for the Safety and Well-Government of his Subjects the abandoning tho for so short a time the Protection and Defence of the People committed to his Charge Whatever things are proper unto Supreme Majesty Scepters and Crowns Soveraignty the Purple Robe the Globe or Golden Ball and Holy Unction have as long appertained to the British Monarch as to any other Prince in Europe The Antiquity of anointing Kings in Britain has been already shewn out of Gildas and as for the other four they are by Leland a famous Antiquary ascribed unto King Arthur who began his Reign in the Year of our Lord 506. Which was as soon as they were ordinarily in use with the Roman Emperors The King of Great Britain is an absolute and unaccountable Monarch a Free Prince of Soveraign Power not holding his Kingdom in Vassallage nor receiving his Instalment or Investiture from another Nor does he acknowledge Superiority to any but to GOD alone He is not only the Supreme but sole Legislator within his Dominions The Power of making Laws whatever some Antimonarchists pretend to the contrary rests solely in him And altho the Gracious Condescension of our Kings has been such as to render the subordinate Concurrence of the Estates of each Realm a Condition requisite to the making of new or abrogating of old Laws within the respective Kingdoms yet are they not thereby admitted to any Share in the Soveraignty their Power being wholly derivative from the King who is Caput Principium Finis Parliamentorum the three Estates when assembled in Parliament being as much his Subjects as every particular Man of them is when the Meeting is dissolved All Bills passed by them are but so much dead matter till quickned by his Royal Fiat which alone gives Life and Form to all their Proceedings Nor is it ex debito Justitiae but of his Special Grace that he passes such Acts as are presented to him Thus Henry the IIId begins his Magna Charta with Know ye that WE of our meer and free Will have given these Liberties Thus we hear King Edward the Ist saying The King of his special Grace for Redress of the Grievances of His People sustained by his Wars and for the Amendment of their Estate and to the intent that they may be the more ready to do him Service the more willing to assist and aid him in time of need Grants 28. E. 1. c. 1. And altho of later times Laws are said to be made by Authority of Parliament yet if we look into our antient Statutes we shall find the meaning to be that The King Ordains the Lords advise and the Commons consent Those then are much mistaken who affirm the Parliament to be at the least as Essential a Part of the Government as the Prince Which if it were true whenever the Parliament is dissolved the Government would be so too But this with the Pernicious Maxim of Coordinacy or sharing the Soveraign Power between King Lords and Commons with other treasonable and Antimonarchical Doctrines daily dispersed amongst the People and with the utmost of his Art industriously asserted by the Author of a late seditious Book entituled Plato Redivivus together with his audacious Proposals aiming to take all the Flowers out of the Imperial Diadem of the British Monarch are most fitly to be answered in Westminster-Hall as tending no less to the subversion of our Government which being purely Monarchical may be without the two Houses whereas they cannot be without the King than those traitorous Designs for which Coleman and his Accomplices paid their forfeited Lives to the Justice of the Laws The King of Great Britain is Lord Paramount supreme Landlord of all the Lands within his Dominions all landed men being mediately or immediately his Tenants by some Tenure or other By the Laws and Ordinances of ancient Kings saith Sir Edward Cook in the first part of his Institutes and especially of King Alfred it appeareth that the first Kings of this Realm had all the Lands of England in Demesne and the great Manors and Royalties they reserved to themselves and of the Remnant they for the Defence of the Realm enfeoffed the Barons of the Realm with such Jurisdiction as the Court Baron now hath The King as it is evident by the Rolls of the Chancellery in Scotland which contain their eldest and fundamental Laws is Dominus omnium bonorum and Dominus directus totius Dominii the whole Subjects being but his Vassals and from him holding all their Lands as their Over-lord Thus none but the King hath Allodium and Directum Dominium the sole and independent Property in any Land Upon this Ground no doubt it was that Serjeant Heal in the three and fortieth year of Queen Elizabeth said in Parliament He marvelled the House stood either at the granting of a Subsidy or time of Payment when all we have is her Majesties and She may lawfully at her pleasure take it from us and that She had as much Right to all our Lands and Goods as to any Revenue of the Crown And he said he could prove it by Precedents in the time of Henry the IIId King John and King Stephen And upon the same Ground was it resolved by the Judges in the beginning of the Reign of King James when there was a purpose to have taken away Tenures by Act of Parliament That such a Statute had been void because the Tenures were for the Defence of the King and Kingdom And altho since that the Tenures which gave a Dependency upon the Crown and were the greatest Safety to the King and People have been taken away and thereby a great Blow given to Monarchy yet let those who have the Fee the Jus perpetuum and the Vtile Dominium have a care lest by following the mischievous Advice of Plato Redivivus and abusing the Grace and Bounty of the Prince by endeavoring to draw the Soveraignty to themselves they necessitate not their King for the Preservation of himself and People to have Recourse to his Prerogative which is a Preheminence in Cases of Necessity above and before the Law of Property or Inheritance For the Prevention whereof it is to be wished that either by an Act of Resumption of the ancient Demesns of the Crown which was a sacred Patrimony and by Law unalienable or by such other way as the Wisdom of the Nation shall think fit a Royal Support adaequate to the Charges of the Crown be made for the King to defend his Kingdom and protect his People so that he may not be reduced to the Infelicity of having a precarious Revenue out of the Peoples Purse and to be beholden to a Parliament for his Bread in time of Peace which is no good Condition for a Monarchy As the Legislative Power is solely in the King so he alone has the Soveraign Power in the Administration of Justice and Execution of the Law He is the Fountain of all Justice which by his Judges and
Spiritual Function be from GOD alone yet their Baronies Dignity and Interest in the State and even that external Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction which they exercise and that legally in their own Names within his Majesties Dominions are from the Grace and Bounty of the Prince Defender of the Faith was as appears by a Charter of King Richard the IId to the University of Oxford anciently given to the Kings of England and therefore not so much conferred upon as confirmed unto King Henry the VIIIth by Pope Leo the Xth. for a Book written against Luther in Defence of some Points of the Roman Faith and since the ejection of that Religion continued in the Crown by Act of Parliament The Title of Grace since appropriated to Archbishops and Dukes was first given to the King about the Time of Henry the IVth as about the Time of Edward the IVth that of High and Mighty Prince since also given to Dukes To Henry the VIIIth was given first Highness since the Stile of all the Princes of the Blood then Majesty and now Most Excellent and Sacred Majesty The King of Great Britain in his publick Instruments and Letters uses as his Predecessors have ever done since the Time of King John Nos We in the Plural Number but before his Time Kings used the Singular Which Custom is still practiced in the Ends of Writs and Patents Teste meipso The Word Syr answering to the Latine Dominus and supposedly the same with Cyr an Abbreviation of the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which prefixt before the Christian Name is given only to Baronets Knights of the Bath and Knights Batchelors is the ordinary Appellation used in speaking to all persons of the better Rank from the King to the Gentleman tho in France the Word Syr or Syre is reserved only for the King as is with us Great Syr. Arms. Arms are Ensigns of Honor born in a Shield for Distinction of Families and descending as Hereditary to Posterity yet not generally fixt unless in the Kings of Europe in Great Britain or France till after the Time of the Holy War about four hundred years ago Our first Christian King and the first Christian King of the whole World Lucius bare Argent a Crosse Gules in the first Quarter a Crosse Patee Azure After the Desertion of this Island by the Romans King Vortigern bare Gules a Crosse Or. Aurelius Ambrosius bare Gules a Griffin Sergreant Or. Vter Pendragon bare Or two Dragons endorsed Vert crowned Gules King Arthur bare Vert a Crosse Argent on the first Quarter Our Lady with her Son in her Arms. Cadwalladar the last King of the Britains bare Azure a Crosse Patee on three parts and fitched on the fourth Or. The Soveraign Ensigns Armorial of the King of Great Britain since the Uniting of the two Crowns of England and Scotland are as followeth In the first place Azure three Flower-de-Lys Or for the Regal Arms of France quartered with the Imperial Ensigns of England which are Gules three Lyons Passant Guardant in pale Or in the second place Or within a double Tressure counter-flowered de Lys a Lyon Rampant Gules for the Royal Arms of Scotland In the third place Azure an Irish Harp Or stringed Argent for the Royal Ensigns of Ireland All within the Garter the chief Ensign of that most Honorable Order above the same an Helmet answerable to his Majesties Soveraign Jurisdiction upon the same a rich Mantle of Cloth of Gold doubled Ermin adorned with an Imperial Crown and surmounted for a Crest by a Lion Passant Gardant Crowned with the like Upon a Compartment placed underneath in the Table whereof is his Majesties Royal Motto Dieu mon Droet stand the Supporters being a Lion Rampant Gardant Or Crowned as the former and an Vnicorn Argent Gorged with a Crown having thereto a Chain affixt passing between his Fore-legs and reflext over his Back Or. The Arms of France are placed first because France is the greater Kingdom and also for that those Arms from their first Bearing have alwayes been the Ensign of a Kingdom whereas the Arms of England were originally of Dukedoms having been brought to England from Normandy and Aquitain by William the Conqueror and Henry the IId and probably likewise that the French might be thereby more easily induced to acknowledge the English Title The Motto Dieu mon Droit GOD and my Right first given by King Richard the Ist to intimate that he held not his Empire of any but of GOD alone was afterwards taken up by Edward the IIId when he first laid Claim to the Crown of France Dominions The Dominions of the King of Great Britain are at this day in possession the Islands of Great Britain and Ireland containing three Kingdoms of large Extent with all the other Isles lying in the British Sea being above four hundred in all great and small some whereof are very considerable together with all the adjacent Seas even to the Shores of the Neighboring Nations As a Mark whereof all Ships of Forreigners have anciently demanded leave to fish and pass in these Seas and do at this day lower their Topsails to all the Kings Ships of War And therefore Children born upon those Seas as it sometimes happens are esteemed natural born Subjects to the King of Great Britain and therefore need no Naturalization as do those that are born out of his Dominions He hath likewise in possession the Isles of Jersey Guernsey Alderney and Sark being Parcel of the ancient Dutchy of Normandy besides the profitable Plantations of New England Virginia Barbados Jamaica Maryland Bermudos Carolina New-York and other places in America with some in the East Indies and upon the Coast of Africa The Strength of the Monarch of Strength Great Britain since the Union of the two Kingdoms has never yet been fully tried the Parliaments of the two last Kings infected with the pestilential Principles of Presbyterianism and Democratism having upon all occasions proved refractory to their Designs and rather catching at all Opportunities of diminishing the Royal Prerogative and augmenting the falsly so called Liberty of the People being to speak truly only a Priviledge to Tyrannize more uncontrollably over their Fellow-Subjects than any wayes endeavoring to support and maintain the Grandeur and Glory of the King and Kingdom insomuch that there was invented a most unnatural Distinction of Subjects into Royalists and Patriots as if any man could shew himself a Lover of his Country by braving and opposing the Father of it whereas the Relation between King and Kingdom is so great that their Wel-being is reciprocal And tho for some time after his Majesties Return the Parliaments of all his three Kingdoms seemed to vy which of them should most readily comply with their Soveraigns Desires and Designs yet the Fanatical and Antimonarchical Faction who ever since his Majesties happy Restauration have been secretly blowing the Coals of Rebellion and by their sly and false
King And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige our selves our Heirs and our Posterities for ever And some years after it was by all the Judges of England expresly resolved in Calvins Case That King James his Title to the Crown was founded upon the Laws of Nature viz. by inherent Birth-right and Descent from the Blood-Royal of this Realm All Acts of Parliament then for excluding from the throne the next Heir of the Blood Royal on whom the Crown descends by the Laws of God and Nature by inherent Birthright and undoubted Succession being ipso facto null and void it is not to be wondred that his present Sacred Majesty so constantly declared that he would never consent to alter the Descent of the Crown in the right Line as not being willing by shewing his People a Method of disposing the Succession to shake at the same time the Title of his own Possession Since it is evident that the Heir apparent or next of Blood hath the same Right to enjoy the Crown after his Predecessors Death as the Actual Possessor hath to it during his Life and consequently that the People have no more Right to disinherit the one than to depose the other Nor can any man be blamed for apprehending that some such thing might be aimed at by the first Projectors of the Bill for excluding his Royal Highness from the Succession if it shall be considered that the chief Sticklers for that Bill insisted on the Deposition of Edward the IId contrived by a leacherous Queen and disloyal Parliament and that of Richard the IId who was for pretended Misgovernment removed from the Throne by a Parliament over-awed by an Army of fourty or fifty thousand men and Henry the IVth substituted in his stead that during the Heat of these debates the Answer to the Great and Weighty Considerations wherein besides many other treasonable Passages the Author has these express words I hope there are very few in this Nation that do not think it in the Power of the People to depose a Prince who really undertakes to alienate his Kingdom or give it up into the hands of another Soveraign Power or really acts the Destruction or general Calamity of his People was publickly sold before the very Doors of Parliament and that the same House of Commons which was with so much eagerness hurried on to the passing of that Bill was also prevailed upon to importune his Majesty in behalf of the publisher of that pernicious Appeal from the Country to the City which by affirming that No Government but Monarchy can in England ever support or favor Popery endeavors not only to destroy the King but even Kingship it self But well fare the noble Lords of England who with a Nolumus Leges Angliae mutari rejected that abominable Bill which tho it would if passed into an Act have been of no greater Force or Validity than the Wild Ordinances of the Rebellious Parliament of 1640. yet might it as they were be made use of to induce the deluded Multitude to hazard their Souls Bodies and Estates by a damnable Opposition of their Lawful Soveraign and to raise up a Contest in this Nation not unlike to the old Yorkish and Lancastrian Quarrel the Thoughts whereof every good man must certainly dread when he shall seriously consider how that War lasted about sixty years and cost the Kingdom its whole Treasure and the Lives of above two hundred thousand of the Commons besides several Kings and Princes and Nobles without number So sensible was the renowned Queen Elizabeth of those fatal Consequences which necessarily attend so unjust an Act as that of altering the Succession that altho for Reasons obvious enough and needless here to be mentioned she yeilded to pass an Act whereby it was made Treason to say that she and her Parliament could not dispose of the Crown yet could she never be brought to give her Consent to the actual disposing thereof tho the next Heir then alive was not only a Papist but her own Rival to the Throne Nay she was so averse to any such Act that as Camden tells us She never heard any thing more unwillingly than that the Title of Succession should be called into question And therefore she sent Mr. Thornton Reader of Law in Lincolns-Inn to the Tower because in his Reading he called in question the Queen of Scots Title to the Crown And when the Lord Keeper Bacon was accused by the Earl of Leicester for having intermedled against the Queen of Scots Right to the Succession and for being privy to a Book wherein Hales went about to derive the Title of the Crown of England in case the Queen should die without Issue to the House of Suffolk Hales was therefore committed to the Tower and Bacon tho denying it was not without great difficulty restored to favor So likewise when in the eighth year of her Reign Bell Mounson and a great Number of the House of Commons thought it their Right as Representatives of the whole Kingdom whereof they do not in reality represent the sixth part to decide settle the Succession the Queen by a Prince-like Speech in the Parliament-House speedily suppressed their Insolence In like manner when in the thirty fifth year of her Reign Mr. Peter Wentworth and Sir Henry Bromley delivered a Petition to the Lord Keeper desiring the Lords of the Upper House to be Suppliants with them of the Lower to Her Majesty for entailing the Succession of the Crown for which they had a Bill ready drawn the Queen highly displeased hereat charged her Councel to call the Parties before them Whereupon Sir Thomas Henage sending for them commanded them to forbear the Parliament and not to go out of their several Lodgings They were after called before the Lord Treasurer Lord Buckhurst and Sir Thomas Henage by whom Wentworth was committed to the Tower Sir Henry Bromley and other Members of the House of Commons to whom he had imparted the matter being sent to the Fleet. So careful was this prudent Queen to keep the People from presuming to intermeddle with the Succession The same Consideration that the Altering or Diverting the Succession in an hereditary Monarchy where the Kings deriving their Royal Power from GOD Almighty alone do succeed lineally to the Crown according to the known Degrees of Proximity in Blood cannot be attempted without involving the Subjects in Perjury and Rebellion and exposing of them to all the Fatal and Dreadful Consequences of a Civil War not only caused the Estates of Scotland in their very last Sessions of Parliament from an hearty and sincere Sence of their Duty to recognize acknowledge and declare That the Right to the Imperial Crown of that Realm is by the Inherent Right and the Nature of the Monarchy as well as by the Fundamental and unalterable Laws of the Realm transmitted and devolved by a Lineal Succession according to the Proximity of Blood And that upon the Death of the
BRITANNIAE SPECULUM OR A Short View OF THE Ancient and Modern State OF Great Britain And the adjacent Isles and of all other the Dominions and Territories now in the actual possession of His present Sacred MAJESTY King CHARLES II. Treating of Britain in General LONDON Printed by Thomas Milbourn for Christopher Hussey at the Flower-de-Luce in Little Britain M.CD.LXXXIII THE PREFACE THis little Treatise is but the first Part of an intended larger Work the Design whereof as appears in the Title-Page is to exhibit as in a Mirror a view of the ancient and modern State not only of this our Island of GREAT BRITAIN but also of Ireland and all other His MAJESTIES Dominions and Territories not by writing a continued Chronicle or History of all the Kings or Princes reigning successively in them but only by giving an Account of such signal Mutations as made any considerable Change in the Administration of the Government either in Church or State In this part which treats of Britain in general after a short Description of the Island and a brief Account of the ancient Inhabitants thereof from whom not only our present Cambro-Britains but those also of Armorica or little Britain in France are descended is inserted a Discourse which tho it may seem a Digression is neither long nor impertinent touching the Original and Excellency of Monarchical Government to which and none other this our Island has been so fortunate as to have been Subjected from its very first being inhabited to this very Day Hereunto I was forced by the audacious Scribles of certain profligate Wretches who that they may the easilier instigate the Vulgar to a contempt of the Sacred Authority of their Prince and thereby make way for the overturning of this famous Monarchy and the introducing of Popular Tyranny in its place endeavour to debase Monarchy it self affirming the most High and Sacred Order of Kings which is the Ordinance of GOD himself founded in the prime Laws of Nature and clearly established by express Texts both of the Old and New Testaments to be a meer human Creature taking its Original from the Consent of the People by whom Soveraignty is conveyed unto Kings in trust only and by Communication and consequently that the People may whensoever they please resume this Power and call their Trustees to an account These are the pernicious Maxims which so lately intoxicated the three Kingdoms and are now again for the like purpose taken up by our present Republicans and daily disperst by the scurrilous Pamphleteers of these times one of which who insolently presumes to dedicate his treasonable Libels to a most Noble and Loyal Peer falls foul upon the Learned Sr. Robert Filmer for deriving the Regal Authority from the paternal instituted by GOD himself tho this verity be not only expresly delivered in the Holy Scriptures which declare that the first Government in the World was Monarchical in the Father of all Flesh but was by the very glimmerings of Natural Reason discovered by Aristotle who speaking of the Original of Monarchy saith The first Society made of many Houses is a Village which seems most agreeable to nature as being a Colony of Families which some call Foster-brethren or Children and Childrens Children Therefore at first Cities were and now also Nations are Governed by Kings because such came together as were under Kingly Government For the eldest in every House is King and so for Kindred sake it is in Colonies that is in more Families which are descended from the same House whence Homer saith Every man gives Laws to his Wives and Children Hence it is by all ancient Writers acknowledged that the first Commonweals were governed by Monarchs nor indeed was there any other Government known in the World for above three thousand years till some ambitious Fellows among the giddy Grecians a People alwayes delighted in Novelties rebelled against their Soveraigns and usurped their Authority as was lately here done by the Rump-Parliament and is now again aimed at by the Factors for the Good-Old-Cause The better to excite my fellow Subjects to a dutiful Submission to our common Father the King I have reminded them that all those Rights and Priviledges to the Preservation whereof tho neither infringed nor in danger of being so the popular Demagogues pretend to call them forth when their real design is utterly to destroy and take away both the Regal Prerogative and the Peoples Liberties are originally the Concessions of their Princes and therefore that as it is the height of Ingratitude to employ the Favours of their Soveraign to the disturbance of his Government so it is an excess of Folly to think to secure their Liberties by the pulling down or weakning that Authority which as it first gave them so is alone capable to protect and maintain them This tho it may seem strange to those that have their Heads filled with the Chimerical Conceits of the natural Freedom and Equality of Mankind and the first founding of Government by the Multitude upon such Terms and Conditions as to their Wisdoms seemed fit is yet clearly manifest from the Histories and Records of all Ages and Nations and particularly of this Kingdom of England of which it was well observed by the late Lord Keeper Bridgman then Lord chief Baron at the Tryal of the Regicides It is true we have as great Liberties as any People have in Christendom in the World but let us own them where they are due We have them by the Concessions of our Princes Our Princes have granted them and the King now He in them hath granted them likewise After this Account of the Original and Excellency of Monarchy to which Government alone I briefly shew that this Island has been alwayes subjected I proceed to the Conquest thereof by the Romans and thence to such other Mutations as hapned therein unto the time of Cadwalladar who in the Year 689 quitting his Kingdom of which the Saxons had gotten the best part a Period was put to the British Monarchy the very Name of King of Britain not being so much as heard of till the happy Vnion of the Kingdoms of England and Scotland by the Succession of His Majesties Grandfather King James of famous Memory to the Crown of England whose Genealogy from Cadwalladar I have here set down clearly demonstrating his present Sacred Majesty to be the true and undoubted Heir of the said British King as he is also of the Saxon Norman and Scotish Kings and consequently to have a clearer Right to this Monarchy than any private man can pretend to his Estate After this Relation of such Mutations as concern Britain in general I give a general Account of the present Government of this Island And here according to my Duty and the Oath of Supremacy which declaring the King to be the only Supreme Governour admits neither Equal nor Superior I assert the Soveraignty of our Lord the King and shew that there is not in our nor can
of Nature than to describe the Plenty of an Island It hath indeed such a constant continuance of all sorts of necessary Food that the Famin which so often ravages other Countreys has scarce been felt here these four hundred years The usual and natural drink of the People is Beer Ale Syder Perry and in some places Metheglin or Mede As this Island affords its Inhabitants all necessary Food for the support of their Life so it yields them plenty of Rayment for their defence against the Injuries of the Weather For it produceth especially in the South part called England not only very fine Wooll making excellently lasting and well-conditioned Cloth but also such great abundance thereof as serves not only for the Cloathing of all sorts of People from the highest to the lowest but being manufactured into Cloth and Stuffs is dispersed all over the World but especially into High-Germany Muscovia Turky and Persia to the great benefit of its Inhabitants And as it thus abounds with Wool so hath it Linen made therein inferiour to none for its Goodness nor would it need supply thereof from elsewhere for any use whatever were the people but so industrious as they might be in sowing Flax and Hemp for the producing whereof they want not fitting Ground tho there be at present through their Sloth in neglecting to improve it much Linen imported to the shame and damage of the Nation The Abundance of Cattel here slain furnishes the People with great store of excellent Leather for all sorts of Uses insomuch that the poorest of them were good Leathern Shooes whereas in the neighboring Countries they either wear Wooden Shooes or none at all For building it wants not any requisite Materials being well stored with Timber Iron Brick Tiles Slate Lime Lead Glass and Stone of which our fine Portland Stone is not much inferior to Marble For fewel there is either Wood Sea-Coal or Pit-Coal almost everywhere to be had at reasonable rates and where this is wanting they burn Turfs or Peats For Shipping there is no where better Oak no where such Knee-timber as the Shipwrights call it or Iron to make serviceable Guns For War Journeys and Hunting for Plow Cart and Carriages there is such abundant plenty of Horses that Asses and Mules so frequently made use of in France Italy and Spain are here utterly despised Dogs it hath of all sorts sizes and uses amongst which the English Mastiff deservedly has the first Place from all others in the World a Dog bold and stout as a Lyon and yet when well bred gentle and manageable as a Lamb and therefore of singular use for the Defence of Families against the Attempts of Thieves and House-breakers It produceth likewise besides a mighty quantity of Tynn Lead and Iron some Brass and Copper and hath also Quicksilver Antimony Sulphur Black-Lead Orpiment red and yellow Allom Salt Hops Saffron Liquoris and divers other beneficial Commodities and has several Silver-Mines richer than those of Potosi in the West-Indies whence the King of Spain has most of his Silver those yielding usually but an Ounce and an half of Silver in an hundred Ounces of Oar and these ordinarily six or eight Ounces per Cent. But these Mines lying deep are hard to come unto which in Potosi is otherwise And as if all this were not sufficient it yieldeth Physick likewise to the Inhabitants having in it Hot Baths for the ease of Maims Bruises inward Aches and Paines and abounding in Medicinal Springs And altho there be not much Wine made here at present yet if we shall consider that Vineyards were heretofore common in most of the Southern and middle parts of England we shall easily be induced to attribute this Defect if it be any to the better improvement of our Ground and the cheap and easy Importation of that and other forreign Commodities the Advantages it hath from all parts of the World to take in Trade and Merchandize being so great as abundantly verifies that of the Old Poet Quicquid amat Luxus quicquid desiderat Vsus Ex te proveniet vel aliunde tibi In a word tho this Island is by some Countries in some things excelled yet if we consider the Salubrity of the Air free in a manner from violent Thunder and Lightning unwholsom Serenes and tempestuous Hurricanes and well-stored with Birds and Fowls the Fertility of the Soil rarely subjected to Droughts Inundations or destructive Earthquakes the Fields being laden with Corn the Pastures stockt with Cattel the Forrests Parks of which in England alone there are more than in all Europe besides Warrens and Woods stored with wild Beasts only for Recreation and Food the Amoenity and Utility of its Seas Rivers and Ponds covered with Ships and Boats and abounding with all sorts of Fish its Plenty of Metals and Minerals the strength of its Situation being so walled and guarded with the Ocean so well furnished with excellent Shipping and Sailors and so abounding with commodious Ports and Havens that it is rightly termed The Lady of the Sea we may well be permitted to affirm that for necessary Food and Raiment for pleasant and wholsom Living for Safety and Security it is hardly to be equalled by any Kingdom in the World and needs not fear the Force of any Neighboring Nation but that which over-powering us at Sea shall thereby deprive us of our strongest Bulwark and of an Island make us a Continent Not without reason therefore did an Antient Writer thus cry out Britain Thou art a glorious Isle extolled and renowned among all Nations the Navies of Tharsis cannot be compared with thy Shipping bringing in all precious Commodities of the World The Sea is thy Wall and strong Fortifications do secure thy Ports Chivalry Clergy and Merchandize do flourish in thee The Pisans Genoveses and Venetians do bring thee Saphires and Carbuncles from the East Asia serveth thee with Silk and Purple Africa with Cinamon and Balm Spain with Gold and Germany with Silver Thy Weaver Flanders doth drape Cloth for thee of thine own Wool Cascoign then under the Crown of England Thy Gascoign doth send thee Wine Buck and Doe are plentiful in thy Forests Droves of Cattle and Flocks of Sheep are upon thy Hills All the Perfection of the goodliest Land is in thee Thou hast all the Fowl of the Air. In plenty of Fish thou dost surpass all Regions And albeit thou art not stretched out with large Limits yet bordering Nations cloathed with thy Fleeces do wonder at thee for thy blessed Plenty Thy Swords have been turned into Plow-shares Peace and Religion flourisheth in thee so that thou art a Mirror to all Christian Kingdoms CHAP. III. Of the Inhabitants Of the Laws Religion Manners and Punishments of the Antient Britains Of their Language Stature Diet Attire Recreation Traffick Shipping Coins and Buildings Of their Arms and manner of Fighting Of their Computation of Time BRITAIN being a Country Inhabitants so rich in Commodities so beautiful
reach up to Heaven But to shew how vain all humane Designments are which think to contest with the Dispensations of Divine Providence the Almighty sent amongst them a Confusion of Tongues and dispersed those who were congregated into one place over the Face of the whole Earth By this Dispersion there were according to the generally-received Opinion seventy two distinct Nations erected all which were not confused Multitudes left at Liberty to choose what Governors or Government they listed but so careful was GOD even in that Confusion to preserve the Paternal and Monarchical Authority that he distributed the Diversity of Languages according to the Diversity of Families having Fathers for Rulers over them This appears plainly in the sacred Text where after the Enumeration of the Sons and Grandsons of Japheth immediately follow these Words By these were the Isles of the Gentiles divided in their Lands every one after his Tongue after their Families in their Nations So again of the Children of Ham it is said These are the Sons of Ham after their Families after their Tongues in their Countreys and in their Nations And again of the Children of Shem These are the Sons of Shem after their Families after their Tongues in their Lands after their Nations The Conclusion of the whole being thus These are the Families of the Sons of Noah after their Generations in their Nations and by these were the Nations divided in the Earth after the Flood However therefore the Manner used by Noah in the Distribution of the Earth amongst his Posterity be uncertain yet most certain it is that the Division it self was by Families from Noah and his Children over which the Fathers were Rulers enjoying as absolute an Authority and Dominion as ever any Monarch since the Creation pretended to Agreeably to this Account of the Original of Monarchy delivered in in holy Scripture doth Plato in his third Book of Laws affirm that the true and first Reason of Authority is that the Father and Mother and simply those that beget and ingender do command and rule over all their Children Groundless therefore is that Distinction which some men make of Monarchy into Despotical and Paternal since no Master has Right to exact a more absolute and unlimited Obedience from his Slave than is due from the Child to the Father Of the Absoluteness of this Paternal Jurisdiction Examples are frequent in Holy Writ Thus we find that Abraham commanded an Army of three hundred and eighteen Souldiers of his own Family and that Esau met his Brother Jacob with four hundred Men at Arms. Thus Abraham concluded a Peace with Abimelech and ratified the Articles by Oath Thus Judah sentenced Thamar his Daughter-in-Law to be burnt for playing the Harlot Which three Acts of making War concluding Peace and giving Judgment of Life or Death are the chief marks of Soveraignty that can be found in any Monarch As the Original therefore of Monarchy was of Divine Institution so its Power was uncontrollable nor can it be otherwise without the Destruction of the Government it self Rightly then whatever Milton in his Justification of the blackest Treason that ever Eye beheld sayes to the contrary is a King defined by Salmasius He who has the Supreme Power in the Kingdom accountable to none but GOD who may do what he pleases and is free from the Laws Ridiculous then if not Malicious are the clamors of those who daily fill the World with Outcries against Arbitrary Power For there never was nor ever can be any People governed without a Power of Legislation which Power must of necessity be Arbitrary and is an inseparable Concomitant of the Supreme Governor or Governors and must therefore in a Monarchy reside in one The Question then is not whether there shall be an Arbitrary Power without which not any Government can one Moment subsist but who shall have this Arbitrary Power whether one man or many that is in effect whether the Government shall be Monarchical or not Nay it has been seen that those very Persons who clamored so much and with so little reason against an Arbitrary Power in their Prince have themselves exercised the Height of Arbitrary Power over their fellow Subjects punishing them by Imprisonment and other Penalties not for the Breach of any known and certain Laws but of unknown and uncertain Priviledges and ascending to that Excess of Insolence as even against all Law Reason and Equity to declare it Criminal for any one to lend Money to his King It is an antient Tradition which has every where obtained Reputation that Noah as Lord of all was Author of the Distribution of the World and of private Dominion and that by the appointment of GOD himself he confirmed this Distribution by his last Will and Testament left at his Death in the Hands of his Eldest Son Shem by which he warned all his Sons that none of them should invade any of their Brothers Dominions because Discord and Civil War would thence necessarily follow Thus we find that in all Nations the Princes were at first Lords of the whole Lands as well as of the whole Inhabitants amongst whom they divided such part thereof to be held by such Tenures and Services as they judged most convenient Instead then of Empires being founded in Property as some men love to speak the Natural dominion of the Prince was the Original of all Propriety Monarchs at first governed by no stated Rule or Law but by immediate Edicts or commands of their own Wills as they in their own Judgments thought fit But when Kings came to be so busied with Wars and distracted with publick Cares that private persons could not have access to them to learn their Pleasure upon every occasion then did they both for the Ease of themselves and their people set down Laws by which they would ordinarily govern reserving to themselves nevertheless Liberty to vary from them as oft as they in their Discretion should think fit Afterwards Princes graciously condescended to call to their Councels several of the Chief men of their Kingdoms and in time to admit likewise of Deputies from their People without whose Advice and Consent they would neither make new nor abrogate old Laws Thus all those Rights and Priviledges which licentious people make their pretence of contesting with their Soveraigns had no other Original but the Gracious Concessions of Princes which tho they are so far bound to keep as that when in a setled Kingdom the Prince leaves to govern according to Law he is guilty of very great Injustice yet where he sees the Laws rigorous or doubtful he may to the Peoples great Happiness lest otherwise Summum jus should prove Summa injuria mitigate and interpret them And whenever any powerful Faction shall by making ill use of the Grace and Bounty of the Prince endanger the Subversion of his Government the Safety of the People whom GOD has committed to his Care being the Law-paramount over all others obliges him
agree As for Peace it is well known that no people ever enjoyed it without Monarchy The Lacedaemonians preserved themselves by warring and when they had gotten the Empire were presently undone for they could not live at rest knowing no better Exercise than that of War And whereas the main Preservatives of Peace are the Durability and Order of the Government if we examine the most flourishing Democracy that ever was in the World viz. that of Rome we shall find that the Duration thereof from the expulsion of Tarquin to Julius Caesar was but four hundred and eighty years whereas both the Assyrian Monarchy lasted without interruption at least twelve hundred and the Empire of the East fourteen hundred ninety five And from Order they were so far that during these four hundred and eighty years there was not any setled Form of Government in Rome for having once lost the Natural Power of Kings they could not find whereon to rest They first chose out of the Senators annual Consuls who had during the short Time of their Government full Regal Power About sixteen years after the first Creation of Consuls the Commons by Sedition prevailed and chose among themselves Tribunes of the People to preserve their Liberty About fourty years after they left Tribunes and Consuls and chose ten Men to make them Laws These after three years they displaced and set up Tribunes and Consuls again Not long after they demanded that one of the Consuls might be chosen out of the Commonalty which after a Dispute of threescore and eighteen years they carried by the stubbornness of the Tribunes who for five years together hindring the Election of the greater Magistrates forced the Nobles to yeild to their Request lest an Anarchy should destroy them all Sometimes they chose Dictators who were Temporary Kings sometimes Military Tribunes with Consulary Power One while the Senate made Laws another while the People In fine such and so frequent were their Alterations in Government that the best Historians are not able to find any perfect Form of Regiment in so much Confusion And if the Government of Rome may be said to have been for some time popular yet it was so to the City of Rome alone all the rest of the Dominions being shared into Provinces over which their Proconsuls Propraetors and Legates exercised Regal Authority so impossible it is to govern a Kingdom much more many Kingdoms by the whole or greatest part of the People And tho Rome in the time of her Popularity bred many admired Commanders several of which were but very ill requited by the People by whose Conduct she gained such Victories abroad as amazed the World yet even then did the Tragical Slaughter of her Citizens at home deserve Commiseration from her vanquished Enemies Nor were all of them able to support her in times of danger but in her greatest Troubles she was forced to create a Dictator whose Authority was absolute and unappealable testifying thereby that the last Refuge in Perils of State is to have recourse to Regal Authority And whatever may be pretended to be the Inconveniences of Monarchy yet cannot it be denied but that they are all outweighed by the Sedition which necessarily attends Popularity There not having been a quarter of the Blood shed in Rome by the Cruelty of all her Tyrannical Emperors as was by Seditions in the last hundred years of her glorious Common-wealth when the Blood was suckt up in the Market-places with Spunges the Current of the River Tyber stopt with the slaughtered Bodies of Citizens and the Common Privies stuffed full of them For the Cruelty of Tyrants rarely extends any farther than to some particular persons that offend them so that a King can never be so notoriously vitious but he will generally favour Justice and maintain Order except in the particulars where he is swayed by his inordinate Passion For the Multitude of People and the abundance of their Riches whose Bodies do him service in War and whose Goods supply his present Wants being the only Strength and Glory of every Prince Natural Love to himself if not Affection to his People will make him desirous to preserve the Lives and protect the Goods of his Subjects which as it cannot be done without Justice so if it be not done the Princes Loss is thereby the greatest But in a popular State every man knowing that the Publick Good does not depend wholly upon his Care they all mind chiefly their private Benefit none taking the Publick to be his own Business whence it follows that every man as it is said of Israel when they had no King does that which is right in his own Eyes And this is the Original of that unnatural State of War which some are pleased to miscal the Natural Liberty of Mankind where every man pretending a Right to every thing there is none that can have the least Security of any thing he enjoyes nor yet of his very Life since he may be deprived thereof by any one that shall prove stronger than hinself The Island of Great Britain has alwayes had that happiness Britain alwayes Governed by Monarchs as never to be subject to any other Government but the Monarchical Not that the whole Island was always under the Command of one Monarch which as some say it never was till since the Uniting of the Crowns of England and Scotland by King James there being at Caesars Arrival here no fewer than four Kings found in Kent alone But that these were so many Soveraign Princes reigning absolutely over their own small Dominions who at the Invasion of the Romans joyned together in a Confederacy for their mutual Defence of which they made by common Consent Cassibelan their Head The Words of Caesar are Summa imperii bellique administrandi communi consilio permissa est Cassivellauno from whence some would infer that the Britains had no King in time of Peace but that Cassibelan was by Consent of a great Common Councel chosen King and General against his Landing Contracting herein Caesar himself who not only affirms that there were four Kings within the County of Kent whose Names he likewise gives us but also describes Cassibelans Territory to have been bounded by the River Thames which divided it from the Maritime Provinces and to have extended eighty Miles from the Sea telling us withal that whereas before his Arrival Cassibelan was in continual Wars with the Neighbouring States the British Princes in this common danger of forreign Invasion united in a defensive League and unanimously chose him for their Leader Nor was Britain brought under the Power of the Romans till that the Popular State of Rome being after manifold Alterations ruined by its own Strength Civil Contentions had at last resetled the Government into a Monarchy And altho the Invasions of Forreigners the ill Conduct of our Kings the Ambition of the Princes of the Blood the Faction of the Nobility and the Sedition of the Vulgar have
sometimes caused Disturbance in the State yet never was there any Attempt to abolish Monarchical Government in this Island till such time as a certain hot-headed Frenchman having invented a new fangled Ecclesiastical Government agreeing said King James with Monarchy as GOD with the Devil which by animating the People to Rebellion against and Expulsion of their Lawful Prince he introduced into Geneva his Fanatical Disciples here in Great Britain laboring to establish their Diana of the Presbyterian Discipline and combining with certain Gentlemen who by reading the Books of such ancient Historians as living under Popular States decried Regal Authority by the Name of Tyranny and extolled the Popular by the Name of Liberty tho never any Tyrant was half so cruel as a Popular State had imbibed Democratical Principles raised a formidable Rebellion against the Father of his present Sacred Majesty who being by the Presbyterians outed of all his Regal Prerogatives made a private man and a Prisoner and charged with the Guilt of all the Blood shed in the Rebellion was by their younger Brethren the Independents consequently thereunto under a pretended Form of Justice barbarously beheaded on a Scaffold erected for that purpose before the Gates of his own Royal Palace Giving occasion to that no less true than witty Saying That the Independents murthered Charles Stuart but the Presbyterians killed the King But tho after this horrid Murther of the best of Kings all the Artâ— that the Malice of Men or Devilâ— could imagin was made use of tâ— change this Kingdom into a Common-Wealth yet so naturally are the People of this Island inclined to submiâ— to nothing but Monarchy that theâ— could find no settlement having in thâ— space of twelve years tried no fewer than five several sorts of Regiment till the universal Genius of the Isle by mighty tho invisible Influence concurred to recall their exil'd Soveraign and reestablish their ancient Government CHAP. V. Of the Discovery Invasion and Conquest of Britain by the Romans ABout the Year of the World 3913 Discovery and fifty three years before the Birth of CHRIST the Britains having notice that Julius Caesar the Roman General in Gallia displeased with them for having assisted the rebellious Gauls intended to invade their Country and fearing the Consequence of his Ambition and usual Success to avert his Design sent Ambassadours to him with promise of Hostages and Obedience to the Roman Empire These after Audience given he sent back promising them fair and exhorting them to continue firm in these Resolutions and with them his Confident Comius on whom he had bestowed the Kingdom of Arras to signifie to them his Intentions of coming speedily over in person giving him private Instructions to manage his Interest secretly with the Princes and States of Britain and to gain a Roman Party in the Island Gaesar in the mean time having sent Caius Volusenus to spy out the Coasts drew down his Forces into the Countrey of the Morini about Bulloign from whence was the shortest Passage into Britain Here he commands a general Rendezvouz of all his Naval Forces summoning from all parts his Shipping Volusenus after five dayes Sail being returned with such small Discoveries as not daring to land for fear of the Britains he had been able to make from abord his Ship Caesar who had with him two Legions ordirily amounting to five and twenty thousand Foot and four thousand five hundred Horse of Romans and their Allies having embarkt the Foot in eighty Ships of Burthen besides the Gallies distributed amongst the Commanders and commanding the Horse whom he sent eight Miles upward to another Haven where eighteen Ships appointed for them lay wind-bound to follow him with speed about the third Watch of the Night with a good Gale set off for Britain In sight whereof coming by Ten in the Morning and finding that Place which was a narrow Bay close environed with Hills upon every one whereof he beheld Multitudes of armed men no way commodious for Landing having called a Councel of War to whom he imparted the Discoveries made by Volusenus and gave necessary Orders his whole Fleet being now come up about three in the Afternoon he weighed Anchor and with a favourable Wind and Tide removed eight Miles thence to a plain and open Shore commonly supposed to be about Deal in Kent The Britains who watched his Motions sending their Horse and Chariots before their Infantry speeding after undauntedly assaulted the Romans under their very Ships and gave them so smart a Welcome that Caesar himself tho endeavoring by all means to excuse it could not yet deny but that the resolute Opposition of the Britains made his Souldiers forget their wonted Valour By the help nevertheless of his Gallies which as more apt for Motion he commanded to row up against the open side of the Enemy the unusual strangeness whereof together with the Ratling of their Oars and the fierce Battery of the Engines set up in them made the amazed Britains stand a little at a Bay and by the great Courage of the Standard-bearer of the tenth Legion who seeing that the Romans fearing the Depth of the Sea or more probably the Readvancement of the Enemy durst not quit their Ships having first invocated the Gods leapt over board and with his Eagle advanced marched boldly against the Britains the Foot were with much difficulty disembarkt and the wearied Islanders after a sharp dispute forced to retire whom Caesar for want of his Horse that were yet kept back by the wind was not able to pursue The Britains finding themselves over-mastered had now made their Peace sent in some Hostages and promised more and several of their Princes had submitted themselves and States to Caesar lying encamped as 't is thought upon Barham-Down when an unlookt-for Accident put them uppon new Counsels For the eighteen Ships which had been left behind to transport the Roman Horse being four dayes after Caesars Arrival come within sight of the Camp were by a sudden Tempest dispersed and that Night most of them lost Their Gallies also which had been haled ashore being the same Night covered with a Spring-tide and their Ships that lay off at Anchor sorely shattered This the British Princes perceiving and from the Compass of their Camp which without Baggage was the smaller guessing at the Number of the Roman Forces consulted together and secretly one by one withdrawing from the Camp resolved to stop all Provisions and to protract the Business unto Winter judging that if they could now destroy their Enemies or intercept their Return none would ever after dare to invade them Caesar from his own Condition and the Britains neglecting to send their Hostages suspecting what was like to happen got up what Corn he could and with Materials fetcht from the Continent and the Remains of such Ships as were quite spoiled repaired the rest so that by the indefatigable Industry of his Souldiers all of them but twelve were in a short time made
other inferior Officers as so many Crystal Pipes he conveyeth to his People We will saith Edward the I st in his Book of Laws written at his appointment by John Briton Bishop of Hereford that our own Jurisdiction be above all Jurisdictions in our Realm so that in all manner of Felonies Trespasses Contracts and all other Actions Personal or Real We have Power to render or cause to be rendred such Judgments as do appertain without other Process whereever we know the right Truth as Judges All Jurisdiction say the Scotch Laws stands and consists in the Kings person by reason of his Royal Authority and Crown and is competent to no Subject but flows and proceeds from the King having Supreme Jurisdiction and is given and committed by him to his Subjects as he pleases The King then is the sole Supreme Judge all other Judges being his Deputies to whom whatsoever Power is by him committed yet is the last Appeal alwayes to be made to himself who may therefore as his Predecessors formerly have done sit in any Court and take Cognizance of any Cause but in Treasons Felonies c. the King being Plaintif sits not personally in Judgment but doth perform it by his Delegates From the King of Great Britain who being the only Supreme Head is furnished with Plenary Power and Jurisdiction to render Justice to every Member within his Dominions there lies no Appeal in Ecclesiastical Causes to the Bishop of Rome whose Authority ever since the Reformation has been here wholly abrogated nor in Civil Matters to the Emperor who for above twelve hundred years has not had the least Shadow of Pretence to any Jurisdiction within this Island nor in either to the people who both in themselves and by their Representatives in Parliament as well Conjunctim as Divisim are his Subjects and ow Obedience to his Commands To Legislation and Judicature which are solely and supremely in the King is necessary the Power of the Sword without which all other Power is nothing for forcing Obedience to the Laws and Judgments given both in Criminal and Civil Causes This having in virtue of their Soveraignty been alwayes indisputably enjoyed by the Monarchs of this Nation till the time of the late Rebellion was since his Majesties Restauration by a Parliament as truly zealous for the happiness of their King and Country as ever this Nation saw in proper and express Terms declared to be the Right of the King only without either of his Houses of Parliament the contrary Position thereunto asserted by the rebellious Members of the Parliament of 1640. having been the chief Means of overturning our Government and bringing Confusion and Misery upon this flourishing Kingdom Divinity So great was the Veneration shewn to the ancient Christian Emperors by their Subjects that they gave them tho imperfectly only and Analogically the Titles of Your Everlastingness Your Divinity and the like belonging essentially and perfectly to GOD alone Who to shew the great Power by him given to Soveraign Princes and to beget in the Hearts of their People an higher Esteem and more reverend Awfulness of them which failing all Confusion Impiety and Calamity break in upon a Nation is himself pleased as is manifest in Holy Writ to bestow upon them the Title of Gods as being his Vicegerents and representing his Majesty and Power upon Earth Nay so excessive was the Respect of the good Christians of those times that they were wont to swear by the Majesty of their Emperor as Joseph sometimes did by the Life of Pharaoh And this Custom seems to be justified by Vegetus a learned Writer of that Age being practiced only to create in the Subjects a greater Reverence for these Earthly Deities In like manner the Laws and Constitutions of this Monarchy attribute to the King whom they regard as GOD upon Earth divers Excellencies which belong properly to none but GOD. Thus as GOD is perfect so the Law will have no Imperfection found in the King No Negligence no Folly no Infamy or Corruption of Blood all former Attainders tho even made by Act of Parliament being ipso facto purged by the Accession of the Crown To the King is attributed Infallibility and Justice in the Abstract The King cannot erre The King can do no wrong To the King is likewise ascribed a Kind of Immortality The King never dies as being a Corporation in himself that lives for ever For all Interregna being unknown in these Kingdoms the same Moment that one King dies the next Heir is fully and absolutely King without any Coronation Ceremony or Act to be done The King is also in some sort said to be Omnipresent He is in a manner every where in all his Courts of Justice in all his Palaces Therefore it is that all his Subjects stand bare in the Presence Chamber wheresoever the Chair of State is placed tho the King be many Miles distance from thence He hath also a kind of Universal Influence over all his Dominions His Fatherly Care is extended to preserve feed instruct and defend the whole Commonweal His War His Peace His Courts of Justice and all His Acts of Soveraignty tend only to preserve and distribute to every person within his Territories their particular Rights and Priviledges By his Power of creating to the highest Dignity and annihilating the same at pleasure and much more by his Prerogative of pardoning those whom the Law has condemned he is invested with a kind of Omnipotency whereby he can restore to life those that are dead in Law And this Power of pardoning condemned Criminals is of such Benefit to the Lives and Estates of the People that without it many would be exposed to die unjustly The King alone in his own Dominions can say with GOD whose Representative he is Vengeance is Mine For all Punishments proceed from him in some of his Courts of Justice it not being lawful for any Subject to avenge himself The King alone is Judge in his own Cause tho he delivers his Judgment by the Mouth of his Judges But in nothing doth the King more resemble the eternal Deity than in the Plenitude of his Power to do what he pleases without being opposed resisted or questioned by his Subjects Nemo quidem saith Bracton de factis ejus praesumat disputare multo minus contra factum ejus ire Let none presume to search into his deeds much less to oppose them Nor is this a Priviledge belonging only to the King of Great Britain but a Prerogative inherent in every Soveraign Prince by vertue of his Soveraignty Where the word of a King is there is Power and who may say unto him what dost thou saith the Spirit of God by the mouth of the Royal Prophet Salomon For Kingly Power being by the Law of God hath no inferior Law to limit it The Emperor saith Saint Augustine is not Subject to Laws who hath Power to make other Laws Accordingly it is delivered by the great Lawyer
King or Queen who actually Reigns the Subjects of that Kingdom are bound by Law Duty and Allegiance to obey the next immediate and lawful Heir either Male or Female upon whom the Right and Administration of Government is immediately devolved And that no Difference in Religion nor no Law nor Act of Parliament made or to be made can alter or divert the Right of Succession and Lineal Descent of the Crown to the nearest and lawful Heir according to the Degrees aforesaid nor can stop or hinder them in the full free and actual Administration of the Government according to the Laws of the Kingdom but obliged also His Majesty for the preservation of the Peace and Tranquillity of that Kingdom with Advice and Consent of the said Estates of Parliament to declare That it is High Treason in any of the Subjects of that Kingdom by Writing Speaking or any other manner of way to endeavor the Alteration Suspension or Diversion of the said Right of Succession or the debarring the next lawful Successor from the immediate actual full and free Administration of the Government Nor is it to be doubted but that the Commons of England who now begin to grow sensible of those Precipices of Ruine whereinto they were ready to tumble through the Contrivances of of those malicious Incendiaries that by terrifying the People with panick Fears of Popery and Arbitrary Power endeavoured to kindle a Fire of Rebellion in this Nation will whenever it shall please His Majesty to call a Parliament shew themselves no less Zealous than the Scots have done to assist and defend according to their Oaths the Kings Rights and Priviledges the chiefest whereof upon which all the rest depend as on a Corner Stone is the unalterable Hereditariness of the Monarchy and thereby defeat the Designes of those cursed Achitophels who labor by involving us in Confusion to establish their beloved Democracy the very worst of Tyrannies CHAP. XIII Of the present Monarch of Great Britain His Name Surname Genealogy Birth Baptism Court Education Departure out of England Coming into Scotland Escape from Worcester Restauration Coronation and Marriage Name THe now-reigning Monarch of Great Britain is CHARLES the Second of that Name His Name of Baptism in Latine written Carolus in English CHARLES in the German Language Karle is contracted from Car-eal which is it self an Abbreviation of the old Teutonick Gar-edel and signifies All or wholly Noble Not improperly then was this Name given to this Prince whose Subjects may justly glory in the Enjoyment of that Happiness for which Salomon pronounces a Land blessed that their King is the Son of Nobles Surname Tho Surnames are neither used by Soveraign Princes nor necessary to them as they are to other inferior persons whose Surnames preserve the Memory of their Relations and Families yet as Bourbon and Austria which were but the Possessions of their Progenitors are now generally esteemed the Surnames of the Present French and Spanish Royal Familyes So Stuart or Steward the Abbreviation of the Saxon Word Stedeward signifying the same as Locumtenens in Latin and Lievtenant in French which was originally but the Name of Office to Walter Son of Fleance by the Daughter of Gruffyth ap Lhewelyn King of Northwales and Progenitor to Robert the IId King of Scotland from whom our present King is descended who was by King Malcolm Canmore created Grand Seneschal or High Steward of Scotland has by Prescription of Time and long Vulgar Error so far prevailed as to be accounted the Surname of the now-Royal Family of Great Britain and of many other Families descended from him Nor is this Name unfit for any King as being in his Kingdom the Steward Lieutenant or Vicegerent of Almighty GOD. Our Soveraign Lord the King Genealogy now reigning does for Royal Extraction and long Line of just Descent excell all the Monarchs of the Christian if not of the whole World being lineally and lawfully descended from and by Right of Primogeniture next Heir unto the British Saxon Norman and Scotish Kings and Princes of this Island his Grandfather King James who by along Descent of Royal Ancestors was was derived from Malcolm Canmor King of the Scots and the Lady Margaret his Wife Sister and Sole Heir of Edgar Atheling the last surviving Prince of the English Saxons joyning the Saxon and Scotish Titles to the British and Norman already united in the Person and Posterity of Edward the IVth King of England He is from the first British Kings the hundred thirty ninth from the Scotish in a continued succession for almost two thousand years the hundred and ninth from the Saxon the forty sixth since the Norman Conquest the twenty sixth from the Uniting of the Royal Families of York and Lancaster the eighth and since the Union of England and Scotland the third sole Monarch He is the first that was born Prince or Heir apparent of Great Britain and hath in his possession larger Domininions than any of his Royal Ancestors His Father was Charles the Martyr and his Mother the Princess Henrietta Maria Daughter to Henry the Great Sister to Lewis the XIIIth and Aunt to the present Lewis the XIVth most Christian Kings a Lady who needeth no other Character than what is found in the seventh Chapter of that unimitable Book compiled by him that best knew her From these two Royal Stocks he hath in his Veins some of all the Royal Blood of Europe concentred This most Excellent Prince was born on the twenty ninth of May 1630. at the Royal Palace of St. James's Birth near Westminster over which there was the same day at noon by thousands seen a Star impending and soon after the Sun suffered an Eclipse which was by some even at that time regarded as a sad Omen that the Power of this Prince should for a while be eclipsed and that some Subject signified by the Star should have more than ordinary Splendor Baptism On the twenty seventh of June following he was baptized by Dr. William Laud then Bishop of London afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury who was in the year of our Lord 1644. by a pretended Ordinance of the rebellious long Parliament barbarously murthered for his Fidelity to his Soveraign His God-fathers were his two Uncles the most Christian King Lewis the XIIIth and Frederick Prince Elector Palatine of the Rhine then called King of Bohemia represented by the Duke of Richmond and Marquess of Hamilton his Godmother being his Grandmother Maria de Medicis then Queen-Mother of France whose Substitute was the Dutchess of Richmond He had for his Governess Mary Countess of Dorset Wife to Edward Earl of Dorset In May 1638. he received the Order of Knighthood Court being immediately after made Knight of the Garter and installed at Windsor About which time he was by Order not Creation first called Prince of Wales having all the Revenews of that Principality with divers others Lands annexed and the Earldom of Chester granted unto
from my Lord Mordant of the disappointment of much of the design he went to Bulloign and thence to Reuen whither Dr. Allestry bringing him News of Sir Georges being in Arms he went thence by Caen to St. Maloes where being in preparation of a Vessel to transport him into England he received the fatal Tidings of Booths Defeat Thence his Majesty went to Fontarabia to be present at the Treaty of Peace managed upon the Borders between France and Spain by the two chief Ministers of those two Kings where he was with all imaginable respect entertained by Don Lewis de Haro Plenipotentiary for his Catholick Majesty from whom he received large Promises of Assistance both with men and money and a Present of twenty thousand Crowns for defraying the Expences of his Journey There receiving Advice from the Lord Mordant of the Disorders in England he returned through France toward Bruxels staying by the way some few dayes with his Royal Mother at Paris Restauration In the year 1660. Perceiving a general Inclination in his Subjects to receive him he providently upon Advice sent him by General Monk the late Duke of Albemarl removed from Bruxels to Breda within the Dominions of the Vnited Netherlands whence he sent Letters bearing date the fourteenth of April to the Lords to the Speaker of the House of Commons to the Generals Monk and Mountague and to the City of London together with a gracious Declaration for the composing and quieting the minds of his Subjects These were on the first of May read in Parliament and on the eighth he was with great Solemnity proclaimed in the Cities of London and Westminster The Tenor of the Proclamation agreed upon by the Lords and Commons clearly expressing the Hereditariness of this Monarchy and consequently the unalterableness of the Succession is as followeth Altho it can no way be doubted but that His Majesties Right and Title to his Crown and Kingdoms is and was every way compleated by the Death of his most Royal Father of Glorious Memory without the Ceremony or Solemnity of a Proclamation Yet since Proclamations in such cases have alwayes been used to the end that all good Subjects might upon this occasion testify their Duty and Respect And since the armed Violence and other the Calamities of many years last past have hitherto deprived Vs of any such Opportunity wherein we might express our Loyalty and Allegiance to his Majesty We therefore the Lords and Commons now assembled in Parliament together with the Lord Mayor Aldermen and Common Councel of the City of London and other Freemen of this Kingdom now present do according to Our Duty and Allegiance heartily joyfully and unanimously acknowledge and proclaim That upon the Decease of Our late Soveraign Lord King CHARLES the Imperial Crown of the Realm of England and of all the Kingdoms Dominions and Rights belonging to the same did by inherent Birthright and lawful and undoubted Succession descend and come to his Most Excellent Majesty CHARLES the Second as being lineally justly and lawfully next Heir of the Royal Blood of this Realm and that by the Goodness and Providence of Almighty GOD He is of England Scotland France and Ireland the most Potent Mighty and Vndoubted King And thereunto we most humbly and faithfully do submit and oblige Our Selves our Heirs and Posterities May the twenty third his Majesty after a magnificent entertainment at the Hague by the States of Holland and an humble Invitation of English Commissioners sent by the Lords and Commons then assembled at Westminster embarkt at Scheveling and with a gallant Fleet and gentle Gale of Wind landed at Dover on the twenty fifth and on the twenty ninth being his Birth day his Majesty then just thirty years of Age entred into London accompanied with his two Brothers attended by most of the Nobility and Gentry of the three Kingdoms and received with the most Universal Joy Acclamations and Magnificence that could possibly be exprest This wonderful Restauration of his Majesty after so many years Dispossession his irreconcileable Enemies who were fully possest of the Government being supported by an Army of thirty thousand experienced and victorious Souldiers in Eng and all fostered up in an Aversion to Monarchy besides the trained Militia of the Nation amounting to a far greater number and wholly consisting of chosen men of the like Principles attempted and effected without Blood Blows Bargain or Obligation to any forreign Prince or Potentate by the Generosity and Prudence of that Noble Captain George late Duke of Albemarl whose Courage and Conduct this present Age cannot but admire and our Posterity will with difficulty believe was so signal a Dispensation of Divine Providence which not only raised up that Noble Instrumont but darted likewise on a sudden into the Hearts of the People a Desire of their Soveraign which like Lightning running over his Kingdoms made them burn with eagerness for his return that the Great Turk hearing thereof openly declared that if he were to change his Religion he would adore and worship the GOD of the King of Great Brtain Coronation On the two and twentieth of April 1661. His Majesty according to the ancient Custom of his Royal Predecessors made a glorious and splendid Cavalcade from the Tower to Westminster where the next day being the Festival of St. Geopge he was Crowned with great Ceremony by Dr. William Juxon then Archbishop of Canterbury to whom that Office belonged in right of his See the Coronation-Sermon being preached by Dr. George Morley then Bishop of Worcester now of Winchester On the eighth of May following began a Parliament at Westminster as remarkable for their Loyalty and Zealous Affection to the Service of their Soveraign as that of 1640. is notorious for Disloyalty and Sedition In this Parliament were condemned as illegal and destructive to the Government all those Factious and Antimonarchical Doctrins first broached by the Rebels of the late times to justify their audacious Impieties and now again revived no doubt for the same purpose by the scurrilous Pamphletiers of this our Age who by their more than Jesuitical Equivocations eluding the plain and express Words of an Oath purposely framed to countermine and prevent such seditious Opinions and Practices which as they formerly have so may again be made use of to involve us in Confusion and Misery endeavor as much as in them lies to render all Profession and Promises of Allegiance and Fidelity made by Subjects to their Prince invalid and of none effect Marryage On the twenty eighth of the same Month His Majesty declared to his Parliament his Intention to marry the Infanta of Portugal who accordingly in May 1662. being landed at Portsmouth was there espoused unto him by Dr. Gilbert Sheldon then Bishop of London lately Archbishop of Canterbury CHAP. XIV Of the Present Queen of Great Britain Her Name Genealogy Birth Marriage Portion Jointure and Arms. THE present Queen of Great Britain is Donna CATHARINA Infanta