pay yearly upon Lammas day one peny to the Pope which at first was contributed under the name of the Kings alms but afterwards was paid by the name of Peter-pence The Pope of Rome had out of every Chimney of England Ireland and Scotland Wales and Cornwall a penny a year for five hundred years together Omnis qui habet triginta denariatas vivae pecuniae in domo sua de proprio suo Anglorum lege dabit denarium sancti Petri. Hoved. Annal pars posterior p. 603. King Henry first forbad this to be paid to the Pope There preached one before him whose Sermon the King liked not as there was reason the King willed Sir Thomas More then being Lord Chancellor to give the Preacher thanks worthy such a Sermon He being a man of a pleasant wit spake aloud to the Preacher that the King might hear and said The Kings Majesty thanketh you for your notable Sermon which when the King heard he called Sir Thomas to him and said What mean you my Lord to give such thanks in our name If it like you quoth he there be some things notable evil It is a note worthy to be remembred that Thursday hath been a fatall day to King Henry the eight and all his posterity for himself died on Thursday the twenty eighth of Ianuary King Edward on Thursday the sixth of Iuly Queen Mary on Thursday the seventeenth of November and Queen Elizabeth on Thursday the twenty fourth of March. After Dr. Collets Sermon preached to him and long communication with him by occasion thereof he dismissed him with these words Lot every one have his Doctor as he liketh this shall be my Doctor Being necessitous he was offered by the House of Commons in a Parliament toward his latter end all the lands and houses of the two famous Universities to be confiscated to his Exchequer by a most mechanick prostitution of the learning the honour and the piety of the Nation but he told them not without a just scorn that he had too much of a Scholar in him to destroy two such Universities as the world had not the like His purpose was if he had lived to have made a perfect Reformation of Religion saith Mr. Fox in his second Volume of his Acts and Monuments oâ— the Church p. 647. and he gives there two reasons of his opinion But the secret working saith he of Gods holy providence which disposeth all things after his own wisdome and purpose thought it good rather by taking the King away to reserve the accomplishment of this Reformation of his Church to the peaceable time of his son Edward and Elizabeth his daughter whose hands were yet undefiled with any bloud and life unspotted with any violence or cruelty Cardinal Woolsey and after him Archbishop Cranmer were in great favour with him Sir Thomas Moor and the Lord Cromwell were also highly esteemed by him Francis King of France after the death of King Henry the eight was much disposed to melancholy whether for that he being some years the younger was by his death admonished of the like approaching fate They were also of so conspiring a similitude of disposition and nature that you shall hardly find the like between any two Princes of whatever different times He celebrated the Funerals of King Henry in the Cathedrall at Paris though excommunicated by the Pope Many learned men lived in his dayes Iohn Collet Dean of Pauls and founder of the School there William Lilly the first Schoolmaster of Pauls School after it was erected Thomas Linacer or rather Linaker a learned Physician and well seen in the tongues Richard Pace a good Linguist Iohn Fisher Bishop of Rochester Sir Thomas More an excellent Scholar Iohn Frith and William Tindall Robert Barnes Martyrs Robert Wakefield a good Linguist Sir Thomas Eliot Edward Lee Archbishop of Yorke Iohn Leland a great Antiquary William Grocin very expert in Greek and Latine Hugh Latimer Bishop and Martyr who hath put out an elegant Oration in Latine thus entituled Hugonis Latimeri Anglicani pontificis Oratio apud totum Ecclesiasticum Conventum antequam consultatio publica iniretur de Regni statu per Evangelium reformando Regni invictissimi Regis Henrici 8â— 6â— anno vigessimo octavo habita where he speaks of many things fit then to be reformed and well concludes Si nihil est emendandum in communi saltem emendemus nos ipsos singuli He raigned thirty seven years and nine moneths and died in the six and fiftieth year of his life leaving behind him three children Edward Mary and Elizabeth all which also raigned after him EDWARD the sixth Next after the death of King Henry succeeded King Edward his son being of the age of nine years A Prince although but tender in years yet for his sage and mature ripeness in wit and all Princely ornaments as I see but few to whom he may not be equall so again I see not many to whom he may not justly be preferred Fox his Acts Monuments of the Church vol. 2. p. 65 2. He fitly compares him there to good Iosias Favour and love saith he of Religion was in him from his childhood such an Organ given of God to the Church of England he was as England had never better Id. ib. All King Henries issue for themselves in their severall kinds were Princes of eminent vertue As Henry the eighth with Solomon was blame-worthy for women so he left but one son and two daughters Solomon had Rehoboam a fool and unfortunate his daughters but obscure and both of them Subjects But Henry was more happy in Edward his son another Iosiah and his sisters both Soveraignes of an Imperiall Crown Speed Lever compares him to Iosiah in severall respects He was born at Hampton-Court on the twelfth day of October anno 1537 being the only surviving son of King Henry the eight by Iane his third wife daughter to Sir Iohn Seymer Knight It hath been commonly reported and no less generally believed that Prince Edward being come unto the birth and there wanting naturall strength to be delivered his mothers body was ripped open to give him a passage into the world and that she died of the Incision in a short time after Whence this Epitaph was made upon her Phoenix Jana jacet nato Phoenice dolendum Saecula Phaenices nulla tulisse duos Alluding to the Crest of her father a Phenix in flames within a Crown Yet Dr. Heylin in his Ecclesia restaurata saith there are many reasons to evince the contrary that he was not so born The other was not more poetically then truely written he being considering his years an admirable President for all ages of piety learning clemency magnanimity wisdome and care in governing his people As Iulius Caesar in the midst of his greatest actions wrote an exact and curious Commentary of his notable enterprises by Arms so King Edward during all the time of his Raign but most especially towards the
Laws for acting any thing in opposition unto that Religion which was then established Concerning which there goes a Story that when a Popish Priest had urged her very earnestly to declare her judgement touching the presence of Christ in the blessed Sacrament she very cautelously resolved the point in these following Verses 'T was God the Word that spake it He took the bread and brake it And what the Word did make it That I believe and take it But all this Caution notwithstanding her aversness from the Church of Rome was known sufficiently not to be altered while she lived Dr. Heylins History of Queen Elizabeth At her entrance to her Raign she sent to her Agent in the Court of Spain to represent unto King Philip the second the dear remembrance which she kept of those many humanities received from him in the time of her troubles Yet afterward some of our own and some forraign Wâ—iters taxe her of too much unkindness toward King Philp to whom she had been so much obliged The ground of his Invasion in eighty eight was the divers indignities he received from Queen Elizabeth though ever since the death of Queen Mary he forbore to do any thing that might displease her During his abode in England he had done her such signall and high savours as to preserve her head from the Scaffold to have her allowance enlarged to divert her Sister from a design she had to send her beyond Sea to be a 〈◊〉 and at his departure from England he desired not to carry with him but one Ring of a hundred pound price He shewed no small love also in comprehending the suâ—rendâ—y of Calais to the English in his Treaty of peace with France The Queen assisted Don Antonio the Bastard against him about the title of Portugall fomented his own naturall Subjects against him in the revolt of the confederate Provinces so far as to send a Governour of her own amongst them She gave Commissions to rob him in the Indies She intercepted some of his treasure in her own Seas going to Flanders and wronged some of the Hans Towns who were under his protection These with sundry incitements more caused Philip to prepare this powerfull Fleet to be quit with her at once for all scores Howels History of Naples But it may be said in her defence that thâ—e King of Spain did stir up the Irish against her and did also encourage such Traytors as conspired against her in England Sir Francis Drake who was Captain of the Iudith with Sir Iohn Hawkins in the voyage of Guiny 1567 received together with him considerable dammage and injuries from the Spaniard in the Port of St Iohn D' Vllâ—a of the West Indies contrary to promise and agreement with him and therefore what he did against the Spaniards was to repair himself At the beginning of the Netherlanders troubles she imparted unto the King of Spain sincere advice not to hold a heavy hand over that people which he rejected and contemned Her Majesty nevertheless gave not over her honourable resolution which was if it were possible to reduce and reconcile those Countryes unto the obedience of the King of Spain if not yet to preserve them from alienating themselves to a forraign Lord and so continued to mediate unto the King for some just and honourable capitulations of grace and accord Which course she held untill the death of the Duke of Anjou at which time the enemy pressing them the united Provinces were received into her Majesties protection which was after the King of Spain had discovered himself an unplacable Lord to them and also a professed enemy unto her Majesty having already actually invaded Ireland and designed also the invasion and conquest of England Gabriel Powell his refutation of an Epistle apologetically written by a Puritan Papist to perswade the permission of the promiscuous use and profession of all sects and heresies c. 9. p. 98. Trading was much promoted in her time By her intercession the Turk gave way to the English trading in Turkie whence the Company of Turkish Merchants The Great Duke of Russia also much respected her and the English for her sake England was much adorned with building in her time Plures nobilium privatorum villae elegantia laxitate cultu conspicuae jam passim in Anglia surgere caepâ—runt quà m alio quovis seculo magno sanè regni ornamento verùm hospitalis gloriae detrimento Camd. Annal. She was very sparing in bestowing Honours for in twelve years she made but four Barons She made Westminster Abbey famous for the Coronation and sepulture of our Kings of England and for the keeping of the Insignia Regalia a Collegiate Church where there is a Dean twelve prebends a Schoolmaster and Usher forty Scholars called Kings Scholars out of which some are chosen yearly to both Universities Servants Choristers and twelve Almes-men as Camden in his Annals shews Being near her end she declared Iames King of Scotland to be her Successor so Camden and Du Chesne and Iohnston in his Historia Britannica Sir Francis Walsingham her Secretary died poor he left only one daughter which married Sir Philip Sidney and after the Earl of Essex When she was near death Whitgift Archbishop of Canterbury came to her and spoke much of the redemption of mankind of the resurrection of the body and immortality of the soul to whom she answered with great tranquility and constancy that she desired to be soon dissolved and to be with Christ. She having setled her Dominions in peace died in the year 1602 the twenty fourth of March the sixty ninth of her age and of her Raign the forty fourth CHAP. XX. IAMES the first King of Great Brittain THe Tudors breathing out their last in excellent Elizabeth Stuarts take their turn by an unquestionable title 1. Iames the first of England but sixth of Scotland 2. Charles the first of England It may seem wonderfull that there was no commotion at all upon the Queens decease that he came to the Crown here so peaceably without any opposition He caused himself to be stiled King of Great Brittain to prevent difference between the two Nations one of which else would have preferred England in his title and the other Scotland The name of Brittain continued to be the name generally of the whole Island but more specially of the parts of England and Wales ever since before the invasion of the Romans King Alfred was entituled Governour of the Christians of all Brittain King Edgar was stiled Monarch of all Brittain King Henry the second was entituled King of all Brittain King Iohn had his Coyn stamped with this Inscription Iohannes Rex Britonum Walter sirnamed Banguho according as his father was returning into Scotland fought valiantly for his King against the Islands Rebels and the Savages of Scotland In recompence of his extraordinary vertue he was made Great Provost and Treasurer of the houshold Royall
King on either side whereof was a close Gallery for the King Queen and Prince to be private sutable to the ancient mode Which triall of his if we consider all things the high nature of the Charge against him the pompous Circumstances and stately manner of the triall it self the time that it lasted and lastly of what moment and consequence the success of it must prove I may safely say that no Subject in England and probably in Europe ever had the like Mr. May his History of the Parliament of England l. 1. c. 8. See more there Sir Thomas Roe was Chancellor of the most noble Order of the Garter and of King Charles his Privy Councel and severall years Embassador to the Great Mogor Great Turk King of Sweden and lastly to the Princes of the Protestant Union in Germany Iohn de Montreul a Parisian was he that thinking thereby to do some good office to the King of England negotiated that he might be put into the hands of the Scots This unfortunate Prince of whom he hath since given this testimony that he never saw a man of greater spirit and more vertue delighted often to discourse with him and expressed a great deal of affection to him I learned from a friend of mine to whom he told it himself that he made use of a secret which the King of England had taught him in the long conferences which they sometimes had together 'T was a certain powder very rare which being cast on the paper made that which was before-hand written there with a white liquor to appear which without that was wholly imperceptible His Majesty had a fine stroke with his pen which he practised at all times of leasure By which means he became Master of a pure and elegant stile as both his intercepted Letters and those to Mr. Henderson at Newcastle in the point of Episcopacy and his Book entituled 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Pourtraiture of his Sacred Majesty in his solitudes and sufferings do most clearly evidence Which Book is put into Latine by Dr Earle At King Iames his Funerall he attended the Herse as the chiefest mourner an action laudable and deserving better interpretation than some make of it He shewed great patience in his sufferings It argued a charitable temper in him in pardoning his enemies when he died and praying for them and charging the Prince his eldest son to pardon them also He was the hundred and tenth Monarch of that line that swayed the Scepter of Scotland successively Bishop Bramhall his Answer to Militiere his Epistle His Works are all in two Volumes Reliquiae Carolinae and Bibliotheca Carolina The Arsenals Store-houses and Ship-docks erected by him are so magnificent and universally usefull that they are become a principall pillar of the Nations support so far as they relate to the Navall defence of it and affords variety of imployment by the manufacture of Cordage as also by the carâ—ening and building of Ships The latter end of his life by reason of the Civil broyls was troublesome and painfull as the Book stiled Iter Carolinum shews Lewis the thirteenth the last King of France spoke ofttimes of the troubles of Great Brittain in his sickness and once he was over heard to say that it was a just judgement because his brother of England would have assisted his Subjects once against him Mr. Howels Corollary to the life of Lewis the thirteenth In his March after Essex to the West it happened that one of his Carriages brake in a long narrow Lane which they were to pass and gave his Majesty a stop at a time of a great showr of rain which fell upon him Some of his Courtiers and others which were near about him offered to hew him out a way through the hedges with their swords that he might get shelter in some of the Villages adjoyning but he resolved not to forsake his Canon upon any occasion At which when some about him seemed to admire marvel at the patience which he shewed in that extremity his Majesty lifting up his Hat made answer That as God had given him affliction to exercise his patience so he had given him patience to â—ear his afflictions Mr. Fords Panegyrick on King Charles the first Let his Conference with the Marquess of Worcester the Papers which passed betwixt his Majesty and Master Henderson and those others with the Ministers in the Isle of Weight testifie how great a Master he was of reason how well read in the Fathers the Councels Ecclesiasticall History and the customes of the Church in all ages Id. ib. He made an admirable Anagram of himself the day before his death Carolus Rex Cras ero lux Id. ib. His death saith the Author of the Additions to Bakers Chronicle was strange and unparalleld We may read saith he of many Kings who came to violent ends but never any that was so formally and solemnly first tryed for his life and then judicially executed in publick by his own Subjects Mr. Love in his Vindication of the London-Ministers against Price his Clerico-Classicum pag. 36. gives good reasons against putting the King to death and saith He was the first Protestant King in the world so put to death by his own Subjects pag. 55. he saith He could produce multitudes of Protestant Divines against the cutting off the Head of our King in particular as the Ministers beyond the Seas the Ministers of Scotland the Ministers of Essex and Lancashire and of many other places of the Kingdome besides the London Ministers who unanimously declared their abhorrency of that horrid fact of taking away the life of the King pag. 59. he saith That there is no president in all the Scripture that the Sanhedrim of the Jewes or Rulers of Israel did ever judicially arraign and put to death any of the Kings of Judah or Israel though many of them were most gross Idolaters and tyrannous Princes who shed much innocent blood and oâ—pressed the people sundry wayes This notwithstanding another Divine of our own hath presumed to publish a Defence of the Sentence passed upon the late King He quotes Gen. 9. 6. Exod. 21. 12. Lev. 24. 17. Numb 35. 30 31 33. Prov. 28. 17. and Mat. 26. 52. to prove the lawfulness of it That private person which sheddeth mans bloud wilfully by man that is by the Magistrate whose power is here stablished saith Ainsworth for killing all wilfull murtherers shall his bloud be shed And this saith Ainsworth there accordeth with the Law Numb 35. 29 30. but private men may not use the sword Mat. 26. 52. Rom. 13. 4. I have read that place Matth. 26. 52. strongly urged by some against Subjects taking up Arms against their Princes but never this way before These Scriptures though he think them of so express a tenour of such a pregnant import I conceive make little for the purpose he alleadgeth them When I consider with my self
which the Scots signifie by the name of Stuart or Steward He so faithfully discharged the trust reposed in him without the least reproach or wasting of the Kings Moneys that the sirname of Stuart was imposed on him and given also to his posterity This was the original of the Illustrious Family of Stuart From this Walter descended that Robert Steward who was after in right of his wife King of Scotland since which time there have been successively nine Soveraigns of that name in Scotand Margaret eldest daughter of King Henry the seventh and Elizabeth his Queen was twice married in Scotland first to King Iames the fourth then to Archibald Douglas Earl of Angis her son by the King was King Iames the fifth our King Iames his mothers father her daughter by the Earl was Margaret Countess of Lennox our King Iames his fathers mother David Bruse King of Scotland being dead without issue of his body Robert Steward his sisters son by the generall consent of all the Estates was crowned King of Scotland in the year of our Lord 1370. This family hath ever since born the Crown of Scotland even unto this day King Iames united both the Kingdomes of England and Scotland and testified this conjunction in the Money that was coined both silver and gold with these words Quae Deus conjuxit nemo separet and also Tueatur unita Deus The twenty shillings pieces had this Inscription Faciam eos in gentem unam other golden Coines had these words Henricus rosas regna Iacobus He was born in the Palace of Edinborough on the nineteenth of Iuly anno 1566 and solemnly crowned King of the Scots on the same day of the Moneth anno 1567 and joyfully received to the Crown of England on the fourteenth of March 1602. He had a great dexterity in discovering an imposture and a marvellous sagacity to discuss natural things He detected the forgery of Richard Haydock a Physitian pretending to preach at night in his sleep who acknowledged his forgery to the King It was his custome to discourse during Meals with one or more Divines concerning some point of controversie in Philosophy There was a Conference or Disputation at Hampton Court before him Some of our Divines taxe Dr. Barlow Dean of Chester for a partial Penman of that Conference See Mr. Ley his Discourse of Disputat concerning matters of Religion c. 4. p. 46. Besides the relieving by Pensions all the poorer sort he hath honoured more Martial men than all the Kings of England have done for this hundred years Had his Apothegmes or wise speeches and also Queen Elizabeths been collected by a skilfull hand I suppose they would have been very usefull to the publick There is one that hath written a Book in Latine of Favourites where I think my Lord Car the Earle of Somerset the Duke of Buckingham are reckoned for the English Favourites the later of which was in great favour both with the Father and Son King Iames and King Charles Vossius in his Preface to his Book de Arte Grammatica if I forget not much commends King Iames. Isaac Causabone that famous Schollar was much respected and encouraged by him He was both a wise and learned Prince of disposition merciful and gracious a great seeker of peace according to that Motto which he ever used Beati pacifici In the stile of the Court he went for Great Britains Solomon nor is it any excursion beyond the precincts of verity to say that neither Britain nor any other Kingdome whatsoever could ever since Solomons dayes glory in a King for recondite learning and abstruse knowledge so near a match to Solomon as he Mr. Rushworths Historicall Collections 23. Iacobi p. 161. He was compared to Solomon in severall respects by Bishop Williams in his Funerall Sermon on 1 King 11. 41 42 43. Archbishop Spotswood saith he was the Solomon of this age admired for his knowledge of all manner of learning Hist. of Scotland l. 7. His Works shew his great learning especially his Basilicon Doron or Kingly gift It cannot be said how well it was accepted in England and what admiration it raised in all mens hearts of him and of his piety and wisdome Certain it is that all the Discourses which came forth that time for maintaining his right to the Crown of England prevailed nothing so much as did that Treatise Spotsw Hist. of the Church of Scotland l. 6. Iustinians Institutes Caesars Commentaries 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are prized for their Authors as well as matter He had such a promptness in exprâ—ssing his mind that his extemporall sâ—eeches were little inferiour to his premeditated writings His invention was as quick as his first thoughts and his words as ready as his invention I' advouois franchement de n' avoir Iamais veu Prince dont la sincerité la prudence l' equaunimité meritast plus de gloire de louanges Que l' ayant tonsiours trouné d' un courage urayement Royal tout genereux d' un esprit plus intelligent plus vif plus penetrant plus judicieux que nul de son Conseil I' avois aussi tonsiours passionnement desiré de terminer conclurre avec luy les affaires non avec eux Memoires de Mounsier de Rosny Duc de Sully Tom. 2. p. 141. He was a good Poet. A very good Horseman He had such a fashion in riding that it could not so properly be said he rid as that his Horse carried him for he made but little use of his bridle and would say a Horse never stumbled but when he was reined He was a great lover of quiet and much given to hunting and to his Book and wholly fixt in Warring by writings with the Church Bentivoglio his History of Flanders part 3. l. 8. See his Relation of the united Provinces of Flanders c. 3. In his apparrell and civill garb he seemed naturally to affect a majestick carelesness in his pecuniary dispensations to his favourites he was excessive liberall King Iames being invited in a hunting journey to dine with Sir Thomas I. of Barkshire turning short at the corner of a Common happened near to a Countryman sitting by the heels in the stocks who cryed Hosanna unto his Majesty which invited him to ask the reason of his restraint Sir Thomas said It was for stealing a Goose from the Common The fellow replyed I beseech your Majesty be judge who is the greater thief I for stealing Geese from the Common or his Worship for robbing the Common from the Geese By my sale Sir said the King to Sir Thomas I 'le not dine to day on your dishes till you restore the Common for the poor to feed their flocks Which was forthwith granted to them and the witty fellow set free He spake broad in the Scottish tone and dialect Sir Kenelme Digby in his Discourse touching