of Manchester and the Lord Fairfax and with joynt Forces besieged York to raise the Siege Prince Rupert came with a great Army out of the South the three Generals left their Siege to fight the Prince under him also New Castle having drawn his Forces out of York served who on a great Plain called Marston Moor gave Battle to the three Generals The Victory at first enclined to the Royalists but by the valour of Cromwel who fought under Manchester their whole Army was utterly defeated Prince Rupert his Ordnance his Carriages and Baggage being all taken This was the greatest Battel of the whole Civil War and might have proved a great Remora to the Kings proceedings had he not soon after worsted Essex in Cornwall who having lost all his Artillery returned to London The Parliament soon after new modelled their Army Sir Thom as Fairfax was chosen General in the room of Essex and now the Idol of a Treaty was set up at Vxbridge in which to shew the clearness of his Majesties intentions I have included some of his most material proceedings conducible to an Agreement betwixt him and the Parliament His Majesties particular Prayer for a Blessing on the Treaty O most merciful Father Lord God of Peace and Truth we a people sorely afflicted by the scourge of an unnatural War do earnestly beseech thee to command a Blessing from Heaven on this Treaty brought about by thy Providence the onely visible remedy left for the establishment of a happy Peace soften the most obdurate hearts with a true Christian desire of saving those mens bloud for whom Christ himself hath shed his O Lord let not the guilt of our sins cause this Treaty to break off but let the truth of thy Spirit so clearly shine in our mindes that all private ends laid aside we may every one of us heartily and sincerely pursue the Publick good and that the people may be no longer so blindely miserable as not see at least in this their day the things that belong to their peace Grant this gracious God for his sake who is our peace it self even Jesus our Lord Amen His Majesties Message to the Houses of Parliament which drew on the following Treaty at Uxbridge December 13. 1644. His Majesty hath seriously considered your Propositions and findes it very dffiicult in respect they import so great an alteration in Government both in Church and State to return a particular and positive Answer before a full debate wherein those Propositions and all the necessary explanations and reasons for assenting dissenting or qualifying and all inconveniences and mischiefs which may ensue and cannot otherwise be so well foreseen may be discussed and weighed his Majesty therefore proposeth and desireth as the best expedient for peace that you will appoint such number of persons as you shall think fit to treat with the like number of persons to be appointed by his Majesty upon the said Propositions and such other things as shall be proposed by his Majesty for the preservation and defence of the Protestant Religion with due regard to the ease of tender Consciences as his Majesty hath often offered the Rights of the Crown the Liberty and Propriety of the Subjects and the Priviledges of Parliament And upon the whole matter to conclude a happy and blessed Peace Sent by the Duke of Richmond and the Earl of Southampton December 13. 1644 His Majesties Commission to certain Lords and Gentlemen to treat at Vxbridge with the Commissioners of the Lords and Commons assembled at Westminster c. Charles Rex Whereas after several Messages sent by us to the Lords and Commons of Parliament at Westminster expressing our desires of Peace certain Propositions were sent by them to us at Oxon in November last by the Earl of Denbigh and others and upon our Answers Messages and Propositions to them and their Returns to us it is now agreeed That there shall be a Treaty for a well-grounded Peace to begin at Uxbridge on Thursday the thirtieth day of this instant January as by the said Propositions Answers Messages and Returns in writing may more fully appear We do therefore hereby appoint assign and codnstitute James Duke of Richmond and Lennox William Marquess of Hertford Thomas Earl of Southampton Henry Earl of Kingston Francis Earl of Chichester Francis Lord Seymor Arthur Lord Capel Christopher Lord Hatton John Lord Culpeper Sir Edward Nicholas Knight one of cur principal Secretaries of State Sir Edward Hide Knight Chancellour and Vnder-Treasurer of our Exchequer Sir Richard Lane Chief Baron of our said Exchequer Sir Thomas Gardiner Sir Orlando Bridgeman Master John Asburnham and Master Jeffery Palmer together with Dr. Richard Steward upon the Propositions concerning Religion to be our Commissioners touching the Premises and do hereby give unto them or to any ten or more of them full power and authority to meet and on our part to treat with Algernon Earl of Northumberland Philip Earl of Pembroke and Montgomery William Earl of Salisbury Basil Earl of Denbigh Thomas Lord Viscount Wentworth Denzil Hollis William Pierpoint Esquires Sir Henry Vane the younger Knight Oliver St. John Bulstrade Whitlock John Crew and Edmond Prideaux Esquires for the Lords and Commons assembled in the Parliament of England at Westminster and John Earl of London Lord Chancellour of Scotland Archibald Marquess of Arguile John Lord Maytland John Lord Balmerino Sir Archibald Johnson Sir Charles Asking George Douglas Sir John Smith Sir Hough Kennedy and Master Robert Carly for the Estates of the Parliament of Scotland together with Master Alexander Henderson upon the Propositions concerning Religion or with any ten or more of them upon and touching the matters contained in the said Propositions Answers and Messages or any other according to the manner and agreement therein specified or otherwise as they or any ten or more of them shall think fit and to take all the Premises into their serious considerations and to compose conclude and end all Differences arising thereupon or otherwise as they or any ten or more of them in their wisdoms shall think fit and upon the whole matter to conclude a safe and well-grounded Peace if they can and whatsoever they or any then or more of them shall do in the Premises we do by these presents ratifie and confirm the same Given at our Court at Oxon the 28. day of January one thousand six hundred forty and four in the 20. year of our Reign His Majesties Instructions to the Commissioners at Uxbridge Concerning the Militia and Ireland First concerning Religion In this the Government of the Church as is set forth Sect. 3. Numb 14. Next concerning the Militia After Conscience this is certainly the fittest Subject for a Kings quarrel for without it the Kingly Power is but a shadow and therefore upon no means to be quitted but maintained according to the known Laws of the Land yet to attain to this so much wished peace of all good men it is in a manner necessary
shun the danger paid him eleven hundred and seventy pounds at the very instant yet did he deliver her the counterfeit coppy onely meaning to make use of the true one to get another some of the Earls adversaries This imposter being found out he was censured to perpetual imprisonment condemned in three thousand pounds two of which were to go to the Countess and his ears nailed to the pillory with this writing over his head A notorious Cheater I shall conclude all with some few observations on this unfortunate Earl as to his first rise my Lord of Leicester introduced him who had married his mother a tye of affinity Sure it is that he no sooner appeared in the Court but he took with the Queen and Courtiers and I believe they all could not choose through the sacrifice of the Father but look on the living Son whose image by the remembrance of former passages was afresh like the bleeding of men murthered represented to the Court The Cicero of our modern times parallels him and Buckingham where the difference was is too transparent certain it is to use Sir Robert Nauntons own words that there was in this young Lord together with a most goodly person a kinde of urbanity or innate courtesie which both won the Queen and took too much on the people which amongst other disparities Buckingham never did attain to the latter What hath been imputed to his fall is that he drew too fast from the Queens indulgence like a childe sucking of an over uberous Nurse which caused him to express himself in such peremptory language when he heard that my Lord Mountjoy received a favour from the Queen for his running so well a tilt when as though he would have limited her respects he said Now I believe every fool must have a favour which made the Queen swear by Gods death it was fit that one or other should take him down and teach him better maners All Authours agree that he was a man of a rash spirit thirsty after the uncertain fame of popularity which helpt him on to his Catastrophe One writeth this Latine Epitaph on him Epitaphium de eodem Comite Ecce sub hoc tumulo situs est celeberrimus Heros Qui cecidit patrii spesque decusque soli Fama ingens annis juvenis fortissimus armis Nobilitate potens religione pius Terra Britannia parens testis Hibernia lethi Tristia fata gemunt fortia facta canunt Facta togae bellive magis praestantia mirer Optima pace domi Maxima marte foris Mors fera corpus habet Coelo Comes inclyte vivis Vita dicata Deo mors nonna vita data est The Life of Sir ROBERT CECILL Tu pater patriae Princeps Prudentia cujus Extulit immensum roges populosque Britannos THis Earwig of the Court Sir Robert Cecil afterwards Earl of Salisbury was the Son of the Lord Burleigh and the Inheritour of his Wisdom and by degrees Successour of his places and favours though not of his Lands for he had Sir Thomas Cecil his elder Brother afterwards created Earl of Exeter He was first Secretary of State then Master of the Wards and in the last of Queen Elizabeths Reign came to be Lord Treasurer all which were the steps of his Fathers greatnesse and of the Honour he left to his House For his Person he was not much beholding to Nature though somewhat for his Face which was the best part of his outside but for his inside it may be said and without Solecisme that he was his Fathers own Son and a pregnant Proficent in all Discipline of State He was a Courtier from his Cradle which might have made him betimes yet at the age of twenty and upwards he was much short of his after-proof but exposed and by change of climate he soon made shew what he was and would be He lived in those times wherein the Queen had most need and use of men of weight and among able ones this was a chief as having his sufficiency from his instructions that begat him the Tutourship of the times and Court which were then the Accademies of Art and Cunning. This great Master of State and the staff of the Queens declining age who though his little crooked person could not promise any great supportation yet it carried thereon a head and a head-piece of a vaste content and therein it seems Nature was so diligent to compleat one and the best part about him as that to the perfection of his memory and intellectuals she took care also of his senses and to put him in Linceos oculos or to pleasure him the more borrowed of Argus so to give unto him a prospective sight and for the rest of his sensitive Vertues his predecessour Walsingham had left him a receipt to smell out what was done in the Conclave and his good old father was so well seen in the Mathematicks as that he could tell you thorow all Spain every part every ship with the burthens whither bound with preparation what impediments for diversion of enterprizes counsels and resolutions And that we may see as in a little Map how docible this little man was I will present a taste of his abilities The Earl of Devonshire upon the certainty the Spaniard would invade Ireland with a strong Army had written very earnestly to the Queen and the Councel for such supplies to be sent over that might enable him to march up to the Spaniard if he did land and follow on his prosecution against the Rebels Sir Robert Cecill besides the general dispatch of the Councell as he often did wrote this in private for these two began then to love dearly My Lord Out of the abundance of my affection and the care I have of your well doing I must in private put you out of doubt for of fear I know you cannot be otherwise sensible then in the way of honour that the Spaniard will not come unto you this year for I have it from my own what preparations are in all his Parts and what he can do For be confident he beareth up a reputation by seeming to embrace more then he can gripe But the next year be assured he will cast over unto you some Forelorn-hopes which how they may be reinforced beyond his present ability and his first intention I cannot as yet make any certain judgement but I believe out of my intelligence that you may expect there landing in Munster and the more to distract you in several places as at Kinsale Bur-haven Baltimore where you may be sure coming from Sea they will first fortifie and learn the strength of the Rebells before they dare take the field howsoever as I know you will not lesson not your care neither your defences and whatsoever lies within my power to do you and the publick service rest thereof assured And to this I would adde much more but it may as it is suffice to present much as to his abilities in the pen
at that time was sitting in the Parliament House but alarum'd with the noise of the great guns he speedeth down his coming putting a stand to the Kings Forces who then were upon point of Victory There were slain on the Parliaments side Serjeant Major Quarles a man of eminent parts who left behinde him one onely Daughter named Esther since married to Master William Holgate of Saffron Walden a deserving Gentleman whose love to learning and learned men hath made his name famous to all posterity Captain Lilburne with some others were taken prisoners the winter then drawing on apace both Armies retired to their Winer quarters The next Spring Essex sets forth with his Army layes Siege to Reading to relieve which the King Prince Rupert and Prince Maurice advanced with a great Army but being worsted at Causham-Bridge the Town was surrendered to the Earl of Essex Presently after the taking of Reading the Parliament side began to decline on a sudden a contageous sickness seized on the Earl of Essex Souldiers the Marquess of New Castle was grown very powerful in the North and Sir William Waller defeated in the West Bristol being delivered up to the King so that had he with his Army come up the next way to London it was thought he would have found but little opposition Glocester onely held out against him The King unwilling to leave any Town behinde him layes Siege thereunto to the raising whereof the Army being not in a capacity of themselves the Train Bands of London assented to this expedition who raised the Siege and not long after gave the Kings Forces Battel at Newbery this was a long and bloody fight nor had either of the parties much cause to boast On the Kings side were slain the Earl of Carnarvan the Earl of Sunderland the Lord Faulkland Collonel Morgan Lieutenant Colonel Fielding Mr. Strode and other eminent persons On the Parliament side was slain Colonel Tucker Captain George Massey Captain Hunt and others The Earl of Essex with the Trained Bands returned to London where he had solemn thanks given him by the Parliament And now the Winter coming on he had the leisure for a while to refresh himself and to make new provisions for War against the ensuing Spring which being come he marches with his Army from London Sir William Waller at some distance marching with him after a while he sits down before Oxford where the King then was who fearing a Siege about midnight did take Horse attended with certain Troops who carried some Foot mounted behinde them and came to Witney five miles from Burford whither also Essex followed him Prince Maurice who had long laid Siege to Lyme upon his approach towards those parts he raises it The strong Town of Weymouth it surrendered unto him yea all the Countries round about came in unto him and the Garrisons opened their Gates at the first sound of his Trumpet At Chard within the compass of twelve miles came four thousand men unto him protesting to live and to dye in the cause of the Parliament as their friends at Dorchester did before them Barnstable revolteth to him Sir Richard Grenvile is beaten and Taunton Castle taken by his forces soon after he possesses himself of Mount Stanford Plimpton Salt-Ash and divers other small Garrisons from thence he advanceth towards Tavestock where he took Sir Richard Grenviles house and in it two pieces of Canon eight hundred Arms a great quantity of rich Furniture and three thousand pound in Money and Plate He marches into Cornwal forcing his passage over at Newbridge with the loss of a hundred and fifty of his enemies about Listethel he encountred Sir Richard Grenvile whom he overthrew immediately upon this Bodmin Tadcaster and Foy stoop unto him But the King who all this while was not idle understanding of his advance into Cornwal resolved to march after him for he found that his Army did daily encrease The presence of a Prince by a secret attraction for the most part prevailing upon the affections of the people Essex hereupon sends to the Parliament for Recruits but before he could receive any supply the King had so cooped up his Army that his Horse had no room for forrage in this strait he calleth a Councel of War wherein it was concluded that three thousand Horse under the command of Sir William Belfore should attempt to break through the main body of the Kings forces which accordingly was put in execution necessity whetting their valours so that with some loss they got through and came safely to Plymouth But the Foot having not that swift means of escape were forced to yield themselves The Earl made his escape by Sea attended with the Lord Roberts and taking shipping at Foy landed at Plymouth sick both in body and minde Thus on a sudden was all undone which he with much pains and hazard had been long a doing so uncertain is the chance of War that he who now rideth triumphantly in the Chariot of Victory may ere long become the Object of his enemies mercy Soon after followed the new moddeling of the Army wherein all those Commanders who were Members of either House of Parliament were called home Essex hereupon surrendered up his Commission Sir Thomas Fairfax being made General in his stead after which time he continually sate in the House of Peers until the time of his death which was on the 14. of September 1646. and 56. year of his age His Funeral was solemnized with great state a Monument being erected for him in Westminster Abbey which a mad villain most uncivilly defaced The Life of Sir CHARLES LUCAS SO much pitty is owing from posterity to the unfortunate Loyalist Sir Charles Lucas that should I omit to render him his due honours I might be taxed of partiality at least to have fallen short of what the Title of this Volume promises he being one whose Learning and Valour hath made him amongst others eminent of the English Nation I shall not need to spend much time in setting forth the stem from whence this illustrious Ciens sprung he who hath not heard of the Family of the Lucas's knows nothing of Gentility yet had no honour accrew'd to him from his famous Progenitors it were honour enough to him to be Brother to that nobly accomplished and deservingly honoured the Plato of this age the Lord Lucas a Gentleman singularly gifted in all suitable elements of worth as also to Sir Gervas Lucas a valiant Commander sometimes Governour of Belvoir Castle For his Education it was generous having his youth sufficiently seasoned in principles of knowledge both Humane and Divine to which joyning his Manhood and Discipline in the Field he had scarce his equal He was a person accompanied with a resolute spirit of an active disposition and a suitable discretion to mannage it strict in his commands without a supercillious severity free in his rewards to persons of desert and quality in his society he was affable and pleasant in
being nevertheless so happy to have a Colledge of his name where he so profited in the Arts and Sciences that after an incredible proficiency in all the species of Learning he left the Accademical life for that of the Court whither he came by the invitation of his Uncle the Earl of Leicester of whose faction he was a great favourite of Queen Elizabeth he was of a comely presence framed by a naturall propension to arms and Warlike atchievements so that he soon attracted the good opinion of all men especially of the Queen fame having already blazed abroad his admirable parts she thought him fit for the greatest employments sent him upon an Embassy to the Emperour of Germany at Vienna which he discharged to his own honour and her approbation Yea his fame was so renowned throughout all Christendom that he was in election for the Kingdom of Poland and elective Kingdom but the Queen refused to further his advancement not out of emulation but for the loss of his company at Court He married Sir Francis Walsingams Daughter who impoverished himself to enrich the State from whom he expected no more then what was above all portions a Beautifull Wife and a Vertuous Daughter During his abode at the Court at his spare hours he composed that incomparable Romance entituled The Arcadia which he ded icated to his Sister the Countess of Pembroke A Book which considering his so Youthfull Years and Martial Employments it was a wonder that he had leasure for to write such a Volumn which as Dr. Heylin the Learned Ornament of our Nation in his exquisite Cosmography writes thus of Sir Philip Sidney of whom sayes he I cannot make too honourable a mention and of his Arcadia a Book which besides its excellent Language rare Contrivance and delectable Stories hath in it all the strains of Poesie comprehendeth the whole Art of Speaking and to them who can descern and will observe affordeth notable Rules of Demeanour both private and publick One writes that Sir Philip Sidney in the extream agony of his wounds so terrible the sense of Death is that he requested the dearest Friend he had living to burn his Arcadia On which one Epigrammatist writes thus Ipse tuam moriens sede conjuge teste jubebas Arcadiùm faevis ignibus esse cibum Sic meruit mortem quia flammam accendit amoris Mergi non uri debuit iste liber In librum quaecunque cadat sententia nulla Debuit ingenium morte perire tuum In serious thoughts of death 't was thy desire This sportful Book should be condemn'd with fire If so because it doth intend Love matters It rather should be quencht then drown'd i' th waters Which were it damn'd the Book the Memory Of thy immortal name shall never dye To make amends to such precise persons that think all that is not Divinity to be vain and lascivious he translated part of that excellent Treatise of Philip Morney de Plessis of the truth of Religion To pass by the follies of such supercillious Enthusiasts he wrote also severall other Works namely a defence of Poesie a Book entituled Astrophel and Stella with divers Songs and Sonnets in praise of his Lady whom he celebrated under that bright name so excellently and elegantly penned that as it is in a Poem 'T would make one think so sweet of Love he sings His Pens were Quills pluckt off from Cupids Wings So great were the Lamentations of his Funerals that a face might be sooner found without eyes then without tears no Persons of Honour at that time but thought it a dishonour not to mourn for him To recite the Commendations given him by several Authours would of its self require a Volumn to rehearse some few not unpleasing to the Reader Heylin in his Cosmography calleth him that gallant Gentleman of whom he cannot but make honourable mention Another in his Annals a most valiant and towardly Gentleman Speed in his Chronicle that worthy Gentleman in whom were compleat all vertues and valours that could be expected to reside in man Sir Richard Baker gives him this Character A man of so many excellent Parts of Art and Nature of Valour and Learning of Wit and Magnanimity that as he had equalled all those of former Ages so the future will hardly be able to equal him Nor was this Poet forgotten by the Poets who offered whole Hecatombs of Verses in his praise First hear the Brittish Epigrammatist Thou writ'st things worthy reading and didst do Things worthy writing too Thy Acts thy Valour show And by thy Works we do thy Learning know Divine Du Bartas speaking of the most Learned of the English Nation reckoneth him as one of the Chief in these words And world mourn'd Sidney warbling to the Thames His Swan-like tunes so courts her coy proud streams That all with childe with fame his fame they bear To Thetis Lap and Thetis every were The Renowned Poet Spenser in his Ruines of Time thus writes of him Yet will I sing but who can better sing Then thou thy self thine own self's valiance That whilest thou livedst thou mad'st the Forests ring And Fields resoun'd and Flocks to leap and dance And Shepheards leave their Lambs unto mischance To run thy shrill Arcadian Pipe to hear O happy were those dayes thrice happy were Sir John Harrington in his Epigrams thus If that be true the latter Proverb sayes Laudari à laudatis is most praise Sidney thy Works in Fames Books are enroll'd By Princes Pens that have thy Works extol'd Whereby thy Name shall dure to endless dayes Joyning with the rest that Kingly Poet King James the First late Monarch of Great Brittain amongst others writeth thus When Venus saw the noble Sidney dying She thought it her beloved Mars had been And with the thought thereat she fell a crying And cast away her Rings and Carknets clean He that in death a Goddess mockt and grieved What had he done trow you if he had lived These Commendations given him by so Learned a Prince made Mr. Alexander Nevil thus to write Harps others praise a Scepter his doth sing Of Crowned Poets and of Laureat King To conclude the Lord Burleigh the Nestor of those Times though otherwise an enemy to the Leicestrian Party both loved and admired him Yet was he not altogether addicted to Arts but given as much to the Exercise of Arms being a follower of Mars as well as a Friend to the Muses and although he himself used to say That Ease was the Nurse of Poesie yet his Life made it manifest that the Muses inhabited the Fields of Mars as well as the flowery Lawns of Arcadia that Sonnets were sung in the Tents of War as well as in the Courts of Peace the Muses Layes being warbled forth by a Warlike Sidney in as high a tune as ever they were sung by a peaceable Spenser And although the lamp of his life was extinguisht too soon yet left he a sufficient testimony to the world
disposition as she knew right well that if she did deal any thing hardly with the Queen of Scots it rather proceeded from some of her Ministers then from her Majesties self I replyed that I was glad to understand that she conceived so well of the Queen my Mistris's good disposition so was I sorry that she should think she would be by any of her Ministers or Councellors drawn to any thing either towards her or any other that might not stand with her honour for that her skill and years was now to direct and not to be directed I desired her therefore in her Majesties name that she would evermore reserve an ear for her A thing that would not in equity be denied to the meanest person in France who in all her actions hitherto towards the Queen of Scots had dealt with that regard to her honour as she was right able to justifie her self both towards the King her good brother as also towards all other Princes Then she made great protestations of her indifferency and that she is no lesse affected in good will towards her Majesty whom it pleaseth saith she to do me the honour as to call me by the name of a Mother then to the Queen of Scots her daughter-in-law and therefore in wishing her liberty I do it saith she as much as for the Queen your Mistriss quietness sake as for any other respect which without her liberty can hardly grow unto her This Sir in effect was the whole course of the Speech that passed from her in that behalf which she had then with me apart The King being then in talk with my Lord Ambassadour then she caused the King to deal with me in that behalf to whom I shewed the state of her cause according to the contents of my instructions wherewith he seemed to be satisfied He told me that he wished that the Queen his good Sister according to the inclination would have some compassion of her cause and grow to some speedy conclusion in that behalf I told him that I doubted not but that her Majesty would for his sake do that which should be to his contentation so far forth as might stand with her honour and safety Then he professed that otherwise he would not desire it Thus having imparted to your honour the effect of my negotiation to the end you may advertise her Majesty I most humbly take my leave From Paris the 29. of August 1570. Your Honours to command F. Walsingham To conclude he was sent twice Ambassadour into France once into Scotland once into the Low Countreys so that he was most intimately acquainted with the deepest counsels and secrets of Princes that he rightly understood how to preserve his Countrey and how to mannage affairs either for Peace or War He died the sixth day of April in the year of our Lord 1590. He lies entombed in St. Pauls being in respect of the debts he had contracted for his faithful service to the Crown forced to be buried privately in that Cathedral One bestowed this Latine Epitaph on his Memory Sic reticenda domi fido secreta recondis Pectore sic discis discutienda foris Vt tua sitnè fides dubitem an prudentia major Virtute indubio hac magnus utraque vir es The Life of Sir NICHOLAS BACON Ingenio Bacon magnus custosque sigilli firmavit justas posteritis opes SIR Nicholas Bacon a person inferiour to none of his predecessours as arch a piece of wit and wisdom as any of them all He was a Gentleman and a man of Law of great knowledge therein whereby together with his other parts of Learning and dexterity he was promoted to be Keeper of the great Seal and being of kin to the Treasurer Burleigh had also the help of his hand to bring him into the Queens favour for he was abundantly factious which took much with Queen Elizabeth when it was suited with the season as he was well able to judge of his times He had a very quaint saying and he used it often to good purpose that he loved the jeast well but not the loss of his friend He would say that though he knew unusquisque suae fortunae faber was a true and good principle yet the most in number were those that marred themselves But I will never forgive that man that loseth himself to be rid of his jeast He was Father to that refined Wit which afterwards acted a disasterous part on the publique Stage and afterwards sate in his Fathers room as Lord Chancellour Those that lived in his age and from whence I have taken this little Modle of him give him a lively Character and they decypher him for another Solon and the Synon of those times such a one as Oedipus was in dissolving of Riddles Doubtless he was as able an instrument and it was his commendation that his head was the mawl for it was a great one and therein he kept the wedge that entred the knotty pieces that came to his table He was of the prudent Family of the Bacons of Norfolk and Suffolk he died in the year of our Lord 1578. the threescore and seventh year of his age and lieth entombed in the Cathedral Church of St. Pauls with this Latine Epitaph inscribed on him Hic Nicclaum ne Baconem conditum Existima illum tam diu Britannici Regni secundum Columen exitium Malis Bonis asylum caeca quem non extulit Ad hunc honorem sors sed Aequitas Fides Doctrina Pietas unica Prudentia Neu morte raptum crede qui unica brevi Vita perennes emerit duas agit Vitam secundam coelites inter animus Fama implet orbem vita quae illi tertia est Hac positum in Arâ est corpus olim animi domus Ara dicata sempiternae memoriae His Motto was Mediocria firma He left behinde him as a Monument of his incomparable worth in continuance of his Name Sir Francis Bacon our English Plato the inimitable Writer of this Age. The Life of ROBERT DEVEREUX Earl of ESSEX Infelix virtus ventis vela secundis Extrema Comitem tandem oppressere ruina RObert Devereux Earl of Essex was born Anno 1566. He had scarcely attained to ten years of age when his Father Walter Devereux Earl of Essex and Earl Marshal of Ireland deceased at Dublin premonishing his Son to have alwayes before his eyes the six and thirtieth year of his age as the utmost term of his life which neither himself nor his Father before him out-lived and the son did not attain to it At his Fathers death he was by the Lord Burleigh his Guardian sent to the University of Cambridge under the tuition of Doctour Whitguift then Master of Trinity-Hall a man of the primitive temper when the Church by lowliness of spirit did flourish in highest examples of Piety and Learning At sixteen years of age he took the formality of Master of Arts and kept his publick Acts yet notwithstanding his good erudition it
to Deureux he did see Thy beauties Cales but Deureux conquer'd thee The whole Navy returning home safe crowned with victory and laden with spoils yet seemed the revenge far less then the injury offered by the Spaniard wherefore the next year a third voyage was undertaken whereof the Earl of Essex was made commander in chief Their design was to intercept the Indian Fleet in their return into Spain many of the Nobility and principal Gentlemen accompanied the Earl in this expedition The ninth of July 1597. they set sail from Plimouth directing their course to Feral and the Groyne but God as a worthy Author interprets was so displeased at these nations enmities that they had not sailed forty leagues but they were encountred with such a terrible tempest that the Marriners themselves were at their wits end and the Fleet had much adoe to recover Plimouth And attempting to set out the second time the winde fell so cross that for a whole moneths time they could not get out of the Haven The 17 of August they again hoise sail but before they came in view of Spain they were disperst by another horrible tempest in which they lost two of their ships The 15 of September they fell into the Isles of Flores Evernes Fyal and Pike all which submitted themselves to the Earls devotion afterwards they sailed to Gratiosa whose inhabitants submit and finde mercy here would the Earl have tarried in expectation of the Indian Fleet had he not been most unluckily disswaded by Graves his Pilot for no sooner was he gone but the American Fleet came by wherein were forty ships and seven of them laden with Treasure these fearful sheep hearing the English wolves were abroad loath to lose their golden fleece sailed with all speed they could to Tezcera where they gained the Haven all but three ships which the English took the rest securing themselves in the Port which being impregnable The English sail from thence to Sain Michaels where they took Villa Franca a fair Town well stored with Merchandize wine wood and corn here they tarried six dayes during which space a Caraque coming out of the East-Indies and perceiving the English were there ran her self ashore unloaded her Merchandize and then fired her self October the ninth they hoist sail for England but in their passage were assailed by such a tempest that quite lost them the sight of the Spanish Fleet who likewise suffered much by the same tempest for one of their ships was cast upon Dartmouth the Souldiers and Marriners half starved in her who upon examination confessed that the Spanish Fleets intention was to seize upon some Haven in Cornwall which being nigh the mouth of the Chancel might be convenient to receive Forces from Spain but man proposeth and God disposeth for the divine providence frustrated the designs both of the Spaniard and the English The Earl of Essex upon his return was created Earl Marshal of England Hitherto have we beheld our Earl ascending the zenith of Honour but favourites of great Princes are seldom without parasites who wanting true worth in themselves make a ladder of mischief to climbe up to promotion these buz into the Earls head strange fancies and chymaera's that his deserts were far greater then his rewards that during his absence Sir Robert Cicill was made Chancellour of the Dutchy of Lancaster and Charles Lord Howard created Earl of Nottingham with relation in his pattent to the Victory in eighty eight and his good service at Cales that he was descended of the blood royal of Scotland and England and had better right to the Crown then any other of the compettitors This puts the Earl upon indirect courses and though he cannot attain to be King of England he seeks to be made a petty King of Ireland the state of which Countrey ordained to be the Sepulchre of his Father and the gulf of his own fortunes was at that present in a dangerous condition by reason Tir Oen a notorious rebell had lately atchieved such a victory with so great loss to the English as they had never felt the like since they first set footing in Ireland Whereupon a serious consultation was held on whom to send to quell the rebels Essex though he seemed not to desire the employment yet still was ready with his exceptions if any other were nominated at length it was concluded that he should be the man and an Army of twenty thousand foot and thirteen hundred horse alotted unto him with these and a great retinue besides of the Nobility he passeth into Ireland His first action after his arrival was against the Petty Rebels in the Province of Mounster contrary to his Commission which was to go immediately against Tir Oen himself but men who prefer their private fancies before publique Instructions seldom attain to their wished desires For notwithstanding he took the Castle of Cahir and drove the Rebels into the Woods and Groves adjoyning his Forces by this means were so impaired that the gain did not countervail the loss wherefore sending for fresh supplies out of England in the mean time he sendeth directions to Sir Coniers Clifford President of Connaught to set upon the Rebels in one place thereby to sever their Forces while he assaulted them in another This counsel though good yet found ill success Clifford with fifteen hundred Souldiers marching towards Belike set upon the Rebels but the Fight continuing long and the English wanting Powder were put to flight Clifford himself and many of the old Soldiers being slain In the mean time Essex receiveth fresh Forces out of England and withall a check for neglecting the Queens Command wherefore at length he setteth forth towards the borders of Vlster with thirteen hundred Foot and five hundred Horse Tir Oen not able to match him in power yet seeketh to over-match him in policy and by his Messenger desireth a parley Essex mistrusting not the poyson in the bate condescended appointing the shallow of Balla Clinch for their meeting place thither came Essex alone with whom Tir Oen had private conference a full hour and not long after by their Delegates concluded a Truce from six weeks to six weeks till May Day This Transaction more incensed the Queen who dispatcheth very sharp Letters unto him blaming his delay and letting slip every fair opportunity with which Letters he likewise receiveth advertisement that Sir Robert Cecil was made Master of the Wards a place which he expected himself This Sir Robert Cecil was a man of lame feet but of a sound head one who bare great sway in the Court and a special stickler against the Earl which exasperated him the more not that he lost the place himself but that his Adversary had attained unto it This State proceeding entred so deep into his thoughts that he studies revenge and held private consultations of returning into England with part of his Forces to surprize his Adversaries But from this dangerous course the Earl of Southamptom
natural wit and a better judgement with a bold and plausible tongue whereby he could set out his parts to the best advantage and to these he had the adjuncts of some general learning which by diligence he enforced to a great augmentation and perfection for he was an undefatigable reader whether by Sea or Land and none of the least observers both of men and the times And I am confident that among the second causes of his growth that variance between him and the Lord Grey in his descent into Ireland was a principall for it drew them both before the Councel Table there to plead for themselves where what advantage he had in the cause I know not but he had much the better in the telling of his tale and so much that the Queen and the Lords entertained no ordinary considerations of his person and his parts for from thence he came to be known and to have access to the Queen and to the Lords and then we are not to doubt how such a man might rise by his compliance the most expeditious way of progression Whether Leicester had then cast in a good word for him to the Queen I cannot determine but true it is he had gotten Queen Elizabeths ear at a trice and she began to be taken with his elocution and loved to hear his reasons to her demands and the truth is she took him for a kinde of Oracle which nettled them all yea those that he relyed on began to take his sudden favour for an allarum and to be sensible of their own supplantation and to project his which made him shortly after sing Fortune my foe c. So that finding his favour declining and falling into a recess he undertook a new peregrination to leave that Terra infirma of the Court for that of the Wars and by declining himself and by absence to expell his and the passion of his enemies which in Court was a strange device of recovery but that he knew there was some ill office done him that he durst not attempt to minde any other wayes then by going aside thereby to teach envy a new way of forgetfulness and not so much as to think of him Howsoever he had it alwayes in minde never to forget himself and his device took so well that at his return he came in as Romans do by going backwards with the greater strength and so continued to her last great in her grace and Captain of the Guard One observation more may not be omitted namely that though he gained much at the Court yet he took it not out of the Exchequer or meerly out of the Queens Purse but by his Wit and the help of the Prerogative for the Queen was never profuse in the delivering out of her Treasure but payed many and most of her servants part in money and the rest with grace which as the case stood was taken for good payment leaving the arrear of recompence due to their merit to her great successour who payed them all with advantage our Rawleigh excepted who fortunately in the very first beginning of his Reign fell into his displeasure by combining with the Lords Cobham and Gray Sir Griffin Markham George Brook Esquire and several others to destroy the King raise sedition commit slaughter move rebellion alter Religion subvert the State to procure Invasion leavy War and to set up the Lady Arabella Steward c. of all which crimes being arraigned he was found guilty and condemned But King James being a Prince of peace unwilling to stain the beginning of his Reign with blood contented himself with onely his Imprisonment this following Letter to his Favorite having saved his life Sir Walter Raleigh to the Duke of Buckingham If I presume too much I humbly beseech your Lordship to pardon me especially in presuming to write to so great and so worthy a Person who hath been told that I have done him wrong I heard it but of late but most happy had I been if I might have disproved that villany against me when there had been no suspicion that the desire to save my life had presented my excuse But my worthy Lord it is not to excuse my self that I now write I cannot for I have now offended my Sovereign Lord for all past even all the World and my very Enemies have lamented my loss whom now if his Majesties mercy alone do not lament I am lost Howsoever that which doth comfort up my soul in this offence is that even in the offence it self I had no other intent then his Majesties service and to make his Majesty know that my late enterprize was grounded upon a truth and which with one ship speedily set out I meant to have aspired or have died being resolved as it is well known to have done it from Plimouth had I not been restrained Hereby I hoped not onely to recover his Majesties gracious Opinion but to have destroyed all those Malignant Reports that had been raised of me That this is true that Gentleman whom I so much trusted my Keeper and to whom I opened my heart cannot but testifie and wherein I cannot be believed living my death shall witness yea that Gentleman cannot but avow it that when we came back to London I desired no other treasure then an exact description of those places in the Indies That I meant to go hence as a discontented man God I trust and my own actions will disswade his Majesty whom neither the loss of my Estate thirteen years Imprisonment and the denial of my pardon could beat from his service or the opinion of being accounted a fool or rather a distract by returning as I did ballanced with my love to his Majesties person and estate had no other place in my heart It was the last severe Letter from my Lords for the speedy bringing of me up and the impatience of dishonour that first put me in fear of my life or enjoying it in a perpetual Imprisonment never to recover my Reputation lost which strengthened me in my late and too late lamented resolution If his Majesties Mercy doth not abound if his Majesty do not pitty my old age and scorn to take the extreamest and utmost advantage of my errours if his Majesty in his great charity do not make a difference betwixt offences proceeding from a life saving naturall impulsion without all ill intent and those of an ill heart and that your Lordship remarkable in the world for the nobleness of your disposition do not vouchsafe to become my successour whereby your Lordship shall binde a hundred Gentlemen of my Kindred to honour your Memory and bind me for all that time my life which your Lordship shall beg for me to pray to God that you may ever prosper and ever binde me to remain Your most humble Servant W. Raleigh He remained prisoner in the Tower above thirteen years during which time he writ that Elabourate Work entituled the History of the World which Book for
Life of LANCELOT ANDREWS Bishop of Winchester IT is poetized of the Thracian Orpheus that his Oratotary was so powerful that with it he drew the senseless stones after him towards the building of Thebes which some moralize that his eloquence was such as attracted the senseless and stony multitude from Barbarism to frame themselves to a civil and well ordered life What was storied of Orpheus may fitly be applied to this learned Bishop who with his heavenly Oratory drew many stony senseless hearts out of the Captivity of Satan unto the glorious freedom of the Gospel of Jesus Christ For his person we can add nothing to him to name him is enough to all that knew him and to read him will be enough to them that knew him not his piety being such as was esteemed comparable to that which was found in the primitive Church This right reverend father in God Bishop of Winchester Prelate of the Garter was born in the City of London descended from the ancient Family of the Andrews in Suffolk his Father a Merchant of good repute and according to the Religion of those ancient times very devout being one of the Society and Masters of the Holy Trinity commonly called Trinity-House He in his tender years shewed great aptness to learning which he so improved under his two School-masters Mr. Ward Master of the Coopers Free School in Radcliffe and Mr. Mulchaster Master of the Merchant-Taylors Free School in London that he promised a golden Harvest from so hopeful a seed-time So that from his youth he declared an extraordinary worth that he was made up of learning and vertue in both of them so eminent that it was hard to judge which had the precedency and greater interest though it was truly asserted from his contemporaries that there was not any kinde of Learning that he was a stranger to but in his profession admirable which was as well if not better known abroad then admired at home Having under these two gained an excellent knowledge in the Greek and Hebrew Languages he was sent to Pembroke-Hall in Cambridge where he was by Doctor Wats Archdeacon of Middlesex a Benefactor to that house placed in one of the Greek Schollarships soon after he was made Bachellour of Arts and a Fellowship being void he and Thomas Dove afterwards Bishop of Peterburgh for the obtaining thereof were put to a trial of some Schollastical exercises upon performance whereof they chose him into the fellowship yet so well did they approve of his opponent that they made him some allowance for his present maintenance under the title of a Tanquam Socius Thus this great miracle of worth that arrived to such a fulness of material learning had yet room enough left him in the temper of his brain for almost all Languages to seat themselves so that his learning had all the helps that Language could afford and his language learning enough for the best of them to express so that it might be said of him as it was of Claudius Drusus that he was a man of great parts as mortal nature could receive or industry make perfect In process of time his endowments made him so eminent that he was invited unto Jesus Colledge in Oxford by Mr. Hugh Price who built the same whose decerning spirit presaging of his future abilities nominated him in his foundation to be one of his first Fellows there and having taken the degree of Master of Art he applied himself wholly to the study of Divinity Soon after was he chosen Catechist in the Colledge which he performed so well that not onely the University became his common auditors but many out of the Countrey resorted thither greatly admiring at his profound learning Henry Earl of Huntington hearing of his worth sent for him to accompany him into the North whereof he was President where by his painful preaching he converted many Recusants to the Protestant Religion And now his abilities being still better known to the world Sir Francis Walsingham Secretary of State to Queen Elizaheth took special notice of him and by his means he was preferred to be Vicar of Saint Giles without Cripple-Gate London then Prebend and Residentiary of St. Pauls and afterwards Prebend of the Collegiate Church of Southwell soon after upon the death of Doctor Fulk he was elected into the Mastership of Pembroke-hall in Cambridge Afterwards he was made Chaplain in ordinary to Queen Elizabeth who took such delight in his preaching that she resolved upon his higher preferment but having made him first Prebend and not long after Dean of Westminster death prevented her of her intentions But what was wanting in her was performed by her learned successour King James who admiring him for his transcendent abilities soon after his coming to this Crown made him Bishop of Chichester and Lord Almoner and withal added the parsonage of Cheyham in Surrey to his Commendam He now as he excelled most of his Brethren in dignity he thought it not enough unless he did more then imitate them in sanctity of life and knowing no better rule for his direction herein then what Saint Paul had prescribed to Timothy he resolved to make those precepts his rules of practice In these addresses of his to Heaven first he led his life as in respect to men blameless his vertues admired by all but imitated of few his life being like a candle set on a candlestick which gave light to the whole House drawing many souls to God as well by his holy conversation as pious preaching It is a true saying A mans pious carriage makes his speech perswasive Secondly his charity was most transcendent to pass over many vast sums he bestowed upon poor Parishes Prisons and Prisoners his private Alms in his last six years besides those publique amounted to the sum of 1300. pounds and upwards Notwithstanding by what hath been said he might seem in his life time to be his own Almoner yet extended he his works of compassion most abundantly at his death leaving four thousand pounds to purchase two hundred pounds land per annum for ever to be distributed by fifty pounds quarterly thus to aged poor men fifty pounds to poor widdows the wives of one husband fifty pounds to the binding of poor Orphans Apprentices fifty pounds and to the relief of poor prisoners fifty pounds Also he gave two hundred pounds to poor Maid-servants of honest report who had served one Master or Mistress seven years to be distributed presently after his decease Many other acts of Charity did this good Bishop do a fair coppy for new succeeding rich Cleargy-men who are all for the mountain word of Faith but have nothing to do with good Works to write after He had alwayes a special care of promoting sufficient and able men to Livings a great mans letter will do but little good with him if he saw not piety as well as personage in the party His enquiry was constantly to know what hopeful young men were in the
provided in kinde where he was freed from corroding cares and seated on such a rock as the waves of want could not probably shake where he might sit in a calm and looking down behold the busie multitude turmoiled and tossed in a tempestuous sea of dangers And as Sir William Davenant has happily exprest the like in another person Laugh at the graver business of the State Which speaks men rather wise then fortunate He died in Decemb. 1639 having compleated seventy three years His will was made by himself above two years before his death wherein he appointed that his Executours should lay over his Grave a plain stone of Marble with this Epitaph enscribed thereon Hic jacet hujus sententiae primus Author Disputandi pruritus Ecclesiarum scabies Nomen alias quaere Which may be englished thus Here 's lies the first Authour of this Sentence The Itch of Disputation will prove the Scab of the Church Enquire his name elsewhere To acquaint the world with two or three other Instances of the readiness of his Wit he having in Rome retained an acquaintance with a pleasant Priest who invited him one evening to hear their Vesper-Musick at Church the Priest seeing Sir Henry stand obscurely in a corner sends to him by a Boy of the Quire this question written in a small piece of paper Where was your Religion to be sound before Luther To which question Sir Henry Wotton presently under-writ My Religion was to be found then where yours is not to be found in the written word of God To another that asked him Whether a Papist may be saved He replyed You may be saved without knowing that Look to your self To another whose earnest zeal exceeded his knowledge and was still railing against the Papists he gave this advice Pray Sir forbear till you have studied the Points better for the wise Italian hath this Proverb He that understands amiss concludes worse And take heed of entertaining this opinion That the further you go from the Church of Rome the nearer you are to God He left behinde him many Monuments of his Learning whose worth are such that they speak themselves more incomparably to posterity then any Eulogies I can bestow upon them Give me leave to conclude with the words of one of the learnedst Modern Criticks That for the generality of the stile throughout his Works 't is most queintly delightful gentle soft and full of all manner of blandishments onely his pen flowed a little too much with the oyly adulation of Court-flattery Questionless if Sir Henry Wotton was reduced to any of these subserviences they were occasioned from his generous expences in the time of his Embassies for his Masters honour who used him as Queen Elizabeth did Sir Francis Walsingham who had but from hand to mouth The Life of THOMAS VVENTWORTH Earl of Stafford and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland TO particularize all the actions of the Earl of Strafford would of its self require an intire Volume it being a Garden of choice Varieties wherein points of Law are interwoven with Acts of State and the Affairs of Ireland as in the same Escutcheon quartered with those of England I shall onely take a superficial view of his life and not strain my self ambitiously to shew forth the utmost reach of his perfections he being a rare conjunction of Courage attended with loyalty to danger Wisdom accompanied with Eloquence to admiration who could both think and speak speak and do whose answers and replyes to the Articles exhibited against him by the House of Commons show his abilities to be such that whatsoever is spoken of him is infinitely below what was spoken by himself He was born in Yorkshire well descended and as well educated which fitted him to sustain the weighty Affairs he afterwards underwent A great stickler at the first against the Prerogative until allured by Court-preferment he turned Royalist for the King finding his worth and ability never left till he had gained him to himself obliging him to his side by many titles of honour and places of trust whose services he found equivalent to his favours continuing to his death a trusty servant a faithful friend a prudent Counsellour and a constant adherer to his side in all his exigencies The greatest services he did to the King were during the time he was Lieutenant of Ireland by his augmenting and advancing the Kings Revenues there restoring the Churches maintenance suppressing the Out-laws establishing obedience to Royal Authority impediting the Tyranny and usurpation of the great ones over the Commons causing the Irish to leave off many of their barbarous customs and conform themselves to the more civil manners of the English which drew much hatred upon himself for changes though for the better are most times ill resented by the vulgar witness those troubles in England in the time of King Edward the Sixth Nor could these innovations have found more dislike in any Nation under the Heavens then Ireland so wedded are those people to their ancient vain ridiculous customs But since I have inserted his most remarkable actions in the Life of King Charles I shall omit those passages and come to his solemn Trial so paramount in the Equipage of all Cirumstances that as former ages have been unable so future are unlikely to produce a parallell of them This great Minister of State was by the Parliament well known for the length of it accused with twenty eight Articles of High Treason February 16. 1640. The particulars are too long for me here to recite the substance of them being that he endeavoured to subvert the Fundamental Laws and Governments of the Realms of England and Ireland and enriching himself by indirect wayes in his office for incensing the King against the Scots for endeavouring to set things amisse betwixt his Majesty and the people and to have given counsel tending to the disquiet of the three Kingdoms The 13. of April following began his Trial in Westminster-Hall where there was a Throne erected for the King on each side whereof a Cabinet inclosed about with boards and before with a Tarras before that were the Seats for the Lords of the upper House and sacks of wool for the Judges before them ten stages of seats extending further then the midst of the Hall for the Gentlemen of the House of Commons at the end of all was a desk closed about and set apart for the Lord Lieutenant and his Councel The Earl of Arundel was Lord High Steward his Accusers were Pym Glin Mainard Whitlock St. Johns Palmers Sir Walter Earls Stroud Selden Hampden and others Many dayes were spent and much Rhetorick used on both sides for the Lieutenant was no childe but as cunning in the art of defence as any man in England equal if not surpassing his Predecessour the Earl of Kildare in the time of King Henry the Eighth But the House of Commons were implacable in their hatred towards him nothing being satisfactory to them but his downfal So
I desire that you would be silent and joyn with me in prayer and I trust in God we shall all meet and live eternally in Heaven there to receive the accomplishment of all happiness where every tear shall be wiped away from our eyes and every sad thought from our hearts And so God bless this Kingdom and Jesus have mercy on my soul Having ended his Speech he addrest himself to prayer wherein he continued about a quarter of an hour and then standing up took his leave of all the Nobles and considerable Persons on the Scaffold which done he prayed again and then laying his head down on the Block had the same dissevered from his body by the Executioner at one blow His Body was afterwards embalmed and carried into Yorkshire there to be buried amongst his Ancestors I shall close the Scene and shut up all with Mr. Cleavelands excellent Epitaph on this Heroe Here lies wise and valiant Dust Huddled up 'twixt fit and just Strafford who was hurried hence 'Twixt treason and convenience He spent his time here in a mist A Papist yet a Calvanist His Prince's nearest joy and grief He had yet wanted all relief The Prop and Ruine of the State The Peoples violent love and hate One in extreams lov'd and abhor'd Riddles lies here and in a word Here lies and let it lie Speechless still and never cry The Life of VVILLIAM LAUD Archbishop of Canterbury THis reverend Father in God William Laud Archbishop of Canterbury the times he lived in neither knowing his worth nor worthy of his person have too much vilified He was of no extraordinary Extraction as well as Stature yet he rose by his deserts to the highest degree of Honour He was born at Reading in Barkshire the year of our Redemption 1573. His Father a man of a competent Estate willing to see his pregnant son well educated who in few years attained to such learning that he was sent to St John Baptists Colledge in Oxford where he was such a Proficient that in twelve years space he was looked upon and applauded even to admiration of the University from whence he proceeded Batchelour and Master of Arts. Not long after he was chosen Procter of the University about which time he also became Chaplain to the Earl of Devonshire where first he fell acquainted with the Nobility a great cause no doubt of his preferment Soon after he proceeded Batchelour then Doctour in Divinity and becoming Chaplain to Doctour Neal Bishop of Rochester was by him recommended to King James and made his Chaplain Being now in the path to promotion he neglected no opportunity conducible thereunto but proves very serviceable to all those who might be any wayes advantageous to his advancement more especially was he observient to the Duke of Buckingham the grant Favorite of the times So that in short space he was made Prebend of Bugden and Westminster Dean of Glocester Archdeacon of Huntington and President of Saint Johns Colledge in Oxford besides these several Benefices bestowed upon him Stanford in Northamptonshire West-Tilbury in Essex Cuckston in Kent and Ibstock in Leicestershire Not long after King James the best Master to his Servants that ever was bestowed the Bishoprick of St. Davids upon him and with it in Commendam the Parsonage of Creek King James dying his Son our late Sovereign Charles finding his abilities took him into more special regard making him first Bishop of Bathe and Wells then Dean of his Chappel next a Privy Councellour soon after Bishop of London then Chancellour of Oxford and not long after Archbishop of Canterbury Higher he could not be advanced in England in Rome he might who to gain him to their side made him a ridiculous tender of a Cardinals Cap to which he returned answer That somewhat dwelt within which would not suffer that till Rome were otherwise then it is Implying thereby that that Church had errours to which his conscience could no wayes conform Far different was Bishop Laud from his Predecessor D. Abbot whose judgement for the indifferency of things Ceremonial made the enjoyning of them by Bishop Laud be termed an innovation many in their writings at that time inveighed bitterly against Episcopal Government as also against the Bishops three of which violent opponents were Mr. Pryn a Barrester of Lincolns Inne Dr. Bastwick a Physician and Master Burton a Divine who were censured in the Star-Chamber to pay each of them five thousand pounds to the King to lose their ears in the Pillory and to be imprisoned perpetually The first in Canarvan Castle in Wales the second in Lanceston Castle in Cornwall and the other in Lancaster Castle Master Pryn over and above to be stigmatized on both cheeks with the letter S. for a Schismatick This severity with the obtruding of the Common Prayer Book altered on the Scots which was by the Kings special command so exasperated them and the English Commonalty that Libels were each day scattered about one pasted on the Cross in Cheapside That the Archbishop of Canterbury had his hand in persecuting the Saints and shedding the blood of the Martyrs Another in the South Gate of Pauls That the Devil had let that house to him Another on the North Gate of Pauls That the government of the Church of England is a candle in the snuff going out in a stench Another hanged upon the Standerd in Cheapside wherein his Speech in the Star-Chamber was set in a kinde of Pillory c. Five hundred persons likewise under the name of Apprentices beset his house at Lambeth intending no doubt to have done to him as the unruly Rabble did to his Predecessour Simon Sudbury in the time of King Richard the second who was sacrificed to the fury of the people for which one of the chief named Thomas Bensteà being taken was hanged and quartered Many have been the reports that this Archbishop was addicted to Popery and a great friend to the Papists Certainly he who shall read the relation of his conference with the Jesuite Fisher will finde him so little theirs as he hath for ever disabled them from being so much their own as they were before it being the exactest Master-piece of Polemick Divinity of all extant as Sir Edward Deering in one of his Speeches writes that this Book of his mortally wounded the Jesuite in the fifth rib This learned Volume might have satisfied the people as touching his Religion and his Diary written by himself of the Integrity of his Life For he had not any intermission for his pen and best intentions of minde against the Roman Faction whatsoever the Covenanters have interpreted to the contrary he having continual occasions to lift up his eyes to heaven for the preservation of the glory of the Church and the honour and safety of his Majesty as by the abstract of a discovery made by Andreas ab Habernsfeid against the designs of the Papists to stir up a Commotion in Scotland and in the heat thereof to
universal grievance of your people 7. The great grief of your Subjects by long intermission of Parliaments and the late and former dissolution of such as have been called without the happy effects which otherwise they might have produced For remedy whereof and prevention of the dangers that may arise to your Royal Person and to the whole State they do in all humility and faithfulness beseech your most excellent Majesty that you would be pleased to summon a Parliament within some convenient time whereby the causes of these and other great Grievances which your people lye under may be taken away and the Authours and Councellors of them may be brought to such legal trial and condign punishment as the nature of their several offences shall require And that the present War may be composed by your Majesties wisdom without blood in such manner as may conduce to the honour and safety of your Majesties person the comfort of your people and the uniting of both your Realms against the common enemy of the reformed Religion And your Majesties Petitioners shall ever pray c. Concluded the 28. of August 1640. Francis Bedford Robert Essex Mulgrave Say Seal Edward Howard William Hartford Warwick Bullingbrooke Mandevile Brooke Pagett This Petition being seconded by another from the Scots to the same effect the King the twenty fourth day of the same moneth assembled the Lords together at York where it was concluded that a Parliament should be summoned to convene November the third next ensuing in the mean time a cessation of Arms was concluded between both Nations whereupon the King and Lords posted to London Tuesday November the third according to pre-appointment the Parliament assembled no sooner were they set but Petitions came thronging in from all Counties of the Kingdom craving redress of the late general exorbitancies both in Church and State many who were in prison were ordered to be set at liberty as Pryn Bastwick and Burton and the Bishop of Lincolne and many who were at liberty were ordered to be sent to prison as Sir William Beecher the Earl of Strafford and the Archbishop of Canterbury Secretary Windebank and the Lord Keeper Finch who was forced to flye the Land Ship-money was voted down the late Cannons damn'd Peace is concluded with Scotland and three hundred thousand pound allowed them for reparations This was summarily the first actings of the Parliament which gave much content to many people especially the Londoners who to the number of 15000. Petition for the abolishing of Episcopacy it self Indeed some few of the Cleargy at this time as at all others were corrupt in their lives many of them being vicious even to scandal yea many of those who pretended much purity in their conversations were most covetous and deceitful in their dealings besides their pride was intollerable insomuch that a great one amongst them was heard to say He hoped to live to see the day when a Minister should be as good a man as any upstart Jack Gentleman in England Well therefore might it it be said of the Priests of our times what Gildas sirnamed the wise wrote of the Priests of his time Sacerdotes habet Britannia sed insipientes quam plurimos Ministros sed impudentes clericos sed raptores subdeles c. Great Brittain hath Priests indeed but silly ones Ministers of Gods word very many but impudent a Cleargy but given up to greedy rapine c. Yet let none mistake me I write not thus to perswade any to an ill opinion of the Ministry for though our Church had cause to grieve for the blemishes of many yet might she glory in the ornaments of more so that Episcopacy received not at this time the fatal blow but was onely mutilated in her former glory the House of Commons voting that no Bishop shall have any vote in Parliament nor any Judicial power in the Star Chamber nor bear any sway in Temporal Affairs and that no Cleargy-man shall be in Commission of the Peace The Parliament having thus set bounds to the exorbitant power of the Cleargy they next fell upon the Tryal of the Deputy of Ireland who as you heard not long before was committed prisoner to the Tower this man at first was a great stickler against the Prerogative until allured by Court preferment he turned Royalist Westminster Hall was the place assigned for his Tryal the Earl of Arundel being Lord High Steward and the Earl of Lindsey Lord High Constable the Articles charged against him being very many are too long to recite I having more at large in their place inserted them in his Life The sum of them were for ruling Ireland and the North of England in an arbitrary way against the Laws for retaining the Kings revenue without account for encreasing and encouraging Popery for maliciously striving to stir up and continue enmity betwixt England and Scotland and for labouring to subvert Parliaments and incense the King against them yet notwithstanding this high charge the Earl by his answers so cleared himself that the King told the Lords he was not satisfied in Conscience to Condemn him of high Treason but acknowledged his misdemeanours to be very great at last wearied with the clamours of the people the Earl also by a letter desiring the same he granted a Commission to four Lords to Sign the Bill for his Execution which Execution was accordingly performed on Tower-hill May 10. 1641. Thus dyed this unhappy Earl a sacrifice to the Scots revenge cut off as it was thought not so much for what he had done as for fear of what he afterwards might do a man of the rarest parts and deepest judgement of any English man of our late times The same day fatal to the King he Signed the Bill for the Deputy of Irelands death he also Signed the Bill for a trienial or perpetual Parliament which should not be dissolved without consent of both Houses some say Duke Hamilton counselled him to it others say it was the Queen whoever it was it was his ruine for the Parliament now fearless of a dissolution began to act in an higher way then before being fortified with a strong guard of Souldiers whereof the Earl of Essex was Captain they without the Kings leave or knowledge appoint an extraordinary Assembly in the City that should mannage all weighty and great occurrences and to weaken his Majesty the more or rather to satisfie the insolence of the people they cast twelve Bishops into Prison because they went about to maintain their priviledge by the publick Charter The King moved with this accused five of the lower House and one of the upper House of high Treason their names were the Lord Viscount Mandevil Mr. Pym Mr. Hampden Sir Arthur Haslerig Mr. Hollis and Mr. Strowd This action of the Kings was by the Parliament adjudged a great breach of their Priviledges certainly it much encreased the differences between them and left scarce any possibility of reconcilement This small river of
undertake his cause and use his best endeavours The King applauding his magnanimous resolution giving him thanks encouraged him to fit himself chearfully for so great a work and the better to carry on the design the King sent the Earl of Antrim into Ireland who engaged himself to be with Montross in Argile a part of Scotland bordering upon Ireland with ten thousand men by the first of April 1644. this promise being past to him in December 1643. for a sTock of men to set up withal the King wrote to the Marquess of New Castle to furnish him with aid and sent Sir John Cockeram his Ambassadour with a Commission and Instruction for forreign Aids and Arms. This being done he sets forward in his journey from Oxford towards Scotland having in his company about two hundred Horse most of them Noblemen and Gentlemen who had formerly been Commanders in Forreign Countreys Being come to Durham he sends the Kings Instructions to the Marquess of Newcastle and the next day they met and conferred but Newcastles wants were so great that he could spare him at present onely an hundred Horse and two Brasse Field Peeces but sent his Orders to his Officers and Commanders in Cumberland and Westmerland to afford him all the assistance they could who accordingly met him near to Carlile with eight hundred Foot and three Troops of Horse With these small Forces he enters Scotland but having come to the River Anan upon occasion of a Mutiny among the English most of them fly their Colours and run back to England Notwithstanding he with his own men came to Dumfrise and took the Town into protection upon surrender where he stayed a while that he might be ready to entertain Antrim and his Irish but the time appointed being past and no news stirring of them the Covenanters gathering themselves together on every side to secure himself from being surprized he returns to Carlile And not loving to lie idle joyns with the Kings Forces in Northumberland takes the Town and Castle of Morpet as also an hundred Foot at the mouth of the River of Tine and afterwards victuals New Castle then intending to joyn his Forces with Prince Rupert who was coming to raise the Siege at York he made all the haste he could but met him not till he was upon his retreat the day after that unfortunate Battle All things thus failing him he returns to Carlile and sends the Lord Ogleby and Sir William Rolluck disguised into Scotland to discover the state of the Countrey who returning back brought him word that all things were in a desperate condition and therefore counselled him to bend his course some other way But Montross thinking it unworthiness in him to despair of so good a cause resolves upon a strange adventure for delivering those few Gentlemen that had been constant unto him to the Lord Ogleby to be conducted to the King he with Sir William Rolluck and one Sibbald being disguized entred Scotland Montross passing as Sibbalds man Thus making all the haste they could they came at last to the house of his Couzen Patrick Graham of Innisbrake not far from the River of Tay in the Sherifdom of Perth not long had he been there but he receives news of eleven hundred of Irish sent over by Antrim who were then upon the Mountains who being made to understand of his being there they came marching unto him and submitted to his command The next day the men of Athol to the number of eight hundred put themselves in Arms and joyned with Montross so that now having gotten this handful of men he desires to be in action impatient therefore of further delay he marches from thence with a resolution to set upon his enemies and having marched as far as Bucknith five hundred more under the command of the Lord Kilpont Son to the Earl of Taith joyned with him by whom he understood that the Covenanters were thick in Arms at a Rendezvouz at Perth whereupon with all the haste he could he speedeth thither these were commanded by the Lord Elcho who upon Montrosses approach provided to fight they were in number six thousand Foot and seven hundred Horse so that contemning the paucity of their enemies they grew to a foolish confidence of Victory but Montross so well ordered his Army that their confidence failed them for joyning Battel they were overthrown two thousand being slain and more taken prisoners The City of Perth upon this overthrow submitted her self to the Conquerour to whom he did not the least harm where having staid three dayes many of his Athol men returning home he marches with the rest of his Forces to Aberdeen but the Town having a strong Garrison therein refused to submit and he thinking it no wisdom to hazard the honour he had gotten by his late Victory upon the doubtful success of a Siege turns away towards Esk whither came to him the Lord Ogleby with his two Sons Sir Thomas and Sir David who with admirable constancy continued with him to the very end of the War And now receiving intelligence that an Army of the Covenanters under the command of the Lord Burleigh lay at Aberdeen with long marches he hies thither sets upon them and after a long fight puts them to the rout with the loss of almost all their Foot who flying for refuge unto the City Montrosses men came in thronging amongst them through the Gates and Posterns and laid them on heaps all over the Streets This Battel was fought September the 12. 1644. After this defeat Montross calling his Souldiers back to their Colours entred the City and allowed them two dayes rest In the mean time news was brought that Argile was hard by with far greater Forces then those they had dealt with last whereupon he removes to Kintor a Village ten miles off from Aberdeen expecting some of the Gordons would have joyned with him but none appearing he resolved to withdraw his Forces into the Mountains and Fastnesses for though he had fought twice indeed very prosperously it could not be expected that seeing he was so beset on all sides with great and numerous Armies he should be able to hold out alwayes without relief whereupon hiding his Ordnance in a Bog he marches to an old Castle called Rothmurk intending to pass over the River of Spey but on the other side were the number of five thousand up in Arms to hinder his passage wherefore to save his Army from being oppressed with the enemies Horse he turned into Badenoth a Rocky and Mountainous Countrey here he fell very dangerously sick but recovering again he sends Mac-donel who commanded the Irish with a Party into the Highlands to invite them to take up Arms with him and if they would not be invited to force them he himself passes into the North of Scotland and having staid a while for recruit at Strathbogy he removed to Faivy Castle and possest it Secure now as he thought from Argile his confidence had well near
in this Method finde perfect wayes for the operation of such Medicines so Astrologically and Physically prescribed as that they may themselves be competent Judges of the Cures of their Patients by N. C. 26. Blagrave's admirable Ephemerides for the Year 1659. 27. The Joyes of Heaven promised to the Saints on Earth Christs sermons on the Beatiudes preacht on the Mount An Exposition on the fifth Chapter of St. Matthew delivered in several sermons by Master Jeremiah Burroughs being the last sermons he preacht a little before his death at St. Giles Cripple-gate London printed with the approbation of those godly and learned Divines who were intrusted for the publishing of his Works 28. Dr. Martin Luthers Treatise of the Liberty of a Christian an useful Treatise for the stateing of the Controversies so much disputed in these times about this great point 29. The Key of Knowledge a little Book by way of Question and Answer intended for the use of all degrees of Christians especially for the Saints of Religious Families by John Jackson 30. The true Evangelical temper a Treatise modestly and soberly fitted to the present grand concernments of the State and Church by John Jackson 31. The Book of Conscience opened and read by John Jackson 32. Williams Clowes his Chyrurgical Observations for those that are burned with flames of Gun-powder as also for the curing of wounds and of the Lues venerea c. 33. The Moderate Baptist in two parts shewing the Scripture way for the administring of the Sacrament of Baptisme discovering that old error of orignal sin in Babes by William Baitten 34. History and Policy Reviewed in the Heroick Transactions on Oliver late Lord Protectour declaring his steps to princely perfection drawn in lively Parallels to the Ascents of the great patriarch Moses to the height of thirty degrees of Honour by H. D. Esquire 35. J. Cleaveland Revived Poems Orations Epistles and other of his Genuine Incomparable Pieces a second Impression with many Additions 36. The Exquisite Letters of Master Robert Loveday the late admired Translatour of the Volumes of the famed Romance Cleopatra for the perpetuating his memory published by his dear Brother Mr. A. L. 37. England's Worthies Select Lives of the most Eminent Persons from Constantine the Great to the death of Oliver Cromwel late Protector by W. Winstanley Gent. 38. The Accomplisht Cook the Mystery of the whose Art of Cookery revealed in a more easie and perfect Method then hath been publisht in any Language expert and ready wayes for the dressing of Flesh Fowl and Fish the resing of Pastes the best directions for all manner of Kickshaws and the most poinant Sauces with the terms of carving and sewing the Bills of Fare an exact account of all dishes for the season with other Ala mode Curiosities together with the lively Illustrations of such necessary figures as are referred to practice approved by the many years experience and careful industry of Robert May in the time of his attendance on several Persons of Honour 39. A Character of France to which is added Gallus Castratus or an Answer to a late slanderous Pamphlet called the Character of England as also a fresh Whip for the Mounsieur in Answer to his Letter in vindication to his Madam the second Edition 40. The History of the Life and Death of Oliver late Lord Protectour wherein from his Cradle to his Tomb are impartially transmitted to posterity the most weighty Transactions Forreign and Domestick that have happened in his time either in Matters of Law Proceedings in Parliament or others Affairs in Church or State by S. Carrington 41. The Scales of Commerce and Trade the Mystery revealed as to traffick with a Debitor or Creditor for Merchants Accounts after the Italian way and easiest Method as also a Treatise of Architecture and a computation as to all the charges of Building by T. Wilsford Gent. FINIS These are to give notice that the true and right Lozenges and Pectorals so generally known and approved of for the cure of Consumptions Coughs Astama's Colds in general and all other Diseases incident to the Head are rightly made onely by John Piercy Gent. the first Inventor of them and whosoever maketh them besides do but counterfeit them they are to be sold by Nathaniel Brook at the Angel in Cornhill