flood of Books that almost tended to an inundation overspread the World and was her great disease Besides the drunken Dropsie witness their monstrous swelling tuns and vessel In lieu of books War brings in barbarism which is the first-born before Plague or Famine These do not always kill but rectifie Full bodies are apt to fall sick and then they must be drawn very low often-times before they come to perfect health These Iudgments have faln heavy upon England we drink the dregs of the Cup one sin is not to be pointed at but all and though it hath been bitter to the taste yet He that knows the nature of the Ingredients may make it wholsom unto those that love him One thing both pitiful and remarkable that hapned in the Palatinate was almost omitted There was a Gentleman whose name was Duncomb that was a Soldier in the Earl of Oxford's company This young man left a Gentlewoman behind him in England to whom he had vowed his heart and promise of marriage but her fortune being not fit for his Father's humor he threatned to dis-inherit him if he married her and the better to alienate him from her he sent him so long a journey hoping time and absence might wear out those impressions that the present fancy had fixed upon him charging him at his departure never to think of her more lest with the thoughts of her he lost him for ever The young man being now long absent from her and having his heart full with the remembrance of her could not contain himself but let her know that no threats or anger of Parents should ever blot her memory out of his thoughts which was illustrated with many expressions of love and affection But the careless man writing at the same time to his Father superscribed his Father's Letter to his Mistris wherein he renounces her and his Mistresses Letter to his Father wherein he admires her The Father swoln with rage and anger against the Son sent him a bitter Letter back again full of menaces and whether that or shame for the mistake that she should see he renounced her whom he profest to love did overcome his Reason is not known but he killed himself to the great grief of all the English there And by this example Parents that are too rigid to their children may see what Murderers they are For it was not the young man's hand but the old man's hard heart that killed him CAROLVS ALBERTVS DE LONGVEVAL COMES DE BVQVOY ET DE GRATZEN BARO DE VAVX ET DE ROSEN BERGHE COMIT HANNONLAE GVBERNATOR B. Moucornet CXCII This was a fair Spring-time the Battail being fought upon the tenth of March and might have inhanced the hopes of a good Autumn But in November following when the Princes of the Union and Spinola were hunting one another among the frosty Hills in the Palatinate the Duke of Bavaria coming with a great Army towards Prague and joyning Bucquoy and Tillie with all their Forces together like cruel Hunters meant either to catch a Prey or be a Prey Anhalt then had not so closed with Count Mansfeldt as to bring him up to him being pufft up with his last Victory and some of his Soldiers being discontented for want of Pay it abated the edge of their Courage yet he got with his Army betwixt the Imperialists and Prague and stood upon the advantage of Ground but all would not do a Hand went out that gave a Period to that Royalty for the Enemy breaking through them forced his way and put the Bohemians into such confusion that happy was he that could escape with his life The Prince of Anhalt and his Lieutenant General Holloc were the first that fled and brought the news of the defeat to the King at Prague who with his Queen astonished with the danger being in a City not very defensible among a wavering People and a Conquering Enemy in the Field took time by the fore-top and in this hurly burly the next morning being the 9 of Nov. left Prague taking with them their most portable things having load enough within them But the Queen the more Gallant and Royal Spirit carried it with most undauntedness the King suffered doubly as he went being blamed for keeping his Soldiers without pay having such a masse of money by him which he was forced to leave behind to his Enemies and the imputation stuck upon him but flying upon the Wings of common Fame I shall not lure it into this Relation as a known Truth But by a sad Accident that some years after happened to this unfortunate King it was obvious that he left not all behind him for going to visit the Bankers of Amsterdam where his Treasure lay brooding and passing in the night over Harlem mere the winds and darkness in a conspiracy made a cross Hoigh to run against the King's and bulged it in the Sea but before it sunk the King and others got to the Mastring Vessel and saved themselves But the Prince his Son being of a pregnant hopeful puberty with too severe a fate was left to the broken Boat which they durst not approach again though they heard his cries so that he was abandoned to be tormented to death which was more grievous than death it self for the Waters being shallow and the Hoigh sinking not far the next day they found him frozen to the Mast embracing it as his last Refuge his Body half above half under the water This Story melting with Pity is here inserted because the glory of this King expires And since there will be occasion to mention him no more because his Actions afterwards never mounted up one Story high Take this brief Character of him He was a comely Personage for body of a good stature his complexion of a duskish melancholy the constitution of his mind rather fitted for those little besoignes of Accounts and Reckonings than any vigorous or masculine heat to solder up the crackt Title of a Crown He was a handsom well-built but slight Edifice set on an ill Foundation that could not stand long The King of great Britain that the Bohemians built upon was not of so firm a temper as to support a Fortress weakly made that must endure the Rigorous Shock of War which made it at the first or second Assault thus totter and fall The two English Ambassadors Weston and Conwey which our King sent to mediate for the Bohemians could make little use of their Oratory being scattered with the rest in the Cloud of this Confusion But they brought the King and Queen to Limburgh the first days journey and after they were gone towards the Netherlands the Ambassadors procured a safe Conduct from the Duke of Bavaria to return to Prague But there they could find no words so prevalent and penetrable as the steel of a Conquering Enemy and so they returned home re infecta no wiser than they went out This Defeat coming to
had not Breeding suitable to his Grandeur which took off the edge of his invitation whose subtile Eye by Converse might have pryed through those fictitious out-sides to discover more then did appear MARY DE MEDICIS Upon Saturday the sixth of March they arrived at Madrid The Prince and Marquess came thither one day before Cottington and the others to make the less noise in appearances They lighted at the Earl of Bristol's House in the evening and the Marquess brought in the Portmantua but his Master staid without with the Guide till he had prepared a way for Privacy The Earl of Bristol was astonished at the sight but after he had collected himself his Diligence attended his Duty and the Prince wanted nothing but Counsel how to order himself which they took time till the next day towards the Evening to deliberate on All that morning the Town was filled with Rumours of the arrival of some great Prince and though the King of Spain had intimation by his Letters yet he kept all private till the Prince exprest himself which was done that Evening For Buckingham and Bristol went to the Court and had private Audience of the King who sent his Grand favourite Olivares back with them to congratulate the Princes coming who let the Prince know how Happy the King his Master was in the Injoyment of him there and what addition of Grandure his presence would contribute to the Court of Spain and that the obligation was so great that he deserved to have the Infanta thrown into his Armes All this while kneeling kissing his Hands and embracing his Thigh the Huge and swelling expressions of Spanish Humility And from him he went to the Marquess of Buckingham telling him That now the Prince of England was in Spain his Master and he would divide the World betwixt them with other Rodomontado fancies And after he was gone about ten of the Clock that night the King of Spain came in a close Coach to Visit the Prince who having intimation of his coming such secret Hints among Princes being suitable invitements he met him in the way and there they spent some time in those sweet yet formal Caresses and Imbraces that are incidents to the Interviews of great Princes though their Hearts and Tongues do seldom accord Gondemar in consort was not without his Strain of Complement for he told the Prince upon a Visit next day that he had strange news to tell him which was That an Englishman was sworn a privy Councellour to the King of Spain meaning himself who he said was an Englishman in Heart and had lately received that Honour CRUX FIDEI COTIâ— CULA All that the Spanish Court could do was heightned into Gallantry and Civilities to the Prince yet he saw not his fair Mistris but at an undiscerning distance and in transitu as she came from Church But after all these Splendid and glorious out-side Ceremonies of Entertainment were grown a little old the Prince began to mind the Business he came about and desired a more intimate access to his Beloved Infanta which Olivares promised from day to day to accomplish but still delayed and at length when unperformed promises were heightned into Shame he plainly confessed That it was agreed by the King and his Council that he might not see her as a Lover till the Dispensation came for it would give scandal to admit him before yet not to starve him quite in his Desires but to keep him short that he should not surfeit he had now and then Access to her as a Prince in a publike way the King of Spain being always present and the Earl of Bristol Interpreter so that nothing could be spoken but those little superficial Compliments that served as Baits rather to nibble on than satisfie But these small Repasts kept up the Appetite And now the Glories of the English Court left the Northern Sun declining to the West and came to see the Sun rising in Spain The Marquess of Buckingham's new Title of Duke came to him also that he might be in the highest Rank among the Spanish Grandees to beard the proudest of them which afterwards he did And the Viscount Doncaster lately made Earl of Carlile came in all his Glories of which two it was observed by knowing Men That Buckingham came into Spain of the Spanish Faction and returned into England of the French Faction Carlile came into Spain of the French Faction and returned into England of the Spanish thus varying the Scene by fits and acting their parts as the present fancy moved them The Lord Kensington Captain of the Guard to our King came also to see the Prince so did the Earl of Denbigh Edward Son and Heir to the now Earl of Manchester The Viscount Mandevill the Viscount Rochford and divers others of the Nobility And the Prince was so circled with a Splendid Retinue of his own people that it might be said Spain's Pallace But together with these specious Entertainments there were underworking Hopes to have the Prince turn Papist for in intervenient Discourses Olivares and others would press him with all the Arguments the Court had instructed them in to a conversion intimating how smooth a path it would make to the Infanta's affections for when he that was to be Lord of her Heart and the best friend she had would be an Enemy to her Religion it could be but a great Obstacle to her Love And when the Danger of it was proposed to them as likely to bring a Rebellion in the Nation if their Prince should be perverted they promised to assist him with an Army against such rebellious people But if he would not admit of a present and suddain alteration publikely yet that he would be so indulgent when the Infanta came into England as to listen to her in Matters of Religion which the Prince promised to do Nay his own familiar friend Bristol as it was Articled against him afterwards by Buckingham did strive with a gentle hand to allure him that way as bringing with it an addition to the Grandure of the King 's of England that none of them could ever do great things that were not of that Religion Thus was the Prince beset and Time ran away in Discourses The Dispensation being purposely delayed for some at that time in the Spanish Court said it was come and sent back again to Rome being too forward and active that it might have more weight put upon it and then it would not make so much haste for now it came too soon to dispatch their worke For the subtily considered that Time and continual dropping might leave those impressions upon the Prince's spirit that Dispatches cannot effect Therefore they made new Queries and clapt new Remora's upon the Articles that being tangled in Disputations betwixt England and Spain and in controversies of Religion betwixt the Prince and some of their cunning Sophisters which they set a work that before the way could be
got the Mastery but to his ruin The Prince shewing his affection by his neglecting of her to be grounded rather upon envy to the Man than love to the Woman But before this time the Treasurer Salisbury that great Engin of the State by whom all Wheels moved held an intimate Correspondence with the House of Suffolk which he had strengthned with an Alliance marrying his eldest Son the Lord Cranborn to Katharine the eldest Daughter of that Family And being mindful of the asperity and sharpness that was betwixt him and the late Earl of Essex he thought it a good Act of Policy and Piety not to suffer Malice to become Hereditary and therefore he was a great means in marrying the young Earl of Essex to the Lady Frances Howard another of those Sisters that the Fathers Enmity might be closed up by the Sons Nuptial Fraternity The Earl of Essex was fourteen years of Age and she thirteen when they married too young to consider but old enough to consent Yet by the advice of Friends separated after marriage she under her Mothers wing and he visiting France and Germany till Time should mature and ripen a happy Co-union The Court was her Nest her Father being Lord Chamberlain and she was hatched up by her Mother whom the sour breath of that Age how justly I know not had already tainted from whom the young Lady might take such a Tincture that Ease Greatness and Court Glories would more distain and impress on her than any way wear out and diminish And growing to be a Beauty of the greatest Magnitude in that Horison was an Object fit for Admirers and every Tongue grew an Orator at that Shrine The Prince of Wales now in his Puberty sent many loving glances as Ambassadors of his good respects and amorous expressions are fit subjects for jealous reproaches to work on Her Husband having been now three or four years beyond the Seas sick with absence from her whom his desires longed after came over again and found that Beauty which he had left innocent so farded and sophisticated with some Court Drug which had wrought upon her that he became the greatest Stranger at home His Patience made way for him a while and he bore up with a gentle gale against the stream of this Womans affections which ran altogether unknown to him into another chanel Nor was her reputation yet become so rebust being of a tender growth to strike his ears with reproaches and therefore he imputed her sly entertainments to a Maiden bashfulness till surfeted with that dull Potion upon better advice he went to the Earl of Suffolk her Father and demanded his Wife thinking himself capable to enjoy both her and her love The Father that thought there had been an intimacy betwixt them suitable to their Conjugal Knot made use of his Paternal power to reduce his Daughter to the obedience of a Wife But while these things were strugling for a most violent Disease of a poysonous Nature imputed to but far transcending the small Pox seized on the Earl of Essex and had not the strength of Youth and that Almighty Power that orders all things wrought out the venom of it the Earth as probably wished by her had been his Marriage Bed For this Lady being taken with the growing fortunes of the Viscount Rochester and grounding more hope upon him than the uncertain and hopeless love of the Prince she cast her Anchor there which the Prince soon discovered and slighted her accordingly For dancing one time among the Ladies and her Glove falling down it was taken up and presented to him by one that thought he did him acceptable service but the Prince refused to receive it saying publicky He would not have it it is stretcht by another meaning the Viscount This was an aggravation of hatred betwixt the Kings Son and the Kings Friend The Countess of Essex having her heart alienated from her Husband and set upon the Viscount had a double task to undergo for accomplishing her ends One was to hinder her Husband from enjoying her the other was to make the Viscount sure unto her For dishonest Love is most full of jealousie Her Husband she looked upon as a private person and to be carried by him into the Country out of her element being ambitious of glory and a Beauty covetous of applause were to close as she thought with an insufferable Torment though he was a man that did not only every way merit her love but he loved her with an extraordinary affection having a gentle mild and courteous disposition especially to women such as might win upon the roughest natures But this fiery heat of his Wives mounted upon the wings of Lust or Love call it what you will carryed her after so much mischief that those that saw her face might challenge Nature of too much Hypocrisie for harbouring so wicked a heart under so sweet and bewitching a countenance To strengthen her designs she finds out one of her own stamp Mrs. Turner a Doctor of Physicks Widow a woman whom Prodigality and Looseness had brought low yet her Pride would make her fly any pitch rather than fall into the jaws of Want These two consult together how they might stop the current of the Earls affection towards his Wife and make a clear passage for the Viscount in the place To effect which one Doctor Forman a reputed Conjurer living at Lambeth is found out The women declare to him their Grievances he promises sudden help and to amuse them frames many little Pictures of Brass and Wax some like the Viscount and Countess whom he must unite and strengthen others like the Earl of Essex whom he must debilitate and weaken and then with Philtrous powders and such drugs he works upon their persons And to practise what effects his Art would produce Mrs. Turner that loved Sir Arthur Manwaring a Gentleman then attending the Prince and willing to keep him to her gave him some of the powder which wrought so violently with him that through a storm of Rain and Thunder he rode fifteen miles one dark night to her House scarce knowing where he was till he was there Such is the devillish and mad rage of Lust heightned with Art and Fancy These things matured and ripened by the cunning of this Jugler Forman gave them assurance of happy hopes Her Courtly invitements that drew the Viscount to observe her she imputed to the operation of those drugs he had tasted and that harshness and stubborn comportment she expressed to her Husband making him weary of such entertainments to absent himself she thought proceeded from the effects of those unknown known potions and powders that were administred to him So apt is the Imagination to take impression of those things we are willing to believe The good Earl finding his Wife nousled in the Court and seeing no possibility to reduce her to reason till she were estranged from the rellish and tast of
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
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
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
Pyrenes had bounded it towards Spain And the French Activity being loath to be cooped up thought it better to endure a little inconvenience at home than so much prejudice abroad and therefore to oppose Him they closed with the Protestants And what was it brought them in Obedience The re-edifying of their ruined Temples the restoring and maintaining their banished Ministers and Security in their Religion and Consciences So that it was not their Rebellion that was cause of the War but the War made against their Religion caused it to be called a Rebellion Thus when all other means failed their worst enemies though much against their wills proved to be their best Friends But to return to the Spanish Treaty all this while in Agitation As soon as the Articles Our King had sealed and sworn to observe were come into Spain and the Prince had ratified and comfirmed them and had sworn to another Article there wherein he ties up his own hands and gave leave to Satan and all his complices to buffet him which was To permit at all times that any should freely propose to him the Arguments of the Catholick Religion without giving any impediment and that he would never directly nor indirectly permit any to speak to the Infanta against the same the two Kingdoms of England and Spain as it were shook hands to the Agreement Preparations were made in England to entertain the Infanta a new Church built up at Saint Iames the Prince's house the Foundation stone with much Ceremony laid by Don Carlos a Coloma the Spanish Ambassadour for the publick exercise of her Religion Her very Shadows are courted in every Corner Painters being set a work to take the Height and Dimensions of this new Star that was to rise in the North before it appeared Such as hoped to flourish by her influence grew up to exuberancy what would they do then when they found the effects of it Why be drowned in their own redundancy For the Moderate Spirit did foresee what bad Omens this Apparition did threaten On the other side in Spain the Substance is as much courted as the Shadow is here with the Title of Princess of England her Maiden Restraints are taken off and she may come abroad to publick Meetings where now their Eyes may prattle loving Stories though the great Courtier Olivares gave it no better Title than The Prince watches the Infanta as a Cat doth a Mouse too gross 〈◊〉 Expression for a Master of those Ceremonies And in fine there was such an Union betwixt the two Crowns that it might well be said Philip and Iacob made one Holy-day But this closing betwixt England and Spain made the breach the wider in the House of the Palatine the Restitution of the Palatinate and the Electorate to the Queen of Bohemia and her Children being waved in the Treaty and a great sum of Money proposed as a Dowry which was also lessen'd after the first Proposition and some part of it promised to be sent with Her in Iewels which as one said might be Counterfeit as the rest of their Actions yet Our King accepted of all so eager was He and greedy of the Match that no Obstacle could stand in his way which he did not remove But there was some under-hand promise that the Infanta among the Courte-Complements should work that feat in presenting the Restorative of that Dignity and Country for a break-fast to ingratiate her Self with the Prince her Husband and as a pawn of her good Will and Affection to the English Nation And these Promises with the Spanish stamp were taken in England for current Payment so that all things tended to a Conclusion But time in Spain came too swift upon them they were willing the Infanta should winter there but knew not well how to delay the Prince longer And as they were in this plunge ruminating upon and striving to find out some new Remora to help them Pope Gregory the fifteenth that had granted the Dispensation dies and then their Subtilties flew upon that accident to make-the Dispensation invalid yet with a Reserve to keep up our Prince's Spirit that it should be no hinderance to the Match for the new Pope would instantly do it if not it should be dispatched by the Dean of the Cardinals and the King of Spain assured the Prince That if he would stay till Christmas the Marriage should be really celebrated then These delayes coming one on the neck of another and the Duke of Buckingham having taken some disgust 〈◊〉 Spain presented all things to our King in the worst habit he could put upon them For there had been some jarrs betwixt him and Olivares Two great Favourites though of different Kingdoms could not well squat in one form Olivares hunted Buckingham so close that he had almost caught him in his own Burrow but instead of his Game he incountered some Vermin which darkness could not distinguish who bit him shreudly and whether it were by this Common Hunt I know not but I am sure it was by the Common-Cry that he was so displeased with the Spanish for it that he afterwards much inclined to the French I acknowledge the Gravity and Dignity of History should not appear in such Metaphorical Habiliments but that we now live in an Age where Truth is forced to shroud her self in such Attire lest she should have imprinted on her face a Mark of Malice against Greatness which if it be not ballanced with Goodness and Piety is but an empty and frothy Title But it was said this Tetrical Humour made Buckingham dislike all the Spanish proceedings and just in the nick when it was on him the Queen of Bohemia by a private message gave him some intimation that She and her Children were to be thought on inviting him to be a Witnesse to the Christning of one of them which came fit to his acceptation not so much out of affection to the one Party as in opposition to the other And what disrelished with him gave an ill Savour to Our King who having cause enough to dislike the Spanish delates and finding the Hearts of the People bent against the Match and some neer him as the Duke of Lenox made Duke of Richmond when Buckingham had his Title that the Scots might still precede the English and the Marquess Hamilton made Earl of Cambridge to intitle him a Peer the last Parliament a man of a gallant and stately presence one whom the King much listened to and others having as little affection to it The hopes of a Daughter of France left to give life yet to a Royal Race did bate something of Our King 's keen edge so that he wrote to Buckingham That he could not expect after so long a stay in Spain and so little done that they had any cordial intention to perfect the Treaty and therefore conjured him to bring his Son back with all speed but if his Sonnes youthful follies should tye him to a