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
A56227	A seasonable, historical, legal vindication and chronological collection of the good old fundamental liberties, franchises, rights, laws of all English freemen ...; Seasonable, legal, historical vindication of the good old fundamental liberties, franchises, rights, properties, laws, government of all English freemen.	Prynne, William, 1600-1669.	1654 (1654)	Wing P4122; ESTC R13248	47,108	63

among your people who will be therby no less discouraged then disabled to supply your Majesty when occasion shall require In which memorable Petition the whole House of Commons resolve in direct terms 1. That the Subjects of England have old original Fundamental Rights and more particularly in the Property of their goods exempted from all Impositions whatsoever in times of Peace or War without their common consent in Parliament declared and ectablished both by the ancient Common Law of England and sundry Acts of Parliament and Records of former times 2. They declare the constant vigilant care zeal of our Ancestors and former Parliaments in all ages inviolably to maintain defend preserve the same against all encroachments together with their own care duty and vigilancy in this kind in that very Parliament 3. They relate the readiness of our Kings to ratifie these their Fundamental Rights by new Act of Parliament when they have been violated in any kind 4. They declare the benefit accruing both to Prince and People by the inviolable preservation and establishment of this old Fundamental Right and the mischiefs accruing to both by the infringement thereof by arbitrary illegal Impositions without full consent in Parliament 5. They earnestly in point of conscience prudence and duty to those for whom thy served Petition his Majesty for a new Law and Declaration against all new Impositions Taxes on Inland Goods or Merchandizes imported or exported without the Peoples free consent in Parliament as null void utterly to be abolished and taken away Whether it will not be absolutely necessary for the whole English Nation and the next ensuing Notional or real Parliament to Prosecute Enact Establish such a Declaration and Law against all such future arbitrary illegal oppressive Taxes Impositions Excizes that have been imposed and continued for many years together on the whole Kingdom by new extravagant self-created usurping Army-Officers and other Powers without free and full consent of the People in lawfull English Parliaments against all former Laws Declarations and Resolutions in Parliament to their great oppression enslaving undoing and that in far greater proportions multiplicity and variety ●hen ever in former ages without the least intermission and likewise against their late declared design to perpetuate them on our exhausted Nation without alteration or diminution beyond and against all Presidents of former Ages both in times of Peace and War for the future by the 27 28 29 3● 3● Articles of the Instrument entituled The Government of the Common-wealth of England c. I remit to their most serious considerations to determine it ever they resolve to be English Freemen again or to imitate the wisdom prudence zeal courage and laudable examples of their worthy Ancestors from which they cannot now degenerate without the greatest Infamy and enslaving of themselves with their Posterities for ever to the arbitrary wills of present or future Usurpers on their Fundamental Rights and Liberties in an higher degree then ever in any precedent Ages under the Greatest Conquerours or Kings after all their late costly bloudy Wars for their Defence against the Beheaded King The fifth is A learned and necessary Argument made in the Commons House of Parliament Anno 7. Jacobi to prove That each Subject hath a propriety in his Goods shewing also the extent of the Kings Prerogative in Impositions upon the Goods of Merchants exported or imported c. By a late learned Judge of this Kingdom printed at London by Richard Bishop 1641. and Ordered to be published in print at a Committee appointed by the Honourable House of Commons for examination and Licensing of Books 20. Maii 1641. In which Parliamentary Argument p. 8 11 16. I finde these direct Passages That the New Impositions contained in the Book of Rates imposed on Merchandizes imported and exported by the Kings Prerogative and Letters Patents without consent in Parliament is against THE NATVRAL FRAME AND CONSTITVTION OF THE POLICY OF THIS KINGDOME which is Jus Publicum Regni AND SO SUBVERTETH THE FUNDAMENTAL LAW OF THE REALM and introduceth a new form of State and Government Can any man give me a reason why the King can only in Parliament make Laws No man ever read any Law whereby it was so ordained and yet no man ever read that any King practised the contrary therefore IT IS THE ORIGINAL RIGHT OF THE KINGDOM AND THE VERY NATVRAL CONSTITVTION OF OUR STATE AND POLICY being one of the highest Rights of Soveraign Power If the King alone out of Parliament may impose * HE ALTERETH THE LAW OF ENGLAND IN ONE OF THESE TWO MAIN FUNDAMENTAL POINTS He must either take the Subjects Goods from them without assent of the Party which is against the Law or else he must give his own Letters Patents the force of a Law to alter the property of the Subjects Goods which is also against the Law In this and sundry other Arguments touching the Right of Impositions in the Commons House of Parliament by the Members of it arguing against them it was frequently averred and at last voted and resolved by the House 7. Jacobi That such Impositions without consent in Parliament were AGAINST THE ORIGINAL FUNDAMENTAL LAWS AND PROPERTY OF THE SUBJECT and Original Right Frame and Constitution of the Kingdom as the Notes and Journals of that Parliament evidence An express Parliamentary resolution in point for what I here assert The sixth is A Conference desired by the Lords and had by a Committee of both Houses concerning the Rights Privileges of the Subjects 3. Aprilis 4. Caroli 1628. entred in the Parliament Journal of 4. Caroli and since printed at London 1642. In the Introduction to which Conference Sir Dudley Diggs by the Commons House Order used these expressions My good Lords whilst we the Commons out of our good affections were seeking for money we found I cannot say a Book of the Law but many A FUNDAMENTAL POINT THEREOF NEGLEGTED AND BROKEN which hath occasioned our desire of this Conference Wherein I am first commanded to shew unto your Lordships in general That the Laws of England are grounded on Reason more antient then Books consisting much in unwritten Customs yet so full of Justice and true Equity that your most Honorable Predecessors and Ancestors propugned them with a NOLUMUS MUTARI and so ancient that from the Saxons daies notwithstanding the injuries and ruines of time they have continued in most parts the same c. Be pleased then to know THAT IT IS AN UNDOUBTED AND FUNDAMENTAL POINT OF THIS SO ANCIENT COMMON LAW OF ENGLAND THAT THE SUBJECT HATH A TRUE PROPERTY IN HIS GOODS AND POSSESSIONS which doth preserve as sacred that Meum and Tuum that is the Nurse of Industry and the Mother of Courage and without which there can be no Justice of which Meum and Tuum is the proper object But the UNDOUBTED RIGHT OF FREE SUBJECTS hath lately not a little been invaded and prejudiced by Pressures the more

and Grandees of these present and late past times may behold their own faces and deformities and the whole Nation their sad condition under them In the residue of that his printed Speech he compares the Treason of the Ship-money Judges and of Sir Robert Tresylium and his Complices in XI R. 2. condemned and executed for Traytors by Judgement in Parliament for endevouring to subvert the lawes and statutes of the Realm by their illegall Opinions then delivered to King Richard at Nottingham Castle not out of conspiracy but for fear of death and corporall Torments wherewith they were menaced whose offence he there makes transcendent to theirs then in six particulars as those who please may there read at leisure being over large to transcribe I could here inform you that the Fundamentall lawes of our Nation are the same in the Body politique of the Realm as the Arteries Nerves Veins are in and to the naturall Body the Bark to the tree the Foundation to the House and therefore the cutting of them asunder or their Subversion must of necessity kill destroy disjoyne and ruine the whole Realme at once therefore it must be Treason in the highest degree But I shall only subjoyn here some materiall passages in his Argument at Law concerning the Attainder of high Treason of Thomas Earl of Strafford before a Committee of both Houses of Parliament in Westminster Hall April 29. 1641. soon after printed and published by Order of the Commons House wherein p. 8. he laies down his Position recited again p. 64. That Straffords Endeavouring to subvert the Fundamentall Lawes and Government of England and Ireland and instead thereof to introduce a tyrannicall Government against Law is Treason by the Common-Law That Treasons at the Common-Law are not taken away by the Statutes by 25. E. 3. 1. H. 4. c. 10. 1. Mar. c. 1. nor any of them The Authorities Judgements in and out of Parliament which he cites to prove it have been already mentioned with some others he omitted I shall therefore but transcribe his Reasons to evince it to be Treason superadded to those alledged by him against the Ship money Judges Pag. 12. It is a Warre against the King Let our Military Officers and souldiers consider it when intended The alteration of the Lawes or Government in any part of them This is a levying Warre against the King and so Treason within the Statute of 25 E 3. 1. Because the King doth maintain and protect the Lawes in every part of them 2. Because they are the Kings lawes He is the Fountain from whence in their severall Channels they are derived to the Subject Whence all our indictments run thus Trespasses laid to be done Contra pacem Domini Regis c. against the Kings Peace for exorbitant offences though not intended against the Kings Person against the King his Crown and dignity Pag. 64. In this I shall not labour at all to prove That the endevouring by words Counsels and actions To subvert the Fundamentall Lawes and Government of the Kingdome is Treason at the Common Law If there be any Common Law Treasons at all left NOTHING TREASON IF THIS NOT TO MAKE A KINGDOME NO KINGDOME Take the Polity and Government away England's but a piece of earth wherein so many men have their commerce and abode without rank or distinction of men without property in any thing further than in possession no Law to punish the murdering or robbing one another Pag. 70 71 72. The horridnesse of the offence in endeavouring to overthrow the Lawes and present Government hath been fully opened before The Parliament is the representation of the whole Kingdome wherein The King as Head your Lordships as the more Noble and the Commons the other Members are knit together in one body Polititick This dissolved the Arteries and Ligaments that hold the body together THE LAWES He that takes away the Lawes takes not away the Allegiance of one Subject only but of the whole Kingdome It was made Treason by the Statute of 13. Eliz. for her time to affirm That the Lawes of the Realme doe not binde the descent of the Crown No Law no descent at all NO LAWES NO PEERAGE no ranks nor degrees of men the same condition to all It s Treason to kill a Judge upon the Bench this kils not Judicem sed JVDICIVM There be twelve men but no Law never a Judge amongst them It s felony to embezel any one of the Judiciall Records of the Kingdome THIS AT ONCE SWEEPS THEM ALL AWAY and FROM ALL It s Treason to counterfeit a twenty shilling piece here 's a counterfeiting of the Law we can call neither the counterfeit nor the true coin our own It s Treason to counterfeit the Great Seal for an Acre of Land No property is left hereby to any Land at all Nothing Treason now against King or Kingdome No Law to punish it My Lords if the question were asked in Westminster Hall whether this were a Crime punishable in Star Chamber or in THE KINGS BENCH by Fine or imprisonment They would say It were higher If whether Felony They would say That is an offence only against the life or goods of some one or few persons It would I beleeve be answered by the Judges as it was by the Chief Justice Thirning 21 R. 2. That though he could not judge the Case TREASON there before him yet if he were a Peer in Parliament HE WOVLD SO ADJUDGE IT And so the Peers did herein Straffords and not long after in Canterburies Case who both lost their heads on Tower Hill I have transcribed these passages of Mr. Oliver St. Iohn at large for five Reasons 1. Because they were the voice and sense of the whole House of Commons by his mouth who afterwards owned and ratified them by their speciall Order for their publication in print for information and satisfaction of the whole Nation and terrour of all others who should after that either secretly or openly by fraud or force directly or indirectly attempt the subversion of all or any of our Fundamentall Laws or Liberties or the alteration of our Fundamentall Government or setting up any arbytrary or Tyranicall Power Taxes Impositions or new kinds of arbitrary Judicatories and imprisonments against these our Lawes and Liberties 2. To mind and inform all such who have not only equalled but transcended Strafford and Canterbury in these their High Treasons even since these Publications Speeches and their exemplary executions of the hainousnesse in excusablenesse wilfulnesse maliciousnesse Capitalnesse of their crimes which not only the whole Parliament in generality but many of themselves in particular so severely prosecut condemned and inexorably punished of late years in them that so they may bewail repent of and reform them with all speed and diligence as much as in them lies And withall I shall exhort them seriously to consider that Gospel terrifying passage Rom. 2. 1 2 3. Therefore thou art inexcusable O man whosoever thou art

of the said KING robbing slaying spoiling a great part of his faithfull People Our said Soveraign Lord the King considering the promises with many other which were more odious to remember by advice and assent of the LORDS Spirituall and Temporall and at THE REQVEST OF THE COMMONS and by authority aforesaid hath ordained and established that the said Iohn Cade shal be had named and declared a false Traytor to cur said Soveraign Lord the King and that all His Tyranny Acts Facts false Opinions shall be voyded abated adnulled destroyed and put out of remembrance for ever And that all indictments in time coming in like case under power of Tyranny Rebellion and stirring had shall be of no regard nor effect but void in Law and all the petitions * delivered to the said King in his last Parliament holden at Westminster the sixth day of November the 29 of his Reign against his mind by him not agreed shall be taken and put in oblivion out of remembrance undone voided adnulled and destroyed for ever as a thing purposed against God and his Couscience and against his royall estate and preheminence and also dishonourable and unreasonable 5. In the a 8 year of King Henry the 8. William Bell and Thomas Lacy in the County or Kent conspired with Thomas Cheyney the Hermite of the Queen of Fairies TO OVERTHROW THE LAWS AND CVSTOMS OF THE REALM for effecting whereof they with 200. more met together and concluded upon a cause or raising greater forces in Kent and the adjacent shires this was adiudged high treason and some of them executed as traytors Moreover it b was resolved by all the Judges of in the reign of Henry S. that an Insurrection against the Statute of Labourers or for the inhansing of salaries and wages was Treason a levying war against the King Because it was generally against the KINGS LAW and the Offenders tooke upon them the REFORMATION thereof which Subjects by gathering of power ought not to do 6. On a December 1. in the 21. yeer of King Henry the 8. Sir Thomas Moor Lord Chancellor of England with 14. more Lords of the Privy Councel Iohn Fitz Iames Chief Justice of England and Sir Anthony Fitzherbert one of the Judges of the Common Pleas exhibited sundry Articles of Impeachment to King Henry the 8. against Cardinall Wolsy That he had by divers and many sundry ways and fashions committed High Treason and notable grievous offences misusing altering and subverting the order of his Graces Laws and otherwise contrary to his high Honour Prerogative Crown Estate and Dignity Royall to the inestimable great hinderance dimunition and decay of the universal Wealth of this his Graces Realm The Articles are 43. in number The 20 21 26 30 35 47 42 43. contain his illegal arbitrary practices and proceedings to the subversion of the due course and order of his Graces Laws to the undoing of a great number of his loving people Whereupon they pray Please therefore your most excellent Majesty of your excellent goodness towards the Weal of this your Realm and Subjects of the same to see such order and direction upon the said Lord Cardinal as may bee to terrible example of others to beware to offend your Grace and your Lawes hereafter And that he be so provided for that he never have any power jurisdiction or authority hereafter to trouble vex or impoverish the Commonwealth of this your Realm as he hath done heretofore to the great hurt and dammage of every man almost high and low His * poysoning himself prevented his Iudgment for these his practises 7. The b Statute of 1. Marie● 12. Enacts that if 12. or more shall endeavour by force to alter any of the laws or statutes of the Kingdome the offender shall from the time therein limited be adjudged ONELY AS A FELON whereas it was Treason before but this act continuing but till the next Parliament and then expiring the offence remains Treason as before 8. In the a 39. of Queen Elizabeth divers in the County of Oxford consulted together to go from house to house in that County and from thence to London and other parts to excite them to take arms for the throwing down of inclosures throughout the Realm nothing more was prosecuted nor assemblies made yet in Easter Term 39. Elizabeth it was resolved by all the Judges of England who met about the case That this was High Treason and a levying Warre against the Queen because it was to throw down all inclosures throughout the Kingdome to which they could pretend no right and that the end of it was to overthrow the Laws and Statutes for Inclosures Whereupon BRADSHAW and BVRTON two of the principall offenders were condemned and executed at Aic●ston Hill in Oxfordshire where they intended their first meeting 9. To come nearer to our present times and case In the last Parliament of King Charls Anno 16●0 1641 b The whole House of Commons impeached Thomas Earle of Stafford Lord Deputy of Ireland of high Treason amongst other Articles for this crime especially wherein all the other centred that he Treasonably endeavoured by his Words actions and Counsels to subvert the Fundamentall Lawes of ENGLAND and IRELAND and introduce an arbitrary and Tyrannicall Government This the whole parliament declared and adjudged to be High treason c in and by their votes and a speciall act of parliament for his attainder for which he was condemned and soon after executed on Tower Hill as a traytor to the King and Kingdome May 2● 1641. 10. The whole House of Common● the same Parliament impeached William L●●d archbishop of Canterbury of HIGH TREASON in these 〈…〉 1646. First that he hath traytorously endeavoured 〈…〉 Fundamental Lawes and Government of this Kingdome of England and instead thereof to introduce an Arbitrary and Tyrannical Government against Law And hee to that end hath wickedly and Traiterously advised his Majesty that hee might at his own will and pleasure levy and take Money of his Subjects without their consent in parliament and this hee affirmed was warrantable by the Law of God Secondly He hath for the better accomplishment of that his Trayterous design advised and procured Sermons and other Discourses to be preached printed and published in which the authority of parliaments and the force of the Laws of this Kingdome have been denyed and absolute and unlimited power over the persons and estates of his Majesties Subjects maintained and defended not onely in the King but in himself and other Bishops against the Law Thirdly he hath by Letters Messages Threats and promises and by divers other ways to Judges and other Ministers of Justice interrupted perverted and at other times by means aforesaid hath endeavoured to interrupt and pervert the course of Justice in his Majesties Courts at Westminster and other Courts to the subversion of the LAWES of this KINGDOME whereby sundry of his Majesties Subjects have been stopt in their

others who condemned him And the reason which he gave for it hath more mischiefe than the thing it selfe THEY ARE A CONQUERED NATION Let those who now say the same of England as well as Scotland and Ireland consider and observe what follows There cannot be a word more pregnant and fruitfull IN TREASON then that word is There are few Nations in the world that have not been conquered and no doubt but the Conquerour may give what Laws he please to those that are conquered But if the succeeding Acts and agreements do not limit restrain that Right what people can be secure England hath been conquered and Wales hath been conquered and by this reason will be in little better case then Ireland If the King by the Right of a Conquerour give Lawes to his people shall not the people by the same reason be restored to the Right of the conquered To recover their Liberty if they can What can be more hurtfull more pernicious than such Propositions as these 2. It is dangerous to the Kings Person and dangrous to his Crown It is apt to cherish Ambition usurpation and Oppression in great men and to beget Sedition Discontent in the people and both these have been and in reason must ever be causes of great Trouble and Alterations to Prince and State If the Histories of those Easterne Countries be perused where Princes order their Affaires according to the mischievous Principles of the Earle of Straffords LOOSE and ABSOLVED FROM ALL RULES OF GOVERNMENT they will be found to be frequent in combustions full of Massacres and of the tragicall end of Princes If any man shall look into our own Stories in the times when the Laws were most neglected he shall finde them full of Commotions of Civil Distempers whereby the Kings that then raigned were alwayes kept in want and distresse the people consumed with CIVILL WARRES and by such wicked Counsels as these some of our Princes have been brought to such miserable ends As * no honest heart can remember without horror and earnest Prayer that it may never be so again 3. As it is dangerous to the Kings person and Crown so it is in other respects very prejudiciall to His Majesty in honour profit and greatnesse which he there proves at large as you may there read at leasure and yet these are the Guildings and Paintings that are put upon such Counsells These are for your Honour for your Service 4. It is inconsistent with the Peace the Wealth the Prosperity of a Nation It is destructive to Justice the Mother of Peace to Industry the Spring of Wealth to Valour which is the active vertue whereby the prosperity of a Nation can onely be procured confirmed and enlarged It is not onely apt to take away Peace and so intangle the Nation with warres but doth corrupt Peace and powres such a malignity into it as produceth the effects of Warre both to the * NOBILITY and others having as little Security of THEIR PERSONS OR ESTATES in this peaceable time as if the Kingdome had beene under the fury and rage of Warre And as for Industry and Valour who will take paines for that which when he hath gotten is not his own or who fights for that wherein he hath no other interest but such as is subject to the will of another c. Shall it be Treason to embase the Kings Coine though but a piece of twelve pence or six pence and must it not needs be the effect of GREATER TREASON to * embase the Spirits of his Subjects and to set a stamp and Character of Servitude upon them whereby they shall be disabled to do any thing for the Service of the King or Common wealth 5. In times of sudden danger by the Invasion of an enemy it will disable his Majesty to preserve himself and His Subjects from that danger When Warre threatens a Kingdome by the comming of a forreign enemy it is no time then to discontent the people to make them weary of the PRESENT GOVERNMENT and more inclinable to a change The Supplies which are to come in this way will be unready uncertain there can be no assurance of them no dependence upon them either for time or proportion And if some money be gotten in such a way the Distractions the Divisions Distempers which this cause is apt to produce will be more prejudiciall to the publick safty than the Supply can be advantageous to it 6. This crime is contrary to the Pact and Covenant between the King and his people by mutall agreement and stipulation confirmed by OATH on both sides 7. It is an Offence that is contrary to the ends of Government 1. To prevent Oppressions to * limit and restraeine the excessive power and violence of great Men to open passages of Justice with indifference towards all 2. To preserve men in their Estates to secure them in their Lives and Liberties 3. That vertue should be cherished and vice suppress●d but where Laws are subverted and arbitrary and unlimited power set up a way is open not onely for the security but for the Advancement and Incouragement of evill Such men as are * aptest for the execution and maintenance of this power are onely capable of Preferment and others will not be Instruments of any unjust commands who make conscience to doe any thing against the Law of the Kingdome and Libbeties of the Subject are not only not passable for imployment but SUBJECT TO MUCH JEALOUSY and DANGER Is not this their condition of late and present times expertus quor 4. That all Accidents and events all Counsels and Designs should be improved to the publick good But this arbitrary power is apt to dispose all to the maintenance of it self And is it not so now 8. The Treasons of Subversions of the Lawes violation of liberties can never be good or justifiable by any circumstance or occasion being evil in their own nature how specious or good so ever they be pretended He alledgeth it was a time of GREAT NECESSITY and DANGER when such Counsels were necessary FOR THE PRESERVATION OF THE STATE the Plea since and now used by others who condemned him If there were any NECESSITY IT WAS OF HIS OWN MAKING He by his evill Counsel had brought the King as others the Kingdome since into a necessity and by no Rules of Justice can be allowed to gain this advantage to his Justification which is a GREAT PART OF HIS OFFENCE 9. As this is Treason in the nature of it so it doth exceed all other Treasons in this that in the Designe and endeavour of the Authour it was to be A CONSTANT and PERMANENT TREASON a standing perpetuall Treason which would have been in continuall Act not determined within one Time or Age but transmitted to Posterity even from Generation to Generation And are not others Treasons of late times such proclaimed such in and by their owne Printed Papers and therein