Rome The Bohemians having this farther strain of their Crowns being disposed of to another and dreading the Disposition of this Ferdinand assembled at Prague the Regal City of Bohemia and demand a General Diet of the Kingdom to bring their Grievances thither herein they did not apply themselves to Ferdinand as their King but to Matthias the Emperor but Matthias denied or deferred it to use Nani's words who tho a Venetian seems to me to be very partial against the Bohemians whereupon the Bohemians upon the 23d of May 1618 parted in a Rout and believing the Counts Martinitz Slavata and Philip Fabritus most zealous Papists to be the Motives of Matthias his Denial flung them out of the Windows of the Castle of Prague but they escaped by a Miracle as Nani says lib. 4. p. 127. The Count de la Tour in this Commotion makes a most pathetick Oration to the Bohemians wherein he sets forth how the Privileges of the Kingdom were violated and the Exercise of their Religion forbid and made to descend upon the Will of Princes That the usurped Crown of Bohemia passed from Head to Head as the Revenue and Inheritance of one House and to establish an everlasting Tyranny being ravished before its time from Successors in spite of Death is never suffered to be vacant c. And then goes on What have we not yet suffered The use of Life comes now to be denied us and the Vsufruit of our Souls contested but all our past Miseries will not be able to call to Remembrance but some imperfect Representations of the Calamities to come In sum Rodolph lived amongst us Matthias has reaped us as the first Fruits of his ambitious Desires for Matthias had forced Rodolph to resign the Crown of Bohemia to him as Ferdinand had done to Matthias But what may we expect from Ferdinand unknown to us and in himself rigorous directed by Spanish Counsels and governed by that sort of Religious Priests and People who detest with an equal Aversion our Liberty and Belief He was born and bred up in the Abhorrence of us Protestants and why should we be so forward to make trial of it Since the Persons banished the Families displanted the Goods violently taken away demonstrate too cruelly to us that he would abolish our very Being if he could as easily command Nature as he uses Force Wo to you Bohemians to your Children to your Estates to your Consciences if you suffer this Ferdinand to keep his footing in the Throne And when will you attempt to shake off the Yoke if you have not Courage to do it at a time when without Power without Guard the Kingdom is in your own Power and that you have two Kings to oppose you one whereof is fallen and the other toâ—ters c. which you may read at large in the fourth Book of Nani and concludes The Lot is drawn Liberty or the Hangman If Conquerors we shall be Just Free and Princes if overcome Perâ—idious Perjured and Rebels The Inhabitants of Prague before disposed took fire at this Oration of De la Tour and chose a Magistracy of Thirty with the Title of Directors to carry on a Government in opposition to Ferdinand and what happened in Prague was no sooner divulged through the Kingdom but all was in a Revolt drawing also the Provinces of Lusatia and Silesia adjoining to them into their Confederacy Matthias had a Counsellor named Gleselius upon whose Advice and Integrity Matthias relied above all other Men who advised Matthias by all fair means possible to compose the Commotions of the Bohemians for if he should come to a Rupture with them and Matthias be compelled to raise an Army the Interest of Ferdinand was such not only in the Spanish Councils but the Popish in Germany and the hereditary Countries that he would command it and thereby be in a Condition to ravish the Empire from him as he had done the Crown of Bohemia and Matthias feeling yet this Flesh-wound feared that mortal one if Ferdinand were put on the Head of an Army Hereupon Ferdinand without any regard to the Majesty and Authority of Matthias resolved to arrest Gleselius and separate him from giving any farther Advice to Matthias and one day being called to Council where the King was with one Ognate Gleselius was seized upon by d' Ampiere and Prainer and put into a close Coach and guarded by an hundred Horse hurried away to Inspurg Matthias was astonished at this bold Insolence which struck at his Authority in the tenderest part and now without any Council left in the Hands of his Cousin who designed to rise out of his Ruin became so overwhelmed with Melancholy that both asleep and awake he could not be with-held from crying out with a loud Voice That Gleselius might be brought back again but all to no purpose for he shall never live to see him again and in these Agonies he had some thoughts to have cast himself into the Arms of the Bohemians but it was not in his Power to do it These things were in 1618 at the end whereof Matthias died These Commotions in Bohemia and other parts of the Empire encreased after the Death of Matthias so that the Election of an Emperor was controverted till the 30th of August 1619 when Ferdinand was chosen having by large Promises prevailed upon George Duke of Saxony to vote for him But however the Bohemians were stiff in opposing his Election to the Kingdom of Bohemia and offered the Crown to Charles Duke of Savoy tho a Popish Prince and who had a better Title to the Crown of Bohemia than Ferdinand his Mother being a younger Daughter of Maximilian the 2d but prevailed upon by the Pope and Spanish Councils he refused it as did the Duke of Saxony and then they chose Frederick Count Palatine hoping to receive great Assistance from King James his Father-in-law but were mistaken in the Man Upon this Election Abbot Arch-Bishop of Canterbury was all on Fire to perswade the King to assist his Son-in-law and to that purpose wrote a long perswasive Apology to the King concerning it which you may read at large in Rushworth's Collections fol. 12. but the King and Bishop were not of the same Opinion for the King would have it that the Election of his Son-in-law was upon the Score of Religion not Right and therefore disswaded him from it but being a mighty Man of Embassies as well as Words Nani says fol. 138. published that he would assist his Son-in-law and dispatched an Ambassador to Vienna proposing that Bohemia should remain to Frederick But if his Authority by words would not settle his Son-in-law King James could not go further Frederick thus forsaken by his Father-in-law raised upon his own account 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse and entred Prague and was crown'd King on the Fourth of November 1619 and was no sooner crown'd but laid the Foundation of his own Ruine for the Counts De la Tour and Mansfield who had raised
Peace between England and Spain whereto both Kings were equally disposed more smooth and easy Yet Philip the 3d before he would openly seek it by an Ambassador from the Arch-Duke Albert Governor of Flanders felt the Pulse of the Court how it stood affected to a Peace with Spain which beat high towards it so as soon after it followed which as it was most beneficial to the English Nation so it had been to Spain if it had been as sincerely observed by King James as it was by Philip. Henry the 4th of France tho spited as 't was said that King James should not only come so peaceably but with universal Acclamations to the Crown of England whereas he laboured with such difficulty above seven Years to attain that of France and at last was forced to a dishonourable Submission to the Pope Clement VIII Yet being a Prince of great Prudence in Peace as well as fortunate and victorious in War sent Monsieur de Rosny Great Treasurer of France to renew the Treaty of Peace and Commerce formerly made between Queen Elizabeth and him which was without any difficulty done The King being thus at Peace Abroad and at Home not only in England but in Ireland as if the Wars expired there with Queen Elizabeth he not only pardoned the Earl of Tyrone the Head of that Rebellion but by Proclamation declar'd he was restor'd to the King's Favour and to be honourably used of all Men. But how pleasing soever the King 's coming to the Crown of England was to the English Nation it seems it was not so or something else to God for an horrible Plague greater than any since that in the Reign of Edward the 3d accompanied his coming in There were two Factions in England when the King came to the Crown distinguished by the Names of Puritans and Papists both dissenting from the Religion established in the Church of England the King hated those and wrote against these chiefly for their Doctrine of the Pope's Power of deposing Kings These received the King after different manners the Puritans had a huge Expectation of his Favour because he was bred up in their Doctrine and Discipline but were much deceived in it for he rarely mentioned them but with Detestation which he did not those of the Popish Religion However in January they obtained a Conference with the Church-Party at Hampton-Court where the King himself would be Moderator whilst most of the Nobility and Bishops were Spectators You need not doubt which Party prevail'd the Nobility and Bishops not only giving the King the Victory with the Epithets of The Solomon of the Age The most Learned but of being inspired But what Expectation soever the Puritans had of the King 's coming to the Crown the Papists had another Lesson taught them for tho the Popish Conspiracy against the Person of Queen Elizabeth ceased upon the Death of the Queen of Scots yet did not the Pope's Designs upon the Kingdom of England do so but Clement VIII in the Year 1600 sent Orders to his Emissaries in England that the Catholicks should admit none to succeed the Queen but one obedient to the Holy See and in Conformity hereunto Watson and Clark two Romish Priests joined in Cobhant's Conspiracy to have kept the King from coming to the Crown and were executed for it as Traitors but the Effects of the Pope's Instructions did not die with Clark and Watson as you 'll soon hear and upon the 24th of October 1603 a Proclamation was made for Quietness to be observed in Matters of Religion Notwithstanding the Rage of the Pestilence the first nine Months after the King 's coming to London all were Halcion-days Proclamations Pageants Feastings Creation of Lords and Knights Reception of Foreign Ambassadors erecting a Master of the Ceremonies after the Mode of France c. and in this time the Dignified Clergy and those who courted to be so with the Favourites at Court with whom the Civilians chimed in had so rooted their Doctrine of the King 's Absolute Power and that notwithstanding his Succession to the Crown of Scotland in the Life of his Mother he succeeded by inherent Birth-right and that Primogeniture is the Gift of God by the Law of Nature and that in his Person was reconciled all the Titles of our Saxon Danish and Norman Race of Kings that being propensly disposed to receive the Impressions they took such deep root in him that in all his Life after he would never with Patience hear any thing to the contrary however it was not long before he heard of it as you shall hear But we will stay a little and see how inconsistently these Flatterers jumbled an Absolute and Hereditary Monarchy together and how this King reconciled the Titles of the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles to the Crown For no Hereditary Monarch that ever reigned in this World but derived his Title from an Ancestor who had no Hereditary Right nor did ever any Hereditary King succeed but to govern by Laws and Constitutions which were established before he became King So however Absolute may be applicable to Conquerors yet it is inconsistent with Hereditary Kings especially in a Regular Monarchy as that of England is and those of old as of the Medes and Persians where the Will of the King alone could not alter the Laws and Constitutions of them And now let us see how King James came to claim his Crown by inherent Birth-right and how all the Saxon Danish and Norman Titles came to be reconciled in his Person It 's evident to me that tho only God can make an Heir and that tho Primogeniture be natural yet God in disposing Kingdoms is not obliged to it tho Grotius lib. 1. Tit. 11. de Jure Belli Pacis is pleased to say the Law of Nature is immutable by God himself but reserves unto himself the Prerogative of disposing Kingdoms without restraining the Succession of the King to Primogeniture or Hereditary Succession Here let us see in Epitome which you may read at large in Sir William Jones his History of the Succession of the Kings of England before and after the Conquest and the History of the Succession of the Crown of England from King Egbert to Henry the 8th printed in the Year 1690 where you will see that tho the Kings of England both before and after the Conquest succeeded in their Royal Families yet many more were not in the right Line than in it and tho before Caesar invaded Britain there was no other Government but Kingly yet Britain was divided into so many petty Kingdoms that tho it had not been barbarous it would have been as difficult to have wrote the History of the Succession of their Kings as to have wrote the History of the Succession of the Kings immediately after the Flood After the Roman Empire oppressed by its own Weight by the Division into Eastern and Western its intestine Jars and the over-flowing of barbarous Nations was so torn
two Armies and kept up the Bohemians till the King 's coming to Prague were not only neglected but the Prince of Anhalt whom the King brought with him was made not only Generalissimo of the Army the King brought but of the Armies raised by de la Tour and Mansfield besides the King tho he had got a vast Treasure was niggardly in paying the Souldiers which necessitated them to take free Quarters upon the Bohemians In this disgusted State with the Bohemians the King having withdâ—awn so great Forces out of the Palatinate left it exposed to the Ravages of the Spaniards who under the Command of Ambrose Count Spinola General of the Spanish Army under the Arch-Duke Albert whom the King in the Treaty of the 2d Year of his Reign calls His renowned and dear Brother made terrible Wars in the Palatinate Here you may see how unhappy King James was in the Peace or Truce he procured the King of Spain and the Arch-Dukes to make with the Dutch in 1609 for twelve Years for in this Interval the Dutch did not only retrieve their Cautionary Towns out of the King's Possession but the Truce still continuing the Arch-Duke had not only an Opportunity to assist the Emperor but to send Spinola with an Army to invade the Palatinate and the Emperor by an imperial Ban had proscribed the King's Son-in-law a Traitor and Rebel to the Empire and thereupon forfeited his Electoral Dignity and Estate which he gave to Maximilian Duke of Bavaria and committed the Execution of it to the Arch-Duke Albert the Elector of Saxony and Duke of Bavaria King James was startled at this Return to his Proposition at Vienna that his Son-in-law shall possess the Crown of Bohemia and now complains that his Childrens Patrimony would be lost and that he would not sit still and take no further Care in it and therefore sent another Ambassadour to the Arch-Duke at Brussels to expostulate the matter and this was the utmost he was able to do and was forced to strain his Credit for it but lest this should not do tho sore against his Will he resolved to call another Parliament and try their Good Will towards it But that we may take all things before us as they stood at the Meeting of this Parliament the King notwithstanding the Attempt of Sir Walter Raleigh upon the Spanish West-Indies had still by Sir John Digby continued the Treaty of Marriage between the Prince of Wales and the Infanta Maria of Spain with the same Confidence of Success as if the King of Spain had not been concerned in Sir Walter 's Expedition But the Court of Spain to check the King 's forward Desires demand high Privileges for the Romanists which amounted to little less than a Toleration and that the Pope must be satisfied in his Conscience before he could grant a Dispensation for the Infanta to marry with an Heretick Prince both which the King and Prince agreed to and were signed by them both though afterwards But however the Agreement between the Pope King and Prince was not much known the Liberty granted to the Roman Catholicks was generally taken notice of and beside the Generality of the Nation notwithstanding the Benefits received by the Spanish Trade still retained an Aversion to the Spaniards which made the Spanish Match hated and feared by them and how much more they hated and feared the Spaniards so much more zealous were they for the King's Assistance of his Son-in-law in his Title to the Kingdom of Bohemia as well as in the Preservation of the Palatinate now invaded by the Emperor and King of Spain Thus things stood when the King's Necessities forced him to the unwilling Resolution of calling another Parliament but they did not stay here for upon the 9th of November happened the fatal Battel at Prague fought by above 60000 Combatants wherein tho the Bohemians were superior in Number the Imperialists were in Discipline and Valour and tho the King was the principal Object of the War yet he thought not fit to engage in the Battel but stood at a distance out of Harm's way to observe the Event of it After two hours Fight the Bohemians were utterly overthrown and routed 6000 being killed and more taken Prisoners with all their Colours Baggage Guns and Ammunition and scarce 300 of the Imperialists killed the Prince of Anhalt was the first who gave the King notice of his Overthrow with Advice to provide for his Safety which the King thought to do by flying back into Prague but found no Safety there For the Duke of Bavaria General of the Imperialists followed him close and summons him to surrender the City and quit his Claim to the Kingdom The King demands 24 Hours respite to answer but Bavaria only grants him 8 to which without any Reply next Morning the King with the Queen big with Child and their Children fly out of Prague and by unfrequent Ways by almost a Miracle escape to Vratislavia leaving the Heads of his Party in Prague to be Victims after an horrible Sacrifice to their enraged and bloody Enemies and all that inestimable Wealth which he had got together and was so niggardly of to his Souldiers to be a Prey to his Enemies also In this disasterous State Frederick driven out of Bohemia the Palatinate invaded and overrun by Spinola and having lost all his Wealth as well as Kingdom and Country retires with his Wife and Children into Holland more supported by the Dutch Prince of Orange and some of the English Nobility and Arch-Bishop Abbot than by the King whose Bounty lay another way and since he could not obtain Aids from his Father-in-law for the Preservation of his Country yet he became a Suitor to the King to solicite the Imperial Court for the Conservation of the Palatinate which the King did but did him no good and further the King would not go but vainly promised to himself he could do it by the Marriage of his Son to the Infanta of Spain and get two Millions of Money for her Portion to boot Though the English Nobility patiently truckled under the Ambition and Covetousness of Buckingham yet the same Genius was not found in the French Princes of the Blood and Nobility under the prodigious Pride and exorbitant Promotions of Luynes to restrain them or it may be to force Luynes from the King's Favour the Queen-Mother made a League with the Count of Soissons a Prince of the Blood the Count Vendosm and Grand Prior of France both natural Sons of Henry the 4th of France against him and the Dukes of Longuevil Main and Espernoon joined with them so did those of the reformed Religion under the Duke of Rohan and his Brother Sobiez Princes of the Blood of the Line of Navarr But these Commotions being sudden and ungrounded were soon supprest and the King was reconciled to the Queen and Popish Nobility and the greatest Loss fell upon those of the Reformed Religion who lost St. John de
so in Extreams yet his Actions so diametrically opposite to his Profession Here you see a Jesuited Prince pleading for Liberty of Conscience to the breaking down the â—aws which before he had so often professed to maintain and for such a sort of Men whom but little before he had slaughter'd banished and imprisoned as if he had designed to extirpate the whole Race of them If to reconcile these to Truth or Reality be not as great a Miracle as is in any of the Popish Legends I 'll believe them all and be reconciled to the Roman Catholick Church how inconsistible soever the Terms be The generality of the Protestant Dissenters having for near seven years together been so severely treated by the Tories were as forward to congratulate the King for his Indulgence in manifold Addresses as the Tories were in King Charles his time in their Addresses of Abhorrence to petition the King to call a Parliament to settle the Grievances of the Nation However this Declaration was so drawn in the sight of every Bird that of my knowledg many of the sober thinking Men of the Dissenters did both dread and detest it That this Declaration might be more passable Popish Judges were made in Westminster-Hall and Popish Justices of the Peace and Deputy-Lieutenants all England over the Privy Council was replenished with Popish Privy Counsellors the Savoy was laid open to instruct Youth in the Romish Religion and Popish Principles and Schools for that purpose were encouraged in London and all other Places in England Four Foreign Popish Bishops as Vicars Apostolical were allowed in Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction all England and Wales over From instructing the St. Omers Boys how to behave themselves in their Evidence to prove Oates was at St. Omers all April and May in 1678 my Lord Castlemain is sent Ambassador to the Pope to render the King's Obedience to the Holy and Apostolical See with great hopes of extirpating the Northern pestilent Heresy In return whereof the Pope sent his Nuncio to give the King his Holy Benediction yet I do not find that he beforehand sent for Leave to enter the Kingdom as was observed by Queen Mary Henry VIII and before The Judges in their Circuits had their private Instructions to know how Men were affected with the King 's Dispensing Power and those who were disaffected to it were turned out from the Lieutenancy and Commission of the Peace Justice Judgment and Righteousness support the Thrones of Princes but these were Strangers to this King's ways other Means must be found out to support and carry them through a standing Army is judged the best Expedient and as the King told the Parliament at their second Meeting he had encreased his Army to double what it was before so he made his Word good that he would employ Men in it not qualified by the late Tests and to this end Tyrconnel having disbanded the English Army in Ireland qualified by the Tests sends over an Army of Irish not qualified by the Tests to encrease the Army in England This Army thus raised against Law committed all manner of lawless Insolences though the King by several Orders would have had their Quarters restrained to Victualling-Houses Houses of publick Entertainments and such as had Licences to sell Wine and other Liquors the Officers too when they pleased would be exempt from the Civil Power And though the King had no other Wars but against the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation yet he would have the Act of the 1 2 Edw. 6. 2. which makes it Felony without Benefit of the Clergy for any Souldier taking Pay in the King's Service in his Wars beyond Sea or upon Sea or in Scotland to desert from his Officer to extend to this Army thus raised by the King And because the Recorder of London Sir J. H. would not expound this Law to the King's Design he was put out of his Place and so was Sir Edward Herbert from being Chief Justice of the King's Bench to make room for Sir Robert Wright to hang a poor Souldier upon this Statute and afterward this Statute did the Work without any further dispute Thus this Prince did not only assume a Power to controul the Laws of the Nation at his pleasure in Civil Affairs but when he pleased made them bend to his Will to establish an illegal Army and countenance the Effusion of Christian Blood but you 'll soon see God will blast these ungodly Ways and that not the Arm of Flesh but Judgment Justice and Righteousness establish the Thrones of Princes Thus Affairs stood in England Scotland and Ireland in the year 1687. wherein I suppose no History mentions so great and violent Alterations in so little time as in this King's Reign all tending to introduce a Foreign Power and to enslave the Nation yet so patiently endured by it but the Dangers of these Designs were not circumscribed within the bounds of this Nation but extended into France where for above twenty years a Conspiracy was carried on for promoting these Designs thus far advanced so that the Year 1688 had a much more terrible Aspect upon England than the Year 1588 had when Philip the II. designed the Conquest of it for then the Nation was firm and intire for its own Interest whereas this Year it was not only torn in pieces by internal Discords but had an Army and Fleet designed to join with the French King in propagating his boundless Ambition not only upon England but upon the Empire of Germany Spain Holland the Duke of Savoy and other Princes of Italy About the beginning of the year 1688 a Gentleman of High Jesuited Principles told me The States of Holland were Rebels against the King of Spain and that I should soon see the King of France would call them to an Account for it and humble them and that the French King would assist our King with Men of War I took more heed to this because I knew that he was frequently visited by several Jesuits in whose Counsels I believe the French King's Designs this Year were locked up for my Lord of Sunderland in his Letter recited in the History of the Desertion fol. 32. protests he knew nothing of a League between the King yet you will see it come out another way But my Lord of Sunderland says that French Ships were offered to join with our Fleet which was refused however this shews there was a Design contriving by these Princes yet at present the Affairs of France seemed to look another way and a French Fleet and Souldiers in them are sent to Canada the Design and Success you will soon hear of The King having thus as he thought laid a Foundation tho it proved a very Sandy one of his Designs and to shew how Absolute he would be in them upon the 4th of May passed an Order in Council that his Declaration of Indulgence should be read in all Churches and Chappels in England and Wales in time of Divine
been bound Apprentices in them whilst these Free-men by the Prerogative of their Freedom impose what Rates they please upon the poor Artificers and set their own Prizes upon the Nobility Gentry and others who buy of them He that begins any Work labours under manifold more Difficulties and is more subject to Error than another who builds upon his Foundation This is my Case and therefore am more excusable for the Frailties and Errors I may have committed in this Design but upon the Discovery of any I promise to recant it I am sure my Intention is honest herein being for the Good of my Country and those Labours are best which are spent in the Benefit of it FINIS ERRATA PAge 20. line 16. r. as fierce P. 52. l. 16. del this l. 17. r. this House P. 57. l. 16. del the Parentheses P. 100. l. 5. del Comma after not P. 118. l. 28. after drawn add P. 119. l. 41. del the last that P. 132. l. 15. r. Spanish Secretary P. 135. l. 24. r. then went P. 167. l. 30. r. then P. 374. l. 15. del Comma after God P. 378. l. 10. and 379. l. 20. for former r. first P. 398. l. ult after confirmed put Comma P. 530. l. 10. r. they will P. 540. l. 37. r. 20 l. P. 646. l. 1. â— and not to do it and give An Alphabetical TABLE OF THE Principal Matters contain'd in this BOOK A. ABbot Arch-bishop zealous for the Elector Palatine 93. His plain Letter to the King 111 112. Refuses to license Sibthorp's Sermon 197. Is basely dealt with on that account ib. 268. His Character and Death 238. Abhorrers of Petitions for Parliament prosecuted by the Commons 555 556. Act of 35 Eliz. repeal'd by Parliament 557. but not by the King 559. Act of Vniformity 439. Adjutators in the Army 318. Albeville Marquess his Memorial at the Hague 649. Algerines at War with the English and Dutch 452. Alliance with Spain the Commons Votes concerning it 558. Amboyna the Dutch Cruelty there 121. Ancre a French-man his lamentable End 86. Ann K. James's Queen her Character 75. Is averse to Villiers and foretels what he would be ib. 76 124. Her Death 88. Apprentices 663 665 678. Arbitrary Notions see Cowel Archy K. James's Fool 112. Argyle Marquess executed 444. His Character and Story 568 569. Earl his Character c. 568 570 575 578. His Explanation of the Test for which he 's tried and condemned but escapes 578 586. Aristotle's Logick censur'd 22. Arlington Lord rudely treats the Prince of Orange but fails in his Design 508. Arminians severe against their Opponents 242. See Mountague c. Army declares for the King 319. yet draw up a Remonstrance against him march to London and exclude most of the Members 328. Articuli Cleri see Bancroft Ashley Cooper made Lord Chancellor 478. Joins with the Country Party and is turn'd out 492. His Life most unjustly aim'd at 596 598. Is clear'd by the Grand Jury 599. Remarks on his Case ib. Askew Sir George his Success at Sea 353 354. Avaux the French Ambassador discovers his Master's and K. James's Designs 649 650. Audley Palace what it cost 77. Author Story of his Father Brother and Himself in Cromwel's time 392 396. B. BAcon Sir Francis censur'd for Bribery 97. Bancroft ABp for Absolute Power in the King 57 59. Barebone's Parliament 373. Their Thoughts of the Dutch 374 375. Their Articles with them 376. Their Acts resign their Power to Cromwel 377. Barnvelt Head of a Dutch Faction 33 121. Takes Advantage of the ill Posture of K. James's Affairs 80. Loses his Head for opposing the Prince of Orange 121. Batton Sir William joins Prince Charles at Sea 326. Bedlow discovers Godfrey's Murder 534. Bill of Exclusion rejected by the Lords 557. Billeting of Souldiers voted a Grievance 207 217. Bishop of London his Motion to debate the King's Speech 629. Is suspended by the High Commission 639. Bishops in Scotland re-ordained 122 262. In England voted out of Parliament 276. Oppose several good Bills 490 629. Several of 'em both in England and Scotland most profligate Persons 639 640. Seven refuse to read K. James's Declaration are tried and clear'd 644 645. Remarks thereon and on their Prayers for the King 645 647 650. Blake Governour of Taunton 312. Commands at Sea 327 351 353 355. Bohemia History of that Kingdom 89 93 101 102. Chuse Frederick Count Palatine their King 93. Booth Sir George overthrown by Lambert 409. Bridgman Lord Keeper his Speech on K. Charles's Treaties 475. Is turn'd out 478. Bristol see Digby Britain its Situation Bounds c. 12. Justly claims the Soveraignty of the Seas 659 660. See Grotius Buckingham see Villiers C. CAbal in 1671. who they were 478. Their pretended Causes of the Dutch War 479. Another in 1673. 495. Care Henry sentenc'd for writing his Weekly Packet 546. Carr Sir Rob. has an extravagant Boon order'd by K. James 61. Made Viscount Rochester and courted by the Countess of Essex 63. Procures the Ruin of Overbury 64 68 70. Created Earl of Somerset and married in extravagant Splendor 70 71. His Fall 74. His Pardon refus'd to be sign'd 76. His vast Estate 77. which is seiz'd by the King 79. Tried for Overbury's Murder ib. Castlemain sent Ambassador to the Pope 642. Cavaliers slighted by Charles II. 424 426. Cecil Lord Treasurer saves K. James 15000 l. and how 61. Charles I. while Prince his breach of Faith in Spain breaks off his Match 116 117 128. Is proposed to the French King's Daughter 119 125 140. yet her Portion not a tenth of the Infanta's 142. The extravagant Articles of her Marriage 142 143. Berule's Deputation for a Dispensation for it 143 145. First 15 Years of his Reign perfectly French 153. His great Wilfulness and Levity 156 187. Makes War on Spain at Buckingham's Instigation 157. Commands Pennington to deliver up his Ships to the French 162. His Warrant in favour of Papists dispenses with the Laws 165 168. His first Breach with his Parliament 166. His many Mistakes the first five Months 171 172. His ill Success in the War with Spain 172 173. Breaks his Word with the Keeper 179. His peremptory Message to the Commons with their Answer and his threatning Reply 183 184. Reproves his Parliament 184 185. His Reasons for blasting Bristol's Articles against Buckingham 187. The Lords Reasons against his 188 189. His Arbitrary Declarations after dissolving the Parliament in favour of Buckingham descanted on 190 192. Is accountable only to God 190 210 219 236 268. Demands Money of his People out of Parliament 196 228 252. Imprisons the Gentry for refusing to pay and keeps up a Standing Army on free Quarter 199 228 236. His dissembling and threatning Speech at the opening of Parliament with large Remarks upon it 202 206. His Message to the Commons to hasten Supplies 210 211. His Answer to the Petition of Right 213. which he resolves to abide by 214. Passes the Petition 216. His unaccountable
the Crown her Father Brother and Sister in debt and the Navy Royal neglected and out of Repair yet the Revenues of the Crown besides the Court of Wards and the Dutchy of Lancaster I say the Profits of the Kingdom were but 188179 l. 4 s. See Sir Robert Cotton ' s Means of the Kings of England p. 3. the Kingdom imbroiled in intestine Heats in Religion and Philip the second of Spain aspiring to an unlimited Dominion in and out of Europe Calais notwithstanding the united Interest of England with Spain but some Months before lost to the French and Francis the Dauphin of France in right of his Wife Mary Queen of Scotland laying claim to the Crown of England Whereas when King James came to be King of England the Kingdom was in intire Peace within and in a Martial State and full of Honour and Reputation abroad the Royal Navy not only Superior to any other in the World in Strength but in good Repair few Debts left charged upon the Crown yet if the Exchequer were not replenished with Money the King received Three entire Subsidies and six fifteens of the 4 Subsidies and eight Fifteens granted to the Queen for suppressing the Irish Rebellion and carrying on the War against Spain some Months before though both the Rebellion and War with Spain ceased that Year he became King the Customs for supporting the Navy more than fivefold they were in the Beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth and above two Millions and four hundred Thousand Pounds due from the States of Holland or the Vnited Netherlands but how the States became discharged of it it 's fit to premise it there and how it became due to Queen Elizabeth and so to the Crown of England Queen Elizabeth though she refused to accept of the Sovereignty of the Vnited Provinces when she took them into Protection after the Expulsion of the Duke of Anjou and the Death of the Prince of Orange yet she entred into a Treaty with the States Anno 1585. wherein it was agreed That the Dutch should repay her all the Monies which she should expend for their Preservation with Interest at 10 per Cent. when the War was ended with Spain and that two English whom the Queen should name should be admitted into their Council of State and for Security whereof the Dutch should deliver up to her Flushing Rammekins and the Brill which were the Keys of their Country Upon this Agreement the Queen for the Dutch's further Encouragement gave them Licence to fish upon the Coast of England which she denied them when they continued in their subjection to King Philip and removed the Staple of the English Woollen Manufactures from Antwerp in the Power of the King of Spain to Delf in the Dutch Power and it is scarce credible how in so short a time after viz. scarce thirteen Years the Dutch entertaining all sorts of People who were persecuted upon the Account of not submitting to the Papal Usurpations called Religion swelled their Trade and Navigation not only in Europe but in the East and West-Indies The Queen considering this Encrease of the Dutch Trade and Navigation was as much to the lessening of the English and being provoked by the Ingratitude of the Lovestein Faction whereof one Olden Barnevelt was the Head a Fellow as factious and turbulent as ungrateful by whose Counsel another Assembly was erected at Amsterdam called The Convention of the States General wherein they managed all the secret and important Affairs of their State and out of which they excluded the English The Queen I say highly incensed at the Ingratitude of this Faction which now governed all in Holland and yet continuing to support them at the Charge of 120000 l. per Ann. as Camden observes in his Eliz. Reg. Ann. 1598 signified to the States her Intention of making Peace with the King of Spain which if she did it would be impossible for them to continue their War with Spain and recover their Cautionary-Towns from the Queen Hereupon the States sent my Lord Warmond as they called him as their humble Supplicant to the Queen and in the lowest Posture of Humility acknowledged themselves obliged to her for infinite Benefits and that as her Majesty excelled the Glory of her Ancestors in Power so she excelled them in Acts of Piety and Mercy but pleaded Poverty for not repayment of the Money the Queen had expended for their Preservation they might have said their Exaltation The Queen in Answer to them said she had been often deceived by their deceitful Supplications and ungrateful Actions and Pretence of Poverty when their Power and Riches confuted them and that she hoped God would not suffer her to be a Pattern to other Princes to help such a People who bear no Reverence to Superiors nor take care for the Advantage Reputation or Safety of any but themselves The Dutch were confounded at the Queen's Answer submitted themselves to such Terms as the Queen should lay upon them and the Queen wisely considering if she should cast them off Henry the 4th of France who the last Year viz. 1597 had concluded a Peace with Spain at Vervins by the Interposition of the Pope's Nuncio and sought to be Protector of the States whereby the Queen would not only be in danger to lose their Dependance but the Monies she had expended in their Support they the Queen and States came to this Agreeement 1. That upon an Account stated there was eight Millions of Crowns or two Millions Sterling due to the Queen for which they were to pay Ten per Cent. so long as the War lasted 2. That during the War they should pay the Queen one hundred thousand Pounds yearly and the Remainder when Peace with Spain was concluded and then to have their Cautionary Towns surrendred back to them 3. That till this Agreement was performed the States were to pay Fifteen hundred English in Garison in them We leave this Agreement here till we hear more of it hereafter There were but thirteen Months between this King's Birth and Reign his Mother being deposed to make Room for his coming to be King and by this Title he reigned twenty Years in his Mother's Life and during that time he never made use of her Name in the Coin of Scotland nor in any Proclamation or Law and after her Death continued his Reign by this Title to his dying Day which was inconsistent with the Flatteries which his Favourites buz'd continually in his Ears That he was King by inherent Birth-right and that he held his Crown from God alone and so pleasing was this Doctrine to him that above all other things he set himself upon it not only in magnifying himself herein in his Speeches in Parliament but in his Writings against Bellarmine and Peron against the Pope's deposing Kings In his Infancy and Minority the Regents and Nobility made Havock of the Crown and Church Revenues so as when he came to Age he had but little left
unanswerable Reasons of a National Interest and the manifold Inconveniences the incorporating those Trades in a Company brought to the Navigation of the Nation both in the Foreign Vent of our Manufactures and in their Returns to the Ruin of infinite Artificers Sea-men and Shipwrights and to the Diminution of the King's Revenue Whereupon these Trades were declared free and have ever since continued so to the inestimable Benefit of this Nation But tho the Reasons in this Act extend to all other Beneficial Trades as to Turkey the East-Country and Hamburgh Trades and to Africa and the East-Indies yet all these Trades are monopolized into Companies exclusive to other Men as much to the Prejudice of the Nation as the making the Spanish Trade free was beneficial to it About this time the Clergy at least a Faction which stiled themselves the Clergy made an Attempt to try how far their Doctrine of Absolute Power in the King had taken root in him they had gained their Point so far as the King had declared his Command to the Commons as Absolute King and now they 'll see whether the King would assert it and the Case was this Arch-bishop Whitgift a Prelate of singular Piety and Humility died the last day of February in the first Year of the King and Doctor Richard Bancroft a Man of a rough Temper a stout Foot-ball-player as zealous an Assertor of the Rights of the Church of England or rather a Faction of Church-men who arrogated to themselves the Title as Julius the 2d was of the Papacy exhibited to the King and Council 25 Articles in the Name of all the Clergy of England called Articuli Cleri which were desired to be reformed in granting Prohibitions tho there were a Parliament and Convocation then sitting which I do not find had any hand in it This Exhibition as it ascribed an Absolute Power to the King so it struck directly at the Constitution of Parliaments the principal End of which is to redress Grievances and Abuses in the Nation and if the King's Council during the sitting of a Parliament shall ascribe to themselves this Power then the great End of Parliaments redressing Grievances and Abuses is in vain However Bancroft herein not only makes the King's Council to have a concurring Power with the Parliament but paramount to it by exhibiting these Articles in the sitting of a Parliament and Convocation but the Judges gave so clear and distinct an Answer to them all that the King did not think fit to meddle in them yet did not Bancroft rest here as you will hear hereafter The Articles and the Judges Answer to them you may read at large in Sir Coke's second Institute tit Articuli Cleri Whilst Bancroft was thus ascribing to the King this Absolute Power and exalting a Faction of Church-men above the true State of the Clergy which is one of the three States of the Nation and above the Nobility and Commonalty which are the other two The Popish Faction were plotting a Design not only to destroy the Church of England but the very Person of the King with the Nobility and Commons convened in Parliament which was to have been executed upon the fifth of November following the day on which the Parliament were to meet The Popish Party hoped and it may be not unreasonably that the King in regard of his Mother's Religion was not averse to theirs so that if he became not of their Church which in his Speech at the opening the Parliament he owns our Mother-Church at least hoped to have their Religion tolerated whereas finding the King in his Speech after he had declaimed against the Heresies and Abuses crept into their Church and the Pope's having arrogated an Imperial Civil Power over Kings and Emperors by dethroning and decrowning them with his Foot and disposing of their Kingdoms and the Jesuits Practice of assassinating and murdering Kings if they be cursed by the Pope That so long as they maintained these they were not sufferable in the Kingdom From this time forward and it may be before a Popish Crew contrived how to bring in their Catholick Religion they cared not which way so it might be done At last it was agreed upon the opening of the Session of Parliament upon the 5th of November one part of the Conspirators should blow up the Lords House while the King Prince with the Nobility and Commons were in it having prepared all things in a readiness whilst another part should seize upon the Lady Elizabeth after Queen of Bohemia and proclaim her Queen But the Plot being discovered the Conspirators were defeated of both their Designs The Horror and Terror of this Conspiracy the Discovery whereof was industriously divulged and believed to be by the King 's great Wisdom and Care reconciled for a time all Differences between him and his Parliament and the Parliament to gratify the King the Clergy gave him four Subsidies at four Shillings in the Pound and the Temporality three Subsidies and â—ix Fifteenths which was threefold more than any Parliament in one Session gave Queen Elizabeth before that of the 35 Eliz. notwithstanding the Payment of her Father's Brother's and Sister's Debts her expelling the French out of Scotland the building and repairing the Navy Royal the Support of the Reformed in France the subduing the Rebellion in the North the Support of the Dutch in the Netherlands the Irish War and the Overthrow of the Spanish Armada in 88. The Parliament enacted the Oath of Allegiance which Bellarmine under the Name of Tortus wrote against and Andrews Bishop of Winton under the Name of Tortura Torti defended it The Parliament too ordained the Anniversary of the Fifth of November to be celebrated for a perpetual Thanksgiving-Day for the King and Kingdom 's Delivery from this Conspiracy All Heats about Prerogative and Privilege were now laid aside the Pulpits and our Universities rang with Declamations against the Heresies and Usurpations of the Church of Rome and now the King gave himself wholly to Hunting Plays Masques Balls and writing against Bellarmine and the Pope's Supremacy in arrogating a Power over Kings and disposing of their Kingdoms and thus the Case stood for four Years after wherein I scarce find any thing worth mentioning This and the next Year was almost wholly spent in Debates concerning the Uniting of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland which the King eanestly solicited and which ended only in Contests and Arguments for the House of Parliament refused to join with the King in it however the King obtained a Judgment in Westminster-Hall in a Case called Calvin's Case that the Post Nati in Scotland after the King's Assumption to the Crown of England were free to purchase and inherit in England But whilst the King was thus wallowing in Pleasure he wholly gave himself up to be governed by Favourites to whom he was above any other King of England except Henry the 8th excessively prodigal not only in Honours and Offices but of
heard any thing without the prelude of Sacred Peaceful Wise Most Learned c. These made him careless both of his Domestick and Foreign Affairs the Thoughts of which disturbed his Pleasures and if at any time he was thoughtful or pensive his Favourites made it their Business to mimick or ridicule those things especially the Puritans whâ—m the King hated These Courses and the King's Favourites perpetually sucking his Treasures brought the King to great Necessities yet he had not Courage enough to demand the Debt due to him from the States of Holland neither Principal nor Interest so that after five Years interval a Parliament is agreed to be called to supply the King's Occasions and the principal Cause to excite the Parliament to give Money was for the Portion the King had paid for marrying the Princess Elizabeth to the Palsgrave and for his Entertainment whilst he was in England tho the King had collected Aid-Money all over England before But it rarely happens when Grievances be multiplied and the Kings become necessitous that then the King and Parliament attain their Ends the Ends being so different the Parliaments being to redress Grievances and the Kings to get Money and so it fell out in this Parliament for entring upon Grievances and remonstrating them to the King which was Language he was not acquainted with he in great Passion dissolves the Parliament and commits many of the principal Members of the Commons close Prisoners without Bail or Man-prize and though no Law was passed this Parliament nor any Notice had of it in the Statutes printed at large yet this Benefit came of it That the Commons voting Cockaine's Patent for Dressing and Dying English Cloths to be a Monopoly and a Grievance it was recalled and cancelled and the vent of White Cloths left free This was the greatest Violation and Invasion of the Privilege of Parliament that ever was done by any King of England before but though it began it did not end here neither in this King's Reign nor his Son 's after him For after the Dissolution of the Parliament the King extorted a Benevolence from the Subject and those who would not contribute were to have their Names returned to the Council CHAP. III. A further Account of this Reign to the End of the third Parliament in 1620. IF from the Parliament we look into the Court we shall see the King's Affections begin to alter towards his Favourites which began upon this Occasion My Lord of Northampton was Lord Warden of the Cinque-Ports and by his Permission Romish Priests in great Numbers swarmed into England this was observed and great Clamours were made upon it which came to the Earl's Ears hereupon the Earl exhibits an Information against some of them these justify the Truth of what they were accused of the Arch-Bishop Abbot at the same time produces a Letter from the Earl to Cardinal Bellarmine wherein he says That however the Condition of the Times compelled him and the King urged him to turn Protestant yet nevertheless his Heart stood for the Catholicks and that he would be ready to further them in any Attempt This procured the King's Frowns and the Prisoners Discharge whereupon 't was said Northampton took such Grief that he made his Will wherein he declared He died in the same Faith wherein he was baptized viz. the Popish and died the 15th of June Now was Somerset left without his chiefest Support and soon after another shall rise up which shall turn him quite out of the King's Favour About this time one Mr. George Villiers appeared in Court the youngest Son of Sir George Villiers of Leicestershire by a second Venter whose Name was Mary Beaumont the Heraulds will tell you she was of the honourable Family of the Beaumonts and I will tell you what a Lady of Quality told me and one who might well know the Truth of what she said her youngest Sister by a second Venter being married to the Eldest Son of Sir George Villiers by Beaumont Mary Beaumont was entertained in Sir George Villiers his Family in a mean Office of the Kitchin but her ragged Habit could not shade the beautiful and excellent Frame of her Person which Sir George taking notice of prevailed with his Lady to remove Mary out of the Kitchin into an Office in her Chamber which with some Importunity on Sir George's part and unwillingness of my Lady at last was done Soon after my Lady died and Sir George became very sweet upon his Lady's Woman which would not admit any Relief without Enjoyment and the more to win Mary to it gave her 20 l. to put her self into so good a Dress as this would procure which she did and then Sir George's Affections became so fired that to allay them he married her In this Coverture Sir George had three Sons John after Viscount Purbeck Christopher after Earl of Anglesey and George and one Daughter after married to the Earl of Denbigh When Sir George died George was very young and Sir George having setled his Estate upon the Children born of his former Lady could leave the Issue by his Widow but very little and her but a Joynture of about 200 l. per Annum which dying with her nothing could come to these Children nor was it possible for her out of so contracted a Joynture to maintain her self and them so as to make scarce any Provision for them after her Death and the Issue of Sir George by his former Lady both envied and hated her so as little could be expected from them To supply these Defects she married one Thomas Compton a rich Country Gentleman whereby she became able to maintain and breed up her Children in a better than ordinary Education and George being of an extraordinary and exact Composition of Person was sent abroad and in France acquired those outward Advantages which more adorned the natural Parts which Nature had given him The King this Year about the Beginning of March 16 14 15 according to his usual Methods went to take his Hunting Pleasures at New-market and the Scholars as they called them of Cambridg who new the King's Humour invited him to a Play called Ignoramus to ridicule at least the Practice of the Common Law Never did any thing so hit the King's Humour as this Play did so that he would have it acted and acted again which was increased with several Additions which yet more pleased the King At this Play it was so contrived that George Villiers should appear with all the Advantages his Mother could set him forth and the King so soon as he had seen him fell into Admiration of him so as he became confounded between his Admiration of Villiers and the Pleasure of the Play which the King did not conceal but gave both Vent upon several Occasions This set the Heads of the Courtiers at work how to get Somerset out of Favour and to bring Villiers in but here it 's fit to look a little back and see
the Occasion Somerset gave of Villiers's Rise and of his own Fall Somerset was of mean and scarce known Parents and as he was endued with no natural Parts so neither had he acquired any being brought up and bred a Page at Court hereby he became as little capable of demeaning himself in Prosperity as Adversity After Sir Overbury's Confinement he gave himself up wholly to be govern'd by Northampton and soon after his Marriage he fell into an universal Solitariness and Sadness so that it was much taken notice of which Northampton observing and judging not unlikely that the Cares of Somerset did arise from his Fears of the Discovery of Overbury's Death wherein they were both deeply ingaged which if it should come to pass they had no other means to secure themselves but by making themselves so great as to oppose all who should charge them with it or else by being Catholicks they might draw all that Party to assist them and in these they both agreed and to make Matters more perplext Northampton by one Hamon did encourage the Irish to continue firm in their Religion assuring them that God would one way or other protect his Church and that now the greatest Favourite in England would stand firm to them and also give Incouragement to the Papists in the North to meet openly at Mass and foment the Feuds between the English and Scots the English murmuring at the King's Favours more to the Scots than them If I have erred herein the Writer of the historical Narration of the first fourteen Years of King James's Reign cap. 30. led me into it This sullen Humour of Somerset's little suted with the King 's liking being before better pleased with Somerset's Gaiety in humouring him in all his Pleasures After Northampton's Death he was left alone to himself and all Northampton's Designs died with him and then Somerset having forsaken all Men and being forsaken by them appeared in his own Nature without any Disguise wretchedly penurious and intolerably covetous There was no coming at the King's Ear but by him nor any coming at him but by excessive Bribes and as the King began to loath him so all Men detested and hated him So it was every Bodies business to out Somerset and bring young Villiers into the King's Favour All the Court took notice of the King's Affection to young Villiers and the Queen observed it and Villiers not to be wanting to himself daily appeared at Court There was but one Obstacle to be removed and the Way was plain and easy for Villiers to be the King's Favourite the King would receive none into Favour but who was first recommended to him by the Queen and the Queen had observed something in young Villiers which she utterly disliked and how to get the Queen to recommend young Villiers to the King was the only business to be done The Queen a Princess of rare Piety Prudence Temperance and Chastity had a great Veneration for the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury Abbot and the Arch-Bishop as much an Aversion to Somerset not only for his Marriage with the Countess of Essex but for his other detestable Qualities so that the Arch-Bishop was the only Instrument which was judged could move the Queen to recommend young Villiers to the King It was no great difficulty to persuade the Arch-Bishop to undertake this Business being of himself disposed to it but when he propounded it to the Queen she was utterly averse from it having before been stung with Favourites but by her Observation of Villiers she told the Arch-Bishop she saw that in that young Villiers that if he became a Favourite he would become more intolerable than any that were before him Hereupon the Arch-Bishop declined the Business but Somerset declining daily from bad to worse the Arch-Bishop was again prevailed upon to move the Queen to recommend young Villiers to the King which he did with more Importunity than before urging Somerset's intolerable Pride and Covetousness and that he observed a good Nature and gentle Disposition in Villiers so that some Good might be hoped from him which could never be expected from the other at last the Queen assented to it but withal told the Arch-Bishop he among the rest would live to repent it After Villiers was recommended by the Queen it became out of her Power and the Power of the Kingdom to get him out of the King's Favour or his Son 's after him and the Arch-Bishop himself shall find the Queen to have been a true Prophetess however at first Villiers acknowledg'd his Favour with the King to have its Original from the Arch-Bishop called him Father and protested to be governed by him before all other Men and the Arch-Bishop gave him some Lessons to observe towards the King and Queen which Villiers repeated to him and promised to observe which you may read at large in the first part of Mr. Rushworth's Collections in the second Year of King Charles the First written by the Arch-Bishop In the beginning of Mr. Villiers's coming into Favour he was affable and courteous and seemed to court all Men as they courted him he promoted Mens Suits to the King gratis which Somerset would not do but for great Sums of Money and hereby Villiers stole all the Hearts of the Courtiers and Petitioners to the King from Somerset who was now wholly forsaken by God and all Men. Somerset thus forsaken of all Men and stung in Conscience for the Death of Overbury and finding a Rival in the King's Favour seeks by that small Portion which he had left to procure a general Pardon from the King to secure him in his Life and Estate which was far the greatest of any Subject in the King's Dominions and to that purpose applies himself to Sir Robert Cotton to draw one as large and general as could be which Sir Robert did wherein the King should declare That of his own Motion and special Favour he did pardon all and all manner of Treasons Misprisions of Treasons Murders Felonies and Outrages whatsoever by the Earl of Somerset had been committed or hereafter should be committed and this Pardon the King signed But Somerset grasping at too much lost all for my Lord Chancellor Egerton refused to seal the Pardon Somerset asked him the Reason which the Chancellor told him was because if he did it he should incur a Praemunire and this the Chancellor told the King who was not displeased with it So that now all Hopes of Pardon for Sir Overbury's Murder failing he had recourse to other Artifices of suppressing all Letters which passed between him the Countess and Northampton either to Sir Thomas the Lieutenant or any of the Prisoners and to make away Franklin the Apothecary who was fled into France and had given Sir Thomas the Glister which dispatcht him but that which Somerset design'd for his preservation 't was thought proved his Overthrow but this was the Product of next Year 1615 being the 13th of the King Tho Villiers
Destruction upon himself having first seen his Son Walter slain in the Design he intended to raise his Fortunes by Tho the King was never poorer than at this time yet the Nation was far richer than in all the long Reign of Queen Elizabeth by reason of the English Trade with Spain made free by that celebrated Law of the 3d of the King cap. 6. and at this time and many Years before the King of Spain made Count Gundamor his Legier Ambassador in England the Count would ape the King iâ— all his Humours but his Cups and hereby became so intimate with the King that he discover'd all his Designs and the Secretâ— if ther were any of the Court In this Posture of Affairs Sir Walter informs the King that 〈◊〉 he would grant him a Commission he would bring Mountains of Gold into the King's Exchequer from Guiana the King who had stopt his Ears to Sir Walter 's Advice concerning the Dutch Fisheâ— upon the Coasts of England and Scotland opens them both to Sir Walter 's Project and grants him a Commission directed Dilecto fideli meo Waltero Raleigh Militi But this Commission ill agreed with the Treaty made between the King and the most renowned King of Spain his dear and loving Brother in the second Year of his Reign wherein in the first Article it was agreed That they should use one another with all kind and friendly Offices and by this Treaty the English were restrain'd to their Trades in Europe For the King of Spain was as jealous of his West-Indies as the Apple of his Eye or the Pope 〈◊〉 of his Triple-Crown or the King of his Prerogative The Fame of Sir Walter and the Expectation of the Mountaiâ—â— of Gold to be poured into the Exchequer by this Expedition bâ—â—zed it all abroad so as Gundamor gave the King of Spain aâ— account of it and this became so much the more publick by how much the King could not contribute any thing but his Commission towards it and tho Sir Walter 's Fame induced many Nobles and Gentlemen to join with him in it yet this being distracted and divided into so many Interests it went on more heavily and became every day more known so that tho Sir Walter intended to have proceeded on his Voyage this Year in the beginning of April it was upward in August before he set out In his Passage a terrible Fever overtook Sir Walter now in the 76th Year of his Age which yet the Strength of his Constitution overcame to bring him to his End by a worse Fate When he arrived at Guiana he found all the Marks which he and Sir Nicholas Kemish had made either worn out by Time being twenty Years before or alter'd by the Spaniards who had so long before had notice of his Design so that Kemish and Sir Walter fell at such odds about it that Kemish killed himself besides the Spaniards to prevent Raleigh's Design had built many new Fortifications unknown to Raleigh or Kemish Hereupon Sir Walter stormed the Town of St. Thomas wherein he lost his Son Walter but took the Town and sack'd it and here the Souldiers took great Spoil but with little Profit to Sir Walter or any of the Adventurers with him For the Souldiers and Sea-men being Reformades and being under no severe Discipline kept what they had got Now was Sir Walter in a most desperate State he had no Friends at Court and which made the matter worse he had disgusted all the Nobles and Gentlemen who had engag'd with him in this Expedition he need not consult the Augurs what should be his Fate upon his Return to prevent which he endeavoured to have got into France and carry his Ship with him but the Sea-men who now had his Fortune in Contempt would not forsake their Wives and Children to partake with him in his Misfortunes and so brought him back again into England It was resolved that Sir Walter 's Misfortunes should lose him his Head but how to do it with a face of Justice was the Question for his Commission protected him from any Prosecution for the sacking of St. Thomas and it would seem strange to execute him upon the Conviction in Cobham's Conspiracy sixteen Years before especially since the King had discharged his Imprisoment upon it and had granted him a Commission wherein he called Sir Walter his beloved and faithful Sir Walter However this was the best Face could be put upon it and upon the 28th of October next Year 1618 Sir Walter was brought from the Tower to the King's-Bench to shew Cause why Sentence of Death should not pass upon him Mountague being Chief Justice upon his former Conviction to which Sir Walter pleaded his Commission which pardoned his Crime For he could not be a Traitor and the King 's beloved and faithful Servant at one and the same time but this was over-ruled by the Court which answered That Treason could not be pardoned by Implication but by express words And next day he had his Head cut off in the Palace-Yard at Westminster In granting Sir Walter Raleigh this Commission you may see by what an undistinguished Power Covetousness governs the Actions of Princes as well as meaner Men against their Honour and Interest for at the same time when the King granted this Commission he was by Sir John Digby after Earl of Bristol treating a Marriage between Prince Charles and the Infanta of Spain upon the Terms of a Portion of two Millions of Money with her but if this Act of Raleigh's and the difficulty of raising such a Portion put no stop to the Progress of it you 'll soon see an Accident which shall make it utterly impracticable with the Maxims and Policy of Spain yet so far was the King blinded with the Covetousness of getting the Portion that he shall put his only Son into the Power of the Spaniards to obtain it Tho young Villiers and the King's Favourites governed the King without any Controul by the English Conchino Conchini an Italian Marquess d' Ancre and Marshal of France and his Wife succeeded not so well in France for after the Death of Henry the Fourth of France these two governed Henry's Relict and Regent as absolutely as our young Favourite did the King which put the Princes of the Blood and Nobility into such a Ferment that they several times rose in Tumults and Arms against them Yet such was their Power with the Queen that they continued as insolent after the King was declared of Majority as before whereupon the Feuds of the Princes of the Blood and Nobility grew higher hereupon Luynes the King's Favourite prompted the King to take off Ancre any way which was so ordered that Ancre coming into the Louvre and reading a Letter Vitry Captain of the King's Guard arrested him Me said Ancre Yes you by the Death of God answered Vitry who cried out Kill him whereupon he was killed by three Pistol Shots the King owning the Fact But
Angely Gergeau Sancerre and Saumur which were all the Cautionary Places which the Reformed had upon the Loire and also Suilly Merac and Caumont King James that he might as much appear for the Reformed as he had done for his Son-in-law sent Sir Edward Herbert after Baron Herbert of Cherberry his Ambassadour into France to mediate a Peace between the King and the Reformed and in Case of Refusal to use Menaces which Sir Edward bravely performed to Luynes and after to the French King himself which being misrepresented to King James Sir Edward was recalled and the Earl of Carlisle was sent Ambassadour into France in his room and the Earl finding the Truth to be otherwise than was represented by Luynes acquainted the King with it Hereupon Sir Edward kneeled to the King and humbly besought him that since the Business between Luynes and him was become publick that a Trumpeter if not an Herald on Sir Edward's Part might be sent to Luynes to tell him That he had made a false Relation to the King of the Passages between them and that Sir Edward would demand Reasons of him with Sword in Hand on that Point but the King was not pleased to grant it and here began the Downfal of the Power of the Reformed in France and the Rise of the French Grandeur by Land In this rotten and teachy State of Affairs before the Meeting of the Parliament the King issued out a Proclamation of which he was as prodigal as bountiful to his Favourites forbidding Men to talk of State-Affairs as if his Favourite Buckingham who governed all was so mindful of them nor was the King less jealous of the Parliament's meddling with State-Affairs than of the Peoples talking of them out of Parliament so that the King upon the opening of the Parliament the 30th of January told them of the Constituting Parts of a Parliament and how it was twelve Years since he had received any Aids from Parliaments and how that though he had prosecuted a Treaty of Marriage between the Prince and Infanta of Spain which if it were not for the Benefit of the Established Religion in England and of the Reformed abroad he was not worthy to be their King and though he had refused to assist his Son-in-law in his Election to the Kingdom of Bohemia being a matter of Religion contrary to what he had wrote against the Jesuits yet that he could not sit still and see the Patrimony of his Children torn from them by the Emperor and therefore was resolved to raise an Army next Summer and that he would engage his Crown his Blood and Soul for the Recovery of the Palatinate And having before told the Commons of their Duty to petition the King and acquaint him with their Grievances but not to meddle with his Prerogative he after tells them that who shall hasten after Grievances and desire to make himself popular has the Spirit of Satan The Parliament notwithstanding the violation of their Privileges the last Parliament by the King 's imprisoning their Members yet being zealous to assist the King against the Emperor and King of Spain in favour of the Palsgrave and though the Nation at no time before so much abounded in Corruption and Grievances yet to humour the King inverted the Methods of Proceedings in Parliament and the Commons granted the King two entire Subsidies and the Clergy three before they entred upon Grievances which so pleased the King that in a Speech in the House of Lords he declared it was more acceptable to him than Millions it shewing he reigned in the Love and Affections of his Subjects but he did not long hold in this Mind At this Sessions of Parliament if it may be called so no Act but that of the Subsidies passing Sir Giles Mompesson and Sir Francis Michel were sentenced and degraded for erecting new Inns and Ale-houses and exacting great Sums of Money by pretence of Letters Patents granted for that purpose Sir Giles fled and so escaped a farther Punishment but Sir Francis was condemned to perpetual Imprisonment in Finsbury Goal Sir Francis Bacon Viscount Verulam and Lord Chancellor was likewise censured deposed fined and committed Prisoner to the Tower for Bribery and Bacon's Fall was Doctor Williams's Rise Dean of Westminster to be Lord Keeper of the Great Seal But the Commons debating the Growth of Popery and the dangerous Consequences of the Spanish Match contrary to the King's Speech and Inclinations he upon the Fourth of June which the Commons took to be an Invasion upon their Privileges by Commission adjourned them to the 14th of November and by a Proclamation forbid the talking of State-Affairs In this recess the Spaniards took Stein in the lower Palatinate and the Duke of Bavaria all the Upper Palatinate and the Arms of Lewis prevailed more upon the Reformed in France yet none of these prevailed upon the King further than to mediate a Suspension of Arms in order to treat an Accommodation between the Emperor and his Son-in-law and the French King and the Reformed which had no other Effect but to make the King contemptible in Germany as well as France his Power and Authority being bounded up only in Words and Messages which the King's ill-Willers blazing abroad cost the King more than would have recovered the Palatinate However the King abated nothing of his Pleasure and dissolute Life but according to the usual Methods of his Life in the Autumn went to New-Market to divert himself with Hunting from the trouble of Affairs either foreign or domestick leaving his Favourite Buckingham Dictator of all his Affairs when the Parliament met again But how remiss soever the King was of his Affairs the Commons were not perhaps heated by their Adjournment and alarmed at the Progress of Lewis against the Reformed in France and of the Emperor and King of Spain not only in the Palatinate but all over the Empire against the Protestants and also with the Liberty which the Popish Party took upon the hopes they conceived would accrue to them by the Spanish Match still as fervently pursued by the King and Prince as ever the King being encouraged hereto by the Earl of Bristol the King's Ambassador in Spain but more by the Spanish Ambassador Gundamor here A Person as Nâ—ni observes who with a stupendous Acuteness of Wit so confounded pleasant things with serious that it was not easy to be discerned when he spoke of Business and when he rallied he had so insinuated himself into the Mind of the King that he need not take any further care of restoring his Son-in-law to the Palatinate but by Prince Charles his marrying with the Infanta the Treaty whereof now is 8 Years old being brought to Maturity and Perfection so soon as the Pope should grant a Dispensation The House of Commons hereupon being ill satisfied with the Distribution of the Subsidies before granted to the King resolve to proceed upon Grievance before they granted more Supplies and to that end drew up
Peace in all his Dominions when all our Neighbours about are in a miserable Combustion of War but Dulce Bellum inexpertis 5. That he had ever professed to restore his Children to their Patrimony by War or Peace and that by his Credit and Intervention with the King of Spain and Arch-Dukes he had preserved the lower Palatinate from the farther conquering for one whole Year and that his Lord Ambassador Digby had extraordinarily secured Heidelburg 6. That he could not couple the War of the Palatinate with the Cause of Religion and that the War was not begun for Religion but only by his Son-in-law's hasty and rash Resolution to take to himself the Crown of Bohemia and that this Usurpation of it from the Emperor had given the Pope and that Party an Occasion to oppress and curb many thousands of our Religion in divers parts of Christendom Here I desire that the Reader take notice of the Case of the Bohemians as it is set forth by Baptista Nani fol. 126. Anno 1618 after they had Liberty of Conscience granted them by Rodolph the Emperor and that Ferdinand had no colour of Title to the Kingdom of Bohemia but as he forced the Emperor Matthias to surrender it to him Ferdinand says he bred up in the Catholick Faith detested all sorts of Errour and therefore by how much not succeeding to the Father he found the Patrimonial Countries incumbred with false Opinions so much more with signal Piety had he applied himself to promote the true Worship with such Success that at last those Provinces rejoiced to be restored to the Bosom of the Antient Religion But this was not without some Sort of Severity so that many not to leave their Errours were constrained to abandon their Country and sell their Estates living elsewhere in Discontent and Poverty and others driven away by force and their Estates confiscate saw them not without Rancour possessed by new Masters and all this done in the Life of Matthias So that Ferdinand as his Title was Vsurpation and Force so was the Exercise of it Tyranny in the highest Degree to the Overthrow of the Bohemian Laws and Liberties therefore the Original of the Bohemian War was not founded in the Election of Frederick to be King for Ferdinand perpetrated these things two Years before Nani goes on and says in the Empire therefore in which the Religion no less than the Genius is for Liberty there appeared great Apprehensions that where Ferdinand should get the Power he would exercise the same Reformation and impose a Yoke so much the more heavy by how much standing in need of Money and the Counsels of Spain he should be governed by the Rules and Maxims of that Nation so hateful to the Germans So that it was not the Election of Frederick to be King of Bohemia that opened that Gate for the Pope and his Party for curbing and oppressing of many thousand of our Religion in divers parts of Christendom as the King said for it was set wide open before by Ferdinand 7. That the Commons Debates concerning the War with Spain and Spanish Match were Matters out of their Sphere and therefore Ne sutor ultra Crepidaâ— and are a Diminution to him and his Crown in Foreign Countries That the Commons in their Petition had attempted the highest Points of Soveraignty except the stamping of Coin 8. That for Religion he could give no other Answer than in general that the Commons may rest secure he will never be weary to do all he can for the Propagation of ours and repressing of Popery but the manner they must remit to his Care and Providence 9. That for the Commons Request of making this a Sessions and granting a General Pardon it shall be their fault if it be not done But the Commons required such Particulars in it that he must be well advised lest he give back double or treble of that he was to receive by their Subsidy but thinks fit that of his free Grace he sends down a Pardon from the higher House containing such Points as he shall think fittest 10. He thinks it strange the Commons should make so bad and unjust a Commentary upon some Words in his former Letter as if he thereby meant to restrain the Commons of their antient Privileges and Liberties in Parliament wherein he discharges them from meddling with Matters of Government and Mysteries of State namely Matters of War and Peace or his dearest Son's Match with Spain or that they meddle with things which have their ordinary Course in the Courts of Justice That a Scholar would be ashamed so to mis-judg and misplace Sentences in another Man's Book for in the coupling these Sentences they plainly leave out Mysteries of State and so err a bene divisis ad mala conjuncta that for the former part concerning Mysteries of State he plainly restrained his meaning to the Particulars which were after mentioned and for the latter he confesses he meant it by Sir Coke's foolish Business and therefore it had well become him especially being his Servant and one of his Council to have complained to him which he never did tho he was ordinarily at Court and never had Access refused him Sir Coke's Business was a Conspiracy against him by my Lord Chancellor Bacon one Lepton and Goldsmith after he was discharged from being Chief Justice to have exhibited an Information against him in the Star-Chamber or have sent him into Ireland The Business was debated in the House of Commons but Sir Edward complained not nor appeared to speak in it If the King were uneasy with the Commons Remonstrance the Commons were not less with the King's Answer and at the Resolution taken at Court to adjourn the Parliament to the 8th of January next which the Commons took to be a Violation of their Privileges and an Omen of their Dissolution whereupon they entred this Protestation THE Commons now Assembled in Parliament being justly occasioned thereunto concerning sundry Liberties Franchises and Privileges of Parliament among others here mentioned do make this Protestation following That the Liberties Franchises Privileges and Jurisdictions of Parliament are the antient and undoubted Birth-right and Inheritance of the Subjects of England and that the ardueus and urgent Affairs concerning the King State and Defence of the Realm and of the Church of England and the maintenance and making of Laws and Redress of Grievances and Mischiefs which may happen within this Realm are proper Subjects and Matter of Counsel and Debate in Parliament and that in the handling and proceeding of those Businesses every Member of the House of Parliament hath and of right ought to have freedom of Speech to propound treat reason and bring to Conclusion the same And that the Commons in Parliament have like Liberty and Freedom to treat of these Matters in such order as in their Judgment they shall think fittest And that every Member in the said House hath likewise freedom from all Impeachment Imprisonments and
the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoign and Guienne General Governor of the Seas and Ships of the Kingdom Master of the Horse to the King Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and of the Members of the same Constable of Dover-Castle Justice in Eyre of all the Forests and Chases on this side of Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Gentleman of his Majesty's Bed-Chamber one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council in his Realms of England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter But tho all others worshipped this prodigious Favourite yet Arch-bishop Abbot a Prelate of Primitive Sanctity and Integrity would not flatter neither the King nor his Favourite in their Courses so dangerous to the Church and State and dishonourable to the King and tho in Disgrace he wrote this following Letter to the King which you may read in Rushworth fol. 85. May it please your Majesty M I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it has pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in But now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my Duty to your Majesty and therefore freely to give me leave to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you to take into your Consideration what that Act is what the Consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up the most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How hateful will it be to God and grievous to your Subjects the Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath so often and learnedly disputed and written against those Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those wicked Doctrines which your Pen hath to the World and your Conscience tells your self are superstitious idolatrous and detestable and hereto I add what you have done by sending the Prince into Spain without the Consent of your Council the Privity or Approbation of your People and altho you have a Charge and Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh yet the People have a greater as Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty are their Eyes fixed and their Welfare depends and so tenderly is his going apprehended as I believe however his Return may be safe yet the Drawers of him into this Action so dangerous to himself so desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestion'd and unpunished Besides the Toleration which you endeavour to set up by your Proclamation cannot be without a Parliament unless your Majesty will let your Subjects see that you will take to your self the Ability to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure What dread Consequence these things may draw afterwards I beseech your Majesty to consider and above all lest by this Toleration and discountenancing the true Profession of the Gospel wherewith God hath blest us and this Kingdom hath so long flourished under it your Majesty doth not draw upon this Kingdom in general and your self in particular God's Wrath and Indignation I have heard my Father say that King James kept a Fool called Archy if he were not more Knave whom the Courtiers when the King was at any time thoughtful or serious would bring in with his antick Gestures and Sayings to put him out of it In one of these Modes of the King in comes Archy and tells the King he must change Caps with him Why says the King Why who replies Archy sent the Prince into Spain But what said the King wilt thou say if the Prince comes back again Why then said Archy I will take my Cap from thy Head and send it to the King of Spain which was said troubled the King sore But if we look back into Spain we shall see things of another Complection than when Buckingham came into it For now he is disgusted he put the Prince quite out of the Match as that tho all things were agreed upon the coming of the Dispensation from Rome so as King James said all the Devils in Hell could not break the Match yet his Disciple and Scholar could tho the Duke had certified the King the Match was brought to a happy Conclusion and the Match publickly declar'd in Spain and the Prince permitted Access to the Infanta in the Presence of the King and the Infanta was generally stiled the Princess of England and in England a Chappel was building for her at St. James's and the King had prepared a Fleet to fetch her into England which only proved to bring back his Son How things especially actuated by Love should stay here may seem strange yet such an Ascendant had Buckingham over the Prince that the Affront put upon him Buckingham must quite deface the Prince's vowed Love and Affection to the Infanta but how to prevail with King James to comply might have an appearance of some Difficulty since the King had set his Rest upon it and had quarelled with the Parliament and dissolv'd them in great Anger and Fury for but mentioning it After the Duke had gained the Prince to break or at least not to observe the Conditions of the Treaty of the Marriage with the Infanta so solemnly sworn to by both the Kings and the Prince let 's now see how he behaved himself to King James afterwards but this will be better understood if we look back and see how things stood before the Prince's and Duke's Arrival in Spain The Prince's going into Spain was not only kept secret from King James ' s Council but from my Lord Keeper Williams tho the King confided in his Abilities above all the other of his Council but when it had taken vent the King asked the Keeper what he thought Whether the Knight Errant's Pilgrimage meaning the Prince's would prove lucky to win the Spanish Lady and to convey her shortly into England Sir answered my Lord Keeper If my Lord Marquess will give Honour to Conde Duke Olivares and remember he is the Favourite of Spain or if Olivares will shew honourable Civility to my Lord Marquess remembring he is a Favourite of England the Wooing may be prosperous but if my Lord Marquess should forget where he is and not stoop to Olivares or if Olivares forgetting what Guest he hath received with the Prince bear himself haughtily and like a Castilian to my Lord Marquess the Provocation may be dangerous to cross your Majesty's good Intentions and I pray God that either one or both do not run into that Error The Answer of the Keeper took such Impression upon the King that he asked the Keeper if he had wrote to his Son and the
with all imaginable Esteem as a truly noble discreet and well-deserving Prince however the Prince himself had given them Cause sufficient to have detained him if the Prudence of Bristol had not been greater than Buckingham's Rashness and Zeal to break off the Match solemnly sworn to by the Prince and Buckingham himself and this upon the Day when the Prince parted from the King of Spain from the Escurial as you may see in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Dr. Williams and Rushworth fol. 284 285. For though the King of Spain and the Prince had solemnly sworn to accomplish the Marriage and to make the Espousals within ten Days after the Ratifications should come from Rome to which purpose the Prince made a Procuration to the King of Spain and Don Charles his Brother to make the Espousals in his Name and left it in the Earl of Bristol's hands yet he the Prince left in the Hands of one of the Duke's Creatures Mr. Edward Clarke a private Instrument with Instructions to the Earl of Bristol to stay the Delivery of the Proxies till farther Direction from him But when this private Instrument was delivered to Bristol he told Buckingham's Favourite that it must for a time be concealed lest the Spaniard coming to the knowledgâ— of it should give Order to stay the Prince So that the Duke left the Earl's Instrument as perplexed and confounded when he went out of Spain as he had made the Treaty of Marriage when he came into it The Temper and Dissimulation of the Duke is so strange at his taking leave of Olivares as is I believe without all Example and also without any Care of the Safety of the Prince for the Duke told him after he had delivered the Instrument to stay the Delivery of the Proxy That he was obliged to the King and Queen and Infanta in an eternal Tie of Gratitude and that he would be an everlasting Servant to them and endeavour to do the best Offices for concluding the Match and strengthning the Amity between the two Crowns but as for himself Olivares he had so disobliged him that he could not without Flattery make the least Profession of Friendship to him Nor was the Ingratitude and Dissimulation of the Prince less than that of Buckingham for when the King of Spain had brought the Prince to the Escurial where the Prince and Duke after the delivery of the Instrument for staying the Proxy solemnly swore the Treaty of Marriage as you may read in Rushworth fol. 285. and the King and Prince had sworn a perpetual League of Friendship as the Bishop of Litchfield says the King at their Departure declared the Obligation which the Prince had put upon him the King by putting himself into his Hands a thing unusual with Princes and protested he earnestly desired a nearer Conjunction of Brotherly Affection for the more intire Unity between them The Prince answered him magnifying the high Favour which he had found during his Stay in his Court and Presence which had begotten such an Estimation of his Worth that he knew not how to value it but would leave a Mediatrix to supply his own Defects if he the King would make him so happy as to continue him the Prince in the good Opinion of her his Dear Mistress Yet the Prince so soon as he came on Ship-board was observed to say That it was a great Weakness and Folly in the Spaniards after they had used him so ill to grant him a free Departure and soon you 'll see both the Prince and the Duke urge the King James to break off the Match so solemnly sworn by them all and make War upon the Spaniards which was so dangerous to the Parliament to mention Having thus taken a View of the Duke's Prudence and deep Insight in Mysteries of State in managing this Match where King James's Proclamation could not restrain Men from talking of State-Affairs We will now take a View of the Duke's Profession in Religion that another may better judg whether he were more eminent in Religion or State-policy and herein I will take the Earl of Bristol's Charge upon him to be a full Proof since the Earl answered the Duke's Charges against him twice first before King James and afterward in Parliament in the 2d of King Charles without any reply and King Charles his dissolving the Parliament rather than the Duke should come to a Tryal upon the Articles which the Earl exhibited against him 1. The Earl in the said Articles charges the Duke that he did secretly combine with the Conde of Gundamor Ambassador from the King of Spain Anno 1622 to carry the Prince into Spain to the end he might be informed in the Roman Religion and thereby have perverted the Prince and subverted the true Religion established in England 2. That Mr. Porter was made acquainted therewith and sent into Spain and such Messages at his Return framed as might serve for a Ground to set on foot this Conspiracy the which was done accordingly and thereby the King and Prince highly abused and their Consents thereby gotten for the said Journey viz. after the Return of the said Mr. Porter which was about the latter end of December or beginning of January 1622. whereas the Duke plotted it many Months before 3. That the Duke at his Arrival in Spain nourished the Spanish Ministers not only in the Belief of his being popishly affected but did both by absenting himself from all Exercises of Religion constantly used in the Earl of Bristol's House and frequented by all other Protestant English and by conforming himself to please the Spaniards in divers Rites of their Religion even so far as to kneel and adore the Sacrament from time to time give the Spaniards Hopes of the Prince's Conversion the which he endeavoured to procure by all means possible and thereby caused the Spanish Minister to propound far worse Conditions for Religion than had been propounded by the Earl and Sir Walter Ashton setled and signed under the K. and Prince's Hand with a clause of the K. of Spain's Answer Dec. 12. 1622 that they held the Articles agreed on sufficicient and such as ought to induce the Pope to grant the Dispensation 4. That the Duke having several times moved and pressed the King James at the Instance of the Conde of Gundamor in the presence of the Earl of Bristol to write a Letter to the Pope and to that purpose having once brought a Letter ready drawn wherewith the Earl of Bristol by his Majesty being made acquainted did so strongly oppose the writing any such Letter that during the Abode of the said Earl in England the Duke could never obtain it but not long after the Earl was gone he the Duke procured such a Letter to be written from the King James to the Pope and to have him stiled Sanctissime Pater 5. That the Pope being informed of the Duke's Inclination and Intention in point of Religion sent unto him a particular Bull
a narrow point but there is no point in Generalities relying upon their general Propositions of which I do not find neither the King nor the Prince or Buckingham after him named one he found when they came there the Matter proved so raw as if it had never been treated of they generally giving them easy way to evade and affording them means to avoid the effecting any thing But it seems there were Particulars which the King would not then discover but left them to the Prince and Buckingham to relate As for a Toleration of the Roman Religion As God shall judg him he said he never thought nor meant nor never in word expressed any thing that savoured of it How was Arch-bishop Abbot mistaken when he wrote his disswasive Letter against the King's Proclamation for the Toleration of Religion to Roman Catholicks See Rushworth fol. 85. And how was my Lord Keeper Williams mistaken after the King had directed him and other Commissioners to draw up a Pardon for all Offences past by Roman Catholicks with a Dispensation for those to come obnoxious to any Laws against Recusants and then to issue forth two general Commands under the Great Seal the one to all Judges and Justices of Peace and the other to all Bishops Chancellors and Commissaries not to execute any Statute against them and tho the Keeper past the Pardon as fully and amply as the Papists could desire to pen it yet the Keeper put some stop to the vast Prohibition to the Judges and Bishops for the Reasons he gave First Because the publishing of this General Indulgence at one push may beget a general Discontent if not a Mutiny but the instilling thereof into the Peoples knowledg by little and little by the Favours done to Catholicks might indeed loosen the Tongues of a few particular Persons who might hear of their Neighbours Pardon and having vented their Dislike would afterward cool again and so his Majesty might by degrees with more convenience enlarge his Favours Secondly Because to sorbid the Judges against their Oaths and the Justices of Peace who are likewise sworn to execute the Laws of the Land is a thing unprecedented in this Kingdom and would be a harsh and bitter Pill to be digested without some Preparative But this Delay disgusted the Spanish Ambassador which you may read in Rushworth fol. 101. And as God was his Judg he never thought nor meant nor ever in Word expressed any thing that savoured of a Toleration of the Popish Religion So God was his Judg and he spake as a Christian King Never any wayfaring Man that was in the Desarts of Arabia and in danger of Death for want of Water to quench his Thirst more desired Water than he did thirst and desire the good and comfortable Success of his Parliament and Blessing upon their Counsels that the good Issue of this may expiate and acquit the fruitless Issue of the former and prayed God their Counsels may advance Religion and the publick Weal and they of him and his Children You may read the Speech at large in Rushworth fol. 115 116 117. But tho the King gloried that he had ever endeavoured to procure and cherish the Love of his People to him which the Lords and Commons did represent yet the Commons could remember a time not out of mind with the King for they chose that honourable Gentleman Sir Thomas Crew newly returned from his Exile into Ireland whither the King had sent him as one of the ill-tempered Spirits who advised him against the Spanish Match and presumed to assert the Privileges of the Commons for their Speaker After the Ceremonies of Opening the Parliament and the Choice of a Speaker was over the first thing that appeared upon the Stage of Affairs was the Narrative of the Proceedings in the Spanish Match made by the Duke of Buckingham and assisted by the Prince Which you may read at large in Rushworth from fol. 119 to 125. I shall not descant upon this long Narrative but leave the Answering of it to the Earl of Bristol but only take notice of the Preamble of the third Article of the Duke 's Narrative and the latter part of the fourth The Preamble of the third Article is It is fit to observe this Passage which is the thing whereupon all his Highness's the Prince's subsequent Actions did depend He had never staid a Sennight longer in Spain he had never left any Proxy with Bristol he had never taken the Oath at the Escurial or ever so much as have written a Letter of Compliment to the Lady but that he had still before his Eyes as his Cynosure the Promise made by the Conde I think the Duke meant Olivares for the Restitution of the Palatinate Why was this Treaty between King James and the Conde Or if the Restitution of the Palatinate were the Foundation upon which the whole Treaty moved Why was it not so much as mentioned in all the Treaty so solemnly sworn to by both Kings the Prince and Buckingham himself Nay King James himself by two several Expresses to the Earl of Bristol the first of the 14th of May 1621. and the other of the 30th of December 1623. commanded him That he should not make the Business of the Palatinate a Condition of the Marriage as you may read in Rushworth fol. 302. For the better understanding of Buckingham's Narrative in the fourth Article it is fit to take notice That the Reason in the Instrument for not pursuing the Proxies of the Marriage so solemnly sworn to by the Prince and Buckingham himself was not for the Restitution of the Palatinate but forsooth for fear the Infanta might retire into a Cloister and so deprive the Prince of a Wife tho the Infanta so far as the Gravity of the Spaniards would permit ever expressed an entire Affection to the Prince so that when the Prince took leave of the Infanta she seemed to deliver up her Heart to him in as high Expressions as that Language and her Learning could with her Honour set forth for when the Prince told her His Heart would never be out of Anxiety till she had passed the intended Voyage and were safe on the British Land she answered with a modest Blush That if she were in danger upon the Ocean or discomposed with the rolling brackish Waves she should chear up her self and remember all the way to whom she was going As you may read in the Life of Williams Lord Keeper fol. 161. tit 168. And Mr. Rushworth fol. 104. says She caused many divine Duties to be performed for the Prince's Return In the Proxies left with the Earl of Bristol there was a Clause inserted De non revocando procuratore as much as to say irrevocable And because the Earl did in his Letter to the Prince of the First of November in 1623 press this vehemently to the Prince the Prince vowed openly before both Houses that he had never by Oath nor Honour engaged himself not to
Treasurers to receive the Money and a Council of War to disburse the same But the Commons having granted these Subsidies drew up a Petition against the Licence the Popish Party had taken during the Treaty with Spain He was so nettled at it that he called it a Stinging One and hearing the Commons were entring upon Grievances he could not endure it and upon the 29th of May adjourned the Parliament to the 2d of November 1624 and from thence to the 7th of April lest the King should hear of another stinging Petition or a Disturbance in the French Treaty but at this Adjournment he told them at their next Meeting they might handle Grievances so as they did not hunt after them nor present any but those of Importance yet I do not find the Parliament ever met again at least never did any thing However the King passed a General Pardon and the Parliament censured Lionel Earl of Middlesex Lord Treasurer for Corruption in his Office 50000 l. to the King and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's Pleasure which was but three days after the Adjournment of the Parliament for upon the first of June he was set free Whilst these things were doing in Parliament the Earl of Bristol was recalled from his Embassy but before his Arrival the Duke dealt by all means that the Earl might be committed to the Tower before he should be admitted to the King's Presence But fearing the Marquiss Hamilton and my Lord Chamberlain would oppose him herein the Duke pressed them that they would concur in it vowing as Somerset did to Sir Thomas Overbury he intended the Earl no hurt but only feared that if he should be admitted to the King's Presence he would cross and disturb the Course of Affairs but neither of these Lords would condescend thereunto This was attested by my Lord Chamberlain before the House of Lords This Deâ—â—gn of the Duke's failing the Duke to terrify the Earl from returning into England writ to him that if he kept not himself where he was in Spain and laid hold of the great Offers which he heard were made unto him the Earl it should be the worse for him At Bourdeaux the Earl heard of the Aspersions cast upon him by the Duke in Parliament of which the Earl did boldly afterward in the House of Lords in the second Parliament of Car. 1. and in the Presence of the Duke affirm That there was scarce any one thing concerning him in the Declaration which was not contrary to or different from Truth From Bourdeaux the Earl took Post to get into England to vindicate himself from the Asperâ—ons which the Duke had cast upon him in Parliament but when he came to Calais tho he sent over to have one of the King's Ships allowed him and for which publick Orders were given and tho the King James had Ships which lay at Boloign which might have every day been with him in three Hours and the Wind fair yet none came tho the Earl waited for one eight Days so that he was forced to pass the Sea to Dover in a Boat and six Oars When the Earl was landed at Dover he was by a Letter from my Lord Conway a Creature of the Duke's commanded in the King's Name to retire to his House and not to come to Court or the King's Presence until he had answered to certain Questions which his Majesty would appoint some of the Council to ask him but this was not out of any ill meaning to him but for fear the Parliament should fall too violently upon him and this the Duke said to some of his Friends was the Reason of the Earl's Restraint Hereupon the Earl humbly petitioned the King he might be exposed to Parliament and that if he had not served the King honestly in all things he deserved no Favour but to be proceeded against with all Severity but received Answer from the King That there should be but few days past before he would put an end to his Affairs but the Parliament was adjourned before the few days passed nor did he ever put an end to them You may read the further Contrivances against him by the Duke in Rushw from fol. 259 to 265. After the Adjournment of the Parliament or if you will the Dissolution of it tho the Earl of Bristol could not obtain Admission into the King's Presence yet he obtained Leave to answer to all the Duke had in his Absence charged upon him in Parliament and withal wrote to the Duke that if he or any Man living was able to make Reply he would submit himself to any thing which should be demanded which tho the Duke presumptuously said That it is not an Assertion to be granted that the Earl of Bristol by his Answer had satisfied the King the Prince or himself of his Innocence yet it so satisfied the King that when the Duke after pressed the King that the Earl might submit and acknowledg his Fault the King answered I were to be accounted a Tyrant to engage an innocent Man to confess Faults of which he was not guilty Tho the Earl said he could prove this upon Oath yet the Duke wrote to him that the Conclusion of all that had been treated with his Majesty was that he the Earl should make the Acknowledgment as was set down in that Paper tho at that time the King sent him word that he would hear him against the Duke as well as he had heard the Duke concerning him and soon after the King died which Promise of the King 's the Earl prayed God did the King no hurt however the Earl obtained Leave of the King to come to London to follow his private Affairs Mr. Rushworth therefore errs a little in point of time where he says fol. 149. the Earl was committed to the Tower in King James his time for he was not committed till the 15th of January 1625. in the first Year of King Charles as you may see in Stow's Life of King Charles fol. 1042. We have now done with the Spanish Match at least during this King's Reign yet the King's Desires of seeing his Son married which he shall never see were as impatient as those of getting the Infanta's huge Portion and to that end before the Meeting of the Parliament and while the Treaty with the Infanta was yet breathing the King sent my Lord Kensington after Earl of Holland to feel the Pulse of the French Court how it beat towards an Alliance between the Prince and Princess Henrietta Maria youngest Daughter of Henry IV. of France A serene Heaven appeared in France upon the Motion not a Cloud to be seen in all the French Horizon Lewis the King telling my Lord Kensington he took it for an Honour that he sought his Sister for the sole Son of so Illustrious a King his Neighbour and Ally only he desired he might send to Rome to have the Pope's Consent for the better Satisfaction of his Conscience And now you
she should take other French Catholicks in their Places but nevertheless by the Consent of the King of Great Britain That the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales his Son should oblige themselves by Oath not to attempt by any means whatsoever to make her change her Religion or to force her to any thing that might be contrary thereto and should promise by writing in the Faith and Word of a King and Prince to give Order that the Catholicks as well Ecclesiastical as Secular who have been imprisoned since the last Edict against them should be set at Liberty That the English Catholicks should be no more enquired after for their Religion nor constrained to take the Oath which contains something contrary to the Catholick Religion That their Goods that have been seized since the last Edict should be restored to them And generally that they should receive more Graces and Liberty in Favour of the Alliance with France than had been promised them in consideration of that of Spain The Deputation of Father Berule Superior General of the Fathers of the Oratory to his Holiness to obtain the Dispensation for the aforesaid Marriage THE Instructions which were given to Father de Berule were to render himself with all Diligence at Rome to obtain the Pope's Dispensation and to this Effect to represent to his Holiness That the King of Great Britain having demanded of the King his Sister Madame Henrietta Maria for a Wife for the Prince of Wales his Son his Majesty hearken'd the more willingly to this Proposition in that he esteem'd it very profitable towards the Conversion of the English as heretofore a French Princess married into England had induced them to embrace Christianity but the Honour which he had vowed to the Holy See and particularly to his Holiness who baptized him in the Name of Pope Clement VIII did not permit him to execute the Treaty without having obtained his Dispensations That this Marriage ought to be look'd upon not only for the Benefit of the English Catholicks but of all Christendom who would thereby receive great Advantage That there was nothing to be hazarded for in Madame seeing that she was as firm in the Faith and in Piety as he could desire That she had a Bishop and 28 Priests to do their Duties That she had not a Domestick that was not Catholick and that the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would oblige themselves by Writing and by Oath not to solicit her directly or indirectly neither by themselves or by Persons interposed to change her Religion On the contrary having nothing to fear for her he had great Cause to hope that she being dearly beloved of the King who was already well enough disposed to be a Catholick and of the Prince of Wales she might by so much the more contribute to their Conversion as Women have wonderful Power over their Husbands and their Fathers-in-law when Love hath given them the Ascendant over their Spirits That she was so zealous in Religion that there was no doubt but she would employ in this pious Design all that depended upon her Industry and that if God should not bless Intentions in the Person of King James and of the Prince of Wales it was apparent that their Children would be the Restorers of the Faith which their Ancestors had destroyed seeing she would have the Charge to educate them in the Belief and in the Exercises of the Catholick Religion till the Age of 13 Years and that these first Seeds of Piety being laid in their Souls cultivated with Care at the time when they should be more susceptible of Instructions would infallibly produce stable and permanent Fruits that is to say a Faith so firm that it may not be shaken by Heresy in a riper Age. That after all the Catholicks of England would receive no small Profit at present since the King of Great Britain and the Prince of Wales would both oblige themselves upon their Faith and by Writing no more to enquire after them nor punish them when they should be discovered to enlarge all those that had been imprisoned and to make them Restitution of Money and of other Goods that had been taken from them since the last Edict if they were yet in being and generally to treat them with more Favour than they could have expected from the Alliance with Spain And further He had Orders to let the Pope understand that to render more Respect to the Church it had been agreed that Madame should be affianced and married according to the Catholick Form and agreeable to that which was followed at the Marriage which Charles IX made of Madam Margaret of France with the late King Henry IV. then King of Navarre All these things spoke themselves and appeared so visibly that they would admit of no doubt so this Father that wanted neither Spirit nor Fire represented them dexterously to the Pope and his Holiness made him hope for a speedy and favourable Answer c. See the Life of Cardinal Richlieu printed at Paris 1650. fol. 14 15. How does this agree with the King's Speech at the opening of the Parliament in the 18th Year of his Reign That if the Treaty of the Match between his Son and the Infanta of Spain were not for the Benefit of the Established Religion at home and of the Reformed abroad he was not worthy to be their King And how does this agree with that part of the King's Speech at the opening of this Parliament That as for the Toleration of the Roman Religion as God shall surely judg him he said he never thought nor meant nor never in Words expressed any thing that savoured of it Do not Religion Truth and Justice support the Thrones of Princes and Hypocrisy Falshood and Injustice undermine and overthrow them What future Happiness then could either the King or Prince hope to succeed this Treaty sworn to by them both so diametrically contrary to the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation wherein the Majesty of the King as well as the Safety of the Nation is founded and to govern by these and observe this Treaty will be impossible What Peace could the Prince find at home even in his Bed when an imperious French Wife shall be ever instigating him to break his Coronation-Oath to truckle to that imposed upon him by her Brother of France These Pills how bitter soever must be swallowed by the King rather than his Son shall be baulk'd a second time nay it seems they were very sweet to him For Mr. Howel in the Life of Lewis III. says fol. 66. that King James said passionately to the Lords of the Council of the King of France My Lords the King of France has wrote unto me That he is so far my Friend that if ever I have need of him he will render me Offices in Person whensoever I shall desire him the Truth of this you will see by and by Truly he hath gained upon
Peron of the Papal Power of King-Killing and King-Deposing were only Brawls and Contentions and 〈◊〉 Learning on one side or the other A Power disclaimed by our Saviour when the Devil would have given him it and denied any such Power in this World even when the Jews were ready to crucify him John 18. 36. And as there were no Reasons for these Brawls so was the End of them Arrogance on the Popish Part to impose a foreign Power or Jurisdiction upon the King and Kingdom and as foolish on the King's Part it being exploded by the Nation and under the severest Penalty the asserting such a Power prohibited and how could the King by his Writings further secure himself and the Nation against it But it seems the King was in this more zealous for himself and the Preservation of his Inherent Birth-right to the Crown of England than for the Honour of God and our Saviour against the Pope's Usurpations other ways for in his Speech at the Opening the first Parliament of his Reign he calls the Church of Rome a 〈◊〉 Church and our Mother-Church and if they would lay aside their King-killing and King-deposing Doctrine and some Niceties but names them not he was content to meet them mid-way Does not the Pope exalt himself above God and is Antichrist i◠forbidding the Laity the Cup in the partaking the Sacrament a Christ's last Supper If any Man makes a Question of it I 'll demonstrate it by a better Syllogism than can be made up of Aristotle's Analyticks For whosoever shall forbid what another commands exalts himself above that other But the Pope forbids the Drinking of the Cup at the Sacrament to the Laity who are Christ's Members as well as the Priests And our Saviour commands the Cup with an Emphasis Drink ye All of it Therefore the Pope exalts himself above our Saviour and is Antichrist which was to be demonstrated and this Mutilation makes this the Pope's and not a Sacrament of our Saviour's Institution COROLLARY By the same Reason I say the Pope exalts himself above God in forbidding Marriage to the Priests For Marriage is an Institution of God in Paradise Gen. 2. and commanded by God Gen. 9. 1. and the Pope forbids the Marriage of Priests which St. Paul says is the Doctrine of Devils and it 's worthy Observation that the Pope makes Marriage to be a Sacrament yet denies it to Priests and our Saviour commands the Cup in the Sacrament of his last Supper to be drunk by all yet this is denied the Laity and only allowed to Priests I say Pope Julius the 2d in dispensing with Henry the 8th to marry his Brother Arthur's Wife exalted himself above God For whosoever shall dispense with or allow what another forbids exalts himself above that other But Julius dispensed with Henry's Marriage of his Brother's Wife And God forbids the Marriage of a Man's Brother's Wife Lev. 18. 16. Therefore Julius exalted himself above God which was to be demonstrated It 's true I do not find the Marriage of a Man's Sister's Daughter particularly forbidden by the Levitical Law yet by the 17th verse it is by inference forbidden and is abhorrent to Nature So that when Cambyses asked the Magi if it were not lawful to marry his Sister's Daughter they told him it was not yet like Flatterers they told him he might do what he pleased and Platina I think it is in the Life of Pope Boniface the 5th or Honorius exclaims against the Emperor Heraclius his marrying his Sister's Daughter as an Impiety scarce ever heard of yet three Popes successively dispensed with Philip the 2d Philip the 3d and Philip the 4th Kings of Spain marrying with their own Nieces viz. their Sisters Daughters It were endless to enumerate the Doctrines of the Church of Rome how dishonourable they are to God and his sacred Laws I 'll give Instances only in two 1. Their Invocation of Saints after Death many of which are of their own making thereby attributing to them a concurring Power with God in his Omniscience which is a robbing God of his Honour and if Saints after Death be not Omniscient it were in vain to pray to them The other is dispensing with Mens Promises and their own tho they have bound themselves to the Performance of them by an Oath whereby the Popes render themselves Enemies of Mankind and Humane Society for these are founded in Truth and Mens mutual Performance of their Promises That this for several hundreds of Years hath been practised by the Popes upon those Princes and Subjects whom they please to call Hereticks when the Popes are greater is well known to those conversant in their Histories I 'll give but one Instance of the Liberty the Popes take to themselves herein Upon the Death of Pope Marcellus 2d Ann. 1555. the Cardinals in the Conclave before they proceed to the Election of another Pope mutually swore That whosoever should be chosen should call a Synod in six Years and not make more than 4 Cardinals in two Years after the Election and Paul the 4th was chosed See the Council of Trent Anno 1555. Some small time after this Election Paul entred the Conclave to declare his Intentions of a Promotion of Cardinals and the Cardinal of St. James's pressed to him and put him in mind of his Oath before his Election but the Pope thrust the Cardinal back and told him This was to bind the Pope's Authority that it is an Article of Faith that the Pope cannot be bound much less bind himself that to say otherwise was manifest Heresy from which he did absolve those who spake it because he thought they did not speak obstinately but if any should say the same again he would give Order the Inquisition should proceed And this being spoken in the Conclave was in Cathedra and infallible and never since retracted by him or any other Pope These are the Heresies in the Church of Rome for which Men must be slaughtered and burnt and for not believing them against the Evidence of a Man's Senses to the contrary and against the Nature of a Sacrament That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament after Consecration is Christ's organical Body and Blood This is that true and Mother-Church which the King would meet mid-way if it would let him and his Inherent Birth-right alone This is that Prince who to prosecute these Brawls and to wallow in sensual Pleasures neglected the foreign and domestick Affairs of his Kingdom only Great in making himself little and not beloved at home and contemptible and dishonoured abroad A Prince who squandred away the sacred Patrimony of the Crown amongst Flatterers and Favourites thereby becoming not able to maintain the Honour of the Nation abroad and neglecting the Encrease and Repair of his Navy-Royal not only rendred the Nation in an unsettled and dangerous Peace at home but notwithstanding the Treaty with the Dutch for Licence to fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland suffered
hasty in it that the King's Promise that the Bishop of Lincoln now no more Lord-Keeper should enjoy the King's Favour was scarce three Months old when they put not only the King out of mind of his Promise but the Bishop out of the Duty of his Place but that Laud should perform it whether the Bishop would or not It has been said with what Difficulty the Bishop of Lincoln for so we must now call him procured Laud the Bishoprick of St. David's and the Bishop staid not there but retained him in his Prebendary at Westminster and so after gave him a Living in the Diocess of St. David's of 120 l. per Annum to help his Revenue These two last being Additions to Laud's Preferment coming from the Bishop of Lincoln voluntarily and unsought for by Laud he by Mr. Winn returned his Thanks to the Bishop with this Expression His Life would be too short to requite his Lordship's Goodness But these Favours were not eighteen Months planted when Laud became the Bishop's sharpest Enemy as you may read in the first Part of his Life f. 108. and his Malice grew so high that the Countess of Buckingham the Duke's Mother took notice of it which the Arch-bishop Abbot takes notice of Rushw f. 144. as well as the Bishop of Litchfield As Acts of Grace and Favour usually were accompany'd by our Kings at their Coronation so in this King's Reign the quite contrary must be practised not only to the Earl of Bristol but much more to the Bishop of Lincoln for he was not only denied to do his Homage to the King with the rest of the Spiritual Lords at the Coronation but his Office as Dean of Westminster in assisting the Arch-bishop in the Solemnity of it and yet this too must be done by Laud as the Bishop's Substitute whether he would or not This was the first noble Favour the King extended to the Bishop according to his reiterated Promise when they parted The second was he was denied his Writ of Summons as a Peer in Parliament which met in four days after the Coronation viz. Feb. 6. which was due ex debito Justitiae and which was never denied to Prisoners or condemned Persons even in his Father's time and at last when he obtained it yet he must not presume to sit in Parliament and had much ado to have his Proxy left with the Bishop of Winchester Dr. Andrews as you may read in the second Part of his Life f. 69. But tho the Privilege of Peers a little eclipsed the Power of the mighty Buckingham yet he was resolved to keep Sir Edward Coke Sir Robert Phillips and Sir Thomas Wentworth out of the Commons House by the King's Prerogative as it has been of late used in making them Sheriffs whether they be returned by the Coroner's Inquest of the Counties or not and by this Prerogative Sir Edward Coke was made Sheriff of the County of Bucks Sir Robert Phillips of Somerset and Sir Thomas Wentworth of Yorkshire It made a mighty Noise and an Inquiry which otherwise would not have been that Sir Edward Coke in his extream Age now 77 Years old and who had been Chief Justice of both Benches and Privy-Counsellor should be made a Sheriff of the County and the more for that Sir Edward Coke took Exceptions to the Oath of a Sheriff whereupon it was altered These were the Counsels which govern'd this King in the Infancy of his Reign Now let us see the Success The Commons were so far from granting Subsidies now as in the last Parliament before Grievances were redrest that upon their first Meeting they fell upon Examination of Grievances and the Miscarriage of the Fleet at Cadiz the evil Counsellors about the King's Misgovernment and Misimployment of the King's Revenue and an Account of the three Subsidies and three Fifteenths granted the 21st of King James That new Impositions and Monopolies were multiplied and settled to continue by Grants Customs enhanced by the new Book of Rates and that Tunnage and Poundage was levied tho by no Act of Parliament and the Guard of the Seas neglected However these were Generals but the first Particular fell upon Mountague in five particular Articles wherein he had broken the Laws and Statutes of the Realm and disturbed the Peace both of the Church and Commonwealth 1. Whereas by the Articles of the Convocation holden in the Year 1â—62 it is determined That the Church of Rome is at present and has been for above 900 Years past so far wide from the Nature of a true Church that nothing can be more he the said Mountague in several places of the Book called The Answer to the Gagg and his other Book called The Appeal advisedly affirms and maintains That the Church of Rome is and ever was a true Church since it was a Church 2. Whereas in the 16th Homily of the second Book of Homilies it is declared that the Church of Rome is not built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and in the 23d Article that Transubstantiation overthrows the Nature of a Sacrament and in the 25th Article that the five other Sacraments are not to be accounted Sacraments yet he the said Mountague maintains in his Book called The Answer to the Gagg That the Church of Rome hath ever remained firm upon the same Foundation of Sacraments and Doctrine instituted by God 3. In the 19th of the same Article it is maintained That the Church of Rome hath erred not only in their Living and Matters of Faith and Ceremonies he in his Book called The Gagg does maintain that none of these are controverted in their Points between the Papists and Protestants and tho in the 35th Article it is resolved that the Sacrifice of Masses in which it is commonly said the Priest did offer Christ for the Quick and the Dead to have Remission of Pain and Guilt too is a blasphemous Fable and dangerous Deceit this being one of the controverted Points between the Church of England and the Church of Rome he in his Book called The Gagg does maintain That these controverted Points are of a less and inferiour Nature of which a Man may be ignorant without any danger of his Soul at all and a Man may oppose this or that without peril of perishing for ever 4. Whereas in the second Homily entituled Against the Peril of Idolatry and approved by the 37th Article it is declared That Images teach no good Lesson neither of God or Godliness but all Error and Wickedness he the said Mountague does maintain Images may be used for the Instruction of the Ignorant and Excitation of Devotion 5. That in the same Homily it is plainly expressed That the attributing certain Countries to Saints is a spoiling God of his Honour and that such Saints are but Dii tutelares of the Gentile Idolaters yet the said Mountague in his Book entituled A Treatise concerning the Invocation of Saints affirmed and maintained That the Saints have not only a
leaving a Horse alive still in hopes of the Relief promised from England they held out so long till but 4000 of 15000 were left alive most of them died of Famine and when they began to be pinch'd with Extremity of Hunger they died so fast that they usually carried their Coffins into the Church-yard and other Places and therein laid themselves and died great Numbers of them being unburied and many Corps eaten with Vermin Ravens and Birds when the French Army entred the Town The Outrages committed against the Reformed Churches in France were so high as constrained them to implore King Charles his Aid in these Expressions That what they wrote was with their Tears and Blood But how unhappy soever this Prince's Fate was in War abroad yet it had been happy for him if he had not made his Fate worse at home and now let us see what Steps he made towards it even in this short Recess of the Parliament's Meeting Upon the 15th of July the King made Sir Richard Weston who died a declared Papist Lord Treasurer of England and the same Day translated Laud the Firebrand of the Arminian Faction to the Bishoprick of London whose next Step was Arch-bishop of Canterbury who that he might testify his Zeal to this Cause which after set all these Nations on Fire got Richard Mountague to be consecrated Bishop of Chichester the 24th of August following This Mountague was fierce for Arminianism and wrote a Book call'd A new Gag for an old Goose for which he was questioned in the Parliament of 23 Jac. and the Cause was committed to Arch-bishop Abbot which then ended in an Admonition and though the Arch-bishop disallowed the Book and sought to suppress it yet it was reprinted and dedicated to King Charles under the Title of Appello Caesarem Hereupon the Commons 1 Car. questioned Mountague for this and gave Thanks to the Arch-bishop for what he had done but this displeased the King who took the Business out of the Commons Hands but they had taken Bond of Mountague to appear I desire to be more particular herein because Arminianism was not only turn'd up Trump for the flattering Clergy to play their Game but for the Popish Party to undermine the Church of England as it was established by Law and the Canons Doctrine and Homilies of it and now Mountague's Cause was recommended to the Duke of Buckingham by the Bishops of Rochester Oxford and Laud Bishop of St. Davids as the Cause of the Church of England Thus this Cause stood when the King dissolved the first Parliament the 12th of August 1625. But the King's Necessities as he managed Business forcing him to call another before assembled Laud procured the Duke to sound the King whether he would leave Mountague to a Trial in Parliament which the King intended to do whereupon this pious Man Laud said I seem to see a Cloud arising and threatning the Church of England God of his Mercy dissipate it Note that all those who were not of this Faction of Arminianism were stiled by them Puritans these Mountague treats with bitter Railing and injurious Speeches and inserts divers passages in his Appeal dishonourable to King James the Commons therefore prayed that the said Mountague might be exemplarily punished and his Books supprest and burnt Yet this is the Saint that Laud in the first Act of his Regency as it may be called after he became Bishop of London must have made Bishop of Chichester and after Bishop of Norwich But this is observable that while Neal and Laud were consecrating Mountague News came of the Duke's being stabb'd This was the first step after Laud's Preferment the next was a Pardon for Mountague and Manwaring of all Errors by speaking writing and printing and you cannot believe that Laud would be less kind to Manwaring than to Mountague and therefore notwithstanding Manwaring's Censure he procured Manwaring the fat Rectory of Stamford Rivers in Essex and a Dispensation to hold it with the Rectory of St. Giles in the Fields That you may see the Kindness of this Bishop of London to our Laws in the very Infancy of his Power When Felton was brought before the Lords of the Council for murdering the Duke Laud threatned Felton with the Rack unless he would confess his Inducement for murdering the Duke but the King then in Council refused till the Judges were consulted and said if it could be done by Law he would not use his Prerogative but though the Judges determined he could not be put to the Rack by Law the King was graciously pleased not to use his Prerogative yet this was no thanks to the Bishop of London Now let 's see the Fruits of the Petition of Right and the manifold-Declarations of the King for maintaining the Laws of the Land and the just Rights and Liberties of the Subject but here you may understand that though he had taken the Customs not granted by Parliament yet by virtue of his Prerogative Royal he had enhanced the Rates such as were never granted by any Parliament and declared it his absolute Will and Pleasure besides that of Wines that the 2 s. and 2 d. Duties upon every Hundred of Currants by the Book of Rates should be advanced to 5 s. and 6 d. in the Hundred The first that suffer'd under the King 's absolute Will and Pleasure was Mr. Chambers who was committed by the Lords of the Council this Michaelmass-Term and was bailed by the Court of King's-Bench for which the Judges were check'd having done it without due Respect to the Privy-Council Next Mr. Vassal's Goods were seized for not paying the 5 s. 6 d. upon every hundred pound Weight of Currants upon which the Attorney General Sir Robert Heath exhibited an Information against him in the Exchequer to which Mr. Vassal pleaded the Statute De Tallagio non concedendo and that this was neither Antiqua seu Recta Consuetudo to which the Attorney demurred and Mr. Vassal joined in the Demurrer but the Court would not hear Mr. Vassal's Counsel and said the King was in Possession and they would keep him so and imprisoned Mr. Vassal for not paying the Duty thus imposed About the same time the said Mr. Chambers's Goods were seized by the Customers for not paying such Customs as were demanded by the Farmers Mr. Chambers sues a Writ of Replevin the Barons grant an Injunction against it Mr. Chambers offers to give Security for Payment of such Duties as the Court should direct which the Court refused unless he should pay such Customs as demanded by the Farmers which Chambers refusing the Court ordered the Officers to detain double the Value of Chambers's Goods demanded by them The same Course was taken with Mr. Rolls's Goods though a Parliament-Man one of the Commissioners saying Privilege of Parliament extended only to Persons not Goods another more boldly told Mr. Rolls if all the Parliament were in you we would take your Goods These Proceedings so ill sorting with the Petition
told them that the King of his Grace and Favour upon their granting 12 Subsidies to be paid in three Years would forbear levying Ship-Money and abolish it and for their Grievances they should rely upon his Royal Promise and give as much time now as may be and after at Michaelmas next and that the King expected a positive Answer Hereupon the House was turned into a grand Committee and spent the whole Day upon the Message but came to no Resolution and desired Sir Henry Vane to acquaint the King that the House would next day proceed upon the King's Supply But next Morning early Secretary Windebank in actual Correspondence and Conspiracy with Richlieu's Chaplain for subverting our Religion and introducing Popery commanded the Speaker to Whitehall and the same Day the King dissolved the Parliament and the next Day the Lord Brook's Study Cabinet and Pockets were searched for Papers and Mr. Bellasis and Sir John Hotham were convened before the Council to answer concerning Passages in Parliament and giving no satisfactory Answer were committed Prisoners to the Fleet till further Order from the King and Council and Mr. Crew was committed close Prisoner to the Tower till further Order from the Council and no Cause shewed in either of these Warrants The greatest Objection against Hereditary Monarchy is that Princes Ears are always open to Minions Flatterers and Sycophants whereby they rarely understand the state of their own Affairs or of their Subjects To attemper this the Wisdom of our Constitution ordains That Parliaments be frequently held to represent to the King the state of the Nation and so to inform him of Grievances that they may be redressed And so inviolably has this mutual Correspondence between the King and Parliament been observed in all Ages that I do not believe any King or Queen of England and of the English Race since Henry 3. ever dissolved one Parliament in Displeasure before King James whereas of eight Parliaments these two Kings of the Scotish Race dissolved seven in Displeasure Yet never did Parliaments in any Reign demean themselves more chearfully to any King than to these two and I challenge any one to shew that in any one respect they intrenched upon any just Prerogative of either of these Kings or did any Act not warranted by former Precedents It 's true Queen Elizabeth would not endure to have the Parliament to meddle with the state of the Church as 't was established nor hear of declaring a Successor and when either of these were moved contrary to her express Order she would commit the Members but easily dismiss them otherwise I believe in no Age any Member of Parliament was ever committed or censured by any King of England before King James for debating or reasoning of the state of the Nation or Church In the 20th of Edward 3. John of Gaunt the King's Son the Lords Latimer and Nevil were accused in Parliament for misadvising the King and were sent to the Tower for it and Henry 4. Rot. Parl. 5. upon the Complaint of the Commons against four of his Servants and Counsellors that they might be removed declared openly That tho he knew nothing against them in particular yet he was assured that what the Lords and Commons required of him was for the Good of himself and Kingdom and therefore he banish'd them and at the same time declared he would do so by any other who should be near his Royal Person if they were so unhappy as to fall under the Hatred of his People Whereas this King tho the Duke of Buckingham were accused of more Crimes in Parliament than is recorded of Pierce Gaveston and the Spencers in 2d's time and of the Duke of Ireland Tresilian and Belknap in 2d's time and of the Death of this King's Father to boot yet rather than the Duke shall be brought to Trial the King dissolves the second Parliament of his Reign And in his Declaration for dissolving the three Parliaments calls the questioning his Ministers an Invasion upon his Prerogative and that through them they endeavoured to wound their Soveraign's Honour and Government Since the Statute De Tallagio non Concedendo in the Reign of Edward the I I think no mention has been made that ever any King of England taxed the Subject before this King and his Father except Edward the IV by Benevolence for which his Memory is bitterly stained in the Parliament-Roll of the second Chapter of Richard the III tho it be not in the printed Statutes and by a Loan demanded in the Reign of Henry the VIII by Cardinal Wolsey the raising of which had near raised a Rebellion which when it came to the King's Ear he laid the Blame upon the Cardinal and said he would not rend his Subjects from the Law and forbid further proceeding in it Arch-bishop Abbot excepts against his Licensing Sybthorp's Sermons for that the King 's taxing Loans by his own Authority was neither by the Laws nor Customs of England the King in his Answer says He did not stand upon the Laws and Customs of England for he had a Precedent for it and would insist upon it The Arch-bishop replied He thought it was a Mistake and feared there was no such Precedent and that Henry the VIII desired but the sixth part of Mens Estates but the King required the full six Parts so much as the Men are set at in the Subsidy-Book And when the Commons in the third Year of his Reign made a Remonstrance against the King's taking Tunnage and Poundage not granted by Parliament the King calls this a detracting from their Soveraign and commands all who have or shall have any Copies of it to burn them upon Pain of his Indignation and high Displeasure The King for Causes of dissolving this Parliament the last he shall ever dissolve begins with the usual Stile That he well knows that the Calling Adjourning Proroguing and Dissolving Parliaments are undoubted Prerogatives inseparably annexed to his Imperial Crown of which he is not bound to give any Account but to God alone no more than of his other Regal Actions But quid gloriaris Did ever any King of England say this before his Father and himself Or in what common-Law or Acts of Parliament is this to be found Or if he had such Power Why does the King so often boast of it Sure it had been better done by another than himself Is this a time of day when this Prince had lost all his Honour abroad to magnify himself that he has Power to dissolve Parliaments at home and thereby obstruct those Ways by which he might unite himself to his Subjects and then glory that he is only accountable to God for all his Actions Nebuchadnezzar's Boast Is not this the Babel which I have built was but a Bauble to this He said this but once and God sent him seven Years among Wild Beasts and he saw his Pride and he repented This King upon all Occasions makes his Boasts but I do not
Protestation wherein they Promise Vow and Protest in the Presence of God to maintain the true Protestant Religion expressed in the Doctrine of the Church of England and according to their Duty and Allegiance to maintain and defend his Majesty's Royal Person and Estate the Power and Privilege of Parliament and Liberties of the Subjects and to preserve the Union and Peace between the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland but herein was the Difference between the Scots and English the Scots would improve their Covenant and establish it in England but the English scarce ever after care for their Protestation However the Commons prevail with the Lords to take it and then impose it upon the Nation upon the Penalty of being deemed Malignants and Disaffected The King little pleased with what he had done and less with what the Houses had done without him follows the Scots into Scotland and there cajoles the Covenanters with all Courtship imaginable makes Lesley the Scots General Earl of Leven and confers other Honours upon the Covenanters calls a Parliament and consents to the Extirpation of the Hierarchy and establishes Presbytery as fully as the Kirk of Scotland could desire The Scots at present promise all Duty and Obedience to him but how well the King found it in a short time will appear Whilst the King was thus busied in Scotland a horrible and hellish Massacre was perpetrated in Ireland by the Irish upon the English wherein it 's computed above 200000 Protestants Men Women and Children were butcher'd after which followed an universal Rebellion excepting in Dublin Londonderry and Inniskillen which was headed by the Pope's Nuncio a most proper Head for such a Body Yet so intent were the Factions in England and Scotland in establishing their Designs that little care was had of the miserable Relicks of the Protestants in Ireland It appears evident to me that Richlieu's Scarlet was deep dy'd in the Blood of the poor English in this Massacre for these Reasons 1. That the Scots who at this time were Pensioners to France were not medled with in their Lives and Fortunes as you may see in Sir Richard Baker f. 315. a b. 2. The King being in Scotland when he heard of the Massacre of the English and Rebellion of the Irish he moved the Parliament of Scotland then sitting for a speedy Relief to the English which they refus'd And it 's strangely observable That tho the Massacre and Rebellion in Ireland brake out the 23d of October yet the King did not proclaim them Rebels till the first of January and then by Proclamation gave a strict Command that no more than forty of them should be printed and that none of them should be published till his Majesty's Pleasure was further signified Upon the King's going into Scotland the Parliament prorogued themselves to a certain Day But the Commons appointed a Committee to prepare Business against their next Meeting yet send Spies to observe all the King's Actions and after the King 's Return to London which was upon the 25th of November 1641 the House of Commons upon the 5th of December make a Remonstrance of all the King's Miscarriages abroad and of the Grievances and Illegalities of his Ministers at home from the beginning of his Reign and that the King might be sure to see it as well as hear of it they print and publish it The King not being used to such Language was stung to the quick by the Commons Declaration and to retaliate it in Act upon the third of January enters the House of Commons and demands five of their Members to be tried for High Treason for holding Correspondence with the Scots Than which he could not have done a more imprudent Act for by it he unravelled all that he had done in Scotland by involving the Scots in the same Crime But the Members had their Agents in the King 's most secret Councils and had notice of the King 's coming before and so the five Members were withdrawn This Act of the King did not only set the House in a Flame and put the City into Tumults but brought Petitions from Buckingham-shire where Mr. Hambden one of the Five Members was Knight that the Privileges of Parliament might be secured and Delinquents brought to condign Punishment All this while poor Ireland lay bleeding The King as unstable in his Resolutions as inconsiderate in his Actions retracts all he had done and promises not to do so again But to no purpose for the Members resolve not to trust his Royal Word Prerogative and absolute Will and Pleasure and therefore will tear the Power of the Militia from him Rather than suffer this tho upon the Pretence of Tumults the King resolves to leave London But before the King left London my Lord Mayor Sir Richard Gurney Sir George Whitmore Sir Henry Garoway and other principal Citizens waited upon the King and engaged if he would stay they would guard him with 10000 Men if occasion were and told him If he went he would leave the City open for the Members to do as they pleased and that they were sure to be first undone the King told them he was resolved Then Sir Henry Garoway said Sir I shall never see you again However his Eldest Son Mr. William Garoway a worthy Gentleman who yet lives went with the King and followed him in all his Wars The worthy Citizens proved true Prophets for soon after the King left London the Members imprisoned my Lord Mayor Sir Henry Garoway Sir George Whitmore and all others whom they suspected would be faithful to the King and then in London began to assume the Power of the Militia After the King left London he went to York and from thence went towards Hull but is shut out of the Town by Sir John Hotham whom the King proclaims Traitor and now before it came to Sword and Pistol Men began a War with their Pens And herein it is observable that the Writers for the King chiefly maintained his Cause out of Sir Coke's Pleas of the Crown which by Order of the King's Council was upon Sir Edward's Death-Bed seized as dangerous and seditious and I do not find any who wrote for the Parliament ever used any one Topick out of it to justify their Cause tho it and Sir Edward's other Books of the Comment upon Magna Charta and Jurisdiction of Courts were printed by Order of the House of Commons and by them petitioned that the King would deliver the Originals to Sir Robert Coke Sir Edward's Heir Whilst things were in this Hurly-burly in England Portugal and Catalonia revolt from the Spaniard which as it was a mighty Blow to Spain so it much conduced to the Advancing the Designs of Cardinal Richlieu in France In England things could not hold long at this Stay but upon the 22d of August the King comes to Nottingham and hastily sets up his Standard there and invites all his loving Subjects to come to his Assistance against the Rebels
Strangeness of the Discovery of Prance by Bedlow who had never but once seen Prance before and that by Candle-light and in a Peruke should yet upon the first Sight of him know him again without Peruke the other is the Clearness of Sir Godfrey's being murdered and the Body's being in Somerset-house upon Monday after the Murder the Saturday before and from hence it was that Prance became an Evidence in this Discovery Now let 's see how things stood upon the Meeting of the Parliament upon the 21st of October 1678 both abroad and at home And herein both Houses were as warm in Enquiry into them as the Court was cold It was but in January before that the Parliament had given the King 1200000 l. for carrying on a War against France in Conjunction with the Dutch and their Allies and upon their Meeting they found a treacherous separate Peace made by a Faction of the Dutch with the French and upon French Terms wherein the King had taken Money of the French to join with this Dutch Faction in it Besides the King's Guards which he might encrease as he pleased as well as keep up those he had there was now another Army raised which now it was of no further Use abroad they dreaded as much as they did the French Arms now he had subdued the Confederates by the Dutch Disjunction from them and the Discovery of the Popish Plot carried on at home whilst these things were thus agitated abroad was to them a Demonstration the same Councils which governed abroad did so at home And if the Parliament were thus amazed at their Sitting it was no way lessened when as they found that in this very Month no less than 57 Commissions were discovered for raising Soldiers granted to several Romish Recusants with Warrants to muster without taking the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy and the Test countersigned by Sir J. W. Secretary of State whereupon the Commons committed him to the Tower yet the King next Day discharged him with a Reprimand to the Commons but upon the Commons Address to the King about it the King as before in his Declarations of Indulgence promised to recal them However the Commons appointed a secret Committee to enquire to the Bottom of the Popish Plot who having made some Progress in it upon Friday the 1st of November came to this Resolution Nemine contradicente That upon the Evidence that has already appeared to this House this House is of Opinion That there hath been and still is a damnable hellish Plot contrived and carried on by Popish Recusants for assassinating and murdering the King subverting the Government and rooting out and destroying the Protestant Religion Which being the same Day communicated to the Lords they unanimously and readily concurred with the Commons in it and upon the 5th the Commons impeached the Earl of Powis the Viscount Stafford and the Lords Arundel of Warder Petre and Bellasis of High Treason The Commons having proceeded thus far in searching into the Popish Plot upon the 27th of November proceeded in their next Fear of the Army raised and now indeed in Flanders where the French Army raged after the Dutch had made their separate Peace without Opposition and the English Army only a Burden to the Country and of no Use to restrain the French Ravages and Voted 1. That it is necessary for the Safety of his Majesty's Person and preserving the Peace of the Government That all the Forces which have been raised since the 29th of September 1677 and all others which have been since that time brought over from beyond Seas from foreign Service be forthwith disbanded 2. It is the humble Opinion of this House That the Forces which are now in Flanders may be immediately called over in order to their disbanding 3. That the House would to Morrow Morning resolve it self into a Committee of the whole House to consider the Manner of disbanding the Army The five Popish Lords had been impeached by the Commons about a Fortnight and no Articles exhibited against them when the King gave the Commons an Account that he had given Order for seizing Mr. Mountague's Papers upon Information that he had held several Correspondences whilst he was Ambassador in France with the Pope's Nuncio without any Direction or Order of his Majesty But Mr. Mountague the same Day produced two Letters from my Lord Treasurer whilst he was Ambassador in France which being read the House resolved to impeach the Treasurer and the same Day ordered a Committee to draw up Articles against him which on Saturday the Committee did and on Monday following impeached the Treasurer upon them whereas the Commons had not yet exhibited any against the Popish Lords This was upon the 23d of December But if the Treasurer was constant to himself I do not understand how the Commons Impeachment of him in the 4th Article could consist with the King's Displeasure against him for the quite contrary viz. That he suppressed the Evidences and reproachfully discountenanced the King's Witnesses in Discovery of the Popish Plot And Sir William Temple says pag. 391. That the Treasurer was fallen into the King's Displeasure for bringing the Popish Plot into Parliament against the King's absolute Command However the Parliament granted the King 693388 l. to disband the Army and also an Additional Duty upon Wines for 3 Years but no more Money being like to come this Sessions upon Monday the 30th of December he prorogued the Parliament to the 4th of February next and then told them That it was with great Vnwillingness that he was come to tell them that he intended to prorogue them that all of them were Witnesses he had not been well used the Particulars of which he would acquaint them with at a more seasonable time but when will that be for he never saw them after In the mean time he would immediately enter upon the disbanding the Army and do what Good he could for the Kingdom and Safety of Religion and that he would prosecute the Discovery of the Popish Plot to find out the Instruments of it and take all the Care that is in his Power to secure the Protestant Religion as it is now established How well this was performed you 'll soon see and before the 4th of February he dissolved this Eighteen-year-old Parliament The Vogue went It was upon the Account of my Lord Treasurer tho I believe upon severer Thoughts it will seem rather to have been done upon the Account of the Popish Lords and Popish Plot. These Feuds in the Nation and Jealousies between the King and Parliament stifled the Apprehensions of the dreadful growing Power of the French King and made fair Weather for him to prosecute his boundless Ambition without any Regard of his Faith or Honour where-ever he could extend it Never did one Parliament succeed another so early as the next did this long Parliament for the King by his Proclamation dissolved the Long Parliament upon the 25th of
Forfeitures by Papists would be insignificant viz. remitted this intended Act did ordain that such Fines and Forfeitures one half should be to the Informers the other to charitable Uses But this Act being so contrary to the Duke's Design the Committee of Religion was discharged from meeting again and another short Act was brought into Parliament ratifying all former Acts for securing the Protestant Religion so that in this first Act the Duke pursued not his Instructions but went contrary to them and to the Custom of Scotland At the passing this Act the Earl of Argyle proposed that all Acts against Popery might be added which was opposed by the King's Advocate and some of the Clergy yet seconded by Sir George Lockhart and the President of the Sessions it passed without a Vote but such was the Jealousy of the Parliament that this did not secure the established Religion that several of the Members desired other Additions and Acts which the Duke in open Parliament promised when Time and Opportunity offered should pass but when at any time this was proposed the Test was obtruded If the Parliament were so zealous to secure the established Religion the Duke was not less to secure the Succession of the Crown of Scotland shrewdly struck at in England in the very Person of the Duke and to that end a Bill was brought in and passed wherein it was declared High Treason to affirm that the Succession of the Crown of Scotland can be altered from the next of Proximity of Blood but how agreeable this was to the Title of the Bruces and Stuarts who had no Title to the Succession of the Crown of Scotland but by Act of Parliament has already been shewed and how disagreeable this Act was to the Duke's Grandfather's Succession to the Crown of Scotland without any Act of Parliament let any Man judg This Act was not only thus contrary to the Laws and Usages of Scotland but the Act is equivocal if not contradictory to the Duke's Design for there is a difference between the next Heir and the next in Proximity of Blood as if a Man had several Sons and the eldest has a Son or Daughter his Father living and after his Father dies his eldest Son's Son is Heir and his other Sons and Daughters are next in Proximity of Blood the Heir being a degree in Blood further removed from the common Ancestor than his Uncles or Aunts and this was the case of Richard II. of England Son of the Black Prince Edward the Third's Eldest Son who succeeded to the Crown of England though his Uncles the Dukes of Clarence Lancaster York and Cambridg were nearer of Blood to Edward the Third This Act for the Succession of the Crown of Scotland was succeeded by another called the Test as contradictory to it self as contrary to the Act of Succession to be taken by all Persons in publick Trust in Scotland wherein they solemnly Swear in the Presence of the Eternal God whom they invoke as Judg and Witness of their sincere Intention of this their Oath That they own and profess the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith recorded in the first Parliament of King James the Sixth and believe the same to be founded on and agreeable to the Written Word of God That they will adhere thereto and endeavour to educate their Children therein and never consent to any Change or Alteration contrary thereto and renounce all Popish and Fanatical Doctrines inconsistent with the said Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith And by this their solemn Oath they Swear That King Charles the Second is the only Supream Governour of this Realm over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil and renounce all Foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope or any other Person and promise to bear true Faith and Allegiance to the King his Heirs and Lawful Successors and to their Power to defend all their Rights and Prerogatives And by this their solemn Oath they Swear They judg it unlawful for Subjects upon pretence of Reformation or any Pretence whatsoever to enter into any Covenants or Leagues or to convene c. in any Council to treat of any Matter of State Ecclesiastical or Civil without his Majesty's special Command or express Licence or to take up Arms against the King or those commissionated by him That they will never rise in Arms or enter into such Covenants or Assemblies That there lies no Obligation upon them by the National Covenant or the solemn League or Covenant or any other way to endeavour any Change or Alteration of the Government either of Church or State as by Law established and promise and swear to the utmost of their Power to maintain the King's Jurisdiction against all deadly and as they shall answer it before God and that they took this Oath in the true and genuine Sense and Meaning of the Words without any Equivocation Mental Reservation or Evasion and never to accept of any Dispensation from any Creature So God help them By these two Acts you may observe the Scotish Temper whether it were natural or in contradiction to the Kirk-Party I will not say nor how much higher it flew than the Tory in England but because of the extraordinariness of these two Acts it 's fit to make some Reflections upon them Such another Law as that of the Succession was made the twenty first of Richard the Second in the Case of Roger Mortimer which lasted not longer than the next Year after when the Law was not only repealed but Henry the Fourth succeeded contrary to it whereas this Law continued for above eight Years after when it not only lost its Force but another Face appeared in Scotland and so continues in spight of this Law Now from this treasonable Law let us make some Remarks upon this ranting swearing Law called the Test We have said elsewhere that all Oaths are assertory of the Truth of Things Speech and Actions in time past or promissory to do or forbear to do some Act in time to come and now let 's consider what is Truth and the End of an assertory Oath Truth is proper to intellectual and reasonable Creatures and is either the apprehension of intelligible Beings as God a Law the Soul Time c. which can never be the Objects of Sense and of the Causes and Consequences of Intentions Speech and Action for Sense is not of Futurity but of present Things and Actions the Consequence or Inference will be whether good or bad just or unjust c. However all intelligible Beings and the Causes of Things and Actions are ever assumed not sworn to and if another does not nor will assent to them swearing to the Truth of them will be to no purpose So it is of the Consequence of Speech and Actions if another be not convinced from the Reason of such Consequence or Inference swearing it to be so will never do it But though sensible Things Speech and Actions
are perceived by the Senses and understood to exist or be yet these are known to be by some and not by others and in Justice and Judgment the end of an assertory Oath is to inform the Judg of the Truth of what a Man knows which otherwise might be concealed and here I say that as God's Name in Religion Piety and Justice is to be invoked when it is not in vain but for God's Honour so otherwise to use or abuse his sacred Name in vain is dishonourable to God and makes it vile and contemptible Now let 's see how the ranting Swearing of this Test agrees with the Religion and Obligation of an Oath and observe it in its Particulars or Confusion It begins I solemnly swear in the Presence of the Eternal God whom I invoke as Judg and Witness of this my sincere Intention of this my Oath that I own and profess the true Protestant Religion contained in the Confession of Faith recorded in the first Year of King James the Sixth So that here is a most horrible Swearing and Invocation of God's sacred Name and yet neither an assertory nor promissory Oath for an assertory Oath is of some Act or Speech in time past which was transient and not when the Oath was taken and a promissory Oath is of time to come whereas in this Oath the Taker swears in the present time he does own the Protestant Religion recorded in the Confession of Faith in the first Year of King James the Sixth I believe there is such a Record intituled The Confession of Faith in the first Year of King James the Sixth because Spotiswood and other Scotish Authors say so but to swear by the Eternal God that it contains the true Protestant Religion when the Name is not in it is such an implicite Faith as can scarce be found in the most superstitious in the Church of Rome Christian Faith is a Belief of God's Revelations in the Scriptures to which if any add or dimniish his Name shall be blotted out of the Book of Life Rev. 22. 18 29. But where the Scots found their Confession of Faith in the first Year of King James Knox no where tells tho he was the Founder of it And I believe the same to be agreeable to the Written Word of God But what need you swear by the Eternal God you do so If you demonstrate or give the Reason of your Belief which you do not this might convince another which your Swearing never will That I will adhere thereto and endeavour to educate my Children therein The more obstinate Man you and so much the worse for your Children And never consent to any Change or Alterations thereto This might have been left out for if you adhere to it you cannot consent to any Change or Alteration And renounce all Popish and Fanatical Doctrines inconsistent with the said Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith I take a Renunciation to be a Disclaimure of what was before so that if you renounce all Popish and Fanatical Doctrines c. it seems before you owned them yet you neither tell what these Popish and Fanatical Doctrines are or wherein they are inconsistent with the Protestant Religion and Confession of Faith or how you come to know so and if you do not it ill becomes you to prostitute God's sacred Name to swear to what you do not know And by this my solemn Oath I swear that King Charles the Second is the only Supream Governour of this Realm over all Persons and in all Causes as well Ecclesiastical as Civil By which of your Senses do you know this by your seeing smelling touching or tasting Or if it be by another's having told you so will you swear to whatever another tells you Or if another should tell you that King Charles the Second is not the only Supream Governour c. will you swear by the Eternal God he is not so or if King Charles should be dead when you are swearing this which he may for ought you know how long will you hold of this Mind And that I renounce what again all foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope or any other Person If I cannot take your Word I 'll not think the better of it for your swearing to it And promise to bear true Allegiance to the King his Heirs and Lawful Successors 'T is well if you hold long in this Mind but before you renounced all foreign Jurisdiction of the Pope suppose and be not affrighted at it King Charles the Second and his Lawful Successor should now be contriving the bringing in this Foreign Jurisdiction how by the Eternal God would you beâ—â— Faith and Allegiance to them herein And to my Power defend all their Rights and Prerogatives c. Yet you neither declare what these Rights and Prerogatives are which you swear to defend and 't is twenty to one you do not know these Rights and Prerogatives and so you solemnly swear to you know not what or suppose the King and his Lawful Successor should say it was one of his Prerogatives to bring in the Papal Jurisdiction how would this consist with your solemn Faith and Allegiance to the King and his Lawful Successors and your renouncing all Foreign Jurisdiction And I judg it unlawful for Subjects upon Pretence of Reformation or any Pretence whatsoever to enter into any Covenants or Leagues or to convene c. in any Council to treat of any Matter Ecclesiastical or Civil without his Majesty's special Command and express Licence or to take up Arms against the King or those commissionated by him So that here you judg without any Reason of your Judgment and must have your Judgment pass for currant because you swear to it and at this rate you may swear and judg as you please and sure never before was ever Religion or Judgment established upon such Foundations That I will never rise in Arms or enter into such Covenants or Assemblies For all your swearing to this yet I believe my Lord Commissioner will not trust to your Oath and the rather because you were so loose to it in observing your solemn League and Covenant which you sware with as servent Affection as you now seem to do to this and with Hands and Heart lifted up to the most high God That there lies no Obligation upon me by the National Covenant 〈◊〉 solemn League and Covenant or any other way to endeavour any Change or Alteration of Government either in Church or State as now established Does there lie no Obligation upon you by the solemn League and Covenant c. to endeavour any Change or Alteration in Church or State why you as solemnly sware that as this and by that you sware to extirpate Prelacy and here you swear never to endeavour any Change of it Or do you think you please his Highness my Lord Commissioner herein whose Business it is not only to make Alterations but to subvert your Church and State And if you will
Doctrine of Passive Obedience had made a plain and easy Passage for the Popish Faction to take Possession of this Power The Bishop of London therefore after the Lords had voted an Address of Thanks to the King's Speech moved in the name of himself and all his Brethren that the House would debate the King's Speech which as it was extraordinary and unusual in the House so was it not less surprizing to the King and Court who now dreaded the Lords would concur with the Commons in their Address to prevent which the King first prorogued and then dissolved the Parliament and never called another in all his Reign And thus the King made good to the Parliament in his Speech to them the 28th of May That the best Way to engage him to meet them often was to use him well and did expect that they would comply with him in what he desired and that they would do it speedily that it might be a short Sessions and that he and the Parliament might meet again to all their Satisfactions and for the Bishop of London the King shall remember his Motion in due time when he shall plead no Privilege of Parliament The King having so ill performed his Promise to the Parliament of often meeting of them where he might hear of it again which by no means he would endure after he had dissolved them had a fair Field without any Rub to do what he pleased and to petition him or represent the Grievances of the Nation out of Parliament shall be a great Crime next to High Treason And now 't is time to observe the Steps the King proceeded by to maintain the Church and State of England as by Law established His Brother had laid the Foundation of making a Parliament felo de se by hectoring and making Bargains with Corporations to surrender their Charters and taking new ones from him whereby he reserved a Power that if they did not send such Members as pleased him he would resume the Charters he granted them and herein he made a great Progress till his Keeper and Attorney General refused to grant Patents to such poor Corporations as could not pay their Fees so as a new Keeper or Chancellor and Attorney-General must be had who would grant Patents gratis or a Stop would be made in the Progress of so noble a Design In a lucky Hour my Lord Keeper N died at Astrop-Wells I think when Jeffries was in his March to the West and for a Reward of my Lord Jeffries's Clemency that he shewed had the Seals given him with the Title of Lord Chancellour but the Attorney was not so lucky but lived to be turned out and another put in his Place which would perform his Office more charitably to these indigent Corporations which could not pay their Fees in taking new Patents after they had perfidiously betrayed their old But this was but one Step towards this Holy Work the King to make a thorow Reformation will make the Judges in Westminster-Hall to murder the Common Law as well as the King and his Brother designed to murder the Parliament by it self and to this end the King before he would make any Judges would make a Bargain with them that they should declare the King's Power of dispensing with the Penal Laws and Tests made against Recusants out of Parliament However herein the King stumbled at the Threshold for it 's said he began with Sir Thomas Jones who had merited so much in Mr. Cornish his Trial and in the West yet Sir Thomas bogled at this and told the King He could not do it to which the K. answered He would have Twelve Judges of his Opinion and Sir Thomas replied He might have Twelve Judges of his Opinion but would scarce find Twelve Lawyers of his Opinion The Truth of this I have only from Fame but I 'm sure the King's Practice in reforming the Judges whereof all except my Lord Chief Baron Atkins and Justice Powel were such a Pack as never before sat in Westminster-Hall gave credit to it But if the Lord Chief Justice Thorp for taking a Bribe of 100 l. was adjudged to be hanged and all his Lands and Goods forfeited in the Reign of Edward the 3d because thereby as much as in him lay he had broken the King's Oath made unto the People which the King had intrusted him withal and if Justice Tresilian was hanged drawn and quartered for giving his Judgment that the King might act contrary to one Act of Parliament and if Blake the King's Counsel Vsk the Under-Sheriff of Middlesex and five more of Quality were hanged in the Reign of Henry the 4th for but assisting in Tresilian's Judgment What then did these Judges deserve which made Bargains with the King before-hand to break the King's Oath he had made to the People and entituled the King to a Power to subvert the Laws and gave Judgment before-hand to act contrary to them Andrew Horn in his Mirror of Justice tells us That King Alfred the Mirror of Kings hanged Darling Segnor Cadwine Cole and 40 Judges more because they judged in particular Causes contrary to Law But sure this was not more to Alfred's Honour than it was to the Dishonour of King James to make Bargains before-hand with Judges to give Judgment contrary to the Laws themselves and unless they would break the King's Oath to his People they should not be his Judges The Laws and Constitutions of this Nation as has been already noted make it a Kingdom whereof the King is Head and the Nation the Body so that if you take away the Laws and Constitutions of the Kingdom there is neither King nor Kingdom Did not the King then descend from his Majesty in rending himself from his Kingdom by breaking Laws whereby he ceases to be a King and the Nation to be a Kingdom And what was it for that the King would not be content with the Soveraignty he had over the Nation wherein his Majesty consisted but would strain it into a Tyranny over the Nation It was to introduce a foreign exploded Dominion of the Pope denied by our Saviour and asserted by the Devil whereby how absolute soever the King would be over his Subjects yet himself and Kingdom must be at the Pope's Disposal to be deposed and destroyed as the Pope pleased Bishop King in the State of the Protestants in Ireland fol. 18. gives this Account of one Moore a Romish Priest who preached before the King at Christ's Church in Dublin in the Beginning of the Year 1690 where he told him to his Face that he did not do Justice to the Church and Churchmen and amongst other things said That Kings ought to consult Churchmen in Temporal Affairs the Clergy having a Temporal as well as Spiritual Right in the Kingdom but Kings had nothing to do in the Management of Spiritual Affairs but were to obey the Orders of the Church Thinking Men could not conceive this dispensing with the Penal Laws
of Indulgence was an unlawful Act and that if they had submitted to the King's Will to have enjoined it to have been read in all Churches and Chappels of their respective Diocesses it had been an unlawful Act which was one Reason they could not comply with the King's Will and that this Declaration was not intended a Favour to the Protestant Dissenters but a Design to ruin the established Religion and Church of England and the enjoining the Bishops to have read was a Design upon their Persons as well as the Declaration was upon the Church and that the King professed himself to be of the Popish Religion which they believed and declared to be Idolatry in the worshipping Images and derogatory to God's Honour by Invocation of Saints whereby they grant to Creatures an Omniscience which is inseparable from God and only to be ascribed to him and that the King had owned the Papal Power which not only claims a Dominion over all Kings and Kingdoms to be at the Pope's disposal and who had declared the Church of England to be Heretical Schismatical and Sacrilegious Persons with whom no Faith is to be kept but had assumed a Power equal or superiour to God himself in dispensing with God's Laws and setting its own above them by sending his Ambassador to the Pope and receiving his Nuncio With what Conscience then could the Bishops approach God's Altars in their highest Acts of Devotion and in the Prayer for the Parliament declare to God that he is their most religious King and in the Litany to pray to God to keep and strengthen the King in the Worship of God or Religion which the King profest And how could they delare to God he is their most gracious Sovereign when he had imprisoned them for not submitting to his unlawful Will and had owned a Power which had declared them Hereticks Schismaticks and Sacrilegious Persons who were by all ways and means to be extirpated from the Face of the Earth Yet the Bishops by their Canonical Obedience were as much obliged hereto and to enjoin the Clergy in their respective Diocesses to offer these Praises to God as they were not to obey the King's Will by enjoining the King's Declaration of Indulgence to be read by all the Clergy in their Diocesses To this Dilemma had the flattering Church and State in King Charles the II's Reign tho intending it against the Presbyterians by their Act of Vniformity brought the Church and State too in the Reign of King James But lest this establishing of Popery should have no longer support than in the King's Life a new Miracle is to be added to the Legend for the next day after the Bishops were committed to the Tower the Queen was brought to Bed of a Prince of Wales so that now they had got a Prince of Wales and the Queen received the Consecrated Clouts and the Pope by his Nuncio is become God-father a Foundation so infallible is laid for exalting the Papal Chair and extirpating the Pestilent Northern Heresy that it's Heresy to doubt it But Man purposes and God disposes and in truth without God's special Assistance not only these Dominions of England Scotland and Ireland but all the Western Parts of Europe were not to be retrieved out of I may say even a desperate State for in England the King had a standing Army of above 20000 Men and the Whigs were but too forward to congratulate the King in his Designs and in humouring him in giving him up their Charters as the Tories in King Charles his Reign in their Abhorrences of the King 's calling a Parliament and as forward then as the Whigs now in surrendring their Charters The Protestant Army in Ireland not only disbanded by Tyrconnel and a Popish Army set up but the Protestants disarmed and Scotland so perfectly subdued that there the King 's Absolute Will without reserve must pass for Law The King of Spain so weak as not able to defend himself much less relieve others the Empire engaged in a War against the Turks in the East so as the Western Parts were in no Condition to repel the Impression the French should make upon it The Kingdoms of Sweden and Denmark remote and at such natural Enmity with one another that if one should side with France or England the other would engage against it and tho Holland were considerable elsewhere at Sea yet their Strength at Sea was inferiour to the English but much more in Conjunction of the French with the English However something must be done for Modesty in this State had been the highest Crime and of all Foreign Princes the Prince of Orange was most immediately concerned not only in the Oppression of the French King upon his Principality of Orange and the Dangers which threatned the Vnited Provinces by the swelling Grandeur of the French but by the King 's Arbitrary Proceedings in England for the Princess was the Presumptive Heir to the Crown of England and Scotland And since it is the Laws and Constitutions which erect these Nations into Kingdoms whereof the King is the Head then if the King destroys the Laws and Constitutions he is neither King nor the Princess of Orange Presumptive Heir to them besides since the King had assumed a Power of Dispensing with the Laws he might as well in Dispensing with the Succession and the Prince was well assured neither those about the King nor the Pope would much favour his or his Lady's Title to the Crown nor was the introducing the Prince of Wales into the World intended to have either the Prince or Princess come to the Crown of England The Prince of Orange thus injured by both these Kings and being denied the Benefit of any Humane Laws for redress has recourse to God and his Sword for relief and opposes the Justice of his Cause against the Potency of his Adversaries Nor does he take up his Sword to vindicate his own Rights only but for restoring the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to their antient Rights Laws and Privileges invaded by King James and to put a stop to the French King 's boundless Ambition and Tyranny in Murdering Ravaging and Destroying rather than making a War upon all his neighbouring Princes not dispossest and ruined by him A Design so great by so little a Prince as no less than a Divine Power could inspire him to such an Undertaking The Prince these two last years had several Conferences with the Electors of Brandenburg Saxony and the Princes of the House of Lunenburg and other Princes of Germany it 's believed in concerting Measures how to behave themselves against the Designs of these two Kings but the Results were so secret that I find no mention of them But how secret soever these Results were yet the Preparations to put them in Execution could be no Secret especially the Naval Preparations by Sea though the Dutch Ambassador assured the King they were not intended against him yet refused to communicate
luxurious and vicious Prince and that Ferdinand II. after the Victory at Prague endeavoured to subject the Freedom of Germany by force which brought the Swedes into Germany and the French siding with the Swedes took Philipsburg and Brisac upon the Rhine which opened the two Passages into the Empire by which this present King has been enabled to make those Wars and Ravages in the Empire which have since succeeded After the Restoration of King Charles II. the whole Series of his Reign was employed in assisting the French in all their ambitious Designs so did the Dutch and Dane when he had engaged them in a War with England and the Oxford Parliament first made the Act against the Importation of Irish Cattel whereby they disjoin'd the Interest and Dependency of Ireland upon England and fixt it upon France and other Countries which traded with them and enabled the French and Dutch to victual Ships cheaper in their Fisheries and other Trades than the English could as much to their Benefit as Prejudice to the English How King James II's Conjunction with the French had brought these Nations and Christendom to the Brink of Destruction was said in his Reign In this state these Kingdoms stood when God was pleased to give them Deliverance by the Interpoâ—tion of his present Majesty and now all the neighbouring Nations upon France I mean Spain the Empire Savoy and the Dutch as well as England were alarmed at their common Danger by the French Ambition and Grandure and all their Eyes were upon England as if from thence they expected Safety and now was the King of England again become the Arbitrator of Christendom after the four former Kings were so contemptible and neglected by it But in two things the French King's Ambition or rather Madness put some Check to his aspiring Designs viz. his Contests with the Pope about his Franchizes at Rome and the Regalia's of France and by the Extream on the other side in his revoking the Edicts of Nants and his Dragooning and Reforming the Protestants of France whereby he lost innumerable of his Subjects to the weakning of his own Power and that in double Proportion for his Enemies as he made them became so much the more numerous and stronger for those which became Exiles being an industrious sort of People had contributed highly to the Encrease of the Wealth of France so that now the Charge of the War must have been supported by those he left yet in this state France alone for above six Years made an offensive and victorious War by Land against Germany Spain Holland the Spanish Netherlands and the Duke of Savoy tho all these were assisted by the Power of England and Scotland Tho England embraced their Deliverance by the King Ireland did not nor was it their Interest for why should the Irish join with the English who would have no Trade with them against the French upon whom the Irish depended by their Trade and Commerce And it 's observable That tho the French assisted the Irish above three Years in their Wars against the English yet it may be a Question Whether the French did not gain more by their Trade with Ireland for Wools Tallow Raw Hides and Provisions for their Fleet than their Expence for carrying on the War against the English did amount to whereas the English in the War were at a foreign Expence and being a Naval War were forced to victual their Fleets at one third greater Expence than the French could do from Ireland Another Advantage the French had over the English in this Naval War was that Brest lying South of Ireland every Wind not North in one Course carries their Fleet to Ireland whereas Chatham from whence the English sent their Fleet to oppose them lies fivefold more remote from Ireland than Brest does nor can the Ships from Chatham be carried to Ireland but by different Winds and steering different Courses almost from all the Points of the Compass for it must be after the Ships are come within the Buoy of the Nore a South or South-west Wind to carry them to the Buoy of the Gunfleet before they turn into the Deep Waters then a quite contrary Wind brings them into the Downs and Channel and when they have sailed above a hundred Leagues another Wind carries them to Ireland From hence it was principally that the French for above three Years together so long as the War lasted sent out their Fleets upon the Coast of Ireland did their Business and returned to Brest before we could get out our Fleets to oppose them Yet Falmouth and Milford-Haven are much better Ports and lie better and more conveniently than Brest Milford much more to have relieved Ireland and oppose the French Designs at Brest yet from neither did we send one Ship to do it I suppose if the Reason hereof be asked it will be answered That there were no Docks Shipwrights or Naval Stores in either to have supplied our Men of War in those Ports But from whence comes this to pass There were two Reasons hereof from within and from without from within Foy and Haverford-West and the Port Towns generally of England are Corporations and the Inhabitants poor yet proud of their Prerogatives in excluding the rest of the Nation and so have so much less means for building Ships Docks or carrying on the Fishing or any foreign Trades as the Inhabitants are fewer and poorer and generally they are all Beggars The other Reason from without is the Act of Navigation against Foreigners partaking equal Benent in Trade with the Natives of England so that tho God and Nature have endowed this Nation with more excellent and noble Ports than any Nation in the World of like Bigness except Ireland for the Benefit and Convenience of the Nation yet by the Iniquity and Folly of our Laws we have made them vain and of no use to our selves nor any other Nation whereas I am confident the French King would give any of his new conquered Provinces in the Spanish Netherlands to have one such Port as either Falmouth or Milford Haven upon the Coast of Normandy or Bretaign within the Channel Notwithstanding these Obstacles the Kingdom of Ireland is again reduced to the Dominion of the Kingdom of England But I say tho we should destroy the French Fleet of War yet if we do not redress the Oppressions which the English in their Trades and Navigation lie under the Nation will be no ways secured from the growing Greatness of either French or Dutch for the same Causes will have the same Effects EXPEDIENTS by which the English Nation may be secured against the growing Greatness of the French and Dutch APOLOGY WE have epitomized the Causes of the declining of the Wealth Strength and Trade of England in this Epilogue that they may be more obvious to the Reader than if he should look for them as they lie dispersed in the Body of the History and I am conscious to
Indulgence to be read in Churches 644. Jefferies the Commons Votes against him 556. Releases the impeached Lords 611. His savage Cruelty in the West c. 613 620 621. Is made Lord Chancellor 630. Jesuits their Projects in England 200 201. for which some were taken yet releas'd by the King 201. Ignoramus the Play 74. Ingoldsby sent against Lambert 420. Inoiosa Spanish Ambassador presents the King a Paper against the Prince and Buckingham 130 132. which much perplexes him 132 133. Johnson Mr. Samuel whipt for writing an honest Address to the English Army 638 639. Jones Sir Tho. his Thoughts of a Dispensing Power 630. Sir Will. put out and for what 546. Ireland how bounded c. 12. A horrible Massacre there 277 343. Another design'd 448. and a Rebellion in Conjunction with the French 472 533. K. James's Proceedings there 624 625 632 641. Irish Cattle Act to prohibit their Importation with 9 Observations upon it 462 467. Is made perpetual 559. Judges their Opinion for Ship-Money 258. Those made by Char. II. 501. Juries hated by Cromwel 400 401. Are pack'd to murder honest Men 601 602 611. Jurisdiction of Parliaments discust in relation to Fitz-harris 588 590. Jus Divinum 330 332 544. Juxton Bishop of London made Lord-Treasurer 265. K. KIngs their divided Will against Law 5. Never parted with Parliaments in Disgust till the Stuarts 205 267. Not wont to be present at Debates in Parliament 502. Never speak but in Parliament or under the Great-Seal 568. Kirk Maj. General his barbarous Inhumanity at Taunton 622. Kirk-Party strict with James VI. 34. Mind the King of his Covenant 443. See Scots L. LAmbert turns against Cromwel 399. After against his Son 406. Is made Lieutenant-General 408. Petitions the Rump 409. Is turn'd out by them ib. and after turns them out 410. Marches against Monk 412 414. Is sent to the Tower 416. Is routed and taken Prisoner 421. Langdale Sir Marmad his Success for the King 309. Is discontented 311. Laud his Rise and Character 122 123. Puts the King on altering Religion in Scotland 122 123 242 255 256 260. Gets a Bishoprick by playing the Spaniel 123. His ways to ruin Bishop Williams 124 239. Proves a Firebrand c. 157 166 167 226 239 242. Is made Bp of London 226. Favours Popery 231. His great Care of the Church 167 227 241 242. Prosecutes his Injunctions concerning Ceremonies with great Severity 254 255 257 258. Quarrels with the King about visiting the Vniversities 256 257. Procures an Alteration in the Church of Scotland 262 263. Lauderdale some account of him 441 442 454. Is bitter against the Presbyterians in Scotland his Highland Government there 490 491. Laws c. ought to be in the Mother-Tongue 363 404 405 665. Lenthal made General by the Rump 408. Lestrange Roger Champion of the Tory-Cause 500. Is employ'd to ridicule the Popish Plot 545. Levellers in the Army 318. Liberty of Conscience to be continued 662. See Dissenters and James II. Lindsey Earl sent to relieve Rochel but in vain 225. Lisle Lady her unparallel'd Case is basely murder'd 620. London on ill Terms with the King 272. yet lend him Money 273. Raise Souldiers under Waller c. 321. In Confusion 414. Join with Monk for a Free Parliament 419. Is set on fire 461. See Hubert Long Mr. sentenc'd in Star-Chamber 234. Lorain Duke basely dealt with by the French King 474. Lords five impeach'd by the Commons 535. See Jefferies Lowden Chancellor of Scotland his Speech concerning Cromwel 303 304. Ludlow deposes Henry in Ireland 408. M. MAckenzy Sir Geo. pleads against the Earl of Argyle 584 585. Magdalen-College Story 640. Mansfield denied landing at Calais contrary to Agreement 146. Manwaring for the King 's absolute Power 197. Impeach'd by the Commons and sentenc'd by the Lords 214 215. Is promoted by Laud 227 256. Marriage with France see Charles I. Marsilly murder'd at Paris to the Dishonour of K. Charles 479. Marston-Moor Fight 307. Maurice Prince for the King 298. Is lost in the W Indies 327. May Tho. Esq his Treatise of the Civil Wars disprov'd 280 295. Mazarine turns K. Charles c. out of France 383. His Success against the Pr. of Conde 388 389. and Loss at Ostend 402. Opposes K. Charles's Restoration 421 422. Meal-tub-Plot discover'd 546. Militia who shou'd have the Power of it the chief Cause of the War 296. Whether it belongs to King or Parliament ib. 329. Mombas betrays the Dutch 484 486. Monk takes Sterling-Castle and Dundee 347. Complies with Cromwel 359. Engages the Dutch 356 371 372. Is caress'd on his Victory 373. Sent to Scotland 383. His Pedigree and Story 384 385. His Regency in Scotland 410. Is much courâ—ed secures Berwick 411. His ill Success treats with the Committee of Safety but displeas'd with the Agreement with a Story of him 412 413. Sends to Fleetwood summons a great Assembly at Edinburgh abjures K. Charles 413. His Success 412 416. Is declar'd for in Ireland 412. Marches to London is addrest for a Free Parliament 416. Is carest by the Rump his Speech to them 417. Pulls down the Gates of the City sends an angry Message to the Rump 418. Declares for a Free Parliament at Guild-hall and restores the secluded Members 419. Meets the King at Dover and is made Knight of the Garter 426. Monmouth Duke sent against the Covenanters 543. 'T was believ'd his Mother was married to the King and why 544. Is unjustly put to Death 619. Monopolies injurious 55 56 65. Montross for the King 313 315 316. Is routed and executed 344. Morley Col. Herbert secures the Tower for Monk 418. Mountague accus'd by the Commons of Arminianism 166. Is favour'd by the King 166 167 171 226. Impeach'd by the Commons for favouring Popery 180 183 226. Made Bp of Chichester 226. and after of Norwich 227. Holds Correspondence with the Pope 273. Muscovy the Czar revokes the English Privileges on K. Charles's Death 350. N. NAseby Fight 311 312. Navigation-Act made by the Rump 350. Its Inconveniences 364 367 391 455 653 658. Nayloâ— James his Blasphemy 396 Newberry first Fight 299. Second Fight 308. Newfoundland Fishery how the French got it from us 390 391. North Sir Francis a Tool in the late Times 592. Promoted 603. Northampton Earl concern'd in Overbury's Death see Carr and Overbury Yet in favour with the King tho a Papist 72 73 Incourages the Irish Papists 74. November 5. appointed an Anniversary Thanksgiving 58. Noy Mr. against the Court 208. Is taken off by being made Attorney-General 243. His Pretence for Ship-money c. 252. O. OAtes Dr. first discovers the Popish Plot 532. His excessive Fine 610. Indicted of two pretended Perjuries 610 613. His barbarous and illegal Punishment 613. Oaths Remarks on that of the Scots Covenant 368 438. on the Convocation-Oath 369 438. on the Corporation-Oath 431 439. Orange Prince General for the Dutch 486. Declar'd Stadtholder is courted by the French King his noble Answer to his Proposals