hereby will and command you out of our Treasury remaining in the receipt of the said Exchequer forthwith to pay or cause to be paid unto Phillip Burlamachi of London Merchant the summ of 30000 l. to be paid by him over by Bill of Exchange unto the Low-Countries and Germany unto our trustie and well be loved Sir William Balfoore Knight and Iohn Dalber Esquire or either of them for levying and providing certain numbers of Horse with Arms for Horse and Foot to be brought over into this Kingdom for our service viz. For the levying and transporting of a 1000 Horse 15000 l. for 5000 Muskets 5000 Corslets 5000 Pikes 10500 l. and for 1000 Curasiers compleat 200 Corslets and 200 Carbines 4500 l. Amounting in the whole to the said summ of 30000 l. And this our Letter shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalf Given under our privy Seal at our Palace of Westminster 30. of Ianuary in the third year of our raign The Commission to the Lords and others of the privy Councel concerning the present raising of money CHARLES by the grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland defender of the faith c. To Sir Thomas Coventry Lord Keeper of the great Seal of England Iames Earl of Marlburgh Lord Treasurer Henry Earl of Manchester Lord President of the Councel Edward Earl of Worcester Lord Keeper of the privy Seal George Duke of Buckingham our high Admiral of England William Earl of Pembroke Lord Steward of our Houshould Phillip Earl of Mongommery Lord Chamberlain of our Houshould Theophilus Earl of Suffolk Edward Earl of Dorcet William Earl of Salisbury Thomas Earl of Exceter Iohn Earl of Bridgwater Iames Earl of Carlile Henry Earl of Holland William Earl of D. George Earl of Totnes Sir George Hay Knight Lord Chaunceller of Scotland William Earl of Morton Thomas Earl of Kelly Thomas Earl of Melros Edward Viscount Conway one of our principall Secritaries of State Edward Viscount Wimbleton Oliver Viscount Grandison Henry Viscount Falkland Lord Deputy of Ireland To the Lord Bishop of Winchester William Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells Fulk Lord Brook Dudly Lord Carleton vice Camberlain of our Houshould Sir Thomas Edmonds Treasurer of our Houshould Sir Iohn Savill Comptroller of our Houshould Sir Robert Nawton Master of our Court of Wards Sir Iohn Cooke one of the principal Secritaries of our State Sir Richard Weston Chancellor and under Treasurer of our Exchequer Sir Iulius Caesar Master of the Roll. Sir Humfry May Knight Chancellor of our Dutchy of Lancaster GREETING WHereas the present Conjuncture of the pressing affairs of Christendom and our own particular interest in giving assistance to our oppressed Allies and for the providing for the defence and safety of our own dominions And people do call upon us to neglect nothing that may conduce to those good ends And because monies the principall sinews of War and one of the first and chiefest in all great preparations and actions necessary to be provided in the first place and we are carefull the same may be raised by such ways as may best stand with the State of our Kingdoms and Subjects and yet may answer the pressing occasions of the present times We therefore out of the experience we have had and for the trust we repose in your wisdoms fidelities and dutifull care of your services and for the experience you have of all great causes concerning us and our State both as they have relation to forraign parts abroad and as to our Common-Wealth and People at home Ye being Persons called by us to be of our privy Councel have thought fit amongst those great and important matters which so much concern us in the first and chiefest place to recommend this to your speciall care and dilligence And we do hereby authorize and appoint and stricktly will and require you speedily and seriously to enter into consideration of all the best and speediest ways and means yee can for raising of money for the most important occasions aforesaid which without extreamest hazard to us our dominions and people and to our friends and Allies can admit of no long delay The same to be done by imposition or otherwise as in your wisdom and best Judgments ye shall finde to be most convenient in a case of this inevitable necessity wherein form and circumstance must be dispensed with rather then the substance be lost or hazarded And herein our will and pleasure is that you or as many of you as from time to time can be spared from attendant upon our Person or other our necessary services do use all dilligence by your frequent meetings and serious consultations and when you have brought any thing to maturity ye make report thereof unto us and advertise us of those things ye shall either resolve upon or thinck fit to represent unto us for the advancement of this great service which with the greatest affection we can we recommend to your best care and Iudgement Whereof you must not fail as you tender our honour and the honour and safety of our Dominions and People and for the doing hereof these presents shall be to you and every of you a sufficient warrant In witness whereof we have caused these our Letters to be made Letters Patents Witnes our selfe at Westminster the last day of February in the third yeare of our Raigne Per ipsum Regem Articles to be propounded to the Captains and Masters as well English as French touching the service in hand at ROCHEL 4. May 1628. the ships rideing before the Town 1. WHether in your opnion and judgments by the means and strength we have the Floates and Pallizadoes may be forced and the entrance into the Town may be thereby made for the victuallers 2. If you shall think it fit what in your opinions will be the best and readiest way to open the same 3. Whether you hold it fit to send in the victuallers at the same instant together with the fire ships and barks considering that if it should not take effect instead of relieving the Town we relieve the Enemy 4. If in this attempt part shall get through and the greater part be taken by the Enemies whether the service or dishonour will be greater 5. If in case you think it fit to give the attempt whether you hold it likewise necessary that the Merchant ships should second or follow them and how far you hold it safe for them to go 6. Whether the more to countenance the service you hold it fit for the Kings ships to put themselves under sail being they are to be exposed to shallow water and a narrow Channel and to lye under command of many of the Enemies Forts where by an unlucky accident many of them may be brought on ground and miscarry 7. You are here to deliver your opinions upon your allegiance the rather because the onely service the Kings ships there can do is to cause the Enemies Fleet which rides
April 1628. Mr. Speaker WE are now upon a great business and the manner of handling it may be as great as the business it self I need not tell you that Liberty is a pretious thing for every man may set his own price upon it and he that doth not value it deserves to be valued accordingly for my own part I am clear without scruple that what we have resolved it according to Law and if any Judge in England were of a contrary opinion I am sure we should have heard of him before now Out of all question the very point the scope and drift of Magna Charta was to reduce the Regal to a Legal power in matters of imprisonment or else it had not been worth so much contending for But there have been Presidents brought to prove the practise and interpretation of the Law I confess I have heard many Presidents of utillity and respect but none at all of truth or of Law Certainly there is no Court of Justice in England that will discharge a Prisoner committed by the King Rege inconsulto without acquainting the King yet this good manners was never made or mentioned as a legal part of the delivery It is Objected that the King ought to have a trust left and deposited in him God forbid but he should And I say that it is impossible to take it from him for it lies not in the wit of man to devise such a Law as should be able to comprehend all particulers all accidents but that extraordinary cases must happen which when they come If they be disposed of for the Common good there will be no Law against them yet must the Law be general for otherwise admissions and exceptions will fret and eat out the Law to nothing God himself hath constituted a general Law of nature to govern the ordinary course of things he hath made no Laws for miracles Yet there is this observation of them that they are rather praeter naturam then contra naturam and alwayes propter bonos fines for Kings Prerogatives are rather besides the Law then against it and when they are directed to right ends for the publick good they are not onely concurring Laws but even Laws in singularity and excelling But to come nearer M r. Speaker let us consider where we are now what steps we have gone and gained the Kings learned Councel have acknowledged all the Laws to have been still in force the Judges have disallowed any Judgement against these Laws the Lords also have confessed that the Laws are in full strength they have further retained our resolution intire and without prejudice All this hitherto is for our advantage but above all his Majesty himself being publickly present declared by the mouth of my Lord Keeper before both the Houses that Magna Charta and the other six Statutes are in force that he will maintain his Subjects in the liberty of their Persons and the propriety of their goods that he will govern according to the Laws of the Kingdom this is a solemne and bindeing satisfaction expressing his gracious readiness to comply with his People in all their reasonable and just desires The King is a good man and it is no diminution to be called so for whosoever is a good man shall be greater then a King that is not so The King certainly is exceeding tender of his present Honour and of his same hereafter he will think it hard to have a worse mark set upon him and his Government then any of his Ancestors by extraordinary restraints his Majesty hath already intimated unto us by a message that he doth willingly give way to have the abuse of power reformed by which I do verily believe that he doth very well understand what a miserable power it is which hath produced so much weakness to himself and to the Kingdom and it is our happiness that he is so foreward to redress it For my own part I shall be very glad to see that good old decrepit Law of Magna Charta which hath so long kept in and lain as it were bedrid I should be glad I say to see it walk abroad again with new vigour and lustre attended by the other six Statutes questionless it will be a general hartning to all the People I doubt not but by a debating conference with the Lords we shall happily fall upon a fair and fit accommodation concerning the Liberty of our Persons and propriety of our goods I hope we have a Bill to agree in the point against imprisonment for Loanes or privy Seals as for intrincical power and reason of State they are matters in the clouds where I desire we may leave them and not meddle in them at all least by way of admittance we may loose somewhat of that which is our own already Yet this by the way I will say of reason of State that in the latitude as it is used it hath eaten out almost not onely all the Laws but all the Religion of Christendom Now M r. Speaker I will onely remember you of one precept and that of the wisest Man Be not overwise be not over just and he cited his reason for why wilt thou be desolate Sir if Justice and Wisedom may be stretcht to desolation let us thereby learn that moderation is the virtue of virtues and the wisedom of wisedomes Let it be our Master-piece so to carry our business as we may keep Parliaments on foot for as long as they are frequent there will be no irregular power which though it cannot be broken at once yet in short time it will fade and moulter away there can be no total and final loss of Liberty but by loss of Parliaments as long as they last what we cannot get at one time we may have at another Let no man think that what I have said is the language of a private end my aim is upon the good success of the whole for I thank God my minde stands above any fortune that is to be gotten by base and unworthy means No man is bound to be rich or great no nor to be wise but every man is bound to be honnest out of which heart I have spoken The Lord KEEPERS speech 28. April 1628. MY Lords Knights and Burgesses of the House of Commons I cannot but remember the great and important affairs concerning the safety both of State and Religion declared at first from his own mouth to be the cause of assembling this Parliament the fear whereof as it doth dayly increase with his Majesty so it ought to do and his Majesty doubts not but it doth so with you since the danger encreaseth every day both by effluction of time and preparation of the enemy Yet his Majesty doth well weigh that this expence of time hath been occasion by the debate that hath risen in both Houses touching the Liberty of both Subjects in which as his Majesty takes in good part the purpose and intent of the Houses so clearly and
who by this Innovation will be much vilified and of small reckoning in the Common-Wealth And unto the Magistrates of this Kingdom who in respect of their offices and place wherein they serve as also the gravity and wisdom of their Persons in publick services and assemblies have used to have precedence before others but now they must give place unto Barronets and their descendants albeit some of them are and many of them in time to come may be mean in birth poor in state and of small worth and desert And unto the whole Communalty whose descendants by their virtues and good fortunes may hereafter attain unto credit and reputation in the Common-Wealth Inconveniences that will arise to his Majestie and the State by reason of this new institution THere will be always dislike envy and heart-burning between the Gentry of the Kingdom and the Barronets The Honour of Knight-hood which was wont to incourage generous mindes unto high exploits will now come in t contempt for be they of never so good prowess and valour they must by this institution be inferior unto Barronets of small worth Knight-hood hath been held a competent reward for forraign and home imployments and now his Majestie must be driven to search new ways for the recompence and satisfaction of such services Gentlemen of Lively-hood and estimation will refrain his Majesties service in publick Assemblies for the Administration of Justice and otherwise because they scorn to give place unto many of the Barronets whom they account their inferiors The reputation of Knight-hood and antiquity of discent hath in former times much advanced the Gentry so quallified in preferment to marriage who are very much prejudiced by this Hereditary Tittle Great Noble men of this Kingdom have been degraded from thein particular dignity for want of means to support their Honours but these Barronets albeit they shall happen to be of no worth either in estate or desert must have precedence before Knights of greater reputation Nothing is more commended then Honour springing out of virtue and desert but to purchase Honour with money as Barronets have done is a temporall symmony and dishonorable to the States The Communalty of the Kingdom ever since the first institution thereof hath consisted of certain degrees known and legall additions without change or alteration may by way of president alter the whole strain of the Common-Wealth His Majestie by his prerogative Royall Creates Barrons Viscounts Earls and many other degrees of Nobillity as other his Ancestors and Predecessors have done but the creation of this or any other in Communalty is not warranted by any former president usage or custom The Examination of ANDREVV Le BRUN a Frenchman Captain of the MARY of ROCHEL taken before ABRAHAM CELMER Merchant Major of the Burrough of PLIMOUTH 16 May 1628. THe examinate saith that one Sunday being the 17 of April last past he departed from Plimouth harbor in company with the English Fleet whereof the Earl of Denbigh is General and one the first day of May then following the said Fleet arrived and came at Anchor at Charleboy in the rode of Rochell about 4 of the clock in the afternoone where at the said arriuall they found 20 sail of the King of France his ships whereof six were ships of about 300 Tuns and the rest were smaller ships and forthwith the said French ships put themselves to sail and went in nearer to the Fortifications where they also Anchored within two cannon shot of the English Fleet And saith that one of his Majestie ships shot off one peece of Ordinance and no more and the said French ships as they returned from the English Fleet shot off oftentimes to them and that the same Fleet remained there untill the 8 day of the same month of May in which time there was a Wherry sent from the fleet into Rochell wherein there were two English and one French man to inquire the State of the said Town and that if they were there safe arrived they should make a fire upon one of the Towers of the Town to give notice thereof which accordingly they did and also to make so many fires more one the Walls of the said Town as they have moneths victualls there but they made not any answer thereof Whence it was collected that they had but a small quantity of victualls and said that the said English as he hath heard promised to sink the said French ships when the waters did increase and the winde came at West North-West it being then neap tides and about two days after the water did increase and the windes came accordingly and being then intreated to fight with them yet did not but came away without fighting or releiving the Town and saith that one the 8 day of May the said English Fleet weighed Anchor and set sail to depart and 4 of the French great ships weighed Anchor also and came after them and shot divers times at the said Fleet and the said Fleet shot at them again and the said examinate came in company with the said Fleet as far as Bell Isle where he departed from them one the 10 of this instant and lastly saith that during all the time the English Fleet was there the Town of Rochel shot to the King of France his ships and Fort but chiefly upon the arrival of the said Fleet there Articles wherewith MELVINE is charged 1. MR. Melvine said that the Dukes plot was that the Parliament should be dissolved And that the Duke and the King with a great Army of Horse and Fott would War against the cominalty and that Scotland should assist him so that when War was amongst our selves the Enemy should come in for this Kingdom is already sould to the Enemy by the Duke 2. That the Duke had a stronger Councel then the King of which were certain Iesuites Scotish men and that they did sit in Councel every night from one of the clock till three 3. That when the King had a purpose to do any thing of what consequence soever the Duke could alter it 4. That when the Ordinance were shipt at S. Martins the Duke caused the Souldiers to go one that they might be destroyed 5. That the Duke said he had an Army of 16000. Foot and 1200. Horse 6. That King Iames his bloud and Marquess Hambletons with others cries out for vengeance to Heaven 7. That he could not expect any thing but ruine of this Kingdom 8. That Prince Henry was poysoned by Sir Thomas Overbury and he himself served with the same sawce and that the Earl of Sommerset could say much to this 9. That he himself had a Cardinal to his Uncle or near Kinsman whereby he had great intelligence A Privy Seal for the transporting of Horses 30 January 3. CAROLI CHarles by the grace of God King of England Scotland France and Ireland defendor of the faith c. To the Treasurer and under Treasurer of our Exchequer for the time being greeting We do