of fashion and I am afraid I shall be laughed at if I speak any thing in defence of the King yet thanks be to God there 's no great need on 't His Majesty's Vertues are his strongest Guard A King like a Porcupine is a living Quiver of Darts every Beam of Majesty is a Fulmen Terebrans to his Blaspheming Enemies My Fellow-traveller stept aside a little to give his Brain a Stool and now is return'd into the Road His Lordship he says multiplies and is fruitful in Absurdities 'T is true by an equivocal Generation for so he begat your Pamphlet meeting with the putrid Matter of your Invention as the Sun produceth Insect Animals The Absurdity is he hath no Notion of Subverting the Law Treasonable but by Force and here we must score up the second Quibble for then he says This Argument will never subvert the Law as having no Force Truly I am of a mind that if my Antagonist were both to Dispute and Answer himself he would have the best on 't and that 's the Course he takes here He frames an Argument where none is intended His Lordship says he knows no other nay and there is no other but he doth notinfer the latter from the former therefore there is no other because he knows no other so that this is a Brat of your own Brain not drawn from his Lordship's Ignorance as your scandalous Quill foam'd at the mouth but from your own Impudence and if it halt as you say it confesses its Father it halts before a Creeple You do well therefore to let Nature work to help your lame Dog over a Stile to cast it as you conceive in a right Frame There is no way of Subverting the Law but what I know but I know no way of Subverting the Law but by forcé You would be loath a man should say this is no Syllogism and yet 't is true There 's no Figure will give it a Tenement to hide its head in I could give you a Remove now and set you upright but I had rather you should take it asunder and my Lord and you part Stakes part Propositions he the Major you the Minor because in the first you say there is so much Knowledge in the latter so much Ignorance You see you are in a Bog but I will throw my Cloak about you and dance you out for lo a most Eloquent Si quis in quest of the Author of our Tenent Who says this Is it some ancient Iudge No I thank you as the Case goes Or is it one that looks more into the Court than the Inns of Court I perceive I must count Quibbles as they do Fish thou art three there he bounceth out with his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Young Gentleman knows not the Law I do not wonder you writ it in other Characters for 't is a most acute Apothegm though I say it that should not say it and such on one as may well beseem the Rump-end of Licosthenes at the next Impression But he makes a Transition from Common Law to Common Reason and he hopes to be scored up for that Quarter-Quibble but I cannot afford it If nothing but Force can subvert Law then Iudges when they pronounce false Iudgments stop lawful Defences let loose the Prerogative and all that Rout of Instances which he hath rallied up do not subvert the Law Well to do you a Courtesie they do not 'T is one thing to stop a Pipe to cut an Aqueduct and divert a Conveyance and another to spoil a Spring-head The Law in this Case suffers a Deliquium but she is not dead The Subversion of Laws is Root and Branch A Castle may be dismantled made unserviceable and yet 't is not said then to be quite overthrown When you usurp'd the Chair of Logick and made a false Syllogism were the Laws of Logick then subverted No but transgress'd so that if our Author suffer by Injustice as I hope you are more Historian than Prophet he will not involve the Laws in his Ruin Your Apostrophe to Tressilian is a true Apostrophe for 't is from the Cause for will ye introduce a Parity in Offences too Scan the Cases and you shall find them diverse But give me leave by the way to admire your Phrase of the Iron Laws 'T is a good Argument to me that there is no Alchymy otherwise the Corruption of so many Judges by this time had turn'd them into Gold But my Lord must dispute again Do you carry the Knapsack of his Arguments My Lord hath a fine time on 't that you should feed him thus with a Spoon 'T is thus The Earl of Strafford ' s Practices have been as high as any The Practices of Tressilian have been as high as High Treason I wonder where you got all this Logick at Furnival's Inn But I know the Reason of it because Plutarch attributes Logick to a Fox and King Iames maintains Discourse in a Hound that 's it which puts you upon Syllogisms You would be loath to come short of any of your Fellows For the words of the Major which are only my Lord's and which indeed I had as lieve he should justifie as I you must know they are a Comparison Now Comparisons are betwixt things of the same kind As high as any that is in the rank of Misdemeanours The Painter when his Picture would not sell for a God made a special Devil of it and so he vented it Though my Lord cannot yield that the Earl of Strafford's Practices should be sublimated into Treason yet place them in the front of any lower Offences and it seems he will pass it This Similitude of mine doth not run of all four no more must you think of that As high as any But to make few words suppose I should grant you your Conclusion that the Earl of Strafford's Practices were as high as Treason yet if they be not specified by Statute for Treason my Lord doth justly abstain his hand from his Dispatch You ask how these words should sound in the Mouth of a Judge Truly I have not the measure of your Ears they are of too large a size for me I being a Judge hold your Guilt to be as high as Treason yet having no Law to give me Commission I 'll have no hand in your Sentence so that supposing all Cases to be like this I grant you the Assizes would be in vain the Judges Circuit would be like the wheeling of a Mill move continually but never nearer their Journey 's end but when the Law hath provided sufficiently unless in a Case as this extraordinary the Vanity and Mockery which you speak of recoils upon him that first discharged them For your last where you would have Sir Henry Vane's Oath to be prefer'd before my Lords Suspicion I would willingly answer as he did with Meditation at the first time nothing as much at the second and at the third Vouz avez Sir Henry Vane You say his
to fire unless Iohn Lakinhethe Guardian of the Temporalities of the Barony in the Vacancy then were delivered to them which the Towns-men mingled in the Throng put them upon The Guardian stood amidst the Crowd unknown This Man out of Piety to preserve the Monastery it was Piety then though it may be thought Impiety now discovers himself he tells them he is the Man they seek and asks what it is the Commons would have with him They call him Traitor it was Capital to be called so not to be so drag him to the Market-place and cut off his Head which is set upon the Pillory to keep Company with the Priors and Chief Justices Walter of Todington a Monk was sought for they wanted his Head but he hid himself and escaped Our Hacksters Errant of the Round Table Knights of Industry would be thought General Redeemers to take Care of all men in Distress for the Burgesses Sake they command the Monks threatning them and their Walls if they obey not to deliver up the Obligations of the Townsmen for their good Behaviour all the ancient Charters from the time of King Knute the Founder any way concerning the Liberties of the Town besides they must grant and confirm by Charter the Liberties of the Town which could not be done in the Vacancy for so it was Edmund of Brumfield Abbot in Name by Provision of the Pope was a Prisoner at Nottingham nor had any Election been since the Death of Abbot Iohn Brivole and therefore the Jewels of the House are pawned to the Townsmen as a Gage that Edmund of Brumfield whom they would suppose Abbot and whom they intended to set free should seal which Jewels were a Cross and Chalice of Gold with other things exceeding in value One thousand Pounds these were restored again in time of Peace but with much Unwillingness Upon the Bruit of the Idols Mishap and the Suppression of his Legions at London these Caterpillers dissolve of themselves Wraw the Priest Westbrome and the rest of the Capital Villains in the General Audit or Doomesday for these Hurliburlies shall be called to a Reckoning for their Outrages Cambridge suffered not a little in these Uproars the Towns-men with the Country Peasants about confederated together break up the Treasury of the University tear and burns its Charters they compel the Chancellor and Scholars under their common Seals to release to the Mayor and Townsmen all Rights and Liberties all Actions and to be bound in 3000l not to molest the Burgesses by Suits of Law concerning these things for the time to come The Mayor and Bayliffs were fetched up by Writ to the next Parliament where the Deeds were delivered up and cancelled the Liberties of the Town seized into the Kings Hand as forfeited new ones granted by him to the University all which they owe yet to the Piety of this King and his Parliament a Court which the Idol never names Had he set up one of his own begetting it must have had nothing else but the Name it would have been as destroying as the Field Norfolk the Mother of the Kets would not loyter this while nor sit lazily and sluggishly looking on Iohn Litster a Dyer of Norwich King of the Commons there infuses Zeal and Daring into his Country-men he had composed out of his own Empire and the Borders an Army of fifty thousand Men. This Upstart Kingling would not wholly move by Example he makes Presidents of his own and tramples not like a dull Beast the Road beaten by others He had heard what was done by the London Congregations he had a Stock of Traditions from the Elders there which he was able to improve and although I know not how he could exceed the Idol with his Council yet so the Monk exceed them he did he presumed greater things Tyler lost his Life before things were ripe was watched and undermined by the King and Nobility he could not spread his full Sails else for his Presumption he far out-goes Litster Litster the Norfolk Devil begins with Plunder and Rapine the only Way to flesh a young Rebellion The Malignants of the Kings Party the rich and peaceable go under that Notion are made a Prey no place was safe or priviledged Plots were laid to get the Lord William of Ufford Earl of Suffolk at his Mannor of Ufford near Debenham in Suffolk into the Company out of Policy that if the Cause succeeded not then the Rebels might cover themselves under the Shadow of that Peer The Earl warned of their Intention rises from Supper and disguised as a Groom of Sir Roger of Bois with a Portmantue behind him riding By-ways and about ever avoiding the Routs comes to St. Albanes and from thence to the King The Commons failing here possess themselves of the places and Houses of the Knights near and compell the Owners to swear what they list and for greater Wariness to ride the Country over with them which they durst not deny Among those enthralled by this Compulsion were the Lords Scales and Morley Sir Iohn Brews Sir Stephen of Hales and Sir Robert of Salle which last was no Gentleman born but as full of Honour and Loyalty as any Man Knighted by the Kings Grand-father for his Valour he was says Froissart one of the biggest Knights in England a Man not supple enough who could not bend before the new Lords he had not the Solidity of Judgment as some more subtle than honest call it to accomodate himself to the times Like Messala he would be of the justest side let the Fortune be what it would he would not forsake Justice under Colour of following Prudence he thought it not in vain to prop up the falling Government perhaps his Judgment may be blamed he stayed not for a sit time had he not failed here he had not fought against Heaven against Providence whose Councils and Decrees are hid from us are in the Clouds not to be pierced our Understanding is as weak as foolish as Providence is certain and wise Our Hopes and Fears deceive us alike we cannot resolve our selves upon any Assurance to forsake our Duty for the time to come Gods Designs are known only to himself it is Despair not Piety Despair too far from that to leave our Country in her dangerous Diseases in her publick Calamities the Insolency of injust Men is a Prodigy of their Ruin and the Incertainty of things Humane may teach us That those we esteem most established most assured are not seldom soonest overthrown Plato would not have them refer all things to Fate there is somewhat in our selves says he not a little in Fortune Ours are but Cockfights the least Remainder of Force and Life may strike a necking Blow and by an unlooked for Victory raise what is fallen if Death cannot be kept off if our Country cannot he saved by our Attempts there is a Comliness in dying handsomly nor can any Man be unhappy but he who out-lives it We have heard of
Oath gets an addition of Belief from the Speeches before and from the Memorials that day so that you imply what I dare not say that it is not full of it self but wants a Supplement of Credit to gain our Faith As for the words Recorded whencesoever they had their Venom it seems they were poysoned for to that and not to their Pregnancy do I attribute it that they swell'd into such a bigness that one Testimony appear'd double But that you should entitle Mr. Pym to this mistake that he should look through a Multiplying Glass in a case so weighty as that of Treason the Gentleman 's known Integrity saves me the labour of his Defence So that the Testimonies being but such though the Charges be many be the Earl of Strafford as high in his Practices as it pleases my Lord to make him yet my Lord 's Dipthong may easily be justified and the Earl both at once Condemn'd and Sav'd Thus I have entreated Patience of my self to Counterpuff your Pamphlet when by the help of a Penny-worth of Pears I could more sutably to your Defects have confuted you backward But I did it in hopes that you would muzzle your self hereafter for though your Teeth be hollow and cannot bite yet wanting Cloves they may Infect To the Protector after long and vile Durance in Prison May it please Your Highness RUlers within the Circle of their Government have a Claim to that which is said of the Deity they have their Center every where and their Circumference no where It is in this Confidence that I address to your Highness knowing that no place in the Nation is so remote as not to share in the Ubiquity of your Care no Prison so close as to shut me up from partaking of your Influence My Lord it is my Misfortune that after ten years Retirement from being engaged in the Differences of the State having wound up my self in private Recess and my Comportment to the Publick so inoffensive that in all this time neither Fears nor Jealousies have scrupled at my Actions Being about three Months since at Norwich I was fetch'd by a Guard before the Commissioners and sent Prisoner to Yarmouth and if it be not a new offence to make an enquiry wherein I offended for hitherto my Fault was kept as close as my Person I am induced to believe that next to my Adherence to the Royal Party the Cause of my Confinement is the Narrrowness of my Estate for none stand committed whose Estate can bail them I only am the Prisoner who have no Acres to be my Hostage Now if my Poverty be Criminal with Reverence be it spoken I implead your Highness whose Victorious Arms have reduced me to it as Accessory to my Guilt Let it suffice my Lord that the Calamity of the War hath made us poor do not punish us for it Who ever did Penance for being Ravished Is it not enough that we are stripp'd so bare but must it be made in order to a severer Lash Must our Sores be engraven with our Wounds Must we first be made Creeples anâ—… then beaten with our own Crutches Poverty if it be a Fault 't is its own Punishment who pays more for it pays use upon use I beseech your Highness put some Bounds to the Overthrow and do not pursue the chase to the other World Can your Thunder be levell'd so low as our Groveling Condition Can your Towring Spirit which hath quarried upon Kingdom 's make a stoop at us who are the Rubbish of these Ruins Methinks I hear your former Atchievements interceding with you not to sully your Glories with trampling upon the prostrate nor clog the Wheel of your Chariot with so degenerous a Triumph The most renowned Hero's have ever with such Tenderness cherished their Captives that their Swords did but cut out work for their Courtesies Those that fell by their Prowess sprung by their-Favour as if they had struck them down only to make them rebound the higher I hope your Highness as you are the Rival of their Fame will be no less of their Virtues The Noblest Trophy that you can erect to your Honour is to raise the Afflicted and since you have subdued all Opposition it now remains that you attack your self and with Acts of Mildness vanquish your Victory It is not long since my Lord that you knock'd off the Shackles from most of our Party and by a grand Release did spread your Clemency as far as your Territories Let not new Proscriptions interrupt your Jubilee Let not that your Lenity be slandered as the Ambush of your farther Rigour For the Service of his Majesty if it be objected I am so far from excusing it that I am ready to alledge it in my Vindication I cannot conceit that my Fidelity to my Prince should taint me in your Opinion I should rather expect it should recommend me to your Favour Had we not been Faithful to our King we could not have given our selves to be so to your Highness you had then trusted us gratis whereas now we have our former Loyalty to vouch us You see my Lord how much I presume upon the Greatness of your Spirit that dare prevent my Indictment with so frank a Confession especially in this which I may so safely deny that it is almost Arrogancy in me to own it For the Truth is I was not qualified enough to serve Him All I could do was to bear a part in his Sufferings and to give my self to be Crushed with his Fall Thus my Charge is doubled my Obedience to my Soveraign and what is the Result of that my want of Fortune Now whatever reflection I have upon the former I am a true Penitent for the latter My Lord you see my Crimes as to my Defence you bear it about you I shall plead nothing in my Justification but your Highness's Clemency which as it is the constant Inmate of a valiant Breast if you graciously be pleased to extend it to your Suppliant in taking me out of this withering Durance your Highness will find that Mercy will establish you more than Power though all the days of your Life were as pregnant with Victories as your twice auspicious third of September Your Highness's Humble and Submissive Petitioner J. C. To the Earl of Newcastle THough to Command and Obey be the fittest Dialogue betwixt you and us yet since your Lordship pleases to descend from your Right and only to Request pardon us if by your Example we intrench upon you and presume upon an Answer Sir we are sorry our Duty is not phras'd in Action nor can we determine whether it was more grateful to us that you requir'd our Service or grievous that at this time we could not express it for no sooner were we inform'd of your pleasure but so obligatory is your Will that poysing your Letters with our Laws we thought our Statutes were at Civil Wars The Colledge like an Indulgent Mother entails her Preferments on
her own Progeny Your Lordship prefers a stranger whom to adopt were not only to Bastard her present Issue but disinherit all succeeding hopes If it seem a Delinquency to be thus tender of her own she will intitle her offence to your Lordship who when you honour'd her with your Admission taught her to set a greater price upon her Children Thus hoping you will abstract our Will from our Power we honour your Lordship desiring that occasion may present us with some Service whose difficulty may add a deeper Dye to the Observance of The Master and Fellows of S. I. To the Earl of Holland then Chancellor of the University of Cambridge Right honourable YOU have rais'd us to that height by writing unto us that we dare attempt an Answer in which Presumption if we have dishonoured your Lordship you must blame your own Gentleness â—…ike the Sun who if he be mask'd with Clouds may thank himself who drew up the Exhalations Sir they that assign Tutelar Angels betroth â—…hem not only to Kingdoms and Cities but to each Company Your Goodness hovers not aloft in a general care of the University but stoops by a peâ—…uliar Influence to every private College That Omnipresence which Philosophy allots to the Soul â—…o be every where at once through the whole Man your Noble Diligence exemplifies in us There is not the least Joynt of our Body but in its Life and Spirits confesses the Chancellor Nor have we in special the least share of your Favours as appears by many pregnant Demonstrations of your Love among which this is not the meanest that you would deign to require our Service To offend against so gracious a Patron would add a Tincture to our Disobedience yet such is the Iniquity of our Condition that we are forced to defer our Gratitude We have many in the College whose Fortunes were at the last Gasp and if not now reliev'd their hopes extinct Whereas he whom your Lordship commends gives us farther day of Payment by his green years He is yet but young but the Beams of your Favour will ripen him the sooner for the like Preferment which if it please your Lordship to antedate by a present Acceptance of our future Obedience We shall gladly persevere in our old Title of To the Earl of Westmoreland My Lord IT were high Presumption in me not to be proud of this Occasion and I should be no less than a Rebel to Eloquence if your Lines you sent me had not rais'd me above my ordinary Level so that to express my Gratitude I must renounce my Humility and purchase one Virtue at the price of another And well may my Modesty suffer in the Service when my Reason it self is overwhelmed with the Favour To see a Person of your Lordship's Eminency possess'd of Nobility by a double Tenure both of Birth and Brain so to bend his Greatness as to stoop to me who live in the Vale both of Parts and Fortune is so high an Honour that who justly considers it if he be not stupidly sensless will be stupid with Extasie I for my part am lost in Amazement and it is mine Interest to be so for not knowing otherwise how to give your Present a fit Reception it is the best of my play to be beside my self in the Action You see my Lord how I empty my self of my Native Faculty to be ready for those of your Inspirings as the Prophets of old in a Sacred Fury ran out of their Wits to make room for the Deity I shall not need hereafter to digest my Love-passions I shall speak by Instinct For when your Honour deign'd to visit me with your lofty Numbers what was it else but to make me the Priest of your Lordship's Oracle Such is the Strength and Spirit of your Fancy that methought your Poems like the Richest Wine sent forth a Steam at the opening What flowed from your Brain fum'd into mine â—…t was almost impossible to read your Lines and be â—…ober You You my Lord are the Favourite â—…f the Muses Your Strain is so happy and hath â—…he Reputation for so Matchless as if you had a â—…ouble Key to the Temple of Honour to let in â—…our Lordship's self and exclude Competitors â—…t's you my Lord have cut the Clouds and reachâ—…d Perfection who having mounted the Cliff lends an â—…and to me who am labouring in the Craggy Asâ—…ent So tow'ring are the Praises you please to bestow on me and my Desert so groveling that tâ—… shew you my Head is not worthy your Height iâ—… is not able to bear them it grows giddy with the Precipice It pains me to be on the Laste of an Hyperbole you do but crucifie my tender Merits tâ—… distend them thus at length and breadth Consider I pray you that the Leanest Endowment would be plump and full thus blown up with 〈◊〉 Quill and that there are some so Dwarfish whoâ—… the Rack will not stretch to a proper man It iâ—… an excellent Breathing for a puissant Wit to overbear the World in the Defence of a Paradox anâ—… a good Advocate will weather out the Cause wheâ—… there is neither Truth nor Invention I perswadâ—… my self you had never undertaken to write mâ—… Panegyrick but that you saw it was to combâ—… with the Tide and to put your Abilities to the utmost Test in so unlikely a Subject Little do yoâ—… think what store of Opposers your Opinion wiâ—… breed you for though you be so powerful in thâ—… Art of Perswasion that should you turn Apostatâ—… there would need no more but to toll the Bell foâ—… Religion yet this is an Heresie where you stanâ—… alone and like Scaeva in the Breach with your single Valour duel an Army Now my Lord Iâ—… be not mistaken I have found the Motive that induced you to oblige me you are tyed by your Order to give Protection to the weak and Succourless So I must change my Addresses and thank you Reb Ribband for my Commendations Such aâ—… so many are the Flowers of Rhetorick you haâ—… heap'd upon me that I run the hazard of the Olympick Victor who was stiffed with Posies caâ—… upon him in approbation of his Worth which Frâ—… grant Fate if I should sustain what is there more to make me enamour'd of Death but that the same Flowers should strew my Corps in a Funeral Oration Could you think my Lord that your suppressing your Name was able to conceal you when it is easie to wind you by your Phrase The Sweetness of the Language discover'd the Author like that Roman Senator who hiding himself in time of Proscription his Persumes betray'd him But 〈◊〉 shall not arrest your Lordship too far with a farther Interruption My Lord you have Enobled me with your Testimony and I shall keep your Paper as the Diploma of my Honour Yet give me â—…eave to tell you that among all the Epithets you â—…ile so Artificially to raise my Fame there is one â—…anting to accomplish my Ambition and that
those who conspired against his Majesty and Authority likes not the Advice the King ought not says he venture his Person among such hoseless Ribaulds but rather dispose things so as to curb their Insolence Sir says he Your Sacred Majesty in this Storm ought to shew how much of a King you can play what you will go for hereafter by your present Carriage you will either be feared for the Future or contemned if you seriously consider the Nature of these rough hewn Savages you will find the gentle Ways pernicious your Tameness will undoe you Mercy will ever be in your Power but it is not to be named without the Sword drawn God and your Right hath placed you in your Throne but your Courage and Resolution must keep you there your Indignation will be Iustice good Men will think it so and if they love you you have enough you cannot capitulate not treat with your Rebels without hazarding your Honour and perhaps your Royal Faith if you yield to the Force of one Sedition your whole Life and Reign will be nothing but a Continuation of Broils and Tumults if you assert your Soveraign Authority betimes not only these Doults these Sots but all Men else will reverence you Remember Sir God by whom Lawful Princes Reign whose Vicegerent you are would not forgive Rebellion in Angels you must not trust the Face Petitions delivered you upon Swords Points are fatal if you allow this Custom you are ruined as yet Sir you may be obeyed as much as you please Of this Opinion was Sir Robert Hales Lord Prior of Saint Iohn of Ierusalem newly Lord Treasurer of England a Magnanimous and stout Knight but not liked by the Commons When this Resolution was known to the Clowns they grow stark mad they bluster they swear to seek out the Kings Traitors for such they must now go for no Man was either good or honest but he who pleased them the Arch-bishop and Lord Prior and to chop off their Heads here they might be trusted they were likely to keep their Words Hereupon without more Consideration they advance towards London not forgetting to burn and raze the Lawyers and Courtiers Houses in the Way to the Kings Honour no doubt which they will be thought to arm for Sir Iohn Froissart and others report this part thus which probably might follow after this Refusal The Rebels say they sent their Knight so they called him yet was he the Kings Knight for Tyler came not up to Dubbing we find no Sir Iohn nor Sir Thomas of his making Sir Iohn Moton to the King who was then in the Tower with his Mother his half Brothers Thomas Holland Earl of Kent after Duke of Surrey and the Lord Holland the Earls of Salisbury Warwick and Oxford the Arch-bishop Lord Prior and others The Knight casts himself down at the Kings Feet beseeches him not to look upon him the worse as in this Quality and Imployment to consider he is forced to do what he does He goes on Sir the Commons of this Realm those few in Arms comparatively to the rest would be taken for the whole desire you by me to speak with them Your Person will be safe they repute you still their King this deserved Thanks but how long the Kindness will hold we shall soon find they profess that all they had done or would do was for your Honour For your Glory your Honour and Security are their great Care they will make you a Glorious King fearful to your Enemies and beloved of your Subjects they promise you a plentiful and unparalell'd Revenue They will maintain your Power and Authority in Relation to the Laws with your Royal Person according to the Duty of their Allegiance their Protestation their Vow their solemn League and Covenant without diminishing your just Power and Greatness and that they will all the Days of their Lives continue in this Covenant against all Opposition They assure you Sir That they intend faithfully the Good of your Majesty and of the Kingdom and that they will not be diverted from this end by any private or Self-respects whatsoever But the Kingdom has been a long time ill governed by your Uncles and the Clergy especially by the Arch-bishop of Canterbury of whom they would have an Account They have found out necessary Counsels for you they would warn you of many things which hitherto you have wanted good Advice in The Conclusion was sad on the Knights part His Children were Pledges for his Return and if he fail in that their Lives were to answer it Which moved with the King he allows the Excuse sends him back with this Answer that he will speak with the Commons the next Morning which it should seem the report of the Outrages done by the Clowns upon his Refusal and this Message made him consent to At the time appointed he takes his Barge and is rowed down to Redriffe the place nearest the Rebels Ten thousand of them descend from the Hill to see and treat with him with a Resolution to yield to nothing to overcome by the Treaty as they must have done had not the Kings Fear preserved him When the Barge drew nigh the new Council of State says our Knight howled and shouted as though all the Devils of Hell had been amongst them Sir Iohn Moton was brought toward the River guarded they being determined to have cut him in peices if the King had broke his Promise All the Desires of these good and faithful Counsellors contracted suddenly into a narrow Room they had now but one Demand The King asks them What is the matter which made them so earnestly sollicite his Presence They have no more to say but to intreat him to land which was to betray himself to them to give his Life and Soveraignty up to those fickle Beasts to be held of them during their good Pleasures which the Lords will not agree to The Earl of Salisbury of the ancient Nobility and Illustrious House of Montacute tells them their Equipage and Order were not comely and that the King ought not to adventure amongst their Troops They are now more unsatisfied and London how true soever to the Cause and faithless to the Prince shall feel the Effects of their Fury Southwark a friendly Borough is taken up for their first Quarters Here again they throw down the Malignants Houses and as a Grace of their Entrance break up the Kings Prisons and let out all those they find under Restraint in them not forgetting to ransack the Arch-bishops House at Lambeth and spoil all things there plucking down the Stews standing upon the Thames Bank and allowed in the former Ages It cannot be thought but that the Idol loved Adultery well enough but perhaps these publick Bawdy-houses were too unclean and might stink in his Nostrils we cannot find him any where quarrelling with the Bears those were no Malignants They knocked not long at the City-Gates which some say were never
c. Because we are given to understand that divers of our Subjects who against our Peace c. have raised and in divers Conventicles and Assemblys c. Do affirm that they the said Assemblys and Levies have made and do make by Our Will and Authority c. We make known to all Men That such Levies Assemblys and Mischiefs from Our Will and Authority have not proceeded He adds They were begun and continued much to his Displeasure and Disgrace to the Prejudice of His Crown and Damage of the Realm Wherefore he injoyns and commands c. To take the best Care for the keeping of his Peace and opposing of all such Levies with a strong Hand Further he commands every Man to leave such Assemblys and return Home to his own House under Penalty of Forfeiture of Life and Member and all things forfeitable to the King c. These Clowns charge not the King to be transsported furiously and hostily to the Destruction of the whole People which can never happen where the King is in his Wits but what is fully as mad they will suppose him to arm against his own Life and Power against his own Peace and the Peace of all that love him This Proclamation put Life into the Royalists into all honest Hearts and dismays as much the Rebels yet after this the Essex Traitors gather again at Byllericay near Hatfield Peverel and send to the King now at Waltham to know whether he intends to make good his Grants of Liberties and require to be made equal with their Lords without being bound to any Suits of Court View of Frank-pledge only excepted twice the Year The King and his Council are startled at this Impudence The King answers the Agents That if he did not look upon them as Messengers he would hang them up Return says he to your Fellow Rebels and tell them Clowns they were and are and shall continue in their Bondage not as hitherto but far more basely trampled on While we live and rule this Kingdom by Gods Will we will imploy all our Means and Power to keep you under So that your Misery shall frighten all Villains hereafter And your Posterity shall curse your Memory At the Heels of the Messenger the King sends his Unkle Thomas of Woodstock Earl of Buckingham and Sir Thomas Piercy with a Body of Horse to quell them The Rebels were intrenched according to the manner of Liâ—…sters Camp in the midst of Woods ten Lances of the Avant Currors rout them the Lords when they were come up inclose the Woods round five hundred are killed eight hundred Horses for Carriage taken the broken Remainders of the Defeat escape to Colchester a Town ever honest and faithful to the Prince where the Loyal Townsmen would not be gotten to stir they sollicite the Townsmen says the Monk with much Intreaty great Threats and many Arguments neither Intreaties nor Threats nor Arguments would move them From thence they get to Sudbury making every where such Proclamations as of old they had used where the Lord Fitzwalter whose Seat was at Woodham-Walters in Essex and Sir Iohn Harlestone rush suddenly upon them kill and take them the King meaning to visit Essex in his own Person comes to Havering at the Boure a Mannor of his own Demain of the Sacred Patrimony and from thence to Chelmsford where he appoints Sir Robert Tresilian Chief Justice of his Bench of Pleas of the Crown to sit and inquire of the Malefactors and Troublers of the Country and to punish the Offendors according to the Customs of the Realm known and visible Five Hundred of these wretched Peasants who had no Mercy for others heretofore cast them selves down before the King bare-footed and with Heads uncovered implore his Pardon which he grants them on Condition they discover the great Conspirators the Captain Rogues The Jurors are charged by the chief Justices to carry themselves indifferently and justly in their Verdicts neither swayed by Love or Hatred to favour or prosecute any Man Many upon the Evidence given in and the finding of the Jury were condemned to be drawn and hanged nineteen of them were trussed upon one Gallows Heading had formerly been the Execution of others in Essex Kent and London because of the Numbers of the Guilty which was now thought a Death short of the Demerits of the most foul and heinous Offenders wherefore according to the Custom of the Realm it was decreed says the Monk that the Captains should be hanged The like was done in other Countrys by the Justices in Commission where the King was in Person Here the King with the Advice of his Council revokes his Letters Patents the Charters granted to the Clowns Although so he speaks we have in the late detestable Troubles c. manumised all the Commons our Liege Subjects of our Shires and them c. have freed from all Bondage and Service c. And also have pardoned the same our Liege Men and Subjects all Insurrections by riding going c. And also all manner of Treasons Felonies Trespasses and Extortions c. Notwithstanding for that the said Charters were without mature Deliberation and unduly procured c. To the prejudice of us and our Crown of the Prelates and great Men of our Realm as also to the disherison of Holy English Church and to the Hurt and Damage of the Common-wealth the said Letters we revoke make void and annul c. Yet our Intention is such Grace upon every of our said Subjects to confer though enormously their Allegiance they have forfeited c. As shall be useful to us and our Realm The Close commands to bring in to the King and his Council all Charters of Manumission and Pardon to be cancelled upon their Faith and Allegiance and under Forfeiture of all things forfeitable c. Witness our self at Chelmsford the 2. of July and 5th Year of our Reign False for the 4th In the Case of a Subject and no reason Kings shall be more bound every Act extorted by Violence and Awe upon the Agent is void In the Time of Edward the Third two Thieves which was the Case here force a Traveller to swear that he will at a day appointed bring them a thousand Pound and threaten to kill him if he refuse their Oath he swears and performs what he had sworn By Advice of all the Justices these two were indicted of Robbery and the Court maintains that the Party was not bound by this Oath Yet if this be denyed as unsafe Violence or Force which strikes a just Fear into any Man makes any Contract void say the Casuists Bishop Andrews that most learned Prelate answers to the pretended Resignation of King Iohn urged by Bellarmine that what this King did if any such Act was done was done by Force and out of Fear Widdrington the most Loyal of all Roman-Catholick Priests who writ much against the Gunpowder Jesuits in Defence of the Right of Kings
heavy as very Asses as himself He is said to be a crafty Fellow and of an Excellent Wit but wanting Grace yet crafty enough he was not for the great and dangerous Enterprize A Marius however Impious for such he must be pace pessimus fitter to remove things to overturn overturns than for Peace but as Plutarch of him subtil faithless one who could over do all Men in Dissembling in Hypocrisie practised in all the Arts of Lying and some of these good Sleights Tyler wanted not one who had Sense and Iudgment to carry things on as well as desperate Confidence to undertake had become this part incomparably had gone through with it how easily under such a Captain if we look upon the Weakness of the Opposition and the Villainous Baseness of the Gentry had the Frame of the ancient Building been rased the Model must have held Richard whose Endeavours of Defence or Loyalty alone should have been killing had not fallen by the Sword of Lancaster he had found his Grave on Tower-hill or Smithfield where the faithful Lieges of his Crown were torn in peices by these Cannibals The Reverence due to the Anointed Heads of Kings began to fall away and Naked Majesty could not guard where Innocency could not But Tyler blinded by his own fatal Pride throws himself foolishly upon the Kings Sword and by his over-much Hast preserves him whom he had vowed to destroy The Heathens make it a Mark of the Divinity of their Gods that they bestowed Benefits upon Mortal Men and took nothing from them The Clowns of the Idol upon this Rule were not very Heavenly they were the meek Ones of those times the only Inheritors of Right the Kingdom was made a Prey by them it was cantoned out to erect new Principalities for the Mock-Kings of the Commons so their Chiefs or Captains would be called Here though the Title of Rebellion spoke fair was shewn somewhat of Ambition and no little of unjust private Interest no little of Self-seeking which the Good of the People in Pretence only was to give Way to and no Wonder for the good of the People properly was meerly to be intended of themselves and no where but amongst those was the Commonwealth Had these Thistles these Brambles flourished the whole Wood of Noble Trees had perished If the violent casting other Men out of their Possessions firing their Houses cutting off their Heads violating of all Rights be thought Gods Blessing any Evidence of his owning the Cause these Thieves and Murderers were well blessed and sufficiently owned Such was then the Face of things Estates were dangerous Every rich Man was an Enemy Mens Lives were taken away without either Offence or Tryal their Reign was but a Continuation of horrible Injuries the Laws were not only silent but dead The Idol's Fury was a Law and Faith and Loyalty and Obedience to Lawful Power were damnable Servants had the Rule over Princes England was near a Slavery the most unworthy of free and ingenious Spirits of any What I relate here to speak something of the Story I collect out of Sir John Froissart a French-Man living in the Times of King EDWARD the Third and his Grandchild King RICHARD who had seen England in both the Reigns was known and esteemed in the Court and came last over after these Tumults were appeased And out of Thomas of Walsingham a Monk of St. Albans in Henry the Sixth's Days who says Bale in his Centuries of him writes many the most choice Passages of Affairs and Actions such as no other hath met with In the Main and to the Substance of things I have made no Additions no Alterations I have faithfully followed my Authors who are not so historically exact as I could wish nor could I much better what did not please me in their Order No Man says Walsingham can recite fully the Mischeifs Murders Sacriledge and Cruelty of these Actors he excuses his digesting them upon the Confusion of the combustious Flaming in such Variety of Places and in the same time Tyler Litstar and those of Hartfordshire take up most part of the Discourse Westbrome is brought in by the Halves the lesser Snakes are only named in the Chronicle what had been more had not been to any purpose Those were but Types of Tyler the Idol and acted nothing but according to the Original according to his great Example they were Wolves alike and he that reads one knows all Thomas of Becket Simon of Montfort the English Cataline Thomas of Lancaster Rebels and Traitors of the former years are canonized by the Monks generally the Enemies of their Kings Miracles make their Tâ—…mbs Illustrious and their Memories Sacred The Idol and his Incendiaries are abhorred every where every History detests them while Faith Civility Honesty and Piety shall be left in the World the Enemies of all these must neither be beloved nor pittied THE Rustick Rampant OR RURAL ANARCHY THe Reign of King Richard the Second was but a Throw of State for so many Years a Feaver to whose Distempers all pieces of the home Dominions contributed by Fits the forraign part only continuing faithful In the fourth Year of his Reign and Fifteenth of his Age the Dregs and Off-scum of the Commons unite into Bodies in several parts of the Kingdom and form a Rebellion called the Rebellion of the Clowns which lead the rest and shewed the Way of Disobedience first Of which may truly be said though amongst other Causes we may attribute it to the Indisposition and Unseasonableness of the Age that the Fruits of it did not take it was strongly begun and had not Providence held back the Hand the Blow had fallen the Government had broke into Shivers then The young King at this time had few besides Thomas of Woodstock his Uncle Earl of Buckingham and after Duke of Glocester but the Servants of his House in Ordinary about him the Lord Edmund of Langley Earl of Cambridge after Duke of York with the Lords Beauchamp Botereaux Sir Matthew Gourney with others of the Nobility and Gentry had set sail for Portugal the Duke Iohn of Lancaster another of his Uncles was in Scotland treating a Peace when this Commotion brake out Though no Cause can be given for Seditions those who design publick Troubles can never want Pretences Polidore as much out in this Story as any gives this Reason for this the Poll-mony says he imposed by Parliament a Groat Sterling upon every Head was intolerable It was justly imposed and so by some to whom Law and Custom of England were intolerable not to be endured but we shall find in the Tyranny breaking in not only fifth and twentieth Parts and Loans forced out of Fear of Plunder and Death but Subsidies in Troop and Regiments by Fifties more than Sequestrations and Compositions not under Foot low Sales for what had these Rascals to give but down-right Robbery and Violent Usurpations of Estates Thus would Polidore have it in Defence
Franciscan a Physician belonging to the Duke of Lancaster whom perhaps they hated because they had wronged his Master a Friar Carmelite the Kings Confessoâ—… were murdered there in this Fury Whose Heads with the Arch-bishops were born before them through London Streets and advanced over the Bridge This while the King was softning the Rebelâ—… of Essex at Mile-end with the Earls of Salisbury Warwick and Oxford and other Lords Thither by Proclamation he had summoned them as presuâ—…ing the Essexians to be more civilized and by much the fairer Enemies as indeed they were There he promises to grant them their Desires Liberty precious Liberty is the thing they ask this is given them by the King but on Condition oâ—… good Behaviour They are to cease their Burning and Destruction of Houses to return quietly to their Homes and offend no Man in their Way Two of every Village were to stay as Agents behind for the Kings Charters which could not be got ready in time Farther the King offerâ—… them his Banners Some of them were simple honest People of no ill Meaning who knew not why the Garboils were begun nor why they came thither These were won and win others without more Stir those of Essex return whence they came Tyler and Baal are of another Spirit they would not part so easily Tyler the future Monarch who had designed an Empire for himself and was now sceleribus fuit ferox atque praeclarus famous for his Villainies and haughty would not put up so he and his Kentish Rabble tarry The next day being Saturday the 17th of Iune was spent as the other Days of their Tyranny in Burning ruining Houses Murthers and Depopulations The Night of this Day the Idol and his Priest upon a new Resolution intended to have struck at the Neck of the Nation to have murthered the King the Achan of the Tribes probably by Beheading the Death these Parricides had used hitherto the Lords Gentlemen the wealthiest and honestest part of the Citizens then to have pillaged their Houses and fired the City in four parts they intended this haste to avoid odious Partnership in the Exploit and that those of Norfolk Suffolk and other parts might not share in the Spoil This Counsel of Destruction was against all Policy more Profit might have been made of this City by Excise Assessment and Taxes upon the Trade Tyler might sooner have enriched himself and have been as secure Estates make Men lofty Fear and Poverty if we may trust Machiavel bend and supple every Man had been in Danger and obnoxious to him one Clown had awed a Street Near the Abby-Church at Westminster was a Chappel with an Image of the Virgin Mary this Chappel was called the Chappel of our Lady in the â—…iew it stood near the Chappel of S. Stephen since turned from a Chappel to the Parliament House here our Lady then who would not believe it did great Miracles Richards Preservation at this time was no small one being in the Hands of the Multitude let loose and enraged There he makes his Vows of Safety after which he rides towards these Sons of Perdition under the Idol Tyler Tyler who meant to consume the Day in Cavils protests to those who were sent by the King to offer those of Kent the same Peace which the Essex Clowns had accepted that he would willingly embrace a good and honest Peace but the Propositions or Articles of it were only to be dictated by himself He is not satisfied with the Kings Charters Three Draughts are presented to him no Substance no Form would please he desires an Accommodation but he will have Peace and Truth together He exclaims that the Liberty there is deceitful but an empty Name that while the King talks of Liberty he is actually levying War setting up his Standard against his Commons that the good Commons are abused to their own Ruin and to the Miscarriage of the great Undertaking that they have with infinite Pains and Labour acquainted the King with their humble Desires who refuses to joyn with them misled and carried away by a few evil and rotten-hearted Lords and Delinquents contrary to his Coronation Oath by which he is obliged to pass all Laws offered him by the Commons whose the Legislative Power is which Denyal of his if it be not a Forfeiture of his Trust and Office both which are now useless it comes near it and he is fairly dealt with if he be not deposed which too might be done without any Want of Modesty or Duty and with the Good of the Common-wealth the Happiness of the Nation not depending on him or any of the Regal Branches I will deliver the Nation from the Norman Slavery and the World says he of an old silly Superstition That Kings are only the Tenants of Heaven obnoxious to God alone cannot be condemned and punished by any Power else I will make here he lyed not an wholesome President to the World formidable to all Tyrannies I declare That Richard Plantagenet or Richard of Bourdeaux at this time is not in a Condition to govern I will make no Addresses no Application to him nor receive any from him though I am but a dry Bone too unworthy for this great Calling yet I will finish the Work I will settle the Government without the King and against him and against all that take part with him which sufficiently justifies our Arms God with Us says he owns them Success manifests the Righteousness of our Cause this is says he the Voice of the People by us their Representative and our Counsel After the Vote of no more Addresses which with all their other Votes of Treason were to be styled the Resolution of the whole Realm and while he swells in this Ruffle Sir Iohn Newton a Knight of the Court is sent to intreat rather than to invite him to come to the King then in Smithfield where the Idols Regiments were drawn up and treat with him concerning the additional Provisions he desired to be inserted into the Charter No Observance was omitted which might be thought pleasing to his Pride which Pride was infinitely puffing Flattery was sweet to him and he had enough of it that made him bow a little when nothing else could do it We may judge at the Unreasonableness of his Demands and Supplys of new Articles out of his Instrument by one He required of the King a Commission to impower himself and a Committee Team of his own choosing to cut off the Heads of Lawyers and Escheators and of all those who by Reason of their Knowledge and Place were any way imployed in the Law He fancied if those who were learned in the Law were knocked i'th'Head all things would be ordered by the Common People either there would be no Law or that which was should be declared by him and his subject to their Will with which his Expression the day before did well agree Then attributing all things to God the God of War and his
our Way Both these Counsels are approved William Greyndcob an Hind who had eaten the Bread of the Monastery for the most part of his Life is elected with others and sent on this Errand to the King before whom he kneels six times out of Zeal to prevail This Loâ—… too was made principal Prolocutor says our Monk or Speaker to the Idol before whose sordid Excellency and his unclean Counsel he complains of the grievous Tyranny of the Abbot and Prior some few Monks are thrust in to make up the Number of the Oppressures of the Commons of witholding the Wages of poor Labourers the Design was to rouze the Wolf Tyler meant not to leave London yet he promises if need be to send Twenty Thousand of the Saints who shall not fail to shave the Beards of the Abbot and the rest which signified in plain English cutting off their Heads The gracious Captain General was yet more kind he vows if it be convenient to assist them in his own Person He gives them Directions and Orders to govern themselves by and makes their Obedience here a Condition of his Love These Orders were generally enjoyned by our English Mahomet through all the Provinces of his Conquest and were framed according to the Law of his bloody Alchoran He swears them to omit nothing either in his Commands or Doctrine A Servant of the Abbot one of the Spies upon the Townsmen rides in full Career to S. Albans and gives Intelligence to the Abby of the Exploits of the new Masters at London He tells them in what manner that Dirt of a Captain Tyler fullyed and polluted with the Blood of the Nobless had butchered the English Patriarch and the Lord Treasurer That London the Den of these ravenous Beasts falsly called the Chamber of her Kings was likely now to become the Charnel-house of Richard and his Loyal Vassals That these Fiends who would goe for Saints and the only good Patriots commit the Acts of Thieves and Murtherers neither reverencing Religion nor Laws And that the Conquering French who makes fair War nay the barbarous Scot broke out of the Fastness of his own Desart mortal Enemies of the Nation could not spoil nor ruin with more Cruelty and Villany No Mercy says he yield who will upon Mercy no Favour no Goodness can be expected from this Rout of Wolves He bids those pointed at and named by Greyndcob to Tyler shift for themselves which they are not long in resolving of The Prior four Monks and some of their Servants one part horsed another on Foot fly for their Lives not assuring themselves till they got to Tynmouth a Priory of this Monastery of Saint Albans in Northumberland William Greyndcob and William Cadindon a Baker on Fryday had hastened to S. Albans that they might make the Honour of the Atchievement theirs by first appearing in the Action These brag aloud of the Prosperity of Affairs that they were no more Drudges and Slaves but Lords for the time to come that they had brought about great and wonderful Feats against the Abby they propose first to defie the Abbot to renounce all Amity and Peace with him then to break down his Folds and Gates in Fauconwood Eywood and his other Woods and to pull down the Under-Bowsers House standing over against the Fish-market and hindering the Prospect of the Burgesses and Nobility of the Town this is their own Style a Nobility scarce to be parallel'd in the World discovered unless we fetch in the Man-eaters of Brasil who have neither Letters nor Laws acknowledge neither God nor Prince This Night the first Scene of the Tragedy is acted the next day being Saturday fatal to the Hangman Tyler the Upstart Nobility of Churls assemble and make Proclamation That no Man able to serve his Country presume to slight the Lieutenants of the Idol but that every Man furnish himself with such Arms as he can provide to attend them the Lieutenants in his own Defence The Crew summoned are commanded to press the Gentry for the Service and to cut off the Heads of those who would not joyn with them and swear to be faithful to them beheading burning Houses Forfeiture of Goods were menaced to all that would not assist the Forces raised by Tyler and fight the Lords Battels that is for the Cause This says our Monk was the Charge of their Lord and Master Wat this was his Rubrick of Blood Next with great Pomp they march to Fauconwood to level the slips of their Haste and Night-work something they feared might be left whole upon Review when Root and Branch were pared and torn up they retire The other Growtnolls of the Neighbourhood subject to the Distress or Seigniory of Saint Albans wait for them these were cited upon the same Threats to meet and promised Belly-fulls Cart Loads of Liberties Now or never for the Liberty of the Subject and the Power of Godliness This Supply swells them into huge Hopes it puffs them up Greyndcob and Cadindon more haughty now than ever lead their Battalias blustering with surly Pride and Disdain to the Gates of the Monastery which with the same Loftiness they command the Porter to set open Some of the Company Friends of the House had given private Intelligence to the Abbot of the Contrivances against him who had instructed his Servants how to carry themselves toward this Tag and Rag of Swains they observe them punctually That they may seem pious in their Entrance they free the publick Malefactors out of the Abbots Prison but so that they should owe Faith hereafter and Grace of the Benefit to the Commons a Name the most Honourable and which must swallow up all things else and inseparably stick to them One of the Offenders whom they suppose unworthy of Liberty or Life grown Judges and Executioners by the same Inspiration and Spirit they behead on the Ground before the Gates then fix his Head upon the Pillory roaring with that devilish Cry they had learnt at London This was plain Murther by the Law whatsoever this Mans Crime was these Rogues were guilty in a most high Nature so that besides the Baseness of their Condition they were incapable of any Jurisdiction by the ancient fundamental Laws of England as being Traitors and out of the Kings Faith But to wave all this by these ancient Laws every Prisoner might demand Oyer hearing of the Judges Commission these Villains had neither Authority nor Commission but from Tylers Sword which was but a Derivative of his Usurpation No Act of which can be just the Foundation of his Tyranny this Way in being just and illegal at the first From the Idols first Entrance no Act of Confirmation or Grant was done could any such Act be done and valid to establish or make a Right by the Power which had that Right to bestow he asked for a Commission of Life and Death but was refused and his Arbitrary Acts were only a Continuance of his
against those Jesuits who would have cut off the King the Royal Family the Bishops of the English Catholick Church the Nobility and Gentry as their Letter speaks with one Blow says of this Resignation or Donation if we may so he call it so that it was not freely given The Jesuits Challenge the perpetual Dictature or Regency of the University of Pontamousson by Bull of Sixtus the Fifth contrary to the Statutes of the Foundation by Gregory the Thirteenth Were the Bull true says Berclay yet it ought not to be of Force because it was obtain'd presently after his Creation when things are presumed to be rather extorted than obtained Bodin denys that a King deceived or forced can be bound by his Grants The Justice of Contracts is that alone which binds The Distinction of Royal and private Acts is of more Sound than Strength and answers not the Injustice of the impulsive Violence which must be naturally vicious every where and corrupt and weaken the Effects and cannot be good and bad by Changes or as to this or that Grotius who loves this Distinction in another place is positive There must be Equality in all Contracts He condemns all Fear or Awe upon the Person purposely moved for the Contracts Sake and tells us out of Xenophon of those of Lacedaemon who annulled a Sale of Lands which the Elians had forced the Owners to pass out of Fear A Charter of King Henry the Third imprisoned and forced is said by Aldenham to be void upon this Reason and I judge the Justice of this Revocation by the Law of England by which as our old Parliaments such Force is Treason The Fruits of which were here more justly plucked up than they were planted He who gives up his Money to Thieves according to his Oath may lawfully take it away from them However they are bound to make Restitution Nor can any Prescription of time establish a Right of Possession in him who makes his Seizure upon no other Title but Plunder and Robbery The 5th of this King the Parliament declares these Grants to be forced and void Enough to clear the Honour of King Richard as to this part At Chelmsford the King is informed of the whole History of Mischiefs done at St. Albanes and resolved in Person with all his Guards and Cavalry to ride thither and sentence the Malefactors with his own Mouth but Sir Walter Ley of Hartfordshire fearing the much impoverishing the Country if the King should make any long Stay there with such Numbers as then attended him beseeches him to make a Tryal whether things might not be composed without him and offers to reconcile the Abbot and Townsmen if the King would which was consented to The King grants him a Commission and joyns with him Edward Benstude Geofry Stukely and others of the Gentry of that County The coming of these Commissioners was noised at St. Albans The fiercest of the Clowns knowing what they had done was condemned by the Law and not to be defended but by Force which now they had not began to shake and take Fright are plotting to get out of the Way Greyndcob Lieutenant of the late Idol comforts them he perswades to go to Horse let us meet the Knight says he and see whether his Looks promise Peace or not if not the Towns about us have engaged they have associated and are of our League we are rich and cannot want good Fellows who will assist us while our Monys last On St. Peters Day this ill-advised Crue meets the Knight upon the Road who was ignorant of their Resolutions and conduct him Honourably according to their Fashion to the Town Sir Walter had with him fifty Lances and some Companies of Archers listed at random many of them being of the Churls and Confederates with them The Knight cites the Townsmen and their Neighbours to appear before him in Derfold to hear the Pleasure and Commands of the King they fail not There he tells them what Forces the King had assembled how rigorously those of Essex were sentenced That the King was highly incensed at the Troubles and Seditions of this place of which he was the Patron and Defender That with Great Difficulty he had procured of the King a Commission by which himself and others not Strangers or Enemies but their Friends and Neighbours were authorized to do Iustice in the KingsStead he concludes if they will appease the King they must find out and deliver up the Beginners of these Broils and make Satisfaction to the Lord Abbot an holy and a just Man for the Wrong they had done him This many of the Hearers approve and promise to obey The Knight charges a Jury to be made ready the next Morning and make what Discovery they can and gives the People Leave to depart Towards Night he sends for the Jury to his Chamber intending to have apprehended the Lieutenants by the Assistance of the Jury without any Noise These good Men and true know nothing it was the Case of their Fellows in Mischief and might be their own They answer in a plain Ignoramus they can indict no Man accuse no Man Amongst all the sounder of these Swine there was not one who had been Faithless and Disloyal to his Natural Liege Lord not one Breaker of his Peace not one who could appear so to them The Knight seems not to understand the Falsness and Cunning of these Hob-nail perjured Juglers He takes another Way and next requires them within a peremptory time to bring him the Charters which they had forced from the Monastery they return after a short Consultation and in the Abbots Chamber where the Knight then was tell him They dare not obey out of Fear of the Commons what was more they knew not in whose Custody the Charters were The Knight grows angry and swears they shall not go out of the Chamber till he have them which they call imprisoning their Persons Here the Abbot intercedes and though he knew them as very Knaves and Lyers as any Tyler had set on work yet he will not he says distruct their Honesty he will leave things to their Consciences upon which they are freed Another Assembly is appointed at Barnet Wood whither the Villagers about throng in Multitudes Three hundred Bow-men of Barnet and Berkhamsted make here so terrible a Show nothing is done The Commissioners privately charge the Gentry Constables and Bayliffs to seize in the Night Greyndcob Cadindon Iohn the Barber with some others and to bring them to Hartford whither themselves went in all Haste which was performed The Esquires and Servants of the Abby were sent with them to strengthen the Company This enrages the Townsmen afresh they gather into Conventicles in the Woods and Fields so much frightful to the Monastery that the Abbot recalls his Esquires le ts the Prosecution fall and fearfully summons in his Friends to guard him Greyndcobs Friends take Advantage of this Change and bail him for three Days