unquestionable Authority that there is no less to be imputed to the vertue of the Faith of that Age then to the Patriarch's care that they perisht not in the universal Deluge The Britains having perhaps a better Constat of (l) Girald Camd. Matt. Westm Whites Hist Brit. Lib. 3. N. 14. these then the Jews had of those yet either deriv'd from the Authority of Tradition by how much they were left as a Legacy to succeeding Ages and lost nothing of their value in many hundred years afâ—er they were first deliver'd being the Original after which the great Legislator of the Saxons King Elfred copied his Breviary of Statues as the learned (n) Lamb. de Leg. Anglic. Lambert acknowâ—edges or which is of more Authority as himself confesses in his Title Page which very Breviary is said to be the Foundation of that we call our Common Law at this day however by reason of frequent Transcriptions Additions and Amendments like that of the Ship at Argos it seems to be new and another thing Now for the rest of the Acts of this King though perhaps they are not to be justifi'd as those written by Thucidides Zenophon Polibius or Caesar who were themselves Actors of the things as well as in the times they wrote Yet they have the Testimony of some Reliques which like those two (o) Procop. de b ll Vandelic Lib. 8. Pillars erected at Tingis that shew'd there had been some Colonies of the Jews there although no mention be made thereof in any of their own Writings support the honour of his memory beyond contradiction Such were those stupendious Works of his commonly call'd the four great Causeys that crossed the whole Isle erroneously suppos'd to be first undertaken by the Romans whereas they were begun by (p) Caxton Polichronicon Hollinshed him and only finish'd by them The first by him nam'd Fordd-y-Brenin or The Kings High-way leading from the Corner at Totnes in his own Country pass'd through the whole County of Devon the Counties of Somerset Gloucester Warwick and Leicester and ending at Lincoln this the Romans call'd the Fosse The second anciently called Guthelin-street because it was reported to have been finisht by that King beginning at Dover running out as far as Worcester and from thence was carried to Cardigan in Wales this the ancient Britains called Peunguys the Romans Via Consularis those of later times Watlin-street or Werhem-street The third call'd (q) See Hollinsheds Description fol. 113. cap. 19. Erming-street by the Saxons or rather (r) i. e. Mercurii Columna Irmanhull-street began at St. Davids in Wales and cross'd over all the Countries betwixt that and Southampton where it ended this the Britains call'd Croesfordd and the Romans Via Praetoria The fourth began a little of one side of Worcester and pass'd on by York to Tinmouth call'd Kikeneldis or Icknild-street which I take to be its primitive denomination And to these that Reverend (s) Seld. Poliolb Cant. 8. Monument aged now above 2080 years the shame and glory of the present Age dedicated by him to the (t) Attae Rhwyscoll i. e. All power M. S. in archive Oxon. Destinies or Holy Powers that rul'd the World and by the Romans at the arrival of Claudius consecrated to the honour of the great Goddess Diana and by King Lucius upon the first entertainment of Christianity to that great Apostle of the Gentiles St. Paul To this King likewise is ascrib'd the honour of Founding those rather ancient then great Foundations of * Fabian Blackwell and Guild-hall heretofore parcels of his Court the first continued perhaps ever since as the great Mercatorium or Staple for Trade the last as the great Orseddfaine or Tribunal of Justice both for City and Country He has the repute likewise of being Founder of those two ancient Buildings in the West Malmesbury and the Vyes the first having the stamp of his Name yet upon it But if the Reader be not dispos'd to believe any part of this or the other Kings Legend I shall conclude as I find a very reverend Author doth in the like case (u) Malmesbury de Oest Reg. Aug. Lib. 5. Mihi debetur Collectionis gratia Sibi habeat electionis materiam BELIN date of accession 3562 THE next Dynast in order of Fame as well as in repute of Order was this King whom the Britains make the common Root of that great Stock that hath adorned their Pedigrees with so many flourishing Branches being the most Splendid of all their Princes in that he was in like manner esteem'd by them to be a Representative of Apollo as Apollo was by the Ancients thought to be a Type of Christ This appears by the stile they gave him which I take to be one of the Attributes of that God calling him Belin Tucadre i. e. The Healing King or Healing God For it was a Policy much in fashion in elder times and as it seems as well understood by the British as any other Gentile Princes to take the advantage of assimulating themselves to that Deity which was most ador'd by their People to beget the greater reverence to their Majesty and accordingly in honour of the memory of this man who by some Writers is called (f) The Golden Belin. Belin or Pelinor and by others (g) Belin the Great Belinvaure all the successive Kings were styl'd * As appears by the Names of the following Kings Belin as the Egyptian Kings were styl'd I harach and the Roman Emperours Caesar The Vulgar turned Belin into Bren and the Latin Writers following that mistake changed Belinus into Brennus whereby it hath so hapned that he is by many Historians supposed and as they think with sufficient probability to be the same Brennus that was so terrible to the Romans Amongst those that deny it some doubt whether there were ever any such Persons as the one or the other Others take the word Bren or Belin to be only terms of Majesty and not Names which is an Opinion that calls in question all the best Pedigrees of Wales And some there are who from the difference of the Names infer a difference of Persons taking advantage thereby to discredit the Authority of Jeffery of Monmouth by seeming to uphold it who makes Brennus and Belinus to be two Brothers and Sons of Malmud but those that support the Credit of the Personality of Belinus and are willing he should be the same with the famous Brennus that Sackt Rome suppose there needs no better 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to illustrate the matter then that accompt we have from the Oracle of Delphos which saith that the same Brennus came 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very farthest parts of the West which Catullus explains Britain and whether he meant 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the greater or the lesser Britain according to that Division made by Ptolomy either makes good the conjecture as being 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
here every one taking occasion from some one cause or another to let hi◠friends at home know what value he had for his friends here To say truth this was the darling Plantation and that which therefore they would have call'd (*) Prosper Aquitan Romania i. e. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Roman Island as the Spaniards since have had their nova Hispania the French their nova Francia and We Our new England neither were the Britains so sullen as not to joyn in this Sympathy of respect their Princes changing their uncouth names of Guineath Arviradoc Meuriadoc or Meurig and Levermawr into Guiderius Arviragus Marius Lucius c. And as the Princes so each great man Regis ad exemplum putting himself into the Roman Fashion Latiniz'd his name to advance the Sound as appears by the names of many Noble Families yet extant amongst us possibly deriv'd from those times as Cary Lucy Savill Constantine Martin Pyndar Crispin Corbet Cecil Gorges Clode Flavell c. The Britains generally complying so far that as if they had really design'd to be one Nation with them they equally engag'd in all their unequal Fendes fighting for them abroad till they had wasted more Blood than they had lost in fighting before against them at home whereby they were left so weak after the Romans left them to themselves that it is no marvel they were so soon overcome by an Enemy seemingly less Puissant than themselves falling under a second Conquest so much worse than the former by how much those that overcame them fought not as the Romans for Domination but for their Dominions thrusting them out as they overthrew them till the mischief became incurable I. CLASS OF ROMANS Caesar I. An. M. 3928. Claudius A. C. An. M. 43. Adrianus An. M. 123. Pertinax An. Ch. 184. Severus An. Ch. 211. Bassianus An. Ch. 214. CAESAR I. date of accession 3928 No sooner was he departed from their Coast but the Britains departed from their Faith probably believing they had so baffled his Expectation in the meanness of the Spoils he carried hence that the empty consideration of Glory would not have been sufficient incitation to have tempted him to repeat the danger of the Seas he had so lately past But they found themselves deceived in the measure they took of his Ambition For the next Spring he returned upon them with a Countenance of having perfectly recovered his Strength and by his Presence only struck such a terror into them that however Heaven seem'd to take part with them as formerly and charg'd him the second time in his Rear while they stood ready to charge him in the front notwithstanding I say this Incouragement given them by Divine assistance they had not the Faith I am loath to say not the Courage to strike one stroke But shewing their Fears to be as wide disperst as their Forces submitted to a perpetual Tribute which I take to be the first Foundation of his perpetual Dictatorship the high'st honour the Roman State could give him although the most fatal in that there was nothing beyond it but what was immortal to which the Senate not long after made his great Soul a passage by twenty three wounds rendring him more glorious if possible in death then life whil'st all the World stood amazed to see the Fall of the first Emperour like the fall of the first King of the Romans given by the hands of those that supported him herein only had Caesar the better of Romulus as well as of his Parallel Alexander that he left his Name to his Successors which neither of them two did PERTINAX date of accession 184 IT hath been a Question Whether Fortune be not born with a man as other Qualities since like an Inchantation it over-rules his Actions by something which what it is is not known unto himself and there seems to be some Resolve of it in the unexpected greatness of this Emperour the next that came over in person hither who was raised out of nothing to become nothing almost as soon as he was rais'd A Person inferiour to many in blood equal'd by as many in parts back't with little or no allyance qualified but with an ordinary Education first a Pedagogue then a Pety fogger naturally so dull and stubborn that his Father gave him thereupon this Surname of Pertinax which we may English Blockhead Yet being called from the Courts where he used to plead to the Camp he discovered so extraordinary a Courage acquitting himself so well in all but especially the Parthian Wars that he was sent over as Admiral into Britain and afterwards call'd into the Senate by Commodus then made Governour of Assyria and Asia And lastly when the Legions here in Britain began to Mutiny he was the only man pitch't upon by the Tyrant to curb their Insolence wherein as he proceeded more like a Pedant then a Prater causing divers of the Principal Officers to be whipt as if they had been his Boy 's and he their School-master so he incenc'd them to that degree that they fell upon him as Boy 's often do upon those unreasonable Corregidores and without any reverence had to his Authority or Age knockt him down dead as they supposed from his Horse whence recovering again by a strange Resurrection Fortune having reserved him for more honourable Adventures he prevail'd so far over most of the men that would have taken away his as to bring them to lay down their lives against the Common Enemy making them instrumental whiles they became their own Executioners to put into his hands a notable Victory over the Picts who had by this time broke down part of the great Wall and entring at the Breach Sack't the Country round about The Defeat he gave then got him the Title of Britannicus and made him so Popular ever after that the Conspirators who pluck't his Master from the Throne designing to defend that bad action by a better choice set him up in the room However he either not trusting their groundless kindness or distrusting rather the Power of those that were to come next after him made it his first work to break down the stairs by which he ascended But by the same way he thought to preserve he lost his Life and Empire for they whom he intended to fling down laying hold as I may say on him pluckt him down with them and so perished all together II. CLASS OF ROMANS Constantius Chlorus An. Ch. 304. Constantinus Mag. An. Ch. 308. Constantinus II. An. Ch. 381. Clemens Max. An. Ch. 401. Gratianus An. Ch. 401. Constantinus III. An. Ch. 401. CONSTANTIUS CHLORUS date of accession 304 During his Government whether we may ascribe it as a good effect of a bad cause to the continued troubles for so many years before that had quite tired out both sides or to the more peaceable inclinations of the Picts become less turbulent since they became Christians or to the universal contentment of the Britains who
himself of Northumberland Godfrid his younger Brother held Mercia but King Athelstan fell upon both and took from the last his Life from the first his Kingdom which was recovered again not long after by his Son VI. date of accession 946 ANLAFF the Second thereupon esteem'd the third King of the Northumbers His reign was not long for his Subjects weary of continual wars set him besides the Saddle to make way for VII date of accession 950 ERIC the Third or as some call him IRING Son of Harold the Grandson of Gurmo King of Denmark recommended to them by Milcolmb King of Scots but he being elected King of Sweden the Northumbers submitted to Edgar the younger Brother or next in succession to Edwyn and from that time it continued a Member of the English Crown till about the year 980 when VIII date of accession 980 ANLAFF the Third understanding they were affected to his Nation arriv'd with a fresh Supply and making his Claim was admitted King but being over prest the Title came to IX date of accession 1013 SWAIN King of Denmark who made this his first step to the Engâ—ish Throne into which as he was mounting death seiz'd on him and kept the Room empty for his Son Knute DANES Absolute Kings OF ENGLAND I. date of accession 1017 KNUTE was deservedly surnam'd the Great as being the very greatest and most absolute King that ever England or Denmark knew those of the Roman Line only excepted for he was King of England Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Sweden and Lord of a great part of Poland all Saxony some part and not a little of Brandenburgh Bremen Pomerania and the adjacent Countries most of them not to say all besides Denmark and Norway reduc'd under his Obedience by the valour of the English only upon his death Denmark and Norway fell to his Son Hardycanute the rest as Sweden c. devolv'd upon the right Heirs whilst England was usurp'd by his Natural Son II. date of accession 1036 HAROLD surnam'd Harfager or Golden Locks who being the Elder and having the advantage to be upon the place entred as the first Occupant thereby disappointing his legitimate Brother III. date of accession 1041 KNUTE surnam'd the Hardy design'd by his Father to be the next Successor to him as bearing his Name though upon tryal it appear'd he had the least part of his Nature for he had not the Courage to come over and make any claim as long as Harold liv'd and after his death he drown'd himself in a Land-flood of Wine losing all the Glory his Predecessors had gotten by wading through a sea of blood which made the way to his Throne so slippery that those English that came after him could never find firm footing But upon the very first Encounter with the Norman caught such a Fall that could never recover themselves again This Gurmo came out of Ireland I take it in the second year of King Elfrid not without a confident hope of making good his Predecessors Conquest which had cost already so much blood as made his desire of Rule look like a necessity of Revenge the Monarchy of Denmark it self being put if I may so say into a Palsie or trembling Fit by the loss of the Spirits it had wasted here So that he came with this advantage which those before him had not That the Cause seem'd now to be his Countries more then his own who therefore bore him up with two notable props Esketel and Amon men of great Conduct and known Courage the one of which he plac'd as Vice-Roy in Northumberland t'other in Mercia And having before expelled Burthred the Saxon he fixed himself in East-Anglia as being nearer to correspond with Denmark and most commodious to receive Reâ—ruits Upon his first advance against King Elfrid Fortune appear'd so much a Neuter that either seem'd afraid of other and striking under line preferr'd a dissembled Friendship before down-right Hostility And to shew how much the edge of their Courage was rebated they mutually accorded to divide the Land betwixt them Gurmo was to be Lord of the North and East Elfrid to hold the South and West part of the Isle The politick Dane after this suffered himself to become what the English would have him to be a Christian to the intent that he might be what he would have himself to be absolute changing his Pagan name of Gurmo into that of Athelstan which being of all others the most grateful to the Saxons he render'd himself by that Condescension so acceptable to the whole Nation that they consented to his Marriage with the fam'd Princess Thyra King Elfrids vertuous Sister by whom he had Issue Harold Blaatand that liv'd to be King of Denmark after himself and another Knute whom he left in Ireland to make good the Acquests of the first Gurmo there a Prince of so great hopes and so belov'd by him that the knowledge of his death being slain at the Siege of Dublin gave him his own for he no sooner apprehended the tidings thereof by the sight of his Queens being in mourning but he fell into such a violent fit of Grief as left him not till he left the World whereby the Crown of Denmark fell to his Son Harold the Title and Possession of East-Anglia with its Appurtenances he bequeath'd to his Brother Eric who having perform'd the first Act of Security to himself in having taken an Oath of Allegiance of all his Subjects suffer'd them to perform the last Act of Piety towards him in giving him all the Rites of an honourable Interment at Haddon in Suffolk which place it seems he purposed to make the Burial place of all the East-Anglian Kings But this Ambition of his beginning where it should have ended with a design of assuring to himself more honour after he was dead then he was able to make good whiles he was living ended as soon as it began as will appear by his Story following Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Upon which his Queen frighted with the horrour of their Inhumanity fled back to her Brother Athelstan to seek from his Power Justice Protection and Revenge whiles Anlaff took upon him to be King The Equality of Power as well as of Ambition ripen'd the Factions on both sides very fast by the heat of their Contest But before they came to Maturity there was a Parliament conven'd at Oxford that took the matter into consideration where the Lords fearing that the Question if delay'd might be decided by Swords and not by Words out of a deep sence of the lingring Calamities of a new War all the wounds of the old being not yet cured or at least not so well but that the Scars were yet fresh in many of their Faces they declar'd for the King in possession but with such a wary form of Submission as shew'd they did it rather out of regard to themselves then him whereupon Goodwin produced the deceased Kings Will in opposition to theirs but the
their Gentility by Charters from St. Edward and others from King Edgar whose Pedigrees do yet fall short of many of the Welch by many Descents In fine from the Normans we first learn'd how to appear like a People compleatly civiliz'd being as more elegant in our Fashions so more sumptuous in our Dwellings more magnifick in our Retinue not to say choicer in our Pleasures yet withal more frugal in our Expences For the English being accustomed to bury all their Rents in the Draught knowing no other way to out-vie one another but as a †Jaq. Praslin Progmat French Writer expresses it by a kind of greasie Riot which under the specious Name of Hospitality turn'd their Glory into Shame began after the Conquest to consume the Superfluity of their Estates in more lasting Excesses turning their Hamlets into Villes their Villages into Towns and their Towns into Cities adorning those Cities with goodly Castles Pallaces and Churches which being before made up of that we call Flemmish Work which is only Wood and Clay were by the Normans converted into Brick and Stone which till their coming was so rarely used that Mauritius Bishop of London being about to re-edifie Paul's Church burn'd in the Year 1086. was either for want of Workmen Materials or both necessitated not only to fetch all his Stone out of Normandy but to form it there So that we may conclude if the Conqueror had not as he did obliged the English to a grateful continuance of his Memory by personal and particular Immunities yet he deserv'd to be Eterniz'd for this that he elevated their minds to a higher point of Grandeur and Magnificence and rendred the Nation capable of greater Undertakings whereby they suddenly became the most opulent and flourishing People of the World advanc'd in Shipping Mariners and Trade in Power External as well as Internal witness no less then two Kings made Prisoners here at one time one of them the very greatest of Europe whereby they increased their publick Revenues as well as their private Wealth even to the double recompensing the loss sustain'd by his Entry whilst himself however suppos'd by that big sounding Title of Conqueror to have been one of the most absolute Princes we had got not so much ground while he was living as to bury him here when he was dead but with much ado obtain'd a homely Monument in his Native Soil THE ORDER AND SUCCESSION OF THE Norman Kings I. date of accession 1066 WILLIAM I. known by that terrible Name of the Conqueror gave the English by one single Battel so sad experience of their own weakness and his power that they universally submitted to him whereby becoming the first King of England of the Norman Race he left that Glory to be inherited by his second Son II. date of accession 1087 WILLIAM II. surnam'd Rufus who being the eldest born after he was a King and a Native of this Country succeeded with as much satisfaction to the English as to himself but dying without Issue left his younger Brother III. date of accession 1100 HENRY I. surnam'd Beauclark to succeed in whose Fortune all his Friends were as much deceiv'd as in his Parts his Father only excepted who foretold he would be a King when he scarce left him enough to support the dignity of being a Prince As he set aside his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy so he was requited by a like Judgment upon his Grandson the Son of his Daughter Maud who was set aside by IV. date of accession 1135 STEPHEN Earl of Blois his Cousin but she being such a woman as could indeed match any man disputed her Right so well with him that however she could not regain the Possession to her self she got the Inheritance fixed upon her Son V. date of accession 1155 HENRY II. Plantaginet the first of that Name and Race and the very greatest King that ever England knew but withal the most unfortunate and that which made his misfortunes more notorious was that they rose out of his own Bowels his Death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life his ungracious Sons the eldest whereof that surviv'd him succeeded by the Name of VI. date of accession 1189 RICHARD I. Coeur de Leon whose undutifulness to his Father was so far retorted by his Brother that looking on it as a just Judgment upon him when he dyed he desired to be buried as near his Father as might be possible in hopes to meet the sooner and ask forgiveness of him in the other World his Brother VII date of accession 1199 JOHN surnam'd Lackland had so much more lack of Grace that he had no manner of sense of his Offence though alike guilty who after all his troubling the World and being troubled with it neither could keep the Crown with honour nor leave it in peace which made it a kind of Miracle that so passionate a Prince as his Son VIII date of accession 1216 HENRY III. should bear up so long as he did who made a shift to shuffle away fifty six years doing nothing or which was worse time enough to have overthrown the tottering Monarchy had it not been supported by such a Noble Pillar as was his Son and Successor IX date of accession 1272 EDWARD I. a Prince worthy of greater Empire then he left him who being a strict Observer of Opportunity the infallible sign of Wisdom compos'd all the differences that had infested his Fathers Grand-fathers and Great-Grand-fathers Governments and had questionless dyed as happy as he was glorious had his Son X. date of accession 1307 EDWARD II. answer'd expectation who had nothing to glory in but that he was the Son of such a Father and the Father of such a Son as XI date of accession 1328 EDWARD III. who was no less fortunate then valiant and his Fortune the greater by a kind of Antiperistasis as coming between two unfortunate Princes Successor to his Father and Predecessor to his Grandson XII date of accession 1377 RICHARD II. the most unfortunate Son of that most fortunate Father Edward commonly call d the Black Prince who not having the Judgment to distinguish betwixt Flatterers and Friends fell like his Great-Grand-father the miserable example of Credulity being depos'd by his Cosin XIII date of accession 1399 HENRY IV. the first King of the House of Lancaster descended from a fourth Son of Edward the Third who being so much a greater Subject then he was a King 't was thought he took the Crown out of Compassion rather then Ambition to relieve his oppress'd Country rather then to raise his own House and accordingly Providence was pleas'd to rivat him so fast in the Opinion of the People that his Race have continued though not without great Interruption ever since His Son XIV date of accession 1412 HENRY V. was in that repute with the People that they swore Allegiance to him before he was crown'd an honour never done to any of his Predecessors
wade through a Suit without fear of being over-whelm'd it being impossible to suffer but by Judgment of his Inquest as it was then and hath been ever since call'd which consisting of twelve men could not have continued thus long after so many strivings and struglings for Liberty as have been since that time had not the wisdom of so many Ages judg'd it to be the greatest priviledge the Subject could be capable of being that indeed which no less Circumscribes the Soveraigns Power then the Subjects Obedience so that doubtless he hop'd to naturalize himself by it into their good opinion and liking But that which frighted them most was the black Censual Roll therefore call'd by that dismal Name of the Dooms-day Book which discovering the secrets of their Estates left them under strange apprehensions of ensuing Oppression and Tyranny however it was no otherwise intended then as an Instrument to confirm his own by establishing their Rights and Proprieties which having been before under a very uncertain Title and very odly qualified the Tenures of †That is by Charter or Writing Bokeland which they call'd Freehold belonging only to the Nobility being perchance no better then the ancient Fifes that depended on the Will of the first Donors he made absolute and hereditary The Tenure of ‖ Or the Land of the common Foâ—k Folkland which was without Writing and so much worse then Tenants at Will at this day that we need not doubt to call it Villenage he chang'd into Estates for Life which have since shew'd us the way to those in Tail neither did he clog their Estates with many Taxes however reputed very avaricious but found out many witty sleights to avoid the necessity of Land Taxes as knowing how clamorous and burthensome they are laying only that of Escuage upon them which yet was done by way of composition rather then imposition in lieu of which he took off that of Danegelt which was sufficient one would have thought to have abated the Grievance Yet such was their Obstinacy Ingratitude or Disdain that they never ceas'd to plot or practise Treason against him giving him renew'd Jealousies from their successive and like to prove successful Conspiracies which as great Waves came thick upon the back of one another never breaking but with so apparent danger as threatned him with a wreck in Port after his escape of all the storms at Sea First Edric the Forrester incouraged by the Welch after Edwin and Morcar Brothers to the late Queen incourag'd by the Scots thinking their splendor eclipsed by the interposition of so many stranger Princes as waited daily in his Court flew to Arms and drew many after them of the Lay Nobility whilst the two Arch-bishops who followed them were attended by as strong a Party of the Clergy the first pretended to make the war legal the last to render it meritorious and whiles he set himself to suppress this danger in the North a new Rebellion presented it self in the West The Citizens of Exeter and those of Oxford incourag'd by the report of new Forces brought out of Ireland by the Sons of Harold not only shut up their Gates but perswaded the Countries also round about to expostulate their Liberties with Swords in their hands and whilst he turns to these they of the North are reinforc'd again by the arrival of two Sons of Swain King of Denmark with a Fleet of no less then 300 Sail and whilst he sent another Party to confront these there rose a storm behind them out of the Isle of Ely and after all this the wide distent of these Tumors fed from many secret Veins swell'd up into a general Combination of all the Neighbour Princes together so that no less then six Kings drew upon him at once the King of France who had 100000 men in readiness to invade him in Normandy the King of Denmark who had prepar'd a Navy of 1600 Sail to invade him by Sea the King of Ireland who appeared with 65 Sail more to second him and the Kings of Scotland and Wales opening their Ports to let them in This though it made the danger seem so much the more considerable by how much it was scarce to be prevented without such a vast Expence of Treasure and Blood as might hazard an irrecoverable Consumption if not put him again to the winning of England yet the resolutions of his great Mind being prae-ordain'd for the great work he had undertaken he shew'd no manner of Consternation at all till at last a way was found to bring himself against himself by setting up his eldest Son Robert to disseize him of the Dutchy of Normandy without any colour of Right This Rebellion indeed was so much the more grievous to him because unnatural and therefore the only one he thought fit to repress by the Authority of his own Presence wherein he proceeded not as one that went to take revenge upon an Enemy or reduce a Rebel but as he ought to chastize an undutiful Son proceeding however with that calmness as if he designed to defeat his Enterprize and not him or in truth rather to surprize then subdue him casting about how he might make him more asham'd then afraid not doubting but like Caesar to overcome him as soon as he came over to him but such was the malignity of his Stars as to make his Son a double Conqueror over him first in commanding his life which shew'd his Power then in giving it back again to him which shew'd his Piety but this as it was too great a Gift to be acknowledged or forgotten so he receiv'd it with such inward indignation as shew'd he only pardon'd what he could not punish But it appear'd afterwards that it was not in the young Rebels power to give back the life he had proceeded so near taking away for the wound in his Spirit was so much deeper then any of those on his Body that it could never be cured however skin'd over bleeding inwardly unperceiv'd till he died which however it were not long after yet he out liv'd most of those great men that were Actors with him in his Undertakings and left not the world till he had sufficiently requited the King of France for this unpardonable injury of seducing his Son taking a slight occasion from a Jest to shew how much he was in Earnest in his Revenge For that King having scoffed at his great Belly saying That he lay in when he was sick at Roan he return'd him word That he should have notice of his Upsitting by the many Bonefires he would make in the heart of his Country Neither was he worse then his Promise for he depopulated all the Towns of note that lay in his way till he came to Mants in the destruction of which goodly City he got his own the Ream of his Belly being broke as 't is thought by a sudden leap of his Horse frighted at the sight of the Conflagrations as he passed by the
as often as any advantage was offer'd to him during the Barons War playing fast and loose sometimes as an Enemy otherwhile as a Friend as it made for his turn and having it alwayes in his Power by being in Conjunction with Scotland without which he had been inconsiderable to disturb the Peace of England at his pleasure never neglected any occasion where he might gain Repute to himself or booty for his People Upon him therefore he fastened the first Domestick War he had entring his Country like Jove in a storm with Lightning and Thunder the Terrour whereof was so resistless that that poor Prince was forc'd to accept whatsoever terms he would put upon him to obtain a temporary Peace without any other hope or comfort then what he deriv'd from the mental reservation he had of breaking it again as soon as he return'd whereunto he was not long after tempted by the delusion of a mistaken Prophesie of that false Prophet Merlin who having foretold that he should be crown'd with the Diadem of Brute fatally heightened his Ambition to the utter destruction both of himself and Country with whom his innocent Brother the last of that Race partaking in life and death concluded the Glory of the ancient British Empire which by a kind of Miracle had held out so many hundred years without the help of Shipping Allyance or Confederation with any Forreign Princes by the side of so many potent Kings their next Neighbours who from the time of the first entrance of the English suffer'd them not to enjoy any quiet though they vouchsafed them sometimes Peace Wales being thus totally reduced by the irrecoverable fall of Llewellen and David the last of their Princes that were ever able to make resistance and those ignorant People made thereby happier then they wish'd themselves to be by being partakers of the same Law and Liberty with those that conquer'd them he setled that Title on his eldest Son and so passed over into France to spend as many years abroad in Peace as he had done before in War in which time he renew'd his League with that Crown accommodated the Differences betwixt the Crowns of Scicily and Arragon and shew'd himself so excellent an Arbitrator that when the right of the Crown of Scotland upon his return home came to be disputed with Six some say Ten Competitors after the death of Alexander the Third the Umpirage was given to him who ordered the matter so wisely that he kept off the final Decision of the main Question as many years as there were Rivals put in for it deferring Judgment till all but two only were disputed out of their Pretensions These were Baliol and Bruce the first descended from the elder Daughter of the right Heir the last from the Son of the younger who having as 't was thought the weaker Title but the most Friends King Edward privately offered him the Crown upon Condition of doing Homage and Fealty to him for it the greatness of his Mind which bespoke him to be a King before he was one suffer'd him not to accept the terms whereupon King Edward makes the same Proposition to Baliol who better content it seems with the outside of Majesty accepted the Condition But see the Curse of ill-got Glory shewing himself satisfied with so little he was thought unworthy of any being so abhor'd of his People for it that upon the first occasion they had to quarrel with his Justice as who should say they would wound him with his own Weapon they appeal'd to King Edward who thereupon summon'd him to appear in England and was so rigid to him upon his appearance he would permit none else to plead his Cause but compell'd him in open Parliament to answer for himself as well as he could This being an Indignity so much beneath the sufferance of any private Person much more a King sunk so deep into his Breast that meditating nothing after but Revenge as soon as he return'd home securing himself first by a League and Allyance with the King of France to whose Brothers Daughter he married his Son he renounced his Allegiance and defied King Edward's Power no less then he did his Justice This begat a War betwixt the two Nations that continued much longer then themselves being held up by alternate Successes near three hundred years a longer dated difference perhaps then is to be found in any other Story of the World that Rancor which the Sword bred increasing continually by the desire of Revenge till the one side was almost wholly wasted t'other wholly wearied Baliol the same time King Edward required him to do Homage for Scotland here prevailed with the French King to require the like from him for his Territories there this began the Quarrel that the Division by which King Edward which may seem strange parting his Greatness made it appear much greater whilst himself advanc'd against Baliol and sent his Brother the Earl of Lancaster to answer the King of France Baliol finding himself overmatch'd as well as over-reach'd renew'd his Homage in hopes to preserve his Honour But King Edward resolving to bind him with stronger Fetters then Oaths sent him Prisoner into England whereby those of that Country wanting not only a Head but a Heart to make any further resistance he turn'd his Fury upon the King of France hastning over what Forces he could to continue that War till himself could follow after But Fortune being preingaged on the other side disposed that whole Affair to so many mistakes that nothing answered Expectation and which was worse the Fame of his Male-Adventures spirited a private person worthy a greater * Wallis Name then he had to rise in Scotland who rallying together as many as durst by scorning Misery adventure upon it defied all the Forces of England so fortunately that he was once very near the redeeming his despairing Country-men and had he had less Vertue might possibly have had more success For scorning to take the Crown when he had won it a Modesty not less fatal to the whole Nation then himself by leaving room for Ambition he made way for King Edward to Re-enter the second time who by one single Battel but fought with redoubled Courage made himself once more Lord of that miserable Kingdom all the principal Opposers Wallis only excepted crowding in upon Summons to swear Fealty the third time to him This had been an easie Pennance had they not together with their Faith resigned up their Laws and Liberties and that so servilely that King Edward himself judging them unworthy to be continued any longer a Nation was perswaded to take from them all the Records and Monuments whereby their Ancestors had recommended any of Glory to their Imitation Amongst other of the Regalia's then lost was that famous Marble Stone now lodg'd in Westminster-Abby wherein their Kings were crown'd in which as the Vulgar were perswaded the Fate of their Country lay for that there was an ancient Prophesie
should be but short were easily drawn into many desperate Conspiracies which ending with the Forfeiture of their own brought her Life and Government into continual Jeopardy The next great thing that feâ—l under her Consideration was the point of Marriage and Singularity For it being doubtful in what state the Kingdom would be left if the Queen of Scots Title should ever take place who besides that she was an avow'd Papist had married the French Kings Son who in her Right bore the Arms and Title of England as well as of Scotland it was told her she would not shew her self a true Mother of her Country without she consented to make her self a Mother of Children Whereunto King Philip of Spain as soon as he heard of Queen Mary his Wives death gave her a fair Invitation by his Ambassador the Conde Feria whom he sent over publickly â—o Congratulate her as a Queen but privately to Court her as a Mistress assuring her that he much rather desired to have her to be his Wife then his Sister and as the Report of her being Successor to his Queen had much allay'd the grief he conceiv'd for her death so he said 't was his desire she should take place in his Bed as well as in his Throne that so by giving her self to him she might requite the kindness shew'd by him when he gave her to her self after her Sister left her exposed to the malice and power of her Enemies In fine he omitted no Arguments to gain his end that might be rais'd from the Consideration of her Gratitude or his own Greatness But she being naturally Inflexible not to say as some have said Impenetrable lest it to her Councel to return this grave Answer for her That she could not consent to have him of all men for a Husband without as great reflection on her Mother as her self since it could not be more lawful for two Sisters to marry the same Husband then for two Brothers to marry the same Wife Secondly That she could not consent to a Match that was like to prove so unfortunate as this would be if without Issue and yet so much more unfortunate with it in respect her Kingdom of England must by the same Obligation become subject to Spain as she to him Thirdly That nothing could more conduce to the Establishing that Authority which had been so industriously abolish'd by her Father and Brother of blessed Memory and conscientiously rejected by her self Fourthly That it could neither be satisfactory to her self or Subjects to have such a King to her Husband whose greatest Concerns being necessarily abroad could neither regard her nor them as he ought much less as they desired This Denial though it seem'd reasonable enough yet King Philip inferring that she dislik'd his Person rather then his Proposal very temperately recommended his Suit to his more youthful Kinsman Charles Duke of Austria second Son to the Emperour Ferdinand who was Rival'd by Eric eldest Son of Gustavus King of Sweden as he by Adolph Duke of Holst Uncle to Frederick III. King of Denmark But neither of these being more successful then his most Catholick Majesty the whole Parliament became Suiters to her to think of Posterity and to eternize her Memory not so much by a Successor like her self as by one descended from her self Which serious address she answer'd with a Jest telling them she was married already And shewing them a Ring on her Finger the same she had received at her Coronation told them it was the Pledge of Love and Faith given her by her dear Spouse the Kingdom of England which words she delivered with such an odd kind of Pleasantness that all the Wise men amongst them thought she made Fools of them and the Fools thought themselves made so much wiser by it as to understand her meaning to be that she would not look abroad for a Husband but take one of her own Subjects Amongst the rest thus mistaken was Leicester himself who having the vanity to believe he might be the man obstructed his own preferment when he was propos'd as a fitting Husband for the Queen of Scots The Catholick King however he had been rejected hoping that the Catholick Religion might find better acceptation continued his Frâ—endship a long time after his Courtship was ended being so respectful to the Nation not to say to the Queen her self that he would make no accord with the French at the Treaty of Cambray without the restoration of Calais to the English But when he understood how far the Queen had proceeded in point of Reformation how she had as resolutely refus'd to be the Popes Daughter as to be his Wife how she had disallow'd the Councel of Trent and set up a Synod of her own at London he not only left her as slightly as she left him but made such a Conclusion with the French as gave her more cause of Jealousie being not his Wife then she could possibly have had if he had been her Husband For marrying the Lady Isabella eldest Daughter to that King it was suspected that the two Crowns might thereupon unite against England upon the account of the Queen of Scots her Claim who being the Daulphins Wife and the next in Succession after Queen Elizabeth or as some will have it in Right before her as being the undoubted Heir of the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter of Henry the Seventh was therefore the only Person in the World to whom she could never be reconciled holding her self oblig'd by the Impulse of Nature Honour and Religion to oppose her as after she did to the death wherein perhaps there was no less of Envy then Reason of State being as much offended with her Perfections as her Pretensions For that t'other was a Lady that equall'd her in all surmounted her in some and was inferiour to her in no respects but Fortune only This as it prov'd a Feud that puzled that Age to unriddle the meaning of it charging all the Misunderstanding betwixt them upon the despite of Fate only which to speak Impartially was never more unkind not to say unjust all Circumstances of the Story considered to any Soveraign Princess in the World then to that poor Queen so it was the wonder of this till we saw by the no less fatal Example of that Queens Grandson our late Soveraign how the best of Princes may fall under the power of the worst of men For it was Flattery and Feminine Disdain questionless that first divided them beyond what the difference of Nation Interest or Religion could have done which heightning their mutual Jealousies insensibly ingag'd them before they were aware in such a Game of Wit and Faction as brought all that either had at last to stake and made them so wary in their Play on both sides that the Set ended not as long as the one liv'd or the other reign'd The Queen of Scots had the advantage of Queen Elizabeth by the Kings in her Stock the Kings of
France and Spain being her secret Friends and Well-wishers not to mention the nearer Obligations of her own Son being then but young and the Pope ever ready to pack the Cards for her as occasion served The advantage Queen Elizabeth had was by the Knaves in her hand all the factious Demagogues of Scotland being at her Devotion and so dependant on her Power that their disloyalty stood her in better stead than the Loyalty of her own Subjects whereof she made so good use that her over-match't Rival being never able to fix their Obedience much less recover their Affections was fain to seek for help abroad And after she became a Prisoner finding none she could trust was forc'd to attempt her Freedom singly proceeding therein for want of due intelligence by such indirect wayes and means as prov'd very unprosperous for the more she stirr'd the more she intangled herself fastning the Bonds beyond all possibility of being shaken off again which had she sate still might possibly have loosed of themselves Neither could it prove otherwise whiles she was neither able to take right measures of her Adversaries strength nor of her own weakness Queen Elizabeth having more Subjects then she knew of for she had got the Ascendant of her Neighbours so far that like her Father Henry where she made not Kings she gave them Laws The Protestants 't is true the only useful Party to her were few in comparison of the Papists who were all inc ined to the other side But the Security of Princes rests not so much in the number as in the affections of their People of whom whilst by extraordinary methods of Love she testified her self to have so great a care they made to her as extraordinary Returns of Loyalty witness that voluntary Association as 't was call'd which the Protestants so solemnly enter'd into as soon as they found her imbarrased by the Queen of Scots Faction binding themselves with mutual Oaths and Subscriptions to each other to prosecute all those to death who should attempt any thing against the Queens life This was it gave her that high repute without which she could not have given that protection she did to those of other Countries who afterward applyed themselves to her as the only Defender of the Faith for though it were no more then what they were before bound to do by their Oath of Allegiance yet being a voluntary Recognition resulting out of the Sense they had of their own in her danger it made such a noise in all Christendom that all those who chose rather to change their Country then their Religion cast themselves at her feet and where they could not come to her she sent to them witness the aid she gave to the persecuted Protestants of France when they were overwhelmed by the unholy Confederates of the Holy League that had set up a Priest to make way for a Cardinal by the Murther of a King and by the Murther of many Thousands more afterward made may to set up themselves to whom as she sent no ordinary supply of Men so she gave so extraordinary a supply of Money that Henry the Fourth himself was pleas'd to acknowledge he never saw so much Gold together at any one time in his whole life before More notable yet was that aid given to the distrested Protestants of the Netherlands when Duke D'Alva falling on them with like Fury as Vespatian upon the Jews put them in as great a fear of being drown'd in a deluge of Blood as they were but a little before of being overwhelm'd by that of Water who when their Courage was sunk as low as their hopes and that lay as low as their Country for she put them into a Condition not only to defend their own Liberty but to assert her Soveraignty their gratitude prompting them to swear Allegiance to her for that she had as they said an indubitable Title to those Provinces by Philippa Wife of Edward the Third who was one of the Daughters and Coheirs of Earl William the Third of Holland a right precedent as they alledged to that of the King of Spain But whether it were so that she rather approved the change of their Principles then of their Prince or would have the World believe she rather favour'd their Religion then their Rebellion or judg'd it would be hard to make good what was so ill got or was unwilling to do any thing that might give King Philip cause to question her Gratitude no less then her Justice or what other motives moderated her Ambition is not known but so it was that she laid aside for the present the consideration of her own Right and to shew she sincerely intended that Self-denyal she assisted the Spaniard with men at the same time she supplyed the Dutch with Money thereby giving those cause to extoll her Generosity whiles these magnified her Bounty both alike desiring her Friendship and admiring her Wisdom whiles the one could not tell how she affected Peace nor t'other how far she inclined to War Thus she preserv'd her self by Arts as well as by Arms which was the less easie for her to do in respect of the many cross Designs that were then on foot in France Spain Germany and Italy in each of which she was deeply concern'd not to say in Scotland which being on the same Continent was under her Eye as their Queen under her keeping But the King of Spain finding that whatever was pretended overtly she did underhand abet the Rebels of the Netherlands he set his thoughts upon supporting the Rebels of Ireland which how much she dreaded appears by her ready acceptance of that seign'd Submission of the Earl of Tyrone the first that gave her trouble and the last that repented him of it But before he made any Rupture upon her there happen'd a lucky hit which contributed much to defraying the Charge she foresaw she must be at whenever he broke the Peace made with her A mighty Mass of Money which King Philip had taken up from the Genoveses and other Italian Merchants to be sent by Sea to the Duke D'Alva for carrying on that War of the Low-Countries was drove into one of her Ports by a French Man of War which she seizing to her own use and justifying her self by necessity of State the only reason for all unreasonable actions thought it enough to give the Proprietors Security for the Principal without any consideration of Interest This so incens'd D'Alva that he forthwith laid an Imbargo upon all the English Merchants in the Low-Countries She to requite that did the like upon the Dutch Merchants here upon which Letters of Mart were granted on both sides and so that War began which she liv'd not to see and end of For the King of Spain as is said before knowing the Irish to be naturally inclined to break out with the Itch of Rebellion resolv'd to inflame their Blood with the hopes of a new Change combining with Gregory
fancy comes off and spoils the painting that lay under it But if the principal reason of his leaving out the h which might be the more excusable in respect it has been taken to be an ominous letter to this Nation were to make that Sybilla lingua as he calls the Welch Tongue more smooth and polite why then did he not leave out the two it 's also the continuance whereof makes his Etymology subject to an unanswerable objection in point of Novelty for that there is no ancient word any where to be found that has a double t in it as his Brittannia has Now if both the tt's and the h had been omitted it had then been Bri-tannia which as it is less constrained so it is more acceptable to every common Reader but especially to those that are Natives For that Bri linguâ vernaculâ signifies Honos and so the name of Brittains would have implyed as much as the Honorable Nation in which sence I could be content to rest my self without farther search if the Criticks would have allowed his Tania to have been Greek for Regio but this being modestly doubted by the learned Spelman and utterly denied by the famous Causabon who took it so ill to have a Greek word obtruded upon him that he never heard of before that amongst his excellent Epistles yet extant there is one letter purposely not to say passionately written to Mr. Camden upon this subject by which he requires him to prove it Greek if he could I must conclude as by his returning no answer to that bold Challenge I suppose he himself did that it was not the least of his learned mistakes However the Greeks were beholding to him for the honour intended them whilst by that single termination of Tania he indeavours to prove them the only Godfathers to many other great Nations besides this of ours viz. those of Aquitania and Turditania no mean People and those of Lusitania yet greater with those of Mauritania and Turgitania more famous then they and yet there is another Kingdom which it seems he forgot that could more certainly have proved their Denomination from the Greeks that is the great Kingdom of Batania which before the Greeks possest it was called the Kingdom of Bastian in the Land of Palestine Neither has he made mention of another greater perhaps then all these put together to wit that mighty Empire of the Chynenses who in their native Tongue call their Country Taine which comes as near Tania in sound as may be but nearer yet in the sense Taine importing as much as the Realm or Region 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take we then Tania to be heathen Greek as he puts it yet it will seem strange that a people so rich in words as the Greeks were should borrow half an Etymology of such a barbarous People as they took the Britains to be and stranger 't is that the Britains if we suppose they gave themselves the name should call themselves Blew Noses though they were so as well might they have named themselves Cornuti from their custom of wearing the skins of Beasts with the Horns upon their heads after the fashion of their Neâ—ghbours not to say their Ancestors the Germans And in like manner and for like reason might the Germans have been called Brittanni upon the account of Painting it being as much in use with them as with those here with this difference only that they painted the skins of the Beasts they wore these their own skins That the Original Names of Nations have been derived from some observation or remark of the first Nomenclators upon the Natures and Customs that seem'd to them most singularly notable will I think be agreed by every body as that the Galeates or Gauls were so named from their * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Milk-like Complexions in like manner as the Moors were from their black and swarthy Visages †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Sarmatians under which denominaâ—ion passed those of Poland Russia Muscovy and the hither Tartary took their names from their ‖ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lizard-like Eyes As the Numidians anciently call'd Nomades from their being generally Herdsmen or Feeders of Cattle The Tuscans and Sabins were indebted for their names to the Time of their Sacrifices as the Artotyritae to the * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in respect they offered Bread and Cheese to their Gods Infamy of theirs The Persians were so called with respect to their Habits or Garments as the Saxons our Ancestors from their Seaxes or Skeens Some have been denominated from what they usually eat or drank as the Pharmacotrophi in Asia from their feeding on venomous Creatures and the Cremyones from their drinking broth made of Onions And why may not the Britains be as well suppos'd to have taken their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a Drink known to be peculiar unto them and so singularly famous that Aeschylus Sophocles Archilocus Aristotle Theophrastus Helannicus Athinaeus and all the Classick Greek Authors have made more or less mention of it the last of which being the first Author wherein we find the express word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his Authority being a known Critick may go far in the matter Now he calls this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Vinum hordeaccum Barley Wine which Sophocles renders 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cervisia which word may indifferently be taken for Ale or Beer and Archilocus tells us that no People in the World but the Trojans whom some will have to be Ancestors to the Britains ever us'd the same or any kind of drink like it Caesar affirms that all other Nations of the known World drank Wine or Water only but the Britains saith he who yet have Vines enough make no other use of them but for Arbours in their Gardens or to adorn and set forth their houses drinking a high and mighty liquor different from that of any other Nation made of Barley and Water which being not so subtil in its operation as Wine did yet warm as much and nourish more leaving space enough for the performance of many * Efficit egregios nâ—bilis Ala viros great Actions before it quite vanquisht the Spirits Now as the Britains were fam'd for this Ale of theirs so the Ale â—t self was afterwards no less renown'd as Theophrastus and Helannicus both affirm for a certain Root that they usually put into it from whence 't is supposed it took its Denomination as the Britains theirs from it This Root was called by the Greeks 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which sounds something better then Brith-Tania by the Laâ—ins call'd after their manner Britannia as †Nat. Hist lib. 25.3 Pliny tells us who cryes it up as the most approv'd Drink in the World against those Diseases call'd by the Greeks Stomacace and Scelotyrbe pâ—oceeding
Insolence of the one and the Cowardliness of the other But Severus to render himself more grateful to the Britains and to shew them that he had more of the Julius in his Nature then the Severus brought over with him this Coel the Princeps Juventutis whom he knew they long'd to see being the next of blood to the last King some say his Son whom the Romans call'd Calius who under the colour of being sent for Breeding to Rome had been kept there as an Hostage from the time of Marius his first entring upon the Government Long it was not before he had beaten back the Picts but before he could make ready the Laurel to present to the Old Emperour his Master he impatient of the Glory was arriv'd in Person who finding the Picts retir'd into their Fastnesses very wisely depopulated all the Country round about and so leaving out that which was not worth the trouble of keeping he secur'd the rest by that wonderful Work call'd the Picts Wall After this he establish'd Coell in the Government over the Britains and appointed the Propraetor Licinius Prisons whom he had purposely call'd from the Jewish Wars to be assistant to him by whose advice Coel set up a Municipal form of Government in all the Cities and great Towns something like that of the Romans and sent abroad Judges into the Country with Commission of Oyer and Terminer in all matters Criminal and Civil Now because the People were of different Nations and bred under different Laws part Britains and part Romans they observ'd this Rule to punish all Romans by Roman Magistrates all Britains by British only herein they gave respect to the Romans to submit that all Process should be in Latin which at first the Vulgar sort of Britains could not wel digest because they understood nothing of it but sympathy of Manners and continuation of Commerce introduc'd at last such an affection to the Language that they became not only knowing in the Tongue but very Critical in that knowledge arriving at a degree of Eloquence and that led them to a perfection in the (g) Of which they were wholy Ignorant before Liberal Sciences and in a very little time they were effeminated with all the Arts of that wanton Nation but as bad causes many times produce good effects so out of this Dunghill sprung that Flower the Luce which garnish'd the Temples of the succeeding King who meeting with an Age that affected new Notions suffer'd himself to be carry'd away in the Croud till happily and perhaps unexpectedly he arriv'd at last at the Doctrine of Christianity CYMBELIN date of accession 156 THE time ascrib'd by the British Historians to the 3 last Kings if there be no mistake in the Computation could take up no less then the Reigns of Six Emperours Titus Domitian Nerva Trajan Adrian and Antonius the two first of which were perhaps more unkind to the Britains then to any other of their Subjects but the two next permitted them the benefit of their own Kings the two last the priviledge of their own Laws but more beholding were they yet to the Emperor Aurelius who if he were not a real Christian as some (h) Hâ—linshed lib. 5. cap. 9. Historians believe him to be was yet as 't is reported of King Agrippa almost perswaded to be so in that he frankly priviledged all those of that perswasion and permitted this King to be the first profess'd Believer of any Prince in the World whereupon his Country-men chang'd his name of Cymbelin into that of Levermawr i. e. the Great Light upon which the Romans call'd him Lucius a Name that seems to have been written with the Beams of the Sun to the Intent it might be legible throughout all the Ages of the World in honour of which Emperor the said King entituled the first Canons that ere he made Leges Romanas Casaris Now however this was the first Christian King that ever was not excepting with reverence to the Writers of their Legend be it spoken either (i) Abdia Hist Apost lib. 9. Euseb lib. 1. cap. 13. Gundafer K. of India converted by St. Thomas or (k) Nicet Choniat in Andron Com. l. 2. Abagar K. of Edessa converted by Letters as they say from our Saviour himself Yet we must not take the Aera of Christianity within this Isle from the date of his Conversion Since Gildas whose Authority is not to be question'd deduces it tempore summo Tiberii which falls out not to be above five years after Christs Passion who by the Dionysian Accompt suffered in the eighteenth year of the Reign of that l) Whom Tertullian would have be thought a Christian himself distinct 80. c. in illis Clem. Prop. Tyrant However those that think not fit to look so far back do yet admit presidenti Arvirago and to this even the Roman Historians that liv'd near about the same time give some probable Testimony for what else can be understood by that strange (m) Lipsius interprets it Christianity Superstition of the Jews wherewith (n) Sueton. vit Ner. Suetonius complains that Pomponia the Wife of A. Plantius Lieutenant to Claudius here was infected Judaism being thought by the Romans to differ from Christianity in Specie only and most of our (o) Oildas Simon Metaphrastes Suriuâ— Cambden c. Antiquaries of the best Credit do affirm St. Peter to have been preaching here near about the same time So that the Conversion of Lucius may be esteemed rather happy then early who meeting with such a calm season as did not nip the Bud of his Devotion before it was fully blown it was no marvel having taken root so long before it sprung up so suddenly if so be we may call that growth sudden which yet rose by visible degrees to that perfection it attained to in his time for it is worthy the noting how the Britains by Conversation with the Romans became knowing first in the use of Arms after in the practise of Arts and Sciences natural civil moral and metaphisical In Cunobelin's time they refin'd their Money In the time of Marius they learn'd the Art of Fortifications The last King before this Instructed them in the Rules of Philosophy This in the Rudiments of Religion reducing it after into practise as divers of our Ecclesiastical Writers inform us by establishing with his Royal Authority A. B. and Bishops in the Church instead of those Flamins and Arch-Flamins which were before in the Paganish Temples wherein the British Church had the start of all other Christian Churches in the World in point of honour as well as Order There being no Constat of so high a Title as that of (p) Vsher primord Malmesbury Arch-Bish in any of the Eastern Churches at that time from whom those of Rome and all the Western Churches had theirs many years after which shews that his pious purpose was not to suffer Religion to loose any part of that State and
desert Woods and Mountains where tyred with flight or vanquisht with Famine they languisht under the oppression of their boundless liberty whilst each prey'd upon the other with such uncontrouled violence as made every one as terrible to his Neighbour as his Enemy was to him This brought them under the necessity of chusing another King who proving as careless of the common danger as he was inapprehensive of his own ruin'd them irrecoverably by the same means he hoped to have preserv'd them trusting to the assistance of a Foreign Nation that did them more mischief by being their Friends then it had been possible for them to have done by being as but a little before they were their profest Enemies I. CLASS OF BRITONES Vortigern An. Ch. 446. A. Ambrosius An. Ch. 481. Vter Pendragon An. Ch. 498. Arthur An. Ch. 517. Constantine An. Ch. 543. Caridic An. Ch. 586. VORTIGERN date of accession 446 Great were the hopes conceiv'd of this Prince his Virtue greater those of his Fortune whilst being both a Christian and a Chieftain of so high note no man could doubt his Power that did not distrust his Courage But standing single and alone like a high Tree upon a large Plain it was not in the power of Fate to keep him from being blown down Neither was it so great a wonder that he should fall being exposed as he was to such lasting Storms of Hostility as that his Son VORTIMER should so overtop him who rising like a dwarf'd Plant out of a Thicket of Brambles for his whole Reign was as one continued Battel of twelve Years grew so crooked in making his way out that it was not likely he should attain to any considerable height having this necessity added to the rest of his unhappiness that by the same means he expected to be Great he was obliged to be Impious The regard he pretended to have to his Country being so incompatible with that due to his Father that nothing but his own could have prevented his Fathers death This Vortigern foreseeing by instinct of Majesty that is a compound of Fear Jeaâ—ousie and Power and being naturally prone to fear his Friends more than his Enemies he took advantage of the common danger to prevent his own and with like rashness as that which Court flatterers call Resolution in Princes he call'd in Nine thousand Foreigners to his Assistance of the English Nation A race of People at that time grown so terrible even to the Romans themselves that their very Name made them way to Victory with these he pretended to subdue the Picts but intended to correct the Insolence and Envy of his Domestick Foes Their Leader was one Engist a politick Prince who to make his conquest sure brought along with him a fair young Daughter to be partaker of his Glory by reducing the amorous King under her power whiles he brought the clamorous People under his the weakness of both the one and the other being so notoriously known that he concluded him as little able to stand against her as they to withstand him neither was he deceiv'd in the conjecture the power of her Charms being so resistless that it was not long before the fascinated King repudiated his Christian Wife to espouse her that was a Pagan This as it aggravated the offence generally taken by his People so it particularly provoked his Son Vortimer to lay aside all obligations of Affection and Duty who neither respecting him as a Father not as a King punish'd his sin seemingly against Nature as well as Reason by a judgment no less strange and inhumane commanding that he should at once be deprived of life and honour by putting him into that condition as made them equally burthensome to him whiles he was immured betwixt two Walls within the narrow confines of such a dismal Dungeon as seeming like was yet so much worse then a Grave as the present shame and scorn worse then death Thus he continued dying all the time of his Sons life but he being slain by the Saxons by a rare accident in the fortune of Princes he recovered not only his Liberty and with it his Understanding but so far repossest himself of the affections of the People who naturally incline to pity men in misery and much more their Prince that believing him thoroughly sensible of his error and encouraged by his Example they set upon the Saxons unanimously and began a War that every body believed wouâ—d have ended even when it began being so merciless and bloody on both sides that 't is no little wonder how they found matter for their cruelty since equal force meeting with equal courage neither Nation yielding both must be destroy'd So fierce indeed was the execution on either side that Victory delighting in mischief seem'd to hover over both Armies as not resolv'd which deserv'd best of her The Britains strove to shut the door of Invasion the Saxons fought to keep it open and as long as they were upon even terms the Britains grapled desperately with them But the Saxons having possest themselves of several Ports by which they receiv'd continual recruits out of their own Country they not only tyred out all those that liv'd nearest the danger but which was yet more dangerous by picking one Arrow out of the Sheaf hazarded the falling out of all the rest for the gaining Kent made their way into Sussex the possession of that gave them admission into Suffolk and Norfolk the loss of those lost the North And in the end Vortigern too late finding how he was involved in the misery of his own folly not more confounded with sorrow then shame retired first into Cornwall after into Wales where he dyed as unpitied as he was miserable This extremity beat Vortigern off from his first confidence and mortified him so far that he was content to give up a third part of his Dominions that he might quietly enjoy the rest But as the pouring Water upon Fire if it do not utterly quench raises the flame higher so what he gave contributed so little to the satisfaction of their Avarice and so much less to that of their Ambition that it serv'd only to increase their desire of having more and to draw them on from one Proposal to another till they had so far wasted and weakened him in Reputation and Power that another Enemy seemingly less considerable was emboldened to put in his claim for the rest This was the present King who being a Prince of the same stock I cannot say of the same temper justled him out of the Throne at the first shock and finding him reeling prest so hard upon him that his fall made a greater noyse then his rise With this Aurelius Ambrosius came over his Brother Uter a Prince very early in action and for his fierceness sirnamed Pendragon to these the People as willingly opened their Purses as their Ports so that like two young Eagles being upon the wing they took their slight several wayes each
to prey for himself where ere they could find their Quarry Ambrosius set upon the Saxons whiles Uter sought out Vortigern This brought a fourth pretender into the list as forward and fortunate as either of them who had he been as skilful to keep as he was to get a Victory he might possibly by turning Fortune round have made her so giddy that she could not in a short time have been able to bear up as after she did and fix her self upon one side This was Pascentius the second Son of Vortigern who mov'd with like Zeal to preserve his Father as his elder Brother was to preserve his Country joyned with the Saxons and set upon Ambrosius to divert Uter and if possible to have contracted the War into a narrower room at that place now called Aymesbury but in the first place Ambrosebury in memory of K. Ambrosius his being slain there where they met with so like assurance and not unlike courage that the hopes on either side seem'd evenly poys'd But the Battel ending with the lives of the two great Undertakers Ambrosius and Pascentius the one just ready to step into the Throne the other not well fixed in it who went into the other World with a sufficient train of Followers to shew what rank they held in this Uter enter'd not only without resistance but without a Rival which added no less to his Greatness then to his Security This one would have thought had been sufficient to have unravel'd all his Glory and to have rendred him not only lost to all the World but to himself too But as the Palm-tree is therefore figurative of Victory because the more it is depressed the stronger it bears up against the weight is laid upon it so he less sensible of his own then his Armies weakness caus'd himself to be carried in his Litter to them and that unexpected conquest of his own infirmities so animated their activity that finding they must either leave all their Bodies dead upon the place or his in case they did not make themselves Masters of the Day they tarried not to expect the Assault but gave it whereby turning the surprise upon the other side they slew Ten thousand of their best men and forced the rest to seek safeguard under the protection of their new landed Forces who taught by the experience of former Battels lost how necessary 't is to joyn to Courage caution had strongly fortified themselves within an inaccessable Rampart which he indeavouring to force lost his Victory as unexpectedly as he got it and with it his own amongst many other lives falling like the fierce Creature from which he took his Name whose Image 't is thought he bore upon his Shield to shew his descent from the Roman Emperours as our Kings since have continued it amongst the Royal Banners of England to shew their descent from him THE THIRD DYNASTY OF ENGLISH OF ENGLISH SUccessors to the Romans were the English a People of so ancient an Extract that he that will trace their Original must follow it as Berosus doth into the Flood for as they were ever famous by Sea so they deduce their Pedigree from the Universal Deluge (a) Whom the â—ermans worshipt for their God of War as the Romans Mars Woden their Common Ancestor being descended in a direct Line from (b) From whom the German Language is call'd the Tentonick Theutones the Grandchild or (c) Lanquet Gambrivius the first Inventer of good Ale and Beer which they have lov'd but too well ever since he was the third in descent from (d) From whom they were call'd Germans Manus Son of (e) From whom the German Language came to be call'd the Twich or Tutch Tongue Tuisco the eldest Son of Gomer the first Son of Japheth third Son of Noah whom Moses remembers by the name of Aschenaz from whom the Hebrews call the Germans (f) Illust Poliolb fol. 70. Aschenims Thus their own Records will have them to be some of the most renown'd Reliques of the Old World however Tacitus who began to live near about the time Christ died by what mis-understanding I know not makes no mention of them otherwise than under the Common Name of Cimbri But probable 't is that in respect they possess'd that part of Germany which lyes betwixt the Rhene and the River Albis over which the Romans never pass'd being by (g) Ptol. lib. 5. c. 18. Ptolomey's Reckoning near a third part of the whole he had not the good hap to attain to any near acquaintance with them At their first Arrival here they design'd to change the Name of Britain into Nova Saxonia or rather Saxonia Transmarina they themselves passing under the general Name of Saxons so call'd from their (h) Lipsius Seaiâ—es a sort of short Swords or rather long Knives that they wore under their Arming Coats So much more remarkable amongst the unadvised Britains in that they made a most fatal Proof of the dangerous use of them by the loss of no less than three hundred Lives at one Interview amongst whom were divers of the best Quality of their Nation who were inhumanely butcher'd at a Parley where they met unarm'd in that desert place now call'd Stonenge in Wiltshire by some suppos'd to be the Monument of that days Treachery for which there can be no excuse but that of the Poet Virtus an dolus quis in Hoste requirat But after they got the entire possessâ—on of the whole they chang'd their minds and as some say in honour of Engist the first Invader they turn'd the Name of Britain into Engistland or as others say complying with the Angles the greatest People amongst them call'd it Anglelond which since we term England They were divided into three distinct Tribes differing as in Countrey so in Name The first call d JUTES or as Bede calls them VITES these before they came hither inhabited the Mountains that divide Germany from Italy in the first place and afterwards fixt themselves in the Cimbrian Cbersoness since call'd Juitland their portion here was most of the South part of the Isle being thereupon term'd South-sex toward that Island which from them was call'd the Isle of Vites or Wight The second Tribe was call'd ANGLES who possessing the South part of the Chersoness gave name to the Town of Angolen These were the greatest Scept both for fame and power who taking up much of the East all the North and most of the North-west part of this Isle being four parts of seven in the whole the rest took its denomination from them and fell under the general appellation of (i) Which in the Ventonick Tongue signifâ—es the Sâ—aight or Narrow Land Angleland or England The third Tribe which afterwards devorred the other two were those most properly call'd Saxons and for distinction sake from the rest of their own Countrey (k) Aâ— Holiz quod Silvâ—â— Ligâ—â—â— sigâ—â—ficat HOLY SAXONS in respect of their woody Countrey
probability of Return whereby he became so much at ease in his own thoughts that being upon the wing again he thought himself not only Master of himself but of every body else and now despising all after-claps he seized upon all the Dukes Estate to his own use which as it look'd like a Revenge now he was dead that might have past for a piece of Justice if he had been living so it gave many cause to pity the Duke his Son who otherwise could have been well enough content never to have seen him more Neither was this the worst on 't but apprehending from what the King did to him what possibly he might do to any of them they made his particular suffering the ground of their Publick Resentment which Hereford took upon the first bound and made that good use of it that when he came after to claim the Crown that it appear'd the best colour of Right he had was from this wrong whereof yet the King was no way sensible who as I said before despising all dangers at home directed all his Caution to those abroad only taking with him young Henry of Monmouth the Duke of Hereford's and since his Fathers Death Duke of Lancaster's Son and Heir into Ireland whither he went to suppress some Rebels This however it seem'd to be an occasion of Glory which the Bravery of his Youth could not suffer him to pretermit whilst those petty Kings who were eye witnesses of his disproportionate Power taught their undisciplin'd People Obedience by the Example of their own Submission yet it prov'd an empty Affectation and so much more fatal in the Consequence by how much it was scarce possible to conceal much less recover his Error till the Exil'd Duke of Lancaster took his advantage of it who finding him out of his Circle return'd into England with that speed as if he had been afraid lest Fortune should change her mind before he could change his condition Great was the concourse of People that congratulated his Arrival neither was their confluence less considerable for Quality then Number the Archbishop of Canterbury banish'd for being one of the Confederates with the Duke of Gloucester the Earls of Northumberland Westmoreland Darby and Warwick the Lords Willoughby Ross Darcy Beaumont and divers others besides Knights and Esquires of great Repute in their Countries who offer'd to serve him with their Lives and Fortunes and as they mov'd they increas'd so fast that the Duke of York left Regent during the Kings absence thought it convenient to attend him at Berclay Castle and from thence to Bristow where the first Tragedy began for there finding the Earl of Wiltshire the Lord High Treasurer with Sir Henry Ewin Sir Henry Bussy both men of great note of the Kings party they arraign'd them there for misgoverning of the King and having smote off their Heads proceeded to imprison the Bishop of Norwich Sir William Elmeham Sir Walter Burleigh and divers others upon the same account setting up a direct Tyranny which continued six Weeks before the King by reason of contrary winds heard any thing of it Upon the first notice given him he made a shew of being so little concern'd at it that he declar'd he would not stir out of Dublin till all things fitting for his Royal Equipage were made ready but understanding afterward that they had seiz'd several of his Castles he sent over the Earl of Salisbury to make ready an Army against his landing promising to follow him in six dayes after but the Wind or rather his Mind changing the Earls Forces believing he might be dead disbanded again and left their unfortunate General to himself Eighteen dayes after this the King arriv'd who finding how things stood for they had taken off the Heads of several of his chief Councellors imprison'd the principallest of his Friends and gotten the possession of many of his strong Forts and Castles his Heart so fail'd him on the sudden that he immediately gave Command to the Army that was with him to Disband and so degenerate were his Fears that when he could not prevail with them to quit him for they all resolv'd to dye in his Defence and being mov'd with no less Pity then Duty to see him so dejected solemnly vow'd never to leave him he most wretchedly gave them the Temptation to break their Faith by leaving them first withdrawing himself by night unknown to Conway Castle where he understood the Earl of Salisbury was But as a King can no more hide himself then the Sun which however eclipsed cannot be lost so it was not long ere the Duke of Hereford found him out and drawing his Forces to Chester sent from thence the Earl of Northumberland to assure him of his Faith and Homage upon Condition he would call a free Parliament and there permit Justice to be done to him Here Fortune seems to have made one stand more to give him time if possible to recover himself but he instead of giving an Answer worthy the Dignity of a King did what was indeed unworthy a Private man begging of the Earl to interpose with the Duke for him that he might only have an honorable Allowance to lead a private life deposing himself unexpectedly before t'other could have the time and opportunity however he might have the thought to do it solemnly The notice hereof did not a little surprize the Duke when he heard of it who doubting least there was something more in it then he perceiv'd wisely kept himself within the bounds of seeming Obedience and treated his Majesty with all imaginable respect till they arrived at London then under pretence of securing him he lodg'd him in the Tower where he made him the Instrument of his own destruction by calling a Parliament that had no other business but to arraign his Government and impeach him and accordingly Articles were drawn up against him which shew how small a matter turns the Scale when Power is put into the Ballance against Justice The chief of them were as followeth 1. That he had been very profuse a very grievous Crime in a King so young 2. That he had put some to death that conspired to depose him 3. That he had borrowed more money then he was well able to pay the first King that ever lost his Crown for being in Debt and yet was not to be said he was altogether a Bankrupt that had in his Coffers when he dyed the value of Seven hundred thousand pounds 4. That he said the Law was in his Breast and Head and perhaps the Lawyers would have made it good if they durst who have given it for an Axiome of the Law that the King is Caput Principium Finis Justitiae 5. That he chang'd Knights and Burgesses of Parliament at his pleasure by making those Peers of the Realm whom he thought worthy the honour 6. That he said the Lives and Goods of his Subjects were under his power which shews what confidence he had in their
derive themselves from a Monster by the Fathers side and from a Gipsy on the Mothers side But the name of Scot bearing the same signification with Gayothel we may more reasonably conclude it was first given them by the Saxons either for the reason aforesaid as the word (m) Scot illud dictum quod ex diversis rebus in unum Acervum aggregatum est Camb. ex M. Westm Scot like the word Alman with them signifi'd a Body aggregated out of many Particulars into one or else by contraction of the word Attacot for the High landers making their way into the Borders of the Low-lands inhabited by the Picts who were the ancient Britains beat out by the Romans the Picts thereupon remov'd into the West and left the East part of the Country intire to them who sithence which was near about Aurelian's time or a little after made themselves known to the Romans by the Name before mentioned of Attacots The Picts and they made War upon each other for a long time mov'd by want as other Nations by wantonness for the great Commodity they fought for was Bread the want whereof brought them to accord a Cessation of Arms every Season during Seed-time but the Corn being in ground they fought on till Harvest following after which every Victor was known by his Garland of several sorts of Grain as the Roman Conquerors by theirs of several sorts of Boughs But when the Roman Empire began to decline both of them united in one hope of recovering that part of the Isle which is since call'd England And after the Romans totally quit it they press'd so hard upon Vortigern the then Titular King that he was forc'd the Romans having deny'd him further assistance to call in the Saxons to his aid who finding them then call'd by the Name of Attacots after their usual manner of abbreviation they term'd them Scots The first of all their Kings at least the first worthy that Title that broke over the great Clausura or Mound then call'd the * By the Romans nam'd the Picts-Wall Wiath was one Fergus Sirnam'd the Fierce a Prince descended from the ancient Kings of Ireland for I take the first Fergus and his One hundred thirty seven Successors to be at too great a distance to have their height truly taken who not induring that his Territories should be bounded when his Ambition could not that broke in like a Land-flood and over-run all the adjacent Countries making his Name so terrible that the Romans themselves imputing that to his Fortune which any other Nation would have ascrib'd to his Fortitude made an honourable retreat and left the poor Britains to defend themselves who doubtless had been over-run by him had not the Picts emulous of his Glory interrupted his Successes by whose vicinity both he and his Successors were so much streightned that they could not much inlarge their Territories till the Reign of Keneth the First a wise Prince who reducing that Kingdom under him not so much by Puissance as Policy made that the middle which was before but the bounds of his Dominions deserving therefore to be esteem'd tanquam alter Conditor About Sixty years after him another of the same Name tenth in descent from him rais'd the Throne a step higher having got as great a Conquest over the People as the other did over the Picts by turning the Optimacy into a direct Monarchy for he made the Succession Hereditary that till then was but Elective The fittest and ablest saith Buchanan being till that time prefer'd before the nearest or noblest since which time the eldest Son of the King of Scots hath been alwayes stil'd the Prince of Scots This King however gain'd not so much upon the Nobility in point of Majesty but that they gain'd much more upon his Successors in point of Power so that their Superiority was scarce so distinguishable for a long time from a bare Precedency but that they might rather be call'd Regnantes than Reges so long as the Thanage lasted who being a kind of Palatines exercis'd an absolute Power over their particuâ—ar Tenants and Vassals cum Jure Furci Thus they continued as it were under their good behaviour absolute Princes but bounded with many Restrictions till the time of James the Fourth whose Predecessors having clear'd their Title from all Incumbrances by Competitors leaving him sole Heir of the Peoples Affections as well as of his Predecessors Glory he married the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter and at length Heir to our Henry the Seventh by which Match their Thistle being ingrafted into our Rose mended both its colour and smell And their Kings that had been a kind of Homagers to ours from the beginning almost of their Monarchy became as it were manumitted by the expectation of their Title Paramount and by the possibility of being Lords of the Imperial Crown of this Realm The primier Seizen of which happiness after the death of Queen Elizabeth without Issue was in James the Sixth who Sirnam'd himself the Peaceable to let the World know he came not in by Conquest but Consent having this honour above all that were before him and probably beyond what any shall have that come after him his way was made before him not by any humane power but by Divine Providence long since reveal'd by a written Prophesie ingraved though not understood in that fatal Stone which is plac'd within the Regal Chair where the Kings of Scots anciently and ours since have been crown'd brought by them out of Ireland in the first place and by our King Edward the First translated hither afterwards whose words now they are fulfill'd seem plain enough Ni fallat fatum Scoti quocunque locatum Invenient Lapidem regnare tenentur ibidem This by the Ancients was call'd Saxum Jacobi as for that as Tradition had deliver'd it they believ'd this to be the Stone on which the Patriarch Jacob rested his Head But we of later times have found it to be Saxum Jacobi with relation to him who was to take up his rest here who being by a Decree from Heaven declared Head of this Nation may not improperly be call'd our Patriarch Jacob the first King of that People that ever was crown'd in this Kingdom by whom the Scots may be said to Reign here according to another Prophesie as ancient as the former recorded by Higden in his Polichronicon and evidently fulfilled at his coming in when he transplanted so many of his Country-men into our fat Soil that they grew up like Weeds to that degree of rankness as in the Age folâ—owing to choke the best Flowers in our Garden and taking advantage of us when we were drunk with Prosperity brought us like drunken men to quarrel one with another for what since we came to our selves we cannot find or are at least asham'd to tell having by the corrupted Principles we first received from them ingaged our selves in so groundless a War that after Ages will not believe
which were likewise confirm'd by Act of Parliament the great Lords having as yet heard nothing of any Commission of Surrendries which was that great Rock of Offence against which his Successor King Charles the First did so unluckily dash himself to pieces Due care being thus taken for Establishment of Truth and Order in the Church the next great Work was to establish quiet in the State that Righteousness and Peace might kiss each other which he judged to be a consideration not less necessary then prudent the active Government of his Predecessor Queen Elizabeth who led all the brave men in her time to hard duty having tired out almost a l the stirring Spirits of the Nation However though it did ease it did not generally please the People the humor of Fighting being not so wholly spent but that it broke out afterward to worse purpose it being in our Fate as has been observ'd by some Melancholy States-men that whenever we are long kept from quarrelling with others we are apt to quarrel with one another But that which discontented the Men of Mars most was to see the Faction of the Gown-men pricking up and wholly predominant Upon this lower Orb as in the Skie Aleyn Vit. H. 7. Sol constantly is nearest Mercury Neither did he take part with them so much out of the pleasure he had in Books as out of an aversness to Arms whereunto he seem'd to have such an Antipathy that by his good will he did not care to see any Sword-man within his Palace whereby the Court came by degrees to loose two points of its ancient Lustre one in the Exercise of Tilting which was an Entertainment that added much to the Grandeur and Magnificence of the late Queen and King Henry her Father the other in the choice of the Gentlemen Pentioners an Order which being set up by the Wisdom of her Grand-father Henry the Seventh a Prince of severe Gravity she was so fond of and so curious in ordering the state of their attendance that none could attain to that honour all her time but who were men of very good Quality and yet more goodly Stature who by their graceful Personage might set forth the place as she design'd the place should set forth them so that in time it became a kind of Nursery for Officers and Men of Command who were sent abroad into France and the Low-Countries to learn the Art of cutting Throats if need were and so return'd again But this King it seems being taken with no such armed Pomp neglected it so far that some of the ruffling Gallants about the Town began to speak of it with more freedom then became their Duty or Discretion taxing him downright with Pusillanimity and causless fears saying that he trifled away more money in insignificant Embassies and Negotiations for a dishonorable Peace then would have maintain'd an honorable War But he having before shut up the Gates of Janus all his talk was as we commonly say without Doors for he esteem'd it honour enough that he had conquer'd himself according to that of the Poet Fortior est qui se quam qui fortissima vincit Moenia Peace he had at home without his seeking for it O Neil the great Disturber of his Predecessors quiet being presented to him as a Prisoner by the Lord Mountjoy as soon almost as he came in which gave him the occasion to begin with the settlement of Ireland first by giving the possession of the whole Province of Ulster O Neil's Country and the sink of Rebellion to the Citizens of London who thereupon setled two Colonies there the one at Derry every since call'd London-derry t'other at Colraine which they stor'd with Four hundred Artizans whilst the King for the better supplying them with Souldiers erected a new Order of Knighthood call'd Baronets from their taking place next the Sons of Barons each of which was ingaged to lay down as much money at the Sealing of his Patent as would maintain thirty Foot Souldiers one whole year at the rate of Eight pence a day a piece which came to twenty shillings a day And the Complement of these Knights being Two hundred there was a compleat Establishment of Three thousand Souldiers without any further noise to be ready for his Service whenever he had occasion to make use of them Now in order to the having Peace abroad there needed no more but to renew the Leagues he had made before with the Princes his Neighbours under another stile The great Question was Whether he should accept of the Olive-branch from the King of Spain with whom his Predecessor had so long contended for the Laurel and upon debating the whole matter besides the motives of the Half-peace already made with him whilst he was King of Scotland and the whole benefit of Trade that he was like to have as he was King of England the certainty of setting the Catholick and the most Christian Kings together by the Ears the uncertainty of being able to raise monies to maintain a War so easily as Queen Elizabeth did who had the knack of borrowing money which serv'd her to as good purpose as if it had been given the Parliament being for the most part the Pay-masters there were many Reasons of State some whereof were not fit to be publish'd perhaps not to be understood which induced him to call in the Letters of Mart and conclude that League which how acceptable it was to both Kings may be guess'd by the mutual Caressings of each other with extraordinary Embassies and Presents and the more then ordinary Ratification of the Articles of Peace but how far the People were content to have any Friendship with the Catholick King it is easie to guess especially after the discovery of that Catholick Plot commonly call'd the Gun-powder Treason which as it was contriv'd in a hotter place then Spain so it was hatch'd up in Darkness never to partake of the Light but when it was to be all Light and to give such a terrible blow as was at once to Extinguish the Light the Hope and the Glory of this Nation This the All-seeing Eye of Providence which pierces thorow the dark Womb of Conspiracy and blasts the Embrio of Treason before it can be form'd miraculously detected to the amazement of all Mankind no body imagining there could be such danger by Fire so near unto the Water the meaning of it being so little understood even after it was discovered that neither could the Lord Monteagle who receiv'd the first notice in a Letter writ in an unknown hand tell to what Friend he owed his Preservation nor any one else guess from what Enemy they were to expect their destruction till the King himself by inspiration rather then instinct yet admonish'd perhaps by the subversion of that House wherein his Father was murther'd apprehended by the word Blow what the Element must be that was to be so subtil in its Execution as that they who were hurt for
to both yet neither was so tortur'd between the Consideration of what was safe and what was Just that it appear'd in bringing the Earl they had brought him to Tryal and put him into such an Agony as shook the very Foundations of the Government And this Hesitation of his prov'd to be the Groundwork of three the most Important Jealousies that ever troubled any State the Parliament thereupon declaring themselves dissatisfied in the Security of their Religion Proprieties and Priviledges to the clearing whereof they made not long after three as strange Proposals 1. For the Extirpation of Bishops 2. The Establishment of a Triennial Parliament 3. The Delivery of the Militia into their Disposal This Contumacy of theirs taking its rise from the Confidence they had in their Brethren the Scots who all this while continued in Arms upon the Borders for want of money to disband them eating like a Fistula Insensibly into the Bowels of the Kingdom he made it his first care to cure that Malady wherein he proceeded with that great judgment and skill that in paying them off the Parliament gave the Money but he the Satisfaction having thereby so far recover'd the good Opinion of those People however they came to be perverted afterward that as soon as he arriv'd in their Country whither he went in Person presently after the Peace was concluded they gave him two notable Instances of their Duty and Submission The first Publick in reviving that good old Law there which made it Treason for any to Leavy Arms without the Kings Leave and Commission The second Private in the discovery of the five Members here that had been the principal Engineers to draw them into England But whilst he was busie in quenching the Incendiations of Scotland behold a more dreadful Fire breaks out in Ireland the Matter whereof was so prepaâ—'d that there appear'd very little or no smoak of Suspition till it was all in a Flame and which made it more terrible was That the Rebels pretended to take their Rule from the English as their President from the Scots in defending their Religion Proprieties and Liberties by Arms all which being as they said undermined not knowing how soon the Blow might be given they thought it justifiable enough to prevent what they could not withstand Now to prove that their Religion was in danger they urg'd the Preparatory Votes and Menaces of the House of Commons in England and for the proof of the Impairing their Liberty and Proprieties they referr'd to the Remonstrances of those in Scotland who made it the first motive of their rising that they were like to be reduced to the slavish Condition of Ireland in being brought under the Form of a Province and subjected to the insupportable Tyranny of a * The placing a President ov r the Councel of State being the Ground of that Fear Lord Lieutenant And now to add a Varnish to this Colour they declar'd for Preservation of the Kings Rights as well as their own swearing to oppose with Life Power and Estate all such as should directly or indirectly indeavour to Suppress the Royal Prerogative of the King his Heirs and Successors or do any †Referring to the Proceedings of the Parliament in England who had but a little before taken away the Tonnage Poundage the Sâ—ipmoney Court of Wards High Commission-Court and were earnestly contesting for the Militia c. Act or Acts contrary to the Royal Government This Declaration of theirs was written with a Pen of Iron in Letters of Blood as believing that no Rebels in the World had more to say for themselves then they at least that they had much more matter of Justification then either the Scots or English could pretend to who justified themselves by seigning only to suspect what t'other really suffer'd under Neither perhaps had the World so condemned them all Circumstances considered had there not appear'd a Self-condemnation within themseâ—ves by counterfeiting a * Whiâ—h that it might be the more authent câ— they take off an old Seal from an Absolâ—te Patent to Farâ—ham-Abby which they annex'd to it Commission from the King to justifie this their Arming falsly bragging that the Queen was with them and that the King would very shortly come to them Which as it was a base and abject piece of Policy that lost them more Credit when it was detected then it got them Repute while it was believ'd so it was malitious towards the King to that degree with respect to the Condition he was then in that it cannot otherwise be thought but that having murther'd so many of his Protestant Subjects they had a mind to murther him too The Consequences of that great Suspition it brought upon him being such as he could never recover the disadvantages it fastned on him till he fell finally under the power of those Sons of Belial who destroyed him for no other Reason but to destroy Monarchy it self So that he was not much mistaken who confidently averred It was the Papists brought him to the block the Presbyterians that tuck'd up his hair and the Fanatick that cut off his head Whereof he himself was so sensible that the very last words he us'd as if to shew he alike abhorr'd either of them was to profess He dyed a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as he found it left him by his Father foreseeing that he should suffer more by Reproach then by the Axe After which he resigned himself to the fatal stroke with that cheerfulness as shew'd he believ'd by removing that Scandal only he should get a greater Victory over his Enemies when he was dead then ever they got over him whilst he was alive The ill news of Ireland drew him with all imaginable haste out of Scotland But before he could come to the Consideration of that great Affair he was prevented by the Parliaments renewing their old Complaints who found a slight occasion of quarrel to introduce other matters that they knew would widen the Difference beyond all reconciliation for his Majesty having taken publick notice of a Bill that was depending in the House whereby he thought his Prerogative pinch'd to which therefore he offer'd a Provisional Clause with a Salvo Jure to himself and the people to prevent all Disputes at the passing of it they interpreted this to be so high a violation of their Priviledge that they pray'd to have the Informers brought in to condign punishment Seconding that Petition with a Remonstrance against all those whose Affection or Interest they thought might be serviceable to him under a new coyn'd name of Malignants which they ranged into three Classes 1. Jesuited Papists 2. Corrupted Clergy-men and Bishops 3. Interested Counsellors and Courtiers concluding thereupon 1. That no Bishops should have any Votes in Parliament 2. That no People should be imploy'd about him but such as they could confide in 3. That none of the Lands forfeited by the Irish Rebels should be
as his Reason and the Greatness of his Mind much more impregnable then that of his Power wherein though his Patience came not so near to that of our Saviours as his Passion did or as their barbarity rather did to that of those Souldiers imploy'd in that accursed drudgery of his Execution yet it appears to have been such as was as much above their Expectation as himself was above their Malice Witness his Exit not like a Lyon but a Lamb For notwithstanding the sight of those Ropes and Rings which they had provided in case he had strugled with them to bind him down to the Scaffold as a Sacrifice to the Altar had been enough to have disorder'd the Passions of any man much more a King yet having a firm belief that his honor should not suffer with him but as his own words are * In his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rise again like the Sun after Owls and Batts had had their freedom in the night to recover such lustre as should dazle the eyes of those feral Birds and make them unable to behold him he was so well fortified with that assurance that he despised the shame and endured the fatal stroak with alike Magnanimity as that Great †Galbaâ— Emperor who stretch'd forth his neck and bid the Souldiers strike boldly if it were for their Countries good Here seem'd to be the Consummatum est of all the happiness of this Kingdom as well as of the Life of this King For upon his Death the Vail of the Temple rent and the Church was overthrown An universal Darkness overspread the State which lasted not for twelve hours only but twelve years The two great Luminaries of Law and Gospel were put out Such as could not write supply'd the place of Judges such as could not read of Bishops Peace was maintain'd by War Licentiousness by Fasting and Prayer The Commonalty lost their Propriety the Gentry their Liberty the Nobility their Honour the Clergy their Authority and Reverence The Stream of Government ran down in new-cut Chanels whose Waters were alwayes shallow and troubled And new Engines were invented by the new Statesmen that had the stâ—erage to catch all sorts of Fish that came to their Nets some were undone by Sequestration others by Composition some by Decimation or Proscription In sine it appear'd when too late that the whole Kingdom suffer'd more by his suffering then he himself who being so humbled as he was even unto death falling beneath the scorn mounted above the Envy of his Adversaries and had this advantage by their Malice to gain a better Crown then they took from him whiles not induring that he should be their King they consider'd not that they made him their Martyr Quando ullum invenient parem Horat. Ode 24. lib. 1. Multis ille bonis flebilis occidit HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT Now whether the Plot of this imaginary Structure came first from Hell or Holland matters not much but so it was that like the New-buildings there it cost more to make good the Ground it stood on then the Superstructure was worth which made the People in a very little time so weary both of the Projection and the Projectors that it was not long ere it fell into visible decay Now as ill-built Houses whose Foundations fail do not suddenly fall but cracking sink by degrees so the wiser Brethren the Scots foreseeing what the end would be withdrew themselves betimes whereby they not only avoided the danger of being crush'd under the ruins of so ill-grounded a Democracy but did themselves that right to be theÌ„ first return'd to as they were the first went from their Allegiance and however many then thought they did but like Foxes who having once slipt Collar are hardly ever to be chain'd up so fast but that they will one time or another get loose again yet this honest Apostacy of theirs made such a Schism for the present in the Brotherhood that had not Cromwell very opportunely stept into the Gap to stay them the whole Flock like frighted Sheep had then broke out to follow the right Shepheard Non aliud discordantis Patria remedium est quam ut ab uno regeretur Tacit. Annal. This he very well knew and resolving to make the advantage to himself like a second Antipater that would not wear the Purple outwardly but was all Purple within under an humble habit of Meekness he so deluded them that they chose him for their Supream Magistrate under the Title of Protector of the Common-wealth of England Scotland and Ireland Now least they should discover his Ambition before he could master their affection he began his Government not much unlike Tiberius who saith Tacitus would have all things continue at the manner was in the ancient * Meaning under their Consuls Free State for as he was willing to be thought irresolv'd whether to accept of the Empire or not and thereupon would not permit any Edict though it were but to call the Lords of the Senate to Councel to be proclaimed by the Vertue and Authority of any other but a Tribune himself being one so Cromwell retaining still the name of Common-wealth that his Tyranny might seem to differ from the former no otherwise then a Wolf doth from a Dogg submitted all to the Authority of the Parliament whereof himself was a Member And to assure the faithful of the Land that the Rule over them however it were by a single Person disser'd much from Antichristian Monarchy he did so far adventure to deny himself as to admit of those Popular Votes which every Body thought were so incompatible with all Kingly Principles that it was impossible for any one ever to cheat them into Allegiance again As 1. That the People under God are the Original of all just Power 2. That the Commons of England in Parliament assembled being chosen by and representing the People have the Supream Authority of this Nation 3. That whatsoever is enacted by them and declar'd for Law hath the force of Law 4. That all the People of this Nation were concluded thereby although the consent and concurrence of the King and House of Peers were not had thereto But long it was not ere he extracted out of the dreggs of these Votes certain Spirits that made those about him so drunk with Ambition and Courage that they forgat all their Republican Resolves and as 't is said that Caesar incouraged the fearful Pilot that was to waft him over Sea in a Storm by only telling him he carried Caesar and his Fortunes so they were animated by the confidence they observ'd in him who on the sudden was exalted to that wonderful pitch of boldness as altered his very Countenance made it not much unlike that of * Sutton Vit. Neron Lucius Domitius the great Ancestor of the Aenobarbi whose face being stroked by two Cluii or familiar Damons