Vet. It consists of 22. Ships of War 4. Victuallers and two small Pinnaces of Advice There goeth in it neer upon 4000. Land Souldiers From Cadiz I have now fresh advice That Don Frederique is still in the Port with the Fleet which he Commands but himself and his men all embarqued That Armado consisteth of some 35. Ships of War and about 8000. Souldiers and both the Fleets are victualled for 8. moneths That of Fortugal had first order to expect Don Frederique at the Cape St. Vincent but hath since received command to proceed on the journey It being now 27. dayes since the Fleet departed and this remaining still in the Harbour doth give me much cause of jealousie especially understanding that they have here advice which they give credit to that the Troops lately delivered to Count Mansfelt are sent to succour Breda fearing if it be so that they laying hold of it as a breach of the Peace which interpretation I meet with in every discourse should presently fall with this Armado upon some part of Ireland I have no farther ground for this distrust then what I have here represented which your Grace weighing with the importancy of their enterprise in hand for the recovering the Baya and the occasions that will be given them from England do best know what rigid judgment to make Sithence I wrote my other Letter unto your Grace which accompanies this I understand the French Embassadour by order from the King his Master hath given account unto this King of the Conclusion of the Match betwixt the Prince his Highnesse and Madam Christiene his Masters Sister Whereupon this King and the whole Court put on Galas I conceive howsoever I have not heard any thing thereof by any Letter unto me that this is ground enough to Congratulate with your Grace this good beginning which I shall affectionately wish may in the successe in all times prove a happiness to his Highnes and a particular blessing to your Grace The Conde of Gondomar hath newly received a Command from the King his Master signified unto him by the Secretary Don Andreas de Prada to put himself presently upon the way for England which he hath answered he will obey howsoever I believe he will keep his Christmasse here Mr. Butler whom your Grace left here placed with this King meets often with such discourses in the Palace that as a faithful servant to your Grace he hath no patience to bear which he hath reason to believe will in a short time throw him out of this Court which he would be glad to prevent if he might have your Graces command to return being infinitely desirous that your Grace would dispose otherwise of him I will conclude with the same suit for my self there being none that hath more need of comfort from your Grace I best know that I have no way deserved any change or decay in your Graces favour towards me having not been slow in upbraiding this Nation with their obligations to your Grace and their shameful ungratefulnesse nor without a constant and passionate desire to serve your Grace every way to your content if your Graces Commands would but direct me what to do I do therefore rest confident of your care and goodnesse towards me And so with my prayers to God to continue his blessings upon you I rest Your Graces c. W. Aston Dr. Williams to the Duke My most noble Lord IT hath pleased God to call for the Bishop of London I am so conscious of mine own weaknesse and undeservings that as I never was so now I dare not be a suiter for so great a charge But if his Majestie by your Honours mediation shall resolve to call me to perform him the best service I can in that place I humbly beseech your Honour to admit me a suiter in these three circumstances First that whereas my Lord of London hath survived our Lady day and received all the profits that should maintain a Bishop until Michaelmasse I may by his Majesties favour retain all my own means until the next day after Michaelmas day this is a Petition which I shall be necessitated to make unto his Majestie if his Majestie by your favour shall advance me to this place and injureth no man else in the world Secondly that whereas the Commissioners challenge from the Bishops revenues a matter of 200. l. per annum this Bishoprick being already very meanly endowed in regard of the continual charge and exhaustments of the place it would please his Majestie to leave in my hands by way of Commendam one Benefice of mine which falls into his Majesties dispose upon my remove until it be determined by the said Commissioners whether any part of the Bishops means be due unto the Fabrique My humble suit is for Walgrave a Benefice with Cure in North-hamptonshire where I have laid out all my estate in temporal Lands Lastly that if it be found that the Bishop is to joyn with the Residentiaries of Pauls in the repair of the Church his Majestie would qualifie me by a commendam to hold one of my own Prebends when it shall fall to be a Residentiarie also that if I be charged with the burthen of Residentiarie I might enjoy the profits of a Residentiarie These three requests do I confesse adde unto me but do not prejudice any one else whatsoever I submit them and my self to your Honours wisdom c. The names of such Ecclesiastical promotions as I now retain and will fall to be disposed of by the King if I should be removed 1. Deanery of Westminster 2. Rectorie of Dinam 3. Rectorie of VValgrave 4. Rectorie of Grafton 5. Prebendary of Peterborough 6. Chaunter of Lincoln 7. Prebendary of Asgarbie 8. Prebendary of Nonnington 9. Residentiaries place of Lincoln Lord Keeper to the Duke 27. July 1621. My most noble Lord AN unfortunate occasion of my Lords Grace his killing of a man casually as it is here constantly reported is the cause of my seconding of my yesterdayes Letter unto your Lordship His Grace upon this accident is by the Common Law of England to forfeit all his estate unto his Majestie and by the Canon Law which is in force with us irregular ipso facto and so suspended from all Ecclesiastical function until he be again restored by his Superiour which I take it is the Kings Majestie in this rank and order of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction If you send for Dr. Lamb he will acquaint your Lordship with the distinct penalties in this kind I wish with all my heart his Majestie would be as merciful as ever he was in all his life but yet I held it my duty to let his Majestie know by your Lordship that his Majestie is fallen upon a matter of great advice and deliberation To adde affliction to the afflicted as no doubt he is in mind is against the Kings nature to leave virum Sanguinum or a man of bloud Primate and Patriarch of all his Churches is
resolved to keep straight against all men whatsoever I shall infame my self in the very beginning If his Majestie will have any special indulgence in this kind I expect intimation immediately from the King or your Lordship and no third Person Your Lordship will not expect from me any account of Councel businesse nor the setting at liberty of the late prisoners Mr. Secretary is secret enough for imparting any thing unto me so as I must remain in a necessary ignorance There is a Country man of mine one Griffith a suiter unto the Court for the reversion of an Auditors place recommended thereunto by his Master the Lord Treasurer The place is of great Consequence for the disposing of his Majesties revenewes The man is unfit for this as presumptuous and daring for any place Sir Robert Pye saith he hath already written to your Lordship and I doubt not of your care thereof Doctour Lamb the bearer is a very sufficient and for ought I ever heard of him an honest man The King hath imployed him in discovery of counterfeit Witchcrafts in reforming of no ounterfeit but hearty Puritanes and he hath done good service therein If his Majestie now in our pure ayr of Northhamptoushire do not shew him some favor or grace either by Knighting or by using him courteously The Brethren having gotten out their Yelverton again will neglect and molest him too unsufferably God from Heaven blesse you Remember your Deanerie and Dean of Westminster c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning the Earl Marshals place 1. Septemb. 1621. My most Noble Lord I Beseech your Lordship to interpret this Letter well and fairly which no malice though never so provoked but my duty to his Majestie and love to your Lordship hath drawn from me both which respects as long as I keep inviolably I will not omit for the fear of any man or the losse of any thing in this world to do any act which my Conscience shall inform me to belong unto that place wherein the King by your favour hath intrusted me I received this morning two Commands from his Majestie the one about a Pension of 2000 l. yearly and the other concerning the office of the Earle Marshal both conferred on the Right Honourable the Earle of Arundel For the former although this is a very unseasonable time to receive such large Pensions from so bountiful a King and that the Parliament so soon approaching is very like to take notice thereof and that this pension might under the correction of your better judgment have been conveniently deferred until that Assembly had been over Yet who am I that should question the wisedom and bounty of my Master I have therefore sealed the same praying secretly unto God to make his Majestie as abounding in wealth as he is in goodnesse But the latter I dare not seale my good Lord until I heare your Lordships resolution to these few Questions Whether his Majestie by expressing himself in the delivery of the staffe to my Lord of Arundel that he was moved thereunto for the easing of the rest of the Comissioners who had before the execution of that office did not imply that his Majestie intended to impart unto my Lord no greater power then was formerly granted to the Lords Comissioners If it were so this Pattent should not have exceeded their Pattent whereas it doth inlarge it self beyond that by many dimensions Whether it is his Majesties meaning that the Pattent leaping over the powers of the three last Earles Essex Shrewsbery and Sommerset should refer onely to my Lords own Ancestors Howards and Mowbrayes Dukes of Norfolk who clamed this place by a way of inheritance The usual reference of Pattents being unto the last and immediate predecessour and not unto the remote whose powers in those unsettled and troublesome times are vage uncertain and unpossible to be limited Whether it is his Majesties meaning that this great Lord should bestow those offices settled of a long time in the Crown Sir Edward Zouch his in the Court Sir George Reinel's in the Kings Bench and divers others All which this new Pattent doth sweep away being places of great worth and dignity Whether that his Majesties meaning and your Lordships that my Lord Stewards place shall be for all his power of Judicature in the Verge either altogether extinguished or at leastwise subordinated unto this new Office A point considerable because of the greatnesse of that person and his neernesse in bloud to his Majestie and the Prince his Highnesse Lastly Whether it be intended that the offices of the Earl Marshal of England and the Marshal of the Kings house which seem in former times to have been distinct offices shall be now united in this great Lord A power limited by no Law or Record but to be searcht out from Chronicles Antiquaries Heralds and such obsolete Monuments and thereupon held these 60 years for my Lord of Essex his power was clearly bounded and limited unfit to be revived by the policy of this State These Questions if his Majestie intended onely the renewing of this Commission of the Earl Marshals in my Lord of Arundel are material and to the purpose But if his Majestie aymed withal at the reviving of this old office A la ventura whose face is unknown to the people of this age upon the least intimation from your Lordship I will seal the Patent And I beseech your Lordship to pardon my discretion in this doubt and irresolution It is my place to be wary what innovation passeth the Seal I may offend that great Lord in this small stay but your Lordship cannot but know how little I lose when I lose but him whom without the least cause in the world I have irreconcileably lost already All that I desire is that you may know what is done and I will ever do what your Lordship being once informed shall direct as becometh c. That there is a difference betwixt the Earl Marshal and the Marshall of the Kings house See Lamberts Archiron or of the High Courts of Justice in England Circa Medium The Marshal of England and the Constable are united in a Court which handleth onely Duels out of the Realm matters within the Realm as Combats Blazon Armorie c. but it may meddle with nothing tryable by the Lawes of the Land The Marshal of the Kings Houshold is united in a Court with the Seneschal or Steward which holds plea of Trespasses Contracts and Covenants made within the Verge and that according to the Lawes of the Land Vid. Artic. Super Cart. C. 3.4.5 We do all of us conceive the King intended the first place only for this great Lord and the second to remain in the Lord Stewards managing But this new Patent hath comprehended them both This was fit to be presented to your Lordship The Lord Keeper to the Duke 16. Decemb. 1621. Most Noble Lord I Have seen many expressions of your love in other mens Letters where
to Coupe up all false-hearted Subjects that are known and provision to meet with the secret and open practises of such forraign Enemies as are like to abet them The good policies of the former reign in such times is the best president for this at this time The heads were then committed liberali Custodiae divided from their inferiour parts the Papists disarmed their clawes pared that they might not hurt us the lawes executed upon the Jesuites and Priests fire-brands of sedition and rebellion withal Or if not blood drawn of them yet close imprisonment or banishment enjoyned them Large subsidies granted to prepare the Navie and pay the armies And a great while no war proclaimed but brave Adventurers sent forth as to Portugal the Groine to the West-Indies c. And before Letters of reprisal granted to the Marchants to make up their losses a Rowland for an Oliver because they had granted Letters of Mart against us By this meanes Carricks were brought in the treasure of their West-Indian mines laid for at their return so to make war upon them with their own mony till they had made the enemie bankerout Ausbrug and to break with their banquers of Auspurg and Genua that he was not able to pay his Souldiers and garrisons and still the Low-countries strongly assisted and war made upon the enemie there or at home at his own doores which was more Noble gainful and safe for us for we still had peace and plenty at home though war abroad I know not how the case stands now between us and the Spaniards but me thinks it should not be very well when nothing will satisfie him but the head of him that spake the truth for the good of the King and kingdom Certainly if we break with him as they which sit at the Helm know what is best to do he is readie to strike and will peradventure strike quickly before we be fully prepared therefore our preparations had need to be more speedie thorough lest we fall into the snare While they were treating of peace in 88. they did even then invade us I pray God they have not used this treatie of marriage to as bad a purpose for it seemes they never did intend it but for delayes and to make it serve their turn they have plainly abused us in the Palatinate therereby But I can say nothing for the present yet what is to be done it is proper to an higher judgment onely I tell what was then when we were enemies I remember in 88. waiting upon the Earl of Leicester at Tilbury Camp and in 89. going into Portugal with my Noble Master the Earl of Essex I learned somewhat fit to be imparted to your Grace The Queen lying in the Campe one night guarded with her armie the old Lord Treasurer Burleigh came thither and delivered to the Earl the examination of Don Pedro who was taken and brought in by Sir Francis Drake which examination the Earl of Leicester delivered unto me to publish to the armie in my next sermon The sum of it was this Don Pedro being asked what was the intent of their coming Don Pedro's Confession stoutly answered the Lords What But to subdue your Nation and root it out Good said the Lords and what meant you then to do with the Catholiques He answered We meant to send them good men directly unto Heaven as all you that are Heretiques to hell Yea but said the Lords what meant you to do with your whips of cord and wyer whereof they had great store in their ships What said he We meant to whip you Heretiques to death that have assisted my Masters Rebels and done such dishonours to our Catholique King and people Yea but what would you have done said they with their young Children They said he which were above seven yeares old should have gone the way their fathers went the rest should have lived branded in the forehead with the Letter L. for Lutheran to perpetual bondage This I take God to witnesse I received of those great Lords upon examination taken by the Councel and by commandement delivered it to the armie The Queen the next morning rode through all the Squadrons of her armie as Armed Pallas attended by Noble Footmen Leicester Essex and Norris then Lord Marshal and divers other great Lords Where she made an excellent Oration to her armie which the next day after her departure I was commanded to redeliver to all the Armie together to keep a Publique Fast Her words were these MY loving people we have been perswaded by some that are careful of our safety to take heed how we commit our self to armed multitudes for fear of treachery but I assure you I do not desire to live to distrust my faithful and loving people Let Tyrants fear I have alwayes so behaved my self that under God I have placed my chiefest strength and safeguard in the loyal hearts and good will of my subiects And therefore I am come amongst you as you see at this time not for my recreation and disport but being resolved in the midst and heat of the battaile to live or die amongst you all to lay down for my God and for my kingdom and for my people my Honour and my blood even in the dust I know I have the bodie but of a weak and feeble woman but I have the heart and Stomach of a King and of a King of England too and think foul scorn that Parma or Spain or any Prince of Europe should dare to invade the borders of my Realm to which rather then any dishonour shall grow by me I my self will take up arms I my self will be your General Judge and Rewarder of everie one of your virtues in the field I know alreadie for your forwardnesse you have deserved rewards and crownes and we do assure you in the word of a Prince they shall be duly paid you In the mean time my Lievetenant General shall be in my stead then whom never Prince commanded a more Noble or worthie subject not doubting but by your obedience to my General by your Concord in the Camp and your valour in the field we shall shortly have a famous victorie over those enemies of my God of my Kingdomes and of my People This I thought would delight your Grace and no man hath it but my self and such as I have given it to and therefore I made bold to send it unto you if you have it not already I would I could perswade your Grace either to read your self or to command your Secretarie to gather out of the Historie of Spain translated into English towards the end five or six leaves which hath matter of great importance fit for the Parliament especiallie for two points the one concerning the setled intention of the State of Spain against England whensoever they can get an opportunity the other concerning the main reasons of state which moved the Queen and Councel then to take upon her the