put on him by Somersets Faction so all hands helped to the piecing up this new Favourite Then begun the King to eate abroad who formerly used to eate in his Bed-chamber or if by chance supped in his Bed-chamber after supper would come forth to see pastimes and fooleries in which Sir Ed. Zouch Sir George Goring and Sir Iohn Finit were the chiefe and Master Fools and surely this Fooling got them more then any others wisdome farre above them in desert Zouch his part it was to sing bawdy songs and tell bawdy tales Finits to compose these Songs then was a set of Fidlers brought to Court on purpose for this Fooling and Goring was Master of the game for Fooleries sometimes presenting David Droman and Archee Armstrong the Kings Foole on the back of the other fools to tilt one at another till they fell together by the eares sometimes the property was presented by them in Antick Dances But Sir John Millicent who was never known before was commended for notable fooling and so was he indeed the best extemporary foole of them all with this jollity was this Favourite ushered in This made the house of Suffolke fret and Somerset carried himselfe now more proudly and his Bravado's ever quarrelling with the others which by his Office of Lord Chamberlaine for a while carried it But Somerset using of Sir Ralph Wynwood whom himselfe brought in for a Secretary of State in so scornfull a manner he having but only the title the Earle himselfe keeping the Seales and doing the businesse made Wynwood endeavour to ruine him who soone got an opportunity thereto by frequenting the Countesse of Shrewsbury then Prisoner in the Tower who told Wynwood on a time that Overbury was poysoned which she had so understood from Sir Gervase Elwaies who did labour by her meanes to deale with her two sons in Law Arundell and Pembrooke Wynwood also being great-with that faction that when it came into question he might save his owne stake who truly was no otherwise guilty but that he did not discover it at Westons first disclosing it hee being Keeper of the prison so by inference his not disclosing it was Overburies death and had he revealed it then I dare say he had beene brought into the Star-chamber for it and undone for yet was not the time fit for discovery Wynwood it was thought acquainted the King with it knowing how willingly he would have been rid of Somerset yet the King durst not bring it in question nor any question ever would have been had not Somerset sought to crosse him in his passion of love to his new Favourite in which the King was more impatient then any woman to enjoy her love Not long after Thrumball Agent at Bruxels had by an Apothecaries boy one Reeve after an Apothecary himselfe in London and dyed very lately gotten hold of this poysoning businesse for Reeve having under his Master made some of those desperate Medicines either run away or else his Master sent him out of the way and fell in company of Thrumbals servants at Bruxels to whom he reveal'd it they to their Master who examining the boy discovered the truth Thrumball presently wrote to Secretary Wynwood he had businesse of consequence to discover but would not send it therefore desired licence to come over The King would not yeeld to his returne but willed him to send an Expresse That Thrumball utterly refused and very wisely for had any thing appeared under his hand the boy might have dyed or run away and then had he made himselfe the Author of that which the courtesie of another must have justified The King being of a longing disposition rather then he would not know admitted Thrumbals returne and now they had good testimony by the Apothecary who revealed Weston Mrs. Turner and Franklyn to be principall Agents yet this being neare the time of progresse was not stirred in till about Michaelmas following yet Wynwood did now carry himselfe in a braving way of contestation against Somerset struck in with the Faction of Villiers now on progresse The King he went westward where he was feasted at Cranborne by a Sonne in Law of that Family at Lulworth and Bindon by the Lord Walden at Charlton by Sir Thomas Howard and every where nothing but one Faction braving the other then was the King feasted at Purbeck by the Lord Hatton who was of the contrary Faction and at a Joynture house of Sir George Villiers mother called Gotly where he was magnificently entertained After all this feasting homeward came the King who desired by all meanes to reconcile this clashing between his declining and rising Favourite to which end at Lulworth the King imployed Sir Humphrey May a great servant to Somerset and a wise servant to Villiers but with such instructions as if it came from himselfe and Villiers had order presently after Sir Humphrey Mayes returne to present himselfe and service to Somerset My Lord said he Sir George Villers will come to you to offer his service and desire to be your creature and therefore refuse him not embrace him and your Lordship shall still stand a great man though not the sole Favourite My Lord seemed averse Sir Humphrey then told him in plaine tearmes that he was sent by the King to advise it and that Villiers would come to him to cast himself into his protection to take his rise under the shadow of his wings Sir Humphrey May was not parted from my Lord halfe an houre but in comes Sir George Villiers and used these very words My Lord I desire to be your servant and your creature and shall desire to take my Court-preferment under your favour and your Lordship shall finde me as faithfull a servant unto you as ever did serve you My Lord returned this quick and short answer I will none of your service nor shall you have any of my favour I will if I can break your necke and of that be confident This was but a harsh Complement and savoured more of spirit then wisdome and since that time breaking each others necks was their aimes and it s verily beleeved had Somerset complyed with Villiers Overburyes death had stil lain raked up in his own ashes but God who will never suffer murther to go unpunished will have what he will maugre all the wisdome of the World To Windsor doth the King return to end His Progresse from thence to hampton-Hampton-Court then to White-Hall and shortly after to Royston to begin His Winter-Iourney And now begins the game to bee plaid in which Somerset must be the loser the Cards being shuffled cut and dealt between the King and Sir Edward Cooke Cheife Iustice whose Daughter Turbeck Villers his Brother had married or was to marry and therefore a fit instrument to ruine Somerset and Secretary Winwood these all playd The stake Somersets life and his Ladyes and their Fortunes and the Family of Suffolke some of them played booty and in truth the Game was not plaid above-board
too ranke and appeared too poore and plaine a tricke of State and Salisbury in this had a double benefit First in ridding himselfe of such as he feared would have been thornes in his sides Secondly by endearing himselfe to the King by shewing his diligence and vigilancy for his safety so that it might be said of him as of Caesar in another case Inveniam aut saciam I will either finde out a Treason or make one and this had been a pretty trick had it been only to disgrace without taking away life but how this peece of policy may stand with Religion I feare by this time he too well understands and this plot as neare as I can tell you and I dare say my intelligence gave me as neare a guesse as ever any man had was that all these in a discontented humour had by Watson and Clarke being Confessors dealt with Count Aremberge the Arch Dukes Embassadour to negotiate with the Arch Duke to raise an Army and invade England and they would raise another of Papists and Male-contents to joyne for you must understand the King was beleeved an errand Puritan Cujus contrarium verum est how likely this Plot was let the world judge that the King of Spaine who had bought peace at so deare a rate and found it so advantageous to him by the lamentable experience he had formerly in the Wars with this formidable State should seek to breake it so soone and had it been a reall Treason the State had been bound to have rewarded these Traytors as the best peece of service done in England all that Kings reigne it was indeed those that made the Peace not those that endeavoured the breaking of it were the Traytors and are to be cursed by all Posterity yet this foolish Plot served well enough to take some blocks out of the way that might afterward have made some of them stumble to the breaking of their owne necks They were all Arraigned of Treason at Winchester whither the King having sent some secretly to observe all passages upon whose true and faithfull relations of the innocencies of the Persons Arraigned and the sleight proofes upon which they were condemned he would not be drawne to signe any Warrant for the execution of Rawleigh Cobham and Grey very hardly for any of the rest the two Priests excepted For Rawleighs defence it was so brave and just as had he not wilfully cast himselfe out of very wearinesse as unwilling to detaine the company longer no Jury could ever have cast him all the Evidence brought against him was Cobhams Accusation which he only desired might appeare viva voce and he would yeeld without further defence but that they knew ful well Cobham would not nor could not accuse him having been tampered with by Wade then Lieutenant of the Tower and Salisburies great Creature Wade desired it under his hand that also he refused at last Wade got a trick by his cunning to surprize Cobhams weaknesse to get him write his name to a Blank to which Wade no question wrote the accusation as will appeare hereafter for Salisbury urging Rawleigh often if Cobham had accused him under his hand would he then yeeld Rawleigh replyed He knew Cobham weake of judgement and did not know how that weaknesse might be wrought upon but was confident he would not to his face accuse him and therefore would not put his life fortune and all on that at which fence he stood til nine at night at last his fate carried him against his reason and he yeelded upon the producing his hand which was instantly pulled out and was in truth his hand but not his act or deed so at that present was George Brooke Watson and Clarke executed Parham acquitted and Sir Walter Rawleigh executed many yeares after for the same treason as much against all justice as beyond all reason or any president yea after he had been a Generall by the Kings Commission and had by that power of the Lives of many others utterly against the Civill Law which saith He that hath power of the Lives of others ought to be Master of his owne But the Spaniard was so powerfull at that time in Court as that Faction could command the life of any man that might prove dangerous to his designes Grey and Cobham dyed in their restraint the one much pittied the other scorned and his death as base for hee dyed lousie for want of Apparrell and Linnen and had starved had not a Trencher-scraper sometime his Servant in Court releived him with scraps in whose house he dyed being so poore a house as he was forced to creep up a Ladder into a little hole to his Chamber which was a strange judgement and unpresidented that a man of seven thousand pounds per annum and of a personall estate of thirty thousand pounds of all which the King was so cheated of what should have Escheated to him that he could not give him any maintenance as in all cases the King doth unlesse out of his owne Revenue of the Crown which was the occasion of this Lords want his Wife being very rich would not give him the crums that fell from her Table and this was a just judgement of God on him And now because it will be pertinent in this place to let you understand that Rawleigh had his life surrepticiously taken away I shall give you a true story Queen Anne that brave Princesse was in a desperate and some beleeved an incurable Disease whereof the Phisitians were at the furthest end of their studies to finde the cause at a Non-plus for the Cure Sir Walter Rawleigh being by his long studies an admirable Chymist undertooke and performed the Cure for which he would receive no other reward but that her Majesty would procure that certaine Lords might be sent to examine Cobham whether he had accused Sir Walter Rawleigh of Treason at any time under his hand the King at the Queens request and in Justice could doe no lesse sends six Lords which I take were the Duke of Leonox Salisbury Worcester Suffolke Sir George Carew and Sir Julius Caesar to demand of Cobham whether he had not under his hand accused Sir Walter Rawleigh at Winchester upon that Treason he was Arraigned for Cobham did protest never nor could he but said he That Villaine Wade did often solicite me and not prevailing that way got me by a trick to write my name upon a peece of white Paper which I thinking nothing did so that if any Charge came under my hand it was forged by that Villaine Wade by writing something above my hand without my consent or knowledge These six returning to the King the rest made Salisbury their Spokes-man who said Sir my Lord Cobham hath made good all that ever hee wrote or said Where it is to be noted that this was but an equivocating tricke in Salisbury for it was true that Cobham had made good whatever hee had writ that being but in truth to
cryed Justice Sir I am abused by your servant and wrongfully accused at which the poore King become by that time speechlesse mournfully fixed his eies on him as who would have said not wrongfully It were worth the knowledge what his confession was or what other expressions he made of himselfe or any other but that was only known to the dead Arch-Bishop Abbot and the Bishop Williams then also Lord Keeper and it was thought Williams had blabbed something which incensed the Kings anger and Buckinghams hatred so much against him that the losse of his place could not be expiatory sufficient but his utter ruine must be determined and that not upon any knowne crime but upon circumstances and examinations to pick out faults committed in his whole life time but his greatest crime for the present no question was lapsus linguae but quod defertur non aufertur for although he escaped by the calme of that Parliament yet is he more ruined by this Parliament and his owne folly and truly we may observe the just Judgement of God on him for flying from the Parliament his protector to give wicked counsell to the King his former prosecutor And now have I brought this great Kings Reigne to an end in a volant discourse and shall give you his Character in briefe and so leave him in peace after his life who was stiled the King of peace in his life THE CHARACTER OF KING JAMES THis Kings Character is much easier to take then hi Picture for he could never be brought to sit for the taking of that which is the reason of so few good peeces of him but his Character was obvious to every eye He was of a middle stature more corpulent through his cloathes then in his body yet fat enough his cloathes ever being made large and easie the Doublets quilted for steletto proofe his Breeches in great pleits and full stuffed Hee was naturally of a timorous disposition which was the reason of his quilted Doublets His eyes large ever rowling after any stranger came in his presence insomuch as many for shame have left the roome as being out of countenance His Beard was very thin His Tongue too large for his mouth which ever made him speak full in the mouth and made him drink very uncomely as if eating his drink which came out into the cup of each side of his mouth His skin was as soft as Taffeta Sarsnet which felt so because hee never washt his hands onely rubb'd his fingers ends slightly with the wet end of a Napkin His Legs were very weake having had as was thought some foul play in his youth or rather before he was born that he was not able to stand at seven years of age that weaknesse made him ever leaning on other mens shoulders his walke was ever circular his fingers ever in that walke sidling about his Codpiece He was very temperate in his exercises and in his dyet and not intemperate in his drinking however in his old age and Buckinghams joviall Suppers when he had any turne to doe with him made him sometimes overtaken which he would the very next day remember and repent with teares it is true he dranke very often which was rather out of a custom then any delight and his drinks were of that kind for strength as Frontiniack Canary High Country wine Tent Wine and Scottish Ale that had he not had a very strong brain might have daily been overtaken although he seldom drank at any one time above four spoonfulls many times not above one or two He was very constant in all things his Favourites excepted in which he loved change yet never cast down any he once raised from the height of greatnesse though from their wonted nearnesse and privacy unlesse by their own default by opposing his change as in Somersets case yet had he not been in that foul poysoning busines and so cast down himself I do verily beleeve not him neither for al his other Favorites he left great in Honour great in Fortune and did much love Mountgomery and trusted him more at the very last gaspe then at the first minute of his Favoriteship In his Dyet Apparrell and Journeys he was very constant in his Apparrell so constant as by his good wil he would never change his cloathes untill worn out to very ragges His Fashion never Insomuch as one bringing to him a Hat of a Spanish Block he cast it from him swearing he neither loved them nor their fashions Another time bringing him Roses on his Shooes he asked if they would make him a ruffefooted-Dove one yard of six penny Ribbond served that turn His Dyet and Journies was so constant that the best observing Courtier of our time was wont to say were he asleep seven yeares and then awakened he would tell where the King every day had been and every dish he had had at his Table Hee was not very uxorious though he had a very brave Queen that never crossed his designes nor intermedled with State affaires but ever complyed with him even against the nature of any but of a milde spirit in the change of Favourites for he was ever best when furthest from his Queene and that was thought to be the first grounds of his often removes which afterwards proved habituall He was unfortunate in the marriage of his Daughter and so was all Christendome besides but sure the Daughter was more unfortunate in a Father then he in a Daughter He naturally loved not the sight of a Souldier nor of any valiant man and it was an observation that Sir Robert Mansell was the only valiant man he ever loved and him he loved so intirely that for all Buckinghams greatnesse with the King and his hatred of Sir Robert Mansell yet could not that alienate the Kings affections from him insomuch as when by the instigation of Cottington then Embassadour in Spaine by Buckinghams procurement the Spanish Embassadour came with a great complaint against Sir Robert Mansell then at Argiers to suppresse the Pirats That he did support them having never a friend there though many that durst speake in his defence the King himselfe defended him in these words My Lord Embassadour I cannot beleeve this for I made choyce my selfe of him out of these reasons I know him to be valiant honest and Nobly descended as most in my Kingdome and will never beleeve a man thus qualified will doe so base an act He naturally loved honest men that were not over active yet never loved any man heartily untill he had bound him unto him by giving him some suite which he thought bound the others love to him again but that argued a poore disposition in him to beleeve that any thing but a Noble minde seasoned with vertue could make any firme love or union for mercinary mindes are carried away with a greater prize but Noble mindes alienated with nothing but publick disgraces He was very witty and had as many ready witty jests as any
Legion for they were all many Devills and like true Devills tooke pleasure in tormenting So that hereby may be perceived the Kingdome in generall had no benefit though some particular men as Weston Treasurer Coventry Lord Keeper and all such as paid his beggerly kindred Pensions which now were ceased by this mans death whose purpose 't was to have turn'd out of place both Coventry and Weston before his last intended voyage But now did Weston begin to be more cruell in Pride and Tyranny than Buckingham had been before him and had not the Arch-Bishop Laud ballanced him he would have been more insufferable He cheated the King in the sale of Timber and of Land and in the letting of his Customs the Arch-Bishop notwithstanding truly informing the King thereof Weston was so mad at the thought of it he would often say to his friends in private That little Priest would Monopolize the Kings eare for he was ever whispering to the King And now begin the Councel Table the Star-Chamber and High Commission to bee Scourges and Tortures of the Commonwealth by Imprisonments and Mutilations of Members and were made some of them by sinings the greatest incomes to the Exchequer and in truth did now put down the Common Laws deciding of Meum and Tuum And if any desiring to appeal from them refused to stand there to their censures they were committed untill they would submit thereunto If men sent unto by them for money refused it they would imprison them till they would give or lend and if any were summoned thither they had a mind to quarrell with in whom they could not find a fault they would make one by saying the Gentleman laughs at us Or the Gentleman saith thus and thus it may be that hee had not in his thought and yet there should not want a false witnesse for some Lords that sat with their backs towards them or so farre off that they could not heare yet would testifie either the words or actions or for want of this a Clerk of the Councell should bee called to witnesse who for his profit must swear what any Lord said If they hit not upon that trick then sometimes they would contrive to put a Gentleman into passion by calling him some disgracefull name or by scoffing at him so that indeed the Councell Table was growne more like a Pasquil then a grave Senate But if the spirit of the man wer such that he could not take those indignities without some regret it was well for him if he escaped with imprisonment and not called Ore tenus to the Star-Chamber and fined as many were to his undoing for to that point were now the Fines of that Court risen As for the High Commission-Court that was a very Spanish-like Inquisition in which all pollings and tyrannizings over our Estates and Consciences were practised as were in the other over our Estates and Bodyes Then were the Judges so much their Servants or rather Slaves that what ere they illegally put in execution they found Law to maintaine But that which is a wonder above all wonders is that Coventry who formerly had gained the opinion of a just and honest man was a principall in all these miscarriages yet dyed he unquestioned when had his actions been scanned by a Parliament in that they were not you may see what opinion is which in the multitude blindeth the understanding he had been found as foul a man as ever lived Finch a fellow of an excellent tongue but not of one dram of Law made for all that Cheife Justice of the Common-Pleas the onely Court most learned in the Law yet he brought all the learned Judges except two only Hutton and Crook to be of his illegall opinion for shipmony This surely must be a punishment from God on them and us for our sins otherwise it had been impossible so many grave Iudges should have been over-ruled by such a slight and triviall fellow Now also all Officers in all places took what Fees they pleased as if in a Iubilee Amongst the rest those of the Star-Chamber the Councell Table and the High Commission were very Grandees Yea the very Messengers to them were countenanced in their abuse and insultings over the Gentry when in their clutches and to such a strange passe were disorders come unto that every Lacquey of those great Lords might give a Check-Mate to any Gentleman yea to any Country Nobleman that was not in the Court favour And to fill full the measure of the times abounding iniquity the Court Chaplines and others elsewhere with the Reverend Bishops themselves did preach away our liberties and proprieties yet kept they Divinity enough for their owne interests for they concluded all was either Gods or the Kings their part belonged to God in which the King had no propriety Our part belonged wholly to the King in which we had propriety no longer when the King were disposed to call for them so that betwixt the Law and the Gospel we were ejected out of Lands Liberties and Lives at pleasure And now is Gods time come to visit with his Iustice and behold it For the pit they digged for others they themselves are fallen into for all their Honours Lands and Liberties are a gasping and the Iudges are but in very little better case for the Parliament will doe that to them by the Law which they would have done to us by wresting the Gospel But what needed all that joy for the death of Buckingham Sith the times succeeding him have been so infinitely beyond him in all oppression as they are like to bring all manner of miseries both upon King people So that in truth his Hydra's head being struck downe an hundred more instead thereof appeared which never durst in his life time And as he got much by Suites so did Weston much by cheating yet all came out of the Subjects purses and Coventry that so generally a reputed honest man got such an estate by Bribery and in-In-justice that he is said to have left a Family worth a Million Which may commend his Wisdome but in no wise his Honesty And now also dies Weston after he had first brought in as you may remember I told you himselfe was by Cranfield Sir Thomas Wentworth after Earle of Strafford the active manager of the State and sole Governour of the King This Strafford without doubt was the ablest Minister that this Kingdome had since Salisburies time and to speak uprightly there was not any but himselfe worthy of that name amongst all the Kings Councell yet I am confident by the weaknesse of that Boord his abilities in State affaires were judged more then they were and besides that very word of States-man was now grown a stranger to our Nation Nor was he as Salisbury or our ancient Heroes a generall States-man nor was it possible he should be he not having that breeding himselfe Nor kept he any upon his charge in forraigne parts for intelligence Nor had