of GOD and all Natural Laws Which Answer of the Duke of York and h s Claim to the Crown was by the same Parliament expresly recognized and declared to be Good True Just Lawful and Sufficient And when in the same year Edward Earl of March eldest Son to the said Duke of York upon the death of his Father took possession of the Crown by the Name of King Edward the IVth his Title was in full Parliament by all acknowledged in these Words Knowing also certainly and without doubt and ambiguity that by GODs Law and the Law of Nature He viz. the said King Edward and none other is and ought to be true R ghtwise and Natural Liege and Soveraign Lord And that he was in right from the Death of the said Noble and Fam us Prinee his Father very just King of the same Realm of England And so little Respect was given to the aforementioned Act of Entail that it was not so much as repealed being esteemed from the very beginning null and void in it self Nor indeed were any Acts of Henry the IVth Vth. or VIth stiled Kings in Deed and not of Right deemed to be in force but such as were expresly confirmed by Edward the IVth in the same manner as his Sacred Majesty now reigning confirmed the judicial Proceedings of the late Usurpation As little Success had that Monster of Nature Richard Duke of Glocester who being by the Interest of several factious Lords chosen Protector to his Nephew the young King Edward the Vth having by that means gotten into his hands the military Force of the Nation pretending that the Children of his Brother King Edward the IVth were illegitimate laid claim to the Crown which he not only entailed by Act of Parliament upon himself and his Issue but the better to secure it in his Line caused the Innocent young King and his only Brother the Duke of York to be barbarously murthered in the Tower yet did he within three years lose both his Crown and Life to Henry Earl of Richmond on whom and his Heirs it was again by Act of Parliament entailed which yet would little have availed him or his Posterity had he not prudently acording to his promise by which several of the Nobility were induced to assist him married Elizabeth eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth and immediate Heiress of the Crown whereby happily turning his Usurpation into a lawful Sovereignty he secured himself in the Throne But that his Issue by any other Lady could not have had better Success against the Princely House of York than Adonijah had against Salomon may more than probably be presumed if we shall consider what Fate attended the many mad Acts made by Henry the VIIIth about the Succession This haughty Prince whose capricious Humor none of his Parliaments durst gainsay having after above twenty years Cohabitation divorced his Queen a chast and vertuous Lady did in the twenty fifth year of his Reign disinherit by Act of Parliament the Lady Mary his Daughter by her settling the Crown by special Words for want of Issue Male on his Issue Female by the Lady Anne Bullen To the observation of which Act the whole Nation was obliged by an Oath imposed the year following the Refusal of which Oath was adjudged Misprision of Treason And yet in the twenty eighth year of his Reign he bastardized and made illegitimate to all intents and purposes as he had done formerly the Issue of Queen Katherine the Issue betwixt him and the Lady Anne Bullen barring them to claim challenge or demand any Inheritance as Lawful Heir or Heirs to him by Lineal Descent making it Treason for any one notwithstanding their former Oath by Words Writing Printing or any other exterior Act directly or indirectly to call any of the Children born under the unlawful Marriages of Katharine and Anne Bullen legitimate and enacting that in case he had no Issue by Jane his then Queen he might dispose of the Crown to whatsoever person or persons he pleased the whole Nation being bound to the observance of this Law by the Sanctimony of an Oath the refusal whereof was made High Treason After all this in the thirty fifth year of his Reign he by another Act entailed the Crown on himself Prince Edward and the Princesses Mary and Elizabeth without repealing the former Acts or taking the least notice of their being so signally bastardized and for default of Heirs of their Bodies on such person or persons as he should nominate by his Letters Patents under his Great Seal or by his last Will in writing signed by his most Gracious Hand the whole Nation being again sworn to observe his pleasure herein Consequently whereunto he by such his last Will and Testament solemnly bequeathed the Crown upon failure of his own Issue to the House of Suffolk being the Issue of his younger Sister Mary excluding by that means from the Throne as much as in him and his Act of Parliament lay the Issue of his Elder Sister whose Royal Blood he affirmed the cold Air of Scotland to have frozen up in the North. Yet when after the Death of his three Children reigning successively these disinheriting Statutes the last whereof was confirmed by Act of Parliament in the first year of Queen Elizabeth in whose thirteenth year there passed also an Act That it should be Treason during her Life and a Praemunire afterwards to assert that the Imperial Crown of England could not be disposed of by Act of Parliament came to the Test they had not the Honor to be repealed but were held null and void from the beginning as being notoriously repugnant to the Laws both of GOD and Nature and the common Customs and Constitutions of the Realm And the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and the Commons assembled in Parliament notwithstanding all these unrepealed Acts having confest the Inestimable and unspeakable Blessings accrewing from the Vnion of England and Scotland under one Imperial Crown in the Person of King James lineally rightfully and lawfully descended of the most Excellent Lady Margaret Eldest Daughter of the most renowned King Henry the VIIth and the high and noble Princess Queen Elizabeth his Wife eldest Daughter of King Edward the IVth proceeded to the Recognition of his Title in these Words We being bounden thereunto both by the Laws of GOD and Man do recognize and acknowledge that immediately upon the Dissolution and Decease of Elizabeth late Queen of England the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to your most Excellent Majesty as being lineally justly and lawfully next and sole Heir of the Blood Royal of this Realm And that by the Goodness of GOD Almighty and lawful Right of Descent Your Majesty is under one Imperial Crown of the Realms and Kingdoms of England Scotland France and Ireland the most potent and mighty
named Lucius whence the Title of Primogenitus Ecclesiae rightfully belongs to the King of Great Britain but given to the Church the first Christian Emperor even the famous Constantin here born of there-nowned British Lady St Helena by whose Example and Encouragement the Faith was generally received throughout the whole Empire The Independency and Absoluteness of his Authority holding of none but GOD and having in his own Dominions neither Superiour nor Equal The Eminence of his Royal Dignity State and Titles his Realm not having been only stiled an Empire and his Crown Imperial but this Island both in antient and later Times having been regarded as another World whereof the Monarch is sole Lord and Emperor The Martial Exploits and Achievements of his Ancestors abroad amongst whom is the first Christian Worthy and first Founder of Martial Knighthood the famous King Arthur in whose Heroick Acts there is Truth enough all that is thought fabulous being rejected to render him renowned to all posterity The Gallantry and and Stoutness of his People arising from their Freedom the Plentifulness of their Country and Generality of their Wealth His long-lined Royal Extraction wherein His Majesty now Reigning excels all the Monarchs of the Christian if not of the whole World The Hospitality and Magnificence of his Court than which no Court in Christendom is served with more punctual Attendance and State The Diversity of Nations and differing maternal Tongues subject to his Command The admirable Laws and Constitutions of his Government The Greatness of his Power by Sea and Land both Offensive and Defensive These and many other his Prerogatives considered We may well be permitted to affirm that besides the Preeminence he may challenge by his just Right to the Crown of France the Monarch of Great Brittain except the Precedency which he as all other Christan Princes acknowledges to the Emperor if he go not before yet at least ought not to come behind any King whatsoever CHAP. XII Of Succession to the Crown of Great Britain THE Monarch of Great Brittain has Right to the Imperial Crown of this Island by Inheritance according to the Laws of GOD and Nature and the fundamental Constitutions of the Realms of England and Scotland which both agree in this That upon the Death of the King the next of Kindred tho born out of the Dominions of Great Britain or born of Parents not Subjects of Great Britain is immediately King before any Proclamation Coronation Publication or Consent of Peers or People The Rule of Inheritance given by GOD himself to the People of Israel is this If a man dy and have no Son then he shall cause his Inheritance to pass unto his Daughter And if he have no Daughter then ye shall give his Inheritance unto his Brethren Agreeably to which Rule the Crown of Great Britain descends as an inalienable Heritage from the Father to the eldest Son and his Heirs for want of Sons to the Eldest Daughter and her Heirs for want of Daughters to the Brother and his Heirs and for want of Brethren to the Sister and her Heirs And so unalterable is this Course of Descent that no Act no Crime no Attainder of Treason can bar the next of Blood from being King in the instant of Time his Predecessor does not so much dye as by a State Metempsychosis transmit his Life his Breath or his Soul into the Nostrils the Body of his Successor For Hereditary Monarchy being as it has been clearly demonstrated an immediate Ordinance of GOD founded in the Prime Laws of Nature and the Laws of GOD and Nature being as all Christians acknowledge absolutely immutable it is a Madness to think that any Act of Parliament can change this unchangeable Law or with the least Color of Justice alter the Right of Succession This was well known to all our ancient Parliaments that were neither over-awed by any prevailing Faction seduced by designing Intreaguers nor yet vainly flattered themselves with an Omnipotent Power to create and annihilate Kings In one of which the States of the Realm unanimously answered King Edward the IIId asking their Advice in matters relating to the Crown That they could not consent to any thing in Parliament that tended to the Disherison of the King and his Heirs or the Crown whereunto they were sworn From whence Sir Edward Cook concludes That it is a Law and Custom of Parliament that no King can alien the Crown from the right Heir tho by consent of the Lords and Commons And elsewhere affirming King Johns Resignation of the Crown to the Pope to have been utterly void he alledges this Reason Because the Royal Dignity is an Inherent inseparable to the Royal Blood of the King descendable to the next of Blood to the King and cannot be transferd to another And altho by the Treasons and Conspiracies of ambitious disloyal and designing Persons the Crown has now and then been transferred from one Family to another yet does it appear in Story that since the time of the Norman Conquest the right Heir was never yet kept out beyond the second Descent And to the Honor of English Parliaments we can aver that never any Usurper tho armed with Power laid claim to the Crown in Parliament but by pretending to be of the Right Line nor did ever the Parliament allow of such Pretence if false but when awed by Fear and a vast Army And whenever the Terror of such armed violence being removed the true Heir was enabled to claim his Right the Parliament notwithstanding all such pretended Acts readily submitted themselves to their legitimate Prince as being bound thereunto by the Laws of GOD and Nature Thus altho Henry Duke of Lancaster backt by an Army of fourty or fifty thousand men under Pretence of a feigned Title from Edmund Crouch-back forced his Natural Soveraign King Richard the IId first to resign and afterwards to be deposed from his Crown which waving his former pretended Title he caused to be entailed upon himself his four Sons and the Heirs of their Bodies by Act of Parliament whereby he thought to have secured it to his Posterity for ever Yet notwithstanding these cautious Provisions seconded by the Valor and prodigious Success of that noble Prince Henry the Vth. when in the year 1460. this Entail was alledged against Richard Duke of York laying claim in Parliament to the Crowns of England and France as being the next Heir to Lionel Duke of â—larence elder Brother to John of Gaunt of whom the House Lancaster was descended the Duke of York unanswerably replied That if King Henry the IVth might have obtained the said Crowns of England and France by Title of Inheritance Descent or Succession he neither needed nor would have desired or made them to be granted to him in such wise as they be by that Act Which said he taketh no place neither is of any force or effect against him that is right Inheritor of the said Crowns as accordeth with the Laws
BRITANNIAE SPECULUM OR A Short View OF THE Ancient and Modern State OF Great Britain And the adjacent Isles and of all other the Dominions and Territories now in the actual possession of His present Sacred MAJESTY King CHARLES II. Treating of Britain in General LONDON Printed by Thomas Milbourn for Christopher Hussey at the Flower-de-Luce in Little Britain M.CD.LXXXIII THE PREFACE THis little Treatise is but the first Part of an intended larger Work the Design whereof as appears in the Title-Page is to exhibit as in a Mirror a view of the ancient and modern State not only of this our Island of GREAT BRITAIN but also of Ireland and all other His MAJESTIES Dominions and Territories not by writing a continued Chronicle or History of all the Kings or Princes reigning successively in them but only by giving an Account of such signal Mutations as made any considerable Change in the Administration of the Government either in Church or State In this part which treats of Britain in general after a short Description of the Island and a brief Account of the ancient Inhabitants thereof from whom not only our present Cambro-Britains but those also of Armorica or little Britain in France are descended is inserted a Discourse which tho it may seem a Digression is neither long nor impertinent touching the Original and Excellency of Monarchical Government to which and none other this our Island has been so fortunate as to have been Subjected from its very first being inhabited to this very Day Hereunto I was forced by the audacious Scribles of certain profligate Wretches who that they may the easilier instigate the Vulgar to a contempt of the Sacred Authority of their Prince and thereby make way for the overturning of this famous Monarchy and the introducing of Popular Tyranny in its place endeavour to debase Monarchy it self affirming the most High and Sacred Order of Kings which is the Ordinance of GOD himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Texts both of the Old and New Testaments to be a meer human Creature taking its Original from the Consent of the People by whom Soveraignty is conveyed unto Kings in trust only and by Communication and consequently that the People may whensoever they please resume this Power and call their Trustees to an account These are the pernicious Maxims which so lately intoxicated the three Kingdoms and are now again for the like purpose taken up by our present Republicans and daily disperst by the scurrilous Pamphleteers of these times one of which who insolently presumes to dedicate his treasonable Libels to a most Noble and Loyal Peer falls foul upon the Learned Sr. Robert Filmer for deriving the Regal Authority from the paternal instituted by GOD himself tho this verity be not only expresly delivered in the Holy Scriptures which declare that the first Government in the World was Monarchical in the Father of all Flesh but was by the very glimmerings of Natural Reason discovered by Aristotle who speaking of the Original of Monarchy saith The first Society made of many Houses is a Village which seems most agreeable to nature as being a Colony of Families which some call Foster-brethren or Children and Childrens Children Therefore at first Cities were and now also Nations are Governed by Kings because such came together as were under Kingly Government For the eldest in every House is King and so for Kindred sake it is in Colonies that is in more Families which are descended from the same House whence Homer saith Every man gives Laws to his Wives and Children Hence it is by all ancient Writers acknowledged that the first Commonweals were governed by Monarchs nor indeed was there any other Government known in the World for above three thousand years till some ambitious Fellows among the giddy Grecians a People alwayes delighted in Novelties rebelled against their Soveraigns and usurped their Authority as was lately here done by the Rump-Parliament and is now again aimed at by the Factors for the Good-Old-Cause The better to excite my fellow Subjects to a dutiful Submission to our common Father the King I have reminded them that all those Rights and Priviledges to the Preservation whereof tho neither infringed nor in danger of being so the popular Demagogues pretend to call them forth when their real design is utterly to destroy and take away both the Regal Prerogative and the Peoples Liberties are originally the Concessions of their Princes and therefore that as it is the height of Ingratitude to employ the Favours of their Soveraign to the disturbance of his Government so it is an excess of Folly to think to secure their Liberties by the pulling down or weakning that Authority which as it first gave them so is alone capable to protect and maintain them This tho it may seem strange to those that have their Heads filled with the Chimerical Conceits of the natural Freedom and Equality of Mankind and the first founding of Government by the Multitude upon such Terms and Conditions as to their Wisdoms seemed fit is yet clearly manifest from the Histories and Records of all Ages and Nations and particularly of this Kingdom of England of which it was well observed by the late Lord Keeper Bridgman then Lord chief Baron at the Tryal of the Regicides It is true we have as great Liberties as any People have in Christendom in the World but let us own them where they are due We have them by the Concessions of our Princes Our Princes have granted them and the King now He in them hath granted them likewise After this Account of the Original and Excellency of Monarchy to which Government alone I briefly shew that this Island has been alwayes subjected I proceed to the Conquest thereof by the Romans and thence to such other Mutations as hapned therein unto the time of Cadwalladar who in the Year 689 quitting his Kingdom of which the Saxons had gotten the best part a Period was put to the British Monarchy the very Name of King of Britain not being so much as heard of till the happy Vnion of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland by the Succession of His Majesties Grandfather King James of famous Memory to the Crown of England whose Genealogy from Cadwalladar I have here set down clearly demonstrating his present Sacred Majesty to be the true and undoubted Heir of the said British King as he is also of the Saxon Norman and Scotish Kings and consequently to have a clearer Right to this Monarchy than any private man can pretend to his Estate After this Relation of such Mutations as concern Britain in general I give a general Account of the present Government of this Island And here according to my Duty and the Oath of Supremacy which declaring the King to be the only Supreme Governour admits neither Equal nor Superior I assert the Soveraignty of our Lord the King and shew that there is not in our nor can
indeed be in any Monarchy any Authority but what is derived from the Monarch in opposition to the pernicious Doctrine of Coordinacy daily by the Ringleaders of the Faction dispersed amongst the People and endeavored to be justified by the Author of Plato Redivivus and T. H. the former of which speaking of the late Parliamentary Rebellion saith This is certain that whereever two Coordinate Powers do differ and there be no Power on earth to reconcile them otherwise nor Umpire they will de facto fall together by the ears And the latter not only tells us in express terms that the Parliament derive their Power and Authority from the same Original the King derives His but by affirming that there are Treasons of State other than those that are declared by the Statutes and such as the King cannot pardon would prostitute the Lives of all his fellow Subjects to the Arbitrary Power of any prevailing Faction which may at any time happen to be in the two Houses of Parliament or perhaps in the House of Commons alone the onely part if we will believe the Author of Plato Redivivus which is now left intire of the old Constitution And because the Heads of the Faction that they might leave no Stone unturn'd which might be made use of for the battering down of this Hereditary Monarchy have essayed to subvert it by impeaching the Descent of the Crown in the Right Line I have treated upon the of late much controverted Point of the Succession which I have demonstrated to be unalterable by any Statute or Act of Parliament whatever and as such to have been acknowledged by all our Ancient Parliaments that were neither over-awed by Force nor seduced by Faction Having thus with what Brevity I could handled these foregoing matters I conclude this Part with a short account of the present Monarch of Great Britain Our Soveraign Lord the KING now Reigning whom GOD long preserve to the Consolation and Happiness of this Island of his Queen and the Princes of his Royal Blood And because the ill-willers to the Peace of this our Israel have raised in the minds of the unthinking Vulgar terrible Fears and Apprehensions of his Royal Highness whom the readilier to stir up against him the Animosity of the people they have audaciously loaded with all the Calumnies and Scandals which the Malice of Men or Devils could invent I have endeavoured by a true tho imperfect Representation of his Gests and Character to remove that Prejudice which these horrid and malicious Falsities may have created against him in the Spirits of the unwary If these my Endeavors shall prove useful for the reducing of any of my deluded Countrymen to that natural Obedience which we owe to our Soveraign I shall repute my self abundantly satisfied for my pains and shall be encouraged to compleat the rest of my designed Work THE TABLE A ABsoluteness of Paternal Jurisdiction 57 Act of Parliament in Scotland declaring the unalterableness of the Succession 241 Adam Monarch of the Universe 53 Adraste a Goddess of the Britains 27 Agricola Governour of Britain 103 Air of Great Britain 9 St. Albanus Protomartyr of Britain 131 Ambrosius King of the Britains 154 St. Amphibalus Martyred 132 Arbitrary Power necessary in all Governments 58 St. Aristobulus in Britain 119 Armor and Weapons of the ancient Britains 48 Arms of King Lucius 178 of King Vortigern ibid. of King Aurelius Ambrosius ibid. of Vter Pendragon ibid. of King Arthur ibid. of Cadwalladar ibid. of the King of Great Britain since the Union of England and Scotland 179 of the present Queen of Great Britain 268 Attire of the ancient Britains 42 B BAngor a Seminary of Learning 129 Baptism of the King 248 Bardiacus a Garment of the ancient Britains 43 Bards 28 Beauty of the British Women 41 Belerus a God of the Britains 27 Belisama a Goddess of the Britains ibid. Bill of Exclusion 236 Birth of the King 247 of the Queen 266 Boadicea Queen of the Iceni in Britain 101 Brachae a Garment of the ancient Britains 43 Britain quitted by the Romans 143 British Bishops at the Councel of Arles 139 at the Councel of Nice 142 British Monarchy restored by King James 156 Buildings of the ancient Britains 48 C CAligula's Attempt against Britain 93 Cassibelan 87 Chariots of the ancient Britains 49 CHARLES the Ist King of Great Britain murdered by his Phanatical Subjects 170 Children of King CHARLES the Ist 269 Christianity first brought into Britain 117 restored by Constantin 135 Cimbri first Inhabitants of Britain 20 Claudius Drusus the Emperor in Britain 98 Climate of Great Britain 3 Coming of the King into Scotland 251 Commodities of Great Britain 12 Community of Women amongst the ancient Britains 37 Computation of time by the ancient Britains 51 Conquest of Britain by the Romans 94 Constantius Chlorus the Emperor in Britain 133 Conversion of King Lucius to Christianity 123 Cornage 111 Coronotion of the King 260 Covinus 49 Court of the King when Prince of Wales 248 Cure of the Kings-Evil 219 D DEparture of the King out of England 250 Descent of King James from Cadwalladar 158 Diet of the ancient Britains 41 Dimensions of Great Britain 3 Discovery of Britain by the Romans 77 Disorder of popular Government exemplified in the Roman Democracy 69 Distinction of Monarchy into Despotical and Paternal groundless 57 Divinity of the King 212 Division of Britain 2 of Great Britain 5 Dominions of Princes anciently small 64 of the King of Great Britain 180 Druids 29 E EDucation of the King 249 End of Government 67 Episcopal Sees in Britain 125 Escape of the King from Worcester 252 Essedum 50 Excellency of Monarchy 67 Excommunication used by the ancient Britains 38 Extent of Britain taken in the largest Sense 1 F FRontinus Governour of Britain 103 G GAlgacus General of the Britains 108 Gauls in Britain 20 Gaunacum a Garment of the ancient Britains 43 Genealogy of the King 245 of the Queen 263 Giants in Britain 32 Gods of the ancient Britains 26 Government 52 of Britain always Monarchical 73 Government of Britain under the Romans 112 Civil as ordered by Constantin 113 Military 114 after the Romans Depature 144 present of Great Britain 172 Greeks in Britain 21 H HArdiness of the ancient Britains 37 Hesus a God of the Britains 26 Hues a God of the Britains ibid. I St. JAmes the Apostle in Britain 118 JESUS CHRIST the Saviour of the World born 116 Inhabitants of Great Britain 19 Invasion of Britain by the Romans 84 Jointure of the Queen 267 St. Joseph of Arimathea in Britain 120 Julius Caesar in Britain 77 Jurisdiction of the Druids 30 K KIng sole Legislator 204 supreme Landlord of all Lands within His Dominions 206 King supreme Administrator of Justice 209 has the sole Power of the Sword 211 L LAnguage of the ancient Britains 39 Laws of the ancient Britains 23 Limited Monarchy 62 M MAnners of the ancient Britains 35 Manner of Fighting used by the
knew no Shore on the North with the Deucalidon Seas and on the South with the English Chanel parting it from France It is in form triangular but by some said to have the Resemblance of a great Snake the Head whereof with a wide-gaping Mouth looks toward Norway and part of Denmark his Tail extending to the West It is said to have been divided by Brutus into Loegria Division now called England Cambria Wales and Albania Scotland But it was found by Julius Caesar divided into several petty Provinces or Kingdomes the Names whereof follow 1. Cantii or the Inhabitants of Kent 2. Regni Sussex and Surrey 3. Durothriges Dorsetshire 4. Damnonii Devon and Cornwall 5. Belgae Somerset Wilts and Hampshire 6. Attrebatii Berkshire 7. Dobuni Oxford and Glocestershire 8. Catieuchlani Warwick Bucks and Bedfordshire 9. Trinobantes Hartford Essex and Middlesex 10. Iceni Suffolk Norfolk and Cambridgshire 11. Coritani Northampton Lincoln Leicester Rutland Derby and Nottinghamshire 12. Cornabii Stafford Worcester Cheshire and Shropshire 13. Brigantes Parisii Lancashire York Richmond Durham Westmorland and Cumberland 14. Ordovices Flint Denbigh Merioneth Caernarvan and Montgomeryshire 15. Silures Hereford Radnor Brecknock Monmouth and Glamorganshire 16. Dimetae Pembroke Cardigan and Caermardenshire 17. Ottadini Northumberland Teifidale Twedale Merch and Louthien 18. Selgovai Lidesdale Eusdale Eskdale Annandale and Niddesdale 19. Novantes Kile Carick Galloway and Cunningham 20. Damnii Fife Renfraw Cluydsdale Lennox Striveling and Menteth 21. Caledonii Gadini Perth Strathern Albin Argile and Lorne 22. Epidii Cantire 23. Vicemagi Murray 24. Venricones Mernia Anguis Mar. 25. Tazali Buquhane 26. Cantae Creones Cerontes Rosse Southerland 27. Carnonacae Carini Carnabii Stratnavern 28. Simertae Logi Caithnes After Britain was conquered by the Romans it was by them divided into Britannia Prima Britannia Secunda and Maxima Caesariensis The first of these containing the South parts the second all that Western part now called Wales and the third the Northern parts beyond Trent It was afterward divided into Britannia Major now called England and Minor which is Scotland The Britains having received the Christian Faith did for the better Government Ecclesiastical divide the same into three Provinces or Archbishopricks viz. the Archbishoprick of London containing Britannia Prima the Archbishoprick of York comprehending Maxima Caesariensis and the Archbishoprick of Caerleon upon Vsk under which was Britannia Secunda The Heathen Saxons afterward over-running the South part of this Island and dividing it into seven Kingdoms the King of Kent being first converted to the Christian Faith by St. Austin the Archiepiscopal See of London was removed to Canterbury that of Caerleon was translated to St. Davids in Pembrokeshire and at last subjected to the See of Canterbury the Archbishoprick of York under which was the North of England and all Scotland keeping still its first place The Britains being by the prevailing Saxons forced to retire into the Western parts beyond the River Severn that part of the Island was by the said Saxons called Walishland since Wales the Southern part by them inhabited named England and the Northern part Scotland and the Name of Britain seemed in a manner lost till such time as the Crown of England by indubitable Hereditary Right descending on the Royal House of Scotland King James of happy memory Grandfather to our present Dread Soveraign reuniting the Kingdoms restored also the ancient Name of Britain adding thereto the Epithet Great the better to distinguish it from Britannia Armorica a Province in the Realm of France The Air Ayr. tho different according to the many Climates through which it runs is generally milde and temperate the continual Breezes and gentle Winds from the Sea the very often Interposition of Clouds between the Sun and Earth and the frequent Showers of Rain qualifying the Heats and Droughts in Summer and the warm Vapors of the invironing Seas mitigating the Cold in Winter whose Frosts serve only to meliorate the cultivated Soil and its Snow to keep warm the tender Plants And tho in the most Northern parts of Scotland the Cold is much sharper in Winter than in any other place of the Island yet the great Plenty of Wood and other Fewel hinders the Inhabitants from suffering much thereby In a word the Cold is neither so piercing nor the Heat so scorching as that there should be need of Stoves in Winter or Grottaes in Summer Soyl. As the Ayr is kind and temperate so the Soyl is fertil and wholsom abundantly watered with Springs and Streams and in many places with great Navigable Rivers the most eminent whereof are the Thames Severn and Humber There are especially in the South part thereof called England few barren Hills or craggy Rocks and tho the Northern parts of Scotland are somewhat mountainous yet there want not even there fruitful Valleys apt for Grain Grass or Wood. Nay that very Ground which lies wast and neglected in England is by men of no small Judgment thought far to exceed the Soyl of many Provinces on the Continent The excellency of the Soyl is manifested by the Complexion of the Inhabitants who therein exceed all other Nations of the Universe It is attested also by those transcendent Elogies given her by Antient and Modern Writers O happy Britain said an antient Panegyrist in the time of Constantine the Great and blessed above all other Regions Nature hath enriched thee with all the Benefits both of Heaven and Earth wherein there is neither extreme Cold in Winter nor scorching Heat in Summer wherein there is such abundant Plenty of Corn as may suffice both for Bread and Wine wherein are Woods without Wild Beasts and Fields without noysom Serpents but infinite numbers of Milch-Cattle and Sheep weighed down with rich Fleeces And that which is most comfortable long Dayes and lightsome Nights And long before that it was called by Orpheus The Seat of Queen Ceres as since by Charles the Great The Storehouse and Granary of the whole Western World So that not undeservedly does our English Lucan sing The fairest Land that from her thrusts the rest As if she car'd not for the World beside A World within her self with wonders blest Commodities As this our Island is separated from the rest of the habitable World so Nature like an indulgent Mother has furnished it with so great abundance of all things necessary for the life of Man that it may easily subsist without the Contribution of any other part of the World Insula praedives quae toto vix eget orbe Et cujus totus indiget orbis ope Insula praedives cujus miretur optet Delicias Salomon Octavianus opes said old Alfred of Beverly speaking of Britain And should I here go about to enumerate the several sorts of Grain it bears its vast abundance of Cattel yielding wholsom and substantial Food its great Plenty and Variety of Fish Fowl Fruit edible Roots and Herbs I might be thought by Strangers rather to reckon up the Works
agree As for Peace it is well known that no people ever enjoyed it without Monarchy The Lacedaemonians preserved themselves by warring and when they had gotten the Empire were presently undone for they could not live at rest knowing no better Exercise than that of War And whereas the main Preservatives of Peace are the Durability and Order of the Government if we examine the most flourishing Democracy that ever was in the World viz. that of Rome we shall find that the Duration thereof from the expulsion of Tarquin to Julius Caesar was but four hundred and eighty years whereas both the Assyrian Monarchy lasted without interruption at least twelve hundred and the Empire of the East fourteen hundred ninety five And from Order they were so far that during these four hundred and eighty years there was not any setled Form of Government in Rome for having once lost the Natural Power of Kings they could not find whereon to rest They first chose out of the Senators annual Consuls who had during the short Time of their Government full Regal Power About sixteen years after the first Creation of Consuls the Commons by Sedition prevailed and chose among themselves Tribunes of the People to preserve their Liberty About fourty years after they left Tribunes and Consuls and chose ten Men to make them Laws These after three years they displaced and set up Tribunes and Consuls again Not long after they demanded that one of the Consuls might be chosen out of the Commonalty which after a Dispute of threescore and eighteen years they carried by the stubbornness of the Tribunes who for five years together hindring the Election of the greater Magistrates forced the Nobles to yeild to their Request lest an Anarchy should destroy them all Sometimes they chose Dictators who were Temporary Kings sometimes Military Tribunes with Consulary Power One while the Senate made Laws another while the People In fine such and so frequent were their Alterations in Government that the best Historians are not able to find any perfect Form of Regiment in so much Confusion And if the Government of Rome may be said to have been for some time popular yet it was so to the City of Rome alone all the rest of the Dominions being shared into Provinces over which their Proconsuls Propraetors and Legates exercised Regal Authority so impossible it is to govern a Kingdom much more many Kingdoms by the whole or greatest part of the People And tho Rome in the time of her Popularity bred many admired Commanders several of which were but very ill requited by the People by whose Conduct she gained such Victories abroad as amazed the World yet even then did the Tragical Slaughter of her Citizens at home deserve Commiseration from her vanquished Enemies Nor were all of them able to support her in times of danger but in her greatest Troubles she was forced to create a Dictator whose Authority was absolute and unappealable testifying thereby that the last Refuge in Perils of State is to have recourse to Regal Authority And whatever may be pretended to be the Inconveniences of Monarchy yet cannot it be denied but that they are all outweighed by the Sedition which necessarily attends Popularity There not having been a quarter of the Blood shed in Rome by the Cruelty of all her Tyrannical Emperors as was by Seditions in the last hundred years of her glorious Common-wealth when the Blood was suckt up in the Market-places with Spunges the Current of the River Tyber stopt with the slaughtered Bodies of Citizens and the Common Privies stuffed full of them For the Cruelty of Tyrants rarely extends any farther than to some particular persons that offend them so that a King can never be so notoriously vitious but he will generally favour Justice and maintain Order except in the particulars where he is swayed by his inordinate Passion For the Multitude of People and the abundance of their Riches whose Bodies do him service in War and whose Goods supply his present Wants being the only Strength and Glory of every Prince Natural Love to himself if not Affection to his People will make him desirous to preserve the Lives and protect the Goods of his Subjects which as it cannot be done without Justice so if it be not done the Princes Loss is thereby the greatest But in a popular State every man knowing that the Publick Good does not depend wholly upon his Care they all mind chiefly their private Benefit none taking the Publick to be his own Business whence it follows that every man as it is said of Israel when they had no King does that which is right in his own Eyes And this is the Original of that unnatural State of War which some are pleased to miscal the Natural Liberty of Mankind where every man pretending a Right to every thing there is none that can have the least Security of any thing he enjoyes nor yet of his very Life since he may be deprived thereof by any one that shall prove stronger than hinself The Island of Great Britain has alwayes had that happiness Britain alwayes Governed by Monarchs as never to be subject to any other Government but the Monarchical Not that the whole Island was always under the Command of one Monarch which as some say it never was till since the Uniting of the Crowns of England and Scotland by King James there being at Caesars Arrival here no fewer than four Kings found in Kent alone But that these were so many Soveraign Princes reigning absolutely over their own small Dominions who at the Invasion of the Romans joyned together in a Confederacy for their mutual Defence of which they made by common Consent Cassibelan their Head The Words of Caesar are Summa imperii bellique administrandi communi consilio permissa est Cassivellauno from whence some would infer that the Britains had no King in time of Peace but that Cassibelan was by Consent of a great Common Councel chosen King and General against his Landing Contracting herein Caesar himself who not only affirms that there were four Kings within the County of Kent whose Names he likewise gives us but also describes Cassibelans Territory to have been bounded by the River Thames which divided it from the Maritime Provinces and to have extended eighty Miles from the Sea telling us withal that whereas before his Arrival Cassibelan was in continual Wars with the Neighbouring States the British Princes in this common danger of forreign Invasion united in a defensive League and unanimously chose him for their Leader Nor was Britain brought under the Power of the Romans till that the Popular State of Rome being after manifold Alterations ruined by its own Strength Civil Contentions had at last resetled the Government into a Monarchy And altho the Invasions of Forreigners the ill Conduct of our Kings the Ambition of the Princes of the Blood the Faction of the Nobility and the Sedition of the Vulgar have
perhaps against his Consent chose themselves a Leader against their Enemies as it was not justifiable nor yet approved by all the Britains many of which took not well this advancing of the Son against the good Liking of the Father so was it fatal to Vortimer himself who having six years enjoyed this Dignity lost both that and his Life being poysoned by the Procurement of Rowena After his Death Ambrosius returned again into Britain in France Hengist and his Saxons who under Pretence of a Treaty of Peace had slain three hundred of the British Nobility and by detaining Vortigern Prisoner had extorted from him the Counties of Essex Sussex Surrey Norfolk and Suffolk for his Ransom growing daily more and more powerful whilst Vortigern lurkt ingloriously in his Castle Generâ— amidst the inaccessible Mountains of the Countrey now called Cambria or Wales and the middle Provinces of the Realm left without any Defender being exposed to the fury of the Enemy the Britains deserted by their King were forced to seek one abroad They directed therefore Messengers into Little Britain to Ambrosius and his Brother Vter Pendragon beseeching them with all speed to quit that Country and repair into their own to the end that expelling both the Saxons and their hated King Vortigern they might receive the Crown of Britain The Princes upon this Invitation returned attended with Ships and armed Souldiers and being arrived here had a great Battel with Hengist wherein tho the Britains were worsted yet the Saxons received such Loss that they both gladly continued quiet The Fury of the Saxons thus allayed Ambrosius marched into Wales where setting fire to the Castle of King Vortigern he consumed both him and his to Ashes After whose Death by Consent of the Nobles he assumed the Crown Anno CHRISTI 481. In the Year of our Lord 496. Pascentius the Son of Vortigern with an Army of Germans came against Ambrosius by whom being discomfited he fled into Scotland Whence about five years after returning with an Army and understanding that Ambrosius lay sick he hired a certain Saxon named Copa who feigning himself to be a British Monk and a Physician poysoned the King Pascentius in the mean time and all his Captaines being slain by Vter Pendragon who in the head of the Kings Forces marched out against him The Line of Vortigern being thus extinct and Ambrosius now dead the Realm was without any Competitor governed by Vter Pendragon under whom and his Successors the Britains had continual Struglings with the Saxons by whom being at last outed of the best part of their Country they retired beyond the River Severn and in those parts fortified themselves a Period being put to the British Kingdom in the Year of our Lord 688. about two hundred seventy eight years after that Honorius had by Letters of Discharge quitted the Britains of the Roman Jurisdiction two hundred and fifty from the Reestablishing of the British Monarchy by the Election of King Vortigern two hundred thirty nine after the first Arrival of Hengist and his Saxon Auxiliaries and in the third Year of Cadwalladar who was the last that was dignified with the Title of King of Britain his Successors being stiled Kings and Princes of Wales CHAP. IX Of the Restauration of the British Monarchy by King James His Descent from Cadwalladar The British Monarchy restored by King James THe conquering Saxons having possest themselves of all the Southern parts of the Isle except what lies beyond the Severn and the mountainous Countrey of Cornwall whither they had forced the Britains to retire gave to the Countrey held by themselves first the Name of East Saxony beyond Sea and afterwards that of England That Part of the Island which was still enjoyed by the Britains they called Wales the Inhabitants Walsh or Welsh-men and their chief Governours Kings and Princes of Wales Hereby was the Name of Britain banished as it were the Island for above nine hundred years till such time as the Line of Henry the VIII th whose three Children Reigning successively died Issueless being extinct the Crown of England by indubitable Hereditary Right fell to James the VI th King of Scotland whose Great Grandmother was Margaret eldest Daughter to Henry the VII th King of England This famous Monarch as is manifest by his Genealogy hereunto annext lineally descending from Cadwalladar the last King of the Britains not only restored the British Line to the Throne but the Name of Britain also to the Island causing himself immediately upon his Coming to this Crown to be stiled King of Great Britain The KINGS And Princes of WALES Descent of King James fom Cadwalladar from whom is Lineally descended the Royal Family of the STVARTS now actually swaying the Scepter of GREAT BRITAIN CADWALLADAR King of Britain driven by the Saxons to forsake his Native Country sojourned with his Kinsman Alan King of Little Britain in France whence designing again for Britain he was by an Angel admonished in a Vision to go to Rome where he ended his dayes Anno Domini 688. With him died the British Monarchy Edwal Ywrch left by his Father at his Departure for Rome in Little Britain with his Cosen Alan who sent his Son Ivor with a Navy into Britain where he was the first King of Wales 1. Roderick Molwynoc who in the Year 720. succeeded his Cosen Ivor the Son of Alan in the Kingdom of Wales 2. Fermael who died without Issue in the Year 763. RODERICK MOLWYNOC King of Wales had Issue 1. Conan Tindaethwy King of Wales Esylht Queen of Wales married to a Nobleman named Mervyn Vrych descended in the right Line from Belinus Brother of Brennus King of Britain His Mother was Nest Daughter to Cadelh Prince of Powys whose Father was Brochwel Yscithroc Prince of Powys that in the Year 617. fought against the Saxons at Bangor 1. Roderick Mawr King of Wales who by his Wife Engharad Daughter to Meyrick Prince of Cardigan had a numerous Issue He divided Wales into three Talaiths or Kingdoms Giving to Anarawd his Eldest Son to whom the other two were Tributaries Gwyneth or Northwales to Cadelh his second Son Dehevbarth or Southwales to Mervyn his third Son Mathraval or Powys 1. Anarawd King of Northwales and Soveraign of all Wales died in the year 913. leaving behind him two Sons 1. Edwal Voel King of Northwales and Sovereign of all Wales who had a numerous Issue 2. Elise slain with his Brother King Edwal Voel in the year 940. Conan who died without Issue Trawst a Daughter married to a Nobleman named Sitsylht 2. Cadelh King of Southwales and after the Death of his Brother Mervyn of Powys from whom descended the Kings and Princes of Southwales 3. Mervyn King of Powys who being slain in the year 900. was succeeded by his Brother Cadelh King of Southwales 2. Gwyriad who together with his Brother King Roderick was slain in the Year 877. 2. Howel who rebeling against his Brother was by him overcome
at Cork in Ireland Anno 1381. EDMVND MORTIMER Earl of March had Issue Roger Mortimer Earl of March and Vlster Lord of Wigmor Trym Clare and Connaght who married Elianor Eldest Daughter and one of the Heirs of Thomas Holland Earl of Kent 1. Roger Mortimer died without Issue 2. Edmund Mortimer died without Issue 3. Anne Mortimer married to Richard Plantagenet Earl of Cambridge by whom she had Issue Richard Plantagenet Duke of York Earl of Cambridge March and Vlster Edward the IVth King of England and France and Lord of Ireland 1. Edward the Vth. King of England and France and Lord of Ireland murthered in the Tower left no Issue 2. Richard Plantagenet Duke of York murthered with his Brother King Edward left no Issue 3. Elizabeth eldest Daughter to Edward the IVth married to Henry the VIIth King of England and France and Lord of Ireland ELIZABETH eldest Daughter to King Edward the IVth by her Husband King Henry the VIIth had Issue 1. Arthur Prince of VVales died before his Father and left no Issue 2 Henry the VIIIth King of England France and Ireland Defender of the Faith 1. Edward the VIth King of England France and Ireladd died without Issue 2. Mary Q. of England France and Ireland died without Issue 3. Elizabeth Queen of England France and Ireland died without Issue 3. Margaret eldest Daughter to Henry the VIIth married to James the IVth King of Scotland by whom she had Issue James the Vth. King of Scotland Mary Queen of Scotland who was by her Subjects infected with Calvinism of which it is truly observed that it never entred into any Country but by Rebellion expelled her Kingdom and forced to fly for shelter into England where so implacable is Presbyterian Malice they never left persecuting her till they had brought her after eighteen years Imprisonment to end her dayes upon a Scaffold By her Husband Henry Lord Darnley Son to Mathew Stuart Earl of Lenox she had Issue James the VIth King of Scotland who after the Decease of Elizabeth Queen of England as next Heir enjoyed the Crown of this Realm whereof he was no sooner possest but he reassumed the Title of Great Britain 1. Henry Prince of Wales died before his Father and left no Issue 2. CHARLES the Ist King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith a Prince of incomparable Vertues and Endowments who was on the 30th of January 1648. barbarously and inhumanly murthered before the Gates of his own Royal Palace by a traitorous Crew of villanous Phanaticks so secure in their own Thoughts of having thereby extirpated Monarchy out of this Island that they insolently set up on the Royal Exchange in the place where his Statue which they maliciously decollated had been erected amongst those of his Predecessors this Inscription Exit Tyrannus Regum ultimus 1. CHARLES the IId by the Grace of God King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith now reigning Whō GOD long preserve 2. The Illustrious Prince James Duke of York and Albany 3. Mary Mother to the present Prince of Orange 4. Henrietta Mother to the present Queen of Spain 3. Elizaheth married to Frederick Prince Palatine of the Rhine by whom she had a numerous Issue CHAP. X. Of the present Government of Great Britain in general OF Monarchies some are Hereditary the Crown descending either only to the Heirs Male as has long been practiced in France or to the next of Blood without Distinction of Sex as in Great Britain and Spain Others are Elective where upon the Death of every Prince another is chosen to succeed without any respect to the Heirs of the Predecessor as is used in Poland Of Hereditary Monarchies some are dependent holden of earthly Potentates to whom the Princes are obliged to do Homage for the same as is the Kingdom of Naples holden at this day of the Pope by the King of Spain Others are independent whose Princes acknowledge no Superior upon Earth but hold only of GOD and by their Sword Of this latter sort is the Empire of Great Britain being an Hereditary Monarchy consisting of two Provinces or Kingdoms governed by one Supreme Absolute Independent Undeposable and Unaccountable Head according to the known Laws and Customs of each Kingdom It is a Free Monarchy challenging above many other Europaean Kingdoms an Exemption from all Subjection to the Emperor or Laws of the Empi to which as the Northern Part of the Island or Kingdom of Scotland was never subject so the Southern part since called the Kingdom of England being abandoned by the Romans who had by force obtained the Dominion thereof the Right of Government by all manner of Laws reverted to the ancient Inhabitants to the last of whose Kings viz. Cadwalladar our present Sovereign is as appears by the precedent Genealogy by Lineal and Legitimate Descent the true and unquestionable Heir And as it is exempt from all forreign Jurisdiction and Dominion so likewise is it free from all Interregnum and many other Domestick Mischiefs whereunto Elective Kingdoms are ordinarily subject It is a Monarchy wherein the Grace and Bounty of its Princes rendring the subordinate Concurrence of the three Estates necessary to the making and repealing of all Statutes or Acts of Parliament in either Realm have afforded so much to the Industry Liberty and Happiness of the Subject and made the Yoak of Government so easy and its Burden so light that were it not for those malevolent and Fanatical Spirits which by sowing Jealousies amongst the People and raising Animosities in their Minds against their Prince endeavor to deprive us of the benefit of our Parliaments by rendring their Meetings unpracticable our Condition might well be envied by all other Nations of the Universe CHAP. XI Of the Monarch of Great Britain and therein of his Name Title Arms Dominions and Strength Of his Person Office Prerogative Soveraignty Divinity and Respect TO the Monarch of Great Britain is given in English which is the Language most generally spoken through his whole Dominions the Name King which hath its Original from the Saxon Word Koning and intimateth that Power and Knowledge wherewith every Soveraign should especially be invested The Modern Title used by the Monarch in all Treaties with forreign Princes and in all publick Affairs relating to his whole Dominions and stamped upon his Coin is By the Grace of GOD King of Great Britain France and Ireland Defender of the Faith but in all Writs and other publick Instruments referring to the particular Concerns of either Kingdom of England or Scotland the two Kingdoms are distinctly named that Kingdom having the Precedency in such Instrument which is therein particularly concerned To the King alone belongs Dei Gratiâ taken simply and in the strictest sense as holding his Regal Dignity by the Favour of none but GOD the Archbishops and Bishops to whom that Title is also sometimes given must understand Dei Gratiâ Regis For tho their Character and
Spiritual Function be from GOD alone yet their Baronies Dignity and Interest in the State and even that external Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which they exercise and that legally in their own Names within his Majesties Dominions are from the Grace and Bounty of the Prince Defender of the Faith was as appears by a Charter of King Richard the IId to the University of Oxford anciently given to the Kings of England and therefore not so much conferred upon as confirmed unto King Henry the VIIIth by Pope Leo the Xth. for a Book written against Luther in Defence of some Points of the Roman Faith and since the ejection of that Religion continued in the Crown by Act of Parliament The Title of Grace since appropriated to Archbishops and Dukes was first given to the King about the Time of Henry the IVth as about the Time of Edward the IVth that of High and Mighty Prince since also given to Dukes To Henry the VIIIth was given first Highness since the Stile of all the Princes of the Blood then Majesty and now Most Excellent and Sacred Majesty The King of Great Britain in his publick Instruments and Letters uses as his Predecessors have ever done since the Time of King John Nos We in the Plural Number but before his Time Kings used the Singular Which Custom is still practiced in the Ends of Writs and Patents Teste meipso The Word Syr answering to the Latine Dominus and supposedly the same with Cyr an Abbreviation of the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which prefixt before the Christian Name is given only to Baronets Knights of the Bath and Knights Batchelors is the ordinary Appellation used in speaking to all persons of the better Rank from the King to the Gentleman tho in France the Word Syr or Syre is reserved only for the King as is with us Great Syr. Arms. Arms are Ensigns of Honor born in a Shield for Distinction of Families and descending as Hereditary to Posterity yet not generally fixt unless in the Kings of Europe in Great Britain or France till after the Time of the Holy War about four hundred years ago Our first Christian King and the first Christian King of the whole World Lucius bare Argent a Crosse Gules in the first Quarter a Crosse Patee Azure After the Desertion of this Island by the Romans King Vortigern bare Gules a Crosse Or. Aurelius Ambrosius bare Gules a Griffin Sergreant Or. Vter Pendragon bare Or two Dragons endorsed Vert crowned Gules King Arthur bare Vert a Crosse Argent on the first Quarter Our Lady with her Son in her Arms. Cadwalladar the last King of the Britains bare Azure a Crosse Patee on three parts and fitched on the fourth Or. The Soveraign Ensigns Armorial of the King of Great Britain since the Uniting of the two Crowns of England and Scotland are as followeth In the first place Azure three Flower-de-Lys Or for the Regal Arms of France quartered with the Imperial Ensigns of England which are Gules three Lyons Passant Guardant in pale Or in the second place Or within a double Tressure counter-flowered de Lys a Lyon Rampant Gules for the Royal Arms of Scotland In the third place Azure an Irish Harp Or stringed Argent for the Royal Ensigns of Ireland All within the Garter the chief Ensign of that most Honorable Order above the same an Helmet answerable to his Majesties Soveraign Jurisdiction upon the same a rich Mantle of Cloth of Gold doubled Ermin adorned with an Imperial Crown and surmounted for a Crest by a Lion Passant Gardant Crowned with the like Upon a Compartment placed underneath in the Table whereof is his Majesties Royal Motto Dieu mon Droet stand the Supporters being a Lion Rampant Gardant Or Crowned as the former and an Vnicorn Argent Gorged with a Crown having thereto a Chain affixt passing between his Fore-legs and reflext over his Back Or. The Arms of France are placed first because France is the greater Kingdom and also for that those Arms from their first Bearing have alwayes been the Ensign of a Kingdom whereas the Arms of England were originally of Dukedoms having been brought to England from Normandy and Aquitain by William the Conqueror and Henry the IId and probably likewise that the French might be thereby more easily induced to acknowledge the English Title The Motto Dieu mon Droit GOD and my Right first given by King Richard the Ist to intimate that he held not his Empire of any but of GOD alone was afterwards taken up by Edward the IIId when he first laid Claim to the Crown of France Dominions The Dominions of the King of Great Britain are at this day in possession the Islands of Great Britain and Ireland containing three Kingdoms of large Extent with all the other Isles lying in the British Sea being above four hundred in all great and small some whereof are very considerable together with all the adjacent Seas even to the Shores of the Neighboring Nations As a Mark whereof all Ships of Forreigners have anciently demanded leave to fish and pass in these Seas and do at this day lower their Topsails to all the Kings Ships of War And therefore Children born upon those Seas as it sometimes happens are esteemed natural born Subjects to the King of Great Britain and therefore need no Naturalization as do those that are born out of his Dominions He hath likewise in possession the Isles of Jersey Guernsey Alderney and Sark being Parcel of the ancient Dutchy of Normandy besides the profitable Plantations of New England Virginia Barbados Jamaica Maryland Bermudos Carolina New-York and other places in America with some in the East Indies and upon the Coast of Africa The Strength of the Monarch of Strength Great Britain since the Union of the two Kingdoms has never yet been fully tried the Parliaments of the two last Kings infected with the pestilential Principles of Presbyterianism and Democratism having upon all occasions proved refractory to their Designs and rather catching at all Opportunities of diminishing the Royal Prerogative and augmenting the falsly so called Liberty of the People being to speak truly only a Priviledge to Tyrannize more uncontrollably over their Fellow-Subjects than any wayes endeavoring to support and maintain the Grandeur and Glory of the King and Kingdom insomuch that there was invented a most unnatural Distinction of Subjects into Royalists and Patriots as if any man could shew himself a Lover of his Country by braving and opposing the Father of it whereas the Relation between King and Kingdom is so great that their Wel-being is reciprocal And tho for some time after his Majesties Return the Parliaments of all his three Kingdoms seemed to vy which of them should most readily comply with their Soveraigns Desires and Designs yet the Fanatical and Antimonarchical Faction who ever since his Majesties happy Restauration have been secretly blowing the Coals of Rebellion and by their sly and false
Insinuations have continually labored to disquiet the Minds of the People with pretended Fears of Popery and ungrounded Jealousies of I know not what Arbitrary Power have so far of late prevailed that the Loyalty of many unthinking persons has been strangely staggered and their Spirits so exasperated that several of the English Commonalty have by the Artifices of these Seditious Boutefeus been brought to such a forgetfulness of the Duty which by all Divine and Humane Laws they ow unto their Prince that some Parliaments have of late seemed perfect States of War wherein a prevalent Faction in the House of Commons instead of readily affording their Assistance to their Soveraign for the strengthning and supporting of his Government against Forreign and Domestick Enemies have under Pretence of securing the Priviledges and Liberty of the People been tugging and contending to ravish away the Regal Prerogatives from the Crown and by importuning his Majesty contrary to his often-declared Resolutions of never consenting to so great an Injustice to alter the Succession of the Crown from its lineal and legal Descent to subvert this ancient and hereditary Monarchy by ruining its firmest Foundation But the Intrigues of the Faction having been laid open by his Majesties Gracious Declaration of the Reasons inducing him to dissolve the two last Parliaments and by the seasonable Publication of that Horrid Association a Copy whereof was produced at the late Proceedings against the Earl of Shaftsbury in whose Closet it was proved to have been found the Mists which these Religious Juglers for the better concealing their damnable Designs had cast before the Eyes of the People are so far dissipated that whenever his Majesty shall in his Princely Wisdom think fit to call another Parliament it may well be hoped that the People from whose Eyes the Scales which have so long blinded them begin now to drop off will choose themselves such Representatives as in their Testimonies of Loyalty and Submission to their Soveraign will eagerly strive to outgo the very best of their Predecessors such as will by their unanimous Acknowledgment of the unalterableness of the Succession as has been lately done in Scotland assert the Sacredness of the British Monarchy by their Care to put a Stop to the Debauchery of the Press whose prolifick Womb daily teeming with new Monsters fills every Corner of the Nation with Seditious Pamphlets will take away those continual Incentives to Rebellion by undeceiving the deluded Vulgar will free us from that Charm under which we have now almost these four years lain as it were bewitched and by readily complying with all his Majesties just and honorable Desires and Designes will enable him to vindicate his own and the Nations Honor against all external Oppositions or internal Rebellions And then it will not be easy to comprehend what great things his Majesty so Loyally assisted may attempt and effect especially if we shall but consider how the mighty Power of the King of England before the Conjunction of Scotland and total Subjection of Ireland both which were usually at enmity with him has been notoriously known to the World and sufficiently felt by our Neighbor-Nations The Island of Great Britain is by a present learned Writer to whose Collections I am not a little indebted not unfitly said to resemble a great Garrison-Town not only fenced with strong Works her Port-Towns and environed with a vast and deep Ditch the Sea but guarded with excellent Outworks the strongest and best built Ships of War in the World and so abundantly furnished within with Men and Horses with Victuals and Ammunition with Cloaths and Money that if all the Potentates of Europe should which GOD forbid conspire against it they could hardly distress it Insomuch that we may well be permitted to affirm that as her own Natural Commodities are sufficient to maintain her so nothing but her own unnatural Seditions is capable to destroy her Thus admirable is the Defensive Strength of the Monarch of Great Britain nor can his Offensive Puissance but be formidable to the World when it shall be considered that being Master of the Sea as if he be not wanting to himself or his Subjects to him he must be he may in some sort be said to be Master of every Countrey bordering thereupon and is at liberty where when and upon what Terms he pleaseth to begin or end a War for the carrying on of which he is well able whenever he shall think fit so to do to raise of Englishmen besides Auxiliaries of valiant Scots and Irish two hundred thousand Foot and fifty thousand Horse so many having been computed during the late Rebellion to have been in Arms on both sides and that without any considerable miss of them in any City Town or Village whose natural Agility of Body Patience Hardiness and Resolution is so great and their fear of Death so little that scarce any Nation of the World upon equal Terms and Number has ever been able to stand before them either at Sea or Land For the transporting of an Army his Majesty hath at command neer two hundred Ships of War and can hire as many or more stout English Merchant Ships not much inferior to Ships of War all which he can soon Man with the best Sea Souldiers if not the best Mariners in the World And for the maintaining so vast a Fleet sufficient Money may for a competent Time be raised by a Moderate Land-Tax and for a long time by an easy Excise to be laid only upon such Commodities as naturally tend to the occasioning of Pride Idleness Luxury Wantonness and the Corruption of good Mannâ—râ—s Person That the Persons of Monarchs have in all Ages of the World been esteemed sacred and as such received a more than ordinary Respect and Veneration from their Subjects is so manifest from the concurrent Practice of ancient and present Times that it cannot with any shew of Truth be contradicted The Patriarchs of the old World were not only Kings but Priests having in themselves all Fulness of Jurisdiction and taking no less Care for the instructing of those whom GOD had subjected to them in the manner of performing their Adorations to their Creator than in teaching them the Laws and Institutes of a Civil Life And tho the Almighty was pleased amongst his own peculiar People the Israelites after their Departure out of the Land of Aegypt to separate the Spiritual and Temporal Functions entailing the Priesthood upon Aaron and his Posterity into whose Office it was not lawful for their Kings themselves to intrude yet were they in all Civil matters subject to the Kings Authority who was as were also the Priests anointed with Oyl to intimate the Sacredness of his Person When the Kings and Princes of the World began to submit their Crowns and Scepters to the Cross of our Redeemer and instead of Persecutors to become Protectors of the Church this sacred Ceremony of Anointing was again restored and Monarchs thereby admonished
King or Queen who actually Reigns the Subjects of that Kingdom are bound by Law Duty and Allegiance to obey the next immediate and lawful Heir either Male or Female upon whom the Right and Administration of Government is immediately devolved And that no Difference in Religion nor no Law nor Act of Parliament made or to be made can alter or divert the Right of Succession and Lineal Descent of the Crown to the nearest and lawful Heir according to the Degrees aforesaid nor can stop or hinder them in the full free and actual Administration of the Government according to the Laws of the Kingdom but obliged also His Majesty for the preservation of the Peace and Tranquillity of that Kingdom with Advice and Consent of the said Estates of Parliament to declare That it is High Treason in any of the Subjects of that Kingdom by Writing Speaking or any other manner of way to endeavor the Alteration Suspension or Diversion of the said Right of Succession or the debarring the next lawful Successor from the immediate actual full and free Administration of the Government Nor is it to be doubted but that the Commons of England who now begin to grow sensible of those Precipices of Ruine whereinto they were ready to tumble through the Contrivances of of those malicious Incendiaries that by terrifying the People with panick Fears of Popery and Arbitrary Power endeavoured to kindle a Fire of Rebellion in this Nation will whenever it shall please His Majesty to call a Parliament shew themselves no less Zealous than the Scots have done to assist and defend according to their Oaths the Kings Rights and Priviledges the chiefest whereof upon which all the rest depend as on a Corner Stone is the unalterable Hereditariness of the Monarchy and thereby defeat the Designes of those cursed Achitophels who labor by involving us in Confusion to establish their beloved Democracy the very worst of Tyrannies CHAP. XIII Of the present Monarch of Great Britain His Name Surname Genealogy Birth Baptism Court Education Departure out of England Coming into Scotland Escape from Worcester Restauration Coronation and Marriage Name THe now-reigning Monarch of Great Britain is CHARLES the Second of that Name His Name of Baptism in Latine written Carolus in English CHARLES in the German Language Karle is contracted from Car-eal which is it self an Abbreviation of the old Teutonick Gar-edel and signifies All or wholly Noble Not improperly then was this Name given to this Prince whose Subjects may justly glory in the Enjoyment of that Happiness for which Salomon pronounces a Land blessed that their King is the Son of Nobles Surname Tho Surnames are neither used by Soveraign Princes nor necessary to them as they are to other inferior persons whose Surnames preserve the Memory of their Relations and Families yet as Bourbon and Austria which were but the Possessions of their Progenitors are now generally esteemed the Surnames of the Present French and Spanish Royal Familyes So Stuart or Steward the Abbreviation of the Saxon Word Stedeward signifying the same as Locumtenens in Latin and Lievtenant in French which was originally but the Name of Office to Walter Son of Fleance by the Daughter of Gruffyth ap Lhewelyn King of Northwales and Progenitor to Robert the IId King of Scotland from whom our present King is descended who was by King Malcolm Canmore created Grand Seneschal or High Steward of Scotland has by Prescription of Time and long Vulgar Error so far prevailed as to be accounted the Surname of the now-Royal Family of Great Britain and of many other Families descended from him Nor is this Name unfit for any King as being in his Kingdom the Steward Lieutenant or Vicegerent of Almighty GOD. Our Soveraign Lord the King Genealogy now reigning does for Royal Extraction and long Line of just Descent excell all the Monarchs of the Christian if not of the whole World being lineally and lawfully descended from and by Right of Primogeniture next Heir unto the British Saxon Norman and Scotish Kings and Princes of this Island his Grandfather King James who by along Descent of Royal Ancestors was was derived from Malcolm Canmor King of the Scots and the Lady Margaret his Wife Sister and Sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons joyning the Saxon and Scotish Titles to the British and Norman already united in the Person and Posterity of Edward the IVth King of England He is from the first British Kings the hundred thirty ninth from the Scotish in a continued succession for almost two thousand years the hundred and ninth from the Saxon the forty sixth since the Norman Conquest the twenty sixth from the Uniting of the Royal Families of York and Lancaster the eighth and since the Union of England and Scotland the third sole Monarch He is the first that was born Prince or Heir apparent of Great Britain and hath in his possession larger Domininions than any of his Royal Ancestors His Father was Charles the Martyr and his Mother the Princess Henrietta Maria Daughter to Henry the Great Sister to Lewis the XIIIth and Aunt to the present Lewis the XIVth most Christian Kings a Lady who needeth no other Character than what is found in the seventh Chapter of that unimitable Book compiled by him that best knew her From these two Royal Stocks he hath in his Veins some of all the Royal Blood of Europe concentred This most Excellent Prince was born on the twenty ninth of May 1630. at the Royal Palace of St. James's Birth near Westminster over which there was the same day at noon by thousands seen a Star impending and soon after the Sun suffered an Eclipse which was by some even at that time regarded as a sad Omen that the Power of this Prince should for a while be eclipsed and that some Subject signified by the Star should have more than ordinary Splendor Baptism On the twenty seventh of June following he was baptized by Dr. William Laud then Bishop of London afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury who was in the year of our Lord 1644. by a pretended Ordinance of the rebellious long Parliament barbarously murthered for his Fidelity to his Soveraign His God-fathers were his two Uncles the most Christian King Lewis the XIIIth and Frederick Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine then called King of Bohemia represented by the Duke of Richmond and Marquess of Hamilton his Godmother being his Grandmother Maria de Medicis then Queen-Mother of France whose Substitute was the Dutchess of Richmond He had for his Governess Mary Countess of Dorset Wife to Edward Earl of Dorset In May 1638. he received the Order of Knighthood Court being immediately after made Knight of the Garter and installed at Windsor About which time he was by Order not Creation first called Prince of Wales having all the Revenews of that Principality with divers others Lands annexed and the Earldom of Chester granted unto
him and holding his Court apart from the King In the eighth year of his Age being taken from the Charge of his Women Education he had for Governor William then Earl afterward Marquess and lately Duke of Newcastle and after him Thomas late Earl of Berkshire and for Tutor or Preceptor Dr. Brian Duppa then Dean of Christ-Church in Oxford soon after Bishop of Chichester after that of Salisbury and lately of Winchester In October 1642. the two Houses having out of their superabundant Loyalty and great Zeal for the preservation of their Soveraign raised an Army to divest him of his Soveraignty he was with his Father at the Battel of Edge-Hill and not long after was at Oxford committed to the Care of William Marquess of Hertford whom after his own happy Restauration he restored to the Dignity and Precedency of Duke of Somerset In the fifteenth year of his Age he was sent by his Father into the West of England to perfect an Association begun there in the end of the foregoing Summer And not long after there was a Marriage proposed between him and the Infanta Joanna eldest Daughter to the King of Portugal since deceased Departure out of England The year following Barnstable being taken and Exeter besieged by the Rebels he withdrew from Devonshire into Cornwall from whence he passed into the Isle of Scilly and thence to the Queen his Mother being at St. Germains near Paris In the year 1648. a Considerable part of the Royal Navy encouraged thereto by Captain Batten formerly Vice-Admiral to the Earl of Warwick being put into his Power he endeavored to rescue the King his Father out of the impious hands of his rebellious Subjects But failing of Success he was forced to retire to his Sister at the Hague where not many Months after upon the sad News of the barbarous Murther of his Royal Father he was first saluted King soon after proclaimed in Scotland and most Towns of Ireland being yet under nineteen years of Age. In the latter end of the year 1649. he received being then in Jersey Coming into England a Message from the Committee of Estates of Scotland brought by Mr. George Windram of Liberton and the March following met the Scotch Commissioners at Breda in Holland and about the beginning of June 1650. being invited by a solemn Message from the Estates of that Kingdom he took Shipping at Scheveling and having escaped the danger both of a sudden Storm that cast him upon certain Danish Islands and of a Fleet of English Vessels sent out under Popham to intercept his passage arrived at the Spey in the North of Scotland from whence all along his way to Edenborough he was entertained with the general Joy of the People several of the Towns by which he passed making him considerable Presents On the fifteenth of July he was again solemnly proclaimed King at Edenborough Cross and was the first of January following crowned at Scoon the accustomed place for Coronation of the Kings of Scotland Escape from Worcester Being invaded by an Army from England he was forced to quit that Kingdom and try his Fortune in this which he entred the sixth of August 1651. and on the twenty second of the same Month came to Worcester where on the third of September was fought that fatal Battel in which tho his Majesty acted with such marvellous Gallantry and Conduct that he wan applause from his very Enemies yet he unfortunately lost the Day and his whole Army himself not without a Providence unparalleld in History escaping the Hands of his blood-thirsty Enemies who not only by publick Act promised a Sum of Money to those that should discover him but likewise threatned the Penalty of High Treason to any that should conceal him For being in the very Heart England and a thousand pounds set upon his head he was forced to wander about in disguise for six Weeks and to appear in many Places and Companies before he could find a fit opportunity of Transportation During which time tho he were seen and known to many person divers whereof were excessively indigent and therefore liable to be tempted by the proposed Reward divers of the Female Sex and so not only most unapt to retain a Secret but also very subject to be terrified by the threatned Penalty and divers besides all this of the Roman Religion which alone the very Principles thereof having been alwayes clamored against as reputed to teach nothing but Treachery and Disloyalty to Princes and the Lawfulness of breaking Faith with Hereticks might have made his Majesty afraid to trust them yet was he still most miraculously preserved and at length by one Tetershal since a Captain in his Majesties Navy whose Wife suspecting the Business was so far from disencouraging him that she said She cared not if she and her little ones begged their Bread so the King were in safety transported from Bright-hemstead neer Shoram in Sussex to Feccam neer Hauvre de Grace in Normandy whence he posted directly to Rouen and having thence dispatched Letters to the French Court he was met the Queen his Mother the Duke of Orleans and many Persons of Quality and by them conducted to Paris where with his Royal Brothers and divers of the British Nobility Clergy and Gentry he was for some years received and treated as King of Great Britain There by his Excellent Wisdom and Address mediating with the Prince of Conde and the Duke of Lorrain then in the Head of two great Armies against the French King he quenched the newly-kindled Fire of an universal Rebellion raised against him and was a Means of restoring Cardinal Mazarine who had for fear of the Princes of the Blood withdrawn himself to Colen to his former Authority and Greatness In the year 1654. His Majesty understanding that upon a Treaty of Peace between the French King and Oliver Cromwel then stiling himself Protector of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland one of the chiefest Articles insisted upon by the Usurper was the excluding of him with his Relations and Followers out of France to prevent a ceremonious Expulsion voluntarily departed thence into Germany making his first place of Residence at the Spaw whence after a few Moneths he went to Colen where was discovered the Correspondence between Thurloe Cromwels Secretary and Manning one of the Kings Secretaries Clerks who for giving weekly Intelligence to the Usurper of the Transactions in his Majesties Court was deservedly shot to death After the Rupture between Cromwel and the King of Spain he was by Don John of Austria who being Governor of the Low-Countryes for his Catholick Majesty sent the Count of Fuensaldagne to offer him in the name of the Spanish King all possible Service and Assistance invited into Flanders where making his Residence for the most part at Bruges he continued till a little before Sir George Booths Rising in Cheshire when he removed privately from Bruxels to Calais whence having notice
from my Lord Mordant of the disappointment of much of the design he went to Bulloign and thence to Reuen whither Dr. Allestry bringing him News of Sir Georges being in Arms he went thence by Caen to St. Maloes where being in preparation of a Vessel to transport him into England he received the fatal Tidings of Booths Defeat Thence his Majesty went to Fontarabia to be present at the Treaty of Peace managed upon the Borders between France and Spain by the two chief Ministers of those two Kings where he was with all imaginable respect entertained by Don Lewis de Haro Plenipotentiary for his Catholick Majesty from whom he received large Promises of Assistance both with men and money and a Present of twenty thousand Crowns for defraying the Expences of his Journey There receiving Advice from the Lord Mordant of the Disorders in England he returned through France toward Bruxels staying by the way some few dayes with his Royal Mother at Paris Restauration In the year 1660. Perceiving a general Inclination in his Subjects to receive him he providently upon Advice sent him by General Monk the late Duke of Albemarl removed from Bruxels to Breda within the Dominions of the Vnited Netherlands whence he sent Letters bearing date the fourteenth of April to the Lords to the Speaker of the House of Commons to the Generals Monk and Mountague and to the City of London together with a gracious Declaration for the composing and quieting the minds of his Subjects These were on the first of May read in Parliament and on the eighth he was with great Solemnity proclaimed in the Cities of London and Westminster The Tenor of the Proclamation agreed upon by the Lords and Commons clearly expressing the Hereditariness of this Monarchy and consequently the unalterableness of the Succession is as followeth Altho it can no way be doubted but that His Majesties Right and Title to his Crown and Kingdoms is and was every way compleated by the Death of his most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony or Solemnity of a Proclamation Yet since Proclamations in such cases have alwayes been used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testify their Duty and Respect And since the armed Violence and other the Calamities of many years last past have hitherto deprived Vs of any such Opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Councel of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to Our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim That upon the Decease of Our late Soveraign Lord King CHARLES the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to his Most Excellent Majesty CHARLES the Second as being lineally justly and lawfully next Heir of the Royal Blood of this Realm and that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty GOD He is of England Scotland France and Ireland the most Potent Mighty and Vndoubted King And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige Our Selves our Heirs and Posterities May the twenty third his Majesty after a magnificent entertainment at the Hague by the States of Holland and an humble Invitation of English Commissioners sent by the Lords and Commons then assembled at Westminster embarkt at Scheveling and with a gallant Fleet and gentle Gale of Wind landed at Dover on the twenty fifth and on the twenty ninth being his Birth day his Majesty then just thirty years of Age entred into London accompanied with his two Brothers attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of the three Kingdoms and received with the most Universal Joy Acclamations and Magnificence that could possibly be exprest This wonderful Restauration of his Majesty after so many years Dispossession his irreconcileable Enemies who were fully possest of the Government being supported by an Army of thirty thousand experienced and victorious Souldiers in Eng and all fostered up in an Aversion to Monarchy besides the trained Militia of the Nation amounting to a far greater number and wholly consisting of chosen men of the like Principles attempted and effected without Blood Blows Bargain or Obligation to any forreign Prince or Potentate by the Generosity and Prudence of that Noble Captain George late Duke of Albemarl whose Courage and Conduct this present Age cannot but admire and our Posterity will with difficulty believe was so signal a Dispensation of Divine Providence which not only raised up that Noble Instrumont but darted likewise on a sudden into the Hearts of the People a Desire of their Soveraign which like Lightning running over his Kingdoms made them burn with eagerness for his return that the Great Turk hearing thereof openly declared that if he were to change his Religion he would adore and worship the GOD of the King of Great Brtain Coronation On the two and twentieth of April 1661. His Majesty according to the ancient Custom of his Royal Predecessors made a glorious and splendid Cavalcade from the Tower to Westminster where the next day being the Festival of St. Geopge he was Crowned with great Ceremony by Dr. William Juxon then Archbishop of Canterbury to whom that Office belonged in right of his See the Coronation-Sermon being preached by Dr. George Morley then Bishop of Worcester now of Winchester On the eighth of May following began a Parliament at Westminster as remarkable for their Loyalty and Zealous Affection to the Service of their Soveraign as that of 1640. is notorious for Disloyalty and Sedition In this Parliament were condemned as illegal and destructive to the Government all those Factious and Antimonarchical Doctrins first broached by the Rebels of the late times to justify their audacious Impieties and now again revived no doubt for the same purpose by the scurrilous Pamphletiers of this our Age who by their more than Jesuitical Equivocations eluding the plain and express Words of an Oath purposely framed to countermine and prevent such seditious Opinions and Practices which as they formerly have so may again be made use of to involve us in Confusion and Misery endeavor as much as in them lies to render all Profession and Promises of Allegiance and Fidelity made by Subjects to their Prince invalid and of none effect Marryage On the twenty eighth of the same Month His Majesty declared to his Parliament his Intention to marry the Infanta of Portugal who accordingly in May 1662. being landed at Portsmouth was there espoused unto him by Dr. Gilbert Sheldon then Bishop of London lately Archbishop of Canterbury CHAP. XIV Of the Present Queen of Great Britain Her Name Genealogy Birth Marriage Portion Jointure and Arms. THE present Queen of Great Britain is Donna CATHARINA Infanta
occasioned by the supine negligence of the Baker and his servants in whose house it began or by an Hellish combination of malicious Persons there having been executed the April before eight Fanatical Plotters who confest at Tyburn that they had so contrived that Fatal Scene that it could not miscarry their Prediction as to the Fire tho not as to the rest of their intended Tragedy proving true to a day he exposed his Person to a thousand Dangers to rescue it from Destruction breaking open Pipes and Conduits for Water reaching Buckets as nimbly as any of the common people clearing the Streets of the Crouds that hindred the people from carrying away their goods appointing his servants and Guards to conduct them to secure places and in fine for several nights and days with unwearied industry appearing in all parts giving necessary orders to prevent the farther spreading of the Conflagration In requital of which his never to be forgotten Pains and diligence for the suppressing of those Flames some ungrateful and audacious Villains have impudently dared to calumniate him as the Author of that dreadful Fire than which Hell it self cannot forge a falser or blacker Lye In the year 1672 he again in a second War against the Vnited Netherlands commanded the whole English Fleet behaving himself with such gallantry that notwithstanding the many notable disadvantages of wind and tide being at Anchor when set upon and the succeeding Mist he after a long and fierce encounter put the Dutch to flight though with exceeding great peril of his Life having in the heat or the engagement when Refitting would have lost the benefit of his Orders and Action changed Ships oftner than great Generals at Land have done their Horses Insomuch that De Ruiter himself acknowledged His Royal Highness to exceed all the Admirals in Christendom as much by His Bravery as by His Birth In the Year 1678. after the discovery of the Popish Plot some Sons of Belial that they might more freely vent their malice against the Royal Family impudently and falsly calumniated his Royal Highness not only as having publickly profest the Romish Religion which yet is so palpable an Untruth that it needs no Confutation but also though in direct contradiction to the depositions of Oates and Bedlow the chief discoverers the last whereof even at his death acquitted him as the Author of the Plot which yet he was so earnest to have sifted to the Bottom that as the Earl of Danby in his Printed Case tells us It had never been brought upon the Stage but for the Dukes Importunity Yet were these Surmises how ridiculous and groundless soever so cunningly by seditious Boutefeus insinuated into the belief of the giddy Multitude that his Majesty at whom these envenomed Arrows tho seemingly shot at his Brother were directly aimed thought it convenient Because he would not leave the most malicious men room to say he had not removed all Causes which could be pretended to influence him towards Popish Counsels and that he might thereby discern whether Protestant Religion and the Peace of the Kingdom were as truly aimed at by others as they were really intended by himself to deprive himself of the Conversation of his Royal Highness by commanding him to depart the Kingdom To which Command the Duke paying an entire submission and obedience on the third of March 1679. took leave of his Majesty and after a short visit to his Daughter the Princess of Orange in Holland retired with his Family to Bruxels in Flanders Thence his Royal Highness having about the latter end of August following received the unwelcome News that the King his Brother was seized with a fit of sickness hastned over to Windsor to visit him protesting that altho his Loyalty and Fraternal Affection had obliged him to perform this Duty he was ready upon his Majesties first Command not only to return into Flanders but to go to the farthest part of the Earth On the Seventeenth of September He came with His Majesty by the infinite mercy of Heaven recovered from His sickness to London and on the Twenty-eighth of the same Month departed again for Flanders whence returning about the middle of October He took his journey by order of the King on the first of November for Scotland where by his prudent Conduct being by His Majesty constituted High Commissioner of that Kingdom He quieted the dangerous Commotions raised therein by certain furious and factious Zealots and restored it to full peace and Tranquillity Coming into England about the latter end of March 1682 He was by His Majesty then at Newmarket received with the greatest Testimonies of affection imaginable Returning again about the middle of May by Sea towards Scotland to fetch thence his Dutches He was by the singular Providence of Almighty GOD delivered from eminent danger of drowning The Glocester a Third Rate Fregate whereon he was imbarkt by the negligence of the Pilot striking on the sands and sinking under Him His Plate and whatever else was abord being lost several Persons of Quality who accompanied him and of his Servants and Seamen about two hundred Persons whose unparalleld affection and generous Loyalty when there was no hope of safety for themselves with shouts of joy gave thanks to Heaven for the preservation of His Royal Highness being swallowed up by the Waves So sensible were all the Loyal Engglish of the great damage that would have befallen these Kingdoms by the loss of so Heroick a Prince that several parts of this Nation have in their Addresses to the King since the return of their Royal Highnesses not only congratulated the happy deliverance of his only Brother but have also humbly supplicated their Soveraign that he would no more permit him who is next after his sacred Majesty their chief hope and comfort to be separated from his Royal Presence His Royal Highness had for His first VVife ANN eldest Daughter to Edward Late Earl of Clarendon and Lord High Chancellor of England She Dyed at St. Jameses on the one and Thiriteth of April 1671. having made him Father of a numerous Issue whereof are living 1. MARY Born the Thirtieth of April 1662 whose God-Father was Prince Rupert and God-Mothers the Dutchesses of Buckingham and Ormond On the fourth of November 1677. She was by Dr. Henry Compton Bishop of London and Brother to James late Earl of Northampton married to William of Nassaw Prince of Orange 2. ANNE born in February 1664 whose God-Father was Dr. Gilbert Sheldon late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury her God-Mothers being her Sister the young Lady Mary and the Dutches of Monmouth In November 1673 His Royal Highness was by Dr. Nathanael Crew Bishop of Durham and Son to John Lord Crew secondly married to JOSEPHA-MARIA d'Este Daughter of Alphonso the IIId late and Sister to Francis present Duke of Modena her Mother being Laura Martinozza the present Dutchess Dowager By her he hath had several Children of which is living one only Daughter named CHARLOTTA