away by the current of grief and swallowed up in the gulf of despair All his faults are but some few Warts in a most pleasing and beautiful Face He was very much beholding to the excellent Poets of his time whose commendation shall serve him for an Epitaph Ariosto who knew him only by fame in the Person of Zerbino whom he nameth Prince of Scotland glaunceth at his worth Zerbin di Bellezza e di Valore Sopra tutti i Signori eminente Di virtu essempio e di Bellezza raro In another place but Romzard who with his Queen came to Scotland and was his Domestick Servant describeth him more to the life Ce Roy D' Escosse estoit en la fleur de ses ans Ses Cheveux non tondus commine fin or linsans Câ—â— donnez et crespez flotans dessus sa face Et sur son col de laist luy donnoit bonne grace Son Port estoit royal son reguard vigoureux De vertus et de honneur de guerre amoureux La douceur et la force illustroient son visage Si que Venus et Mars en avoient fait partage So happy is a Prince when he cherisheth and is entertain'd by the rare spirits of his time that even when his Treasures Pomp State Followers Diadems and all external Glory leave him the sweet incense of his Fame in the Temple of Honour persumeth his Altars A Princes name is surer preserved and more deeply ingraven in Paper than in all the rusting Medals blasted Arches entombed Tombs which may serve to any as well as to him raised with such loss of time vain labours of Artizans vast expence to be the sport of the Winds Rains Tempests Thunder Earthquakes or if they shun all these of superstition faction and civil Broyls After this Prince had some years rested in a Tomb not only it but the most part of the Church was made equal to the ground by the Armies of his Uncle King Henry the Eight whose malice left him not even when he was dead proving as horrible an Uncle as Nero was a Son A while after he was transported to another Vault by the piety of his matchless Grand-Child James King of Great-Britain where he was embalmed again enshrined and his Coffin adorned with the Arms of the Kingdom cognoscances and a Crown With which Honours I leave him till some famous pen encouraged by the favours of his Royal Successors raise his Fame from the dust of obscure Papers to Eternity THE END MEMORIALS OF STATE Considerations to the KING December 1632. THere is nothing more dangerous to a King than to suffer Majesty and that sacred respect which a Subject oweth him to be violated and his Fame and Reputation lessened by other mens boldness whose presumption may lead them forwards not only to dally with his Person but with his Crown But his Ears are so often guarded by these men that he never heareth virtues till he hath granted what he cannot well amend and his wounds be incurable If a Prince hold any thing dear it should be the Right and Title of his Crown which concerneth not only himself but his Posterity out of which a small Jewel 〈◊〉 away maketh it the less Radiant And to all Subjects that should be as Mount Sinai not to be approached In every case we should take greater heed to what in it is hurtful than to what is in it profitable for what profit and commodity any thing carrieth with it easily presenteth it self unto us but any one point which may hurt us unless it be observed and carefully taken away may overthrow and bring to nought all that hath been rightly intended The restoring of the Earl Monteeth in blood and allowing his descent and title to the Earldom of Strathern is thought to be disadvantageous to the King's Majesty and that a more dangerous blow could not be given to the Nobleman himself We may easily conjecture of things to come and imagine them by those of the like nature which have proceeded The Stage of the World is the same still though in times the Actors be changed and come about again For the Kings Majesty it would be considered if Henry the sixth King of England would if it had been in his power reclaimed the approbation restoring in bloud and allowing of the descent and title of Richard Duke of York who openly in Parliament thereafter made claim for the Crown as in his own right laying down thus his title The Son of Ann Mortimer who came of Philipe the Daughter and sole heir of Leonel Duke of Clarence third Son to King Edward the third is to be preferred by very good right in Succesion of the Kingdom before the children of John of Gaunt the fourth Son of the said Edward the third but Richard Duke of York is come of Philipe the Daughter and sole Heir of Leonel Duke of Clarence third Son to K Edward the third then to be preferred before the children of the fourth Son who was Henry The like reason may be alledged in the Title of the Earl of Strathern The children of a first marriage by the common Law are to be preferred in the Succession before the children of the second marriage for the marrying of Elizabeth Moor did but legitimate and make her children to succeed after the children of the first marriage As for the authority of a Parliament it would be considered whether or not the Authority of a Parliament may confer and entail a Crown from the lawful Heir thereof to the next apparent heirs Or if an Oath given unto a King by mans Law should be performed when it tendeth to the suppression of Truth and Right which stand by the Law of God Then if one Parliament hath power to entail a Crown whether may not another Parliament upon the like considerations restore the same to the righteous heirs But the Subject resigneth all his right to his King It would be considered whether a subject may safely capitulate with his Prince that is to say give over and quit-claim all right and title which he hath to his Soveraigns Crown his Right being sufficient and if by his capitulation his heirs be bound and if it be honourable for a Prince to accept his conditions The trouble which Edward Baliol raised in Scotland is yet recent to the Readers of Histories Notwithstanding that his Father John Baliol had resigned unto Robert King of Scotland all the right and title which he or any other of his had or thereafter might have to the Crown of Scotland concerning any interest or claim which might be avouched for any cause or consideration He anno 1355. gave to Edward the third King of England a full resignation of his pretended Right of the Crown of Scotland As before being assisted by the said King and the confederate Gentlemen of Scotland in a Parliament holden at Perth where he had been confirmed King of Scotland by the three Estates It would be considered if
weal publick and Soveraignty Slow have I been in punishing injuries done to my self but can hardly pardon such as are done to the Commonwealth for this have I called this Parliament let rapine and out-rage no more be heard of but every man recal himself to a civil and regular form of life especially you my Nobles think vertue and civility true Nobility that to be accounted noblest which is best and that a mans own worth begets true glory By these and the obedience to their Princes your ancestors acquired what ye now enjoy there is no stronger means to keep the goods acquired from a Prince than the same by which they were first purchased which is still obeying Though by leagues Factions and the confounding of all true Policy and Order of Government Man may imagine he can shun the Judicatories of Man let none how great soever conceive he can save his wrongs unpunished from the Almighty hand of God Ye must not hereafter count Authority honesty and virtue idle names nor reckon that right which ye may win or hold by dint of Sword For me I will behave my self in my proceedings as I must answer to God and for you my Subjects do so as ye shall answer to God first and after to your Prince whom God hath set over you No mans Greatness shall appale me in doing right nor the meanness of any make him so contemptible that I shall not give ear to his grievance for I will strive to do justice on Oppressors and support the innocent to my uttermost Here he easily found the power which the Presence of a Prince hath over Subjects for having confirmed the minds of the Parliament a mutual oath passed between him and his Subjects The King swore if any made war against Scotland or went about to overthrow the ancient Laws of the Kingdom to resist and invade him with all his power The Estates swore if any by open Rebellion should revolt or conspire against the King or be found to be the Authors of Factions and Novations they should assist and side the King with all their forces after what manner he should command A Solemn Act was made that none of the Subjects should bind up a league together The King the more to assure the Clergy unto him swore to defend the liberties of the Church making an Act that all Church lands unjustly detained from them during the time of his Captivity should be restored unto them The Body of the Estate holding good for the King Mordock Duke of Albany with his Sons Walter and Alexander were presently arrested and committed as were likewise Duncan Earl of Lennox and Robert Graham a Man that dared give attempt upon those things which no honest man ever could think they were sent to Faulkland but the Duke to Carlaverock Archembald Earl of Dowglass with William Earl of Anguss the Kings Sisters son George Earl of March Walter Oguilby were committed but after set at liberty Adam Hepburn of Haylles Thomas Hay of Yeaster with others were sent to the Castle of St. Andrews That same day the Duke was Committed the King seized on his Castles at Faulkland in Fyfe and Down in Monteeth out of which he removed the Dutchess to Tantallon in Lothian James the youngest Son of the Duke whom former carriage and harmless behaviour had exempted from all suspicion of Treachery after the committing of his Father and Friends whether of a youthful insolency or desperate rage resolving to do and suffer all extremities or that he was contemned accompanied with a number of out-laws and Mountainers on the Holy-rood-day called the Invention of the Cross came to the Town of Dumbartoun set it on fire surprised there John Stuart of Dondonald surnamed the Red Uncle to the King slew him with thirty others after which cruel advising with fear and despair he fled into Ireland where he died The Wife of Walter Stuart his Brother with her two sons Andrew and Alexander with Arthur a base born hasted with him where they remained till the reign of King James the third The barbarous fierceness of James highly incensed the King against his Father and race diverted the current of his Clemency for when he thought by gentle incarcerations to have restrained their malice now he finds that that deaf Tyrant the Law can only secure himself and bring rest to his Subjects Whereupon the year following he calleth a Parliament at Sterling where the estates assembling the Duke with his two sons and Father-in-law the Earl of Lennox accusations being engrossed and articles exhibited against them out of the acts of former times of what hath been done unjustly ctuelly or amiss during the Kings captivity were presented arraigned and condemned Walter Earl of Athol being Judge to whom were adjoyned many noble men and Barons That same day on which their fatal sentence was pronounced the two young men Walter Stuart and Alexander Sons to the Duke were taken forth to the Hill which ariseth against the Castle of Sterling and had their heads cut off The day following Mordock Duke of Albany late Governour with Duncan Lennox Earl of Lennox was beheaded The deaths of these Noblemen were so far from breeding any distaste in the common People that out of their depraved disposition and envy against their betters they flowted at their fall reproached their insolencies delighted in their execution and as much without reason railed on them when they were dead as they had flattered them being alive Whether by the wisdom of the King it hath fallen out who caused abolish the Indictment being against persons so near unto him in blood or bluntness of those times which thought such clear evidences needed no Records the particulars of the Attaindor of these great men are swallowed up in dark oblivion Moved at the Imprisonment of his Son did Mordock with Lennox hating him whom they had wronged attempt against the Kings person and that same very Treason which afterwards had success was it then between the plot and the execution surprised and in the very head cut off The Earl of Athol a man whose desires were both extremely wicked and unbounded was a great actor in this Trady Did the King standing in fear of their extraordinary greatness bend his eyes upon the disposition of the Offenders squaring their actions by the rule of their intentions and weighing what not how far they did offend for Princes quickly free themselves from their very shadows in matter of jealousie of State And tney have great reason to prevent such crimes which cannot be punished when they are committed nor should they expect to amend a mischief when the Criminals are become Masters of their Judges People believe not that any conjure against a Prince till they find the Treason to have taken effect and distrust the Plot till they see him dead But the Death of such who are suspected to be the Authors of disorders in a Commonwealth spareth an infinite number of lives and much civil
ye do not uphold the French now in the Sun-set of their Fortunes and at their weakest that ye would not shoulder this falling wall but that ye would live quiet within your selves keeping your own in a Neutrality receiving both sides French and English in the way of Friendship neither side in the way of Faction The French Embassadour spoke to this purpose It seemeth strange to me that it should be questioned and fall within the Circle of deliberation whether old ever true and assured Friends or old never trusted and only Enemies should in an honourable suit be preferred whether ye should stand to a Nation which in your greatest calamities never abandoned you or embrace and be carried away with one which hath ever sought your overthrow The English sue for your alliance and friendship but it is to make you leave your old Confederates and turn the instruments of their ruine and at last bring the yoke of bondage upon your selves The French sue for your friendship and alliance both to support themselves and hold servitude from you were not your friendship with France their power policy and number had long ere these days over-turned your Realm or had France but shown her self an indifferent Arbitress of the blows between Scotland and England ye had scarce till now kept your Name less your Liberties can ye prove so ungrateful as not to supply them who supported you Can ye prove so unconstant after so many glorious wounds received in the defence of France as cowardly to turn your backs upon her in her greatest need defacing all the Traces of your former Fame and Glory with what countenances could ye look upon those Scots which at Vernueill and Cravant in the Bed of honour left their lives if unrevenged ye should adhere and joyn your selves to their Enemies and Killers Now though ye would forsake the French at this time intangled in many difficulties not regarding their well being nor be solicitous of their standing at least be careful of your own It cannot subsist with your well and safety to suffer a bordering Nation always at enmity with you to arise to that height and power by such an addition as is the Kingdom of France so soon as a State hath a Neighbour strong enough and able to subdue it it is no more to be esteemed a free Estate The English are already become so Potent that no less than united forces of neighbour Kingdoms will serve to stop the current of their fortune Neglect not the certain love of the French your often tryed and ancient friends for the uncertain friendship and within a little time forgotten Alliances of the English your late reconciled Enemies But it may be after mutual marriages have one day joyned your two Kingdoms in one they will seek no preheminency over your State nor make thrall your Kingdom but be knit up with you in a perfect union Do not small brooks lose their names when they commix their Streams with mighty Rivers and are not Rivers ingolfed when they mingle their waters with the Seas Ye enjoy now a kind of mixed Government my Lords not living under absolute Soveraignty your King proceedeth with you more by Prayers and Requests than by Precepts and Commandments and is rather your Head than Soveraign as ruling a Nation not conquered But when ye shall be joyned in a Body with that Kingdom which is absolutely Royal and purely Monarchical having long suffered the Laws of a Conquerour ye shall find a change and a terrible transformation The free managing of your own affairs shall be taken from you Laws Magistracies Honours shall depend on them the wealth of your Kingdom shall be transferred to theirs which to obey and prostrate your selves unto if ye be found stubborn ye shall suffer as a Nation Conquered be redacted in a Province have Deputies and Governours set over you Garrisons in your strongest holds and Castles and by a calm of Peace and Union receive more fearful blowes than ye could have suffered by any Tempest of War The miseries of a most lamentable Servitude What courtesie can ye expect at their hands who contrary to all divine and human Laws detained your King eighteen years prisoner and besides an exorbitant Ransom as if he had been taken in a lawful war did not without Hostages send him home We of France did never forsake you in your extremities and we expect ye will assist us with all your power They are in suit of your Daughter but it is long after she was assured unto us in claiming her we claim but our own this time past ye have only had the custody and education of her yet if they be so ambitious of your Alliance God hath blessed you with more than this But it is not that which they sue for it is to make you disclaim your Friends hate those which love you and love them which hate you and they are working upon you as a rude unpolisht people They offer to render you Berwick and Roxburgh these gifts of Enemies ought to be feared they know it is in their own power to re-obtain them when they please As for that point wherein they would have you indifferent spectators of the blowes and that it shall be profitable for you not to meddle with this War ye are too near engaged neither is there any thing can be more dammageable unto you for if ye be not of the party ye may assure your selves that your Country shall remain a Prey and reward to the Conquerour with content and applause of the vanquished who is not bound to succour those who refuse to assist and help him in his necessities Prove firm and constant to us your first Confederates combine your Forces with ours and by the assistance of that Supreme Providence who pittieth at last the oppressed we have fair certainties and true hopes to cut so much work abroad to the English that they shall do little or no harm to you at home The King and Nobles though it seemed more profitable for the present time to follow the English weighing their offers yet held it more advantageous and sure for coming times to follow the French for if the English should make conquest of France the Conquest of Scotland would scarce be one Months work to their power and for matter of Allyance God knows how little Princes regard it when occasion is offered to enlarge their power and Dominion Thereupon they declare they will not break the ancient League and Peace they have kept with France The English Embassadours denyed of their suit went from Prayers and Requests to threatnings and menacings and having friendship refused denounced War If the King gave his Daughter to the French that they if they could would hinder her passage by Sea having already a Fleet prepared to this effect and thus went away the English Embassadours The King was so far from being moved by these threatnings that immediately he made ready his Ships and knowing more
had not yet heard the names of any but most the Army by reason of the Nobility many of which who liked not the present form of Government were irritated against him Were the Conspiracy a Rebellion and in general by them all they were ready in Arms to maintain their Factions and if upon suspicion the King should attach any being secretly joyned in a League He could hardly have medled with their persons without a Civil War which in regard of his Engagement with England he endeavoured to spare perplexed pensive sad he cometh to Perth stayeth in the Covent of the Dominicans named the Black-friers a place not far from the Town Wall endeavouring so secretly as was possible to find out the Conspiracy But his close practising was not unknown to the Conspirators as that there was more peril to resolve than execute a Treason a distance of time between the Plot and execution discovering and overthrowing the enterprise Hereupon they determine to hazard on the mischief before tryal or remedy could be thought upon The Conspirators were Robert Graham Uncle and Tutor to Miles Graham Robert Stuart Nephew to Walter Earl of Athol and one of the Kings sworn Domesticks But he who gave motion to all was the Earl of Athol himself the Kings Fathers Brother whose quarrel was no less then a pretended title and claim to the Crown which he formed and alledged thus His Brother David and he were procreated by King Robert the Second on his first Wife Eupheme Ross daughter to the Earl of Ross and therefore ought and should have been preferred to the succession of the Crown before King John named Robert and all the Race of Elizabeth Moor who was but his second wife and next them but Heirs to King Robert the second They were the eldest sons of King Robert after he was King John and Robert being born when he was but in a private State and Earl of Strathern for it would appear that as a Son born after his Father hath lost his Kingdom is not esteemed for the Son of a King so neither he that is born before the Father be a King These reasons he thought sufficient the King taken away to set him in the room of State But considered not how sacred the name of a King is to the Scots Nation how a Crown once worn quite taketh away what defects soever and that it was not easie to divest a King in present possession of a Crown who had his right from his Father and Grandfather with the Authority of a Parliament approving his Descent and secluding all other less came it in his thought that those children are Legitimate and lawful which cannot be thrust back and rejected without troubling the common Peace of the Country and opening Gates to Forreign Invasions Domestical disturbances and all disorders with an unsetled course of Succession the common Errour making the Right or Law Athol animated by the Oracle of a Sooth-sayer of his Highland Country who had assured him he should be crowned in a Solemn Assembly before his Death never gave over his hopes of obtaining the Crown and being inferiour and weak in power and faction to the other Brothers to compass his designs he betaketh himself to treacherous devices It was not in his power to ruine so many at once for mischief required there should be distance between so many bloody Acts therefore he layeth his course for the taking away of his kindred one by another at leasure he soweth jealousies entertaineth discords maintaineth factions amongst them by his counsel David Duke of Rothesay the Kings eldest Brother was famished in the Tower of Falkland neither had James then a child escaped his treachery if far off in England he had not been preserved He perswaded the Earl of Fife that making out of the way the King his Brother he should put the Crown on his own head He trafficked the return of King James and he being come he plotted the overthrow of Duke Mordock by fit Instrument for such a business proving the Crimes laid against him in the Attaindor he himself sat Judge against him and his Children Thus stirring one of the Kinsmen against another he so enfeebled the Race of Elizabeth Moor that of a numerous off-spring there only remained James and his Son a childe not yet six years of Age upon whose Sepulchers building his designs with a small alteration of the State he thought it an easie step to the Crown Robert Graham had been long imprisoned at last released but being a man implacable once offended and cruel whom neither business could oblige nor dangers make wise an enemy to Peace Factious and Ambitious alike by many wicked Plots afterwards and Crimes against the Laws of the Country driven to an Out-lawry and to live as banished he had ever a male-talent against the King since the adjudging of the Earldom of Strathern from his Nephew Miles Robert Stuart was very familiar with the King and his access to his Chamber and Person advanced the Enterprise being a riotous young man gaping after great matters neither respecting Faith nor Fame and daring attempt any thing for the accomplishing of his own foolish hopes and his Grandfathers aims and ambition These having associated unto them the most audacious whom either fear of punishment for their misdeeds or hopes of preferment by a change of the Government would plunge into any enterprise in the moneth of February so secretly as was possible assembled together where the Earl spake to this sense unto them These engagements which every one of you have to another and which I have to every one of you founded on the strongest grounds of consanguinity friendship interest of committed and received wrongs move me freely here to reveal my secret drifts and discover the depths of my hidden purposes and counsels The strange Tragedies which in the State and Government have been enacted since the coming of this English man to the Crown are to none of you unknown Mordock with his children hath been beheaded the Earl of Lenox his Father in Law had that same end the Nobility repine at the Government of their King the King is in jealousie of his Nobles the Commons are in way of rebellion These all have been the effects of my far-mining Policies And hitherto they have fallen forth as fortunately as they were ingeniously Plotted For what more ingenious and cunning Stratagem could be projected to decline the rank growth of these Usurpers then to take them away by handles made of their own Timber And if there was any wrong in such proceedings in small matters wrong must be done that justice and equity may be performed in great My fear was and yet is that the taking down of the Scaffold of Mordock should be the putting up of ours Crowns suffer no corrivals the world knows and he himself is conscious to it that the right and title of the Crown by descent of blood from Robert the second my Father was in the
do with him as he had done with his own Brothers That Force was the only means to work his safety and keep the Plotters of this mischief within bounds they also should take Arms to reduce the Government to a better form for that the Kingdom was oppressed with insupportable grievances the King being altogether given to follow the advice projects and counsels of base men to amass and gather great sums of mony from his People upon which he studied to maintain his Court and State and give away his own When the Engine was prepared for the People and spread abroad they sent to the Earl of Dowglass then closely as a Monk shut up in the Abby of Lyndores to come out be of the Party and assist them with his Counsel and Friends promising if their attempt had happy Success to restore him again to his ancient Possessions and Heritage former Dignities and the Places of Honour of his Ancestors The Earl whom time and long experience had made wary and circumspect having a suspicion the Earl of Anguss who possessed the greatest part of his estate had been the chief motioner of this liberty and that rather to try what he would do than that he minded really to set him free refused to come out of his Cloister And by his Letters dissuaded them from their bold enterprize against their Prince wishing they would set his house and himself for a pattern and President of Rebellion He sent to all such of his Friends whom his disasters had left unruined to take arms for the King as the Dowglasses of Kayvers and others The King neither losing courage nor councel for the greatness of the danger of the Rebellion trusting much to his good fortune with such Forces as came with him from the North in Captain Woods Ships and other Boats and Vessels prepared to that end passeth the Forth near the Blackness an old Fortress and Sea-port in West Lothian not far from the Castle of Abercorn and that place where the forces of the Earl of Dowglass left him and the King his Father obtained so harmless a Victory Before the arrival of the King at this Place the Earls of Montross Glencarn Lords Maxwel and Ruthven with others advertised by Letters of the Rendevouz hand come to the place had encamped and were attending him And he mustered a sufficient Army to rencounter the Lords of the association who from all quarters were assembled having with them the Prince to add Authority to their quarrel The two Armies being in readiness to decide their indifferences by a Battle the Earl of Athol the Kings Uncle so travailed between the Lords of either Party and the King that a suspension of Arms was agreed upon and reconcilement and the Earl of Athol rendred himself a pledge for the accomplishing of the Kings part of the reconcilement to the Lord Haylles and was sent to be kept in the Castle of Dumbar This was not a small fault of this Prince the Confederates Forces were not at this time equal to his neither had they essayed to hinder the Landing of his Army being but in gathering the Castle of Blackness was for his defence and his Ships traversing up and down the Forth in case of necessity for succour That if he had hazarded a Battle he had been near to have recovered all that reputation he had before lost Now upon either side some common Souldiers are disbanded some Gentlemen licensed to return to their own dwelling places The King in a peaceable manner retireth to the Castle of Edenburgh The Earl of Athol was now removed from him and many of the other Lords who loved him returned to their houses the Counsel of Man not being able to resist the determinations of God The Lords suspecting still the King to be implacable in their behalf and unacceptable in his Castle keeping the Prince always with them entring upon new Meditations hold sundry meetings how to have his Person in their Power and make him a Prey to their Ambitious designs The Town of Edenburgh is pestered with Troups of Armed Men the Villages about replenished with Souldiers The King warned of his danger fortifies of new the Castle of Edenburgh for his defence and is brought to such a tameness that resolving to do that with love of every Man which he feared in end he should be constrained unto with the universal hatred of all and his own damage and danger out of a passive Fortitude sent Commissioners indifferent Noblemen to the Lords and his Son to understand their intentions and what they meant Why his Son was kept from him and continued the head of their Faction Why his Uncle was so closely imprison'd and himself as it were blocked up by their tumultuous meetings in Arms He was content they should have an abolition of all that was past that their punishments should not be infinitely extended and that they should think upon a general agreement after the best and fittest manner they could devise and set it down They finding their offences flew higher than hope of Pardon could ascend unto Their suspitions and the conscience of their crime committed breeding such a distrust out of an apprehension of fear answered that they found no true meaning Open War was to be preferred to a peace full of deceit danger and fears that being assured he would weave out his begun projects against them they could not think of any safety nor have assurance of their lives nor fortunes unless he freely resigned the Title of his Crown and Realm in favour of his Son and voluntarily depose himself leaving the Government of the People and Kingdom to the Lords of his Parliament divesting himself wholly of his Royal dignity Neither would they come to any submission or capitulation until he consented to this main point and granted it submissively King James notwithstanding of this answer after a clear prospect of the inconveniences and mischiefs which were growing and the many injuries indignities and affronts put upon him yet really affecting a Peace sought unto Henry King of England as also to the Pope and King of France to make an attonement between him and his Subjects The Kings accordingly interposed their Mediation in a round and Princely manner not only by way of request and persuasion but also by way of Protestation and menace declaring that they thought it to be the common cause of all Kings if Subjects should be suffered to give Laws unto their Soveraign a Legitimate King though a Tyrant was not subordinate to the Authority of Subjects James was not a Tyrant his errours proceeding most part from youth and evil counsel That suppose the King had done them wrong it was not wisely done for a desire of revenge to endanger their particular Estates and the peace and standing of the whole Kingdom What State was there ever so pure but some corruption might creep into it That they should be very cautious how they shook the Frame of Monarchical Government too far
nothing from the common shape and proportion of the bodies of other men the members both for use and comliness being two their faces looking one way sitting they seemed two men to such who saw not the parts beneath and standing it could not be discerned to which of the two Bulks above the thighs and legs did appertain They had differing Passions and divers wills often chiding others for disorder in their behaviour and actions after much deliberation embracing that unto which they both consented By the Kings Direction they were carefully brought up and instructed in Musick and Forreign Languages This monster lived Twenty eight years and dyed when John Duke of Albany Govern'd Claud Gruget maketh mention of the like Monster born in Paris before the Marriage of Henry the Fourth the French King with Margarite of Valois but the birth and death of it were near together The King by his great Liberality unto Strangers abroad and his lavish spending at home for religious Places were founded Castles repaired Ships builded three of an extraordinary greatness finding himself needy of Treasure to support the daily expences at Court engaged to many and sunk deep in debt and that Subsidies he could not Levy except by the Suffrages of his Parliament by whose Power they were imposed and rated setteth the most learned Counsellors at Law and men experienced in Foreign Policy to find out new means and ways to acquire and gather him moneys by Laws already made and Ordained which was in effect to Pole the People by executing the rigour of Justice the Fortunes of wise men arising often on the expences of Fools after the example of King Henry the seventh of England his father-in-Father-in-law who taking the advantage of the breach of his penal Statutes gave power to Sir Richard Empson and Edmund Dudley by Informers and Promoters to oppress and ruine the Estates of many of his best Subjects whom King Henry the Eight to satisfy his wronged people after his decease caused Execute Old Customs are by these men pryed into and forgotten absolet Statutes quickned Amongst the Titles of possessing of Lands in Scotland there is one which in process of time of an ungodly custom grew strong and is kept for a Law being fetched by imitation from the Laws of the neighbouring States That if the possessour of Lands die and leave a Minor to succeed to him his Tutelage belongeth to the King and the profit of the Lands until the Minor be of the age of One and twenty years This is of those Lands which are termed Wards The King causeth bring up his Wards but bestoweth no more of their Rents upon them than is useful to such of that age By another Law they have not any thing better than this which they call Recognition that if the evidences of any Possessour of Ward-lands be not in all points formal and above exceptions of Law the Lands the possessours put from them shall return to the Lords Superiour and like to this That if a Possessour of Ward-Lands without the consent of the Superiour sell and put away the half or above the half of his Land and Farm the whole Land and Farm returneth to the Superiour or Lord Paramount They have Lands held with Clauses which they call Irritant that if two terms of a few-duty run unpaid into the Third the Land falleth unto the Superiour When those Laws and other like them by reason of the Neighbour Incursions and troubles with England and the civil broyls at home had been long out of use amongst the Subjects and the execution of them as it were in a manner forgot these Projectors and new Tol-masters the King giving way to enrich his Exchequer awakned them Many of the Subjects by these enquiries were obnoxious to the King and smarted but most the most honest who were constrained either to buy their own Lands and Inheritance from the Exchequer or quit and freely give some portion of them to those Caterpillars of the State The King was so dearly beloved of his People that in the height of those Grievances which reached near the exorbitant Avarice of his Father none refused or made difficulty to give all that the Laws ordained The King seeing their willingness to perform and knowing their great disability thereunto out of his singular Grace and Goodness remitteth not only the rigour but even the equity almost of his Laws insomuch that thereafter none of his Subjects were damnified in their Persons or Estates by his proceedings which gain'd him the hearts of all And to put away all suspicions and jealousies from their minds an ordinary Practice amongst Princes acts that fill Princes Coffers ever being the ruine of their first Projectors of any wrong intended He suffered the Promoters and Projectors of this Poling with others of the most active to be thrown into Prisons where some miserably ended their days The year One thousand five hundred and seven James Prince of Scotland and Isles was born at Holy-rood-House the Twenty first of January the Queen in her throws of birth being brought near the last Agony of Death the King overcome with affection and religious vows taketh a Pilgrimage for her recovery on foot to Saint Ninians in Galloway a place in those credulous times famous for the burial of St. Ninian the Apostle of the Britains and notorious by the many Processions and visits of the Neighbour Countries of Ireland and England at his return he findeth his Queen recovered the Child after dyed at Sterlin with the Bishop of Galloway who was appointed to attend him The year following the Queen brought forth another Son named Arthur at Holy-rood-House but he dyed also in the Castle of Edenburgh and Henry the Seventh his Grandfather accompanied him to the other World King James to the Coronation of the young King his Brother-in-law sendeth Embassadours After the death of his two Sons and his Father-in-Law as if he had been warned from above to think upon his own mortality whether he had a resolute intention so to do or that for reasons known to himself he would have it so appear he giveth out That out of remorse for bearing Arms in the Field where his Father was slain he had a resolution to leave his Kingdom and visit the holy Sepulchre Then to prepare his way Robert Blacka-Towre Abbot of Dumfermling is directed but the Abbot in his journey is Arrested by Death and the King findeth other hinderances to keep him at Home Amidst these deliberations his Queen is delivered in the Pallace of Linlithgow of her third Son in the Month of April One thousand five hundred and Twelve who succeeded to the Crown and was named James About this same time Bernard Stuart that famous Warriour under Charles the eighth of France who commanded the French in Bosworth Field came to Scotland followed by Andrew Foreman then Arch-Bishop of Burges and Bishop of Murray with Alexander Stuart the Kings Natural Son after promoted to be Arch-Bishop of St. Andrews
in the Reign of King James the Third had purchased Letters of Reprisal against the Portugals by Thomas Howard the English Admiral is slain and his Ships taken To this last grievance when it was expostulated King Henry is said to have answered That Truce amongst Princes was never broken for taking or Killing of Pyrates Alexander Lord Hume Warden of the East Marches in Revenge of accumulated injuries with three thousand men Invadeth the English Borders burneth some Villages and Forrageth the Fields about But having divided his Forces and sent a part of them loaden with spoils towards Scotland he falleth in an Ambush of the English where Sir William Bulmure with a thousand Archers put him to flight and took his Brother George During these Border Incursions the Lord Dacres and Doctor West came as in an Embassie from England not so much for the Establishing a Peace and setling those Tumults begun by the meeting of Commissioners who Assembled and concluded nothing as to give their Master certain and true Intelligence of the Proceedings of the Scots with the French and what they attempted Monsieur de la Motte was come with Letters from the French to stir King James to take Arms against the English and had in his Voyage drowned three English Ships bringing seven with him as Prizes to the Harbour of Leyth Robert Bartoun in revenge of Andrew Bartouns death at that same time returned with thirteen Vessels all Prizes King Lovys had sent a great Ship loaden with Artillery Powder and Wines in which Mr. James Oguylbuy Abbot of Drybrough arrived with earnest request for the renewing of the ancient League between France and Scotland and Letters from Queen Ann for the Invasion of England In which she regretted he had not one Friend nor maintainer of his Honour at the Court of France after the late delay of the sending his Ships except her self and her Ladies that her request was He would for her sake whom he had honoured with the name of his Mistriss in his Martial sports in time of Peace March but one mile upon the English bounds now in time of an appearing War against her Lord and Country The King thinking himself already engaged and interested in his Fame drawn away by the Promises Eloquence and other persuasions of the French assembleth the three Estates of his Kingdom to deliberate about a War with England Many oppose it but in vain for at last for fear of the King's displeasure it is concluded uncertain whether by a worse Counsel or event But before any hostility against the English they determine and Decree That King Henry shall by an Herauld be fairly advertised and desired to desist from any further Invasion of the Territories of the French King or Duke of Guilders who was General of the French Army the King of Scotland's Confederates and Kinsmen which not being yielded unto the War as lawful and just shall be denounced Henry the Eight then Besieging Therovenne answered the Herauld who delivered his Commission That he heard nothing from him but what he had expected from a King a Despiser of God's and Man's Law for himself he would not give over a War so happily begun for any threats Neither did he care much for that Man's friendship of whose unconstancy he had so often had experience nor for the power of his Kingdom and ambitious Poverty After this answer of the King of England A Declaration by the King of Scotland was published almost to this sense Though Princes should direct their Actions more to conscience than Fame and are not bound to give an account of them to any but to God alone and when Armies are prepared for Battel they look not so much to what may be said as to what ought to be done the Victors being ever thought to have had Reason upon their side and the justest Cause yet to manifest our sincerity and the uprightness of our proceedings as well to these present times as to posterity who may hereafter enquire after our deportments that all may take a full view of our intentions and courses we have been mov'd to lay down the justness and equity of our Arms before the Tribunal of the World The Laws of Nations and of Nature which are grounded upon the Reason by which Man is distinguished from other Creatures oblige every one to defend himself and to seek means for ones own preservation is a thing unblamable but the Laws of Soveraignty lay greater obligations upon us and above all men Monarchs and they to whom God hath given the Governments of States and Kingdoms are not only bound to maintain and defend their own Kingdoms Estates and Persons but to relieve from unjust Oppression so far as is in their power being required their Friends Neighbours and Confederates and not to suffer the weak to be overthrown by the stronger The many Innovations and troubles raised upon all sides about us the wrongs our Subjects have suffered by the Insolencies and Arrogancy of the Counsellors of Henry King of England our Brother-in-Law are not only known to our Neighbour but blazed amongst remotest Countries Roads and Incursions have been made upon our Borders Sundry of our Lieges have been taken and as in a just War turned Prisoners the Warden of our Marches under Assurance hath been miserably killed our Merchants at Sea Invaded spoiled of their Goods Liberties Lives above others the chief Captain of our Ships put to death and all by the King 's own Commission upon which breaches between the two Kingdoms disorders and manifest wrongs committed upon our Subjects when by our Embassadours we had divers times required satisfaction and reparation we received no Justice or answer worthy of him or us our Complaints being rejected and we disdainfully contemned that longer to suffer such insolencies and not by just Force to resist unjust violence and by dangers to seek a remedy against greater or more imminent dangers Not to stand to the defence of our Lieges and take upon us their Protection were to invite others to offer the like affronts and injuries to us hereafter Besides these Breaches of Duty Outrages Wrongs done unto us his Brother Henry King of England without any just cause or violence offered to him or any of his by the King of France hath Levyed a mighty Army against him Invaded his Territories using all Hostility Continuing to assault and force his Towns make his Subjects Prisoners Kill and Ransom them impose Subsidies and lift moneys from the quiet sort which wrongs dammage and injustice we cannot but repute done unto us in respect of our earnest intercessions unto him and many requests rejected and that ancient League between the two Kingdoms of France and Scotland in which these two Nations are obliged respectively and mutually bound to assist others against all Invaders whatsoever that the Enemy of the one shall be the Enemy of the other and the Friends of the one the Friends of the other As all Motions tend unto rest
Hume accepted that charge prosecute them where they might be apprehended till after much misery and night-wandring at home they were constrained with Alexander Drummond of Carnock who had been partaker of their misfortunes by his consanguinity with the Earls Mother who was Daughter to the Lord Drummond to fly into England where they were charitably received and honourably entertained by King Henry the Eight Now are the Offices and Lands of the Dowglasses disposed upon the Archbishop of Glasgow Gavin Dumbar is made Chancellor Robert Bartoun who was in especial favour with the King Treasurer great Customer General of the Artillery and Mines and other Charges are given unto others The King of England intended a War against the Emperor Charles the Fifth sendeth Embassadors to Scotland for a certain time to treat a Peace and if it were possible to reconcile the Dowglasses with the King Five years truce was resolved upon but for the Dowglasses the King would hearken to no offers only Alexander Drummond by the intercession of Robert Bartoun and the Embassadors had liberty to return home When the Earl of Northumberland and the Earl of Murray who had full power to conclude a Truce had met the other Commissioners upon the Borders the Factious great men and rank Ryders there put all in such a confusion by urging difficulties that they parted without agreeing unto any Articles or certain Conclusions which the King took in so evil a part that divining from what head this interruption sprung he committed sundry Noblemen to the Castle of Edenburgh till they gave Hostages and secured the Borders from invasion or being invaded In the month of June following with a great power he visited these bounds executing Justice upon all Oppressours Thieves and Out-Laws In Ewsdale eight and fourty notorious Riders are hung on growing Trees the most famous of which was John Arm-strong others he brought with him to Edenburgh for more publick Execution and Example as William Cockburn of Henderland Adam Scot of Tushelaw named King of Thieves The year 1530. the King instituted the Colledge of Justice before it was ambulatory removing from place to place by Circuits Suits of Law were peremptorily decided by Bayliffs Sheriffs and other Judges when any great and notable cause offered it self it was adjudged Soveraignly by the Kings Council which gave free audience to all the Subjects The power and priviledges of this Colledge was immediately confirmed by Pope Clement the Seventh In this Court are fifteen Judges ordinary eight of them being Spiritual Persons of the which the most antient is President and seven Temporal men The Chancellor of the Realm when he is present is above the President There are also four Councellors extraordinary removeable at the Princes pleasure This Institution is after that Order of Justice which is administred in Paris first instituted by Philip the Fourth the French King the year 1286. The King about this time storeth his Arsenals with all sort of Arms the Castles of Edenburgh Sterlin Dumbartoun and Blackness are repaired and furnisht with Ordnance and Ammunition Whilst no certain Truce is concluded between the Realms of England and Scotland the Earl of Angus worketh in this interim so with the King of England that Sir Edward Darcey is sent to the Borders who when his solicitation for restoring the Earl at the Scottish Court had taken no effect yea had been scorned after he had staied at Berwick with the Garrisoned Soldiers and some selected companies out of Northumberland and Westmerland maketh a Road into Scotland Coldingham Dunglas and adjacent Villages they burn ravage the Countrey towards Dunce Some Scottish Ships and Vessels were also at this time taken by Sea When a reason was sought of this Invasion in a Cessation of Arms and calm of Truce They require the Dowglasses may be restored to their ancient Inheritances and whatsoever had been with-held from them and that Cannabie a poor Abbacy be rendred to the English as appertaining of old to the Crown of England The Earl of Murray being declared Lieutenant maketh head against them but the English daily increasing in number and his Companies not being sufficient to make good against so many and large Incursions the power of Scotland is divided into four Quarters every one of which for the durance of fourty days by turns taketh the defence of the Countrey The English finding by this intercourse of new Soldiers the War to be prolonged would have gladly accepted of Peace but they disdained to sue for it to the Scots it was thought expedient that the French a Friend then to both should be a Mediatour to reconcile them wherupon after an Ambassador had come from France Commissioners first meet at Newcastle and after at London James Colvil of Easter Weyms Adam Otterburn of Redhall William Stuart Bishop of Aberdeen the Abbot of Kinloss These conclude a Peace To continue between the two Realms during the two Princes lives and one year after the decease of him who should first depart this life About this time the secrets of the Ecclesiastical Doctrine and Authority beginning to be laid open to the view of the World the politick Government of Kingdomes began to suffer in the alteration and discovery The Lady Katherine Daughter to Ferdinando and Isabella King and Queen of Spain and Sister to the Mother of Charles the Fifth Emperor had been Married to Arthur Prince of Wales Eldest Son to Henry the Seventh King of England he dying by the dispensation of Pope Julius the Second her Father in Law gave her again in Marriage to Henry his other Son the Brother of Arthur This Queen though fruitful of Children and often a Mother brought none forth that long enjoyed life and came to any perfection of growth except one only Daughter Mary Her Husband either out of spleen against the Emperor Charles or desire of Male Children or other Causes known to himself pretended great scruples in his Conscience would make himself and the World believe that his Marriage was not lawful After deliberation with his Church-men whom he constrained to be of his mind he kept not longer company with his Queen his Church-men used all their eloquence to make the Queen accept of a Divorce which she altogether refused and had her recourse to the Pope who recals the cause to himself At Rome whilst in the consistory the case is made difficult and the matter prolonged King Henry impatient of delays and amorous divorceth from his own Queen and Marrieth Anne Bullen 1533. Then the Pope with his whole Cardinals gave out their Sentence That it was not lawful for him by his own authority to separate himself from his Wife that his Marriage with Katharine was most lawful not to be questioned and that under pain of Excommunication he should adhere unto her King Henry well experienced in the great Affairs of the World considering how the threatnings and thunders of the Bishops of Rome even in these ancient and innocent times when they were
not much known before his Reign to the Nation Peace hath its own dangers no less than Wars yea often such estates as have encreased their Dominions and became mighty by Wars have found their ruin in a luxurious peace Men by a voluptuous life becoming less sensible of true honour The Court and by that example the Country was become too soft and delicate superfluous in all delights and pleasures Masques Banqueting gorgeous apparel revelling were not only licensed but studied and admired Nothing did please what was not strange and far brought Charity began to be restrained publique magnificence falling in private Riot What was wont to entertain whole Families and a train of goodly men was now spent in dressing of some little rooms and the womannish decking of the persons of some few Hermophradites To these the wise King had a while given way knowing that delicate soft times were more easie to be governed and a people given to mild arts and a sweet condition of life than rough and barbarous so they turned not altogether womanized and that it was an easie matter to bring them back again to their old posture At these abuses some of the severer sort of the Clergy began to carp yet could they not challenge the Prince who in the entertainment of his own person scarce exceeded the degree of any private Man yea was often under the Pomp and Majesty of a King But the blemish of all this excess was laid on the English who by the Queen their Country woman with new guises daily resorted hither and turned new-fangle the Court. The King not only listened to their plaints but called a Parliament to satisfie their humours Here Henry Wardlaw Bishop of S. Andrews highly aggravating the abuses and superfluities of Court and Country all disorders were pry'd into and Statutes made against them They abolished Riots of all sorts of Pearl many Rivers in Scotland affording them not only for use but for excess only women were permitted to wear a small Carkanet of them about their Necks costly Furs and Ermins were wholly forbidden together with the abuse of Gold and Silver lace Penalties were not only imposed upon the transgressours but on workmen which should make or sell them excessive expense in banqueting was restrained and dainties banished from the Tables of Epicures with Jeasters and Buffons In this year 1430. the first of June was a terrible Eclipse of the Sun at three of the clock afternoon the day turning black for the space of an half hour as though it had been Night therefore it was after called of the Commons The BLACK HOUR The last and greatest matter which busied the Kings thoughts was the encreasing of his Revenues and bringing back the Demesn of the Crown a work no less dangerous than deep and difficil and which at last procured him greatest hatred For till then smothered malice did never burst forth in open flames And though this diligence of the King concerned much the publick weal yet such as were interessed by rendring what they had long possessed though without all reason esteemed themselves highly wronged The Patrimony of the Crown had been wasted and given away by the two Governours to keep themselves popular and shun the envy of a factious Nobility Thus the King had neither in magnificence to maintain himself nor bestow upon his friends or strangers He had advisedly perused all evidences and charters belonging to the Crown hereupon he recalls all such Lands as had been either alienated from it or wrongfully usurped Together what was wont to be idly given away as forfeitures escheats and wards were restrained to the Crown and kept to the King himself There remained upon considerations of encreasing the Demesns of the Crown the Lands of the Earl of March whose Father had rebelled against the Kings Father Robert though faults be personal and not hereditary and the heirs of ancient houses hold little of their last possessours but of their Predecessours those the King seized on The Earl proved by good evidences and writings brought forth his Father had been pardoned for that fault by the Regents of the Kingdom he was answered again that it was not in the Regents power to pardon an offence against the State and that it was expresly provided by the Laws in crimes of Lese Majesty That children should undergo punishment for their Fathers transgressions to the end that being thus heirs to their Fathers rashness as they are to their Goods and Lands they should not at any time with vast ambition in the haughty Pride of their own Power plot or practise to shake and tear the Publick Peace of the Prince and Country Thus was the remission by the Parliament declared void and Earl George himself committed to the Castle at Edenbrough William Earl of Anguss Warden of the Middle March William Creightoun Chancellour Sir Adam Hepburn of Hailles immediately received the Castle of Dumbar the keeping of which was given to Sir Adam Hepburn The King not long after set Earl George at Liberty and to save him from the like dangers which were wont to befall his Predecessours to fly into England for every small cross and light displeasure at Court he bestowed on him as it were in exchange for these lands in the Marss the Earldom of Buchan in the North with a yearly pension to be paid out of the Earldom of March setting the Tay and the Forth betwixt him and his too kind friends of England Buchan had faln to the King by the decease of John who was Son to Robert the second and Earl of Buchan he was slain at Vernveill in France with the Marshal Duglass and left no lawful children after him to succeed The Earldom of Marre was incorporate also to the Demesn Royal by the decease of Alexander Stuart Earl of Marre who was natural Son to Alexander Stuart who was the Son of Robert the Second He was a Man of singular prowess and in his youth followed the Wars under Philip Duke of Burgundy he married Jane Daughter to the Earl of Holland and had greatly obliged his Country by transporting Stallions and Mares hither out of Hungary the Stood of which continued long after to his commendation and the commodity of the Kingdom The Earldom of Strathern was appropriated also to the Crown by the Decease of David Stuart Earl of Strathern Uncle to the King who having but one only Daughter who was married to Patrick Graham a younger brother of the Lord Grahams the Earldom being tailed to the Masculine Line was devolved again to the Crown Thus did King James succeed to three Brothers who were Sons to Robert the Second All good men with these proceedings of the King were well pleased for if Princes could keep their own and that which justly belongeth unto them they could not be urged to draw such extraordinary Subsidies from the blood sweat and tears of their people yet was this the Shelf on which this Prince perished for many who were accustomed
Chancellor standing by his Princes favour and a long practice of the affairs and course of the World The Earl fearing the Authority of the King might sway the Ballance and make the party unequal if he should be brought to call to remembrance passed actions and attempts of his Predecessors findeth nothing more expedient to curb his enemies and strengthen his proceedings than to renew his old Confederation and combine with him many others Hereupon the Earls of Crawford Ross Murray Ormond the Lord Balvenny Knight of Cadyow many Barons Gentlemen with their Allies Vassals Servants to a great number subscribed and swore solemnly never to desert one another during life That injuries done to any one of them should be done to them all and be a common quarrel neither should they desist to their best abilities to revenge them That they should concur indifferently against whatsoever Persons within or without the Realm and spend their Lives Lands Goods Fortunes in defence of their Debates and Differences whatsoever This confederation and Covenant again renewed turned the Earl imperious in his deportments presumptuous beyond all limits and his followers and adherents insupportable to their neighbours The Lands of such who were not of their party or refused to think all their thoughts and second them in their enterprizes were plundered and goodness was a cause to make men suffer most pillage and ransacking of their Goods and other miserable calamities At this time the Thieves and Robbers of Liddes-dale and Annandale break into the Lands of John Lord Herress a Noble Man who had continued constantly faithful to the King and drive with them a great booty of Cattle Complaints being given to the Earl of Dowglass of the Depredations of his men and finding no redress the Lord Herress essayeth to drive the like prey in recompence of the damage but being unequal in power his fortune was to be taken by the Thieves and brought as a Prisoner to the Earl who layed him fast in Irons and notwithstanding of the Kings Letters full of Intreaties and Threatnings without any formality of Law caused Hang him as a Felon The like mischief was practised in other places After this contempt of Soveraignty it was universally blazed that the Earl of Dowglass in respect of his new Covenant the power of his Kinsmen and Allies the entertaining of such who were discontent and discountenanced at Court the love and favour of the men of Arms in Scotland ever governed by some of his Name his riches the honour of his Ancestors had resolved to dissemble no longer but openly to play his game essay one day if he could set the Crown upon his own head being then able to raise an Army of Forty thousand warlike persons men ready to go with him whither or against whom they cared not attending only the occasion and his Commandment The King who before but disdained the pride after this League became jealous of the Earl of Dowglass a League giving a Law to a King breaking all bonds of Soveraignty and inviting a people to look for a new Master and though his modesty and patience served only to turn the Earl more insolent and his boldness more active yet in a foul game he bare a fair countenance knowing the last thing which a Soveraign Prince should do is to shew himself Male-content and offended with any of his Subjects for instead of chastising him he would give him fairer means and greater power to do him harm He would not shew a token of any prejudicial thought to the Earls proceedings till he had first heard himself Thus very calmly he desired him to come and speak with him at Sterlin whiles he conscious of his own misdemeanor except upon a publick assurance under the great Seal for his safe coming and return refused to do A safe conduct obtained 1452 about the Shrew-tide in the year One thousand four hundred fifty two he came to the Court then remaining at Sterlin Castle accompanied with many of his Confederates and a powerful Retinue The King with a gracious countenance and all apparent respect received him endeavouring rather by kindness and humanity than by rigor to reclaim him to his former obedience The day near spent the Gates of the Castle shut all removed except some of the Council and the Guards the King taking the Earl friendly apart remembred him of favors received wrongs forgotten the duties as a Subject he owed to his Prince his capitulation before he would come and speak with him he taxed him with the exorbitant abuses and outrages of his followers then he told him what Informations he had of a Covenant of mutual defence and adherence betwixt him and some of his Nobles and Gentlemen which he would scarce believe He prayed him to consider the murmuring or rather begun sedition of his people his long patience in tolerating his proceedings his misbelief of evil reports towards him until he had heard what he had to say for himself and his innocency The Earl answered the Kings towardness in equal terms trusting much to his confederation for his favours he should strive with all obsequiousness to deserve them That as he had the honour to command others who obeyed him he knew very well how to be commanded and obey his Prince and in what disobedience consisted that as none of his Subjects enjoyed more Lands and Honours than himself there should not one be found who more willingly would engage all his fortunes and person for the Honour of his Prince That they who layed snares for his life being so near his Majesty for the surety of his person he could not come to Court except upon a publick assurance and well accompanied For the wrongs committed by his Followers and Vassals he would give what satisfaction should be required Concerning the Band of mutual friendship betwixt him and some Noblemen they would have adhered together without any writing they were driven thereunto for their own safety not out of mind to offer but repel injuries That he was infinitely oblig'd to his goodness in not condemning him before he was heard and for that he had not lent a credulous ear to his enemies mischievous devices The King replyed effects and not words make the affection and submission of a subject known and could there be any greater surety for him than to rely on the Laws of the Commonwealth and Country especially continued he in a Country where Laws and not Faction rule and where a man 's own goodness is able to preserve him But such men as you are raise these Factions to the subversion of all Laws and Authority and for Subjects to make an offensive and defensive League against all persons is to disclaim all Government and do what they please without controulment commit Treason in the highest degree and make your own Swords and Power justifie your proceedings which though ye first use against mean persons and conceal the progress of your actions for there are degrees in evil
a Plague unto them It is an Error of State in a Prince for an opinion of Piety to condemn to death the adherers to new Doctrine For the constancy and patience of those who voluntarily suffer all temporal miseries and death it self for matters of Faith stir up and invite numbers who at first and before they had suffered were ignorant of their Faith and Doctrine not only to favour their Cause but to embrace their Opinions Pitty and commiseration opening the Gates Thus their belief spreadeth it self abroad and their Number daily encreaseth It is no less Error of State to banish them Banished men are so many Enemies abroad ready upon all occasions to invade their native Countrey to trouble the Peace and Tranquillity of your Kingdom To take Arms against Sectaries and Separatists will be a great Enterprize a matter hard and of many dangers Religion cannot be preached by Arms the first Christians detested that form of proceedings force and compulsion may bring forth Hypocrites not true Christians If there be any Heresie amongst your People this wound is in the Soul our Souls being Spiritual Substances upon which fire and iron cannot work They must be overcome by spiritual Arms Love the men and pitty their Errors Who can lay upon a man a necessity to believe that which he will not believe or what he will believe or doth believe not to believe No Prince hath such Power over the Souls and thoughts of men as he hath over their bodies Now to ruine and extirpate all those Sectaries what will it prove else than to cut off one of your Arms to the great prejudice of your Kingdom and weakning of the State they daily increasing in number and no man being so miserable and mean but he is a membor of the State The more easie manner and nobler way were to tolerate both Religions and grant a place to two Churches in the Kingdom till it shall please Almighty God to return the minds of your Subjects and turn them all of one will and opinion Be content to keep that which ye may Sir since ye cannot that which ye would It is a false and erroneous opinion That a Kingdom cannot subsist which tolerateth two Religions Diversity of Religion shutteth not up society nor barreth civil conversation among men a little time will make persons of different Religions contract such acquaintance custom familiarity together that they will be intermixt in one City Family yea Marriage-Bed State and Religion having nothing common Why I pray may not two Religions be suffered in a State till by some sweet and easie means they may be reduced to a right Government since in the Church which should be union it self and of which the Roman Church much vaunteth almost infinit Sects and kinds of Monks are suffered differing in their Laws Rules of government Fashions of living Dyet Apparel maintenance and opinions of perfection and who sequester themselves from our publick union The Roman Empire had its extension not by similitude and likeness of Religion Different Religions providing they enterprize nor practise nothing against the Politick Laws of the Kingdom may be tolerated in a State The Murthers Massacres Battels which arise and are belike daily to encrease amongst Christians all which are undertaken for Religion are a thousand times more execrable and be more open plain flat impiety than this Liberty of diversity of Religions with a quiet peace can be unjust Forasmuch as the greatest part of those who flesh themselves in blood and slaughter and overturn by Arms the peace of their Neighbours whom they should love as themselves spoiling and ravaging like famished Lyons sacrifice their souls to the infernal powers without further hopes or means of their ever recovering and coming back when those others are in some way of repentance In seeking liberty of Religion these men seek not to believe any thing that may come in their Brains but to use Religion according to the first Christian institutions serving God and obeying the Laws under which they were born That Maxim so often repeated amongst the Church-men of Rome That the Chase and following of Hereticks is more necessary than that of Infidels is well applyed for the inlarging and increasing the Dominions Soveraignty and power of the Pope but not for the amplifying and extending of the Christian Religion and the Weal and Benefit of the Christian Common-Wealth Kingdoms and Soveraignties should not be governed by the Laws and Interests of Priests and Church-men but according to the exigency need and as the case requireth of the publick Weal which often is necessitated to pass and tolerate some defects and faults It is the duty of all Christian Princes to endeavour and take pains that their Subjects embrace the true faith as that semblably and in even parts they observe all Gods commandments and not more om commandment than another Notwithstanding when a vice cannot be extirpate and taken away without the ruine of the State it would appear to human judgments that it should be suffered Neither is there a greater obligation bond necessity of Law to punish Hereticks more than Fornicators which yet for the peace and tranquillity of the State are tolerated and past over Neither can a greater inconveniency and harm follow if we shall suffer men to live in our Common-wealth who believe not nor embrace not all our opinions In an Estate many things are for the time tolerated because they cannot without the total ruine of the State be suddenly Amended and Reformed These men are of that same nature and condition of which we are they worship as we do one God they believe those very same holy Records We both aim at Salvation We both fear to offend God We both set before us our happiness The difference between them and us hangeth upon this one point that they having found abuses in our Church require a Reformation Now shall it be said for that we run divers ways to one end understand not rightly others Language we shall pursue others with Fire and Sword and extirpate others from the face of the Earth God is not in the bitter division and alienation of affections nor the raging flames of sedition nor in the Tempests of the turbulent Whirl-winds of contradictions and disputations but in the calm and gentle breathings of Peace and Concord If any wander out of the High-way we bring him to it again If any be in darkness we shew him light and kill him not In Musical Instruments if a string jar and be out of tune we do not frettingly break it but leisurely veer it about to a Concord and shall we be so churlish cruel uncharitable so wedded to our own superstitious opinions that we will barbarously banish kill burn those whom by love and sweetness we might readily win and recal again Let us win and merit of these men by reason Let them be cited to a free Council it may be they shall not be proved Hereticks neither that they
it was not out of any evil intention he had done it but only to procreat a Monster with which having nothing to sustain his life he might win his bread going about the Countrey For the like cause it may be thought these men found out their new Poesie differing from the Matters Manners Rules of former ages either they did not see the way of Poesie or were afraid to enter it The Verses of Camillus Quernus as they are imitated by Strada seem very plausible and to admiration to some but how far they are off right Poesie Children may guess These mens new conceptions approach nearer his than to the Majesty and Stateliness of the great Poets The contempt and undervaluing of Verses hath made men spare their travel in adorning them but Poesie as it hath overcome ignorance at last will overcome envy and contempt This I have been bold to write unto you not to give you any instruction but to manifest mine obedience to your request W. DRUMMOND To the Right Honourable the Earl of Sterlin WHen the pittiful news came of so dear Funerals though I had an intention to have written to your Lordship I restrained my self both because your wound was flagrant and that I had not an argument of comfort which was not your own Nothing is now left me but to manifest that the sence of this loss could not but perplex him grievously who never made any difference between your fortunes and his own I hold my self Copartner of all your Griefs as I have been of your prosperities I know your Fatherly affection I know too your constancy which being seasoned with piety will not suffer you to repine at that which is the determinate will of God Your erudition and experience instruct you that such accidents should be taken in a good part and chearfully which are not incident to us alone and which by our sighs tears plaints we may not evite and put far from us ye must not attend till time mitigate your languor for this do the vulgar sort of men with sola dies poterit tantum lenire dolorem A wise man should prevent and anticipate time over-run new-born Grief which is an ungrateful Guest thrusting out and ransacking the Matters of their Inn. I who am conscious to your patience and wisdom am assured ye have performed all this already upon which confidence I will leave off to trouble you farther or lay a heavier burthen and needless task upon my self W. DRUMMOND To _____ SHould ye think to escape this Enemy of Virtue Fortune when she never spareth the most Worthy Who hath ever yet in many excellencies been eminent whom she hath not either after one fashion or other if not trampled yet tossed And make not a long search in the old ages of the World and through the Mists of Antiquity but look upon our own Times and our Fathers Ye have Sidney cropped in the vigour of his Youth by a muthering Bullet Rawleigh brought to a fatal Scaffold la Nove with the Marquess D' Urfee complaining in miserable Prisons Tasso famishing in the like Thraldom the two Counts of Mirandula Spectacles of Pitty and Cruelty the one by too soon a Death if death can be too soon the other by being assassinated by his nearest Kinsmen As if Excellencies were the only Object of Disasters and some secret influence laboured to make the bravest of men and the basest equal Or that the superior powers thought Glory to belong only to them and no praise-worthy Actions should befall poor Mortals Yet should they not envy silly men a dusty honour which in some small moments of time vanisheth and reacheth no farther than the narrow bounds of some few Climates of this small Globe of the Earth We may doubt whether Excellencies and Heroical Virtues were to be desired with so many dangers and miseries lackying them or a homebred untaught rude Plebeian life W. DRUMMOND To S. W. A. SIR MY silence this time past proceeded no waies of any forgetfulness of you but from my many new cares and sorrows The loss of so many friends this season hath estranged me from my self and turned my mirth into mourning what civil arms and discord have performed in other kingdoms of Europe a still mortality hath done in this So many Funerals these many years have not been seen as in this one There are few bands of kindred societies acquaintances friendship which by death are not broken here without respect of Age vigour rank quality and justly this mortality might claim the name of Pestilence if the Dead were deprived of customary burial Well have some Astrological Divines guessed that this year should be the great Judgment What is recorded of the years 100. and 120. that Church-yards were not ample enough to contain the dead bodies but that new ground was digged up is true in this and what of the year 1348. that the third of mankind was sweeped from the Earth we may say that though this Country hath not lost the third yet that the Almighty providence hath taken away the tenth part of the people This is perhaps a part of that Judgement which the late blazing lights of Heaven did signifie unto us the defects of the Sun besides the malignant influences of other Celestial Bodies This one year is enough to make men hereafter if not altogether believe yet fear Astrological Predictions which though they fail in particulars yet strangely hold true in some generals Heavens I hope shall preserve you ad molliora et meliora tempora to be a witness and Recorder of their Just Proceedings on this Globe of the Earth for the Good of your self your Friends and all that love you W. DRUMMOND 1623. The Oath of a KNIGHT I Shall fortifie and defend the true holy Catholique and Christian Religion presently professed at all my Power I shall be loyal and true to my Soveraign Lord the King his Majesty and do honour and reverence to all Orders of Chevalrie and to the noble office of Arms. I shall fortifie and defend Justice to the uttermost of my power but feed or favour I shall never flie from the Kings Majesty my Lord and Master or his Lieutenant in time of battel or medly with dishonour I shall defend my native Country from all aliens and strangers at all my power I shall maintain and defend the honest Adoes and Quarrels of all Ladies of Honour Widows Orphans and Maids of good Fame I shall do diligence wherever I hear tell there is any Traytours Murtherers Rovers and Masterfull Theeves and Outlaws that suppress the Poor to bring them to the Law at all my Power I shall maintain and defend the Noble and gallant State of Chevalrie with Horses Harnesses and other Knightly Apparel to my Power I shall be diligent to enquire and seek to have the knowledge of all Articles and points touching or concerning my duty contained in the Book of Chevalrie All and sundry the Premisses I oblige me to keep and fulfil so
That Providence which prescribeth Causes to every event hath not only determined a definite and certain number of days but of actions to all men which they cannot go beyond Most _____ then answered I Death is not such an evil and pain as it is of the Vulgar esteemed Death said he nor painful is nor evil except in contemplation of the cause being of it self as indifferent as birth yet can it not be denied and amidst those dreams of earthly pleasures the uncouthness of it with the wrong apprehension of what is unknown in it are noysom But the Soul sustained by its Maker resolved and calmly retired in it self doth find that death sith it is in a moment of Time is but a short nay sweet sigh and is not worthy the remembrance compared with the smallest dram of the infinite Felicity of this Place Here is the Palace Royal of the Almighty King in which the uncomprehensible comprehensibly manifesteth Himself in place highest in substance not subject to any corruption or change for it is above all motion and solid turneth not in quantity greatest for if one Star one Sphere be so vast how large how huge in exceeding demensions must those bounds be which do them all contain In quality most pure and orient Heaven here is all but a Sun or the Sun all but a Heaven If to Earthlings the Foot-stool of God and that Stage which he raised for a small course of Time seemeth so glorious and magnificent What estimation would they make if they could see of his eternal Habitation and Throne And if these be so wonderful what is the sight of him for whom and by whom all was created of whose Glory to behold the thousand thousand part the most pure Intelligences are fully satiate and with wonder and delight rest amazed for the beauty of his light and the light of his beauty are uncomprehensible Here doth that earnest appetite of the understanding content it self not seeking to know any more For it seeth before it in the vision of the Divine essence a Mirrour in the which not Images or Shadows but the true and perfect essence of every thing created is more cleaâ— and conspicuous than in it self all that may be known or understood Here doth the Will pause it self as in the center of its eternal rest glowing with with a fiery affection of that infinite and al-sufficient good which being fully known cannot for the infinite motives and causes of love which are in him but be fully and perfectly loved As he is only the true and essential Bounty so is he the only essential and true beauty deserving alone all Love and Admiration by which the Creatures are only in so much fair and excellent as they participate of his Beauty and excelling Excellencies Here is a blessed Company every one joying as much in anothers Felicity as in that which is proper because each seeth another equally loved of God thus their distinct joyes are no fewer than the copartners of the Joy And as the Assembly is in number answerable to the large capacity of the place so are the joyes answerable to the numberless number of the Assembly No poor and pittiful mortal confined on the Globe of Earth who have never seen but sorrow or interchangeably some painted superficial pleasures can rightly think on or be sufficient to conceive the termless delights of this place So many Feathers move not on Birds so many Birds dint not the Air so many leaves tremble not on Trees so many Trees grow not in the solitary Forests so many waves turn not in the Ocean and so many grains of Sand limit not those Waves as this triumphant Court hath variety of delights and Joyes exempted from all comparison Happiness at once here is fully known and fully enjoyed and as infinite in continuance as extent Here is flourishing and never fading youth without Age Strength without Weakness Beauty never blasting Knowledge â—â—thout Learning Abundance without Loathing Peace without Disturbance Participation without Envy Rest without Labour Light without rising or seeting Sun Perpetuity without moments for Time which is the measure of Endurance did never enter in this shining Eternity Ambition Disdain Malice Difference of Opinions cannot approach this place and resembling those foggy Mists which cover those Lists of Sublunary things All pleasure paragon'd with what is here is pain all Mirth mourning all Beauty deformity Here one daies abiding is above the continuing in the most fortunate estate on the Earth many years and sufficient to countervail the extreamest torments of Life But although this Bliss of Souls be great and their joyes many yet shal they admit Addition and be more full and perfect at that long wished and general meeting with their bodies Amongst all the wonders of the great Creator not one appeareth to be more wounderful replied I than that our Bodies should arise having suffered so many changes and nature denying a return from privation to a Habit. Such power said he being above all that the Understanding of Man can conceive may well work such wonders For if Mans Understanding could comprehend all the secrets and councels of than Eternal Majesty it must of necessity be equal unto it The Author of Nature is not thralled to the Laws of Nature but worketh with them or contrary to them as it pleaseth him What he hath a will to do he hath a power to perform To that power which brought all this All from nought to bring again in one instant any substance which ever was into it unto what it was once should not be thought impossible for who can do more can do less and his power is no less after that which was by him brought forth is decayed and vanished than it was before it was produced being neither restrained to certain limits or instruments or to any determinate and definite manner of working where the power is without restraint the work admitteth no other limits than the Workers will This world is as a Cabinet to God in which the small things however to us hid and secret are nothing less kept than the great For as he was wise and powerful to create so doth his knowledge comprehend his own Creation yea every change and variety in it of which it is the very Source Not any Atom of the scatter'd Dust of mankind though daily flowing under new forms is to him unknown and his knowledge doth distinguish and discern what once his power shall waken and rise up Why may not the Arts-Master of the world like a Molder what he hath framed in divers shapes confound in one mass and then severally fashion them out of the same Can the Spargirick by his Art restore for a space to the dry and withered Rose the natural purple and blush and cannot the Almighty raise and refine the body of man after never so many alterations on the Earth Reason her self finds it more possible for infinit power to cast out ftom it self a finit world and restore any thing in it though decaied and dissolved to what it was first than for man a finit piece of reasonable misery to change the form of matter made to his hand the power of God never brought forth all that it can for then were it bounded and no more infinite That time doth approach O hast ye times away in which the dead shall live and the living be changed and of all actions the Guerdon is at hand then shall there be an end without an end time shall finish and place shall be altered motion yielding unto rest â—nd another world of an age eternal and unchangeable shall arise which when he had said me thought he vanished and I all astonished did awake To the Memory of the most Excellent Lady JANE Countess of Perth THis Beauty which Pale death in dust did turn And clos'd so soon within a Coffin sad Did pass like lightning like to thunder burn So little Life so much of Worth it had Heavens but to shew their Might here made it shine And when admir'd then in the Worlds disdain O Tears O Grief did call it back again Lest Earth should vaunt she kept what was Divine What can we hope for more What more enjoy Sith fairest Things thus soonest have their End And as on Bodies Shadows do attend Sith all our bliss is follow'd with Annoy Yet She 's not dead She lives where She did love Her Memory on Earth Her soul above To S. W. A. THough I have twice been at the doors of Death And twice found shut those gates which ever mourn This but a lightning is Truce tane to Breath For late-born Sorrows augurre fleet return Amidst thy sacred Cares and Courtly Toils Alexis when thou shalt hear wandring Fame Tell Death hath triumph'd o're my mortal spoils And that on Earth I am but a sad Name If thou e're held me dear by all our Love By all that Bliss those Joys Heaven here us gave I conjure thee and by the Maids of Jove To grave this short Remembrance on my Grave Here Damon lies whose Songs did sometime grace The murmuring Esk may Roses shade the place On the Report of the Death of the Author IF that were true which whispered is by Fame That Damons light no more on Earth doth burn His Patron Phoebus Physick would disclaim And cloth'd in clouds as erst for Phaeton mourn Yea Fame by this had got so deep a wound That scarce She could have Power to tell his death Her Wings cut short who could her Trumpet sound Whose blaze of late was nurs'd but by his Breath That Spirit of his which most with mine was free By mutual traffick enterchanging store If chac'd from him it would have come to me Where it so oft familiar was before Some secret Grief distempring first my Mind Had though not knowing made me feel this loss A Sympathy had so our Souls combind That such a parting both at once would toss Though such Reports to others terrour give Thy Heavenly Virtues who did never spy I know thou that canst make the dead to live Immortal art and needs not fear to dye Sir WILL. ALEXANDER FINIS