Henry the 2. tho upon far different reasons was Crowned in coniunction with King Stephen And I wish that what the Brother of the King of portugal hath of late years effected against his Prince did not awaken our jealousie to fear that the same may be attempted by a dispensation from the infallible chair elsewhere However they have taken care should they accomplish this designe that they may not be obliged to entetain our Katherine as they in Portugal did the French Madam Married to Alphonso for asmuch as the best part of the portion with our Princess namely Tangeir is through the courage and conduct of my Lord Incheqine one of the Dukes greatest confidents as good as disposed of But should they proceed in this design against his Majesty it becomes all his Majesties good Subjects to endeavour as one man the rescuing him from under their power seeing the very designment of such a thing is a Treason of so high a Nature against the King that we should be wanting in our Allegiance should we not apply our selves in the use of all possible wayes and meanes to punish and aveng as well as prevent the excution of it Now my Lord these are but few of the many particulars by which we are sufficently enlightned concerning the Duke of York and we may abundantly learn from these how much we are indebted to his Majesty for his Grace Favour and care in appointing such a one after him to succeed over us Do not all our fears hereupon immediately vanish and die and Hope Joy and Gladness revive in our hearts on this prospect which the King hath given us of so good an Heir But poor Prince we at once compassionate and forgive him knowing that this proceeds not from his inclination but that he hath been hurried and forced to it Nor do we need any further assurance of the inward propensions of his Majesties heart and the dislike his breast is filled with for what he hath done but the endeavoures which he used under daily and manifold importunities to the contrary to have avoided it and the sadness which appears in his countenance since over-awed to publish this Declaration And as for the Duke of Y. let him not deceive himself for as he may percieve by this that we fully understand him and know the kindness he entertains for us so we are prepared for him and resolved to return unto him and his in the kind they intend to bring For having both Divine and Humane Laws on our side we are resolved neither to be Papists nor Slaves and consequently not to be subjects to him who hath vowed either utterly to extirpate us or to reduce and compell us to be both the one and the other Lastly For the Issuing of all this Controversy concerning whose Right it is to succeed next after his Majesty men here about the town accustomed to discourse think that there need but two proposals and those very rational ones to be made The first is that the Parliament being admitted to sit they may examine this Affair whereof they alone are competent Judges Whatsoever Declarations may otherwise signifie yet it is a principle which can never be oblitterated out of the minds of English Men That they are neither binding Laws nor can alienate or extinguish the Rights of any Shall the Son of a common Person be allowed the Liberty to justify his Legittimacy in case his Father prove so forgetful or so unnatural as to disclaim him And shall the Duke of Monmouth meerly by being the Son of a King forfeit this just and universe Priviledge If his Majesty was indeed Married to that discountenanced Gentlemans Mother he is by our Laws the Son of the Kingdom as well as the Son of King Charles And therefore it is necessary as well as fit that the People should in all due and Legal ways understand whether they have any Interest or not in him before they be commanded to renounce him or resign it All therefore we desire is that this matter may be impartially and fairly heard and that before those who alone have right to be Judges of it and as no other course but this can satisfy the minds of People so it cannot be expected that upon the Authority of a Declaration especially gotten as this was they should sacrifice the share which for any thing yet appears they have in him as their apparent Prince and next Heir to the Throne And unless this be obtained the People will undoubtedly think their own Rights invaded whatsoever the said Duke judgeth of his The second thing we would humbly beg as well as propose is That the Parliament being called to sit the Duck of York may be legally tryed for his manifold Treasons and Conspiracies against the King and kingdom For if he be innocent and that the Right of Succession be his all Men will quietly acquiesse under him but if he should prove guilty as we no wise qvestion but that he will shall his Treasons when a Subject qualifie him to be a King and Pave the way for his rising to the Throne According to all Equity as well as Law he ought first to iustifie himself from all traitrous attempts and Acts against the King and People before he be allowed to have his claim heard concerning any title that in time to come he may have to rule over these Nations I shall subjoyn no more at present save that I am London June the 10th 1610. My Lord Your most obedient Servant
the seclusion of the Duke of Monmouth from all Title to the Crown may be judged sufficient inducements to have prevailed with him if not to have asserted the said Dukes Bastardy yet to have been silent in the case and not to have proclamed the Legittimacy And yet that very Lord being in danger of an Impeachment in Parliament for advising and perswading the King to a Marriage with Queen Katherine excused himself from all sinistrous ends in that affair by affirming That his Majesty had a lawful Son of his own by a former Marriage specifying by name the D. of M. to succeed to his Crown and Dignity Now though it may be supposed that a person may sometimes lye for his Interest yet no man can be thought to do so in order to the prejudice as well of himself as his whole Posterity And if we believe men speaking falshoods in subserviency to their Honour and Profit Shall we not give credit to them when they speak Truth to their own damage and that of all those who are dear unto them Certainly the positive Confession and Testimony of this one Person being against the Interest of his whole Family of more weight than the denyals of any number whatsoever when meerly to promote their safety and advantage or to serve the Exaltation of the Papal Cause These are but few of the many particulars I could acquaint your Lordship with relating to the confirmation of a Marriage between the King and Mrs. Walters But it is a piece of necessary wisdom at this juncture to know what not to say as well as to understand what to say And to tell you plainly I 'm more a Servant and a Friend to my Country than by pretending to plead the Dukes Cause and to be useful to the Nation to discover the Witnesses which are in reserve or betray the farther Evidences which are to be produced when this matter shall come before a competent Judicature Sixthly 'T is matter of no small trouble to such as truly love his Majesty that the Kings Integrity and Honour should be brought to stake in a matter wherein both the present Age and the succeeding may take occasion to question and bring into examination his Truth and sincerity For though it is not impossible but that Princes considering the Temptations with which they are surrounded may sometimes through inadvertency and at other times upon State Motives endeavour to impose upon the credulity if not abuse the Faith of their People Yet the veracity of a Supream Governour is of that importance to himself and so necessary to the Veneration which his People ought to maintain for him that he is not to bring his Credit to Pawn unless it be in such Cases wherein his People may if not apologize for yet connive at the indiscretion and weakness of their Ruler should he be found to delude them Nor hath any thing obstructed the affairs of Princes more and prevented their Peoples believing them when they spake their most inward thoughts than the forfeiture of their Credit in matters wherein their Subjects relyed upon the Honour and Truth of their Word For they who do not mean as they speak when People are prepared to hear them must not expect that their words should be much relyed upon when their Tongues are the true Interpreters of their minds And let me tell your Lordship that this last Declaration hath caused multitudes of his Majesties best Subjects to reflect upon and take a view of many of his former Declarations that from them they may be furnished with reasons for justifying themselves in the suspension of their assent to this And I wish there had not been that cause administred by foregoing ones which may with too many lessen the value of the Royal Word in that bearing date the second of June The first of this kind he ever published after he came in view of being restored to the Sovereignty over these Kingdoms was that dated at Breda the 4 th of April 1660. wherein he promised Liberty to all tender Consciences and engaged the sacred word of a King That no man should be disquieted or called in question for differences in matter of Religion provided they did not disturbe the Peace of the Kingdom Now though I will not dispute about the sence wherein this Declaration was meant nor concerning the End for which it was calculated and fram'd yet this I may be allowed to say that there are a great many of his Majesties Liege People who have tasted dealings directly repugnant unto it and may justly complain of some faileur in the accomplishment of it 'T is true his Majesty is not originally to be blamed that it had not the hoped for effects but withal that Prince that can be over-ruld to recede from a Promise which contributed so much to his happy and peaceable Restoration may be supposed capable of such Impressions from men of ill minds as may make him venture his Royal Word in other cases beyond the measures of Justice But seeing it were a business of too much Fatigue to call over all the Declarations since his Majesty actually occupied the British Throne I shall therefore remind your Lordship only of two more Whereof the first is that of January the second 1671 wherein the King upon shutting up the Exchequer Declares on the Word of a Prince That the restraint put upon payments out of the Treasury should continue no longer than till the last of Decemb. 1672. And yet the fulfilling of this is still Prorogued though it be now above Nine Years since the Royal Word was pledg'd for making it good The other that I shall refresh your memory with is that of the the Twentieth of April 1679. Wherein his Majesty having shrived himself and craved absolution for all past matters solemnly declareth that he would for time to come Lay aside the use of any single Ministry or private Advices or Forreign Committees for the general direction of his Affaires and that he would afterwards Govern his Kingdoms by the Advice of that Counsel which he had then chosen together with the frequent use of his great Council of Parliament as being the true and antient Constitution of this State and Government Far be it from me to blame his Majesty for the disappointment of those hopes which the People had so universally conceived upon that Declaration which was so full of ingenuity and candor and so adapted to the Honour Safety and Interest both of King and Kingdom but this may be said without the least umbrage of irreverence that the same pestilent men who were able to cause his Majesty to violate such a Declaration wherein he spake the most like a wise and good Prince that ever he did may be also able by the same ascendant influence to wrest an unadvised and bad one from him The same Councils which prevailed upon him to go against both his Royal Word and all the Maxims of Pollicy with which he is so richly
with this blot in his Scutcheon The Person I mean is Edw. the fourth who being a sprightly and amorous Prince was suddenly Contracted and Married to Elianor Talbot Daughter of the Earl of Shrewbury and that not only without any witnesses save Dr. Thomas Stillington Bishop of Bath into whose hands the Contract was made and who officiated at and celebrated the Marriage but besides the poor Doctor was strictly enjoyned by the King to conceal it and you may easily suppose the timorous Prelate would not fail in his duty to Majesty at least so long as he knew the King in a condition to punish and avenge the Discovery Now Ed. 4. finding thereupon admission into the embraces of the Lady and having satiated himself a while by secret injoyments and withall reckoning that none could or at least durst detect by what holy ties he was bound unto her he did some years after notwithstanding the Person to whom he was Affianced still survived both deny what was so solemnly transacted in the ptesence of Almighty God betwen them and withal Married another Woman namely my Lady Eliz. Gray Your Lordship may see the story both in Buck's Life of Richard the Third pag. 16 c. and in Comines's History of â—ewis the 1â— th And without making any application of it to the present Case I shall crave liberty to make these Remarks upon it I. That it is possible for Princes especially such as have accompanied with many Women to have weak Memories and to forget upon what Terms they contracted their first Friendships with them For finding how their Familiarity arose with others of that Sex they may grow by degrees into a kind of perswasion that their Interest in all was established upon no better terms Or if they should not be supposed so forgetful as this amounts unto yet the Love of change may make them stifle their knowledg especially when the Objects of their freâ—h Amours cannot be otherwise brought to entertain their flame but with a provision for their own Honour 2. That the denyals of Kings are not to be subscribed unto with an implicite Faith but that we ought to use the same discretion in believing or not believing what they say that we esteem our selves priviledged to use towards others in the credit which they require we should give unto them For though Princes be not lyable to be impleaded in our Courts nor be subject to Penalties that transgressing Subjects are yet seeing they may be guilty of the same facts which would both leave a reproach upon common men and make them obnoxious to punishments it cannot rationally be expected that their bare words should restrain the freedom of our Thoughts or give law to our Understandings in the Judgement that we are to make of Cases and Things 3. I would observe That though the Judicial Courts could not and the Parliaments during Edwards Reign would not take cognisance of that Kings contemning and violating the Ordinance of God by disclaiming his lawful Wife yet the Righteous Judge of Heaven and Earth in a little while after animadverted severely on the Offence For not only his two Sons whom he had by the Lady Gray were murdered by their Uncle but the Kingdom was translated from his Family and not only bestowed upon the chiefest enemy of his House but upon one who among all that for a long series before had been Rivals for the Crown had the weakest Title 4. It is not unworthy also of our Notice that notwithstanding King Edwards denying his first Marriage and assuming another Lady unto his Conjugal Bed yet all this could neither prevent the future enquiry into this matter nor the Parliaments recognizing the Marriage with Elianor Talbot 1. of Rich. 3. And besides the imputation of a Bigamist which is thereby stampt upon him to all Ages his Children by the second venture were Bastardised by Statute and an occasion from thence taken so place the Scepter in the hand of Richard Fifthly Nothing in this Declaration can preclude the Duke of Monmouth or any other true Englishman from enquiring when time serveth by legal and due wayes into the truth or falshood of the Kings marriage with Mrs. Walters For the D. cannot be denyed the same right which appertains to every person in the Kingdom namely the justifying his own legitimacy in due course and form And should he chuse to sit down with the imputation of a Bastard with all the other Losses which attend it Yet there are those in the Nation who preferring their duty to God their Country Themselves and an injured Gentleman before a Reverence to one man especially acting under the Influence of a Popish Brother will bring that whole business into an impartial examination before such where a single Negative will not be allowed as a sufficient proof to invalidate affirmative Testimonies providing such can be had And should that marriage hereafter be authentically proved how ill will they be found to have deserved both of the King and Kingdom that have either surprised cajol'd or threatned his Majesty to bring such a slur upon his Honour and Reputation as this Declaration will to all Ages Entail And my Lord Is it not strange if there was never any such Marriage that Mrs. Walters should not only when in travel with the said D. but at many other times particularly in her last hours when in the Prospect of approaching Death and ensuing Judgement affirm it with that positiveness which she did And is it not more surprising if there had been no such Marriage That Dr Fuller late Bishop of Lincoln should so often and in Verbo Sacerdotis declare to divers worthy Persons That he Married them Nay What should byass the Inkeeper at Liege to make it the great Mystery with which he entertained his English Guests That the Marriage was cellebrated and consummated in his House and that both he and his Wife were eye and ear Witnesses of it Moreover if it were such an Idle Story as the Declaration represents it how came it to pass that when some persons lately examined about the Black Box declared that they had heard of such a thing as the Kings being Married to that Gentlewoman they should be immediately commanded to withdraw and told that this was not the business they were interrogated about Besides My Lord as all who were abroad with his Majesty at that time knew the Passion the king had for that person so some of us can remember how through immoderate love to her being reduced to a condition that his Life was dispaired of and the late Queen his Mother recieving intelligence both of his Disease and the Cause of it she consented to his espousing of her rather than that he should consume and perish in his otherwise unquenchable flames Moreover as there were few had better opportunities of being acquainted with this whole affair than my late Lord Chancellor Hide so I 'm sure the advantages likely to accrue to his off-spring by
the king of Sweden and the States of Holland would have construed all designes upon the Protestants in England as done against those of the same religion with themselves and in favor of whose profession they had entred into that Alliance 6. He hath not only mantained correspondence with Forrain Princes to the betraying the Kings councels but hath confederated with them for the extirpation of our religion and overthrowing our Legal Government And besides many other evidences of this which it is not convenient to mention at present The depositions which arrived with the Commitee of Seceresy during the Session of the late Parliament together with Colemans letters and that which he wrote in the Dukes name and indeed by his command do uncontrolably demonstrate it 10. He was consenting to and hath cooperated in the whole Popish Plot for both his Confessor and Secretary did with his knowledg and approbation Seal the Resolves for the Kings death 11. It was the Duke who when the King had revealed the first discovery of the Hellish Romish Plot to him immediatly communicated it to Father Beding-field that so the conspirators might know to how secure their papers and abscond themselves 12. It was he who through his command over the Post Office prevented the intercepting the letters From St· Omers and others Forraign Seminaries whereby that whole damnable conspiracy would have been more fully detected 13. He employed his own Dutchess to transport several of the Traitors to Holland that so they might scape the search that was made for them and the punishment which they had deserved 14. It was he who suborned encouraged and rewarded the vilest Miscreants to frame and swear a Plot against the Protestants and this he did to beget a disbelif of the Popish conspiracy and in order to destroy such of the Nobility and Gentry as were the chief assertors of the Reformed Religion and English liberty 15. It was he who advised the several prorogations and dissolutions of Parliaments whensoever they were either considering the bleeding condition of the Protestant interest abroad or supplicating the King to an Alliance with Protestants Princes for its protection and preservation 16. It was he in whose favour the Dissolution of the last Parliament was procured and who hath prevented the sitting of this after Eight several times appointed for their meeting And all to hinder the Trial of the Traitorous Lords in the Tower and to obstruct the further search into the many Hellish Plots wherein himself and the rest of the Papists are engaged for the subversion of our Religion and Laws and the destruction of the lives of his Majesty and People And how much he hath lessened his Majesties interest in the hearts of his Subjects and weakned their confidence in his Royal word by obliging him to treat this Parliament as he hath done seeing in his speech to both Houses March 6. 1678. he had so solemnly declared his resolution to meet his people frequently in Parliaments and into what straits and wants they have thereby also reduced him I shall rather leave your Lordship silently to consider than take upon me at this time to unfold 17. It was he who after he had for so many years promoted the aiding and succoring of France with English Forces till that aspiring Prince was ascended to a power and greatness not to be in any probability withstood or controlled did at last engage his Majestie in making the general peace which is a thing so highly prejudicial to all Europe in the unavoidable consequences of it 18. It was he who countenanced and enlivened the late Traitorous Combination of Prentices and Ruffians and who together with the Lords in the Tower Issued out the Mony both for the expences of their entertainments and for the providing them with Arms to distrube the peace of the Citty and Kingdom and assault the Houses and Lives of his Majesties Liege People 19. It is he who hath enrolled and secretly mustred men in all Counties of England and who besides the English Papists whom at this time he hath called from all parts of the Nation to London is also provided of a great number of Irish who formerly washed their hands in the blood of Protestants or are the genuine off-spring of those that did Now being thus furnished and environed he is resolved unless God in his providence miraculously interpose to put all to a venture and play over the same game in England that was heretofore acted in Ireland 20. It is he who cherisheth in his bosome and exalteth to the highest Trusts such as Coll. Worden who betrayed his Majesties secrets to the usurping powers particularly to Mr. Scot. Nay himself may be charged with many â—hings in those times whereby we may apparently discover both his treachery to his Majesty and his ambition to have usurped the Crown from him For when a Loyal party of the English Fleet had espoused his Majesties Right and Title against the enemies of his Crown and person the Duke who being then aboard should have encouraged and ventured his Life in conjunction with them did instead thereof by a most shameful and â—isloyal deserting of them both discourage them in their fidelity and so far as in him lay obleige them to compound for themselves with a â—eclusion of his Majesties intrest Yea besides this when the Scots were treating the King at Breda in order to the establishing him in the Throne of that Kingdom the D. of Y. was at that very time transacting with such as remained faithful to the Kings Title here that they would renounce his elder Brother and chuse him for their Soveraign Nor do I believe that his Majesty can forget the occasion and design upon which the Duke forsooke him at Bruges and withdrew to Holland so that the King was necessitated not only to command him upon his allagience to return but was forced to send the Duke of Ormond and some other persons of quality to threaten as well as perswade him before he would goe back 21. It is he who not thinking the declaration enough to facilitate his ascention to the Throne or to secure him from resistance in the attempts he purposeth upon our Lives and Liberties hath been and still is endeavouring to be admitted and let further into the Government and accordingly hath accosted the King by my Lord Durass in that matter This is the more surprising forasmuch as one would think that it is not possible he should be further let into the Government having Berwick Hull Langer point Shereness Portsmouth and the Magazine of the Tower Legg being now Master of the Ordnance in the hands of his sworn vassals and creatures and having also the superintendency of all civil affaires in him unless by taking the Scepter actually into his hand he should confine the King to a Country House and and an Annual pension And his partisans about the Town talk of no less than the having the Duke Crown'd during the Kings life as