Mars Puer Alecto Virgo VULPES LEO Nullus THE Court and Character OF King James Whereunto is now added THE Court of King CHARLES CONTINUED Unto the beginning of these Unhappy TIMES With some Observations upon Him in stead of a Character Collected and perfected by Sir A. W. Qui nescit dissimulare nescit regnare Published by Authority Printed at London by R. I. and are to be sold by J. Collins in Little Brittaine 1651. To my most Honoured and truly Noble Lady the Lady Elizabeth Sidley of South fleet Madam I Here present you with an Epitomee of some secret Passages in the whole reign of one King part of anothers Of which my self have been either an Eare or Eye-witnesse or from the testimony of such as have been Authours or Actors therefore unquestionable Truths It is the Conception and Birth of four daies with the help of some scattered Papers as a Midwife to bring them into the world Being therefore but an Embryon you cannot expect any perfect shape But what it wants in that you shall finde in the most perfect form of undeniable Truths The honourable esteem I have ever had of you and your brave Parts is my first motive of presenting it to your view That it comes from no ordinary Author this being the first and for ought I know the last a second That it was written in a Melancholly humour therefore fittest for your Melancholly Temper the last I dare no more trust any other hand to write this than willingly any but your selfe or some such good friends to read it Which is the reason it appeares no fairer to your view And it treads too near the heeles of truth and these Times to appear in publick If you shal please to accept of it as worthy to cast a glance upon at your idle or melancholly hours I have my full desires If cast from you it hath just Deserts Mine ambition only is that so Noble a Lady shal be the God mother of the first and only heir that ever shall come of this quality from Your Ladiships most humble Servant A. W. Upon the Authors Discourse and Observations concerning the whole Reigne of King James and part of King Charles's REader here view a Picture of our Times Drawn to the life the foulest secret Crimes Discover'd with their Authors Tricks of State To create guilty soules the Peoples hate The Prince's feares Favourites Rise and Fall Greatnesse debauched Gentry slighted all To please those Favourites whose highest ends Were to exhaust the State to please their friends View the Isles first Monarch dead the Seconds breath Prerogatives sole life the Kingdomes death THE Court of King James OR A generall Discourse of some secret passages in State since the death of that ever glorious Queene Elizabeth untill this present By the Authors owne observation who was either an eye or eare witnesse or from such as were actors in them from their owne Relation VPon the Twenty fourth of March 1602. did set the most glorious Sun that ever shined in our Firmament of England the never to be forgotten Queen Elizabeth of happy memory about three in the morning at her Mannour of Richmond not only to the unspeakable griefe of her Servants in particular but of all her Subjects in generall And although many of her Courtiers adored that rising Sun appearing in the North yet since not without regret of their monstrous ingratitude to her that Sun now set and in peace For no sooner was that Sun set but Sir Robert Carew Her neare Kinsman and whose Family and himself she had raised from the degree of a meane Gentleman to high Honour in title and place most ingratefully did catch at Her last breath to carry it to the rising Sun then in Scotland notwithstanding a strict Charge laid to keep fast all the Gates yet his Father being Lord Chamberlaine he by that meanes found favour to get out to carry the first newes which although it obtained for him the Governourship of the Duke of York yet hath set so wide a mark of ingratitude on him that it will remaine to Posterity a greater blot then the honour hee obtained afterward will ever wipe out About nine in the morning of that day was proclaimed King Iames of blessed memory by the name of James the first and now nothing on all hands but preparations for accommodating him in his journey for England many posting into Scotland for preferment either by indearing themselves by some merit of their owne to the King or by purchasing friends with their purses Gold and Silver being a precious commodity in that Climate and would procure any thing and did procure Suits Honours and Offices to any that first came of all which the King afterward extended his bounty in so large and ample a manner as procured his owne impoverishment to the pressure of his Subjects so farre as set some distance between him and them which his wisdome and King-craft could easily at all times reconcile The first that came from the King to the Lords in England to give order for all things necessary for the expediting his journey toward England was Sir Roger Aston an English-man borne but had his breeding wholly in Scotland and had served the King many yeares as his Barber an honest and free-hearted man and of an ancient Family in Cheshire but of no breeding answerable to his birth yet he was the only man ever employed as a Messenger from the King to Queen Elizabeth as a Letter carrier only which expressed their owne intentions without any helpe from him besides the delivery but even in that capacity was in very good esteeme with her Majesty and received very royall rewards which did inrich him and gave him a better Revenue then most Gentlemen in Scotland for the Queene did finde him as faithfull to Her as to his Master in which he shewed much wisdome though of no breeding In this his employment I must not passe over one pretty passage I have heard himselfe relate That he did never come to deliver any Letters from his Master but ever he was placed in the Lobby the Hangings being turned him where he might see the Queen dancing to a little Fiddle which was to no other end then that he should tell his Master by her youthfull disposition how likely he was to come to the possession of the Crowne hee so much thirsted after for you must understand the wisest in that Kingdome did beleeve the King should never injoy this Crowne as long as there was an old Wife in England which they did beleeve we ever set up as the other was dead Sir Roger Aston presenting himselfe before the Councell being but a plaine untutored man being asked how he did and courted by all the Lords lighted upon this happy reply Even my Lords like a poore man wandring above forty yeares in a Wildernesse and barren Soyle am now arrived at the Land of Promise This man was afterward made
face at the Dukes foot kissing it vowing never to rise till he had his pardon then was he againe reconciled and since that time so very a slave to the Duke and all that Family that he durst not deny the command of the meanest of the kindred nor oppose anything by this you see a base spirit is ever most concomitant with the proudest minde and surely never so many brave parts and so base and abject a spirit tenanted together in any one earthen Cottage as in this one man I shall not remember his basenesse being out of his place of pinning himselfe for very scraps on that Noble Gentleman Sir Julius Caesars Hospitality that at last he was forced to get the Kings Warrant to remove him out of his house yet in his prosperity the one being Chancellor and the other Master of the Rolls did so scorne and abuse him as he would alter any thing the other did And now Buckingham having the Chancellor Treasurer and all great Officers his very slaves swels in the height of pride summons up all his Country kindred the old Countesse providing a place for them to learne to carry themselves in a Court-like garbe but because they could not learne the French Dances so soon as to be suitable to their gay Clothes Country Dances for their sakes only must be the garbe of the Court and none else must be used Then must these women-kindred be married to Earles Earles eldest Sonnes Barons or chiefe Gentlemen of greatest estates insomuch that the very female kindred were so numerous as were sufficient to have peopled any Plantation nay very Kitchin-wenches were married to Knights eldest sonnes yet as if England had not matches enough in the Kingdome they married like the house of Austria in their own kindred witnesse the Earle of Anglesea married a cousen German to whom he had given earnest before so that King James that naturally in former times hated women had his Lodgings replenished with them and all of the Kindred The Brethren great Earls Little children did run up and downe the Kings Lodgings like little Rabbitstarters about their boroughs Here was a strange change that the King who formerly would not endure his Queen and children in his Lodgeings now you would have judged that none but women frequented them nay that was not all but the kindred had all the houses about White-Hall as if they had been Bulwarks and Flankers to that Cittadell But above all the Miracles of those times old Sir Anthony Ashley who never loved any but boyes yet he was snatcht up for a kinswoman as if there had been a concurrency thorow the Kingdom that those that naturally hated women yet should love his kindred as well as the King him And the very old Midwives of that kindred flockt up for preferment of which old Sir Christopher Perkins a woman-hater that never meant to marry nay it was said he had made a vow of Virginity yet was coupled to an old Midwife so that you see the greatnesse of this Favourite who could force by his power over the King though against Nature But I must tell you this got him much hatred to raise brothers and brother-in-laws to the highest rank of Nobility which were not capable of the place of scarce a Iustice of the Peace only his brother Purbeck had more wit and honesty then all the kindred beside and did keep him in some bounds of honesty and modesty whilst he lived about him and would speake plaine English to him for which plainnesse when they had no colour to put him from his brother they practised to make him mad and thought to bring that wicked stratagem to effect by countenancing a wicked Woman his Wife the Lord Cookes Daughter against him even in her base and lewd living And now is Purbeck mad indeed and put from Court Now none great with Buckingham but Bawds and Parasites and such as humoured him in his unchaste pleasures so that since his first being a pretty harmlesse affable Gentleman he grew insolent cruell and a monster not to be endured And now is Williams sometimes Chaplaine to the Lord Keeper Egerton brought into play made a privie-Councellor Deane of Westminster and of secret Councell with the King he was also made Bishop of Lincolne and was generally voyced at his first step to marry Buckinghams Mother who was in her husbands time created a Countesse he remaining still a C. silly drunken sot and this was the first president of this kinde ever known Williams held her long in hand and no doubt in nature of her Confessor was her secret friend yet would not marry at present which afterwards was cause of his downfall Then was there a Parliament summoned in which Bacon for his bribery and injustice was thrust out being closely prosecuted by one Morby a Woodmonger and one Wrenham formerly deeply censured in the Star-Chamber for accusing him of bribery and injustice Bacon was by Parliament justly put out of his place and but only for the Votes of the Bishops had been degraded the Bishops might have done better to have kept their voyces to have done themselves service at this time but surely that with some other injustice of theirs had so filled up their measure of iniquity that now Gods anger is kindled against them In Bacons place comes Williams a man on purpose brought in at first to serve turnes but in this place to doe that which none of the Layity could be found bad enough to undertake whereupon this observation was made that first no Lay-man could be found so dishonest as a Clergy man next as Bacon the Father of this Bacon did receive the seales from a Bishop so a Bishop againe received them from a Bacon and at this did the Lawyers fret to have such a flower pulled out of their Garland This Williams though he wanted much of his Predecessors abilities for the Law yet did he equall him for learning and pride and beyond him in the way of bribery this man answering by Petitions in which his servants had one part himselfe another and so was calculated to be worth to him his servants 3000. l. per annum by a new way never found out before And now being come to the height of his preferment he did estrange himselfe from the company of the old Countesse having much younger ware who had keyes to his chamber to come to him yet was there a necessity of keeping him in this place for a time the Spanish Match being yet in chase and if it succeeded this man was to clap the great Seale through his ignorance in the Lawes to such things that none that understood the danger by knowing the Lawes would venture upon and for this designe was he at first brought in no Prince living knowing how to make use of men better then King James Now was also Suffolke turned out of his place of Lord Treasurer and a fellow of the same Batch that Williams was brought into his place
good Lawes therefore it is but Gods justice to repay them with Talion Lawes to have their Priviledges broken seeing they first chalked out the way The King in requitall of this great love of theirs did instantly dissolve the Parliament which hath bred such ill blood in the veines of the Subjects to their Sovereign and in the Sovereign to the Subject that it is like to produce an epidemicall infection But the occasion taken to dissolve it was worst of all for Buckingham by his insolent behaviour had not onely lost that love his hatred to Spaine had procured him but was now growne into such an hatred that they fell on him for the death of his old Master which had been of a long time before but whispered but now the Examinations bred such confessions that it looked with an ugly deformed poysonous countenance and nothing but the dissolution of that Parliament could have saved his dissolution and that with a brand of shame and infamy as well as of ingratitude I remember I heard a noble Gentleman an old Parliament man of that Committee for Examinations say at first he derided the very thought of it but after the first dayes Examination it proved so foule as that he both hated and scorned the name and memory of Buckingham and though man would not punish it God would which proved an unhappy prediction This dissolving the Parliament was ill relished by the people and that which to them did seeme the cause worse and to make the case yet fouler and that it must needs be the evident cause Buckinghams Counsels were so stupid and himself so insolent that he did thinke it a glory to disgrace all those that followed that businesse in that Parliament or that seemed inquisitive thereafter and caused many old Servants of the Kings he formerly favoured very much to be banished from Court never to returne more nor did they ever as Clare Crofts Sir Fra. Stewart c. nay Dr. Cragg his Phisitian who from his very childhood had the generall repute of a very honest man for expressing himselfe like an honest man in the Kings presence was instantly dismissed never could recover his place or favour more Now also is Williams Lord Keeper turned out of his place and Coventry the Kings Atturney put in who had Buckingham lived had as soon followed in the same steps Then goes Buckingham into France on a stately Embassie for that Lady the King had seen and set an affection on in his passage to Spaine which was obtained with small intreaty Now doth Buckingham soare so high both in his Masters favours and in the pride of his own heart as he alters all great Officers makes war against Spaine and France the quarrel only his voiced to be on strange grounds the successe accordingly Navies Armies and nothing but war appeares as if we intended in shew to conquer all that opposed Lord Wimbleton the General from whom as little could be expected as he performed carrying a powerfull Army to Cales after an infinite expence and drinking much Spanish Wines and beating out the heads of what they could not drinke as if they intended to overthrow that yeares trade of Spanish Wine returned as like a valiant Commander as he ever was reputed whereas had he brought home those wasted Wines it may be they would have defrayed the charge of that expedition After the returne of that wise Pageantisme Denbigh is sent into France to aide Rochell who managed it better then his great Kinsman Buckingham who would afterwards needs goe to doe great exploits for he brought his ships and men safe againe the other left his men in powdering tubs as if he meant to have them kept sweet against his next comming thither In short this unhappy voyage lost all the honour our glorious ancestors had ever gotten over that Nation there being so many brave gentlemen wilfully lost as if that voyage had been on purpose plotted to disable our Nation by taking away so many gallant brave young spirits so many of our Colours lost as Trophies of their Victory and of our shame hung up in Nostredame Church that the brave Talbot and Salisbury with many other our valiant Ancestors will rise up in Judgement against him for that every way inglorious Act. Nay to how low an ebbe of honour was this our poore despicable Kingdome brought that even in Queene Elizabeths time the glory of the World a great Nobleman being taken prisoner was freely released with this farewell given with him that they desired but two English Mastieffes for his Ransome But the King by that unnecessary and dishonourable War was driven to that exigency for want of money that he was forced to pawn his rich Cupboard of Plate to Amsterdam and to send Cottington into Spain in a manner to beg a peace which having obtained it was thought so great a service of him that it raised him to all his Honor and Fortunes Yet all the while Rochell in sharpe distresse was left unrelieved although otherwise intended or but pretended rather For the Courting betwixt the Duke and the Governour of the Isle of Ree in sending complements and Presents to each other shewed rather an intimate dearnesse then any hostility to be meant between them And sure I am the successe made it apparent that their purpose was no better than to carry so many goodly Gentlemen to the Slaughter-house and Powdering-Tub as even now I instanced Yet was the King so content to be abused as publickly at his Dinner he delivered it for a miracle that having such ill successe there were so few men lost for that as many came home as went forth as appeared by the Chequer-Rol within five hundred At which a Gentleman whose faithfull Valour prompted him to speake a truth in season though theirs did not them to fight standing at the back of the Kings chair said yea Sir as you hear that hear very little of Truth But if you please to inquire of such as can and dare informe you truly you shall find many thousands fewer came home then went forth For which relation this honest Tell-troth was commanded presently from his Court-Attendance which doom he never could get reverst wherein you may behold the Power of Buckingham with the King whose Word stood for a Law Which Power of his grew now so exorbitant he aspires to get higher Titles both in Honour and Place as Prince of Tipperary a place so called in Ireland and Lord High Constable of England an Office aimed at by that Monster and Machivillian Leicester in Queen Elizabeths time but he therein was crossed and contradicted by the then Lord Chancellour Hatton now affected by Buckingham who herein wrote after Leicesters ambitious example but he crossed too by President with Coventry now Lord Keeper and no question but upon those just grounds his Predecessor did For you must understand this Office hath an Authority annexed unto it to call any Subject in question for his life by trying