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
Captains Souldiers c. Execution when the means or provision is not used of all used 5. Particular To be noted and collected out of the contraries of those rules that are prescribed for the preservation of the Common-wealth Particular causes of Conversion of States are of two sorts 1. FOrreign By the over greatness of invasion of some forreign Kingdom or other State of meaner power having a part within our own which are to be prevented by the providence of the chief and rules of policy for the preserving of every State This falleth out very seldom for the great difficulty to overthrow a forreign State 2. Domestick Sedition or open violence by the stronger part Alteration without violence Sedition SEdition is a power of inferiours opposing it self with force of Armes against the superiour power Quasi ditio secedens Causes of Sedition are of two sorts 1. General Liberty Riches WHen they that are of equal qualitie in a Common-wealth or do take themselves so to be are not regarded equally in all or in any of the these three or when they are so unequal in quality or take themselves so to be are regarded but equally or with less respect than those that be of less defect in these three things or in any of them Honour 1. IN the Chief Couetousness or oppression by the Magistrate or higher Power viz. when the Magistrates especially the Chief encreaseth his substace revenue beyond measure either with the publick or private calamitie whereby the Governours grow to quarrel among themselves as in Oligarchie or the other degrees conspite together and make quarrel against the Chief as in Kingdoms The examples of â—at Tylâ—r Jack Straw c. 2. In the â—â—â—â—f Injury when great Spirits and of great power are greatly wronged dishonoured or take themselves to be as Coriolanus Cyrus minor Earl of Warwick In which cases the best way is to decide the wrong 3. Preferment or want of preferment wherein some have over-much and so wax proud and aspire higher or have more or lesse than they deserve as they suppose and so in envy and disdain seck Innovation on by open faction so Caesar c. 4. Some great necessity or calamity So Xerxes after the foil of his great Army And Senacherib after the losse of 185. in one night 2. Particular 1. ENvy when the chief exceed the mediocrity before mentioned and so provoketh the Nobility and other degrees to conspire against him as Brutus Cassius c. against Caesar. 2. Fear viz. Of danger when one or more dispatch the Prince by secret practice or force to prevent his own danger as Artabanus did Xerxes 2. Lust or Lechery as Tarquinius Superbus by Brutus Pisistratiâ—â—ae by Armoaius Appiuâ— by Virginiuâ— 4. Contempt For vile quality base behaviour as Sardanaâ—alus by â—â—aces Dionysius the younger by Dion 5. Contumely when some great disgrace is done to some of great Spirit who standeth upon his honour and reputation as Caligula by Chaereas 6. Hope of Advancement or some great profit as Mithridates Anobarâ—anes Alteration without violence CAuses of alteration without violence are 1. Excess of the State when by degrees the State groweth from that temper and mediocrity wherein it was or should have been setled and exceedeth in power riches and absoluteness in his kind by the ambition covetousness of the chiefe immoderate taxes and impositions c applying all to his own benefit without respect of other degrees so in the end changeth it self into another State or form of Government as a Kingdom into a Tyrannie an Oligarchy into an Aristocracy 2. Excess of some one or more in the Common-wealth viz. When some one or more in a Common-wealth grow to an excellency or excesse above the rest either in honour wealth or virtue and so by permission and popular favour are advanced to the Sovereignty By which means popular States grow into Oligarchies and Oligarchies and Aristocracies into Monarchies For which cause the Athenians and some other free States made their Laws of Ostroâ—ismos to banish any for a time that should excell though it were in virtue to prevent the alteration of their State Which because it is an unjust Law 't is better to take heed as the beginning to prevent the means that none should grow to that heigth and excellency than to use so sharp and unjust a remedy FINIS A METHOD How to make use of the Book before in the reading of the Storie DAVID being seventy years of age was of wisdome Memory c. sufficient to govern his Kingdom 1. Reg. Cap. 1. Old age is not ever unfit for publick Government DAVID being of great years and so having a cold dry and impotent body married with Abishag a fair maid of the best complexion through the whole Realm to revive his body and prolong his life 1. Reg. Chap. 1. vers 3. Example of the like practise in Charles the Fifth DAvid being old and impotent of bodie by the advise of his Nobles and Phisitians married a young maid called Abishag to warm and preserve his old bodie Observation WHether David did well in marrying a maid and whether it be lawfull for an old decayed and impotent man to marrie a young woman or on the other side for an old worn and decrepite woman to marrie a young and lustie man For the Affirmative ARG. The end of marriage is Society and mutual comfort but there may be Societie and mutual comfort in a marriage betwixt an old and young partie Ergo 'tis Lawful Answ. Societie and comfort is a cause effect of marriage but none of the principal ends of marriage which are 1. Procreation of children and so the continuance of mankind 2. The avoiding of Fornication As for comfort and societie they may be betwixt man and man woman and woman where no marriage is and therefore no proper ends of marriage The Negative ARG 1. That conjunction which hath no respect to the right and proper ends for which marriage was ordained by God is no lawfull marriage But the conjunction betwixt an old impotent and young partie hath no respect to the right end for which marriage was ordained by God Therefore it is no lawful marriage 2. No contract wherein the partie contracting bindeth himself to an impossible condition or to do that which he cannot do is good or lawfull But the contract of marriage by an impotent person with a young partie bindeth him to an impossible condition to do that which he cannot do viz. to perform the duties of Marriage Therefore it is unlawfull For the same cause the civil Law determineth a nullity in these marriages except the woman know before the infirmitie of the man in which case she can have no wrong being a thing done with her own knowledge and consent because Volenti non fit injuria In legem Julian de adulteriis leg Si Uxor c. It provideth further for the more certainty of the infirmatie That three
gathering of money from the subject under title of a free gift whereas a fift a sixt a tenth c. was set down and required But my good Lord though divers Shires have given to his Majestie some more some lesse what is this to the Kings debt COUNS. Wee know it well enough but we have many other projects IUST It is true my good Lord but your Lordship will find that when by these you have drawn many petty summes from the subjects and those sometimes spent as fast as they are gathered his Majesty being nothing enabled thereby when you shall be forced to demand your great aide the the Countrey will excuse it self in regard of their former payments COUNS. What mean you by the great aide JUST I mean the aide of Parliament COUNS. By Parliament I would fain know the man that durst perswade the King unto it for if it should succeed ill in what case were he JUST You say well for your self my Lord and perchance you that are lovers of your selves under pardon do follow the advice of the late Duke of Alva who was ever opposite to all resolutions in businesse of importance for if the things enterprised succeeded well the advice never came in question if ill whereto great undertakings are commonly subject he then made his advantage by remembring his Countrey Councell But my good Lord these reserved Polititians are not the best servants for he that is bound to adventure his life for his Master is also bound to adventure his advice Keep not back Councell saith Ecclesiasticus When it may do good COUNS. But Sir I speak it not in other respect then I think it dangerous for the King to assemble the three estates for thereby have our former Kings alwayes lost somewhat of their prerogatives And because that you shall not think that I speak it at randome I will begin with elder times wherein the first contention began betwixt the Kings of this land and their subjects in Parliament IUST Your Lordship shall do me a singular favour COUNS. You know that the Kings of England had no formal Parliament till about the 18. year of Hen. the first for in his 17 year for the marriage of his Daughter the King raised a tax upon every hide of land by the advice of his privy Councell alone But you may remember how the subjects soon after the establishment of this Parliament began to stand upon termes with the King and drew from him by strong hand and the sword the great Charter JUST Your Lordship sayes well they drew from the King the great Charter by the sword and hereof the Parliament cannot be accused but the Lords COUNS. You say well but it was after the establishment of the Parliament and by colour of it that they had so great daring for before that time they could not endure to hear of Sr. Edwards lawes but resisted the confirmation in all they could although by those lawes the Subjects of this Iland were no lesse free than any of all Europe JUST My good Lord the reason is manifest for while the Normans and other of the French that followed Conquerour made spoyle of the English they would not endure that any thing but the will of the Conquerour should stand for Law but after a difcent or two when themselves were become English and found themselves beaten with their own rods they then began to favour the difference between subjection and slavery and insist upon the Law Meum tuum and to be able to say unto themselves hoc sac vives yea that the conquering English in Ireland did the like your Lordship knowes it better than I. COUNS. I think you guesse aright And to the end the subject may know that being a faithfull servant to his Prince he might enjoy his own life and paying to his Prince what belongs to a Soveraigne the remainder was his own to dispose Henry the first to content his Vassals gave them the great Charter and the Charter of Forrests JUST What reason then had K. Iohn to deny the confirmation COUNS. He did not but he on the contrary confirmed both the Charters with additions required the Pope whom he had them made his superior to strengthen him with a golden Bul. JUST But your honour knowes that it was not long after that he repented himself COUNS. It is rrue and he had reason so to do for the Barons refused to follow him into France as they ought to have done and to say true this great Charter upon which you insist so much was not originally granted Regally aud freely for Henry the first did usurpe the Kingdome and therefore the better to assure himself against Robert his eldest Brother hee flattered the Nobility and people with those Charters Yea King Iohn that confirmed them had the like respect for Arthur Duke of Britain was the undoubted heir of the Crown upon whom Iohn usurped And so to conclude these Charters had their originall from Kings de facto but not de jure JUST But King Iohn confirmed the Charter after the death of his Nephew Arthur when he was then Rex de jure also COUNS. It is true for he durst do no other standing accursed whereby few or none obeyed him for his Nobility refused to follow him into Scotland and he had so grieved the people by pulling down all the Parke pales before harvest to the end his Deere might spoil the corn And by seizing the temporalities of so many Bishopricks into his hands and chiefly for practising the death of the Duke of Britain his Nephew as also having lost Normandy to the French so as the hearts of all men were turned from him IUST Nay by your favour my Lord King Iohn restored K. Edwards Laws after his absolution and wrote his letters in the 15. of his reigne to all Sheriffes countermanding all former oppressions yea this he did notwithstanding the Lords refused to follow him into France COUNS. Pardon me he did not restore King Edwards Lawes then nor yet confirmed the Charters but he promised upon his absolution to doe both but after his return out of France in his 16. year he denyed it because without such a promise he had not obtained restitution his promise being constrained and not voluntary IUST But what think you was hee not bound in honour to performe it COUNS. Certainly no for it was determined the case of King Francis the first of France that all promises by him made whilest he was in the hands of Charles the fift his enemy were void by reason the Judge of honour which tells us he durst doe no other JUST But King Iohn was not in prison COUNS. Yet for all that restraint is imprisonment yea fear it self is imprisonment and the King was subject to both I know there is nothing more Kingly in a King than the performance of his word but yet of a word freely and voluntarily given Neither was the Charter of Henry the first so
Lords A contrained consent is the consent of a Captive and not of a King and therefore there was nothing done their either legally or royally For if it be not properly a Parliament where the subject is not free certainely it can be none where the King is bound for all Kingly rule was taken from the King and twelve Peeres appointed and as some Writers have it 24. Peeres to governe the Realme and therefore the assembly made by Iack Straw and other rebels may aswell be called a Parliament as that of Oxford Principis nomen habere non est esse princeps for thereby was the K. driven not only to compound all quarrels with the French but to have meanes to be revenged on the rebell Lords but he quitted his right to Normandy Anjou and Mayne COUNS. But Sir what needed this extremity seeing the Lords required but the confirmation of the former Charter which was not prejudiciall to the King to grant JUST Yes my good Lord but they insulted upon the King and would not suffer him to enter into his own Castles they put down the Purveyor of the meat for the maintenance of his house as if the King had been a bankrupt and gave order that without ready money he should not take up a Chicken And though there is nothing against the royalty of a King in these Charters the Kings of England being Kings of freemen and not of slaves yet it is so contrary to the nature of a King to be forced even to those things which may be to his advantage as the King had some reason to seek the dispensation of his oath from the Pope and to draw in strangers for his own defence yea jure salvo coronae nostrae is intended inclusively in all oathes and promises exacted from a Soveraigne COUNS. But you cannot be ignorant how dangerous a thing it is to call in other Nations both for the spoil they make as also because they have often held the possession of the best places with which they have been trusted JUST It is true my good Lord that there is nothing so dangerous for a King as to be constrained and held as prisoner to his vassals for by that Edward the second and Richard the second lost their Kingdomes and their lives And for calling in of strangers was not King Edward the sixth driven to call in strangers against the Rebels in Norfolke Cornwall Oxfordshire and elsewhere Have not the Kings of Scotland been oftentimes constrained to entertain strangers against the Kings of England And the King of England at this time had he not bin diverse times assisted by the Kings of Scotland had bin endangered to have been expelled for ever COUNS. But yet you know those Kings were deposed by Parliament JUST Yea my good Lord being Prisoners being out of possession and being in their hands that were Princes of the blood and pretenders It is an old Countrey Proverbe that Might overcomes Right a weak title that weares a strong sword commonly prevailes against a strong title that weares but a weak one otherwise Philip the second had never been Duke of Portugal nor Duke of Millayne nor King of Naples Sicily But good Lord Errores non sunt trahendi in exemplum I speak of regall peaceable and lawfull Parliaments The King at this time was but a King is name for Glocester Leicester and Chichester made choise of other Nine to whom the rule of the Realme was committed and the Prince was forced to purchase his liberty from the Earle of Leicester by giving for his ransome the Countey Pallatine of Chester But my Lord let us judge of those occasions by their events what became of this proud Earle was he not soon after slain in Evesham was he not left naked in the field and left a shamfull spectacle his head being cut off from his shoulders his privie parts from his body and laid on each side of his nose And did not God extinguish his race after which in a lawfull Parliament at Westminster confirmed in a following Parliament of Westminster were not all the Lords that followed Leycester disinheried And when that fool Glocester after the death of Leycester whom he had formerly forsaken made himself the head of a second Rebellion and called in strangers for which not long before he had cried out against the King was not he in the end after that he had seen the slaughter of so many of the Barons the spoil of their Castles and Lordships constrained to submit himself as all the survivers did of which they that sped best payed their fines and ransomes the King reserving his younger Son the Earledomes of Leycester and Derby COUNS. Well Sir we have disputed this King to the grave though it be true that he out-lived all his enemies and brought them to confusion yet those examples did not terrifie their successors but the Earle Marshall and Hereford threatned King Edward the first with a new War IUST They did so but after the death of Hereford the Earle Marshall repented himself and to gain the Kings favour he made him heir of all his Lands But what is this to the Parliament for there was never King of this land had more given him for the time of his raign then Edward the Son of Henry the third had COUNS. How doth that appear JUST In this sort my good Lord in this Kings third year he had given him the fifteenth part of all goods In his sixt year a twentyeth In his twelfth year a twentyeth in his fourteenth year he had escuage to wit forty shillings of every Knights Fee in this eighteenth year he had the eleventh part of all moveable goods within the Kingdome in his nineteenth year the tenth part of all Church livings in England Scotland and Ireland for six years by agreement from the Pope in his three and twentieth year he raised a taxe upon Wool and fels and on a day caused all the religious houses to be searched and all the treasure in them to be seized and brought to his coffers excusing himself by laying the fault upon his Treasurer he had also in the end of the same year of all goods of all Burgesses and of the Commons the 10th part in the 25th year of the Parliament of St. Edmundsbury he had an 18th part of the goods of the Burgesses and of the people in generall the tenth part He had also the same year by putting the Clergie out of his protection a fifth part of their goods and in the same year he set a great taxe upon Woolls to wit from half a marke to 40s upon every sack whereupon the Earle Marshall and the Earle of Hereford refusing to attend the King into Flanders pretended the greevances of the people Put in the end the King having pardoned them and confirmed the great Charter he had the ninth penny of all goods from the Lords and Commons of the Clergie in the South he had the tenth penny and in
how excellently and easily might this have been done if the 400000l had been raised as aforesaid upon the Kings lands and wards I say that his Majesties House his Navy his guards his pensioners his munition his Ambassadors and all else of ordinary charge might have been defrayed and a great summe left for his Majesties casuall expences and rewards I will not say they were not in love with the Kings estate but I say they were unfortunately borne for the King that crost it COUNS. Well Sir I would it had been otherwise But for the assignments there are among us that will not willingly indure it Charity begins with it self shall we hinder our selves of 50000l per annum to save the King 20 No Sir what will become of our New years gifts our presents and gratuities We can now say to those rhat have warrants for money that there is not a penny in the Exchequer but the King gives it away unto the Scots faster then it comes in IUST My Lord you say well at least you say the truth that such are some of our answers and hence comes that generall murmure to all men that have money to receive I say that there is not a penny given to that nation be it for service or otherwise but is spread over all the kingdome yea they gather notes and take copies of all the privy seals and warrants that his Majesty hath given for the money for the Scots that they may shew them in Parliament But of his Majesties gifts to the English there is no bruit though they may be tenne times as much as the Scots And yet my good Lord howsoever they be thus answered that to them sue for money out of the Echequer it is due to them for 10. or 12. or 20. in the hundred abated according to their qualities that shew they are alwaies furnished For conclusion if it would please God to put into the Kings heart to make their assignations it would save him many a pound and gain him many a prayer and a great deal of love for it grieveth every honest mans heart to see the abundance which even the petty officers in the Exchequer and others gather both from the king and subject and to see a world of poore men runne after rhe King for their ordinary wages COUNS. Well well did you never hear this old tale that when there was a great contentation about the weather the Seamen complaining of contrary windes when those of the high Countreys desired rain and those of the valleys sunshining dayes Iupiter sent them word by Mercury then when they had all done the weather should be as it had been And it shall ever fall out so with them that complain the course of payments shall be as they have been what care we what petty fellows say or what care we for your papers have not we the Kings eares who dares contest with us though we cannot be revenged on such as you are for telling the truth yet upon some other pretence wee 'le clap you up and you shall sue to us ere you get out Nay wee 'le make you confesse that you were deceived in your projects and eat your own words learn this of me Sir that as a little good fortune is better then a great deal of virtue so the least authority hath advantage over the greatest wit was he not the wisest man that said the battel was not the strongest nor yet bread for the wise nor riches to men of understanding nor favour to men of knowledge but what time and chance came to them all IUST It is well for your Lordship that it is so But Qu Elizabeth would set the reason of a mean man before the authority of the greatest Councellor she had and by her patience therein she raised upon the usuall and ordinary customes of London without any new imposition above 50000l a year for though the Treasurer Burleigh and the Earle of Leicester and Secretary Walshingham all three pensioners to Customer Smith did set themselves against a poor waiter of the Custome-house called Carwarden and commanded the groomes of the privy Chamber not to give him accesse yet the Queen sent for him and gave him countenance against them all It would not serve the turn my Lord with her when your Lordships would tell her that the disgracing her great officers by hearing the complaints of busie heads was a dishonour to her self but she had alwayes this answer That if any men complain unjustly against a Magistrate it were reason he should be severely punished if justly shee was Queen of the small as well as of the great and would hear their complaints For my good Lord a Prince that suffereth himself to be besieged forsaketh one of the greatest regalities belonging to a Monarchie to wit the last appeal or as the Trench call it le dernier resort COUNS. Well Sir this from the matter I pray you go on IUST Then my Lord in the Kings 15. year he had a tenth and a fifteen graunted in Parliament of London And that same year there vvas a great Councell called at Stamford to vvhich diverse men vvere sent for of diverse counties besides the Nobility of vvhich the King took advice vvhether he should continue the vvar or make a finall end vvith the French COUNS. What needed the King to take the advice of any but of his ovvn Councell in matter of peace or vvarre IUST Yea my Lord for it is said in the Proverbs where are many counsellers there is health And if the King had made the vvarre by a generall consent the Kingdome in generall vvere bound to maintain the vvarre and they could not then say when the King required aid that he undertook a needlesse vvarre COUNS. You say vvell but I pray you go on IUST After the subsedy in the 15. yeare the King desired to borrovv 10000l of the Londoners vvhich they refused to lend COUNS. And vvas not the King greatly troubled there vvith IUST Yea but the King troubled the Londoners soon aftar for the king took the advantage of a ryot made upon the Bishop of Salisbury his men sent for the Major and other the ablest citizens comitted the Major to prison in the Castle of Windsor and others to other castles and made a Lord Warden of this citie till in the end vvhat vvith 10000l ready money and other rich presents instead of lending 10000l it cost them 2000l Betvveen the fifteenth yeare and tvventieth yeare he had tvvo aides given him in the Parliaments of Winchester and Westminster and this later vvas given to furnish the Kings journey into Ireland to establish that estate vvhich vvas greatly shaken since the death of the Kings Grandfather vvho received thence yearly 30000l and during the Kings stay in Ireland he had a 10th and a 5th granted COUNS. And good reason for the King had in his army 4000. horse and 30000. foot IUST That by your favour vvas the Kings savity for great armies do
Hold you contented Sir the King needs no great disswasion IUST My Lord learn of me that â—here is none of you all than can â—erce the King It is an essentiall property of a man truely wise not to oâ—en all the boxes of his bosome even â—o those that are near'st dear'st unto him for when a man is discovered to the very bottome he is after the lesse esteemed I dare undertake that when your Lordship hath served the King twice twelve years more you will find that his Majesty hath reserved somewhat beyond all your capacities his Majesty hath great reason to put off the Parliament at his last refuge and in the mean time to make tryall of all your loves to serve him for his Majesty hath had good experience how well you can serve your selves But when the King finds that the building of your own fortunes and factions hath been the diligent studies and the service of his Majesty but the exercises of your leasures He may then perchance cast himself upon the generall love of his people of which I trust he shall never be deceived and leave as many of your Lordships as have pilfered from the Crown to their examination COUNS. Well Sir I take no great pleasure in this dispute goe on pray IUST In that Kings 5th year he had also a subsedy which is got by holding the house together from Easter to Christmas and would not suffer them to depart He had also a subsedy in his ninth year In his eleventh year the commons did again presse the King to take all the temporalities of the Church men into his hands which they proved sufficient to maintain 150. Earls 1500. Knights and 6400. Esquiers with a hundred hospitals but they not prevailing gave the king a subsedy As for the notorious Prince Henry the fift I find that he had given him in his second year 300000. markes and after that two other subsedies one in his fifth year another in his ninth without any disputes In the time of his successor Henry the sixt there were not many subsedies In this third year he had a subsedy of a Tunnage and poundage And here saith Iohn Stow began those payements which we call customes because the payement was continued whereas before that time it was granted but for a year two or three according to the Kings occasions He had also an ayde gathering of money in his fourth year and the like in his tenth year and in his thirteenth year a 15th He had also a fifteenth for the conveying of the Queen out of France into England In the twenty eight year of that King was the act of Resumption of all honours towns castles Signeuries villages Manors lands tenements rents reversions fees c. But because the wages of the Kings servants were by the strictness of the act also restrained this act of Resumption was expounded in the Parliament at Reading the 31th year of the Kings reigne COUNS. I perceive that those 〈◊〉 of Resumption were ordinary in former times for King Stephen resumed the lands which in former times he had given to make friends during the Civill wars And Henry the second resumed all without exception which King Stephen had not resumed for although King Stephen took back a great deal yet he suffered his trustiest servants to enjoy his gift IUST Yes my Lord and in after times also for this was not the last nor shall be the last I hope And judge you my Lord whether the Parliaments doe not only serve the King whatsoever is said to the contrary for as all King Henry the 6. gifts graunts were made void by the Duke of York when he was in possession of the Kingdome by Parliament So in the time of K. H. when K. Edw. was beaten out again the Parliament of Westminster made all his acts voyd made him and all his followers traytors and gave the King many of their heads lands The Parliaments of England do alwayes serve the King in possession It served Rich. the second to condemne the popular Lords It served Bollingbrooke to depose Rich. When Edw. the 4. had the Scepter it made them all beggars that had followed H. the 6. And it did the like for H. when Edw. was driven out The Parliaments are as the friendship of this world is which alwayes followeth prosperity For King Edw. the 4. after that he was possessed of the Crown he had in his 13. year a subsedy freely given him and in the year following he took a benevolence through England which arbitrary taking from the people served that ambitious traytor the Duke of Bucks After the Kings death was a plausible argument to perswade the multitude that they should not permit saith Sir Thomas Moore his line to raigne any longer upon them COUNS. Well Sir what say you to the Parliament of Richard the third his time IUST I find but one and therein he made diverse good Laws For King Henry the seventh in the beginning of his third year he had by Parliament an ayde granted unto him towards the relief of the Duke of Brittain then assailed by the French King And although the King did not enter into the warre but by the advice of the three estates who did willingly contribute Yet those Northern men which loved Richard the third raised rebellion under colour of the money impos'd and murthered the Earle of Northumberland whom the King employed in that Collection By which your Lordship sees that it hath not been for taxes and impositions alone that the ill disposed have taken Armes but even for those payments which have been appointed by Parliament COUNS. And what became of these Rebels IUST They were fairly hang'd the money levied notwithstanding in the Kings first year he gathered a marvailous great masse of money by a benevolence taking pattern by this kind of levie from Edw. 4th But the King caused it first to be moved in Parliament where it was allowed because the poorer sort were therein spared Yet it is true that the King used some art for in his Letters he declared that he would measure every mans affections by his gifts In the thirteenth year he had also a subsedy whereupon the Cornish men took Armes as the Northern men of the Bishoprick had done in the third year of the King COUNS. It is without example that ever the people have rebelled for any thing granted by Parliament save in this Kings dayes IUST Your Lordship must consider that he was not over much beloved for he took many advantages upon the people and the Nobility both COUNS. And I pray you what say they now of the new impositions lately laid by the Kings Majesty do they say that they are justly or unjustly laid IUST To Impose upon all things brought into the Kingdome is very ancient which imposing when it hath been continued a certain time is then called Customes because the subjects are accustomed to pay it and yet the great taxe upon wine is
still called Impost because it was imposed after the ordinary rate of payement had lasted many years But we do now a dayes understand those things to be impositions which are raised by the command of Princes without the advice of the Common-wealth though as I take it much of that which is now called custome was at the first imposed by Prerogative royall Now whether it be time or consent that makes them just I cannot define were they just because new and not justified yet by time or unjust because they want a generall consent yet is this rule of Aristotle verified in respect of his Majestie Minus timent homines in justum pati à principe quem cultorem Dei putant Yea my Lord they are also the more willingly borne because all the world knows they are no new Invention of the Kings And if those that advised his Majestie to impose them had raised his lands as it was offered them to 20000l more then it was and his wards to asmuch as aforesaid they had done him farre more acceptable service But they had their own ends in refusing the one and accepting the other If the land had been raised they could not have selected the best of it for themselves If the impositions had not been laid some of them could not have their silks other pieces in farme which indeed grieved the subject ten times more then that which his Majestie enjoyeth But certainly they made a great advantage that were the advisers for if any tumult had followed his Majesty ready way had been to have delivered them over to the people COUNS. But think you that the King would have delivered them if any troubles had followed IUST I know not my Lord it was Machiavels counsell to Caesar Borgia to doe it and King H the 8. delivered up Empson and Dudley yea the same King when the great Cardinall Woolsey who governed the King and all his estate had by requiring the sixt part of every mans goods for the King raised a rebellion the King I say disavowed him absolutely that had not the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk appeased the people the Cardinall had sung no more Masse for these are the words of our Story The King then came to Westminster to the Cardinals Palace and assembled there a great Councell in which he protested that his mind was never to aske any thing of his commons which might sound to the breach of his Laws Wherefore he then willed them to know by whose means they were so strictly given forth Now my Lord how the Cardinall would have shifted himself by saying I had the opinion of the Iudges had not the rebellion been appeased I greatly doubt COUNS. But good Sir you blanch my question and answer me by examples I aske you whether or no in any such tumult the people pretending against any one or two great Officers the King should deliver them or defend them IUST My good Lord the people have not stayed for the Kings delivery neither in England nor in France Your Lordship knows how the Chancellour Treasurer and Chief Iustice with many others at severall times have been used by the Rebels And the Marshals Constables and Treasurers in France have been cut in pieces in Charles the sixt his time Now to your Lordships question I say that where any man shall give a King perilous advice as may either cause a Rebellion or draw the peoples love from the King I say that a King shall be advised to banish him But if the King do absolutely command his servant to do any thing displeasing to the Common-wealth and to his own perill there is the King bond in honour to defend him But my good Lord for conclusion there is no man in England that will lay any invention ether grievous or against law upon the Kings Majesty and therefore your Lordships must share it amongst you COUNS. For my part I had no hand in it I think Ingram was be that propounded it to the Treasurer IUST Alas my good Lord every poor waiter in the Custome-house or every promooter might have done it there is no invention in these things To lay impositions and sell the Kings lands are poor and common devices It is true that Ingram and his fellows are odious men and therefore his Majesty pleas'd the people greatly to put him from the Coffership It is better for a Prince to use such a kind of men then to countenance them hangmen are necessary in a common wealth yet in the Netherlands none but a hangmans sonne will marry a hangmans daughter Now my Lord the last gathering which Henry the seventh made was in his twentieth year wherein he had another benevolence both of the Clergy and Laity a part of which taken of the poorer sort he ordained by his testament that it should be restored And for King Henry the eight although he was left in a most plentifull estate yet he wonderfully prest his people with great payments for in the beginning of his time it was infinite that he spent in Masking and Tilting Banquetting and other vanities before he was entred into the most consuming expence of the most fond and fruitlesse warre that ever King undertook In his fourth yeare he had one of the greatest subsedies that ever was granted for besides two fifteens and two dismes he used Davids Law of Capitation or head money and had of every Duke ten marks of every Earl five pounds of every Lord four pounds of every Knight four marks and every man rated at 8l in goods 4. marks and so after the rate yea every man that was valued but at 401 paid 12d and every man and woman above 15. yeares 4d He had also in his sixt yeare divers subsedies granted him In his fourteenth their was a tenth demanded of every mans goods but it was moderated In the Parliament following the Clergie gave the King the half of their spirituall livings for one yeare and of the Laity there was demanded 800000l which could not be leavied in England but it was a marvellous great gift that the king had given him at that time In the Kings seventeenth yeare was the Rebellion before spoken of wherein the King disavowed the Cardinall In his seventeenth yeare he had the tenth and fifteenth given by Parliament which were before that time paid to the Pope And before that also the moneys that the King borrowed in his fifteenth yeare were forgiven him by Parliament in his seventeenth yeare In his 35. yeare a subsedy was granted of 4d the pound of every man worth in goods from 20s to 5l from 5l to 10l and upwards of every pound 2s And all strangers denisens and others doubled this summe strangers not being inhabitants above 16. yeares 4d a head All that had Lands Fees and Annuities from 20. to 5. and so double as they did for goods And the Clergy gave 6d the pound In the thirty seventh yeare a Benevolence was taken not voluntary but rated by