for at my hands Thus the Beams of Majesty had an influence upon every branch and leaf of the Kingdom by reflecting upon the Root their Representative Body every particular expecting what fruit this Sun-shine would produce striving as much to insinuate into him as he did into the general so that there was a Reciprocal Harmony between the King and the People because they courted one another But when the Kings Bounty contracted it self into private Favourites as it did afterwards bestowing the affection he promised the whole people upon one man when the golden showers they gaped for dropt into some few chanels their passions flew higher than their hopes The Kings aims were to unite the two Kingdoms so that the one might corroborate the other to make good that part of his Speech by this intermixtion wherein he divides England and Scotland into halves But the English stumbled at that partition thinking it an unequal division and fearing that the Scots creeping into English Lordships and English Ladies Beds in both which already they began to be active might quickly make their least half the predominant part But he was Proclaimed King of Great Britain England must be no more a Name the Scotish Coyns are made currant and our Ships must have Saint Georges and Saint Andrews Crosses quartered together in their Flags all outward Ensigns of Amity But those English that had suckt in none of the sweets of this pleasant Stream of Bounty repined to see the Scots advanced from blew Bonnets to costly Beavers wearing instead of Wadmeal Velvet and Satin as divers Pasquils written in that Age Satyrically taunted at Which is not set down here to vilifie the Scots being most of them Gentlemen that had deserved well of their Master but to shew how cross to the publick Appetite the Hony-comb is that another man eats But the King like a wise Pilot guided the Helm with so even an hand that these small gusts were not felt It behoved him to play his Master-prize in the Beginning which he did to the life for he had divers opinions humours and affections to grapple with as well as Nations and 't is a very calm Sea when no billow rises The Romanists bogled that he said in his Speech They were unsufferable in the Kingdom as long as they maintained the Pope to be their Spiritual Head and He to have power to dethrone Princes The Separatists as the King called them were offended at that Expression wherein he professed willingly if the Papists would lay down King-killing and some other gross errors he would be content to meet them half way So that every one grounded his hopes or his fears upon the shallows of his own fancy not knowng yet what course the King would steer But these sores being tenderly dealt with did not suddenly fester but were skinned over The King desirous of the Title Pacificus did not only close with his own Subjects but healed up also that old wound that had bled long in the sides of England and Spain both being weary of the pain both willing to be cured The King of Spain sent the Constable of Castile with a mighty Train of smooth-handed Spaniards to close up the wound on this side where the old Enmity being well mortified they were received with singular Respect and Civility The King of England sent his High Admiral the Earl of Notingham with as splendid a Retinue of English to close it on that Who being Personages of Quality accoutred with all Ornaments suitable were the more admired by the Spaniards for beauty and excellency by how much the Iesuits had made impressions in the vulgar opinion That since the English left the Roman Religion they were transformed into strange horrid shapes with Heads and Tails like Beasts and Monsters So easie it is for those Iuglers when they have once bound up the Conscience to tye up the Vnderstanding also EARL OF NOTTINGHAM GEORGE CAREW EARL OF TOTNES And to satisfie the Kings desires about an Vnion betwixt England and Scotland the Parliament made an Act to authorise certain Commissioners viz. Thomas Lord Ellesmere Lord Chancellor of England Thomas Earl of Dorset Lord Treasurer of England Charles Earl of Notingham Lord High Admiral of England Henry Earl of Southampton William Earl of Pembroke Henry Earl of Northampton Richard Bishop of London Tobie Bishop of Duresme Anthony Bishop of Saint Davids Robert Lord Cecil Principal Secretary Edward Lord Zouch Lord President of Wales William Lord Mounteagle Ralph Lord Eure Edmund Lord Sheffeild Lord President of the Council in the North Lords of the Higher House of Parliament And Thomas Lord Clinton Robert Lord Buckhurst Sir Francis Hastings Knight Sir Iohn Stanhope Knight Vice-Chamberlain to his Majesty Sir Iohn Herbert Knight second Secretary to his Majesty Sir George Carew Knight Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen Sir Thomas Strickland Knight Sir Edward Stafford Knight Sir Henry Nevill of Berk-shire Knight Sir Richard Bukley Knight Sir Henry Billingsley Knight Sir Daniel Dun Knight Dean of the Arches Sir Edward Hobby Knight Sir Iohn Savile Knight Sir Robert Wroth Knight Sir Thomas Chaloner Knight Sir Robert Maunsel Knight Sir Thomas Ridgeway Knight Sir Thomas Holcroft Knight Sir Thomas Hesketh Knight Atturney of the Court of Wards Sir Francis Bacon Knight Sir Lawrence Tanfield Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Henry Hubberd Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Iohn Bennet Doctor of the Laws Sir Henry Withrington Sir Ralph Grey and Sir Thomas Lake Knights Robert Askwith Thomas Iames and Henry Chapman Merchants Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons or any eight of the said Lords and twenty of the said Commons Which Commissioners shall have power to assemble meet treat and consult with certain select Commissioners to be nominated and authorised by Authority of the Parliament of Scotland concerning such Matters Causes and things as they in their Wisdoms shall think and deem convenient and necessary for the honour of the King and common good of both Kingdoms Yet the good intentions of this Vnion took no effect as will follow in the sequel of this History But there were a great many good Laws made which are too voluminous for this place having a proper Sphere of their own to move in Thus the King sate triumphing as it were upon a Throne of his Peoples Affections and his beginnings had some settlement for being loth to be troubled he sought Peace every-where But our inbred distempers lay upon the Lee intermixt with other gross dregs that the Princes lenity and the Peoples luxury produced For the King minding his sports many riotous demeanours crept into the Kingdom the Sun-shine of Peace being apt for such a production upon the slime of the late War The Sword and Buckler trade being now out of date one corruption producing another the City of London being always a fit Receptacle for such whose prodigalities and wastes made them Instruments of Debaucheries divers Sects of vitious Persons going under the
further witnesses So that except they proceed to this Naturalization these Realms will be in continual danger to divide and break again Next they shew the Benefits to be Security and Greatness Surety by stopping up the Postern-gates of our Enemies so that we shall not be so much a temptation to the ambition of Foreigners when their Approaches and Avenues are taken away For having so little success when they had these advantages they will have less comfort when they want them And Greatness by this Vnion must needs follow For having so many Iron-handed men in these three Kingdoms we shall not only pluck Gold from the once poor Spaniards Indian-mines but by our Arms keep in awe the whole Christian World These Arguments prest with gilded Oratory by the Solicitor and his partakers could not prevail though urged with all the power Wit could invent or Hope aim at For being new budded in Court he was one of those that smoothed his way to a full ripeness by liquâ—rish and pleasing passages which he at last attained to being made Lord Chancellor of England But such sweets though delightful at present breed rottenness in the end for he withered and came to nothing as in due time shall be expressed But the King like a great Sea being troubled when such cross-winds are boistrous sent for both Houses of Parliament to White-hall hall the last of March 1607. to calm them where betwixt a Sun-shine of fair Words and a Cloud of Anger he colours over some of the Arguments that had been used and urges others for his best advantage with a plain natural bluntness fit for Kings He tells them the Vnion he desires is of Laws and Persons such a Naturalizing as may make one Body of both Kingdoms that as there is but Vnus Rex so there may be but Vnus Grex Vna Lex His intention is not as some idly alledg to give England the labour and sweat and Scotland the fruit and sweet vainly talking of transplanting Trees out of barren ground into better and lean Cattle out of bad pasture into a more fertile soyl Can any man displant them unless they will Or is Scotland so strong to pull them out of their houses Whereas the waste grounds in Scotland would rather be planted by Swarms of People that cumber the Streets here First He desires that all Hostile Laws should cease being the King of England cannot make War with the King of Scotland Secondly That there should be Community of Commerce he being no Stranger but descended of their ancient Kings and how can he be Natural Liege-Lord to both and they Strangers to one another And shall they that be under the same Allegiance be no freer nor have no better Respect than Frenchmen and Spaniards Thirdly They all agree they are no Aliens and yet will not allow them to be Natural That he was informed by their own Iudges and Lawyers at his first access to the Crown that there was a difference between the Ante and Post-nati of each Kingdom which caused him to publish a Proclamation that the Post-nati were Naturalized by his accession but he confesses Iudges may err so may the Lawyer 's on their side Therefore he admonishes them to beware to disgrace either his Proclamations or the Iudges for so they may disgrace both their King and Laws who have power when the Parliament is ended to try them both for Lands and Lives And for some of them who with their flattering speeches would have the Ante-nati preferred alledging their merit in my service such Discourses have mel in ore fel in corde carrying an outward appearance of love to the Vnion but a contrary resolution in their hearts For the King would have them know it lies within the compass of his Prerogative to prefer whom he pleases to any Dignity Civil or Ecclesiastical But he is so far from prejudicing the English that he is willing to bind himself to reasonable Restrictions Besides it is a special Point of the Kings Prerogative to make Aliens Citizens and in any case wherein the Law is thought not to be clear Rex est Iudex for he is Lex loquens supplying the Law where it wants But this he speaks as knowing what belongs to a King not intending to press it further than may agree with their loves and stand with the conveniency of both Nations The inconveniences supposed to arise from Scotland are pretended to be 1. An evil affection in the Scots to the Vnion 2. That the Vnion is incompetible 3. That the Gain is small or none If this be so Why is there talk of an Vnion For the first They alledg the averseness of the Scots from the Preface and Body of their Act where they decare they will remain an absolute and free Monarchy and not alter the Fundamental Laws of the Kingdom And yet in the beginning of this Session of Parliament the opinion was current that Scotland was greedy of this Vnion and pursued it with so much violence that they cared not for the strictness of the Conditions so they might attain the substance and end And yet they now say they are backwards which is a Contradiction for how can they both beg and deny the same thing at one and the same time And by preserving their Fundamental Laws they mean those Laws by which Confusion is avoided and their Kings Succession and Monarchy maintained To which he Declares That he is in descent three hundred years before Christ not meaning as they do their Common Law for the Scots have no Law but that which is Ius Regis And for their desire of continuing a free Monarchy he hopes they mean not he should set Garrisons over them as the Spaniards do over Sicily and Naples And then he tells them That he governs Scotland with his Pen he writes and doth more by a Clerk of the Council than others could do by the Sword And though he knows there are many seditious Persons in that Kingdom that may talk lewdly enough yet none of them ever spake dishonourably of England as they have done of Scotland For if any man speaks any thing uncomely there the Chancellor by his Authority interrupts him but here they have freedom to speak what they list and as long as they list without contradiction Then the King shews what the Laws of Scotland are 1. Those which concern Tenures Wards Liveries Signiories and Lands are drawn out of the Chancery of England brought by Iames the First who was bred up here and differ only in terms The second are Statute Laws to which he hopes they will be no Strangers The third is the Civil Law brought out of France by Iames the Fifth and serve only to supply in such Cases where the Municipal Laws are defective So that he hopes it is no hard matter to unite the People together who are in effect already subject to the same Law And whereas it is Objected that the King of Scotland hath not
tidings and setled us in the fruition of all good things He whose depth of Knowledge as well as Conscience deserves the Title of Fidei defensor whose numerous Issue makes Foreign Princes study to keep their own not look abroad He that hath shut the back-door of the Kingdom and placed two Lions a red and a yellow to secure it who would have us live under our own Olive that we may laetari benefacere That none will wonder at the Want or startle at the supply but such as study to serve their own turns and believe nothing but what they find written in the stories of their own ignorance Among which those are to be reckon'd who hearing of an Order to bind up the printed Proclamations in a book that the better notice may be taken of the things contained in them have raised a bruit that it was intended this Parliament to make Proclamations equal to the Laws which never entred into the Kings heart who is so far from governing by will and power that he will yield to any motion from them wherein they shall hold a just Diameter and proportion among themselves and observe those Duties due to a great and gracious King Thus these Lords did please themselves and the King by striving to keep the people in the milky way of Obedience which they had long suckt in and found the sweet of it tending to nourishment not yet meeting any Callous or Brawny-constitution which must harden them by degrees nor yet finding their own Tempers grown Robust enough by so harsh a diet as afterwards they met with They therefore are willing to go on in the way pointed out to them as Pupils follow their Masters minding rather the smoothness of the Tract they saw than the roughness of the end Yet some of them whose hopes were not so high mounted and their spirits more spoke plainly That the whole wealth of England would not serve the Kings vast Bounty therefore it was a vain thing to give him that would give it away again That Gold and Silver in Edenburgh now in our Solomons time are like the stones in the streets never so much glittering there like a perpetual spring-time Besides they look upon the Kings incroachments upon the publick liberty by undermining the Laws taking notice of some expressions that fell from him publickly at his dinner in derogation of the Common Law extolling highly the Civil Law before it and approving a Book lately written by Doctor Cowell a Civilian against it Which netled our great Lawyers that had not some of them been raised so high that they could not with that Court-gag look downwards it had bred a contest The High-Commission also began now to swell into a Grievance which the Parliament complained of Seldom is Authority and Power exercised with Moderation Every man must conform to the Episcopal way and quit his hold in Opinion or safety That Court was the Touch stone to try whether men were metal for their stamp and if they were not soft enough to take such impressions as were put upon them they were made malleable there or else they could not pass current This was the beginning of that mischief which when it came to a full ripeness made such a bloody Tincture in both Kingdoms as never will be got out of the Bishops Lawn sleeves And though these Apples of strife thrown in the way did a little retard the course in hand yet they carried not the prize For the King according to his old wont like a cunning Hunter when they began to run counter called them off and at White-hall by one of his Lectures he strives to bring them into the way again By laying himself open as in a Glass wherein if they could not see his heart they might scent out his meaning and so follow the chace which was to be pursued He tells them though the Kings heart be in the hands of the Lord yet he will set it before the eyes of the people Assuring them that he never meant to govern by any Law but the Law of the Land though it be disputed among them as if he had an intention to alter the Law and govern by the absolute Power of a King He knew said he the Power of Kings resembling it to the Power Divine For as God can create and destroy make and unmake at his pleasure so Kings can give life and death judg all and be judged of none They can exalt low things and abase high things making the subjects like men at Chess a pawn to take a Bishop or a Knight But he left out the power of a Pawn to take a Queen or check a King And when he had raised the Kings power to the height with Vos dii estis he brings them down again with They shall die like men And that all Kings who are not Tyrants or perjur'd will bound themselves within the limits of their Laws and they that perswade them the contrary are Vipers and Pests both against them and the Common-wealth Yet as it is Blasphemy to dispute what God may do so it is Sedition in Subjects to dispute what a King may do in the height of his power And as he will not have his subjects discourse of what he may do so he will do nothing but what shall be consonant to Law and Reason Then he strives to mitigate the sharpness of the words dropt from him at his Table to the disparagement of the Common Law and assures them though he likes the Civil Law very well as being Lex Gentium which maintains intercourse with foreign Nations and sitted to the Ecclesiastical Courts Court of Admiralty and Courts of Request yet he is so far from disavowing the Common Law that he protests if he were to chuse a new Law for this Kingdom he would prefer it before any other National Law yea the Law of Moses nay without blasphemy the very Law of God Then he recalls himself and tells them That though for this Nation he had preferred the Common Law to the Law of God yet it is inferiour to the Iudicial Law For no Book or Law is free from corruption but the Book and Law of God And therefore he could wish that three things specially were purged out of Common Law First That it were written in the vulgar Tongue and made plain to the peoples understanding that they might know what to obey that the Lawyers in the Law like the Romish Priests in the Gospel might not keep the people in ignorance Secondly That the Common Law might have a setled Text in all Cases for being grounded upon old Customs Reports and Cases of former Iudges called Responsa prudentum which are not binding for divers times Iudges disclaim them and recede from the Iudgment of their Predecessors it were good upon mature deliberation that the Exposition of the Law were set down by Act of Parliament that the people might know what to depend upon Thirdly There is in
or lump That in the state of the Church among People of several languages and lineages there is a Communion of Saints and we are all fellow-Citizens and Naturalizants of the Heavenly Ierusalem and yet divers Ecclesiastical Laws Policies and Hierarchies for the Laws are rather Figura Republicae than Forma rather bonds of Perfection than Intireness That in Ireland Iersey Gâ—rnsey and the Isle of Man our Common Laws are not in force and yet they have the benefit of Naturalization To which it was replyed that these are only Flourishes of Rhetorick for God who is the only Disposer of all his Creatures keeps them in Order and Obedience to Him by a Law which they cannot deviate from unless he withdraws his preserving Hand from them But betwixt Man and Man or Realm and Realm there can be no such Tie or Obligation to hold an Vnity where they have various Laws and various Priviledges And for the immunities given to the Irish for some Ages past they were English Colonies sent there to plant being a great part of them Natives with us of the same blood and stock with whom we are ingrafted by Time and made as it were one Body the better to secure their obedience and hinder any League or Amity with a Foreign Nation But Scotland hath an intire Vnion with the French continued for some hundreds of years that is indissolvable and therefore incompetent yet to the freedoms of England When we have had as much experience of the Friendship of Scotland as of them we shall incline to a more intimate Vnion Besides there is an inequality in the Portunes of the two Nations and by this Commixture there may ensue advantage to them and loss to us To the latter part was answered Beatius est dare quà m accipere And Edward the First among other Commendations of War and Policy none was more celebrated than his purpose and enterprize for the Conquest of Scotland as not bending his Designs to glorious Acquests abroad but solid strength at home which if it had succeded could not but have brought in those inconveniences of the Commixture of a more opulent Kingdom with a less for it is not the yoke either of Laws or Arms that can alter the nature of the Climate or the nature of the Soil neither is it the manner of the Commixture that can alter the nature of the Commixture and therefore if it were good for us then it is good for us now and not to be prized the less because we paid not so dear for it They strive further to prove That the benefit of Naturalization is by Law to as many as have been or shall be born since the Kings coming to the Crown for there is no more than to bring the Ante-nati unto the degree of Post-nati that Men grown may be in no worse case than Children and elder Brothers in no worse condition than younger Brothers That if any object the Law is not so but that the Post-nati are Aliens as the rest it is contrary to the Reason of Law The Wisdom of the Common Laws of England is admirable in distribution of the Benefit and Perfection of the Law according to the several conditions of Persons The Degrees are four two of Aliens and two of Subjects The first Degree is of an Alien born under a King or State that is an Enemy if such an one come into the Kingdom without safe conduct it is at his peril the Law giveth him no protection neither of Body Lands nor Goods so as if he be slain there is no remedy by any appeal at the Parties sute though she were an English Woman though at the Kings sute the Case may be otherwise in regard of the offence to the Peace and Crown The second Degree is of an Alien that is born under Faith and Allegiance of a King or State that is a Friend unto such a Person the Law doth impart a greater benefit and protection concerning things personal transitory and moveable as Goods and Chattels Contracts and the like but not concerning Free-hold and Inheritance and the Reason is because he may be an Enemy though he be not for the State where he was born may enter into Hostility and therefore as the Law hath but a Transitory assurance of him so it rewards him with Transitory benefits The third Degree is of a Subject who having been an Alien is made free by Charter and Denization To such a one the Law doth impart yet a more ample benefit for it gives him a power to purchase Free-hold and Inheritance to his own use and likewise inables his Children born after his Denization to inherit But yet he cannot make Title or convey any Pedigree from any Ancestour Paramount for the Law thinks not good to make him in the same Degree with a Subject born because he was once an Alien and so might have been an Enemy and Affections cannot be so setled by any benefit as when from their Nativity they are inbred and inherent The fourth Degree and the perfect Degree is of such a Person as neither is Enemy nor can be Enemy in time to come nor would have been Enemy at any time past and therefore the Law gives unto him the full benefit of Naturalization Now if these be the true steps and paces of the Law no man can deny but whosoever is born under the Kings obedience never could in aliquo puncto temporis be an Enemy and therefore in reason of Law is Naturalized So though the Scots seem to be in Reason Naturales ipso jure yet it is not superfluous to have it done by Parliament for it will shew the World our love to them and good agreement with them Then they shewed by authority of History and Experience the Inconveniencies that may grow if this Vnion of Naturalization doth not close and bind up the Veins so as to make it one perfect Body For else it may be apt to open and break out again upon all occasions and relapse to the detriment of both Ripping up ancient Stories of the Romans and Latines and the Wars they had meerly for want of this Vnion and never were at quiet till they injoyed it Then between the Peloponnesians and the Spartans the like And from ancient Stories to the Kingdom of Arragon and Castile united in the Persons of Ferdinando and Isabella severed and divided from the rest of Spain in Priviledges and directly in this point of Naturalization or capacity of Inheritance But what came of this A Rebellion grew among them which a Royal Army with difficulty suppressed and they being made one incorporated Body with the rest of Spain perpetuated Peace to Posterity The like example was betwixt Florence and Pisa. And whatsoever Kingdoms and States have been United and that Vnion corroborated by the Bonds of Naturalization you shall never observe them afterward upon any occasion to break or sever again Whereof divers Provinces in France by time annexed to that Crown are
the Common Laws divers contrary Reports and Precedents and divers Statutes and Acts of Parliament that do cross one another being so penned that they may be taken in divers senses therefore he could wish they might be reviewed and reconciled And whereas he is thought an Enemy to Prohibitions he saith he is not ignorant of the necessity of them if every stream might run in its own chanel but the overflowing and super-abundance of them in every Court striving to bring most grist to their own Mill was a distemper fit to be cured therefore he did not disallow the Use but the Abuse Then he closes with the House of Commons and not only thanks them for the Bonefire they made of certain Papers which were presented Grievances from some discontented murmuring spirits but he instructs them how to receive Grievances hereafter In which he would have them careful to avoid three things The first That they meddle not with the main points of Government that is his craft Tractent fabrilia fabri To meddle with that were to lessen him who hath been thirty years at the Trade in Scotland and served an Apprentiship of seven years here therefore here needs no Phormios to teach Hannibal Secondly He would not have such ancient Rights as he hath received from his Predecessors accounted Grievances that were to judg him unworthy to injoy what they left him And lastly That they should be careful not to present that for a Grievance which is established by a Law for it is very undutiful in Subjects to press their King wherein they are sure to be denyed Complaints may be made unto them of the High-Commissioners let the abuse appear then and spare not there may be errors among them but to take away the Commission is to derogate from him and it is now in his thoughts to rectifie it in a good proportion Then he shews the emergent cause of his great expences since his coming to the Crown which makes him desire a supply from them confirming what the Lords formerly delivered wherein he said when they opened his necessities unto them his purse only labour'd now his desires are taken notice of both at home and abroad his Reputation labours as well as his Purse for the World will think it want of love in them or merit in him that both lessen'd their hearts and tied up their hands towards him Thus the King expressed himself to the Parliament desiring their assistance assuring them he had no intention to alter the Government though he wished the Laws might be rectified But his King-craft as he calls it failed in striking at the Common Law and he was convinced in it how dangerous it was to give too much knowledg to the people the two great Hammers of the State the Church-man and Lawyer that work the people to obedience upon the two Anvils of Conscience and Policy beat him to the understanding of it so that ever after he joyned with them and that three-fold Cord was not easily dissolved But the times not being ripe yet to produce any thing but the fruits of obedience they after this Lesson setled themselves to make divers good Laws which they purchased at the rate of a Subsidie and a Fifteen DURHAM HOUSE SALISBURY HOUSE WORCESTER HOUSE ILLUSTRISS PRINC IOHAN GUILIELMUS DUX IULIAE CLIVIAE BERG COMES MARCH RAVENSBERG MEURS DOMINUS IN RAVESTEYN IN DEO REFUGIUM MEUM Natus a o 1562 28 Maÿ obÿt a o 1609 25 Martÿ aetatis suae ann o 46. mens 9. die 25. This year 1609. begot a Truce betwixt the King of Spain and the Low Countries yet by the death of the Duke of Cleve the War was like to revive again For while two petty Princes Brandenburgh and Newburgh strove for the inheritance Spain like the Vulture in the Fable attempted to catch it from both seizing upon Iuliers one of the chief Strengths of the Country which the States of the Netherlands by the help of our King and Henry the Fourth of France besieged and recovered again Sir Edward Cecil Brother to the Earl of Salisburg commanded four thousand English at that Siege whose Conduct gave Life to his Soldiers Valour and that advanced the Glory of his Conduct But where such fiery Spirits are congregated into a Body there will be often violent and thundring eruptions Sir Hatton Cheek was next Commander to Sir Edward Cecil a Man of a gallant and daring courage in the difficultest enterprises who speaking to Sir Thomas Dutton one of the Captains under his Command somewhat hastily Dutton disdaining to be snapt up being a man of a crabbed temper returned as hot an answer which broke into a flame But Dutton quenched it by telling Sir Hatton Cheek He knew he was his Officer which tied him in the Army to a strict Obedience but he would break that Bond and vindicate himself in another place And instantly quitting his Command he went for England Some small time after the taking of Iuliers Cheek fell sick and his distemper was the greater because he had heard Dutton strove to defame him both in Court and City for being full with passion he vented it with freedom enough in every place Cheek being recovered and heart-whole would not give time to his decayed limbs to suck in their old vigor but sends to Dutton that threatned him to give an account of the large expence of his tongue against him Dutton that waited for such a reckoning willingly accepted the Summons Cheek took Pigot one of his Captains to be his Second Dutton took Captain Gosnald both Men of well-spread fame and they four met on Calais Sands On which dreadful Stage at first meeting Dutton began to expostulate his injuries as if a Tongue-Combate might decide the Controversie but Cheek would dispute it otherwise Then their Seconds searching and stripping them to their Shirts in a cold morning they ran with that sury on each others Sword as if they did not mean to kill each other but strive who should first die Their Weapons were Rapier and Dagger a fit Banquet for Death At the first course Cheek ran Dutton into the neck with his Rapier and stab'd him in the neck backward with his Dagger miraculously missing his wind-pipe And at the same instant like one motion Dutton ran Cheek through the Body and stab'd him into the back with his left hand locking themselves together thus with four bloody keys which the Seconds fairly opened and would sain have closed up the bleeding difference but Cheeks wounds were deadly which he finding grew the violenter against his Enemy and Dutton seeing him begin to stagger went back from his fury only defending himself till the others rage weakned with loss of blood without any more hurt fell at his feet Dutton with much difficulty recovered his dangerous wounds but Cheek by his Servants had a sad Funeral which is the bitter fruit of fiery passions HENRY IIII ROY DE FRANCE ET DE NAVARRE The venom of
Doublet was Cloth of Gold imbroidered so thick that it could not be discerned and a white Beaver-hat suitable Brim-full of imbroidery both above and below This is presented as an Essay for one of the meanest he wore so that if this Relation should last longer than his old cloaths the Reader might well think it a Romance favouring rather of Fancy than Reality But this kind of Vanity had been long active in England For the last Parliament it was moved by some well-affected to Reformation of the Abuses of excess in Apparel that there might be a Regulation of this kind of Gallantry to the distinguishing of men one from another For it was said some of means Fortunes wore Garments fitter for Princes than Subjects and many Gentry of antient descent had wasted and impoverished themselves and their Posterities with this extravagancy so that it was very requisite to give some stop to this redundant humor To which was answered That if those of mean Fortunes went so richly attired and came not honestly by their ornaments they would be quickly found out and there were good Laws enough for such Transgressors But as there is no perpetuity of Being on Earth so there is a continual vicissitude and revolution in all sublunary things some are advanced and some decline God pulleth down one and setteth up another If any Noble or antiently descended Family will be so mad and foolish to beggar themselves and their Posterities with this or any other excess 't is very probable that some man of more wisdom and merit will injoy that which the other hath so idlely and prodigally mispent for to set such limitations will damp the spirits of Industry So the motion was declined But to return to the Lord Hayes Thus accoutred and accomplished he went into France and a day for Audience being prefixed all the argument and dispute betwixt him and his gallant Train which took up some time was how they should go to the Court Coaches like Curtains would eclipse their splendor riding on horsback in Boots would make them look like Travellers not Courtiers and not having all Foot-cloaths it would be an unsuitable mixture Those that brought rich trappings for their Horses were willing to have them seen so it was concluded for the Foot-cloth and those that have none to their bitter cost must furnish themselves This preparation begot expectation and that filled all the Windows Balcones and Streets of Paris as they passed with a multitude of Spectators Six Trumpeters and two Marshals in Tawny Velvet Liveries compleatly Suited laced all over with Gold richly and closely laid led the way the Ambassador followed with a great Train of Pages and Footmen in the same rich Livery incircling his Horse and the rest of his Retinue according to their Qualities and Degrees in as much bravery as they could devise or procure followed in couples to the wonderment of the beholders And some said how truly I cannot assert the Ambassadors Horse was shod with Silver-shooes lightly tackt on and when he came to a place where Persons or Beauties of eminency were his very Horse prancing and curveting in humble reverence flung his shooes away which the greedy understanders scrambled for and he was content to be gazed on and admired till a Farrier or rather the Argentier in one of his rich Liveries among his train of Footmen out of a Tawny Velvet bag took others and tackt them on which lasted till he came to the next troop of Grandies And thus with much ado he reached the Louure All Complements and outward Ceremonies of State being performed the Lord Ambassador made his business known by more private addresses which in appearance was well resented but indeed not intended and came to no effect For the Duke of Savoy had anticipated the young Ladies affection for the Prince of Pâ—emont his Son The Savoyan Agents bringing more Gold in their hands than on their backs had so smoothed the way that not only those about the Princess but the great ones themselves were made workers for him After the Ambassador had been feasted magnificently with all his gallant Train in several places to shew the Grandure of France he came over into England and practised it here making many times upon several occasions such stupendious Feasts and heaped Banquets as if all the Creatures had contributed to his excess I know not what limits or bounds are set to the glories of Princes Courts or Nobles minds We see the Sea it self and all his tributary Rivers do ebb and flow but if they swell so high to overflow that Bank that Reason hath prescribed to keep them in what Inundations of sad mischief follow Experience shews CHRISTINE DE FRANCE DVCHESSE DE SAVOYE Balt. Moncornet ex CAROLVS EMANVEL DVC DE SAVOYE ET PRINCE DE PIEDMONT Therefore to humble him more he is brought on his knees at the Council Table and three other Ingredients added to the Dose of a more active operation First He is charged That when he was the Kings Attorney in the beginning of his Reign he concealed a Statute of twelve thousand pounds due to the King from the late Lord Chancellor Hatton wherein he deceived the trust reposed in him Secondly That he uttered words of very high contempt as he sate in the seat of Iustice saying the Common Law of England would be overthrown and the light of it obscured reflecting upon the King And thirdly His uncivil and indiscreet carriage before His Majesty being assisted by his Privy Council and Judges in the Case of Commendams The last he contest and humbly craved his Majesties Pardon The other two he palliated with some colourable excuses which were not so well set off but they left such a tincture behind that he was commanded to a private life And to expiate the Kings anger he was injoyned in that leisurely retirement to review his Books of Reports which the King was informed had many extravagant opinions published for positive and good Law which must be corrected and brought to his Majesty to be perused But the Title of the Books wherein he stiles himself Lord Chief Iustice of England was to be expunged being but Lord Chief Iustice of the Kings Bench. And at his departure from the Council Table where he humbly acknowledged his Majesties mercy and their Lordships justice the Lord Treasurer gave him a wipe for suffering his Coachman to ride bare before him in the streets which fault he strove to cover by telling his Lordship his Coachman did it for his own ease But not long after the Lord Treasurer came under his lash in the Star-Chamber and he requited him for it Vera Effigies Viri clariss EDOARDI COKE Equitis aurati nuper Capitalis Iusticiarij ad Placita coram Rege tenenda assignati R White sculpsit Truly he was a Man of excellent parts but not without his frailties for as he was a Storehouse and Magazine of the Common Law for the present times
were not well pleased with it which made them present him with this Petition thus Subsigned The Humble Petition of the Nobility of England THat whereas your Majesty at the importunity of some natural Subjects of this Realm of England hath been pleased to confer upon them Honours Titles and Dignities peculiar to other your Majestie 's Dominions by which all the Nobility of this Realm either in themselves their Children or both find they are prejudiced Our humble desire is that with your gracious allowance we may challenge and preserve our Birth-rights And that we may take no more notice of these Titulars to our Prejudice than the Law of this Land doth but that we may be excused if in civil courtesie we give them not the respect or place as to Noblemen strangers seeing that these being our Country Men born and inheritanced under our Laws their families and abode among us have yet procured their Translation into foreign names only to our injury But in this address to your Sacred Majesty it is far from Us to meddle with much less to limit or interpret the Power of your Soveraignty knowing that your Majesty being the Root whence all Honour receives Sap under what Title soever may collate what you please upon whom when and how you please Wherefore in all humbleness We present this to your gracious view confident of your Majesties equal favour herein 1. Oxford 2. Huntington 3. Essex 4. Lincoln 5. Dorset 6. Salisbury 7. Warwick 8. Abergavenie 9. Dacres 10. Darcie 11. Stafford 12. Willoughbie 13. Sheffeild 14. Windsor 15. Gray 16. Wentworth 17. Mordant 18. Scroop 19. Cromwell 20. Sturton 21. Howard 22. St. Iohn 23. Paget 24. Russell 25. Gerrard 26. Dudley 27. Hunsdon 28. Denny 29. Spencer 30. Haughton 31. Stanhope 32. Say 33. Noell Thus we see the Errors of Princes are sometimes put into the Scale and they bring with them so much trouble and vexation that they often weigh down their Glory and Happiness for no man can feel the load and burthen of it but he that wears a Crown The King was conscious to himself that he had done these Noblemen injury especially the Barons to advance their inferiours above them for a little profit either to himself or his Courtiers And if he had not heard of this Petition before such a Troop of attendance together might have startled him but being prepared for it he mustered up his Spirits thinking it too great an abasement for Majesty to stoop at their Summons being so publick an Action or to lesson or recall what he had done Yet he was troubled not knowing what quarrels the strife for place and precedency might produce or what ill blood the discontent of so many of the Nobility at one time might ingender Therefore he sent for them all or the most eminent and leading men of them some days after and expostulated the business with them one by one in private knowing he could deal best with them so beginning with some of them roughly yet still he closed with them at last his anger being as it were raised to make them humble and reconcile themselves to him that he might the better reconcile himself to them And to the Earl of Essex he vented this Expression I fear thee not Essex if thou wert as well beloved as thy father and hadst forty thousand men at thy heels Which words he uttered as if he had chid himself that they made an escape from him And though this Petition did not derogate from the Dignity of those creations past yet the King willingly restrained himself for the time to come But the House of Commons found the King's Letters to entangle the way rather than make a free passage to their Liberties for that which was their birth-right would now come to be derived from his Ancestors And for all the King's finenesses they thought Religion very un secure for as long as the bent of his Affections tended to the Spanish match there must needs be a wide Gap open as an inlet to Popery and if it may be made Treason for his Parliament to advise him from it they saw but a very small door left open to liberty But whatsoever befell them they resolved to leave to posterity some prints and footsteps of their Parliamentary Rights and Privileges left them by their great Ancestors that though they could not preserve them intire those that succeed them might at least find some Reliques and ruins of what they had Which made them make this Protestation recorded in their Iournal Book 19. Dec. 1621. THe Commons now Assembled in Parliament being justly occasioned thereunto concerning sundry Liberties Franchises and Privileges of Parliament among others here mentioned do make this Protestation following That the Liberties Franchises Privileges and Iurisdictions of Parliament are the ancient and undoubted Birth-right and inheritance of the Subjects of England And that the arduous and urgent affairs concerning the King State and defence of the Realm and of the Church of England and the Maintenance and making of Laws and redress of Mischiefs and grievances which daily happen within this Realm are proper Subjects and matter of Counsel and debate in Parliament And that in the handling and proceeding of those businesses every Member of Parliament hath and of right ought to have freedom of Speech to propound treat reason and bring to Conclusion the same And that the Commons in Parliament have likewise liberty and freedom to treat of these Matters in such order as in their judgments shall seem fittest And that every Member of the said House hath like Freedom from all impeachment imprisonment and Molestation other then by censure of the house it self for or concerning any speaking reasoning or declaring of any matter or matters touching the Parliament or Parliament business And that if any of the said Members be complained of and questioned for any thing done or said in Parliament the same is to be shewed to the King by the advice and assent of all the Commons assembled in Parliament before the King give credence to any private information The King was again Alarum'd by this Protestation and he that naturally loved Peace both at home and abroad found a loud War in his own Breast which indeed was in effect raised by himself for no wisdom could resolve the Intricacies of his Resolutions but his own for he would have a War with the Emperor in Contemplation and a Treaty with the King of Spain in Action both at one time who were as it were one person and because the Parliament like wise Mathematicians would use the Practical part as well as the Theory he was enraged against them and his Prerogative stept in as a stickler and broke out like an Exhalation in thundring and terror to the Astonishment and fear of his people which made them shrowd themselves from those storms by creeping under the Shelter of their Native liberties And now the King flies from his
Canterbury knowing that a Toleration was to be admitted though he stood tottering in the King's Favour and had the Badg of a Puritan clapt upon him thought it better to discharge his Conscience though he hazarded all rather than be silent in such a Cause where the Glory of God and the Good of the Kingdom were so higly concerned Therefore he writes this letter to the King May it please your Majesty I Have been too long silent and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it hath pleased God to call me unto and your Majesty to place me in And now I humbly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God and my Duty to your Majesty And therefore I beseech your Majesty give me leave freely to deliver my self and then let your Majesty do with me what you please Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion I beseech you Sir take into your consideration what the Act is next what the consequence may be By your Act you labour to set up that most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome the Whore of Babylon How Hateful will it be to God and grievous unto your good Subjects the true Professors of the Gospel that your Majesty who hath often disputed and learnedly written against those wicked Heresies should now shew your self a Patron of those Doctrines which your Pen hath told the World and your Conscience tels your Self are Superstitious Idolatrous and Detestable Add hereunto what you have done in sending the Prince into Spain without the consent of your Council the Privity and Approbation of your People And though Sir you have a large Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh yet hath the people a greater as the Son of the Kingdom upon whom next after your Majesty their Eyes are fixed and Welfare depends And so tenderly is his going apprehended as believe it Sir however his return may be safe yet the drawers of him to that Action so dangerous to himself to desperate to the Kingdom will not pass away unquestioned and unpunished Besides this Toleration which you endeavour to set up by Proclamation cannot be done without a Parliament unless your Majesty would let your Subjects see That you will take unto your self a liberty to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure What dreadful Consequence these things may draw after them I beseech your Majesty to consider And above all lest by this Toleration and discontinuance of the true profession of the Gospel whereby God hath blessed us and under which this Kingdom hath for many years flourished your Majesty do not draw upon the Kingdom in general and your Self in particular God's heavy Wrath and Indignation Thus in discharge of my Duty towards God to your Majesty and the place of my Calling I have taken humble Boldness to deliver my Conscience And now Sir do with me what you please Thus did our Solomon in his latter time though he had fought with the Beasts at Ephesus as one saith of him incline a little too much to the Beast Yet he made his tale so good to the Archbishop of Canterbury what reservations soever he had that he wrought upon the good old man afterwards in the Conclusion of the work to set his Hand as a Witness to the Articles And his desires were so heightned to the Heats of Spain which boyl'd him to such a Distemper that he would listen to nothing and almost yield to any thing rather than not to enjoy his own Humour Divers of his intimate Council affecting Popery were not slack to urge him to a Toleration and many Arguments were used inciting to it As that Catholicks were the King 's best and most peaceable Subjects the Puritans being the only Sticklers and the greatest Disturbers of the Royal peace trenching too boldly upon the Prerogative and striving to lessen the Kingly power But if the King had occasion to make use of the Catholicks he should find them more faithful to him than those that are ever contesting with him And why should not Catholicks with as much safety be permitted in England as the Protestants are in France That their Religion was full of Love and Charity where they could enjoy it with freedom and where Charity layes the Foundation the upper Building must needs be spiritual But these Arguments were answered and many reasons alledged against them proving the Nature of the Protestant Religion to be Compatible with the Nature of the Politick Laws of any State of what Religion soever Because it teacheth that the Government of any State whether Monarchial or Aristocratical is Supream within it self and not subordinate to any power without so that the Knot of Allegiance thereunto is so firmly tied that no Humane power can unloose or dissolve it Whereas on the contrary the Roman Religion acknowledging a Supremacy in another above that power which swayeth the State whereof they are Members must consequently hold that one stroke of that Supreme power is able to unsinew and cut in sunder all the Bonds which ty them to the Subordinate and Dependent Authority And therefore can ill accord with the Allegiance which Subjects owe to a Prince of their own Religion which makes Papists intolerable in a Protestant Common-wealth For what Faith can a Prince or People expect from them whose Tenet is That no Faith is to be held with Hereticks That the Protestants in France had merited better there than the Papists had done in England the one by their Loyalties to their lawful King having ransomed that Kingdom with their Bloods in the Pangs of her desperate Agonies from the Yoak of an Usurper within and the Tyranny of a Forain Scepter without The other seeking to write their Disloyalties in the Heart-Blood of the Princes and best Subjects of this Kingdom That the Number and Quality of the Professors of these different Religions in either Kingdom is to be observed For in France the Number of the Protestants were so great that a Toleration did not make them but found them a Considerable Party so strong as they could not have been suppressed without endangering the Kingdom But a Toleration in England would not find but form the Papists to be a considerable party witness their encrease by this late Connivency a thing which ought mainly to be avoided For the distraction of a State into several powerfull parties is alwaies weakning and often proveth the utter ruine thereof These thing were laid open to the King but all were waved by the King of Spain's Offering His engagement to the Pope by oath That he and the Prince his son should observe and keep the Articles stipulated betwixt them did exceedingly affect him And the Articles now coming to close up all they were ingrossed with a long preamble Declaring to all the World the much desired Union betwixt him and the King of Spain by the marriage of his son to