pounds subsidies due to the late Queen besides what the Parliament had given him And fearing that Proclamations who were indeed very active Ministers would now become Laws ushering in the Kings will with large strides upon the peoples Liberties who lay down while they stept over them The ingenious sort sensible of this incroaching Monarchy brake out into private murmur which by degrees being of a light nature carried a Cloud with it by which the wise Pilots of the State foreseeing a Storm gathering strive to dissipate it the next Session of Parliament which was held the nineteenth of February in the seventh year of our Kings Reign Thomas Sackville Earl of Dorset Not long after this the Earl of Dorset Lord High Treasurer died suddenly as he sate at the Council Table which gave occasion to some persons disaffected to him as what eminent Officer that hath the managing of Moneys can please all to speak many things to his Dishonour But they considered not that besides the Black worm and the White day and night as the Riddle is that are gnawing constantly at the root of this tree of Life there are many insensible Diseases as Apoplexies whose Vapors suddenly extinguish the Animal Spirits and Apostems both in the upper and middle Region of Man that often drown and suffocate both Animal and Vital who are like imbodyed Twins the one cannot live without the other if the Animal Spirits fail the Vital cannot subsist if the Vitals perish the Animal give over their operations And He that judges ill of such an Act of Providence may have the same hand at the same time writing within the Palace walls of his own Body the same Period to his Lives earthly Empire The Earl of Salisbury succeeded him a man nourished with the milk of Policy under his father the Lord Burley famous for Wisdom in his Generation a Courtier from his infancy Batteld by Art and Industry under the late Queen mother of her Country Though Nature was not propitious to his Outside being Crooked backt She supplied that want with admirable indowments within This man the King found Secretary and Master of the Wards and to these he added the Treasurers staff knowing him to be the staff of his Treasury For he had knowledg enough to pry into other Mens Offices aswell as his own and knew the ways of disbursing the Kings moneys The Earl of Northhampton he made Lord Privy Seal and these were the two prime wheels of his triumphant Chariot The Earl of Suffolk was made Lord Chamberlain before but he came far behind in the management of the Kings affairs being a Spirit of a more Grosser Temper fitter to part a fray and Compose the differences of a disordered Court than a Kingdom Upon the Shoulders of the two first the King laid the Burthen of his business For though he had many Lords his Creatures some by Creation and some by insinuation for Kings will never want supple-hand Courtiers and the Bishops being his Dependents the most of them tending by direct Lines towards him as the Center of their advancement so that He like the Supreme Power moved this upper Region for the most part and that had an influence upon the lower in inferior Orbs yet these two noble Men were the two great Lights that were to discover the Kings mind to the Parliament and by whose Heat and Vigor the blessed fruits of Peace and Plenty should be produced The Lord Treasurer by a Command from the King instructs both Houses in their business and what they shall do well to insist upon this Session First To supply his Majesties wants Secondly To ease the people of their Grievances They go commonly yoakt together for the peoples Grievances are the Kings Wants and the Kings Wants are the peoples Grievances How can they be separated If the King will always want the people will always suffer For Kings when they do want lay commonly lawless impositions on the people which they must take off again with a sum of money and then they want again to a continued vicissitude These two Propositions are sweetned by him with a third Which is to make the Parliament witnesses of those great favours and honours that his Majesty intended his Royal Son Prince Henry in creating him Prince of Wales Which though the King might do without a Parliament and that divers Kings his Predecessors had done so as by many precedents was manifested yet being desirous to have a happy Vnion betwixt him and his People he would have nothing resound ill in their ears from so eminent an instrument to the Kingdoms good as his Son Then they excuse the Kings necessities proceeding from his great disbursements For the three hundred and fifty thousand pounds Subsidies due in the late Queens time he received with one hand and paid her Debts with another redeeming the Crown Lands which she had morgaged to the City He kept an Army of nineteen thousand men in Ireland for some time a foot wherein a great many of the Nobility were Commanders and other deserving Soldiers that would have been exposed to want and penury if not supplied And it was not safe for the King to trust the inveterate malice of a new reconciled Enemy without the Sword in his hand The late Queens Funeral Charges were reckon'd up which they hoped the Parliament would not repine at Nor was it fit the King should come in as a private Person bringing in one Crown on his head and finding another here or his Royal Consort with our future Hopes like so many precious Ienels exposed to Robbers without a Guard and Retinue How fit was the Magnificence at the King of Denmarks being here And how just that Ambassadors from Foreign Princes more than ever this Crown received should find those Entertainments and Gratuities the want whereof would put a dim lustre abroad upon the most sparkling Jewels of the Crown Besides the necessary Charge of sending Ambassadors to others being concurrent and mutual Civilities among Princes That these are the causes of the Kings wants and not his irregular Bounty though a magnificent mind is inseparable from the Majesty of a King If he did not give his subjects and servants would live in a miserable Climate And for his Bounty to those that were not born among us it must be remembred he was born among them and not to have them taste of the blessing he hath attained were to have him change his Vertue with his Fortune Therefore they desire the Kings wants may be supplied a thing easie to be granted and not to be valued by Wise-men nor spoken of without contempt Philosophy saith that all Riches are but food and rayment the rest is nugatorium quiddam And that it is but purior pars terrae and therefore but crassior pars aquae a thing unworthy the denial to such a King who is not only the wisest of Kings but the very Image of an Angel that hath brought good
Peer that was nobly descended he could not be justified but was enjoyned by the House to give the Lord Spencer such satisfaction as they prescribed which his Greatness refusing to obey he was by the Lords sent Prisoner to the Tower and Spencer re-admitted into the House again When Arundle was well cooled in the Tower and found that no Power would give him Liberty but that which had restrained him rather blaming his rashness than excusing his stubborness his great Heart humbled it self to the Lords betwixt a Letter and a Petition in these words To the Right Honourable the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in the Higher House of Parliament assembled May it please your Lordships WHere as I stand committed here by your Lordships Order for having stood upon performing some part of that which was injoined me by your Lordships which I did rather in respect the time was short for advice than out of any intent to disobey the House for which I have suffered in this place till now I do therefore humbly beseech your Lordships to construe of what is past according to this my profession and for the time to come to believe that I both understand so well your Lordships power to command and your nobleness and tenderness to consider what is fit as I do and will wholly put myself upon your Honors and perform what is or shall be injoyned me So beseeching your Lordships to construe these lines as proceeding from a heart ready to obey you in what you command I rest Your Lordships most humble Servant Thomas Arundle Tower 2 June 1621. Upon this submission the Lords commanded him to be sent for and presenting himself at the Bar of the House with the accustomed Humility that Offenders do he thus expressed himself Because I have committed a fault against this House in not obeying all the Order that your Lordships commanded me I do here acknowledg this my fault and ask your Lordships pardon for the same and am ready to obey all your Lordships commands Thus this great Lord though he fluttered in the Air of the Court and mounted by that means upon the Wings of Passion was glad to stoop when consideration lured him to it lest by the heat that he himself made melting the Waxen Plumes that he thought would have supported him his suffering might have been a greater mischief to him than his submission so sour and severe a School-master is Passion to be both Author and Punisher of our Errors yea making the best Natures often correct themselves most The fourth of Iune this year the Parliament had a Recess the King being to go his Progress wherein some Lords and others of the Parliament were to attend him For it seems his business was not yet ripe for the Parliament and he was loth they should have too much leisure therefore they were not to meet again till the eighth of February following which being a long time of Vacancy the House of Commons before they parted took the Miseries of the Palatinate into serious debate and though they felt the King's pulse and knew the beat of his thought when he spake of providing an Army this Summer for the recovery of it and would engage his Crown Blood and Soul for it finding him apt to say what he had no will to do yet they were so wise as not to slacken or draw back in so good a work that if there were a failing it should not be on their side knowing how much Religion was concerned in it for to the appearance of Reason the triumphing Emperor and Universal King would quickly tread all under foot therefore with one voice none daring to oppose they made this Declaration THe Commons assembled in Parliament taking into most serious consideration the present state of the King's Children abroad and generally afflicted estate of the true Professors of the same Christian Religion professed by the Church of England in Forreign Parts and being touched with a true sence and fellow-feeling of their distresses as Members of the same Body do with unanimous consent in the name of themselves and the whole Body of the Kingdom whom they represent declare unto his most excellent Majesty and to the whole World their hearty grief and sorrow for the same and do not only joyn with them in their humble and Devout Prayers unto Almighty God to protect his true Church and to avert the Dangers now threatned but also with one heart and voice do solemnly protest That if his Majestie s pious endeavours by Treaty to procure their Peace and Safety shall not take that good effect which is desired in Treaty wherefore they humbly beseech his Majesty not to suffer any longer delay that then upon signification of his Majestie s pleasure in Parliament they shall be ready to the utmost of their Powers both with their lives and fortunes to assist him so as that by the Divine Help of Almighty God which is never wanting unto those who in his fear shall undertake the defence of his own Cauâ—e he may be able to do that with his Sword which by a peaceable Course shall not be effected The King took this Declaration of the Commons in very good Part and meant when occasion served to make good use of it For as he found them forward enough to begin a War so he knew his own constitution backward enough the Sword being in his Hand and did fore-see an advantage arising from a Medium betwixt the Parliament and him if he could bring his Ends about which he after put in practice but it broke all to pieces and now away he goes on his Progress Towards Winter the Lord Digby returns from his soliciting journey in Germany His first addresses he made to the Emperour his second to the Duke of Bavaria and his last to the Infanta at Bruxels and all to as little purpose as if he had stayed at home that three-fold Cord twisted by the power of Spain was not easily to be broken Some little twilight and scintil of Hope was given him by the Emperour for restitution of the Palatinate yet not so much as would discover the error of our easie belief But the Bavarian had already swallowed the Electurate and his Voraginous appetite gaped after the possession of the Countrey though the English there were bones in his way Digby being arrived at Court and bringing him with doubtful answers from the Emperour and sullen ones from the Duke of Bavaria the King thought it good Policy to shorten the long Recess till February and to re-assemble the Parliament the 20 th of November that meeting before their Time it might more amaze them and intimate some extraordinary Cause which happily might produce some extraordinary effect if well mannag'd And as incident thereunto he gave order to Digby as soon as the Parliament assembled to make relation to the Houses of his proceedings there which he did in these words IT pleased his Majesty to
money from the people or for what other intention is unknown But the very next day he sends this further Direction by Endimion Porter RIght Trusty c. We have given you certain Instructions signed with Our hand to direct you how to express unto the King of Spain the feeling We have of the Dishonour put upon Us by the Emperour through Our Trust and Confidence in that King's Promises wherein you have Order to come away without further delay in case you receive not Satisfaction to your Demands in such sort as We have Commanded you to propound them Nevertheless We are to put you in remembrance of that which We have heretofore told you in case a Rupture happen between the King of Spain and Us that We would be glad to manage it at Our best advantage And therefore however you do not find the Satisfaction which We in those Instructions crave from the King of Spain and have Reason to expect yet would We not have your instantly come away upon it but advertise Us first letting Us know privately if you find such cause that there is no good to be done nor no Satisfaction as you judge intended Us though Publikely and Outwardly you give out the contrary that We may make use thereof with Our People in Parliament as We shall hold best for Our Service And this seâ— you do notwithstanding any thing in your other Instructions to the contrary Dated 4. Octob. 1622. The right Honorable John Digby Earle of Bristol Baron of Shirborne Vice Chamberlaine to his Mar. and one of the Lords of his Maiesties most Honorable privy Counsell and Embassador extraordinary to the high and Mightie Philip the fourth king of Spaine Are to be Souto by William Peake IOANNES THERCLAES Comes de Tilli While they were thus Wire-drawing time spun out Manheim the chief Strength and Fortress in the Palatinate was taken by Tilly the Emperour's General whereof Sir Horatio Vere was Commander surrendred upon honourable Conditions having neither strength of Men or means to resist an Enemy Heidelberg before it as the King expressed was taken by Assault Sir Gerard Herbert the Commander of the Castle slain after he had repulsed the Enemy from the Assault breaking six Pikes upon them with his own hand And now Tilly Winter comeing on greedy to finish his work sits down before Frankendale whereof Major Barrowes had the Command a man of as much valour and experience as Time the Director and Spirit the Actor could make a man capable of But all this and the Strength of the Town to boot could not have protected them their Wants being stronger than their Enemy if Tilly had not been drowned up in his Trenches which forced his remove And though Our King said in his last Answer to the Parliament's Petition That the Enemy would have swallowed up his Forces in the Palatinate in eight daies if my Lord Digby had not succoured it yet the weakest of the three Places which is Heidelberg was not taken in a moment for Tilly in Iune last set down before it and was constrained to raise his Siege being not strong enough and coming again with a greater Power in the end of Iuly following he was there above two moneths before he took so much as any of their Out-Works And Manheim and Frankendale are two such strong Holds that if they had been well furnished with Men and Provisions they might have stood out against Tilly nay the great Turk as well if not better than Vienna the Imperial City As soon as the King had notice of the taking of Manheim he gives Bristol intimation of it and was very well satisfied of the King of Spain's good intentions for the Relief of it though Order sent to the Infanta arrived not there till the Town was surrendred Which was the old Spanish plot of Philip the Second to get Portugal into his hand wherein he cheated the Pope himself delaying his solicitations by his Legate Cardinal Riario for Don Antonio Bastard of Portugal with specious and pleasing entertainments till he had gotten the Castle of St. Iulians the greatest strength of the Kingdom then besieged by him into his power And yet our King looked upon this Apparition as Real and thanked the King of Spain for the good he never intended And now the Articles of Marriage that had been long hatching flew up and down from hand to hand The French Historians mention them so doth Mr. Pryn in his hidden Works of darkness as they were found among the Lord Cottington's Papers These came to me from the Nest and I have kept them till this time and comparing them with other Copies there is scarce a feather amiss Nor should they have pestered this paper but to shew what great pains was taken to little purpose what Huge pretences shouldred in to make way for the Spanish Designs which at last dwindled to nothing The Articles are these 1. THat the Marriage be made by Dispensation of the Pope but that to be procured by the endeavour of the King of Spain 2. That the Marriage be once celebrated in Spain and Ratified in England in form following In the morning after the most gracious Infanta hath ended her Devotions in the Chappel She and the most excellent Prince Charles shall meet in the King's Chappel or in some other Room of the Palace where it shall seem most expedient and there shall be read all the Procurations by Virtue whereof the Marriage was celebrated in Spain And as well the most excellent Prince as the most excellent Infanta shall ratifie the said Marriage celebrated in Spain with all Solemnity necessary to such an Act so as no Ceremony or other thing intervene which shall be contrary to the Roman-Catholik-Apostolik-Religion 3. That the Gracious Infanta shall take with Her such Servants and Family as are convenient for her service which Family and all Persons to her belonging shall be chosen and nominated by the Catholik King so as he nominate no Servant which is Vassail to the King of Great Britain without his will and consent 4. That as well the most gracious Lady Infanta as all her Servants and Family shall have free use and publique exercise of the Roman Catholike Religion in manner and form as is beneath Capitulated 5. That she shall have an Oratory and decent Chappel in her Palace where at the pleasure of the most Gracious Infanta Masses may be celebrated which Oratory or Chappel shall be adorned with such decencie as shall seem convenient for the most gracious Infanta with a publike Church in London c. 6. That the Men-servants and Maid-servants of the most Gracious Infanta and their Servants Children and Descendents and all their Families of what sort soever serving her Highness may be freely Catholiks 7. That the most gracious Infanta her Servants and Family may be freely Catholiks in form following 8. That the most gracious Infanta may have in her Palace her Oratory and Chappel
to amuse than inform the Understanding But Elegancies in expression though I am not able to reach them my self I admire in others especially if they run in a smooth Chanel and keep that mediocrity that they overflow not the bank But while I am pleading for Mediocrity I find my self in a Labyrinth betwixt too little Pamphlets our Kings Court and his Kitchen and I know not by what Clue to avoid it They are like two extremes Scylla and Charybdis therefore to pass by and not be indangered by them I will shape my Course in the middle betwixt both and Truth shall be my Gale For I protest without passion I lean to no Faction or side but set down plainly what my Conscience and Knowledg dictates to me Nor do I intend to asperse Noble Families Where is there one as that famous Orator the Lord Verulam said that like a fair Pomegronate hath not some corrupted Cornel And may not that be pickt out from the rest but it must taint them all And how can Truth be known but by the good savour it leaves behind For a good Name is like a precious Oyntment Never any thing of History should be left to Posterity if men may not be spoken of when they are dead And if their Actions be genuinely related there will be an intermixture of Good and Bad professedly allowed according to the good or ill Comportment of the person presented though as I said tenderly to be dealt with for Man is of no Angelical nature But it is easie to daub over the foulest Deformities and make them appear Beautiful For as Ulpian said of the Laws of his time so I say of Historical Relations Nulla veritas ita diserte ulla de re cavere potest ut malitios a calliditas locum fraudi non inveniat But this stirring of the Waters is only to make the Truth less perspicuous when time shall settle them all things will appear clearly Records and publick Actions within Memory cannot sink though the Dregs and muddy water thrown in to trouble them may But I will steer steady and avoid them both hoping to arrive at some happy Port if I can pass the Shallows of Ignorance or Rocks of Prejudice that lie in the Way The Authors PICTURE drawn by Himself AS others print their Pictures I will place My Mind in Frontispiece plain as my Face And every Line that is here drawn shall be To pencil out my Souls Physiognomy Which on a Radiant height is fixt My Brow Frowns not for these Miscarriages below Vnless I mean to limit and confine Th' Almighty Wisdom to conceits of mine Yet have no envious Eyes against the Crown Nor did I strive to pull the Mitre down Both may be good But when Heads swell men say The rest of the poor Members pine away Like Ricket-Bodies upwards over-grown Which is no wholsome Constitution The grave mild Presbyter I could admit And am no Foe to th' Independent yet For I have levell'd my intents to be Subservient unto Reason's Soveraignty And none of these State-Passions e'r shall rise Within my Brain to rule and tyrannize For by Truth 's sacred Lamp which I admire My Zeal is kindled not Fanatick fire But I 'll avoid those vapours whose swoln spight And foaming Poyson would put out this light Vain Fuellers they think who doth not know it Their light 's above't because their walk 's below it Such blazing Lights like Exhalations climb Then fall and their best matter proves but slime For where conceited Goodness finds no want Their Holiness becomes Luxuriant Now my great trouble is that I have shown Other mens faults with so many of my own And all my care shall be to shake off quite The Old Mans load for him whose burthen's light And grow to a full stature till I be Form'd like to Christ or Christ be form'd in me Such Pieces are Grav'n by a Hand Divine For which I 'l give my God this Heart of mine Contemnit linguas vita probanda malas UERA EFIGIES PRUDENTISSIMAE PRINCIPIS ELIZABETHAE ANGLIAE FRANCIAE ET HIBE REGINAE ETc ELIZABETHA REGINA Lo heare her Type who was of Late Spains foile faiths shield queene of state In briefe of women neere was seene So great a Prince so good a queene Are to be sould bi ROger Daniell at the angell in lumbard streete THE LIFE REIGN OF JAMES THE FIRST KING OF Great Britain THE various hand of Time began now to sheath the Sword of War that had been long disputing the Controversie which Religion and Policy that Princes mix together had for many years so fiercely maintained The wearing out of that old but glorious and most happy Piece of Soveraignty the late Queen bating the Spanish Violence and ending with the Irish-Rebellion and submission of Tirone as if the old Genius of Iron-handed-War were departed and a New one Crowned with a Palm of Peace had taken possession of the English Nation Iames the sixth King of Scotland was proclaimed King of England For though Princes that find here a Mortal Felicity love not the noise of a Successor in their life-time yet they are willing for the Peace of their people to have One when they can hear no more of it That which the Queen could not indure from others She was well pleased to express her self and bequeath in her last Will as a Legacy to this then Happy Nation He was thirty six years of Age when he came to the Crown How dangerous the passage had been from his very Infancy to his Middle Age is not only written in many Histories but the untamed and untractable Spirits of most of that Nation are a sufficient Witness and Record The wise Queen found many petty Titles but none of that Power any other Hand that should have reacht for the Crown might a caught a Cloud of Confusion and those Supporters and Props that held up her Greatness loth to submit to Equals made Scaffolds to his Triumphs In the Wane or last Quarter of the late Queen the Court Motions tended by an Oblique Aspect towards this Northern Star and some of her great Council in her Presence would glance at the King of Scots as her Successor which would make her break into Passion saying Was this imputed to Essex as a Crime and is it less in you Yea Cecil himself held his Correspondencies which he was once like to be trapt in For the Queen taking the Air upon Black-Heath by Greenwich a Post summoned her to enquire from what Quarter his business came and hearing from Scotland She staid her Coach to receive the Pacquet but the Secretary Sir Robert Cecil being in the Coach with Her fearful that some of his secret Conveyances might be discovered having an active Wit calls for a knife suddainly to open it lest put offs and delays might beget Suspition and when he came to cut it he told the Queen it looked and smelt ill-favouredly coming out of many nasty Budgets and
this blow reached presently into England and came somewhat near our Kings Heart therefore he took the best way to prevent his Fears by striving to prevent his Dangers having no other end but his own For when he considered the horridness of the Powder Plot and by it the irreconcileable malice of that Party he thought it the safest policy not to stir those Ashes where so much Fire was covered which gave way to a flux of that Iesuitical humour to infest the Body of the Kingdom But now being startled with this poysoned knife he ventures upon a Proclamation strictly commanding all Iesuits and Priests out of the Kingdom and all Recusants to their own Houses not to come within ten miles of the Court and secures all the rest of his Subjects to him by an universal taking of the Oath of Allegiance which the Parliament both Lords and Commons then sitting began and the rest of the People followed to the Kings great contentment For the last Session the Parliament was prorogued till the sixteenth of October this year and meeting now they were willing to secure their Allegiance to the King out of Piety yet they were so stout even in those youthful days which he term'd Obstinacy that they would not obey him in his incroachments upon the Publick Liberty which he began then to practise For being now season'd with seven years knowledg in his profession here he thought he might set up for himself and not be still journy-man to the lavish tongue of men that pryed too narrowly into the secrets of his Prerogative which are mysteries too high for them being Arcana imperii fitter to be admired than questioned But the Parliament were apprehensive enough that those hidden mysteries made many dark steps into the Peoples Liberties and they were willing by the light of Law and Reason to discover what was the Kings what theirs Which the King unwilling to have searched into after five Sessions in six years time dissolved the Parliament by Proclamation HENRICUS Princeps Walliae etc a. Reverendissimus in Christo Pater D.D. RICHARDUS BANCROFT Archiepiscopus Cantuariensis About this time Richard Bancroft Arch-Bishop of Canterbury died a person severe enough whose roughness gained little upon those that deserted the Ceremonies One work of his shewed his spirit better than the ruggedest Pen can depaint it For it was he that first brought the King to begin a new Colledg by Chelsey wherein the choice and abiest Scholars of the Kingdom and the most pregnant Wits in matters of Controversies were to be associated under a Provost with a fair and ample allowance not exceeding three thousand pounds a year whose design was to answer all Popish Books or others that vented their malignant spirits against the Protestant Religion either the Heresies of the Papists or the Errors of those that strook at Hierarchy so that they should be two-edged Fellows that would make old cutting and flashing and this he forwarded with all industry during his time and there is yet a formal Act of Parliament in being for the establishment of it But after his death the King wisely considered that nothing begets more contention than opposition and such Fuellers would be apt to inslame rather than quench the heat that would arise from those embors For Controversies are often or for the most part the exuberancies of Passion and the Philosopher saith men are drunk with disputes and in that inordinateness take the next thing that comes to hand to throw at one anothers faces so that the design fell to the ground with him and there is only so much Building standing by the Thames-side as to shew that what he intended to Plant he meant should be well Watered and yet it withered in the bud I can lay nothing to the charge of this great man but from common fame yet this I may truly say That for his Predecessor Whitgift and his Successor Abbot I never heard nor read any thing tending to their disparagement But on him some unhappy Wit vented this Pasquin Here lies his Grace in cold Earth slad Who died with want of what he had The Queen was Mistress of Somerset-house as well as the Prince was Master of St. Iames and she would fain have given it the name of Denmark-house which name continued her time among her people but it was afterwards left out of the common Calender like the dead Emperors new named Month. She was not without some Grandees to attend her for outward glory The Court being a continued Maskarado where she and her Ladies like so many Sea-Nymphs or Nereides appeared often in various dresses to the ravishment of the beholders The King himself being not a little delighted with such fluent Elegancies as made the nights more glorious than the days But the latitude that these high-flying fancies and more speaking Actions gave to the lower World to judg and censure even the greatest with reproaches shall not provoke me so much as to stain the innocent Paper I shall only say in general That Princes by how much they are greater than others are looked upon with a more severe eye if their Vertues be not suitable to their Greatness they lose much of their value For it is too great an allay to such resinedness to fall under the common cognizance Philip Earle of Pemb Mong Lord Chamberlaine to the King etc. Now all addresses are made to Sir Robert Car he is the Favourit in Ordinary no sute nor no reward but comes by him his hand distributes and his hand restrains our Supreme Power works by second Causes the Lords themselves can scarce have a smile without him And to give the greater lustre to his power about this time the Earl of Dunbar the Kings old trusty Servant the Cabinet of his secret Counsels died so that he solely now took the most intimate of them into his charge and the Officer of Lord high Treasurer of Scotland which staff the other left behind him and though it could be no great Supporter yet the credit of it carried some reputation in his own Country where it was his happiness to be magnified as well as in England for he had Treasure enough here where the Fountain was And to ingrandize all the King created him Baron of Brandspech and Viscount Rochester and soon after Knight of the Garter Thus was he drawn up by the Beams of Majesty to shine in the highest Glory grapling often with the Prince himself in his own Sphear in divers Conteslations For the Prince being a high born Spirit and meeting a young Competitor in his Fathers Affections that was a Mushrom of yesterday thought the venom would grow too near him and therefore he gave no countenance but opposition to it which was aggravated by some little scintils of Love as well as Hatred Rivals in passion being both amorous and in youthful blood fixing by accident upon one object who was a third mans in which the Viscount
up to three hundred pounds a piece But now again the poor Courtiers were so indigent that sixty pounds would purchase a Knighthood the King wanting other means to gratifie his Servants Yet he was of so free a Nature and careless of Money when he had it though solicitous to get it that he batled in his own bounty For being one day in the Gallery at White-hall and none with him but Sir Henry Rich who was second Son to the Earl of Warwick afterwards Earl of Holland a Gentleman of excellent Natural Parts but youthfully expensive and Iames Maxwel one of his Bed Chamber some Porters past by them with three thousand pounds going to the Privy Purse Sir Henry Rich whispering Maxwel the King turned upon them and asked Maxwel what says he what says he Maxwel told him he wisht he had so much money Marry shalt thou Harry saith the King and presently commanded the Porters to carry it to his Lodging with this Expression You think now you have a great Purchase but I am more delighted to think how much I have pleasured you in giving this money than you can be in receiving it This Story intervenes to shew the Temper of his Mind About this time also Gold was raised to two shillings in the pound occasioned from the high value set upon it abroad which made the Merchant transport it But the first Inhancers can make their Markets by ingrossing great Sums especially the Payments of those times and all this Kings Reign being for the most part in Gold so that it might be called the Golden Age that it is a wonder now what gulf hath swallowed those great sums if their golden wings be not flown to the Sun-rising But these little projects will bring in but small store of money to maintain the Work many such Materials must go to make up a Royal Building and little Streams will not easily fill a Cistern that hath many Issues A Parliament can furnish all but who dare venture on such Refractory Spirits Yet there was a generation about the Court that to please and humour Greatness undertook a Parliament as men presuming to have Friends in every County and Borough who by their Power among the People would make Election of such Members for Knights and Burgesses as should comply solely to the Kings desires and Somerset is the Head and Chief of these Vndertakers But this was but an Embrion and became an Abortive The English Freedom cannot be lost by a few base and tame spirits that would unmake themselves and their Posterity to ingrandize one Man For the Parliament meeting according to their Summons such Faces appeared there as made the Court droop who instead of Contributing to the Kings wants lay open his wasts especially upon the Scots with whom they desire medietatem linguae a share of favour The Bread by our Saviours rule properly belonging to the Children of the Kingdom And they beseech His Majesty to stop the Current of future access of that Nation to make residence here having enough to eat up their own Crums They enquire into the Causes of the unexpected increase of Popish Recusants since the Gun-Powder Plot the detestation whereof they thought should have utterly extinguished them and they find it to the Admission of Popish Nobility into his Counsels the silencing of many watchful and diligent Ministers the divers Treaties his Majesty hath entertained not only for the Marriage of the deceased Prince Henry but for Prince Charles that now liveth with the Daughters of Popish Princes which dis-heartneth the Protestant and encourageth the Recusant laying open with these many other miscarriages in Government which the King willing to have concealed stopt them in their Course dissolving the Parliament and committing to the Tower and other Princes the beginning of incroachment upon the publick liberties such as were most active for the Common good These fair Blossoms not producing the hoped-for fruit they find out new Projects to manure the People different much in name and nature a Benevolence extorted a Free-gift against their wills was urged upon them and they that did not give in their money must give in their names which carried a kind of fright with it But the most knowing men like so many Pillars to the Kingdoms liberties supported their Neighbours tottering Resolutions with assuring them that these kind of Benevolences were against Law Reason and Religion First against Law being prohibited by divers Acts of Parliament and a Curse pronounced against the infringers of them Secondly against Reason that a particular man should oppose his judgment and discretion to the wisdom and judgment of the King assembled in Parliament who have there denyed any such aid Thirdly against Religion That a King violating his Oath taken at his Coronation for maintaining the Laws Liberties and Customs of the Realm should be assisted by the people in an Act of so much Injustice and Impiety These and many other Arguments instilled into the people by some good Patriots were great impediments to the Benevolence So that they got but little money and lost a great deal of love For no Levies do so much decline and abase the love and spirits of the people as unjust Levies Subsidies get more of their money but Exactions enslave the mind for they either raise them above or depress them beneath their sufferings which are equally mischievous and to be avoided This Summer the King of Denmark revisited his Sister the Queen of England with some forty Lords Gentlemen and others in his Train landing at Yarmouth and passing directly to London took up his Lodging in our Common Inns and was not known but for some Outlandish Nobleman till he came to the Queens Palace in the Strand where she was surprized with the unexpected joy of a Brothers company distanced from her by the interest of his people the great Bar that hinders Princes the common civilities and happiness of their Inferiors But the joy continued not long for after some fourteen days interview they parted again But those days had such a plenitude of all those delights that contend to satisfaction as if a great deal of more time had been involved and contracted in them VERA EFFIGIES FRANCISCAE COMITISSAE SOMERSETIAE VICECOM ROFFEN ETc The lively portraict of the Lady Francis Countesse of Somerset Sir Ralph Winwood who had been Lieger-Ambassador with the States in the Netherlands for his abilities and good service had merited so much from the King that he made him Secretary of State The Queen closes with him the better to discover Somersets miscarriages and he was ready enough to oblige her for Somerset made him but an Vnderling grasping all Publick imployments into his own hand not caring whom he disobliged or what Malice he pulled upon himself for like a Coloss he stood the brunt of all the Tempests of Envy making those that carried the greatest sail to strike and come under him Nor would he suffer any
and compunction asked him forgiveness and afterwards again of his own motion desired to have his like prayer of forgiveness recommended to his Mother who was absent And at both times out of the abundance of his heart confessed that he was to die justly and that he was worthy of death And after again at his Execution which is a kind of sealing time of Confessions even at the point of death though there were Tempers about him he did again confirm publickly that his Examinations were true and that he had been justly and honourably dealt with So here is a period of this man which was the subject of this calumny or affront of Iustice. Wherein Mr. Lumsden plays his part first who in the time between Westons standing mute and his Tryal frames a most odious and libellous Relation containing as many untruths as lines sets it down in writing with his own hand and delivers it to one of the Bedchamber to be put into the Kings hands falsifying all that was done the first day of Westons Arraignment turning the pike and point of his imputations upon the Lord Chief Justice of England whose name thus occurring I cannot pass by and yet I cannot skill of this same Flattery or vulgar Attribute but this I will say of him and I would say as much to Ages That never mans person and his place were better met in a business than my Lord Cook and my Lord Chief Iustice in the Cause of Overbury Now for the person of Master Lumsden I know he is a Scotch Gentleman and thereby more ignorant of our Laws but I cannot tell whether this doth extenuate his fault or increase it for as it may extenuate it in respect of ignorance so it doth aggravate it much in respect of presumption to meddle in that he understood not unless some other mans cunning wrought upon this mans boldness The infusion of a slander into a Kings ear is of all forms of Libels and Slanders the worst It is true that Kings may keep secret their information and then no man can enquire after them while they are shrined in their Breast but where a King is pleased that a man shall answer for his false information divers precedents of slanderous Petitions have been as severly punished as slanderous Libels For the Offence of Sir Iohn Wentworth and Sir Iohn Hollis which was to scandalize the Iustice already past or to cut off the thread of something that is to come these two Gentlemen came mounted on Horseback and in a ruffling and facing manner presumed to Examin Weston whether he did poyson Overbury or no directly cross to that which had been tried and judged For what was the Point tried That Weston had poysoned Overbury And Sir Wentworth's question was whether he did poyson him A direct Contradictory Whereupon Weston answered that he did him wrong and turning to the Sheriff said You promised me I should not be troubled at this time and yet nevertheless Wentworth prest him to answer that he might pray with him l know not that Sir Iohn Wentworth is an Ecclesiastick that he should cut any man from communion of Prayer and for all this vexing of the spirit of a poor man now in the gate of death Weston stood constant and said I die not unworthily my Lord Chief Iustice hath my mind under his hand and he is an honourable and just Iudg. Sir Iohn Hollis was not so much a Questionist but wrought upon the other Questions and like a Counsellor wisht him to discharge his Conscience and to satisfie the World What World I marvel It was the World at Tyburn For the World at Guildhall and the World at London were satisfied before Teste the Bels that rang every where But men have got a fashion now a-days that two or three busie bodies will take upon them the name of the World and broach their own conceit as if it were a general opinion Well what more When they could not work upon Weston Sir Iohn Hollis in an indignation turned about his horse as the other was turning to his death and said he was sorry of such a Conclusion That was to have the State honoured or justified Sir Iohn Hollis offence hath another Appendix before this in time which was at the day of the Tryal He presumed to give his Verdict openly That if he were of the Iury he would not doubt what to do Marry he saith he cannot well tell whether he spoke this before the Iury had given up their Verdict or after Wherein there is little gained for whether he were a Praejuror or a Postjuror the one was to prejudice the Iury the other was to attaint them The offence of these Gentlemen is greater and more dangerous than is conceived We have no Spanish Inquisition no Iustice in a corner no gagging of mens mouths at their death but they may speak freely to the last but then it must come from the free motion of the party not by tempting of Questions The Questions that are asked ought to tend to further revealing of their own or others guiltiness But to use a Question in the nature of a cross interrogatory to falsifie that which is Res judicata is intolerable That were to erect a Court or Commission of review at Tyburn against the Court of Westminster For if the Answer be according to the Judgment past it adds credit to Iustice if it be contrary it derogateth nothing yet it subjecteth the Majesty of Iustice to a popular vulgar talk and opinion My Lords these are great and dangerous offences for if we do not maintain Iustice Iustice will not maintain us Then the Examinations being read and further aggravated against these three Gentlemen there passed Judgment upon them of Fine and lmprisonment Sir Thomas Monson another of the Countesses Agents in this poysoning contrivance had past one days Tryal at Guildhall But the Lord Chief Justice Cook in his Rhetorical Flourishes at his Arraignment vented some expressions which he either deduced from Northamptons assuring the Lieutenant of the Tower that the making away of Sir Thomas Overbury would be acceptable to the King or from some other secret hint received as if he could discover more than the death of a private person intimating though not plainly that Overburies untimely remove had something in it of retaliation as if he had been guilty of the same Crime against Prince Henry blessing himself with admiration at the horror of such actions In which he flew so high a pitch that he was taken down by a Court Lure Sir Thomas Monsons Tryal laid aside and he soon after set at liberty and the Lord Chief Justices wings were clipt for it ever after And it was rumor'd that the King heightned to so much passion by this eruption of Sir Edward Cooks went to the Council Table and kneeling down there desired God to lay a Curse upon him and his posterity for ever if he were consenting to Overburies death But this
that sphere could have contained him but the vulgar and universal error of satiety with present injoyments made him too big for a rustical condition and when he came at Court he was too little for that So that some Novelty must be taken up to set him if he knew his own mind in Aequilibrio to the place he was in no matter what it was let it be never so pestilent and mischievous to others he cared not so he found benefit by it To him Michel is made Compartner a poor sneaking Justice that lived among the Brothels near Clerken-well whose Clark and he pickt a livelyhood out of those corners giving Warrants for what they did besides anniversary â—â—ipends the frequent Revenue of some Justices of those times for connivency I know how necessary and how splendent it is for men of publick minds to flourish in the execution of Iustice for weeding out and extirpating vitious habits radicated in every corner but this thing was a poisonous Plant in its own nature and the fitter to be an Ingredient to such a Composition Therefore he is brought to Court Knighted and corroborated by these Letters Patents whereby he took liberty to be more ravenous upon poor people to the grating of the bones and sucking out the very marrow of their substance These oppressions were throughly ripped up and laid open by the House of Commons But together with these proceedings they took notice of the King's wants and thought fit something to sweeten his temper that they might not take from him the little profit he had by those Patents but they would mâ—ke it up some other way therefore they gave him two intire Subsidles which were very acceptable unto him For those Contributions that flow from the peoples love come freely like a Spring-tide But illegal Taxes racked from their bowels coming through so many Promoters and Catchpoles hands run very low and the King hath the least share The King hearing these Patents were anatomized in the House of Commons and willing to comply with his people whom he found so bountiful unto him he comes to the House of Lords to close gently with them and excuse the granting of those Patents shewing some reasons why he did them and the instructions he gave for the execution of them by which he hoped to take off that sharp reflexion that might light upon him But the modesty of Parliaments seldom impute any of these miscarriages to the Prince but the Actors under him must bear the burthen of it And the time drawing near that the Lords assigned for judging the Malefactors the King comes again to the House upon the 26 of March and thus passed his sentence upon the Patents before the Lords should pass theirs upon the executioners of them My Lords Thomas Earle of Arundell Surrey Earle Marshall Lord high Steward of Englaud etc. Two reasons move me to be earnest in the execution of what ye are to sentence at this time First That duty I owe to God who hath made me a King and tied me to the care of Government by that politick Marriage betwixt me and my people For I do assure you in the Heart of an honest man and by the Faith of a Christian King which both ye and all the World know me to be had these things been complained of to me before the Parliament I would have done the office of a just King and out of Parliament have punished them as severely and peradventure more than ye now intend to do But now that they are discovered to me in Parliament I shall be as ready in this way as I should have been in the other For I confess I am ashamed these things proving so as they are generally reported to be that it was not my good fortune to be the only Author of the Reformation and punishment of them by some ordinary Courts of Justice Nevertheless since these things are now discovered by Parliament which before I knew not of nor could so well have discovered otherwise in regard of that Representative Body of the Kingdom which comes from all parts of the Country I will be never a-whit the slower to do my part for the execution For as many of you that are here have heard me often say and so I will still say So precious unto me is the publick good that no private person whatsoever were he never so dear unto me shall be respected by me by many degrees as the publick good not only of the whole Common-wealth but even of a particular Corporation that is a Member of it And I hope that ye my Lords will do me that right to publish to my people this my heart and purpose The second Reason is That I intend not to derogate or infringe any of the Liberties or Privileges of this House but rather to fortifie and strengthen them For never any King hath done so much for the Nobility of England as I have done and will ever be ready to do And whatsoever I shall say and deliver unto you as my thought yet when I have said what I think I will afterwards freely leave the Judgment wholly to your House I know you will do nothing but what the like hath been done before and I pray you be not jealous that I will abridge you of any thing that hath been used For whatsoever the Precedents in times of good Government can warrant I will allow For I acknowledge this to be the supreme Court of Iustice wherein I am ever present by Representation And in this ye may be the better satisfied by my own presence coming divers times among you Neither can I give you any greater assurance or better pledge of this my purpose than that I have done you the honor to set my only Son among you and hope that ye with him shall have the means to make this the happiest Parliament that ever was in England This I profess and take comfort in that the House of Commons at this time have shewed greater love and used me with more respect in all their proceedings than ever any House of Commons have heretofore done to me or I think to any of my Predecessors As for this House of yours I have always found it respective to me and accordingly do I and ever did favour you as you well deserved And I hope it will be accounted a happiness for you that my Son doth now sit among you who when it shall please God to set him in my place will then remember that he was once a Member of your House and so be bound to maintain all your Lawful Privileges and like the better of you all the days of his life But because the World at this time talks so much of Bribes I have just cause to fear the whole Body of this House hath bribed him to be a good Instrument for you upon all occasions He doth so good Offices in all his Reports to me both for the House in general and every
Philip Knevit Sir Iohn Tasborough Sir William Selbie Sir Richard Titchborn Sir Iohn Hall Sir George Perkins Sir Thomas Penrodduck Sir Nicholas Sanders Knights Besides divers Esquires Popishly addicted either in their own Persons or by means of their Wives too tedious to be expressed here And these were dispersed and seated in every County who were not only in Office and Commission but had Countenance from Court by which they grew up and flourished so that their exuberancie hindered the growth of any Goodness or Piety their Malice pleased to drop upon These men being now touched began to shrink in their Branches like the new-found Indian Plants but they quickly put out again for though this Disturbance or Movement came upon them by the Dissolution of one Treaty yet they presently got heart and spread again by the other which was in Agitation Carolus D. G. Rex Ang Sco Fran et Hib Henreta Maria D. G. Reg Ang Sco Fran et Hib But the Iesuitical Party both here and there were incessantly laborious for a greater Liberty and the King 's chief Agent in the Treaty Monsieur de Vieuxvill having pulled on him the Odium of the people through some miscarriages being committed Prisoner by the King to protect him from their Rage the Cardinal Richelieu entring then into his Infancy of Favour being preferred by the Queen-Mother to be a manager of the Treaty whose Intimate he was and more Stubborn for promoting the Catholique Cause yet all this could give no stop to the Career but that the Match would be made up upon very easie Terms But when the King of France understood by his Ministers and Agents in England how eager our King was for the Match for he desired it above all Earthly Blessings as one near him said of him for besides the Reproach he thought would fall upon him by another Breach he should lose the Glory of a Conjunction with Kings which he highly wound up his Opinion to to Sublime and as it were Deifie his Posterity in the esteem of the people so that he would almost submit to any thing rather than the Match should not go forward which the King of France finding he bated his Humour of earnestness for it and descended by the same Steps and Degrees that he found his Brother King advanced to it and got several great Immunities for the Papists by it notwithstanding all Our King 's fair Promises to the Parliament as may be seen by those Articles seal'd and sworn to by Our King some few Months before his Death But a little before this when the Hopes of the Match with France began to bud the Earl of Carlile was sent over to mature and Ripen the proceedings with the Earl of Holland to bring the Treaty to some perfection yet with private instructions That if they could find by their Spanish Correspondencies as the Earl of Carlile was a little Hispanioliz'd that the Match there had any Probability of taking effect with the new Propositions that then they should proceed no further in the French Treaty so earnest was the King for the one so Violent for the other The Sophisticate Drugs of the Spanish Restitution of the Palatinate having not yet lost their Operation Thus the Ambition of Princes that devolve all their Happiness upon glorious Extractions doth choak and smother those Considerations that Religion like a clear light discovers to be but gross and cloudy Policy which vanishes often and comes to nothing The Duke of Buckingham swoln with Grandure having two great Props to support him doubted not to Crush any thing that stood in his way so that he fell very heavily upon his Cousen the Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer for he remembred how he repined at the Moneys that were spent in Spain and his Comportment to him since his coming over Middlesex being naturally of a Sullen and proud Humor was not such as he thought did become his Creature Therefore he Resolved to bring him down from that Height he had placed him in and quickly sound the means to do it For great Officers that dig deep in Worldly Treasures have many Underminers under them and those that are not just to themselves or others must make use of such as will not be so just to them so that a flaw may easily be found whereby a great Breach may be made And as Middlesex had not Innocency to Iustifie himself so he wanted Humility whereby others might Iustifie him which made him fall unpitied The Prince that was Buckingham's right hand took part against him in the House of Lords where he was Questioned which the King hearing of writes to the Prince from New-Market whither he often retired to be free and at ease from comber and noise of Business That he should not take part with any Faction in Parliament against the Earl of Middlesex but to reserve himself so that both sides might seek him for if he bandied to take away his Servants the time would come that others would do as much for him This wise Advice speaks Buckingham a little declining from the Meridian of the King's Favour or the King from his For if the King did know that Buckingham was his chief Persecutor it could not but relish ill with the Duke to have the King plead for him if the King did not 〈◊〉 know there was not then that intimacy betwixt them that used to be But the Treasurer's Actions being throughly canvased though he had not had such great Enemies he was found guilty of such misdemeanors as were not fit for a Man of Honour to commit so that the Parliament thought to Degrade him but that they looked on as an ill Precedent But though they took not away his Titles of Honour in Relation to his Posterity who had not offended yet they made him utterly uncapable of sitting in the House of Lords as a Peer And for his fine it was so great that the Duke by Report got Chelsie House out of him for his part of it There was an odd accident hapned in Northampton-shire while this Treasurer was in his Greatness One Harman a rich man that knew not well how to make use of his Riches having some bad Tenants and being informed that one of them which Owed him money had furnished himself to go to a Fair to buy some Provisions for his accommodation Harman walks as by accident to meet him in the way to the Market when he saw his Tenant he askt him for his Rent the man that was willing otherwise to dispose of his money denied he had any Yes I know thou hast money said Harman calling him by his Name I prithee let me have my Rent and with much importunity the man pulled out his money and gave all or the most part of it to his Landlord This coming to some Pragmatical knowledg the poor Man was advised to indict his Landlord for Robbing him and taking his Money from him in the High-way which he
tidings and setled us in the fruition of all good things He whose depth of Knowledge as well as Conscience deserves the Title of Fidei defensor whose numerous Issue makes Foreign Princes study to keep their own not look abroad He that hath shut the back-door of the Kingdom and placed two Lions a red and a yellow to secure it who would have us live under our own Olive that we may laetari benefacere That none will wonder at the Want or startle at the supply but such as study to serve their own turns and believe nothing but what they find written in the stories of their own ignorance Among which those are to be reckon'd who hearing of an Order to bind up the printed Proclamations in a book that the better notice may be taken of the things contained in them have raised a bruit that it was intended this Parliament to make Proclamations equal to the Laws which never entred into the Kings heart who is so far from governing by will and power that he will yield to any motion from them wherein they shall hold a just Diameter and proportion among themselves and observe those Duties due to a great and gracious King Thus these Lords did please themselves and the King by striving to keep the people in the milky way of Obedience which they had long suckt in and found the sweet of it tending to nourishment not yet meeting any Callous or Brawny-constitution which must harden them by degrees nor yet finding their own Tempers grown Robust enough by so harsh a diet as afterwards they met with They therefore are willing to go on in the way pointed out to them as Pupils follow their Masters minding rather the smoothness of the Tract they saw than the roughness of the end Yet some of them whose hopes were not so high mounted and their spirits more spoke plainly That the whole wealth of England would not serve the Kings vast Bounty therefore it was a vain thing to give him that would give it away again That Gold and Silver in Edenburgh now in our Solomons time are like the stones in the streets never so much glittering there like a perpetual spring-time Besides they look upon the Kings incroachments upon the publick liberty by undermining the Laws taking notice of some expressions that fell from him publickly at his dinner in derogation of the Common Law extolling highly the Civil Law before it and approving a Book lately written by Doctor Cowell a Civilian against it Which netled our great Lawyers that had not some of them been raised so high that they could not with that Court-gag look downwards it had bred a contest The High-Commission also began now to swell into a Grievance which the Parliament complained of Seldom is Authority and Power exercised with Moderation Every man must conform to the Episcopal way and quit his hold in Opinion or safety That Court was the Touch stone to try whether men were metal for their stamp and if they were not soft enough to take such impressions as were put upon them they were made malleable there or else they could not pass current This was the beginning of that mischief which when it came to a full ripeness made such a bloody Tincture in both Kingdoms as never will be got out of the Bishops Lawn sleeves And though these Apples of strife thrown in the way did a little retard the course in hand yet they carried not the prize For the King according to his old wont like a cunning Hunter when they began to run counter called them off and at White-hall by one of his Lectures he strives to bring them into the way again By laying himself open as in a Glass wherein if they could not see his heart they might scent out his meaning and so follow the chace which was to be pursued He tells them though the Kings heart be in the hands of the Lord yet he will set it before the eyes of the people Assuring them that he never meant to govern by any Law but the Law of the Land though it be disputed among them as if he had an intention to alter the Law and govern by the absolute Power of a King He knew said he the Power of Kings resembling it to the Power Divine For as God can create and destroy make and unmake at his pleasure so Kings can give life and death judg all and be judged of none They can exalt low things and abase high things making the subjects like men at Chess a pawn to take a Bishop or a Knight But he left out the power of a Pawn to take a Queen or check a King And when he had raised the Kings power to the height with Vos dii estis he brings them down again with They shall die like men And that all Kings who are not Tyrants or perjur'd will bound themselves within the limits of their Laws and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common-wealth Yet as it is Blasphemy to dispute what God may do so it is Sedition in Subjects to dispute what a King may do in the height of his power And as he will not have his subjects discourse of what he may do so he will do nothing but what shall be consonant to Law and Reason Then he strives to mitigate the sharpness of the words dropt from him at his Table to the disparagement of the Common Law and assures them though he likes the Civil Law very well as being Lex Gentium which maintains intercourse with foreign Nations and sitted to the Ecclesiastical Courts Court of Admiralty and Courts of Request yet he is so far from disavowing the Common Law that he protests if he were to chuse a new Law for this Kingdom he would prefer it before any other National Law yea the Law of Moses nay without blasphemy the very Law of God Then he recalls himself and tells them That though for this Nation he had preferred the Common Law to the Law of God yet it is inferiour to the Iudicial Law For no Book or Law is free from corruption but the Book and Law of God And therefore he could wish that three things specially were purged out of Common Law First That it were written in the vulgar Tongue and made plain to the peoples understanding that they might know what to obey that the Lawyers in the Law like the Romish Priests in the Gospel might not keep the people in ignorance Secondly That the Common Law might have a setled Text in all Cases for being grounded upon old Customs Reports and Cases of former Iudges called Responsa prudentum which are not binding for divers times Iudges disclaim them and recede from the Iudgment of their Predecessors it were good upon mature deliberation that the Exposition of the Law were set down by Act of Parliament that the people might know what to depend upon Thirdly There is in
place in Court or dignity in State to be bestowed which was not sweetned with his smile that gave it or their bounty that injoyed it so that it was thought he ingrossed a mass of Coin as if his soul intended to take her ease This Pride and Covetousness added to his other miscarriages such a number of Vnderminers that he stood upon a tottering foundation having no support but the Kings favour which whether by Providence from above or purposes below both ever concurring from the Will to the Means was soon removed For about this time the King cast his eye upon a young Gentleman so rarely moulded that he meant to make him a Master-piece His name was George Villers he was second Son to Sir George Villers a Knight of Leicester-shire by a second Venter For the old man coming to Colehorton in that County to visit his Kinswoman the Lady Beaumont found a young Gentlewoman of that name allyed and yet a servant to the Lady who being of a handsom presence and countenance took his affections and he married her This was the soil where the glorious Cedar grew who having only the breeding and portion of a younger Brother with the Mothers help and travel got the addition of a French garb which brought him to the Court in no greater a condition than fifty pounds a year is able to maintain The King strucken with this new object would not expose him to so much hazard as the malice of a jealous Competitor nor him self to so much censure as to be thought changeable and taken again with a sudden affection therefore he instructs some of his Confidents to bring him in by degrees who intimated the Kings pleasure to him that he should wait Cup bearer at large being so at too strait a distance of place to have any mark of favour for suspition to level at And if the King had not received a new Impression thus the old Character of Somerset that was imprinted in his soul could not so soon as many men thought have been blotted out But Courts that are the wisest though not the most vertuous Schools do teach their Scholars to observe the Seasons and by the Astronomy of the Princes eye to calculate what Fortune such Aspects and such Conjunctions may happily produce And they found so much as gave them incouragement to hear and boldness to discover that which pulled down the one and set up the other But Somerset that had the pulse of his Conscience always beating at Overburies door was as active to preserve himself as his Enemies were to ruin him and finding himself shaking though there was nothing yet laid to his Charge but the imbezelling some of the Crown Iewels he throws himself at the Kings feet acknowledging the great Trust his Majesty had reposed in him and the weight of business lying on him might make him incounter him with some miscarriages through youth and ignorance great imployments often meeting with envy that jossels them in the way he therefore humbly besought his Majesty to grant him a general Pardon for what was past that he might not be exposed to the malice of those that would wrest all his Actions to the worst meaning The King that raised this fair Edifice being loth to have it quite pulled down again gave order for the drawing up of a general Pardon in so ample and full a manner that it might rather exceed than take rise from any former precedent This the King signed and sent to the Great Seal But the Queen having notice of it and using her Power with the Lord Chancellor gave stop to the Seal till the Kings coming to Town who was on his Progress in the West and then what was mutter'd in corners before rung openly in the Streets For the Apothecaries boy that gave Sir Thomas Overbury the Glister falling sick at Flushing revealed the whole matter which Sir Ralph Winwood by his Correspondents had a full Relation of and a small breach being made his Enemies like the noise of many Waters rise up against him following the Stream VERA EFFIG REVERâ—â—â—… DOMINI IOHANÌ„IS KING EPISCOPI LONDINâ—… Lo here his shade whose substaÌ„ce is divine Like God in all that may his Angell fitt Whose light before men like a lampe doth shyne The Oyle of Grace and learning feeding it Yet like a lampe that others light doth gieve Still wast's the Oyle by which him self doth lieve See thy true shadowe Nature and suppose How much thy Substance is belov'd of Harts O Cunning if thy Mirror could diclose His heavenly Formes of Zeale Religion Arts This picture might exactllie shewe in Hym. Each vertue done to Life for each dead Lym. For a little before this Weston was taken and examined but like a stubborn piece unmoulded for impression nothing could be drawn from him but God by the means and persuasion of the Bishop of London Doctor King a man eminent for piety in his time so wrought upon his heart that the eye of his soul being opened to the foulness of his sin he discovered all so that the whole Confederacy were laid hold on Who falling into the hands of the Lord Chief Justice Cook a Spirit of a fiery exhalation as subtil as active he left no stone unturned till he had ript up the very foundation But in the mean time between Westons standing mute and his Trial one Lumsden a Scotchman took upon him to make a false and libellous Relation of the business and delivers it to Henry Gib of the Bed-Chamber to be put into the Kings hand in which Writing he falsifies and perverts all that was done the first day of Westons Arraignment turning the edg of his imputations upon the Lord Chief Justice Cook which Bolt was boldly shot by him but it was thought not to come out of his own Quiver and it lighted into an ill hand for him for the King discovered it and left him an open Mark to that Iustice he had traduced Weston was the first that suffered by the hand of the Law which Sir Iohn Hollis after Earl of Clare out of friendship to Somerset and Sir Iohn Wentworth a Person debauched and riotous hoping from the beams of of Somersets favour to increase his wanting fortunes strove to blast in the spring for they rod to Tyburn and urged him at his Execution to deny all hoping that way to prevent the Autumn that followed but Westons Soul being prepared for Death resisted their temptations sealing penitently the Truth of his Confession with his last And this attempt of Hollu Wentworth and Lumsden to pervert Iustice being aggravated against them in the Star-Chamber by the Kings Atturney Sir Francis Bacon they were sentenced there and found the reward of their Presumption Mistris Turner followed next A Pattern of Pride and Lust who having always given a loose Rein to her life she ran this carreer at last into the jaws of death Sir Iervis Ellowis Lieutenant of the Tower
cannot be asserted being above our Sphere yet as Mathematicians do propose to themselves imaginary Circles for the several motions in the Heavens and though there be none discovered yet they find the effects of what they apprehend So the sudden stopping of Monsons Tryal put strange imaginations into mens heads and those seconded by Reports too high for private discovery their operation only falling under the common notion But the Lord Chief Justice was blamed for flying out of his way that having enough to prosecute the business he would grasp after more till he lost all For this Crime was thought second to none but the Gunpowder-plot that would have blown up all indeed at a blow a merciful cruelty this would have done the same by degrees a lingring but as sure a way one by one might have been culled out till all opposers had been removed Besides the other Plot was scandalous to Rome making Popery odious this was scandalous to the Gospel ever since the first Nullity The Devil could not have invented a more mischievous practice to Church and State William Seymour Marquis and Earle of Hartford and Baron Beauchamp GRAUE PONDUS ILLA MAXIMA NOBILITAS PREMIT Anno 1619. And now the Temples of Ianus being shut Warlike Abilliaments grew rusty and Bellona put on Masking-attire for Scotland bought her Peace at a good rate and Ireland found the fruits of hers growing up to her hand Those Irish that had great Estates though rude enough the King suppled and tamed with Honours and they that had little were content calmly to suck in what they had and battel'd by it so that they wanted nothing but moderation to make them happy These Halcion days shined round about us The influence of our Kings peaceable mind had almost an universal operation Spains ambition was contented to be bounded by the Pirene Hills and the Atlantick Ocean sucking in the fruits of Italy and Sicily and hoarding up the Treasures of the Indies willingly singing a Requiem to the Netherlands France wanting Exercise surfeited with diseases at home which by fits broke out into Tumors among themselves The Germans swelled into a Dropsie of Voluptuousness by Plenty and the sweets of Peace Politick Bodies are like Natural Full feeding contracts gross humors which will have vent Only such Exercise as may refine and keep the spirits active and digest the grosser and fulginous matter strengthens the Nerves of a Kingdom or Republick Nothing now but bravery and feasting the Parents of Debauchery and Riot flourished among us There is no Theam for History when men spill more drink than blood when plots and contrivances for Lust acted in dark corners are more practised than Stratagems in War and when the Stages with silken Pageants and Poppets that slacken the sinews are more frequented than those Theaters of Honor where Industry brawns and hardens the Arms Peace is a great Blessing if it bring not a Curse with it but War is more happy in its effects than it especially if it takes away the distemper that grows by long surfets without destroying the Body But since these buskind ornaments are wanting we must imbellish our Discourses with such passages as paced up and down in the sock of Peace There had been in Prince Henries time a Treaty of Marriage betwixt him and a Daughter of Spain which took no effect Our King was real in his intentions not willing to have his Sons Beams to display themselves but in a Royal Horizon The Spanish policy clouded the business with delays whether from the old grudg that was betwixt Queen Katharine and Henry the eighth or the difference between the Nations in Religion But the Spanish Courtesie being loth directly and point blank to tell our King he liked not the Conjunction went with a slow-paced Gravity such as he thought befitted the Civility of Princes and gave a little light to hope that it might be accomplished But Salisbury and others that managed those great affairs then did at this chink discover that their formalities were but Spanish Complements which like the air that gave them being soon vanished away After this our Kings thoughts cast about how he might provide a fit match for Prince Charles who shined in the same sphere of Honor that his Brother left for a better but not so much inlightned with the peoples love being less active and splendid and that I may not call it sullenness more reserved The German Dames were discoursed on where his Sister shined in her Glory as being of the same Religion and more suitable in Christian Policy but they were in a manner Subjects to the Emperor and that would give an allay to the Super-elementary extraction of Kings which should be of a higher Origine to amuse and that they might be the more admired by their people and therefore not so fitting in State-Policy And seeing there were small hopes expected from Spain a Daughter to Henry the great late King of France was aimed at and Sir Thomas Edmonds our Kings Lieger Ambassador had long before this time made his little addresses superficially and founded the Chanel but he met some Rocks and Remoras in the way so that he could not discover clearly their intentions and the King was loth to express himself plainly lest he should receive an affront And now sending as he thought it civilly necessary an Extraordinary Ambassador to congratulate the King of France his Marriage with Anna the Infanta of Spain he thought it good policy to take this occasion to make a stricter scrutiny whether there were any ground to rest upon for matching his Son And who is fitter for that employment being only for Courtship and Bravery than the Lord Hayes a Gentleman whose Composition of mind tended that way He was born in Scotland where bravery was in no superfluity bred up in France where he could not have it in extravagancy but he found it in England and made it his vanity The King had a large hand and he had a large heart and though he were no great Favourite ever yet he was never but in favour He with a great Train of young Noblemen and other Courtiers of eminency suited themselves with all those ornaments that could give lustre to so dazelling an appearance as Love and the Congratulation of it carried with it All the study was who should be most glorious and he had the happiest fancy whose invention could express something Novel neat and unusual that others might admire So that Huntingtons Prophecy was fulfilled here when speaking of the time of the Scots Conquest of England he said Multimoda variatione vestium indumentorum designaretur I remember I saw one of the Lord Ambassadors Suits and pardon me that I take notice of such petty things the Cloak and Hose were made of very fine white Beaver imbroidered richly all over with Gold and Silver the Cloak almost to the Cape within and without having no lining but imbroidery The
accused her to be a Witch and the Author of all his misery This old woman is sent to the Bishops Chancellor at Lichfield to be examined the Boy is brought thither to confront her and having his back towards her at her coming into the Room where the Chancellor was before she yet entred or appeared he falls into a most bitter Agony crying out Now she comes now my Tormentor comes wreathing and tearing himself in so horrid a manner that it did not only breed amazement but pity in the Spectators there being many with expectation attending the issue Which with some other probabilities were an inducement to the Chancellor to send the woman to Stafford Goal At the next Assizes for that County the Boy and his Parents appear as Witnesses against the Witch the Boy was placed in a conspicuous part of the Court with his face to the Bench eying the Judg continually in a very peaceable and quiet posture and as the woman was coming in when the Court thought it impossible the Boy should be sensible of her appearance he fell into a more raging fit than ever he was possest with before So stupendiously unnatural that it was deemed by all that saw it that nothing but a Diabolical Spirit could work such horrid effects This thus openly acted and the Relation of what was done at Lichfield and other probabilities evidencing the old woman that had no good Reputation among her Neighbours being of a tetrical and froward temper incident to old age found few Friends to plead her Cause so that being indicted for Witchcraft she was found guilty by the Iury and Condemned to die Doctor Morton Bishop of that Diocess a great Father of the Anglicane Church and happily then on the Bench about Secular Affairs hearing that some Romish Priests had been tampering with their Exorcisms to the undevilling of the Boy and finding little reason produced why or for what cause the Witch should use the Child so ill was perswaded this might be some jugling trick in them for effecting their miraculous ends He therefore besought the Iudg to reprieve the woman till the next Assizes and he would take the Boy home with him have him carefully and strictly looked to and doubted not before than time to find out the Bottom of some secret and hidden â—â—â—rivance The Iudg assented to the Bishop's request and so the Boy was carried to Eccleshal Castle the Bishops House whither his fits followed him with a great deal of violence For being put out of his râ—ad having formerly all sorts of people come to admire him and now being more carefully looked to he grew sâ—llen and would not eat sometimes in two or three days so that his belly was almost clung and grown to his back and he had a new swelling about his throat which never appeared before lay in his Bed sometimes as it were senseless sometimes stâ—ring with his eyes and foaming at the mouth sometimes striking those that stood near him his own careful mother being one whom he made all black about the arms and breasts never spoke but in his fits and then a strange gibbrish at other 〈◊〉 he only muttered and made signs The Bishop visited him often striving sometimes to soften him with gentleness at other times he handled him roughly with objurgations and threatnings but his ill Spirit is capable of neither He spoke to him one time some of the Greek Testament to see how that would work and it brought him into his fit At another time he uttered some Verses out of the Greek Poets which his Devil was not so learned as to distinguish for that put him into a fit again so that the Bishop was confirmed that he was an Impostor of a most pernicious and pernicious Spirit but how to Conjure it out of him was the difficulty And finding words and menaces made no impression in him he fell to blows for taking him out of his Bed and having one to hold him the Bishop gave him six very smart lashes with a Rod which moved the Boy no more than if he had been an insensible stock They also thrust needles into his toes and fingers betwixt the nails clapt burning candles to his eye-lids till they sing ed the hair off to divert him when he was in his fits but with all their persecutions he neither winch'd nor stirred so that the Actors were more troubled to execute than he to suffer And in this condition growing almost desperate he would make signs for knives or any other instrument to do himself a mischief therefore strict care was taken and many watchful eyes set over him to prevent any such danger Thus he continued almost a quarter of a year at last his Vrine grew so black that the Physicians thought Nature had left her usual operations having never found in any Human Body so much Adust matter to give so deep and deadly a tincture This struck the good Bishop very near For he was certain the Priests had been Hammering about him and now if he should miscarry under his hand those Mini-masters of mischief would in their dark shops coin such scandals against him as might pass current in the Worlds opinion therefore he used all the means he could possible as well to preserve him as to discover him But finding the Boy indure so many Trials with patience so much tough hardship and robustness in tender years he resolved if his water continued black to sitâ— the matter no further To find out which he set a trusty servant to watch him through a hole that looked into the Chamber upon the Bed which the Boy knew not of The Bishop going that morning with his Family to a Lecture all things were very still in the house and the Boy finding all quiet no noise about him he lifts himself up stares and listens and at length gets out of his Bed and in the straw or mat under it takes out an Ink-horn and makes water in the Chamber-pot through a piece of the Cotton in his hand another little piece of the Cotton he puts into his Prepuce covering it with the skin and that was for a Reserve if he should be forced to make water when company is by Thus having cunningly put himself in order he hides the Ink-horn again and returns to his Bed The man that was appointed to watch him seeing all this discovered it to the Bishop at his coming home who came to him presently and askt him how he did He according to his usual manner pointed to his water looked ghastly on it and mutter'd out his old howling tone The Bishop that meant now to deal roundly with him said Sirrah you have Ink in your bed-straw which you make use of to black your water and your knavery is found out and calling in his man he took out the Ink-horn where the Boy had hid it and the man justified that he saw him make water through the Cotton Which with the Bishops
more prayers and oblations offered here to the Mother than to the Son For the Marquess himself as he was a man of excellent symmetry and proportion of parts so he affected beauty where he found it but yet he looks upon the whole race of Women as inferior things and uses them as if the Sex were one best pleased with all And if his eye cull'd out a wanton beauty he had his Setters that could spread his Nets and point a meeting at some Ladies House where he should come as by accident and find Accesses while all his Train attended at the dore as if it were an honourable visit The Earl of Rutland of a Noble Family had but one Daughter to be the Mistris of his great Fortune and he tempts her carries her to his Lodgings in Whitehall keeps her there for some time and then returns her back again to her Father The stout old Earl sent him this threatning Message That he had too much of a Gentleman to suffer such an indignity and if he did not marry his Daughter to repair her honour no greatness should protect him from his justice Buckingham that perhaps made it his design to get the Father's good will this way being the greatest match in the Kingdom had no reason to mislike the Union therefore he quickly salved up the wound before it grew to a quarrel And if this Marriage stopt the Current of his sins he had the less to answer for This young Lady was bred a Papist by her Mother but after her Marriage to the Marquess she was converted by Doctor White as was pretended and grew a zealous Protestant but like a morning dew it quickly vanished For the old Countess of Buckingham never left working by her sweet Instruments the Iesuits till she had placed her on the first foundation So that the Marquess betwixt a Mother and a Wife began to be indifferent no Papist yet no Protestant but the Arminian Tenets taking root were nourished up by him and those that did not hold the same opinions were counted Puritans These new indifferences now grew so hot in England that the Protestant Cause grew very cold in Germany Which made the spirits of most men rise against the Spanish Faction at home and Spain's incroaching Monarchy abroad And though the King sped ill the last Parliament of Somerset's undertaking and thought to lay them by for ever as he often expressed looking upon them as incroachers into his Prerogative and diminishers of his Majesty and Glory making Kings less and Subjects more than they are Yet now finding the peoples desires high-mounted for regaining the Palatinate he thought they would look only up towards that and liberally open their Purses which he might make use of and this Unanimity and good agreement betwixt him and his people would induce his Brother of Spain to be more active in the Treaty in hand and so he should have supply from the one and dispatch from the other But Parliaments that are like Physicians to the bodies of Common-wealths when the humors are once stirred they find cause enough many times to administer sharp Medicines where there was little appearance of Diseases For in this Recess and Ease Time-servers and Flatterers had cried up the Prerogative And the King wanting Money for his vast expenses had furnished himself by unusual courses For Kings excessive in gifts will find followers excessive in demands and they that weaken themselves in giving lose more in gathering than they gain in the gift For Prodigality in a Soveraign ends in the Rapine and Spoil of the Subject To help himself therefore and those that drained from him he had granted several Patents to undertakers and Monopolizers whereby they preyed upon the people by suits and exactions milkt the Kingdom and kept it poor the King taking his ease and giving way to Informers the Gentry grown debauched and Fashion-mongers and the Commons sopt and besotted with quiet and restiness drunk in so much disability that it might well be said by Gondemar England had a great many people but few men And he would smile at their Musters for through disuse they were grown careless of Military Discipline ill provided of Arms effeminate Officers neglecting their charges and duties conniving for gain at their Neighbours miscarriages Some of the Officers in the Militia and Iustices of the Peace not a few being Church-Papists floating upon the smooth stream of the times overwhelming all others that opposed them stigmatizing them with the name of Puritans and that was mark enough to hinder the current of any proceeding or preferment aimed at or hoped for either in Church or State And the Iesuits ranging up and down like spirits let loose did not now as formerly creep into corners using close and cunning Artifices but practised them openly having admission to our Counsellors of State for when Secretaries and such as manage the intimate Counsels of Kings are Iesuitical and Clients to the Pope there can be no tendency of Affection to a contrary Religion or Policy Those were only most active in the Court of England that courted the King of Spain most and could carry the face of a Protestant and the heart of a Papist the rest were contented to go along with the cry For they hunted but a cold scent and could pick out and make nothing of it that drew off or crost or hunted counter Which raised the spirits of the people so high against them that were the chief Hunters in these times that they brought the King himself within the compass of their Libels and Pasquils charging him to love his hounds better than his people And if this bad blood had been heated to an itch of Innovation it would have broke out to a very fore and incurable Malady every man seeing the danger few men daring to prevent it The Pulpits were the most bold Opposers but if they toucht any thing upon the Spanish policy or the intended Treaties for the Restitution of the Palatinate was included in the Marriage before it was the Spaniards to give their mouths must be stopt by Gondemar without the Lady Iacob's Receipt and it may be confined or imprisoned for it So that there were noplain downright blows to be given but if they cunningly and subtily could glance at the misdemeanors of the Times and smooth it over metaphorically it would pass current though before the King himself For about this time one of his own Chaplains preaching before him at Greenwich took this Text 4 Mat. 8. And the Devil took Iesus to the top of a Mountain and shewed him all the Kingdoms of the World saying All these will I give c. He shewed what power the Devil had in the World at that time when he spake these words and from thence he came down to the power of the Devil now And dividing the World into four parts he could not make the least of the four to be Christian and of
Common-wealth from ruin in so great a time of danger And thus they address themselves to their great Pilot. Most dread and gracious Soveraign WE your most humble and loyal Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses assembled in the Commons House of Parliament full of grief and unspeakable sorrow through the true sence of your Majesties displeasure expressed by your Letter lately sent to Our Speaker and by him related and read unto Us Yet comforted again with the assurance of your Grace and Goodness and of the sincerity of our own intentions and proceedings whereon with confidence we can rely in all humbleness beseech your most excellent Majesty that the Loyalty and Dutifulness of as faithful and loving Subjects as ever served or lived under a gracious Soveraign may not undeservedly suffer by the mis-information of partial and uncertain Reports which are ever unfaithful Intelligencers but that your Majesty would in the clearness of your own Judgment first vouchsase to understand from Our selves and not from others what our humble Declaration and Petition resolved upon by the Universal Voice of the House and proposed with your Gracious favour to be presented unto your Sacred Majesty doth contain Upon what Occasion we entred into Consideration of those things which are therein contained with what dutiful respect to your Majesty and your Service we did consider thereof and what was our true intention thereby And that when your Majesty shall thereby truly discern our dutiful Affections you will in your Royal judgment free us from those heavy Charges wherewith some of our Members are burthened and wherein the whole House is involved And we humbly beseech your Majesty that you will not hereafter give Credit to private Reports against all or any of the Members of our House whom the whole have not censured until your Majesty have been truly informed thereof from our selves and that in the mean time and ever we may stand upright in your Majesties Grace and good Opinion than which no worldly consideration is or can be dearer unto us When your Majesty had reassembled us in Parliament by your Royal Commandment sooner than we expected and did vouchsafe by the mouths of three honourable Lords to impart unto us the weighty occasions moving your Majesty thereunto And from them we did understand these particulars That notwithstanding your Princely and Pious indeavours to procure Peace the time is now come that Janus Temple must be opened That the Voice of Bellona must be heard and not the Voice of the Turtle That there was no hope of Peace nor any Truce to be obtained no not for a few days That your Majesty must either abandon your own Children or ingage your self in a war wherein Consideration is to be had what foot what horse what money would be sufficient That the Lower Palatinate was seized upon by the Army of the King of Spain as Executor of the Ban there in quality of Duke of Burgundy as the Upper Palatinate was by the Duke of Bavaria That the King of Spain at his own Charge had now at least five several Armies on foot That the Princes of the Union were disbanded but the Catholick league remained firm whereby those Princes so dissevered were in danger one by one to be ruined That the Estate of those of the Religion in Foreign parts was miserable And That out of these Considerations we were called to a war and forthwith to advise for a Supply for keeping the forces in the Palatinate from disbanding and to fore-see the means for raising and maintaining the body of an Army for the war against the Spring We therefore out of our Zeal to your Majesty and your Posterity with more alacrity and colerity than ever was precedented in Parliament did address our selves to the Service commended unto Us. And although we cannot conceive that the honor and safety of your Majesty and your posterity the patrimony of your Children invaded and possessed by their Enemies the welfare of Religion and State of your Kingdom are matters at any time unfit for our deepest consideration in time of Parliament And though before this time we were in some of these points silent yet being now invited thereunto and led on by so just an occasion we thought it Our Duties to provide for the present supply thereof and not only to turn our eyes on a war abroad but to take care for the securing of our peace at home which the dangerous increase and insolency of Popish Recusants apparently visibly and sensibly did lead us unto The consideration whereof did necessarily draw us truly to represent unto your Majesty what we conceive to be the Causes what we feared would be the effects and what we hoped might be the remedies of these growing Evils Among which as incident and unavoidable we fell upon some things which seem to touch upon the King of Spain as they have relation to Popish Recusants at home to the Wars by him maintained in the Palatinate against your Majestie 's Children and to his several Armies now on foot yet as we conceived without touch of dishonour to that King or any other Prince your Majestie 's Consederate In the discourse whereof we did not assume to our selves any power to determin of any part thereof nor intend to incroach or intrude upon the Sacred bounds of your Royal Authority to whom and to whom only we acknowledg it doth belong to resolve of Peace and War and of the Marriage of the most noble Prince your Son But as your most Loyal and humble Subjects and Servants representing the whole Commons of your Kingdom who have a large interest in the happy and prosperous estate of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity and of the flourishing Estate of our Church and Common-wealth did resolve out of our Cares and Fears truly and plainly to demonstrate these things to your Majesty which we were not assured could otherwise come so fully and clearly to your knowledg and that being done to lay the same down at your Majesties feet without expectation of any other answer of your Majesty touching these higher points than what at your good pleasure and in your own time should be held fit This being the effect of that we had formerly resolved upon and these the occasions and reasons inducing the same our humble suit to your Majesty and confidence is that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to receive at the hands of these our Messengers our former humble Declaration and Petition and to vouchsafe to read and favourably to interpret the same And that to so much thereof as containeth our humble Petition concerning Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants the passage of Bills and granting your Royal Pardon you will vouchsafe an answer unto us And whereas your Majesty by the general words of your Letter seemeth to restrain us from intermedling with matters of Government or particulars which have their motion in the Courts of Justice the generality of which words
in the largeness of the extent thereof as we hope beyond your Majesties intention might involve those things which are the proper Subjects of Parliamentary occasions and discourse And where as your Majesty doth seem to abridge us of the ancient liberty of Parliament for freedom of Speech Jurisdiction and just Censure of the House and other proceedings there wherein we trust in God we shall never transgress the bounds of loyal and dutiful Subjects a liberty which we assure our selves so wise and so just a King will not infringe the same being our ancient and undoubted right and an inheritance received from our Ancestors without which we cannot freely debate nor clearly discern of things in Question before us nor truly inform your Majesty in which we have been confirmed by your Majesties most gracious former Speeches and Messages We are therefore now again inforced in all humbleness to pray your Majesty to allow the same and thereby to take away the doubts and scruples your Majesties late Letter to your Speaker hath brought upon us So shall we your Loyal and loving Subjects ever acknowledge your Majesties justice grace and goodness and be ready to perform that service to your Majesty which in the true affection of our hearts we prosess and powre out our dayly and devout prayers to the Almighty for your Majesties long life happy and religious Reign and prosperous Estate and for your Royal posterity after you for ever The Parliament thought it strange that the King in a Recess should call them together before the appointed time of meeting pretending Emergent occasions and by his Ministers of State persuade and incite to a War and when in obedience to this command they shall proceed in their advice only to prevent the dangers abroad and establish security at home they shall be accounted presumptuous and insolent But by this they discover and which the King plainly expresses in his Answer that he required none of their advice he wanted only their money if they had furnished him with that instead of Counsel it would have been a golden Remonstrance They are to be his Bank his Merchants he needs no other directions let them find money he knows how to dispose of it This was the great fault which this Petition strives to mitigate accompanied with the Remonstrance it self and the Petition against Recusancy for both which it was an intercessor but it could not with all its Humility procure acceptance for its Companions though sent by twelve select Members of the House and the leading man Sir Richard Weston who was really the King's chosen by the Commons to make their Petitions the more acceptable And the House finding it a great discouragement to them to proceed in any business when there was so great a distance betwixt the King and them the King thinking their actions an intrenchment upon his Prerogative and they thinking the King's expressions an infringement of their Liberties they resolved to give over all business till they had an Answer of their Petitions for they thought they had as good do nothing as have that they do undone again Which the King hearing of was vexed at the heart and entertained their Messengers very roughly and some say he called for twelve Chaire's for them saying Here are twelve Kings come to me But after he had considered their desires in their last Petition rejecting the others he returns them this answer to all WE must here begin in the same fashion that we would have done if your first Petition had come to our Hands before we had made a stay thereof which is to repeat the first words of the late Queen of famous memory used by her in answer to an insolent Proposition made by a Polonian Embassadonâ— unto her that is Legatum expectabamus Heraldum accipimus For we had great reason to expect that the first Message from your House should have been a Message of thanksgiving for Our continued gratious behaviour towards our People since your last Recess Not only by our Proclamation of Grace wherein were contained six or seven and thirty Articles all of several points of Grace to the people but also by the labour we took for the satisfaction of both Houses in those three Articles recommended unto Us in both their names by the right Reverend Father in God the Archbishop of Canterbury and likewise for the good Government of Ireland we are now in hand with at your request But not only have We heard no news of all this but contrary great complains of the Danger of Religion within this Kingdom tacitly implying Our ill Government in this point And we leave you to judge whether it be your Duties that are the Representative Body of Our People so to distate them with Our Government whereas by the contrary it is your Duty with all your indeavours to kindle more and more a dutiful and thankful Love in the peoples hearts towards us for our just and gracious Government Now whereas in the very beginning of this your Apology you tax Us in fair terms of trusting uncertain Reports and partial informations concerning your Proceedings We wish you to remember that we are an old and experienced King needing no such lessons being in our conscience freest of any King alive from hearing or trusting idle Reports which so many of your House as are nearest Us can bear witness unto you if you would give as good ear to them as you do to some Tribunitial Orators among you And for proof in this particular We have made your own Messengers confer your other Petitions sent by you with the Copy thereof which was sent Us before between which there is no difference at all but that since our receiving the first Copy you added a Conclusion unto it which could not come to our hands till it was done by you and your Messengers sent which was all at one time And if we had had no Copy of it before hand we must have received your first Petition to our great dishonour before we had known what it contained which would have inforced us to have returned you a far worse answer than now we do For then your Messengers had returned with nothing but that We have judged your Petition unlawful and unworthy of an answer For as to your Conclusion thereof it is nothing but Protestatio contraria facto for in the body of your Petition you usurp upon Our Prerogative Royal and meddle with things far above your reach and then in the Conclusion you protest the contrary as if a Robber would take a mans purse and then protest he meant not to rob him For first you presume to give Us your advice concerning the Match of Our dearest Son with some Protestant we cannot say Princess for we know none of these fit for him and dissuade us from his Match with Spain urging us to a present War with that King and yet in the conclusion forsooth ye protest ye intend not to
by the Text of Scripture free both the Doctrine and the Discipline of the Church of England from the aspersions of either adversary especially where the Auditory is Suspected to be tainted with the One or the other infection 6. Lastly that the Arch-Bishops and Bishops of the Kingdom whom his Majesty hath good cause to blame for this former remissness be more wary and choice in their licensing of Preachers and revoke all Grants made to any Chancellor Official or Commissary to pass Licences in this kind And that all the Lecturers throughout the Kingdom of England a new Body severed from the ancient Clergy as being neither Parsons Vicars nor Curates be licensed henceforward in the Court of Faculties but only from a Recommendation of the Party from the Bishop of the Diocess under his hand and seal with a Fiat from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury a Confirmation under the great Seal of England And that such as do transgress any one of these Directions be suspended by the Bishop of the Diocess or in his default by the Arch-Bishop of the Province ab officio beneficio for a Year and a Day until his Majesty by the advice of the next Convocation shall prescribe some further punishment The Directions the Archbishop recommended to his several Diocesans that they might be put in execution with caution And then may be observed that the King's affections tended to the peaceable comportment of his people that both Papist and Puritan might have a quiet being which preponderation of His puts them in Aequi-librio nay the Papist was in the prime Scale But this new thing called a Lecturer he could by no means endure unless he past through all the Briers of his several Courts to the Broad Seal which was a kind of pungent Ordeal Tryal to which he must put his Teste me ipso and then it was Orthodox so that though Lecturers were not absolutely forbidden yet the charge and trouble to come to it made the way inaccessible Preachers by an Order of Star-chamber in Heaven were first licensed with an Ite praedicate before Henry the Eighth's time and certainly they have a great Seal from thence for what they do Therefore it behoves them to take heed what they say left that Spirit they receive Directions from bind them not up But this Animosity of the King 's against Puritans was thought to be fomented by the Papists whose Agent Bishop Laud was suspected to be though in Religion he had a Motley form by himself and would never as a Priest told me plainly in Flanders bring his neck under the obedience of the Roman Yoak though he might stickle for the grandure of the Clergy And now he began to be Buckingham's Confessor as he expresseth in his own Notes and wore the Court Livery though the King had a sufficient character of him and was pleased with Asseveration to protest his incentive Spirit should be kept under that the flame should not break out by any Preferment from him But that was now forgotten and he crept so into favour that he was thought to be the Bellows that blew these Fires For the Papists used all the Artifices they could to make a breach between the King and his People that they might enter at the same for their own Ends which to accomplish they slily close with the chief ministers of State to put the King upon all his Projects and Monopolies displeasing to the people that they might the more Alienate their Affections from him Sowing their seeds of Division also betwixt Puritan and Protestant so that like the second Commandment they quite exclude the Protestant For all those were Puritans with this high-grown-Arminian-popish party that held in judgment the Doctrine of the Reformed Churches or in practice live according to the Doctrine publickly taught in the Church of England And they attribute the name of Protestant 1. To such Papists as either out of policy or by popish indulgence hold outward Communion with the Church of England 2. To such Protestants as were either tainted with or inclinable to their opinions 3. To indifferent Men who imbrace always that Religion that shall be commanded by Authority Or 4. To such Neutrals as care for no Religion but such as stands with their own liking so that they allow the Church of England the Refuse both of their Religion and Ours Then they strive to make a Division of Regians and Republicans The Regians are the great Dependents upon the Crown both in Church and State who swell up the Prerogative preaching and distilling into the King the Almightiness of his power That all that the People hath is the King 's and that it is by his mercy they have a bare empty Being And this hoisting up of the King they knew would stir up the Republicans to oppose him in his Designs by which they pinch as the King thinks his Prerogative feeding a strife betwixt Law and Prerogative whereby they escape the Dint of both and hope the fire they kindle will break out at last to consume their Adversaries That these things were acted and fomented by Papists was very probable for they were great Sticklers about the Court and Council-Table But it was too apparent that some of the Clergy to make their way the smoother to their wished end began so to adore the King that he could not be named but more reverence was done to it than to the Name of God And the Iudges in their itinerant Circuits the more to enslave the people to Obedience being to speak of the King would give him such Sacred and Oraculous Titles as if their advancement to higher places must necessarily be laid upon the foundation of the peoples debasement On the other side The well affected to Religion that knew no other inclination than the Dictates of their own Reason experiences of former times and the constant practices of the Romanists for propagating their own designs did by their writings and discourses strive to warm the King 's cold temper and put fresh spirits into his chilled veins shewing the Tyranny of the incroaching Monarchy of the House of Austria who was Rome's great Factor and how just and secure the opposing of such a growing power will be That no Sword is so sharp nor Arm 's so strong as those that are cemented with true Religion The security of Conscience grounded upon the Word of Truth being not only a Bulwark to defend but the best Engin to oppose Idolatry and Ambition Thus stood the Kingdom divided in it self But as the King strove after this Rupture betwixt him and the Parliament to settle things at home and keep his people in obedience so he was as active abroad to keep up his own Reputation For he made a full account to salve up all these miscarriages by the intended Match with Spain that his people might see he could discern further into the intrinsical matters of State than they and so make the
Canterbury knowing that a Toleration was to be admitted though he stood tottering in the King's Favour and had the Badg of a Puritan clapt upon him thought it better to discharge his Conscience though he hazarded all rather than be silent in such a Cause where the Glory of God and the Good of the Kingdom were so higly concerned Therefore he writes this letter to the King May it please your Majesty I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it hath pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in And now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my Duty to your Majesty And therefore I beseech your Majesty give me leave freely to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do with me what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you Sir take into your consideration what the Act is next what the consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up that most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How Hateful will it be to God and grievous unto your good Subjects the true Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath often disputed and learnedly written against those wicked Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those Doctrines which your Pen hath told the World and your Conscience tels your Self are Superstitious Idolatrous and Detestable Add hereunto what you have done in sending the Prince into Spain without the consent of your Council the Privity and Approbation of your People And though Sir you have a large Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh yet hath the people a greater as the Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty their Eyes are fixed and Welfare depends And so tenderly is his going apprehended as believe it Sir however his return may be safe yet the drawers of him to that Action so dangerous to himself to desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestioned and unpunished Besides this Toleration which you endeavour to set up by Proclamation cannot be done without a Parliament unless your Majesty would let your Subjects see That you will take unto your self a liberty to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure What dreadful Consequence these things may draw after them I beseech your Majesty to consider And above all lest by this Toleration and discontinuance of the true profession of the Gospel whereby God hath blessed us and under which this Kingdom hath for many years flourished your Majesty do not draw upon the Kingdom in general and your Self in particular God's heavy Wrath and Indignation Thus in discharge of my Duty towards God to your Majesty and the place of my Calling I have taken humble Boldness to deliver my Conscience And now Sir do with me what you please Thus did our Solomon in his latter time though he had fought with the Beasts at Ephesus as one saith of him incline a little too much to the Beast Yet he made his tale so good to the Archbishop of Canterbury what reservations soever he had that he wrought upon the good old man afterwards in the Conclusion of the work to set his Hand as a Witness to the Articles And his desires were so heightned to the Heats of Spain which boyl'd him to such a Distemper that he would listen to nothing and almost yield to any thing rather than not to enjoy his own Humour Divers of his intimate Council affecting Popery were not slack to urge him to a Toleration and many Arguments were used inciting to it As that Catholicks were the King 's best and most peaceable Subjects the Puritans being the only Sticklers and the greatest Disturbers of the Royal peace trenching too boldly upon the Prerogative and striving to lessen the Kingly power But if the King had occasion to make use of the Catholicks he should find them more faithful to him than those that are ever contesting with him And why should not Catholicks with as much safety be permitted in England as the Protestants are in France That their Religion was full of Love and Charity where they could enjoy it with freedom and where Charity layes the Foundation the upper Building must needs be spiritual But these Arguments were answered and many reasons alledged against them proving the Nature of the Protestant Religion to be Compatible with the Nature of the Politick Laws of any State of what Religion soever Because it teacheth that the Government of any State whether Monarchial or Aristocratical is Supream within it self and not subordinate to any power without so that the Knot of Allegiance thereunto is so firmly tied that no Humane power can unloose or dissolve it Whereas on the contrary the Roman Religion acknowledging a Supremacy in another above that power which swayeth the State whereof they are Members must consequently hold that one stroke of that Supreme power is able to unsinew and cut in sunder all the Bonds which ty them to the Subordinate and Dependent Authority And therefore can ill accord with the Allegiance which Subjects owe to a Prince of their own Religion which makes Papists intolerable in a Protestant Common-wealth For what Faith can a Prince or People expect from them whose Tenet is That no Faith is to be held with Hereticks That the Protestants in France had merited better there than the Papists had done in England the one by their Loyalties to their lawful King having ransomed that Kingdom with their Bloods in the Pangs of her desperate Agonies from the Yoak of an Usurper within and the Tyranny of a Forain Scepter without The other seeking to write their Disloyalties in the Heart-Blood of the Princes and best Subjects of this Kingdom That the Number and Quality of the Professors of these different Religions in either Kingdom is to be observed For in France the Number of the Protestants were so great that a Toleration did not make them but found them a Considerable Party so strong as they could not have been suppressed without endangering the Kingdom But a Toleration in England would not find but form the Papists to be a considerable party witness their encrease by this late Connivency a thing which ought mainly to be avoided For the distraction of a State into several powerfull parties is alwaies weakning and often proveth the utter ruine thereof These thing were laid open to the King but all were waved by the King of Spain's Offering His engagement to the Pope by oath That he and the Prince his son should observe and keep the Articles stipulated betwixt them did exceedingly affect him And the Articles now coming to close up all they were ingrossed with a long preamble Declaring to all the World the much desired Union betwixt him and the King of Spain by the marriage of his son to
time than at others the mischief that fell to them in this Height of their pride and greatness is very remarkable For at at a Sermon in Black-Friers where Father Drurie a Iesuit vented his pestilent Doctrine to an Auditory of near three Hundred people the Floor of the Chamber being an upper room fell down and killed the Preacher and almost if not a full Hundred of his Auditory outright maiming and bruising most of the rest many of them lying a long time under the Rubbish crying for Help and with much difficulty recovered their broken Limbs Thus many times we might immediately see the hand of God who is the Lord of Life and Death though through wilful stupidity because we must judge modestly we look upon these accidents by mediate and second causes thinking an old house can destroy so many lives without the permission of that supreme Authority that orders all things both in Heaven and in Earth The Duke of Brunswick this Spring being healed of his wounds received in the last Battle with Mansfeldt and having gotten an artificial Arm to manage his Horse which he could do with a great deal of dexterity what by his own interest and power and the assistance of his friends being but a younger Brother and having nothing but the Bishoprick of Haverstat for his portion he raised a great Army in the lower parts of Germany about Brunswick and Munster consisting of about sixteen thousand foot and five thousand horse every way compleatly armed and accomplished with a gallant Train of Artillery The Horses Wagons and Carriages in such trim and suitable Equipage as shewed by their suitableness in furniture they had not been patched up nor hastily hurried together His Design being invited thereto was to joyn with the Prince of Orange to be revenged of the Spaniard for the loss of his Arm the last year But the chief motive as he alwaies pretended was his respects to the Queen of Bohemia who in those dayes whether out of pity for her suffering so much or out of fear that Religion would yet suffer much more carried a great stream of affection towards her ILLVSTRISSIMVS PRINCEPS CHRISTIANVS DVX BRVNSVICENSIS ADMINISTRATOR HALBERSTADENSIS Tali Brunonis claro de stemmate Princeps Vultu Barbaricos acer consurgit in hortes Nec Patriae tristes fert mens generosa ruinas That having in their March the Enemie at their Backs if the Rear-guard made a Halt the Battail should do the same and consequently the Van-guard according to the best Discipline attending with firm foot the cause of the Halt that they may be ready to put themselves in order for service if occasion were presented The Army thus coming to pass any Passage while the Van-guard did advance the Battail and Rear-guard should make a stand with the front towards the Enemy The Van-guard being past should face the Passage and stay for the Battail which being past also should do the same for the Rear-guard that they might be ready upon the approach of an Enemy to assist one another With this Order and Direction they began to march into Westfalia Brunswick trusting to Stirem Kniphuisen and Frenck who being Natives of the Country gave him assurance of the safe Conduct of his Army by wayes short and commodious And he commanded especially the General of the Horse to send out parties of Horse every way that he might have intelligence of the Enemie's Motions who gave him assurance that the Enemies Army was not within thirty English Miles when by other hand at the same time he had certain notice that the Enemy was within three English Miles with his whole Power This miscarriage made Brunswick hast away to Newburgh the next Town where resting a little he took a Resolution to march all night to recover time and ground again that Stirum's negligence had made him lazily lose And to that end he commanded Kniphuisen and Count Isenburg to make the Baggage march at eleven a clock at Night the Cannon at Midnight and the Army two hours after But Brunswick getting up at three a clock in the Morning hoping to find his Commands obeyed and the Army in a good forwardness of advance found nothing done and these great Officers in their Beds This disobedience of his Officers troubled Brunswick much but he was constrained to Diligence as well as Patience And hastning them away they pretended forwardness but made it eight of the Clock in the morning before the Rear-guard stirred out of their Quarters From Newburgh to Statloo Bridge a place of Security was but fourteen English Miles and there were in that way seven passages or Straits where a few men might oppose an Army The Baggage Cannon and Munition except six pieces with Munition that marched with the Rere-guard had past them all and the Foot three of them without disturbance but Count Stirum with the Horse loitered still behind at Newburgh which caused Brunswick to make the whole Army face about and stay for the Horse sending a strict Command to Stirum with all speed to come up and joyn with the Foot and not to skirmish with the Enemy at any rate But he stayed so long that the Enemy began to charge him in the Rere before he advanced to the third Passage So that he sent to Brunswick for five hundred Musqueteers to amuse the Enemy till he had passed the third Passage with his Horse The Duke sent these Musqueteers according to Sirum's desire and advancing his Army forward he passed the fourth Passage and there made the Rere of his foot face about the better to favour and receive his Horse Which having done he speeds back towards Stirum to see how the Business went with him and incountring Kniphuisen he asked him what the Enemy had done Who answered Nothing all is well But Brunswick going forward found the contrary for the Enemy had made a great slaughter laying almost a thousand Horse upon the Ground This perplexed Brunswick exceedingly so that with some Passion he sent a Command to Stirum to advance his Horse towards the Body of the Army who had stayed three hours for them at the fourth Passage whither the Duke returned to secure the same planting two Peeces of Demi-cannon at the Mouth of the Passage and leaving two thousand Musqueteers to guard it for the assistance of the Horse if the Enemy should come to charge them at the Entrance and so he marched forward with the rest of the Army But Stirum drew the Horse into a Body under the side of a Wood which was in the middle of a spacious plain betwixt the two Passages and that brought the Enemy to a stand for they suspected the whole Army stood in Battalia behind that Wood and therefore did not advance which shewed they watched only for advantages And Stirum seeing the Enemie at a stand drew his Horse towards the fourth Passage which the Enemy observing made all the haste after that could be to pelt them in
but dallie with him left a Proxie with Bristol to conclude the Match when the Dispensation came which the Prince forbad him to deliver Bristol nevertheless proceeds and if Gresley had not brought a Revocation of the Proxie from the King over night Bristol had made the Espousalls the next day And alwaies at the end of every point he would look upon the Prince for his approbation and allowance who still as the Duke went on confirmed the same And so Buckingham concluded that if the drawing of us out of Darkness into Light did deserve thanks we all owed it to the Prince who by the Hazard of his Person and by his great care and industry had done this for Us. The Parliament that looked upon the Duke with a Sour Eye for tempting the Prince to so dangerous a journey when they found what excellent effects it had produced forgot the Old Murmurs buzzed against him and with elevated Voices could scarce be contained from acknowledging him The Preserver of the Nation This his discovery is Cryed up every where and who but the Duke is become the Darling of the Multitude So dear then was the Prince unto the People that they tendred his safety as their own and so easily might he have retained his Love if by grasping after Shadows he had not lost the Substance For those people are the soonest deceived that love most to admire The Parliament were but men and could at present see no more than the Duke was pleased to shew them through the flattering glass of this Relation But when Bristol came over and as afterwards he did discover that the Duke carried the Prince purposely into Spain to be the better instructed in Popery That he gave hope to the Spanish Ministers of State of the Prince's Conversion which made them propound far worse Conditions for Religion than had been formerly agreed on That he professed himself a Papist there going to Mass kneeling to and adoring their Sacraments which the Pope being informed of sent the Duke a Bull to perswade and incourage him to pervert the King and Prince with other pernicious Crimes laid to his Charge in the next King's reign as may appear in due time None can blame the People for Mutable affections for when false-hood is so impudent as to hoodwink such an Assembly with the vail that Truth her self is wont to put on who can at an instant discover it But it was a hard Condition for the banished Palatine to have such Mediators as Buckingham Bristol and Weston to make intercession for him the Temper of whose Spirits was well known and which way their affections tended But now the load is all laid upon Bristol though he were at the distance of not being sensible of it yet it was so heavy that most Men thought he would never come to have it taken off But all things were passed over by the Parliament that reflected upon particulars having in their eye the general good of the Kingdom which they strove to manage with advantage And the Treaty of the Marriage with Spain being put into their hands they crushed the brood in the nest advising the King to break the Treaty and proclaim open War with that King Which they did not do suddainly as if they had been eager upon a War but with good advice and deliberate consideration as the most immediate means for the establishment of Religion and setled Peace protesting to assist the King for the regaining of the Palatinate with their lives and fortunes Upon which Declaration and Resolution the King determined to send instantly post into Spain to his Ambassadors to signifie to that King that the Parliament advised him to break off the Treaties and to recover the Palatinate by War and the Post had his Dispatch to that purpose when the King repented him of what he had done and like the Husband how jealous of his Wife writes to Secretary Conway this Letter to impede and delay the Business I doubt not but you have heard what a stinging Petition against the Papists the Lower House have sent to the Higher House this day that they might joyntly present it to me you know my firm Resolution not to make this a War of Religion And seeing I would be loth to be Conny-catcht by my People I pray you stay the Post that is going into Spain till I meet with my Son who will be here to morrow morning Do it upon pretext of some more Letters ye are to send by him and if he should be gone hasten after him to stay him upon some such pretext and let none living know of this as ye love me and before two in the afternoon to morrow you shall without fail hear from me Farewell Apr. 3 1624. By this Letter it appears that the King thought the Petition against Recusants of such high consequence that if he should not give the Parliament a good answer it might make a Rupture with them and therefore he will see further in the Nature of this Petition before he will break with the King of Spain and know more of the Prince his Son's mind happily whether he would yet accept of his Old Mistris or expect a new one Or whether the King feared that the Parliament would not make good their Promises to stand with their lives and fortunes in the Gap when this great Breach was made and so cousen him may be Mystical Conjectures from Mystical Expressions grounded upon the Words of a King Or whether any or all of these like the King's Heart inscrutable are meant in the Letter is not here determined But the King hastens to the House and finding no such terrible things in the Petition the Lords being not so quick in the Resolution of it as the King was in the apprehension of it he stirs not those Waters but sounds the depth of the Parliaments Intentions by propounding his Doubts and requiring a solution to them in order to a War with prudence and caution My Lords and Gentlemen all I have cause first to thank God with my heart and all the faculties of my mind that my speech which I delivered in Parliament hath taken so good effect among you as that with an Unamine consent you have freely and speedily given me your advice in this great Business for which I also thank you all as heartily as I can I also give my particular thanks to the Gentlemen of the lower House for that I hear when some among them would have cast jealousies and doubts between me and my people you presently quelled those Motions which might have hindred the happy agreement I hope to find in this Parliament You give me your advice to break off both the Treaties as well concerning the Match as the Palatinate And now give me leave as an old King to propound my Doubts and hereafter give me your answer First it is true that I who have been all the dayes of my life