to him then his Wife especially since the right Heir took the wrong side Upon the first apprehension he recall'd them home but upon second thoughts he forbids their Return at first he seem'd impatient of their absence as the only Friends he could conside in but on a sudden he dreads their approach as the most Mortal Enemies he had forbids their landing by Proclamation and sets out no less then three Admirals to prevent it they in like manner whilst he prest for their Company delay'd their Recess but when they found themselves banish'd grew as impatient of being kept out The King of France not owning so vile a design so as to give any ready assistance to it they withdrew into Holland whose Earl being a rich and politick Prince upon the contracting Prince Edward to his Daughter he furnished them with Money and Shipping to transport them Landing at Harwich they were so welcom'd by the discontented Nobility that the poor King foreseeing the ensuing danger and not finding that Faith in the Londoners which he expected withdrew into the West in order to passing over into Ireland but meeting with a Storm at Sea that threatned as eminent danger as that by Land he was forced to comply with the contrary Winds and direct his Course towards Wales where destitute of Councel as well as Courage he lay obscurely till his Majesty extinguish'd like a Torch held downwards His Son though he was as yet under Wardship himself was made Guardian of the Kingdom a Title so much greater then that of King by how much he had the Superiority over both readily was he prevail'd with to take away the lives of the two fatal Favourites the Spencers so that 't was thought he would not be over-modest in taking the Crown after it being so easie a Temptation to consent to depose him who had already upon the matter depos'd himself However Nature prevail'd so much over Ambition contrary to all their Expectations or Grace rather over Nature that he refus'd to accept it till his Father might be prevail'd with to give it him as a Blessing who thereupon resign'd it but with such a moving Meekness as for the present time melted the very Queen her self and seemingly touch'd her with so much Regret at the Renuntiation that the Bishop of Hereford the great Engineer of this prosperous Treason doubting her Constancy in point of Malice to be as uncertain as her Faith in point of Affection or perhaps rather dreading the young Kings Piety back'd with the old Kings power hastned his Death by all means possible but finding himself for some time disappointed by the force of Providence or the strength of his Nature which neither ill Air ill Diet nor want of Rest could impair he put him into the hands of two Miscreants sit to be imploy'd in so black a Purpose to whom he inclos'd in a Letter one onely Line which was so twist up as might serve to strangle any Prince whatever comprehending a double sense to warrant them and excuse himself if need were the words were these Edvardum regem occidere nolite timere bonum est This being not pointed the Devil who invented it instructed them in the true meaning of the damnable Oracle which accordingly they put in execution with so much cruelty and horror that never King died as this poor Planet-struck Prince did having a Pipe thrust up into his Fundament to the intent that the Marks of their Violence might not be perceiv'd outwardly and through that with a red hot Iron they penetrated his Bowels to his Heart yet was not this Death possibly more miserable or grievous to him then his Life after he became forsaken of all his Subjects Friends and Allies in general and particularly of his own Wife Son and Brother not to say of himself too if so be we do not reckon them a part of himself considering with what strange abjection he resign'd first his Crown after his Life For to say truth never was King turn'd out of a Kingdom or out of the World as he was Many Kingdoms have been lost by the chance of War but this Kingdom as one observes was lost before any Dy was cast for it no blow struck no Battel fought lost before it was taken from him whilst by betraying himself first he taught others to do it after strange Riddle of State that a Crown should be gain'd forcibly yet without force violently yet with consent both Parties agreed yet neither pleas'd for he was not willing to leave his Kingdom and he that was to have it as unwilling to take it without he gave it him the Queen was not pleas'd he should part with it without he parted with his Life too judging that by having a part he might recover the whole or that her self having parted with the whole could not intitle her self to any part but by his Death and therefore having taken the Kingdom from him openly there was a kind of necessity of taking away his Life secretly Poor Prince how unkindly was he treated upon no other account but that of his own over-great kindness Other Princes are blam'd for not being rul'd by their Counsellors he for being so who whilst he liv'd they would have thought to be a Sot but being dead they could have found in their hearts to have made him a Saint How far he wrong'd his People doth not appear there being very few or no Taxations laid upon them all his time but how rude and unjust they were towards him is but too manifest But their Violence was severely repaid by Divine Vengeance not only upon the whole Kingdom when every Vein in the Body Politick was afterward opened to the endangering the letting out of the Life-blood of the Monarchy in the Age following but upon every particular Person consenting to or concern'd in his Death For as the Throne of his Son that was thus set in blood though without his own guilt continued to be imbru'd all his Reign which lasted above fifty years with frequent Executions Battels or Slaughters the Sword of Justice or his own being hardly ever sheath'd all his time So 't is said that the Queen her self dyed mad upon the apprehension of her own in Mortimer's disgrace who was executed at Tyburn and hung there two dayes to be a spectacle of Scorn His Brother Edmond had this punishment of his Disloyalty to be condemn'd to lose his Head for his Loyalty it being suggested and happy it had been for him if it had been prov'd that he indeavoured the Restoration of his Brother his death being imbitter'd by the mockery of Fortune whilst by keeping him upon the Scaffold five hours together before any Body could be found that would execute him he was deluded with a vain hope of being saved The Fiend Tarlton Bishop of Hereford who invented the cursed Oracle that justified the murther dy'd with the very same Torture as if the hot Iron that fear'd his Conscience had been thrust into
as himself observ'd for the most part their Graves the Vote of Non-Addresses being as Earth flung upon him Fortune cruelly brings him to Life again by the Cordial of unexpected hopes heightned by the Zeal of several Counties declaring for him Divers Lords in Arms again at Land and his own Son with others at Sea these incouraged by the Revolt of several Towns those by the coming in of several Ships so that there were no less then Two thousand in Arms for him at Sea with Twenty good Ships and not so litt e as Ten thousand at Land with Horses Arms and Ammunition suitable And which was yet more considerable the Grand * Call'd The Committee of Danger Committee of State in Scotland whose very name carried Danger in it allarm'd them by sending the Propositions following 1. To bring the King to London or some of his Houses near with Freedom and Safety 2. To disband the Army 3. To punish those that had deteined him in Obscurity 4. To restore the Secluded Members 5. To establish the Presbyterian Government and suppress Sectaries And that they might yet appear more like a Committee of Danger they sent a formidable Army under the Conduct of Duke Hamilton to make good their Demands and to give their Nation the Honour of being the last as they were the first in Arms in this unhappy War The terror of these formidable Preparations incourag'd by several Petitions out of the City and Country moved the affrighted Parliament to consent to a Personal Treaty whilst the Army was busie in disputing the Points with the Sword and accordingly they recalâ—'d the Vote of Non-Addresses and sent their Commissioners to wait on the King at the Isle of Wight where he argued so like a Divine with the Divines so like a Lawyer with the Lawyers so like a States-man with their Matchiavillians that they went all away fully satisfied in their belief of his Wisdom Piety and Justice and upon the publishing his Conditions the Houses voted him to be in Honour Freedom and Safety according to the Laws Here seem'd to be nothing wanting now but a Sword in his hand to have once more disputed it with the Sword-men too and then possibly he might have saved himself and the despairing Nation But just as every man was making ready to bring in his Peace-Offering in Confidence that the King and Parliament were fully agreed the inraged Army returning home from the Conquest of all those that had oppos'd them doubly dyed with Blood and Treason alike Enemies to Peace and Reason broke down the great Chain of Order which binds even the Divels themselves and first seizing on him next on them sent no less then Forty of their principal Members to Hell a Place purposely made their Prison not so much for any conveniency of Reception or nearness of Scituation as the Uncoughness of the Name that by the conceipt of being typically damn'd they might bring them into despair and tempt some of them as after they did to become their own Executioners Ninety more they turn'd quite out of the House and appointed a day for turning out all the rest In the mean time they publish'd a Modification which to make the more acceptable they term'd The Agreement of the People by which the number of the Representatives of the Nation was reduc'd to Three hundred half which were to have power to make a Law and during the Intervals of Sessions a Councel of State was to govern This Model was put into the hands of those Members of their own Faction who besides the Confirmation thereof had Instructions given them for passing six other Votes 1. For renewing that of Non-Addresses 2. For annulling the Treaty and Concessions at the Isle of Wight 3. For bringing the King to publick Justice to answer with his own all the Blood shed in the War 4. For summoning in his two Sons the Prince of Wales and the Duke of York to render themselves by a day certain to give satisfaction on their parts otherwise to stand exil'd as Traytors to their Country 5. For doing publick Justice upon all the Kings Partakers 6. For paying off all their own Arrears forthwith How obedient Slaves this Rump of a House were to these their own Servants who could not find in their Heart to pay the least respect to their natural Prince appears by the Sequel For immediately they gave them or rather permitted them to give themselves above Sixty thousand pounds and voted that the General should take care to secure the King and the Councel of war to draw up a Charge of High Treason against him faulâ— Lord faulâ—Faulâ—land Behold the frailty of all humane things How soon great Kingdoms fall much sooner Kings This as it was an Insolence beyond all hope of pardon so nothing could justifie it but such a Violation of all sacred and humane Rights as must not only out-do all Example but out-face all Divinity and Majesty at once by erecting that High Court of Justice as they call'd it to try him as a Rebel against himself Preparatory whereunto they made Proclamation at Westminster-hall Cheapside and the Old Exchange that all that had any thing to say against him should come in at the prefix'd time and be heard And for the greater solemnity of their intended Paricide the Law was silenced that is the Tearm put off for fourteen dayes in order to the better formalizing the disorder that was to follow And now having brought the Royal Prisoner to their Judgment Seat they proceed to arraign him with not unlike Impudence and Impiety to that of the Rascal Jews when they brought the King of Kings to Tryal whom as they charg'd to be a Perverter so these charg'd him with being a Subverter of his People both Prisoners being in this alike Guilty that eithers Crime was the owning himself to be a King which as the Jews could not indure then so neither could these now Their King thought not fit to give any Answer to his Accusers this King preparing to give sitting Answers could not be heard But he had this satisfaction to hear Pontius Bradshaw the President by whom he was to be condemn'd condemn himself first and all his Fellow Paricides by a Reply to him not less absurd then observable For his Majesty reasoning upon the unreasonableness of not being suffer'd to speak for himself said Where is there in all the World that Court in which no Place is left for Reason to which t'other unwittingly reply'd Sir you shall find that this very Court is such an one Nay then retorted the King in vain will my Subjects expect Justice from you who stop your Ears to your King ready to plead his Cause Thus they strangled him before they beheaded him and designing to murther his Soul if possible as well as his Body added to their Denial of Justice so many Contumelies Indignities and Affronts as were enough to have tempted him to despair had not his Faith been as strong
universal darkness (t) Tertullian Tertullian that liv'd not long after taking thence occasion to upbraid the unbelieving Jews by telling them that the Britains whom the Romans could not conquer were yet subject unto Christ and to say truth their obedience to the Cross was the chief cause of humbling themselves under the Fasces Lucius being the first King that stipulated for the enjoyment of his own Laws at the price of a Tribute which if it were some diminution of his Majesty was made up with advantage by his Successour Constantine the Great whom therefore the (u) In M. Ant. In Arc. Cott. Panegyrist not unfitly stiles Divus Orbis Britanniae Liberator 7. However in respect the Romans had some hold-fast here for near a hundred years after Constantine's death it may be by some perhaps thought more reasonable to begin our Computation from Vortigern who having neither Competitor nor Compartner in the Government there being not one Roman left in the whole Isle to controul or contend with him was without doubt the first that as Tacitus speaks of Augustus Nomine Principis sub Imperium accepit circa An. Chr. 440. At what time all the Neighbour Princes round about him were under the common yoak of Servitude The French themselves who stand so much upon the Antiquity of their Monarchy falling short of this Account near four hundred years who being govern'd by Dukes till the year 420 had not in almost thirty years after any more of France in their Intire possession then that Canton which the Romans call'd Belgicum which was the more inconsiderable by being parcel'd out into many Petty (w) As were Burgundy Lorrain Guien Aquitain Normandy Champagne Fâ—ix Orange c. Royalties that could not unite till the time of Charlemaine who liv'd about the latter end of our Heptarchy after whose death the whole fell into five pieces again four whereof ceas'd to be French which gave so great disturbance to all their Kings of the Second and third Race that they were so far from being Masters of that little that they had that they were scarce (x) Vide Du Serres in Proem Hist Lords of themselves being forc'd to pawn the best part of their Inheritance to enable them to keep the rest none of their Successors being in condition to redeem any considerable part till Lewis the Eleventh who happily having recovered the Earldom of Provence and Dutchy of Burgundy made his boast that he had brought his Kingdom Hors de Page Much more distorted was the Empire of the Spaniards if so be we may allow them to have any thing like absolute Soveraignty till this very last Age when Ferdinand the Second worthily reputed their first Monarch happily united Castile and Aragon with their Appendixes their Predecessors till then being so inconsiderable that the Kings of Scotland took place of them In how obscure a condition all the Northern Kings were for by that common appellation those of Muscovy Sweadland Denmark and Norway past undistinguish'd till about the year 800 I need not say Since by being thought not worth the conquering there was not much more notice taken of them than of the rest of the barbarous Nations their Neighbours who may be rather said to be antient then honourable the Germans only excepted of whom to speak slightly were to defile our own nest since by them we derive our selves from Kings as great before the Flood as since The Precedence of the Kings of This Isle 8. Now as the Monarchy of this Isle is as Lanquet the Chronologer expresses it antienter then the Records of any time so the Kings thereof having held out a Succession of an hundred thirty nine Kings where as France reckons but sixty four taking in First Second and third Race have by the right of Custom as our particular Law expresses it Du temps dont memorie ne cúrt a le contrarie and by the consent of all Nations which is the Law universal to Ratifie and Regulate all respects taken and been allow'd the (y) As appears by the old Roman provincial second place inter Super Illustres for by that term Civilians make a great distinction and difference in point of Majesty even amongst Kings themselves A term which who so understands not may see the difference plainly in that old Formular printed at Strasburgh Anno 1519 where there is set down a Quadrupartite Division of Supream Principality the first place allow'd by them as reasonably they ought to their own Soveraign Kesar i. e. the German Emperour the Second to Romischin Koning i. e. the King of the Romans his Successor and their Countryman too The third place they gave to the Vier Gesalbt Koning i. e. the four anointed Kings In the last place came the Mein Koning or Ordinary Kings The difference betwixt these last and the Quatuor Vncti which were the (z) Javin Theatramundi Kings of France England Jerusalem and Sicily was this that with the holy oyl they receiv'd the Title and Adjunct of (a) Rhivallus ap Tooke in Carism Sanct. Cap. 6. Sacred being therefore anointed In Capite to signifie their glory above the other Princes of the same Rank In Pectore to denote their Sanctity In Brachiis to Emblematize their power this appears by the Styles of the Literae Formatae the antient forms of Addresses and the Frontispicians to the antient Councels where we find the various Styles of Sanctio Sacrietas and Divinitas apply'd to these to those were given only that of Dominatio and sometimes Celsitudo Regia conformable to this were all the phrases of the antient Laws of this Realm which Style the crown-Crown-Lands crown-(b) Cook sur Littleton Sect. 4. Sacra Patrimonia the Prerogative Royal Sacra Sacrorum the Laws themselves in respect they take their life and being from the King (c) Fortescu Leg. Aug. fol. 8. Sanctae Sanctiones The Kings presence was held so Sacred that if a (d) Plowd Com. 322. Villain heretofore cast himself ad Sacra Vestigia as they phras'd it his Lord could no more seize him than if he had been in the Sanctuary before the Altar it being upon the same Ground as great a crime to strike in the Court as in the Church and as if this were not enough they ascribe unto the King as unto God Infallibility (e) Edw. 4. 25. 24. Rex non potest errare Immortality (f) Crompton Jurisaic fol. 134. Plowd 177. B. 1 Ed. 5. Rex non potest mori for in all Pleadings they never mention the death of the King but call it the Demise Justice in perfection Rex non quam injuriam fecit Omnipresence in so much that he cannot be non-suited in any of his Courts because he is suppos'd to be always present and for the same reason all Persons are sorbid to be cover'd in his Chambers of presence though he be not there Lastly they give to him as to God the Issues of Life and
Leg. Canut l. 26. p. 106. Dei Praeco once and another time at Southampton under the stile of Divini Juris Interpres neither was Edward the Confessor behind any of them when he made his Ecclesiastical Laws by the Title of (o) Leg. Ed. Confes C. 17. p. 142. Vicarius Summi Regis These Titles I have the rather mention'd to shew what divine Office was esteem'd to be in the King properly who having a mixture of the Priest and Prophet with that of his Kingship was obliged to be solicitous tam de (p) Leg. Inae in prefat p. 1. apud Jorvalens Col. 761. 41. Salute animarum quam de Statu Regni as Jorvalensis expresses it and however our wise Law-makers heretofore not to say Law-masters who were very nice in wording all the antient Statutes relating to the Supremacy have not thought fit to stile the King a Spiritual Person although they knew him to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Persona mixta cum Sacerdote And accordingly it is well Argued by a Modern (q) Vid. Lib. Intit Animadver upon the Book Intit Fanaticism Fanatically Imputed to the Catholick Church by Dr. S. Writer of no mean note That his Authority must be Equivalent with any of those Popes at least who were Laicks at the time they were chose â—o that Supream Dignity For whilst there is no Qualification in their Office of Papacy to render them so far Ecclesiastical as to consecrate any Bishop personally but that of Necessity they must do it as he notes by their Bull it must necessarily follow that that Bull being a deputation granted to some Bishop to do the Office for him differs very little if any thing from that of the Kings Commission in the like Case And if it had been otherwise Understood in former times it had been in the power of his Vnholiness to have extinguish'd the Function of Bishops in any Princes Dominions whatever The first Pope who found out a way to supplant the Kings Authority in Ecclesiasticis by seeming to support it was Nicholas the Second one of the most subtil of all the Roman Prelates Contemporary with Edward the Confessor one of the weakest of our Kings who created a Title to himself by Implication whilst he perswaded the King to accept of a Bull of Confirmation from him whereby granting him (r) Vide Twisden ut supra Plenam Advocationem Regni omnium totius Angliae Ecclesiarum he made that seem to be of grace only from him which before was of right in the King Of which Artifice his Successor Gregory the Seventh took no small advantage when he put in for a share of the Supremacy with William the Conquerour making that single President the Found to Claim 1. The Investiture of Bishops which I take to be that directum Dominium held by the King Jure Patronatus in acknowledgment whereof the Clergy pay him their first fruits 2. The benefit of the Annates which was a Chief Rent out of all the Spiritualities 3. The Power of Calling Synods by which he might Impose upon the Government 4. The Right of Receiving Appeales to Rome which overthrew all the Kings Courts 5. The sole power of disposing and translating Bishops which made them his Homagers and Feifes 6. The Power of altering and dispensing with Canons 7. The Priviledg of Sending a Legate to reside here as a Spiritual Spy to detect all the Secrets of State and be a kind of Check-mate to the King himself But William the Conquerour as he was a Prince that was apter to invade other mens Rights than to part with any of his own so finding his prerogative sufficiently guarded by the antient Laws of the Land then call'd the Laws of King Edward which was not the least Reason he continued so many of them as he did would by no means yield to him so long as he lived his Son William Rufus continuing yet more obstinate who after the death of the aforesaid Gregory surnam'd Hildebrand would admit of no Pope but what himself approved of So that for eleven years together there was no Pope acknowledged here in England which may be a good president for any that shall hereafter hold as some of their Catholick Doctors have as far as they durst affirm that there may be Auseribilitas (s) See Dr. Dun 43 Ser. preach'd on the 5 Nov. at Pauls crâ—ss Papae neither would he permit appeals or any Intercourse to Rome which when Anselme Arch-Bishop of Canterbury being a natural Italian attempted to bring about he first rifled him and then banish'd him neither was his brother Henry the First less tenacious of his Right as appears by those Instructions given to his Bishops when they went to meet Calixt the Second at the Council of Reimes whom he forbad in the first place to appeal to the Pope upon any grievance whatever for that himself he said would be sole Judge betwixt them 2. He commanded them to tell the Pope plainly if he expected his antient Rent here he would expect a Confirmation of his antient Priviledges 3. He directed them to salute the Pope and receive his Apostolick Precepts Sed superfluas Inventiones regno meo inferre nolite The Contest betwixt the Arch-Bishop Becket and Henry the Second shews what temper he was of for he opposed both the Pope and the Bishop so long that they had undoubtedly cast him out of the Church but that they fear'd he would not come in again only King John who therefore stands a singular example of Infamy designing to make himself higher than any of his Predecessors by stooping so much lower quit his being King to make himself a Tyrant in order whereunto he voluntarily laid down his Diadem at the feet of Innocent the Third's Legate becoming thereby guilty of such an unparalel'd vileness and abjection of spirit that nothing can excuse but the known distraction that was upon him when wrack't betwixt two Extreams of hate and fear his Enemies pressing hard upon him whilst his Friends forsook him he to avoid the being split upon either Rock cast himself upon the Quick-sand of the Popes protection submitting to an act of Pennance that shew'd the weakness of his Faith more than of his Right his renouncing the Supremacy at that time being no more to be wondred at than his renouncing Christianity it self at another time but his Son recover'd the ground his Father lost when he brought the whole Kingdom to resent the Indignity so far as to Join with him in demanding satisfaction of the same Pope and not content with a bare Disclaimer forc'd the insolent Legate to flie the Kingdom timens pelli sui as the Record hath it neither stopt they there but voting that submission of his Father a breach of his Coronation Oath entred so far into the Consideration of the whole matter of the Pope's Usurpation as to make that Statute of Proviso's which after brought in those other 27 and 38 Edw.
an intestine War one with another undermin'd them by Land before they could perfect any great matter by Sea they had not contented themselves as they did with an Insulary glory having laid so good a foundation to an universal Empire and so much more lasting than any that were ever before it by how much they would have had it in their power to have secur'd the obedience of the rest of the World by their ignorance rendring themselves their Masters by a mystery of State not to be resisted because not understood whereof our Kings their Successors now absolute Lords of the Sea have happily made good proof For as a modern Poet hath well observ'd Where ere our Navy spreads her Canvass Wings Homage to th' State and Peace to all she brings French Dutch and Spaniards when our Flags appear Forget their hatred and consent to fear So Jove from Ida did the Hosts survey And when he pleas'd to thunder part the Fray Waller Ships heretofore in Seas like Fishes sped The greatest still upon the smallest fed We on the Deep impose more equal Laws And by that justice do remove the cause Of those rude Tempests which for rapine sent Did too too oft involve the innocent Rendring the Ocean as our Thames is free From both those Fates of Storms and Pitacy Thrice happy People who can fear no force But winged Troops or Pegasean Horse But considering as I said the difficulties they met with before without mentioning the dangers they encountred after they were setled the checks of Fortune whilst they were rising and the counterbuffs of Envy after they were up and mounted to their height whereof as Gildas relates they were forewarned by their Gods who being consulted about the Invasion gave answer that the Land whereto they went should be held by them 300 years half the time to be spent in conquering t'other half in possessing their Conquest which agreed with the measure of their Heptarchy Lastly Considering the fierceness of the Britains of the one side and the fraud of the Danes of the other those perhaps doing them more mischief by Treaties than t'other by admitting no cessation We may conclude with the Poet Nec minor est Virtus quam quarere parta tueri THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF KENT I. I. date of accession 445 ENGIST having broken in like a Horse for so his Name imports and trampled down all that withstood him made himself King of Kent and by being the first King was worthily esteem'd the first Monarch of the English a Title that during the Heptarchy was appropriated to some one above all the rest of the Kings He reigned 34 years and left his Glory to descend on his second Son II. date of accession 448 OESKE under whose Government the Kentish men thriv'd so well that they were contentedly named from him Eskins III. date of accession 512 OCTA had a longer but less happy Reign wasting 22 years without any memorable act that might render him more renown'd then his Successor IV. date of accession 537 IRMERICK who after 25 years Reign by Stow 's Accompt 29 by Savil's had nothing to boast but that he was the Son of such a Father as Oeske and the Father of such a Son as V. date of accession 562 ETHELBERT the first Christian King of all this Nation and the sixth Monarch of the English men A Prince who was therefore esteem'd great because good but his happiness ended with himself for his impious Son VI. date of accession 617 EDBALD was laid in his Bed as soon as he was laid in his Grave apostatizing from his natural Religion to gratifie his unnatural Lust he had many Sons but the Succession fell to the youngest VII date of accession 641 ERCOMBERT more like his Grandfather then his Father a pious publick spirited Prince he was the first divided Kent into Parishes and commanded the observation of Lent He was not so good but his Sons were as bad VIII date of accession 665 EGBERT the eldest made his way to the Crown by the murther of his two Cosins the right Heirs of Ethelbert and Sons to his Fathers Elder Brother Ermenred who being not able to do themselves right were reveng'd by his younger Brother IX date of accession 677 LOTHAIRE who gave the like measure to his two Sons putting them besides the Succession to admit X. date of accession 686 EDRICK who entred with more Triumph than Joy being within two years after depriv'd both of honour and life by his own Subjects upon which his Brother XI date of accession 693 WIGHFRED assumed the Government being rather admitted then chosen or rather gave himself up to be govern'd by one Swebard who they put over him by whose advice he rul'd not ingloriously 33 years and left his Kingdom to his Sons who alternately succeeded XII date of accession 726 EGBERT the Eldest most like his Father both in Person and Fortune reigned 23 years XIII date of accession 749 ETHELBERT the second reign'd but one year XIV date of accession 760 ALRICK the last of the three and indeed the last of the Royal Lyne did only something that made him more notably unfortunate then the two former in being overcome by the great Mercian Offa whereby the Kingdom became a prey to whosoever could catch it the first whereof that got that advantage was XV. date of accession 794 ETHELBERT the third firnamed Pren who entred in the Vacancy of the first Occupant and being disseized by that Wolfe Kenelwolph the thirteenth King of Mercia he put in one XVI date of accession 797 CUTHRED who enjoyed an undisturb'd possession eight years after whom XVII date of accession 805 BALDRED stept in who being little regarded abroad was less belov'd at home fearing his People might leave him he first left them and flying over the River Thames as soon as Egbert the West-Saxon entred his Territories left all to the Conquerour who without more trouble made this Kingdom and those of the South and East-Sexes an Appenage for his younger Son Athelstan IT is hard to resolve Whether Engist that erected this Kingdom were more beholding to Fortune or his own foresight or whether indeed the folly of Vortigern were not more advantageous to him then either who not trusting the incertain obedience of his own People cast himself upon the faith of this Stranger who in serving of him could have no other design but to serve himself upon him Neither did the frowardness of the Natives contribute less to his Greatness then the folly of their King who not consenting to the Ratification of that little which was promis'd him justifi'd him in the larger Demands he made afterwards when they durst not deny his Experience on the Seas taught him how to Laveer from point to point and shift as he found the wind failing to steer in a direct course but had the Britains kept Faith with him 't is probable he had not broke as he did with them taking that advantage
valiant and wise he despair'd by sensible degrees and as one grown weary of Greatness became less concern'd as he found Fortune more froward till at length he fell under the lowest Reproach that could befall an active Prince to be stil'd The Unready for so was he mis-call'd the apprehensions of which indignity so wholly relaxed his Spirits that he resolv'd to purchase what he could not win a little rest I cannot call it peace being rather like a Submission than a Cessation which yet he paid an incredible price for indeed no less than 10000 pounds a vast Sum for those times and so much the dearer pennyworth to his poor people in as much as it was the occasion of a Tax which not only was the very first they ever knew but was executed with so much rigour that the shame and indignation he conceived thereupon put him upon washing off the Stain of his dishonour with a deluge of innocent blood exasperating him to the hazard of the worst of remedies a general Massacre throughout his Territories which afterward was executed upon the Danes with so much secrecy and so little compassion that very few if any of them escap'd 'T was thought this one Act however cruel would have freed him from all future fears of the like necessity for the time to come but that weight which would have fixt the pillars of his Government upon their Bases had they continued upright leaning on one side overcharg'd and crack'd them for the bold Executioners of his rage upon the first preparation the Enemy made for Revenge finding themselves disappointed in the main ends of their Cruelty turn'd Cowards and by a strange infatuation quit his Protection to seek refuge from those whom yet they believ'd implacable who having no colour of right till this wrong was done to them had now so fair a Pretence to do what e're was foul that King Swain himself thought it obligatory upon him to cross the Sea to see right done to the incensed ghosts of his People The terrour of whose first approach made such impressions upon the very wisest of the English that they thought it better to give him the possession of their Country than hazard his undertaking it from them yielding up most of the great Towns and Cities to disappoint his Fury by unexpected submission Only London stood firm to King Ethelred in this extremity and left him not till he left them who having before the Storm came sent away his Wife and Children into Normandy follow'd them himself not long after leaving Swain in the sole possession of the Kingdom who from thence forward had nothing more to do but to bind those he had thus conquer'd with chains of Allegiance But see the mockery of human greatness whilst he thought himself above all Enemies having one foot upon the step to mount into the Throne death the common Enemy of mankind struck him to the ground the winged news of which unexpected Event taking its flight into Normandy so imboldned Ethelred that he believing himself now reconcil'd to Fortune immediately return'd and shew'd his People he was not that Unready man the World misnam'd him to be but behold instead of an aged Enemy who had more to do to contest with his own infirmity than with his Forces there appear'd a Successor more youthful and vigorous than himself one that was equal to him in conduct but surpass'd him in Ambition this was Knute the Son of Swain who finding the only way to be great at Land was to be Master at Sea made it his first business to corrupt the Fleet and by that advantage gave so fatal a blow to Ethelred's power that he could no longer resist the force of Desperation but languishing in mind as before in Body left the justice of his Title to be disputed with more equality by his Son Edmond who hoping to Overcome by yielding lost the whole by giving up a part only EDMOND Iron-sides date of accession 1016 THE unexpected Death of the last King surcharg'd with misfortunes rather than years as it made way for his Son to the Throne so happening before he was sufficiently prepar'd for so important a Charge it was was not the least occasion of the total overthrow of the English Monarchy However we may call this rather his Fate than his Fault being a Prince worthy a happier Father and a nobler Destiny who had Providence been pleas'd to have post-dated the birth of his glory till time had purg'd away the guilt of his Family and left him no more Enemies to grapple with than what his Sword could have reach'd might possibly by his personal Gallantry have recover'd his languishing power at least prevented those dire disputes which afterwards cost his Posterity more blood than the Dominions they Contended for could supply But the same hand that wrote his name in this period of Succession and as 't was thought ingrav'd his Destiny in that (*) Edmond signifying in the old Saxon Blessed Peace Name contrary both to the literal sense of it and the hopes conceiv'd by them that gave it him turn'd that of Blessed and Peaceable into that of Iron-sides an Adjunct which carried horror in the sound and perhaps more proper for him who was condemn'd to fight three set Battels in the space of three Months on the success of each of which depended no less than half a Kingdom which yet was his all the rest being in possession of his Foe who fought him with his own Weapons bringing Subject against Subject English against English King Edmond's General was the Earl of Essex the Earl of Northumberland was the Danes both men of great Conduct and Courage Not far distant from these appear'd the Earl of Merkland with another Body by his Father of English Descent by his Mothers side a Dane who pretending to affect both sides could by no means be drawn to declare for either having secretly however supported each till he had so far weakned them both by his Incouragements that neither was in Condition to punish his Treachery much less to refuse his Courtesie And now being drawn up in Battel to decide the great question of right he shew'd seeing him hovering at a distance with such a neutral party as gave them just apprehensions of both his Force and Fraud trusting to no Sword but their own they mutually accorded to decide the Justice of their quarrel by Combat rather than Battel obliging their respective Armies to submit to the success of him that conquer'd upon which entring singly into an Island on the Severn they charg'd each other with so much fury and so little Caution as if the desire of assaulting had wholly taken away the care of defence but being equal in Stomach and strength the Fight continued pois'd in the uncertainty of any advantage on either side till at length both being tired neither vanquish'd either hoping to win both scorning to yield with like desire though not with like reason they agreed
Officers whom their places confirm'd that stuck close to him and serv'd him to the last by whose Assistance he not only recover'd Ireland reduced Wales and kept those of Scotland to their good behaviour but notwithstanding all the Troubles he had at home forc'd the Chief men of either Place to give him as the manner was in those dayes their Children to be pledges of their future Subjection by which may be guest how far he had gone in the Recovery of his Transmarime Dominions had not the cross-grain'd Barons stood it out as they did who refusing to aid or attend him until he was absolv'd by the Pope and after he was absolv'd stopt until he had ratified their Priviledges and after they had the Grant of their Priviledges declined him yet until they had back the Castles he had taken from them resolv'd it seems to have both Livery and Seisin of their ancient Rights but whilst they thus over-bent the Bow they made it weak and unserviceable the visible force us'd upon him in bringing him to that Concession unloosing the Deed and taking so much from the validity of so solemn an Act by the bare illegality of their Coertion that his new Friend the Pope to whom themselves forced him to reconcile himself thought it but a reasonable recompence of his Humility towards him to discharge him from all his Condiscentions towards them dispensing with his Oath by which all the Agreement was bound and by definitive Sentence declaring the whole Compact null which was confirm'd by the Excommunication of the Barons till they submitted to the Sentence Here the Scene chang'd again and now the Pope being ingag'd on the Kings side the French King on the Rebels behold the whole Kingdom in Arms but because there were so few to be trusted at home the King sends for Forces abroad whereof he had so great Supplies that had there not been which is almost incredible to relate no less then forty thousand Men Women and Children drown'd coming over Sea out of Flanders he had even eat his way out to a Conquest of his own People as universal but more miserable then that of the Norman for with those he had left he marched over most of the Kingdom in less then half a years space reduced all the Barons Castles to the very Borders of Scotland and made himself once more absolute Master of all the Cities of note London only excepted which in regard of their united Power being so desperate as they were he thought not safe to attack This Extremity of the Barons drew over the French King in person to their relief who making incredible speed to land at Sandwich as quickly became Master of all Kent Dover only excepted which never would yield through which marching up to London he was there received with such universal joy that several great Lords quitting King John came to render themselves to him In the mean time the Pope pursued him with an Excommunication to please King John who all this while acted the part of a General so well beyond that of a King that many who never obeyed him in Peace were content to follow him through the War It was near a year that this unhappy Kingdom continued thus the Theatre of Rapine and Cruelty enduring the oppression and horrour of two great Armies headed by two great Kings each chasing the other with alternate Successes through the most fertile parts of the Isle till it pleased Providence in Mercy to the innocent People to take off this Indomitable Prince whose heart long flaw'd with continual Crosses broke at last by the slight stroke of a small loss the miscarriage of some few of his Carriages which in passing the Washes betwixt Lynn and Boston were it seems overtaken by the Tyde a misfortune which though of no great Consideration yet falling out in such a juncture of time when the Indisposition of his Body added not a little to that of his Mind carried him out of the World with no less Violence then he forced into it who however born to make himself Enemies had yet perhaps been happy enough had not himself been the very greatest Enemy himself had Upon his Death the King was crown'd as his unfortunate Father and Uncle before him the second time being willing the World should know he was now arriv'd at a degree of understanding to rule by himself which occasion the jealous Barons took hold of to press again for the Confirmation of their Liberties the Denyal whereof had cost his Father so dear This put him to a pause and that discover'd his inclination though not his intent for by not denying he hop'd to be thought willing to grant and yet not granting he had the vanity to be thought not to yield But this cunctation of his which shew'd him to be his Fathers own Son plunged him into such a Gulf of mistrust before he was aware of it that it was nothing less then a Miracle he had not perish'd in it for as he could never get clear out of it all his Reign the longest that ever any King of England had so he was necessitated as all shifting men are that entertain little designes they are asham'd or afraid to own to make use from that time of such Ministers onely as in serving him would be sure to serve their own turns upon him which reduced him to that indigence that had he not found out a way to prey upon them as they upon the People he had undoubtedly perished as never King did being at one time come so near to Beggery that for want of Provisions at his own he was forc'd to invite himself shamefully to other mens Tables his Credâ—t being brought so low that he could not take up an hundred Marks and his Spirit so much lower that he told one that deny'd him that Sum that it was more Alms to give him then to a Begger that went from Door to Door A speech betraying so strange abjection that it takes off the wonder of those affronts put upon him afterwards when a weak Woman durst tax him to his face with breach of faith and honour and a pitiful Priest threaten him with being no King when a private Lord durst give him the Lie publickly and tell him he was no Christian and which is undecent to tell had it not been so well known one of his * Hubert de Bâ—ughâ— was charg'd to have said thus own servants call'd him Squint-ey'd Fool and Leaper The first great action he was ingaged in was the recovery of the Ground his Father lost in France into which he was drawn not so much out of affectation of Glory as by the Solicitation of his Father in Law Hugh Earl of March who having a quarrel with the Queen Dowager of France upon the accompt of some dispute that had pass'd between her and his Wife the Queen Dowager of England call'd in the King her Son to take advantage of the present discontent Divers of the
his Head he resolves once more to venture his own In the mean time those of the Isle of Ely the remainder of Leicester's Party that had held out from the time of his death with incredible courage and patience taking new life and hope from this Revolt make many excursions and spoils to the great charge and vexation of the King and the Publick Neither could the Pope 's Legate prevail with him to come in though upon tearms safe and honourable tendering the Publick Faith of the Kingdom and which was then thought greater that of the Church to them So much were they transported with the Opinion of their Cause or by the falshood of their hopes till this stubbornness of theirs provok'd the King to raise a new Army the Command whereof was given to his Son Edward that prosperous Prince whose Fortune then being not able to resist he had the honour to conclude that War and consequently to put a Period to all his Fathers turmoâ—ls who being shaken at the Root did not long survive the happiness of that tranquillity the end of whose Troubles were the beginning of his own ingaging upon the conclusion of that in a War so much more dangerous by how much more distant the benefit whereof was to be expected only in the other World this was that Undertaking in the Holy Land which separating him from his Father beyond all hope of ever seeing him again gave some occasion to question the old Kings Understanding others his good Nature But as the great concerns of Religion are as much above Reason as that is beyond Sense so we must impute that to the resolute Zeal of the Son which we cannot allow for Devotion in the Father who had he had any thoughts of going into the other World as his great Age might have prompted him to would rather have taken care for a Grave for himself then for so hopeful a Successor who only by seeking Death escap'd it Now whether the ingratitude of the Clergy or the Ambition of the temporal Lords were a greater tryal of his wisdom or Power I know not but the course he took to reduce either to terms of modesty and submission shows the world he had no want of understanding however he was forc't to put up the front of his Lay-peers in order to the facillitating his Revenge upon the other whom he mortified by a strain of State which none of his Ancestors durst venture upon Whilst he not only put them out of his Protection but all men out of theirs denying them not only his favour but his Justice not only the benefit of his ordinary Courts but the priviledg of sitting in that higher Court of Parliament A severity not to give any worse name to it of so acrimonious a nature that it not only expos'd them to all the injuries and affronts triumphant malice and scorn could put upon them but was made more intollerable and grievous by his docking their Revenues as after he did by several * Stat. 3 Edw. 1. cap. 19.33 Stat. cont formum collation Statute Laws amongst which I cannot but take notice though by the By of the particular contempt express'd in that odd Statute aginst †Stat. de Asportatis Religiosorum c. An. 3 cap. 34. ravishment where it is declared Felony to use force to any Lay-Woman and only a trespass to ravish a Nun. Neither was it thought enough to make what abscission he thought fit without their greatness were rendred incapable of any further growth to which intent he cauteriz'd if I may so say the wounds he had given them by that Statute of ‖ An. 3. C. 32. Mort-main which as it was the most fatal of all others to them so it might have prov'd so to himself had he not at the same time he thus disoblig'd them oblig'd the Laity by another suppos'd to be the wisest Law that ever was made to wit that of Westminster the second entituled De Donis Conditionalibus which tending so much to the preservation of particular Families and adding to their greatness no less then their continuance is by some Historians call'd Gentilitium Municipale and had this good effect that it brought the temporal Nobility firmly to adhere to him against the Pope when amongst many others that intituled themselves to the Soveraignty of Scotland a Kingdom too near to be lost for want of putting a claim his Holiness became his Rival and thought to carry it as part of St. Peter's Patrimony This Victory at home which brought the proud Prelates to purchase his Justice at a dearer rate then probably they might have paid for his mercy had their submission been as early as it was afterwards earnest I take to be much greater then all those he had got abroad by how much fortune had no share in it and fame was the least part of his gains extending to give him not long after as great an advantage over the Lay Nobility whom having first discern'd of their Patronage wholly and of their other priviledges in a very great part he did as it were cudgel them into Submission by the authority of his * vid. lib. Assis fol. 141.57 Trail Baston a commission which however it were directed to the Majors Sheriffs Bayliffs Escheators c. and so seem'd to have been aim'd at those of the lower rank onely which were guilty of those Enormities of Champorty Extortion Bribery and intrusion crimes much in fashion in those days yet by a back blow it knockt down several of the great Men who either countenanc'd or comply'd with the offenders and which was more terrible this writ was kept as a Weapon in the Kings hands to use as he saw occasion And to say truth he was so expert at it and indeed at all other points of skill that brought him in any profit that he was too hard at last for the Lawyers themselves those great masters of defence Canvasing his Judges as well as his Bishops when he found both alike rich both alike corrupt Beyond these he could not descend to the consideration of any Criminal save the Jews only for whom perhaps it had been no great Injustice to have taken their Estates if at least he could have been prevail'd with to have spar'd their Lives but as so great Courage as he had would not be without some mixture of Cruelty so 't is the less wonder to see that Cruelty heightened by Covetousness as that Avarice by Ambition the adding to his Treasure by these Exactions being in order to the adding to his Dominions which were not yet so entire as consistent with his safety much less the Glory he aim'd at Wales being then as a Canton of the same Piece divided by a small seam which yet had a Prince of their own blood descended from the antient Stock of the Unconquer'd Britains who it seems had so little sense of the inequality of Power betwixt them that he had given this King great provocations
Providence The Duke of Albemarle in his way to Oxford gave a needless visit to his Father the Duke of York who sitting at the Table chanced to spy something like a Scrole or Parchment in his Sons Breast whereupon he demanded what it was and being not satisfied suddenly he snatched it out with some passion and upon view finding it to be a Counterpart of the Indenture of Confederacy he ordered his Horses to be immediately made ready with intention to go to the King then at Windsor to discover the Plot to him but Youth being more active then Age the Son got before him and being himself the first Accuser of himself obtain'd his Pardon before his Father could come to prove him Guilty The rest of the Lords suspecting by his not keeping time with them that all was discover'd fly to Arms and setting up a Counterfeit Richard who they pretended was escaped out of Prison they advanced to Windsor where not finding the King for he distrusting his Cause no less then his Power had posted before to London they sell upon desperate Counsels Some were of Opinion to march to Leeds in Kent where King Richard till then was and rescue him out of Prison before their Property was found out Others thought it best to march directly up to London and set upon the Usurper before he were ready for his Defence Some again advised to make a defensive War till they might have Aid from the King of France which last Proposal took place as being most agreeable to that Irresolution which their Guilt had brought upon them and accordingly they retreated to Reading and from thence marched down to Leicester led by the hand of Destiny to receive there their fatal Doom accelerated by an Accident not less unexpected then the former For it so happen'd that the Grand Conspirators coming out of their Camp to repose themselves in the Town the Duke of Surrey and Earl of Salisbury lying in one Inne the Duke of Exeter and the Earl of Gloucester in another the Bayliff of the Town by what occasion provoked or by what Spirit directed is not known with a Party of his Fellow Townes-men set upon the two first and stormed them in their Quarters and without consideration that their Army was so near press'd so hard upon them as to kill divers of their Retinue that defended the place and indanger'd their Persons so far that the other two Lords to divert their Fury fired the Town in several places but this not prevailing to give any Relief they retired to bring their Army to rescue them but when they came there they found the same means by which they design'd to save them was the occasion of their loss for those in the Camp hearing the Noise of the Onset and seeing the Town in Flames believing it could be nothing less then the Kings Forces that had done it fled every one their several wayes and so left the distressed Duke and Earl to mercy who like two Lions in a Toil baited with Dogs dyed fighting being rather wearied then vanquished And so King Henry that never could get their Hearts living had the good Fortune to recover their Heads being dead and not long after found a way to reduce the other two under the same Fate the Abbot suddenly dying upon the apprehension of their being dissipated This last Insurrection cost so much of the best English Blood that those of the Welch Blood thought the State so much weakned by it that they might venture to wrastle a Fall with them and accordingly they put in for the recovery of their antient Liberties being incouraged by one Owen Glendour a private Gentleman of more then ordinary Reputation amongst them who mov'd with the sense of a particular Grudge of his own incited them to a general Defiance of the English And first setting upon the Lord Gray of Ruthin who had recover'd certain Lands from him at Law took him Prisoner and repossess'd himself of them after this storming the Castle of Wigmore he took the great Earl of Maâ—ch Prisoner the true Heir of the Crown after the death of King Richard and prevail'd so far that had he been as skilful in keeping as he was in getting of Victories he might have made himself Master of that Greatness as would have been as much above his Enemies Prevention as his own Ambition King Henry hearing that Mortimer was taken caus'd it to be bruted abroad that it was done with his own Consent and thereupon refus'd to redeem him which so incens'd Henry sirnamed Hotspur Son of the first Earl of Northumberland of the Family of the Peircy's who had married his Daughter that he together with his Uncle the Earl of Worcester went over to Glendour and entring into a Tripartite League with him agreed to Depose the Deposer and divide the whole Kingdom betwixt them Wales that is all the Land beyond Severn Westward was to be the Principality of Glendour The Countries from Trent Northward was the Lot of the Peircy's in memory whereof the same being in the Geographical Form of a half Moon they have since given the Crescent for the Cognizance All the rest betwixt Severn and Trent Eastward and Southward was consign'd to Mortimer as his Portion Thus the Dragon the Lion and the Wolf conspired against the Antelope as he before against the Hart his Soveraign and taught by himself they assaulted him with Arms and Articles the last perhaps more dangerous then the first by how much they fought him at his own Weapons The first Article was That he had by his Letters procured Burgesses and Knights of Parliament to be chosen unduly which being one of the Arrows out of his own Quiver with which he had wounded King Richard before troubled him not a little to see it return'd back upon himself The second Article was That he had falsified the Oath made at his first landing when he swore he came over for no other end but to recover his Inheritance The third was That he had not only taken Arms against his Soveraign but having imprison'd him took first his Crown away and after his Life And lastly That ever since his death he had detain'd the Crown from the true Heir Edmund Earl of March their Allie for which Causes they defied him and vowed his Destruction This was the second Earth-quake in this Kings Reign and so much more terrible then the former in that it shuck the very Foundation of all his Greatness by the noise of their Calumniations wherewith as they batter'd him several wayes so they left him the prospect of nothing but dismal Confusion to ensue The Welch goaded him on the one side the Scots on the other those English of Mortimer's party allarm'd him every way But he that wanted not Confidence whilst he wanted a Title to aspire to the Crown when it was uncertain whether he should ever get it or no having got it could not want Courage to keep it and if he were able being
Land was divided into two Armies the one consisting of Two and twenty thousand Foot and One thousand Horse commanded by the Earl of Leicester whose Post was at Tilbury The other consisting of Four and twenty thousand Foot and Two thousand Horse which were the Guard of her Person were Commanded by the Lord Hunsden the Sea-ports being Garrison'd with Twenty thousand old Souldiers who were seconded by the Train'd Bands in the respective Counties where they lay The Guard by Sea consisted of One hundred and forty Ships divided into three Squadrons The two first consisting of Fifty each under the Lord Howard the Admiral and Sir Francis Drake the Vice-Admiral waited the coming of the Enemy in Plymouth Road The last Squadron of Forty Commanded by the Rere-Admiral the Lord Henry Seymour second Son to the Duke of Somerset rode between Dunkirk and Callais to prevent any Conjunction with the Prince of Parma With this great Body she design'd to shew the World her Grandeur but when she meant to shew her Power she made use but of Fifteen of them Now as it happens oftentimes that great Calmes precede great Storms so the Catholick King hoping to out-wit the Heretick Queen a little before his great Fleet was ready to come forth dissembling a passionate desire of Peace press'd hard for a Treaty but whilst he thought to deceive her he was deceiv'd by her For she to return the trick upon him consented to the Proposal and by the sending her Commissioners to Ostend so possess'd him of the suppos'd Advantage he had gotten by it that it's thought it made him appear a little sooner then he would for before they could enter into the business he was entred into the British Seas and was no less shock'd when he found her in readiness then he expected she should have been if he had taken her unawares This made them resolve rather to make a Chase fight then lye by 't though they had the advantage of the Wind their honour being preserv'd till they came to Callais for that it was suppos'd all the haste they made away tended only to the Conjunction with the Prince of Parma but after they cut their Cables having not the Courage to stay to weigh Anchor and made all the Sail they could to fly from only eight Fire-ships it then plainly appear'd they neither understood their own Strength nor hers But these Ships being the first of that kind that ever were seen we may allow them to be The Wonder that gave Name to that wonderful Year In this great Conflict were lost more then half of the Spanish Fleet of the English only one Ship and that of no great Consideration so that 't was believ'd having sounded the danger of our Dark Seas passing round by the North they had taken their final Leave of England However the Queen was resolv'd not to leave them so but after much mischief done them by several Privateers whom she permitted to go forth upon their own Charge she resolv'd to become her self the Aggressor and repay to him the great dishonour of his Invasion it being an Indignity not to be forgiven by Princes because it cannot be forgotten by their People who can never be discharg'd from the Fears they have of him who has once set upon them till there be some Confront given that may assure them their own Prince is not so weak as the Enemy by seeking him out would have the World believe The Fleet she set forth consisted of One hundred and fifty Sail yet was not call'd the Invincible though it prov'd so being commanded by the Earl of Essex as General at Land and the Lord Howard as General at Sea who setting upon Cales the second time took it and in it all the Wealth that may be imagin'd to be lodg'd in such a Store-house as that is and after having burn'd all the Ships they found there for which they were offer'd Two Millions of Ducats if they would spare them they spoil'd the whole Island and demolish'd all the Forts and did as 't is thought as much Damage as amounted to Twenty Millions of Ducats more To requite which the King of Spain rigg'd up another Navy and mann'd it with Irish Runnagado's but either their Skill or their Courage failed them at least the Winds did not so favour them but that the Expedition came to nought And now when all the Storms at Sea seem'd to have been blown over and past there rose a Cloud at Land which gave the Queen greater apprehensions of danger then ever she had before The French King who was joyn'd with her in a League Offensive and Defensive against Spain and had reap'd this good Effect by it to recover Amiens which the Spaniard had surpriz'd by the help of the English only yeilding to the Importunities of the Pope and his own People made his Peace without her who quitting his Religion at the same time he quit her Friendship 't was believ'd they would all joyn to set upon her at once Hereupon there were great Debates in Councel upon the point of her closing with the Spaniard who seem'd much to desire a Peace Essex the great Idol of the Sword-men was for continuing the War Burleigh who was the great Patron of the Pen-men was for the Peace And it seems they argued the matter so warmly that being scarce able to keep Peace amongst themselves 't was not likely they should obtain it abroad For Essex could not forbear unseemly Reflections upon the old man nor he from retorting them back as sharply who 't is said being more witty in his Anger call'd for a Bible at the Table and shewing him that Verse in the Psalms where 't is said The bloody minded man shall not live out half his dayes gave him grave warning by an ominous Presage of that which follow'd for we know how shortly after he swell'd and burst However the Queen mov'd with like Zeal to Religion as Essex was with hatred to the Spaniard inclin'd to his Opinion whereupon Cecil submitted to her Judgment but pray'd to have the Question put first to the States of Holland her Confederates Whether they would agree to her making Peace and knowing it to be against their Interest so to do he took the Advantage of their Refusal to demand an aid towards the carrying on of the War out of whom by that trick of State he did her this good Service against her will to screw Eight hundred thousand pounds which being to be paid by Thirty thousand pounds yearly for which the Queen had Cautionary Towns given as a Security it look'd so like a Tribute that after their having offer'd her the Soveraignty as they did 't is hard to prove it was not so And now casting up the Accompt betwixt her and the Spaniard who was her greatest and not to say her only Enemy for the Pope however he bore no less hatred to her yet being at that distance as he was he could not come to close
lib. 2. Gildas lib. de victor Au. Ambrosii descent from the first Christian (n) Marc. Sabel in Anead 7. lib. 5. Bale lib. 2. King and the first Christian Emperour of the World and so allow'd by the two great Councels of (o) The first Anno 1335. the last Anno 1414. Bazil and Constance for however the King of France would be thought Fils aisne de l'Eglise and accordingly stiles himself Christianissimus i. e. as they themselves interpret it Primus Christianus yet it is notorious that our first Christian King Lucius was three hundred and five years before their first Christian King Clouis and Constantine our first Christian Emperour no less than 466 years before Charles their first Christian Emperour And it is as evident that the very Title it self of (p) Bede vit Oswaldi Christianissimus take it in what sense they please was in use with us above two hundred years before any of their Kings took upon them to usurp it add to this that the Kings of England deduce a (q) Bed Hist Eccles Angl. Lineal descent from the Loins of Christian Princes for the space of near one thousand and three hundred years together without any Interruption or breaking of the Line which no other Princes of the World besides can pretend to or scarcely have been Christians half that time those of France only excepted but then 't is further noted that there have been more Princes out of our Royal Stock Priests Confessours Martyrs and Saints than of any (r) Vincentius other Royal Stock in the World those of France not excepted 11. The Excellence of the British Empire upon a Threefold Accompt The next thing considerable after the natural Dignity inherent in the Person of our Kings is that honour which may be said to be peculiar to them resulting from the Topical Excellence of their Dominion which as it is now branch'd into three Kingdoms so it may be said to have ever been thrice famous 1. For being disjoyn'd from all the World 2. For having no need of the rest of the World 3. For being it self esteem'd another World Though there seems to be no great matter in that remark of the Poet when speaking of us 1. In being disjoyn'd from all the World he saith that we were Toto divisos Orbe Britannos but what may be as applicable to any other Islanders in the World as to Us yet there is an Emphasis in the Conceit that shows he intended it for an Elogy as did our Countryman Mr. Waller by that queint Paraphrase of his 'T is not so hard for greedy Foes to spoil Another Nation as to touch our Soil Which agrees with that we find in old (s) De excidio Jerus l. 2. c. 9. Hegesippus who personating King Agrippa speaking to Claudius of the Britains concludes much like Florus speaking of the Ligurians Major erat Labor invenire quà m vincere as if the difficulty of conquering lay in the difficulty of finding them out hereupon the Isle was call'd by the Antients (t) In Catalect Virgil. de Sabino Insula Ceruli the Isle of the Sea So Lucan speaking of Cesar's conquest here saith (u) Lucan Pharsal 3. Vincula dedit Oceano Now the reason why they call'd this the Isle of the Sea more than any other Island was because that Britain saith the (w) Paniger Maximian Dict. Si mihi Panegyrist did not seem as the rest to be comprehended by the Sea but to comprehend the Sea it self the Ancients taking this Isle to be the very utmost bounds of Nature beyond which there was no day or light which when Agricola had detected by compassing it with his Fleet Tacitus saith of him that he did Aperire maris secretum enter into the very Closet of the Sea and hence it was that (x) Emeritae apud Gionhernon p. 49. Augustus claiming the Dominion of this Isle in right of his Uncle Julius whose Heir he was as Claudius after him in his own right look'd upon themselves to be by a Parasiopesis Lords of the Sea the first giving thereupon for his Symbol a Dolphin the last a Ship and from them our Kings have ever since with no less reason but more right prescrib'd to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being in this more properly like Gods as Holy Writ stiles Kings in General than any other Princes whatever For that they do Incubare Aquis as a (y) T◠Dun. Serm. 43. on the Anniverse of the 5th of Novemb alluding to the 1. Gen. 2. Divine of great Eloquence has express'd it Move upon the Waters with such mighty Fleets as seem to give Laws to that Indomitable Element it self 2. In having no need of the rest of the World 12. The next Excellency ascrib'd to this Isle was that it had no need of any other part of the World Quae toto vix eget Orbe The reason whereof is plain from what has been said before Nam qui mare teneat cum necesse est rerum potiri saith Cicero He that possesses the Sea must necessarily command all things but to recite the benefits of the Sea were to enter upon a Subject as profound as that is and give occasion to our next Neighbour the Dutch who can give a better Account thereof than our selves to upbraid our glory with the shame of having so long suffer'd their depredations who with indefatigable Patience penetrate the Womb of that dark Element to seek for Treasure which we either know not how to find or how to value Pass we then to the consideration of the Land only on which Charles the Great who was wont to call it the Store-house of the Western World made this observation that it not only stands in no need of any other part of the World but every Nation else stood in need of it Cujus totus indiget Orbis ope Nature and Providence having placed us so advantageously as to supply the whole World out of our Superfluities being stor'd with all sorts of Grain saith Zosimus with all sorts of Cattel saith Tacitus with all kind of Timber saith Cesar with all kind of Minerals as Strabo with all kind of Jems but especially Pearl as Suetonius testifies indeed with so much variety of all things necessary profitable and delightful that without vanity we may conclude as (z) Ad An. 1246. Mathew Paris doth that England is the Lady Queen and Mistress of the Sea 13. All Nations have been ambitious to make themselves Masters of this Isle A Mistress that has had many Suitors of almost all Nations to whom the ROMANS that exacted Homage from all others willingly pay'd Homage themselves there having been no less than twenty of their Emperours to Court her here in Person the Canine appetite of whose insatiable Ambition having before devour'd all other honours was not to be Satisfied with any other Title but that of Britannicus Divus habebitur Augustus Horace Od. v. lib. 3. Adjectis
extraordinary Levies yet perhaps not exceeding those ordinary Forces kept in standing pay to supply every Quarter of the Empire there being scarce any Governour of a Province that had not a Guard of Britains to attend about his Person such was the Reputation of their faith and courage At Constantinople the Greek Emperours had a Guard of 2000 as Bodinus computes them which they call'd the Barangi The Praefect of Rome had for his standing Guard two Bands of them more call'd Invicti Juniores Britannitiani The Western Emperours had their Praesentales or life-Guard besides stil'd Exculcatores Jun. Britan. 500. The Praefect of Gaule had a Horse Guard call'd Britones Magistri Equitum Galliarum The Pro-Consul of Spain had a Foot-Guard of about 500 call'd Invicti Juniores Britones besides these we find in Germany the Cohort call'd Ala Britannica Milliaria containing about 1105 footmen and 132 Horsemen In Illyricum another call'd Britones Seniores in Egypt Ala IIII. Britonum nay they were disperst to the furthest parts of the East for we find in Armenia Cohors XXVI Britonum besides Cohors III. and Cohors VII Britannitiani sub Magistro Peditum in Panonia Cohors Prima Aelia Britonum and several others mention'd in the Notitia Provinciarum to the number of not so little as fifty or sixty thousand all these were abroad whilst at home there were no less than 190000 Foot and 17000 Horse as appears by Constantine's Establishment set forth by Panciroll 17. Less known was the Militia of the Saxons than that of the Romans in respect they had no Invitations to any Action abroad excepting only that single Undertaking in Barbary Ann. 905 when they unpeopled the City and Country round about Arzilla contenting themselves with that Insulary glory they had gotten here by conquering a Nation who had so long disputed with the most powerful People in the World So that the best measures of their strength is to be taken from that of their Weakness having lost if their own Historians tell Truth no less than 200000 men before they had half finish'd that great work yet some thought it strange they lost no more considering how those Blood-thirsty Heptarchs their Masters accounted the Lives of their Subjects the least part of the Price of their Victories being so prodigal of blood that they fought no less than (g) Malmesbury Vit. Elfredi nine set Battels in one year wasting their strength to that degree that by subduing they became subdu'd The Danes falling in upon them before they could recover their spirits oppress'd them with greater Numbers than they the Britains before vying with them both in fame and force till there were as many engag'd on either side as would have reduc'd far greater Territories than those they came from had not divine Justice made use of them as a Scourge to each other 18. What the number and strength of the Norman was may be nearly computed by what he did abroad in that holy and what he suffered at home in that unholy War commonly call'd the Barons War The first for Religion the last for Liberty The one having consum'd as many lives as there were stones in the Walls of the holy City they fought for The other not so fatal because pois'd with a more equal force but altogether as formidable there being at least 50000 always ready to do Execution on either side So stood the Case for the first two hundred and fifty years after the Entrance of Wâ—lliam the First The Computation of the middle times must be taken from the Preparations of Edward the Third when he took two (h) Jo. King of France Davâ—â— King â—f Scots Kings and mist but little of taking two Kingdoms at once ingaging himself in a double edg'd War that ended not with his own life nor theirs wherein though it is suppos'd he exhausted as much of the Force as the Treasure of the Kingdom yet he did not so weaken his Successour Richard the Second but that he was able to take the Field with 300000 Foot and 100000 Horse attending him as * Wals ngham Vit. R. 2. Walsingham tells us whose Testimony has the more Credit by how much it is Seconded by (i) Emil. vit Car. 6. Emilius the French Historian who had no cause to magnifie the number of the English at that time Later Computations may be taken from the Preparations of Henry the Eight at Bullen and of Q. Elizabeth at Tilbury at either not so little as 185000 foot and 40000 Porse in readiness for present Service for I am willing to pass by the consideration of those vast numbers which supported that unnatural Quarrel betwixt the two fatal Houses of York and Lancaster much rather to forget the late War betwixt K. Charles the First and the Republican faction wherein 't is believed there were no less than 300000 Foot and neer 100000 Horse actually engaged in Arms it is almost incredible to tell what numbers appear'd in Arms at the Reception of King James when he made his first Entry into England but what we saw with our own eyes at the happy Restauration of our Soveraign that now is must not be conceal'd whose Life-Guard at his Landing were no less than 50000 of the best Horse in the World not reckoning those appointed for the defence of the Realm However all the Computations of our Land Forces fall so short of our Maritime that as there is no Comparison to be made betwixt them so we may say that we have rendred our selves more formidable at Sea by our Canon Law than any other People by any Law of Arms whatsoever The Kings of this Isle are absolute Princes 19. The last instance of the super-excellent Majesty of the Kings of this Isle is that they hold of (k) Bracton lib. 5. Tr. 3. God to themselves and by their Sword not Ex foedore contracto as antiently the Kings of France nor Ex formulâ fiduciae as yet the Kings of Spain neither yet Jure restricto as the Kings of Hungary and the Kings of the Romans much less Ad placitum populi as those of Poland Nec Jure plebiscitâ— as antiently those of Sweden Denmark and Norway who till of late were as precarious as those of Poland But as those who succeeding the Cesars to whom this of (l) All other Provinces were Praesidial and subjected to the Senate Britain whilst it was under the Romans was particularly appropriated became by their voluntary resignation of the Government repossest of the primier right of their Ancestors Vt pro derelicto as the (m) Amifaeus de jure Majest lib. 1. c. 2. Civilians express it or by way of Remitter as our own Lawyers term it being absolutely independent and supream as any of the Roman Emperours their Predecessours were Qui tot tantas obtinuere Libertates quot Imperatores Imperia saith M. Paris and therefore when the Emperour Sigismund came over hither to mediate a peace betwixt our Henry
the Fifth and the French King he was stopt before he Landed by the Duke of Gloucester and divers of the chief Nobility who coming into the very water with their Swords drawn in their hands stay'd his Boat and suffered him not to Land till he had declared Nil se contra Regis Superioritatem praetexere So likewise when (n) Sir Hen. Wotton State Observations 208. Baldwin the Greek Emperour came hither to pray aid of Henry the Third being beaten out of his Country the King sent him a Check instead of a Complement for Landing in his Territories before he had leave given him so to do being Jealous least it might be thought that he had pretended to something as an Emperour that might be Interpreted Superiority he himself being Monarcha in Regno suo as we find in the old Lawyer Baldus and descended from Ancestors that had the Imperial Stile of (o) See the Charter of the Abby of Malmesbury MCCCCLXXIV Rex Regum not only in respect of their having (p) Beauchampe King of the Isle of Wight The Kings of Man c. Kings to their Subjects but in regard to their enjoyment of all those fundamental rights which make up the whole Systeme of Supream power by the Feudists indifferently term'd Jura Regalia and Jura summi Imperii by the Civilians Sacra Sacrorum by our own Lawyers sometimes Prerotiva sometimes (q) As being so Inseparable that they cannot be dissolved by any humane power Inseparabilia which that they may be the better understood I shall consider them as I find them (r) Clapmarus lib. 1. de Arean Imper Cap 11. divided into ten parts reducing those ten like the Decalogue of old into two General Heads of Power i. e. Leges Ponere Legibus Solutum esse 20. For the First The Kings of this Isle have ever been the Lawgivers it is to be understood that however the Kings of this Isle have been pleas'd for the better and more equal Administration of Justice to Indulge the three Estates of the Kingdom who were heretofore call'd their Great Council but since the Parliament with the priviledg of making enlarging diminishing abrogating repealing and reviving all Laws and Ordinances relating to all Matters whether Ecclesiastick Capital Criminal Common Civil or Maritime yet it must be understood after all that neither houses of Parliament now both joyn'd together have in themselves no power as of themselves to do any thing without him much less (s) That is not only to be understood to his Dis nherison but the Diminution of his Prerogative Cook 4. Part. Institut fol. 25. against him no more than the body can make use of any of its members longer than it is actuated by the Soul For from him they have their life and motion Vt Caput principium finis as the Lawyers express it is he that gives them their Inchoation Continuation and Dissolution 'T is true that each Law receives its form Ex traduce Parliamenti that is as our vulgar Statutes express it by advice and consent of the Lords and Commons who sit with the resemblance of so many Kings but they find but the grosser substance or the material part 't is the Royal Assent that Quickens and puts the Soul Spirit and Power into it A Roy's avisero only much more A Roy ne veult makes all their Conceptions abortive when he pleases So that they can be but the Law-makers but the King only is the Law-giver and therefore Stiled in the old Books The Life of the Law and The Fountain of Justice The Kings of this Isle how far above Law 21. This prerogative I speak it out of a great States-mans observation consists in this not that Kings need not observe their Laws for that were a Brutal Tyranny insupportable in the most barbarous States but that they may change them And therefore St. Augustine made that a reason why the Emperours of old were not Subject to their own Laws because saith he they might make new when they pleas'd Now if the King of England should exceed the bounds of his own Laws which if it were lawful were no way convenient for him it being that becomes the wisdome of Princes saith Cicero to consider not how much they may do but what they ought to do in which sense (t) Senec. de cons lat cap. 6. Seneca is to be understood when he said that divers things were not lawful for the Emperour himself who might do all which he pleased It might be rather said in that Case as Grotius excellently distinguishes that he did not rightly then that he went beyond his right The Restraint by his Coronation Oath being like a Silken Coard that may be stretch'd without breaking upon any extraordinary force and violence offer'd as we see it happens upon the discovery and for the prevention of any publick mischief or Inconvenience Where our Kings have De proprio Jure suspended the Laws for a time that is until by advice with his Parliaments he might formally alter or totally repeal them Add to this that every Custom which is a Branch of the Common Law is void Si exultat se in Prerogativam Regis which I suppose is to be understood of the lesser Concerns of his Prerogative in points of Pre-eminence relating to civil Actions or Priviledges personal for as the Learned in the Laws tell us no Sale of his Goods alters his Propriety no Occupancy bars his Entry into his own Lands no Laches in point of time prejudices him as it does private men Again in doubtful cases say they Semper presumitur pro Rege No Estopel binds him nor Judgments final in Writs of Right These and many more such as these there are which we may call Minima Inseparabilia but in all cases where his Prerogative in point of Government is prejudic'd there our great Gownmen hold that he cannot be restrain'd no not by an Act of Parliament nor is he to be restrain'd as I take it in lesser cases unless named And to this it was questionless that the Sage Bracton and the Learned Plowden had respect when the one said the King was above Law to'ther that he was not bound by Law and if it were not so there would be no power left in him to grant any special Charter that in its proper nature is no other than a Dispensation with the positive Laws which can be understood to be binding to the King no otherwise than according to the natural Rule of Order as they are essential to the support of his Government In which Case Kings like good Husbands may be said to be Subjectis suis Subjectos mov'd by a Principle of Affection that voluntarily limits it self according to Rules of Prudence which upon all Emergencies of State on extraordinary occasions are wrested or broken as he himself only sees cause there being a necessity upon which the common safety depends that at such times Princes should be
Astrology Tacitus to their exquisite skill in (d) The Art of Inspection into the Intrals of Beasts Extispacy the Metaphysicks of those times Pliny to their Judgment in Physick Suetonius and divers others to their perfection in Magick both Onomantical and Pneumatological in both which they were very famous The (e) Camdens Anagr. fol. 168. Onomanty was a Mystery something like if not the same with that the Jewish Rabbins call'd Bresith and affirm'd to be first reveal'd by God himself to Moses and after by him communicated to the LXX but by what means transmitted to the (f) The Phoemetans spoke the Language Druids is not certain unless by Correspondence with the Magi of the East For that they were acquainted with the Books of Moses and as he were learned in all the Learning of the Egyptians is not to be doubted In this was lodg'd all the (g) Vid. Archangel in Dogmat Cabalist cap. 19. Learning of Numbers whereby they took their Measures of good and bad Omens and accordingly to direct all their great Actions as believing there was in the Mystery of Numbers a Power predominant over all Persons and Things And accordingly we find they preferr'd one Number above all the rest as believing the Fate of their Nation lay conceal'd in the womb of it this was the Number 6 which was the just measure of the most ancient name of the Isle AABION as likewise of their Common Progenitor MESECH and of his Sire JAPHET to whom he was the 6th Son accordingly they divided the whole Isle into 6 parts that is to say following the British Historians Loegria since properly call'd England which they divided into two parts i. e. as we find in Dion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the higher and the lower part this latter call'd afterwards by the Romans Pars Maritima the other Pars Interior The second Division was Albania since call'd Scotland divided likewise into the high-High-land and Low-land the Inhabitants of the Low-land were those the Romans call'd Caledonii and we properly Scots Those of the High-land were the famous Picts The third Division was that of Cambria since call'd Wales divided into the South and North Country i. e. Demetia and Venedotia as the Romans call'd it or as we find it (h) Vide Seldens Book of Tythes cap. 9. pag. 149. elsewhere Dextralis and Sinistralis Britannia Now what the reason was that they pitch'd upon an even Number since all the Numbers that were of old esteem'd Sacred were odd is not certainly known But some think it was because this of all others was the most perfect Number being the true measure of Time there going just 60 times 6 dayes and 6 over upon the whole to make up a compleat Year as we have since learn'd by the Julian Accompt which probably Caesar had first from their Scholars the Gauls Others conceive they had some respect to the Geometrical Form of the Isle it self which is a Triangle that hath three Sides and three Angles but most like it is that they were herein guided by the number of their Gods whereof they worshipt 6 only But be the reason what it will we find by Observation since that the Energie of this Number hath been more predominant in all the Changes and Alterations that have hapned in the various disposal of the Scepter of this Isle than any other For taking the whole time in pieces since there hath been any mention of Kings here and you will find just 6 Periods or Intervals of Time that the Aboriginal Natives rul'd here each Space containing only 6 Descents The first Space made up of those the Romans called BRITANNI or unmixt Britains being those that had the first and intire Rule without Interruption till their Arrival The second Sort were those whom they stil'd BRITANNICI i. e. Roman Britains such as were made up of their own Nation either born here or that had made some great Atchievment here The third Sort were call'd BRITONES which were properly the Camber Britains then taking a general view of the whole Series of Succession from that to our Times and it will appear there hath been just 6 Dynasties of 6 several Nations that is to say Britains Romans Saxons Danes Normans Scots And some have been so curious as to observe that each of their several (i) Brutus Caesar Eugist Caâ—â—te Victor Jaacob Chiefs had but just 6 Letters in his Name which 6 Master-Builders like those Politick Creatures the Bees who make up their Cells with Poligons of 6 sides have rear'd their Empire upon 6 great Pillars i. e. 1 Rex 2 Prelati 3 Proceri 4 Nobiles 5 Milites 6 Civites and adorn'd it with 6 different kinds of Law i. e. 1 Common Law 2 Statute Law 3 Civil Law 4 Canon Law 5 the Law of Merchants 6 Martial Law And observing the same Rule in the Structure of the Church as of the State have ordain'd 6 Orders of Priesthood as a Medium betwixt the Greek Church that have but 5 and the Roman that hath 9 These were 1 Clerks 2 Sub-Deacons 3 Deacons 4 Priests 5 Bishops 6 Archbishops who in the Primitive and purer times of Christianity are supposed to have taken their turnâ— to officiate daily in the Churches Service dividing the Natural day into 6 parts whereof each had four hours for his Devotion The Pneumatilogical Magick was that which was more properly call'd the Doctrine of (k) Picard in Ciltopaedia Spirits because it was perform'd by secret Intelligences inforc'd with unusual Conjurations Sometimes drawn from the mouth of a Teraphius a way much in use amongst the Jews and by them taught to the People of (l) Melancthon Camarâ—â— fol. 422. Asia and from thence brought as 't is conceiv'd by the Phoeniâ—iam hither Sometimes by the advantage of (m) Divination â—er Speculum Catoptromantical Inspection in imitation as 't is thought by the Learned (n) Poliolb l. 1. Selden of the Caballistick Doctours when they consulted the Urim and Thummim By this Faculty they could disclose it seems the greatest Secrets of Nature and deduce the knowledge of hidden forms to strange and wonderful effects beyond what the Natural Chymistry of humane Understanding could ever extract out of the choicest Elements of Reason Of this kind the Roman Historians Record wonderful Instances but amongst the rest I take that to be the most notable Example when in the beginning of (o) Suâ—tâ—nius Vespatians reign at such time as Civilis rais'd the Rebellion amongst the Batavi the Druids foretold the Removal of the Romans out of this Isle who then had but begun to settle their Possessions here They foretold likewise the Translation of their (p) Tacitus Empire to the Trans-Alpine Nations which has a conceipt so remote and seemingly then so extravagant that it was altogether slighted by Tacitus as a thing ridiculous to believe the first part of which Prophecy was not fulfill'd in near 400 years after
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 even Westward of the West especially the latter which from thence saith Bochart got the Name of Ebernia now corruptly Hibernia which in the proper signification as Melancthon tells us is Ultima habitatio Now for the different sound of the Names of Belinus and Brennus it is no more then what we usually find in almost all Histories whereof divers (h) Seld. Poliolb â—â—lid Virg. Giâ—nan Villani Learned Authors and amongst the rest the Famous Selden himself gives us several Instances But there is nothing of fuller proof then that Verse in Eusebius Sol Osyris idem Dionysius Orus Apollo Nor is it less a Question Whether he that fir'd Rome be the same that troubled Greece then whether either of them were Britains But since it is admitted by (i) T. Livy diverse Historians abroad that they if so be they were two were both of Celtick Extraction and so positively asserted by so many Historians of our own that this Belinus was the man I shall not make it more doubtful by shewing my self over-industrious in the proof of it but conclude with like modesty as the Poet in this as in all things of like uncertainty Si quid novisti rectius istis Candidus Imperti si non his utere mecum LUDBELIN date of accession 3880 BEtwixt the last and this Kings Reign I reckon near about 330 years by the Vulgar account in which Jeffery of Monmouth places a Succession of about 44 Kings But Hollinshed making a digression of 180 years which cuts of 33 from the number leaves him and Fabian and the rest that follow them to make out their Catalogue through this dark Period as well as they can wherein they could not it seems discern Men from Trees otherwise they would not as they have denominated the Isle of Ely from Holy the suppos'd Father of this King which rather was Bely the corruption of Belin whereas the true derivation was from Helig a Willow with which sort of Trees that Isle abounds That which illustrates the name of this Eliod or as he is commonly call'd by contraction Lud or rather Lluid i. e. the brown Belin is that Urbicarii honour given him by consent of a most all Writers of being the Founder of the West wall as the first Belin was of the East wall of the City of London to which the Gates yet bearing their Names give probable Testimony of their memory However there are those that object against both and will have that of Belinsgate to be no more but as if one should say the Kings Gate so call'd because the Kings Toll and Customs was ever paid and brought in there and Ludgate to be no more but Portus Populi changing Lud into Leod which in the old Saxon Tongue signifi'd as Verslegan tells us the Peoples Gate a conceipt as applicable to the Gate of any other great City as to this wherein if private Criticismes might be admitted to derogate from the authority of Antiquity yet the Etymology Hermoldus Nigellus gives of this Name deriving it from Hludo i. e. Preclarus with whom the learned Camden concurs sufficiently repairs that Indignity and excuses the good Will of the good old (k) Robert of Glocester Monk that for the same reason would have London to be quasi Ludstowne a conceipt as allowable as that of Rome from Roma Romus Romanus or Romulus all averr'd by several Historians to be Founders of that City out of respect to the consonancy of the Names only and would doubtless have pass'd for currant had it not lately been exploded by a better Authority which hath inform'd us that it was rather London quasi Lhondine i. e. the City of Shipping with which agrees that of Huntingdon one of as good credit as any of his Time who turns this Lud or Lhuid into Lond to render him the Prince of Shipping All that we hear of him in the British Story is That he left two Sons under Age at the time of his death the elder call'd by the Romans Androgius the younger Theomantius either of whom being unfit to succeed in the Government by reason of their Minority the Britains after the manner of most Nations at that time chose the nearest in Merit as well as in Kin to succeed which was their Uncle Cassibelin or Belin the Yellow CASSIBELIN date of accession 3995 THIS King as he was the first of all the British Princes that shew'd himself upon the Stage of Action so being not content to be Chief unless he were absolute he made so good use of the Accidental part of his Fortune the minority of his two Nephews that he took the confidence having first justled them out of all hopes of succeeding their Father to quarrel with all that stood near him in the Government Two there were more eminent then the rest of whom it was doubted whether their Malice or their Power were the greater Comoc Prince of the Attrebatii and Imanuence Prince of the Trinobantes the first a sullen subtil man the last more open very rash but Popular neither of them so confident in his Power as affected with his merit yet being united by the concord of their Discontents they began to swell and be tumultuous but as Wisdom when it wants Integrity like Salt when it hath lost its savour is not only as insignificant but oftentimes more hurtful then Folly it self so their publique Pretensions being tainted with private Malice and Ambition lost so much of the efficacy that was expected from so smart a beginning that their Forces not answering their forwardness the one was compell'd to submit to be a Prisoner the other an Exile Comoc apply'd himself to Caesar then in the higher part of Gallia and to make himself the more acceptable presented to him the young Prince Androgeus as a Pledge for the homage of the whole Isle This gave that great Son of Fortune the first prospect of the greatest design Humanity was capable of at that time and so much the more worthy the thoughts of him who would be esteem'd nothing less then a God by how much the Transports of his invincible Spirit carried his Resolutions to the conquest of another World altogether unknown to his Country-men and scarce probable to have been discover'd by him had not their fatal Ambition destin'd to be so officious to his rais'd his Fame upon the Ruins of their own Easier it was for Coâ—â—oc to prevail with Caesar to take the Sea then for Caesar to prevail with his Legions to quit it who finding the Britains all in Arms ready to oppose their landing refus'd to set foot on shore till Mandubrace Son of Imanuence whose head Cassibelin took off upon his departure with Conioc having chang'd his Nature with his (l) For the Romans call'd him Scaeva in respect of the cruelty he shew'd to his Country-men Name leapt first into the Water and by the fierceness of his Example urg'd them to quit their Ships who could not yet
them a greater advantage by their dispair then themselves could have hoped from their natural Fortitude for not knowing how to overcome he took from them all hopes of yielding and shewed them thereby a way to conquer him which they could not have found before he wrote himself Universal Monarch a Title he design'd to rip out of the Womb of Providence having not patience to expect the Birth of his Greatness His Fall so crush'd the growth of his Successors that they recover'd not in many years after but as backward Springs produce the best Fruit so the Glory that came late held the longer their heads proving as active as their hands their hands as bountiful as their hearts and their hearts as large as their purses Whilst they were Pagans they fortified themselves by extraordinary Acts of Cruelty but after they became Christians they rais'd them by as great works of Charity Once they were closely begirt and in so low a Condition that they were forc'd to redeem themselves by a Tribute from the Power of the Northumbers but having recover'd this they stood fair to have taken in the whole Heptarchy under the Government of Offa the Series of whose Prosperity had it not been interrupted by one unlucky Action the Guilt whereof not only dampt his own Spirit but cast a fatal Vale of Distrust on all his Successors had probably reach'd beyond the bounds of an insulary Glory as appears by the Emulation of his Contemporary Charlemain who much disdain'd he should have the honour to be stil'd The Great as well as himself but having inhospitably murther'd Ethelbert King of the East-Saxons coming to his Court under the Security of Publick Faith as a Suiter to his Daughter His Innocent blood was by Divine Vengeance charged so home upon his Posterity that their Greatness declin'd as Planet-struck from that very time So that of Nine Descents after him there was only one that had not a short but not any that had not a very sinister and unprosperous Reign till Fate drew the Circle of their Royalty to the full Compass stopping thereby the hand of Providence from any further motion So that from that time their Kingdom like a great Tree blown down but not quite rooted up lay so low that some Branches or other were lopt off daily from it till the West-Saxon seiz'd on the main Body as a Windfall due to him after it had stood the shock of Three hundred forty five Winters THE ORDER OF THE KINGS OF EAST-ANGLES VI. I. date of accession 578 UFFA seventh in descent from Caesar second Son of Woden was the first King of the East-Angles from him call'd the Kingdom of the Uffins whose Reign was rather happy than long yet long enough to confirm the Succession to his Son II. date of accession 583 TITULUS who did nothing to make himself known more than being the Father of III. REDWALD who in assisting Edwin the Northumber lost his eldest Son and that broke his heart so that the second Son IV. date of accession 625 ERPENWALD took place the first Christian of this Race converted by the aforesaid King Edwin with so much dislike of his People that a base Villain adventur'd to murther him and so made a way to his younger Brother V. date of accession 636 SIGEBURT whose converse with Learning and Learned men being bred in France rendred him so favourable to both that the two Universities Oxford and Cambridge do to this day contend for the honour of having him their Founder He gave up his Royalty to his Kinsman VI. date of accession 638 EGRICK who with himself and the next in Succession VII date of accession 642 ANNA were all slain by the Pagan Penda who plac'd here the younger Brother VIII date of accession 654 ETHELHERD a Traytor to his Countrey and his own blood worthily depriv'd of Life and Kingdom by the famous Osâ— in the Northumber that put in IX date of accession 656 ETHELWOLD Regent in Trust for his Nephew X. date of accession 664 ALDULPH eldest Son of Ethelherd then a Child who wasted nineteen years without any memorable Action leaving his Brother XI date of accession 683 ELWOLPH to deserve a little of Posterity and his People Neither did the younger Brother XII date of accession 714 BEORN excel either of them for he left neither Wise Issue or Action to continue his memory whereby XIII date of accession 714 ETHELRED took place famous for nothing but being the Father of XIV date of accession 749 ETHELBERT the Unfortunate who was murther'd by Offa the Mercian after whose death the said Offa broke into this Kingdom of the one side and the West-Saxon on the other and the King of Kent on another side each preying like Vultures upon the headless Trunk or like Pikes in a Pond which devour one another till they were beaten off by a Stranger one XV. date of accession 771 EDMUND the Son of Alkmond a German Prince made Executor of one Offa a Prince of this Family and the next it seems in blood as well as in right who dying at Norimberg in his passage to the Holy Land adopted this Edmund his Heir who defending his Title was slain by the Danes who thereupon placed here a King of their own as will appear in its proper place THE Saxons having engaged their whole Nation to an entire Conquest of this Isle partly out of desire of glory but more of gain ceased not daily to oppress the dismay'd Britains with unequal numbers who growing base with their Fortune lost their Courage as fast as their Countrey fighting so faintly at the last that when they prevail'd they were afraid to pursue which made Fortune out of love with them that she seldom or never took their part The report hereof being carry'd into Germany every person that had any sense of Honour or Necessity emulous of his Neighbours Forwardness or asham'd of his own Sloth transplanted himself hither with whatsoever Forces he could get together And amongst the men that took advantage of this common Calamity was this Uffa in the beginning a Viceroy to the Kings of Kent in the Provinces of Suffolk and Norfolk who having over-run all the Countrey about the Isle of Ely to the uttermost parts of Cambridgshire joyn'd those to these and made up the sixt Kingdom stil'd the Kingdom of the East-Angles but with respect to him the Kingdom of the Uffins It was one of the least in dimensions but greatest in dignity of all the Seven for the Kings being but fifteen in number were deservedly esteem'd the wisest and valiantest of all this Nation by how much though their Title were the worst the best part obtain'd by treachery their Advantages the least their Territories the narrowest and their Adversaries the most numerous not to say the most puissant that is the haughty Northumber the implacable West-Saxon the cruel Mercian and the victorious Eskin the three last assaulting them all at one time yet they maintained a
to divide the Kingdom between them And to make the attonement appear as acceptable to their Armies as to themselves they transacted their Persons by exchange of Cloaths and Arms Edmond appearing to the Danes in dress like Knute Knute like K. Edmond to the English a fatal exchange for this poor Prince who whilst they seem'd thus to become each other he only remain'd not himself falling by degrees from being half a King to be very shortly after none betray'd by false gâ—ounds of security into an unpittied Ruine whilst he prefer'd a bad Peace before a good War and neglected those means for the preservation of life which he might have learn'd from the continual expectation of death and that which made his end more deplorable was that with him perish'd the English Monarchy For however it seem'd to have recover'd it self again in the same age yet it prov'd like a plant new set after it had been long out of ground which whiles there remains any sap in the root will send forth fresh Sprouts but those so weak and tender that the least bruise makes them wither and die the mistaken Majesty of the Kings that succeeded him being no less crazed and infirm than they themselves who fainted away upon the first wounds given them and bled themselves to death in one single Battle THE FOURTH DYNASTY OF DANES OF DANES THE Danes were a People whose Original Tradition hath with much ado trac'd through the Dusky Foggs of the Euxine Sea unto the Fens of Meotis which being the first place they were ever known to Inhabit they liv'd there under the obscure name of the Cymeri till they were expuls'd thence by the Scythians who as Orosius Olaus Magnus and others affirm have continued there ever since Vellius will have it that they were drove out thence by a sudden Inundation of the Country upon which they petition'd the Romans then Lords of almost all the World for the assignation of some vacant place in their Dominions But the meanness of their Condition inclining the Romans to slight if not deny their request they were necessitated to rove up and down in an unsetled Condition for some years At last 't is said they fix'd in Scandia where possessing themselves of the strongest Part of those cold Islands in the Baltick Ocean they found an opportunity to justle out divers Roman Colonies This begat a quarrel and that at last a War in which the Romans lost several of their Generals before they could reduce them to any Terms of Submission A little after this which was yet before the Incarnation they began to undermine their next Neighbours the Jutes who as Munster relates dwelt right over against them on the Chersoness that jets out into the Aoust Sea By that Contest they gave the World so good an account of their skill in Naval Fights that the Jutes weary of their Vicinity left them the possession of that Promontory and came themselves over into this Isle of ours Thus by commanding the Sea they made themselves first Lords at Land and with their new Seats they got a new Name the broad-mouth'd Northern People about those parts calling them the DANS whether from Dan their King as some too ancient to be refuted fancy or from Dom the abbreviation of Dominus as the Spaniards got the Stile of Don amongst them being of that haughty humour that they would be called by no other name after they came hither but Lordanes or whether from DAN which as Junius tells us signified a Firr-tree whereof they had there such abundance that it continues yet their Staple Commodity I will not take upon me to determine Certain it is that most Writers reckon them amongst the Minores Gentes but if their own Records speak Truth we must look on them as the off-spring of the Scythians the noblest Race of People in the World from whom all the Northern Nations were as ambitious to derive themselves as those in the East from the Medians those in the South from the Aethiopians or those in the West from our Ancestors the Germans There are who reasonably enough conclude them to be a branch of these last For the Posâ—erity of Gomer planting in Italy disburthen'd part of their numbers into Germany and part into Gaul From those in Germany sprung two Branches the Francks and the Danes as * Fuag 8. lib. Goth. Procopius tells us both promiscuously at that time call'd Normans From those in Gaul sprung our Ancestors the Britains and those of Belgia by which 't is evident We that at this day are call'd English were originally all of one Stock Neither hath the change of Names or Nations much altered our Natures but that we continue to be still the same in humour as we were ever in point of Constitution They were as indeed most of the Inhabitants of the Septentrional part of the world a hardy and bold I cannot say brave People for their behaviour was plain and rude and they so affected their own manners that however they were led by Providence into Countries where they pertook more of Civility and the Sun yet they would not be mov'd to change any of their ancient Customes having but little sense of honour and less of danger aiming more at gain then glory Insomuch that they were altogether strangers to such gay distinctions of Honour as are since in fashion and wherewith those now in Denmark have been but very lately acquainted the reason was for that all their Dignities were Personal and not Hereditary held by no other Charter but that of their Vertue So that their wise Kings observing that old Adage Virtutis Laus Actio never suffered them to want fresh Occasions of Action whereby they sold them the honour they pretended to give them by parting with it not so much as a Reward of past as an earnest of future Services Neither did this a little inhance the value of their Nobility which being for term of life only as it fell sooner into the Kings hands to be remunerated again with better improvement and advantage so the Persons dignifi'd were not apt to be infected with those haughty conceipts which most usually puff up the minds of such as are born Noble who believing something to be in their Blood that differences them from the common Rank of Subjects the Obligation whereof they have either forgotten or hold to be discharg'd by their Ancestors grow insolent and factious and by their disloyalty not seldom disturb both their own Families and the Kingdoms peace Of this Knute had so sad a proof that as soon as he came to be King of England he indeavoured to discharge all his Grandees that might any way pretend to have any share in his Conquest crushing the two great Paladines Irtus and Turkill the one Earl of Northumberland t'other of Merkland each of whose Principalities were so independent and govern'd by such distinct Laws as made them so absolute that the Monarchy till then looked like
the Earl of Bolloigne the Kings Brother in law whose Harbingers being kill'd in the Scuffle the King commanded Goodwin as Lord Lieutenant of that County to do Justice on the Offenders but he deny'd returning this popular Answer That it was against his Conscience to execute his Country-men unheard upon the complaint of Strangers This coldness of his rais'd such a sudden heat in the Common People that there wanted nothing to set the whole Kingdom in a Flame but to tell them their Liberties were in danger and that there was no body durst assert them but the Earl Goodwin King Edward perceiving his design and doubting least it might bring him himself into suspition with his People being upon the matter a Stranger as having been alwayes brought up in Normandy he resolv'd to question him in open Parliament and accordingly he summon'd him and his Sons to give their attendance but they refusing to appear both sides armed London was divided in the Quarrel for the King possessed all on this side the Thames the Earl all on the other side next Kent But such is the terrour of Guilt that the Night before the Battel was to be fought the Rebels quit their General and by that commendable Treachery forc'd him to quit the Realm who taking shipping at Greenwich fled away as fast by water as his Complices did by Land The King upon this turn was so changed in his humour incensed at this their gross contumacy that he grew extreamly cholerick and peevish discharging his Anger with that violence upon all the Earls Friends that it recoil'd back upon the spotless Queen her self whom in the transport of his Passion he accus'd of a * Incontinency Crime which if she had been guilty of himself could not have been Innocent having as he was not ashamed afterwards to confess never perform'd the Duty of a Husband to her under which pretended Jealousie she was forced to suffer a years Imprisonment in a Cloyster partaking patiently the Pennance of those who were under a Vow never to know any man only to satisfie him who had before vowed never to know any woman This Indignity offer'd to the Innocent Daughter in whom saith Ingulphus there was no fault but that she was a Rose of that prickly stock did so stimulate the guilty Father for whose sake she suffer'd that he meditated nothing but the extreamest Revenge and by frequent Piracies so disturb'd all Trade that the King finding that the popular were on his side was glad to compound with him for his quiet upon his own tearms yielding to the banishment of all Strangers which Concession did his business but undid the Kingdoms For as it made way for his Son to be as he design'd him a King so it was the fatal occasion of that unexpected Invasion of the Normans abetted by the Earl of Bolloigne that had the first affront given him which not long after not only overwhelm'd the particular honour of his own Family but the glory of the whole English Nation by a Conquest so universal and sudden as if the Strangers they banish'd had gone out of the Country for no other end but to fetch in more However Heaven suffered not him to see either the fruit or punishment of his dark purposes it so falling out that whilst he design'd to have devour'd the whole Kingdom he was himself choak'd with a small morsel of Bread that went the wrong way down and by his death put such a full point to all great Actions as shews that either he did all that was done then or the King did not long survive him whose Reign being nothing else but a Commentary upon that Earl's Ambition 't is no marvel that his Fame began where t'others ended being sounded upon Opinion rather then Action whilst his Magnanimity was interpreted Patience and his Patience judg'd the Effect of Wisdom But they that duly examine the whole course of his life will find that the active part of it declar'd him scarce a good man the passive certainly not a good King and however the Clergy who were well brib'd extoll'd his Chastity and Piety yet 't is evident that the first was not without manifest wrong to his Wife whom not to use was the highest abuse the last with no less Ingratitude towards his Mother whom upon like suspicion he put to such a kind of Purgation as might have condemn'd the greatest Innocence causing her to pass the * To go over 9 red hot Houghshares bare-footed blinded laid at uncertain distances either of which if she touch'd she was hold guilty Ordeale or Fiery Tryal then in fashion But this unkindness to them is the less when compar'd with that to himself in the total disregard of all Posterity affecting more to be a Benefactor to then a Father of his Country as believing Religious Houses more lasting Monuments then Religious Children whereby it came to pass that for want of Issue of his own Body he was fain to leave the Succession to one that was both a Child and a Stranger little knowing and less known to the English as not having so much of the Language as might serve to demand or declare his Right when he was to recover it nor so much Spirit or Judgment as to shew himself sensible of the Injury when he was afterwards put besides it A fit adopted Successor for such a Sacerdoting King of whom if I should give an impartial Character I must say that he was rather cold then chast rather superstitious then religious fitter to be a Monk then a Monarch indeed so sottish that as 't is reported of Vitellius he would have forgotten he was born a Prince if others had not put him in mind of it So that 't is no marvel considering either his own weakness or his that was to have come after him that his Steward Harold by having only the rule of his Houshold should take upon him as he did to rule the Kingdom and he thought the fittest man however half a Dane to support the English Monarchy HAROLD date of accession 1065 AS there is no temptation so powerful as that which arises from the knowledge of a mans Power so there is no Consideration of that force as to make a man quit his Ambition that thinks he hath merited a Crown Harold having resolv'd to be a King tarries not till the People made him so but to take the charge of Injustice off from them boldly steps into the Throne the better to out-face his Rivals from thence who being no less then three two on a pretended and one with a real Right he conceiv'd they must justle one another before they could come at him The pretenders were Swain King of Denmark whose claim was as the undoubted Heir of the last Knute and William Duke of Normandy that set up a Title by Gift and Conveyance from the last King Edward But of these the first was ingaged in a War with the Swede the last imbroyl'd in
wade through a Suit without fear of being over-whelm'd it being impossible to suffer but by Judgment of his Inquest as it was then and hath been ever since call'd which consisting of twelve men could not have continued thus long after so many strivings and struglings for Liberty as have been since that time had not the wisdom of so many Ages judg'd it to be the greatest priviledge the Subject could be capable of being that indeed which no less Circumscribes the Soveraigns Power then the Subjects Obedience so that doubtless he hop'd to naturalize himself by it into their good opinion and liking But that which frighted them most was the black Censual Roll therefore call'd by that dismal Name of the Dooms-day Book which discovering the secrets of their Estates left them under strange apprehensions of ensuing Oppression and Tyranny however it was no otherwise intended then as an Instrument to confirm his own by establishing their Rights and Proprieties which having been before under a very uncertain Title and very odly qualified the Tenures of †That is by Charter or Writing Bokeland which they call'd Freehold belonging only to the Nobility being perchance no better then the ancient Fifes that depended on the Will of the first Donors he made absolute and hereditary The Tenure of ‖ Or the Land of the common Foâ—k Folkland which was without Writing and so much worse then Tenants at Will at this day that we need not doubt to call it Villenage he chang'd into Estates for Life which have since shew'd us the way to those in Tail neither did he clog their Estates with many Taxes however reputed very avaricious but found out many witty sleights to avoid the necessity of Land Taxes as knowing how clamorous and burthensome they are laying only that of Escuage upon them which yet was done by way of composition rather then imposition in lieu of which he took off that of Danegelt which was sufficient one would have thought to have abated the Grievance Yet such was their Obstinacy Ingratitude or Disdain that they never ceas'd to plot or practise Treason against him giving him renew'd Jealousies from their successive and like to prove successful Conspiracies which as great Waves came thick upon the back of one another never breaking but with so apparent danger as threatned him with a wreck in Port after his escape of all the storms at Sea First Edric the Forrester incouraged by the Welch after Edwin and Morcar Brothers to the late Queen incourag'd by the Scots thinking their splendor eclipsed by the interposition of so many stranger Princes as waited daily in his Court flew to Arms and drew many after them of the Lay Nobility whilst the two Arch-bishops who followed them were attended by as strong a Party of the Clergy the first pretended to make the war legal the last to render it meritorious and whiles he set himself to suppress this danger in the North a new Rebellion presented it self in the West The Citizens of Exeter and those of Oxford incourag'd by the report of new Forces brought out of Ireland by the Sons of Harold not only shut up their Gates but perswaded the Countries also round about to expostulate their Liberties with Swords in their hands and whilst he turns to these they of the North are reinforc'd again by the arrival of two Sons of Swain King of Denmark with a Fleet of no less then 300 Sail and whilst he sent another Party to confront these there rose a storm behind them out of the Isle of Ely and after all this the wide distent of these Tumors fed from many secret Veins swell'd up into a general Combination of all the Neighbour Princes together so that no less then six Kings drew upon him at once the King of France who had 100000 men in readiness to invade him in Normandy the King of Denmark who had prepar'd a Navy of 1600 Sail to invade him by Sea the King of Ireland who appeared with 65 Sail more to second him and the Kings of Scotland and Wales opening their Ports to let them in This though it made the danger seem so much the more considerable by how much it was scarce to be prevented without such a vast Expence of Treasure and Blood as might hazard an irrecoverable Consumption if not put him again to the winning of England yet the resolutions of his great Mind being prae-ordain'd for the great work he had undertaken he shew'd no manner of Consternation at all till at last a way was found to bring himself against himself by setting up his eldest Son Robert to disseize him of the Dutchy of Normandy without any colour of Right This Rebellion indeed was so much the more grievous to him because unnatural and therefore the only one he thought fit to repress by the Authority of his own Presence wherein he proceeded not as one that went to take revenge upon an Enemy or reduce a Rebel but as he ought to chastize an undutiful Son proceeding however with that calmness as if he designed to defeat his Enterprize and not him or in truth rather to surprize then subdue him casting about how he might make him more asham'd then afraid not doubting but like Caesar to overcome him as soon as he came over to him but such was the malignity of his Stars as to make his Son a double Conqueror over him first in commanding his life which shew'd his Power then in giving it back again to him which shew'd his Piety but this as it was too great a Gift to be acknowledged or forgotten so he receiv'd it with such inward indignation as shew'd he only pardon'd what he could not punish But it appear'd afterwards that it was not in the young Rebels power to give back the life he had proceeded so near taking away for the wound in his Spirit was so much deeper then any of those on his Body that it could never be cured however skin'd over bleeding inwardly unperceiv'd till he died which however it were not long after yet he out liv'd most of those great men that were Actors with him in his Undertakings and left not the world till he had sufficiently requited the King of France for this unpardonable injury of seducing his Son taking a slight occasion from a Jest to shew how much he was in Earnest in his Revenge For that King having scoffed at his great Belly saying That he lay in when he was sick at Roan he return'd him word That he should have notice of his Upsitting by the many Bonefires he would make in the heart of his Country Neither was he worse then his Promise for he depopulated all the Towns of note that lay in his way till he came to Mants in the destruction of which goodly City he got his own the Ream of his Belly being broke as 't is thought by a sudden leap of his Horse frighted at the sight of the Conflagrations as he passed by the
of action takes the measure of his hopes from that of their fears and whilst they judg'd it hard to repress them because they were thus divided he took that advantage to break them like single sticks as he found them lye scatter'd one from the other who had they been united under one Bond could not have been so easily confounded After which he heal'd the wounds he gave them by gentle Lenitives relaxing their Tributes remitting their Priviledges and indulging them to that degree as never any King before him did by which means he prevail'd with the very same men to carry the War into Normandy whereby wounding his Brother Robert with the very Arrows taken out of his own Quiver and the same which he had directed against him it appears how much he had the better of him in point of Understanding as well as of Power This breach with the elder gave him the first occasion of breaking with his younger Brother for having a strong Army on foot Duke Robert after his having concluded a dishonourable Peace with him desir'd his aid in reducing the Castle of Mount St. Michael detain'd from him by Prince Henry who being not paid the money he had lent him to carry on the War against King William for Robert had pawn'd to him the Country of Constantine but afterwards took it away again seiz'd upon this Castle in hope by the help of some Britains he had hired to serve him for his Money to have done himself right but Robert made this advantage of the dis-advantage King William had brought upon him to ingage him in reducing t'other unhappy Prince that doing a kindness to one lost both his Brothers the one taking offence at his demand t'other at the Occasion whereby both set upon him at once and besieging him forty dayes brought him to the point of yeilding but the same evil Spirit that first divided them to do more mischief did this good to unite them again working upon the good Nature of Duke Robert and the ill Nature of King William the same effect for upon his Submission William to be revenged on Robert for having entertain'd his Competitor Atheling judg'd Henry to be satisfied his Debt by a day certain out of those very Lands which the other had assign'd to Atheling for a Pension upon which Robert's pity turn'd immediately into spight and when Henry came for his Money he clap'd him up in Prison and kept him in Duress till he releas'd the Debt Henry complaining of this Injustice to the King of France his Brother William being then return'd into England was by him put into Arms again and by the surprizing the Castle of Damfront recover'd back most of his Security with all the Country of Passais besides Robert hereupon pleads that King William had fail'd of paying him in certain Sums of Money due by promise to satisfie Henry and that by reason of this failure he could not perform with him and to satisfie himself for the Damages done him by this pretended breach of Williams he fell upon King William's Castles This drew him over the second time whether to right Prince Henry or himself was not declar'd who putting on a Vizard of Indignation to afright Duke Robert as if he had intended nothing less then the Conquest of all Normandy sends back into England for an Army of 30000 to joyn with those Forces he had there by the fame whereof having done more then perhaps any body could with the men themselves if they had arriv'd he sent private Orders to his General being then at the Water-side to dismiss every man that would lay down ten shillings by which queint trick of State never practised before he rais'd so great a Sum as not only serv'd to pay the King of France his Bribe for not assisting his Brother Robert and to defray his own present charge but in effect to purchase all Normandy which thereupon was Mortgaged to him by Robert to furnish himself for that great Expedition of recovering the Holy Land from the Infidels An Undertaking politickly recommended by Urban the Second to all such Princes as he fear'd or had a mind to fool as so meritorious a work that it was indeed as he represented the matter a kind of taking Heaven by Violence whereby he so wrought upon the easie Faith of that Active and Ignorant Age that without any great difficulty he prevail'd with them to cast themselves under a voluntary Ostracisme whilst himself and those that were Parties in that holy Cheat imbarazed in a Contest with the Emperor about Superiority were deliver'd from the men of Power and Credit they most suspected to take part with him and by the purchase of their Estates and Seigniories greatly inriched the Church af erward King William thus happily rid of his elder Brother who as I said before had pawn'd his own Land to recover that for the Church was at leisure to return home to make even all reckonings with his elder Enemy the King of Scots by whose death and his Sons both kill'd in the act of Invasion he made himself so far Master of their Country as to compel them to accept a King from him who having serv'd him in his Wars and being for that Service prefer'd by him they durst not yet refuse though they might reasonably expect he would be alwayes at his Devotion This made the King of France so jealous of his growing Greatness that to prevent his coming over Sea again he tamper'd with the discontented Norman Nobility to set up Stephen E. of Albemarle his Fathers Sisters Son upon what pretence of Right appears not but he whose manner 't was to meet danger and not tarry till it found him out prevented the Conspiracy by seizing on the chief Conspirators Mowbray d'Ou and d'Alveric who being the first Examples of his Severity were so cruelly treated that if any men could be said to be murther'd by the Sword of Justice they were but the Ill of this Severity had that good effect that this first Instance of his Cruelty made it the last occasion to him to shew it so that from that time all War ceasing he betook himself to the pleasures of Peace And now deeming himself most secure he met with an unavoidable I cannot say unexpected Fate for like Caesar his Parallel he had sufficient warning of it both by his own and his Friends Dreams the night before the Nature whereof was such as he could not but contemn it because he could not understand it and having never been daunted by his Enemies he was asham'd to seem now afraid of himself however the perplexity of his thoughts disorder'd him so far that in despight of his natural Courage which was perhaps as great as ever any mans was he could not find in his heart to go out all the morning of that day he was kill'd and at Dinner which argued some failure of his Spirits he drank more freely then his usual custome was that accelerated his Fate
much better success than he that the victorious Empress was forc'd to give place to the more victorious Queen and so hardly escaped that to save her life she was content to be reckon'd amongst the dead being carried off in a Coffin as if she had been kill'd and so forc'd to leave him a prisoner behind that was indeed the life of her Cause the Earl of Gloucester her Brother and her General whose liberty being set against that of the Kings both sides became even again in the list of their fatal Contention And now the Kings Party labours to recover what they had lost those of the Empress her Faction strove only to keep what they had gain'd till both having tired out and almost baffled the Courage of their partakers at home sought for recruits abroad Maud sends into Normandy the King into Flanders each side seems to fright from this time forward not so much for Victory as Revenge But whilst they fright the people with a noise of their great preparations the bubble of expectation swollen to its full height broak and the hopes of either side sunk so low by the death of Prince Eustace Son and Heir to the King and that of the Earl of Gloucester the only pillar which supported the Empress this the party by whom that the party for whom the War was first begun not to say miantain'd that they concluded a Peace for want of strength rather than of stomach all things ending as they began by determination of the free vote of the people who in an open Parliament at Winchester parted the Stakes as evenly as they could giving to King Stephen the Crown during life to Henry Son of Maud and as some think by him the reversion expectant after his death who if he were not his Natural was thereupon made his adopted Son and so ended the troubles of this King which seem to have been so agreeable to his nature that as soon as they ceased he ceased to live surviving the War no longer than just to take leave of his Friends being evicted by an Ejectione firmâ brought against him by Fate to let in the Son of his Enemy after he had held the possession notwitstanding the continual Interruption given him nineteen years with great prosperity though little or no peace witness those many works of Piety done by himsel or others in his time there being more Instances of that Nature during his short Raign than had been in many years before He was the first King of the Plantaginets and began his Raign as the Great Solomon who was near about his Age did his with the choice of wise Councellors to take off all objections against his youth with the expulsion of all Strangers to take off all objections against his being a forrainer with the resumption of all aliened Crown Lands to take of the fear as well as the necessity of Taxes which as it increas'd his reputation no less than his revenue so he pleas'd many with disgusting but a few After this he pluck'd down all those Castles which being erected by King Stephen's permission had proved the nurseries of the late rebellion and he did it with the less clamour in respect the people thought it contributed as much to their quiet as to his own Lastly by expelling those false Lords that contrary to their oath given to his Mother took part with the Usurper Stephen he at once satisfi'd his Revenge and confirm'd the opinion conceiv'd of his Justice and Piety Thus having got the start in point of honour as well as of Riches of all the neighbour Princes his Contemporaries one would have thought so prosperous a beginning must have concluded with as prosperous an ending but it sell out quite otherwise for to the rest of his Greatness was added that of having great troubles and troubles of that durance as ended not but with his life Nor could it well be otherwise for he was of a restless spirit seldome without an Army seldomer without an Enemy but never without an Occasion to provoke one for he was a great ingrosser of glory whereby being necessitated to set himself against every one every one set themselves against him and the confederations against him were so well timed that in one day they invaded him in England Normandy Acquitain and Britain but that which made his unhappiness seem singular was that the greatest part of his Enemies were those of his greatest Friends I mean not such as were of remoter relations as subjects servants confederates or allies c. but those of nearest propinquity his brother his wife his own children such as were flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone so that he could not possibly sight for himself without fighting against himself like those who to preserve life are constrain'd to dismember themselves wherein the malice of his Fate seem'd to exceed that of his Foes whiles it drew more cross lines over his Actions than Nature had drawn over his Face rendring all his undertakings so disasterous that even when he had the best on 't he seem'd yet to have the worst on it and lost his honour though he got his enterprize Thus when he recover'd the Earldome of Northumberland from David King of Scots and the Dukedom of Anjou from his brother Geoffry the first by the power of his Wisdom the last by the wise management of his power both which contests ended not without giving to each of them full satisfaction for their pretentions yet one brought upon him the clamor of injustice t'other the scandal of Avarice two vices ill beseeming any man worse a King So in the dispute he had with the Earl of St. Giles about the County of Tholosse which was his Right though t'others Possession he was fain to ask peace of one that he knew was unable to carry on the War and after he brought him to his own terms was himself so hamper'd with the same Fetters he put upon him that in conclusion he suffer'd no less in the opinion of his wisdom than he had before in that of his power So when he married his Son Henry to the daughter of his great Enemy the King of France with a prudent design of being reconcil'd to him in a nearer combination he found that instead of keeping him out of his Territories which was all he had to care for before the Match he had now let him into his House to do him more mischief with less difficulty there being more danger by his undermining than battering whiles himself permitted the pit to be made in which the foundation of his Sons greatness was to be laid to whom having given too early an expectation of his Kingdom by allowing him the title of King without being able to give him the Grace to tarry for his death he found when 't was too late that a Crown was no estate to be made over in Trust yet this he did not by chance neither as one transported by any Fatherly
his Friends charging all his misfortunes upon disloyalty of the Earls and Barons that refus'd him aid whom therefore he fin'd first the seventh part of their Goods after that the thirteenth part of all their Moveables and not content with the aid of their Purses forced them at last with the hazard of their Persons to attend him in the prosecution of a no less chargeable then disadvantageous War where the recovery of part of his own indangered the total loss of their own Estates This as it was grievous to the Subject in general so more particularly to the Nobility being most of them descended out of Normandy and by his ill management shut out of their ancient Inheritances there had no other satisfaction for their Losses but by improving what was left here who finding themselves thus doubly damnified were inraged to that degree that using a Martial freedom sutable to the necessity of that stimulation by which they were urg'd they began to recollect all the wrongs done them by his Grandfather Father and Brother and to shew they were in earnest insisted upon renewing the great Charter of their Liberties neither were they unprovided of Arguments or Arms this contumacy of theirs being countenanced by the sullen Retirement of his own Brother Jeoffry the Archbishop who chose rather to cast himself into voluntary Exilement then submit any longer to his Tyranny In vain now demands he Pledges of their Faith whilst they believed him himself to have none Sending to the Lord Bruce for his Son to be deliver'd as an Hostage to him he receiv'd an answer from the Mother which it seems exprest the affections if not the sense of the Father That they would not commit their Son to his keeping who was so ill a keeper of his own Brothers Son which rash return cost him afterward his Estate her her life with the loss of two for the saving one only Child a Revenge so fully executed that it could meet with no counterbuff but what must come from Heaven Here began the breach that disjoynted the whole frame of his Government the King resolving to keep what by advantage of time and sâ—fferance he had got the Barons continuing as obstinately bent to recover what their Predecessors had so tamely lost Both sides prepare for War and whilst they face and parle like men loath to ingage yet scorning to quit their Cause either alike confident to hope the best and not unlike active to prevent the worst a new accident parted them by presenting a new Enemy which made the War give place as it were to a single Combat The Pope not allowing the King the Priviledge of Nominating a Successor to the deceased Arch-Bishop of Canterbury he makes a Truce I cannot call it a Peace with his Domestick Adversaries to try his Fortune with his Forreign Foe The Contest was not like that of Jacob and Esau who should be born first but like that of Caesar and Pompey who should be uppermost Now as desire of Rule brought these two great Champions into the List so the confidence each other had in his strength and skill to handle his Weapon made them unreconcileable The Pope made the first Pass who threatning to interdict the Kingdom was answer'd with a Menace of confiscating all the Lands of the Clergy and banishing their Persons The second Thrust given by his Holiness was a Threat of Excommunication of the Kings Person To this he returned that he would utterly disavow his Authority Thus far they were upon the even Terms and as it were hit for hit upon the next Pass they closed and as men desperately bent either maked good his Charge The Pope shuts up the Church doors the King those of the Cloysters the first took away all the Sacraments leaving the dead to bury the dead without Priest Prayer or Procession The last seized on all the Ecclesiastical Revenues and disposed them into Lay-hands Whilst they were thus in close grapple the King of France appeared as second to the Triple Crown Had the Barons then stept in as second to their King they had not only made good their own Honour as well as his but probably had secur'd the Liberties they contended for without any force there being more to be hoped for from this Kings Generosity then his Justice but which was most degenerous and leaves a stain upon their memory never to be washed off they finding him thus overlaid turn'd all their points upon his back poyson'd with the venome of the most opprobrious Calumnies that ever Majesty suffer'd under the Infamy of being not only a Tyrant but an Infidel all which he was fain to bear with more Constancy of Mind then Fortune But as we see a wild Boar when beaten out of breath chuses rather to dye upon the Spears of the Hunters then to be wearied by the Dogs so his Rancor turning into disdain he yielded to his Nobler Enemies and chose rather then not have his Revenge upon them whom he thought God and Nature had put under his dispose to humble himself to the Church hoping as 't is thought by their Keys to unlock the Rebels Power but over-acting his Revenge he stoop'd so low that the Crown fell from his Head which the Popes Legate taking up kept three dayes before he thought fit to restore it verifying thereby the Prediction of a poor innocent Hermite who foretold that there should be no King of England which however it was true yet being in some sense untrue too 't was in the Prerogative of him who never spar'd where he could shed Blood to make his own Interpretation which cost the poor Prophet his Life The Barons finding him thus incens'd and seeing how to make good his Revenge he had quit his Soveraignty they resolv'd to quit their Allegiance to make good their Security intending to call in the Dolphin of France and swear Fealty to him whilst the Common People were left to their Election whether to take the wrong King that promis'd to do them Right or the right King that persisted to do them so much wrong who as little understanding the Principles of Religion as the dictates of Reason the Bonds of Command and Obedience that should hold them together seem'd so wholly slackned that there was upon the Matter no other Tye on them then that of their Interest which sway'd them variously according to the divers Measures they took of it But as there are many Ligaments in a State that bind it so fast together that 't is a hard thing to dissolve them altogether unless by an universal concurrence of Causes that produce a general alteration thereof it being seldom seen of what temper soever Kings are but that they find under the greatest desertion imaginable a very considerable Party to stand by them upon the accompt of Affection or Ambition Honour or Conscience so this King the first of England we find put to this streight had yet many Members of Note and Power besides his chief
great men of Poictou Britain and Normandy being offended that the Regency of the young King should be committed to a Woman and a Spaniard But this design ending with like precipitation as it was begun after the Expence of some Blood and more Treasure neither of which he could well spare he return'd home attended with a petty Army of those Poictovins and Britains who by taking his part had forfeited their own Estates at home These therefore he conceiv'd himself obliged in point of honour to provide for and which way to do it but by displacing such of his principal Officers who were in places of greatest benefit he knew not These were his Cheif-Justiciary his High Treasurer and the Marshal of his Houshold upon whom therefore he permitted the envious Rabble to discharge a volly of accusations to the end that driving them out with shame and loss he might fill up their places with those strangers These great Pillars for they were men whose wisdom he had more need of then they of his favour being thus thrown down and broken to peices by their fall so shook the whole frame of his Throne that every body expected when he would have fallen himself too divers of the Nobility that were nearest to him removing themselves for fear of the worst Amongst the rest was that famous Richard who after the death of his brother William was Earl Marshal a man questionless of great honour and Probity who finding his violences to increase being heightned by the ill advice of the two Peters De Rupibus and De Rivallis the one a Britain t'other a Poictovin now become the two great Ministers of State combined with the rest of the English Nobility to fetch him off from these Rocks first intreating and after threatning him that unless he would put these and all other strangers from him they would remove both him and them and chuse another King Upon this bold menace the plainest and boldest that Subjects could give a Prince De Rupibus advised him to require pledges for their Allegiance which they refusing to give without any Process of Law he causes them to be Proclaym'd Out-laws and Seizes on all their Lands with the profits whereof he rewards the Poictovins This brought both Parties to Arm again with like animosity but more Cruelty then in his Fathers time So that for two years together there was no cessation from all the violences and depredations that usually attend a civil War till the Bishops finding by the much blood had been shed that the heat on either side was much abated interpos'd with the King to do the Barons reason and forc'd him to yeild though he could not consent to a restoration of their Lands and Liberties and to the banishment of all strangers This however proved to be but a temporary shift which the present necessity of his affaires drove him to for not long after the two great Incendiaries were admitted again to Grace and so near came he to the example of his Father as to endeavour a revocation of his Grants by the Popes Authority being done as he alleadged beyond his Power and without consent of the Church by which harsh Intention though it took not effect it is scarce imaginable how much he added to the conceiv'd displeasure of the People to whom however he had no regard till he had wasted himself so far by his profusion and supine Stupidity that he was reduc'd through extremity of want to truckle under his Parliaments who knowing their own Power and his dependence on them for money for as a modern * Sir R. Bakeâ— Vit. H. 3. writer observes his taxations were so many they may be reckon'd amongst his annual revenues scarce any year passing without a Parliament but no Parliament breaking up without a Tax as so many Tyrants press'd no less upon him one way then he upon them the other till at last he became as weary of asking as they of giving him supplies and having no other means to maintain his Riot after he had canvass'd his Officers by chopping and changing of places and rais'd what he could without right or reason he fell to selling his Lands mortgaged Gascoin pawn'd his Jewels and after his Crown and when he had neither Credit nor pawns of his own left he expos'd the Jewels and Ornaments of Saint Edwards Shrine to whoever would lay down most for them After this he preyd upon the Jews the People that always felt the weight of his necessities Neither were his Christian Subjects so free but that he found means to squeeze them by Loans Benevolences and New-years gifts all which not sufficing he fell at last to down-right Beggery and sent to the Clergy men for several Summes to be given him as Alms. And being reduc'd to this incredible lowness when he found he could not prevail upon their Charity he try'd how far he could work upon their piety by pretending to undertake the Cross but that Project failing him too the last and most fatal shift he had was to resign to the King of France whatever right he had in the Dutchy of Normandy the Earldoms of Anjou Poictou Tourene and Main and all for no more then three hundred Crowns and that of Anjovin money too a pitiful Summ to redeem a half lost Crown The Prince likewise unfortunately participating in the wants of his Father was driven to Mortgage several pieces of his Lands too to supply his Particular Necessities And now all things being gone that were valuable or vendible the Barons finding him naked and disarm'd thought not fit to delay the matter longer but being call'd to that fatal Parliament at Oxford in a hot season of the year when all their bloods were boyling and out of temper without more debate they first secur'd London the onely Magazine to begin a Rebellion by shutting up the Gates and after secur'd the Kingdom by shutting up the Ports to prevent the inlet of Strangers appointing twenty four Conservators as they call'd them to manage the Government whereof twelve were to be nam'd by the King twelve by themselves But he thinking it too great a Diminution of his Majesty to consent to any nomination of his own left their twelve call'd the Douze Peers to take the Reâ—ormation into their hands who displacing aâ—l whom they pleas'd to call Evil Counsellors left none about him that were able or perhaps willing to give him advice and grew so insolent at last as to banish amongst other Strangers some of his nearest Relations Out of these as it happens upon all Changes where the People are to be amus'd with Novelty there was chosen afterwards a Triumvirate to be Super-intendent over the Twelve These were the Earl of Leicester the Earl of Gloucester and the Lord Spencer to whom the three great Ministers of State the Chancellor the High-Treasurer and the Chief Justiciar were appointed humble assistants And because 't was believ'd that the Liberty of the People depended on the
probability of Return whereby he became so much at ease in his own thoughts that being upon the wing again he thought himself not only Master of himself but of every body else and now despising all after-claps he seized upon all the Dukes Estate to his own use which as it look'd like a Revenge now he was dead that might have past for a piece of Justice if he had been living so it gave many cause to pity the Duke his Son who otherwise could have been well enough content never to have seen him more Neither was this the worst on 't but apprehending from what the King did to him what possibly he might do to any of them they made his particular suffering the ground of their Publick Resentment which Hereford took upon the first bound and made that good use of it that when he came after to claim the Crown that it appear'd the best colour of Right he had was from this wrong whereof yet the King was no way sensible who as I said before despising all dangers at home directed all his Caution to those abroad only taking with him young Henry of Monmouth the Duke of Hereford's and since his Fathers Death Duke of Lancaster's Son and Heir into Ireland whither he went to suppress some Rebels This however it seem'd to be an occasion of Glory which the Bravery of his Youth could not suffer him to pretermit whilst those petty Kings who were eye witnesses of his disproportionate Power taught their undisciplin'd People Obedience by the Example of their own Submission yet it prov'd an empty Affectation and so much more fatal in the Consequence by how much it was scarce possible to conceal much less recover his Error till the Exil'd Duke of Lancaster took his advantage of it who finding him out of his Circle return'd into England with that speed as if he had been afraid lest Fortune should change her mind before he could change his condition Great was the concourse of People that congratulated his Arrival neither was their confluence less considerable for Quality then Number the Archbishop of Canterbury banish'd for being one of the Confederates with the Duke of Gloucester the Earls of Northumberland Westmoreland Darby and Warwick the Lords Willoughby Ross Darcy Beaumont and divers others besides Knights and Esquires of great Repute in their Countries who offer'd to serve him with their Lives and Fortunes and as they mov'd they increas'd so fast that the Duke of York left Regent during the Kings absence thought it convenient to attend him at Berclay Castle and from thence to Bristow where the first Tragedy began for there finding the Earl of Wiltshire the Lord High Treasurer with Sir Henry Ewin Sir Henry Bussy both men of great note of the Kings party they arraign'd them there for misgoverning of the King and having smote off their Heads proceeded to imprison the Bishop of Norwich Sir William Elmeham Sir Walter Burleigh and divers others upon the same account setting up a direct Tyranny which continued six Weeks before the King by reason of contrary winds heard any thing of it Upon the first notice given him he made a shew of being so little concern'd at it that he declar'd he would not stir out of Dublin till all things fitting for his Royal Equipage were made ready but understanding afterward that they had seiz'd several of his Castles he sent over the Earl of Salisbury to make ready an Army against his landing promising to follow him in six dayes after but the Wind or rather his Mind changing the Earls Forces believing he might be dead disbanded again and left their unfortunate General to himself Eighteen dayes after this the King arriv'd who finding how things stood for they had taken off the Heads of several of his chief Councellors imprison'd the principallest of his Friends and gotten the possession of many of his strong Forts and Castles his Heart so fail'd him on the sudden that he immediately gave Command to the Army that was with him to Disband and so degenerate were his Fears that when he could not prevail with them to quit him for they all resolv'd to dye in his Defence and being mov'd with no less Pity then Duty to see him so dejected solemnly vow'd never to leave him he most wretchedly gave them the Temptation to break their Faith by leaving them first withdrawing himself by night unknown to Conway Castle where he understood the Earl of Salisbury was But as a King can no more hide himself then the Sun which however eclipsed cannot be lost so it was not long ere the Duke of Hereford found him out and drawing his Forces to Chester sent from thence the Earl of Northumberland to assure him of his Faith and Homage upon Condition he would call a free Parliament and there permit Justice to be done to him Here Fortune seems to have made one stand more to give him time if possible to recover himself but he instead of giving an Answer worthy the Dignity of a King did what was indeed unworthy a Private man begging of the Earl to interpose with the Duke for him that he might only have an honorable Allowance to lead a private life deposing himself unexpectedly before t'other could have the time and opportunity however he might have the thought to do it solemnly The notice hereof did not a little surprize the Duke when he heard of it who doubting least there was something more in it then he perceiv'd wisely kept himself within the bounds of seeming Obedience and treated his Majesty with all imaginable respect till they arrived at London then under pretence of securing him he lodg'd him in the Tower where he made him the Instrument of his own destruction by calling a Parliament that had no other business but to arraign his Government and impeach him and accordingly Articles were drawn up against him which shew how small a matter turns the Scale when Power is put into the Ballance against Justice The chief of them were as followeth 1. That he had been very profuse a very grievous Crime in a King so young 2. That he had put some to death that conspired to depose him 3. That he had borrowed more money then he was well able to pay the first King that ever lost his Crown for being in Debt and yet was not to be said he was altogether a Bankrupt that had in his Coffers when he dyed the value of Seven hundred thousand pounds 4. That he said the Law was in his Breast and Head and perhaps the Lawyers would have made it good if they durst who have given it for an Axiome of the Law that the King is Caput Principium Finis Justitiae 5. That he chang'd Knights and Burgesses of Parliament at his pleasure by making those Peers of the Realm whom he thought worthy the honour 6. That he said the Lives and Goods of his Subjects were under his power which shews what confidence he had in their
Conclusion from so bad a Beginning by making way for some Protestant Lady of that Country that might advance the Reformation begun by him there he vext the Question a long while and finding that the Pope over-aw'd by the Emperour durst not consent to a Divorce he to scandalize him the more set forth by many learned Arguments the unlawfulness of the Marriage and so nettled King Henry that the Pope doubting the effects of his Impatience propos'd by way of Expedient though but faintly to Gregory Cassalis the English Resident then at Rome that he would permit him ut aliam duceret Uxorem which in plain English was That if the King pleased he would allow him to have two Wives at once Now whether it were that the King doubted his power and thought he could not make good what he promised for that he could not make that Marriage out which he had already to be either lawful or unlawful so as to relieve him or dismiss it Or whether he had as is more probable a clear Sentiment of the Popes slight Opinion of him in making so unusual not to say unlawful a Proposal to him is not certain but certain it is he never forgave the Affront till by vertue of his own proper power he had divorced himself from his Authority which the Cardinal labouring to uphold by his Legatine power out of hope of being himself Pope nor only lost himself in the attempt but drew all he Clergy who took part with him into a Premunire Of whose Error his wise Servant Cromwel took the advantage making his Masters fall the occasion of his own rising by whom the thoroughly humbled Convocation weâ—e perswaded to petition the King for their pardon under the Title and Stile of Ecclesiae Cleri Anglicani Protector supremum Caput which rais'd a greater dispute upon the Supremacy not long after then was before upon the point of Divorce For the Bishop of Rochester who by reason of his great learning and sanctity of Life was a leading man refusing to subscribe the aforesaid Petition unless some words might be added by way of explanation of the Kings Supremacy Cromwel took the Defence thereof upon himself and by advice with Bishop Cranmer there were many Arguments brought to justifie the same both from the Authority of Kingship in general de Communi Jure by vertue of that Divine Law that has given the stile of a Royal Priesthood to all anointed Kings and to which by a parallel Case the Pope himself did not long after give more then a seeming allowance For Clement the Seventh at the interview of Marselles when he was urged by some that desired Reformation and prest for the liberty of receiving the Sacrament in both kinds by an Argument taken from the custome of the Kings of France who alwayes received both Elements he answered That it was a peculiar priviledge by which Kings were differenced from other men as being anointed with the Unction of Priesthood as likewise from the particular Prerogative of the Kings of this Isle de proprio Jure or by the Common Law of this Land which was of ancienter date then any Prescription made by the Pope having been ratified by the Sanction of several Acts of Parliament that had declar'd all Spiritual Jurisdiction to be inherent in the Crown This Doctrine of his wanted not its Use for the King had this immediate benefit of the Dispute to be restored to the Annates and First-fruits of the Bishopricks and now the Bond of his Holiness 's Authority being thus loosed one priviledge dropt out after another till at length they not only divested him of the profit but of the honour of his Fatherhood forbidding any to call him any more * Anciently written Pa. Pa. i. e. Pater Patriarcharum Papa or Pater for that there could be but one Lord and Father but only Bishop of Rome These Annates as they were some of the principal Flowers of the Triple Crown and could not well be pluck'd off without defacing the Sacred Tyara so the whole Conclave took such an alarm at the loss of them that apprehending no less then a total defection to follow they most peremptorily cited the King himself to appear at Rome under pain of Excommunication This was thought to be so unreasonable an Indignity offered to his Majesty in respect it was neither convenient for him to abandon his Kingdom by going so far in Person nor any way decent to trust the Secrets of his Conscience to a pragmatical Proctor that the Parliament who were conven'd to consider of the matter thought it but necessary to put a stop to all Appeals to be made out of the Realm under the penalty of Premunire and pray'd his Majesty without more ado to appoint a Court of Delegates here at home to determine the Cause Upon which the Marriage being not long after declared void Cromwell hastned on the Match with the Lady Anne Bulloigne but the Court of Rome judging the first Marriage good and the last void anathematiz'd all that were assistant in the Divorce and to shew how much they were incens'd by the precipitation of their Sentence they concluded it in one only which by the usual Form could not be finish'd in less then three Consistories This began that Fiery tryal which followed not long after wherein we may say his Holiness himself prov'd to be the very first Martyr dying immediately after the pronunciation of that great Curse as one blasted by the Lightning of his own Thunder whereby the Church Universal being without a Head The Reformists here took that opportunity to provide for their own by declaring the King Supream Head in Earth of the Church of England for the support of which Dignity they vested in the Crown the First-fruits of all Benefices as they had before of all Bishopricks Dignities and Offices whatever spiritual Setting forth in what manner Bishops Suffragans should be nominated and appointed and what their Priviledges and Authorities should be In defence of which their proceedings the King himself wrote an excellent Book or at least it pass'd for his De Potestate Christianorum Regum in suis Ecclesiis contra Pontificis Tyrannidem c. But there were many however and those of no small note who continued so obstinate in their Popish Principles that they could neither be moved by his Pen nor his Penalties to submit chusing rather to part with their Blood then their Blessing And whether they were real or mistaken Martyrs or not rather Sufferers then Martyrs I will not take upon me to say it being as hard for others to judge them as for themselves to judge the thing they died for Truth and Treason being in those dayes Qualities so like one another that they were scarcely to be discern'd as appears by the nice Cases of those two I think the most eminent persons of all that were so unhappy as to suffer for setting up the Papal above the Regal Authority the
was it long that the Protector bore up after his Brothers Fall the great care he took to build his * From his Tittle call'd Somerset-house House being no less fatal to him then the little care he had to support his Family whiles the Stones of those Churches Chappels and other Religious Houses that he demolish'd for it made the cry out of the Walls so loud that himself was not able to indure the noise the People ecchoing to the defamation and charging him with the guilt of Sacriledge so furiously that he was forced to quit the place and retire with the King to Windsor leaving his Enemies in possession of the strength of the City as well as the affections of the Citizens who by the reputation of their power rather then the power of their repute prevail'd with the King as easily to give him up to publick Justice as he was before prevail'd with to give up his Brother it being no small temptation to the young King to forsake him when he forsook himself so far as to submit to the acknowledgement of that Guilt he was not conscious of The Lawyers charged him with removing Westminster-hall to Somerset-house The Souldiers with detaining their Pay and betraying their Garrisons The States-men with ingrossing all Power and indeavouring to alter the Fundamental Laws and the ancient Religion But he himself charg'd himself with all these Crimes when he humbled himself so far as to ask the Kings pardon publickly which his Adversaries were content he should have having first strip'd him of his Protectorship Treasurership Marshalship and Two thousand pound a year Land of Inheritance But that which made his Fate yet harder was that after having acquitted himself from all Treason against his Prince he should come at last to be condemn'd as a Traytor against his Fellow-Subject whilst the Innocent King labouring to preserve him became the principal Instrument of his Destruction who by reconciling him to his great Adversaries made the Enmity so much the more incompatible who at the same time he gave the Duke his Liberty gave the Earl of Warwick and his Friends the Complement of some new Titles which adding to their Greatness he reasonably judg'd might take from their Envy The Earl himself he created Duke of Northumberland and Lord High Admiral of England and to oblige him yet more married up his eldest Son the Lord Dudley to his own Cosin the second Daughter of the Duke of Somerset whom he gave to him for the more honour with his own hand and made Sir Robert Dudley his fourth and his beloved Son the same that was after made by Queen Elizabeth Earl of Leicester one of the Gentlemen of his Bedchamber And to gratifie the whole Faction he made the Marquiss of Dorset Duke of Suffolk the Lord St. John Earl of Wilts and afterwards Marquiss of Winchester Sir John Russel who was Northamberland's Confident he created Earl of Bedford Sir William Paget another of his Tools he made Lord Paget This the good natur'd King did out of sincere Affection to his Uncle in hopes to reconcile him so thoroughly to Northumberland so that there might be no more room left for Envy or Suspect betwixt them But as there is an invisible Erinnis that attends all Great men to do the drudgery of their Ambition in serving their Revenge and observing the Dictates of their power and pride so it was demonstrable by the most unfortunate issue of this so well intended purpose that by the same way the King hoped to please both he pleas'd neither Somerset thinking he had done too much Northumberland thinking that he had done too little who having drunk so deep a Draught of Honour grew hot and dry and like one fall'n into a State-Dropsie swell'd so fast that Somerset perceiving the Feaver that was upon him resolv'd to let him blood with his own hand And coming one day to his Chamber under the colour of a Visit privately arm'd and well attended with Seconds that waited him in an outward Chamber found him naked in his Bed and supposing he had him wholly in his power began to expostulate his wrongs with him before he would give him the fatal stroke whereby t'other perceiving his intent and being arm'd with a Weapon that Somerset had not a ready fence for an Eloquent Tongue he acquitted himself so well and string'd upon him with so many indearing protestations as kept the point of his Revenge down till it was too late to make any Thrust at him Whereby Northumberland got an advantage he never hop'd for to frame a second Accusation against him so much more effectual then the former by how much he brought him under the forfeiture of Felony as being guilty of imagining to kill a Privy Counsellor for which he was the more worthily condemn'd to lose his Head in that he so unworthily lost his Resolution at the very instant of time when he was to vindicate his too much abus'd Patience thereby betraying those of his Friends that came to second him into the scandal of a Crime which had it succeeded would have pass'd for a magnanimous piece of Justice in cutting off one whom however he was content to spare Providence it seems was not reserving him to die a more ignoble death and by a worse hand The sorrow for his ignominious fall as it much affected the Consumptive King his Nephew who was now left as a Lamb in the keeping of the Wolf the Duke of Northumberland having got as high in Power as Title by ruining the Family of the Seymours so his end which was not long after put an end to the Reformation and made way for the Dudley's to aspire with incredible Ambition and not without hope of setling the Succession of the Crown in themselves For the Duke finding that the King languish'd under a Hectical Distemper and having better assurance then perhaps any one else could from his Son that alwayes attended in his Bedchamber that it was impossible for him to hold out long for Reasons best known to him he cast about how to introduce the far fetch'd Title of his other Son who had married the Lady Jane Gray eldest Daughter to the Duke of Suffolk by the Lady Frances one of the Daughters and Heirs of Charles Brandon by his Wife Mary Queen of France the second Daughter of Henry the Seventh And however this seem'd to be a very remote pretention yet making way to other great Families to come in by the same Line in case her Issue fail'd as to the Earl of Cumberland who had married the other Daughter of Charles Brandon and to the Earl of Darby that had married a Daughter of that Daughter and to the Earl of Pembroke that had married the Lady Jane's second Sister it was back'd with so many well-wishers that it was become not only terrible to the Kingdom but to the King himself However there were two Objections lay in the way the one the preference that ought to be
grapple with her and as his quarrel was chiefly Spiritual so his Machinations were for the most part invisible proceeding by secret under-hand Instigations of such Persons as having not credit enough for raising War had recourse only to such Clancular Contrivances and darker Treasons which she easily enervated by the Spell of that Politick Motto of hers VIDEO TACEO which she took up by the Example of her sage Grandfather Henry the Seventh who though he was very wise affected to seem wiser than he was by pretending to more intelligence then really he had whereby as he so she left that impression upon their Guilt who hated her that many of them durst not attempt the betraying her for fear of being betray'd themselves and perhaps by themselves as was that unfortunate Villain Squire one of the Grooms of her Stable who being tempted by an English Jesuite in Spain to poyson the Pommel of her Saddle was by the Tempter himself when he found it took not effect discover'd and accus'd and confessing the Fact executed for it casting up the Accompt betwixt her and the Spaniard it doth appear at the lowest rate set upon his Damages in contesting with her that she consum'd him no less then Five hundred Millions of Ducats besides what he suffer'd by the Revolt of the United Provinces which he had unquestionably reduc'd had not she interpos'd with her Power to protect them for which they paid her well at last The only Requital he made her was by upholding the Irish Rebellion which cost her not half the money she had of their Hogen-mogen-ships for however she was induc'd to send over a greater Army then ever Ireland had seen before when Oneil seiz'd the Fort of Blackwater and took his first and last Revenge upon the English there to wit Twenty thousand Foot and One thousand three hundred Horse to reinforce the Governours there after the Landing of the Spaniards under Don Aquila yet she had a suitable Return in opening several Passages till then altogether unknown to the English whereby she found out convenient Scituations for several Colonies that have since Cultivated many thousands of before unprofitable Acres and made Seats fit for men to dwell in which till then were the Receptacles of Beasts only or Men more Savage then they So that what her great Enemy took from her Peace he added to her Glory who in despight of the Love and Hate of all those great Princes that courted or contemn'd her dyed a Virgin and Unconquer'd having this happiness by coming to the Crown so close after the Reign of her busling Father to be serv'd by a race of choice Men that having given him sufficient proof of their Loyalty made themselves yet more valuable to her by their Experience having by the Gravity and Grandeur of some of them and by the Courage and Conduct of others so well setled the Foundations of Government that notwithstanding five several Changes in Religion and the Interposition of a Woman a Stranger and a Child they deliver'd up the Scepter to her in Peace and standing round the Throne with like Constancy defended her as she defended their Faith which as it was not without great difficulty so perhaps it had not been without an impossibility of Success had she not strengthen'd the Reputation of their Authority by the Authority of her own Example Quid Virtus quid Sapientia possit Utile preposuit nobis Exemplar THE SIXTH DYNASTY OF SCOTS OF SCOTS THE Scots would be thought a Branch of the antique Scythian Stock as well as all other cold Countries and they have this colour above many others that as their Ancestors are entituled to as ancient Barbarity as those of any other Nation whatever so like those rude Scythes they have alwayes been given to prey upon their Neighbours and live without themselves the very sound of their Name giving some semblable Testimony to the certainty of their Genealogy for the Scythians were heretofore commonly call'd a Herodet Melpoment Scolots which by contraction not to say corruption might easily be turn'd into Scots wherein possibly they do not more abuse themselves then they are abus'd by him who supposing them to have been anciently part of the Terra Incognita would have the word Scoti to be quasi b i. e. Obscuâ—i 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I hope it was not Delus the Grecian that came next into Ireland after Menethus the Scythian that gave them that name 'T is true that few Authentick Authors if any make any mention of them at least by this Name before the Year of Christ 276 however Boyes Buchanan and some others of their own Writers would support the credit of the black Book of Pashley that derives their Kings from the Royal Line of Aegypt by the surerside It seems the High lands were never drown'd boasting of the Conquest of Ireland 800 Years before the Flood at what time they would be thought so famous a People that c This Story is by Athenaeus cited out of Meschion Ptolomey Philadelph wrote to King Reuthen to be inform'd of their State to whom Claud. Ptolomey was after beholding for that Information we find in his Geography Whilst their own Archers shoot thus wide that yet pretend themselves the true Descendants of the Scythians who took their d Gorepius denomination from their Excellency in Archery 't is no marvel that Strangers came no nearer the Mark Some thinking them a By-slip of the e Orosius Germans others of the f Verstegan Scandians some affirming them to be the Out-casts of some Mongrel g Nentus Spaniards that were not permitted to live in Ireland and others yet fetching their Descent from the h Girald Cambren Vandals who being by divers Authors call'd Scytes the broad-mouth'd Northern People call'd Scots And some there are that with no small probability take them to be a Miscellany of all these Nations driven by various Fortunes at several times into the Orcades and Hebrides as the exil'd Romans were heretofore into the desert Isles (i) Scyathus Serephium Gâ—â—re of the Aegean-Sea where life was held to be a ciueller Punishment then Death from whence as their number increas'd 't is thought they disburthen'd themselves into the upper part of Albania now call'd the High-lands where they lived obscurely unknown indeed to all the World but those of (k) Whence Ninnâ—us thinks they might originally come Ireland who call'd them in scorn Gayothels which was as much as to say The (l) Floâ—â—â—igus says they were compounded of divers Nations as Spain France Britain Ireland and Norway mix'd People and as the Irish to this day call the Scotch Tongue Gaidelack which signifies a Language gather'd out of all Tongues However the Scotch Antiquaries would have the Name of Gayothel to be with Relation rather to their Descent from one Gayothel a noble Gyant who married Scota King Pharaoh's Daughter not considering that this is to
made Captain of his Guard All persons out-law'd for Treason had their Utlaries revers'd all the bad Subjects were declar'd good and some of the best declar'd Traytors A Treaty of Peace was concluded with England upon Conditions that the Queen-Mother should never be releas'd and in order to the bringing on her Tryal as after it fell out which Tryal of the Mother prov'd yet a greater tryal to the King her Son who having before lost his Father and Grandfather by a dismal Fate both privately murther'd was much more abasht to appear so much a King and no King as to be a helpless Spectator now of his Mothers Tragedy made away by such a publick Tryal as seem'd to proclaim his weakness and shame more then her guilt This seem'd to be the very dregs of that bitter Cup whereof he had drank so largely a little before but being as he hop'd the last draught he was to take of Infelicity he bore it with suitable patience as became a Christian and a King But his Destinies decreed that there must yet be one Throw more before the Birth of his Greatness For however his Majesty clear'd up from the time of his Mothers departure like the Sun after a stormy Morning which becomes brighter and brighter as it draws nearer its Meridian yet there happen'd after all this an Eclipse that lasting only half an hour had like to have extinguish'd all his Light and Glory if a Hand from Heaven had not rescued him For the young Gowry who at the time of his Fathers death and long after continued in Italy the Country where they are learn'd in the Art of Revenge having found an opportunity to draw him again into that fatal Castle where he was before Prisoner to his Father under pretence of shewing him some Chymical Rarities got him up into some higher Rooms whiles his Servants were retired to eat it being presently after he had dined himself where by the help of his younger Brother and another appointed to assist them they intended to have assassinated him had not he that was to do the horrid Deed not only relented at the very instant when he drew his Sword upon him but turn'd his point upon his Fellow Regicide and thereby gave him time to step to a Window and call for help which came so timely to him as to rescue him by the death of the two Gowrys This though it was the last of Treasons was not yet the last of dangers he met with For after this mov'd by what Obligations besides that of Love I know not which commonly is not so domineering a Passion over Princes as private men he run as much danger at Sea as he had before at Land exposing himself to the mercy of that unruly Element at the most dangerous Season of the year to fetch over his Queen the Daughter of Frederick II. King of Denmark who having attempted several times to come to him was drove back and as 't is said by the power of Sorcery into Norwey which hazard being afterward recompenced by the satisfaction he had in the Vertue of his Wife and the hopes conceiv'd of the Children he had by her two Sons and a Daughter as he had no further cause to Fear so he had nothing further to wish but that lucky hit that came by the death of the late Queen Elizabeth to have the Glory of bringing this Isle so long divided from all the World to be at Unity within it self And now to the end he might take the Inclinations of the People at the first bound wherein no man was ever more skilfull then he he abrogated the two names of Distinction England and Scotland and reconciled them to each other under the comprehensive Appeliation of Great Britain restoring England to its old Name as he from whom he claim'd had restor'd the Crown to its ancient stock Fain he would have brought them under the unity of the same Laws but finding neither Nation pleas'd with the Proposal either being partial to their own Constitutions as fitted with due and different respects to their different Tempers Interests and Proprieties he quitted that Design as a Labour of too hard digestion But however the Reasons of State varied he was resolv'd to reconcile the Polity of the two Churches as in an Union of Possession so in an Uniformity of Government and Worship Those of his own Country having then no other Form but that impos'd upon them by Boanerges Fox without taking Counsel of Prince or Prelate which was not otherwise to be made good but by the same Violence with which it was at the first introduced against the Will of any of the Nobility but such whose Ancestors were brib'd by the Alienation of the Church Lands But before he could impose any thing upon them understanding there were many here in England that followed that Classical way he resolv'd to have a free Conference with the ablest of their Demagogues to the end that sounding the depth of their Principles he might if possible fathom that of their Piety which no man could better do then himself being an universal Scholar as well read in Men as Books and so transcendently versed in the last that he was not improperly stil'd Rex Platonicus How confident he was of his skill in discussing all points Theological appears by his entring the List with Pope Pius the Fourth and making him give ground Neither was he a little provoked to this Spiritual Warfare by a clamorous Petition pretended from a thousand dissatisfied Ministers who not having yet matter enough of just Complaint made up the Cry by the number of Complainants To whom while he was considering what Answer to give or rather how to make them answer themselves as after he did by taking each of them apart and commanding him to set down in Writing what it was he singly desired which when compared altogether prov'd so contradictory and absurd that like men brought to cudgel one another in the dark they withdrew with broken Pates he was interrupted by the Discovery of a Treason which coming on so early in the Dawn of his Government could not well be discovered what it was nor whereto it tended For whereas most other Conspiracies are hatch'd by men of the same Faction Interest and Judgment this strangely involv'd People of all sorts and conditions without respect to any Repugnancy of Quality or Concern Priests and Laymen Papists and Puritans Noblemen and Ignoble Citizens and Country-men were all piec'd up together in the same Combination but whether ingaged by Faction Ambition Covetousness or Malice was not known or at least by the Kings Wisdom conceal'd However by the well-known Names of the Principal Conspirators the Lord Cobham who was Lord-Warden of the Cinque Ports the Lord Gray of Wilton who had a great Post in the late Queens Government Sir Walter Rawleigh Lord-Warden of the Stanneries Sir John Fortescue Chancellor of the Exchequer Sir Griffith Markham Sir Edward Parham and several
terrible by the ominous Reverberations from Scotland who ecchoed to those Murmurs here with such a dismal Concordance as shew'd to what Instrument they were tuned This drew him into that Kingdom to correct the growing Distemper before it because too virulent wherein he proceeded as wise Physitians do that draw the pains from the Head by Applications to the Feet but as it is hard to discern the true meaning of any mans Intention which being the Soul of every Action is invisible and very easie to abuse it with a malitious Interpretation that is not only against its own but against all Sence and Reason so it happen'd to him who beginning with the Ratification of the Negative Confession subscrib'd by his Father and the whole Kingdom Anno 1580. which was a Renuntiation of the Papal Authority and all the corrupt Principles depending thereon he was charged by those that had before felt the smart of the Commission of Surrendries and were inforc'd to disgorge those Sacrilegious grants they had obtained during his Fathers minority to have a design of bringing in Popery a word that turn'd every mans Blood into Choler and gave the hottest allarm to tender Consciences that ever that cold Clime knew the train of whose Calumnies was so laid that it quickly took fire here in England where the Presbyterian as yet call'd the Puritan Party having as they thought matter enough of Scandal long before from the unhappy Toleration of Sports on the Sabbath-day and the turning of the Communion Table Altar-wise began to chackle as one expresses it like the Geese in the Capitol bespattering the Bishops with that vehemency that much of their unbeseeming Froath fell upon the King himself And for the more intire Concurrence of Civil and Religious Clamors the same evil Spirit that furnish'd them with meet matters of Complaint turning Man-Midwife eased them of many a Spiritual Throw by opening the Womb of their Conspiracy before its full time making way for the new birth of that long expected Parliament from whose heat all the Factions took life and like quickned Snakes began to hiss with such invenom'd rage as shew'd a manifest contempt of all Authority pressing now upon the Kings Conscience as much as they would have the World to think he had press'd upon theirs before not only refusing to admit the use of the Liturgy however compos'd by their own Bishops in any of their Parochial Churches but denying the King himself the priviledge of having it read in his own private Chappel at Edenburgh And least the World should doubt that their Insolence was not come to its wish'd for height they took upon them the marks of Soveraign Power indicting without his Licence or Knowledge four principal Tables or Counsels in the said City one of the Nobility another of the Gentry a third of the Burgesses and a fourth of the Ministry Out of which there was set up a general Table of select Commissioners all alike Enemies to Unity and Uniformity who were to chalk out the Methods for abolishing Superstition and Tyranny by which was meant in their mystical Sense Episcopacy and Monarchy In order to the carrying on of which dâ—sorderly Proceedings they seiz'd as well the Crown as the Church Lands and notwithstanding their hate of Forms began so well a Form'd Rebellion that the unhappy King was provok'd beyond his natural temper to repell Force by Force But before his Justice could reach them they had so firm'd their Faction by their Solemn League and Covenant which was not like that ancient Bond taken in the Year 590. wherein they were bound to the maintenance of the Kings Person and Authority for in this they swore all to the mutual Defence and Assistance of each other against all Persons opposing them whatever not excepting the King himself that he was glad to close in a Pacification which after produc'd a Cessation that by the Artifice of some of their Friends here working upon his tenderness of shedding Blood concluded with a disbanding of his in order to the letting down their Army but after abusing him in this as well as in all other their Intreagues for they determin'd never to sheath the Sword till they got their ends he was forc'd to reinforce himself by new Leavies which necessitated the calling another Parliament here at home This prov'd so much worse then all that had been before it in that they were grown more learn'd in the Discipline of Daring and being fully instructed by the Complaints of all that were weary of the Government or Governours like the first Reformers of Germany they sum'd up their Centum Gravamina in a general Remonstrance which was carried on with that unparallel'd Contumacy that every one that was licentiously inclin'd pleas'd himself with the Imagination of having the Ball of Soveraignty flung down to be scambled for by the Multitude whose Heads being made giddy by the continual Noise of those Spiritual Trumpeters that fill'd their Ears with the joyful sound of the long look'd for Promises of a new Heaven and a new Earth and the Description of such a Kingdom wherein as they said the Saints and Servants of the most High were to reign by a Special Commission written in the Stars which none could read but these Astronomical Rabbins themselves They began like men Spiritually drunk to defie all Carnal Powers and having before broke the Windows of the Royal Pallace resolv'd in the next place to pluck down the two great Pillars of the Throne These were the Arch-bishop of Canterbury and the Earl of Strafford the one presiding in Spiritual t'other in Temporal Matters both of whom were Impeached of High Treason the one to gratifie their Malice t'other to secure their Fears the last was the first brought to stake whose Crimes savouring rather of Injustice to the Subject then Unfaithfulness to the King proving no otherwise Treasonable but by accumulation of so many lesser Misdemeanours together as might make up by heap what was wanting in the weight of his Guilt The King refus'd to condemn him till he had first consulted the Judges in point of Law and the Bishops in point of Equity by either of whom being left in greater doubt if possible then before having a natural aversion to all State Phlebotomy as well knowing that this Blood-letting though it might stop the Feaver for some little time would so weaken his Power that he should not be able to resist any future Distemper the consideration whereof brought him into a State Convulsion that drew his Judgment several wayes before he could determine what to do Honour and Justice press'd him on the one side the Common Interest as 't was pretended on which hung the weight of the Publick as well as his own private Peace urg'd him on the other side either grating upon the most tender and sensible part his Conscience which like a Needle betwixt two Loadstones that trembling with equal Inclinations to either at the same time seems to turn
Since the Dukedom of Holstein in the very neck of the Chersoness where it joyns to Germany their Territories here in England were the South and West parts of the Isle whereupon they were term'd West Saxons Now as they arriv'd not all at once so neither all at one place each General waiting till Fortune made him way by which means landing in several parts of the Isle they tired out the Natives with frequent slaughters and to raise the fame of their Conquest the higher they so timed their ambition as if they would have posterity believe they had won a Kingdom for every day in the Week setting up as many distinct Monarchies as they had Letters in the (l) SAXONIA name of their own Countrey This Heptarchy of theirs was formed after the ancient optimical model of Government used by most of the Northern Nations of the World amongst whom the right of Soveraignty was not measur'd by any Line of Descent from Royal Progenitors but considered according to the primitive (m) Virtutâ— lâ—â—â— aâ—tio Rule of vertue set up by the Stoicks wherein that of Fortirude had the start in point of esteem and reputation of all other good Qualities whatsoever as being the most useful for those active times none being admitted to the trust of Governing but such whose Swords had made them passage to that honour through the bowels of Fame these therefore they stil'd Cyning or Koninghz each of these titles signifying men of power and spirit conduct and courage And as these good Qualities made the people first in love with them so it made them themselves so far in love with the way of their own preserment as to prefer it before all other affecting more adopted than natural Sons and not seldom nominating such for their Successors in case of minority as well as deficiency as were nearer them in proficiency of parts than proximity of blood This however it seem'd most unnaturally natural for that 't is observ'd inocculated Grafts prove better than those which spring out of the Sâ—ock introduced such a kind of co-equality betwixt the Kings and those of the first rank of their Subjects that they that were nearest to the Throne often took the boldness to step in first till by frequent Usurpations the power of Majesty was so checkt that though there were some one or other all the time of the Heptarchy who for dignity sake had the Prerogative to be stil'd Rex Anglorum which was no less than Rex Regum at that time as much as to say King of all the rest of the Kings yet not any one of these Monarchs were able to effect any such entire Consociation for the security of the whole as to settle any one form or order of Law currant amongst them till Alfrid more Majorum after the custom of his Ancestors the Germans did as Tacitus testifies of them Jura per Pagos reddere every County till his time holding their Customs apart as they had receiv'd from those Roytelets their particular Founders without the obligation to any universal Law but what was Canonical which was not the least cause they labour'd so long in vain under the various pressures of envy necessity and chance being driven to and fro like the Sea from whence they first came the nature of which restless Element is to lose ground in one place as it gets in another and urg'd with alternate Revolutions after they had lost all their Interest in their own Countrey to be in hazard of being irrecoverably lost here whilst they were forc'd to maintain a War against the Britains their common Foe the Danes their accidental Foe and themselves the intestine Foe and therefore the most dangerous by how much they themselves made the breach at which the other entred who watching his time as the Ichnewmon that creeps into the mouth of the Crocodile whilst he is gaping to devour his prey made a passage through their bowels before they could swallow up the Britains and gain an entire conquest over them This lookt like a judgment inflicted upon them by that Nemesis that was the just revenger of the Britains wrongs to whom they were of all others the most pernicious enemies for contrary to the practice and policy of those that were before them as well as of those that came after them they refus'd all commerce communion or mixture with them extinguisht their Religion totally silenc'd their Laws rejected their Language and in conclusion took from them their very Name as well as their Countrey Neither stopt they here but dissolving all regard rendred Barbarism wholly triumphant whilst fury and ignorance met in conjunction In fine being irreconcileable to whatever could be call'd civil or sacred they not only took from the Men their Lives from the Women their Honour from both their Liberty but defac'd all Monuments devoted to piety or peace and if they did not wholly demolish them yet they prophan'd the holy things not seldom sacrificing the Sacrificers upon their own Altar And which made the Persecution the more dreadful was that it was not to be pacified by any Offering or prayers for one hundred and fifty years together so far as to have the least regard to Sex Age Degree Quality or Relation whatever till their bruitish spirits were quite tired out with continual slaughters and butcheries But after that light which shineth in darkness guided them to the knowledge of that blessed Truth whose meekness miraculously allay'd their rough natures they became so flexible and obedient to the principles of their new Faith as men that thought they could never expiate their former inhumanities but by an excess of zeal they did as immoderately wast themselves in repairing the ruines they had made raising so many new Structures that the number as well as the beauty so far exceeded all those of former times that it might have been said of this Isle as once of Rome that it seem'd but one great Monastery the piety of their Kings so surmounting their policy that many of them turned their Scepters into Crosiers and exchang'd their Crowns for Miters their Princes thinking it a greater glory to be made Priests than their Priests thought it to be made Princes Thus they conquer'd themselves before they had half conquer'd the Britains and as 't is observable how by their contention for Heaven they were happily brought to imitate it in that wonderful work of the Circulation of the Globe effected by the power of that truly divine Science the Art of Navigation first reduc'd into practice by them whereby they had the honour to be the first that resolv'd the Non ultra of the Ancients into a Plus ultra discovering another World which neither the Greeks nor Romans ever knew So it is more than probable that if they had quietly enjoy'd the benefit of their Conquest here at home after it came to be entire and absolute without that interruption they had from the Dana who finding them busi'd in