Monies borrowed upon Privy-Seals and never repaid besides Sales of Lands Woods and Fee-farm Rents c. During this Interval of Parliament was perpetrated a most horrible Murder upon the Person of Sir Thomas Overbury which is the more remarkable if it be considered how far tho the King detested the Fact Favourites had the Ascendant over the King and how the King influenced the Causes of this Murder and that the Story may more intirely consist it will be necessary to borrow a little of common Fame Sir Robert Carr was made Viscount Rochester the 25th of March 1610 and upon the 22d of April following was made one of the King's Privy-Council and having the Ascendant above all other Favourites over the King he chose a Council of some Persons how to advance himself in this great Power Of these Sir Thomas Overbury a Gentleman of brisk and lively Parts was the chief who had as much an Ascendant over the Lord Rochester as he had over the King and as Rochester was a Favourite so was Thomas Earl of Suffolk who had a Daughter named Frances married to Robert Earl of Essex Son of Robert cut off in the last Year of Queen Elizabeth who after was General of the Army raised by the Parliament in the late Civil Wars Tho of disagreeing Humours the Earl and Countess were of agreeable Years when they were married both about the Age of twelve Years and now had lived above ten Years without any Carnal Knowledg of one with the other as both confessed when the Countess sued for a Divorce whereto the Countess was intolerably bent and if publick Fame may be credited and which is attested by a Writer of the first 14 Years of King James his Life chap. 7. she entred into a Conspiracy with one Ann Turner to have poisoned the Earl But how cold soever the Countess was in her Affections to the Earl they were not less on fire to my Lord of Rochester and that these Flames might soar in an equal height the Countess by the help of Mrs. Turner procures one Doctor Foreman as he was called to bewitch Rochester into equal Desires of mutual Love with the Countess and now Familiarity between the Countess and Rochester becomes publickly scandalous However the Earl continued his Love to the Countess but withal acquainted her with the Dishonour she brought upon him and more upon her self by her loose Life which was now become so publickly taken notice of this was so far from reclaiming the Countess that it stung her to the quick and instead of Reformation she by Letters to Mrs. Turner who the Countess says is all her hopes of Good in this World and by her to Dr. Foreman whom she calls sweet Father and subscribes her self his Affectionate Daughter Frances Essex endeavours to procure the Doctor to bewitch the Earl to Frigidity towards her Sir Francis Bacon in his Charge against my Lord Rochester after Earl of Somerset at his Trial for the Murder of Sir Thomas Overbury gives Sir Thomas hard words as That there was little in him that was solid for Religion or Moral Vertue but was wholly possest with Ambition and vain Glory and was loth to have any Partners in my Lord of Rochester's Favour and that to flatter my Lord in his unlawful Love with the Countess of Essex Sir Thomas had made his Brags that he had won Rochester the Love of the Countess by his Letters and Industry But these stoln Pleasures could not satisfy the Countess's Desires and that she might enjoy them to be compleat she endeavours since the Design of poisoning the Earl did not succeed to make way to her Desires of marrying Rochester by suing out a Divorce against the said Earl which she acquaints Rochester with and Rochester and the Countess acquaint the Earl of Northampton who before was privy and consenting to the Familiarity between them and was easily induced to join in procuring a Divorce Tho this was agreed between them yet the Viscount would not proceed further till he had consulted Sir Thomas Overbury protesting he the Viscount would do nothing without his Advice Sir Thomas told him The marrying the Countess would not be only hurtful to his Preferment but helpful to subvert and overthrow him and who would being possest of so great Possibilities as he was so great Honours and large Revenues and daily in expectation of others cast all away upon a Woman noted for her Injury and Immodesty and pull upon himself the Hatred and Contempt
he was over parsimonious ill becoming so great a Prince He laid the Foundation of an unhappy Reign before he became King not only in his Dissimulation in the Treaty of Marriage with the King and Infanta of Spain to the Displeasure of his Father but much more in the French Treaty not only in submitting to grant a Toleration of the Popish Religion and that his Children should be brought up under their Mother till they were twelve Years old but by engaging to assist the French King with a Fleet against the Reformed in France which he did tho the French broke their Faith in denying Mansfield to land the Army at Calais raised for the Recovery of the Palatinate Unlike his Predecesâ—or Henry the Fifth who so soon as he became King banished all his Flatterers and loose Companions and betaking himself to grave and wise Counsel he became the most Renowned and Victorious of all our English Kings Charles became more wilful and gave himself to be more governed by Favourites after he became King than before So that the insite Piety and Affection which is due to Parents and usually exprest in some mournful Demeanour upon their Death took no Impression in him after his Father's Death but contrary Passions against his Father's Counsel and Will prevailed upon him For next day after his Father's Death only the King and Buckingham present the Keeper Williams coming to wait upon him the King asked him whether the Parliament were dissolved upon his Father's Death Which when the Keeper told him it was the King commanded him to issue out new Summons for calling another and not to stay a day for Subsidies must be had for carrying on a War against Spain and when the Keeper advised him to consider a little hereof and that before Writs were issued out Interest should be made about Elections the King in Displeasure turn'd from him Which you may read in the second Book and second Folio of the Keeper's Life And these two things were observable in this Prince That when any advised him against his Will he would never ask it after or be Friends with him and that in all his Reign as well in Prosperity as in Adversity he would never own any one of his Irregularities to be so but justified them all to his Death As Henry was the most self-denying of all his glorious Actions ascribing them only to God so Charles upon all occasions in all his irregular Actions gloried he was accountable to none but God for them After he was married he became the most uxorious Husband of all our English Kings except Henry the Sixth and being intangled by the Articles of Marriage which the Queen fostered and the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation contrary to them which his Parliaments stedfastly asserted he became both ways uneasy and to reconcile them was impossible But to me it seems how uxorious soever the King was yet during Buckingham's Regency for so it may be truly called he had an Ascendency over the Queen as appears by the French War in the second Year of the King notwithstanding all the Power of the Queen against it He was unaffable in his Conversation and Approaches to him very difficult and those with such strained Submissions as were never required by any of his Predecessors As his Actions were without Counsel sudden and inconsiderate so were his Resolutions as variable and uncertain so that oftentimes he would change them the same day And as his Actions were without Counsel so were his Designs without Secrecy which blasted them as well at Home as Abroad He was so superstitiously addicted to the Arminian Clergy which flatter'd him that I do not find except Juxton Bishop of London that he preferr'd any others in the Church till he fell into Adversity In his adverse Fortune he would betake himself to contrary Extreams yet be as inconstant in them as in his Actions in Prosperity He was only constant in his Affections to the Queen after he had given up his Favourites in his prosperous Fortune to the Parliament and her Counsels fixed stedfast in him tho in his Declarations to the Kingdom and Parliament he profess'd otherwise and herein he was as unhappy as he was before in his Designs in his Prosperity for they whether by Fate or his own Imprudence became known to his Enemies who blaz'd them abroad not only to the Nation but all the World so that the sincerity of his Promises and Declarations became suspected as well by his Friends as Enemies and all Accommodation with them more difficult whereby it came to pass that his Armies being subdued by them and thereby falling into the Hands of his Enemies he became a Sacrifice to them in the 49th Year of his Age having reigned 23 Years ten Months and three Days leaving six Children three Sons Charles Prince of Wales James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester whereof the two elder were Exiles and three Daughters Mary Princess of Orange and Elizabeth a Virgin who not long survived him and Henrietta Maria born at Exeter So that as King John and his Son Henry the Third lost all Normandy and the greatest part of Aquitain to the French by endeavouring a more than Legal Jurisdiction over their Subjects whereby they lost their Love and Obedience so these two Princes Father and Son by raising and Arbitrary Power over their Subjects not only lost their Honour Abroad but with their own Subjects and for want of whose Assistance this King lost his Life and suffered the French to grow so great as to endanger the Safety of their own Subjects in the Realms of England Scotland and Ireland I 'll conclude this Story with one which a learned Gentleman who liv'd in those Times affirmed When the Duke of Buckingham was stabb'd by Felton 1628 the Earl of Portland was then newly made Lord Treasurer and the King to manifest his Affection to the Duke order'd the Treasurer to issue out of the Exchequer 30000 l. I think for a solemn Funeral for the Duke but the Treasurer unwilling the King should be at so hateful an Expence at a time when the King was at War with France and Spain told the King that the Sum laid out in erecting a stately Tomb for the Duke would be a more lasting Monument of his Favour to the Duke than a Funeral-Expence which would be but the Work of a Day and soon forgot The King assented and several Patterns were brought and what the King lik'd the Treasurer dislik'd till at last the King pitch'd upon one which he said he would have but then the Treasurer said Sir what will the World say that you should be at such an Expence for a Favourite when your Father has not a Stone to cover him which struck the King so as he proceeded no farther in it I remember I think it was in 1669. that the Commons voted 50000 l. for the Charge of taking up this King's Body and the solemn Funeral
Forfeitures by Papists would be insignificant viz. remitted this intended Act did ordain that such Fines and Forfeitures one half should be to the Informers the other to charitable Uses But this Act being so contrary to the Duke's Design the Committee of Religion was discharged from meeting again and another short Act was brought into Parliament ratifying all former Acts for securing the Protestant Religion so that in this first Act the Duke pursued not his Instructions but went contrary to them and to the Custom of Scotland At the passing this Act the Earl of Argyle proposed that all Acts against Popery might be added which was opposed by the King's Advocate and some of the Clergy yet seconded by Sir George Lockhart and the President of the Sessions it passed without a Vote but such was the Jealousy of the Parliament that this did not secure the established Religion that several of the Members desired other Additions and Acts which the Duke in open Parliament promised when Time and Opportunity offered should pass but when at any time this was proposed the Test was obtruded If the Parliament were so zealous to secure the established Religion the Duke was not less to secure the Succession of the Crown of Scotland shrewdly struck at in England in the very Person of the Duke and to that end a Bill was brought in and passed wherein it was declared High Treason to affirm that the Succession of the Crown of Scotland can be altered from the next of Proximity of Blood but how agreeable this was to the Title of the Bruces and Stuarts who had no Title to the Succession of the Crown of Scotland but by Act of Parliament has already been shewed and how disagreeable this Act was to the Duke's Grandfather's Succession to the Crown of Scotland without any Act of Parliament let any Man judg This Act was not only thus contrary to the Laws and Usages of Scotland but the Act is equivocal if not contradictory to the Duke's Design for there is a difference between the next Heir and the next in Proximity of Blood as if a Man had several Sons and the eldest has a Son or Daughter his Father living and after his Father dies his eldest Son's Son is Heir and his other Sons and Daughters are next in Proximity of Blood the Heir being a degree in Blood further removed from the common Ancestor than his Uncles or Aunts and this was the case of Richard II. of England Son of the Black Prince Edward the Third's Eldest Son who succeeded to the Crown of England though his Uncles the Dukes of Clarence Lancaster York and Cambridg were nearer of Blood to Edward the Third This Act for the Succession of the Crown of Scotland was succeeded by another called the Test as contradictory to it self as contrary to the Act of Succession to be taken by all Persons in publick Trust in Scotland wherein they solemnly Swear in the Presence of the Eternal God whom they invoke as Judg and Witness of their sincere Intention of this their Oath That they own and profess the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith recorded in the first Parliament of King James the Sixth and believe the same to be founded on and agreeable to the Written Word of God That they will adhere thereto and endeavour to educate their Children therein and never consent to any Change or Alteration contrary thereto and renounce all Popish and Fanatical Doctrines inconsistent with the said Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith And by this their solemn Oath they Swear That King Charles the Second is the only Supream Governour of this Realm over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and renounce all Foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope or any other Person and promise to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the King his Heirs and Lawful Successors and to their Power to defend all their Rights and Prerogatives And by this their solemn Oath they Swear They judg it unlawful for Subjects upon pretence of Reformation or any Pretence whatsoever to enter into any Covenants or Leagues or to convene c. in any Council to treat of any Matter of State Ecclesiastical or Civil without his Majesty's special Command or express Licence or to take up Arms against the King or those commissionated by him That they will never rise in Arms or enter into such Covenants or Assemblies That there lies no Obligation upon them by the National Covenant or the solemn League or Covenant or any other way to endeavour any Change or Alteration of the Government either of Church or State as by Law established and promise and swear to the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Jurisdiction against all deadly and as they shall answer it before God and that they took this Oath in the true and genuine Sense and Meaning of the Words without any Equivocation Mental Reservation or Evasion and never to accept of any Dispensation from any Creature So God help them By these two Acts you may observe the Scotish Temper whether it were natural or in contradiction to the Kirk-Party I will not say nor how much higher it flew than the Tory in England but because of the extraordinariness of these two Acts it 's fit to make some Reflections upon them Such another Law as that of the Succession was made the twenty first of Richard the Second in the Case of Roger Mortimer which lasted not longer than the next Year after when the Law was not only repealed but Henry the Fourth succeeded contrary to it whereas this Law continued for above eight Years after when it not only lost its Force but another Face appeared in Scotland and so continues in spight of this Law Now from this treasonable Law let us make some Remarks upon this ranting swearing Law called the Test We have said elsewhere that all Oaths are assertory of the Truth of Things Speech and Actions in time past or promissory to do or forbear to do some Act in time to come and now let 's consider what is Truth and the End of an assertory Oath Truth is proper to intellectual and reasonable Creatures and is either the apprehension of intelligible Beings as God a Law the Soul Time c. which can never be the Objects of Sense and of the Causes and Consequences of Intentions Speech and Action for Sense is not of Futurity but of present Things and Actions the Consequence or Inference will be whether good or bad just or unjust c. However all intelligible Beings and the Causes of Things and Actions are ever assumed not sworn to and if another does not nor will assent to them swearing to the Truth of them will be to no purpose So it is of the Consequence of Speech and Actions if another be not convinced from the Reason of such Consequence or Inference swearing it to be so will never do it But though sensible Things Speech and Actions
as the Marriage of his Daughter with the Elector Palatine was the cause of his calling the last Parliament so the Consequence of this Marriage put him upon the necessity of calling another But because Mr. Rushworth Franklin and all other our Writers at home have either mistaken the Cause or taken it too short we will look into it from abroad Before Ferdinand the first of that Name Emperor of Germany and younger Brother of Charles the 5th the Kingdom of Bohemia was elective and tho they often chose the German Emperors their Kings after the Turks became great in Europe as Charles the 4th Wenceslaus his Son Sigismund and Albert the first of the Family of the House of Austria yet in the Year 1440 they chose Vladislaus King of Hungary who was a Polander to be their King who being slain at the great Battel of Varna against Amurath the 2d 1444 they chose his Son Vladislaus an Infant King of Hungary whose Guardian in his Minority was John Huniades the famous Champion against the Turks After Vladislaus who died without Issue the Bohemians in 1456 chose George Bogebracius After him in 1470 they chose Vladislaus the Son of Casimir King of Poland who had Issue a Son named Lewis and a Daughter named Ann married to Ferdinand Brother of Charles the 5th Emperor of Germany this Vladislaus was likewise chosen King of Hungary and died in the Year 1516. his Son Lewis being then an Infant was chosen King of Bohemia and Hungary and ten Years after viz. 1526 Lewis was overthrown and slain by Solyman the Great Turk at the Fight at Mohatz With Lewis fell the Glory and Majesty of Hungary the Paradise of the World of a sweet and temperate Climate a most healthful Air the Soil exceeding fruitful yet reserving Mines of Gold and Silver in its Bowels abounding with Cattel of a larger size than elsewhere which it supplied Germany Italy and Turkey with watered with the noblest Rivers of Europe the Danube the Drave Save Tibiscus c. as fruitful with Fish as the Land was with Cattel excelling the Countries in manifold and fair built Cities and Towns Hungary at the Death of Lewis from the time when Matthias the Son of the famous Huniades began to reign over them for 70 Years enjoyed perfect Peace within and abroad had the Reputation of the most Warlike Nation and of all other the best Frontier to stop the further Rage of the Turkish Arms in Europe But in this long Peace the People especially the Clergy became excessive rich accompanied with intolerable Pride and all other Vices which accompany Luxury and Ease In this high Conceit of themselves the Clergy especially Tomerius put the King with an Army of 25000 Men only to fight with Solyman with 300000 Turks twelve to one wherein not only the King but also Tomerius and the Flower of all the Nobility of Hungary fell here the Fate of Hungary began but did not end here For Ferdinand having married Lewis his Sister and assisted by his Brother Charles set up for himself to be King of Hungary in right of his Wife which the major part of the Nobility not slain in the Battel of Mohatz refuse to submit to and chose John Sepuce Vaivod of Transilvania to be their King and John being too weak to oppose Ferdinand flies to Solyman for his Assistance so that Hungary which before was the Barrier against the Progress of the Turkish Power in Europe now opens her Gates to let it in however the Turk being engaged in Wars against the Persians Ferdinand prevailed against both and John and Ferdinand came to this Agreement That John should enjoy that part of Hungary whereof he was possest during Life and Ferdinand the whole after his Death Soon after John died leaving the Queen with Child which proved a Son and the Nobility which before chose the Father King now chuse the Son and joining with the Queen call in Solyman for their Assistance who by this Call enters Buda the Regal City of Hungary and turns the Queen and her Son out giving him only the Title of Vaivod of Transilvania Now was Hungary become the Theatre for above 150 Years of all those Calamities which both Civil and Foreign Wars bring upon a Country so that of the most fruitful and best inhabited Kingdom in Europe it became the most desolate and uninhabited the Inhabitants being made use of only to be Slaves either to imperious Souldiers or lazy and idle Clergy-men If Hungary were the Paradise of the World Bohemia was not less of Germany and as an Island is encompassed with Waters so is Bohemia environed with Mountains which like a Garden with Walls encompassed a most rich pleasant and healthful Kingdom and to this Kingdom as well as that of Hungary does Ferdinand lay Claim in right of his Wife and being assisted by his Brother Charles and further from the Assistance of the Turks he forced the Bohemians to submit to his Empire but this was not only during his and his Wife's Life and her Heirs but to his Heirs Male tho he claimed in right of his Wife And herein you must observe That the Bohemians at this time as well as their Ancestors before were Enemies to the Popish Tyranny and Heresies so that Zisca the famous Captain of the Hussites about one hundred Years before in many Battels in Opposition to the Popish Tyranny overthrew the Emperor Sigismond and Ferdinand was a zealous Maintainer of the Popish Supremacy and Usurpations in Religion as well as Tyranny Ferdinand had Issue two Sons Maximilian who succeeded him in the Empire as well as in the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary and Charles the first Arch-Duke of Austria Maximilian had Issue Maximilian Rodolph Matthias and Albert Governour and Prince of the Spanish Netherlands with whom King James in the second Year of his Reign made the League before spoken of Rodolph in 1576 succeeded Maximilian in the Kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary as well as in the Empire This Rodolph Helvicus says was a Prince most worthy of all Praise the Refuge of good Learning Ensign of Peace and Clemency and in the Year 1609 granted Liberty of Conscience to the Bohemians and Austrians Rodolph's Brother succeeded him in the Kingdom of Bohemia and the Empire in 1614 but Matthias having no Issue and the Issue Male of Maximilian ending in him a Question might arise about the Succession to the Crowns of Hungary and Bohemia for admitting the Succession were hereditary then by the Laws of Inheritance these Crowns would devolve upon the King of Spain Philip the Third whose Mother Anna was Daughter to Maximilian the Second and therefore to be preferred before Ferdinand Arch-Duke of Austria descended from Maximilian's younger Brother To prevent this the Popish Party jealous of the Consequences prevail upon or rather forced the Emperor Matthias to surrender his Title to the Kingdom of Bohemia to his Cousin Ferdinand a zealous Assertor of the Supremacy of the Church of
Treasurers to receive the Money and a Council of War to disburse the same But the Commons having granted these Subsidies drew up a Petition against the Licence the Popish Party had taken during the Treaty with Spain He was so nettled at it that he called it a Stinging One and hearing the Commons were entring upon Grievances he could not endure it and upon the 29th of May adjourned the Parliament to the 2d of November 1624 and from thence to the 7th of April lest the King should hear of another stinging Petition or a Disturbance in the French Treaty but at this Adjournment he told them at their next Meeting they might handle Grievances so as they did not hunt after them nor present any but those of Importance yet I do not find the Parliament ever met again at least never did any thing However the King passed a General Pardon and the Parliament censured Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer for Corruption in his Office 50000 l. to the King and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's Pleasure which was but three days after the Adjournment of the Parliament for upon the first of June he was set free Whilst these things were doing in Parliament the Earl of Bristol was recalled from his Embassy but before his Arrival the Duke dealt by all means that the Earl might be committed to the Tower before he should be admitted to the King's Presence But fearing the Marquiss Hamilton and my Lord Chamberlain would oppose him herein the Duke pressed them that they would concur in it vowing as Somerset did to Sir Thomas Overbury he intended the Earl no hurt but only feared that if he should be admitted to the King's Presence he would cross and disturb the Course of Affairs but neither of these Lords would condescend thereunto This was attested by my Lord Chamberlain before the House of Lords This Deâ—â—gn of the Duke's failing the Duke to terrify the Earl from returning into England writ to him that if he kept not himself where he was in Spain and laid hold of the great Offers which he heard were made unto him the Earl it should be the worse for him At Bourdeaux the Earl heard of the Aspersions cast upon him by the Duke in Parliament of which the Earl did boldly afterward in the House of Lords in the second Parliament of Car. 1. and in the Presence of the Duke affirm That there was scarce any one thing concerning him in the Declaration which was not contrary to or different from Truth From Bourdeaux the Earl took Post to get into England to vindicate himself from the Asperâ—ons which the Duke had cast upon him in Parliament but when he came to Calais tho he sent over to have one of the King's Ships allowed him and for which publick Orders were given and tho the King James had Ships which lay at Boloign which might have every day been with him in three Hours and the Wind fair yet none came tho the Earl waited for one eight Days so that he was forced to pass the Sea to Dover in a Boat and six Oars When the Earl was landed at Dover he was by a Letter from my Lord Conway a Creature of the Duke's commanded in the King's Name to retire to his House and not to come to Court or the King's Presence until he had answered to certain Questions which his Majesty would appoint some of the Council to ask him but this was not out of any ill meaning to him but for fear the Parliament should fall too violently upon him and this the Duke said to some of his Friends was the Reason of the Earl's Restraint Hereupon the Earl humbly petitioned the King he might be exposed to Parliament and that if he had not served the King honestly in all things he deserved no Favour but to be proceeded against with all Severity but received Answer from the King That there should be but few days past before he would put an end to his Affairs but the Parliament was adjourned before the few days passed nor did he ever put an end to them You may read the further Contrivances against him by the Duke in Rushw from fol. 259 to 265. After the Adjournment of the Parliament or if you will the Dissolution of it tho the Earl of Bristol could not obtain Admission into the King's Presence yet he obtained Leave to answer to all the Duke had in his Absence charged upon him in Parliament and withal wrote to the Duke that if he or any Man living was able to make Reply he would submit himself to any thing which should be demanded which tho the Duke presumptuously said That it is not an Assertion to be granted that the Earl of Bristol by his Answer had satisfied the King the Prince or himself of his Innocence yet it so satisfied the King that when the Duke after pressed the King that the Earl might submit and acknowledg his Fault the King answered I were to be accounted a Tyrant to engage an innocent Man to confess Faults of which he was not guilty Tho the Earl said he could prove this upon Oath yet the Duke wrote to him that the Conclusion of all that had been treated with his Majesty was that he the Earl should make the Acknowledgment as was set down in that Paper tho at that time the King sent him word that he would hear him against the Duke as well as he had heard the Duke concerning him and soon after the King died which Promise of the King 's the Earl prayed God did the King no hurt however the Earl obtained Leave of the King to come to London to follow his private Affairs Mr. Rushworth therefore errs a little in point of time where he says fol. 149. the Earl was committed to the Tower in King James his time for he was not committed till the 15th of January 1625. in the first Year of King Charles as you may see in Stow's Life of King Charles fol. 1042. We have now done with the Spanish Match at least during this King's Reign yet the King's Desires of seeing his Son married which he shall never see were as impatient as those of getting the Infanta's huge Portion and to that end before the Meeting of the Parliament and while the Treaty with the Infanta was yet breathing the King sent my Lord Kensington after Earl of Holland to feel the Pulse of the French Court how it beat towards an Alliance between the Prince and Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter of Henry IV. of France A serene Heaven appeared in France upon the Motion not a Cloud to be seen in all the French Horizon Lewis the King telling my Lord Kensington he took it for an Honour that he sought his Sister for the sole Son of so Illustrious a King his Neighbour and Ally only he desired he might send to Rome to have the Pope's Consent for the better Satisfaction of his Conscience And now you
them with Men of War to guard their Fisheries and to do it whether he would or not A Prince that by his dissolute Life and prophane Conversation debauched and effeminated the Genius of the English Nation whereby it became more scandalized for Swearing and Drinking than in any Age before A Prince that broke all the Measures by which Hen. 8. and Queen Elizabeth were the Arbitrators of Christendom A Prince fearful of all his Enemies abroad while he was only great by exercising a Tyrannical Arbitrary Power over his Parliaments and Subjects who could only have made him great abroad and honoured at home whereby he became little beloved at home and suffered the Dutch to redeem their Cautionary Towns upon their own Terms and to dispossess the English at Amboyna and their other Factories in the East-Indies and Africa He only stood still looking on while the French upon the Matter supprest the Reformed in France and suffered Ferdinand the 2d to over-run and near subdue the Protestant Princes in Germany as well as his own Son-in-law And tho he were the 6th of that Name King of Scotland from John alias Robert Stuart the Son of Robert Stuart by his Paramour Elizabeth Moor yet if Sir James Melvil says true that Cardinal Bethoun poisoned James the 5th he was the first of that Name who died a natural Death if he did so for James the first was murdered by his Uncle the Earl of Athol his Grand-father's legitimate Son in his Queen's Arms with eight and twenty Wounds the Queen receiving two to defend him This was in the Year 1436. James the II. was killed by the breaking of a Piece of Cannon while he besieged the Castle of Roxburgh the 3d of Aug. 1460. James the III. having his Army routed by an Army headed by his Son James was killed at Bannoch-Burn by the Lord Gray and Robert Sterling of Ker after Sir Andrew Brothick a Priest had shriven him This was in 1488. James the IV. was killed the 9th of December 1514 at Flowdenfield by the English commanded by the Earl of Surrey and his Body never found and if James the 5th was poisoned then none of these Jameses died a natural Death neither did King James his Mother being put to death Ann. 1587 for conspiring the Death of Queen Elizabeth After the Dissolution of the Spanish Match the King as greedily prosecuted the French and tho he lived not to see it settled yet he saw the Army raised under Count Mansfield for the Recovery of the Palatinate ruined by trusting to the French Faith in this very Treaty When he died he not only left an empty Exchequer but a vast Debt upon the Crown yet was engaged in a foreingn War and the Monies given by the Parliament for carrying it on were squandred away in carrying on the French Treaty and the Nation imbroiled in intestine Feuds and Disorders At his Death he left a Son and Heir and one Daughter Before he died he saw his Son over-ruled by his Favourite against his determinate Will and Pleasure and the Prince's own Honour and Interest which was a great Mortification to him and which he often complained of but had not Courage to redress and so strongly was 〈◊〉 Favourite possessed of his Power over his Son in the King's Life that the Prince little regarded his Father's Precepts or the Counsels of any else after his Death whereby he encreased the Internal Feuds Jealousies and Discords of the Nation which ended in a sad Catastrophe both of the Favourite and the King At the King's Death his Daughter with her Husband and her many Children were driven into Exile and Poverty in the Dominion of the Dutch States where they were more relieved by the States the Prince of Orange and some Bishops and Noblemen of England than by either of the Kings Father or Son A DETECTION OF THE Court and State of England During the Reign of King CHARLES I. c. BOOK II. CHAP. I. This Reign detected to the Dissolution of the Parliament Tertio Car. 'T WAS a strange Reign this As this King's Father's Reign was introduced with a horrible Plague so was this King's with a greater and such as no Records of any Times before mention the like The first 15 Years of his Reign were perfectly French and such as never before were seen or heard of in the English Nation this brought on a miserable War in all the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and Destruction upon the King whenas it was not in the Power of those which first raised the War against him to save his Life which they would have done Baptista Nani in the sixth Book of the History of Venice An. 1625 f. 221 observes That after the Marriage of King Charles with the Daughter of France the Interest of State or rather the Passion of Favourites converted the Bonds of Affection into Causes of Hatred Europe in those times reckoned it amidst its unhappy Destiny that the Government of it fell upon three young Kings yet in the Flower of their Age Princes of great Power desirous of Glory and in Interest contrary but in this alone by Genius agreeing that they committed the Burden of Affairs to the Will of their Ministers for with equal Independency France was governed by Richlieu Spain by Olivares and Great-Britain by Buckingham confounding Affections with Interest as well publick as private Betwixt the Cardinal and Buckingham open Animosities discovered themselves for Causes so much more unadvised as they were more hard to be known When King James died the Nation was rent into four Parties viz. The Prerogative which exalted the King's divided Will from the Laws and Constitutions above his Royal and Legal Will The Country or Legal Party which stood for the Legal Establishment of Church and State and the Puritan and Popish Parties After the Treaties of Marriage between the Prince and the Daughters of Spain and France the Popish and Prerogative Parties joined for carrying on the Court-Designs and were opposed by the Country and Puritan Parties and as the Prerogative and Popish Factions grew more insolent so the Puritan Party gathered Strength and Reputation among the Vulgar or ordinary People insomuch that in Number they became more than all the other three We shall take a better View of this Reign if we look a little back into the former After the Treaty of the Match with Spain was broken off King James was perplext what to do he had neither Money nor Courage to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate and the Wounds which he had given the last Parliament by Imprisoning their Members for advising him to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate were yet fresh and bleeding and yet Buckingham whom he durst not offend not content to satisfy his Spite against Olivares by breaking off the Match was notwithstanding all Difficulties nay Impossibility of Success still pushing on the King to declare War against the King of Spain The King
Son is our Enemy Widdrington But the late King's third Son the Duke of Glocester is still among us and too young to have been in Arms against us or infected with the Principles of our Enemies Whitlock There may be a day given for the King 's eldest Son or for the Duke of York his Brother to come in to the Parliament and upon such Terms as shall be thought fit and agreeable both to our Civil and Spiritual Liberties and a Settlement may be made upon them Cromwel This will be a Business of more than ordinary Difficulty but really a Word much used by him I think if it may be done with Safety and Preservation of our Rights both as Englishmen and as Christians that a Settlement of somewhat of Monarchical Power would be very effectual So that the Soldiers were for a Republick except Fleetwood who knew not what to say the Lawyers for a mix'd Monarchy and many for the Duke of Glocester to be King but then Cromwel designing for himself still put off the Debate to some other Point so the Company part without any Result at all yet Cromwel discovered by this Meeting the Inclinations of the Persons which spake for which he fished and made use of what he thus discerned But this Point was too tender to be further pressed at this time and so we leave it till Cromwel shall give a further Occasion In October this Year Haines reduced Jersey to the Rump and in January the Isle of Barbadoes was surrender'd to Askew sent thither by the Rump and in this Month an English Man of War meeting with some Dutch Fishermen demanded the tenth Herring as a Duty for their Fishing in these Seas which the Dutch denying the English sunk one of their Ships and all the Men were lost see Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 487. b. and here began the first Quarrel between the Rump and Dutch The Rump thus every where Victorious at home yet it may be fearing they had disgusted all Christian Princes by the Death of the King and already the Czar of Muscovy had revoked all the Privileges of Trade which had been granted to the English in the Reigns of Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth and continued in the Reigns of King James and King Charles and banished the English out of his Dominions for putting the King to Death upon the 11th of March sent the Chief Justice St. John and Mr. Strickland to treat of a Coalition with the Dutch whose Title and Government were the same or not unlike to the Rump's and if this could be obtained both Republicks being incomparably superiour to all the Kings in the World by Sea they need not fear any Enemies abroad But the Dutch fearing this Coalition with England where the Harbours for Shipping are more and much better than those in Holland would rob them of the Trades they were possessed of and that their rich Merchants in case of a Coalition would be tempted to lay out their Monies upon real Securities in England rather than to venture them in the contingent Accidents of Trade not only refused to enter into a Coalition but rudely treated St. John whose haughty Spirit ill brooking such Affronts made a Report of his Embassy little to the Dutch Advantage Hereupon the Rump made the Act of Navigation designing thereby to have in a great measure lessened the Dutch Trade and encreased the English tho both succeeded quite contrary as hereafter we shall make it appear Yet the English by virtue of this Law took Occasion to search the Dutch Vessels and often to make Prize of them whereupon the Dutch sent over four Ambassadors Catz Van de Peere Sharp and Newport to pacify the Rump which they were so far from effecting that the Rump upon their first Audience upon the 15th of April demand the Arrears for the Dutch Fishing upon the Coasts of England and Scotland that the Survivors of the Dutch assisting in the Massacre of the English at Amboyna should be given up to Justice and a free Trade up the Scheld The Dutch Ambassadors were surprized at these Demands having no Instructions thereupon or if they had could not have given any reasonable Answer against them Yet still they continued to make great Protestations of their Love and Affection to the Commonwealth of England and their most ardent Desire of propagating and encreasing the true Reformed Religion yet privately gave the State an Account how little was to be expected from the Rump by a Treaty Hereupon the Dutch prepare for a War nor was the Rump herein behind hand with them The Dutch in May set out a Fleet of Men of War commanded by Van Trump pretending for the Security of Trade but with Instructions not to strike Sail to the English Flag and upon the 17th of May came into Dover Road with 45 Sail of Men of War where Trump rode at Anchor as if he defied what the English could do to him Blake the English Admiral had but 15 Men of War yet resolved to have an Account of Trump what he had to do in Dover Road and sailed directly to him hereupon Trump stood to the East-ward and by that means being become Head-most of the English Fleet bore directly upon them and being come within Musquet-shot of the English Blake gave Order to fire at Trump's Flag which was done thrice but instead of striking it Trump poured in a Broad-side upon Blake and Major Bourn at this time coming to Blake's Assistance with 8 Men of War both Fleets engaged from four in the Afternoon till Night wherein there were not less than 2000 Shot exchanged upon one and the other side and the Dutch had one Man of War taken and another sunk and 150 Men slain but the English had not one Ship lost or disabled and very few Men killed This Fight was the 19th of May. Van Trump in the Night drew his Ships on the Back of the Goodwin Sands and next Morning sailed back to Zealand instead of securing the Dutch Trade Hereupon the Rump set a Guard upon the Dutch Ambassadors at Chelsey but tho the English Fleet in this Fight received little Damage yet that of the Dutch was so batter'd as made it unfit to fight About this time Virginia submitted to the Rump but not New-England nor ever after did that I can find The Dutch thus balk'd in their Expectation of great things to be done by Van Trump and finding the contrary Success sent a Paper to their Ambassadors in England which was presented to the Council of State the 20th of June therein taking God the Searcher of all Hearts to witness that the most unhappy Fight of the Ships of both Commonwealths did happen against the Knowledg and Will of the Lords States-General of the Vnited Netherlands and that with Grief and Astonishment they received the fatal News of that unhappy rash Action A likely matter as if Van Trump should dare to do such an Action without their Order and they not punish him for
before we will lay to the Charge of Cardinal Mazarine We will therefore see if the French King was not as little a Slave to his Word in this League as Mazarine was in any before and you 'll see that in all the Leagues this King after made he was as little a Slave to his Word as in this Treaty We have in the former Book set down particularly the Article whereby the French King upon his Honour and the Faith and Word of a King did promise neither directly nor indirectly to assist Portugal against Spain yet at the beginning of the Treaty they secretly conveyed Troops into Portugal in several Bodies And when upon Complaint of the Marquess de la Fuente they sent publick Orders to the Governours of their Ports not to suffer any Souldiers to embark for Portugal they did not abstain by Connivance under-hand to let them pass Nay when Marshal Turene made publick Levies to assist Portugal it being complained of by the Marquess de la Fuente they answered it was a particular Act of the Marshal and the Court of France had no Hand in it And also continually supplied Portugal with Corn and all sorts of Ammunition And France also fomented the Obstinacy of Portugal to continue the War when Spain offered them advantagious Terms of Peace This and much more you may read in the second Article of The Buckler of State and Justice Nor did the French King stay here but being become the dearest Confident with his Brother of England almost as soon as the King was settled the French sent Monsieur Courtin to move the King not to abandon Portugal nor did he yet stay here but Mazarine dying much about the latter end of Summer having a Stone in his Heart so the French Pasquils said in September or beginning of October the Queen-Mother came over seemingly to treat with her Son for a Marriage between Monsieur of France and her fair Daughter Henrietta Maria the King 's beloved Sister Yet it seems to me the Marriage of the King with the Infanta of Portugal was not less designed than that with Monsieur And besides these you will soon hear of something else which brought the Queen-Mother into England As the Designs of the Queen's coming over were dark so I acknowledg I have not seen any of the Treaties or Transactions concerning them but must take Measures by what followed and so far as I had Light from what went before yet in all of them it seems evident to me that the Queen shewed her self to be more affectionate to her Daughter than Son and to be more a Daughter of France than Queen of England But before I proceed it will be convenient to take notice of the deplorable State of Spain which their Ambition in seeking so many Foreign Dominions and a Tyrannical Government had brought it to For before the Accession of their American Dominions which they acquired by unjust War and unheard-of Cruelties in all the ten Years War between Ferdinand and Isabella with the Moors who had seven hundred Years been possessed of the Kingdoms of Granada Murcia and a great part of Andaluzia every Year the Moors and Christians brought near a hundred thousand Men into the Field to fight one with another yet the Kingdoms of Arragon Navar and Portugal were Neutral in all the War Whereas now all the Kingdoms of Spain except that of Portugal were united under this King Philip the Fourth yet out of them all he could not raise an Army to fight the Portuguese but trusting to the French Faith in the Pyrenaean Treaty sent the Army in Flanders under the Command of the Marquess Caracene to do it The King imbraced the Overtures of both Marriages and now the French King doubly if not trebly assured of his Brother of England as well by the Treaties of these Marriages as by his Message by Courtin no longer acts covertly in assisting the Prince Regent of Portugal against Spain but bare-fac'd sent Marshal Schomberg with an Army and Fleet to their Assistance yet this Army was not sufficient to make an Offensive War against Spain but Portugal stood only upon the Defensive The Want of Money a little retarded the Marriage of the Princess with Monsieur but this might be easily help'd if the King would give up Dunkirk to the French whereby he might pay 200000 l. for his Sister's Portion which was more than his Father had with his Mother and also receive 200000 l. more for himself Nor was this all he might save the Charges of maintaining a Garison there yet the Parliament in the Hereditary Excise allowed him 60000 l. per Annum for the Support of it I do not find this mentioned in the Body of the Act yet several Members assured me it was so intended in the passing the Act. All this the King agreed to and so Dunkirk and Mardike Fort were given up to the French against all the Laws of Humanity Justice and Prudence I say it was against all the Laws of Humanity for the Spaniard entertained and relieved the King when the French had expelled him and joined with Oliver the Usurper of all his Dominions It was against Justice for the Soveraignty of Dunkirk was of Right and Justice the Spaniards And against the Rules of Policy and Prudence the French Nation being the Natural Enemies of the English and the next Neighbour to it and of all Nations the most formidable It had been happier for the poor Spaniard and the English Nation if the Unkindness of the King to the Spaniard had ended in his giving up Dunkirk to the French but it ended not here for the King imployed the Army which should have kept Dunkirk against the Spaniard in Portugal and with these and another Band of the disbanded English Army joined to them the French Portuguese and English or rather the English without them routed the whole united Army of the Spaniard at the Fight of Elvas So as now the French had a new Inlet into Flanders and the Spaniard no Army to defend it This was a foul Blot in the Spanish Politicks by their King 's trusting to the Faith of his Brethren of England and France But this will not stay here as hereafter you will see Here I take leave so well as I can to vindicate the Memory of my Lord Chancellor Hide from two Aspersions as I conceive cast upon him one That he was the Adviser of the giving up Dunkirk to the French The other That he was the Procurer of the King's Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal For the first I was assured by a credible Person tho a Confident of my Lord Chancellor's that he was so far from advising the King to give up Dunkirk to the French that only he and my Lord Treasurer Southampton upon whose Honour my Lord Chancellor relied more than any other of all the Council entred their Protestations against it The Truth of this may be resolved by inspecting the Privy-Council's Books It 's true