parts joyne their Common strength and study together so whilest one by one did fight all of them were either subdued or slaine But these newes little rejoyced the Common people they lusted not to listen thereto their common talke was to recount their common grievances to lay them together and aggravate them by construction every man more abounding in complaints then hee did in miseries Also the Noble men the principall object of cruelty beganne to discourse both their private dangers and the deformities of the State and upon opportunity of the Kings absence some of them did conspire to cut off that authority which would not bee confined and to cast it upon some other who was most like to repaire that which King Richard had ruined or if said they our power shall come short of so good a purpose yet will wee sell him both our lives and lands with glory in the field which with certainty in peace wee cannot enjoy The onely man upon whom all men resolved was Henry Duke of Hereford whom since the death of his Father they called Duke of Lancaster not at his owne motion or desire but because hee was generally esteemed meet as being of the Royall bloud and next by descent from males to the succession of the Crowne one that had made honourable proofe of his vertues and valour the onely man of note that remained alive of those that before had stood in armes against the King for the behoofe of the Common-wealth for which cause hee was deepely touched at that time both in honour and in state This attempt pleased as possible to prove and of necessity to be followed whereupon they secretly dispatched their letters to the Duke solliciting his speedy returne into England and declaring that as well for the benefit of the Realme as for their owne particular safety they were forced to use force against King Richard that if it would please him to make the head they would furnish him the body of an able army to expell the King from his unfortunate government and to settle the possession of the Crowne in him who was more apt and able to sustaine the same that they would not provide him a base multitude onely and they themselves helpe in bare wishâ—s and advise but would also adjoyne their hands and their lives so that the perill should be common to all the glory only his if fortune favoured the enterprise These letters were conveyed by men crafty and bold yet of sure credit and inward in trust with the Duke who passing into France first associated unto them Thomas Arundel late Archbishop of Canterbury and at that time whether deservedly or without cause an exile in France then they travelled by severall wayes and in counterfeit attire to Paris where all met at the House of one Clugney where the Duke then sojourned After some courtesies of course with welcome on the one side and thanks on the other and joy of both the Archbishop of Canterbury having obtained of the Duke privacy and silence made unto him a solemne oration in these words or to this sense following Wee are sent unto you right high and Noble Prince from the chiefe Lords and States of our land not to seeke revenge against our King upon private injury and displeasure nor upon a desperate discontentment to set the State on fire nor to procure the ambitious advancement of any particular person but to open unto you the deformities and decayes of our broken estate and to desire your aid in staying the ruinous downefall of the same The remembrance of the honourable reputation that our Countrey hath borne and the Noble acts which it hath atchieved doth nothing else but make the basenesse more bitter unto us whereinto it is new fallen Our victorious armes have heretofore beene famous and memorable not onely within the bounds of our Ocean-Sea and in the Ilands adjoyning unto us but also in France in Spaine and in other parts of Europe yea in Asia and in Africk against the Infidels and Barbarians so that all Christian Princes have beene either glad to imbrace our friendship or loath to provoke us to hostility But now the rude Scots whose spirits we have so many times broken brought on their knees do scornefully insult upon us the naked and fugitive Irish have shaked oft our shackles and glutteth themselves upon us with massacres and spoiles with these wee dayly fight not for glory but to live insomuch as we are become a pitty to our friends and a very jeast to our most base and contemptible enemies Indeed the King hath both sent and led great armies into these Countries but in such sort that they have much wasted the Realme with their maintenance but neither revenged nor relieved it with their armes and no mervaile for all our diligent and discreet leaders the very sinewes of the field are either put to death or banished or else ly buried in obscurity and disgrace and the marshalling of all affaires is committed without any respect of sufficiency or desert to the counsaile and conduct of those who can best apply themselves to the Kings youthfull delights Among these ancient Nobility is accompted a vaine jeast wealth and vertue are the ready meanes to bring to destruction It grieves mee to speake but it helpeth not to hide that which every man seeth our Ancestours lived in the highest pitch and perfection of liberty but wee of servility being in the nature not of subjects but of abjects and flat slaves not to one intractable Prince onely but to many proud and disdainefull favorites not alwayes the same but ever new and no sooner have wee satisfied some but fresh hungry Masters are streight wayes set upon us who have more endammaged us by extortion and bribes then the enemy hath done by the sword What unusuall kinds of exactions are dayly put in practise without either measure or end oftentimes without need or if any be it proceedeth rather upon riotous expenses then any necessity of honourable charge and great summes of money are pulled and pilled from good subjects to bee throwne away amongst unprofitable unthrifts And if any man openeth his mouth against these extorted taxations then either by feined imputation of capitall crimes or by small matters aggravated or else by open cruelty and force his life or liberty is forth with hazarded It were too tedious too odious too frivolous to put you in mind of particular examples as though your owne estate and the lamentable losse of your Vncle and other Noble friends could bee forgotten yea I suppose that there is no man of quality within the Realme who either in his owne person or in his neerest friends doth not plainely perceive that no man enjoyeth the safegard of his goods and suerty of his body but rich men in the one and great men in the other are continually endangered This then is our case but what is our remedy we have endured and we have entreated but our patience
either safe quiet or dangerous disturbance both to our particular consciences and also to the common state Therefore before you resolve upon it I pray you call to your considerations these two things Frist whether King Richard be sufficiently deposed or no Secondly whether King Henry bee with good judgement or justice chosen in his place For the first point we are first to examine whether a King being lawfully and fully instituted by any just title may upon impution either of negligence or of tyrannie be deposed by his subjects Secondly what King Richard hath omitted in the one or committed in the other for which hee should deserve so heavy judgement I will not speake what may be done in a popular state or in a Consular in which although one beareth the name and honour of a Prince yet hee hath not supreme power of Majestie but in the one the people have the highest Empire in the other the Nobility and chiefe men of estate in neither the Prince Of the first sort was the common-wealth of the Lacedaemoans who after the form of government which Licurgus framed oftentimes fined oftentimes fettered their kings and sometimes condemned them to death such were also in Caesars time the petty Kings of every Citie in France who were many times arraigned upon life and death and as Ambiorix Prince of the Leodienses confessed had no greater power over the people then the people had over them Of the second condition were the Roman Emperours at the first of whom some namely Nero and Maximinus were openly condemned others were suddenly surprized by judgement and authority of the Senate and such are now the Emperors of Germany whom the other Princes by their Aristocraticall power doe not only restraine but sometimes also remove from their Imperiall state such are also the Kings of Denmarke and Sweveland who are many times by the Nobility dejected either into prison or into exile such likewise are the Dukes of Venice and of some other free states in Italy and the chiefest cause for which Lewes Earle of Flaunders was lately expelled from his place was for drawing to himselfe cognisance in matters of life and death which high power never pertained to his dignity In these and such like governments the Prince hath not regall rights but is himselfe subject to that power which is greater then his whether it bee in the Nobility or in the common people But if the Soveraigne Majesty be in the Prince as it was in the three first Empires and in the Kingdome of Iudea and Israel and is now in the kingdomes of England France Spaine Scotland Muscovia Turky Tartaria Persia Ethiopia and almost all the kingdomes of Asia and Africke although for his vices he be unprofitable to the subjects yea hurtfull yea intollerable yet can they lawfully neither harme his person nor hazard his power whether by judgement or else by force for neither one nor all Magistrates have any authority over the Prince from whom all authority is derived and whose only presence doth silence and suspend all inferiour jurisdiction and power As for force what subject can attempt or assist or counsaile or conceale violence against his Prince and not incurre the high and hainous crime of treason It is a common saying thought is free free indeed from punishment of secular lawes except by word or deed it breake forth into action Yet the secret thoughts against the sacred Majesty of a Prince without attempt without endeavour have beene adjudged worthy of death and some who in auriculer confession have discovered their treacherous devises against the person of their Prince have afterwards been executed for the same All Lawes doe exempt a mad man from punishment because their actions are not governed by their will and purpose and the will of man being set aside all his doings are indifferent neither can the body offend without a corrupt or erronious mind yet if a mad man draw his sword upon his King it hath beene adjudged to deserve death And lest any man should surmise that Princes for the maintenance of their owne safety and soveraignety are the onely Authors of these judgements let us a little consider the Patternes and Preceprs of Holy Scripture Nebuchadnezzar King of Assyria wasted all Palestine with fire and sword oppugned Hierusalem a long time and at the last expugned it slâ—e the King burnt the Temple tooke away the Holy Vessels and Treasure the rest hee permitted to the cruelty and spoyle of his unmercifull souldiers who defiled all places with rape and slaughter and ruinated to the ground that flourishing Citie after the glut of this bloody butchery the people which remayned he led captive into Chaldaea and there erected his golden Image and commanded that they which refused to worship it should bee cast into a fiery Furnace What cruelty what injustice what impiety is comparable to this and yet God calleth Nebuchadnezzar his servant and promiseth hyre and wages for his service and the Prophets Ieremiah and Baruch did write unto the Iewes to pray for the life of him and of Baltazar his sonne that their dayes might bee upon earth as the dayes of Heaven and Ezechiel with bitter termes abhorteth the disloyalty of Zedechia because he revolted from Nebuchadnezzar whose homager and tributary he was What shall we say of Saul did hee not put all the Priests to execution because one of them did relieve holy and harmelesse David did hee not violently persecute that his most faithfull servant and dutifull sonne in law during which pursuit he fell twice into the power of David who did not only spare but also protect the King and reproved the Pretorian souldiers for their negligent watch and was touched in heart for cutting away the lap of his garment and afterwards caused the Messenger to bee slaine who upon request and for pitty had lent his hand as hee said to help forward the voluntary death of that sacred King As for the contrary examples as that of Iehu who slew Iehoram and Ahazia Kings of Israel and Iuda they were done by expresse oracle and revelation from God and are no more set downe for our imitation then the robbing of the Aegyptians or any other particular and priviledged Commandement but in the generall Precept which all men must ordinarily follow not onely our actions but our speeches also and our very thoughts are strictly charged with duty and obedience unto Princes whether they bee good or evill the law of God ordaineth That hee which doth presumptuously against the Ruler of the people shall dye and the Prophet David forbiddeth to touch the Lords annointed Thou shalt not saith the Lord raile upon the Iudges neither speake evill against the Ruler of the people And the Apostles doe demand further that even our thoughts and soules be obedient to higher powers And least any should imagine that they meant of good Princes onely they speake generally of all and further to take away
had such worthy servants as would often for his Honour urge it For these Masters as Wallingford termeth them Tanta elaâ—i jactantia quod nec sup riorem sibi intelligunt nec parem mellitis mollitis adulationibus animum Regis pro libito voluntatis â ratione tramite declinantes doe alone what they list They fill up the place of Iustice and Trust with their Countrey-men strangers exact of whom how and what they please wast the Treasure and Crowne lands on themselves and their followers set prices on all offences and raine the Law within the rule of their owne Breasts The usuall reply of their servants to the plaints of the Kings Subjects being Quis tibi rectum saciet Dominus rex vult quod Dominus meus vult these Strangers seemed in their Lawlesse carriage not to have beene invited but to have entred the state by Conquest The great men they enforced not to obey but to serve and the meane to live so as they might justly say they had nothing yet least the King should heare the groanes of his people and the wickednesse of his Ministers which good and able men would tell him they barre all such accesse Suspition being the best preserver of her owne deserts aimeth at these who hath more of vertue then themselves as fearing them most Thus is the incapacity of Government in a King when it fals to bee a prey to such Lawlesse Minions the ground of infinite corruption in all the members of the State all take warrant generâ—lly from Princes weakenesses of licentious liberty and greatnesse makes profit particularly by it and therefore give way to encrease ill to encrease their gaines A Famine accompanieth these corruptions and that so violent that the King is enforced to direct Writes to all the Shires Ad pauperes mortuos sepelicendos famis media deficientes Famine proceeds Fames praecessit secutus est gladius tam terribilis ut nâ—mo inermis secura possit Provincias peragare For all the Villages of the Kingdome were left a prey to the lawlesse Multitude Who Per diversas partes itinerantes velut per Consentum aliorum as the Record saith did imply that the factious Lords suspected by the King had given some heat to that commotion Seditious Peeres bringing ever fewell to such popular fires Neither was the Church without a busie part in this Tragick worke for Walter Bishop of Worcester and Robert of Lincolne to whom Mountford and his faction Prae cordialiter adhaerebant were farre ingaged In such designes Church-men are never wanting and the distast of the present Government as well in the Church as in the Common-wealth will ever bee a knot of strength for such unquiet Spirits who as well frame to themselves some other forme of Government then the present in the Church as in the temporall state as that which with the giddy multitude winneth best opinion and did at this time fitly suite the peoples humours so much distasting the new Courts of the Clergy their pompe their greedinesse and the Popes extortions A faire pretext was it to those factious Bishops to use their bitter pens and speeches so farre against Religious Orders Ceremonies and State of the Church that one of them incurred the sentence of Excommunication at Rome and Treason at home for hee enjoyned the Earle of Leycester In remissione peccatorum ut causam illam meaning his Rebellions usque ad mortem assumeret asserens pacem Ecclesiae Auglicanae nunquam sine gladio materiali posse firmari It was not the best Doctrine that this man could plant by liberty or warre when the first Church rose by fasting and prayer True Piety binds the Subject to desire a good Soveraigne but to beare with a bad one and to take up the burthen of Princes with a bended knee rather in time so to deserve abatement then resist authority Church-men therefore ought not alwayes to leade us in the rule of Loyalty but a knowledge of our owne duties in difficult points of Religion where an humble ignorance is a safe and secure knowledge wee may rely upon them To suppresse these troubles and supply the Kings extremity a Parliament was called much to the liking of those Lords who as little meant to releeve the King as they did to acquiet the State their end at that time being onely to open at home the poverty of their Master to lessen his reputation abroad and to brave out their owne passions freely whil'st those times of liberty permit Here they began to tell him hee had wronged the publick State in taking to his private election the Iustice Chancellour and Treasurer that should bee onely by the Common Councell of the Realme commending much the Bishop of Chicester for denying delivery of the great Seale but in Parliament where he received it They blame him to have bestowed the best places of trust and benefit in his gift on Strangers and to leave the English unrewarded to have undone the trade of Merchants by bringing in Maltolts and heavy customes and to have hurt the Common liberty by non obstantes in his Parents to make good Monopolies for private favorites That hee hath taken from his Subjects Quicquid habuerunt in esculentis poculentis Rustâ—coruin enim â—ques bigas vina victualia ad libitum caepit That his Iudges were sent in circuites under pretext of Iustice to fleece the people Causis fictitiis quascunque poterant diripuerunt And that Sir Robert de Purslowe had wrong from the Borderers of his Forrest under pretence of enâ—rochments or assarts great summes of money And therefore they wonder that hee should now demand reliefe from his so pilled and polled Commons who by their former extremities Et per auxilia priuâ— data ita depaâ—perantur ut nihil aut parum habeant in bonis And therefore advised him that since his needlesse expence Postquam regni caepit esse dilapidatur was summed up by them to above 800000. l. It were fitting to pull from his favorites who had gleaned the Treasure of his Kingdome and shared the old Lands of the Crowne seeing one of them there whom the Lords described to bee Miles litteratus or Clericus militaris who had in short space from the inheritance of an acre growne to the Possession of an Earledome and Mansel another inferiour Clarke that besides 50. promotions with the cure of soules rose to dispend in annuall revenue 4000. markes whereas more moderate Fees would have become a pen-man no better quallified then with the ordinary fruits of a writing Schoole yet if a moderate supply would suite with the Kings occasions they were content to performe so farre reliefe in Obedience as the desert of his carriage should merrit toward them And so as the Record saith Dies datur suit in tres septimanas ut interim Rex excessuos suos corrigeret Magnates
dreaming more upon the imaginary humours of licencious Soveraignty But it fell out nothing so for now every man beganne to estimate his owne worth and to hammer his head on every designe that might enlarge his power and command Then beganne the great men to rent from the body of the Crownes and regall Signiories all such royall Suitours as neighboured any of their owne seats whereto they enforce their service and so as the Record saith Ad sectas indebitas servitutes intollerabâ—les subditos Regis compulerunt Thus raising meane manners to become great Honours and renting a sunder the regall Iustice they made themselves of so many Subjects whil'st they lived in duty Totidâ—m Tiranni as the booke of Saint Albans saith when they had left their loyalty Magnas induxerunt Magnates Regni super subditos Regis servitutes oppressiones which they bore patiently for excesse of misery having no ease but Custome made men willing to lay the foundation of servitude by the length of sufferance which found no ease or end untill the quiet of this Kings raigne Mountford Glocester and Dispencer the heads of this Rebellious designe having by the late provisions drawne to the hands of the twenty foure Tribunes of the people the entire mannaging of the Royall State and finding that power too much diâ—perced to worke the end of their desires forst againe the King to call a Parliament where they delivered over the authority of the twenty foure unto themselves and create a Triumvirate non constituenda Republicae causa as they first pretended for their owne ends and so in the interest of some private contented the publike was stayed but to make a speedier way to one of them as it fatally did to become Dictator perpetuus Ambition is never so high but shee thinkes still to mount that station which seemed lately the top is but a step to her now and what before was great in desiring seemes little being once in power These three elect nine Councellours and appoint Quod tres ad minus alternatim semper in curia sint to dispose of the custody of Castles Et de aliis Regni negotiis the chiefe Iustice Chancellour and Treasurer with all offices Majores minores they reserve the choyce of to themselves and bind the King to this hard bargaine upon such strong security that hee is contented under the great Seale and Oath to loose to them the knot of Regall duty whensoever hee assumeth to himselfe his Regall dignity Liceat omnibus de Regno nostro contra nos in surgere ad gravamen nostrum opem operam dare at si nobis in nullo tenerentur This prodigy of fortune of whom shee had set a pittifull example of her inconstancy finding no part of his Soveraignty left but the bare Title and that at their leave beggeth succour from Vrbane the fourth against his disloyall Subjects The Pope by his Bull cancelleth his Oath and contract and armed him with Excommunications against all those that returne not with speed to their due and old obedience since promises made by men which cannot say they are at liberty are weake and force hath no power to make just interest The Lords on the other side that had imped their wings with Eagles feathers and liked no game now but what was raked out of â—he ashes of Monarchy made head against their Soveraigne and to mate him the better called in aid some French forces Thus the Common-wealth turned againe her sword into her owne bowels and invited her ancient Enemy to the funerall of her liberty so that it was a wonder shee should not at this time passe under a forraine servitude And though these men were more truly sensible of their owne disgrace then of others misery Yet found they no better pretext for private interest then that of the publick And therefore at the entry of this Warre they cried liberty although when they came neere to an end they never spake word of it At Lewis the Armies met where the King endeavours a reconciliation but in vaine for perswasions are ever unprofitable when Iustice is inferiour to force The sword decides the difference and gave the two Kings and their eldest Sonnes Prisoners The person now as well as the regall power thus in the hands of Mountford and Glocester found neither bound of security nor expectation of liberty but what the emulous competition of greatnesse which now beganne to breake out betweene these mighty Rivals gave hope of for Leycester meaning by ingrossing from his partner to himselfe the person of the King and to his followers the best portion of the spoile to draw more fruit from this advantage then it should in fellowship yeeld dissolved the knot of all their amity Thus equall Authority with the same power is ever fatall wee see to all great actions For to fit minds to so even a temper that they should not have some motions of dissenting is impossible Mountford having thus broken all faith with his confederates and duty to his Soveraigne left the path of moderation and wisedome to come to the King by that of pride and distrust To him he telleth that his armes and ends had no other object ever but order of the State and ease of the people that hee did not in this carry affection against duty but well knew how to reine his desires to his just power and so no lesse to his Majesties content if hee would bee ruled which was to command the Fortes and Castles of his now opposite Glocester and the rest into his hands It was hard to this King thus to take a Law from his inferiour but necessity in Soveraigne affaires doth often force away all formality and therefore this poore Prince who now at the Victors discretion seemed to have beene onely raised to shew the inconstancy of fortune and vanity of man suited himselfe with incomparable wisedome according to the necessity of the time Neither did humility wrong Majesty when there was no other meanes to containe Spirits so insolent but dissembling Hee therefore summoneth in his owne person the forts of his fastest friends to yeeld to his greatest enemies This hee enters in shew as his lodging but in effect his prison and saw himselfe forced to arme against his friends and to receive now Law from him to whom hee lately thought to give it Thus Leycester is become a darling of the Common rout who easily change to every new Master but the best durst not saile along his fortune by the light of his glory Christall that fairely glistereth doth easily breake and as the ascent of usurping royalty is slippery so the top is shaking and the fall fearefull To hold this man then at the entry of his false felicity fully happy was but to give the name of the Image to the mettle that was not yet molten for by this the imprisoned Prince was escaped and
fast assured of Glocester by the knot of his great mind and discontent and both with the torne remainder of the loyall Army united and by speedy march arrived unlooked for neere Evesham to the unarmed troupes of the secure Rebels whom they instantly assailed for it was no fit season to give time when no time did assure so much as expedition did promise Dispencer and other Lords of that faction made towards the King with the best speed for mercy but could not breake out being hurried along the storme of the giddy multitude Publick motions depends on the conduct of Fortune private on our owne carriage we must beware of running downe steep hils with weighty bodies they once in motion Suo feruntur pondâ—re stops are not then voluntary but Leycester at that instant with the King and out of the storme might have escaped if his courage and hope had not made him more resolute by misfortune so that hee could neither forsake his followers nor his ambition thus making adversity the exercise of his vertue hee came and fell The King by the blessed Fortune freed and obeyed beganne to search the ground of his former misery and why that Vertue and Fortune that had so long setled and maintained under his Ancestors the glory of his Empire had cast her in his time off and conspired with her Enemies to her almost ruine as if the Genius of the state had quite forsooke her Here hee finds his wastfull hand had beene too quick both over the fortunes and the blessings of his People thâ— griping Avarice of his Civill Ministers and lawlesse liberty of his Martiall followers the neglect of grace and breach of his word to have lost his Nobility at home and necessity his Reputation abroad by making Merchandize of peace and warre as his last refuge so leaving his old Allies became enforced to betake himselfe to persons doubtfull or injured and that by giving over himselfe to a sensuall security and referring all to base greedy and unworthy Ministers whose Councels were ever more subtle then substantiall hee had throwne downe those pillars of soveraignety and safety Reputation abroad and Reverence at home Hee now therefore making sweetnesse and clemency the entrances of his regained Rule for the faults of most of the late Rebels hee forgot a gracious kind of pardoning not to take knowledge of offences others hee forgot that they might live but to the glory of his goodnesse for the fewer killed the more remaines to adorne the Trophee Tyrants shed bloud for pleasure Kings for necessity yet least his Iustice and power might too much suffer in his grace and mercy some few hee punished by small fines some by banishment as the two guiltlesse yet unpittied Sonnes of the Arch-traitour Treason so hatefull is to the head that it draweth wee see in this the carriage of the innocent children into an everlasting suspect and what is suspition in others is guilt in them Vpon the constant followers of his broken fortunes hee bestowed but with a more wary hand then before the forfeiture of his enemies Immoderate liberality hee had found but a weake meanes to winne love for it lost more in the gathering then it gained in the giving This bounty bestowed without respect was taken without grace discredited the receiver and detracteth from the judgement of the giver and blunted the appetites of such as carried their hopes out of vertue and service Thus at last hee learned that reward and reprehension justly laid doe ballance Government and that it much importeth a Prince the hand to bee equall that holdeth the scale In himselfe hee reformed his naturall errours Princes manners though a mute Law have more of life and vigour then those of letters and though hee did sometimes touch upon the verge of vice hee forbore ever after to enter the circle His court wherein at this time the â—aults of great men did not onely by â—pprobation but Imitation receive true comfort and authority for their crimes now became examples and customes hee purged very judiciously and severely since from thence proceeds either the regular or irregular condition of the Common state Expence of house hee measureth by the just Rule of his proper revenew and was heard often to say that his excesse of wast before had beene an issue of his Subjects bloud the insolency of his Souldiers made lawlesse by the late liberties of Civill armes hee spendeth in forraigne expedition Having seene that the quiet Spirits underwent all the former Calamities and the other never were satisfied but in the misery of Innocents and would if they had no enemies abroad seeke out at home as they had done before The rigour and corruption of his judiciall Officers hee examineth and redresseth by strict Commission For the sence of their severity became a murmure of his owne cruelty The seats of Iudgement and Councell hee filled up with men nobly borne For such attract with lâ—sse offence the Generous spirits to respect and reverence Their Abilities hee measureth not by favour or by Private Information as before but by publike voice for every man in particular may deceive and bee deceived but no man can deceive all nor all one And to discover now his owne Capacity and what part hee meaneth to beare hereafter in all deliberate Expeditions hee sitteth himselfe in Councell dayly and disposeth affaires of most weight in his owne person For Councellours bee they never so wise or worthy are but as accessaries not principals in sustentation of the State their Office must bee subjection not fellowship in considerations of moment and to have ability to advise not authority to resolve For as to live the Prince must have a particular soule so to rule his proper and interne Councell without the one hee can never bee truly man without the other hee shall never bee securely a Prince for it offendeth as well the Minister of merit as the people to force obedience to one uncapable of his owne greatnesse or unworthy of his fortunes This wonderfull change to the generall State so hopelesse lately to recover her former liberty they sought now for nothing but the mildest servitude brought them home againe with admiration to his devotion and their owne duty Hee that will lay wee see the foundation of greatnesse upon popular love must give them ease and Iustice for they measure the bond of their obedience by the good alwayes that they receive This peace attended ever after his age and hearse and hee happily lived to fashion his Sonne and Successour and to make him Partner of his owne experience and authority whose owne hard education training him from that intemperance which makes men inferiour to beasts framed him to affect glory and vertue which made him superiour to men So that all the Actions of his future Raigne were exact grounds of Discipline and Policy for his best successour to rule by after who as hee was the first of
all doubt they make expresse mention of the evill For the power and authority of wicked Princes is the ordinance of God and therefore CHRIST told Pilate that the power which hee had was given him from above and the Prophet Esay calleth Cyrus being a Prophane and Heathen Prince the Lords annointed For God stirred up the Spirit even of wicked Princes to doe his will and as Iehosaphat said to his Rulers they execute not the judgement of man but of the Lord in regard whereof David calleth them Gods because they have their rule and authority immediately from God which if they abuse they are not to bee adjudged by their Subjects for no power within their Dominion is superiour to theirs but God reserveth them to the forest triall Horribly and sodainly saith the Wisemâ—n will the Lord appearâ— unto them and a hard judgement shall they have The law of God commandeth that the Childe should bee put to death for any conâ—umely done unto the Parents but what if the Father be a robber if a murtherer if for all excesse of villanies odious and execrable both to God and man surely hee deserveth the highest degree of punishment and yet must not the Sonne lift up his hand against him for no offence is so great as to bee punished by parricide but our Countrey is deerer unto us then our Parents and the Prince is Pater patriae the Father of our Countrey and therefore more sacred and deere unto us then our Parents by nature and must not bee violated how imperious how impious so ever hee bee doth hee command or demand our persons or our purses wee must not shunne for the one nor shrinke for the other for as Nehemiah saith Kings have Dominion over the bodies and over the cattle of their Subjects at their pleasure Doth hee enjoyne those actions which are contrary to the lawes of God wee must neither wholy obey nor violently resist but with a constant courage submit our selves to all manner of punishment and shew our subjection by enduring and not performing yea the Church hath declared it to bee an Heresie to hold that a Prince may be slaine or deposed by his Subjects for any disorder or default either in life or else in government there will bee faults so long as there are men and as we endure with patience a barren yeare if it happen and unseasonable weather and such other defects of nature so must wee tollerate the imperfections of Rulers and quietly expect either reformation or else a change But alas good King Richard what such cruelty what such impiety hath he ever committed examine rightly those imputations which are laid against him without any false circumstance of aggravation and you shall find nothing objected either of any truth or of great moment It may bee that many errours and oversights have escaped him yet none so grievous to bee termed tyranny as proceeding rather from unexperienced ignorance or corrupt counsaile then from any naturall and wilfull malice Oh how shall the World bee pestered with Tyrants if Subjects may rebell upon every pretence of tyranny how many good Princes shall dayly bee suppressed by those by whom they ought to bee supported if they leavy a subsidy or any other taxation it shall bee claimed oppression if they put any to death for trayterous attempts against their Persons it shall bee exclaimed cruelty if they doe any thing against the lust and liking of the people it shall bee proclaimed tyranny But let it bee that without authority in us or desert in him King Richard must bee deposed yet what right had the Duke of Lancaster to the Crowne or what reason have wee without his right to give it to him if hee make title as Heire unto King Richard then must hee yet stay untill King Richards death for no man can succeed as Heire to one that liveth But it is well knowne to all men who are not either wilfully blind or grossely ignorant that there are some now alive Lineally descended from Lâ—onel Duke of Clarence whose off-spring was by judgement of the High Court of Parliament holden the eight yeare of the raigne of King Richard declared next Successour to the Crowne in case King Richard should dye without issue Concerning the title from Edmund Crouchback I will passe it over seeing the authours thereof are become ashamed of so absurd abuse both of their owne knowledge and our credulity and therefore all the claime is now made by right of conquest by the cession and grant of King Richard and by the generall consent of all the people It is a bad wooll that can take no colour but what conquest can a Subject pretend against his Soveraigne where the warre is insurrection and the victory high and heinous treason as for the resignation which King Richard made being a pent Prisoner for the same cause it is an act exacted by force and therefore of no force and validity to bind him and seeing that by the lawes of this Land the King alone cannot alienate the ancient Jewels and ornaments partaining to the Crowne surely hee cannot give away the Crowne it selfe and therewithall the Kingdome Neither have wee any custome that the people at pleasure should elect their King but they are alwayes bound unto him who by right of bloud is right successour much lesse can they confirme and make good that title which is before by violence usurped for nothing can then be freely done when liberty is once restrained by feare So did Scilla by terrour of his Legions obtaine the law of Velleia to be made whereby hee was created Dictatour for fourescore yeares and by like impression of feare Caesar caused the law Servia to bee promulged by which hee was made perpetuall Dictatour but both these lawes were afterwards adjudged void As for the deposing of King Edward the second it is no more to bee urged then the poisoning of King Iohn or the murdering of any other good and lawfull Prince we must live according to lawes and not to examples and yet the Kingdome was not then taken from the lawfull successour But if we looke back to times lately past we shall find that these titles were more strong in King Stephen then they are in the Duke of Lancaster For King Henry the first being at large liberty neither restrained in body nor constrained in mind had appointed him to succeed as it was upon good credit certainely affirmed The people assented to this designement and thereupon without feare and without force he was annointed King and obtained full possession of the Realme Yet Henry Sonne of the Earle of Anjowe having a neerer right by his Mother to the Crowne notwithstanding his Father was a stranger and himselfe borne beyond the Seas raised such rough warres upon King Stephen that there was no end of spoiling the goods and spilling the bloud of the unhappy people besides the ruines and deformities of many Cities and