kind and loving Brother for he joined with you in those wicked Designs and Purposes which you were carrying on to destroy and enslave us and too often took your Faults upon himself to screen you from the publick Justice of the Nation 4. They saw old Officers unjustly displaced and men of base Quality unworthily advanced by which Contrivance you Sir may very well remember you created a great disaffection in the King 's best Friends both of the old Nobility and Gentry and others that had espoused the King your Brother's Quarrel upon just English Principles and chose rather to advance a parcel of base Irish Papists and vile Frenchmen to the great discouragement of the English and those that heartily would have served the King your Brother upon English Protestant Principles It is well known that some of those you preferred were so insolent that when they came to have and enjoy great Places in the Ministry of King Charles the Second's Government that they assumed to themselves by your direction the Regal Power treating in Matters of War and Peace with Foreign Ministers and Ambassadors giving Instructions to the said King Charles's Ministers abroad without communicating them to those that ought to have been privy to the same contrary to Law and all this I can prove hath been done by your direction How many honest Old Servants were displaced by the influence you had on the King your Brother some are yet alive to tell especially those who were well affected to the Protestant Religion and in Parliament had appeared for the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom in opposition to Popery and Slavery 5. They saw King Charles the Second carried away with Vanities and wholly governed by his Whores You may remember that some of those Whores you your self put upon him as Jenny Roberts who was in part kept by you as a Spy upon him and for this end at your Command she turned Papist and when she could be of no use to you nor was constant to King Charles you and he put her off and left her to starve Cleveland and Porismouth two Metropolitan Whores that governed him as they pleased and what Sums of Money through the ascendency they had over him they obtained from him I shall not need to tell you and how many Bishopricks they disposed of we have not forgotten And in all this Sir it is plain you promoted them to advance your Cause and Interest 6. He entred into a League with England's mortaâ— Enemies the French and such strong Alliances were made with that Savage Prince and Nimrod of Europe by which means we were hurt in our Trade and impaired in our Riches and Greatness and to effect this Work what Arts and Contrivances you and your Conspirators did use by introducing French Whores French Fashions and Customs and French Officers and French Servants whom we have nourished and cherished with all the Caresses imaginable and to the meanest Valet de chamber or Contemptible Lacquey or Fidler who pretended to be but alamode de France your Parasites paid more respect to than to our brave Englishmen nay so amorous too had your fine but debauched Ladies been of a French Kick shaw that they have even hugged them in their very Bosoms and have lamented the loss tho but of the meanest French Skips witness the Tears that fell from divers great Personages of the Feminine Sex that on their Knees made supplication for that insipid High way-man Du Vall who at last though with great difficulty was hanged at Tyburn for Robberies committed on the Highway It is true he was a man of excellent Parts and singular Learning only he could neither Write nor Read But had this been all I should not have mentioned this Particular There wae more in this then some unthinking men at that time were aware of for you and your Accomplices made further steps to maintain this strong Alliance with the French our mortal Enemies for you did not only introduce the Modes and Customs of France amongst us but the Yoke of France that must be put on too I have heard of a cer certain Knight called Sir James that in a Coffe-house was heard to say That it would never be well in England till our King was as Absolute as the King of France He was an Alderman of London and Sir your very humble Admirer and at that time you had made a very gracious promise to him of obtaining of your Brother the great Park near Dublin for him for the great Services he had done your self and the French Interest And truly Sir he hath deserved that Boon at your hands were it but for the aforesaid wise Saying of his and had that Rascal had but Brains suitable to his Impudence a man might easily have taken him for one of the Chief of the Conspirators with your self against the Religion Laws and Liberties of the People of England This Fellow I say was an Alderman of London and his Residence was in the City but by his Discourse a man would have sworn he had always lived with your Conspirators at St. James's or at Whitehall or with the French Taylor an old Companion of yours who thanked God That his great King of France could send for his Head and his Estate when he pleased Blessed be God Sir your Residence is in that sweet place of St. Germains where you enjoy your self and Friends in a most comfortable manner and you have your health as well as if you had 100 Sail of Ships at your Devotion and an Army of 50000 men which is a mercy I pray let me ask you What sort of People are your French Neighbours Is there not such a slavish temper in those poor Wretches as is astonishing Just to such a slavish and knavish Temper you were about to bring the People of this Nation to your Conspirators had made a considerable progress in this mighty Work and had not Divine Providence interposed you had compleated the same Your Party to compleat this Work found out the only true way which was first to enslave our Souls by subjecting them and our Reason to the blind Superstition of the Church for that Priest craft having once so far won upon Englishmen as to make them trust and pin their Faith and Reason upon their Sleeves they may after that bring them to any thing that they shall direct and therefore as in your Day so in all Ages heretofore nothing did shew more the Cunning of your Banditti than to drive on these two together Popery and Slavery only sometimes they have driven on the one by the other sometimes Popery led the Van to bring on French Slavery and sometimes French Slavery led the Van to bring on Popery Your Friends well knew that Popery and Slavery like two Sisters they go hand in hand sometimes one goes first and sometimes the other In England your Council resolved that Popery was to bring in Slavery in Scotland Slavery was to have brought in
of Parliament for your necessary Ease and Help in this day of your Just War with the French Nimrod and Destroyer of Mankind It was a great Blemish in the two last Reigns to those two Kings for that rather than they would trust in a Parliament according to the fundamental Constitution of this Realm they chose rather to follow the Advice of their never to be forgotten corrupt Ministers of State who pretended great Loyalty to those Princes in their several Reigns or rather Compliance with the Humours and Humane Frailties of those two Monarchs but they were neither true to those Kings nor their Country or themselves herein for they erected and preferred an Imperial Paramount Self-end or Lust before all which those two Kings were brought unworthily to serve and promote to the disturbance of the Publick Peace and Welfare of the Nation It was a false Suggestion that those Conspirators did use to those Kings that a King that Rules by his Will is more great glorious or strong than a King that Rules by Law the quality of the Retinue best proves the State of the Lord the one being but a King of Slaves while the other like God is a King of Kings and Hearts notwithstanding that Hellish and Trayterous Doctrin made such an Impression upon the Hearts and Souls of those Princes that nothing prevented them from putting that sort of Doctrin into Practice but the want of a competent Stock with which they would have certainly set up the Trade especially since they saw the Example of such an Allie whose Interest and theirs was all one but God that hath preserved your Majesty in so many Dangers hath also preserved you from such wicked Councils and Councellors too which is a great Specimen of your long and happy Reign over us Sir my Pen hath transgressed the Line and Law of my Intentions these confined me to a much narrower Compass in this my Epistle Dedicatory to your Majesty and prohibited me the troubling your Majesty to such a degree as now I have done the truth is my Zeal Duty Loyalty and hearty Affection to your Majesty hath interposed and occasioned this Transgression Your Majesty knows that Love is bountiful and I trust will produce a Pardon from your Majesty as it hath brought forth this Transgression from me in which I have with all my Heart designed nothing but what may be consistent with your Service and Interest And I must say thus much that your Majesty being thus often marked out for Destruction by these Conspirators shews that your Majesty is neither a Friend to these Men nor their Principles either in Religion or in Politicks and that we ought to make use of it as a proof of your Majesty's Affections to the English Nation and as an acknowledgment thereof by me be pleased to accept of this poor Endeavour of mine and give me leave in all Humility to lay these Papers at your Royal Feet Many of your Loyal Subjects are capable of presenting your Majesty with what is more Suitable to the greatness of your Understanding but nothing can be laid before you that may satisfie your Majesty of the truth of those things which these Conspirators stood guilty of for these twenty Years last past and have now given your Majesty a plain demonstration how Restless they have been and still are notwithstanding all the Arguments of Grace and Mercy that have been used to reduce them to Reason and Obedience There is now no more danger if your Majesty pleases from these Men that have Conspired against your Life for the danger of Conspiracies lyes in being Concealed none ever Perished by a detected Plot but such as have abandoned themselves to be Destroyed and this was the Case of Charles the Second he chose rather to desert himself and Safety rather than the Discoverer should not be exposed to the implacable Malice of those who Conspired against his Person and Government But Sir with your Majesty it is clear another thing you will let the World know that you are not joyned in this Conspiracy by any Personal Accession as that unhappy Prince was in that that was against him Therefore Sir it is past the Malice and Strength of your Adversaries either to destroy your Royal Person or subvert your Government Besides Sir your Majesty using those Endeavours that becomes so great a Prince to have these Conspirators farther detected and brought to Justice puts your Majesty within the promise of the immense Wisdom and Almighty power to interpose to save and preserve you I have great grounds of assurance that your Majesty is fully satisfied of the Duty and Affection of your ever dutiful and Loyal Protestant Dissenting Subjects who have been for many Years Persecuted for the Testimony of a good Conscience in the two last Reigns for no other reason but because they would not part with their Civil Rights as English Men nor their Spiritual Rights as Christians to these Murderers of the Soul and Body of the Nation Nevertheless in the two late Reigns they continued more quiet under their many and great Persecutions and Oppressions than the Conspirators did under their daily Favours and Caresses The Principles of your Dissenting Subjects teach them to obey a Lawful Authority whilst the Principles of these High-Church Non-Juring and Popish Cut-throats carry them on to Murder Kings and Invade their Countries with a Foreign Force and Power They could not find one of these Loyal Men that would so far undervalue themselves as to have the least acquaintance with these Villainous Cut-throats much less to engage with them in such a barbarous Design and no Man questions but that your Majesty will now put a distinction between those Men who would if they might serve your Majesty and those who would have Traiterously destroyed your Person and subverted your Government by introducing Popery and Slavery among us That your Majesty may long Live to assert and preserve Laws the Laws of the most High God in your own Soul to your Eternal and the Laws of the Land to the Temporal high Peace and Felicity of your Majesty and People and abound in all the Blessings of this and the other Life Health Grace Wisdom Wealth Power and Victory over all your Enemies both at home and abroad shall ever be the Prayers of Great SIR Your Majesty's most Humble most Loyal and Dutiful Subject and Servant TITUS OATES 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Or The Picture of the Late King JAMES SIR THE Kingdom in general and my self in particular having received so many indearing Obligations from you and your Partisans that I judge my self concerned to take notice to you and your Friends at St. Germains That since you left us or rather by the Just Judgment of Heaven that the Kingdom was departed from you you were pleased not to forget us but from Year to Year till 1693. you were pleased to bless your old Friends with a Declaration or Letter in which you were pleased to express
shame and disgrace if ever they were capable of any that King was himself informed a little before he was executed that the Jesuits at a general Meeting at Paris in revenge for his condescending in the Treaty at the Isle of Wight to pass some Bills in prejudice of them and the Romish Religion had unanimously resolved by the Power and Interest and Influence that they had in and upon the Army to bring him to Justice and get him executed and accordingly when the stroke was given both one that was a Romish Priest and Confessor brandished his Sword and proclaimed that now their greatest Enemy was cut off and destroyed I suppose Sir you and your Party will be convinced if you observe a Passage from one that knew those Transanctions and see what he saith in his Letter to a Reverend Divine of the Church of England it bears date Aug. 9.1673 This I may safely say and will do it confidently That many Arguments did create a violent suspicion very near convincing Evidences that the Irreligion of the Papists was chiefly the occasion of the murther of that Prince the odium whereof they would file to the Account of the Protestant Religion However Sir your Popish Conspirators having not only escaped the legal Arraignments upon this account but having since the Restoration of K. Charles the IId been esteemed by your self and some other pretended Friends of that King they have thereupon arrived at more respect and to carry on your damnable Designs they have enjoyed more peace in their Persons and Estates than they were in possession of at any time since the Reformation 4. But how little they deserved this Honour and Peace both in their Persons and Estates you may see in a fourth Particular and that was in the Escape of the King your Brother from Worcester 1651. how did they above all men endeavour to betray and sacrifice that King unto the hands of his Enemies And who was to pay the 1000 l. promised for his being discovered and taken but Father Joseph Symmonds and Father Carleton Compton both Jesuits and whence that Money came Sir you well know as did the Queen your Mother for you know that your Mother and your self was in a plot against his Life that you might wear the Name and Title of a King as being the more likely to perform what your Brother had so lustily promised to the Popish Party It is true Sir that one or two of the Romish Persuasion amongst many loyal and faithful Protestants both Male and Femâ—le might then have contributed to that King's Deliverance but such Sir have been by your self and Party well chidden reproached and discountenanced and called Fools for this grain of Loyalty more owing to their English Blood than Romish Principles 5. Since my hand is in give me leave to add a fifth Instance of their Loyalty to your Family That Popish Lord is not unknown nor yet forgotten who brought a Petition to the late Protector signed by about 500 Principal Papists in England wherein they promised upon condition of a Toleration of the Popish Religion here by a Law their joint Resolution to abjure and exclude the Family of the Stewarts for ever from enjoying the Crown This Sir you know startled you when you heard of that Attempt a man that hath but an Irish Understanding may easily judge from hence of the Loyalty of that Party of men I would willingly Sir appear to any one of your dear Joys and stand by his Judgment in that Case 6. One Point more and then Sir I shall have done upon this Head and that is the Loyalty of your Popish Conspirators who to ingratiate themselves with the Government of the said Protector procured Manning to be a Spy upon your Brother and he was not only allowed well by that Party by your direction but also had a very Bountiful Pension too by the said Protector but he was in due time found out and executed by your Brother he was of the same Red Letter with your self and therefore when dead he had Masses sung for him as the usual Reward and Playster There were other Specimens of their Loyalty but I forbear to mention them now because there are some other things to be discoursed with you but this I say That we should have forgotten and forgiven all these soul Proceedings of your dearly beloved Popish Party and we should not have envied the Security they enjoyed or the Favours through your procurement they had attained to provided they had not abused them in joining with you to subvert the Protestant Religion and Government in turning the one into downright Popery and the other into French Slavery but alas good men and true such an opportunity of promoting the Catholick Religion was not to be lost they having a Prince converted to such a degree of Zeal and Piety as not to regard any thing in the World in comparison of the Conversion of England that hath a long time been oppressed and miserably harassed with Herery and Schism to accomplish which you would assassinate the King's Person destroy our City murther his Majesty's Subjects subvert our Religion and disturb the Peace of Mankind and your present Design that is discovered doth prove beyond all manner of objection and doubt That that Sir throw your Brother's and your grace and favour they did then carry on their Designs for advancing the Power of the Pope and French King to advance the Religion of the one and the Interest and Government of the other none daring to suggest the least thing to bring them under jealousie who would not be aspersed for being Maligners of the King 's best Friends and your Fellow-Conspirators till one appeared and took the Popish and French Interest by the Collar and gave it such a deadly wound that it could not recover it self to this day but you were even with him for it when you usurped the Government and so I conclude this Head 2. A second thing that gave you and your Popish Conspirators such an advantage for the carrying on you wicked Designs and Purposes was the unhappy Divisions amongst us poor Protestants for as the Conspirators improved that little Stock of Credit they had by being for Charles the First in the Civil War against himself and Parliament and the Priests Jesuits and Fryars made use of that Credit to reduce us to the Obedience of the See of Rome so you and the rest of the Popish Crew made use of our Divisions amongst our selves to carry on the same Design Now Sir there were two main things which did greatly administer to this unhappy Division 1. The Parties divided were come to a more equal Ballance as to numbers on each side respectively than at any Season heretofore For Sir consider this That during the Reigns of Q. Elizabeth K. James I. and K. Charles I. the Dissenters from the Established way of the Church of England were but few in comparison of those who were for Prelacy
Government to the View of the Court of Rome Cardinal Howard in his Letter to Coleman Feb. 8. 1676. saith He doth all he can to serve you He hath writ to Mr. Haies at his Brothers moves that your Brother's Ministers may joyn with the Pope's Ministers about P. Furstenburg and about the Peace and that the Pope will send a Minister on purpose In a Letter on March 1676. signed Cardinal Norfolk which was sent by an Express that was to return with what his Master and Mistress had to communicate This was a Letter of Credence and your Servant Coleman was to be he asked who this Messenger was and was accordingly asked and would not tell but Sir I will and it was Signior Con that went under the notion of an Italian but was an old Scotch Priest that was in the Conspiracy against Charles the First and discovered by Habernfield to Sir William Bozwell the English Ambassador at Holland who discovered the same to the Archprelate of Canterbury who was in a most Reverend Manner pleased to conceal the same by that King's Advice and Direction This Con that was near 80 years of age was intrusted with some Secrets from Rome to your self and Dutchess and what you had to communicate you were to communicate it to him And what was that The King your Brother had promised to dissolve the Parliament Coleman with your Brother's Approbation and yours drew up the Declaration and a Copy was sent to Cardinal Howard and the Resolutions you had taken to establish the Popish Religion and what Measures were taken for the Destroying the Interest of the Lord Arlington and the Prince of Orange and the Dutch at our Court and this Con was to take an Account of the State and Condition of our Fleet and of the Exchequer and these were the things that you and your Spouse were to communicate to the Messenger that brought the Letter dated March 1676. March 14. 1676. The Cardinal in his Letter saith That he ordered Mr. Leybourn his Auditor to write He understood that you had received his That he used to direct his Letters for the Portugal Ambassador For Mr. Coleman takes notice that Plunket had received Letters from Archbishop Talbot at Rome who offers his Service to you and the Catholicks whether they will or no He tells Coleman that Talbot is enough to spoil all His constant Custom is forging Letters Saith if you make use of him you would disgrace your self and put the Catholicks in Derision which is the way to destroy them which if then the Cardinal and his Confriars must shut up their Shops if he had not taken care the Match between you and the Daughter of Modena had been broken off that a Friend of his at Paris first set the Match on foot he saith he promoted the Match to serve you and the Catholick Religion in England and saith that he and his are in great Power at Rome and Spain And saith that it would prejudice you if you were partial Complains of want of Countenance from the King your Brother Proposeth a Barony to be got of the King for him to get Money for Saith that it would be no Scandalum Magnatum tho' for a Catholick than when Sir Francis Radcliff was in motion Takes notice that the Pope is not satisfied with the Education of your Daughters Despairs not of getting a Pension from Rome for your Duchess's Secretary In Cardinal Howard 's Letter of March 24. 1676. he takes notice of the Receipt of Letters on the 17th and the 20th of March and also of your advancing the Catholick Religion to the Joy of the Pope by his of the 27th fully compleated their Joy Hopes your Duchess would bring forth a happy Roman-Catholick Thus Sir you see what Destruction you were then bringing upon the Nation by exposing the King 's Secret Councils and the State and Condition of the Nation to the grand Enemy of the Protestant Religion and Interest Now I have done with the Steps you took for the Destruction of these three Nations and the Protestant Interest in general I come now to every particular Countrey and Nation in which you may behold your Attempts there in particular by which it will appear to what Ruine and Misery you had brought the Protestant Interest to First I will begin with Holland I. HOLLAND YOU may remember Sir with what Respects that Protestant State received and protected your Brother and your self as long as they durst and what particular Friends your Family found there who contributed in some measure to your Support and made what Friends they could for your self and Brothers when you were by the French King Banished France But how you have since treated the States-General by engaging the King your Brother in two most unjust Wars to their great Impoverishing and the Weakning the Protestant Interest But you dealt with them as you did by all your other Friends and Allies You no sooner received the Testimony of their Affections but you forget it and therefore it was well observed of Kirton your old Friend and Fryar that the only way for a Man to ruin his Family was to engage in your Cause and Quarrel You will do well to call to mind the Heats that you and your Incendiaries created in Holland and the Animosities you caused which cost the De Wits their Lives Several Letters of Coleman's to the Jesuits of S. Omers do highly magnifie your prudent Conduct in that Affair and what was the End of all those Heats and Flames you kindled but to exasperate a considerable Party of Men against your Nephew the Prince of Orange nay your Malice against that Prince did not cease here but most unnaturally you engaged the King your Brother to abandon him and to comply with his and the mortal Enemies of this Nation which was so unnatural that an Infidel would not have been guilty of such Ingratitude as your self if you do but remember how the Prince's Father served yours Your Malice yet went further for the Lord Arlington using some Arguments with the King to have a more Regard to his Nephew the Prince of Orange and the States-General of the United Provinces What Care on the contrary did you use to prevent any good Intention of the said Lord Arlington towards the said Prince of Orange and in order to this you dispatch'd Letters to Ashby the Rector of the English College of S. Omers and require him to write to the Confessor of the Emperor to satisfie him that the King your Brother intended no less than the Ruin of the Confederates especially of the Empire and of his Catholick Princes under him and that underhand he furnished the Hungarian Rebels against his Imperial Majesty and found them Money to go on with their Rebellion and that his Design was not to have any Alliances with his Imperial Majesty but only in Shew that he might advance his Nephew the Prince of Orange and in order to that he had brought him over