remember that in my first Speech unto you for proof of my love to my People I craved your Advice in this great and weighty affair But in a matter of this weight I must first consider how this Course may agree with my Conscience and Honor and next according to the Parable uttered by our Saviour after I have resolved of the Necessity and justness of the Cause to consider how I shall be enabled to raise Forces for this purpose As concerning the Cause of my Children I am now old and as Moses saw the Land of Promise from an high mountain though he had not leave to set his foot in it so it would be a great comfort to me that God would but so long prolong my days as if I might not see the Restitution yet at least I might be assured that it would be That then I might with old Simeon say Nunc dimittis Servum tuum Domine c. Otherwise it would be a great grief unto me and I should die with a heavy and discomforted heart I have often said and particularly in the last Parliament and I shall ever be of that mind That as I am not ambitious of any other mens Goods or Lands so I desire not to enjoy a Furrow of Land in England Scotland or Ireland without Restitution of the Palatinate And in this mind I will live and die But let me acquaint you a little with the Difficulties of this Cause He is an unhappy man that shall advise a King to War and it is an unhappy thing to seek that by Blood which may be had by Peace Besides I think your intentions are not to engage me in War but withal you will consider how many things are requisite thereunto I omit to speak of my own Necessities they are too well known Sure I am I have had the least help in Parliament of any King that ever reigned over you these many years I must let you know that my Disabilities are increased by the Charge of my Son's journey into Spain which I was at for his honor and the honor of this Nation By sending of Ambassadors by maintaining of my Children and by assisting of the Palatinate I have incurred a great Debt to the King of Denmark which I am not able yet to pay The Low-Countries who in regard of their nearness are fittest to help for the Recovery of the Palatinate are at so low an ebb that if I assist them not they are scarce able to subsist The Princes of Germany that should do me any good are all poor weak and disheartned and do expect assistance from hence For Ireland I leave it to you whether that be not a back-door to be secured For the Navy I thank God it is in a better case then ever it was yet more must be done and before it can be prepared as it ought to be it will require a new Charge as well for its own strength as for the securing of the Coasts My Children I vow to God eat no bread but by my means I must maintain them and not see them want In the mean time my Customs are the best part of my Revenues and in effect the substance of all I have to live on All which are farmed out upon that condition That if there be War those Bargains are to be disannulled which will enforce a great defalcation Subsidies ask a great time to bring them in Now if you assist me that way I must take them up beforehand upon credit which will eat up a great part of them This being my Case To enter into War without sufficient means to support it were to shew my teeth and do no more In the mean time I heartily thank you for your Advice and will seriously think upon it as I pray you to consider of those other parts My Treasurer to whose Office it appertains shall more at large inform you of those things that concern my Estate Thus freely do I open my heart unto you And having your hearts I cannot want your helps for it is the heart that openeth the purse not the purse the heart I will deal frankly with you Shew me the Means how I may do what you would have me and if I take a Resolution by your Advice to enter into a War then your selves by your own Deputies shall have the disposing of the Money I will not meddle with it but you shall appoint your own Treasurers I say not this with a purpose to invite you to open your Purses and then to slight you so much as not to follow your Counsel nor engage you before I be engaged my self Give me what you will for my own means but I protest none of the Monies which you shall give for those uses shall be issued but for those ends and by men elected by your selves If upon your offer I shall find the means to make the War honorable and safe and that I resolve to embrace your Advice then I promise you in the word of a King That although War and Peace be the peculiar Prerogatives of Kings yet as I have advised with you in the Treaties on which War may ensue so I will not treat nor accept of a Peace without first acquainting you with it and hearing your advice and therein go the proper way of Parliament in conferring and consulting with you And happily the Conditions of Peace will be the better when we be prepared for War according to the old Proverb That Weapons bode Peace Your kind carriage gives me much content And that comforts me which my Lord of Canterbury said That there was not a Contrary voice amongst you all like the Seventy Interpreters who were led by the breath of God I am so desirous to forget all rents in former Parliaments that it shall not be in my default if I am not in love with Parliaments and call them often and desire to end my life in that entercourse between me and my people for the making of good Laws reforming of such Abuses as I cannot be well informed of but in Parliament and maintaining the good Government of the Commonwealth Therefore go on cheerfully and advise of these Points and my Resolution shall then be declared Hereupon the House of Commons immediately took into consideration the matter of Supply And Sir Edward Sackvile afterwards Earl of Dorset spake thus to that Subject SInce Supply unto his Majesty is now in question of which I hope there will be no question I humbly ask leave of this Honorable Assembly to speak my Opinion assuring you That when a Treaty of Grievances shall be on foot it shall appear I will not sit silent if I find my self able to say any thing that may lend a hand to unload my Country of that heavy burthen it now groans under by reason of the innumerable number of Monopolies which like so many Incubusses and Succubusses exhaust the Vital spirits and so press down those Parts which ought to enjoy
another Bill among you against Informers I desire you my Lords that as you tender my Honor and the good of my People ye will put that Bill to an end as soon as you can and at your next meeting to make it one of your first works For I have already shewed my dislike of that kinde of people openly in Star-Chamber and it will be the greatest ease to me and all those that are near about me at Court that may be For I remember that since the beginning of this Parliament Buckingham hath told me he never found such quiet and rest as in this time of Parliament from Projectors and Informers who at other times miserably vexed him at all hours And now I confess that when I looked before upon the face of the Government I thought as every man would have done that the people were never so happy as in my time For even as at divers times I have looked upon many of my Coppices riding about them and they appeared on the outside very thick and well-grown unto me but when I turned into the midst of them I found them all bitten within and full of Plains and bare spots like an Apple or Pear fair and smooth without but when ye cleave it asunder you finde it rotten at the Heart Even so this Kingdom the External Government being as good as ever it was and I am sure as Learned Judges as ever it had and I hope as honest Administring Justice within it and for Peace both at home and abroad I may truly say more setled and longer lasting then ever any before together with as great plenty as ever So as it was to be thought that every man might sit in safety under his own Vine and Fig-Tree Yet I am ashamed and it makes my hair stand upright to consider How in this time my people have been vexed and polled by the vile execution of Projects Patents Bills of Conformity and such like which besides the trouble of my people have more exhausted their Purses then Subsidies would have done Now my Lords before I go hence since God hath made me the Great Judge of this Land under him and that I must answer for the Justice of the same I will therefore according to my place remember you of some things though I would not teach you For no mans Knowledge can be so good but their Memories will be the better to be refreshed And now because you are coming to give Judgment all which moves from the King that you may the better proceed take into your care two things 1. To do Bonum 2. To do it Bene. I call Bonum when all is well proved whereupon ye Judge for then ye build upon a sure Foundation And by Bene I understand that ye proceed with all Formality and Legality wherein you have fit occasion to advise with the Judges who are to assist you with their Opinions in cases of that nature and wo be to them if they advise you not well So the ground being good and the form orderly it will prove a course fitting this High Court of Parliament In Sentence ye are to observe two parts First To recollect that which is worthy of judging and censuring and secondly To proceed against these as against such-like crimes properly We doubt there will be many matters before you some complained of out of Passion and some out of just cause of Grievance Weigh both but be not carried away with the impertinent discourses of them that name as well Innocent men as guilty Proceed judicially and spare none where ye finde just cause to punish But let your proceedings be according to Law and remember that Laws have not their Eyes in their Necks but in their Foreheads For the Moral Reason for the punishment of Vices in all Kingdoms and Commonwealths is because of the Breach of Laws standing in force For none can be punished for Breach of Laws by Predestination before they be made There is yet one particular that I am to remember you of I hear that Sir Henry Yelverton who is now in the Tower upon a Sentence given in the Star-Chamber against him for deceiving my trust is touched concerning a Warrant Dormant which he made while he was my Attorney I protest I never heard of this Warrant Dormant before and I hold it as odious a matter as any is before you And if for respect to me ye have forborne to meddle with him in Examination because he is my Prisoner I do here freely remit him unto you and put him into your hands And this is all I have to say unto you at this time wishing you to proceed justly and nobly according to the Orders of your House and I pray God to bless you and you may assure your selves of my assistance Wishing that what I have said this day among you may be entred into the Records of this House The Lords pronounced Sentence upon Sir Giles Mompesson who was fled beyond Sea 1. THat he shall be degraded of the Order of Knighthood with reservation of the Dignity of his Wife and Children 2. That he shall stand perpetually in the degree of his person Outlawed for Misdemeanor and Trespass 3. That his testimony be received in no Court nor he to be of any Inquisition or Iury. 4. That he shall be excepted out of all General Pardons to be hereafter granted 5. That he shall be imprisoned during life 6. That he shall not approach within Twelve miles of the Court or Prince nor of the Kings High Court usually held at Westminster 7. And the Kings Majesty shall have the profit of his Lands for life and all his Goods and Chattels so forfeited and that he shall undergo Fine and Ransome which was set at Ten thousand pounds 8. Disabled to hold or receive any Offce under the King or for the Commonwealth 9. That he shall be ever held an infamous person 10. And his Majesty added thereunto perpetual Banishment Sir Francis Michel a Projector and Mompessons Compartner was fined One thousand pound degraded and imprisoned in the same place in Finsbury Fields which he had prepared for others For the Tower was thought too honorable for such a person He rode likewise from Westminster into London with his face to the Horse-tail Likewise the King revoked his Letter Patents Commissions and Proclamations concerning Inns and Ale-houses and the Manufactures of Gold and Silver Thred To these Reformations the King gave encouragement by his Third Speech in Parliament wherein he declared much against Corruption and Bribery in Judicatures professing That no person should be preferred before the publick good and that no offender should go unpunished In the same Speech he gave them thanks for the Subsidies given in the beginning of the Parliament and for the Title of the Grant and proceeded to open his present state in relation to his Son in Law the Prince Elector Palatine how the sums granted by the Act of Subsidy were taken up
the Kings Privy-Counsellors and other principal Subjects were examined upon oaths and Interrogatories most pertinent to the Accusation were propounded to them but this examination discovered nothing The King turned again to the Ambassadors with new instances to make a clear discovery but they still resolved to conceal the Authors And it was alledged by their Partakers and intimated to the King that the things were such as could not be evidenced by Legal proofs because the persons by whose testimony they may be confirmed do for fear of a most potent Adversary withdraw themselves and the Ambassadors never had the freedom personally to speak to his Majesty in the absence of the Duke of Buckingham an example say they unusual with other Kings and never to be taken well except when the King is weak in judgement and wants experience and a man wise and circumspect supplies his place But here said the Ambassador is a prudent King and a Favorite young rash and heady whose continual presence did argue guilt and fear and his Majesties most faithfull Servants dare not so much as disclose their minds Moreover they suggest that the business of the Palatinate was by him taken out of the hands of the Kings Council and referred to the Parliament that he did arrogate to himself the thanks of all things acceptable and was stiled the Redeemer of his Country and he would have it believed that he hath a dominion over the Kings and Princes will And things standing thus though many may be found that will speak against the King yet none will appear to speak against the Duke For which causes these close Informers besought his Majesty to free his Vassals from fear and diffidence who otherwise will dare discover nothing for his preservation But these dark Intelligences had no other issue then the moving of King Iames to represent to the King of Spain the miscarriages of his Ambassadors remitting the cause unto him with a demand of Justice and reparation for that the Information was sufficient to put impressions in him of perpetual jealousies of the Duke Hereupon when the Ambassadors were returned home they suffered a few dayes confinement but were afterwards rather rewarded and further imployed For in the Court of Spain Buckinghams name was odious and the Princes honor of little value and the Kings reputation at a low ebb divers particular Enmities were already begun between the Subjects of both Crowns the English Merchants were oppressed in the Spanish Ports Notwithstanding the Dukes vast power and popularity the Earl of Bristol refused to bow before him The Earl though his charge were heavy and his Cause strongly prejudiced did not abandon his own defence but protested against the Dukes Narration of the Spanish Affairs and was committed to the Tower being not admitted into the Kings presence nor to plead his Cause before him He was to the Duke a stout and dangerous Enemy insomuch that he was said to violate the rules of the prudent Mariner who in a Storm and foul weather is accustomed rather to pull down then to hoise up Sailes Saturday the 29 of May the King being come to the House of Peers and his Majesty and the Lords in their Robes Sir Thomas Crew Speaker being come to the Bar and the Commons present he made this Speech THat God to his own great glory had brought this Session of the Parliament so happily begun to so happy an end that both Houses and every particular Member thereof had given their willing assent even with one voice unto the Advice which his Majesty was pleased so low to descend as to demand of them As there was not an hammer heard in the building of the House of God so in this great Business there was not a Negative voice nor any jarring among them But their time was wholly spent in the business of Parliament in which they had prepared many Bills profitable for the Common-wealth and shewed the several natures of those Bills some for the service of God and restraint of Recusants some to redress the Enormities of the Commonwealth others of his Majesties grace and bounty to his people and some concerning the Prince's Highness touching his own Lands and others to settle strife in particular Estates all which do wait for and humbly desire his Majesties Royal assent He shewed also what great joy they all received for the Dissolution of the two Treaties with Spain and that Commissioners are required to see the Edicts performed against Recusants and Iesuites the Locusts of Rome wherein will consist his Majesties chiefest safety And they do render him humble thanks for their antient Priviledges which they fully enjoyed this Parliament and their so often access unto his Majesties presence and more especially for his Majesties general large liberal and free Pardon shewing the benefit thereof and reciting the particulars He also presented the Bill of Three entire Subsidies and Three Fifteens and Tenths granted this Session and declared the cheerfulness of the grant thereof And making his earnest prayers unto Almighty God to direct his Majesties heart to make his own Sword his Sheriff to put his Son-in-law in possession of his Palatinate the antient Inheritance of his Royal Grandchildren he ended humbly craving pardon for himself and his own errors committed this Session Unto which his Majesty presently made answer beginning with the last of the Speakers Speech touching their Freedom which he promised to continue unto them in as large a manner as ever they enjoyed the same And for the Restitution of his Son-in-law protested his continual care thereof and his great grief if he should not see an assured hope before he died and vowed that all the Subsidies for which he heartily thanked them though it had not been so tied and limited should have been bestowed that way His Majesty remembred them that nothing was given to relieve his own wants which he expecteth at the neâ—â— Session the beginning of Winter He acknowledged the obedience and good respect of the Commons in all things this Parliament for which as he was pleased to say he thanks them heartâ—ly and without complement and if they please to continue the same at their next meeting it will make this the happiest Parliament that ever was His Majesty spake also of the Grievances presented unto him yesterday by the Commons at Whitehall promising them a full Answer at their next meeting That he had looked over them and was glad they were of no greater importance His Majesty remembred the House to handle Grievances at their next meeting and to hunt after none nor to present any but those of importance He promised to go over them all and to give a free answer such as should be good for his People not respecting any Creature whatsoever and that he will advise herein with his Council and Judges At this time his Majesty said he would shew them his grievances first that they grieve at the Reformation of Building about London
lending of the Ships and received fair Answers from them both But the King sent an express and strict Order to Pennington requiring him without delay to put his former Command in Execution for the consigning of the Ship called the Vantguard with all her furniture into the hands of the Marquess D' Effiat assuring the Officers of the Ships that he would provide for their Indempnity and further commanding him to require the Seven Merchants Ships in his name to put themselves into the Service of the French King and in case of backwardness or refusal to use all means to compel them thereunto even to their sinking Upon this Pennington went back to Deep and put the Vantguard into the absolute Power and Command of the French King to be employed in his Service at pleasure and commanded the rest of the Fleet to the like Surrender At the first the Captains Masters and owners refused to yield weighed Anchor and were making away but when Pennington shot they came in again but Sir Ferdinando Gorge came away with the Ship called the Neptune The Companies unanimously declined the Service and quitted the Ships all but one Man who was a Gunner and Pennington hasted to Oxford where the Parliament was Reassembled but as was voiced was there concealed till the Parliament was dissolved On the First of August the Parliament Reassembled at Oxford whether the news of the Ships lent to the French against the besieged Rochellers did quickly flie and exasperate the spirit of that great Assembly against the Duke of Buckingham The Grievances insisted upon were the mis-spending of the Publick Treasure the neglect of guarding the Seas insomuch that the Turks had leisure to land in the Western parts and carry away the Subjects Captives The Commons appointed a Committee to consider of secret Affairs and to examine the Disbursements of the Three Subsidies and the Three Fifteens given to King Iames for the Recovery of the Palatinate and they prepared to assault the Duke Also Mr. Richard Montague was summoned to appear according to the Condition of his Bond and a Committee was appointed to proceed in the further Examination of that business Mr. Montagues Cause was recommended to the Duke by the Bishops of Rochester Oxford and St. Davids as the Cause of the Church of England They shew that some of the Opinions which offended many were no other then the resolved Doctrine of this Church and some of them are curious Points disputed in the Schools and to be left to the liberty of Learned Men to abound in their own sense it being the great fault of the Council of Trent to require a Subscription to School Opinions and the approved Moderation of the Church of England to refuse the apparent Dangers and Errors of the Church of Rome but not to be over-busie with Scholastical Niceties Moreover in the present case they alleage that in the time of Henry the Eighth when the Clergy submitted to the Kings Supremacy the Submission was so resolved That in case of any difference in the Church the King and the Bishops were to determine the Matter in a National Synod and if any other Judge in Matters of Doctrine be now allowed we depart from the Ordinance of Christ and the continual practice of the Church Herewithal they intimated That if the Church be once brought down below her self even Majesty it self with soon be impeached They say further That King Iames in his rare wisdom and judgment approved all the Opinions in this Book and that most of the contrary Opinions were debated at Lambeth and ready to be published but were suppressed by Queen Elizabeth and so continued till of late they received countenance at the Synod of Dort which was a Synod of another Nation and to us no ways binding till received by Publick Authority And they affirm boldly That they cannot conceive what use there can be of Civil Government in the Common-wealth or of External Ministry in the Church if such fatal Opinions as some are which are opposite to those delivered by Mr. Montague be publickly taught and maintained Such was the Opinion of these forenamed Bishops but others of Eminent Learning were of a different Judgment At Oxford in a late Divinity Disputation held upon this Question Whether a Regenerate Man may totally and finally fall from Grace The Opponent urging the Appeal to Caesar the Doctor of the Chair handled the Appellator very roughly saying He was a meer Grammarian a Man that studied Phrases more then Matter That he understood neither Articles nor Homilies or at least perverted both That he attributed he knew not what vertue to the sign of the Cross Dignus Cruce qui asserit and concluded with an Admonition to the Juniors That they should be wary of reading that and the like Books On the Fourth of August the Lords and Commons were commanded to attend his Majesty in Christs-Church Hall in Oxford where he spake unto them in manner following MY Lords and you of the Commons We all remember that from your Desires and Advice my Father now with God brake off those two Treaties with Spain that were then in hand Well you then foresaw that as well for regaining my dispossessed Brothers Inheritance as home defence a War was likely to succeed and that as your Councils had led my Father into it so your assistance in a Parliamentary-way to pursue it should not be wanting That aid you gave him by Advice was for succor of his Allies the guarding of Ireland and the home part supply of Munition preparing and setting forth of his Navy A Council you thought of and appointed for the War and Treasurers for issuing of the Moneys And to begin this Work of your Advice you gave Three Subsidies and as many Fifteens which with speed were levied and by direction of that Council of War in which the preparation of this Navy was not the least disbursed It pleased God at the entrance of this Preparation by your Advice begun to call my Father to his Mercy whereby I entred as well to the care of your Design as his Crown I did not then as Princes do of Custom and Formality Reassemble you but that by your further Advice and Aid I might be able to proceed in that which by your Counsels my Father was engaged in Your love to me and forwardness to further those Affairs you expressed by a Grant of Two Subsidies yet ungathered although I must assure you by my self and others upon credit taken up and aforehand disbursed and far short as yet to set forth that Navy now preparing as I have lately the estimate of those of care and who are still employed about it whose particular of all expences about this preparation shall be given you when you please to take an accompt of it His Majesty having ended his Speech commanded the Lord Conway and Sir Iohn Cook more particularly to declare the present state of Affairs which
not but to give you an honest accompt of all my Actions herein And if I shall first to my grave I desire if you find me cleer the reputation of an Honest man and an English-man may attend me thereunto Thus I rest Your dutiful and humble Servant SAMUEL TURNER To the Honorable Sir Henage Finch Speaker of the House of Commons The Monday following Sir W. Walter if the Name be not miswritten in our Collections represented to the House That the Cause of all the Grievances was for that according as it was said of Lewis the Eleventh King of France All the Kings Council rides upon one horse And therefore the Parliament was to advise his Majesty as Iethro did Moses to take unto him Assistants with these qualities 1. Noble from among all the People not Upstarts and of a Nights growth 2. Men of Courage such as will execute their own Places and not commit them to base and undeserving Deputies 3. Fearing God who halt not betwixt two opinions or incline to False worship in respect of a Mother Wife or Father 4. Dealing truly for Courtship Flattery and Pretence become not Kings Councellors but they must be such as the King and Kingdom may trust 5. Hating Covetousness No Bribers nor Sellers of Places in Church or Commonwealth much less Honors and Places about the King and least of all such as live upon other mens ruines 6. They should be many set over Thousands Hundreds Fifties and Tens one Man not ingrossing all Where there is abundance of Counsel there is Peace and Safety 7. They must judge of small matters the greater must go to the King himself not all to the Council much less any one Counsellor must alone manage the whole weight but Royal actions must be done only by the King 8. Lastly Moses chose them Elders not Young men Solomon by miracle and revelation was wise being young but neither his Son nor his young Counsellors had that priviledge No more is it expected in any of our Counsellors until by age and experience they have attained it Sir Iohn Elliot continued the Debate and thus spake WE have had says he a representation of great fear but I hope that shall not darken our understandings There are but two things considerable in this business First the Occasion of our Meeting and secondly the present State of our own Country The first of these we all know and it hath at large been made known unto us and therefore needeth no dispute The latter of these we ought to make known and draw and shew it as in a Perspective in this House For our wills and affections were never more clear more ready as to his Majesty but perhaps bauk'd and check'd in our forwardness by those the King intrusts with the affairs of the Kingdom The last Action was the Kings first Action and the first Actions and Designs of Kings are of great observance in the eye of the World for therein much dependeth the esteem or disesteem of their future proceedings And in this Action the King and Kingdom have suffered much dishonor We are weakned in our strength and safety and many of our men and ships are lost This great Design was fixed on the person of the Lord General who had the whole Command both by Sea and Land And can this great General think it sufficient to put in his Deputy and stay at home Count Mansfield's Actions were so miserable and the going out of those men so ill managed as we are scarce able to say they went out That handful of men sent to the Palatinate and not seconded what a loss was it to all Germany We know well who had then the Kings ear I could speak of the Action of Algier but I will not look so far backward Are not Honors now sold and made despicable Are not Judicial Places sold and do not they then sell Justice again Vendere jure potest emerat ille prius Tully in an Oration against Verres notes That the Nations were Suitors to the Senate of Rome that the Law De pecuniis repetundis might be recalled Which seems strange that those that were Suitors for the Law should seek again to repeal it but the reason was it was perverted to their ill So it is now with us besides inferior and subordinate persons that must have Gratuities they must now feed their great Patrons I shall to our present Case cite two Presidents The first is 16 H. 3. The Treasure was then much exhausted many Disorders complained on the King wronged by some Ministers many Subsidies were then demanded in Parliament but they were denied And then the Lords and Commons joined to desire the King to reassume the Lands which were improvidently granted and to examine his great Officers and the Causes of those Evils which the People then suffered This was yielded unto by the King and Hugo de Burgo was found faulty and was displaced and then the Commons in the same Parliament gave Supply The second President was in the Tenth year of Richard the Second Then the Times were such and Places so changeable that any great Officer could hardly sit to be warmed in his Place Then also Monies had been formerly given and Supply was at that Parliament required but the Commons denied Supply and complained that their Monies were misimployed That the Earl of Suffolk then overruled all and so their Answer was They could not give And they petitioned the King that a Commission might be granted and that the Earl of Suffolk might be examined A Commission at their request was awarded and that Commission recites all the Evil then complained of and that the King upon the Petition of the Lords and Commons had granted that Examination should be taken of the Crown-Lands which were sold of the Ordering of his Houshold and the Disposition of the Jewels of his Grandfather and Father I hear nothing said in this House of our Jewels nor will I speak of them but I could wish they were within these walls We are now in the same case with those former Times we suffer alike or worse And therefore unless we seek redress of these great Evils we shall find disability in the wills of the People to grant I wish therefore that we may hold a dutiful pursuance in preparing and presenting our Grievances For the Three Subsidies and Three Fifteens which are proposed I hold the proportion will not suit with what we would give but yet I know it is all we are able to do or can give and yet this is not to be the stint of our affections but to come again to give more upon just occasions In the heat of these Agitations the Commons notwithstanding remembred the Kings Necessities and took the matter of Supply into consideration and Voted Three Subsidies and Three Fifteens to be paid the last day of Iune and the last of October next following and that the Act be brought in as soon as Grievances are
had good intelligence that the King of Spains eye was malitiously bent this way which had been pursued accordingly if the employment of the Low-Countrymen to the Bay of Todos los Santos had not diverted it Now for the Counsel which was used for sending out the Fleets I will refer you to the Relation of the Lord Conway who as well in this as other Resolutions can tell you That nothing was carried with single Councils And for my self I know that in all those actions no man can stand up against me to say that I ever did go with single Councils or made breach of any but have been an obedient Servant and Minister unto their Resolutions The proof whereof will appear in a Journal thereof which my Lord Conway keeps I confess all Councils were not ever as your selves would nor have wished they should if you had known them as my Master did in whom the former Affairs of State had bred such affections that the business being altered they were not to be trusted with the Change I will now give you an accompt of all my Negotiations since my being at Oxford both at home and abroad and because there it was charged that those things were carried with single Counsels I was more careful to advise the King to have his Counsel with him in the Country being to enter into War with an Active King And for my part I did diligently wait on the Council left all Recreations all personal occasions studying to serve my Master and to gain the good opinion of both Houses The Council of Woodstock generally advised the going out of the Fleet. And though it were objected that the Season were not fit yet the action shewed the contrary for they all arived in safety And for what was also objected that the Provision was not good experience tells you the contrary for the preparations were all good in quality and proportion And if the Success were not such as any honest man could wish I hope I shall not be blamed being not there in person though I made the greatest suit for it to my Master that ever I did for any thing But his Majesty thought my Service more useful in the Low-Countreys to comfort his Sister and to treat with the Kings oâ— Denmark Sweden and the States And though the Success as I said of the Fleet were not answerable to the desires of honest men yet it had these good effects first It put our Enemy to great charge in fortifying his Coasts secondly They took so many Ships as caused many of his Merchants to break whereby the Army in Flanders suffered much And lastly They could carry no Treasure out to pay their Forces in Flanders And for Omissions of what more might have been done I leave that to its proper place and time and let every man bear his own burden From Oxford the Council went to Southampton where the States Ambassadors did wait often on the King and Council and a League Offensive and Defensive betwixt us and them was thought fit to be resolved on whereof some Reasons I will express but not all First They are of our own Religion secondly They are our near Neighbors for situation so useful as when they are in distress it is policy in us to give them relief therefore the King thought fit to do it in such manner as might lay an Obligation on them which if it had not been done they had been pressed with a long War and such a Faction among themselves as if the King had not joyned and in a manner appeared their Protector they had broke among themselves And in this the Kings care was not onely of them but of all Christendom and of his own particular For as before he onely assisted them his Majesties care now used Arguments to draw them to Contribution so that they bear the fourth part of the charge of the War at Sea according to such Conditions as by the Lord Chamberlain you have heard This League being perfected betwixt the States and us his Majesty by Advice of his Council thought fit to send me to get such a League with the other Princes as I could The Rendezvous was in the Low-Countreys being in a manner the Centre for repair for England France and Germany I had Latitude of Commission to make the League with most advantage I could Now I had discovered from Monsieur B. The French Ambassador here that a League Offensive and Defensive would be refused and I found the King of Denmark shie and loth to enter into such a League against the King of Spain and so partly out of Necessity and partly out of Reason of State I was forced to conclude the League in general Terms for the restoring of the Liberty of Germany without naming the King of Spain or the Emperor that other Princes might come in and this to continue till every one had satisfaction and nothing to be treated of debated or concluded on but by consent of all parties It did appear that the Charge was so great that the Kingdom could not endure it and therefore I endeavored in the Low-Countreys to lessen it and so the Sea charge was helped and the Land assistance given unto them is to cease Six moneths hence which the Lord Conway said was to end in September next Also by this Treaty it is conditioned with the King of Denmark That when my Master shall by Diversion equal to this Contribution with his own Subjects enter into an Action then this Charge to cease Or if the King of France may be drawn in of which there is great hope though he hath now made peace in Italy for that the policy of France may not give way unto the greatness of the House of Austria and ambition of Spain whose Dominions do grasp him in on every side And if the business be well carried his Engagement to the King of Denmark may draw him in so there is great possibility of easing our Charge But all is in the discreet taking of the time for it not we may think the King of Denmark will take hold of those fair Conditions which are each day offered him and then the Enemies Army will fall upon the River of Elve and the Lord Conway added upon East-Friezland from whence they would make such progress as in my poor experience would ruine the Low-Countreys And thus I think I have satisfied all of you or at least given an account of my Negotiation in the Low-Countreys with the King of Denmark Sweden and the rest I should be glad before I end to say somewhat of my self but I shall request your favorable construction for I have been too long already but I fear I shall offend and therefore I will restrain my self to generals If in any of these employments my Errors may be shewed me I shall take him for my best friend that will manifest them in particulars I have bent all my thoughts on nothing but my Masters Honor the Service
the Communion there were present One hundred persons some of them Brothers Kinsmen and near dependence upon some of their Lordships whom I see there in my eye This I did in Spain the like I did in Germany in the Emperors Courts in his Ambassage thither Fifthly I had in my several employments into Spain and Germany above Five hundred persons of all qualities attending upon me and never one perverted in Religion My Children carefully instructed and bred in the same Religion I had constantly every Sabbath a Sermon in my House and Sacraments and other exercises of our Religion frequented Sixthly A foul-mouthed Shimei railed against our late King and Religion in Spain how I caused that to be revenged by a near Kinsman of my own is well known Seventhly One of the English dying in the Town of Madrid of whose Religion there was some question made and the Kings Chaplains telling me that they at the day of his death had been with him and taken an accompt of his Faith and that he died a Protestant I caused him to be brought home to my House and there buried according to our Rites whereat much ado was made and it was threatned that the Inquisitors and other Officers would come and fetch him out and bury him after their manner I stood upon it and that it was the King of Englands House and openly protested that whosoever should come thither with such intent I would shoot at him with a Peece and exhorted all my people That if such an attempt should be they should rather then suffer such a dishonor to our Religion die with me in that quarrel and hoped such English as were in the Town would do the like Eighthly There having been a Monastery for English Jesuites founded and setled at Madrid before my coming thither and the English Arms set up I labored to suppress it and having written thereof to the late King his Majesty advised me not to run my Head against the Rock for it was an impossible thing for me to do Yet I undertook it and it pleased God so to bless my endeavors That I absolutely dissolved and overthrew it For which the Bishop of Winchester Montague now with God wrote unto me by his Majesties direction a Letter of his Majesties gratious acceptance of so great a Service telling me Besides the service I had done to the Church and Commonwealth it should remain a Trophy of Honor to me and my Posterity for ever And the King himself with his own hand wrote unto me beginning his Letter Good Fortune Digby your good luck in your Service well deserves that stile Ninethly In all Negotiations in Spain in point of Religion I ever straightned my Instructions Tenthly The Match with Spain was not moved by me I ever advised a Protestant Match and shewed many Reasons both of Conscience and State but if with a Catholick then rather with Spain then France so as good Conditions might be made for Religion as appears by a Letter I wrote and delivered to the Prince at his first going upon the employment for which I had like then to have been ruined for being a Puritan as I am now for being a Papist and all by one and the same hand Eleventhly And I appeal to the Testimony of Dr. Mason and Dr. Wren the Kings Chaplains with me in Spain and to Mr. Sampford Mr. Boswel and Mr. Frewen my own Chaplains there And that such Papists as have been my antient Acquaintance and Friends being men of worth well known to many of their Lordships may be examined upon Oath Whether I have not in all places as well in Spain as in England and at all times upon fit occasions avowed my self a Protestant without the lest prevarication Or whether I did ever any the least act that was not suitable to the same Profession And that Mr. Frewen Mr. Wake my own Chaplains may give their Testimonies whether in the time of several dangerous sicknesses which I had of late years faln into I have not in the time of such my sicknesses when no man can be supposed to dissemble with the World being ready to leave it made before them a Confession of my Faith and made my Peace with God resolving to die as besitted a Protestant and good Christian. This I tell your Lordships was my Religion I was bred in have ever professed and lived in and was resolved by Gods Grace to die in and yet was so unhappy by reason of employment to be distasteful to many good men that I have been suspected even by them not well knowing me And this hath been the rise the Duke hath now taken against me Then for my love to Spain I wonder from whence that opinion should grow since I was there hated and shamed as the man whom of all others they desired to have the least to do withal having stood ever stricter in point of Religion then by my Instructions I might have done as after the Capitulation concluded on they understood by some intelligence which caused their hatred towards me Sure I am I shewed it not by the service I did them for divers years together there was not a Letter sent by that King to any other State that the King my Master had not a Copy of before or by that time it came to the place whither it was directed There was not any great action on foot whereof I had not the private Instructions and sent them hither not any expedition by Sea or Land wherein I had not some Ministers or Intelligencers that gave me from time to time Advertisement of their Actions and most private Intentions whereof I advertised his Majesty from time to time I used such industry as to get all the Papers of that Kings private Cabinet into my hands took Copies and Notes of such of them as I thought useful and upon every of them set my private mark before they were conveyed back again to the end that if I should have had an occasion to have charged him with any thing mentioned in the same Papers I might have let him see I knew it by telling him in what Paper it was and marked with such a mark There was not a Port in Spain that I had not caused the depth of it to be sounded nor a Fort whereof I knew not the strength both for the Garison Munition and other matters of advantage and disadvantage insomuch as if it should please the King to appoint a Committee of the Lords to take accompt of me I should by the stores I gathered there and brought with me make it appear I was as useful a Servant to His Majesty in a War as in Peace Whereas at his Majesties coming out of Spain the powers for the Desponsories were to be deposited in some mans hands and the Duke upon pretence of doing me honor but intending to break my Neck by it moved they might be left with me and the King of Spain was contented and so they were put
of future Actions the Copy whereof is this as followeth SIR THe Opinion which I have ever presumed humbly to offer unto his Majesty concerning your Highness Marriage hath been that both in regard of Conscience and satisfaction unto his Majesties People and Alleys likewise for the security and quiet of your Majesties estates Your Highness might take for Wife some Protestant Princess although she neither were Daughter to a King nor had so ample a Portion as might relieve the Kings present Necessities and Wants for then there might be many ways found to help the Kings wants either by some few years providence and frugality or by winning the affections of the people to the supplying of his Majesty by way of Subsidies in Parliament whereas contrariwise if the number and power of the Papists shall be increased as undoubtedly they will be by your Highness matching with any Catholick Princess through the Concession which must be of necessity for the exercise of her Religion for her self and Family within your Highness Courts and thereby by degrees these two different Religions shall grow to an equality of power it will be of great hazard and disquiet to the State and not to be redressed without great danger and courses of more violence then is usual for this State to put in practice But in case his Majesty out of his wisdom and consideration best known to himself hold it fittest that your Majestie match with France or Spain or any other Catholick either for that the present time affordeth no Protestant Princess who is for years or Blood suitable for your Highness or that can in any considerable measure by the portion supply his Majesties present wants I then conceive that the Match by which this State shall suffer least inconveniency and cumbers and whereby his Majesties necessities shall by the greatness of the Portion be the most relieved is with Spain is such a Match may be made with such Conditions of Religion as other Catholick Princes will contract themselves withall Thus much I thought sit humbly to present unto your Highness for that I see my Imployment liable to the Censure of many worthy Persons with whom though I concur in my Opinion yet I seem much to differ from them many ways For that it is more proper to me to be true to my Masters ends and services then by declaring this to procure their satisfaction Only to your Highness I thought fit to make this Declaration and shall be a Suitor to you for your favor as you shall see me really labor to put this in effect And if his Majesty shall either upon motion of Parliament or any other Proposition that can be made unto him think it fit to proceed with a Protestant Match as I shall wish as well unto it as any man living so I hope in such sort to manage the present business that I have in hand that it shall rather much further then any way cross or hinder it But in case his Majesty shall not be drawn to any Proposition for a Protestant Match I then conceive that your Highness both doth and will approve that I really and effectually labor to procure a Match for your Highness in Spain upon such Conditions in point of Religion and Portion as to his Majesty shall seem fit Besides which Declaration of his Opinion He hath all the days of his life and in all places lived and allowed himself to be a Protestant never having done any the least act that was not suitable to that Profession And in all his former Imployments for the space of Fourteen years of more then Five hundred persons of all qualities that attended on him there was never any perverted in his Religion saving two Irish Footmen who in Ireland had been bred Papists And he humbly desireth the Testimony of Doctor Mason and Doctor Wren his Majesties Chaplains who were with his Majesty in Spain and of Master Sampford one of the Prebends of Canterbury Master Boswell Parson of S. Laurence in London and Master Frewen Divinity-Reader in Magdalen-Colledge in Oxford and now one of his Majesties Chaplains who were his Majesties Chaplains in Spain as well for the frequent use of the Sacrament as constant profession and exercises of Religion and the testimony of such Catholicks as are known to have been his antient Acquaintance and Friends to examine them upon oath Whether publickly or privately in Spain or in England they had known him in any kind to make shew or so much as to forbear upon all occasions to declare the Religion he professeth And that the said Mr. Frewen and Mr. Wake may be also examined Whether in extremity of several sicknesses whereinto he hath of late years fallen he hath not ever setled his Conscience withthem towards God and made a Confession of his Faith resolving as be-fitting a Protestant or good Christian. VIII To the Eighth Article the Earl saith That he did not at any time or in any place endeavor to perswade the Prince touching his religion to become a Roman Catholick and to be obedient to the usurped authority of Rome Neither did the said Earl to that end and purpose or otherwise use unto his Majesty then Prince the words in the Article mentioned But the said Earl acknowledgeth that upon occasion of a Letter that came to his Majesty then Prince putting his Majesty in mind of the great actions of his Royal Progenitors in the Holy War that the great Kings of those times did not only imploy their Forces but in their persons went into the Holy Land The Earl believeth that by way of discourse only and not otherwise he may have said That in regard of the difference in Religion it was of more difficulty to undertake such great actions now then in former Ages and it might well be instanced in the present Treaty of the Marriage wherein the Popes consent was to be obtained And to this effect and upon the like grounds he is confident there were very many that have nay few of neerness about his late Majesty that have not often heard his Majesty say That he was the true Martyr that suffered more for his Religion then all the Princes of Christendom besides instancing in divers particulars but especially in this That he could not match his Children with Kings of his own rank without the Popes leave But the said Earl saith He never alleaged any such thing to any other purpose then to shew that only Conscience and love to Truth in which regard Protestants suffered much not any temporal respects made men constant and zealous to the profession of our Religion By which discourse he ever attributed much to the honor and security of Protestant religion but never used it as an argument to perswade to the contrary as in the Accusation is insinuated Besides he conceiveth by way of Answer thereunto the said Question may be asked which his Majesty was pleased to ask of the Earl in the Seventh Article viz.
and spun out two days time It was managed by Eight Members and Sixteen more as Assistants The Eight cheif managers were Sir Dudley Diggs Mr. Herbert Mr. Selden Mr. Glanvile Mr. Pym Mr. Sherâ—and Mr. Wandesford and Sir Iohn Elliot Sir Dudley Diggs by way of Prologue made this Speech My Lords THere are so many things of great importance to be said in very little time to day that I conceive it will not be unacceptable to your Lordships if setting by all Rhetorical Affectations I onely in plain Country Language humbly pray your Lordships favor to include many excuses necessary to my manifold infirmities in this one word I am Commanded by the Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the Commons House to present to your Lordships their most affectionate thanks for your ready condescending to this Conference which out of confidence in your great Wisdoms and approved Justice for the service of his Majesty and the welfare of this Realm they desired upon this occasion The House of Commons by a fatal and universal Concurrence of Complaints from all the Sea-bordering parts of this Kingdom did finde a great and grievous interruption and stop of Trade and Traffick The base Pirates of Sally ignominiously infesting our Coasts taking our Ships and Goods and leading away the Subjects of this Kingdom into Barbarous captivity while to our shame and hindrance of Commerce our enemies did as it were besiege our Ports and block up our best Rivers mouths Our friends on slight pretences made Imbargoes of our Merchants Goods and every Nation upon the least occasion was ready to contemn and slights us So great was the apparent diminution of the antient Honor of this Crown and once strong Reputation of our Nation Wherewith the Commons were more troubled calling to remembrance how formerly in France in Spain in Holland and every where by Sea and Land the Valors of this Kingdom had been better valued and even in latter times within remembrance when we had no Alliance with France none in Denmark none in Germany no Friend in Italy Scotland to say no more ununited Ireland not setled in peace and much less security at home when Spain was as ambitious as it is now under a King Philip the Second they called their Wisest the House of Austria as great and potent and both strengthned with a malitious League in France of persons ill-affected when the Low-Countreys had no Being yet by constant Councils and old English ways even then that Spanish pride was cooled that greatness of the House of Austria so formidable to us now was well resisted and to the United Provinces of the Low-Countreys such a beginning growth and strength was given as gave us honor over all the Christian World The Commons therefore wondring at the Evils which they suffered debating of the Causes of them found they were many drawn like one Line to one Circumference of decay of Trade and strength of Honor and Reputation in this Kingdom which as in one Centre met in one great Man the cause of all whom I am here to name The Duke of Buckingham Here Sir Dudley Diggs made a little stop and afterwards read the Preamble to the Charge viz. The Commons Declaration and Impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham FOr the speedy Redress of great Evils and Mischeifs and of the cheif cause of these Evils and Mischeifs which this Kingdom of England now grievously suffereth and of late years hath suffered and to the honor and safety of our Soveraign Lord the King and of his Crown and Dignity and to the good and welfare of his people The Commons in this present Parliament by the Authority of our said Soveraign Lord the King assembled Do by this their Bill shew and declare against George Duke Marquess and Earl of Buckingham Earl of Coventry Viscount Villers Baron of Whaddon Great Admiral of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland and of the Principality of Wales and of the Dominions and Islands of the same of the Town of Calais and of the Marches of the same and of Normandy Gascoigne and Guienne General-Governor of the Seas and Ships of the said Kingdom Lieutenant-General Admiral Captain-General and Governor of his Majesties Royal Fleet and Army lately set forth Master of the Horse of our Soveraign Lord the King Lord Warden Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and of the Members thereof Constable of Dover Castle Iustice in Eyre of all the Forests and Chases on this side the River Trent Constable of the Castle of Windsor Gentleman of his Majesties Bed-Chamber one of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Council in his Realms both in England Scotland and Ireland and Knight of the most Honorable Order of the Garter The Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences Crimes and other Matters comprised in the Articles following and him the said Duke do accuse and impeach of the said Misdemeanors Misprisions Offences and Crimes My Lords THis lofty Title of this Mighty Man methinks doth raise my spirits to speak with a Paulò Majora Canamus and let it not displease your Lordships if for Foundation I compare the beautiful structure and fair composition of this Monarchy wherein we live to the great work of God the World it self In which the solid Body of incorporated Earth and Sea as I conceive in regard of our Husbandry Manufactures and Commerce by Land and Sea may well resemble us the Commons And as it is incompassed with Air and Fire and Sphears Celestial of Planets and a Firmament of fixed Stars all which receive their heat light and life from one great glorious Sun even like the King our Soveraign So that Firmament of fixed Stars I take to be your Lordships those Planets the great Officers of the Kingdom that pure Element of Fire the most Religious Zealous and Pious Clergy and the Reverend Judges Magistrates and Ministers of Law and Justice the Air wherein we breathe All which encompass round with cherishing comfort this Body of the Commons who truly labor for them all and though they be the Foot stool and the lowest yet may well be said to be the setled Centre of the State Now my good Lords if that glorious Sun by his powerful Beams of Grace and Favor shall draw from the Bowels of this Earth an exhalation that shall take Fire and burn and shine out like a Star it needs not be marvelled at if the poor Commons gaze and wonder at the Comet and when they feel the effects impute all to the incorruptible matter of it But if such an imperfect mixture appear like that in the last age in the Chair of Cassiopeia among the sixed Stars themselves where Aristotle and the old Philosophers conceived there was no place for such corruption then as the Learned Mathematicians were troubled to observe the irregular motions the prodigious magnitude and the ominous prognosticks of that Meteor so the Commons when they see such a blazing Star in course so exorbitant in the Affairs of this Commonwealth cannot
but look upon it and for want of Perspectives commend the nearer examination to your Lordships who may behold it at a nearer distance Such a prodigious Comet the Commons take this Duke of Buckingham to be against whom and his irregular ways there are by learned Gentlemen legal Articles of Charge to be delivered to your Lordships which I am generally first commanded to lay open 1. The Offices of this Kingdom that are the Eyes the Ears and the Hands of this Commonwealth these have been ingrossed bought and sold and many of the greatest of them holden even in the Dukes own hands which severally gave in former ages sufficient content to greatest Favorites and were work enough for wisest Counsellors by means whereof what strange abuses what infinite neglects have followed The Seas have been unguarded Trade disturbed Merchants oppressed their Ships and even one of the Royal Navy by cunning practice delivered over into Foreign hands and contrary to our good Kings intention employed to the prejudice almost to the ruine of Friends of our own Religion 2. Next Honors those most pretious Jewels of the Crown a Treasure inestimable wherewith your Noble Ancestors my Lords were well rewarded for eminent and publick Service in the Common-wealth at home for brave exploits abroad when covered all with dust and blood they sweat in service for the honor of this Crown What back-ways what by-ways have been by this Duke found out is too well known to your Lordships whereas antiently it was the honor of England as among the Romans the way to the Temple of Honor was through the Temple of Vertue But I am commanded to press this no further then to let your Lordships know one instance may perhaps be given of some one Lord compelled to purchase Honor 3. As divers of the Dukes poor Kinred have been raised to great honors which have been and are likely to be more chargeable and burthensome to the Crown so the Lands and Revenews and the Treasuries of his Majesty have been intercepted and exhausted by this Duke and his Friends and strangely mis-employed with strange confusion of the Accounts and overthrow of the well established antient Orders of his Majesties Exchequer 4. The last of the Charges which are prepared will be an injury offered to the person of the late King of Blessed memory who is with God of which as your Lordships may have heard heretofore you shall anon have further information Now upon this occasion I am commanded by the Commons to take care of the honor of the King our Soveraign that lives long may he live to our comfort and the good of the Christian World and also of his Blessed Father who is dead on whom to the grief of the Commons and their great distaste the Lord Duke did they conceive unworthily cast some ill odor of his own foul ways whereas Servants were antiently wont to bear as in truth they ought their Masters faults and not cast their own on them undeservedly It is well known the King who is with God had the same power and the same wisdom before he knew this Duke yea and the same affections too through which as a good and gratious Master he advanced and raised some Stars of your Lordships Firmament in whose hands this exorbitancy of will this transcendency of power such placing and displacing of Officers such irregular runing into all by-courses of the Planets such sole and single managing of the great Affairs of State was never heard of And therefore onely to the Lord Duke and his procurement by mis-informations these faults complained of by the Commons are to be imputed And for our most Gratious Soveraign that lives whose name hath been used and may perhaps now be for the Dukes justification the Commons know well That among his Majesties most Royal Virtues his Piety unto his Father hath made him a pious nourisher of his Affections ever to the Lord Duke on whom out of that consideration his Majesty hath wrought a kinde of wonder making Favor Hereditary but the abuse thereof must be the Lord Dukes own And if there have been any Commands such as were or may be pretended his mis-informations have procured them whereas the Laws of England teach us That Kings cannot command ill or unlawful things when ever they speak though by their Letters Patents or their Seals If the things be evil these Letters Patents are void and whatsoever ill event succeeds the Executioners of such Commands must ever answer for them Thus my Lords in performance of my duty my weakness hath been troublesome unto your Lordships it is now high time humbly to entreat your pardon and give way to a learned Gentleman to begin a more particular charge Then were read the First Second and Third Articles viz. 1. THat whereas the great Offices expressed in the said Dukes Stile and Title heretofore have been the singular Preferments of several Persons eminent in Wisdom and Trust and fully able for the weighty Service and greatest Employments of the State whereby the said Offices were both carefully and sufficiently executed by several Persons of such Wisdom Trust and Ability And others also that were employed by the Royal Progenitors of our Soveraign Lord the King in places of less Dignity were much encouraged with the hopes of advancement And whereas divers of the said places severally of themselves and necessarily require the whole care industry and attendance of a most provident and most able person He the said Duke being yong and unexperienced hath of late years with exorbitant Ambition and for his own profit and advantage procured and ingrossed into his own hands the said several Offices both to the danger of the State the prejudice of that Service which should have been performed in them and to the great discouragement of others who by this his procuring and ingrossing of the said Offices are precluded from such hopes as their Vertues Abilities and Publick Employments might otherwise have given them II. Whereas by the Laws and Statutes of this Kingdom of England if any person whatsoever give or pay any sum of Money Fee or Reward directly or indirectly for any Office or Offices which in any-wise touch or concern the Administration or Execution of Justice or the keeping of any of the Kings Majesties Towns Castles or Fortresses being used occupied or appointed for places of strength and defence the same person is immediately upon the same Fee Money or Reward given or paid to be adjudged a disabled person in the Law to all intents and purposes to have occupy or enjoy the said Office or Offices for the which he so giveth or payeth any sum of Money Fee or Reward He the said Duke did in or about the Moneth of Ianuary in the Sixteenth year of the late King Iames of Famous memory give and pay to the Right Honorable Charles then Earl of Nottingham for the Office of Great Admiral of England and Ireland and the Principality of
then to believe That the said ships were never meant or any way in danger to be imployed against the Rochellors or those of our Religion in France and herein he did great injury and disservice to his Majesty to the great scandal and prejudice of our Religion and Affairs and highly abused both the Lords and Commons by this cautelous and subtile Speech and Insinuation and thereby gave both Houses occasion to forbear Petitioning or suing to his Majesty for Redress in this Business while the time was not then passed for the ships were not as then actually imployed against the Rochellors albeit in truth they were then delivered into the French Kings power And the same time before the Parliament was dissolved Captain Pennington who could have opened the whole truth of the business for the Service of the King and the Realm came to Oxford but was there drawn to conceal himself by means of the Duke and not to publish in due time his knowledge of the Premisses as was there shortly after reported The truth whereof the Lords in this Parliament may be pleased to examine as they shall see cause the Parliament at Oxford being shortly after viz. Aug. 12. unhappily dissolved In or about September 1625. The said ships were actually imployed against the Rochellors and their Friends to their exceeding great prejudice and almost utter ruine It hath been said by some of the French that the Vantguard she mowed them down like grass To the great dishonor of our Nation and the scandal of our Religion and to the disadvantage of the great affairs of this Kingdom and all Christendom Also the Ships themselves were in eminent peril to be utterly lost for lack of sufficient Cautions If they be come home since this Parliament sate down long after the matter was here expounded and taken into examination It may be well presumed that it is by some underhand procuring of the Duke and the secret complying of the French with him to colour out the matter which the Lords may examine as they see cause The one and onely English-man that presumed to stay in one of the Ships and serve against the poor Rochellors of our Religion at his return was slain in charging a Peece of Ordnance not by him well sponged In February last 1625. Monsieur de la Touche having speech with Master Thomas Sherwell a Member of the Commons House of Parliament at Salisbury as he was coming up to the Parliament and Monsieur de la Touche going down into Somerset-shire to Master John Pawlets to Monsieur Sobysa He told Master Sherwell in the hearing also of one Master Iohn Clements of Plymouth who is now in Town the words that the Duke had spoken to him the last Summer touching these Ships and thereupon used these words Ce Duque est un meshant homme Upon this whole Narration of the Fact touching the manner of Delivery of the Ships to the French divers things may be observed wherein the Dukes offences do consist As In betraying a Ship of the Kings Royal Navy unto a Foreign Princes hand without good Warrant for the same The dispossessing the Subjects of this Realm of their Ships and Goods by many artifices and subtilties and in conclusion with high hand and open violence against the good will of the Owners In breaking the duty of Lord Admiral and Guardian of the Ships and Seas of this Kingdom In varying from the original good Instructions and presuming to give others of his own head in matters of State In violating the duty of a sworne Privy-Counsellor to his Majesty In abusing both Houses of Parliament by a cautelous Misinformation under a colour of a Message from his Majesty And in disadvantaging the Affairs of those of our Religion in Foreign parts Offences of an high and grievous nature For the proof of some parts thereof which are not the least I offer to your Lordships consideration the Statute of the 2 3 E. 6. touching the Duke of Somerset wherein is recited That amongst other things he did not suffer the Piers called the Newhaven and Blackerst in the parts beyond the Seas to be furnished with victuals and money whereby the French were encouraged to invade and win the same Aud for this offence amongst others it was Enacted That a great part of his Land should be taken from him And if Non-feazance in a matter tending to lose a fixed Castle belonging to the King be an high offence then the actual putting of a Ship Royal of the Kings into the hand of a Foreign Prince which is a moveable and more useful Castle and Fortress of the Realm must needs be held a greater offence I will forbear to cite any more Presidents of this kind because some of those who have gone before me have touched at divers Presidents of this nature which may be applied to this my part Only because the abuse of the Parliament which is the chiefest Council of State and Court of Judicature in the Realm is not the least offence in this business I shall desire your Lordships to take into consideration the Statute of Westm. 1. cap. 30. whereby such as seem to beguile Courts of Justice are to be sore judged in the same Courts and punished as by that Statute appeareth So he concluded and left the Duke to their Lordships equal Justice The Ninth and Tenth Articles were read next IX Whereas the Titles of Honor of this Kingdom of England were wont to be conferred as great Rewards upon such vertuous and industrious Persons as had merited them by their faithful service The said Duke by his importunate and subtile procurement hath not only perverted that antient and most honorable way but also unduly for his own particular gain he hath enforced some that were rich though unwilling to purchase Honor As the Lord R. Baron of T. who by practice of the said Duke and his Agents was drawn up to London in or about October in the Two and twentieth year of Reign of the late King Iames of famous memory and there so threatened and dealt withall that by reason thereof he yielded to give and accordingly did pay the sum of Ten thousand pounds to the said Duke and to his use For which said sum the said Duke in the moneth of Ianuary in the Two and twentieth year of the said lake King procured the Title of Baron R. of T. to the said Lord R. In which practice as the said Lord R. was much wronged in his particular so the Example thereof tendeth to the prejudice of the Gentry and dishonor of the Nobility of this Kingdom X. Whereas no Places of Judicature in the Courts of Justice of our Soveraign Lord the King nor other like Preferments given by the Kings of this Realm ought to be procured by any Subject whatsoever for any Reward Bribe or Gift He the said Duke in or about the moneth of December in the Eighteenth year of the Reign of the late King Iames of famous
making the same contemptible through the sale of it by the commonness of it Yet I am commanded further to observe another step of Unworthiness in this Gentleman who hath not only set Honor to sale by his Agents but compelled men likewise unwilling to take Titles of Honor upon them For the particular that Noble Gentleman that this concerns I am commanded to say of him from the House of Commons That they conceive of him that he was worthy of this Honor if he had not come to it this way They can lay no blame upon him that was constrained to make this bargain to redeem his trouble But we must distinguish of this as Divines do betwixt the Active and Passive Usurers they condemn the Active speaking favorably of the Passive And I must here observe to your Lordships by the direction of the House of Commons That it seems strange to them that this Great man whom they have taken notice of to be the principal Patron and Supporter of a Semipelagian and a Popish Faction set on foot to the danger of this Church and State whose Tenets are Liberty of Free-will though somewhat mollified That a man imbracing these Tenets should not admit of Liberty in Moral things And that he should compel one to take Honor and Grace from a King whether he will or no what is that but to adde Inhumanity and Oppression to Injury and Incivility But here I must answer a President or two which may be by misunderstanding inforced against me 5 H. 5. There was Martin and Babington and others which were chosen to be Serjeants and they did decline from it out of their modesty and doubted that their Estates were not answerable to their Place yet upon the Charge of the Warden of England they accepted it and appeared to their Writs Likewise there is a Writ in the Register That many by reason of the Tenure of their Lands may be compelled to be made Knights But this makes rather against then for this Faction For it is true that this is the wisdom and policie of the Common-Law that those that be thought fit men for Imployment may be drawn forth to be imployed for the good of the Commonwealth where otherwise they would not take it upon them But that any man for his own gain should force a man to take Degrees of Honor upon him certainly this is beyond all Presidents and a thing not to be exampled either in our Nation or any other And further I am commanded to tell your Lordships That it is dangerous that if a great Lord by his power or strength may compel a Subject to take such Honors why may he not compel them as well to take his Lands at what price he will and to sell them again as he thinks fit yea to marry his Children as it pleaseth him The conference of this is great if that it be well considered And they conceive that it is of so great a consequence that if it be not stopped it may come in time to make way for a dangerous Subversion and demonstrates a great Tyranny of a Subject under a most wise most gracious and most moderate King And thus my Lords I have done with the first Article allotted to my Charge and so I proceed to the next My Lords Before I enter into the enforcement of this Article I shall by way of Protestation from the House of Commons do in this as I did in the other Article And first for the Kings Majesty under whom we are now happily governed and placed I must by their direction say for his honor and our comfort and with humble acknowledgment confess That since his coming to the Crown there have been men of as great parts and learning advanced into Places in Church and Commonwealth as any have been heretofore And then for the first of those Lords whose names are mentioned in this Article I must say that they do not intend to reflect at all upon him nay they think his person so worthy as to be advanced to as high a place without any price at all and that he ought to have kept it longer if those that shuffled in those times had not shuffled him out Now to the matter of this Article which is the Sale of Places of Judicature being an offence And to prove this is all one as to make the glass clear by painting of it The grounds whereon I shall go shall be laid open Magna Charta cap. 29. The words are these Nulli vendemus nulli negabimus Justitiam It may be said this comes not close to my purpose Yet by your Lordships favor I shall make it good that it doth and I shall begin with the latter of the two first Nulli negabimus For if any that hath power or favor with the King should procure him to delay the making of Judges when there were Judges to take it it will not be denied that they do their best endeavor to make the King break his word For if any use their favor about the King to procure Places of Judicature for money they do what in them lies to make Justice it self saleable For it is plain that he that buyes must sell and cannot be blamed if he do sell. I shall open the evil Consequences that depend upon the sale of Places of Judicature or any Places of great trust 1. By this means unable men shall be sure of the precedence unto Places For they being conscious of their own want of Merits they must be made up by the weight in Gold 2. It must needs hence follow that Suits Contentions Brawls and Quarrels shall be increased in the Commonwealth For when men come to seats of Judicature by purchase they must by increase of Suits increase their own profit 3. Men will not study for sufficiencie of Learning to be able to discharge their Places but how they may scrape together Money to purchase Places 4. It will follow that those that have the best Purses though worst Causes will carry away the victory always 5. It will follow that when they be preferred for money to those Places they are tied to make the best of those Places viis modis And then the Great man that sold those Places to them must uphold them in their Bribery and he is tied to it because they are his Creatures nay further he is tied to support them in their Bribery to advance their Places upon the next remove 6. And lastly when good men and well deserving come to any Place they shall not continue there but they shall be quarrelled at so that there may be a vacancie in that Place and then some other shall suddenly step into the saddle by giving a competent price Upon these and the like reasons this fact of selling and buying Places and Offices of Trust hath not only been declaimed against by Christians but also by Moral Pagans Aristotle in his 5 lib. of Ethicks cap. 8. gives it as a Caveat That
no man amongst the Thebans was to take upon him any Place of Government in the Commonwealth if that he were a Merchant unless there were ten years distance between And the reason is this Because Merchants are used to buying and selling It is their Trade and Art to to 〈◊〉 Money so that their fingers are accustomed to that which they cannot leave when they come to Places of Trust and Judicature Nay further in honor of the Merchants He is accounted the wisest Merchant that gains most so that if any such comes to Offices and Places of Trust he thinks it best to advance his profit Next to the Pagans the Popes a Generation full of Corruption yet they by their Bulls are full of Declamation against such And this is plain by a Bull of Pius Quintus who lays the Penalty of Confiscation of Goods of any that do for money acquire any Offices and condemns them by his Papal sentence to be great sinners So Gregory the Thirteenth condemns the like And now to come nearer home to come to that which will principally lead your Lordships which are the Judgments of your Ancestors in Parliament wherein it appears by the Statute of 5 H. 6. that the same Statute condemns the Seller and Receiver as well as the Buyer and Giver It further appears by the Preamble of that Statute that such offences were against the Law and they foresaw the Corruptions of those that came into those Places by those means and that it is a hinderance of sufficient and worthy men from those Places And also 2 3 E. 6. which was likewise cited in the Case of the Duke of Somerset by which he was to forfeit his Estate that one thing was for selling of Places in the Commonwealth for money And certainly with your Lordships favor it is most just and probable that they that profess themselves to be Patriots and shew by their actions that they aim at their own lucre and labor to hinder the distributing of Iustice it is most just and proper that those men should return back again to the Publick Treasury of the King and Kingdom what they have by their unsatisfied lucre gotten And so my Lords craving Pardon of you for my boldness confusion and distractions in going through this business I humbly leave my self to the judgments of your favors and charities and this Great man the Duke to your wise Censure and Justice Then was read the Eleventh and Twelfth Articles XI That he the said Duke hath within these ten years last past procured divers Titles of Honor to his Mother Brothers Kindred and Allies as the Title of Countess of Buckingham to his Mother while she was Sir Thomas Compton's wife the Title of Earl of A. to his younger Brother Christopher Villiers the Titles of Baron of M. P. Vicount F. and Earl of D. to his Sisters Husband Sir W. F. the Titles of Baron of S. and Vicount P. to Sir Iohn Villiers elder Brother unto the said Duke and divers more of the like kind to his Kindred and Allies whereby the Noble Barons of England so well deserving in themselves and in their Ancestors have been much prejudiced and the Crown disabled to reward extraordinary Vertues in future times with Honor while the small Estates of those for whom such unnecessary Advancement hath been procured ar◠apparently likely to be more and more burthensom unto the King notwithstanding such Annuities Pensions and Grants of Lands annexed to the Crown of great value which the said Duke hath procured for those his Kindred to support these their Dignities XII He the said Duke 〈◊〉 contented with the great Advancement formerly received from the late King of famous memory by his procurement and practice in the Fourteenth year of the said King for the support of the many Places Honors and Dignities conferred on him did obtain a grant of divers Manors Parcel of the Revenue of the Crown and of the Duchy of Lancaster to the yearly value of One thousand six hundred ninety seven pounds two shillings halfpenny farthing of the old Rent with all Woods Timber Trees and Advowson part whereof amounting to the sum of Seven hundred forty seven pounds thirteen shillings four pence was rated at Two and thirty thousand pounds but in truth of a far greater value And likewise in the Sixteenth year of the same Kings reign did procure divers other Manors annexed to the Crown of the yearly value at the old Rent of Twelve hundred pounds or thereabouts according as in a Schedule hereunto annexed appeareth In the Warrant for passing of which Lands he by his great favour procured divers unusual Clauses to be inserted viz. that no Perquisites of Courts should be valued and that all Bailiffs Fees should be reprised in the particulars upon which those Lands were rated whereby a president hath been introduced which all those who since that time have obtained any Lands from the Crown have pursued to the damage of his late Majesty and of our Soveraign Lord the King that now is to an exceeding great value And afterwards he surrendred to his said Majesty divers Mannors and Lands parcel of those Lands formerly granted unto him to the value of Seven hundred twenty three pounds eighteen shillings and two pence half-penny per annum in consideration of which surrender he procured divers other Lands of the said late King to be sold and contracted for by his own Servants and Agents and thereupon hath obtained grants of the same to pass from his late Majesty to several persons of this Kingdom and hath caused Tallies to be stricken for the money being the consideration mentioned in those Grants in the Receipt of the Exchequer as if any such monies had really come to his Majesties Coffers whereas the Duke or some other by his appointment hath indeed received the same sums and expended them upon his own occasions And notwithstanding the great and inestimable gain by him made by the sale of Offices Honors and by other Suits by him obtained from his Majesty and for the countenancing of divers Projects and other Courses burthensom to his Majesties Realms both of England and Ireland The said Duke hath likewise by his procurement and practise received into his hands and disbursed to his own use exceeding great sums that were the monies of the late King of famous memory as appeareth also in the said Schedule hereunto annexed And the better to colour his doings in that behalf hath obtained several Privy-Seals from his late Majesty and his Majesty that now is warranting the payment of great sums to persons by his named causing it to be recited in such Privy-seals as if those sums were directed for secret Services concerning the State which were notwithstanding disposed of to his own use and other Privy-seals by him have been procured for the discharge of those Persons without accompt and by the like fraud and practice under colour of free gifts from his Majesty he hath gotten into
Tenants and therefore they are called by Bracton Robur Belli how can we now expect the like from such as have no Tenants and are hardly able to maintain themselves But this is not all for the prejudice grows not primitively by defect of that assistance which they might give the State but positively they have been a great burthen to the Kingdom by Gifts and Pensions already received and yet stand in need of more for the future support of their Dignities This makes the Dukes offence the greater that in this weakness and consumption of the Commonwealth he hath not been contented alone to consume the qublick Treasure which is the blood and nourishment of the State but hath brought in others to help him in this work of destruction And that they might do it more eagerly by inlarging their Honors he hath likewise inlarged their Necessities and their Appetites He did second his Charge with two Presidents the first 28 Henry 6. in the Complaint against the Duke of Suffolk in the One and thirtieth Article of that Complaint this was one of his Charges That he William de la Pool Duke of Suffolk had procured one who had married his Niece to be made Earl of Kendal and obtained for him One thousand pounds per annum in the Dutchy of Guienne and yet this Party was the Son of a Noble and well deserving Father So you see this is no new thing for the House of Commons to complain that those that are neer the King should raise their Kindred to an unnecessary Honor and if that were worthy of punishment for advancing of one then what punishment is he worthy of that hath advanced so many The second President is 17 Edw. 4. There passed an Act of Parliment for the Degrading of Iohn Nevil Marquis Montague and Duke of Bedford the reason expressed in the Act is because he had not a Revenue sufficient for the maintaining of that Dignity to which is added another reason of that nature that when men of mean birth are called to a high Estate and have not livelihood to support it it induceth great poverty and causeth briberies and extortions imbraceries and maintenance And now my Lords how far these Reasons shall lead your Judgements in this Case I must leave it to your Lordships Then he read the Twelfth Article being the second part of his Charge the Title whereof was The Exhausting Intercepting and Misimploying the Kings Revenues My Lords This Article consists of several Clauses which in some respects may be called so many distinct Charges for though they all tend to one end and scope the diminishing the Kings Treasure yet it is by divers wayes so that every Clause is a particular Branch Therefore he desired to break it into parts and to select the most material either in point of offence or grievance intenâ—ing to pass through them with this order first to declare the state of the proof and then to add such reasons and inforcements as he did conceive most conduceable to that Judgement which the Commons were to expect from their Lorships He made two main Branches of this Article The first concerns Lands obtained from the Crown the second concerns Money in Pensions Gifts Farms and other kinde of profit Touching the Lands he observed four Things 1. The sum of Three thousand thirty five pounds per annum of old Rent besides the Forest of Layfield of which we have no value and we can finde no Schedule granted by the late King to my Lord of Buckingkham within ten years past as appeareth by the several Grants vouched in the Schedule annexed and it was in it self a great grievance That in a time of such necessity when the Kings Revenues are not able to support such a great charge that so much Land should be conveyed to a private man This he acknowledged was not the Dukes case alone for others had received divers Grants from the King but none in so great measure And because the Commons aim not at Judgement onely but at Reformation he wished That when the King should bestow any Land for support of Honors that the caution which was wont to be carefully observed might again return into use that is to annex those Lands to the Dignity lest being obtained and wasted the Party repair to the King for a new support by which provision the Crown will reap this Benefit That as some Lands go out by new Grants others will come in by spent Intails He said he would not trouble their Lordships with repetition of the Laws heretofore made for preventing the alienation of the Kings Lands and for resuming those that had been alienated nor of the Ordinances made in this high Court for the same purpose and Fines set upon those that presumed to break such Ordinances he onely added as a further enforcement of the Grievance That when the Kings Revenues be unable to defray publick necessities the Commons must needs be more burthened with Supplies 2. His second Point was the unusual Clauses which the Duke by his greatness hath procured to be inserted into the Warrants for passing of those Lands of which two were mentioned the first That the casual profits should not be rated in the particulars the second That all Bailiffs Fees should be reprised Both which are to be proved by the Warrants remaining with the Auditor of the Rates and other Auditors whereupon he presented these Considerations First That it was a mark of Ingratitude and Insatiableness in the Duke thus to strain the Kings Bounty beyond his intention and that he would not receive this Bounty by the ordinary way but by the way of Practice Secondly It argued Unfaithfulness in him that being a sworne Counsellor he should put the King into such Courses of so much prejudice deceitfully in concealing the value of that which he bought so that the King gave he knew not what For under the proportion of Two thousand pounds he gives it may be Four thousand pounds And by this the King did not only sustain great loss for the present but it opened a way of continual loss which hath ever since been pursued by all those who have passed Lands from the Crown Thirdly The King is hereby not left Master of his own Liberality neither in proportion nor certainty for it might so fall out that the Quantity passed from him might be treble to that he intended 3. The third was The Surrender of divers Parcels of these Lands back to the King after he had held them some years and taking others from the King in exchange Where he noted That the best of the Lands and most vendible being passed away the worst lay upon the Kings hand that if he shall have occasion to raise money by sale of Lands that Course is not like to furnish him Besides that in the mean time betwixt the Grants and the Surrenders opportunity was left to the Duke to cut down Woods to infranchise Copiholds to make long Leases and yet
to convey them to the Treasury of the Navy If the truth be according to the Privy-seal they are to be added to the former Total as parcel of his own gain If according to that allegation it may prove a president of greater damage to the King then the money is worth for by this way his Majesty hath no means by matter of Record to charge the Treasurer of the Navy with these sums and may lose the benefit of the Act of Parliament 13 Eliz. whereby Accomptants Lands are made liable to the paiment of their Debts to the King and in many cases may be sold for his Majesties satisfaction The Treasurer of the Navy is a worthy man but if he should die the King loseth the benefit The fourth point of this branch is That he hath caused so great a mixture and confusion between the Kings Estate and his own that they cannot be distinguished by the Records and Entries which ought to be kept for the safety of his Majesties Treasure and indempnity of the Subject This is proved in divers instances whereof the last alleaged is one and others follow By the wisdom of the Law in the constitution of the Exchequer there be three Guards set upon the Kings Treasure and Accompts The first is a legal Impignoration whereby the Estates personal and real of the Accomptants are made liable to be sold for the discharge of their Debts which I mentioned before The second an apt Controlment over every Office by which the King relies not upon the industry and honesty of any one man but if he fail in either it may be discovered by some other sworne to take notice of it and either to correct his Errors or amend his Faults The third is a durable Evidence and Certainty not for the present time only but for perpetuity because the King can neither receive or pay but by Record All these Guards have been broken by the Duke both in the Cases next before recited and in these which follow The Custom of the Exchequer is the Law of the Kingdom for so much as concerneth the Kings Revenue Every breach of a Law by a particular offence is punishable but such an offence as this being destructive of the Law itself is of a far higher nature The fifth point of this second branch is concerning two Privy-seals of Release the one 16 the other 20 Iac. whereby this Duke is discharged of divers sums secretly received to his Majesties use but by vertue of these Releases to be converted to the support of his own Estate The proof hereof is referred to the Privy-seals themselves From which he made one observation of the subtilty he used to winde himself into the possession of the Kings money and to get that by cunning steps and degrees which peradventure he could not have obtained at once A good Master will trust a Servant with a greater sum that is out of his purse then he would bestow upon him being in his purse and yet after it is out of his hands may be drawn more easily to make a Release then at first to have made a Free gift This is a proper instance to be added to the proof of the point of mingling his own Estate with the Kings and of the same kind be other particulars mentioned in the Schedule though not expressed in the Charge as Twenty thousand pounds received in Composition for the Earl of M. his Fine which cannot be discovered whether part or all be converted to the Dukes benefit and yet it appears by a Privy-seal to be cleerly intended to the Kings own service for the Houshold and Wardrobe till by the Dukes practice it was diverted into this close and by-way Another instance in this is His endeavor to get the money which should be made of Prize-goods into his own hands And for this purpose he first labored to procure that his man Gabriel Marsh might receive it and when it was thought fit some Partner should be joined with him trial was made of divers but none of any credit would undertake the Charge with such a Consort And the Commons have reason to think there was good cause of this refusal for he is so ill an Accomptant that he confessed in their House being examined that by authority from the Duke he received divers bags of gold and silver out of the S. Peter of Newhaven which he never told When this practice of imploying his own man would take no effect then he procured a Commission from Sir William Russell who is indeed without exception an able and worthy Officer but that is not enough for the Kings security For howsoever he was to receive the money it was to be disbursed by and to the Dukes warrant and profit Which Clause hath been altered since this was questioned in Parliament and now it is to be issued from an immediate Warrant from his Majesty But as it was before it may be noted as an incroachment upon the Office of my Lord Treasurer whereby he might make a more easie way to some sinister end of his own so that upon the matter Sir William was but a safeguard of the money for the Duke himself And this I must note of some guilt in the very act of it The last point upon this whole Charge was a reduction of the value of the Land together with the mony into one totall and to that purpose he rated the Land being valued at a reasonable value at forty years purchase for although some of it was sold for thirty yet a great part was worth more then a hundred years purchase so as forty years is conceived to be an easy Medium at this rate 3035 l. amounteth to 121400 l. which being added to the total of the mony received 162995 l. both together make the sum of 284395 l. besides the Forrest of Leyfeild and besides the profit made out of the thirds of Strangers goods and the Moyetie of the profit made out of the Customes of Ireland This is a great sum in it self but much greater by many Circumstances if we look upon the time past never so much came into any private mans hands out of the publique purse if we respect the time present the King never had so much want never so many forreign occasions important and expensive the Subjects never have given greater supplies and yet those supplies unable to furnish these expences But as the Circumstances make the sum greater so there be other Circumstances which make it less if it be compared with the inestimable gain he hath made by the sale of Honors and Offices and by projects hurtfull to the State both of England and Ireland or if it be compared to his profusion it will appear but a little sum All these gifts and other ways of profit notwithstanding he confest before both Houses of Parliament that he was indebted 100000 l. If this be true how can we hope to satisfie his prodigality if false how can we hope to satisfie
our Friends and Allies who must prosper or suffer with us would have led them to a due and a timely consideration of all the means which might best conduce to those ends which the Lords of the Higher-House by a Committee of that House did timely and seasonably consider of and invited the Commons to a Conference concerning that great business At which Conference there were opened unto them the great occasions which pressed his Majesty which making no impression with them his Majesty did first by Message and after by Letters put the House of Commons in minde of that which was most necessary the defence of the Kingdom and due and timely preparations for the same The Commons House after this upon the 27 of March last with one unanimous consent at first agreed to give unto his Majesty three intire Subsidies and three Fifteens for a present supply unto him and upon the 26 of April after upon second Cogitations they added a fourth Subsidy and ordered the dayes of payment for them all whereof the first should have been on the last day of this present June Upon this the King of Denmark and other Princes and States being engaged with his Majesty in this common Cause his Majesty fitted his occasions according to the times which were appointed for the payment of those Subsidies and Fifteens and hasted on the Lords Committees and his Council at War to perfect their Resolutions for the ordering and setling of his designs which they accordingly did and brought them to that maturity that they found no impediment to a final conclusion of their Councels but want of mony to put things into action His Majesty hereupon who had with much patience expected the real performance of that which the Commons had promised finding the time of the year posting away and having intelligence not onely from his own Ministers and Sujects in Forrein parts but from all parts of Christendom of the great and powerfull preparations of the King of Spain and that his design was upon this Kingdom or the Kingdom of Ireland or both and it is hard to determine which of them would be of worst consequence He acquainted the House of Commons therewith and laid open unto them truly and clearly how the state of things then stood and yet stand and at several times and upon several occasions reiterated the same But that House being abused by the violent and ill-advised passions of a few Members of the House for private and personal ends ill-beseeming publick persons trusted by their Country as then they were not onely neglected but wilfully refused to hearken to all the gentle admonitions which his Majesty could give them and neither did nor would intend any thing but the prosecution of one of the Peers of this Realm and that in such a disordered manner as being set at their own instance into a legal way wherein the proofs on either part would have ruled the cause which his Majesty allowed they were not therewith content but in their intemperate passions and desires to seek for Errors in another fell into a greater Error themselves and not onely neglected to give just satisfaction to his Majesty in several Cases which happened concerning his Regality but wholly forgot their engagements to his Majesty for the publick defence of the Realm whereupon his Majesty wrote the forementioned Letter to the Speaker dated the ninth day of June 1626. Notwithstanding which Letter read in the House being a clear and gracious Manifest of his Majesties Resolutions they never so much as admitted one Reading to the Bill of Subsidies but instead thereof they prepared and voted a Remonstrance or Declaration which they intended to prefer to his Majesty containing though palliated with glossing terms aswel many dishonorable aspersions upon his Majesty and upon the sacred memory of his deceased Father as also dilatory excuses for their not proceeding with the Subsidies adding thereto also coloured conditions crossing thereby his Majesties direction which his Majesty understanding and esteeming as he had cause to be a denial of the promised Supply and finding that no admonitions could move no reasons or perswasions could prevail when the time was so far spent that they had put an impossibility upon themselves to perform their promises when they esteemed all gracious Messages unto them to be but interruptions His Majesty upon mature advisement discerning that all further patience would prove fruitless on the fifteenth day of this present moneth he hath dissolved this unhappy Parliament The acting whereof as it was to his Majesty an unexpressible grief for the memory thereof doth renew the hearty sorrow which all his good and well affected Subjects will compassionate with him These passages his Majesty hath at the more length and with the true Circumstances thereof expressed and published to the world least that which hath been unfortunate in it self through the malice of the Author of so great a mischief and the malevolent report of such as are ill-affected to this State or the true Religion here professed or the fears or jealousies of Friends and dutifull Subjects might be made more unfortunate in the consequences of it which may be of worse effect then at the first can be well apprehended and his Majesty being best privy to the integrity of his own heart for the constant maintaining of the sincerity and unity of the true Religion professed in the Church of England and to free it from the open contagion of Popery and secret infection of Schism of both which by his publick Acts and Actions he hath given good testimony and with a single heart as in the presence of God who can best judge thereof purposeth resolutely and constantly to proceed in the due execution of either and observing the subtilty of the adverse party he cannot but believe that the hand of Joab hath been in this disaster that the common Incendiaries of Christendom have subtilly and secretly insinuated those things which unhappily and as his Majesty hopeth beyond the intentions of the Actors have caused these diversions and distractions And yet notwithstanding his most excellent Majesty for the comfort of his good and well-affected Subjects in whose loves he doth repose himself with confidence and esteemeth it as his greatest riches for the assuring of his Friends and Allies with whom by Gods assistance he will not break in the substance of what he hath undertaken for the discouraging of his Adversaries and the Adversaries of his Cause and of his Dominions and Religion hath put on this resolution which he doth hereby publish to all the world That as God hath made him King of this great people and large Dominions famous in former ages both by Land and Sea and trusted him to be a Father and Protector both of their Persons and Fortunes and a Defender of the Faith and true Religion so he will go on cheerfully and constantly in the defence thereof and notwithstanding so many difficulties and discouragements will take his
Judgment and Execution of such Offenders as in time of War and some were executed by those Commissions Nevertheless the Soldiers brake out into great disorders they mastered the people disturbed the peace of Families and the Civil Government of the Land there were frequent Robberies Burglaries Rapes Rapines Murthers and Barbarous Cruelties Unto some places they were sent for a punishment and where ever they came there was a general outcry The High-ways were dangerous and the Markets unfrequented they were a terror to all and an undoing to many Divers Lords of the Council were appointed to repair into their several Countreys for the advancement of the Loan and were ordered to carry a List of the names as well of the Nobility and Privy Counsellors as of the Judges and Serjeants at Law that had subscribed to lend or sent in money for the Publick service to be a Patern and leading Example to the whole Nation But Sir Randolph Crew shewing no zeal for the advancing thereof was then removed from his place of Lord Chief Justice and Sir Nicholas Hide succeeded in his room A person who for his parts and abilities was thought worthy of that preferment yet nevertheless came to the same with a prejudice coming in the place of one so well beloved and so suddenly removed but more especially by reason the Duke appeared in his advancement to express a grateful Acknowledgment to that Knight for the care and pains he took in drawing the Dukes Answer to the Impeachment in Parliament against him This business of the Loan occasioned a Complaint to the Lords of the Council against the Bishop of Lincoln for publickly speaking words concerning it which was conceived to be against the King and Government Whereupon Sir Iohn Lamb and Dr. Sibthorpe informed the Council to this purpose That many were grieved to see the Bishop of Lincoln give place to unconformable Ministers when he turned his back to those that were conformable and how the Puritans ruled all with him and that divers Puritans in Leicestershire being Convented his Lordship would not admit proceedings to be had against them That Dr. Sibthorpe being desired to stay at Leicester this year as Commissary for the High Commission there the Countrey being much over-spread with Puritanism Sir Iohn Lamb and the said Doctor did inform the Bishop of Lincoln then at Bugden what Factious Puritans there were in the County who would not come up to the Table to receive the Communion kneeling and that there were unlawful Fasts and Meetings kept in the County and one Fast that held from nine in the Forenoon till eight at night and that Collections for moneys were made without Authority upon pretence for the Palatinate And therefore they desired leave from the Bishop to proceed against those Puritans Ex Officio The said Bishop replied He would not meddle against the Puritans for his part he expected not another Bishoprick they might complain of them if they would to the Council Table for he was under a Cloud already and he had the Duke of Buckingham for his Enemy and he would not draw the Puritans upon him for he was sure they would carry all things at last Besides he said the King in the First year of his Reign had given Answer to a Petition of the Lower House in favor of the Puritans It appeared also by the Information of others who were present at the Conference at Bugden That Sir Iohn Lamb and Dr. Sibthorpe did notwithstanding the Bishops aversness again press the Bishop to proceed against the Puritans in Leicestershire the Bishop then asked them what manner of people they were and of what condition For his part he knew of none To which Sir Iohn Lamb replied Dr. Sibthorpe being present That they seem to the World to be such as would not Swear Whore nor Drink but yet would Lie Cozen and Deceive That they would frequently hear two Sermons a day and repeat the same again too and afterwards pray and sometimes fast all day long Then the Bishop asked whether those places where those Puritans were did lend money freely upon the Collection of the Loan To which Sir Iohn Lamb and Dr. Sibthorpe replied That they did generally resolve to lend freely Then said the Bishop no man of discretion can say That that place is a place of Puritans For my part said the Bishop I am not satisfied to give way to proceedings against them At which Dr. Sibthorpe was much discontented and said He was troubled to see that the Church was no better regarded These Informations being transmitted to the Council Table were ordered to be sealed up and committed to the Custody of Mr. Trumbal one of the Clerks of the Council nevertheless the Bishop of Lincoln used such means as he got a Copy of them For which and some other matters an Information was afterwards preferred against him in the Star-Chamber Of which more at large when we come in our next Volume to treat of the great and high proceedings of that Court. Bishop Laud not long before this Passage with the Bishop of Lincoln was informed That the Bishop of Lincoln endeavored to be reconciled to the Duke and that night that he was so informed he dreamed That the Bishop of Lincoln came with Iron Chains but returned freed from them That he leaped upon a Horse departed and he could not overtake him The Interpretation of this Dream may not unfitly be thus applied His Chains might signifie the imprisonment of the Bishop of Lincoln afterwards in the Tower his returning free to his being set at Liberty again at the meeting of the Parliament his leaping on Hors-back and departing to his going into Wales and there commanding a Troop in the Parliaments Service and that Bishop Laud could not overtake him might portend that himself should become a Prisoner in the same place and be rendred thereby incapable to follow much less to overtake him At this time the King had Six thousand Foot Soldiers in the Service of the United Provinces under the Command of Sir Charls Morgan Sir Edward Herbert Sir Iohn Burlacy Sir Iames Leviston c. for the assistance of the States against the increasing power of Spinola Upon the present occasion these Forces were called off from the States services to joyn with the King of Denmark under the Command of Sir Charls Morgan against the common enemy the King of Spain and his adherents Some few moneths after One thousand three hundred foot more were embarqued at Hull to be transported by Captain Conisby to the Town of Stoad in Germany and there to be delivered over to the charge of the aforesaid Sir Charls Morgan General of the English Forces in the service of the King of Denmark a person of known Valor and fit for conduct of an Army But the Assessment of the general Loan did not pass currantly with the people for divers persons refused to subscribe their names
Madam Saint George that he was resolved no longer to endure it So the King dismissed and sent back into France the Queens Retinue of French first paying all that was due for Wages or Salaries and gave the King of France an account of the action by the Lord Carlton for the preserving of their mutual Correspondency and Brotherly Affection But this Dismission was ill resented in France and Audience denied to the Lord Carlton and the matter was aggravated high at the French Court as a great violation of the Articles of the Marriage And those persons who returned into France being for the most part yonger-brothers and had parted with their Portions at home in expectation of raising their Fortunes in the service of the Queen of England did heighten the discontent This jarring with France breaks forth to a publick War and King Charles is at once engaged against Two Great and Mighty Princes It is not our purpose to relate the particulars of those private transactions which were here in England concerning the preparing of a Fleet and Army nor how the same was managed at first by an Abbot who had relation to the Duke of Orleance and had been disobliged by Cardinal Richlieu This Man was full of Revenge against the Cardinal and labored much and at last effected the dismissing of the French about the Queen his cheif end therein was to put an affront upon Richlieu and withal to heighten the differences between the Two Crowns of England and France to which purpose he remonstrated to the Duke of Buckingham the Commotions and Discontents that were in France and how hardly the Protestants there were treated notwithstanding the Edict of Peace procured by the Mediation of the King of Great Britain This Abbots Negotiation with the Duke procured the sending of Devic from the King of England to the Duke of Rhoane who was drawn to engage to raise Four thousand Foot and Two hundred Horse upon the landing of the English Army in France but not before This private transaction was also managed by Mr. Walter Montague but in another capacity The Duke of Sobiez and Monsieur St. Blanchard contributed their endeavors also to hasten the Fleet and the raising of the Army in England against the French for the relief of those of the Reformed Religion there The King declared as a ground of his War with France That the House of Austria conspiring the ruine of all those of the Reformed Religion throughout Christendom as he said plainly appeared in the affairs of Germany had such an influence upon the Council of France as to prevail with them to obstruct the landing of Count Mansfields Army contrary to promise with whom the French should have joyned forces for the relief of the Palatinate and the German Princes which failer of performance in them proved the ruine of that Army the greatest part whereof perished and was by consequence the loss of the whole Protestant Party in Germany His Majesty further declared That having by his Mediation prevailed for a Peace between the French King and his Protestant Subjects and engaged his word That the Protestants should observe the Articles of Agreement Nevertheless the King of France contrary to the said Articles blocked up their Towns Garisons and Forts and had committed many spoils upon them when they had done nothing in violation of the Edict of Peace And that the King of France had committed an example of great injustice in full Peace to seise upon One hundred and twenty English Ships with all their Merchandise and Artillery for which Reasons the King was resolved to send a powerful Army and Navy to require satisfaction The Duke of Buckingham was made Admiral of this Fleet and Commander in chief of the Land forces and had a Commission to that purpose wherein it is expressed That his Majesty hath taken into his Princely consideration the distressed estate of his dear Brother-in-law and onely Sister the Prince and Princess Elector Palatine and their Children and finding himself in Nature and Honor nearly bound unto them At their request and for their just Relief in recovering their rightful Patrimony taken from them by the Advice of his Privy Council did the last year prepare and set out to Sea a Royal Fleet for Sea-service for performance of such services as on his Brother-in-laws and Sisters behalf his Majesty had designed And for the doing of those designs and for the honor and safety of his people his Majesty hath now prepared a new Fleet which he intends with all convenient expedition to set out to be employed as well by way of Offence as of Defence as shall be most behoveful for his said Brother-in-Law his service and therefore doth by the said Commission appoint the Duke of Buckingham to be Admiral Captain-General and Governor of his said Royal Fleet with such Soldiers and Land-forces as shall be conveyed therein for the accomplishment of such execution and employment as they shall be designed unto according to such private Instructions as his Majesty shall give unto the said Duke His Majesty by the said Commission giving to the Duke power to lead and conduct the said Navy and Army and with them to fight against his said Brother-in-law and Sisters enemies or the enemies of the Crown of England and to advance to the Order of Knighthood such persons employed in the Fleet Forces and Supplies as by their Valor Desert and good Service in this Expedition shall be thought fit in his the said Dukes discretion to merit the same and as to the Office of Captain-General doth appertain On the Seven and twentieth of Iune the Duke set fail from Portsmouth in order to the Relief of the Palatinate with the Fleet consisting of One hundred fail of Ships whereof Ten were of the Kings Royal Navy having aboard about Six or seven thousand Land-soldiers and towards the latter end of Iuly he appeared with his Fleet before Rochel who once much longed for their coming but now shut their Gates at their appearance Hereupon the Duke of Sobiez went a shore with Sir William Beecher from the Duke of Buckingham Sir William Beecher being also accompanied with a Letter of Credence from his Majesty of Great Britain they were at last admitted into the Town and the Magistrates called an Assembly and there Sir William Beecher declared unto them That the Duke of Buckingham was come with a great Fleet and Army to their assistance which his Master had sent out of a fellow-feeling of their sufferings and to require from the King of France a performance of the Articles of Peace made by the King of Englands Mediation on the behalf of the Protestants in France And further declared unto them That if they do now refuse to give their assistance by joyning forces with the English he said he would and did protest before God and Man in the name of the King his Master That his said Master was
fully acquit of his engagement of Honor and Conscience for their Relief But notwithstanding this Declaration and Sobiez his earnest solicitation and endeavor The Magistrates and wealthier sort of People in the Town being possessed with the fear of the King of France his Army then upon a march against them and there being a Court party also prevalent in the Town could be drawn to give no other answer at that time but this That they did render all humble and hearty thanks to his Majesty of Great Britain for the care he had of them and to the Duke for his forwardness and readiness to do his best service for their good but said They were bound by Oath of Union to do nothing but by the common and unanimous consent of the rest of the Protestant party in France And therefore prayed the King of Great Britain to excuse them in that they did suspend the Conjunction of Forces till they had sent to the rest of the Protestant Towns who were of the Union with them And in the mean time their Prayers and Vows should be for the happy progress of such actions as the Fleet and Army should undertake Notwithstanding this Answer Sobiez had strong assurance from a well-affected party in the Town That they could and would be able to preserve the same for the encouragement of the English and to assist them also with supplies from thence When Sobiez went from the Fleet into Rochel with Sir William Beecher the Duke of Buckingham was pleased to communicate his design to Sobiez by reason of his knowledge of the Countrey as well as for his interest in that Kingdom to raise forces that his full purpose and intention was to land his Army in the Isle of Oleran near unto Rochel and not at the Isle of Rhee being a little further distant Which Sobiez well approved of as a thing feasible at the first entrance the forces therein being few and the Forts weakly manned and victualled and besides it was of advantage for the Oyls Wines and other Commodities therein whereas the Isle of Rhee as he said to the Duke was furnished with a considerable force both of Horse and Foot which would make the landing there very difficult and besides they had a Cittadel well fortified to retreat unto The Duke not staying for Sobiez his return from Rochel alters his resolution and directs his course to the Isle of Rhee Toras the Governor thereof having before taken the alarum by the sight of the Fleet at Sea marches with his forces to impede their landing but maugre their opposition and the Fort La Prie. Sir Iohn Burroughs Sir Alexander Bret Sir Charles Rich together with Monsieur St. Branchard and other brave Commanders land first ashore and after them about Twelve hundred men who were presently encountred with the French horse and foot and a sore fight happened thereupon being a long time well maintained on both sides and many Commanders fell both of the English and French few of the English were unwounded but at last the English forced their way the enemy was constrained to retreat and to permit the whole Army to land In this combate Monsieur St. Blanchard was slain whose loss was much lamented by the Protestant party in France Sir William Heyden and some hundreds of the English were slain The foot which engaged on both sides were much equal in number but in horse the French had a great advantage The Victory was not pursued by a speedy march after Toras who retreated to his Cittadel at St. Martins with his wounded men for five days time was spent before the Army moved whereby Toras got not onely time to encourage his men to hold out being much discomfited at this fight but to get in assistance of Men and provision of Victuals out of the Island into the Cittadel which he improved to great advantage The Fort La Prie near unto the landing place and meanly Victualled and Manned was all this while the Army staid neglected omitted or contemned as inconsiderable the gaining whereof as was said would have secured a retreat for the English and impeded the landing of the French during the siege of the Fort at St. Martins This landing of the English was a great astonishment in the Court of France and if the taking of the Fort had immediately followed there would have appeared a great change of Affairs for the King fell sick about the same time and great discontent there was at Court and the King sent his Resolution to give the Protestants honorable terms if they will not joyn with the English sent to the Duke of Rhoan to content him with money and other proffers and renders the landing of the English to other Protestant Towns to be a thing not to be complied withal The Duke in two days march came with his Army before St. Martins and published a Manifesto justifying his Masters taking up of Arms against the King of France declaring amongst other Reasons as one cause thereof the Frenches employing of the English Ships against Rochel contrary to promise and lodgeth his Army at the Burgh of St. Martins at Rhee which upon the approach of the Duke the enemy quit and retreated into the City and quit a Well which was about thirty paces from their Counterskarf which being not at first coming of the Army made totally unserviceable to the enemy they presently drew a work unto it and so secured the same for their use by which they subsisted during all the time of the siege The Duke blocks up the Cittadel draws his forces round about it in order to a close siege and disposes his Fleet so as to hinder Relief by Sea and resolves to take it by Famine upon presumption and as the truth was that they were not provided with Victuals in the Cittadel for a long siege and being Master at Sea he might in short time be Master of the Cittadel But whilst the Duke employs his time in drawing a Line of Circumvallation and raising of Bulwarks and Batteries let us see what they are doing in England Those Gentlemen who stood committed for not parting with moneys upon the Commission for Loans were appointed to several Confinements not in their own but Foreign Counties Sir Thomas Wentworth afterwards Earl of Strafford and George Ratcliff Esq afterwards Sir George Yorkshire Gentlemen were sent for by Messengers and removed out of the County of York into the County of Kent and there secured by Confinement Sir Walter Earl and Sir Iohn Strangwayes who were Dorsetshire men were secured in the County of Bedford Sir Thomas Grantham and some others of the County of Lincoln were removed and secured in the County of Dorset Sir Iohn Heveningham and others of the County of Suffolk were secured in the County of Somerset Richard Knightly Esq and others of the County of Northampton were secured in the County of Southampton and Wiltshire Sir Nathaniel
are imprisoned will have mercy but we leave that we must not counsel you If in Justice we ought to deliver you we would do it But upon these grounds Records Presidents and Resolutions cited and produced the Court is of opinion they cannot deliver you but you must be remanded Whilst these Arguments about the Loan were in agitation which began in October in Michaelmas-Term various Reports and Advertisements came from the Isle of Rhee Sometime That they were in a Treaty with the Duke to surrender the Citadel unto him Others wrote That it was but a device of the Governor to get time till Relief came And many were dissatisfied with the Presents and Complements which passed between the Duke and the Governor of the Citadel Civilities to an enraged Enemy as was said seldom producing good effect Besides it was observed the Governor by his frequent sending out of Messengers though in a military way with Drums and Trumpets gave the Enemy advantage of seeing the Works and Army But the Vulgar sort at home spake more plainly of the miscarriages at Rhee how all things went there The clean contrary way It hath been observed when things come to be Vox populi it is commonly an ill presage But at this time persons of better quality and judgment gave out odd speeches concerning Affairs at Rhee That the business could not go well at the Isle of Rhee That there must be a Parliament That some must be sacrificed That Bishop Laud was as like as any The Bishop hearing of these speeches and that they were doubled being spoken by several persons he acquainted the King therewith who replied unto him Let me desire you not to trouble your self with any reports till you see me forsake my other Friends c. And the Parliament which afterwards followed said Bishop Laud sought his ruine which by the Kings sudden dissolution thereof was prevented and the Kings other Friends by that means not forsaken Notwithstanding these reports the King is resolved speedily to set to Sea divers Ships with a further supply of Soldiers to be sent to the Army in the Isle of Rhee and commands to press certain Companies of Soldiers and Mariners who were to rendevouz at Plymouth and from thence to be imbarqued and disposed as aforesaid In order to which service the King by Commission appointed the said Soldiers and Mariners to be at present under the Command of Charls L. Vicount Wilmot But afterwards his Majesty by Commission did constitute and appoint the Earl of Holland to repair to Plymouth and there to take into his charge and under his command the oversight rule order and government of all the said Soldiers and Mariners both at Sea and Land and to see them and all Provisions and Necessaries to be shipped and with all conveniencie to be transported and conducted to the Isle of Rhee and a Squadron of Ships was also appointed for their transportation and he was to deliver them under the command of the Duke of Buckingham Admiral of England and General of the Army But before the Earl of Holland set sail let us see what they are doing at the Isle of Rhee The first news we meet with there is That the French notwithstanding our Army at Land and a hundred Sail of Ships at Sea had got into the Harbor with relief of Provisions And that Sir Iohn Burroughs the 20. of September going to take a view of the Works was shot with a bullet whereof he presently dyed His death was much lamented having been a great Honor to the English Nation both at home and abroad About this time landeth Sir Pierce Crossby and some other Commanders with about Sixteen hundred English and Irish which came as an Assistance to the Forces before Rhee And now Toras the Governor began to foresee want notwithstanding his late supply and to study all ways and means how to give advertisement to the King of France of the low condition he was reduced unto Sandgrein a Frenchman adventured out of the Citadel and privately escaped the Guards and got with Intelligence to the King of France Yet Toras fearing left he might miscarry prevailed with three of his men promising large rewards to adventure their lives and to swim to the shore of the main Continent Two miscarried but the third got safe and delivered the Message which the Governor entrusted him with In the mean time more small Vessels got into the Harbor under the Citadel and was a further though small Supply unto them But the King of France was extremely allarm'd by the advertisement from Toras and thereupon blocks up Rochel with his Army as if he had designed the taking of it but the main end in seeming to design the Army against Rochel was thereby to take the opportunity to be near at hand to land Forces under the favor of the Little-Fort so much neglected at first and to put Victuals into the Citadel at S. Martins which was at that time reduced to a low condition And the same was effected time after time and supplies of men and victuals got in notwithstanding the English Guards at Land and Sea which now and then took some of the Vessels but nevertheless so much provision got in as served their occasion in the Citadel to the end of the Siege Now the Rochellers after they had in vain continued promises of obedience to the King of France and entettained a division among the Protestants one Party crossing another and finding the evil consequence of the division they put forth a Manifesto and declare for England and the Duke of Rhoan having given Commissions to raise Forces to assist the English declareth in preservation of the Edict of two Peaces and protesteth not to demand any thing but the observation of the said Edicts On the other part the King of France declareth and promiseth That he will on his part observe the said Edict And further declares the Duke of Rhoan to be drawn to death and declares Sobiez a Traitor and that he that should kill him should be accounted Noble By this time the French had got a great supply of Shipping from the Spaniard for their assistance which with their own made up above a hundred Sail exceeding the English Navy in number yet did avoid engaging with the English Fleet exercising all their skill and art how to get in a good and round supply of Provision into the Citadel and Toras the Governor employed his wit to gain time to that end by entertaining a Treaty of Surrender upon honorable terms and prevails with the Duke that he may first send to the King of France that he might come off with honor The Duke consents thereunto on condition that an English Gentleman an Attendant upon the Duke might go with that Party which Toras sent and have a safe conduct through France to pass into England And so they both go to the Court of France where the English Gentleman
Friends and Allies be not sufficient then no Eloquence of Men or Angels will prevail Only let me remember you That my duty most of all and every one of yours according to his degree is to seek the maintenance of this Church and Commonwealth And certainly there never was a time in which this duty was more necessarily required then now I therefore judging a Parliament to be the antient speediest and best way in this time of Common danger to give such Supply as to secure our selves and to save our Friends from imminent ruine have called you together Every man now must do according to his conscience Wherefore if you as God forbid should not do your duties in contributing what the State at this time needs I must in discharge of my conscience use those other means which God hath put into my hands to save that which the follies of particular men may otherwise hazard to lose Take not this as a Threatening for I scorn to threaten any but my Equals but an Admonition from him that both out of nature and duty hath most care of your preservations and prosperities And though I thus speak I hope that your demeanors at this time will be such as shall not only make me approve your former Councels but lay on me such obligations as shall tie me by way of thankfulness to meet often with you For be assured that nothing can be more pleasing unto me then to keep a good Correspondence with you I will only adde one thing more and then leave my Lord Keeper to make a short Paraphrase upon the Text I have delivered you which is To remember a thing to the end we may forget it You may imagine that I came here with a doubt of success of what I desire remembring the distractions of the last Meeting But I assure you that I shall very easily and gladly forget and forgive what is past so that you will at this present time leave the former ways of distractions and follow the Councel late given you To maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace The Lord Keeper seconded his Majesty on this manner YE are here-in Parliament by his Majesties Writ and Royal command to consult and conclude of the weighty and urgent Business of this Kingdom Weighty it is and great as great as the honor safety and protection of Religion King and Country And what can be greater Urgent it is It is little pleasure to tell or think how urgent And to tell it with circumstances were a long work I will but touch the sum of it in few words The Pope and House of Austria have long affected the one a Spiritual the other a Temporal Monarchy And to effect their ends to serve each others turn the House of Austria besides the rich and vast Territories of both the Indies and in Africa joined together are become Masters of Spain and Italy and the great Country of Germany And although France be not under their subjection yet they have invironed all about it The very Bowels of the Kingdom swayed by the Popish Faction They have gotten such a part and such intercession in the Government that under pretence of Religion to root out the Protestants and our Religion they have drawn the King to their adherence so far that albeit upon his Majesties interposition by his Ambassadors and his engagement of his Royal word there was between the King and his Subjects Articles of Agreement and the Subjects were quiet whereof his Majesty interessed in that great Treaty was bound to see a true accomplishment yet against that strict Alliance that Treaty hath been broken and those of the Religion have been put to all extremity and undoubtedly will be ruined without present help So as that King is not onely diverted from assisting the Common Cause but hath been misled to engage himself in hostile acts against our King and other Princes making way thereby for the House of Austria to the ruine of his own and other Kingdoms Other Potentates that in former times did ballance and interrupt the growing greatness of the House of Austria are now removed and diverted The Turk hath made Peace with the Emperor and turned himself wholly into Wars with Asia The King of Sweden is embroiled in a War with Poland which is invented by Spanish practices to keep that King from succoring our part The King of Denmark is chased out of his Kingdom on this and on that side the Zound so as the House of Austria is on the point to command all the Sea-coasts from Dantzick to Embden and all the Rivers falling into the Sea in that great extent So as besides their power by Land they begin to threaten our Part by Sea to the subversion of all our State In the Baltique-Sea they are providing and arming all the Ships they can build or hire And have at this time their Ambassadors treating at Lubeck to draw into their service the Hans-Towns whereby taking from us and our Neighbors the Eastland-Trade by which our Shipping is supplied they expect without any blow given to make themselves Masters of that Sea In these Western parts by the Dunkirkers and by the now French and Spanish Admiral to the ruine of Fishing of infinite consequence both to us and the Low-Countries they infest all our Coast so as we pass not safely from Port to Port. And that Fleet which lately assisted the French at the Isle of Rhee is now preparing at S. Andrews with other Ships built in the Coast of Biscay to reinforce it and a great Fleet is making ready in Lisbon where besides their own they do serve themselves upon all Strangers Bottoms coming to that Coast for Trade And these great preparations are no doubâ— to assault us in England or Ireland as they shall find advantage and a place fit for their turn Our friends of the Netherlands besides the fear that justly troubles them lest the whole force of the Emperor may fall down upon them are distracted by their Voyages into the East which hath carried both Men and Money into another World and much weakened them at home Thus are we even ready on all sides to be swallowed up The Emperor France and Spain being in open War against us Germany overrun the King of Denmark distressed the King of Sweden diverted and the Low-Country-men disabled to give us assistance I speak not this to increase fear unworthy of English courages but to press to provision worthy the wisdom of a Parliament And for that cause his Majesty hath called you hither that by a timely provision against those great imminent dangers our selves may be strengthened at home our Friends and Allies encouraged abroad and those great causes of fear scattered and dispelled And because in all Warlike preparations Treasure bears the name and holds the semblance of the nerves and sinews And if a sinew be too short or too weak if it be either shrunk or strained the part becomes
necessity to use their Subjects put them into that necessity as they refuse to do for him All this is Pride of the Perswader as Socrates saith In the second I will clear the Parliament in which I was a Member of an ungratefull aspersion cast upon it that is to say That the Parliament was a cause to draw his Majesty into a War and failed on their parts to contribute to it These have been often repeated and the Parliament accused the contrary hath been as often reiterated and the truth expressed how far the Parliament proceeded therein But to stop the mouths of such false Reports and to free the Parliament of such a calumniation I must use this Argument At the Assembly of Oxford the Parliament being Prorogued thither Money was required of us towards the furnishing of his Majesties Fleet then preparing upon many reasons alleadged too tedious now to repeat with one consent it was refused Whereupon there was offer made by him that next the King seem-to have best Authority That if they would but contribute Forty thousand pounds they should choose their Enemy Whereupon I infer That before that Proposition there was no Enemy and therefore no Wars The motion for Money being denied the Parliament instantly brake up and seeing no Enemy was nominated nor Money consented unto by us I see not how the House can be taxed for Peace-breakers but rather the name to be cast upon some young men for youth by nature is prone to pride especially where experience wants They are credulous in what they hear that pleaseth them and incredulous in what is told them by wise men They are despisers of others counsels and very poor in their own They are dangerous for Princes to relie on for self-will is of greater force then Precepts Now to proceed In October following the Fleet put to Sea and what they did is apparent by a Relation written by a their General at his Return The Voyage being ended another followed the next Summer under the command of that noble Lord the Earl of Lindsey which through the weakness and disability of the Ships was not able to perform what he had in charge and what he desired The last and most lamentable was that to the Isle of Rhee which I likewise refer to a man I have seen and to the Books printed and extant These with that to Algeir to make up Mess of Island Voyages I wish might be referred to the examination of choice and experienced Soldiers by Land and by Sea to report their opinions of it That so their Errors their wastefull Expences their Negligences their weak Designs and want of experience may appear with the Success that might have proved if Advice and Counsel had had preheminence above Will and Arrogancy For he that is ignorant of truth and knowledge and led away with pride of his own opinions must needs err After it hath past your approbation it is worthy his Majesties view who then shall see the difference of Actions well mannaged and rash and heady Enterprises undertook by ignorance and performed by folly Business of so great a consequence ought to be considered of with Counsel and not onely of the necessity profit and honor but of the possibility that was like to follow for an Action well begun is half ended My experience in Discipline of War by Land and Sea can say no more then to refer it to others for t is a Course I never was bred to in my youth and now too late in mine age to practice Onely one thing I observe that in the two journeys of Cadiz and Rhee in the first a Land Souldier commanded at Sea who knew not what belonged thereunto and the other was carried by him that was Souldier neither by Land nor by Sea and the success proved accordingly in both yet their errors were never questioned but they both highly advanced And it is no marvel for according to the old saying The best Fencer is not always the best Fighter the fairer Tilter not the best experienced Souldier nor the eye of a Favorite at Court the best General of an Host And whosoever takes upon him that command without knowledge beholds himself in a false glass that makes him seem what he is not As on the contrary Experience is the mother of Prudence and Prudence will take counsel lest she joyn her will with her will hastiness causeth repentance and frowardness causeth hinderance Of the Evils that followed upon these two voyages your selves are sufficient Witnesses and can judge of them As namely the billeting of Soldiers in the Country and bringing their Ships into Harbors not abating the entertainment of the one nor the wages of the other And yet notwithstanding this needless cost and charges our Ships and Coasts are daily infested in such sort as we dare not peep out of Harbor Were the carriage of things now answerable to the Prudence and Presidents of former times we cannot pretend a fear of invasion because our Ships are divided into several Harbors and our Soldiers billetted in Inland Countries beside the season of the year giveth no opportunity to an Enemy to attempt it Here is a mass of wealth curiously consumed whether the King or Subject bear it and no man bettered but onely those that have the titles of Soldiers yet never had the happiness or honor to see what appertained to service Their example of disorder encourages the other to follow their Liberty People that were wont to live poorly yet safely are now by these Fellows and their Followers robbed and spoiled and no remedy for Redress The rich stand upon their guard and dare not resort to their Church lest in their absence their Houses be surprised and Rifled The Enemy giveth a sudden attempt and returneth the others do every day rob and spoil The Enemy surpriseth with fear the others have neither fear nor shame The first lessening the greatness of the Roman Empire was by the insolency of Soldiers and the first raising of the House of Ottoman was by permission and conniving at his Army What man is so old in England that hath seen or what youth so young that ever thought to see Scottish men and Irish men Garrisoned in England and no Enemy appear against us Or who could have imagined he should ever have seen our own people tyrannized over in our own Kingdom by these of our own Nation and those Scottish and Irish and not dare so much as complain Would our forefathers have thought it safety or Policy to draw Two thousand Scotish men and Irish men into the Isle of Wight for their defence against France when they of the Isle desired it not nay when they opposed it Would they have thought it wisdom that Two thousand Mouthes besides the Inhabitants should live on the food of that Island and so bring themselves into want and penury of victuals if they should in earnest be attempted by an Enemy Would they have thought fit the charge of
lege regerentur And though the Book of Litchfield speaking of the times of the Danes says then Ius sopitum erat in regno leges consuetudines sopitae sunt and prava voluntas vis violentia magis regnabant quam Judicia vel Justitia yet by the blessing of God a good King Edward commonly called St. Edward did awaken those Laws and as the old words are Excitatas reparavit reparatas decoravit decoratas confirmavit which Confirmavit shews that good King Edward did not give those Laws which William the Conqueror and all his Successors since that time have sworn unto And here my Lords by many Cases frequent in our modern Laws strongly concurring with those of the ancient Saxon Kings I might if time were not more precious demonstrate that our Laws and Customs were the same I will onely intreat your Lordships leave to tell you That as we have now even in those Saxon times they had their Court Barons and Court Leets and Sheriffs Courts by which as Tacitus says of the Germanes their Ancestors Iura reddebant per pagos vicos and I do believe as we have now they had their Parliaments where new Laws were made cum consensu Praelatorum Magnatum totius Communitatis or as another writes cum consilio Praelatorum Nobilium sapientium Lâ—icorum I will add nothing out of Glanvile that wrote in the time of Hen. 2. or Bracton that writ in the days of Hen. 3. onely give me leave to cite that of Fortescue the learned Chancellor to Hen. 6. who writing of this Kingdom says Regnum istud moribus nationum regum temporibus eisdem quibus nunc regitur legibus consuetudinibus regebatur But my good Lords as the Poet said of Fame I may say of our Common Law Ingrediturque solo caput inter nubila condit Wherefore the cloudy part being mine I will make haste to open way for your Lordships to hear more certain Arguments and such as go on more sure grounds Be pleased then to know that it is an undoubted and fundamental Point of this so ancient Common Law of England That the Subject hath a true property in his goods and possessions which doth preserve as sacred that meum tuum that is the nurse of Industry and mother of Courage and without which there can be no Justice of which meum tuum is the proper object But the undoubted Birthright of true Subjects hath lately not a little been invaded and prejudiced by pressures the more grievous because they have been pursued by imprisonment contrary to the Franchises of this Land and when according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm redress hath been sought for in a legal way by demanding Habeas Corpus from the Judges and a discharge by trial according to the Law of the Land success hath failed that now inforceth the Commons in this present Parliament assembled to examine by Acts of Parliament Precedents and Reasons the truth of the English Subjects liberty which I shall leave to learned Gentlemen to argue NExt after Sir Dudly Diggs spake Mr. Ed Littleton of the Inner-Temple That their Lordships have heard that the Commons have taken into consideration the matter of personal Liberty and after long debate thereof they have upon a full search and clear understanding of all things pertinent to the question unanimously declared That no Freeman ought to be committed or restrained in Prison by the command of the King or Privy Councel or any other unless some cause of the commitment detainer or restraint be expressed for which by Law he ought to be committed detained or restrained And they have sent me with other of their Members to represent unto your Lordships the true grounds of their resolution and have charged me particularly leaving the reasons of Law and Precedents for others to give your Lordships satisfaction that this Liberty is established and confirmed by the whole State the King the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and Commons by several Acts of Parliament the Authority whereof is so great that it can receive no Answer save by Interpretation or Repeal by future Statutes And these I shall minde your Lordships of are so direct in the point that they can bear no other exposition at all and sure I am they are still in force The first of them is the grand Charter of the Liberties of England first granted in the 17th year of King Iohn and renewed in the 9 tâ— year of Hen. 3. and since confirmed in Parliament above 30. times the words there are Chap. 29. Nullus liber homo capiatur vel imprisonetur aut disseisietur de libero tenemento suo vel liberis consuetudinibus suis aut utlagetur aut exuletur aut aliquo modo destruatar nec super eum ibimus nec eum mittemus nisi per legale judicium Parium suorum vel per legem terrae He then proceeded to open and argued learnedly upon the several Particulars in the last recited Clause of Magna Charta and further shewed That no invasion was made upon this personal Liberty till the time of King Ed. 3. which was soon resented by the Subject for in the 5. Ed. 3. Chap. 9. it is enacted That no man from henceforth shall be attached on any occasion nor fore-judged of Life or Limb nor his Lands Tenements Goods nor Chattels seised into the Kings hands against the Form of the great Charter and the Law of the Land and 25 Edw. 3. Chap. 4. it is more full and doth expound the words of the grand Charter which is thus Whereas it is contained in the grand Charter of the Franchises of England that none shall be Imprisoned nor put out of his Freehold nor free Custom unless it be by the Law of the Land it is awarded assented and established That from henceforth none shall be taken by Petition or suggestion made to our Lord the King or to his Councel unless it be by Indictment or Presentment of his good and lawful People of the the same neighborhood which such Deed shall be done in due maner or by process made by Wâ—it original at the common Law nor that none be outed of his Franchises nor Office Freehold unless it be duly brought in Answer and fore-judged of the same by the course of the Law and that if any thing be done against the same it shall be redressed and holden for none and 28 Ed. 3. Chap. 3. it is more direct this Liberty being followed with fresh suit by the Subject where the words are not many but very full and significant That no man of what state and condition he be shall be put out of his Lands nor Tenements nor taken nor imprisoned nor disinherited nor put to death without it be brought in Answer by due process of the Law Several other Statutes were cited by him in confirmation of this point of the Liberty of the Subject The Kings Councel afterward made Objections to the said Argument
yet acknowledged that the seven Statutes urged by the House of Commons are in force yet said that some of them are in general words and therefore conclude nothing but are to be expounded by Precedents and some of them are applied to the suggestion of Subjects and not to the Kings command simply of its self and that per legem terrae in Magna Charta cannot be understood for process of Law and original Writs for that in Criminal proceedings no original Writ is usual at all but every Constable either for Felony or breach of the Peace or to prevent the breach of the Peace may commit without Process or original Writ it were very hard the King should not have the power of a Constable They also argued That the King was not bound to express the cause of Imprisonment because there may be in it matter of State not fit to be revealed for a time lest the confederates thereupon make means to escape the hands of Justice Besides that which the Commons do say that the party ought to be delivered or bailed is a contradiction in its self for bayling doth signifie a kinde of Imprisonment still Delivery is a total freeing And besides bayling is a grace or favor of a Court of Justice and they may refuse to do it To this it was replyed That the Statutes were direct in Point and though some of them speak of suggestions of the Subjects yet they are in equal reason a commitment by command of the King as when the King taketh notice of a thing himself And for the words per legem terrae original Writs onely are not intended but all other legal process which comprehendeth the whole proceedings of the Law upon Cause other then trial by Jury and the course of the Law is rendred by due process of the Law and no man ought to be imprisoned by special command without indictment or other due process to be made by the Law And whereas it is said there might be danger in revealing the Cause that may be avoided by declaring a general Cause as for Treason suspicion of Treason misprision of Treason Felony without expressing the particulars which can give no greater light to a confederate then will be conceived upon the very apprehension upon the imprisonment if nothing at all were expressed And as for the bayling of the party committed it hath ever been the discretion of the Judges to give so much respect to a commitment by the command of the King or the privy Councel which are ever intended to be done in just and weighty Cases that they will not presently set them free but bail them to answer what shall be objected against them on the Kings behalf but if any other inferior Officer do commit a man without shewing cause they do instantly deliver him as having no cause to expect their leasure so that Delivery is applyed to the imprisoned by command of some mean minister of Justice Bailing when it is done by command of the King or his Councel and though Bailing is a grace and favor of the Court in case of Felony and other crimes for that there is another way to discharge them in convenient time by their trial but where no cause of imprisonment is returned but the command of the King there is no way to deliver such persons by trial or otherwise but that of the Habeas Corpus and if they should be then remanded they might be perpetually imprisoned without any remedy at all and consequently a man that had committed no offence might be in a worse case then a greater offender for the latter should have an ordinary trial to discharge him the other should never be delivered MAster Selden of the Inner-Temple argued next first making this Introduction Your Lordships have heard from the Gentleman that last spake a great part of the grounds upon which the House of Commons upon mature deliberation proceeded to that clear resolution touching the right of liberty of their persons The many Acts of Parliament which are the written Laws of the Land and are expresly in the Point have bin read and opened and such Objections as have been by some made unto them and Objections also made out of another Act of Parliament have been cleared and answered It may seem now perhaps my Lords that little remains needful to be further added for the enforcement and maintenance of so fundamental and established a Right and Liberty belonging to every freeman of the Kingdom The House of Commons taking into consideration that in this question being of so high a nature that never any exceeded it in any Court of Justice whatsoever all the several ways of just examination of the Truth should be used have also most carefully informed themselves of all former Judgements or Precedents concerning this great Point either way and have been no less careful of the due preservation of his Majesties just Prerogative then of their own Rights The Precedents here are of two kinds either meerly matter of Record or else the former resolutions of the Judges after solemn debate in the Point This Point that concerns Precedents the House of Commons have commanded me to present to your Lordships which I shall as briefly as I may so I do it faithfully and perspicuously to that end my Lords before I come to the particulars of any of those Precedents I shall first remember to your Lordships that which will seem as a general key for the opening and true apprehension of all them of record without which key no man unless he be verst in the entries and course of the Kings Bench can possibly understand In all cases my Lords where any Right or Liberty belongs to the Subjects by any positive Law written or unwritten if there were not also a remedy by Law for enjoying or regaining of this Right or Liberty when it is violated or taken from him the positive Law were most vain and to no purpose and it were to no purpose for any man to have any right in any Land or other Inheritance if there were not a known remedy that is an Action or Writ by which in some Court of ordinary Justice he might recover it And in this case of Right of Liberty of Person if there were not a remedy in the Law for regaining it when it is restrained it were of no purpose to speak of Laws that ordain it should not be restrained The Writ of Habeas Corpus or Corpus cum causa is the highest remedy in Law for any man that is imprisoned and the onely remedy for him that is imprisoned by the special command of the King or the Lords of the pâ—ivy Councel without shewing cause of the commitment and if any mâ—n be so imprisoned by any such Command or otherwise whatsoever though England and desire by himself or any other in his behalf this Writ of Hab. Corp. for the purpose in the Court of Kings Bench that Writ is to be granted to him
it is declared and enacted That no man shall be forejudged of life or limb against the form of the great Charter and the Law of the Land And by the said great Charter and other the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm no man ought to be adjudged to death but by the Laws established in this your Realm either by the Customs of the same Realm or by Acts of Parliament And whereas no offender of what kinde soever is exempted from the proceedings to be used and punishments to be inflicted by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm Nevertheless of late divers Commissions under your Majesties great Seal have issued forth by which certain persons have been assigned and appointed Commissioners with Power and Authority to proceed within the Land according to the Iustice of Martial Law against such Soldiers and Mariners or other dissolute persons joyning with them as should commit any Murther Robbery Felony Mutiny or other Outrage or Misdemeanor whatsoever and by such summary Course and Order as is agreeable to Martial Law and is used in Armies in time of War to proceed to the tryal and condemnation of such offenders and them to cause to be executed and put to death according to the Law Martial By pretext whereof some of your Majesties Subjects have been by some of the said Commissioners put to death when and where if by the Laws and Statutes of the Land they had deserved death by the same Laws and Statutes also they might and by no other ought to have been adjudged and executed And also sundry grievous offenders by colour thereof claiming an exemption have escaped the punishments due to them by the Laws and Statutes of this your Realm by reason that divers of your Officers and Ministers of Iustice have unjustly refused or forborn to proceed against such offenders according to the same Laws and Statutes upon pretence that the said offenders were punishable onely by Martial Law and by Authority of such Commissions as aforesaid which Commissions and all other of like nature are wholly and directly contrary to the said Laws and Statutes of this your Realm They do therefore humbly pray your most Excellent Majesty That no man hereafter be compelled to make or yield any Gift Loan Benevolence Tax or such like Charge without common consent by Act of Parliament and that none be called to make answer or take such Oath or to give attendance or he confined or otherwise molested or disquieted concerning the same or for refusal thereof And that no Freeman in any such maner as is before mentioned be imprisoned or detained And that your Majesty will be pleased to remove the said Soldiers and Mariners and that your People may not be so burthened in time to come And that the foresaid Commissions for proceeding by Martial Law may be revoked and annulled and that hereafter no Commissions of like nature may issue forth to any person or persons whatsoever to be executed as aforesaid lest by colour of them any of your Majesties Subjects be destroyed or put to death contrary to the Laws and Franchise of the Land All which they most humbly pray of your most Excellent Majesty as their Rights and Liberties according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm And that your Majesty would also vouchsafe to declare That the awards doings and proceedings to the prejudice of your People in any of the Premises shall not be drawn hereafter into Consequence or Example And that your Majesty would be also graciously pleased for the further comfort and safety of your People to declare your royal Will and Pleasure That in the things aforesaid all your Officers and Ministers shall serve you according to the Laws and Statutes of this Realm as they tender the Honor of your Majesty and the prosperity of this Kingdom Which Petition being read the 2 of June 2628. The Kings Answer was thus delivered unto it The King willeth that Right be done according to the Laws and Customs of the Realm And that the Statutes be put in due execution that his Subjects may have no cause to complain of any wrong or oppressions contrary to their just Rights and Liberties to the preservation whereof he holds himself in Conscience as well obliged as of his Prerogative On Tuesday June 3. the King's Answer was read in the House of Commons and seemed too scant in regard of so much expence of time and labour as had been imployed in contriving the petition Whereupon Sir Iohn Elliot stood up and made a long Speech wherein he gave forth so full and lively representation of all Grievances both general and particular as if they had never before been mentioned HE reduced the Cause of all our evils to Five heads Our insincerity and doubling in Religion which he exemplified by the freedome and increase of Papists by the composition with them in the North the slightness of those payments and the easiness in them by the hopes presumptions and reports of all the Papists generally by the disposition of Commanders the trust of Officers the confidence of secrecies of employments in this Kingdom in Ireland and elsewhere 2. Our want of Councel which sacrificed our honour and our men sent to the Palatinate stopping those greater supplies appointed for that Service by which it might have been made defensible this gave direction to that late expedition to Ree whose wounds are yet bleeding by means whereof the Protestants of France and their King by a necessary consequence are divided and that Countrey so prepared against us that we have nothing to promise our neighbours hardly for our selves insomuch as by the issue and success it may rather be thought a conception of Spain then begotten here by us 3. The insufficiency and unfaithfulness of our Generals Witness first the expedition to Cales where we arrived and found a Conquest ready viz. the Spanish ships fit for the satisfaction of a voyageâ— either in point of honour or in point of profit why was it neglected why was it not atchieved it being granted on all hands feasible when the whole Army landed why was there nothing attempted if nothing were intended wherefore did they land if there were a service why were they shipt again Witness secondly that to Ree where the whole action was carried against the judgement and opinion of the Officers viz. those that were of the Councel was not the first was not the last was not all at land in the intrenching in the continuance there in the assault in the retreat without their assent to say nothing of leaving the Wines and the Salt which were in our possession and of a value as they say to answer much of our expence nor of that wonder which no Alexander or Caesar ever did know the enriching of an enemy by curtesies when the Souldiers want help nor of the private entercourses and parlies with the Fort which continually were held what they intended may be
the Antient and Fundamental Law issuing from the first frame and constitution of the Kingdom The third that this Liberty of the Subject is not onely most convenient and profitable for the People but most honourable most necessary for the King yea in that point of supply for which it was endeavored to be broken The form of Government is that which doth actuate and dispose every part and member of a State to the common good and as those parts give strength and ornament to the whole so they receive from it again strength and protection in their several stations and degrees If this mutual relation and intercourse be broken the whole frame will quickly be dissolved and fall in pieces and in stead of this concord and interchange of support whilest one part seeks to uphold the old form of Government and the other part to introduce a new they will miserably consume and devour one another Histories are full of the calamities of whole States and Nations in such cases It is true that time must needs bring some alterations and every alteration is a step and degree towards a dissolution those things onely are eternal which are constant and uniform Therefore it is observed by the best Writers upon this Subject that those Commonwealths have been most durable and perpetual which have often reformed and recomposed themselves according to their first Institution and Ordinance for by this means they repair the breaches and counterwork the ordinary and natural effect of time The second question is as manifest there are plain footsteps of those Laws in â—he Government of the Saxons they were of that vigor and force as to overlive the Conquest nay to give bounds and limits to the Conqueror whose victory gave him first hope but the assurance and possession of the Crown he obtained by composition in which he bound himself to observe these and the other antient Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom which afterwards he likewise confirmed by oath at his Coronation from him the said Obligation descended to his Successors It is true they have been often broken they have been often confirmed by Charters of Kings by Acts of Parliaments but the Petitions of the Subjects upon which those Charters and Acts were founded were ever Petitions of Right demanding their antient and due Liberties not suing for any new To clear the third Position he said may seem to some men more a Paradox That those Liberties of the Subject should be so honorable so profitable for the King and most necessary for the supply of his Majesty It hath been upon another occasion declared that if those Liberties were taken away there should remain no more industry no more justice no more courage who will contend who will endanger himself for that which is not his own But he said he would not insist upon any of those points nor yet upon other very important he said that if those Liberties were taken away there would remain no means for the Subjects by any act of Bounty or Benevolence to ingratiate themselves to their Soveragn And he desired their Lordships to remember what profitable Prerogatives the Laws had appointed for the support of Soveraignty as Wardships Treasures trove Felons-goods Fines Amercements and other Issues of Courts Wrecks Escheats and many more too long to be enumerated which for the most part are now by Charters and Grants of several Princes dispersed into the hands of private Persons and that besides the antient Demeasnes of the Crown of England William the Conqueror did annex for the better maintenance of his Estate great proportions of those Lands which were confiscate from those English which persisted to withstand him and of these very few remain at this day in the Kings possession And that since that time the revenue of the Crown had been supplied and augmented by Attainders and other Casualties in the age of our Fathers by the dissolution of Monasteries and Chantries neer a third part of the whole Land being come into the Kings possession He remembred further that constant and profitable Grant of the Subjects in the Act of Tonnage and Poundage And all these he said were so alienated anticipated overcharged with annuities and assignments that no means were left for the pressing and important occasions of this time but the voluntary and free gift of the Subjects in Parliament The hearts of the People and their bounty in Parliament is the onely constant Treasure and Revenue of the Crown which cannot be exhausted alienated anticipated or otherwise charged and incumbred In his entrance into the second part he propounded these Steps by which he meant to proceed 1. To shew the state of the Cause as it stood both in the Charge and in the Proof that so their Lordships might the better compare them both together 2. To take away the pretences of mitigations and limitations of his Opinions which the Doctor had provided for his own defence 3. To observe those circumstances of Aggravation which might properly be annexed to his Charge 4. To propound some Precedents of former times wherein though he could not match the offence now in question for he thought the like before had never been committed yet he should produce such as should sufficiently declare how forward our Ancestors would have been in the prosecution and condemning of such offences if they had been then committed The Offence was prescribed in a double maner First by the general scope and intention and by the matter and particulars of the Fact whereby that intention was expressed In the description of the intention he observed six Points every one of which was a Character of extreme malice and wickedness 1. His attempt to misguide and seduce the Conscience of the King 2. To incense his Royal Displeasure against his Subjects 3. To scandalize impeach and subvert the good Laws and Government of the Kingdom and Authority of Parliaments 4. To avert his Majesties minde from calling of Parliaments 5. To alienate his royal Heart from his People 6. To cause Jealousies Sedition and Division in the Kingdom Of these particulars he said he would forbear to speak further till he should come to those parts of the Fact to which they were most properly to be applied The Materials of the Charge were contrived into three distinct Articles the first of these comprehended two Clauses 1. That his Majesty is not bound to keep and observe the good Laws and Customs of the Realm concerning the right and liberty of the Subject to be exempted from all Loans Taxes and other Aids laid upon them without common consent in Parliament 2. That his Majesties Will and Command in imposing any Charges upon his Subjects without such consent doth so far bind them in their Consciences that they cannot refuse the same without peril of eternal damnation Two kinds of Proof were produced upon this Article The first was from some assertions of the Doctors concerning the power of Kings in general but by necessary consequence
that under some colourable pretence might secretly by this as by other wayes contrive to change the frame both of Religion and Government and thereby undermine the frame both of Religion and Government and thereby undermine the safety of your Majesty and your Kingdomes These men could not be ignorant that the bringing in of Strangers for aid hath been pernitious to most States where they have been admitted but to England fatal We do blesse God that hath given your Majesty a wise understanding heart to discern of those courses and that such power produceth nothing but weaknesse and calamity And we beseech your Majesty to pardon the vehemencie of our expression if in the Loyal and zealous affections we bear to your Majesty and your service we are bold to declare to your Majesty and the whole world that we hold it far beneath the heart of any free English man to think that this victorious Nation should now stand in need of German Souldiers to defend their own King and kingdom But when we consider the course formerly mentioned and these things tending to an apparent change of Government the often breaches of Parliament whereby your Majesty hath been deprived of the faithful Councel and free Aids of your people by taking off Tonnage and poundage without graunt thereof by Act of Parliament ever since the beginning of your Majesties Reigne to this present The standing Commission granted to the Duke of Buckingham to be general of an Army in the Land in the time of peace the discharging of faithful and sufficient Officers and Ministers some from Iudicial places and others from the Offices and authorities which they formerly held in the Common-wealth We cannot but at the sight of such an apparant desolation as must necessarily follow these courses out of the depth of sorrow lift up our cryes to heaven for help and next under God apply our selves unto your sacred Majesty who if you could hear so many thousands speaking together do joyntly implore speedie help and Reformation And if your Majesty would be pleased to take a further view of the present state of your Realme We do humbly pray you to consider whether the miserable disasters and ill successe that hath accompanied all your late designes and actions particularly those of Cales and the Isle of Ree and the last expedition to Rochel have not extreamlie wasted that stock of Honor that was left unto this kingdome sometimes terrible to all other Nations and now declining to contempt beneath the meanest Together with our Honours we there lost those and that not a few who had they lived we might have some better hope of recovering it again our valiant and expert Collonels Captaines and Commanders and many thousand common Souldiers and Marriners Though we have some cause to think that your Majesty is not as yet rightly informed thereof and that of six or seven thousand of your Subjects lost at the Isle of Ree Your Majesty received information but of a few hundreds And this dishonour and losse hath been purchased with the consumption of above a million of Treasure Many of the Forts are exceeding weak and decayed and want both men and Munition And here we cannot but with grief consider and complaine of a strange improvidence we think your Majesty will rather call it treacherie That your store of powder which by order of your Privy Councel dated the tenth of December 1626. should be constantly three hundred Last besides a continual supply of twenty Last a month for ordinary expences and were now fit as we conceive to be double the proportion is at this time in the Tower the present Warrants being served but nine Lasts and forty eight pounds in all which we tremble to think of And that notwithstanding this extreame scarcity of powder great quantities have been permitted to be sold out of your Majesties Store to particular persons for private Gain Whereof we have seen a certificate six Last sold sithence the 14th of January last and your Majesties store being unfurnished of powder which by a contract made with Mr. Evelyn by advise of your Lords in Parliament ought to be supplyed monthly with twenty last at the rate of three pound ten shillings ten pence a Barrel Your Majesty hath been forced to pay above seven pound a Barrel for powder to be brought in from beyond Seas for which purpose twelve thousand foure hundred pounds was impressed to Mr. Burlemack the last year and that powder not so good as that by Contract your Maiesty should have by one third part All which are most fearful and dangerous abuses But what the poverty weaknesse and misery of your kingdome is now grown unto by decay of Trade and destruction and losse of Ships and Marriners within these three years we are almost afraid to declare And could we by any other means have been sure that your Majesty should any other way have had a true Information thereof We should have been doubtful to have made our weaknesse and extreamity of misfortune in this kinde to appear But the importunate and most pitiful complaints from all the parts of the kingdome near adjoyning to the Sea in this kinde would rend as we think the stoniest heart in the world with sorrow and the sense we have of the miserable condition your Kingdome is in by reason thereof especially for that we see no possible means being now shortly to end this Session how to help the same adds such a weight of grief unto our sad thoughts as we have not words to expresse it But for your Majesties more exact information therein We beseech you be pleased to peruse the Kalender of particulars which with the Remonstrance we most humblie present unto your Majestie One reason amongst many of this decay of Trade and losse of ships and Marriners is the not guarding of the narrow Seas the regality whereof your Majestie hath now in a manner wholly lost being that wherein a principal part of the Honor and safety of this Kingdome heretofore consisted And now having absolutely neglected it the Town of Dunkirk doth so contiually rob and spoile your Subjects that we can assure your Majesty if some present and effectuall remedy be not forthwith provided the whole Trade of this Kingdome the shipping marriners and all belonging thereunto will be utterly lost and consumed The principal cause of which evils and dangers we conceive to be the excessive power of the Duke of Buckingham and the abuse of that power And we humbly submit unto your Majesties excellent Wisdome whether it be safe for your self or your Kingdoms that so great power as rests in him by Sea and Land should be in the hands of any one Subject whatsoever And as it is not safe so sure we are it cannot be for your service it being impossible for one man to mannage so manie and weightie affaires of the Kingdome as he hath undertaken besides the ordinary duties of those offices which he holds some of which
for a word and lay a snare for him that reproveth in the gate and turn aside the just for a thing of nought Blame not before thou have examined the truth understand first and then rebuke answer not before thou hast heard the cause neither interrupt men in the midst of their talk Doth our Law judge any man before it hear him and know what he doth King Agrippa said unto Paul Thou art permitted to speak for thy self Thou shalt not wrest the judgment of the poor in his cause thou shalt not respect persons neither take a gift for a gift doth blind the eyes of the wise and pervert the eyes of the righteous Woe to them that devise iniquity because it is in the power of their hand and they covet fields and take them by violence and houses and take them away so they oppress a man and his house even a man and his heritage Thus saith the Lord God Let it suffice you O Princes of Israel remove violence and spoyl and execute judgment and justice take away your exactions from my people saith the Lord God If thou seest the oppression of the Poor and violent perverting of judgment and justice in a Province marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth and there be higher then they Per me Richard Chambers Afterwards in the Term of Trinity the 5 yeer of King Charls it is found in the great Roll of this year that there is demanded there of Richard Chambers of London Merchant 2000 l. for a certain fine imposed on him hither sent by vertue of a writ of our said Lord the King under the foot of the great Seal of England directed to the Treasurer and Barons of this Exchequer for making execution thereof to the use of the said Lord the King as is there contained and now that is to say in the Utas of the Blessed Trinity this Term comes the said Richard Chambers in his own proper person and demands Oyer of the demand aforesaid and it is read unto him and he demands Oyer also of the Writ aforesaid under the foot of the Great Seal of England hither sent and it is read unto him in these words CHarls by the Grace of God of England Scotland France and Ireland Defender of the Faith c. To his Treasurer and Barons of his Exchequer health The extret of certain fines taxed and adjudged by Us and our said Council in our said Council in Our Court of Star-Chamber in the Term of St Michael the Term of St. Hillary and the Term of Easter last past upon Thomas Barns of the Parish of St. Clements Danes in the County of Middlesex Carpenter and others severally and dividedly as they be there severally assessed We send unto you included in these presents commanding that looking into them you do that which by Law you ought to do against them for the levying of those fines Witness our Self at Westminster the 21 of May in the yeer of Our Reign the 5 Mutas And the tenor of the Schedule to the said Writ annexed as to the said Richard Chambers followeth in these words IN the Term of Easter the fifth year of King Charles of Richard Chambers of London Merchant 2000 l. which being read heard and by him understood he complains that he is grievously vexed and inquieted by colour of the Premises and that not justly for that protesting that the said great Roll and the matter therein contained is not in Law sufficient to which he hath no need nor is bound by Law to answer yet for Plea the said Richard Chambers saith That he of the demand aforesaid in the great Roll aforesaid mentioned and every parcel thereof ought to be discharged against the said Lord the King for that he said That he from the time of the Taxation oâ— the aforesaid Fine and long before was a Freeman and a Merchant of this Kingdom that is to say In the Parish of the blessed Mary of the Arches in the Ward of Cheap London And that by a certain Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the Third held in the ninth year of his reign it was provided by Authority of the said Parliament That a Freeman shall not be amerced for a little offence but according to the manner of the said offence and for a great offence according to the greatness of the offence saving to him his Contenement or Freehold and a Merchant in the same manner saving unto him his Merchandize and a Villain of any other then the King after the same manner to be amerced saving his Wainage and none of the said Amercements to be imposed but by the Oaths of good and lawful men of the Neighbourhood And by a certain other Act in the Parliament of the Lord Edward late King of England the first held in the Third year of his reign it was and is provided That no City Burrough or Town nor any man should be amerced without reasonable cause and according to his Trespass that is to say A Freeman saving to him his Contenement A Merchant saving to him his Merchandize and A Villan saving to him his Wainage and this by their Peers And by the same Act in the Parliament of the said Lord Henry late King of England the Third held in the ninth year of his reign aforesaid it was and is provided by Authority of the said Parliament That no Freemen should be taken or imprisoned or disseized of his Freehold or Liberties or free Customs or outlaw'd or banish'd or any way destroyed And that the Lord the King should not go upon him nor deal with him but by a lawful judgement of his Peers or by the Law of the Land And by a certain Act in the Parliament of the Lord Edward late King of England the Third held in the fifth year of his reign it was and is provided by the Authority of the said Parliament That no man henceforward should be attached by reason of any Accusation nor pre-judged of Life or Member nor that his Lands Tenements Goods or Chattels should be seized into the hands of the Lord the King against the form of the great Charter and the Law of the Land And by a certain Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the seventh held in the third year of his reign reciting that by unlawful Maintenances given of liveries signes and tokens and retainders by Indentures Promises Oaths Writings and other Imbraceries of the Subjects of the said Lord the King false Demeanors of Sheriffs in making of Pannels and other false returns by taking of money by Jurors by great ryots and unlawful assemblies the policie and good Government of this Kingdom was almost subdued and by not punishing of the said inconveniences and by occasion of the Premises little or nothing was found by Inquisition by reason thereof the Laws of
the Land had little effect in their execution to the increase of Murders Robberies Perjuries and Insecurities of all men living to the loss of their Lands and Goods to the great displeasure of Almighty GOD It was ordained for Reformation of the Premises by Authority of the said Parliament That the Chancellour and Treasurer of England for the time being and the Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King or two of them calling to them one Bishop one Lord temporal of the most honourable Council of the Lord the King and two chief Justices of the Kings Bench and Common pleas for the time being or two other Justices in their absence by Bill or Information exhibited to the Chancellour for the King or any other against any person for any other ill behaviours aforesaid have Authority of calling before them by Writ or Privie-Seal such Malefactors and of examining them and others by their discretion and of punishing such as they finde defective therein according to their demerits according to the form and effect of the Statutes thereof made in the same manner and form as they might and ought to be punished if they were thereof convinced according to the due course of Law And by a certain other Act in the Parliament of the Lord Henry late King of England the eighth held in the one and twentieth year of his reign reciting the offences in the aforesaid Statute of the said late King Henry the seventh beforementioned by Authority of the said Parliament it was and is ordained and enacted That henceforward the Chancellour Treasurer of England and the President of the most honourable Privy-Council of the King attending his most honourable person for the time being and the Lord Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King or two of them calling to them one Bishop and one temporal Lord of the most honourable Council of the Lord the King and two chief Justices of the Kings Bench and Common Pleas for the time being or two Justices in their absence by any Bill or Information then after to be exhibited to the Chancellour of England the Treasurer the President of the said most honourable Council of the Lord the King or the Keeper of the Privy-Seal of the Lord the King for the time being for any misdemeanour in the aforesaid Statute of King Henry the seventh aforesaid before recited from henceforth have full power and authority of calling before them by Writ or by Privy-Seal such Malefactors of examining of them and others by their discretion and of punishing those that are found defective according to their demerits According to the form and effect of the said Statute of the aforesaid Lord King Henry the seventh and of all other Statutes thereupon made not revoked and expired in the same manner and form as they might and ought be punished if they were convicted according to the due order of the Laws of the said Lord the king And by the aforesaid Writ under the foot of the great Seal it manifesty appears that the said Fine was imposed by the Lord the king and his Council and not by the Legal Peers of the said Richard Chambers nor by the Law of the Land nor according to the manner of the pretended offence of the said Richard Chambers nor saving unto him his Merchandize nor for any offence mentioned in the said Statutes all and singular the which the said Richard Chambers is ready to verifie to the Court c. and demands judgment and that he be discharge of the said 2000 l. against the said Lord the now King and that as to the premises he may be dismissed from this Court Waterhouse With this Plea he annexed a Petition to the Lord Chief Baron and also to every one of the Barons humbly desiting the filing of the Plea with other Reasons in the manner of a motion at the Bar because he said Counsel would not move plead nor set hand to it as further appeareth The Copy of the Order upon Mr. Atturneys motion in the Exchequer the 17 Iuly 1629. after the Plea put in and order to file it Per the Lord Chief Baron TOuching the Plea put into this Court by Richard Chambers to discharge himself of a â—ine of 2000 l. set on him in the Star-Chamber Forasmuch as Sir Robert Heath Kniâ—â—â— his Majesties Atturney General informed this Court that the said Chambers in his said Plea recites divers Statutes and Magna Charta and what offences are punishable in the Star-Chamber and how the proceedings ought to be and upon the whole matter concludes That the said fine was imposed by the King and his Council and not by a Legal judgment of his Peers nor by the Laws of the Land nor according to the manner of his offence nor saving his Merchandize nor for any offence mentioned in the said Statutes Which Plea Mr. Atturny conceiving to be very frivolous and insufficient and derogatory to the honour and jurisdiction of the Court of Star-Chamber Humbly prayeth might not be allowed of nor filed It is therefore this day ordered That the said Plea shall be read on Saturday next and then upon hearing the Kings Counsel and the Counsel of the said Richard Chambers this Court will-declare their further order therein and in the mean time the said Plea is not to be filed nor delivered out In Michaelmas Term following Mr. Chambers was brought by a Habeas Corpus out of the Fleet and the Warden did return THat he was committed to the Fleet by vertue of a Decree in the Star-Chamber by reason of certain words he used at the Council Table viz. That the Merchants of England were skrewed up here in England more then in Turky And for these and other words of defamation of the Government he was censured to be committed to the Fleet and to be there imprisoned until he made his submission at the Council Table and to pay a fine of 2000. l. And now at the Bar he prayed to be delivered because this Sentence is not warranted by any Law or Statute For the Statute of 3 Henrici 7. which is the foundation of the Court of Star-Chamber doth not give them any authority to punish for words only But all the Court informed him That the Court of Star-Chamber was not erected by the Statute of 3 H. 7. but was a Court many years before and one of the most high and honourable Courts of Justice and to deliver one who was committed by the Decree of one of the Courts of Justice was not the usage of this Court and therefore he was remanded As a concurrant proof of these Proceedings concerning Mr. Chambers we shall insert here a Petition of his though out of time to the Long Parliament and afterwards renewed to the succeeding Parliament viz. To the Parliament of the Commonwealth of England Scotland and Ireland The brief Remonstrance and humble Petition of Richard Chambers Merchant late Alderman and Sheriff of the City of