be suitable to his Nature and their Ambitious Designs The three chief Favourites and Ministers were Robert Vere Earl of Oxford afterwards Marquiss of Dublin and Duke of Ireland Michael Delapool Earl of Suffolk and Robert Tresilian Lord Chief Justice The Duke of Ireland seem'd the best as hardly he cou'd do otherwise being set with two such Foils but he wanted Vertue and Courage without the excess of Vices of the other two Michael Delapoole was a model of complicated Vices in Peace the most odiously Insolent in War the most dejectedly Contemptible He despised all methods of Quietness and yet was frighted with the least Disturbance Tresilian the Chief Justice was one that never shew'd his Place or Title by any practice but ready to prostrate all Law to Occasion and Justice to Designs His Knowledg was Lewdness and his Vertue Violence what others design'd he was ready to execute and being kept up in this Darkness he grew fierce on all things that were cast to him This King was called Richard of Burdeaux because born there the only Son of the Black Prince By his Grandfather Edward the Third he was in his Life time declared his Successor And after his Death was Crowned at Westminster in the year 1377 by Simon Sudbury Archbishop of Canterbury with great Solemnity The King being then eleven years old The Duke of Lancaster and Edmund Earl of Cambridge the King's Uncles with other Lords and Bishops were joyned in Commission to manage the State. The Minority of the King gave foreign Princes an Opinion that it was a proper time to attempt upon England the French first laid hold on the Occasion and landed Forces and did some mischief and burnt some places near the Sea As about Rye Portsmouth Dartmouth and Plimouth as also Hastings and Winchelsea The Scots also assaulted the Castle of Berwick and won it but it was taken again by the Earls of Northumberland and Nottingham and all put to the Sword but Ramsey who took it by a bold and desperate attempt with a few Men. These troubles occasion'd a Parliament to be called at Westminster where Alice Pearce the Concubine to the late King Edward the Third was banish'd and all her Goods confiscated A Tax was then given of two Tenths of the Clergy and two Fifteenths of the Temporalty Others write the Tax was a Poll of four Pence upon every Head but which way soever it was either the Levying it or the Tax it self caused a sudden and strange Insurrection begun by the infusion of one Wiat a Factious Priest using these Common Notions against great Men who had power to oppress others and ruine the meaner sort to support their Greatness and Luxuries This spread to the City who gave intelligence that they were ready to join with the Rabble that appeared gather'd from many adjacent Countries This confused Body chose one Wat Tyler for their Captain whose Assistants or Privy-Councellers were John Ball Jack Straw and Jack Shepherd Blackheath as they marched to London was their Rendezvous where they appeared to be above Threescore Thousand From thence they marched to London declaring themselves for the King and People When they came to London they were received either for Fear or Love with all freedom and treated as if they strove who shou'd express themselves best to the flatter'd Rebels who like such a Mass of Giddiness got together committed nothing but Murther and Violence They burnt the Savoy the Duke of Lancaster's House they rifled the Temple and destroyed the Law-Books expressing a Spleen against any thing of that Nature Nor were Churches or Religious Houses spared the good they punished the ill they cherished setting all Prisoners at Liberty their Chief Leader Tyler remembring some Punishment that his old Master Richard Lyon had inflicted on him for some Crime he had committed without any more Tryal or Judgment than what his Revenge allowed caused his Head to be stricken off and carried before him on a Spear Their Numbers were now so great that the King durst not resist their Entrance into the Tower where they abused his Mother and took the Archbishop of Canterbury the Chancellor and Lord Treasurer and dragging them to Tower-Hill there beheaded them In the midst of all these Outrages the King proclaim'd a Pardon to all that wouâ—d go quietly home which the Essex men and some others accepted but the Kentish and others stayed with their Captain Tyler So that it seem'd as if part of this Rabble were not in the secret intention to subvert the Government and throw down all above themselves from Oppression About 20000. continued with their Captain The King looking upon this as a good beginning presented himself in Person before the Rebels and spoke to them with all sweetness promising them Pardon and Favour but had so rude a return from Tyler that instead of Submission he demanded the King's Sword at which the Mayor of London drew his and struck him to the ground where he was presently killed The Rabble seem'd to threaten Revenge But the City hearing this and thinking it high time to free their King and themselves from Ruine and Destruction came to his Relief with a body of men at which sight the affrighted Rebels yielded and some fled and deliver'd up their Ringleader a Sacrifice that seldom fails to be made by such Tumults Jack Straw at his Execution confessed their Design of destroying all that were above them in Name or Fortune The King 's chief Favourites now appeared to be Michael Delapoole made Chancellor of England and after Earl and Duke of Suffolk Robert de Vere Marquess of Dublin and after Earl of Ireland Alexander Archbishop of York and Tresilian the Chief Justice The first Testimony that these shewed of their Animosities against the Methods of a just Minister was the displacing Sir Richard Scroope Lord Chancellor who in all things used an impartial uprightness which was an Offence to their loose and partial Designs But they did not only sharpen the King's Nature against men in point of Offices and Employments but against their Lives The first appearance of this was by the Duke of Lancaster whose Offences were likewise from his Vertues and his Ruine therefore contrived by them and resolv'd by Tresilian to be done by Form of Law the worst sort of destroying when violated but when truly observ'd the best defence against destruction There are seldom any extream Proceedings in a Government but there are depraved persons enough in all Conditions ready to swim with the stream and take the benefit of any Tide of Fortune For when Mischief is to be practised Corruption is the Consequence and there are always those ready whom no Consideration ballances in their Natures with Honour and Benefit Tresilian was one of those thus prepared and cou'd hardly want as well-condition'd Informers and Juries Occasions preserved from men is the surest Cause of their Vertue but offered from those that should depress it is the Cause and Temptation of Villany
Receipt which were to be seen in the Chamber of Paris Hastings the Lord great Chamberlain was the only great Person that was hardly perswaded to become a Pensioner of France and that refus'd to give any Acquittance for what he receiv'd The same Historian says That he was the only man that perswaded him to it and had first perswaded him to be so to Charles Duke of Burgundy and when Cleret was sent by King Lewis with a Present of 2000 Crowns and desired his Acquittance for his Discharge as he had receiv'd it from the Chancellor and the Admiral He answer'd the Gift proceeded from his Master's Liberality not his Request If he desired he shou'd receive it he might put it in his Sleeve other Testimonial he shou'd get none of him for he wou'd not that any shou'd say That the Lord Chamberlain was Pensioner to the French King nor that his Acquittance shou'd be found in the Chamber of Accounts The King of France was angry with Cleret for bringing no Acquittance but ever after preferr'd the Lord Chamberlain in his Esteem before all the King of England's other Servants I cannot discern much Reason for it There seems little Difference to me between one that is carelesly and another that is cautiously dishonest And those Ministers equally forgot the Interest of England for their own to let them share in our Affairs and Councils The People judgâ—â— right in this and Parliaments as Cemines observes were never corrupted in themselves and Judgments and alwayâ— perceiv'd the Dissimulation of the French and in another place says they were always willing to grant Aids against France for they cou'd not be deceiv'd by Demonstration which shew'd the Difference in our Methods and Constitution from theirs Our Laws are suitable to our Interest and our Interest secur'd by our Laws Our Fashions and manner of Expences shou'd be applicable to the Consumption of our own Productions The French differ from the first and their Fancies are the only Measures of the last They are not capable to live after the Methods of our Interest but we may quit ours to assist theirs France can be but of little use to us but we may be of too much to them They may receive but can bring no advantage They have reason then to be always active to keep an Interest here by private means since 't were vain to hope it by publick ones and Gardinal Richelieu well understood these Truths when he call'd England their Indies About this time Guido Earl of St. Paul was sent by Charles the French King to visit and complement King Richard and his Queen The Earl according to the ready Confidence of the French became Counsellor For one day the King discoursing with him he complain'd of the Duke of Glocester and in particular that he did passionately endeavour to disturb the Peace between England and France The Earl presently gave Seutence against the Duke and told the King plainly he was not fit to live For when a Subject was grown so great a Prince was no longer safe and if he meant to secure himself against Danger the surest way was to destroy those from whence it might so easily come This Advice blew the King's Anger into a Flame and he began to express to some of his great men his Displeasure against the Duke of Glocester but he found in them all an high Opinion of the Duke's Honour and Vertue So that the King began to calm again and shew'd as if Cruelty had not its full spring from his own Nature but swell'd as it was nourish'd by the Streams of other Councils For after this he was again rais'd by the Advices of the Earls of Holland and Nottingham to contrive the Destruction of the Duke of Glocester And commonly as the Advice of ill men tends to the worst things so generally they suggest the worst way of doing them The Duke of Glocester was then at his House in Plashy in Essex whither the King was invited or rather invited himself and with all Testimonies of Respect and Kindness most splendidly feasted This was judg'd a proper time for the Design and as the Duke waited upon the King to bring him going he was seiz'd by a Company of arm'd men laid secretly for him and so hurried blindfold to the Thames and in a Vessel ready prepar'd carried to Calice and there shortly after strangled Either thought too Guilty and Popular or not Guilty enough to be brought to a publick Tryal And as the wicked Advisers perswaded his taking by the breach of Hospitality the basest way of Treachery so they continued in the peculiar Methods of Mischief to contrive his Death by the most hated way of private Murther Within a Day or two after the King invited the Earl of Warwick to Dinner and in the midst of all shews of Kindness sent him to Prison and also the Earl of Arundel and his Son. The Dukes of Lancaster and York being thus alarm'd gather'd Forces together but upon the Promise of a Parliament and Legal Proceedings with many Excuses for what had been done they dismiss'd their Forces and came up to attend at Parliament where Sir John Bushy Sir William Bagott and Sir Henry Green appear'd busie Ministers for the King Sir Bushy was made Speaker and by his and their assiduous Endeavours corrupting some by Fears and others by Benefits the Charters of Pardon formerly granted by the King were annull'd and made void The Prelates perceiving what way was made for taking away of Lives constituted Sir Henry Percy their Procurator and absented themselves that they might not be present at any Sentence of Blood a President ever to be remembred for the Honour of their Calling Then follow'd as was expected the Death of the Earl of Arundel the perpetual Imprisonment of the Earl of Warwick in the Isle of Man the Death of the Duke of Glocester above-mention'd the Archbishop of Canterbury arraign'd for Executing the Commission against Michael Delapoole the Lord Cobham banished into the Isle of Wight Sir Reginald Cobham condemn'd to Death for being formerly appointed by the Lords in the King's Minority to be one of his Governours These Cruel Successes furnished Arguments to those new Upstart Ministers Bushy Bagott and Green to infuse into the King how much more safe he was by Cruelty than gentle means and how much more secure by Fear than Love. Nor are other Counsels to be expected from such Men equally low and mean in their Minds as in their Extractions made greedy from their Poverty and ambitious from their Meanness neither endued with their Minds and Fortunes to think of Principles Power was their Justice Violence their Prudence and Opportunity the Providence The King was now possess'd with the Opinion That he was in a Condition to dispose as he pleas'd of those that durst dislike his Actions and that his Will might now become the Law. But the present Prospect of Things commonly deceives those that are willing onely to believe the
Lod. Vives Galilaeus Gassendus and Des Carles and by many excellent Philosophers of our own Nation I have not given this Account with the least Design or Endeavour to lessen the Esteem of Knowledge in this particular of Philosophy For certainly the Natural Reason of things is worthy of such a search as may inform But to labour in the endless and useless searches of Subtilties and nice Distinctions can be for no other use but Disputes caus'd by the Vanity of suppos'd Victory or the Application to Interest At least I could not find a clear advantage to my self or cou'd have hoped to have offer'd any others by endeavouring to obtain the Perfections of an imperfect Study wherein nothing appear'd to me promising any thing of publick use or private demonstration For the Mathematicks setting aside that vain part of it Astrology I only know enough of it to deplore I had not made my intire Study there where a Demonstration made it more proper for the true use of men than for their Designs For in things that admit the least Dispute men must be least divided and yet Evident Truth begets the least Interest and the fewest Admirers But where things not only above Reason but contrary to Sense are impos'd upon mens Belief that implicite Faith and consequently Obedience must be the sure Foundation of Interest and those who have parted with their Wits may probably part with their Fortunes For certainly had not such extraordinary Designs prosper'd on easie men the Ecclesiasticks had not crept into such great Titles and large Possessions that the Apostles cou'd hardly find any Image of themselves in their Successors and as little in some of their Opinions who never were taught or did teach to deny Sense and to make visible Truth or sensible Demonstration a Sin. The Mathematicks have therefore caus'd less Disputes and engaged fewer in the Study of it where Truth can only be the Search and the Reward and Disputes must be confounded by Demonstration But the other Studies are most suitable to the bent Nature of Mankind where things not to be clearly decided nourish Contention and Design For easie People being ready for extraordinary Notions excuse the folly of not examining by the prudence of believing it safer to submit implicitly to others than to use their own Sense And at last by such intire submissions Impossibilities become as easie to them as Truths and Falseness as Demonstration like those that use themselves perpetually to hot Waters Spirit of Wine it self at last is swallow'd up without being perceiv'd to have any violent strength Observations on HISTORY THE next Study to this that seem'd nearest Truth and of most use was History in which the best measures of men are to be found and the Comparisons of Calms and Storms in Empires the Quiet and Revolutions under several Princes and Governours will best teach by what Methods Kingdoms have been preserv'd and shaken which is not only useful for those that govern but those that obey teaching the first how to preserve and the last how to afford the Means Nor did any thing appear more agreeable to me than the use that Machiavel makes of History in his Decads on Livy where his Discourses grounded upon Reason have yet matter of Fact to support them and brings it the nearest to a Demonstration For Notions in Politicks unsupported with Fact seem only bare Opinions but from those Accidents and Events that we have seen follow closely the Wisdom and Vertue of Princes or the Folly and Vices of them and their Favourites and Ministers sharing so much their Power may be reasonably deduc'd that Judgment of things which must be useful to practice or avoid by the ruling and obeying part There are no Prescriptions in my Opinion at least so useful against this Sickness as the Precedents in History to see what Glory and Safety wise and vertuous Princes have obtain'd and what Ruine the Cruelty and Folly of others have brought upon themselves and Subjects In every Country their own Precedents are most proper for themselves since living under the same Constitutions they may justly expect the same Effects from those happy or unfortunate Causes In all our Stories I look'd upon none so instructing as this part I have chosen where the power of firm Vertue and unsteady Errors so evidently appear'd in their close Operations I do not look upon a calm and quiet Reign so much the Proof of steady Vertue where Peace has descended with the Empire nor the Troubles of an unquiet time so clear an Evidence of unsteady Errors where the Storms and Troubles descended with the Crown But when in an immediate and repeated Succession the Extreams alternately have preserv'd and destroy'd I look upon these as the clear Testimonies of the different Powers of Vice and Vertue Steddiness and Indirectness Justice and Tyranny The Examples are no where to be found more close than in the Reigns of Edward the Second and Richard the Second The first succeeded his Father Edward who came to the Crown after many Troubles that his Father Henry the Third had long labour'd under but his steddy Vertue overcame all Troubles at home and conquer'd his Enemies abroad and was the first that made England look like a Powerful and Establish'd Monarchy His unfortunate Son Edward unravell'd what he had wound up and by unsteddy Errors shook that Power that descended so unshaken to him from his mighty Father His Son Edward the Third by Vertues and Methods of his Grandfather restor'd what his Father had lost Richard the Second the Son of the Black Prince succeeded his Grandfather in his Throne but his Great Grandfather Edward the Second in the same fatal and unsteddy measures lost more than the other had gained For though he lost his Life like Edward the Second yet he lost more than he for with him the Succession ended and fell into another Line No Subject appear'd to me so worthy of Remarks as this which evidently shews that there is a general Temper in Mankind fatal to their own Peace which even and firm Minds wou'd perceive Fortune and occasion add to or diminish the Temper of most who sink either too low or swell too high Success makes them salse to themselves and others All modest and profess'd Principles are lost in such a Temptation and both Kings and Subjects have harass'd one another by such alterations and shook the Government they both seem'd tender of Sometimes when Kings have been in such a Condition that is capable to ground sufficient Flattery upon there never want those either indigent in Fortune or Vertue to perswade Kings That Limited Power for so they call Laws observ'd is but the Fetters of a Prince and they need be worn no longer than he submits to publick Notions which are nothing but unsolid Fancies For if a King does not assume all Power the Subjects will grow into the greatest share and will necessitate him to try for all or have as good
a little after the Commons come to receive his Resignation and were seated in a Form ready for the Ceremony The King came out in Mourning and at the sight of a form'd Power ready to take away His sunk down but being recover'd to a miserable Life the Bishop of Hereford deliver'd the Cause of their coming After which Trussell a Lawyer and Speaker of the House of Commons pronounces a Form of renouncing all Allegiance to Edward of Caernarvon to which as most Writers say the King made not the least Answer but turn'd about and went out There were Articles also exhibited against him and his Son with much Ceremony chosen King in Westminster-Hall with the full consent of the People which gave the occasion to the Archbishop of Canterbury to choose for the Subject of his Sermon Vox populi Vox Dei exhorting the People to pray for the King they had chosen Thus the Lawyer found out a Legal Method for the People to deprive their King of Sovereignty and the Divines Consecrated their mighty Power in calling their Voice a Divine Election Philip de Comines in his Third Book takes notice That the Great Earl of Warwick subdu'd England in Eleven days and King Edward the Fourth recover'd it in One and twenty Though these were sudden Revolutions yet the Fortune of them was dispos'd by many Battels but this was as sudden yet without a Blow which shews no Force to be greater than the Power of Injuries and Oppressions For though in Prosperity and the full gust of Power this mighty Force lying as it were in an Ambush in the Vexed Minds of injur'd Subjects is undiscern'd and slighted And the fatal Precedents made by the Errours of others are seldom made use of to our selves yet when it begins to shew it self it seems no wonder that the united Minds of all conclude for themselves But Men are so much their own Flatterers that they believe every thing Permanent they wish to be so and Favourites that cannot submit to share a Common Benefit venture at uncertain Advantages and make it a Principle to depend more upon Men's Fears than Love. By the Mighty and Ambitious Mischiefs and Disturbances are wrought but the Weak and Moderate desire Peace and Quietness The unhappy King was now kept in Confinement with a small allowance that he might be deprived of all things that resembled a Princes Condition and suffer'd now for his unsteady Errors as much perhaps by the wounding reflection of their Memory as by what he endured for them But too late he was taught Truth by Misery and saw the Difference to lose those Friends that cou'd preserve him and keep none but only such as could help to destroy him Princes sometimes believe that the right of Power should preserve them notwithstanding the want of Conscience in the using of it But when their Errors have contracted Enemies and the same Errors raised Accidents enough to give power and opportunity to those Enemies misguided Princes like this unhappy King will find that such with as much want of Conscience will revenge their Wrongs as they shew'd by the Oppression It now appear'd that the Graves of Princes are ever near their Prisons This unhappy one above all things deplored That his Wife whom he had ever loved wou'd not be got to see him But she was now possessed by her passion for Mortimer that all her Duty and Vertue was Sacrific'd and her Husband was now as much her apprehension as aversion Mortimer was as jealous as he could be and never thought himself safe in his Enjoyments while the King liv'd They cou'd be inform'd of the murmuring whispers of their Course of Life and that hard usage of the King proceeded from thence and therefore looked upon the King's Death as their only security His Keepers were therefore changed by the advice of that ready Counsellor of mischief the Bishop of Hereford for Sir Maurice Berkley in whose Custody he was had been tamper'd with and not found ready for the intended Villany he was therefore taken from Henchworth Castle and committed to Sir Thomas Gourney and Sir John Matravers who carry'd him to Corf-Castle a place some write that he always declared an apprehensive aversion to from thence to Bristol from whence upon some suspicion of a Plot for his escape he was convey'd to Berkley Castle where by those barbarous Villains he was wretchedly murthered with a hot Iron thrust through a Pipe up behind into his Bowels which way they thought wou'd perhaps make the least discovery by what Death he died though his Groans and Cryes sufficiently proclaim'd the Violence of it Some write That the Bishop of Hereford by a dark Sentence instigated the Murtherers to hasten the Execution by this Line Edwardum occidere nolite Timere bonum est At once giving them encouragement and concealing an excuse for himself But Ecclesiastical Riddles are dangerous and sometimes their Expositions of Texts have been no other After this horrid Execution the Murderers Gourney and Matravers expected Rewards but found the Queen and Bishop readier rather to threaten and accuse them than to own the Service and were forc'd to fly beyond Sea to seek safety for their loath'd Lives But Gourney after three years was taken and sent to England and by the way had his Head struck off Matravers fled into Germany where in Repentance he had time to wast a miserable Life This King Reigned something above Eighteen years and was murther'd in the 43d year of his Life His Body was carryed to Glocester and there buryed without any Ceremony His Character I will reserve till I join it with Richard the Second since the same Methods and Errors in Government workt the same Effects and both Princes equally unfortunate The Reigns of Edward the Second and Richard the Second to which I am now proceeding may be justly said to be as Mezeray calls the Reign of Henry the Third of France The Reign of Favourites who did enervate all his Vertues and dispos'd him to looseness and carelesness deafen'd and confounded him with Flatteries prompting to observe no Law but his Will while they were the Disposers of all things At which many great Men and others retired discontented and left the Favourite-Ministers at large to pursue their Ambition and with new Inventions to waste and pillage the King's Revenue This Description suits with the beginning of this unfortunate King Richard the Second who after the death of his Grandfather that great Prince Edward the Third succeeded him in the Throne His Father the Famous Black Prince dying in his Father's time who by contrary Methods to what they us'd met as contrary Fortunes The Comeliness and Beauty of his Person exceeding all his Predecessors only seem'd to Entitle him to a Generous Father and as beautiful a Mother But that promising Person which might have become great Actions was turned to Looseness and Pleasures and Flatterers broke in to encourage that dissolute Carelesness which they found wou'd
his Valour and Conduct The Duke of Lancaster needed not the force of Eloquence to perswade him the loss of his Uncles his Banishment the Imprisonment of his Children and the loss of his Estate were powerful Exciters enough to lay hold on any Opportunity to revenge all his Wrongs To all which was added the perswasive Temptation of a Crown and sure there could be no more powerful Motives than by one way at once to satisfie both his Ambition and Revenge These Considerations and the depending on the Peoples Affections to a Change being wearied with Oppression made him venture to land with a very small Force in Yorkshire At first he gave out That he came only to recover his Inheritance and quickly found his utmost Expectation answer'd for his small Troop presently encreas'd to an Army Many of the Nobility that came in to him took an Oath of him That no bodily harm should be done to King Richard as if a Conquest and a Crown wou'd preserve that Sincerity that was inconsistent with it or that the Modesty profess'd when something was to be obtain'd should continue after the Acquisition The Duke finding every thing more successful than almost he could hope pursued that Fortune which so prosperously invited him and hasted with his still-encreasing Forces to London where he found a Reception suitable to usual Joy that discontented People shew in Alterations He was receiv'd in Triumph without Victory and with all the Testimonies of Zeal and Duty which flattering Crowds cou'd pay their lawful Prince and Soveraign Pageants and rich Presents entertain'd him and all the fulsome Praises that could be invented and as many contumelious Reproaches on their King All Testimonies of Allegiance seem'd lost the modest Mask was now taken off and War proclaim'd against King Richard and his Adherents The Duke of York in the mean time tried to raise Forces but found a general Resolution in all People not to be Enemies to the Duke of Lancaster The Favourites that were active and bold in Prosperity shew'd that neither their Skill nor their Duty was to struggle with Difficulties nor had they either Interest or Reputation if they had attempted it They were always dead Weights upon their Prince and like the nature of it hung heaviest upon weak Conditions Bushy and Greene were pursued to Bristol and there taken fatal place to hasty Favourites They were eagerly pursu'd by the flattering Fury of the People and perhaps there were some among them that before in the Prosperity of these Favourites made as passionate Professions of a contrary Devotion Bagott escap'd into Ireland and sav'd himself from the present Execution The Lord Scroop Lord Treasurer with Bushy and Greene that were taken lost their Heads These sudden Executions were but the usual Consequences of violent Changes All new-gotten Power is commonly endeavour'd to be preserv'd by Destruction and the Execution of the Unfortunate is call'd a Justice King Richard was at this time in Ireland where the news came to him of the Duke's landing in England and his successful Proceedings The news increas'd by coming and every Circumstance grew enlarg'd so that it appear'd the blackest and most portentous Storm that ever gather'd in the full Sun-shine of a Prince which his Favourites assur'd him cou'd be subject to no Eclipse The contrary appear'd to this unfortunate King who was then engag'd in Troubles in Ireland After some time he prepar'd for England having first imprison'd the Sons of the Dukes of Lancaster and Glocester in Trim-Castle and took with him the Dukes of Surrey Aumarl and Exeter and the Bishops of London Lincoln and Carlisle The Earl of Salisbury was sent before to raise an Army which he did in Cornwal but the King failing to come within the time he promis'd they all discourag'd went home This delay was attributed to the Counsel of the Duke of Aumarl who perhaps had more mind to see things determin'd by the Fortune of others than by hazarding his own After this the King Lands in Wales where he found the stream turning from him and every Place of strength submitting to the Duke of Lancaster He knew not what Course to steer but wandred to Conway-Castle where the Earl of Worcester Steward to the King's Houshold as if finding a fitting time to remember the proclaiming his Brother the Duke of Northumberland Traytor broke his Staff of Office openly in the Hall before the King's Servants and with Advice to them to be as base as himself went avowedly to the Duke The rest followed his Example and those that seem'd the most eagerly Loyal became now the most violently Rebellious And 't is improbable that those who with unlimited Flattery for their Interest and Ambition had perswaded their Prince into the dangerous Attempt of Absolute Power should in any turn of Fortune or shock of Danger retain any limited Principles The true Interest of a Prince retains the Interest of others but the Interest of private Men excludes the Prince's We have heard 't is true of some that have been successful in such unjust and dangerous Attempts but the Examples have been very few that have not been fatal at last and there are so many of the contrary that the Comparison would convince any That the just Limits within a Nation 's Constitution are much more safe as well as glorious King Richard had now cause to make such sad Reflections and by the want of Power instructed to lament the attempting of too much He saw himself forsaken by those whom he should have forsook before He now felt severely the want of that Trust and Confidence that he had destroy'd and seem'd not forsaken of his People but to have forsook them before He had forc'd them all to be in the nature of Traytors and compell'd them to purchase as it were the name of Subjects while there were none that seem'd so to him but those that needed Pardon the most such as had counsell'd him to the Ruin that now fell upon him He had been so long accustomed to follow the Counsel of others that he knew not now the way to use his own He had too long followed the mean and easie ways of Indirectness Virtuous and steddy Actions in the undisturbed part of Life give power in Extremity and the memory of what was Great and Good gives boldness to such a Mind to claim Success in the worst condition But the memory of Injuries and Injustice done to others shakes Hopes and Expectations in a dangerous Estate This he shewed by discharging his Army rather than bravely using them as if he believ'd it impossible to recover Power now since he had used it so ill before The next thing that seem'd best was to have retired till a better occasion was offered for nothing is more various or violent than the stream of Mens minds with greediness affecting Change and hurried by Expectations that are seldom answered to be eas'd from all former Grievances and Oppressions and every one that