can very well assure you and in the Word of a King promise unto you that I shall never give the first occasion of the breach thereof neither shall I ever be moved for any particular or private passion of mind to interrupt your publick peace except I be forced thereunto either for reparation of the honour of the Kingdom or else by necessity for the weal and preservation of the same In which case a secure and honourable War must be preferred before an unsecure and dishonourable peace Yet do I hope by my experience of the by past blessings of peace which God hath so long ever since my birth bestowed upon me that he will not be weary to continue the same nor repent him of his grace towards me transferring that sentence of King Davids upon his by past Victories of War to mine of peace That that God who preserved me from the devouring jaws of the Bear and of the Lion and delivered them into my hand shall now also grant me Victory over that uncircumcised Philistine But although outward peace be a great blessing yet it is as far inferiour to peace within as Civil Wars are more cruel and unnatural than Wars abroad And therefore the second great blessing that God hath with my Person sent unto you is Peace within and that in a double form First by my dedescent lineally out of the loyns of Henry the seventh is re-united and confirmed in me the Vnion of the two Princely Roses of the two Houses of Lancaster and York whereof that King of happy memory was the first Vniter as he was also the first ground-layer of the other peace The lamentable and miserable events by the civil and bloody dissension betwixt these two Houses was so great and so late as it need not be renewed unto your memories which as it was first setled and united in Him so it is now re-united and confirmed in Me being justly and lineally descended not only of that happy conjunction but of both the Branches thereof in any Times before But the Union of these two Princely Houses is nothing comparable to the Union of the two ancient and famous Kingdoms which is the other Inward peace annexed to my Person And here I must crave your patience for a little space to give me leave to discourse more particularly of the Benefits that do arise of that Vnion which is made in my blood being a matter that belongeth most properly to me to speak of as the Head wherein that great Body is united And first if we were to look no higher than to Natural and Physical Reasons we may easily be perswaded of the great Benefits that by this Vnion do redound to the whole Island for if twenty thousand men be a strong Army is not the double thereof forty thousand a stronger Army If a Baron enricheth himself with double as many Lands as he had before is he not double the greater Nature teacheth Vs that Mountains are made of Motes and that at first Kingdoms being divided and every particular Town or little Country as Tyrants or Usurpers could obtain the possession of a Signory apart many of these little Kingdoms are now in process of Time by the Ordinance of God joyned into great Monarchies whereby they are become powerful within themselves to defend themselves from all Outward invasions and their Head and Governour thereby enabled to redeem them from Foreign Assaults and punish private transgressions within Do we not yet remember that this Kingdom was divided into seven little Kingdoms besides Wales And is it not now the stronger by their Vnion And hath not the Vnion of Wales to England added a greater strength thereto Which though it was a great Principality was nothing comparable in greatness and power to the antient and famous Kingdom of Scotland But what shall we stick upon any Natural appearance when it is manifest that God by his Almighty Providence hath pre-ordained it so to be Hath not God first united these two Kingdoms both in Language and Religion and similitude of Manners Yea hath he not made Vs all in one Island compassed with one Sea and of it self by Nature so indivisible as almost those that were borderers themselves on the late Borders cannot distinguish nor know or discern their own Limits These two Countries being separated neither by Sea nor great River Mountain nor other strength of Nature but only by little small Brooks or demolished little Walls so as rather they were divided in apprehension than in effect and now in the end and fulness of time united the right and title of both in my Person alike lineally descended of both the Crowns whereby it is now become a little World within it self being intrenched and fortified round about with a natural and yet admirable strong Pond or Ditch whereby all the former fears of this Nation are quite cut off The other part of the Island being ever before now not only the Place of Landing to all Strangers that were to make Invasion here but likewise moved by the Enemies of this State by untimely Incursions to make inforced diversion from their Conquests for defending themselves at home and keeping sure their Back-door as then it was called which was the greatest hindrance and Let my Predecessors of this Nation ever had in disturbing them from their many famous and glorious Conquests abroad What God hath conjoyned then let no man separate I am the Husband and all the whole Island is my lawful Wife I am the Head and it is my Body I am the Shepherd and it is my Flock I hope therefore no man will be so unreasonable as to think that I that am a Christian King under the Gospel should be a Polygamist and Husband to two Wives that I being the Head should have a divided and monstrous Body or that being the Shepherd of so fair a Flock whose Fold hath no wall to sence it but the four Seas should have my Flock parted in two But as I am assured that no honest Subject of whatsoever degree within my whole Dominions is less glad of this joyful Vnion than I am so may the frivolous objection of any that would be hinderers of this Work which God hath in my Person already established be easily answered which can be none except such as are either blinded with ignorance or else transported with malice being unable to live in a well-governed Common-wealth and only delighting to fish in troubled waters For if they would stand upon their reputation and privileges of any of the Kingdoms I pray you were not both the Kingdoms Monarchies from the beginning And consequently could ever the Body be counted without the Head which was ever unseparably joyned thereunto So that as the honour and priviledges of any of the Kingdoms could not be divided from their Sovereign so are they now confounded and joyned in my Person who am equal and alike kindly Head to both When this Kingdom of England was divided
this blow reached presently into England and came somewhat near our Kings Heart therefore he took the best way to prevent his Fears by striving to prevent his Dangers having no other end but his own For when he considered the horridness of the Powder Plot and by it the irreconcileable malice of that Party he thought it the safest policy not to stir those Ashes where so much Fire was covered which gave way to a flux of that Iesuitical humour to infest the Body of the Kingdom But now being startled with this poysoned knife he ventures upon a Proclamation strictly commanding all Iesuits and Priests out of the Kingdom and all Recusants to their own Houses not to come within ten miles of the Court and secures all the rest of his Subjects to him by an universal taking of the Oath of Allegiance which the Parliament both Lords and Commons then sitting began and the rest of the People followed to the Kings great contentment For the last Session the Parliament was prorogued till the sixteenth of October this year and meeting now they were willing to secure their Allegiance to the King out of Piety yet they were so stout even in those youthful days which he term'd Obstinacy that they would not obey him in his incroachments upon the Publick Liberty which he began then to practise For being now season'd with seven years knowledg in his profession here he thought he might set up for himself and not be still journy-man to the lavish tongue of men that pryed too narrowly into the secrets of his Prerogative which are mysteries too high for them being Arcana imperii fitter to be admired than questioned But the Parliament were apprehensive enough that those hidden mysteries made many dark steps into the Peoples Liberties and they were willing by the light of Law and Reason to discover what was the Kings what theirs Which the King unwilling to have searched into after five Sessions in six years time dissolved the Parliament by Proclamation HENRICUS Princeps Walliae etc a. Reverendissimus in Christo Pater D.D. RICHARDUS BANCROFT Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis About this time Richard Bancroft Arch-Bishop of Canterbury died a person severe enough whose roughness gained little upon those that deserted the Ceremonies One work of his shewed his spirit better than the ruggedest Pen can depaint it For it was he that first brought the King to begin a new Colledg by Chelsey wherein the choice and abiest Scholars of the Kingdom and the most pregnant Wits in matters of Controversies were to be associated under a Provost with a fair and ample allowance not exceeding three thousand pounds a year whose design was to answer all Popish Books or others that vented their malignant spirits against the Protestant Religion either the Heresies of the Papists or the Errors of those that strook at Hierarchy so that they should be two-edged Fellows that would make old cutting and flashing and this he forwarded with all industry during his time and there is yet a formal Act of Parliament in being for the establishment of it But after his death the King wisely considered that nothing begets more contention than opposition and such Fuellers would be apt to inslame rather than quench the heat that would arise from those embors For Controversies are often or for the most part the exuberancies of Passion and the Philosopher saith men are drunk with disputes and in that inordinateness take the next thing that comes to hand to throw at one anothers faces so that the design fell to the ground with him and there is only so much Building standing by the Thames-side as to shew that what he intended to Plant he meant should be well Watered and yet it withered in the bud I can lay nothing to the charge of this great man but from common fame yet this I may truly say That for his Predecessor Whitgift and his Successor Abbot I never heard nor read any thing tending to their disparagement But on him some unhappy Wit vented this Pasquin Here lies his Grace in cold Earth slad Who died with want of what he had The Queen was Mistress of Somerset-house as well as the Prince was Master of St. Iames and she would fain have given it the name of Denmark-house which name continued her time among her people but it was afterwards left out of the common Calender like the dead Emperors new named Month. She was not without some Grandees to attend her for outward glory The Court being a continued Maskarado where she and her Ladies like so many Sea-Nymphs or Nereides appeared often in various dresses to the ravishment of the beholders The King himself being not a little delighted with such fluent Elegancies as made the nights more glorious than the days But the latitude that these high-flying fancies and more speaking Actions gave to the lower World to judg and censure even the greatest with reproaches shall not provoke me so much as to stain the innocent Paper I shall only say in general That Princes by how much they are greater than others are looked upon with a more severe eye if their Vertues be not suitable to their Greatness they lose much of their value For it is too great an allay to such resinedness to fall under the common cognizance Philip Earle of Pemb Mong Lord Chamberlaine to the King etc. Now all addresses are made to Sir Robert Car he is the Favourit in Ordinary no sute nor no reward but comes by him his hand distributes and his hand restrains our Supreme Power works by second Causes the Lords themselves can scarce have a smile without him And to give the greater lustre to his power about this time the Earl of Dunbar the Kings old trusty Servant the Cabinet of his secret Counsels died so that he solely now took the most intimate of them into his charge and the Officer of Lord high Treasurer of Scotland which staff the other left behind him and though it could be no great Supporter yet the credit of it carried some reputation in his own Country where it was his happiness to be magnified as well as in England for he had Treasure enough here where the Fountain was And to ingrandize all the King created him Baron of Brandspech and Viscount Rochester and soon after Knight of the Garter Thus was he drawn up by the Beams of Majesty to shine in the highest Glory grapling often with the Prince himself in his own Sphear in divers Conteslations For the Prince being a high born Spirit and meeting a young Competitor in his Fathers Affections that was a Mushrom of yesterday thought the venom would grow too near him and therefore he gave no countenance but opposition to it which was aggravated by some little scintils of Love as well as Hatred Rivals in passion being both amorous and in youthful blood fixing by accident upon one object who was a third mans in which the Viscount
the Ears of the Princes of the Union quailed their courage made them look back into their own condition and having not so much faith as to depend upon our King for assistance before the Spring they submitted themselves to the Emperor leaving the almost-ruined Palatinate as a Prey to an insulting Enemy the English only giving Spirits to the Vital parts of it conveyed by the Conduct of those Instruments Vere Herbert and Burrowes Men fitter to command Armies than to be confined within the Walls of Towns Benssheim Grundtriss vnd Entwurff etlicher ohrt der ChurPfaltz vnd wie die Spanier nach etliche treffeÌ„ endtlich gar dar auss geschaleÌ„ word Mansfeldt only that was rejected and slighted by Anhalt makes good his fidelity by bearing up against the power of the Emperor not that he was able to grapple with his whole Force but being an active spritely man and having a nimble moving Army of fourteen or fifteen thousand men he did harasse the Countries force Contribution from the Cities and when any greater power came against him he got from them into another Country and harrowed that to their perpetual vexation So that he was as goads in their sides and thorns in their eyes And thus he continued in despight of the Emperor and the Duke of Bavaria for almost two years after till they were constrained to purchase their peace of him at a dear rate to which Mansfeldt was also inforced not finding assistance nor Supplies to support him As soon as the Princes in the Palatinate were retired to their Quarters before the great loss at Prague came to their knowledge the Earl of Essex with a Convoy of Horse to Swibruken passed into Lorain and through France posted for England to solicit the King to send those Regiments promised and other Supplies if possible that the English there and the whole Countrey might not be exposed to ruine But when he came into England he found the Court Air of another temper and not as he left it for it was much more inclined to the Spanish Meridian And though Gondemar the King of Spain's Ambassador at the departure of one of his Agents into Spain facetiously bad him commend him to the Sun for he had seen none here a long while yet we had the Spanish influence hot among us the King himself warmed with it then what will not the Court be The King and his Ministers of State had several ends and drive different designs His was for the matching of his Son with some great Princess aiming at no other glory though he debased himself to purchase it For presently after he received a Denial in France he sent to Sir Iohn Digby his Leidger Ambassador in Spain to treat of a Marriage betwixt the Prince of Wales and the Infanta Maria Sister to that King which was in 1617. No blood but blood Royal can be a propitiatory Offering for his Son yet the best Sacrifice is an humble spirit No matter what Religion what Piety that is not the Question When Kings have earthly aims without consideration of God God looks to his own Glory without respect of man The little foundation of hope they built upon at that time was now raised to a formal building by the cunning practices of Gondemar who assured the King it was his Master's real intention the Prince should marry the Infanta And he wished the King his Master had all the Palatinate in his power to present it as a donative to the Prince with his fair Mistris The King that now heard all was lost in Bohemia saw little possibility of injoying the Palatinate quietly but by the Treaty of a Marriage was lulled asleep with Gondemar's windy promises which Sir Iohn Digby seconded being lately made Vice-Chamberlain to the King Baron of Sherborn and a great manager of the affairs at Court Sir Walter Aston being sent Leidger Ambassador into Spain for the general correspondence And the King anchoring his hopes upon these shallow promises made himself unable to prevent the Tempest of War that fell on the Palatinate tying up his own hands and suffering none to quench the Fire that devoured his Childrens Patrimony WILLIAM HERBERT Earl of PEMBROKE c It was thought the Papists did much contribute to Gondemar's liberaliâ—y for they began to flourish in the Kingdom he having procured many Immunities for them and they used all their industry to further the Match hoping that if the Prince did not adhere to Rome yet his Offspring might and at present looked for little less than a Toleration No stubborn piece of either Sex stood in Gondemar's way but he had an Engin to remove them or screw them up to him None that complied with him but found the effects of his friendship many Iesuits fared the better for his intercession he releasing numbers among the rest one Bauldwin an arch-Priest accused to have had a hand in the Gunpowder-Treason and had been seven years in the Tower a man of a dangerous and mischievous spirit who was after his release made Rector of the Iesuits College at St. Omers By his Artifices and Negotiations having been time enough Ambassador in England to gain credit with the King he got Sir Robert Mansel the Vice-Admiral to go into the Mediterranean sea with a Fleet of Ships to fight against the Turks at Algier who were grown too strong and formidable for the Spaniard most of the King of Spain's Gallions attending the Indian Trade as Convoys for his Treasures which he wanted to supply his Armies and he transported Ordnance and other Warlike Provisions to furnish the Spanish Arsenals even while the Armies of Spain were battering the English in the Palatinate so open were the King's ears to him so deaf to others For Sir Robert Nanton one of his Secretaries a Gentleman of known honesty and integrity shewed but a little dislike of those proceedings and he was commanded from Court and Conwey was put in his place And Gondemar had as free access to the King as any Courtier of them all Buckingham excepted and the King took delight to talk with him for he was full of Conceits and would speak false Latin a purpose in his merry fits to please the King telling the King plainly He spoke Latin like a Pedant but I speak it like a Gentleman And he wrought himself so by subtilty into the King's good affections that he did not only work his own will but the King 's into a belief that the Treaties in agitation were though slow real and effectual So easily may wise men be drawn to those things their desires with violence tend to And he cast out his Baits not only for men but if he found an Atalanta whose tongue went nimbler than her feet he would throw out his golden Balls to catch them also And in these times there were some Ladies pretending to be Wits as they called them or had fair Neices or Daughters which drew great Resort to
and the Infanta of Spain that was then in motion but to the infringement of the Peace and Amity established betwixt the two Crowns The King's fears being heightned to Anger he disavows the Action and lest others of his Subjects should by this example take the boldness to attempt the like Hostility against the King of Spain he puts out a Proclamation wherein he shews his detestation of such proceedings and threatens severe punishment to the enterprisers thereby to deter them Which gave Gondemar some satisfaction whose design being only to get Sir Walter Raleigh home after this brush vented little passion but so cunningly skinned over his malice that when Raleigh was in Ireland he found nor heard of no such great difficulties Dangers often flying upon the wings of rumor but that he might appear in England and the men not willing to be banished their own Country though some of them had France in their eye put in at Plimouth Raleigh was no sooner ashore but he had private intimation which gave him cause to suspect the smoothness of this beginning would have a rough end therefore he attempted an escape from â—hence in a bark of Rochel But being apprehended by Sir Lewis Stukly his Kinsman who had private warrant and instructions to that purpose so unnatural and servile is the spirit when it hath an allay of baseness there being many others sitter for that employment he is brought to London and recommitted to the Tower He was no sooner in the Tower but all his Transactions in this business are put to the Rack and tenter'd by his Adversaries They say he knew of no Mine nor did Kemish know that the Mine he aimed at was Gold but Kemish bringing him a piece of Ore into the Tower he fobb'd a piece of Gold into it in dissolving making the poor man believe the Ore was right that by these golden degrees he might ascend to Liberty promising the King to fetch it where never Spaniard had been But when Kemish found by better experience he was couzen'd by Raleigh he came back from the Mine And Raleigh knowing that none but Kemish could accuse him made him away This Vizard was put upon the face of the Action and all the weight of the Miscarriage was laid upon Raleigh's shoulders Gonaemar that looked upon him as a man that had not only high Abilities but Animosity enough to do his Master mischief being one of those Scourges which that old Virago the late Queen as he called her used to afflict the Spaniards with having gotten him into this Trap laid now his baits about the King There is a strange virtue in this spirit of Sol the intenseness makes men firm the ductilness brings them to be active French Crowns are not so pure not so piercing as Spanish Pistols Auri sacra fames quid non mortalia pectora cogis The King that loved his Peace is incensed by them that loved their Profit and the poor Gentleman must lay down the price of his life upon the old Reckoning Raleigh answered That he was told by his Council that Iudgment was void by the Commission his Majesty was pleased to give him since under the Great Seal for his last Employment which did give him a new vigour and life to that service The Lord chief Justice replyed that he was deceived and that the opinion of the Court was to the contrary Then he desired that some reasonable time might be allowed him to prepare for Death but it was answered That the time appointed was the next morning and it was not to be doubted but he had prepared himself for death long since Raleigh having a courageous spirit finding the bent of the King's mind and knowing Disputes to be in vain where Controversies are determined acquiesc'd was conveyed to the Gatehouse and the day following was brought to the Old Palace yard at Westminster and upon a Scaffold there erected lost his head He had in the outward man a good presence in a handsom and well-compacted person a strong natural wit and a better judgment with a bold and plausible tongue whereby he could set off his parts to the best advantage And to these he had the Adjuncts of general Learning which by Diligence and Experience those two great Tutors being now threescore years of age was augmented to a great perfection being an indefatigable Reader and having a very retentive memory At his Arraignment at Winchester his carriage to his Judges was with great discretion humble yet not prostrate dutiful yet not dejected Towards the Iury affable but not fawning not in despair nor believing but hoping in them carefully perswading them with Reasons not distemperately importuning them with Conjurations rather shewing love of life than fear of death Towards the King's Council patient but not insensible neglecting nor yielding to Imputations laid against him in words which Sir Edward Cook then the King's Attorney belched out freely and it was wondred a man of his high spirit could be so humble in suffering not being much overtaken in passion And now at his last when Deeth was presented before him he looked upon it without affrightment striving to vindicate his Actions by taking off the veil that false Reports had cast upon them especially the Imputation of his glorying and rejoycing in the fall at the death of the laâ—e E. of Essex which had stuck so many years in his breast this new miscarriage of Kemish's of a later date imputed to him for having provided himself privately for heaven clearing his Accounts with God before he came to the Scaffold He publickly at last reckon'd with man being to quit all soores and so made an end Times of Peace are accounted the happiest times and though they are great Blessings proceeding from the influence of supreme Mercy and the showers of Grace yet the branches of the Tree of Knowledge growing by this Sun shine for want of due pruning do often become so exuberant that their very fruits are not only their burthen but sometimes their ruin Prosperity is of an Airy constitution carried about with the breath of strange fancies which mount sometimes as high as Omnipotency but there finding-resistance they come down amain and beat the lower Region with a Tempest of Strife and Malice When the Romans wanted Enemies they digged them out of their own bowels Active Spirits will be set on work Our Neighbours of the Netherlands that had so long bounded the Spanish Power humbled their Pride so far as to acknowledg them a Free-State before they would so much as listen to an Overture of Peace had a fire kindled in their own bosomes It is now some time since the 12 years Truce betwixt Spain them began being in the Wain last Quarter While they had their hands full of business they had not their heads full of old Curiosities Now like Plethorique bodies that want letting blood they break out into distemper A Schism in the Church
the Mosell but the Prince to divert the Enemies intelligence upon the sixteenth of September drew two miles back from Coblentz and past the Rhine in Punts a kind of Liter advancing forward on the other side of the River three English miles that night to a Village called Hembach where the Foot stayed till the Horse past the River And this sudden change of resolution was one of Prince Henry's Master-pieces for he knew from Collen Spinola would have intelligence by Curriers which way the bent of their march tended and they had the Mosell in their eye all the way but the Rhine in intention In the Halt before Coblentz one bullet among others from the Town past between General Vere and the Earl of Essex standing together and hit a Gentleman called Flood on the elbow The cause of shooting from thence as was conceived proceeded from a Skirmish the night before that happened betwixt some English and the Country People of an adjoyning Village on the Mosell for Captain Fairfax being sent with a Squadron to them in a peaceable manner to desire the accommodation of bread and wine for Money the Bores shot at him and hurt some of his men but he stoutly advancing to them they took their Boats and hasted down to Coblentz Some of the Bores were reported to be slain for which Fairfax upon the Prince's complaint was committed to give the Country satisfaction but the next day released MAURITS PRINS VAN ORANJE Benssheim Spinola finding himself deluded on one side of the Rhine past the River Main with all his Horse and four thousand Foot intending to snap them on the other but the stream being too high his Waggons with Munition took wet and some Field-peices miscarried which could not be recovered with the loss of some of his men which disasters happening they admonished him to a retreat otherwise in all probability he had cut off those Forces before they could have joyned with the Princes of the Union The 24 of September Prince Henry with his Horse and General Vere with the Foot past the River Main at a Ford not far from Frankford the Foot for the most part marching up to the middle through the stream and that night they stood in Arms having two Alarums of Spinola's approach not hearing yet he was retired The next day they had a long march to recover Darmstat one half of which Town belongs to the King of Bohemia the other part to the Landsgrave of Hessen There Prince Henry and the Dutch Companies left the English and returned into the Netherlands again and fifteen hundred German Horse commanded by Colonel Megan met them by order from the Princes of the Union The 27 of September they came to Beinsheim being the first intire Town in the Palatinate they arrived at and upon the first of October past over the Rhine by Worms upon a Bridge of Boats and that day were met by the Marquess of Ansbach and some others of the Princes of the Union who stayed to see them march by wondering at the gallantry of such Foot who were with them the meanest of the people After two days rest the Princes with part of their Army being 4000 Horse and 6000 Foot joyned with the English and together marched towards Altzi a Town in the Palatinate that the Enemy had taken in which they intended to surprize But hearing by their Scouts that the Enemy had quitted the Town as not tenable and that Spinola with his whole Army was marching towards them they faced about to make his way the shorter and within three hours their Scouts and the Enemies were in Skirmish but the German Princes not having their whole Army were not forward to engage Spinola seeing them march towards him being as weary as they took the advantage of a Hill and forced their Horse with his Cannon to retreat but the Princes drew their Cannon up another Hill on the right hand of the Enemy there being a large bottom and a hill of Vineyards betwixt the two Armies which were not visible but from thence for the one Hill drowned the other to them in the bottom As soon as they saw how the Enemy strove to secure himself and that he was loth to come on they judged their strength not to be great and therefore took a resolution to set upon them The Dutch in curtesie yielded the Vanguard to the English which before they stood upon as a Punctilio of honor The English General drew out of every Division fourscore Musqueteers to give the On-set who were incouraged by that Reverend Divine Doctor Burges of whom mention is formerly made who accompanied the General from England and was an instrument of much good to that Regiment though they needed no incouragement at that time being spirits willingly prepared for such enterprises AMBROSIVS SPINOLA DVX S. SEVERINO PRINC SARLVAL MARCH BENAFRO The next day they marched to Quarters again where the Soldiers found the Country Roots Fruits and Wine in the Must no good preservatives But after they had stayed by it seven or eight days Spinola led them a dance for digestion pretending for Keisars Luther a Town in the borders of the Palatinate which made the Princes advance their whole body to attend him but as they drew near he retreated so that they sported with one another as children at Seek and Find though neither of their Armies could be much pleased with the sharp frosty nights those desolate and naked Hills exposed them to upon the top of one of them the English Commanders one night burnt a great many of their Wagons to warm them the Frost was so violent and the Soldiers lay in heaps upon the ground close together like sheep cover'd as it were with a sheet of snow Yet they spent the time thus till their Stoves summon'd them to warmer lodging And the English Regiment was disposed into three principal Garrisons General Vere commanded in Manheim Sir Gerard Herbert in Heidelburgh and Serjeant-Major Burrows in Frankindale imprisoning themselves in Walls while the Enemy romed round about them and they had only power to preserve themselves For the Princes of the Unions Forces were garrison'd in their several Countries I have the more particularly described this Expedition because I was an eye-witness of what passed and if we had not had an allay of Dutch dulness the Spaniard could not have carved to himself so great a share in that Country and their opposers had not mouldred away their Forces as they did afterwards which makes this Relation harsh and unpleasing But there was a Divine Fate attended not only this Country but all Germany For the Almighty Wisdom that is the Author of all Revolutions in the World hath his set times for changes which often tends to the imbettering of it For all the Northern Conquests of the Goths Huns Vandals Scyths and other baâ—barous Nations were to corroborate the Southern bodies wasted with Ease and Luxury And now in Germany a
or wary in such an Eruption as this so contrary to his Nature as he saith himself a War was a new World to him fearing to lay out by it more than he should receive And in this he was like the Man that when his Master gave great Charge to go and gather up his Rents in the Country and to take a pair of Pistols with him to bring home his Money with the more security After the Master had appointed him to pay so much in one place and so much in another that the Man saw he should not receive so much as he should disburse Bid his Master take his Pistols again he should not use them So the King fearing that when the War was begun there would not be where withal to maintain it Thanked the Parliament for their Advice and he would consider better of it And they seeling the King's Pulse by his expressions resolved now not to let him flag but to keep up the temper of his Spirit that a little thing would make decline again And therefore they seriously settled to their Business and answered his Expectation fully which they presented unto him shortly after in these words to his great Satisfaction Most Gracious Soveraign WE your Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled do first render to your Sacred Majesty Our most Dutiful Thanks for that to Our unspeakable Comfort you have vouchsafed to express your Self so well satisfied with Our late Declaration made unto your Majesty of Our general Resolution in pursuit of Our Humble Advice to assist your Majesty in a Parliamentary way with Our Persons and Abilities And whereas your Majesty in your Great Wisdom and Iudgment foreseeing that it will make a deeper impression both in the Enemies of that Cause and in your Friends and Allies if they shall not onely hear of the Cheerful Offers but also see the Real performance of your Subjects towards so great a Work Your Majesty was pleased to descend to a particular Proposition for the advancing of this great Business We therefore in all humbleness most ready and willing to give your Majesty and the whole World an ample Testimony of Our Sincere and Dutiful Intentions herein upon Mature Advice and Deliberation as well of the Weight and Importance of this great Affair as of the present Estate of this your Kingdom the Weal and Safety whereof is in Our Iudgments apparently threatned if your Majesties Resolution for the Dissolving of the Treaties now in question be longer deferred and that Provision for defence of your Realm and aid of your Friends and Allies be not seasonably made have with a Cheerful Consent of all the Commons no one dissenting and with a Full and Cheerful Consent of the Lords Resolved That upon your Majesties publique Declaration for the Dissolution and utter Discharge of both the said Treaties of the Marriage and the Palatinate in pursuit of Our Advice therein and towards the Support of that War which is likely to ensue And more particularly for those four Points proposed by your Majesty Namely for the Defence of this your Realm the Securing of Ireland the assistance of your Neighbours the States of the United Provinces and other your Majesties Friends and Allies and for the setting forth of your Royal Navy We will grant for the present the greatest Aid which ever was given in Parliament That is to say Three intire Subsidies and three Fifteens to be all paid within the compass of one whole Year after your Majestie shall be pleased to make the said Declaration The Money to be paid into the Hands and expended by the Direction of such Committees or Commissioners as hereafter shall be agreed upon at this present Session of Parliament And We most humbly beseech your Majesty to accept of these First Fruits of Our Hearty Oblation dedicated to that Work which We infinitely desire may prosper and be advanced And for the Future to rest confidently assured That We your Loyal and Loving Subjects will never fail in a Parliamentary way to assist your Majestie in so Royal a Design wherein your Own Honour and the Honour of your most Noble Son the Prince the Antient Renown of this Nation the Welfare and very Subsistence of your Noble and Onely Daughter and her Consort and their Posterity the Safety of your Own Kingdom and People and the Prosperity of your Neighbours and Allies are so deeply ingaged The Parliament by this Declaration came up so close to the King that he could make no evasion but rested contented now in his Latter time when the Almonds as it were begun to Blossom upon his head to plunge himself into a War which brought him again to the Parliament to thank them for their Readiness to assist him telling them That he is willing to follow their advice in the Anulling and Breach of these two Treaties They having given enough to begin a War but when the end will be he said God knows Yet he will ingage for himself and his Son his Successour That no means shall be left unused for recovery of the Palatinate And for all his Old Age if it might do any good he would go in person to further the Business But as he is contented to have the Parliament Committees to dispose of the Moneys by their Directions so the Design must not be acted by publique Councels For whether he shall send Two thousand or Ten thousand whether by Sea or Land East or West by Diversion or Invasion upon the Bavarian or the Emperor that must be left to the King And this he did that there might be no jealousies but to smooth every Rub betwixt them And to put it in execution a Council of War is chosen out of the old and long discontinued Militia of Ireland and some others of the Nobility and upon result of their Counsels after some debate it was concluded to send fix thousand men for the present into the Low Countreys to joyn with the States Forces against the King of Spain's mighty Armies under the command of Marquess Spinola that threatned the next Summer to over-run the Netherlands that weakning the Spaniard in Flanders they might have the more free access into Germany The Dissolution of the Treaties with Spain and the preparation for War resounding in every Ear gave such an Allarm to the Spanish Ambassadour the Marquess of Inoiosa that whether out of Truth and Knowledge as he pretended or Malice only cannot be determined But he sent to the King to let him know that the Duke of Buckingham had some dangerous Machination a foot that tended to his Destruction and the best he could expect would be a confinement to a Countrey-house in some Park during his life the Prince being now in full abilities and ripe in Government This Concussion was strong enough to shake an old Building that was of a fearful and tottering Temper especially if he considered how his Mother was