it on certain factious persons unknown to them which they desire Mr. Withins Steward of that Court to represent in their Names to the King which he accordingly did and received the Honour of Knighthood as a Reward of his Loyalty After which several such like addresses were directed from many of the Counties and that from Norfolk had a farther acknowledgment of their humble thanks to the King for calling home the Duke And the Lord Shandois having been elected by the Turky Company to go Embassador to Constantinople and desiring the Kings approbation the King 〈◊〉 him that having been concerned in promoting petitions which were â—â—rogatory to his Prerogative and tended to sedition he could not think him fit for his Favour whereupon he humbly acknowledged his fault to the King in Council protesting â—â—at he had been misled and drawn into it by being perswaded it was for his Mâ—jesties Service but being now better informed he abhorred and disowned all such Practices and humbly begging his Pardon he as freely obtained it Upon the 18th of May so great a Storm of Hail fell in London and the adjacent parts that the like had not been seen in many Years before the Stones being of an extraordinary bigness and very hard till they had lain a while many of them being as large as Pullets Eggs. One which I saw measured was somewhat more than Nine Inches about several Rooks in the Temple Garden being beaten down and killed with them and the Glass of many Sky-lights battered and broken to pieces And now the Parliament which had been several times this Summer prorogued met on the 21st of October according to â—he King's Declaration to them at their meeting in April to whom he declared in a Speech to both Houses That he had during that long prorogation made Alliances with Holland and Spain and desired money of them for the relieving Tangier the defence whereof had very much exhausted his Treasure and advising them not to meddle with the Succession of the Crown but proceed to the discovery of the Plot and the Trial of the Lords The Commons having chosen Mr. Williams a Barrester of Grays Inn and Recorder of Chester for their Speaker to convince the World that the King had not without Reason deferred their sitting so long and that neither he nor the Nation would have been losers if they had not sate then fell to purging their house expelling Sir Robert Can a Burgess for Bristol for having said there was no other Plot but a Presbyterian one and Sir Francis Withins for having declared himself an Abhorrer of the late tumultuous Petitions for the Parliaments sitting The former was committed by them to the Tower and both ordered to receive their Censure on their knees from the Speaker Several other Members were likewise declared guilty of the same Offence with Sir Francis Withins And not content with punishing their own Members they take notice of others who were without their Walls amongst whom Sir George Jeffries Recorder of London one of the King's Serjeants at Law and Chief Justice of Chester became the Object of their displeasure and was Voted a Betrayer of the Subjects Rights and an Address was made to the King to remove him from all publick Affairs and Impeachments Voted and drawn up against Sir Francis North Chief Justice of the Common-Pleas Sir William Scrogs Chief Justice of the Kings-Bench Sir Thomas Jones one of the puisny Judges of that Court and Sir Richard Weston one of the Barons of the Exchequer for several pretended misdemeanors that of Sir Francis North being the advising and drawing up of the Proclamation against Petitions But not contenting themselves to deal with Subjects they proceeded next to a matter of a far greater concern For on the 11th of November notwithstanding the King's desire at their opening That they would not meddle with the Succession a Bill past in the House of Commons intituled An Act for securing the Protestant Religion by disabling James Duke of York from inheriting the Imperial Crown of England and Ireland and the Territories thereunto belonging which notwithstanding all the opposition made against it by the unbiassed and Judicious Loyalists who tho their Reasons were strongest yet their number were fewest was carried up to the Peers by the Lord Russel attended by almost all the Commons who gave a Hum at the delivery of it The Lords having ordered it upon their departure to be read put it to the Vote whether it should be read a second time which being carried in the Affirmative by Two Voices only after the second reading it was debated till Eleven a Clock at night the King being present all the while and then thrown out of the House by a Majority of about Thirty Voices in which number were all the Bishops then present to shew how careful the Prelacy is to promote Monarchy Soon after the Parliament proceeded to the Trial of William Lord Viscount Stafford which began in Westminster-Hall on Tuesday the 30th of November and the Impeachment and Evidence upon the same were managed by a Committee of the Commons and the Witnesses against him were Oates Turberville and Dugdale The Lord Chancellor Finch was created Lord High Steward for the solemnity of his Trial which lasted a whole week and being found Guilty by the Majority of Four and Twenty Voices he received Sentence on the 17th of December and on the 29th of that Month was beheaded on Tower-Hill protesting his Innocency with his last breath as all those had done who died for the Plot before him Some were so bold as to question the King's power to dispence with the Rigor of the Sentence and the unhappy Lord Russel was said to be one of them During these publick Transactions a large and prodigious flame of Light appeared in the West The Star from which the Blaze proceeded was but small and when first discovered seemed to be not much above the Horizon but every night after appeared somewhat higher in the beginning of the night and consequently set later its lustre and magnitude decreasing by degrees Whether this finger of the Almighty so visibly seen in the Heavens portended good or bad Events to the World in general or England in particular is a matter too mysterious for me to unfold and therefore shall I leave it till made more plain by the Effects which will be the best Commentatary thereon The King finding the Commons taken up with other business without taking the least care of providing him Money for the supplying his pressing wants and the relieving Tangier then besieged by the Emperor of Morocco recommended the matter more seriously to them in his Speech on the 15th of December But all the Answer he could obtain from them was an Address complaining of several pretended Grievances and refusing all supplies of Money for the Relief of Tangier or any other use unless he would pass a Bill for the Exclusion of the Duke and to enable all Protestants to associate
thing which would tend to his or the Kingdoms benefit on the 10th of July dissolved it by Proclamation and declared his Resolution to call a new one which should sit on the 17th of the following October In the mean while Sir George Wakeman with Marshall Rumley and Corker three Benedictine Monks were tryed before the Lord Chief Justice Scroggs for High Treason relating to the Plot But the Evidence of Oates and Bedlow beginning now to be less credited than formerly and the ferment of peoples fury being somewhat abated the Jury brought them in Not Guilty and Wakeman was thereupon discharged from his Imprisonment as the other Three had likewise been had they not in their Defence upon their Trials acknowledged themselves to be Priests Wakeman's being thus acquitted startled the Mobille who expected all that were accused of that Plot should have been condemned of course without respect to the Truth or Falshood of the Accusation And the Faction endeavoured to improve their dissatisfaction into Rage and Sedition by several scurrilous Libels wherein they accuse Scroggs of perverting Justice and taking a Bribe of several thousand Guinneas from the Spanish Embassador to save Wakeman's Life from which Aspersions he sufficiently cleared himself in a Speech which he made in the Kings-Bench-Court on the first day of the ensuing Michaelmas-Term During this interval of Parliament the King was violently taken ill of an Ague at Windsor insomuch that his Life was thought to be in some danger Whereupon the Duke as well to demonstrate his Affection to his Brother as to prevent the danger which as things then stood might peradventure have happen'd to him in case the King should have died in his absence came Post from Flanders to Windsor But Heaven designing to lengthen out his Life till he had reduced the great Affairs of the Nation to a better Settlement and could leave his Succession more safe and secure it pleased God that he recovered his Health soon after to the great Joy of all the whole Nation And the City to express the pleasure they took therein sent the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen with a Train of thirty Coaches and about a hundred Horse to Congratulate him upon his Recovery and when he returned soon after to White-Hall many Bonefires were made throughout the whole City attended with great Acclamations of Joy and Expressions of Loyalty Whilst he lay Sick at Windsor the Duke of Monmouth who had been by the Kings favour raised to as high a Station as a Subject was well capable of being then Lord General of all His Majesties Land Forces Master of the Horse and Captain of the Kings Life-Guards not content with the Honours already heaped upon him but aspiring as was thought altho without all Reason in regard of his Illegitimacy to the Crown it self endeavoured to prevail with some great Men at Court to take part with his Interest which being made known to the King by the Earl of Oxford who having for his eminent Loyalty a considerable party of Horse under his Command commonly called the Lord of Oxfords Troop was importuned by Sir Thomas Armstrong as was reported either in direct terms or so as his meaning might easily be understood to declare himself for Monmouth in case the King should dye He conceived a just Indignation against him for that bold and audacious Attempt and discovered his incensed Majesty by taking away his Commission of Lord General and soon after of his remaining places of Captain of the Life-Guard Master of the Horse Governor of Hull c. And to prevent Peoples being deluded by his Chimeâ—ical Fictions publisht a Declaration wherein having first taken notice of the great Industry and Malice wherewith men of seditious and restless Spirits spread abroad a most false and scandalous Report of a Marriage or Contract of Marriage at least between Mrs. Walters who was that Dukes Mother and him designing thereby to fill the minds of his loving Subjects with doubts and fears and divide them if possible into Parties by bringing into question the clear and undoubted Right of his true and lawful Heirs and Successors to the Crown he did to obviate the fatal consequences so dangerous and malicious a report might have in future times upon the Peace of his Kingdoms assure them That having found a former Rumor that there was a writing yet extant and lately produced before several Persons whereby that Marriage or Contracâ— at least would appear was not only revived again but improved also witâ— new Additions by insinuating thaâ— several Lords and others were yet living who were pretended to bâ—â— present at the Marriage hâ— had notwithstanding he knew fuâ—â— well it was impossible there should bâ— any truth in this Report since noâ—â— thing in the World could be morâ— false and groundless than the pretencâ— of such a Marriage or Contract bâ—â—tween him and the said Mrs. Walterâ— alias Barlow called before him anâ— caused to be Interogated in Council such Lords and other Persons as the common rumour surmised to have been present at the pretended Marriage or to know something of it or of the said writing And that tho it then appeared to all his Council upon their hearing the said Persons severally Interrogated and their denial to have been ever present at any such Marriage or to know any thing of it or of any such writing that the raising and spreading that Report which was so inconsistent with it self was the effect of deep malice in some few and of loose and idle discourse in others yet he thought it requisite for the satisfying all in general to publish a Declaration he had made in the January was Twelvemonth written with his own Hand in the following words There being a false and malicious Report industriously spread abroad by some who are neither Friends to me or the Duke of Monmouth as if I should have been either Contracted or Married to his Mother and tho I am confident that this idle Story cannot have any effect in this Age yet I thought it my Duty in relation to the true Succession of this Crown and that future Ages may not have any pretence to give disturbance upon that Score or any other of this nature to declare as I do here Declare in the Presence of Almighty God That I never was Married nor gave any Contract to any Woman whatsoever but to my Wife Queen Katharine to whom I am now Married In Witness whereof he had set his Hand at White-Hall the 6th of January 1678-79 In the Presence of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the two Secretaries Coventry and Williamson And assured them that to strengthen that Declaration he had in the March following made a more publick and solemn Declaration to the same purpose in his Privy Council written likewise with his own Hand and had caused a true Transcript thereof to be entred into the Council Book which for the better Confirmation he Signed with his own hand and caused the Lords
him appearing to the Coroners Inquest to have been first strangled before he was brought thither which was sworn by Bedloe who came in upon the King's offer in his Proclamation of 500 l. to any that would discover the manner of his death and Prance who was apprehended by him as he was attending in the Lobby of the Lords House to be done by the Papists The examination of this Plot and the Murder of Godfrey which they look'd upon as a sufficient confirmation of its truth and reality employed the Commons so assiduously that they sat whole days to consult about it without stirring from Morning till it was late at Night the product whereof was a Fast enjoined by Proclamation throughout the Nation the Minutes of that House forbid to be divulged a Resolution entred by them in their Journal That it was their Opinion upon the Evidence that had already appeared to that House there had been and was an execrable and hellish Design contrived and carried on by the Papists for assassinating the King subverting the Government and destroying the Protestant Religion a Proclamation which banish'd all the reputed Papists ten Miles from London and Westminster except Housholders who were obliged likewise to take the Oaths or suffer the Penalties inflicted by Law upon the refusers of them and another for the turning all Roman Catholicks out of the Horse and Foot-Guards wherein 20 l. was promised to those who should discover any Officer or Soldier who had formerly taken the Oaths and Test and had since turned Papist But the Commons not yet satisfied it was moved in that House That an Address should be made to the King to remove the Duke of York from his Presence and Councels but he being informed of their intention resolved to prevent them and endeavour to take them off from their unseasonable heat by assuring them of his stedfast Resolution to defend them in their just Rights and Priviledges and comply with any reasonable offer they should make for the security of the Protestant Religion in order whereunto he went the next day in his Robes to the House of Peers and having commanded the Commons to attend him in a Speech to both Houses he gave them his hearty thanks for their extraordinary care for the preservation of his Life in that time of danger telling them that he was as ready to joyn with them in all ways and means that might conduce to the establishment and security of the Protestant Religion as their own hearts could wish and that not only during his Life but in future Ages even to the end of the World and therefore was come thither at that time to assure them that whatsoever reasonable Bills they should at any time present to him to be pass'd into Laws for the rendring them safe in the Reign of his Successor so as they tended not to impeach the Right of Succession nor the Descent of the Crown in the true Line and so also as they did not restrain and limit the just Rights and Power of the Throne should find from him a ready concurrence And to demonstrate his reality therein when he had about the latter end of that Month a Bill presented to him for the dissabling all Popish Members to sit in either House of Parliament he gave his Royal Assent thereunto tho' at the same time he refused another which was for raising a third part of the Militia to be in constant Arms for a time telling them that that were to put the Militia out of his own power which thing he would not do no not for one hour but promised if they would assist him with Money for that purpose to raise such a part of the Militia as should secure the Peace of the Government and his own Person And now several of those accused by Oates and others for the Witnesses were by this time increased were brought to Tryal before Sir William Scroggs then Lord Chief Justice of the Kings bench And those that gave evidence against them being very positive in their Depositions Coleman Ireland Pickering Groves Whitebread Fenwick Langhorn and divers more were at several times condemned and executed and so was William Staley a Goldsmith's Son in Covent-Garden for speaking dangerous words against the King's Life and three more whose Names were Green Berry and Hill upon the evidence of Bedloe and Prance for the Murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey Prance affirming he was murdred in Somerset-house and that himself assisted in the murdring of him They every one died denying what they were charged withal and asserting their innocency with all the Solemn Protestations imaginable which was credited or disbelieved according to peoples various inclinations And now some Members of Parliament began to accuse each other Mr. Mountague who had been a little before Embassador to the French King carried up five Articles against the Treasurer Danby and Sir John Ernly another of the Commons accused Mountague of holding a correspondency with the Popes Nuncio at Paris but for his good service in accusing Danby that was overlook'd and a resolution taken to proceed with severity against the Treasurer This Parliament which first began on the 8th of May in the year 1661. and had now been continued by several Prorogations and Adjournments for 17 Years 8 Months and 17 Days began to grow so presumptuous that upon an Information that Sir Joseph Williamson then Secretary of State had counter-signed several Commissions for Officers who were Roman Recusants with a Non obstante to the Oaths and Test they took the boldness to commit him prisoner to the Tower whereupon the King commanding them the next day to attend him in the Banquetting-house briskly told them That tho' they had committed his Servant without acquainting him yet he would deal more freely with them in acquainting them with his intentions to release his Secretary which he immediately ordered to be done and finding there was but little good to be expected from their proceedings he prorogued them on the 30th of Decemb. and on the 24th of the following January dissolved them by Proclamation and called a new one to sit on the 6th of the next March issuing out Writs for the speedy chusing of them From the Counsels and Debates of this new Parliament which met at the time appointed the King expected more felicity than he had met with from those of the former and therefore to prevent all occasions of disgust and hinder them from falling with the like heat upon his Brother desired the Duke to retire for some time beyond the Seas for the Reasons exprest in the following Letter The King's Letter to His Royal Highness I Have already given You My resolves at large why I think it fit You should absent Your self for some time beyond the Seas As I am truly sorry for the occasion so may You be sure I shall never desire it longer than it will be absolutely necessary for Your Good and My Service In the mean time I think it