Selected quad for the lemma: war_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
war_n	high_a	king_n	treason_n	3,672	5	9.5249	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25601	An Answer to the Lord George Digbies apology for himself published Jan 4, Anno Dom. 1642 put in the great court of equity otherwise called the court of conscience, upon the 28th of the same moneth / by Theophilus Philanax Gerusiphilus Philalethes Decius.	Decius, Theophilus Philanax Gerusiphilus Philalethes.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. Lord George Digbie's apology for himself.; Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677. Two letters, the one from the Lord Digby, to the Queens Majestie ; the other from Mr. Thomas Elliot.; Elliot, Thomas.	1642 (1642)	Wing A3421; ESTC R8961	70,751	74

waited on their Majesties and leaving them at Hampton Court provided their own accommodations at Kingston the next place of r●c●ipt and still so used for the over pl●● of company which the Court it self could not entertaine To these Gentlemen● of whom few or none were of my acquaintance and to this place was I sent by His Majesty with some expressions of his Majesties good acceptance of their service and returning the same night to Hampton Court continued my attendance to Windsor whither their Majesties then repaired I had not been there one day when I heard that both Houses of Parliament were informed that I and Colonell Luns●ord a person with whom I never exchanged twenty words in my life had appeared in a warlike manner at Kingston to the terror of the Kings liege people and thereupon had ordered that the Sheriff of Surrey and as I conceive that all other Sheriffes throughout England should raise the power of their severall Counties to suppresse the forces that be and I had levyed When first this news was brought me I could not but s●ight it as a ridiculous rumour for being most certain that I had never been at Kingston but only upon that message of the Kings to forty or fifty Gentlemen totally strangers to me with whom I stayed not the space of half an hour at most and in no other equipage then a Coach and six hired horses with one single man in the Coach with me and one servant riding by I thought it utterly impossible for the most remancy it self at so neer a distance to raise out of that any scri●●● matter of scandall or prejudice upon me But when soon after I received from some of my friendz not only a confirmation of that seeming impossibility but a particular accompt of the manner of it How some information concerning me at King●ton had been referred to the examination of a Committee of my sharpest enemies how the six Coach horses I appeared with there were turned by them into six score horses and that mistake I know not by what prevalence of my unhappinesse or of my enemies credit not suffered to be rectified by other witnesses there who affirmed the truth Finding my selfe in this sad condition but twenty miles off and not knowing how the people in other places might be terrified if reports concerning me should spread but in a proportionable rare to remoter distances they being now derivablo from such considerable Authors I must confesse I then began to look upon my felfe as a person of the rare misfortune that my reputation would not weigh down the most improbable or impossible accusation but fit to receive any imputation of guilt the most mischievous or malitious instrument of calumny could invent And in this condition with no other discontent then not believing my self much indebted to the world for good usage I procured● his● Majesties licence to transport a person of so great inconvenience and danger out of his Dominions into another Countrey and with all possible speed removed my self into Holland never suspecting that my guilt would increase with my absence in the retired private life which I had resolved on and did according to that resolution lead beyond Sea having the vanity of some hope that a little time discovering the falsehood of some things believed of me would take away the inconvenience of other things that were but unworthily suspected Some weeks I rested there without any hurt till the falshood of a person to whose trust I committed a Packet brought it to a hand well contented with any occasion to satisfie his own particular private malice and revenge upon me and so my Letters one to the Queens Majesty and the other to my brother Sir Lewis Dives were publiquely brought to be read in both Houses of Parliament from thence new arguments of guilt are so far enforced against me and the former displeasure revived and heightned to such a pitch that at the same time I heard of the interception of my Letters I found my self accused of high Treason too and that for levying War against the King a crime certainly that of all other I could least suspect my self guilty of And to say the truth it came into my charge but by accident for being in generall charged of high Treason and the impeachment in particular bearing onely that I had appeared in warlike manner to the terror of the Kings Subjects a question was raised by a Lord or two learned in the Law whether that accusation would amount to Treason or no and so leave was desired to amend the charge which being granted to make sure work by the Statute of 25 Edw. 3. it was put in that I had levyed War against the King If I were guilty or suspected of so lowd a crime how it came to sleep so long or if not how these Letters wherein upon an unpartiall survey there will not be found so much as an opinion as unto peace or war could minister occasion for a charge of my levying War against the King I leave to equall consideration I am farre from censuring or disputing the resolution or opinion of both or either House of Parliament no man r●●eives a stroke from thence with more submission and humility and the great reverence I bear to it hath made such an impression in me that the weight of their displeasure hath added many years to me but in so neer a concernment of my life and my honour that grave Assembly may give me leave without presuming to think their judgements unjust to say their evidence may be untrue and the persons trusted by them not so full of honour ingenuity or integrity so free from passion malice interest or affection as they are thought It will be no presumption or dis●respect to that great Councell to say that I have many enemies who have used all the ill arts their wit or malice could suggest to bring this affliction upon me and have not in whispers or in the dark published their resolution to destroy me witnesse the known tampering with very many persons both by threats and promises to accuse me their creating and cherishing such monstrous untruths of my treating with the Danes and other forreign power of a great treason of mine plotted and discovered at Sherburn with mighty warlike preparations there of my being at the head of the Rebells in Ireland and the like to make me odio● to the people to whose rage and violence they have of●●●●● de●voured to give me up a sacrifice the deep sense I have of my affliction● and injuries shall never transport me to heighten the repres●n●a●ion of them to the least degree beyond truth but whoever shall consider the penalty of Treason the ruine and desolation it brings to families the brand and infamy it fixes on our memories and shall remember that this portion was designed to me for going on my Masters errant in a Coach and six horses will believe that a mixture of sorrow

and innocence with so much passion as may keep them company may well be allowed to breath it self with so much freedom as to present to the world with a true and sensible life my sufferings upon whomsoever the injustice and inhumanity may light of having opprest and bowed down to the earth a young man and all his hopes by such undeserved calamities ANSWER The next misfortune your Lordship insisteth on is your having been charged in generalll with High-Treason the impeachment in particular bearing onely that you had appeared in a warlike manner to the terror of the Kings Subjects at Kingstone upon Thames and the amendment of that charge by putting in that you had levyed War against the King upon a question raysed by a Lord or two learned in the Law whether that former accusation would amount to Treason or no To this I need to say little because I may well presume that the two Houses of Parliament in some sort interessed in this your Lordships complaint though not of them yet of the persons trusted by them will not faile to give convenient satisfaction unto your Lordship and the world at the sollicitation of those persons to me unknowne concerning whom your Lordship thinketh you may as you doe put a question whether they be so full of Honour ingenuitie or integritie or so free from passion malice interest or affection as they are thought without offence of both or either House of Parliament or any reflection upon the opinion or resolution of either of them All I will or indeed can say as to the matter above recited is but this That whether your Lordp. appeared there with six Coach-horses or six score horses whether your Lordships businesse to that place where those many Souldiers and Commanders who waited on their Majesties to Hampton Court and from thence went to Kingston upon Tham●s for lodging were only upon a message of the Kings to 40 or 50 Gentlemen among them expressing his Majesties good acceptance of their service Whether those forty or fifty were totally strangers to your Lordp. to which point also the Intelligencer telleth an unhappy tale and by name whether Colonell Lunsford were till then so great a stranger to your Lordp. that you had never exchanged twenty words with him in all your life are all matters of fact and the truth of them must remain upon proof For if there can be no more proved against your Lordship then you write then admitting it to be true which I find in the Remonstrance of the Lords and Commons prepared long before but ordered to be published upon the second of November last That there were at Kingston at that time waggons loaden with Pistolls Carbines and Ammunition great horses armed with Pistolls And though the Officers to whom it seemeth your Lordship was sent together with the Souldiers and Cavaliers were some hundreds your Lordp. in this Apology avoweth they were many And though they were listed and taken into pay and an invitation made to such Gentlemen as would mount and maintain themselves for a month by a promise that afterwards they should be taken into pay and be his Majesties Guard for their lives And though the unr●ly company assembled there discharged their Pistolls and threatned the Inhabitants that they would have the heads of some of them within four dayes to the great terror and amazement of the poor people And though all this put together may amount to a warlike appearance and preparation which that Remonstrance leaveth every man to judge yet how it should concerne your Lordp if you had no further hand in all this or in any part thereof then you have confessed under the favour and correction of both Houses of Parliament I must here prosesse as yet informed I am not able to comprehend And if your Lordship have misinsormed me and the world therein I think you have done your self as ill a turn as the worst of your supposed enemies could have done you But whereas your Lordship complayneth that the examination of these things were referred to a Committee of your sharpest enemies and that the great mistake of six Coach horses turned into six score horses was not suffered to be rectified by other witnesses there who affirmed the truth to these two parts of your Lordships complaint I have one Answer to make which is that if in them both your Lordp. had any wrong it ought not to be imputed either to any prevalence of your particular unhappinesse or to the credit of your enemies but to be reputed among the common calamities which may befall any subject of this Kingdom by reason of the ancient customes thereof which seem exceeding strange to all strangers that hear of them among whom I have often had much a do to maintain their fitnesse and equity and yet the wisdom of this State hath not hitherto found sufficient cause to alter so ancient constitutions The one of them is the manner of naming Committees in Parliament in which all men see there is exceeding great inequality and too much left to the care of the Clearke who hath more power by much therein then any Member of the House of Commons But how to remedy this without running the hazard of other as great or greater inconveniencies it may be is not so easie to devise Which notwithstanding I have often heretofore and upon this occasion do now wish that honourable House to whom nothing that can be better ordered by humane prudence is impossible would take into mature deliberation The other is that ancient Maxime of our Law Non accipitur juramentum contra Regem by reason whereof if it be rigorously observed as for ought I know it is ever in all tryalls upon life and death in inferiour Courts the honour life and estate of the greatest subject how innocent soever may be in danger if two of the meanest men in the whole Kingdom shall combine so secretly to take it away that there can be no discovery of their conspiracy whereat strangers use to hold up their hands and blesse themselves For it seemeth the Committee above mentioned had the equity of that rule of Law in their eye for their direction and that your Lordship had not all the favour shewed you to the Earl of Strafford who was allowed to produce witnesses and crosse examine such as were produced against him and in troth I believe had as much favour as was ever shewed to any subject in his case which is and will ever be one great justification of the proceedings against him whatsoever may break forth in time to shew his innocence But my Lord lesse favour may be shewed to divers persons accused of the same crime without any ingredient of private malice or revenge to the one of them And yet he that feeleth the hurt of the difference is under a strong temptation to apprehend those to be his private enemies whom he observeth to be keen in pursuing him although their consciences may bear them