Contentions not only in civil but religious Affairs Having given an Account of the Reasons of the Ruine of the Roman Western Empire and how like our Case is to that of the Empire in its Declension It 's time to take a view of the State of the Goths and Vandals after they had planted themselves in Spain and herein I observe that though the Romans as well as Grecians esteem all other Nations barbarous but themselves yet the Government of them was equal if not better than either for it was a Regular Monarchy wherein the King did not govern by an absolute despotick Power but by established Laws nor could they make new nor alter the old or raise Money without the Consent of the States of their Kingdoms and this continued for many Hundred Years after how many of the Kingdoms in Spain lost these Privileges is too long to be inserted here yet at this Day the Kingdom of Arragon retains them So that the King of Spain never speaks to them as King of Castile In the Reign of Honorius and Arcadius Ann. 408. about five Years before Gundericus entred Spain Attila King of the Huns over-run the Empire and pierced into Gaul with a huge Army against whom Honorius sent Ecius the greatest General of his time with an Imperial Army which was raised in all parts of the Empire so as Ecius was forced to withdraw the Roman Legions in Britain to oppose Attila nor did they ever return more so that the poor Britains being enured to no warlike Discipline but only to serve their imperious Masters easily became a Prey to the Picts and Scots and so were in a more servile State than when they were under the Romans To redeem themselves from which they called the English Saxons to their Assistance who used them worst of all and expelled the whole Race of them out of that part of Britain now called England But this is observable That as in these Times the rest of the Roman Empire was over-spread with Arianism so was that part of Britain subject to the Roman Empire over-spread with Pelagianism and here observe the Justice of God upon them that these Men who ascribed to themselves a Power of Salvation without God's special Grace and Favour to them should not be able to save themselves from their Enemies but be either slaughtered by them or expelled their Native Country upon the Earth The Saxons which conquered the Britains were Heathen yet was their Government as well as that of the Goths a Regular Monarchy and so continued in all the Dynasties of their Kings and yet is continued notwithstanding the several Attempts of many of the Kings of the Norman and the Scotish Race to the contrary About ten Years after Ecius recalled the Roman Legions out of Britain viz. in 418. Pharamond entred Gaul and conquered some part of it which he called France after the Name of the Franks and Pharamond was Heathen and so was Meroveus his Successor and Childerick his Son and so continued till about the Year 490 when Clovis was converted to Christianity of whom Messeray glories that he was the only King in the World which was not Infidel or Heretick However the Government of the Franks as well as the Goths and Saxons was a Regular Monarchy till the Reign of Charles the 7th about the Year 1430. which was above a thousand Years after the Franks planted themselves in Gaul If we look back into the Reign of Henry the 2d of England we shall find him it may be the greatest of all the Western Kings and Lord if not of the greatest yet best part of France as he was Duke of Normandy and Aquitain in Right of his Wife Eleanor Aquitain having the Ocean on the West and Normandy the British Sea on the North. But this Dominion did not last long for King Henry's Son and John's Son Henry the 3d endeavouring to usurp a more than Legal Authority over their Subjects caused such a Ferment and Discord in the Kingdom and this lasted near 70 Years that the Kings of France in the mean time took all Normandy and the greatest part of Aquitain from the English When King James became King of England Henry the 4th was French King having composed by Force and Clemency the Civil Wars which had raged near 40 Years all over France and in the Year 1597 made Peace with Spain which was about 5 Years before King James became King of England and here let 's take a view of Spain Though Spain were 1 3 greater than France when King James came to the Crown of England yet France was I believe fivefold better peopled and generally a more fruitful Country How this came to pass it's fit to look back upon the Cause of the Sterility of Men in Spain and their abounding in France Ferdinand and Isabella King and Queen of Castile and Arragon about the Year 1490 having conquered the Kingdoms of Granada and Murcia and against their Faith given to the Moors brought in the Inquisition upon them the greatest part of the Moors forsook their Country and thereby left the Kingdoms of Granada and Murcia so much less peopled and Ferdinand and Isabella being addicted to the Roman Religion established manifold Bishopricks and Religious Houses in these Kingdoms of both Sexes and the Pope though he pleases to make Marriage a Sacrament yet forbids it to the Clergy and other of both Sexes who take upon them a Religious Life whereby as the Moors leaving Spain unpeopled it at present so future Generations became so much less replenished by how much more People took upon them a Religious Habit. But this Mischief did not stop here for Philip the 2d great Grand-Son of Ferdinand and Isabella and a most bigotted Prince to the Romish Superstition brought the Inquisition upon the Converted Moors which drove them out of Spain to the farther unpeopling of it and my Lord Bacon says that many of these poor converted Moors became as persecuted in their Exile for their Religion as if they had continued in Spain And this Mischief further followed not only to Spain but to Christendom for the exiled Moors having no other Habitation and Means of Living set up their Trade of Piracy in Algiers Tunis and Tripoli within the Straits and in Sally without whereby they have been a Plague to all other Christians as well as Spaniards who trade into the Straits and Affrick and other Southern Countries ever since About the time that Ferdinand and Isabel conquered Spain Columbus discovered the West-Indies and Hornando Cortez siding with one part of the Indians which were at War against the other and thereby becoming Conqueror of those he fought against he got incredible Wealth with a Discovery of the Rich Mines in Mexico The Blaze of this quickly flew all over Spain so that the Spaniards expected Mountains of Gold in running out of Spain into America and therefore near half Spain ran into America to seek new Adventures there the covetous
in Christendom when he was putting it into an universal War all the Western Princes 〈◊〉 Christendom except King James were engaged in it against the House of Austria but it was so vast as in the Nature of things if Henry had been young as he was in the 57th Year of his Age he could not have lived to have accomplished it at his Death tho he lived but 13 Years after the Treaty of Vervins when he made Peace with Philip the 2d of Spain he had amassed such a Treasure as is incredible if so great an Historian as Messeray did not testify it especially if it be considered that before the Treaty at Vervins France had for forty Years before been imbroiled in a Civil War and with Spain and these Wars being in all the Parts of France France was never before in so poor and feeble a State and Henry himself after the Peace giving himself up to Venery and Gaming above any King of France before him or since Nor can it be imagined from whence such Treasures should arise for there are no Gold nor Silver Mines in France unless it were from the Trades which the English Dutch Dane Swede and Hamburghers drove into France However Henry was addicted to Women and Gaming yet otherwise he excelled all the Kings of the Age not only in Heroick Vertues but in Prudence Constancy and Secrecy in his Designs curious in Enquiry into the Qualities of Men whom he would prefer as Qualities merited and was pleasant and witty in his Conversation and always disposed to take the Impression of good Counsel He left his Son a Prince of weak Constitution both of Body and Mind at ten Years of Age and his Wife an imperious bigotted Italian to the Church of Rome Regent These overthrew all the Methods which Henry had laid for promoting the French Grandure and gave themselves up to be governed by Favourites yet in a different manner from those in England whereby they squandered away all that inestimable Treasure which Henry left in less than half the time Henry had been collecting it and put all France into Tumults and Wars whilst the English patiently submitted to the Exorbitances of King James his Favourites and by Proclamations were forbid to mention them or talk of their Government no not in Parliament And now 't is time to return to England and see what 's doing there If we begin this Year 1612 with January we shall find two Marriages in it to succeed the two Deaths of the two famous Henry's of England and France The first upon the 14th of February being Shrove-Sunday between Frederick Count Palatine of the Rhine commonly called the Palsgrave and the Princess Elizabeth the King 's only Daughter and the Triumphs Pageant◠and other Gaieties upon the Thames in the City and Inns of Court far exceeded any before seen in England which you may read at large in Stow's Chronicle fol. 1004. so as the Tears for the Death of Prince Henry were overflowed by the excess of Joy for this Marriage However Northampton was not pleased with it nor the Emperor or King of Spain and from the same Causes viz. It would so far advance the Protestant Interest in Germany as to make it more formidable to the Popish Religion and 't is certain for I had it from good Authority that Queen Ann was averse to it and to put the Princess out of conceit of it would usually call her Daughter Goodwife Palsgrave to which the Princess would answer she would rather be the Palsgrave ' s Wife than the greatest Papist Queen in Christendom The Reason of the Queen's Aversion to this Marriage is not said but certain it is that these fading Joys for this Marriage were succeeded by fixt and real Calamities which the King took little Care to prevent and shall never live to see nor his Son after him an end of While the Preparations for solemnizing this Marriage were making a different sort was making for another between the Viscount Rochester and the Countess of Essex and to make the Way to it more passable two Rubs were to be removed one to take off Sir Thomas Overbury the other to procure a Divorce not only a Mensa Toro between the Earl and the Countess but a Nullity whereby the Countess should be free to marry as she pleased and she had agreed upon the Person To remove Sir Thomas it was agreed between the Earl of Northampton Rochester and the Countess that Sir Thomas should be sent Ambassador to the Great Duke or Emperor of Russia so that if Sir Thomas did accept of it he should be far enough out of the way to hinder this Design and if he did not to commit him to the Tower where they would do well enough with him The Business of the Embassy was no sooner propounded to the King but assented to by him and Sir Thomas was not unwilling to undertake it How harsh soever Rochester was to Sir Thomas when he disswaded Rochester from marrying the Countess yet now he becomes instant kind to Sir Thomas and tell him how much he relied upon his Integrity and Parts which in his Absence he should not only want but that thereby Sir Thomas would give Occasion to his Enemies which were many and upon Rochester's account to ruine him when as it would not be in Rochester's Power to prevent it but if Sir Thomas would refuse to undertake this Embassy Rochester would in a short time undertake to reconcile him to the King and Sir Thomas would in the mean time be at hand to assist him with his Counsel upon all Occasions This was all deep Dissimulation which Sir Thomas took to be in good earnest and so Sir Thomas excused his going on this Errand and this was what Rochester desired Hereupon Rochester possest the King that Sir Thomas was not only grown insolent and intolerable to him but to the King by contemning him in refusing to go on this Embassage The King becomes incensed hereat and the more as 't was commonly said Sir Thomas had vented some stinging Sarcasms upon the Court which came to the King 's hearing and so ordered him to be committed to the Tower Northampton and Rochester had prepared the Business so that Sir William Wade was removed from being Lieutenant of the Tower and Sir Jervis Elvis a Gentleman wholly depending upon them was made Lieutenant of it Upon Sir Thomas his Commitment Sir Jervis Elvis by Order from Northampton and Rochester confines him close Prisoner so that Sir Thomas his Father was not permitted to visit him nor any of his Servants tho one desired he might be confined with his Master The Countess that she might not be behind-hand with Rochester and Northampton had consulted with Mrs. Turner for a fit Instrument to practise what was designed upon Sir Thomas Mrs. Turner's Husband was an Apothecary and had a Servant named Richard Weston who since her Husband's Death was become very poor this Man was agreed by the
them with Men of War to guard their Fisheries and to do it whether he would or not A Prince that by his dissolute Life and prophane Conversation debauched and effeminated the Genius of the English Nation whereby it became more scandalized for Swearing and Drinking than in any Age before A Prince that broke all the Measures by which Hen. 8. and Queen Elizabeth were the Arbitrators of Christendom A Prince fearful of all his Enemies abroad while he was only great by exercising a Tyrannical Arbitrary Power over his Parliaments and Subjects who could only have made him great abroad and honoured at home whereby he became little beloved at home and suffered the Dutch to redeem their Cautionary Towns upon their own Terms and to dispossess the English at Amboyna and their other Factories in the East-Indies and Africa He only stood still looking on while the French upon the Matter supprest the Reformed in France and suffered Ferdinand the 2d to over-run and near subdue the Protestant Princes in Germany as well as his own Son-in-law And tho he were the 6th of that Name King of Scotland from John alias Robert Stuart the Son of Robert Stuart by his Paramour Elizabeth Moor yet if Sir James Melvil says true that Cardinal Bethoun poisoned James the 5th he was the first of that Name who died a natural Death if he did so for James the first was murdered by his Uncle the Earl of Athol his Grand-father's legitimate Son in his Queen's Arms with eight and twenty Wounds the Queen receiving two to defend him This was in the Year 1436. James the II. was killed by the breaking of a Piece of Cannon while he besieged the Castle of Roxburgh the 3d of Aug. 1460. James the III. having his Army routed by an Army headed by his Son James was killed at Bannoch-Burn by the Lord Gray and Robert Sterling of Ker after Sir Andrew Brothick a Priest had shriven him This was in 1488. James the IV. was killed the 9th of December 1514 at Flowdenfield by the English commanded by the Earl of Surrey and his Body never found and if James the 5th was poisoned then none of these Jameses died a natural Death neither did King James his Mother being put to death Ann. 1587 for conspiring the Death of Queen Elizabeth After the Dissolution of the Spanish Match the King as greedily prosecuted the French and tho he lived not to see it settled yet he saw the Army raised under Count Mansfield for the Recovery of the Palatinate ruined by trusting to the French Faith in this very Treaty When he died he not only left an empty Exchequer but a vast Debt upon the Crown yet was engaged in a foreingn War and the Monies given by the Parliament for carrying it on were squandred away in carrying on the French Treaty and the Nation imbroiled in intestine Feuds and Disorders At his Death he left a Son and Heir and one Daughter Before he died he saw his Son over-ruled by his Favourite against his determinate Will and Pleasure and the Prince's own Honour and Interest which was a great Mortification to him and which he often complained of but had not Courage to redress and so strongly was 〈◊〉 Favourite possessed of his Power over his Son in the King's Life that the Prince little regarded his Father's Precepts or the Counsels of any else after his Death whereby he encreased the Internal Feuds Jealousies and Discords of the Nation which ended in a sad Catastrophe both of the Favourite and the King At the King's Death his Daughter with her Husband and her many Children were driven into Exile and Poverty in the Dominion of the Dutch States where they were more relieved by the States the Prince of Orange and some Bishops and Noblemen of England than by either of the Kings Father or Son A DETECTION OF THE Court and State of England During the Reign of King CHARLES I. c. BOOK II. CHAP. I. This Reign detected to the Dissolution of the Parliament Tertio Car. 'T WAS a strange Reign this As this King's Father's Reign was introduced with a horrible Plague so was this King's with a greater and such as no Records of any Times before mention the like The first 15 Years of his Reign were perfectly French and such as never before were seen or heard of in the English Nation this brought on a miserable War in all the three Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and Destruction upon the King whenas it was not in the Power of those which first raised the War against him to save his Life which they would have done Baptista Nani in the sixth Book of the History of Venice An. 1625 f. 221 observes That after the Marriage of King Charles with the Daughter of France the Interest of State or rather the Passion of Favourites converted the Bonds of Affection into Causes of Hatred Europe in those times reckoned it amidst its unhappy Destiny that the Government of it fell upon three young Kings yet in the Flower of their Age Princes of great Power desirous of Glory and in Interest contrary but in this alone by Genius agreeing that they committed the Burden of Affairs to the Will of their Ministers for with equal Independency France was governed by Richlieu Spain by Olivares and Great-Britain by Buckingham confounding Affections with Interest as well publick as private Betwixt the Cardinal and Buckingham open Animosities discovered themselves for Causes so much more unadvised as they were more hard to be known When King James died the Nation was rent into four Parties viz. The Prerogative which exalted the King's divided Will from the Laws and Constitutions above his Royal and Legal Will The Country or Legal Party which stood for the Legal Establishment of Church and State and the Puritan and Popish Parties After the Treaties of Marriage between the Prince and the Daughters of Spain and France the Popish and Prerogative Parties joined for carrying on the Court-Designs and were opposed by the Country and Puritan Parties and as the Prerogative and Popish Factions grew more insolent so the Puritan Party gathered Strength and Reputation among the Vulgar or ordinary People insomuch that in Number they became more than all the other three We shall take a better View of this Reign if we look a little back into the former After the Treaty of the Match with Spain was broken off King James was perplext what to do he had neither Money nor Courage to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate and the Wounds which he had given the last Parliament by Imprisoning their Members for advising him to make War for the Recovery of the Palatinate were yet fresh and bleeding and yet Buckingham whom he durst not offend not content to satisfy his Spite against Olivares by breaking off the Match was notwithstanding all Difficulties nay Impossibility of Success still pushing on the King to declare War against the King of Spain The King
former Propositions Hereupon D'Efsiat to have further Instructions from the Duke entred into a new Treaty with the Merchants and like a French Merchant got Letters to be sent into England that the Peace was concluded with those of the Religion in France and that within 14 Days the War should break out in Italy with a Design upon Genoua a matter of great Importance against the Spaniard Hereupon the Duke procured the King to write a Letter to Pennington dated July 28. to this effect HIS Majesty did thereby charge and command Captain Pennington without delay to put his Highness's former Command in Execution for consigning the Vaunt-Guard into the hands of the Marquiss D'Efsiat for the French with all her Furniture assuring her Officers his Majesty would provide for their Indemnity And to require the other seven Ships in his Majesty's Name to put themselves into the Service of the French King according to the Promise his Majesty had made to him And in case of Backwardness or Refusal commanding him to use all forcible means to compel them even to sinking with a Charge not to fail and this Letter to be his Warrant This Letter was deliver'd to Pennington in the Beginning of August by Captain Wilbraham Hereupon Pennington went back out of the Downs carrying with him the said Letters and certain Instructions in Writing from the Duke to his Secretary Nicholas And about the time Pennington returned to Diep Nicholas threatned the Captains of the Ships and told them it was as much as their Lives were worth if they deliver'd not up their Ships to the French whereupon some of them would have come away and left their Ships and fled into Holland Upon Pennington's coming to Diep he delivered the Van-Guard absolutely into the French Power to be employed as they pleased and acquainted the rest of the Captains with the King's Command that they should likewise put their Ships into the French Power which they all refused to do unless they might have good Security for the Delivery of their Ships or Satisfaction for them Hereupon Pennington went on Shore and spoke with D'Efsiat and upon his Return told the Captains they must rely upon the Security peraffetted in England whereupon the Captains weighed Anchor and prepared to be gone upon which Captain Pennington shot at them and forced them all to come to an Anchor again except the brave Sir Ferdinando Gorge in the Neptune more brave in running away from this abominable Action than charging into the midst of an Enemy When the Captains came a-shore they spoke with Mr. Nicholas who enforced them to come to a new Agreement which you may read in Rushworth fol. 335. and to deliver up their Ships into the French Power but not one of them would take the French Pay in the Expedition but one Gunner who was at his Return kill'd in charging of a Cannon not well spunged by him and the Duke's Secretary Nicholas had a Diamond Ring and a Hat-band set with Diamond-Sparks given him by the French Ambassador for his pains taken in this noble Employment This was the second noble Design of this grand Minister of State Buckingham whilst King James lay unburied we will now proceed to the third wherein you 'll see how well Richlieu requited Buckingham's Service in accommodating the French with a Fleet to subdue the Rochellers Tho the Duke did not personally manage the Treaty of the French Marriage at Paris as he did the Spanish at Madrid for the Reasons aforesaid yet none but he now the whole Treaty was consummate and so firmly performed on the English part must fetch the Queen to the King and when all the mighty Preparations for the Magnificence of this mighty Duke were compleated away he hies to Paris where he arrived the 24th of May and there he staid the full term of seven Days wherein he performed more wonderful Exploits than he had done in so many Months before at Madrid And these we will take from the noble Nani who was out of the Reach of Buckingham's Envy or Flattery of the English Court and as near as I can in his own Words Anno 1625. fol. 221 222. Buckingham being in France to carry back Charles's Bride it seemed that in the free Conversations of that Court he had taken the Boldness to discover something of his Inclination to the Queen whilst the Cardinal was inflamed with the same Passion or rather feigned to be so with Aversion in her who with Vertue equal to the Nobleness of Blood equally despised the Vanity of the one and abhorred the Artifices of the other I think Nani herein was mistaken as will soon appear Whereupon the Factions arising among the Ladies of the Court were not so secret but the King was obliged to make a Noise and banish some but the Contention between the two Favourites was for Power and Richlieu who by reason of the Favour of the King in his own Kingdom prevailed in Authority procured Buckingham many Mortifications and Disgusts The other was no sooner arrived at London with the Bride but to make a shew of Power not inferiour by ill using her thought to revenge himself The Catholick Religion served for a Pretext whilst the Family brought out of France according to Contract of Marriage practised it whence Disgusts brake forth to such a degree that the Minds of the Spouses being alienated and Affections between the Crowns themselves disturbed it looked as if Discord had been the Bride-maid at that Wedding You 'll hear more of this hereafter It 's observable when Humour not Counsel governs Actions how it runs into the contrary Extreams King James in Confidence of being supplied of all his Wants by the Spanish Match in great Displeasure broke up the Parliament in the 18th Year of his Reign and imprisoned many of the Members for presuming to advise him against it and this King expected the Parliament should make good all the Duke's Extravagancies for the Tale which the Duke told in Parliament the 21 Jac. for breaking off the Spanish Match when he kept back the Earl of Bristol as you heard before from making his Defence and proving the contrary of what Buckingham had told And so confidently was the King possessed that that Parliament continued in the same Mood that I have heard one of Sir Coke's Sons say that tho when King Charles came to the Crown Sir Edward would have waited upon him in Testimony of his Duty and Service the King would not admit him into his Presence yet the King sent to know of him whether he might continue this Parliament notwithstanding the King's Death which Sir Edward said could not be for that upon the King's Death the Dissolution followed yet upon the Election not ten of the old surviving Members but were chosen again This Parliament met upon the 18th of June 1625. where the King laid open to them that the Business he called them for was that whereas they had advised him to break off the
see what Fruits the Petition of Right passed but the Year before had and the King 's repeated Declarations to maintain the Laws of the Land and the Liberty and Property of the Subject But if this Prince has not kept his Word for the time past he will keep it he says for the time to come in the Declaration he made for the Dissolution of this last Parliament I do not find the Date of it yet it begins with the usual Prologue However Princes are not bound to give an account of their Actions but only to God In this the King says nothing of the Eyes of all Christendom being upon him but tells how the Aids granted this last Parliament were for Payment of his Fleet and Army and that with part of those Monies he began to supply his Magazines and Stores and to put his Navy into a constant Form and Order and that notwithstanding the Provocations of evil Men whose Punishment he reserves to a due time he will maintain the Established Religion and Doctrine of the Church of England and the antient and just Rights and Liberties of the Subject Yet as he will maintain the Subjects Rights so he expects that they yield as much Submission and Duty to his Royal Prerogative and as ready Obedience to his Authority and Command as had been performed to any of his Predecessors Then wills his Ministers not to be terrified by the harsh Proceedings strained against them for as he will support them by his Authority and Prerogative so he expects they should obey him and that he will receive the Customs and the Duty of Five in the 100 and if any factious Merchants refuse to pay they shall be assured he will find honourable and just means to support his Estate and Soveraignty and preserve the Authority God had put into his Hands and for this his Subjects ought to acknowledg their own Blessedness and for the same to be thankful to God the Author of all Goodness For this you must take the Prince's Word for the next twelve Years But being thus great and happy at Home let 's see what is doing Abroad The War against France was not more inconsiderately begun about two Years before than the Peace made with it was secret The first time it was made known was when the French King besieged Privas he proclaimed the Peace with his good Brother of England The Reformed were astonished and confounded that the King of England who brought them into the War should leave them out of the Peace Hereupon Privas surrenders so does Castres and Nismes the great Rohan is forced to submit and disband The Power of the Reformed thus rooted up and while the King of England is making War against the Members of Parliament Richlieu marches with an Army into Italy and takes Salusses and Pignerol from the Duke of Savoy Richlieu having thus secured the King of England took no less care that the Empire should not put a stop to the swelling Ambition of his Master and to this purpose enters into a Confederacy with the Protestant Princes of Germany to call the King of Sweden in to Germany who next Year entred into it where for eighteen Years the French Protestant Princes joining the Swede a most dreadful War was raised all over Germany so as the French had no cause to fear any Danger thence on the contrary they took Brisac and other Places and had opportunity to wrest Lorain from that Duke But King Charles prospering as he thought in his Domestick War having taken more Prisoners in it I mean the Members of Parliament and Constables of Hertfordshire than his Father and he had done in all their Wars against France Spain and the Empire for the recovery of the Palatinate was very unwilling to enter into a Foreign and therefore in a kind of petitioning way sends Sir Henry Vane his Ambassador to the King of Sweden to take care of the Patrimony of his Brother but with no better Success yet in a more rough scornful and dishonourable manner than his Father's Ambassadors had with the Emperor But that he might seem to do something the King sent Marquess Hamilton with 6000 Men to assist the Swede who tho every-where else victorious yet this Army under Hamilton had worse Success than that under Mansfield being starved and mouldred away almost to nothing and yet fought not at all and being reduced to two Regiments the King of Sweden would not permit King Charles to name the Officers See Whitlock's M. f. 15. and Franklin's Anno 1630. The ill Success of Hamilton's Army put the King out of all Conceit of prosecuting any Foreign War and therefore wholly makes it his Business to make himself more Absolute at Home There is but one Rub in the way viz. the great Prop of the Church the Arch-bishop of Canterbury Abbot a Prelate of most eminent Learning whose upright Integrity stood as an unshaken Rock against the Innovations both in Church and State which were now so fiercely push'd on by the Arminians I find but little Action in this Year 1631 things were only preparing to what followed yet altho Arch-bishop Abbot was living the Torrent run so high in the University of Oxford that several of the Members were proceeded against and censured for Sermons preach'd against Arminianism and expell'd the University and the Book of Sports and Pastimes upon the Lord's-day was republished Judg Richardson was so hardy as to repress them but the Bishops took this as an intruding upon the Ecclesiastical Power and Bishop Laud complained thereof to the King and the Judg was check'd for it See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 16 17. But in the Year 1632 this Reverend Prelate died and thereby left room for Laud the Fire-brand of Arminianism to take Possession Before we see what follows let 's look back upon what went before He being of a restless aspiring Temper in the beginning of King James his Reign got to be Chaplain to Mountjoy Earl of Devonshire and to shew he would be great upon any account he marries the Earl to the Lady Rich tho her Husband was then alive and had many Children by her viz. Robert then Earl of Warwick and Henry Earl of Holland which Act so displeased King James that the Earl fell into his Displeasure and tho Laud hanker'd near twenty Years after the Court to get Preferment principally under the Countenance of Neal Bishop of Winchester yet the King would never endure to hear of it But at last by the Importunity of Neal and others Williams Bishop of Lincoln and Lord-Keeper was prevailed upon to intercede for him without any Success till at length the Keeper told the King It would be hard to serve a King who could not forgive one Fault At last he got the King to prefer Laud to the Bishoprick of St. Davids but he had not been scarce one Year in his Bishoprick before he became Williams his bitter Enemy and Prosecutor as you may read in the second Part
so grave an Author as the Bishop of Litchfield had not reported it in the Bishop of Lincoln's Life See the second Part fol. 138. The Writs for Ship-Money are now issued out the Proceedings against the Officers for not collecting the Assessments as Constables Bayliffs and other Officers were to bind them over to answer at the Council-board and Commitment if any refused to give Bond but if Sheriffs neglect to collect all such Assessments in their Year they shall stand charged with the Arrears Thus things at present stood but the breaking the Bounds of the Forests was but in Embrio yet in a hopeful Production Thus things stood in the State about the end of the Year 1634. In the Church the Arch-Bishop had the sole Supremacy not only in England but in Scotland having got a Warrant from the King to hold Correspondence with the Bishops and also in Ireland being chosen Chancellor of the University of Dublin and having got Sir Thomas Wentworth to be Lieutenant of Ireland who was now as much his intimate Confident as Noy was before In England the Arch-bishop's Injunctions for wearing the Surplice receiving the Sacrament kneeling and placing the Communion-Table Altar-ways and railing it about c. were vehemently prosecuted with the opprobrious Names of Puritan and Schismatick fixed upon Nonconformists with Deprivations and Censures upon Lecturers and Chaplains who refused to come up to them if they did they must forsake their Patrons Patronesses and Flocks who provided them Bread so that they contended pro Aris Focis and otherways no Provision was made for them On the contrary they retorted on the Bishops and promoted Clergy with bitter Terms of Popishly affected and Rags of Superstition and Idolatry so that the Contentions all over the Kingdom were as fierce as in the Universities But it had been happy for this Nation if the Effects of these Contentions had been terminated in the Bounds of it For the Arch-bishop in his Metropolitan Visitation this Year 1634 summoned the Ministers of the Dutch and French Churches to appear before his Vicar-General where all the Natives viz. born in England were enjoined to repair to their several Parish-Churches to hear Divine Service and Sermons and perform all Duties and Payments required in that behalf The Descendants of those Walloons persecuted by Alva and of the French by Henry II. of France had for near ninety Years been allowed their several Congregations by Queen Elizabeth King James I and had the Royal Word of King Charles for enjoying of them But now at once they must be turn'd out of them When these Injunctions were to be put in Execution at Norwich the Dutch and French Congregations petitioned Dr. Matthew Wren that these Injunctions might not be imposed upon them but finding no Relief appealed to the Arch-bishop who return'd a sharp Answer that unless they would submit he would proceed against them according to the Laws and Canons Ecclesiastical Here take notice that as the Spanish Trade was the most enriching Trade to this Nation so the Trade to Hamburg and the Countries and Kingdoms within the Sound with our Woollen Mafactures was the best the English had for Employment of People Shipping and Navigation The Company which traded into the Sound was called the East-Country Company and Queen Elizabeth and after her King James to honour them called it the Royal Company This Trade the English enjoyed time out of mind and the Cloths which supplied it were principally made in Suffolk and Yorkshire And Ipswich as it was the finest Town in England and had the Noblest Harbour on the East and most convenient for the Trade of the Northern and Eastern Parts of the World so till this time it was in as flourishing a State as any other in England The Bishop of Norwich straining these Injunctions to the utmost frighted thousands of Families out of Norfolk and Suffolk into New-England and about 140 Families of the Workers of those Woollen Manufactures wherewith Hamburg and the Countries within the Sound were supplied went into Holland where the Dutch as wise as Queen Elizabeth was in entertaining the Walloons persecuted by the Duke of Alva established these English Excise-free and House-Rent free for seven Years and from these the Dutch became instructed in working these Manufactures which before they knew not The Consequence whereof shall be shewn hereafter But the Care of the Arch-bishop for Reformation of the Church of Scotland was not less than for that of England and to that end got the King to sign a Common-Prayer Book for the Use of the Church of Scotland and gave order to the Bishops there to compile certain Canons for the Government of the Church and there to be imposed by Regal and Episcopal Authority and to this end Laud held Correspondence with the Arch-bishop of Saint Andrews and other Bishops of Scotland Whilst these things were brewing in England and Scotland you need not fear Ireland now Sir Thomas Wentworth was Lieutenant there a most dreadful War overspread Germany and Philip the 4th a weak lascivious Prince reigned in Spain so as Richlieu had a fair Opportunity to subdue Monsieur the King's Brother and overthrow the Forces raised by the Duke of Momerancy to assist Monsieur wherein the Duke was unhappily taken Prisoner and had his Head cut off being a young Prince of greatest Hope the most antient of the French Nobility and the last of his Line But the Cardinal did not rest here but built more and better Men of War than had been before in France and Spain shall first find the Force of them in return of their Kindness in joining their Fleet with the French in relieving St. Martins in the Isle of Rhee besieged by the English And this Year 1634 Richlieu trickt Charles Duke of Lorain out of his Dutchy and the next the King of France proclaims open War against Spain by Sea and Land and in 1638 ten Years after the Spaniards joining with the French against the English the French besieged Fontaraby by Land which the Spaniards intending to relieve by Sea the Spanish Fleet is encountred by the French and beaten the French took eleven great Ships whereof six of them were richly laden for the Indies and burnt two Gallions upon the Stocks and six others entirely finished In the Ships taken besides their Equippage and other Ammunition of War the French took an incredible Number of Cannons 100 whereof were Brass with the Arms of the House of Austria upon them Afterward the French and Spanish Fleet fight in the Mediterranean Sea where the Spaniard is again beaten by the French and by Land the French take from the Spaniard Landrecy Beaumont and de la Valette in the Spanish Netherlands Perpignan the Key of Spain on the Foot of the Pyrenean Hills in the Country of Rousillion and Barcelona a good Port and the capital City of Catalonia In England this Year 1635 there was great Contrivance between the Arch-bishop Laud and Bishops of Scotland
ensue upon such tumultuous Concourse of Men. And why was not this a reasonable Excuse for the King to leave the Parliament and City when they countenanced these Tumults and the King had not Power to suppress them Mr. May goes on and says Vpon this ground twelve Bishops at that time absenting themselves entred a Protestation against all Laws Votes and Orders as Null which in their Absence should pass by reason they durst not for fear of their Lives come to perform their Duties in the House having been rudely menaced and assaulted And why might not the Bishops enter such Protestation for if it be a Maxim in all Assemblies that Plus valet contemptus unius quam consensus omnium then does the Contempt and Affront of a whole Order of Men who have a Right of Suffrage much more render the Actions of the rest invalid However Mr. May goes on and says Whereupon it was agreed by both Lords and Commons that this Protestation of the Bishops was of dangerous Consequence and deeply entrenched upon the Privilege and Being of Parliaments they were therefore accused of High-Treason apprehended and committed Prisoners to the Tower And I say a time shall come when in Parliament these Men who run thus high against the Bishops and established Church of England shall be prosecuted by a contrary Extream and the Church by Law exalted higher than it was before Mr. May goes on and says Thus was the Parliament daily troubled with ill Work whereby the Relief of Ireland was hindred If they were thus troubled they may thank themselves for beginning these Troubles as well by the Commons Remonstrance against the King and Lords as by their countenancing the Tumults By this time things were so envenom'd as would admit of no Lenitives especially by the Commons and the King went from London to Hampton-Court and sent a Message to the Parliament and advises them To digest into one Body all the Grievances of the Kingdom and send them to him promising his favourable Assent to those Means which should be found most effectual for Redress wherein he would not only equal but excel the most indulgent Princes The Parliament thank'd him but nothing but having the Militia at their Disposal would secure their Fears and Jealousies This was as new in England as the perpetuating the sitting of the Parliament and if the King should grant it it would be a total Subversion of the Monarchy For the Parliament being perpetual and having the Power of the Militia the Government must be either a Commonwealth or an Oligarchy and the King insignificant in it yet have it the Parliament would notwithstanding other Grievances and the deplorable State of Ireland And therefore upon the 26th of February they tell the King plainly That the settling the Business of the Militia will admit no more Delay and if his Majesty shall still refuse to agree with his two Houses of Parliament in that Business and shall not be pleased upon their humble Advice to do what they desire therein that then for the Safety of his Majesty of Themselves and the whole Kingdom and to preserve the Peace thereof and to prevent future Fears and Jealousies they shall be constrained of themselves without his Majesty to settle that necessary Business of the Militia See Whit. M. f. 54. a. Here 't is observable That as the King feigned a Necessity to raise Ship-money for the Good and Safety of the Kingdom in general when the whole Kingdom is in danger the Judges gave their Opinion That the King may by his Writ under the Broad Seal of England command all his Subjects of this Kingdom to provide and furnish such Number of Ships with Men Victuals and Ammunition and for such time as the King shall think fit for the Defence and Safeguard of the Kingdom from such Peril and Danger and that by Law the King may compel the doing thereof in Case of Refusal and Refractoriness and that in such Case the King is sole Judg both of the Danger and when and how the same may be prevented and avoided So now the Parliament pretending a Necessity for the Safety of the King and of Themselves and the whole Kingdom and to preserve the Peace thereof will tear the Militia from him In this State things could not stand long at a Stay Mr. May p. 47. will have the Queen 's going into Holland with her Daughter and carrying with her the Crown-Jewels of England and pawning them there whereby she bought Arms for the War which ensued that it was then designed by the King against the Parliament but if Mr. May had been sincere he should have told too as Mr. Whitlock does f. 59. a. how the Parliament took 100000 l. of the 400000 l. they voted to be raised for Ireland and whether this was not for the War which ensued in England Mr. May p. 48. recites three Votes of Parliament 1. That the King's Absence so far remote being then at York from his Parliament is not only an Obstruction but may be a Destruction to the Affairs in Ireland 2. That when the Lords and Commons in Parliament shall declare what the Law of the Land is to have this not only questioned and controverted but contradicted and a Command that it should not be obeyed is a high Breach of the Privilege of Parliament 3. That they who advised the King to absent himself from the Parliament are Enemies to the Peace of this Kingdom and justly to be suspected to be Favourites of the Rebellion in Ireland But Mr. May should have added that it is not the King's Presence in London or any other Place but his assenting to Bills presented to him which he may do by Commission as well as Personally that enacts them into Laws and that the King after he went from London passed the Bill for taking away the Bishops Votes in Parliament and that no Clergy-Man should exercise any Temporal Jurisdiction which the King did with remorse enough and only to humour and appease the Temporal Lords and Commons in Parliament and the Bishops in Parliament are one of the 3 States of England The King moreover in his Absence upon a Motion by the Parliament put Sir John Byron from being Lieutenant of the Tower and Sir John Conniers to succeed him and refers the Consideration of the Government and Liturgy of the Church wholly to the two Houses see Whitlock's M. f. 53. b. But nothing less than the King 's parting with the Militia would satisfy the Parliament which the King would not part from so now it 's left fair for indifferent Men to judg whether the King or Parliament or both designed the ensuing War And to proceed to set forth who began it I have said in the first Page of this King's Reign or p. 153 That the first Fifteen Years of it were perfectly French and such as were never before seen or heard of in the English Nation this brought on a miserable War in all the Three
partake with him in any part of his Authority over it And now Monk with a better Authority and more Applause than Cromwel had might have set up himself for Protector or what he pleas'd but he saw the Genius of the Nation lay another way and that 't was more secure to follow it than to set up himself against it He held therefore private Intelligence with the Heads of the Secluded Members about their Restoration on certain Conditions The Secluded Members were zealously disposed to out the Rump upon any Terms whatever came of it they had more to say against the Rump than the Rump had against the Officers of the Army who had twice deposed them and the Rump began the Game with the Secluded Members before the Officers began with them So upon Feb. 21. Monk gave the Command of the Guard to Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper after Earl of Shaftsbury to permit the Secluded Members to enter the House the first whereof was W. Prynn tied to a great Basket-hilted Sword yet the Rumpers were not excluded nor did the Secluded Members care for it being four to one And so the Rumpers left the House and fell into a Relapse of their Convulsion out of which they never recovered nor did Barebone's Rabble afford them any Relief Thus you see the Rump and Secluded Members were like Virginal-Jacks too when one was up the other was down for the Secluded Members who before would not have the Nation or themselves safe unless they were an Undissolvable Parliament now to be revenged on the Rump are content to meet only to do Monk some Journey-work and then dissolve themselves The Secluded Members after they were in repeal their own Exclusion then vote Monk General of all the Forces in England Scotland and Ireland Mountague Admiral of the Fleet set Sir George Booth and those in Prison upon that account at liberty and soon after sent Lambert in his room and grant a Tax for Payment of the Army which now no Man disputed But Monk ' s Cares did not end here the Army without were more than fivefold to his within the City he therefore sent Letters to all the other Regiments of the Armies in England and Ireland To certify the Reason of the re-admission of the Secluded Members that without it there was no way to satisfy the Nation or raise Money to pay the Army and with large Assurances of their Constancy in their old Profession and Principles The Souldiers in general were glad to be out of their starving and wandring state and therefore in shoals submitted to Monk who yet would not receive them unless they would swear to be true to this Parliament as 't was called which he could but little trust to they having so often forswore themselves before yet these at present serv'd his turn and those who refus'd he cashier'd Now had horrible Dread overwhelm'd the Rumpers especially the Regicides they saw themselves hated by almost all the Nation yet at irreconcilable Variance one with another the Body of the Army which had raised them turned now against them they knew the Secluded Members had but a limited time to sit and then to dissolve themselves to make room for another which would certainly bring in the King to their utter Destruction In this Consternation Lambert escap'd out of the Tower and Col. Rich refused to submit Lambert posts to Warwick where he met Axtel Okey Cobbet Creed and some other disbanded Officers to whom many disbanded Soldiers joined which made up a little Army Colonel Streater a Confident of Monk's from Northampton gives Monk an Account of this whereupon the Council of State settled by the Secluded Members proclaim Lambert and all his Adherents Traitors and Monk sent Col. Rich. Ingoldsby a Gentleman of more true Courage than 20 of these sniveling Fellows who was before cashier'd for adhering to Ric. Cromwel when the Officers depos'd him with a strong Squadron of Horse to join Streater's Foot against them When these were joined upon Easter-day near Daventry both Armies came within sight of one another when Lambert made an Overture to Ingoldsby to restore Ric. Cromwel but Ingoldsby knew this Game was lost and that Lambert did not mean sincerely and so they fought Ingoldsby charged home and Lambert's Men could not sustain the Shock but fled and Ingoldsby it 's said took Lambert Prisoner with his own hands Lambert crying Quarter good my Lord for Ingoldsby was one of Oliver's Lords of the other House spare my Life With Lambert Cobbet and Creed were taken Prisoners Okey and Axtel escaped now but could not escape a greater Punishment than befel Lambert Cobbet or Creed for they were hang'd and quarter'd for having been K. Charles's Judges Nor was Rich's Fate much better than Lambert's for Col. Ingoldsby at Bury in Suffolk cashier'd him it 's said at the Head of his Regiment and disbanded it This was the End of that Invincible Army subdu'd by not one 6th part of it self for Monk when he came from Scotland had but 4 Regiments of Horse and 6 of Foot and I believe not 10 Men killed in their Defence and not one in the Reduction of the invincible Armado And now 't is time to see what followed the Secluded Members with much ado having dissolved themselves upon Mar. 17. issued out Writs for another to meet yet in the Name of the Keepers of the Liberties of the Commonwealth of England upon Apr. 25. the Elections to be as they were before the Year 1640. The gazing World eagerly expected the Success of this wondrous Revolution If we look abroad we shall see Mazarine after Cromwel's Death not foreseeing wherein the Confusions and Disorders in England would end unless in the Restoring the King which by Monsieur Bourdeaux the French Ambassador in England he diligently used his utmost Endeavours to prevent now sets up a Treaty of Peace with Spain and to forward it propounds a Marriage between the French King and the eldest Infanta of Spain the younger was after married to the now Emperor Leopold and the now King of Spain not born This Treaty was called The Pyrenaean Treaty But as this Treaty was made in deepest Dissimulation and Treachery so were the Preparations to it for at the same time the War continuing between Spain and Portugal the French King made an offensive League with Portugal for 10 Years not to treat with Spain unless the Portuguese were entirely satisfied in all their exorbitant Demands of Spain in which 't was agreed That all the Harbours the Portuguese should take in Spain either upon the one or other side of the Sea shall be put into the Power of France which you may read in the most excellent Treatise of the truly honourable and learned Statesman the Baron d' Isola Of the Buckler of State and Justice Chap. 1. And in regard there is so great a Connexion of the Pyrenaean Treaty with that of the Life of King Charles II. we 'll be more particular in it before we
before we will lay to the Charge of Cardinal Mazarine We will therefore see if the French King was not as little a Slave to his Word in this League as Mazarine was in any before and you 'll see that in all the Leagues this King after made he was as little a Slave to his Word as in this Treaty We have in the former Book set down particularly the Article whereby the French King upon his Honour and the Faith and Word of a King did promise neither directly nor indirectly to assist Portugal against Spain yet at the beginning of the Treaty they secretly conveyed Troops into Portugal in several Bodies And when upon Complaint of the Marquess de la Fuente they sent publick Orders to the Governours of their Ports not to suffer any Souldiers to embark for Portugal they did not abstain by Connivance under-hand to let them pass Nay when Marshal Turene made publick Levies to assist Portugal it being complained of by the Marquess de la Fuente they answered it was a particular Act of the Marshal and the Court of France had no Hand in it And also continually supplied Portugal with Corn and all sorts of Ammunition And France also fomented the Obstinacy of Portugal to continue the War when Spain offered them advantagious Terms of Peace This and much more you may read in the second Article of The Buckler of State and Justice Nor did the French King stay here but being become the dearest Confident with his Brother of England almost as soon as the King was settled the French sent Monsieur Courtin to move the King not to abandon Portugal nor did he yet stay here but Mazarine dying much about the latter end of Summer having a Stone in his Heart so the French Pasquils said in September or beginning of October the Queen-Mother came over seemingly to treat with her Son for a Marriage between Monsieur of France and her fair Daughter Henrietta Maria the King 's beloved Sister Yet it seems to me the Marriage of the King with the Infanta of Portugal was not less designed than that with Monsieur And besides these you will soon hear of something else which brought the Queen-Mother into England As the Designs of the Queen's coming over were dark so I acknowledg I have not seen any of the Treaties or Transactions concerning them but must take Measures by what followed and so far as I had Light from what went before yet in all of them it seems evident to me that the Queen shewed her self to be more affectionate to her Daughter than Son and to be more a Daughter of France than Queen of England But before I proceed it will be convenient to take notice of the deplorable State of Spain which their Ambition in seeking so many Foreign Dominions and a Tyrannical Government had brought it to For before the Accession of their American Dominions which they acquired by unjust War and unheard-of Cruelties in all the ten Years War between Ferdinand and Isabella with the Moors who had seven hundred Years been possessed of the Kingdoms of Granada Murcia and a great part of Andaluzia every Year the Moors and Christians brought near a hundred thousand Men into the Field to fight one with another yet the Kingdoms of Arragon Navar and Portugal were Neutral in all the War Whereas now all the Kingdoms of Spain except that of Portugal were united under this King Philip the Fourth yet out of them all he could not raise an Army to fight the Portuguese but trusting to the French Faith in the Pyrenaean Treaty sent the Army in Flanders under the Command of the Marquess Caracene to do it The King imbraced the Overtures of both Marriages and now the French King doubly if not trebly assured of his Brother of England as well by the Treaties of these Marriages as by his Message by Courtin no longer acts covertly in assisting the Prince Regent of Portugal against Spain but bare-fac'd sent Marshal Schomberg with an Army and Fleet to their Assistance yet this Army was not sufficient to make an Offensive War against Spain but Portugal stood only upon the Defensive The Want of Money a little retarded the Marriage of the Princess with Monsieur but this might be easily help'd if the King would give up Dunkirk to the French whereby he might pay 200000 l. for his Sister's Portion which was more than his Father had with his Mother and also receive 200000 l. more for himself Nor was this all he might save the Charges of maintaining a Garison there yet the Parliament in the Hereditary Excise allowed him 60000 l. per Annum for the Support of it I do not find this mentioned in the Body of the Act yet several Members assured me it was so intended in the passing the Act. All this the King agreed to and so Dunkirk and Mardike Fort were given up to the French against all the Laws of Humanity Justice and Prudence I say it was against all the Laws of Humanity for the Spaniard entertained and relieved the King when the French had expelled him and joined with Oliver the Usurper of all his Dominions It was against Justice for the Soveraignty of Dunkirk was of Right and Justice the Spaniards And against the Rules of Policy and Prudence the French Nation being the Natural Enemies of the English and the next Neighbour to it and of all Nations the most formidable It had been happier for the poor Spaniard and the English Nation if the Unkindness of the King to the Spaniard had ended in his giving up Dunkirk to the French but it ended not here for the King imployed the Army which should have kept Dunkirk against the Spaniard in Portugal and with these and another Band of the disbanded English Army joined to them the French Portuguese and English or rather the English without them routed the whole united Army of the Spaniard at the Fight of Elvas So as now the French had a new Inlet into Flanders and the Spaniard no Army to defend it This was a foul Blot in the Spanish Politicks by their King 's trusting to the Faith of his Brethren of England and France But this will not stay here as hereafter you will see Here I take leave so well as I can to vindicate the Memory of my Lord Chancellor Hide from two Aspersions as I conceive cast upon him one That he was the Adviser of the giving up Dunkirk to the French The other That he was the Procurer of the King's Marriage with the Infanta of Portugal For the first I was assured by a credible Person tho a Confident of my Lord Chancellor's that he was so far from advising the King to give up Dunkirk to the French that only he and my Lord Treasurer Southampton upon whose Honour my Lord Chancellor relied more than any other of all the Council entred their Protestations against it The Truth of this may be resolved by inspecting the Privy-Council's Books It 's true
and that there lieth no Obligation upon me or any of the Subjects from the said Oaths or either of them to endeavour any Change or Alteration of the Government either in Church or State as it is now established by the Laws of the Kingdom Thus you see the Parliament throw this upon the Son which his Father so zealously contended for even to the Loss of his Life and when they had done all they could the Son little cared for what they had done For the Year after viz. 1663 the King granted a Toleration and Indulgence to Dissenters from the Church Thinking Men thought this strange that the King should the Year before pass the Act of Vniformity as the best Means to secure the Church against Popery and Fanaticism and in this grant a Toleration It could not be in Favour of them termed Fanaticks who kept him from his Crown and last Year Venner with his Party would have expell'd him again And this Year Swarms of Pamphlets were spread abroad to defame his Person and Government For printing some of which Twyn the Printer was hanged Thinking Men considered too the time when this Indulgence was granted for as the King in the Sale of Dunkirk chose to do it in the Interval of the Sitting of the Parliament so he did grant this Indulgence I think in November when the Parliament was prorogued to February But tho the Parliament would take no notice of the Sale of Dunkirk they did of this and therefore the Commons upon their Meeting entred into a serious Debate about it and made an Address to the King humbly representing How it would reflect upon the Wisdom of the Parliament to have such an Alteration made so soon and that for ought they could foresee would end in Popery And sure the Commons were true Prophets herein However whether the King fearing the Continuance of the Indulgence might retard the Commons in giving him Money or that time was not yet ripe enough to insist upon it at present he recalled his Declaration So that tho the King did establish a High Commission in Scotland by his Prerogative Inherent in his Crown which the Parliament agreed to in Scotland yet this Indulgence had not the like Effect in England This Indulgence may seem more strange if we look into Ireland where the Irish this very Year were contriving a Massacre of the Protestants and holding Intelligence with the French King which you may read at large in Plunket's Trial and this proved by Popish Witnesses I do not find the Irish had any Countenance herein by the King nor do I believe the French King acquainted his Brother of England with it Yet the Insincerity of the King's Intentions of any Benefit the Protestant Dissenters should have by this Indulgence will appear by this that when the Parliament seeing the Danger which the Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters might bring upon the Nation had prepared Bills for the Ease of Protestant Dissenters the King would not pass them However the Memory of the Rage and Tyranny of the late Times took deeper Impression in the Parliament than the Fear of Popery intended by the King's Toleration and Indulgence and therefore the Parliament from new invented Swearing and new invented Declaring proceed to new invented Laws against Dissenters and Conventicles and the Act of the 16 Car. 2. c. 4. does declare the 35 of Eliz. c. 1. to stand in full Force and ought to be put in Execution and did also enact That if any Number above Five more than the Family shall meet in any Assembly or Conventicle upon Colour or Pretence of Religion in any other manner than is allowed by the Liturgy and Practice of the Church of England he shall be committed Prisoner for the first Offence there to remain for a Term not exceeding three Months unless such Offender shall pay a Sum of Money not exceeding Five Pounds for the second Offence to be committed to Prison for a Term not exceeding Six Months or pay a Sum not exceeding Ten Pounds and for the third Offence to be transported beyond the Seas for the Space of seven Years unless he pay one hundred Pounds I will not dispute the Justice of these Laws but I say no Human Laws can divest Men of Human Nature but that Man as well as all other Creatures will endeavour by such Means as they are endued with to preserve their Being and Subsistence in this World And herein I again observe the unhappy State of this Nation in the Education of Youth in the Grammar-Schools and our Academical Learning as 't is called For tho a great Part of the Youth of England have Means to maintain them after they have lost their time of Youth under this unprofitable Breeding whereby they are no way instructed how to live and converse in this World yet double if not treble Numbers of Youth are thus bred who have little or no Means to maintain them after they become Men and more than can be maintained by the Revenues of the Church as they are established I say therefore this kind of Breeding Youth shall eternally create Feuds and a kind of Civil War between those who are in Church-Preferments and those excluded from them and these for their necessary Subsistence shall become Patrons of Factions opposite to the Church within the Kingdom and to the promoting the Popish Interest without In the late Times when the Presbyterians bare the Sway were there not enow of that Party to supply the Vacancies of the Sequestred Clergy besides such Swarms of the Patrons of Independency as were more numerous than they and who turned them out Yet was there a large Relick for to promote the Popish Faction Upon the Restoration of the King when the Sequestred Clergy were restored were there not Multitudes of such Clergy as would have conformed yet could not get any Preferment in the Church Thus excluded what other means had they to subsist but to become Nurseries of Factions which were opposite to the Church and tho these Laws were intended against Protestant Dissenters who had no other means of living but dissenting yet you shall soon hear of another Sort of Dissenters and these secretly countenanced by this most Religious and Gracious King which shall be much more dangerous to this Church and State than those against whom these Laws were made And I say the Vnreasonableness of Separation from the Communion of the Church of England will no more prevent this than Origines Sacrae by not only confounding but inverting all Rules and Methods of Reasoning prove a Deity or the Authority of the Sacred Scriptures thereby making them the Creatures of a Creature and the Production of a Fantastick Brain CHAP. II. A further Account of this Reign to the End of the Second Dutch War THe King being thus established in England and Scotland tho he was not so in Ireland this Year shews the Effects of his Power by making a War upon the Dutch and even this War
Value of the Lands of England Observation VI. Suppose that we had no Act of Navigation but our Western Men might have built and fitted out Ships for the Newfound-Land Fishery as cheap as the French yet by this Act against Importation of Irish Cattel the French being enabled to victual Ships cheaper from the Ports of Ireland than we from the English the French from this only Cause may have the foreign Vent of the Newfound-Land Fishery whilst the English are necessitated to vend theirs only in England which is as much a Grievance as the Importation of Irish Cattel for the Expence of them will as much fall the Price of Flesh as the Importation of the Cattel Observation VII By this Law the English have lost the Benefit of Victualling foreign as well as English Ships from our own Ports and established them in Ireland to the lessening the Value of the Lands of England and this in time of Peace And in time of War by how much cheaper foreign Nations can victual Ships from Ireland than we can from England so much cheaper they may manage War and continue it longer Observation VIII The Wools of Ireland are generally better than those of England I have it by very good Authority and by the 14 Car. II. 18. it's Felony to export any out of England or Ireland The Reason given is it would decay the Woollen Manufactures ruin many Families and be the Destruction of the Navigation and Commerce of England and Ireland And why would it decay the Woollen Manufactures and ruin many Families to export Wool The common Reason given is That the Natives of other Countries would work them cheaper than the English whereby we should lose the Employment of our People If this be a Reason this Irish Act was made in an ill time to make Provisions dearer which will necessarily resolve into a further Dearness because those who work our Woollen Manufactures must live by Food and so much the dearer Food is so much dearer must Mens Labours be But I say this is not the Reason for no People in the World in like Circumstances take so much Pains for so little Profit as the Combers Spinners and Weavers do in our Woollen Manufactures and I 'm sure the Wools and Fullers-Earth in England are cheaper here than can be had elsewhere and an English Man or Woman hath a better Habit of Body and as good a Wit as a French or Dutch Man or Woman and that in Holland they pay as much for Excise for Meat and Drink as in England is paid for them I 'll give the true Reason why if the Dutch or French get our Wools and Fullers-Earth they may vend the Manufactures cheaper in foreign Trade than the English The Wools of Derbyshire Nottinghamshire Leicestarshire Warwickshire Lincolnshire Rutlandshire Northamptonshire Huntingtonshire Hertfordshire c. are in the dead of the Winter brought by Land-Carriage to Norwich and Colchester and even the Wools of the Sheep killed in London are carried to Colchester to be wrought there and then by another Land-Carriage they are brought to London as our Western Cloths are And then none but the Free-men of London must buy them at it may be 20 per Cent. cheaper than they might be sold if the Trade were free then they must be vended abroad in English-built Ships double as dear by the Act of Navigation and these sailed by near double the Hands of foreign Ships of like Dimensions and if any Returns be made they shall pay twofold more Duties than if they were imported into Holland and Hamburgh And upon other Terms ouâ— Poor must not be employed working Woollen Manufactures It 's agreed the vast Riches of France arise by the Trades which the English Dutch Dane Hamburgher Embdener Lubecker and Bremeners drive trading into France for Wines Brandies Salt Paper and the English besides these for Linen Cordage and Sails Suppose then the French King should by Edict ordain that these should be first brought by Land-Carriage to Paris and then none but the Free-men should buy them at what Rates they please and then these should vend them in foreign Trade only in French-built Ships and these sailed by three fourth parts French whether they have Ships or Men or not and the Returns made of them to pay him twofold more than if they were imported into Holland or Hamburgh c. Would not any Man think he were mad Yet what would that differ from our Practice At this rate we have in England more Wools than we can work and by this Act the Irish are forced to breed Sheep upon the Grounds they bred their Cattel before the Act and by the Act of 14 Car. II. 18. it's Felony to export the Wools so as the Irish are necessitated to work them where Provisions are cheaper than in England and where they shall not be at the unnecessary Land-Charges of Carriage of their Wools and Re-carriage of their Cloths where they shall not be restrained to the vending of them to Free-men of Corporations at 20 per Cent. Loss and where their Ports are better and more convenient for foreign Trade than those of England and then the English must condescend to the Terms of the Irish or these will undo more Families and more decay the Trade of our Woollen Manufactures than if Foreigners wrought the Irish or English Wools. Observation IX Ireland is a Kingdom depending upon England and Trade and Commerce create a mutual Correspondence and Interest between Countries so as this Law makes the Correspondency and Interest of Ireland to depend upon other Countries whereas it is the Interest of England that England should have been the Mart or Store-house of all the Wools Hides Tallow c. renewed in Ireland as England is the Store-house of the Product of our Plantations or as Holland is of the Spice-Trade These ruinous and mischievous Consequences this Law has brought upon England and Ireland only that the Northern and Western Men might have a Monopoly of imposing what Rates they pleased upon the Eastern and Southern Parts of England I may safely say to the lessening the Rates and Value of those Lands at 30 per Cent. and I dare say from many less Causes or if this Partial Law had been imposed by any King out of Parliament it might have caused a Rebellion in England and Ireland too Yet it had been the Interest of the Northern and Western Men to have continued the Importation of Irish Cattel for in breeding Cattel they can make but one Return in five Years whereas they might make four Returns in one Year by the Irish Cattel imported Yet in many Land-Taxes the Parliament taxed the Southern and Eastern Parts of England near double more than the Northern and Western But neither the King's Management of Business this Infant-Law the Fire of London the pulling down the Houses upon the Tower-Ditch the Plague nor the Act of Navigation now sixteen Years old could allay the Parliament's Heat from
Dutch in this Peace being to restore all they had taken in the Leeward Islands to the English And now the Steed is stoln the Stable-door is shut for after the Peace thousands of People were pressed in London to finish the Fort at Sheerness and it being a terrible aguish Time in an aguish Place almost all fell sick and it was deemed by many that more died there than in all the Dutch War In this Consternation 't was necessary to do something to appease the Parliament and People and so the King sends for the Seal from my Lord Chancellor Hide which was no sooner done but the Parliament were as fierce upon him as for the Dutch War One of his intimate Friends told me he took Counsel with his Friends whether he should stay or leave the Kingdom they all advised him not to stay and so he left the Kingdom yet fell into more Danger than if he had not for at Diep a Company of rude Sea-men endeavour'd to have assassinated him Thus fell this great Chancellor and Statesman I do not say a Sacrifice for either King or People having followed the King's Father in all his Wars and himself in his Exile yet he lived to see two Lord Chancellors in England and two Lord Keepers alive at the same time no Argument of the Steadiness of Counsels after him Two were deposed as well as he and the third with much ado lived to die in the Place A little before his Deposure as if he had lived long enough that great Standard of Loyalty and true Nobility my Lord Treasurer Southampton died but sure so upright a Chancellor or two such honourable Counsellors and Statesmen for their Integrity to the English Interest and great Understanding in State-Affairs have not since succeeded but they were but two to too many others and the King's Inclinations were towards the other side so as neither he nor my Lord Treasurer Southampton were present at the Council when the War was declared against the Dutch But this Power was in the Wain and the Torrent run t'other way It was time for the Dutch to make Peace with England for this Summer the French King with a mighty Army was fallen into Flanders and like a Torrent had ravaged Artois Hainault and other parts of the Spanish Netherlands and taken Charleroy Oudenard Aeth Courtray and Lisle But that we may take a better View of this War we must look back In the Year 1612 there was a cross Marriage between Lewis XIII of France and Philip IV. of Spain Lewis married Philip's Sister and Philip married Elizabeth Lewis his Sister By Elizabeth Philip had Don Belthazar and the Infanta married to the French King by the Treaty of the Pyrenees In the Year 1649 Elizabeth of France being dead Philip married Ann the Daughter of Ferdinand the Third Emperor Philip's own Niece by whom he had Charles the now King of Spain I do not find whether Don Belthazar was dead before the French King married his Sister but Charles the now King was born about Nine Months after the Pyrenean Treaty By the Pyrenean Treaty the French King by all that they call sacred in the Church of Rome and by all the Clauses the Wit of Man could express to avoid Evasion disclaimed all Right or Title to Spain or any part of it in the Right of the Infanta and Philip dying in the Year 1665 the French King did engage his Faith and Royal Word to the Queen by the Marquess De la Fuente that he would Religiously keep the Peace and continue a faithful Friendship with her and her Son during his Minority nay after the Eruption by the French into Flanders the Arch-Bishop of Ambrun did in Verbo Sacerdotis protest and vow to the Queen that his Master the French King would never break with the King of Spain or invade his Dominions during his Minority By this time the Dauphin I think was about Six Years old and his Father to cover his Hypocrisy and Perfidy pretended that the Women of Brabant by the first Venter inherit before the Males of the second but you shall see Brabant flow over all the Spanish Netherlands and therefore no Act of his could preclude the Dauphin who was born of Philip's first Wife which vain Pretension was throughly confuted by the renowned States-man the Baron de Isola in his excellent Treatise termed The Buckler of State and Justice However about four Days after the Arch-Bishop of Ambrun's Protestation the Queen of Spain had notice of a Manifesto published by the French King that he had so fully proved his Son's Title that he did not think himself obliged to spend any time in unprofitable Contests about it yet not to make War but to take Friendly Possession of what was so justly due to the Dauphin Never was Spain at so low an Ebb and unable to make Opposition to the French as at this time for besides our King 's giving up Dunkirk to the French and the breaking of the Spanish Army at the Fight at Elvas in Portugal which should have defended Flanders the War still continued there where the French by a Treaty with Portugal contrary to the Pyrenean Treaty were to have all the Port Towns taken from the Spaniard The Buchaneers at Jamaica plagued the Spaniard in the Returns of their Plate-Fleet and plundered and fired many of the Spanish Towns upon the firm Land And Don John the King's Bastard Brother and the Queen were at highest Discord about her Confessor Nitard so as Don John refused to accept of the Government of Flanders again to oppose the French Here 't is observable how much the French King's Ambition prevail'd beyond his Zeal to Religion for in 1665 and 1666 the Irish had been treating with him to send an Army into Ireland to assist the Irish in a designed Rebellion against the King which this Year was brought to Maturity and the French King promised to send them Forty Thousand Men to land on St. Lewis's Day in August But he kept his Promise no better with them to assist them than he did his Oath at the Pyrenean Treaty not to assist the Portuguese and to the Queen Regent in Spain not to invade any of the Spanish Dominions during the Minority of the King The King either stung with the Success of his Mother's Assurance that the Dutch would put out no Fleet this Year or at this time angry with his Brother of France for the Ravages he had made upon the English in the West-Indies whereby the King's Customs were much lessened or it may be having some Seeds of the wholsome Counsels which the Chancellor Hide and Treasurer Southampton had infused into him how dangerous it would be to England as well as Holland for the French to make a Conquest in Flanders sent to Sir William Temple his then Resident at Brussels to take joint Measures with the States for restraining the Progress of the French Conquests in Flanders This was in January 1667
sit out a greater Fleet of Men of War than ever any French King did before Nor were the Dutch behind-hand but made proportionable Advances not doubting but the King would make good his Proportion according to the League so lately made between the King and them in case the French King made any Attempt upon them Upon the 24th of October 1670 the Parliament met again and notwithstanding all the Aids granted the King in April before my Lord-Keeper Bridgman told the Parliament the great Care his Majesty had of them and the Kingdom since their last Recess and that besides the triple Alliance he had made many advantagious Alliances both for Security and Profit of Trade with the Swede Dane Spaniard and Duke of Savoy But since the Dutch and French made such vast Naval Preparations it was necessary for the Safety and Honour of the Nation that the King should at least keep equal Pace with them which could not be done without great Supplies which must be speedily granted for the King intended to put an End of this Session before Christmas but the Success of this Speech so ill agreeing with the Premises it was not permitted to be printed yet you may read it at large in Mr. Marvel's Growth of Popery But whatever Treaties of Commerce were made with other Princes the Keeper finds none with France where neither the advantagious Treaty made by Oliver was observed nor any new one made but the French King did use the English with all imaginable Oppressions without any Redress from the King However this Speech wrought so pathetically with the Parliament that they gave the King one Shilling in the Pound of the real Value of all the Lands of England for one Year and an Additional Excise upon Beer and Ale for six Years and the Law-Bill for nine Years which three Bills were computed at two Millions and a half And now this dark Design founded in such deep Dissimulation Hypocrisy and Perfidiousness as Oliver Cromwel would have been ashamed of and blush'd at begins to receive Light For the Parliament having granted the King the Aids were in Consequence prorogued and did not meet to act till the fourth of February 167 1 2. But in regard that not only the extirpating the Protestant Religion but the Subversion of the Western Parts of Europe was now designed which extended as far as the Baltick Sea and the Bounds of the Turkish and Tartar Empires we will be a little particular in it But what is most amazing is that the King in appearance a Protestant and a free independent King so used by the French King in his Exile and since his Restoration should be so forward in joining with a Faithless and Boundless Ambitious Neighbouring Prince which if his Design had succeeded had involved the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland in the same Condition with the rest of Christendom The Vizard-Mask under which the Popish Party covered their Hypocrisy in propagating their Catholick Cause for plain-dealing must never be expected in it in King Charles the First 's time was Arminianism which then had the Ascendant in Laud's Regency but since the King's Restoration the Protestant Dissenters being so fiercely prosecuted by the Parliament it was judged that the dispensing with Penal Laws against Dissenters from the Church of England would conjoin the Protestant Dissenters Interest with the Popish and this not only appeared by Practice but by Design in Coleman's Letters to Father Ferier and La Chaise the French King's Confessors As before the first Dutch War the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence for dispensing with the Penal Laws in Ecclesiastical Affairs in the Interval of the sitting of the Parliament so did he before the second War It seems to me that the Designers of this War got some secret Oath or Promise from the King that he should not do the like again for the King told the House of Commons he would stand by his Declaration of Indulgence and sure nothing but Queen Money would have got him off However these Conspirators were more zealous than politick for before the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence in England upon the 26th of February 1671 he issued out his Proclamation in Ireland wherein he granted general Licence to all Papists to live in Corporations exercise Trades there and enjoy the same Privileges as other Subjects ought to do which was a greater Privilege than his Protestant Subjects had for by their Charter all who were not free of the Corporations could not have the Benefit of their Privileges But that the Catholick Design might take deeper Root and Continuance the Duke of York's Sons being dead and the Princesses his Daughters being bred up in the Protestant Religion Care must be taken to establish the Popish for the time to come for which it was expedient the Duke should marry some Popish Princess and to this end the Arch-Dutchess of Inspruck was propounded and a Treaty entred into upon it But tho the Princess's Religion pleased the French King yet the Interest this Marriage would bring with it did not So that tho the Treaty were far advanced yet the French King who ruled all the Roast propounded the Princess of Modena the Daughter of a little Italian Prince and a Dependant of the French King's yet had a great Interest in the Court of Rome and this against all Endeavours of the Parliament and to the Dishonour of the Treaty with the Arch-Dutchess prevailed the French King having adopted her a Daughter of France and given her a Portion But while these Designs are laid in the dark here in England the French King bare-faced by his Ambassador at Vienna in a solemn Speech declared that his Master had undertaken the War against Holland for propagating the Catholick Cause and that all good Christians were bound to join with him to extirpate Heresy and that he would restore all his Conquests to re-establish the true Worship banish'd out of the Holland's meaning the Vnited Netherlands Territories which you may read more at large in Mr. Secretary Trevor's Appeal c. Now let 's see how agreeable these Mens Morals were to their Religious Pretences in laying the Scene for this designed Dutch War The Treasury since the Death of my Lord Treasurer Southampton was managed by Commissioners and if the Aids granted by the Parliament were not sufficient for carrying on the King's Designs the French King is to supply him further but things were not ripe enough yet for these Monies to be returned into the Exchequer lest they might give cause of Suspicion and therefore between six and seven hundred thousand Pounds were received by Mr. Chiffins he to have two Pence in the Pound to be disposed of as the King shall order If you doubt this you may examine Mr. Chiffins's Accounts when he was advised to pass them and take his Quietus out of the Exchequer Tho by the Defensive League between the King and States when the Triple League
was entred into the King and States were mutually engaged to supply each other with a certain Number of Men and Ships in case of any Foreign Invasion upon either yet now the King hath Subsides given him by the French King to join with him against Holland which by the Defensive Alliance the King was obliged to assist The King who was so great in the Love of his Subjects and Parliament for the Triple League and had received such vast Sums for it now at the Instance of the French King sends Mr. Henry Coventry to the Court of Sweden to dissolve it which he did so effectually that that King not only stood Neuter at the beginning of the War with the Dutch but in it joined with the French King against the Confederates and this Success Mr. Coventry had that for this Business which put all Christendom into a Flame he was by the King made principal Secretary of State and it may be presented with his fine Ranger's Place in Enfield-Chase too and that perhaps with thrice more by the French King Whereas Sir William Temple who was the principal Instrument in the Peace at Nimeguen lost 2200 l. by it and his only Recompence was to be Secretary of State in Mr. Conventry's Place if Sir William would give him 10000 l. for it The Triple League thus dissolved all Obstacles which might retard the Progress of this pious Work must be removed And now my Lord-keeper Bridgman having done by his Speech the Conspirators Work for Money has done his own too and is turn'd out of his Place and my Lord Ashley Cooper Chancellor of the Exchequer is made Lord Chancellor of England and Earl of Shaftsbury Mr. Clifford after Lord Clifford Lord High-Treasurer of England and my Lord Arlington Chamberlain to the King's Houshold and Prince Rupert the Duke of Ormond and Secretary Trevor discarded from the Committee of Foreign Affairs so as the CABAL viz. Clifford Ashley Buckingham Arlington and Lauderdale govern all The first Result of this sacred Conclave was the shutting up of the Exchequer wherein the Bankers who formerly had furnished the King with mighty Sums of Money at extorsive Interest had lodged between 13 and 1400000 l. of the Subjects Money this was in January 167 1 2. One would think these Monies added to the Aids granted in the last Session of Parliament with those received from France might have carried on the War against the Dutch on the King's Part but to make sure the Fleet for which the Parliament gave such vast Sums to be equal with the French or Dutch is set out under Sir Robert Holmes to surprize the Smirna-Fleet which he vainly attempted the thirteenth and fourteenth of March 167 1 2 and to sanctify so Herotick an Act at this very time the Declaration of Indulgence was printed and published the fifteenth The French King having gotten the King into his Net let 's see how he used him The French King openly declar'd that 't was none of his Quarrel and that he only engaged in it out of respect to his Person and therefore before any War was declared the King must first break the Peace by the Attempt upon the Smirna-Fleet The Dutch alarm'd at the Attempt upon their Smirna-Fleet and being in no Condition to resist both Kings sent Deputies to both to know upon what Terms they would agree to Peace Those sent to our King were denied Audience and kept at Hampton-Court till it were known what the French King's Pleasure was but those sent to the French King had Answer That what the King had was his own and what he should conquer should be his without an Equivalent and declared the States might deal with England as they pleased and come off as cheap as they could because by their Treaty they were not bound to procure them any Advantages Yet all this the King as patiently submitted to now as before he suffered one Marsilly to be broken on the Wheel at Paris without one word from him in his behalf for being his Agent to the Swiss to invite them to join in the Guaranty of Aix who upon the Scaffold had twenty Questions asked him in relation to his Majesty's Person and a strict Enquiry of the Particulars that passed between the King and him all which you may read at large in Mr. Secretary Trevor's Appeal And this pitiful Story you may find in a little Treatise termed Colbert's Ghost printed at Cologn 1684. I find little difference in the Causes of this War by these two Kings The French King 's was that the Dutch had acted in Diminution to his Glory but says not wherein The King of England's was the Dutch had not yielded him the Honour due to his Flag The Cabal sought for a fourfold Cause of this War the Insults upon the English in the East-India Trade the detaining the Engglish Planters in Surinam against the Treaty at Breda and horrid Pictures in Defamation of his Majesty and his Flag To this purpose the Committee for the East-India Company was summoned to shew Cause who answer'd and gave it under their Hands That since the Treaty at Breda they knew no Cause nor as yet the Dutch could pretend to no more than was granted by it they having not as yet assisted the young King of Bantam against his Father and made use of the young King's Name to expel the English Factories from the Pepper Trade as before they had the Spice Trade For detaining the English Planters in Surinam it was answer'd the Planters were not willing to forsake their Subsistence and be turned into the wild World to seek it and that the Dutch perform'd their Part with Mr. Secretary Trevor and therefore it was no fault of theirs if it were not observ'd nor did they hinder them when they were transplanted to repair the Ruin of the English Plantation in St. Christophers made by the French For the Pictures the Dutch answered they knew of none except one Medal which might be liable to any such Construction but so soon as they knew of it they caused the Stamp to be broken For that of the Flag the Case stood thus the Dutch having fitted up a Fleet of Men of War in jealousy of the French were riding near their own Coast when one of the King's Yachts discharged a Gun at the Admiral to strike Sail which the Admiral not doing was the cause of the Breach for the War tho the States disown'd the Refusal and offer'd to make any Satisfaction the King should require But it is the End which crowns the Work in every Act and therefore the Declaration concludes That notwithstanding this War the King will support the Treaty at Aix la Chapelle according to the Scope and Intent of it and preserve the Ends of it inviolable As if the getting the Swede out of it and joining with the French against the Dutch diametrically contrary to it were the Support of that Treaty or that the subduing Holland so that the French
the Protection of France now at Peace with the Spaniard by the Peace at Vervins the Year before or that they might make a Peace with Spain whereby she might lose the whole Debt and Dependance the States had upon her accepted their Terms But I do not find they ever performed any of them except the Payment of the English in Garison in the Cautionary Towns which how well they observed this when they found it their Interest not to do it has been said before For in the Year 1609 the Dutch made a Truce with the Spaniard for eleven Years when Barnvelt Hugo Grotius c. Heads of the Lovestein and Arminian Faction conspired how to get rid of the English and Prince of Orange by whom the Dutch became States It 's said before how easily in King James the First 's Reign they got rid of the English but their Attempt upon the Prince not succeeding Barnvelt lost his Head and Grotius had lost his too if he had not fled the Country But tho Barnvelt's Head was cut off the Faction did not die with it for after the Dutch had made Peace with the Spaniard at the Treaty of Munster 1648 tho in the Life of the then Prince of Orange the King's Grandfather and the most Renowned General of the Time the Lovestein Faction stirred not yet he dying within the Year after the Treaty I think they began to play their Game against his Son a Prince of Lively and Active Courage about twenty two Years of Age and after the Example of Barnvelt laid their Foundation by disbanding the English by whose Blood and Valour under the Conduct of three Princes of Orange they became States The Prince if he suffered this foresaw his Authority was next struck at therefore resolved to prevent it and to be before-hand with the Conspirators at Amsterdam where the Scene was laid and in great Silence marched within three Hours march of Amsterdam but the Weather being dark and foggy the Hamburgh Post past by the Prince undiscover'd and gave the Burghers account of the near Approach of the Prince whereupon they opened their Sluces and by drowning the Country stopt the Prince's March whereby he not only lost his Design but his Life for upon the 24th of October 1650 he died they say of the Small Pox leaving the Princess big with Child of the now King William Now had the Lovestein Faction a fair Field to play their Game in and so the English were disbanded and having the Rump in England who would be accounted States as well as they they thought all cock-sure for they were sure the Rump would take as much Care to keep out the King as they to suppress and depose the Prince of Orange born after his Father's Death But tho the Lovestein Faction thought they had a sure Game against the Infant Prince they found they had a hard Task to play their Game against the Rump who next Year made War upon them and tho the King offer'd to assist them against the Rump with the Fleet Sir William Batton had brought over to him yet such was their Aversion to any thing which they thought might tend to the Benefit of the Prince that they refused the King's Assistance and so had been rooted out from being a State if Oliver's Design of keeping out the King as well as the Prince of Orange had not prevented it After the Dutch made Peace with Oliver being before at Peace with France Spain and the Empire they now set all their Wits to work to establish their Commonwealth without the Prince of Orange and to make sure work God's sacred Name must be prostituted to establish their Ambition Perfidiousness and Ingratitude by swearing never to admit of a Stadtholder nor did they stay here but imposed the same upon the Prince The Success you 'll soon hear In this seeming Prosperity they made John De Witt a Fellow as arrogant and insolent as ungrateful factious and imitating French Modes Pensionary or rather Dictator of Holland whose chief Business was to depress the Prince thereby arrogating so much more to himself as he debased the Prince and his Authority and so intent he was hereon that he neglected to take care of the Military Discipline which was exercised in the United Provinces whilst they continued in War with Spain and in all their Garisons especially those upon the Rhine instead of the old experienced Governours De Witt and his Faction put in Burgomasters Sons and Favourites of their Faction opposite to the Prince Now you shall see De Witt and his Faction outwitted by the French and by the same Artifice by which they had outwitted our King and his French Counsellors For De Witt having lull'd the King into the Security of a deceitful Peace whereby the Dutch got the Opportunity of Firing our Ships at Chatham and then the Peace at Breda and after having gotten the King into the Triple Alliance De Witt ascribed the Glory of all these to himself and became so insolent hereon that he became intolerable to all but his own Faction The French King coop'd up by the Triple Alliance used this Finess to break it his Pensioners in England represented to the King the Insolence of De Witt and the Dutch upon the Treaty at Breda and it may be more than was true and how that the French King had by the Treaty restored what he took from the English in St. Christophers during the War whereas the Dutch still detained Polloroon and Surinam though taken in the War and how dishonourable it would be to the King not to vindicate his Honour herein and how ready his Brother of France would be to assist him in it These Counsels had the Effects before shewed In all this Time the French King entertained a Treaty with the Dutch to be a Mediator between the English and them about their settling Trade and Commerce but especially in the East-Indies and the Dutch embraced the overture wherein the French were no more sincere than the Dutch were with the English in the Year 1667 before they fired our Ships in their Harbours The Dutch lull'd into Security by this Treaty made no Preparations by Land against the French either by raising an Army or fortifying their Garisons Whilst the French King was thus wheedling De Witt and his Faction he corrupted one Mombas a French-man and an Officer of War in the Dutch Service who betrayed all he could learn or observe to the French King and one Desroches a Captain in the Prince of Conde's Guards and a Kinsman of Mombas prevailed with him the Winter before the War broke out to take a Journey into France fully to inform the King of the State of Affairs in Holland and to take further Instructions from the King Thus the French King having made a strict Alliance with the Arch-Bishop of Cologn and Bishop of Munster two implacable Enemies of the Dutch for having filcht some Towns from them utterly surprized the Dutch and
other Person to be thought so fit for it and therefore the King with many kind Expressions gave order to Sir William to prepare for his Journey and the Secretary to draw up his Instructions But how forward soever the Juncto were for Peace the Dutch out-run them or at least kept equal Pace with them for tho the Prince of Orange were victorious in Holland and with admired Prudence and Conduct like another Scipio carried the War out of his Country and thereby saved it for in the dead of the Year he joined Montecuculi the Emperor 's General and besieged and took Bon the Residence of the Elector of Cologn and thereby cut off the Communication between France and Holland whereby the French were forced not only to quit their conquer'd Towns by heaps but he opened a Passage for the Imperial Forces to join the Dutch and Spanish yet the Dutch having but newly recovered their drowned Country and lost their Trade the Charges of maintaining their Land Army became so great that it was impossible this Year to set out a Fleet by Sea The Dutch States therefore gave the Marquess of Frezno the Spanish Ambassador in England Power to treat and conclude a Peace with the King which came in three Days after the Juncto had sent to Sir William and this by Sir William's Advice stayed his Journey into Holland it being more honourable for the King to be sought to than seek a Peace and that the King's Interest might be better pursued at London than at the Hague The King and Juncto agreed to it and withal added That tho Sir William did not treat the Peace at the Hague he should at London And when Sir William had received his Instructions he at three Meetings with the Marquess concluded the whole Treaty with the Satisfaction of the King Sir William says the Articles being publick need no Place here but the two Points of greatest Difficulty were the Flag and recalling the English Troops out of the French Service But that this last was composed by private Engagements to suffer those to wear out without any Recruits or not to permit new ones to go over yet at the same time to give Leave to the Dutch to raise such Levies as they should think fit in his Majesty's Dominions But this is an odd Equivocation to recal the French Troops which was to let them wear out without Recruits which was not observed neither for Men were not only encouraged but pressed to this Service and to these in the French Service does Sir William and the Germans too ascribe the Glory of all the French Actions who not only in Turenne's Life but at his Death saved the whole French Army But if this be as Sir William says yet the King hereby instead of being the Protector becomes a Murderer of his Subjects in permitting them to kill one another on both sides for it is impossible the War should be just on both sides Nor do I believe the like Precedent can be shewed unless by the King's Grandfather James I. I confess I have not seen the Articles of the Treaty at large but by so much as I have seen I do not find that the Arrears for the Dutch Fishing upon the Coasts of England and Scotland agreed upon in King Charles the First 's Time which was 30000 l. per Annum and a settled Revenue for that Fishery for the Time to come insisted upon at the Treaty of Cologn nor the Damages to the Executors of Sir Paul Pindar and Sir William Courten were so much as mention'd in it It may be the 800000 Patacoons to be paid by the Dutch to the King by this Treaty were intended in Satisfaction of the Executors Demands of which they denied they ever received one Penny This hasty Peace thus huddled up in less than 4 Days viz. between the 5th or 6th and 9th of February would not admit of the Establishment of a Marine Treaty and Regulation of the East-India Trade between the English and Dutch and Treaty at Cologn And therefore it was agreed That Commissioners on both sides were to meet at London to treat of these and determine them in three Months after such Meeting and in case any Differences should not be adjusted these to be referred to the Queen Regent of Spain who should name 11 Commissioners the greater part of whom should determine the Differences in 6 Months after and these to meet in 3 Months after the Queen Regent shall have taken the foresaid Arbitriment upon her self But the States as wise in this Treaty as the English were improvident and hasty got the 7th Article agreed to viz. That the Treaty made at Breda 1667 as also other Treaties renewed by it be confirmed and remain in full Force and Vigour as far as they shall not be contrary to this present Treaty The Marine Treaty was agreed by the Commissioners but the first and fifth Articles ill observed by the Dutch as I have seen made publick but nothing was agreed for the Regulation of the East-India Trade nor any thing concerning it referred to the Queen Regent of Spain This is that honourable Peace to his Majesty's Satisfaction which succeeded this glorious War to the Expence of such vast Treasure and Charge to England and involving Christendom into a War wherein we taught the French to fight by Sea while they encouraged the Dutch and us to destroy one another whereby we got nothing but dry Blows except the 800000 Patacoons for the Flag was ever given by the Dutch to Queen Elizabeth King James and King Charles I. and by the Treaty to Oliver in 1654 and to the King in 1666 and 1667 nor ever desired by the States But the Dutch got confirmed the Islands of Amboyna and Polloroon which they had ravished from the English whereby they not only supply Europe but India and Persia with Spice and Surinam and also got discharged again from the Piracy or Robbery perpetrated upon the Bona Esperanza and Henry Bonadventura in Time of Peace and all the Arrears of 30000 l. per Annum for fishing upon our Coasts since 1636. So little Regard was had in this Treaty either of the King's Honour or of the Good or Interest of the Nation However 't was the Interest of Spain to promote this separate Peace with the Dutch for this Year the French King having brib'd the Swiss to a Compliance took the Franche County from Spain the Swiss keeping Garisons in Dole and Besanzon And this Year Messina revolted from Spain and submitted to the French King CHAP. III. A further Detection of this Reign till the breaking out of the Popish Plot. TO mollify his most Christian Majesty highly exasperated you must think by this Peace the King 't was said and I believe it sent his Ship-Carpenters to instruct the French how to build his Men of War and I say Sir Anthony Dean told me that by Order of the King he built the Model of a Man of War as I
Parties in the House of Commons till the thing was wrested out of our hands Upon the 5th of January 1676-77 Sir William received Answer from the King to his last Dispatches by the Prince's Direction which consisted of two Parts the first an Offer of the King's Entrance into the strongest Alliance with the States thereby to secure them from all Apprehensions from France after the Peace should be made the second was the King's Remarks rather than Conclusions or Judgment upon the Terms propounded by the Prince for a Peace that he the King believed it might be compassed with France upon the Exchange of Cambray Ayre and St. Omer for Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Conde and Bouchain This Answer was so different from what the Prince proposed so illusive and of so little Security to the Dutch that the Prince told Sir William that he would rather die than make such a Peace and complained that the Offer of Alliance was wrote to him by the King 's own Hand but this about the Terms of Peace from the Secretary's Hand which was in a Stile as if he thought the Prince a Child and to be fed with Whipp'd Cream That since all this had been before the foreign Committee he knew very well it had been with the French Ambassador too and that the Terms were his and were a great deal worse than if they had directly come from France But the French King 's wheedling our King and the Dutch about a separate Peace no ways abated the Vigour of his Prosecution of the War whilst Peace was mediating for in the beginning of the Year he takes the Field with a huge Army and block'd up Cambray and Valenciennes about the End of February and having provided sufficient Magazines for Subsistence of his Forces which neither the Spaniard nor Germans had broke into Flanders and into the Parts of Germany on the other side of the Rhine and with the most cruel Ravages of burning and spoiling those Parts of Germany that could be exercised and such as had not been used on either side since the War began The Allies made Complaints of this new manner of making War to his Majesty as Guarantee to the Treaty at Aix la Chapelle who employed his Offices towards France to hinder such Proceedings but the Things was done and the Point gained which was by an entire Ruin of those Countries from hindring the Imperialists from finding any Subsistence for their Troops if they should march into Alsatia and thereby divert those Forces the French resolved to employ in Flanders before the Dutch could take the Field and march to the Relief of those Places they intended to attack Before any Dutch Spanish or German Army could be brought into the Field the French took Valenciennes and laid Siege to St. Omer and Cambray But before they had taken St. Omer the Prince of Orange with the Forces of the States the Spaniard assisting him with no Forces not so much as Guides resolved to relieve it tho with the hazard of a Battel But the Duke of Orleance leaving a part of his Forces to defend the Trenches and joining with the Duke of Luxemburg with all the Troops the French King could send met the Prince at Mount Cassel where after a sharp Dispute the first Regiment of the Dutch Infantry began to break into Disorder The Prince went immediately to that Place where the Shock began rallied them several times and renewed the Charge but at last was born down by the plain Flight of his Men whom he was forced to resist as Enemies and fall in among them with Sword in hand and cut the first over the Face and cried out aloud Rascal I 'll set a Mark on thee at least that I may hang thee at last But neither Voice Action Threats nor Example would give Courage to Men that had already lost it so he was forced to recoil to those Troops which stood firm and made so brave a Retreat as was near equal to a Victory So as Flanders had only Mons and Namur for a Frontier by Land and Newport and Ostend by Sea However the Prince made an Attempt upon Charleroy which did not succeed Hereupon the Prince seeing all Attempts against the French would be in vain unless the King came in to assist the Confederacy of the Allies sent Monsieur Bentink into England to desire the King's Leave to make a Journey into England so soon as the Campagn was over to which he received this cold Answer That the Prince would first think of making the Peace and rather defer his Journey till that were concluded Could any Man now believe any other Prince should be so supine as not to apprehend the imminent Danger his Nephew stood in and in consequence his own Dominions And tho all the World but he saw and dreaded this yet the King as at the End of the first Dutch War would not This was about the beginning of June and about the middle of it Sir Temple's Son brought him Letters from my Lord Treasurer That he should come over and enter upon the Secretary's Place which Secretary Coventry had offer'd to lay down upon the Payment of 10000 l. and that the King would pay half the Money and the Treasurer must lay down the rest at present but did not doubt but the King would find a way of easing him of that too What could be expected in such a Reign where Secretaries of State who are the Eyes of the King and Kingdom to take Care of all foreign and domestick Affairs which cannot be carried on without Charges should purchase their Places and thereby not only disable them in the Performance of their Office but utterly to neglect it and make it their Business how they may be Gainers by their Purchase they had so dearly bought But Sir William excused it as not being able to raise 5000 l. now his Father was alive And tho Secretary Coventry came cheap enough by the Place it seems he was either unwilling Sir William should succeed him in it or that he would not trust to the 5000 l. to be paid by the King unless he might chuse his Successor who it may be would have given him 15000 l. for it After Sir William came over and the Bargain for the Secretary's Place not succeeding the King had often Conferences with him about the Peace and the Prince's coming into England he had a great Desire for the first but not for the other till the first were done He said his Parliament would never be quiet with him while the War lasted and then leave him in it unless they might have their Terms in removing and filling Places which he should be very loth to be so much at their Mercy and that the longer the War continued the worse it would be for the Confederates and worse for Flanders and therefore would have the Prince make a Peace for them if they would not do it themselves and that if the Prince and he would fall
the King made with the States The French King after he had taken Ipre and Gaunt Luxemburg proceeded to block up Mons and Schomberg threatned to besiege Cologn and thus the Dutch bound Hand and Foot had no body else to complain to or expect any Relief from but the Court of England The Dutch had a little before sent over one Van Lewen who was the chief of the Town of Leyden who Sir William Temple says was a Man of great Honour and Worth to treat with the King to enter into a War against France which the King was obliged to by the League with them and had received 1200000 l. of the Parliament for carrying it on and by Van Lewen the States acquaint the King with the Terms upon which the French King would restore the six Towns in Flanders to the Spaniards the King at first seemed not to believe it but having sent to the French Ambassador Barillon to know the Truth of this which the Ambassador owning he seemed surprized and angry at this proceeding of France and next Morning sent for Sir William Temple to the Foreign Committee and there declar'd his Resolution of sending him immediately into Holland with a Commission to sign a Treaty with the States by which they should carry on the War and the King to enter into it in case France should not consent to evacuate the Towns within a certain time limited and the King took Pains to press Van Lewen to go over with Sir William to perswade the States of the King's Sincereness and Constancy to pursue these Measures to the utmost of his Power Armed with these Powers away goes Sir William and Van Lewen and were received with all imaginable Joy by the Dutch and Sir William by the Prince hoping by his Errand and Success of it either to continue the War or to recover such Conditions of Peace for his Allies as had been forced out of his Hands by force of a Faction begun at Amsterdam and after spread into the rest of the Provinces All the Provinces even those which were so forward for the Peace upon the French Terms were so forward in this Negotiation that in six days the Treaty was concluded by which France was obliged to declare within fourteen days after the Date thereof that they would evacuate the Spanish Towns or in case of Refusal Holland was engaged to go on with the War and England immediately to declare it against France in Conjunction with Holland and the rest of the Confederates Here observe that tho Sir William was one of the Mediators of Peace at Nimeguen yet whilst this Negotiation was perfected his Post was to be at the Hague for a Tale depends upon it The Wisdom as well as the Integrity of the Prince in the whole Negotiation of this Affair was now so conspicuous that the States owned the Prince had made a truer Judgment than they had done of the Measures which they were to expect either from England or France and if it happens that England in this Business shall prove as fickle and loose as before yet this shall never be ascribed to the Prince who was always the same he was before So now all Preparations were made for the Relief of Mons and ten thousand English being arrived in Flanders who were ordered to join the Prince he resolved to relieve Mons or to die in the Attempt After the Treaty concluded and signified to France all Arts that could be were on that side employed to elude it by drawing this Matter into a Treaty or into greater length which had succeeded so well in England that they offered to treat upon it at Quintin's then at Gaunt but the States were firm not to recede from their late Treaty made with the King and so continued till about Five Days before the Term was to expire You heard before how the King had solicited Van Lewen to accompany Sir William Temple to assure and perswade the States to pursue the Measures Sir William and he went upon to their utmost but alas now when Sir William as well as the Prince were out of Sight they were out of Mind too and now Sir William was gone he forgot the Indignation which Barillon had put upon him in the Treaty for the French Money he was to receive for joining in the French Terms with the Dutch which he then said he would never forget so long as he lived But now you shall see how absolute a Dominion the French King had over him and by what Instruments he governed him viz. a French Man a French Woman and a French Monk who had changed his Frock for a Petticoat The French Man was Barillon the French Woman was the Dutchess of Portsmouth and the French Monk was one Du Cross These three met the King in the Dutchess of Portsmouth's Chamber and in one hour's time agreed that Du Cross should carry Sir William Temple a Pacquet wherein the King commanded him to go immediately to Nimeguen and there endeavour all he could to perswade the Swedish Ambassadors as from the King to let the French Ambassadors there know That they would for the Good of Christendom consent and even desire the French King no longer to defer the Evacuation of the Towns and consequently the Peace upon the sole Regard and Interest of the Crown of Sweden and Sir William was likewise commanded to assure the said Ambassadors that after the Peace his Majesty would use all the most effectual Means he could for the Restitution of the Towns and Countries the Swede had lost in the War This was to get Sir William out of the way who spirited the Dutch in the Action that Du Cross might play his Pranks in the rest But before Du Cross had brought his Pacquet to Sir William he had gone about most industriously to the Deputies of the several Towns and acquainted them with it and that the Terms of Peace were absolutely agreed upon between the two Kings That he had brought Sir William Orders straight to get to Nimeguen and that upon his Arrival there he should meet with Letters from my Lord of Sunderland the King's Ambassador at Paris with all the Particulars concluded between them Sir William followed his Instructions and when he came to Nimeguen there were but three Days of the Term fixed by the late Treaty between the King and States at the Hague either for the French Assent to the Evacuation of the Towns or for carrying on the War in Conjunction of Holland with England and consequently with the rest of the Confederates but there found no Letters from my Lord Sunderland of the Particulars of the Peace concluded between the two Kings but on the contrary a Manifesto to the Dutch by the French Ambassadors why their Master could not consent to it without the previous Satisfaction of Sweden whose Interest he esteemed the same with his own but yet declaring he was willing to receive any Expedients the States should offer in this matter
for repealing the said Act of 35 Eliz. which passed the Commons upon the 26th of November and was sent up to the Lords who agreed to it As the Lords joined with the Commons in passing this Repeal so did the Commons join with the Lords in their Vote the 4th of January viz. Resolved by the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled That they do declare that they are fully satisfied that there now is and for divers Years last past there hath been an horrid and treasonable Plot and Conspiracy contrived and carried on by those of the Popish Religion in Ireland for massacring the English and subverting the Protestant Religion and antient established Government of that Kingdom To which the Commons added That the Duke of York being a Papist and the Expectation that Party had of his coming to the Crown hath given the greatest Encouragement to the Popish Plot as well in Ireland as here But the Lords ran counter to the Commons in the Bill intituled An Act for securing the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York to inherit the Imperial Crown of England and Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging for after the Reading it the first time in the House of Lords and the Question being put whether it should be read a second time it was resolv'd in the Negative by above a double Majority of Votes If the Lords and Commons ran counter in some things the King and Commons ran counter almost in every thing The King 's main End in calling this Parliament was to get Money for the Preservation of Tangier and in perfecting the Alliance he had made with Spain The Commons would not give any Money upon the Account of Tangier for three Reasons One was For that as the state of the Nation stood it might augment the Strength of the Popish Party and encrease the Danger of the Nation Another was There were several Regiments besides the Guards in pay in England which might be transported to Tangier with little Charge and be maintained there as cheap as here And the third was That that Garison was the Nursery of Popish Officers and Soldiers The Commons would not give Money for the pretended Alliance of mutual Obligations of Succour and Defence with Spain for three Reasons 1. The Jealousy they had of the King's Sincerity in this Alliance and the more because the King did not declare to them what manner of Alliance this was and it might be more to the Prejudice than Benefit of this Kingdom or if it should have been to the Benefit of the Kingdom they could have no more Assurance of the Performance of it than they had of the Triple League that made with the Prince of Orange or that made between the King and States of Holland by Mr. Thyn on the King's Part which were all broken almost as soon as made 2. The Impossibility of any Benefit which could arise to England and Spain by such an Alliance for if all Christendom after the separate Peace which the King joined with the Dutch Faction in could not uphold Spain and the Spanish Netherlands from falling under the Dominion of the French how could the King in the feeble and distracted state of the Nation be in a condition to support it without them 3. The Unreasonableness of giving Money upon this Account for tho oftentimes the Kings of England have demanded Supplies for maintaining vast Wars yet never any King of England before demanded Supplies for making Alliances and not declare what such Alliances were But if any such mutual Alliances of Succour and Defence were made between our King and the King of Spain I 'm sure they were ill observed by the King for two Years after viz. 1682 the French blocked up the City of Luxemburgh and the next Year took Courtray one of the six Towns delivered back to the Spaniard by Beverning's separate Treaty from the Confederates and keeps it to this Day and so the French King does Luxemburgh which he took by plain Force from the Spaniard the next Year after viz. 1684. I wish I could find any mutual Succour of Defence the King gave the King of Spain in any of these either by this Alliance or as the King was Guarantee in the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle which in his Proclamation against the Dutch in the second Dutch War he declared he would maintain Nor did the Commons only run counter to the King's Designs of getting Money but considering the dangerous and weak state of the Kingdom as by the Debt the King had contracted by shutting up the Exchequer and his squandring away almost all the antient Revenues of the Crown and to prevent the like upon the Revenue settled upon the King since his Restoration upon the 7th of January resolved 1. That whosoever shall lend or cause to be lent by way of Advance any Money upon the Branches of the King's Revenue arising by Customs Excise or Hearth-money shall be adjudged a Hinderer of the Sitting of Parliaments and be responsible for the same 2. That whosoever shall accept or buy any Tally or Anticipation upon any part of the King's Revenue or whosoever shall pay such Tally hereafter to be struck shall be adjudged to hinder the Sittings of Parliaments and be responsible therefore in Parliament Now let 's see wherein the King run counter to both Lords and Commons After the Lords had agreed with the Commons in the Repeal of 35 Eliz. the Bill was taken from the Lords Table and never heard of after which no Man durst have done without the King's Command at least Privity Herein you may observe the Insincerity of the King's Indulgences for dispensing with the Penal Laws against Dissenters when he nourished those Ends by them which the Parliament dreaded and now the Parliament would have legally eased them the Bill must be ravished away Here is a greater Wonder yet to be told of this Parliament for notwithstanding all these Discords between the Lords and Commons and the King and the Lords and Commons yet they all reconciled in making the Act against the Importation of Irish Cattel c. perpetual thereby to perpetuate the Discords between the Kingdoms of England and Ireland as much as those between Whig and Tory. And in this posture of Affairs the King prorogu'd the Parliament from the 10th to the 20th of January 1681 and upon the 18th dissolved them This Dissolution caused a great Amazement in the Nation but in some measure to allay it the King summons another to meet the 21st of March following at Oxford This rais'd a Jealousy in the Nation and many of the Nobility that there was some hidden Design nourished in the Court which might have dangerous Influences upon the Nation and the Parliament too Hereupon 16 of the Nobility petitioned the King against the Meeting of the Parliament at Oxford and my Lord of Essex upon the Delivery of it made a short Speech which I believe was not forgotten afterwards The
It was by two Judges only and but two Arguments upon it and no Reason given of it And Thirdly it was ushered in but two Days before by pretending the discovering of a Plot to amuse the Nation so as no Man presumed to take notice of the Legality of this Judgment for fear of being prosecuted for Arraigning the Justice of the Nation and flying in the Face of the Government Hereupon Swarms of the richer Sort of Corporations surrendred their Charters and took new ones as the King pleased and paid dear for them and the King in return of their Kindness granted them new Fairs and Markets but tho the richer Sort of the Corporations could pay the Keeper North and Attorney Sawyer sound Fees for their Purchase yet a Multitude of the meaner Sort could not come to their Price and without Money no New Charters could be had which put a Rub to the compleating this Work in King Charles his time yet the good Will of the Members of these petty Corporations was not less The King's Care for the Knights of Shires was less than for the Corporations for the Sheriffs Lords and Deputy-Lieutenants and Justices of Peace being of the King's Nomination and the Tory Party having perfectly subdued the Whigs the King by the same Power which made North and Rich Sheriffs could have what Knights of Shires he pleased King James made good his Word he promised his Privy Council that he would never depart from the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown of which no Question is to be made but those which his good and gracious Brother had left him possest of were the principal and how hasty soever he was after in his Actions yet he took great Care how to exercise the Prerogative his Brother assumed in modelling Corporations to improve it to his utmost Advantage and therefore though his Brother died upon the 6th of February 1684-85 yet no Parliament met till the 19th of May and then they did not sit to act before the 28th which is much more than threefold the time from the issuing out of the Writs and the 40 Days of their Meeting In the mean time all Hands are set on work to chuse such Members as should do the Court's Work they were sure enough of such Corporations as had surrendred their Charters and bought new ones the beggarly ones which could not come up to the Price of renewing their Charters were graciously promised to have new ones Gratis as they after had if they behaved themselves well in the Choice of their Members The Lords and Deputy-Lieutenants were as imperious in the Choice of Knights of the Shire as my Lord Mayor was in the Choice of North and Rich for Sheriffs But that we may take a better View of the Acts of the Parliament of King James it 's fit to consider how the Case stood with the King King James while he was Duke of York was observed to be constant to his Word and a true Friend which made him more courted than his Brother he had a Revenue of near 150000 l. per An. and was a frugal and careful manager of it and this he brought as an Accession to the Crown when he became King K. Charles had more built and better furnished his Royal Palaces which he had not given away than any King of England before and the Parliament about six Years before his Death had given him 600000 l. for building thirty new Men of War to make his Fleet more formidable than that of the Dutch or French King and the Nation in Peace unless among our selves so that it might have been reasonably expected a much less Revenue than what King Charles had added to that of the Duke's might have supported the ordinary Expence of the Crown if no extraordinary should happen Notwithstanding all this the King upon the 28th of May told the Members such as they were the same things he told his Privy Council that he might not seem to have said it by chance and in return thereof he expected they should settle his Revenue because he had taken it without them during his Life as it was in the time of his Brother for the Well-being of the Government which he must not suffer to be precarious which I believe was the first time any King of England so caressed a Parliament but these if they were worthy to be called a Parliament being made to his Hand the King might do and say to them what he pleased Before the Kings of the Scotish Race came to bear rule over us the Methods of Parliaments were to represent the Grievances of the Nation and upon Redress of them the Parliament gave the King a Gratuity which before the 35th of Queen Elizabeth did never exceed one Subsidy and two Tenths of Fifteenths and the King in return granted an Act of Pardon to his Subjects Thus a mutual Correspondence was entertained between the King and Kingdom But when King James the first came to the Crown the representing the Grievances of the Nation by his disorderly Reign was Language intolerable to him so that of four Parliament which were all he had in his Reign in the last he boasted He had broke the Neck of three of them and his Son broke the neck of the four first Parliaments of his Reign yet such was the Temper of those Times that to humour thâ—se Princes the Parliament of 18 Jac. I. and the 1st Car. I. altered the Methods of Parliament and that of the 18th gave King James two entire Subsidies and that of the 1st Car. I. gave King Charles two entire Subsidies before Grievances were redressed King James I. in return of their kindness not only brake the Neck of the Parliament but committed many of the worthiest Members close Prisoners to the Tower for preâ—â—ming to debate them King Charles did not commit any Members of this Parliament tho he did in his 3d and 4th Parliament but brake the Neck of the Parliament rather than they should enquire into the Duke of Buckingham's Actions and the imbezelling the Monies given by the Parliament for the Support of the Palatinate Heretofore Grievances were in the Nation whereas at the Death of King Charles the II. the whole Nation was in a most grievous and dangerous State which the Parliament of King James if it be worthy to be so called took so little notice of that instead of representing the State of the Nation to King James they without redressing any gave him a Revenue to enable him to ruin Church and State upon the Foundation which his Brother had laid The 1st Act was to settle the Customs and temporary Excise upon the King as it was settled before upon his Brother but the King had little reason to thank them for that for he took both before they gave them and called them by that Title His Revenue The 3d Act was an Imposition upon Wines and Vinegars imported between the 24th of June 1685 until the 24th of June
so in Extreams yet his Actions so diametrically opposite to his Profession Here you see a Jesuited Prince pleading for Liberty of Conscience to the breaking down the â—aws which before he had so often professed to maintain and for such a sort of Men whom but little before he had slaughter'd banished and imprisoned as if he had designed to extirpate the whole Race of them If to reconcile these to Truth or Reality be not as great a Miracle as is in any of the Popish Legends I 'll believe them all and be reconciled to the Roman Catholick Church how inconsistible soever the Terms be The generality of the Protestant Dissenters having for near seven years together been so severely treated by the Tories were as forward to congratulate the King for his Indulgence in manifold Addresses as the Tories were in King Charles his time in their Addresses of Abhorrence to petition the King to call a Parliament to settle the Grievances of the Nation However this Declaration was so drawn in the sight of every Bird that of my knowledg many of the sober thinking Men of the Dissenters did both dread and detest it That this Declaration might be more passable Popish Judges were made in Westminster-Hall and Popish Justices of the Peace and Deputy-Lieutenants all England over the Privy Council was replenished with Popish Privy Counsellors the Savoy was laid open to instruct Youth in the Romish Religion and Popish Principles and Schools for that purpose were encouraged in London and all other Places in England Four Foreign Popish Bishops as Vicars Apostolical were allowed in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction all England and Wales over From instructing the St. Omers Boys how to behave themselves in their Evidence to prove Oates was at St. Omers all April and May in 1678 my Lord Castlemain is sent Ambassador to the Pope to render the King's Obedience to the Holy and Apostolical See with great hopes of extirpating the Northern pestilent Heresy In return whereof the Pope sent his Nuncio to give the King his Holy Benediction yet I do not find that he beforehand sent for Leave to enter the Kingdom as was observed by Queen Mary Henry VIII and before The Judges in their Circuits had their private Instructions to know how Men were affected with the King 's Dispensing Power and those who were disaffected to it were turned out from the Lieutenancy and Commission of the Peace Justice Judgment and Righteousness support the Thrones of Princes but these were Strangers to this King's ways other Means must be found out to support and carry them through a standing Army is judged the best Expedient and as the King told the Parliament at their second Meeting he had encreased his Army to double what it was before so he made his Word good that he would employ Men in it not qualified by the late Tests and to this end Tyrconnel having disbanded the English Army in Ireland qualified by the Tests sends over an Army of Irish not qualified by the Tests to encrease the Army in England This Army thus raised against Law committed all manner of lawless Insolences though the King by several Orders would have had their Quarters restrained to Victualling-Houses Houses of publick Entertainments and such as had Licences to sell Wine and other Liquors the Officers too when they pleased would be exempt from the Civil Power And though the King had no other Wars but against the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation yet he would have the Act of the 1 2 Edw. 6. 2. which makes it Felony without Benefit of the Clergy for any Souldier taking Pay in the King's Service in his Wars beyond Sea or upon Sea or in Scotland to desert from his Officer to extend to this Army thus raised by the King And because the Recorder of London Sir J. H. would not expound this Law to the King's Design he was put out of his Place and so was Sir Edward Herbert from being Chief Justice of the King's Bench to make room for Sir Robert Wright to hang a poor Souldier upon this Statute and afterward this Statute did the Work without any further dispute Thus this Prince did not only assume a Power to controul the Laws of the Nation at his pleasure in Civil Affairs but when he pleased made them bend to his Will to establish an illegal Army and countenance the Effusion of Christian Blood but you 'll soon see God will blast these ungodly Ways and that not the Arm of Flesh but Judgment Justice and Righteousness establish the Thrones of Princes Thus Affairs stood in England Scotland and Ireland in the year 1687. wherein I suppose no History mentions so great and violent Alterations in so little time as in this King's Reign all tending to introduce a Foreign Power and to enslave the Nation yet so patiently endured by it but the Dangers of these Designs were not circumscribed within the bounds of this Nation but extended into France where for above twenty years a Conspiracy was carried on for promoting these Designs thus far advanced so that the Year 1688 had a much more terrible Aspect upon England than the Year 1588 had when Philip the II. designed the Conquest of it for then the Nation was firm and intire for its own Interest whereas this Year it was not only torn in pieces by internal Discords but had an Army and Fleet designed to join with the French King in propagating his boundless Ambition not only upon England but upon the Empire of Germany Spain Holland the Duke of Savoy and other Princes of Italy About the beginning of the year 1688 a Gentleman of High Jesuited Principles told me The States of Holland were Rebels against the King of Spain and that I should soon see the King of France would call them to an Account for it and humble them and that the French King would assist our King with Men of War I took more heed to this because I knew that he was frequently visited by several Jesuits in whose Counsels I believe the French King's Designs this Year were locked up for my Lord of Sunderland in his Letter recited in the History of the Desertion fol. 32. protests he knew nothing of a League between the King yet you will see it come out another way But my Lord of Sunderland says that French Ships were offered to join with our Fleet which was refused however this shews there was a Design contriving by these Princes yet at present the Affairs of France seemed to look another way and a French Fleet and Souldiers in them are sent to Canada the Design and Success you will soon hear of The King having thus as he thought laid a Foundation tho it proved a very Sandy one of his Designs and to shew how Absolute he would be in them upon the 4th of May passed an Order in Council that his Declaration of Indulgence should be read in all Churches and Chappels in England and Wales in time of Divine
of Indulgence was an unlawful Act and that if they had submitted to the King's Will to have enjoined it to have been read in all Churches and Chappels of their respective Diocesses it had been an unlawful Act which was one Reason they could not comply with the King's Will and that this Declaration was not intended a Favour to the Protestant Dissenters but a Design to ruin the established Religion and Church of England and the enjoining the Bishops to have read was a Design upon their Persons as well as the Declaration was upon the Church and that the King professed himself to be of the Popish Religion which they believed and declared to be Idolatry in the worshipping Images and derogatory to God's Honour by Invocation of Saints whereby they grant to Creatures an Omniscience which is inseparable from God and only to be ascribed to him and that the King had owned the Papal Power which not only claims a Dominion over all Kings and Kingdoms to be at the Pope's disposal and who had declared the Church of England to be Heretical Schismatical and Sacrilegious Persons with whom no Faith is to be kept but had assumed a Power equal or superiour to God himself in dispensing with God's Laws and setting its own above them by sending his Ambassador to the Pope and receiving his Nuncio With what Conscience then could the Bishops approach God's Altars in their highest Acts of Devotion and in the Prayer for the Parliament declare to God that he is their most religious King and in the Litany to pray to God to keep and strengthen the King in the Worship of God or Religion which the King profest And how could they delare to God he is their most gracious Sovereign when he had imprisoned them for not submitting to his unlawful Will and had owned a Power which had declared them Hereticks Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Persons who were by all ways and means to be extirpated from the Face of the Earth Yet the Bishops by their Canonical Obedience were as much obliged hereto and to enjoin the Clergy in their respective Diocesses to offer these Praises to God as they were not to obey the King's Will by enjoining the King's Declaration of Indulgence to be read by all the Clergy in their Diocesses To this Dilemma had the flattering Church and State in King Charles the II's Reign tho intending it against the Presbyterians by their Act of Vniformity brought the Church and State too in the Reign of King James But lest this establishing of Popery should have no longer support than in the King's Life a new Miracle is to be added to the Legend for the next day after the Bishops were committed to the Tower the Queen was brought to Bed of a Prince of Wales so that now they had got a Prince of Wales and the Queen received the Consecrated Clouts and the Pope by his Nuncio is become God-father a Foundation so infallible is laid for exalting the Papal Chair and extirpating the Pestilent Northern Heresy that it's Heresy to doubt it But Man purposes and God disposes and in truth without God's special Assistance not only these Dominions of England Scotland and Ireland but all the Western Parts of Europe were not to be retrieved out of I may say even a desperate State for in England the King had a standing Army of above 20000 Men and the Whigs were but too forward to congratulate the King in his Designs and in humouring him in giving him up their Charters as the Tories in King Charles his Reign in their Abhorrences of the King 's calling a Parliament and as forward then as the Whigs now in surrendring their Charters The Protestant Army in Ireland not only disbanded by Tyrconnel and a Popish Army set up but the Protestants disarmed and Scotland so perfectly subdued that there the King 's Absolute Will without reserve must pass for Law The King of Spain so weak as not able to defend himself much less relieve others the Empire engaged in a War against the Turks in the East so as the Western Parts were in no Condition to repel the Impression the French should make upon it The Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark remote and at such natural Enmity with one another that if one should side with France or England the other would engage against it and tho Holland were considerable elsewhere at Sea yet their Strength at Sea was inferiour to the English but much more in Conjunction of the French with the English However something must be done for Modesty in this State had been the highest Crime and of all Foreign Princes the Prince of Orange was most immediately concerned not only in the Oppression of the French King upon his Principality of Orange and the Dangers which threatned the Vnited Provinces by the swelling Grandeur of the French but by the King 's Arbitrary Proceedings in England for the Princess was the Presumptive Heir to the Crown of England and Scotland And since it is the Laws and Constitutions which erect these Nations into Kingdoms whereof the King is the Head then if the King destroys the Laws and Constitutions he is neither King nor the Princess of Orange Presumptive Heir to them besides since the King had assumed a Power of Dispensing with the Laws he might as well in Dispensing with the Succession and the Prince was well assured neither those about the King nor the Pope would much favour his or his Lady's Title to the Crown nor was the introducing the Prince of Wales into the World intended to have either the Prince or Princess come to the Crown of England The Prince of Orange thus injured by both these Kings and being denied the Benefit of any Humane Laws for redress has recourse to God and his Sword for relief and opposes the Justice of his Cause against the Potency of his Adversaries Nor does he take up his Sword to vindicate his own Rights only but for restoring the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to their antient Rights Laws and Privileges invaded by King James and to put a stop to the French King 's boundless Ambition and Tyranny in Murdering Ravaging and Destroying rather than making a War upon all his neighbouring Princes not dispossest and ruined by him A Design so great by so little a Prince as no less than a Divine Power could inspire him to such an Undertaking The Prince these two last years had several Conferences with the Electors of Brandenburg Saxony and the Princes of the House of Lunenburg and other Princes of Germany it 's believed in concerting Measures how to behave themselves against the Designs of these two Kings but the Results were so secret that I find no mention of them But how secret soever these Results were yet the Preparations to put them in Execution could be no Secret especially the Naval Preparations by Sea though the Dutch Ambassador assured the King they were not intended against him yet refused to communicate
Laws and Constitutions of it and to have maintained the Honour of it abroad made it their Business to have subverted them and being thereby always at Variance and Contentions with their Subjects lost their own and the Nation 's Honour abroad and by taking no Care of the foreign Concerns of the Nation became contemptible to other Nations Nay the last three Kings instead of restraining the French Ambition and Tyranny joined with them in advancing of them as if they designed to make the French King an Universal Monarch as well as to destroy the Constitutions of England And I would know a Reason why now his Majesty King William has by God's Blessing redeemed this Nation from the imminent Danger which the French King in conjunction with King James designed upon the Western Parts of Christendom as well as these Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland any Christian should endeavour or desire the Restitution of King James any more than the Primitive Christians did Dioclesian Maximi◠and Maxentius after God had freed them from their Rage and Persecution by Constantine APPENDIX MY Lord Bacon compares Times to Ways some more plain and easy to pass others more rugged and more hard to pass the former is better for him who lives in them the latter is better for the Reader not only in the Pleasure of reading the Variety of Accidents in them but because in their Contests fine Notions arise which otherwise might have been concealed and which may be beneficial to the Readers in succeeding Times and also in shewing the Causes of these Distempers succeeding Generations may be admonished hereby to prevent them in time to come In these Treatises we have given an Account of the manifold Varieties of Accidents which have hapned for above 80 Years in the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland France Spain and the States of the Vnited Netherlands and though the Roman and Grecian Histories may give Instances of the like by Land yet none of them can shew the like of the French Grandeur by Sea in little more than forty Years but more especially in that this was acquired in the Face of two neighbouring Nations either of which could have prescribed Laws to all the World besides herein the one claiming the Dominion of the British Seas the other of the Indian and Southern Ocean On the other Side Spain which in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth was both the Envy and Dread of these Western parts of Christendom is now fallen into that abject State as it is scarce in the Power of Christendom to uphold it from falling under the Dominion of the French and this History in some Measure hath shewn the Causes both of the Grandeur of France and the Cadency of Spain To the natural Advantages which the French had above other Nations after the Death of Queen Elizabeth was added that James the first and Charles the first of England whose Interest it was to have restrained the ambitious and aspiring Humour of the French were degenerous Princes wholly given up to be governed by Flatterers and Favourites and made it their Business to usurp another Jurisdiction over the Nation than they could claim by their Inherent Birth-right so that if the Long Parliament in 1640 had not put a Stop to Charles his Career no mortal Creature could have foreseen where it would have ended King James not to disturb his licentious and voluptuous Pleasures stood only still and looking on whilst Lewis the 13th had near broke the Interest of the Reformed in France but Charles in the first Act of his Reign lent the French a Fleet to subdue the Rochellers at that time superior to Lewis by Sea and as inconsiderately in the second Year of his Reign made War with France having in the first Year made War against the Spaniard whereby both Spain and France joining against the English brought that Loss and Dishonour upon the English in the Expedition of the Isle of Rhee and Charles being as loose in his Resolutions as inconsiderate in his Actions after the Death of the Duke of Buckingham who had engaged him in both these Wars made a secret Peace with the French and left the Reformed out of it though he engaged them to join with him in the War whereby the whole Interest of the Reformed was rooted out So that the Original of the French Grandeur by Sea and Land may be truly ascribed to these two Hereditary Princes James and Charles After the Tyranny of Charles his Reign had degenerated into the Usurpations of the Rump they thinking to prejudice the Dutch made the Act of Navigation which crampt up all the foreign Trades of England and the fishing Trade which above all others is the Nursery of Seamen and encrease of Navigation to English-built Ships and sail'd with ¾ English whether there be Ships or Mariners or not and without any Consideration of Times whether of War or Peace Though we have in this History and in The Reasons of the Decay of the Strength Wealth and Trade of England and also in the View of the Act of Navigation in reference to the Laws which yet stand unrepealed to the Trades for Masts Rafters Boards foreign Oak Timber Pitch and Tar and to the Trades for rough Hemp and Flax and to the fishing Trades and also to the Safety of the Nation against Foreign Powers at large demonstrated the Iniquity of this Law and the dangerous Consequences of it yet it is fit even here to take some Notice of it and of the Navigation of the Nation before the Act and how the Case stands now by reason of it Before the Rump contrived the Act of Navigation the English as the Traders told me alone fished upon the Coasts of Iseland and Westmony for Ling and the Cod-fish called Haberdin and at that time the Town of Alborough in Suffolk as I was informed fished yearly to those Seas with 35 Sail of Vessels called Iselands-Barks and the Town of Sould or Southold with 15 and Great Yarmouth with manifold more the Number I cannot tell but this I can tell That besides London and other parts of Norfolk and Suffolk which they supplied with this sort of Fish as also the Navy Royal and other Ships with this sort of Provision the Town of Yarmouth yearly exported to Calice St. Valery Diep Havre de Grace St. Maloes Brest and other parts of France 150000 Haberdin and Ling and by their Trades with these returned Sails and Nets for their Navigation and Fisheries Wells and Lyn in Norfolk too drove Trades into these Seas but I am not informed in how many Vessels but I have heard the Inhabitants of Wells complain that they have almost lost their Trades and I belive Lyn wholly Before the Act of Navigation the English from the Western Ports drove threefold a greater Trade in the Newfound-Land Fishery than the French whereas the French now drive above twenty-fold more the Trade to Newfound-Land Fishery than the English do And I have
luxurious and vicious Prince and that Ferdinand II. after the Victory at Prague endeavoured to subject the Freedom of Germany by force which brought the Swedes into Germany and the French siding with the Swedes took Philipsburg and Brisac upon the Rhine which opened the two Passages into the Empire by which this present King has been enabled to make those Wars and Ravages in the Empire which have since succeeded After the Restoration of King Charles II. the whole Series of his Reign was employed in assisting the French in all their ambitious Designs so did the Dutch and Dane when he had engaged them in a War with England and the Oxford Parliament first made the Act against the Importation of Irish Cattel whereby they disjoin'd the Interest and Dependency of Ireland upon England and fixt it upon France and other Countries which traded with them and enabled the French and Dutch to victual Ships cheaper in their Fisheries and other Trades than the English could as much to their Benefit as Prejudice to the English How King James II's Conjunction with the French had brought these Nations and Christendom to the Brink of Destruction was said in his Reign In this state these Kingdoms stood when God was pleased to give them Deliverance by the Interpoâ—tion of his present Majesty and now all the neighbouring Nations upon France I mean Spain the Empire Savoy and the Dutch as well as England were alarmed at their common Danger by the French Ambition and Grandure and all their Eyes were upon England as if from thence they expected Safety and now was the King of England again become the Arbitrator of Christendom after the four former Kings were so contemptible and neglected by it But in two things the French King's Ambition or rather Madness put some Check to his aspiring Designs viz. his Contests with the Pope about his Franchizes at Rome and the Regalia's of France and by the Extream on the other side in his revoking the Edicts of Nants and his Dragooning and Reforming the Protestants of France whereby he lost innumerable of his Subjects to the weakning of his own Power and that in double Proportion for his Enemies as he made them became so much the more numerous and stronger for those which became Exiles being an industrious sort of People had contributed highly to the Encrease of the Wealth of France so that now the Charge of the War must have been supported by those he left yet in this state France alone for above six Years made an offensive and victorious War by Land against Germany Spain Holland the Spanish Netherlands and the Duke of Savoy tho all these were assisted by the Power of England and Scotland Tho England embraced their Deliverance by the King Ireland did not nor was it their Interest for why should the Irish join with the English who would have no Trade with them against the French upon whom the Irish depended by their Trade and Commerce And it 's observable That tho the French assisted the Irish above three Years in their Wars against the English yet it may be a Question Whether the French did not gain more by their Trade with Ireland for Wools Tallow Raw Hides and Provisions for their Fleet than their Expence for carrying on the War against the English did amount to whereas the English in the War were at a foreign Expence and being a Naval War were forced to victual their Fleets at one third greater Expence than the French could do from Ireland Another Advantage the French had over the English in this Naval War was that Brest lying South of Ireland every Wind not North in one Course carries their Fleet to Ireland whereas Chatham from whence the English sent their Fleet to oppose them lies fivefold more remote from Ireland than Brest does nor can the Ships from Chatham be carried to Ireland but by different Winds and steering different Courses almost from all the Points of the Compass for it must be after the Ships are come within the Buoy of the Nore a South or South-west Wind to carry them to the Buoy of the Gunfleet before they turn into the Deep Waters then a quite contrary Wind brings them into the Downs and Channel and when they have sailed above a hundred Leagues another Wind carries them to Ireland From hence it was principally that the French for above three Years together so long as the War lasted sent out their Fleets upon the Coast of Ireland did their Business and returned to Brest before we could get out our Fleets to oppose them Yet Falmouth and Milford-Haven are much better Ports and lie better and more conveniently than Brest Milford much more to have relieved Ireland and oppose the French Designs at Brest yet from neither did we send one Ship to do it I suppose if the Reason hereof be asked it will be answered That there were no Docks Shipwrights or Naval Stores in either to have supplied our Men of War in those Ports But from whence comes this to pass There were two Reasons hereof from within and from without from within Foy and Haverford-West and the Port Towns generally of England are Corporations and the Inhabitants poor yet proud of their Prerogatives in excluding the rest of the Nation and so have so much less means for building Ships Docks or carrying on the Fishing or any foreign Trades as the Inhabitants are fewer and poorer and generally they are all Beggars The other Reason from without is the Act of Navigation against Foreigners partaking equal Benent in Trade with the Natives of England so that tho God and Nature have endowed this Nation with more excellent and noble Ports than any Nation in the World of like Bigness except Ireland for the Benefit and Convenience of the Nation yet by the Iniquity and Folly of our Laws we have made them vain and of no use to our selves nor any other Nation whereas I am confident the French King would give any of his new conquered Provinces in the Spanish Netherlands to have one such Port as either Falmouth or Milford Haven upon the Coast of Normandy or Bretaign within the Channel Notwithstanding these Obstacles the Kingdom of Ireland is again reduced to the Dominion of the Kingdom of England But I say tho we should destroy the French Fleet of War yet if we do not redress the Oppressions which the English in their Trades and Navigation lie under the Nation will be no ways secured from the growing Greatness of either French or Dutch for the same Causes will have the same Effects EXPEDIENTS by which the English Nation may be secured against the growing Greatness of the French and Dutch APOLOGY WE have epitomized the Causes of the declining of the Wealth Strength and Trade of England in this Epilogue that they may be more obvious to the Reader than if he should look for them as they lie dispersed in the Body of the History and I am conscious to
my self of the Difficulties I labour under in these Expedients For a Reformation of State Affairs cannot be made but to the Hinderance of many particular Men whose Education it may be has placed them in their Stations these are known and by these I am sure to meet with all possible Opposition whereas in contending for the Benefit and Security of the Nation every body's Business is no body's Business and not one in ten thousand will concern themselves in it however Truth is sacred and a divine Air attends it and what is neglected in the present time may prevail in succeeding Generations And I will beg but one thing of my Opponents viz. That they will not answer me by Clamour but by Reason and not Reason in Extremes for thereby we shall differ and wrangle in the Means without end and let this stand for a Maxim That the Publick in all Business of this Concern is to be preferred before the Private and the Safety of the Nation before any Man 's particular Interest The Security of every Country depends upon the Strength of one Country against another in case of War between them and herein Countries are to be considered as they are placed in reference to each other The Bounds of Inland and Mediterranean Countries are Rivers Lines and Forts which are esteemed sacred and a Violence done to them is esteemed a just Cause of War and so long as these are preserved the Countries within are secured from foreign Wars Britain is an Island which knows no Bounds but the Ocean and the Kings of it are Soveraigns of those Seas which beat upon the British Shores and in preserving this Soveraignty Britain is more secure from foreign Invasion than any other Kingdom in the World how great soever which is on the Terrene Continent But this Dominion hath been of late disputed by the Dutch and is at present by the French nor shall the King of Britain be secure of the Soveraignty longer than he is able to defend it against the French and Dutch whereas at present the French contend for this Soveraignty against the English in Conjunction with the Dutch But suppose by an Accident of the Times in these Circumstances the French had joined the Dutch as they did in the first Dutch War in King Charles II's Time not 30 Years since what a Condition had these Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland been in And I say the King of England shall never be able to maintain the Dominion of the British Seas and thereby secure the Safety of the Nation unless he be able to defend it against the French in Conjunction with the Dutch I 'm a Lover of Mathematical Learning because it premises its Principles before Men begin to learn or reason from them whereas otherwise where Men begin Disputing they proceed and end in Contention and Wrangling and I say that Trade is a Principle to Navigation but above all the Fishing Trades and therefore as you encrease your Trades so you may infinitely encrease your Navigation and as Trade is a Principle to Navigation so is Navigation a Principle to maintain the Dominion of the Seas and therefore so much as the Trades of England be lessened so much will the King be less able to maintain the Dominion of the Seas upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and this will be in a double proportion for so much as we lose in either the French and Dutch will gain as well to the Loss of England as to the endangering the Safety of it against foreign Enemies How therefore we may preserve the Trades which we now enjoy and encrease them by our selves and where we cannot do by our selves by the help of others is the main Design of these Expedients Expedient I. That the King establish his Throne in Religion Justice and Mercy and that herein the Subjects Fear God and honour and obey the King for if either stray from hence they will fall either into Confusion or Tyranny whereby the Nation will become divided in it self to the endangering the Safety of it from within and without and never be happy till it be restored to what it was before Expedient II. 1. That for the Conservation of the Trades we now enjoy and for the Employment of our English Natives Foreigners continue to be excluded from our American Plantations and herein neither French nor Dutch have any Reason to complain for the Dutch do the same in their Spice Trade and so do both French and Dutch in their African and American Plantations but herein it 's not fit for the English to be restrained to English-built Ships as well for the Inconveniences which have been shewed before as for that we may want English Timber for this and our other navigating Trades and the King for building and repairing his Navy Royal wherein our English Men of War built of English Timber excel all other being more tough and less liable to splinter whereby the English Men of War built of English Timber will endure a Battery which Ships built of foreign Timber will not 2. That the home-vent of our Newcastle and Sunderland Trades in times of Peace be driven by the Natives of England exclusive to Foreigners as also our other Trades from Port to Port in England and also to Ireland tho these be impoverishing Trades to the Nation for the Pitch Tar Masts Cordage and Sails generally used in these Trades are foreign Commodities to the Nation and for acquiring which we return very little of our Manufactures and the digging the Coals out of the Pits and burning them in London and other Places no ways enriches the Nation to supply the foreign Expence for Pitch Tar c. used in them nor are either old Men Women or Children employed in these Trades but only young and lusty Men and that but half the Year so that Ipswich and other Coast-Towns which depended upon these Trades are almost quite unpeopled by reason the rest of the Inhabitants find no Employment in them However I 'm confident that this Newcastle and Home-Trade and that to our American Plantations employ above four fifths of all the Ships in all the Trades we drive by Navigation and therefore we 'll take care to keep these by excluding Foreigners out of them in times of Peace and unless Foreigners beat us out of these Trades they cannot get them from us For ought I know the Newcastle and Sunderland Trades are better carried on in English-built Ships than foreign because Coals being a bulky Commodity and lying loose in the Hold of the Ships in stormy Weather and rolling Seas batter the sides of the Ships and the English Timber being tougher than the foreign it better endures this than those foreign built but it were Arrogance for any to say because of one Convenience no other Ships shall be employed in this Trade for hereby the King may want English Timber to build and repair his Men of War besides all Arts and Sciences are
at which he 's much disgusted 515. Is married 516. Treats of a Peace with France 516 517. Is suspected by the Confederates and why 518 520. but afterwards clear'd 525. Routs the French before Mons 528. His generous Design to save these Nations from Ruin 648. Orleans Dutchess see Dover Ormond Marquess makes Peace with the Irish 343. His Design for the Prince defeated 402. Ossery Lord his Friendship with the Prince of Orange 508. Overbury Sir Tho. his Story is destroy'd by the King's Favourites 62 64 68 70. His Advice to Rochester 64. His Murder discover'd and how 77 79. Overton Col. conspires against Monk 396. Oxford Parliament see Parliament Treaty there broke off and why 314. P. PApists to be tolerated 674 675. see Popish Parliaments their Constitution Ends c. 48. Ought to be Annual 49. Vsed to redress Grievances before they gave Money 49 97 616. Never dissolved in Anger till the Stuarts 205 267. Endeavour'd to be overthrown by Char. II. 614 630. Parliament in 1640 redress the Nation 's Grievances 276. Enter into a Protestation 277. Charg'd with beginning the War 280 286 296. Take the Militia from the King 293 294. Seize the Fleet 295. Raise an Army 296. Their ill Success the two first Years 296 298. Treat with the Scots for Assistance 298 Take their Covenant 299. Place no Trust in the King 315. Send an Army into Ireland 317. Their Affairs inverted by the Army 319 320. Order the King to London 321. Send Propositions to him 322. Their warm Votes concerning no further Treaty with him 324. See Commons Parliament of Char. II. their first Acts 430 431 439. Address against the King's Indulgence 447. Their Severity to Dissenters 448 458. Prohibit the Importation of Irish Cattle 462. Grant a Tax for the War against Holland 467. for the Triple League 473. for a War against France 475. Pass a Bill against Papists enjoying Places 491. See Commons at Oxford Lords petition against its meeting there 559 560. Sits but 7 days their Proceedings 564 566. K. James's pack'd one 615 616. Scarce deserv'd the Name 616 617 619. Their Acts 617 618. The Commons Address concerning Popish Recusants 628. Remarks upon it 628 629. Passive Obedience unknown to our Fathers 206. It s Inconsistence 531. Peers Jurisdictions in Appeals question'd by the Commons 502 504. Penruddock Col. beheaded after Articles granted him 386. Pensioners in Parliament 490 500. Pentland Scots rise there but are terribly routed 458. Petition of Right oppos'd by Buckingham c. defended by Williams c. 207. The Lords Saving to it oppos'd by the Commons 208 209. Is passed 210 216. but broken by the King 218 227 228 236. Is printed by the King with his Answer to it 228. Philip III. of Spain his Character 36. Philips Sir Rob. against the Court 174 180 229. Plague a great one in 1 Jac. I. 37. A greater in 1 Car. I. 153. A yet greater in II's Reign 458. Pontfract Castle surrendred to the Parliament 327. Popery some of its Antichristian Doctrines 149 150. Is promoted by K. James 642. Pope's Nuncio heads a Rebellion in Ireland 277 343. His Despotick Tyranny there 343. One arrives in England 642. Popish Party conceive great hopes of England from the Match with Moderna 499 500. Have Commissions for raising Souldiers 535. Are favour'd by K. James see James II. Plot the Parliament's Votes concerning it 535 557 587. The Evidence in it justified 539 540. Some Account of it 540 541. It s Discovery supprest and how 546 547. Ports excellent ones in England 658. Portsmouth surrendred to the Parliament 296. Dutchess who she was 474. Prague see Frederick Presbyterians join with the Royalists 409. Printers petition against Laud 231. Privileges of Parliament discust 552 554. Proclamations against talking of State-Affairs 96 97. Prorogations of Parliament not used till Hen. 8. Account of one in Char. 2d's time 520 521 533. Protestants in France suffer by James I. 96. and by Charles I. see Char. I. and Rochel Puritans increase 154. Oppos'd by Laud c. 122 157 227. Persecuted by him 258. Pyrenean Treaty 421 422. Broke by the French K. 427 428 471. Q. QVeen proclaim'd Traitor by the Parliament 298. Arrives in England on some dark Designs 428. Quo Warranto see Charter R. RAcking Men declar'd to be against Law 227. Raleigh Sir Walter his Story 82 85. Is beheaded the he had been pardoned 85. Rents whence their Fall 463. Republicans conspire against Cromwel 386 399. Restore the Rump 408. Revenue of Q. Elizabeth 32. of James II. which see Richlieu some Account of him 141 142 176. Is parallel'd with Laud 239 240. Promotes the Contentions in England and Scotland 265 272 279. Engag'd in the Irish Massacre 277 343. Rochel Fleet subdued by the French English and Dutch 174. Not reliev'd by the English as promis'd 225. Miserably reduc'd 226. Roman Empire the Causes of its Ruin 17 24. Rothes Earl Commissioner in Scotland 454. Rump Parliament their Votes concerning the King with Remarks 332 333. Erect High Courts of Justice one of which takes off the King 333 346 347. Abolish Monarchy 342. Their prodigious Acts ib. Their Success in Ireland 343 344. in Scotland c. 345 347 350. against the Dutch 351 353 356. Propose a Coalition with them 350. Their Demands of them ib. 353. Their Answer to the Dutch Excuses 352 353. Their Letter to the States of Holland 357. to the States General 358. Are turn'd out by Cromwel 362. Their Character c. 363 364. Are restored by the Republicans 408. Turn out Lambert c. and constitute a Council of War 409. Are turn'd out again 410. and put in again by Fleetwood 416. Send to Monk ib. Rupert Prince lost several Battels by his Rashness 297 307 311. Forc'd into France 327. Saves the King's Life at Windsor 541. Rushworth commended 8. Russel Lord murder'd 601. S. SAndwich Earl affronted by the Duke of York is slain 480 481. Scotland Account of its Church-state 260 263 440 441. It s Alteration endeavour'd see Laud. Great Persecution there see Lauderdale Scots oppose Common-Prayer c. and enter into a solemn Covenant against it 263. Vp in Arms propose an Accommodation 265. Declare against Episcopacy 270. Declar'd Traitors enter England 271. Keep not the Articles of Pacification 280 281. Began the War 280 286. Break their Word with the King and join the Parliament 300 331. Murder in cold Blood 316. Sell the King 317. Their Government not lik'd in England ib. Are routed by Cromwel which see Their Government chang'd by the Rump 347. Have four Citadels built to curb them 410. Their happy State under Monk ib. Parliament appoint May 29. an Anniversary Thanksgiving 443 444. Their other Acts abolish Presbytery 444 447. Grant
the King a great Revenue and pass the humble Tender 454. Scroggs Chief Justice illegally discharges the Grand Inquest 547. Is impeach'd of High-Treason 556. Sea its Dominion maintain'd by Navigation 660. Sea-men refuse to fight against Rochel 159 162. Are increas'd by the Fishing Trade 390 654. Secluded Members restor'd summon a Free Parliament 419 421. Selden Mr. for the Petition of Right 209. His Speech concerning Grievances 216. Self-denying Ordinance 309 310. Seymour Mr. invades the Commons Privilege 507. Is impeach'd by 'em 555. Shaftsbury see Ashley Cooper Sham-plots of the Court for which good Men are murder'd 601 602. Sharp ABp of St. Andrews murder'd 541 542. Sheriffs instrumental to save honest Mens Lives 590 600. Illegally chosen in London 600 611. Siâ—thorp for the King 's absolute Will 197. Slingsby Sir Henry beheaded 403. Sobiez his Success at Sea on behalf of the Reformed 146. Somerset see Carr. Southampton Lord Treasurer his Death and Character 470. Spain how bounded 1 Jac. I. 11 25. It s Barrenness in People and its Causes 25. Never recover'd its great Loss in 1588 c. 28. It s low State 428 471 472 652. Spaniards their Success against France 389. Spanish Trade tho beneficial forbid by Charles I. 174. Standing Army a Grievance 539. Kept up by K. James 642 643. States of England Three not King Lords and Commons 8. but Nobles Commonalty and Clergy 57. Strasburgh treacherously seiz'd by the French 604. Succession to the Crown in England 38 47 550. Surinam taken by the Dutch 467. but regain'd 468. Surrey-Men rise for the King but are routed 326 327. Sweeds join with the French at War against Brandenburg 499 511. T. TAlbot his Barbarity and Falshood in Ireland 624 625. Is made Lord Lieutenant 641. Tangier the Commons Votes concerning it 539 557. Temple Sir William employ'd in the Treaty at Nimeguen 472 478. in the Peace with the Dutch 495. His Conference with the King 498. Treats of a Peace with the French and Confederates 499. Is highly complimented by the French 509 510. His Thoughts of the Protestation against a separate Peace 512. Is admitted to the Debates with the King concerning the Peace 516 517. His going to France prevented 518. Test in England reflected on 501. In Scotl. with Remarks 570 575. Tiddiman Sir Tho. his Neglect at Bergen 457. Tories charge the Whigs with a Design to kill the King 532. Promote the Popish Designs 544 586. Their Impudence 562. Tour De la Count his Heroick Speech to the Bohemians 91 92. Trade in Market-Towns 27. To Spain gainful 165 387 389 463. to France prejudicial 166 389 463 672. In Wool how we lost it 338 339 662. To Greenland Newfoundland Norway c. 653 656. To America Newcastle 661. To Ireland 656 666. In Timber 669. In Companies and to East-India c. 670. Ought to be free 663 670 674 679. Traquair Lord Treasurer in Scotland 264 266. Prorogues the Parliament there which is protested against 267. Treason made a Stalking Horse 322. Treaty at Munster 339 340. Treaties Account of all between the K. and Parliament 328 332. Treâ—or Secretary his Queries concerning Buckingh c. 489. Triple League 472. Trump Van Admiral for the Dutch see Dutch Tunnage and Poundage see Charles I. and Commons V. VAne Sir Henry opposes the Scots Covenant 299. Promotes Lambert's Interest 409. Villiers his Descent comes into favour 73. Advanc'd by Somerset's Fall 74. His affable Carriage at first 76. Is promoted 77 86 111. Marries the greatest Fortune in England 88. His great Titles 111. Disswades the Prince from his Match with the Infanta 113. Sets up to be popular 115 118 125. His base Dissimulation in Spain 116 117 158. Charg'd with being a Papist and endeavouring to seduce the Prince 118. His Narrative of Proceedings in Spain with Remarks 127 129. Loses the King's Favour by means of the Spanish Ambassador 132 133. Restor'd to it again by the Keeper's fine Contrivance 133 134. Eager for a War with Spain 155. His base dealing with the Rochellers and the Merchants whose Ships he hired 159 163. His Behaviour at Paris 157 163. Is impeach'd by the Commons 189 190. Procures a War with France 193 196 198. His false Steps therein 198. Is routed 198 199. Is stabb'd 225. Vsurer a Story of one 555. Utrecht surrendred to the French 487. W. WAgstaff Sir Jos seizes the Judges at Salisbury 386 Wales its pretended Prince 647. Waller Sir William for the Parliament 298 306. See Fitz-harris Walloons persecuted by Laud 254 255. Settle in Holland 255. Come again into England and encourag'd by Char. II. 472 473 607. Walter Sir Joh. dissents from the Judges and is discharged 236. War with Holland projected by the French 450 473 478 484. War and Peace-making claim'd by the King 506. Warwick Earl Admiral for the Parliament 295. Wenthworth Sir Tho. a true Patriot 209 212. but made President of the North to his Ruin 243. and Lieutenant of Ireland 254 260. Weston Sir Rich. made Lord Treasurer tho a Papist 226. Whigs and Tories 531 532. Compar'd with the Prerogative-men and Puritans in Laud's time 560 561. Whitlock Serjeant his Thoughts of Cromwel c. 304 305 348 349 359 361. Advises to bring in the King 415. Wilkinson Capt. his Story his noble Constancy 596 598. Williams Lord-Keeper his Thoughts of the Spanish Match 113. His Ruin intended by Laud c. 124 179 253. Stops the King's Prohibition to the Judges and Bishops 126. His curious Contrivance on Buckingham's behalf 133 c. Is commended by the King for it 135. Ill requited by Buckingham 136 155. His Reasons against a War with Spain 155. His Advices to the King 168 170 302. to Buckingham 169. His Character 176 177. His Requests to the King c. 177 178. Is fin'd and imprisoned by Laud 239. Willis Sir Cromwel's Spy 393 402. Windebank Sir Fr. seizes Sir Coke's Papers favours Popery 253. Woollen Manufactures the Inconveniences they labour under 666. Worcester Fight 346. Workhouses 665 677. FINIS BOOKS sold by Andrew Bell at the Cross-keys and Bible in Cornhil THE General History of England as well Ecclesiastical as Civil from the earliest Accounts of Time to the Reign of his present Majesty King William Taken from the most Antient Records Manuscripts and Historians Containing the Lives of the Kings and Memorials of the most Eminent Persons both in Church and State With the Foundations of the Noted Monasteries and both the Universities Vol. I. By James Tyrrel Esq Fol. A New History of Ecclesiastical Writers Containing an Account of the Authors of the several Books of the Old and New Testament and the Lives and Writings of the Primitive Fathers An Abridgment and Catalogue of all their Works c. To which is added A Compendious History of the Councils c. Written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin Doctor of the Sorbon In seven Volumes Fol. An Essay concerning the Power of the Magistrate in Matters of Religion wherein all the Arguments for Persecution and against Toleration are examin'd and refuted With the most proper Method of destroying all Schisms Heresies c. A Detection of the Court and State of England during the four last Reigns and the Interregnum Consisting of Private Memoirs c. with Observations and Reflections And an Appendix discovering the present State of the Nation Wherein are many Secrets never before made publick as also a more impartial Account of the Civil Wars in England than has yet been given By Rog. Coke Esq The third Edition much corrected with an Alphabetical Table Scotland's Soveraignty asserted Being a Dispute concerning Homage against those who maintain that Scotland is a Fee Liege of England and that the K. of Scots owes Homage to the K. of England By Sir Tho. Craig Translated from the Latin Manuscript with a Preface containing a Confutation of that Homage said to be performed by Malcom III. to Edward the Confessor and published by Mr. Rymer By Geo. Ridpath Ridpath his Shorthand yet shorter or the Art of Short-writing advanc'd in a more swift easy regular and natural Method than hitherto The second Edition A Discourse on the late Funds of the Million Act Lottery-Act and Bank of England Shewing that they are injurious to the Nobility and Gentry and ruinous to the Trade of the Kingdom By J. Briscoe The third Edition Mr. John Asgil his Plagiarism detected c. Emblems by Fra. Quarles with the Hieroglyphicks All the Cuts being newly illustrated The History of Genesis illustrated with 40 Copper Plates Advice to the Young or the Reasonableness and Advantages of an Early Conversion In three Sermons on Eccles 12. 1. By Joseph Stennett The Groans of a Saint under the Burden of a Mortal Body A Sermon at the Funeral of Mr. John Belcher late Minister of the Gospel from 2 Cor. 5. 4. By the same Author Several Practical Pieces of Mr. Daniel Burgess viz. Rules for hearing the Word of God The Sure Way to Wealth The most difficult Duty made easy Foolish Talking and Jesting describ'd and condemn'd The Christian Decalogue or the Gospel's ten Commandments The Church's Triumph over Death a Funeral Sermon on Mr. Robert Fleming A Funeral Sermon from Job 14. 14. on Mrs. Sarah Bull. Holy Union and Holy Contention describ'd and press'd In single Tracts or bound up together Fleming's Fulfilling of the Scripture Rutherford's Letters An Exposition with Practical Observations on the Book of Ecclesiastes By Alexander Nisbet A Directory of Prayer being a Commentary on the 20th Psalm By R. Campbel Chamberlen's Midwifery the third Edition Artamenes or the Grandâ—Cyrus In 10 Vol. A Birchen Rod for Dr. Birch being an Answer to his Sermon before the Commons Jan. 30. A Defence of the Arch-bishop's Sermon on the Death of the Late Queen and of the Sermons of the late ABp Bp of Lichfield and Coventry Bp of Ely Bp of Salisbury Dr. Sherlock c. on that and other Solemn Occasions against the Aspersions of two Jacobite Pamphlets A Tragedy called the Popish Plot reviv'd Wherein are several Letters c. of Dr. Oates to the Late Kings and other Great Men. The Rye-house Travestie The History of the Late Jacobite Plot in a Letter to the Bp of Rochester by T. Percival * Aesar in the Tuscan Tongue is a God See Suet. c. 97. in the Life of Augustus
A DETECTION OF THE Court and State OF ENGLAND DURING The Four Last REIGNS And the INTER-REGNUM Consisting of Private Memoirs c. With Observations and Reflections AND AN APPENDIX discovering the present State of the Nation Wherein are many SECRETS never before made publick As also a more impartial Account of the CIVIL WARS in England than has yet been given In Two Volumes By ROGER COKE Esquire The Third Edition very much corrected With an Alphabetical Table London Printed for Andr. Bell at the Cross-keys and Bible in Cornhill MDCXCVII AN APOLOGY TO THE READER THAT Man has lived long enough who has out-lived the Love and Piety he owes to his Native Country by my Native Country I do not mean the fertile and pleasant Soil of Britain nor the sweet and temperate Climate of it nor the manifold Varieties which it naturally abounds with for the use and conveniencies of humane Life nor yet the pleasant and excelling Rivers which water it nor the noble Havens and abundance of most open Ports from which it supplies other Parts of this our habitable Globe with the super-abundance of those Commodities wherein it excels and whereof the Inhabitants of those Parts stand in need and where the Waters flow as well as ebb as if they invited the World to trade with us as well as we with them But by my Native Country I mean the Constitutions and Laws of the English Monarchy which have continued for near Nine hundred Years viz. since King Egbert made a Decree that laying aside the Names of Britains and Saxons the whole Nation of that part of Britain under his Dominion should be called England Vnder these Constitutions and Laws have all English Men ever since without any Act of their own Will been born in Subjection and by them have been protected in their Lives Liberties and Estates and to govern by these Constitutions and Laws have been the Claims of our Hereditary Monarchs who have ever since governed England and though the Succession of the Kings of England have been often changed in the Saxon Danish and Norman Race of Kings yet these Laws and Constitutions have been ever since preserved notwithstanding the Attempts of many of the Kings of the Norman and I may say of the Scotish Race too to have subverted them which I believe is more than can be said of any other Monarchy in the World out of Britain So that in our English Government the Constitution and Laws of it are as well the Rules of the King's Dominion as of the Subject's Allegiance to the King and when the Majesty of the King is arrayed in Judgment Justice and Mercy then for his Subjects to resist him is High Treason in this World and Damnation in that to come and I think I may truly say no People in the World are more Honourers of their Kings yet more jealous of preserving their Constitutions and Laws than the English whereby they have preserved their Government now France and Spain whose Government was like ours have lost theirs But when the Kings of England will not make the Laws and Constitutions of England to be their Will but their Will differing from these to be the Laws and Constitutions of it then a divided Dominion will necessarily follow and it will be impossible for the Subject to obey both The King hereby puts himself out of God's Protection whose Vice-Gerent he is in governing by the Laws and misplaces his Majesty which is founded in the Honour Love and Obedience of his Subjects upon Minions and Favorites whose Servant he makes himself and these shall be the first who shall forsake him when any Adversity shall come upon him Our Chronicles give Instances hereof in the Reigns of King John Hen. 3. Edw. 2. and Rich. 2. And the design of this Treatise is to shew the Consequences that have been produced hereby in the Reigns of the Kings of the Scotish Race In this regular Monarchy the Kings of England do not abrogate old Laws or impose new or raise Monies from the Subject above the Revenues of the Crown without Consent in Parliament and hereby the Kings of England reign in the Love and Obedience of their Subjects and are freed from the Imputation of Tyranny in Sanguinary Laws and from Oppression in the Taxes granted in Parliament which no absolute Monarch is and are more absolutely obeyed in both than any absolute Monarch who makes his Will the Law of his Subjects The Division of the Will of a King of England does not only distract the Allegiance of his Subjects so that the divided Will of the King must necessarily prevail over the Laws and Constitutions of it or these prevail against the divided Will for both are incompatible and cannot subsist together But this Distraction gives Life and Motion to the ambitious Humour of Male-contents who are impatient as well of Regal Government as of submitting to the Laws and Constitutions of it And I submit my self to the Judgment of any Impartial Reader if this Divided Will in the Prince did not give that Life and Motion to the Ambition of the Factions in England Scotland and Ireland which not only raised Civil Wars in all of them but brought destruction upon K. Charles the First as well as the Laws and Constitutions of them However I will take Notice of the Loyalty of the English Nation both to K. James the first and K. Charles the first that tho these Kings were foreign born to our Laws and Constitutions yet it patiently submitted to their Vsurpations for above 35 Years whereas when King Charles the first thought he had wholly subdued this Kingdom to his Will and endeavoured to have done the same in Scotland his Native Country the Scots would not endure it so many Weeks as the English had done Years but rose against it first in Tumults after in open Arms and the discontented Parties in England joining with them however disjoined from one another brought on those Civil Wars in all the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland which procur'd Destruction to the King as well as the Kingdoms In writing this History I cannot say with the noble Baptista Nani I have any Command from my Prince or any other to do it neither will I pretend to such great Advantages as he had gratis by a free access to the Records and most secret Counsels of my Country tho I must not say I have been wholly destitute of some for else such an Vndertaking would render me guilty of the highest Arrogance but what those have been I judg not pertinent here to relate they will best appear by the Work it self Yet I can say with Nani that I have not suffered my self to be defiled with Partiality which hath so prevailed in all the Writers of the late and present Times that I have seen but passing by the Privilege of venerable Antiquity which to a face of Truth hath another close adjoining that of Falshood I have chosen to expose my self
Spaniard not considering the Strength and Glory of every Country consists in the well peopling and governing of it and that Desolation is the End of all God's Judgments upon any Country Here note that no Art or Science comes to pass by Fate Inspiration or Chance but by Education Learning Conversation and Experience in Arts and therefore wherever People are thin they are rude ignorant poor heathenish and idle and of little Use to their Country and also where the generality of the People of any Country be not imployed in Labours to supply other Men they become a Burden to the Country to maintain them so that Spain in this state not only lost their antient Virtue and Military Discipline but the Inhabitants being more religious and idle People than in any other part of the World became hereby not only the feeblest of all other Countries but the poorest and notwithstanding the Millions of Treasure which were yearly imported into Spain yet it could not support the Luxury of the Religious and maintain the poor idle Persons in it But Spain could not contain the bloody Superstitious Rage and Tyranny of Philip but he endeavoured to have brought in the Inquisition and Castilian Government into the Netherlands which were Provinces more rich and abounding with People and had more great and populous Towns than any other part of the known World of like Bigness and the Inhabitants of a warlike Constitution these Countries were made free by Philip's Father from their dependance upon France for after Charles had taken Francis the first Prisoner it was one of the Articles for his Enlargement that he should remit the Fealty which those Countries paid him The Fleming for so the Inhabitants of these Provinces were generally called from Flanders the greatest of them did not as the Moors run out of their Country but stoutly stood upon their Liberties and Privileges and rose up in Arms in defence of them and these Wars continuing above 80 Years not only put the Kings of Spain to a greater Expence than the Revenues of those Provinces and the Returns of the Plate Fleets from America could support but after all above seven of these Provinces rent themselves quite from the Dominion of Spain and erected themselves into a Free-state nor till the Duke of Bavaria became their Governour would the Kings of Spain trust the Inhabitants of those which continued in their Subjection with Arms to defend themselves against the French whereby the Government of those Countries became more chargeable to Spain than it could support yet so weak that they could not resist the Insults of the French nor the revolted Provinces and in this State Spain stood when King James became King of England and so continued except the Truâ—e made in 1609 till the Treaty at Munster in 1648. It hath been observed in the Treatises of the Reason of the Decay of the Strength Wealth and Trade of England and also of the equal Danger of the Church and State c. of England how much the State of England resembles that of Spain for if the Excursion of the Spaniards into America so much dispeoples Spain so does the Excursion of the Inhabitants of England into our American Plantations and in repeopling Ireland dispeople England and if the Inquisition in Spain be a Bar to keep out Supplies in Spain for their Expence into America so is the Law against naturalizing of Foreigners here in England It is true no Law or Usage in England forbids Marriage to any for supplying future Generations yet I 'le leave it to the Reader to judg if as the Case stands in England it be not worse than if Marriage were forbidden to the ordinary and meaner sort of People in England for in all the Countries of England more poor Children are born than can be employed in Rural or Country affairs and their poor Parents have not means to bind them Apprentice in Market-Towns and Corporations which exclude all other from Trading with them but those which have been bound Apprentice and served their Apprenticeship nay the 5th Act of Eliz. c. 4. excludes all from being bound Apprentices but the Children of Free-men or such whose Parents had 40 Shill per Ann. and by the Act of Eliz. 31. 7. no Cottages shall be built in Country Villages which shall not have 4 Acres of Ground annexed to them which poor Labourers cannot do so that the poor Children not being permitted to inhabit in Country Villages and excluded out of Market-Towns and Corporations are forced either to fly their Country or to be Tapsters Ostlers and Drawers Alehouse-keepers or Strong-Water-Sellers if they can get a Licence so little was the Interest of the Nation understood heretofore for the Strength and Wealth of every Nation is founded in the Number and Industry of the Natives and therefore to neglect to instruct Youth how to employ themselves or to debar any Man from the Benefit of his honest Imployment is not only unjust but impolitick And as these Corporations in excluding other Men are unjust and impolitick so are they dangerous to the Government otherwise as they are Marks of Faction and Distinction in it and as they make themselves to be the only Free-men in them whereby they exclude the rest of the Nation Now let 's see what a Sort of Men these are which claim these Prerogatives over the rest of the Subjects of the Nation but generally a Sort of Shop-keepers Retailers and whole-sale Men who neither labour nor are otherwise of any Use to the Government but by the Prerogatives of their Freedom set what Price they please upon the Labour of poor Artificers who are the Soul of the Nation and impose what Rates they please to the Buyers of these again of them whereby their Riches arise from the Oppression of the Labourer while they are idle and by imposing upon the Nobility Gentry and others in selling whereas it 's said and I believe it that in Holland a Retailer or if you will a Forestaller is not permitted unless to them who are reputed honest and by Misfortune are fallen into Decay so that as London grows rich by its Freedom of Trade with the Nation so Amsterdam and other Towns in Holland grow rich by foreign Trade The Act 3 Jac. c. 6. is of better Authority than any thing I can say and more livelily describes the manifold Mischiefs and Abuses both to the King and Kingdom which attended our foreign Trades by Companies exclusive to other Subjects of the Nation I 'le only therefore observe this in it which the Act does not That these Companies who manage foreign Trades exclusive to other Men are more tyrannous and injurious to their fellow Subjects than any of their Enemies are as has been shewed in the East-India and African Companies and hereby have no reason to expect any Assistance from the Nation to support them against the Insults of the Dutch and French upon them for why should the Nation assist them
the Crown her Father Brother and Sister in debt and the Navy Royal neglected and out of Repair yet the Revenues of the Crown besides the Court of Wards and the Dutchy of Lancaster I say the Profits of the Kingdom were but 188179 l. 4 s. See Sir Robert Cotton ' s Means of the Kings of England p. 3. the Kingdom imbroiled in intestine Heats in Religion and Philip the second of Spain aspiring to an unlimited Dominion in and out of Europe Calais notwithstanding the united Interest of England with Spain but some Months before lost to the French and Francis the Dauphin of France in right of his Wife Mary Queen of Scotland laying claim to the Crown of England Whereas when King James came to be King of England the Kingdom was in intire Peace within and in a Martial State and full of Honour and Reputation abroad the Royal Navy not only Superior to any other in the World in Strength but in good Repair few Debts left charged upon the Crown yet if the Exchequer were not replenished with Money the King received Three entire Subsidies and six fifteens of the 4 Subsidies and eight Fifteens granted to the Queen for suppressing the Irish Rebellion and carrying on the War against Spain some Months before though both the Rebellion and War with Spain ceased that Year he became King the Customs for supporting the Navy more than fivefold they were in the Beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and above two Millions and four hundred Thousand Pounds due from the States of Holland or the Vnited Netherlands but how the States became discharged of it it 's fit to premise it there and how it became due to Queen Elizabeth and so to the Crown of England Queen Elizabeth though she refused to accept of the Sovereignty of the Vnited Provinces when she took them into Protection after the Expulsion of the Duke of Anjou and the Death of the Prince of Orange yet she entred into a Treaty with the States Anno 1585. wherein it was agreed That the Dutch should repay her all the Monies which she should expend for their Preservation with Interest at 10 per Cent. when the War was ended with Spain and that two English whom the Queen should name should be admitted into their Council of State and for Security whereof the Dutch should deliver up to her Flushing Rammekins and the Brill which were the Keys of their Country Upon this Agreement the Queen for the Dutch's further Encouragement gave them Licence to fish upon the Coast of England which she denied them when they continued in their subjection to King Philip and removed the Staple of the English Woollen Manufactures from Antwerp in the Power of the King of Spain to Delf in the Dutch Power and it is scarce credible how in so short a time after viz. scarce thirteen Years the Dutch entertaining all sorts of People who were persecuted upon the Account of not submitting to the Papal Usurpations called Religion swelled their Trade and Navigation not only in Europe but in the East and West-Indies The Queen considering this Encrease of the Dutch Trade and Navigation was as much to the lessening of the English and being provoked by the Ingratitude of the Lovestein Faction whereof one Olden Barnevelt was the Head a Fellow as factious and turbulent as ungrateful by whose Counsel another Assembly was erected at Amsterdam called The Convention of the States General wherein they managed all the secret and important Affairs of their State and out of which they excluded the English The Queen I say highly incensed at the Ingratitude of this Faction which now governed all in Holland and yet continuing to support them at the Charge of 120000 l. per Ann. as Camden observes in his Eliz. Reg. Ann. 1598 signified to the States her Intention of making Peace with the King of Spain which if she did it would be impossible for them to continue their War with Spain and recover their Cautionary-Towns from the Queen Hereupon the States sent my Lord Warmond as they called him as their humble Supplicant to the Queen and in the lowest Posture of Humility acknowledged themselves obliged to her for infinite Benefits and that as her Majesty excelled the Glory of her Ancestors in Power so she excelled them in Acts of Piety and Mercy but pleaded Poverty for not repayment of the Money the Queen had expended for their Preservation they might have said their Exaltation The Queen in Answer to them said she had been often deceived by their deceitful Supplications and ungrateful Actions and Pretence of Poverty when their Power and Riches confuted them and that she hoped God would not suffer her to be a Pattern to other Princes to help such a People who bear no Reverence to Superiors nor take care for the Advantage Reputation or Safety of any but themselves The Dutch were confounded at the Queen's Answer submitted themselves to such Terms as the Queen should lay upon them and the Queen wisely considering if she should cast them off Henry the 4th of France who the last Year viz. 1597 had concluded a Peace with Spain at Vervins by the Interposition of the Pope's Nuncio and sought to be Protector of the States whereby the Queen would not only be in danger to lose their Dependance but the Monies she had expended in their Support they the Queen and States came to this Agreeement 1. That upon an Account stated there was eight Millions of Crowns or two Millions Sterling due to the Queen for which they were to pay Ten per Cent. so long as the War lasted 2. That during the War they should pay the Queen one hundred thousand Pounds yearly and the Remainder when Peace with Spain was concluded and then to have their Cautionary Towns surrendred back to them 3. That till this Agreement was performed the States were to pay Fifteen hundred English in Garison in them We leave this Agreement here till we hear more of it hereafter There were but thirteen Months between this King's Birth and Reign his Mother being deposed to make Room for his coming to be King and by this Title he reigned twenty Years in his Mother's Life and during that time he never made use of her Name in the Coin of Scotland nor in any Proclamation or Law and after her Death continued his Reign by this Title to his dying Day which was inconsistent with the Flatteries which his Favourites buz'd continually in his Ears That he was King by inherent Birth-right and that he held his Crown from God alone and so pleasing was this Doctrine to him that above all other things he set himself upon it not only in magnifying himself herein in his Speeches in Parliament but in his Writings against Bellarmine and Peron against the Pope's deposing Kings In his Infancy and Minority the Regents and Nobility made Havock of the Crown and Church Revenues so as when he came to Age he had but little left
Peace between England and Spain whereto both Kings were equally disposed more smooth and easy Yet Philip the 3d before he would openly seek it by an Ambassador from the Arch-Duke Albert Governor of Flanders felt the Pulse of the Court how it stood affected to a Peace with Spain which beat high towards it so as soon after it followed which as it was most beneficial to the English Nation so it had been to Spain if it had been as sincerely observed by King James as it was by Philip. Henry the 4th of France tho spited as 't was said that King James should not only come so peaceably but with universal Acclamations to the Crown of England whereas he laboured with such difficulty above seven Years to attain that of France and at last was forced to a dishonourable Submission to the Pope Clement VIII Yet being a Prince of great Prudence in Peace as well as fortunate and victorious in War sent Monsieur de Rosny Great Treasurer of France to renew the Treaty of Peace and Commerce formerly made between Queen Elizabeth and him which was without any difficulty done The King being thus at Peace Abroad and at Home not only in England but in Ireland as if the Wars expired there with Queen Elizabeth he not only pardoned the Earl of Tyrone the Head of that Rebellion but by Proclamation declar'd he was restor'd to the King's Favour and to be honourably used of all Men. But how pleasing soever the King 's coming to the Crown of England was to the English Nation it seems it was not so or something else to God for an horrible Plague greater than any since that in the Reign of Edward the 3d accompanied his coming in There were two Factions in England when the King came to the Crown distinguished by the Names of Puritans and Papists both dissenting from the Religion established in the Church of England the King hated those and wrote against these chiefly for their Doctrine of the Pope's Power of deposing Kings These received the King after different manners the Puritans had a huge Expectation of his Favour because he was bred up in their Doctrine and Discipline but were much deceived in it for he rarely mentioned them but with Detestation which he did not those of the Popish Religion However in January they obtained a Conference with the Church-Party at Hampton-Court where the King himself would be Moderator whilst most of the Nobility and Bishops were Spectators You need not doubt which Party prevail'd the Nobility and Bishops not only giving the King the Victory with the Epithets of The Solomon of the Age The most Learned but of being inspired But what Expectation soever the Puritans had of the King 's coming to the Crown the Papists had another Lesson taught them for tho the Popish Conspiracy against the Person of Queen Elizabeth ceased upon the Death of the Queen of Scots yet did not the Pope's Designs upon the Kingdom of England do so but Clement VIII in the Year 1600 sent Orders to his Emissaries in England that the Catholicks should admit none to succeed the Queen but one obedient to the Holy See and in Conformity hereunto Watson and Clark two Romish Priests joined in Cobhant's Conspiracy to have kept the King from coming to the Crown and were executed for it as Traitors but the Effects of the Pope's Instructions did not die with Clark and Watson as you 'll soon hear and upon the 24th of October 1603 a Proclamation was made for Quietness to be observed in Matters of Religion Notwithstanding the Rage of the Pestilence the first nine Months after the King 's coming to London all were Halcion-days Proclamations Pageants Feastings Creation of Lords and Knights Reception of Foreign Ambassadors erecting a Master of the Ceremonies after the Mode of France c. and in this time the Dignified Clergy and those who courted to be so with the Favourites at Court with whom the Civilians chimed in had so rooted their Doctrine of the King 's Absolute Power and that notwithstanding his Succession to the Crown of Scotland in the Life of his Mother he succeeded by inherent Birth-right and that Primogeniture is the Gift of God by the Law of Nature and that in his Person was reconciled all the Titles of our Saxon Danish and Norman Race of Kings that being propensly disposed to receive the Impressions they took such deep root in him that in all his Life after he would never with Patience hear any thing to the contrary however it was not long before he heard of it as you shall hear But we will stay a little and see how inconsistently these Flatterers jumbled an Absolute and Hereditary Monarchy together and how this King reconciled the Titles of the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles to the Crown For no Hereditary Monarch that ever reigned in this World but derived his Title from an Ancestor who had no Hereditary Right nor did ever any Hereditary King succeed but to govern by Laws and Constitutions which were established before he became King So however Absolute may be applicable to Conquerors yet it is inconsistent with Hereditary Kings especially in a Regular Monarchy as that of England is and those of old as of the Medes and Persians where the Will of the King alone could not alter the Laws and Constitutions of them And now let us see how King James came to claim his Crown by inherent Birth-right and how all the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles came to be reconciled in his Person It 's evident to me that tho only God can make an Heir and that tho Primogeniture be natural yet God in disposing Kingdoms is not obliged to it tho Grotius lib. 1. Tit. 11. de Jure Belli Pacis is pleased to say the Law of Nature is immutable by God himself but reserves unto himself the Prerogative of disposing Kingdoms without restraining the Succession of the King to Primogeniture or Hereditary Succession Here let us see in Epitome which you may read at large in Sir William Jones his History of the Succession of the Kings of England before and after the Conquest and the History of the Succession of the Crown of England from King Egbert to Henry the 8th printed in the Year 1690 where you will see that tho the Kings of England both before and after the Conquest succeeded in their Royal Families yet many more were not in the right Line than in it and tho before Caesar invaded Britain there was no other Government but Kingly yet Britain was divided into so many petty Kingdoms that tho it had not been barbarous it would have been as difficult to have wrote the History of the Succession of their Kings as to have wrote the History of the Succession of the Kings immediately after the Flood After the Roman Empire oppressed by its own Weight by the Division into Eastern and Western its intestine Jars and the over-flowing of barbarous Nations was so torn
she should take other French Catholicks in their Places but nevertheless by the Consent of the King of Great Britain That the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales his Son should oblige themselves by Oath not to attempt by any means whatsoever to make her change her Religion or to force her to any thing that might be contrary thereto and should promise by writing in the Faith and Word of a King and Prince to give Order that the Catholicks as well Ecclesiastical as Secular who have been imprisoned since the last Edict against them should be set at Liberty That the English Catholicks should be no more enquired after for their Religion nor constrained to take the Oath which contains something contrary to the Catholick Religion That their Goods that have been seized since the last Edict should be restored to them And generally that they should receive more Graces and Liberty in Favour of the Alliance with France than had been promised them in consideration of that of Spain The Deputation of Father Berule Superior General of the Fathers of the Oratory to his Holiness to obtain the Dispensation for the aforesaid Marriage THE Instructions which were given to Father de Berule were to render himself with all Diligence at Rome to obtain the Pope's Dispensation and to this Effect to represent to his Holiness That the King of Great Britain having demanded of the King his Sister Madame Henrietta Maria for a Wife for the Prince of Wales his Son his Majesty hearken'd the more willingly to this Proposition in that he esteem'd it very profitable towards the Conversion of the English as heretofore a French Princess married into England had induced them to embrace Christianity but the Honour which he had vowed to the Holy See and particularly to his Holiness who baptized him in the Name of Pope Clement VIII did not permit him to execute the Treaty without having obtained his Dispensations That this Marriage ought to be look'd upon not only for the Benefit of the English Catholicks but of all Christendom who would thereby receive great Advantage That there was nothing to be hazarded for in Madame seeing that she was as firm in the Faith and in Piety as he could desire That she had a Bishop and 28 Priests to do their Duties That she had not a Domestick that was not Catholick and that the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would oblige themselves by Writing and by Oath not to solicit her directly or indirectly neither by themselves or by Persons interposed to change her Religion On the contrary having nothing to fear for her he had great Cause to hope that she being dearly beloved of the King who was already well enough disposed to be a Catholick and of the Prince of Wales she might by so much the more contribute to their Conversion as Women have wonderful Power over their Husbands and their Fathers-in-law when Love hath given them the Ascendant over their Spirits That she was so zealous in Religion that there was no doubt but she would employ in this pious Design all that depended upon her Industry and that if God should not bless Intentions in the Person of King James and of the Prince of Wales it was apparent that their Children would be the Restorers of the Faith which their Ancestors had destroyed seeing she would have the Charge to educate them in the Belief and in the Exercises of the Catholick Religion till the Age of 13 Years and that these first Seeds of Piety being laid in their Souls cultivated with Care at the time when they should be more susceptible of Instructions would infallibly produce stable and permanent Fruits that is to say a Faith so firm that it may not be shaken by Heresy in a riper Age. That after all the Catholicks of England would receive no small Profit at present since the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would both oblige themselves upon their Faith and by Writing no more to enquire after them nor punish them when they should be discovered to enlarge all those that had been imprisoned and to make them Restitution of Money and of other Goods that had been taken from them since the last Edict if they were yet in being and generally to treat them with more Favour than they could have expected from the Alliance with Spain And further He had Orders to let the Pope understand that to render more Respect to the Church it had been agreed that Madame should be affianced and married according to the Catholick Form and agreeable to that which was followed at the Marriage which Charles IX made of Madam Margaret of France with the late King Henry IV. then King of Navarre All these things spoke themselves and appeared so visibly that they would admit of no doubt so this Father that wanted neither Spirit nor Fire represented them dexterously to the Pope and his Holiness made him hope for a speedy and favourable Answer c. See the Life of Cardinal Richlieu printed at Paris 1650. fol. 14 15. How does this agree with the King's Speech at the opening of the Parliament in the 18th Year of his Reign That if the Treaty of the Match between his Son and the Infanta of Spain were not for the Benefit of the Established Religion at home and of the Reformed abroad he was not worthy to be their King And how does this agree with that part of the King's Speech at the opening of this Parliament That as for the Toleration of the Roman Religion as God shall surely judg him he said he never thought nor meant nor never in Words expressed any thing that savoured of it Do not Religion Truth and Justice support the Thrones of Princes and Hypocrisy Falshood and Injustice undermine and overthrow them What future Happiness then could either the King or Prince hope to succeed this Treaty sworn to by them both so diametrically contrary to the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation wherein the Majesty of the King as well as the Safety of the Nation is founded and to govern by these and observe this Treaty will be impossible What Peace could the Prince find at home even in his Bed when an imperious French Wife shall be ever instigating him to break his Coronation-Oath to truckle to that imposed upon him by her Brother of France These Pills how bitter soever must be swallowed by the King rather than his Son shall be baulk'd a second time nay it seems they were very sweet to him For Mr. Howel in the Life of Lewis III. says fol. 66. that King James said passionately to the Lords of the Council of the King of France My Lords the King of France has wrote unto me That he is so far my Friend that if ever I have need of him he will render me Offices in Person whensoever I shall desire him the Truth of this you will see by and by Truly he hath gained upon
me more than any of his Predecessors and he may believe me that in any thing that shall concern him I will employ not only my Peoples Lives but my own Bravely spoken and like K. James and whosoever of his Subjects Lewis's shall rise against him either Catholicks or others shall find him James a Party for him Lewis 'T is true if he be provoked to infringe his Edicts he shall impart as much as in him lies by Counsel and Advice to prevent the Inconveniencies Who ever expected he should do more or ever did But Venus must not have the only Ascendant in this Treaty for the Cardinal will have Mars to be in Conjunction with her and 't was high time for at this time Monsieur Sobiez had provided a great Fleet of Men of War as Times went then with the French and had entered and surprised the Fort of Blavet in Bretaign and took and carried away six of the French great Men of War out of it and also taken the Isles of Rhe and Oleron which he began to fortify and being absolute Master of the Sea triumphantly with a Fleet of 75 Men of War of all sorts landed a considerable Force at Medoc near Bourdeaux The Court of France was never so alarmed as at this notwithstanding all the King's Victories over the Reformed by Land and therefore the Cardinal threw another Article into the Treaty That King James should lend the French a Fleet of Ships to repress Soubiez and in lieu thereof the French should permit Mansfield who had raised an Army of 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse in England to land at Calais where the French should join him with another Body of Horse and Foot for the Recovery of the Palatinate But see the French Faith and how well Lewis made good his Promise to King James to render him all Offices in his own Person whensoever King James should desire him for at this time the Army being shipt at Dover and put over to Calais where being denied Entrance and having no other Instructions and wanting Provisions they lay neglected at Sea and in this Distress a Pestilence raged among them so that they were forced to sail to Zealand where having no Orders they were denied Landing there and this being the most terrible Season of the Year in December what by Hunger Cold and Pestilence above two thirds of them perished before Leave could be obtained to land them in Holland so that they never did the King of Spain near so much Hurt as they had done in England before they were shipt living upon Plunder and Free-Quarter These were sad Presages of future Happiness from the designed Marriage yet these things no ways discomposed the quiet Repose of our pacifick King so as he might see his only Son married to a Daughter of France was all his Business no matter how The Thirst which God was his Judg and as he was a Christian King he had contracted equal to that of the wayfaring Man in the Desarts of Arabia and in danger of Death for want of Water for the good Success of the Parliament is now asswaged by the granting of three Subsidies and three Fifteenths Here 's no mention of marrying his only Son with the Tears of his only Daughter and he is still ready with the Lives of his Subjects and his own to assist the most High most Excellent and most Puissant Prince his most dear and most beloved Brother Cousin and antient Ally Lewis The Managers of this Treaty were Hay a Scots-man created Earl of Carlisle and the Lord Kensington for the more Honour of it created Earl of Holland two of the King's Favourites of the second Rate but who bare no proportion to the Sagacity Wisdom and Integrity of the Earl of Bristol Bristol was all Heare of Oak and would not bend to Buckingham's Pride and Ambition but they were Willows that were liable to every Nod and Wind of Buckingham's Breath But how comes Buckingham who must have an Oar in every Boat to be absent from this Treaty The Reason was tho he were not wise yet he was jealous lest King James in his Absence should hear Bristol against him as the King had promised as well as he had heard Buckingham against him which was so dangerous a Rock as our Land-Admiral would not venture to run against Notwithstanding all this Haste for consummating this desired Marriage the Thread of the King's Life was spun out before for upon the 27th of March Ann. 1625. he died at Theobalds in the 58th Year of his Age having reigned twenty two Years compleat Having had an Ague the Duke of Buckingham did upon Monday the 21st before when in the Judgment of the Physicians the Ague was in its Declination apply Plaisters to the Wrists and Belly of the King and also did deliver several quantities of Drink to the King tho some of the King's Physicians did disallow thereof and refused to meddle further with the King until the said Plaisters were removed and that the King found himself worse hereupon and that Droughts Raving Fainting and an intermitting Pulse followed hereupon and that the Drink was twice given by the Duke 's own hands and a third time refused and the Physicians to comfort him telling him that this second Impairment was from Cold taken or some other Cause No no said the King it is that which I had from Buckingham I confess this was but a Charge upon the Duke upon the Impeachment of the Commons as you may read in Rushworth fol. 355 356. yet it was next to positive Proof for King Charles rather than this Charge should come to an Issue dissolved the Parliament which was a Failure of Justice tho the Commons had voted him four Subsidies and four Fifteenths before it was passed into an Act. The Character of King James He was the first of that Name King of England and the first King of the whole Isle of Britain and the first King since Henry the first that was born out of the Allegiance to the King of England and was the first at least since Rich. 2. that affected and endeavoured to introduce an Arbitrary Power in England foreign to the Laws and Constitutions of it and in all his Reign was more governed by Flatterres and Favourites than by the Advice of his Parliament or a wise Council His Flatterers and Favourites seldom spake of him but under the Appellation of Most Sacred rarely I think or never before used to any of the Kings of England and of the Solomon of the Age though never were two Kings more unlike unless it were in their Sons Charles and Rehoboam for Solomon died the richest of all the Kings of the World King James the poorest Solomon was inspired above all other Kings with Wisdom and his Proverbs Divine Sentences for Improvement of Vertue and Morality whereas this King's Learning wherein he and his Flatterers so much boasted was a Scandal to his Crown for all his Writings against Bellarmine and
for the French Service with the first Opportunity to go to such a Port as the French Ambassador should direct and there to expect Directions But see the Dissimulation and Hypocrisy of the Duke and French Ambassador d'Efsiat for all this while they gave out that this Fleet should not be employed against the Rochellers but against Genoua which it seems took part with the King of Spain against the French King's Allies in Italy and that Vice-Admiral Pennington should not take in any more French into any of the Ships of this Fleet than the English could master These were the Instructions which the Duke communicated to the Council and with these Pennington sailed to Diep But when the Fleet arrived at Diep the Duke of Momerancy Admiral of France would have put 200 Men into the Industry and offered the like to every one of the other Ships in the Fleet telling them they were to fight against the City and Inhabitants of Rochel with a Proffer of Chains of Gold and other Rewards to all those Captains Masters and Owners which should go in this Service which they all with one Consent rejected and subscribed their Names to a Petition to Pennington against it whereupon on Pennington with the whole Fleet returned into the Downs and from the Downs Pennington wrote a Letter to the Duke by one Ingram who saw the Duke read it together with the last Petition and by Ingram Pennington became a Suitor to the Duke to be discharged of this Employment This put the Duke and French Agents to their Trumps how to retrieve their Game and tho all these Transactions were concealed from the King and Council yet the Protestants in France had got Knowledg of this Design and the Duke of Rohan and Protestants of France by Monsieur de la Touche solicited the King and Council against this Design and had good Words and Hopes from both But Buckingham told de la Touche the King his Master was obliged and so the Ships must and should go But there was another Obstacle to be removed or this worthy Design was at a full Stop The Duke had imprest and hired the seven Merchants Ships upon the King of England's Account and for his Service and so they could not be passed into the French Hands without a new Agreement with the Owners Hereupon his Grace was pleased to take a Journey to Rochester to settle the Agreement which must be as the French Ambassadors would whether the Owners of the Ships would or not I will be particular herein not only to shew what a Minister of State Buckingham was or what Reliance there was upon his Word or Honour but more especially for that the Ruin not only of the whole Interest of the Reformed of France was a Consequence of this Action wherein the Mercenary Dutch State conspired also with the Duke but it was the Foundation upon which the French Naval Grandeur was built as well to the Terror of Christendom as of England at this very Day My Lord Conway was the Duke's Nanny and tho principal Minister of State by the Duke's Promotion yet made the Office to bend which way soever the Duke nodded This Lord Conway directed a Letter upon the 10th of July 1625. as from the King to Vice-Admiral Pennington whereby he took upon him to express and signify to him that his Master had left the Command of the Ships to the French King and that Pennington should receive into them so many Men as the French King pleased for the time contracted for viz. six Months but not to exceed eighteen and recommended his Letter should be his sufficient Warrant This Letter was delivered by one Parker to Pennington in the Downs and the English Merchants had constituted one James Moyer and Anthony Touchin to treat with the French Ambassadors which were the Duke of Chevereux Monsieur Vollocleer and the Marquiss of Efsiat and at Rochester the Duke sent back a Letter to Moyer and Touchin to come and treat with the French Ambassadors to settle Business about the Delivery up of their Ships and Fraights into the Power of the French King The Propositions which the French Ambassadors made to Moyer and Touchin were 1. That the English Captains and their Companies should consent and promise to serve the French King against all none excepted but the King of Great Britain in Conformity to the Contract formerly passed between D'Efsiat and them 2. That they should consent and agree in consideration of the Assurance given them by the Ambassadors to the Articles of the 25th of March before which you may read in Rushworth fol. 328. whereby the French King should be Master of the said Ships by indifferent Inventory and that they by him should be warranted against all Hazards and Sea-fights and if they miscarried then the Value of them to be paid by the French King who would also confirm this new Proposition within 15 Days after the Ships should be delivered to his Use by good Caution in London 3. That if the French King would take any Men out of the Ships he might but without any Diminution to the Fraight for or in respect thereof To these Moyer in the behalf of the Merchants answered 1. That their Ships should not go to serve against Rochel 2. That they would not send their Ships without good Warrants 3. Nor without sufficient Security to their liking for the Payment of their Fraight and Rendition of their Ships or the Value thereof for the Ambassadors Security was by them taken not to be sufficient and they protested against it and utterly refused the peraffetted Instrument Hereupon Sir John Epstey and Sir Tho. Dove disswaded the Duke from this Enterprize telling him he could not justify nor answer the Delivery of the Ships However Buckingham's Dictatorship would not admit of Justice or Reason but he commanded Moyer and the rest that they should obey the Lord Conway's Letter and return to Diep to serve the French and that so was the King's Pleasure tho the King told the Duke of Rohan's Agent de la Touche otherwise yet privately at the same time the Duke told them that the Security offered by the Ambassadors was sufficient and that tho they went to Diep they might and then should keep their Ships in their own Power till they had made their own Conditions Hereupon the Duke of Chevereux and Vollocleer constituted D'Efsiat their Deputy to treat with the Merchants at Diep for the Delivery of their Ships into the French Power but with him the Duke sent Mr. Edward Nicholas his Secretary with Instructions by word of Mouth to execute the King's Pleasure by my Lord Conway's Letter for putting the Merchants Ships into the French Power upon the Conditions peraffetted at Rochester by the three French Ambassadors But the Captains of the Ships refused to submit to the Conditions tho Mr. Nicholas in the King's Name from Day to Day threatned them and vehemently pressed them to deliver up their Ships upon the
Months dead to be made the King's Chaplain in Ordinary to be thereby protected from Justice But if it be asked how it does appear that Laud was concerned in this Act and Promotion of Mountague I answer there is a threefold Reason to induce the Belief of it First the end for which this Book was wrote for Promotion of Arminian Tenets whereof Laud was so great a Stickler Secondly none else but Laud could have such an Ascendant in things of this kind and to cause to early a Promotion for such a piece of Service but Thirdly which clears the Question when the King's Necessities caused him to call another Parliament about six or seven Months after Laud fearing the Commons falling again upon Mountague as they did Laud sounded the King by Buckingham whether the King would leave Mountague to the Parliament and finding the King determined to do it in great Zeal said I seem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God in his Mercy dissipate it as you may read in Rush f. 203. as if the questioning a seditious and a disobedient Fellow to his Superiour in the Church were a Cloud to threaten the Church of England If Laud was the first that sowed Dissension between the King and Parliament upon the Pretence of the Church of England Buckingham shall be the second upon the Account of the Church of Rome and herein you 'll see the Temper of Buckingham to any which should presume to give him good Counsel The Dissension between the King and Commons began with Mountague at London where the Plague than raged and all England over so that most of the Members shrunk away to flee the Danger of it and those that staid were in danger of their Lives This put the King into a marvellous Strait what to do for his Necessities as Buckingham managed Affairs and his being imbroiled in the Spanish War were such as the Subsidies granted the King his Father the last Year and those granted the King now could not support Hereupon the King calling a Council at Hampton-Court what to do the King proposed upon the 10th of July to adjourn the Parliament to Oxford which was mainly favoured by the Duke my Lord Keeper Williams opposed the Proposition for two Reasons First That the Infection had overspread the whole Land so that no Man that travelled from his own Home knew where to lodg in Safety that the Lords and Gentlemen would be so distasted to be carried abroad in so mortal a time that it 's likely when they came together they would vote out of Discontent and Displeasure that his Majesty was ill counselled to give Offences in the Bud of his Reign tho small ones Secondly the Parliament had given two Subsidies at Westminster tho they removed to Oxford it is yet the same Sessions and if they alledg it is not the Use of the House to give twice in a Sessions tho I wish heartily they would yet how shall we plead them out of Custom if they be stiff to maintain it It is not fit for the Reputation of the King to fall upon a probable Hazard of a Denial The Duke which heard this with Impatience said That publick Necessity must sway more than one Man's Jealousy The Keeper hereupon besought the King to hear him in private and acquainted the King That the Duke had Enemies in the House of Commons who had contrived Complaints and made them ready to be preferred and would spend time at Oxford about them And what Folly were it to continue a Sessions that had no other Aim but to bring the Duke upon the Stage But if your Majesty think that this is like an Hectick quickly known but hardly cured my humble Opinion is That the Malady or Malice call it what you will may sleep awhile after Christmas there is no time lost in whetting the Sithe well I hope to give an Account by that time by undertaking with the chief Sticklers that they shall supersede their Bitterness against your great Servant and that Passage to your weighty Counsels may be made smooth and peaceable But why said the King do you conceal this from Buckingham Good Sir said the Keeper fain would I begin at that End but he will not hear me with Moderation And because it was the Mishap of the Keeper to give the first Notice of this Storm that was gathering the Duke in Defiance bid him and his Confederates do their worst and besought the King that the Parliament might be continued and he would confront the Faction tho he looked upon himself in that Innocency that he presumed they durst not question him Buckingham's Will must be a Law so on the 10th of July the Parliament was adjourned to Oxford to meet the first of August But to sweeten them the Keeper in the Presence of both Houses in the King's Name promised them That the Rigour of the Law against Popish Priests should not be deluded Here see the Levity of the King and the Dominion Buckingham had over him for upon the 12th of July the King caused a Warrant to be sealed to pardon six Roman Priests When the Parliament met at Oxford the Speaker had no sooner taken his Chair but a Western Knight enlarges the Sense of his Sorrow that he had seen a Pardon for six Priests bearing test July 12th whereas but the Day before it when they were to part from Westminster the Lord Keeper had promised in the King's Name before them all that the Rigour against the Priests should not be deluded Hereupon the Members were in such a Heat that they strived who should blame it most What! their Hope 's blasted in one Night But for the Lord Keeper that brought the King's Message and knew it best and for a Bishop to set the Seal to such a Warrant for him to do wrong to Religion it was enormous Hereupon Mr. Bembo a Servant to the Clerk of the Crown confess'd he brought the Writ to the Keeper to be sealed but it was stopt Mr. Devike Servant to Sir Edward Conway brought it from his Master but it could not speed It was my Lord of Buckingham's hard Hap to move the King to command the Warrant to be sealed in his Sight at Hampton-Court the Sunday following The Commons hereupon turned about to clear the Keeper and commend him but what pleased the Parliament at Oxford did not please the Court at Woodstock where this had not pleased the King The Commons in this Heat desired a Conference with the Lords in Christ-Church-Hall in the Afternoon where Sir Edward Coke open'd the Complaint sharply against my Lord Conway and like an Orator did slide away with a short Animadversion upon the Duke the Commons enlarged hereon that the Duke that put the King upon this was the highest in the King's Favour and that all the important Places of Honour and Offices by Sea and Land were in his Disposal which you may read at large in the Life of the
away the Merchants Ships so that they may not easily catch and light upon the West-India Fleet. A Jesuit and nine Priests were taken with this and many other Papers which were delivered to Sir John Cook Secretary of State the Jesuit was condemn'd but reprieved by the King because Sir John Cook said The King delighted not in Blood and afterward the nine Priests were released by special Warrant from the King and the King in his Reasons for dissolving the Parliament makes the House of Commons Enquiry into this Business to be an exorbitant Encroachment and Usurpation such as was never before attempted by that House By this you may see the Religious care this pious Prince had for the Church of England and how much he regarded the Laws of England or minded the Support of the poor Protestants in France or the Re-establishment of his Brother-in-law in the Palatinate Thus stood things when the Parliament met the 17th of March when the King as Men in a deep Lethargy no ways sensible of their Pain or the dangerous State they are in not considering the dangerous State he was in both abroad and at home Abroad in that he had made War upon the King of Spain without any Declaration of War and that against his Father's Advice and of his Council and upon the King of France wherein himself and his Favourite Buckingham were the Aggressors at Home by his unheard of Invasions upon the Fortunes and Liberties of his Subjects never before done by any King of England in the short Interval of these two Parliaments scarce being 9 Months upon the Opening of the Parliament far unlike his Father in the last Parliament of his Reign when his Case was not near so dangerous as this King's tho their Necessities were equal to get Money by Parliaments when they could get it no other Way begins his Speech My Lords and Gentlemen THese Times are for Action wherefore for Example sake I mean not to spend much Time in Words expecting accordingly that your as I hope good Resolutions will be speedy not spending Time unnecessarily or that I may say dangerously for tedious Consultations at this Conjuncture of Time are as hurtful as ill Resolutions I am sure you now expect from me both to know the Cause of your meeting and what to resolve on yet I think there is none here but knows that common Danger is the Cause of this Parliament and that Supply at this time is the chief End of it so that I need but point to you what to do All this but of Supply is Mysterious and General and had need of an Interpreter The King goes on and says I will use but few Perswasions for if to maintain your own Advices and as the Case now stands for the following thereof the true Religion Laws and Liberties of this State never so violated by any King of England before him and the just Defence of our true Friends and Allies be not sufficient then no Eloquence of Men or Angels will prevail What Parliament or any other Council but that of Buckingham advised him to make War either upon the King of Spain or France search all the Records of the Journals of Parliament of 21 Jac. and Rushworth Franklin and Bishop of Litchfield and see if in any one of them there be one Sentence of making War against the King of Spain but only to break off the Treaty with the Spanish Match and for the Palatinate But admit the Parliament had upon the Misinformation of the King and Duke advised the King to have made War upon the King of Spain yet since the Earl of Bristol so shamefully blasted the whole Story not a Year since in open Parliament without any Reply How was this Parliament obliged to have made good what that had done And since the King dissolved the last Parliament rather than the Duke should be brought to Trial upon the Earl's Charge which was a Failure of Justice sure it had been more to the King's Honour not to have mention'd this to the Parliament than that what he had done was by their Advice Did this Parliament or any other ever advise him to put the Fleet under the Command of Vice-Admiral Pennington into the French King's Power to subdue the poor Rochellers who never did him any wrong to the Ruin of the Reformed Interest in France and to be the Foundation of the French Grandeur by Sea and then on the contrary make War upon the French King when he was the Aggressor Did ever this or any other Parliament advise him to take his Subjects Goods by force without and against Law and imprison their Persons by his Absolute Will and Pleasure denying them the Benefit of their Corpus's the Birth-right of the Subject and to continue them Prisoners during his Will without allowing them a Trial by the Laws whether they were guilty of any Crime or not Or to execute Martial Law impose new Oaths and give Free-Quarter to Soldiers in his own Kingdom in time of Peace However the King goes on and says Only let me remember you that my Duty most of all and every one of yours according to his Degree is to seek the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth and certainly there never was a time in which this Duty was more necessarily required than now Was the Discharge of the Pack of Jesuits conspiring the Ruin of Church and State with Impunity for the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth Or was the Commission which the King granted the next Day after the Writs for the Assembling the Parliament to raise Monies by Imposition in the nature of Excise to be levied throughout the Nation for the Maintenance of the Church and State And at the same time to order my Lord Treasurer to pay 30000 l. to Philip Burlemac a Dutch Merchant in London to be by him returned into the Low-Countries by Bill of Exchange to Sir William Balfour and John Dalbier for the raising of 1000 Horse with Arms both for Horse and Foot for the Maintenance of the Church and Commonwealth of England And also to call a Council for levying Ship-Money now he had by his own Will taken the Customs without any Grant of Parliament for the Maintenance of the Church and State I therefore judging a Parliament to be the antient speediest and best way in this time of Common Danger to give such Supply as to secure our selves and save our Friends from imminent Ruin have called you together Every Man must do according to his Conscience wherefore if you as God forbid should not do your Duties in contributing what the State at this time needs I must in Discharge of my Conscience use those other means which God has put into my hands to save that which the Follies of particular Men may otherwise hazard to lose It 's certain a Parliament is the best way in time of Common Danger to give Supplies and secure the Nation from imminent Ruin the Nation being most
of the Bishop of Lincoln's Life and within less than three Years after he became Arch-bishop got the Bishop of Lincoln fined and imprisoned and his Estate to be sequestred by an Order of the Star-Chamber and at last acknowledged he had never read the Commission by which he acted These things see in the Bishop of Litchfield par 2. fol. 125. tit 119. Tho Laud had never read the Commission by which he acted yet so zealous was he for the Execution of the Sequestration of the Bishop of Lincoln's Estate that he sends this Warrant to the King's Solicitor I think Sir John Banks It is his Majesty's Pleasure that you prepare a Commission to the Prebendaries of the Collegiate Church of Westminster authorizing them to keep their Audits and other Capitular Meetings at their usual times and to treat and compound with the Tenants for Leases and to pass the same accordingly chuse Officers and confirm and execute all other lawful Acts for the good and benefit of the College and said Prebendaries And to take out the Common or Charter-Seal for sealing such Leases and Grants as will be agreed upon by the Sub-Dean and the major part of the Prebendaries and also to pass all the Premisses under the Title of the Dean and Chapter of the Collegiate Church of St. Peter in Westminster during the Suspension of the Bishop of Lincoln from the Deanary of Westminster and for doing whereof this shall be your Warrant Lambeth-House 22d of November 1637. W. Cant. See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 25. a. Whether the King ever granted any such Warrant to W. Cant. non constat for the King never speaks to his Subjects but either personally in Parliament or under the Broad-seal which here does not appear besides all Warrants of Courts are signed by the Seals of the Courts and executed by their proper and sworn Officers neither of which were W. Cant. or the King's Solicitor Yet at this rate was this Nation ridden during the Regency of W. Cant. This Phaeton thus mounted up on high being the first Peer of England was yet higher in the King's Favour than Richlieu was with the French King But as the Temper of these Princes and their Favourites were different so had they different Fates Lewis was steady and true to his Word from whence he acquired the Title of Just Charles fickle and unstable easily put upon things by his Favourites and as suddenly altering them and doing quite contrary from whence it was that Lewis supported the Cardinal in all his Shocks of adverse Fortune and to the Indignation of his Mother whereas Charles in the Adversity of their Fortunes gave up Laud and all his Favourites as a Sacrifice to their Enemies As the Fates of these Favourites were different so were their Parts Richlieu's High Generous and the ablest Statesman of the Age Laud's Pedantick and Narrow After the marrying the Lady Rich to the Earl of Devonshire he spent his time in seeking Preferment at Court and in setting up Factions in the University of Oxford for promoting Arminianism Richlieu was a Constant Assertor of the Privileges of the Gallican Church and a Hater of the Jesuits who bring in Innovations and exalt a Papal Power above them whereas Laud not only brought Innovations into the Church of England but was the Head of the Arminian Party under whose Banners the Popish Party sought to undermine and destroy the Church of England Richlieu laid the Foundation of the French King's Greatness by Sea and Land Laud put King Charles upon such Ways as proved the Ruin of the King Himself and the Church and State of England But before we proceed herein let us stay a little and consider the unhappy State of the Education of the Youth of England in Grammer Schools and Universities The End designed by God and Nature by Instruction of Youth is to honour and worship God and how to subsist and converse after they become Men for without the latter it will be impossible to perform the former I say this latter no way conduces to the End by breeding Youth up in Grammar-Schools and our Universities for no Man lives out of Society and Commerce and every Man stands in need of being supplied by another in things he stands in want of so that the great End by Education of Youth is to instruct Youth how to supply another so as to be able by another to supply himself of such things as he stands in need of but this is utterly neglected in Grammar-Schools and our Universities and yet double more are bred up in Grammar-Schools and our Universities than the Revenues of the Church can maintain and this Breeding fits Youth for no Conversation and Business but only puffs them up with a Conceit of their Learning when they understand not that of all Mankind they are the most unlearned and unfit for any Business The Supernumeraries of these unhappy Men who can get no Maintenance in the Church and by their Breeding are of no use in Church or State yet desire to live but can get no Living but by nourishing Factions against those who are preferred in the Church and State Poor Men they know no better and if this be taken from them they know not how to live From whence it follows that unless these Supernumeraries be restrained in their Education which cannot be but by rooting out of Grammar-Schools and the chopping Logick in our Universities whereby I say no rational Proposition in any Art or Science was ever inferred from Aristotle Descartes or any since these Supernumeraries will as necessarily nourish Factions in England as the Jesuits do here and in the rest of Christendom Many of these Supernumeraries got their Maintenance by being Chaplains to Noble-men and Gentlemen but in both they regarded more the Humour of the People where they were Lecturers and Disposition of their Patrons and Patronesses where they were Chaplains than the Liturgy of this Church The Diocess of London was too contracted to restrain the boundless Ambition of this Bishop for the last Parliament was no sooner dissolved but Laud presented the King with Considerations for the better setling Church-Government in both Provinces of York as well as Canterbury The 4th of these was That a special Charge be given against frequent and unworthy Ordinations but Latet Anguis in Herba None shall be worthy but Arminians The 5th was That special Care be had of our Lecturers in every Diocess which by reason of Pay are the Peoples Creatures and blow the Bellows of their Sedition But if the Bishop will not let them do this they know no other way to live and willingly would not starve For abating the Peoples Power the 2d Consideration is That every Bishop in his Diocess ordain that every Lecturer do read in his Surplice Divine Service before his Lecture which if he does 't is twenty to one those that pay the Lecturer will pay no more What then becomes of the Lecturer for there 's no other
Provision made for him The 6th is That if a Corporation maintain a Lecturer that he be not permitted to preach till he take care of Souls within the Corporation How this can be I don't understand unless the Lectuâ—er have a concurring or distinct Power from the Incumbent The 7th is That none but Noble-men and Men qualified by law may keep Chaplains Yet in your Religious Care you take no care how otherways they may subsist The 8th is That Emanuel and Sydney Colleges in Cambridg which are the Nurseries of Puritanism may be from time to time furnished with Grave and Orthodox Men for their Governors viz. Such as shall do the Arminian Work without any regard to the Statutes of the College All these Considerations must be taken for Acts of the Church of England and a Neglect or Breach of them sufficient for an Information in the High Commission where he is assured he shall shortly judg and therefore his Majesty in the 9th Consideration 〈◊〉 to countenance the High Commission by the Presence of some of the Privy-Council at least so often as any Cause of Moment is to be settled The 10th Consideration is That Course may be taken that the Judges may not send so many Prohibitions Which if they do from any of his Censures in the High Commission he will proceed against them by Excommunication Thus you see this Icarus is not only content to take a Flight out of his Diocess but over the whole Provinces of York and Canterbury in Ecclesiastical Affairs and extends it as he pleases over the Civil These were the Seeds which this Bishop planted while he was Bishop of London you may be sure he 'll reap a good Crop now he 's become Metropolitan of all England During the time of his being Bishop of London he was look'd upon as the Rising Sun which the flattering Students in both Universities worshipped but after he became Arch-Bishop the Learning of both Universities were Brawls about Arminian Tenents in the Schools and Sermons The Arminians treating their Opponents with all taunting and reproaching Terms and if their Opponents retorted they were had up into the High Commission where the Arch-Bishop presided assisted by his Ecclesiastical Judges and Ministers of the Prerogative Court and some of his Majesty's Privy-Council but I do not read of one cited for maintaining Arminian Tenents It 's scarce credible how the Business of this Court the Star-Chamber and Council-Table swelled and what cruel and unheard of Censures were made especially in the Star-Chamber against all sorts of People who did offend either against the King's Prerogative Royal or the Arch-bishop's Injunctions which must be obeyed as Articles of the Church of England The Thunder of them was not restrained within the Bounds of England but terrified almost all Scotland who were bitter Enemies to Arminianism At this time of day the Court-Bishops disclaimed all Jurisdiction from the King in Bastwick's Censure who was to pay 1000 l. Fine to be excommunicated debarr'd of his Practice of Physick his Books to be burnt and his Person imprisoned till he made a Reclamation and all this for maintaining the King's Prerogative against the Papacy See Whitlock's Memoirs The Bounds of England were too narrow to restrain this Man's Ambition and therefore before he had been two Months Arch-bishop viz. the 8th of October 1633. he advised the King 〈◊〉 make a Reformation in the Church of Scotland not by Confeâ—â— in Parliament but by his Prerogative Royal the Beginning 〈◊〉 this Reformation must begin at the King's Chappel Royal wheâ— the English Service the Surplice and the receiving the Sacramentâ— is enjoined and that the Lords of the Privy Council the Lord of the Sessions and the Advocate Clerks Writers to the Privâ— Signet and Members of the College of Justice be commandeâ— to receive the Sacrament once every Year in the said Chappeâ— and the Dean to report to the King who does or who does 〈◊〉 obey and the Arch-bishop had a Warrant from the King to 〈◊〉 Correspondence with the Bishop of Dunblane and to communicate to him his Majesty's farther Pleasure herein And so we leave the Affairs of the Church here for a while and see how Affairs stood in the State since the Dissolution of the last Parliament In the last Parliament among many famous Members Sir Thomas Wentworth and Mr. Noy excelled Sir Thomas for his admired Parts and natural and easy Elocution Noy as a most profound Lawyer both zealous Patriots for the Rights and Liberties of the Subject And upon the 12th of February 1628. when the Debates for granting Tunnage and Poundage to the King was in the House of Commons Mr. Noy argued We cannot safely give unless we be in Possession and the Proceedings in the Exchequer be nullified as also the Information in the Star-Chamber and the Annexion to the Petition of Right for it will not be a Gift but a Confirmation neither will I give without the Removal of these Interruptions and a Declaration in the Bill that the King has no Right but by our free Gift if it will not be accepted as it is fit for us to give we cannot help it if it be the King 's already we do not give it So that these two must be reckoned among those Vipers which the King declared at the Dissolution of the Parliament and must look for their Reward of Punishment The Reward of Punishment which these two Vipers had was that Sir Thomas Wentworth was made Lord President of the North and Mr. Noy Attorney General Sir Thomas strained the Jurisdiction so high that it proved the Ruin of the Court and the Rise of the Fame of Mr. Edward Hâ—de after Chancellour of England for the Speech he made in 1641 against the Abuses committed in it whilst Sir Thomas was President and Noy now he is become Attorney is become the most intimate Confident of the Arch-bishop and as forward in Informations in the Star-Chamber High Commission and Council-Table as Sir Robert Heath was who is made Chief Justice in the Common Pleas to make room for Noy to be Attorney General But while the King was erecting this new Principality over his Subjects which none of his Ancestors or Predecessors before his Father and himself ever pretended to in England it 's fit to look a little abroad and see how the Case stood there The Dutch the next Year after that his Father had given up the Cautionary Towns which Queen Elizabeth kept and delivered up to him by her Death well knowing the Poverty of King James and the ill Terms between the King and his Subjects took the Boldness to fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland with their Busses and other Vessels guarded by Men of War in Defiance of him and now Grotius no doubt set on work by some of his Country-men perceiving how intent King Charles was in erecting his new Dominion over his Subjects that he became careless of all his Foreign Affairs took the Impudence to
Fleet and an Army in readiness to compel the Covenanters to Obedience but not to consent to the calling of a Parliament or General Assembly till the Covenant be given up that now his Crown and Reputation for ever lies at stake that he had rather suffer the first which time would help than the last which is irreparable that the Explanation of the damnable Covenant makes him to have no more Power than a Duke of Venice which he will rather die than submit to Yet without dying he did submit to the Revocation of the Service-Book Canons High-Commission and the Articles of Perth forsakes the Bishops and by a Proclamation Sept. 22 1638 commands the Covenant to be subscribed by the Privy-Council and all his Scotish Subjects but this would not content the Covenanters because it came not from a General Assembly and because the Band of mutual Defence was not in the Proclamation Having gone thus far there was no going back and the King's Army and Navy was not yet ready the King therefore indicts a General Assembly to be held the 21st of November 1638 at Glasgow and a Parliament to meet at Edinburgh the 15th of May following The General Assembly met accordingly but the Marquess and the Assembly were at Variance about the Elections and Votes of the Lay-Elders and the Bishops sitting in the Assembly and the Votes of the King's Assessors in it But what the Marquess would have the Covenanters would not whereupon the Marquess on the 28th dissolves the Assembly upon Penalty of High-Treason The Covenanters and General Assembly protest against this Dissolution and sit notwithstanding yet profess all Duty and Obedience to the King in its due Line and Course which in plain English is They 'll do what they will and if the King will do what they would have him they will be obedient Subjects And in this Session they depose and excommunicate all the Bishops of Scotland To this State within less than two Years has his Grace of Canterbury brought the Church of Scotland and a terrible Cloud hangs over that of England whereby his Grace will have the Glory of becoming a Martyr in it Weston Earl of Portland died in the Year 1634 and Dr. Juxton Bishop of London was made Lord-Treasurer by whose prudent Management it 's said that in less than five Years he had lodged 900000 l. in the Exchequer and now the King had raised an Army of about 20000 Horse and Foot made the Earl of Arundel General Lord Viscount Wentworth Lieutenant-General and Earl of Holland General of the Horse and had fitted up a Navy with 5000 Land-Men commanded by Marquess Hamilton to compel the Scots to their Obedience and marches at the Head of this Army himself It was time for the Scots were up in Arms too had seized the Regalia at Dalkeith and brought them to Edinburgh taken Dumbarton and routed the Scots who took the King's part at Aberdeen which they likewise took This King 's good Nature never more appeared than in his Necessities so that when he came to York by Proclamation he recall'd 31 Monopolies and Patents formerly granted by him he not before understanding how grievous they were to his Subjects The Scots that the English might have no Jealousy of an Invasion had resolved not to come within ten Miles of the Borders with their Army When the King came to Berwick the Earl of Holland made two vain and inconsiderate Incursions into Scotland and upon the Approach of the Scots retreated and these were the only Actions of this War by the English Upon the Retreat of the Earl the English Army was contemned by the Scots who advanced to the Borders and pitched their Tents in sight of the English before any notice was given of their Motion this raised a Murmur all over the English Army where Provisions were not only scant but their Bread and Biscake mouldy nor was there any prospect of a further Supply However the Scots propose a Treaty of Accommodation which the King's Necessities compell'd him to submit to which being made the Terms you may read in Rushworth's and Franklin's Collections the King disbands his Army and withdraws his Navy this was all the Scots cared for for the Treaty being upon equivocal Terms the Scots were resolved to make their own Interpretation and stand by it and to that purpose hold Correspondence with the French King and stile him Au Roy and also with the discontented in England and buy Arms and Ammunition at Bremen and Hamburg To forment these Jealousies and propagate the Popish Interest Cardinal Richlieu employs one Chamboy or Chamberlain in Scotland and Con or Cunaeus his own Chaplain in England whose chief Confidents were the Earl of Arundel General of the King's Army and his Countess Sir Francis Windebank Principal Secretary of State Sir Toby Mathews Endymion Porter English and one Read and Maxwel Scots See this at large in Rushworth's Collections fol. 1318 1319 1320 1321 to 1326. This Year my Lord-Keeper Coventry died and Sir John Finch Chief-Justice of the Common-Pleas was made Lord-keeper of the Great Seal no doubt for promoting the Legality of Ship-money and enlarging the Bounds of the Forests The Cloud rising so thick in the North presaged a Storm which to dissipate the King summons a Parliament to meet the 23d of April 1640. the Arch-bishop and the Earl of Strafford giving out according to the Advice which Sir Robert Cotton gave the Duke of Buckingham that they were the first Movers of it At the opening of this Parliament the King lays before them his Necessities for Money in the first place as he had done in all the three Parliaments before and that Delay was all one with a Denial and communicates to them the Covenanters Letter to the French King imploring his Assistance But the House of Commons having found the Effects of giving Money before Grievances were redrest both in the 18th of his Father's Reign and in the first of his began at Grievances now multiplied by the Additions of Ship-Money breaking the Bounds of the Forests and Monopolies multiplied without end the Arbitrary Power of the Star-Chamber and High-Commission against those who opposed the Proceedings of the Innovations brought into the Church and the Imprisonment and unheard-of Censures of their Members for their Proceedings in the House last Parliament so that instead of enjoying any Benefit by the Petition of Right the Church and State was in a manifold worse State than before they had now found by Experience that no Laws or Judgments in Parliament could bind the King's Prerogative but that he would act quite contrary as in the Cases of Mountague and Manwaring c. and how could the Parliament rely upon his Royal Word which he would upon all occasions give when they found no Assurance in any Law nor so many Declarations of his observing them However the Commons upon the 2d of May resolved to take care of supplying the King upon the 4th when Sir Henry Vane
Never was Nation shuffled into such unhappy Circumstances for to join the King was to return to his Prerogative Royal and Absolute Will and Pleasure and I have oft heard several of those who followed the King in the War say They as much dreaded the King's overcoming the Parliament-Party as they feared to be overcome by them And the Houses had broken the Fundamental Constitution of the Nation so as no Man could tell where they would stay Now are things brought to that pass Richlieu design'd them viz. England and Ireland in Civil Wars and Scotland Pensioners to France so as he might now securely carry on his Designs of advancing the Grandeur of France without any Fear of Disturbance from hence And now you may see the miserable Condition the King's Minions and Favourites had brought upon the King and all his Kingdoms Yet it is observable how great the Loyalty of the Nobility and Gentry was to the King that from so low Beginnings in all Appearance they would have subdued the Parliament-party if the Scots next Year had not come to their Assistance whereas in the Reigns of Edward the 2d and Richard the 2d though the Grievances of the Nation were more in one Year of this King's Reign than in both their Reigns yet both were expelled and lost their Lives their Subjects not drawing a Sword in their Defence An Apology BEfore we enter upon the War between the King and Parliament it will not be amiss to enquire into the Causes of it and who first began it and whether the King or Parliament or both designed it And I am the rather induced hereto because I am told that I have unjustly charged the Parliament with beginning the War and that the contrary appears by a Treatise written by Tho. May Esq of the Causes and Beginning of the Civil Wars in England So that the Question between us is not who first designed the War but who began it But because Designations and Intentions precede Action I will begin so far as appears to me Whether the King or Parliament first designed this War or whether it were not intended by both And give me leave to shew a little of Mr. May's Partiality in the Business I say Mr. May is partial where page 13 he says after the Pacification made with the Scots 1639 that when the King came to London his Heart was again estranged from the Scots and Thoughts of Peace he commanded by Proclamation that Paper which the Scots avowed to contain the true Conditions of the Pacification to be disavowed and burnt by the Hands of the common Hangman So that he makes the Scots Parties and Judges in their own Case without mentioning the Articles of the Pacification or what the Scots avowed to contain the true Conditions of it We will therefore set forth the Articles of the Pacification and let another Judg whether the Scots observed them or had any Thoughts of Peace The Articles were 1. The Forces of Scotland to be disbanded within 24 Hours after the Agreement 2. The King's Castles Ammunition c. to be delivered up 3. His Ships to depart after the Delivery of the Castles 4. All Persons Ships and Goods detained by the King to be restored 5. No Meetings Treaties or Consultations to be by the Scots but such as shall be warranted by Act of Parliament 6. All Fortifications to desist and be remitted to the King's Pleasure 7. To restore to every Man their Liberties Lands Houses Goods and Means The Articles were signed by the Scots Commissioners and a present Performance of them on their Parts promised and expected The King justly performed the Articles on his part but the Scots kept part of their Forces in being and all their Officers in pay and the Covenanters kept up their Fortification at Leith and their Meetings and Councils and inforce Subscriptions to the late Assembly at Glasgow contrary to the King's Declaration they brand those who had taken Arms for the King as Incendiaries and Traitors and null all the Acts of the College of Justice as you may read in Mr. Whitlock's Memoirs f. 29. So that tho the King performed all the Articles of Pacification on his Part the Scots performed not one on their Part. Nor did the Scots stay here but published a Paper very seditious against the Treaty which is that which Mr. May speaks of I do not find the Copy of it but even Mr. Whitlock no great Friend to the King's Cause calls it so Nor did the Scots stay here but levied Taxes at ten Marks per Cent. and made Provision for Arms as you may read in Sir Baker's History f. 408. and more at large in the second part of Rushworth's Collections and all this before the King commanded the Scots Paper to be burnt by the Hand of the Common Hangman And therefore the King justly commanded the Scots Paper to be burnt by the Hand of the common Hangman And Mr. May says The honest People of both Nations began to fear another War But why does Mr. May say the honest People began to fear another War Was it honest in the Scots to break all the Articles of the Pacification to keep their Forces in a Body and their Officers in Pay contrary to the Pacification to raise Taxes and make Provision of Arms and after all these honest Men to begin to fear another War Mr. May goes on and says The King in December told the Council he intended to call a Parliament in England in April following But rational Men did not like it that it was deferred so long and that the Preparations for a War in Scotland went on in the mean time The last part is gratis dictum by Mr. May nor does he mention any Preparation for a War in any one particular nor do I find this said by any other But admit the King had made Preparation for a War with Scotland yet by all Laws of God and Man the King might justly have done it after the Scots had broken all the Articles of Pacification kept an Army on foot against it levied Taxes by their own Authority and made Provision of Arms without the King's Authority which besides the Perfidiousness of the Scots is Treason in the highest degree And I would be glad to be informed by what other means the King could vindicate his Honour or relieve his oppressed Subjects otherwise than by a War Mr. May goes on and says They these rational Men were likewise troubled that the Earl of Strafford Deputy of Ireland a Man of deep Policy but suspected Honesty one whom the King then used as a bosom Counsellor was first to go into Ireland and call a Parliament in that Kingdom And what then Why might not the King call a Parliament in Ireland as well as in England or Scotland And if these rational Men did not like it as he says that a Parliament should be deferred so long in England why should these rational Men be so troubled that the King
Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland and Destruction upon the King when is was not in the Power of those which first raised the War against him to save his Life which they would have done I am told that the last Part of this Paragraph is an unjust Charge upon the Parliament in that they acted defensively in this War and that the King first raised Arms and this by the Authority of Mr. May. If I be mistaken I have the Authority of him who could best know I mean the King at his Death who declared That he never did begin the War with the two Houses of Parliament as all the World knows that they began with him it was the Militia they began upon they confest that to be his but they thought fit to have it from him and to be short if any body will look into the Dates of those Commissions theirs and his and likewise to the Declarations they will see clearly that they began these unhappy Troubles not he See Whit. Mem. f. 369. a. and all the Writers of those times If this be not Authority sufficient to shew the Parliament began the War the first Scuffle between the King and Parliament was about the Business of Hull where the Parliament had committed the Charge of the Town and Magazine to Sir John Hotham one of the Members of the Commons who was sent down thither to remove the Magazine to London but the Country of York petitioned it might still remain at Hull for securing the Northern Parts especially the King residing there Hereupon the King taking a Guard of his Servants and some Neighbouring Gentry upon the 23d of April went to Hull but contrary to Expectation found the Gates shut and the Bridges drawn up by Sir John and his Entrance denied though but with 20 Horse which so moved the King that he proclaimed Hotham a Traitor and sends to the Parliament for Justice against him To this the Parliament return no Answer but justify Sir John Hotham and order that the Sheriffs and Justices of the Peace do suppress all Forces which shall be raised or gathered together against Hull or to disturb the Peace nor did they stay here but put the Power of the Militia in Persons nominated by them excluding the King in ordering any thing together with them and authorized Hotham by his Warrants to raise the trained Bands in Yorkshire to march with their Arms into Hull where he disarmed them and turned them home again See Whit. Mem. f. 55 56. So I submit this to Judgment whether this was not raising Arms against the King being done by Subjects and contrary to the King's Command and if the King did encrease his Guards yet this was subsequent to the excluding the King from having Power in the Militia and Hotham's Raising Arms and Disarming the Trained Bands of Yorkshire Mr. May says p. 55. the Parliament being then intent upon settling the Militia by Land took care also to seize the Navy into their Hands and ordered the Earl of Warwick to be Admiral to put this in Execution but the King had chosen Sir John Pennington to that place instead of the Earl of Northumberland and sent a Command to the Earl of Warwick to resign the Place to him Pennington But the Earl chose rather to obey the Ordinance of Parliament and with great Courage and Policy got the Fleet into his Hands tho many of the Captains stood out against him but the Earl deprived them of their Commands and possest himself of the Ships taking shortly after another Ship called the Lyon of great Import coming out of Holland and laden with Gun-power which proved a great Addition to his Strength So here was a double Beginning of the War by the Parliament both in seizing the Fleet and taking the Lyon and this before the King committed any Act of Hostility And for the carrying on this War which Mr. May calls the Cause the Parliament upon the 10th of June made an Order for bringing in Money and Plate to raise Arms for the Cause and the Publick Faith for Repayment to them which brought it in So here the Parliament raised Money as well as Forces for carrying on the War before the King levied any And so I leave it to Judgment who first began the War Objection The Parliament raised Arms for their own Defence and Security of the Nation Answer This is said but of no kin to Truth or Reason for Men defend what they are possest of and the King was possest of the Militia and Fleet when the Parliament ravish'd both from him nor did the King use either against the Parliament when they invaded them Besides the King at least as he declared endeavoured to defend the established Religion and Laws of the Land whereas the Parliament contended to abolish the Established Religion and to exalt themselves above the Laws of the Land Objection 2. That the King had so often violated the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation and governed so Arbitrarily that the Parliament could have no Security for the future to prevent his so doing again so long as the King was possest of the Militia Answer The Case was not the same then when the King resolved to have no more Parliaments as now when the King had made this Parliament perpetual and had passed the Triennial Bill for Parliaments to meet whether he would or no And tho Favourites and Flatterers instill'd those things into the King when they were without any Fear or Apprehension of being questioned by a Parliament yet now the Parliament had so severely prosecuted and punished such Men and being perpetual or at least to meet Three Years after every Dissolution none would presume to advise the King in things derogatory to his Honour and the Interest of the Nation And now we proceed to the ensuing War The Parliament before the King set up his Standard at Nottingham Aug. 22 Voted That an Army should be raised for the Defence of the King and Parliament that the Earl of Essex should be Captain General of the Army and the Earl of Bedford General of the Horse The War began first between the Marquess of Hartford for the King in the West and the Earl of Bedford for the Parliament the Earl being worsted by the Marquess at Sherborn-Castle Goring got into Portsmouth and held it for the King but could not hold it long for the Country joining with Sir John Meyrick forced him to surrender who thereupon went into Holland and my Lord Say St. Johns and Weemen with Colonel Whitlock enter Oxford and keep it for the Parliament But the Face of Affairs soon changed for the King having made the Earl of Lindsey his General and the Parliament the Earl of Essex upon the 23d of October the Armies met and fought at Edghil with uncertain Victory which both sides claimed the Earl of Lindsey was mortally wounded and taken Prisoner the Right Wing of the King's Horse commanded by Prince Rupert brake the Left
Successes Sir Marmaduke Langdale about the Beginning of March routed a great Body of the Parliamentarians in Yorkshire and defeated the Army commanded by my Lord Fairfax which besieg'd Pomfret-Castle and from thence marched into Leicestershire and defeated a great Body of the Parliament's Forces commanded by Colonel Rossiter Anno Reg. 21. Dom. 1645. We begin this Year with the Self-denying Ordinance tho Mr. Whitlock and Sir Richard Baker differ a little in point of time Sir Richard Baker says it was this Year Mr. Whitlock 1644. But the Lords refused to concur with the Commons herein so as this Ordinance began with a Rupture between the two Houses so you 'll see it shall be the Ruin of the Parliament's as well as the King's Designs Mr. Whitlock made a fine and learned Speech against this Ordinance which you may read at large fol. 114 115. of his Memoirs The pretended Reason for this Ordinance was the Thinness of the House which by Employment in the War would render them much thinner To which Mr. Whitlock answered It might be supplied by filling up the Commons by new Elections He objected against the Ordinance the Examples of the Grecians and Romans who had the greatest Offices both of War and Peace conferred upon their Senators because they having greater Interests than others were more capable to do them the greatest Services and that by passing this Ordinance they would lay aside the General Essex the Earls of Warwick Denbigh and Manchester the Lords Willoughby and Roberts and of their own Members the Lords Grey of Growby and Fairfax Sir William Waller Cromwel Mr. Hollis Sir Philip Stapleton Sir William Brereton and Sir John Meyrick Tho the Commons passed the Self-denying Ordinance yet they dispensed with it in reference to Cromwel Skippon and Ireton and Sir William Waller Hereupon the Earls of Essex Denbigh and Manchester lay down their Commissions Here it 's observable That the Earl of Essex as he was the first which headed an Army against the King and whose Authority was so great that 't was believed if he had not done it the Parliament could not have rais'd an Army is now the first discarded by the Commons without giving any Reason In this new Establishment of the English Army Sir Thomas Fairfax was made General Cromwel Lieutenant-General and Skippon Major-General The Royalists conceived Mountains of Advantages to follow and that not improbably from the Divisions in the Parliament's Army which succeeded quite contrary For upon the 3d of April Fairfax having gathered his Army together at Windsor sent Cromwel with a Brigade of Horse and Dragoons to intercept a Convoy of Horse which Prince Rupert had sent from Worcester to fetch off the King from Oxford with a Train of Artillery to take the Field which Cromwel met at Islip and routed them took divers Prisoners and 200 Horse and from thence Cromwel march'd and took Bletchingdon-House commanded by Colonel Windebank Sir Francis's own Son by Surrender upon the first Summons for which Windebank was sentenced by a Court-Martial and shot to Death But Cromwel had not so good Success at Faringdon which he assaulted and was beaten off with the loss of 200 of his Men. The King understanding that Fairfax had a Design to besiege Oxford sent to Prince Rupert and General Goring to fetch him off which they did about the beginning of May and the King marched towards the Relief of Chester then besieged by the Parliament's Forces and Fairfax lays close Siege to Oxford The King relieved Chester and in his Return takes Leicester by Storm This put Fairfax to his Trumps so that if he continued the Siege of Oxford he would leave all the mid-land parts of England to the Mercy of the King So he raises his Siege and marches to fight the King's Army My Lord Astley was Lieutenant-General of the King's Foot whose Nephew was Sir Isaac Astley my Lord's eldest Brother's eldest Son who married a Cousin-German of mine and after the War was over my Lord Astley being at his Nephew 's in Discourse of the Wars my Lord told him That upon the Approach of the Parliament's Army the King called a Council of War where by the Advice of my Lord Astley it was resolved to march Northwards and destroy the Country Provisions and leave the Parliament's Army at their Election whether they would follow the King or besiege Leicester But next Morning quite contrary to the Order of Council Orders were given to prepare to fight the Parliament's Army when there was little time to draw up the Army so inconstant and irresolute was the King in this as of almost all his other Actions and so forward was the King herein that he marched to meet Fairfax's Army near Naseby in Northamptonshire This was upon Saturday June the 14th And if the Resolution to fight was inconsiderate and rash so was the Fight for Prince Rupert who commanded the right Wing of the King's Horse charged the left Wing of the Parliament's commanded by Ireton and routed them and wounded Ireton in the Thigh and as before at Edg-hill and Marston-Moor he pursued the Enemy so far that he left the rest of the Army exposed to the Assaults of the Enemy so here he followed the Chase almost to Naseby leaving the left Wing of the King's Army commanded by Sir Marmaduke Langdale open to be charged by Cromwel That which compleated the Parliament's Victory and the King 's utter Overthrow in this Fight was the not observing the Orders the Day before of the King's Retreat for Yorkshire being opprest by the Parliament's Forces Sir Marmaduke had Expectation of relieving the King's Party there which being cross'd by the Resolution of this Day 's Fight his Brigade as well as himself grew discontented so as he no ways answered the Gallant Actions which before he had atchieved And Cromwel having forced Sir Marmaduke to retreat joining with Fairfax charged the King's Foot who had beaten the Parliament's and got Possession of their Ordnance and thought themselves certain of the Victory but being in Confusion and out of Order and having no Horse to support them were easily over-born by Fairfax and Cromwel and so Fairfax's Army obtain'd a most absolute Victory over the King 's We hear no more of Prince Rupert in this Fight who 't was believed was the first Mover of it till of his Arrival at Bristol In this Fight the Earl of Lindsey the Lord Astley and Colonel Russel were wounded and 20 Colonels Knights and Officers of Note and 600 common Soldiers were slain on the King's side and 6 Colonels and Lieutenant-Colonels 18 Majors 70 Captains 80 Lieutenants 200 Ensigns and other Officers and 4500 common Soldiers were taken Prisoners 12 Pieces of Cannon 8000 Arms 40 Barrels of Powder 200 Carriages with all their Bag and Baggage with store of rich Pillage 3000 Horse one of the King's Coaches with his Cabinets of Letters and Papers And the King fled towards Wales If the King were unfortunate in the
Success of this Fight he was not less in the Discovery of his secret Counsels with the Queen which were so contrary to those he declared to the Kingdom for in his Letter to the Queen he declared his Intention to make Peace with the Irish and to have 40000 of them over into England to prosecute the War here And in others he complained he could not prevail with his Mungrel Parliament at Oxford to Vote that the Parliament of Westminster were not a Lawful Parliament So little Thanks had these Noble Lords and Gentlemen for their exposing their Lives and Fortunes in Defence of the King in his Adversity What then might they expect if he should prevail by Conquest That he would not make a Peace with the Rebels the Parliament without her Approbation nor go one jot from the Paper she sent him That in the Treaty at Uxbridg he did not positively own the Parliament it being otherwise to be construed tho they were so simple as not to find it out and that it was recorded in the Notes of the King's Council that he did not acknowledg them a Parliament See Whitlock ' s Memoirs fol. 147. a. The Members having got these Papers not only printed and published them but order'd them to be kept upon Record and also made a publick Declaration of them wherein they shew what the Nobility and Gentry which follow'd the King might trust to The King's Army being overthrown the Parliament had two Armies and the King none but that which was commanded by General Goring which at that time besieg'd Taunton and sore distrest it but it being governed by Blake after the famous Admiral for the Rump and Cromwel by Sea it made indeed a wonderful Resistance And now you 'll see the King's Garisons surrender by heaps For two Days after the Fight at Naseby viz. June 14. Fairfax sat down before Leicester where my Lord Loughborough was Governour and made a large Breach towards Newark whereupon the Governour surrendred it After the Surrender of York the Year before the King made that noble Gentleman Sir Thomas Glenham Governour of Carlisle which he defended till the Garison were forced to eat Horse-flesh And the Town being besieged by the English and Scots Sir Thomas to throw a Bone of Dissension between them deliver'd it up to the Scots about a Week after the Surrender of Leicester From Leicester Fairfax marches to the Relief of Taunton whereupon Goring drew off and retreated to Langport where Fairfax routed Goring kill'd 200 of his Men took 1400 Prisoners and pursued the rest to Bridgwater which Fairfax besieg'd and had it surrender'd upon the 23d of July And about that time Pontfract Castle in Yorkshire surrender'd to M. G. Pointz and upon the 25th of July Sir Hugh Cholmly surrender'd Scarborough Castle to Sir Matthew Boynton and upon the 11th of September Fairfax storm'd Bristol and Prince Rupert surrender'd the Castle upon Terms Tho the City of Hereford bravely defended it self against General Lesley and his Scots from the 13th of July to the 1st of September and then forced Lesley to raise the Siege upon pretence of relieving his own Country then over-run by the Marquess of Montross yet it was soon after surprised by Colonel Birch and Colonel Morgan Nor were the King's Forces in the Field more fortunate than those in Garison for the King having got together a Body of about 5000 Men most Welch marched towards the Relief of Chester then besieged by Sir William Brereton and Colonel Jones but in his March he was fought by General Pointz at Routon-Moor within two Miles of Chester where the King was worsted and the Lord Bernard Stewart Brother to the Duke of Richmond kill'd The King's Affairs being thus desperate in England all the Hopes now were of Scotland where Montross had conquer'd it from one End to the other and had no visible Army to oppose him and the King to make Scotland secure commanded my Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale to join Montross with their Horse in pursuance whereof they marched to Sherborn in Yorkshire where they surprised 700 of the Parliament's Foot with their Arms and Baggage but staying for Carriages Col. Copley Lilbourn and Alured fell upon them and routed them killing and taking 100 Officers 300 Soldiers and 600 Horse with their Furniture and my Lord Digby's Coach And my Lord Digby marching on with the rest of his Forces was set upon at Carlisle Sands and utterly defeated from whence my Lord and Langdale escaped to the Isle of Man and after into Ireland From Routon-Moor the King got to Newark where Maâ—or-General Gerrard charged the Lord Digby lately defeated at Sherborn with Treason Prince Rupert and Maurice the Lord Hawley and Sir Richard Willis the Governour sided with Gerrard and the Lord Bellasis and many others with Digby and so did the King who displaced Willis and made the Lord Bellasis Governour This caused great Dissension not only in the Garison but in the Officers of the Army which the King brought with him so that the Princes Rupert and Maurice General Gerrard my Lord Hawley and Willis forsook the King and sent to the Parliament for Passes to go beyond Sea In this forlorn state the King left Newark and with 300 Horse got safe to Oxford where the Princes Rupert and Maurice not knowing whither else to go came and were seemingly reconciled to him but upon the Return of the King's Horse Pointz meets and routs them Here the King again sent to the Parliament for a Treaty of Peace which was rejected upon this Occasion Letters were taken in my Lord Digby's Coach after his Rout at Sherborn and also in the Pockets of the Arch-bishop of Tuam who was slain in an Overthrow of the Irish at Sligo in Ireland wherein the King offered the Irish a Toleration of their Religion themselves to choose a Governour of their own and to be entrusted with several Castles and Forts for their Caution upon Condition that they send 10000 Men into England to assist him against his Enemies And with these they found the Copy of the King's Commission to the Earl of Glamorgan impowering him to treat with the Rebels viz. CHARLES by the Grace of God c. To our Trusty and Well-beloved Cousin Edward Earl of Glamorgan We reposing great and especial Trust and Confidence in your approved Wisdom and Fidelity do by these Presents as firmly as under our Great Seal to all Intents and Purposes authorize and give you Power to treat and conclude with the Confederate Roman Catholicks in our Kingdom of Ireland If upon necessity any thing be condescended to wherein our Lieutenant cannot so well be seen as not fit for us for the present publickly to own therefore We charge you to proceed according to this our Warrant with all possible Secrecy and whatever you shall engage your self upon such valuable Considerations as you in your Judgment shall deem fit we promise in the Word of a King and Christian to
ratifie and perform the same of that which shall be granted by you and under our Hand and Seal the Confederate Catholicks having by their Supplies testified their Zeal to Our Service And this shall be in each Particular to you a sufficient Warrant Given at Our Courtat Oxford the Twentieth Day of May 20 Car. Glamorgan had brought his Business to some Issue when State-Reasons enforced Ormond and Digby and the Council to imprison him but this gave Distaste to the Irish who thereupon suspected double Dealings and so neither sent over the promised 10000 Men nor any Aid to Westchester tho Glamorgan was quickly released upon the Bail of six or eight Irish Peers The Parliament hereupon was so incensed that they refused either to treat with the King or to admit him to come to London see Baker f. 473. or this Business to end here but rendred all the King 's subsequent Treaties with the Parliament suspected and the end of attaining the King's Propositions more difficult And here you may see how this King would prostitute his Honour and Christianity contrary to what he so often professed not only to the Parliament but also to the Duke of Ormond his own Party Now things every where go to wreck on the King's side Dartmouth was surrendred to Fairfax by Sir Hugh Pollard the Governor Sir William Vaughan with such Forces as he could get together marching to relieve Chester was utterly routed by the Parliament's Forces and Chester surrendred to Sir Will. Brereton Belvoir Castle in Leicestershire the Seat of the Earls of Rutland was surrendred to General Pointz by Sir Gervais Lucas the Governour my Lord Hopton is beaten by Fairfax in Devonshire whereupon Hopton accepted of Terms from Fairfax and disbanded his Army and went into France After which all the Garisons in Cornwal surrendred to Fairfax except Pendennis Castle and St. Michael's Mount Latham-House which the Countess of Derby bravely defended two Years against the Parliament was surrendred in December and Basing-House was taken by Storm And that which compleated the Ruin of all the King's Affairs in England was the Surprize and Defeat of my Lord Astley at Donnington near Stow on the Wold where he was taken Prisoner the 21st of March and when he was a Prisoner he told some of the Parliament Officers You have done your Work and may go play unless you fall out among you selves Anno Reg. 22. An. Dom. 1646. In this desperate State of the King's Affairs in England the King's Expectations in Scotland were much fallen too For after the Defeat of my Lord Digby and Sir Marmaduke Langdale the Scots had little to do in the North so as General Lesley had leisure to march to Newark with his Foot to join M. G. Pointz who had block'd it up and David Lesley with the Horse to march into Scotland where Montross his Men after he had beaten Gen. Bailey at Philipshaugh being full of Plunder and being a Voluntier Army and not under regular Discipline disbanded in great Numbers and returned home when David Lesley set upon the Remainder and routed them and gave Quarter to the rest whom yet he murdered in cold Blood Here you may see the different Tempers of the English and Scots Nation for you find no such Acts done in England in the Heats of all the War In all the War in Scotland the Marquess of Huntley obstinately refused to join with Montross and after the Defeat of Montross's Foot Montross went in Person to entreat Huntley to join in their common Interest against the Kirk which Huntley not only refused but would not deign to see Montross yet this did Huntley no good for after Montross his Army was disbanded the Kirk-Party cut off his Head so as Montross was forced to retreat into the Highlands and act defensively Exeter upon the 13th of April surrenders to Fairfax which was followed by Barnstable Town and Fort St. Michael's Mount Dunstan Castle Woodstock and other Places of less Note Sir Thomas Glenham having honourably defended York and Carlisle the King thought no other so fit to be Governour of Oxford as he which being block'd up by the Parliament Forces the King thought himself in no Security in it for the Parliament refused to admit him to come to London unless he signed their Propositions Now the French Ambassador in the Scots Quarters advised the King to throw himself into the Scots Power herein you may observe that tho Richlieu were dead yet Mazarine continued the Correspondence between France and Scotland which yet were Pensioners to France This being Hobson's Choice the King only accompanied by one Hudson a Minister and Mr. John Ashburnham throws himself into the Power of the Scots then besieging Newark this was the fifth of May. Thus this poor Prince to avoid his present Condition seeks Protection from those which brought him into it which tho he got nothing by it yet the Scots instead of protecting him shall only make a Bargain and Sale of him for having him in their Power they resolve to make a double Market of him viz. To have him to order Montross to disband his Army and then to retire out of Scotland and then to sell him to the Parliament for so much as they could get that of Montross it was no sooner asked than granted but soon after he was gone the Covenanters seize Huntley and cut off his Head the Parliament too desire the King to give Order for the English Garisons to surrender which he granted so here we end the Wars in England and Scotland between the King and Parliament at present And now you 'll see how the ending of these Wars was the beginning of the Ruin of the Parliament and Scots Covenanters for the Scots having got their Ends by Montross his disbanding his Army yet the Bargain for the Sale of the King being a mighty Matter to the Scots required a longer time and the Scots would not lose one Scotish Pound they could get for him and therefore tho the King put himself into the Power of the Scots the 5th of May 1646 yet the Bargain was not concluded till January following and then the Scots flush of Money return home finding all things in Peace now Montross is gone and the Parliament having bought the King confine him to Holdenby-House a House of the King 's in Northamptonshire under the Guard of a select Company of Covenanters whereof Sir John Cooke Secretary Cooke's Son was one Thus this Prince who before had shifted the worthy Members of Parliament from one Prison to another that they might have no Benefit of their Corpus's and the Constables of Hertfordshire from one Messenger to another is himself shifted from one Place a Prisoner to another without any hope of an Habeas Corpus He that before by his absolute Will and Pleasure would without any Law seize his Subjects Goods and commit them to Prison cannot now enjoy his own Estate in his own House He that before arbitrarily raised Ship-Money
being 12 a Clock at Night it could not then be reduced to Writing but he promised it should next Morning when the King gave them a Paper quite contrary whereupon the Treaty broke off See Whitlock's Memoirs f. 65. a. b. For in the next Treaty at Vxbridg which was in December 1644 the Parliament not only insisted that the King's Nephews Rupert and Maurice though Princes Foreign born and so no Subjects to the King of England but many of the principal Lords and Gentry who assisted the King in this War and who by the 11 Hen. 7. 18. were protected for assisting the King should be excepted out of Pardon by an Act of Indempnity which if they had had no Law to have protected them yet the King could not in Conscience have offered them up a Sacrifice for assisting him But another Difficulty arose in this Treaty which the Parliament would have imposed upon the King contrary to the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation viz. To extirpate Episcopacy and to impose the Scots Covenant and Directory upon the Nation though the Bishops were excluded their Sitting in the House of Lords by an Act in 1641 and none in Orders to exercise any Civil Office So that the Houses not content with what had been already granted but grasping at more they lost all for in the first Parliament Car. 2. they were restored to their Seats in Parliament again Objection But if Episcopacy were Jure Divino as the King was informed by his English Bishops and therefore the King could not in Conscience submit to the abolishing of it then it is Jure Divino in Scotland as well as England and if the King of his own Accord could go out of England to abolish it in Scotland Why should the King against the Advice of both Nations not do the same in England Answer He that shall answer for all the Actions of this Prince shall have a great Task Nor can I give any other Answer to it than that because a Man has done an ill Act it shall be a Precedent to him to do it again But if the King should have consented to abolish Episcopacy in England and set up Presbytery I do not see any Benefit the King could have reaped by it according to the Covenanters Practice and Principles For if the Scots after the King had abolished Episcopacy in Scotland and set up Presbytery there and that the Scots had thereupon promised all Obedience to the King in time to come and declared by Act of Parliament That it was detestable and damnable Treason in the highest Degree for any of the Scots Nation either conjunctly or singly to levy Arms or any Military Forces upon any Pretence whatsoever without the King's Command could raise Arms unprovoked by the King and against his express Command and invade England why should the English Covenanters after the King should have abolished Episcopacy in England be more obliged to perform any Agreement they made with the King in England then the Scots Covenanters were in Scotland When the King desired the Scots Parliament upon the breaking out of the Irish Massacre and Rebellion to assist him against the Irish they refused because Ireland was not subject to Scotland and tho England be not subject to Scotland yet the Scots against the King's Command can assist by Arms the Parliament against him So that if the Covenant could entitle the Scots to be so false perfidious and treacherous to the King after he had abolished Episcopacy in Scotland Why should not this be a Precedent for the English Covenanters to be so in England after the King should abolish Episcopacy in it and establish Presbytery The Overtures for a Treaty at Oxford in November 1644 preceded that at Vxbridg whence upon the King's Desire it was adjourned and Passes reciprocally of safe Conduct were granted to Commissioners on both sides to meet the 29th of January wherein the Commissioners from Scotland were included The Scots Commissioners being included in this Treaty you need not doubt but their principal Care shall be to establish their Solemn League and Covenant and the Presbyterian Government as firm in England as in Scotland and to this end the three first days were set apart for Religion three other Days for the Militia and three other days for the Settlement of Ireland How humble soever the Scots were if you 'll take their Word yet the first Debate arose between the English and Scots Commissioners concerning Precedence which you may read in Whitlock's Memoirs f. 122. a. b. But when the Business concerning Religion came to be debated nothing less than that Presbytery was Jure Divino would down with the Scots nor was Episcopacy less Jure Divino by the English Commissioners for Religion But both these Assertions are false and blasphemous for Jus Divinum is so inseparably inherent in God as cannot be communicated to any Creature and though God by Divine Law or Institution did impower Bishops and Priests with Episcopal and Priestly Power to perform their Offices designed by God for the planting and continuing the Gospel yet the Jus Divinum from whence these Institutions were derived remains the same in God as before As God by the Law of Nature gives Parents a Dominion over their Children and Husbands over their Wives yet the Divine Right which gives these Powers is the same as before and Parents and Husbands have no Divine Right hereby but a Temporal Right by Nature or the Law of Nature so Bishops and Priests have no Divine Right to exercise their Ghostly Powers but a Spiritual Right given them by God's Law or Institution supernaturally or extraordinarily given If Bishops and Priests had a Divine Right they might create Divine Laws which in Terminis I believe none of them will affirm However you may see how the Theologues as they call themselves impose by this Cant upon the World and what endless Discords Factions and Wars have been raised hereby no Man conversant in History can be ignorant of The Principal whereof was Dr. Steward and Mr. Henderson and Marshall for Presbytery but the Zeal on both Parts being so obstinate as well as contradictory would have taken up more than all their Time in these Broils if a Stop had not been put to them upon the Motion of the Marquess of Hartford on the King's Part and the Earl of Pembrook Mr. Hollis and other Commissioners on the Parliament's that they might proceed upon the other Points of the Militia and Ireland In both these there was as little Agreement as in that of Religion not any one Point being agreed to by the King's Commissioners so the Treaty ended and nothing concluded The other Treaties at New-Castle Hampton-Court and the Isle of Wight we have taken notice of before So that the King was as unsuccessful in his Treaties as in his Arms. The Catastrophe of this Tragedy resolves into the King himself for this Juncto after called the Rump-Parliament having thus purged the House
he was over parsimonious ill becoming so great a Prince He laid the Foundation of an unhappy Reign before he became King not only in his Dissimulation in the Treaty of Marriage with the King and Infanta of Spain to the Displeasure of his Father but much more in the French Treaty not only in submitting to grant a Toleration of the Popish Religion and that his Children should be brought up under their Mother till they were twelve Years old but by engaging to assist the French King with a Fleet against the Reformed in France which he did tho the French broke their Faith in denying Mansfield to land the Army at Calais raised for the Recovery of the Palatinate Unlike his Predecesâ—or Henry the Fifth who so soon as he became King banished all his Flatterers and loose Companions and betaking himself to grave and wise Counsel he became the most Renowned and Victorious of all our English Kings Charles became more wilful and gave himself to be more governed by Favourites after he became King than before So that the insite Piety and Affection which is due to Parents and usually exprest in some mournful Demeanour upon their Death took no Impression in him after his Father's Death but contrary Passions against his Father's Counsel and Will prevailed upon him For next day after his Father's Death only the King and Buckingham present the Keeper Williams coming to wait upon him the King asked him whether the Parliament were dissolved upon his Father's Death Which when the Keeper told him it was the King commanded him to issue out new Summons for calling another and not to stay a day for Subsidies must be had for carrying on a War against Spain and when the Keeper advised him to consider a little hereof and that before Writs were issued out Interest should be made about Elections the King in Displeasure turn'd from him Which you may read in the second Book and second Folio of the Keeper's Life And these two things were observable in this Prince That when any advised him against his Will he would never ask it after or be Friends with him and that in all his Reign as well in Prosperity as in Adversity he would never own any one of his Irregularities to be so but justified them all to his Death As Henry was the most self-denying of all his glorious Actions ascribing them only to God so Charles upon all occasions in all his irregular Actions gloried he was accountable to none but God for them After he was married he became the most uxorious Husband of all our English Kings except Henry the Sixth and being intangled by the Articles of Marriage which the Queen fostered and the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation contrary to them which his Parliaments stedfastly asserted he became both ways uneasy and to reconcile them was impossible But to me it seems how uxorious soever the King was yet during Buckingham's Regency for so it may be truly called he had an Ascendency over the Queen as appears by the French War in the second Year of the King notwithstanding all the Power of the Queen against it He was unaffable in his Conversation and Approaches to him very difficult and those with such strained Submissions as were never required by any of his Predecessors As his Actions were without Counsel sudden and inconsiderate so were his Resolutions as variable and uncertain so that oftentimes he would change them the same day And as his Actions were without Counsel so were his Designs without Secrecy which blasted them as well at Home as Abroad He was so superstitiously addicted to the Arminian Clergy which flatter'd him that I do not find except Juxton Bishop of London that he preferr'd any others in the Church till he fell into Adversity In his adverse Fortune he would betake himself to contrary Extreams yet be as inconstant in them as in his Actions in Prosperity He was only constant in his Affections to the Queen after he had given up his Favourites in his prosperous Fortune to the Parliament and her Counsels fixed stedfast in him tho in his Declarations to the Kingdom and Parliament he profess'd otherwise and herein he was as unhappy as he was before in his Designs in his Prosperity for they whether by Fate or his own Imprudence became known to his Enemies who blaz'd them abroad not only to the Nation but all the World so that the sincerity of his Promises and Declarations became suspected as well by his Friends as Enemies and all Accommodation with them more difficult whereby it came to pass that his Armies being subdued by them and thereby falling into the Hands of his Enemies he became a Sacrifice to them in the 49th Year of his Age having reigned 23 Years ten Months and three Days leaving six Children three Sons Charles Prince of Wales James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester whereof the two elder were Exiles and three Daughters Mary Princess of Orange and Elizabeth a Virgin who not long survived him and Henrietta Maria born at Exeter So that as King John and his Son Henry the Third lost all Normandy and the greatest part of Aquitain to the French by endeavouring a more than Legal Jurisdiction over their Subjects whereby they lost their Love and Obedience so these two Princes Father and Son by raising and Arbitrary Power over their Subjects not only lost their Honour Abroad but with their own Subjects and for want of whose Assistance this King lost his Life and suffered the French to grow so great as to endanger the Safety of their own Subjects in the Realms of England Scotland and Ireland I 'll conclude this Story with one which a learned Gentleman who liv'd in those Times affirmed When the Duke of Buckingham was stabb'd by Felton 1628 the Earl of Portland was then newly made Lord Treasurer and the King to manifest his Affection to the Duke order'd the Treasurer to issue out of the Exchequer 30000 l. I think for a solemn Funeral for the Duke but the Treasurer unwilling the King should be at so hateful an Expence at a time when the King was at War with France and Spain told the King that the Sum laid out in erecting a stately Tomb for the Duke would be a more lasting Monument of his Favour to the Duke than a Funeral-Expence which would be but the Work of a Day and soon forgot The King assented and several Patterns were brought and what the King lik'd the Treasurer dislik'd till at last the King pitch'd upon one which he said he would have but then the Treasurer said Sir what will the World say that you should be at such an Expence for a Favourite when your Father has not a Stone to cover him which struck the King so as he proceeded no farther in it I remember I think it was in 1669. that the Commons voted 50000 l. for the Charge of taking up this King's Body and the solemn Funeral
and sure never was there such a Generation who so impudently out-braved Truth and all that may be call'd Sacred If you could force a Belief into them they first told you they fought for King and Parliament then they declared for the King and People against the Parliament and now they have taken off the King if you will have any Benefit of their Protection you must engage to their Government without King or House of Lords and be content with a piece of the Commons call'd the Rump Not content with the Death of the King the Rump proceeds to abolish Monarchy and place the original Power of Government in the People whose Representatives they are if you 'll take their Word and voted it High Treason to restore Monarchy or to assist or pray for Charles Stuart or any of that Line overthrow the King's Statue with an Exit tyrannus Regum ultimus Nor are they satiated with the Blood of the King but erect another High Court of Injustice whereof one Lisle an ignorant Fellow was President who condemns the Marquess Hamilton Earl of Holland and Lord Capel for raising Arms against the Parliament which themselves had destroy'd But tho the Rump and Army were establish'd upon these strange Principles yet being the Instruments of Divine Vengeance like a Torrent broke loose from raging Seas in less than five Years time they overwhelm not only England but Ireland and Scotland almost pull'd the Dutch States up by the Roots and made France and Spain tremble But that we may observe what follow'd let 's see what went before The Scots were the first who invaded England against the King to impose their Solemn League and Covenant which was more against the English Laws and Constitutions than Laud's Service-Books Canons and High-Commission were against the Scotish In July last the Scots invaded England commanded by the Marquess Hamilton in August Cromwel routs and utterly overthrows this Army and takes Hamilton Prisoner So the Scots who began these Wars first are the first chastised by this English Army But this is but the Earnest of what shall follow The secluded Members who first join'd the Scots beginning first with an equivocal Protestation but after downright joined with the Scots in their Covenant are now not only turned out of the House by the Rump but kept in nasty Prisons till they became as little dangerous as The House of Lords The horrid Irish Massacre and Rebellion succeeded in the third place And now the Rump having established themselves by subduing of the Scots under Hamilton and deposing the secluded Members are laying Rods in Piss to scourge these abominable Irish But before we proceed let 's see how things stood in Ireland In October 1641. the Irish Massacre was which succeeded in a Rebellion in which Richlieu's Scarlet was as deep dyed as in the Scotish and English Commotions The Head of this accursed Crew was John Baptista Pennuncio the Pope's Nuncio who in his Passage through France threatned he would suffer no Man to live in Ireland that wished well to the King or to the English Affairs Thus you see how all the Factions conspired against the King the Laws and Constitutions of England But for these last seven Years viz. so long as the Distractions were continued in England the War was pursued but by halves in Ireland King Charles in his Life-time had made the Marquess of Ormond Lieutenant of Ireland who in 1643 made a Truce with the Irish that the King might make use of the English in England But the Irish kept their Faith no better in it than the Scots had before with the King in the Peace in 1639. For on a sudden they rise against the Marquess now the English are sent into England and had surprized him if he had not been informed before and escaped into Dublin and being in no Condition to defend it but obliged to deliver it up either to the English sent by the Parliament or to the Irish he gave it up to the English who make Colonel Jones Governour and so Ormond leaves Ireland After the Marquess was withdrawn the Nuncio behaved himself like a Church-Man with such a Despotical Tyranny that he became intolerable even to the Irish themselves who being press'd by Jones Coot and Monk combine in a Body and send to the Queen and to the Prince of Wales for then the King was close Prisoner in the Isle of Wight to return the Marquess of Ormond and they would submit to his Authority and join to expel the Scots and Parliament's Forces The Nuncio taking this for an Affront to his Authority being that of the Apostolick See which is infallible threatens Excommunication to them who should not obey him but neither he nor his Excommunication were obey'd but was forced to Capitulate with the Irish themselves to procure his Departure which was as shameful as his Entrance was proud and insolent Upon the Marquess's Return he enter'd into most dishonourable Articles with the Irish which yet would not please Owen Ro Oneal who join'd with the Parliament's Forces and reliev'd Londonderry then besieg'd by the Lord Ardes After this Pacification with the Irish such as it was Ormond raises a numerous Army and by my Lord Inchiqueen routs a Party of Jones's going to Drogheda who takes the Town and Dundalk Green-Castle Newry and Trim and returns Victorious to the Marquess Hereupon the Marquess besieges Dublin but unfortunately sends my Lord Inchiqueen into Munster with if not the greatest the best part of the Army Jones falls upon the Remainder and utterly routs them This was in August 1649. And the same Month Cromwel lands at Dublin with an Army of 15000 old Soldiers Upon this Disaster the Irish no more to be reconciled to the English than the Scots Covenanters to Episcopacy quarrel with the Marquess which was never after composed So the Marquess left Ireland again leaving the Earl of Clanrickard Deputy Cromwel after his landing first storms Drogheda or Tredah with a most terrible Execution and after in less than one Year all Ireland upon the matter is reduced to the Obedience of the Rump who take dreadful Vengeance upon all the Irish who could be found to have had any hand in the Massacre of the English The King Charles II. having lost England and Ireland with all their Dependencies except the Isles of Guernsey Jersey Man and Scilly and the Plantations in America which shall soon follow set up for Scotland and makes the Marquess of Montross his Commissioner who having got together about 400 Swedes Danes Poles and Germans lands them at the Wick of Cathness in April 1650 and takes Dumbeath But Lesley having sent Major-General Straughan with 300 choice Horse he set upon this ill composed Body of Montross and utterly routs them Montross fled but was betrayed by the Laird of Aston who had formerly served him The Covenanters to shew their Clemency and Humility bind the Marquess in a Chair planted backwards on a Cart that all
it That they did consult and endeavour to find out what Remedy chiefly may be applied to mitigate that raw and bloody Wound and to that end had written to gather a solemn Meeting of Parliament or all the Provinces whereby they doubt not but a Help may be found out for these Troubles and a better hope of our Treaty in hand for the common good of both Nations to shun the detestable shedding of Christian Blood so much desired and would be dearly bought by the common Enemies of both Nations We again crave this most Honourable Council and beseech you by the Pledges both of common Religion and Liberty Terms unusual in the High and Mighty States and never used by them to any King since the Reign of Queen Elizabeth mean while to suffer nothing to be done out of too much Heat that afterwards may prove neither revocable nor repairable but too late Vows and Wishes but rather that you would let us receive a kind Answer without further Delay upon our last Request To this Cant wherein God's sacred Name is exposed to cover Dutch Hypocrisy the Rump gave this Answer That calling to mind with what continued Demonstrations of Friendship and Affection from the beginning of their Intestine Troubles they have proceeded with the Neighbours of the United Provinces they do find themselves much surprized with the unsutable returns they have made thereunto and especially at the Acts of Hostility lately committed in the very Roads of England upon the Fleet of this Commonwealth the matter of Fact whereof stated in clear Proofs is hereto annexed Vpon serious Consideration of all and of the several Papers delivered by your Excellencies to the Council of State the Parliament thinks fit to give this Answer As they are willing to make a charitable Construction of the Expressions used in these Papers endeavouring to represent the late Engagements of the Fleets without their Knowledg and against the Minds of their Superiours so when they consider how disagreeable to that Profession the Resolution and Actions of your State and of their Ministers at Sea have been even in the midst of a Treaty offered by themselves and managed by your Excellencies by the extraordinary Preparations of 150 Sail of Men of War without any visible occasion but what does now appear a just ground of Jealousy in your own Judgments when your Lordships pretended to excuse it and the Instructions themselves given by your Superiours to their Commanders at Sea they do find too much cause to believe that the Lords States of the United Provinces have an Intention by Force to usurp the known Rights of England in the Seas to destroy the Fleets that are under God their Walls and Bulwarks and thereby to expose this Common-wealth to Invasion as by this late Action they attempted to do Whereupon the Parliament conceive they are obliged to endeavour with God's Assistance as they have opportunity to seek Reparation of the Wrong already suffered and Security that the like be not attempted for the future Nevertheless with this Mind and Desire that all Differences between the two Nations may if possible be peaceably and friendly composed as God by his Providence shall open a way thereunto and Circumstances shall be conducing to render such Endeavours less dilatory and more effectual than those of this kind have hitherto yet been See Whitl Mem. f. 510. a b. This was the 10th of June and on the 12th Captain Peacock and Captain Taylor in two of the English Frigats fought with two Dutch Men of War on the Coast of Flanders for refusing to strike their Top-sail and after a short Dispute the English took one of them with all their Officers and Mariners but she was so torn that she presently sunk and run the other upon the Sands to avoid being taken Upon the 13th Blake took 26 Sail of Dutch Merchant-Men near the Downs and three Men of War having before staid ten more of the Holland Ships and upon the 29th the Rump passed these Votes 1. That the Lords States do pay to this Commonwealth the Charges and Damages they have sustained by their Attempts 2. That upon Payment or securing thereof shall be a Cessation and their Ships and Goods released 3. This being assented to and put in Execution the Security for the time to come to be a firm Amity and Interest of the two States for the good of both Hereupon the Dutch Ambassadors the next day viz. June the 30th demanded Audience of Leave to depart which was granted but the Rump would not recede from demanding Satisfaction for all their Damages Hereupon the Dutch Ambassadors returned home The Dutch foreseeing a Coalition with England or a War would necessarily follow and being set against the Coalition resolv'd upon a War and to that end enter into a Confederacy with the King of Denmark against the English Now both Rump and States make all imaginable Preparations for War and about the beginning of July Blake with a gallant Fleet went Northwards and left Sir George Askue to command the rest of the Fleet in the Downs who took five Dutch Merchant Men and Blake in his Passage took two Men of War and two Merchant-Men and within a day or two after viz. the 4th of July Sir George met 40 Dutch Ships took 7 of them burnt 4 and ran 24 on Ground upon the French Shore where tho the French protected them against the English yet coming aboard the Dutch Ships they plunder'd them Upon the 24th Blake took 100 of the Dutch fishing Busses and in them 1500 Prisoners and about the last of July Blake fell upon the Dutch Convoy for their Fishery in the Northern Seas consisting of 12 Men of War and sunk three and took the other nine with all the Dutch Busses and unloaded all their Fish and sent the Fishermen home and Blake also took three of the East-India-Men richly laden In these Actions Blake had but 8 Men of War and Blake sent six of the Dutch Men of War to Major General Dean in Scotland Upon the 20th of August Sir George Askue with 38 Sail of Men of War set upon the Dutch Fleet of 55 Sail and 15 Merchant-Men near Plimouth the Fight lasted three days and the Dutch lost two Ships one sunk the other burnt the English none Hereupon the Dutch retired to the Coast of France and Sir George follow'd them and charged them and sunk the Dutch Admiral and lost but one Fire-ship who having taken out her Men sent her among the Dutch but being upon the French Coast Sir George pursued the Dutch no further and went Northward to repair his Fleet. At this time there was no Peace between the English and French and the Spaniards having besieged Dunkirk the French set out a Fleet under the Duke of Vendosme to relieve it This Fleet was set upon by Blake in the Downs who had then but 7 Men of War with him whereof the Soveraign was one and upon the 6th of September Blake engaged
Male Sex who were a sort of Favourites his Father was not acquainted with nor do I find he ever regarded the Memory of his Father but that he industriously endeavour'd to have it believed the Portraiture of his Father's Sufferings a Book of late so much controverted was none of his However his Mother had a great Ascendant over him so that she being a Daughter of France inclin'd him to embrace the French Interest against his own And she living near ten Years after his Restoration so fixed this into a Habit in him that in all his Life after he could never get rid of it notwithstanding all the Provocations of the French King to the contrary But it 's time now to take a View of this King's Actions The Desires of the King to be restor'd were no less than those of the Nation that he should tho upon any Terms for upon the Dissolution of the secluded Members the King left Brussels as you 'll soon see he left Spain who had harboured and relieved him in the time of his Exile to join with France who had expell'd him to join with Oliver and by its Ambassador Bourdeaux at this time was using all its Endeavours to keep him out and came to Breda from whence he sent Letters by Sir John Greenvile after Earl of Bath to Monk Mountague after Earl of Sandwich and the Mayor of London The Presbyterians who thought to have had the same Power they had when the secluded Members dissolved themselves were shrewdly mistaken for the Body of the Commons were Royalists who chose Sir Harbottle Grimston their Speaker and upon the opening of the Convention the Royalist Lords double more than the Presbyterians entred into the Lords House which the Presbyterians complained of to Monk who answer'd Now they were in he had no Power to turn them out so the Royalists were double to the Factions in both Houses of this Convention so as the King need not fear his Restoration Now half England of all sorts except the Rumpers cross the Seas to Breda to make their Bargains with the King before he should come into England the King promises fair to all which it may be was impossible to perform which caused Murmur afterward And the Convention after they had proclaimed him King by inherent Birth-right sent him 50000 l. 10000 l. to the Duke of York and 5000 l. to the Duke of Glocester and the City of London sent the King and his Brothers 12000 l. Upon the 11th of May both Houses sent Commissioners to Breda to invite the King to return and Admiral Mountague with a Royal Fleet to convoy him over who upon the 25th landed him at Dover where Monk met him upon his Knees the King embracing him and kissing him and next day at Canterbury created him Knight of the Garter the Dukes of York and Glocester putting the George about his Neck 'T was rather a Madness than Jollity all sorts of People expressed in the King's Passage from Dover to White-hall The Nation was never so fine in Cloths even the poor Cavaliers will be as fine as the best tho they never live to pay their Tailors nor shall the King take any care of them his Favourites being of another Stamp than those who served his Father Never were such Pageants Triumphal Arches and sumptuous Feasts seen in the City before for which the poor Orphans Money in the Chamber of London must pay the greatest part When the King was restor'd the Nation was in a Martial Posture and the Manners of the People generally more severe and sober than in his Father's and Grand-father's Reigns The first that made Court to the King were the Dutch when he was at Breda to enter into a League with them but the King by the Advice of Sir Edward Hide it 's said wisely answered That this would look as if 't were done by Restraint the King being in their Power besides he was not yet possest of his Kingdoms nor had established his Privy-Council Yet the Dutch were the first who caress'd him with a most rich and splendid Gilded Yatch to prepare him for a Treaty after his Accession to his Crowns Nor were the rest of the Princes of Europe long after the Dutch in congratulating the King's Restoration the French King being one of the first The Spaniard made not so much haste yet hoped for a better Reception than the French and that the King of Spain might have a better Reception he sent the Prince de Ligny his Ambassador who in the Splendor of his Train much outvied the French It 's true the Prince got a Peace with the King for his Master the King of Spain but he got as little good by it as the King of Spain did by that he made with the King's Grand-father King James the First With better Success came the French Ambassador tho I do not find he made any League with the French against the Spaniard as Oliver did nor was there any need of it the French having made a deceitful Peace with the Spaniard at the Pyrenaean Treaty yet you shall soon see both Kings dealt as ill with the King of Spain as if he had been an open Enemy And the more to endear himself with his Brother of France the King rejected the advantagious Treaty of Commerce which Oliver made with France as done by an Usurper and never after at least that I ever heard of made any other instead of it but left his Subjects to be used even as the French King pleased in their Trades to France Henry the Seventh was the first of our English Kings who used Guards and he set up the Yeomen of the Guard which was followed by all the Kings of England since but tho the Convention had paid off and disbanded the English Armies yet the King besides his Band of Pensioners in imitation of the French must have Guards of Horse and Foot and the Parliament gave him Revenue enough to encrease these to what Number he pleased But it had been better for him if he had imitated the French too in preferring Men who were qualified but few of these were to be found there And tho he gave near double the Pay to these yet was he much worse served than if Men of Merit had been there for half the Pay for scarce one of the Officers but bought their Places and this was so common that the Prices were certain so not he who deserved but he which gave most was preferred and when he was in he owed the King no Service having paid for what he had and so his Business was how to improve his Bargain not serve the King And herein too the poor Cavaliers had the worst they not having so much Money to buy as others had I take it for granted that the first League which the now French King made after he came to Majority I mean after twenty one Years of Age was that of the Pyrenaean Treaty the Breach of all the rest
Charles II. is my most Religious and Gracious King If he be so how came you to know it And if you do not know it how came you so unfeignedly to assent and consent that he is so But tho to get your Living you tell the Congregation so when you do not know it I think it 's dreadful for you to tell God Almighty he is so if you be not very well assured he is so But you 'll soon see what Care this King took of the Church of England which took such Care for him Was God well pleased with these things You shall soon see unjust Wars and dishonourable Peace Such Judgments of Plague Fire and Invasion into our Ports as never before were heard of And tho God's Judgments were in the Land the People did not learn Righteousness but continued a divided and factious Nation and a People laden with Iniquity The Honour of the Nation not only lost abroad but a joining with a neighbouring Faithless Boundless and Ambitious Prince to the endangering the Subversion of the Religion Constitutions and Liberties of the English Nation Now let 's see what is doing in Scotland If a Man reads Buchanan's and Drummond's History of Scotland they will better judg of General Monk's prudent Government and Conduct in it for eight Years together For from the Contest between Bruce and Baliol for the Succession to the Crown of Scotland about the Year 1280 till James VI. came to the Crown of England I scarce find five Years Peace together in any of the Reigns between And if for some time the Scots were freed from open War yet scarce at any time were they freed from Feuds among the Nobility or the Nobility at Discord and Variance with their Kings After the Reformation of Religion in Scotland which began in the first Year of Queen Elizabeth by her assisting the Nobility with an Army by Land and a Fleet by Sea whereby the French sent by Henry the Second of France Father of Francis the Dauphin who had married Mary the Scotish Queen to subdue Scotland to a Conformity to the Romish Church were outed the Kirk of Scotland set up a Jurisdiction as independent from the Civil as the Romish was and held it up during the Reign of Mary and after they had expelled her and chosen her Son James King about fourteen Months old in the Regency of Murrey they got their Church-Discipline established by Act of Parliament This was in the Year 1567. The Kirk being possest of this Power during the Minority of King James and several of the Nobility having got a great share of the Crown-Lands of Scotland the King upon his Majority was so poor that he was not in a Condition to keep up the State of a King much less to curb the Insolence of the Kirk the Nobility who had got the Crown-Lands joining with them Tho Queen Elizabeth did not love the Kirk-Party yet was she content to have Scotland in this State for thereby she preserv'd the English Borders free from the Depredations which the Scots usually made upon them and therefore secretly countenanced both the King and Nobility who had got the Crown-Lands However ever she allowed the King a Pension yearly whereby she kept the King as well as Kirk and Nobility depending upon her In this State England and Scotland stood till the Death of Queen Elizabeth but it was ill timed of King Charles I. to grant Commissions to enquire into the Crown-Lands usurped in his Father's Minority and soon after to endeavour to set up Laud's Injunctions and High-Commission in Scotland which made the Nobility as well as Kirk so fierce in opposing them King Charles offended at the Proceedings of the Parliament of England in 1641 goes into Scotland and establishes the Kirk in all their Pretensions and disclaims all Title to the Crown-Lands usurped in his Father's Minority which no ways mollified either But next Year the Scots sent an Army under Lesley made an Earl by the King against him in Aid of the English Parliament But tho the Kirk and Nobility were thus insolent against their Kings they patiently submitted to Monk during his Government in Scotland except some few Disturbances made by General Middleton For neither Cromwel nor the Rump before him trusted to the Scotish Oaths or Solemn League and Covenant but after they had subdued them bridled them with Forts built upon the principal Passages of Scotland and disarm'd all the Nobility and Gentry and thereby kept them in Peace which King Charles by all the Condescensions he submitted to could not procure And hereto that the common sort of Scots lived in more Freedom under Monk than under their Lords and Lairds so that neither the Kirk or Nobility could form the Body of an Army against the English Before the King was restor'd the Army which would have kept him out was dissipated the Year before by Monk and after his Restoration was disbanded and so the English Nation was restored to its former Government But it was not so in Scotland for not only the Forts which bridled them but the Army which conquer'd them was still kept up Nor had the Scots any hopes of being freed from these Fetters but by an intire Submission to the King Upon the King's Restoration many Debates were in the Council in England about the calling a Parliament in Scotland and the demolishing the Forts for keeping the Scots in Subjection but neither were so easily determined for in all Scotland after Montross was butcher'd I do not find there was one of the Nobility except his Son which were not Popish or Presbyterian and the Presbyterian Party had been so rigid against the King when he was in Scotland and intolerable to his Father that above a Year past before any Resolution was taken in either Lauderdale as before said was taken Prisoner after the Fight at Worcester and from that time kept Prisoner in Windsor-Castle from whence he was set free upon the King's Restoration but became so poor that it 's said he could not meet the King for want 〈◊〉 Money to pay for a Pair of Boots This Imprisonment was doubly happy to him for during the Restraint of his Body he enlarged the Faculties of his Mind and being a Man of Parts improved them by Contemplation and Study wherein he met with more Helps than it may be he could have found in Scotland whereby he became of greater Abilitie◠to serve the King than could be found in any other of his Countrymen and being in England found better Opportunities to have them known to the King than any of his absent Country-men could In the late Wars between the King and Parliament he with Sir John Cheesley were ordered Commissioners by the Kirk-Faction to the Parliament in England for propagating the Presbyterian Government But this being most detestable at Court Lauderdale to raise himself set himself with all his Skill to oppose it and by it at first got to be made Principal Secretary
't was believed was carried on by French Counsels For so long as the English and Dutch stood united it would be very difficult if not impossible for the French King to encrease his Grandeur either by Sea or Land if the English and Dutch should oppose it However the outward Appearance seemed otherwise on the French Part for in the Favour of the Dutch he made War upon the English tho to no Benefit of the Dutch other than by the influence of his Party upon the English Counsels But to return his Courtesy the Dutch during this War built him six great Men of War and the Dane joining with the Dutch and French against the English built the French as many more so that whilst the English and Dutch were fighting with one another to destroy their Men of War the French King looked on and without fighting encreased his The English and Dutch had been above Eighty Years Competitors in the East-India African and American Trades so that if either had a mind to quarrel it would not be hard to find an Occasion for it Queen Elizabeth kept so severe a Hand over the Dutch that they durst not presume to give the English any Cause of Offence during her Reign nor do I find the English gave them any in King James's Reign Yet the Dutch gave the English a most abominable one in the Business of Amboyna The World taking notice of the Vast Power at Sea and Wealth which the Dutch acquired by the Fishery upon the Coasts of England and Scotland King Charles I. required a Tribute or Acknowledgment from them about the Year 1630 as a Right belonging to his Crowns of England and Scotland The Dutch were resolv'd not to part with their Fishery and unwilling to pay the King any Acknowledgment for it and instead of Payment set Hugo Grotius to work with his Pen to discharge it Which he did in a little Treatise called Mare Liberum The King to vindicate his Soveraignty set Mr. Selden then at ill Terms with him for I think he was a Prisoner in the Tower for not submitting the Debates in Parliament to the Cognizance of the Council-Table and Court of King's Bench to write Mare Clausum in Answer to Grotius's Mare Liberum Yet this is observable how much the Dutch Interest governed their Reason for soon after I will not say the certain time in all their Manifesto's in the East-Indies the Dutch stiled themselves Soveraigns of the Southern Seas And as such you 'll hear how they exercised their Soveraignty over the English But King Charles though he raised Ship-Money upon Pretence of suppressing Pirates and for Safety of the Nation in May 1636 issued out a Proclamation forbidding the Dutch and all Foreign Nations Fishing upon the Coasts of England and Scotland which the Dutch little regarding set out for this Fishery notwithstanding Whereupon the King commanded the Earl of Northumberland with a Fleet of sixty Men of War to take an Account of their Disobedience The Earl with this Fleet fell in upon the Dutch and dispersed them and cut their Nets so as the Dutch were forced to seek for Shelter in the King's Harbours where they were detained till they made a Composition to pay the King Thirty Thousand Pounds sterling yearly for Licence to fish And this was all the Action done by raising Ship-Money for the Safety of the Nation whereof the King was sole Judg and for Suppressing Pirates The Dutch in return next Year or the Year after upon Pretence of taking in fresh Water seize upon New-York in Long-Island in America and change the Name into New-Amsterdam But at this time things were in highest Ferment both in England and Scotland about establishing Laud's Injunctions in England and erecting a High Commission in Scotland by the King 's Supreme Ecclesiastical Power which the King was so intent upon that he neglected to call the Dutch to an Account for the Surprisal of New-York In the Year 1643 the Dutch by Virtue of their Soveraignty in the Southern Seas by one Geland in a Hostile Manner between Goa and Maccao in the Straits of Malacca made Prey of the Bona Esperanza and spoiled her of all her Tackle Apparel Furniture and all the Goods and Lading in her in her Return of a very hopeful Voyage from China and carried them to Batavia where without due Process of Law they were confiscated and the same Year the Ship called the Henry Bonadventura being come on Ground near the Island Mauritius was seized with all her Goods and Lading by the Dutch East-India Company and kept from the Owners And these Actions both in the East and West-Indies were done in time of Peace between England and Holland These Ships were set out by the Earl of Shrewsbury Sir William Courten Sir Paul Pindar and others by Virtue of a New Charter granted by King Charles the First in the Year 1635 and had laid the Foundation of a much more advantageous Trade for the English than that of the English East-India Company For the Northern and middle Parts of China are cold or temperate and so our Woollen Manufactures would have been very acceptable to them whereas they are of little Use in the Southern Parts of India and all the Islands in the Indian Ocean which lie in the Torrid Zone The Earl of Shrewsbury Sir Paul Pindar and Sir William Courten being Royalists took no Care for Satisfaction in the late times Nor do I find the Rump made any of these the Causes of the War between the Dutch and them nor did Oliver in the Peace he made with the Dutch take any Notice of these Violences used by the Dutch against the English or the Honour of the Nation yet he would not by his Peace discharge the Dutch from the Business of Amboyna but this was referred 't was said to the Cantons of Switzerland to be determined by them but was never after regarded But King Charles II. being at better Terms with his Parliament and Subjects than his Father the next Year after his Restoration viz. 1661 sent Sir Robert Holmes with a Squadron of Men of War and some Soldiers to America with which he reduced New York and all that which the Dutch had taken from the English in Long-Island And from thence Sir Robert Holmes sailed to Africa and took Cape Verd and some other Places where the English had Factories And about the same time the Earl of Shrewsbury with William Courten Grandson of Sir William and the Executors and Creditors of Sir Paul Pindar represented their Case to the King who by Letters under the King's Signet Manual demanded Reparations of the States for these Depredations by Sir George Downing the King's Envoy without any Satisfaction Thus things stood when the Algerines being at War with the English and Dutch the Dutch by their Ambassadour desired the King in 1663 to join a Squadron of Ships with the Dutch to reduce the Algerines to better Terms which the King did and
paid or was one tenth part so highly caressed by their Subjects in a time of Peace Was it not strange then that the King should be in such Necessities for Money as to borrow such great Sums of the City for carrying on this hasty War before the Parliament should meet to supply him Whereas when Queen Elizabeth came to the Crown her Revenue besides the Court of Wards and the Dutchy of Lancaster was but 188179 l. per Annum and the Crown left in Debt by her Father Brother and Sister which she afterwards paid and for the four first Years of her Reign the Parliament gave her but one Subsidy and two Fifteens about 120000 l. Yet in these Years she fitted up her Navy Royal so as it was not only superiour to those of all the Neighbouring Nations but of any Prince in the World and also sent a Fleet and Land-Army into Scotland with which she expelled the French out of it And the Parliament in the fifth Year of her Reign gave her but another Subsidy and two Fifteens wherewith she assisted the Princes of the Reform'd Religion in France Whereas the Parliament in the fifth Year of this King 's actual Reign gave him 2467500 l. for carrying on the War against the Dutch I will not dispute the Justice of this War yet sure never was any made with such Precipitancy and Inconsideration both abroad and at home for as the King entred into no Alliances or Confederations abroad in it so on the contrary France and Denmark our next Neighbouring Nations join'd with the Dutch against the King and that tho the Spaniard stood Neuter in it yet the King had little reason to expect any Benefit from him having been so used in the King's Sale of Dunkirk to the French and joining with the Portuguese and French against the Spaniard And as the King had made no Foreign Alliances abroad so had he not laid up any Naval Stores at home and which is worse he had the Act of Navigation tho made by the Rump yet the Parliament 13 Car. II. confirmed it or set the Royal Stamp upon it to struggle with to supply himself with Naval Stores for carrying on the War For the Rump were as hasty in making the Act of Navigation as the King was in entring into this War and made it general without any Consideration of Time either in War or Peace and herein their Zeal to make this Law outrun their Wit or Memory for these very Men about ten Years ago viz. 16 Car. I. 21. which yet stands unrepealed taking notice of the manifold Mischiefs tho in time of Peace which happened by reason the Importation of Gunpowder was prohibited contrary to Law viz. That the Price of Gunpowder was excessively raised many Powder-Mills decayed the Kingdom much weakned and endangered the Merchants much damnified many Mariners and others taken Prisoners and brought into miserable Captivity and Slavery many Ships taken by Turkish Pirates and many other Inconveniences thereby ensued and like to ensue Therefore this Act made the Importation of Gunpowder Salt-petre and Brimstone free to Strangers as well as Natives and a Premunire to hinder it Whereas in this War if the East-India Company shall set double or treble the Price upon Salt-petre or if their Ships should miscarry yet by this Act it is Confiscation of Ship Goods Tackle Apparel and Ammunition for the Subjects of any other Nation to import Salt-petre or Gunpowder The King tho this were a Naval War having laid up no Stores for it yet if the Swede from any Port of Norway but Gottenburg or if the Bradenburgher Lubeker Hamburgher or Emdenber should import any from any Port of Norway or any rough Hemp or Flax from Leifland or Prussia for making Cordage or Sails this had been Confiscation of Ships Goods Guns Tackle Ammunition and Apparel by this Act. This Act restraining the English in the Newcastle Trade and to the Plantations to navigate their Ships by three fourths English the King was forced to man his Fleet with pressed Men the greater part whereof were Land and Water-Men Whereas if it had been free for the English during the War to have imployed Foreigners in these Navigations the King might have above twenty thousand of his best Sea-men more than he had to man his Fleet and the City of London and other Parts of England throughly supplied with Coals at half the Prices and with more Security The King by reason of this Act in the first Year of this War was forced in the dead of Winter to send Sir John Harman to Gottenburg with a Squadron of Men of War for Masts Pitch and Tar where by the Coldness of the Season some of the Ships were frozen up and many of the English lost their Noses and were benumm'd in other Parts with the Cold Yet all agreed if the King had not been supplied with Naval Stores by this Fleet he could not have fitted out a Fleet next Year These things tho evident to any Stander-by yet the Parliament took no notice of them However the King wisely dispensed with the Act of Navigation so far as it related to the Importation of Naval Stores and Hemp and Flax with this different Success that tho the Parliament the Year before boggled at the King 's dispensing with the Penal Laws against Dissenters yet they took no notice of the King 's dispensing with the Act of Navigation Tho this War was thus hastily begun yet was it managed more carelesly and prodigally than ever any was before The Officers of the Fleet like those of the Guards bought their Places to sell their Lives the poor common Sea-men not paid and wanting Money to pay their Quarters were forced to take Tickets for less than half their Wages whilst Favourites swelled into incredible Riches by the Ruin and Spoil of the Nation The innumerable Prizes taken from the Dutch were so far from contributing to the Charges of this War that many of them were given to Women and Favourites and became a Charge to the King no Inspection must be into the defraying the Monies given for the War for this was to distrust the King The Officers who had bought their Places in the Fleet instead of minding their Business made it their Business how to be Gainers for the Purchase of their Places and caballed how they might improve their Interest at Court However the King receiving no Satisfaction from the Dutch for the Injuries done to Sir William Courten and Sir Paul Pindar upon the 17th of May 1665 granted Letters of Reprisal to Sir Edward Turner and George Carew their Executors c. against the Dutch till they should be satisfied 151612 l. This Grant to stand in force notwithstanding any Peace to be made till Sir Edward Turner c. were fully satisfied of the said Sum with all their Costs and Damages Sir Thomas Allen opened the first Sea Campagn by falling upon the Smirna-Fleet and took four of them richly laden and the
third of June following the English Fleet commanded by the Duke of York Prince Rupert Admiral of the White and the Earl of Sandwich of the Blue fought the Dutch off the Coast of Harwich where the Dutch were put to flight Opdam their Admiral was blown up and Cartinere Stillingwolf and Stamp Flag-Officers killed and eighteen of the Dutch Fleet sunk and taken and if it had not been for fear of disturbing the Duke in his next Night's Sleep it 's believed the whole Dutch Fleet might have been destroy'd But in this Fight the English lost the renowned Earl of Marlborough who tho Admiral in King Charles the First 's Reign died a private Captain in this Fight Rear-Admiral Sanson was killed in it and Vice-Admiral Lawson soon after died of his Wounds The Duke of York was of too estimable a Value to be ventur'd any more in this War for in his Person the Hopes of this War and Declaration of Indulgence resolved So the Earl of Sandwich was made Admiral Sir Thomas Allen of the White and Sir Thomas Tiddiman of the Blue Squadrons The Dutch were so damaged in the first Fight that they were not in a Condition to set out another Fleet this Year But the Dutch having lodged their East-India and other Fleets in Bergen in Norway the English Fleet sailed thither to attack them in it But Sir Thomas Tiddiman who was ordered to do it did not sail into the Harbour as he might have done upon his first Approach but sent to the Governour of the Castle to treat without the Dutch within alarm'd at the Danger set all hands on work that Night so that by the Morning they had so fortified the Castle that it was impossible for the English to force a Passage and the Weather growing boisterous it being towards the latter end of September the English Fleet was forc'd to return nor could the Dutch Fleet stay in Bergen and in their Return home two of their richest East-India Ships and about 80 Sail of their other Ships fell to the English share but tho they were deep laden when the English took them they became much lighter before they came into the English Harbour It seems God was not pleased with these things for this Year he sent a horrible Plague which raged over almost all the Parts of England The greatest Plague which happened since Edward the Third's time in England was in the first Year of this King's Grandfather yet a greater in the first Year of his Father's Reign and now a greater than either in the sixth Year of his actual Reign And as the Plague drove the Parliament to Oxford in his Father's Reign so did it now in his But neither the Mourning of the Land because of Oaths the Plague this Dutch War nor the King's Declaration of Indulgence for dispensing with the Penal Laws against Dissenters could abate the Parliament's Zeal in prosecuting Protestant Nonconformist Ministers but they made a Law called the Five-Mile-Act whereby they were banished five Miles from any Corporation or Market Town and had this Oath imposed upon them I A. B. do declare That it is not lawful upon any Pretence whatsoever to take up Arms against the King and that I do abhor that traiterous Position of taking up Arms by his Authority against his Person or any that are commissionated by him in pursuance of such Commission And I do swear that I will not at any time to come endeavour the Alteration of the Government either in Church or State So help me God The poor Non-conforming Ministers did quietly submit to this in England but the Presbyterians did not so to the High Commission erected in Scotland for about this time they rose in Arms at Pentland against the Persecution of the Prelates who disturbed them in the Execution of their Ministry but were soon broken and a terrible Execution follow'd upon them as Traitors and Rebels In England the Parliament at Oxford granted the King 1250000 l. for carrying on the War against the Dutch and in the Spring 1666 the Plague ceasing the King set forth a Fleet under the Command of Prince Rupert and the Duke of Albemarle Sir Thomas Allen Admiral of the White and Sir William Berkley of the Blue But the Dutch and French now try to do that by Craft which they could not do by Force and Plain-dealing And to this purpose it was given out that the French had fitted up a strong Fleet to join the Dutch and this so prevailed upon the King and Council that upon the 29th of May a remarkable Day when the English Fleet was riding in the Downs Prince Rupert in all haste was ordered with the White Squadron to sail to the West to fight the French Fleet coming to join with the Dutch I desire to be particular in some part of what followed because I had it from Sir John Harman himself who was Vice-Admiral of the Blue At the same time Prince Rupert sailed from the Fleet the Dutch put out to Sea the Wind at North-east a fresh Gale this brought the Dutch Fleet on the Coast of Dunkirk and carried the Prince to St. Helens on the Isle of Wight but the Wind suddenly turning into the South-west blew a strong Gale which brought the Dutch and Duke to an Anchor when Captain Bacon of the Bristol by firing of his Guns gave notice to the Duke of the Approach of the Dutch Hereupon the Duke summoned all the Captains on board him not to consult whether to fight the Dutch but to order them to weigh Anchor and fight the Dutch This was the 1st of June the Wind at South-west blowing a stiff Gale so that the Dutch were forced to cut their Cables not having time to weigh Anchor and tho the English had the Weathergage of the Dutch yet the Wind so bowed the English Ships that they could not use their lowest Tire when they came up to fight the Dutch Sir Berkley's Squadron led the Van but the Duke when he came on the Coast of Dunkirk to avoid running on a Sand made a sudden Tack which brought his Top-mast to the Board whereupon he was forced to lie by 4 or 5 Hours till another was set up but the Blue Squadron knowing nothing of this sailed on fighting through the Dutch Fleet which were 5 to 1 of the Blue Here Sir William was killed and his Ship the Swiftsure a second Rate and all her Guns Brass taken so was the Essex a Frigat of the third Rate and Sir John Harman in the Henry got among 9 Ships of the Zeal and Squadron commanded by Vice-Admiral Everts and these so disabled the Henry that Everts offered Sir John Quarter if he would yield but Sir John told him 't was not come to that yet and gave him a Broadside and killed Everts Hereupon this Zealand Squadron sailed to assist their Fellows behind and only left Sir John to the Mercy of 3 Fireships one of which grappled the Henry on her Starboard Quarter The Dutch
Fitzharris's Trial fol. 5. says That the Commons resolving to examine Hubert upon the Matter next Day Hubert was hanged before the House sat and so could tell no further Tales Those who excused the firing of London to have been by Design or that Hubert had any hand in it said Hubert was mad and knew not what he did or said And why then would they let him be tried upon it For it is not only contrary to our Laws but to the Law of Nature and Humanity to try and convict a Mad-man of any supposed Crime when he is incapacitated to make any Defence as a Mad-man is And tho the Statute of 33 Hen. 8. in High-Treason ordains That if a Man fall mad after he had committed High-Treason yet he should be tried for it and executed yet this extends only to High-Treason upon which Hubert was not tried but even this Law being deemed inhumane and cruel was soon after repealed But this Case of Hubert's only led the Van you 'll hear of others of like nature which followed I remember very well that when it was blazed about that Hubert was mad and the City in Ruin Hubert was carried to shew where he fired the City and tho it was in its Ruin Hubert shewed those who brought him where it began I confess I was not present then but such was the Fame of it which I never heard to be contradicted This Year the Parliament that they might not less contribute to the French Grandeur by Sea than the Rump had done by the Act of Navigation made a Law 18 Car. 2. cap. 2. against Importation of Irish Cattel which in regard it is the only Law since the Creation which was ever made by any Prince or State to make things necessary for Preservation and Convenience of Humane Subsistence scarce and dear we will more particularly make these Observations upon it The Reason given for this Law was That the Importation of Irish Cattel had fallen the Rents and Value of the Lands of England and were like to fall more Observation I. It 's true the Rents and Value of the Lands of England were fallen at this time considerably but not from the Importation of Irish Cattel for Lands are valuable as Trade is more or less and Money more plentiful And we have shewed That the Severity used by the Bishops in 1636 had sent many of our Woollen Manufacturers into Holland as much to their Enriching as to our Impoverishment That by the Treaty of Munster in 1648 the Dutch became Partakers with us in the Spanish Trade whereby above all others we were enriched That by reason of the Act of Navigation we have upon the matter lost the most beneficial Trades to Hamburgh and into the Sound with our Woollen Manufactures And besides the eternal fixing the Fishing-Trade upon the Coasts of England and Scotland to the Dutch by this War we have totally lost the Greenland Fishery and the Dutch partake with us in the Iseland and Westmony Fishing Trades and the French to the Newfound-Land That by Oliver's breaking with the Spaniard and joining with the French the Dutch got all the Riches of the Spanish Trade whilst we were bound to be Losers by the French I will add two more Reasons of the Fall of the Lands of England One The advantageous Treaty of Commerce made by Oliver with the French was not established by the King but a much worse if any submitted to And after the French set such high Imposts upon our Commodities that Sir John Trevor in his Appeal takes notice that we did not vend one fourth of the Commodities we before exported into France whilst we consumed French Wines Brandies and other French Wares more than before So that about this time or soon after the Lords Commissioners for a Treaty of Commerce with France appointed a Committee to inspect the Difference of the Ballance which besides those of Gloves Lace Ribbon and other Toys did amount yearly to 965128 l. 17 s. 4 d. imported from France more than exported out of England The other is That the most gainful Trade the English have is that to Spain which has no other Means to maintain it but by the Returns of their Fleet which since we took Jamaica the Buccaneers so interrupted the Spaniard in the West-Indies that as the Spanish Loss and Returns were more difficult so much was our Trade to Spain damnified Observation II. The Importation of Irish Cattel might fall the Rents of Lands yet not make them the less valuable for if Landlords would content themselves with the Product of their Tenants Labours so that if they could buy their Commodities half or one third c. cheaper their Lands would be as valuable as if they had half or one third c. more Rent and they pay so much more for their Commodities besides many thousands of People might subsist by their Labours where Provisions are cheaper which could not if dearer and the Charge of maintaining the Poor are so much more as Provisions are dearer and so much less must the foreign Vent of our Manufactures be as Provisions are dearer whereon Workmen subsist But admit the Importation of Irish Cattel had caused such Plenty of Provision as the Nation could not have expended yet if Commodities be Riches the Nation would have been so much more enriched by the Importation of the Irish Cattel and by this means might have established a foreign Trade upon that Account and only by foreign Trade the Nation is enrich'd Observation III. The Returns which the English made for Irish Cattel were Clothes Hats Caps Stockings Hops and other Manufactures which upon the Act ceasing the People who subsisted by working these necessarily fell into Decay and Poverty so as the Value of the Lands of England were lessen'd both ways for as these People who by their Labours were enabled to buy Provisions to the Improvement of the Value of the Lands of England so by their Poverty they became a Charge and Burden to them Observation IV. If it be Injustice and Wickedness to take away another's Lands or Goods without a just Cause it 's equally or more wicked and unjust to take away the means of living from industrious Men in their just Employments and make no Retribution both which this Law did to the People employed in the Manufactures returned for Irish Cattel Nor did this Law make any Provision for the Mariners employed in bringing over Irish Cattel nor pay the Owners of the Vessels employ'd in it for their Vessels now they had lost their Employment Nor did the Parliament give the King any Satisfaction for 30000 l. per An. Duties paid the King for importing Irish Cattel Observation V. By this Law the English lost the Manufactures of the Hides Tallow and Horns of the Cattel which might have been wrought in England and gave them to other Nations if the Irish should not work them to the Loss of the Employment of the English and thereby lessening the
Queen Regent of Spain upon the French Irruption into the Spanish Netherlands in 1667 having made Peace with Portugal and Col. Fitz-Gerald an Irish Papist Major-General The Business of this Army was as the Vogue went That since the French King could not get that part of Holland which was drencht by Fresh Water to souse it with Salt Water by cutting down their Sea-Banks but Point Homo For the Dutch Mob astonished and confounded with the Loss of their Country by Land and opposed by Two the most Powerful Kings in the whole World by Sea in a Rage assassinated the Two De Witts Cornelius and John as the Betrayers of their Country and the Causers of this War and depose the States who they thought were of the Lovestein or De Witts Faction and restore the Prince of Orange now in the first Year of his coming to age to the Command of his Ancestors and make Monsieur Fagell Pensioner of Holland The Prince being the King's Nephew and having never offended him raised an Expectation in the People and Fear in the French King that the King would not suffer the Prince to fall into a worse State than the De Witts intended by suffering the French to conquer Holland whereby the Prince's Authority must needs be swallowed up This the French King foresaw and therefore to obviate it the French King was the first who made Application to the Prince and proposed to him the making him Soveraign of the Vnited Provinces under the Protection of England and France such a Protection was never heard of before But the French King knew how to deal with his Brother of England It 's admirable to consider that notwithstanding the Conquest by the French of the other Provinces and the Desolation of Holland and the long Prejudices even from his Cradle against him by the Lovestein Faction this Generous Prince in his most florid and ambitious Age should out of his vertuous innate Love to his Country stand so firm to it that his Answers were That he would never betray a Trust reposed in him nor sell the Liberties of his Country which his Ancestors had so long defended and God so blest him herein But out of these Ruins shall this limited Prince arise and put a check to the boundless and arbitrary Ambition of this designing French Universal Monarch as his Ancestors before had to the Spanish The King it seems could not but see that whilst he got nothing but blows by Sea the French got all by Land and therefore sent the Duke of Buckingham my Lords Arlington and Hallifax to the French King keeping his Court at Vtrecht but with Instructions as secret and dark as those of making the War These when they came into Holland were informed of the French Designs and the King's Answer to their Deputies was viz. That the King might treat as he pleased but that what the French King had got was his own and that what he should get he would not restore without an Equivalent Which raised such an Indignation in them that nothing would serve their turn but destroying at least mastering the French Fleet And in this Humour they went to the Prince of Orange and promised the same and engaged to their utmost to bring the French King to be satisfied with Mastricht and of keeping Garisons in the Towns upon the Rhine belonging to the Electors of Brandenburgh and Cologn From Holland Two of these proceed to the French Court at Vtrecht where the French Air changed their Minds they left in Holland and about Four Days after sent word to the Prince of Orange that the States must give Satisfaction to both Kings jointly and that neither would treat separately upon which the Prince desired to know what the Kings joint and respective Demands were and of the new Agreement made by them so contrary to their Promise to the Prince and States Whereupon Mr. Secretary Trevor makes these Queries 1. Whether they were sent to promote the French Conquest If not why by making the Peace impossible as far as in them lay would they force the Dutch to submit to the French Dominion 2. Whether they did not know that the French Demands alone had been rejected by the States and that the granting of them would make it impossible for the Dutch to give the King any Satisfaction 3. Whether having received from the Prince and States all imaginable Assurances of their Designs to return to the King's Amity and to purchase it at any Rate they could they could faithfully neglect these and enter into a new Engagement so prejudicial to England 4. How far those who were joined in Commission did concur in their Judgment and whether these Considerations with many others were not represented to them and urged by some who desired to serve the King faithfully 5. Whether or no it was for that Reason they opposed to fiercely my Lord Viscount Hallifax's whom came a Day or two after them Appearing and Acting jointly with them tho in the same Commission with them in as ample a Manner as themselves 6. Who were those who after my Lord Hallifax could be kept out no longer went privately to the French Camp under Pretences and had Negotiations of their own on foot 7. Whether they had order to call the French King King of France and to name him before their Master as well in the French Demands as of his Majesty's in all their Agreements which they sent to the Prince of Orange 8. Whether they had Instructions to stand in the Behalf of the French upon the Publick Exercise of the Roman Catholick Religion in the Vnited Provinces the Churches to be divided to the Roman Priests to be maintained out of the Publick Revenue And to bind the King's Hands so that the French King may be sure of his Bargain these Plenipotentiaries Two of them agreed with the French that the King should not treat nor conclude a Peace with the Dutch without them But the French King shall find no more Security herein than the Dutch and Spaniard did in the King 's joining in the Triple League For the Support of this holy Catholick Design stood my Lord Treasurer Clifford and a new Band of Parliament-Pensioners never before heard of in England at Board and Wages but these being a kind of Land-Privateers are to tax the Country to pay themselves and to do whatsoever shall be commanded or no Purchase no Pay In this state of Affairs the Parliament met again the 4th of February 1671 â— when the Commons like Men coming out of a drowzy Lethargy began to consider the dangerous state of the Nation and the dangerous Consequences of the severe Prosecution of Protestant Dissenters by provoking them to join with the Popish and therefore tho they question'd the King's Declaration of Indulgence and no Money was like to be had unless he recall'd it yet upon the 14th of February the Commons resolved Nemiâ—â— contradicente That a Bill be brought in for the Ease
of his Majesty's Subjects who are Dissenters in Matters of Religion from the Church of England And a Bill passed the House accordingly but was stopt in the House of Lords Causa patet the dead Weight joining with the Caballing Party But whatever the Commons thought of the King 's Dispensing Power in England Lauderdale the fifth in the Cabal in England was of another Opinion in Scotland for in the second Parliament c. 1. held by him he gets an Act declaring That by Virtue of the King's Supremacy the ordering the Government of the Church does properly belong to his Majesty and Successors as an inherent Right of the Crown and that he may enact and emit such Constitutions Acts and Orders concerning Church-Administrations Persons Meetings and Matters as he in his Royal Wisdom shall think fit c. any Law Act or Custom to the contrary notwithstanding And that he might not be less active in Scotland than his Brother Clifford was in England and Buckingham and Arlington were in Holland being armed with these other Powers he made all sorts of People depose upon Oath their Knowledg of the Persons of Dissenters not Popish Meetings in the Exercise of their Worship upon Penalty of Fining Imprisonment Banishment and Transportation to be sold for Slaves imprisoning all outed Ministers who shall preach out of their Families till they give Security of 5000 Marks Scot not to do the same again every Hearer being a Tenant to pay 25l Scot and Cotter 12 toties quoties they shall offend and that it shall be Death for any to preach in Fields or Houses where any are without doors and 500 Marks Reward for any to secure such dead or alive and gave Orders That every Man for himself and all under him should give Bond not to go to Field-Meetings and to inform against pursue and deliver up all outed Ministers to Judgment The Execution of these Orders was not by legal Officers but by an Army of Highland Robbers who quartered upon the Country so that it may be a Question whether the French King did not take his Measures in his Dragoon-Reformation by the ground-work laid by Lauderdale But his Grace which it seems did work irresistibly did not stay here for his Highland Army which consisted of eight or nine thousand Men not only lived upon Free Quarter upon all sorts of the King 's peaceable Subjects but in most places levied great Sums of Money under the Notion of Dry Quarters they had only regard to the Duke 's private Animosities for the most part of the Places where they quartered and destroyed had not been guilty of Field-Conventicles The King's Subjects were denounced Rebels and Captions issued out for seizing their Persons for not entring into Bond That neither they nor any under them shall go to Field-Conventicles and the Nobility and Gentry were disarmed who had ever been faithful to the King and assisted in suppressing Field-Conventicles Indictments were delivered in by the King's Advocate in the Evening to be answered next Morning upon Oath otherwise they were to be reputed guilty These and many more of this kind in the Matters relating to Lauderdale's Administration of Affairs in Scotland were represented to the King and that by his Command and are in Lauderdale's and his Lady's Impeachment which are all in Print Notwithstanding all this it was this Lauderdale who had procured an Act of Parliament to raise 20000 Foot and 2000 Horse to march into England to serve the King upon all Occasions And tho the Duke to prevent the Fame of his Actions arriving in England had by a Proclamation forbid all Subjects to depart the Kingdom without Licence yet the Noise of his Actions flew every where in England not less than the Censures of the Star-Chamber and High Commission in Laud's Regency did in Scotland and in due time the Duke shall hear of them Can any Man now believe That the King by his Declaration of Indulgence intended any Benefit to the Dissenters in England whilst Lauderdale without doubt by his Order was acting these things in Scotland The House of Commons could not at first step forget all the Loyalty they before profest to the King nor yet would they own the Dutch War and therefore they voted the King 1238750 l. to supply the King 's extraordinary Occasions but before they would let this Bill slip through their Fingers they tack'd a Bill to it by which no Papist should have any publick Employment This Bill catch'd my Lord Treasurer Clifford the first in the Cabal who was forced to resign his Treasurer's Place or renounce Popery which he would not do his Pensioners not being against it hoping thereby to get the Places which the Popish Party held and even my Lord Chancellor Ashley from Delenda Carthago now sets up for the Country Party against the Designs of the Cabal so moultry are all Designs which are not cemented in Justice and Honour The King having got the Bill for the Money the further Sitting of the Parliament became uneasy to him whereupon the Parliament was adjourned till the 20th and after to the 27th of October viz. 1673. During this Recess there were three Sea-Fights between the English French and Dutch Prince Rupert Admiral in all which the French stood aloof looking on whilst the English and Dutch battered one another only Monsieur de Martell for engaging was recalled checked and dismissed As the English thrived no better by Sea so neither did the French by Land for first the Elector of Brandenburg then the Emperour and at last the King or Queen Regent of Spain apprehensive of the Danger common to them all of the French subduing the Dutch Provinces entred into a mutual League for their Defence and by their Conjunction the Prince of Orange recovered many of the Vpland Towns in almost as little Time as the French had taken them In this state the Swede now broke loose from the Triple League whereby he opened the Gap to let in this Confusion and became a Pensioner to France and proposes a Treaty of Peace to be held at Cologn and thither the King the Emperor the French King and the King of Spain send their Plenipotentiaries to treat of it The French King's Propositions were so insolent that if granted our King could have nothing yet the King pudet haec insisted That tho he was contented with such Propositions as he required so as accepted in ten Days yet if granted by the States they should be of no force nor will he enter into any Treaty of Peace unless his most Christian Majesty shall receive Satisfaction from the States in his Particular After the French King should have all the King's Demands were a Regulation of the Trade to the East-Indies a Settlement of the Freedom of Navigation in Europe the Arrears for the Fishing-Trade upon the English Coast to assert a settled Revenue to the Crown for every Buss or Dogger-boat for the future and to make Satisfaction for the Damages
remember he said of a hundred and fifty Tuns and carried it by Water to Roan from whence the French King convey'd it by hand to Versailles and had it launched into his great Pool he had made there where he came on board and had much Conference with Sir Anthony upon it And if the Service of the English commanded by Turenne in France were not sufficient for carrying on the War against the Confederates the King emptied his own Magazines to fill the French and that from June 1675 to June 1677 Granadoes were sent without Number under colour of unwrought Iron Lead-shot twenty one Tuns Gun-powder seven thousand one hundred and thirty four Barrels Iron-shot eighteen Tuns six hundred Weight Match eighty eight Tuns and a thousand Weight Iron Ordnance four hundred forty one Quantity two hundred ninety two Tuns nine hundred Weight Carriages Bandaliers Pikes c. uncertain In return of these Kindnesses the French King not only exorbitantly enlarged his Impositions upon the English in their Trade to France but let loose his Privateers upon the English as if there had been no Peace and plunder'd murder'd made Prize of their Ships and Effects and confiscated them block'd up our Coast and took our Ships out of their very Ports and if Complaints were made at his Soveraign Port they were baffled except some which were redeemed by Sir Leighton's Interest a most notorious who made a second Prize of them Mr. Marvel at the End of his Growth of Popery gives an Account of sixty three of these with the Masters Names their Burden Lading and the Ports they belonged to from 1674 to the latter end of 1676. Now the King who by this War had set Christendom in a Flame being himself got out of it sets up to be a Mediator for Peace and no Man so fit to be employed in it as Sir William Temple who having observed how the Ministers had deceived him or themselves and advised the King to break Treaties so solemnly agreed upon would not take this Employment upon him before he had sounded the King 's true Sentiment and trust no more to his Ministers Sir William therefore in a Conference with the King in his Closet and in a well composed Speech reflected upon the Cabal how ill he had been advised to break Treaties so solemnly agreed to and how ill they had succeeded how different the Constitutions of France were from those of England and how different the State of the Crown now was from that when it had the Court of Wards and Knights Service and large Revenues of Lands and Fee-Farms which now were alienated so that Gourville well observed that a King of England who will be the Man of his People is the greatest King in the World but if he will be something more he is nothing at all The King heard Sir William attentively yet impatiently at first but at last the King said Gourville had reason for what was said and said And I will be the Man of my People but you 'll see the King shall not long hold in this Mind for Monsieur Barillon the French Ambassador and the Dutchess of Portsmouth by the Agency of a French Monk who had changed his Frock for a Petticoat shall unravel all Sir William had been weaving in the Treaty of Nimeguen Sir William's Embassy was declared in May 1674 and his Dispatches finished in July following when he went into Holland But it seems to me the French Interest was chiefly designed even in this Embassy for tho Sir William's Instructions were for a general Peace yet his Application was first to the States and after to the Prince that they would accept of it and after their Acceptance of it to endeavour it with their Allies which looks as if the King rather intended a separate Peace with the Dutch and Spaniard than a general one and this the King endeavoured during the whole Treaty at Nimeguen as you may see at large in the second Part of Sir Temple's second Memoirs and so ended at last and so the States understood it who tho at first desirous of a separate Peace yet in Honour they could not leave out the Confederates who had saved their Country And if the French King could have a separate Peace with the States and Spain he little cared for the Empire being in a Treaty with Count Teckely to raise a Rebellion in Hungary and to engage the Turk in a War against the Empire Tho the King had got out of this War yet this Summer the French King got the Swede into it and as justly as the King began this War by his Attempt upon the Smirna-Fleet for the Elector of Brandenburg had withdrawn a great Army out of his Country to assist the Confederates upon the Rhine against Monsieur Turenne who commanded the French without declaring War the Swede made War against him in Pomerania tho it had like to have cost the Swede all he had in Pomerania for the Elector returning at the latter end of the Summer routed the Swedish Army and after took Stetin the Metropolis of Pomerland and had kept it if afterwards the Dutch had not made a separate Peace and left him and the Empire too who had saved them to the Mercy of the French And this had been done a Year sooner if the Noble Constancy and Authority of the Prince of Orange had not opposed it who this Year fought the great Battel at Seneff against the Prince of Conde with uncertain Victory You have seen how we got Peace abroad now let 's see how things stood at home Tho the Popish Party had been twice balk'd in their Designs I mean by the King 's recalling the Indulgence and this Peace yet were their Hopes and Designs by the Marriage of the Duke with the Princess of Modena more heightned than ever for they knew the King being involved in all sensual Pleasures and therefore hating the Cares and Troubles of Business might easily be prevailed upon by Importunity and the Dutchess being an adopted Daughter of France and having her Advancement and Portion from the French King was obliged to propagate the French Designs with the Duke and he with the King And the Advancement of the Catholick Cause was the most piâ—us and glorious Work they could promote and therefore Coleman the Duke's Secretary now holds Intelligence with Father Ferrier the French King's Confessor Ferrier with the Jesuited Faction in France and Coleman with those in England how to manage the King in order to it The Bargain was soon made by Coleman and Ferrier and his Christian Majesty was fully satisfied of the Duke's good Intentions towards him so that he esteemed both their Interests to be one and the same This Return was by Sir William Throgmorton June 2. S. N. 1674 to Coleman This Coleman communicates to the Duke who commanded Coleman to answer That the Duke was very sensible of his most Christian Majesty's Friendship which he would cultivate with all the good
alone given Peace to Christendom he might reckon upon what he pleased from the Bounty and Generosity of the King their Master Sir William in a well-composed Answer acknowledged his Obligations for their King 's good Opinion of him but that his Instructions were for a general not for a private Peace For the Prince of Orange he assured them it was his Opinion That the Prince had none for his or any Man 's else further than their Arguments prevailed upon his Judgment The Attacks upon Sir William not succeeding Monsieur d'Estrâ—des turned his Battery upon Pensioner Fagel to the same purpose the Ambassadors had done to Sir William of all the Advantage to the Interest of the Prince How these wrought upon the Pensioner Sir William does not say but says all the Offers of Advantages made to the Interest of the Prince met with no other Reception than what the Prince had foretold tho at this time the Prince struggled under great Difficulty by reason of the Frenchâ—â— â—â— great Treasure and great Order of disposing it The French Magazines were always filled in the Winter so as it enabled them to take the Field as they pleased in the Spring without fearing the Weather for their Foot or expecting Grass for their Horse On the other side the Spaniards wanting Money and Order left their Troops in Flanders neither capable to act by themselves nor in Conjunction with others upon any sudden Attempt nor to supply with Provisions either Dutch or Germans that should come to their Relief and their Towns were ill fortified and worse defended so that the French King in April took Conde in four Days and in May the Duke of Orleans took Bouchain and the Prince of Orange besieged Maestricht without Success But neither the good Success of the French this Campagn nor the ill Success the French Ambassadors had upon the Prince of Orange to induce him to a separate Peace retarded the French from pursuing of it for the French by their Emissaries in Holland but especially at Amsterdam offer such a Reglement of Trade as the People could desire the Restitution of Maestricht and all Satisfaction to the Prince of Orange he could pretend to upon his Loss or their Seizures in the War This put the Mob into a Ferment of having a separate Peace nor could any thing have allayed it but the noble Constancy of the Prince of Orange which stood unshaken in opposing it in all these Difficulties However this Campagn the Elector of Brandenburg in several Encounters beat the Swede and was in a hopeful State to have expelled them out of Germany and it had been just they had been so for the King of England and the King of Sweden were Guarantees in the Triple League at Aix la Chapelle for the Preservation of the Spanish Netherlands against the French King whereas the King of England stood still only looking on whilst the French Arms by Piecemeals devoured them and the King of Sweden in Conjunction with the French King assisting him in the War Put not your Trust therefore in such Princes The Prince of Orange however his Constancy in opposing a separate Peace was unshaken yet in the distracted State of the Confederates and the violent Humour of the Peoples running into it saw it was impossible to keep them out of it unless the King of England would interpose his Authority further than by being a bare Mediator and acquainted the King with it But the King in a long Letter under his own hand instead of an Answer complained That the Confederate Ministers in England caballed with Parliament-Men and raised all Mens Spirits against Peace as high as they could so that it was difficult for him to make any Steps with France towards a general Peace unless the Dutch Ambassador Van Beningham would put in a Memorial pressing the King from the States to do it and declared that without it all Flanders would be lost The Prince to comply with the King replied how willing he was that Van Beningham should put in such a Memorial from the States and that if the King pleased to have a sudden Peace the Prince thought it must be done upon the Foot of the Treaty of Aix la Chapelle which he would have the more Ground for because it was a Peace which he both made and warranted Sir William at this time was at the Hague when his Colleague Sir Lionel Jenkins wrote to him That there was a Negotiation of a separate Peace treating between the French Ambassadors and Beverning the Dutch Agent at Nimeguen without any Communication of it to the Mediators upon which Sir Lionel acquainted the Court of England with it Whereupon Orders were dispatched That in case a separate Peace was concluding or concluded the Mediators should publickly protest against it in his Majesty's Name This Sir William Temple wrote to my Lord Treasurer and Secretary Coventry That he could not understand the Reason of such a Protestation for if a separate Peace were thought so dangerous at Court as he knew it was in the Country the King might endeavour to prevent it and had it still in his Power as he had had a great while but if it were once concluded any other Effect of such a Protestation unless it were to irritate both Parties and bind them the faster by our being angry at their Conjunction could not be expected Nor did he know what Ground could be given for such a Protestation for tho the Parties had accepted the King's Mediation for a General Peace yet none of them had obliged themselves to the King not to treat of a separate one without his Mediation or if they had he did not see why the same Interests that could make them break through so many Obligations to their Allies should not make them as bold with a Mediator That as to prevent the thing may be a very wise and necessary Counsel so the King's Resolution in it ought to be signified as early as can be where it is like to be of that moment to France But if the thing should be first done as he could not tell how well to ground any Offence so he could as little how to seek Revenge and it would be to stay till we were struck and then trust to crying out That his Opinion was it were better to anger one of the Parties before a separate Peace than both of them after and if we must strain any Points of Controversy with them to do it rather by making a fair and general Peace than by complaining and protesting against a separate one But our Counsels at Court he says were so in Ballance between the Desires of living at least fair with France and the Fears of too much displeasing the Parliament upon their frequent Sessions that our Paces upon the whole Affair look'd all like cross Purposes which no Man at home or abroad could well understand and were often mistaken by both Parties engaged in the War as well as by both
an Habeas Corpus to the King's Bench and was brought up in order to be bailed and produced Persons of Worth to bail him but the Penalty of the Bail set by the Court was so high that the Bail refused to stand and Mr. Cleypole was remanded to the Tower But the Term after when the Matter of which he was accused appeared to be the Design of other People he was let go for fear the Examination of it should go further in proving the Popish Plot than any thing at that time discovered and therefore no further Inquiry was made on whose or on what Evidence he was committed The first who gave Light to the Popish Plot was Titus Oates which if it had depended upon his single Testimony had not like to have gone any further the Court and Tories being so industrious to ridicule it if some other Accidents should not make Oates's Testimony more credible Oates therefore refers himself to Coleman's Papers where the whole Design would appear to have been carried on for the last five Years The Court could not but inquire into the Truth of this but proceeded so slowly in it that Coleman had time enough to convey away all the Papers of his last 2 Years with his Book of Entries of them tho his Servant Boatman upon his Examination deposed he saw Coleman's Book of Entries but two Days before Coleman was made Prisoner and that had usually Letters every Post from beyond Sea However the Letters which were found amazed the greater Part of the Council But tho these Letters began this Plot in the Year 1673 yet it is evident by the Testimony of Florence Wyer who was a Roman Catholick that a Popish Plot was carried on in Ireland in the Year 1665 and 1666 and brought to Maturity in the Year 1667. For Col. Kelly and Col. Bourn were sent into Ireland from the French King with a Commission to muster as many Men as they could the French King promising to send an Army of Forty Thousand Men to establish the Roman Catholick Religion upon St. Lewis's Day in August But the French King as before noted had other Designs in his Head and at that time was engaged to make good the Dauphin's Title to Brabant and the other Spanish Territories and so kept his Word no better with the Irish than he had done his Faith in the Pyrenean Treaty the Irish hereupon complained to the Cardinal of Bovillon of the French King's Breach of Promise to them and that he should turn his Army against the Catholick King and not redeem Ireland from its Heretical Jurisdiction which you may read at large in Plunket's Trial and how it was carried on till the Discovery of that in England and all this proved by Roman Catholicks If those Counsellors which were not engaged in the Popish Plot were amazed at this Discovery of Coleman's Letters those who were ingaged in it were not less surprized and the Parliament being to meet some few Days after I think the 1st of October the King hereupon as aforementioned took Counsel whether he might not prorogue it to a further Day and 't was said Chancellour Finch was of Opinion he might whereupon Mr. Seymour now Sir Edward then Speaker of the Commons went out of Town but upon Advice of John Brown Clerk of the Parliament that so many Members of both Houses must meet and sit when a Prorogation was made Mr. Seymour was recalled and the Houses met and were prorogued accordingly Between this Prorogation and the meeting of the Parliament Sir Edmundbury Godfrey was murdered Oct. 12. and if the Council were amazed at Coleman's Letters the whole Nation was not less at the Murder of Sir Edmund and the time set for the meeting of the Parliament being about 9 or 10 Days after the Court thought not fit to make another Prorogation to take new Counsel upon the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey Here I think fit to relate one Story concerning the Murder of Sir Edmundbury Godfrey which I find no where in Print and the rather for that Sir R. S. so ridicules Prance's Evidence because he recanted before the King in his Closet all that he had been examined and swore to about Sir Godfrey's Murder which he again recanted after he came to Prison a Papist he was and by Profession a Silver-Smith and wrought for the Priests and others in Somerset-House and was assisting at the Murder of Sir Edm. Godfrey and also at the carrying the Body out of Somerset-house and sometime after the Murder of Sir Edm. Godfrey was discovered some of Prance's Neighbours having observed that Prance did not come to his House for several days they represented it to some Members of the House of Commons that they had a great Suspicion that Prance had a Hand in the Murder of Sir Edmund and thereupon they got an Order to seize Prance and bring him before the House which they did and the House ordered Sir Rich. Everard and Sir Charles Harboard to examine him Before the Murder Le Faire Pritchard and other Priests treated with Bedlow to be assisting in the Murder of Sir Edm. but Bedlow tho he promised it relented and did not come but the Monday after the Murder viz. Oct. 14. he met Le Faire in Red-Lyon Court who charged him with not keeping his Word but charged Bedlow to meet him at 9 a Clock in Somerset-house and there told Bedlow that tho he was not assisting as he promised in the killing of Sir Edm. yet if he would be assisting in the carrying him off he shold have 2000 l. Bedlow then desired Le Faire if he might not see the Body who told him yes which Bedlow did and then they advised about the Disposal of it and Bedlow advised the sinking the Body in the River with Weights which was not agreed to thus far Bedlow deposes but in seeing the body Bedlow saw Prance there in the Company too but did not know him before Bedlow says he was troubled in Conscience having twice taken the Sacrament to conceal the Business and went to Bristol where God put it into his Heart that some Murders were past and greater to come for Prevention whereof he was convinced it was his Duty to come to London to reveal this Wickedness which he did and came into the Lobby of the House of Lords to make a Discovery where I then saw him In the mean time Sir Charles Harboard and Sir Rich. Everard having examined Prance and the House being set left Prance to the Care of the Constable of Covent-Garden who brought him into the Lobby of the House of Lords where Bedlow seeing him but never before he saw him in Somerset-house Bedlow charged the Guards to seize him for that he was one of those he saw at Somerset-house where the Body of Sir Edm. Godfrey lay and by the same token he had then a black Peruke but now none hereupon Search being made the Peruke was found Here I make a twofold Remark one of the
of Luxemburgh from the Spaniard notwithstanding the late Treaty of Mutual Assistance between the King and Spain and had encreased his Men of War at Sea to be more and greater than those of the King 's and his New-found-land Fishery to be twenty fold more than it was 1660. and the English fallen not to 1 ◠of what it was yet in this dreadful State the Feuds of Whig and Tory no ways abated and both so stupid as if neither were concerned in this Design common to them both But though this most religious and gracious King for so the Tories will have him to whom all their nonsensical Doctrine of Passive Obedience is due had by the help and indefatigable Industry of the Tories laid this Foundation for the Ruine and Destruction of this Church and State yet he lived not to compleat this goodly Structure for he died upon the sixth of February 1684-85 it may be the sooner because he made no more haste to do it in the thirty seventh year of his Reign computing it from his Father's Death after he had lived fifty four Years eight Months and eight days The Character of King Charles II. HIS Person was of a very well composed Structure tall above the ordinary Stature of other Men not much much more resembling his Grandfather Henry IV. of France by his Mother than his Father or his Grandfather King James And as in his Person he more resembled Henry than either his Father or Grandfather James so did he in his Humours for both had lively and pleasant Wits and would be wondrous facetious and pleasant with those which humour'd them in their Pleasures and were of free Access whereas King Charles the Father was grave and severe in his way hard of Access and that by such strained Terms of Submission as were never heard of before in England and I believe no where else and King James was slovenly in his Behaviour and more servile to his Favourites than they to him Like his Grandfather Henry Charles gave himself up to all sensual Pleasures without any Controul but unlike his Father who was temperate and chaste Like his Grandfather Henry in Profession of his Religion for both seemingly professed that which neither believed Unlike his Father who while he did what he would was severely addicted to what he professed Unlike to his Father and Grandfather Henry in Covetousness but like his Grandfather James in profuse Prodigality to his Favourites but unlike his Father and Grandfather Henry in Parsimony ill becoming so great Kings like his Father and Grandfather James in laying the Foundation of the Ruin of the Grandure of England abroad and the Church and State at home unlike his Grandfather Henry who laid the Foundation of the Grandure of France Tho Henry and Charles were esteemed Clement and Merciful Princes till the Rage of the latter end of Charles's Reign yet both were most vindictive against any who reproached their licentious Liberty in their lustful Pleasures as appears by Henry's putting the Duke of Biron to Death more as Sir Walter Raleigh observes for the Taunt he gave when Henry brought Madam Gabriel to the Siege of Amines That she was the Fortune of France than for Biron's Conspiracy with the Duke of Savoy and by that of cutting off Sir Coventry's Nose for the Report which was of Sir John that he asked the Question Which of the King's Favourites Men or Women Unlike to both Father and Grandfather James Charles was to his own Cousin-German the Elector-Palatine for they both at least seemingly endeavoured to have restored the Prince's Father to his Country after he was dispossessed of it by the Emperor and King of Spain whereas after this Prince was restored to a part of it by the Treaty of Munster this King without any Offence or Provocation given him by the Elector assisted the French to ruin and destroy it But he 's gone God knows by what means and the Possession of the Crown takes away all Attainders And now he 's gone he left the Nation more vitiated and debauched in their Manners than ever it was before by any other King having not only squander'd away the antient Revenues of the Crown which were esteemed sacred and which should have supported it against foreign Force and intestine Discord but left such a Debt upon it as never before was heard of nor contracted by such means having prostituted the Majesty of his Crown in becoming a Pensioner to France and advancing that Interest to be as formidable and dangerous to the rest of Christendom as to his own Dominions and embroiled 〈◊〉 Subjects in intestine Feuds and Discords as if thereby he designed them an easy Prey to the French and Popish Interest and having by Bribery and Corruption so vitiated all publick Offices both Sacred Civil and Military that they became habitual and so fix'd that it would become difficult if possible to reform them And as this King's Actions were little and dark so was his Funeral for never any King who died possest was so obscurely and meanly buried hurried in the dead of the Night to his Grave as if his Corps had been to be arrested for Debt and not so much as the Blue-Coat-Boys attending it his Brother then King shewing as little Gratitude to him for all his Favours as he had done to the Nation for all their Loyalty and incredible Sums of Money poured upon him And as his Father and Grandfather had not a Stone to cover their Graves thereby to preserve their Memories in future Generations so neither had he nor any of his Name hereafter is like to have as King of England But now he is gone all the dreadful Presages of the four last Parliaments are come upon the Nation and nothing left to secure the Nation 's Fears unless that the Crown being so in Debt and the Excise for the King's Life dying with him the Parliament would not be so prodigal of their Bounty as to grant this King's Successor such a Revenue which might enable him to attain his Ends by the Ruin of the Church and State of England The Good Deeds of King Charles II. 1. HIS dispensing with the Act of Navigation in the first Dutch War whereby he was enabled to continue the War against the Dutch two Years longer than he did and the Dutch otherwise might have fired the Ships in our Harbours a Year sooner and forced the King to a more inglorious Peace than that he made in the Year 1667 whilst the Parliament in the Temper it was in sat still and took no notice of these things Objection If the King has Power to dispense with the Act of Navigation by the same Reason he may dispense with other Laws and so the Laws of the Nation will be loose and subject to the King's Will at his Pleasure Answer I. I wish all Legislators in passing Laws would be of another Temper than when the Rump made this Law which was in spight of the Dutch without
any Consideration of the dreadful Consequences it has brought upon the Nation both within and without or in another Temper than the Parliament was in in the twelfth Year of the King when they passed or confirmed this Law without any consideration of Times whether in War or Peace II. If the Act of Navigation had been in general a good Law yet Times must be distinguished and in War Civil Laws are silent so that for the Preservation of the Publick the King may destroy particular Mens Interest as in case of firing the Suburbs of a City to preserve the City and destroy the Fruits of the Ground rather than these shall sustain an Enemy to the endangering the whole Nation but it was much more reasonable for the King to grant Liberty without any Destruction or Wrong to his Subjects to dispense with the Act of Navigation and give all Foreigners Liberty to import Gunpowder and all sorts of Naval Scores c. for the Nation 's Preservation in the time of War with the Dutch And I say it was Prudence in Oliver tho in time of Peace to dispense with the Act of Navigation in reference to the Trade to Norway and Sweden after the Norway Merchants had represented to him how grievously the Norwegians by this Act imposed upon not only the English Subjects but upon Oliver himself in building and fitting up his Men of War 2. The second better Act of King Charles was his dispensing with the Law against Foreigners partaking the Benefits of the natural-born Subjects of England by permitting Brewer and his Walloons tho Papists after they fled from the Rage of the French Ravages in Flanders in 1667 to plant and settle themselves in the West whereby the English became instructed how to make and dye fine Woollen Cloths 30 per Cent. cheaper than they could before and herein the King imitated two of his most glorious Predecessors that ever reigned in England I mean Edward III. and Queen Elizabeth Princes who no ways affected Tyranny or Arbitrary Power I say the King might justly and legally do this for tho the King cannot dispense with Laws which have a complicated Interest with himself and Subjects to the Wrong of his Subjects yet the King may dispense with those Penalties which properly belong to him even in criminal Cases as to the Life and Estate of an Offender and therefore much more where there is no Offence and the End for the publick Good as in this Case of Brewer and all other Foreigners the Penalty is if they trade they shall pay Strangers Duties but this is to the King and if he pleases he may take to other Duties than his natural-born Subjects pay whereby the Foreign and Fishing Trades which are carried on in Holland might not be carried out of England and thereby the Navigation of England become double or treble to what it now is and the ruined and even desolate Coast-Towns of England flourish as Hamburgh Amsterdam Gottenburgh Diep St. Maloes and other Ports Would not this be not only for the enriching but strengthning the Nation and that in a double Proportion for we should be so much more rich and strong here as other Nations would be less and in a worse state to make War upon us Nay should we only make our Ports free as Leghorn Marseilles and as of late the Pope has Civita Vecchia would not the Nation be so much more enriched as the Goods imported are more I would know from whence else it was that France became so enriched above all other Countries for Mines they have none but from the vast Trades the English Dutch Swedes and Danes drove in France And suppose the King should dispense with Foreigners purchasing Lands in England and not take them as he may do if he pleases whereby Millions of Money would be brought into England the Lands we shall have still and would not the Nation be so much more enriched hereby as the Purchase-Monies are more And would not the Nation be so much more peopled and strengthned as the Purchasers are more and the King's Revenue by Excise and Customs so much more encreased as the Consumption of these and their Descendants shall be more Merchants to enrich themselves and the Nation run great Hazards and are often undone in their Merchandizing whereas the Nation nor any Man else runs any Hazard by Foreigners purchasing Lands in England Ambitious Princes to acquire more Subjects run great Hazard and destroy and make Men miserable and ruin Countries to accomplish their Designs whereas none of these attend the Permission of Foreigners to trade and inhabit among us and when they are once settled theirs and the Nation 's Interest will be the same and both alike obliged to defend them Xenophon in Cyropaedia says That by reason of the Goodness and Justice of Cyrus's Reign many Nations became his Subjects Will any say Cyrus was less a King hereby Or should we be less a Nation if by the Benefit of our many Advantages in Trade we should by others encrease our Trade which we cannot of our selves Nay should we not so much more enrich and strengthen our selves When I consider these things I wonder Foreigners should be at such Charges to purchase their Freedom by an Act of Parliament whenas the King may do it if he pleases unless it be that their Posterity shall not inherit but if the King may permit Foreigners to purchase without taking the Forfeitures or grant them a Licence to purchase he may grant them a Licence to settle their Estates as they please 3. The third good Act of K. Charles was his marrying the late Queen to his present Majesty tho by the manner of it it seems to me he did it by Surprize and I 'm apt to believe if he could well have come off from it again he would as appears by the Story 4. We may add this fourth That he bred up the late Queen and her Sister after the Religion of the Church of England A DETECTION OF THE Court and State of England DURING THE REIGN OF King JAMES II c. BOOK V. WHAT before King Charles II. acted in Masquerade King James did bare-fac'd and here you 'll see how plain and easy a Passage the Absolute Will and Pleasure-Men and Passive Obedience-Men had made for this King to overthrow the whole Church and State of England and by what steps he proceeded in it the King's Speeches looking one way and he going quite contrary Upon the 6th of February in 1684 85. the Day of his Brother's Death the King declared in Council That since it had pleased God to place him in that Station to succeed so good and gracious a King as well as so kind a Brother that he thinks fit to declare his Endeavours to follow his Brother's Example more especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People and make it his Endeavour to preserve the Government both in Church and State as it is by
the Design At this time there was not only a high Ferment in all the Nation against the King's Proceedings but in the Army against its mixture with Irish Officers and Soldiers which put the King into a great Agony which was increased by the Dutch Preparation Whereupon the Marquess d' Albeville the King's Envoy at the Hague upon the 2d of Sept. N. S. 23d of Aug. O. S. put in this Memorial to the States General High and Mighty Lords THE great and surprizing Preparations for War made by your Lordships by Sea and Land in a Season when all Action especially by Sea is laid aside giving just Cause of Surprize and Alarm to all Europe obliges the King my Master who has had nothing so much in his Mind since his Accession to the Crown as a Continuation of the Peace and Correspondence with this State to order the Marquess d' Albeville his Envoy Extraordinary to know your Highnesses Intentions thereby His Majesty as your antient Ally and Confederate believes it just to demand this Knowledg which he hoped with good Reason to have heard from your Ambassador but as he sees this Duty of Alliance and Confederation neglected and that such Power is raising without communicating the Intent in the least to him he finds himself obliged to reinforce his Fleet and to put himself in a Condition to maintain the Peace of Christendom The States paused upon an Answer to this Memorial when upon the 9th of September N. S. or the 30th of Aug. O. S. Monsieur d' Avaux the French Ambassador put in a Memorial to the States wherein he foolishly discovers the Contrivances which had been so long hatching between his Master and King James for after a long Story of his Master's Desire of maintaining the Peace of Europe now he had actually broke it he impertinently tells the States All these Circumstances and many others that I may not here produce perswade the King my Master with reason that this Arming threatens England Wherefore His Majesty hath commanded me to declare to the States on his Part that the Bonds of Friendship and Alliance between him and the King of Great Britain will oblige him the French King not only to assist him the King of Great Britain but also to look on the first Act of Hostility that shall be committed by your Troops and your Fleet against his Majesty of Great Britain as a manifest Rupture of the Peace and a Breach with his Crown Though the Dutch made no Answer to this Memorial yet they made no Bones to make this Answer to the Marquess d' Albeville's That they had armed in Imitation of his Britannick Majesty and other Princes and that they had thereby given no just Cause of Offence by arming when all other Princes were in Motion and that they were long since convinced of the Alliance which the King his Master had treated with France and what had been mentioned to them by Monsieur le Count d' Avaux in his Memorial This Answer King James took all one as if the Dutch had declared War against him and all the Eyes of England are now turned toward Holland as if from thence they expected Deliverance from the Designs of King James and his Popish Crew and the Fathers and Sons too of the Church of England are at as much Variance in their private and publick Prayers to God as Whig and Tory were in their Humours for in their private Prayers they pray for Prosperity to the Prince of Orange and in the Liturgy they pray that God would be King James's Defender and Keeper giving him Victory over all his Enemies God was pleased to prefer the private Prayers of the Church-men before those of the Church and to have granted both had been impossible and to put a hook into the French King's Nose who turned those Forces which he had raised not for the Peace and Tranquillity of Europe as d' Avaux said in his Memorial to the Dutch States upon the Empire where without any Declaration of War or Cause alledged he first fell upon Philipsburg which he took and after Heydelberg and Mainheim and while he was thus engaged he left the Prince of Orange free to vindicate his Cause against King James whereas if the French King had turned those Forces which he employed against the Empire upon the Spanish Netherlands and he might as justly have done this as that the Prince of Orange would have had little Force and less Leasure to have made any Attempt upon King James Thus God is pleased often to turn the Wisdom of the Crafty I will not say Wise into Folly and Destruction You have heard before how the French King in the beginning of the Year had sent out a Fleet to Canada whereupon the Company of Hudsons-Bay represented to the King their Apprehensions it was a Design upon their Factories and Plantations and so it succeeded for the French seized upon a Fort and Plantation of theirs called Fort Charles Towards the latter end of the Summer the King without the Knowledg of Hudsons-Bay Company entred into a Treaty of Commerce with his Brother of France in reference to the Trade of Canada wherein it was concluded that the Forts and Factories should be reciprocally enjoyed in the same state they were at the Conclusion of this Treaty the French having taken the Fort and Factory of Charles about three Months before So little did this King regard the Safety and Welfare of his Subjects wherein his Majesty and Honour was founded for to pleasure and endear his Brother of France from whom he expected mighty things for the Advancement of his Prerogative without reserve in England Scotland and Ireland Thus have I brought down the History of this King's Reign to the History of the Desertion where at large and particularly you may read how by a Wonder equal to King Charles his Coming in King James went out And if no human Prospect could have foreseen where the Tyranny of King Charles the I's Reign would have ended if the Long Parliament in 1640 had not put a full Stop to it so no uninterested Person was so purblind as not to see if the Heroick Magnanimity of this King in his Queen's his own and the Nation 's Right and for the common Safety of Christendom had not put a Stop to King James his Designs but the Popish Superstition and French Tyranny would have been imposed upon these Kingdoms and have overspread Christendom We admit these four Kings of the Scotish Race had an Hereditary Title to have governed England by the Laws and Constitutions of it yet no Hereditary King hath any higher Title nor any Man a Right to do Wrong and for an Hereditary King to govern otherways is a greater Tyranny than if an Usurper does by how much he adds Perfidiousness and Breach of his Trust to it Yet so it was that these four last Kings of the Scotish Race which should have been the Guardians of England in preserving the
heard Sir William Booth say he had seen in one Year above 100 Sail of great French Vessels of 20 and 30 Guns sail into the Straits from their Newfound-Land Fishery besides supplying France with them and also their Trades to Spain and Portugal Before the Act of Navigation the English from London and Yarmouth drove considerable Trades to Greenland for Whales which Trades as they are wholly lost to the English so are they driven by the Dutch and Hamburghers and in a great measure carried on by the French I remember that the next Year after this Revolution the English took 14 of these French Vessels in their Return from the Whale Fishery and as this Fishery is wholly lost to the English which will never be retrieved by making it a Monopoly so is that of the Town of Great Yarmouth into France upon the account of the Iseland and Westmony Fishery and the rest of the Trades of the English in that Fishery not one tenth of what it was before the Act of Navigation nor from the Western Ports to the Newfound-Land Fishery one fifth of what it was before the Act of Navigation and I wish the Parliament at their next sitting would enquire into the Truth hereof to prove me a Liar I say That the Fishing Trades above all others encrease Navigation and Mariners and if the Causes of the Cadency of our Fisheries and Navigation be not removed the Loss of both will be inevitable the Consequences whereof will be so dreadful to the Nation that I tremble to think of them for as we decline both French and Dutch will raise themselves out of our Ruin Every Ship is made of her Hull Masts and Rigging which are her Sails and Cables Timber for the Hull or Hulk of a Ship we have in England but I have shewed elsewhere how improper our English Timber is in all our Navigations except the New-Castle Trade and so dear in the Carriage and Working that the Dutch build the Hulks of Ships of like Dimensions for less than the English can and by their great Experience in Building build Ships for all sorts of Trades more conveniently so that a Ship of like Dimensions Dutch built shall carry near one sixth more Fraight than an English Pitch Tar and Masts we have not of our own but trade generally to Norway for them and as we order the curing of our Hemp in England it 's not only dearer here than it may be had from Liefland and Prussia but so spalt as they call it that Cables made of it will not endure the Stress of Weather when Ships ride at Anchor as foreign Hemp will Before the Act of Navigation the English traded to Norway in Dutch Vessels or Bottoms and then imported Masts Raff Pitch Tar and this the English might do by the Act of 1 Eliz. cap. 13. and then the English imported them so cheap that the Norwegians could build but six small Vessels to trade into England but after the Act of Navigation when the Norway Trade was restrained to the Norwegians and English in their inconvenient dear-built Ships in little more than two Years the Norwegians encreased their Ships from six to above sixty and those of double Dimensions than the former were but after Oliver dispensed with the Act of Navigation the English Norway Merchants imported Goods so cheap that the Norwegians were forced to sell their Vessels for want of Employment This Mr. Lee and Mr. Smith Norway Merchants were ready to have testified before a Committee of the Commons when Endeavours were used in 1667 for the free Importation of Timber Board and Raff after the burning of the City of London Tho these be dead yet I am assured Sir William Warren and Mr. John Hammond Norway Merchants know this to be true But the Inhabitants of Liefland and Prussia trade not with us and the Dutch by the Cheapness of their Navigation and full Fraight of their Vessels import rough Hemp and Flax from Liefland and Prussia one third cheaper than the English can and when these are converted into Manufacture of the Cordage and Sails it 's free for the Dutch to import them into England by the Act of Navigation whereby we do not only lose the Employment of manifold thousands of poor People and depend upon the Dutch but pay one fourth more for these than if rough Hemp and Flax were freely imported From hence it was and I speak this of my own Knowledg that in the Year 1651 I was part Owner of a Vessel built at Walderswick before the Act of Navigation and of another built by the same Builder in 1655 and this latter cost near one sixth in proportion more than the former and the Reason the Builder gave was the Dearness of Masts Cordage and Sails and I have no Reason to believe the Case is now any better the Reasons being the same and our Timber much dearer and Carriage farther so that I do believe the Carriage of our Timber to the Rivers where Ships are built costs more than the Dutch pay for their Timber where they build Ships Add hereto That our Fishing and other Vessels in Navigation require one third more Hands to navigate them than the Dutch and for ought I know than the French of like Dimensions Now consider the Fish in all Fisheries costs nothing but the Catching and Curing and that Nation which can catch them cheap and cure them best are sure of a foreign Trade for them against any other and the English by the Act being obliged to fish in double dearer Vessels and more inconveniently built and sail'd by one third more hands than the Dutch or French either for ought I know have eternally fixed the Fishing Trade upon the Coast of England and Scotland to the Dutch lost the Greenland Trade and retain not one fifth of the Trades we had to Iseland and Newfound-Land before the Act of Navigation After the Dissolution of the Rump Oliver ruled and tho for about two Years before his Death he gave the English some Benefit in building Vessels by dispensing with the Act of Navigation in reference to the Norway Trade yet he took no care to relieve them by dispensing with it for the free Importation of rough Hemp and Flax from Liefland and Prussia for fitting up our Vessels and Employment of our poor People Men Women and Children and tho he did well in so far dispensing with the Navigation I 'm sure he did ill by his frantick breaking with Spain and joining with the French against it to the irreparable Loss of the English and not only to the endangering the Safety of England but of Christendom It is not foreign to this Design if Notice be taken that after King James I. became King of England to the Restoration of King Charles II. only Philip III. and Philip IV. were Kings of Spain and both zealous bigotted Princes to the Romish Superstition and both weak and effeminate Princes wholly govern'd by Favourites and Philip IV. a
than England for the Trades of France Spain Portugal Italy and Turkey and the Ports equally good or better than those of England I 'm sure much better than from London The Irish shall have no need to carry the Wools of Leinster and Munster to Vlster by a Land-Carriage and when they are wrought there to bring the Cloths to Dublin by another where none must buy them but the Free-men at their own Rates and these bound to vend them in double as dear-built Ships and sailed with near double the Hands of other Nations but if Foreigners be permitted to trade they may have the Cloths from the next Ports where they are wrought and where the Artificers can live much cheaper than in England The same Reason will be to the prejudice of our Leather made of Hides Calves and Sheep-skins in our Foreign Vent and if the Irish want Artificers you need not fear the Dutch will furnish them and at this rate how long shall we enjoy the Foreign Trade and the Navigation to Spain Portugal Italy and Turkey with our Woollen Manufactures or Leather c. Expedient X. That the English may import rough Hemp and Flax Pitch Tar Masts Deal Boards and Timber in any Vessels Object This will ruin our building Ships in England and the Navigation of it Answ I expect such a large general Objection but if we never built any Ship for these Trades then our building Ships will not be prejudiced thereby and if we imploy about 300 Mariners in the Norway Trade about three Months in the year and 150 for six Months in the year to Liefland and Prussia is this Imployment to be preferred to the free Importation of the Products of these Countries and thereby save 1 4 of the Foreign Expence and imploy it may be 50000 People or more Men Women and Children all the year round in making Sails and Cordage for our Navigation and Nets for our Fisheries and hereby be able to fit up Vessels for our Navigation and Fishing Trades as cheap as the Dutch and cheaper than the French can Expedient XI That the English Merchants be permitted to buy Vessels for carrying on the Fishing Trades upon the Coasts of England and Scotland I do not mean those mean Fisheries to supply London and some places in England by imposing double Strangers Duties upon Fish imported by the Dutch by the Act of Navigation but such a Fishery whereby the English may in some measure partake with the Dutch in their Foreign Trades of Cod-fish and white Herrings and also buy Vessels for the New-found-land Fishery Object This would ruin our Natives in building Ships Answ This is at large again for if the Natives never built I 'm sure since the Act of Navigation one Ship for this Trade of Fishing upon the Coasts of England and Scotland what does this hinder them in building Ships for our other Trades nor does this hinder the Imployment of Mariners in them for we have imployed none in it these 30 Years So that this Trade is like a great Man that is Lord of a great Lake out of which his Neighbours grow rich and powerful by the Fish they take out of his Lake but this Man is so in love with his Family that he will not permit any of them to fish but by such Means or Instruments as others of his Family will supply them with but these are so dear and inconvenient for their Purpose that they can only supply their Master's Family whilst others supply his Neighbours better and cheaper and in this State it will be in the Power of these others to beat him and his Servants quite out of the Fishery and take the whole Benefit to themselves In the New-found-land Fishery the English do and always did build Vessels for it but these are such that the French have almost ruined their Fisheries I am sure in the foreign Vent of them and therefore the buying Vessels for this Trade is as necessary as for that of the Fisheries upon the Coasts of England and Scotland and tho the English heretofore built Vessels for the Green-land Iseland and Westmony Fisheries yet they were such as the Dutch and Hamburghers have wholly worm'd us out of the Green-land Fishery and left us very little of the Fisheries to Iseland and Westmony It were to be wished that an Experiment might be made of building Vessels for our Fisheries especially for that of the New-found-land in New-England where Timber Masts Pitch and Tar are cheaper and may be better had than the Dutch can import these or bring them into Holland down the Rhine and Maes but the Attempt of this must be done for some Years upon a publick Account Expedient XII That the English be permitted to buy Ships in the foreign Vent of our Manufactures and the Product of our Plantations It 's a strange thing to me that in the Navigation of England being so necessary for the Safety and enriching of it others not conversant in it as the Rump were not should restrain it to one sort of Shipping for such a Restraint cramps all Learning and Reasoning in every Art or Science without any possible Progression or Improvement beyond it and I say this Restraint was as absurd as impolitick I say it was absurd for it sets the Cart before the Horse for Trade is a Principle to Navigation and Navigation a Mean in carrying on Trade so that as you encrease your Trades you may your Navigation if your Hands be not bound up from it but if you begin at Navigation and tie your selves only to one sort of Ships it will be impossible to encrease your Trades beyond it whereby all those Peoples Labours which are restrained to this Navigation will be lost and these a Burden to the Nation I say this Restraint is as impolitick as absurd and unjust for hereby you sacrifice not only the Navigation upon which the Employment of People depended to your Neigbours it may be your Enemies but intitle their People to those Trades which you so foolishly give them to your Loss and it may be Undoing To these is added another dreadful Consequence upon the Nation by the Act of Navigation which the Rump in their haste and spite against the Dutch did not foresee at least not consider for the restraining the Navigation of England to English built Ships hath so wasted the Timber of England that in convenient Distances for building the King will not find Timber in England to build and repair his Navy Royal if this Restraint be continued and then in what a Condition will the Nation be I will give some particular Instances hereof which I know of my own Knowledg Having observed the Scarcity of Timber upon the Coast of Suffolk which I take to be the best of England for building Men of War caused by the Act of Navigation about 20 Years since when I was at Bristol one Captain Baily was building the Oxford Frigat out of Curiosity I went to see it
all other imaginable Advantages they would not be of further use to the Nation than they had Hands to carry them on The Commons in the third Westminster Parliament upon the 31st of December in 1680 Gave leave to bring in a Bill for a General Naturalization of Alien Protestants and allowing them Liberty to exercise their Trades in all Corporations But why was this leave to be given only to Protestant Foreigners Let 's see how the Case stands and what Benefit the Nation can reap from it now the French King has expelled the Reformed out of France As the Case stands Holland France and Flanders are the Places from whence we can expect any Benefit by this Liberty In Holland Protestant Artificers are as free and easy as in England but in Flanders though they be an industrious and honest Sort of People yet are they all Popish and I am confident if they thought they might freely exercise their Religion in England Multitudes of them would seek an Asilum in England to be freed from the Insults and Tyranny they are always subject to from the French and it may be reasonably expected that Multitudes of People in the French Conquests would flee the French Tyranny in them if they might be free in their Religion in England and it is not unlike but upon Advantages given the French we might procure many of them to fish from our Western Ports if they were free in their Religion Object But this Permission would disturb the Peace and endanger the Safety of the Church of England Answ Good Men are scarce and so these Men had need of taking care for themselves and these Men are as careful of the Church as the Free-men are of their Privileges and rather suffer the Nation to sink than they any ways endangered Is not the Church of England in the Kingdom of England and protected by it so that if the Kingdom falls the Church cannot stand Did not our Saviour send his Apostles to propagate the Gospel in this World though they suffered Persecution and Martyrdom for it Yet these good Men are fearful of themselves and the Church of England if others come to support the Kingdom and enrich them When any Foreigners are planted here have not the Church-men if they will make it their Business an Opportunity of winning them to the Church of England and have Reason and the Authority of the Kingdom to do it and if these will not prevail the Fault is others not theirs For my part I detest the Roman Superstition and Idolatry as much as any Man and am as fearful of the Tyranny which the Pope claims as well over Princes as Mens Consciences yet I apprehend no Danger of either by this Liberty granted to Popish Artificers for it is one thing for Jesuits and Popish Priests to make it their Business to pervert Men to their Sentiments and another thing for poor Popish People to make it their Business how to subsist which will take up their whole time especially where they are in a strange Place and Strangers to the People unless by accident in their Dealings for their Support and also to the Language of the People where they live I would know what Inconvenience has followed for permitting Brewer and his Followers which were all Papists to instruct our Natives in making and dying fine Woollen Cloths and in all the Disturbances and Tumults of the late Times after 1640 let any Man shew me one Instance wherein the Walloons and their Descendants planted in London Norwich Colchester or Canterbury contributed to any of them however they had been sufficiently provoked thereto both by Arch-Bishop Laud and Bishop Wren Expedient XX. That it be free for all Foreigners to purchase Lands and Tenements in England The Reason hereof is because where Men purchase Lands and Tenements they design a Habitation whereby the Nation will be so much more peopled as Purchasers are more and the Kingdom so much strengthned and the King's Revenues so much increased as these Purchasers and their Families consume more excizable Goods or foreign which pay Customs and so much more as the Purchase-Money shall be more so much more will the Nation be enriched for the Lands and Houses we retain still and the Purchase-Money is an Addition to the Treasure of the Nation and this is so much an Advantage to the Nation because no Man in it runs any Hazard or Venture of Loss by it whereas in all the Wealth which Merchants acquire by Foreign Trades they run not only the Hazard of Loss but of being undone Expedient XXI That a publick Encouragement be given to all Foreigners which shall carry on the Fishing Trade from the Ports of England in the New-found-land Fishery and to Greenland Iseland Westmony and upon the Coasts of England and Scotland for the taking and curing White-Herring and Cod-fish The Reasons hereof are manifold for above all other Trades the Fishing-Trade encreases Mariners and Navigation for every Man in the Fishing-Trade becomes a Mariner whereas in the East-India and other Trades it may be a thousand Artificers do not employ one Mariner and in the East-India Trade it may be a Question whether we do not lose more Sea-men or make more Mariners and those which survive by reason of the Diversities of the Climates and their feeding upon salted Meats and drinking sour Drinks are so feeble that a Fisherman is able to fight and beat two of them Add hereto the Fishermen are always at home and so at hand upon all Occasions to serve the Nation whereas in the East-India Trade you scarce hear of one in two Years and not in a Year from those to Turkey and our American Plantations Besides these Fishing-Trades above all others employ all sorts of poor People at home in making Ropes Sails and Nets for it If ever these Fisheries be retrieved it will be with great Difficulty and a Work of Time considering the Poverty of the Coast-Towns of England and the Potency of the Dutch and French in opposing us who are possessed of them and it is more difficult to retrieve a lost Game than not to be able to play it before it be lost yet this Benefit we have by it that we have discovered how we lost our Game and how the Dutch and French won theirs In the Fisheries upon the Coast of England and Scotland besides the King 's indubitable Right whatever Grotius in his Mare Liberum says to the contrary the English may take in fresh Water and Provisions and dry their Nets upon the Shore which the King may forbid Foreigners to do in their Fisheries which may be of great Advantage to the English for the Dutch begin their Fisheries of White Herring upon the Coast of Schotland or Schetland upon the Rising Grounds as they call them and follow that Fishery four Months in the Year before the Herrings come to the Coast of Norfolk and Suffolk where we begin ours which Fishery we enjoy no longer than
Indulgence to be read in Churches 644. Jefferies the Commons Votes against him 556. Releases the impeached Lords 611. His savage Cruelty in the West c. 613 620 621. Is made Lord Chancellor 630. Jesuits their Projects in England 200 201. for which some were taken yet releas'd by the King 201. Ignoramus the Play 74. Ingoldsby sent against Lambert 420. Inoiosa Spanish Ambassador presents the King a Paper against the Prince and Buckingham 130 132. which much perplexes him 132 133. Johnson Mr. Samuel whipt for writing an honest Address to the English Army 638 639. Jones Sir Tho. his Thoughts of a Dispensing Power 630. Sir Will. put out and for what 546. Ireland how bounded c. 12. A horrible Massacre there 277 343. Another design'd 448. and a Rebellion in Conjunction with the French 472 533. K. James's Proceedings there 624 625 632 641. Irish Cattle Act to prohibit their Importation with 9 Observations upon it 462 467. Is made perpetual 559. Judges their Opinion for Ship-Money 258. Those made by Char. II. 501. Juries hated by Cromwel 400 401. Are pack'd to murder honest Men 601 602 611. Jurisdiction of Parliaments discust in relation to Fitz-harris 588 590. Jus Divinum 330 332 544. Juxton Bishop of London made Lord-Treasurer 265. K. KIngs their divided Will against Law 5. Never parted with Parliaments in Disgust till the Stuarts 205 267. Not wont to be present at Debates in Parliament 502. Never speak but in Parliament or under the Great-Seal 568. Kirk Maj. General his barbarous Inhumanity at Taunton 622. Kirk-Party strict with James VI. 34. Mind the King of his Covenant 443. See Scots L. LAmbert turns against Cromwel 399. After against his Son 406. Is made Lieutenant-General 408. Petitions the Rump 409. Is turn'd out by them ib. and after turns them out 410. Marches against Monk 412 414. Is sent to the Tower 416. Is routed and taken Prisoner 421. Langdale Sir Marmad his Success for the King 309. Is discontented 311. Laud his Rise and Character 122 123. Puts the King on altering Religion in Scotland 122 123 242 255 256 260. Gets a Bishoprick by playing the Spaniel 123. His ways to ruin Bishop Williams 124 239. Proves a Firebrand c. 157 166 167 226 239 242. Is made Bp of London 226. Favours Popery 231. His great Care of the Church 167 227 241 242. Prosecutes his Injunctions concerning Ceremonies with great Severity 254 255 257 258. Quarrels with the King about visiting the Vniversities 256 257. Procures an Alteration in the Church of Scotland 262 263. Lauderdale some account of him 441 442 454. Is bitter against the Presbyterians in Scotland his Highland Government there 490 491. Laws c. ought to be in the Mother-Tongue 363 404 405 665. Lenthal made General by the Rump 408. Lestrange Roger Champion of the Tory-Cause 500. Is employ'd to ridicule the Popish Plot 545. Levellers in the Army 318. Liberty of Conscience to be continued 662. See Dissenters and James II. Lindsey Earl sent to relieve Rochel but in vain 225. Lisle Lady her unparallel'd Case is basely murder'd 620. London on ill Terms with the King 272. yet lend him Money 273. Raise Souldiers under Waller c. 321. In Confusion 414. Join with Monk for a Free Parliament 419. Is set on fire 461. See Hubert Long Mr. sentenc'd in Star-Chamber 234. Lorain Duke basely dealt with by the French King 474. Lords five impeach'd by the Commons 535. See Jefferies Lowden Chancellor of Scotland his Speech concerning Cromwel 303 304. Ludlow deposes Henry in Ireland 408. M. MAckenzy Sir Geo. pleads against the Earl of Argyle 584 585. Magdalen-College Story 640. Mansfield denied landing at Calais contrary to Agreement 146. Manwaring for the King 's absolute Power 197. Impeach'd by the Commons and sentenc'd by the Lords 214 215. Is promoted by Laud 227 256. Marriage with France see Charles I. Marsilly murder'd at Paris to the Dishonour of K. Charles 479. Marston-Moor Fight 307. Maurice Prince for the King 298. Is lost in the W Indies 327. May Tho. Esq his Treatise of the Civil Wars disprov'd 280 295. Mazarine turns K. Charles c. out of France 383. His Success against the Pr. of Conde 388 389. and Loss at Ostend 402. Opposes K. Charles's Restoration 421 422. Meal-tub-Plot discover'd 546. Militia who shou'd have the Power of it the chief Cause of the War 296. Whether it belongs to King or Parliament ib. 329. Mombas betrays the Dutch 484 486. Monk takes Sterling-Castle and Dundee 347. Complies with Cromwel 359. Engages the Dutch 356 371 372. Is caress'd on his Victory 373. Sent to Scotland 383. His Pedigree and Story 384 385. His Regency in Scotland 410. Is much courâ—ed secures Berwick 411. His ill Success treats with the Committee of Safety but displeas'd with the Agreement with a Story of him 412 413. Sends to Fleetwood summons a great Assembly at Edinburgh abjures K. Charles 413. His Success 412 416. Is declar'd for in Ireland 412. Marches to London is addrest for a Free Parliament 416. Is carest by the Rump his Speech to them 417. Pulls down the Gates of the City sends an angry Message to the Rump 418. Declares for a Free Parliament at Guild-hall and restores the secluded Members 419. Meets the King at Dover and is made Knight of the Garter 426. Monmouth Duke sent against the Covenanters 543. 'T was believ'd his Mother was married to the King and why 544. Is unjustly put to Death 619. Monopolies injurious 55 56 65. Montross for the King 313 315 316. Is routed and executed 344. Morley Col. Herbert secures the Tower for Monk 418. Mountague accus'd by the Commons of Arminianism 166. Is favour'd by the King 166 167 171 226. Impeach'd by the Commons for favouring Popery 180 183 226. Made Bp of Chichester 226. and after of Norwich 227. Holds Correspondence with the Pope 273. Muscovy the Czar revokes the English Privileges on K. Charles's Death 350. N. NAseby Fight 311 312. Navigation-Act made by the Rump 350. Its Inconveniences 364 367 391 455 653 658. Nayloâ— James his Blasphemy 396 Newberry first Fight 299. Second Fight 308. Newfoundland Fishery how the French got it from us 390 391. North Sir Francis a Tool in the late Times 592. Promoted 603. Northampton Earl concern'd in Overbury's Death see Carr and Overbury Yet in favour with the King tho a Papist 72 73 Incourages the Irish Papists 74. November 5. appointed an Anniversary Thanksgiving 58. Noy Mr. against the Court 208. Is taken off by being made Attorney-General 243. His Pretence for Ship-money c. 252. O. OAtes Dr. first discovers the Popish Plot 532. His excessive Fine 610. Indicted of two pretended Perjuries 610 613. His barbarous and illegal Punishment 613. Oaths Remarks on that of the Scots Covenant 368 438. on the Convocation-Oath 369 438. on the Corporation-Oath 431 439. Orange Prince General for the Dutch 486. Declar'd Stadtholder is courted by the French King his noble Answer to his Proposals 488. His Success against the French 492 495. Fights the French at Mount Cassel 505 513. Comes into England 507 515. Opposes a separate Peace 507 508 511. Advises concerning the Lady Mary 509. His brave Resolution against the King's Answer
in Parchment for to perswade and encourage him in the Perversion of the Prince But how steady soever the Duke was in his French Garb in Spain and of Compliance with the Spaniard in the Popish Religion yet he was not so when he returned into England for then he turns quite contrary and assumes a popular Way and joins with the Prince and thereby over-ruled the King as they pleased and closed with the Nobility and Puritan Party opposite to Spain As you may read in Rushworth fol. 107. Nor was the Duke's Covetousness and sacrilegious Desires of robbing the Church's Patrimony less than his Hypocrisy in Religion for whilst he was in this Godly Fit he treats with Dr. John Preston Head of the Puritan Party how the King might seize the Dean and Chapter Lands as you may read in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Doctor Williams 1st Part fol. 202. After the Return of the Prince and Duke into England and Bristol left in Spain both contrive how to ruin the Earl of Bristol bound up with contrary Instructions and to dissolve the Prince's Match with the Infanta so solemnly sworn by both Kings and the Prince and could find no other Pretence to do it but by the King's Letter to the Earl of Bristol before he delivered the Powers for consummating the Marriage to procure from the King of Spain either by publick Act or under his Hand and Seal a direct Engagement for the Restitution of the Palatinate and Electoral Dignity by Mediation or Assistance of Arms but in regard this must be now insisted upon let 's see how this stood during the Treaty In all the Treaty for this Match the Restitution of the Palatinate was laid aside as Rushworth observes fol. 91. and my Lord of Bristol in his Defence against the Duke's or King's Charge fol. 302. says that his Instructions from King James the 14th of March 1621 were express that he should not make the Business of the Palatinate a Condition of the Marriage and that of the King 's of the 30th of December 1623 I think it was 1622 were fully to the same Effect But now the whole Treaty which was so solemnly agreed upon and sworn to by both Kings and the Prince and that the Marriage should be consummate within 10 days after the Dispensation came from Rome which it did about the beginning of December 1623 must be all dasht without the Restitution of the Palatine to his Country and Electoral Dignity which being perplext with such Variety of Interests as the Duke of Bavaria's having possest himself of the upper Palatinate and the Restitution of the Palsgrave being an Act of the Emperor and Empire was not in the King of Spain's Power Nay the Proxies left with the Earl would not admit of a Treaty in this Case for the Marriage was to be consummate within ten Days after the Arrival of the Dispensation from Rome The Earl of Bristol for not obtaining these new impossible and inconsistible Conditions is recalled from his Embassy and a new Treaty of Marriage between the Prince and the Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter of Henry the Fourth of France is as suddenly set on Foot as that of Spain abruptly broke off and that by this time the King of Spain and the Earl had frequent Advice of the Prince and Duke's Designs to ruin the Earl The King of Spain therefore made a threefold Proffer to the Earl either to write to the King James and if need were to send a particular Ambassador to mediate for him to satisfy the Earl's Fidelity and Exactness in all the Treaty or to make him a Blank wherein the Earl should set down his own Conditions both in Title and Honour in Spain whereunto the Earl answered He was sorry and afflicted to hear such Language and desir'd they should understand that neither the King nor Spain were beholden to him For whatever he had done he thought fit to do for his Master's Service and his own Honour having no Relation to Spain and that he served a Master from whom he was assured both of Justice and due Reward nothing doubting but his own Innocence would prevail against the Wrong intended by his powerful Adversaries and were he sure to run into eminent Danger he had rather go home and cast himself at his Majesty's Feet and Mercy and therein comply with the Duty and Honour of a faithful Subject though it should cost him his Head than be Duke or Infantado of Spain and that with this Resolution he would employ the utmost of his Power to maintain the Amity of the two Crowns and to serve his Catholick Majesty and thirdly the King of Spain desired him in private to take 10000 Crowns to bear his Charges but the Earl answered one would know it viz. the Earl of Bristol who would reveal it to his Majesty King James Now if any Man can shew in any Authority antient or modern wherein a Treaty of this Nature was thus begun thus managed and thus broken off wherein a Noble Lady of highest Birth and noblest Fortune adorned with all the Excellencies of Beauty in her Person and the more excelling Virtues of her Mind in all the Perfections requisite in her Sex was thus baulkt and see her self made a Stale to advance the Avarice and covetous Desires of others he shall be my great Apollo So we 'll leave this Affair here and see what Comfort King James had of his Affairs elsewhere In the Year 1619 King James and the Dutch States entred into and concluded a Treaty of Trade between the English and Dutch in the East-Indies at this time and for many Years before the English had at Amboyna one of the Scyndae or Setibe Islands lying near Seran which had several smaller Islands depending upon it five several Factories two at Hitto and Lerico and two at Latro and Cambello in the Island of Seran but the principal of them was at Amboyna Amboyna was and is the principal Place in all the East-Indies where Nutmegs Mace Cinamon Cloves and Spice grow and from these Factories the English supplied not only England and Europe with Spice but Persia Japan and other Countries in the East-Indies The Treaty of Commerce between the King and the Dutch States was scarce three Years old when the Dutch in the East-Indies contrive how they may dispossess the English of the Spice-Trade which above all others is the best in the East-Indies at least which was then or now is known It seems says my Author William de Britain in his Treatise of the Dutch Usurpation fol. 14. that the English in all these Islands were better beloved than the Dutch and had built a Fortress in Amboyna for the Safety of Trade which the Dutch having two Hundred Soldiers there forced from the English and thereupon feigning a Plot between the English and Japonesses I think he means the Natives of Amboyna to betray the Fortress again to the English the Dutch with Fire and Water in an
to procure a private Audience of the King tho he often desired it but what the Duke assisted at Inoiosa impatient of any longer Delay about the latter end of April 1624 contrived this Expedient to put the following Paper into the King's Hand he and Don Carlo de Colonna came adventurously to White-Hall and whilst Don Carlo held the Prince and Duke in earnest Discourse Inoiosa put this Paper into the King's Hand with a Wink that the King should put it into his Pocket wherein 1. He terrifies the King that he was not or could not be acquainted with the Passages either of his own Court or of the Parliament for he was kept from all faithful Servants that would inform him by the Ministers of the Prince and Duke and that he was a Prisoner as much as King John of France in England or King Francis at Madrid and could not be spoken with but before such as watched him 2. That there was a strong and violent Machination in hand which had turned the Prince a most obedient Son to a quite contrary Course to his Majesty's Intentions 3. That the Council began last Summer at Madrid but was lately resolved on in England to restrain his Majesty from the Exercise of the Government of his Kingdoms and that the Prince and Duke had designed such Commissioners under themselves as should intend great Affairs and the Publick Good 4. That this should be effected by beginning of a War and keeping some Companies on foot in this Land whereby to constrain his Majesty to yield to any thing chiefly being brought into Straits for want of Monies to pay the Souldiers 5. That the Prince and Duke's inclosing his Majesty from the said Ambassador and other of his own Loyal People that they might not come near in private did argue in them a fear and distrust of a good Conscience 6. That the Emissaries of the Duke had brought his Majesty into Contempt with the potent Men of this Realm traducing him for slothful and unactive for addiction to an inglorious Peace while the Inheritance of his Daughter and her Children is in the Hands of his Foes and this appear'd by a Letter which the Duke had writ into Holland and they had intercepted 7. That his Majesty's Honour nay his Crown and Safety did depend upon a sudden Dissolution of the Parliament 8. They loaded the Duke with sundry Misdemeanours in Spain and his violent Opposition to the Match 9. That the Duke had divulged the King's Secrets and the close Designs between his Majesty and their Master King Philip about the States of Holland and their Provinces and laboured to put his Majesty out of the good Opinion of the Hollanders 10. That the Duke was guilty of most corrupt dealing with the Ambassadors of divers Princes 11. That all these things were carried on in the Parliament with an head-strong Violence and that the Duke was the cause of it who courted them only that were of troubled Humours 12. That such Bitterness and Ignominies were vented in Parliament against the King of Spain as were against all good Manners and Honour of the English Nation The 13th is a flat Contradiction to the Precedents wherein they made the Prince privy to dangerous things yet in this they say That the Puritans of whom the Duke was Head did wish they could bring it about that the Succession of the Kingdom might come to the Prince Palatine and his Children in right of the Lady Elizabeth In a Postscript the Paper prayed the King That Don Francisco Carondelet Secretary to the Marquess Inoiosa might be brought to the King when the Prince and Duke were sitting in the Lords House to satisfy such Doubts as the King might raise which was performed by the Earl of Kelly who watch'd a fit Season at one time for Francisco and for Padre Maestro a Jesuit at another time who told their Errand so spitefully that the King was troubled at their Relations How far the Spanish Ambassador Carondelet and the Jesuit Maestro could make good this Paper I cannot tell nor does the Bishop say however the King was apprehensive that the Parliament was solicitous to engage him in a War for the Palatinate which he so dreaded that as the Bishop says he thought scarce any Mischief was so great as was worth a War to mend it wherein the Prince did deviate from him as likewise in his Affection to the Spanish Alliance But he stuck at the Duke more whom â—e defended in one part to one of the Spanish Ministers yet at the same time complaining That he had noted in him a turbuleâ—â— Spirit of late and knew not how to mitigate it so that casting up the Sum he doubted it might come to his turn to pay the Reckoning These Thoughts so wrought upon the King that his Countenance fell suddenly that he mused much in Silence and that he entertained the Prince and Duke with mystical and broken Speeches this nettled them both and enquiring the Reason they could not go further than that they heard the Spanish Secretary and the Jesuit Maestro had been with the King and understood that some in the Ambassador's House had vaunted that they had nettled the Duke and that a Train would take fire shortly to blow up the Parliament In this Perplexity the King prepared to take Coach for Windsor to shift Ground for some better Rest in this Unrest and took Coach at St. James's Gate and the Prince with him and found a slight Errand to leave Buckingham behind as the King was putting his Foot into the Coach the Duke besought him with Tears in his Eyes and humble Prayer that his Majesty would let him know what could be laid to his Charge to offend so good and gracious a Master and vowed by the Name of his Saviour he would purge it or confess it The King did not satisfy him but breathed out his Disgust that he was the unhappiest alive to be forsaken of them that were dearest to him which was uttered and received with Tears from his own Eyes as well as the Prince's and Duke's and made haste to Windsor leaving the Duke behind this was upon Saturday at the end of April The Duke forlorn retires to Wallingford-House and was in such Confusion and Distraction that when my Lord Keeper who had notice of all these things and was more careful of the Duke than he could be of himself came to him he found the Duke lying upon his Couch in that immoveable Posture that he would neither rise up nor speak tho the Keeper invited him to it twice or thrice by courteous Questions The Keeper told him by the Faith of a deep Protestation that he came purposely to prevent more Harm and to bring him out of that Sorrow into the Light of the King's Favour That he verily believ'd God's directing Hand was in it to stir up his Grace to advance him to those Favours which he possessed to do him Service at this Pinch of Extremity
more but to tell me who is your Ingineer that struck these Sparks out of the Flint to light the Candle to find the Groat which was lost The Prince stood mute and the Duke vowed he knew not the Author Well said the King I have a good Nostril and will answer mine own Question my Keeper had the main finger in it I dare swear he bolted the Flower and made it up into Past Sir said the Prince I was precluded by my Promise not to reveal him but I never promised to tell a Lie for him your Majesty has hit the Man And God do him good for it says the King I need not tell you both what you owe him for this Service he has done himself this Right with me that I discern his Sufficiency more and more This you may read in the Keeper's Life Part 1. from fol. 195 to fol. 200. and much more of the Bishop but I think but little more of the Keeper And tho the Spanish Ambassador received a sore Rebuke here and was sent back into Spain the Bishop says he received no Frown nor Disfavour there Now let 's see how the Duke requited the Keeper for his Service which was but in May In the beginning of Michaelmas-Term following the Duke perswaded my Lord Chief Justice Hobart to tell the King or give it under his hand that my Lord Keeper was not fit for the Place and he would undertake to cast the Keeper out and put my Lord Hobart into his place but my Lord Hobart said Somewhat might have been said at first but he should do my Lord Keeper great wrong that said so now See fol. 201. However such was the Temper of the Times that both Houses chimed in with the Duke in his Narrative and justified him against the Spanish Ambassador who took great Offence at the Duke's Relation as reflecting upon his Master's Honour and demanded his Head for Satisfaction The King was so pleased with the Parliament's Justification of the Duke as we have shewed before that as he had been his Favourite Somerset's Advocate to plead his Cause against the Opinion of Archbishop Abbot to make the Countess of Essex to be virgo intacta and so a fit Wife for Somerset so now he becomes his Disciple Buckingham's Advocate to make him a Favourite to the Nation and because of the Excellency and veracity of his Speech which should dispose the Nation to it we 'll give it you verbatim as it is to be seen in Rushworth fol. 127. My Lords and Gentlemen I Might have nothing to speak in regard of the Person whereof you spake but in regard of your Motion it were not civil for if I be silent I shall neither wrong my self nor that Noble Man which you now spake of because he is well known to be such an one as stands in no need of a Prolocutor or Fideâ—ussor to undertake for his Fidelity or well carrying of the Business And indeed to send a Man upon so great an Errand whom I was not to trust for the Carriage thereof were a Fault in my Discretion scarce compatible to the Love and Trust I bear him It is an old Saying That he is a happy Man that serves a good Master and it is no less true That he is a happy Master that enjoys a faithful Servant The greatest Fault if it be a Fault or at leastwise the greatest Error I hope he shall ever commit against me was his desiring this Justification from you as if he had need of any Justification from others towards me and that for these Reasons First Because he being my Disciple and Scholar he may be assured he will trust his own Relation Secondly Because he made the same Relation to me which he did afterwards to both Houses so as I was formerly acquainted with the Matter and Manner thereof and if I should not trust him in the Carriage I was altogether unworthy of such a Servant He hath no Interest of his own in the Business He had ill Thoughts at home for his going thither with my Son altho it was my Command as I told you before and now he hath as little Thanks for his Relation on the other part he has the Thanks of the Parliament yet he that serves God and a good Master cannot miscarry for all this I have noted in the Negotiation these three remarkable things Faith Diligence and Discretion whereof my Son has born Record unto me yet I cannot deny That as he thought to do good Service to his Master he has given an ill Example to Ambassadors in time to come because he went this long Journey upon his own Charge This will prove an ill Example if many of my Ambassadors should take it for a Precedent He run his Head into the Yoke with the People here for undertaking the Journey and when he had spent there 40 or 50000 l. where should he have this Money never offered his Account nor made any Demand for the same nor ever will I hope other Ambassadors will do so no more I am a good Master that never doubted him for I know him to be so good a Scholar of mine that I say without Vanity he will not exceed his Master's Dictates and I trust the Report not the worst he made because it is approved by you all and I am glad he hath so well satisfied you and thank you heartily for taking it in so good part as I find you have done Did ever any old experienced King as he stiles himself so dote upon a young raw and unexperienced Gentleman bred up in no sort of Learning or Business and scarce before he became a Courtier unless in his Infancy breathed any other than French Air as in the face of the Nation to magnify an invidious Tale told by the Duke to the Offence not only of the Spanish Ambassador conversant in the whole Affair but also without hearing the Earl of Bristol who was the greatest Statesman of England if not in Europe and who had so honourably performed several Embassies to the Honour of the King so far as the thing would bear and so manifoldly owned by the King That this Scholar of the King 's unacquainted with the Treaty should break in upon the Earl and not only unravel all but quarrel with him and in another King's Court with the prime Minister of State by whom he might best have attained his End if he designed any However the Parliament address themselves to the King and represent to him That he cannot in Honour proceed in the Treaty of the Match with Spain nor the Palatinate and the Commons offer the King three Subsidies and three Fifteenths for carrying on the War for the Recovery of the Palatinate in case the King will break off the Treaties which the King accepted protesting to God a Penny of this Money should not be bestowed but upon this Work and by their own Committees and the Commons took him at his Word and appointed
Before a Year goes about you shall see Buckingham set the King at odds with the Parliament and yet engage him in a War against Spain and before another goes about engage the King in another against France to satiate his Spight and Revenge against Richlieu for crossing him in his Lust and after 13 Years Laud shall be the Fire-brand to set all the three Nations in the Flame of a Civil War as King James had foretold But it 's time to come to Particulars The first Enterprise which the Duke engaged the King in was not for the Recovery of the Palatinate as he pretended when he would have engaged King James in a War against the King of Spain but to express his Hatred against Olivares and therefore a Fleet must be rigged up to make War in Spain even when King James's Corps lay unburied and at so unseasonable a time when the Charges of King James's Funeral were so fast approaching and when the Charges of the King's Ambassadors the Earls of Carlisle and Holland ran so high at Paris to outvy the French Splendor for solemnizing the Marriage between the King and the Queen and these so much more augmented by the Duke's Preparations to fetch the Queen over which when the Duke shall come to Paris must outshine not only the Bravery of the English Ambassadors but all that Cardinal Richlieu could do From the Unseasonableness of this Expedition let 's see by what Counsels Buckingham managed this designed Expedition and herein take Light from a Letter which my Lord Cromwel wrote to the Duke and which you may read in Rushworth's Collections fol. 199. after the Fleet had lain so long that the Season of the Year was past and most dangerous for Ships to put to Sea The Letter is Verbatim THey offer to lay Wagers the Fleet goes not this Year and that of necessity shortly a Parliament must be which when it comes sure it will much discontent you It 's wonder'd at that since the King did give such great Gifts to the Dutchess of Chevereux and those that went how now a small Sum in the Parliament should be called for at such a time and let the Parliament sit when it will begin they will where they ended They say the Lords of the Council knew nothing of Mansfield's Journey or this Fleet which discontents even the best sort if not all They say it is a very great Burden your Grace takes upon you since none know any thing but you It 's conceived that not letting others bear part of the Burden you now bear it may ruin you which Heavens forbid Much Discourse there is of your Lordship here and there as I passed home and back and nothing is more wonder'd at than that one grave Man is not known to have your ear except my Good and Noble Lord Conway All Men say if you go not with the Fleet you will suffer in it because if it prosper it will be thought no Act of yours and if it succeed ill it might have been better if you had not guided the King They say your Vndertakings in this Kingdom will much prejudice your Grace and if God bless you not with Goodness to accept kindly what in Duty and Love I offer questionless my Freedom of letting you know the Discourse of the World may prejudice me But if I must lose your Favour I had rather lose it for striving to do you good in letting you know the Talk of the wicked World than for any thing else so much I heartily desire your Prosperity and to see you trample the ignorant Multitude under foot All I have said is the Discourse of this World and when I am able to judg of Actions I will freely tell your Lordship my Mind which when it shall not always incline to serve you may all my noble Thoughts forsake me The Success of this Expedition you will hear soon Thus was the King of Spain required for all the noble Favours he had shewn the King when he was in Spain This was the Return of Buckingham's Protestation to the King of Spain when they parted at the Escurial That he would be an everlasting Servant to the King of Spain the Queen and the Infanta and would do the best Offices he could for concluding the Business the Match between the Prince and Infanta and strengthen the Amity between the two Kingdoms to have War made upon him without any Declaration of it by King Charles so soon as it came in his Power to do it After Buckingham became Lord Admiral the English Navy lay at Road unarmed and fit for Ruin as you may see in Rushworth fol. 3. This was before the Treaty of the Spanish Match and after the breaking of the Spanish Match the Duke not only neglected the guarding of the Seas whereby the Trade of the Nation not only decayed but the Seas became ignominiously infested by Pyrates and Enemies to the Loss of very many of the Merchants and Subjects of England as you may read in the Fourth Article of the Charge of the Commons against him in Rushworth fol. 312. Objection But this was but an Accusation and therefore it does not amount to a Proof It ought not to be presumed the Commons would have charged this upon him without Proof and I say it is strong Proof upon the Duke since the King dissolved the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to a Trial upon it However the Navy lay thus neglected and Seas unguarded and tho the French had broken the Treaty of Marriage with France by not suffering Mansfield to land his Army at Calais yet the supplying the French with a Fleet to subdue the Rochellers must be performed And to this end even whilst King James lay unburied great Consultation between the Duke and the Marquiss of Efsiat was had how this might be done The King had no Men of War ready but the Vaunt-Guard and the French Necessities were urgent for all this while Sobiez rode triumphant at Sea the French not being able to encounter him and thereby Rochel upon all Occasions was relieved by Sea However the French must be gratified or this hopeful Marriage with France might be disturbed The Duke therefore by his Power of Lord Admiral besides the Vaunt-Guard pressed 7 Ships of the Merchants of England into the King's Service viz. The Great Neptune whereof Sir Ferdinando Gorge was Captain the Industry of 450 Tuns whereof James Moyer was Captain the Pearl of 540 Tuns whereof Anthony Tench was Captain the Marigold of 300 Tuns whereof Thomas Davis was Captain the Loyalty of 300 Tuns Jasper Dare Captain the Peter and John of 300 Tuns John Davis Captain and 7thly the Gift of God Henry Lewen Captain The Duke tho the Navy were unprovided with Stores and Ammunition could find Stores and Ammunition sufficient for furnishing this Fleet and upon the 8th of May caused a Warrant under the Great Seal to be issued to call the Companies aboard which had been raised
might not another Parliament upon better Information alter what the Parliament 21 Jac. had done Which neither of these Parliaments did but granted and voted him and his Father greater Supplies than ever before were given to any of his Predecessors in three-fold the time But when the King enter'd into a View of his Treasure he found how ill provided he was to proceed effectually with so great an Action It seems by this one Action the King only designed the War against Spain But why does not the King set forth the Causes why his Treasure was so ill provided It was not ten Months before his Father's Death that the Parliament 21 Jac. which gave his Father three Subsidies and three Fifteenths was adjourned and his first Parliament gave him two Subsidies more within two or three Months after his Father's Death And what came of all this but the raising ten thousand Foot and two thousand Horse under Mansfield the Expedition against the Rochellers and to Cadiz to neither of which latter he was ever invited by his Father or any Parliament The King makes the â—lague to be the Cause of the Dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford yet he might as well have secured the Members by a Prorogation as Dissolution And in this Parliament he tells how the House of Commons voted him three Subsidies and three Fifteenths and after four Subsidies and three Fifteenths and of the Letter he sent them the 9th of June to speed the passing these Supplies and how that the House being abused by the violent and ill-advised Passion of a few Members never so much as admitted one Reading to the Bill of Subsidies but voted a Remonstrance or Declaration which they intended to prefer to him tho palliated with glossing Terms containing many dishonourable Aspersions upon his Majesty and upon the sacred Memory of his deceased Father which his Majesty taking for a Denial of the promised Supplies upon mature Advisement he dissolved them But from whence should this mature Advisement come We do not find the Privy Council had any hand in it and the House of Lords petitioned against it But lest the Credit of this Declaration should not find Faith enough against the Commons Representatives the King sends a Proclamation after it wherein he takes notice of a Remonstrance drawn by a Committee of the late Commons to be presented to him wherein are many things to the Dishonour of himself and his Royal Father of blessed Memory and whereby through the sides of a Peer of this Realm they wound their Soveraign's Honour and to vent their Passions against that Peer and prepossess the World with an ill Opinion of him before his Case was heard who hinder'd it had scatter'd Copies of it Wherefore the King to suppress such an unsufferable Wrong upon pain of his Indignation and high Displeasure commanded all who had Copies thereof to burn them But why was not the Duke's Cause heard and who dissolved the Parliament to prevent it Had not the Earl of Bristol answered every Particular of the King 's and Duke's Charge against him And was there not an Order of the House of Lords the Duke should answer the Earl's Charge against him Where is this Answer to be found and why was it not Now see the Justice of this King and how he made good his Promise in his Declaration that he would so order his Actions as should justify him not only in his own Conscience but to the whole World for the very Day the Parliament was dissolved he committed the Earl of Bristol Prisoner to the Tower and left the Duke free to pursue his ungodly Designs Here I 'll stay a little and add this Augmentation of Honour to the Escutcheon of this noble Earl notwithstanding this Usage For when the Long Parliament in 1640 had put a full Stop to the King 's Absolute Will and Pleasure which if it had not God only knows where it would have ended and after that this King's Flatterers and Favourites his Lord Keeper Finch and Secretary Winde-bank had run into other Countries to save themselves from being hanged in this and that the Earl of Manchester after he had flatter'd this King and his Father in all the Shapes of Earl Viscount Baron Lord Chief Justice Lord Privy Seal Lord Treasurer and Lord President of the Council and his Son and the Earls of Pembroke and Holland and both the Sir Henry Vanes Father and Son and Sir Henry Mildmay c. sided with the Parliament against the King yet this noble Earl followed the King in all his Adversity however he had been persecuted by him in his Prosperity The late Keeper as he gave his Opinion against the War with Spain in King James's Reign so did he against the Expedition against Cales in this King's Reign his Reason was which you may read in the second Part of his Life fol. 65. That the King must make himself sure of the Love of his own People at home before he bid War to such a rich and mighty Nation But the Keeper's Counsels were as much feared and hated by the Duke as Bristol's and the Commons Articles were against him and therefore he resolved to be rid of them all and pursue the King 's and his own Designs without any Controul and the very same Day the Parliament was dissolved he caused the Earl of Bristol to be committed to the Tower as you may see in Stow's Chronicle fol. 1042. Nor would he have his Renown and Valour less known abroad than his Justice at home and France shall now be the Theatre upon which he will act it in spight of Spain or the Parliament and Nation of England without whose Assistance he will act Wonders by his own Power and in Vindication of his own Honour however some Cause must be shewed by others since the Duke concealed the true Cause Rushworth fol. 427. makes the Causes of this War to begin between the Priests of the Queen's Family and the Bishops by Articles of Agreement upon the Marriage and that the Pope had declared them Apostates if they should seek for any Establishment from the King being an Heretick and that the Queen sided herein with the Priests against the King and that Unkindnesses hereupon grew between them so as the King informed his Brother of France he could no longer bear them And much to this purpose has Mr. James Howel in the Life of Lewis XIII fol. 75. But these were but Pretences for this War the Cause was of another Complexion And herein we will cite the Authority of the great Nani who had better Means to enquire into the Causes than either Rushworth or Howel and was not biass'd by Interest Affection or Flattery You have heard before of the Emulation between Richlieu and Buckingham and of their Inclinations for the Queen's Favour and of the Queen 's noble Aversions to them both but I think Nani was therein a little mistaken for if I be not misinformed as I think verily I
am not when Buckingham came out of France with the Queen of England he left or soon after sent Sir Balthazer Gerbier to hold secret Correspondence between the Queen and himself and tho Richlieu watch'd Gerbier narrowly yet he brought the Queen's Garter and an exceeding rich Jewel to Buckingham from her Upon the breaking out of the Feuds in the Queen's Family which began almost as soon if not before it was settled Buckingham prevails with the King to be sent into France to compose them which was granted But Nani says the true Motive of Buckingham's Journey being ascribed to Love contracted in that Court Richlieu perswaded the King to refuse him Entrance into the Kingdom The Rage hereupon of the other was inflamed to extremity and sware since he was forbidden to enter in a peaceable manner into France he would make his Passage with an Army Here you see the Duke was under a double Obligation of Love and Honour and since he could not attain his End in Love it 's remarkable by what Steps he proceeded to make good his Oath and Honour of entering into France with an Army which will be better observed if they be look'd upon in their Circumstances It was the 16th of August 1625 in the first Year of the King's Reign as you may see in Rushworth fol. 335. that Buckingham caused the Captains of the Fleet under the Command of Vice-Admiral Pennington to deliver it into the French Power to fight against the Rochellers and while the Fleet was thus in the French Power and after the Duke had received the horrible Affront of being denied Entrance into France in a peaceable and loving manner about Michaelmas following viz. about six Weeks after the delivery of the Fleet the Duke as Lord High Admiral of England by an extraordinary Commission seized the St. Peter of New-haven John Mallerow Master laden with Goods Merchandize and Money to the value of 40000 l. upon the account of Monsieur Villiers Governor of New-haven and other French Merchants as Prize and the Duke took out of the said Ship sixteen Barrels of Cochineal eight Bags of Gold three and twenty Bags of Silver two Boxes of Pearl and Emeralds a Chain of Gold and Monies and Commodities to the value of 20000 l. and delivered them to Gabriel Marsh his Servant Whereupon there was an Arrest of two English Merchant Ships in New-haven upon the 7th of December following viz. 1625. whereupon by a Petitionâ— from the Merchants the King ordered December the 28th that the Ship and Goods belonging to the French should be re-delivered to the French upon this the Court of Admiralty decreed upon the 16th of January following that the Ship with all the Goods except three hundred Mexico Hides sixteen Sacks of Ginger one Box of gilded Beads and five Sacks of Ginger should be released from further Detention and delivered to the Master yet the Duke not only detained to his own use the said Gold Silver Pearl Emeralds Jewels and Money but upon the 6th of February following without any legal Proceedings caused the sid Ship to be again arrested and detained as you may see in Rushw f. 312. And here began the seizing of our English Ships in France which the Duke makes one of the Causes of the War Object But this is but a Charge of the Commons upon the Duke and therefore no direct Proof Answ It is not to be presumed the Commons would have charged these things thus particularly and positively without Proof and I say moreover they are to be taken for Truth since the King did dissolve the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to his Trial upon the Commons impeaching him hereupon and 't is worth Observation to see how without Counsel and by contrary Extreams the King and Duke engaged in both the Wars against Spain and France The Bishop of Litchfield in the second Part of the Life of the Lord Keeper Williams f. 4. tit 2. says The next day after King James's Death the King and Duke were busied in many Cares but the chief was for the Continuation of the Parliament at King James's Death the Keeper shewed that the Parliament determined with the Death of the King then the King said Since Necessity required a new Parliament his Will was that Writs forthwith be issued out of Chancery for a new Choice and not a day lost The Keeper hereupon craved leave to be heard and said It was usual in times before that the King's Servants and Friends did deal with Counties Cities and Boroughs where they were known to procure a Promise for their Elections before the precise time of any insequent Parliament was published and that the same Forecast would be good at this time which would not speed if the Summons were divulged before they look'd about them The King answered It was high time to have Subsidies granted for the War with the King of Spain and the Fleet must go forth for that purpose this Summer To which the Keeper replied in few words and with so cold a Consent that the King turned away and gave him leave to be gone whereas the King dissolved this Parliament and lost four Subsidies and three Fifteenths to save the Duke and make War upon France Concealing the true Reason for this War with France the Duke in his Declaration gives two other Reasons of it the first was the refusal of Mansfield to land his Army at Calais according to Agreement whereby the Design for the recovery of the Palatinate was frustrate But why must this be a Reason at this time of day for this was done in the Reign of King James and when the Treaty of the Marriage with France was in being Why was not then the Treaty broke off upon it And why after this in King Charles's Reign was the English Fleet put into the Power of the French to subdue the Rochellers and this Business of Mansfield's not so much as taken notice of The second Reason was The French seizing our English Merchants Ships in their Ports But this was after the Duke had seized and made Prize of the St. Peter of Newhaven so here the Duke begins making Prize upon the French and makes War upon them for doing so by the English However we have here a Declaration and Reason of a War against the French such as 't was tho none could be had for the War with Spain Here you may see the unhappy Fate of Princes who treat their Subjects as Enemies and their Flatterers and Favourites as their only Friends and Confidents for notwithstanding the King 's ill Success last Year to Cadiz and the King's Complaint for want of Money in the Exchequer and the ill terms he was at with his Subjects not only to be put upon making a War against the King of Spain and the Emperor but now also against the King of France and to have none but Buckingham Laud c. and their Paraâ—ices to support him in all these Wars and what
Son is our Enemy Widdrington But the late King's third Son the Duke of Glocester is still among us and too young to have been in Arms against us or infected with the Principles of our Enemies Whitlock There may be a day given for the King 's eldest Son or for the Duke of York his Brother to come in to the Parliament and upon such Terms as shall be thought fit and agreeable both to our Civil and Spiritual Liberties and a Settlement may be made upon them Cromwel This will be a Business of more than ordinary Difficulty but really a Word much used by him I think if it may be done with Safety and Preservation of our Rights both as Englishmen and as Christians that a Settlement of somewhat of Monarchical Power would be very effectual So that the Soldiers were for a Republick except Fleetwood who knew not what to say the Lawyers for a mix'd Monarchy and many for the Duke of Glocester to be King but then Cromwel designing for himself still put off the Debate to some other Point so the Company part without any Result at all yet Cromwel discovered by this Meeting the Inclinations of the Persons which spake for which he fished and made use of what he thus discerned But this Point was too tender to be further pressed at this time and so we leave it till Cromwel shall give a further Occasion In October this Year Haines reduced Jersey to the Rump and in January the Isle of Barbadoes was surrender'd to Askew sent thither by the Rump and in this Month an English Man of War meeting with some Dutch Fishermen demanded the tenth Herring as a Duty for their Fishing in these Seas which the Dutch denying the English sunk one of their Ships and all the Men were lost see Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 487. b. and here began the first Quarrel between the Rump and Dutch The Rump thus every where Victorious at home yet it may be fearing they had disgusted all Christian Princes by the Death of the King and already the Czar of Muscovy had revoked all the Privileges of Trade which had been granted to the English in the Reigns of Q. Mary and Q. Elizabeth and continued in the Reigns of King James and King Charles and banished the English out of his Dominions for putting the King to Death upon the 11th of March sent the Chief Justice St. John and Mr. Strickland to treat of a Coalition with the Dutch whose Title and Government were the same or not unlike to the Rump's and if this could be obtained both Republicks being incomparably superiour to all the Kings in the World by Sea they need not fear any Enemies abroad But the Dutch fearing this Coalition with England where the Harbours for Shipping are more and much better than those in Holland would rob them of the Trades they were possessed of and that their rich Merchants in case of a Coalition would be tempted to lay out their Monies upon real Securities in England rather than to venture them in the contingent Accidents of Trade not only refused to enter into a Coalition but rudely treated St. John whose haughty Spirit ill brooking such Affronts made a Report of his Embassy little to the Dutch Advantage Hereupon the Rump made the Act of Navigation designing thereby to have in a great measure lessened the Dutch Trade and encreased the English tho both succeeded quite contrary as hereafter we shall make it appear Yet the English by virtue of this Law took Occasion to search the Dutch Vessels and often to make Prize of them whereupon the Dutch sent over four Ambassadors Catz Van de Peere Sharp and Newport to pacify the Rump which they were so far from effecting that the Rump upon their first Audience upon the 15th of April demand the Arrears for the Dutch Fishing upon the Coasts of England and Scotland that the Survivors of the Dutch assisting in the Massacre of the English at Amboyna should be given up to Justice and a free Trade up the Scheld The Dutch Ambassadors were surprized at these Demands having no Instructions thereupon or if they had could not have given any reasonable Answer against them Yet still they continued to make great Protestations of their Love and Affection to the Commonwealth of England and their most ardent Desire of propagating and encreasing the true Reformed Religion yet privately gave the State an Account how little was to be expected from the Rump by a Treaty Hereupon the Dutch prepare for a War nor was the Rump herein behind hand with them The Dutch in May set out a Fleet of Men of War commanded by Van Trump pretending for the Security of Trade but with Instructions not to strike Sail to the English Flag and upon the 17th of May came into Dover Road with 45 Sail of Men of War where Trump rode at Anchor as if he defied what the English could do to him Blake the English Admiral had but 15 Men of War yet resolved to have an Account of Trump what he had to do in Dover Road and sailed directly to him hereupon Trump stood to the East-ward and by that means being become Head-most of the English Fleet bore directly upon them and being come within Musquet-shot of the English Blake gave Order to fire at Trump's Flag which was done thrice but instead of striking it Trump poured in a Broad-side upon Blake and Major Bourn at this time coming to Blake's Assistance with 8 Men of War both Fleets engaged from four in the Afternoon till Night wherein there were not less than 2000 Shot exchanged upon one and the other side and the Dutch had one Man of War taken and another sunk and 150 Men slain but the English had not one Ship lost or disabled and very few Men killed This Fight was the 19th of May. Van Trump in the Night drew his Ships on the Back of the Goodwin Sands and next Morning sailed back to Zealand instead of securing the Dutch Trade Hereupon the Rump set a Guard upon the Dutch Ambassadors at Chelsey but tho the English Fleet in this Fight received little Damage yet that of the Dutch was so batter'd as made it unfit to fight About this time Virginia submitted to the Rump but not New-England nor ever after did that I can find The Dutch thus balk'd in their Expectation of great things to be done by Van Trump and finding the contrary Success sent a Paper to their Ambassadors in England which was presented to the Council of State the 20th of June therein taking God the Searcher of all Hearts to witness that the most unhappy Fight of the Ships of both Commonwealths did happen against the Knowledg and Will of the Lords States-General of the Vnited Netherlands and that with Grief and Astonishment they received the fatal News of that unhappy rash Action A likely matter as if Van Trump should dare to do such an Action without their Order and they not punish him for
had gained him before and he discovered all to Cromwel and that he had no Concern for them nor Obligation to them as you may see in Dr. Gumble's History of Monk ' s Life pag. 73. So that Monk was not now of the same Mind as he was afterward when Lambert turn'd the Rump out of doors All other Obstacles thus removed and Cromwel heightned in his frantick Resolutions by the Expectation of Mountains of Gold from the Dutch upon the 20th of April with a Party of Soldiers with him marched to the House and led a File of Musqueteers in with him and the rest he placed at the Door of the House in the Lobby and entring the House in furious manner bid the Speaker leave the Chair and told the House That they had sat long enough unless they had done more Good I could have told him they had done two good Deeds for him one in taking away the King's Life to let him into his Throne the other that they had made him General to enable him to turn them out of doors That some of them were Whore-masters looking towards Henry Martin and Sir Peter Wentworth That others of them were Drunkards and some corrupt and unjust Men and scandalous to the Profession of the Gospel and that it was not fit they should sit any longer as a Parliament and desired them to go away But the Speaker not stirring from his Seat Col. Harrison took him by the Arm to remove him from his Seat which when the Speaker saw he left the Chair Some of the Members rose up to answer Cromwel but he would suffer none to speak but himself He bid one of the Soldiers Take away that Fool 's Bawble the Mace and stay'd himself till all the Members were out and then caused the Doors to be shut up We will look upon this Act in a threefold Consideration viz. In the Doers to whom done and in the Manner of it 1. The Doers were the Rump ' s Servants raised by the Rump and no ways provoked by the Rump So little do Benefits received by ill Men create any Obligation of Gratitude in those who receive them 2. The Rump were a Parliament which were impowered to make War or Peace or were not if they were not then Cromwel and his Assistants Commission from the Rump to judg the King to Death and all the Acts of Hostility which they did during these Wars were Murder or Rapine but if they were a Parliament who might grant Commissions in War and make Laws then Cromwel and his Assistants were greater Rebels and Violators of the Liberties of the Nation than either the Irish or Scots were against the King or the Royalists against the Parliament for the Irish and Scots pretended Grievances and Oppressions against the present Powers whereas Cromwel and his Assistants pretended not one categorical Complaint against the Rump and the Royalists foâ—ght to preserve the Establish'd Laws and Constitutions of the Nation which Cromwel and his Assistants did not Besides herein Cromwel and his Assistants assumed a Power above Regal in deposing the Rump if it were a Rightful Parliament which the King could not do without their Consent 3. For the Manner of Cromwel's Deposing the Rump it was so barbarous and rude as I do not think you will find the like among the most Savage People unless it were when Cromwel and his Agents deposed the Secluded Members Yet sure there was a Divine Justice in both for as the Covenanting Members expelled the Royalists for not taking the Covenant or joining with them in the Innovations which the Covenanters brought into the Church and State so Cromwel and the Rump expelled them for their Covenanting and set up themselves instead of them and now Cromwel does the like by the Rump to exalt himself Thus by their own mercenary Servants and not a Sword drawn in their Defence fell the Haughty and Victorious Rump whose mighty Actions will scarcely find Belief in future Generations and to say the Truth they were a Race of Men most indefatigably industrious in Business always seeking for Men fit for it and never preferring any for Favour nor by Importunity You scarce ever heard of any revolting from them in England Scotland or Ireland during their time except by the Levellers 1649. See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 385 386 387. No Murmur or Complaint of Sea-men or Soldiers employ'd by them either by Sea or Land for want of Pay In all the Ports of England during the Dutch War Money or Credit was found to pay off the Sea-men whenever their Ships were designed to be laid up Nor do I find they ever press'd either Soldiers or Seamen in all their Wars And as they excelled thus in their Management of Civil Affairs so it must be owned they exercised in Matters Ecclesiastick no such Severities as either the Covenanters or others before them did upon such as dissented from them And as the Rump were thus industrious and victorious in War so were they not negligent in reforming the Abuses in the Practice of the Common Laws and to that end in October 1650 order'd that all the Books of the Laws be put into English and that all Writs Process and Returns thereof and all Patents Commissions Indictments Judgments Records and all Proceedings in Courts of Justice shall be in the English Tongue and not in the Latin or French or any other Language See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 459. a. The Rump further ordered a Committee for regulating the Law and the Committee reported the Draughts of several Laws viz. 1. The taking away Fines upon Bills Declarations and Original Writs 2. Against Customary Oaths of Fealty and Homage to the Lords of Mannors 3. For taking away common Recoveries and unnecessary Charge of Fines and to pass and charge Land intailed as Lands in Fee Simple 4. For more speedy Recovery of Rents 5. Touching Pleaders and their Fees 6. For more speedy regulating and easy Discovery of Debts and Damages not exceeding 4 l. and under See Whitlock ' s Mem. fol. 504. a. Whether the Rump passed these into Laws I do not find but if they did not they might have done if Cromwel had let them alone and they sat not four Years and three Months But how industrious and victorious soever the Rump was in War they were not so wise in Counsel by making the Act of Navigation and tho we have before demonstrated the manifold Mischiefs and Inconveniences which this Law has brought upon this Nation and shall more particularly hereafter if God pleases in Answer to those Reasons which Sir Josiah Child and Sir Francis Brewsier pretend in Defence of it yet it 's fit that we here shew how that the Rump was mistaken as well in the End as Causes of this Law If we look upon Britain it is an Island and divided into two Kingdoms England and Scotland and both these Kingdoms before they were united under one King viz. James I. by immâ—morial Prescriptions were possessed of
the old one And Beverning repeats the former Cant of calling God the Searcher of all Hearts to witness the sincere Affections of the States towards the Common-wealth of England and prayed that God with his Holy Spirit might preside at all their Consultations and bless their Government and the Nation with all Prosperity and Happiness and desired that the Memory of the past Actions might be obliterated and a perfect Amity and indissoluble Vnion and more entire Correspondence than ever might be established between the two Nations and concluded That the Great most Good and most Merciful God would preside in their Councils with his Spirit of Peace To this Cant the Council return'd a peremptory Answer That without Satisfaction for what had been acted against England and befitting Security that no such thing should be attempted again they could not proceed to any League or Alliance But rather than submit to this Introduction of a Treaty the Dutch resolve to try once again their Fortune by War and fit out the greatest Fleet they could to be again commanded by Van Trump These were encountred by Monk who fought them on the 29th and 30th of July and took and sunk 30 of their Men of War whereof eight were Flag-Ships and retook the Garland formerly taken by the Dutch from the English kill'd Van Trump and took above 1000 Prisoners whereof Vice-Admiral Evertson was one and 't was conjectur'd 6000 of the Dutch were kill'd and drowned no Quarter being given during the Fight In this Engagement the English had but two Ships fired whereof the Oak was one but most of her Men were saved but had 250 Men slain and 700 wounded of the slain were Capt. Cox Graves Chapman and Peacock of the wounded were Capt. Stokes Seaman Rous Holland and Cubi Between these Fights viz. July 8. Cromwel by the Title of I Oliver Cromwel Captain General and Commander in Chief of all the Forces raised and to be raised within this Commonwealth summons 144 which was twelvefold the Number of the Tribes of Israel of his own Nomination to take upon them the supream Government of the Nation These were Anabaptists and Fifth-Monarchy-Men Cromwel believing them to be the properest Instruments to do his Journey-work but was mistaken Upon the 4th of July 120 of these appeared at White-Hall and being set round a Table in the Council-Chamber Cromwel and the Officers of the Army standing about the middle of the Table this was such a Raâ—y-Show as ne're before was seen in fair Albion's Isle Cromwel made a Speech to them shewing the Cause of their Summons and that they had a clear Call to take upon them the supream Authority of the Commonwealth and urged divers Places of Scripture to admonish them to do their Duties Then Cromwel to manifest the Clearness of their Call produced an Instrument under his own Hand and Seal whereby he did with the Advice of his Officers devolve and intrust the supream Authority and Government of this Commonwealth into the Hands of the Persons then met It seems then the other 24 which were not yet come up had no part of the Supream Authority and Government of the Commonwealth but a less Number may do the Work For Cromwel then tells them that any forty of them are to be held and acknowledged the Supream Authority of the Nation and all Persons within the same are to yield Obedience and Subjection Yet this clear Call binds them to sit no longer than the third of November and that three Months before their Dissolution they make Choice of other Persons to succeed them who are not to sit longer than a Year and to be left to them to take care for the Succession of the Government and so Cromwel and his Officers left them But he had as good said nothing for his Supream Authority sat longer than the third of November yet never made choice of other Persons to succeed them nor took any care for the Succession of the Government However this Thing or Creature of Cromwel's calls it self a Parliament and because one Praise God Barebone a Leatherseller was a famous Member in it 't was called Barebone's Parliament and they chose one Rouse their Speaker But how Godly soever Cromwel seem'd to appear by his divers Texts of Scripture in devolving the Supream Authority of the Nation upon these Men yet he retained the Wisdom of the Serpent and by his own Authority imposed six Months Assessments upon the Nation which you may see in Baker's History fol. 618. b. which Whitlock takes no notice of and if he had not it 's a Question whether his chosen Creatures The Supream Authority of the Nation would have done it Barebone's Parliament was so highly pleased with Monk's Victory over the Dutch that they order'd a Day of Thanksgiving for it with a Narrative to be publickly read and also several Chains of Gold to be given to Blake tho he was in neither of these Fights Monk Penn and Lawson for their good Service and a Gratuity to all the other Officers and Seamen according to their Quality over and above their Pay This is observable that Cromwel himself put the Chain of Gold and the Medal with the Representation of a Sea-Fight which Barebone's Parliament had given Monk about his Neck and having invited Monk to Dinner made him wear it all the while See the History of Monk ' s Life p. 77. Whilst Cromwel and his Supream Authority were thus jolly in England all was in Confusion and Distraction in Holland I mean the Dutch Provinces the common People obey'd no longer their Government The Placarts of the States General were despised and they in danger to be ruined and plunder'd by the ignorant and impetuous Rabble The Dutch Ambassadors here could obtain no other Terms of Peace than by a Coalition Satisfaction for Damages received by the English and Security for the future that the Dutch should not do the like again and that the Dutch take a Lease for 21 Years for Fishing and to pay an Annual Rent The Council thus resolute and Plenipotentiaries tried what Terms of Peace might be had from Barebone ' s Parliament But these took the Dutch to be the Outworks of Babylon which must be taken down before there could be any coming at the main Fort They looked upon the Dutch as Carnal and Worldly Politicians Enemies to the Kingdom of Christ and such as would upon all occasions retard the Progress of the Saints and People of God in overturning the Powers of this World That Antichrist the Man of Sin could never be destroyed in Italy whilst the Dutch retained any considerable Strength in the United Neterlands They did not insist upon the Flag nor Dominion of the Seas but held it necessary in order to the Coming of Christ and his Personal Reign that the Seas should be scoured and preserved as peaceably as the Land that both ought jointly to submit to the Power of King Jesus whose Ways they and not the
Hollanders were to prepare They allowed the Procedure of the Dutch by Petition since the Power of the Council of State was all one with that of the Saints and theirs derived from him to whom all Power is given And upon that account the Dutch ought to continue their Addresses of Meseignours Tresillustâ—es Seignours to the Council of State not in the sense they are forbidden in the Gospel but that whereby our Lord Christ assumes such Titles and confers them on the Saints That the Saints therefore might tolerate them and the Dutch ought not to refuse them lest it should be a Rejection of the Kingdom of Christ which was now approaching That the Dutch ought to kiss the Son lest he be angry and should have a care how they contemn his Holy Ones lest they were chastised with the Rod of Iron See Stubbe p. 91 92. The Dutch were now more confounded and perplex'd than ever it was difficult to treat with and impossible to prevail upon these Men They were now in danger to be ruin'd as Enemies to Christ rather than England and a Coalition with England would not satisfy except they likewise annexed their Provinces unto the Fifth Monarchy In Holland the Provinces met to consult what to do the Opinion of Holland was never to enter into a Coalition with England but that a strict League defensive should be proffered that they ought to contract Foreign Amities especially with France and to equip out a Fleet with all possible Expedition Yet they had little reason to expect much Help from France being then imbroiled in Civil Wars besides they had so juggled with France and falsified their Faith since the Treaty at Munster that they had little reason to expect Help from France The other Provinces were for entring into a League with the Elector of Brandenburgh and other German Princes and giving Assistance to the Scots for at this time Major General Middleton was raising some Tumults there but their Necessities were present and these Treaties remote and dangerous they could not get any great Benefit by a Treaty with the German Princes they having except Brandenburg who had but little no Power at Sea Besides these Alliances would cost dear and the Dutch pretended they were poor and also such an Alliance would prove dangerous for the Elector of Cologne might demand the Restitution of Rhineburg Orsoy Rees and other Places which the Dutch had filch'd from that Electorate so might the Elector of Bradenburgh of Wesel and other Places wherein the Dutch kept Garisons above 40 Years besides they feared the Emperor might claim in right of the Empire and little good could be expected from assisting the Scots without being superiour at Sea and sending a Land Army which the Dutch could not spare They therefore gave Orders to their Plenipotentiaries to protract time according as they saw Disorders to encrease between Cromwel and his Supream Authority to be ample in the Generals concerning the Defence of the Reformed Religion and of the Houshold of Faith to reject the Coalition to offer to enter into a strict and intimate League but deal as tenderly as they could in point of Reparation Satisfaction or Security All these things were known to Cromwel's Council of State and they resolved to handle them accordingly and when these were communicated to Barebone's Parliament they said it was no more than was prophesied in Scripture and in course to be expected that the Gentiles should rage and the Kings of the Earth set themselves against the Kingdom of Christ but they should fall before him and be broken in pieces That they were fierce to encounter Gog and Magog and by a series of Victories inflam'd to encounter this Antichristian Host It 's tedious to set forth the manifold Tautologies recited by Stubbe and Leo ab Aitzma who could not err herein and all the Dutch Cant in securing the true Reformed Religion and of their love and desire of the Prosperity of the English Commonwealth The Council of State since the Dutch refused a Coalition and thereby became our Equals resolve to make them humble without it and therefore impose 27 Articles upon the Dutch which may be seen in Leo ab Aitzma p. 837 c. But Mr. Stubbe mentions but five viz. the third twelfth fourteenth fifteenth and seventeenth besides Satisfaction and Reparation made for several Wrongs Injuries and Depredations done and committed upon the English as well in the East-Indies as elsewhere by the People of the Vnited Provinces with Power nevertheless of the Council to add alter and enlarge the said Articles or any of them before the Conclusion of the Treaty as they shall find occasion for the same in the future Management thereof The 3d Article was That the Ships Guns and Furniture and the Goods and Merchandizes and other things which had been taken in Harbour or at Land from the Dutch by the English during the War should be accounted as part of Satisfaction and Reparation for the Charges and Damages which the English had been put to during the War And the States General should pay to the English such further Sum for Reparation as aforesaid and in such manner as shall be agreed upon by this Treaty And thereupon all Offences c. to be forgotten The 12th Article obliges them Not to permit the Prince of Orange or the Princess Mary to relieve with Counsel or Victuals any Rebels or Enemies of the Common-wealth of England c. and to seclude the Prince's Lineage from being State-holders Admiral General or Governour of any of their Towns I 'm perswaded Cromwel was the Contriver of this Article the Reason you 'll see hereafter The 14th Article That they the Dutch were not to enter or pass the British Seas but with a certain Number of Men of War to be agreed upon in this Treaty But in case the States General should have occasion to pass the said Seas with a greater Number of Ships of War that they should give Notice of their Intentions to the English and obtain their Consent before they put to Sea The 15th Article wherein Stubbe follows the English Manuscript and not Leo ab Aitzma which much differs from it As the Commonwealth of England have declared their Resolutions that they will from time to time take care to put forth upon their Seas a convenient Number of armed Ships for the Defence and Safeguard thereof and to maintain and preserve all lawful Navigation Trade and Commerce therein against Pirates and Sea-Rovers and all others that shall act or do any thing to the Disturbance thereof so for the greater freedom of Commerce and Navigation that neither Commonwealth shall give Reception to any Pirates c. The 17th Article obliges the Dutch to take a Lease for 21 Years for the Fishing and to pay an Annual Rent Here note That tho the Dutch pleaded the Grants of the Kings of England to the Dukes of Burgundy and Kings of Spain for Licence to fish upon the
Coasts of England which they could no ways pretend to after they had rent themselves from their Subjection to the Kings of Spain and their immemorial Prescription to fish in these Seas tho Thousands were then alive who were born before they became States yet they were not so impudent to plead Grotius's Mare Liberum that they had as much Right to fish in these Seas as the English Thus far Cromwel's Council and the Rump went in equal Paces and the Dutch now were in no better state than when Cromwel deposed the Rump But two Accidents which were not in the Dutch Power contributed to their Deliverance from the desperate state they were reduced to one was Oliver's Ambition the other the Frenzy of Barebone's Parliament for Cromwel however he accused the Rump of Selfishness was himself much more selfish for without any regard to the Honour or Interest of the English Nation now makes it his Business to join in a Defensive League with the Dutch against the King and Royal Family to set up himself and his Posterity Barebone's Parliament was contrary to Cromwel's Designs and he knew 't was impossible to alter them and therefore resolv'd one way or other to be rid of them and the Dutch dreaded them and therefore the Dutch Plenipotentiaries told Cromwel that in case he would depose them and assume the Government to himself they would be ready to accord with him upon more moderate Terms and enter into such a Defensive Alliance as should secure him against his foreign and domestick Enemies This was the 7th of December See Stubbe p. 110. The Frenzy of Barebone's Parliament was as intolerable to the Nation as to Cromwel so that no Man could judg of their Designs or where they would end Their Prate was to make way for Christ's Monarchy upon Earth which they were sure was at hand now they were got together therefore they pronounced Priesthood to be Popery paying of Tithes Judaism the Laws of England The Remains of the Roman Yoke Schools and Colleges Heathenish Seminaries of curious and vain Learning and Nobility and Honour contrary to the Law of Nature and Christianity Tho these had sat above five Months yet they made but four Laws one for punishing seditious Sea-men caused by their tumultuous demanding their Tun and Gun-Money taken from the Dutch and granted them by the Rump another For Marrying by Justices of Peace the third For Registring Births and not Christnings and the fourth was an Act brought in by Praise-God Barebone Against Building unless upon old Foundations within ten Miles of London tho his Son designs to build London all the Country over upon new Foundations But tho Cromwel was resolved to be rid of Barebone's Parliament yet he would not proceed in that rude and Ruffian manner as he did against the Rump but wheedled with Rouse the Speaker and some of his Creatures that it should be moved in the House That their sitting longer would not be for the Good of the Common-wealth and that it would be fit for them to resign up their Powers to the Lord-General again Whereupon the Speaker with such Members as would follow him went to White-hall and under their Hands resigned up their Power to Cromwel See Whitlock fol. 551. Dr. Bates in his Elenchus pag. 165. says Cromwel made a shew of Wonder at it denying utterly and rejecting it but at length with much ado was prevail'd upon This was Decemb. 12. The Copy of Cromwel's Countenance was quite contrary to his Actions for tho he seemingly refused to accept of the Resignation made by Rouse and his Followers yet he sent a Party of Souldiers to purge the House of those who stay'd behind whereof Major-General Harrison was one who would have taken Lenthal out of the Chair when Cromwel outed the Rump See Baker's Hist fol. 620. a. There was a Mistake in the former Impression in point of Time That Cromwel accepted of the Protectorate by Barebone's Parliament which he assum'd not till four days after viz. December 16. Before we proceed to see how Cromwel behaved himself after his resuming the Government again it 's fit to see how the Case stood between the English and French at this time as also the Dutch and French in reference to this War Tho there was no declared War between the English and French yet there often happen'd Acts of Hostility between them the French making Prize of the English Ships at Sea and the English much more of the French and upon the 7th of September 1652 the English in the Downs set upon a French Fleet laden with Provisions and Ammunition under the Convoy of so many Men of War as the French could well set out and dispersed the Fleet and took seven of their Men of War whereby the Spaniards were enabled to retake Dunkirk and Graveling taken from them by the French in the Year 1646. The next Year viz. in October 1653 Captain Hayton in the Saphire came up to eight French Men of War and shot twice at their Admiral who returned him a Broad-side and Hayton endeavoured to have boarded her but she got away Hayton with his single Ship engaged the rest and took the French Vice-Admiral and Rear-Admiral and another of their Men of War and many rich Prizes with the Loss but of four Men and some wounded See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 547. b. So inconsiderable were the French at Sea in those Days However the Dutch held constant Intelligence with the French in all their Negotiations with the English during this War as you may see in Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 568. as appears by Monsieur Chanute's Speech to the States wherein in this low state of the Dutch he gives them the Title of High Puissances and when the Dutch were in their distressed state in the time both of the Rump and Barebone's Parliament the French fearing the Dutch's Ruin or such a Peace as the English should impose upon them proffer'd to be at half Charges with the Dutch in case they would continue their War with England otherwise the French were not able to contribute but little to help them at Sea Now let 's see if Oliver's Government was as arrogant impolitick selfish and dangerous to the Safety of the Nation as his first assuming it was rude and barbarous After the Supream Power of the Nation had been thus tumbled from Post to Pillar from Cromwel to Barebone ' s Parliament and from them to Cromwel again upon the 16th of December Cromwel and his Officers after several Days seeking of God tho it was resolved on before resolved That a Council of Godly Able and Discreet Persons should be named consisting of 21 and that the Lord-General should be chosen Lord Protector for King good Man he would not be but leâ—t he should go too far astray tied himself up to an Instrument of Government which he swore to in these Words I have accepted thereof and do declare my Acceptance thereof accordingly and do promise in the
Presence of God That I will not violate or infringe the Matters and Things therein contained but to my Power observe the same and cause them to be observed and shall in all other things to the best of my Vnderstanding govern these Nations according to the Laws Statutes and Customs seeking their Peace and causing Justice and Law to be equally administred In the former Impression I followed Cromwel's Instrument of Government as it is set forth by Dr. Bates but finding this differ from Mr. Whitlock not only in the Number of the Articles but in the Substance of several of them I shall now follow Mr. Whitlock as being of better Authority tho not particularly recite them all being long but make Remarks upon several of them to shew how inconsistent this Instrument was with Cromwel's Oath and how he observ'd it in his future Actions Cromwel ' s Council was Philip Lord Viscount Lisle now Earl of Leicester Charles Fleetwood his Son-in-law John Lambert Sir Gilbert Pickering Sir Charles Woolsley Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper after Earl of Shaftsbury Edward Mountague after Earl of Sandwich John Desborow his Brother-in-law Walter Strickland Henry Lawrence William Sydenham Philip Jones Richard Major Francis Rouse and Philip Skipton Esquires The 5th Article is That the Protector with the Consent of the major part of the Council have Power of War and Peace How well he observed this in his Peace with the Dutch and French and War with Spain will appear afterward The 6th Article is That the Laws shall not be altered suspended or repealed nor any new Law made nor any Tax Charge or Imposition laid upon the People but by common Assent in Parliaments save only as is expressed in the 30th Article How does this Article agree with the 27th That a constant Revenue shall be raised for the maintaining 10000 Horse and 20000 Foot in England Scotland and Ireland and 200000 l. per Annum to himself beside the Crown-Lands or with the 38th Article To repeal all Laws Statutes and Ordinances contrary to the Liberty Cromwel grants to all tender Consciences as he calls them in the next preceding Articles where he excludes Popery and Prelacy Or how did Cromwel observe this Article when he imprisoned the Royalists which would not give Security for their Good Behaviour to him and whether they did or not took from them the tenth part of their Estates and put them to Death by his High Court of Justice as he call'd it The 8th Article is That Parliament after the first Day of their Meeting shall sit five Months and not in that time be Adjourned Prorogued or Dissolved without their Consent Yet he dissolved the next Parliament as he called them within five Months after their first sitting with their Consent and if they refus'd had his Janizaries in Westminster-hall and in the Court of Requests to have forced them as he did by the Rump this is true of my own Knowledg and declared what should be Treason See Whitlock's Memoirs fol. 563. b. The 34th Article is That the Chancellor Keeper or Commissioners of the Great Seal the Treasurer Admiral Chief Governours of Scotland and Ireland and the Chief Justices of both the Benches shall be chosen by the Approbation of Parliament and in the Intervals of Parliament by the Approbation of the major part of the Council to be afterwards approved by Parliament I deny any of these Officers were ever chosen or approved by Parliament if any were it lies upon another to prove them to be so chosen or approved by Parliament Thus by manifold Perjuries deepest Dissimulation Hypocrisy and foul Ingratitude Cromwel waded through a Sea of Blood in England Scotland and Ireland and then deposed them who had raised him for which he had murdered thousands for but attempting to do what he had done He aspired to the Dominion of Britain and Ireland which the Rump had conquered to his hand and by Monk's Victories over the Dutch Holland lies at his Mercy so that as Cromwel was the most absolute Tyrant that ever raged in England so was he not less terrible to his neighbouring Nations And now he had it in his Power to do what he will let 's see how like a Beast he did what he did Of all our neighbouring Nations the Dutch and French were the most formidable to the English the Dutch being not only Competitors with the English in Trade but Contenders with them in the Dominion of the Seas and the French the most formidable and faithless by Land and of all Nations the English Trade to France was the worst being as much to the enriching France as the impoverishing England Spain neither a neighbouring Nation to England except some part of Flanders nor any ways formidable to England by Sea or Land yet of all others the English Trade with Spain was the most beneficial and enriching to the English Now let 's see how diametrically contrary to the English Interest Cromwel acted in every one of these After Cromwel had assumed the Protectorate Mr. Whitlock says he observed new and great State and all Ceremonies and Respects were paid to him by all sorts of Men as to their Prince and Stubbe says upon the 20th Notice was given to the Dutch Plenipotentiaries by Cromwel's Master of the Ceremonies of his being Protector and how ready he was to treat with them and how kind he would be to them but they must pay him the same Honour and Respect which was heretofore exhibited to the English Kings and in their Writings and Discourses give him the Title of Highness which was in Use before that of Majesty that they not being in the Quality of Ambassadors but Lords Deputies Plenipotentiaries must be uncovered in his Presence In this state Cromwel takes the Treaty of Peace out of the Council's Hands tho it ill agreed with his Oath to the Instrument of his Government and upon the 26th of December but ten Days after his assuming the Protectorate by his Secretary Thurloâ— brought the Dutch Plenipotentiaries a Writing wherein the Satisfaction of the 3d Article demanded by the Council was wholly omitted but the Claims of the East-India Merchants and others were to be compounded The 15th Article was changed so as that neither the Dominion of the Seas was mentioned nor their Ships to be searched but they were to strike the Flag and lower their Top-sail to any English Man of War within the British Seas with several other Concessions Now the Dutch Artifice after having made so many Protestations of agreeing with Cromwel upon better Terms than they would if he would dissolve the Rump and Barebone's Parliament appeared for notwithstanding Cromwel had omitted the Satisfaction demanded by the third Article and qualified the fifteenth yet looking upon Cromwel's state uncertain and that he stood in as much need of them as they of him without giving any Answer upon the 28th of December desired a Passport to depart Now Cromwel perceived how the Plenipotentiaries had deluded him
and therefore declared That if they departed without concluding and signing the Treaty and mutually engaging to ratify it in a certain time he would not be obliged to it or any part thereof Hereupon the Plenipotentiaries staid and Cromwel in plain Terms told them Without the Seclusion of the Prince of Orange from being Stadtholder and General no Peace was to be expected But if Cromwel thus juggled with his Council the States of Holland and West-Friezland did not less with the States of the rest of the Provinces For by the 9th Article of the Union at Vtrecht 1579 No Truce Peace or War should be made without common Consent of all the Provinces and not by the States General Yet this Treaty was broken by the States of Holland when they made a Truce with the King of Spain 1609 for twelve Years without the Consent of the other Provinces or States General So did they at Munster 1648 make a separate Peace with Spain notwithstanding several Treaties with France to the contrary which Stubbe pag. 72 73 74. cites out of Leo ab Aitzma the rest of the Provinces detesting and declaiming against it as perfidious treacherous c. Cromwel knew this and the Potency of Holland above the rest of all the other Provinces as also their Aversion to the House of Orange and Instructions of the Provinces not to exclude the Prince of Orange Hereupon Cromwel entred into a secret Conference with Beverning the same I think that in 1679 at Nimeguen made the separate Peace with the French without the Confederates or the Consent of the rest of the States That if the Province of Holland would sign a secret Article for to exclude the House of Orange he would be content to proceed in the Treaty of Peace But Beverning pretending he had no Instruction therein from the States they had a Passport to return to Holland January 6. These stay'd longer before their Return than Cromwel expected which put him in a great Wrath and Confusion and seem'd to make great Preparations for carrying on the War The Dutch to amuse him send over the same Men in a splendid and formal Embassy with Consent to all the other Articles except the Seclusion of the Prince of Orange which Cromwel signed upon the 5th of April 1654 and Peace was thereupon proclaimed at London but Cromwel would not exchange the Ratifications unless the States of Holland and West-Friezland would make a Decree for excluding the House of Orange from being Stadtholders and General which the said States did upon the 4th of May 1654 in these Words That the Noble and Potent States of Holland and West-Friezland would never elect his present Highness or any of his Lineage to be Stadtholder or Admiral of their Province neither should their Province ever give their Suffrage or Consent that he or any of his Family should be Captain-General of the Forces of the Vnited Provinces the rest of the Provinces protesting and declaiming against this as much as they did against the States of Holland and West-Friezland for making a separate Peace at Munster without the Consent of the French King By this it 's evident That Sir William Temple in his Observations upon the Vnited Provinces pag. 115. is mistaken where he says That the Union of Vtrecht was never broken before the Year 1668 when the States General and not of Holland alone concluded the Peace of Aix la Chapelle Here you see how selfish Cromwel was and how little he regarded the Honour and Interest of England in this Peace for he not only remitted the 300000 l. which the Dutch proffered the Rump for the Damages the English sustained by the War See Stubbe p. 112. in the Margin but left out the Coalition the Revenue to be Annually paid to the English for Liberty to fish in the British Seas the Soveraignty of the Seas except the Flag Security from the Dutch not to molest the English in time to come and to have their Ships searcht in passing through the British Seas and not to set out any greater than such a Number of Ships of War without giving an Account to the English State of the Reason and also that the English should have a Free Trade up the Scheld and because both the Rump Council and Oliver himself had demanded Justice against those that were alive who had any Hand in the Massacre of the English in Amboyna Cromwel suffered himself to be deluded by the Dutch in referring it to 8 Commissioners and if they agreed not in 6 Months time Umpires were to be chosen See Whitlock's Memoirs f. 568. b. But no Agreement was made and Cromwel never further minded it And this is observable that notwithstanding both the Dutch and Cromwel's Protestations of calling God the Searcher of all Hearts to witness how much by this Peace they designed the Glory of God and the Promotion of the true Reformed Religion abroad yet there is not one Article concerning the same nor any Protestant Prince named in it except the King of Denmark who was to pay the English Merchants their Damages for the Embargo he had laid upon their Ships in the Sound And Dr. Gumble says p. 74. That Monk did often highly resent this Peace as a base Treachery in Cromwel Mazarine endeavoured to have had the French included in this Treaty but the States of Holland regarded him not more than in that of Munster The Dutch by this Peace had an Opportunity to build more and greater Men of War than they could if the War had continued of which you 'll hear more about 10 Years hence Mazarine finding himself thus neglected by the Dutch in their Treaty of Peace with the English sends Monsieur Burdeaux Extraordinary Ambassadour to Cromwel to obtain a Peace with him and was not so squeamy in excluding the King and Royal Family out of France as the Dutch were in excluding the Prince of Orange but as preparatory to it proffered to exclude the King out of Paris I think France as you may see in Whitelock's Memoirs f. 565. But this did not procure a Peace till the Year 1655. After Monk's Triumphant Victories over the Dutch Cromwel having no further Use of him at Sea sent him back to govern Scotland but when he shall come there Cromwel shall never get him out again nor shall he come out of Scotland but utterly to exclude Cromwel's Posterity from ever mounting to his ill gotten Greatness and to unravel all that the Presbyterian Parliament the Rump and Cromwel had been near twenty Years in Weaving But in regard General Monk hath born so great a Figure in this Treatise and shall much more hereafter it will not be amiss to see how the Case stood with him before he entred into the Parliament Service He was the second of Three Sons to Sir Thomas Monk of Potridge in Devonshire and born in the Year 1608. And being a younger Brother and having a Mind above his Fortunes he endeavoured to advance them
haughty Spirit could not bend to submit to the Cardinal but served the King of Spain in Flanders when in the Year I think 1653 he destroy'd and took half the French Army which besieged Valenciennes In these Commotions tho the French in the Year 1646 took Dunkirk and Graveling from the Spaniard yet in the Year 1652 the Spaniard retook them both from the French and the Spaniard was enabled to do this by the English for tho the Rump could not or would not assist the Prince of Conde in Bourdeaux yet having a Squadron of Men of War in the Downs when a great French Fleet under a Convoy of Men of War were going to relieve Dunkirk besieged by the Spaniards these were set upon by the English and the whole French Fleet destroy'd or scatter'd and so Dunkirk soon after surrendred as did Mardike and Graveling Nor were the Spaniards less successful in Catalonia for having expell'd the French out of it in the Year 1652 they reduced Barcelona the Metropolis of that Province and one of the best Ports in all Spain but these Successes will not long continue and if the Spaniards were beholden to the Rump for reducing Dunkirk and Graveling they may ascribe the loss of them and of many more Towns and Dominions to Cromwel In our Trades to Spain we were as much Gainers by them as Losers by the French so as we could better sustain the Losses wherein we debauched our selves by drinking Spanish Wines whereas in this War with Spain and Peace with France we doubly debauched our selves in drinking French Wines which became so much more as Spanish could not be had King James and Charles the First except in the business of Rochel were only Lookers on whilst this French King's Father rooted out the Power of the Reformed in France expell'd the Duke of Lorain out of his Country supported Portugal and Catalonia in their Rebellion against Spain tam'd the Duke of Savoy and took Pignerol the Key of his Country and other Places from him as also Brisac from the Empire and Landreshy and other Places from the Spaniard Whereas Cromwel actually joined with the French in an offensive War against the Spaniard whereby he first made the French so formidable that it 's a Question whether it be in the Power of Christendom to restrain his boundless Ambition by Land for besides the routing of the Spanish Army near Dunkirk by the English and French or rather by the English without the French they took from the Spaniard Winixburgh Furnes Bourbock Dunkirk Mardike Graveling Montmeily Ipre and other Places But the Land could put no Bounds to the French Ambition and therefore Mazarine made use of this Conjuncture to enlarge the French Dominion by Sea without which all the French Grandure by Land could not protect France from the Insults and Invasions which the English and Dutch might make upon it by Sea And herein Mazarine wisely considered that the Dominion of the Sea could not be attained but by Navigation nor could Navigation be had but by Trade to support it Of all Trades the Fishing-Trade most increases Navigation both my Mariners and Ships For in other Trades by Navigation as to Turkey Miscovy the East and West-Indies it may be we imploy a thousand Men in making Cloths c. to ten Mariners in the Foreign Vent of them whereas in the Fishing Trade every Man becomes a Mariner Add hereunto in the Fishing Trade the Mariners are always at hand for the Publick Service of their Country and lusty active and strong whereas in the long Sea Voyages especially to the East-Indies the Mariners are long absent and in the Diversities of Climates and by salt Meats and sowr Drinks become subject to infinite Distempers so that it may be a Question Whether in these Voyages we do not lose more Men than make Mariners And of those which survive one Fisherman shall by his Health and Strength beat three of them Besides in our Foreign Trades by Navigation we employ only Men in them whereas in the Fishing Trade we employ all sorts of People Men Women and Children in curing and drying Fish and in making Cordage Nets and Sails for the Fishing-Trade The Fishing-Trade upon the Coast of England and Scotland the French could not hope to drive the Dutch out of but the New-found-land Fishery was too remote from the Dutch and the French should only have the English to contest with in it Here let 's see how the Case stood between the English and French in this Contest The New-found-land Fishery was carried on by the Inhabitants of the Port-Towns of Cornwal Devon and Dorsetshire these Ports were all Corporations which excluded all other Men from carrying on this Trade and these Corporation-Men being few and Beggars could not enlarge their Fishing-Trade beyound their Men and Stock Whereas Havre de Grace St. Malo's Morlaix Brest Blavet Rochford Bayon and other Western Ports of France are not only manifoldly bigger and better peopled than the Ports of the Western and Southern Parts of England but the French King contributed three hundred thousand Pistols for carrying on the New-found-land Fishery and for further Encouragement gave half Pay to lusty young Men above their Wages for two or three Voyages for the increase of Mariners and in all the Ports of France erected Schools for instructing Youth in Mathematical Learning gratis The Fish caught in the New-found-land Fishery cost nothing but the catching and curing so that they who can catch and cure them cheapest are sure of a Foreign Market in their vending And this creates another Navigation and Employment of Mariners And here let 's see if the Act of Navigation be not as much a Cause of enabling the French in carrying on this Fishery as it is eternally of fixing the Fishing-Trade upon the Coast of England and Scotland and the Green-land Trade upon the Dutch and Hamburghers The French have upon the Coast of France I dare say near twenty-fold more Timber to build Vessels for the New-found-land Fishery than can be had at like distance from the Ports of Cornwal Devon and Dorset and I believe as cheap as the English pay for the Carriage of theirs to the Ports and when it comes there the French Timber is wrought much easier than the English and Vessels made of French Timber draw less Water and are sailed with fewer Hands Besides the French encourage all Foreigners to build their Vessels more conveniently for this Trade than the English understand And as the French have much more manifoldly the Advantage above the English in building Ships so have they more in Plenty of Hemp and Flax for fitting up Ships for this Trade wherein I suppose they do not restrain the French from curing Flax and Hemp in standing Waters and in Proportion as much cheaper than the English can fetch Foreign Hemp and Flax in English-built Ships and sailed by three fourths English So that to the Poverty of these beggarly Corporations this wise Law of
Navigation obliges the English to encounter the French in the New-found-land Fishery in Ships doubly as dear built and sailed by near double the Charge and so as the English are like to come to a sorry Market abroad if they can find none at home for their Fish caught in this Trade Add hereunto that the English who cannot cure a White Herring Pilchard or Cod-fish are too wise to be instructed in this Trade but keep the Fish on Board till it becomes stale and so cannot be so well cured as when new caught whereas the French cure them on board so as they take them cheaper so they cure them better The Success hereof you will hear more hereafter So that from the Act of Navigation made by the Rump and this War by Cromwel we may date the Fall or Decay of the beneficial Trades of England and also of the Value of the Lands of England being a necessary Consequence Having seen Cromwel lay a Foundation for the Ruin not of England only but of the Western Dominions of Europe abroad by exalting the French Grandure by Sea and Land we 'll see how he behav'd himself at home and how he established his ill acquired Dominion in himself and Posterity He set up fourteen Major-Generals over England and Wales with an absolute Power to enquire after all those who had bore Arms or been sequestred for being Malignants and to make them pay the tenth part of their Estates and to be imprisoned till they gave Security for their Good Behaviour to Cromwel These Major-Generals acted their Parts to the Life and being an obscure company of mean Fellows except Fleetwood lorded it over the Nobility as well as Gentry and Clergy with an unheard-of Insolence Here I take liberty to tell it may be a not unpleasing Story My Father was a Member of the Long Parliament and one of the first Rate which was expell'd the House sequestred and imprisoned for Malignancy first at Yarmouth after at London And whilst he was a Prisoner there the Committee at Haberdashers-Hall sent a Messenger to him to pay 300 l. for the five and twentieth part of his Estate for being resident in London My Father was not forward to return an Answer till the Messenger told him he must have an Answer Then my Father told him that such Residence as he had in London he wished to those who sent him Afterward Sir Anthony Weldon Chair-man to the Committee in Kent sent to him that if he would send the Committee his Court-Rolls they would keep his Courts for him to which my Father answered the Parliament had kept him Prisoner near three Years to prove him a Knave but Sir Anthony should not beg him for a Fool. My Father would never own the Parliament's Power by petitioning them or paying any Taxes assessed by them yet by the Solicitation of my Mother he was discharged of his Sequestration and Imprisonment Of all the Provinces of these Major-Generals Fleetwood's was the greatest being the Associated Counties which were Norfolk Suffolk Essex Cambridgshire Huntingdonshire and I think Hertfordshire I do not remember Fleetwood ever acted of himself but one Haynes was his Deputy But because these Major-Generals were Men of Action and so could not always attend this Business they appointed Committees of their own Gang mean and profligate Fellows who should not vary one Tittle from their Instructions One Day an Attorney was Chair-man to thaâ— in Suffolk In the Year 1656 one Major Rolston who served under Sir Richard Willis when he was Governor of Newark for the King and who betray'd the Cavaliers Designs to Cromwel came to me and told me the King was making great Preparations to land in England and that the Cavaliers were intending to rise all over England to assist him This he assured me he had from Sir Richard Willis and told me I could not do the King greater Service than to provide some Horse-Arms Back Breast Pot and Pistols Hereupon I went to London and bought a Dozen of either and had them put up in two Hampers and see them put on Ship-board and then returned into the Country and took care upon the first Arrival of the Ship to have notice of it And when the Ship arrived I ordered the Business so that in the Night I got them to my Father's House this was upon a Friday and that Night my youngest Brother and I so disposed of them that I believe none but we two knew where Upon Sunday about Midnight my Father's House was broke into by a Party of Horse-Men sent from Yarmouth and the Cellars and all suspected places of the House were searched for Arms but none found but the Swords of me and my Brother which hung up in the Hall which they carried away as well as my Father and Brother My Father was old very fat and unweildy my Brother young about nineteen Years old raw and of little Experience in Martial or any other Affairs but whither they were carried we could not tell The News of this Exploit was soon blazed all the Country over and this brought me a Ticket to meet Rolston and a Cousin German of mine at a certain Place for we had our Meeting-places We met with heavy Countenances not one of us but expected to be hanged tho I had more reason to fear it than either of them The danger was my Brother would discover all they both wished I had been taken so my Brother had not I thanked them for their good Wishes but this availed nothing what was to be done now my Brother was a Prisoner was to be advised of they both could not tell what to do but hanging was the best we could expect At last I told them that these Fellows were Pancho's Stamp Proud to the Humble and Humble to the Proud and therefore nothing was to be done with them but by Hectoring they both agreed but neither of them would undertake it but left it to me The next day News came from my Father from Yarmouth for Drink and Diet for he said this Devil could be cast out no other way than by Fasting and therefore would neither pay for any Meat or Drink which was sold there nor give the Souldiers one Penny who guarded him And by this time I got some inkling that my Brother had discovered our Design of rising to a mean Fellow whose Mother Hopkins the Witch-finder had been hanged for a Witch who had informed one of the Bresters of which there were three Brothers Robert Francis and Humphry all stiff Cromwelians of it The next Day I went to Yarmouth where I found my Father and Brother at Variance for they were not at good Terms one with the other and Soldiers guarding them At first I expostulated with the Soldiers for taking away my Sword which they had nothing to do with which they denied or shifted from one to another which was all I cared for Then I complained that my Brother should be hurried into Prison upon the Story
of State of Scotland and as Runnagadoes from Christianity become the greatest Persecutors of Christians so was Lauderdale of the Kirk and Presbyterian Government However Lauderdale seemed zealous for calling a Parliament in Scotland and demolishing the Forts thaâ— bridled the Scots which Monk opposed and hereby Lauderdale became popular in Scotland so that all Applications to the King from thence was by Lauderdale In this state it was not easily determined who should be Commissioner in Scotland in case a Parliament should be called for Affairs were not yet ripe enough to make a Popish one nor would the Court trust a Presbyterian one and Lauderdale would not forsake his Post at Court where he govern'd all but continue it that all the Motions in Parliament might receive their Life from him At last it was agreed That Middleton who first served the Kirk against King Charles I. and after changing Sides made some Bustle in Scotland after the King left it should be created an Earl and made Commissioner and a Parliament should be called in Scotland The Nobility and Gentry of Scotland clearly saw there was no other way to redeem Scotland from being a conquered Nation and a Province to England but by an entire Submission to the King Lauderdale knew this as well as they and therefore resolved to make them pay dear for their Deliverance and now you shall see the Nobility and Gentry which with the Kirk united against King Charles I. divide under his Son and sacrifice the Kirk and all their Discipline to make an Atonement for themselves The first Act which was shewed herein was upon this Occasion The firy Zeal of the Kirk-men burnt up all Rules of Prudence or the Consideration of the present State of Scotland so that even in this state Crowns and Scepters must submit to the Kirk And that the King might know his Duty a Company of them met together and drew up a Supplication as they said but in nature of a Remonstrance to the King setting forth the Calamities they groaned under in the Time of the Usurpers by their impious Incroachments upon the Kingdom of Jesus Christ and the Liberties thereof which of themselves they were not able to suppress and overcome and the Danger of the Popish and Prelatical Party now beginning again to lift up their Head they press him to mind his â—aths and Covenant with God c. The Committee of Estates well knowing how ungrateful this would be to the King upon the 23d of August 1660. sent a Party and apprehended these Men whereof one Mr. James Guthry was the chief of whom you 'll hear more hereafter and committed them Prisoners to Edinburgh-Castle and from thence Guthry was sent Prisoner to Dundee for treasonable and seditious reflecting on his Majesty and on the Government of England and the Constitution of the Committee of State and tending to raise new Tumults and kindling a new Civil War among his Majesty's good Subjects This was the first Spark which soon burnt into such a Flame as totally consumed the whole Kirk-Party in Scotland and left them in a much worse plight than before when they suffered under the Usurpation as they called it of the English For during the late Usurpations the Kirk enjoyed a Liberty of Conscience but it 's the Nature of some Men that unless they may persecute other Men they 'll exclaim they are persecuted themselves and therefore since they were not able to do it themselves they minded the King of his Covenant with God to extirpate Heresy Schism and Profaneness and to remove the stumbling which the King had given them in admitting Prelacy Ceremonies and Service-Book in the King's Chappel and other Places of his Dominions But these Men were mistaken in their Measures for after the King was expelled from Scotland by Cromwel he little I may say never observed the Directory of Worship Confession of Faith and Catechisms in his Family according to the National and Solemn League and Covenant as he repeated in his Coronation-Oath and less the establishing Presbyterian Government in England and Ireland and least of all in Scotland For one of the first Acts of the first Sessions was an Anniversary Thanksgiving to be observed on every May 29 with this Proem The States of the Parliament of the Kingdom of Scotland taking into their Consideration the sad Condition Slavery and Bondage this antient Kingdom has groaned under these twenty three Years the time when the Troubles arose in K. Charles the First 's Reign in which under very specious Pretences of Reformation a publick Rebellion has been by the Treachery of some and Misperswasion of others violently carried on against sacred Authority to the Ruin and Destruction so far as was possible of Religion this King's Majesty and his Royal Government the Laws Liberties and Property of the People and all the publick and private Interests of the Kingdom so that Religion it self hath been prostituted for the Warrant of all these treasonable Invasions made upon the Royal Authority and disloyal Limitations upon the Allegiance of the Subjects Therefore upon the 29th of May be set apart for an Holy Day c. Yet soon after the King's Restoration he wrote to the Presbytery of Edinburgh promising to countenance the Church as by Law established But Lauderdale knew his Mind better Here it 's observable That in 1638 when the Kirk were so zealous with lifted-up Hands in the Presence of the Eternal God to swear to establish their National Covenant there was not one of the Nobility but the Popish except the Marquess of Hamilton and the Earl of Traquair but joined with the Kirk expresly against the King's Command Traquair the Kirk-Party proceeded against as an Incendiary and after Hamilton secretly joined with the Covenanters for which King Charles I. made him Prisoner in Pendennis-Castle from whence he was discharged when Fairfax had it surrender'd And not one of the Nobility except Argile and Cassels but declare this and all the Kirk-Proceedings since Treasonable Rebellion against the Laws Liberties and Property of the People and Prostitution of Religion and this Declaration was celebrated with a double Sacrifice the Marquess of Argile being executed as a Traitor for holding Correspondence with Cromwel and his Head set where Montross's stood on the Monday before and Mr. Guthry on Saturday after for refusing to own the Jurisdiction of the Judges in Ecclesiastical Affairs had his Head set upon one of the Ports of Edinburgh This was a sad Presage to the Kirk of what followed For as they without the King would impose their Solemn League and Covenant upon England now by the King and Parliament an Oath of Allegiance in the very Nature if not the Words of the Oath of Supremacy in England is imposed upon them wherein they are to swear That the King is the supreme Governour over all Persons and in all Causes c. and That they will maintain defend and assist his Majesty's Jurisdiction aforesaid against all
8. The French Progress in Flanders more nearly concerned the Dutch than the English the Spanish Netherlands being the Barrier to secure the United Netherlands from sinking under the Power of France and therefore the Dutch States readily complied with Sir William's Proposals and Sir William waited upon the King to give him an Account of his Negotiation and within 5 Days after was sent back with Powers to conclude a stricter Defensive League than that at Breda between England and Holland either by Mediation or Force to stop the further Progress of the French Army in the Spanish Provinces And because the Swedes soon after entred into it it was called the Triple Alliance This preserved what the French had left untaken and the Spaniard was forced to sit down by the Loss But whatever the Spaniard lost by the French Ravages the English gained this Benefit by it That one Brewer whose Parents were said to be English with about fifty Walloons who wrought and died Fine Woollen Cloths came into England and the King after the Example of two of his wisest and most renowned Predecessors Edward III. and Queen Elizabeth entertain'd them against our Barbarous Law or rather Usage against Foreigners partaking the Benefit of Natural-born English and by them the English in a few Years time were instructed to make and dye fine woollen Cloths cheaper by 40 l. per Cent. than they could do before not only to the Benefit of the English at home but in foreign Vent abroad which before the Dutch had I think it was this Year the French sell into the Franche County of Burgundy and took Dole and Besanzon but this being a Barrier to the Swiss against the French Power as the Spanish Netherlands are to the Dutch the Swiss recalled their Subjects out of the French Service and ordered the levying Sixty Thousand Men to expel the French out of the County of Burgundy and now it was not time for the French King to contend against the Triple League and the Swiss too so he gave up Dole and Besanzon again to the Spaniards and withdrew his Forces out of the County Thus was Spain saved by others when they could not help themselves The banishing the Chancellour Clarendon did palliate but the Triple League reconciled all Difference between the King and Parliament as if no Dutch War or Miscarriages had been and for the Triple League they granted the King a Treble Supply viz. 20 Car. II. c. 1. 301000 l. upon Wines and Liquors Secondly an additional Duty of 8 l. per Tun on French Wines c. and 12 l. per Tun on Spanish Wines for eight Years which amounted to 560000 l. this was the 22 Car. II. And also cap. 3. an Act for sale of the Fee Farm Rents to the Value of 1300000 l. An. Dom. 1668. But you 'll see these dear bought Joys soon will fade for the great Clarendon and noble Southampton now are gone and another Generation is springing up and that with such forward Growth as all Weeds do that upon the Joy of the Triple League the House of Commons having given the King the 301000 l. Mr. Clifford after Lord Treasurer in April following told a Friend of Sir Temple's that for all this great Joy it must not be long before we have another War with Holland and this very Year a French Man gave my Lord Arlington the Design of laying another Holland's War and the Advance of it by the Practice of Monsieur Colbert upon the Ministers of our Court. An. Reg. 21. Dom. 1669. However the Devil will play at small Games rather than stand out for now the French King's Hands are tied up by the Triple League and Treaty at Aix la Chapelle from taking more Towns in the Spanish Netherlands Yet he exacted great Contributions from the Dutchies of Limburgh and Luxemburgh and confiscated the Estates of those in his Conquests who would not forswear their Allegiance to the King of Spain and endeavoured to surprize the Town of Hainault And tho by the Pyrenean Treaty the Duke of Lorain was to be restor'd to his Dutchy yet the Duke tho a Friend to the King was rejected from entring into the Triple League which he endeavoured and therefore incurred the French King's Displeasure who in the Year 1669 seized upon the poor Remainders of his Country and ordered one of his Generals to seize his Person and bring him either dead or alive And tho by the Treaty of Breda the French King was to restore the English to their Plantations in St. Christophers which the French had taken from them yet hitherto he refused to do it In this trifling which the Hector of France did only to keep his Hand in ure he did not sleep otherways the Triple League stuck sore in his Conscience which unless broken would set Bounds to his boundless Ambition In its infant State Monsieur Colbert in the first Year had made some Steps towards it but the next Year made such Advances that he had almost brought the Destruction of it to Perfection To facilitate this hopeful Project Madam the King 's beloved Sister came in June 1670 to Dover with full Powers to conclude this desired Business The King was not long behind but with equal Desire and extraordinary Affection meets his Sister where all things are concluded which tho as dark as Hell yet were as secret as Witchcraft which would have no Light but by their Consequences and that this well-laid Design might not be forgotten the Princess left her Woman Madam Carwel after Dutchess of Portsmouth with the King to put him in mind of it but the Princess was unhappy in this for Monsieur her Husband entertained a furious Jealousy in his frantick Brain that something else besides this hopeful Project was designed by the Princess so that though she were in perfect Health and never more pleased than when here yet upon her Return she in the Glory of her Age but Twenty six Years old died suddenly so that the Cause of her Death was as dark as the Design she came for But there is neither Sister Father or Mother with Kings and Kingdoms The sudden Death of Madam put no stop to the ratisying the Business she came for but the Marquess of Bellefonds is sent hither and an honourable Person is sent into France for both Kings Ratification of it Hereupon the French King descended from his Stiffness and delivered the English their Grounds in St. Christophers to Sir Charles Wheeler yet destroy'd all the Plantations plundered and carried away all that was portable laid the whole Country waste and left it in a much worse Condition than if it had never been planted The French King by his English Pensioners did not only keep the Emperor and Duke of Lorain out of being desirous to enter into the Triple League but he enters into a stricter League with the Arch-bishop of Collen and the Bishop of Munster two Princes of the Empire against the Dutch and now began to
sustained by the Depredations upon the Ships and Lading taken from Sir Paul Pindar and Sir William Courten c. In this Interval of the Parliament's Recess the King took the Seals from my Lord Chancellour Ashley now made Earl of Shaftsbury and gave them to Sir Heneage Finch a Person of singular Integrity Eloquence and Veracity who to those insite Excellencies which were natural to him improved them by the great Example of his Uncle John Finch likewise Keeper of the Great Seal in the King's Father's Reign yet with a different Fate for the Temper of the Times would not bear his Uncle's Integrity Eloquence and Veracity whenas the Nephew with prosperous Gales continued his Course till he arrived at Lord Chancellour Lord Daventry and Earl of Nottingham and kept the Seals to his dying Day which not one of his three Predecessors could do And Sir Thomas Osburn succeeded Lord Treasurer So C. and A. are out we shall soon see what became of B. A. and L. At last the 20th of October came and the Parliament met again when at the opening of the Session the new Lord Keeper with admired Eloquence and Veracity which he retained to his dying Day made a large Deduction of the Dutch Averseness to Peace their uncivil Demeanour to the King 's Plenipotentiaries at Cologn and how indirectly they dealt with the King in all the Overtures of Peace and therefore a necessary Supply proportionable to the Greatness of the King's Affairs was not only demanded but Care to be taken for Payment of the Bankers Debt otherways Multitudes of the King 's Loyal Subjects would be undone But neither the Keeper's Eloquence nor his Veracity would down with the Commons for during this Recess the Terror of the French Progress had alarm'd the Nation as well as the rest of Christendom The French Legerdemain at Sea was so much more taken notice of as our Loss was more by their looking on whilst the English and Dutch destroyed one another The Commons were frighted at the standing Army in England commanded by a Foreigner and an Irish Papist taking all Military Liberty as in Time of War It was more than whisper'd the Conditions proposed by the King 's Plenipotentiaries at Cologn were impossible which tho granted yet no Peace was to be had unless the French King was answer'd in his Demands nor were the Commons content with their Prorogation till the Marriage with the Princess of Modena was past Cure Hereupon the Commons on the 31st of October bound themselves by a Vote That considering the present Condition of the Nation they will not take into further Consideration any Aids or Charges upon the Subject except it shall appear that the Obstinacy of the Dutch shall render it necessary nor before this Kingdom be effectually secured from Popery and Popish Counsels and other Grievances redressed This early Vote of the Commons was so much more surprizing to the Band of Pensioners who as yet had not earned their Bread by how much they expected Mountains of Gold should fall from my Lord Keeper's Eloquence and Veracity And now is the King like his Father when he went to York to fight the Scots reduced to a fine state all the Monies received from the French King like Water spilt upon the Ground never to be collected Besides the Band of Pensioners he had a Land Army to maintain and a Fleet at Sea which the French Subsidies would not one fourth maintain He could not avoid the Clamours of his Subjects whose Monies were shut up in the Exchequer nor the Merchants who had supplied his Navy in this and the former Dutch War yet their Graces the Dutchesses of Cleveland and Portsmouth must be maintained sutable to their Qualities so must the Dukes of M G S N R St. A and Earl of P besides Portions to be provided for many of his Off-spring of the other Sex He had already provided Titles for the Cabal except Buckingham who could not be greater However you 'll see this Vote of the Commons will work powerfully notwithstanding the Agreement at Vtrecht that the King shall not make a separate Peace without the French King nor any Peace with the Dutch unless the French King shall be satisfied in his Particulars at Cologn Nor did the Commons stay here but C. and A. being gone one dead the other turned to t'other side they fell upon B. A. and L. and addressed themselves to the King that they might be removed from his Councils Presence and all publick Employment and upon the 4th of November moved 1. That the Alliance with France was a Grievance 2. That the evil Counsel about the King was a Grievance to the Nation 3. That the Lord Lauderdale was a Person grievous to the Nation and not fit to be trusted in any Office or Trust but to be removed The Rump of the Cabal thus used frighted the whole Band of Pensioners into a Fear their Turn would be next at least their Pensions not paid and therefore to undo all that was done in a Hurry the Parliament was prorogued to the 7th of January following not having sat eight Days But the Commons needed not to have been so fierce upon B. A. and L. for B. was now going off and A. being the King's Brother-in-law was spited that he was twice balked in being Lord Treasurer and if he did not turn to t'other side yet he would never be reconciled with my Lord Treasurer Only L. now remained to be quit with the Commons to get an Act of Parliament in Scotland to raise 20000 Foot and 2000 Horse to serve the King upon all Occasions The King having so hastily begun this War by two such Acts as were without Precedent viz. The shutting up the Exchequer and the Attempt upon the Dutch Smyrna Fleet was now as forward to make a Peace with the Dutch even upon any Terms tho but last Year his Plenipotentiaries had agreed at Vtrecht with the French King not to make Peace with the Dutch without him and this Year at Cologn to grant no Peace unless the French King be satisfied in his Particulars By this time the CABAL was degenerated into a Juncto and this was compounded too of five viz. My Lord Keeper F L Lauderdale Arlington and Secretary Coventry in room of Secretary Trevor now dead It was agreed by the whole Juncto That Sir William Temple was the most proper Agent for making this Peace not only for his Abilities and great Reputation he had acquired in concluding the Triple League but for the Honour and Esteem the King of Spain and States of Holland held of his Integrity and Conduct And in order hereunto my Lord Arlington from the King and Juncto complimented Sir William and told him He would not pretend the Merit of having named him Sir William upon this Occasion or whether the King or my Lord Treasurer did it first but that the whole Committee joined in it and concluded That since a Peace was to be made no
that upon the second of June he offered the Duke his Friendship the use of his Purse to the assisting of him against the Designs of his and the Duke's Enemies and protested their Interests were so close linked together that those who opposed the one should be looked upon as Enemies to the other with much more as you may read in the Duke's Letter to Le Chaise the 29th of June 1675. Tho the French could not fight against the Dutch in Conjunction with the English yet without the English they can fight the Spaniard and Dutch For the Spaniard having block'd up Messina in Sicily by Land which last Year revolted to the French agreed with the Dutch to send a Fleet of Men of War to join the Spanish to block up Messina by Sea which the Dutch this Year did under De Ruyter but were so niggardly in it that the French beat both Dutch and Spanish Fleets and killed De Ruyter This was a just Reward returned to the Dutch for building the French six great Men of War six or seven Years before Just so Richlieu served the Spaniard in 1637 for joining with the French in expelling the English out of the Isle of Rhee Tho the King were the first in the Triple League for the Guaranty of the Treaty of Aix for the Preservation of Flanders and tho the King in his Declaration at the beginning of this War had engaged to support the Peace made at Aix yet the French King this Summer took the City of Limburg being the chief of one of the Spanish Provinces which the King not only takes no notice of but tells Sir William Temple newly commanded out of Holland by the King that some warm Leaders in both Houses had a mind to engage him in a War against France which they should not do because he was sure they would make use of it to the Ruin of his Ministers If the King were unhappy in his Declaration he was not less in saying this to Sir William to whom the Year before he promised to be the Man of his People but is now of his Ministers And sure he was the first Prince that ever profest it Upon the 13th of October the Houses met and the King asked a Supply for building of Ships and to take off the Anticipation upon his Revenue In the Interval of this Recess the Debates of the Abhorring Oath became publick which so nettled the Court and Church-Party being the more numerous that since they could not prevail by Reason they would by Fire and therefore ordered them to be burnt which made the Debates so much more to be enquired into and hereby received a greater Light The Commons had before them several Bills for preventing future Mischief viz. The Habeas Corpus Bill A Bill against sending Men Prisoners beyond Sea Against raising Money without Consent in Parliament Against Papists sitting in either House For more speedy convicting of Papists And for recalling his Majesty's Subjects out of the French Service These Bills being so diametrically contrary to the French and Popish Designs and the Commons now more peremptorily than before opposing the Lords Jurisdiction in Appeals from Chancery so that they voted Whosoever shall solicite or prosecute any Appeal against any Commoner of England from any Court of Equity before the House of Lords shall be deemed and taken a Betrayer of the Rights and Liberties of the Commons of England and shall be proceeded against accordingly And the Commons having commanded the Counsel who pleaded before the Lords to the Tower How much is the case now altered the King took thereby an occasion to prorogue the Parliament from the 22d of November 1675 to the 16th of February 1676 which is above a Year in which time by a Law in Edward the Third's time a Parliament was to be called and as it was without Precedent so it caused new Debates and Heats in both Houses when they met In this long Recess I find but few Motions of the French and Popish Councils more than what appeared in Sir Gascoin's and other Trials For Coleman's last two Years Letters were supprest as was his Book of Entries and the Commotions raised in Britany and Guiene by the Impositions imposed upon the Inhabitants hindred the French this Year from their usually more early opening their Campagn than the Confederates so that every where the Confederates prevailed against the Tureen's Army was distressed by Montecuculi and himself killed yet the Army got on the French side of the Rhine by the Bravery and bold Stands of the English The Dukes of Lunenburg routed Marshal Crequy's Army and after took Triers and made Crequy Prisoner and the Imperialists also took Philipsburg the Elector of Brandenburg routed the Swedes in Pomerland entred into a League with the King of Denmark who took Wismar from the Swede and the Prince of Orange took Binch from the French and rased it But the Progress of all these Victories were stopt by the unaccountable Retreat of Montecuculi out of Alsatia with his whole Army back over the Rhine it was said by express Orders from Vienna thereby leaving Alsatia in the Power of the French to the breaking of the old Duke of Lorain's Heart who at that time had and never before so fair a Prospect of the Recovery of his Country If the Commotions in Britany and Guiene retarded the French opening the Campagn last Year the King shall make amends in this For having provided Stores for Horse and Man in his Frontier Garisons in February 167 6 7 he block'd up Valenciennes and Cambray and committed such Ravages by burning and destroying those Parts of Germany which lay opposite to him on the other side of the Rhine as if he made War not to conquer but to destroy tho this were at a time whilst they were in a Treaty of Peace with the Empire and King of Spain Upon the 17th of March he notwithstanding the extream Coldness of the Season took Valenciennes and from thence marched to Cambray and laid Siege to it and St. Omers and after the opening of his Trenches Cambray surrendred but not the Citadel our King looking on as if he had not been concerned in the Guaranty of the Treaty of Aix Nor could the Prince of Orange prevent this the Spanish Garisons being ill provided and the Confederates being so slow in getting into Bodies to oppose the French or if they had been to be got together they could not have kept the Field for want of Provisions for Horse and Man However tho the Prince could not come time enough to relieve Cambray and Valenciennes yet with the single Forces of the States the Spaniard not so much as supplying him with Guides marched to the Relief of St. Omers but the Duke of Luxemburg joining with the Duke of Oleance met the Prince at Mount-Cassel where at first the Dispute was brave but the first Regiment of the Dutch Infantry breaking and falling into Disorder the Prince rallied them
into Terms about it he was sure it might be done and desired Sir William to make a short Turn to the Prince and try if he could perswade the Prince to it But Sir William excused it and desired Mr. Hide now Earl of Rochester who was then at Nimeguen might do it but I don't find any thing came of it About the latter End of September as before noted the Prince took his Journey for England and landed at Harwich and from thence came to New-Market where the Court then was where he was kindly received by the King and Duke who both invited him often into Discourse of Business which the Prince avoided industriously so as the King bid Sir William ask the Prince the Reason of it the Prince told him he was resolved to see the young Princess before he enter'd into that Affair and get to proceed in that before the other of Peace whereupon the King to humour him left New-market some Days sooner than he intended and came to London The Prince at first sight was so pleased with her Person and all those Signs of such a Humour as had been before described to him that he immediately made his Suit to the King and Duke which was well received and assented to but upon Condition the Terms of Peace abroad might be first agreed to between them The Prince excused himself and said he must end his first Business before the other The King and Duke were both positive otherwise that that of Peace should precede but the Prince continu'd resolute for the former and said His Allies were like to have hard Terms of Peace as things stood and would be apt to believe he had made this Match at their Cost and for his part he would never sell his Honour for a Wife But the King and Duke continued in their Resolution for three or four Days In the Obstinacy of these contrary Resolutions between the King Duke and Prince Sir William Temple chanced to go to the Prince one Evening after Supper and found him in the worst Humour he had ever seen him in and told Sir William he repented he ever came into England and resolved he would stay but two Days longer if the King continued in his Mind of treating upon the Peace before Marriage and that before he went the King must chuse how they must live hereafter for he was sure it must be like either the greatest Friends or the greatest Enemies and pressed Sir William to let the King know so next Morning and give him an Account what he should say upon it Next Morning Sir William told the King all the Prince had said to him and the ill Consequences of a Breach between them considering the ill Humours of so many of his Subjects upon our late Measures with France and the Invitations made to the Prince by several of them during the late War The King heard Sir William with great Attention and when he had done said Well I was never deceived in judging of a Man's Honesty by his Looks and if I am not deceived in the Prince's Face he is the honestest Man in the World and I will trust him and he shall have his Wife and you shall go immediately and tell my Brother so and that 't is a thing I am resolved on Sir William did so and the Duke at first seemed a little surpriz'd but when Sir William had done the Duke said the King shall be obey'd and I would be glad all his Subjects would learn of me to obey him From the Duke Sir William went to the Prince and told him all this Story At first the Prince seem'd diffident but soon embraced Sir William and told him he had made him a very happy Man and that unexpectedly and so he left the Prince to give the King an Account of what passed and in the Prince's Ante-Chamber met my Lord Treasurer who undertook to adjust all the rest between the King and the Prince which he did so well that the Match was declared that Evening at the Committee before any other in the Court knew any thing of it When the Match was known the Nation entertained it with an universal Joy yet the French Ambassador and my Lord Arlington were displeased at it the French Ambassador because he had not given his Master an Account of it and my Lord Arlington because nothing of near such moment had passed and he not acquainted with it and within two or three Days after the Marriage was consummate The Prince having so happily gained the first part of his Design in coming into England the Terms of Peace were agitated immediately and Sir William Temple was admitted to be present at the Debates The Prince insisted upon the Strength and Enlargement of a Frontier on both sides of Flanders otherwise he said France would end this War with the View of beginning another and carrying Flanders in one Campagn The King was content to leave that Business a little looser upon Confidence that France was so weary of the War that if they could get out of it with Honour they would never begin another in this Reign that the King was past his Youth and lazy and would turn to the Pleasures of the Court and Buildings and leave his Neighbours at quiet But the Prince thought France would not make a Peace now but to break the present Confederacy and to begin another War with more Advantage and Surprize that their Ambition would never end till they had all Flanders and Germany to the Rhine and thereby Holland in an absolute Dependance upon them and us in no good one and that Christendom could not be left safe by the Peace without a Frontier as he proposed for Flanders and the Restitution of Lorain as well as what the Emperour had lost in Alsatia Sir William Temple told the King that in the Course of his Life he had never observed Mens Natures alter by Age or Fortune but that a good Boy made a good Man a young Coxcomb an old Fool and a young Fripon an old Knave that quiet Spirits were so and unquiet would be so old as well as young that he believed the French King would have always some Bent or other sometimes War sometimes Love sometimes Building but was of the Prince's Opinion that he would ne'r make Peace but with a Design of a new War after he had fixed his Conquests by the last The King approved of what Sir William had said and the Points of Lorain and Alsatia were easily agreed to by the King and Duke but they would not hear of the Restitution of the County of Burgundy tho it were part of the Spanish Netherlands which the King was obliged to protect against France by the Treaty of Aix as what France would never be brought to yet the Prince insisted much upon it which the King imagined was by reason of the Prince's own Lands in that Country which are greater and more Seignurial than those of the Crown of Spain there
positive Refusal that the Blow came to be eluded which could not otherwise be avoided as Sir William Temple says tho I believe it was intended even when the Prince went out of England However about the latter end of December 1677 the King sent to Sir William Temple to the Foreign Committee and told him he could get no positive Answer from France and therefore resolved to send him into Holland to make a League there with the States for forcing France and Spain into a Peace upon the Terms proposed if either refused To which Sir William told the King what he had agreed was to enter into a War with all the Confederates in case of no direct and immediate Answer from France That this perhaps would satisfy the Prince and Confederates abroad and the People at home But to make such a League with Holland only would satisfy none of them and disoblige both France and Spain Besides it would not have such an Effect or Force as the Triple Alliance had being a great Original of which this seemed an ill Copy And therefore excused himself from going And so the King sent Mr. Thyn with a Draught of the Treaty to Mr. Hide who was then come from Nimeguen to the Hague upon a Visit to the Princess which was done and the Treaty signed the 16th of January tho not without great Dissatisfaction to the Prince This Tergiversation of the Court set fire to the Jealousies in Holland especially at Amsterdam that the Prince by this Marriage had taken Measures with the King as dangerous to the Liberties of Holland and make it there believed that by this Match the King and Duke had wholly drawn the Prince into their Interests and Sentiments The French hereupon proposed other Terms of Peace to the Dutch far short of the King 's and less safe for Flanders restoring only six Towns to the Spaniard and mentioning Lorain but ambiguously which would not have gone down in Holland but for the Suspicions raised by the Prince's Marriage among the People there who had an incurable Jealousy of our Court and thereupon not that Confidence in the Prince that he deserved If we take this Reign as one thing you 'll find it made up of almost infinite Confusions and Disorders and scarce one regular Act in it and now we are come to one which is without any Precedent which was this You heard before how the King to gratify the French Ambassador for not acquainting him with the Marriage with the Prince had prorogued the Parliament to the 8th of April next viz. 1678. And now Mr. Thyn had made this League with the States the King thought this a good occasion to get Money from the Parliament upon it and was loth to stay till the 8th of April for it and therefore by his Proclamation commands the Parliament to meet upon the 15th of January before the 8th of April Prorogations of Parliaments are new and I think were never heard of in England before the Reign of Henry VIII and are said to be the Acts of the King but Adjournments the Acts of the House to a certain Time and Place and both Houses must be sitting and in being when they are either so prorogued or adjourned I remember upon the discovery of Câ—leman's Letters the Court were mightily surprized at it and the Parliament was to have met some few days after upon a Prorogation which the King in that Surprize unwilling they should did therefore call a Council to advise whether he might not prorogue them to a further day without the Houses meeting and 't was said my Lord Chancellor Finch was of Opinion he might and thereupon Sir Edward Seymour Speaker of the House of Commons having Occasions in the Country went out of Town but some body acquainted the King of the Doubtfulness of the Chancellor's Opinion and desired the King to advise with old John Brown who had been Clerk of the Parliament for near forty Years the King did so and John Brown was positive that in case the Houses did not meet at the Time and Place appointed the King by his Proclamation could not prorogue them but it would be a Dissolution of the Parliament Whereupon the Speaker was sent for back again and so many of both Houses met as would make a Parliament which it 's said is forty Commoners and seven Lords and then the King prorogued them But this Consideration was not that I find taken notice of by either House tho both met according to the King's Proclamation The Houses thus met the King acquainted them with the League he had made with Holland and demanded Money of them to carry on the War against France in case France did not comply with the League whereupon the Parliament granted him a Tex by Poll and otherways which amounted to 1200000 l. not for Peace but to enter into an actual War with France But this Tax shall only beget another to disband an Army raised upon that Pretence tho no War was entred into against France But so far was the French King from giving up any Towns notwithstanding the Agreement the King had made with the Prince or the League he had made with Holland that about the latter end of January he had made an Attempt upon Ipre and threatned Ostend and in March following by open Force takes both Ipre and Gaunt yet the French Ambassador here continued his Court and Treaty with all the Fairness that might be The French having now taken Ipre and Gaunt were so far from proceeding in any Treaty either with England the Confederates or Holland or in the Treaty at Nimeguen that about the first of April the French King made publick Declaration of the Terms upon which he resolved to make Peace which tho very different from those agreed upon between the King and Holland and more from the Pretensions of the Allies yet this way of treating the French pursued in the whole Negotiation afterwards declaring such and such were the Conditions which they would admit and no other and upon which the Enemies might chuse either War or Peace and to which France would not be tied longer than the 10th of May after which they would be at Liberty to change or restrain as they should think fit But how imperious soever the French were abroad yet they dreaded a Conjunction of England either with the Dutch or Confederates and therefore thought fit to wheedle our Court till the Affairs of the Confederates should become so desperate as to submit to what Terms the French King should impose upon them And to this purpose Mr. Mountague now Earl sent a Pacquet to my Lord Treasurer giving an account of a large Conference Monsieur Louvoy the French King 's grand Minister of State had with him by the King his Master's Order wherein he represented the Measures they had already taken for a Peace in Holland upon the French Terms and that since they were agreed there they hoped his Majesty would not be
against it That however France had ordered him to make his Majesty the Offer of a great Sum of Money for his Consent tho the thing was already accepted by Holland and wherein his Majesty was consequently not concerned The French Ambassador at London confident this Bait would take the King began to change his Language That his Majesty should be Arbiter of the Peace But now being assured his Master had agreed with Holland he seem'd to wonder and expostulate why the King should pretend to obtain better Terms for the Spaniards than the Dutch their Allies were content with You have heard the Agreement between the King and Prince before he went into Holland as well on the behalf of the Empire and Duke of Lorain as of the Spaniards and how it was not observed by the King and of the time when the Prince arrived in Holland and of the unjust Jealousies had upon the Prince thereby as well by the Confederates as by the Dutch and of the separate League the King made with the States for enforcing the French to come up to the Agreement between the King and Prince of Orange and how the King had got twelve hundred thousand Pounds of the Parliament for entring into an actual War with France and how the French King in defiance of the King and States instead of giving up any Towns had taken Ipre and Gaunt as well contrary to this Agreement and League as to the Treaty of Aix Now let 's see how the King proceeded after the Dutch contrary to the League with the King had accepted the French Terms Having got the Money of the Parliament for making the League with the Dutch upon the Terms agreed upon by the Prince he now saw no reason why he should not get the Money the French offer'd him if he would agree to the Terms he had made with the Dutch and to that purpose order'd Sir William Temple to treat upon it with the French Ambassador who had Orders to that purpose Sir William would have excused it but the King told him he could not help seeing him for the Ambassador would be at his House next Morning by seven a Clock and then he came but Sir William told him he had been very ill in the Night and could not enter into Business so the Ambassador was disappointed of his Design at that time However the Bargain went on not only for the Money but something else so that Sir William Temple says p. 321. There was one Article in this private Treaty the King took such Indignation at that he would never forget it whilst he lived There was but one Accident favourable to the Confederates in all these Treaties viz. the French apprehensive of a Conjunction between the English and Dutch who at this time were much more powerful at Sea than France thought they might block up Messina by Sea while the Spaniard besieged it by Land and so might lose all the Cannon Provisions and Stores they had in it to prevent which they abandoned it while it was in their Power to secure their Effects there and left the Messinians their Confederates to the Mercy of the Spaniards Beverning was the Agent which managed this Treaty upon the French Terms and Beverning was sent to the French Camp where the Terms of Peace were concluded about the latter end of June and a Cessation of Arms for six Weeks that the Spaniards might come into the Peace upon the Terms proposed But if they should not his most Christian Majesty assured the States that he would always provide such a Barrier in Flanders as they thought necessary for their Safety and after the Peace should be made and the antient Amity restored he would be ready to enter into such Engagements with them as should for ever secure their Repose and their Liberties viz. he would be the Fox that should preserve these Geese Indignation will not suffer this to pass over without Reflection that the World may see what Trust is to be given to French Faith Did not he make this War upon the Dutch only because of the ill Satisfaction he had of the Dutch Behaviour toward him being risen to that degree that he could no longer without Diminution of his Glory dissemble his Indignation against them c. and therefore resolved to make War against them by Sea and Land Did he not in the beginning of this War by all French Artifice court the Prince of Orange to take upon him the Soveraignty of the Dutch Provinces Did not his Ambassadors court Sir William Temple Pensioner Fagel and the Dutch themselves and that the Prince should make what Terms he pleased so as to make a separate Peace And now he is making a separate Peace with a pack of factious Dutch of the Louvestein Faction opposite to the Prince to wheedle them that after the Peace was made he would enter into such Engagements with them as should for ever secure their Repose and their Liberties meaning to depose the Prince from having any Power or Authority with them In this hopeful Security of this Faction relying upon French Faith the Marquess de Balbaces proposed when the six Towns in Flanders should be given up to the Spaniard upon the French Terms to which the French Ambassador answered That his Master being obliged to see an entire Restitution made to the Swede of all they bu◠lost in the War could not restore the Towns in Flanders to th◠Spaniard till those to the Swede were likewise restored So that now the Dutch by this separate Peace must only stand still and loo◠on if the King of Denmark and the Elector of Brandenburg wil◠not deliver the Towns they had taken from the Swede which 〈◊〉 like they would not nor could the Dutch compel them while 〈◊〉 French take all Flanders and impose what Terms they please upon the rest of the Confederates Beverning could not tell what to say to this and acquaints the States with it the States were confounded at it and could neither tell what to do nor to whom to complain To the Confederates they were asham'd to complain who had so generously entred into the War for their Preservation when otherwise they had 〈◊〉 under the French Tyranny without possibility of Relief and therefore had great reason to be offended at their endeavouring to make a separate Peace thereby to expose them to the Fury and Tyranny of the French Arms and the Counsels of the Court of England were so loose that no Reliance could be had upon them But it was Hobson's Choice that or nothing That we may take all fair before us let 's now see the Fruits the Dutch had of their Cessation of Arms for six Weeks to try if they could bring in the Spaniard to comply with the Terms which the French had imposed upon Beverning and his Faction for restoring six of the nine Towns to the Spaniard which was agreed upon between the King and Prince and also by the League which
either by their Ambassadors at Nimeguen or such as the Dutch should send his most Christian Majesty at St. Quintin or Gaunt The Dutch Ambassadors gave an Answer in writing declaring it was a Matter no longer entire since upon the Difficulty raised about the Evacuation of the Towns the States their Masters had been induced to sign a Treaty with England from which they could not recede nor from the Day therein fixed for the determining the Fate of War or Peace and as there was no Time so there could be no Deputation to St. Quintin or Gaunt nor any other Expedient besides the Consent of France to evacuate the Towns The Dutch Ambassadors having blown off his Chaff the French Ambassador then declared to the Dutch that they found the King their Master was resolved at the Desire of the Swedes to retard the Peace no longer upon their Consideration and would consent to evacuate the Towns upon Condition the States would send their Deputies to treat upon the Ways of securing the future Satisfaction to Sweden which was by both intended But the Dutch Ambassadors continued peremptory there could be no Deputation made by their Masters and if the Term fixed by the late Treaty with England should elapse there was no remedy but that the War must go on to which the French Ambassadors replied That their Hands were bound up from further proceeding without such a Deputation Whilst the French were thus wheedling with the Dutch to elude the Term fixed for the French evacuating the Towns at the same time Luxemburg pressed Mons and Schomberg seemed to threaten Cologn when the fatal Day came whether a sudden Peace or long War were to be reckoned upon in Christendom when Boreel came early that Morning from Amsterdam to the Dutch Ambassadors at Nimeguen which were Beverning and one Haren and then Boreel went to the French Ambassadors and after some Conference with them the French Ambassadors and Boreel went immediately to those of Holland and declared to them that they had received Orders to consent to the Evacuation of the Towns and thereupon to sign the Peace and that very Day at Night tho late Beverning signed a Treaty of Peace and Commerce Sir William Temple and Sir Lionel Jenkins refusing to join in it and the Confederates exclaiming against it The next day after this Peace was thus signed came an Express to Sir William Temple from our Court with the Ratificationâ— of the late Treaty between the King and States with Orders immediately to proceed to the Exchange of them whereupon St. William went from Nimeguen to the Hague and the next Day after his Arrival made an Exchange of the Ratifications Now was Holland in as much Disorder as the Confederates were at Nimeguen the Pensioner and several of the Deputies were as much dissatisfied with Beverning's Peace as the Confederates were and said he could not sign the Peace before he had acquainted the States with it and received new Orders there upon it and talked of calling him into Question for it and of disavowing what he had done and thereupon of having recourse to the Treaty made with the King which they now ratified But the Deputies of Amsterdam with whom others joined declared their Satisfaction of the Conclusion of the Peace made by Beverning and argued the Weakness of their Confederates especially Spain and the Unsteadiness and Irresolution of England had made the Peace absolutely necessary to Holland But however this Confusion and indeed the Fate of Christendom were the Consequences of Cross's Pacquet and his acquainting the Deputies with a Peace made between the two Kings yet how dishonourable soever this was to the King he was not at all concerned at it that I can find but pleasantly told Sir William Temple Thâ—â— the Rogue Du Cross had outwitted them all Could this be believed if the great Authority of Sir William Temple had not said it During these Brawls both at Nimeguen and all Holland over the Prince of Orange upon the Fourteenth of August stormed Luxemburg's Camp before Mons wherein the brave Duke of Mâ—mouth and the noble Earl of Ossery were Partakers in the Glory of it and notwithstanding the French Posts were fortified with all imaginable Art and that the Prince's Army had undergone the Fatigue of a hard March attack'd them with a Resolution and Vigour that at first surprized them and after an obstinate-Fight so disordered them that though the Night prevented the further Prosecution of the Action yet it was generally concluded That if the Prince had been at Liberty next Day to have pursued the Action with seven or eight Thousand English who were ready to have joined him he might in all Appearance not only have relieved Mons but have made such an Impression into France as had been often designed but could not be done before And I dare say if Luxemburg had had the like Advantage over the Prince the Dutch would have heard further of it but the Prince was bound up by a limited Authority and so could not pursue the Advantage he had acquired against the French The Success of the Battel at Mons though the Prince's Army were withdrawn gave new Life to the Spaniards and Confederates that the War would go on according to the Ratification of the Treaty at the Hague exchanged the Day before the Fight by Sir William Temple and the States whereas Beverning's Peace at Nimeguen was concluded without the States besides English Forces arrived daily in Flanders as if the King were now resolved to join with the Dutch in carrying on the War pursuant to the League which made the Confederates as well as the Spainards refuse to agree to Beverning's Peace Besides neither the French Pretensions to the County of Beaumont and the Town of Bovignes nor in what Plight the six Towns should be delivered up whether demolished or in the Plight they then stood nor the Dependences upon the Six Towns were adjusted by Beverning's Peace But this Hope of the Spaniards and Confederates shall cost them dear and only serve to advance the French Terms and intolerable Ravages of the French upon them For the French cared little for the Confederates in Disjunction with the Dutch and as little for the Dutch when he had obtained his Ends upon the Confederates and therefore the French fall to their wheedling Trade again with the Dutch and the French King sent a Courier to Nimeguen to satisfy the States in those Clauses of the Treaty wherein they seemed justly to except against Beverning's Conduct thereby to cover the Credit of that Minister who had been so affectionate an Instrument in the Progress of the Treaty and gave them the States Liberty a little to soften the Rigour the French had as yet exercised in the smallest Points contested with the Spaniards and at last dispatched an Express to the Dutch Ambassadors with Power to remit all the Differences which obstructed or retarded the Conclusion of the Treaty between France and Spain to
Mr. Robert Cooke who is a more rigid Pythagorean than any I think of the Antients for he will not drink any thing but Water nor eat any thing which had Sensitive Life nay he will not wear any thing which came of any living Sensitive Creature but his Hat Clothes Shooes and Stockings are all made of Linen and so is the Bed he lies in After the Natives of Ireland upon the Act against importing Irish Cattle had converted their feeding Grounds of great Cattle into Sheep-folds and the Wools of Ireland being generally better for Woollen Manufactures as he told me than those in England this Mr. Cooke set up a Woollen Manufacture in the County as I remember of Wexford wherein he set on work either 40 or 80 Looms and I think each Loom imployed ten poor Children in sorting combing and spinning of Wool and would entertain none but poor married People and their Children in working for whom he first provided a Habitation and all sorts of Instruments for their Work and Materials to work on they needed no great Instruction how to work but were instructed by one another in Consort till they had learnt how to comb and spin and in working in common as they could improve themselves so he preferred them I asked him why he took only poor People and their Children he told me Because he was sure of them when he had most Benefit of them whereas if he took young single People which lived of themselves they would leave him when they could subsist without him Hereby Mr. Cooke holding Correspondence with Merchants in Holland for these Woollen Cloths acquired great Riches and a little before I think the Year before the Revolution of England was made Sheriff of the County I think of Wexford but being zealous against the Superstition of Rome upon King James his coming into Ireland Mr. Cooke came into England and would have set up his Trade in Ipswich if the Town would have permitted him tho Ipswich be scarce half inhabited which they would not so he set up some Looms without the Town but he told me he could not get any Children to work tho he proffered them a Penny in a Shilling more than was given either at Colchester or Norwich I never saw him but once and this was four Years since and now I hear he is returned back to Ireland But admit binding of Apprentices were necessary in learning of Arts or Mysteries I would fain know what is the Art and Mystery of Wholesale or Retail Traders or of Vintners that Youth should be bound Apprentice to them or of what use are they to the Publick but an unnecessary sort of People And because these are bound Apprentice which noways contributes to the Benefit of the Publick therefore other People which do shall reap no Benefit of their Labours because these labour not at all Expedient V. That for the future no Youth be bound Apprentice to any Vintner Wholesale or Retail Trader whereby the Nation may reap the Benefit of those which might have been thus bound in other Imployments Expedient VI. That in all the Grammar-Schools of England Youth of both Sexes be instructed in understanding the English Tongue and to write it and be taught the use of Addition and Substraction gratis and if any will have their Children instructed in the Greek and Latin Tongues let them pay for it whereby Youth may be better enabled to manage their Business in Dealing and Conversing in the World for to speak and write in English and Addition and Substraction if they be not necessary yet are very convenient to all the English of both Sexes And hereby the Supernumeraries bred up in Grammar-Schools and our Universities more than the Revenues of the Church can maintain may be restrained and consequently a greater Uniformity in Religion wrought amongst us It were to be desired too that all learned Books especially Mathematicks and History were rendred into the English Tongue as Cardinal Richlieu has done them in French and that in our Universities these may be read to the nobler and better sort of Youth from their first Principles and that Aristotle's Analyticks Topicks Physicks and Metaphysicks be supprest not only as vain but disposing to Contention and Discord and that the Laws of England after the Example of the Grecians and Romans might be rendred into the English Tongue and their practice less mystical and chargeable Expedient VII That in every Village a Work-house be erected or at least every Village contribute to the Erecting of one in another Village for to instruct the Youth of both Sexes in such Arts or Mysteries as are more proper in them whereby the Nation may reap the Benefit of their Imployments and the poorer sort of People not forced to flee out of their Country or become a Burden to it Expedient VIII That the Drudgeries of Drawers and Tapsters in Taverns and Ale-houses be performed by Women that the Men may seek better Imployments I am sure they cannot be worse imployed Expedient IX That Foreigners be excluded from the Trade in Ireland and that the Trade between England and Ireland be free so that England may be the Store-house of the Irish Wools Beef Tallow Hâ—des c. as well as of the Products of our Plantations whereby England may have alone the Navigation as well as the Trade to it and by the benefit of Manufacturing their Wools Hides and Tallow not only victual our Fleet in Navigation and the King his Navy Royal cheaper but also drive a Foreign Trade to France Spain and Holland upon the account of salted Beef c. Let 's see the dangerous State of this Nation as the Case now stands between England and Ireland Our Trades to Norway Prussia and Liesland for Pitch Tar Masts Raff Boards Timber and rough Hemp and Flax are generally a Foreign Expence so is that to the East-Indies which at a moderate Estimate amounts to a Million Sterling yearly and we have little to supply for these but by our Trade to Spain for Woollen Manufactures which if we lose the Nation could not support the Foreign Expence in these Now let 's see the State of our Woollen Manufactures in England compared with that in Ireland in case Foreigners be permitted to trade into Ireland for them In England the Wools of most of the Counties on this side York-shire are brought by a Land-Carriage to Norwich and Colchester to be manufactured there and after that by another Land-Carriage brought up to London as generally your Western Cloths are where only the Free-men of London must buy them at their own Prices and then in Foreign Vent they are restrained by the Act of Navigation to Ships doubly as dear built and sailed with near double the Hands Foreign Ships of like Dimensions are and all the Western Cloths in their Vent to Spain Portugal Italy and Turkey by a much longer Voyage than if they had been exported from any of their Ports Whereas Ireland is seated better
and found the Captain on Board and falling into discourse with him among other things I told him how scarce Timber was in Suffolk but I hoped it was not so in the West he told me it was much less there than in the East and that he was forced to get Timber for building the Frigat from beyond Worcester which was above fifty Miles from the Place yet the Forest of Dean between which Queen Elizabeth called one of the Nurseries of her Navy Royal. About five Years since one Captain Frame undertook to build two Men of War for the King and he bought Timber for building them in Norfolk and Suffolk near 20 Miles from Great Yarmouth from whence it was carried to Hull by Water to him and I have a Tenant in Suffolk who contracted about three Years since with Timber-Masters to be paid Sixteen Shillings a Load or Tun for carrying of the Timber for the Dock at Ipswich to build their Ships which is I am confident more than the Dutch pay for their Timber delivered at their Docks down the Rhine and Maes Objection But if the English buy Ships for the Foreign Vent of our Manufactures our Ship-Carpenters will be undone for want of Imployment Answer So here the Interest of Ship-Carpenters is opposed to the Interest and Safety of the Nation but if these built Ships as good and convenient as other Nations the Merchants would not look further but is there any reason because they cannot do it the Nation must be undone let them continue building Ships for New-Castle still and they know no better yet this is observable that though our English Builders in this Trade have had a Monopoly in it above these Hundred Years yet having no better Skill in it and being too wise to be instructed at last about six Years since they found out that it was better to build them somewhat longer yet these are the Artists our Merchants must trust to and no other I am confident that the French King understands the Advantages France reaps by the Act of Navigation and that this was the Reason King James in his last Declaration promised to observe this Act inviolably Expedient XIII That the foreign Vent of our English Manufactures and the Product of our Plantations be as free to the English in all Trades as they are to Spain and Italy When any Man shall give a rational Answer to any of those manifold Reasons given by 3 Jac. 6. for the Freedom of Trade to Spain c. I will recant all which hath been said in any of these Expedients or that there are not the same Reasons for the Freedom of the English in venting our Manufactures and Product of our Plantations in all our foreign Trades as well as to Spain except to Holland who by the Cheapness of their Navigation may vend them again cheaper in Muscovy all the Countries and Kingdoms within the Sound and also to Spain Portugal Italy and Turkey than the English can by their Navigation but this is yet but problematically said not granted But in case the English Navigation were as free and easy as it is in Holland then the Question would be at an End I do not speak this against the English trading in Consort or Companies for I know many Trades may be better carried on in Companies than by particular Men but against the Usurpation and Tyranny of Companies who because they trade therefore no other English shall and this I say that if Companies as the Turkey Company which of all others is least liable to Exception carry on their Trades best for the Interest of the Nation no particular Merchant could set up in competition with them but if they leave Room enough for the Dutch the French and Venetians to trade to Turkey with their Woollen Manufactures why should any English Merchant not of the Turkey Company be excluded herein yet these Trades free to other Nations The East-India Company by their Charter claim a Liberty of Trade exclusive to the rest of the Nation from the Cape of Good Hope to the North of China which if you take in both sides of the Red-Sea and Gulph of Persia and the Circuits of the Islands between the Cape of Good Hope and the North of China is above half the Circumference of the Earth So do the African Company from the Kingdom of Morocco to the Cape of Good Hope which if you take the Coast of Africa as it lies is more than a Quadrant of the Circumference of the Earth so that these two Companies claim a Trade exclusive to the English of above 3 4 of the Circumference of the Globe of the Earth and if they had Power as great as their Claim they might give Laws to all the Princes of the World as well as their poor fellow Subjects and it may be a Question whether they would use them better And is not the Hamburgh Company broke And have not the East-Country Company upon the matter lost our Trade into the Sound which within these sixty Years was the best Trade the English had for Woollen Manufactures in the World Expedient XIV That the Customs upon the French Wines consumed in England be 1 3 more than upon Portugal Spanish and Italian Wines whereas the Duties upon these are 1 3 more than upon the French because our Trades to Portugal Spain and Italy are beneficial Trades to the Nation which by the Abatement of these Duties may be increased whereas by the Ballance of our Trade with France taken in the eighth Year of King Charles the Second the Nation lost near a Million yearly in their Trade with France Expedient XV. That the Duties imposed upon Salt Wines and Brandies be paid by the first Buyer after they are imported and not the whole Cargo charged upon the Merchant so that what is not consumed may be exported again The Reason of this is that so much more as Ships are fuller fraught so much cheaper will the Navigation be not only of these but of all other Merchandize which compound the Fraight of the Ship and hereby the Dutch besides the Cheapness of their Ships by compounding their other Merchandize with Salt Wine and Brandies which they import cheaper than the English make all their Trades to Muscovy and all the Countries and Kingdoms within the Sound so much more easy and cheap as their Vessels are more full fraught by these Objection If Salt Wines and Brandy imported may be exported again the King will lose his Customs Answer I say not at all for how do they do in Holland and by the 4 Jac. 2. the additional Duties upon Tobaccos and Sugars are paid by the first Buyers and by charging the whole Cargo these are damned to a Consumption here in England and if you did not the King shall be paid for all that is consumed On the contrary I say the King is more secured of his Duties hereby than if the whole Cargo be charged for let the Penalty stand that
the Merchant shall forfeit his Cargo if he make a false Entry and who then will run the danger when he is like to get nothing by it whereas if the whole Cargo be charged if a Merchant scapes but once he will be no loser if he be discovered the next time he runs his Goods Expedient XVI That it be free to the English to import Salt Wines and Brandies in any Vessels The Reason of this is because our English Navigation is so dear that the Dutch import these much cheaper than the English can and therefore can export them into other Countries cheaper whereby the English cannot so well compound their Fraight in the Northern Vent of our Manufactures as the Dutch whereas if the English were free to import Salt Wines and Brandies in any Vessels all the Manufactures of England might be vended from their next Ports and not by a tedious and chargeable Land-carriage brought up to London to be fraighted from thence And this benefit the Nation has naturally above the Dutch herein that as our Woollen Manufactures are better than those in Holland and may be cheaper than there so we can compound Fraights with Lead and Tin which the Dutch have not and can ballast the Ship with Sea-coal cheaper than the Dutch can Object If the English should freely import Salt Wines and Brandies we should undo all our Mariners and Shipwrights Answ What this again and at large So that unless you undo the Nation you cry out You are undone but if you will do as well as other Men you need not complain for the English would imploy you before any other But must the Nation be undone because you are either ignorant and will not or have not means to serve the Nation Now let us see how far these Men would be undone if the importation of Salt Wines and Brandy were free for the English in any Vessels If Salt were freely imported we should be so much better enabled to cure Fish in all our Fisheries and also in salting Provisions in all our Navigations as well as the Navy Royal upon Occasions and be enabled to refine Salt so much cheaper as Salt imported is cheaper And what are the Ship-Carpenters hereby hindred for they never built one Ship for this Trade nor know how to build any other way than for the New-Castle Trade which is free both to imploy their Shipping and Mariners and therefore neither would be undone if the Trade to import Salt by the English were free to do it in any Vessels For the Trade for French Wines it is but three Months in the Year viz. October November and December and these the most perillous of all the Year for Navigation and in the most rude and boisterous Seas in the World and the outward Vent to France no ways proportionable but less by the Returns of the Wines and what would be the Loss to the Nation if these Ships were not thus endangered by this Voyage or the Mariners not imployed in it The Reasons for the Import of Portugal Spanish and Italian Wines are not the same with the French but if it were lawful for the English to buy Ships for the foreign Vent of our Manufactures and the Product of our Plantations the English hereby might in Return of their Trades import Salt Wines and Brandies cheaper from thence than the Dutch can and if these were free to be imported and exported I see no Reason why we might not reduce the Dutch to as low a Trade to the Sound and to Muscovy as they were before the Year 1635 and in a great Measure recover the Loss of these Trades Expedient XVII That no Duties be withdrawn upon the Export of dying Stuffs and unwrought Sugars from our American Plantations The Reason hereof is that the Manufacturing of any Commodities is so much more valuable to any Place by the Imployment of the People as the thing manufactured is more valuable than the Principals as it may be Wool which is the Price but of one Shilling if made into Cloth may be of eight Shillings value then seven Shillings will be Advantage to the Nation by Imployment of the People and if otherwise it were not wrought these People might be a Burden to it And the dying of Woollen Cloths and silken Manufactures is the best Imployment for our Midland People next the making of them and by withdrawing half the Duties upon dying Stuffs we entitle the Dutch Hamburgher and French to dye Woollen Cloths and Silks cheaper than we can The same Reason is of withdrawing half the Duties upon unwrought Sugars for hereby the Dutch and French may refine them cheaper than the English can and thereby make them cheaper to themselves and exclude us from the foreign Vent of our refined Sugars as much to their enriching and encrease of Navigation as to our Loss in both Expedient XVIII That it be free for all Nations to import Pitch Tar Masts Boards Raff and all Sorts of Timber and rough Hemp and Flax into all the Ports of England and Wales without paying any Duties The Reason of this is hereby the English if they can get Hands may fit up Vessels not only for the Fishing Trades but for all other Foreign and Domestick Trades and so far as Foreign Timber be imployed in building Ships we may build as cheap Object 1. The King by this will lose considerably in his Customs Answ It may be so but hereby he will gain threefold more in building repairing and fitting up his Navy Royal as I remember when in 1667 after the burning of the City of London Endeavours were used to procure these to be freely imported for the Benefit of rebuilding it upon Search the Duties upon Pitch Tar rough Hemp and Flax in all England did not amount to 1700 l. per Ann. and that very Year the King granted the Customs upon Masts Boards and Timber to Sir Robert Paston after Earl of Yarmouth only reserving to himself as I remember 2600 l. per Ann. the greatest part whereof was afterwards begg'd How it stands now I know not Object 2. If this Importation be free we shall undo our Norway Merchants and Traders to Liefland and Prussia Answ And why undone They are not excluded from trading hereby But suppose these Traders be twenty and they cannot or will not supply the Kingdom so cheap as others shall the Interest of the Nation by imploying above it may be 100000 poor People in these all the Year round and we hereby be enabled at least to fit Vessels in all our Navigation as cheap as the Dutch and cheaper than the French be postponed to the Interest of twenty particular Men who by this are no ways hindred in their Imployment if they do it as well as others Expedient XIX That all Foreigners may be free to exercise any Mystery in any Art in any Place in England The Reason of this is because if the Nation had all the Benefits proposed in these Expedients and
Speech against the Commons concerning Tunnage and Poundage with Remarks on it 219 224. Makes a Papist Lord Treasurer 226. Commands the Speaker to put no Question concerning Grievances 229. Imprisons several Members of Parliament 232 233. who are denied Bail 234 235. Displeas'd with the Judges Determination thereon 235. His threatning Declaration at dissolving the Parliament 236 237. Makes Peace with France to the ruin of the Reformed 237. Sends 6000 Men to assist the Swede 238. His great Fickleness 239 271 279 298 311 330. Disturbs the Dutch fishing Trade 259. His Instructions concerning the Scots solemn Covenant 264. Summons a General Assembly and Parliament in Scotland ib. Sends a Fleet and Army against the Scots 265. Boasts of his Prerogatives in calling Parliaments which is descanted on 268 270. Marches against the Scots is petition'd for a free Parliament treats with them 272. Is forsaken by his Friends 274 275. Begins his Reformation too late 275 286. Establishes Presbytery in Scotland 277. Long before he declar'd the Irish Rebels 277 278. Demands five Members of the Commons 278 290. Is advis'd to stay at London but would not 278. Is refus'd Entrance at Hull sets up his Standard at Nottingham join'd by the Nobility 279. Is worsted at Brentford 297. Summons his mungrel Parliament at Oxford makes Cessation of Arms with the Irish withdraws his Forces from Ireland 300 343. His ill Success 306 308 313 315. His Counsels with the Queen discover'd 312. Deals privately with the Irish 312 314. His Commission to Glamorgan 314. Submits to the Scots 316. who sell him Is confin'd 317. Is seiz'd by the Army 318. His Letters to the Queen threatning Cromwel by whom he 's remov'd to the Isle of Wight 323. Treats with the Parliament 324. Remarks on his sad State 316 317 325 327 333 334. His Death and Character 334 337. A Story of him concerning Buckingham's Funeral 337. Charles II. takes the Covenant and is proclaim'd in Scotland 344 345. Flies into England is routed at Worcester 346. Assists at the Pyrenean Treaty and is slighted by the French 422. Sends Letters from Breda 425. Is restor'd without Terms with an extravagant Joy rejects Cromwel's Treaty of Commerce with the French 426. whom he imitates in his Guards 427. Delivers them up Dunkirk and assists 'em against the Spaniard 429. His Luxury Debauchery c. 430. Calls a Parliament ib. Restores Episcopacy in Scotland 445. Grants a Toleration 447. Afterwards takes it off 448. Makes War on the Dutch 452. His Speech to the Commons on that occasion 452 453. His vast Revenues 453. compar'd with Q. Elizabeth's 454 455. His slight Preparations for the War 455 456. Is careless and prodigal therein 456 467 468. His ill Success in the second Fight 459 460. Makes a dishonourable Peace with them 469 495 497. Enters into a League with the Dutch and Swede 472. but breaks it off by means of his Sister who soon after dies 474. His deep Perfidiousness and Dissimulation 475. Is a Pensioner to France 477 522 523 548 561. Shuts up the Exchequer 478. Makes War again on the Dutch without Cause 478 479. Suffer'd Marsilly whom he employ'd in Switzerland to be murder'd at Paris 479. Raises an Army under Schomberg and Fitz-gerald 487. Sends 3 Lords to the French on a dark Design 488. His Demands at the Treaty at Cologn 492. Assists the French with vast Stores 498. Mediates a Peace betwixt France and the Confederates 498. Breaks his Promise to Sir W. Temple 499 503. His unprecedented Prorogation of Parliament 504. Insisted on by the Lords to be a Dissolution 505. His Rage at the Commons for their Advice descanted on 506. Adjourns them without their Consent 506. Endeavours a separate Peace betwixt France and the States 507 515. His Answer to the Pr. of Orange concerning it 511. and to Sir W. Temple 512. Treats with them 516 517. Sends Lord Duras into France 518 519. Treats about a War with France 524 525. Is govern'd by French Counsels sends Du Cross to supplant Sir W. Temple 526 527. Calls his second Parliament which met in 40 days pretends Zeal in discovering the Popish Plot 537. Chuses a new Privy-Council and promises to be ruled by his Parliament c. 538. His great Hypocrisy and Deceit 539 548 559. Declares himself a Whore-master 544 545. His dissembling Speech to the Parliament after many Prorogations with Remarks on it 547 552. Summons a Parliament at Oxford 559. Is concern'd in Fitz-Harris's Plot 564. His Declaration at dissolving the Oxford Parliament descanted on 566 568. His Death and Character 604 606. His obscure Burial and good Deeds 606 608. Died a Papist 610. Charter of London ravish'd by the Court 600 601 614. and those of other Corporations taken and surrendred 603 615 633. Children more in England than employ'd 27. Clergy when too numerous the Cause of Factions 240 241 449. Cromwel's Son-in-law imprison'd for a pretended Plot 532. Clifford foretels another Dutch War 473 Made Lord Treasurer 478. But being a Papist is forc'd to resign 491. Cobbet Colonel taken Prisoner 412. Cockain's Project for dressing Cloths monopoliz'd and the Consequences of it 65. Coke Sir Edw. grants a Warrant for seizing Somerset 78. Remov'd from being Chief Justice and why 79 82. Is prosecuted 103. Imprison'd without Cause assign'd and sued by the King who is cast 105. Not admitted into his Presence 164. Is made Sheriff and why 180. Moves for the Petition of Right c. 207 209. Is against trusting to the King 's Verbal Declaration 211 212. His sharp Speech against Buckingham 215 216. His Papers seiz'd at his Death 253. His Books made use of by the King's Party tho printed by the Parliament 279. Coleman holds Correspondence with the Jesuits 500. His Papers c. convey'd away 532. Colledge Stephen clear'd by the Grand Jury of London but basely murder'd at Oxford under a Colour of Justice 591 595. Cologn Treaty there propos'd by the Swede 492. Commission of Ecclesiastical Affairs by K. James 633 637. Committee of Safety 410. Agree with Monk 412. Are threatned by Lawson 414. Commons insist on deciding Elections 52. Alarm'd at the Growth of Popery c. 97 98 493 531. Present Remonstrances to the King 98 100 217. Their stinging Petition against Papists 134 138. Zealous against them 166 168 169. Grant the greatest Tax ever given before 206. Fall upon Grievances 207 216 231 266. Their Declaration against Tunnage and Poundage 218 219. Protest against paying Money not granted by Parliament 229. Their Vow concerning Religion 231. Zealous against Delinquents 274. Their Remonstrance of all the King's Miscarriages 278 289. Inflam'd at his demanding the 5 Members 278 291. whom they vindicate 291. Pass the Self-denying Ordinance 310. Deliver up the Militia of London to the Army which is petition'd against 320. Treat with the King at the Isle of Wight 327. Refuse to grant Supplies before the Nation is secur'd 493 531. Their Votes against the King's evil Counsellors c. 494.
Peron of the Papal Power of King-Killing and King-Deposing were only Brawls and Contentions and 〈◊〉 Learning on one side or the other A Power disclaimed by our Saviour when the Devil would have given him it and denied any such Power in this World even when the Jews were ready to crucify him John 18. 36. And as there were no Reasons for these Brawls so was the End of them Arrogance on the Popish Part to impose a foreign Power or Jurisdiction upon the King and Kingdom and as foolish on the King's Part it being exploded by the Nation and under the severest Penalty the asserting such a Power prohibited and how could the King by his Writings further secure himself and the Nation against it But it seems the King was in this more zealous for himself and the Preservation of his Inherent Birth-right to the Crown of England than for the Honour of God and our Saviour against the Pope's Usurpations other ways for in his Speech at the Opening the first Parliament of his Reign he calls the Church of Rome a 〈◊〉 Church and our Mother-Church and if they would lay aside their King-killing and King-deposing Doctrine and some Niceties but names them not he was content to meet them mid-way Does not the Pope exalt himself above God and is Antichrist i◠forbidding the Laity the Cup in the partaking the Sacrament a Christ's last Supper If any Man makes a Question of it I 'll demonstrate it by a better Syllogism than can be made up of Aristotle's Analyticks For whosoever shall forbid what another commands exalts himself above that other But the Pope forbids the Drinking of the Cup at the Sacrament to the Laity who are Christ's Members as well as the Priests And our Saviour commands the Cup with an Emphasis Drink ye All of it Therefore the Pope exalts himself above our Saviour and is Antichrist which was to be demonstrated and this Mutilation makes this the Pope's and not a Sacrament of our Saviour's Institution COROLLARY By the same Reason I say the Pope exalts himself above God in forbidding Marriage to the Priests For Marriage is an Institution of God in Paradise Gen. 2. and commanded by God Gen. 9. 1. and the Pope forbids the Marriage of Priests which St. Paul says is the Doctrine of Devils and it 's worthy Observation that the Pope makes Marriage to be a Sacrament yet denies it to Priests and our Saviour commands the Cup in the Sacrament of his last Supper to be drunk by all yet this is denied the Laity and only allowed to Priests I say Pope Julius the 2d in dispensing with Henry the 8th to marry his Brother Arthur's Wife exalted himself above God For whosoever shall dispense with or allow what another forbids exalts himself above that other But Julius dispensed with Henry's Marriage of his Brother's Wife And God forbids the Marriage of a Man's Brother's Wife Lev. 18. 16. Therefore Julius exalted himself above God which was to be demonstrated It 's true I do not find the Marriage of a Man's Sister's Daughter particularly forbidden by the Levitical Law yet by the 17th verse it is by inference forbidden and is abhorrent to Nature So that when Cambyses asked the Magi if it were not lawful to marry his Sister's Daughter they told him it was not yet like Flatterers they told him he might do what he pleased and Platina I think it is in the Life of Pope Boniface the 5th or Honorius exclaims against the Emperor Heraclius his marrying his Sister's Daughter as an Impiety scarce ever heard of yet three Popes successively dispensed with Philip the 2d Philip the 3d and Philip the 4th Kings of Spain marrying with their own Nieces viz. their Sisters Daughters It were endless to enumerate the Doctrines of the Church of Rome how dishonourable they are to God and his sacred Laws I 'll give Instances only in two 1. Their Invocation of Saints after Death many of which are of their own making thereby attributing to them a concurring Power with God in his Omniscience which is a robbing God of his Honour and if Saints after Death be not Omniscient it were in vain to pray to them The other is dispensing with Mens Promises and their own tho they have bound themselves to the Performance of them by an Oath whereby the Popes render themselves Enemies of Mankind and Humane Society for these are founded in Truth and Mens mutual Performance of their Promises That this for several hundreds of Years hath been practised by the Popes upon those Princes and Subjects whom they please to call Hereticks when the Popes are greater is well known to those conversant in their Histories I 'll give but one Instance of the Liberty the Popes take to themselves herein Upon the Death of Pope Marcellus 2d Ann. 1555. the Cardinals in the Conclave before they proceed to the Election of another Pope mutually swore That whosoever should be chosen should call a Synod in six Years and not make more than 4 Cardinals in two Years after the Election and Paul the 4th was chosed See the Council of Trent Anno 1555. Some small time after this Election Paul entred the Conclave to declare his Intentions of a Promotion of Cardinals and the Cardinal of St. James's pressed to him and put him in mind of his Oath before his Election but the Pope thrust the Cardinal back and told him This was to bind the Pope's Authority that it is an Article of Faith that the Pope cannot be bound much less bind himself that to say otherwise was manifest Heresy from which he did absolve those who spake it because he thought they did not speak obstinately but if any should say the same again he would give Order the Inquisition should proceed And this being spoken in the Conclave was in Cathedra and infallible and never since retracted by him or any other Pope These are the Heresies in the Church of Rome for which Men must be slaughtered and burnt and for not believing them against the Evidence of a Man's Senses to the contrary and against the Nature of a Sacrament That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament after Consecration is Christ's organical Body and Blood This is that true and Mother-Church which the King would meet mid-way if it would let him and his Inherent Birth-right alone This is that Prince who to prosecute these Brawls and to wallow in sensual Pleasures neglected the foreign and domestick Affairs of his Kingdom only Great in making himself little and not beloved at home and contemptible and dishonoured abroad A Prince who squandred away the sacred Patrimony of the Crown amongst Flatterers and Favourites thereby becoming not able to maintain the Honour of the Nation abroad and neglecting the Encrease and Repair of his Navy-Royal not only rendred the Nation in an unsettled and dangerous Peace at home but notwithstanding the Treaty with the Dutch for Licence to fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland suffered
sent a Squadron under Sir John Lawson to that end And the Dutch sent another commanded by De Ruiter seemingly but not designedly for to join Sir John against the Algerines For De Ruiter after he had entred the Straits abandoned Sir John Lawson and sailed to Cape Verd and dispossessed the English of their Factories nor did he stay there but sailing thence he attempted Barbadoes but was beaten off with loss But with better Success he sailed to Long-Island where he made great Depradations This Double-dealing of the Dutch alarm'd the Parliament so as they petitioned the King to make War upon the Dutch and the King was well disposed to it having before designed it as many thought and so took this Occasion for it nor were the City of London less forward than the Parliament for promoting this War and upon that Account furnished the King with several Sums of Money for which both Houses gave the City Thanks upon the Twenty Fifth of November 1665. The King the Day before made this Speech to the Commons Mr. Speaker and you Gentlemen of the House of Commons I know not whether it be worth my Pains to endeavour to remove a vile Jealousy which some ill Men scatter abroad and which I am sure will never sink into the Breast of any Man who is worthy to sit upon your Benches that when you have given me a Noble and Proportionable Supply for the Support of a War I may be induced by some evil Counsellors for they will be thought to think very respectfully of my Person to make a sudden Peace and get all the Money for my own Private Occasions But let me tell you and you may be confident of it That when I am compelled to enter into a War for the Protection Honour and Benefit of my Subjects I will God willing not make a Peace but upon the obtaining and securing those Ends for which the War is entred into and when that can be done no good Man will be sorry for the Determination of it But the War was not declared till the 22d of February following But here I observe that neither my Lord Chancellor Hide nor my Lord Treasurer Southampton were present in Council at it It may seem strange to any Man conversant in our Government that the King in less than four Years and a half after his Restoration should be in such a Necessity of borrowing such Sums of Money of the City for the disbanding of the Army was paid by the Convention and Parliament and the Parliament had settled the Excise on him which was cessed at 500000 l. per Annum and the Customs at 600000 l. and Chimney-Money worth 150000 l. per Annum and 12 Car. 2. c. 26. granted the King the Arrears of twelve Months Assessment commencing the 25th of December 1659 and C. 29. gave the King 70000 l. and C. 34. also the Post-Office worth 50000 l. per Annum and in the 13 Car. 2. cap. 3. vested in the King the Arrears of the Excise and new Imposts and in the second Session Cap. 3. the Parliament gave the King 1270000 l. and Cap. 5. a voluntary Contribution and C. 8. gave the poor Cavaliers 60000 l. that the King might never hear more of them and C. 9. granted a further Relief for the poor and maimed Officers which had served the King's Father and also Cap. 15. four intire Subsidies by the Laity and four by the Clergy besides all the forfeited Estates both in England and Ireland So that the Excise Customs Chimney-Money Post-Office and forfeited Estates at a moderate Computation may be computed at 1600000 l. per Annum a new Addition to the Crown which Queen Elizabeth had not only the Court of Wards was exchanged for part of the Hereditary Excise And if you compute but six Months Arrear of the twelve Months Assessment at 70000 l. per Mensem beginning at Christmass 1659 this will amount to 420000 l. and the Arrears of the Excise and new Impost at 300000 l. and 70000 l. granted the King 12 Car. I. 29. and the 1270000 l. 13 Car. II. 3. and the voluntary Contribution at 300000 l. and the four Subsidies granted by the Clergy and Laity at 400000 l. besides the new added Revenue of 1600000 l. per Annum to the Crown the King in less than four Years and a half received 2860000 l. or two Millions eight hundred and sixty thousand Pounds Yet the King paid no Debts of his Father's nor do I find he built any new Men of War nor made any War except that last Year against the Algerines It 's true he married his Sister but had twice her Portion of the French King for the Sale of Dunkirk and also 400000 l. Portion with the Queen Now let 's see how things stood in Scotland During the Earl of Middleton's Commission the Parliament of Scotland granted the King so great a Revenue that the King signified his Pleasure not to raise any more but tho Middleton in the general Opinion had done more in Scotland than could have been expected yet Lauderdale thought he had not done enough and therefore got the Parliament to be dissolved and a new one to be called in 1663 and the Earl of Rothes the Ring-leader of the Presbyterians in the Reign of Charles the First and was the first that subscribed the Letter to Lewis the XIII th for his Aid by the Appellation of Au Roy to be made Commissioner The King's Supremacy in all Ecclesiastial and Civil Matters and so great a Revenue as the King could ask being settled by Middleton one would have thought no more could be done yet another Law must be passed intituled the Humble Tender Whereby the Kingdom of Scotland is obliged to raise the King twenty thousand Foot and two thousand Horse sufficiently armed and furnished with forty days Provision to be in a readiness at his Majesty's Call And also that all Scots-Men from sixteen to sixty if the King should have further use of them should hazard their Lives and Fortunes as they shall he called by his Majesty for the Safety and Preservation of his Sacred Person Authority and Government to march into any part of Scotland England or Ireland for the suppressing any Foreign Invasion or Intestine Troubles or any other Service wherein his Majesty's Honour c. was concerned And this Law it may be was the Equivalent for which the Forts were demolished Tho Rothes was Commissioner when the Act passed yet Lauderdale assumed to himself the Glory of it and it 's observable this Act passed the same Year and about the same time the King issued out his Declaration of Indulgence to the Dissenters in England Thus you see as the Parliament of Scotland outrun the Parliament of England in Loyalty to the King so at least they went hand in hand with them in grauting the King more Aids than he would ask of the Subjects of his antient Kingdom Never had Kings of England or Scotland their Debts so easily
carrying on this War against the Dutch and therefore they gave the King 1256000 l. towards it but the King had other Occasions for the Money and thought he better otherwise could dispose of it upon the Assurance he had from his Mother out of France that the Dutch would not set out another Fleet this Year tho the French King used all means that the Dutch should do it And this Year the Zealanders set out a Squadron of Ships and took Surinam from the English in America Relying upon his Mother's Intelligence the King by the Mediation of the Swedish Ambassador entertains a Treaty of Peace with the Dutch whilst they make all possible Preparations for War which all the World saw but the King who would not see it and so took no Care to set out a Fleet to fight them nor to protect his Fleet in their Ports However the King at this time was not pleased with the Insults of his Brother of France upon the English in their Plantations in the Leeward Islands and therefore sent Sir John Harman with a Squadron of Frigats to repress the French Insolence there Sir John had the Gout so as he could not go but upon the Discovery of the French Fleet got upon his Feet and gave Orders to fight the French which he did and beat them and during the Fight walked and gave Orders as when well But the Fight was no sooner over when Sir John returned to his gouty Lameness again and after reduced Surinam to the English but this was after the Peace of Breda between the English and Dutch The Dutch having compleated their Fleet upon the 9th of June entred the River I was on the 10th in the Morning walking in St. James's Park when a Gentleman whispered to me That the Dutch were enter'd the River Then the King had fed his Ducks and was walking on the West-side of the Park and as we walked Prince Rupert overtook us and met the King at the further End of the Pall-Mall and the King told the Prince how he had shot a Duck and such a Dog fetch'd it and so they walk'd on till the King came to St. James's House and there the King said to the Prince Let 's go see Cambridg and Kendall the Duke's two Sons who then lay a dying but upon his Return to White-hall he found all in an Uproar the Countess of Castlemain as 't was said bewailing above all others that she should be the first torn in pieces Hereupon the Duke of Albemarle was posted down to Chatham where in a Council of War it was resolved to sink all the Ships but as they lay there was not Water enough The Dutch found an easy Passage after they broke the Boom which lay cross the River for no Fort was then finished at Sheerness and that at Vpnor ruin'd for want of Repair however the Duke put some Guns into it which shooting high little damaged the Dutch in the Passage So the Dutch fired the Royal James London and Royal Oak and the Henry being afloat run so violently upon Rochester-bridg the Tide forcing her as endanger'd the breaking of it and the Royal Charles was carried off by the Dutch I was then at London and also in the Plague and Fire Years yet in neither did I observe such Consternation and Confusion in the Looks of all Men as at this time and with great Cause for if the Dutch had then come up to London they had found all open to them not one Gun mounted at Tilbury Fort nor one Frigat ready in the River so as they might have forced all the Ships in the River up to the Bridg and there have burnt them which would certainly have fired the Tower and all the Suburbs West to Black-wall as well as Southwark below Bridg. Nor were the Ships at Portsmouth in more Safety and the Dutch had Ships enow to have made both Attempts at the same time but whilst the Dutch lay loitering below Sheerness the English had time to plant some Guns in Tilbury Fort and sink Ships cross the River at Woolwich And the King sent the Earl of Macclesfield and Captain Elliot to Portsmouth who used such Diligence in fortifying it that when the Dutch came before it they thought not fit to attempt to do what they had done at Chatham However the Dishonour which the Nation sustained by this Action may be forgotten yet the sudden and more dishonourable Peace concluded at Breda the 9th of July following will never be Where the 3d Article is That all Offences Injuries Damages and Losses sustained on either side by the King and States or their Subjects during this War or at any time before upon any Cause or Pretence whatsoever be totally expunged and buried in Oblivion So that by this Article the Business of Amboyna is buried and never to be called in Question which Oliver tho he made Peace with the Dutch would not do but was referred to the Cantons of Switzerland who never did any thing in it By this Article the Dutch had Polloroon out of which they had expelled our East-India Company during this War confirmed to them whereby they became sole Proprietors of the Spice-Trade as well in Europe as other Parts of the Indies Arabia and Persia And by this Article they were to have the Plantation of Surinam restored to them because taken by Sir John Harman after the Treaty The 4th Article is That all Ships Goods and Moveables which at any time had come into the Power of either Party or their Subjects should remain in the present Possessors thereof without any Compensation or Restitution for the same without any Exception of Place Time or Things The 5th Article was That all Actions Ships and Pretensions whatsoever for the same should remain void obliterated disannulled and nothing moved thereupon hereafter The 8th Article is That under the foresaid Renunciation and Stipulation all Letters of Mart Reprisals or Counter-Mart general or particular ought to be comprehended and revoked by virtue of that Article accordingly notwithstanding any Grant to the contrary This was the Success of the King's Speech to the Parliament upon his declaring War against the Dutch that as he enter'd into the War for the Protection Honour and Safety of his Subjects so without these he would not make a Peace and this Benefit Sir Edmund Turner and Mr. Carew had of their Letters of Reprisal wherein the King granted That they should stand good notwithstanding any Peace to be made with the Dutch until they had fully reprized their Debt of 151612 l. and Charges of Reprizal nay their Agents were tried by a Commission out of the Admiralty for Piracy for acting under the said Grant the Silver Oar being carried before Sir Lionel Jenkins who was very zealous to have hanged them but the Common-Law Judges were of another Opinion and so they did not lose their Lives as Sir Edmund and Mr. Carew did their Debts yet the French sped not so well as the
and thereupon the King told the Prince That for his Lands there he would charge himself that the Prince should enjoy them as safe under France as under Spain or if the Prince would part with them the King would undertake to get him what Price he would value them at to which the Prince generously reply'd That he would not trouble himself nor the Peace about that matter and that he would be content to lose all his Lands there to get one good Town more for the Spaniard upon the Frontier of Flanders So here the King and Prince agreed But then another Debate arose between the King and Prince one pretending France would never be brought to this Scheme the other that Spain would never be brought to it but at last it was agreed that the Peace should be made upon these Terms All to be restored by France to the Emperor and Empire that had been taken in the War and the Dutchy of Lorain to the Duke and all on both sides between France and Holland and to Spain the Towns of Aeth Charleroy Oudenard Courtray Tournay Conde Valenciennes St. Gillain and Binch which were nine Towns that the King shall endeavour to procure the Consent of France and the Prince of Spain And to this purpose the King should send some Person immediately over with the Proposition who should be instructed to enter into no Reasoning upon it but demand a positive Answer in two Days and after that term immediately return And then the King ordered Sir William within two Days to make himself ready to go and acquaint the French with it At this Agreement between the King and Prince none were present besides the Duke my Lord Treasurer and Sir William Temple so as the French Ambassador was as much surprized in it as before he was at the Marriage of the Prince but this could not be longer conceal'd from him than when it began to be put in Practice yet it seems to me he was acquainted with it before and that the King had taken other Resolutions than what was agreed upon but the Day before For Sir William having prepared all things in a Readiness to go the Evening before he met the King in the Park St. James's who call'd to him and told him he had been thinking upon Sir William's Errand and how unwelcome he should be in France as well as the Message and that having a Mind to gain Peace he was unwilling to anger them more than needs besides the thing being not to be debated or reasoned any Body else would serve the Turn as well as he whom he had other use of Sir William was very glad of it knowing how ungrateful a Messenger he should be upon this Account Then the King asked Sir William what he thought of my Lord Duras a French-man and a great Favourite of the Duke's and since Earl of Feversham It seems the King asked Sir William's Opinion only for Form and Fashion sake for the thing was the Morning before agreed upon at the Desire of the Duke upon pretence that France would accept of the Terms and that he had a Mind to have the Honour of it by sending a Servant of his own So my Lord Duras went immediately after with the Orders and some few Days after the Prince and Princess embarked for Holland where Affairs pressed his Return beyond the Hopes of my Lord Duras from France the King assuring the Prince he would never part with the least part of the Scheme sent over and would enter into a War with France if they refused it But pudet haec you 'll soon see another Face of Affairs after the Prince was gone nay before he went it was a great Mortification to him to see the Parliament prorogued till the next Spring which the French Ambassador had gained of the King to make up some good Meen with France after the Prince's Marriage and before the Dispatch of the Terms of a Peace to that Court I should not have ventured to say this if that honourable Gentleman Sir William Temple in his second Memoirs which are printed fol. 302. had not said it before But how honourable and sincere soever the Prince's Actions were in the Management of this whole Affair the outward Face of things had another Appearance which caused great Jealousies of him not only among the Amsterdamers and Common People in Holland but even among the Consederates for the Prince sending Monsieur Bentink privately over into England about the beginning of June and Sir William Temple so soon after following and the Prince's raising the Siege before Charlâ—râ—y the next day after my Lord Ossory came to his Camp and the Prince's going in September following into England these things thus concurring passed not without many Reflections not only in Holland but among the Allies as if there were Intelligences between the King and him which were heightned by the Marriage the main Business of the Treaty made by the King and Prince about the Peace being yet in Embrio so as the Prince and Princess were coldly received in Holland upon the Prince's Return and these Jealousies encreased more upon the Transactions between the English Court and France But sacred Truth and the Integrity of the Prince shall vindicate his Honour even among those who most suspected him and were so jealous of his Actions The Noise of a Peace with France so soon after the proroguing the Parliament raised a Ferment in the Nation of some Design of the Court as dangerous to the Nation as the Dutch Jealousies that their Liberties were in by the Prince's Treaty and Marriage with a Daughter of England And now the Prince was gone and out of Sight he was out of Mind too by the King in respect to the Terms of Peace agreed to and the solemn Promise the King made to the Prince upon his Departure that he would never parâ— with the least Point in the Scheme sent into France and make War upon it if it were refused For upon my Lord Duras's Arrival at Paris the Court were surprized at least seemed so both at the thing and more upon the manner of it yet made good Meen upon it took it gently and said The King of England knew very well he might be always Master of the Peace but some few Towns in Flanders seemed very hard especially Tournay upon whose Fortifications such vast Treasure had been expended and that they would take some short time to consider of the Offer But my Lord Duras told them he was tied to two Days stay but when that was out was prevailed upon to stay some few Days longer which he durst not have done without secret Orders from our Court contrary to his Instructions and at last came away without any positive Answer Hereupon the King instead of declaring War against France as he so solemnly promised the Prince entred into a Treaty with the French Ambassador at London which by French Artifice was so spun out in length without any