Contentions not only in civil but religious Affairs Having given an Account of the Reasons of the Ruine of the Roman Western Empire and how like our Case is to that of the Empire in its Declension It 's time to take a view of the State of the Goths and Vandals after they had planted themselves in Spain and herein I observe that though the Romans as well as Grecians esteem all other Nations barbarous but themselves yet the Government of them was equal if not better than either for it was a Regular Monarchy wherein the King did not govern by an absolute despotick Power but by established Laws nor could they make new nor alter the old or raise Money without the Consent of the States of their Kingdoms and this continued for many Hundred Years after how many of the Kingdoms in Spain lost these Privileges is too long to be inserted here yet at this Day the Kingdom of Arragon retains them So that the King of Spain never speaks to them as King of Castile In the Reign of Honorius and Arcadius Ann. 408. about five Years before Gundericus entred Spain Attila King of the Huns over-run the Empire and pierced into Gaul with a huge Army against whom Honorius sent Ecius the greatest General of his time with an Imperial Army which was raised in all parts of the Empire so as Ecius was forced to withdraw the Roman Legions in Britain to oppose Attila nor did they ever return more so that the poor Britains being enured to no warlike Discipline but only to serve their imperious Masters easily became a Prey to the Picts and Scots and so were in a more servile State than when they were under the Romans To redeem themselves from which they called the English Saxons to their Assistance who used them worst of all and expelled the whole Race of them out of that part of Britain now called England But this is observable That as in these Times the rest of the Roman Empire was over-spread with Arianism so was that part of Britain subject to the Roman Empire over-spread with Pelagianism and here observe the Justice of God upon them that these Men who ascribed to themselves a Power of Salvation without God's special Grace and Favour to them should not be able to save themselves from their Enemies but be either slaughtered by them or expelled their Native Country upon the Earth The Saxons which conquered the Britains were Heathen yet was their Government as well as that of the Goths a Regular Monarchy and so continued in all the Dynasties of their Kings and yet is continued notwithstanding the several Attempts of many of the Kings of the Norman and the Scotish Race to the contrary About ten Years after Ecius recalled the Roman Legions out of Britain viz. in 418. Pharamond entred Gaul and conquered some part of it which he called France after the Name of the Franks and Pharamond was Heathen and so was Meroveus his Successor and Childerick his Son and so continued till about the Year 490 when Clovis was converted to Christianity of whom Messeray glories that he was the only King in the World which was not Infidel or Heretick However the Government of the Franks as well as the Goths and Saxons was a Regular Monarchy till the Reign of Charles the 7th about the Year 1430. which was above a thousand Years after the Franks planted themselves in Gaul If we look back into the Reign of Henry the 2d of England we shall find him it may be the greatest of all the Western Kings and Lord if not of the greatest yet best part of France as he was Duke of Normandy and Aquitain in Right of his Wife Eleanor Aquitain having the Ocean on the West and Normandy the British Sea on the North. But this Dominion did not last long for King Henry's Son and John's Son Henry the 3d endeavouring to usurp a more than Legal Authority over their Subjects caused such a Ferment and Discord in the Kingdom and this lasted near 70 Years that the Kings of France in the mean time took all Normandy and the greatest part of Aquitain from the English When King James became King of England Henry the 4th was French King having composed by Force and Clemency the Civil Wars which had raged near 40 Years all over France and in the Year 1597 made Peace with Spain which was about 5 Years before King James became King of England and here let 's take a view of Spain Though Spain were 1 3 greater than France when King James came to the Crown of England yet France was I believe fivefold better peopled and generally a more fruitful Country How this came to pass it's fit to look back upon the Cause of the Sterility of Men in Spain and their abounding in France Ferdinand and Isabella King and Queen of Castile and Arragon about the Year 1490 having conquered the Kingdoms of Granada and Murcia and against their Faith given to the Moors brought in the Inquisition upon them the greatest part of the Moors forsook their Country and thereby left the Kingdoms of Granada and Murcia so much less peopled and Ferdinand and Isabella being addicted to the Roman Religion established manifold Bishopricks and Religious Houses in these Kingdoms of both Sexes and the Pope though he pleases to make Marriage a Sacrament yet forbids it to the Clergy and other of both Sexes who take upon them a Religious Life whereby as the Moors leaving Spain unpeopled it at present so future Generations became so much less replenished by how much more People took upon them a Religious Habit. But this Mischief did not stop here for Philip the 2d great Grand-Son of Ferdinand and Isabella and a most bigotted Prince to the Romish Superstition brought the Inquisition upon the Converted Moors which drove them out of Spain to the farther unpeopling of it and my Lord Bacon says that many of these poor converted Moors became as persecuted in their Exile for their Religion as if they had continued in Spain And this Mischief further followed not only to Spain but to Christendom for the exiled Moors having no other Habitation and Means of Living set up their Trade of Piracy in Algiers Tunis and Tripoli within the Straits and in Sally without whereby they have been a Plague to all other Christians as well as Spaniards who trade into the Straits and Affrick and other Southern Countries ever since About the time that Ferdinand and Isabel conquered Spain Columbus discovered the West-Indies and Hornando Cortez siding with one part of the Indians which were at War against the other and thereby becoming Conqueror of those he fought against he got incredible Wealth with a Discovery of the Rich Mines in Mexico The Blaze of this quickly flew all over Spain so that the Spaniards expected Mountains of Gold in running out of Spain into America and therefore near half Spain ran into America to seek new Adventures there the covetous
Peace between England and Spain whereto both Kings were equally disposed more smooth and easy Yet Philip the 3d before he would openly seek it by an Ambassador from the Arch-Duke Albert Governor of Flanders felt the Pulse of the Court how it stood affected to a Peace with Spain which beat high towards it so as soon after it followed which as it was most beneficial to the English Nation so it had been to Spain if it had been as sincerely observed by King James as it was by Philip. Henry the 4th of France tho spited as 't was said that King James should not only come so peaceably but with universal Acclamations to the Crown of England whereas he laboured with such difficulty above seven Years to attain that of France and at last was forced to a dishonourable Submission to the Pope Clement VIII Yet being a Prince of great Prudence in Peace as well as fortunate and victorious in War sent Monsieur de Rosny Great Treasurer of France to renew the Treaty of Peace and Commerce formerly made between Queen Elizabeth and him which was without any difficulty done The King being thus at Peace Abroad and at Home not only in England but in Ireland as if the Wars expired there with Queen Elizabeth he not only pardoned the Earl of Tyrone the Head of that Rebellion but by Proclamation declar'd he was restor'd to the King's Favour and to be honourably used of all Men. But how pleasing soever the King 's coming to the Crown of England was to the English Nation it seems it was not so or something else to God for an horrible Plague greater than any since that in the Reign of Edward the 3d accompanied his coming in There were two Factions in England when the King came to the Crown distinguished by the Names of Puritans and Papists both dissenting from the Religion established in the Church of England the King hated those and wrote against these chiefly for their Doctrine of the Pope's Power of deposing Kings These received the King after different manners the Puritans had a huge Expectation of his Favour because he was bred up in their Doctrine and Discipline but were much deceived in it for he rarely mentioned them but with Detestation which he did not those of the Popish Religion However in January they obtained a Conference with the Church-Party at Hampton-Court where the King himself would be Moderator whilst most of the Nobility and Bishops were Spectators You need not doubt which Party prevail'd the Nobility and Bishops not only giving the King the Victory with the Epithets of The Solomon of the Age The most Learned but of being inspired But what Expectation soever the Puritans had of the King 's coming to the Crown the Papists had another Lesson taught them for tho the Popish Conspiracy against the Person of Queen Elizabeth ceased upon the Death of the Queen of Scots yet did not the Pope's Designs upon the Kingdom of England do so but Clement VIII in the Year 1600 sent Orders to his Emissaries in England that the Catholicks should admit none to succeed the Queen but one obedient to the Holy See and in Conformity hereunto Watson and Clark two Romish Priests joined in Cobhant's Conspiracy to have kept the King from coming to the Crown and were executed for it as Traitors but the Effects of the Pope's Instructions did not die with Clark and Watson as you 'll soon hear and upon the 24th of October 1603 a Proclamation was made for Quietness to be observed in Matters of Religion Notwithstanding the Rage of the Pestilence the first nine Months after the King 's coming to London all were Halcion-days Proclamations Pageants Feastings Creation of Lords and Knights Reception of Foreign Ambassadors erecting a Master of the Ceremonies after the Mode of France c. and in this time the Dignified Clergy and those who courted to be so with the Favourites at Court with whom the Civilians chimed in had so rooted their Doctrine of the King 's Absolute Power and that notwithstanding his Succession to the Crown of Scotland in the Life of his Mother he succeeded by inherent Birth-right and that Primogeniture is the Gift of God by the Law of Nature and that in his Person was reconciled all the Titles of our Saxon Danish and Norman Race of Kings that being propensly disposed to receive the Impressions they took such deep root in him that in all his Life after he would never with Patience hear any thing to the contrary however it was not long before he heard of it as you shall hear But we will stay a little and see how inconsistently these Flatterers jumbled an Absolute and Hereditary Monarchy together and how this King reconciled the Titles of the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles to the Crown For no Hereditary Monarch that ever reigned in this World but derived his Title from an Ancestor who had no Hereditary Right nor did ever any Hereditary King succeed but to govern by Laws and Constitutions which were established before he became King So however Absolute may be applicable to Conquerors yet it is inconsistent with Hereditary Kings especially in a Regular Monarchy as that of England is and those of old as of the Medes and Persians where the Will of the King alone could not alter the Laws and Constitutions of them And now let us see how King James came to claim his Crown by inherent Birth-right and how all the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles came to be reconciled in his Person It 's evident to me that tho only God can make an Heir and that tho Primogeniture be natural yet God in disposing Kingdoms is not obliged to it tho Grotius lib. 1. Tit. 11. de Jure Belli Pacis is pleased to say the Law of Nature is immutable by God himself but reserves unto himself the Prerogative of disposing Kingdoms without restraining the Succession of the King to Primogeniture or Hereditary Succession Here let us see in Epitome which you may read at large in Sir William Jones his History of the Succession of the Kings of England before and after the Conquest and the History of the Succession of the Crown of England from King Egbert to Henry the 8th printed in the Year 1690 where you will see that tho the Kings of England both before and after the Conquest succeeded in their Royal Families yet many more were not in the right Line than in it and tho before Caesar invaded Britain there was no other Government but Kingly yet Britain was divided into so many petty Kingdoms that tho it had not been barbarous it would have been as difficult to have wrote the History of the Succession of their Kings as to have wrote the History of the Succession of the Kings immediately after the Flood After the Roman Empire oppressed by its own Weight by the Division into Eastern and Western its intestine Jars and the over-flowing of barbarous Nations was so torn
Before a Year goes about you shall see Buckingham set the King at odds with the Parliament and yet engage him in a War against Spain and before another goes about engage the King in another against France to satiate his Spight and Revenge against Richlieu for crossing him in his Lust and after 13 Years Laud shall be the Fire-brand to set all the three Nations in the Flame of a Civil War as King James had foretold But it 's time to come to Particulars The first Enterprise which the Duke engaged the King in was not for the Recovery of the Palatinate as he pretended when he would have engaged King James in a War against the King of Spain but to express his Hatred against Olivares and therefore a Fleet must be rigged up to make War in Spain even when King James's Corps lay unburied and at so unseasonable a time when the Charges of King James's Funeral were so fast approaching and when the Charges of the King's Ambassadors the Earls of Carlisle and Holland ran so high at Paris to outvy the French Splendor for solemnizing the Marriage between the King and the Queen and these so much more augmented by the Duke's Preparations to fetch the Queen over which when the Duke shall come to Paris must outshine not only the Bravery of the English Ambassadors but all that Cardinal Richlieu could do From the Unseasonableness of this Expedition let 's see by what Counsels Buckingham managed this designed Expedition and herein take Light from a Letter which my Lord Cromwel wrote to the Duke and which you may read in Rushworth's Collections fol. 199. after the Fleet had lain so long that the Season of the Year was past and most dangerous for Ships to put to Sea The Letter is Verbatim THey offer to lay Wagers the Fleet goes not this Year and that of necessity shortly a Parliament must be which when it comes sure it will much discontent you It 's wonder'd at that since the King did give such great Gifts to the Dutchess of Chevereux and those that went how now a small Sum in the Parliament should be called for at such a time and let the Parliament sit when it will begin they will where they ended They say the Lords of the Council knew nothing of Mansfield's Journey or this Fleet which discontents even the best sort if not all They say it is a very great Burden your Grace takes upon you since none know any thing but you It 's conceived that not letting others bear part of the Burden you now bear it may ruin you which Heavens forbid Much Discourse there is of your Lordship here and there as I passed home and back and nothing is more wonder'd at than that one grave Man is not known to have your ear except my Good and Noble Lord Conway All Men say if you go not with the Fleet you will suffer in it because if it prosper it will be thought no Act of yours and if it succeed ill it might have been better if you had not guided the King They say your Vndertakings in this Kingdom will much prejudice your Grace and if God bless you not with Goodness to accept kindly what in Duty and Love I offer questionless my Freedom of letting you know the Discourse of the World may prejudice me But if I must lose your Favour I had rather lose it for striving to do you good in letting you know the Talk of the wicked World than for any thing else so much I heartily desire your Prosperity and to see you trample the ignorant Multitude under foot All I have said is the Discourse of this World and when I am able to judg of Actions I will freely tell your Lordship my Mind which when it shall not always incline to serve you may all my noble Thoughts forsake me The Success of this Expedition you will hear soon Thus was the King of Spain required for all the noble Favours he had shewn the King when he was in Spain This was the Return of Buckingham's Protestation to the King of Spain when they parted at the Escurial That he would be an everlasting Servant to the King of Spain the Queen and the Infanta and would do the best Offices he could for concluding the Business the Match between the Prince and Infanta and strengthen the Amity between the two Kingdoms to have War made upon him without any Declaration of it by King Charles so soon as it came in his Power to do it After Buckingham became Lord Admiral the English Navy lay at Road unarmed and fit for Ruin as you may see in Rushworth fol. 3. This was before the Treaty of the Spanish Match and after the breaking of the Spanish Match the Duke not only neglected the guarding of the Seas whereby the Trade of the Nation not only decayed but the Seas became ignominiously infested by Pyrates and Enemies to the Loss of very many of the Merchants and Subjects of England as you may read in the Fourth Article of the Charge of the Commons against him in Rushworth fol. 312. Objection But this was but an Accusation and therefore it does not amount to a Proof It ought not to be presumed the Commons would have charged this upon him without Proof and I say it is strong Proof upon the Duke since the King dissolved the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to a Trial upon it However the Navy lay thus neglected and Seas unguarded and tho the French had broken the Treaty of Marriage with France by not suffering Mansfield to land his Army at Calais yet the supplying the French with a Fleet to subdue the Rochellers must be performed And to this end even whilst King James lay unburied great Consultation between the Duke and the Marquiss of Efsiat was had how this might be done The King had no Men of War ready but the Vaunt-Guard and the French Necessities were urgent for all this while Sobiez rode triumphant at Sea the French not being able to encounter him and thereby Rochel upon all Occasions was relieved by Sea However the French must be gratified or this hopeful Marriage with France might be disturbed The Duke therefore by his Power of Lord Admiral besides the Vaunt-Guard pressed 7 Ships of the Merchants of England into the King's Service viz. The Great Neptune whereof Sir Ferdinando Gorge was Captain the Industry of 450 Tuns whereof James Moyer was Captain the Pearl of 540 Tuns whereof Anthony Tench was Captain the Marigold of 300 Tuns whereof Thomas Davis was Captain the Loyalty of 300 Tuns Jasper Dare Captain the Peter and John of 300 Tuns John Davis Captain and 7thly the Gift of God Henry Lewen Captain The Duke tho the Navy were unprovided with Stores and Ammunition could find Stores and Ammunition sufficient for furnishing this Fleet and upon the 8th of May caused a Warrant under the Great Seal to be issued to call the Companies aboard which had been raised
of Church and State and when the Commons questioned Mountague for them he took part with him against them alledging he had taken the Business into his own Hands whenas he took Mountague into his Power to protect him from the Justice of them and his Metropolitan but never took other Notice of Mountague's Business Secondly He took upon him in Compliance with a foreign Prince and an Enemy to the Nation to dispense with the Laws against Romish Priests which by the Constitutions of the Nation he could not do Thirdly He broke his Word with the Parliament concerning the Execution of these Laws within a Day or two at most after he gave it Fourthly He made War upon the King of Spain without any Declaration of War whereas just Princes demand Reparations for Wrongs done and endeavour to compound their Differences amicably and in case of Refusal then to proclaim War and this not only against his Father's Counsel but the Advice of his Father's Council Fifthly Without the Advice of his Council he lent the French a Fleet to subdue the Rochellers and the Reformed in France tho they had given him no Offence and the French King had perfidiously broke his Promise with his Father and himself in denying Mansfield's Army to land Sixthly He had against the Advice of his Father broke the Bonds of Amity between him and his Subjects by the Dissolving of the Parliament whereby he lost the only Means to support him in his War against Spain And now Buckingham stood ready primed to engage him in a War against France yet in this deplorable state no free Counsel must enter the King's Ears which must be open to nothing but what Buckingham and Laud infused a sad Presage to what follow'd as well upon Buckingham and Laud as upon the King himself Now let 's see the Success of the War against the Spaniards Besides the Fleet designed against Cales the King fitted up another Fleet in conjunction with the Dutch States to block up Dunkirk as well as he had lent a Fleet in conjunction with the Dutch to subdue the Rochellers but this being sent out to Sea about the middle of October the most perilous Season of all the Year for great Ships to put to Sea a Consideration either not understood or not regarded by our Land-Admiral Buckingham a terrible Storm arose which separated and dispersed both Fleets so as gave the Dunkirkers an Opportunity to put to Sea with 22 Men of War and 4000 Land-Soldiers This alarm'd the Council lest these should land either in England or Ireland whenas in neither any Provision was made to oppose them especially in England where the Earl of Warwick had Orders to dismiss 300 of the Trained-bands of Essex that were to secure Harwich however it 's fit here to mention the noble Act of that Earl in building Langard-Fort on Suffolk side to secure the Entrance into the Port the most famous of all the English Eastern Coast and which is yet continued to this day But the Season of the Year was such as prevented this Fear for I find no other Account of the Design of the Dunkirk Fleet. Nor had the Design upon Cadiz more Success than that upon Dunkirk for a furious Storm arose in their Passage it may be the same which separated the English and Dutch before Dunkirk which so scattered the Fleet that of 80 no less than 50 were missing for 7 Days This was but the Beginning of the Misfortunes of this miserable Expedition for the Confusion of Orders was such as the Officers and Soldiers scarce knew who to command or whom to obey so that when the Fleet arrived at Cadiz a Conquest which would have paid the Charge of the Voyage and to the Honour of the English offered it self for the Spanish Shipping in the Bay of Cadiz lay unprovided of Defence so as the surprising them was both easy and feasible but this was neglected and when the Opportunity was lost the Army landed and Sir John Burroughs took a Fort from the Spaniard but was forced to quit it again for the Soldiers finding therein great store of Spanish Wines so debauched themselves that had the Spaniards known the Condition they were in they might have destroyed them all Hereupon they were put on board again and the General my Lord Wimbleton designed to stay 20 Days to wait for the Spanish Plate-Fleet which was daily expected from the West-Indies but the evil Condition of the Fleet by reason of a general Contagion enforced the General to abandon the Hopes of so great a Prize so having effected nothing he returned home with Dishonour in November following This gave no small Occasion of Clamour that a Fleet so well provided and mann'd should land their Men in an Enemies Country and return without some honourable Action but where the Fault lay could not be found out nor was any punished for failing to perform his Duty Yet the General for some time was not admitted into the King's Presence and some of the Colonels of his Army accused him and some Sea-men aggravated the Accusation Hereupon the General was examined before the Council and he laid the Fault upon others in the Fleet who let the King of Spain's Ships pass without fighting them according to Order and they on the other hand said they had no Order from the General to fight But how miserable soever the Success of this Fleet was yet it must not be in the King's Judgment ascribed to any Improvidence either in the setting forth or Conduct after it But to God's Pleasure who is the Lord of Hosts and unto whose Providence and good Pleasure his Majesty doth and shall submit himself and all his Endeavours not to give that Success as was desired See the King's Declaration for Dissolving his second Parliament which you may read in Rushworth fol. 412. But since the King had no better Success against the King of Spain by open Force upon the Return of the Fleet he gave strict Command That no Subject of the Realm of England should have any Trade or Commerce with any of the Dominions of the King of Spain or of the Arch-Dutchies in Flanders upon pain of Confiscation of both Ships and Goods that should be found upon Voyage of Trade into any of their said Dominions But hereby the Loss manifoldly fell more upon the English than Spaniards for these Trades above all others were the most beneficial and gainful to the English and by the Peace which the King's Father made with Spain and the free Trade which the English thereby enjoyed in Spain and Flanders the Nation became doubly more enriched than in the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth which was double as long as K. James's after he had made this Peace Thus as the King by breaking of the Parliament disabled himself of Means for carrying on the War against Spain so by this Inhibition of the English to trade with Spain he disabled his Subjects from giving him such Assistance as otherwise
the French to carry on the Cardinal 's ambitious and ungodly Designs after the King had so prodigally expended not only his Father's Treasure but doubly more than the ordinary Revenues of France upon his Favourites and the manifold Wars both at home and abroad which Richlieu had entangled him in Let any Man compare the Keeper's Speech at the opening the first Parliament of King Charles which you may read in the Keeper's Life the second Part f. 9 and 10. with that of Richlieu's and judg if the Rhetorick and Elegancy of it comes any way behind that of his after the King's Father and this King had squandered much more than the Revenues of the Crown upon their Favourites and this King had entangled himself in the Articles of the French Match and without Means engaged himself in a War with Spain and that against his Father's and the Keeper's Advice in exciting the Parliament to a Compliance with the King's Will tho with a different Fate for Richlieu attained his Ends by his Speech whereas the Keeper's Downfal was a Consequence of his But above all the Keeper excelled himself if I may be Judg in three things one was in his Speech in the House of Peers about the Peers taking the Oaths the second his Reasons he gave the French Ambassador Vollâ—cleer against dispensing with our Penal Laws against Romish Priests which you may read at large in the first Part of the Keeper's Life fol. 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222. The third Speech was when the Earl of Essex moved the House of Lords in the Year 1640 that the Bishops might be expell'd the House not their Persons but their Order which you may read at large in the second Part of the Keeper's Life from fol. 168 to 176. And sure the History of the Keeper's Life had been a nobler Work if it had been related without the loose and impertinent Glosses of the Bishop of Litchfield whereby he does so often disturb and break the Thread of the Story and by preaching himself more than writing his History makes it confounded so as it is difficult to pursue it See the Speech in the first Part of his Life f. 76 77. After the Parliament was dissolved at Oxford all Heads were set at work to find some fault against the Keeper to out him of his Place but none could be found hereupon they made a Proposition which the Keeper made to King James That the Office of Lord Chancellor or Lord Keeper should be Triennial so that after three Years the King should make another and the Keeper having enjoy'd the Place above four Years to be the Reason that he should surrender the Seal When the Keeper had notice of this in a pathetical Letter to the King which you may read in his Life in the second Part f. 24. he implores his Majesty's Favour that he may retire with an Assurance of his Majesty's Grace and be admitted into his Presence to make some humble Requests to him which the King granted The first of his Requests was for the King's Favour in general which the King granted and gave him his Hand twice to kiss upon it Secondly That the King would take away none of his Church-Preferments as he had graciously promised till he had given him better in lieu of them the King answered It was his Intention Thirdly That the King would remember his Father's Promise seconded by him that he would place him the Keeper in as good a Bishoprick or Arch-bishoprick as he could the King said There was no such place void when any fell it would be then time enough to make his Request Fourthly That his Majesty would dismiss him freely and absolutely without any Command from the Table but to leave it to the Keeper's Discretion to forbear the King said He ever intended it so and never said a word to the contrary but expected he should not offend by voluntary Intrusion Fifthly That the King would declare to the Lords that the Keeper had willingly and readily yielded to his Majesty's Pleasure and that he parted in the King's Favour and good Opinion and was still his Servant the King said He would but that he looked that no Petitions be made for him by any Man at that time but only for his Favour in general Sixthly The Keeper besought the King to make an Atonement with the Duke upon or without Examination of the Information which the Duke received against him the King said It became not him a King to take up Quarrels between his Subjects and that the Duke had never exprest any such Enmity to him against him the Keeper Seventhly The Keeper besought the King that whereas the Keeper had a Pension by Direction of the King's Father and wherewith the King was acquainted of 2000 Marks per Annum to the Viscount Wallingford and had disbursed 3000 l. down upon it either to buy the said Pension or extinguish it or to assign it to be paid out of the Tenths or Subsidies of his Bishoprick as before he had appointed to receive it out of the Exchequer the King said Assignments were naught but he would take Order with his Treasurer to buy it or pay for it as should be most convenient Eighthly The Keeper besought the King to bestow the next Prebendary in Westminster upon his Library-keeper as his Father had promised or that he might resume his Books again the King said It was full of Reason Ninthly The Keeper besought the King to ratify a Grant made by his Father of four Advowsons to St. John's-College in Cambridg whereof two he had bought with his Money and two the King gave him for the good of the Society the King said He would ratify the Grant and give way to amend any Errors in the Form or in passing of it Tenthly The Keeper besought the King that he might retire to a little Lodg which my Lord Sandys lent him where the Lord Conway might receive the Seal which the King granted Lastly The Keeper besought the King that the King would not be offended with him if upon his Discharge Reports were made that he was discontented which he protested he was not giving over so comfortably the King said He would do him that Justice and that he little valued Reports and thereupon gave the Keeper his Hand to kiss at parting which you may read in the second Part of the Keeper's Life Tit. 28. But the Bishop says in the next Tit. the forlorn Keeper felt the Heaviness of this Lightness who thought he had obtained much but excepting the four Advowsons confirmed to St. John's-College he mist all that he sought for and expected nor could he ever get a Farthing of his Pension nor bring it to an Audit to his dying-day nor did the Keeper's Enemies stop here but sought to provoke against him the King's Displeasure with things which were neither consistent with the King's Honour nor scarce to be born by the Temper of Human Nature and were so
might not another Parliament upon better Information alter what the Parliament 21 Jac. had done Which neither of these Parliaments did but granted and voted him and his Father greater Supplies than ever before were given to any of his Predecessors in three-fold the time But when the King enter'd into a View of his Treasure he found how ill provided he was to proceed effectually with so great an Action It seems by this one Action the King only designed the War against Spain But why does not the King set forth the Causes why his Treasure was so ill provided It was not ten Months before his Father's Death that the Parliament 21 Jac. which gave his Father three Subsidies and three Fifteenths was adjourned and his first Parliament gave him two Subsidies more within two or three Months after his Father's Death And what came of all this but the raising ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse under Mansfield the Expedition against the Rochellers and to Cadiz to neither of which latter he was ever invited by his Father or any Parliament The King makes the â—lague to be the Cause of the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford yet he might as well have secured the Members by a Prorogation as Dissolution And in this Parliament he tells how the House of Commons voted him three Subsidies and three Fifteenths and after four Subsidies and three Fifteenths and of the Letter he sent them the 9th of June to speed the passing these Supplies and how that the House being abused by the violent and ill-advised Passion of a few Members never so much as admitted one Reading to the Bill of Subsidies but voted a Remonstrance or Declaration which they intended to prefer to him tho palliated with glossing Terms containing many dishonourable Aspersions upon his Majesty and upon the sacred Memory of his deceased Father which his Majesty taking for a Denial of the promised Supplies upon mature Advisement he dissolved them But from whence should this mature Advisement come We do not find the Privy Council had any hand in it and the House of Lords petitioned against it But lest the Credit of this Declaration should not find Faith enough against the Commons Representatives the King sends a Proclamation after it wherein he takes notice of a Remonstrance drawn by a Committee of the late Commons to be presented to him wherein are many things to the Dishonour of himself and his Royal Father of blessed Memory and whereby through the sides of a Peer of this Realm they wound their Soveraign's Honour and to vent their Passions against that Peer and prepossess the World with an ill Opinion of him before his Case was heard who hinder'd it had scatter'd Copies of it Wherefore the King to suppress such an unsufferable Wrong upon pain of his Indignation and high Displeasure commanded all who had Copies thereof to burn them But why was not the Duke's Cause heard and who dissolved the Parliament to prevent it Had not the Earl of Bristol answered every Particular of the King 's and Duke's Charge against him And was there not an Order of the House of Lords the Duke should answer the Earl's Charge against him Where is this Answer to be found and why was it not Now see the Justice of this King and how he made good his Promise in his Declaration that he would so order his Actions as should justify him not only in his own Conscience but to the whole World for the very Day the Parliament was dissolved he committed the Earl of Bristol Prisoner to the Tower and left the Duke free to pursue his ungodly Designs Here I 'll stay a little and add this Augmentation of Honour to the Escutcheon of this noble Earl notwithstanding this Usage For when the Long Parliament in 1640 had put a full Stop to the King 's Absolute Will and Pleasure which if it had not God only knows where it would have ended and after that this King's Flatterers and Favourites his Lord Keeper Finch and Secretary Winde-bank had run into other Countries to save themselves from being hanged in this and that the Earl of Manchester after he had flatter'd this King and his Father in all the Shapes of Earl Viscount Baron Lord Chief Justice Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer and Lord President of the Council and his Son and the Earls of Pembroke and Holland and both the Sir Henry Vanes Father and Son and Sir Henry Mildmay c. sided with the Parliament against the King yet this noble Earl followed the King in all his Adversity however he had been persecuted by him in his Prosperity The late Keeper as he gave his Opinion against the War with Spain in King James's Reign so did he against the Expedition against Cales in this King's Reign his Reason was which you may read in the second Part of his Life fol. 65. That the King must make himself sure of the Love of his own People at home before he bid War to such a rich and mighty Nation But the Keeper's Counsels were as much feared and hated by the Duke as Bristol's and the Commons Articles were against him and therefore he resolved to be rid of them all and pursue the King 's and his own Designs without any Controul and the very same Day the Parliament was dissolved he caused the Earl of Bristol to be committed to the Tower as you may see in Stow's Chronicle fol. 1042. Nor would he have his Renown and Valour less known abroad than his Justice at home and France shall now be the Theatre upon which he will act it in spight of Spain or the Parliament and Nation of England without whose Assistance he will act Wonders by his own Power and in Vindication of his own Honour however some Cause must be shewed by others since the Duke concealed the true Cause Rushworth fol. 427. makes the Causes of this War to begin between the Priests of the Queen's Family and the Bishops by Articles of Agreement upon the Marriage and that the Pope had declared them Apostates if they should seek for any Establishment from the King being an Heretick and that the Queen sided herein with the Priests against the King and that Unkindnesses hereupon grew between them so as the King informed his Brother of France he could no longer bear them And much to this purpose has Mr. James Howel in the Life of Lewis XIII fol. 75. But these were but Pretences for this War the Cause was of another Complexion And herein we will cite the Authority of the great Nani who had better Means to enquire into the Causes than either Rushworth or Howel and was not biass'd by Interest Affection or Flattery You have heard before of the Emulation between Richlieu and Buckingham and of their Inclinations for the Queen's Favour and of the Queen 's noble Aversions to them both but I think Nani was therein a little mistaken for if I be not misinformed as I think verily I
am not when Buckingham came out of France with the Queen of England he left or soon after sent Sir Balthazer Gerbier to hold secret Correspondence between the Queen and himself and tho Richlieu watch'd Gerbier narrowly yet he brought the Queen's Garter and an exceeding rich Jewel to Buckingham from her Upon the breaking out of the Feuds in the Queen's Family which began almost as soon if not before it was settled Buckingham prevails with the King to be sent into France to compose them which was granted But Nani says the true Motive of Buckingham's Journey being ascribed to Love contracted in that Court Richlieu perswaded the King to refuse him Entrance into the Kingdom The Rage hereupon of the other was inflamed to extremity and sware since he was forbidden to enter in a peaceable manner into France he would make his Passage with an Army Here you see the Duke was under a double Obligation of Love and Honour and since he could not attain his End in Love it 's remarkable by what Steps he proceeded to make good his Oath and Honour of entering into France with an Army which will be better observed if they be look'd upon in their Circumstances It was the 16th of August 1625 in the first Year of the King's Reign as you may see in Rushworth fol. 335. that Buckingham caused the Captains of the Fleet under the Command of Vice-Admiral Pennington to deliver it into the French Power to fight against the Rochellers and while the Fleet was thus in the French Power and after the Duke had received the horrible Affront of being denied Entrance into France in a peaceable and loving manner about Michaelmas following viz. about six Weeks after the delivery of the Fleet the Duke as Lord High Admiral of England by an extraordinary Commission seized the St. Peter of New-haven John Mallerow Master laden with Goods Merchandize and Money to the value of 40000 l. upon the account of Monsieur Villiers Governor of New-haven and other French Merchants as Prize and the Duke took out of the said Ship sixteen Barrels of Cochineal eight Bags of Gold three and twenty Bags of Silver two Boxes of Pearl and Emeralds a Chain of Gold and Monies and Commodities to the value of 20000 l. and delivered them to Gabriel Marsh his Servant Whereupon there was an Arrest of two English Merchant Ships in New-haven upon the 7th of December following viz. 1625. whereupon by a Petitionâ— from the Merchants the King ordered December the 28th that the Ship and Goods belonging to the French should be re-delivered to the French upon this the Court of Admiralty decreed upon the 16th of January following that the Ship with all the Goods except three hundred Mexico Hides sixteen Sacks of Ginger one Box of gilded Beads and five Sacks of Ginger should be released from further Detention and delivered to the Master yet the Duke not only detained to his own use the said Gold Silver Pearl Emeralds Jewels and Money but upon the 6th of February following without any legal Proceedings caused the sid Ship to be again arrested and detained as you may see in Rushw f. 312. And here began the seizing of our English Ships in France which the Duke makes one of the Causes of the War Object But this is but a Charge of the Commons upon the Duke and therefore no direct Proof Answ It is not to be presumed the Commons would have charged these things thus particularly and positively without Proof and I say moreover they are to be taken for Truth since the King did dissolve the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to his Trial upon the Commons impeaching him hereupon and 't is worth Observation to see how without Counsel and by contrary Extreams the King and Duke engaged in both the Wars against Spain and France The Bishop of Litchfield in the second Part of the Life of the Lord Keeper Williams f. 4. tit 2. says The next day after King James's Death the King and Duke were busied in many Cares but the chief was for the Continuation of the Parliament at King James's Death the Keeper shewed that the Parliament determined with the Death of the King then the King said Since Necessity required a new Parliament his Will was that Writs forthwith be issued out of Chancery for a new Choice and not a day lost The Keeper hereupon craved leave to be heard and said It was usual in times before that the King's Servants and Friends did deal with Counties Cities and Boroughs where they were known to procure a Promise for their Elections before the precise time of any insequent Parliament was published and that the same Forecast would be good at this time which would not speed if the Summons were divulged before they look'd about them The King answered It was high time to have Subsidies granted for the War with the King of Spain and the Fleet must go forth for that purpose this Summer To which the Keeper replied in few words and with so cold a Consent that the King turned away and gave him leave to be gone whereas the King dissolved this Parliament and lost four Subsidies and three Fifteenths to save the Duke and make War upon France Concealing the true Reason for this War with France the Duke in his Declaration gives two other Reasons of it the first was the refusal of Mansfield to land his Army at Calais according to Agreement whereby the Design for the recovery of the Palatinate was frustrate But why must this be a Reason at this time of day for this was done in the Reign of King James and when the Treaty of the Marriage with France was in being Why was not then the Treaty broke off upon it And why after this in King Charles's Reign was the English Fleet put into the Power of the French to subdue the Rochellers and this Business of Mansfield's not so much as taken notice of The second Reason was The French seizing our English Merchants Ships in their Ports But this was after the Duke had seized and made Prize of the St. Peter of Newhaven so here the Duke begins making Prize upon the French and makes War upon them for doing so by the English However we have here a Declaration and Reason of a War against the French such as 't was tho none could be had for the War with Spain Here you may see the unhappy Fate of Princes who treat their Subjects as Enemies and their Flatterers and Favourites as their only Friends and Confidents for notwithstanding the King 's ill Success last Year to Cadiz and the King's Complaint for want of Money in the Exchequer and the ill terms he was at with his Subjects not only to be put upon making a War against the King of Spain and the Emperor but now also against the King of France and to have none but Buckingham Laud c. and their Paraâ—ices to support him in all these Wars and what
away the Merchants Ships so that they may not easily catch and light upon the West-India Fleet. A Jesuit and nine Priests were taken with this and many other Papers which were delivered to Sir John Cook Secretary of State the Jesuit was condemn'd but reprieved by the King because Sir John Cook said The King delighted not in Blood and afterward the nine Priests were released by special Warrant from the King and the King in his Reasons for dissolving the Parliament makes the House of Commons Enquiry into this Business to be an exorbitant Encroachment and Usurpation such as was never before attempted by that House By this you may see the Religious care this pious Prince had for the Church of England and how much he regarded the Laws of England or minded the Support of the poor Protestants in France or the Re-establishment of his Brother-in-law in the Palatinate Thus stood things when the Parliament met the 17th of March when the King as Men in a deep Lethargy no ways sensible of their Pain or the dangerous State they are in not considering the dangerous State he was in both abroad and at home Abroad in that he had made War upon the King of Spain without any Declaration of War and that against his Father's Advice and of his Council and upon the King of France wherein himself and his Favourite Buckingham were the Aggressors at Home by his unheard of Invasions upon the Fortunes and Liberties of his Subjects never before done by any King of England in the short Interval of these two Parliaments scarce being 9 Months upon the Opening of the Parliament far unlike his Father in the last Parliament of his Reign when his Case was not near so dangerous as this King's tho their Necessities were equal to get Money by Parliaments when they could get it no other Way begins his Speech My Lords and Gentlemen THese Times are for Action wherefore for Example sake I mean not to spend much Time in Words expecting accordingly that your as I hope good Resolutions will be speedy not spending Time unnecessarily or that I may say dangerously for tedious Consultations at this Conjuncture of Time are as hurtful as ill Resolutions I am sure you now expect from me both to know the Cause of your meeting and what to resolve on yet I think there is none here but knows that common Danger is the Cause of this Parliament and that Supply at this time is the chief End of it so that I need but point to you what to do All this but of Supply is Mysterious and General and had need of an Interpreter The King goes on and says I will use but few Perswasions for if to maintain your own Advices and as the Case now stands for the following thereof the true Religion Laws and Liberties of this State never so violated by any King of England before him and the just Defence of our true Friends and Allies be not sufficient then no Eloquence of Men or Angels will prevail What Parliament or any other Council but that of Buckingham advised him to make War either upon the King of Spain or France search all the Records of the Journals of Parliament of 21 Jac. and Rushworth Franklin and Bishop of Litchfield and see if in any one of them there be one Sentence of making War against the King of Spain but only to break off the Treaty with the Spanish Match and for the Palatinate But admit the Parliament had upon the Misinformation of the King and Duke advised the King to have made War upon the King of Spain yet since the Earl of Bristol so shamefully blasted the whole Story not a Year since in open Parliament without any Reply How was this Parliament obliged to have made good what that had done And since the King dissolved the last Parliament rather than the Duke should be brought to Trial upon the Earl's Charge which was a Failure of Justice sure it had been more to the King's Honour not to have mention'd this to the Parliament than that what he had done was by their Advice Did this Parliament or any other ever advise him to put the Fleet under the Command of Vice-Admiral Pennington into the French King's Power to subdue the poor Rochellers who never did him any wrong to the Ruin of the Reformed Interest in France and to be the Foundation of the French Grandeur by Sea and then on the contrary make War upon the French King when he was the Aggressor Did ever this or any other Parliament advise him to take his Subjects Goods by force without and against Law and imprison their Persons by his Absolute Will and Pleasure denying them the Benefit of their Corpus's the Birth-right of the Subject and to continue them Prisoners during his Will without allowing them a Trial by the Laws whether they were guilty of any Crime or not Or to execute Martial Law impose new Oaths and give Free-Quarter to Soldiers in his own Kingdom in time of Peace However the King goes on and says Only let me remember you that my Duty most of all and every one of yours according to his Degree is to seek the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth and certainly there never was a time in which this Duty was more necessarily required than now Was the Discharge of the Pack of Jesuits conspiring the Ruin of Church and State with Impunity for the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth Or was the Commission which the King granted the next Day after the Writs for the Assembling the Parliament to raise Monies by Imposition in the nature of Excise to be levied throughout the Nation for the Maintenance of the Church and State And at the same time to order my Lord Treasurer to pay 30000 l. to Philip Burlemac a Dutch Merchant in London to be by him returned into the Low-Countries by Bill of Exchange to Sir William Balfour and John Dalbier for the raising of 1000 Horse with Arms both for Horse and Foot for the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth of England And also to call a Council for levying Ship-Money now he had by his own Will taken the Customs without any Grant of Parliament for the Maintenance of the Church and State I therefore judging a Parliament to be the antient speediest and best way in this time of Common Danger to give such Supply as to secure our selves and save our Friends from imminent Ruin have called you together Every Man must do according to his Conscience wherefore if you as God forbid should not do your Duties in contributing what the State at this time needs I must in Discharge of my Conscience use those other means which God has put into my hands to save that which the Follies of particular Men may otherwise hazard to lose It 's certain a Parliament is the best way in time of Common Danger to give Supplies and secure the Nation from imminent Ruin the Nation being most
the Commons ask any Grant of it to them or any other To conclude I command you all that are here to take notice of â—hat I have spoken at this time to be the true Intent and Meaning of â—hat I have granted you in your Petition especially you my Lords the Judges for to you only under me belongs the Interpretation of the Laws for none of the Houses of Parliament either joint or separate what new Doctrine soever may be raised have any Power either to â—ake or declare a Law without my Consent And you need not doubt but these shall be placito-men all who shall not scruple to make the King's Will to be the Subjects Law and those that will not shall be none of this King's Judges I do not find that the King before he prorogued them gave the Parliament any Thanks for the Bill of Subsidies tho greater than ever was given to any King as his Predecessors ever did or if he did it ill sorted with the Speech he made before But before we proceed to take a View of this King's Actions in the Interval of this Recess of Parliament let 's a little consider the present State of the King and Kingdom and herein who it was the King quarrelled with and upon what Account and for whose sake It was with the Representatives of the Kingdom who had so obsequiously and unanimously gratified him above what any other House of Commons ever did to any King of England before The Crimes for which the King inveighed so against them were for representing their Grievances and the dangerous and feeble State of himself and the Kingdom and to represent to him the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom by taking the Customs as he did yet declaring their Readiness to relieve him therein and to reconcile him to his Subjects And for whom was it the King thus contended but for a Favourite who against the King's Father's Will and Advice of his Council without a Declaration or Reason shee l the next Day after the King's Father's Death as the Bishop of Litchfield observes excited him to make War against the King of Spain and after made the King to dissolve the Parliament to save himself from being impeached in it And so he did the second Parliament and then engaged the King in a War against France wherein he himself was the Aggressor and put the King upon those unheard-of ways to support these Wars that never were practised by any King of England before and in the ill Management of them brought greater Loss and Dishonour to the Nation than ever was before A Favourite who besides these brought the Crown to extream Poverty to support his intolerable Ambition and Avarice Here again I cannot but note the miserable State of Princes who treat their Subjects as Enemies and their Favourites as their only Friends and Confidents above other Men for other Mens Enemies are but few and the rest of Mankind their Friends but the Majesty Glory and Honour of a Prince is founded in the Love and Obedience of his Subjects and if this be lost whereto then can a Prince betake himself What became of Edw. 2. and Rich. 2. tho two of those four Hereditary Princes of ten after the Conquest when they had lost the Love and Obedience of their Subjects and this Prince and his Sons after him made haste to overtake their Fate Not one many hundreds of private Men but die a natural Death but Sine Caede Sanguine pauci Descendunt Reges But above all those of this Scotish Race of Kings descended from Elizabeth More which 't is a question whether any one of Nine of them in a continued Succession died a Natural Death The Duke of Buckingham upon his Retreat from the Isle of Rhee promised the Rochellers to send them speedy Relief and to make good his Word sent the Earl of Denbigh his Brother-in-law with a Fleet to relieve it now close besieged by the French King the Earl came before Rochel the first of May 1628 where he found the French Fleet of 20 Sail had blockt up Rochel by Sea upon the Approach of the Earl the French retired towards their Fortifications and anchored within two Cannon shot of the Fleet and so continued till the 8th of May the Earl promised the Rochellers to sink the French Fleet when the Waters encreased and the Wind came Westerly it being then neap Tides but two Days after the Waters did encrease and the Wind became Westerly then the Earl being intreated to fight the French Fleet did not but weighed Anchor and came away only four of the French Fleet at a distance pursuing the English Fleet. Thus was the Duke's Expedition to the Isle of Rhee seconded by this of his Brother-in-law for the Relief of Rochel I do not find the Parliament took notice of this but if they had it had been to no purpose for soon after the Earl's Return the King resolving not to hear of the Commons Remonstranceâ— against his taking the Customs not granted by Parliament to which he said he must have given a harsh Answer upon the 26th of June prorogues the Parliament to the 20th of October following and after by Proclamation to the 20th of January To redeem his Brother-in-law's Miscarriage the Duke in this Recess goes to Portsmouth to command the Fleet there to relieve Rochel but at Portsmouth he is stabb'd by Felton the 23d of August yet was the Design pursued under the Command of the Earl of Lindsey who several times attempted to force the Barricadoes of the River before Rochel but all in vain or if he had it had been to no purpose for the Victuals wherewith the Rochellers should have been relieved were all tainted and 't was well the French had no Fleet there for the English Tackle and other Materials were all defective This was the last Attempt this unhappy â—ing made either for the Relief of the poor Protestants in France or for the Recovery of the Palatinate for now Buckingham was dead who put him upon making War with Spain and France the King as secretly as before he had done suddenly made Peace with both Spain and France What 's now become of the twelve Subsidies and three Fifteenths granted to this King's Father and himself in less than eight years time by Parliament for Recovery of the Palatinate besides Loans Benevolences Coat and Conduct Money raised by his Father and himself without Consent of Parliament Let any Man shew in any Records of time that half so much in like time was raised by any of our Kings upon any Occasions except the Dissolution of Abbeys in Henry the VIII's time Search all Histories and find any one Prince so wilfully set to be govern'd by such loose vain wild and negligent Councils as either of these Princes Father or Son Now let 's see the Condition of these poor Rochellers trusting to this Prince and his Favourite they lived long upon Horse-flesh Hides Leather Dogs and Cats hardly
leaving a Horse alive still in hopes of the Relief promised from England they held out so long till but 4000 of 15000 were left alive most of them died of Famine and when they began to be pinch'd with Extremity of Hunger they died so fast that they usually carried their Coffins into the Church-yard and other Places and therein laid themselves and died great Numbers of them being unburied and many Corps eaten with Vermin Ravens and Birds when the French Army entred the Town The Outrages committed against the Reformed Churches in France were so high as constrained them to implore King Charles his Aid in these Expressions That what they wrote was with their Tears and Blood But how unhappy soever this Prince's Fate was in War abroad yet it had been happy for him if he had not made his Fate worse at home and now let us see what Steps he made towards it even in this short Recess of the Parliament's Meeting Upon the 15th of July the King made Sir Richard Weston who died a declared Papist Lord Treasurer of England and the same Day translated Laud the Firebrand of the Arminian Faction to the Bishoprick of London whose next Step was Arch-bishop of Canterbury who that he might testify his Zeal to this Cause which after set all these Nations on Fire got Richard Mountague to be consecrated Bishop of Chichester the 24th of August following This Mountague was fierce for Arminianism and wrote a Book call'd A new Gag for an old Goose for which he was questioned in the Parliament of 23 Jac. and the Cause was committed to Arch-bishop Abbot which then ended in an Admonition and though the Arch-bishop disallowed the Book and sought to suppress it yet it was reprinted and dedicated to King Charles under the Title of Appello Caesarem Hereupon the Commons 1 Car. questioned Mountague for this and gave Thanks to the Arch-bishop for what he had done but this displeased the King who took the Business out of the Commons Hands but they had taken Bond of Mountague to appear I desire to be more particular herein because Arminianism was not only turn'd up Trump for the flattering Clergy to play their Game but for the Popish Party to undermine the Church of England as it was established by Law and the Canons Doctrine and Homilies of it and now Mountague's Cause was recommended to the Duke of Buckingham by the Bishops of Rochester Oxford and Laud Bishop of St. Davids as the Cause of the Church of England Thus this Cause stood when the King dissolved the first Parliament the 12th of August 1625. But the King's Necessities as he managed Business forcing him to call another before assembled Laud procured the Duke to sound the King whether he would leave Mountague to a Trial in Parliament which the King intended to do whereupon this pious Man Laud said I seem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God of his Mercy dissipate it Note that all those who were not of this Faction of Arminianism were stiled by them Puritans these Mountague treats with bitter Railing and injurious Speeches and inserts divers passages in his Appeal dishonourable to King James the Commons therefore prayed that the said Mountague might be exemplarily punished and his Books supprest and burnt Yet this is the Saint that Laud in the first Act of his Regency as it may be called after he became Bishop of London must have made Bishop of Chichester and after Bishop of Norwich But this is observable that while Neal and Laud were consecrating Mountague News came of the Duke's being stabb'd This was the first step after Laud's Preferment the next was a Pardon for Mountague and Manwaring of all Errors by speaking writing and printing and you cannot believe that Laud would be less kind to Manwaring than to Mountague and therefore notwithstanding Manwaring's Censure he procured Manwaring the fat Rectory of Stamford Rivers in Essex and a Dispensation to hold it with the Rectory of St. Giles in the Fields That you may see the Kindness of this Bishop of London to our Laws in the very Infancy of his Power When Felton was brought before the Lords of the Council for murdering the Duke Laud threatned Felton with the Rack unless he would confess his Inducement for murdering the Duke but the King then in Council refused till the Judges were consulted and said if it could be done by Law he would not use his Prerogative but though the Judges determined he could not be put to the Rack by Law the King was graciously pleased not to use his Prerogative yet this was no thanks to the Bishop of London Now let 's see the Fruits of the Petition of Right and the manifold-Declarations of the King for maintaining the Laws of the Land and the just Rights and Liberties of the Subject but here you may understand that though he had taken the Customs not granted by Parliament yet by virtue of his Prerogative Royal he had enhanced the Rates such as were never granted by any Parliament and declared it his absolute Will and Pleasure besides that of Wines that the 2 s. and 2 d. Duties upon every Hundred of Currants by the Book of Rates should be advanced to 5 s. and 6 d. in the Hundred The first that suffer'd under the King 's absolute Will and Pleasure was Mr. Chambers who was committed by the Lords of the Council this Michaelmass-Term and was bailed by the Court of King's-Bench for which the Judges were check'd having done it without due Respect to the Privy-Council Next Mr. Vassal's Goods were seized for not paying the 5 s. 6 d. upon every hundred pound Weight of Currants upon which the Attorney General Sir Robert Heath exhibited an Information against him in the Exchequer to which Mr. Vassal pleaded the Statute De Tallagio non concedendo and that this was neither Antiqua seu Recta Consuetudo to which the Attorney demurred and Mr. Vassal joined in the Demurrer but the Court would not hear Mr. Vassal's Counsel and said the King was in Possession and they would keep him so and imprisoned Mr. Vassal for not paying the Duty thus imposed About the same time the said Mr. Chambers's Goods were seized by the Customers for not paying such Customs as were demanded by the Farmers Mr. Chambers sues a Writ of Replevin the Barons grant an Injunction against it Mr. Chambers offers to give Security for Payment of such Duties as the Court should direct which the Court refused unless he should pay such Customs as demanded by the Farmers which Chambers refusing the Court ordered the Officers to detain double the Value of Chambers's Goods demanded by them The same Course was taken with Mr. Rolls's Goods though a Parliament-Man one of the Commissioners saying Privilege of Parliament extended only to Persons not Goods another more boldly told Mr. Rolls if all the Parliament were in you we would take your Goods These Proceedings so ill sorting with the Petition
see what Fruits the Petition of Right passed but the Year before had and the King 's repeated Declarations to maintain the Laws of the Land and the Liberty and Property of the Subject But if this Prince has not kept his Word for the time past he will keep it he says for the time to come in the Declaration he made for the Dissolution of this last Parliament I do not find the Date of it yet it begins with the usual Prologue However Princes are not bound to give an account of their Actions but only to God In this the King says nothing of the Eyes of all Christendom being upon him but tells how the Aids granted this last Parliament were for Payment of his Fleet and Army and that with part of those Monies he began to supply his Magazines and Stores and to put his Navy into a constant Form and Order and that notwithstanding the Provocations of evil Men whose Punishment he reserves to a due time he will maintain the Established Religion and Doctrine of the Church of England and the antient and just Rights and Liberties of the Subject Yet as he will maintain the Subjects Rights so he expects that they yield as much Submission and Duty to his Royal Prerogative and as ready Obedience to his Authority and Command as had been performed to any of his Predecessors Then wills his Ministers not to be terrified by the harsh Proceedings strained against them for as he will support them by his Authority and Prerogative so he expects they should obey him and that he will receive the Customs and the Duty of Five in the 100 and if any factious Merchants refuse to pay they shall be assured he will find honourable and just means to support his Estate and Soveraignty and preserve the Authority God had put into his Hands and for this his Subjects ought to acknowledg their own Blessedness and for the same to be thankful to God the Author of all Goodness For this you must take the Prince's Word for the next twelve Years But being thus great and happy at Home let 's see what is doing Abroad The War against France was not more inconsiderately begun about two Years before than the Peace made with it was secret The first time it was made known was when the French King besieged Privas he proclaimed the Peace with his good Brother of England The Reformed were astonished and confounded that the King of England who brought them into the War should leave them out of the Peace Hereupon Privas surrenders so does Castres and Nismes the great Rohan is forced to submit and disband The Power of the Reformed thus rooted up and while the King of England is making War against the Members of Parliament Richlieu marches with an Army into Italy and takes Salusses and Pignerol from the Duke of Savoy Richlieu having thus secured the King of England took no less care that the Empire should not put a stop to the swelling Ambition of his Master and to this purpose enters into a Confederacy with the Protestant Princes of Germany to call the King of Sweden in to Germany who next Year entred into it where for eighteen Years the French Protestant Princes joining the Swede a most dreadful War was raised all over Germany so as the French had no cause to fear any Danger thence on the contrary they took Brisac and other Places and had opportunity to wrest Lorain from that Duke But King Charles prospering as he thought in his Domestick War having taken more Prisoners in it I mean the Members of Parliament and Constables of Hertfordshire than his Father and he had done in all their Wars against France Spain and the Empire for the recovery of the Palatinate was very unwilling to enter into a Foreign and therefore in a kind of petitioning way sends Sir Henry Vane his Ambassador to the King of Sweden to take care of the Patrimony of his Brother but with no better Success yet in a more rough scornful and dishonourable manner than his Father's Ambassadors had with the Emperor But that he might seem to do something the King sent Marquess Hamilton with 6000 Men to assist the Swede who tho every-where else victorious yet this Army under Hamilton had worse Success than that under Mansfield being starved and mouldred away almost to nothing and yet fought not at all and being reduced to two Regiments the King of Sweden would not permit King Charles to name the Officers See Whitlock's M. f. 15. and Franklin's Anno 1630. The ill Success of Hamilton's Army put the King out of all Conceit of prosecuting any Foreign War and therefore wholly makes it his Business to make himself more Absolute at Home There is but one Rub in the way viz. the great Prop of the Church the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Abbot a Prelate of most eminent Learning whose upright Integrity stood as an unshaken Rock against the Innovations both in Church and State which were now so fiercely push'd on by the Arminians I find but little Action in this Year 1631 things were only preparing to what followed yet altho Arch-bishop Abbot was living the Torrent run so high in the University of Oxford that several of the Members were proceeded against and censured for Sermons preach'd against Arminianism and expell'd the University and the Book of Sports and Pastimes upon the Lord's-day was republished Judg Richardson was so hardy as to repress them but the Bishops took this as an intruding upon the Ecclesiastical Power and Bishop Laud complained thereof to the King and the Judg was check'd for it See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 16 17. But in the Year 1632 this Reverend Prelate died and thereby left room for Laud the Fire-brand of Arminianism to take Possession Before we see what follows let 's look back upon what went before He being of a restless aspiring Temper in the beginning of King James his Reign got to be Chaplain to Mountjoy Earl of Devonshire and to shew he would be great upon any account he marries the Earl to the Lady Rich tho her Husband was then alive and had many Children by her viz. Robert then Earl of Warwick and Henry Earl of Holland which Act so displeased King James that the Earl fell into his Displeasure and tho Laud hanker'd near twenty Years after the Court to get Preferment principally under the Countenance of Neal Bishop of Winchester yet the King would never endure to hear of it But at last by the Importunity of Neal and others Williams Bishop of Lincoln and Lord-Keeper was prevailed upon to intercede for him without any Success till at length the Keeper told the King It would be hard to serve a King who could not forgive one Fault At last he got the King to prefer Laud to the Bishoprick of St. Davids but he had not been scarce one Year in his Bishoprick before he became Williams his bitter Enemy and Prosecutor as you may read in the second Part
so grave an Author as the Bishop of Litchfield had not reported it in the Bishop of Lincoln's Life See the second Part fol. 138. The Writs for Ship-Money are now issued out the Proceedings against the Officers for not collecting the Assessments as Constables Bayliffs and other Officers were to bind them over to answer at the Council-board and Commitment if any refused to give Bond but if Sheriffs neglect to collect all such Assessments in their Year they shall stand charged with the Arrears Thus things at present stood but the breaking the Bounds of the Forests was but in Embrio yet in a hopeful Production Thus things stood in the State about the end of the Year 1634. In the Church the Arch-Bishop had the sole Supremacy not only in England but in Scotland having got a Warrant from the King to hold Correspondence with the Bishops and also in Ireland being chosen Chancellor of the University of Dublin and having got Sir Thomas Wentworth to be Lieutenant of Ireland who was now as much his intimate Confident as Noy was before In England the Arch-bishop's Injunctions for wearing the Surplice receiving the Sacrament kneeling and placing the Communion-Table Altar-ways and railing it about c. were vehemently prosecuted with the opprobrious Names of Puritan and Schismatick fixed upon Nonconformists with Deprivations and Censures upon Lecturers and Chaplains who refused to come up to them if they did they must forsake their Patrons Patronesses and Flocks who provided them Bread so that they contended pro Aris Focis and otherways no Provision was made for them On the contrary they retorted on the Bishops and promoted Clergy with bitter Terms of Popishly affected and Rags of Superstition and Idolatry so that the Contentions all over the Kingdom were as fierce as in the Universities But it had been happy for this Nation if the Effects of these Contentions had been terminated in the Bounds of it For the Arch-bishop in his Metropolitan Visitation this Year 1634 summoned the Ministers of the Dutch and French Churches to appear before his Vicar-General where all the Natives viz. born in England were enjoined to repair to their several Parish-Churches to hear Divine Service and Sermons and perform all Duties and Payments required in that behalf The Descendants of those Walloons persecuted by Alva and of the French by Henry II. of France had for near ninety Years been allowed their several Congregations by Queen Elizabeth King James I and had the Royal Word of King Charles for enjoying of them But now at once they must be turn'd out of them When these Injunctions were to be put in Execution at Norwich the Dutch and French Congregations petitioned Dr. Matthew Wren that these Injunctions might not be imposed upon them but finding no Relief appealed to the Arch-bishop who return'd a sharp Answer that unless they would submit he would proceed against them according to the Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical Here take notice that as the Spanish Trade was the most enriching Trade to this Nation so the Trade to Hamburg and the Countries and Kingdoms within the Sound with our Woollen Mafactures was the best the English had for Employment of People Shipping and Navigation The Company which traded into the Sound was called the East-Country Company and Queen Elizabeth and after her King James to honour them called it the Royal Company This Trade the English enjoyed time out of mind and the Cloths which supplied it were principally made in Suffolk and Yorkshire And Ipswich as it was the finest Town in England and had the Noblest Harbour on the East and most convenient for the Trade of the Northern and Eastern Parts of the World so till this time it was in as flourishing a State as any other in England The Bishop of Norwich straining these Injunctions to the utmost frighted thousands of Families out of Norfolk and Suffolk into New-England and about 140 Families of the Workers of those Woollen Manufactures wherewith Hamburg and the Countries within the Sound were supplied went into Holland where the Dutch as wise as Queen Elizabeth was in entertaining the Walloons persecuted by the Duke of Alva established these English Excise-free and House-Rent free for seven Years and from these the Dutch became instructed in working these Manufactures which before they knew not The Consequence whereof shall be shewn hereafter But the Care of the Arch-bishop for Reformation of the Church of Scotland was not less than for that of England and to that end got the King to sign a Common-Prayer Book for the Use of the Church of Scotland and gave order to the Bishops there to compile certain Canons for the Government of the Church and there to be imposed by Regal and Episcopal Authority and to this end Laud held Correspondence with the Arch-bishop of Saint Andrews and other Bishops of Scotland Whilst these things were brewing in England and Scotland you need not fear Ireland now Sir Thomas Wentworth was Lieutenant there a most dreadful War overspread Germany and Philip the 4th a weak lascivious Prince reigned in Spain so as Richlieu had a fair Opportunity to subdue Monsieur the King's Brother and overthrow the Forces raised by the Duke of Momerancy to assist Monsieur wherein the Duke was unhappily taken Prisoner and had his Head cut off being a young Prince of greatest Hope the most antient of the French Nobility and the last of his Line But the Cardinal did not rest here but built more and better Men of War than had been before in France and Spain shall first find the Force of them in return of their Kindness in joining their Fleet with the French in relieving St. Martins in the Isle of Rhee besieged by the English And this Year 1634 Richlieu trickt Charles Duke of Lorain out of his Dutchy and the next the King of France proclaims open War against Spain by Sea and Land and in 1638 ten Years after the Spaniards joining with the French against the English the French besieged Fontaraby by Land which the Spaniards intending to relieve by Sea the Spanish Fleet is encountred by the French and beaten the French took eleven great Ships whereof six of them were richly laden for the Indies and burnt two Gallions upon the Stocks and six others entirely finished In the Ships taken besides their Equippage and other Ammunition of War the French took an incredible Number of Cannons 100 whereof were Brass with the Arms of the House of Austria upon them Afterward the French and Spanish Fleet fight in the Mediterranean Sea where the Spaniard is again beaten by the French and by Land the French take from the Spaniard Landrecy Beaumont and de la Valette in the Spanish Netherlands Perpignan the Key of Spain on the Foot of the Pyrenean Hills in the Country of Rousillion and Barcelona a good Port and the capital City of Catalonia In England this Year 1635 there was great Contrivance between the Arch-bishop Laud and Bishops of Scotland
and sure never was there such a Generation who so impudently out-braved Truth and all that may be call'd Sacred If you could force a Belief into them they first told you they fought for King and Parliament then they declared for the King and People against the Parliament and now they have taken off the King if you will have any Benefit of their Protection you must engage to their Government without King or House of Lords and be content with a piece of the Commons call'd the Rump Not content with the Death of the King the Rump proceeds to abolish Monarchy and place the original Power of Government in the People whose Representatives they are if you 'll take their Word and voted it High Treason to restore Monarchy or to assist or pray for Charles Stuart or any of that Line overthrow the King's Statue with an Exit tyrannus Regum ultimus Nor are they satiated with the Blood of the King but erect another High Court of Injustice whereof one Lisle an ignorant Fellow was President who condemns the Marquess Hamilton Earl of Holland and Lord Capel for raising Arms against the Parliament which themselves had destroy'd But tho the Rump and Army were establish'd upon these strange Principles yet being the Instruments of Divine Vengeance like a Torrent broke loose from raging Seas in less than five Years time they overwhelm not only England but Ireland and Scotland almost pull'd the Dutch States up by the Roots and made France and Spain tremble But that we may observe what follow'd let 's see what went before The Scots were the first who invaded England against the King to impose their Solemn League and Covenant which was more against the English Laws and Constitutions than Laud's Service-Books Canons and High-Commission were against the Scotish In July last the Scots invaded England commanded by the Marquess Hamilton in August Cromwel routs and utterly overthrows this Army and takes Hamilton Prisoner So the Scots who began these Wars first are the first chastised by this English Army But this is but the Earnest of what shall follow The secluded Members who first join'd the Scots beginning first with an equivocal Protestation but after downright joined with the Scots in their Covenant are now not only turned out of the House by the Rump but kept in nasty Prisons till they became as little dangerous as The House of Lords The horrid Irish Massacre and Rebellion succeeded in the third place And now the Rump having established themselves by subduing of the Scots under Hamilton and deposing the secluded Members are laying Rods in Piss to scourge these abominable Irish But before we proceed let 's see how things stood in Ireland In October 1641. the Irish Massacre was which succeeded in a Rebellion in which Richlieu's Scarlet was as deep dyed as in the Scotish and English Commotions The Head of this accursed Crew was John Baptista Pennuncio the Pope's Nuncio who in his Passage through France threatned he would suffer no Man to live in Ireland that wished well to the King or to the English Affairs Thus you see how all the Factions conspired against the King the Laws and Constitutions of England But for these last seven Years viz. so long as the Distractions were continued in England the War was pursued but by halves in Ireland King Charles in his Life-time had made the Marquess of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland who in 1643 made a Truce with the Irish that the King might make use of the English in England But the Irish kept their Faith no better in it than the Scots had before with the King in the Peace in 1639. For on a sudden they rise against the Marquess now the English are sent into England and had surprized him if he had not been informed before and escaped into Dublin and being in no Condition to defend it but obliged to deliver it up either to the English sent by the Parliament or to the Irish he gave it up to the English who make Colonel Jones Governour and so Ormond leaves Ireland After the Marquess was withdrawn the Nuncio behaved himself like a Church-Man with such a Despotical Tyranny that he became intolerable even to the Irish themselves who being press'd by Jones Coot and Monk combine in a Body and send to the Queen and to the Prince of Wales for then the King was close Prisoner in the Isle of Wight to return the Marquess of Ormond and they would submit to his Authority and join to expel the Scots and Parliament's Forces The Nuncio taking this for an Affront to his Authority being that of the Apostolick See which is infallible threatens Excommunication to them who should not obey him but neither he nor his Excommunication were obey'd but was forced to Capitulate with the Irish themselves to procure his Departure which was as shameful as his Entrance was proud and insolent Upon the Marquess's Return he enter'd into most dishonourable Articles with the Irish which yet would not please Owen Ro Oneal who join'd with the Parliament's Forces and reliev'd Londonderry then besieg'd by the Lord Ardes After this Pacification with the Irish such as it was Ormond raises a numerous Army and by my Lord Inchiqueen routs a Party of Jones's going to Drogheda who takes the Town and Dundalk Green-Castle Newry and Trim and returns Victorious to the Marquess Hereupon the Marquess besieges Dublin but unfortunately sends my Lord Inchiqueen into Munster with if not the greatest the best part of the Army Jones falls upon the Remainder and utterly routs them This was in August 1649. And the same Month Cromwel lands at Dublin with an Army of 15000 old Soldiers Upon this Disaster the Irish no more to be reconciled to the English than the Scots Covenanters to Episcopacy quarrel with the Marquess which was never after composed So the Marquess left Ireland again leaving the Earl of Clanrickard Deputy Cromwel after his landing first storms Drogheda or Tredah with a most terrible Execution and after in less than one Year all Ireland upon the matter is reduced to the Obedience of the Rump who take dreadful Vengeance upon all the Irish who could be found to have had any hand in the Massacre of the English The King Charles II. having lost England and Ireland with all their Dependencies except the Isles of Guernsey Jersey Man and Scilly and the Plantations in America which shall soon follow set up for Scotland and makes the Marquess of Montross his Commissioner who having got together about 400 Swedes Danes Poles and Germans lands them at the Wick of Cathness in April 1650 and takes Dumbeath But Lesley having sent Major-General Straughan with 300 choice Horse he set upon this ill composed Body of Montross and utterly routs them Montross fled but was betrayed by the Laird of Aston who had formerly served him The Covenanters to shew their Clemency and Humility bind the Marquess in a Chair planted backwards on a Cart that all
before we will lay to the Charge of Cardinal Mazarine We will therefore see if the French King was not as little a Slave to his Word in this League as Mazarine was in any before and you 'll see that in all the Leagues this King after made he was as little a Slave to his Word as in this Treaty We have in the former Book set down particularly the Article whereby the French King upon his Honour and the Faith and Word of a King did promise neither directly nor indirectly to assist Portugal against Spain yet at the beginning of the Treaty they secretly conveyed Troops into Portugal in several Bodies And when upon Complaint of the Marquess de la Fuente they sent publick Orders to the Governours of their Ports not to suffer any Souldiers to embark for Portugal they did not abstain by Connivance under-hand to let them pass Nay when Marshal Turene made publick Levies to assist Portugal it being complained of by the Marquess de la Fuente they answered it was a particular Act of the Marshal and the Court of France had no Hand in it And also continually supplied Portugal with Corn and all sorts of Ammunition And France also fomented the Obstinacy of Portugal to continue the War when Spain offered them advantagious Terms of Peace This and much more you may read in the second Article of The Buckler of State and Justice Nor did the French King stay here but being become the dearest Confident with his Brother of England almost as soon as the King was settled the French sent Monsieur Courtin to move the King not to abandon Portugal nor did he yet stay here but Mazarine dying much about the latter end of Summer having a Stone in his Heart so the French Pasquils said in September or beginning of October the Queen-Mother came over seemingly to treat with her Son for a Marriage between Monsieur of France and her fair Daughter Henrietta Maria the King 's beloved Sister Yet it seems to me the Marriage of the King with the Infanta of Portugal was not less designed than that with Monsieur And besides these you will soon hear of something else which brought the Queen-Mother into England As the Designs of the Queen's coming over were dark so I acknowledg I have not seen any of the Treaties or Transactions concerning them but must take Measures by what followed and so far as I had Light from what went before yet in all of them it seems evident to me that the Queen shewed her self to be more affectionate to her Daughter than Son and to be more a Daughter of France than Queen of England But before I proceed it will be convenient to take notice of the deplorable State of Spain which their Ambition in seeking so many Foreign Dominions and a Tyrannical Government had brought it to For before the Accession of their American Dominions which they acquired by unjust War and unheard-of Cruelties in all the ten Years War between Ferdinand and Isabella with the Moors who had seven hundred Years been possessed of the Kingdoms of Granada Murcia and a great part of Andaluzia every Year the Moors and Christians brought near a hundred thousand Men into the Field to fight one with another yet the Kingdoms of Arragon Navar and Portugal were Neutral in all the War Whereas now all the Kingdoms of Spain except that of Portugal were united under this King Philip the Fourth yet out of them all he could not raise an Army to fight the Portuguese but trusting to the French Faith in the Pyrenaean Treaty sent the Army in Flanders under the Command of the Marquess Caracene to do it The King imbraced the Overtures of both Marriages and now the French King doubly if not trebly assured of his Brother of England as well by the Treaties of these Marriages as by his Message by Courtin no longer acts covertly in assisting the Prince Regent of Portugal against Spain but bare-fac'd sent Marshal Schomberg with an Army and Fleet to their Assistance yet this Army was not sufficient to make an Offensive War against Spain but Portugal stood only upon the Defensive The Want of Money a little retarded the Marriage of the Princess with Monsieur but this might be easily help'd if the King would give up Dunkirk to the French whereby he might pay 200000 l. for his Sister's Portion which was more than his Father had with his Mother and also receive 200000 l. more for himself Nor was this all he might save the Charges of maintaining a Garison there yet the Parliament in the Hereditary Excise allowed him 60000 l. per Annum for the Support of it I do not find this mentioned in the Body of the Act yet several Members assured me it was so intended in the passing the Act. All this the King agreed to and so Dunkirk and Mardike Fort were given up to the French against all the Laws of Humanity Justice and Prudence I say it was against all the Laws of Humanity for the Spaniard entertained and relieved the King when the French had expelled him and joined with Oliver the Usurper of all his Dominions It was against Justice for the Soveraignty of Dunkirk was of Right and Justice the Spaniards And against the Rules of Policy and Prudence the French Nation being the Natural Enemies of the English and the next Neighbour to it and of all Nations the most formidable It had been happier for the poor Spaniard and the English Nation if the Unkindness of the King to the Spaniard had ended in his giving up Dunkirk to the French but it ended not here for the King imployed the Army which should have kept Dunkirk against the Spaniard in Portugal and with these and another Band of the disbanded English Army joined to them the French Portuguese and English or rather the English without them routed the whole united Army of the Spaniard at the Fight of Elvas So as now the French had a new Inlet into Flanders and the Spaniard no Army to defend it This was a foul Blot in the Spanish Politicks by their King 's trusting to the Faith of his Brethren of England and France But this will not stay here as hereafter you will see Here I take leave so well as I can to vindicate the Memory of my Lord Chancellor Hide from two Aspersions as I conceive cast upon him one That he was the Adviser of the giving up Dunkirk to the French The other That he was the Procurer of the King's Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal For the first I was assured by a credible Person tho a Confident of my Lord Chancellor's that he was so far from advising the King to give up Dunkirk to the French that only he and my Lord Treasurer Southampton upon whose Honour my Lord Chancellor relied more than any other of all the Council entred their Protestations against it The Truth of this may be resolved by inspecting the Privy-Council's Books It 's true
paid or was one tenth part so highly caressed by their Subjects in a time of Peace Was it not strange then that the King should be in such Necessities for Money as to borrow such great Sums of the City for carrying on this hasty War before the Parliament should meet to supply him Whereas when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown her Revenue besides the Court of Wards and the Dutchy of Lancaster was but 188179 l. per Annum and the Crown left in Debt by her Father Brother and Sister which she afterwards paid and for the four first Years of her Reign the Parliament gave her but one Subsidy and two Fifteens about 120000 l. Yet in these Years she fitted up her Navy Royal so as it was not only superiour to those of all the Neighbouring Nations but of any Prince in the World and also sent a Fleet and Land-Army into Scotland with which she expelled the French out of it And the Parliament in the fifth Year of her Reign gave her but another Subsidy and two Fifteens wherewith she assisted the Princes of the Reform'd Religion in France Whereas the Parliament in the fifth Year of this King 's actual Reign gave him 2467500 l. for carrying on the War against the Dutch I will not dispute the Justice of this War yet sure never was any made with such Precipitancy and Inconsideration both abroad and at home for as the King entred into no Alliances or Confederations abroad in it so on the contrary France and Denmark our next Neighbouring Nations join'd with the Dutch against the King and that tho the Spaniard stood Neuter in it yet the King had little reason to expect any Benefit from him having been so used in the King's Sale of Dunkirk to the French and joining with the Portuguese and French against the Spaniard And as the King had made no Foreign Alliances abroad so had he not laid up any Naval Stores at home and which is worse he had the Act of Navigation tho made by the Rump yet the Parliament 13 Car. II. confirmed it or set the Royal Stamp upon it to struggle with to supply himself with Naval Stores for carrying on the War For the Rump were as hasty in making the Act of Navigation as the King was in entring into this War and made it general without any Consideration of Time either in War or Peace and herein their Zeal to make this Law outrun their Wit or Memory for these very Men about ten Years ago viz. 16 Car. I. 21. which yet stands unrepealed taking notice of the manifold Mischiefs tho in time of Peace which happened by reason the Importation of Gunpowder was prohibited contrary to Law viz. That the Price of Gunpowder was excessively raised many Powder-Mills decayed the Kingdom much weakned and endangered the Merchants much damnified many Mariners and others taken Prisoners and brought into miserable Captivity and Slavery many Ships taken by Turkish Pirates and many other Inconveniences thereby ensued and like to ensue Therefore this Act made the Importation of Gunpowder Salt-petre and Brimstone free to Strangers as well as Natives and a Premunire to hinder it Whereas in this War if the East-India Company shall set double or treble the Price upon Salt-petre or if their Ships should miscarry yet by this Act it is Confiscation of Ship Goods Tackle Apparel and Ammunition for the Subjects of any other Nation to import Salt-petre or Gunpowder The King tho this were a Naval War having laid up no Stores for it yet if the Swede from any Port of Norway but Gottenburg or if the Bradenburgher Lubeker Hamburgher or Emdenber should import any from any Port of Norway or any rough Hemp or Flax from Leifland or Prussia for making Cordage or Sails this had been Confiscation of Ships Goods Guns Tackle Ammunition and Apparel by this Act. This Act restraining the English in the Newcastle Trade and to the Plantations to navigate their Ships by three fourths English the King was forced to man his Fleet with pressed Men the greater part whereof were Land and Water-Men Whereas if it had been free for the English during the War to have imployed Foreigners in these Navigations the King might have above twenty thousand of his best Sea-men more than he had to man his Fleet and the City of London and other Parts of England throughly supplied with Coals at half the Prices and with more Security The King by reason of this Act in the first Year of this War was forced in the dead of Winter to send Sir John Harman to Gottenburg with a Squadron of Men of War for Masts Pitch and Tar where by the Coldness of the Season some of the Ships were frozen up and many of the English lost their Noses and were benumm'd in other Parts with the Cold Yet all agreed if the King had not been supplied with Naval Stores by this Fleet he could not have fitted out a Fleet next Year These things tho evident to any Stander-by yet the Parliament took no notice of them However the King wisely dispensed with the Act of Navigation so far as it related to the Importation of Naval Stores and Hemp and Flax with this different Success that tho the Parliament the Year before boggled at the King 's dispensing with the Penal Laws against Dissenters yet they took no notice of the King 's dispensing with the Act of Navigation Tho this War was thus hastily begun yet was it managed more carelesly and prodigally than ever any was before The Officers of the Fleet like those of the Guards bought their Places to sell their Lives the poor common Sea-men not paid and wanting Money to pay their Quarters were forced to take Tickets for less than half their Wages whilst Favourites swelled into incredible Riches by the Ruin and Spoil of the Nation The innumerable Prizes taken from the Dutch were so far from contributing to the Charges of this War that many of them were given to Women and Favourites and became a Charge to the King no Inspection must be into the defraying the Monies given for the War for this was to distrust the King The Officers who had bought their Places in the Fleet instead of minding their Business made it their Business how to be Gainers for the Purchase of their Places and caballed how they might improve their Interest at Court However the King receiving no Satisfaction from the Dutch for the Injuries done to Sir William Courten and Sir Paul Pindar upon the 17th of May 1665 granted Letters of Reprisal to Sir Edward Turner and George Carew their Executors c. against the Dutch till they should be satisfied 151612 l. This Grant to stand in force notwithstanding any Peace to be made till Sir Edward Turner c. were fully satisfied of the said Sum with all their Costs and Damages Sir Thomas Allen opened the first Sea Campagn by falling upon the Smirna-Fleet and took four of them richly laden and the
carrying on this War against the Dutch and therefore they gave the King 1256000 l. towards it but the King had other Occasions for the Money and thought he better otherwise could dispose of it upon the Assurance he had from his Mother out of France that the Dutch would not set out another Fleet this Year tho the French King used all means that the Dutch should do it And this Year the Zealanders set out a Squadron of Ships and took Surinam from the English in America Relying upon his Mother's Intelligence the King by the Mediation of the Swedish Ambassador entertains a Treaty of Peace with the Dutch whilst they make all possible Preparations for War which all the World saw but the King who would not see it and so took no Care to set out a Fleet to fight them nor to protect his Fleet in their Ports However the King at this time was not pleased with the Insults of his Brother of France upon the English in their Plantations in the Leeward Islands and therefore sent Sir John Harman with a Squadron of Frigats to repress the French Insolence there Sir John had the Gout so as he could not go but upon the Discovery of the French Fleet got upon his Feet and gave Orders to fight the French which he did and beat them and during the Fight walked and gave Orders as when well But the Fight was no sooner over when Sir John returned to his gouty Lameness again and after reduced Surinam to the English but this was after the Peace of Breda between the English and Dutch The Dutch having compleated their Fleet upon the 9th of June entred the River I was on the 10th in the Morning walking in St. James's Park when a Gentleman whispered to me That the Dutch were enter'd the River Then the King had fed his Ducks and was walking on the West-side of the Park and as we walked Prince Rupert overtook us and met the King at the further End of the Pall-Mall and the King told the Prince how he had shot a Duck and such a Dog fetch'd it and so they walk'd on till the King came to St. James's House and there the King said to the Prince Let 's go see Cambridg and Kendall the Duke's two Sons who then lay a dying but upon his Return to White-hall he found all in an Uproar the Countess of Castlemain as 't was said bewailing above all others that she should be the first torn in pieces Hereupon the Duke of Albemarle was posted down to Chatham where in a Council of War it was resolved to sink all the Ships but as they lay there was not Water enough The Dutch found an easy Passage after they broke the Boom which lay cross the River for no Fort was then finished at Sheerness and that at Vpnor ruin'd for want of Repair however the Duke put some Guns into it which shooting high little damaged the Dutch in the Passage So the Dutch fired the Royal James London and Royal Oak and the Henry being afloat run so violently upon Rochester-bridg the Tide forcing her as endanger'd the breaking of it and the Royal Charles was carried off by the Dutch I was then at London and also in the Plague and Fire Years yet in neither did I observe such Consternation and Confusion in the Looks of all Men as at this time and with great Cause for if the Dutch had then come up to London they had found all open to them not one Gun mounted at Tilbury Fort nor one Frigat ready in the River so as they might have forced all the Ships in the River up to the Bridg and there have burnt them which would certainly have fired the Tower and all the Suburbs West to Black-wall as well as Southwark below Bridg. Nor were the Ships at Portsmouth in more Safety and the Dutch had Ships enow to have made both Attempts at the same time but whilst the Dutch lay loitering below Sheerness the English had time to plant some Guns in Tilbury Fort and sink Ships cross the River at Woolwich And the King sent the Earl of Macclesfield and Captain Elliot to Portsmouth who used such Diligence in fortifying it that when the Dutch came before it they thought not fit to attempt to do what they had done at Chatham However the Dishonour which the Nation sustained by this Action may be forgotten yet the sudden and more dishonourable Peace concluded at Breda the 9th of July following will never be Where the 3d Article is That all Offences Injuries Damages and Losses sustained on either side by the King and States or their Subjects during this War or at any time before upon any Cause or Pretence whatsoever be totally expunged and buried in Oblivion So that by this Article the Business of Amboyna is buried and never to be called in Question which Oliver tho he made Peace with the Dutch would not do but was referred to the Cantons of Switzerland who never did any thing in it By this Article the Dutch had Polloroon out of which they had expelled our East-India Company during this War confirmed to them whereby they became sole Proprietors of the Spice-Trade as well in Europe as other Parts of the Indies Arabia and Persia And by this Article they were to have the Plantation of Surinam restored to them because taken by Sir John Harman after the Treaty The 4th Article is That all Ships Goods and Moveables which at any time had come into the Power of either Party or their Subjects should remain in the present Possessors thereof without any Compensation or Restitution for the same without any Exception of Place Time or Things The 5th Article was That all Actions Ships and Pretensions whatsoever for the same should remain void obliterated disannulled and nothing moved thereupon hereafter The 8th Article is That under the foresaid Renunciation and Stipulation all Letters of Mart Reprisals or Counter-Mart general or particular ought to be comprehended and revoked by virtue of that Article accordingly notwithstanding any Grant to the contrary This was the Success of the King's Speech to the Parliament upon his declaring War against the Dutch that as he enter'd into the War for the Protection Honour and Safety of his Subjects so without these he would not make a Peace and this Benefit Sir Edmund Turner and Mr. Carew had of their Letters of Reprisal wherein the King granted That they should stand good notwithstanding any Peace to be made with the Dutch until they had fully reprized their Debt of 151612 l. and Charges of Reprizal nay their Agents were tried by a Commission out of the Admiralty for Piracy for acting under the said Grant the Silver Oar being carried before Sir Lionel Jenkins who was very zealous to have hanged them but the Common-Law Judges were of another Opinion and so they did not lose their Lives as Sir Edmund and Mr. Carew did their Debts yet the French sped not so well as the
sit out a greater Fleet of Men of War than ever any French King did before Nor were the Dutch behind-hand but made proportionable Advances not doubting but the King would make good his Proportion according to the League so lately made between the King and them in case the French King made any Attempt upon them Upon the 24th of October 1670 the Parliament met again and notwithstanding all the Aids granted the King in April before my Lord-Keeper Bridgman told the Parliament the great Care his Majesty had of them and the Kingdom since their last Recess and that besides the triple Alliance he had made many advantagious Alliances both for Security and Profit of Trade with the Swede Dane Spaniard and Duke of Savoy But since the Dutch and French made such vast Naval Preparations it was necessary for the Safety and Honour of the Nation that the King should at least keep equal Pace with them which could not be done without great Supplies which must be speedily granted for the King intended to put an End of this Session before Christmas but the Success of this Speech so ill agreeing with the Premises it was not permitted to be printed yet you may read it at large in Mr. Marvel's Growth of Popery But whatever Treaties of Commerce were made with other Princes the Keeper finds none with France where neither the advantagious Treaty made by Oliver was observed nor any new one made but the French King did use the English with all imaginable Oppressions without any Redress from the King However this Speech wrought so pathetically with the Parliament that they gave the King one Shilling in the Pound of the real Value of all the Lands of England for one Year and an Additional Excise upon Beer and Ale for six Years and the Law-Bill for nine Years which three Bills were computed at two Millions and a half And now this dark Design founded in such deep Dissimulation Hypocrisy and Perfidiousness as Oliver Cromwel would have been ashamed of and blush'd at begins to receive Light For the Parliament having granted the King the Aids were in Consequence prorogued and did not meet to act till the fourth of February 167 1 2. But in regard that not only the extirpating the Protestant Religion but the Subversion of the Western Parts of Europe was now designed which extended as far as the Baltick Sea and the Bounds of the Turkish and Tartar Empires we will be a little particular in it But what is most amazing is that the King in appearance a Protestant and a free independent King so used by the French King in his Exile and since his Restoration should be so forward in joining with a Faithless and Boundless Ambitious Neighbouring Prince which if his Design had succeeded had involved the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland in the same Condition with the rest of Christendom The Vizard-Mask under which the Popish Party covered their Hypocrisy in propagating their Catholick Cause for plain-dealing must never be expected in it in King Charles the First 's time was Arminianism which then had the Ascendant in Laud's Regency but since the King's Restoration the Protestant Dissenters being so fiercely prosecuted by the Parliament it was judged that the dispensing with Penal Laws against Dissenters from the Church of England would conjoin the Protestant Dissenters Interest with the Popish and this not only appeared by Practice but by Design in Coleman's Letters to Father Ferier and La Chaise the French King's Confessors As before the first Dutch War the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence for dispensing with the Penal Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs in the Interval of the sitting of the Parliament so did he before the second War It seems to me that the Designers of this War got some secret Oath or Promise from the King that he should not do the like again for the King told the House of Commons he would stand by his Declaration of Indulgence and sure nothing but Queen Money would have got him off However these Conspirators were more zealous than politick for before the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence in England upon the 26th of February 1671 he issued out his Proclamation in Ireland wherein he granted general Licence to all Papists to live in Corporations exercise Trades there and enjoy the same Privileges as other Subjects ought to do which was a greater Privilege than his Protestant Subjects had for by their Charter all who were not free of the Corporations could not have the Benefit of their Privileges But that the Catholick Design might take deeper Root and Continuance the Duke of York's Sons being dead and the Princesses his Daughters being bred up in the Protestant Religion Care must be taken to establish the Popish for the time to come for which it was expedient the Duke should marry some Popish Princess and to this end the Arch-Dutchess of Inspruck was propounded and a Treaty entred into upon it But tho the Princess's Religion pleased the French King yet the Interest this Marriage would bring with it did not So that tho the Treaty were far advanced yet the French King who ruled all the Roast propounded the Princess of Modena the Daughter of a little Italian Prince and a Dependant of the French King's yet had a great Interest in the Court of Rome and this against all Endeavours of the Parliament and to the Dishonour of the Treaty with the Arch-Dutchess prevailed the French King having adopted her a Daughter of France and given her a Portion But while these Designs are laid in the dark here in England the French King bare-faced by his Ambassador at Vienna in a solemn Speech declared that his Master had undertaken the War against Holland for propagating the Catholick Cause and that all good Christians were bound to join with him to extirpate Heresy and that he would restore all his Conquests to re-establish the true Worship banish'd out of the Holland's meaning the Vnited Netherlands Territories which you may read more at large in Mr. Secretary Trevor's Appeal c. Now let 's see how agreeable these Mens Morals were to their Religious Pretences in laying the Scene for this designed Dutch War The Treasury since the Death of my Lord Treasurer Southampton was managed by Commissioners and if the Aids granted by the Parliament were not sufficient for carrying on the King's Designs the French King is to supply him further but things were not ripe enough yet for these Monies to be returned into the Exchequer lest they might give cause of Suspicion and therefore between six and seven hundred thousand Pounds were received by Mr. Chiffins he to have two Pence in the Pound to be disposed of as the King shall order If you doubt this you may examine Mr. Chiffins's Accounts when he was advised to pass them and take his Quietus out of the Exchequer Tho by the Defensive League between the King and States when the Triple League
should be Lord on both sides of the Spanish Netherlands could be to protect them against the Power of the French Good God! Did these Men believe Heaven or a God! But all Moral Vertues and whatsoever may be called sacred must give way to the Advancement of the Catholick Cause By this time the French King by the Benefit of the Act of Navigation Oliver's Peace with France and War with Spain our King's supine Negligence and the Addition of twelve great Men of War built by the Dane and Dutch in the former Dutch War had got a Navy equal to the Dutch or English yet how to damage or destroy these and to instruct his Men to fight is the French Game now to be play'd And therefore for this time the French permitted the English to have the Red Flag and the French were content with the White Yet here it 's observable That in all the former Fights with the Dutch when the French and Dane joined against the English except that when the Fleet was divided the English put the Dutch to flight whereas in all the Fights which were four wherein the French joined the English the English came off with more Loss than the Dutch Things thus order'd the Duke of York was Admiral of the Red or the whole Fleet Monsieur D'Estree of the White and my Lord of Sandwich of the Blue And thus they rode at Anchor in Sould-Bay the 28th of June 1672 the Wind blowing at North-East a stiff Gale And upon that day there was a mighty Sacrifice to Ceres and Bacchus on board the Fleet by the Flag-Officers and at the same time the other Captains in imitation of their Admiral went on Shoar to perform the same at Alborough Dunwich and Sould. In their Jollity on Board my Lord Sandwich not at good Terms either with the Duke or with the French said that as the Wind stood the Fleet rode in danger of being surprized by the Dutch and therefore thought it adviseable to weigh Anchor and get out to Sea The Duke retorted upon him as if this had been said out of Fear which the next day 't was thought was the loss of the Earl and the brave Ship the Prince Royal. The Sacrifice ended and when all were Vino somnoque sepulti the Thunder of the Cannon of the Scout-Ships about two in the Morning gave Notice that the Dutch Fleet was approaching to call the English to an account for their Yesterday's Jollity Now all things were in Confusion our drowsy Officers were in no case to go to Counsel nor had time for weighing Anchor the Cables therefore were cut to avoid being burnt by the Dutch Fire-Ships and the Long-boats were sent near the Shoar to wait upon their sleepy Officers Here was no time to draw into a Line of Battel but it happened that about four in the Morning a Calm fell which continued till after six whereby the Captains had time to get on Board tho not to consider how to fight And I have heard experienced Sea-men say if this Calm had not happened the whole English Fleet had been in danger to be stranded or burnt The Coast of Sould-Bay lies near North and South the North-most part inclining into the East called Eastonness being the most Eastern Part of England but towards the South it inclines into the West The French lay South the Duke's Squadron in the midst and my Lord Sandwich on the North so as the French had most Sea-room and the Blue least When the Dutch engaged the Fleets the Wind was South-East and the Dutch did not fight close with the French yet the French shot furiously but their Shot fell short But with great Courage the Dutch fell upon the Duke's Squadron and more fiercely upon the Blue the Dutch having near one third more than the English and thus the Fight held till about 11 when the French by this time might have weathered the Dutch and disingaged the English but did not Now the Wind had got North-East and Van Gent the Dutch Vice-Admiral with three Men of War whereof one lay across his Haulser sorely distressed my Lord Sandwich when Sir Joseph Jordan Vice-Admiral of the Blue who might have disengaged the Earl sailed to the Red to assist the Duke and it 's believed the Earl might have done so too if his great Spirit could have digested his yesterday's Taunt So this noble Earl and his brave Ship perished with many young Gentlemen besides Mariners Towards two the English got the Weather-gage of the Dutch and then the Fight ended nor did the French serve the English better in any of the other Sea-Fights which let others tell I have had enough of this Tho the Dutch could thus cope with the English and French at Sea yet they found another kind of Task of it by Land And let 's look back a little and see how this Calamity came upon them and some things we are necessitated to resume here tho mentioned before upon another occasion to make Matters more plain and obvious There is no Man conversant in the Stories of those Times but understands that the Foundation of the Dutch States was laid by William Prince of Orange Father of Maurice and Henry Frederick Grand-father of King William who and his Brothers all lost their Lives in establishing it with the Assistance of Queen Elizabeth Queen Elizabeth however she made use of the Dutch to curb the aspiring Dominion of the Spaniard knew their Nature so well as never to trust them and therefore bridled them by keeping the Brill Ramakins and Flushing the Keys of the Maeze and Scheld in her Dominion The Queen in assisting the Dutch made one Article That two such English Men as she should name should sit and vote in their States But the Dutch growing mighty by her Assistance and withal ungrateful formed a private Cabal at Amsterdam where they managed all the secret Affairs of their State and in this Barnvelt was the Head The Queen incensed herewith in the Year 1598 called the States to an account for all the Monies she had expended in their Support which was 8000000 Crowns or two Millions Sterling the Dutch pleaded Poverty and their Inability of Payment and beseeched her that as she excelled all others in Glory and Power so she would continue her Mercy and Pity to these distressed States The Queen answered them She had been often deluded by their deceitful Supplications and ungrateful Actions and pretences of Poverty and that they bare no Reverence to Superiors nor took any Care but for themselves The States were confounded with this Answer and to appease her promised to pay her the whole Debt after the War and during the continuance of it to pay her 100000 l. per Annum and that the English Garisons in the Brill Ramakins and Flushing should be paid by the States The Queen tho not much trusting the States yet wisely considering that if she refused these Offers the States might alter and put themselves under
remember he said of a hundred and fifty Tuns and carried it by Water to Roan from whence the French King convey'd it by hand to Versailles and had it launched into his great Pool he had made there where he came on board and had much Conference with Sir Anthony upon it And if the Service of the English commanded by Turenne in France were not sufficient for carrying on the War against the Confederates the King emptied his own Magazines to fill the French and that from June 1675 to June 1677 Granadoes were sent without Number under colour of unwrought Iron Lead-shot twenty one Tuns Gun-powder seven thousand one hundred and thirty four Barrels Iron-shot eighteen Tuns six hundred Weight Match eighty eight Tuns and a thousand Weight Iron Ordnance four hundred forty one Quantity two hundred ninety two Tuns nine hundred Weight Carriages Bandaliers Pikes c. uncertain In return of these Kindnesses the French King not only exorbitantly enlarged his Impositions upon the English in their Trade to France but let loose his Privateers upon the English as if there had been no Peace and plunder'd murder'd made Prize of their Ships and Effects and confiscated them block'd up our Coast and took our Ships out of their very Ports and if Complaints were made at his Soveraign Port they were baffled except some which were redeemed by Sir Leighton's Interest a most notorious who made a second Prize of them Mr. Marvel at the End of his Growth of Popery gives an Account of sixty three of these with the Masters Names their Burden Lading and the Ports they belonged to from 1674 to the latter end of 1676. Now the King who by this War had set Christendom in a Flame being himself got out of it sets up to be a Mediator for Peace and no Man so fit to be employed in it as Sir William Temple who having observed how the Ministers had deceived him or themselves and advised the King to break Treaties so solemnly agreed upon would not take this Employment upon him before he had sounded the King 's true Sentiment and trust no more to his Ministers Sir William therefore in a Conference with the King in his Closet and in a well composed Speech reflected upon the Cabal how ill he had been advised to break Treaties so solemnly agreed to and how ill they had succeeded how different the Constitutions of France were from those of England and how different the State of the Crown now was from that when it had the Court of Wards and Knights Service and large Revenues of Lands and Fee-Farms which now were alienated so that Gourville well observed that a King of England who will be the Man of his People is the greatest King in the World but if he will be something more he is nothing at all The King heard Sir William attentively yet impatiently at first but at last the King said Gourville had reason for what was said and said And I will be the Man of my People but you 'll see the King shall not long hold in this Mind for Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador and the Dutchess of Portsmouth by the Agency of a French Monk who had changed his Frock for a Petticoat shall unravel all Sir William had been weaving in the Treaty of Nimeguen Sir William's Embassy was declared in May 1674 and his Dispatches finished in July following when he went into Holland But it seems to me the French Interest was chiefly designed even in this Embassy for tho Sir William's Instructions were for a general Peace yet his Application was first to the States and after to the Prince that they would accept of it and after their Acceptance of it to endeavour it with their Allies which looks as if the King rather intended a separate Peace with the Dutch and Spaniard than a general one and this the King endeavoured during the whole Treaty at Nimeguen as you may see at large in the second Part of Sir Temple's second Memoirs and so ended at last and so the States understood it who tho at first desirous of a separate Peace yet in Honour they could not leave out the Confederates who had saved their Country And if the French King could have a separate Peace with the States and Spain he little cared for the Empire being in a Treaty with Count Teckely to raise a Rebellion in Hungary and to engage the Turk in a War against the Empire Tho the King had got out of this War yet this Summer the French King got the Swede into it and as justly as the King began this War by his Attempt upon the Smirna-Fleet for the Elector of Brandenburg had withdrawn a great Army out of his Country to assist the Confederates upon the Rhine against Monsieur Turenne who commanded the French without declaring War the Swede made War against him in Pomerania tho it had like to have cost the Swede all he had in Pomerania for the Elector returning at the latter end of the Summer routed the Swedish Army and after took Stetin the Metropolis of Pomerland and had kept it if afterwards the Dutch had not made a separate Peace and left him and the Empire too who had saved them to the Mercy of the French And this had been done a Year sooner if the Noble Constancy and Authority of the Prince of Orange had not opposed it who this Year fought the great Battel at Seneff against the Prince of Conde with uncertain Victory You have seen how we got Peace abroad now let 's see how things stood at home Tho the Popish Party had been twice balk'd in their Designs I mean by the King 's recalling the Indulgence and this Peace yet were their Hopes and Designs by the Marriage of the Duke with the Princess of Modena more heightned than ever for they knew the King being involved in all sensual Pleasures and therefore hating the Cares and Troubles of Business might easily be prevailed upon by Importunity and the Dutchess being an adopted Daughter of France and having her Advancement and Portion from the French King was obliged to propagate the French Designs with the Duke and he with the King And the Advancement of the Catholick Cause was the most piâ—us and glorious Work they could promote and therefore Coleman the Duke's Secretary now holds Intelligence with Father Ferrier the French King's Confessor Ferrier with the Jesuited Faction in France and Coleman with those in England how to manage the King in order to it The Bargain was soon made by Coleman and Ferrier and his Christian Majesty was fully satisfied of the Duke's good Intentions towards him so that he esteemed both their Interests to be one and the same This Return was by Sir William Throgmorton June 2. S. N. 1674 to Coleman This Coleman communicates to the Duke who commanded Coleman to answer That the Duke was very sensible of his most Christian Majesty's Friendship which he would cultivate with all the good
Parties in the House of Commons till the thing was wrested out of our hands Upon the 5th of January 1676-77 Sir William received Answer from the King to his last Dispatches by the Prince's Direction which consisted of two Parts the first an Offer of the King's Entrance into the strongest Alliance with the States thereby to secure them from all Apprehensions from France after the Peace should be made the second was the King's Remarks rather than Conclusions or Judgment upon the Terms propounded by the Prince for a Peace that he the King believed it might be compassed with France upon the Exchange of Cambray Ayre and St. Omer for Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Conde and Bouchain This Answer was so different from what the Prince proposed so illusive and of so little Security to the Dutch that the Prince told Sir William that he would rather die than make such a Peace and complained that the Offer of Alliance was wrote to him by the King 's own Hand but this about the Terms of Peace from the Secretary's Hand which was in a Stile as if he thought the Prince a Child and to be fed with Whipp'd Cream That since all this had been before the foreign Committee he knew very well it had been with the French Ambassador too and that the Terms were his and were a great deal worse than if they had directly come from France But the French King 's wheedling our King and the Dutch about a separate Peace no ways abated the Vigour of his Prosecution of the War whilst Peace was mediating for in the beginning of the Year he takes the Field with a huge Army and block'd up Cambray and Valenciennes about the End of February and having provided sufficient Magazines for Subsistence of his Forces which neither the Spaniard nor Germans had broke into Flanders and into the Parts of Germany on the other side of the Rhine and with the most cruel Ravages of burning and spoiling those Parts of Germany that could be exercised and such as had not been used on either side since the War began The Allies made Complaints of this new manner of making War to his Majesty as Guarantee to the Treaty at Aix la Chapelle who employed his Offices towards France to hinder such Proceedings but the Things was done and the Point gained which was by an entire Ruin of those Countries from hindring the Imperialists from finding any Subsistence for their Troops if they should march into Alsatia and thereby divert those Forces the French resolved to employ in Flanders before the Dutch could take the Field and march to the Relief of those Places they intended to attack Before any Dutch Spanish or German Army could be brought into the Field the French took Valenciennes and laid Siege to St. Omer and Cambray But before they had taken St. Omer the Prince of Orange with the Forces of the States the Spaniard assisting him with no Forces not so much as Guides resolved to relieve it tho with the hazard of a Battel But the Duke of Orleance leaving a part of his Forces to defend the Trenches and joining with the Duke of Luxemburg with all the Troops the French King could send met the Prince at Mount Cassel where after a sharp Dispute the first Regiment of the Dutch Infantry began to break into Disorder The Prince went immediately to that Place where the Shock began rallied them several times and renewed the Charge but at last was born down by the plain Flight of his Men whom he was forced to resist as Enemies and fall in among them with Sword in hand and cut the first over the Face and cried out aloud Rascal I 'll set a Mark on thee at least that I may hang thee at last But neither Voice Action Threats nor Example would give Courage to Men that had already lost it so he was forced to recoil to those Troops which stood firm and made so brave a Retreat as was near equal to a Victory So as Flanders had only Mons and Namur for a Frontier by Land and Newport and Ostend by Sea However the Prince made an Attempt upon Charleroy which did not succeed Hereupon the Prince seeing all Attempts against the French would be in vain unless the King came in to assist the Confederacy of the Allies sent Monsieur Bentink into England to desire the King's Leave to make a Journey into England so soon as the Campagn was over to which he received this cold Answer That the Prince would first think of making the Peace and rather defer his Journey till that were concluded Could any Man now believe any other Prince should be so supine as not to apprehend the imminent Danger his Nephew stood in and in consequence his own Dominions And tho all the World but he saw and dreaded this yet the King as at the End of the first Dutch War would not This was about the beginning of June and about the middle of it Sir Temple's Son brought him Letters from my Lord Treasurer That he should come over and enter upon the Secretary's Place which Secretary Coventry had offer'd to lay down upon the Payment of 10000 l. and that the King would pay half the Money and the Treasurer must lay down the rest at present but did not doubt but the King would find a way of easing him of that too What could be expected in such a Reign where Secretaries of State who are the Eyes of the King and Kingdom to take Care of all foreign and domestick Affairs which cannot be carried on without Charges should purchase their Places and thereby not only disable them in the Performance of their Office but utterly to neglect it and make it their Business how they may be Gainers by their Purchase they had so dearly bought But Sir William excused it as not being able to raise 5000 l. now his Father was alive And tho Secretary Coventry came cheap enough by the Place it seems he was either unwilling Sir William should succeed him in it or that he would not trust to the 5000 l. to be paid by the King unless he might chuse his Successor who it may be would have given him 15000 l. for it After Sir William came over and the Bargain for the Secretary's Place not succeeding the King had often Conferences with him about the Peace and the Prince's coming into England he had a great Desire for the first but not for the other till the first were done He said his Parliament would never be quiet with him while the War lasted and then leave him in it unless they might have their Terms in removing and filling Places which he should be very loth to be so much at their Mercy and that the longer the War continued the worse it would be for the Confederates and worse for Flanders and therefore would have the Prince make a Peace for them if they would not do it themselves and that if the Prince and he would fall
into Terms about it he was sure it might be done and desired Sir William to make a short Turn to the Prince and try if he could perswade the Prince to it But Sir William excused it and desired Mr. Hide now Earl of Rochester who was then at Nimeguen might do it but I don't find any thing came of it About the latter End of September as before noted the Prince took his Journey for England and landed at Harwich and from thence came to New-Market where the Court then was where he was kindly received by the King and Duke who both invited him often into Discourse of Business which the Prince avoided industriously so as the King bid Sir William ask the Prince the Reason of it the Prince told him he was resolved to see the young Princess before he enter'd into that Affair and get to proceed in that before the other of Peace whereupon the King to humour him left New-market some Days sooner than he intended and came to London The Prince at first sight was so pleased with her Person and all those Signs of such a Humour as had been before described to him that he immediately made his Suit to the King and Duke which was well received and assented to but upon Condition the Terms of Peace abroad might be first agreed to between them The Prince excused himself and said he must end his first Business before the other The King and Duke were both positive otherwise that that of Peace should precede but the Prince continu'd resolute for the former and said His Allies were like to have hard Terms of Peace as things stood and would be apt to believe he had made this Match at their Cost and for his part he would never sell his Honour for a Wife But the King and Duke continued in their Resolution for three or four Days In the Obstinacy of these contrary Resolutions between the King Duke and Prince Sir William Temple chanced to go to the Prince one Evening after Supper and found him in the worst Humour he had ever seen him in and told Sir William he repented he ever came into England and resolved he would stay but two Days longer if the King continued in his Mind of treating upon the Peace before Marriage and that before he went the King must chuse how they must live hereafter for he was sure it must be like either the greatest Friends or the greatest Enemies and pressed Sir William to let the King know so next Morning and give him an Account what he should say upon it Next Morning Sir William told the King all the Prince had said to him and the ill Consequences of a Breach between them considering the ill Humours of so many of his Subjects upon our late Measures with France and the Invitations made to the Prince by several of them during the late War The King heard Sir William with great Attention and when he had done said Well I was never deceived in judging of a Man's Honesty by his Looks and if I am not deceived in the Prince's Face he is the honestest Man in the World and I will trust him and he shall have his Wife and you shall go immediately and tell my Brother so and that 't is a thing I am resolved on Sir William did so and the Duke at first seemed a little surpriz'd but when Sir William had done the Duke said the King shall be obey'd and I would be glad all his Subjects would learn of me to obey him From the Duke Sir William went to the Prince and told him all this Story At first the Prince seem'd diffident but soon embraced Sir William and told him he had made him a very happy Man and that unexpectedly and so he left the Prince to give the King an Account of what passed and in the Prince's Ante-Chamber met my Lord Treasurer who undertook to adjust all the rest between the King and the Prince which he did so well that the Match was declared that Evening at the Committee before any other in the Court knew any thing of it When the Match was known the Nation entertained it with an universal Joy yet the French Ambassador and my Lord Arlington were displeased at it the French Ambassador because he had not given his Master an Account of it and my Lord Arlington because nothing of near such moment had passed and he not acquainted with it and within two or three Days after the Marriage was consummate The Prince having so happily gained the first part of his Design in coming into England the Terms of Peace were agitated immediately and Sir William Temple was admitted to be present at the Debates The Prince insisted upon the Strength and Enlargement of a Frontier on both sides of Flanders otherwise he said France would end this War with the View of beginning another and carrying Flanders in one Campagn The King was content to leave that Business a little looser upon Confidence that France was so weary of the War that if they could get out of it with Honour they would never begin another in this Reign that the King was past his Youth and lazy and would turn to the Pleasures of the Court and Buildings and leave his Neighbours at quiet But the Prince thought France would not make a Peace now but to break the present Confederacy and to begin another War with more Advantage and Surprize that their Ambition would never end till they had all Flanders and Germany to the Rhine and thereby Holland in an absolute Dependance upon them and us in no good one and that Christendom could not be left safe by the Peace without a Frontier as he proposed for Flanders and the Restitution of Lorain as well as what the Emperour had lost in Alsatia Sir William Temple told the King that in the Course of his Life he had never observed Mens Natures alter by Age or Fortune but that a good Boy made a good Man a young Coxcomb an old Fool and a young Fripon an old Knave that quiet Spirits were so and unquiet would be so old as well as young that he believed the French King would have always some Bent or other sometimes War sometimes Love sometimes Building but was of the Prince's Opinion that he would ne'r make Peace but with a Design of a new War after he had fixed his Conquests by the last The King approved of what Sir William had said and the Points of Lorain and Alsatia were easily agreed to by the King and Duke but they would not hear of the Restitution of the County of Burgundy tho it were part of the Spanish Netherlands which the King was obliged to protect against France by the Treaty of Aix as what France would never be brought to yet the Prince insisted much upon it which the King imagined was by reason of the Prince's own Lands in that Country which are greater and more Seignurial than those of the Crown of Spain there
and thereupon the King told the Prince That for his Lands there he would charge himself that the Prince should enjoy them as safe under France as under Spain or if the Prince would part with them the King would undertake to get him what Price he would value them at to which the Prince generously reply'd That he would not trouble himself nor the Peace about that matter and that he would be content to lose all his Lands there to get one good Town more for the Spaniard upon the Frontier of Flanders So here the King and Prince agreed But then another Debate arose between the King and Prince one pretending France would never be brought to this Scheme the other that Spain would never be brought to it but at last it was agreed that the Peace should be made upon these Terms All to be restored by France to the Emperor and Empire that had been taken in the War and the Dutchy of Lorain to the Duke and all on both sides between France and Holland and to Spain the Towns of Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Courtray Tournay Conde Valenciennes St. Gillain and Binch which were nine Towns that the King shall endeavour to procure the Consent of France and the Prince of Spain And to this purpose the King should send some Person immediately over with the Proposition who should be instructed to enter into no Reasoning upon it but demand a positive Answer in two Days and after that term immediately return And then the King ordered Sir William within two Days to make himself ready to go and acquaint the French with it At this Agreement between the King and Prince none were present besides the Duke my Lord Treasurer and Sir William Temple so as the French Ambassador was as much surprized in it as before he was at the Marriage of the Prince but this could not be longer conceal'd from him than when it began to be put in Practice yet it seems to me he was acquainted with it before and that the King had taken other Resolutions than what was agreed upon but the Day before For Sir William having prepared all things in a Readiness to go the Evening before he met the King in the Park St. James's who call'd to him and told him he had been thinking upon Sir William's Errand and how unwelcome he should be in France as well as the Message and that having a Mind to gain Peace he was unwilling to anger them more than needs besides the thing being not to be debated or reasoned any Body else would serve the Turn as well as he whom he had other use of Sir William was very glad of it knowing how ungrateful a Messenger he should be upon this Account Then the King asked Sir William what he thought of my Lord Duras a French-man and a great Favourite of the Duke's and since Earl of Feversham It seems the King asked Sir William's Opinion only for Form and Fashion sake for the thing was the Morning before agreed upon at the Desire of the Duke upon pretence that France would accept of the Terms and that he had a Mind to have the Honour of it by sending a Servant of his own So my Lord Duras went immediately after with the Orders and some few Days after the Prince and Princess embarked for Holland where Affairs pressed his Return beyond the Hopes of my Lord Duras from France the King assuring the Prince he would never part with the least part of the Scheme sent over and would enter into a War with France if they refused it But pudet haec you 'll soon see another Face of Affairs after the Prince was gone nay before he went it was a great Mortification to him to see the Parliament prorogued till the next Spring which the French Ambassador had gained of the King to make up some good Meen with France after the Prince's Marriage and before the Dispatch of the Terms of a Peace to that Court I should not have ventured to say this if that honourable Gentleman Sir William Temple in his second Memoirs which are printed fol. 302. had not said it before But how honourable and sincere soever the Prince's Actions were in the Management of this whole Affair the outward Face of things had another Appearance which caused great Jealousies of him not only among the Amsterdamers and Common People in Holland but even among the Consederates for the Prince sending Monsieur Bentink privately over into England about the beginning of June and Sir William Temple so soon after following and the Prince's raising the Siege before Charlâ—râ—y the next day after my Lord Ossory came to his Camp and the Prince's going in September following into England these things thus concurring passed not without many Reflections not only in Holland but among the Allies as if there were Intelligences between the King and him which were heightned by the Marriage the main Business of the Treaty made by the King and Prince about the Peace being yet in Embrio so as the Prince and Princess were coldly received in Holland upon the Prince's Return and these Jealousies encreased more upon the Transactions between the English Court and France But sacred Truth and the Integrity of the Prince shall vindicate his Honour even among those who most suspected him and were so jealous of his Actions The Noise of a Peace with France so soon after the proroguing the Parliament raised a Ferment in the Nation of some Design of the Court as dangerous to the Nation as the Dutch Jealousies that their Liberties were in by the Prince's Treaty and Marriage with a Daughter of England And now the Prince was gone and out of Sight he was out of Mind too by the King in respect to the Terms of Peace agreed to and the solemn Promise the King made to the Prince upon his Departure that he would never parâ— with the least Point in the Scheme sent into France and make War upon it if it were refused For upon my Lord Duras's Arrival at Paris the Court were surprized at least seemed so both at the thing and more upon the manner of it yet made good Meen upon it took it gently and said The King of England knew very well he might be always Master of the Peace but some few Towns in Flanders seemed very hard especially Tournay upon whose Fortifications such vast Treasure had been expended and that they would take some short time to consider of the Offer But my Lord Duras told them he was tied to two Days stay but when that was out was prevailed upon to stay some few Days longer which he durst not have done without secret Orders from our Court contrary to his Instructions and at last came away without any positive Answer Hereupon the King instead of declaring War against France as he so solemnly promised the Prince entred into a Treaty with the French Ambassador at London which by French Artifice was so spun out in length without any
positive Refusal that the Blow came to be eluded which could not otherwise be avoided as Sir William Temple says tho I believe it was intended even when the Prince went out of England However about the latter end of December 1677 the King sent to Sir William Temple to the Foreign Committee and told him he could get no positive Answer from France and therefore resolved to send him into Holland to make a League there with the States for forcing France and Spain into a Peace upon the Terms proposed if either refused To which Sir William told the King what he had agreed was to enter into a War with all the Confederates in case of no direct and immediate Answer from France That this perhaps would satisfy the Prince and Confederates abroad and the People at home But to make such a League with Holland only would satisfy none of them and disoblige both France and Spain Besides it would not have such an Effect or Force as the Triple Alliance had being a great Original of which this seemed an ill Copy And therefore excused himself from going And so the King sent Mr. Thyn with a Draught of the Treaty to Mr. Hide who was then come from Nimeguen to the Hague upon a Visit to the Princess which was done and the Treaty signed the 16th of January tho not without great Dissatisfaction to the Prince This Tergiversation of the Court set fire to the Jealousies in Holland especially at Amsterdam that the Prince by this Marriage had taken Measures with the King as dangerous to the Liberties of Holland and make it there believed that by this Match the King and Duke had wholly drawn the Prince into their Interests and Sentiments The French hereupon proposed other Terms of Peace to the Dutch far short of the King 's and less safe for Flanders restoring only six Towns to the Spaniard and mentioning Lorain but ambiguously which would not have gone down in Holland but for the Suspicions raised by the Prince's Marriage among the People there who had an incurable Jealousy of our Court and thereupon not that Confidence in the Prince that he deserved If we take this Reign as one thing you 'll find it made up of almost infinite Confusions and Disorders and scarce one regular Act in it and now we are come to one which is without any Precedent which was this You heard before how the King to gratify the French Ambassador for not acquainting him with the Marriage with the Prince had prorogued the Parliament to the 8th of April next viz. 1678. And now Mr. Thyn had made this League with the States the King thought this a good occasion to get Money from the Parliament upon it and was loth to stay till the 8th of April for it and therefore by his Proclamation commands the Parliament to meet upon the 15th of January before the 8th of April Prorogations of Parliaments are new and I think were never heard of in England before the Reign of Henry VIII and are said to be the Acts of the King but Adjournments the Acts of the House to a certain Time and Place and both Houses must be sitting and in being when they are either so prorogued or adjourned I remember upon the discovery of Câ—leman's Letters the Court were mightily surprized at it and the Parliament was to have met some few days after upon a Prorogation which the King in that Surprize unwilling they should did therefore call a Council to advise whether he might not prorogue them to a further day without the Houses meeting and 't was said my Lord Chancellor Finch was of Opinion he might and thereupon Sir Edward Seymour Speaker of the House of Commons having Occasions in the Country went out of Town but some body acquainted the King of the Doubtfulness of the Chancellor's Opinion and desired the King to advise with old John Brown who had been Clerk of the Parliament for near forty Years the King did so and John Brown was positive that in case the Houses did not meet at the Time and Place appointed the King by his Proclamation could not prorogue them but it would be a Dissolution of the Parliament Whereupon the Speaker was sent for back again and so many of both Houses met as would make a Parliament which it 's said is forty Commoners and seven Lords and then the King prorogued them But this Consideration was not that I find taken notice of by either House tho both met according to the King's Proclamation The Houses thus met the King acquainted them with the League he had made with Holland and demanded Money of them to carry on the War against France in case France did not comply with the League whereupon the Parliament granted him a Tex by Poll and otherways which amounted to 1200000 l. not for Peace but to enter into an actual War with France But this Tax shall only beget another to disband an Army raised upon that Pretence tho no War was entred into against France But so far was the French King from giving up any Towns notwithstanding the Agreement the King had made with the Prince or the League he had made with Holland that about the latter end of January he had made an Attempt upon Ipre and threatned Ostend and in March following by open Force takes both Ipre and Gaunt yet the French Ambassador here continued his Court and Treaty with all the Fairness that might be The French having now taken Ipre and Gaunt were so far from proceeding in any Treaty either with England the Confederates or Holland or in the Treaty at Nimeguen that about the first of April the French King made publick Declaration of the Terms upon which he resolved to make Peace which tho very different from those agreed upon between the King and Holland and more from the Pretensions of the Allies yet this way of treating the French pursued in the whole Negotiation afterwards declaring such and such were the Conditions which they would admit and no other and upon which the Enemies might chuse either War or Peace and to which France would not be tied longer than the 10th of May after which they would be at Liberty to change or restrain as they should think fit But how imperious soever the French were abroad yet they dreaded a Conjunction of England either with the Dutch or Confederates and therefore thought fit to wheedle our Court till the Affairs of the Confederates should become so desperate as to submit to what Terms the French King should impose upon them And to this purpose Mr. Mountague now Earl sent a Pacquet to my Lord Treasurer giving an account of a large Conference Monsieur Louvoy the French King 's grand Minister of State had with him by the King his Master's Order wherein he represented the Measures they had already taken for a Peace in Holland upon the French Terms and that since they were agreed there they hoped his Majesty would not be
so in Extreams yet his Actions so diametrically opposite to his Profession Here you see a Jesuited Prince pleading for Liberty of Conscience to the breaking down the â—aws which before he had so often professed to maintain and for such a sort of Men whom but little before he had slaughter'd banished and imprisoned as if he had designed to extirpate the whole Race of them If to reconcile these to Truth or Reality be not as great a Miracle as is in any of the Popish Legends I 'll believe them all and be reconciled to the Roman Catholick Church how inconsistible soever the Terms be The generality of the Protestant Dissenters having for near seven years together been so severely treated by the Tories were as forward to congratulate the King for his Indulgence in manifold Addresses as the Tories were in King Charles his time in their Addresses of Abhorrence to petition the King to call a Parliament to settle the Grievances of the Nation However this Declaration was so drawn in the sight of every Bird that of my knowledg many of the sober thinking Men of the Dissenters did both dread and detest it That this Declaration might be more passable Popish Judges were made in Westminster-Hall and Popish Justices of the Peace and Deputy-Lieutenants all England over the Privy Council was replenished with Popish Privy Counsellors the Savoy was laid open to instruct Youth in the Romish Religion and Popish Principles and Schools for that purpose were encouraged in London and all other Places in England Four Foreign Popish Bishops as Vicars Apostolical were allowed in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction all England and Wales over From instructing the St. Omers Boys how to behave themselves in their Evidence to prove Oates was at St. Omers all April and May in 1678 my Lord Castlemain is sent Ambassador to the Pope to render the King's Obedience to the Holy and Apostolical See with great hopes of extirpating the Northern pestilent Heresy In return whereof the Pope sent his Nuncio to give the King his Holy Benediction yet I do not find that he beforehand sent for Leave to enter the Kingdom as was observed by Queen Mary Henry VIII and before The Judges in their Circuits had their private Instructions to know how Men were affected with the King 's Dispensing Power and those who were disaffected to it were turned out from the Lieutenancy and Commission of the Peace Justice Judgment and Righteousness support the Thrones of Princes but these were Strangers to this King's ways other Means must be found out to support and carry them through a standing Army is judged the best Expedient and as the King told the Parliament at their second Meeting he had encreased his Army to double what it was before so he made his Word good that he would employ Men in it not qualified by the late Tests and to this end Tyrconnel having disbanded the English Army in Ireland qualified by the Tests sends over an Army of Irish not qualified by the Tests to encrease the Army in England This Army thus raised against Law committed all manner of lawless Insolences though the King by several Orders would have had their Quarters restrained to Victualling-Houses Houses of publick Entertainments and such as had Licences to sell Wine and other Liquors the Officers too when they pleased would be exempt from the Civil Power And though the King had no other Wars but against the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation yet he would have the Act of the 1 2 Edw. 6. 2. which makes it Felony without Benefit of the Clergy for any Souldier taking Pay in the King's Service in his Wars beyond Sea or upon Sea or in Scotland to desert from his Officer to extend to this Army thus raised by the King And because the Recorder of London Sir J. H. would not expound this Law to the King's Design he was put out of his Place and so was Sir Edward Herbert from being Chief Justice of the King's Bench to make room for Sir Robert Wright to hang a poor Souldier upon this Statute and afterward this Statute did the Work without any further dispute Thus this Prince did not only assume a Power to controul the Laws of the Nation at his pleasure in Civil Affairs but when he pleased made them bend to his Will to establish an illegal Army and countenance the Effusion of Christian Blood but you 'll soon see God will blast these ungodly Ways and that not the Arm of Flesh but Judgment Justice and Righteousness establish the Thrones of Princes Thus Affairs stood in England Scotland and Ireland in the year 1687. wherein I suppose no History mentions so great and violent Alterations in so little time as in this King's Reign all tending to introduce a Foreign Power and to enslave the Nation yet so patiently endured by it but the Dangers of these Designs were not circumscribed within the bounds of this Nation but extended into France where for above twenty years a Conspiracy was carried on for promoting these Designs thus far advanced so that the Year 1688 had a much more terrible Aspect upon England than the Year 1588 had when Philip the II. designed the Conquest of it for then the Nation was firm and intire for its own Interest whereas this Year it was not only torn in pieces by internal Discords but had an Army and Fleet designed to join with the French King in propagating his boundless Ambition not only upon England but upon the Empire of Germany Spain Holland the Duke of Savoy and other Princes of Italy About the beginning of the year 1688 a Gentleman of High Jesuited Principles told me The States of Holland were Rebels against the King of Spain and that I should soon see the King of France would call them to an Account for it and humble them and that the French King would assist our King with Men of War I took more heed to this because I knew that he was frequently visited by several Jesuits in whose Counsels I believe the French King's Designs this Year were locked up for my Lord of Sunderland in his Letter recited in the History of the Desertion fol. 32. protests he knew nothing of a League between the King yet you will see it come out another way But my Lord of Sunderland says that French Ships were offered to join with our Fleet which was refused however this shews there was a Design contriving by these Princes yet at present the Affairs of France seemed to look another way and a French Fleet and Souldiers in them are sent to Canada the Design and Success you will soon hear of The King having thus as he thought laid a Foundation tho it proved a very Sandy one of his Designs and to shew how Absolute he would be in them upon the 4th of May passed an Order in Council that his Declaration of Indulgence should be read in all Churches and Chappels in England and Wales in time of Divine
the Design At this time there was not only a high Ferment in all the Nation against the King's Proceedings but in the Army against its mixture with Irish Officers and Soldiers which put the King into a great Agony which was increased by the Dutch Preparation Whereupon the Marquess d' Albeville the King's Envoy at the Hague upon the 2d of Sept. N. S. 23d of Aug. O. S. put in this Memorial to the States General High and Mighty Lords THE great and surprizing Preparations for War made by your Lordships by Sea and Land in a Season when all Action especially by Sea is laid aside giving just Cause of Surprize and Alarm to all Europe obliges the King my Master who has had nothing so much in his Mind since his Accession to the Crown as a Continuation of the Peace and Correspondence with this State to order the Marquess d' Albeville his Envoy Extraordinary to know your Highnesses Intentions thereby His Majesty as your antient Ally and Confederate believes it just to demand this Knowledg which he hoped with good Reason to have heard from your Ambassador but as he sees this Duty of Alliance and Confederation neglected and that such Power is raising without communicating the Intent in the least to him he finds himself obliged to reinforce his Fleet and to put himself in a Condition to maintain the Peace of Christendom The States paused upon an Answer to this Memorial when upon the 9th of September N. S. or the 30th of Aug. O. S. Monsieur d' Avaux the French Ambassador put in a Memorial to the States wherein he foolishly discovers the Contrivances which had been so long hatching between his Master and King James for after a long Story of his Master's Desire of maintaining the Peace of Europe now he had actually broke it he impertinently tells the States All these Circumstances and many others that I may not here produce perswade the King my Master with reason that this Arming threatens England Wherefore His Majesty hath commanded me to declare to the States on his Part that the Bonds of Friendship and Alliance between him and the King of Great Britain will oblige him the French King not only to assist him the King of Great Britain but also to look on the first Act of Hostility that shall be committed by your Troops and your Fleet against his Majesty of Great Britain as a manifest Rupture of the Peace and a Breach with his Crown Though the Dutch made no Answer to this Memorial yet they made no Bones to make this Answer to the Marquess d' Albeville's That they had armed in Imitation of his Britannick Majesty and other Princes and that they had thereby given no just Cause of Offence by arming when all other Princes were in Motion and that they were long since convinced of the Alliance which the King his Master had treated with France and what had been mentioned to them by Monsieur le Count d' Avaux in his Memorial This Answer King James took all one as if the Dutch had declared War against him and all the Eyes of England are now turned toward Holland as if from thence they expected Deliverance from the Designs of King James and his Popish Crew and the Fathers and Sons too of the Church of England are at as much Variance in their private and publick Prayers to God as Whig and Tory were in their Humours for in their private Prayers they pray for Prosperity to the Prince of Orange and in the Liturgy they pray that God would be King James's Defender and Keeper giving him Victory over all his Enemies God was pleased to prefer the private Prayers of the Church-men before those of the Church and to have granted both had been impossible and to put a hook into the French King's Nose who turned those Forces which he had raised not for the Peace and Tranquillity of Europe as d' Avaux said in his Memorial to the Dutch States upon the Empire where without any Declaration of War or Cause alledged he first fell upon Philipsburg which he took and after Heydelberg and Mainheim and while he was thus engaged he left the Prince of Orange free to vindicate his Cause against King James whereas if the French King had turned those Forces which he employed against the Empire upon the Spanish Netherlands and he might as justly have done this as that the Prince of Orange would have had little Force and less Leasure to have made any Attempt upon King James Thus God is pleased often to turn the Wisdom of the Crafty I will not say Wise into Folly and Destruction You have heard before how the French King in the beginning of the Year had sent out a Fleet to Canada whereupon the Company of Hudsons-Bay represented to the King their Apprehensions it was a Design upon their Factories and Plantations and so it succeeded for the French seized upon a Fort and Plantation of theirs called Fort Charles Towards the latter end of the Summer the King without the Knowledg of Hudsons-Bay Company entred into a Treaty of Commerce with his Brother of France in reference to the Trade of Canada wherein it was concluded that the Forts and Factories should be reciprocally enjoyed in the same state they were at the Conclusion of this Treaty the French having taken the Fort and Factory of Charles about three Months before So little did this King regard the Safety and Welfare of his Subjects wherein his Majesty and Honour was founded for to pleasure and endear his Brother of France from whom he expected mighty things for the Advancement of his Prerogative without reserve in England Scotland and Ireland Thus have I brought down the History of this King's Reign to the History of the Desertion where at large and particularly you may read how by a Wonder equal to King Charles his Coming in King James went out And if no human Prospect could have foreseen where the Tyranny of King Charles the I's Reign would have ended if the Long Parliament in 1640 had not put a full Stop to it so no uninterested Person was so purblind as not to see if the Heroick Magnanimity of this King in his Queen's his own and the Nation 's Right and for the common Safety of Christendom had not put a Stop to King James his Designs but the Popish Superstition and French Tyranny would have been imposed upon these Kingdoms and have overspread Christendom We admit these four Kings of the Scotish Race had an Hereditary Title to have governed England by the Laws and Constitutions of it yet no Hereditary King hath any higher Title nor any Man a Right to do Wrong and for an Hereditary King to govern otherways is a greater Tyranny than if an Usurper does by how much he adds Perfidiousness and Breach of his Trust to it Yet so it was that these four last Kings of the Scotish Race which should have been the Guardians of England in preserving the
Indulgence to be read in Churches 644. Jefferies the Commons Votes against him 556. Releases the impeached Lords 611. His savage Cruelty in the West c. 613 620 621. Is made Lord Chancellor 630. Jesuits their Projects in England 200 201. for which some were taken yet releas'd by the King 201. Ignoramus the Play 74. Ingoldsby sent against Lambert 420. Inoiosa Spanish Ambassador presents the King a Paper against the Prince and Buckingham 130 132. which much perplexes him 132 133. Johnson Mr. Samuel whipt for writing an honest Address to the English Army 638 639. Jones Sir Tho. his Thoughts of a Dispensing Power 630. Sir Will. put out and for what 546. Ireland how bounded c. 12. A horrible Massacre there 277 343. Another design'd 448. and a Rebellion in Conjunction with the French 472 533. K. James's Proceedings there 624 625 632 641. Irish Cattle Act to prohibit their Importation with 9 Observations upon it 462 467. Is made perpetual 559. Judges their Opinion for Ship-Money 258. Those made by Char. II. 501. Juries hated by Cromwel 400 401. Are pack'd to murder honest Men 601 602 611. Jurisdiction of Parliaments discust in relation to Fitz-harris 588 590. Jus Divinum 330 332 544. Juxton Bishop of London made Lord-Treasurer 265. K. KIngs their divided Will against Law 5. Never parted with Parliaments in Disgust till the Stuarts 205 267. Not wont to be present at Debates in Parliament 502. Never speak but in Parliament or under the Great-Seal 568. Kirk Maj. General his barbarous Inhumanity at Taunton 622. Kirk-Party strict with James VI. 34. Mind the King of his Covenant 443. See Scots L. LAmbert turns against Cromwel 399. After against his Son 406. Is made Lieutenant-General 408. Petitions the Rump 409. Is turn'd out by them ib. and after turns them out 410. Marches against Monk 412 414. Is sent to the Tower 416. Is routed and taken Prisoner 421. Langdale Sir Marmad his Success for the King 309. Is discontented 311. Laud his Rise and Character 122 123. Puts the King on altering Religion in Scotland 122 123 242 255 256 260. Gets a Bishoprick by playing the Spaniel 123. His ways to ruin Bishop Williams 124 239. Proves a Firebrand c. 157 166 167 226 239 242. Is made Bp of London 226. Favours Popery 231. His great Care of the Church 167 227 241 242. Prosecutes his Injunctions concerning Ceremonies with great Severity 254 255 257 258. Quarrels with the King about visiting the Vniversities 256 257. Procures an Alteration in the Church of Scotland 262 263. Lauderdale some account of him 441 442 454. Is bitter against the Presbyterians in Scotland his Highland Government there 490 491. Laws c. ought to be in the Mother-Tongue 363 404 405 665. Lenthal made General by the Rump 408. Lestrange Roger Champion of the Tory-Cause 500. Is employ'd to ridicule the Popish Plot 545. Levellers in the Army 318. Liberty of Conscience to be continued 662. See Dissenters and James II. Lindsey Earl sent to relieve Rochel but in vain 225. Lisle Lady her unparallel'd Case is basely murder'd 620. London on ill Terms with the King 272. yet lend him Money 273. Raise Souldiers under Waller c. 321. In Confusion 414. Join with Monk for a Free Parliament 419. Is set on fire 461. See Hubert Long Mr. sentenc'd in Star-Chamber 234. Lorain Duke basely dealt with by the French King 474. Lords five impeach'd by the Commons 535. See Jefferies Lowden Chancellor of Scotland his Speech concerning Cromwel 303 304. Ludlow deposes Henry in Ireland 408. M. MAckenzy Sir Geo. pleads against the Earl of Argyle 584 585. Magdalen-College Story 640. Mansfield denied landing at Calais contrary to Agreement 146. Manwaring for the King 's absolute Power 197. Impeach'd by the Commons and sentenc'd by the Lords 214 215. Is promoted by Laud 227 256. Marriage with France see Charles I. Marsilly murder'd at Paris to the Dishonour of K. Charles 479. Marston-Moor Fight 307. Maurice Prince for the King 298. Is lost in the W Indies 327. May Tho. Esq his Treatise of the Civil Wars disprov'd 280 295. Mazarine turns K. Charles c. out of France 383. His Success against the Pr. of Conde 388 389. and Loss at Ostend 402. Opposes K. Charles's Restoration 421 422. Meal-tub-Plot discover'd 546. Militia who shou'd have the Power of it the chief Cause of the War 296. Whether it belongs to King or Parliament ib. 329. Mombas betrays the Dutch 484 486. Monk takes Sterling-Castle and Dundee 347. Complies with Cromwel 359. Engages the Dutch 356 371 372. Is caress'd on his Victory 373. Sent to Scotland 383. His Pedigree and Story 384 385. His Regency in Scotland 410. Is much courâ—ed secures Berwick 411. His ill Success treats with the Committee of Safety but displeas'd with the Agreement with a Story of him 412 413. Sends to Fleetwood summons a great Assembly at Edinburgh abjures K. Charles 413. His Success 412 416. Is declar'd for in Ireland 412. Marches to London is addrest for a Free Parliament 416. Is carest by the Rump his Speech to them 417. Pulls down the Gates of the City sends an angry Message to the Rump 418. Declares for a Free Parliament at Guild-hall and restores the secluded Members 419. Meets the King at Dover and is made Knight of the Garter 426. Monmouth Duke sent against the Covenanters 543. 'T was believ'd his Mother was married to the King and why 544. Is unjustly put to Death 619. Monopolies injurious 55 56 65. Montross for the King 313 315 316. Is routed and executed 344. Morley Col. Herbert secures the Tower for Monk 418. Mountague accus'd by the Commons of Arminianism 166. Is favour'd by the King 166 167 171 226. Impeach'd by the Commons for favouring Popery 180 183 226. Made Bp of Chichester 226. and after of Norwich 227. Holds Correspondence with the Pope 273. Muscovy the Czar revokes the English Privileges on K. Charles's Death 350. N. NAseby Fight 311 312. Navigation-Act made by the Rump 350. Its Inconveniences 364 367 391 455 653 658. Nayloâ— James his Blasphemy 396 Newberry first Fight 299. Second Fight 308. Newfoundland Fishery how the French got it from us 390 391. North Sir Francis a Tool in the late Times 592. Promoted 603. Northampton Earl concern'd in Overbury's Death see Carr and Overbury Yet in favour with the King tho a Papist 72 73 Incourages the Irish Papists 74. November 5. appointed an Anniversary Thanksgiving 58. Noy Mr. against the Court 208. Is taken off by being made Attorney-General 243. His Pretence for Ship-money c. 252. O. OAtes Dr. first discovers the Popish Plot 532. His excessive Fine 610. Indicted of two pretended Perjuries 610 613. His barbarous and illegal Punishment 613. Oaths Remarks on that of the Scots Covenant 368 438. on the Convocation-Oath 369 438. on the Corporation-Oath 431 439. Orange Prince General for the Dutch 486. Declar'd Stadtholder is courted by the French King his noble Answer to his Proposals
who have rent themselves from the Nation and are more Enemies to it than any other But over and above these unhappy Accidents which so highly contributed to the weakning of the Spanish Monarchy we may add another that proved no less fatal and destructive and that was Queen Elizabeth's destroying their invincible Armada in the Year 1588. and her sacking and Burning of Cales in 1595. wherein was destroyed such an incredible Mass of Wealth that the Spaniards never after were formidable either by Sea or Land and this was so much the more by how much Philip the 3d proved to be a weak effeminate Prince wholly governed by Favourites Having taken a View of England and Spain and compared the State of them we 'll see how they stand in reference to France which lies between them and so becomes a neighbouring Nation to them both France tho it be not threefold greater than England yet it is manifoldly more peopled in that Proportion and more abounding with great rich and populous Towns and tho it be not an Island yet it has the British Sea on the North the Atlantick Ocean on the West and the Mediterranean Sea on the South so that in its Situation it 's better placed for Trade than if it had been an Island having Spain the Spanish Netherlands Lorain Germany Savoy and Italy to trade to by Land Henry the 4th of France after he had subdued the Popish League and made a Peace with the Spaniard at Vervins in 1597 secured the Murmurs of the Reformed by the famous Edict of Nants and being a Prince not less prudent in Counsel than victorious in War as well to divert the French from their mutinous and quarrelling Humour as to increase the Riches of France gave all imaginable Incouragement to the Inhabitants in Manufactures the Principles whereof abound more in France than any other Country except England yet added to them the breeding Silk-worms and by the lively Ingenuity of the French improved Silk-Manufactures above any other Country Here take notice of the Benefit which arises to any Nation by the Imployment of People in Manufactures above other Countries where the Inhabitants are not employed For suppose a Million of People in France were thus employed and those yearly earned 20 l. per Ann. the Employment of these People are twenty Millions Benefit yearly to France and this Money generally distributed among the Workmen and whatever of these Manufactures are vended in foreign Trade these will be so much an enriching to it whereas if these had not been employed they would have been at least five Millions a Year burden to it and France would have been in so much a worse State to have supported them whereas if the People be not employed as in Spain the Distribution of the Treasure out of the Indies is not only unequally distributed but the Charge of maintaining the Religious and idle Persons most miserable and intolerable Let 's now see the State of England by the 5th Act of Eliz. c. 4. excluding the English Natives not Free-men from working in Market-Towns and Corporations we 'll take a very modest Estimate herein and suppose but 10000 yearly scarce one in a Parish be excluded so that hereby the Nation loses their Imployment this at 20 l. per Ann. will be 200000 pounds a Year loss to the Nation besides the Charge of maintaining them if they do not fly out of the Kingdom for want of Subsistence in it and I pray what does the wholesale and Retail Trades of Shop-keepers in them contribute to the Support of this or of what Benefit are they otherwise to the Nation Henry the 4th having thus imployed the Natives of France and having few Plantations to exhaust it tho France drove no foreign Trade by Sea yet by permitting the English Dutch Swedes Danes and Hamburghers to trade into France by Sea and the Germans by Land it 's scarce credible after the long Civil Wars in France in the Space of but 13 Years for it was no longer between the Peace at Vervins in 1597 and his Death what incredible Treasure he amassed if so great an Author as Messeray did not affirm it whereupon he nourished a Design of new modelling all the Western Parts of Christendom except Britain and Ireland which he knew would not hinder him in it and Messeray did not doubt but he had means enough to have accomplish'd it if he had lived but when his Foot was in the Stirrup to have accomplished this Ravillac put a full Stop to his Career Yet France had in it no Mines of Gold or Silver no more than England hath and the Treasure which England acquires is by the Vent of our Woollen Manufactures and our Lead and Tin and so much more as the Natives are less employed in these and these are less in foreign Trade by restraining the Vent to English Men and more to English Companies so much less Treasure will the Nation acquire and the Natives be less employed As France thus abounds in People more than either England or Spain whereby they acquire such vast Wealth above them by permitting Foreigners to trade with them so are the French Nobility which include the Gentry of a warlike and aspiring Temper and if this had not usually excited them into intestine Broils and Tumults as Secretary Trevor observes all their Neighbour Nations could not have set bounds to their ambitious Humour But the Prosperity of France no ways daunted Queen Elizabeth so that Henry the 4th designing to build some great Men of War at Brest she forbid the King 's making any further Progress in it or she would fire all the Ships in his Harbours whereupon this great Hero desisted nor would she permit the Dutch to build any great Ships but she would have an account of them and so having the Brill Ramakins and Flushing the Keys of the Rivers of the Maes and Scheld in her Hands she died with an uncontrouled Dominion of the Seas and Arbitress of Christendom and in this State King James took Possession of the Crown of England with all its Dependences to which he added that of Scotland whose Reign is now ripe to be exposed A DETECTION OF THE Court and State of England During the Reign of King JAMES I. c. BOOK I. CHAP. I. A Better View may appear of this Reign if we look back to the Beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and compare it with that of this King's Reign when he came to join the Crowns of England and Ireland to that of Scotland and thereby became the greatest Monarch that governed England since King John except it was in the Reign of Henry the Fifth and some time of the Reign of Henry the Sixth when Normandy and so great a part of France was subdued to the Dominion of the Crown of England This Kingdom was never in so low an Ebb of Reputation and so dangerous a State both at home and abroad as when Queen Elizabeth came to
Gaunt's elder Brother So that of the Succession of 14 Kings after the Conqueror there were but four viz. Richard the First Edward the First and Second and Richard the Second which succeeded as Heirs to the Conqueror or his Heirs Admit Edward the 4th succeeded right as Heir to Phillippa Daughter of the Duke of Clarence yet if it be true which Richard the 3d says and which is confirmed by the Authority of the Act of Parliament 1 Rich. 3. that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before he married Elizabeth then did not Edward the 5th if it may be called a Succession succeed right nor could Henry the 7th claim any Right to the Crown of England in Right of his Wife Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth But whether it be true or not that Edward was contracted to Eleanor Boteler before his Marriage yet Richard the 3d succeeded not as Heir Edward Earl of Warwick the Son of George Duke of Richard's elder Brother being then alive Of all the Kings of England that succeeded the Conqueror Henry the 7th had the least Pretension to any Title to the Crown for tho he were supposed to have been descended from John of Gaunt Duke of Lancaster yet it was the Duke's Paramour Katherine Swinford whose Issue by the Duke tho by Act of Parliament they were legitimated to all other purposes yet were not capacitated to succeed to the Crown of England but if the Title of Lancaster had been preferable to that of York and Henry had been of the legitimate Line yet could not he have succeeded as Heir his Mother under whom he claimed being then alive and out-lived her Son Nor did the King's Marriage with Elizabeth eldest Daughter of Edward the 4th improve his Title to his Succession the Marriage being subsequent to it and before it the Crown by Act of Parliament was entailed upon Henry the 7th and the Heirs of his Body and after Marriage he never used her Name in calling any Parliament or in any Proclamation or the Coin or passing any Act of Parliament and as he reigned without her before Marriage so he did after her Death for he out-lived her tho she left two Sons Arthur and Henry after Henry the Eighth and two Daughters Elizabeth Queen of Scotland and Mary after Queen of France It seems to me that Ferdinand King of Castile and Arragon had the same Opinion which Richard the 3d and the Parliament had that the Issue of Edward the 4th were not legitimate for he would not assent to the Marriage of his Daughter Katherine with Arthur Prince of Wales so long as the Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence lived and there a fine Trick was found out to put the poor Prince to Death for endeavouring to make his Escape out of the Tower with Perkin Warbeck and in him ended the Masculine Line of the Race of the Plantagenets who had governed the English Nation after Stephen to Henry the 7th above 340 Years So that from the Conqueror to Henry the 8th scarce one of four of the Kings of England succeeded in a right Line as Heirs to the Conqueror As the Saxon Dynasty ended in Edward the Confessor and the Norman began in the Conqueror so it seems to me that the Norman ended in Richard the 3d and another of the British was erected in Henry the 7th who was the Son of Edmund of Hadham the Son of Owen Tudor by Katherine Daughter of Charles the 6th of France Wife of Henry the 5th of England and Mother of Henry the 6th So that Henry the 7th's Title to the Crown of France was better than that to the Crown of England for that of England was from a Maternal Ancestor Margaret Countess of Richmond no otherwise related to the Crown of England than descended from John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford his Paramour Tho I do not find that Henry the 7th or any of his Descendants ever assumed the Sirname of Tudor So that tho the Crown of England neither in the Saxon nor Norman Race of Kings was always Hereditary so neither was the Succession to the Crown elective For in elective Kingdoms after the Death of one King there is an Establishment of the manner of Elections and in the mean time there are Custodes Regni appointed whose Power ceases upon the Election of a King but neither of these were ever heard of in either of the Saxon or Norman Race and tho sometimes it 's said the Kings were chosen as of Edward the Son of Alfred by the Nobles and so of Athelstan and so in the Norman Race Henry the First was said to be chosen for that he promised to abrogate all the Oppressions and Errors brought into the Government by his Father and Brother tho his eldest Brother Robert was then alive and restore the good Laws of Edward the Confessor and Stephen was chosen by the Clergy and Londoners yet this was rather a form of Speaking in those days than any formal Election and the manner differed according to the different Humours of the Times Nor do we read that ever the Parliament meddled with the Succession of the Crown before Henry the Fourth for tho the first Parliament of Edward the Third renounced their Allegiance to Edward the Second and are said to have chosen Edward the Third yet they went no further and such an Election was no more than a Declaration of their Submission as when the Council declared James the Second King But whether the Crown of England was Hereditary in the Saxon and Norman Race it 's evident it was not so in this British Race for as it began in Henry the Seventh so it was entailed by Act of Parment upon him and Heirs of his Body before his Marriage with Elizabeth the eldest Daughter of Edward the Fourth So the inheritable Right of Edward's Issue and all the Norman Race was barred by this Act. Before we proceed in the Succession of the British Race we 'll take a view of the Genealogy of it John of Gaunt by Katherine Swinford had Issue John created Earl of Somerset who had Issue John created Duke of Somerset who had Issue Margaret After the Death of Henry the Fifth Katherine his Wife Sister of Charles the Sixth of France married Owen Tudor a Welch Gentleman who had Issue Edmund of Hadham created Earl of Richmond who married Margaret Daughter and Heir of John Duke of Somerset who had Issue Henry the Seventh Henry the Eighth succeeded his Father without any Contradiction for the Wars between the houses of York and Lancaster had destroyed the whole legitimate Lancastrian Line and Richard the Third after the Murder of his Brother Clarence and Death of Edward the Fourth had murdered his two Nephews Edward and Richard Sons of Edward the Fourth and himself was killed in the Fight in Bosworth-fields and after that Henry the Seventh had put Edward Earl of Warwick Son of the Duke of Clarence to Death none of all
unanswerable Reasons of a National Interest and the manifold Inconveniences the incorporating those Trades in a Company brought to the Navigation of the Nation both in the Foreign Vent of our Manufactures and in their Returns to the Ruin of infinite Artificers Sea-men and Shipwrights and to the Diminution of the King's Revenue Whereupon these Trades were declared free and have ever since continued so to the inestimable Benefit of this Nation But tho the Reasons in this Act extend to all other Beneficial Trades as to Turkey the East-Country and Hamburgh Trades and to Africa and the East-Indies yet all these Trades are monopolized into Companies exclusive to other Men as much to the Prejudice of the Nation as the making the Spanish Trade free was beneficial to it About this time the Clergy at least a Faction which stiled themselves the Clergy made an Attempt to try how far their Doctrine of Absolute Power in the King had taken root in him they had gained their Point so far as the King had declared his Command to the Commons as Absolute King and now they 'll see whether the King would assert it and the Case was this Arch-bishop Whitgift a Prelate of singular Piety and Humility died the last day of February in the first Year of the King and Doctor Richard Bancroft a Man of a rough Temper a stout Foot-ball-player as zealous an Assertor of the Rights of the Church of England or rather a Faction of Church-men who arrogated to themselves the Title as Julius the 2d was of the Papacy exhibited to the King and Council 25 Articles in the Name of all the Clergy of England called Articuli Cleri which were desired to be reformed in granting Prohibitions tho there were a Parliament and Convocation then sitting which I do not find had any hand in it This Exhibition as it ascribed an Absolute Power to the King so it struck directly at the Constitution of Parliaments the principal End of which is to redress Grievances and Abuses in the Nation and if the King's Council during the sitting of a Parliament shall ascribe to themselves this Power then the great End of Parliaments redressing Grievances and Abuses is in vain However Bancroft herein not only makes the King's Council to have a concurring Power with the Parliament but paramount to it by exhibiting these Articles in the sitting of a Parliament and Convocation but the Judges gave so clear and distinct an Answer to them all that the King did not think fit to meddle in them yet did not Bancroft rest here as you will hear hereafter The Articles and the Judges Answer to them you may read at large in Sir Coke's second Institute tit Articuli Cleri Whilst Bancroft was thus ascribing to the King this Absolute Power and exalting a Faction of Church-men above the true State of the Clergy which is one of the three States of the Nation and above the Nobility and Commonalty which are the other two The Popish Faction were plotting a Design not only to destroy the Church of England but the very Person of the King with the Nobility and Commons convened in Parliament which was to have been executed upon the fifth of November following the day on which the Parliament were to meet The Popish Party hoped and it may be not unreasonably that the King in regard of his Mother's Religion was not averse to theirs so that if he became not of their Church which in his Speech at the opening the Parliament he owns our Mother-Church at least hoped to have their Religion tolerated whereas finding the King in his Speech after he had declaimed against the Heresies and Abuses crept into their Church and the Pope's having arrogated an Imperial Civil Power over Kings and Emperors by dethroning and decrowning them with his Foot and disposing of their Kingdoms and the Jesuits Practice of assassinating and murdering Kings if they be cursed by the Pope That so long as they maintained these they were not sufferable in the Kingdom From this time forward and it may be before a Popish Crew contrived how to bring in their Catholick Religion they cared not which way so it might be done At last it was agreed upon the opening of the Session of Parliament upon the 5th of November one part of the Conspirators should blow up the Lords House while the King Prince with the Nobility and Commons were in it having prepared all things in a readiness whilst another part should seize upon the Lady Elizabeth after Queen of Bohemia and proclaim her Queen But the Plot being discovered the Conspirators were defeated of both their Designs The Horror and Terror of this Conspiracy the Discovery whereof was industriously divulged and believed to be by the King 's great Wisdom and Care reconciled for a time all Differences between him and his Parliament and the Parliament to gratify the King the Clergy gave him four Subsidies at four Shillings in the Pound and the Temporality three Subsidies and â—ix Fifteenths which was threefold more than any Parliament in one Session gave Queen Elizabeth before that of the 35 Eliz. notwithstanding the Payment of her Father's Brother's and Sister's Debts her expelling the French out of Scotland the building and repairing the Navy Royal the Support of the Reformed in France the subduing the Rebellion in the North the Support of the Dutch in the Netherlands the Irish War and the Overthrow of the Spanish Armada in 88. The Parliament enacted the Oath of Allegiance which Bellarmine under the Name of Tortus wrote against and Andrews Bishop of Winton under the Name of Tortura Torti defended it The Parliament too ordained the Anniversary of the Fifth of November to be celebrated for a perpetual Thanksgiving-Day for the King and Kingdom 's Delivery from this Conspiracy All Heats about Prerogative and Privilege were now laid aside the Pulpits and our Universities rang with Declamations against the Heresies and Usurpations of the Church of Rome and now the King gave himself wholly to Hunting Plays Masques Balls and writing against Bellarmine and the Pope's Supremacy in arrogating a Power over Kings and disposing of their Kingdoms and thus the Case stood for four Years after wherein I scarce find any thing worth mentioning This and the next Year was almost wholly spent in Debates concerning the Uniting of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland which the King eanestly solicited and which ended only in Contests and Arguments for the House of Parliament refused to join with the King in it however the King obtained a Judgment in Westminster-Hall in a Case called Calvin's Case that the Post Nati in Scotland after the King's Assumption to the Crown of England were free to purchase and inherit in England But whilst the King was thus wallowing in Pleasure he wholly gave himself up to be governed by Favourites to whom he was above any other King of England except Henry the 8th excessively prodigal not only in Honours and Offices but of
in Christendom when he was putting it into an universal War all the Western Princes 〈◊〉 Christendom except King James were engaged in it against the House of Austria but it was so vast as in the Nature of things if Henry had been young as he was in the 57th Year of his Age he could not have lived to have accomplished it at his Death tho he lived but 13 Years after the Treaty of Vervins when he made Peace with Philip the 2d of Spain he had amassed such a Treasure as is incredible if so great an Historian as Messeray did not testify it especially if it be considered that before the Treaty at Vervins France had for forty Years before been imbroiled in a Civil War and with Spain and these Wars being in all the Parts of France France was never before in so poor and feeble a State and Henry himself after the Peace giving himself up to Venery and Gaming above any King of France before him or since Nor can it be imagined from whence such Treasures should arise for there are no Gold nor Silver Mines in France unless it were from the Trades which the English Dutch Dane Swede and Hamburghers drove into France However Henry was addicted to Women and Gaming yet otherwise he excelled all the Kings of the Age not only in Heroick Vertues but in Prudence Constancy and Secrecy in his Designs curious in Enquiry into the Qualities of Men whom he would prefer as Qualities merited and was pleasant and witty in his Conversation and always disposed to take the Impression of good Counsel He left his Son a Prince of weak Constitution both of Body and Mind at ten Years of Age and his Wife an imperious bigotted Italian to the Church of Rome Regent These overthrew all the Methods which Henry had laid for promoting the French Grandure and gave themselves up to be governed by Favourites yet in a different manner from those in England whereby they squandered away all that inestimable Treasure which Henry left in less than half the time Henry had been collecting it and put all France into Tumults and Wars whilst the English patiently submitted to the Exorbitances of King James his Favourites and by Proclamations were forbid to mention them or talk of their Government no not in Parliament And now 't is time to return to England and see what 's doing there If we begin this Year 1612 with January we shall find two Marriages in it to succeed the two Deaths of the two famous Henry's of England and France The first upon the 14th of February being Shrove-Sunday between Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine commonly called the Palsgrave and the Princess Elizabeth the King 's only Daughter and the Triumphs Pageant◠and other Gaieties upon the Thames in the City and Inns of Court far exceeded any before seen in England which you may read at large in Stow's Chronicle fol. 1004. so as the Tears for the Death of Prince Henry were overflowed by the excess of Joy for this Marriage However Northampton was not pleased with it nor the Emperor or King of Spain and from the same Causes viz. It would so far advance the Protestant Interest in Germany as to make it more formidable to the Popish Religion and 't is certain for I had it from good Authority that Queen Ann was averse to it and to put the Princess out of conceit of it would usually call her Daughter Goodwife Palsgrave to which the Princess would answer she would rather be the Palsgrave ' s Wife than the greatest Papist Queen in Christendom The Reason of the Queen's Aversion to this Marriage is not said but certain it is that these fading Joys for this Marriage were succeeded by fixt and real Calamities which the King took little Care to prevent and shall never live to see nor his Son after him an end of While the Preparations for solemnizing this Marriage were making a different sort was making for another between the Viscount Rochester and the Countess of Essex and to make the Way to it more passable two Rubs were to be removed one to take off Sir Thomas Overbury the other to procure a Divorce not only a Mensa Toro between the Earl and the Countess but a Nullity whereby the Countess should be free to marry as she pleased and she had agreed upon the Person To remove Sir Thomas it was agreed between the Earl of Northampton Rochester and the Countess that Sir Thomas should be sent Ambassador to the Great Duke or Emperor of Russia so that if Sir Thomas did accept of it he should be far enough out of the way to hinder this Design and if he did not to commit him to the Tower where they would do well enough with him The Business of the Embassy was no sooner propounded to the King but assented to by him and Sir Thomas was not unwilling to undertake it How harsh soever Rochester was to Sir Thomas when he disswaded Rochester from marrying the Countess yet now he becomes instant kind to Sir Thomas and tell him how much he relied upon his Integrity and Parts which in his Absence he should not only want but that thereby Sir Thomas would give Occasion to his Enemies which were many and upon Rochester's account to ruine him when as it would not be in Rochester's Power to prevent it but if Sir Thomas would refuse to undertake this Embassy Rochester would in a short time undertake to reconcile him to the King and Sir Thomas would in the mean time be at hand to assist him with his Counsel upon all Occasions This was all deep Dissimulation which Sir Thomas took to be in good earnest and so Sir Thomas excused his going on this Errand and this was what Rochester desired Hereupon Rochester possest the King that Sir Thomas was not only grown insolent and intolerable to him but to the King by contemning him in refusing to go on this Embassage The King becomes incensed hereat and the more as 't was commonly said Sir Thomas had vented some stinging Sarcasms upon the Court which came to the King 's hearing and so ordered him to be committed to the Tower Northampton and Rochester had prepared the Business so that Sir William Wade was removed from being Lieutenant of the Tower and Sir Jervis Elvis a Gentleman wholly depending upon them was made Lieutenant of it Upon Sir Thomas his Commitment Sir Jervis Elvis by Order from Northampton and Rochester confines him close Prisoner so that Sir Thomas his Father was not permitted to visit him nor any of his Servants tho one desired he might be confined with his Master The Countess that she might not be behind-hand with Rochester and Northampton had consulted with Mrs. Turner for a fit Instrument to practise what was designed upon Sir Thomas Mrs. Turner's Husband was an Apothecary and had a Servant named Richard Weston who since her Husband's Death was become very poor this Man was agreed by the
affected have done before them And to make choice of meet Collectors of the Monies and to return a Schedule of the Names of such as shall contribute and the Sums that are offered by them that his Majesty may take notice of the good Inclinations of the Subjects to a Cause of such Importance as likewise of such others if any such be as out of Obstinacy or Disaffection shall refuse to contribute These were the Ways which this pacifick King took in and out of Parliament which I believe except in the Reign of Edward the 4th were never practised by any of our English Kings and all this under the specious Pretence of recovering his Son-in-law's Patrimony prodigally to squander it among his Favourites especially Buckingham whose Avarice could not be supported otherwise by the Revenues of the Crown and Venality of all Places Sacred and Civil These were the Noble Atchievements which this pacifick King obtained over his Parliament which presumed to advise him for his own Honour and the Nation 's Safety this was the Return he made for inverting the Methods of Proceedings in Parliament to pleasure him by granting Subsidies before Grievances were redrest A Prince foreign born to our English Laws and Constitutions A Prince as the noble Nani Anno 1619. fol. 137 138. observes in whom Decorum and want of Power were commonly Opposites he being Scotish by Birth and come to the Crown by Inheritance was the first that governed the two Nations by Natural Antipathy and antient Emulation of Enemies and designing to reclaim the Fierceness of those People with Ease and Idleness had set up his Rest in Peace and avoiding as much as possible the calling of Parliaments without which not having the Power to impose Contributions nor levy Money he contented himself rather to struggle with many Straits and Difficulties than to see them meet with a Jealousy of them or being met be obliged to separate them with the disgust of the People or with the satisfaction of Prejudice to the Superior in Power A Prince so poor before he came to the Crown of England that if he had not been supported by the Pension which Queen Elizabeth allowed him could not have maintained the Garb of many of our English Gentry and being come to the Crown of England not only the Sacred Patrimony of it was squandered and embarassed upon debauched and profane Favourites but the People otherwise oppressed with almost infinite Monopolies and Projects which the Nation never before heard of and as they were new so were they all illegal and all these to make his Favourites rich while he continued the poorest King that ever governed England Justled in his Throne by the Presbytery in Scotland yet nothing less than Sacred would down with him from the Clergy in England tho his dissolute Life and profane Conversation were diametrically contrary These by a twenty Years Habit were so fixed in the King a Prince of all others the most regardless of his Honour and Word that they became natural So that after the Parliament had given him two Subsidies and intended another for carrying on the War for the recovery of the Palatinate and after he had by such means as before said by such Terror raised Benevolences all England over upon pretence of it yet by the Advice of Buckingham and Gundamor he placed the Anchor of his Hope to do it by the Match of his Son with the Infanta of Spain when an unlooked-for Accident reported by Nani in his 5th Book fol. 186. had like to have spoiled all For the King of Bohemia weary of being amused and deluded with the Hopes of his Father-in-law's Treaties which he now saw were mocked by the Spaniards themselves in a Disguise with two Persons only from Holland passes into France by Sea and from thence through Lorrain and through the midst of his Enemies Troops arrives at Landau where Count Mansfield who then made War in the Palatinate in his Right had a Garison where he discovered himself and from thence went to Germersheim where he was received with the general Applause of the whole Army This Escape of the King's Son-in-law confounded all the King's Measures which he had taken for him by the Marriage of the Infanta with his Son so that he was more alarm'd at it than at the Commons Remonstrance and Protestation tho he bore the Affliction with a much better Temper So all Wits were set at work how to get the Elector out of the Hands of Mansfield back again into Holland for now the Proceedings at Brussels upon the Peace were put to a full stop the Spaniards alledging they could not proceed in the Treaty so long as the King's Son-in-law was in the Hands of Mansfield their most inveterate and bitter Enemy It fell out luckily for the King's Designs tho unluckily for his Son-in-law's that Mansfield being worsted by the Spanish Arms in the Palatinate and the Elector Palatine fearing that Mansfield in the Adversity of his Affairs would make him a Sacrifice in giving him up to the Spaniard to make his own Terms the better was the more easily enveagled by the King's Agents to return again into Holland where the first News he heard was that Tilly had taken Heidelburg the Capital Seat of his Ancestors by Storm and Frankendal his next City reduced to Extremity by Cordua so that as Nani says fol. 188. King James who had published that his Son-in-law held that Country under his Protection was laugh'd at by all the World and forced to consent to a Truce for fifteen Months during which Frankendal and the rest of the lower Palatinate should be deposited into the Spaniards Hands to restore them to the King James if within that time there were not a Peace concluded King James having thus deposited his Son-in-law's Patrimony in the Hands of the Spaniards in the Low Countries now by the Direction of Buckingham not only the Dictator over the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland but over the King himself and 't was feared more over the Prince upon pretence that the Earl of Bristol was too remiss in prosecuting the Prince's Suit at Madrid resolves to deposite the Prince in the Power of the Court of Spain there to remain as an Hostage till he can procure the Infanta to be his Spouse This was such an Adventure as Don Quixot never dream'd of in any of his that because the King the Prince his Father was poor at home and despised abroad therefore by making his only Son an Hostage in another King's Court where the Maxims both of Religion and State were directly contrary he should think to perswade the King of Spain to overturn all and also get such a Portion as was fourfold more than any Prince before had to enrich himself and to make War against the King of Spain or Emperor which the Spaniard esteemed all as one and also that the King of Spain should restore the Palatinate because the King knew not which way else
former Propositions Hereupon D'Efsiat to have further Instructions from the Duke entred into a new Treaty with the Merchants and like a French Merchant got Letters to be sent into England that the Peace was concluded with those of the Religion in France and that within 14 Days the War should break out in Italy with a Design upon Genoua a matter of great Importance against the Spaniard Hereupon the Duke procured the King to write a Letter to Pennington dated July 28. to this effect HIS Majesty did thereby charge and command Captain Pennington without delay to put his Highness's former Command in Execution for consigning the Vaunt-Guard into the hands of the Marquiss D'Efsiat for the French with all her Furniture assuring her Officers his Majesty would provide for their Indemnity And to require the other seven Ships in his Majesty's Name to put themselves into the Service of the French King according to the Promise his Majesty had made to him And in case of Backwardness or Refusal commanding him to use all forcible means to compel them even to sinking with a Charge not to fail and this Letter to be his Warrant This Letter was deliver'd to Pennington in the Beginning of August by Captain Wilbraham Hereupon Pennington went back out of the Downs carrying with him the said Letters and certain Instructions in Writing from the Duke to his Secretary Nicholas And about the time Pennington returned to Diep Nicholas threatned the Captains of the Ships and told them it was as much as their Lives were worth if they deliver'd not up their Ships to the French whereupon some of them would have come away and left their Ships and fled into Holland Upon Pennington's coming to Diep he delivered the Van-Guard absolutely into the French Power to be employed as they pleased and acquainted the rest of the Captains with the King's Command that they should likewise put their Ships into the French Power which they all refused to do unless they might have good Security for the Delivery of their Ships or Satisfaction for them Hereupon Pennington went on Shore and spoke with D'Efsiat and upon his Return told the Captains they must rely upon the Security peraffetted in England whereupon the Captains weighed Anchor and prepared to be gone upon which Captain Pennington shot at them and forced them all to come to an Anchor again except the brave Sir Ferdinando Gorge in the Neptune more brave in running away from this abominable Action than charging into the midst of an Enemy When the Captains came a-shore they spoke with Mr. Nicholas who enforced them to come to a new Agreement which you may read in Rushworth fol. 335. and to deliver up their Ships into the French Power but not one of them would take the French Pay in the Expedition but one Gunner who was at his Return kill'd in charging of a Cannon not well spunged by him and the Duke's Secretary Nicholas had a Diamond Ring and a Hat-band set with Diamond-Sparks given him by the French Ambassador for his pains taken in this noble Employment This was the second noble Design of this grand Minister of State Buckingham whilst King James lay unburied we will now proceed to the third wherein you 'll see how well Richlieu requited Buckingham's Service in accommodating the French with a Fleet to subdue the Rochellers Tho the Duke did not personally manage the Treaty of the French Marriage at Paris as he did the Spanish at Madrid for the Reasons aforesaid yet none but he now the whole Treaty was consummate and so firmly performed on the English part must fetch the Queen to the King and when all the mighty Preparations for the Magnificence of this mighty Duke were compleated away he hies to Paris where he arrived the 24th of May and there he staid the full term of seven Days wherein he performed more wonderful Exploits than he had done in so many Months before at Madrid And these we will take from the noble Nani who was out of the Reach of Buckingham's Envy or Flattery of the English Court and as near as I can in his own Words Anno 1625. fol. 221 222. Buckingham being in France to carry back Charles's Bride it seemed that in the free Conversations of that Court he had taken the Boldness to discover something of his Inclination to the Queen whilst the Cardinal was inflamed with the same Passion or rather feigned to be so with Aversion in her who with Vertue equal to the Nobleness of Blood equally despised the Vanity of the one and abhorred the Artifices of the other I think Nani herein was mistaken as will soon appear Whereupon the Factions arising among the Ladies of the Court were not so secret but the King was obliged to make a Noise and banish some but the Contention between the two Favourites was for Power and Richlieu who by reason of the Favour of the King in his own Kingdom prevailed in Authority procured Buckingham many Mortifications and Disgusts The other was no sooner arrived at London with the Bride but to make a shew of Power not inferiour by ill using her thought to revenge himself The Catholick Religion served for a Pretext whilst the Family brought out of France according to Contract of Marriage practised it whence Disgusts brake forth to such a degree that the Minds of the Spouses being alienated and Affections between the Crowns themselves disturbed it looked as if Discord had been the Bride-maid at that Wedding You 'll hear more of this hereafter It 's observable when Humour not Counsel governs Actions how it runs into the contrary Extreams King James in Confidence of being supplied of all his Wants by the Spanish Match in great Displeasure broke up the Parliament in the 18th Year of his Reign and imprisoned many of the Members for presuming to advise him against it and this King expected the Parliament should make good all the Duke's Extravagancies for the Tale which the Duke told in Parliament the 21 Jac. for breaking off the Spanish Match when he kept back the Earl of Bristol as you heard before from making his Defence and proving the contrary of what Buckingham had told And so confidently was the King possessed that that Parliament continued in the same Mood that I have heard one of Sir Coke's Sons say that tho when King Charles came to the Crown Sir Edward would have waited upon him in Testimony of his Duty and Service the King would not admit him into his Presence yet the King sent to know of him whether he might continue this Parliament notwithstanding the King's Death which Sir Edward said could not be for that upon the King's Death the Dissolution followed yet upon the Election not ten of the old surviving Members but were chosen again This Parliament met upon the 18th of June 1625. where the King laid open to them that the Business he called them for was that whereas they had advised him to break off the
Protestation wherein they Promise Vow and Protest in the Presence of God to maintain the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England and according to their Duty and Allegiance to maintain and defend his Majesty's Royal Person and Estate the Power and Privilege of Parliament and Liberties of the Subjects and to preserve the Union and Peace between the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland but herein was the Difference between the Scots and English the Scots would improve their Covenant and establish it in England but the English scarce ever after care for their Protestation However the Commons prevail with the Lords to take it and then impose it upon the Nation upon the Penalty of being deemed Malignants and Disaffected The King little pleased with what he had done and less with what the Houses had done without him follows the Scots into Scotland and there cajoles the Covenanters with all Courtship imaginable makes Lesley the Scots General Earl of Leven and confers other Honours upon the Covenanters calls a Parliament and consents to the Extirpation of the Hierarchy and establishes Presbytery as fully as the Kirk of Scotland could desire The Scots at present promise all Duty and Obedience to him but how well the King found it in a short time will appear Whilst the King was thus busied in Scotland a horrible and hellish Massacre was perpetrated in Ireland by the Irish upon the English wherein it 's computed above 200000 Protestants Men Women and Children were butcher'd after which followed an universal Rebellion excepting in Dublin Londonderry and Inniskillen which was headed by the Pope's Nuncio a most proper Head for such a Body Yet so intent were the Factions in England and Scotland in establishing their Designs that little care was had of the miserable Relicks of the Protestants in Ireland It appears evident to me that Richlieu's Scarlet was deep dy'd in the Blood of the poor English in this Massacre for these Reasons 1. That the Scots who at this time were Pensioners to France were not medled with in their Lives and Fortunes as you may see in Sir Richard Baker f. 315. a b. 2. The King being in Scotland when he heard of the Massacre of the English and Rebellion of the Irish he moved the Parliament of Scotland then sitting for a speedy Relief to the English which they refus'd And it 's strangely observable That tho the Massacre and Rebellion in Ireland brake out the 23d of October yet the King did not proclaim them Rebels till the first of January and then by Proclamation gave a strict Command that no more than forty of them should be printed and that none of them should be published till his Majesty's Pleasure was further signified Upon the King's going into Scotland the Parliament prorogued themselves to a certain Day But the Commons appointed a Committee to prepare Business against their next Meeting yet send Spies to observe all the King's Actions and after the King 's Return to London which was upon the 25th of November 1641 the House of Commons upon the 5th of December make a Remonstrance of all the King's Miscarriages abroad and of the Grievances and Illegalities of his Ministers at home from the beginning of his Reign and that the King might be sure to see it as well as hear of it they print and publish it The King not being used to such Language was stung to the quick by the Commons Declaration and to retaliate it in Act upon the third of January enters the House of Commons and demands five of their Members to be tried for High Treason for holding Correspondence with the Scots Than which he could not have done a more imprudent Act for by it he unravelled all that he had done in Scotland by involving the Scots in the same Crime But the Members had their Agents in the King 's most secret Councils and had notice of the King 's coming before and so the five Members were withdrawn This Act of the King did not only set the House in a Flame and put the City into Tumults but brought Petitions from Buckingham-shire where Mr. Hambden one of the Five Members was Knight that the Privileges of Parliament might be secured and Delinquents brought to condign Punishment All this while poor Ireland lay bleeding The King as unstable in his Resolutions as inconsiderate in his Actions retracts all he had done and promises not to do so again But to no purpose for the Members resolve not to trust his Royal Word Prerogative and absolute Will and Pleasure and therefore will tear the Power of the Militia from him Rather than suffer this tho upon the Pretence of Tumults the King resolves to leave London But before the King left London my Lord Mayor Sir Richard Gurney Sir George Whitmore Sir Henry Garoway and other principal Citizens waited upon the King and engaged if he would stay they would guard him with 10000 Men if occasion were and told him If he went he would leave the City open for the Members to do as they pleased and that they were sure to be first undone the King told them he was resolved Then Sir Henry Garoway said Sir I shall never see you again However his Eldest Son Mr. William Garoway a worthy Gentleman who yet lives went with the King and followed him in all his Wars The worthy Citizens proved true Prophets for soon after the King left London the Members imprisoned my Lord Mayor Sir Henry Garoway Sir George Whitmore and all others whom they suspected would be faithful to the King and then in London began to assume the Power of the Militia After the King left London he went to York and from thence went towards Hull but is shut out of the Town by Sir John Hotham whom the King proclaims Traitor and now before it came to Sword and Pistol Men began a War with their Pens And herein it is observable that the Writers for the King chiefly maintained his Cause out of Sir Coke's Pleas of the Crown which by Order of the King's Council was upon Sir Edward's Death-Bed seized as dangerous and seditious and I do not find any who wrote for the Parliament ever used any one Topick out of it to justify their Cause tho it and Sir Edward's other Books of the Comment upon Magna Charta and Jurisdiction of Courts were printed by Order of the House of Commons and by them petitioned that the King would deliver the Originals to Sir Robert Coke Sir Edward's Heir Whilst things were in this Hurly-burly in England Portugal and Catalonia revolt from the Spaniard which as it was a mighty Blow to Spain so it much conduced to the Advancing the Designs of Cardinal Richlieu in France In England things could not hold long at this Stay but upon the 22d of August the King comes to Nottingham and hastily sets up his Standard there and invites all his loving Subjects to come to his Assistance against the Rebels
Never was Nation shuffled into such unhappy Circumstances for to join the King was to return to his Prerogative Royal and Absolute Will and Pleasure and I have oft heard several of those who followed the King in the War say They as much dreaded the King's overcoming the Parliament-Party as they feared to be overcome by them And the Houses had broken the Fundamental Constitution of the Nation so as no Man could tell where they would stay Now are things brought to that pass Richlieu design'd them viz. England and Ireland in Civil Wars and Scotland Pensioners to France so as he might now securely carry on his Designs of advancing the Grandeur of France without any Fear of Disturbance from hence And now you may see the miserable Condition the King's Minions and Favourites had brought upon the King and all his Kingdoms Yet it is observable how great the Loyalty of the Nobility and Gentry was to the King that from so low Beginnings in all Appearance they would have subdued the Parliament-party if the Scots next Year had not come to their Assistance whereas in the Reigns of Edward the 2d and Richard the 2d though the Grievances of the Nation were more in one Year of this King's Reign than in both their Reigns yet both were expelled and lost their Lives their Subjects not drawing a Sword in their Defence An Apology BEfore we enter upon the War between the King and Parliament it will not be amiss to enquire into the Causes of it and who first began it and whether the King or Parliament or both designed it And I am the rather induced hereto because I am told that I have unjustly charged the Parliament with beginning the War and that the contrary appears by a Treatise written by Tho. May Esq of the Causes and Beginning of the Civil Wars in England So that the Question between us is not who first designed the War but who began it But because Designations and Intentions precede Action I will begin so far as appears to me Whether the King or Parliament first designed this War or whether it were not intended by both And give me leave to shew a little of Mr. May's Partiality in the Business I say Mr. May is partial where page 13 he says after the Pacification made with the Scots 1639 that when the King came to London his Heart was again estranged from the Scots and Thoughts of Peace he commanded by Proclamation that Paper which the Scots avowed to contain the true Conditions of the Pacification to be disavowed and burnt by the Hands of the common Hangman So that he makes the Scots Parties and Judges in their own Case without mentioning the Articles of the Pacification or what the Scots avowed to contain the true Conditions of it We will therefore set forth the Articles of the Pacification and let another Judg whether the Scots observed them or had any Thoughts of Peace The Articles were 1. The Forces of Scotland to be disbanded within 24 Hours after the Agreement 2. The King's Castles Ammunition c. to be delivered up 3. His Ships to depart after the Delivery of the Castles 4. All Persons Ships and Goods detained by the King to be restored 5. No Meetings Treaties or Consultations to be by the Scots but such as shall be warranted by Act of Parliament 6. All Fortifications to desist and be remitted to the King's Pleasure 7. To restore to every Man their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means The Articles were signed by the Scots Commissioners and a present Performance of them on their Parts promised and expected The King justly performed the Articles on his part but the Scots kept part of their Forces in being and all their Officers in pay and the Covenanters kept up their Fortification at Leith and their Meetings and Councils and inforce Subscriptions to the late Assembly at Glasgow contrary to the King's Declaration they brand those who had taken Arms for the King as Incendiaries and Traitors and null all the Acts of the College of Justice as you may read in Mr. Whitlock's Memoirs f. 29. So that tho the King performed all the Articles of Pacification on his Part the Scots performed not one on their Part. Nor did the Scots stay here but published a Paper very seditious against the Treaty which is that which Mr. May speaks of I do not find the Copy of it but even Mr. Whitlock no great Friend to the King's Cause calls it so Nor did the Scots stay here but levied Taxes at ten Marks per Cent. and made Provision for Arms as you may read in Sir Baker's History f. 408. and more at large in the second part of Rushworth's Collections and all this before the King commanded the Scots Paper to be burnt by the Hand of the Common Hangman And therefore the King justly commanded the Scots Paper to be burnt by the Hand of the common Hangman And Mr. May says The honest People of both Nations began to fear another War But why does Mr. May say the honest People began to fear another War Was it honest in the Scots to break all the Articles of the Pacification to keep their Forces in a Body and their Officers in Pay contrary to the Pacification to raise Taxes and make Provision of Arms and after all these honest Men to begin to fear another War Mr. May goes on and says The King in December told the Council he intended to call a Parliament in England in April following But rational Men did not like it that it was deferred so long and that the Preparations for a War in Scotland went on in the mean time The last part is gratis dictum by Mr. May nor does he mention any Preparation for a War in any one particular nor do I find this said by any other But admit the King had made Preparation for a War with Scotland yet by all Laws of God and Man the King might justly have done it after the Scots had broken all the Articles of Pacification kept an Army on foot against it levied Taxes by their own Authority and made Provision of Arms without the King's Authority which besides the Perfidiousness of the Scots is Treason in the highest degree And I would be glad to be informed by what other means the King could vindicate his Honour or relieve his oppressed Subjects otherwise than by a War Mr. May goes on and says They these rational Men were likewise troubled that the Earl of Strafford Deputy of Ireland a Man of deep Policy but suspected Honesty one whom the King then used as a bosom Counsellor was first to go into Ireland and call a Parliament in that Kingdom And what then Why might not the King call a Parliament in Ireland as well as in England or Scotland And if these rational Men did not like it as he says that a Parliament should be deferred so long in England why should these rational Men be so troubled that the King
Hollanders were to prepare They allowed the Procedure of the Dutch by Petition since the Power of the Council of State was all one with that of the Saints and theirs derived from him to whom all Power is given And upon that account the Dutch ought to continue their Addresses of Meseignours Tresillustâ—es Seignours to the Council of State not in the sense they are forbidden in the Gospel but that whereby our Lord Christ assumes such Titles and confers them on the Saints That the Saints therefore might tolerate them and the Dutch ought not to refuse them lest it should be a Rejection of the Kingdom of Christ which was now approaching That the Dutch ought to kiss the Son lest he be angry and should have a care how they contemn his Holy Ones lest they were chastised with the Rod of Iron See Stubbe p. 91 92. The Dutch were now more confounded and perplex'd than ever it was difficult to treat with and impossible to prevail upon these Men They were now in danger to be ruin'd as Enemies to Christ rather than England and a Coalition with England would not satisfy except they likewise annexed their Provinces unto the Fifth Monarchy In Holland the Provinces met to consult what to do the Opinion of Holland was never to enter into a Coalition with England but that a strict League defensive should be proffered that they ought to contract Foreign Amities especially with France and to equip out a Fleet with all possible Expedition Yet they had little reason to expect much Help from France being then imbroiled in Civil Wars besides they had so juggled with France and falsified their Faith since the Treaty at Munster that they had little reason to expect Help from France The other Provinces were for entring into a League with the Elector of Brandenburgh and other German Princes and giving Assistance to the Scots for at this time Major General Middleton was raising some Tumults there but their Necessities were present and these Treaties remote and dangerous they could not get any great Benefit by a Treaty with the German Princes they having except Brandenburg who had but little no Power at Sea Besides these Alliances would cost dear and the Dutch pretended they were poor and also such an Alliance would prove dangerous for the Elector of Cologne might demand the Restitution of Rhineburg Orsoy Rees and other Places which the Dutch had filch'd from that Electorate so might the Elector of Bradenburgh of Wesel and other Places wherein the Dutch kept Garisons above 40 Years besides they feared the Emperor might claim in right of the Empire and little good could be expected from assisting the Scots without being superiour at Sea and sending a Land Army which the Dutch could not spare They therefore gave Orders to their Plenipotentiaries to protract time according as they saw Disorders to encrease between Cromwel and his Supream Authority to be ample in the Generals concerning the Defence of the Reformed Religion and of the Houshold of Faith to reject the Coalition to offer to enter into a strict and intimate League but deal as tenderly as they could in point of Reparation Satisfaction or Security All these things were known to Cromwel's Council of State and they resolved to handle them accordingly and when these were communicated to Barebone's Parliament they said it was no more than was prophesied in Scripture and in course to be expected that the Gentiles should rage and the Kings of the Earth set themselves against the Kingdom of Christ but they should fall before him and be broken in pieces That they were fierce to encounter Gog and Magog and by a series of Victories inflam'd to encounter this Antichristian Host It 's tedious to set forth the manifold Tautologies recited by Stubbe and Leo ab Aitzma who could not err herein and all the Dutch Cant in securing the true Reformed Religion and of their love and desire of the Prosperity of the English Commonwealth The Council of State since the Dutch refused a Coalition and thereby became our Equals resolve to make them humble without it and therefore impose 27 Articles upon the Dutch which may be seen in Leo ab Aitzma p. 837 c. But Mr. Stubbe mentions but five viz. the third twelfth fourteenth fifteenth and seventeenth besides Satisfaction and Reparation made for several Wrongs Injuries and Depredations done and committed upon the English as well in the East-Indies as elsewhere by the People of the Vnited Provinces with Power nevertheless of the Council to add alter and enlarge the said Articles or any of them before the Conclusion of the Treaty as they shall find occasion for the same in the future Management thereof The 3d Article was That the Ships Guns and Furniture and the Goods and Merchandizes and other things which had been taken in Harbour or at Land from the Dutch by the English during the War should be accounted as part of Satisfaction and Reparation for the Charges and Damages which the English had been put to during the War And the States General should pay to the English such further Sum for Reparation as aforesaid and in such manner as shall be agreed upon by this Treaty And thereupon all Offences c. to be forgotten The 12th Article obliges them Not to permit the Prince of Orange or the Princess Mary to relieve with Counsel or Victuals any Rebels or Enemies of the Common-wealth of England c. and to seclude the Prince's Lineage from being State-holders Admiral General or Governour of any of their Towns I 'm perswaded Cromwel was the Contriver of this Article the Reason you 'll see hereafter The 14th Article That they the Dutch were not to enter or pass the British Seas but with a certain Number of Men of War to be agreed upon in this Treaty But in case the States General should have occasion to pass the said Seas with a greater Number of Ships of War that they should give Notice of their Intentions to the English and obtain their Consent before they put to Sea The 15th Article wherein Stubbe follows the English Manuscript and not Leo ab Aitzma which much differs from it As the Commonwealth of England have declared their Resolutions that they will from time to time take care to put forth upon their Seas a convenient Number of armed Ships for the Defence and Safeguard thereof and to maintain and preserve all lawful Navigation Trade and Commerce therein against Pirates and Sea-Rovers and all others that shall act or do any thing to the Disturbance thereof so for the greater freedom of Commerce and Navigation that neither Commonwealth shall give Reception to any Pirates c. The 17th Article obliges the Dutch to take a Lease for 21 Years for the Fishing and to pay an Annual Rent Here note That tho the Dutch pleaded the Grants of the Kings of England to the Dukes of Burgundy and Kings of Spain for Licence to fish upon the
was entred into the King and States were mutually engaged to supply each other with a certain Number of Men and Ships in case of any Foreign Invasion upon either yet now the King hath Subsides given him by the French King to join with him against Holland which by the Defensive Alliance the King was obliged to assist The King who was so great in the Love of his Subjects and Parliament for the Triple League and had received such vast Sums for it now at the Instance of the French King sends Mr. Henry Coventry to the Court of Sweden to dissolve it which he did so effectually that that King not only stood Neuter at the beginning of the War with the Dutch but in it joined with the French King against the Confederates and this Success Mr. Coventry had that for this Business which put all Christendom into a Flame he was by the King made principal Secretary of State and it may be presented with his fine Ranger's Place in Enfield-Chase too and that perhaps with thrice more by the French King Whereas Sir William Temple who was the principal Instrument in the Peace at Nimeguen lost 2200 l. by it and his only Recompence was to be Secretary of State in Mr. Conventry's Place if Sir William would give him 10000 l. for it The Triple League thus dissolved all Obstacles which might retard the Progress of this pious Work must be removed And now my Lord-keeper Bridgman having done by his Speech the Conspirators Work for Money has done his own too and is turn'd out of his Place and my Lord Ashley Cooper Chancellor of the Exchequer is made Lord Chancellor of England and Earl of Shaftsbury Mr. Clifford after Lord Clifford Lord High-Treasurer of England and my Lord Arlington Chamberlain to the King's Houshold and Prince Rupert the Duke of Ormond and Secretary Trevor discarded from the Committee of Foreign Affairs so as the CABAL viz. Clifford Ashley Buckingham Arlington and Lauderdale govern all The first Result of this sacred Conclave was the shutting up of the Exchequer wherein the Bankers who formerly had furnished the King with mighty Sums of Money at extorsive Interest had lodged between 13 and 1400000 l. of the Subjects Money this was in January 167 1 2. One would think these Monies added to the Aids granted in the last Session of Parliament with those received from France might have carried on the War against the Dutch on the King's Part but to make sure the Fleet for which the Parliament gave such vast Sums to be equal with the French or Dutch is set out under Sir Robert Holmes to surprize the Smirna-Fleet which he vainly attempted the thirteenth and fourteenth of March 167 1 2 and to sanctify so Herotick an Act at this very time the Declaration of Indulgence was printed and published the fifteenth The French King having gotten the King into his Net let 's see how he used him The French King openly declar'd that 't was none of his Quarrel and that he only engaged in it out of respect to his Person and therefore before any War was declared the King must first break the Peace by the Attempt upon the Smirna-Fleet The Dutch alarm'd at the Attempt upon their Smirna-Fleet and being in no Condition to resist both Kings sent Deputies to both to know upon what Terms they would agree to Peace Those sent to our King were denied Audience and kept at Hampton-Court till it were known what the French King's Pleasure was but those sent to the French King had Answer That what the King had was his own and what he should conquer should be his without an Equivalent and declared the States might deal with England as they pleased and come off as cheap as they could because by their Treaty they were not bound to procure them any Advantages Yet all this the King as patiently submitted to now as before he suffered one Marsilly to be broken on the Wheel at Paris without one word from him in his behalf for being his Agent to the Swiss to invite them to join in the Guaranty of Aix who upon the Scaffold had twenty Questions asked him in relation to his Majesty's Person and a strict Enquiry of the Particulars that passed between the King and him all which you may read at large in Mr. Secretary Trevor's Appeal And this pitiful Story you may find in a little Treatise termed Colbert's Ghost printed at Cologn 1684. I find little difference in the Causes of this War by these two Kings The French King 's was that the Dutch had acted in Diminution to his Glory but says not wherein The King of England's was the Dutch had not yielded him the Honour due to his Flag The Cabal sought for a fourfold Cause of this War the Insults upon the English in the East-India Trade the detaining the Engglish Planters in Surinam against the Treaty at Breda and horrid Pictures in Defamation of his Majesty and his Flag To this purpose the Committee for the East-India Company was summoned to shew Cause who answer'd and gave it under their Hands That since the Treaty at Breda they knew no Cause nor as yet the Dutch could pretend to no more than was granted by it they having not as yet assisted the young King of Bantam against his Father and made use of the young King's Name to expel the English Factories from the Pepper Trade as before they had the Spice Trade For detaining the English Planters in Surinam it was answer'd the Planters were not willing to forsake their Subsistence and be turned into the wild World to seek it and that the Dutch perform'd their Part with Mr. Secretary Trevor and therefore it was no fault of theirs if it were not observ'd nor did they hinder them when they were transplanted to repair the Ruin of the English Plantation in St. Christophers made by the French For the Pictures the Dutch answered they knew of none except one Medal which might be liable to any such Construction but so soon as they knew of it they caused the Stamp to be broken For that of the Flag the Case stood thus the Dutch having fitted up a Fleet of Men of War in jealousy of the French were riding near their own Coast when one of the King's Yachts discharged a Gun at the Admiral to strike Sail which the Admiral not doing was the cause of the Breach for the War tho the States disown'd the Refusal and offer'd to make any Satisfaction the King should require But it is the End which crowns the Work in every Act and therefore the Declaration concludes That notwithstanding this War the King will support the Treaty at Aix la Chapelle according to the Scope and Intent of it and preserve the Ends of it inviolable As if the getting the Swede out of it and joining with the French against the Dutch diametrically contrary to it were the Support of that Treaty or that the subduing Holland so that the French
alone given Peace to Christendom he might reckon upon what he pleased from the Bounty and Generosity of the King their Master Sir William in a well-composed Answer acknowledged his Obligations for their King 's good Opinion of him but that his Instructions were for a general not for a private Peace For the Prince of Orange he assured them it was his Opinion That the Prince had none for his or any Man 's else further than their Arguments prevailed upon his Judgment The Attacks upon Sir William not succeeding Monsieur d'Estrâ—des turned his Battery upon Pensioner Fagel to the same purpose the Ambassadors had done to Sir William of all the Advantage to the Interest of the Prince How these wrought upon the Pensioner Sir William does not say but says all the Offers of Advantages made to the Interest of the Prince met with no other Reception than what the Prince had foretold tho at this time the Prince struggled under great Difficulty by reason of the Frenchâ—â— â—â— great Treasure and great Order of disposing it The French Magazines were always filled in the Winter so as it enabled them to take the Field as they pleased in the Spring without fearing the Weather for their Foot or expecting Grass for their Horse On the other side the Spaniards wanting Money and Order left their Troops in Flanders neither capable to act by themselves nor in Conjunction with others upon any sudden Attempt nor to supply with Provisions either Dutch or Germans that should come to their Relief and their Towns were ill fortified and worse defended so that the French King in April took Conde in four Days and in May the Duke of Orleans took Bouchain and the Prince of Orange besieged Maestricht without Success But neither the good Success of the French this Campagn nor the ill Success the French Ambassadors had upon the Prince of Orange to induce him to a separate Peace retarded the French from pursuing of it for the French by their Emissaries in Holland but especially at Amsterdam offer such a Reglement of Trade as the People could desire the Restitution of Maestricht and all Satisfaction to the Prince of Orange he could pretend to upon his Loss or their Seizures in the War This put the Mob into a Ferment of having a separate Peace nor could any thing have allayed it but the noble Constancy of the Prince of Orange which stood unshaken in opposing it in all these Difficulties However this Campagn the Elector of Brandenburg in several Encounters beat the Swede and was in a hopeful State to have expelled them out of Germany and it had been just they had been so for the King of England and the King of Sweden were Guarantees in the Triple League at Aix la Chapelle for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands against the French King whereas the King of England stood still only looking on whilst the French Arms by Piecemeals devoured them and the King of Sweden in Conjunction with the French King assisting him in the War Put not your Trust therefore in such Princes The Prince of Orange however his Constancy in opposing a separate Peace was unshaken yet in the distracted State of the Confederates and the violent Humour of the Peoples running into it saw it was impossible to keep them out of it unless the King of England would interpose his Authority further than by being a bare Mediator and acquainted the King with it But the King in a long Letter under his own hand instead of an Answer complained That the Confederate Ministers in England caballed with Parliament-Men and raised all Mens Spirits against Peace as high as they could so that it was difficult for him to make any Steps with France towards a general Peace unless the Dutch Ambassador Van Beningham would put in a Memorial pressing the King from the States to do it and declared that without it all Flanders would be lost The Prince to comply with the King replied how willing he was that Van Beningham should put in such a Memorial from the States and that if the King pleased to have a sudden Peace the Prince thought it must be done upon the Foot of the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle which he would have the more Ground for because it was a Peace which he both made and warranted Sir William at this time was at the Hague when his Colleague Sir Lionel Jenkins wrote to him That there was a Negotiation of a separate Peace treating between the French Ambassadors and Beverning the Dutch Agent at Nimeguen without any Communication of it to the Mediators upon which Sir Lionel acquainted the Court of England with it Whereupon Orders were dispatched That in case a separate Peace was concluding or concluded the Mediators should publickly protest against it in his Majesty's Name This Sir William Temple wrote to my Lord Treasurer and Secretary Coventry That he could not understand the Reason of such a Protestation for if a separate Peace were thought so dangerous at Court as he knew it was in the Country the King might endeavour to prevent it and had it still in his Power as he had had a great while but if it were once concluded any other Effect of such a Protestation unless it were to irritate both Parties and bind them the faster by our being angry at their Conjunction could not be expected Nor did he know what Ground could be given for such a Protestation for tho the Parties had accepted the King's Mediation for a General Peace yet none of them had obliged themselves to the King not to treat of a separate one without his Mediation or if they had he did not see why the same Interests that could make them break through so many Obligations to their Allies should not make them as bold with a Mediator That as to prevent the thing may be a very wise and necessary Counsel so the King's Resolution in it ought to be signified as early as can be where it is like to be of that moment to France But if the thing should be first done as he could not tell how well to ground any Offence so he could as little how to seek Revenge and it would be to stay till we were struck and then trust to crying out That his Opinion was it were better to anger one of the Parties before a separate Peace than both of them after and if we must strain any Points of Controversy with them to do it rather by making a fair and general Peace than by complaining and protesting against a separate one But our Counsels at Court he says were so in Ballance between the Desires of living at least fair with France and the Fears of too much displeasing the Parliament upon their frequent Sessions that our Paces upon the whole Affair look'd all like cross Purposes which no Man at home or abroad could well understand and were often mistaken by both Parties engaged in the War as well as by both
the King made with the States The French King after he had taken Ipre and Gaunt Luxemburg proceeded to block up Mons and Schomberg threatned to besiege Cologn and thus the Dutch bound Hand and Foot had no body else to complain to or expect any Relief from but the Court of England The Dutch had a little before sent over one Van Lewen who was the chief of the Town of Leyden who Sir William Temple says was a Man of great Honour and Worth to treat with the King to enter into a War against France which the King was obliged to by the League with them and had received 1200000 l. of the Parliament for carrying it on and by Van Lewen the States acquaint the King with the Terms upon which the French King would restore the six Towns in Flanders to the Spaniards the King at first seemed not to believe it but having sent to the French Ambassador Barillon to know the Truth of this which the Ambassador owning he seemed surprized and angry at this proceeding of France and next Morning sent for Sir William Temple to the Foreign Committee and there declar'd his Resolution of sending him immediately into Holland with a Commission to sign a Treaty with the States by which they should carry on the War and the King to enter into it in case France should not consent to evacuate the Towns within a certain time limited and the King took Pains to press Van Lewen to go over with Sir William to perswade the States of the King's Sincereness and Constancy to pursue these Measures to the utmost of his Power Armed with these Powers away goes Sir William and Van Lewen and were received with all imaginable Joy by the Dutch and Sir William by the Prince hoping by his Errand and Success of it either to continue the War or to recover such Conditions of Peace for his Allies as had been forced out of his Hands by force of a Faction begun at Amsterdam and after spread into the rest of the Provinces All the Provinces even those which were so forward for the Peace upon the French Terms were so forward in this Negotiation that in six days the Treaty was concluded by which France was obliged to declare within fourteen days after the Date thereof that they would evacuate the Spanish Towns or in case of Refusal Holland was engaged to go on with the War and England immediately to declare it against France in Conjunction with Holland and the rest of the Confederates Here observe that tho Sir William was one of the Mediators of Peace at Nimeguen yet whilst this Negotiation was perfected his Post was to be at the Hague for a Tale depends upon it The Wisdom as well as the Integrity of the Prince in the whole Negotiation of this Affair was now so conspicuous that the States owned the Prince had made a truer Judgment than they had done of the Measures which they were to expect either from England or France and if it happens that England in this Business shall prove as fickle and loose as before yet this shall never be ascribed to the Prince who was always the same he was before So now all Preparations were made for the Relief of Mons and ten thousand English being arrived in Flanders who were ordered to join the Prince he resolved to relieve Mons or to die in the Attempt After the Treaty concluded and signified to France all Arts that could be were on that side employed to elude it by drawing this Matter into a Treaty or into greater length which had succeeded so well in England that they offered to treat upon it at Quintin's then at Gaunt but the States were firm not to recede from their late Treaty made with the King and so continued till about Five Days before the Term was to expire You heard before how the King had solicited Van Lewen to accompany Sir William Temple to assure and perswade the States to pursue the Measures Sir William and he went upon to their utmost but alas now when Sir William as well as the Prince were out of Sight they were out of Mind too and now Sir William was gone he forgot the Indignation which Barillon had put upon him in the Treaty for the French Money he was to receive for joining in the French Terms with the Dutch which he then said he would never forget so long as he lived But now you shall see how absolute a Dominion the French King had over him and by what Instruments he governed him viz. a French Man a French Woman and a French Monk who had changed his Frock for a Petticoat The French Man was Barillon the French Woman was the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the French Monk was one Du Cross These three met the King in the Dutchess of Portsmouth's Chamber and in one hour's time agreed that Du Cross should carry Sir William Temple a Pacquet wherein the King commanded him to go immediately to Nimeguen and there endeavour all he could to perswade the Swedish Ambassadors as from the King to let the French Ambassadors there know That they would for the Good of Christendom consent and even desire the French King no longer to defer the Evacuation of the Towns and consequently the Peace upon the sole Regard and Interest of the Crown of Sweden and Sir William was likewise commanded to assure the said Ambassadors that after the Peace his Majesty would use all the most effectual Means he could for the Restitution of the Towns and Countries the Swede had lost in the War This was to get Sir William out of the way who spirited the Dutch in the Action that Du Cross might play his Pranks in the rest But before Du Cross had brought his Pacquet to Sir William he had gone about most industriously to the Deputies of the several Towns and acquainted them with it and that the Terms of Peace were absolutely agreed upon between the two Kings That he had brought Sir William Orders straight to get to Nimeguen and that upon his Arrival there he should meet with Letters from my Lord of Sunderland the King's Ambassador at Paris with all the Particulars concluded between them Sir William followed his Instructions and when he came to Nimeguen there were but three Days of the Term fixed by the late Treaty between the King and States at the Hague either for the French Assent to the Evacuation of the Towns or for carrying on the War in Conjunction of Holland with England and consequently with the rest of the Confederates but there found no Letters from my Lord Sunderland of the Particulars of the Peace concluded between the two Kings but on the contrary a Manifesto to the Dutch by the French Ambassadors why their Master could not consent to it without the previous Satisfaction of Sweden whose Interest he esteemed the same with his own but yet declaring he was willing to receive any Expedients the States should offer in this matter
Dangerfield's Evidence and told the Jury that Treason must be proved by two Witnesses and if they doubted upon one it was his Opinion it was but a single Evidence These Prisoners thus discharged the next Design to crown the Work was to make a Precedent That no future Prosecution should be made for convicting Roman Recusants and to that end in Trinity Term 1680 before the Parliament met the Chief Justice Scroggs discharged the great Inquest of Oswaldston before they had given in their Presentments of several Bills of Indictments against the Duke of York and other Roman Catholicks I do not find that in all these Transactions the King made use of the Council which he chose the twentieth of April 1679 where my Lord Shaftsbury was President and Sir Henry Capel Sir William Temple and many other noble Persons were Members of it when he declared in Council and Parliament and to the whole Nation How sensible he was of the ill Posture of his Affairs and the great Dissatisfaction and great Jealousies of his Subjects whereby the Crown and Government was become too weak to preserve it self which proceeded from a single Ministry and of private Advices and therefore profess'd his Resolution to lay them wholly aside for the future and to be advised by those able and worthy Persons whom he had then chosen for his Council and by the frequent Advice of his Parliament in all his weighty Affairs I do not find when he dissolved this Council yet I am confident none of these things were done by their Advice yet this I find that none of these were present when the King in Council the third of March 1679 declared against his Marriage with the Duke of Monmouth's Mother and this was within the Year after the twentieth of April 1679. How the Duke of York carried on the Design of the Discovery of the Popish Plot and endeavoured the Suppression of Popery in Scotland at this time is not yet ripe to be declared but in this Posture things stood in England when the Parliament met the twenty first of October 1680. Upon the opening of the Parliament the King told them The several Prorogations he had made had been very advantagious to our Neighbours and very useful to him for he had employed that time in making and perfecting an Alliance with Spain sutable to that which he had before made with the States of the Vnited Provinces and they also had with Spain consisting of mutual Obligations of Succour anâ— Defence So then it was not for the Transactions aforesaid and the sending the Duke of York High Commissioner into Scotland which no doubt but the Parliament if they had been sitting would have boggled at but for making and perfecting Alliances with the States of Holland and if any such Alliances were making or made what would the sitting of the Parliament have hindred them I 'm sure they might and would have advanced them It was in November 1677 that by the Agreement between the King and Prince of Orange the French should deliver up to the King of Spain the Towns of Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Courtray Tournay Valenciennes St. Gillain and Binch Lorain to that Duke and the Towns which the French had taken in Alsatia to the Emperor and in case of Refusal within two days after by the French King our King was to declare War against the French King and join with the Dutch States and Confederates to compel the French to it and at the Prince's Departure promised him never to depart from the least Point of it It was not two Weeks before the King brake this Promise and to amuse and raise a Jealousy among the Confederates by Mr. Thyâ— Sir William Temple refusing to have any hand in it about the latter end of December following made a separate League with the Dutch States upon the Parliament's giving him 1200000 l. to enter into an actual War against France In May following viz. 1678. the King took French Money to join with a Faction in Holland to make a separate Peace with France upon delivery of six of the nine Towns to the Spaniard whereof two of the three not to be delivered to the Spaniard were Tournay and Valenciennes worth all the rest and the Duke of Lorain and the Emperor left loose and uncertain In July following upon the French refusal to deliver up these six Towns to the Spaniard the King would declare War against France and join with the Dutch and the rest of the Confederates in it Hereupon Sir William was sent to the Hague and in six days time concluded a League with the States that if within fourteen days after the Date of it France did not declare to evacuate these six Towns Holland engaged to proceed in the War against France and Sir William sent over the Conditions to be ratified by the King During these Transactions in Holland and it may be before the League came over to be ratified by the King the King sent Du Cres with Instructions to Sir William Temple to remove from the Hague to Nimeguen and to divulge that the King and French King had absolutely agreed and consented to a Peace and that he had brought Orders to Sir William Temple to go straight to Nimeguen where he should meet with Letters from my Lord of Sunderland the King's Ambassador at Paris with all the Particulars concluded between them The Fourteen Days for the French Agreement to evacuate the Towns running so fast away in the mean time that Beverning and his Faction upon the last of the Fourteen Days pleaded a petty Necessity of huddling up that treacherous Peace which left Christendom to the Mercy of the French Would not one think it strange now that the Dutch and poor Spaniard should have such a mutual Confidence in our King's Faith and to trust to his mutual Obligations of Succour and Defence Or that the King should be so staid in making this League for it was above eighteen Months after the Prorogation of the last Parliament to the Meeting of this and above Fifteen Months from the Dissolution of it and yet so hasty in all his other Leagues After the Benefits which Christendom as well as England may reap by these Alliances if our Divisions at home do not make our Friendship less considerable the King thought fit to renew all Assurance that can be desired for Security of the Protestant Religion which he is resolved to maintain against the Conspiracies of our Enemies Can any Man who reads the Transactions between the Prorogation of the last Parliament and the Meeting of this force a Belief of this And concur with any new Remedies which shall be proposed which may consist with preserving the Succession of the Crown in its due and legal Course of Descent That is Let the Wolf be Shepherd and let the Sheep make what Laws they please for their Preservation Was it not known that the Duke of York was a Jesuited Papist whose Maxims are That no Faith is to
Laws and Constitutions of it and to have maintained the Honour of it abroad made it their Business to have subverted them and being thereby always at Variance and Contentions with their Subjects lost their own and the Nation 's Honour abroad and by taking no Care of the foreign Concerns of the Nation became contemptible to other Nations Nay the last three Kings instead of restraining the French Ambition and Tyranny joined with them in advancing of them as if they designed to make the French King an Universal Monarch as well as to destroy the Constitutions of England And I would know a Reason why now his Majesty King William has by God's Blessing redeemed this Nation from the imminent Danger which the French King in conjunction with King James designed upon the Western Parts of Christendom as well as these Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland any Christian should endeavour or desire the Restitution of King James any more than the Primitive Christians did Dioclesian Maximi◠and Maxentius after God had freed them from their Rage and Persecution by Constantine APPENDIX MY Lord Bacon compares Times to Ways some more plain and easy to pass others more rugged and more hard to pass the former is better for him who lives in them the latter is better for the Reader not only in the Pleasure of reading the Variety of Accidents in them but because in their Contests fine Notions arise which otherwise might have been concealed and which may be beneficial to the Readers in succeeding Times and also in shewing the Causes of these Distempers succeeding Generations may be admonished hereby to prevent them in time to come In these Treatises we have given an Account of the manifold Varieties of Accidents which have hapned for above 80 Years in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland France Spain and the States of the Vnited Netherlands and though the Roman and Grecian Histories may give Instances of the like by Land yet none of them can shew the like of the French Grandeur by Sea in little more than forty Years but more especially in that this was acquired in the Face of two neighbouring Nations either of which could have prescribed Laws to all the World besides herein the one claiming the Dominion of the British Seas the other of the Indian and Southern Ocean On the other Side Spain which in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth was both the Envy and Dread of these Western parts of Christendom is now fallen into that abject State as it is scarce in the Power of Christendom to uphold it from falling under the Dominion of the French and this History in some Measure hath shewn the Causes both of the Grandeur of France and the Cadency of Spain To the natural Advantages which the French had above other Nations after the Death of Queen Elizabeth was added that James the first and Charles the first of England whose Interest it was to have restrained the ambitious and aspiring Humour of the French were degenerous Princes wholly given up to be governed by Flatterers and Favourites and made it their Business to usurp another Jurisdiction over the Nation than they could claim by their Inherent Birth-right so that if the Long Parliament in 1640 had not put a Stop to Charles his Career no mortal Creature could have foreseen where it would have ended King James not to disturb his licentious and voluptuous Pleasures stood only still and looking on whilst Lewis the 13th had near broke the Interest of the Reformed in France but Charles in the first Act of his Reign lent the French a Fleet to subdue the Rochellers at that time superior to Lewis by Sea and as inconsiderately in the second Year of his Reign made War with France having in the first Year made War against the Spaniard whereby both Spain and France joining against the English brought that Loss and Dishonour upon the English in the Expedition of the Isle of Rhee and Charles being as loose in his Resolutions as inconsiderate in his Actions after the Death of the Duke of Buckingham who had engaged him in both these Wars made a secret Peace with the French and left the Reformed out of it though he engaged them to join with him in the War whereby the whole Interest of the Reformed was rooted out So that the Original of the French Grandeur by Sea and Land may be truly ascribed to these two Hereditary Princes James and Charles After the Tyranny of Charles his Reign had degenerated into the Usurpations of the Rump they thinking to prejudice the Dutch made the Act of Navigation which crampt up all the foreign Trades of England and the fishing Trade which above all others is the Nursery of Seamen and encrease of Navigation to English-built Ships and sail'd with ¾ English whether there be Ships or Mariners or not and without any Consideration of Times whether of War or Peace Though we have in this History and in The Reasons of the Decay of the Strength Wealth and Trade of England and also in the View of the Act of Navigation in reference to the Laws which yet stand unrepealed to the Trades for Masts Rafters Boards foreign Oak Timber Pitch and Tar and to the Trades for rough Hemp and Flax and to the fishing Trades and also to the Safety of the Nation against Foreign Powers at large demonstrated the Iniquity of this Law and the dangerous Consequences of it yet it is fit even here to take some Notice of it and of the Navigation of the Nation before the Act and how the Case stands now by reason of it Before the Rump contrived the Act of Navigation the English as the Traders told me alone fished upon the Coasts of Iseland and Westmony for Ling and the Cod-fish called Haberdin and at that time the Town of Alborough in Suffolk as I was informed fished yearly to those Seas with 35 Sail of Vessels called Iselands-Barks and the Town of Sould or Southold with 15 and Great Yarmouth with manifold more the Number I cannot tell but this I can tell That besides London and other parts of Norfolk and Suffolk which they supplied with this sort of Fish as also the Navy Royal and other Ships with this sort of Provision the Town of Yarmouth yearly exported to Calice St. Valery Diep Havre de Grace St. Maloes Brest and other parts of France 150000 Haberdin and Ling and by their Trades with these returned Sails and Nets for their Navigation and Fisheries Wells and Lyn in Norfolk too drove Trades into these Seas but I am not informed in how many Vessels but I have heard the Inhabitants of Wells complain that they have almost lost their Trades and I belive Lyn wholly Before the Act of Navigation the English from the Western Ports drove threefold a greater Trade in the Newfound-Land Fishery than the French whereas the French now drive above twenty-fold more the Trade to Newfound-Land Fishery than the English do And I have
luxurious and vicious Prince and that Ferdinand II. after the Victory at Prague endeavoured to subject the Freedom of Germany by force which brought the Swedes into Germany and the French siding with the Swedes took Philipsburg and Brisac upon the Rhine which opened the two Passages into the Empire by which this present King has been enabled to make those Wars and Ravages in the Empire which have since succeeded After the Restoration of King Charles II. the whole Series of his Reign was employed in assisting the French in all their ambitious Designs so did the Dutch and Dane when he had engaged them in a War with England and the Oxford Parliament first made the Act against the Importation of Irish Cattel whereby they disjoin'd the Interest and Dependency of Ireland upon England and fixt it upon France and other Countries which traded with them and enabled the French and Dutch to victual Ships cheaper in their Fisheries and other Trades than the English could as much to their Benefit as Prejudice to the English How King James II's Conjunction with the French had brought these Nations and Christendom to the Brink of Destruction was said in his Reign In this state these Kingdoms stood when God was pleased to give them Deliverance by the Interpoâ—tion of his present Majesty and now all the neighbouring Nations upon France I mean Spain the Empire Savoy and the Dutch as well as England were alarmed at their common Danger by the French Ambition and Grandure and all their Eyes were upon England as if from thence they expected Safety and now was the King of England again become the Arbitrator of Christendom after the four former Kings were so contemptible and neglected by it But in two things the French King's Ambition or rather Madness put some Check to his aspiring Designs viz. his Contests with the Pope about his Franchizes at Rome and the Regalia's of France and by the Extream on the other side in his revoking the Edicts of Nants and his Dragooning and Reforming the Protestants of France whereby he lost innumerable of his Subjects to the weakning of his own Power and that in double Proportion for his Enemies as he made them became so much the more numerous and stronger for those which became Exiles being an industrious sort of People had contributed highly to the Encrease of the Wealth of France so that now the Charge of the War must have been supported by those he left yet in this state France alone for above six Years made an offensive and victorious War by Land against Germany Spain Holland the Spanish Netherlands and the Duke of Savoy tho all these were assisted by the Power of England and Scotland Tho England embraced their Deliverance by the King Ireland did not nor was it their Interest for why should the Irish join with the English who would have no Trade with them against the French upon whom the Irish depended by their Trade and Commerce And it 's observable That tho the French assisted the Irish above three Years in their Wars against the English yet it may be a Question Whether the French did not gain more by their Trade with Ireland for Wools Tallow Raw Hides and Provisions for their Fleet than their Expence for carrying on the War against the English did amount to whereas the English in the War were at a foreign Expence and being a Naval War were forced to victual their Fleets at one third greater Expence than the French could do from Ireland Another Advantage the French had over the English in this Naval War was that Brest lying South of Ireland every Wind not North in one Course carries their Fleet to Ireland whereas Chatham from whence the English sent their Fleet to oppose them lies fivefold more remote from Ireland than Brest does nor can the Ships from Chatham be carried to Ireland but by different Winds and steering different Courses almost from all the Points of the Compass for it must be after the Ships are come within the Buoy of the Nore a South or South-west Wind to carry them to the Buoy of the Gunfleet before they turn into the Deep Waters then a quite contrary Wind brings them into the Downs and Channel and when they have sailed above a hundred Leagues another Wind carries them to Ireland From hence it was principally that the French for above three Years together so long as the War lasted sent out their Fleets upon the Coast of Ireland did their Business and returned to Brest before we could get out our Fleets to oppose them Yet Falmouth and Milford-Haven are much better Ports and lie better and more conveniently than Brest Milford much more to have relieved Ireland and oppose the French Designs at Brest yet from neither did we send one Ship to do it I suppose if the Reason hereof be asked it will be answered That there were no Docks Shipwrights or Naval Stores in either to have supplied our Men of War in those Ports But from whence comes this to pass There were two Reasons hereof from within and from without from within Foy and Haverford-West and the Port Towns generally of England are Corporations and the Inhabitants poor yet proud of their Prerogatives in excluding the rest of the Nation and so have so much less means for building Ships Docks or carrying on the Fishing or any foreign Trades as the Inhabitants are fewer and poorer and generally they are all Beggars The other Reason from without is the Act of Navigation against Foreigners partaking equal Benent in Trade with the Natives of England so that tho God and Nature have endowed this Nation with more excellent and noble Ports than any Nation in the World of like Bigness except Ireland for the Benefit and Convenience of the Nation yet by the Iniquity and Folly of our Laws we have made them vain and of no use to our selves nor any other Nation whereas I am confident the French King would give any of his new conquered Provinces in the Spanish Netherlands to have one such Port as either Falmouth or Milford Haven upon the Coast of Normandy or Bretaign within the Channel Notwithstanding these Obstacles the Kingdom of Ireland is again reduced to the Dominion of the Kingdom of England But I say tho we should destroy the French Fleet of War yet if we do not redress the Oppressions which the English in their Trades and Navigation lie under the Nation will be no ways secured from the growing Greatness of either French or Dutch for the same Causes will have the same Effects EXPEDIENTS by which the English Nation may be secured against the growing Greatness of the French and Dutch APOLOGY WE have epitomized the Causes of the declining of the Wealth Strength and Trade of England in this Epilogue that they may be more obvious to the Reader than if he should look for them as they lie dispersed in the Body of the History and I am conscious to
Speech against the Commons concerning Tunnage and Poundage with Remarks on it 219 224. Makes a Papist Lord Treasurer 226. Commands the Speaker to put no Question concerning Grievances 229. Imprisons several Members of Parliament 232 233. who are denied Bail 234 235. Displeas'd with the Judges Determination thereon 235. His threatning Declaration at dissolving the Parliament 236 237. Makes Peace with France to the ruin of the Reformed 237. Sends 6000 Men to assist the Swede 238. His great Fickleness 239 271 279 298 311 330. Disturbs the Dutch fishing Trade 259. His Instructions concerning the Scots solemn Covenant 264. Summons a General Assembly and Parliament in Scotland ib. Sends a Fleet and Army against the Scots 265. Boasts of his Prerogatives in calling Parliaments which is descanted on 268 270. Marches against the Scots is petition'd for a free Parliament treats with them 272. Is forsaken by his Friends 274 275. Begins his Reformation too late 275 286. Establishes Presbytery in Scotland 277. Long before he declar'd the Irish Rebels 277 278. Demands five Members of the Commons 278 290. Is advis'd to stay at London but would not 278. Is refus'd Entrance at Hull sets up his Standard at Nottingham join'd by the Nobility 279. Is worsted at Brentford 297. Summons his mungrel Parliament at Oxford makes Cessation of Arms with the Irish withdraws his Forces from Ireland 300 343. His ill Success 306 308 313 315. His Counsels with the Queen discover'd 312. Deals privately with the Irish 312 314. His Commission to Glamorgan 314. Submits to the Scots 316. who sell him Is confin'd 317. Is seiz'd by the Army 318. His Letters to the Queen threatning Cromwel by whom he 's remov'd to the Isle of Wight 323. Treats with the Parliament 324. Remarks on his sad State 316 317 325 327 333 334. His Death and Character 334 337. A Story of him concerning Buckingham's Funeral 337. Charles II. takes the Covenant and is proclaim'd in Scotland 344 345. Flies into England is routed at Worcester 346. Assists at the Pyrenean Treaty and is slighted by the French 422. Sends Letters from Breda 425. Is restor'd without Terms with an extravagant Joy rejects Cromwel's Treaty of Commerce with the French 426. whom he imitates in his Guards 427. Delivers them up Dunkirk and assists 'em against the Spaniard 429. His Luxury Debauchery c. 430. Calls a Parliament ib. Restores Episcopacy in Scotland 445. Grants a Toleration 447. Afterwards takes it off 448. Makes War on the Dutch 452. His Speech to the Commons on that occasion 452 453. His vast Revenues 453. compar'd with Q. Elizabeth's 454 455. His slight Preparations for the War 455 456. Is careless and prodigal therein 456 467 468. His ill Success in the second Fight 459 460. Makes a dishonourable Peace with them 469 495 497. Enters into a League with the Dutch and Swede 472. but breaks it off by means of his Sister who soon after dies 474. His deep Perfidiousness and Dissimulation 475. Is a Pensioner to France 477 522 523 548 561. Shuts up the Exchequer 478. Makes War again on the Dutch without Cause 478 479. Suffer'd Marsilly whom he employ'd in Switzerland to be murder'd at Paris 479. Raises an Army under Schomberg and Fitz-gerald 487. Sends 3 Lords to the French on a dark Design 488. His Demands at the Treaty at Cologn 492. Assists the French with vast Stores 498. Mediates a Peace betwixt France and the Confederates 498. Breaks his Promise to Sir W. Temple 499 503. His unprecedented Prorogation of Parliament 504. Insisted on by the Lords to be a Dissolution 505. His Rage at the Commons for their Advice descanted on 506. Adjourns them without their Consent 506. Endeavours a separate Peace betwixt France and the States 507 515. His Answer to the Pr. of Orange concerning it 511. and to Sir W. Temple 512. Treats with them 516 517. Sends Lord Duras into France 518 519. Treats about a War with France 524 525. Is govern'd by French Counsels sends Du Cross to supplant Sir W. Temple 526 527. Calls his second Parliament which met in 40 days pretends Zeal in discovering the Popish Plot 537. Chuses a new Privy-Council and promises to be ruled by his Parliament c. 538. His great Hypocrisy and Deceit 539 548 559. Declares himself a Whore-master 544 545. His dissembling Speech to the Parliament after many Prorogations with Remarks on it 547 552. Summons a Parliament at Oxford 559. Is concern'd in Fitz-Harris's Plot 564. His Declaration at dissolving the Oxford Parliament descanted on 566 568. His Death and Character 604 606. His obscure Burial and good Deeds 606 608. Died a Papist 610. Charter of London ravish'd by the Court 600 601 614. and those of other Corporations taken and surrendred 603 615 633. Children more in England than employ'd 27. Clergy when too numerous the Cause of Factions 240 241 449. Cromwel's Son-in-law imprison'd for a pretended Plot 532. Clifford foretels another Dutch War 473 Made Lord Treasurer 478. But being a Papist is forc'd to resign 491. Cobbet Colonel taken Prisoner 412. Cockain's Project for dressing Cloths monopoliz'd and the Consequences of it 65. Coke Sir Edw. grants a Warrant for seizing Somerset 78. Remov'd from being Chief Justice and why 79 82. Is prosecuted 103. Imprison'd without Cause assign'd and sued by the King who is cast 105. Not admitted into his Presence 164. Is made Sheriff and why 180. Moves for the Petition of Right c. 207 209. Is against trusting to the King 's Verbal Declaration 211 212. His sharp Speech against Buckingham 215 216. His Papers seiz'd at his Death 253. His Books made use of by the King's Party tho printed by the Parliament 279. Coleman holds Correspondence with the Jesuits 500. His Papers c. convey'd away 532. Colledge Stephen clear'd by the Grand Jury of London but basely murder'd at Oxford under a Colour of Justice 591 595. Cologn Treaty there propos'd by the Swede 492. Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs by K. James 633 637. Committee of Safety 410. Agree with Monk 412. Are threatned by Lawson 414. Commons insist on deciding Elections 52. Alarm'd at the Growth of Popery c. 97 98 493 531. Present Remonstrances to the King 98 100 217. Their stinging Petition against Papists 134 138. Zealous against them 166 168 169. Grant the greatest Tax ever given before 206. Fall upon Grievances 207 216 231 266. Their Declaration against Tunnage and Poundage 218 219. Protest against paying Money not granted by Parliament 229. Their Vow concerning Religion 231. Zealous against Delinquents 274. Their Remonstrance of all the King's Miscarriages 278 289. Inflam'd at his demanding the 5 Members 278 291. whom they vindicate 291. Pass the Self-denying Ordinance 310. Deliver up the Militia of London to the Army which is petition'd against 320. Treat with the King at the Isle of Wight 327. Refuse to grant Supplies before the Nation is secur'd 493 531. Their Votes against the King's evil Counsellors c. 494.