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A40878
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A trve relation of that memorable Parliament which wrought wonders begun at Westminster, in the tenth yeare of the reigne of K. Richard the second : whereunto is added an abstract of those memorable matters, before and since the said kings reigne, done by Parliament : together with a character of the said amiable, but unhappy King, and a briefe story of his life and lamentable death.; Historia sive narracio de modo et forma mirabilis Parliamenti apud Westmonasterium anno Domini millesimo CCCLXXXVI. English
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Fannant, Thomas.
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1641
(1641)
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Wing F416; ESTC R592
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22,223
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53
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RICHARDUS II ANGLIAE ET FRANCIAE REX DOMINUS HIBERNIAE ETC. The true pourtraieture of Richard the 2. King of England and France Lord of Ireland and Prince of Chester he raigned 22 yeres was deposed and murther'd at Pomfraict Cast at the age of 33 yeares Buried first at Langley and 14 yeares after by K Henry the â—th 〈◊〉 to Westminster and their was honourably interred A TRVE RELATION OF THAT MEMORABLE PARLIAMENT which wrought Wonders Begun at Westminster in the tenth yeare of the Reigne of K. RICHARD the second Whereunto is added an Abstract of those Memorable matters before and since the said Kings Reigne done by Parliaments TOGETHER With a Character of the said amiable but unhappy King and a briefe Story of his Life and lamentable Death Printed in the Yeare 1641. AN HISTOIRCAL NARRATION of that Memorable Parliament begun at Westminster 1386 in the tenth year of the Reigne of King RICHARD the Second THis present occasion so opportunely be fitting me I am resolved to treat of that which hath beene omitted and slipped out of memory long since concerning divers and sundry changes and alterations in England in former times Nor will it be any way burthensome to write of that whereby every good and carefull Reader may learne to avoid diversities of miseries and the danger and feare of cruell death I will therefore speake of that which hath laine hid in the darksome shade of forgetfulnesse concerning men who have been led away by the deceitfull path of Covetousnesse and have come to a most shamefull and ignominious death a famous example to deter all men from practising those or the like courses ABout the yeere of Christ 1386 at such time as Richard the second of that name then in prime of his youth swayed the Imperiall Scepter of our Realme there flourished famous in his Court certain Peeres though some of them not of any honourable descent yet favoured by fortune by name Alexander Nevill Archbishop of Yorke Robert Vere D. of Ireland Michael de la Pool Earle of Suffolk then Lord Chancelor Robert Tresilian Lord Chiefe Justice of England and Nicholas Brambre sometimes Major of London These men being raised from meane estates by the speciall favour of the King and advanced to the degree of Privie Counsellors were the men who had the onely rule of the Common-wealth which they under the King governed for some small space with careful diligence meriting thereby deserved commendations But not long did they thus steere the Ship of the Kingdome for many of them being of inferiour ranke by birth not having their veines dignified with the streams of noble blood they were the sooner enticed with the libidinous baits of voluptuousnesse and infected with insatiable itch of avarice insomuch that despising the authority of the King and neglecting the commoditie of the Realme but onely desiring to keepe up the Revenues of the Kingdome so wrought that by their policie the King is impoverished the Treasure exhausted the Commons murmure at the multiplicity of Tenths Levies and Subsidies the Peeres repine to see themselves disgraced and their inferiors honoured and in a word the whole Kingdome endures an universall miserie The nobility seeing the miserable estate wherein the Kingdome lay bleeding as it were to death urged their King to summon a Parliament which was done shortly after In which amongst many other acts the afore-named Michaell de la Poole is dismist of his Chancelourship and being accused of divers and many points of injustice as briberie Extortion and the like he was sone after cast into the Castle of Windsor and all his Lands which were of no small Revenue were confiscated to the King Neither did the Parliament here give over but provided further for the whole state by the mutuall consent of the King and Prelates Barons and Commons with an unanimous conjunction they constitute and give plenarie and absolute power to certain Commissioners as well of the Spiritualty as of the Temporalty for the ordering and disposing of the publique affaires according as shall seeme best and most necessary for the desperate estate of the Commonwealth to depresse civill dissentions and to pacifie and appease the grudgings of the people Of the Spiritualty were chosen the Arch Bishop of Canterbury the afore-named Bishop of Yorke the Bishop of Ely lately made Chancelor of England the Bishop of Winchester Bishop of Hereford Lord Treasurer Bishop of Exeter Abbot of Waleham and the Lord John of Waltham Of the Layty were elected the Duke of Yorke the Earle of Arundel the Lord Coltham the Lord scroope and John Devoureux Knight these as men eminent in vertue were chosen by the generall Suffrage and sworne to carry themselves as dutifull and obedient subjects in all their actions And it was further enacted That if any should refuse or disobey the Ordinances so made for publique good the punishment of his first offence should be the confiscation of his goods and for the second the losse of life Thus disposing all things for the best the Parliament being dissolved every man returned to his own house Soone after the afore-named Chancelor with others of their Confederates being moved with implacable fury against the Statute of the late Parliament they buzzed into the Kings eares That the Statutes lately enacted were very prejudiciall to the honour of his Crowne and much derogatory to his Princely Prerogative insomuch that he should not have power without the consent of the new appointed Commissioners to doe any thing befitting a King no not so much as to bestow a Largesse a principal means to gain the peoples love upon any though never so well deserving By these and other the like impious instigations with which the Devil as never unmindfull of the end of those who by their lives doe prove themselves did continually supply them they practised to annihilate and disanull these Acts of the Parliament which seemed any wayes to abbreviate or curbe their usurped authority And first by their serpentine tongues ambitious projects flattery painted out with glosing discourses and covered over with the shadow of vigilancie for the good of the Kingdome they so bewitched the Noble inclination of the youthfull King whom they induced to beleeve that all the ill they did was a generall good that hee began to distaste and at last to abhorre the last passed Acts as treacherous Plots and most wicked Devices Next they studied how to ingrosse all or the most part of the Wealth and Riches of the Kingdome into their owne Coffers and to the same end dealt so cunningly yet pleasingly with the King that hee gave to the D. of Ireland John of Bloys the Heire of the Duchie of Britaine and his Ransome to others Townes to others Cities to others Lands to others Mony amounting to the summe of 100000 Marks to the great impoverishment both of King and Kingdome Neither did these King-eaters and Realme-devourers any thing regard it but setting unskilfull and insufficient Captaines and
not knowing what they were sent for the aforesaid Conspirators caused the Gates and Doores of the Castle to be shut and then propounded these Questions following unto them First Whether those Statutes Ordinances and Commission made in the late Parliament at Westminster were derogatory to the Kings Dignity and Kingly prerogative and because they were to be punished who did procure those Constitutions and did incite and move the King to consent unto them did as much as in them lay to hinder the King from exercising his Royall Prerogative To these and other the like questions with a joynt consent they answered That they were to suffer death as Traitors or else to endure some capitall punishment in witnesse of which assertion being terrified with the fear of present death the aforesaid Judges together with John Carey Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer they signed and sealed a certain Writing in manner of a protestation in presence of these Witnesses Alex. Nevill Archbishop of Yorke Archbishop Bangor Robert Duke of Ireland Michael Earle of Suffolk John Rippon Clerk and John Blake Fruiterer dated the 19 of September Anno Dom. 1387 in the 11 yeere of the Reigne of K. Richard the Second Then were they compelled to sweare that they should keepe the passages undiscovered upon pain of death and so they had licence to depart And when they had plotted those and many other Devillish Conspiracies they bound themselves by an Oath to try all wayes and use all means as far forth as lay in their power to disanull and utterly abrogate the Acts and Statutes of the last Parliament And that which is worse they caused the King to sweare That in his proper person with his whole power he should take revenge of the Duke of Gloucester of the two Earles and their adherents by causing them to be put to death The carriage of all which Actions may more easily be known if the time and the order of them be duly considered But our mercifull and ever-gracious God although there were so many Plots so many Conspiracies so many Treasons wrought against our State whereby many miseries did accrue to our kingdome yet unwilling to take revenge or to punish us for our sinnes but rather according to his gracious pitie to ease us of our burthenous calamitie inspired into the hearts of the aforesaid Duke of Gloucester the Earles of Arundel and Warwick the spirit of valour and magnanimitie who seeing the heap of ils that daily did arise by the practices of those Conspirators they set almost in every part of the kingdome Intelligencers who should apprehend all Messengers and intercept all Letters of the kings or that went under the kings Name and should send them to the Commissioners And thus did they come to have intelligence of the whole plot of the Conspirators all their Letters being indorsed with Glory be to God on high on Earth peace and good will towards men and by comming to the knowledge of each circumstance they found that the kingdome was at the point of destruction according to that Evangelicall saying Every Kingdome divided against it selfe shall be dissolved wherefore they sought for a Remedy for by the Law of Nature it is tolerable to repell violence by violence sithence it is better to prevent them to apply a Remedy to a wound every man according to his ability levied a power for the preservation of the king and kingdome all which Forces being united amounting to the number of 20000 fighting men and couragiously resolving to frustrate all the intended designes of the Conspirators to open the Nut by cracking the Shell they divided their Army committing part of it to the Earle of Arundel who by night marched away with his Forces and pitched his Tents neere to London there fortifying himself in the Forrest adjoyning untill such time as hee had gained more convenient time and greater force by the comming of his Consorts And in the meane time he used such discipline in his Campe that he lacked nothing but all things were there sold at reasonable rates as it had beene at a Market and hardly could he contain the common people for joyning with him for the overthrow of the Conspirators and their adherents On the other side the Conspirators intending to prevent their purposes by power of a certaine Spirituall Commission and by vertue of certaine Letters Patents in the hands of the Conspirators though nothing to the purpose yet to blind the people they caused to be proclaimed throughout the whole Citie of London That none upon paine of the forfeiture of all their Goods should neither sell give or communicate privately or publiquely Victuall Armour or any other necessaries to the Army of the Earle of Arundel but should debarre them of sustentation comfort or help as Rebels to the King and Country But on the other side they began to feare when they were denied their hoped for Aid by the Major and Commonalty of the Citie of London and againe they were troubled at the rising of the Commoners to invade them Wherefore they counselled the King to absent himselfe from the Parliament which was to begin at Candlemas next according as the King and Commissioners had appointed it and not consult of the Affairs of the Kingdom nor of his own Estate commodity or discommodity unlesse the Duke of Gloucester the two Earles of Arundel and Warwick with the rest of the Commissioners would sweare That neither they nor any in their name should accuse them or urge any accusation against them And they caused it to be proclaimed through the City of London That none under pain of confiscation of all their goods should speake any upbraiding speeches concerning the King or the Conspiratours which was a thing impossible to hinder Not long after it hapned that the King with the aforesaid five Conspiratours came from his Mannor of Sheeve to Westminster to Saint Edmonds Tombe for the solemnizing of a Pilgrimage The Maior and Aldermen of the Citie of London met him on horsebacke sumptuously attyred honouring him very much And when they came to the Mews they descended from their Horses and went bare-foot to the Tombe of Saint Edmond whereas the Chaplain of the Commissioners with the Abbot and Covent met them with a stately Procession In the meane time the three Noblemen viz. the Duke of Gloucester and the Earles of Arundel and Warwick having mustered their troups on the foureteenth of November in the same yeare at Waltham Crosse in the County of Hertford and from thence sent for the Commissioners that were there at Westminster in Parliament with the King sending an Accusation in writing to the King against the aforesaid Conspirators viz. the Archbishop of Yorke Duke of Ireland Earle of Suffolke Robert Tresilian and Nicholas Brembre wherein they accused them of high Treason Which their Appellation they did offer to maintaine and that they were willing to prosecute the same and to prove it to be true they caused also the