severe Account by an Armed Power from the King they chose one Mackdonald for their Captain who readily enough embraced the Command and shortly after routed some Troops sent against them under the Conduct of a Nobleman whom they took Prisoner and afterwards slew with which Success they were not a little elated and flushed Hereupon the King call'd a Council to consult what to do among whom Mackbeth so famed upon the Stage was one who exclaiming much against the Precariousness of the Government and the mistaken Lenity of the King towards notorious Offenders did notwithstanding promise that if they were pleased to leave that Affair to his and Bancho's Management he did not doubt but in a very short time to give a good account of the Rebels Hereupon he and Bancho were joyn'd in Commission to go against them and in some time set out with a Body of Men towards Lochquaber The fame of whose Approach struck the Enemy with such a panick Fear that they dispersed in great Numbers leaving their Captain Mackdonald almost destitute who notwithstanding with the small Remains he had left with him adventurously gave them Battle but being routed he fled for Refuge to an adjacent Castle and finding himself environn'd by his Enemies on all sides and no way left for his Escape he first slew his Wife and Children and then laid violent Hands upon himself to prevent as he dreaded a severer Punishment This Rebellion being thus happily supprest by the good Conduct and Managment of Mackbeth and Bancho another more dangerous Storm did upon the Neck of it threaten Scotland for Sweno King of Norway landed at Fife with a puissant Army designing no less than to make an entire Conquest of the Kingdom of Scotland Duncane to obviate as much as might be the Intentions of the Enemy raises Forces with utmost Diligence and next to himself entrusted the Command of them with the two aforesaid Chieftains Mackbeth and Bancho who had but a little while before done him signal Service against his Rebellious Subjects Near Calrose the two Armies engaged and fought for a considerable time with incredible obstinacy but at last the Danes prevailed and the Scots were totally routed and Duncane fled to the Castle of Bertha which Sweno laid close siege to forthwith Mackbeth in the mean time rallies and raises more Forces to whom the King by the Advice of Bancho sent word that he should not march to his Relief till he had further Orders The King in the interim entertains a feigned Treaty of Surrender with Sweno and to elude the Matter yet further sent his Army as a Donative some Provisions of Ale and Bread out of the Castle but had first mixt both with the Juice of Banewort a noxious Herb which did so intoxicate the Danish Soldiers who feasted greedily thereon that they generally fell all fast asleep upon which Mackbeth had Orders sent him to march up without delay and fall upon them which he did with that success that the whole Army was slain save the King and about ten Men more who with great difficulty fled to their Ships But the Rejoycings made for this Victory were scarce cold when another Danish Army sent by Canutus to the assistance of Sweno landed at Kingcorn which were also encountred by Mackbeth and Bancho and utterly routed Some time after this as Buchanan Boethius and other Scotch Writers relate tho' in a different manner As Mackbeth and Bancho without any other Company were agoing to a place called Fores where the King then resided it fortuned that they met three Women upon the Road of a very strange Aspect and Habit one of them saluted Mackbeth Thane of Angus another of Murrey and the third King of Scotland with which kind of Salutation they were both very much surpriz'd and Bancho said to the Women why so unkind to me as to bestow nothing upon me when you have assigned to my Companion not only high Preferments but even the Kingdom of Scotland Nay but reply'd the first of them we have greater Favours in store for thee he shall reign indeed but with an unhappy end and leave none of his Posterity to inherit the Crown but of thee shall those be born who shall govern the Scotch Nation by a long Succession of continued descent And this I take to be the Ground of Dr. Heylin's saying in his Scotia that it was strangely foretold this Bancho above three hundred Years before it began to be fulfill'd that he indeed should not be King but that out of his Loyns should come a Race of Kings that should for ever rule Scotland This Apparition for so it was afterwards interpreted made at first no great Impressions on the Spirits either of the one or the other so as that they made no other use of it than to jear one another ever and anon therewith Bancho frequently calling Mackbeth by way of ridicule King of Scotland and the other as often entertaining him with the Appellation of Father of many Kings till such time which happened not long after that the Thane of one of the foresaid places being condemned and executed for Treason Mackbeth was bountifully invested by the King in all his Lands Livings and Offices which being interpreted by him as a favourable Presage and as it were a Praeludium towards the Accomplishment of the foresaid Prediction concerning him it raised his Hopes mightily and he begins to set all his Wits on work and to imploy all his Engines among whom Bancho was chief who gave him all the Assistance he could in his bloody Designs for to attain to the Crown which not long after by a barbarous Parricide for a good King is Father of his Country he accomplish'd having slain the King at Inverness or as others write at Botgosvane in the sixth Year of his Reign and so was forthwith crowned at Scone Mackbeth to ingratiate himself with the People without which no Government tho' never so just can long subsist gets several good and wholsome Laws enacted for the publick Weal But this was an effect rather of Policy than any natural Disposition and good Genius in him as did afterwards appear and as Tyrants are always uneasie he was never without dreadful Apprehensions that he should be served the same sawce himself as he had done by his Predecessor and the Prediction foremention'd did not a little contribute thereunto especially that part of it that referr'd to the posterity of Bancho's attaining in time to the possession of the Diadem And as nothing is more terrible to a wicked Usurper than the Thoughts of a Successor especially without his own Line former Confederacies for the attainment of the Supream Power being now disregarded and quite effaced with the Cares to secure it for indeed there is but little Faithfulness to be expected from Associates in Villany be their mutual Engagements never so solemn he makes it his whole business to cut off Bancho who had been so instrumental to advance him
yet the Ministers have endeavoured to dissemble it with much Application and would make the drooping People believe it was a thing so inconsiderable as that it is in a manner quite repaired already and that their Fleet is already so reinforced as to be in condition not only to obviate the attempts of the Enemies Navy But after they have taken on board some Necessaries to put out to Sea and provoke them to a second Engagement To which end they have Published a List of Seventy Men of War besides Fâ—igâ—â—s c. that they pretend to have ready which I shall not trouble your Lordship with a Coppy of because I know it to be false And if the French Ministers are thus put to it to support their Master's Credit at this Juncture they are almost past all hopes at St. Germans where the late King and his disappointed Followers are arrived and who have nothing now to sollace themselves with but the happy delivery of his Queen of a Daughter Which second production it s hoped may overcome the obstinacy of Mens minds and make them at last believe the first was Genuine But if there were a cloud of unlucky circumstances that attended the former there is one already known to have accompanied this also viz. that the Delivery was so quick that Madame who was in this City and made all the hast she could to go to the Labour as soon as ever she had notice of it could not yet get thither soon enough The affairs of Flanders and other parts where the War is I forbear to touch on as supposing your Lordship has an exact account of all the Transactions that happen sooner and more truly too than I can inform you from hence where most things to their disadvantage are as cunningly veiled over as the successes are magnifyed wherefore I shall take my leave of you till something momentous does occur and only subscribe my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Devoted Servant Paris June 30. 1692. N. S. LETTER XXVII Conjectures of the French designs in the year 1693. against the Allies and of their Incendiaries to burn the Confederate Cities My Lord I am fully satisfyed what a great noise the scarcity of Bread in France makes in England and the other confederated Countries the misery indeed from that and other concurring causes is very great but yet what may seem to some less intelligent than your Lordship very little less than a Paradox is that the face of the Court is as splendid and gay as ever I have known it in the time of France's highest prosperity and nothing is talked of there my Lord but the mighty Armies they have on foot by Land and their great forwardness to enter upon Action as well as their their great power on the other Element I am assured the King will very shortly leave Versailles in order to be at the head of one of his Armies but whether he designs for Germany or the Neatherlands is yet a secret tho' the Vogue is that the intended Journey is for the latter and that provision is making for his Reception at Compeign and Valenciennes which I am told having occasioned a certain Courtier a day or two ago to say that that road leads directly for Flanders and the same discourse coming quickly to the King's Ears he made answer That a Man might go from Valenciennes to Germany Your Lordship may make what judgment you please upon the Expression I le leave it wholly to you and shall at present only further inform you that as I have formerly given you some account of what Fires have been kindled in several Cities of the Empire Hungary c. by the agency of this Court I have more than a suspition that the same practise is again set on foot and that there are very many incendiaries entertained by these Ministers to put the same in Execution in diverse parts of the Confederate Countries And I do desire your Lordship to believe that there is no villany they will boggle at for the compassing of their accursed ends as there is none but what I am very forward to discover to your Honour and proud of an opportunity so to do who am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and Obedient Servant Versailles April 14. 1693. N. S. LETTER XXVIII Of Proposals of Peace made by France to the Emperor and Empire in the year 1693. My Lord THe successes of the French Arms since the commencement of this unhappy War against the Empire of Germany does not hinder this Court as I am well assured to make overtures of Peace on that side particularly the motions whereof the Confederates are narrowly to watch to prevent the fatality of such a disjunction in their present Allyance The Swedes are very busy in promoting the Work and the terms that are offered are to this purpose as I had them communicated to me by a particular hand First That in general the King desires That the Treaties of Westphalia and Nemeghen may remain in full force and vigour Secondly That the Truce concluded at Ratisbonne in August 1684. for 20 Years may be changed into a defensive Treaty of Peace with such alterations as are here after explained as First That in recompence of the City of Strasburg which the most Christian King is in possession of and designs to keep Mont Royal and Trarback shall be rased and restored to the Prince to whom they belong provided that neither of them be re-fortifyed for the future Secondly That all the Works of Fort Louis and Hunninghen that are beyond the Rhine shall in like manner be demolished Thirdly That Phillipsburg with the fortress thereof shall be restored as also Friburg in the same condition they are in at present Fourthly That Heidelburg shall be given up to the Elector Palatine and all the dependances of the Palatinate notwithstanding the claim of his Sister-in-law the Dutchess of Orleans to several Lands and Fiefs therein which losses the King will take upon him to repair And as for Saar Louis Biche and Homburg he is willing take condescend to any equivalent for them of equal Revenue to the Elector Fifthly That as for Re-unions if Commissioners appointed on each side shall not be able to adjust them in a limiâ—â—ed time the French King will refer himself to the arbitration of the Republick of Venice I am further informed my Lord that Cardinal Fourbin has orders to sollicite this point also with the Pope and to acquaint him how willing the King is to compose the affairs of Europe and those of Italy in particular and that himself shall have plenary Power to draw and regulate the conditions provided that in the first place the Restoration of the late King James be absolutely concluded upon with which I shall also conclude this Letter from My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris Aug. 11. 1693. N. S. LETTER XXIX Of Libells in France against the Government c. My Lord I am not to give your
for Spectacle did not inordinately break forth into any bitter Words but only said with a calm Temper If the faults were true which have been laid to their Charge the King had done nothing but what is Right and Just unto them As this King's Reign was usher'd in with the foresaid Troubles it continued to be in a ferment upon other Accounts and particularly for the great Pension raised for his Ransom and for raising of other Moneys which tho' the Revenues were exhausted was interpreted Covetousness in him But in the thirteenth and last Year of his Reign a sharp Rencounter happening between Henry Percy and William Dowglas Earl of Angus at a place call'd Piperden in the Kingdom of Scotland James thinking himself injured hereby by the English as the Scotch Historians write but Hall and Graston charge him home with Ungratitude herein raises a great Army and lays Siege to the Castle of Roxborough but when as the Scotch write he had almost brought his Work to Perfection and that the besieged began to capitulate about surrendring of the place the Queen in all haste came to the Camp and acquainted him there was a horrid Conspiracy framed against his Life and conjured him to use all the Precautions imaginable to secure himself The King was surprized with the Message he forthwith raised the Siege and returned home to provide for his better safety tho' all avail'd little But that you may have a clearer Idea of the whole Matter we must a little look back and tell you again that Robert II. had three Sons by his Concubine whom he afterward married and so settled the Crown upon them to the Exclusion of his two legitimate Sons by his Queen Euphemia Ross who were Walter Earl of Athol and David Earl of Strathern Now these two tho' they found themselves injured by such a Preference of an illegitimate Race before them Yet being inferiour both in Years and Wealth they dissembled their Resentment for the present The Death also of the Earl of Strathern weakned their Hands who left one only Daughter behind him who was given in Marriage to Patrick Graham a noble Youth and a most potent and illustrious Family as any in that Age on whom he begat Melisse Graham whose Parents did not long survive And the Child not many Years after being then a Stripling was sent into England among those who were Hostages till the Money for the Kings Ransom were discharg'd and paid But Atholl tho' he were every ways inferior to the opposite Faction yet ever made it his Business to take off his Kindred and did not lay aside his Hopes of recovering the Crown and because he was not capable of doing any thing by open force he craftily sowed Discord among them and so plied the Matter that as has been already in some measure set forth a very numerous Family were reduced to a few for the most part by his Council For many were of Opinion that it it was by his Contrivance that David Duke of Rothsay King Robert's Son was cut off neither had James escap'd his Snares unless he had spent the greatest part of his Life in England far from his reach He would have encouraged the Earl of Fife to seise upon the Kingdom taxing his Brother with Slothfulness and fit to be taken off and when the King having now no Children to succeed him for James was then a Prisoner in England and obnoxious to the Pleasure of his Brother had suddenly died of Grief there was only the Governor now and his Children that impeded his Hopes But when Robert the Governor was dead and his Son John kill'd at the Battle of Vernole in France he re-assumed his former Thoughts with greater Vigour and strain'd all his Wits to compass the same first by getting of King James released and then contriving Duke Mordo's and his Children's Death and since it was almost inconsistent that all these should subsist and be safe together he foresaw that which soever fell of them he was one degree nearer to the Crown Therefore when James was at last return'd to his Country he set all his Engines on work to hasten Mordo's death finds out fit tools to bear Testimony against him and set himself as Judge upon him and his Children and when they also were cut off there was only King James and a young Son of six Years old that stood in the way and when he by a conjuration of the Nobility were once removed the Earl did not doubt but himself who was the only surviving Person of the Royal Stem should be advanced to the Throne Atholl therefore I say being night and day agitated with such Considerations did however keep all his Designs close and secret and thro' a counterfeit Zeal for the King's Welfare made it his Business to cut off his Relations and Friends and more especially to advance his own Estate by the Misfortune and Crimes of other Men and so to lessen his Adversaries In the mean time King James to further his own Misfortune deprived Melisse Graham who we have said was one of the Hostages in England of the Earldom of Strathern alledging it was bestowed on his Grandfather of the maternal side and his Masculine Line and for want of such Issue to revert to the Crown The Misfortune of the young Man induced many to commiserate his Case but made Robert his Guardian almost stark mad and so being more impatient of the Injury offer'd to his Kinsman stuck not to accuse the King openly of unjustice and being cited to appear to make his defence but did not a Sentence of Banishment pass'd against him This did but enrage him more and more and his whole Business seem'd to be to engage others who had been injur'd in their own Persons or Friends to entertain the same Sentiments of the King in respect to his Avarice and Cruelty as he had done but it had been well if he had rested here You have heard before how the King was advertised of a Conspiracy against him at Roxborough and how the King to obviate the same retired home and took up his Lodgings in the Convent of the Dominicans at Perth and what Designs Walter Earl of Atholl had been hatching from time to time Now this Walter the King's Uncle tho' he were Principall Author and Contriver of the Conspiracy yet he did his utmost endeavour to put off all manner of Suspition of it from himself therefore he privily sends for and discourses with Robert Graham afore-mentioned who as being an active bold rash Man and an hater of the King upon account of his own Imprisonment and â—anishment and the Injury done to his Nephew by divesting of him of the Earldom of Strathern he thought to be a Person most fit for his purpose and with him he engaged his own Grandson Robert Stuart a stout hardy Youth who readily engaged in the Work He instructs them what they were to do assured them of his favour when the Fact was perpetrated
Man as the Chancellor and without delay raises Forces and Besieges him in Edenburg Castle He perceiving the danger had no other way left but to send to the Earl of Dowglass for his Assistance Dowglass disdains them both and would not be concerned The Chancellor seeing this agrees with the Governor and he was still to keep the Castle and his Chancellorship Not long after died Dowglass and was succeeded by his Son William who kept a greater port and retinue than his Father But things could not hold long in this State for the Chancellor disdaining that the Governor should take the whole Administration upon him leaves him and the King at Sterling where he then was and repairs to Edenburg and there imploys all his Wits how he might recover the King from the Governor and after he had well thought of it he rides one morning with four and twenty Men in his Company to the Park of Sterling where he knew the King was a Hunting and that the Governor was absent at Perth He found the King with a very small retinue and saluted him very dutifully and finding him in some surprize at the Company he exhorted him in a few words as the time would permit to be of good cheer and fear nothing that they were come to deliver him from his Captivity that he might be no longer under the Government of another but take the Administration into his own hands and much to the same purpose All which the King received with a pleasant aspect either because the motion pleased him as desirous to Rule or to dissemble the fear he had of the Chancellor and so went with him to Edenburg The Governor upon his return was horribly surprized at the News but being now unable to remedy the matter by the means of friends he and the Chancellor came to an Accommodation again and the result was that the Governor should still continue in his Office and the King remain in the keeping of the Chancellor as at first So that the freedom before tendred to him and with which he seem'd to be well pleas'd was now but a meer illusion being as much a Captive as ever And if the King was no better for this Agreement It proved fatal to the Earl of Dowglass Both Governor and Chancellor dreading his power now conbine together to ruine him and to that End a Parliament must be called where several Complaints were made against Dowglass and his followers But they two perswade the Parliament to send for the Earl in a friendly manner and not as a delinquent to take his place in that Assembly And by the Governors contrivance Honourable Letters were directed to him in the Name of them all full of soothing expressions intimating his own Person was so far from being in any danger by such his attendance in Parliament that if any of his Friends or Family had chanced to be guilty of any disorders all should be frankly remitted This bait took the young Gentleman and so with his Brother David and an handsom retinue sets forward for Edenburg the Chancellor the better to cloak the Treachery rode out many miles from Edenburg to meet him Caressed and Entertained him splendidly on the way at the Castle of Creichton and to blind him the more there in the most friendly and tender manner in the World began to advise the Earl in what concerned his Duty towards his Prince and the Honour and Glory of his Family and this showed him on to Edenburg tho' things could not be carried on so coverlly between the Governor and Chancellor in the management of this intrigue but that some of the Earls Friends began to smell a Rat and advised him not to go to Edenburg But finding him quite averse to Counsel and void of all suspicion they urged him to send his Brother David back to the End he might not hazard the whole Family under the fortune of one stroke as his Father had before admonished him upon his Death-Bed But all in vain and so to Edenburg Castle they came where the Governor meets him and Carressed him highly and because he should now think his Entertainment every ways suitable to the semblance made of it all along he was set to Dine at the King's Table but latet Angus in herba the Earl before he hâ—d well half Din'd was strangely surprized with the sight of a Bulls Head set before him which in those Days was a certain sign of Death whereat being about to rise from the Table he and his Brother David were immediately seized by Armed men set there for that purpose carried into the Court yard and there forthwith beheaded It was said the King in whose presence this was done and who now was entring into years of Maturity and Discretion lamented his Death bitterly for which the Chancellor severely rebuked him but however it was in this case it 's most certain he afterwards most barbarously murdered one of this Earls Successors with his own hands as you 'l see by and by This Earl of Dowglass was Succeeded in his Estate and Honours by his Unkle James Dowglass Baron of Abercorn who is Succeeded by his Son William who to prevent the division of the Inheritance Married the only Sister of the last William Beheaded who was Stiled the fair Maid of Gallaway This Earl flourishing in Estate and Honours and finding the King take the Administration of the Government upon himself came to Sterling and in a short time grew into high Favour with him insomuch that through his perswasion the Chancellor and Governor were not only discharged from their Offices but put out of the Council and their Friends banished the Court and themselves Summoned to appear before the King and upon default proclaimed Rebels so that now the Tables are quite turn'd Dowglass Rules all and the King suffers minority under him in his Just Age as he really did under the others during his nonage himself and his Kindred and Friends possessing all places of profit and Preferment in the Kingdom But the Earl having I know not what crochet in his brain must needs go into Italy and a Noble retinue he had with him but leaves his Estate during his absence to be managed by his Brother the Earl of Ormond His back was no sooner turned but his Enemies set all their Engines on work to put him out of the Kings Favour and good Esteem and prevailed so far upon him as to put out an unreasonable Summons requiring the Earl to appear within forty Days or else he should be put to the Horn and so his Lands were seized on to the Kings hands The Earl being advertised hereof returns with all speed and was again received into Favour But happening to go into England without leave this incensed the King highly against him yet upon submission was again reconciled But there was nothing could reconcile him and the Chancellor Creichton envy brought them to make attempts upon each other's life and at last the Earl
was so put to it that he was forced to flee out of Edenburg to save his own life whereupon he enters into a Confederacy with his Friends for his own security which together with some Depredations made in the Lord Ferres Lands by some of the Earls Tenants without redress from him upon Complaint made thereof enraged the King to an high degree against him But sore disorders still increasing through the Earls not punishing of the offenders at last Ferres makes an inroad by way of reprisal into his Lands was taken and by the Earls command was put to Death tho' the King by an Herault commanded the contrary so that upon serious Deliberation the King finding his power unsufficient for curbing him had no other way left than to send to him in a most Courteous manner to come to him who was then in Sterling Castle The Earl apprehensive of some design upon his Person refused without he had an assurance of safe Conduct under the Kings great Seal which being Granted he came and was received with a great semblance of good Will by the King who toâ—k him into a Room by themselves and there after some other Admonitions expostulated with him about the Confederâ—cy he had entred into with the Earl of Crawford and others and would have urged him to forsake the same Alledging it was no ways Honourable for him but hurtfull and tho' he took it very ill at his hands yet he allowed him the Liberty to disâ—null it tho' himself had full power to command it Dowglass was very obsequious in all things 'till this business of the League came in Question whereunto he did not Answer distinctly but would have put it off 'till he had discoursed with his Confederates thereupon neither could he well see at present what could be in that League which could be offensive to the King that he should insist so much upon his breaking of it whereupon the King who it's likely had already determined to commit the perjur'd Fact tho' his flattering Courtiers would have his displeasure only to arise from the Earls present stubborness said if you will not I will break it and without any more ado struck him with his Dagger in his breast those that stood at the Door hearing the bustle rushed in and dispatched him by many wounds His Brethren and Kindred being at first surprized and then exasperated at the horridness of the Fact and the faithless proceedings of the King towards the Earl flew to their Arms and made no less than a Civil War of it which was waged between the King and them with various Fortunes at last the King prevailed which brought great Destruction and Calamity upon that Noble Family of the Dowglasses And then it was that King James began to Reign as the Historian says their greatness having been hitherto a Check upon him But his Civil broils were scarce ended when he was brought to engage in the fatal controversy which happened in England between the Houses of York and Lancaster He at first sided with King Henry VI against Richard Duke of York but afterward faced about Upon the Duke's promise that Cumberland and other Lands should be restored unto him that had been in the possession of his Ancestors if the Duke prevailed and so assisted the Yorkians having therefore raised an Army as he was entering into England he was for a time diverted cunningly by an English Gentleman who took upon him to be the Pope's Nuncio His Speech Habit and Retinue were perfectly Italian and to make the matter more plausible with the Cloak of Religion he had a Monk along with him and so with the Popes Counterfeit Letters they approached to the King and charged him to proceed on no farther and threatned him if he did to curse him For that the Pope to the end the War might be carried on against the Common Enemy of Christianity with greater vigor having now Composed all differences in Europe was set upon Accommodating this matter in Britain That they indeed were sent before to preadmonish him but that another Legate would quickly follow with an Ample power to Compose the Civils Discords in England and to procure satisfaction for the injuries sustained by the Scots This bait took him and so he Disbanded his Army But alas nothing could divert this Prince's now impending Fate for being soon after advertised of the trick put upon him by the foresaid Counterfeit Nuncio he re-assembles his Army and because he could not directly Joyn with York's Forces He marches to the Siege of Roxborough and having quickly master'd the Town lays close Seige to the Castle which made a brave defence The Duke and his Companions having in the mean time prevailed sent to give King James thanks for his Assistance desire him now things were amicably terminated to return home least the English being incensed they should be forced to march against the Scotch Army The King having received the Message asked those that brought it whether the Duke of York and his Friends said any thing in relation to the promises they had made when he came into their Assistance but finding no satisfaction in that point he proceeds with great Fury to assault the Castle and Batters the Walls with Cannon which began then to be much used as they were much dreaded and being very forward and intent upon his work one of his Guns being over-charged burst and a slice thereof struck the King dead to the ground and hurt no other besides himself a strang fatality that brought him to his end when he had lived twenty nine Years and of them Reigned twenty four Anno. 146â— He left three Sons behind him James that Succeeded him Alexander Duke of Albany and John Earl of Mar who were a plague to one another while alive and not one of them died a natural death as we shall shew in its proper place James III. a Minor of seven Years old as his Father before him came to the Crown and at first fell under the Care and Regency of his Mother as did the whole Kingdom a Woman after the decease of her Husband James II. that lead a Scandalous life keeping one Adam Hepborn who was himself a Married Man for her Gallant but death put an end to her Lewdness and Government together about three Years after Then he came into the hands of the Boyds who Ruled the roast for a long time but at last made a fatal Catastrophe he took to Wife Margaret Daughter to the King of Denmark and Norway Anno. 1469. And about this time began to Exercise the Royal power himself He involved himself at first with the Affairs of the Church and not long after became miserably enslaved with the predictions of Astrologers and Witches to which he was strangely addicted and which brought not only destruction upon his kindred but also at last upon himself which we shall now prosecute as they fell out in order He was on a time it seems informed by some
Clans to Hamilton and the day after were coming to the Queen whereupon she gnashed her Teeth and fell to Weeping uttering many reproachful Words against her Nobles and by a Messenger desired of the contrary Army that they would send William Kireadie of Grange to her that she would Discourse with him about Conditions of Peace in the interim the Army should not advance neâ—ther did the adverse Army proceed but stood near and in a low place so as that the Enemies Ordinance might not annoy them Whilst the Queen was conferring with Kircadie Bothwell was bid to shift for himself for that was it she aim'd aâ— by pretending a Conference who made such fearful haste to Dunbar that he commanded two Horsemen that accompanied him to return back again such a load of Guilt lay upon his Mind that he could hardly trust his own Friends From whence he went to the Orcades and for a time exercised Piracy thereabouts but being at last pursued by some Scotch Ships fitted out for that purpose he with much ado made his escape and sailed for Denmark where giving no good account of himself whence he came or whither he was bound and afterward being known of some Merchants he was clapt up a close Prisoner where after ten years nasty Confinement and other Miseries he at last grew Mad and came to a Death suitable to his base and wicked Life The Queen when she thought he was out of danger though she shall ne'er see his Face more articled with Kircade That the rest of the Army should march quietly home and so she came with him to the Nobles Clothed only with a Tunicle and that a mean and threadbare one too reaching but a little below her Knees a sad spectacle Of the Van of the Army she was received not without Demonstration of their former Reverence but when she desired that they would dismiss her to meet the Hamiltons who were said to be coming on promising to return again and commanding Morâ—on to undertake for her for she hoped by fair promises to do what she would and finding she could not obtain her Request she burst forth into bitter Language and upbraided also the Commanders with what she had done for them which they heard also with silence but when she came to the second Body they all unanimously cried out Burn the Whore burn the Parricide and had withall a sad spectacle presented before her Eyes for the late King her Husband was painted in one of the Banners Dead and his little Son by him craving vengeance of God for the Murder and this Banner was carried before her whithersoever she went She Swooned at the first sight of it and could scarce be kept upon her Horse but recovering her self she remitted nothing of her former fierceness uttering Threats and Reproaches shedding Tears and manifesting other concomitant Signs of Womens Grief In her march she made all the delay she could expecting if any Aid did come from elsewhere but none appear'd At last she came to Edenburg a little before Night her Face being covered with Dust and Tears as if dirt had been cast upon it all the People running to see the spectacle She past through a great part of the City in great silence the multitude leaving her so narrow a passage that scarce one could go a Breast when she was going up to her Lodging one Woman of the Company prayed for her but she turning to the People told them besides other Menaces that she would Burn the City and quench the Fire with the Blood of the persidious Citizens having got into her Apartment she shewed her self Weeping out of the Window and there was a great concourse of People without some of whom did Commiserate the sudden change of her Fortune but it was not long e'er the former Banner was held out to her whereupon she shut the Window and flung in After she had been there two days she was sent Prisoner by the Nobles Order to a Castle situated in Laugh-Leâ—in But now the whole Conspiracy against the late King comes out for while these matters were thus agitated Bothwell had sent one of his faithfullest Servants into Edenburg Castle to bring him a silver Cabinet which had been sometimes Franâ—is's King of France as appear'd by the Cyphers on the out side of it wherein were Letters Writ almost all with the Queen 's own Hand in which the King's Murder and the things that followed were clearly discovered and it was written in almost all of them that as soon as he had read them he should burn them but Bothwell knowing the Queen's Inconstancy aâ— having had many evident Examples of it in a few years had preserved the Letters that so if any difference should happen to arise between them he might use them as a testimony for himself and thereby declare that he was not the Author but only a Party in the King's Murder Balfour the Governor did deliver the Cabinet to Bothwell's Servant but withall informed the Chief of the Adverse Party what he had sent whither and by whom whereupon they took him and found in the Letters great and mighty matters contained which though before shrewdly suspected yet could never so clearly be made forth but nothing could induce the Queen to separate her Interest from him and when she was urged to it with Reasons to her advantage she fiercely answered That she would rather live with him in the utmost Adversity than without him in the Royallest Condition The Hamilton's who were very powerful made some stir yet on her behalf in opposition to the Adverse Party who were now going to advance her Son though an Infant into her Throne which she was forced to submit to and to name him Governor whereof the Earl of Murray though absent then beyond Sea was one who returning soon after was chosen sole Regent of the Kingdom and confirmed in the same by the Authority of the Parliament that succeeded but about the Queen they differed in their Opinions for it appearing by many testimonies and proofs especially by her own Letters to Bothwell that the whole Plot of the Bloody Fact was laid by her some being moved with the Heinousness of the thing and others being afterwards made acquainted therewith by her lest they themselves should be punished as accessary to so odious a Crime to remove her testimony out of the way voted That she should suffer the utmost extremity of the Law but the major part only sentenced her to be kept a Prisoner but though she escaped now the time came wherein she lost her Head for but attempting a Fact of the like Nature with this she was now charged with In the mean time the Hamiltons with whom the Earls of Argyle and Huntley joyned themselves with some others were sollicitous about the Queen's Restoration and Liberty and the Queen not to be wanting on her part to promote their Endeavours having won some of the Regents Relations and bribed the Master of a Vessel
Eighty no less than Fifty Ships were missing for seven days But this was but the beginning of the Misfortunes of this Miserable Expedition for the Confusion of Orders was such as the Officers and Soldiers scarce knew who to Command or whom to Obey so that when they came to Cadiz a Conquest which would have paid the Charge of the Voyage and to the Honour of the English offer'd it self for the Spanish Shipping in the Bay lay unprovided of defence so as the surprising of them was both easie and feasible but this was neglected and when the Opportunity was lost Sir John Burroughs Landed the Army and took a Fort but was forced to quit it because of the Disorder and Intemperance of the Soldiers who upon that return'd on Board again and sailed away for England re insecta which occasion'd no small clamour from the People and especially in that none was punished for Mismanagement But how dishonourable soever this Expedition was the King and his Minister lost much more Reputation by lending a Fleet to the French King to beat that of the Rochellers under Monsieur Sobiez the Great Duke of Roan's Brother whereby a foundation was laid to ruin the Protestant Interest in France and which all the power that e're they could afterward make when the Tables were turned could not relieve though the Duke himself who was much sitter for the Delicacies of a Court than the toyls and stratagems of War was at the head of it and perished by the hands of Felton at Portsmouth just as he was ready to Embark the second time in person for that purpose It 's true the design was pursued by the Earl of Lindsey who several times attempted to force the Barricadoes of the River before Rochel but all in vain or if he had it would have been to no purpose for the Victuals wherewith they should have been relieved were all tainted and all the Tackle and other Materials of the Fleet defective so that they could not stay long there The many and unheard-of Violations of the Priviledges of the Subject by Loans Benevolences Ship-money Coat and Conduct-money c. with the continual Jars between this King and all his Parliaments during his Reign so as that there has been scarce three days of mutual harmony between them throughout which cannot be said of any other King since the Conquest how bad soever his Imprisoning Fining and banishing of the Members and his riding the Nation for above fifteen years together by more than a French Government because they are noted else where I think no where so well as in the History of the four last Reigns Written by that Learned Gentleman and my worthy good Friend when alive Mr. Roger Coke I shall not recite the same in this place as not falling exactly under the notion of this Treatise Tho I am to imform you these were the things together with the imposing the Service-Book upon the Scots where the Quarrel was begun by an Old Woman casting her Stool at the Priest when he was reading of it as they said that were the foundation of those dreadful Wars waged so many years within the Bowels of the three Kingdoms which do not fall under our present consideration neither and of the King 's subsequent destiny the Particulars whereof with some other concurring and intervening accidents we shall give you at large After the War had been manag'd between the King and Parliament with various fortune for some years and several Treaties set on foot to compose those unhappy and fatal Differences at last came the fatal day wherein the Quarrel came to be decided between them at Naseby in Northamptonshire which was on Saturnday June 14. 1645. Sir Thomas Fairfax was the Parliaments General and the King commanded his own Army in Person who in the beginning of the Fight prevailed for Prince Rupert Routed the Parliaments Left Wing commanded by Ireton but Pursuing to far left the Kings Left Wing open to be charged by Cromwel who falling furiously on and the rest Rallying obtained a most absolute Victory But among the vast number of Prisoners and Horses taken with Arms and Ammunition that which was even a greater loss to the King then the Battle was that one of his Coaches with his Cabinets of Letters and Papers fell into the Parliaments hands whereby his most Secret Counsels with the Queen which were so contrary to those he declared to the Kingdom were discovered For in one of his Letters he declared to her his intention to make Peace with the Irish and to have 40000 of them over into England to prosecute the War there In others he complained he could not prevail with his Mungrel Parliament at Oxford so he was pleased to call those Gentlemen who had stuck to him all along to Vote that the Parliament at Westminster were not a Lawful Parliament That he would not make Peace with the Rebels the Parliament without her approbation nor go one jot from the Paper She sent him That in the Treaty at Vxbridge he did not positively own the Parliament it being otherwise to be constru'd tho' they were so simple as not to find it out and it was Recorded in the Notes of the King's Council that he did not acknowledge them a Parliament Which Papers the Members took care to Print and Publish to the World and shewed by a publick Declaration what the Nobility and Gentry who followed the King might trust too and I dare say this stuck so close in the Minds of many that nothing contributed more to his Ruine then this double dealing of his Now the King's Garrisons surrender by heaps Oxford was the last which being blocked up by the Parliaments Forces the King thought himself in no security in it For the Parliament refused to admit him to come to London unless he signed their propositions wherefore the French Ambassador in the Scots Quarters advising him to throw himself into the Scots Power it was Hobson's Choice one even as good as the other and so being accompany'd by one Hudson a Minister and Mr. John Ashburnham he threw himself into the Scots hands who having got him into their Power resolve to make a double Bargain of him viz. to have him to order Montross to disband his Army and retire into Scotland and then to Sell him to the Parliament for as much Money as they could get for him The first is no sooner ask'd but granted but the bargain for the Sale of him and surely never was any King in this World so unhappy as to be sold by his own Subjects before himself being a mighty business to the Scots it lasted from the 5 th of May 1646 to January following when being concluded the Parliament who now had a full right to him after they had bought him confine him to â—oldenby-house an House of his own in Northamptonshire under a select Guard of their own choosing So that as Mr. Cook observes he that before had sifted the worthy
through the Park in a Chair to Whitehall and from thence carried by Water under a Guard to Sir Robert Cotton's House at the back end of Westminster-Hall the Judges in the mean time met in the Painted Chamber attending upon their President Serjeant Bradshaw in his Scarlet Robe who had the Sword born before him by Col. Humphrey the Mace by Serjeant Denby and twenty Men with Partizans for his Guard When they came into the Court the President sat him down in a Crimson Velvet Chair of State fixed in the midst of the Court with a Desk before him and a Cushion of Crimson Velvet thereon and the Seats on each side of him were Benches covered with Scarlet-cloth And after silence made the Great Gate of the Hall was set open for any to enter in after which Col. Thompson was commanded to bring forth the Prisoner who was conducted with twenty Partizans and other Guards and was by the Serjeant with his Mace received to the Bar where was a Red Velvet Chair set for him He looked sternly upon the Court and up to the Galleries then sat him down but presently got up again and looked downward on the Guard and multitude of Spectators not shewing the least regard to the Court all the while then was the Act of Parliament read over for the Trial of Charles Stuart King of England by the Clerk who sat on the right side of the Table covered with a Turky Carpet placed at the feet of the President upon which lay the Sword and Mace and the several Names of the Judges in the Roll were called over and Eighty answered to their Names When that was over then the King's Charge was brought wherein he was accused in the Name of the People of England of Treason Tyranny Murders Rapines c. and more especially for levying War against the Parliament And the President stood up and said Sir You have heard your Charge containing such matters as appears in it and in the close it is pray'd that you answer to your Charge which this Court expects The King replied By what Authority did they bring him to a Trial who was their King against the Publick Faith so lately given him when he commenced a Treaty with both Houses of Parliament Urged them to shew what Lawful Authority they had to call him to an account which if they did he would readily answer otherwise advised them to avert the Judgments that might hang over their heads for such their proceedings against him The President rejoyned that he was called to an account by the People of England by whose Election he was admitted King The King here insists upon his inherent birth-right and that the Kingdom was Hereditary for above a thousand years and that he stood more apparently for the Liberty of the People of England by rejecting an unlawful and arbitrary Authority than the Judges or any other whatsoever did by asserting of it That no Lords appear'd there who to constitute a Parliament should have been present and some King also but that neither the one nor the other nor both the Houses of Parliament nor any other Judicature on Earth had any Authority to call the King of England to account much less some certain Judges chosen by his accusers masked with the Authority of the Lower House and the same proculcated However he wills them again to produce their Authority and he would not be wanting to his Defence for as much as it was the same offence with him to acknowledge a Tyrannical Power as to resist a lawful one But the President made answer That he was not to question the Jurisdiction of the Court that they were satisfied with their Authority as it was upon God's Authority and the Kingdom 's in doing of Justice and that this was their present work To which the King said That it was not his own nor their apprehensions neither that ought to decide it and so the President ordered the Prisoner to be taken into Custody and then the Court adjourned till the Monday following being the 22. of January to the Painted Chamber and from thence to the same place again and the King was carried back in the same manner as before to St. James's The Court accordingly met on Monday in the Painted Chamber and there considering the King's Resolution to deny the Jurisdiction of the Court or of that which did constitute it of which debate they had no proper cognizance nor could they being a derivative power which made them Judges from which there was no Appeal they therefore order that if the King offer to dispute the same again the President should tell him That the Commons of England Assembled in Parliament had constituted that Court whose power might not be permitted to be disputed by him and that if he refused to answer it should be accounted a Contumacy to the Court that if he answered with a Salvo his pretended Prerogative above the Court he should be required to give a Positive answer yea or no that he should not have a Copy of his Charge till he owned the Court and declared his intentions to answer This being concluded on the King is again brought to the Bar in the same manner where the Solicitor Cook moved that the Prisoner might make a positive answer or that the Charge might be taken pro Confesso and so the Court proceed to Justice and the President did briefly repeat the passages of the last day and commanded the King to answer to the Articles of Charge unless he had rather hear the Capital Sentence given against him But the King still persisted to Interrogate concerning their Authority that he had weighty Reasons why he should not acknowledg this new form of Judicature that they had no Law for it and that they could not have an extraordinary Authority Delegated from the People seeing they had not consulted so much as every tenth Man in that matter But the President put him in mind of his doom and told him the Court was abundantly satisfied of their Authority nor were they to hear any Reasons that should detract from their Power And when the King urged to give in his Reasons in Writing it would by no means be admitted and so the President commanded the Prisoner to be taken away The third Days Trial which was Tuesday was in effect the same as the last mentioned in respect to the Court's demands and the King's answer so that the Court adjourned till next Morning at Ten of the Clock but the Examination of Witnesses and other intervening business prevented their then sitting so that it was Saturday Morning January 27. before they assembled and 68. of the Judges answered to their Names As the King was brought into the Court the Soldiers cried for Justice and Execution and the King desired to be heard a few words and so goes on to shew how a sudden Judgment could not be soon recalled c. But the President magnified the Patience the Court had had
his Army in Torbay he presently Published his Declaration setting forth the Cause of his coming Upon which some of the Nobility and Gentry joyned him and others made Preparations in the remoter parts to declare for him King James upon the News of the Princes Landing ordered his Army to march Westward with a resolution to follow in Person But before he went he thought it requisite to provide for the safety of his darling Prince of Wales whom the Prince of Orange in his Manifesto spread about the Kingdom some days before declared upon just and visible grounds that both himself and all the Good People of England did vehemently suspect not to be born of the Queen's Body Wherefore several Persons were summoned who were present at the pretended birth to declare the truth upon Oath and to have the same registred in Chancery but the King not daring to trust to the validity of these Affadavits which the Nation had all the reason in the world to suspect he ordered the Yonker to be sent away with a strong Guard to Portsmouth that if things went ill he should be convey'd over into France In the mean time the Prince of Orange prospered in his Army and advanced as far as Exeter and was joyned among multitudes of others that flocked in to him daily out of the adjacent Countries by the Lord Cornbury with Three Regiments along with him which he carried off from the King's Army About this time the Prince received also intelligence that the Lord Delamere had declared for him in Cheshire King James being informed of all these things was horribly dismayed and uncertain whether he should go to the Army or no However at length he took up a resolution of going to Salisbury where he began to bleed violently at the Nose which together with the many ill adventures that befell him there as his being forsaken by his own Daughter the Princess Anne Prince George the Duke of Grafton the Lord Churchill and many others who went over to the Prince then at Sherborn all of them dangerous limbs to be lost by him he returned Novemb. 26. in the Evening to London where for an accumulation of the rest of his Misfortunes he received an Address from the Fleet for a Free Parliament So that thinking London nay all England now too hot to hold him he first sent his Queen and pretended Son into France and quickly after followed himself In order thereunto he put himself Aboard a small Smach Commanded by one Captain Saunders but was forced for shelter to put into Eastwall the Eastern part of the Isle of Sheppy in order to the taking in of Ballast where the Inhabitants of Feversham being abroad to pick up Jesuits and other suspected persons met this Vessel and having seized it found this wretched Prince attended only by Sir Edward Hales and Mr. Labady therein who not being at first known were all of them but coarsly handled by the Mobilâ—ty more particularly the King himself who was rifled of what Gold and Jewels he had about him and had his Clothes rent and torn in the searching of him When the Lords at London had notice of his being at Feversham they sent some Persons to attend him to move him to return but they had in the mean time made their application to the Prince of Orange for to assist them for the Security of the Protestant Religion and sent some of their number with Four Aldermen and Eight Commoners to attend him at Henley The King who was detained at Feversham till the aforesaid Orders came from London did December 15. remove to Rochester and from thence next day being Sunday returned to Whitehall attended once more like a King of England with a Troop of Granadiers and three Troops of the Life-guard But it was only Pageant greatness for a set of Boys only followed him through the City and made some Huzza's but the rest of the People silently looked on And here he found the Popish Religious houses laid as flat to the ground as his own heart was now sunk deep in his body Upon his Arrival at London and finding there no ease he desired the Prince that he might return to Rochester again which being granted readily he took his final farewell of the City and went to the foresaid place where he staid till the 23. of December when about One or Two in the Morning he privately withdrew taking only Mr. Shâ—â—don and Delabady along with him with whom he went to Dover and there Embarkt in a Vessel that lay ready for his Transportation to France So he went out like a snuff in England but still retained some glimmering light in Scotland and Ireland in the last of which he arrived in Person the March following But his light in Scotland did not long burn for the Convention there as well as in England rejected him as the Violator of all their Rights and Dundee falling by the Sword the July following 1689 together with the Surrender of Edenburg Castle and other misfortunes quite extinguished his hopes there But in Ireland he had a name to live as King till about a year after when his Army being totally routed at the Boyn by our brave King William he made as much haste to get over into France as if he had been to go to take possession of a Crown instead of running away from one Various Struggles he made still to recover a Regal Life but he prosecuted his ends by such Villanous Methods and Instruments and more especially by setting his Vile Assassins on Work to Murder the best of Kings and bravest of Men our Lawful and Rightful Sovereign King William III. as are not to be mention'd but with utmost Horror But through the goodness of Heaven they have met with as little success as the Practices have been foul and Clandestine and so we leave him to him that made him and withall wish him a far greater proportion of rest and happy Tranquillity in the future World then he hath found of unrest and disquietude here and a much speedier translation into that state then the hast himself hath made to precipitate his own Abdicated fate The Abdicated Throne was filled up by the Advancement of a Prince and Princess to it that England was n'er blest with the like before one in Religion and one in Interest and Affection with the Nation our King Hero-like Fighting our Battels abroad and pray think it not a small thing for England has not enjoy'd such a Blessing these Hundred and fifty years and it has scarce ever been well with us when our Kings did not go in and out before our People and our Queen as wisely and gently Swaying the Scepter at Home to the Gladning of all our Hearts and in all Her excellent Comportment choosing to Rule in the Love and Affections rather than the Fears of Her People Here we promis'd our selves a lasting Tranquility and many happy days to come under the benign influence of her Reign but Alass alass our hopes quickly vanished our Joys faded our Hearts failed us for fear and sable clouds of Despair overshaddowed our whole Isle by Her unexpected by Her early I say by Her early tho' natural Transition from a Corruptible to an Incorruptible Diadem Her gain it was but our loss She tho' young yet ripe for ineffable Joys above And we tho' long inur'd to Tryal unripe for to sustain the loss of Her here below And surely no Prince ever departed this Transitory Life that was so unfeignedly lamented by his Subjects as this incomparable Queen as was apparent by our universal mournful weeds without a demonstration of the blackning sadness of our hearts within The last she was and incomparably the best of the Stuarts that wore a Crown and the Second of that number that went to Her Grave in Peace as Robert II. who was the first of the Stuarts that ever was King was the only other of the Kingly Race that did so I know Mr. Coke says in his Character of King Charles II. That none of His Name hereafter was ever like to have a Stone to cover his Grave as King of England but that I will not say as not pretending to know what is laid up in the Womb of Futurity But if you please after all this Mournful Entertainment I 'll tell you a Story The Lyon on a time called to the Sheep and asked her If his Breath smelt she innocently said Ay which made him bite off her head for a Fool then he called to the Wolf and asked him who reply'd No and his head he bit off for a Flatterer last of all he put the same Question to the Fox but the Fox truly for his part desired to be excused for he had a Cold upon him and could not Smell FINIS Robert Stuart by the Name of Robert II. tho' the first of the Stuarts was crowned King of Scotland Mar. 25. Anno Dom. 1370 Robert III. Alias John Stuart began his Reign An. Dom. 1390. James Stuart I. began his Reign actually Anno 1423. having been a Prisoner in England almost eighteen Years James Stuart II began his Reign March 27. 1437. James Stuart III. began his Reign Anno 1460. James Stuart IV. began his Reign An. 1488. James Stuart V. began his Reign Feb. 14th 1513. James Stuart I. began his Reign over Great-Britain Mar. 24. 1602. †Charles Stuart I. began His Reign over Great Britain March 27 th 1625. Charles Stuart II. assumed the Title of King upon his Father's Death Jan. 30. 1648. Charles Stuart II. Restored to his Dominions An. 166â— James Stuart II. came to the Crown February 6. 1684 5. William of Nassaw III. and Mary Stuart II. began their Reigns Febr. 13. 1688 9.
the King of England stick most to the heart of this Court which may at last turn to a mortal Convulsion which none can be more desirous to see than My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Servanâ— Paris June 10. 1689. N. S. LETTER IV. Of Cardinal d' Este his solliciting the Pope for Money for the late King James and his proposing a Croisade for the restoration of him to his Throne again My Lord I Have in my last endeavoured to give your Lordship the Sence and Resolution of this Court concerning the present posture of Affairs and mighty Efforts are made for the support of the late King's Interest who is as you well know now in Ireland both here and at Rome too by the Agency of this Court and least the Differences that have been so long depending between both Courts should any ways obstruct the Cause they have at length laid the foundation of an accommodation and the great motive to press it on is taken from the miserable condition of the late King's Affairs and that his Holiness could not but know that the main of the Catholicks hopes resting in the most Christian King for the redressing of them those very hopes would also vanish if his Holiness still obstinately persisted to refuse an accommodation with him The Cardinal d' Este the late Queen's Unkle is the person pitched upon to manage this Negotiation whose further instructions are to sollicite the Pope for some present supply of Money for his Nephew and not only so but to propose to the Old Father the publishing a Crolsade for the restoration of him to his Kingdoms But finding this did not relish well with the Old Dad his Eminency confin'd himself to a request that his Holiness would exhort the Emperor King of Spain and other Catholick Princes to it and mediate an accommodation between them for the more effectual carrying on the same But this is but Thunder afar off and will never endammage the Brittish Isles I heartily wish you may be as secure from intestine commotions and machinations there is nothing more talked of here and I have some reason to fear some measures have been conserted here for the fermenting of that inquietude which has possest too many amonst you upon this change of Government your Lordship will pardon me since I write with the same freedom and sincerity as formerly and remain My Lord Your Constant and most faithful Servant Paris June 17. 1689. N. S. LETTER V. Of the Queen of Spains Death the formal Story made in France of her being Poisoned and a Marriage feared between his Catholick Majesty and the Infanta of Portugal My Lord NOW things are come to an open Rupture and hostility between the two Crowns of Spain and France some account of which I have already transmitted to your Lordship you cannot conceive how violently they vend their Spite and Malice against the Spanish Court and more especially take occasion to renew publickly the discourse which was at first scarce whispered of the Queen of Spains being poisoned in which they pretend to interest themselves very much as she was a Daughter of France and say that she being secretly admonished in the midst of all the troubles that befell her to take care of her self found out a way to dispatch a Frenchman that was then in Spain to her Father the Duke of Orleans and to desire him to send her some treacle by the most cunning Courtier that was in the Kingdom that thereupon the Duke who had a most tender Love and Affection for the Queen his Daughter being deeply concerned at the News which portended his approaching Misfortune had discovered what had happened to the King who at the same time took care to send away what the Queen desir'd But that by the time that the Courier was arrived at the City of Burgos he met there with another who told him that he was carrying the News of the Queen's Death To which particulars are superadded these circumstances of her Sickness that being suddenly taken with a Vomitting she should say as formerly the deceased Madam her Mother of whose Death I have to the best of my remembrance formerly given your Lordship some account after she had drank the Glass of Succory Water to which she atttributed her Death That she was poisoned That her Vomitting was attended with most violent Convulsions which being reported to the Count de Rebenac â—enquires the French Embassador then at the Spanish Court he went to give the Queen a Visit but that When he came there entrance into her Chamber was denied him under a pretence that it was not the custom in Spain for Men to visit Women neither in Health nor Sickness That thereupon he became very importunate for Entrance urging that he came not to see her as Queen of Spain but as she was a Daughter of France and the King his Masters Niece They further add that this contest continued and was spun out to a long time under pretence of knowing the King's Pleasure and that at length after long attendance the Door was open'd to him but yet at such a time when the Queen was so very ill that she could not speak one word That she dyed within a short while after one Convulsion succeeding another till she gave up the Ghost That besides all these concurring circumstances the designs formed last Year by the Council of Spain to have his Catholick Majesty divorced from her and their applications to the Pope for that purpose under the pretended Allegations that the French before they parted with her had used all Aritifices of the Devil to prevent her having of Children but not being able to lay convincing proofs before him of the matter they had put off that project these things they say gave no small umbrage to some Clandestine practices against her life to say nothing of the project at the same time to get the â—nfanta of Portugal married to him and thereby lay a Ground-plot for the uniting of Portugal once more to Spain c. But my Lord whatever surmizes they have had of such a design then its certain there is nothing they are more apprehensive of at this time than such a Conjunction which must inevitably add one Kingdom more to the number of the Confederates and against them and all Engins are on work to divert the success of it I hope the King of England and his Allies are sensible of this and will take care to countermine the Enemy in time which are the hearty wishes of My Lord Your Lordships to serve and Command whilst Paris July 2d 1689. N. S. LETTER VI Of some secret Designs hatching against the Establisht Government in England My Lord IT is not long since I gave your Lordship a hint of the apprehensions I had of some evil Designs formed against the Established Government and I am so far from lessening the same that I grow more and more jealous of their progress day by
so taken up continually with the one or the other of them that he has of late neglected his ordinary Recreations and Divertisements I am confident there is a grand design formed against England and I have had no obscure intimation of it though I cannot possibly penetrate into any one distinct particular I heartily wish there may be as much precaution used on your side to ward off the blow But while matters are thus secretly agitated in the Cabinet the noise of Monsieur Tourville's disgrace is with great industry bandied about both in City and Country and nothing omitted to let the Confederates also come to the knowledge of it which perhaps may carry as great a Mystery in the Womb of it as the rest Some attribute it to one thing some to another many stick not to say it arises from his holding some sort of Correspondence with the Enemy others that some latent Maligner of his advancement has done him some ill Office at Court I heartily wish for the Confederates sake France had occasion to shift her Admirals often But believe me my Lord these are meer illusions and amusements and the French King knows his interest better than to lay aside at such a juncture as this the most understanding Sea-Officer he has in his Kingdom and you will find he will command a more formidable Fleet next Summer than ever yet he has done It s whispered also as if the Swede had been won to the French Interest and that besides the divertion he will give to the Confederates in Pomerania he will send a squadron of ships to join those of this Crown early in the Year which the Confederates ought to be as sedulous to prevent as they are to watch the motions of the Grand Duke of Tuscany to whom its commonly reported there have been proposals made of a match to be made between the Dauphin and the Princess of Tuscany in hopes by means of that Allyance to oblige him as being the most potent Prince of Italy to declare for the Crown of France or at least to perswade the Duke of Savoy to an accommodation But yet my Lord if my intelligence fail not they have much more reason to fear such a match struck up with the Infanta of Portugal as giving a fair prospect to far greater future advantages then any solid present ones that might reasonably be expected from that other Allyance with the grand Duke more especially since the Dauphine will have in her right not only a particular pretention to the Crown of the King her Father but also a very plausible one to the Kingdom of Spain and so an advantage may be made of both at the same time I wish the Spaniards were as jealous of this match as they are of their Wifes then there may be some hopes of frustrating the same Your Lordship knows how far the knowledge of these things may be useful to the present Constitution and so I refer them entirely to your consideration and management who am My Lord Your most Humble and entirely devoted Serv. Versailles Nov. 7. 1690. N. S. POSTSCRIPT This Letter I have been forced to keep by me for some days for want c. but it gives me the opportunity to acquaint you that there is advice that the Infanta of Portugal is dead which quite puts an end to the Negotiation above mentioned and may ease the Confederates of their cares to obviate it but the malignity of this Court will not suffer some of them and particularly the House of Austria to go untraduced when 't is already given out aloud that the life of that Princess was cut short to secure the Crown to the Successors devoted to the House of Austria I am My Lord Your Humble Servant LETTER XVIII Reports in France of a design formed in Spain to give up the Netherlands to some Forreign Prince c. My Lord THis Court is not a little Allarmed or at least seem to be so at the late advises from Spain of some proposals made there in the Council of State that seeing the defence of the Spanish Netherlands costs much more than the Revenue thereof amounts to that they should be surrendred over to some Prince or other who would undertake their defence doing only homage to the King of Spain It s not unknown to your Lordship how about Eight Years ago they had some thoughts of surrendring them to the Duke of Bavaria and nothing more certain than that this Court broke then the neck of that design But though the Dukes apprehensions at that time of engaging himself by such a procedure in a War with France was the reason the business went no further yet that can be no obstacle now he is actually engaged in the Confederacy against France But how disgustful soever this proposal is to the Ministers here that other motion in the same Council to leave those provinces to their own management with permission to change themselves into a Republick and provide for their own safety as they should think most expedient is much more dreaded by them as foreseeing such a form of Government might according to the example of the Switz Cantons though of different principles in Religion so league themselves with the States General as for ever after to prove a Wall of Brass against all the attempts of this Crown But while these and other matters are slowly deliberated it s well if some part of these Provinces be not filched away by the Arms of France In the mean time I can assure your Lordship there are vast Preparations made and some very grand Enterprize at hand on that side and some considerable Pass may be seiz'd without the Confederates are as forward and vigilant to defend as the French Arms are to Attack which I am sure is not believed at this juncture I am as heartily sorry I cannot be more particular in my information as I am always forward to transmit all that I think any ways worthy to be known and desirous to approve my self My Lord Your Lordships most Humble and most Obedient Serv. Versailles Feb. 7. 1691. N. S. LETTER XIX Of the City of Mons besieged by the Arms of France and the reason why King James was not there My Lord YOur Lordship cannot now but see the Effects of part of what I have writ to you in my last the close consultations and vast Preparations that were made were not for nothing I am not well informed I confess of what Preparations the Confederates have made to obviate the enterprize in hand but I can assure your Lordship they have a very poor opinion of them here and they as little question the speedy reducing of Mons under the Obedience of the Crown of France as they do the safe return of their King laden with Trophies for the taking of it But many People are not a little surprized to see that while the King and all the Princes of the Blood expose themselves to the Hazards and Toils
new Fortifications to each Place as he thinks necessary with an Assurance that no Money shall be wanting to that end Besides which Care of their Frontiers the Guards are ordered to be augmented with Ten Men in each Troop and such Care taken that they shall be the choicest Men of France Over and above this I am well assured that besides 20000 Recruits that are to be raised for the old Regiments there will be new Commissions very speedily issued out for a new Levy of 30000 Men Horse Foot and Dragoons And if the Power at Sea will be as formidable as some give out I am not without a strong Jealousie of some Attempt projected to be made against England it self though the French-Men have come off with so many Broken Bones in Ireland But of this I can say very little that is certain at present but I desire your Lordship to rest assured that no Endeavours shall be wanting to give you an Account also of their Marine Affairs in him who is proud to serve you and who am and always will be My Lord Your Honour 's most Humble and Obedient Servant Paris Nov. 19. 1691. N. S. POSTSCRIPT I had almost forgot to acquaint your Lordship that whatever Sentiments you may have in England of the Affairs of Savoy and the Siege of Montmelian they seem here so certain of reducing it as if it were already in their Hands LETTER XXIV Of King James's Declaration in the year 1692. and his Invitations to the English Nobility to come into France to be present at his Queen's Delivery c. My Lord I Have since my last to your Lordship been under so many Visicitudes of Fortune and among other Afflictions been visited with so long and severe a fit of Sickness that I cannot but perswade my self that your Honour has long ere now concluded me either Dead or turned Runagade and abandoned your Service the thoughts of which later hath afflicted me in a very sensible manner and doth now incite me with considerable hazzard to attempt the undeceiving of you hereby in that particular and withall to communicate what I have very lately learnt by the means of a Friend great at St. Germans of the posture of things in relation to England I hope you are not without considerable apprehensions of danger from hence and so have made timous preparations to ward off the blow and whatever the designs may be on your side its most certain that there have been positive resolutions taken to make a Descent upon the English Coast with a formidable power very speedily and the late King is resolved to be at the head of the Enterprize To that end I am assured all the Irish Troops and other French Forces which will be joined with them and which will make up a Body of Fifteen Thousand Men are to hold themselves ready to march upon the first notice towards the Coast of Normandy where they are to Rendevouz and where the late King designs to be with them with all the privacy imaginable and all this under a pretence of Guarding the Coasts against the insults of the English There are several Transport Ships already got together for this Expedition and the French Fleet under Monsieur Tourville is in a great forwardness and will be very formidable I am fully satisfyed though I can give your Lordship no particulars I am told also there is a Manifesto or Declaration a contriving and designed to be Published when things are ripe for it importing the late King's Resolutions to attempt the recovery of his Crown with what forces of his own Subjects he has with him in conjunction with as few Auxiliary Troops as may be that the English may take no Umbrage thereat Shewing the justness of his Cause the great reason his People have to receive him that they cannot be happy till his re-establishment promising mighty things for the Nation in respect to the settlement of Religion and grandeur of the English Monarchy and also a general Amnesty to all those that shall return quickly to their Duty excepting a few whose Names I could not yet learn I do not question my Lord but there has been much discourse in England concerning the late Queen's Pregnancy I can give no manner of account of it any otherwise than that the reality of it is not doubted here and that I am told it has been projected to direct a Letter to all the English Nobility to invite them to come into France and be present at the Delivery which is thought will be in less than two Months according to custom and to alledge they may do it with the greatest safety in regard the French King will give his Royal Word they shall return without Let or Molestation so soon as the said Queen shall be Delivered But as I do not expect to see your Lordship here on this occasion so I hope you may be very useful to keep our Countrymen that are on this side here still and disappoint their designs which none is more desirous of than My Lord Your Humble Servant St. Germains March â—1 1692. N. S. LETTER XXV The French Artifices to raise a mistrust in England of the Officers of the English Fleet in 1692. My Lord I do not question but your Lordship by this time is fully convinced of the intended Invasion as I hinted in my last And it may be you have already felt the effects in some measure of the evil Seeds that are sown amongst you by those that are in this Courts Interest in order to divide and make you jealous of one another in this ticklish juncture If your Lordship will give me leave to put in my sentiment hereupon I say were I to advise the Government and I have good grounds for what I say I would have it hold a watchful Eye over the affairs and motions of the Officers of the Fleet for there have been measures concerted to raise a mistrust and suspicion of the fidelity of the said Naval Officers and for ought I know are by this time near begun to be put in Execution They would have it here believed that several of them have a design to favour the late King's Descent and that others are disaffected and not hearty in the service Such a belief in England must be very pernicious if not fatal at present especially if once the Officers be so far imposed upon as to fear being discharged of their Imployments which apprehension seems to be the main design of England's Enemies to propagate But I must be abrupt as I have been short and beg your Lordship's Pardon who am in hast My Lord Your Humble Servant Paris April 17. 1692. N. S. LETTER XXVI Of the French magnifying their power at Sea after the fight in May 1692. c. and of the late Queen Mary's being brought to Bed at St. Germans of a Daughter My Lord THO' there is nothing more grievous to both Courts here than the late defeat of the French Fleet
Lordship here the reason of my so long silence since you know it already by a remarkable instance and it is possible you may have by his time heard the issue of our King's mâ—â—ch towards Pont Esperies and the Daupâ—e's diligence to secure that Pass Were you to have seen the Consternation men generally were under in this City upon the first advice of the said March you would have thought all France had been in danger of being lost without retrieval and the letter of thanks which the King hâ—â— dispatched to the Dauphine the rest of the Generals and to every particular Regiment both French and Switz by Name for their Zeal and indefatigable industry for the preservation of their Country lifes and most important places on the Sea Coast is an evident demonstration hereof As the common Murmurs and many Libels that appear abroad every day against the Government are no less a proof of the decline of the French affairs and growing greatness of the Confederates the causes of both which I need not take upon me to commemorate to your Lordship since they are evident to none more than your self My Lord I must keep my Hand in use and write to you as long as I am here and can have any opportunity to testify thereby how much I am My Lord Your Humble and ever Obliged Servant Paris Octo. 2. 1694. N. S. LETTER XXX Of the King James his receiving an account of Queen Mary's death c. My Lord I have had often some Thoughts to inform your Lordship of many unhappy accidents that have befallen me of late in this Country but had I been now at length fully determined to transmit the particulars the general Calamity in the untimely fate of the Excellent Princess Mary Queen of Great Britain c. must have quite supprest it I am so concerned not only for the present loss but for the events to follow that I am not fit for ordinary Conversation It s scarce belief how elevated those in the late King's Interests are upon this turn of things but the truly vertuous tho' Enemies carry the signs of Sorrow in their Countenances This Court and the late King have had very timous information of this our misfortune and I am well assured they have had a long Conference together upon the said subject and that at the same time some Letters have been dispatch'd in order to a Tryal whether any Tares may be sown in England upon this occasion But I hope the prudenâ— Management of Affairs on your side of which the Nations Enemies of late begin to have an high Opinion will choke them in the production Neither of the Courts are yet gone into Mourning neither is there any appearance they will But several private Gentlemen under pretence of the Death of Relations in the Country are in Black For any other particulars I beg your Lordship to Pardon me that I can give no account and to believe that I am My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant Paris Jan. 10. 1695. N. S. POSTSCRIPT My Lord I had under my present concern of mind almost forgot to acquaint you that five days ago the Duke of Luxenburg departed this Life at Versailles in the Sixty Fourth Year of his Age while he was sick the King continually sent to see how he did and went often in person to visit and comfort him and when he was dead he publickly declared that a greater loss could not have befallen him I am My Lord Your c. LETTER XXXI Of the Successes of the Confederates in Flanders Italy c. in the year 1695. with some account of the designs of France for the succeeding year and of the Authors design to return to England My Lord THe great success the Confederate Arms have had this Compaign both in Italy and Brabant by the Reduction of Cazal and Namur is more mortifying to this Court than I am able to express tho' a good meen is put upon it and that it is already given out that the King of France being weary of acting defensively as has been done the last Summer will act offensively next Campaign and that the Council have already found out ways for the settling of sufficient Funds towards the maintaining not only of such forces as are already on foot but for a considerable augmentation of them And for Men the raising of them is made practicable by an Edict prohibiting all persons whatsoever to keep any Male Servants above One and Twenty Years of Age so that all Young Men that are above those Years must either starve steal or go to the Wars How far these projects may be put in Execution I know not but I do believe them in the main impracticable Yet I question not but there are some more secret and dangerous Machinations on foot and the more than ordinary consultations between the two Kings I fear forbodes no good to England in particular Some general observations that I have made of things during my aboad in I shall reserve till I see your Lordship which my present circumstances urge me to and which I hope and long to effect before who am in the mean time and always will be My Lord Your Lordships most Humble Servant 〈◊〉 Paris Nov. 3. 1695. N. S. THE Tragical History OF THE STUARTS FROM The First Rise of that Family in the Year 1086. down to the Death of Her Late Majesty Queen MARY of Blessed Memory By D. JONES Gent. LONDON Printed in the Year 1697. THE Tragical History OF THE STUARTS IN the Reign of Duncane King of Scotland who came to the Possession of the Scotish Crown upon the decease of his Uncle Milcolm in the Year 1040. while one Bancho Thane of Lochquaber from whom the Stuarts descended was gathering the King's Revenues within the bounds of his own Jurisdiction and withal somewhat severely punishing such as he found to be notorious Offenders it caused a Mutiny in the Country and so a Conspiracy was formed against Bancho by a parcel of Riotous and Lawless Fellows who first spoil'd his Goods and then assaulted his Person giving him many dangerous Wounds so that he had much ado to escape with his Life But assoon as he found himself a little recover'd and in a condition to travel he determined to repair to the Court in order to require Satisfaction for the Damages he had sustained where after he had made Complaint to the King of the same and of the Indignities that had been offer'd to him he at length prevail'd to have an Herald sent to the Offenders to cite them to make their personal Appearance for to answer to such Matters as should be laid to their Charge But they instead of complying with the Summons entertain'd the Messenger first with all manner of Reproaches and when they had as despitefully used him both in Words and Actions as they could slew him out-right and so entring into a Confederacy with their Friends and Kinsfolks as expecting to be call'd to a
that our History may appear to be all of a piece and void of Breaks as much as may be Walter therefore had a Son named Alane who as they say follow'd Godfrey of Bullogn into the Holy Land in the Year 1099. Alexander was his Son who begat Walter Stuart he had Issue Alexander whose Son was John the Father of Walter Stuart that marry'd the Daughter of King Robert Bruce and begat on her Robert Stuart call'd in the Scotch Chronology Robert the second King of Scotland but he was the first Stuart that was advanced to the Throne of that Kingdom But before we can fairly come to give you an exact Account hereof it will be necessary to premise a short Scheme of the Contests between the said Baliol and Bruce because somewhat interwoven with the Affair of this Family Upon the disastrous death of Alexander the Third who broke his Neck as he was gallopping his Horse at Kingcorn over the West-clift of the place near the Sea-side and left no Issue but had only a Grand-child by his Daughter in Norway very young and who died soon after Scotland fell under an Interregnum for the space of six Years and nine Months as Buchanan computes it for so long it was between the Death of Alexander and the declaring of John Baliol King of Scotland and in the mean time you may be sure there wanted not Pretensions to the Crown and the case briefly was thus William King of Scotland had a Brother named David Earl of Huntington and great Uncle to this Alexander the III. which David had three Daughters Margaret marry'd to Allan Lord of Gallaway Isabel to Robert Bruce Lord Annadale and Cleveland and Adda to Henry Hastings Earl of Huntington now Allane begat on his Wife Margaret a Daughter named Dornadilla marry'd in process of time to John Baliol after King of Scotland and two other Daughters Bruce by his Wife Isabel had Robert Bruce Earl of Carrick as having married the Inheritrix thereof but as for Huntington he laid no manner of Claim Now the question was whether Baliol in right of the eldest Daughter or Robert Bruce being descended of the second but a Male should have the Crown he being in the same Degree and of the more worthy Sex The Controversie was tossed up and down by the Governors and Nobles of the Kingdom for a long time but at last upon serious deliberation it was agreed to refer the whole matter to the decision of Edward the I. King of England which he was not a little glad of For resolving to fish in these troubled Waters he stirs up eight Competitors more that he might further puzzle the Cause and at length with twenty four Councellors half Scots half English and a great many Lawyers so handled the Business that after a great many cunning delays he secretly tampers with Bruce who was then conceiv'd to have the better Right of the Business that if he would acknowledge to hold the Crown of him he would adjudge it in favour of him But he generously answering That he valued a Crown at a less rate than for the wearing of the same to put his Country under a Foreign Yoke Edward turns about and makes the same motion to Baliol who did not stick to accept of it Baliol having thus gotten a Crown as unhappily kept it for he was no sooner invested with it and done Homage to King Edward according to Agreement but the Aberthenys having slain Mackduff Earl of Fife he not only pardon'd them the Fact but gave them a piece of Land that was in Controversie between them Whereupon Mucduff's Brother being enraged makes a Complaint of him to King Edward who sent for him used him so that he made him rise from his Seat at Parliament and go to the Bar and answer for himself He hereupon was so enraged at this manner of Usage that when King Edward sent to him for Assistance against the French he absolutely refused it and proceeded so far as to renounce his Homage to him This incensed King Edward to the quick and so with an armed Power he hastens to Berwick where he routed the Scots took and kill'd to the number of Seven Thousand of them among them most of the Nobility of Fife and Lowthian and some time after gave them also a great Overthrow at Dunbar which occasion'd the immediate surrender of the Castle of the said place into his Hands After this he marches to Montross where Baliol was brought to resign up both himself and his Crown to King Edward all the Scotch Nobility at the same time doing him Homage The Consequence whereof was that Baliol was sent Prisoner to London and from thence after a Years detention into France But while Edward was possess'd of all Scotland one William Wallace arose who tho' but a private Man bestirred himself in the publick Calamity of his Country and gave the English several notable Foyls This brought King Edward into Scotland again with an Army and falling upon Wallace routs him who was overcome with Emulation and Envy from his Countrymen as well as power from the Enemy upon which he laid by his Command and never acted after but by slight Incursions but the English Army after this being beaten at Roslin Edward comes in again and takes Sterling and makes them all render him Homage Robert Bruce Son to the foresaid Bruce that contested with Baliol for the Crown was in King Edward's Court and him the King had often promised to put in possession of the Crown But Bruce finding at last that all his promises were illusory and nothing but smoak he enters into a Confederacy with John Cummin sirnamed the Red how he might get the Kingdom but being basely betray'd by him to King Edward he had much ado to make his escape and when he was got into Scotland the first thing he did was to stab Cummin at Drumâ—reis and then got himself Crown'd King at Scone Never did any Man come with greater disadvantage to the possession of a Crown or underwent greater Hardships for the sake of it He was beaten over and over by King Edward's Troops forced to flee to the Highlands with one Companion or two and to lurk in the Mountains in great misery as if he had been rather a Beast of prey than a rational Creature And while he was in this miserable State it is storied of him by Fourdon That being in a Morning lying down on his Bed in a little Cottage whither he was glad to retire and make the same his Pallace he espies a Spider striving to climb up into her Web which she had spun to the roof of the House but failing of her purpose the first time she attempts it the second and third time and so on to the sixth and last wherein she accomplishes it and gets in the King who as well as his Companion had all the while view'd the Action said Now let 's get up and hasten to the Lowlands to try our Fortunes
once more we have attempted it in five rencounters already and fail'd but in the sixth we shall prevail and so having gather'd some Force together he advanced towards Sterling where he gave Edward the II. who was then King of England such a Defeat as Scotland never gave the like to our Nation and so continued War with various Fortune with Edward the III. till at last Age and Leprosie brought him to his Grave But some time before his Death he got the Crown settled upon his Son David then a Child and for want of his having Issue upon Robert Stuart his Sister's Son and this by Act of Parliament and the Nobles sware to it accordingly His Son David of between eight and nine Years old inherited that which he had with so much Difficulty and Danger obtain'd and wisdom kept He was in his Minority govern'd by Thomas Randolf Earl of Murrey whose severity in punishing was no less dreaded than his Valour had been honoured but he soon after dying of Poyson and Edward Baliol the Son of John coming with a Fleet and being strengthned with the assistance of the English and some Robbers the Governor the Earl of Mar was put to the Rout so that Baliol makes himself King and David was glad to retire into France Amidst these Parties Edward the III. backing of Baliol Scotland was pitifully torn and the Bruces in a manner extinguished till Robert Stuart afterward King of Scotland with the Men of Argyle and his own Friends and Family began to renew the claim and brought the Matter into a War again which was carry'd on by Andrew Murray the Governor and afterward by himself so that David after nine Years Exile adventured to return where making frequent Incursions he did at length in the fourth year after his Return march into England and in the Bishoprick of Durham was routed and fled to an obscure Bridge shewed by the Inhabitants to this day where he was taken Prisoner by John Copeland and continued so for the space of eleven Years Soon after his Releasment and Return home he calls a Parliament wherein he enacted several Laws for the punishment of such as had fled from him at the Battle of Durham and more particularly levelling at Robert Stuart as being one of them who had been the Cause of that great Overthrow He got that Act passed in his Father's time whereby the Crown was appointed for want of Issue of his Body lawfully begotten to descend to the said Robert Stuart to be repeal'd and John Southerland Son to Jane his youngest Sister made Heir apparent in his stead and the Nobility swore to the observance of the said Law This made the Earl of Southerland so confident of the matter that he gave almost all his Lands away among his Friends and Acquaintance But alas he was wretchedly mistaken for his Son being afterwards one of those sent as Hostages into England for the security of the payment of King David's Ransom he died there of the Plague and Robert Stuart attain'd the King's Favour again and succeeded as Heir to the Crown being the first of the Name of the Stuarts that ever sway'd a Scepter But things did not go on so smoothly with Robert Stuart upon the Death of Southerland his Competitor first and of King David afterward but that he met with another Rub in his way from William Earl of Dowglas who when the Lords were assembled at Lithguo about the Succession came thither with a great Power and urged he ought to be preferr'd before Stuart as being descended from the Baliols and Cummins But finding at length that his own Friends and particularly the Earls of March and Murray his Brethren with the Lord Erskein who all three were in great power as being Governors one of Dunbritton another of Sterling and the third of Edinburg opposed him he thought it most advisable to desist from his Claim And so Robert Stuart was Crown'd at Scone on Lady-day in the Year 1370. being the 47th Year of his Age. But that Dowglas might be a little soothed up under his present Disappointment and kept from disturbing the common Tranquillity the King bestows Euphemia his eldest Daughter in Marriage upon him Whether it were thro' an advanced Age or Sloth we find he did but little since his Accession to the Crown but his Lieutenants and the English were perpetually in action during the course of his Reign which was according to Buchanan nineteen Years and four and twenty Days And tho' it's true we do not find his Death to have been violent or any ways accelerated by Grief of Heart but natural in an old age having lived seventy-four Years yet surely he laid the Foundation for the many Parricides Fratricides and other dreadful Calamities that befel his Posterity in a very great measure by preferring his Illegitimate Children by Elizabeth Moor his Concubine before those he had lawfully begotten on Euphemia Ross his Wife And the Case was briefly thus At the time of his attaining the Crown the foresaid Euphemia Daughter to Hugh Earl of Ross was his lawful Wife by whom he had two Sons Walter afterward created Earl of Atholl and David Earl of Strathern but before he was married he kept one Elizabeth Mure for so the Scotch write the Name as his Concubine and had by her three Sons John Earl of Carrick Robert Earl of Mentâ—ith and Fife and Alexander Earl of Buchan with several Daughters Now Queen Euphemia departed this Life three Years after her Husband became King who forthwith marry'd Elizabeth Mure his old Paramour either to legitimate the Children he had by her which it seems was the manner in those days or else for old acquaintance her Husband Gifford for you must know he had got her matched to cover her shame dying about the same time as the Queen had done This step drew on another and there was no stoping now but the Children formerly begotten on this Woman in Adultery must have the Crown entailed upon them by Parliament in prejudice to the other two who by any thing that appears in History were finer Gentlemen and fitter as they had a juster Claim to govern then either of these I know the Lord Viscount Tarbert in a late Pamphlet has taken upon him to vindicate the Legitimacy of Moor's Children against all the Authority of the Scotch Historians who lived at or near those times and ever since who could not be ignorant of so material a thing as this and to this end he Cites several Records It 's not my business to answer his allegations but I am sure the Records would never have named John that afterwards succeeded Tanquam haeres if he had been true and undoubted Heir And so I leave any one to judge if the Records do not thereby make much more against his Legitimacy than it does for it But right or wrong the Sluts Will must be gratified and so John succeeds his Father in the Scottish Kingdom but not by the
name of John for that forsooth was ominous for John King of France was a Prisoner in England but by the name of Robert It 's true there is no great matter in the thing it self either one way or other for an Alias or a double name cannot prejudice an honest and vertuous Man and when Judge Catiline took exception at one in this respect saying that no honest Man had a double name and came in with an Alias the party asked him what exception his Lordship could take to Jesus Christ Alias Jesus of Nazareth The Father was scarce well cold in his Grave or the Son warm in his Throne but his Progeny begot by him in the heat of his Blood began in their Stations to act their Tragical part This King in his Fathers life-time had the misfortune to be kicked on the Leg by an Horse of Sir James Douglass of Dalkeith and so lamed his Body as he was lame in his Intellectuals being a dull stupid Man and unfit to Govern insomuch that he had but the name of King the whole Administration being lodged in his Brother Robert Earl of Fife who did what he pleased with him and his as you 'll see by and by Alexander the youngest brother and Earl of Buchan a Man of a Fierce Nature could not long contain it but he begins to disturb the Government of his Brethren upon a slight displeasure conceived against the Bishop of Murray and seeing he could find no opportunity to kill him he revengfully sets fire to the Cathedral Church which was the stateliest Pile of Building in all the North of Scotland A Son he had whose name was Duncane or Dunach ten times more profligate if it were possible than himself and guilty of the basest and most degenerous actions He upon the death of his Grand-father lets the Reins loose and supposing now there was room for Rapine and Villany Heads a strong band of Thiefs and comes down to the Country of Angus spoils and ravages the Country as if he had been a professed Enemy and being elevated by some petty success they had against Walter Ogilby and Walter Lichton who opposed them they proceeded to perpetrate greater Villanies than before till at last being dispersed by the Earl of Crawford many of them were persued and slain and the rest taken and suffered condign Punishment King Robert had now Governed by his Governour for the space of Light Years when a Parliament was held at Perth wherein to manifest his Favour he made his Eldest Son David who was then Eighteen Years of Age Duke of Rothsay and his Brother the Governour Duke of Albany Virgin Titles that till this time had been unknown in Scotland saith Buchanan and which boded no good success to the Masters of them but generally proved very ominous About some three years after dyed Queen Annabella and Walter Tralie Archbishop of St. Andrew's the one while he lived keeping up the Ecclesiastical Discipline in the Church and the other the Dignity of the Court so that the death of two such useful and Illustrious Persons ushered in great Calamities in the Land and such a Tragedy as can scaâ—ce be met with in the Records of Time The Queen in her life-time had had a particular eye over and care of the Education of her Son David Duke of Rothsay and by a severe Discipline restrained his boisterous and untoward nature in a great measure But now the check was taken off he gave himself over to all manner of licentiousness His Fathers indulgence to him proved an incitative to his Lust and lack of Authority despoiled him of that Reverence that should have been paid unto him and made his admonitions of none effect So that at last he grew to that height of outrageousness and impiety that laying aside all manner of fear and shame he made it his business to defile mens Wives dâ—flower Virgins Nuns and all other kind of Women and where he found opposition he made use of Force and Violence These Tragedies could not go long undiscovered and therefore several complaints were prefered against him to his Father who at last perceiving it beyond his power to restrain those exorbitant Courses and that such violations would unavoidably bring both Father and Son to utmost Contempt and might have a very bad Consequence to attend them he Writes to his Brother the Governour and now Duke of Albany to take the young Man into his own governance and keeping till such time and in expectation he should be reclaimed and brought to a better temper This was that which the Governour for a long time had lacked as thinking if he were once taken out of the way his passage to the Crown might in time be made smooth and easie and therefore leaves no stone unturned to get him into his bloody Clutches at last he contrived the matter so that he seized him upon the Road near St. Andrew's and conveyed him to the Castle of the said place which he had taken into his own hands upon the death of the Bishop a little before under pretence of securing of it and in a short time after removed him thence into his own Castle of Falkland making him there a close Prisoner And now resolved he was to be rid of him and he could think of no method more expedient to effect his devilish design than by starving of him But that life which the barbarous cruelty of the Unkle had destined for a most miserable death the compassion of two young Women prolonged for a time One of them was daughter to the Governour of the Castle and who had the charge of the young Duke who as often as she had an opportunity to go into the Gardens adjacent to the Castle did put into him some oaten Cake folded up in a Vail which she carelesly wore on her head to keep off the Sun through a small chink rather than a Window The other was a poor Nurse who through a long Read fed him with the Milk from her own Breasts When the young Man's Punishment as well as his Life had by this hard shift been for some days prolonged which rather served for the increasing than allaying of his hunger the Women were at last discovered by the Spies they had every where about them and were both villanously put to death the Father shewing as much unhumane cruelty towards his daughter as she had shewn mercy to his Royal Prisoner bitterly cursing her perfidy as he called it as endeavouring thereby to shew himself faithful to a faithless Brother Unkle and Governour The young Man being thus deprived of all humane relief was constrain'd through the violence of hunger not only to eat all such filth as he could find within his Prison but at last to set upon his own flesh and to gnaw off his own Fingers and so ended his wretched life and died as I may say a double Death This barbarous act needs no Comment it bespeaks Villany to the height in
chesit to be Governor quan we were fallen into decrepit age to our Subdittes and Realme beseekaund thy hieness thairfore to be sa favarable that this Bearer James our second and allanerlie Son may have to liefe under thy Fayth and Justice to be some memory of owr Posterity knuwaund the unstable Condition of mans life sa sodanlie altered Now flurisaund an sodenlie falling to utter consumption Forthir beliefe well quhan Kings and Princes hes na other beild bot in thair owin folkes thair Empireis caduke and fragill for the minds of common People are evir slowaund and mair inconstant than wind Èœit quhen Princes are robarat be amited of othir uncowth Kings thair brathir and neighbowris na adversitie may occure to eject thaim fra thair dignitie viall Forthir gif thy hieness thinke nocht expedient as Gad forbeid to obtemper to thir owr desires Èit we request any thing quhilk was ratisijt in owr last trewes and conditioun of Peace that the supplicatioun made be ony of the two Kings of Ingland and Scotland sall staund in manner of saufe conduct to the Bearer And thus we desire to be observat to this owr allanerlie Sonne and the gracious God conserve thee maist nobill Prince When King Henry had read this Letter he deliberated with his Council what was most expedient for him to do upon this occasion at last considering there were divers English Rebels harbour'd in Scotland he resolved to keep Prince James as his Prisoner but yet in such Honourable State that he could not have met with such Treatment and Advantages of a Princely and Liberal Education in his own native Country The immature and violent Death of Prince David as has been already noted had sunk King Robert's Spirits very low but when the dreadful News of Prince James being made Prisoner in England reached his Ears which was as he sat at Supper he had like to have died in the Arms of the Standers by his Heart was so overpower'd with Grief and Melancholy as to admit of no manner of Consolation exclaiming against his hard Fortune in marrying a Woman of so mean a degree to the disparagment of his Blood as was Queen Annabel by whom he had these Sons which as he took it was the only Cause why Forreign Princes as well as his own Subjects had him thus so much in Contempt So being carried into his Chamber what with wilful Abstinence and violent Sorrow he died in three Days after having reign'd about sixteen Years Anno Dom. 1408. A Man he was of a mighty stature but had not an Heart proportionable to his Bulk as appears manifestly by the Circumstances of his Death which tho' not procur'd by violent Hands yet was sufficiently tragical and herein discover'd himself to be far from the Temper Senecca speaks of Nihil tam acerbum est in quo non aquus animus solâ—tium inveniat The Death of King Robert introduced an Interregnum in Scotland for the space of near Eighteen Years for so long a time was James detain'd a Prisoner in England and there was no way left but to confirm the old Governor in his Station again who held it for the space of fifteen Years longer and at length died a natural Death but 't is strange he should that had been so unnatural to his own Nephew by famishing him to Death and done so many barbarous actions for to clear himself and to palliate his horrid Fact He was succeeded in his Estate and Honours by Mordo his eldest Son who was also chosen Governor of the Kingdom a Man full of Repugnant Vices and so unfit for the management of that high Office he was entrusted with that he was not capable to rule his own Family He had three Sons Walter James and Alexander who abusing the Lenity and Foolish Indulgence of their Father and playing many Outragious Tricâ—s to the Offence and Prejudice of many and one of them at length being displeased with his Father in that he would not give him a Falcon he had for a long time greatly desired he stept unto him and audaciously plucking the Bird from off his Father's Fist wrung his Neck from his Body before his Face whereupon the Father being somewhat enraged with such presumptuous Doings of his Son said Walter for so was his Name seeing it is come to that pass that thou and thy Brothers will not be ruled by my soft and gentle Government I shall ere long bring him home that shall chastise both you and me after another manner and from hence forwards he made it his whole Business to get King James redeem'd from the Hands of the English and to set him on the Throne To this purpose he call'd a Parliament at Perth where it was unanimously agreed to send a solemn Embassie to the King of England to demand the Restitution of their King and to offer Terms for his Releasment James had contracted some Friends in England during his Captivity especially by the means of the Lady Jane Daughter to the Earl of Somerset whom he had taken to Wife so that in a short time the Terms for his Liberty were agreed on and so he sets forwards towards Scotland Where he was no sooner arrived but he was encountred with diverse Complaints against several Persons and especially Walter Stuart the Son of the Governor aforesaid who was sent to Prison in the Bass and in the next Parliament convened at Perth Duke Mordo himself with Alexander another of his Sons were arrested and committed to safe Custody the Duke to Carlaurock and his Dutchess to a place call'd Tantalloun Not long after James Duke Mordo's third Son to hasten the fate of the Stuarts being moved with great Indignation that his Father and Brethren were thus as he conceived unjustly imprison'd came suddenly with a good Band of Men to the Town of Dunbritton sack't and burn the Place killing one Stuart more to wit John sirnamed the Red as Buchanan says and the King's Uncle with two and thirty Persons besides But he was so straitned by the King's Arms and pursued so close that he was forced to flee into Ireland and soon after died there an exile The same Year the King call'd a Parliament at Sterling whereing Mordo with his two Sons Walter and Alexander and Duncan Stuart Earl of Lenox four of them at one clap were convicted of High-Treason and the two Sons the very same day were beheaded in the open place before the Castle and next Morning Duke Mordo and Lenox run the same Fate in the same place It 's a constant Fame saith Buchanan tho' I find it written no where that the King sent the Heads of the Father Husband and Children to Isabella Wife to the said Mordo his Cousin-Germane to try a barbarous Practise whether she who was known to be a fierce Woman would as mostly it happens through excess of Grief discover the Secresie of her Mind upon such an occasion But she notwithstanding all that grievous and unlook'd
not doubting but himself should be advanced to the Throne Having thus agreed and resolved upon their hellish Design they advance secretly with their Accomplices whom they had drawn into the Conspiracy towards the Friers aforesaid where the King then resided and encourag'd the King's Porter whom before they had brought over to their Party to give them un-interrupted admittance which he does and they advanced into the Gallery adjacent to the King's Bed-Chamber where he shews them the Door might be easily forced open he himself having taken away the Bolt Others think it was Robert Stuart aforesaid Atholl's Grandson that let them into the Court however it was while they in the mean time tarried in the Gallery seeming to deliberate about the breaking the Door open an Accident made their Passage the more easie for Walter â—tratâ—on coming out of the Chamber as having brought in some Wine for the King a little before and seeing of armed Men in the Gallery he endeavours to whip in again crying out Treason Treason But before he could get within the Door to make it fast they rushed upon him and slew him outright While this was done not without great bustle and noise a noble Maiden named Katherine Dowglas marry'd afterward to Alexander Lovell of Bolunny got to the Door and not finding the Bolt that had before been taken away as you have heard she thrusts her Arm into the place where the Bar should have been but her Arm was soon crusht and broke and the Ruffians forced their way into the Chamber Such of the Servants as were there and made Resistance they dispatch forthwith and then advanced towards the King and fell upon him The Queen did all she could to defend him and receiv'd two Wounds and thereby was forced to give over the Conflict and so at last the King having received to the number of eight and twenty Wounds and some of them to the Heart was slain by them Thus fell James the I. King of Scotland by violent and bloody Hands and seem'd to entail a violent Death upon all of his Name that succeeded him but because the Execution of some of the Conspirators was the most terrible that can be met with in History we shall shall give you a short Account of it and the rather because of the Persons concern'd therein The Nobles of the Kingdom hearing this unexpected News assembled from all parts of the Nation to Edinburg and made such diligent Search after the Conspirators that they were soon apprehended Tried and Condemn'd Walter Stuart Earl of Atholl was charged as being principal Actor in this Tragedy his crime exaggerated to the height and was executed in this tremendous manner On the first day being stripped of all his cloaths save only his shirt only he was bound fast in a Cart to an Instrument of wood made like to a swipe with Ropes and Pullies to the same by which means they sometimes raised him up on high into the Air that the people might see him and by slackning of the Rope all of a sudden let him down with a swang dis-jointing all his body thereby then they brought him to an open place where all might be Spectators and Crowned him with a red hot Crown of Iron with this Elogium that he might be Stiled the Ring of all Traytors The reason of this part of the punishment was said to be this for that a Witch had told him that he should be Crowned with great Pomp and Magnificence in the presence of the people and that the prediction was in this manner either fullfilled or eluded On the second day he was drawn on a hurdle through the high Street of Edenburg at an Horses tail he was on the third day extended upon a board at the Market-Cross his Belly ripped up and his Bowels taken out thrown into the fire and burnt before his face then was his heart plucked out and burnt likewise and last of all his head was chopp'd off and fixed upon a long Pole and set upon the highest place of the City his body divided into four Quarters and sent to the four principal Cities of the Kingdom The Execution of Robert Stuart was not altogether so severe as that of his Grandfather some respect being had to his youth But as for Robert Graham who as did appear was the Person that slew the King with his own hands he was put into a Cart and that hand that did the deed fastned to a pair of Gallows that was set up in the said Cart then were three persons appointed to thrust him through all parts of his body with hot Irons beginning first with those places where it was thought no hasty Death would ensue as with his Legs Arms Thighs and Shoulders and thus was he carried through all the Streets of the City and tormented in a most horrible manner and at last his Belly ript open Bowelled and Quartered as Atholl was before and thus was the cruel Death of King James revenged in the most cruel manner that was ever heard off beyond all the Bounds of Humanity You have seen the dreadful effects of the Interrâ—gnum now the Kingdom falls under a worse Administration even under one of the woes of God Almighty himself for this King was succeeded by his Son James the second of that Name a Minor of about six years old And as the King was not yet able to Govern himself another must be chosen to Govern both him and the Kingdom and this fell to Sir Alexander Levinston and Sir William Creichton the Chancellor the former had the denomination of the Governour and the other had the Kings keeping Never was poor Prince more harrased till he came to Maturity which they say in Princes is at fourteen through the Jealousy and Ambition of these two men fomented also by others who were willing to fish in troubled waters The Chancellour kept the King in Edenburg Castle the Queen Jane sides with the Governor and resided at Sterling Archembald Earl of Dowglass a powerful Subâ—ect kept within his own Territories and would obey none of them all by which discords many evils ensued The Queen being intent upon advancing the Governor's side and thereby gratify her own Ambition repairs one day with a small retinue to the City of Edenburg and with a Womanish Dissimulation won the Chancellor to give her Admittance into the Castle to see the King and to abide with him whose Company she so extreamly longed for But when she had been there three Days she feigns a Pilgrimage one morning to the White Kiâ—k but first wheedles with the King to make his escape which she easily brought him to packed him up dexterously in a Trunk as if he had been a bundle of Cloaths and sent him away by one of her trusty Servants laid upon a Sumpter Horse into Lieth from whence he was conveyed by water to Sterling and Joyfully received by the Governor who highly extolled the Queens Conduct in deceiving so wise a
was as implacable towards him as the rest of them cunningly discusses that rash and evil Counsel arguing with him what a base and flagitious offence all the world would look upon it to be if he should without due Process of Law suddenly hale to execution so many Illustrious Persons to whom he was reconciled as having given his Royal Word for pardoning of what was past and that not long since and now secur'd with the Publick Faith for the fierce and enraged minds of Enemies would not be broken with the ruine of a few and coming once to despair of Pardon they would turn their wrath into fury and the consequence of that would be that they would grow more stobborn and obstinate and less value the King's Authority and their own lives and if your Highness will take my Counsel continued the Earl Iâ—ll put you in a way whereby to salve the King's Honour and Dignity and that revenge may at the same time be prosecuted For I having gathered my Friends and Tenants together will openly and in the day time lay hold of them and then you may try them where you will and punish them as you please and this will be not only more Honourable but also more safe for the King than if they should be killed at unawares in the Night as it were by Thiefs The King believing the Earl spoke what he thought for he knew well enough that he was able to perform what he promised he gave him many thanks for his advise and dismissed him laden with large Promises of Reward The Earl having warned the Peers to take care of their safety and to withdraw from the imminent danger that hung over their Heads does himself also retire to a place of safety The King from hence forwards finding his secret Counsels laid open and not daring to trust any body betook himself to the Castle of Edenburg and from thence being conveyed by Sea to the Countries beyond the Forth which still were obedient to him did in a short time levy a good Army And now the Nobility who before designed nothing but that the King should amend in his male administration finding all accommodation with him desperate and his evil disposition incurable bend all their Counsels to remove him A bad Steward its most certain he had been and now they are resolved to call him to a severe account for the same The great difficulty that stood in their way and which they were deliberating to remove was whom they should appoint to be their Captain who when the King were brought to a compliance might be constituted Vicegerent of the Kingdom It was adjudged highly necessary it should be a person that was pleasing to the Commonallity of an Illustrious Name That the Faction might not be opprest and weakned out of an envy to his Greatness and at last after they had thought of one and another they pitched unanimously upon the King 's own Son the Prince of Scotland who being taken from his Keepers and Governours of his tender years was urged to a speedy compliance for if otherwise they were resolved to transfer the Kingdom into the hands of the King of England who would take care to root out him and his Family for the better security of it Now the King had past over the Forth and pitched his Tents at a place called Blackness and the Sons Army ready prepared to give Battle were not a far off But by the mediation of the Earl of Athol the King's Uncle things were at present brought to an accommodation and Athol himself was delivered as an Hostage to Adam Hepborn Earl of Bothwell in whose custody he remained till the K. death which now was not far off But the agreement as being between such as had an incurable jealousie of one another did not last long In the mean time Couriers and Mediators past continually from one to another at last the Lords gave determinate answer That seeing the King acted nothing sincerely with an intention to perform they adjudged it better to be engaged in a certain War than a delusive and treacherous Peace That the only hopes of agreement was if the King would Abdicate the Throne and have his Son advanced in his room if not it would be to no purpose for them to try and frustrate one another with Conferences The King not to be wanting to himself in this desperate Fortune orders his Embassadors in England and France to communicate this answer to those Kings whom he earnestly sollicites to make use of their Authority or if need were their Forces too in his behalf for the repressing of the insolence of a few Rebels and reduce them to Reason and their Duty and to esteem his Fortune common with their to own and such as might by the Contagion thereof easily creep to other Nations He sent also to Eugenius IIII. Pope of Rome to intreat him out of his Paternal care and love to the Scotish Name and Nation to send a Legate into Scotland to enforce the Rebells according to the Authority of his Holiness's Power and Jurisdiction to lay down their Arms and obey their King The Pope having one Adrian Castlean for his Legate in England a Man of great Learning and Prudence he Writes to him to use his endeavour to compose the Scotch Affairs and bring them to a settlement But this came a day after the fare for the Lords who knew well enough that these proceedings of the King abroad were in agitation and withall that his mind was implacable towards them resolved before he should have an opportunity to augment the number of his Forces to try it out by Arms and though they had the Kings Son with them as well to manifest their Authority to the Common People as to shew that they were not angry with or had no quarrel against their Country but a pernicious King who would have ruined them yet least the minds of the people should be alienated by the cunning or forreign Ambassadors and other accidents that attend procrastination they were busied night and day how to commit all to the hazard of a Battle But the Kings timerousness was an obstacle to their eagerness and hast who because he had ordered considerable Levies to be made for the augmentation of the Troops he had on foot already in the northern parts of the Kingdom did in the mean time keep himself close within the Castle of Edenburg But that he might precipitate his fate he was brought by his Followers whether designedly or ignorantly is uncertain to forsake this wholsome Counsel which he looked upon to be safest for him for they perswaded him that by reason of the frequent tides there which might cause delay and danger to them that were about to meet together it were more adviseable he should go to Sterling Castle the best situated place of any for gathering of Forces together out of all parts of the Kingdom That he would be as safe there as in Edenburg Castle
seeing his Enemies were unprepared of all things necessary for a Siege That his Fleet also which he had prepared to be an help to him at all adventures might be at hand This advice did indeed seem to be sound and real and had been safe enough in all probability in the event had it not been that the Governour of the Castle being corrupted by the opposite Faction excluded him from admittance And now all things conspire to his ruin for the Lords were now at his heels that he could not possibly retire to the Castle of Edenburg again and the Forces raised by the Earls of Huntley Errol Athol and diverse other Noblemen who stuck to him and which they said amounted to the number of Forty Thousand Men being not yet come up he would not stay for them and so with those Forces he had with him hazards a Battle The Battle was at first very fierce and the first Wing of the Nobâ—es Army gave way but the Annandalians and their Neighbours who inhabite the Western parts of Scotland press hard upon the Kings Forces and with their huge Spears much longer than their Adversaries quickly broke the King's main Body who finding now it was in vain to stand it and being injured with the fall of his Horse retires to a Mill that was not far off from the place of Battle with a design as was thought to get aboard his Ships which were not far off where being taken with a few more he was slain It 's not fully agreed who killed him but pursued he was to the foresaid place by Patrick Grey Sterling Keiry and a Priest whose name was Borthick and who it was said being asked by the King for a Confessor roughly replied That though he was no good Priest yet he was a good Leech and with that stab'd him to the Heart And here you see how contemptible the Majesty of a Prince is that is sullied with degenerous actions and there was this further ignominy affixed to his Death That it was enacted in the next Sessions of Parliament that he Justly suffered and strictly forbidden that any who had bore Arms against him or thier descendants should be upbraided therewith Young he was being about 35 years when he died and of them had Reigned near Twenty Eight in the year of our Lord 1488. The Son who had headed this Army is now advanced to the Father's Throne and known by the name of James the IV. being then about Sixteen years of Age. Wood who Commanded the Ships before mentioned was with great difficulty brought to submit and did afterward this King great Service who it seems had some remorse for his contributing so much to his Fathers Death for in token thereof he wore continually an Iron Chain about his middle all the days of his life made frequent visits to Religious places c. all which methinks seems to have been put upon him by some crafty Priest tho Historians are silent in that particular but he had hardly been warm in his Throne when those Nobles that were of his Father's Party sent their Emissaries to all the parts of the Kingdom and exhort one another not to endure the present state of things That so many brave Men should not suffer such publick paricides who had murdred one King and kept the other in servitude so proudly to illude them and to charge them with being guilty of High-Treason who fought for the King's defence and safety but that they should arrogate to themselves who were violators of all Divine and Humane Laws the title of being defenders of the Honour and Dignity of the Commonwealth and preservers of their Country in whose hands the King himself was not free as being enforced first to take up Arms against his Father and King and having wickedly slain him to prosecute his Father's Friends and such ns engaged in his defence by an unjust and Cruel War that was intollerable When many things of this nature had been bandyed about amongst the Common People Alexander Forbes to excite in them a greater hatred towards the present Administration caused the dead King 's bloody Shirt to be hung up on a long Pole and exposed publickly at Aberdeen and other places where there was great concourse of People This being as it were a publick Edict to stir up all Men to revenge so foul a Deed. Nay many of them who had engaged with them actually in the slaughter finding that all things did not go as they would have it now joyned with these Malecontents And as things were transacted in these parts about Aberdeen much to the new King's prejudice Matthew Stewart Earl of Levins a popular and potent Man in his Country summons all such as he had influence over this side the Forth to come to him and having raised a good body of Men finding he could not make his way over Sterling Bridge which was guarded by the Royalists he hastens towards a Ford not far from the River-head at the foot of Mount Grampias with a design to joyn with his Friends in those parts Now when John Drummond had notice hereof by Alexander Mac Alpin his Tenant and who had joyned the Enemy and found plainly that all things were so careless and secure in the Enemies Camp that they dispearsed themselves up and down as every one pleased and had no Centry nor Scouts and destitute of all Military Order and Discipline he immediately with the Courtiers and a few Voluntiers he had with him sets upon them un-a-wares and in a manner all asleep which was in too many of them continued by Death the rest unarm'd run back headlong from whence they came and many were made Prisoners but some known Friends and Acquaintance were let go they were severe only upon such as wrote or spoke very contumeliously of the Government and so this storm blew over and not long after a Parliament was called wherein past a general Act of Indemnity so that now nothing was expected here but Halcyon Days but a Storm quickly arose which terribly shook not only this but the Kingdom of England also by one Perkin Warbeck's pretending himself to be Richard Duke of York and second Son to King Edward IV. and so to have an undoubted Right to the Crown of England He came over from France into Scotland and possest this King so far with a belief of his Right and the Justice of his Cause that he not only gave him the Lady Margaret the Earl of Huntley's Daughter for a Wife but also raised an Army to defend his Cause which took up some Years of his Reign little enough to his or the Kingdoms Commodity and Advantage At last a Truce for some Years was agreed on between him and the King of England and the Consequence of that was first orders for Perkin of whom you may read at large in my Lord Bacon's History of Henry VII to depart the Realm of Scotland then a Marriage between King James and the Lady Margaret
Henry VIIth's Daughter and lastly a Peace between both Kings during their Lives This Kings Reign is remarkable upon many accounts which being not the scope of this Treatise we designedly omit But one passage I meet with in Lesley's History of this Kingdom which for the rarity of it I cannot omit and hope the Reader will not think it an Impertinent Digression About this time says the aforesaid Author The King to tell you a business that to this day is remembred with great Laughter among the Roman people created a certain Italian with whose Wit and Pleasant Conversation he was much taken Abbot of Tungland This man thinking to magnifie his own parts did on a certain time perswade the King that he was so well skilled in the Secrets of Nature and more especially in the noble Science of Chimistry that he could transmute any other Metal into Gold if the King would please to bear the Charges thereof But after much Time and Treasure spent and long Expectation of this Glorious Effect all proved Abortive and came to nothing so that the vain Braccadocio fell into great contempt both by the King and People which grieved him very sore so that he sets all his Wits on work how he might do somewhat that might regain his fame in the world and at the same recover the King's Favour At last he gave out a Report that he would by flying be in France before the Kings Ambassadors who were sent thither and were then actually under sail to pursue their Voyage and that this might not be all talk without any Performance he boldly appointed a Day and Place which was Sterling from whence to begin his flight the noise whereof brought you may be sure a great concourse of People together among whom was the King himself When the Time was come the man gets up to the Top of Sterling Castle and having fastned the Wings which he had made of the Feathers of several Fowls to his sides he lifts himself into the Air thinking to pursue his course But alas he came quickly down headlong to the ground his Wings availing him nothing whereupon the people who knew not whether they should rather Rebuke his Presumption or Pity his Misfortune flocked about him and asked him how he did he made Answer that he had broken his Thigh-bone and despaired of ever flying any more at which they all laughed their fill But this Icarus to salve the matter laid the fault of his flying wholly upon his Wings because they were not made of Eagles Feathers and the like but only of Poultry which were not fit to cut the Air with flight and which by a certain innate Virtue operating according to the Nature of those Fowl drew the Feathers downwards to the Dunghill where those Birds fed But to re-assume the Thread of our Story things continued in a tollerable state of Tranquillity till the death of Henry VII the King's Father-in-law but Henry VIII a young ambitious and active Prince had not long mounted the English Throne when he makes Preparations to recover his Right in the Kingdom of France The French King to fortifie himself as much as possible against the impending Storm requir'd Aid of the King of Scotland who by his Embassadors would have accommodated Matters and perswaded both Kings to a Peace But King Henry persisting in his Resolution the Scot won by French Promises of Money and Ammunition joyns with them in League against England and because the English Commissioners appointed to accommodate the Differences between both Nations about some Irregularities and Depredations committed upon the Borders would not come up to their Terms James takes this occasion to send Lyon King at Arms to King Henry by this time besieging Terwin with Letters of Complaints commanding him for want of satisfying the Contents of the said Letters to denounce War against England When Henry had read the Letters and advised with his Council thereupon he told the Herauld he would make him answer If he would promise faithfully to declare the same to his Master Lyon replied Whatever his Master commanded him to say to others that he was obliged to do and would but for the Commands of others to his Master therein he desired to be excused but added your Highness Letters that declare your Pleasure I am willing to carry tho' your Answer requires doing and not saying I mean that you should immediately return home The King sharply retorted I 'll return at my own Pleasure to your Damage and not at thy Master's Summons and so delivers him a Letter to carry to his Master importing he had receiv'd his Full of frivolous Complaints which had been sufficiently answer'd before sharply sets forth the baseness of the Scotch Nation but says at the same time it was always their Ancestors custom to invade his Dominions in his absence which they never offered nor durst do while he was within the Land but however that he had taken caution for his security and would not desist from his present enterprize which the Scotch King had nothing to do with as being no Competent Judge for so the words are of so high Authority to require him in that behalf c. But before the Herault arrived and the Letters could be delivered King James had precipitated his own fall at Floddenfield For having dispatched Commissions for the raising of Forces he determines to put himself at the head of them before they were fully Compleated but first goes to a place called Limuch and there heard even Song as they called it where after he had entred the Chappel came an old man to him whose hair was somewhat of a yellow red hanging down over his Shouldiers his Forehead high with Baldness bare Headed clad in a Blewish Garment with a white Girdle and had a very Reverend Countenance and said King I am sent to admonish thee that thou go not forward to the place which thou hast determined which warning if thou dost despise it shall succeed ill with thee and all such as shall attend thee Further I am Commanded to give thee Intelligence before-hand that thou eschew the familiarity and Custom or Counsell of Women if thou do otherwise it shall tend to thy Dishonour and Hurt And when he had so said he mingled himself with other Company and when Prayers were over and that the K. sought for him he could by no means be found for he was never seen after the delivery of this Message which seemed the more strange because that many who stood near him and observing all he said and intent to hear more from him could not perceive his departure of which Number David Linsey a Person of known Virtue and approved Reputation was one who told me the same saith Buchanan of a most certain truth or else I would have past it over for a Fable handed down to us by Common Fame But no premonitions from Heaven nor Advises upon Earth could divert the Career of this willfull Prince
but on he goes towards Edenburg and there takes a review of his Army and hastily marches towards the English Borders takes in several lesser places and Ravages the nighest parts of Northumberland In the mean time the King quite contrary to the premonition aforesaid being ensnared with the Beauty of a Noble Captive she was Hern's Wife of Ford neglected Military Discipline and his Army lying idle and in a Barren Country where Provisions were very scarce a great part of them in dâ—scontent disband and forsake the Service so that there were none but the Nobles with their Kindred and a few Tenants that staid behind For the greater part were of opinion they should not tarry any longer in a Country that was so Poor and withal Plundered but rather to Besiege Berwick which they had left behind them since the taking thereof alone would be much more Honourable and advantagious than all the adjacent Garrisons and that the taking thereof would not be difficult seeing the Town and Castle were unprovided to make any considerable resistance The King who supposed there was nothing too hard for his Arms especially now the English were imployed in the French Wars and being buoy'd up by the flattery of his Courtiers judged he could do that easily in his return but while he lay loitering at Ford came an English Herauld into his Camp requiring him to appoint a day and place where both Armies might give Battle whereupon the King calls a Councell of War wherein the greatest part were of opinion that it was most advisable they should return home least they might with so small a Force hazard the State of the whole Country especially seeing they had already obtained sufficient Renown Glory and Riches and fully satisfied the League of Friendship made with the French neither could there be any appearance of reason that they who were now so much diminished in their number and so weakned with the Fatigues they had undergone should now be exposed to so great a multitude of English daily increasing with Re-inforcements for it was Rumored then that the Lord Thomas Howard was arrived in the English Camp with Six Thousand old Soldiers from before Turwin And for the further inforcing hereof it was moreover added That if the King did depart the English Army must necessarily seperate and could not be drawn together that Year again as being to march from the remotest Parts of the Kingdom But and if the King must needs fight that then it were more advisable he should do it in his own Kingdom keeping the appointment both of the Time and Place always in his own Power But when the French Ambassador and such Mercenary Courtiers as took French Pensions opposed these Arguments the King who was eager for Battle and to hasten his own Ruin was easily perswaded to wait for the Enemy in that Place In the mean time when the English did not advance and engage at the day appointed by the Herault the Scotch Nobility laid hold of the opportunity afresh to go to the King before whom they laid the matter home again Alledging That the reason why they declined Battle was an Artifice of the Enemy only to gain time 'till all their Forces were come together while the Scotch dwindled away more and more and therefore it was high time they should have recourse to the like Pollicy and since the Enemy failed of their word it was no ways disgracefull to the Scots either to return into their own Country without giving them Battle or to Fight within their own Limits of which Councel the first was infallibly the best but if that were not approved off there was abundant reason for to execute the latter for seeing that the River Till was not foardable for some Miles space and could not be past by the Army but by one Bridge there a few might be able to resist a great multitude besides if part of the English Army were past the Bridge the same might easily be broken by Engines conveniently placed for that purpose so as to obstruct the passage of the rest to relieve them who of necessity must be cut to peices But so was the King taken with his own Conceit that you had as good have talked to a dead Man as to him upon this head And therefore he slightingly said That if the English Army were an Hundred Thousand strong he would Fight them With which rash Answer the Nobility were very much displeased Whereupon Archibald Dowglass Earl of Angus a Man that far excelled the rest of the Nobles both in Years and Authority endeavoured in a gentle Oration to alter the King's Resolutions enlarges upon and shews the reasonableness and advantage of the former Counsells given him by the Nobility for he made it appear that the King had been punctual in the League with France and gratified their Request in that he had now turned the English Arms before bent against the French against himself and against his own Country and had so ordered his own Affairs that those great Armies should neither injure France nor endamage Scotland seeing they were not long able to keep the field in those cold Countries and a Barren Soyl Unfurnished of necessaries for the support of Life through the Calamy of the late Wars and which at best produced but little Corn but Winter was drawing near which in those Northern parts was felt betimes And continued the Earl as for the French Ambassadors urging of us to come to a Battle I cannot think that should be looked upon as either new or strange by us that a Foreigner who hath no respect to the publick good of this Kingdom but to the private interest of his own Nation should be so lavish of other Mens blood And besides his Request is unreasonable and impudent for he would have the Scots do that which the French King a Person of the highest Prudence thinks not fit to do for his own Kingdom and Honour neither should the miscarriage of this Army be looked upon by him as a small loss because they were not so numerous for all those are here who excell either in Virtue Authority and Counsell and if these be once lost the surviving Commonalty will become an easy prey to the Conquerors What is it not at present safer and withal more profitable to protract the War For if Lewis thinks that the English can either be exhausted by Expences or wearied with delay what can be better as to the present State of things than for us to enforce the Enemy to divide their Forces that we may keep one part of their Army to watch and look after our motion making a continual shew of our readiness to make Incursions and by putting of them under a constant apprehension thereof ease the burden of the French by our Labour and Vigilancy and I think those men who I fear are more Valiant in Words than in Actions have sufficiently Consulted for their Glory and Renown under which names they would
couch their own temerity for what could have been more honourable for the King than to have rased so many strong Holds wasted all with Fire and Sword and to carry away so great Booty that several Years Peace will not be able to reduce the Country to its former state And what greater benefit can we expect from the War than that amidst such clashing of Armor and noise of War we should enjoy Rest with Wealth and Glory to our greatest Praise and Commendation by refreshing our own Souldiers and to the ignominy and shame of the Enemy For that sort of Victory which is won more by Counsel than by Arms is a property of Man but more peculiarly agreeable to the Conduct of a great Captain in regard that the Soldiers can claim no manner of share therein Tho' all that were present discovered by their Faces their Consent hereunto Yet it made no impressions upon the King who had solemnly Swore and was now fully bent to Fight and so he Command Dowglass if he was afraid of his life to return home The Earl finding things thus precipitated through the Kings temerity and foreseeing the dreadful Event burst forth into Tears and as soon as he was able to Speak said If the former course of my Life did not sufficiently Vindicate my Reputation from the opinion of Cowardice I know of no other reasons whereby to purge my self I am sure while this Body was able to endure the Toils of War and other Fatigues I have never been sparing to imploy the same for the Honour of my King and Good of my Country But seeing my Counsells wherein alone I can now be useful are despised I 'll leave my two Sons who next my Country are dearest to me and the rest of my Friends and Kindred as a certain pledge of my good Will towards you and the publick good and I pray unto God these my fears may prove False and Abortive and that I may rather be accounted a false Prophet than that what I fear and seem to behold should come to pass When he had thus spoken he packs up his Baggage and Departs the rest of the Nobles seeing they could not draw the King to be of their mind Judged it ought to be their next care seeing they were inferiour in number to the Enemy for they had learned by their Scouts that the English Army was six and twenty Thousand strong was to fortify themselves by taking advantage of the ground and so to pitch their Camp on the adjacent Hill which was hard of access and which they Fortifyed almost round with Cannon in the Rear they had Hills from the Foot of which to the East was a Marsh that secured their Left Wing and on their Right they had the River Till with high Banks over which was a Bridge not far from the Camp The English when they found by their spies that there was no approaching of the Scotch Camp without manifest danger wheeled off from the River and made as if they marched toward Berwick and from thence streight to the adjacent part of Scotland to Ravage the Country and a Rumour of such a design increased the suspicion thereof Which Rumour was some Days before spread abroad whether rashly or purposely feigned by the the English that they might decoy the Scots from their strong Holds down into the Plains King James thinking that not to be endured sets Fire to his Camp and Marched The smoak blinded the English so as that they could not discern the Enemy Marching but at last both Armies came to Flodden Hills almost unknown to one another There the English March their Artillery over the Bridge and their Army past the Ford at Milsord and so draw up their Army in Battalia as the situation of the ground would admit but in two Bodies seeming to have a design to cuff off the Scots Provision In the first Army the main Body was Commanded by the Lord Thomas Howard Admiral who not long before was come with a strong Re-inforcement to the Army the Right Wing by Edmund Howard and the Left by Marmaduke Constable The other body was so posted as if they had been for reserves and also drawn up in a tripartite division the Right being Commanded by Dacres the Left by Stanley and the Main Body by the Earl of Surrey who was General of the whole Army The Scots made a forefold distribution of their Army whereof the King himself Commanded the Main Body Alexander Gordon and Alexander Humes the Right Wing Mathew Stuart Earl of Lennox Campell Earl of Argile the Left And Hepborn with the rest of the Nobility of Lowthian Commanded the reserves Gordon begins the Battle and quickly routed the Left Wing of the English Army but returning from the Chase he found the remainder of his Wing almost cut to pieces For the left Wing Commanded by Lennox and Argile being elated at their Success fell on Pell-Mell without keeping their Ranks upon the Enemy leaving their Ensigns behind-them The French Ambassador doing all that ever he could to keep them back as foreseeing they rushed on headlong to their inevitable ruin But the English stood the shock with undaunted Bravery and adding cunning to their Valour wheeled a body of their Men about which fell upon the Rear of this disorderly Rout and almost kill'd every Man of them In the mean time the Main Body where the King was with the reserves Commanded by Hepborn sought with great obstinacy but at last were Routed but night coming on hindred the pursuit Next morning the Earl of Surrey sent out Dacres with a Party of Horse to learn Intelligence who coming to the field of Battle and finding the Scotch Artillery without any Guard upon them and the greatest part of the slain unstripped he acquaints the General therewith who sets his Army loose to ransack the Camp and afterwards Celebrated the Victory with utmost Joy And now we come to tell you of the Kings Fate himself Our English Historians generally agree that he was slain in this Battle the Scots for the most part oppose it Urging that the Body which was rifled in the field and taken to be his was not so but the Body of one Alexander Elsinstone a young Gentleman resembling the King both in Visage and Stature whom the King that he might delude those that pursued him and at the same time also with his own presence animate those that fought elsewhere had caused with all Tokens of Royality to be Armed and Apparelled like himself But says my English Author Bishop Goodin not to make use for an Argument the great number of Nobility that Guarded their true King and consequently that their Counterfeit ones fought elsewhere It s manifest that his Body was known by many of the Prisoners who certainly affirmed that it could be no other than the King 's tho' by the Multitude of his Wounds it were very much disfigured for his Neck was laid open in the midst thereof with a
long Wound his left Arm almost cut off in two several places could scarce hang to his Shoulder and had been besides shot through several parts of his Body with Arrows and this seems to have the greatest appearance of truth in it tho' what Buchanan and others his Countrymen alledge is not improbable viz. That after the King found the Battle encline to the English without any hopes of retrieving it he passed the Tweed and near Kelso was slain by Humes's followers it remaining uncertain whether it was done by his Command or that these Ruffians thinking to gratify the humour of their Patron were in hopes when the King was once cut off they might transact what villany they pleased impunedly but if he survived they were in great apprehensions of being called to a severe account for their tardiness during the Battle To which they also add other conjectures that the very night after the Battle the Monastery of Kelso was seised by one Carr a confident of Hume and the Abbot chasheered which its likely he durst not have attempted if he had known the King had been alive But these things are so uncertain says Buchanan that when Hume was afterward called to an Account and Tryed for the Fact by the Earl of Murrey the King 's base Son it came to nothing they were not able to prove it upon him but withal adds that Lawrence Faliser a Person of integrity but then a Lad and spectator of of the Action did often affirm to him that he had seen the King on Horse Back pass the Tweed and hence many took occasion to report which lasted many years that the King was alive and would appear in due time after he had pay'd his vow of going to Jerusalem to view the Holy Sepulcre But this savours two much like the legendary Story of Arthur of old and of Charles Duke of Burgundy not many Years before of whom they related such another Tale But to return and take for granted that he died as before noted upon the place of Battle his Body being enclosed in a Sheet of Lead was brought into England and by the Kings Command laid in some bye Vault or Corner without any Funeral rites he saying That it was a due punishment for one who had perjuriously broken his League So that Death it self had not put a Period to his misfortune Tho' otherwise he was a Prince of great perfections both of Body and Mind and endued with most of those Royal Virtues that are necessary for the equal poize of a Scepâ—er which caused that sharp but true saying to drop from the Pen of a learned Author upon him that he perished Non suo sed Stuartorum Fato The loss of James IIII. in this manner seemed to carry with it the most dreadfull presages of Confusion and Misery that ever threatned any Country for he left his Queen Margaret and two Sons behind him the Eldest whereof James V. that succeeded him in the Kingdom being not fully two years old most of the Nobility who bore any thing of Wisdom and Authority before them being slain in the foresaid Battle and the major part of such as survived by reason of their Youth or Incapacity of their mind very unfit to meddle with matters of State especially in so teachy a time as that was And those who were left alive of the better sort who had any thing of Prudence through Ambition and Covetousness abhorring all Counsels tending to Peace and Concord However something must be done for the Publick weal and as the fittest expedient for a settlement a Parliament was convened at Sterling who Proclaimed James V. King and according to the Deseased King's Will The Queen was constituted Regent of the Kingdom so long as she remained a Widdow But she soon after Marrying Archembald Dowglass Earl of Angus a young Gentleman who for Lineage Comliness and other Accomplishments might be ranked amongst the prime Nobility of Scotland lost her Office and Authority and this occasioned a great feud among the Nobility The Dowglassian Party endeavoured to have the Queen continued in the Office Alledging That this was the way to have Peace with England which was not only advantagious but highly necessary for them at that time as matters stood with them But the Humes whereof Alexander Hume Warden of all the Marches and a very Potent Man was head making up the adverse faction under pretence of publick Good and that it was against the old Laws of the Kingdom to have a Woman however otherwise dignifyed to be Regent stiffly opposed the Queen and her Adherents so that at last after they had passionately struggled about the choise either out of wicked Ambition or secret Envy They past by all that were there present and incline to choose John Duke of Albany Son of Alexander of whom we have spoken before Brother of James III. and who lived then in good Repute in France from whence soon after he arrived in Scotland The Duke was ignorant of the old Customs of the Country as having been bred abroad all his Days which John Hepburn a Crafty Knave and one who had contested with Andrew Foreman about the Archbishoprick of St. Andrew's a little before well observing makes it his business to insinuate himself into the Regents Favour under pretence of informing him of the Laws and Manners of the Land but in Truth and Reality that he might advance himself upon the wrack and ruine of others And to this End he tells the Regent there were at that time three Factions in the Kingdom the one headed by Archibald Dowglass Earl of Angus the Queens Husband who was wonderfully Popular and upon the account of his Alliance with England and his own Personal and Hereditary Merits bore a Spirit too big for a private Man Alexander Hume was the next whose Power and Interest was so great that there was a necessity of repressing of him in time Foreman his former Competitor was the third who said he 't was true was not to be feared upon the account of Kindred and Nobleness of descent yet by reason of his great Wealth he would make a great Accession of Strength to what Party soever he inclined But to this last Part the Governor gave little heed as knowing it to be an invidious accusation of Hepburn proceeding from the noted feuds between Foreman and himself But the suspicion of Hume sunk deeper into the Regents mind which the other quickly perceiving he falls in for his own security with the interest of the Queen and her Husband and lamenting the danger the young King might be in if he should fall into the Regents Hands who was next Heir and bent to translate the Kingdom to himself he perswades the Queen to retire with the King to her Brother into England But these Consultations were not so secretly carried on but that the Governor had notice thereof who being an Active Man hastens with all his Forces to Sterling and quickly took the
Castle with the King and Queen in it and so takes the poor King from the Mothers Bosom appointing him to be kept and managed as he pleased Upon which Hume and his Brother William flee into England and the Queen with her Husband soon followed them the Regent was concerned at their departure sets all his Engines at work to procure their return which Dowglass the Queens Husband and the Humes soon after did but Alexander Hume contrary to many large promises being Summoned to appear before the Assembly of Estates refused to come and thinking himself aggrieved encouraged Tories to commit great Outrages in the Neighbourhood for which being like to be called to an Account by an Armed Power he was perswaded to surrender himself so was Committed to the Custody of James Hamilton Earl of Arran his Sisters Husband at Edenburg with a charge that himself should be esteemed a Traytor if he suffered him to escape But Hume perswades Hamilton to make his escape with him and to make a Party so as to enter upon the Government himself he being the next Heir after the former Kings Children in regard he was born of a Sister of James III. and therefore it was more Just he should enjoy the next place to the King then John who its true was the Son of a Brother but born in Exile and in all other things a perfect Foreigner and one that could not as much as speak the Scottish Language With them joyns John Stuart Earl of Lennox with many of his followers but the Earl was soon after reconciled to the Governor and it was not long before Hamilton and Hume returned also to Court and had an amnesty for all that was past Hume and his Brother in a little while after upon some new suspicion the Governor had of them but mostly as 't was thought upon the Calumny of John Hepborn aforsaid their implacable Enemy were Seized Condemned and Executed the people looking on and judging they had hard measure The Regent having brought things into a tolerable state of Settlement Constitutes seaven Deputies whereof the Earl of Angus was one and goes over into France where he staid five years which were full of rapine scuffles and inquietude but I do not find but that the young King continued all this while in the same hands But the Regent finding that in his absence the Dowglasses had mightily prevailed he in order to prevent further seditions sends the Earl of Angus head of that Family into France and another of the name to Rome who died by the way and next Year after his return raised an Army to invade England in Favour of the French But the Nobility opposed his Design and so he was forced to Disband and quickly upon that goes into France again The English Army in the mean time enter Scotland carry all before them and take Jedburg and endeavour by their Navy to intercept the Regent in his return but herein they failed and he with the followers he brought with him from France Compleats another Army actually invades England and Besieged the Castle of Work But finding a vigorous resistance and withal Winter approaching breaks up his Siege The Spring following he calls an Assembly of the Nobles tells them the causes why he must needs go again into France but promised them a speedy return yet he never did For the young King upon Advice from his Mother and most of the Nobility enters upon the Government himself and so vacates the Regents power And now the mystery of iniquity begins to work for tho' the King had assumed the Royal Power yet he and his Kingdom shall be Subject to the Will of others as much and more than before You have heard how Archibald Dowglass had been sent by the Regent into France who hearing of this alteration at home sent one Simon Penning an active Person and one in whom he confided very much to the King of England to perswade him to let him to return home through his Dominions which was granted for it seems King Henry was well enough pleased at the diminution of the Authority of so active a Person as the Duke of Albany and at the change made in Scotland so that the Earl was entertained by him in a very Courteous manner and dismist Honourably But his return did variously affect the minds of the Scots for seeing all the Publick business now transacted by the Conduct of the Queen and the Earl of Arran a great many of the Nobility the head whereof were John Steward Earl of Lennox and Campell Earl of Argyle taking it in very ill part that they were not admitted to any part of the publick Administration received the Earl of Angus with high expressions of Joy as hoping by his aid either to gain over the Power of the adverse faction to themselves or at least to abate their pride On the other hand the Queen who was alienated from her Husband was much concerned at his arrival and sought by all means to undermine him Hamilton also out of the relicts of his own Hatred was none of his Friend besides he feared least Dowglass who he knew would not be content with a second place should mount the saddle and make him truckle under so that he strain'd to maintain his own Dignity and opposed him with all his might They kept themselves therefore within Edenburg Castle and tho' they had seen very well that many of the Nobility affected alterations yet considing in the strength of the place and the Authority of the Kingly Name a sorry defence they thought themselves secure from all force In the mean time the opposite party held a great meeting of the Nobles where they chose three of their own Faction to be Guardians both of King and Kingdom and who should they be but the Earl of Angus John Steward Earl of Lennox and Colen Campell Earl of Argyle And using great Celerity in their business first they passed the Forth and caused James Beaton a shrewd Man to joyn with them who perceiving the strength of the party durst not stand out From thence they went to Sterling and Conferred all publick Offices and imployments upon such as were of their own gang only and afterwards directed their march for Edenburg which they entred without any resistance For it was not Fortifyed at all and immediately fell to work with the Castle about which they cast a small Trench and Besieged it The Defendants who had made no Provision for a Siege surrender'd up both it themselves King and all All were sent away but the King who now had more especially three new Masters before named and who take the whole weight of the Government upon their Shoulders They agreed among themselves that they would manage it by turns each of them attending four Months a piece upon the King who was their prey But this Conjunction was neither hearty nor of long duration Dowglass his turn was first served who brought the King into the Archbishop
dissuaded him from it while it was in prosecution and abhorred it when done there were some publick Ceremonies dissemblingly performed and Married they were for all that Those of the Nobility there present which were but few and they Bothwell's Friends and Creatures too the rest being gone to their homes were invited to Supper and so was Crocke the French Ambassador who though he were of the Guisian Faction and did besides dwell near the place yet absolutely refused to come as thinking it suited not with the Dignity of that Person he represented to countenance that Marriage by his presence which he heard the common People did Curse and Abominate and indeed the King of France and Queen of England did by their Ambassadors declare against the Turpitude of the thing and though that was troublesome to the Queen yet the silent sadness of the People did so much the more increase her fierce Disposition as things seen pierce deeper than things only heard As they both went through the City none Saluted them with wonted Acclamations only one said and that only but once God save the Queen whereupon another Woman near her spoke aloud once or twice so as the standers by might her Let every one have what his Desert is which inraged her still the more against the Citizens so that now seeing the danger she was in by the alienated Minds of her Subjects she casts about how she might establish her Power and first of all she determined to send an Ambassador into France to reconcile those Princes and the Guises to her whom she knew were offended with her precipitate Marriage and the Bishop of Dunblain was pitch'd upon for that purpose whose Instructions were Politickly framed and long and no great question made but they would do the Business The Bishop after his arrival in France obtains a day of Audience not knowing that by this time Bothwell was forced to fly and the Queen taken Prisoner as you 'l hear by and by whereof the very same day the French King and his Mother had received Letters one from Crocke the French Ambassador in Scotland and another from Ninian Cockerburn a Scot who had served as a Captain of Horse some years in France The Scotch Ambassador being admitted into the King's Presence made a long and accurate Speech partly to excuse the Queens Marriage without the advice of her Friends and partly to commend Bothwell to the skies beyond all Right and Reason Hereupon the Queen interrupted the vain Man by shewing him the Letters she had received from Scotland how that the Queen was made a Prisoner and Bothwell sted at which sudden ill News the Man was astonished and held his Peace whilst those that were present partly jeered him and partly smiled at this unlook'd for accident and there were none of them all but thought she suffered deservedly But to return to our Domestick Affairs the way they projected for their security was after they had fixed those by Gifts at present and Promises for the future who were either Perpetrators or Partizans in the King's Murder to make a Combination of the greater Nobility and if that were once done they might go on and undervalue the rest or cut them off if they remained obstinate whereupon they assembled the Nobility and propounded unto them the Heads of those Capitulations they were to Swear to the Sum of the whole was that they should maintain the Queen and Bothwell in all their Actings and on the otherside they were to Favour and Countenance the concerns of those of the Confederates then present a great many were perswaded to it before and so Subscribed the rest perceiving it was bad to Conspire and as dangerous to refuse Subscribed also But the Earl of Murray that his Authority which was great for his Vertue might give some Countenance to the thing was sent for upon this occasion but he after all the Tamperings with him that could be absolutely refused to Subscribe the said Association and thereupon got leave with much ado to Travel so went through England into France where we 'll leave him for a time The Riddance of whom as being a free Hearted and popular Man out of the way did not a little please the Queen who now also endeavours to remove the other Obstacles to her Harmony and those were such as would not willingly Subscribe to her Wickedness or were not like easily to Acquiesce with her Designs but she had a perpetual Hatred towards those who perceiving her to be no better affected towards her Son then towards her former Husband had entred into an Association at Sterling for no Wicked Design but to defend the Young Prince which his Mother desired to have under the Powder of his Father-in-law who they were sure would not fail to make away with him the chief of that Combination were the Earls of Argyle Morton Mar Athol and Glenoarn besides others and some of an inferior Degree as Linsey Boyd with their Friends and Partners but Argyl and Boyd were won over quickly to the Queens Party But all this would not do for the Families of the Humes Carrs and Scots living upon the English borders and by their Scituation as well as being otherwise Powerful became suspected by the Queen to have a Hand against her in this matter and their Power she endeavoured to lessen with all her might and there seemed a fit occasion to be offered for that purpose for Bothwell was preparing an expedition into Liddisdale to make amends for the Dishonour he had received there the Autumn before and also to gain some reputation by his Arms to take off the Envy of the Kings Death all the chief of the Families in Teviotdale were commanded by the Queen to come to the Castle of Edenburgh that there for soâ— short time they might be secure as in a free Custody upon a pretence that they might not be lead into an expedition which did not seem likely to be successfully accomplished against their Wiles and they also if at liberty might disturb the Design out of Envy and in their absence she might inure the Clans to the Government of others and so by Degrees wear off the Love of their Old Patrons and Masters but they well imagining there was some deeper Project concealed under that Command went home by Night all except Andrew Carr who was commonly reputed not to be ignorant of the King's Murder and another Carr at Seaford an harmless innocent Person this exasperated the rest and Hume being often summoned by Bothwell to come to Court refused so to do as knowing what his thoughts were towards him notwithstanding the Design for the Expedition went forward and the Queen stayd at Borthwick Castle about eight Miles from Edenburgh in the mean time the Prince's Assassinators being not ignorant of Bothwell's Design towards him thought it now necessary to proceed to Action not only for their own security but also that by demanding Justice upon the Author of the King's Murder
severed her Head from her Body leaving only a little Gristle uncut without the least stir or motion of the Body and lifting up her Head said God Save our Queen her Lips moved for about a Quarter of an Hour after and her Head-Cloaths falling off her Head appeared as Grey as if shee had been Seventy years old whereas she was but Forty six Having thus brought this unhappy Queen to her fatal Catastrophe we now return to her Son James VI. who notwithstanding afterward his vain â—oast of his inherent Birth-right when he came to be King of England during her long Captivity in England being above 18 years possest her Throne in Scotland he was Born on the 19 th of June in the year 1566 and about Fourteen Months after Crowned King in his Mother's stead she being forced by the Nobles to resign to him The Kingdom during some part of his Minority was Governed by the Earl of Murray as Regent but he being murthered basely by one Hamilton at Lithgow Matthew Stuart Earl of Lenox the King's Grandfather was advanced into his room during whose Regency two Factions continued as before the one for the young King and the other for the Deposed Queen but by the means of Sir James Melvill and others the Queen was brought upon the point of Agreement with the Regent but the Earl of Morton returning to Court he and Randolph the English Ambassador suspecting the probability of such an apparent agreement which had been kept secret from them they fell a plotting which way to obstruct the same and resolved as the most probale means to have a Parliament convened and therein got all the Queens Lords forefaulted whereby the Regent should utterly ruin the ancient Families of the Hamiltons and this would afford a bait to every one of the King's Lords seeing they should be made sharers of the spoil and every one of them get wealth enough Mr. Randolph for their incouragement gave them assurance from England so as they needed not fear any resistance from their Adversaries and Morton to clench the Nail First represented in Council that the Queen's Lords had an intention to re-establish Popery upon which Allegation he knew he would make them odious to the generality of the People and upon their being Forefaulted that each of them should have a share of the said Lord's Estates which brought the Council readily to consent to a Parliament to be held at Sterling to the same purpose The Queen's Lords to be even with them held another Parliament at Edenburgh at the same time and with the same Design of Forefaulting as the King's Lords in the mean time the Laird of Grainge was highly concerned at those violent proceedings wherefore he sent for the Laird of Fer in haste and Buccleugh to come to him one Evening to Edenburg with a good Guard along with them and tell them according to the projection had already devised that that same Night after they had Supped and fed heir Horses they should ride with them to Sterling so as to be there early in the Morning before any of the Lords who held the Parliament were out of their Beds hoping by the Intelligence he had received assuredly to surprize them before they could be advertised thereof the Project they all readily agreed to but they would not allow Grange to go along with them for fear any disaster should befall him who was the Life of them all and so on they march under the Leading of the Earl of Huntley and some others and were got to Sterling by Four next Morning whereinto they entred by a little passage being conducted by a Townsman one George Bell which entry of theirs was immediately after their Night watches had retired to their Rest they divided their Men into several Partys and appointed such as they thought meetest at every Lord's Lodgings leaving one body under Capt. Hackerston at the Market-Cross to see good Order kept and to prevent any spoil to be committed only they ordered the Stables to be searched and all the Horses in the Town to be carried away which was punctually executed but because Captain Hackerstown did not come in due time with his Company to attend at the Market-Cross according to appointment a Company of unruly Servants broke open the Shops and run up and down to take what spoil they could get in the mean while after they had taken out all the Lords from their Lodgings and were leading of them prisoners down the steep Causey of Sterling on foot intending to take them Horses at the Nether-Gate and to ride to Edenburg with their Captives those within the Castle hearing the noise of the Townsmen crying out because of the plundering of their Houses and considering what a disgrace it would be to them if they did not shew themselves Men upon such an occasion they Sallied out boldly and perceiving the disorder of the Enemy rescued all the Prisoners saving the Regent whom one shot in the Back at the Command as was alleged of the Lord Pachey he died of the Wound some days after The next Regent was the Earl of Mar the Discord still continued His Government held not long for being one day invited to Dinner by the Earl of Morton he returned home and sickned died soon after not without vehement suspicion of having been poisoned at his Banquet Morton came in after him Regent the Division between the Lords not yet made up some Overtures of an Accommodation were made but the Queen's Lords finding the Regent not sincere in all Respects refused the Agreement and were at last Besieged in Edinburgh Castle by an English Army which they surrendred upon Articles that were basely broke and most of them executed The King now growing up began to hate the Regent he being aware of it â—ed those about him to infuse in him a good Opinion of him but in vain and so a Council was appointed at Edenburg wherein it was agreed to Depose him Morton thereupon retires to the House of Lochleven within the Lough for his greater security but while he was there his Head was continually a plodding how he might again become Master of the Court then at Sterling which he accomplished in the dead of one night in this manner When he came to the Gates of the Castle they were opened to him by the two Abbots and a Faction they had drawn in there with them though the Master of Mar and Earl of Argyle made what resistance they could yet Morton prevailed but handled the matter so discreetly and moderately as possible he could that the alteration might not appear to be over sharp or violent but the Lord Aubonie about that same time coming into Scotland from France which Lord was afterward Created Duke of Lennox and was Brothers Son to the late Earl of Lennox He and James Steward of Oghiltrie did in a short time gain the ascendency over the King's Affections who was like a Tennis-Ball tossed from one Favourite to another
to be a breach of Faith in the King and himself to be charged with being Author of the said Murder but none resented it so highly as the Lord Ochiltrie who took such despight that his Friend should be slain during a time of Treaty that he solemnly Declared he took part with the Earl of Bothwell and divers others in revenge of his Quarrel encouraging the said Earl to assassinate the King within his Palace of Falkland having several at Court familiar enough with the King who guided him at pleasure to favour the said Conspiracy but things could not be carried with that Secrecy but that some about him got intelligence of the Design and advised him for his own safety to pass over to Coupar and with all expedition to Assemble the Barons of Fife for his own safety but such as had contrived his Ruin perswaded him to stay alledging that the Earl of Louthian would not come from Louthian till such a day tho he kept to his time and came to Falkland two days sooner according to appointment and this they did with a design to have surprized the King before he could either have entred within the Tower of Falkland or making any tolerable Provision for his own Defence and because they knew Sir James Melvill and his Brother Sir Robert might be some obstruction to the Design they advised the King to send them home to their Houses the very same night that they uuderstood the Earl of Bothwell purposed to be there but before the Brothers departed they advised the King to ride quietly to Bambrigh that from thence he might when he pleased take Boat and go over to Angus where he would have leisure to Assemble Forces out of Perth and Dundee with the adjacent Countrys but this advice was also rejected Sir Roberâ— upon the Road homewards had notice given given him by one of Bothwell's gang that he was already got as far as Fife and would be in Falkland about Supper time who forthwith dispatched his Gentleman whose Name was Robert Aufleck to acquaint his Majesty therewith and to desire him to go into the Tower with all expedition but they called him Fool and laughed him to scorn for his pains and so he left them in great discontent but upon his return he met Bothwell and his followers upon the height of Lammonds it being by this time dark night and so struck in with them as if he had been one of the gang and used great diligence to get first to the King shutting the Court Gate after him upon his entrance he urged the King to get into the Tower with utmost expedition which at length he did and so for this time escaped also for tho Bothwell came well provided of all things for forcing the Palace where he thought to surprize the King and tho' it was alledged some shot Paper only out of the Culverins in the Tower upon Bothwell's Men yet others shot Bullets which together with the fear he was in lest the Country might come caused him to retire and flee none pursuing them The Assassination failing this terminated in open Rebellion Bothwell associating himself with the Popish Lords the more to strengthen his Party who for a time prevailed but at last were necessitated to go beyond Sea and Bothwell several years after died at Naples but no sooner was one fear over but comes on another but of a different nature the King you have heard before plaid the Knight-Errant rather than be without a Wife who was Anne Sister to the King of Denmark a Lady that bears a fair Character in the Annals of Time tho' I find one say of her that she was a Person he heard little of saving that Character which Salust gives Sempronia that she could Saltare elegantius quam necesse est probae See had about two years before bore him a Son Prince Henry to whom the King assigned the Earl of Marr Governor now the Queen 't is not known upon what design nor well by whose agency and Promotion laid a project in the King's absence to surprize the Prince and take him out of the Earl's hands but the King 's suddain arrival from Faulkland to Edenburg and taking the Queen away along with him to Sterlin rendred the Project abortive Hower it were the very projection put King James into no small Bodily fear as appears by the following Letter he writ to the Earl of Marr upon that occasion which is recited by Sanderson in his Life of King James My Lord of Mar BEcause in the security of my Son mine is Conserved and my Concredit of his Charge to you upon Trust of your Honour and Honesty This I Command as singly and solely of my self being in Company of those I like not that upon any Charge or Necessity that possibly come from me you shall not deliver him and in case that God call me at any time see you that neither for the Queen nor for the Estates Pleasure you deliver him out of your hands till he be 18 years of Age and that then he Command you himself James Rex This Court juggle and jealousie was followed by a more dangerous one from the Presbytery who met at Edinburg to treat of their Ecclesiastical Affairs and some other matters that came under their Consideration but the Kings Sentiments and theirs were as remote as East and West which produced such Heats and Factions that the King dissolves the Convention they stand stifly to it and meet for all that several Lords espouse their Cause at last the King truckles and was willing to come to an Accommodation but to shew the Image of Authority first asked Who they were that durst Convene against his Proclamation but his Mouth was quickly stopped by the Lord Linsay's reply saying That they durst do more than so and would not endure Destruction of Religion and by the Nobles crying out Arm others Bring forth Haman and some the Sword of the Lord and of Gideon it made the King and his Council flee from Edenburg to Linlithgo but futy by degrees began to cool and some Concessions of all sides introduced a little Tranquillity in the State and some Remissions of the Kings Fears but the Revolution of about two years ushered in that memorable Conspiracy of the Earl of Gowry which because not foreign from the scope of the present Treatise and by reason of the Barbarity and Tragical circumstances thereof as well as it has been the subject of the discourse of many but hardly a Man to be met with that can give the true state of it I shall endeavour to oblige the Reader with a distinct and impartial Narrative of the same even according to what the Court Party and King's Favourites have related concerning it Sanderson in his Life and Death of King James says the Surname of the Earls of Gowry was Ruthven and a Family of small account till Anno 1568. when the chief of them among other Confederates endeavoured to Imprison Mary
Queen of Scots that his Son William was Created Earl of Gowry in King James's Minority and two years after fell into actual Rebellion at Dundee for which he was Beheaded at Sterlin in 1584. but Sir James Melvill who had as good an opportunity to know this Affair as any man says The Earl of Gowry was related to the King in high Favour and by the villanous Contrivance of a Court Faction cut off for little or no fault and seems to censure his hard Fate and not to excuse the King himself in his proceedings against him The Earl's Eldest Son named John was not long after restored in Blood and had leave to Travel and Sanderson said he had a Manuscript containing that the Earl at Padua caused an Hand and Sword aiming at a Crown to be used for his Device and that the Earl of Argyle acquainted King James that he found a Prophesie at an House in Orleans in France where the Earl of Gowry had had Lodgings that he should with too much love fall into Melancholly have great Power and Rule and Die by the Sword After his return that he carried himself very Haughtily and being too big for Court observance retired to his Family leaving his Brother Alexander who was made Gentleman of the King's Bed-Chamber to play the Courtier and Cloak the Design and thus according to Sanderson's Relation was the Conspiracy formed The Earl sent his Brother Alexander from St. Johnstown where he lived to the King at Faulkland to entice him to come thither with as much Privacy as could be and commands one of his Servants Andrew Henderson by Name to go with his Brother and one Andrew Ruthwen to the Court which they in the morning did being the 5th of August 1600. and as the King was putting his Foot into the Stirrup to go a Hunting Alexander informed him that he had apprehended one lately come from beyond Seas with much Gold about him and several suspicious Letters to some Popish Lords advising his Majesty to receive the Money and the Letters and to examine the Person who was in safe Custody at his Brother the Earl's House but ten miles of and this with as much speed and privacy as could be to which the King assents and that he would go at Noon while his Attendants were at Dinner Alexander hereupon dispatched Henderson to give the Earl notice that the King would be there about Noon and that the Business took so well with him that he had clipt him about the Neck that he had but a slender Retinue as the Duke of Lennox Sir Thomas Erskin and about a Dozen more Well said the Earl Get on your Plate Sleeves for I must take an Highland Robber The King staying at his sport of Hunting somewhat longer than was expected the Earl had half Dined when Andrew Ruthen aforesaid came in haste and acquainted him the King was hard by and presently after came in Alexander and Bloire who withdrew to consult and sent Henderson for the Earls Gauntlet and Steel Bonnet the King quickly followed and was received by the Earl who conducted him into Dinner In the mean time Alexander bids Henderson fetch the Keys of the Chambers from one Rynd and presently after one Crâ—uston calls Henderson to come to the Earl who commanded him to do whatever his Brother Alexander should bid him which was to be locked up in the round Chamber and to stay there silently till his return When the Dinner was near over and the King eating some Fruit and the Lords and other Attendants gone to eat Alexander begs of him to make use of that opportunity and withdraw to dispatch the Business and up he leads him through four or five Rooms locking every Door as he passed behind him until they came to the round Chamber where Henderson stood armed They were no sooner entred but Alexander pulls out Henderson's Dagger held it to the King's Breast and said with a stern Countenance Now Sir you must know I had a Father whose Blood calls for Revenge and you must Die surely if this had been true the very fright must have killed King James but to proceed the King seeing his danger deals gently with his fury excuses himself from the guilt of his Death by his then Infancy advising him not to lay violent hands on the Sacred Person of his Sovereign pleading the Laws of God and Man and his Merits in Restoring his Brother to his Estate and Honours by Breeding his Sister the nearest in the Queen's Affections and by his Reception of himself to be of his Bed-Chamber and withall promising Pardon for all that was past which so wrought upon Alexander for the present that he left the King in Henderson's Custody untill he returned back from his Brother having first taken an Oath of the King not to stir nor cry out and so locks them both in Alexander being gone Henderson in the mean time relented and swore he would not kill him but presently Alexander returns with a String in his Hand and said Sir There is no Remedy By God you must Die and so strives to Bind him Nay says the King I was Born free and will not be Bound and so struggling together Alexander got the King's Head under his Arm and clapped his Hand upon his Mouth which the King bit by the Thumb and dragging him to the Window bad Henderson open it where the King cryed out to the back Court Treason where the Duke of Lennox Earl of Mar and others were in pursuit of him it having been given out that he was gone the back way into the Park As soon as they knew it was the King they ran to the Chamber where he Dined but could find no entrance In the mean time John Ramsey Groom of the Bed-Chamber and Sir Thomas Erskin endeavoured to get up by the Turn-Pike back-stairs being directed thither by a Boy of the House who saw Alexander ascend that way and forcing one Door open found them panting Ramsey immediately draws his Fauchion and run Alexander in the Belly being bid to strike low for the King found him armed with a Coat of Mail and so with the assistance of Sir Thomas Erskin Doctor Herres and one Wilson quickly dispatched him whilst Henderson slipt out of the way but the danger was not yet over for perceiving by the noise of unlocking the Doors that the Earl himself was coming to assault them they advised the King to withdraw into the Lobby but first cast the King's Coat over the Dead Body which was no sooner done but the Earl enters by his double Keys attended with seven of his Servants the foreway and his Case of Rapiers and his usual Arms ready drawn to whom Erskin to divert him from his purpose earnestly said What do you mean my Lord the King is killed and points to his Brothers covered Body bleeding on the Floor at which Gowry stoops dropping the points of his Weapons when suddenly Herres assaulted him with his Sword and being
seconded by Ramsey struck him to the Heart yet not so readily but that the Earl thrust him into the Thigh assisted by Cranston who wounded Erskin and Herres in the Hand and they him through the Body and lived only long enough to be hanged and quartered Then came in the Lords and the rest of the Company and after having surveyed the Earl's Body they found it did not Bleed till a Parchment was taken out of his Bosom with Characters in it and these Letters which put together made Tetragrammaton having been told as the Story went his Blood should not be spilt as long as he had that spell This is the substance of the Conspiracy I will not descant upon the many Absurdities and incoherent Circumstances couched under this Relation but will leave it to the Readers Censure and tell you only that most Authors that have mentioned it seem to turn the Tables to lay the Assassination at the King's door and one I find Sir J. H. saying he Blasphemed God for his pretended Deliverance once a year all his life after but Mr. Wilson is a little more modest who expresses himself hereupon to this purpose This year August 5. being the first of the King's Reign in England had a new Title given to it the King's Delivery in the North must resound here whether the Gowries attempted upon the King's Person or the King upon theirs is variously reported It may be he retained something of his Predecessor and great Parent Henry VII that made Religion give way to Policy oftentimes Cursing and Thundring out the Churches Fulminations against his own Ministers that they might be received with the more intimate Familiarity with his Foreign Enemies for the better discovery of their Designs I will not say the Celebration of this Holy-Day had so much Profaneness for Fame may be a Slanderer but where there is a strength of Policy there is always a power of wordly Wisdom that manages and sways it Now we are to transplant the Scene into the Southern part of the British Isle for our bright Occidental Star Queen Elizabeth of famous Memory having for the space of above forty four years shined in our British Horizon and darted out the Rays of her Renown to the remotest parts of the habitable Globe and now exchanged an Earthly for an Heavenly Diadem King James succeeded her in all her Dominions who being both a Protestant and a Pacifick King diverted the Fears of the English and made some Allay of Grief in their Hearts for the lost of their Nursing Mother and Sovereign Lady who though she were glorious and happy almost in all her Affairs during the course of her long Reign yet she may be truly said to have been much more celebrated after her Death for the Vices of others and Male-Administration of this and the succeeding Reigns erected a more lasting Monument of Renown and contributed a more indelible lustre to her Fame than any of the worthiest Atcheivements of her Life so that it may be as truly said of her as it was of old by Suetonius concerning that brave Roman Germanicus Auxit gloriam desideriumque defunctae insequentium tempâ—rum atrocitas Here for a time we are to expect nothing but Shows Pageants Creations of Honours of which King James was never no niggard and all manner of Jollity but the advancement of some so far disgusted others who thought themselves neglected that it produced him a Conspiracy as the Authors of that Age know not what to make off it was apparent the muddy Waters were stirred but it was with such a mixture that little could be visible in it For Sir Walter Rawleigh the Lords Cobham and Grey were Protestants Markham Baynam and the two Priests were Popish the Charge was that they had endeavoured all in Conjunction to introduce Popery to seize the King and Prince and to set the Crown up-the Head of the Lady Arabella Steward younger Brother to Henry Lord Darnley both Sons to Matthew Earl of Lennox by his Wife Margaret Daughter by the Earl of Angus to Margaret the Mother of James V. and Daughter of Henry VII But this was a sorry foundation to go upon and so the superstructure thus huddled together could not last long wherefore the execution of some and Imprisonment of the rest quickly dissipated this Cloud and all was Serene again and Halcion days But here give me leave to say somewhat as well in Vindication of the Memory of that true Englishman and Noble Gentleman Sir Walter Rawleigh who was Condemned for this Conspiracy and Beheaded many years after when he had been General by the King's Commission and had by that Power over the Lives of many others contrary to the Civil Law which says He that hath Power over the Lives of others ought to be Master of his own as to shew the perversion of Justice in that Reign and the poorness of the King's Spirit to be gull'd at that rate by his Ministers in this as well as other Particulars Sir Walter was Tryed at Winchester and made a brave Defence All the material Evidence brought against him was the Lord Cobham's Accusation which he only desired might appear viva voce and he would yield without any further Defence but that would not be granted for they knew full well Cobham would not or could not accuse him you must know Wade then Lieutenant of the Tower and a great Creature of the Earl of Salisbury's had tampered with Cobham about the aforesaid Accusation of Rawleigh knowing Cobham's weakness but that would not do and therefore he circumvented him one day by getting of him to set his Name in a blank piece of Paper and so filled up the Accusation himself Salisbury Rawleigh's great Enemy being thus armed against him urgâ—d Sir Walter several times to yield upon the producing of his Accusation under Cobham's own Hand Sir Walter answered he knew Cobham's weak Judgment and did not know how far he might be imposed upon but was confident he would not accuse him to his Face and therefore would not put his Life upon that hazard and thus the Trial held till nine at night at last his Fate carried him against his Reason and he yielded upon the producing his Hand which was immediately done and it was in truth his Hand but none of his Act. It happened some years after this that Queen Anne fell into a desperate and 't was believed incureable fit of Sickness and â—hen the Skill of all her Physicions had failed Sir Walter by his long Studies having arrived to an admirable Perfection in Chymistry was sent to who undertook and performed the Cure for which he would receive no other Reward but that her Majesty would procure certain Lords to be sent to Cobham to examine him Whether he had accused Sir Walter Rawleigh of Treason at any time under his Hand The King at the Queen's Request as in Justice he could do no less sent six Lords viz. the Duke of Lennox the Earls of
Salisbury Worcester Suffolk Sir George Carew and Sir Julius Caesar to Interrogate with Cobham upon the said Head Cobham protested he never did nor could accuse Sir Walter but said That Villain Wade after a long Sollicitation so to do but not prevailing got him by a trick to write his Name upon a piece of Paper which he dreaming of no harm did so that if any Charge came under his Hand it must have been forged by Wade by Writing something above his Name without his Consent or Privity The Lords returning to the King made Salisbury their Spokesman who elusively said Sir My Lord Cobham hath made good all that ever he said and so the matter rested Sir Walter being no ways relieved hereby but the King further possest with his guilt but surely the baseness of those Lords and the King's credulity were unpardonable Crimes Soon after this Hodge-podge of a Plot the King and Queen were Crowned in great Pomp at Westminster And the same year a Conference was managed at Hampton-Court between the Prelatical and Puritan Party the latter conceiving great hopes that because of the King's Education in the Scots Discipline he would be of their side but they mistook quite their mark for he was by that time become Heart and Soul Episcopal and to give evident Demonstration of his entire Conversion issues out a Proclamation of which no Prince was ever so prodigal and which at last as naturally happens were as little regarded for Uniformity in Religion according to Law Established then at length comes a Parliament between whom and the King notwithstanding some mutual Caresses for a time arose several Jars and Jealousies but the discovery of the Gun-Powder Treason attributed to the King's Wisdom and Foresight seemed for a time to heal all the Breaches which hellish Contrivance against the King and Kingdom will fall pertinently enough to be noted in this place The Popish Party finding their Petition for a Toleration of Religion rejected grew enraged thereat and now nothing would serve but the Destruction of King Prince and the Representative Body of the whole Nation in Parliament and to that end they hid 36 Barrels of Gun-Powder under the Parliament House the principal Contriver whereof was Robert Catesby a Gentleman of a plentiful Estate who made choice of Thomas Piercy Winter Grant Ambrose Rookwood I am told the Ancestor of the late Ambrose Rookwood executed for Conspiring the Death of our Renowned Sovereign King William Wright Tresham Sir Everard Digby and others who are all bound to Secresie by those Sacraments which are the greatest Ties upon the Soul and St. Garnet the Jesuit was their Confessor Piercy was to hire the Cellars under the Parliament House to lay Wood and Coals in for his Winters Store and Guido Faux a desperate Ruffian who was to give Fire to the Train was appointed to be his Man to bring in Wood and Coals The Gun-Powder bought in Flanders was brought in the Night from Lambeth and covertly laid under the Wood and every thing made ready against the 7th of February whereon the Parliament was to meet but the Parliament being providentially Prorogued to the 5th of November following this dispersed the Conspirators for the present and made them almost at their Wits end but reassuming again their former Courage they resolve to carry on their Villany and to bear up with Patience till the day came They were sure the King and Prince must perish with the blow as for the Duke of York Piercy undertook to dispatch him but the Lady Elizabeth they resolved to save that under her Minority and Innocency they might the better establish their Bloody Principles of Piety and Policy and to that end they appointed a great Hunting Match to be at Dunsemore-Heath in Warwickshire to be nearer the Lord Harrington's House where the Lady Elizabeth then was on the 5th of November aforesaid Thus Solacing themselves in this Bloody Expectation and thinking all Cock-sure one tender-hearted Murderer among the rest writ a Letter to the Lord Monteagle wishing him to have a care of himself and to forbear his Attendance at that Parliament for God and Man had concurred to punish the Wickedness of the time and they should receive a terrible blow and yet not see who hurt them The Lord Monteagle thinking there might be something in the Letter oâ— dangerous Consequence though he understood it not carried the same to the Earl of Salisbury who also could not tell what to make of it but upon the King 's coming to Whitehall from Royston where he had been Hunting of a Hare he shewed him the Letter who being naturally of a fearful Temper and suspicious Mind ordered the Earl of Suffolk and Lord Monteagle to make a search about the Parliament House who entring into the Cellar and observing the Stores as aforesaid enquired of the Wardrobe Keeper Mr. Winyard who was also House-keeper whose they were Winyard replied he had let the Cellar to one Thomas Percy and close in a Corner there stood Faux who being asked who he was said Percy 's Servant The Lords for the present left all things as they found them but departed full of Suspicion the Lord Monteagle assuring himself the forementioned Letter must come from Percy for there were some little intimacy between them and gave the King and Council a Relation of their Proceedings who resolved that night to make a further search and committed it to the management of Sir Thomas Knevet a Gentleman of approved Fidelity and who with a suitable Assistance coming to the Cellar about midnight met Faux at the Door on whom he presently seized and proceeding in his search pulled out the Core of all that Horrid Contrivance whereupon Faux confessed all being only sorry it came not to perfection and saying God would have concealed it and the Devil only discovered it In his Pockets they found a Watch which were not common then and a Tinder-Box Engines to minute out his time to strike the fatal blow The Conspirators finding all detected hastened for all that to the Hunting Match aforesaid furnishing themselves with Horses by breaking open several Stables and taking their choice but the Sherriffs of Warwickshire and Worcestershire pursued them so hard that at last they were forced to earth themselves at Littleton's House at Halbech where Percy and Catesby were slain with a few more and the rest taken Prisoners and afterwards Hanged This happy Deliverance was Celebrated with great Joy and Foreign Princes though Popish would Congratulate the Discovery and the Parliament made an Act for the perpetual Solemnizing of the day of Deliverance with publick Thanksgivings So things continued for a time and the King of Denmark the Queen's Brother coming over to visit the King and his Sister the Summer following added a greater gust to the Recreations and Pastimes of the Court now wallowing in all sensual Pleasures as if the Devil was quite laid and ne'er more Storms to be feared from any Quarter but the
the Duke did so wind himself into the Affections of the Prince that he governed the Son now as Despotically as ever he had done the Father and this had another Misfortune attending of it that the rising Sun was now Worshipped and the old King neglected which yet he had not power to redress and which no doubt hastned his Fate as we are now just ready to relate unto you The King who was the most impatient of all Men to be told of his Faults was so out of love with Parliaments for that very Reason that by his Good-Will he would never have called another but Dire necessity which has no Law brought him once more to it and so a Parliament was Summoned to meet on the Twelfth of February Anno 1623. but that same morning as a kind of Presage of his own Destiny the King missed the Duke of Richmond's Attendance who being a constant observer of him at all times the King did now as it were want one of his Limbs to support the Grandeur of His Majesty at such a Solemnity and calling for him with great Earnestness he dispatched a Messenger to his Lodgings in all haste where the King's Command and the Messengers importunity made the Dutchess his Wife somewhat unwillingly go to his Bed-side when drawing the Curtain she found him Dead in his Bed the sad News whereof was carried with that violence to the King that he would not Adorn himself that day to Ride in Pomp to the Parliament House but put it off till the nineteenth of February Dedicating some part of that time to the memory of his dead Servant The Parliament sate at the time appointed and upon Buckingham's fine Narration about the Spanish Match advised the King to break off the Treaty with Spain which the King himself seemed forward to promote being now got quite into the Prince and Duke's Toll and sets a Treaty of Marriage on Foot with France But before the entire Consummation of the same as the Duke of Richmond was the long so now the Marquess of Hamilton was the short forerunner of the King's Death both which 't was believed were forwarded by the same hand The Marquess Died with very presumptuous Symptoms of being Poisoned his Head and Body swelling to an excessive bigness and the Body being all over full of great Blisters with variety of Colours the Hairs of his Head Eye-brows and Beard came off with a touch and brought the Skin with them great Clamour there was about it in the Court so that Doctors were sent for to view the Body but the matter was hudled up and little said of it only Doctor Eglisham a Scotch Man was something bitter against the Duke as if he had been Author of it 'T is certain That the Marquess's unwillingness that his Son should Marry the Earl of Denbigh's Daughter the Duke's Niece made a difference between them with some other concurring Accidents which however did not in this King's time break out into a Reflection upon the Duke being bound up close more as it was thought by his Power than his Innocence Not long after this the King going to his last Hunting Journey to wit the last of the year as well as of his Life he fell sick of a Tertian Ague which if we believe the Proverb is not dangerous in the Spring and had a few Fits of it having this Ague upon him the Countess of Buckingham who Trafficked much with Mountebanks and whose Fame had no good savour tampered with him in the absence of the Doctors and the Duke her Son when in the Judgment of the Physicians the Ague was in the decline did apply Plaisters to the King's Wrists and Belly and did also deliver several quantities of Drink to him and told him they were approved Medecines though some of the King's Physicians did disallow thereof and refused to to meddle further with the King till the said Plaisters were removed which the King much complained off and was glad to have it pulled off tho' with part of the Skin along with it It 's certain the King found himself much worse after the said application and that an high Fever Droughts Raving Fainting and an intermittent Pulse followed thereupon and 't is manifest he was himself suspicious of foul play upon him for when one of his faithful Servants saw him in one of his Fits and to comfort him said Courage Sir this is but a small Fit the next will be none at all He answer'd Ah 't is not the Ague that afflicts me but the Black Plaister and Powder given me and laid to my Stomach by Buckingham And he would often say to Montgomery whom he trusted above all Men in the time of his Sickness For God's sake look I have fair Play When he was near the point of Death as Buckingham entred the King's Chamber one of his honest Servants said to him Ah my Lord you have undone us all his poor Servants altho' you are so well provided for you need not care With which words the Duke was so stung for where there is Guilt it will quickly appear that he kickt at him who caught his Foot and made his Head first come to the ground where presently rising he ran to the King's Bed-side and cryed Justice Sir I am abus'd by your Servant and wrongfully accus'd At which the poor King Mournfully fix'd his Eyes upon him as if he would have said Not wrongfully yet without Speech or Sence But before his Departure he called for the Prince his Son who rising out of his Bed something before day and presenting himself before him the King rouzed up his Spirits and raised himself up as if he meant to speak to him but Nature being exhausted he had not strength to express his Intentions but soon after Expired being upon Sunday Morning the 27th of March 1625. at Theobalds in the Eight and fiftieth year of his Age and the Two and twentieth of his Reign compleat there being more than a Presumption that he run the same Destiny with his Ancestors whose Deaths were Violent as well by Father as Mother's side which we have more particularly noted for Henry Stuart Lord Darnley his own Father was Strangled and carry'd out of his House and set under a Tree and then his House Blown up with Gunpowder his Grandfather Matthew Stuart Earl of Lenox was Shot at Sterlin of which Wound he some days after died and his Great Grandfather John Stuart Earl of Lenox was slain near Linlithgow in a Conflict he had with the Hamiltonians and the Douglasses about the Enlargement of James the Fifth The Duke 't is true did afterward endeavour to Purge himself from the foremention'd Application by alleadging he had receiv'd both the Drink and Plaister from Doctor Remington at Dunmore in Essex who had often Cured Agues and such Distempers with the same yet they were Arguments of a complicated kind and not to be easily unfolded considering that whatsoever he receiv'd from the Doctor in the
Country he might apply what he pleas'd to the King at the Court and besides had the Medicine been the best in the World the Act was Daring and no ways Justifiable in him because he wanted the Consent of the King's Physitians thereto and one of Buckingham's great Provocations was thought to be that the King now being weary of his too much Greatness and Power was about to set up Bristol his deadly Enemy against him to pull him down The Application of this Medicine was one of the 13 Articles charged afterward upon the Duke by the Parliament who rarely accuse upon false Rumour or bare Suggestion and surely he will have work to do that takes upon him to excuse the King his Successor in this Matter for Dissolving the Parliament to preserve one that was accus'd by them for Poisoning his Father especially if it be consider'd that the Commons had then Voted him Four Subsidies and Four Fifteenths which they had not time to pass into an Act. What did farther increase Mens suspicions was one Doctor Lamb a Fellow of a most Infamous conversation his frequenting to and being much imploy'd by the Countess and her Son which did at length so incense the People against him that finding him in the Streets of London An. 1628. they set upon him with Stones and Staves and knocked out his Brains as also one Butler an Irishman that pretended to be a Chymist and was very intimate with the foresaid Company I mean the Duke and his Mother and indeed the Story of his Death as was then reported is a very convincing Evidence of some secret Machination betwixt the Duke and him which made the Duke be desirous to be rid of him For Mischief says Mr. Wilson being an ingrosser is unsecured unsatisfied when their Wares are to be vented in many Shops This Man was by the Dukes means recommended upon some plausible pretence to some Jesuites beyond the Seas where he was entertain'd with a great deal of specious Ceremony and Respect in one of their Colleges and at Night being attended by them into his Chamber with much Civility which was hung with Tapestry and had Tapers burning in stretched-out-Armes upon the Wall when they gave him the Good-night they told him they would send one should direct him to his Lodging and they were no sooner out of the Room of Death but the Floor that hung upon great Hinges on one side was let fall by Artificial Engines and the poor Vermine Butler dropt into a Precipice where he was never more heard of To conclude King James was Learned and had fine Notions in Conception but could bring but few of them into Action tho' they tended to his Honour and Safety for this was one of his Apothegms which he made no timely use of Let that Prince that would beware of Conspiracies be rather jealous of such whom his extraordinary Favours have advanc'd then of those whom his Displeasure hath discontented these want Means to execute their Pleasures but they have means at pleasure to execute their desires But a late Learned Author has exprest as much contempt of his Learning as Ben Johnson did of his Poetry saying It was a Scandal to his Crown meaning his Writings against Bellarmine and Perrone about their King-killing and King-deposing Doctrines and it seems Henry 4. of France had not a much better opinion of the same who when he heard some Men Celebrating of him with these Attributes answer'd truly enough That he was a fine King indeed and Wrote little Books King James was Succeeded by His Son Charles in all His Dominions but much more so in all His Misfortunes for this was one of the unhappiest Princes that ever Swayed a Scepter There is little remarkable concerning this Pâ—â—â—ce in his Infancy only he was noted as Lilly says to be very wilful and obstinate by the old Scottish Lady his Nurse and even by his own Mother Queen Ann who being told on a time he was very Sick and like to die said He would not then die but live to be the Ruine of himself and the Three Kingdoms through his too much Wilfulness And it seems the Symptoms of his Fore-Fathers Destiny appear'd in his very Face for his Picture having been presented to the then Duke of Tuscany the first sight and inspection thereof made him sâ—art and say He saw something in it that Presag'd a strange and violent Exit Moreover if what the said Author says be true That Laud at His Coronation at Westminster alter'd the Old Coronation Oath and framed another New one for him in the room of it it was a foul stumble at first dash It rarely happens and I think but very few Instances can be given that one and the same Person proves a Favourite to Two Princes together but it seems nothing could resist the Charmes of the Glorious Buckingham who now Governs the Son more Despotically than ' er he had done the Father and put him upon those very Expeditions that with other concurring Mismanagements made Shipwrack of His Honour at home procured him scorn and contempt abroad and hastned those Calamities which at length resolved in his own sad Catastrophe and Ruine But surely it argu'd a very mean and poor spirit in him to take him into his Bosom and to be govern'd by one that had twice in his Father's time so highly affronted and disdain'd him the first at Royston before many People by bidding of him in plain terms Kiss his A And the second time at Greenwich in the sight of about 400 Persons when lifting up his hand over his head with a Ballon Brasser and saying in most undutiful terms to him By G. it shall not be so you shall not have it The Prince answer'd What my Lord I think you intend to strike me It 's true to have forgotten and never to revenge such Injuries when he had been King had been worthy the Noble Mind of a Prince but it also became him never to have suffer'd him to come near his Court to be upbraided with the sight of so much scorn that had been so publickly offer'd him and some Criticks at Court at that time did not stick to read his future Destiny At King James's Death the Nation was rent into Four Factions viz. the Prerogative Popish Puritan and Country Party which in a short time was reduc'd into two the two former uniting their force against the other two and one should have thought it had been the business of the New King to have composed those first rather then make War abroad But King James his Body was scarce cold when Buckingham put King Charles upon a War with Spain Both of them when in that Kingdom had receiv'd so many Civilities from his Catholick Majesty that they now resolve to Invade his Country with a Powerful Fleet and a Land Army under the Command of my Lord Wimbleton but in their passage they met with a Furious Storm which so scatter'd the Fleet that of
lines to this unfortunate King who now had no more to do then patiently to submit to what time produced but how pleasing soever these Votes were to the Army the Scots and diverse parts of the English Nation were not content with them and so they rise in Arms in Essex Kent Suffolk Norfolk Wales and the North and declare for the King and People Part of the Fleet also Revolted to Prince Charles but all these Revolts were quelled by a Victorious Army in a short time But while the Army was busied abroad the Members having gotten possession of the Fleet and the City of London being well affected to them they joyn with the Scotish Commissioners and rescine the Votes of the Non-addresses to the King and appointed a conference with him at Newport in the Isle of Wight to continue for forty days and to that purpose take him out of Prison and allow him the Liberty of the Island and the King upon the matter with reluctancy enough grants the Scots and the Members their own Demands But no endeavours of his Subjects nor the joynt desires of the Scots and Members could protect this unhappy Prince from his approaching Ruine for the Army now every where Victorious over the Scots and Royalists draw together and make a Remonstrance against all Peace with the King that Justice might be done upon Him the Crown-land and Church-land might be sold to Pay their Army and that the present Parliament be Dissolved and another Called But the Members were intent upon the King's Answer to their Propositions and laid aside the Armies Remonstrance which they take as a slighting of them and then seized the King in the Isle of Wight and make Him a Prisoner in Hurst-Castle an unhealthy place and March to London putting Garrisons in Noblemen's Houses and Whitehall and Post themselves about the Pallace-yard But the Members for all this Met upon the First of Decemb. 1648. and Voted the King's Concessions to be a sufficient ground for a Peace and then Adjourn'd for a Week yet when they were to Meet again they found all the Avenues to the House beset with Soldiers who Excluded all that were not of their Faction from entring the House which were not one fourth part and made the residue Prisoners This Juncto called afterward the Rump Parliament having in this manner Purged the House Assume to themselves the Supream Power of Ordering the English Affairs Confirm the Votes of Non-Addresses and raze the Votes of having a Conference with the King and the Declaration that the King's Concessions were a sufficient ground for a Peace out of the Journals of the House and Vote First That all Power resides in the People Secondly That the Power belongs to the Peoples Representatives in the House of Commons Thirdly That the Votes of the Commons have the Force of a Law without the King Fourthly That to take up Arms against the Representatives of the People or the Parliament was High-Treason Fifthly That the King Himself took up Arms against the Parliament and therefore was guilty of all the Blood shed in the Civil War and ought by His own Blood to expiate the fame But the Ordinance for the King's Trial being sent up to the Lords for their Concurrence they Rejected it January the 2 d and Adjourned for 10 days but first sent back that they would give Answer Whereupon the Commons search the Lords Journal-Book and find these Votes 1. To send an Answer 2. That their Lordships do not concur to the Declaration 3. That their Lordships Reject the Ordinance for Tryal of the King But the Commons for all that go on and Vote the Lords Dangerous Order the King to be brought to London under a Guard Read and Ingrossed the Ordinance for his Tryal on the 6 th of January and the Manner was referred to the Commissioners who were to Try Him and to that end to Meet in the Painted Chamber on Munday January the 9 th who Resolved that Proclamation should be made in Westminster-Hall that the Commissioners were to Sit again to Morrow and that all those who had any thing to say against the King should be heard In this manner Mr. Denby who was Sergeant at Arms to the Commissioners Rode into the Hall with his Mace and some other Officers all bare attended with Six Trumpets on Horseback who Sounded in the midst of the Hall the Drums of the Guard in the mean time Beating without in the Pallace-yard at the Old Exchange and in Cheapside The Mayor Aldermen and Common Council of London Petition'd the House of Commons for Justice against the King to Settle the Votes that the Supream Power was in them and the City resolved to stand by them to the utmost and because nothing should obstruct the intended Work Hillary Term was Adjourned for Fourteen days and Proclamation made thereof in the Cities of London and Westminster and other Market-Towns but that this poor Prince might have some glimmering of hope the Scots Parliament begun January 2 d. understanding what was done at London in reference to the King's Tryal Dissent from the said proceedings and Direct some Papers To William Lenthall Esquire Speaker of the House of Commons which the House took as an Affront and Denyal of their Authority and so thought not sit to Read them but yet Voted to send Commissioners into Scotland to preserve a Good Correspondence between both Nations Several Ministers from their Pulpits Declaimed also against the Proceedings against the King's Person some of the Nobility offer'd themselves Pledges in his behalf and January 19 the Scottish Commissioners deliver'd some Papers and a Declaration from the Parliament of Scotland wherein they express a dislike of the present Proceedings and declare That the Kingdom of Scotland had an undoubted Interest in the King's Person who was not deliver'd to the English Commissioners at Newcastle for the Ruine of his Person but for the more speedy Settlement of the Peace of his Kingdoms That they extreamly Dissented and Declared against the Tryal of Him in regard of the Great Miseries that were like to ensue thereupon and desired leave to make their Personal Addresses to Him The like Papers were also Presented to the General but all signify'd nothing for the Commissioners for the Tryal proceeded to make all things in a readiness and to that purpose Order'd that the Sword and Mace tho' they had the King's Arms thereon should be brought into the Court at His Tryal and the King to be brought from St. James's where he was then a Prisoner to Sir Robert Cotton's House at Westminster They erected a Tribunal called The High Court of Justice over which was appointed One hundred and fifty Judges at the upper end of Westminster-Hall the Courts of Chancery and Kings-Bench being ordered into one and these Judges were impower'd to Convent Hear Judge and Execute Charles Stuart King of England All things being now fitted up the King on Saturday the 20 th was brought from St. James
to the abrogating of which by the enormous power of the Sword because he could by no means be induced he was brought thither to undergo a Martyrdom for his People Then he prayed and being minded by the Bishop to satisfie the Spectators as to his Religion he said that he had deposited the Testimony of his Faith with that holy Man meaning the Bishop That his Life and Profession had been well known and that now he died in the Christian Faith according to the Profession of the Church of England as the same was left him by his Father of Blessed Memory And then turning about to the Officers and professing the hopes he had of his Salvation he began to prepare for the Circumstances of Death The Bishop put on his Night-cap and uncloathed him to his Sky-coloured Sattin Wastcoat he delivered his George to the Bishop's hands and charged him to remember to give the same to the Prince and having prayed again he stooped down to the Block and had his Head severed from his Body at one Blow about Two of the Clock in the Afternoon the day aforesaid in the year 1648. dying the same death as to kind as his Grandmother Mary Queen of Scots had done sixty two years and eight days before at Fothringham Castle in Northamptonshire and I think was no whit inferior to her in the misfortunes of his Life And to note a few his three Favourites to wit Buckingham Laud and Strafford undergoing a violent death and the two latter falling by the Axe as forerunners of his own destiny And as to his own Personal errors when Bristol was cowardly surrendred by Fines had he then marched to London as he might have done very well all had been his own but loytering to no purpose at Gloucester he was soon after well banged by the Earl of Essex When he had worsted Essex in Cornwall he neglected the like opportunity of getting to London Guilty he was of the same oversight in not commanding the Duke of Newcastle to march Southwards toward the Metropolis of England before the Scots entred the English Borders and in not doing the like himself after he had taken Leicester for there was nothing then that could have hindred him to become Master of the City The same ill success he had as to his Treaties about being restored And in short he was generally unfortunate in the World in the esteem not only of his Enemies but in some sort of his Friends too for as the later were n'er pleased with his breach of Faith so the former would say he could never be fast enough bound and the Blood that some years before dropt upon his Statue at Greenwich and the falling off of the Silver Head of his Cane at his Trial were interpreted as dismal presages of his disastrous fate His Head and Trunk after the Execution were immediately put into a Coffin and conveyed to the Lodgings in Whitehall and there Embowelled and from thence conveyed to St. James House and Coffined in Lead About some fortnight after the Duke of Lennox Marquess of Hartford Earl of Southampton and Bishop of London got leave to bury the Body which they conducted to the Chappel at Windsor and Interred it there in the Vault of Henry the Eight with this Inscription only upon his Coffin Charles King of England And herein he was more unhappy than his Grandmother Mary for whereas her Corpse were some years after her death taken up by her Son King James and Reposited with all the Funeral Pomp that could be in the Chappel of King Henry the Seventh her Great Grand Father This King's Remains notwithstanding the Commons had Voted in 1669 the Sum of 50000 l. for the Charge of taking it up a Solemn Funeral had of it and a Monument for it yet lay neglected as if it had been blasted by fate King Charles the Second his Son they said forbidding of it A Physician that made inspection into the dissection of the Body related that nature had designed him above the most of mortal men for a long life but Providence ordered it otherwise for he was cut off in the Forty ninth year of his Age being his Climacterical and twenty fourth of his Reign leaving six Children behind him three Sons Charles Prince of Wales James Duke of York and Henry Duke of Gloucester whereof the two Elder were Exiles and three Daughters Mary Princess of Orange Elizabeth a Virgin who not long survived him and Henrietta Maria born at Exeter Charles his Eldest Son who was then at the Hague when he heard of his Father's disastrous fate assumed the Title of King of England c. tho an Exile and without any Kingdom to command He was born at St. James's May 30. 1630. it was said a Star appeared over the place where he had been born in broad day which in those times was interpreted to prognosticate his happiness but the Ecclipse of the Sun which happened presently after was no less a presage of his future Calamities There was little remarkable in him or concerning him till the year 1639 when the unhappy disaster of breaking his Arm befell him and that not long after he was afflicted with a violent Feaver accompanied with a little of the Jaundice but having at length recovered his perfect health and the fatal differences begun long before but now daily increasing between the King his Father and the People he accompanied him into the North of England where he was a Spectator of that dismall Cloud which tho small at its first gathering yet was pregnant with that dreadful storm which in a short time spread it self over him his Father and three Nations For going to take possession of Hull as they thought they were by Sir John Hotham denied Entrance and forced to wait several hours at the Gate all in vain From this time forward the War increasing between the King and Parliament he was first spectator of that successless Battle to his Father's Arms at Edgehill staid some time after at Oxford From thence returning to the Field and the King's forces in the West under the command of the Lord Hopton of which the Prince was nominally General being routed by General Fairfax he was necessitated to retire to the Isle of Scilly and from thence betook himself into France To whom his Father now depriv'd of Command himself sent a Commission of Generalissimo of those few Royalists that survived the late unhappy overthrows and this brought him to the Isle of Guernsey where he possest himself of some Vessels that lay there and having joyned them to those he had brought with him out of France he sailed from thence into the Downs where he seized several rich Merchant-Ships and expected some Land-forces from Holland raised by the Prince of Orange for his Service But alas he was as unfortunate now in his Warlike attempts as his Father had been before and was still in his Treaties of Peace for Poyer and Langhorn who made a
an entire disappointment of his hopes that way and they to be so beaten as they were never before nor after by the English Fleet. Oliver Cromwel sometime after assuming the Supream Power by the Title of Protector he and Mazarine grew so gracious one with another that France began now to be too hot to hold King Charles so as he was necessitated to retire thence to the Elector of Cologn and afterwards into the Spanish Netherlands where he ordered the English Scots and Irish in those parts which amounted to between four and five thousand Men to joyn the Spaniards to attempt the relief of Dunkirk then besieged by the French and English But herein he was as fatal in his Arms as he had been all along before for the Spanish Army were utterly routed and this defeat broke his whole design so that he never after made use of Arms to recover his Inheritance but retired to Bruges where he stay'd to see the event of things The death of Oliver Cromwell together with the many changes of Government that happened thereupon in England gave new life to his hope and made him go in person to the Pyrenaean Treaty to promote his Interest from whence he returned through France to Bruxells But coming to understand that Sir George Booth and the Cheshire Men were supprest by Lambert it did not a little damp his hopes and made him return again to Bruxells from about St. Maio's where he privately lay in readiness to take Shipping for England upon the first good event of Sir George and others undertakings for him But his Crown was not to be recovered by War how then came he to be restored A grand step towards it was the Rump Parliament's Jealousie of Monk and his Jealousie of them again But what contributed most to it was the unsetled state of the Nation under the many Vicissitudes of Government that had been introduced since the death of the King his Father which made the People very uneasie and long for a Settlement upon any terms and therefore the Convention when they met in order to it on April 25. 1660. did hand overhead without any Preliminaries of asserting the Rights and Liberties of the English so manifestly violated by his Father and Grandfather restore him without any contradiction which did not a little contribute to the succeeding uneasiness of his Reign as well as the Nations trouble But restored he was as aforesaid and on May 25. following Landed at Dover and was received every where with utmost Demonstrations of Joy About October following came over the Queen-Mother seemingly to Treat about a Marriage between Mounsieur of France and her fair Daughter Henrietta Maria But it 's like the Marriage between the King and the Infanta of Portugal was no less designed which was after Consummated and wherein he was as unhappy in respect to Procreation by her as he was fruitful in what ground soever else he sowed his seed which he was Prodigal enough of But there was yet somewhat else of far more dangerous consequence to poor England and more dishonourable to the King that brought the Queen-Mother over and that was the Sale of Dunkirk to the French whose Agent she was in that fine spot of work If the King's Arms whilst an Exile in conjunction with the Spaniards were so unsuccessful in the relief of Dunkirk then Besieged by the joint force of English and French he was much more unhappy in the Sale of it afterward for 400000 l. whereof one moiety was detained for the Portion of Henrietta Maria his Sister and not to the Spaniards who were kind to him in his adverse Fortunes and had most right to it but to the French who had done all they could by their Embassador Bourdeux to hinder his Restoration and on whose side the Ballance then lay which it had been his business to have kept even as his Predecessors the Kings of England were wont to do and particularly Henry 8. and Queen Elizabeth This action I think was us unparallel'd as any can be found in our English Annals It was indeed a Charge against Mary Queen of Scots that she would have transferred her Right of Succession to the English Crown to the then King of Spain Philip 2. but that if true was giving away what was not in her power to dispose of and much such another Donation as that of the Pope's to the Emperor Charles of the Kingdom of Mexico tho with a different fate to both Nations but here was neither Donation force nor any visible necessity but a voluntary act in King Charles to the inestimable damage of England as has been but too sensibly felt to this very day You must note that the gazing World stood a little while amazed at the strange Revolution in England by the King 's easie and pacifick Restoration and with what transports of Joy he was received by the Nation then in a most Warlike posture and as much dreaded by our Neighbours and particularly by the French who had formed designs for an Universal Monarchy But now they were put to a stand to see what such a mighty power and apparently lasting Settlement in England would produce yet finding at length that here all thoughts of Military glory and extention of Dominion seemed wholly to be laid aside and all the severity of the preceding times daily degenerate to the Luxuries of an Effeminate Reign they began to reassume their former design and to prosecute the foundation Cardinal Richlieu had laid for them But that they might make sure work on 't and see that they made a true judgment of the English affairs they resolved to try such an Experiment as would throughly decide the matter and what must that be but overtures for the buying of Dunkirk which succeeding as aforesaid according to their wishes raised their hopes higher than ever of attaining their ends And because they knew well enough that the English were a powerful People by Sea and that while they retained the Soveraignty of it it would be a hard rub in their way they joyn their strength with the Dutch to dispute the Dominion of it with us but the Dutch were as unfortunate in their Allyance in the first Dutch War as the English were in the second when they joyned with them against the Dutch for excepting the time that the English Fleet was divided in the first War and that base business of burning the Ships at Chatham so much to the King and Nations dishonour the Dutch came by the worst of it in all the rest of the Engagements and it was much the same luck the English had by their Conjunction in the second War the French both times standing aloof as looking on and no doubt laughing in their sleeves to see the two most Potent Nations in the World by Sea weaken and destroy one anothe whilst they in the mean time not only saved their own stake but learned how to fight and doubted not but in time
to run away with the prey from both of them The People of England were no more satisfied before with their imaginary happiness in the King's Restoration but they were now upon the ill management of Affairs the much Treasure that had been spent to so little purpose and more especially upon our Conjunction with the French to the manifest hazard of the Protestant Religion as well as the Civil Rights of Europe as much uneasie and suspitious of the Court-proceedings And it did not a little incense them that the French made such a Progress in Flanders and got all by Land while we got nothing but Blows at Sea and therefore the House of Commons on the 31. of October 1673. Voted that considering the present State of the Natition they would not take into further Consideration any Aids or Charges upon the Subject except it did appear that the obstinacy of the Dutch did render it necessary nor before the Kingdom should be effectually secured from Popery and Popish Counsels and other Grievances redressed which procedure thunder-struck the King and his Frenchified Council so as that a Peace with the Dutch was quickly huddled up and so he then set up for a Mediator of Peace between the rest and the Treaty spun out to a very great length at Nimeguen and was at last concluded after some years Conferences without King Charles consent by Beverning the Dutch Agent which spared him a labour of entring into an actual War with Franee as the Parliament would have had him and to which he was as unwilling as he had been before forward in his engaging against the Dutch a Protestant State The remainder of his succeeding Reign was as uneasie to himself and to the Nation upon the account first of the Popish Plot the many endeavours to stiffle it the Bill of Exclusion and the Division of the Nation into Whig and Torry hereupon then that called the Presbyterian Plot both Plots they said against his life which if true he was the more unhappy for which last the Noble Lord Russel suffered and the Great Earl of Essex had his Throat Barbarously cut in the Tower of London the King's Prison and King Charles had the unhappiness to be there that day where he had not been hardly in twenty years before And last of all the forfeiture and seizure of Charters which tho carried on with great fury in his Reign that thereby he might have a Parliament of his own choosing as Cromwell had and so do what he pleased yet he did not live to compleat his designs Tho' the Censures upon the manner of his Death are various yet most are agreed says the Author of the Introduction to King Charles II. Character there was some fraud in it some ascribing it to the intreagues of France who as they Undid his Father by a Wife Ruined the Son by a Mistress and therefore alleadge that the French King being weary of feeding him with Pensions and dreading his natural Parts if upon any disgust he should come to unite with his Parliaments against France he thought it his Interest to take him off and make way for a Successor who as he made open profession of his own Religion would be more pliable to his dictates Then as touching the method of effecting it they say that the Dutchess of P. who bewitched him with her Amours and had not only drained the substance of his Body but likewise the substance of his Purse either of which being once accomplished the Love of a St â—t to her Paramour vanishes so that having a mind to change Gallants or seeing no more hopes of former advantages she gave him such Provocatives as made him act beyond his natural Strength and threw him into those Apoplectick Fits which carryed him off There are others who ascribe his Death to the Romish Faction who being angry at his having so often deceived them and impatient till they came to a tryal of skill for establishing their Religion while Lewis XIV was in the height of his Power and Glory did therefore administer the fatal Dose which sent King Charles II. a Packing and brought his Brother to the Throne under whose auspicious Conduct they made no question of restoring the Church of Rome to the full possession of all she had formerly enjoy'd in these three Kingdoms It 's certain there were some accidents fell out some time before the King's Death that raised some Jealousy in the breast of the Romanists who thought by that he would upon the presenting of the first opportunity face about as they found by experience he had more then once done and fall in with the Interest of a Party he now for some years by their instigation had been endeavouring to destroy and root out of the World And what rendred their suspitions of him the more incurable was that a Pamphlet having been spread abroad a little before Christmas 1684. setting forth that the Earl of Essex had not cut his own Throat but had been Murdered by Russians set on by the Papists c. the King upon the hearing of it should say Well I am resolved to examine Essex's Cause once more And that he might meet with no obstruction in the way he ordered the Duke his Brother to prepare to go for Scotland which the other whether smelling the design or that the train to blow the King up was already layd by him absolutely refused to do this occasioned high words between them insomuch that the late M. of H. who was well known to be a great favourite coming on the Sunday before the King Dyed to wait upon him after Evening Service he found him in his Closet alone under great concern of Mind puffing after a more then ordinary rate and looking pensive with his Face towards the ground which the M. observing made him stand still till the King looking up asked hastily How now my Lord How do you do to which the M. answering the better to see his Majesty well and soforth the King returned again to his former posture but at length broke forth into these Words My Lord will you be ingenious with we and answer me one question to which the Marquess replying he would if he could Then said the King I charge you upon your Alleagiance to tell me how I stand affected with the People of England The M. after some pause answered Sir you have been always ranked among the mercifull and Clement Princes and have given evident Testimonies of your being so upon various occasions but I must tell your Majesty that of late your Government has been somewhat uneasy to your People Well said the King one thing I am resolved on I 'll once more throw my self upon the People of England and to that end will go this week into the City and I 'le call a Parliament at the Guild-Hall the M. was somewhat surprized at these words and said Sir If that be your Resolution I pray God to bless it but let me beg of
your Majesty never to let it go out of your own Breast any further tilâ— you put it in Execution Which when the King had promised to do they parted The King that night supped at P. Lodgings where he seemed to be very merry and in the close drunk a Dish of Chocolate prepared by a Wise Lady of which he complained again and again that it tasted hotter than ordinary but he sipped it off and thence went to his Rest Next morning which was Munday he was taken very Ill which no doubt was the effect of the last nights Entertainment however they might call his Distemper and so continued till the Fryday following in extream Misery and Anguish when he dyed most People suspecting he had foul Play And many that saw him during his Illness believing it to be so and particularly says the Author of his Character the most knowing and deserving of his Physitians Doctor Short did not only believe him Poysoned but thought himself so too not long after for having declared his opinion a little too boldly in the case And as the manner and contrivance of this King's Death was the work of Darkness so were his Funeral Obsequies for never any King who dyed possest of a Crown was so obscurely and contemptibly Buryed being hurryed in the dead of the Night to his Grave as if his Corps had been to be arrested for Debt and not so much as the Blew-Coat Boys to attend it King Charles was no sooner gone but James Duke of York his only surviving Brother ascends the English Throne by the style and Title of James II. And made open Profession immediately of the Popish Religion for which some in his Brother's Reign were severely punished for but saying he was such or so inclined and not only so but ordered his Brothers Dying in the Communion of the Church of Rome and before his Death his receiving his Viaticum and other Ceremonies of that Church and attested by Father Huddleston to be printed and also the Papers taken out of the King 's strong Box shewing That however he outwardly appeared otherwise in his Life yet in his Heart he was sincerely a true Roman Catholick He made profession in his Speech to the Council the day of his Brother's Death that he would preserve the Church and State of England as by Law Established and as he would never depart from the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so he would never invade any Man's Property but how ill he conformed himself hereunto is but too manifestly known to all the World For the very first Week he took both the Customs and the Excise granted only for his Brothers Life before they were given him by Parliament And for the Church I think no Man so Audacious as to deny the design of his whole tho' blessed be God short Reign was to overthrow it by the introduction of his own Monkish Religion in the room of it But if he was unhappy first in making such a Promise of adhering to both Church and State as then Established contrary no doubt to the designs he had framed before of Ruining them he was much more so in the methods he took to bring his ends about which Terminated at last in a fatal Abdication yet so as that he remains to this day naturally alive to be a living Monument and confessor of his own egregious folly And the loss of the Button of his Scepter that day he was Crowned which as far as I could hear was never found was I remember then Interpreted by some as a presage of no lasting connection between him and the Nation His petty success against the D. of Monmouth and his Adherents did not a little elate his spirits which gave him an opportunity to keep a standing Army and put such Officers into it as were of his own stamp and so being backt with this Armed Power he proceeds bare-fac'd to dispence with the Laws by granting Liberty of Conscience to all that dissented from the Church of England thinking hereby and by a timely regulating of Corporations to gain such a Parliament as would quite repeal them And that in the mean time he might curb the Church and the Universities he puts his High Commission upon their Backs thinking by it to worry them into a compliance And because my Lord of London would not comply with his Arbitrary Proceedings Jeffery's with this Popish Bull I mean the High Commission roared him into a Suspension And because the Fellows of Magdalen-Colledge would not contrary to their Statutes and Oaths choose a President to the King's mind he first entertained them with a Dish of Billingsgate and then by virtue of the same Commission sent them a Grazing into the Countries to make room for his own Popish Seminaries and Cut-throat Jesuits But among all the actions of this King 's Diminitive reign That of sending the Bishops to the Tower not for refusing to take care to have the Declaration of Indulgence read in their respective Diocesses but for Petitioning of him in a regular and dutiful manner wherein they gave their Reasons why they could not comply with his order together with an Introduction of a Prince of Wales into the World as a new Miracle to the Legend the next day after their Commitment was the rashest most inconsiderate and madest thing he could be guilty of Surely when he did this he wanted some body to pray over the Poets wish for him Dii te damasippe Deaeque Donent Tonsore For it was most apparent by the Universal Joy expressed throughout the Nation at their Acquitment how they resented their Commitment and Trial And if the King did before decline in the affection of the People day by day I may truly say this was a concluding act and lost him England For now all the Eyes of the People are turned from him towards Holland where the Prince of Orange was Arming to come to their relief The King would not at first believe that the vast Preparations in Holland concerned him tho the French King had given him notice of them the 26. of August before but being at length convinced by the States Manifesto of the truth of the matter he undid in one day all that he had been doing since his first coming to the Crown as dissolving his Commission for Ecclesiastical Affairs restoring the City of London to all its Ancient Franchises and Charters as fully as before the Quo Waranto and giving order for the resetling the Expelled Fellows of Maudlin Colledge in their places again He made also great Preparations both by Sea and Land for to defend himself but tho he be naturally still alive and he above knows who knows all things what his end may be yet all these Precautions and windings against the grain were so far from preventing that they did now but concur to precipitate his Civil death which we shall now briefly relate unto you The Prince of Orange having on November the Fifth Landed