this blow reached presently into England and came somewhat near our Kings Heart therefore he took the best way to prevent his Fears by striving to prevent his Dangers having no other end but his own For when he considered the horridness of the Powder Plot and by it the irreconcileable malice of that Party he thought it the safest policy not to stir those Ashes where so much Fire was covered which gave way to a flux of that Iesuitical humour to infest the Body of the Kingdom But now being startled with this poysoned knife he ventures upon a Proclamation strictly commanding all Iesuits and Priests out of the Kingdom and all Recusants to their own Houses not to come within ten miles of the Court and secures all the rest of his Subjects to him by an universal taking of the Oath of Allegiance which the Parliament both Lords and Commons then sitting began and the rest of the People followed to the Kings great contentment For the last Session the Parliament was prorogued till the sixteenth of October this year and meeting now they were willing to secure their Allegiance to the King out of Piety yet they were so stout even in those youthful days which he term'd Obstinacy that they would not obey him in his incroachments upon the Publick Liberty which he began then to practise For being now season'd with seven years knowledg in his profession here he thought he might set up for himself and not be still journy-man to the lavish tongue of men that pryed too narrowly into the secrets of his Prerogative which are mysteries too high for them being Arcana imperii fitter to be admired than questioned But the Parliament were apprehensive enough that those hidden mysteries made many dark steps into the Peoples Liberties and they were willing by the light of Law and Reason to discover what was the Kings what theirs Which the King unwilling to have searched into after five Sessions in six years time dissolved the Parliament by Proclamation HENRICUS Princeps Walliae etc a. Reverendissimus in Christo Pater D.D. RICHARDUS BANCROFT Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis About this time Richard Bancroft Arch-Bishop of Canterbury died a person severe enough whose roughness gained little upon those that deserted the Ceremonies One work of his shewed his spirit better than the ruggedest Pen can depaint it For it was he that first brought the King to begin a new Colledg by Chelsey wherein the choice and abiest Scholars of the Kingdom and the most pregnant Wits in matters of Controversies were to be associated under a Provost with a fair and ample allowance not exceeding three thousand pounds a year whose design was to answer all Popish Books or others that vented their malignant spirits against the Protestant Religion either the Heresies of the Papists or the Errors of those that strook at Hierarchy so that they should be two-edged Fellows that would make old cutting and flashing and this he forwarded with all industry during his time and there is yet a formal Act of Parliament in being for the establishment of it But after his death the King wisely considered that nothing begets more contention than opposition and such Fuellers would be apt to inslame rather than quench the heat that would arise from those embors For Controversies are often or for the most part the exuberancies of Passion and the Philosopher saith men are drunk with disputes and in that inordinateness take the next thing that comes to hand to throw at one anothers faces so that the design fell to the ground with him and there is only so much Building standing by the Thames-side as to shew that what he intended to Plant he meant should be well Watered and yet it withered in the bud I can lay nothing to the charge of this great man but from common fame yet this I may truly say That for his Predecessor Whitgift and his Successor Abbot I never heard nor read any thing tending to their disparagement But on him some unhappy Wit vented this Pasquin Here lies his Grace in cold Earth slad Who died with want of what he had The Queen was Mistress of Somerset-house as well as the Prince was Master of St. Iames and she would fain have given it the name of Denmark-house which name continued her time among her people but it was afterwards left out of the common Calender like the dead Emperors new named Month. She was not without some Grandees to attend her for outward glory The Court being a continued Maskarado where she and her Ladies like so many Sea-Nymphs or Nereides appeared often in various dresses to the ravishment of the beholders The King himself being not a little delighted with such fluent Elegancies as made the nights more glorious than the days But the latitude that these high-flying fancies and more speaking Actions gave to the lower World to judg and censure even the greatest with reproaches shall not provoke me so much as to stain the innocent Paper I shall only say in general That Princes by how much they are greater than others are looked upon with a more severe eye if their Vertues be not suitable to their Greatness they lose much of their value For it is too great an allay to such resinedness to fall under the common cognizance Philip Earle of Pemb Mong Lord Chamberlaine to the King etc. Now all addresses are made to Sir Robert Car he is the Favourit in Ordinary no sute nor no reward but comes by him his hand distributes and his hand restrains our Supreme Power works by second Causes the Lords themselves can scarce have a smile without him And to give the greater lustre to his power about this time the Earl of Dunbar the Kings old trusty Servant the Cabinet of his secret Counsels died so that he solely now took the most intimate of them into his charge and the Officer of Lord high Treasurer of Scotland which staff the other left behind him and though it could be no great Supporter yet the credit of it carried some reputation in his own Country where it was his happiness to be magnified as well as in England for he had Treasure enough here where the Fountain was And to ingrandize all the King created him Baron of Brandspech and Viscount Rochester and soon after Knight of the Garter Thus was he drawn up by the Beams of Majesty to shine in the highest Glory grapling often with the Prince himself in his own Sphear in divers Conteslations For the Prince being a high born Spirit and meeting a young Competitor in his Fathers Affections that was a Mushrom of yesterday thought the venom would grow too near him and therefore he gave no countenance but opposition to it which was aggravated by some little scintils of Love as well as Hatred Rivals in passion being both amorous and in youthful blood fixing by accident upon one object who was a third mans in which the Viscount
may justly suffer by the Law yet there are but few allowed to be dissected Therefore he that is too rash in the Censure of others snatching Reports from the lips of Fame and venting them for Truths without some probability or knowledg to enlighten and direct digs in the Bowels of another Man and wounds himself But the Metaphor still holds for as the dissimilar parts of the body head hands feet c. are apparently known and the Similar parts as veins sinews nerves c. are easily discovered so the motions and operations of the more secret and hidden parts are controverted and hard to find out as the Circulation of the Blood c. Yet we find the effects of it tend to life and preservation the end though there be some dispute in the motion or means to it So in this Work the chief part of what is written is either apparently known or easily discovered and those things that never saw the Light yet may be collected and inferred finding their Operations tend to one and the same end For I expect all men will not be of my mind and look to be Anatomized my self by the Hand of Opinion and blinded Passion that strike at whatsoever comes cross to them Yet this I will say boldly I have made Truth my aim and though I fly high and may rove I am sure not to light very far from the Mark. For this Piece is not culled out of several Authors of intricate Opinions and different Iudgments as a confused and ruffled Skein where with difficulty an useful Thread may be pickt out which Livie complains of and wonders at in the Authors that wrote before him But these like Simples were gathered as they sprung up in the Garden of the Times where Weeds and Flowers grow together with intention to compose something for the Publick health for above thirty years before the Ingredients were mingled in that long Series of Time weighing every Grain and Scruple that there might be a due proportion and quantity as well as quality of them for the Composition of it and this not only acted by a natural Propensity but I may say the hand of Providence brought many things to my knowledg that were not in my hopes or thoughts to procure And I confess there are some things in it may seem bitter and sharp to some and though they be so the Body many times requires such Medicines to dispel and check the peccant humours and I doubt not but it will do the more good to those that are distempered But sound and gallant Minds have no need and are above the operations of it As Titus Vespasian said when one spake ill of him Ego cum nihil faciam dignum propter quod contumeliâ afficiar mendacia nihil curo He was above false Reports and if they were true he had more reason to be angry with himself than the Relator The good Emperor Theodosius commanded no man should be punished that spake against him for what was spoken lightly was to be laught at what spightfully to be pardoned what angerly to be pittied and if truly he would thank him for it Nor did I ever read that Tacitus was blamed for personating Tiberius Dissimulation Nero's Cruelty Seianus Pride Livia's and Messalina's Adulteries nay Domitians Tyranny and Baseness though he was his Creature advanced by him But they that intend Truth must take this Counsel of his Sed incorruptam fidem professis nec amore quisquam sine odio dicendus est they must write without the passions of Love or Hate And I am sure I have as little cause to be partial as He though I have more to inlarge my self in Apology having more Adversaries to incounter with He living in as he saith Rara temporum felicitate where Men might think what they pleased and speak what they thought Whereas these Times are as full of perplexed and disasterous Divisions as the calamities of a Civil War when the poyson of Malice lies raging and foaming in mens breasts like the troubled Sea after a Tempest can possibly produce And this Dis-union springs from that stock of Pride in us when we put a greater valuation upon our Opinions stampt and made current by Custom than upon Reason that Regent of the Understanding that should bring all things in obedience to it Nor can I discover all the Contrivances hatcht and brooded in the secret corners of Princes Councils All things are not revealed at a time This Ground-work may serve for others to build on and 't is easier to add to a Pattern than to make one The Iews to whom the Oracles of Truth were committed calculated their Times and Seasons by Lunary motions the Solar were found out long after by Pythagoras and now we have new apprehensions inserted by Copernicus that may be as useful tending to one time and end though various ways So by degrees there may be greater Discoveries made than is yet here related And what is doubtful give me leave with Tacitus only to touch at who speaking of Domitians attempting to get the Power of the German Army under his command saith Qua cogitatione Bellum adversus Patrem cogitaverit an opes viresque adversus fratrem in incerto fuit Whether he intended War against his Father by it or to strengthen himself against his Brother when time served is not certainly known for who can dive into the Abyss of Princes intentions And in another place speaking of Domitian's jugling with Agricola Sive verum istud sive ex ingenio Principis fictum ac compositum est Whether this were true or surmised probably as correspondent to the Prince's disposition I cannot affirm Yet where he finds out his extravagancies of Knowledg he asserts them punctually So some things in Princes actions may be left to conjecture if there be any ingenuity in the Declaration of them And I hope some will come after me that will imbellish and perfect the way with a more cunning and exquisite hand though I must confess I have done my best dressing this Story with the best Ornaments I could to intice and allure the Reader leaving out many long and tedious Discourses that often damp the Spirits and make them Loiterers And it were to be wished that Philosophy had some intermixtures of History and that Divinity the Mistris of Arts were temptingly adorned that she might intice her Lovers the more to observe her The Iesuits dress their Morality and History with all the Eloquence they can and cunningly mix and intermingle with it the fine Baits of Popish Theology for people to nibble on hoping to gain them by such tempting Allurements And I am not of Aurelius's mind that thankt Rusticus that by his example he had given over the study of Elegant and fine Language unless he reflected upon such crabbed pieces as are interlarded with huge lushious words that give no good rellish to the sense or such high affected strains wherein words are crowded that serve rather
of some of these Particulars they insisted upon the Bishops power of Confirmation which they would have every Minister capable of in his own Parish They disputed against the Cross in Baptism the Ring in Marriage the Surplice the Oath ex officio and other things that stuck with them which they hoped to get all purged away because the King was of a Northern constitution where no such things were practised not yet having felt the Kings pulse whom the Southern Air of the Bishops breaths had so wrought upon that He himself answers most of their Demands Sometimes gently applying Lenitives where he found Ingenuity for he was Learned and Eloquent other times Corrosives telling them these Oppositions proceeded more from stubborness in Opinion than tenderness of Conscience and so betwixt his Arguments and Kingly Authority menaced them to a Conformity which proved a way of Silencing them for the present and some of them were content to acquiesce for the future and the King managed this Discourse with such power which they expected not from him and therefore more danted at That Whitgift Arch. Bishop of Canterbury though a holy grave and pious man highly pleased with it with a sugred bait which Princes are apt enough to swallow said He was verily perswaded that the King spake by the Spirit of God This Conference was on the fourteenth of Ianuary and this good man expired the nine and twentieth of February following in David's fulness of days leaving a Name like a sweet perfume behind him And Bancroft a sturdy piece succeeded him but not with the same Spirit for what Whitgift strove to do by Sweetness and Gentleness Bancroft did persevere in with Rigour and Severity Thus the Bishops having gotten the Victory strove to maintain it and though not on the suddain yet by degrees they press so hard upon the Non-conformists whom they held under the yoke of a Law that many of them are forced to seek Foreign Refuge They prevailed not only for themselves here but by their means not long after the King looked back into Scotland and put the Keys there again into the Bishops hands unlocking the passage to the enjoyment of their Temporal Estates which swel'd them so high that in his Sons time the Women of Scotland pulled them out of their tottering seats On the other side the late Conspiracy of Cobham and Grey had so chilled the Kings blood that he begins to take notice of the swarms of Priests that flockt into the Kingdom For though the Conspirators were of several Religions yet in their correspondence with Foreign Princes Religion was the pretence For in every alteration of Kingdoms few are so modest but they will throw in the Hook of their vain Hopes thinking to get something in the troubled Stream The Iesuits were not slack coming with the Seal of the Fisher in spreading their Nets but a Proclamation broke through them The King being contented to let them alone till they came too near him willing to comply rather than exasperate the safety of his own person made him look to the safety of Religion and to secure both He found this the best Remedy Declaring to all the World the cause of this Restriction VINVIT QVI PATITVR OBIIT ANNO AETATIS SVAE 73 Having after some time spent in setling the Politick affairs of this Realm of late bestowed no small labour in composing certain Differences We found among Our Clergy about Rites and Ceremonies heretofore established in this Church of England and reduced the same to such an order and form as We doubt not but every spirit that is led only with piety and not with humour should be therein satisfied It appeared unto Us in debating these Matters that a greater Contagion to Our Religion than could proceed from these light differences was eminent by persons common Enemies to them both namely the great numbers of Priests both Seminaries and Iesuits abounding in this Realm as well of such as were here before Our coming to the Crown as of such as have resorted hither since using their Functions and Professions with greater liberty than heretofore they durst have done partly upon a vain confidence of some Innovation in matters of Religion to be done by Us which We never intended nor gave any man cause to suspect and partly from the assurance of Our general Pardon granted according to the Custom of Our Progenitors at Our Coronation for offences past in the days of the late Queen which Pardon 's many of the said Priests have procured under Our Great Seal and holding themselves thereby free from danger of the Laws do with great audacity exercise all offices of their Profession both saying Masses and perswading Our Subjects from the Religion established reconciling them to the Church of Rome and by consequence seducing them from their Duty and Obedience to Us. Wherefore We hold Our self obliged both in Consequence and Wisdom to use all good means to keep Our Subjects from being affected with superstitious Opinions which are not only pernicious to their own souls but the ready way to corrupt their Duty and Allegiance which cannot be any way so safely performed as by keeping from them the Instruments of that infection which are Priests of all sorts ordained in Foreign parts by Authority prohibited by the Laws of the Land concerning whom therefore We have thought fit to publish to all Our Subjects this open Declaration of Our pleasure c. Willing and Commanding all manner of Iesuits Seminaries and other Priests whatsoever having Ordination from any Authority by the Laws of this Realm prohibited to take notice that Our pleasure is that they do before the nineteenth of March next depart forth of Our Realm and Dominions And to that purpose it shall be lawful for all Officers of Our Ports to suffer the said Priests to depart into Foreign parts between this and said nineteenth day of March Admonishing and assuring all such Iesuits Seminaries and Priests of what sort soever that if any of them after the said time shall be taken within this Realm or any of Our Dominions or departing now upon this Our pleasure signified shall hereafter return into this Our Realm or any of Our Dominions again they shall be left to the penalty of the Laws here being in force concerning them without hope of any favour or remission from Us c. Which though perhaps it may appear to some a great severity towards that sort of Our Subjects yet doubt We not when it shall be considered with indifferent judgment what cause hath moved Us to use this Providence all men will justifie Us therein For to whom is it unknown into what peril Our Person was like to be drawn and Our Realm unto Confusion not many Months since by Conspiracy First conceived by persons of that sort Which when other Princes shall duly observe We assure Our selves they will no way conceive that this alteration proceedeth from any change of disposition but out of
more prayers and oblations offered here to the Mother than to the Son For the Marquess himself as he was a man of excellent symmetry and proportion of parts so he affected beauty where he found it but yet he looks upon the whole race of Women as inferior things and uses them as if the Sex were one best pleased with all And if his eye cull'd out a wanton beauty he had his Setters that could spread his Nets and point a meeting at some Ladies House where he should come as by accident and find Accesses while all his Train attended at the dore as if it were an honourable visit The Earl of Rutland of a Noble Family had but one Daughter to be the Mistris of his great Fortune and he tempts her carries her to his Lodgings in Whitehall keeps her there for some time and then returns her back again to her Father The stout old Earl sent him this threatning Message That he had too much of a Gentleman to suffer such an indignity and if he did not marry his Daughter to repair her honour no greatness should protect him from his justice Buckingham that perhaps made it his design to get the Father's good will this way being the greatest match in the Kingdom had no reason to mislike the Union therefore he quickly salved up the wound before it grew to a quarrel And if this Marriage stopt the Current of his sins he had the less to answer for This young Lady was bred a Papist by her Mother but after her Marriage to the Marquess she was converted by Doctor White as was pretended and grew a zealous Protestant but like a morning dew it quickly vanished For the old Countess of Buckingham never left working by her sweet Instruments the Iesuits till she had placed her on the first foundation So that the Marquess betwixt a Mother and a Wife began to be indifferent no Papist yet no Protestant but the Arminian Tenets taking root were nourished up by him and those that did not hold the same opinions were counted Puritans These new indifferences now grew so hot in England that the Protestant Cause grew very cold in Germany Which made the spirits of most men rise against the Spanish Faction at home and Spain's incroaching Monarchy abroad And though the King sped ill the last Parliament of Somerset's undertaking and thought to lay them by for ever as he often expressed looking upon them as incroachers into his Prerogative and diminishers of his Majesty and Glory making Kings less and Subjects more than they are Yet now finding the peoples desires high-mounted for regaining the Palatinate he thought they would look only up towards that and liberally open their Purses which he might make use of and this Unanimity and good agreement betwixt him and his people would induce his Brother of Spain to be more active in the Treaty in hand and so he should have supply from the one and dispatch from the other But Parliaments that are like Physicians to the bodies of Common-wealths when the humors are once stirred they find cause enough many times to administer sharp Medicines where there was little appearance of Diseases For in this Recess and Ease Time-servers and Flatterers had cried up the Prerogative And the King wanting Money for his vast expenses had furnished himself by unusual courses For Kings excessive in gifts will find followers excessive in demands and they that weaken themselves in giving lose more in gathering than they gain in the gift For Prodigality in a Soveraign ends in the Rapine and Spoil of the Subject To help himself therefore and those that drained from him he had granted several Patents to undertakers and Monopolizers whereby they preyed upon the people by suits and exactions milkt the Kingdom and kept it poor the King taking his ease and giving way to Informers the Gentry grown debauched and Fashion-mongers and the Commons sopt and besotted with quiet and restiness drunk in so much disability that it might well be said by Gondemar England had a great many people but few men And he would smile at their Musters for through disuse they were grown careless of Military Discipline ill provided of Arms effeminate Officers neglecting their charges and duties conniving for gain at their Neighbours miscarriages Some of the Officers in the Militia and Iustices of the Peace not a few being Church-Papists floating upon the smooth stream of the times overwhelming all others that opposed them stigmatizing them with the name of Puritans and that was mark enough to hinder the current of any proceeding or preferment aimed at or hoped for either in Church or State And the Iesuits ranging up and down like spirits let loose did not now as formerly creep into corners using close and cunning Artifices but practised them openly having admission to our Counsellors of State for when Secretaries and such as manage the intimate Counsels of Kings are Iesuitical and Clients to the Pope there can be no tendency of Affection to a contrary Religion or Policy Those were only most active in the Court of England that courted the King of Spain most and could carry the face of a Protestant and the heart of a Papist the rest were contented to go along with the cry For they hunted but a cold scent and could pick out and make nothing of it that drew off or crost or hunted counter Which raised the spirits of the people so high against them that were the chief Hunters in these times that they brought the King himself within the compass of their Libels and Pasquils charging him to love his hounds better than his people And if this bad blood had been heated to an itch of Innovation it would have broke out to a very fore and incurable Malady every man seeing the danger few men daring to prevent it The Pulpits were the most bold Opposers but if they toucht any thing upon the Spanish policy or the intended Treaties for the Restitution of the Palatinate was included in the Marriage before it was the Spaniards to give their mouths must be stopt by Gondemar without the Lady Iacob's Receipt and it may be confined or imprisoned for it So that there were noplain downright blows to be given but if they cunningly and subtily could glance at the misdemeanors of the Times and smooth it over metaphorically it would pass current though before the King himself For about this time one of his own Chaplains preaching before him at Greenwich took this Text 4 Mat. 8. And the Devil took Iesus to the top of a Mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World saying All these will I give c. He shewed what power the Devil had in the World at that time when he spake these words and from thence he came down to the power of the Devil now And dividing the World into four parts he could not make the least of the four to be Christian and of
those how few went God's way So that he concluded the Devil to be a great Monarch having so many Kingdoms under his command and no doubt he had his Vice Roys Council of State Treasurers Secretaries and many other Officers to manage and order his affairs for there was order in hell it self which after he had mustered together he gives a character of every particular Officer who were fit to be the Devil's servants running through the body of the Court discovering the correspondencies with Iesuits secret Pensions from Foreign Princes betraying their Masters Counsels to deserve their Rewards working and combining to the prejudice of God's people And when he came to describe the Devil's Treasurers exactions and gripings to get mony he fixt his eye upon Cranfield then Lord Treasurer whose marriage into the house of Fortune and Title of Earl could not keep him from being odious to the people and pointing at him with his hand said with an Emphasis That man reiterating it That man that makes himself rich and his Master poor he is a fit Treasurer for the Devil This the Author heard and saw whilst Cranfield sat with his hat pulled down over his eyes ashamed to look up lest he should find all mens eyes fixt upon him the King who sat just over him smiling at the quaint Satyr so handsomly coloured over It seems Neile the Bishop of Lincoln was not by him then for when any man preached that had the Renown of Piety unwilling the King should hear him he would in the Sermon time entertain the King with a merry Tale that I may give it no worse title which the King would after laugh at and tell those near him he could not hear the Preacher for the old B. Bishop We must confess this Relation smells too rank but it was too true and hope the modest Reader will excuse it We having had divers hammerings and conflicts within us to leave it out seeing it proceeds not from any rancour of spirit against the Prelacy but to vindicate God's Iustice to Posterity who never punishes without a Cause and such like practices as these were doubtless put upon the score which after gave a period to that Hierarchy This man's hand helped to close up the Countess of Essex's Virginity when he was Coventry and Litchfield his heart had this kind of vanity when he was Lincoln and when he was Arch-bishop of York his head was so filled with Arminian impiety that in the next King's Reign he was looked upon by the Parliament to be one of the great Grievances of the Kingdom as will follow in the Tract of this Story Lionell Craufield Earle of Middlesex Baron Cranfield of Cranfield The King that either thought these instruments were not so active or that they would not be discovered was resolved upon a Parliament for the former Reasons which began the twentieth of Ianuary this year yet not being ignorant of some miscarriages that passed by his allowance he strives to palliate them and gives the Parliament some little touches of them by the way that when they should find them they might by his Anticipation appear the less And being loth to have the breach between him and his people made wider he thus strives to stop the gap MY Lords Spiritual and Temporal and you the Commons cui multiloquio non deest peccatum In the last Parliament â— made long Discourses especially to them of the Lower House I did open the true thought of my heart But I may say with our Saviour I have piped to you and you have not danced I have mourned and you have not lamented Yet as no man's Actions can be free so in me God found some spices of Vanity and so all my sayings turned to me again without any success And now to tell the Reasons of your Calling and this Meeting apply it to your selves and spend not the time in long Speeches Consider That the Parliament is a thing composed of a Head and a Body the Monarch and the two Estates It was first a Monarchy then after a Parliament there are no Parliaments but in Monarchical Governments for in Venice the Netherlands and other Free-Governments there are none The Head is to call the Body together and for the Clergy the Bishops are chief for Shires their Knights and for Towns and Cities their Burgesses and Citizens These are to treat of difficult matters and to counsel their King with their best advice to make Laws for the Commonweal and the Lower-House is also to petition the King and acquaint him with their grievances and not to meddle with their King's Prerogative They are to offer supply for his necessity and he to distribute in recompence thereof Iustice and Mercy As in all Parliaments it is the King's office to make good Laws whose Fundamental Cause is the peoples ill manners so at this time That we may meet with the new Abuses and the incroaching craft of the times particulars shall be read hereafter As touching Religion Laws enough are made already it stands in two points Persuasion and Compulsion Men may persuade but God must give the blessing Iesuits Priests Puritans and Sectaries erring both on the right-hand and left-hand are forward to persuade unto their own ends and so ought you the Bishops in your example and preaching but compulsion to obey is to bind the Conscience There is talk of the Match with Spain But if it shall not prove a furtherance to Religion I am not worthy to be your King I will never proceed but to the Glory of God and content of my Subjects For a supply to my necessities I have reigned eighteen years in which time you have had Peace and I have received far less supply than hath been given to any King since the Conquest The last Queen of famous memory had one year with another above a hundred thousand pounds per annum in Subsidies And in all my time I had but four Subsidies and six Fifteens It is ten years since I had a Subsidy in all which time I have been sparing to trouble you I have turned my self as nearly to save expence as I may I have abated much in my Houshold-expences in my Navies in the charge of my Munition I made not choice of an old beaten Soldier for my Admiral but rather chose a young man whose honesty and integrity I knew whose care hath been to appoint under him sufficient men to lessen my charges which he hath done Touching the miserable dissentions in Christendom I was not the cause thereof for the appeasing whereof I sent my Lord of Doncaster whose journey cost me three thousand five hundred pounds My Son-in-law sent to me for advice but within three days after accepted of the Crown which I did never approve of for three Reasons First for Religion sake as not holding with the Iesuits disposing of Kingdoms rather learning of our Saviour to uphold not to overthrow them Secondly I was no Judg between them
The strange Confederacy of the Princes of the Popish Religion aiming mainly at the advancement of theirs and subverting Ours and taking the advantages conducing to that End upon all Occasions 6. The great and many Armies raised and maintained at the charge of the King of Spain the chief of that League 7. The expectation of the Popish Recusants of the Match with Spain and feeding themselves with great hopes of the consequences thereof 8. The interposing of Foreign Princes and their Agents in the behalf of Popish Recusants for connivence and favour unto them 9. Their open and usual Resort to the Houses and which is worse to the Chappels of Foreign Ambassadors 10. Their more than usual concourse to the City and their frequent Conventicles and Conferences there 11. The education of their Children in many several Seminaries and Houses of their Religion in Foreign parts appropriated only to the English Fugitives 12. The Grants of their just forfeitures intended by your Majesty as a reward of service to the Grantees but beyond your Majesties intention transferred or compounded for at such mean rates as will amount to little less than a Toleration 13. The licentious printing and dispersing of Popish and seditious Books even in the time of Parliament 14. The Swarms of Priests and Jesuits the common Incendiaries of all Christendom dispersed in all parts of your Kingdom And from these Causes as bitter Roots we humbly offer to your Majesty that we foresee and fear there will necessarily follow very dangerous effects both to Church and State For 1. The Popish Religion is incompatible with Ours in respect of their Positions 2. It draweth with it an unavoidable Dependency on foreign Princes 3. It openeth too wide a Gap for Popularity to any who shall draw too great a Party 4. It hath a restless Spirit and will strive by these Gradations if it once get but a Connivence it will press for a Toleration if that should be obtained they must have an equality from thence they will aspire to Superiority And will never rest till they get a Subversion of the true Religion The Remedies against these growing Evils which in all humbleness we offer to your most excellent Majesty are these 1. That seeing this inevitable Necessity is faln upon your Majesty which no wisdom or providence of a peaceable and pious King can avoid your Majesty would not omit this just occasion speedily and effectually to take your Sword into your hand 2. That once undertaken upon so Honourable and just grounds your Majesty would resolve to persue and more publickly avow the aiding of those of our Religion in foreign parts which doubtless would reunite the Princes and States of the Union by these disasters disheartned and disbanded 3. That your Majesty would propose to your self to manage this War with the best advantage by a Diversion or otherwise as in your deep judgment shall be found fittest and not to rest upon a War in these parts only which will consume your Treasure and discourage your people 4. That the bent of this War and point of your Sword may be against that Prince whatsoever Opinion of Potency he hath whose Armies and Treasures have first diverted and since maintained the War in the Palatinate 5. That for securing of our peace at home your Majesty will be pleased to review the parts of our Petition formerly delivered unto your Majesty and hereunto annexed and to put it in execution by the care of choice Commissioners to be there unto especially appointed the Laws already and hereafter to be made for preventing of Dangers by Popish Recusants and their wonted evasions 6. That to frustrate their hopes for a future Age our most Noble Prince may be timely and happily married to one of our own Religion 7. That the Children of the Nobility and Gentry of this Kingdom and of others ill affected and suspected in their Religion now beyond the Seas may be forthwith called home by your means and at the charge of their Parents or Governours 8. That the Children of Popish Recusants or such whose wives are Popish Recusants be brought up during their minority with Protestant Schoolmasters and Teachers who may sow in their tender years the seeds of true Religion 9. That your Majesty will be pleased speedily to revoke all former Licences for such Children and youth to travel beyond the Seas and not grant any such licence hereafter 10. That your Majesties learned Councel may receive commandment from your Highness carefully to look into former Grants of Recusants lands and to avoid them if by Law they can and that your Majesty will stay your hand from passing any such Grants hereafter This is the sum and effect of our Humble Declaration which we no ways intending to press upon your Majesties undoubted and Regal Prerogative do with the fulness of our Duty and Obedience humbly submit to your most Princely consideration the Glory of God whose Cause it is the Zeal of our true Religion in which we have been born and wherein by God's grace we are resolved to die the safety of your Majesties person who is the very life of your people the happiness of your Children and Posterity the Honour and good of the Church and State dearer unto us then our own lives having kindled these Affections truly devoted to your Majesty And seeing out of our Duty to your Majesty we have already resolved to give at the end of this Session one entire Subsidy for the present relief of the Palatinate only to be paid in the end of February next which cannot well be effected but by passing a Bill in a Parliamentary course before Christmas We most humbly beseech your Majesty as our assured hope is that you will then also vouchsafe to give life by your Royal assent to such Bills as before that time shall be prepared for your Majesties Honour and the general good of your People And that such Bills may be also accompanied as hath been accustomed with your Majestie 's gracious Pardon which proceeding from your own meer Grace may by your Highness direction be drawn to that latitude and extent as may best sort with your Majesties Bounty and Goodness And that not only Fellons and criminal offenders may take benefit thereof but that your good Subjects may receive ease thereby And if it shall so stand with your good pleasure that it may extend to the relief of the old Debts and Duties to the Crown before the first year of your Majesties raign to the discharge of Alienations without licence and misusing of Liveries and Oustre le main before the first summons of this Parliament and of concealed Wardships and not suing of Liveries and Oustre le mains before the twelfth year of your Majesties Reign Which gracious favour would much comfort your good Subjects and ease them from Vexation with little loss or prejudice to your own profit And we by our daily and devout prayers to the Almighty the great King of
which I would have you find out and I will make it good whatsoever it be But in all other things procure the satisfaction of the King of Great Britain who hath deserved much and it shall content me so it be not in the Match Thus was our King's plain heartedness deluded his Honour blemished his Love among his Subjects diminished the time for a positive answer for the Dispensation from Rome long expired and prolonged his Childrens Patrimony destroyed and he left so unsatisfied that the Prince himself and the Marquess of Buckingham must go into Spain to unfold this Riddle where they found it as full of Aenigma's as at first He that went to tye a knot there found it so intangled that he took some time there to clear it and when it was clear he thought it best Scindere nodum to cut that at last which he could not unloose at first The Marquess Spinola having long since left the Palatinate to the Imperials Generals with a great Army consisting of above Thirty thousand men the last Summer sits down before Berghen ap Zome a Town of very great Strength and Importance upon the Borders of Brabant and incloses himself with two strong Lines of Circumvallation notwithstanding all the Power the Town could oppose from within or Prince Maurice General of the States Army without And though he were well intrenched for his own Security yet the Works of the Town were so impregnable that he could find no way to gain it but by starving them and that could not be done but by commanding the River and those Batteries that he planted to hinder the access of Shipping with Relief into the Town were within reach of their Cannon so that he found there was little good to be done tending to the reducing of it This struck the Marquess to the Heart that he should bury his Honour as he had done a great part of his Army in those bloody Trenches and therefore he gave scope to his Resolution to make use of his time for he converted his intentions of Starving to Assaulting and his assaults were the more furious because he found they would not last long and Old Morgan that gallant Colonel with his English Brigade gave them their hands full the Scots did Gallant Service in the Town and their Colonel Hinderson was slain but many of the Enemy fell on every side for it is a great disadvantage for living Bodies to fight against dead Walls being so high and unassaultable A General that goes to besiege a City should have his access to it in his apprehension as plain as a Mathematician hath a Demonstration except it be upon some emergent cause otherwise there is an Error in his account and there cannot be two for the Honour dyes in the first which touched the Marquess near being his great trouble and made him and his enterprise both droop ERNESTUS D G COMES MANSFELDIAE MARCHIO CASTELINO VI ET BUTIGLIERAE NOB DNS IN HELD SUP DUX BELLIC ET HEROS FORT MARTE votens decus et dubijs siâ—sucia rebus ERNESTUS CAMPI VIR generosus nic est Qui genus illustri ducens à stirpe Parentum Auget honoratum per sua facta genus E. 〈◊〉 D.M.C.B. But with many Necessities in their March through Lorrain and Lutzenburgh they came to Fleury within eight miles of Namurs where Corduba with a Spanish Army strove to hinder their passage The Conflict was great betwixt them and many slain on both sides and both triumphed in the Victory For Corduba kept the Field and Mansfieldt kept his way But Mansfieldt's Victory was the compleatest because he attained to his End which was to break through Corduba But Corduba did not attain to his End which was to hinder Mansfieldt Yet the Spanish Bravery was highly exalted with Bonfires and rejoycings both at Madrid and Bruxels The Duke of Brunswicke lost his Bridle Arm in that service and many Gentlemen both English and Scots out of Love to the Queen of Bohemia behaved themselves gallantly and let the Spaniard know it was more than an ordinary shock they encountered with Among whom Sir Charles Rich brother to the E. of Warwick was a Principal person whose Voluntary Spirit not necessity made danger his Companion where Honour attended it Sir Iames Heyes Knevet Humes Heiborn and other Commanders striving for Corrivalship in Bravery Spinola hearing that Mansfieldt was broken through Corduba's Army and come into Brabant made the Court Splendor of Corduba's Conquest appear but Ignes fatui which also something extinguisht the glory of his own fame For he thought it good policy seeing he should be necessitated to leave the Siege of Berghen to do it at that time when there might be cause to think it occasioned by that Accident more than his default And therefore as soon as the Prince of Orange and Mansfieldt had joyned forces though Corduba came to him and reinforced his Army yet Winter drawing on and his Army almost wasted he trussed up his Baggage in haste set his Camp a-fire and departed leaving to his Hungry Enemies good store of Wine and other Provisions in his burning Quarters And thus stood the Ballance this year betwixt the King of Spain and the Netherlands But our King receiving so many delays and dissatisfactions from Spain and Rome they begot him so much trouble and Vexation that crowding into his thoughts prest upon his Natural Temper some fits of Melancholy which those about him with facetious Mirth would strive to Mitigate And having exhausted their inventions or not making use of such as were more pregnant the Marquess and his Mother instead of Mirth fell upon Prophaneness thinking with that to please him and perhaps they were only mistaken in the unseasonableness of the time being not then suitable to the Humor For they caus'd Mistris Aspernham a young Gentlewoman of the Kindred to dress a Pigg like a Child and the Old Countess like a Midwife brought it in to the King in a rich Mantle Turpin that married one of the Kindred whose name was renowned for a Bishop in the Romances of the Emperor Charlemain was drest like a Bishop in his Sattin Gown Lawn sleeves and other Pontifical Ornaments who with the Common Prayer book began the words of Baptism one attending with a silver Bason of Water for the Service the King hearing the Ceremonies of Baptism read and the squeeking noise of that Brute he most abhorred turned himself to see what Pageant it was and finding Turpin's face which he well knew drest like a Bishop and the Marquess whose face he most of all loved stand as a Godfather he cryed out away for shame what Blasphemy is this and turning aside with a frown he gave them cause to think that such ungodly Mirth would rather increase than cure his Melancholly Another time at Theobalds the King wanted some papers that had Relation to the Spanish Treaty so hot in Motion which raised him highly into the Passion of Anger
the Ban against him which course of ours seeing it was never intended to be prosecuted to the prejudice of the Electoral College or against our own Capitulation we hope that the Electors will not take it otherwise being that we promise withal so to moderate it that no detriment or prejudice shall result thereby unto the Dignity Electoral As for the Translation of the Electorate and your advice for Restoring of the Palatinate there is I perceive some difference in your Opinions One part wisely and in favour of us affirming the great Reason we have to do it But for the other party which adviseth his Restoring we purpose not so far to consent unto it as to the restoring of him to the Electoral Dignity seeing that in the disposing of it other where we are resolved that we shall do no more than we have just reason to do nor will we defer the filling up of the Electoral College because the dispatching of it doth so much concern the Common good But for the Restitution of the Person of the Palatine you shall see how much our Mind is inclined towards clemency and how far we will declare Our self to gratifie the King of Great Britain the King of Denmark the Elector of Saxony and other Electors and Princes interceding for him And as concerning our forbidding the Exercise of the Lutheran Religion in the City of Prague we do not see how it any way concerns this Diet to inquire of our Letter have signified the causes that moved us to begin it unto the Elector of Saxony nor can we think that what we have done there any of the Neighbour States or Territories need be suspicious of seeing that we have sworn oftner than once in the Word of an Emperour that we will most Religiously observe the Peace both of Religion and civil Government throughout the Empire And thus much we could not but advertise this Illustrious Presence of Electors and Princes and you the Ambassadors of those that are absent The Protestant Electors and Princes still persisted in their Resolution that the Emperour could not translate the Electorate legally the words of the Capitulation being clearly these In all difficult businesses no process ought to be made without the knowledg and consent of the Electors and that without ordinary process no proscription should go out against any one of the States of the Empire before the cause were heard This is the fundamental Law of the Empire which required no more but to be constantly observed nor is it to be drawn into further dispute or deliberation And it stood the Electors upon to be open eyed to see to the observation of it being it concerned the three Secular Electors especially whose Dignity did by an Hereditary Right descend unto their Posterity to keep it safe and entire which they hoped that Caesar would not contradict But the Emperour would not be perswaded from his own Resolution yet in conclusion to gratifie the Princes he was contented to confer the Electorate with a Proviso that the investiture of the Duke of Bavaria should not be prejudicial to the children of the Palatine and so the Diet ended The ending of the Diet in Germany and our Prince's Journey into Spain were much about a time He went with the Marquess of Buckingham privately from Court the 17. of February to New-Hall in Essex the Marquess's House purchased of that unthrift Robert Earl of Sussex and from thence the next day by Graves-End the straight way to Dover attended onely by Sir Richard Graham Master of the Marquess's Horse where they were to meet Sir Francis Cottington who was thought fit to be the Prince's Secretary and Endimion Porter who was then taken from the Marquess's Bed-Chamber to wait upon the Prince Cottington was at first Clerk to Sir Charles Cornwallis his Secretary when Cornwallis was Ambassadour in Spain and being left there an Agent in the Intervals of Ambassadours was by that means trained up in the Spanish affairs Porter was bred up in Spain when he was a Boy and had the Language but found no other Fortune there then brought him over to be Mr. Edward Villers his man in Fleetstreet which was before either the Marquess or his Master were acceptable at White-Hall And Graham at first was an underling of low degree in the Marquess's Stable It is not hereby intended to vilifie the persons being men in this World's lottery as capable of advancement as others but to show in how poor a Bark the King ventured the rich freight his Son having onely the Marquess to steer his Course The Prince and Buckingham had false Beards for disguizes to cover their smooth Faces and the names of Iack Smith and Tom Smith which they past with leaving behind them impressions in every place with their bounty and presence that they were not the Persons they presented but they were not so rudely dealt with as to be questioned till they came to Dover and there the Mayor in a Supercilious Officiousness which may deserve the title of a careful Magistrate examined them so far being jealous they were Gentlemen going over to fight that the Marquess though Admiral was glad to Vail his Beard to him in private and tell him he was going to visit the Fleet so they had liberty to take Ship and landed at Bulloign the same day making swist Motion by Post-Horses which celerity leaves the least impression till they came to Paris There the Prince spent one day to view the City and Court shadowing himself the most he could under a Bushy Peruque which none in former times but bald people used but now generally intruded into a fashion and the Prince's was so big that it was hair enough for his whole face The Marquesses fair Face was shadowed with the same Pencil and they both together saw the Queen Mother at Dinner the King in the Gallery after Dinner and towards the Evening they had a full view of the Queen Infanta and the Princess Henrietta Maria with most of the Beauties of the Court at the practice of a Masking Dance being admitted by the Duke of Montbason the Queens Lord Chamberlain in Humanity to Strangers when many of the French were put by There the Prince saw those Eyes that after inflamed his Heart which increased so much that it was thought to be the cause of setting Three Kingdoms afire but whether any spark of it did then appear is uncertain if it did it was closely raked up till the Spanish fire went out the heat whereof made him neglect â—no time till he came to Madrid At Burdeaux the Duke D'Espernon Governour there out of a noble freedom to Strangers offered them the Civilities of his House which they declined with all bashful respects and Sr Francis Cottington who always looked like a Merchant and had the least Miene of a Gentleman fittest for such an imployment let him know they were Gentlemen that desired to improve themselves and
be vented in many Shops Therefore he was recommended upon some plausible occasion by the Duke's means as same delivered it to some Iesuits beyond the Seas where he was entertained with a great deal of specious Ceremony and Respect in one of their Colledges or Cloisters and at Night they attending him to his Chamber with much Civility the Chamber being hanged with Tapestry and Tapers burning in stretcht-out Arms upon the Walls and when they gave him the Goodnight they told him they would send one should direct him to his lodging and they were no sooner out of this Room of Death But the floar that hung upon great hinges on one side was let fall by Artificial Engins and the poor Vermin Butler dropt into a Precipice where he was never more heard of That there are such secret Inquisition-Conveyances of a horrid Nature is obvious and such close contrivances may fly up and down upon the Wings of Rumor but it is impossible to find out the bottom of such black Pitfals but with as much danger as those that find the bitter effects of them And this was reported to be the end of Butler But to conclude with Our King whom this do concern He was born a King and from that heighth the less fitted to look into inferiour things yet few escaped his Knowledge being as it were a Magazine to retain them His Stature was of the Middle Size rather tall than low well set and somewhat plump of a ruddy Complexion his hair of a light brown in his full perfection had at last a Tincture of white If he had any predominant Humour to ballance his Choler it was sanguine which made his Mirth Witty His Beard was scattering on his Chin and very thin and though his Clothes were seldom fashioned to the Vulgar garb yet in the whole man he was not uncomely He was a King in understanding and was content to have his Subjects ignorant in many things As in curing the Kings-Evil which he knew a Device to aggrandize the Virtue of Kings when Miracles were in fashion but he let the World believe it though he smiled at it in his own Reason finding the strength of the Imagination a more powerful Agent in the Cure than the Plasters his Chirurgions prescribed for the Sore It was a hard Question whether his Wisdom and knowledge exceeded his Choler and Fear certainly the last couple drew him with most violence because they were not acquisititious but Natural If he had not had that Allay his high touring and mastering Reason had been of a Rare and sublimed Excellency but these earthy Dregs kept it down making his Passions extend him as far as Prophaness that I may not say Blasphemy and Policy superintendent of all his Actions which will not last long like the violence of that Humour for it often makes those that know well to do ill and not be able to prevent it He had pure Notions in Conception but could bring few of them into Action though they tended to his own Preservation For this was one of his Apothegms which he made no timely use of Let that Prince that would beware of Conspiracies be rather jealous of such whom his extraordinary favours have advanced than of those whom his displeasure hath discontented These want means to execute their Pleasures but they have means at pleasure to execute their desires Ambition to rule is more vehement than Malice to revenge Though the last part of this Aphorism he was thought to practice too soon where there was no cause for prevention and neglect too late when time was full ripe to produce the effect Some Parallel'd him to Tiberius for Dissimulation yet Peace was maintained by him as in the Time of Augustus And Peace begot got Plenty and Plenty begot Ease and Wantonness and Ease and Wantonness begot Poetry and Poetry swelled to that bulk in his time that it begot strange Monstrous Satyrs against the King 's own person that haunted both Court and Country which exprest would be too bitter to leave a sweet perfume behind him And though bitter ingredients are good to imbalm and preserve dead Bodies yet these were such as might indanger to kill a living name If Malice be not brought in with an Antidote And the tongues of those times more fluent than my Pen made every little miscarriage being not able to discover their true Operations like small seeds hid in earthy Darkness grow up and spread into such exuberant branches that evil Report did often pearch upon them So dangerous it is for Princes by a Remiss Comportment to give growth to the least Error for it often proves as fruitful as Malice can make it But alas good King here was an end of his earthly Empire and little did he imagine that the last Period to great Britain's Monarchy should not much exceed the time of his own Reign and in the true extent come short of it Soli Deo Gloria THE CONCLVSION To the discreet Reader HAving now finished I will not say perfected my little Work of this great King without prejudice to his Person or Envy to his Dignity not having for filthy lucre sake any Man in Admiration and willing to be less than the least in the Times flatuous opinion I hope to free my self from that Rigid censorious Humour that foams in the mouths of such whom the Venom of Passion hath corrupted that I may clear the way the better over the Precipices and prodigious Passages that will be found in the next King's reign which to attempt is a Daring inexpressible For History seldom follows Truth so near the Heels where a various and mixed multitude may either pretend to or really know more than one man can well Relate and where affection or dislike to particular men would willingly cover or sordidly lay open those Blemishes which may be smear if not quite deface the living Character yet imprinted in their memories For though they that write near the Times are said to write partially either for Fear or Friendship yet they that write Truth must either do it from private Knowledge or publick Report and who can know better than they that live near the Times according to the French Proverb Ce qu'on voit est plus certain que ce qu'on oit and as Horat. saith Oculis potius credendum quà m auribus The waters are the purest at the Fountain they mingle and gather dross by running through divers troubled Chanels And as everything in a clear Spring will be perspicuous so the soil of Falshood or Mistake if any be cast into it will be the more visible But some may retort the Argument and say In troubled fountains the Waters are not so pure as they will be when they are further from the Spring that time may settle them and then men will take up that which runs clearest But nimium altercando Veritas amittitur Truth may be lost in a croud And as all things are not to be spoken