of action takes the measure of his hopes from that of their fears and whilst they judg'd it hard to repress them because they were thus divided he took that advantage to break them like single sticks as he found them lye scatter'd one from the other who had they been united under one Bond could not have been so easily confounded After which he heal'd the wounds he gave them by gentle Lenitives relaxing their Tributes remitting their Priviledges and indulging them to that degree as never any King before him did by which means he prevail'd with the very same men to carry the War into Normandy whereby wounding his Brother Robert with the very Arrows taken out of his own Quiver and the same which he had directed against him it appears how much he had the better of him in point of Understanding as well as of Power This breach with the elder gave him the first occasion of breaking with his younger Brother for having a strong Army on foot Duke Robert after his having concluded a dishonourable Peace with him desir'd his aid in reducing the Castle of Mount St. Michael detain'd from him by Prince Henry who being not paid the money he had lent him to carry on the War against King William for Robert had pawn'd to him the Country of Constantine but afterwards took it away again seiz'd upon this Castle in hope by the help of some Britains he had hired to serve him for his Money to have done himself right but Robert made this advantage of the dis-advantage King William had brought upon him to ingage him in reducing t'other unhappy Prince that doing a kindness to one lost both his Brothers the one taking offence at his demand t'other at the Occasion whereby both set upon him at once and besieging him forty dayes brought him to the point of yeilding but the same evil Spirit that first divided them to do more mischief did this good to unite them again working upon the good Nature of Duke Robert and the ill Nature of King William the same effect for upon his Submission William to be revenged on Robert for having entertain'd his Competitor Atheling judg'd Henry to be satisfied his Debt by a day certain out of those very Lands which the other had assign'd to Atheling for a Pension upon which Robert's pity turn'd immediately into spight and when Henry came for his Money he clap'd him up in Prison and kept him in Duress till he releas'd the Debt Henry complaining of this Injustice to the King of France his Brother William being then return'd into England was by him put into Arms again and by the surprizing the Castle of Damfront recover'd back most of his Security with all the Country of Passais besides Robert hereupon pleads that King William had fail'd of paying him in certain Sums of Money due by promise to satisfie Henry and that by reason of this failure he could not perform with him and to satisfie himself for the Damages done him by this pretended breach of Williams he fell upon King William's Castles This drew him over the second time whether to right Prince Henry or himself was not declar'd who putting on a Vizard of Indignation to afright Duke Robert as if he had intended nothing less then the Conquest of all Normandy sends back into England for an Army of 30000 to joyn with those Forces he had there by the fame whereof having done more then perhaps any body could with the men themselves if they had arriv'd he sent private Orders to his General being then at the Water-side to dismiss every man that would lay down ten shillings by which queint trick of State never practised before he rais'd so great a Sum as not only serv'd to pay the King of France his Bribe for not assisting his Brother Robert and to defray his own present charge but in effect to purchase all Normandy which thereupon was Mortgaged to him by Robert to furnish himself for that great Expedition of recovering the Holy Land from the Infidels An Undertaking politickly recommended by Urban the Second to all such Princes as he fear'd or had a mind to fool as so meritorious a work that it was indeed as he represented the matter a kind of taking Heaven by Violence whereby he so wrought upon the easie Faith of that Active and Ignorant Age that without any great difficulty he prevail'd with them to cast themselves under a voluntary Ostracisme whilst himself and those that were Parties in that holy Cheat imbarazed in a Contest with the Emperor about Superiority were deliver'd from the men of Power and Credit they most suspected to take part with him and by the purchase of their Estates and Seigniories greatly inriched the Church af erward King William thus happily rid of his elder Brother who as I said before had pawn'd his own Land to recover that for the Church was at leisure to return home to make even all reckonings with his elder Enemy the King of Scots by whose death and his Sons both kill'd in the act of Invasion he made himself so far Master of their Country as to compel them to accept a King from him who having serv'd him in his Wars and being for that Service prefer'd by him they durst not yet refuse though they might reasonably expect he would be alwayes at his Devotion This made the King of France so jealous of his growing Greatness that to prevent his coming over Sea again he tamper'd with the discontented Norman Nobility to set up Stephen E. of Albemarle his Fathers Sisters Son upon what pretence of Right appears not but he whose manner 't was to meet danger and not tarry till it found him out prevented the Conspiracy by seizing on the chief Conspirators Mowbray d'Ou and d'Alveric who being the first Examples of his Severity were so cruelly treated that if any men could be said to be murther'd by the Sword of Justice they were but the Ill of this Severity had that good effect that this first Instance of his Cruelty made it the last occasion to him to shew it so that from that time all War ceasing he betook himself to the pleasures of Peace And now deeming himself most secure he met with an unavoidable I cannot say unexpected Fate for like Caesar his Parallel he had sufficient warning of it both by his own and his Friends Dreams the night before the Nature whereof was such as he could not but contemn it because he could not understand it and having never been daunted by his Enemies he was asham'd to seem now afraid of himself however the perplexity of his thoughts disorder'd him so far that in despight of his natural Courage which was perhaps as great as ever any mans was he could not find in his heart to go out all the morning of that day he was kill'd and at Dinner which argued some failure of his Spirits he drank more freely then his usual custome was that accelerated his Fate
as often as any advantage was offer'd to him during the Barons War playing fast and loose sometimes as an Enemy otherwhile as a Friend as it made for his turn and having it alwayes in his Power by being in Conjunction with Scotland without which he had been inconsiderable to disturb the Peace of England at his pleasure never neglected any occasion where he might gain Repute to himself or booty for his People Upon him therefore he fastened the first Domestick War he had entring his Country like Jove in a storm with Lightning and Thunder the Terrour whereof was so resistless that that poor Prince was forc'd to accept whatsoever terms he would put upon him to obtain a temporary Peace without any other hope or comfort then what he deriv'd from the mental reservation he had of breaking it again as soon as he return'd whereunto he was not long after tempted by the delusion of a mistaken Prophesie of that false Prophet Merlin who having foretold that he should be crown'd with the Diadem of Brute fatally heightened his Ambition to the utter destruction both of himself and Country with whom his innocent Brother the last of that Race partaking in life and death concluded the Glory of the ancient British Empire which by a kind of Miracle had held out so many hundred years without the help of Shipping Allyance or Confederation with any Forreign Princes by the side of so many potent Kings their next Neighbours who from the time of the first entrance of the English suffer'd them not to enjoy any quiet though they vouchsafed them sometimes Peace Wales being thus totally reduced by the irrecoverable fall of Llewellen and David the last of their Princes that were ever able to make resistance and those ignorant People made thereby happier then they wish'd themselves to be by being partakers of the same Law and Liberty with those that conquer'd them he setled that Title on his eldest Son and so passed over into France to spend as many years abroad in Peace as he had done before in War in which time he renew'd his League with that Crown accommodated the Differences betwixt the Crowns of Scicily and Arragon and shew'd himself so excellent an Arbitrator that when the right of the Crown of Scotland upon his return home came to be disputed with Six some say Ten Competitors after the death of Alexander the Third the Umpirage was given to him who ordered the matter so wisely that he kept off the final Decision of the main Question as many years as there were Rivals put in for it deferring Judgment till all but two only were disputed out of their Pretensions These were Baliol and Bruce the first descended from the elder Daughter of the right Heir the last from the Son of the younger who having as 't was thought the weaker Title but the most Friends King Edward privately offered him the Crown upon Condition of doing Homage and Fealty to him for it the greatness of his Mind which bespoke him to be a King before he was one suffer'd him not to accept the terms whereupon King Edward makes the same Proposition to Baliol who better content it seems with the outside of Majesty accepted the Condition But see the Curse of ill-got Glory shewing himself satisfied with so little he was thought unworthy of any being so abhor'd of his People for it that upon the first occasion they had to quarrel with his Justice as who should say they would wound him with his own Weapon they appeal'd to King Edward who thereupon summon'd him to appear in England and was so rigid to him upon his appearance he would permit none else to plead his Cause but compell'd him in open Parliament to answer for himself as well as he could This being an Indignity so much beneath the sufferance of any private Person much more a King sunk so deep into his Breast that meditating nothing after but Revenge as soon as he return'd home securing himself first by a League and Allyance with the King of France to whose Brothers Daughter he married his Son he renounced his Allegiance and defied King Edward's Power no less then he did his Justice This begat a War betwixt the two Nations that continued much longer then themselves being held up by alternate Successes near three hundred years a longer dated difference perhaps then is to be found in any other Story of the World that Rancor which the Sword bred increasing continually by the desire of Revenge till the one side was almost wholly wasted t'other wholly wearied Baliol the same time King Edward required him to do Homage for Scotland here prevailed with the French King to require the like from him for his Territories there this began the Quarrel that the Division by which King Edward which may seem strange parting his Greatness made it appear much greater whilst himself advanc'd against Baliol and sent his Brother the Earl of Lancaster to answer the King of France Baliol finding himself overmatch'd as well as over-reach'd renew'd his Homage in hopes to preserve his Honour But King Edward resolving to bind him with stronger Fetters then Oaths sent him Prisoner into England whereby those of that Country wanting not only a Head but a Heart to make any further resistance he turn'd his Fury upon the King of France hastning over what Forces he could to continue that War till himself could follow after But Fortune being preingaged on the other side disposed that whole Affair to so many mistakes that nothing answered Expectation and which was worse the Fame of his Male-Adventures spirited a private person worthy a greater * Wallis Name then he had to rise in Scotland who rallying together as many as durst by scorning Misery adventure upon it defied all the Forces of England so fortunately that he was once very near the redeeming his despairing Country-men and had he had less Vertue might possibly have had more success For scorning to take the Crown when he had won it a Modesty not less fatal to the whole Nation then himself by leaving room for Ambition he made way for King Edward to Re-enter the second time who by one single Battel but fought with redoubled Courage made himself once more Lord of that miserable Kingdom all the principal Opposers Wallis only excepted crowding in upon Summons to swear Fealty the third time to him This had been an easie Pennance had they not together with their Faith resigned up their Laws and Liberties and that so servilely that King Edward himself judging them unworthy to be continued any longer a Nation was perswaded to take from them all the Records and Monuments whereby their Ancestors had recommended any of Glory to their Imitation Amongst other of the Regalia's then lost was that famous Marble Stone now lodg'd in Westminster-Abby wherein their Kings were crown'd in which as the Vulgar were perswaded the Fate of their Country lay for that there was an ancient Prophesie
Troyes she should be there to be espoused to him and with her he should have the Assurance of the Crown of France after the Decease of her Father and to gain the more Credit the Bishop secretly deliver'd him a Letter from the Princess her own hand which contained in it so much sweetness as had been enough to have made any other man but himself have surfeited with Joy his happiness being now so full and compleat that he had nothing beyond what he enjoyed to hope for Upon his Marriage with her he was published Regent of the Kingdom and Heir apparent to the Crown the Articles being published in both Realms and the two Kings and all their Nobility Sworn to the observance of them only the Daulphin stood out in utter Defiance both of his Right and Power Against him therefore the two Kings his Father and Brother together with the King of Scots who was newly arrived the young Duke of Burgundy and the Prince of Orange the Dukes of Clarence Gloucester and Bedford and twenty one Earls forty five Barons and Knights and Esquires sans nombre advanc'd with an Army of French English Scotch and Irish to the number of six hundred thousand if the Historians of that time may be credited and having taken in all the Towns and Places that denied to yield they return'd to Paris where King Henry the Articles being ratified the second time and a Counterpart sent into England began to exercise his Regency by Coyning of Money with the Arms of England and France on it placing and displacing of Officers making new Laws and Edicts and lastly awarding Process against the Daulphin to appear at the Marble Table to answer for the Murther of the Duke of Burgundy But being willing to shew his Queen how great a King he was before she brought him that Kingdom he left his Brother Clarence his Lieutenant General there and brought her over into England where he spent some time in the Administration of Justice and performing such Acts of Peace as spoke him no less expert in the knowledge of governing then in that of getting a Kingdom But he had not been long here before he received the sad News of the death of his Brother Clarence who betrayed by the Duke of Alansons Contrivance into an Ambuscade was slain together with the Earls of Tankervile Somerset Suffolk and Perch and about two thousand Common Souldiers whereupon he deputed the Earl of Mortaine in his room and not long after went back again himself with his Brother Bedford to reinforce the War taking in all the Fortresses in the Isle of France in Lovaine Bry and Champagne during which time the Daulphin was not idle but industrious to regain Fortunes savour if it were possible made many bold Attempts upon several places in possession of the English But finding the Genius of our Nation to have the Predominancy over that of his own he diverted his Fury upon the Duke of Burgundy betwixt whom and King Henry he put this difference That as he dreaded the one so he hated the other Accordingly he laid Seige to Cosney a Place not very considerable in it self but as it was a Town of the Duke of Burgundy's King Henry was so concern'd to relieve it beyond any of his own that he marched Night and Day to get up to the Enemy and making over-hasty Journeys over-heat himself with unusual Travel and fell so sick that he was fain to rest himself at Senlis and trust to the Care of his Brother the Duke of Bedford to prosecute the Design who relieved the Town and forced the Daulphin to retreat as he thought a great Looser by the Seige but it prov'd quite otherwise For the loss of the Town was nothing in comparison of the loss of King Henry who died not long after and which made his Death the more deplorable was That he no sooner left the World but Fortune left the English whereof having some Prophetick Revelation 't is thought the knowledge thereof might not be the least reason of shortning his Dayes by adding to the violence of his Distemper For 't is credibly reported that at the News of the Birth of his Son Henry born at Windsor himself being then in France even wearied with continual Victories he cryed out in a Prophetick Rapture Good Lord Henry of Monmouth shall small time Reign and get much and Henry of Windsor shall long time Reign and lose all but Gods will be done Which saying has given occasion to some to magnifie his Memory above all the Kings that were before him not to say all that came after him in that he was in some sense both King Priest and Prophet HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE A Prince of excellent Parts in their kind though not of kindly Parts for a Prince being such as were neither sit for the Warlike Age he was born in nor agreeable to the Glory he was born to but such rather as better became a Priest then a Prince So that the Title which was sometimes given to his Father with relation to his Piety might better have been applyed to the Son with reference to his that he was the Prince of Priests Herein only was the difference betwixt them That the Religion of the one made him bold as a Lion that of the other made him as meek as a Lamb. A temper neither happy for the times nor himself for had he had less Phlegme and more Cholar less of the Dove-like Innocence and more of the Serpentine subtilty 't is probable he had not only been happier whilst he liv'd but more respected after he was dead whereas now notwithstanding all his Indulgence to the Church and Church-men there was none of them so grateful as to give him after he was murther'd Christian Burial but left him to be interr'd without Priest or Prayer without Torch or Taper Mass or Mourner indeed so without any regard to his Person and Pre-eminence that if his Obsequies were any whit better then that which holy Writ calls the Burial of an Ass yet were they such that his very Competitor Edward the Fourth who denied him the Rights of Majesty living thought him too much wronged being dead that to him some kind of satisfaction he was himself at the charge of building him a Monument The beginning of his Reign which every Body expected to have been the worst and like to prove the most unsuccessful part in respect of his Minority being but Nine Months old when he was crown'd happen'd to be the best and most prosperous there being a plentiful stock of brave men left to spend upon who behaved themselves so uprightly and carefully that it appear'd the Trust repos'd in them by the Father had made a strong Impression of Love and Loyalty to the Son The Duke of Bedford had the Regency of France the Duke of Gloucester the Government of England the Duke of Exeter and the Cardinal Beauford had the Charge of his
universal darkness (t) Tertullian Tertullian that liv'd not long after taking thence occasion to upbraid the unbelieving Jews by telling them that the Britains whom the Romans could not conquer were yet subject unto Christ and to say truth their obedience to the Cross was the chief cause of humbling themselves under the Fasces Lucius being the first King that stipulated for the enjoyment of his own Laws at the price of a Tribute which if it were some diminution of his Majesty was made up with advantage by his Successour Constantine the Great whom therefore the (u) In M. Ant. In Arc. Cott. Panegyrist not unfitly stiles Divus Orbis Britanniae Liberator 7. However in respect the Romans had some hold-fast here for near a hundred years after Constantine's death it may be by some perhaps thought more reasonable to begin our Computation from Vortigern who having neither Competitor nor Compartner in the Government there being not one Roman left in the whole Isle to controul or contend with him was without doubt the first that as Tacitus speaks of Augustus Nomine Principis sub Imperium accepit circa An. Chr. 440. At what time all the Neighbour Princes round about him were under the common yoak of Servitude The French themselves who stand so much upon the Antiquity of their Monarchy falling short of this Account near four hundred years who being govern'd by Dukes till the year 420 had not in almost thirty years after any more of France in their Intire possession then that Canton which the Romans call'd Belgicum which was the more inconsiderable by being parcel'd out into many Petty (w) As were Burgundy Lorrain Guien Aquitain Normandy Champagne Fâ—ix Orange c. Royalties that could not unite till the time of Charlemaine who liv'd about the latter end of our Heptarchy after whose death the whole fell into five pieces again four whereof ceas'd to be French which gave so great disturbance to all their Kings of the Second and third Race that they were so far from being Masters of that little that they had that they were scarce (x) Vide Du Serres in Proem Hist Lords of themselves being forc'd to pawn the best part of their Inheritance to enable them to keep the rest none of their Successors being in condition to redeem any considerable part till Lewis the Eleventh who happily having recovered the Earldom of Provence and Dutchy of Burgundy made his boast that he had brought his Kingdom Hors de Page Much more distorted was the Empire of the Spaniards if so be we may allow them to have any thing like absolute Soveraignty till this very last Age when Ferdinand the Second worthily reputed their first Monarch happily united Castile and Aragon with their Appendixes their Predecessors till then being so inconsiderable that the Kings of Scotland took place of them In how obscure a condition all the Northern Kings were for by that common appellation those of Muscovy Sweadland Denmark and Norway past undistinguish'd till about the year 800 I need not say Since by being thought not worth the conquering there was not much more notice taken of them than of the rest of the barbarous Nations their Neighbours who may be rather said to be antient then honourable the Germans only excepted of whom to speak slightly were to defile our own nest since by them we derive our selves from Kings as great before the Flood as since The Precedence of the Kings of This Isle 8. Now as the Monarchy of this Isle is as Lanquet the Chronologer expresses it antienter then the Records of any time so the Kings thereof having held out a Succession of an hundred thirty nine Kings where as France reckons but sixty four taking in First Second and third Race have by the right of Custom as our particular Law expresses it Du temps dont memorie ne cúrt a le contrarie and by the consent of all Nations which is the Law universal to Ratifie and Regulate all respects taken and been allow'd the (y) As appears by the old Roman provincial second place inter Super Illustres for by that term Civilians make a great distinction and difference in point of Majesty even amongst Kings themselves A term which who so understands not may see the difference plainly in that old Formular printed at Strasburgh Anno 1519 where there is set down a Quadrupartite Division of Supream Principality the first place allow'd by them as reasonably they ought to their own Soveraign Kesar i. e. the German Emperour the Second to Romischin Koning i. e. the King of the Romans his Successor and their Countryman too The third place they gave to the Vier Gesalbt Koning i. e. the four anointed Kings In the last place came the Mein Koning or Ordinary Kings The difference betwixt these last and the Quatuor Vncti which were the (z) Javin Theatramundi Kings of France England Jerusalem and Sicily was this that with the holy oyl they receiv'd the Title and Adjunct of (a) Rhivallus ap Tooke in Carism Sanct. Cap. 6. Sacred being therefore anointed In Capite to signifie their glory above the other Princes of the same Rank In Pectore to denote their Sanctity In Brachiis to Emblematize their power this appears by the Styles of the Literae Formatae the antient forms of Addresses and the Frontispicians to the antient Councels where we find the various Styles of Sanctio Sacrietas and Divinitas apply'd to these to those were given only that of Dominatio and sometimes Celsitudo Regia conformable to this were all the phrases of the antient Laws of this Realm which Style the Crown-Lands (b) Cook sur Littleton Sect. 4. Sacra Patrimonia the Prerogative Royal Sacra Sacrorum the Laws themselves in respect they take their life and being from the King (c) Fortescu Leg. Aug. fol. 8. Sanctae Sanctiones The Kings presence was held so Sacred that if a (d) Plowd Com. 322. Villain heretofore cast himself ad Sacra Vestigia as they phras'd it his Lord could no more seize him than if he had been in the Sanctuary before the Altar it being upon the same Ground as great a crime to strike in the Court as in the Church and as if this were not enough they ascribe unto the King as unto God Infallibility (e) Edw. 4. 25. 24. Rex non potest errare Immortality (f) Crompton Jurisaic fol. 134. Plowd 177. B. 1 Ed. 5. Rex non potest mori for in all Pleadings they never mention the death of the King but call it the Demise Justice in perfection Rex non quam injuriam fecit Omnipresence in so much that he cannot be non-suited in any of his Courts because he is suppos'd to be always present and for the same reason all Persons are sorbid to be cover'd in his Chambers of presence though he be not there Lastly they give to him as to God the Issues of Life and
lib. 2. Gildas lib. de victor Au. Ambrosii descent from the first Christian (n) Marc. Sabel in Anead 7. lib. 5. Bale lib. 2. King and the first Christian Emperour of the World and so allow'd by the two great Councels of (o) The first Anno 1335. the last Anno 1414. Bazil and Constance for however the King of France would be thought Fils aisne de l'Eglise and accordingly stiles himself Christianissimus i. e. as they themselves interpret it Primus Christianus yet it is notorious that our first Christian King Lucius was three hundred and five years before their first Christian King Clouis and Constantine our first Christian Emperour no less than 466 years before Charles their first Christian Emperour And it is as evident that the very Title it self of (p) Bede vit Oswaldi Christianissimus take it in what sense they please was in use with us above two hundred years before any of their Kings took upon them to usurp it add to this that the Kings of England deduce a (q) Bed Hist Eccles Angl. Lineal descent from the Loins of Christian Princes for the space of near one thousand and three hundred years together without any Interruption or breaking of the Line which no other Princes of the World besides can pretend to or scarcely have been Christians half that time those of France only excepted but then 't is further noted that there have been more Princes out of our Royal Stock Priests Confessours Martyrs and Saints than of any (r) Vincentius other Royal Stock in the World those of France not excepted 11. The Excellence of the British Empire upon a Threefold Accompt The next thing considerable after the natural Dignity inherent in the Person of our Kings is that honour which may be said to be peculiar to them resulting from the Topical Excellence of their Dominion which as it is now branch'd into three Kingdoms so it may be said to have ever been thrice famous 1. For being disjoyn'd from all the World 2. For having no need of the rest of the World 3. For being it self esteem'd another World Though there seems to be no great matter in that remark of the Poet when speaking of us 1. In being disjoyn'd from all the World he saith that we were Toto divisos Orbe Britannos but what may be as applicable to any other Islanders in the World as to Us yet there is an Emphasis in the Conceit that shows he intended it for an Elogy as did our Countryman Mr. Waller by that queint Paraphrase of his 'T is not so hard for greedy Foes to spoil Another Nation as to touch our Soil Which agrees with that we find in old (s) De excidio Jerus l. 2. c. 9. Hegesippus who personating King Agrippa speaking to Claudius of the Britains concludes much like Florus speaking of the Ligurians Major erat Labor invenire quà m vincere as if the difficulty of conquering lay in the difficulty of finding them out hereupon the Isle was call'd by the Antients (t) In Catalect Virgil. de Sabino Insula Ceruli the Isle of the Sea So Lucan speaking of Cesar's conquest here saith (u) Lucan Pharsal 3. Vincula dedit Oceano Now the reason why they call'd this the Isle of the Sea more than any other Island was because that Britain saith the (w) Paniger Maximian Dict. Si mihi Panegyrist did not seem as the rest to be comprehended by the Sea but to comprehend the Sea it self the Ancients taking this Isle to be the very utmost bounds of Nature beyond which there was no day or light which when Agricola had detected by compassing it with his Fleet Tacitus saith of him that he did Aperire maris secretum enter into the very Closet of the Sea and hence it was that (x) Emeritae apud Gionhernon p. 49. Augustus claiming the Dominion of this Isle in right of his Uncle Julius whose Heir he was as Claudius after him in his own right look'd upon themselves to be by a Parasiopesis Lords of the Sea the first giving thereupon for his Symbol a Dolphin the last a Ship and from them our Kings have ever since with no less reason but more right prescrib'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in this more properly like Gods as Holy Writ stiles Kings in General than any other Princes whatever For that they do Incubare Aquis as a (y) T◠Dun. Serm. 43. on the Anniverse of the 5th of Novemb alluding to the 1. Gen. 2. Divine of great Eloquence has express'd it Move upon the Waters with such mighty Fleets as seem to give Laws to that Indomitable Element it self 2. In having no need of the rest of the World 12. The next Excellency ascrib'd to this Isle was that it had no need of any other part of the World Quae toto vix eget Orbe The reason whereof is plain from what has been said before Nam qui mare teneat cum necesse est rerum potiri saith Cicero He that possesses the Sea must necessarily command all things but to recite the benefits of the Sea were to enter upon a Subject as profound as that is and give occasion to our next Neighbour the Dutch who can give a better Account thereof than our selves to upbraid our glory with the shame of having so long suffer'd their depredations who with indefatigable Patience penetrate the Womb of that dark Element to seek for Treasure which we either know not how to find or how to value Pass we then to the consideration of the Land only on which Charles the Great who was wont to call it the Store-house of the Western World made this observation that it not only stands in no need of any other part of the World but every Nation else stood in need of it Cujus totus indiget Orbis ope Nature and Providence having placed us so advantageously as to supply the whole World out of our Superfluities being stor'd with all sorts of Grain saith Zosimus with all sorts of Cattel saith Tacitus with all kind of Timber saith Cesar with all kind of Minerals as Strabo with all kind of Jems but especially Pearl as Suetonius testifies indeed with so much variety of all things necessary profitable and delightful that without vanity we may conclude as (z) Ad An. 1246. Mathew Paris doth that England is the Lady Queen and Mistress of the Sea 13. All Nations have been ambitious to make themselves Masters of this Isle A Mistress that has had many Suitors of almost all Nations to whom the ROMANS that exacted Homage from all others willingly pay'd Homage themselves there having been no less than twenty of their Emperours to Court her here in Person the Canine appetite of whose insatiable Ambition having before devour'd all other honours was not to be Satisfied with any other Title but that of Britannicus Divus habebitur Augustus Horace Od. v. lib. 3. Adjectis
extraordinary Levies yet perhaps not exceeding those ordinary Forces kept in standing pay to supply every Quarter of the Empire there being scarce any Governour of a Province that had not a Guard of Britains to attend about his Person such was the Reputation of their faith and courage At Constantinople the Greek Emperours had a Guard of 2000 as Bodinus computes them which they call'd the Barangi The Praefect of Rome had for his standing Guard two Bands of them more call'd Invicti Juniores Britannitiani The Western Emperours had their Praesentales or life-Guard besides stil'd Exculcatores Jun. Britan. 500. The Praefect of Gaule had a Horse Guard call'd Britones Magistri Equitum Galliarum The Pro-Consul of Spain had a Foot-Guard of about 500 call'd Invicti Juniores Britones besides these we find in Germany the Cohort call'd Ala Britannica Milliaria containing about 1105 footmen and 132 Horsemen In Illyricum another call'd Britones Seniores in Egypt Ala IIII. Britonum nay they were disperst to the furthest parts of the East for we find in Armenia Cohors XXVI Britonum besides Cohors III. and Cohors VII Britannitiani sub Magistro Peditum in Panonia Cohors Prima Aelia Britonum and several others mention'd in the Notitia Provinciarum to the number of not so little as fifty or sixty thousand all these were abroad whilst at home there were no less than 190000 Foot and 17000 Horse as appears by Constantine's Establishment set forth by Panciroll 17. Less known was the Militia of the Saxons than that of the Romans in respect they had no Invitations to any Action abroad excepting only that single Undertaking in Barbary Ann. 905 when they unpeopled the City and Country round about Arzilla contenting themselves with that Insulary glory they had gotten here by conquering a Nation who had so long disputed with the most powerful People in the World So that the best measures of their strength is to be taken from that of their Weakness having lost if their own Historians tell Truth no less than 200000 men before they had half finish'd that great work yet some thought it strange they lost no more considering how those Blood-thirsty Heptarchs their Masters accounted the Lives of their Subjects the least part of the Price of their Victories being so prodigal of blood that they fought no less than (g) Malmesbury Vit. Elfredi nine set Battels in one year wasting their strength to that degree that by subduing they became subdu'd The Danes falling in upon them before they could recover their spirits oppress'd them with greater Numbers than they the Britains before vying with them both in fame and force till there were as many engag'd on either side as would have reduc'd far greater Territories than those they came from had not divine Justice made use of them as a Scourge to each other 18. What the number and strength of the Norman was may be nearly computed by what he did abroad in that holy and what he suffered at home in that unholy War commonly call'd the Barons War The first for Religion the last for Liberty The one having consum'd as many lives as there were stones in the Walls of the holy City they fought for The other not so fatal because pois'd with a more equal force but altogether as formidable there being at least 50000 always ready to do Execution on either side So stood the Case for the first two hundred and fifty years after the Entrance of Wâ—lliam the First The Computation of the middle times must be taken from the Preparations of Edward the Third when he took two (h) Jo. King of France Davâ—â— King â—f Scots Kings and mist but little of taking two Kingdoms at once ingaging himself in a double edg'd War that ended not with his own life nor theirs wherein though it is suppos'd he exhausted as much of the Force as the Treasure of the Kingdom yet he did not so weaken his Successour Richard the Second but that he was able to take the Field with 300000 Foot and 100000 Horse attending him as * Wals ngham Vit. R. 2. Walsingham tells us whose Testimony has the more Credit by how much it is Seconded by (i) Emil. vit Car. 6. Emilius the French Historian who had no cause to magnifie the number of the English at that time Later Computations may be taken from the Preparations of Henry the Eight at Bullen and of Q. Elizabeth at Tilbury at either not so little as 185000 foot and 40000 Porse in readiness for present Service for I am willing to pass by the consideration of those vast numbers which supported that unnatural Quarrel betwixt the two fatal Houses of York and Lancaster much rather to forget the late War betwixt K. Charles the First and the Republican faction wherein 't is believed there were no less than 300000 Foot and neer 100000 Horse actually engaged in Arms it is almost incredible to tell what numbers appear'd in Arms at the Reception of King James when he made his first Entry into England but what we saw with our own eyes at the happy Restauration of our Soveraign that now is must not be conceal'd whose Life-Guard at his Landing were no less than 50000 of the best Horse in the World not reckoning those appointed for the defence of the Realm However all the Computations of our Land Forces fall so short of our Maritime that as there is no Comparison to be made betwixt them so we may say that we have rendred our selves more formidable at Sea by our Canon Law than any other People by any Law of Arms whatsoever The Kings of this Isle are absolute Princes 19. The last instance of the super-excellent Majesty of the Kings of this Isle is that they hold of (k) Bracton lib. 5. Tr. 3. God to themselves and by their Sword not Ex foedore contracto as antiently the Kings of France nor Ex formulâ fiduciae as yet the Kings of Spain neither yet Jure restricto as the Kings of Hungary and the Kings of the Romans much less Ad placitum populi as those of Poland Nec Jure plebiscitâ— as antiently those of Sweden Denmark and Norway who till of late were as precarious as those of Poland But as those who succeeding the Cesars to whom this of (l) All other Provinces were Praesidial and subjected to the Senate Britain whilst it was under the Romans was particularly appropriated became by their voluntary resignation of the Government repossest of the primier right of their Ancestors Vt pro derelicto as the (m) Amifaeus de jure Majest lib. 1. c. 2. Civilians express it or by way of Remitter as our own Lawyers term it being absolutely independent and supream as any of the Roman Emperours their Predecessours were Qui tot tantas obtinuere Libertates quot Imperatores Imperia saith M. Paris and therefore when the Emperour Sigismund came over hither to mediate a peace betwixt our Henry
the Fifth and the French King he was stopt before he Landed by the Duke of Gloucester and divers of the chief Nobility who coming into the very water with their Swords drawn in their hands stay'd his Boat and suffered him not to Land till he had declared Nil se contra Regis Superioritatem praetexere So likewise when (n) Sir Hen. Wotton State Observations 208. Baldwin the Greek Emperour came hither to pray aid of Henry the Third being beaten out of his Country the King sent him a Check instead of a Complement for Landing in his Territories before he had leave given him so to do being Jealous least it might be thought that he had pretended to something as an Emperour that might be Interpreted Superiority he himself being Monarcha in Regno suo as we find in the old Lawyer Baldus and descended from Ancestors that had the Imperial Stile of (o) See the Charter of the Abby of Malmesbury MCCCCLXXIV Rex Regum not only in respect of their having (p) Beauchampe King of the Isle of Wight The Kings of Man c. Kings to their Subjects but in regard to their enjoyment of all those fundamental rights which make up the whole Systeme of Supream power by the Feudists indifferently term'd Jura Regalia and Jura summi Imperii by the Civilians Sacra Sacrorum by our own Lawyers sometimes Prerotiva sometimes (q) As being so Inseparable that they cannot be dissolved by any humane power Inseparabilia which that they may be the better understood I shall consider them as I find them (r) Clapmarus lib. 1. de Arean Imper Cap 11. divided into ten parts reducing those ten like the Decalogue of old into two General Heads of Power i. e. Leges Ponere Legibus Solutum esse 20. For the First The Kings of this Isle have ever been the Lawgivers it is to be understood that however the Kings of this Isle have been pleas'd for the better and more equal Administration of Justice to Indulge the three Estates of the Kingdom who were heretofore call'd their Great Council but since the Parliament with the priviledg of making enlarging diminishing abrogating repealing and reviving all Laws and Ordinances relating to all Matters whether Ecclesiastick Capital Criminal Common Civil or Maritime yet it must be understood after all that neither houses of Parliament now both joyn'd together have in themselves no power as of themselves to do any thing without him much less (s) That is not only to be understood to his Dis nherison but the Diminution of his Prerogative Cook 4. Part. Institut fol. 25. against him no more than the body can make use of any of its members longer than it is actuated by the Soul For from him they have their life and motion Vt Caput principium finis as the Lawyers express it is he that gives them their Inchoation Continuation and Dissolution 'T is true that each Law receives its form Ex traduce Parliamenti that is as our vulgar Statutes express it by advice and consent of the Lords and Commons who sit with the resemblance of so many Kings but they find but the grosser substance or the material part 't is the Royal Assent that Quickens and puts the Soul Spirit and Power into it A Roy's avisero only much more A Roy ne veult makes all their Conceptions abortive when he pleases So that they can be but the Law-makers but the King only is the Law-giver and therefore Stiled in the old Books The Life of the Law and The Fountain of Justice The Kings of this Isle how far above Law 21. This prerogative I speak it out of a great States-mans observation consists in this not that Kings need not observe their Laws for that were a Brutal Tyranny insupportable in the most barbarous States but that they may change them And therefore St. Augustine made that a reason why the Emperours of old were not Subject to their own Laws because saith he they might make new when they pleas'd Now if the King of England should exceed the bounds of his own Laws which if it were lawful were no way convenient for him it being that becomes the wisdome of Princes saith Cicero to consider not how much they may do but what they ought to do in which sense (t) Senec. de cons lat cap. 6. Seneca is to be understood when he said that divers things were not lawful for the Emperour himself who might do all which he pleased It might be rather said in that Case as Grotius excellently distinguishes that he did not rightly then that he went beyond his right The Restraint by his Coronation Oath being like a Silken Coard that may be stretch'd without breaking upon any extraordinary force and violence offer'd as we see it happens upon the discovery and for the prevention of any publick mischief or Inconvenience Where our Kings have De proprio Jure suspended the Laws for a time that is until by advice with his Parliaments he might formally alter or totally repeal them Add to this that every Custom which is a Branch of the Common Law is void Si exultat se in Prerogativam Regis which I suppose is to be understood of the lesser Concerns of his Prerogative in points of Pre-eminence relating to civil Actions or Priviledges personal for as the Learned in the Laws tell us no Sale of his Goods alters his Propriety no Occupancy bars his Entry into his own Lands no Laches in point of time prejudices him as it does private men Again in doubtful cases say they Semper presumitur pro Rege No Estopel binds him nor Judgments final in Writs of Right These and many more such as these there are which we may call Minima Inseparabilia but in all cases where his Prerogative in point of Government is prejudic'd there our great Gownmen hold that he cannot be restrain'd no not by an Act of Parliament nor is he to be restrain'd as I take it in lesser cases unless named And to this it was questionless that the Sage Bracton and the Learned Plowden had respect when the one said the King was above Law to'ther that he was not bound by Law and if it were not so there would be no power left in him to grant any special Charter that in its proper nature is no other than a Dispensation with the positive Laws which can be understood to be binding to the King no otherwise than according to the natural Rule of Order as they are essential to the support of his Government In which Case Kings like good Husbands may be said to be Subjectis suis Subjectos mov'd by a Principle of Affection that voluntarily limits it self according to Rules of Prudence which upon all Emergencies of State on extraordinary occasions are wrested or broken as he himself only sees cause there being a necessity upon which the common safety depends that at such times Princes should be
whit as sound as the exterior parts Witness the free Cities and those large Countries the Patrimonies of the Psaltzgrave the Dukes of Saxony Brandenburg Wittenburg Lunenburg Brunswick Mecklen Pomerania Sweburgh Newburgh and Holst with those other under the Prince of Anhalt the Marquess of Baden the Landgrave of Hesse and in fine almost all the Princes of Germany I think we may except only the Dukes of Austria and Bavaria in whose Countries yet are many Protestant Families of note to all which joyning those out-lying Plantations in the furthest part of the less known World containing many a Sun-burnt Saint those of the Reformed Religion there being infinitely more extensive and Populous than those of the Popish Perswasion and all these with Universal consent acknowledging our King as Head of the League within the Protestant Pale as it will extend the Borders of our Church beyond what is commonly apprehended so it so far magnifies the Majesty of the King of England whether consider'd as Propagator fidei in the Protestant Phrase or Defensor Fidei in the Pope's stile that it may as truly be said of him as of Claudius when he was Lord of Britaine (f) Anâ—nimi Epigra vet Lib. 2. Oceanus medium venit in Imperium Now because the Supremacy in Ecclesiasticis is so nice a Point as the Popish Faction render it many of whom not comprehending the Legality much less the necessity of its being Intrusted with the King only have been more obstinate in the defence of their Allegations than their Allegiance it may be reasonable to examine the matter of Right by the matter of Fact as that by Common Usuage which our Common Lawyers Date (g) Bracton fol. 314. Cook sur Lit. l. 2. Sect. 170. Du temps il ny ad memoire de Contraire from the Authority of which Age we may conclude the practice whatever it has been to have gain'd the form and effect as well as the honour and repute of a Law according to that known Maxime (h) Cook sur Litt. lib. 3. Sect. 659. Quod Prius est Tempore potius est Jure Pass we then through those four noted Periods 1. From the time of Lucius the first Christian King of the Britains to that of Constantine the first Christian King or Emperour of the Romans reckon'd about a hundred and fifty years 2. From that Time till the Conversion of Ethelbert the first Christian King of the Saxons or English suppos'd to be three hundred and sixty years more 3. From thence to the time of the first King of the Norman here which was not so little as five hundred years more at what time the Pope first put in his Claim 4. From thence to the time he let go his hold again which being about the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Reign whose Ambassadour he refused to treat with makes up near five hundred years more and if in all that long series of Christianity it shall appear by consent of all Ecclesiastical Writers in all times that the King has ever been deem'd to be Papa Patriae Jure Proprietatis Vicarius Dei in Regno Jure Possessionis I hope then the Imputation of Heresie and Schism laid upon Henry the Eight by Paul the Third for taking upon him to be the Supream head of the Church within his own dominions will vanish as a Result of Passion and Our present Kings be Judged in Remitter to their antient Right or as the Law-books Express it Enson (i) 25. Assis pl. 4.35 Ass s pl. 11.23 Edw. 3.69.11 Hâ—n 4.50 Tit. Remitt 11. melior Droit Lucius and those claiming immediately from by and after him I take to be stated in a double right Ratione Fundationis ratione Donationis For as the Lawyers have it cujus est dare ejus est disponere Now that all the Bishopricks of this Isle were of his Foundation and Donative appears by all our books saith the (k) Sur Lit. Cap. Discontinuance Sec. 648. Lord Cooke The first Canons receiving Sanction Ex Divinitate Principis as the Canonists express it till such time as that Foundation laid by him was buried in the Rubbish of Dioclesian's Persecution After which we have no Constat of any Ecclesiastical Polity till the time of Constantine who having recover'd the Church out of its Ruines and laid a new Superstructure of his own upon the Old Found is upon that Account both by Eusebius and Socrates stil'd the Great and it is well they call'd him not the Vniversal Bishop His Power being no less extensive than his Dominions the (l) Euseb vit Constant Cap. 24. L. 4. first of them pointing at his power in General calls him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The (m) Socrat. Hist Eccles last referring to his more immediate power over the Clergy for to say truth he precided even in Rome it self stiles him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. Pontifex Maximus From the time of this Constantine the Great till that of Pope Gregory the Great neither heard those here any thing of the Church of Rome nor they of Rome any thing of the Church here That Pope being so little known to or knowing any thing of the concerns of this Isle that when accidentally he saw some little (n) Some it seems of the Pagan Saxons then newly planted here Children who had been brought from hence he ask'd whether they were Christians or no and it being as Ignorantly answer'd him That all the Natives here were Pagans he out of his singular Zeal to Christian Piety sent over Austin the Monk to bring them under his Apostolical Obedience By which we may rather Understand a subjection to the Roman Faith than to the Roman Church for that Rome being at that time but a private Diocess had not Credit enough to give Laws to all the Churches of Italy much less to Impose upon those further off for every body knows how they of (o) Sygonius lib. 9. de â—eg Italiae dicit non debere Ambrosianam Ecclesiam Rom. â—egibus subjicere Millan not to mention any other contested with them for the Precedence many years after And for the Independency of the Churches in (p) Baronius An. 1059. Spain and France there needs no other Proof than what we have from that Magisterial Monk's own Relation before mention'd who as he pass'd through France in his way hither observing how different their Forms of Divine Service were from those at Rome and how repugnant their Discipline to any thing he had been before acquainted with was so surpriz'd with the Novelty that he could not forbear (q) Cum una sit fides cur sunt Ecclesiarum consuetudines alterum missarum consuetudo in Sanct. Rom. Eccles atque altera in Galliarum c. Expostulating the Reason with his Ghostly Master whose pious Answer yet to be seen at the end of his Printed Works is worthy Notice who after an excellent discourse upon that Subject concludes that as their Liberty
3. and that brought on the Treaty betwixt that King and Gregory the Eleventh which after two years debate ended with this express Agreement (t) Walsingham Hist 1374. Page 184. Quod Papa de caetero reservationibus beneficiorum minime uteretur which Dignities Henry the Fourth made no scruple to collate to his own use notwithstanding his being anointed with that Oil which came from Heaven the vertue whereof was to encline all the Princes that were inaugurated therewith to be favourable to the Church His Son Henry the Fifth for his exemplary Piety stil'd the Prince of Priests thought fit to demand of Martin the Fifth several Ecclesiastical Priviledges which his Predecessors had got from the Kings of England at several times and his Ambassadors finding the Pope to stick at it and give them no ready answer told him plainly That the King their Master intended to use his own mind in the matter whether he consented or no (u) In vit Hen. Chichley Pag. 56 57. Edito Anno 1617. Vtpote quae non à necessitatis sed honoris causa petat Thus the Papal power as it was interrupted in all times so from this time it sensibly languish'd till it received its fatal blow from Henry the Eight who if I may so say did as it were beat out the Popes Brains with his own Keys and had he not afterward used violence to himself by referring the point of his Supremacy to the Parliament to be confirm'd by Statute Law that was sufficiently firm'd before by the Common Law that cannot change he had undoubtedly been more absolute Lord of himself than any Christian Prince whatever and acknowledg'd Head of the Church nullis Exceptionibus as Tacitus expresses it in another case but laying the burthen of that weighty Question of the Supremacy upon the Shoulders of Divines which had been better supported by those of the great Lawyers he was perplext with many Scruples and in the end forced to enter the List in Person and fight the (w) Antiqu. Brit. Eccles p. 384. 37. Pope at his own weapon the Pen wherein by great good fortune being a great master of defence that way he had the better of it and by the Authority of his Example drew many to Second him his Supremacy being afterward Justified by the whole Convocation of Divines in both the Universities and most of the Monastical and Collegiate Theologues of the whole Kingdom whilst only four adventur'd to assert the Pope's Right to be de Jure divino 29. And now to conclude this whole discourse The Government of this Isle alwayes Monarchial it may perhaps be thought a Point of glory not unworthy our Remarke to observe that the Government of this Isle was never cloath'd in any other form but what appeared Monarchial notwithstanding the many chances and changes I cannot say alterations which Time conspiring with Fate hath brought forth wantonly disposing the Scepter of these Isles not only to several Persons and Families but different People and Nations The Genius of the very first Natives the Aborigines as Caesar observes of their Ancestors the Gaules being always inclinable to be rul'd by one single Person affecting Monarchy as Naturally as the Greeks did Aristocracy the Romans Democracy or the Germans and indeed all the Northern Nations Oligarchy and however we read of no less than four Kings in Kent by which may be guest a proportionable number of the like kind in other Provinces which Cesar had no Knowledg of yet it appears by those who wrote after him with more certainty That all these Reguli were under one Chief Tacitus to whom it matters not what Title was given by themselves Speaking of Caraciacus since Tacitus calls him more Romano Imperator Britannorum After the Romans got the Government into their hands though there was a seeming Pentarchy yet the Emperour saith Herodian reserv'd to himself all Appeals from the Presidents and Lieutenants not excepting the Cesars themselves here During the Saxon Heptarchy when each of those Royteletts had a distinct Legislative power within his own Kingdom striving like Twins in the Womb of their Conquest which should be born first yet one saith Bede was saluted by common consent with the stile and Title of Rex Anglorum So during the still-born Tetarchy of the Danes Knute was not only Primus but Princeps Uniting the Trine Power of his Predecessours in his single Person Neither did the Genius of the Normans affect any other form notwithstanding the intestine Feuds betwixt divers of those Kings and their Nobles these striving to recover what they had lost those resolving to keep what by advantage of time and sufferance they had got ingaged them in desperate Resolutions for however the Populacy prevail'd against King John Henry the Third Edward the Second and Richard the Second taking the boldness to commit so many Insolencies as sullied the memory of those times and gave Strangers occasion to brand the whole Nation with one of the basest Characters that malice could invent Les mutins Anglois yet was not their ill disposition heightned to that degree of madness as to follow Providence in the pursuit of their Liberties beyond the bounds of Magna Charta for though they left succeeding Ages a President they never found in deposing the two last acts no less dishonourable to themselves than them yet they admitted the Son of the one and the Uncle of the other to succeed Nor was it want of power to do otherwise Vox Populi being at the same time Preached up by no meaner a man than the Primate of England to be Vox Dei and pass'd for as good Divinity as Policy The like may be observed in those disorderly times when the two fatal houses of York and Lancaster justled one another out of the Throne with such alternate success as gave advantage to the Plebiscitum to Elect which they pleas'd the Soveraignty being so weakned by the blood lost on either side that the people had it in their power not only to turn the Scale as they thought fit but to break the Beam of Majesty on which the weight of that destructive Quarrel hung and so by taking away the Cause have prevented the Occasions of ensuing mischiefs yet still we find they kept within the Circle of their Allegiance and though they directed it variously to several Lines yet all tended to supporting the main Nave of the Monarchy continuing the Government as it had ever been in a single Person which Devotion to Monarchy was as St. Hierome observes in one of his Epistles rewarded from Heaven with this great blessing upon the Incolae in general of this Isle That by their Obedience to one Prince they were the more easily brought to the belief of One God who blest their early Faith with the Honour of having the First Christian King and Emperour of the World amongst them 30. But This last Age of ours I confess hath brought forth an unnatural Race of
from a Scorbutical Distemper which therefore we may venture to English Scurvy-grass-Ale the most excellent and ancient Drink of this Isle But however our Antiquaries do differ about the name of the Isle they all agree in the descent of the first Inhabitants affirming them as most of the Inhabitants on this side the World to be the off-spring of (a) Josephus Zonares vocant Gallos Cimbros 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gomari Gomer whose truly unlucky name if so be Melancthon interpret it rightly carried in it the Fate of his Posterity ominously denoting the disadvantages under which Nature and Providence had placed them amongst whom none were yet greater sufferers then the poor Britains who in respect of their extream remoteness from all the rest of the World there being none beyond them Westward but those of Ireland which Ptolomy makes to be a part of them unless that Terra Incognita mention'd by St. Brandon where the Souls of the just Saints touch in their way to Purgatory known by the name of O Brazil beyond the Isles of Arran so often discovered and lost again could never meet with any opportunities of glory to give them the least repute amongst their Neighbours in the Continent nor indeed any invitements of Ambition to shew they understood any Particle of Honour In so much that when the Romans those great Monopolizers of Fame came first hither they not only despised them as rude Barbarians but after better acquaintance with them took so little notice of any thing they did or suffered as not to think it worth recording to Posterity whereby it so happens that we have not one brave Example to copy after but what is decypher'd in so small Characters that it is scarce legible at this day Witness those gallant Resistances of Arviragus and Galgacus the one General of the South t'other of the North of this Isle when they first Invaded it whose actions though they possibly transcended whatever passes for wonder in our dayes are so slightly and confusedly delivered by the most exact of their Writers that it hath been doubted by some whether there were ever any such Men at least that the one is mistaken for Prasugatus t'other for Marius Neither have we much better accompt of that Free-born Sylurian Caractacus who was not inferior to any of their great Captains saving in Fortune only of whom we hear nothing beyond the bravery of his captivity which they set forth with that varnish of Ostentation on part of the Victors as shews they design'd to record their own rather then his Glory None of them acknowledging any of the circumstances of Dishonour under which Caesar twice suffer'd once at Land when he was disarm'd by (b) Which the British Historians confidently affirm Nennius fighting hand to hand afterwards at Sea when he was routed by a private Captain Neither had we ever known it had it not suited with the design of one of their own * Lucan Poets to bring in Pompey upbraiding him with it in that well known Verse Territa quasitis ostendit Terga Britannis But that which discovers a more intense prejudice and scorn of the Britains was the calling their Innocence Ignorance judging their Courage to be no other then an effect of Despair deeming their temperance stupidity their hardiness of Body brutishness A silly sort of People saith Diodorus Siculus because not so skilfull in the Art of Luxury as they his Country-men Naked Barbarians saith Dion the more shame their armed Legions were so bafled by them (c) In conjurat Catilinari Genus huminum agriste sine legibus sine Imperio libe um atque solutum An obscure People not known to any of the Civil part of the World saith another yet we find mention made of their Fame in the Greek (d) By no meanes an Author then Polybius who restifies that they drove a great Trade with the Graecians Annals from the very beginning of the first Olympiad A. M. 3720. which was 200 years before Christ at what time they themselves were not known to the Greeks if we may credit (e) Contr. Appâ—â—n lib. 1. Josephus at least not so well known as that Thucidides Herodotus or any Historians of the first Class thought them worthy of any mention by them it is true Strabo takes some notice of them but he reckons them as we find St. (f) Epist Roman Paul did many years after amongst the Nations that were esteemed Barbarous Now whether we consider the Britains as deriving themselveâ— from Phoenitian Greek or Gallick Stock or whether we allow them the priviledge of the most ancient Nations in the World to deduce a fine-spun Series from the Gods and so leave them as Aborigines either way they have the consent of Antiquity to support the Reputation of their being not only not obscure but as noble a Race of People as any other Gentile Nation whatsoever perhaps more then the most if we examine the Testimony of their Laws Language or Lineage 't is pity I cannot say their Liberties untainted to this day Maugre the Tyranny of Time and Chance the Body of our (g) Coâ—â—'s Preface to his Thiâ—d Book of Reports Common Law being compos'd of such Elements as were taken first by Brute out of the ancient Greek and Trojan Laws as one of the most Sagest in that profound Science tells us whose testimony is confirm'd by the learned (h) Jan. Angl. lib. 1. pag 17. Mr. Selden in that place where he proves that London had its Municipal Laws as soon if not (i) Languet before Rome it self Now how excellent those Statutes must be that have stood the shock of so many Ages and yet continued useful I need not labour to prove but will content my self with the Authority of (k) Pag. 39. Lib. Leg. Aâ—gl He was Lord Chief Justice of England under H. 6. Sir John Fortescue proves the same by Reason Quod si non optimae extitissent aliqui Regum novissimorum Justitia ratione seu affectione concitati eas mutassent aut omnino delevissent Now as the wisdom of any People is to be measur'd by that of their Laws so is their Nobility to be judg'd by the measure of their Wisdom for however we seem to be partakers with the rest of the world in the common Fate of being a Conquer'd Nation there being no Country in the whole Universe that have not been subdued as well as we by others or by themselves (l) Seneca Epist Ita fato placuit nullius rei eodem semper statu stare fortunam Yet our Ancestors had this to say in their behalf which perhaps no other conquer'd Nation can say That as they disputed their Freedoms as long as ever any did having spent above a million of lives before the Romans could prevail to cohabit with them so after all they made so good Conditions for themselves as to keep their own Kings and their own Laws being not obliged
to prey for himself where ere they could find their Quarry Ambrosius set upon the Saxons whiles Uter sought out Vortigern This brought a fourth pretender into the list as forward and fortunate as either of them who had he been as skilful to keep as he was to get a Victory he might possibly by turning Fortune round have made her so giddy that she could not in a short time have been able to bear up as after she did and fix her self upon one side This was Pascentius the second Son of Vortigern who mov'd with like Zeal to preserve his Father as his elder Brother was to preserve his Country joyned with the Saxons and set upon Ambrosius to divert Uter and if possible to have contracted the War into a narrower room at that place now called Aymesbury but in the first place Ambrosebury in memory of K. Ambrosius his being slain there where they met with so like assurance and not unlike courage that the hopes on either side seem'd evenly poys'd But the Battel ending with the lives of the two great Undertakers Ambrosius and Pascentius the one just ready to step into the Throne the other not well fixed in it who went into the other World with a sufficient train of Followers to shew what rank they held in this Uter enter'd not only without resistance but without a Rival which added no less to his Greatness then to his Security This one would have thought had been sufficient to have unravel'd all his Glory and to have rendred him not only lost to all the World but to himself too But as the Palm-tree is therefore figurative of Victory because the more it is depressed the stronger it bears up against the weight is laid upon it so he less sensible of his own then his Armies weakness caus'd himself to be carried in his Litter to them and that unexpected conquest of his own infirmities so animated their activity that finding they must either leave all their Bodies dead upon the place or his in case they did not make themselves Masters of the Day they tarried not to expect the Assault but gave it whereby turning the surprise upon the other side they slew Ten thousand of their best men and forced the rest to seek safeguard under the protection of their new landed Forces who taught by the experience of former Battels lost how necessary 't is to joyn to Courage caution had strongly fortified themselves within an inaccessable Rampart which he indeavouring to force lost his Victory as unexpectedly as he got it and with it his own amongst many other lives falling like the fierce Creature from which he took his Name whose Image 't is thought he bore upon his Shield to shew his descent from the Roman Emperours as our Kings since have continued it amongst the Royal Banners of England to shew their descent from him THE THIRD DYNASTY OF ENGLISH OF ENGLISH SUccessors to the Romans were the English a People of so ancient an Extract that he that will trace their Original must follow it as Berosus doth into the Flood for as they were ever famous by Sea so they deduce their Pedigree from the Universal Deluge (a) Whom the â—ermans worshipt for their God of War as the Romans Mars Woden their Common Ancestor being descended in a direct Line from (b) From whom the German Language is call'd the Tentonick Theutones the Grandchild or (c) Lanquet Gambrivius the first Inventer of good Ale and Beer which they have lov'd but too well ever since he was the third in descent from (d) From whom they were call'd Germans Manus Son of (e) From whom the German Language came to be call'd the Twich or Tutch Tongue Tuisco the eldest Son of Gomer the first Son of Japheth third Son of Noah whom Moses remembers by the name of Aschenaz from whom the Hebrews call the Germans (f) Illust Poliolb fol. 70. Aschenims Thus their own Records will have them to be some of the most renown'd Reliques of the Old World however Tacitus who began to live near about the time Christ died by what mis-understanding I know not makes no mention of them otherwise than under the Common Name of Cimbri But probable 't is that in respect they possess'd that part of Germany which lyes betwixt the Rhene and the River Albis over which the Romans never pass'd being by (g) Ptol. lib. 5. c. 18. Ptolomey's Reckoning near a third part of the whole he had not the good hap to attain to any near acquaintance with them At their first Arrival here they design'd to change the Name of Britain into Nova Saxonia or rather Saxonia Transmarina they themselves passing under the general Name of Saxons so call'd from their (h) Lipsius Seaiâ—es a sort of short Swords or rather long Knives that they wore under their Arming Coats So much more remarkable amongst the unadvised Britains in that they made a most fatal Proof of the dangerous use of them by the loss of no less than three hundred Lives at one Interview amongst whom were divers of the best Quality of their Nation who were inhumanely butcher'd at a Parley where they met unarm'd in that desert place now call'd Stonenge in Wiltshire by some suppos'd to be the Monument of that days Treachery for which there can be no excuse but that of the Poet Virtus an dolus quis in Hoste requirat But after they got the entire possessâ—on of the whole they chang'd their minds and as some say in honour of Engist the first Invader they turn'd the Name of Britain into Engistland or as others say complying with the Angles the greatest People amongst them call'd it Anglelond which since we term England They were divided into three distinct Tribes differing as in Countrey so in Name The first call d JUTES or as Bede calls them VITES these before they came hither inhabited the Mountains that divide Germany from Italy in the first place and afterwards fixt themselves in the Cimbrian Cbersoness since call'd Juitland their portion here was most of the South part of the Isle being thereupon term'd South-sex toward that Island which from them was call'd the Isle of Vites or Wight The second Tribe was call'd ANGLES who possessing the South part of the Chersoness gave name to the Town of Angolen These were the greatest Scept both for fame and power who taking up much of the East all the North and most of the North-west part of this Isle being four parts of seven in the whole the rest took its denomination from them and fell under the general appellation of (i) Which in the Ventonick Tongue signifâ—es the Sâ—aight or Narrow Land Angleland or England The third Tribe which afterwards devorred the other two were those most properly call'd Saxons and for distinction sake from the rest of their own Countrey (k) Aâ— Holiz quod Silvâ—â— Ligâ—â—â— sigâ—â—ficat HOLY SAXONS in respect of their woody Countrey
by his very first Treaty which was not to have been hop'd for by any long hostility which success though the execution seem'd not considerable amounted to a kind of Victory So that 't was no wonder he rested not contented with such a Proportion as he was before asham'd to wish for Ambition respecting not so much whence it comes as whither it is addressed pressing still forwards without any consideration but that of the felicity it aims at on which it fixes with so intense a look that it regards no dangers much less any faith being deny'd the Government of the Isle of Thanet he insisted upon that of the whole Province of Kent meeting with opposition there he supply'd force with fraud and both with Fortune and by the possession of that one only got the command of three Provinces more all lying so convenient for landing Supplies that this seem'd to be but an Earnest for an entire Conquest Neither thought he it sufficient to have the Power without he had the Title of a King Hitherto he had only studied his Security that being obtain'd he begins to affect Glory and in respect Kent was his Principal Seat he gives that the preheminence of giving the Name to his Kingdom being the first not to say the last too of the whole Heptarchy continuing near four hundred years supported by its own proper Forces before it fell under the common Fate of being incorporated into the Universal Monarchy of the English And as it was the first Kingdom so was it the first Christian Kingdom of the Seven from whom the East-Saxons borrow'd their light and from them the rest till an universal brightness oversp ead the whole Hemisphere which however it seems to have been a work of time as appears by that oâ—d Adage yet in use amongst us In Kent and Christendom was an occasion of so high regard to the People of that Province that all the Counties of England have ever since consented to allow them the honour of precedency in the Field by giving them the right of leading the Van as often as the Nation appears to give any Batgel Royal which Priviledge hath been by special Charter confirm'd to them from the time of King Knute the Zealous The long Reign of Engist not less as some say then fifty years contributed much to the Corroboration of his Conquest which being the Gift of Fortune rather then Nature he bestow'd it on his youngest Son Oeske from whom as I said before 't was call'd the Kingdom of Eskins which beginning at the time of Ambrosius the British King continued Three hundred seventy two years an intire Kingdom and after the West-Saxons reduc'd it under their Obedience had yet the repute of being a distinct Principality and by that Title was bestow'd upon the younger Sons of those Kings who defended it against the Danes till Ethelbert the second Son of Athelstan second Son of Egbert after the death of his Elder Brother Ethelwald entring upon the whole Monarchy of England Anno 860. united it inseparably to his Empire THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF SOUTH-SEXE II. I. date of accession 488 ELLA was the first King of this and second absolute Monarch of the whole Kingdom for which Honour he was more indebted to the length of his Reign then the greatness of his Dominions being indeed the very least of the Seven II. date of accession 514 CISSA his youngest Son the two elder being slain succeeded his Father he reigned peaceably seventy six years founded Chichester and Chisbury the one for the resort of his People t'other for the repose of himself where dying he left his Son III. EDELWOLPH to succeed the first Christian of this House who refusing to contribute to the War against the Britains in respect the West-Saxon lay betwixt him and danger Ceadwald the Tenth of those Kings sell upon him and slew him upon whose death IV. BERTHUN and AUTHUN Two Dukes collaterally sprung out of the Royal Stock of this Kingdome interpos'd themselves with equal merit in the common Calamity and Defence of their Country and forcing Ceadwald to retire rul'd jointly for six years till the same King returning upon them took from the one his Life from the other his Liberty whereby this became a Province to the West-Sexe BY the setting up of this Kingdom conteining no more but two Counties Sussex and Surrey and those none of the greatest we may take some measure of the Ambition of our Ancestors who had as great respect to their Glory as their Security being not content to have the Power without they had the Title of Kings This Ella was in the first place but a Colonel under Engist who made him Governour of Sussex to which having added Surrey with the loss of the lives of his two eldest Sons Kymen and Plenchin after the death of his General he set up for himself and being resolv'd to shew the greatness of his mind by the narrowness of his Dominions not onely declar'd himself the first King of the South-Sexe but made himself so considerable in the esteem of all his Country-men that they submitted to him as the second Monarch of the English which Glory he held up to the height near thirty years But that Sun which began in Kent the East part of the Isle and came towards him who was planted in the South hasted to set amongst the West-Sexe to whom his Successors were forc'd to become Tributary or if it may lessen the dishonour for these were all of them most deserving Princes we may say Contributioners towards the War against the Britains The West-Saxon Kingdom lying betwixt them and danger the non-payment of this Tax whether it were that the Kings hereof refus'd it as being too heavy a Burthen upon them or disdain'd the manner of Exaction or thought themselves not oblig'd to be longer charg'd having clear'd their own Territories is not certain was the first and only occasion of the downfall of this Kingdom being thereby ingag'd in a War with too potent a Neighbour against whom though they had no hopes to prevail yet they scorn'd to yield till their tottering State fell down about their Ears and buried them in the common Ruins of their Country which was so far wasted before it submitted to become a Province that when it was added to th' other it became rather a Burthen then a Strengthning for a great while so far had Famine and Plague the Peace-makers in all Civil Wars disabled them to all intents and purposes before this Curse fell upon them to be devour'd by their Friends which was so much more dishonourable then to be conquer'd by their Enemies by how much it was the first unhappiness of this kind THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF WEST-SEXE III. I. date of accession 522 CERDIC having conquer'd Natan-leod the Dragon of the Western Britains set up the third Kingdom which reaching from Hampshire to Cornwal was call'd the Kingdome of West-Sexe and gave him the repute of being the
third Monarch of the English II. date of accession 534 KENRICK his Son succeeded him both in the Kingdom and Monarchy III. date of accession 561 CHEVLIN his Son was the fifth Monarch but his Power being not adaequate to his Fame he in 33 years time could not so settle himself but that he was dispossest by his Brother IV. date of accession 592 CEARLICK who being not so good at keeping as in getting the Kingdom into his hands was himself depos'd in like manner by V. date of accession 598 CHELWOLPH Son of Cuth fifth Son of Kenrick a Prince worthy the Greatness he inherited who notwithstanding he was assaulted by the Picts and Scots and East-Angles all at once kept his Ground and left it to his Successor VI. date of accession 622 KINGILLS a Prince famous for his piety and courage who left his Son VII date of accession 643 KENWALD to succeed him whose beginning may be compar'd to the worst his ending to the best of Kings renouncing first his Faith after his Wife both which though he afterwards retain'd yet the sin stuck so close to him that the first left him without a Kingdom the last without a Son whereby VIII date of accession 675 ESWIN of the Line of Chelwolph took place who for six years kept out the right Heir IX date of accession 677 KENWIN younger Son of Ringills who utterly expuls'd all the Briâ—ains and forc'd them to seek their safety in those inaccessable Mountains of Wales whereby his Successor X. date of accession 686 CEADWALD had so much leisure as to fall upon his nearest Neighbours the South-Sexe and weaken them so far that they were forc'd to yield to his Successor XI INE worthily esteem'd the greatest Prince of his time and the most magnificent yet withal the most humble he dyed in a Pilgrimage to Rome nominating XII date of accession 762 ETHELWARD the Son of Oswald the Son of Ethelbald descended from Kenwaâ—d his Successor who reign'd fourteen years and left the Scepter to his Brother XIII date of accession 740 CUTHRED whose heart being broken by seeing his Son murther'd the Crown came to XIV SIGEBERT one whose vices were less obscure than his Parentage who murthering one of the best of his Friends was himself slain by one of the basest of his Enemies a Swineherd whereby XV. date of accession 755 KENWOLFE succeeded a person worthy of better sate than he met with being slain by the hand of an Outlaw at a time when he did not expect and consequently was not prepar'd for death and so XVI date of accession 784 BITHRICK succeeded the last King of this House lineally descended from Cerdick who being poyson'd by his own Queen this Kingdom came to Egbert the Son of Ingils and Brother of Ine who reduc'd the whole Heptarchy into a Monarchy and therefore worthily led the Van to the absolute Monarchs of England THIS was the third Kingdom of the Heptarchy and deservedly so call'd if we consider the largeness of its extent which measur'd by the Line of Circumvallation reach't if some of our modern Geographers say true above 700 miles in compass being commonly call'd the Kingdom of the West-Sexe by Bede the Kingdom of the Genevises by Cambrensis from Genesius Grandfather to Cerdick who had the honour to be esteem'd the first Founder of it although in truth he rear'd but a small part of this stately Fabrick the rest being the work of Time and Fortune and came not to perfection in almost 500 years He was for his fierceness sirnam'd the Dragon possibly in imitation of the British Kings who had that title and having beaten * The Britaine call'd him Mâ—â—ge Coâ—â—â—â—â— Natanleod the Dragon of the Western Britains forc'd him to retreat and leave 5000 of his people behind him in possession of no more of their own ground than serv'd to make them one common Grave from whom 't is thought he took this Shield of the Dragon He was thereupon declar'd the third Monarch of the English men his Son Kenrick was the fourth and his Grandson Cheulin the fifth Each of these shar'd with him in the honour of being the first raisers of this Kingdom the establisher of it was King Kenwin the ninth Monarch who expuls'd all the Britains the first that enlarg'd it was Ceadwald the tenth King who having made his way to the Conquest of Kent by that of the South-Sexe left his Successor Ine worthily therefore sirnam'd the Great to give his Neighbours a true estimate of his power by that of his wealth and a measure of his wealth by that of his munificence whereof there needs no other instances than in the Foundation of the Abbey of Glastenbury the Furniture of whose Chappel only took up 2835 pound weight of Silver and 337 pound weight of Gold a vast sum for those days which being for the ornamental part only could not be comparable to that which was left for the endowment He Founded also the Cathedral Church of Wells the West part whereof is perhaps one of the most stately Fabricks in the known World Yet neither of these are more lasting Monuments than those of his Laws translated for their excellency by the learned Lambert into Latin as being the Foundation of what we are govern'd by so long since This was he that gave the first Eleemosinary Dole of Peter-pence to the Church of Rome which was exacted in the next Age as a Tribute In this mans Reign this Kingdom was at its heighth declining after his death insensibly till the time of Egbert who being the Darling of Fortune as well as of his own Subjects and a Prince of great towardliness after he had corrected his youth by the experience he had in the Wars under Charles the Great being the first of all the Saxon Princes that were educated abroad he got so far the advantage of all his home-bred Contemporaries that he easily soar'd above the common height of Majesty and beat up the seven Crowns into one which placing on his own head he not only gave those Laws but that Name to the whole Isle which continued till King James his Reign who uniting Scotland to the rest of the Terra firma not reduc'd altered the style of King of England into that which only could make it greater writing himself King of Great Britain to which August and most Imperial Title we now pay homage and may we ever do so THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF EAST-SEXE IV. I. date of accession 527 ERCHENWIN the Son of Offa Great-Grandson of Sneppa third in descent from Seaxnod third Son of Woden the common Progenitor of the Saxons began this Kingdom with the happiness of a long Reign which however it be seldome desir'd was certainly very advantagious to his Successor II. date of accession 587 SLEDDA who thought the readiest way to keep what his Predecessor got was to add to it what his Successors were not like to keep a Peace with the Kings of Kent his next Neighbours
of which were more desperately bent against each other then either Picts or Britains against both The whole Continent of their Dominions took up six Counties as we now reckon them viz. Northumberland properly so call'd Westmerland Cumberland Yorkshire Lancashire and Durham These falling to the Charge of Otho and Ebusa they made an equal Dividend betwixt them taking three to each the first had all betwixt Humber and Tine and call'd it the Dukedom of Deira The second had all from Tine to the Frith of Edinburgh which was entituled the Dukedom of Bernicia Ninety nine years it continued under the distinct Government of their Posterity each independent of other and each as often as the Common Enemy gave them any rest pecking at the other with equal Enmity and not unequal Fortune till the time of Ella and Ida two famous Captains the one descended from Wealdeag fourth Son of Woden t'other from Bealdeag his fifth Son who thinking themselves less in Title then in Power urged by a mutual Emulation elevated their Dignity to the height of their Fortunes and stil'd themselves as all the rest of their Country-men Kings the last was the first Monarch the first the last King One getting the Start of Priority in Degree the other the advantage of Survivorship by which means it happened that the Government which hitherto had been as it were Party per Pale not long after became Checquy Fortune according to her Constant Inconstancy alternately deposing sometimes one sometimes the other disposing the Diadem like a Ball toss'd from one Hazzard to another so that the Spectators knew not which side to beat on till those of the House of Ella making a Fault Ethelrick won the Sett having got the honour to be the first absolute Lord of the whole which he united under the Title of the Kingdom of Northumberland banishing the other Names of Distinction This Malmesbury ascribes more to his Fortune then his Merit making him beholding to the bravery of his sprightly Son Ethelfrid the Wild for the continuance of any Memory of his Name which shews us the Founders themselves are oftentimes as the Foundations they lay under Ground unknown and obscure taking their Honour from the Superstructure that they rear not from themselves But as those of Bernicia claim'd the honour of building the House so those of Deira boasted they were the first took the Possession their Dignity becoming them so much the better in that they made their Power known where their Title was not by the Courage of their Magnanimous King Edwin who inlarged his Dominions as far as the Mavian Isles but by that Prosperity of his render'd himself rather Glorious then Great drawing himself out of his proper Strength by an Extent that weakned him and drew on him a more powerful Enemy then that he had subdued to wit the Neighbouring Mercian who by his death and his Sons made way to let in the Bernician Line again which continued uninterrupted ten Descents after which follow'd a Succession of Six Usurpers out of distinct Stocks who wasted near Thirty years with so little advantage to themselves or their Country that at length it became a Prey to several petty Tyrants of so low Rank that only One of Ten had the Confidence to stile himself a King which confusion tempted the Dane to fall in upon them with so resistless fury that they were fain to crave Protection of the West-Saxon who made them a Province unto him after they had stood the shock of Two hundred thirty five years with repute of being an absolute and intire Kingdom THE ORDER OF THE English Kings AFTER THE HEPTARCHY Was reduc'd into an Absolute Monarchy VIII I. date of accession 800 EGBERT was the first gave himself the Imperial Stile of King of England differing therein from his Predecessors who stiled themselves Kings of the Englishmen having reduc'd the Heptarchy into a Monarchy he gave Kent and Sussex to his younger Son Athelstan the rest descending on his eldest Son II. date of accession 837 ETHELWOLPH who put off a Myter to put on a Crown being Bishop of Winchester at the time of his Fathers death and being fitter to be a Monk then a Monarch he was accordingâ—y justled out of his Right by his ungracious Son III. date of accession 857 ETHELBALD whose ill got Glory pâ—ov'd so transitory that â—t serv'd him only to perform an act of Infamy outlasted it possessing himself of his Fathers Bed as well as of his Throne which prov'd his Grave so that his Brother VI. date of accession 858 ETHELBERT before Lord of a part as Heir to his Uncle Athelstan became now Lord of the whole and by managing that he learn'd how to manage this the number of his troubles exceeded that of the Months of his reign so that not able to bear up under the weight of the burthen of the Government he died and left his Brother V. date of accession 863 ETHELRED to succeed him as Heir both to his happiness and unhappiness who being likewise wearied rather then vanquish'd hy the continual Assaults of the Danes left the glory with the danger to his Brother VI. date of accession 873 ELFRID a Prince that in despight of War perform'd all the noblest Acts of Peace making as good use of his Pen as of his Sword at the same time securing and civilizing his People His Son VII date of accession 900 EDWARD surnam'd the Elder enjoy'd thereby such a happiness as was only worthy the Son of such a Father as St. Elfrid and the Father of such a Son as VIII date of accession 924 ATHELSTAN who knew no Peace but what he purchas'd with his Sword being more Forward then Fortunate and therein like his Brother IX date of accession 940 EDMOND who escaping all the Storm perished in a Calm being kill'd after he had escaped so many Battels in a private Fray betwixt two of his own Servants in his own House X. date of accession 946 EADRED succeeded who gave himself the stile of King of Great Britain a Title too great it seems for his Successor XI date of accession 955 EDWIN who discontinued it shewing thereby that Nature was mistaken in bringing him into the World before his Brother XII date of accession 959 EDGAR who reassum'd that Title again yet not before he had made himself Lord of the whole Continent but as one surfeited with Glory he dyed as we may so say before he began to live leaving his Son XIII date of accession 975 EDWARD surnam'd the Martyr to support his memory who fell as a Sacrifice to the Inhumane Ambition of a Step-mother who murther'd him to prefer his younger Brother but her eldest Son XIV date of accession 978 ETHELRED an excellent Prince had he not been blasted by the Curse of his Mothers Guilt who as an ill-set Plant wither'd before he could take firm Root being wind-shaken with continual storms all his reign which his Son XV. date of accession 1016 EDMOND from his
up his Sacriledge but to make the punishment as notorious as his guilt compell'd him to depart the Realm This lost him the hearts of the Clergy and long it was not ere they found an artifice to bereave him so far of the affections of the Laity that they withdrew their Allegiance too upon the account of his Nonage being then but sixteen years old Neither took they from him his Crown onâ—y but what was more dear to him than his life his beautiful young Wife upon pretence of too near Consanguinity which Divorce cast him into a fit of despair and that into so high a Feaver as compleated the Separation by his death being dead they deny'd him Burial and to shew that something worse than the poison of Asps which works no longer than while it finds heat was under their Tongues they most uncharitably reported the same Evil Spirits whom they would have thought in possession of his Soul to have carried away his Body presuming that they might without any great difficulty gain Credit from after-ages having so easily abus'd the present but those that give us the most Impartial Account of his unhappiness back'd with circumstances that prove themselves delineate such an active generosity in his Nature as by the Advantage of his Youth might have been render'd very useful if it had met with a loyal Nobility or an untainted Clergy but the first being led like Sheep by the last they to shew posterity how all the weight of Government hung upon the Lines of their hate or love set up his Brother Edgar as very a Child as himself giving no other reason why they thought him fitter to Rule but that they judged him easier to be ruled EDGAR date of accession 959 THIS King growing up like a young tree planted under the shelter of the walls of the Sanctuary could not chuse but flourish and being happy who would not allow him to be wise valiant and just but these good qualities were not it seems without some mixture of those dregs in his Brothers Nature which were heightened as much by the Corruption of the Times as that of their youth either affording sufficient Temptation to men of so great Power with so little experience He began his Reign before his Brother ended his and shooting up so soon 't is no marvail his top wither'd before he was full grown That which gave him the great advantage of his Brother was that which casts a great disadvantage upon most other men in the like case the point of minority for coming to the Crown in so very tender years being as I take it scarce seven years old they that set him up Judg'd him uncapable of making those obstinate Disputes which Flatterers of all Friends the worst Enemies make Princes believe their Majesty will bear them out in So that they who would take Exceptions to his Government were first to Quarrel with the wisdom of St. Dunstan who ruling him as he would have him rule them stood a long time betwixt him and Envy making him by that distance appear in his Ascendent so much above any of his Predecessors that he was not unworthily reputed the most not to say the first absolute Monarch of the whole Isle for however Egbert was the first Monarch of all the Heptarchs as Elfrid the first absolute of all the Monarchs yet neither of these had any more than two parts of the whole whereas he enlarg'd his Dominions over all the (*) See his style in his Charter to the Abby of Malmesbury Circumjacent Territories and took in all those Petty Princes his Neighbours who yet call'd themselves Kings together with the King of Scotland himself to be his Vassals who submitted to him in so humble not to say servile a manner that Florentius and Hoveden record it as one of the highest remarks of Majesty that ever any King of England could glory in that passing over the River Dee Seven of them rowed his Barge that is to say the King of Scots the King of Cumberland the King of Northumberland the King of Man and the Isles and the three Kings of Wales Neither is it strange that he should be so much above any Kings that were before him since he took a different way from them all to enlarge his Empire for they only busy'd themselves to Fortifie so by Land as to keep themselves in an uncertain Condition of defence like men rowling a stone up a Hill that is ready to tumble down again upon their heads if they do not câ—ntinually support it with main strength whereas he made the Ocean as Nature first intended it the Bulwark of his Dominions and was indeed the very first that made it so by providing such a Fleet as met with danger before it could approach too near him whereby he had this double advantage not only to take off the Fears of his own People which had so long abus'd their Courage but added so much to the Terrour of his Neighbours that they submitted to him without being conquer'd and having never seen him paid him Tribute on condition they never might Fame as it were so out-sayling his Navy that they who before made it their business to invade his Territories counted it happiness enough now that he did not invade theirs Hence it was that there was not the least noise of War all his Time nor scarce a whisper of Rebellion Except some little Demurrers of discontent put in by the Welch Princes presuming upon their Poverty for that which is the weakness of other Princes was their only Ground of Confidence but that little Inflammation ceas'd by the letting out of a very little blood the Danes who were then esteem'd the only as the nearest Enemy lying still like Silk-worms in Winter without the least motion or appearance of Life in Fine the peace attended his Government was so universal that to signalize the Calm he added to the Arms of his Ancestors four Martlets Birds that much delight to be about Water and most if not wholly in clear and still Seasons for such indeed was his Raign as a Calm between Storms which had it been as long as 't was prosperous he had not only pass'd for the most August Prince of this Nation but this for the most Auspicate Kingdom perhaps on this side the World he as keeping the Keys and that as being the Storehouse to all other Nations But he being as I observ'd before like a Plant abounding with too much moisture shut up too soon and being made wanton with ease and plenty grew so over Prodigal of that vital heat which should have cherish'd Nature that it was not in the power of Art to preserve his Life beyond the thirty sixth year of his Age which was too short a space to close up the dissevered joints of so mixt a Kingdom whereof the Danes kept yet a fourth share much less to establish an universal Empire which being weakned by being so distended could no longer
to divide the Kingdom between them And to make the attonement appear as acceptable to their Armies as to themselves they transacted their Persons by exchange of Cloaths and Arms Edmond appearing to the Danes in dress like Knute Knute like K. Edmond to the English a fatal exchange for this poor Prince who whilst they seem'd thus to become each other he only remain'd not himself falling by degrees from being half a King to be very shortly after none betray'd by false gâ—ounds of security into an unpittied Ruine whilst he prefer'd a bad Peace before a good War and neglected those means for the preservation of life which he might have learn'd from the continual expectation of death and that which made his end more deplorable was that with him perish'd the English Monarchy For however it seem'd to have recover'd it self again in the same age yet it prov'd like a plant new set after it had been long out of ground which whiles there remains any sap in the root will send forth fresh Sprouts but those so weak and tender that the least bruise makes them wither and die the mistaken Majesty of the Kings that succeeded him being no less crazed and infirm than they themselves who fainted away upon the first wounds given them and bled themselves to death in one single Battle THE FOURTH DYNASTY OF DANES OF DANES THE Danes were a People whose Original Tradition hath with much ado trac'd through the Dusky Foggs of the Euxine Sea unto the Fens of Meotis which being the first place they were ever known to Inhabit they liv'd there under the obscure name of the Cymeri till they were expuls'd thence by the Scythians who as Orosius Olaus Magnus and others affirm have continued there ever since Vellius will have it that they were drove out thence by a sudden Inundation of the Country upon which they petition'd the Romans then Lords of almost all the World for the assignation of some vacant place in their Dominions But the meanness of their Condition inclining the Romans to slight if not deny their request they were necessitated to rove up and down in an unsetled Condition for some years At last 't is said they fix'd in Scandia where possessing themselves of the strongest Part of those cold Islands in the Baltick Ocean they found an opportunity to justle out divers Roman Colonies This begat a quarrel and that at last a War in which the Romans lost several of their Generals before they could reduce them to any Terms of Submission A little after this which was yet before the Incarnation they began to undermine their next Neighbours the Jutes who as Munster relates dwelt right over against them on the Chersoness that jets out into the Aoust Sea By that Contest they gave the World so good an account of their skill in Naval Fights that the Jutes weary of their Vicinity left them the possession of that Promontory and came themselves over into this Isle of ours Thus by commanding the Sea they made themselves first Lords at Land and with their new Seats they got a new Name the broad-mouth'd Northern People about those parts calling them the DANS whether from Dan their King as some too ancient to be refuted fancy or from Dom the abbreviation of Dominus as the Spaniards got the Stile of Don amongst them being of that haughty humour that they would be called by no other name after they came hither but Lordanes or whether from DAN which as Junius tells us signified a Firr-tree whereof they had there such abundance that it continues yet their Staple Commodity I will not take upon me to determine Certain it is that most Writers reckon them amongst the Minores Gentes but if their own Records speak Truth we must look on them as the off-spring of the Scythians the noblest Race of People in the World from whom all the Northern Nations were as ambitious to derive themselves as those in the East from the Medians those in the South from the Aethiopians or those in the West from our Ancestors the Germans There are who reasonably enough conclude them to be a branch of these last For the Posâ—erity of Gomer planting in Italy disburthen'd part of their numbers into Germany and part into Gaul From those in Germany sprung two Branches the Francks and the Danes as * Fuag 8. lib. Goth. Procopius tells us both promiscuously at that time call'd Normans From those in Gaul sprung our Ancestors the Britains and those of Belgia by which 't is evident We that at this day are call'd English were originally all of one Stock Neither hath the change of Names or Nations much altered our Natures but that we continue to be still the same in humour as we were ever in point of Constitution They were as indeed most of the Inhabitants of the Septentrional part of the world a hardy and bold I cannot say brave People for their behaviour was plain and rude and they so affected their own manners that however they were led by Providence into Countries where they pertook more of Civility and the Sun yet they would not be mov'd to change any of their ancient Customes having but little sense of honour and less of danger aiming more at gain then glory Insomuch that they were altogether strangers to such gay distinctions of Honour as are since in fashion and wherewith those now in Denmark have been but very lately acquainted the reason was for that all their Dignities were Personal and not Hereditary held by no other Charter but that of their Vertue So that their wise Kings observing that old Adage Virtutis Laus Actio never suffered them to want fresh Occasions of Action whereby they sold them the honour they pretended to give them by parting with it not so much as a Reward of past as an earnest of future Services Neither did this a little inhance the value of their Nobility which being for term of life only as it fell sooner into the Kings hands to be remunerated again with better improvement and advantage so the Persons dignifi'd were not apt to be infected with those haughty conceipts which most usually puff up the minds of such as are born Noble who believing something to be in their Blood that differences them from the common Rank of Subjects the Obligation whereof they have either forgotten or hold to be discharg'd by their Ancestors grow insolent and factious and by their disloyalty not seldom disturb both their own Families and the Kingdoms peace Of this Knute had so sad a proof that as soon as he came to be King of England he indeavoured to discharge all his Grandees that might any way pretend to have any share in his Conquest crushing the two great Paladines Irtus and Turkill the one Earl of Northumberland t'other of Merkland each of whose Principalities were so independent and govern'd by such distinct Laws as made them so absolute that the Monarchy till then looked like
a Tetrarchy but he was forc'd at the same time to banish Ten thousand of his other Country-men only to be rid of them two putting himself by an unusual Confidence upon the Faith of the English whom to oblige the more he taught the knowledge of their own Strength which till then they seem'd ignorant of shewing them the way to Victory in other Countries where while they became Conquerours under him they forgot the hate conceiv'd for being conquer'd by him Neither was he less careful in Peace to heal the wounds receiv'd in War by applying the Balsome of wholsome Laws in the making whereof he had a particular Art to meet with the Distempers of the Times wisely providing against such as were likely to have become Epidemical But more particularly severe was he against that sottish sin of Drinking then so much in fashion not without some secret instinct perhaps or presage of what did happen after that it would prove fatal to the Glory of his own House and not only cut off every Branch thereof but be the occasion of rooting out his Nation so full and wholly that in two Successions after him there should not be found scarce one Family in the whole Isle that could so trace their broken Pedigrees through the obscure windings and deviations of their so often interrupted History as to prove himself of Danish Extract both by Father and Mother But as it was too great an Undertaking to subdue the Vices of that indomitable Age where if they had not thirsted for wine they would perhaps for blood So much less was he able to contest with Heaven which had put them a period for a Penalty and bound them up by an invisible Chain of Causes beyond the length of which they could not make one step forward The Links whereof were peradventure no more and therefore the heavier then what was proper for the mystical number of their three Letter'd Name of DAN for as their Monarchy held only three Descents so the whole Systeme of their Conquest with every Action Accident and Atchievement therein seems to be circumscribed within the Circle of that hree corner'd square with like Fatality as the Britains were rul'd by the Number of Six and the Romans by that of Seven For as they were originally divided into three Tribes so each Tribe had as many Kingdoms and thereupon they gave for their ancient Arms three times three * Olao Worms Monument Dan. 431. Hearts which makes up Nine the great Square of the Number Three their Dominions then conteining just so many Islands as we learn from †Casp F. Epist Tho. Bartolinus to which they have added since Three Lions So when they began their Invasion here 't is observable they had but only Three Ships which yet landed not all at once but in three several places and that inconsiderable Party they brought over were conducted by three Generals each equal in Trust and Honour these were Gurmo Byorn and Sytherick who began that cruel war that followed upon their Departure came over Ingar Ivor and Hubbo three fierce Brothers which were seconded by Gurmo the younger Eskell and Amond as they again back'd by Cockric Hastang and Rollo The three great Triumviri in the height of the war were Edric Stroeg and Halidine after them succeeded Sytherick the Second Godfred and Anlaff after whom were Eric the Second Anlaff the Second and Swain not to mention Fran Frithegist and Frothoe whose names were over-whelm'd by Irtus Turkill and Knute who were the bringers up of the Rear and ended the war the last of whom was the first had the good fortune to shake off his right and left hand-men in the Government The like Order they observ'd in invading Ireland where the first Undertakers were Turges and the two Gurmo's Father and Son the second Expedition being managed by Thor Raglobert and Sytherick the same Sytherick I take it came after into England And as they had alwaies three Generals so all their Battalion's were divided into Tertia's and as divers Historians relate they never quit the Field how much soever over-press'd by their Enemies till they had been thrice broken Lastly as they had a Succession of three times three Kings here before they could get the intire Domination over the whole that is to say three in East-Anglia and twice three in Northumberland so they had three and but three Kings that continued the Succession after they became absolute And as their Monarchy held out but three Descents so it continued but three times nine years at longest Too short a space to compensate the loss of so much blood as the recovery of their short-liv'd Glory cost them much less to repair the Naufrages of the Common-wealth wasted by continual Storms whilst Fortune appear'd so indifferent which side to favour that there could be no measure taken of her Inclinations from the Success there being scarce any Battel fought in which the Conquerour had so much the better on 't to keep the Field long or the conquer'd so beaten as not to be able in very short time to take the Field again with confidence of getting the day next rising like Game-cocks after they were laid for dead to crow over them that had the better of them those that died intailing their Ambition on those that surviv'd infecting them if I may so say with their Courage So that that Character is very applicable to them which we find elsewhere Quos nulla fatigant Praelia nec Victi possunt absistere Ferro THE Order and Succession OF THEIR KINGS Before and after they got The Intire and Absolute Government OF ENGLAND I. date of accession 870 HUNGAR was the first Danish King in this Isle who assisted by his Brother Beorn that had marryed the Lady of Northumberland found Interest enough to give him admittance there whence marching directly into East-Anglia he sacrific'd King Edmund to the Ghost of his murther'd Father and possessing himself of that Kingdom left it to II. date of accession 874 GURMO a younger Brother of the Royal House of Denmark who to ingratiate himself to the English became a Christian and with his new Title took a new Name being by his Godfather King Elfred worthily call'd Athelstan that is to say as Verstegan interprets it the Noble he left his Title to his Brother III. date of accession 905 ERIC the first that had this name and last that had this honour who meeting with a Competitor that over-match'd him both in the dignity of his Person and the designation of his Power was betray'd by his own Subjects who put themselves under King Edward surnam'd the Elder the Northumbers and Mercians submitting to IV. date of accession 907 ERIC the Second or as some call him Sytherick a Norwegian who contracting an Allyance with King Athelstan and after the Example of Gurmo turning Christian was poyson'd by his own two Sons the eldest whereof V. date of accession 924 ANLAFF the First possess'd
himself of Northumberland Godfrid his younger Brother held Mercia but King Athelstan fell upon both and took from the last his Life from the first his Kingdom which was recovered again not long after by his Son VI. date of accession 946 ANLAFF the Second thereupon esteem'd the third King of the Northumbers His reign was not long for his Subjects weary of continual wars set him besides the Saddle to make way for VII date of accession 950 ERIC the Third or as some call him IRING Son of Harold the Grandson of Gurmo King of Denmark recommended to them by Milcolmb King of Scots but he being elected King of Sweden the Northumbers submitted to Edgar the younger Brother or next in succession to Edwyn and from that time it continued a Member of the English Crown till about the year 980 when VIII date of accession 980 ANLAFF the Third understanding they were affected to his Nation arriv'd with a fresh Supply and making his Claim was admitted King but being over prest the Title came to IX date of accession 1013 SWAIN King of Denmark who made this his first step to the Engâ—ish Throne into which as he was mounting death seiz'd on him and kept the Room empty for his Son Knute DANES Absolute Kings OF ENGLAND I. date of accession 1017 KNUTE was deservedly surnam'd the Great as being the very greatest and most absolute King that ever England or Denmark knew those of the Roman Line only excepted for he was King of England Scotland Ireland Denmark Norway Sweden and Lord of a great part of Poland all Saxony some part and not a little of Brandenburgh Bremen Pomerania and the adjacent Countries most of them not to say all besides Denmark and Norway reduc'd under his Obedience by the valour of the English only upon his death Denmark and Norway fell to his Son Hardycanute the rest as Sweden c. devolv'd upon the right Heirs whilst England was usurp'd by his Natural Son II. date of accession 1036 HAROLD surnam'd Harfager or Golden Locks who being the Elder and having the advantage to be upon the place entred as the first Occupant thereby disappointing his legitimate Brother III. date of accession 1041 KNUTE surnam'd the Hardy design'd by his Father to be the next Successor to him as bearing his Name though upon tryal it appear'd he had the least part of his Nature for he had not the Courage to come over and make any claim as long as Harold liv'd and after his death he drown'd himself in a Land-flood of Wine losing all the Glory his Predecessors had gotten by wading through a sea of blood which made the way to his Throne so slippery that those English that came after him could never find firm footing But upon the very first Encounter with the Norman caught such a Fall that could never recover themselves again This Gurmo came out of Ireland I take it in the second year of King Elfrid not without a confident hope of making good his Predecessors Conquest which had cost already so much blood as made his desire of Rule look like a necessity of Revenge the Monarchy of Denmark it self being put if I may so say into a Palsie or trembling Fit by the loss of the Spirits it had wasted here So that he came with this advantage which those before him had not That the Cause seem'd now to be his Countries more then his own who therefore bore him up with two notable props Esketel and Amon men of great Conduct and known Courage the one of which he plac'd as Vice-Roy in Northumberland t'other in Mercia And having before expelled Burthred the Saxon he fixed himself in East-Anglia as being nearer to correspond with Denmark and most commodious to receive Reâ—ruits Upon his first advance against King Elfrid Fortune appear'd so much a Neuter that either seem'd afraid of other and striking under line preferr'd a dissembled Friendship before down-right Hostility And to shew how much the edge of their Courage was rebated they mutually accorded to divide the Land betwixt them Gurmo was to be Lord of the North and East Elfrid to hold the South and West part of the Isle The politick Dane after this suffered himself to become what the English would have him to be a Christian to the intent that he might be what he would have himself to be absolute changing his Pagan name of Gurmo into that of Athelstan which being of all others the most grateful to the Saxons he render'd himself by that Condescension so acceptable to the whole Nation that they consented to his Marriage with the fam'd Princess Thyra King Elfrids vertuous Sister by whom he had Issue Harold Blaatand that liv'd to be King of Denmark after himself and another Knute whom he left in Ireland to make good the Acquests of the first Gurmo there a Prince of so great hopes and so belov'd by him that the knowledge of his death being slain at the Siege of Dublin gave him his own for he no sooner apprehended the tidings thereof by the sight of his Queens being in mourning but he fell into such a violent fit of Grief as left him not till he left the World whereby the Crown of Denmark fell to his Son Harold the Title and Possession of East-Anglia with its Appurtenances he bequeath'd to his Brother Eric who having perform'd the first Act of Security to himself in having taken an Oath of Allegiance of all his Subjects suffer'd them to perform the last Act of Piety towards him in giving him all the Rites of an honourable Interment at Haddon in Suffolk which place it seems he purposed to make the Burial place of all the East-Anglian Kings But this Ambition of his beginning where it should have ended with a design of assuring to himself more honour after he was dead then he was able to make good whiles he was living ended as soon as it began as will appear by his Story following Tantum Religio potuit suadere malorum Upon which his Queen frighted with the horrour of their Inhumanity fled back to her Brother Athelstan to seek from his Power Justice Protection and Revenge whiles Anlaff took upon him to be King The Equality of Power as well as of Ambition ripen'd the Factions on both sides very fast by the heat of their Contest But before they came to Maturity there was a Parliament conven'd at Oxford that took the matter into consideration where the Lords fearing that the Question if delay'd might be decided by Swords and not by Words out of a deep sence of the lingring Calamities of a new War all the wounds of the old being not yet cured or at least not so well but that the Scars were yet fresh in many of their Faces they declar'd for the King in possession but with such a wary form of Submission as shew'd they did it rather out of regard to themselves then him whereupon Goodwin produced the deceased Kings Will in opposition to theirs but the
a dispute with the French and so neither at leisure as he thought to disturb him The third who claimed as the right Heir by descent as well as by the Will of his Uncle was Edgar Atheling Son of Prince Edward eldest Son of Edmond Ironsides but he being a Child and having no Friends nearer then Hungary he oppos'd to him the good Omen of his own †Harold in old Saxon signified Love of the Army Name only that is to say concluded to overcome Right by Might having besides the advantage of his Years and Experience two great Supporters to participate of the danger with him in case the other two should joyn with Edgar that was Morcar Earl of York and Edwin Earl of Chester both Brothers to his Wife who being the Relict of Llewellin Prince of Wales seem'd to be a Pledge given by Fortune to secure to him the affections of that People also Neither wanted he something like a gilded Title to dazle the Common Peoples eyes for besides that he was Heir to the Fame and Fortune of the great Goodwin the Champion of their Liberties descended from the Kings of the West-Sexe which gave him the preferrence of the Norman so by the Mothers side he had in him the Royal Blood of Denmark which by the advantage of his present possession gave him the Superiority of those Kings too Thus fortified and adorned he undertook to make the People as happy as they had made him Great and because Trisles please Children as well as greater matters he call'd himself Prince Edgar's Protector fooling those of his Party into a belief that he intended something towards him that might amount to a Surrender in convenient time or at least to a Confirmation of the Succession after him which they were well contented with Thus having by many Lines drawn to himself an universal Consent that made his Right of Desert equivalent with t'others Right of Descent he hung like a Spider by the slender thread spun out of his own Bowels which how weak soever it seem'd was strong enough to bear him up till he had put his Affairs into as good a Posture of Security as the present necessity would permit And it so fell out that the first that question'd him was the last that assaulted him his next Neighbour the Norman who pretending to a Conveyance of King Edwards Right to him to which as he said Harold himself was Witness and which was more sworn by Oath to defend he tax'd him upon his Allegiance to make good the same to which Harold return'd a short Answer That Oaths exacted par Duresse were not binding for taking his pleasure as it is said one day at Sea he was by contrary winds drove into Normandy and there detain'd till he took that Oath 2. He said that his private compact with the Norman was of no validity without the consent of the whole State of England 3. That no Act of King Edward's could pass the Crown away being himself intitled to it but by Election and so holding only in Trust Lastly that the Kingdom of England and Dukedom of Normandy were enough for two Persons and too much to be rul'd by one and therefore Nature had well placed a Sea betwixt them which Sea because he thought the Norman could not pass he concluded he would not devest himself of the Dignity Providence had given him with the consent of the People By this Duke William finding that Arms not Arguments must decide the Controversie resolv'd to drive out one wedge with another and accordingly working upon the Revenge and Ambition of Toustan Harold's younger Brother then in his Court who was tainted with an irreconcileable Enmity both to his Brother and Country to him for a Box of the Ear given him in the presence of King Edward to it for a worse blow in deposing him from his Government in Northumberland and forcing him into Exile whereby he was necessitated to appear rather like a Pirate then a Prince he prevail'd with him to make the first Invasion who assisted by the King of Scots and the King of Norwey then ingaged in taking in the Northern Isles landed in his own Province and thence pierc'd into the very Bowels of the Kingdom forcing his Brother Harold though with apparent hazard to leave London to make what speed he could to check their forwardness who accordingly advanc'd as far as Stamford where he put an end to the troubles of his Brother and the Norweygian but not to his own For as he was allaying this Storm in the North he had notice of a more dreadful one in the South the Norman having so tim'd his business that he landed that very day that his Confederates were fighting with whom came over the Great Earl of Flanders Father in Law to Toustan as well as to himself accompanied with the Earl of Bulloigne who had been so inhospitably treated at Canterbury by Harold's Father Harold tarried not to sheath his blood-stain'd Swords lest rusting in their Scabards they should be hardly drawn forth again But leading his men on weary as they were to compleat the first by a second Victory in less time then could be thought possible to have march'd so far he fac'd the Invaders with so much confidence that Duke William loath to venture all at one stake sent him the offer of referring it to the Pope or putting the trial upon a single Combat betwixt them two But Harold deaf to all Conditions of Peace having in his memory the fatal Success of that dispute between Knute and Ironsides on the like Occasion return'd him this Answer That none but that Power which gave it him should judge his Right and that he would support it with more then singâ—e Courage superstitiously believing that that day would prove auspicâ—ous to him because it was his Birth-day Neither was he worse then his word for that single Battel cost the English near Seven thousand Lives besides what were lost on the Norman side the just number whereof their Historians have not thought fit to let us know Men worthy to be as they were then made Immortal who bravely strove with Destiny to save their Country from the Ca amity of Forreign Servitude but finding that they couâ—d not do it as scorning to out live their Liberties they fell round the Body of their vanquish'd King which lay wrapt up in his Royal Standard instead of a Winding sheet with more wounds upon him then he had reign'd Months in such congested heaps as shew'd the Normans that they had wâ—th him subdu'd the Kingdom there being scarce so much Noble blood â—eft unspilt as to keep the State alive if he had quit them much less to make a second Resistance From which Catastrophe we may conclude that the advantage which the English got over the Britains in the first place was no more then what the Normans got over them in the last not by an inequaliâ—y of Courage but partiality of Fortune which like a
little disordered by it but those since who have found the benefit of having the Laws mysterious and less intelligible have little cause to decry him for it unless for this cause that they are never pleas'd with any fighting King In fine he strain'd not the Prerogative so high but his Son Henry the First let it down again as low when he restored to the People their ancient freedom of General Assemblies or rather permitted them a kind of share with himself in the Government by instituting a form of Convention so much nobler then any thing they had been acquainted with in elder timety in that the Peerage sate as so many Kings parting stakes with Soveraigns if what * Who was Lord Chief Justice to his Grandson Hen. 3. Bracton tells us be true who saith there were many things which by law the King could not do without them and some things which legally they might do without him which those that have read upon the Statute of Magna Charta can best explain This was not therefore improperly call'd the Parliament in respect of the Freedom of parlying after another fashion then had been permitted to their Ancestors in former Meetings which being Ex more or as they were wont to phrase it of Custome Grace during all the time of the Saxon Kings we cannot imagine their Debates to be much less restrained then themselves who attending in the Kings Palace like the Lords of the Councel at this day having had the honour to give their Opinions in any point of State submitted the final Judgment and determination to the Kings will and pleasure And whereas then the Commoners were wholly left out of all Consultations unless with the Learned Lambert we may think them included in the word Barones which seems to have been as equivocal a term heretofore in England as that of Laird yet in Scotland they now were made partakers of the like priviledge of voting as the Lords so that in Henry the Third his time to look no further backward we find them call'd by the yet continued stile of Knights Citizens and Burgesses to consult together with the Lords pro Pace asseverandâ firmandâ c. as the †lib. St. Alban f. 207. 4 H. 3. Record expresses it neither sate they when they met as Cyphers to those great Figures For when Pope Alexander the Fourth would have revoked the Sentence of Banishment past upon his proud Legate Adomare Bishop of Winchester for that he was not as he alledged subject to lay Censure they took upon them to give their Answer by themselves and it was a bold one That though the King and Lords should be willing to revoke it ‖ Vt pat Chart. orâ—g sub sigil de Mountford Vic. tot Communitat Rot. Parl. 42 Hen. 3. Communitas tamen ipsius ingressum in Angliam nullatenus sustineret How far their Priviledges were afterward confirmed and enlarged by several Kings successively but more particularly by that most excellent Prince Henry the Fifth who first allowed * 2 Hen. 5. The Petition of Right and permitted it to be entred in their Journals as the Great Standard of Liberty is not unknown from which time it hath been esteemed the second Great Charter of England whereby we were manumitted into that degree of Freedom as no Subjects in the world enjoy the like with like security from the fear of future bondage For as no man can be made lyable to the payment of any more or other Taxes then what himself layes upon himself by his representatives in that great Pan-Anglio call'd the Parliament so all the Kings of England since that time have been pleas'd to accept the Aids given by them even for the necessary support of the Government as so many Freewill-Offerings And well it is that they esteem them free since they are not obtained without a kind of Composition I might say obligation to give good Laws for good mony wherein the performance on the Princes part alwaies precedes that on the Peoples But there is yet something further then all this that renders the Norman Conquest so much more considerable then either that of the Romans Saxons or Danes by how much it spread its wings over the Seas into those goodly Provinces of the South never known to the English before thereby not only giving them Title to keep their Swords from rusting as long as they had any Arms to draw them forth but the Advantage therewithal of a mutual Conversation with a civiliz'd People who introduced so happy a Change in Laws and Language in Habits and Humours in Manners and Temperature that not only their rough I might say rude Natures no way inclin'd before to any kind of Gaiety admitted of smoother Fashions and quicker Motions but their dull Phlegmatick Complexions pale and wan by the continued use of dozing dreggy Liquor Ale became as ruddy as the Wine they drank which having more of Spirit and Fire then that other heavy composition sublimated their Courage and Wit and render'd them more lofty and eloquent both in Action and Language the last being before so asperous harsh and gutteral that an hours discourse together would have indanger'd the skin of their throats but being softned by the French and Latine Accents it became so gentle and smooth that as a Modern Master of Elocution hath observ'd 't is now so soft and pleasing that Lord Faulkland Prefat to Sands his Translation of the Psalms those From whom the unknown Tongue conceals the Sence Ev'n in the sound must find an Eloquence From the Normans likewise we had that honourable distinction of Sirnames which however they borrowed in the first place from the French who as Du Tillet tells us were about the year 1000 much delighted with the humour of Soubriquets * Vid Buck. Vit. Rich. 3. or giving one another Nic-names as we commonly call them insomuch that two of the very chiefest Houses amongst them the Capets and the Plantaginets had no other rise for their Names were continued no where with that certainty and order as amongst us here to the great renown and honour of our Families whose Nobility if it exceed not the date of the Norman Conquest may yet without any disparagement compare with any of those who call themselves the unconquer'd Nations of the World It being space long enough considering the vicissitude of time and power of Chance to antiquate the glory of great States much more of private Families and few there are that have attain'd to that Age. For however Honour like old Age magnifies its reverence by multiplying its years yet it is to be considered that there are visible decayes attend Veneration and it may so fall out that Names as well as Men may out-live themselves while the glory of a Family by over-length of time being less known may be the more suspected to have been but imaginary as some who exceeding the common bounds of certainty do pretend to justifie
their Gentility by Charters from St. Edward and others from King Edgar whose Pedigrees do yet fall short of many of the Welch by many Descents In fine from the Normans we first learn'd how to appear like a People compleatly civiliz'd being as more elegant in our Fashions so more sumptuous in our Dwellings more magnifick in our Retinue not to say choicer in our Pleasures yet withal more frugal in our Expences For the English being accustomed to bury all their Rents in the Draught knowing no other way to out-vie one another but as a †Jaq. Praslin Progmat French Writer expresses it by a kind of greasie Riot which under the specious Name of Hospitality turn'd their Glory into Shame began after the Conquest to consume the Superfluity of their Estates in more lasting Excesses turning their Hamlets into Villes their Villages into Towns and their Towns into Cities adorning those Cities with goodly Castles Pallaces and Churches which being before made up of that we call Flemmish Work which is only Wood and Clay were by the Normans converted into Brick and Stone which till their coming was so rarely used that Mauritius Bishop of London being about to re-edifie Paul's Church burn'd in the Year 1086. was either for want of Workmen Materials or both necessitated not only to fetch all his Stone out of Normandy but to form it there So that we may conclude if the Conqueror had not as he did obliged the English to a grateful continuance of his Memory by personal and particular Immunities yet he deserv'd to be Eterniz'd for this that he elevated their minds to a higher point of Grandeur and Magnificence and rendred the Nation capable of greater Undertakings whereby they suddenly became the most opulent and flourishing People of the World advanc'd in Shipping Mariners and Trade in Power External as well as Internal witness no less then two Kings made Prisoners here at one time one of them the very greatest of Europe whereby they increased their publick Revenues as well as their private Wealth even to the double recompensing the loss sustain'd by his Entry whilst himself however suppos'd by that big sounding Title of Conqueror to have been one of the most absolute Princes we had got not so much ground while he was living as to bury him here when he was dead but with much ado obtain'd a homely Monument in his Native Soil THE ORDER AND SUCCESSION OF THE Norman Kings I. date of accession 1066 WILLIAM I. known by that terrible Name of the Conqueror gave the English by one single Battel so sad experience of their own weakness and his power that they universally submitted to him whereby becoming the first King of England of the Norman Race he left that Glory to be inherited by his second Son II. date of accession 1087 WILLIAM II. surnam'd Rufus who being the eldest born after he was a King and a Native of this Country succeeded with as much satisfaction to the English as to himself but dying without Issue left his younger Brother III. date of accession 1100 HENRY I. surnam'd Beauclark to succeed in whose Fortune all his Friends were as much deceiv'd as in his Parts his Father only excepted who foretold he would be a King when he scarce left him enough to support the dignity of being a Prince As he set aside his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy so he was requited by a like Judgment upon his Grandson the Son of his Daughter Maud who was set aside by IV. date of accession 1135 STEPHEN Earl of Blois his Cousin but she being such a woman as could indeed match any man disputed her Right so well with him that however she could not regain the Possession to her self she got the Inheritance fixed upon her Son V. date of accession 1155 HENRY II. Plantaginet the first of that Name and Race and the very greatest King that ever England knew but withal the most unfortunate and that which made his misfortunes more notorious was that they rose out of his own Bowels his Death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life his ungracious Sons the eldest whereof that surviv'd him succeeded by the Name of VI. date of accession 1189 RICHARD I. Coeur de Leon whose undutifulness to his Father was so far retorted by his Brother that looking on it as a just Judgment upon him when he dyed he desired to be buried as near his Father as might be possible in hopes to meet the sooner and ask forgiveness of him in the other World his Brother VII date of accession 1199 JOHN surnam'd Lackland had so much more lack of Grace that he had no manner of sense of his Offence though alike guilty who after all his troubling the World and being troubled with it neither could keep the Crown with honour nor leave it in peace which made it a kind of Miracle that so passionate a Prince as his Son VIII date of accession 1216 HENRY III. should bear up so long as he did who made a shift to shuffle away fifty six years doing nothing or which was worse time enough to have overthrown the tottering Monarchy had it not been supported by such a Noble Pillar as was his Son and Successor IX date of accession 1272 EDWARD I. a Prince worthy of greater Empire then he left him who being a strict Observer of Opportunity the infallible sign of Wisdom compos'd all the differences that had infested his Fathers Grand-fathers and Great-Grand-fathers Governments and had questionless dyed as happy as he was glorious had his Son X. date of accession 1307 EDWARD II. answer'd expectation who had nothing to glory in but that he was the Son of such a Father and the Father of such a Son as XI date of accession 1328 EDWARD III. who was no less fortunate then valiant and his Fortune the greater by a kind of Antiperistasis as coming between two unfortunate Princes Successor to his Father and Predecessor to his Grandson XII date of accession 1377 RICHARD II. the most unfortunate Son of that most fortunate Father Edward commonly call d the Black Prince who not having the Judgment to distinguish betwixt Flatterers and Friends fell like his Great-Grand-father the miserable example of Credulity being depos'd by his Cosin XIII date of accession 1399 HENRY IV. the first King of the House of Lancaster descended from a fourth Son of Edward the Third who being so much a greater Subject then he was a King 't was thought he took the Crown out of Compassion rather then Ambition to relieve his oppress'd Country rather then to raise his own House and accordingly Providence was pleas'd to rivat him so fast in the Opinion of the People that his Race have continued though not without great Interruption ever since His Son XIV date of accession 1412 HENRY V. was in that repute with the People that they swore Allegiance to him before he was crown'd an honour never done to any of his Predecessors
by taking off his Caution so that after Dinner he would needs go hunt in the New Forrest and taking his Bow to shoot a Deer in that ominous place where before a * His Brother Richard Brother and a †The Son of Robert Duke of Normandy his elder Broth r. Brothers Son of his had both met with violent Deaths Tyrel his Bow-bearer being plac'd right against him as the best Marks-man let fly an Arrow that glancing against a Bough miss'd the Deer and found out him Pectus dum perforat ingens Ille rapit calidum frustrâ de Vulnere Telum Unâ eademque viâ Sanguisque Animusque sequuntur Being thus quietly stated he sweetned his Government by taking off all Taxes to shew his Beneficence and some of the principal Taxers to shew his Justice By the first he pleas'd the Multitude in point of Relief by the other the better sort in point of Envy and Revenge gratifying their Spleen by sacrificing the griping Bishop of Durham a man who being rais'd from a base Condition by baser means had attained to the honour of being Chief Minister to his Brother King William and was grown learn'd in the Science of selling Justice by the distribution of whose Bribes he brib'd those whom he thought fit to make his own Ministers neither thought it he enough to be an English man himself without assuring the State that he intended all his Posterity should be so too and therefore to the end to make sure the wise men that were as apt to be jealous as the weaker sort to be querulous he married Maud Sister to the Scotch King and Daughter to Margaret Sister to Edgar Atheling the right Heir of the English Blood a Lady that brought him an Inheritance of Goodness from her Mother and a good Title of Inheritance from her Uncle Thus firmly did he intrench himself before his Brother whom he had made a King in fame only that he might the easier make himself a real one return'd home who arriving unlook'd for was welcom'd by the Nobility of Normandy with more then ordinary Joy by whom being inform'd of what was done in England he made it the business of the first year to provide an Army and in the second landed it at Portsmouth in order to the recovery of his lost Right whereof he was the more assur'd in respect of those of the Norman Nobility here as he thought inclin'd to him who mov'd with revenge or discontent would be glad of any Occasion to Revolt This as it was a storm King Henry saw at a distance so he provided so well for it by cutting off all Assistances that Duke Robert and those with him doubting the success and seeing themselves certainly lost if they prevail'd not it being in his power to fight them where he pleas'd and when upon his desire to save the effusion of Christian Blood yielded to Articles of Peace the Substance whereof was this That Henry being born after his Father was rightfully King and being now invested in the Crown by act of the Kingdom should enjoy the same during life and pay Robert 3000 Marks per Annum as an Earnest of the Reversion after his Death in case Robert out-liv'd him With these Conditions Robert rather blinded then satisfied returns back again into his own Country and it had been well if he had never been blinded otherwise But such is the frenzie of Ambition that it suffers not unhappy Princes to consider either what they ought to do or what to suffer whilst like the Superior Orbs they are hurried with restless Motion without understanding by what Intelligences they are actuated Finding himself fallen from the height of his Expectation into some degree of Contempt with his own Subjects he assai'd by Profusion which some call Liberality to raise his Reputation at least to disguise his Impotency spending so freely that the Nobility fearing the Revenues of the Dutchy would not suffice to support his vanity complain'd thereof to King Henry who to shew his own power and t'others weakness sent for him over to chide him and indeed reprehended him so sharply as if he had been his Father and not his Brother and as if he would have him to know he rather expected the Reversion of the Dukedome after his death then to be accomptable to him for the Kingdom after his own and whether it were that he threatned him with a Detention of his Pension or drew him being of a yielding Nature as most indigent men are to give him a release for some inconsiderable Sum of ready Mony is not certain but so it was that upon his return he could no longer conceal the indignation he had conceived at it but took the very first Occasion to shew it by joyning himself with some mutinous Lords who having before begun an unsuccessful Combustion in England had fled over thither to commit what Outrages they could there King Henry for a while pretended himself touch'd in Conscience with the foulness of a Fraternal War but was indeed apprehensive that such trivial Injuries as the taking a few Castles was not worthy the trouble of drawing him over in Person at least not worth the charge of entring into such a War as might justifie the requiring his Dukedom for a satisfaction but having let them alone till he believ'd his sufferance had elevated them beyond the temper of hearkning to any conditions he then took his time to chastise their folly and by one single Battle upon the very same day and in the very same manner as 't is reported that his Father just forty years before won England he won Normandy and having made his brother prisoner depriv'd him first of his liberty after of his country and lastly of that which was dearer than either the light of his Eyes requiting his attempt which was but natural to escape out of prison with a punishment that was of all other most unnatural and as much beyond death as it was short of it which inhumanity to his brother though it was perhaps but a just judgment from Heaven upon him for his inhumanity to his Father whose life he had twice attempted being wilfully blinded by the King of France yet 't was such as was altogether undeserv'd as from him for t'other had him fast enough within his power circumscrib'd by all the rules of Hostility besieged within a Fort and half starv'd he was so far from pressing upon him that he pittied him and broke with his brother Friend to save his brother Enemy Poor Prince Robert how was he betraied by the goodness of his own Nature and tempted like a Child to save the bird which was to pick out his Eyes How did he live to see himself buried before he was dead invelop'd in dark and dismal thoughts whilst he contemplated his Sons loss with more affliction than his own a forward Prince born to two Crowns but now reduc'd to that necessity to borrow one to buy him bread So long
year there but the taking only one Town and besieging another which upon notice of the Disorders at home that a wise man might easily have foreseen and prevented he quit with no less disorder leaving the whole Action with as much precipitation as he took it up insomuch that his Wife and Sister that accompanied him and all their Attendants and Officers were forc'd to shift for themselves and get home as they could which Inconsideration of his met with that pitiful Event before mention'd to redeem him from which his People were fain to strain themselves beyond their abilities Lay-men and Clergy parting with a fourth part of their Real and a tenth of their Personal Estate all not being sufficient to make up his Ransome till they pawn'd and sold their very Chalices and Church Ornaments Being thus as it were un-king'd and expos'd naked to the Vulgar stript of his Honour as well as Treasure he thought himself not secure of the fai h and reverence due to his birth by any other way but a Recoronation which being as extraordinary as the rest of his Actions for he 's the first we meet with twice crown'd was notwithstanding the poverty of the Nation that had paid in two years time no less then jj hundred thousand Marks of Silver the vastness of which Sum may be guess'd at by the Standard of those Times when twenty pence was more then a Crown now perform'd with that solemnity as shew'd he had the same mind though not the same purse as when he began his great Adventures After this he fitted out a Fleet of 100 Sail of Ships to carry him into Normandy to chastize the Rebellions of his Brother John who incouraged by the King of France the constant Enemy of England had during his absence depos'd his Vice-roy Long-champ and forc'd him to lay down his Legatine Cross to take up that of the holy War and had put himself in so good forwardness to depose him too having brought the People to swear a Conditional Fealty to him that there wanted nothing to give him possession of the Crown which was before secur'd in Reversion but the consent of the Emperor to whom there was offer'd a Bribe of 150 thousand Marks to detain him or 1000 pounds a Month as long as he kept him Prisoner But such was the power of the Mother who was alwaies a fast Friend to the younger Brother and had indeed a greater share in the Government of the elder then consisted with the weakness of her own or the dignity of his Sex that she made them Friends and obtained an Indempnity for all the Faults committed during Longchamp's Reign who indeed was more a King then his Master so that his Indignation being wholly diverted upon the French King he began a new War that was like to prove more chargeable then the old which he had so lately ended To maintain which he had new Projections for raising Money but Providence having determin'd to put an end to his Ambition and Avarice offer'd a fatal Occasion by the discovery of some Treasure-trove out of which the Discoverer the Viscount Lymoges voluntarily tendring him a part tempted him to claim the whole and so eager was he of the Prey that being deny'd he besieg'd the Castle of Challons where he conceiv'd 't was hid from whence by a fatal Arrow shot from the hand of one whose Father and two Brothers he had kill'd with his own hand he was unexpectedly slain leaving no Issue either of his Body or Mind that the World took notice off excepting his three Daughters before mention'd father'd on him by the Priest by the disposal of which though it were but in jest we may see what he was in earnest For he bestow'd his daughter Pride on the Knights Templars his daughter Drunkenness on the Cestercian Monks and his Daughter Leachery he left to the Clergy in general which quickness of his as it savour'd of Irreligion so it made good that in him which makes all things else ill the comprehensive Vice of Ingratitude the Clergy being the only men to whom he was indebted for his Honour Wealth and Liberty but the unkindness he shew'd to them living was sufficiently requited to him dead by one of the same function who reflecting upon the Place where he receiv'd his fatal wound shot an Arrow at him that pierc'd deeper then that which slew him Christe tui Calicis Praedo fit praeda Calucis This mounted him on the wings of Fame but that unexpected height was attended with a fatal Giddiness which turn'd to such a kind of Frenzy as render'd him incapable of all advice So that intoxicated with the fumes of his Power he committed many outrages not sparing his own Brother Jeoffry Arch-bishop of York who using the freedom of a Brother in reprehending his Exorbitances had all his Estate taken from him and confiscated a whole year before he could recover it again by the help of all his Friends The Earl of Chester fair'd yet worse who was banish'd upon the like accompt of being too faithful a Counsellor Neither did the Lord Fitz-Walter suffer less then either because he would not consent to prostitute his fair Daughter Matilda to his Lust And whether he shew'd any foul play to his Nephew Arthur after he was his Prisoner is not certain who surviving his Imprisonment but a few dayes gave the World cause to think he was not treated as so near a Kinsman but as a Competitor and that which confirm'd this Opinion was the Judgment from Heaven that attended it for from that time he grew very visibly unprosperous loosing not only his ancient Patrimony the Dutchy of * Which his Ancestors had hâ—ld in despight of all the power â—f France and the rest of their potent Neighbours above 300 years Normandy and that as strangely as t'other did his life but with it all the rest of his Possessions on that side the Water all taken from him in less then a years space not so much by force of Arms as by process of Law whiles the King of France proceeded against him as an Offender rather then as an Enemy And to aggravate that by other Losses seeming less but perhaps greater he near about the same time not only lost his two great Supporters Hubert Archbishop of Canterbury and Fitz-Peter his Lord Chief Justice as wise and faithful Counsellors as any Prince ever had but her that was the Bridle of his Intemperance his Indulgent Mother Elinor a prudent Woman of a high and waking Spirit and therefore a most affectionate Promoter of his because it tended to the supporting of her own Greatness These stayes being gone he prov'd like a mounted Paper Kite when the string breaks which holds it down for taking an extravagant flight he fell afterwards as that usually doth for want of due weight to keep it steddy and being no less sensible of the shame then the loss instead of taking revenge on his Foes he fell upon
his Friends charging all his misfortunes upon disloyalty of the Earls and Barons that refus'd him aid whom therefore he fin'd first the seventh part of their Goods after that the thirteenth part of all their Moveables and not content with the aid of their Purses forced them at last with the hazard of their Persons to attend him in the prosecution of a no less chargeable then disadvantageous War where the recovery of part of his own indangered the total loss of their own Estates This as it was grievous to the Subject in general so more particularly to the Nobility being most of them descended out of Normandy and by his ill management shut out of their ancient Inheritances there had no other satisfaction for their Losses but by improving what was left here who finding themselves thus doubly damnified were inraged to that degree that using a Martial freedom sutable to the necessity of that stimulation by which they were urg'd they began to recollect all the wrongs done them by his Grandfather Father and Brother and to shew they were in earnest insisted upon renewing the great Charter of their Liberties neither were they unprovided of Arguments or Arms this contumacy of theirs being countenanced by the sullen Retirement of his own Brother Jeoffry the Archbishop who chose rather to cast himself into voluntary Exilement then submit any longer to his Tyranny In vain now demands he Pledges of their Faith whilst they believed him himself to have none Sending to the Lord Bruce for his Son to be deliver'd as an Hostage to him he receiv'd an answer from the Mother which it seems exprest the affections if not the sense of the Father That they would not commit their Son to his keeping who was so ill a keeper of his own Brothers Son which rash return cost him afterward his Estate her her life with the loss of two for the saving one only Child a Revenge so fully executed that it could meet with no counterbuff but what must come from Heaven Here began the breach that disjoynted the whole frame of his Government the King resolving to keep what by advantage of time and sâ—fferance he had got the Barons continuing as obstinately bent to recover what their Predecessors had so tamely lost Both sides prepare for War and whilst they face and parle like men loath to ingage yet scorning to quit their Cause either alike confident to hope the best and not unlike active to prevent the worst a new accident parted them by presenting a new Enemy which made the War give place as it were to a single Combat The Pope not allowing the King the Priviledge of Nominating a Successor to the deceased Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he makes a Truce I cannot call it a Peace with his Domestick Adversaries to try his Fortune with his Forreign Foe The Contest was not like that of Jacob and Esau who should be born first but like that of Caesar and Pompey who should be uppermost Now as desire of Rule brought these two great Champions into the List so the confidence each other had in his strength and skill to handle his Weapon made them unreconcileable The Pope made the first Pass who threatning to interdict the Kingdom was answer'd with a Menace of confiscating all the Lands of the Clergy and banishing their Persons The second Thrust given by his Holiness was a Threat of Excommunication of the Kings Person To this he returned that he would utterly disavow his Authority Thus far they were upon the even Terms and as it were hit for hit upon the next Pass they closed and as men desperately bent either maked good his Charge The Pope shuts up the Church doors the King those of the Cloysters the first took away all the Sacraments leaving the dead to bury the dead without Priest Prayer or Procession The last seized on all the Ecclesiastical Revenues and disposed them into Lay-hands Whilst they were thus in close grapple the King of France appeared as second to the Triple Crown Had the Barons then stept in as second to their King they had not only made good their own Honour as well as his but probably had secur'd the Liberties they contended for without any force there being more to be hoped for from this Kings Generosity then his Justice but which was most degenerous and leaves a stain upon their memory never to be washed off they finding him thus overlaid turn'd all their points upon his back poyson'd with the venome of the most opprobrious Calumnies that ever Majesty suffer'd under the Infamy of being not only a Tyrant but an Infidel all which he was fain to bear with more Constancy of Mind then Fortune But as we see a wild Boar when beaten out of breath chuses rather to dye upon the Spears of the Hunters then to be wearied by the Dogs so his Rancor turning into disdain he yielded to his Nobler Enemies and chose rather then not have his Revenge upon them whom he thought God and Nature had put under his dispose to humble himself to the Church hoping as 't is thought by their Keys to unlock the Rebels Power but over-acting his Revenge he stoop'd so low that the Crown fell from his Head which the Popes Legate taking up kept three dayes before he thought fit to restore it verifying thereby the Prediction of a poor innocent Hermite who foretold that there should be no King of England which however it was true yet being in some sense untrue too 't was in the Prerogative of him who never spar'd where he could shed Blood to make his own Interpretation which cost the poor Prophet his Life The Barons finding him thus incens'd and seeing how to make good his Revenge he had quit his Soveraignty they resolv'd to quit their Allegiance to make good their Security intending to call in the Dolphin of France and swear Fealty to him whilst the Common People were left to their Election whether to take the wrong King that promis'd to do them Right or the right King that persisted to do them so much wrong who as little understanding the Principles of Religion as the dictates of Reason the Bonds of Command and Obedience that should hold them together seem'd so wholly slackned that there was upon the Matter no other Tye on them then that of their Interest which sway'd them variously according to the divers Measures they took of it But as there are many Ligaments in a State that bind it so fast together that 't is a hard thing to dissolve them altogether unless by an universal concurrence of Causes that produce a general alteration thereof it being seldom seen of what temper soever Kings are but that they find under the greatest desertion imaginable a very considerable Party to stand by them upon the accompt of Affection or Ambition Honour or Conscience so this King the first of England we find put to this streight had yet many Members of Note and Power besides his chief
Officers whom their places confirm'd that stuck close to him and serv'd him to the last by whose Assistance he not only recover'd Ireland reduced Wales and kept those of Scotland to their good behaviour but notwithstanding all the Troubles he had at home forc'd the Chief men of either Place to give him as the manner was in those dayes their Children to be pledges of their future Subjection by which may be guest how far he had gone in the Recovery of his Transmarime Dominions had not the cross-grain'd Barons stood it out as they did who refusing to aid or attend him until he was absolv'd by the Pope and after he was absolv'd stopt until he had ratified their Priviledges and after they had the Grant of their Priviledges declined him yet until they had back the Castles he had taken from them resolv'd it seems to have both Livery and Seisin of their ancient Rights but whilst they thus over-bent the Bow they made it weak and unserviceable the visible force us'd upon him in bringing him to that Concession unloosing the Deed and taking so much from the validity of so solemn an Act by the bare illegality of their Coertion that his new Friend the Pope to whom themselves forced him to reconcile himself thought it but a reasonable recompence of his Humility towards him to discharge him from all his Condiscentions towards them dispensing with his Oath by which all the Agreement was bound and by definitive Sentence declaring the whole Compact null which was confirm'd by the Excommunication of the Barons till they submitted to the Sentence Here the Scene chang'd again and now the Pope being ingag'd on the Kings side the French King on the Rebels behold the whole Kingdom in Arms but because there were so few to be trusted at home the King sends for Forces abroad whereof he had so great Supplies that had there not been which is almost incredible to relate no less then forty thousand Men Women and Children drown'd coming over Sea out of Flanders he had even eat his way out to a Conquest of his own People as universal but more miserable then that of the Norman for with those he had left he marched over most of the Kingdom in less then half a years space reduced all the Barons Castles to the very Borders of Scotland and made himself once more absolute Master of all the Cities of note London only excepted which in regard of their united Power being so desperate as they were he thought not safe to attack This Extremity of the Barons drew over the French King in person to their relief who making incredible speed to land at Sandwich as quickly became Master of all Kent Dover only excepted which never would yield through which marching up to London he was there received with such universal joy that several great Lords quitting King John came to render themselves to him In the mean time the Pope pursued him with an Excommunication to please King John who all this while acted the part of a General so well beyond that of a King that many who never obeyed him in Peace were content to follow him through the War It was near a year that this unhappy Kingdom continued thus the Theatre of Rapine and Cruelty enduring the oppression and horrour of two great Armies headed by two great Kings each chasing the other with alternate Successes through the most fertile parts of the Isle till it pleased Providence in Mercy to the innocent People to take off this Indomitable Prince whose heart long flaw'd with continual Crosses broke at last by the slight stroke of a small loss the miscarriage of some few of his Carriages which in passing the Washes betwixt Lynn and Boston were it seems overtaken by the Tyde a misfortune which though of no great Consideration yet falling out in such a juncture of time when the Indisposition of his Body added not a little to that of his Mind carried him out of the World with no less Violence then he forced into it who however born to make himself Enemies had yet perhaps been happy enough had not himself been the very greatest Enemy himself had Upon his Death the King was crown'd as his unfortunate Father and Uncle before him the second time being willing the World should know he was now arriv'd at a degree of understanding to rule by himself which occasion the jealous Barons took hold of to press again for the Confirmation of their Liberties the Denyal whereof had cost his Father so dear This put him to a pause and that discover'd his inclination though not his intent for by not denying he hop'd to be thought willing to grant and yet not granting he had the vanity to be thought not to yield But this cunctation of his which shew'd him to be his Fathers own Son plunged him into such a Gulf of mistrust before he was aware of it that it was nothing less then a Miracle he had not perish'd in it for as he could never get clear out of it all his Reign the longest that ever any King of England had so he was necessitated as all shifting men are that entertain little designes they are asham'd or afraid to own to make use from that time of such Ministers onely as in serving him would be sure to serve their own turns upon him which reduced him to that indigence that had he not found out a way to prey upon them as they upon the People he had undoubtedly perished as never King did being at one time come so near to Beggery that for want of Provisions at his own he was forc'd to invite himself shamefully to other mens Tables his Credâ—t being brought so low that he could not take up an hundred Marks and his Spirit so much lower that he told one that deny'd him that Sum that it was more Alms to give him then to a Begger that went from Door to Door A speech betraying so strange abjection that it takes off the wonder of those affronts put upon him afterwards when a weak Woman durst tax him to his face with breach of faith and honour and a pitiful Priest threaten him with being no King when a private Lord durst give him the Lie publickly and tell him he was no Christian and which is undecent to tell had it not been so well known one of his * Hubert de Bâ—ughâ— was charg'd to have said thus own servants call'd him Squint-ey'd Fool and Leaper The first great action he was ingaged in was the recovery of the Ground his Father lost in France into which he was drawn not so much out of affectation of Glory as by the Solicitation of his Father in Law Hugh Earl of March who having a quarrel with the Queen Dowager of France upon the accompt of some dispute that had pass'd between her and his Wife the Queen Dowager of England call'd in the King her Son to take advantage of the present discontent Divers of the
Ingraven on it which denoted that wherever that Stone shou d be placed there should the Scotch Dominion take place a Prediction verisied in our days in the Person of King James the Sixth the first of their Kings ever crowned here With this he took away likewise all their Books and Bookmen as if resolved to rob them of all sense of Liberty as well as of Liberty it self only the brave Wallis continued yet Lord of himself and being free kept up their Spirits by the Elixir of his Personal Courage mixt with an Invincible Constancy and Patience till being betray'd by one of his Companions a Villain sit to be canoniz'd in Hell he was forc'd to yield though he would never submit first to the King after to the Laws of England which judging him to dye as a Traytor eterniz'd the Memory of his Fidelity and Fortitude and made him what he could never have made himself the most glorious Martyr that Country ever had No sooner was he dead but Robert Bruce Son to that Robert Earl of Carric who was Competitor with Baliol appeared as a new Vindictor who escaping out of the English Court where he had long liv'd unsuspected headed the confused Body which wanted only a King to unite them in Counsel Power and Affection but unfortunately laying the Foundation of his Security in Blood murthering his Cosin Cumin who had been one of the Competitors upon pretence he held correspondence with King Edward the horror of which fact was aggravated by the manner and place for he took him whilst he was at his Prayers in the Church it cost him no less blood to wipe off that single stain then to defend his Title the Partakers with the Family of Cumin who were many mighty and eager of Revenge joyning thereupon with the English against him This drew King Edward the fourth time personally into Scotland who had he suffered his Revenge to have given place so far to his Justice as to have pursued Bruce as an Offender rather then as an Enemy he might possibly have done more in doing less then he did but he not only sacrific'd the two innocent Brothers of Bruce making them after they became his Prisoners answer with their lives the penalty of their Brother's Guilt but declar'd he would give no Quarter to any of his Party whereby he not only drove them closer together but arm'd them with Desperation which as it hath a keeper edge then hope so it wounded so deep and inraged them to that degree of Courage as not only to give the greatest Overthrow to the greatest Army that ever the English brought thither but to repay the measure of Blood in as full manner as it was given or intended and in the end broke the great Chain of his well laid Design which was to have inâ—arged his Power by reducing the whole Isle Wales being taken in a little before under one Scepter with no less respect to the quiet then the greatness of England but maugre all his Power or Policy they let in a Race of Kings there that found a way to conquer his Successors here without a stroke of which he seems to have had some Prophetick knowledge upon his Death-bed when he took so much care to make his Revenge out-live himself by commanding his Son Edward to carry his Bones round about that Country having just begun his fifth Expedition as he ended his life and not suffer them to be buried till he had vanquish'd it wholly Thus this great King who spent most of his time in shedding others Blood was taken off by the excessive shedding of his own for he dyed of a Dissentery and like Caesar who terrified his Enemies with his Ghost seem'd not willing to make an end with the World afâ—er he had done with it but which never came into any Kings thoughts before or since resolv'd to Reign after his Dominion was determined being confident that his very Name like a Loadstone which attracts Iron to it would draw all the English Swords to follow its fate till they had made good that Union which he with so much harshness and horror had accelerated but as Providence which more respects the unity of Affections then the Unity of Nations did by the * Burrough on the Sands in the Bishoprick of Durham Place where he dyed shew the frailty of that Foundation he laid whilst he liv'd all his Glory expiring with himself so Nature as in abhorrence to the violation of her Laws by the effusion of so much blood as he had shed the most that any Christian King of this Isle ever did turn'd the Blessing she gave him into a Curse whilst she took from him before his Eyes three of his four Sons and the only worthy to have surviv'd him and left him only to survive who only was worthy never to have been born And now whether it was his Fault or his Fate to dote thus upon Gaveston who being only a Minister to his Wantonness could not have gain'd that Power he had over him to make himself so great by lessening him without something like an Infatuation the matter of Fact must declare For before his Coronation he made him Earl of Cornwal and Lord of Man both Honours belonging to the Crown at his Coronation notwithstanding the Exceptions taken against him by all the Nobility he gave him the honour to carry King Edward's Crown before him which of right belonged to a Prince of the Blood to have done and after the Coronation he married him up to his own Niece the Daughter of his second Sister Jone de Acres by Gilbert Clare Earl of Gloucester having indeed rais'd him to this pitch of Greatness as tempted him to raise himself higher being not content with the Power without he might aâ—so share in the Glory of Soveraignty most vainly affecting the Title of KING and if he were not King of Man as he desired he was at least King in Man ruling both there and in Ireland like an absolute Prince not without hopes of a fair possibility of being if the Kings Issue had fail'd King of England after him which Hope made him Insolent and that Insolence Insupportable so that the Lords finding it bootless to expect Justice from the King against him resolv'd to do themselves right and without more ado let fly a whole volley of Accusations at him This first forced him to part from the King and being separated they found it easie to make him part from himself for it was not long before he fell into their hands being taken Prisoner by the Earl of Pembroke who chopt of his Head a deaâ—h however esteem'd to be the most honourable of any other was to him questionless the most grievous in that it made him stoop who never could endure to submit This violent proceeding of the Lords as it shew'd a roughness of the Times suitable to that of their own Natures so it was the first occasion of the second Civil War of England
which broke out like a Fire that being long smother'd was all in a Flame as soon almost as it was perceiv'd and however Fate for some time seem'd to make a Pause whether she should begin the Tragedy which she could not end turning the Storm another way by several Invasions from Scotland which held long enough to have diverted the virulent humour and let out blood enough to have cool'd all their heat allaying it so far that easie Intercessions prevail'd to keep them asunder for some years yet nothing could so stop the Course of Nature but that the monstrous Issue when it was come to its birth forc'd its way the Discontents that had been so long ripening even from the time of this Kings Great-grand-father breaking out like a Boyl surcharg'd with Anguish and Corruption which was no sooner emptied by the death of one but it was fill'd with Rancor and Envy by the Entertainment of New Favourites As Gaveston before so the two Spencers afterward the Farher and the Son took upon them to Monopolize his Grace and were thereupon generally charg'd with the odious design of bringing in an Arbitrary Government with imbezeling the Treasure of the Nation and doing several ill Offices betwixt the King and Queen maintaining their own by apparent wrong to the Estates of other Lords particularly of the Earls of Hereford and Mortimer out of whose hands it seems they had bought some Lands which lying convenient to their Estates was in the first place offered to them These though they were such Objections as relating but to particular Persons perhaps not without particular Reasons might be excus'd if not justified yet being heaped up together made a general grievance and the Earl of Lancaster the Bell-weather of Rebellion at that time thought it worthy the Barons taking up of Arms to punish them The King answer'd for them and undertook they should come and answer for themselves the Father he said was imployed by him beyond the Seas and the Son was guarding the Cinque Ports according to his Duty and therefore he thought it was against Law and Custome to condemn them unheard But nothing would satisfie their Accusers without a Declaration of Banishment and though the President was such as might as well affect themselves as their Posterity yet Hatred being no less blind then Love they preser'd their present Revenge before the Fears of a future inconvenience All differences being thus compos'd I cannot say calm'd an accidental affront given to the Queen by one that was over-wise in his Office put all again out of order beyond recovery A Castelan of the Lord Badlismers at Leeds denying her Majesty Lodging there as she was passing by in her Progress out of a Distrust she might possess her self of the Castle and keep it for the King she exasperated the King to that degree that he besieged the place took it and in it the politick Governour whom without legal Process he hang'd up presently and seizing all the Goods and Treasure of his Lord sent his Wife and Children to the Tower This was taken for so great a violation of the Liberty of the Subject that being done by the King himself nothing could determine the Right but the Sword and accordingly they met the second time in Arms where Fortune was pleas'd to confirm the Sentence given by the King by giving up into his hands many more considerable Lives then that for which they were hazarded amongst the rest was that of the Earl of Lancaster himself the first Prince of the Blood that ever was brought to the Block here in England and with him fourteen of the Principal Barons none of which were spar'd but forc'd to give up their Lives and Estates as a Reward to the Victors And not long after the Spencers were recall'd and re-stated who finding the publick Treasure wholly exhausted and a chargeable War yet continued with Scotland thought it but necessary to make such Retrenchments as might enable his Majesty to carry on that great Work wherein he had been so unlucky without oppressing the People amongst the rest they presum'd unfortunately to abridge the Queen lessening hers as they had done the Kings Houshold-Train by which Improvident Providence they so irritated her being a Woman of a proud vindictive Spirit that she privately complain'd thereof to the King of France her Brother who took that occasion to quarrel with the King about his Homage for Gascoigne and upon his Refusal possessed himself of several Pieces there and notwithstanding all that Edmond Earl of Kent could do whom his Brother the King sent over with sufficient Strength as 't was thought to repell him by force continued his Depredations there this bringing a Necessity that either the King must go over himself or the Queen the first to compel or the other being his beloved Sister to mediate with hâ—m for a Truce each equally inconvenient to the Spencers who thought not sit that the King should go in respect of the general and were as loath the Queen should in respect of her particular discontent They chose the least of the Evils as they judged and sent over her who having a great Stomach and but a small Train meditated more upon her own then her Husbands Vindication and accordingly put an end to the difference betwixt her Brother and him but on such terms as afterward made a wider difference betwixt him and her self The Conditions were these that Kâ—ng Edward should give to the Prince his Son the Dutchy of Acquitain and Earldom of Ponthein and send him over to do the King of France Homage for the same which was to excuse that Homage before demanded from himself and thus she pretended to have found out an expedient to save the honour of both Kings in allowing each his end But having by this sineness got her Son into her own power she gave her self so wholly up to her Revenge that she suffer'd her self to be led by a hand she saw not through the dark Paths of dangerous Intreagues managed by those who having other ends then hers did work beyond though under her Authority Principal in her Councel as being so in her Affections was young Mortimer a Servant fit for such a Mistress and such a Master as this Queen and her Husband who having escaped out of the Tower where he had been long a Prisoner and as he thought very injuriously in respect he render'd himself to Mercy before the great Battel with the Barons and by his Submission contributed much to the Kings gaining that Victory contriv'd with her how to set up the Prince and with him himself and because the Earl of Kent was upon the place they made it their first business to work off him to the Party Here began that fatal breach from whence the World concluded that this unhappy King having lost one half of himself could not long hold out before he lost the whole it not being reasonable to expect that his Subjects should be truer
his Bowels Of the two Murtherers one was taken and butcher'd at Sea t'other dyed in Exile perhaps more miserable And for the Nobility in general that were Actors in the Tragedy they had this Curse upon them that most of their Race were cut off by those Civil Discords of their divided Families to which this strange violation gave the first beginning not long after HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT He was a Prince of that admirable composure of Body and Mind that Fortune seem'd to have fallen in Love with him and as she contributed much to the making him a King and yet more to the preserving him so so she elevaâ—ed him so far above the reach of Envy or Treachery that all the Neighbour Princes dazled with the splendor of his Glory gave place to him not so much out of any sense of their own defects as of his power whereof they could not but have some glimpse as well as himseâ—f who from his very first Ascent unto the Throne had a prospect of two Crowns more then he was born to the one placed within his reach which was that of Scotland to which there needed no more but an imaginary Right to gain him the Possession the other more remote which was that of France but better secur'd in respect of a reputative Title which however oppos'd could not be deny'd To the attaining the first there was a fair opportunity offer'd by the unreconcileable contest of two well-match'd Rivals whose Right and Interest were so evenly poys'd that the least grain of his Power might turn the Scale either way to the Recovery of the other there was yet a fairer Opportunity given him by the Revolt of Philip of Artois one of the first Princes of the Blood of that Kingdom and Brother in Law to the present King Philip de Valois who being incens'd by a Judgment given against him for the County of Artois recover'd by his Aunt the Dutchess of Burgoigne came over into England with a Resolution to set aside his Title who had before set aside his Neither wanted he a Power suitable to his desired Revenge for being well acquainted with the secrets of that Kings Councel all which he reveal'd to King Edward and being able to give him good security for the affections of several of the chief Governours there that depended on him 't is no marvel he so quickly blew that spark of Glory which he found wrapt up in the Embers of King Edward's ambitious Thoughts into such a Flame as threatning the Destruction of that goodly Country made all Christendom afraid of the Consequence The great Question of Right betwixt the two greatest Kings of Europe being thus set up which in effect was no more then this Whether the French King should take place as Heir Male of the Collateral and more remote Line or the English King as Heir of the Female but direct Line and one degree nearer Those of the other side the Water obstinately refus'd to tye their Crown as they said to a Distaff to which King Edward reply'd he would then tye it to his Sword Upon this they joyn'd Issue and both sides prepar'd for the decision by Arms. King Philip had a double advantage of the English first in the Loyalty and Affections of the French as being their Natural Prince secondly by the authority of the Salique Law which however it was not so clear but that it might admit of much dispute yet being back'd with a Possession which made up eleven of the twelve Points controvertable there having been a Succession of three Sons of Philip le Bell Queen Isabels Father by whom King Edward claim'd each inheriting Successively as the next Heir Male notwithstanding each of them left Daughters by which the present King Philip came now in as Heir Masculine it seem'd so like an adjudged Case that King Edward thinking it better to cut the Knot then lose time in trying to untie it resolv'd to put it to the Determination of a Battel This Resolution of his was so lowdly proclaim'd every where abroad as well as at home that like Thunder before a Storm the very noise of his Preparations made all Christendom shake and so shake that it fell into Parties the Princes of each Country round about like Herdsmen before a Tempest flying some to one side some to another all seeking rather to shelter themselves then to add any thing to the Party they flew to With the English King took part the Emperor and all the Princes of Germany of the first Rank the Arch-Duke of Austria and the Earl of Flanders only excepted whose People yet were on this side for their Trades sake the Earl of Holland the Dukes of Brabant and Gelders the Marquess of Juliers the Arch-bishop of Cologne and Valeran his Brother and divers of the more Northern Princes With the French were the King of Bohemia the two Dukes of Austria and the Earl of Flanders before mention'd the Bishop of Metz the Marquiss of Montferrat the Earl of Geneva the Duke of Savoy and divers of the Princes of Italy to the number saith Du Hailan of 10000 Persons and which perhaps was more considerable by how much he was nearer then all the rest was his inraged Brother in Law David Bruce King of Scots a weak but a restless Enemy who had reason to take part with the other side for that he as t'other fought against a Competitor too King Edward having set up Baliol to vie with him What the number of the English Forces were is not certain unless we may guess at them by the Charges of their Entertainment which as Walsingham tells us cost us not so little as One hundred thousand pounds Sterling in less then a years time a vast Sum for those days but very well repaid with the Glory of the two Confederate Kings Ransoms who being both taken Prisoners and brought into England the first to wit the King of Scots redeem'd himself for 10000 Marks the last to wit the King of France payed for his Liberty Three millions of Crowns of Gold whereof Six hundred thousand were laid down presently and Four hundred thousand more the Year after and the Remainder the next two years following The Captivity of these two Kings at one time shews at once the Power and Glory of this great King who riding triumphant on the wings of Fortune never wanted the means to make or continue himself Victorious and prevailing no less over his own Subjects then over his Enemies these subdued by his Wisdom as those by his Courage Some have made it a doubt whether he got more by his Scepter or his Sword the benefit of Ransoms abroad notwithstanding the many Princes taken Prisoners being much short of the Aids given him at home so that they that have taken the pains to state his Accompts reckon that out of that one single Imposition upon Wool which continued Six years he was able to
dispend a thousand Marks a day which I have the rather noted to shew how the Kingdom flourish'd as well as the King gaining as all wise States do by their layings out for the whole Revenues of the Crown in his Grand-fathers days were esteem'd to be not much above a hundred thousand Marks a year Five years the French King continued Prisoner here in England time enough to have determin'd the Fortune of that great Kingdom and dissolv'd their Canton'd Government into parts had it not been a Body consisting of so many strong Limbs and so abounding with Spirits that it never fainted notwithstanding all its loss of Blood but scorn'd to yield though King Edward came very near their heart having wounded them in the most mortal part their Head The Scotch King could not recover his Liberty in double the time being the less able to redeem himself for that he was upon the matter but half a King the other half being in the possession of Baliol who to secure a Moyety to himself surrendred the whole to King Edward whose Magnificence vying with his Justice he gave it back again upon Terms more befitting a Brother then a Conqueror shewing therein a Wantonness that no King perhaps besides himself would have been guilty of nor probably he neither had either his People been less bountiful to him or Fortune less constant which to say truth never forsook him till he like his Father forsook himself leaving all Action and bidding adieu to the World ten years before he went out of it declining so fast from the fortieth year of his Government that it may rather be said his famous Son Prince Edward commonly call'd the Black Prince reign'd then he and happy 't was for him that when his own Understanding fail'd him he had so good a Supporter who having it in his power to dispose of Kingdoms whilst he liv'd ought not to be denyed after he dyed the honour of being esteem'd equal to Kings in the Prerogative of a distinct Character Begin we then the Date of his Government from the Battel of Crassy which happening in the Sixteenth year of his Age makes the Computation of his Glory to commence near about the same time his Fathers did who however he was King at fourteen rul'd not till after Mortimer's death by which Battel he so topt the Fortune of France as his Father had that of England that he may be said to have taken thereby Livery in order to the Seisin of that Kingdom And after the Recovery of Calais it may be said the Keys of the Kingdom rather then of that Town were deliver'd into his hand for that he therewith open'd all the Gates of almost every Town he came to till the King of France incompassed him like a Lion in a Toil with no less then 60000 of the best Men of France and brought him to that streight that it seem'd alike disadvantageous to sight or yield and which made the danger more considerable as things then stood England it self was in some hazard of being lost with him here he seem'd to have been as well accomptable to his Country as to his Father for his Courage and Discretion and how well he acquitted himself appears by the Sequel when forcing Hope out of Despair like fire out of a Flint he necessitated his Men to try for Conquest by shewing them how impossible 't was for him to yield and by that incomparable Obstinacy of his made Fortune so enamour'd of his Courage that she follow'd him wherever he went while his Sword made its way to Victory and his Courtesie to the Affections of the Conquer'd whom he treated with that regard and generosity that many of them were gainers by the loss being dismiss'd with honourable Presents that made his second Conquest over them greater then the first the King of France himself being so well pleas'd with his Bondage that he return'd voluntarily into England after he was redeem'd to meet two Kings more that might be Witness of his Respect and Gratitude In short he was as King of England on the other side the Water as his Father was on this side keeping so splendid a Court in Acquitaine that no less then three Kings came to visit him too all at once these were the King of Majorque Navar and Castile the last of which craving Aid of him against an Usurper who was back'd by an Army consisting of no less then One hundred thousand men if the Writers of those times say true was re-instated accordingly by his single power to shew the World that he could as well make Kings as unmake them His second Brother who had the Title of King by marrying with the King of Castile's Daughter and Heir being principally indebted to him for the honour of that Title and it prov'd a fatal Debt both to him and his Son Richard the Second costing the one his Life the other both Life and Kingdom too for as himself never recover'd the health he lost in undertaking that Expedition so his Son never recover'd the disadvantage put upon him afterward by his Uncle Lancaster who by that means having got the Regency of his drooping Father King Edward who tyred with Action rather then Age fatally submitted to the loss of more years of his Government then he got by his unnatural Anticipation from his own Father and suffer'd himself to be buried alive as we may say under his Cradle put fair for setting his Nephew aside but wanting a Colour for so apparent an Injustice his jealous Father the Black Prince having declar'd him his Successor in his life time to prevent all tricks he thought it enough to make way for his Son to do it and accordingly put such an impression of dislike upon the innocent Youth at his very first Edition as prov'd Indelible in his riper years for the very same day he was presented to take his Grandfathers Seat in Parliament as Heir apparent to the Crown being then but eleven years old he taught him to demand a Subsidy purposely to turn the Peoples blood who were then big with their Complaint of Taxes But possibly he is made more splenetick as well as more politick then he was for it was scarce possible to make the Youth more odious then he had made himself before by disgusting those two potent Factions of the Church and the City of London who to shew how weary they were of his governing the old Child his Father would not after his Death let him longer Rule the young Child his Nephew but purposely depos'd him to the end as they said that he might not depose the other Thus this great King ended as ingloriously as he began who having stept into the Throne a little before he should 't is the less wonder he left it a little before it was expected he would especially if we consider that in out-living the best Wife and the best Son in the World he had a little out-liv'd himself being so unfortunate
but a private man to get it from a King why should he not believe himself more able being now a King to keep it from private men especially since he that had the Right in the first place had resign'd it up to him and he that had it in the second place had so far joyn'd in the final recovery of it as to swear Allegiance to him at the time of that Resignation These Considerations were of that weight that taking warning by King Richard never to tempt any to forsake him by forsaking himself he resolved to fall upâ—n them before they united At Shrewsbury the Peircy's and he met they being back'd by divers Scots he by as many English himself lead up that Wing which was against the Earl of Worcester his Son Henry the Prince of Wales that against Hotspur this as it was the first Battel the Prince was ever in so here his Father taught him how to Rule by shewing him how to fight In either of which noble qualities there was never any Prince proud to be an apter Scholar then he for he slew no less then thirty six men that day with his own hand as those who followed him observ'd and as one that resolv'd to be anointed with Blood before he came to be anointed with Oyl he prest into the midst of the Battel where he receiv'd several wounds but one more remarkable then the rest by an Arrow in his Face which either he had not time or patience to pluck out till he had dispatch'd his Rival Hotspur who was the only Enemy that vyed with him for hear of Youth and Courage After this Worcester and the Douglas submitted to be his Prisoners the Day being so clearly gain'd by his single Conduct that Fortune seems to have given it to him as an earnest of those greater Victories he was to have afterward The fame of this signal overthrow made all Glendour's Forces scatter ere the King could arrive upon the place to fight them leaving him so much more a Victor by having no Victory For that in truth to have beaten him upon a fair dispute might have been understood to have been the effect of unequal Power whereas the making him fly before he came near him shews what apprehension t'other had of his invincible Courage After this there was some trouble but no great disturbance given this King by the French the Attempts they made being either so faint or successless that they rather gave his Successor an Invitation then a Provocation to invade them afterward The Resentments the Earl of Northumberland had of the death of his Son and Brother put him upon renewing the Rebellion being back'd by the Arch-bishop of York Mowbray Earl-Marshal and others but their Forces being disbanded by a trick the two last were taken and having justly forfeited their Heads for that they had no more Brains in them then to believe the King would send a General against them of their own Faction they were executed accordingly but Northumberland himself escap'd into Scotland being reserv'd it seems by Destiny for a Nobler Death he and the Lord Bardolph being both slain afterwards at Branham Moor the last Battel that was fought in this Kings time who being born to live no longer then whiles he was in Turmoyls and being inclin'd to make some expiation for all the Noble Blood he had shed to make good his Usurpation design'd at last to joyn Valour and Devotion in one Action together which before he had used but singly and accordingly took upon him the Crusado intending to submit to the Decree of Destiny which had appointed as he was told by a Figure-Caster that he should dye in Jerusalem Neither could he want a sufficient Train of Voluntiers there being so many in that Ignorant Age who were of the same Opinion with him that it was happier to perish in that Holy War then escape This made the Prince his Son who till this time had given himself the Liberty to commit such Extravagancies as ill became any man but least a Prince dishonouring himself no less by the dissolute Company he kept then by the Debaucheries they ingaged him in begin to take up in expectation of the Succession and submitting to his Father and the Laws so govern'd himself that the People might perceive he was at length become fit to govern them but whiles preparations were making for the Kings great Voyage to his long home at Jerusalem as he thought the Journey prov'd neither so long nor chargeable as was expected an Apoplectick fit seizing him whiles he was at his Devotion in the Abby of Westminster whereupon he was carried in immediately into the Abbots House and there unwittingly put to Bed in that Chamber which they call'd Jerusalem which as soon as he understood and came thereby to unriddle the place of his Death he was so wounded with the context that he never recover'd it but languishing dyed not long after having first had a taste of Divine vengeance in seeing himself deposed in a manner by his own Son before he was dead who finding him in one of his Fits and as 't was thought breathless took the Crown from off his Pillow where he kept it all his Sickness as that the very sight whereof was a kind of restorative to him which however it was return'd again with unfeigned humility yet the miss of it but for that moment only gave such a check to his Conscience that before he could bequeath it to his Son for good and all as we say he could not but acknowledge how little Right he had to it and dying submitted his Title to him that is the only Judge of injured Kings HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE VNE AN PLVS The only men that were jealous of him as of his Father before him were the Clergy who suspecting he had a mind to turn Priest that is to assume all Spiritual Power into his own hands as questionless his Father design'd and become as Henry the Eighth afterwards Papa Patriae or that at least he would take some of the choicest Jewels out of their Miters to place in his Crown there being a Bill then depending in Parliament for devesting them of their Temporalities they consulted how they might divert so impendent a mischief which seem'd easier to prevent then resist and knowing by the Temperament of their own Constitutions that there was no more powerful a Temptation then that which at once gratifies a mans Ambition Avarice and Revenge they found a way to divert him from the wrong they feared to be done to them by ingaging him in a projection that was to do himself right The principal mannager of this commendable Projection was the politick Arch-bishop of Canterbury who held the Rudder of State at that time and could turn the Vessel as he pleas'd he taking occasion in the very first Parliament that was call'd by this King to start the Right of England to the Crown of
France set forth his own Eloquence and the Kings Title so well deducing his Descent in a direct Line from the Lady Isabel Daughter to Philip the Fourth and Wife to his Grandfather Edward the Second and refuting all the old beaten Arguments brought from the Salique Law to oppose it as being neither consistent with Divinity Reason or Example he at once pleas'd and convinced all his Hearers but most especially the King himself who seem'd to be inspired with a Prophetick confidence of that success which after he had but scorning to steal any Advantage or wrong the Justice of his Title somuch as to seem to doubt 't would be denied before he would make any kind of preparation for the Conquest he sent Ambassadors to Charles the Sixth to demand a peaceable surrender of the Crown to him offering to accept his Daughter with the Kingdom and to expect no other pawn for his Possession till after his death This Message as it was the highest that ever was sent to any free Prince so he intrusted it to those of highest Credit and Trust about him these were his Uncle the Duke of Exeter a man of great esteem as well as of great Name the Arch-bishop of Dublin a very politick Prelate the Lord Gray a man at Arms the Lord High Admiral and the Bishop of Norwich the first as much renown'd for his Courage as the last for his Contrivances to whom for the greater state there was appointed a Guard of five hundred Horse to attend them The Report of this great Embassy as it arriv'd before them so it made such a Report throughout all this side of the World that all the Neighbour Princes like lissening Deer when they hear the noyse of Huntsmen in the Woods began to take the Alarm and consider which side to sly to it being so that England and France never made any long War upon one another but they ingaged all Christendom with them However the Court of France pretending themselves ignorant of the Occasion of their coming dissembled their disdain and treated them with that magnificence as if they had design'd to Complement them out of their business but after the Message was delivered with that faithful boldness that became so great an Affair they were all in that confusion that it was hard to judge whether they were more ashamed incensed or afraid giving such a return as seem'd neither compatible with the honour wisdom or courage of so renown'd a People as they are For first as they did neither deny nor allow the Kings Title but said they would make Answer by Ambassadours of their own So in the next place they were so hasty in their Counsels and the dispatch of their Ambassadors hither that they arriv'd in England almost as soon as those sent hence And lastly at the same time they desired Peace and offer'd to buy it with the tender of some Towns they gave the King an Affront which was a greater Provocation then the denyal of ten such Kingdoms for the Daulphin who in respect of the King his Fathers sickness I might rather say weakness managed the State affecting the honour to give the first Box or perhaps desiring to make any other Quarrel the ground of the approaching War which he foresaw was not to be prevented rather then that of the Title which had been already so fatally bandi'd scornfully sent the King a Present of Tenis-balls which being of no value nor reckoning worthy so great a Princes acceptance or his recommendation could have no other meaning or interpretation but as one should say he knew better how to use them then Bullets The King whose Wit was as keen as t'others Sword return'd him this Answer That in requital of his fine Present of Tenis-balls he would send him such Balls as he should not dare to hold up his Racket against them Neither was he worse then his word however his preparations seem'd very disproportionable for so great a Work For the Army he landed was no more but six thousand Horse and twenty four thousand Foot a Train so inconsiderable and by the Daulphin judg'd to be so despicable that he thought not fit to come down himself in Person to take any view of them for fear he should fright them out of the Country too soon but sent some rude Peasants to attend their Motion who incouraged by some of the Troops of the nearest Garrisons as little understanding the danger they were ingaged in as they did the language of the Enemy they were ingaged with fell in upon the Rear of his Camp but as Village Curs which fiercely set upon all Strangers having the least Rebuke with a Stone or a Cudgel retreat home whining with their Tails betwixt their Legs so they having a Repulse given them ran away and made such Out-cries as dishearten'd the Souldiers that were to second them so much that after that he marched without any Resistance as far as Callice Neither indeed saw he any Enemy till he came to give Battel to the united Forces of France at that famous Field of Agencourt where notwithstanding he was out-numbred by the French above five for one he fought them with that Resolution as made himself Master of more Prisoners then he had men in his Camp to keep them an Occasion Fortune gave him to shew at once her Cruelty and his Mercy who whilst he might have kill'd did not but when he should not was forc'd to be cruel beyond almost all Example for as he gave Quarter in the beginning of the Battel to all that ask'd it his Clemency and Gentleness being such that as he was then pleas'd to declare he consider'd them as his Subjects not as his Captives So being over-charged with their Prisoners Numbers upon a sudden and unexpected accident however of no great Consequence if it had been rightfully understood he was forc'd to write the dismal Fate of France in cold Blood and in order to the saving life destroy it For as he was seeing his wounded men drest having gotten an intire Victory as he thought and as afterward it proved a sudden out-cry alarm'd his Camp occasion'd by a new Assault of some French Troops who being the first had quit the Field were the first return'd into it again in hopes by fighting with Boyes to regain the honour they lost in refusing to fight with men these under the Leading of the Captain of Agencourt set upon the Pages Sutlers and Laundresses following the pursuit with that wonted noyse as if they would have the English think the whole Army was rally'd again and chasing them Upon this the King caus'd all the scatter'd Arms and Arrows to be recollected and his stakes to be new pitch'd and put himself into a posture of Defence neither were the English only deceived by the Shreiks and Cries of those miserable People that fell into these mens hands but all those of the French likewise that were within hearing insomuch that the Earls of Marle and
better Neither was he less fortunate then forward in Peace as well as in War So that as upon the one side he look'd like Caesar or Augustus rather both of whom as they were armed with Lightning so their Pardons went ever before and after their Swords so on the other side he was not unlike those two famous Legislators Solon and Licurgus who principally regarding the People were yet so wise for themselves as with the publick safety to secure their own Authority for he was an excellent Judge of times and seasons and knew when to strain up the Laws to his Prerogative and when to let down his Prerogative to the Test of the Law And though 't was observ'd never any man lov'd his own way nor his own will better then he nor perhaps ever had so much Reason to do it being as another Solomon wiser then his Counsellors and yet they perhaps as well chose as ever any Kings Counsellors were yet we find he was sometimes content to part with both for the more orderly administration of Justice leaving the disposition of his Mint his Wars and his Martial Justice things of absolute power not to say the Concerns of his unsetled Title which was yet of higher and tenderer consideration to the wisdom of his Parliaments And least the thing called Propriety which is the same to the Subject as the Prerogative to Majesty should be thought to suffer in the least he gave himself the trouble of hearing many Causes at his Councel-board where sitting at the Fountain of Justice assisted by the most learn'd as well as the most reverend Professors of Law and Conscience it was not to be suppos'd that any Cause could lose any thing of its due weight and allowance yet it seems the Common Lawyers unwilling the determination of Meum and Tuum should go besides their own Courts traduc'd him with distrusting his Judges in matters of Common Right as the Souldiers complain'd of his not trusting his Generals in point of common Security And some there were who would have aggravated it to a Grievance however 't was apparent to be rather their own then the Peoples who are apter to complain of the chargeableness then the due Administration of the Laws But these Causes being for the most part heard in the Vacation time 't is possible he had in his Thoughts something beyond their reach with respect to the splendor of his Court and the profit of the City to which as he was alwayes a Friend so by this dispatch of Justice while there was no other Courts sitting he drew such a concourse of Clyents to Town as kept up a kind of Term all the Year round and so quickned Trade that by adding to theirs it increas'd his own Wealth to that degree that amongst other Reasons given of his neglecting the benefit of the Discovery of the Indies first offer'd to him by Columbus 't was not the least that he had no want of Money and having made himself a Member of the City that by the benefit of that Community he might find his account as well in their Chamber as his own Exchequer and prove as after he did the only Dragon that kept their Golden Fleece sharing with Solomon himself in those two great points of Glory to be reputed the wisest and richest King of his time 't is no wonder he should by Works Immortal as he did make his way to Immortality leaving his Son Henry nothing to do but to inherit his envied Felicity HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE Now as he began his Reign at the time when every thing begins to grow and blossom it being in the Spring of the Year as well as of his Age so the Season complying with his Constitution made it hard for him to resist the heat of his blood yet we do not find that he ingaged in any War abroad till he had secured Peace at home making his Justice as renown'd amongst his People by revenging their wrongs as he made his power afterward when he came to revenge his own executing Empson and Dudley as a terrour to all Promoters to shew he did not esteem them faithful Servants to his Father that had so betraid their Country Which Act of Justice being clos'd with another of Universal Grace in restraining his Prerogative to inlarge the Subjects Confidence and Affection made him so clear a Conquest over all Discontents arising by the Oppression of his Predecessor that having nothing more to do at home he bethought himself of what was to be done abroad Providence offering him a Projection suitable to the greatness of his mind to render the esteem of his Piety no less famous then that of his Justice by undertaking to rescue the Pope out of the hands of the King of France as a Dove deliver'd out of the Talons of a Vulture who having already drove him to Covert as we say that is besieged him in his City of Bononia and having his Confederates the Emperour and King of Spain ready at hand to make a retreive doubted not but to devour him in a very short time This as it was a Design of Super-errogating Merit so it carried in it no less of Advantage then Glory giving him a fit occasion to shew at once his Zeal and Power and in serving him to serve himself upon him in the promotion of his Title to France it being no small addition of Credit to his Claim that his Hoâ—iness as an Earnest of his Spiritual Benediction had bestowed upon his Majesty the forfeited Stile of Christianissimus However before he would move himself in Person out of England he thought it necessary to prevent any Motion of the King of Scots into England who he knew would be ready to bruise his Heel as soon as he advanced to break the Serpents Head and accordingly he got not only a confirmation of that Excommunication which Julius the Second had formerly granted against the said Scotch King in case he broke his League with him the Curse whereof followed him to his Grave for violating his Faith he died in the attempt but obtain'd a plenary Indulgence for all that should assist him Thus arm'd as it were with the Sword of God and Gideon he entred that goodly Kingdom and long it was not ere he got the Maiden-head of that Virgin City Tournay who having repuls'd Caesar had the Testimony of her Pucillage written upon its Gates as the only Town had kept her self unconquer'd from that time but now was forced to yield to him by the Name and Title of Roy tres Christien as appears by the Original Contract yet extaâ—t The same day he receiv'd the News of the †James the Fourth slain in Flodden-field Scotch Kings death who attempting as I said before to divert the War lost his Life and 't was happy he lost not his Kingdom too a Victory so seasonable and super-successful that Fortune as enamor'd of him seem'd to prostitute her self
to him and rais'd the Expectations of his future Successes to that height that the Emperour Maximilian who had before submitted though Lord of no less then eight Kingdoms to serve him in the condition of a private Souldier for the wages of One hundred Crowns a day now as some report profer'd to surrender his Empire and Dutchy of Milan to him and the King of France resolving to purchase his Friendship at any rate condition'd to pay yearly to him and his Successors Kings of England for ever Forty six thousand Crowns de Soleile and twenty four Sols Turnois with One thousand five hundred Crowns more as a Tribute out of the Salt of Brovage as may appear by the Agreement Anno 1527. the confirmation of which Treaty cost his Son Charles after the death of his Father who did not long survive the Composition a Million of Crowns more Now if his Enemies had such dread of him what esteem must we imagine the Pope had who owed his Deliverance to him Silver and Gold he had none to tender but such as he had Glorious and Grateful Titles he was very prodigal of For besides that of Liberator Urbis Orbis the Stile of his Ancestor Constantine the Great and therefore though only fit for Henry the Great it being occasional and temporary the Conclave had under consideration such as might be perpetuated to all Ages Some mov'd to have him call'd Defensor Romanae Ecclesiae others propos'd Protector Sedis Apostolicae others again lik'd better to have him stil'd Rex Apostolicus as some Rex Orthodoxus but at last all agreed in that of Defensor Fidei After this he was made Head of the Holy League out of belief That there could no Authority Superior to his be interpos'd either for the Conservation of good men in Peace or repressing those that are ill by War for so are the words of the Fourteenth Article of the League This shews that he was so much greater then any of the Kings were before him by how much they only gave Laws at home but he throughout all Christendom disposing War and Peace as made most to the advantage of his own People who were thereupon so well satisfied with the Conduct of his Government that his Will seems to have been the Supream Law For as he needed to have said no more to his Parliaments then as one of the Roman Emperors cited by Suetonius was used to say to the Senate Scitis quid velim quibus Opus habeo So they could say no more to him nor indeed any Parliament to any King then was declar'd by their giving up themselves and their Liberties wholly to him in that Act of highest Trust and Confidence that ever Subjects pass'd when they consented that he should in case he had no Issue of his own dispose the Imperial Diadem of this Realm as his Highness pleas'd by Will or Patent Thus great was this King whiles he continued to be himself keeping the Rains of Government in his own hands but after he suffer'd himself to be govern'd by others who took advantage of his to serve their own Lusts like one drawn from his Center his motions were so irregular and the intreagues of State so perplext that we cannot wonder at those Disorders which followed to the great interruption of his Peoples peace and prosperity but much more of his own whilst that which private men esteem their greatest happiness fell out to be his greatest curse the enjoyment of a most vertuous discreet and loving Wise who being a Lady of that quick-sight that she look'd thorough all his great Ministers Ambitions and occasionally detected their Designs was undone by the same way she hoped to preserve her self and him For the jealous Cardinal Wolsey his great Minister doubting that she might interpose her self betwixt the King and him as the Moon betwixt the Sun and the Earth and thereby deprive him of those warm influences of Grace from whence his power took life he design'd to blast her as it were by Lightning from Heaven or rather by a Spark from Hell casting a Scruple into the Kings Conscience which quickly set it on fire upon the apprehension of being guilty of the incestuous Sin of knowing his Brothers Wife This was so craftily managed that it was not known for a while out of what Quiver the Arrow came but a Treaty being had about a Marriage of the King of France with the Lady Mary the Kings Daughter by her it was so order'd that the Bishop of Tarbe the principal Commissioner on that side should make some doubt of the Legitimacy of the Princess thereby to bring on the Question of Incest This though it was urged with somewhat more then usual vehemency yet his Authority not being such as to move the King much at that time The Cardinal secretly ingaged the Bishop of Lincoln his Majesties Confessor to press him farther upon it knowing well as he acknowledged afterward that whatever was once put into the Kings head would hardly ever be got out again nothing doubting withal but that it was in his power at any time to conjure the Devil down again as soon as he had done his Service and after be had tumbled the Queen down or at least brought her into a necessity of making use of his Friendship wherein he had two great ends First to flatter his great Patron the French King with the hopes in case of a Divorce of marrying his fair Sister the Dutchess of Alanson to the King whose Alâ—yance was then of great Importance to that Crown Secondly to perform a very real Service to his distressed Chief the Pope who beâ—ng now more persecuted by the Emperour then before by the King of France and at that pâ—esent in Duress might possibly be releas'd by the very menace of such a Divorce as this the Emperor both as Uncle to the Queen and as Competitor with the French King for the Universal Monarchy being moved by Affection and Interest to prevent so violent a breach in his Allyance But as a Mine when it is sprung doth oftentimes other kind of Execution then they who fire it intended it should so happen'd it in this Case For instead of making a small breach upon the Kings Peace that might amount to no more but the causing a temporary abstinence from the Queens Bed de praesenti only to which 't was hop'd she her self might give occasion by a voluntary Retirement into some Cloyster where she might remain civilly dead till his Excellency the Cardinal made up the breach again it begat such a rupture in his Thoughts that he could have no rest and as one sick at heart thought himself not safe in the hands of any one Physician neither indeed of all those that he had at home till he had the Opinions of those in all the Universities abroad which made the business so publick that Luther who had a little before set up for himself finding there might be a good
Conclusion from so bad a Beginning by making way for some Protestant Lady of that Country that might advance the Reformation begun by him there he vext the Question a long while and finding that the Pope over-aw'd by the Emperour durst not consent to a Divorce he to scandalize him the more set forth by many learned Arguments the unlawfulness of the Marriage and so nettled King Henry that the Pope doubting the effects of his Impatience propos'd by way of Expedient though but faintly to Gregory Cassalis the English Resident then at Rome that he would permit him ut aliam duceret Uxorem which in plain English was That if the King pleased he would allow him to have two Wives at once Now whether it were that the King doubted his power and thought he could not make good what he promised for that he could not make that Marriage out which he had already to be either lawful or unlawful so as to relieve him or dismiss it Or whether he had as is more probable a clear Sentiment of the Popes slight Opinion of him in making so unusual not to say unlawful a Proposal to him is not certain but certain it is he never forgave the Affront till by vertue of his own proper power he had divorced himself from his Authority which the Cardinal labouring to uphold by his Legatine power out of hope of being himself Pope nor only lost himself in the attempt but drew all he Clergy who took part with him into a Premunire Of whose Error his wise Servant Cromwel took the advantage making his Masters fall the occasion of his own rising by whom the thoroughly humbled Convocation weâ—e perswaded to petition the King for their pardon under the Title and Stile of Ecclesiae Cleri Anglicani Protector supremum Caput which rais'd a greater dispute upon the Supremacy not long after then was before upon the point of Divorce For the Bishop of Rochester who by reason of his great learning and sanctity of Life was a leading man refusing to subscribe the aforesaid Petition unless some words might be added by way of explanation of the Kings Supremacy Cromwel took the Defence thereof upon himself and by advice with Bishop Cranmer there were many Arguments brought to justifie the same both from the Authority of Kingship in general de Communi Jure by vertue of that Divine Law that has given the stile of a Royal Priesthood to all anointed Kings and to which by a parallel Case the Pope himself did not long after give more then a seeming allowance For Clement the Seventh at the interview of Marselles when he was urged by some that desired Reformation and prest for the liberty of receiving the Sacrament in both kinds by an Argument taken from the custome of the Kings of France who alwayes received both Elements he answered That it was a peculiar priviledge by which Kings were differenced from other men as being anointed with the Unction of Priesthood as likewise from the particular Prerogative of the Kings of this Isle de proprio Jure or by the Common Law of this Land which was of ancienter date then any Prescription made by the Pope having been ratified by the Sanction of several Acts of Parliament that had declar'd all Spiritual Jurisdiction to be inherent in the Crown This Doctrine of his wanted not its Use for the King had this immediate benefit of the Dispute to be restored to the Annates and First-fruits of the Bishopricks and now the Bond of his Holiness 's Authority being thus loosed one priviledge dropt out after another till at length they not only divested him of the profit but of the honour of his Fatherhood forbidding any to call him any more * Anciently written Pa. Pa. i. e. Pater Patriarcharum Papa or Pater for that there could be but one Lord and Father but only Bishop of Rome These Annates as they were some of the principal Flowers of the Triple Crown and could not well be pluck'd off without defacing the Sacred Tyara so the whole Conclave took such an alarm at the loss of them that apprehending no less then a total defection to follow they most peremptorily cited the King himself to appear at Rome under pain of Excommunication This was thought to be so unreasonable an Indignity offered to his Majesty in respect it was neither convenient for him to abandon his Kingdom by going so far in Person nor any way decent to trust the Secrets of his Conscience to a pragmatical Proctor that the Parliament who were conven'd to consider of the matter thought it but necessary to put a stop to all Appeals to be made out of the Realm under the penalty of Premunire and pray'd his Majesty without more ado to appoint a Court of Delegates here at home to determine the Cause Upon which the Marriage being not long after declared void Cromwell hastned on the Match with the Lady Anne Bulloigne but the Court of Rome judging the first Marriage good and the last void anathematiz'd all that were assistant in the Divorce and to shew how much they were incens'd by the precipitation of their Sentence they concluded it in one only which by the usual Form could not be finish'd in less then three Consistories This began that Fiery tryal which followed not long after wherein we may say his Holiness himself prov'd to be the very first Martyr dying immediately after the pronunciation of that great Curse as one blasted by the Lightning of his own Thunder whereby the Church Universal being without a Head The Reformists here took that opportunity to provide for their own by declaring the King Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England for the support of which Dignity they vested in the Crown the First-fruits of all Benefices as they had before of all Bishopricks Dignities and Offices whatever spiritual Setting forth in what manner Bishops Suffragans should be nominated and appointed and what their Priviledges and Authorities should be In defence of which their proceedings the King himself wrote an excellent Book or at least it pass'd for his De Potestate Christianorum Regum in suis Ecclesiis contra Pontificis Tyrannidem c. But there were many however and those of no small note who continued so obstinate in their Popish Principles that they could neither be moved by his Pen nor his Penalties to submit chusing rather to part with their Blood then their Blessing And whether they were real or mistaken Martyrs or not rather Sufferers then Martyrs I will not take upon me to say it being as hard for others to judge them as for themselves to judge the thing they died for Truth and Treason being in those dayes Qualities so like one another that they were scarcely to be discern'd as appears by the nice Cases of those two I think the most eminent persons of all that were so unhappy as to suffer for setting up the Papal above the Regal Authority the
was it long that the Protector bore up after his Brothers Fall the great care he took to build his * From his Tittle call'd Somerset-house House being no less fatal to him then the little care he had to support his Family whiles the Stones of those Churches Chappels and other Religious Houses that he demolish'd for it made the cry out of the Walls so loud that himself was not able to indure the noise the People ecchoing to the defamation and charging him with the guilt of Sacriledge so furiously that he was forced to quit the place and retire with the King to Windsor leaving his Enemies in possession of the strength of the City as well as the affections of the Citizens who by the reputation of their power rather then the power of their repute prevail'd with the King as easily to give him up to publick Justice as he was before prevail'd with to give up his Brother it being no small temptation to the young King to forsake him when he forsook himself so far as to submit to the acknowledgement of that Guilt he was not conscious of The Lawyers charged him with removing Westminster-hall to Somerset-house The Souldiers with detaining their Pay and betraying their Garrisons The States-men with ingrossing all Power and indeavouring to alter the Fundamental Laws and the ancient Religion But he himself charg'd himself with all these Crimes when he humbled himself so far as to ask the Kings pardon publickly which his Adversaries were content he should have having first strip'd him of his Protectorship Treasurership Marshalship and Two thousand pound a year Land of Inheritance But that which made his Fate yet harder was that after having acquitted himself from all Treason against his Prince he should come at last to be condemn'd as a Traytor against his Fellow-Subject whilst the Innocent King labouring to preserve him became the principal Instrument of his Destruction who by reconciling him to his great Adversaries made the Enmity so much the more incompatible who at the same time he gave the Duke his Liberty gave the Earl of Warwick and his Friends the Complement of some new Titles which adding to their Greatness he reasonably judg'd might take from their Envy The Earl himself he created Duke of Northumberland and Lord High Admiral of England and to oblige him yet more married up his eldest Son the Lord Dudley to his own Cosin the second Daughter of the Duke of Somerset whom he gave to him for the more honour with his own hand and made Sir Robert Dudley his fourth and his beloved Son the same that was after made by Queen Elizabeth Earl of Leicester one of the Gentlemen of his Bedchamber And to gratifie the whole Faction he made the Marquiss of Dorset Duke of Suffolk the Lord St. John Earl of Wilts and afterwards Marquiss of Winchester Sir John Russel who was Northamberland's Confident he created Earl of Bedford Sir William Paget another of his Tools he made Lord Paget This the good natur'd King did out of sincere Affection to his Uncle in hopes to reconcile him so thoroughly to Northumberland so that there might be no more room left for Envy or Suspect betwixt them But as there is an invisible Erinnis that attends all Great men to do the drudgery of their Ambition in serving their Revenge and observing the Dictates of their power and pride so it was demonstrable by the most unfortunate issue of this so well intended purpose that by the same way the King hoped to please both he pleas'd neither Somerset thinking he had done too much Northumberland thinking that he had done too little who having drunk so deep a Draught of Honour grew hot and dry and like one fall'n into a State-Dropsie swell'd so fast that Somerset perceiving the Feaver that was upon him resolv'd to let him blood with his own hand And coming one day to his Chamber under the colour of a Visit privately arm'd and well attended with Seconds that waited him in an outward Chamber found him naked in his Bed and supposing he had him wholly in his power began to expostulate his wrongs with him before he would give him the fatal stroke whereby t'other perceiving his intent and being arm'd with a Weapon that Somerset had not a ready fence for an Eloquent Tongue he acquitted himself so well and string'd upon him with so many indearing protestations as kept the point of his Revenge down till it was too late to make any Thrust at him Whereby Northumberland got an advantage he never hop'd for to frame a second Accusation against him so much more effectual then the former by how much he brought him under the forfeiture of Felony as being guilty of imagining to kill a Privy Counsellor for which he was the more worthily condemn'd to lose his Head in that he so unworthily lost his Resolution at the very instant of time when he was to vindicate his too much abus'd Patience thereby betraying those of his Friends that came to second him into the scandal of a Crime which had it succeeded would have pass'd for a magnanimous piece of Justice in cutting off one whom however he was content to spare Providence it seems was not reserving him to die a more ignoble death and by a worse hand The sorrow for his ignominious fall as it much affected the Consumptive King his Nephew who was now left as a Lamb in the keeping of the Wolf the Duke of Northumberland having got as high in Power as Title by ruining the Family of the Seymours so his end which was not long after put an end to the Reformation and made way for the Dudley's to aspire with incredible Ambition and not without hope of setling the Succession of the Crown in themselves For the Duke finding that the King languish'd under a Hectical Distemper and having better assurance then perhaps any one else could from his Son that alwayes attended in his Bedchamber that it was impossible for him to hold out long for Reasons best known to him he cast about how to introduce the far fetch'd Title of his other Son who had married the Lady Jane Gray eldest Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk by the Lady Frances one of the Daughters and Heirs of Charles Brandon by his Wife Mary Queen of France the second Daughter of Henry the Seventh And however this seem'd to be a very remote pretention yet making way to other great Families to come in by the same Line in case her Issue fail'd as to the Earl of Cumberland who had married the other Daughter of Charles Brandon and to the Earl of Darby that had married a Daughter of that Daughter and to the Earl of Pembroke that had married the Lady Jane's second Sister it was back'd with so many well-wishers that it was become not only terrible to the Kingdom but to the King himself However there were two Objections lay in the way the one the preference that ought to be
headless Queens The Lady Anna Buloigne and the Lady Katherine Howard either as far divided in Religion as they were in their Affections Eight dayes and upwards past between the proclaiming of this Queen and the calling her first Parliament during which time the two Religions were publickly permitted with equal Indulgence The Divine Service being so blended with Superstition that as one observes the State of England before her Persecution was not much unlike that of the Jews after theirs who presently upon the Captivity took a mid way between Hebrew and Ashdod on the same day that Mass was sung in the Quire at Westminster the English Service was sung in the Body of the Church And the two Religions if divided Opinions may deserve that Name being thus brought to confront each other no marvel if the Demagogues of each Perswasion justled for Precedence the Protestants being back'd by the present Laws the Papists by the Prerogative these incouraged by the Queens Opinion those by her Promises But as in the close of Day light and darkness contesting for Superiority seem equally match'd till in the end the latter prevails So happen'd it now upon the death of the late King whose Religion being different to that of his Successor the Question was which must take place and become the Religion of the State She her self being not so forward to declare after she came to be Queen as she was before But to palliate the matter in discharge of her Obligations to the Loyal Protestant Gentry of Suffolk and Norfolk that were the first set her up she seem'd content to call a Parliament that might take off the Odium from her making way to it by a general pardon which had so many Exceptions in it as shew'd there would be more found at the Convention And now being fearless of any more danger by Rivals happy in the single possession of her self and Throne there wanted nothing to compleat her felicity save that she knew it not Whereby it fell out so unluckily that she brought upon her self very great hatred and clamor by that whereby most Princes secure the love of their People to them whilst being wholly guided by those of her Councel she submitted her Reason to their Passions who under the pretence of Religion ingaged her in the greatest Persecâ—tion that ever was known under any Christian Government causing her to shed more Blood although she reign'd only five years four months and some odd dayes then was spilt by those two great Tyrants Richard the Third and her own Father putting both together there dying for Religion only not to mention what suffer'd on Civil Accompts no less then Three hundred whereof there was one Arch-bishop four Bishops and twenty one Divines of note But that which made it the more supportable was that however she was prodigal of her Subjects Lives she was yet more sparing of their Livelyhoods For she began with a rare Example in pardoning the very first Subsidy she had and she never had but one more So that putting that which was remitted against that which was received she had upon the matter none at all all her time And yet we find she was in continual Action at home or abroad having alwayes as her Father before her occasion to make use of men at Arms either to defend or inlarge her Dominions For as she was obstinate in the Resolution she had taken of restoring the Popes Authority contrary to the promise she made to those who first set her up being perswaded by the Priests that rul'd there that she had no such way to manifest her Faith as by the breach of it So she cut out so much matter for Rebellion by the Violence she offer'd both to Conscience and Interest that she had little Rest but no Peace all her dayes Now whether it were a natural Distrust of her weakness as she was a Woman or a Feminine Diffidence of her Wisdom as she was a Maid or that in truth she desir'd a help meet for satisfaction of her Affections as well as for support of her Affairs is not otherwise to be judg'd then by the choice she made But so it was that finding she could not stand by her self without a Husband no more then an Adjective without a Substantive she propos'd it as the first thing to her Councel directing them to make choice of such an one for her as might be as fit to give Laws to her as she to them Three there were in Proposal for her Philip Infant of Spain Son to the Emperour Charles the Fifth the old Cardinal Pool and the young Marquiss of Exeter to each of which as there were some Motives to draw her Affections so there were many Arguments to disswade her from them Those that had respect to the settlement of the Kingdom thought Philip the fittest match as being a Puissant King strengthned with many great Allies and who had as great an Enmity to the French the only Enemy England ought to fear as they themselves But against him the first Objection was That he was a Stranger The second That being Native of Spain he probably might by this Match bring England into some danger of Subjection to that Kingdom And lastly That there was somewhat of undecency not to say inequality in respect to his Person for that it seem'd strange that she should be the Wife of the Son now who thirty years before should have been Wife to the Father Those that stood for the Cardinal urg'd his Love to his Country and the Love the Country had for him in respect of his great Sanctimony and Wisdom which rendred him particularly acceptable to the Queen then for his Dignity he was not much inferiour to Kings and by his Mother descended from Kings and for his Age it was more agreeable to that of the Queens then that of either of the other two But the principal end of Marriage being Procreation he fell under an exception not to be answer'd as being a Batchelor of near Sixty four years old and so needed a Nurse rather then a Wife The Youth of the Lord Courtney being a brisk Cavalier and by Birth as well as the best Blood of England and France could make him gave him the preferrence above the Cardinal But some of the Juncto objecting That he lov'd Popularity more then ever he could be brought to love the Queen and that he smell'd too ranck of Lutherism to be her Bed-fellow they carried it by a general Vote against him for King Philip as well to take off all Exceptions by the Disparagement of marrying a Subject as for those seasonable and most Incredible Advantages it brought to England which were express'd in the Instrument of Marriage yet extant whereof there needs no further mention then the addition of the Netherlands and Burgundy to be for ever a Member of the Imperial Crown of this Realm in case there had been any Issue betwixt them All this notwithstanding such was the
should be but short were easily drawn into many desperate Conspiracies which ending with the Forfeiture of their own brought her Life and Government into continual Jeopardy The next great thing that feâ—l under her Consideration was the point of Marriage and Singularity For it being doubtful in what state the Kingdom would be left if the Queen of Scots Title should ever take place who besides that she was an avow'd Papist had married the French Kings Son who in her Right bore the Arms and Title of England as well as of Scotland it was told her she would not shew her self a true Mother of her Country without she consented to make her self a Mother of Children Whereunto King Philip of Spain as soon as he heard of Queen Mary his Wives death gave her a fair Invitation by his Ambassador the Conde Feria whom he sent over publickly â—o Congratulate her as a Queen but privately to Court her as a Mistress assuring her that he much rather desired to have her to be his Wife then his Sister and as the Report of her being Successor to his Queen had much allay'd the grief he conceiv'd for her death so he said 't was his desire she should take place in his Bed as well as in his Throne that so by giving her self to him she might requite the kindness shew'd by him when he gave her to her self after her Sister left her exposed to the malice and power of her Enemies In fine he omitted no Arguments to gain his end that might be rais'd from the Consideration of her Gratitude or his own Greatness But she being naturally Inflexible not to say as some have said Impenetrable lest it to her Councel to return this grave Answer for her That she could not consent to have him of all men for a Husband without as great reflection on her Mother as her self since it could not be more lawful for two Sisters to marry the same Husband then for two Brothers to marry the same Wife Secondly That she could not consent to a Match that was like to prove so unfortunate as this would be if without Issue and yet so much more unfortunate with it in respect her Kingdom of England must by the same Obligation become subject to Spain as she to him Thirdly That nothing could more conduce to the Establishing that Authority which had been so industriously abolish'd by her Father and Brother of blessed Memory and conscientiously rejected by her self Fourthly That it could neither be satisfactory to her self or Subjects to have such a King to her Husband whose greatest Concerns being necessarily abroad could neither regard her nor them as he ought much less as they desired This Denial though it seem'd reasonable enough yet King Philip inferring that she dislik'd his Person rather then his Proposal very temperately recommended his Suit to his more youthful Kinsman Charles Duke of Austria second Son to the Emperour Ferdinand who was Rival'd by Eric eldest Son of Gustavus King of Sweden as he by Adolph Duke of Holst Uncle to Frederick III. King of Denmark But neither of these being more successful then his most Catholick Majesty the whole Parliament became Suiters to her to think of Posterity and to eternize her Memory not so much by a Successor like her self as by one descended from her self Which serious address she answer'd with a Jest telling them she was married already And shewing them a Ring on her Finger the same she had received at her Coronation told them it was the Pledge of Love and Faith given her by her dear Spouse the Kingdom of England which words she delivered with such an odd kind of Pleasantness that all the Wise men amongst them thought she made Fools of them and the Fools thought themselves made so much wiser by it as to understand her meaning to be that she would not look abroad for a Husband but take one of her own Subjects Amongst the rest thus mistaken was Leicester himself who having the vanity to believe he might be the man obstructed his own preferment when he was propos'd as a fitting Husband for the Queen of Scots The Catholick King however he had been rejected hoping that the Catholick Religion might find better acceptation continued his Frâ—endship a long time after his Courtship was ended being so respectful to the Nation not to say to the Queen her self that he would make no accord with the French at the Treaty of Cambray without the restoration of Calais to the English But when he understood how far the Queen had proceeded in point of Reformation how she had as resolutely refus'd to be the Popes Daughter as to be his Wife how she had disallow'd the Councel of Trent and set up a Synod of her own at London he not only left her as slightly as she left him but made such a Conclusion with the French as gave her more cause of Jealousie being not his Wife then she could possibly have had if he had been her Husband For marrying the Lady Isabella eldest Daughter to that King it was suspected that the two Crowns might thereupon unite against England upon the account of the Queen of Scots her Claim who being the Daulphins Wife and the next in Succession after Queen Elizabeth or as some will have it in Right before her as being the undoubted Heir of the Lady Margaret eldest Daughter of Henry the Seventh was therefore the only Person in the World to whom she could never be reconciled holding her self oblig'd by the Impulse of Nature Honour and Religion to oppose her as after she did to the death wherein perhaps there was no less of Envy then Reason of State being as much offended with her Perfections as her Pretensions For that t'other was a Lady that equall'd her in all surmounted her in some and was inferiour to her in no respects but Fortune only This as it prov'd a Feud that puzled that Age to unriddle the meaning of it charging all the Misunderstanding betwixt them upon the despite of Fate only which to speak Impartially was never more unkind not to say unjust all Circumstances of the Story considered to any Soveraign Princess in the World then to that poor Queen so it was the wonder of this till we saw by the no less fatal Example of that Queens Grandson our late Soveraign how the best of Princes may fall under the power of the worst of men For it was Flattery and Feminine Disdain questionless that first divided them beyond what the difference of Nation Interest or Religion could have done which heightning their mutual Jealousies insensibly ingag'd them before they were aware in such a Game of Wit and Faction as brought all that either had at last to stake and made them so wary in their Play on both sides that the Set ended not as long as the one liv'd or the other reign'd The Queen of Scots had the advantage of Queen Elizabeth by the Kings in her Stock the Kings of
the Thirteenth to reassume the Country into his hands as one of the Kingdoms reputed parcel of St. Peter's Patrimony and held of the Church as he alledged by the Kings of England upon no other Condition but that of Fealty to the See of Rome and therefore Forfeited by the Heresie of the Queen His Holiness who has been ever very captious of all Advantages of this kind was easily prevail'd with to bestow it upon his Natural Son the Marquiss of Vincula to whom one Stukely an Englishman being therefore dignified with the Title of Marquiss of Lempster and Earl of Wexford was appointed General having Eight hundred Italians under his Command Before whom was sent as a Vant-Currier one Fitz-Morris with a Consecrated Banner two Priests and three Ships These dull Rebels were to joyn with those more active ones the Earl of Desmond and his Brothers and were to take Livery and Seisin till the rest could come upon the Place But as was the Cause so was the Success and sitter it was that he should meet with a Cross then a Crown that being but Christs Vicar should be so ambitious of having a Kingdom in this World when his Lord had none for himself Stukely ended his life before he began his Rebellion Fitz-Morris was betray'd by his Fellow-Traytors before his own Treachery could take any effect San Joseph that succeeded him one that was half Jew and half Italian was glad to secure his own with the loss of all their Lives that were under him whiles Desmond the Great Rebel was forc'd to yield to lower Conditions then any of them and the two Priests that attended the holy Banner were starved upon the Mountains But after these there started up yet several others as the Mac Williams since call'd the Burks the Mac Connels in Connaught the Mac Mahons and O Rorks in Monagan the O Connors and O Mulloys in Ophaly and some of the O Brians and Cavenaghs in Lempster who did what they could to raise Tumults but so faintly that we may rather call them Riots then Rebellions signifying no more to her than the bitings of Fleas to a Lion However doubting how she might be pestred with more such Vermine in the heat of the Summer following she took timely care to prevent the worst and having Intelligence given her that they intended to dispute her Soveraignty at Sea as they had done her Right by Land she muster'd up all her Naval Forces determining to carry the War as far from home as possibly she could These were commanded by the famous Drake who resolving to fight them in the other World as well as in this advanced to the place where 't was said the Golden Apples grew where finding no Dragon to keep them so fierce as himself he made himself Master of as much Treasure as might have been a sufficient Found for a greater Empire then that he fought for had either his Covetousness held any proportion with his Courage or his Ambition with his Activity for he brought home besides what was imbezled and conceal'd above two thousand pound weight of uncoyn'd Silver and twelve Chests of ready coyn'd and no less then five hundred pound weight of Gold besides Jewels of an inestimable value having several Carcanets of Diamonds Rubies Topazes Saphires and Emeralds of an incredible Magnitude issued Silks and other rich Commodities of the growth and manufacture of the Country being thought not worth the Portage This added no less to the Fame then to the Wealth of this great Queen who being before compar'd to Solomon for her Wisdom seem'd now not unlike him for her Opulence But not content with this single income of Glory she commanded her Fortunate Admiral back again the second time to brave them at Land as before at Sea where after having taken St. Jago St. Domingo and Cartagena three of the most considerable Towns they had he return'd even surfeited with Victory his Head being as giddy with new Contrivances as his mens were with the Calenture who in the midst of all their Abundance wanting health only were forc'd to take leave of the place being troubled that they could bring home no greater a booty then what was esteem'd at One hundred thousand pounds Sterling and Two hundred and forty pieces of brass Cannon to report their Victory But because this look'd like wounding that King in the hinder parts only she was not satisfied till she gave him one blow in the Face and accordingly sent to defie him before his own Doors entring his chief Port of Cales in which they took and fired no less then One hundred Ships and furnishing themselves with great store of Ammunition and Victuals made for the Cape of St. Vincent where having demolish'd the Forts they pass'd on to the Assores under the great Meridian where they took a great Carack returning from the East-Indies which having the name of St. Philip it was by the Superstitious Seamen look'd on as an ominous Presage of the Future ill Fortune of their King Philip by Sea Whilst Drake was thus active to the Southward Candish was no less busie to the Westward who having destroy'd several Colonies in Chily Peru and Nova Hispania return'd home Laden with the Spoils of Nineteen rich Ships taken in his way And now King Philip provok'd no less by the shame then the continued loss he had sustain'd for above two years together with redoubled diligence and charge got ready a mighty Fleet hoping to perform some wonders suitable to the Expectation of the Time as well as of the Importance of the Affair it being by Astronomers call'd The wonderful Year and being the great Clymacterich of the World they concluded it must produce some extraordinary Effects Neither indeed was there any thing then in the World so extraordinary and amazing as the sight of that moving Wood of his consisting of no less then One hundred and fifty tall Ships which carri'd in them besides all Habiliments of War Twenty thousand men and expected Fifty thousand more to be joyn'd with them that the Duke of Parma was to bring out of Flanders all which were to be Landed in the Thames mouth that so by seizing on the Head they might the more easily command every Member of the whole Body of the Kingdom Well may we imagine that the report of such a Preparation as this the work of no less then three years time was heard further then the noise of their Cannon could though 't is incredible how far they were heard and one would have thought the Sound of that terrible Name they gave their Fleet El Invincible Armado might have been sufficient to have made an universal Earth-quake throughout Christendom But it seems the Adamantine hearts of the Neighbour Princes were so impenetrable that it did not much move them for being satisfied in the Counterpoise of the Queens Power they stood at Gaze seemingly unconcern'd The Queen had prepar'd a double Guard one for the Land t'other for the Sea that by
so unreasonable a Story or not be able to write it so plainly as that it may be intelligible How a King was made a Subject to his Vassals and how they were made Slaves to one another How every man who had any honesty was afraid and every one who had any honour asham'd to own it How they that had any Reason were forc'd to deny or disguise it lest their Wisdom should bring them under Suspect and that Suspect under Condemnation whiles Loyalty was the only proper Subject for a Tragedy and Religion for a Farse God with us being set up against Dieu mon Droit For all which we have no excuse to give to Posterity but must disclaim with the Poet and say to each Reader Desit in hac tibi parte Fides nec credite Factum Ovid. Metam Vel si credatis facti quoque Credite poenam But we have this to attenuate our dishonour if the condemning them can any whit excuse us that the Scots were not disunited from us in point of Shame more then in point of Guilt who having the impudence to make their King their Prisoner sold him back to their Brethren of the Covenant here at a dearer rate then the Jews paid for Christ or then possibly those here would have given for him had they not thought it the price of their own Freedom rather then his But as the buyers found themselves not long after miserably disappointed by the Regicides who took the Quarrey from them so those that sold him to them liv'd to see themselves sold at a lower rate then he was and bought by those who bought him of them The Genius of the whole Nation of Scotland feeling a just reverberation of Divine Vengeance in being rendred afterward no Kingdom I might say no People if we consider the Akephalisis that follow'd but a miserable subjected Province to the Republicans of England without any hope of Redemption but what they must expect from the free grace of his Son against whom they had thus sinned And however they have since recover'd something of their ancient Glory by the Merits of some great Persons amongst them eminent for their Loyalty but more particularly by the merits of the brave Montross whose incomparable Example alone is enough to buoy up the dishonour of their lost Nation as being more lasting yet 't is to be fear'd they as well as we yet suffer so much in their reputation abroad that the very Pagan Princes of the other part of the World how remote soever have been alarm'd at the report of so unpresidented an Impiety and accompting themselves therefore more secure in the Fâ—ith of their Bruitish Subjects then our King can be in ours rejoyce at the happiness of having no Commerce with us exalting himself in the words of the Poet Ovid. Metam Si tamen admissum sinit hoc Natura videri Gratulor huic terrae quod abest Regionibus illis Quae tantum fecêre nefas THE ORDER AND SUCCESSION OF THEIR KINGS I. date of accession 1603 JAMES the Sixth of Scotland and first of England being after the death of Queen Elizabeth the last of the direct Line the next Heir as only Son of Mary Queen of Scots sole Daughter and Heir of James the Fifth Son and Heir of James the Fourth by Margaret eldest Daughter of Henry the Seventh of England was on S. James 's day 1603. Crown'd King of Great Britain and Prince Henry his eldest Son dying before him the Crown descended to his second Son II. date of accession 1627 CHARLES the First a Prince who deserving the best of any other was the worst used by his People that ever any King was but Heaven has been pleas'd to recompence him for the indignities he suffer'd here on earth by compelling all those who would not allow him the honour of a KING whiles he was alive to reverence him as a PROPHET being dead themselves being made the instruments in the accomplishment of his dying Prediction That God would at last restore his Son III. date of accession 1648 CHARLES the Second our present Soveraign who bless'd be Divine Providence for it after twelve years rejection by those Sons of Zerviah that were too hard for him was brought back triumphant and placed upon the Throne by an invisible hand which having now recorded hu right as it were with the Beams of the Sun unworthy are they of that light who do not willingly submit to him being as he is the undoubted Heir to his Fathers Vertues as well as to his Kingdoms HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT Now if it be one of the most desirable points of happiness because the most durable to have such Subjects as wish no other Soveraign but himself as himself desired no other Subjects but those he had so we may believe he had a large share of Joy with the People and possibly more transcendent then most men conceiv'd in respect of the Reflections he could not but make upon his past Troubles which in some sort may be said to have taken their beginning even before he took his there being such a Sympathy in Nature that he could not but have some Convulsion fits in his Mothers Womb at the time when that unhappy Prince received his death to whom he was indebted for his life especially since the same men by the same Principle they were mov'd to deprive him of a Father were obliged to deprive him of his Soveraignty as after they attempted to do when they disputed his Right of Succession Thus far he suffer'd being yet unborn Now being born he seem'd to be in no less danger in his Cradle then that great Legislator of the Jews was at the same Age in his Bull-rush Ark being toss'd and tumbled by the agitation of several swelling Factions as t'other by the motion of the troubled Waters whilst they that made away his Father began with no less Audacity to fall upon his Mother and as they strangled the King first and then blew up the House afterward so now they restrain'd the Queen under so streight a Confinement that she could scarce breath and blew up her Power which we may call her Castle by a train of Popularity to which Buchanan gave Fire by that Invective he wrote against the Monarchy of that Kingdom intituled De Jure Regni apud Scotos wherein as much as in him lay he subjected Kingship to be trampled underfoot by the Beasts of the People affirming that they had the Right to create or depose their Princes as they pleas'd And accordingly they compell'd his Mother to resign into their hands the Crown she had receiv'd in her Cradle to be given to him that was now lying in his Thus far he suffer'd being yet uncrown'd Five dayes after his Mothers Resignation he was Crown'd and Anointed and being but thirteen Moneths old was acknowledg'd King by the Name of James the Sixth But at very same
time they agniz'd his Right they admitted a Protestation for saving the Right of another James to wit the Duke of Chasteau Herauld who it seems had some Pretensions in Right of his Great-Grandmother the Daughter and Heir of James the Second So that this was as yet but to make him a King in Name and shew whilst he must continue under the Pupilage of Ambitious Regents that design'd rather to give Laws to him then advise him how to give Laws to others 'T is true whilst he was under the care of those two Patriots of known Honour and Loyalty his Grandfather Matthew Earl of Lenox and the old Earl of Marre the one his Governour by the right of Nature t'other by that of Custom he had some Satisfaction though no Security for how could they be able to protect him that were not able to defend themselves the first of them being murther'd the last heart-broke by the insupportable Troubles he met with in his short breath'd Regency But how melancholy a life he lead under his next Regent the Earl of Morton who under pretence of keeping all Papists and Factious Persons from him suffer'd him to see almost no body appears by that strict Order of his by which every Earl was forbid to approach his Presence with any more then two attending him every Baron with any above one and all of lesser Quality were not to come but single Upon this 't is true the offended Nobility to affront Morton declar'd him Major and made some shew of leaving him to his own dispose but in respect he was but twelve years old they thought fit to appoint him eleven Lords more to be assistant in Councel to him three and three by turns which in effect was to put twelve Regents over him instead of one which was design'd by some that intended their own advancement more then his Thus he suffer'd during the Nonage of his years How he suffer'd further during the Nonage of his Power will appear in the Sequel For Morton notwithstanding the Prescript Form of Government drew to himself being one of the twelve the Administration of all Affairs and keeping the Power still within his own hands as the King within his own Power admitted none to see or speak with him but whom he thought fit whereby he was now brought to loose his Liberty wholly because t'other had loss his Authority in part only This Tyranny held till the Lords headed by the Earl of Athole freed him by force of Arms After which believing himself clearly manumitted out of his Pupillage to shew himself accountable to none but himself he began to single out such Friends for his Confidents as by nearness of Blood or the nobleness of their Natures he judg'd most worthy to be trusted Two there were above the rest on whom he seem'd to cast a disproportionate Grace these were Esme Lord Aubigny Grandson of the Lord John Stuart his Grandfathers younger Brother whom he created first Earl and after Duke of Lenox and Charles Earl of Arran who being a Hamilton was his near Kinsman too but both of them being suspected to be of the French Faction it gave fresh occasion of offence to the chief of the Factions there and no less umbrage to the jealous Queen here who knew the former of the two to be much honoured by the Guises This new conceiv'd Envy heightned the old Rancor of the mutinous Nobility and made them have recourse to the same Remedy for prevention of the same Mischief as before whereunto there being a fair opportunity given by the absence of these Lords the one being in a Journey t'other at Edenburgh the Earl of Gowry with whom confederated the young Earl of Marre and the Earl of Lindsey finding the King alone at St. Johnstons invited him over to his Castle of Reuthen As soon as they had him there they made him Prisoner and accusing the two Lords as Enemies to the Protestant Religion having first put all his trusty Servants from him they forc'd him by an Instrument under his Hand and Seal to banish the Lord Aubigny and to imprison the Lord Arran and which was yet more insupportable compell'd him to approve all that they did by Letters to Queen Elizabeth But it was not long ere the death of the Duke of Lenox in France who 't is said however dyed a Protestant made the Conspirators so secure in the possession of him that he found the means to make his escape from them And recovering himself now the second time as one that once more became Lord of himself he recall'd his trusty Councellor the Lord Arran by whose advice he was guided in all his Concerns This so provoked Gowry beyond all patience that in defiance of all Reason as well as of all Right he made a second attempt upon him But as those who are fore-warn'd are fore-arm'd so the King having an eye upon him defeated his purpose and made him what he should himself have been made by him a Prisoner at Mercy whilst his Complices escap'd into England to seek Protection from Q. Elizabeth Who hoping to have prevented Gowry's Sentence dispatch'd away her Secretary Walsingham to the King to admonish him to take heed how he was led away by evil Counsellors and to shew him how difficult a thing it was to distinguish betwixt good and bad Counsel at his Age being then but eighteen years old to which the King return'd a sudden not to say a sharp Answer That he was an absolute Prince and would not that others should appoint him Counsellors whom he liked not Wherewith the testy Queen was so offended that she set her Terriers upon Incouraging the factious Ministry whereof there was good store there and those fit Tools for her purpose to say those things which became not her to own who clamoring upon his Government and raising many slanders upon Himself and Councel tending to the making them Popishly affected were thereupon cited to Answer for their Seditious Practises But they refused to appear avowing that the Pulpit was exempt from all Regal Authority and that no Ecclesiastical Persons were accomptible for what they preach'd to any but to God and their Consistory In the mean time the Queen follow'd the blow and furnishing the proscrib'd Lords with Money secretly dismiss'd them home Who as soon as they return'd upon the Credit of declaring for the Confirmation of the Truth of the Gospel for freeing the King from evil Counsellors and maintaining Amity with the Protestant Interest of England rais'd Eight thousand men in an Instant with whom they marched up directly to Court and so far surpriz'd the King that he was forced to render himself to them and to ingage to give up to their Mercy all their Adversaries and who they were was left to their own liberty to declare Next he was compell'd to put into their hands the four Keys of the Kingdom Dumbritton Edinburgh Tantallon and Sterling Castles After which Glames one of the principal Rebels was
others all men of good Families and of as good Education one would have thought it a soberer and deeper design then it proved to be Some think their intention was to have seiz'd on the Persons of the King and Queen and their Children and so to have made Conditions with him for the Kingdom in general and perhaps for themselves in particular being perswaded by some cunning Casuist amongst them That it could be no Treason being enter'd into before the King was Crown'd and Anointed And in case they could not bring the King to their terms 't was said they resolv'd to set up the Title of the Lady Arabella as the next presumptive Heir to the Crown being sole Daughter of Charles Earl of Lenox younger Brother to the Kings Grandfather whom the King when her Father dyed put besides that Title as by Custom of Scotland he might being a Donation during his Minority to give it to his Cosin Esme Lord Aubigny the Heir Male of the Lord John the other younger Brother Now that which gave colour to this unreasonable Conjecture of setting up this Lady was the particular respect Sir Walter Rawleigh profest to her but if his enmity to Spain had not been a more unpardonable sin then his amity with her the Charge Count Gundamore brought against him could not have been so much more pressing upon him then the Attorney Generals upon his Fellows to make his much Merit no less criminal then their much Guilt and which was more unlucky to render him a greater Sufferer by the Kings Mercy then divers of them were by his Justice who having freed him after Condemnation was prevail'd with by the Spaniard to condemn him after that freedom contrary to the opinion of divers learned Gown-men who held that his Majesties Pardon lay inclusively in that Commission he gave him afterward upon his setting out to Sea it being incongruous that he should have had the disposing of the lives of others who was not clearly Master of his own But herein those that were his particular Friends and Relations were not more surpriz'd then all the World beside For as they expected to have been indebted to his Sword for bringing home more Gold then would have paid the price of his forfeited Head so every Body eâ—se hoped to have been no less indebted to his Pen for finishing that most excellent Piece of his The History of the Old World which ended as untimely as himself by attempting a Discovery of The new One Now as this Plot seems to have been as dark as the place it self where it was first hatch'd so it was made yet darker by the wisdom of the King who kept the Cause unknown to the intent it might have no Seconds However some have concluded from the appointment of that Conference of Divines which hapned not long after at Hampton-Court that whatever Reasons of State topt the Plot Religion lay at the bottom of it which being at all times a sure foundation for any treasonable practices was at this time so much more seasonably pretended by how much the King being as yet a stranger and unsetled not knowing whom to suspect much less whom to trust would necessarily be dâ—stracted with various apprehensions and not think himself secure in the Glory of being Defender of the Kingdom till he appeared to be The True Defender of the Faith here in England as well as Defender of the True Faith for so run his Title in Scotland Neither were they deceiv'd that took this measure of his Zeal or Fears it being well known that he was as ambitious to shew the first as other Princes were careful to conceal the last Witness the pleasure he took in wrestling as I said before with Pope Pius the Fourth not as Jacob wrestled with the Angel to obtain his Blessing but as he contested with Esau to shew how little he regarded his Cursing After which he entred the List to grapple with that more dreadful Monster the Presbyter who professing to hate the pomp of Superstition disdain'd to give Obedience to any kind of Order in the Church being like the Chymara which the * Vid. Ovid. Metam lib. 6. Poets feign'd to have breath'd out fire having the head and breast of a Lyon a bold voracious Creature but very dull with the belly of a Goat and therefore much followed by the Female Sex and the tail of a Dragon to sting the Consciences of those that follow him and make them spiritually mad Betwixt him and the Pope finding Religion to be placed as his own Arms were betwixt the Lyon and the Unicorn who trampled under their feet his Beati Pacifici with as much scorn as they have since Diâ—u Mon Droit He thereupon deferr'd the matter no longer but calling before him the ablest of those that took upon them to oppose the Monarchy of the Church he resolv'd to preside himself in the Controversie betwixt them and the Bishops He that was the Prolocutor of the Non-conformists hapning to be a man worthy a better imployment then that Religious Drudgery they had ingaged him in was so modest notwithstanding it was his business to oppose all Formality as to offer nothing that was altogether void of Form beginning with a General Discourse of the Necessity of a thorow Reformation he brought the Desires of his dissatisfied Brethren under four Heads beseeching his Majesty that there might be 1. An establishment of true Doctrine in the Church as if that receiv'd from Christ and his Apostles had not been as yet sufficiently clear'd 2. That there might be a settlement of true and faithful Pastors meaning men of known simplicity and plainness and if not Fishermen as were the Apostles yet of any other Trade or Occupation 3. That there might be a sincere Administration in point of Government meaning that the Presbyter might he joyn'd in Commission with the Bishop as Calves-head and Bacon are better meat together then either of them alone that by his letting in as many at the back door as the Bishop did at the fore door great might be the multitude of Preachers 4. That the Book of Common Prayer might be fitted to a more increase of Piety by lengthening the Prayers which as one of the Fraternity and doubtless a Taylor objected were like short shreds or ends of threds that were too quickly wrought off and spiritualizing them with some less intelligible Phrases to prevent praying by rote These Proposals of his being inforced by a not unlearned Discourse however more like an Orator then a Divine he concluded with sundry Objections 1. Against Confirmation as being altogether needless and unnecessary because it added nothing as he said to the Validity and Sufficiency of the Sacrament To which Answer was given That the Church held it no essential part of the Sacrament but judg'd it a thing most reasonabâ—e that Children who at their Baptism had made Profession of their Faith by others should so soon as they came to years of
which were likewise confirm'd by Act of Parliament the great Lords having as yet heard nothing of any Commission of Surrendries which was that great Rock of Offence against which his Successor King Charles the First did so unluckily dash himself to pieces Due care being thus taken for Establishment of Truth and Order in the Church the next great Work was to establish quiet in the State that Righteousness and Peace might kiss each other which he judged to be a consideration not less necessary then prudent the active Government of his Predecessor Queen Elizabeth who led all the brave men in her time to hard duty having tired out almost a l the stirring Spirits of the Nation However though it did ease it did not generally please the People the humor of Fighting being not so wholly spent but that it broke out afterward to worse purpose it being in our Fate as has been observ'd by some Melancholy States-men that whenever we are long kept from quarrelling with others we are apt to quarrel with one another But that which discontented the Men of Mars most was to see the Faction of the Gown-men pricking up and wholly predominant Upon this lower Orb as in the Skie Aleyn Vit. H. 7. Sol constantly is nearest Mercury Neither did he take part with them so much out of the pleasure he had in Books as out of an aversness to Arms whereunto he seem'd to have such an Antipathy that by his good will he did not care to see any Sword-man within his Palace whereby the Court came by degrees to loose two points of its ancient Lustre one in the Exercise of Tilting which was an Entertainment that added much to the Grandeur and Magnificence of the late Queen and King Henry her Father the other in the choice of the Gentlemen Pentioners an Order which being set up by the Wisdom of her Grand-father Henry the Seventh a Prince of severe Gravity she was so fond of and so curious in ordering the state of their attendance that none could attain to that honour all her time but who were men of very good Quality and yet more goodly Stature who by their graceful Personage might set forth the place as she design'd the place should set forth them so that in time it became a kind of Nursery for Officers and Men of Command who were sent abroad into France and the Low-Countries to learn the Art of cutting Throats if need were and so return'd again But this King it seems being taken with no such armed Pomp neglected it so far that some of the ruffling Gallants about the Town began to speak of it with more freedom then became their Duty or Discretion taxing him downright with Pusillanimity and causless fears saying that he trifled away more money in insignificant Embassies and Negotiations for a dishonorable Peace then would have maintain'd an honorable War But he having before shut up the Gates of Janus all his talk was as we commonly say without Doors for he esteem'd it honour enough that he had conquer'd himself according to that of the Poet Fortior est qui se quam qui fortissima vincit Moenia Peace he had at home without his seeking for it O Neil the great Disturber of his Predecessors quiet being presented to him as a Prisoner by the Lord Mountjoy as soon almost as he came in which gave him the occasion to begin with the settlement of Ireland first by giving the possession of the whole Province of Ulster O Neil's Country and the sink of Rebellion to the Citizens of London who thereupon setled two Colonies there the one at Derry every since call'd London-derry t'other at Colraine which they stor'd with Four hundred Artizans whilst the King for the better supplying them with Souldiers erected a new Order of Knighthood call'd Baronets from their taking place next the Sons of Barons each of which was ingaged to lay down as much money at the Sealing of his Patent as would maintain thirty Foot Souldiers one whole year at the rate of Eight pence a day a piece which came to twenty shillings a day And the Complement of these Knights being Two hundred there was a compleat Establishment of Three thousand Souldiers without any further noise to be ready for his Service whenever he had occasion to make use of them Now in order to the having Peace abroad there needed no more but to renew the Leagues he had made before with the Princes his Neighbours under another stile The great Question was Whether he should accept of the Olive-branch from the King of Spain with whom his Predecessor had so long contended for the Laurel and upon debating the whole matter besides the motives of the Half-peace already made with him whilst he was King of Scotland and the whole benefit of Trade that he was like to have as he was King of England the certainty of setting the Catholick and the most Christian Kings together by the Ears the uncertainty of being able to raise monies to maintain a War so easily as Queen Elizabeth did who had the knack of borrowing money which serv'd her to as good purpose as if it had been given the Parliament being for the most part the Pay-masters there were many Reasons of State some whereof were not fit to be publish'd perhaps not to be understood which induced him to call in the Letters of Mart and conclude that League which how acceptable it was to both Kings may be guess'd by the mutual Caressings of each other with extraordinary Embassies and Presents and the more then ordinary Ratification of the Articles of Peace but how far the People were content to have any Friendship with the Catholick King it is easie to guess especially after the discovery of that Catholick Plot commonly call'd the Gun-powder Treason which as it was contriv'd in a hotter place then Spain so it was hatch'd up in Darkness never to partake of the Light but when it was to be all Light and to give such a terrible blow as was at once to Extinguish the Light the Hope and the Glory of this Nation This the All-seeing Eye of Providence which pierces thorow the dark Womb of Conspiracy and blasts the Embrio of Treason before it can be form'd miraculously detected to the amazement of all Mankind no body imagining there could be such danger by Fire so near unto the Water the meaning of it being so little understood even after it was discovered that neither could the Lord Monteagle who receiv'd the first notice in a Letter writ in an unknown hand tell to what Friend he owed his Preservation nor any one else guess from what Enemy they were to expect their destruction till the King himself by inspiration rather then instinct yet admonish'd perhaps by the subversion of that House wherein his Father was murther'd apprehended by the word Blow what the Element must be that was to be so subtil in its Execution as that they who were hurt for
Indos The first possession we had of New-England being principally ascribed to that of his here in Old England both that Virginia and Bermudas three of our most famous Plantations however discover'd before his time having in no measure recover'd so much strength as to make good the Ground they laid Title to till influenced by his Wisdom The chief Town therefore of Virginia the chief Plantation being in honour of his Memory call'd James town by which remote Land-mark if we take the Dimensions of his Greatness considering the Ocean he commanded betwixt this and that other World which was no less properly his Dominion then the Terra Firma beyond it We need not wonder at the Learned Grotius his making him a Rival with Neptune since his Trident was nothing so glorious as t'others three Scepters tria Sceptra Profundi Grot. Silvar lib. 2. In magnum Coiêre Ducem Licet omnia Casus Magna suos metuunt Jacobo Promissa Potestas Cum Terris Pelagoque manet HONI · SOIT · QVI · MAL · Y · PENSE DIEV ET MON DROIT Neither was it the least cause of his Misfortunes that he had a War devolv'd upon him by his peaceable Father without any means to carry it on so that to save a Sister he in some sort hazarded the loosing himself the ill beginning of the Recovery of the Palatinate being the first if not the principal Cause of loosing as after he did his own Dominions beyond all Recovery For as it was evident that his Parliaments taking the first Occasion from his Necessities to put what price they pleas'd upon their Supplies made this the first Occasion of a breach betwixt them so 't is as evident That the King of France taking his measure of his weakness by that of their strength was tempted to provoke him to a second before he had ended the first War which he not being able to sustain was necessitated to stoop to such low Conditions as prov'd the Foundation of a more Fatal War at home then that he declined abroad Thus the sower Grapes his Father eat set his Teeth on edge and however the same Fruit is said to have cost his elder Brother his Life yet when he came to declare what 't was he lov'd best he preserv'd the * The French before the Spaâ—â—st Lady Vine before the Pomgranate whether as judging it more flexible or certainly more fruitful is not known but it appears by what follow'd that he rather pleas'd himself in that choice then his People who as they ever preferr'd Spanish before French Wine so their aversness to the French Nation made them not only pass by many unbeseeming Censures upon the Match not condering they deny'd him that Liberty every private man of them contested for but malitiously to charge the Innocent Queen with all the Ills that follow'd afterward as oft as his Parliaments and he differ'd which was as often as they met and that was not seldom for he had no less then five in fifteen years who notwithstanding never any Prince desired more to give them satisfaction were all very froward and ill dispos'd towards him The very first he call'd shewing themselves not willing to understand him and the second behav'd themselves so that he was asham'd to own he understood them and at the third meeting either understood one another so well that they began to quarrel the fourth gave him the Justle and the fifâ—h made it good by fighting him Neither were the States of Holland shorter sighted then the K. of France who as they were false to their own and naturally hated all Kings so they took Occasion to fish in our troubled Waters breaking in upon his Soveraignty at Sea as his own Subjects upon his Prerogative at Land which though it were as great an Affront to the whole Nation as to him yet the grand Representatives of that time took so little notice of it that one would have thought they had designed to have exprest no less disdain of his then the Roman Senate did of the Government of the Decemviri Qui nequid eorum Ductu aut Auspicio prosperè gereretur vinci se Patiebantur saith Tacitus for when he came to demand aid of them they not only deny'd him but left him in a worse Condition then they found him making him as great a Sufferer in his Reputation as he was in his Right And that which made this Misfortune the more notorious was That the same Course he took to make the matter better made it worse For having no ready money to set out a Navy nor means to get any he was forced to make use of a little Treasure-trove if I may call it for which he was beholding to his Attorney-General Noy who incouraged him to lay a Tax upon the People by the dubious Authority of an antiquated and as it was afterward call'd Arbitrary Law whereby the Kings of England heretofore had power given them to impose a Naval Tax in case of eminent danger by Sea A Law which at the first making was judg'd to be as reasonable as necessary being intended to prevent the frequent Incursions of the Danes before the Norman Conquest but all Fears of that Nature having vanish'd so long since to revive it now was look'd on like the drawing forth of an old rusty Sword which gave such a wound to the Liberty of the Subject that though it were not very deep rankled to that degree as notwithstanding the many good applications afterward to heal it the inflammation could not be taken off till it turn'd to a Gangreen Thus whilst he resolv'd to do nothing but by Law the legality of his proceedings is taken for an act of the highest Tyranny Neither was this the worst on 't to see his Fleet as it were dry-foundred at Land before it could put to Sea for the Parliament instead of maintaining his busied themselves wholly in asserting their own Rights bringing them to the old Standard of Magna Charta and the Petition of Right Which however it seem'd to be bad enough in the Intention all Circumstances then consider'd proved yet worse in the Explication being constru'd not long after to the prejudice of his Right of Tonnage and Poundage in discussing whereof they committed a Violence upon themselves which declared what they intended upon him by leaving a President that as much out-lasted their Cause as the Cause did their Priviledge shutting up the Doors of their House as if guilty that they deserv'd to be disturb'd till they had fully vented their Passion in some menacing Vores that urg'd him to dissolve them by such a kind of Force as was every whit as rare as their Insolence the breaking up their Doors for so he was fain to do before he could get Entrance though himself was there in Person to demand it making so great a noise that it was heard not only thorow every part of the discontented City but Kingdom and the sound became the more
to both yet neither was so tortur'd between the Consideration of what was safe and what was Just that it appear'd in bringing the Earl they had brought him to Tryal and put him into such an Agony as shook the very Foundations of the Government And this Hesitation of his prov'd to be the Groundwork of three the most Important Jealousies that ever troubled any State the Parliament thereupon declaring themselves dissatisfied in the Security of their Religion Proprieties and Priviledges to the clearing whereof they made not long after three as strange Proposals 1. For the Extirpation of Bishops 2. The Establishment of a Triennial Parliament 3. The Delivery of the Militia into their Disposal This Contumacy of theirs taking its rise from the Confidence they had in their Brethren the Scots who all this while continued in Arms upon the Borders for want of money to disband them eating like a Fistula Insensibly into the Bowels of the Kingdom he made it his first care to cure that Malady wherein he proceeded with that great judgment and skill that in paying them off the Parliament gave the Money but he the Satisfaction having thereby so far recover'd the good Opinion of those People however they came to be perverted afterward that as soon as he arriv'd in their Country whither he went in Person presently after the Peace was concluded they gave him two notable Instances of their Duty and Submission The first Publick in reviving that good old Law there which made it Treason for any to Leavy Arms without the Kings Leave and Commission The second Private in the discovery of the five Members here that had been the principal Engineers to draw them into England But whilst he was busie in quenching the Incendiations of Scotland behold a more dreadful Fire breaks out in Ireland the Matter whereof was so prepaâ—'d that there appear'd very little or no smoak of Suspition till it was all in a Flame and which made it more terrible was That the Rebels pretended to take their Rule from the English as their President from the Scots in defending their Religion Proprieties and Liberties by Arms all which being as they said undermined not knowing how soon the Blow might be given they thought it justifiable enough to prevent what they could not withstand Now to prove that their Religion was in danger they urg'd the Preparatory Votes and Menaces of the House of Commons in England and for the proof of the Impairing their Liberty and Proprieties they referr'd to the Remonstrances of those in Scotland who made it the first motive of their rising that they were like to be reduced to the slavish Condition of Ireland in being brought under the Form of a Province and subjected to the insupportable Tyranny of a * The placing a President ov r the Councel of State being the Ground of that Fear Lord Lieutenant And now to add a Varnish to this Colour they declar'd for Preservation of the Kings Rights as well as their own swearing to oppose with Life Power and Estate all such as should directly or indirectly indeavour to Suppress the Royal Prerogative of the King his Heirs and Successors or do any †Referring to the Proceedings of the Parliament in England who had but a little before taken away the Tonnage Poundage the Sâ—ipmoney Court of Wards High Commission-Court and were earnestly contesting for the Militia c. Act or Acts contrary to the Royal Government This Declaration of theirs was written with a Pen of Iron in Letters of Blood as believing that no Rebels in the World had more to say for themselves then they at least that they had much more matter of Justification then either the Scots or English could pretend to who justified themselves by seigning only to suspect what t'other really suffer'd under Neither perhaps had the World so condemned them all Circumstances considered had there not appear'd a Self-condemnation within themseâ—ves by counterfeiting a * Whiâ—h that it might be the more authent câ— they take off an old Seal from an Absolâ—te Patent to Farâ—ham-Abby which they annex'd to it Commission from the King to justifie this their Arming falsly bragging that the Queen was with them and that the King would very shortly come to them Which as it was a base and abject piece of Policy that lost them more Credit when it was detected then it got them Repute while it was believ'd so it was malitious towards the King to that degree with respect to the Condition he was then in that it cannot otherwise be thought but that having murther'd so many of his Protestant Subjects they had a mind to murther him too The Consequences of that great Suspition it brought upon him being such as he could never recover the disadvantages it fastned on him till he fell finally under the power of those Sons of Belial who destroyed him for no other Reason but to destroy Monarchy it self So that he was not much mistaken who confidently averred It was the Papists brought him to the block the Presbyterians that tuck'd up his hair and the Fanatick that cut off his head Whereof he himself was so sensible that the very last words he us'd as if to shew he alike abhorr'd either of them was to profess He dyed a Christian according to the Profession of the Church of England as he found it left him by his Father foreseeing that he should suffer more by Reproach then by the Axe After which he resigned himself to the fatal stroke with that cheerfulness as shew'd he believ'd by removing that Scandal only he should get a greater Victory over his Enemies when he was dead then ever they got over him whilst he was alive The ill news of Ireland drew him with all imaginable haste out of Scotland But before he could come to the Consideration of that great Affair he was prevented by the Parliaments renewing their old Complaints who found a slight occasion of quarrel to introduce other matters that they knew would widen the Difference beyond all reconciliation for his Majesty having taken publick notice of a Bill that was depending in the House whereby he thought his Prerogative pinch'd to which therefore he offer'd a Provisional Clause with a Salvo Jure to himself and the people to prevent all Disputes at the passing of it they interpreted this to be so high a violation of their Priviledge that they pray'd to have the Informers brought in to condign punishment Seconding that Petition with a Remonstrance against all those whose Affection or Interest they thought might be serviceable to him under a new coyn'd name of Malignants which they ranged into three Classes 1. Jesuited Papists 2. Corrupted Clergy-men and Bishops 3. Interested Counsellors and Courtiers concluding thereupon 1. That no Bishops should have any Votes in Parliament 2. That no People should be imploy'd about him but such as they could confide in 3. That none of the Lands forfeited by the Irish Rebels should be
is said to have been transformed into a kind of Copper-colour And having to that brazen face of his such an Iron heart as deem'd nothing too difficult for him to attempt they were easily perswaded to joyn themselves with him whiles he threw himself upon dangers seemingly invincible so seemingly unconcern'd as if he had known or at least believed that he earrled the Fate of the three Nations upon the point of his single Sword So that it is no marvel after a long Series of Successes both in Ireland and Scotland where his very name like that of Caesars made his way to Victory having at the last got the better of the King himself in the fatal Battel of Worcester whom yet with a Politick Modesty he denied to have been defeated by his but as he said by an Arm from Heaven he should be so hardy as with the same Club he wrested out of Hercules hand to dash out the Brains of the Infant Common-wealth not then full five years old making himself the sole Administrator of all its Goods and Chattels to wit the Moneys raised by sale of Crown and Church Lands the growing benefit of all Forfeitures Confiscations and Compositions together with the annual Rent of Ninety thousand pounds per mensem over and besides which he had advantage of all the queint Projections then on foot as the years rent laid on Houses built upon new Foundations in and about London the Contributions for the distressed Protestants in Savoy the Collections of the Committee of Propagation as 't was call'd who were to take care for the planting the Gospel in the dark Parts of the World being no inconsiderable Levies These I take to have been the personal Estate of the Common-wealth To the real Estate of Inheritance which he principally aim'd at viz. the Soveraignty and Dominion of the three Kingdoms by Sea and Land since he could make no better Title then as the first Occupant by his Primier Seisin which in effect was none other but plain Disseism so long as the right Heir was alive against whom there could be no bar by Fine or Recovery whilst he continued beyond the Seas the Learned Knaves about him advised him to intitle himself to it by Act of Parliament Now forasmuch as by the first Instrument of Government it was Articled that there should be a Parliament once in three years two whereof he had already call'd that had neither pleas'd him nor were pleas'd with him the first being so bold to question his Authority the next himself he resolv'd now to appear like the Grand Seignior with his Bashaws about him and accordingly he chose several Prefects of Provinces whom he call'd by the name of Major Generals whose business it was first to keep down the unreconcileable Cavaliers secondly to new mould the Linsey-wolsey Covenanters many of whom about this time began to be corrupted with Principles of Honesty and lastly to reform the Elections of Burgesses so that he might with no less satisfaction then safety call as a little after he did the third Parliament whom yet he vouchsafed not the honour of that Name but to shew them how little he feared any Battery of their Ordinance permitted them to be nick-nam'd The Convention a strange Pack made up on purpose for the strange Game he was to play of all Knaves but Knaves as it appear'd afterward of different Complections These having fram'd another Instrument of Government Indeavours to make the Protector King pressed him by their humble Petition and Advice as they term'd it with not unlike flattery and falshood as M. Anthony did Caesar to legitimate his Usurpation by taking upon him the Title of King The Lawyers that were of his Common-Council urg'd him to it for that as they said there was no other way left for him to guard the Laws or for the Laws to guard him The States-men that were of his Privy-Councel provok'd him to it by the Example of Brutus the Roman Liberator whose folly they said it was that having murther'd Caesar he did not set up himself or some other King though by some other name since as he could not be ignorant that such abortive Liberty as he had given life to must needs prove the Parent of a lasting servitude so he might foresee that Caesar had so ingrafted himself into the Body Politick that one could not be separate from the other without the destruction of both and as he had need of Forces so had they of a Head and better one craz'd then none at all His nearest Friends and Relations press'd him upon the point of Honour Neither could there be a readier Argument to perswade him to take upon him to be a Prince then to tell him he was descended from Princes For who knew not that his great Ancestor Cradoc Vraych Vras Earl of Ferlix having as the Herauld said married the Princess Tegaire Daughter and Heir of Pelinor King of Great Britain many hundred of years before either the Norman or Saxon Conquerors could pretend to any thing so that now the Question was not so much with what right he could make himself King of England as by what right he had been so long kept out of it In this confusion of Counsels it came to his own turn at last to advise himself and accordingly he weighed all their Arguments and taking the last first into consideration he easily over-pass'd the honour of his Extraction for two Reasons First for that his was not the chief Family of Wales and secondly for that he was not the Chief of his Family Besides common Fame had debas'd him by an odd kind of Disparagement which however perhaps mistaken took much from the dignity of his Person as being believ'd to have been an ordinary Brewer though it prov'd to be as Daniel observes by Jaques D' Artevile the great Stickler of Flanders in Edward the Third his time a Brewer of more then of Beer Neither did he much more regard the point of Law for that he knew it to be no otherwise binding then as a silken Cord which upon any force used to it is apt to flip and let go its hold That which mov'd him most was the point of State rais'd out of that pinching President of Brutus yet there was an unanswerable scruple rested upon that too to wit How it could be reasonable for him to expect to hold them in with a twine thread of voluntary Submission who had so lately by his own advice broken the strong bond of Allegiance and which yet he durst not object to any but himself he foresaw his Death would make way for some of his Fellow Regicides to usurp by his own Example as much upon his Successors to the disseisin of those who call'd him Father as he had done by disinheriting the Sons of the true Father of his Country This shewing him that the thing call'd Chance would have its share in despight of all his wisdom and providence and that there was