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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	act_n	king_n	time_n	1,118	5	3.4613	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56345	The true portraiture of the kings of England, drawn from their titles, successions, raigns and ends, or, A short and exact historical description of every king, with the right they have had to the crown, and the manner of their wearing of it, especially from William the Conqueror wherein is demonstrated that there hath been no direct succession in the line to create an hereditary right, for six or seven hundred years : faithfully collected out of our best histories, and humbly presented to the Parliament of England / by an impartial friend to justice and truth.	Parker, Henry, 1604-1652.	1650 (1650)	Wing P429; ESTC R33010	38,712	46

smarted for their credulity renewing their sense of their misery under the two former tyrants take heart once again and refuse to admit any after his death until as Judge Thorpe well expresseth it in that forementioned discourse they were cheated into a second election of Hen. the first his youngest brother for the people standing for their Liberties and yet alas but negatively rather to be freed from excess of oppression then knowing what true freedom was having felt the misery of their loss in the two former persons shall I call them Kings Raign denied any consent to another person of that stock without solemn capitulations and covenants to settle just Laws and to ingage for the execution of them with abrogation of all former mischievous and inconvenient ones which Matthew Paris calls unworthily a Politique but trayterous way of capitulating Whereupon Henry who had nothing of title made friends by his engagements and Roberts absence in the Holy-land and doth absolutely promise to begin all anew constitute just laws reform his Fathers and brothers exorbitancies and to be as a Nursing Father both to Church and State these fair insinuations got him the Crown though Robert was to have it first by his own right and next by his Brothers Covenant and Will And that he might not seem altogether disproportionable to his engagement the first action of his government was to bait the people and sugar their subjection as his predecessor in the like interposition had done but with more moderation and advisedness but having once secured his title from his Brothers jus and setled some affairs abroad began much after the old strain yet not altogether so violent yet these cruel and savage Laws of the forrest he revived and put in execution yea urged as the most fundamentall Law of the Realm and many sore in positions he levied which the people were not able to bear that these two sons though they ended the direct line yet they propagated their Fathers tyranny onely he got the throne by force they by subtilty and delusive engagements and now the poor people who had still been cozened and are commonly passive begin in the next Kings reign viz. of Stephen another Usurper to be active and to struggle for their liberties more seriously and thorowly and not contented with promises of abating former pressures drew up the summ of their desires in a more exact method and demand publikely the restoring and re-establishing of St. Edwards Laws for such a rarity was that former Prince as they Canonized him a Saint which were many years before granted but by new and strange successions buried and Stephen who came in odly to the Crown and was continually in various motions to maintain it confirmed all these laws and to gain the people ratified them by Parliament the best security in these cases But soon after Prerogative like a Lion in chains breaks forth again with fuller rage and devours all these grants with the hopes and expectations of the people for though in the two next Kings raigns these grants were not actually repeled yet were laid by and only wrapt up in parchments and husht by the noise of Drums and Trumpets For Henry the Second the next King spent most of his time in cleering the controversie between Regnum Sacerdotium the Crown and the Mitre as in setling his own Title both here and in Normandy and Ireland a while he and Thomas Becket were standing in the special rights and priviledges of the Church and State the liberties of the people were laid asleep and certainly he hated the former grants because made by Stephen who had stoln the Crown both from his Mother and himself the notablest story in this Kings reign setting by his warlike atchievements is that after Becket had often foiled him in his authority he was handsomly whipt by the Monks in going to visit Beckets shrine which was part of his pennance for giving secret order to Assasinats to make him away And that he kept Rosamond as his Concubine to the vexation of Elenor his Wife who at last vented her revenge on her having found her out in that intricate Labyrinth made on purpose for her at Woodstock by the clew which Rosamond had carelesly untwisted The next that laid claim to this Crown was his son Richard the first surnamed Ceur de Lion as before who was to be commended rather for his personal valour in other Nations then for any good done to this He began well in enlarging his Mother Elenor whom his Father had imprisoned because she could not abide his lascivious living with his wanton Paragon Rosamond and advanced many persons by speciall favours yet these respects were more particular then of any publike advantage to the State for out of a blind zeal in those times after he had been in England but four months after his Coronation he went into the Holy-land against the Turks leaving the Regency of the Kingdom to an Ecclesiasticall Person William Longchampe Bishop of Ely who to please the King and by speciall command undid the people and committed great exactions and as Hoveden says Clerum populum opprimebat confundens fasque nefasque did all as he listed and little cared by what means he filled the Kings Coffers and his own acting but by Proxie and in imitation of what his Master would have done if at home by many a private command as it afterwards proved for when Richard undertook this voyage that he might not seem at first burthensom to the people when he left them and to maintain both his design and absence on their purses and so alienate their affections from him when at so great a distance and give grounds to his Brother John to try an experiment for the title wifely sold much of his own estate to raise him monies as the Castles of Berwick and Roxborough to the King of Scots for ten thousand pounds and the Lordship and Earldom of Durham to Hugh then Bishop of that See for much mony as also many Honors Lordships Mannors Offices Priviledges Royalties to many of the Nobles and rich Commoners whereby he furnished himself with a vast treasurie of mony for that service and that you may see what interest he and his companions think they have in his peoples goods however they dissemble it he often protested that he would sell his City of London as my Author saith to any that would by it rather then be chargeable unto others but notwithstanding all this as the people were sadly opprest in his absence by his Viceroy so much more when he returned by himself for he then began to redeem his time and to play Rex with a witness he fell presently to plunder all religious houses laid on new and unheard of Taxes on the people and resumed into his hands again all the Lordships Mannors Castles c. which he had sold to his subjects and confirmed it by all the security they could have from

man this is the misery of depending on royal promises and engagements which are usually nothing else but complementall engins to move up the peoples affections while they more easily and insensibly drain out their blood and purses this was the end of this Rough and Lionlike King who reigned nine years and nine months wherein he exacted and consumed more of this Kingdom then all his Predecessors from the Norman had done before him and yet less deserved it then any having neither lived here nor left behind him monument of piety or any publike work or ever shewed love or care to this Common-wealth but onely to get what he could from it we see hitherto what a race of Kings we have had and what cause we have to glory in any thing but their Tombs and yet if we expect better afterwards we shall be as much mistaken of their actings as they were of their right The next that raigned though without any hereditary title was King John Stephens Brother whose government was as unjust as his title for he having by Election out of fear and policy of State got the Crown with expulsion of Arthur the right heir ut supra embarked the State and himself in these miserable incumberances through his violence and oppression as produced desperate effects and made way to those great alterations in the government which followed the whole reign of this King was a perfect tyranny there is in History hardly one good word given him the Barons and Clergy continually opposed him strugling for a confirmation of their long desired liberties but were most commonly either cluded or defeated by promises which were never intended to be performed until at last being more entirely united with the Commons and stoutly resolved and confirmed by an Oath taken at St. Edmunds-Burie in a general Assembly they then swore on the high Altar never to lay down arms if King John refused to confirm and restore unto them these liberties the rights which this Kingdom was formerly blest with and which all the late Kings had cheated them of the King knowing their power and considering their engagements makes use of policy and desired time to answer them entertaining them with smooth and gentle language and courtesie untill he had got strength and then he began anew to try experiments of securing himself and frustrating their desires But the Lords continuing their resolution and knowing nothing was to be obtained but by strong hand assemble themselves with a great Army at Stamford from whence they marched towards the King who was then at Oxford sent him a Schedule of their claimed liberties with an Appendix of their absolute resolutions in case of his denyal this Tyrant having heard them read with much passion replies Why do they not demand the Kingdom as wel and swore he would never grant these liberties whereby himself should be made a servant The Barons upon his Answer being as Daniel saith as hasty as he was averse resolve to seaze on his Castles and Possessions and repairing to London being welcomed by the Citizens who had too long groaned under the same tyranny they get a great access of strength by new confederates and renew their spirits oaths for the thorow prosecution of the war the King seeing himself in a strait which by no ordinary strength he could evade by gentle and teeming Messages sent to the Barons he obtained a Conference in a Medow called Running-mead between Windsor and Sta●es where armed multitudes came from all places crying nothing but Liberty Liberty so sweet was that tone to them then After many hard Conferences the King seeing it no time to dally that they would not trust him with any complemental expressions whom they looked on as formerly perjured grants their desires not only saith Speed for Liberties specified in Magna Charta Charta Forrestae but also for a kind of sway in the Government by five and twenty selected Peers who were to be as a check over the King and his chief Justiciar and all his Officers to whom any appeal might be made in case of breach of any article or priviledge confirmed by that Charter And now one would think the people were secure enough but though they seem now to have the livery yet they had not the seisin for presently the King having got now credit by the largeness of his grants gets liberty with less suspicion to undo all and in a short time pretending these grants to be acts of force having got power renounceth his engagement by them and afterwards repeals them and dispoiled all these of their lands and possessions who had any hand or heart in procuring the former grants and by new and additionall Laws made them more perfect slaves then ever they were before untill at last he was poysoned by a Monk instead of being deposed But though he be dead yet the miseries of this Nation ended not with him for his son Henry the third who succeeded him though he could not at first follow on his Fathers designs being an Infant yet at last did not onely imitate but outstrip him yet the English Nation who are much given to credulity and apt to be won by fair and plausible promises notwithstanding all the fathers iniquity imbrace the son having taken an oath of him to restore and confirm the liberties they propounded to his father which he had often granted and as often broken but for all his first oath they were fain not onely to remember him of it by petitions but oftentimes by arms and strength And though there was in this Kings Raign twenty one Parliaments called and many great Subsidies granted in confirmation of their liberties yet every Parliament was no sooner dissolved but the ingagement ceased a hint of two or three special Parliaments and their success will not be amiss to be set down in this place This King not being able to suppress the Barons and people by his own strength they having gotten not onely heart but power sends to forraign Nations for aid and entertains Poictovines Italians Almains Provincioes to subdue his own people and set them in great places which dangerous and desperate design the Barons much resenting raised their spirits and ingaged them in opposition to his Government and set them on with more courage to look after their liberties therefore they several times stand up against the violence of Prerogative but what through want of strength or caution they were commonly disappointed yet rather if we may speak truly from the unfaithfulness of the King then any other defect except it were their easiness to believe Kings when their Prerogative and the peoples liberties came in competition for after they had many times got or rather extorted many promises and confirmed them by oaths the best humane security they were put to new designs through either the suspention or breach of them witness these Instances after many foiles and tedious and various delusions by this King whose

his losses with a thorough subjection of their persons and suppression of their liberties I need relate no more of this King nor make observations the Reader will be amazed at the repetition he at least 20 times gave his promise for the confirmation execution of these just decrees contained in Magna Charta and as many times was perjured notwithstanding all the solemnities both Civil Moral and Ecclesiastical used in the acts of ratification this may learn us how to trust the most positive Engagements of Princes which cross their own interest and what to think of that word and promise they call Royall this King reigned fifty six years the longest of any King of England But we have had too much of the story of him as he had too long a time to rule considering his temper and design It s well if we can be wary for the future and be more cautious then to trust the most promising and insinuating Princes with our liberties and priviledges which can be no longer expected to be preserved by them then they may serve as footstools to advance them in the Throne of absolute Majesty But no more of this King never were there more hard strivings and wrestlings between tyranny and liberty with such bad success to the people I onely conclude his raign with the exhortation of the Psalmist Psal. 146. 3. O put not your confidence in Princes surely men of high degree are a lye King Henry is by this time layd in his grave and one would think Magna Charta buried with him His Son Edward who was his right-hand in his wars against the Barons and the principal Agent in their ruine succeeds him in the throne and instead of lessening goes on and makes an higher improvement of that royalty which his Father left him having in his own person got the victory over the Peoples Libertyes in his Fathers time and having wonne or worne out the greatest of those which opposed and being long experienced in the world so secured and advanced the Prerogative that as one sayth he seemed to be the first conqueror after the Conqueror that got the domination of this State in so absolute and eminent a manner as by his government appears He layd unsupportable Taxes both on the Clergy and Laity even unto Fiveteens and halfs of their Estates As for Tenths that was comparatively accounted easy the Barons and People for a long time durst not move for removal of greivances untill that the King being always in wars in France Flanders Wales and Scotland and so needed continually vast sums of mony called a Parliament wherein he demanded a great treasure of mony from the People that he might give them somewhat in lieu of their expences confirmed the two great Charters on the Petition of the Barons and People and so stopped their mouths and this he did as often as he had extraordinary occasions for mony But like all other royall promises they were performed by leasure Never was Royalty more Majestick and glorious then in this Kings raign and the people less able to oppose he was always so watchful and eager to enlarge his own power I shall end his raign also with what Daniel that impartiall and witty Historian saith of him He was more for the greatness of the Kingdom then the quiet of it and never King before or since except our last Charls shed so much Christian bloud within this Isle of Britain and was the cause of more in that following and not one grain of benefit procured unto the people by all their expences on him which was but to make themselves more perfect slayes The next King was Edward the Second his Son who though more vicious then the Father yet not more tyrannicall he gave more advantage to the people thorough his lewd life and unmartiall nature to seek the confirmation and establishment of Magna Charta and other good Laws which were utterly supprest and darkened in his Fathers reign This Prince gave himself over to all wicked courses and surrendred his Judgement and the management of all affairs of State unto evill and corrupt Counsellors especially to one Peirce Gaveston who had both his ear and heart unto whom he was so much endeared that he ventured the loss of Kingdom and all the hearts of his Subjects for his company and preservation and though the Barons had by often Petitions and earnest sollicitations prevailed with the King to banish him yet he soon after sent for him home and laid him more nigh his bosom then before on this the Barons raise an army against the King and send him word that unless he would observe the late Articles which they had formerly by much ado got him to sign in Parliament and put from him Pierce Gaveston they would rise in Arms against him as a perjured Prince the King whom they found was apt to be terrified yeilds again to his banishment with this clause that if he were found again within the Kingdom he should be condemned to death as an enemy of the State All places were now dangerous to Gaveston both Ireland where he formerly was protected France also too hot for him in this extremity finding no security anywhere else he again adventures on England and puts himself once again into the Kings bosom a Sanctuary which he thought would not be polluted with blood and there he is received with as great joy as ever man could be the Lords with more violence prosecute their suite to the King for delivering up or removing him once more but to no purpose they therefore set forwards with an Army say siege to the Castle wherein Gaveston was took him and notwithstanding the Kings earnest sollicitation for his life they condemned him to the block and took off his head this obstacle being removed out of the way the Lords having now the better end of the staff make advantages of it for demanding the confirmation and execution of all those Articles formerly granted threatning the King that if he would not consent to it they would force him by a strong hand with this message they had their swords also drawn and march towards London A Parliament is called where the King after a submission by the Lords to him for that act done against Gaveston contrary to his consent and will grants the Articles and pardon to them But the King goes on his old way adheres to wicked counsel waving the grave advice of his Parliament and is ruled by the two Spencers who acted with mighty strain of injustice which caused the Lords again to take up arms and stand for their Liberties but are through the revolt of some and the treachery of others overthrown at Burton upon Trent and two and twenty Noblemen the greatest Peers in the Realm executed in several places for nothing but opposing his evil Counsellors this was the first blood of Nobility that ever was shed in this manner in England since William the first which being so