the North the fift penny In the two and thirtyeth year he had a subsedy freely granted In the three and thirtyeth year he confirmed the great Charter of his own Royall disposition and the states to shew their thankfulnesse gave the King for one year the fift part of all the revenues of the land and of the Citizens the sixt part of their goods And in the same year the King used the inquisition called Trai le Baston By which all Justices and other Magistrates were grievously fined that had used extortion or bribery or had otherwise misdemeaned themselves to the great contentation of the people This Commission likewise did enquire of entruders barators and all other the like vermine whereby the King gathered a great masse of treasure with a great deal of love Now for the whole raigne of this King who governed England 35 years there was not any Parliament to his prejudice COUNS. But there was taking of armes by Marshall and Hereford JUST That 's true but why was that because the King notwithstanding all that was given him by Parliament did lay the greatest taxes that ever King did without their consent But what lost the King by those Lords one of them gave the King all his lands the other dyed in disgrace COUNS. But what say you to the Parliament in Edward the Seconds time his successor did not the house of Parliament banish Peirce Gaveston whom the King favoured JUST But what was this Gaveston but an Esquier of Gascoine formerly banisht the Realme by King Edward the first for corrupting the Prince Edward now raigning And the whole Kingdome fearing and detesting his venemous disposition they besought his Majestie to cast him off which the King performed by an act of his own and not by act of Parliament yea Gavestones own father in Law the Earle of Glocester was one of the chiefest of the Lords that procured it And yet finding the Kings affection to folow him so strongly they all consented to have him recalled After which when his credit so encreased that he dispised and set at naught all the ancient Nobility and not onely perswaded the King to all manner of outrages and riots but withall transported what he lifted of the Kings Treasure and Iewels the Lords urged his banishment the second time but neither was the first nor second banishment forced by Act of Parliament but by the forceable Lords his Enemies Lastly he being recalled by the King the Earle of Lancaster caused his head to be stricken off when those of his party had taken him prisoner By which presumptuous Act the Earle and the rest of his company committed Treason and murder Treason by raising an Army without warrant murder by taking away the life of the Kings Subject After which Gaveston being dead the Spencers got possession of the Kings favour though the younger of them was placed about the King by the Lords themselves COUNS. What say you then to the Parliament held at London about the sixt year of that King JUST I say that King was not bound to performe the acts of this Parliament because the Lords being too strong for the King inforced his consent for these be the words of our own History They wrested to much beyond the bounds of reason COUNS. What say you to the Parliaments of the White wands in the 13th of the King JUST I say the Lords that were so moved came with an Army and by strong hand surprized the King they constrained saith the story the rest of the Lords and compelled many of the Bishops to consent unto them yea it saith further that the King durst not but grant to all that they required to wit for the banishment of the Spencers Yea they were so insolent that they refused to lodge the Queen comming through Kent in the Castle of Leedes and sent her to provide her lodging where she could get it so late in the night for which notwithstanding some that kept her out were soon after taken and hang'd and therefore your Lordship cannot call this a Parliament for the reasons before alleadged But my Lord what became of these Lawgivers to the King even when they were greatest a Knight of the North called Andrew Herkeley assembled the Forces of the Countrey overthrew them and their Army slew the Earle of Hereford and other Barons took their generall Thomas Earle of Lancaster the Kings cozen germane at that time possessed of five Earledomes the Lords Clifford Talbort Moubray Maudiut Willington Warren Lord Darcy Withers Knevill Leybourne Bekes Lovell Fitz williams Watervild and divers other Barons Knights and Esquiers and soon after the Lord Percy and the Lord Warren took the Lords Baldsemere and the Lord Audley the Lord Teis Gifford Tucoet and many others that fled from the battaile the most of which past under the hands of the hangman for constraining the King under colour and name of a Parliament But this your good Lordship may judge to whom those tumultuous assemblies which our Histories falsely call Parliaments have been dangerous the King in the end ever prevailed and the Lords lost their lives and estates After which the Spencers in their banishment at York in the 15th of the King were restored to the honors and estates and therein the King had a subsedy given him the sixt penny of goods throughout England Ireland and Wales COUNS. Yet you see the Spencers were soon after dissolved IUST It is true my Lord but that is nothing to our subject of Parliament they may thank their own insolencie for they branded and dispised the Queen whom they ought to have honored as the Kings wife they were also exceeding greedy and built themselves upon other mens ruines they were ambitious and exceeding malicious whereupon that came that when Chamberlain Spencer was hang'd in Hereford a part of the 24th Psalm was written over his head Quid gloriaris in malitia potens COUNS. Well Sir you have all this while excused your self upon the strength and rebellions of the Lords but what say you now to King Edward the third in whose time and during the time of this victorious King no man durst take Armes or rebell the three estates did him the greatest affront that ever King received or endured therefore I conclude where I began that these Parliaments are dangerous for a King JUST To answer your Lordship in order may it please you first to call to mind what was given this great King by his subjects before the dispute betwixt him and the house happened which was in his latter dayes from his first year to his fift year there was nothing given the king by his Subjects in his eight year at the Parliament at London a tenth and a fifteenth was granted in his tenth year he ceased upon the Italians goods here in England to his own use with all the goods of the Monkes Cluniackes and others of the order of the Cistertians In the eleaventh year he had given him by Parliament a notable
Crown the ornaments thereof And it is an infalliable maxime that he that loves not his Majesties estate loves not his person COUNS. How came it then that the act was not executed IUST Because these against whom it was granted perswaded the King to the contrary as the Duke of Ireland Suffolk the chief Iustice Tresilian and others yea that which was lawfully done by the King and the great Councell of the kingdome was by the mastery which Ireland Suffolk and Tresilian had over the Kings affections broken and disavowed Those that devised to relieve the King not by any private invention but by generall Councell were by a private and partiall assembly adjudged traitors and the most honest Iudges of the land enforced to subscribe to that judgement In so much that Iudge Belknap plainly told the Duke of Ireland and the Earl of Suffolk when he was constrained to set his hand plainly told these Lords that he wanted but a rope that he might therewith receive a reward for his subscription And in this Councell of Nottingham was hatched the ruine of those which governed the King of the Iudges by them constrained of the Lords that loved the King and sought a reformation and of the King himself for though the King found by all the Shrieves of the shires that the people would not fight against the Lords whom they thought to bee most faithfull unto the King when the Citizens of London made the same answer being at that time able to arme 50000. men and told the Major that they would never fight against the Kings friends and defenders of the Realme when the Lord Ralph Passet who was near the King told the King boldly that he would not adventure to have his head broken for the Duke of Irelands pleasure when the Lord of London told the Earle of Suffolk in the Kings presence that he was not worthy to live c. yet would the King in the defence of the destroyers of his estate lay ambushes to intrap the Lords when they came upon his faith yea when all was pacified and that the King by his Proclamation had clear'd the Lords and promised to produce Ireland Suffolk and the Archbishop of Yorke Tresiltan and Bramber to answer at the next Parliament these men confest that they durst not appear and when Suffolk fled to Callice and the Duke of Ireland to Chester the King caused an army to be leavied in Lancashire for the safe conduct of the Duke of Ireland to his presence when as the Duke being encountered by the Lords ranne like a coward from his company and fled into Holland After this was holden a Parliament which was called that wrought wonders In the Eleventh year of this King wherein the fornamed Lords the Duke of Ireland and the rest were condemned and confiscate the Chief Iustice hanged with many others the rest of the Iudges condemned and banisht and a 10. and a 15. given to the King COUNS. But good Sir the King was first besieged in the Tower of London and the Lords came to the Parliament and no man durst contradict them IUST Certainly in raising an army they committed treason and though it appear that they all loved the King for they did him no harm having him in their power yet our law doth construe all leavying of war without the Kings commission and all force raised to be intended for the death and destruction of the King not attending the sequell And it is so judged upon good reason for every unlawfull and ill action is supposed to be accompanied with an ill intent And besides those Lords used too great cruelty in procuring the sentence of death against divers of the Kings servants who were bound to follow and obey their Master and Soveraigne Lord in that he commanded COUNS. It is true and they were also greatly to blame to cause then so many seconds to be put to death seeing the principalls Ireland Suffolk and York had escaped them And what reason had they to seek to enform the State by strong hand was not the Kings estate as dear to himself as to them He that maketh a King know his errour mannerly and private and gives him the best advice he is discharged before God and his own conscience The Lords might have â—â—tired themselves when they saw they could not prevail and have left the King to his own wayes who had more to lose then they had IUST My Lord the taking of Arms cannot be excused in respect of the law but this might be said for the Lords that the King being under yeares and being wholly governed by their enemies and the enemies of the kingdome and because by those evil mens perswasions it was advised how the Lords should have been murthered at a feast in London they were excusable during the kings minority to stand upon their guard against their particular enemies But we will passe it over go on with our parliaments that followed whereof that of Cambridge in the Kings 12th year was the next therein the King had given him a 10th and a 15th after which being 20. yeares of age rechanged saith H. Kinghton his Treasurer his Chancellour the Iustices of either bench the Clerk of the privy seal and others and took the government into his own hands He also took the Admirals place from the Earl of Arundell and in his room he placed the Earl of Huntingdon in the yeare following which was the 13th year of the K. in the Parliament at Westminster there was given to the King upon every sack of wooll 14s and 6d in the gound upon other Merchandise COUNS. But by your leave the King was restrained this parliament that he might not dispose of but a third part of the money gathered IUST No my Lord by your favour But true it is that part of this mony was by the Kings consent assigned towards the wars but yet left in the Lord Treasurers hands and my Lord it would be a great ease and a great saving to his Majesty our Lord and Master if it pleased him to make his assignations upon some part of his revenewes by which he might have 1000l upon every 10000l and save himself a great deale of clamour For seeing of necessity the Navy must be maintained and that those poor men as well Carpenters as ship-keepers must be paid it were better for his Majesty to give an assignation to the Treasurer of his Navy for the receiving of so much as is called ordinary then to discontent those poor men who being made desperate beggars may perchance be corrupted by them that lye in wait to destroy the Kings estate And if his Majesty did the like in all other payements especially where the necessity of such as are to receive cannot possible give dayes his Majesty might then in a little rowle behold his receipts and expences he might quiet his heart when all necessaries were provided for and then dispose the rest at his pleasure And my good Lord
delivered in English Histories and indeed the King not long before had spent much Treasure in aiding the Duke of Britain to no purpose for he drew over the King but to draw on good conditions for himself as the Earle of March his father in law now did As the English Barons did invite Lewes of France not long before as in elder times all the Kings and States had done and in late years the Leaguers of France entertained the Spaniards and the French Protestants and Netherlands Queen Elizabeth not with any purpose to greaten those that aide them but to purchase to themselves an advantageous peace But what say the Histories to this denyall They say with a world of payments there mentioned that the King had drawn the Nobility drie And besides that whereas not long before great summes of money were given and the same appointed to be kept in four Castles and not to be expended but by the advice of the Peeres it was beleeved that the same Treasure was yet unspent COUNS. Good Sir you have said enough judge you whether it were not a dishonour to the King to be so tyed as not to expend his Treasure but by other mens advice as it were by their licence IUST Surely my Lord the King was well advised to take the money upon any condition and they were fooles that propounded the restraint for it doth not appear that the King took any great heed to those overseers Kings are bound by their pietie and by no other obligation In Queen Maries time when it was thought that she was with Child it was propounded in Parliament that the rule of the Realme should be given to King Philip during the minoritie of the hoped Prince or Princesse and the King offered his assurance in great summes of money to relinquish the Government at such time as the Prince or Princesse should be of age At which motion when all else were silent in the House Lord Daâ—res who was none of the wisest asked who shall sue the Kings Bonds which ended the dispute for what other Bond is between a King and his vassals then the Bond of the Kings Faith But my good Lord the King notwithstanding the denyall at that time was with gifts from particular persons and otherwise supplyed for proceeding of his journey for that time into France he took with him 30 Caskes filled with Silver and Coyne which was a great Treasure in those dayes And lastly notwithstanding the first denyall in the Kings absence he had Escuage granted him to wit 20s of every Knights Fee COUNS. What say you then to the 28th year of that King in which when the King demanded reliefe the States would not consent except the the same former order had bin taken for the appointing of 4 overseers for the treasure as also that the Lord chief Iustice and the L. Chancelor should be chosen by the States with some Barons of the Exchequer and other officers JUST My good Lord admit the King had yeelded their demands then whatsoever had been ordained by those Magistrates to the dislike of the Common-wealth the people had been without remedie whereas while the King made them they had their appeal and other remedies But those demands vanished and in the end the King had escuage given him without any of their conditions It is an excellent vertue in a King to have patience and to give way to the furie of mens passions The Whale when he is strucken by the fisherman growes into that furie that he cannot be resisted but will overthrow all the Ships and Barkes that come into his way but when he hath tumbled a while he is drawn to the shore with a twin'd thred COUNS. What say you then to the Parliament in the 29th of that King IUST I say that the Commons being unable to pay the King relieves himself upon the richer sort and so it likewise happened in the 33. of that King in which he was relieved chiefly by the Citie of London But my good Lord in the Parliament in London in the 38th year he had given him the tenth of all the revenues of the Church for 3 years and three marks of every Knights Fee throughout the Kingdome upon his promise and oath upon the observing of Magna Charta but in the end of the same year the King being then in France he was denyed the aides which he required What is this to the danger of a Parliament especially at this time they had reason to refuse they had given so great a summe in the beginning of the same year And again because it was known that the King had but pretended war with the King of Castile with whom he had secretly contracted an alliance and concluded a Marriage betwixt his Son Edward and the Lady Elenor. These false fires do but fright Children and it commonly falls out that when the cause given is known to be false the necessitie pretended is thought to be fained Royall dealing hath evermore Royall successe and as the King was denyed in the eight and thirtieth year so was he denyed in the nine and thirtieth year because the Nobilitie and the people saw it plainely that the K. was abused by the Pope who as well in despite to Manfred bastard Son to the Emperour Frederick the second as to cozen the King and to waste him would needes bestow on the King the Kingdome of Sicily to recover which the King sent all the Treasure he could borrow or scrape to the Pope and withall gave him letters of credence for to take up what he could in Italy the King binding himself for the payment Now my good Lord the wisdome of Princes is seen in nothing more then in their enterprises So how unpleasing it was to the State of England to consume the Treasure of the Land and in the conquest of Sicily so far off and otherwise for that the English had lost Normandie under their noses and so many goodly parts of France of their own proper inheritances the reason of the denyall is as well to be considered as the denyall COUNS. Was not the King also denyed a Subsidie in the fortie first of his reigne IUST No my Lord for although the King required money as before for the impossible conquest of Sicily yet the House offered to give 52000 marks which whether he refused or accepted is uncertain and whilst the King dreamed of Sicily the Welsh invaded and spoyled the borders of England for in the Parliament of London when the King urged the House for the prosecuting the conquest of Sicily the Lords utterly disliking the attempt urged the prosecuting of the Welshmen which Parliament being proroged did again assemble at Oxford and was called the mad Parliament which was no other then an assembly of rebels for the royal assent of the King which gives life to all Lawes form'd by the three estates was not a royall assent when both the King and the Prince were constrained to yeeld to the
Commissioners which because one of the Aldermen refused to pay he was sent for a souldier into Scotland He had also another great subsedy of six shillings the pound of the Clergy and two shillings eight pence of the goods of the Laity and four shillings the pound upon Lands In the second yeare of Edward the sixt the Parliament gave the King an aid of twelve pence the pound of goods of his Naturall subjects and two shillings the pound of strangers and this to continue for three yeares and by the statute of the second and third of Edward the sixt it may appear the same Parliament did also give a second aid as followeth to wit of every Ewe kept in severall pastures 3d of every weather kept as aforesaid 2d of every sheep kept in the Common 1d ob The House gave the King also 8d the pound of every woollen cloath made for the sale throughout England for three years In the third and fourt of the King by reason of the troublesome gathering of the poly money upon sheep and the tax upon cloath this act of subsedy was repeal'd and other relief given the King and in the seventh yeare he had a subsedy and two fifteens In the first yeare of Queen Mary tunnage and poundage were granted In the second yeare a subsedy was given to King Philip and to the Queen she had also a third subsedy in Annis 4. 5. Eliz. Reg Now my Lord for the Parliaments of the late Queens time in which there was nothing new neither head money nor sheep money nor escuage nor any of these kinds of payments was required but onely the ordinary subsedies and those as easily graunted as demanded I shall not need to trouble your Lordship with any of them neither can I inform your Lordship of all the passages and acts which have passed for they are not extant nor printed COUNS. No it were but time lost to speak of the latter and by those that are already remembred we may judge of the rest for those of the greatest importance are publick But I pray you deal freely with me what you think would be done for his Majesty If he should call a Parliament at this time or what would be required at his Majesties hands IUST The first thing that would be required would be the same that was required by the Commons in the thirteenth yeare of Hen. the eight to wit that if any man of the commons house should speak more largely then of duty he ought to do all such offences to be pardoned and that to be of record COUNS. So might every Companion speak of the King what they list IUST No my Lord the reverence which a Vassall oweth to his Soveraigne is alwaies intended for every speech howsoever it must import the good of the King and his estate and so long it may be easily pardoned otherwise not for in Queen Elizabeths time who gave freedome of speech in all Parliaments when Wentworth made those motions that were but supposed dangerous to the Queens estate he was imprisoned in the Tower notwithstanding the priviledge of the house and there died COUNS. What say you to the Scicilian vespers remembred in the last Parliament IUST I say he repented him heartily that used that speech and indeed besides that it was seditious this example held not The French in Scicily usurped that Kingdome they neither kept law nor faith they took away the inheritance of the Inhabitants they took from them their wives and ravished their daughters committing all other insolencies that could be imagined The Kings Majesty is the Naturall Lord of England his Vassals of Scotland obey the English Laws if they break them they are punished without respect Yea his Majesty put one of his Barons to a shamefull death for being consenting onely to the death of a Common Fencer And which of these ever did or durst commit any outrage in England but to say the truth the opinion of packing the last was the cause of the contention and disorder that happened COUNS. Why sir do you not think it best to compound a Parliament of the Kings servants and others that shall in all obey the Kings desires IUST Certainly no for it hath never succeeded well neither on the kings part nor on the subjects as by the Parliament before-remembred your Lordship may gather for from such a composition do arise all jealousies and all contentions It was practized in elder times to the great trouble of the kingdome and to the losse and ruine of many It was of latter time used by King Henry the eight but every way to his disadvantage When the King leaves himself to his people they assure themselves that they are trusted and beloved of their king and there was never any assembly so barborus as not to answer the love and trust of their King Henry the sixt when his estate was in effect utterly overthrown and utterly impoverished at the humble request of his Treasurer made the same known to the House Or other wise using the Treasurers own words He humbly desired the King to take his Staffe that he might save his wardship COUNS. But you know they will presently be in hand with those impositions which the King hath laid by his own Royall Prerogative IUST Perchance not my Lord but rather with those impositions that have been by some of your Lordships laid upon the King which did not some of your Lordships fear more then you do the impositions laid upon the Subjects you would never disswade his Majesty from a Parliament For no man doubted but that his Majesty was advised to lay those impositions by his Councell and for particular things on which they were laid the advice came from petty fellows though now great ones belonging to the Custome-House Now my Lord what prejudice hath his Majesty his Revenue being kept up if the impositions that were laid by the generall Councell of the Kingdome which takes off all grudging and complaint COUNS. Yea Sir but that which is done by the King with the advice of his private or privy Councell is done by the Kings absolute power IUST And by whose power it is done in parliament but by the Kings absolute power Mistake it not my Lord The three Estates do but advise as the privy Councell doth which advice if the King imbrace it becomes the Kings own Act in the one and the Kings Law in the other for without the Kings acceptation both the publick and private advices be but as empty Egg shels and what doth his Majesty lose if some of those things which concerns the poorer sort to be made free again and the Revenue kept up upon that which is superfluous Is it a losse to the King to be beloved of the Commons If it be revenue which the King seeks is it not better to take it of those that laugh then of those that cry Yea if all be conten to pay upon moderation change of the Species Is it
relief the one half of the Woolls throughout England and of the Clergy all their Woolls after which in the end of the year he had granted in his Parliament at Westminster forty shillings upon every sack of Wooll and for every 30 wooll fels forty shillings for every last of leatherne as much and for all other merchandizes after the same rate The King promising that this years gathering ended he would thenceforth content himself with the old custome he had over and above this great aide the eight part of all goods of all Citizens and Burgesses and of other as of forreigne Merchants and such as lived not of the gain of breeding of sheep and cattell the fifteenth of their goods Nay my Lord this was not all though more then ever was granted to any King for the same Parliament bestowed on the King the ninth sheaf of all the corn within the Land the ninth fleece and the ninth lambe for two years next following now what think your Lordship of this Parliament COUNS. I say they were honest men IUST And I say the people are as loving to their King now as ever they were if they be honestly and wisely dealt withall and so his Majesty hath found them in his last two Parliaments if his Majestie had not been betrayed by those whom he most trusted COUNS. But I pray you Sir who shall a King trust if he may not rust those whom he hath so greatly advanced JUST I will tell your Lordship whom the King may trust COUNS. Who are they IUST His own reason and his own excellent Iudgement which have not deceived him in any thing wherein his Majesty hath been pleased to exercise them Take Councell of thine heart saith the book of Wisedome for there is none more faithfull unto thee then it COUNS. It is true but his Majesty found that those wanted no judgement whom he trusted and how could his Majestie divine of their honesties JUST Will you pardon me if I speak freely for if I speak out of love which as Solomon saith covereth all trespasses The truth is that his Majestie would never beleeve any man that spake against them and they knew it well enough which gave them boldnesse to do what they did COUNS. What was that JUST Even my good Lord to ruine the Kings estate so far as the state of so great a King may be ruin'd by men ambitious and greedy without proportion It had been a brave increase of revenue my Lord to have raysed 50000l land of the Kings to 20000l revenue and to raise the revenue of wards to 20000l more 40000l added to the rest of his Majesties estate had so enabled his Majestie as he could never have wanted And my good Lord it had been an honest service to the King to have added 7000l lands of the Lord Cobhams Woods and goods being worth 30000l more COUNS. I know not the reason why it was not done JUST Neither doth your Lordship perchance know the reason why the 10000l offer'd by Swinnerton for a fine of the French wines was by the then Lord Treasurer conferr'd on Devonshire and his Mistris COUNS. What moved the Treasurer to reject and crosse that raising of the Kings lands JUST The reason my good Lord is manifest for had the land been raised then had the King known when he had given or exchanged land what he had given or exchanged COUNS. What hurt had been to the Treasurer whose Office is truely to informe the King of the value of all that he giveth JUST So he did when it did not concerne himself nor his particular for he could never admit any one peece of a good Manour to passe in my Lord Aubignes book of 1000l and till he himself had bought and then all the remaining flowers of the Crowne were called out Now had the Treasurer suffer'd the Kings lands to have been raised how could his Lordship have made choice of the old â—ents as well in that book of my Lord Aubigne as in exchange of Theobalds or which he took Hatfield in it which the greatest subject or favorite Queen Elizabeth had never durst have named unto her by way of gift or exchange Nay my Lord so many other goodly Mannors have passed from his Majestie as the very heart of the Kingdome mourneth to remember it and the eyes of the Kingdome shedde teares continually at the beholding it yea the soul of the Kingdome is heavy unto death with the consideration thereof that so magnanimous a Prince should suffer himself to be so abused COUNS. But Sir you know that Cobhams lands were entayled upon his Cofens JUST Yea my Lord but during the lives and races of George Prook his children it had been the Kings that is to say for ever in effect but to wrest the King and to draw the inheritance upon himself he perswaded his Majestie to relinquish his interest for a pretty summe of mony and that there might be no counterworking he sent Prook 6000 l. to make friends whereof Lord Hume had 2000l back again Buckhurst and Barwick had the other 4000 l. and the Treasurer and his heires the masse of land forever COUNS. What then I pray you came to the King by this great consiscation IUST My Lord the Kings Majestie by all those goodly possessions Woods and goods looseth 500l by the year which he giveth in pension to Cobham to maintain him in prison COUNS. Certainly even in conscience they should have reserved so much of the land in the Crown as to have given Cobham meat and apparell and not made themselves so great gainers and the King 500l per annum looser by the bargain but it 's past Consilium non est eorum quae fieri nequeunt JUST Take the rest of the Sentence my Lord Sed consilium versatur in iis quae sunt in nostra potestate It is yet my good Lord in potestate Regis to right himself But this is not all my Lord And I fear me knowing your Lordships love to the King it would put you in a feaver to hear all I will therefore go on with my Parliaments COUNS. I pray do so and amongst the rest I pray you what say you to the Parliament holden at Iondon in the fifteenth year of King Edward the third IUST I say there was nothing concluded therein to the prejudice of the king It is true that a little before the sitting of the house the King displaced his Chancellour and his Treasurer and most of all his Iudges and Officers of the Exchequer and committed many of them to prison because they did not supply him with money being beyond the Seas for the rest the States assembled besought the King that the Lawes of the two Charters might be observed and that the great Officers of the Crowne might be chosen by Parliament COUNS But what successe had these petitions IUST The Charters were observed as before and so they will be ever and the other petition was rejected the King being
and unanswerable COUNS. But to execute the Laws very severely would be very grievous IUST Why my Lord are the Laws grievous which our selves have required of our Kings And are the Prerogatives also which our Kings have reserved to themselves also grievous How can such a people then be well pleased And if your Lordship confess that the Lawes give too much why does your Lordship urge the Prerogative that gives more Nay I will be bold to say it that except the Lawes were better observed the Prerogative of a Religious Prince hath manifold lesse perils then the Letter of the Law hath Now my Lord for the second third to wit for the appointing of Treasures and removing of Councellors our Kings have evermore laught them to scorn that have prest either of these after the Parliament dissolved took the money of the Treasurers of the Parliament and recalled restored the Officers discharged or else they have been contented that some such persons should be removed at the request of the whole Kingdom which they themselves out of their Noble natures would not seem willing to remove COUNS. Well Sir Would you notwithstanding all these arguments advise his Majesty to call a Parliament IUST It belongs to your Lordships who enjoy the Kings favour are chosen for your able wisedome to advise the K. It were a strange boldnesse in a poor and private person to advise Kings attended with so understanding a Councell But be like your Lorpships have conceived some other way how money may be gotten otherwise If any trouble should happen your Lordship knows that then there were nothing so dangerous for a K as to be without money A Parliament cannot assemble in haste but present dangers require hasty remedies It will be no time then to discontent the subjects by using any unordinary wayes COUNS. Well Sir all this notwithstanding we dare not advise the King to call a Parliament for if it should succeed ill we that advise should fall into the Kings disgrace And if the King be driven into any extremity we can say to the King that because we found it extremely unpleasing to his Majesty to hear of a Parliament we thought it no good manners to make such a Motion IUST My Lord to the first let me tell you that there was never any just Prince that hath taken any advantage of the successe of Councels which have been founded on reason To fear that were to fear the losse of the bell more then the losse of the steeple and were also the way to beat all men from the studies of the Kings service But for the second where you say you can excuse your selves upon the Kings own protesting against a Parliament the King upon better consideration may encounter that fineness of yours COUNS. How I pray you IUST Even by declaring himself to be indifferent by calling your Lordships together and by delivering unto you that he heares how his loving subjects in generall are willing to supply him if it please him to call a Parliament for that was the common answer to all the Sheriffes in England when the late benevolence was commanded In which respect and because you come short in all your projects because it is a thing most dangerous for a King to be without treasure he requires such of you as either mislike or rather fear a Parliment to set down your reasous in writing which you either mislike or feared it And such as with and desire it to set down answers to your objections And so shall the King prevent the calling or not calling on his Majesty as some of your great Councellers have done in many other things shrinking up their shoulders and saying the K. will have it so COUNS. Well Sir it grows late I will bid you farewell onely you shall take well with you this advice of mine that in all that you have said against our greatest those men in the end shall be your Iudges in their own cause you that trouble your self with reformation are like to be well rewarded hereof you may assure your self that we will never allow of any invention how profitable soever unlesse it proceed or seem to proceed from our selves IUST If then my Lord we may presume to say that Princes may be unhappy in any thing certainly they are unhappy in nothing more then in suffering themselves to be so inclosed Again if we may believe Pliny who tels us that 't is an ill signe of prosperity in any kingdome or state where such as deserve well find no other recompence then the contentment of their own conseiences a farre worse signe is it where the justly accused shall take revenge of the just accuser But my good Lord there is this hope remaining that seeing he hath been abused by them he trusted most he will not for the future dishonour of his judgement so well informed by his own experience as to expose such of his vassals as have had no other motives to serve him then simply the love of his person and his estate to their revenge who have onely been moved by the love of their own fortunes and their glory COUNS. But good Sir the King hath not been deceived by all IUST No my Lord neither have all been trusted neither doth the world accuse all but believe that there be among your Lordships very just and worthy men aswell of the Nobility as others but those though most honoured in the Common-wealth yet have not been most imployed Your Lordship knows it well enough that three or 4 of your Lordships have thought your hands strong enough to beat up alone the weightiest affairs in the Commonwealth and strong enough all the Land have found them to beat down whom they pleased COUNS. I understand you but how shall it appear that they have onely sought themselves IUST There needs no perspective glasse to discern it for neither in the treaties of Peace and Warre in matters of Revenue and matters of Trade any thing hath hapned either of love or of judgement No my Lord there is not any one action of theirs eminent great or small the greatnesse of themselves onely excepted CO. It is all one your Papers can neither answer nor reply we can Besides you tell the King no news in delivering these Complaints for he knows as much as can be told him IUST For the first my Lord whereas he hath once the reasons of things delivered him your Lordships shall need to be well advised in their answers there is no sophistry will serve the turn where the Iudge the understanding are both supreme For the second to say that his Majesty knows and cares not that my Lord were but to despaire all his faithfull Subjects But by your favour my Lord we see it is contrary we find now that there is no such singular power as there hath been Iustice is described with a Balance in her Hand holding it even and it hangs as even now as ever it did in any Kings dayes for singular authority begets but generall oppression COUNS. Howsoever it be that 's nothing to you that gave no interest in the Kings favour nor perchance in his opinion and concerning such a one the misliking or but misconceiving of any one hard word phrase or sentence will give argument to the King either to condemne or reject the whole discourse And howsoever his Majesty may neglect your informations you may be sure that others at whom you point will not neglect their revenges you will therefore confesse it when it is too late that you are exceeding sory that you have not followed my advise Remember Cardinall Woolsey who lost all men for the Kings service when their malice whom he grieved had out-lived the Kings affection you know what became of him as vvell as I. IUST Yea my Lord I know it well that malice hath a longer life than either love or thankfulnesse hath for as we alwaies take more care to put off pain than to enjoy pleasure because the one hath no intermission with the other we are often satisfied so it is in the smart of iniury the memory of good turns Wrongs are written in marble Benefits are sometimes acknowledged rarely requited But my Lord we shall do the K. great wrong to judge him by common rules or ordinary examples for seeing his Majesty hath greatly enriched and advanced those that have but pretended his service no man needs to doubt of his goodnesse towards those that shall performe any thing worthy reward Nay the not taking knowledge of those of his own vassals that have done him wrong is more to be lamented than the relinquishing of those that do him right is to be supected I am therefore my good Lo held to my resolution by these 2 besides the former The 1 that God would never have blest him with so many years and in so many actions yea in all his actions had he paid his honest servants with evill for good The 2d where your Lordship tels me that I will be sorry for not following your advice I pray your Lordship to believe that I am no way subject to the common sorrowing of worldly men this Maxime of Plato being true Dolores omnes ex amore animi erga corpus nascuntur But for my body my mind values it at nothing COUNS. What is it then you hope for or seek IUST Neither riches nor honour or thanks but I onely to seek to satisfie his Majesty which I would have been glad to have done in matters of more importance that I have lived and will die an honest man FINIS The Authors Epitaph made by himself EVen such is Time which takes in wast Our Youth and Ioy 's and all we have And payes us but with age and dust Which be the dark and silent grave When we have wandred all our wayes Struts up the story of our dayes And from which Earth and Grave Dust The Lord shall raise me up I trust Chief Other degrees Other degrees Seeing Touching Hearing Smelling Tasting Situation for Safety Plenty Multitude of Inhabitants Religigion Academies Courts of Justice Artificers Privledge The first devises of Rome to allure strangers as is Sanctuarie Triumps Huband men Merchant Gentry Two things Sâ— W. Raleigh accused of