Keeper to the Duke concerning the Countesse of South-hampton 17. Novemb. 1624. 96 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 24. Decemb. 1624. 99 The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning Dr. Scot the 4. of Jan. 1624 100 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 2. March 1624. 101 The Lord Keeper to the Duke about Sir Robert Howard 11. March 1624. 103 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 13. March 1624. 104 The Lord Keeper to the Duke 22. March 1624. 106 The Bishop of Lincoln to the Duke the 7. of January 1625. 107 The Bishop of Lincoln to his Majestie 108 The Lord Keeper to the Viscount Annan the 17. of September 1622. 109 The Bishop of St. Davids to the Duke the 18. of November 1624. 113 The Bishop of St. Davids to the Duke 114 The Bishop of Chichester to the Duke 114 The Bishops of Rochester Oxford and St. Davids to the Duke concerning Mr. Mountague 2. Aug. 1625. 116 Dr. Field Bishop of Landaffe to the Duke 118 Bishop of Landaffe to the Duke 119 Dr. Corbet to the Duke 121 Earles of Worcester Arundel and Surrey and Montgomery to the King 121 The Earl of Suffolk to his Majestie 122 The Earl of Suffolk to the Duke 123 The Earl of Suffolk to his Majestie 124 The Lady Elizabeth Howard to the King 126 The Lady Elizabeth Norris to the Duke ibid. Sir Edward Cecyl to the Duke 128 Sir Edward Cecyl to the Duke 129 Sir Edward Cecyl to the Lord Conway Secretary 2. of June 1625. 130 Sir Edward Cecyl to the Duke 3. June 1625. 132 Sir Edward Cecyl to the Duke 19. July 1625. 134 The Lord Wimbledon to the Duke 28. April 1626. 135 The Lord Wimbledon to the Duke 137 Sir John Ogle to the Duke 3. June 1625. 138 Sir Robert Mansel to the Duke 9. June 1621. 140 Sir Robert Mansel to the Duke 10. July 1621. 143 Sir John Pennington to the Duke 27. July 1625. 144 Captain Pennington to the Duke 150 Mr. Trumbal to the Secretary 31. March 1619. 151 Mr. Trumbal to the Secretary 23. Octob. 1619. 156 Sir Thomas Roe to the Marquesse of Buckingham Lord Admiral 17. Decemb. 1621. 158 L. R. H. to the Duke of Buckingham 159 Sir George Carie to the Marquesse of Buckingham the 8. of Decem. 1619. 162 To King James ab ignoto 163 Archbishop Abbot to Secretary Nanton 12. of September 1619. 169 The Lord Brook to the Duke 11. Novemb. 1623. 170 Dr. Belcanquel to Secretary Nanton 26. March 173 Sir William Beecher to his Majestie 4. Febr. 176 To King James ab ignoto 178 Sir Isaac Wake to the Secretary the 27. of September 1619. 180 Sir Isaac Wake to the Secretary the 5th of October 1619. 184 Sir Isaac Wake to the Duke 13. Febr. 1621. 188 Sir Isaac Wake 's Proposition for the King of Denmark 190 Sir Henry Wotton to the Duke 25. Jan. 1619. 192 Sir Henry Wotton to the Duke 29. July 1622. 193 Sir Henry Wotton to the Duke the 2d. of December 1622. 194 Sir Henry Wotton to the Duke 196 Sir Henry Wotton to the Duke 197 Sir Richard Weston to the Duke 26. June 1622. 200 Sir Richard Weston to the Duke Bruxels 3. of September 1622. 201 Sir Richard Weston to the Duke 17. July 1623. 202 Sir Richard Weston to the Duke 20 May 1624. 203 Sir Richard Weston to the Duke Chelsey the 23 of July 1624. 204 Sir Richard Weston to the Duke Chelsey 12. of August 1624. 206 Sir Francis Cottington to the Duke Madrid 1. October 1616. 206 Viscount Rochfort to the Duke of Buckingham 209 King James to Pope Gregorie the 15. the 10. of September 1622. 211 Pope Gregory the 15. to the Prince of Wales Rome 20. of April 1623. 212 The Prince of Wales his Reply to the Popes Letter 214 The Pope to the Duke of Buckingham Rome the 19 of May 1623. 216 To King James ab ignoto 217 To King James ab ignoto 222 Mr. Ch. Th. to the Duke 228 To Count Gondomar 233 Conde de Gondomar to the Duke 13. Febr. 1625. 237 Padre Maestre at Rome to the Spanish Embassadour in England 12. June 1621. 238 Don Carlos to the Lord Conway 3. Septem 239 Marquesse Ynoiosa to the Lord Conway 5. of September 1623. 242 Collections of Passages and Discourses betwixt the Spanish Embassadours and Sir Arthur Chichester 18 Jan. 1623. 244 Sir Arthur Chichester to the Duke 25. Jan. 1623. 243 Passages betwixt the Lord Nithisdale and the Spanish Embassadours 22. May 1624. 247 The Lord Nithisdale to the Duke 22 June 1624. 249 Sir Tobie Mathew to the King of Spain 251 Sir Tobie Mathew to the Dutchesse of Buckingham From Bulloign 9. June 1625. 253 Dr. Sharp to King James 255 Dr. Sharp to the Duke of Buckingham 257 The Lord Cromwell to the Duke 8. Sept. 1625. 262 Sir Robert Philips to the Duke of Buckingham 21. of Aug. 1624. 264 The Earl of Middlesex to the Duke 266 The Earl of Middlesex to his Majestie the 26. April 1624. 267 The Earl of Carlile to his Majestie 14. Febr. 1623. 269 The Lord Kensington to the Duke 273 The Lord Kensington to the Prince the 26. of February 1624. 276 The Lord Kensington to the Duke 274 The Lord Kensington to the Prince 26 Febr. 1624. 276 The Lord Kensington to the Duke 278 The Lord Kensington to the Prince 280 The Lord Kensington to the Duke 4. March 1924. 282 The Lord Kensington to the Secretary Lord Conway 284 The Lord Kensington to the Duke 288 The Lord Kensington to the Duke 291 The Lord Kensington Earl of Holland to the Duke 292 The Earl of Holland to his Majestie Paris 13 March 1625. 294 The Earl of Holland to the Duke 296 Mr. Lorkin to the Duke 30. August 1625. 299 Mr. Lorkin to the Duke 17 Sept. 1625. 301 The Lord Herbert to his Majestie From Merton Castle 13 Octob. 1623. 304 Mr. Edward Clerk to the Duke Madrid 6. Sept. 1623. 306 Mr. Edward Clerk to the Duke Madrid the 1. of October 1623. 307 Sir Anthony Ashley to the Duke 12 May. 1621. 307 Sir Walter Rawleigh to the Duke 12. Aug. 308 Sir Henry Yelverton to the Duke the 15. of March 1623. 310 Sir John Eliot to the Duke 8. Novemb. 1623. 311 The Earl of Oxford to the Duke 311 The Lady Purbeck to the Duke 313 Dr. Donne to the Marquesse of Buckingham 13. September 1621. 314 Dr. Donne to the Duke 315 Sir John Hipsley to the Duke London the 1. of September 1623. 316 Sir Dudley Carleton to the Marquesse of Buckingham Hague 24. Febr. 1616. 317 Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke of Buckingham Hague 10. June 1620. 322 Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke Hague 31. of January 1622. 325 Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke Hague 23. of August 1622. 327 Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke Hague 9. of December 1623. 334 Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke Hague 13. Decemb. 1623. 334 Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke Hague 18 of December 1623. 337 Sir Dudley Carleton to the
believe they will hasten to finish this act before I shall hear from your Lordship which if they do God send me patience and as much care to serve him as I have and ever had to serve my Master And then all must needs be well I send your Lordship a Copy of that speech I have thought upon to deliver at London upon Munday next at the Commission of the Subsidies If his Majestie have leisure to cast his eye thereupon and to give direction to have any thing else delivered or any point of this suppressed I would be directed by your Lordship whom I recommend in prayers to Gods good guiding and protection And do rest c. The E. of Southhamptons Letter to the Bishop of Lincolne My Lord I Have found your Lordship already so favourable and affectionate unto me that I shall be still hereafter desirous to acquaint you with what concerns me and bold to ask your advice and councel which makes me to send this bearer to give your Lordship an account of my answer from Court which I cannot better do then by sending unto you the answer it self which you shall receive here enclosed Wherein you may see what is expected from me that I may not onely magnifie his Majesties Gracious dealing with me but cause all my friends to do the like and restrain them from making any extenuation of my errours which if they be disposed to do or not to do is impossible for me to alter that am not likely for a good time to see any other then mine own family For my self I shall ever be ready as is fit to acknowledg his Majesties favour to me but can hardly perswade my self that any errour by me committed deserved more punishment then I have had and hope that his Majestie will not expect that I should not confesse my self to have been subject to a Star-chamber sentence which God forbid I should ever do I have and shall do according to that Part of my Lord of Buckinghams advice to speak of it as little as I can and so shall I do in other things to meddle as little as I can I purpose God willing to go to morrow to Tychfield the place of mine confinement there to stay as long as the King shall please Sir William Parkhurst must go with me who hoped to have been discharged at the return of my Messenger from Court and seemes much troubled that he is not pretending that it is extream inconvenient for him in regard of his own occasions He is fearful he should be forgotten If therefore when your Lordship writes to the Court you would but put my Lord of Buckingham in remembrance of it you shall I think do him a favour For my part it is so little trouble to me and of so small moment as I meane to move no more for it When this bearer returns I beseech you return by him this inclosed Letter and beleive that whatsoever I am I will ever be Your Lordships most assured friend to do you service H. Southampton c. The Lord Keepers answer to the E. of Southhamptons Letter 2. August 1621. My Lord I Have perused your Lordships Letter and that enclosed I return back again And doubt nothing of my Lord Admirals remembring of you upon the first opportunity Great works as I hope this will be a perfect reconciling of his Majesties affections to you of your best studies and endeavours to the service of his Majestie do require some time They are but poore actions and of no continuance that are Slubbered up in an instance I know my Lord mens tongues are their own nor lieth it in your power to prescribe what shall be spoken for you or against you But to avoid that Complacentia as the Divines call it that itching and inviting of any interpretation which shall so add to your innocencie as it shall derogate from the Kings mercie which I speak as I would do before God had a great cloud of jealousies and suspitions to break through before it came to shine upon you This I take it is the effect of my Lords exhortation and I know it ever hath been your Lordships resolution How far you could be questioned in the Star-Chamber is an unseasonable time to resolve The King hath waved off all judgment and left nothing for your meditation but love and favour and the increasing of both these Yet I know upon my late occasions to peruse Presidents in that Court that small offences have been in that Court in former times deeply censured In the sixteenth of Edward the second for the Court is of great antiquity Henry Lord Beaumont running a way of his own about the invading of Scotland and dissenting from the rest of the Kings Councel because of his absenting himself from the Councel Table was fined and imprisoned though otherwies a most worthy and deserving Noble man But God be thanked your Lordship hath no cause to trouble your head about these meditations For if I have any judgment you are in a way to demean your self as you may expect rather more new additions then suspect the least diminution from his Gracious Majestie For mine own part assure your self I am your true and faithful servant and shall never cease so to continue as long as you make good your professions to this Noble Lord. Of whose extraordinary goodnesse your Lordship and my self are remarkable reflections The one of his sweetnesse in forgetting of wrongs the other of his forwardnesse in conferring of courtesies With my best respect to your Lordship and my Noble Lady and my Commendations to Sir William Parkhurst I recommend your Lordship c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning the E. of South-hampton 2. Aug. 1621. My most noble Lord I Humbly crave your pardon for often troubling your Honour with my idle Lines and beseech you to remember that amongst many miseries my sudden greatnesse comes accompanied with this is not the least that I can no otherwaies enjoy the happinesse of your presence God is my witnesse the Lord Keeper hath often not without grief of heart envied the fortunes of a poor Scholar one Dr. VVilliams late Dean of VVestminster who was so much blessed in the free accesses in that kind as his Lordship without a great quantity of goodnesse in your self may scarse hope for This inclosed will let your Lordship understand that somewhat is to be finished in that excellent piece of mercy which his Majestie your hand guiding the Pencil is about to expresse in the E. of Southhampton It is full time his Attendant were revoked in my poor opinion and himself left to the Custody of his own good Angel There is no readier way to stop the mouthes of idle men nor to draw their eyes from this remainder of an object of Justice to behold nothing but goodnesse and mercy And the more breathing time you shall carve out between this total enlargement and the next accesse of the Parliament the better it
the head directing and your people as the hands and feet obeying and co-operating for the honour safety and welfare of the bodie of the State This will revive and reunite your friends abroad and dismay and disappoint the hopes of your enemies secure your Majesties person assure your estate and make your memorie glorious to posterity Pardon I most humbly beseech your Majestie this licentious freedome which the zeal of your safetie and service hath extorted from a tongue-tyed man who putteth his heart into his Majesties hand and humbly prostrateth himself at your Royal feet as being Your Majesties Most humble most obedient obliged Creature Subject and Servant Carlile The Earl of Carlile to the Duke the 20. of November 1625. My most Noble dear Lord SInce my Last to your Lordship by Mr. Endimion Porter there hath not happened any matter of great moment or alteration here saving the resolution which his Majestie hath taken by the advice of his Councel for the disarming of all the Popish Lords In the execution whereof there fell out a brabble at the Lord Vaux his house in North-hamptonshire wherein there were some blowes exchanged between the said Lord and Mr. Knightly a Justice of the Peace who assisted the Deputie Lievtenant in that action Whereof complaint being made his Majestie was pleased himself in Councel to have the hearing of the businesse and upon examination to refer the judgement thereof to the Star-Chamber the next Term. But at the issuing out of the Councel Chamber the Lord Vaux taking occasion to speak to Sir William Spencer who with the rest had given information in favour of Mr. Knightly told him that though he neglected his reputation before the Lords yet he doubted not but he would have more care of his oath when the businesse should come to Examination in the Star-Chamber Herewith Sir VVilliam Spencer finding his reputation challenged presently complained and thereupon the words being acknowledged the Lord Vaux was committed prisoner to the Fleet. In the disarming of the Lords-Recusants there was as much respect had of some who have relation to your Lordship as you your self would desire The Papists in general here do give some cause of jealousie by their Combinations and Murmurings wherein it is suspected that they are as fondly as busily encouraged by the pragmatical Mounsieurs But his Majesties temper and wisdom will be sufficient to prevent all inconveniencie which their follie or passion may contrive There is one Sir Thomas Gerrard a Recusant brought up hither out of Lancashire being accused of some treacherous design against his Majesties Person Rochel is so straightly blocked by Sea and Land as no Intelligence can be sent into the Town We have not as yet any clear Categorical answers touching the restitution of our ships As soon as any thing more worthy of your Lordships knowledge shall occur you shall not fail to be advertised from him that is eternally vowed Your Graces Most faithful friend and most humble servant Carlile The Earl of Carlile to the Duke My most Noble dear Lord I Must ever acknowledge my self infinitely obliged to your Lordship for many Noble favours but for none more then the freedome and true cordial friendship expressed in your last Letter touching my son And I shall humbly beseech your Lordship in all occasions to continue that free and friendly manner of proceeding which I shall ever justly esteem as the most real testimonie of your favour towards me Your Lordship will now be pleased to give me leave with the same freedom and sinceritie to give your Lordship an account that it is now 4. moneths since the Count of Mansfelt made the proposition to me to nominate my son to be one of his Colonels as he did likewise to my Lord of Holland for his Brother Sir Charles Rich which at the first I must deal plainly with your Lordship I took for a piece of art as if he knowing that next to the benefit and assistance he received from your Lordships favour and protection we were the most active instruments imployed in his businesse and therefore he sought to ingage us so much the farther by this interest But afterwards I found that under the shadow of this Complement put upon me he had a desire to gratifie Sir James Ramsey whom he designed to be my sons Lievtenant having regard to his former deserts and the courage and sufficiencie he hath found in him I professe unto your Lordship sincerely that he received no other encouragement or acceptance from me then a bare negative Insomuch as he afterwards sent a Gentleman to tell me That he perceived whatsoever he should expect from me in the furtherance of his businesse must be onely for the respect I bare to my Masters service and nothing for love of his person since I accepted not the proffer of his service My Lord of Holland can justifie the truth of this assertion who alone was acquainted with that which passed for I protest upon my salvation that I neither spake of it to any creature living not so much as to my son neither have I written one word thereof to the Count Mansfelt neither knew I any thing of his proceedings till by the last Currier Mr. Secretarie was pleased to acquaint me with the nomination of my son If I had seriously intended any such thing I want not so much judgment and discretion as not first to discover my desire to my gracious Master humbly craving his leave and allowance And I should not have failed to have recourse to your Lordships favourable assistance therein And thus my Noble Lord have I given you an account what entertainment I gave to the Count Mansfelts Complement And I will be bold also to give your Lordship this further assurance that no particular interest or consideration of mine own shall have power to alter my constant course of serving my gracious Master faithfully and industriously And so humbly submitting all to his Majesties good pleasure and your Lordships wisdom I remain eternally Your Graces most faithful friend and humble servant Carlile Postscript I Most humbly beseech your Lordship that this unfortunate Complement put upon my son may be no prejudice to the deserts of Sir James Ramsey The Lord Kensington to the Duke My Noblest Lord I Find the Queen Mother hath the onely power of governing in this State and I am glad to find it so since she promises and professes to use it to do careful and good offices in the way of increasing the friendship that is between us and this State and likewise to relieve and assist the united provinces the which they are preparing to do fullie and bravely for she hath now a clear sight of the pretentions of the King of Spain unto the Monarchie of Christendom during the absence of the King who went out of this town earlie the next day after I arrived here before I was prepared to attend him I have been often at the Louure where I had the
and Subscriptions when they descended into that vile and base means of defacing the Government of the Church by ridiculous Pasquils when they began to make many Subjects in doubt to take an Oath which is one of the fundamental points of Justice in this Land and in all places when they began both to vaunt of their strength and number of their partizans and followers and to use the communications that their Cause would prevail though with uprore and violence then it appeared to be no more zeal no more conscience but meer faction and division And therefore though the State were compelled to hold somwhat a harder hand to restrain them then before yet it was with as great moderation as the peace of the Church and State could permit And therefore to conclude consider uprightly of these matters and you shall see her Majesty is no Temporizer in Religion It is not the success abroad nor the change of servants here at home can alter her only as the things themselves alter so she applied her religious wisdom to correspond unto them still retaining the two rules before mentioned in dealing tenderly with consciences and yet in discovering Faction from Conscience Farewell Your loving Friend Francis Walsingham Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Essex when Sir Robert Cecil was in France My singular good Lord I Do write because I have not yet had time fully to express my conceit nor now to attend you touching Irish matters considering them as they may concern the State that it is one of the aptest particulars that hath come or can come upon the stage for your Lordship to purchase honour upon I am moved to think for three reasons Because it is ingenerate in your House in respect of my Lord your Fathers noble attempts because of all the accidents of State at this time the labour resteth most upon that and because the world will make a kind of comparison between those that set it out of frame and those that shall bring it into frame which kind of honour giveth the quickest kind of reflection The transferring this honour upon your self consisteth in two points The one if the principal persons imployed come in by you and depend upon you the other if your Lordship declare your self to undertake a care of that matter For the persons it falleth out well that your Lordship hath had no interest in the persons of imputation For neither Sir William Fitz-Williams nor Sir John Norris was yours Sir William Russel was conceived yours but was curbed Sir Coniers Clifford as I conceive it dependeth upon you who is said to do well and if my Lord of Ormond in this interim do accommodate well I take it he hath always had good understanding with your Lordship So as all things are not only whole and entire but of favourable aspect towards your Lordship if you now chuse well wherein in your wisdom you will remember there is a great difference in choice of the persons as you shall think the affairs to incline to composition or to war For your care-taking popular conceit hath been that Irish causes have been much neglected whereby the very reputation of better care will be a strength And I am sure her Majesty and my Lords of the Councel do not think their care dissolved when they have chosen whom to imploy but that they will proceed in a spirit of State and not leave the main point to discretion Then if a Resolution be taken a Consultation must proceed and the Consultation must be governed upon Information to be had from such as know the place and matters in fact And in taking of information I have always noted there is a skill and a wisdom For I cannot tell what accompt or inquiry hath been taken of Sir William Russel of Sir Ralph Bingham of the Earl of Tomond of Mr. Wilbraham but I am of opinion much more would be had of them if your Lordship shall be pleased severally to confer not obiter but expresly upon some Caveat given them to think of it before for bene docet qui prudenter interrogat For the points of opposing them I am too much a stranger to the business to deduce them but in a Topique methinks the pertinent interrogations must be either of the possibility and means of Accord or of the nature of the War or of the reformation of the particular abuses or of the joyning of practice with force in the disunion of the Rebels If your Lordship doubt to put your sickle in others mens harvests yet consider you have these advantages First Time being fit to you in Mr. Secretaries absence Next Vis unita fortior Thirdly â—he business being mixt with matters of war it is fittest for you Lastly I know your Lordship will carry it with that modesty and respect towards aged Dignity and that good correspondencie towards my dear Ally and your good friend now abroad as no inconveniencie may grow that way Thus have I plaid the ignorant Statesman which I do to no body but your Lordship except I do it to the Queen sometimes when she trains me on But your Lordship will accept my duty and good meaning and secure me touching the privateness of that I write Your Lordships to be commanded FR. BACON Sir Francis Bacon to the Earl of Essex concerning the Earl of Tyrone THose advertisements which your Lordship imparted to me and the like I hold to be no more certain to make judgment upon then a Patients water to a Physitian Therefore for me upon one water to make a judgment were indeed like a foolish bold Mountebank or Doctor Birket Yet for willing duties sake I will set down to your Lordship what opinion sprung in my mind upon that I read The Letter from the Councel there leaning to distrust I do not much rely upon for three causes First because it is always both the grace and the safety from blame of such a Councel to erre in caution whereunto add that it may be they or some of them are not without envy towards the person who is used in treating the Accord Next because the time of this Treaty hath no shew of dissimulation for that Tyrone is now in no straits but like a Gamester that will give over because he is a winner not because he hath no more mony in his purse Lastly I do not see but those Articles whereupon they ground their suspition may as well proceed out of fear as out of falshood for the reteining of the dependance of the protracting the admission of a Sheriffe the refusing to give his son for hostage the holding from present repair to Dublin the refusing to go presently to accord without including O Donell and others his associates may very well come of a guilty reservation in case he should receive hard measure and not out of treachery so as if the great person be faithfull and that you have not here some present intelligence of present succours from Spain
defuit unum I therefore whom onely love and duty to your Majestie and your royal line hath made a Financier do intend to present unto your Majestie a perfect book of your estate like a perspective glasse to draw your estate neer to your sight beseeching your Majestie to conceive that if I have not attained to do that that I would do in this which is not proper for me nor in my element I shall make your Majestie amends in some other thing in which I am better bred God ever preserve c. The Lord Chancellour to the Marquesse of Buckingham 25. March 1620. My very good Lord YEsterday I know was no day Now I hope I shall hear from your Lordship who are my anchor in these flouds Mean while to ease my heart I have written to his Majestie the inclosed which I pray your Lordship to read advisedly and to deliver it or not to deliver it as you think Good God ever prosper your Lordship Yours ever what I am Fr. St. Alban Canc. The Lord Chancellour to the King March 25. 1620. It may please your most excellent Majestie TIme hath been when I have brought unto you Gemitum Columbae from others now I bring it from my self I flie unto your Majestie with the wings of a Dove which once within these seven daies I thought would have carrried me a higher flight When I enter into my self I find not the materials of such a tempest as is come upon me I have been as your Majestie knoweth best never authour of any immoderate Counsel but alwaies desired to have things carried suavibus modis I have been no avaritious oppressor of the people I have been no haughty or intolerable or hateful man in my conversation or carriage I have inherited no hatred from my father but am a good Patriot born Whence should this be for these are the things that use to raise dislikes abroad For the house of Commons I began my Credit there and now it must be the place of the Sepulture thereof And yet this Parliament upon the Message touching Religion the old love revived and they said I was the same man still onely honesty was turned into honour For the Upper House even within these daies before these troubles they seemed as to take me into their arms finding in me ingenuity which they took to be the true streight line of noblenesse without Crooks or angles And for the briberies and guifts wherewith I am charged when the books of hearts shall be opened I hope I shall not be found to have the troubled fountain of a corrupt heart in a depraved habit of taking rewards to pervert Justice howsoever I may be frail and partake of the abuses of the Times And therefore I am resolved when I come to my answer not to trick my innocency as I writ to the Lords by Cavillations or voidances but to speak to them the language that my heart speaketh to me in excusing extenuating or ingenuous confessing praying God to give me the grace to see to the bottom of my faults and that no hardnesse of heart do steal upon me under shew of more neatnesse of Conscience then is Cause But not to trouble your Majestie any longer craving pardon for this long mourning Letter that which I thirst after as the Hart after the streams is that I may know by my matchlesse friend that presenteth to you this letter your Majesties heart which is an abyssus of goodnesse as I am an abyssus of mercy towards me I have been ever your man and counted my self but as an usufructuary of my self the property being yours And now making my self an oblation to do with me as may best conduce to the honour of your Justice the honour of your Mercy and the use of your Service resting as Clay in your Majesties gracious hands Fr. St. Alban Canc. Magdibeg to his Majestie May it please your most excellent Majestie I Make bold after a long silence to prostrate my self before your Majestie and being the Ambassadour of a great King that counteth it an honour to stile himself your friend I do beseech you to afford me that justice which I am sure you will not refuse to the meanest of your Subjects At my first arrival into this your happy Kingdome I was informed by the general relation of all that had recourse unto me that one here who had the title of Ambassadour from my Master did vainly brag that he had married the King of Persia's Neece which kindled in me such a vehement desire to vindicate my Masters honor from so unworthy and false a report that at my first interview with him my hand being guided by my dutie I endeavoured to fasten upon him a Condigne disgrace to such an imposture But the caution that I ought to have of my own justification when I return home biddeth me the more strictly to examine the truth of that which was told me whereon my action with Sir Robert Shirley was grounded and to have it averred in the particulars as well as by a general voice Therefore I humbly beseech your Majestie that out of your Princely goodnesse you will be pleased to give such order that this point may be fully cleared Wherein for the manner of proceeding I wholly and humbly remit my self to your Majestie And this being done I shall return home with some measure of joy to ballance the grief which I have for having done ought that may have clouded your Majesties favour to me And so committing your Majestie to the protection of the greatest God whose shadowes and elect instruments Kings are on earth I humbly take my leave and rest c. The Copy of a Letter written by his Majestie to the Lord Keeper the Bishops of London Wynton Rochester St. Davids and Excester Sir Henry Hubbert Mr. Justice Dodderidge Sir Henry Martin and Dr. Steward or any six of them whereof the Lord Keeper the Bishops of London Wynton and St. Davids to be four IT is not unknown unto you what happened the last Summer to our trusty and welbeloved Councellour the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury who shooting at a Deer with a Crossebowe in Bramzil Park did with that shoot casually give the Keeper a wound whereof he dyed Which accident though it might have happened to any other man yet because his eminent rank and function in the Church hath as we are informed ministred occasion of some doubt as making the Cause different in his person in respect of the scandal as is supposed we being desirous as it is fit we should to be satisfied therein and reposing especial trust in your learnings and judgments have made choice of you to inform Us concerning the nature of this Cause and do therefore require you to take presently into your Considerations the Scandal that may arise thereupon and to certifie Us what in your Judgements the same may amount unto either to an irregularity or otherwise And lastly what means may be found for the
him too unsufferably God from Heaven blesse you Remember your Deanerie and Dean of Westminster c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning the Earl Marshals place 1. Septemb. 1621. My most Noble Lord I Beseech your Lordship to interpret this Letter well and fairly which no malice though never so provoked but my duty to his Majestie and love to your Lordship hath drawn from me both which respects as long as I keep inviolably I will not omit for the fear of any man or the losse of any thing in this world to do any act which my Conscience shall inform me to belong unto that place wherein the King by your favour hath intrusted me I received this morning two Commands from his Majestie the one about a Pension of 2000 l. yearly and the other concerning the office of the Earle Marshal both conferred on the Right Honourable the Earle of Arundel For the former although this is a very unseasonable time to receive such large Pensions from so bountiful a King and that the Parliament so soon approaching is very like to take notice thereof and that this pension might under the correction of your better judgment have been conveniently deferred until that Assembly had been over Yet who am I that should question the wisedom and bounty of my Master I have therefore sealed the same praying secretly unto God to make his Majestie as abounding in wealth as he is in goodnesse But the latter I dare not seale my good Lord until I heare your Lordships resolution to these few Questions Whether his Majestie by expressing himself in the delivery of the staffe to my Lord of Arundel that he was moved thereunto for the easing of the rest of the Comissioners who had before the execution of that office did not imply that his Majestie intended to impart unto my Lord no greater power then was formerly granted to the Lords Comissioners If it were so this Pattent should not have exceeded their Pattent whereas it doth inlarge it self beyond that by many dimensions Whether it is his Majesties meaning that the Pattent leaping over the powers of the three last Earles Essex Shrewsbery and Sommerset should refer onely to my Lords own Ancestors Howards and Mowbrayes Dukes of Norfolk who clamed this place by a way of inheritance The usual reference of Pattents being unto the last and immediate predecessour and not unto the remote whose powers in those unsettled and troublesome times are vage uncertain and unpossible to be limited Whether it is his Majesties meaning that this great Lord should bestow those offices settled of a long time in the Crown Sir Edward Zouch his in the Court Sir George Reinel's in the Kings Bench and divers others All which this new Pattent doth sweep away being places of great worth and dignity Whether that his Majesties meaning and your Lordships that my Lord Stewards place shall be for all his power of Judicature in the Verge either altogether extinguished or at leastwise subordinated unto this new Office A point considerable because of the greatnesse of that person and his neernesse in bloud to his Majestie and the Prince his Highnesse Lastly Whether it be intended that the offices of the Earl Marshal of England and the Marshal of the Kings house which seem in former times to have been distinct offices shall be now united in this great Lord A power limited by no Law or Record but to be searcht out from Chronicles Antiquaries Heralds and such obsolete Monuments and thereupon held these 60 years for my Lord of Essex his power was clearly bounded and limited unfit to be revived by the policy of this State These Questions if his Majestie intended onely the renewing of this Commission of the Earl Marshals in my Lord of Arundel are material and to the purpose But if his Majestie aymed withal at the reviving of this old office A la ventura whose face is unknown to the people of this age upon the least intimation from your Lordship I will seal the Patent And I beseech your Lordship to pardon my discretion in this doubt and irresolution It is my place to be wary what innovation passeth the Seal I may offend that great Lord in this small stay but your Lordship cannot but know how little I lose when I lose but him whom without the least cause in the world I have irreconcileably lost already All that I desire is that you may know what is done and I will ever do what your Lordship being once informed shall direct as becometh c. That there is a difference betwixt the Earl Marshal and the Marshall of the Kings house See Lamberts Archiron or of the High Courts of Justice in England Circa Medium The Marshal of England and the Constable are united in a Court which handleth onely Duels out of the Realm matters within the Realm as Combats Blazon Armorie c. but it may meddle with nothing tryable by the Lawes of the Land The Marshal of the Kings Houshold is united in a Court with the Seneschal or Steward which holds plea of Trespasses Contracts and Covenants made within the Verge and that according to the Lawes of the Land Vid. Artic. Super Cart. C. 3. 4. 5. We do all of us conceive the King intended the first place only for this great Lord and the second to remain in the Lord Stewards managing But this new Patent hath comprehended them both This was fit to be presented to your Lordship The Lord Keeper to the Duke 16. Decemb. 1621. Most Noble Lord I Have seen many expressions of your love in other mens Letters where it doth most naturally and purely declare it self since I received any of mine own It is much your Lordship should spare me those thoughts which pour out themselves in my occasions But to have me and my affaires in a kind of affectionate remembrance when your Lordship is saluting of other Noble men is more then ever I shall be able otherwaies to requite then with true prayers and best wishes I received this afternoon by Sir John Brook a most loving Letter from your Lordship but dated the 26th of Novemb. imparting your care over me for the committing of one Beeston for breach of a Decree My Noble Lord Decrees once made must be put in execution or else I will confesse this Court to be the greatest imposture and Grievance in this Kingdom The damned in Hell do never cease repining at the Justice of God nor the prisoners in the Fleet at the Decrees in Chancery of the which hell of prisoners this one for antiquity and obstinacy may passe for a Lucifer I neither know him nor his cause but as long as he stands in Contempt he is not like to have any more liberty His Majesties last Letter though never so full of honey as I find by passages reported out of the same being as yet not so happy as to have a sight thereof hath notwithstanding afforded those Spiders which infest that noble
Prince and the Church of England It remains now that I should as I will religiously obey whatsoever I shall be directed in the sequel of this businesse And so I rest c. Postscript MY Lord Mr. Murray since came unto me to whom I shewed this Letter and told him I would send it unto you to be shewed unto the King and the Prince I find him willing to run all courses Priesthood onely excepted If the King will dispence with him my Letter notwithstanding I humbly beseech his Majestie to write a Letter unto me as a warrant to admit him only Ad Curam et Regimen Collegii instead of the other words Ad Curam animarum I schooled him soundly against Puritanisme which he disavowes though somewhat faintly I hope his Highnesse and the King will second it The Lord Keeper to the Duke about the Liberties of Westminster 6. May. 1621. My most Noble Lord I Humbly beseech your Lordship to be a little sensible of those injurious affronts offered without any shew of equity unto this poor Liberty of VVestminster And for Gods sake let me not want that protection which not your Lordship only but the two Cicils and the Earl of Sommerset who neither regarded the Church Learning nor Honour in any measure as you do have ever afforded every Dean of this Church When I had to my thinking given the Knight Marshal full and too much satisfaction this day a Letter was offered to the Table in my presence violently pursued by the Lord Steward and the Earl Marshal to command this liberty which had stood unquestioned these 700 years to shew reason to Mr. Attourney and Mr. Solliciter why they prescribe against the Knight Marshal A Course as my Lord President said openly not to be offered to any subject of England It is our Charter and freehold of inheritance to be shewed only in a Court of Justice and at the Kings Bench which we are very ready to do And we may as well be questioned by a Letter from the Councel for all the Land we have as for this My Lord the jurisdiction of this place brings not a penny to my purse but it hath brought much sorrow to my heart and now teares to my eyes that I should be that unfortunate Contemptible man who for all the King and your Lordships favour and the true pains I take in answer thereunto must be trampled down above all the Deans that lived in this place Nor would it ever grieve me if I had deserved it from these Lords by the least disrespect in all the world I beseech you for the Churches sake and your Honours sake to be sensible hereof and to know of the Bishop of Winchester London Duresme Mr. Packer or Sir Robert Pye whether ever any question hath been made to this liberty in this kind If a Letter had been recorded to question the same when the Lord Admiral was Steward and the Lord Keeper Dean thereof judge you in your Wisdom what would become thereof in future posterity c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke Aug. 23. 1622. My most noble Lord YEsterday upon the receipt of your Lordships Letters of the 19th of this instant concerning the hastning of the businesse of the original Writs I sent presently for Mr. Attourney and Mr. Solliciter who were altogether unprovided for their parts of the dispatch and are casually forced so to be because three several Officers in whose records they are to search are now out of Town and do not return yet these 7. daies But your Lordship shall not fail to have all things concluded 3. weeks before the Term and I will of purpose put off all general sealing until it be effected In the mean time your Lordships Letter notwithstanding it will be nothing for your Lordships case to have Sir George Chaworth any way interested in this office of the originals but I hold it fitter to leave it as it is in Law and Equity forfeited for non-payment of rent in his Majesties hands for upon that issue I do not doubt but my Lord of St. Albons and Sir George will be content to hear reason I have received extraordinary respects and expressions from my Noble Lord the Lord Marquesse Hamilton which doth exceedingly comfort and encourage me to go on with some more alacrity through the difficulties of this restlesse place I beseech your Lordship who is Causa Causarum the first Cause that sets all these other Causes of my Comforts in Going to take notice of the same and to undertake this favour to be placed upon a poor honest hearted man who would if he were any way able requite it Gods blessings and the prayers of a poor Bishop ever attend your Lordship c. Postscript THe Spanish Embassadour took the alarum very speedily of the titulary Romish Bishop and before my departure from his house at Islington whither I went privately to him did write both to Rome and Spain to prevent it Sir Tobie Mathewes But I am afraid that Tobie will prove but an Apocryphal and no Canonical intelligencer acquainting the State with this project for the Jesuites rather then for Jesus sake The Lord Keeper to the Duke about the Lord Treasurer Septemb. 9th 1622. My most Noble Lord THat I neither wrote unto your Lordship nor waited upon your Lordship sithence my intolerable scandalizing by the Lord Treasurer this is the true and only cause I was so moved to have all my diligent service pains and unspotted justice thus rewarded by a Lord who is reputed wise that I have neither slept read written or eaten any thing since that time until the last night that the Ladies sent for me I believe of purpose to VVallingford house and put me out of my humour I have lost the love and affection of my men by seizing upon their Papers perusing all their answers to Petitions casting up their moneys received by way of fees even to half Crowns and two shillings and finding them all to be poor honest Gentlemen that have maintained themselves in my service by the greatnesse of my pains and not the greatnesse of their fees They are most of them landed men that do not serve me for gain but for experience and reputation And desire to be brought to the Test to shew their several books and to be confronted by any one man with whom they contracted or from whom they demanded any Fee at all The greatest summe in their books is five pounds and those very few and sent unto them from Earls and Barons All the rest are some 20 s. 10 s. 5 s. 2 s. 6 d. and 2 s. And this is the oppression in my house that the Kingdom of the Common Lawyers peradventure who have lost I confesse hereby 20000 l. at the least saved in the purses of the Subjects doth now groan under Now I humbly beseech your Lordship to peruse this paper here inclosed and the issue I do joyn with the Lord Treasurer and to acquaint at
my sorrow and affliction that I have no matter or occasion at all wherein to shew actuallie my affections and earnest desires to comply with my bounden duty in serving your Grace and humbly to desire your Grace to believe that there is no soul living shall do it more sincere-ly and faithfully to the utmost of my understanding then my self will do I add this Caution the rather because if ever I have offended your Grace I take Almighty God to witnesse it was onely forwant of a perfect understanding of those high matters and the persons bent whom they concerned not out of any corruption of affections towards your Grace or the least staggering in a conti nued resolution to live and die your Graces most constant and most faithful servant This God in heaven who seeth what I now write and the King and Prince upon earth do perfectly know and I nothing doubt it will acknowledg unto your Grace And thus with my most humble thanks unto your Grace for that assurance I received that I remain though unimployed and unprofitablely yet in your Graces good affection I beseech Almighty God to preserve your health and to increase your favour day by day with God with the King with the Prince and with all good men The daily vowes of c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning the Countesse of South hampton 17. Novemb. 1624. May it please your Grace I Know how few arguments I need to use to perswade your Grace to works of Noblenesse and charity Your fashion hath been ever since my happinesse of dependance upon you to outrun and prevent all petitions in this kind Yet pardon my boldnesse to be an humble suitor unto your Grace to go on as I know you have already begun in extending your Grace and goodnesse towards the most distressed widdow and children of my Lord of South-hampton Your Grace cannot do any work of charity more approved of by God more acceptable unto men and that shall more recommend the memory of your Noblenesse to future posterity Sir VVilliam Spencer the onely Sollicitor this sorrowful Lady hath now to imploy will present some particulars unto your Grace whom God ever preserve in all health and happinesse And so c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 11. Octob. 1624. May it please your Grace VVIth my most humble and hearty thanks for all your favours extended and multiplyed daily towards me in sicknesse and health which are such and so many that although I trust in God I shall never prove so inhumane as to fail in any service or faithfulnesse to your Grace I must for all that ever live and die ungrateful I thought fit to return unto your Grace this account of the message received by your Grace's Steward I spake with that Lord and although he seemed to be quite off from the businesse and had to my knowledg disposed of his money for a great and a fair purchase here in London and was resolved never to touch any more upon VVatt Steward who had touched somewhat of his and with whom he had agreed for 4000 l. yet hearing the proposition to come so intirely from me as proceeding immediately from your Grace whose good favours this Lord I protest unto your Grace hath earnestly desired and if at any time he hath straggled aside from the Prince's desires and yours it was merely and solely because he thought he was not so much relied upon as others of his rank He promiseth me sometime to morrow a reasonable answer His material Objections were these 1. Quantity of the money so as first and last he is out 16000 l. whereas Cavendish his Countryman and neighbour got up from a Gentleman for 14000 l. I answered That I observed your Grace never got by any of these bargains but that in this compasse of a year or two your favours exceed any gratuity presented 2. Precedencie before VVallingford and especially Vane I did promise for your service to dispute the latter but could say nothing to the former because he was a Viscount and his far ancienter Baron 3. Your Grace's favour and reflection upon himself bred up in the experience of war and peace and upon his sons all of them well bred but most towards the War I did answer generally that upon his application of himself towards your Grace I made little doubt but he should receive good satisfaction in those expectances 4. Times of payment I told him I knew he would demand but a convenient time therein and that I knew your Grace would never stand upon If I have erred in any of these addresses I pray let your Steward come and reform me therein as also to tell me whether if I find him coming forward I may not say unto him That your Lordship upon a former motion of mine was willing upon the next change of the Commission for the Councel of the War to adde him unto the number I propose this 1. Because 't is a new thing 2. Because he desires some excuse unto the World by reason of some future services why his Majestie should receive him unto this honour I have wearied my self and by this time which doth lesse become me your Grace too I beseech your Grace to pardon the blottings and extravagancies my head being yet but meanly settled I beseech God to blesse your Grace And so c. Postscript MAy it please your Grace this Lord hath returned his answer which in good faith seemeth to be with due respect unto your Grace 1. That although the place was offered him for 4000 l. yet because the Offer proceeds from your Grace which he voweth to esteem as an especial favour as long as he liveth he will pay to whom you shall assign 5000 l. and account it a real obligation of service to your Grace for ever if you shall remit him the other thousand pound 2. That for the time with humble thanks for your noble favour which becometh not him to take in appointing the time he returns it to your Grace to nominate two daies of payment as your Steward or the person assigned shall think meet and fit for your Graces occasions desiring some small respite for the former but as little as the party please afterwards for the second payment for his Lordship will send in for his moneys forthwith And he will give his bonds or which I hold superfluous from so sure a Card his Morgage in present for both payments 3. If your Grace shall make him your servant with this favour so nobly condition'd he hopes your Grace may proceed on with his Patent thus forward without any stay for any other Corrival which notwithstanding he humbly refers 4. But desires if his presentment be accepted he may have leave by me to render his thanks unto your Grace personally sometime to morrow And so I leave your Grace for this time in Gods protection And rest Yours c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 24. December 1624. My most
come that opinion doth so govern as strangers get the Command and new Souldiers imployed which was never heard of before amongst men of our occupation It is high time for me to retire and wish I had been of any other profession then this For if long service can get no honour nor reward not imployment but the contrary it would touch a mans discretion to be more and more unfortunate All my comfort is that I shall have the honour and good fortune in my retreat to draw neerer to your Excellencies service if not in my profession which I desire above all yet in something whereof your Excellencie may make use of me For I am ambitious of nothing more then to prove my self by action and not by recommendation Your Excellencies most faithful devoted and humble servant Ed. Cecyl From our Army at Wallike the 4th of Decemb. Sir Edward Cecil to Mr. Secretary Conway My very good Lord IT hath pleased your Lordship to write me three Letters lately the one a particular list of officers that should be sent from hence the second for Mr. Hapton the third an acknowledgement onely of the receipt of my Letter to your Lordship The first I have put in execution and have written to your son Sir Edward Conway to give them all notice of your Lordships Care of them And to let them know how welcome any one shall be to me that you think fit to be imployed For one of them called Ensign Rainesford I had set him down because I received your Lordships direction from himself For Mr. Hopton I have written unto him according to your desire with your Letter inclosed concerning the last I give your Lordship many humble thanks for having expressed the acceptance by your answer Touching your businesse here the State hath ben as contrary to us as the wind For though they see a great action likely to be performed to their own good with little cost to themselves yet they desire to be so wise as to make benefit both wayes and not to balk any advantage which makes them stand so stiff upon the denying of us Officers and Soulders by election and will yield to send none but whole companies onely to abate so much upon the repartitions But Sir William St. Leiger and I have utterly refused their offer as a proposition against his Majesties service for by this ignorant winter war our Companies are grown half new men having lost most of our old and of those new men the half are sick besides So that his Majestie should be beholden to them rather for names then men And again for the Officers and Soulders it is like they should be most of them the worst in the regiment from whence they are to come Whereas if we might have had those Officers we made choice of which were but ten Captaines and other inferiour Officers to the number of thirty they might have been fit for imployment upon a double enemy And I could wish that whensoever his Majestie shall be once furnished with Good Officers it would please him to make account of them as these men do who have had long experience and known their Value It pleased my Lord the Duke to write to me a Letter and to let me know he had chosen me his Officer to attend and obey him this journy an honour too great for me because I did never expect it but nothing shall excuse my faults saving my life And among many other directions he commanded me to provide for the Army such necessary things as cannot be had in England Whereof I have thought of many which I fear I shall not have the time to get In my care belonging to these provisions I have considered the use of our small pieces of Ordinance here which they call Drakes that shoot 70. Musket bullets They will be of great use in this service both in regard of the quick landing and of the passing of such mountainous places as perhaps we may meet withal and likewise in respect of the little hope we have to get any good musquetiers or at least any great store of them But they are in such favour here as we can obtain none from hence and so are forced by a general consent to buy ten of them here that were provided for the King of France And the reputation they carrie is such as they are readie mony every where They cost not much more then 400. sterling and I hope they will prove the profitablest pieces that were ever used in the quarrel of his Maiesties Friends We have likewise considered of what service a company of Firelocks would be to the action but the time is so short we cannot raise them Howsoever we are promised of the States to have leave for a companie of Harquebussiers which are of such use upon all occasions that we cannot misse them And we have chose a brave and worthie Gentleman his Majesties Servant and Subject who is willing to leave any service for this being the service of the King If they should have been raised in England his Majestie must have payed for the horses armes saddles and pistols and yet not find any able to have served in that kind The wind as yet holds contrary which hath made me send this by Sir Henry Vane who goes a way that I dare not passe But I hope if the wind serve not to be many dayes behind him to receive your Lordships command more particularly which I will obey as Your Lordships most humble Servant Ed Cecyl Hagh 2. June 1625. Postscript MY Lord now in this time of necessity for the getting of good Musquetiers there are many hundred to be found in England that have served in this Land which by proclamation and promise of mony in hand or more pay will easily discover themselves whom some of the new men to be released will be glad to satisfy without charge to his Majestie Sir Edward Cecyl to the Duke My most excellent Lord THere are some Letters of mine that had come to your Lorships hands a good many dayes since had not the wind been contrary and withstood their passage The substance whereof was onely to shew you how thankful I hold my self to your excellencie for so great and infinite a favour as it hath pleased your excellencie to think me worthie of But as is it a favour that will set me on work all the dayes of my life so is it greater then I can ever deserve Howsoever my resolution is to do my best And I humbly beseech your Excellencie to believe that with my diligence and the best understanding I have I will seek nothing but to please you and to honour you and if God say Amen to make the world speak of your design as much I hope as ever our Nation hath given cause And for the faults of my self and those I shall bring with me they shall not be excused but with our lives and bloods for I hope I shall bring none
but such as know what to do and when they come to it will bite sooner then bark I do promise my self your Excellencie will have no cause to doubt or repent you of your favours for I know what men have done and what they can do in my occupation But God is God and men are but men All my discouragement is that the States answer not his Majesties expectation being fearful especially since the losse of Breda to part with any of their old Officers or old Souldiers but my hope is now better for we have put them to another resolution by answering all their objections By this disposition of the States to the keeping all their old Souldiers I wish your Excellencie will be pleased to be as careful in your choice as you are desirous of great designs For otherwise the honour and the charge will both be cast away as your Excellencie may perceive in some of our latter expeditions seeing that although there are many called Souldiers in the world yet but a few there be that are so for so long a man must live in the profession to inable him sufficiently that many grow unable to perform what they know before they have attained to the knowledge of what to perform The knowledge of war being the highest of humane things that God suffereth mans understanding to reach unto I have according to your Excellencies command made as many provisions as I can for the shortnesse of the time of such things as cannot be gotten in England And I could have wished I had known of this imployment but some months sooner for then I could have saved his Majesty somewhat and have added many things that would very much have advanced the service For in our profession the preparing of things belonging to the war doth more shew a mans experience and judgment then any thing else by reason the first errours are the begetting of many more that afterwards cannot be avoided Your Exellencie may be pleased to inform your self of all the exployts and undertakings of our nation that none of them hath suffered for the most part more then through the negligence of provisions as in victual munition boats for Landing and for the receiving of sick men to keep the rest from infection In this point of provision it is not good to trust upon a particular man for gain is a corrupter where the care is not publique And in so great an expedition one must do with living men as they do with the dead there must be overseers and executors to have a true intent well performed I have presumed to write thus much to shew my thankfulnesse to your Excellencie and my great affection to his Majesties service whereof I am infinitely possessed I hear your Excellencie is in France but my prayers to God are to send you safe and happie home for the World holds you the soule of advancing his Majesties affairs wherein his Honour is ingaged as it is especially in this action being the first and a Great One. And as for my self who am now a creature you have made I know not what I shall do when I come to England being your Excellencies shadow only I have here attended the wind and since I cannot force it I am glad of the opportunitie to send the Letters by Sir Henry Vane who goes over Land a Passage I am not capable of having been so long their enemie But I hope God will send me soon after leaving Sir William St. Leiger here for the dispatch of that which remains I have written more particularly to my Lord Conway which I dare not set down here for fear of being tedious and knowing his Lordship will give your Excellencie an account of it And so in all humblenesse and dutie I pray God send your Excellency honour and length of life for his Majestie 's affairs and for the happinesse of Your Lordships most humble faithful and obedient servant Ed. Cecill Hagh the 3d. of June 1625. Sir Edward Cecil to the Duke My most Excellent Lord THe occasion of my boldnesse in presenting your Excellency with these lines is for that contrary to my expectation I hear that there is a Commission a drawing to make Sir Horace Vere a Baron of England It is strange to me at this time to hear it for that I know not what worth there is more in him then in those that are equal in profession and before him in birth If your Excellencie have made choice of me to be your second in this journey of so much charge and expectation and to make me lesse then I was what courage shall I have to do you service or what honour will redound to your Excellencie But although I write it yet I cannot believe it for that I know you of that judgment and noblenesse that you will rather adde to your faithful servants although they beg it not then to disgrace them and make them lesse Therefore I will continue my belief and rest Your Excellencies most humble and devoted servant Ed. Cecill 19. of July 1625. My Lord Wimbledon to the Duke My Gratious Lord IT hath not a little troubled your faithful servant at my last being with your Excellencie in White-Hall Garden to understand after I had attended so long that I had ill offices done me to his Majestie and yet the World is of opinion that I have your Excellencies favor I presently went home and ever since I have mused and considered and can find no reason or policie for my being kept from his Majesties presence which maketh me and my neer friends astonished For hitherto I have received no favour but rather the most strictest proceeding that ever was used and without example to any man that had such a charge And whereas there is no Commission of any force or validitie without the assistance of the State and Prince he serveth for he that Commandeth is but one man and the rest are many thousands which are great oddes yet I have been publiquely heard before the whole body of the Councel my adversaries standing by so curiously as no inquisition could have done more For first I was examined upon mine instructions then upon my acts of Councel then upon my journal then upon a journal compounded of by ten sundry persons which were under my Command both Landmen and Seamen which was never heard of before and I did not only answer in particular to all points that were demanded but by writing which is extant yet cannot I get any judgment or report made to his Majestie but rather time is given to my enemies as I hear to make an ill report of me and my actions to the King But when I was to be accused there was no time delayed nor deferred and such men as I have proved guilty and failed in the principal point of the service to have fired and destroyed the Shipping are neither examined or any thing said against them which is strange especially Sir Michael Geere So that
of his Majesties Person in all happinesse and prosperity in all humility I take leave And rest Your Honours Most faithfully to command Isaac Wake Turin 5 15 of Octob. 1619. Sir Isaac Wake to the Duke Right Honourable and my very singular good Lord IN these parts we have nothing of moment worthy the relating the storms which do vex our neighbours round about us keeping us here in calme and quiet as it were per antiperistasin Howsoever I am of opinion that we shall enter into the Dance either actively or passively before the next summer passe over All over Italy there doth raign a great dearth which did lately cause in Naples a dangerous Cullevation of the people against the Cardinal Zappata Vice-Roy who had somewhat to do to save himself from the fury of the Popolarzo In the State of Millan likewise some insurrections were beginning to be made in Novarra Allessandria and Cremona both for want of bread and for the insolencie of the Garrison Souldiers who having had no pay for many moneths did commit many violent excesses upon the people which did drive them into despair but those Commotions were appeased betimes and no great matter of Consideration hath ensued although there are some neighbour Princes who did stand aux Escoutes and would be ready to have acted a troublesome part if the scene had been ready The Duke of Parma hath imprisoned his natural son Don Octavio the mysterie whereof is not well known but it must needs be for some great matter because he did make shew to love him passionately The Infanta Isabella of Modena hath been in danger of her life by being surprized with a violent feaver neer the time of her child-birth from hence the Duke of Savoy sent his Physitians to help her and we hear now that she hath escaped that danger and is safely delivered of a daughter Count Mansfelt is grown formidable and doth daily increase in strength and reputation Although he hath hitherto intitled his armes unto the service of the King of Bohemia yet I believe he will neither disarm nor suspend his arms when he shall be commanded so to do by that King For being now intertained by the State of Venice with an honourable provision of 12000 Crowns per annum in peace during his life and the pay of 10000 Foot and 2000 horse in the time of War he will try what he can do for the infranchising of the Grisons when the affairs of the Palatinate shall be accommodated And if the Austriaci do not bend all their forces against him very speedily and break his Armie before it grow more strong he is like to give them a greater blow then they have had these many yeares That which he hath gotten already in Alsatia is much more worth then the lower Palatinate and although he hath hitherto made those people to swear Allegiance unto the King of Bohemia yet when the said King shall make his peace with the Emperour it may be doubted whether Count Mansfelt will resign up what he hath conquered and it is thought that he will either keep it for himself or intitle some other Prince thereunto The Austriaci were never so matched as with Count Mansfelt for he is a perpetual motion and doth not stand upon the defensive as others have done hitherto and lost by the bargain hut he is alwaies setting upon them and doth make War at their cost let them take heed how they proceed with him for he who hath nothing to lose is ready to hazard the Paquet upon all occasions And if he do chance to overthrow them once in battel they will run danger or lose all that they have in Germany Let me in all humility beseech your Lordship to continue me in the honor of your good opinion and to favour me with your honourable protection especially with a good word to my Lord Treasurer for the sending me some relief without which I cannot possibly subsist having for want of my pay consumed all that I had in the world God Almighty increase upon your Lordship all happinesse and prosperity as is unfainedly wished unto you by him that is Your Lordships most humble obliged Creature and Servant Isaac Wake Turin 13 23. of Febr. 1621. Sir Isaac VVakes Proposition for the King of Denmark IT seemeth that the Glorie of this State which at all times was great doth shine brighter now adayes since that besides so many Neighbouring Kings and Princes whereof some are in a made league with us and some do keep a good correspondence and all a good intelligence with us Now the friendship of your Highnesse is sought by the mighty King of Denmark a monarch of those nations that in time past have left their remembrance of their prowesse in Italie France Spain and in whole Europe behind them This Great King of the North who like a Second Atlas holds up the Artick-pole rich in treasure numerous in men dreadful for his invincible generosity and Courage doth here offer himself unto your Highnesse And acquainting you of his actions doth confidently promise you to stand firm and stout in the defence of the common cause if so be that he receive that assistance as he hath reason to expect from those that are interested in the same cause His Majestie of Denmark hath had from the King my Master as much as can be given and it is no small matter that his Majestie of great Brittain doth still continue the same assistance having withall still those great expences that are required for the surety of his Realmes and for the offence of the common enemie His Majestie of France hath also contributed to this good work somewhat and there is great hope that he will bring forth in a short time some fit remedie against this evill The Lords States do as much as they are able And the Princes of Low Saxonie do not want in their duties There remaineth now that your Highnesse put also your powerful hand to this work and with a vigorous succour worthie of your great heart do incourage all the rest to continue their Emprese The two Kings are not ignorant of the great sincerity wherewith this most Excellent State doth observe the capitulations made with Allies of the league and that rather then to be wanting in things agreed upon you have surpassed in necessarie provisions for the advancement of the designs and that you have not been partakers nor agreers of the treaty made at Moncon But that you do continue to keep some forces in your Dominions and likewise some troops in the Valtoline for the effecting as much as is in you of what was first thought fit and of the agreement of the League And as that generous resolution and constancie of this State is never enough praised so there is great hope that you will not bring this same in the reckoning of the two Kings who never will misse to praise the wisdome and generositie of this State though not obliged for
John hath changed his purpose of going and his excuse will be made at his intreatie by his Excellencie who hath since let me know Though he would not deny me his leave yet he is better content in regard he is so slenderly accompanied with Colonels in a time when the State hath need of their service with his stay So as Sir John hath the obligation to your Lordship of a favourable recommendation and for his not prevailing himself of his leave when it was granted I must leave to himself to render a reason For my part having accomplished what I find by your Lordships Letter to be agreeable both to his Majesties pleasure your Lordships I thought it my dutie to advertize That there is an ancient difference between Sir Horacio Vere and Sir Edward Cecyl about the extent of their Commands whereupon followeth a great inconveniencie to the dishonor of our Nation which as it appears when they were last in the field before Reez are divided hereby and march and lodge in several bodies and quarters Much endeavour hath been formerly used in these parts to reconcile them but all in vain by reason of some ill Instruments who wrought upon both their discontents to set them farther asunder Now they are both in England and are both written for to come over It were a work worthy of your Lordship to make them understand one another better and what they will not yeeld to of themselves to over-rule by his Majesties authoritie I may not conceal from your Lordship that I am intreated by the Prince of Orange himself to do this office both with his Majestie and your Lordship wherein he would not be seen himself because having dealt between them fruitlesly heretofore he doubteth of the like successe now But when their agreement shall be made he will acknowledge his obligation to your Lordship and for the better proceeding therein I sent your Lordship a Copie of an order formerly set down betwixt them with the translate of Sir Horacio Vere's Commission both which I had of his Excellencie and likewise the beginning and proceeding of their difference as I have collected the same in brief out of other mens reports The projects I sent your Lordship with my last of a West-Indian Companie having been proposed to the States of Guelderland for their ratification who have the leading voice in the Assemblie of the States general end were ever least forward in that businesse hath thus far their allowance that they will concur therein with the rest of the Provinces But withal I do understand they have given their Deputies secret charge not to give way thereunto in case they find it prejudicial to the Truce Which makes the matter evident that the project of the Company though it be never so advanced will stand or fall according to the proceeding of the Truce The expiration whereof approaching so neer and here being advertisements from Paris that a French Gentleman one Belleavium who was lately imployed hither to the Prince of Orange about the difference betwixt him and the Prince of Conde had secret instructions to sound the States how they stood affected to the renewing thereof I have used all diligence to know how far he went and am well informed he hath done nothing therein of Consideration onely this past between him and his Excellencie He telling his Excellencie from Mounsieur Desdiguieres and some of the French Kings Councel how acceptable the extraordinarie Embassage intended from hence will be in that Court and thereupon perswading a speedie imbracing the opportunitie From whence said his Excellencie after his round manner cometh this alteration To speak plainly said he they fear in France you will renew the Truce without them and therefore by your Embassadours they would interpose themselves Here are good advertisements both from Bruxels and Paris that the Spaniards intent is not to renew the Truce but to have a Peace proposed with these plausible conditions That the King of Spain will pretend nothing in the Regiment of these United Provinces nor require any thing of them in the point of Religion but leave all in terms as it now stands with recognition onely of some titular Soveraigntie which he cannot in honour relinquish This is already proposed to France as a glorious work to establish a settled Peace in these parts of the world but with this condition That if it be not imbraced here then France shall refuse to give this State any further support or countenance of which it is here believed that Spain hath already obtained a firm promise in that Court. And that either the like overture is already made or will be within few daies to his Majestie Under which doth lie hidden many mysteries much to the advantage of the Spaniard and prejudice of this State for the very proposition of a new Treatie will distract them here very much in regard of their unsettlednesse and aptnesse upon any dispute to relapse into faction besides many Considerations of importance belonging properly to the Constitution of their Government but the acceptation of the old by renewing of the Truce upon the former terms for so many years more or lesse as shall be thought sitting will in my poor opinion which notwithstanding is not slenderly grounded take place without much difficultie The importance of this businesse hath made me give your Lordship this trouble and your Lordship may be pleased to let his Majestie understand as well that little as is done by Mounsieur Belleavium as what they here conceive to be further intended by the Spaniard So I most humbly take leave ever resting Your Lordships Most faithful servant Dudley Carleton Hague this 10th of June 1620. Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke Most Honourable NOt to give your Lordship the trouble of often Letters I render an account of his Majesties Commandments by the same hand I usually receive them One I had lately by an expresse Letter from his Majestie accompanied with another from your Lordship touching my Lord of Buckleugh to demand full satisfaction of the States for all his Lordships pretentions and to that effect to procure Instructions and Commission to be sent to Sir Noel Carone to end this businesse To which effect I have moved both his Excellencie and the States and whilest they were treating thereof Colonel Brogue arrived here out of Scotland with whom they are now handling to put him to Pension and to give my Lord the Command of his Regiment in lieu of his Pretensions Which when they come to calculate my Lord will find a short reckoning of them and to send accounts out of their accountants hands and refer them to others they will never be moved Wherefore if the course they now take can be gone thorough with which Colonel Brogue doth most unwillingly hear of it will be then in my Lords choice whether he will remain satisfied or not And within few daies I hope to return my Lords Secretarie with advertisement of what is
the honour to be his Majesties servant I imploy him the more willingly as able to give Account of such particularities either of this Negotiation or otherwise of which his Majestie and your Grace may require knowledge And I humbly beseech your Grace to give him encouragement by your accustomed noble favour So rests Your Graces Most humble and most devoted servant Dudley Carleton Hague 16. February 1625. Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke May it please your Grace IT were a sin against the publique service in which your Grace doth imploy your self so much to the common good and your own honour to molest you with Letters in this busie time which must serve me for excuse of silence since the beginning of the Parliament What I write now is by Commandment of the Queen of Bohemia concerning this Bearer Captain Gifford an old Seaman of our Nation who having a private suite to the States hath made a journey over hither with recommendation to me from our two Secretaries for advancement thereof but with a further purpose to be imployed by the Queen against the Spaniard in a matter of no lesse moment then taking of a Gallion which usually bringeth the treasure over the Gulph of Mexico from Nova Spagna to the Havana Which he designs after this manner To go out with two Ships and a Pinnace onely fitted for fight without more in number because of the Alarum would be taken at a greater Fleet and to lie under Covert of a small Island in the entrie of the Gulph of Mexico where the Gallion coming usually alone unlesse it be accompanied with some Merchants ships which he sets light by and which incumbred with goods and Passengers he thinks may be mastered and taken building upon the securitie in which that Gallion with the rest of that Nova Spagna Fleet do sayl scattering in the Gulph till they meet with the Fleet of Terra Firma at the Havana where he having been heretofore a prisoner made this observation and doth now offer himself to put the design in execution with a demand of betwixt 10000 and a 11000 l. for the whole equipage The Queen in recompence of his good will returns him with this addresse to your Grace as a man fit for imployment for so he is generally reputed but for the particularitie of the Exploit she doth not entertain any thought thereof but refers it wholly to your Graces Consideration and to the opportunitie according as affaires shall succeed betwixt his Majestie and Spain Here are come Letters from some of the King and Queens servants on that side and one to my self from a private friend advertizing That there is a readinesse in divers of his Majesties Subjects of good abilities to put to Sea with Letters of Mart in the name of this King and Queen against the Spaniard and of a likelihood that if such Commissions were given by these Princes they would not be ill understood by his Majestie Mounsieur Aertsens hath likewise written hither in a private Letter to the Prince of Orange that he hath been spoken with to move the States to increase the number he and his Colleague have mentioned of 10 or 12 Ships to joyn in any good occasion with his Majesties Fleet to 20 And that the purpose is to set out 50 sayl on that side and that both shall go under the name of the King and Queen of Bohemia Wherein though the motion be not directly made yet the Prince of Orange hath discoursed enough that when it shall come to issue they will stretch themselves to furnish to the full what is required on this side In both these businesses as well the granting Letters of Mart by these Princes as their lending their names to any greater Action they intend to govern themselves onely as they shall understand to concur with his Majesties pleasure and therefore hope they shall receive advice from his Highnesse and your Grace what is fit for them to contribute to such occasions as they see much to their Comforts you advance with so great care and vigilance Thus I most humbly take leave Hague 16. April 1624. Your Graces most humble and most devoted Servant Dudley Carleton Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke May it please your Grace SUch Commandments as I received from your Grace by double Dispatches of the 4th of the last by way of provision whilest Sir William Saintleiger lay sick were prevented by his own presence He bringing the first of those Packets with him and thereby had Commoditie to assist at the breaking of the businesse to the States by virtue of his Majesties Credence given him and my Lord General Cecil which since he hath sollicited both at the Camp and in this place with all possible care and industrie and I have not failed of my utmost endeavours But the unsettlednesse of this Government which still continueth since the late change of Governours hath bred delay to some and direct impediments to other points we had in charge which we have endeavoured to supply by other means And now in what state he leaves the whole businesse he will relate to your Grace Such Patents as your Grace required from the King and Queen of Bohemia I have committed to his delivery in divers forms with a Blank signed and sealed wherein to frame such an one as may be better to your minds But if your Grace make no use of it you may please to return it to me again to the end I may restore it What concerns my self I absolutely remit and submit to your Grace onely I will renew the request I made to your Grace by my Nephew That your Grace will not prefer any before me in your formerly intended favour out of belief that any can be more then I resolve to rest whilest I live a touttes Espreves Humbly and faithfully devoted to your Graces person and service Dudley Carleton Hague 20. June 1625. Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke May it please your Grace AFter long attendance the wind is come good for Plymouth which I hope will carry thither speedily and safely the States whole Fleet though in 3. parts 12 Ships with the Admiral de Nassau who hath long waited in the Tessel 4 but newly ready provided by those of Zealand at Amsterdam and 4 which have layen sometimes before the Brill whereof one is to land the Marshal Chatillion in passing by Calice the other three to Convoy the English men And Armes I send in 10. other Ships I have hired at Rotterdam before which place they have layen 20 daies a Shipboard by reason of contrary winds with some impatiencie but no disorder which what course I took to prevent as likewise what may happen in their Voyage my Lord Conway to whom I give a particular account of all will inform your Grace I have obtained leave for Sir John Proud to go the Voyage according to his Majesties Letter though it was somewhat stood upon by the States and he hath taken his passage by
Modern in Duodecimo The Office of Sheriffe◠and Coroner by J. Wilkinson of Bernards Inne with Kitchins return of VVrits newly translated into English in Octavo Synopsis or an exact Abridgment of the Lord Cook 's Commentary upon Littleton being a brief Explanation of the Grounds of the Common Law Compos'd by that learned Lawyer Sir Humphrey Davenport Knight Lord chief Baron of the Exchequer in Octavo Miscellania Spiritualia or devout Essay 's by the Honourable Walter Mountague Esquire the first Part in Quarto The History of the Civil warrs of France written in Italian by Henrico Catarino D'Avila translated into English by Sir Charles Cotterel Knight and William Aylsbury Esquire in folio Books Printed for or to be sold by M.M.G. Bedell and T. Collins at their shop at the Middle Temple Gate in Fleetstreet EAdmeri Monachi Cantuariensis Historia Novorum Joannes Seldenis Notis in Folio Mare Clausum seu Dominio Mare Joannes Seldeni in folio The History of great Brittain from the first peopling of this Island to the Reign of King James by William Slayter with the Illustrations of John Selden Esq in Folio The History of Tythes in the payment of them the Lawes made for them and touching the Right of them by John Selden Esquire in Quarto Annales or a general Chronicle of England with an Appendix or Corrollary of the foundations of the Universities of England begun by John Stowe and continued to the year 1631. by Edm. Howe 's Gent. in folio A Chronicle of the Kings of England from the Romans Government unto the Raign of King Charles Containing all passages of Church and State with all other observations proper for a Historie The second Edition enlarged with Marginal notes and large Tables by Sir Richard Baker Knight in Folio The History and Lives of the Kings of England from Wil. the Conqueror to the end of the Reign of K. Henry the eighth by Wil. Martyn Esq to which is added the Historie of K. Edward the fixt Q. Mary and Queen Elizabeth in Folio The History of the Reign of K. Henry the seventh written by the right Honourable Francis Lord Verulam Viscount St. Alban with a very useful and necessary Table annexed to it in folio The Life and Reign of K. Henry the Eight written by the Right Honourable Edward Lord Herbert of Cherbury in folio Orlando Furioso in English Heroical verse by Sir John Harrington Knight now the third time revised and amended with the Addition of the Authors Epigrams in folio The Marrow of the French tongue containing rules for pronunciation an exact Grammer of the nine parts of speech and dialogues for Courtiers Citizens and Countrymen with varieties of Phrases Letters missive Proverbs c. So compiled that a mean capacity may in short time without help attain to the perfection of the Language by Mr. John Woodroephe in folio Pyrotechina or a discourse of artificial fire-works laying down the true grounds of that Art to which is annexed a treatise of Geometrie by John Babington student in the Mathematicks in folio A French-English Dictionary with another in English and French Compiled by Mr. Randal Cotgrave Whereunto are added the Animadversions and supplement of James Howel Esquire in Folio Annales veteris Testimenti à prima Mundi Origine deductis una cum Rerum Asiaticarium et Aegyptiacarum Chronico Jacobo Vsserio Armachana digestore in folio With the second Part now in presse in Latine in folio Devotionis Augustinianae Flammae or certain devout and learned Meditations upon several Festivals in the year written by the excellently accomplisht Gentleman VVilliam Austin of Lincolnes Inne Esquire in folio The Christian man or the Reparation of nature by grace written in French by John Francis Sennault and now Englished by H. Gresly Master of Arts and student of Christ Church in Oxford in quarto An Interpretation of the number 666 wherein not onely the manner how this number ought to be interpreted but it is also shewed that this number doth exactly describe that state of goverment to which all other Notes of Antichrist do agree by Francis Potter B.D. with Mr. Medes Judgment of this Treatise in quarto John Barclay his Argenis translated out of Latine into English the prose upon his Majesties command by Sir Robert le Gry's Knight and the verses by Thomas May Esquire with a Clavis annexed to it for the satisfaction of the Reader in Quarto The History of the Imperial state of the Grand Seigneurs their Habitations Lives Favourites Power Government and Tyranny to which is annexed the History of the Court of the King of China written in French and translated by Edward Grimston in quarto The state of France as it stood in the ninth year of this present Monarch Lewis the 14th written to a friend by J.E. in Duodecimo The Pourtract of the Politick Christian Favourite drawn from some of the Actions of the Lord Duke of St. Lucar by the Marquesse Virgillio Malvezzi to which is annexed Maximes of State and political observations on the same story of Count Olivarez D. of St. Lucar in Duodecimo The Prince written in French by Mounsiour Du Balzac now translated into English by Henry Gresly Master of Arts and Student of Christ Church in Oxford in Duodecimo The Life and Reign of King Edward the sixth with the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth both written by Sir John Hayward Knight Doctor of Law in Duodecimo Of Liberty and Servitude translated out of the French into the English tongue and dedicated to George Evelyn Esquire in duodecimo The new Planet no Planet or the earth no wandring Star Here out out of the principles of Divinity Philosophy c. the earths Immobility is asserted and Copernicus his opinion as erroneous c. fully refuted by Alexander Rosse in Quarto The Picture of Conscience consisting in the truths to be believed the vertues to be practised the vices to be avoided and the Heresies to be rejected by Alexander Ross in Duodecimo An humble Apology for Learning and Learned Men by Edward Waterhous Esquire in Octavo Selected parts of Horace Prince of Lyricks concluding with a piece out of Ausonius and another out of Virgil done into English by Richard Fanshaw Esquire in Octavo Palmer in D'Oliva both parts in quarto The true History of the Tragick Loves of Hypollito and Isabella Neapolitans in Octavo The Nuptial Lover in Octavo The Jesuite the chief if not the onely State-heretick in the world or the Venetian Quarrel in Quarto Brinsley's small Coppy-Book in Octavo Synopsis or a Compendium of the Fathers in Octavo Supplementum Lucani Thomae May Anglo in Duodecimo Jackson's Evangelical temper in duodecimo Maran-Atha the second advent or Christ coming to Judgment A Sermon preached before the Honourable Judges of Assize at Warwick July 25. 1651. by VVil. Durham B. D. late Preacher at the Rolls now Pastor of the Church of Tredington in Worcester shire in Quarto Steps of Ascention unto God or a ladder to heaven
containing prayers and meditations for every day of the week and for all other times and occasions by 〈◊〉 Edward Gee Dr. of Divinity in quarto The Divels an Asso a Comedy acted in the year 1616 by his Majesty's Servants the Author Ben. Johnson in folio The Marriage of the Arts by Barten Holliday in Quarto Michaelmas Term in Quâ—â—to Fine Companion in Quarto The Phaenix in Quarto The Just General by Cosmo Manuche in Quarto The Couragious Turk in Quarto by T. Goffe Christ Church in Oxford The Tragedy of Orestes in Quarto by T. Goffe Christ Church in Oxford The Bastard a Tragedy in Quarto by T. Goffe Christ Church in Oxford Edward the fourth first and second Part a Play in Quarto Platonick Lovers in quarto per Sir William Davenant Knight The Wits a Comedy in quarto per Sir William Davenant Knight The Triumphs of Prince D' Amour in quarto per Sir William Davenant Knight The Faithful Shepardesse Acted before the King and Queen divers times with great applause at Black-Fryers by his Majesties Servants written by John Fletcher Gent. in quarto A Recantation of an ill led life or a discovery of the high-way Law as also many Cautelous Admonitions and full Instructions how to know shun and apprehend a thief most necessary for all honest Travellers to peruse observe and practice written by John Clavel Gent. The eleventh Report of the Lord Cook in French in folio Statutes in the xxi K. James and the first and third Caroli in folio Lamberts Archeion or Comments on the High Courts of Justice in Octavo Powels search of Records in Quarto The Lawes and Resolutions of womens Rights in quarto Reformatio Legum Ecclesiasticarum in quarto The Parsons Law Collected out of the whole body of the Common Law and some late Reports in Octavo The Court keepers Guide A plain and familiar Treatise useful for the help of those that are imployed in keeping Law daies or Courts Baron wherein is largely and plainly opened the Jurisdiction of those Courts with the learning of Mannors Coppy-holds Rents Herriots and other services and advantages belonging to Mannors to the great profit of Lords of Mannors and owners of these Courts The third Edition enlarged the Author William Shepard Esquire in Octavo Reliquiae Wottonianae or a Collection of Lives Letters and Poems with characters of sundry personages and other Incomparable pieces of Language and Art by the Curious pensil of the ever Memorable Sir Henry Wotton Knight late Provost of Eaton in Duodecimo The Ladies Cabinet enlarged and opened Containing many rare Secrets and rich Ornaments of several kinds and different uses comprized under three general Heads viz. 1. Preserving Conserving Candying c. 2. Physick and Chirurgery 3. Cookery and Houswifery With sundry Experiments and Extractions of Waters Oyles c. Collected and practised by the late Right Honourable and learned Chymist the Lord RUTHUEN in Duodecimo Calendarium Pastorale sive Eglogae Duodecim totidem Anni mensibus Accomodatae Anglicè olim scriptae ab Edmundo Spencero Anglorum Poetarum Principe nunc autem Eleganti Latino Carmine donatae à Theodoro Bathurst Aulae Pembrokianae apud Cantabrigiensis aliquando socio And the same in English against the Latine in Octavo The Combat of Love and Friendship A Comedy as it was formerly presented by the Gentlemen of Christ-Church in Oxford by Robert Mead sometime of the same Colledge in Quarto Miscellanea spiritualia or devout Essayes by the Honourable Walter Mountague Esquire the second Part in Quarto The End SCRINIA SACRA Secrets of Empire IN LETTERS Of illustrious Persons A SVPPLEMENT OF THE CABALA IN WHICH Business of the same Quality and Grandeur is contained With many famous Passages of the late Reigns of K. HENRY 8. Q. ELIZABETH K. JAMES and K. CHARLS LONDON Printed for G. Bedel and T. Collins and are to be sold at their Shop at the Middle-Temple-gate in Fleet-street 1654. THE STATIONERS To the READER WE cannot suppose here that words will be needed to raise opinion yet it may be expected we should give some account of what we have done and we will do it Not long agone we printed that excellent collection of Letters known by the name of Cabala which the world has seen and approved Since another volume of Letters hath come to our hands a volume which may justly be called a second Cabala not unworthy to keep that company a part which must add much to the other as illustrious in its titles as considerable and as weighty for the matter In which besides not a few noble monuments of the former years from the deserting of the Roman Church by our great Henry downward of his daughter the most glorious virgin Queens life and government recorded some of the same great actions are begun many continued much of the policie contrivances and workings of the same succeeding Princes and their Ministers of the carriage of the same things farther prosecuted and more fully discovered Like sister-twins of lovely faces they have both apart their native sweetness their several worths and graces yet they are not so fully taking so perfectly beautiful as where they are drawn together in one frame In the new more is discovered not only of the foreign affairs in Germany Italy France Spain and other Countries whither the interest of the late Reignes engaged the Soveraign actors but of our home-Councels Orders and provisions both for the Church and Common-wealth enough to shew the prudence judgment and foresight of those who swayed in chief then and to let us know now the Ages past have had the honour to be governed by men who did not permit all things to fortune who if they could not assure themselvs of the events yet they could command design and understand Their designs and counsels which will be admirable to some but ridiculous to others being ever directed and ruled by equity and justice ever aiming at honest ends such as may venture abroad such as will appear fair and handsom in the light whereas if we cast our eys upon the Popes in the same leafs we shall find nothing but combustions nothing but fire brimstone and alarums to war and blood If upon the French nothing but inhumane cruelty and violence upon the conscience too If upon the Imperialists and Spaniards nothing but artifice nothing but cunning perfidiousness all their plots and consultations their cheating Treaties tending meerly to the advancement of the Austrian house without any respect to piety and justice faith or honour A taste of which unworthiness we find in this second Part where the Spanish Match is first moved by the Duke of Lerma the grand Minion in Philip the 3. his reign this Duke damns himself in oaths for his sincerity and reality toward the Match which Olivarez the present Kings Favourite tels his Master here was never intended It would be too tedious but to touch in passing by upon the generals in these Letters upon the calamities and miseries of
with them what course of Government upon due consideration had of the present estate of the said Realm may be held so as Justice may take place our Charges be lessened our Revenues increased and our Subjects there not oppressed You shall also consider what Forces are meet to be continued in pay and how the rest chargeable unto us and burthensom unto the Country may be discharged and also how the Horsmen and Footmen serving there may be reduced to their old pay which by reason of the general Rebellion in that Realm the Country being wasted we were driven to increase And therefore we see no reason but the Band residing in those Countries that are not wasted may live well enough of the old pay especially being victualled by us and for the ease and diminishing of our charges in that behalf We do think it meet that you should treat with those Countries that are not wasted as well in Munster or elswhere in that Realm to see if you can draw them with good contentment to contribute somthing towards the finding of that Garrison at Carberrie heretofore hath done And for that our Subjects in that Realm c. To advise of the inhabiting of Munster the attainted Lands to be let out at easie rents Survey certifie what States Statute of Vsus 5. Port-Corn 6. Th' attainted Lands to be bestowed in reward upon Servitors 7. Younger Brothers of Noblemen Diminish Pensioners 9. Review former Instructions 10 11. Renewing of forfeited Leases for three years Beef Port-Corn Remittal of Arrearages 12. Reversion of Lands to the Governours 13. Lands of the attainted to be appointed to house-keeping 14. Reservation of Timber-woods 15. Residence of Officers 16. Report to the State outrages of disloyal Subjects 17. Profits of Customs Escheats c. 19. Establishment for Connaught 20. President for Munster allowance begin at May Transportation 21. Councellors B. of Meath John Norris Richard Biâ—gham Tho. Strange 22. Refer the choice of a person to the Chancellor and others 23. Certificate of the last Treasurers Receipts and Expences Every one of these Articles doth contain half a side of Paper and therefore I have rather thought fit to abbreviate them then to transcribe them at large the whole Contents being contained in this Abbreviation Sir John Perrot to the Lords of the Councel Jan. 31. 1585. May it please your good Lordships ALthough I and this Councel have by our joynt-Letters truly declared unto you the dutifull state of things here and the causes both foraign and domestical whereupon we gather it and withall have shewed our extreme wants and what supplies are desired Yet understanding thence but not from your Lordships for I have had no kind of advertisements answer or resolution from the same these twelve moneths that there is a great preparation made by the Spanish King against the Realm and that your Lordships have intelligence thereof I cannot but as one whose chief charge and care it is importune your Lordships to cast your eye more carefully this way humbly praying you to consider what case we are in to try with a most mighty Prince whether this Realm shall be still her Majesties or his if there be any such matters as your Lordships know best then I beseech your Lordships to think whether it be more safety to say that we have sent provision to encounter the danger or else you will send when perhaps it will be too late And withall for mine own discharge if I shall tarry and have nothing wherewith I have but a life to yield for her Majesty and my Country for the loss thereof I grieve not but rather for the harm that through defects I fear may come to her Majesty and the State and the shame I shall leave behind me This foreign preparation if there be any such thing is likely to be spent against Munster to seise upon and to spoil the Cities and Towns of the same which in truth are very weak If I shall go thither what for the late wars and this last bad season there is not so much to be had there as will maintain that one Band of 200. that is under Mr. Thomas Norris the Vice-President there but that I am inforced to shift them from Town to Town who by reason of their extreme penury do receive them with great grief and grudge And though I had men sufficient to encounter the Enemy that should come yet for want of victuals I should be driven to abandon the place with danger and shame where they that are to come over are like to bring their provision with them and to settle it in some Town that they will soon seise upon for that purpose whereof what may ensue amongst this unconstant people naturally delighting in change your Lordships may soon gather Besides this that I have said of the bare estate of Munster where there is not so much to be had as will serve for mine own family or yet to feed my horses till grass grow I refer you to understand not only the same more fully but also the great wants of the rest of the Realm by the declaration here inclosed which as Beverley the Victualler maketh it so I know it to be true And therefore I most humbly beseech your Lordships to send speedy order that such a Staple of victuals may be provided and be sent over as your Lordships shall think requisite to serve as well for the numbers here already as also for those that are to be sent over to encounter such an accident as may fall out And herein I would wish your Lordships to consider the winds and weather how untowardly they have framed this year for as some have lain at Chester nine weeks to come over hither so hath there been no passage since this six weeks Moreover if there be such purposes in hand it were good some shipping were dispatcht for the guard of the Coasts And to all these and other difficulties may I with your Lordships favour adde one more to be considered of How weakly I am seconded if need fall out by those forein attempts whereof I would say little for any other cause The Marshal is old and not able either to ride or go the Master of the Ordnance is both absent and old and I wish there were a more sufficient man in his place The Lord President and Sir William Stanley who are men of good conduct are drawn away Sir H. Harrington Mr. Edward Barkley and the Senescal Dantry are suffered to remain still there but I humbly pray they may be sped away together with all other that are Servitors by any manner of pay there And so having herein discharged my duty I humbly end From the Castle of Dublin the last of January 1585. Your Lordships most humble at commandment JOHN PERROT Earl of Desmond to the Earl of Ormond Iune 5. 1583. My Lord GReat is my grief when I think how heavily her Majesty is bent to disfavour me and howbeit I carry
death of Mr. Secretary Walsingham SIR VPon this unhappy accident I have tryed to the bottom what the Queen will do for you and what the credit of your Sollicitor is worth I urged not the comparison between you and any other But in my duty to her and zeal to her service I did assure her that she had not any other in England that would for these three or four years know how to settle himself to support so great a burthen She gave me leave to speak heard me with patience confessed with me that none was so sufficient and could not deny but that which she lays to your charge was done without hope fear malice envy or any respect of your own but meerly for her safety both of state and person In the end she absolutely denied to let you enjoy that place and willed me to rest satisfied for she was resolved Thus much I write to let you know I am more honest to my friends then happy in their cases What you will have me do for your suit I will as far as my credit is any thing worth I have told most of the Councel of my manner of dealing with the Queen my Lord Chamberlain tells me he hath dealt for you also and they all say they wish as I do but in this world that is enough I will commit you to God for this time and rest Your constant and true friend R. ESSEX Earl of Essex to the Queen MY dutiful affections to your Majesty always overweighed all other worldly respects that seeking in all particulars to manifest my truth I have maimed my estate in general as I dare in the heat of my thoughts compare with the greatest that ever vowed for faithful service so is there not the meanest that hath overslipped me I will not say in recompence but in some gracious estate of service Thus whilst my faith wrestleth with my fortune the one winns breath to beat th' other down Though I have no hope to repair the ruines of my oversight yet I cannot but presume your Majesty will suffer me to preserve them from blowing up and what youth and forward belief hath undermined in mine estate providence by a retired life may underlay In which discontinuance from Court there shall be added if any thing be added increase of loyalty Nor so solitary shall be my course as it shall seem to proceed of discontentment but of necessity and all actions both with living and my life so forward as though some may have overrun me in fortunes none shall in duty Next my allegiance to your Majesty which shall be held most sacred and inviolable the report of mine Honour challengeth chief interest which that I may preserve in my wonted state reason draws me to stay my self slipping from falling That of late by what secret and venemous blow I know not my faith hath received some wounds your Majesties wonted grace withdrawn assures me But truth and my patience in this case were one with me and time in your Princely thoughts did wear it out from me Let time be Judge I will leave you with as great lothness as I were to lose what I love best But your favour failing in which I have placed all my hopes and my self less graced after seven years then when I had served but seven dayes may be a reason to excuse if there were no other reason These things pressed out of a distressed mind and offered in all humility I hope it shall not be offensive if I choose this wearisom course rather to be retired then tired If any of envy take advantage of absence seeking by cunning to draw me into suspition of discontentment my conscience is setled in your never erring Judgment that if he come with Esau's hands and Jacob's voice your Highness will censure it a wrought malice under such simplicity It is true that grief cannot speak but this grief hath made me write lest when I leave you I should so far forsake my self as to leave this unsaid To your gracious acceptance I commit it and with all humble and reverent thoughts that may be rest ever to be commanded to die at your Majesties feet RO. ESSEX Again to the Queen FRom a mind delighting in sorrow from spirits wasted with passion from a heart torne in pieces with care grief and travel from a man that hateth himself and all things that keepeth him alive what service can your Majesty expect since your service past deserves no more then banishment or prescription in the cursed'st of all other Countries Nay nay it is your Rebels pride and success that must give me leave to ransom my life out of this hatefull prison of my loathed body which if it happen so your Majesty shall have no cause to mislike the fashion of my death since the course of my life could never please you Your Majesties exiled Servant RO. ESSEX Sir Thomas Egerton Lord Chancellor to the Earl of Essex My very good Lord IT is often seen that he that stands by seeth more then he that playeth the game and for the most part every one in his own cause standeth in his own light and seeth not so cleerly as he should Your Lordship hath dealt in other mens causes and in great and weighty affairs with great wisdom and judgment now your own is in hand you are not to contemn or refuse the advice of any that love you how simple soever In this order I rank my self among others that love you none more simple and none that love you with more true and honest affection which shall plead my excuse if you shall either mistake or mistrust my words or meaning but in your Lordships honorable wisdom I neither doubt nor suspect the one nor the other I will not presume to advise you but shoot my bolt and tell you what I think The beginning and long continuance of this so unseasonable discontentment you have seen and proved by which you aim at the end If you hold still this course which hitherto you find to be worse and worse and the longer you go the further you go out of the way there is little hope or likelihood the end will be better You are not yet gone so far but that you may well return The return is safe but the progress is dangerous and desperate in this course you hold If you have any enemies you do that for them which they could never do for themselves Your friends you leave to scorn and contempt you forsake your self and overthrow your fortunes and ruinate your honour and reputation You give that comfort and courage to the foreign enemies as greater they cannot have for what can be more welcome and pleasing news then to hear that her Majesty and the Realm are maimed of so worthy a Member who hath so often and so valiantly quailed and daunted them You forsake your Country when it hath most need of your Councel and aid And lastly you fail in your indissoluble
of great wisdom knowledge and judgment meet and worthy to be followed of which leaving all other I will remember that of William Warham Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of England who after long service was upon his humble suit discharged of the office of Chancellor of England in respect of his great age Seeing then such a cloud of witnesses against me which in my private Soliloquies and Meditations are daily and continually represented to my view and mine own conscience more then a thousand witnesses concurring with me Pardon me my most gracious Soveraign to conclude with good Barzillai Quot sâ—nt dies annorum vitae meae quare servus tuus sit oneri domino nostro Regi obsecro ut revertar servus tuus moriar c. So I most humbly beseech your sacred Majesty graciously to regard the great age infirmity and impotency of your most devoted obedient loyall and faithfull servant Let me not be as Domitius after was Maluit deficere quam desinere But with your Princely favour give me leave to retire myself from the careful service of this great office and from the troubles of this world and to spend the small remnant of this my life in meditation and prayer I wil never cease to make my humble supplications to Almighty God to bless prosper your Majesty the Queen the Prince all your Royal issue with all heavenly and earthly felicity which is the last and best service your poor aged weak and decayed servant can do for you THO. ELLESMERE Canc. Sir Francis Norris to King James Most gracious Soveraign THe advantage which mine adversary hath taken in first presenting his complaint freely and uncontrolled would have afflicted me greatly had I not known that your Majesty hath given to your Judges Injunction Auditne alteram partem That I entered into discourse with the Lord Willoughby in Church or Church-yard may make it manifest that I had no disposition at all to quarrell The rest of the world is wide enough for men so affected They that prophane such places trust more to the place the ntheir own worth That I was improvidently in such a place by him surprized muffled in my own Cloak and treacherously buffeted shewed that I suspected no such assault as was there made upon me and where I was so disgracefully and ignobly assaulted by the Lord Willoughby and he in no sort by me yet wel I hope to satisfie every indifferent judgement much more the supream Judge that I had nothing in my intention either towards the Master or the Man It is true most gracious Soveraign that after the Lord Willoughby's dishonorable indignity by me expelled I seeing an unknown face coming fiercely with his sword upon me for my life in defence whereof God himself the law of Nature and Nations doth warrant us to contend I was forced to have forgone it at a Ruffins command or by resisting to yeild it up to your Majesty to whom I have vowed it whensoever you shall command it to your service This I presume to write to a King in whom rests the spirit of honor and by that spirit I hope your Majesty will judge that he which will run from his own defence being injuriously assaulted will also run from the defence of his Soveraign Master I also presume in all humility to address my self to a Prince indued with the spirit of Justice joyned to the divine vertue of compassion by both which I nothing doubt your Majesty will judge when you shall be truly informed of the preceding and succeeding wrongs offered me that I am and will be Your Majesties most humble and loyall subject FR. NORRIS A Patent for the Admiralty of Ireland RIght trusty and welbeloved Cousin and Councellor We greet you well Whereas we are graciously pleased as well for the increase of our Navy and Navigators as also for the better enabling and enriching of our subjects in our Realm of Scotland to give way and liecnce unto our loving subjects of Scotland and so many of them as may make a full able and compleat company for Traffick and Merchandizing into the East Indies to erect and set up among themselves a Company to be called The East Indian Company of Scotland making their first Magazin Storehouse for the said Company in some parts of our Realm of Ireland But for that our Ports and Seas upon the Coasts of our said Realm of Ireland have of late and still are likely without our speciall aid and assistance to be much troubled and annoyed with Pirats and other Sea-Robbers to the great discouragement of our loving Subjects and Merchants passing that way We for the avoyding of those inconveniences and for the better heartning of the said Company in their intended voyage and traffick have for reasons to us best known resolved notwithstanding any other imployments of our Ships there by our Letters Patents under our great Seal of England and at the humble request and Petition of our loving Subjects of the said Company to nominate and appoint A. B. our trusty servant to be imployed in those Seas and Coasts of Ireland as fully and amply as our servant Sir F. H. is now for our narrow Seas And to the end he may with more courage and less prejudice to our said servant Sir F. H. by his diligence and industry in the said imployment free those Seas from the said annoyances our pleasure is That you by your Deed Poll do give unto our said Servant such and the like power and authority for the Irish Seas and Chanell of St. George as the said Sir F. H. hath for the Narrow Seas So always as the power and authority of the said A. B. may begin where the power and authority of the said Sir F. H. doth end that is to say from our Island of Scilie in our Realm of England unto and alongst the Coast of Ireland and the Chanell of St. George So not doubting of your speedy effecting of what is here required for the furtherance of so good a work We bid you heartily farewell From our Court at c. A Commission to divers Lords c. for the delivery of Ulushing Brill c. May 14. Jac. 14. IAMES by the grace of God King of England c. To the right Reverend Father in God our right trusty and welbeloved Councellor George Lord Archbishop of Canterbury and to our right trusty and welbeloved Councellor Tho. Ellesmere Lord Chancellor of England and to our right trusty and welbeloved Cousins and Councellors Tho. Earl of Suffolk Lord Treasurer of England Edward Earl of Worcester Lord Keeper of our Privy-Seal Lodowick Duke of Lennox Lord Steward of our houshold Charls Earl of Nottingham Lord Admiral of England William Earl of Pembroke Lord Chamberlain of our houshold Tho. Earl of Exeter John Earl of Mar and Alexander Earl of Dumfermlin and to our right trusty and right welbeloved Councellors Tho. Viscount Fenton Tho. Bishop of Winton Edward Lord Zouch Lord
Warden of our Cinque-Ports William Lord Knowls Treasurer of our houshold John Lord Stanhop and Tho. Lord Bannings and to our right trusty and welbeloved Councellors Sir John Digby Knight our Vice-Chamberlain Sir John Herbert Knight one of our principal Secretaries of State Sir Fulk Grevil Knight Chancellor and Under-Treasurer of our Exchequer Sir Tho. Parry Knight Chancellor of our Dutchy of Lancaster Sir Edward Coke Knight Chief Justice of our Bench and Sir Julius Cesar Knight Master of our Rolls greeting Whereas the States-Generall of the United Provinces of the Low-Countries have divers times sollicited us by their resident Ambassador Sir Noel Caron Knight that we would be pleased to render into their hands the Towns of Flushing in Zeland with the Castle of Ramakins and of Bril in Holland with the Forts and sconces thereunto belonging which we hold by way of caution untill such sums of money as tney owe unto us be reimbursed upon such reasonable conditions as should be agreed on between us and them for the reimbursing and repayments of the said monies And whereas we have recommended the consideration of this so mighty and important an affair to the judgment and discretion of you the Lords of our Privy-Councel and have received from you after long and mature deliberation and examination of the circumstances an advice That as the present condition of our State now standeth and as the nature of those Towns is meer cautionary wherein we can challenge no interest of propriety it would be much better for our service upon fair and advantagious conditions to render them then longer to hold them at so heavy a charge Now forasmuch as in our Princely wisdom we have resolved to yield up our said Town with the said Castle and Sconces belonging unto them upon such conditions as shall be most for our advantage as well in point of honour as of profit Know ye therefore that we have assigned and appointed you the said Archbishop L. Treasurer L. Privy-Seal L. Steward L. Admiral L. Chamberlain E. of Exeter E. of Mar E. of Dunfermlin Vicount Fintons L. Bishop of Winton L. Zouch L. Knowls L. Stanhop L. Banning Sir John Digby Sir John Herbert Sir Ralph Winwood Sir Tho. Lake Sir Fulk Grevil Sir Tho. Parry Sir Edw. Coke Sir Julius Cesar our Commissioners and do by these presents give full power authority unto you or the more part of you for us and in our name to treat and conclude with the said Sir Noel Caron Knight Ambassador from the States of the United Provinces being likewise for that purpose sufficiently authorized from the said States his superiors touching the rendition and yielding up of the said Town of Flushing with the Castle of Ramakins in Zeland and of the Town of Bril in Holland with the Forts and Sconces thereto belonging and of the Artillery and Munition formerly delivered by the States with the same which are now remaining in them or any of them and have not been spent and consumed And for the delivery of them into the hands of the said States on such terms as by you shall be thought fit for our most honour and profit and for the manner thereof to give instructions to our said several Governours of the said Garrisons according to such your conclusion And this our Commission or the enrollment or exemplification thereof shall be unto you and every of you a sufficient warrant and discharge in that behalf In witness c. Witness our self at Westminster the 31 day of May in the 14 year of our Reign c. and of Scotland the 49. A Commission to Viscount Lisle Governour to deliver them up 22 May 14. Jac. IAMES by the grace of God c. To our right trusty and welbebeloved Cozen Robert Lord Viscount Lisle Lord Chamberlain to our dear Consort the Queen and our Governour of our Town of Vlushing and of the Castle of Ramakins greeting Whereas we by Our Letters Patents sealed with Our great Seal of England bearing date at Westminster the 22. day of April in the fifth year of Out reign of England France and Ireland of Scotland the 36. for the consideration therein expressed did make ordain and constitute you the said Viscount Lisle by the name of Sir Robert Sydney Knight for Us to be the Governour and Captain of the said Town of Vlushing and of the Castle of Ramakins in the Low-Countries and of all the Garrisons and Souldiers that then were or hereafter should be there placed for Our service and guard of the said Town and Castle to have hold exercise and occupy the Office of the said Governor and Captain of the said Town and Castle by your self or your sufficient Deputie or Deputies to be allowed by Us during Our pleasure giving unto you full power and authority by your said Letters Patents to take the Oath and Oaths of all Captains Souldiers then serving or that hereafter should serve in the same Town and Castle as in like causes was requisite with divers other powers therein mentioned as by Our said Letters Patents at large appeareth And whereas the States generall of the United Provinces of the Low-Countries have divers and sundry times for many years together sollicited Us by their Resident Ambassador Sir Noel Caron Knight that We would be pleased to render into their hands the said Town of Vlushing in Zealand with the said Castle of Ramakins and the Town of Brill in Holland with the Forts Sconces thereunto belonging which We hold by way of Caution until such sums of mony as they owe unto Us be reimbursed upon such reasonable conditions as should be agreed upon between Us them for the reimbursing and repaiment of the said monies And whereas thereupon We recommended the consideration of this so weighty and important an affair to the judgement and discretion of the Lords of the Privy Councell and have received from them after long and mature deliberation and examination of Circumstances an advice that as the present condition of Our State now standeth and as the nature of those towns is lying onely Cautionary wherein we can challenge no interest of propriety it should be much better for our service upon fair and advantangious conditions to render them then longer to hold them at so heavy a charge Now forasmuch as in Our Princely Wisdom We have resolved to yeild up Our said Towns with the said Castle and Sconces belonging unto them upon such conditions as shall be most sit for Our advantage as well in point of honor as of profit And to that end by Our Commission under Our great Seal of England have assigned and appointed the Lords and others of Our Privy Councell Our Commissioners and thereby give full power and authority unto them or the more part of them for Us and in Our name to treat and conclude with the said Sir Noell Caron Knight Ambassador from the States of the United Provinces being likewise for that purpose sufficiently authorized from the
Masse and to the feete of the Idol interdicting assembles and all exercise of tâ—ue Religion â—n the same places beating imprisoning ransoming assasinating the faithful and their pastors with an inraged fury which hath exceeded all the inhumanities of the Inquisition profaning and demolishing of Temples their violence having proceeded so farre as publickly to burn in pomp and triumph the sacred books of Gods Covenant in presence of the Governor of the Province with damnable sacriledge which cryeth vengeance before God and doth elevate its voice to the eares Sir of a most puissant Monarch professing the purity of the Gospel zealous of his glory and capable to revenge so outragious an injury But your Majesty shal understand that all this hath produced an effect much contrary to the intention of our persecutors for so farre it is from us that their objects of pity and griefe whereof the very thought doth make us repine should render us faint-hearted and cause us to yeild our selves in prey to their rage that on the contrary seeing the Mask taken off and the pretext which they had alledged of the Army of rebellion whereof they accused us quite removed and that without any more dissimulation their design goes on to the ruinating of our Religion and the extirpation of our Church and that there remained no more hope of safety and liberty but generall resolution to die in the Arms of our just and vigorous defence and that our persecutors possessing the spirit of our King and hindring the effects of his bounty have obtained a declaration of the fifteenth of December last which alluring us to implore his grace and mercy yet leaveth us not any hope of enjoying the benefits of any edict nor by consequence of any tolerable peace and soliciting us to disarm our selves and to put our selves into the condition of sacrafices destined by one and by one to the slaughter to be all at one stroak offered up to the fury of Antichrist by one general Massacre throughout the whole Kingdome whereof we doe not only heare the vaunts but doe almost see great armies upon our backs for execution This makes us Sir have recourse to your Royal and redoubtable puissance as to a place of refuge which God hath yet left open to us in your Ardent charity to finde within your assistance assured and effectual means to avoid ruine which is ready inevitably to fal upon our heads And to attaine thereunto Sir we have religiously renewed in this assembly the oath of union which binds us with a sacred bond unto the Armes of your Majesty of the violating whereof your Majesty may be assured that we will never make our selves guilty being encouraged to this resolution by the reiterate confirmations which my Lord the Duke of Rohan hath lately given us that your Majesty continues to take to heart the assistance and deliverance of our Churches according to your Royal promises being debtors to his sage and valorous conduct and to his pious magnanimity for all that strength and liberty which we yet enjoy and we will leave unto posterity memorable examples of our Constancie which prefers death before reproachfull cowardize and shameful servitude hoping that out of our ashes God will draw matter for his glory and the propagation of his Church being perswaded Sir that you are the instrument of his election to give us comfort and deliverance from our evils in time convenient Be you assured also that he wil uphold us in that extraordinary valour wherewith he hath inspired us to endure all extremities with a patience invincible expecting the succour of his hands through yours Of all Sir which a great Monarch could ever doe in the world nothing can be more just then this interprize nor more glorious then this deliverance the Lord having exalted you to the most eminent degree of dignity and power to be the nursing father of his Church she hath right being thus mangled and bloody to stretch forth her arms unto you even shee that Spouse of Jesus Christ the common mother of Christians and and your mother also by the respect of her bruised members and of the searing of her innocent brest covered with wounds she will move your pity She assures her selfe Sir that the glorious title which you beare of the Defender of the faith shall interceede for your accepting of her humble request if you doe extend unto us your cares your affections and your formidable Armes you shall nourish in our hearts affections of honour and obedience which shall never die you shall daunt all powers that would raise themselves against your Crown you shall raise your glory to such a height that all the earth shall admire it all Christendome shall celebrate it and your name shall be of sweet odour unto Angels and men and in perpetual benediction unto all posterity of Saints and your reward shall be great and eternal in heaven May it please your Majesty to pardon us if our necessities pressing us we all do presse your Majesty by our instant supplications accompanied with a most humble respect to strengthen our selves so soon as may be with the honour of your commandments and the declaration of your favour the wholesome effects of your assistance according to the sweetnesse of your compassion and Charity and we will redouble our prayers to the divine clemency for the length and safety of your life and the prosperity of your estate being ready with a most holy and ardent affection to expose our goods and lives to render us worthy of the quality which we dare take of your most humble most obedient and most faithful servants the Deputies of the reformed Churches of France in their general Assembly held at Nismes and for all Jaques de Maresey adjunct la Reque The Duke of Rohan to his Majesty of great Brittain the 12 of March 1628. SIR the deplorable accâ—dent of the losse of Rochel which God hath suffered to humble us under his hand hath redoubled in the hearts of our enemies their passionate fiercenesse to our utter ruine with an assured hope to attain thereunto But it hath not taken away from the Churches of those Provinces either the heart or the affection to oppose their unjust plots by a just and lively defence This is it hath made them take resolution to assemble themselves to cojoyn in the midst of these commotions to assist me with their good counsels and with me to provide the means of their deliverance And for as much as the greatest support which God hath raised unto them upon earth is the succour our Churches have and do look to receive from your Majesty the general Assembly hath desired that my Letters which alone hitherto have represented unto your Majesty the interest of the publick cause might be joyned to their most humble supplications put up to your Majesty I do it Sir with so much the more affection because I am a witnesse that these poor people who with sighes and groanes
growing of such evils for where such people be permitted to swarm they wil soon grow licentious and endure no government but their own which cannot otherwise be restored then by a due and seasonable execution of the Law and of such directions as from time to time have been sent from his Majesty and this Board Now it redoundeth much to the honour of his Majesty that the world shall take notice of the ability and good service of his Ministers there which in person he hath been pleased openly in Councel and in most gracious manner to approve and commend whereby you may be sufficiently encouraged to go on with like resolution and moderation til the work be solely done as well in City as in other places of your Kingdome the carriage whereof we must leave to your good discretions whose particular knowledge of the present state of things can guide you better when and where to carry a soft or harder hand only this we hold necessary to put you in mind that you continue in that good agreement amongst your selves for this and other services which your Letrers do expresse and for which we commend you much that the good servants of the King and state may find encouragement equally from you all and the ill affected may find no support or countenance from any nor any other connivances used but by general advice for avoiding of further evils shall be allowed and such Magistrates and Officers if any shal be discovered that openly or underhand favour such disorders or do not their duties in suppressing them and committing the offenders you shall doe well to take all fit and safe advantages by the punishment or displacing of a few to make the rest more cautious This we write not as misliking the faire course you have taken but to expresse the concurrency of our Judgments with yours and to assure you of our assistance in all such occasions wherein for your further proceedings we have advised And his Majesty requireth you accordingly to take order first that the house wherein Seminary Friars appeared in their habits and wherein the Reverend Arch-Bishop and the Maior of Dublin received the first affront be spedily demolished and be the mark of terror to the resisters of Authority and that the rest of the houses erected or imployed there or elsewhere to the use of suspicious societies be converted to houses of correction and to set the people on work or to other publick uses for the advancement of Justice good Arts or Trades and further that you use all fit meanes to discover the Founders Benefactors and Maintainers of such Societies and Colledges and certifie their names and that you find out the Lands Leases or Revenues applyed to their uses and dispose thereof according to the Law and that you certifie also the places and institutions of all such Monasteries Priories Nunneries and other Religious houses and the names of all such persons as have put themselves to be brothers and sisters therein especially such as are of note to the end such evil plants be not permitted to take root any where in that Kingdome which we require you take care of For the supply of Munition which you have reason to desire we have taken effectuall order that you shall receive it with all convenient speed And so c. Lord Keeper Lord Treasurer Lord President Lord Privy Seale L. high Chamberlain Earl of Suffolk Earl of Dorset Earl of Salisbury Earl of Kelly Lord Viscount Dorchester Lord Newbergh Mr. Vice Chamberlaine Mr. Secretary Cooke Sir William Alexander The Lord Faulkland's Petition to the King MOst humbly shewing that I had a Sonne until I lost him in your Highnesse displeasure where I cannot seeke him because I have not will to find him there Men say there is a wilde young man now prisoner in the Fleete for measuring his actions by his own private sense But now that for the same your Majesties hand hath appeared in his punishment he bowes and humbles himselfe before and to it whether he be mine or not I can discern by no light but that of your Royal Clemency for only in your forgivenesse can I owne him for mine Forgivennesse is the glory of the supremest powers and this the operation that when it is extended in the greatest measure it converts the greatest offenders into the greatest lovers and so makes purchase of the heart an especial priviledg peculiar and due to Soveraigne Princes If now your Majesty will vouchsafe out of your owne benignity to become a second nature and restore that unto me which the first gave me and vanity deprived me of I shall keep my reckoning of the full number of my sons with comfort and render the tribute of my most humble thankfulnesse else my weake old memory must forget one The Duke of Modena to the Duke of Savoy July 30. 1629. WHen I was deprived of my Mistriss the Infanta Izabella so intimately beloved of me I was suddenly possessed with a most ardent desire of finding the meanes how to follow her into Paradise and distrusting in regard of my weaknesse and life past that I was not able to stand in those dangers wherein that holy soule knew how to finde security and tranquillity I resolved to retire my selfe out of the tempestuous sea of Government and to shelter my selfe in the harbour of Religion rejoycing to sacrifice that unto God which useth to be so highly esteemed in the world and knowing that truely to raigne is to serve his Divine Majesty hitherto I deferred the execution of my purpose because being bound in this to depend upon the Counsel of him that governed my soule it seemed not expedient to him that I should retire my selfe while there was need of my assistance both in respect of the age of the Duke my father which was Caesar d'Este who dyed 1628 and of the nonage of the Prince my son which is Don Francisco who now governeth Now that these impediments are removed I goe most contentedly whither the Lord doth call me namely to take upon me the Capuchin Religion out of Italy and I doe promise to find for my self in one little Cel that repose which all the greatnesse of the world cannot give me True it is if I should look back upon my life past I should find motives rather of terrour then of comfort But the mercy of God doth make me confident and my having for his love and to performe his wil renounced all that I could or had I departed also most comforted because I leave the Prince my son so well qualified that I may confidently expect an excellent issue of his Government especially if your Highness shall vouchsafe to direct him with your most prudent Counsels and to shrowd him under your benigne protection whereunto with reverent affection I doe recommend him together with the rest of my sonnes especially Carlo Alexandro who is now living in your Highnesse his Court since that as a man may say they
Dunne in his Sermon that the goodnesse of God is not so much acknowledged by us in being our Creator as in being our Redeemer nor in that he hath chosen us as that nothing can take us out of his hands which in your Majesties remembrance let me challenge and hope for For the first accesses of favour they may be ascribed to ones own pleasing themselves but that appears to be for our sakes and for our good when the same forsakes not our civil deserts This redemption I crave not as to my own person but with your benefits once given nor do I assume them very deep for I have voluntarily departed from the hopes of pension place office I only cleave to that which is so little as that it will suffer no pairing or diminution And as in my former Letters so by this I humbly crave of your Majestie not to let the practises of Court work upon your Son the Prince not fearing your sufferance of my losse in that particular so much for I cannot lose it but willingly all with it as for to take off the Stage that which in the attempt may prove inconvenient And consider I pray your Majestie that my hope in desiring to passe these bad times was to be restored to my fortunes others are made unhappy by me if otherwise and then I lose my end I speak of impairing of changing or supplying as of any other way all such alterations and ruine are alike without I be worthy of your gift and that I can be worthy of all that Law can permit you to give or cast upon your Majestie by a more neerer title as it doth by this I shall account them equal evils that leave nothing or a patched and proportioned one changed or translated from one thing to another But if your Majestie have any respects to move you to suspend your good towards me let that which is mine rest in your own hands till that you find all opposite humours conformed to your purpose I have done wrong to my self thus to entertain such a doubt of your Majesty but the unrelenting of adversaries which when you will have them will sooner alter and that all this while I have received nothing of present notice for direction or to comfort me from your Majesty hath made me to expostulate with my self thus hardly For God is my judge Sir I can never be worthy to be if I have these markes put upon me of a Traytor as that tumbling and disordering of that estate would declare the divorce from your presence laies too much upon me and this would upon both I will say no farther neither in that which your Majesty doubted my aptnesse to fall into for my Cause nor my Confidence is not in that distresse as for to use that mean of intercession nor of any thing besides but to remember your Majestie that I am the Workmanship of your hands and bear your stamp deeply imprinted in all the characters of favour that I was the first plant ingrafted by your Majesties hand in this place therefore not to be unrooted by the same hand lest it should taint all the same kind with the touch of that fatalnesse And that I was even the Son of a Father whose services are registred in the first honours and impressions I took of your Majesties favour and laid there as a foundation stone of that building These and your Majesties goodnesse for to receive them is that I rely upon So praying for your Majesties prosperity I am in all humblenesse Your Majesties loyal servant and Creature R. Sommersett The Lo. Chancelour Bacon to the Lords If it may please your Lordships I shall humbly crave at your Lordships hands a benigne interpretation of that which I shall now write for words that come from wasted spirits and an oppressed mind are more safe in being deposited in a noble Construction then in being Circled with any reserved Caution Having made this as a protection to all which I shall say I will go on but with a very strange entrance as may seem to your Lordships at the first for in the midst of a state of as great affliction as I think a mortal man can endure honour being above life I shall begin with the professing gladnesse in some things The first is that hereafter the greatnesse of a Judge or Magistrates shall be no Sanctuary or protection to him against guiltinesse which in few words is the beginning of a golden world The next that after this example it is like that Judges will flie from any thing in the likenesse of Corruption though it were at a great distance as from a Serpent which tendeth to the purging of the Courts of Justice and reducing them to their true honour and splendour And in these two points God is my witnesse though it be my fortune to be the anvile upon which these good effects are beaten and wrought I take no small comfort But to passe from the motions of my heart whereof God is onely Judge to the merits of my Cause whereof your Lordships are onely Judges under God and his Lievtenant I do understand there hath been expected from me heretofore some justification and therefore I have chosen one onely justification instead of all others out of the justification of Job for after the clear submission and Confession which I shall now make unto your Lordships I hope I may say and justifie with Job in these words I have not hid my sin as did Adam nor concealed my faults in my bosome This is the only justification I will use It resteth therefore that without fig-leaves I do ingenuously confesse and acknowledge that having understood the particulars of the charge not formally from the house but enough to inform my Conscience and memory I find matter both sufficient and full to move me to desert the defence and to move your Lordships to condemn and censure me Neither will I trouble your Lordships by singling out particulars which I think may fall off Quid te exempta juvat spinis de millibus una Neither will I prompt your Lordships to observe upon the proofes where they come not home or the scruples touching the Credit of the Witnesses Neither will I present unto your Lordships how far a defence might in divers things extenuate the offence in respect of the time or manner of the gift or the like circumstances but onely leave these things to spring out of your own noble thoughts and observations of the evidence and examinations themselves and charitably to wind about the particulars of the charge here and there as God shall put in your minds and so submit my self wholly to your piety and grace And now that I have spoken to your Lordships as Judges I shall say a few words unto you as Peers and Prelates humbly commending my Cause to your noble Minds and magnanimous affections Your Lordships are not onely Judges but Parliamentary Judges you have a farther extent of arbitrary
power then other Courts and if you be not tied to the ordinary course of Courts or presidents in point of strictnesse and severity much more in points of mercy and mitigation And yet if any thing I should move might be contrary to your honourable and worthy ends to introduce a reformation I should not seek it But herein I beseech your Lordships to give me leave to tell you a story Titus Manlius took his sons life for giving battail against the prohibition of his General Not many years after the like severity was pursued by Papirius Cursor the Dictator against Quintus Maximus who being upon the point to be sentenced was by the intercession of some principal persons of the Senate spared whereupon Livie maketh this grave and gracious observation Neque minus firmata est disciplina militaris periculo Quinti Maximi quam mirabili supplicio Titi Manlii The discipline of War was no lesse established by the questioning onely of Quintus Maximus then by the punishment of Titus Manlius And the same reason is of the reformation of Justice for the questioning of men of eminent place hath the same terrour though not the same rigour with the punishment But my Case stayeth not there for my humble desire is that his Majestie would take the Seal into his hands which is a great downfal and may serve I hope in it self for an expiation of my faults Therefore if mercy and mitigation be in your Lordships power and do no wayes crosse your ends why should I not hope of your favours and Commiserations Your Lordships may be pleased to behold your chief Pattern the King our Soveraign a King of incomparable Clemencie and whose heart is instructable for wisdom and goodnesse You well remember that there sate not these hundred years before in your House a Prince and never such a Prince whose presence deserveth to be made memorable by records and acts mixt of mercy and justice Your selves are either Nobles and Compassion ever beateth in the veins of noble bloud or Reverend Prelates who are the servants of him that would not break the bruised reed nor quench smoaking flaxe You all sit upon a high Stage and therefore cannot but be more sensible of the changes of humane Condition and of the fall of any from high places Neither will your Lordships forget that there are vitia temporis as well as vitia hominis and that the beginning of reformation hath a contrary power to the pool of Bethesda for that had strength onely to cure him that was first cast in and this hath strength to hurt him onely that is first Cast in and for my part I wish it may stay there and go no further Lastly I assure my self your Lordships have a noble feeling of me as a member of your own body and one that in this very Session had some taste of your loving affection which I hope was not a lightning before the death of them but rather a spark of that grace which now in the Conclusion will more appear And therefore my humble suit to your Lordships is that my voluntary Confession be my sentence and the losse of the Seal my punishment and that your Lordships will spare any farther sentence but recommend me to his Majesties grace and pardon for all that is past And so c. Your Lordships c. Francis St. Alban Can. Five Letters more of my Lord Bacons Bacon to the King July 31. 1617. Lord Keeper Bacon to his Majestie I Dare not presume any more to reply upon your Majestie but reserve my Defence till I attend your Majestie at your happy return when I hope verily to approve my self not onely a true servant to your Majestie but a true friend to my Lord of Buckingham and for the times also I hope to give your Majestie a good account though distance of place may obscure them But there is one part of your Majesties Letter that I could be sorry to take time to answer which is that your Majestie conceives that whereas I wrote That the height of my Lords Fortune might make him secure I mean that he was turned proud or unknowing of himself Surely the opinion I have ever had of my Lord whereof your Majestie is best witnesse is far from that But my meaning was plain and simple that his Lordship might through his great fortune be the lesse apt to Cast and foresee the unfaithfulnesse of friends and the malignity of enemies and accidents of times Which is a judgment your Majestie knoweth better then I that the best Authors make of the best and best tempered spirits Vt sunt res humanae Insomuch as Guicciardine maketh the same judgment not of a particular person but of the wisest state of Europe the Senate of Venice when he sayeth their prosperity had made them secure and under-weighers of perils Therefore I beseech your Majesty to deliver me in this from any the least imputation to my dear and Noble Lord and friend And so expecting that that Sun which when it went from us left us cold weather and now it is returned towards us hath brought with it a blessed harvest will when it cometh to us dispel and disperse all mists and mistakings I am c. Lord Chancellour to his Majestie 2. Jan. 1618. It may please your most excellent Majestie I Do many times with gladnesse and for a remedy of my other labours revolve in my mind the great happinesse which God of his singular goodnesse hath accumulated upon your Majesty every way and how Compleat the same would be if the state of your meanes were once rectified and well ordered your people militarie and obedient fit for war used to peace your Church illightened with good Preachers as an heaven of Stars your Judges learned and learning from you just and just by your example your Nobility in a right distance between Crown and People no oppressors of the people no overshadowers of the Crown your Councel full of tributes of Care faith and freedom your Gentlemen and Justices of Peace willing to apply your Royal Mandates to the nature of their several Counties but ready to obey your servants in awe of your wisdome in hope of your goodnesse The fields growing every day by the improvement and recovery of grounds from the desert to the garden The City grown from wood to brick your Sea-walls or Pomerium of your Island surveyed and in edifying your Merchants imbracing the whole compasse of the World East West North and South The times give you Peace and yet offer you opportunities of action abroad And lastly your excellent Royal Issue entayleth these blessings and favours of God to descend to all posterity It resteth therefore that God having done so great things for your Majestie and you for others You would do so much for your self as to go through according to your good beginnings with the rectifying and settling of your estate and means which onely is wanting Hoc rebus
late Majestie and of his which now is who have been pleased not to question my actions c. Hereunto I have laboured exactly to obey but find that a plain and clear answer cannot possibly be made untill there be a cleer understanding of the thing propounded so that I may crave pardon if my answer be not so cleer as I could wish it for I must freely acknowledge that I no way understand what is meant by the security I am now in whether it be by the present estate I am now in or not If it be so I conceive a man cannot be under a harder Condition for your Lordship knoweth that by order my person is restrained and you were pleased lately to send me word that you would not advise me to make use of the liberty which his late Majestie had given me of coming to London although that were onely to follow my private affairs and for the recovery of my decayed health I stand likewise prohibited to come to the Court or to the Kings presence I passe by my being removed from all my places and offices and wholly depending upon his Majesties royal pleasure But being a Peer of this Realm I have not onely by Commandment been formerly stayed from the Parliament but of late my writ hath been detained as though my honour were forfeited And this is truly the Condition I am now in but I cannot imagine that this is the security intended I should rest in but am in hope that the security intended is that I may for the future enjoy the liberty of a free Subject and the priviledges of a Peer of the Kingdom Which being so I shall with all humility acknowledge his Majesties grace and favour and be ready to serve him with all fidelity even to the laying down of my life not thinking it to stand with the duty of a Subject to presse his being questioned since such being the pleasure of his Soveraign it were not in the power of any subject to avoid it But in case his Majestie shall be pleased to bring me to any legal tryal I shall most willingly and dutifully submit my self thereunto and doubt not but my innocency in the end will be my best Mediatour for his Majesties future favour And in that Case I am a suitor that my Writ of Parliament as a Peer of this Realm may be sent unto me and that my present repair to London may not displease his Majestie As for the pardon of the 21. Reg. Jacobi which you mention I should renounce but that I know that the justest and most cautious man living may through ignorance or omission offend the Lawes so that as a Subject I shall not disclaim any benefit which cometh in the general as it doth usually to all other Subjects in the Kingdom But as for any Crime in particular that may trench upon my imployments in point of Loyalty fidelity or want of affection to the King or State I know my innocency to be such that I am confident I shall not need that pardon I shall conclude with a most humble suit unto your Lordship that out of your noblenesse and that friendship that hath been betwixt us you will use your best endeavours both with his Majestie and the Duke that this unfortunate businesse may be past over by the renewing whereof I can see little use that can be made but the adding to a mans misfortunes already sufficiently humbled For I am ready to do all that a man of honour and honestie may do but rather then to do any thing that may be prejudicial to me in that kind to suffer whatsoever it shall please God to send And so with the remembrance of my humble service unto your Lordship I recommend you unto Gods holy protection And rest Sherborn Lodge c. Your Lordships humble servant Bristol Here next follow the Letters of my Lord of Bristol concerning the businesse of the Match The E. of Bristol to the Lord Bishop of Lincoln Aug. 20 1623. My very worthy Lord I Give you many thanks for your Letter of the 23d. of July by which I understand your great care of me by seconding a former motion it pleased your Lordship to make of having me reconciled to my Lord Dukes favour A thing which I have infinitely desired and have esteemed the good offices you have been pleased to do therein as a very high obligation your Lordship puts upon me But I conâ—eive your Lordship will find that any motion you have made in that kind unto his Grace hath been despised rather then received with any thankfulnesse or that he hath returned you any answer of his inclination thereunto For the truth is my Lord doth look down upon my poor Condition with that scorn and contempt that I conjecture the very moving of any such thing especially under the term of reconciliation hath not been pleasing unto his Lordship But thereof your Lordship can make the best judgment by the answer you received from him I do but guesse thereat by what I have heard he hath been pleased to say and the manner wherewith he hath used me Which hath been such that the Spaniards themselves which most afflicted me have out of compassion pitied me Yet I may with much truth assure your Lordship that I have not omitted towards him either any respect or service that was fit for me to perform either towards his person or the high place he holdeth in my Masters favour or unto his present imployment well knowing how undecent and scandalous a thing it is for the Ministers of a Prince to run different wayes in a strange Court but have attended him in all his publique audience and used in all kinds that respect and observance towards him that I think malice her self cannot charge me with an omission And my Lord this is the truth whatsoever may be said or written to the contrary It is true that some four moneths since in a businesse that no lesse concerned his Majestie and the Prince's service then abruptly to have broken off all our Treaty I was far differing from my Lords opinion And thereupon happened betwixt us some dispute in debate of the businesse but without any thing that was personal and there was no creature living at it but the Prince to whose Censure I shall willingly refer my self In me I protest it unto your Lordship it made no alteration but within half an hour I came to him with the same reverence and respect that I was wont to do the which I have continued ever since so that I have much wondered how it cometh to be so much spoken of in England that my Lord Duke and my self should live here at too much distance And I cannot find any other reason for it but that every body hath taken so much notice of my ill and contemptible usage that they think it unpossible for any Gentleman but to be sensible of it But if any one disrespect or omission from me towards
cold find in any other servant What an honest thankfulnesse can be I am and what an honest servant can yield you shall be ever vigilant in me to serve you Since the departure of the last post by whom I wrote lately unto your Grace my Lord of Bristol hath had audience with this King taking me along with him to whom his Lordship represented the King our Masters desire concerning the Palatinate in conformity to what his Majesty hath commanded by his late letters we are now soliciting to hasten this kings answer which we hope we shall shortly send unto his Majesty and there is no diligence omitted by my Lord of Bristol nor my self that we can think on to negotiate such an answer as may be to his majesties good liking The Dispatches from Rome are not yet come but by letters which they have lately received from the Duke of Pastrana it is advertized that all things are concluded and that he would send them away within a few dayes By my Lord of Bristols Letter to his Majesty your grace will understand the resolution which his Lordship hath taken concerning his proceedings upon the arival of of the dispaches from Rome his Lordships hath communicated with me his Majesties Letter and desired my opinion concerning the resolution which he had taken wherein I have concurred with his Lordship not understanding it any way to be differing in substance from his Majesties directions the altering of the day mentioned in his Majesties letters being onely the changing it from a time when the powers are of no force to a time when they may be of use the putting of any thing in execution in the one time or in the other depending upon his Majesties and his Highnesses further directions I have hitherto understood that his Majesty and his highnesse have really affected this match and have laboured faithfully to second their desires with my utmost endeavours There is none I am sure a better witnesse then my self of the affection which your Grace hath born unto it which I have seen remain constant through many tryals And therefore until I understand the contrary from your self I must believe that your desires are the same which I have seen them I must ever speak my heart freely unto your Grace and confess that upon the letter which I received from his Highnesse and upon the sight of his Majesties to my Lord of Bristol I have been jealous of his Majesties heart and his Highnesse that they are not that to the match which they have been but these are but distrusts of my own and not foundation sufficient to slacken or cool those diligences which I daily perform in conformity to his Majesties and his Highnesse Commands and to what remains apparent of their desires I shall therefore humbly desire your Lordship to open mine eyesa nd if I am out of the way to set me straight for I have no affections of mine own but what agrees with my Masters and will ever submit with all humility my self and my judgment unto his Majesties wisedome and faithfully labour to serve him accordingly to what I shall understand to be his will and pleasure But untill I know by your Graces favour by what Compasse to guide my Course I can onely follow his Majesties revealed will and will once take the boldnesse to represent unto your Grace in discharge of what I owe you these Considerations which my desire to serve you forceth from me I do look upon your Grace as a person infinitely provoked to be an enemy to this match and believe that you have had represented unto you many reasons shewing how much it concerns you to seek to break it with all the force you have But I can neither believe that the errour of one man can make you an enemy to that which brings along with it so much happinesse and content unto his Majestie and his Highnesse nor that your Graces judgment can be led by those arguments that under the colour of safety would bring you into a dangerous labyrinth Your Grace hath given noble testimonie how little you have valued your own safety in respect of his Majesties service and therefore I assure my self you would contemn all Considerations concerning your self that might hinder the advancement of his Majesties ends In the proceeding to this Match there is the same conveniency to his Majestie that ever hath been there is the same Lady the same portion the same friendship desired they professing here an exact complying with what is capitulated and a resolution to give his Majestie satisfaction in whatsoever is in their power From your Grace none can take away the honour of having been the principal means by which this great businesse hath been brought to a Conclusion And whatsoever others may suggest against your Grace the Infanta truly informed cannot but understand you the person to whom she owes most in this businesse Your Grace and the Conde Olivarez have fallen upon different waies that which concerns the honour of the King our Master being different to that which he understood concerned most his Master your ends were both one for the effecting of the Match and with the Conclusion of it he cannot but better understand you Would your Grace would commit it to my charge to inform the Infanta what you have merited and to accommodate all other mistakes here concerning the proceeding If your Grace would reconcile your heart I would not doubt but with the Conclusion of the Match to compose all things to your good satisfaction and to bring them to a truer understanding of you and of their obligation unto you In what a Sea of Confusions the breaking of this alliance would ingage his Majestie I will leave to your Lordships wisdom to consider of it being too large a discourse for a Letter I will therefore onely desire your Lordship to consider that even the most prosperous War hath misfortune enough in it to make the Authour of it unhappie of which how innocent soever your Lordship is the occasions that have been given you will ever make you liable to the aspersion of it This I write not unto your Grace as thinking to divert you from what you are falling into for I am confident your heart runs a more peaceable way but I am willing that you should see that howsoever others should be inclined to carrie you into this tempest it concerns you in your care of their happinesse and your own to divert them from it I humbly desire your Grace to pardon this errour of mine if it be one which I can excuse with the affection and infinite desire which I have to see you ever happie and flourish Concerning my self your Grace knowes my wants and I doubt not but your Care is what I could wish I should be glad when you have done with Peter Wych to see him dispatched away with some supplies unto me which I shall be in extream want of by Christmasse my debts besides in
England being clamorous upon me for some satisfaction I leave all to your Graces care and favour Ever resting Your Graces humblest and most bound servant Wa Aston Postscript THe Condessa of Olivarez bids me tell you that she kisses your Graces hands and doth every day recommend you particularly by name in her prayers to God May it please your Grace MY Lord of Bristol intended to have dispatched away a Post unto his Majestie this night with the advice of the arrival of the dispensation which came to this Town the 12th of this moneth hoping that he should have been likewise able to have given to his Majestie and his Highnesse a clear account of all things concerning it But the deliverie of the Queen this morning who is brought to bed of a daughter hath stopped all negotiation and I believe it will be these two daies before he can be ready to send him away There is no noveltie as I yet understand that is come with the dispensation there will be something desired for better explanation of his Majesties and his Highnesse intentions and some omissions there are which as they understand was his Highnesse intention should have been in the Capitulation they being promised by his Highnesse But I do not find that these will be any stop to the businesse For they do presse my Lord of Bristol very much to proceed presently to the Deposoriâ—s Your Grace shall understand all things more particularly by the next Post I do now make the more haste forbearing to trouble you with other occurrences lest my Letters come short of the departure of the Post as they did of his who was last dispatched from hence I do most humbly desire your Grace to continue the doing me those offices that may continue me in his Majesties and his Highnesse good opinion and I doubt not but I shall be ever able to let your Grace see that you have not a more faithful servant then he which your Grace hath most bound to be so and that shall ever remain Yours c. W.A. The Lord Duke of Buckingham to Sir Walter Aston IN your Letter of the 5th of December you desire me to give you my opinion my ancient acquaintance long custome of loving you with constancie of friendship invites me to do you this office of good will and to serve you according to your request And for your more intire satisfaction I will deliver the things in the past and present You in all the beginning of the treaty won to your self a good estimation while you were onely at large in the treaty and had communication of the passages from the Lord of Bristol as by courtesy and in his absence handled no farther in the treaty of marriage then by direction from him When the Prince was there your carriage gave his Highnesse and my self all satisfaction Now you must give me leave to put you in mind of the freedom used with you whilest we were at Madrid and of the explanation the Prince made of himself to you by his Letters from St. Anderas From which you might observe the resentment the Prince had of their proceedings with him And by his Highnesse declaration to you from thence you might see both his care and resolution not to ingage himself into the marriage without good conditions for the Pallatinate and Conservation of his honour every way My care and my intentions were to move increase of honour to you and to recompence by a good understanding to be layed in his Majestie towards you which I pursued so soon as I came to the Kings presence And the Princes confidence was so great in you as he joyned you in the Commission besides he declared himself to you by his Letters not leaving you thereby to guesse at his Majesties directions to the E. of Bristol which he was to communicate to you Now you may think how strange it was to the Prince and how much I was troubled not being able to make your excuse when your joynt Letters made known how you had concurred with the Earle of Bristol to ingage his Highnesse by prefixing a day for the Deposorios without making certain the restitution of the Palatinate and Electoral dignity the portion and temporal articles Which proceeding of yours with the Earl of Bristol was so understood by the Lords of the Committee as they took resolution once to advise his Majestie to revoke both the Lord of Bristol and you upon those grounds which you will understand by his Majesties own Letters and Secretarie Conwayes Letters written to you with this dispatch I was not able at first by any endeavour to oppose the resolution of your revocation so far had you cast your self into misconstruction and given stop to the progresse of your own advancement But with constant industry and time I have won this point of qualifying all ill opinion of you and sufferance of your continuing there So as it will be now in your power by your Carriage to come off without reproof And I shall hope to overcome the rest with time to to bring you again to the condition of honour and recompence Being confident that since you see your own errour and acknowledge it you will be careful by a stiff and judicious carriage to warrant all your present and succeding actions If you think at first sight I presse you a little hard upon this point you may be pleased to interpret it to be a faithful way of satisfying your request and expression of my affection to have you to do all things suitable to your wisdome virtue and honour and according to the wishes of Yours c. G. Buckingham The Duke of Buckingham to Sir Wa. Aston I Had not leisure in my former dispatch being hastie to write the reason why I wondered at the errour you commited in the last dispatch of my Lord of Bristols and yours for the matter is that his Majestie having plainely written unto you both in his former dispatch that he desired to be assured of the restitution of the Palatinate before the Deposorium was made seeing he would be sorrie to welcome home one Daughter with a smiling cheer and leave his own onely Daughter at the same time weeping and disconsolate And the Prince having also written unto you that he never meant to match there and be frustrated of the restitution of the Palatinate so often promised that notwithstanding this clear Language you should have joyned with my Lord of Bristol in a resolution of so hastie a delivery of the Prince's Proxie before you had received his Majesties answer to your former dispatch wherein my Lord of Bristol urged of his Majestie a harsh answer and direction and his Majestie cannot but take it for a kind of Scorn that within 4. dayes after ye had urged his Majesties answer ye should in the mean time take resolutions of your own heads You may do well because there is no leisure in this hastie dispatch for his Majestie to answer my
the bitterest storms threatening betwixt these Crowns that have been these many ages I have therefore no hope to save my self without I be guided by his Highnesse and your Graces trusts and care of me The Marquesse of Ynoisa hath lately advertised hither That he hath several times desired to have private audience with his Majestie and hath not been able to procure any but what your Grace assists at It is likewise advertised unto this King and his Ministers that your Grace hath many meetings with the Sea Captains and that your Counsels are how the War is to be made against Spain For the avoiding of unnecessarie repetitions I do here inclosed send your Grace a Copie of my Letter to Mr. Secretarie Conway wherein you will find a relation of all things that are come to my hands at this present that may any way have reflection unto his Majesties service And this is the course which I intend and conceive most convenient to hold hereafter with your Grace without you command me the contrary In the said Copie your Grace will find a discourse of what hath lately passed betwixt my Lord of Bristol and the Conde of Olivarez in the Pardo Now that I may more fully discharge my dutie I have thought fit here to acquaint your Grace that since the putting off of the Deposorios at a meeting that my Lord and my self had with the Conde he did make a solemn protestation that if the Treatie of the Match did ever come on again with effect it should onely be by his Lordships hands and no other I then understood it and still do but for a frothy protestation yet have held it my dutie to advertize it having passed in my hearing the truth is that my Lords answer was in Conformitie to his last in the Pardo every way rejecting it saying That he had rather be confined to any Town in Afrique then that his person should be any hinderance to the Match Thus forbearing to trouble your Grace any farther with my hearty prayers unto God for the continuance of his blessings unto you I rest Your Graces c. W. A. Sir Walter Aston to Secretary Conway 22. Jan. 1623. Right Honourable BY the return of this Bearer Mr. Greisley you will understand of the safe coming to my hands of your dispatch of the 30th of the last moneth with his Majesties Letters therein inclosed I do now herewithal send an account unto his Majestie of my proceedings upon his Commands which I do intreat your Honour to be pleased to present unto him as also farther to acquaint his Majestie that I have already spoken with divers of these Ministers and given them such a declaration of his Majesties good intentions in the pressing at this season for the restitutions of the Palatinate and Electoral dignity unto the Prince his Son in Law as I have order to do by the said Letter but do find they are here so possessed with the ill relations they receive out of England that I with much difficultie can scarce give them any kind of satisfaction I have acquainted the Conde Olivarez with the answer which your honour and Mr. Secretarie Calvert had received from their Embassadours touching their audiences the Conde himself having formerly acquainted me with their Complaint His answer now was That he understood they had acknowledged unto your Honours to have received from his Majestie in that point all kind of satisfaction but that after you were gone the Marquesse of Ynoisa wrote a Letter to Secretarie Calvert telling him that he did not well remember himself of what had passed at his being there but had since called to mind that he had procured some audiences with the Prince with much difficultie To which I answered the Conde That it seemed the Marquesse was very light of his advertisements to give such informations as might breed ill understandings betwixt Princes and esteem them of no more Consequence then to forget what he had advertised with so much ease Concerning that malitious report here raised of the Prince's treating a marriage in France I desire your Honour to let his Majestie know that it is advertised hither out of England as a thing so certain that there is not a Minister of State excepting the Conde of Gondomar that hath not given some credit unto it I have therefore according to his Majesties directions given such declarations touching the author and believers of it as your Honour in his Majesties name hath commanded me I have likewise received by Mr. Greisly your Letter of the 31. of the last In answer of which all that I shall need to say here unto your Honour is that my Lord of Bristol hath received your former Letter acquainting him with his Majesties pleasure concerning the same businesse from whom his Majestie will receive an account thereof This is all that I have to say to your Honour at this present touching those particulars mentioned in your Letter I shall now here further acquaint you with such advertisements as I conceive may any waies have reference unto his Majesties service My Lord of Bristol and my self repairing some few daies since unto the Pardo having conference with the Conde of Olivarez his Lordship acquainted the Conde with the Letters of revocation which he had received from his Majestie and withal desired that he would procure him licence to take his leave of the King The Conde answered his Lordship That he had much to say unto him by order from his Majestie the substance of his speech was That they had received large advertisements out of England by which they understood the hard measure that he was there likely to suffer by the power of his enemies and that the onely crime which they could impute unto him was for labouring to effect the marriage which his Master could not but take much to heart and held himself obliged to publish to the world the good service that my Lord had done unto the King of great Brittain and therefore for the better encouragement likewise of his own and all other Ministers that should truly serve their Masters he was to offer him a blank paper signed by the King wherein his Lordship might set down his own Conditions and demands which he said he did not propound to corrupt any servant of his Majesties but for a publique declaration of what was due unto his Lordships proceedings He said further that in that offer he laid before him the Lands and Dignities that were in his Masters power to dispose of out of which he left it at his pleasure to choose what estate or honour he should think good adding thereunto some other extravagant and disproportionable offers My Lords answer was That he was very sorry to hear this language used unto him telling the Conde that his Catholique Majestie did owe him nothing but that what he had done was upon the King his Masters Commands and without any intention to serve Spain And that howsoever he might have
reason to fear the power of his enemies yet he trusted much upon the innocency of his own Cause and the Justice of the King and that he could not understand himself in any danger but were he sure to lose his head at his arrival there he would go to throw down himself at his Majesties feet and mercy and rather there die upon a Scaffold then be Duke of Infantada in Spain On the 16th of this moneth there was declared here in Councel a resolution of this King to make a journey to his frontier Towns in Andaluzia with an intention to begin his journey upon the 29. of this moneth Stil Vet. And as I am informed his Majestie will there entertain himself the greatest part of these three moneths following so that his return hither will not be until the beginning of May. My Lord of Bristol hath sent divers to the Conde for leave to dispeed himself of the King but in respect of his Majesties being at the Pardo he hath been hitherto delayed and hath yet no certain day appointed for it But I conceive it will be sometime this week The Cause of the delaying of his Lordships admittance to the King as I understand is that the same day that his Lordship shall declare his revocation to the King they will here in Councel declare the revocation of the Marquesse of Ynoisa Howsoever in respect of the Kings departure at which time they use here to embarge all the mules and means of carriage in this Town I believe his Lordship will not begin his journey so soon as he intended All the relations which are lately come out of England do wish them to entertain themselves herewith no farther hopes that there is any intention to proceed to the Match and this advice comes accompanied with such a report of the state of all things there that hath much irritated all these Ministers and let loose the tongues of the people against the proceedings of his Majestie and Highnesse I labour as much as I can and as far as my directions will give me latitude to give them better understandings of the real intentions of his Majestie and Highnesse but divers of them cleerly tell me That I professe one thing and the actions of his Majestie and Highnesse upon the which they must ground their belief are differing from it I shall therefore here in discharge of my duty advertize your Honour that they do here expect nothing but a War about which they have already held divers Councels and go seriously to work preparing themselves for what may happen Which I desire your Honour to advertize his Majestie being high time as far as I am able to judge that am here upon the place that his Majestie do either resolve upon some course for the allaying of these storms or that he go in hand with equal preparations Having observed in former times the strange rumours that have run in England upon small foundations I have thought it fit to prevent the credit which may be given to idle relations by advertizing your Honour that I cannot conceive how any great attempt can be made from hence this year howsoever businesses should go The Squadron of the Kings Fleet under the Command of Don Fadrique de Toledo is come into Cadiz and joyned with that which Don Juan Taxardo is Captain of And as I am credibly informed this King will have by the end of April between 50. and 60. Gallions at Sea It is true that other years the number commonly falls short of what is expected and their setting forth to Sea some moneths later then the time appointed but there is extraordinary care taken this year that there be no default in neither The chief end that I can understand of this Kings journey being to see the Fleet of Plate come in to take view of his Armado and see them put to Sea That which I understand is onely left alive of the Marriage here is that the Jewels which the Prince left with this King for the Infanta and her Ladies are not yet returned but it is intimated unto me that if the Letters which they shall receive out of England upon the answer they have given to his Majestie about the businesse of the Palatinate be no better then such as they have lately received they will return the Jewels and declare the businesse of the Match for broken I shall therefore intreat your Honour to know his Majesties pleasure how I shall carry my self if they be offered unto me being resolved in the mean time untill I shall know his Majesties pleasure if any such thing happen absolutely to refuse them The Princesse some few daies since fell sick of a Calenturae of which she remaineth still in her bed though it be said she is now somewhat better I will conclude with many thanks for your friendly advertizements concerning my own particular which God willing as far as I can I will observe and do earnestly intreat you that you will please to continue the like favours unto me which I shall highly esteem of And so with a grateful acknowledgment of my obligations I rest Your Honours c. Wa. Aston Sir Walter Aston to the Lord Conway Right Honourable I Have advertized by former dispatches that the Parliament here had granted unto this King 60 millions of Duckats to be paid in 12 years which with 12 millions which remain yet unpaid of what was given the King at the last Session this King was to receive 72 millions in the 12 years next following I shall now acquaint your Honour that there are only 19. Cities that have voice in this Parliament and that each of them do send hither two Provadores as they call them here but these have no power finally to conclude any thing but what is agreed on by them is to be approved of by the said Cities or the greatest number of them before it have the force of an Act of Parliament and that therefore there hath been all possible art used to procure the Cities to confirm what hath been granted by their Procuradores touching the 60. millions and it is here thought that one of the motives of this Kings journey was hoping by the authority of his presence to procure the consent unto the said gift of the 4. Cities which he is to passe by in this journey namely Cordova Sivel Joen and Granado it being here doubted that the said Cities might make great opposition to the said grant notwithstanding his Majestie hath not had such successe as was expected But Cordova which was the first City with which his Majestie began hath absolutely refused to give their Consent letting his Majestie understand though in as fair and respectful terms as they could expresse themselves That it was a demand impossible for them to Comply withal What the success of this may be is doubtful Cordova having given but an ill example to the other Cities and yet it is rather believed here that the greatest number
your Grace which accompanies this I understand the French Embassadour by order from the King his Master hath given account unto this King of the Conclusion of the Match betwixt the Prince his Highnesse and Madam Christiene his Masters Sister Whereupon this King and the whole Court put on Galas I conceive howsoever I have not heard any thing thereof by any Letter unto me that this is ground enough to Congratulate with your Grace this good beginning which I shall affectionately wish may in the successe in all times prove a happiness to his Highnes and a particular blessing to your Grace The Conde of Gondomar hath newly received a Command from the King his Master signified unto him by the Secretary Don Andreas de Prada to put himself presently upon the way for England which he hath answered he will obey howsoever I believe he will keep his Christmasse here Mr. Butler whom your Grace left here placed with this King meets often with such discourses in the Palace that as a faithful servant to your Grace he hath no patience to bear which he hath reason to believe will in a short time throw him out of this Court which he would be glad to prevent if he might have your Graces command to return being infinitely desirous that your Grace would dispose otherwise of him I will conclude with the same suit for my self there being none that hath more need of comfort from your Grace I best know that I have no way deserved any change or decay in your Graces favour towards me having not been slow in upbraiding this Nation with their obligations to your Grace and their shameful ungratefulnesse nor without a constant and passionate desire to serve your Grace every way to your content if your Graces Commands would but direct me what to do I do therefore rest confident of your care and goodnesse towards me And so with my prayers to God to continue his blessings upon you I rest Your Graces c. W. Aston Dr. Williams to the Duke My most noble Lord IT hath pleased God to call for the Bishop of London I am so conscious of mine own weaknesse and undeservings that as I never was so now I dare not be a suiter for so great a charge But if his Majestie by your Honours mediation shall resolve to call me to perform him the best service I can in that place I humbly beseech your Honour to admit me a suiter in these three circumstances First that whereas my Lord of London hath survived our Lady day and received all the profits that should maintain a Bishop until Michaelmasse I may by his Majesties favour retain all my own means until the next day after Michaelmas day this is a Petition which I shall be necessitated to make unto his Majestie if his Majestie by your favour shall advance me to this place and injureth no man else in the world Secondly that whereas the Commissioners challenge from the Bishops revenues a matter of 200. l. per annum this Bishoprick being already very meanly endowed in regard of the continual charge and exhaustments of the place it would please his Majestie to leave in my hands by way of Commendam one Benefice of mine which falls into his Majesties dispose upon my remove until it be determined by the said Commissioners whether any part of the Bishops means be due unto the Fabrique My humble suit is for Walgrave a Benefice with Cure in North-hamptonshire where I have laid out all my estate in temporal Lands Lastly that if it be found that the Bishop is to joyn with the Residentiaries of Pauls in the repair of the Church his Majestie would qualifie me by a commendam to hold one of my own Prebends when it shall fall to be a Residentiarie also that if I be charged with the burthen of Residentiarie I might enjoy the profits of a Residentiarie These three requests do I confesse adde unto me but do not prejudice any one else whatsoever I submit them and my self to your Honours wisdom c. The names of such Ecclesiastical promotions as I now retain and will fall to be disposed of by the King if I should be removed 1. Deanery of Westminster 2. Rectorie of Dinam 3. Rectorie of VValgrave 4. Rectorie of Grafton 5. Prebendary of Peterborough 6. Chaunter of Lincoln 7. Prebendary of Asgarbie 8. Prebendary of Nonnington 9. Residentiaries place of Lincoln Lord Keeper to the Duke 27. July 1621. My most noble Lord AN unfortunate occasion of my Lords Grace his killing of a man casually as it is here constantly reported is the cause of my seconding of my yesterdayes Letter unto your Lordship His Grace upon this accident is by the Common Law of England to forfeit all his estate unto his Majestie and by the Canon Law which is in force with us irregular ipso facto and so suspended from all Ecclesiastical function until he be again restored by his Superiour which I take it is the Kings Majestie in this rank and order of Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction If you send for Dr. Lamb he will acquaint your Lordship with the distinct penalties in this kind I wish with all my heart his Majestie would be as merciful as ever he was in all his life but yet I held it my duty to let his Majestie know by your Lordship that his Majestie is fallen upon a matter of great advice and deliberation To adde affliction to the afflicted as no doubt he is in mind is against the Kings nature to leave virum Sanguinum or a man of bloud Primate and Patriarch of all his Churches is a thing that sounds very harsh in the old Councels and Canons of the Church The Papists will not spare to descant upon the one and the other I leave the knot to his Majesties deep wisdom to advise and resolve upon A rheume falne into mine eye together with the rumour I last wrote unto your Lordship about hath fastened me unto my bed which makes this Letter the more unhandsome But I will take nothing to heart that proceeds from his Majestie or from that King who hath raised me from the dust to all that I am If the truth were set down 1. That my self was the first mover for a temporary Keeper 2. That his Majestie hath promised me upon the relinquishing of the Seal or before one of the best places in this Church as most graciously he did 3. The year and a halfs probation left out which is to no purpose but to scare away my men and to put a disgrace upon me 4. That my assisting Judges were desired and named by my self which your Lordship knowes to be most true Such a declaration would neither shame me nor blemish his Majesties service in my person And it were fitter a great deal the penning thereof were referred to my self then to Mr. Secretarie or the Lord Treasurer who if he had his demerit deserves not to hold his staffe half a year I do verily
will be for his Majesties service Onely remember this that now you are left to be your own Remembrancer Of all actions forget not those of mercy and Goodnesse wherein men draw nighest to God himself Nor of all Persons prisoners and afflicted Josephs Celerity doth redouble an act of mercy But why do I turn a Preacher of goodnesse unto him who in my own particular hath shewed himself to be composed of nothing else Remember your Noble Self and forget the aggravations of malice and envy and then forget if you can the E. of Southhampton God blesse you and your royal Guest and bring you both after many years yet most happily run over here upon earth to be his blessed guests in the Kingdom of Heaven The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning the Lord of St. Albons October 27th 1621. My most noble Lord I Have received your Lorships expression concerning the Pause I made upon the two Patents The Proclamation of writing to the Kings hand and my Lord of St. Albons pardon The former I have sealed this morning in duty and obedience to your Lordships intimation The latter I have not yet sealed but do represent in all lowlinesse and humility these few Considerations by your Lordship to his sacred Majestie wherein let your Lordship make no question but I have advised with the best Lawyers in the Kingdom And after this representation I will perform whatsoever your Lordship shall direct His Majestie and your Lordship do conceive that my Lord of St. Albons pardon and grant of his fine came both together to my hands and so your Lordship directs me to passe the one and the other But his Lordship was too cunning for me He passed his fine whereby he hath deceived his Creditors ten dayes before he presented his pardon to the Seal So as now in his pardon I find his Parliament fine excepted which he hath before the sealing of the same obtained and procured And whether the house of Parliament will not hold themselves mocked and derided with such an exception I leave to your Lordships wisdom These two Grants are opposite and contradictory in this point the one to the other The King pardons in particular words All sums of money and rewards taken for false judgments or decrees And therefore the exception of the Parliamentary Censure being inflicted but for the same taking of moneys and rewards coming a good way after falleth too late in Law and is of no force to satisfie the Lords as I am informed and I believe this clause was never seen in any other pardon The King pardoneth in my Lord of St. Albon the stealing away altering rasing and interlining of his Majesties Rowles Records Briefs c. which are more in a Lord Chancellors pardon then the imbezeling of his Majesties jewels in a Lord Chamberlains And yet the Lord Chancellour Elsmore could not indure that clause in my Lord of Sommersets Pardon unlesse he would name the jewels in particular I will not meddle or touch upon those mistakings which may fall between the Parliament and his Majestie or the mis-interpretation that enemies may make hereof to your Lordships prejudice because I see in his Majesties great wisdom these are not regarded Onely I could have wished the Pardon had been referred to the Councel board and so passed I have now discharged my self of those poor scruples which in respect onely to his Majesties service and your Lordships honour have wrought this short stay of my Lord of St. Albons Pardon Whatsoever your Lordship shall now direct I will most readily craving pardon for this not undutiful boldnesse put in execution Because some speech may fall of this dayes speech which I had occasion to make in the Common Pleas where a Bishop was never seen sitting there these 70. years I have presumed to inclose a Copy thereof because it was a very short one Your Lordship shall not need to take that great pains which your Lordship to my unexpressible comfort hath so often done in writing What Command soever your Lordship shall impose upon me as touching this pardon your Lordships expression to Mr. Packer or the bearer shall deliver it sufficiently God from heaven continue the showring and heaping of his blessings upon your Lordship c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 22. July 1621. My noble Lord VVIth my truest affections and thankfulnesse premised I do not doubt but his Majestie and your Lordship do now enjoy the general applause of your goodnesse to the Earl of South-hampton Saturday last he came and dined with me and I find him more cordially affected to the service of the King and your Lordships love and friendship then ever he was when he lay a prisoner in my house Yet the Sunshine of his Majesties favour though most bright upon others more open offenders is noted to be somewhat eclipsed towards him What directions soever his Majestie gave the order is somewhat tart upon the Earl The word of Confinement spread about the City though I observed not one syllable so quick to fall from his Majestie his Keeper much wondred at The act of the Councel published in our names who were neither present thereat or heard one word of the same yet upon my credit the Earl takes all things patiently and thankfully though others wonder at the same Mr. Secretary signed a Petition of one Rookwood a Papist and prisoner in the Fleet upon five several executions that I should grant him his liberty The Kings name is used and the mediation of the Spanish Embassadour If I breaking rules so fouly in favour of a Papist which I am resolved to keep straight against all men whatsoever I shall infame my self in the very beginning If his Majestie will have any special indulgence in this kind I expect intimation immediately from the King or your Lordship and no third Person Your Lordship will not expect from me any account of Councel businesse nor the setting at liberty of the late prisoners Mr. Secretary is secret enough for imparting any thing unto me so as I must remain in a necessary ignorance There is a Country man of mine one Griffith a suiter unto the Court for the reversion of an Auditors place recommended thereunto by his Master the Lord Treasurer The place is of great Consequence for the disposing of his Majesties revenewes The man is unfit for this as presumptuous and daring for any place Sir Robert Pye saith he hath already written to your Lordship and I doubt not of your care thereof Doctour Lamb the bearer is a very sufficient and for ought I ever heard of him an honest man The King hath imployed him in discovery of counterfeit Witchcrafts in reforming of no ounterfeit but hearty Puritanes and he hath done good service therein If his Majestie now in our pure ayr of Northhamptonshire do not shew him some favor or grace either by Knighting or by using him courteously The Brethren having gotten out their Yelverton again will neglect and molest
House of Commons some poyson and ill constructions to feed upon and to induce a new diversion or plain Cessation of weightier businesses His Majestie infers and that most truly for where were the Commons before Henry the first gave them authority to meet in Parliaments that their priviledges are but Graces and favours of former Kings which they claim to be their inheritance and natural birthrights Both these assertions if men were peaceably disposed and affected the dispatch of the common businesses might be easily reconciled These priviledges were originally the favours of Princes and are now inherent in their persons Nor doth his Majestie go about to impair or diminish them If his Majestie will be pleased to qualifie that passage with some mild and noble exposition and require them strictly to prepare things for a Session and to leave this needlesse dispute his Majestie shall thereby make it appear to all wise and just men that these persons are opposite to those common ends whereof they vaunt themselves the onely Patrons But do his Maiestie what he please I am afraid although herein the Lord Treasurer and others do differ from me they do not affect a Sessions nor intend to give at this time any Subsidie at all Will the King be pleased therefore to add in this Letter which must be here necessarily upon Munday morning that if they will not prepare bills for a Session his Majesty will break up this Parliament without any longer Prorogation and acquainting the Kingdom with their undutifulnesse and obstinacy supply the present wants by some other meanes Or will his Majesty upon their refusal presently rejourn the the Assembly until the appointed 8th of Feburary This course is fittest for further advice but the other to expresse a just indignation I dare advise nothing in so high a point but humbly beseech almighty God to illuminate his Majesties understanding to insist upon that course which shall be most behoveful for the advancement of his service In our house his Majesties servants are very strong and increase every day nor is there the least fear of any Malignant opposition God reward all your Lordships goodnesse and affection towards c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke about Mr. Thomas Murrayes Dispensation c. 23. Febr. 1621. My most Noble Lord I Should fail very much of my duty to his Majestie if before the sealing of Mr. Thomas Murrayes Dispensation I should not acquaint his Majestie explicitely and freely with the nature of this act far differing from any dispensation in this kind ever granted by his Majestie since his happie coming to the Crown of England For to say nothing of the right of the election of this Provost which being originally not in the King but in the fellowes and now by their neglect devolved unto me shall be fully and absolutely at his Majesties command the place is a living with cure of souls and I am to institute and admit him to the cure of souls of the Parish of Eaton by the expresse Letter of the Statute without admission it is impossible he should receive any real or rightful possession of the same Now that his Majestie or any of his Predecessors did ever dispence with a Lay-man to hold cure of souls I think will be hard for any man to shew by any warrantable president or record whatsoever And I know his Majestie to be as much averse from giving any such president as any Prince in Christendome living this day This is altogether differing a Deanery or an Hospital which being livings without cure have been and may be justly conferred by his Majestie upon Lay-men with dispensations de non promovendo If Sir Henry Savil's example be objected I answer besides that the Queen made Clayme to the guift of the place by lapse occasioned through the promotion of the Provost to the Bishoprick of Chichester whereas his Majestie hath no such Clayme thereunto at this time That Savil never durst take true possession of the place but was onely slipt in by the Bishop who for fear of the Earl of Essex made bold with the conscience Ad Curam et regimen Collegii that is to the care and government of the Colledge Whereas by the expresse words of the foundation he is to be admitted Ad Curam annimarum Parochianorū Ecclesia Aetonianae to the Cure of the souls of all the people of the Parish of Eaton Secondly I hold it no Disparagement to Mr. Murray nor do find him all together averse from the same to enter into orders in the raign of a King so favourable to our Coat as Gods name be praised for it raigns now over us This will give satisfaction to all the Church bring him into this place according to statute and the foundation of that dead King prevent such a dangerous president for a Lay-man to possesse cure of souls in the Eye and Center of all the Realm and by an everlasting testimony of his Majesties Piety to the Church of England Thirdly what opinion this Gentleman hath of our Church government is better known to his Majestie then to me If he should be averse thereunto it were such a blow unto the Church the number of the Fellowes and Students there considered as the like were never given by publique authority these 50. Years Fourthly howsoever his Majestie and the Prince his Highnesse shall resolve thereof at whose feet I lie to be wholly disposed I hope it is neither of their royal intendments to transfer the Bishopprick of Lincolne upon the Fellowes of that house who have rashly usurped a Power of admitting their Provost by any example seen before Whereas all Provosts as well the Churchmen who come in by Election as the Lay-men recommended by the late Queen were as the foundation exactly requires it admitted by the Bishop of Lincolne their Diocaesand and Visitor I hope it was Mr. Murraies inexperience rather then neglect never deserved by me that directed them to this strange course subscription and other conformities to be acted in the presence of the Visitor are essentially to be required before he can be admitted Provost of Eaton Lastly Mr. Murraie hath hitherto mistaken all his course He must be first dispensed withal If his Majestie in his wisedom shall hold it fit and then Elected first Fellow and then Provost of the Colledg if he will come in regularly and safely whereas now contrary to Savils president he is first Elected and then goes on with his dispensation All this I most humbly intreat your Lordship to make known to the Prince his Highnesse and as much as your Lordship thinks fit thereof to his Majestie I will only adde one note and so end It will be no more disparagement for Mr. Murray his Highnesse Schoolmaster to enter into orders then it was for Coxe King Edwards Schoolmaster a Master of Requests and Privie Counsellour to do the like who afterwards became a worthy Prelate of this Church I have discharged my duty to the King
the least the King and the Prince how unworthily I am used by this Lord who in my soul and conscience I believe it either invents these things out of his own head and ignorance of this Court or hath taken them up from base unworthy and most unexperienced people Lastly because no act of mine who am so much indebted for all my frugality could in the thoughts of a devil incarnate breed any suspition that I gained by this office excepting the purchase of my Grandfathers Lands whereunto my Lord Chamberlains noblenesse and your Lordships encouragement gave the invitation I do make your Lordship as your Lordship hath been often pleased to honour me my faithful Confessor in that businesse and do send your Lordship a note enclosed what money I paid what I borrowed and what is still owing for the purchase I beseech your Lordship to cast your eye upon the paper and lay it aside that it be not lost And having now poured out my soul and sorrow unto your Lordships breast I find my heart much eased and humbly beseech your Lordship to compassionate the wrongs of Your most humble and honest servant J. L. C. S. The Fair and Familiar Conference which the Lord Treasurer had with the Lord Keeper after some Expostulations of his own and the issue joyned thereupon at White-Hall Septemb. 7. 1622. Object 1 THere is taken 40000 l. for Petitions in your house this year Sol. Not much above the fortieth part of the money for all the dispatches of the Chancery Star-Chamber Councel-Table Parliament the great Diocesse of Lincoln the jurisdiction of VVestminster and St. Martins le Graund All which have resort to my house by Petitions Object 2 You have your self a share in the money Sol. Then let me have no share in Gods Kingdom it is such a basenesse as never came within the compasse of my thoughts Object 3 It is commonly reported you pay to my Lord Admiral 1000 l. per mensem Sol. As true as the other The means of my place will reach to no more then two moneths Object 4 You never receive any Petitions with your own hands but turn them to your Secretaries who take double Fees one for receiving and the other for delivering Sol. Let the Cloysters at Westminster answer for me I never to this day received any Petition from my Secretaries which I had formerly delivered unto them with my own hands This is a new fashion which my Lord hath found in some other Courts Object 5 You sell dayes of hearing at higher rates then ever they were at Sol. I never disposed of any since I came to this place but leave them wholly to the Six Clarks and Registers to be set down in their Antiquity Unlesse his Lordship means hearing of motions in the paper of Peremptories which I seldom deny upon any Petition and which are worth no money at all Object 6 You usually reverse Decrees upon Petitions Sol. I have never reversed altered explained or endured a motion or Petition that touched upon a decree once pronounced but have sometimes made orders in pursuance of the same Object 7 You have 3. Door-keepers and are so locked up that no man can have accesse unto you Sol. I have no such officer in all my house unlesse his Lordship meanes the Colledge Porters nor no locks at all but his Majesties businesse which I must respect above Ceremonies and Complements You are cryed out against over all the Kingdom for an unsufferable Object 8 oppression and grievance His Lordship if he have any friends may hear of such a Cry Sol. and yet be pleased to mistake the person cryed out against All the Lords of the Councel cry out upon you and you are a Object 9 wretched and a friendlesse man if no man acquaints you with it I am a wretched man indeed if it be so Sol. And your Lordship at the least a very bold man if it be otherwise I will produce particular witnesses and make all these Charges Object 10 good I know your Lordship cannot and I do call upon you to do it Sol. as suspecting all to be but your Lordships envie and malice to that service of the Kings and ease of his Subjects which God hath enabled me to accomplish and perform in this troublesome Office J. L. C. S. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 21. of September 1622. My most noble Lord MY Lord Brook diswarning me from his Majestie from coming to Theobalds this day I was enforced to trouble your Lordship with these few lines My most humble thanks for your Lordships most free and most loving Letter I do willingly confesse my errour yet still of the mind that your Lordship only who justly taxed it hath made it to be an errour If your love to me had not exceeded all reason and desert of mine my complaints were not effects of melancholy but of a real suffering and misery I do confesse and rest satisfied withal that his Majesties Justice and your Lordships love are anchors strong enough for a mind more tossed then mine is to ride at Yet pardon me my Noble Lord upon this Consideration if I exceeded a little in passion the natural effect of honesty and innocency A Church-man and a woman have no greater Idol under heaven then their good name And yet they cannot fight at all Nor with credit scold and least of all recriminate to protect and defend the same Their onely revenge left them is to grieve and complain My misery I took to be this I am one of those that labour in his Majesties Cole-mines under the earth and out of sight My pains from five a clock in the morning to 10. or 12. at night are restlesse and endlesse but under earth and out of his Majesties sight What other men do or but seem to do it is ever before the Kings face and if his Majestie will not look on it if he hath eares about him he shall be told of it so often by the parties themselves that he must hear of it whether he will or no. And as my service by this remotenesse is hidden from the King so is it liable to be traduced to the King and my relief as in dispatching the motions of poor men by Petitions allowable to my orders made to be a Grievance to the Common Wealth But in all these fourteen dayes wherein by the voice of the City I have remained a prisoner in my house where is that one party grieved that hath troubled his Majestie with Complaints against me Onely my Lord Marshal hath dealt with my noble Lord Marquesse Hamilton my Lord of Carlile my Lord Treasurer as your Lordship may soon know by asking the question to make a faction to disgrace the poor Lord Keeper who never dreamt thereof Sir Gilbert Haughton hath complained to my Lord Treasurer of my men for taking Hugh Holland was by and heard him If your Lordship do but ask him his
reason I think it will appear how well grounded their complaints be Upon those two former Anchors I will therefore rest and that so far from Cowardlinesse that I will either challenge them before his Majestie to make good their suggestions or else which I hold the greater valour of all and which I confesse I wanted before this check of your Lordships go on in my Course and scorn all these base and unworthy scandals as your Lordship shall direct me I have sent a Copy of a Letter of mine to my Lord Anan which his Majestie hath seen and given his assent it should not be kept private yet I would humbly crave your Lordships opinion thereof by Mr. Packer before any Copy goeth from me I am ever c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 12th Octob. 1622. My most Noble Lord I Will speak with the Jesuit to morrow and deliver him his admonition from the King but do send your Lordship here inclosed a Copie of the Conference which I procured from him without his privity onely to make his Majestie and your Lordship merrie I have also received a Letter concerning the French Embassador which I will be ready to put in execution as your Lordships servant and Deputy but not otherwise Yet your Lordship will give me out of that freedom which was wont to be well interpreted by your Lordship to let your Lordship understand that I find all businesses of restitution of ships and goods thus taken to have been handled before the Councel in Star-chamber all the reigns of Henry 7th and H. 8th without any contradiction of the Lord Admiral for the time being But this to your Lordship in secret I will be very careful of the Earl of Desmond that neither his cause nor your Lordships reputation shall suffer thereby And this is the account I can yet give of your Lordships Letter save that I humbly expect that answer which your Lordships own Luckie hand hath promised in the postscript of one of them I would ease your Lordship in this place but to prevent complaint that peradventure may be first invented and then presented Your Lordship shall heare of a long narrative of our Councel Table dispatches That passage of our letter which as it now goeth doth hope that his Majestie will spare to confer any suites of moment in Ireland until the return of the Irish Committee was a blunt request to the King to grant no suites there without our advice Against this concluded in my absence the first day of the Tearm I spake first to the Prince privately who allowed of my reasons then when the President would not mend it at the Table openly that I did utterly dislike we should tutour his Majesty how to grant suits especially in Letters that are to remain upon record My Lord of Cantuar and the Earle Marshal said they had many Presidents in that kind I answered I knew they had none but in the Kings time and that I wished them as I do all torn out of the book and cast into the fire I concealed my reasons which now I will reveal unto your Lordship because this is the third time I have expressed unto your Lordship under my hand my dislike of this kind of Limiting his Majestie otherwise then by word of mouth First if his Majestie which we see so often done shall dispose of these suites otherwise here are so many records remaining to malitious men to observe his Majesties aversenesse from following the advice of the Councel board Secondly if your Lordship shall procure any suit in this kind here are records also in time to come that you crosse and thwart the government of the Kingdom And I pray God this be but mine own jealousie The passage in the Letter with my Prating and his Highnesse help was altered and for fear of misreporting I make bold to relate the truth hereof to your Lordship My Lords proceeded very resolutely in those reformations which concerned other men The Commission of fees enables the Committees to call before them all the Judges as well as their under Officers which was more then the King exprest at Hampton Court amongst whom the Lord Keeper is one who from the Conquest to this day was never subjected to the call of any power in the Kingdom but the King and the Parliament And although I have not one Pennie of Fee which hath not continued above one hundred years yet for the honour of the Prime place in the state though now disgraced by the contemptiblenesse of the Officer I am an humble suiter unto your Lordship that my Person may be exempted from the command of Sr. Edwin Sandys or indeed any man els besides the King my Master Otherwise I shall very patiently endure it but the King hereafter may dislike it The Justices of the Peace are also appointed but if the Judges and my self be not utterly deceived to no purpose in the world nor service to his Majestie But when their Lordships came to surrender the under Leivtenantships to his Majesties hands whom the Lord President and I held fit to be created henceforward by several Commissions under the Great Seal it was stiffly opposed and stood upon that the King should name them in their Lordships Commissions onely according to a President in the late Queens time that is the King shall have the naming but they still the appointing of them And now it was pressed that his Majestie intended not to disgrace his Lords c and your Lordship is to have a Letter from Mr. Secretarie to know his Majesties mind herein If his Majestie shall not ordain them to be created by several Pattents it were better a great deal they should continue as they do I am very tedious in the manner and peradventure in the matter of this Letter I humbly crave pardon c. Passages between the Lord Keeper and Don Francisco HE was very inquisitive if I had already or intended to impart what he had told me the night before in secret to any man to the which he did adde a desire of secresie Because 1. The King had charged him and the Frier to be very secret 2. The Embassadours did not know that he had imparted these things unto me 3. The Popes were secret instructions which they gave to the Fryer to urge and presse the same points which himself had done to the King He confessed that the greatest part of the Friers instructions were to do all the worst offices he could against the Duke and to lay the breach of the marriage and disturbance of the peace upon him He excused the bringing the Copy of that paper unto me because the Marquesse had it yet in his custody but said he would procure it with all speed I desired him to do it the rather because besides my approbation of the form and manner of the writing I might be by it instructed how to apply my self to do his Majestie service therein as I found by that Conference
his Majesties bent and inclination He having understood that there was though a close yet an indissoluble friendship betwixt the Duke and my self desired me to shew some way how the Duke might be won unto them and to continue the peace I answered I would pursue any fair course that should be proposed that way but for my self that I never meddled with matters of State or of this nature but was onely imployed before this journey of the Prince's in matters of mine own Court and in the Pulpit He desired to know if they might rely upon the King whom onely they found peaceably addicted otherwise they would cease all mediation and prepare for War I answered That he was a King that never broke his word and he knew what he had said unto them He commended much the courage and resolution of the Lord Treasurer which I told him we all did as a probable sign of his innocency He said that the Marquesse had dispatched three Curreos and expected large Propositions from Spain to be made unto his Majestie concerning the present restitution of the Palatinate And that if this failed they were at an end of Treaty and the Embassadours would forthwith return home 11th April 1622. The Lord Keeper to the Duke May it please your Grace I Received your Graces Letter by Mr. Killegrew so full of that sweetnesse as could never issue from any other Fountain then that one breast so fraught with all goodnesse and virtue Dick Winne may write freely as he talks but alas what can my wretched self perform that should deserve the least acknowledgment from him to whom I owe so infinitely much more then the sacrificing of my life amounts to onely my love makes me sometimes write and many times fear fondly and foolishly for the which I hope your Grace will pardon me I have been frighted more about three weeks since about quarrels and jarres which now Dick Greyhams hath related in part unto the King then at this present I am For Gods sake be not offended with me if I exhort you to do that which I know you do to observe his Highnesse with all lowlinesse humility and dutiful obedience and to piece up any the least seam-rent that heat and earnestnesse might peradventure seem to produce I know by looking into my self these are the symptomes of good natures And for Gods sake I beg it as you regard the prayers of a poor friend if the great negotiation be well concluded let all private disagreements be wrapped up in the same and never accompany your Lordships into England to the joy and exultation of your enemies if any such ingrateful Divels are here to be found I am in good earnest and your Lordship would believe it if your Grace saw but the tears that accompany these lines I beseech you in your Letter to the Marquesse Hamilton intimate unto him your confidence and reliance upon his watchfulnesse and fidelity in all turns which may concern your Grace I have often lied unto his Lordship that your Grace hath in many of my Letters expressed as much and so have pacified him for the time If we did know but upon whom to keep a watchful eye for disaffected reports concerning your service it is all the intelligence he and I do expect His Majestie as we conceive is resolved to take certain oaths which you have sent hither and I pray God afterward no farther difficulties be objected I have had an hours discourse with his Majestie yesterday morning and do find him so disposed towards your Lordship as my heart desireth yet hath been informed of the discontentments both with the Conde de Olivarez and the Earl of Bristol Here is a strange Creation passed of late of a Vice-Counteship of Maidenhead passed to the Heires Males who must be called hereafter Vice-Countesse Fynch But my Lady Dutchesse hath the Land and as they say hath already sold it to my Lord Treasurer or shared it with him I stayed the Patent until I was assured your Lordship gave way thereunto My good Lord because I have heard that they have in those parts a conceipt of our church as that they will not believe we have any Liturgie or Book of common prayer at all I have at mine own cost caused the Liturgy to be translated into Spanish and fairely Printed and do send you by this bearer a Couple of the Books one for his Highnesse the other for your Grace Not sending any more unlesse your Grace will give directions His Majestie was acquainted therewith and alloweth of the businesse exceedingly The Translator is a Dominican a zealous Protestant and a good Scholer and I have secured him to our Church with a Benefice and a good Prebend Because we expect every day the dispatching of Sr. Francis Cottington thitherward I will not trouble your Grace farther at this time but do earnestly pray unto God to blesse your Grace both now and ever hereafter with all his favours and blessings spiritual and temporal And rest c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 30. Aug. 1623. My it please your Grace I Have no businesse of the least Consideration to trouble your Grace withal at this time but that I would not suffer Mr. Greyham to return without an expression of my respect and obligation I would advertize your Grace at large of the course held with our Recusants but that I know Mr. Secretary is injoyned to do so who best can His Majestie at Salisbury having referred the suit of these Embassadors to the Earl of Carlile and Mr. Secretary Conway sent by their resolutions some articles unto us the Lord Treasurer Secretary Calvert Sir Richard VVeston and my self to this effect 1. To grant a pardon of all offences past with a dispensation for those to come to all the Roman Catholiques obnoxious to any laws made against the Recusants 2. And then to issue forth two general Commands under the Great Seal the first to all the Judges and Justices of the Peace anp the other to all Bishops Chancellours and Commissaries not to execute any Statute made against them Their general pardon we have passed and sent unto his Majestie from whence it is not returned in as full and ample manner as they could desire and pen it The other general and vast prohibition I prevailed with the rest of the Lords to stop as yet and gave in three dayes conference such reasons to the 2. Embassadors that although it is no easie matter to satifie the Caprichiousnesse of the Latter of them yet they were both content it should rest until the Infanta had been six Months in England My reason if it may please your Grace was this Although this general favour and connivence whereof there are 20. of the Prime Councel know nothing as yet must at last be known to all the Land yet is there a great difference between the publishing thereof A Golpe at one push as it were and that instilling of it into their knowledg by
little and little by reason of favours done to particular Catholiques The former course might breed a general impression if not a mutinie This Letter will but loosen the tongues but of some few particulars who understand of their neighbours pardon and having vented their dislikes when they have not many to Sympathise with them they grow coole again so as his majestie afterwards may enlarge these favours without any danger at all Secondly to forbid Iudges against their oaths and Justices of the Peace sworn likewise to execute the law of the Land is a thing unpresidented in this Kingdom et Durus Sermo a very harsh and bitter pill to be digested upon a suddain and without some preparation But to grant a pardon even for a thing that is Malum in se and a dispensation with Penal Lawes in the profit whereof the King onely is interested is usual and full of presidents and examples And yet is this Letter onely tending to the safety the former but to the glory and insolencie of the Papists and the magnifying the service of the Embassadors ends too dearly purchased with the indangering of a tumult in three Kingdomes Thirdly and Lastly his Maiestie useth to speak to his Bishops Judges and Justices of the peace by his Chancelour or Keeper as your Grace well knoweth and by his Great Seal and I can signify his Majesties pleasure unto them with lesse noise and danger which I mean to do hereafter if the Embassadors shall presse it to this effect unlesse your Grace shall from his Highnesse or your own judgment direct otherwise That whereas his Majestie being at this time to mediate for favour to many Protestants in forraign parts with Princes of another religion and to sweeten the entertainment of the Princess into this Kingdom who is as yet a Roman Catholique doth hold a mitigation of the rigour of those lawes made against Recusants to be a necessary inducement to both those purposes and hath therefore issued forth some pardons of Grace and favour to such Roman Catholiques of whose faithfulnesse and fidelity to the state he rests assured That therefore you the Lords Bishops Judges and Justices each of those to be written unto by themselves do take notice of this his Majesties pardon and dispensation with all such penal Lawes and demean your selves accordingly c. Thus have I been too tedious and troublesome unto your Grace and Crave your pardon therefore and some directions which you may cause Sir Francis Cottington or some other to write without your Graces trouble if there shall apeare any cause of alteration Doctor Bishop the new Bishop of Calcedon is come to London privately and I am much troubled thereabouts not knowing what to advise his Majestie in this posture as things stand at this present If you were shipped with the Infanta the onely Councel were to let the Judges proceed with them presently hang him out of the way and the King to Blame my Lord of Cantuar or my self for it But before you be shipped in such form and manner I dare not assent or Connive at such a course It is my gracious Lord a most insolent Part and an offence as I take it Against our common Law and not the statutes onely which are dispensed withall for an English man to take such a consecration without the Kings consent and especially to use any Episcopal Jurisdiction in this Kingdom without the royal assent and Bishops have been in this State put to their fine and ransom for doing so three hundred years ago I will cease to to be further troublesome and pray to Almighty God to blesse your Grace and in all humblenesse take my leave and rest c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 14th of October 1621. My most Noble Lord I Humbly thank your Lordship for your most sweet and loving Letter which as Sir George Goring could not but observe hath much revived me drooping under the unusual weight of so many businesses Let God suffer me no longer to be then I shall be true plain faithful and affectionately respectful of your Lordship as being most bound unto your Lordship for these so many fruits but far more for the tree that bore them your love and affection If your Lordship shall not think it inconvenient I do beseech your Lordship to present this Petition inclosed either by word or writing unto his Majestie and to procure a speedy dispatch thereof because we are to meet on Thursday next Also to acquaint his Majestie that I stumble at the Proclamation now coming to the Seal against any that shall draw or present any bill for his Majesties signature besides those Clarks which usually draw them up by virtue of their places It is most prejudicial to my place the Lord Treasurer and the Judges itinerant who are often occasioned to draw up and present to his Majestie divers matters and especially pardons of Course It is also too strong a tie upon your Lordships hands being intended by his Majestie against Projectors and Scriveners only If it shall please his Majestie therefore to make an exception of the Lords of his Councel and Judges of Assize it may passe to the contentment of all men Mr. Attourney saith he meant this exception but I find it not sufficiently expressed in the Proclamation Also I humbly beseech your Lordship to meddle with no pardon for the Lord of St. Albons until I shall have the happinesse to confer with your Lordship the pardoning of his fine is much spoken against not for the matter for no man objects to that but for the manner which is full of knavery and a wicked president For by this assignation of his fine he is protected from all his Creditors which I dare say was neither his Majesties nor your Lordships meaning I have presumed to send your Lordship a true Copy of that speech which I made at VVestminster Hall at my entrance upon this office because somewhat was to be spoken at so great a change and alteration in so high a Court And I was never so much troubled in my life not how but what to speak I humbly crave pardon if I have failed in points of discretion which a wiser man in such a case might easily do With my heartiest prayers unto God to continue all his blessings upon your Lordship I rest deservedly c. Postscript MY Lord I find my Lord Treasurer affectionately touched with removing from the Court of Wards and do wish with all my heart he may have contentment in that or any thing else but orderly and in a right method Let him hold it but by your Lordships favour not his own power or wilfulnesse And this must be apparent and visible Let all our greatnesse depend as it ought upon yours the true original Let the King be Pharaoh your self Joseph and let us come after as your half-brethren God blesse you c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning Sir John Michel 8. Aug. 1622. My most noble
it so much importeth your Lordship to know in what terms you stand I could not conceal it from you being agreeable to those reports your Lordship hath already heard saving that his Grace told me he doth not seek your ruine as some others had related but onely will hereafter cease to study your fortune as formerly he hath done and withal added the reason that your Lordship hath run a course opposite to him which though he had cause to take ill at your hands yet he could have passed it over if it had been out of conscience or affection to his Majesties service or the Publique good but being both dangerous to your countrie and prejudicial to the cause of religion which your Lordship above all other men should have laboured to uphold he thought he could not with reason continue that strictnesse of friendship where your Lordship had made such a separation especially having divers times out of his love to you assayd to bring you into the right way which once you promised to follow but the two last times you met in Councel he found that you took your kue just as other men did and joyned with them in their opinions whose aim was to tax his proceedings in the managing of the Princes businesse But instead of laying it upon him they did no lesse then throw dirt in the Princes teeth For either they would make him a minor or put the refusal of the Ladie upon his Highnesse and to lay an aspersion upon his carriage there His Lordships Conclusion with me was that for any carriage of his he desireth no other favour but that the greatest Councel in England may be judge of it and the like he wisheth for other mens actions Yet I did what I could to perswade his Grace to expostulate the matter with your Lordship which he told me he would no more do having done it already but found no other satifaction but that by your practise you rejected what he had said and besides divulged what had passed between you as he evidently perceived meeting with it among others Whereby you gained onely thus much that they esteemed of you as of a man fit by reason of your passion to set all on fire but held you not worthy of trust because you that would not be true to him would never be so to them My Lord this is a part I would never have chosen but being imposed by your Lordship I could do you no better service then faithfully and plainely to discharge it leaving the use to your Lordships wisedom and ever resting Your Lordships most humbly at command J. P. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 2. Feburary 1623. May it please your Grace NOt presuming to write unto your Grace being so offended at me but resolved with sorrow and Patience to try what I was able to suffer without the least thought of opposition against your absolute pleasure his Hignesse hath encouraged and commanded the contrary assuring me which I cannot repeat again without teares that upon his credit your Grace neither did nor doth conceive any such real distast against me but did onely suspect I had conceived his Highnesses mind in that full manner which his Highnesse himself is now fully satisfied I did not In the which errour and mistake of the Prince his resolution for want of conference with your Grace or some other I did as I freely confessed offend his Highnesse but not your Grace at all Being ever resolved to stand or fall though diversified in opinion Your Graces most faithful and constant servant I humbly therefore beseech your Grace first to receive back this enclosed Letter of Mr. Packers and to burn the same then to receive my soule in gage and pawn 1. That I never harboured in this breast one thought of opposition to hurt your Grace from the first hour I saw your face 2. I never consulted much lesse practised with any Lord of that Commitee to vote on the one or the other side 3. I do not know that Lord in England that hath any design against your Grace and when I shall know any such whosoever it be I shall be his enemy as long as he continueth so unto your Grace 4. I do not know nor do I believe but that your Grace stands as firm in his Majesties favour and in his Highnesse as ever you did in all your life 5. I never made the least shew of siding with any opposite Lord unto your Grace and I defie any man that shall avow it 6. I never divulged your Graces or the secrets of any man In the next place I do most humbly and heartily crave your Graces pardon for suspecting that is the utmost of my offence so true real and Noble a friend Yet that I may not appear a very beast give me leave once to remember and ever after to forget the motives which drew me so to do And I will do it in the same order they came into my head 1. Your Graces charge upon me at York house that I was a man odious to all the world 2. Michels Voluntary Confession that my Lord Mandevil shewed him a Letter from Spain avowing that the first action your Grace would imbarque your self in should be to remove me out of this place which the least word of your mouth unto me is able to do 3. A report of the Venetian Embassador that amongst others your Grace intended to sacrifice me this Parliament to appease the dislike of immunities exercised towards the Catholiques 4. Your Graces motion unto my self concerning my place which now I absolutely know proceeded out of love at White-hall 5. A most wicked lie that one told he heard your Grace move his Highnesse to speake unto me to quit my place after your Graces professions of friendship to me 6. Mr. Secretarie Conwaies and my Lord Carlile's estrangednesse from me which I suspected could not be for I ever loved them both but true copies of your Graces displeasure I have opened to my truest friend all my former thoughts and being fully satisfyed by his Highnesse how false they are in every particular do humbly crave your Graces pardon that I gave a nights lodging to any of them all Although they never transported me a jott further then to look about how to defend my self being resolved as God shall be my protector to suffer all the obloquie of the world before I would be drawn to the least ingratitude against your Grace All that I beg is an assurance of your Graces former Love and I will plainely professe what I do not in the least beg or desire from your Grace 1. No Patronage of any corrupt or unjust act which shall be objected against me this Parliament 2. No defence of me if it shall appear I betrayed my King or my Religion in favour of the Papist or did them any real respect at all besides ordinary complements 3. No refuge in any of my causes or clamours against me which upon a
false supposal of your Graces displeasure may be many otherwise then according to justice and fair proceeding And let this paper bear record against me at the great Parliament of all if I be not in my heart and soul your Graces most faithful and constant poor friend and Servant His Highnesse desires your Grace to move his Majestie to accept of my Lord Sayes commission and to procure me leave to send for him Also to move his Majestie that my Lord of Hartford may be in the house accepting his fathers place and making his protestation to sue for his Grandfathers according to his Majesties Lawes when the King shall give him leave His Highnesse and my Lords do hold this a modest and submissive Petition His Highnesse upon very deep reasons doubts whether it be safe to put all upon the Parliament for fear they should fall to examine particular Dispatches wherein they cannot but find many Contradictions And would have the proposition onely to ayd for the recovery of the Palatinate To draw on an engagement I propound it might be to advise his Majestie how this recovery shall be effected by reconquering the same or by a War of diversion This will draw on a breach with Spain without ripping up of private dispatches His Highnesse seemed to like well hereof and commanded me to acquaint your Grace therewith and to receive your opinion I humbly crave again two lines of assurance that I am in your Grace's opinion as I will ever be indeed c. The Heads of that Discourse which fell from Don Francisco 7. Die Aprilis 1624. at 11. of the clock at night This Relation was sent by the Lord Keeper to the Duke HOw he came to procure his accesses to the King The Marquesse putting Don Carlos upon the Prince and Duke in a discourse thrust a Letter into the Kings hand which he desired the King to read in private The King said he would thrust it into his pocket and went on with his discourse as if he had received none The effect was to procure private accesse for Don Francisco to come and speak with the King which his Majestie appointed by my Lord of Kelley and he by his secresie who designed for Don Francisco time and place At his first accesse he told the King That his Majestie was a prisoner or at leastwise besieged so as no man could be admitted to come at him And then made a complaint against the Duke that he aggravated and pretended accusations against Spain whereas its onely offence was that they refused to give unto him equal honour and observance as they did unto his Highnesse And that this was the only cause of his hatred against them At the last accesse which was some 4. dayes ago he made a long invective and remonstrance unto the King which he had put into writing in Spanish which he read unto me corrected with the hand of Don Carlos which I do know It was somewhat general and very rhetorical if not tragical for the stile The heads of what I read were these viz. 1. That the King was no more a freeman at this time then King John of France when he was prisoner in England or King Francis when he was at Madrid Being besieged and closed up with the servants and vassals of Buckingham 2. That the Embassadours knew very well and were informed 4. moneths ago that his Majestie was to be restrained and confined to his Country house and pastimes and the Government of the State to be assumed and disposed of by others and that this was not concealed by Buckinghams followers 3. That the Duke had reconciled himself to all the popular men of the State and drawn them forth out of prisons restraints and confinements to alter the Government of the State at this Parliament as Oxford South-hampton Say and others whom he met at Suppers and Ordinaries to strengthen his popularity 4. That the Duke to breed an opinion of his own greatnesse and to make the King grow lesse hath oftentimes brag'd openly in Parliament that he had made the King yield to this and that which was pleasure unto them And that he mentioned openly before the Houses his Majesties private oath which the Embassadors have never spoken of to any creature to this hour 5. That these Kingdomes are not now governed by a Monarch but by a Triumviri whereof Buckingham was the first and chiefest the Prince the second and the King the last and that all look towards Solem Orientem 6. That his Majestie should shew himself to be as he was reputed the oldest and wisest King in Europe by freeing himself from this Captivity and eminent danger wherein he was by cutting off so dangerous and ungrateful an affecter of greatnesse and popularity as the Duke was 7. That he desired his Majestie to conceal this his free dealing with him because it might breed him much peril and danger And yet if it were any way available for his service to reveal it to whom he pleased because he was ready to sacrifice his life to do him acceptable service And this was the effect of so much of the penned speech as I remember was read unto me out of the Spanish Copy His Majestie was much troubled in the time of this speech His Offer to the King for the restitution of the Palatinate TO have a Treaty for three moneths for the restitution and that money was now given in Spain to satisfie Bavaria That in the mean time because the people were so distrustful of the Spaniard the King might fortifie himself at home and assist the Hollanders with men or money at his pleasure And the King of Spain should not be offended therewith His opinion of our preparing of this Navie IT was a design of the Duke to go to the Ports of Sevil and there to burn all the Ships in the Harbour which he laught at Speeches which he said fell from his Majestie concerning the Prince 1. THat when he told the King that his greatnesse with the Duke was such as might hinder his Majestie from taking a course to represse him His Majestie replyed He doubted nothing of the Prince or his own power to sever them two when he pleased 2. His Majestie said That when his Highnesse went to Spain he was as well affected to that Nation as heart could desire and as well disposed as any son in Europe but now he was strangely carried away with rash and youthful Councels and followed the humour of Buckingham who had he knew not how many Devils within him since that journey Concerning the Duke 1. THat he could not believe yet that he affected popularity to his disadvantage Because he had tryed him of purpose and commanded him to make disaffecting motions to the houses which he performed whereby his Majestie concluded he was not popular 2. That he desired Don Francisco and the Embassadours and renewed this request unto them by Padre Maestro two dayes ago to get him any ground to
charge him with popular courses or to increase a suspition of it and he would quickly take a course with him 3. That he had good cause to suspect the Duke of late but he had no servant of his own that would charge him with any particular nor knew he any himself The end as was conceived of Don Francisco's desiring this Conference HE had heard that the Duke had pusht at me in Parliament and intended to do so again when he had done with the Treasurer and therefore shewed that if I would joyn to set upon him with the King there was a fit occasion I answered that the Prince and the Duke had preferred me into my place and kept me in it and if I found them pursuing I would not keep it an hour That what favour soever I shewed the Embassadour or Catholiques I did it for their sakes and had thanks of them for it And that I would deal by way of counsel with the Duke to be temperate and moderate but to be in opposition to my friend and Patron I knew he being one that professed so much love unto me would never expect from an honest man Upon the which answer he seemed satisfied and never replyed word in that kind I made an end of writing these notes about two of the clock in the morning The Lord Keeper to the Duke concerning Sir Richard Weston 24. May. 1624. May it please your Grace I Hold it my duty to give your Grace a present account of this Patent made for Sir Richard Weston Having put off the sealing of the same as fairly as I could though not without the clamour of one Lake a servant of Mr. Chancelours Mr. William Lake who very saucily prest for a dispatch this morning Mr. Chancelour spake with me himself to whom I made answer That I would seal his Patent according to his Majesties Warrant but would retain it in my hands as I was directed until I either spake with the King or received his farther Command in that behalf He told me he would write unto your Grace concerning the stay thereof and the stand of the Kings businesse until it were delivered which course I told him was very fair After I acquainted his Highnesse with my sealing and retaining of the Patent and asked him if he knew thereof His Highnesse answered he did know thereof but gave no approbation of the course and although he durst not speak to crosse it he hoped I should have directions from the King to pull off the Seals again Three houres after I went to his Highnesse the second time and asked him if he meant really as he spake or intended onely to make me believe so I desired to know his mind lest I might steer my course contrary to his intendment His Highnesse answered He meant really and would endeavour to effectuate all that he spake Which I thought very sitting for your Grace to know with all speed But for the man himself I must deliver unto your Grace my conscience For ought I ever saw in him he is a very honest and a very sufficient man and such a one as I never in all my life could observe to be any way false or unfaithful unto your Grace He was brought in by your Grace sore against my will as your Grace may call to mind what I said to your Grace at Woodstock to that effect not that I disliked the Gentleman but because I was afraid he would be wholly the Treasurers who began then to out-top me and appeared to my thoughts likely enough by his daring and boldnesse two virtues very powerful and active upon our Royal Master in time to do as much to your Grace From that time to this I never observed in VVeston any unworthinesse or ingratitude to your Grace Nay craving pardon I will proceed one step farther I know no fitter man in England for the office if he come in as a creature of the Prince and your Grace's nor unfitter if he should offer to take it without your likings I think your Grace will remember that this fortnight this hath been my constant opinion Upon the death of one Mr. Read the Secretaries place for the Latine tongue is void The Dean of Winchester and I moved the King for Patrick Young the fittest man in England for that place And the Prince did and will second the motion I Beseech your Grace to assist us or els the immodesty of his Competitor that Lake I spake of in the beginning of this Letter will bear down this most honest and bashful creature God be thanked for your Graces recovery and still preserve it And so c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 22. August 1624. May it please your Grace I Humbly thank your Grace for your favourable and Gratious remembrance sent by my Neighbour Sir George Goring Though I despaire to be able to make any other requital yet will I never fail to serve your Grace most faithfully and when I grow unuseful in that kind to pray for you I beseech your Grace that I may receive from the Prince's Highnesse and your Grace some directions how to demean my self to the French Embassador in matters concerning Recusants and that Mr. Secretary may either addresse himself to Mr. Atturny General in these causes or else write unto me plainely what I am to do His last letter required of me and the Judges who neither are nor will be in town these six weeks yet an account of this their supposed persecution neither so much as intimating unto me what or when I should return an answer and supposeth some directions his Majestie should give me therein the which particularly or dividedly from the Judges I never received I adventured out of mine own head to write that answer I imagine your Grace hath seen whether I did well or ill therein I know not but conceived his Majestie expected some answer Yesterday the Embassador sent unto me to know if I had received any order from his Majestie to stay this as he tearmed it persecution I assured him there was no such matter in this state and that as yet I had received no order from his Majestie of late but was in expectation to hear from the Court very shortly I humbly crave your Graces directions what I am to say or do in the premises being otherwise a meer stranger in all these proceedings I write to no bodie herein besides your Grace so as if I receive no direction which upon my head and livelihood I shall burie in all secresie I shall be in a pitiful perplexity if his Majestie shall turn the Embassador upon me altogether unprovided how to answer And so with my hartiest prayers for your Graces health I rest yours c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 21. July 1624. May it please your Grace I Could not suffer Sir George Goring to depart without these few lines although the greatest matter of their contents must be this to expresse unto your Grace
great and wealthie man in Florence and his opinion demanded who should be sent Embassador to the Pope made this answer that he knew not who Si jo vo chista Si jo sto chi va If I go I know not who shall stay at home if I stay I know not who can perform this imployment Yet your Grace staying at home in favour and greatnesse with his Majestie may by your designs and directions so dispose of the Admiral as to injoy the glory without running the hazard of his personal imployment My Gracious Lord if any man shall put you in hope that the Admiralty will fill your Coffers and make you rich call upon them to name one Admiral that ever was so As in time of hostility there is some getting so are there hungry and infatiable people presently to devoure the same God made man to live upon the land and necessity onely drives him to Sea Yet is not my advice absolutely for your relinquishing of this but in any case for the retaining of the other place though with the losse of the Admiraltie 5. I beseech your Grace observe the Earl of Leicester who being the onely favorite in Queen Elizabeths time that was of any continuance made choice of this place onely and refused the Admiralty two several times as being an occasion either to withdraw him from the Court or to leave him there laden with ignominie And yet being Lord Steward wise and in favour he wholly commanded the Admiralty and made it ministerial and subordinary to his directions 6. Remember that this office is fit for a young a middle and an old man to injoy and so is not any other that I know about his Majesty Now God almighty having given you favour at the first and since a great quantity I never flattered your Grace nor do now of wit and wise experience I would humbly recommend unto your Grace this opportunity to be neerest unto the King in your young your middle and your decreasing age that is to be on earth as your piety will one day make you in heaven an everlasting favorite There are many objections which your Grace may make but if I find any inclination in your Grace to lay hold upon this proposition I dare undertake to answer them all Your Grace may leave any office you please if your Grace be more in love with the Admiraltie then I think you have cause to avoid envie But my final conclusion is this to desire your Grace most humbly to put no other Lord into this office without just and mature deliberation And to pardon this boldnesse and haste which makes me to write so weakly in a theame that I perswade my self I could maintaine very valiantly I have no other copie of this Letter and I pray God your Grace be able to read this I send your Grace a Letter delivered unto me from Conde Gondomar and dated either at Madrid or as I observe it was written first at London There is no great matter at whither of the places it was invented I humbly beseech your Grace to send by this bearer the resolution for the Parliament And do rest Yours c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke about Sr. Robert Howard 11 March 1624. May it please your Grace SIr Robert Howard appeared yesterdy and continues obstinate in his refusal to swear When we came to examin the commission for our power to fine him for this obstinacie we found that Sir Edward Cook foreseeing out of a prophetical how near it might concern a Grandchild of his own day hath expunged this clause by the help of the Earle of Salisburie out of the commission and left us nothing but the rustie sword of the church excommunication to vindicate the authority of this Court. We have given him day until Saturdy next either to conform or to be excommunicated She hath answered wittilie and cunningly but yet sufficient for the Conisance of the Court. Confesseth a fame of incontinencie against her and Howard but sayeth it was raised by her Husbands kindred I do not doubt but the businesse will go on well but peradventure more slowly if Howard continue refractory for want of this power to fine and amerce him I beseech your Grace either to procure me the favour to come or to excuse my not seeing his Majestie in this time of his indisposition which I hear still continueth I beseech Almighty God as in eternal duty I am bound presently to ease him and restore him to his perfect health Mr. Packers being away makes me unmannerly I am humbly to desire your Grace to be pleased to move his Majestie at your first opportunity to sign this Commission for the proroguing of the Parliament and to read unto his Majestie this paper of names here inclosed which his Majestie is not to sign knowing his pleasure whether he alloweth of them for Commissioners for the last subside of the Lords I have added to the former the Earl of Montgomerie according to your Graces direction whom God almighty ever preserve It is the prayer of c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 13. March 1624. May it please your Grace FOr your Brothers businesse this is all I have to acquaint your Grace with Sir Robert Howard appeared yesterday at Lambeth pretended want of Councel the Doctors being out of town desired respite until to morrow and had it granted by my Lords Grace Most men think he will not take his oath at all I do incline to the contrary opinion because to my knowledge he hath sent far and near for the most able Doctors in the Kingdom to be feed for him which were great follie if he intended not to answer He is extreamly commended for his closenesse and secresie by the major part of our auditors the Hee and Shee good fellowes of the town and though he refuseth to be a Confessor yet is sure to die a Martyr and most of the Ladies in town will offer at his shryne The Lady Hatton some nine dayes since was at Stoke with the good Knight her Husband for some counsel in this particular But he refused to meddle therewithal and dismist her Ladiship when she had stayed with him very lovingly half a quarter of an hour The cause of my troubling your Grace is this The French Embassador is fired with some complaints of our Recusants who I verily believe work upon him purposely finding him to be of a combustible disposition To morrow he is resolved to come upon you and our Master with Complaints for lack of performances to the Papists And because I would furnish your Grace with as much answer as I am acquainted with nothing doubting but your Grace is otherwaies better provided I make bold to present your Grace with these particulars 1. With a Letter from my Lord Archbishop of York in answer to another of mine which shews how really his Majesties promise hath been in that kind performed I beseech your Grace to keep it safe in your
pocket until I shall have the honour to wait upon your Grace when you have made use of the same 2. If your Grace shall hear him complain of the Judges in their charges and of their receiving of Indictments your Grace may answer That those charges are but orations of Course opening all the penal Lawes and the Indictments being presented by the Country cannot be refused by the Judges But the Judges are ordered to execute nothing actually against the Recusants nor will they do it during the negotiation 3. Your Grace may put him in mind that my Lord Keeper doth every day when his the Lord Embassadours Secretary calls upon him grant forth Writs to remove all the persons indicted in the Country into the Kings Bench out of the power and reaches of the Justices of the Peace And that being there the King may and doth release them at his pleasure 4. That the Spanish Embassadour never had nor desired more then these favours 5. That you are informed that Copies of Letters written from the King to both the Archbishops are spread abroad in Staffordshire to his Majesties disadvantage for so it is and that thereby my Lord Embassadour may perceive the bent of the English Catholiques which is not to procure ease and quietnesse to themselves but Scandals to their neighbouring Protestants and discontentments against the King and State I humbly crave your Graces pardon for this boldnesse and tediousnesse and with my hearty prayers for your health do rest yours c. The Lord Keeper to the Duke 22. March 1624. May it please your Grace I Send your Grace here inclosed the Kings Commission and the Prince's Proxie not fairly written which the Embassadours upon the place may procure in a frech hand but yet legibly and passably The Prince's Proxie refers the manner unto the articles and particularly to the second third and fourth Section of those Articles which gives me occasion to begg of your Grace pardon to desire your Grace to think seriously upon the third Section to advise with the Prince and to give Mr. Packer charge to inform your Grace punctually what he knoweth and may inform himself concerning those particulars That is How the Queen Margaret of France was married to Henry the fourth and how Madam his sister was married to the Prince of Lorrain For although they are both made alike in the article yet surely they were not married after the same fashion For the Dutchesse of Barr was married in a closet without a Masse by words onely of the Present tense as I believe I have read in the Historie of Thuanus A favour which will hardly be granted to your Grace And how Queen Margaret was married my Lords the Embassadours will soon learn if your Grace will be pleased to write unto them I hold it in a manner necessary that your Grace do carrie over with you in your company one Civilian to put your Grace in mind of the formalities required and if your Grace be of that mind your own Doctor Dr. Reeves is as fit as any man else who is a good Scholar and speaks that language Your Grace hath revived my Lord of Clare sithence I spake with your Grace And I beseech your Grace to follow that resolution and to let Mr. Packer draw up a warrant of 3. or 4. lines signed by the King to me to place him with the rest of the Councel of War It will be an occasion to take up more of that time which he now spends with the Lady Hatton For now I am resolved that I was of the right in my conjecture to your Grace that his Lordship had utterly refused my Lady Purbecks cause of the which the very common peopple begin to be ashamed but is deeply ingaged against my Lady of Richmond Dutchesse of Richmond in the businesse of that famous or rather notorious foeminine Contract and bargain of sixteen hundred pounds by the year for a house to sleep in When your Grace shall draw up your Instructions you will be pleased to use the words To Contract Espouse and marrie Our Welbeloved Son c. because they do in those parts contract alwaies before marriage And your Grace will be pleased to expresse his Majesties pleasure that this is to be done by your self and no other Because although the two Earls upon the place have some such general words in their Commission yet your Grace only is named in the Prince's Proxie and now solely imployed by the King to that purpose Although I conceived this restraint to be fitter a great deal for the instructions then the Commission I am extream sorry to hear what a grievous fit his Majestie had this last night But I hope it is a farewel of the Agues and I pray God it be the last fit And now am an humble suitor again that I may come and look upon his Majestie resolved to say nothing but that which I will never cease to say God blesse him If your Grace holds it inconvenient I beseech your Grace to excuse me and to account me as I will ever be found Yours c. The Bishop of Lincoln to the Duke 7th of January 1625. Most Gratious Lord BEing come hither according unto the dutie of my place to do my best service for the preparation to the Coronation and to wait upon his Majestie for his Royal pleasure and direction therein I do most humbly beseech your Grace to crown so many of your Grace's former favours and to revive a Creature of your own struck dead onely with your displeasure but no other discontentment in the universal world by bringing of me to kisse his Majesties hand with whom I took leave in no disfavour at all I was never hitherto brought into the presence of a King by any Saint besides your self Turn me not over most noble Lord to offer my prayers at new Altars If I were guiltie of any unworthy unfaithfulnesse for the time past or not guiltie of a resolution to do your Grace all service for the time to come all considerations under Heaven could not force me to beg it so earnestly or to professe my self as I do before God and you Your Grace's most humble affectionate and devoted servant Jo. Lincoln The Bishop of Lincoln to his Majestie Most Mighty and dread Soveraign I Have now these four moneths by the strength of those gracious speeches your Majestie used when I took my leave of your Majestie at Salisbury and the conscience of mine own innocencie from having ever wilfully or malitiously offended your Majestie comforted my self in these great afflictions to be thus injoyned from your Majesties presence the onely heaven wherein my soul delighted having submitted my self I hope dutifully and patiently to the discharge from that great Office for the execution whereof I was altogether unworthy My required absence from the Councel Table my sequestration from attending your Majesties Coronation And your Majesties favourable pleasure for so I do esteem that to spare my
presence at this next Parliament And I trust in God I shall most readily obey any other Command that bears the image and superscription of your Majestie without any desire of searching after the hand that helps to presse and ingrave it Yet because I suffer in some more particulars then peradventure is explicitely known to your Majestie And that I have no friend left about your Majestie that dares for fear of displeasure relate unto your Majestie my griefs and necessities I humbly crave your gratious Pardon to make some two representations and some few Petitions unto your most excellent Maiestie First I humbly shew unto your Majestie that besides my former Calamities I am not paid that part of my Pension which should pay the Creditors who lent me money to buy the same notwithstanding your Majestie hath been gratiously pleased to order otherwise Secondly I have not yet received my Writ of Summons unto the Parliament denied to no Prisoners or condemned Peers in the late raign of your blessed Father that I might accordingly make my Proxie the which I cannot do the Writ not received nor can I my self go into the Countrie as I had done long ere this had not the expectation of this Writ together with the special service of my Lord Duke and no other occasion whatsoever detained me These two particulars I present with all submission unto your Majestie and shall rest satisfied with what royal resolution your Majestie shall make therein These petitions that follow I must earnestly beg at your Majesties hands and for Gods sake and your blessed Fathers sake whose Creature and most painful servant I was First that your Majestie would be pleased to mitigate and allay the causelesse displeasure of my Lord Duke against me who is so little satisfied with any thing I can do or suffer that I have no means left to appease his anger but my prayers to God and your Sacred Majestie Secondly I beseech your Majestie for Christ Jesus sake not to believe newes or accusations against me concerning my carriage past present or to come whilest I stand thus injoyned from your Royal presence before you shall have heard my answer and defence unto the particulars Those that inform your Majestie may God he knoweth be oftentimes mis-informed My last supplication unto your Majestie is That in my absence this Parliament no use may be made of your sacred name to wound the reputation of a poor Bishop who besides his Religion and Dutie to that Divine Character you now bear hath ever affectionately honoured your very Person above all the objects in this world as he desires the salvation of the world to come But I crave no protection against any other accuser or accusation whatsoever So shall I never cease to pray to the Almighty God to make your Majestie the Happiest and Greatest King that ever was Crowned and Anointed which shall be the continual orisons of Your Majesties most dutiful and most humble Vassal Jo. Lincoln The Lord Keeper to the Lord Viscount Anan 17. Septemb. 16. Right Honourable I Owe more service to that true love and former acquaintance which your Lordship hath been pleased to afford me now these full ten yeares then to be sparing or reserved in satisfying your Lordship about any doubt whatsoever the resolution whereof shall lie in my power Concerning that offence taken by many people both on this side the borders and in Scotland from that Clemencie which his Majestie was pleased to extend to the imprisoned Lay-Recusants of this Kingdom and my Letter written unto the Justices for the reigling of the same which your Lordship did intimate unto me yesterday at Mr. Henry Gibbs his house out of some newes received from a Peer of Scotland This is the plainest return I can make unto your Lordship In the general as the Sun in the firmament appears unto us no bigger then a Platter and the Stars but as so many nails in the pummel of a saddle because of the Elongement and disproportion between our eyes and the object so is there such an unmeasurable distance betwixt the deep resolution of a Prince and the shallow apprehension of common and ordinary people that as they will be ever judging and censuring so must they be obnoxious to errour and mistaking Particularly for as much as concerns my self I must leave my former life my profession my continuall preaching my writing which is instant in the hands of many my private indeavours about some great persons and the whole bent of my actions which in the place I live in cannot be concealed to testifie unto the world what favour I am likely to importune for the Papists in their religion For the King my Master I will tell you a storie out of Velleius Paterculus A Surveyor bragging to M. Livius Drusus that he would so contrive his house Vt Libera à conspectu immunis ab omnibus arbitris esset that it should stand removed out of sight and be past all danger of peeping or Eves-dropping was answered again by Drusus Tu vero si quid in te artis est ita compone domum mean ut quicquid agam ab omnibus Conspici possit Nay my good friend if you have any devices in your head contrive my house after such a manner that all the world may see what I do therein So if I should indeavour to flourish up some artificial Vault to hide and conceal the intentions of his Majestie I know I should receive the same thanks that the Surveyor did from Drusus I was not called to Councel by his royal Majestie when the resolution of this Clemencie to the Lay-Recusants was first concluded But if I had been asked my opinion I should have advised it without the least haesitation His Majestie was so Popishly addicted at this time that to the incredible exhaustments of this Treasurie he was a most zealous interceder for some ease and refreshment to all the Protestants in Europe his own Dominions and Denmarks onely excepted Those of Swithland having lately provoked the Pole had no other hope of peace those of France of the exercise of their Religion those of the Palatinate and adjoyning Countries of the least connivencie to say their prayers then by the earnest mediation of our gracious Master And advised by the late Assembly of Parliament to insist a while longer in this milkie way of intercession and Treatie What a preposterous argument would this have been to desire those mighty Princes armed and victorious to grant some liberty and clemencie to the Protestants because himself did now imprison and execute the rigour of his lawes against the Roman Catholiques I must deal plainely with your Lordship Our viperous countrymen the English Jesuits in France to frustrate these Pious endeavours of his Majesties had many months before this favour granted retorted that argument upon us by writing a most malitious book which I have seen and read over to the French King inciting him and the three Estates
to put all those statutes in execution against the Protestants in those parts which are here enacted and as they falsely informed severally executed upon the Papists I would therefore see the most subtile State-monger in the world chalk out a way for his Majestie to mediate for Grace and favour for the Protestants by executing at this time the severity of the Lawes upon the Papists And that this favour should mount to a Toleration is a most dull and yet a most divelish misconstruction A Toleration looks forward to the time to come This favour backward onely to the offences past If any Papist now set at liberty shall offend the lawes again the Justices may nay must recommit him and leave favour and mercy to the King to whom onely it properly belongeth Nay let those 2. writs directed to the Judges be as diligently perused by those rash Censures as they were by those grave and learned to whom his Majestie referred the penning of the same and they shall find that these Papists are no other-otherwise out of prison then with their shackles about their heels sufficient sureties and good recognisances to present themselves again at the next assises As therefore that Lacedemonian posed the Oracle of Apollo by asking his opinion of the bird which he grasped in his hand whether he were alive or dead so it is a matter yet controversed and undecided whether those Papists closed up and grasped in the hands of the law be still in prison or at libertie Their own demeanours and the successe of his Majesties negotiations are Oracles that must deside the same If the Lay-papists do wax insolent with this mercy insulting upon the Protestants and translating this favour from the person to the cause I am verily of opinion his Majestie will reman d them to their former state and condition and renew his writ no more But if they shall use these graces modestly by admitting Conference with learned Preachers demeaning themselves neighbourly and peaceably praying for his Majestie and the prosperous successe of his pious endeavours and relieving him bountifully which they are as well able to do as any of his Subjects if he shall be forced and constrained to take his sword in hand then it cannot be denied but our Master is a Prince that hath as one said plus humanitatis penè quam hominis and will at that time leave to be merciful when he leaves to be himself In the mean while this argument fetcht from the Devils topicks which concludes a Concreto ad abstractum from a favour done to the English Papists that the King favoureth the Romish Religion is such a composition of follie and malice as is little deserved by that gracious Prince who by word writing exercise of Religion acts of Parliament late directions for catechizing and preaching and all professions and endeavours in the world hath demonstrated himself so resolved a Protestant God by his holy Spirit open the eyes of the people that these aierie representations of ungrounded fancies set aside they may clearly discern and see how by the goodnesse of God and the wisdom of their King this Island of all the Countries in Europe is the sole nest of peace and true Religion and the inhabitants thereof unhappie onely in this one thing that they never look up to heaven to give God thanks for so great a happinesse Lastly for mine own Letter to the Judges which did onely declare not operate the favour it was either much mis-penned or much misconstrued It recited four kinds of recusancies onely capable of his Majesties clemencie not so much to include these as to exclude many other crimes bearing amongst the Papists the name of Recusancies as using the function of a Romish Priest seducing the Kings liege people from the Religion established scandalizing and aspersing our King Church State or present Government All which offences being outward practises and no secret motions of the conscience are adjudged by the Lawes of England to be merely civil and political and excluded by my Letter from the benefit of those Writs which the bearer was imployed to deliver unto the Judges And thus I have given your Lordship a plain account of the carriage of this businesse and that the more suddenly that your Lordship might perceive it is not Aurea Fabula or prepared tale but a bare Narration which I have sent unto your Lordship I beseech your Lordship to let his Majestie know that the Letters to the Justices of Peace concerning those four heads recommended by his Majestie shall be sent away as fast as they can be exscribed I will trouble your Lordship no more at this time but shall rest ever Your Lordships servant and true friend Jo. Lincoln C. S. The Bishop of Menevensis to the Duke Dr. Laud. My most Gratious Lord I May not be absent and not write And since your Grace is pleased with the trouble I must professe my self much content with the performance of the dutie I am not unmindful of the last businesse your Grace committed to me but I have as yet done the lesse in it because I fell into a relaps of my infirmitie but I thank God I am once more free if I can look better to my self as I hope I shall My Lord I must become an humble suitor to your Grace I hear by good hand that my Lord of Canterbury intends shortly to renew the High Commission Now I am to acquaint your Grace that there is never a Bishop that lives about London left out of the Commission but my self and many that live quite absent are in and many inferiours to Bishops The Commission is a place of great experience for any man that is a Governour in the Church And since by his Majesties gratious goodnesse and your Grace's sole procurement I am made a Governour I would be loath to be excluded from that which might give me experience and so enable me to perform my dutie I am sure my Lord of Canterbury will leave me out as hitherto he hath done if his Majestie be not pleased to Command that I shall be in This I submit to your Grace but humbly desire even against my own ease and quiet that I may not be deprived of that experience which is necessary for my place I most humbly beseech your Grace to pardon this boldnesse and to know that in my daily prayers for your Grace's happinesse I shall ever rest Your Grace's most devoted and affectionate servant Guil. Menevensis Novemb. 18. 1624. The Bishop of Menevensis to the Duke Dr. Laud. My most Gracious Lord I Am heartily glad to hear your Lordship is so well returned and so happily as to meet so great joy God hath among many others his great blessings and I know your Grace so esteems them sent you now this extraordinarie one a son to inherit his fathers honours and the rest of Gods blessings upon both So soon as I came to any end of my journey I met the happie
redoubled an infinitely multiplied benefit which is so given Never had I more need of the Cordial his Majestie gave me at my going into Wales which was that I should not stay long there It would be a restorative too not onely of my Credit so cruelly crackt with the sharp teeth of the wide mouth of vulgar lying fame but of my estate also alwaies poor but lately much more impoverished and made crazie by occasions of the Church which drew me to London a place of great expences as the busie times were to little purpose And the Parliament overtaking me which have held me long and longer yet are like to hold me here even to the undoing of my self my wife and six children from whom I have now lived 6. or 7. moneths And what shall I carry home with me but disgrace and infamie Yet my good Lord at least procure me of my Lord the King a Nunc dimittis leave to depart I shall be further out of the reach of pursuing malice there in the Countrie do his Majestie better service in gathering up his Subsidies praying and teaching my children whilest I read a Lecture to them my self was never yet able to get by heart of parcimony which must be to them instead of a patrimonie to pray for his Majesties long life health and happinesse In which prayer shall your Lordship ever be duly remembred by Your Lordships daily devote Beadsman Theophilus Landavensis Dr. Corbet to the Duke May it please your Grace TO consider my two great losses this week one in respect of his Majestie to whom I was to preach the other in respect of my Patron whom I was to visit If this be not the way to repair the latter of my losses I fear I am in danger to be utterly undone To presse too near a great man is a means to be put by and to stand too far off is the way to be forgotten so Ecclesiasticus In which mediocrity could I hit it would I live and die My Lord I would neither presse near nor stand far off choosing rather the name of an ill Courtier then a saucie Scholar From your Graces most humble servant Rich. Corbet Postscript HEre is news my noble Lord about us that in the point of Allegiance now in hand all the Papists are exceeding Orthodox the onely Recusants are the Puritanes The E. of Worcester Arundel and Surrey Montgomery to the King May it please your most excellent Majestie ACcording to the Orders and Constitutions made and established by your Majestie and all the Companions of the Order at the last general Chapter held at White-Hall the 21. of May last past we are bold to inform your Majestie that we having diligently viewed divers of the Records of the said Order do in the black book find that the keeping of the little Park at VVindsor next adjoyning unto the Castle is in direct words annexed for ever to the Office of the Usher for the said Order So humbly kissing your Royal hands We rest Your Majesties most humble and faithful Subjects and servants E. Worcester Arundel and Surrey Montgomery White-Hall 1. July 1622. The Lord Chancellour Bacon to the Duke My very good Lord MY Lord of Suffolk's cause is this day sentenced My Lord and his Lady fined at 30000 l. with imprisonment in the Tower at their own charges Bingley at 2000 l. and committed to the Fleet. Sir Edward Cook did his part I have not heard him do better and began with a sine of an 100000 l. But the Judges first and most of the rest reduced it as before I do not dislike that things passe moderately and all things considered it is not amisse and might easily have been worse There was much speaking of interceding for the Kings mercie which in my opinion was not so proper for a sentence I said in conclusion that mercy was to come ex mero motu and so left it I took some other occasion pertinent to do the King honour by shewing how happy he was in all other parts of his Government save only in the manage of his treasure by these Officers I have sent the King a new Bill for Sussex for my Lord of Nottingham's Certificate was true and I told the Judges of it before but they neglected it I conceive the first man which is newly set down is the fittest God ever preserve and keep you c. The Earl of Suffolk to his Majestie Gratious Soveraign IN this grievous time of my being barred from your presence which to me is the greatest affliction that can lie upon me and knowing by my former service to you the sweet and Princely disposition that is in you naturally together with that unmatchable judgement which the world knoweth you have is the occasion that I presume at this time to lay before your Majestie my most humble suit which is that you would be pleased to look upon the Case of your poor servant who after so many faithful desires of mine to do you service I do not say that successe hath fallen out as I wished should now not only have suffered for my weaknesse and errours but must be further questioned to my disgrace I would to God your Majestie did truly understand the thoughts of my heart and if there you could find one the least of ill affections to you I wish it pulled out of my body Now to adde to my miseries give me leave to let your Majestie know the hard estate I am in for I do owe at this present I dare avow upon my fidelitie to you little lesse then 40000 l. which I well know will make me and mine poor and miserable for ever All this I do not lay down to your Majesties best judging eyes that I mean this by way of complaint For I do acknowledge the reason that your Majestie had to do what you did neither do I go about to excuse errours to have escaped me but will now and ever acknowledge your Gracious favourable dealing with me if you will be pleased now to receive me again to your favour after this just correction without which I desire not to enjoy fortune of Goods or life in this world which in the humblest manner that I can I beg at your Princely feet as Your c. T. Suffolk The E. of Suffolk to the Duke My Honourable good Lord AT the first minute of mine and my wives delivery out of the Tower I had returned such acknowledgment due for so great a favour but that Sir George Coring only desired to be the Messenger as well as he was of the other Let not my Lord my late misfortunes make me or mine more unable to serve and thank you then any hee that thus takes advantage thereby to wrong me in your belief for what I have both received in abatement of my fine and speedy libertie I must confesse to come from your Noble mediation to his Majestie whose displeasure hath been more grievous to my soul then all the
rest this world can inflict upon me As your Lordships kindnesse hath begun to ease me so now let the same hand cure and preserve me from a worse relapse wherein I am like to fall if your power prevent it not The motion of his Majesties for my perswading my sons out of their places was the grievousest sound that ever entred me for thereby I still breathed under the heavy weight of all my afflictions not despairing but their Care charged upon them with my blessing might somewhat redeem my errours and assure his Majestie that my will was never tainted with offending him I know my Lord there is little benefit in serving against Masters minds but they are unworthy servants that will leave such Masters upon any conditions Such as make suit to chop or change for their own advantage are better lost then kept But as for mine my curse should follow them if ever I could think they followed his Majestie with such indifferencie My obedience to his Majestie was ever of more force with me then mine own ends any way layed nor ever joyed I more then in running to his Commands But this my Lord rends my heart to think that unfortunate I should bury my sons alive and pronounce that sentence which would make me and them Scorns to posteritie Whilest I have knee to bend eye to lift up or tongue to begg I must implore his Majesties pardon and mercy in this kind As for that more drossie part of my estate it still lies at his Majesties feet and if he now please to recal what he remitted without further condition I must obey and let his Majestie see no change of time or place can change me my love my dutie or my zeal to him My Lord here you may read me in my greatest griefs that ever did fall to me weigh them well and think that one day you may be a father and be as neerly touched as now I am The favour you shall do me herein shall prove no hidden talent for the increase shall not onely be the happinesse of a good work well done but the hearty acknowledgment of a whole family and all theirs that shall as faithfully serve and honour you as the best of those that would succeed them which I hope your Lordship will believe from me who will ever be Yours c. T. Suffolk The Earl of Suffolk to his Majestie Most Gracious Soveraign Your Princely favour in dilivering me and my wife out of the tower must and shall ever be acknowledged of us with all humble thanks And now be pleased to give me leave to be an humble suitor to your Majestie that out of the tender compassion of your Princely heart you will be pleased to cast your eye upon the miserable estate of your distressed afflicted and old Servant now brought into fear of never recovering of your Majesties favour and so wretced my case is as the little hope that remained in me to live in your memorie was by my two sons service to your Gracious self and the Prince It is now required of me to impose upon them the resignation of their places which with all humility I beseech you to give me leave to say I would sooner use my power over them to will them to burie themselves quick then by any other way then enforcement to give up their places of service which onely remaines to me to be either my dying comfort or my living torment Besides they are now past my government being both married and have children onely I have a Paternal Care of them which I humbly beseech your best judging Majestie to weigh respectively how unhappie I must of necessity think my self if I should be the perswader of that misfortune to my children that their children within a few years would curse me for either living or dead Upon all these just considerations most Gracious Master give me leave to turn my cruel unnatural part of perswading them to yield to that for which I should detest my self to my humblest desire upon the Knees of my heart to beg humbly of your Majestie that whatsoever favour you have ever had to me for any service done that your Majestie will be pleased to spare the ruine of these two young men whom I find so honestlie disposed in their desire of spending their fortunes and lives in your Majesties and your Princely son's service as if your displeasure be not fullie satisfyed with what I have suffered already that you lay more upon me and spare them I have written to my Lord of Buckingham to be my mediator to your Majestie in this behalf which I assure my self he will noblie perform as well as he hath formerly done in being my means to your Majestie in obtaining this great begun favour To conclude with my prayer to God that your Majestie may ever find the same zeal and Love to your person in whomsoever you shall imploy that my hearts Sole-affection did and ever shall carrie unto you which God knowes was and is more to your Majestie then to my wife and children and all other worldy things which God measure unto me according to the truth as Yours c. T. Suffolk The Lady Elizabeth Howard to the King VVHen I waited upon you at Theobalds to beseech your Majesty that my Lord of Suffolk might not come into the Star-chamber you protested that you loved the man but that you must shew cause to the world why you took the Staffe from him but for his fortune that your Majestie would not meddle with it the same my Lord of Buckingham told me with this assurance of your promise I went away secure in that poynt Sithence his cause was heard he moved all that heard it with much compassion to him and the people did think that when you sent him to the Tower you would have sent for him to have kissed your hand But your Majestie is abused for they do not let you know what is thought of the proceeding against this good man knowing how truely he loveth you with the truth of his cause that you would not follow him and his children with crueltie Which might have been better spent My Lord hath spent in running a Tylt in Masques and following the Court above 20000. And Sir shall his reward now be to be turned out of his place without any offence committed Sir I am the child of your old Servant and am now great with child I know it will kill me and I shall willingly die rather then desire life to see my unfortunate self and mine thus miserably undone Sir I beseech your Majestie remember my Father that is dead and me his distressed child for if he could know any worldly thing he would wonder to see me and those that shall come of me thus strangly used But my hope is still in your Majesties goodnesse and that you will not be carried away with the malice of other men In this confidence I rest with my daily
had formerly taken from the Christians and sold to Ligorn In her Merchandize to be exchanged for Pyrats goods and some mony amounting to 2000. and odd pounds the exact account whereof I shall not fayl to addresse to your Lordship as soon as the same is perfected by the councel of War The Turks hereupon presently manned out three Gallyes to reskue here but Captaine Giles and Captain Herbert with the help of three Brigandines which I sent out to second them soon fetcht her up and brought ther unto me and the Gallies were put to flight by Sir Thomas Wilford Captain Pennington and Captain Childlegh During the time of my aboad there after the attempt made by the boates I attended ten dayes for an opportunity to send in the ships with the fire workes to finish the service begun by the boats but in all that time there happened not a breath of wind fit for their attempt notwithstanding the ships were allwayes ready at the instant that they should receive my directions to advance But at last understanding by the Christians that escaped by swimming aboard me how the Pyrats had boomed up the Moales with Masts and Rafts set a double guard upon their ships planted more ordnance upon the Moale and the walls and manned out twenty Boats to guard the Boome and perceiving likewise that they had sent out their Gallies and boates both to the Eastward and Westward to give advce to all the ships upon the Coast that they should not come in during my aboad there and so finding no hope remaining either by stratagem to do service upon them in the Moale or to meet with any more of them in the regard of the daily complaints brought unto me both from some of the Kings ships and most of the Marchants of their want of victuals I resolved by the advice of the Councel of war to set sail whence I made my repair to this place where I met my Brother Roper with your Lordships dirrections which I have received and at the instant obeyed by signifying his Majesties pleasure declared by your Lordships Letter unto the worthie Commanders of those four ships whom his Majestie hath pleased to call home But my Lord in the duty I owe your Lordship and my zeal to his Majesties honour and service I humbly beg your Lordships pardon to advertize your Lordship that seeing we have now made this attempt upon the Pyrates and that they perceive that our intent is to work their utter ruine and confusion the recalling of these his Majesties Forces before the arrival of others in their stead and the bereaving us of so many worthy and experienced Commanders I fear may prove more prejudicial to the service then upon one daies consideration I dare presume to set down in writing by encouraging the Pyrats to put in execution such stratagems upon us as to my knowledge they have already taken into their consideration My reasons for the same I shall be bold upon more mature deliberation to offer in all humblenesse unto your Lordships judicious view either by the Commanders that are to return unto your Lordship or by a messenger which divers of the Councel of War advise to be addressed over land on purpose with the same And so being ready so soon as we have received in our water and dispatched divers other businesses which of necessity must be ordered in this place to set fail for Malega there to receive in our remainder of Victuals and to take my leave of these 4. Ships and such other of the Merchants as cannot be made serviceable in these parts With my endlesse prayers for your Lordships increase of all honour I cease your Lordships farther trouble for the present And rest Your Lordships most humble most faithful and sad servant Robert Mansel From aboard the Lion in Alegant Rode 9th June 1621. Sir Robert Mansel to the Duke Right Honourable and my singular good Lord IT is not unknown unto your Lordship that Sir Thomas Button before his coming out thought himself much wronged in that he did not hold the place of Vice Admiral in this Fleet whereof I must acknowledge him very worthy and that for my part I had ingaged Sir Richard Hawkins a very Grave Religious and experienced Gentleman before I was assured whether Sir Thomas Button would leave his imployment in Ireland or no and that afterwards Sir Thomas Button by your Lordships mediation was contented to undertake the charge he now holdeth which God knowes I laboured for no other end then for the securitie and advancement of his Majesties service by reason of the experience I have had of his sufficiency and ability Since that time I have doubled that injury A wrong was done unto him which cannot be denied he patiently appealed to me for justice which I must confesse I denied him But the name of the person that offered the wrong and the reasons why I denied him Justice I must leave unto Sir Richard Hawkins and Sir Henry Palmer to relate unto your Lordship and if that will not give your Lordship satisfaction I must humbly submit my self to your Lordships Censure Notwithstanding the impression that these injuries took with him yet thus much I must truly confesse in his behalf That there was no man more zealous to advance his Majesties service nor more forward to undergo any danger or hazard then himself whereof he hath given assured testimonie to the World in these three particulars First in the service performed by him on a Christmasse day at night whereof I have formerly advertized your Lordship at large Secondly Then in going over to Algier cheerfully without complaining when his Ship was so grievously infected that he had not able men in her to manage her Sailes Also in imploying the most choice men in his Ship under the command of his Nephew for the firing of the Pyrates ships within the Moale of Algier And lastly in his joyning with Sir Richard Hawkins in the towing off one of the Prizes when she was becalmed within musquet shot of the Moale My Lord I must protest unto your Lordship that I had no ends of mine own for the injuries done to Sir Thomas Button and therefore your Lordship cannot cast a greater honour upon your poor servent then in repairing him which I humbly begg of your Lordship If Sir Richard Hawkins do return unto me then I shall be an humble suitor unto your Lordship in the behalf of Sir Thomas Button that he may return to his imployment in Ireland from whence in my earnest desires to enjoy his company and assistance I was the only means to withdraw him and that he may receive such allowance and entertainment as was formerly usually paid unto him by which means your Lordship will take away the Curses of his children whose blouds are neer unto me and oblige me with my continual prayers for your Lordships increase of honour ever to remain Your Lordships most humble and faithful servant Robert Mansell
From aboard the Vantguard the 10. of July 1621. Captain John Pennington to the Duke May it please your Grace MY last to your Lordship was of the 18. of this present from Stokes Bay since which time I have received two from your Grace at Deep one by your Secretarie Mr. Nicholas whereby your Grace commands me to deliver up his Majesties Ship and the rest under my Command to the hands of such Frenchmen as his Christian Majestie shall appoint according to his Majesties pleasure signified by my Lord Conway And that I and the rest of the Masters take securitie of them for our ships severally according to the true valuation And to see this put in execution you sent your Secretarie Mr. Nicholas And the other by Mr. Ingham in answer of mine written from Stokes Bay The former part whereof being only a command to put your former in practice and the latter a denial of my humble suit for my being called home from this Service Which said part confirms absolutely that it was not your Graces pleasure that I should yield up the ships into their hands and disposesse my self and companie of them for I trust your Grace had no such unjust thought as to continue me here alone after The French had possession of her to be their slave as I am sure they would have made me if they had their wills To give your Grace an account of what I have done since I came to Deep which was the 21th at this instant about nine of the clock at night would be too tedious for this time The 22th in the morning Earlie I sent my boat ashoare with my Lievetenant to find out your Graces Secretarie to receive my Letters whereby I might know your Graces pleasure and to kisse my Lord Embassadours hands from me and to let him know I was come with his Majesties ship to do him service but could not command the rest to come along with me their Masters not being there and all their companies in a mutiny But his jelousie was such that he would not suffer your Graces Secretary to come aboard or to send me your Letters or that my Lievtenant should speak to him but in his presence but presently sent a Gentleman aboard to me commanding me to come ashoar to him which I confesse I was very loath to do in regard my people were much discontented and readie daily to mutiny being all wonderous unwilling to go against Rochel or those of their religion And besides I never having been a shoare since I came into my command neither on our own Coast or else where It being not my use yet notwithstanding these particulars knowing his Greatnesse and your Graces pleasure for the giving him all due respect I presently went to him where he taking me into a roome apart with your Graces Secretary he first delivered me my Lord Conwaies Letter or rather a warrant for so he tearms it himself for the delivery of the ship into their hands as they interpreted it and then your Graces Letter commanding me to see his Majesties pleasure signifyed by my Lord Conwaie put in execution And lastly a letter from the King of France thereby willing me to receive his Souldiers aboard that he had provided and his Cousin the D. de Mommorencie and to go presently and to joyn with his Great Fleet against his rebellious subjects This is the effect of that Letter Having read all these letters he would presently have possession of the ship that night for that he could not stay longer I told him that I did not understand it so but that I was torender all service to his most Christian Majestie but nothing would serve him save the present possession which because I would not yield unto he grew into a strange furie telling me that your Grace had sent your Secretary to see her delivered and security to be taken for her My answer was that I was ready to obey according as I understood the warrant which was to do his Christian Majestie service and to receive a convenient number of Souldiers aboard me But to dispossesse my self of my command I had no such order but still nothing wold satsfie him but the shipe telling me he would not entertain at the most if they were willing above 60. or 80. of our people My answer was I had no order to discharge a man of them neither could I but if they were discharged what they should do or how they should get home having neither meat mony nor clothes I know not To the first of these he told me that Mr. Nicholas had order by word of mouth from your Grace to discharge us which Mr. Nicholas confirmed as also to see the ship delivered which he commanded me to do But with your Graces pardon I durst not do it upon words it being a businesse of too high consequence neither if I had been willing would my companie ever have condescended to it To the second for our passage he promised to have provided barques for us but to conclude this and not to insist upon the rest of the particulars they being too tedious his rage and fury was such that I must of necessity give a little way thereto or else I think he would have kept me ashoare so as I told him I was content if my company would yield thereunto and therefore desired to go aboard to speak with them and to give order for the drawing up of the inventorie And upon this he suffered me to depart but not without promises of a large summe of mony which should be given me at the surrender besides a royal pension during my life he sending his Secretarie and many others aboard with me to see all things put in execution and your Graces Secretary to perswade me to do it But when I had them aboard I told them it was a thing not presently done neither was my companie willing to deliver over the ship without a more ample warrant yet I would do my best to bring both to passe so soon as I could So using them with the best respect I could and fair promises that I would use all diligence for the accomplishing of their desires though I must confesse I never meant it till I should hear further from your Grace and have an especial Warrant from his Majestie or your Grace for it it being a businesse of so high a nature Vpon these hopes they departed and went a shoare where they had not been long till some of them returned back with a strange allarum from his Lordship that he would presently have possession of her or my resolution to the contrary And althoug I alleadged that the inventory and other businesse would not be dispatched in two dayes it would not suffice except I would receive 400. Souldiers aboard in the mean time till things were perfected Thus seeing I could not delay him till I heard farther from your Grace I was forced to give him this resolute answer That upon
upon this subject in hope that this I have written shall serve once for all In that matter concerning the Countesse of Argile which it pleased your Honour to recommend unto my Care I have done as much already as I can for the present We must of necessitie with a little patience expect the successe whereof your Honour shall in due time be punctually advertized In the mean while I do with all reverence desire your Honour to excuse the tediousnesse of this Letter And so take my leave Your Honours very humble and ready to be commanded W. Trumball Bruxels 21 31. of March 1618 1619. Mr. Trumball to the Secretarie Right Honourable THose that are employed in such place as I am must admit all manner of men into their company And the Oath I have taken to his Majestie will not permit me to conceal any thing from his knowledge that cometh to mine and may in any sort have relation to his Royal service For these Considerations I assume the boldnesse so soon to renew your Honours trouble after the dispatch of those Volumes of Letters which I sent you yesterday by one of my servants This Bearer de la Forrest is better known to your Honour then to my self although I remember many years ago to have seen him in England During his stay in this Town he brought unto me a certain French Gentleman calling himself the Viscount of L'orme and Sir De la Pommeraye who hath by his own relation been a great Navigator and been authorized by 18. of the chief Pyrats in the Levant to search for their pardon and retreat into some Christian Countrey being sorry for the ill they have done and desirous to spend the rest of their daies in peace With this Commission he came into France and there travelled so far with the King and his Ministers as he obtained a general abolition for the said Pyrates a safe Conduct to bring them into his Dominions and a procuration which I have seen under the great Seal of France to treat and conclude with them upon certain conditions But he being envied by some Grandees of that Kingdom and by misfortune happening to kill a man he was forced as he pretendeth for the safety of his life to flie into these Countries before he could bring that work to perfection And being now disinabled to return thither again he desireth to make a tryal whether his Majestie will vouchsafe to lend his ear to that Treatie and grant unto the said Pyrates a general Pardon To which effect he sendeth over La Forrest and hath intreated me to accompany him with my Letters to my Lord Admiral your Honor and Mr. Secretarie Calvert For retribution of this grace the said Pyrates offer to give 45000 l sterling to be shared amongst you three or to be disposed of as his Majestie shall appoint But your Honour may see the Conditions proposed to the French King were more advantagious For they were to give him their Ships Artillerie and Munition and to furnish means to set out some men of War for his service And I see no reason in case his Majestie should encline to such capital offenders and common enemies why he should not have as much or more benefit then another Prince the greatest part of them being his Vassals Your Honour if you please may peruse these adjoyned Papers and impart the contents of them to my Lord Admiral They agree with their Originals and if his Majestie do not taste this overture there is no more harm done for any thing I can perceive then the losse of my labour to peruse and subscribe them There remaineth onely two points wherein I should speak to your Honour the one is that this matter may be concealed from the French Embassadour Mounsieur le Count de Tilliers for fear of ruining de L'Orme The other with gratifying La Forrest with the pay of a Pacquet if your Honour shall think it meet for the carrying of these Letters who saith your Honour is his great Patron and hath promised him a good turn Mounsieur de L'Orme hath given him power to sollicite this businesse and procure him an answer wherein I joyn my humble prayer that the poor man may not here languish in hopes and spend his money to no purpose When I shall know whether his Majestie will rellish this overture or not I will write thereof more largely if there be cause otherwise let it remain as it was before In the mean while I humbly take my leave And rest Your Honours In all humblenesse to be commanded W. Trumball Bruxels 23. of Octob. 1619. Sir Thomas Roe to the Marquesse of Buckingham Lord Admiral My Lord I Can give your Lordship no great account of any thing that hath occurred since my departure I was bold to write to Mr. Secretarie Calvert from Maliga of the great increase of the Pyrates in those Seas and of the danger of the Merchants with my own thoughts if his Majestie have any farther purpose to attempt their destruction which is both honourable and necessarie if these Trades or the other of Spain to the South of the North-Cape be of any consequence to his Majesties Kingdomes if they be suffered to increase they will brave the Armies of Kings at Sea in a few years and attempt even the Coasts and Shoares with peril And because they carry the name only of Thieves they are yet contemned or neglected but they will become a dangerous enemie when they shall rob with Fleets and therefore would be in time considered The Spaniards now make great offers to continue the Contract though their performance be slow and their own Estates chiefly interessed yet besides the danger and ruine of the Merchant it is considerable that this Army increasing is at the obedience of the Grand Seignior the common Enemy who hath no strength but Gallies I know your Lordship will collect enough out of this without further pressure The Armado's of Spain Naples and Sicily have been in the Archipelago the Turks Forces absent in the black Sea Yet they have done nothing of consequence taken a few Carmisales and slaves and are returned to the Port where Don Philibert of Savoy Generalissimo is present who is made Viceroy of Sicily with absolute power to dispose of all offices without attendance from Spain which is more then Vice-Re He hath used me for his Majesties honour with very great respect as I have in particular advised Mr. Secretarie Among many courtesies finding 13. English Captives in the Gallies I thought it my duty to succour them His Highnesse at the first instance to expresse his good affection to my Master gave them to me all free which I think is a good work and not ordinary I beseech your Lordship that his Majestie may be pleased to take knowledge of it into Spain for the Princes honour that he may in the like occasion not think himself neglected The advice from Constantinople is seconded of the overthrow of the
This motion did trouble the President not a little who hath all the Provincials at his beck and some of the forraign Divines too but especially the Palatines Yet there was a publique Synode called for this purpose where the President of the Delegates did make a speech desiring the Synode to depute some who joyned with the President and the Assessours might take pains for moulding of the Canons In the delivering of the voices most testified their dislike of this course and their singular respect to the Presidents Credit but Scultetus did by many reasons approve the course which the President had begun and disprove this new course which was suggested yet he taxed no man personally But Sibrandus when he came to deliver his voice like a mad-man did inveigh against those who were the suggesters of this change and said That strangers should not take upon them to prescribe what was good for the estate of their Church and that some others who had joyned in that were worthy to be noted Censurâ Ecclesiasticâ therein he aymed at the South Holland who did likewise much dislike the President his Course Sibrandus spake so furiously that both the Praeses Politicus and the Praeses Ecclesiasticus desired him either to hold his peace or else speak that which might not disturb the peace of the Synode Yet since it was the Delegates pleasure the whole Synode added to the President and the Assessours three forraign Divines viz. my Lord of Landaff Scultetus and Deodatus 3. Provincials viz. Poliander Vallaeus and Triglandius who should mould and conceive the Canons upon every Article and then send a Copie of what they have done to every Colledge that they may adde power and change what they will the Colledges observations being considered by them and the Canons according to them amended they are to be returned to the Colledges and the Colledges to return them again and so to keep the course ever till there be no exceptions against them When they are thus agreed upon by all several Colledges they shall publiquely be concluded and approved by the Synode We are now hard at polishing the Canons which these Deputies send us All our trouble is in the second Article The most part of the Synode would cry us down with voices for the restriction of the general propositions in Scripture and the Confessions of the Reformed Churches concerning Christs death ad Solos Electos We stand for leaving them unexpounded and unrestricted as we found them and rejoyce exceedingly that the Directions which my Lord Embassadour sent us from his Majestie concerning this point agreeth so fully with our judgment subscribed with our hands given in to the Synode upon the second Article By this doing we first leave a found and sufficient ground for preaching of the Gospel to all men Next we shun a great deal of offence which otherwise we must needs have given to the Lutheran Churches Thirdly we retain the same phrases and forms of speaking which those Fathers did who wrestled with the Pelagians in the same point If this Article be well looked into I hope there shall moderation enough be observed in all the rest If it were not for the moderation of the forraign Divines we should have such Canons as I think have not been heard of for there is never a Provincial Minister here who hath delivered any rigid Proposition and hath been taxed by the Remonstrants for it but he would have that Proposition thrust into one Canon or another that so he may have something to shew for that which he hath said As soon as the Canons are agreed upon I shall by Gods grace with all expedition send them unto your Honour Our next work will be Vorstius whose book they would censure without citation of himself The President wrote to our Colledge in the Delegates name to know whether we thought it fit to have him personally cited but especially to know what we thought would be most agreeing to his Majesties mind To the latter concerning his Majesties mind we answered That we thought my Lord Embassadour could give them the best resolution for that point For the former we thought it would be evil taken If any man should be condemned not being first heard But because they that Vorstius would keep them as long as the Remonstrants had done We told them That we desired they would not suffer him to make any defences or explications of his blasphemous propositions but simply to answer per ita vel non whether he would plainly abjure them or not And so accordingly proceed against him and so we should make no great losse of time so I think he shall be personally cited This is all for we have had no Synodical meetings these 12. daies I can see no end of the Synode before Whitsontide With my best prayers for your Honours and the remembrance of all my faithful respects I take my leave And am Your Honours In all true observance and service Walter Balcanquel Sir William Beecher to his Majestie 4th of February Most Gracious Soveraign BEsides the relation of the apparance of change in the affairs of the Court wherewith my Dispatch to Mr. Secretarie Lake will acquaint your Majestie I thought it my duty to give you particular account that being yesterday with the Prince of Jain ville after some earnest protestations made to me of his desire to do your Majestie service falling into discourse of those occurrences he grew into these terms That the complaints of the Queen Mother were founded upon good reason that if she had offended the King or the State why did they not make her processe if she had not offended why should she not see the King and her children that when the Queen fell upon these Complaints they thought to fright her by Pretending to bring forth the Prince of Conde but that the Queen had astonished them by telling them That she was so far from opposing as she desired the liberty of the Prince That the Queens friends would be glad of his liberty for that it could not be prejudicial but rather advantagious at the least it would be honourable for them if his liberty were wrought if not by their intercession at least by their occasion further he told me That he was confident that the Queen would not be gained by their fair words but would persist in her resolution Which discourse of his with some other advertisements doth perswade me that this matter hath a farther root and is likely to bring forth some great alteration here in no long time And I doubt not but that Monsieur de Luine will find with repentance how much better it had been for him to have furthered your Majesties advice for the delivery of the Prince whereby he might have acquired to the King a reputation of Justice and to himself an obligation of a powerful friend in the Prince rather then to leave him to the adventure of the changes that time may produce But if
all their poysons For the better effecting whereof the world doth attend with great devotion to see a good correspondencie renewed betwixt your Majestie and the French King and for the disposing your Majesties heart thereunto the State of Venice doth joyn her humble prayers unto the earnest intreaty of many others In the mean time I am to request your Majestie that you will be pleased to forbid the exportation of Artillerie ships and Marriners out of our Kingdomes for the service of the Spaniards it being neither just nor agreeable to your Majesties Piety that your Arms should be stayned with the blood of a State and Prince that hath no equal in love to your Royal Crown and that will ever testifie to all the world by effects of their observance the pure and sincere devotion that they have to your Glorious name For my own particular I humbly crave leave to kisse your royal hands Sir Isaac Wake to the Secretarie Right Honourable I Have safely received the Letter wherewith your Honour hath been pleased to favour me dated at Theobalds the 19th of July Stil Vet. and have to my singular comfort understood that you have been pleased not onely to give favourable acceptance unto such weak dispatches as I have made bold to addresse unto you but done me the honour likewise to acquaint his Majestie with the contents of them and to direct my proceedings in in this intricate businesse which instructions dictated by his Majesties wisedom this light will be sufficient to direct my steps in the middest of an Egyptian darknesse which doth not only obscure the Horizon of this Province where I reside but almost the whole face of Europe by reason of the great mists which are cast artificially in all mens eyes to cover the designs of those who do presume that they have in all places arbitrium Belli et Pacis I most humbly crave pardon of your Honour if you do not receive my answer so soon as perhaps you might expect For yours having stayed upon the way a month and a day did not come to my hands until the 20th of August Stil Vet. At which time it was brought unto me by Mr. Rowlandson whom I had dispatched into Germany to advertize those Princes of the motion made to the Duke of Savoy for the passage of Spanish forces through his State My Lord of Doncaster under whose Cover I received that Letter did not think fit to send it to me by an expresse messenger for fear of increasing the suspition of some in those parts who are jealous that his Majesty doth favour the Duke of Savoy more then they could wish And I must confesse that the same reason induced me likewise to send that Gentleman of the Duke of Savoy's into Germany rather then any servant of mine own for fear least allees and vennes of messagers betwixt my Lord of Doncaster and me in these doubtful times might so far injealous the contrary party as might prejudice the service of his Majestie in that Negotiation The instructions that your Honour hath been pleased to give me from his Majestie concerning my treating with 52. 52. c. the Duke of Savoy 93. a. the Bohemians 95 a. the Emperour Ferdinand 51. a. the King of England 97. a. Germany 99. a. the King of the Romans 71. c. the Agent of England 51. b. the Prince Palatine 52. b. the Marquesse Brandenbergh 54. b. the Marquesse Auspach 50. b. the Princes of the Union 56 b. Count Ernest Mansfelt c. in favour of 93. a. having reference unto the inclination of 95. a. to peace or the probability of defence to be made by 93. a. I held it more safe for me to govern my self by such informations of the state of those affairs as I have received from the favour of the 1. 32. 7. 5. 47. 48. 2. 10. 40. 45. of 51. a. in 97. a. And for the better justification of my proceedings I send your Honour here inclosed the Copie of his Letter unto me wherein you will see that I have no reason as yet to spend the name of 51. a. in favour of 93. a. nor to imbargue 52. c. in a businesse which may draw a great charge and envie upon himself and not much advantage the 93. a. I must confesse that the 50. b. in general and particularly the 54. b. and the 41. 45. 23. 34. 9. 12. of 5. 35. 22. 4. 30. 50. have represented the state of those affairs at this present unto 52. b. in a manner not onely different from the advertisements sent me but almost contrary and they do seem not only to be confident of the prevailing of 93. c. but likewise they continue to give hope that the 10. 51. 29. 15. of 48. 3. 59. 15. will concur with 51. b. and 52. b. in the 12. 30. 13. 9. 50. 27. 40. 35. of 99. a. But because I have reason to suspect that they make relation of those affairs rather as they wish they were then as they be indeed and that their intention to draw somewhat from 52. c. towards the succours of 93. a. I will forbear to joyn with them therein until I can have some better ground then their advertisements which may be thought to savour of partiality and I have reason to be backward therein because I know that 5â— c. would presently take me eu mot and put to the account of 51. a. that which he is most willing to do of himself I do not affirm this out of conjecture but upon good ground for besides that he did signifie so much unto me at my return out of England I do know that within this fortnight he hath sent unto 56. b. 3000. 41. 24. 48. 49. 40. 30. 47. in part of 42. 2. 60. 32. 15. 35. 50. and in the conveyance of this 33. 39. 34. 35. 61. there was extraordinary diligence used to conceal it from the knowledge of the 71. c. whereof no other construction can be made but that 52. c. would fain be intreated by 71. c. to do that which he hath already a mind to do If upon more fresh Letters which I expect from my Lord of Doncaster I shall find that the affairs there have changed face since the writing of his last unto me I will govern my self accordingly as I shall receive warrant from him We are here at a stand expecting with devotion the issue of the affairs of Germanie The Army in the Kingdom of Naples is still retained and no order given either for the dismissing of those Troops or the employing them in any service Prince Philibert is at Messina with the Gallies and hath with him 10. or 12000 men The Ships and Gallions remain at Naples and the Walloons Lombardes and Neapolitanes which should have come to Vado are since their dis-imbarquing again quartered round the City of Naples It is impossible to guesse what they mean to do but the most probable conjecture is that under the colour of suspecting the Duke of Ossuna the
Townes of purer language married again till a second Divorce for which I shall be sorry whensoever it shall happen For in truth my good Lord his conversation is both delightful and fruitful and I dare pronounce that he will return to his friends as well fraught with the best observations as any that hath ever sifted this Countrie which indeed doth need sifting for there is both flower and bran in it He hath divided his abode between Sienna and Rome The rest of his time was for the most part spent in motion I think his purpose be to take the French tongue in his way homewards but I am perswading with him to make Bruxels his Seat both because the French and Spanish Languages are familiar there whereof the one will be after Italian a sport unto him so as he may make the other a labour And for that the said Town is now the scene of an important Treatie which I fear will last till he come thither but far be from me all ominous conceit I will end with cheerful thoughts and wishes beseeching the Almighty God to preserve your Lordship in health and to cure the publique diseases And so I ever remain Your Lordships Most devoted obliged servant Henry Wotton Venice 29. of July 1622. Sir Henry Wotton to the Duke My most honoured and dear Lord TO give your Lordship occasion to exrecise your Noble nature is withal one of the best exercises of mine own duty and therefore I am confident to passe a very charitable motion through your Lordships hands and mediation to his Majestie There hath long lay in the prison of Inquisition a constant worthy Gentleman viz. Mr. Mole In whom his Majestie hath not only a right as his subject but likewise a particular interest in the cause of his first imprisonment For having communicated his Majesties immortal work touching the alleagiance due unto Soveraign Princes with a Florentine of his familiar acquaintance this man took such impression at some passages as troubling his conscience he took occasion at next shrift to confer certain doubts with his Confessor who out of malitious curiosity enquiring all circumstances gave afterwards notice thereof to Rome whither the said Mole was gone with my Lord Rosse who in this storie is not without blame but I will not disquiet his Grave Now having lately heard that his Majestie at the suite of I know not what Embassadours but the Florentine amongst them is voiced for one was pleased to yield some releasement to certain restrained persons of the Roman faith I have taken a conceit upon it that in exchange of his clemencie therein the Great Duke would be easily moved by the Kings Gracious request to intercede with the Pope for Mr. Moles delivery To which purpose if it shall please his Majestie to grant his Royal Letters I will see the businesse duely pursued And so needing no arguments to commend this proposition to his Majesties goodnesse but his goodnesse it self I leave it as I began in your Noble hand Now touching your Lordships familiar service as I may term it I have sent the complement of your bargain upon the best provided and best manned ship that hath been here in long time called the Phoenix and indeed the cause of their long stay hath been for some such sure vessel as I might trust About which since I wrote last to your Lordship I resolved to fall back to my first choice So as now the one peece is the work of Titian wherein the least figure viz the child in the Virgins lap playing with a bird is alone worth the price of your expence for all four being so round that I know not whether I shall call it a piece of sculpture or picture and so lively that a man would be tempted to doubt whether nature or art had made it The other is of Palma and this I call the speaking piece as your Lordship will say it may well be tearmed for except the Damosel brought to David whom a silent modesty did best become all the other figures are in discourse and action They come both distended in their frames for I durst not hazard them in rowles the youngest being 25. yeares old and therefore no longer supple and pliant With them I have been bold to send a dish of Grapes to your Noble Sister the Countesse of Denbigh presenting them first to your Lordships view that you may be pleased to passe your censure whether Italians can make fruits as well as Flemmings which is the common Glorie of their pencils By this Gentleman I have sent the choicest Melon seeds of all kinds which his Majestie doth expect as I had order both from my Lord of Holdernesse and from Mr. Secretary Calvert And although in my Letter to his Majestie which I hope by your Lordships favour himself shall have the honour to deliver together with the said seeds I have done him right in his due attributes yet let me say of him farther as Architects use to speake of a well chosen foundation that your Lordship nay boldly builde what fortune you please upon him for surely he will bear it virtuously I have committed to him for the last place a private memorial touching my self wherein I shall humbly beg your Lordships intercession upon a necessarie motive And so with my heartiest prayers to heaven for your continuall health and happinesse I most humbly rest Your Lordships Ever obliged devoted Servant Henry Wotton Venice 2 15. Decemb. 1622. Postscript MY Noble Lord it is one of my duties to tell your Lordship that I have sent a servant of mine by profession a Painter to to make a search in the best townes through Italie for some principal pieces which I hope may produce somewhat for your Lordships contentment and service Sir Henry Wotton to the Duke May it please your Grace HAving some daies by sicknesse been deprived of the comfort of your sight who did me so much honour at my last Accesse I am bold to make these poor lines happier then my self And withal to represent unto your Grace whose noble Patronage is my refuge when I find any occasion to bewail mine own fortune a thing which seemeth strange unto me I am told I know not how truly that his Majestie hath already disposed the Venetian Embassage to Sir Isaac Wake from whose sufficiency if I should detract it would be but an argument of my own weaknesse But that which herein doth touch me I am loath to say in point of reputation surely much in my livelihood as Lawyers speak is that thereby after 17. years of forraign in continual imployment either ordinary or extraordinary I am left utterly destitute of all possibility to subsist at home much like those Seale Fishes which sometimes as they say oversleeping themselves in an ebbing water feel nothing about them but a dry shoare when they awake Which comparison I am fain to seek among those Creatures not knowing among men that have so long served so
of things then I have yet little reason to change my opinion And if your Lordship please to know the state of things now I have sent this Gentleman the Bearer hereof especially to do your Lordship reverence in my name and to give you full information For my return or stay I humbly submit it to his Majesties pleasure Though this Negotiation be like to spin it self out into much length I weigh not my own interest I shall willingly be there where I shall be thought most able to do his Majestie service And so intreating that I may be continued in that good opinion and grace wherein your Lordships own affection not any merit of mine hath placed me I humbly kisse your hands And remain Your Lordships Faithful and devoted servant Rich. Weston Bruxels 26. June 1622. Sir Richard Weston to the Duke My very good Lord I Have understood by my Lord Treasurer the way you have made with his Majestie for my calliing home for which this present doth give your Lordship most humble thanks though I have forborn to presse or sollicit it because I would approve my obedience to his Majestie and take away from them all occasion who otherwise might have accused my departure and imputed the want of successe here to my want of patience to expect an answer I have almost in all my Dispatches since we entred into this Treaty signified what opinion I had of their proceedings here and my chief comfort was that whatsoever the successe were that the clearnesse of his Majesties intentions would appear to the whole world and that the failing is not of his side which I think is manifest enough for notwithstanding that his Majestie hath followed them in all their desires and the Prince Electour hath conformed himself to what was demanded that the Count Mansfelt and Duke of Brunswick the pretended obstacles of the Treatie are now with all their Forces removed No face of an enemy in the Palatinate but his Majesties power in the Garrisons All other places repossessed which Mansfelt had taken No cause of continuing any War now nor any cause of jealousie or fear for the future considering his Majesties fair and honourable offers yet are they so far from a cessation that they are fallen upon Heidelbergh and either want the will or power to remove the siege And all I can get is two Letters of intreatie from her Highnesse to the chiefs of the Emperour to proceed no further and after some 18. daies since I made my proposition for the Cessation I have yet no answer so that being able to raise no more doubts they make use of delayes I have said and done and used all diligences within my power to bring forth better effects and can go no farther and therefore I humbly beseech your Lordship that I may have leave to return when I shall hear that they will not remove the siege at Heidelbergh For their pretending to restore all when all is taken is a poor comfort to me and as little honour to his Majestie and how far they are to be believed in that is to be examined more exactly then by writing by weighing how the weak hopes given me here agree with the strong assurances given by my Lord Digbie out of Spain I hope therefore his Majestie will be pleased to think it reasonable to speak with me and as your Lordship hath ever been a happie and gentle star to me so have I now more need of your favourable aspect then ever that his Majestie may receive my obedience as a sacrifice and interpret well of all my endeavours what successe so ever I bring home with me Wherein humbly intreating your Lordships wonted grace and favour I humbly kisse your hands and vow unto you the faithful observance of Your Lordships Most humble and devoted Servant Richard Weston Bruxels 3d. of Septemb. 1622. Sir Richard Weston to the Duke May it please your Grace YOur Grace shall adde much to the infinite favours I have received from you to read a few lines from me much more to vouchsafe them an answer which I am the more bold to begg and the more hopeful to obtain because I understand by Sir George Goring that howsoever I have had many ill offices done me your Grace will not easily depart from that opinion you have hitherto conceived of me for which I humbly thank your Grace and intreat the continuance of it no longer then I shall be able to make good the integritie of my heart unto you But that which with all humilitie and importunitie I sue for at your Graces hands is to let me know my Accuser and if your Grace think it unseasonable now that I may have a promise to know him at your return Whatsoever or how great soever he be though respect and reverence of those eyes which shall read these lines make me forbear ill language now I shall dare to tell him whatsoever becomes a wronged innocence to say In the mean time I despise him if there be any such that hath accused me since your Graces departure to have done or said or given way to the hearing of any thing that may be wrested to the impeachment of my faith and sincere professions towards your Grace and yet till it come to the tryal I relie as I wrote to Sir George Goring no lesse upon your Graces wisdome and goodnesse then my own innocencie that such Calumnies shall not lessen the estimation I had with you wherein being most confident praying for the continuance and increase of your Graces honour and happinesse I remain Your Graces Most humble and devoted servant Richard Weston 17. July 1623. Sir Richard Weston to the Duke May it please your Grace I Humbly thank your Grace for the Message I received from you yesterday by Mr. Packer And withal I humbly beseech your Grace to believe that no man shall condemn me more then I would my self if I had omitted any possible diligence either to interest or acquaint your Grace with the Commission of the Treasurie Wherein I appeal to Mr. Secretarie Conway who first declared his Majesties pleasure unto me which I could not ascribe more to any Cause then your Graces favour and good opinion of me And at my last being with your Grace I began to speak with you of it but finding your Grace to grow into some indisposition I forbore thinking it not only incivilitie but a violence to have spoken any thing of my self to your Grace at that time This I intreated Sir George Goring to relate unto your Grace and withal to renew the professions of my love and reverence to your Graces person which I had rather make good by real performances then by words and therefore I will trouble your Grace no longer upon this subject I am now extreamly importuned by the Earl of Middlesex to sollicite his Majestie for the first testimonie of his gracious disposition towards him And your Grace remembers that in the beginning of his Lordships
prosperously succeed as all men would desire it If it please his Majestie to remove and set aside all these disadvantages He shall find the Charge laid against the Duke will prove very empty and of small moment And for them if his Majestie and the Duke's Grace think it no impeachment to their Honors all that the Parliament hath objected against the Duke is pardoned at the Kings Coronation which benefit every poor Subject enjoyeth Three things onely excepted which may most easily be answered Mr. Ch. Th. to the Duke of Buckingham My Lord IT is intimated to your Lordship first that you would procure his Majestie to desire the Lords to choose six or so many as you shall think fit of whom they have most confidence to attend him to morrow morning to whom his Majestie may be pleased to declare That he hath endeavoured to divert the charges against your Lordship because his Majestie hath had sound knowledge and experience of the service and fidelity though in outward shew the contrarie might justly appear and because also he saw it was urged with a great deal of private spleen and perhaps not without some Papisticall device of troubling his Majesties businesse in Parliament but seeing no suite or perswasion could prevail to appease the distempered course his Majestie is now forced and so pleased to reveal some secrets and Arcana of State which otherwise in the wisedom of Kings were unfit to be opened Here his Majestie may let them know that the King his Father finding the Palatinate more then in danger to be lost and after his Majestie being in Spain and there deluded and his abode and return both unsafe It was a necessity of State to sweeten and content the Spaniards with a hope of any thing that might satisfie and redeem those ingagements and therefore willed your Lordship to yield discreetlie to what you should find they most desired and this was chiefly the point of religion so as in this and all of the like kind your Lordship upon his Majesties knowledge was commanded and but the instrument trusted by your Master in this exigent or if you will extremitie And this with other more Potent overtures such as your Lordship best understands may Cancel all those objections of that nature Upon this same ground though not in so high a degree the sending of the ships to Rochel may be excused and this is not the least fault objected in the opinion of the wisest Touching the vast creation of Nobility his Majestie may ask those six Lords whereof perchance some of them may be concerned in this article whether they conceive any reason of King James his doing herein to which I suppose they will stand mute Then his Majestie may say I will tell you and therein discover a truth and a secret of State My Father who was born a King and had long experience of that Regiment especiallie more traversed in this point then perhaps ever any King found that this State inclined much to Popularitie a thing apparent universallie in all the Courts viz. in that of Star-chamber which was at first erected to restrain the insolence of Great men in great outrages but now for every pettie offence the meanest Tennant may be bold to call thither his Lord. A thing also appearing in the sawcie approaches of the Puritans upon the Bishops and plainely in the boldnesse of the house of Commons against the Kings pattents and edicts which in all good times out of their necessity have been powerful And especiallie this humour hath been comforted by the sturdie example of the Neighbour States of the Low-countries as in their insolencies in the East-Indies c. From this place an inticing voice hath sounded in our eares of libertie and freedom though indeed a feigned voyce and but in sound unsound I say when the king my Father had well beheld these things he could not foresee a remedie more proper or easier as being unserviceable and in his own gripe then to inlarge the number of his Nobles that these being dispersed into several Counties might as lambs of Soveraigntie in protection of their own degrees and at their own charge inure the people with respect and obedience to greatnesse and yet not to amate and discourage them he thought good to raise some neer or of their own rank whereby they might see themselves in possibility of the like honour if either by virtue wealth or honestie they make themselves worthie This I protest was a child of my Fathers best judgment in this poynt and the Duke but the instrument thereof And if you say that there was mony many times given for these Honours nay if you say that mony hath been given for places of Clergie and Judicature I pray take this of me that this is so in all other Countries as in France and Spain And those Councels seem a little to smile at our dulnesse that we have so lately apprehended their soundnesse herein for say they when men pay well for such places it is the best kind of security for their honesties especially when fayling in their dutie they shall be sure to be as much punished as they were advanced Howbeit I am not satisfied in this opinion And if it be said that the King should have had the mony which the Duke took to his own use I believe this last is more then any can prove neither will I deliver what I know therein Howsoever it matters not much being no popular disbursment Only this I will say that I know the Dukes particular service and affection to me and that he and his will lay down themselves and all they have at my Feet Neither is this bare opinion since the Duke alone hath dibursed and stands engaged more for my affaires and the States then any Number of Noblemen of England whatsoever and therefore there is reason that from a King he would receive his own and more And now my Lords since I have thus far opened a Kings Cabinet unto you at least by the measure of this foot of answer you may discover what may be said concerning that great bodie and bulk of accusations of the Highest kind made against the Duke I desire you would take it to heart remembring that it is your King that speaketh this who therefore expects your service and love herein and who will requite the same assuredly hoping you will believe me indeed and do accordingly indeed and that you will also rest assured that my spirit is not so young though a young King as that I would bring this testimony in mine own wrong were not that I say true in my own knowledge And being so you also will grant that it is not for a King to use his Servant and Instrument as he doth his Horses which being by hard riding in his service foundred and lamed to turn them off to grasse or to the Cart. I must therefore in right of the King my Fathers Honour and my own protect a
man though I have said justly seeming guiltie yet in mine own knowledge innocent and free as I have delivered it will you then deny the King to savour whom he please which the King hath never denyed you that are his subjects will you controle me your Head and Governor in things wherein your selves have taken liberty uncontroled would you that I should require accompt of your liberalitie nay of all your failings which are liable to my authority well commend me to my Lords and tell them that if any thing had been formerly done amisse by others I have power and will to redresse it and to prevent the like I speak it in the word of a King neither Lords nor Commons can desire of me any thing that is honest which I am not ready to give them Let not therefore the world by these mistakings make Table-talk any longer of your King and his negotiations nay of his secrets and necessities for alas what great wrong or indignity can the Glorie of the State receive then that the private grudges of subjects accusing to the ignorant when in their consciences they could excuse should be the businesse of our Parliament and that the King himself should be forced to appear us a partie No doubt this is a Cocatrice egge that craftie heads of our enemies seek to hatch whilest the weightie affaires that in present concern the Honour and welfare of the King and State and the peace of all Christendome are by us utterly neglected I end hoping your Lordship now privy to these things will be tender of your Soveraigns honour and will so satisfie and treat with the rest that those particular janglings may be by some other course and in some other place and time discussed and determined that so our minds and time may be employed in the care of better things which earnestly invoke our ayd at this instant Thus much spoken or written or the like for I seek but to awaken your Lordships higher spirit and invention I conceive it may get this effect That these 6. Lords won by these reasons and by other the Kings invitations may deliver to the House that for their parts they have received unexpected satisfaction in those greatest points of the accusation against your Lordship and of such secret nature as are not fit to be published without further deliberation Wherefore since it pleased their Lordships to have made choyce of them to be trusted in this imployment they have faithfully served accordingly and do upon their Honours freely and without any ingagement or respect protest the same And therefore humbly desire their Lordships that they would intreat his Majestie to be President in advice with their Lordships What further were to be done in this private Contention betwixt your Lordship and the Lord Digbie which obtained something may then follow for your Lordships good by yeelding up that Cause into the Kings hands And his Majestie hath great reason to bend it that way because it is conceived that the Lords will be loath to admit the King to be supream Judge and Accuser which point will much touch his Majestie And his Majestie were better give some ease to the Lord Digbie then permit that dispute And now for my self I beseech your Lordship to pardon my strange boldnesse I know I am a mere stranger to you and if ever you have heard of me it must be as of a friend of such you then did not love I know it shewes me a medler in businesse or an insinuator which are suspitions that may distast you and make you suspect my pretences though they were not altogether witlesse I know this disadvantage and am in my own nature offended for putting my self thus into your notions But yet I resolved to undergo all this First because you made my Brother a Captain in Ireland who had otherwise perished Next for the favour you did to my Lord of Northumberland and the retiring of disfavour from my Lord of Sommerset And lastly for your firm hand that advanced the now Lord Treasurer To all which Lords I am familiarly known and bound But neerest to you your Lordship may hear of me from the Lord Treasurer I am confident of your Lordships noble interpretation since I seek no ends no acquaintance no other thanks being one that have no Court-suits to your Lordship but being one that loves not ruines which my friends have tasted nor that the publique should wrestle with a private Inturn of Spleen And I offer it but as a simplicity yet with good will enough for what can a man that is not privy to the Elements of State demonstrate any conclusion thereof yet I hear sometimes how the world goes as other men do I conceive I have said something to your Lordship and though perhaps short yet enough to occasion and stir up your deeper thoughts I also may have deeper but also I know that little pinnes of wood do sustain the whole building More I could have said touching the other points but these greatest elided the fall of the others may be easily directed What I have said against those objections I touched doth arise from grounds of truth and they must win and prevail and my conceit is fitted to the Kings part and to the occasions now on foot I humbly cease your Lordship further trouble and with you all good desiring your Lordship also to pardon my tedious and hasty scribled hand Your Lordships unknown servant Ch. Th. Postscript YOur Lordship shall be pleased to take off some part of my boldnesse and impute it to the obligation and service I owe this worthy Lady the Bearer To Count Gondomar My Lord I Thought my hands bound that I could no sooner have occasion to write unto you being forced against my will to delay my writing from day to day in expectation of the news of your arrival at that Court assuring my self that I should then receive from you some ground whereupon to write But after a long expence of time before that I could hear of your arrival and in the Pacquet that his Majesties Embassadour sent thereafter receiving no Letters nor word from you as I expected I do now by these break my long silence unto you As for news from hence I can in a word assure you that they are in all points as your heart could wish for here is a King a a Prince and a faithful friend and servant unto you besides a number of your other good friends that long so much for the happy accomplishment of this match as every day seems a year unto us and I can assure you in the word of your honest friend that we have a Prince here that is so sharp set upon the businesse as it would much comfort you to see it and her there to hear it Here are all things prepared upon our parts Priests and Recusants all at liberty all the Roman Catholiques well satisfied and which will seem a wonder unto you our Prisons are
by that meanes we might not onely satisfie more often our desires in this point having his Majestie neerer but also our desire to bring these businesses to an end which are ordinarily more delayed and lesse well executed when they are to passe through the hands of Ministers though they be very zealous and well affected to it as these Lords are with whom we treat here who are desirous that the King should be known for just though unnecessarily when nothing is pretended contrarie to that which is agreed upon This knowledge whereupon I ground my reasons may perhaps make me Sin Embargo incurre the Censure of an impatient man But I am perswaded that if that which hath been done here had been setled there by your Honour and the Lord Count of Carleil whose good disposition and proceeding is as much to be esteemed as it is praysed by Don Carlos and my self we would have made an end and those things which I have seen and observed here had not happened unto us For in the conference in which my Lord Keeper did assist it was agreed as we thought that his Majestie should give order to the Judges and Justices of Peace Arch-bishops and Bishops signed with his royal hand under the little Seale within three months or at the Princesse her arival He hath persisted afterwards as also Sir George Calvert in that though it was plain that his Majestie would give the said warrant afterwards there being no tearm nor day appointed Neverthelesse at last we have condescended that it should be within six months or at her Highnesse arrival if she comes afore that time that we may shew how happie we think our selves in being Servants to his Majestie whom God save The dispatches that we are to have are contained in the relation here enclosed I pray you to take order that those that are to be sent back to that effect may be subscribed and Sealed for I have differred the dispatching of a Currier with an evident danger that he will now arrive too late and put in hazard a businesse of mine of consideration which obligeth me to dispatch him that he may not go without them And that it may not be an occasion to doubt of the assurance we have given of his Majesties good will and intention whose Royal hands I and Don Carlos do intreat your Honour to kisse in our name and to continue us in his Majesties good Favour and your Honour likewise in yours for we deserve it with a particular affection and equal desire to serve you God save your Honour as I desire Your Honours servant The Marquesse Ynoiosa Sir Arthur Chichester to the Duke the 25. January 1623. May it please your Grace WHen you went last from White-Hall I waited on the Prince and you into the Gallery where your Lordship spake something unto me which I understood not to wit Are you turned too As I knew not the ground of the Demand I could make no present answer nor now but by Conjecture When I turn from the Prince whom I know to be the worthiest of Princes or from you who by your favours have so bound me to serve you or from the truth as I conceive it God I know will turn from me until then I humbly pray your Lordship to believe that I am your honest servant The Sunday after your Lordships departure the Embassadours of the King of Spain came unto me under the pretext of a visit I have herewith sent your Grace a brief of what passed between us I judge some man hath done me an ill office by insinuating me into their good opinions of me sure I am I never spake of them nor of the affaires they have to manage but what I have said when the selected Councel were assembled I cannot be so dull but to know that they meant your Grace to be the Interposer of their desires and the Man whom they wished to be absent when they have their private audience They are exceeding Cautelous and I conceive the late Dispatch from Spain is like a gilded bayt to allure and deceive your Lordship perceiving their Malice will be warie to avoid their Venom I am Your Graces Humble and faithful Servant Arthur Chichester The Collections of the Passages and Discourses between the Embassadours of the King of Spain and Sir Arthur Chichester 18. Jannary 1623. These Passages were sent to the Duke inclosed in the last foregoing Letter ON Sunday the 18. of this present January the two Embassadors of Spain came to visit me at my House in Drury-Lane At their first entrance they took occasion to speak of the profession of Souldiers and of the Spanish Nation affirming them to be the bravest Friends and the bravest Enemies I approved it in the Souldier and contradicted it not in the Nation When they were come into an Inner Room looking upon the Company as if they desired to be private I caused them to withdraw but noting that they had brought an Interpreter with them I prayed Sir James Blount and Nathaniel Tomkins Clark of the Princes Councel who doth well understand the Spanish tongue to abide with me Being private they said they came to visit me because of the good intention and well-wishing they understood I had to the accommodation of businesses and because I stood named by his Majestie for the imployment into Germanie I acknowledged their coming to visit me as a particular Favour professing my self to be one of those who was able to do least but that I must and would in all things conform my self to the will and good pleasure of the King my Master They were pleased to remember and to take for argument of his Majesties good opinion of me to make me one of the Junta as they called it of the selected Councellours and his imployment given me the last year as his Extraordinary Embassadour into Germany I told them I had been bred a Souldier as their Excellencies had been but that I wanted the capacity and abilities which they had and that for want of Language not affecting to speak by an Interpreter I had for born to wait on their Excellencies as otherwise I would have done To that they returned the like Complement and then said Their Master had sent a good answer touching the Palatinate and they assured me that he would perform what he had promised with advantage I said if it were so I then hoped all things would sort to a good end They then asked me how his Majestie and the Lords were affected and whether therewith they were satisfied or no I answered That I conceived their Excellencies knew his Majesties mind as well as the Lords for that they had so lately audience of him They said It was true they had so but not a private audience nor could they obtain any though they had much desired the same but that others were still present I said merely that they were two and I believed that the King their Master had sent as
for the Palatinate might continue I did demand of them how these two things did agree both to threaten and intreat whereupon they passed upon me with odd complaints I went once more of late to give them a farwel I said they proved themselves good Servants to their Master in pressing to raise jealousies in this State but they were now too well known to do harm The Marquesse swore that by this time the Infanta had been here the Palatinate restored if the blame had not been on our Part. I did intreat I might be excused not to believe that I did ask whether they did not condemn their own judgments in accusing the Duke of Buckingham of that whereof he was cleared both by the King and State Their answer was He was cleared by those who were his confiderates all as guiltie as himself I demanded why they should still expresse their malice against the Duke of Buckingham Did they not think but our Prince was a man sensible of what injuries he had received their answer was if the Duke were out of the way the Prince would be well disposed They said farther his Highnesse was an obedient son before the Duke guided him but since he was not So that when we speak of his Majestie they speak with much respect but for the Prince did not use them kindly they did make the lesse accompt of him So after I took my leave and parted Nithisdail MUch I have omitted for brevitie wherein they did expresse much respect to his Majestie much of their threatning to the Duke of Buckingham The Lord Nithisdail to the Duke 22 June 1624. My most Noble Lord FInding matters at great uncertainty when I came hither I resolved to make farther tryal before I should part from hence What thanks is due to the Embassadours for their paineful and discreet Carriage can hardly be expressed Matters now being drawn to such a conformity which I confesse I thought impossibilities though withall I found much respect alwayes to the Prince with a sensible desire of the Match expressed both by the King and those I spake withal our Embassadours seem still to be discontent that all things are not remitted to our Masters verbal promise which though it may be assurance sufficient to all Catholiques who have the sence to consider that it must be our Masters and the Princes gracious disposition must be our safety more then either word or writ yet the writ being desired privately as they pretend merely to draw the Popes consent without the which nothing is to be finished the difference is not so great their Princely promise being given already What cause of jealousie the refusing hereof should procure you may consider besides my judgment failes me if a more easie way shall be assented unto upon this side If the Embassadours have bestirred themselves to get this out of the publique Articles I can bear witnesse Thus much I dare avow that neither time nor place have been omitted by them to do good though I must confesse what intelligence I had in the proceeding hath rather been from the French then from them Their Reasons as I conceive was their doubts that did bring me hither having neither Letters from the King the Prince nor your Grace Whereupon to remove these conceits I shewed them that I did onely take this in my way intending to go see the Jubilees wherewith though his Majestie nor the Prince neither yet your Grace were acquainted with at my parting you will be pleased to make my excuse I am infinitely beholding to the Embassadours noble Courtesie which I know hath proceeded from that relation which they know I have to you My Lord let the happinesse which shall come to the Prince by matching with such a Lady as I protest before God hath those perfections to my thinking can hardly be equalled be a means to hasten a happy Conclusion And let not matter of Ceremonie draw delayes where the substance is agreed upon So shall all that belong to our Master be made happy in general and you in particular for that love which thex expresse here to your self Once more I humbly begg you will consider particularly upon each one of the Articles and I hope you shall not find such unreconcileable difference as an affected Puritan may pretend Whereupon if I have looked more with eyes of a Papist then was fitting it is my lack of judgment and not of zeal to my Masters Honour which of all earthly things shall be preferred Beseeching God to give a happy successe hereunto with a sound recovery of your own health I humbly take my leave Your Graces Faithful servant Nithisdail Dated at Compion Sir Tobie Mathew to the King of Spain DOn Tobea Mathei Cavallero Yngles y Catholico Romano beseecheth your Catholique Majestie with all humility and reverence to give him leave to speak these few words unto you He understandeth that the Theologos have persisted precisely upon the Voto which they gave before and he findeth clearly that the Prince conceiveth that he can by no means submit himself thereunto with his Honour And besides my Lord the King hath expresly required him to return with all possible speed in case that Voto should not be qualified And it is certain that he will depart for England within very few daies And whosoever shall inform your Majestie that the Treatie of this marriage may be really kept on foot after the departure of the Prince upon these terms doth deceive your Majestie through the ignorance wherein he is of the State of England So that the Prince departing thus the Catholique Subjects of all my Lord the Kings Dominions are to be in lamentable case For although the Prince did yesterday vouchsafe to have Compassion of me in respect of the grief wherein he saw I had upon these occasions and to say That although the marriage were broken yet he would procure that his Catholique Subjects should not fare the worse for that yet I know that it is morally impossible for that honourable design of his to take place in respect of the People and the importunitie and malice of the Puritans and especially because it will now be a case of meer necessitie for my Lord the King to run in a course of very straight Conjunction with them of his Parliament that he may be able the better to serve himself of them in other occasions from which Parliament as now the case will stand what Catholique can expect any other then the extreamitie of rigour In consideration whereof I cast my self with a sad heart at the feet of your Majestie beseeching you that you will take into your royal remembrance the love which you owe and procure to paie to our holy Mother the Church and that some course may be taken and with speed for otherwise it will be too late to give the Prince some foot of ground upon which he may be able to stand in such sort as that without losse of honour and
breach of that word which he hath given to the world and without prejudice to that obedience which he oweth to the least commandement of the King his Father his Highnesse may be inabled to comply with the incomparable affection which he beareth the Infanta your Majesties Sister And that by meanes hereof the two Crowns may be kindly in perfect union and the Catholique religion may be highly advantaged not only in the Dominions of my Lord the King but in many other parts of Christendom into which the Authority of these Dominions doth flow For my part I take the eternall God to witnesse whom I procure to serve and who hath given me a heart which disclaimeth from all other interesses then to serve God and my King that I conceive my self not to comply with a good conscience without laying this protestation under the Eye of your Majestie that if the Catholique subjects of the King my Lord shall grow liable to persecution or affliction by occasion of breaking this Match through the disgust of the King my Lord and his Councel or through the power which infallibly the Puritans assembled in Parliament will have with him upon this occasion that blood or miserie whatsoever it may partly be required at their hands who have advised your Majestie not to accept of those large conditions for Catholiques which my Lord the King and the Prince have condescended to and of that more then moral Securitie which they have offered for the performance thereof And on the other side I undertake to your Majestie under the pain of infamie in case that be not made good which here I affirm that if your Majestie will be pleased to give some such ground to the Prince as whereupon he may with Honour stay and perfect the Treatie of the Marriage by any such way or means as may occur to your Majesties royal wisdom the whole bodies of the Catholiques in England both religious and secular shall acknowledge it as a great blessing of God and shall oblige themselves to pray incessantly for your happie Estate c. Sir Tobie Mathew to the Dutchesse of Buckingham 9. June 1625. Madam THere was no cause till now why I should trouble your Ladyship with presenting my unprofitable service to you but now I shall venture to do it by reason of the good newes I shall send with it For our Queen arrived here yesterday and I was glad at the heart to see her such as she had seemed she is more grown then I had thought being higher by half the head then my Ladie Marquesse And whatsoever they say believe me she sits already upon the very skirts of womanhood Madam upon my faith she is a most sweet lovely Creature and hath a countenance which opens a window into her heart where a man may see all Noblenesse and Goodnesse and I dare venture my head upon the little skill I have in Physiognomie that she will be extraordinarily beloved by our Nation and deserve to be so and that the actions of her self which are to be her own will be excellent Me thought I discerned in her countenance a little remnant of sadnesse which the fresh wound of parting from the Queen Mother might have made yet perhaps I was deceived Her Aattyre was very plain for so Great a Queen can be thought to have nothing mean about her But I hope that amongst many other blessings which God will have provided for us by her means her example will be able to teach our Countrie wit in this kind I had the happinesse to see and hear her at a short distance by the Commandement which my Lady of Buckingham laid upon me to interpret for her and believe me she is full of wit and hath a lovely manner in expressing it But I confesse I was sorrie with all my heart to hear that her courage was so great as to carry her instantly after my Ladie of Buckingham had taken her leave for that time to Sea in a poore little boate in the company of her brother whom yet I have not had the honour to see I dare give my word for her that she is not afraid of her own shadow who could find in her heart to put her self at the first sight upon an element of that danger and disease for meer pastime Unlesse it were perhaps that she might carrie some Steel about her and that there is some Adamant at Dover which already might begin to draw her that way I am extreamly sorrie that we have lost the hope of seeing the two other Queens for if they had come we might have had beautie here as well in the preterperfect and in the present tense as now we have in the future But the Queen Mothers indisposition hath arrested her at Amiens in punishment of that malice wherewith she dissembled it too long at the first through the extream desire she had of coming hither Our Queen received my Lady of Buckingham with strange courtesie and favour and now there is no remedy but that the King will needs defray and treat her after a high manner And I have been told that Mounsieur will needs descend so much as to visit her in her lodging and the Dutchesse of Chevereux being that great Princesse as she is both by match and bloud will perforce give precedence not onely to my Ladie of Buckingham but to my Ladies her daughters also And I assure my self that a lesse puissant example then this will serve to convert our Great Ladies even to exceed in England towards the Ladies which are strangers and do but come and go But the while this Court doth so apply it self to do my Lady of Buckingham all imaginable honour I look on it so as that I am no way discouraged thereby from bearing devotion to the blessed Virgin when I see that men who are sick of love towards the Son are put even by a kind of Law of nature into pain till they revenge themselves upon the Mother I beseech Jesus c. From Bulloign â— Dr. Sharp to King James The Complaint of Europe our Mother aged and oppressed TO whom To the Kings and Princes of Europe Of whom Of the Pope of Rome For what matter For causing by his Catholique League so much bloud to be spilt within these few yeares in Europe To this effect as that excellent Poet speaks with a little change of his words Quis non Europaeo sanguine pinguior Campus sepulchris impia praelia Testatur auditumque Turcis Europaeae sonitum ruinae Qui gurges aut quae flumina lugubris Ignara belli quo Mare Civicae Non decoloravere caedes Quae Caret ora cruore nostro And what further danger is it like to breed Even to bring the Turk into Austria Italy Germany into Vienna and into Rome it self as it hath brought him into Pannonia and of late into Pollonia to the great danger of all Christendome Which danger she doth foresee and lament and telleth That no European King
out in general that which the Prince hath cryed and your Grace hath uttered in Parliament in special that Colloquia de Contractibus are with them Mera ludibria parata tantum Regum animis Ne noceant distinendis dum ea quae ipsi intendunt perficiantur Which Guicciardine also doth in general affirm That the Spaniards bring more things to passe by Treaties and subtilties then by force of Armes And that you may truly understand the full intention of the Spaniard to the state of this Kingdom and Church I would your Grace would read a notable Discourse of the late most Noble Earl of Essex made by the Commandment of Queen Elizabeth and debated before her Majestie and her Councel concerning this point Whether Peace or War was to be treated with Spain The Lord Buckhurst speaking for a Treatie of Peace to the which the Noble Queen and her old Lord Treasurer inclined The Earl speaking for War because no safe peace could be made with that State for 3. special Reasons which are in that Treatise set down at large which is not fit for me yet to deliver by writing but there you shall find them Your Grace may have the book of divers Noblemen your friends If you have it not if I may understand your pleasure I will get it for you It was of that effect that it brought the Queen and Treasurer contrary to their purpose to his side for the very necessity of the common safetie Your Lordship having angred them and endeared your self to us you had need to look to your self you are as odious to them as ever the Earl of Essex was The Jesuite Walpool set on one of the stable Squire one well affected to my Lord to poyson the rests of his Chair And seeing they strike at the Ministers which deal effectually for his Church witnesse worthy Doctor White what will they do to such Pillars of State as you are The Lord preserve your Grace and watch over you And thus I rest Your Grace his most humble at Commandment Leonel Sharp The Lord Cromwell to the Duke 8. Septemb. 1625. May it please your Grace I Am now returned from mine own home and am here at Fulham neer Mr. Burlemachi making my self ready to attend your Command in the best manner my poor fortunes will give me leave and with what speed I may Some things I have sent to Plymouth and some Gentlemen so as when I come there I hope to find that your Lordship hath appointed me a good sailing ship and one that shall be able to play her part with the best and proudest enemy that dare look danger in the face Though your Grace hath placed a Noble Gentleman in the Regiment was intended to my Lord of Essex yet I will not despair of your favour or that you will not give me some taste of it as well as to any other I will study to be a deserving Creature and whether you will please to look on me with an affectionate eye or no I will love honour and serve you with no lesse truth and faith then those you have most obliged What concerns me I will not here speak of for fear I offend My prayers shall ever attend you and my curses those that wish you worse then their own soules Divers I do meet that say your Grace hath parted with your place of the Mastership of the Horse which makes the world suspect that some disfavour your Lordship is growing into And that this prime feather of yours being lost or parted with be it as it will it will not be long ere the rest follow They offer to lay wagers the Fleet goes not this year and that of necessitie shortly a Parliament must be which when it comes sure it will much discontent you It is wondered at that since the King did give such great gifts to the Dutchesse of Chevereux and those that then went how now a small summe in the Parliament should be called for at such an unseasonable time And let the Parliament sit when it will begin they will where they ended They say the best Lords of the Councel knew nothing of Count Mansfelts journey or this Fleet which discontents even the best sort if not all They say it is a very great burthen your Grace takes upon you since none knowes any thing but you It is conceived that not letting others bears part of the burthen you now bear it may ruine you which heaven forbid Much discourse there is of your Lordship here and there as I passed home and back and nothing is more wondered at then that one Grave man is not known to have your Ear except my good and Noble Lord Conway All men say if you go not with the Fleet you will suffer in it because if it prosper it will be thought no act of yours and if it succeed ill they say it might have been better had not you guided the King They say your undertakings in the Kingdom and your Engagements for the Kingdome will much prejudice your Grace And if God blesse you not with goodnesse as to accept kindly what in dutie and love I here offer questionlesse my freedom in letting you know the discourse of the world may much prejudice me But if I must lose your favour I had rather lose it for striving to do you good in letting you know the talk of the wicked world then for any thing else so much I heartily desire your prosperitie and to see you trample the ignorant multitude under foot All I have said is the discourse of the world and when I am able to judge of your actions I will freely tell your Lordship my mind Which when it shall not be alwaies really inclined to serve you may all noble thoughts forsake me Because I seldom am honoured with your Ear I thus make bold with your all-discerning eye which I pray God may be inabled with power and strength daily to see into them that desire your ruine Which if it once be I will never believe but so good a King will constantly inable you daily with power to confound them Many men would not be thus bold and saucie If I find you distaste me for my respect to you I will respect my poor self who ever hath honoured you so much as hereafter to be silent So I kisse the noble hands of your Grace Your Lordships servant during life Tho. Cromwell Sir Robert Philips to the Duke of Buckingham 21. August 1624. May it please your Grace BEfore the receipt of that Dispatch with which you were pleased to honour me from Apthorp dated the last of July I was fully determined at your return to Woodstock to have presented your Grace my most humble and faithful service and by that means to have obtained the knowledge in what state and condition of health you had passed this part of the progresse Your former weaknesse together with the dangerous temper of the season giving me cause both to doubt and
pray against the worst But I found my self then to be more strictly obliged to the performance of this dutie when I received from your Grace so clear and abundant a testimonie as well of your good opinion as of the trust you reposed in me Obligations certainly of that nature and of so large an extent as do with reason deprive me of all degree of libertie and justly subject me to a perpetual state of servitude and obedience to all your Graces Commandements I have diligently perused my Lord of Bristols answer which it pleased your Grace to communicate unto me And although it become me not neither will I presume to give my opinion of the strength or weaknesse thereof yet will I take the liberty to say thus much That I find in his case that to be verified which I have observed at other times to wit That when able and prudent men come to act their own Parts they are then for the most part not of the clearest sight and do commonly commit such errours as are both discernable and avoidable even by men of mean abilities Being now fallen to speak of this Lord I humbly beseech your Lordship to give me leave plainly and briefly to set before you some Cogitations of mine own touching his present occasion First that it may be maturely considered Whether the tendring him any further charge unto which he may be able to frame a probable satisfactorie answer will not rather serve to declare his innocencie then to prepare his Condemnation and so instead of pressing him reflect back with disadvantage upon the proceeding against him Secondly That your Grace would be pleased to consult with your self whether you may not desist from having him further questioned without either blemish to your Honour or manifest prejudice to the service Considering that you have to your perpetual glory already dissolved and broken the Spanish partie and rendred them without either the means or the hope of ever conjoyning in such sort together again as may probably give the least disturbance or impediment to your Graces waies and designs And lastly Although his Lordship in sundry places of his answer especially in the latter part doth seem directly to violate the rule of the * Provident prudent Marriner who in foul weather and in a storm is accustomed to prevent shipwrack rather to pull down then to set up his sailes Neverthelesse as this case stands it deserves to be thorowly pondered which of the two waies will most conduce to your Graces purpose and is likely to receive the best interpretation and success either to have him dealt with after a quick and round manner or otherwise to proceed slowly and moderately with him permiting him for a time to remain where he is as a man laid aside and in the way to be forgotten A state of being if I mistake not his complexion which will be by him apprehended equivalent to the severest and sharpest censure that possibly can be inflicted on him Thus have I over-boldly adventured to present unto your Grace these few Queries and Proposals which they might be both inlarged and more forcibly urged yet to avoid the being too tedious I have chosen to omit the further insisting upon them till such time as I may have the honour and felicitie of being neer your person At this present it shall suffice humbly to beseech your Grace to be assuredly perswaded that what I have now delivered in this subject doth not proceed from any over indulgent respect I bear either to the person or fortune of my Lord of Bristol though I should not be sorry that like a prudent man he might by his discreet application to your Grace render himself capable to be again readmitted to your love and favour But the motive which hath induced me principally to use this plainnesse and libertie is the Consideration how importantly as I conceive the well ordering and disposing this particular doth concern your Graces service Unto the advancement and furtherance whereof if I may be able now or at any time to contribute the least proportion I shall esteem my self most happie and more then abundantly rewarded in case that my right humble endeavours in that kind may receive from your Grace a favourable and acceptable construction I will conclude this Letter with a twofold prayer first to you for my self that your Grace will be pleased to pardon this boldnesse Next to God for you that he will give you health and length of daies for his Majesties service and the good and honour of this Common-wealth I humbly crave leave to remain Your Graces Most obedient and devoted servant Rob. Philips The Earl of Middlesex to the Duke Right Noble and my most honoured Lord I Have received divers Letters from your Lordship since your going from Theobalds which though they concern several men and in sundry kinds yet they all conclude upon diminution of his Majesties estate contrary to your general ground when his Majestie delivered me the Staffe and contrary to your Lordships private directions given me at Theobalds with which I did your Lordship the right to acquaint the King I have of late had cause to take into consideration the miserable condition of my present estate who since I received the staffe have led such a life as my very enemies pity me which I foresaw the distraction of the Kings estate and burthen of that place would of necessitie throw upon me Yet my dutie love and thankfulnesse to his Majestie and my love and thankfulnesse to you contrary to my own judgment and advice of my friends made me undertake it little expecting these Crosse accidents which have lyen heavy upon me and more troubled me then the continual cares and vexations of my place I do most freely and willingly acknowledge one man cannot be more bound unto another then I am to your Lordship and if I do not make a thankful return let me be held an ungrateful Monster which is the worst of Villains I have been so ambitious as to desire to extend my gratitude so far as that the King may have cause to thank you for preferring me and that your Lordship may blesse the time you did it To effect that I shall delight to live a miserable life for a time The course which must of necessitie be held to do it I will acquaint your Lordship with very shortly which I hope you will be pleased to approve and assist me in And then I will expresse my thankfulnesse to you that way If that course shall not like you I will not onely deliver you up my places but whatsoever I hold from the King and live privately upon mine own estate For I will never sell so good and gracious a Master nor so noble and constant a friend ruined and undone God blesse you and send you your hearts desire As for my self I never desired to quit the World and all the fooleries in it till now Your Lordships Faithfullest servant
and Kinsman Middlesex The Earl of Middlesex to his Majestie 26. April 1624. Sacred Majestie and my most gracious Master YOur goodnesse is such to me your oppressed servant in this my time of persecution as I know not how to expresse my thankfulnesse otherwise then by pouring forth my humble and heartie prayers to the great God of heaven and earth to grant your Majestie all happinesse here and everlasting happinesse hereafter Between 5. and 6. of the clock upon Saturday in the evening I received my Charge from the Lords assembled in Parliament with an Order by which I am commanded to make my appearance at the Bar upon Thursday next by 9. of the clock in the morning with my answer And in the mean time to examine my witnesses This Charge of mine hath been in preparing by examining of witnesses upon oath and otherwise 23. daies And hath been weighed by the Wisdom of both Houses and doth concern me so neerly in point of honour and faith to your Majestie to answer well as I value my life at nothing in comparison of it I may grieve though I will not complain of any thing my Lords shall be pleased to Command but do hope that upon a second consideration they will not think three daies a fitting time for me to make my Answer and to examine witnesses in a cause of such importance and so neerly concerning me when twenty three daies hath been spent almost from morning until night in preparing my Charge I know the House whose Judgment I shall never desire to wave is the proper place for me to move to be resolved herein and therefore shall upon Wednesday morning make my humble motion there to have 7. daies longer time as well to make my answer and apparance as to examine my witnesses which are many and upon several heads But because the Prince his Highnesse and many of the Principal Lords are now with your Majestie at VVindsor my most humble suit to your Majestie is That you would be pleased to move them on my behalf to yield me so much further time that my Cause may not suffer prejudice for want of time to make my just defence that which I have propounded being as moderate as is possible With my most humble and heartie prayer to Almightie God for continuance of your health with all happinesse I humbly kisse your Royal hands and will ever rest Your Majesties most humble c. Middelsex The Earl of Carlile to his Majestie 14. February 1623. My it please your most Excellent Majestie THough my present indisposition deprives me of the Honour to attend your Majestie with the rest of the Commissioners with whom your Majesty was pleased to associate me yet I most humbly beseech your Majestie to give me leave in all humility to represent unto your Majestie what my heart conceiveth to be most for your Majesties service in the present conjuncture of your affaires During this time of my distemper I have been visited by divers Gentlemen of quality who are Parliament-men none of those popular and plausible Oratours but solid and judicious good patriots who fear God and honour the King Out of their discourses I collect That there are three things which do chiefly trouble your people The first that for the subsidies granted the two last Parliaments they have received no retribution by any bills of Grace The second that some of their Burgesses were proceeded against after the Parliament were dissolved And the third that they misdoubt that when they shall have satisfied your Majesties demands and desires you will neverthelesse proceed to the conclusion of the Spanish match It would be too much importunity to trouble your Majestie with the several answers which I made to their objections and would be too great presumption in mee to advise your Majesties incomparable wisdome what should be fittest to be done for your Majesties honour and the contentment of the people yet if it would please my Lord the King to give his humblest Creature leave to give vent to the loyal fervour of his heart restlesse and indefatigable in continual meditation of his Gracious Masters honour and service I would thus with all humble submission explain my self That there is nothing which either the enemies of this State or the perverse industry of false-hearted servants could invent more mischievous then the misunderstandings which have grown between your Majestie and your people nothing that will more dishearten the envious Maligners of your Majesties felicity and incourage your true hearted friends and Servants then the removing of those false feares and jealousies which are meer imaginarie Phantasmes and bodies of ayr easily dissipated whensoever it shall please the sun of your Majestie to shew it self clearly in its native brightnesse lustre and goodnesse God and the World do know the scope and the end of all your Majesties pious affections and endeavours to have been no other then the setling of an universal peace in Christendom a felicity only proper for your Majesties time and only possible to be procured by your incomparable goodnesse and wisdom but since the malice of the Divel and deceitful men have crossed those fair wayes wherein your Majestie was proceeding abusing your trust and goodnesse as Innocencie and goodnesse are alwayes more easily betrayed then wilinesse and malice you must now cast about again and sail by another point of the compasse and I am confident your Majestie will more securely and easily attain your Noble and pious end though the way be different The meanes are briefly these three First let your Majesties enemies see that the Lion hath teeth and clawes 2. Next imbrace and invite a strict and sincere friendship and association with those whom neighbourhood and alliance and common interest of state and religion have joyned unto you 3. And last of all cast off and remove jealousies which are between your Majestie and your people Your Majestie must begin with the last for upon that foundation you may afterwards set what frame of building you please And when should you begin Sir but at this overture of your Parliament by a gracious clear and confident discovery of your intentions to your People Fear them not Sir never was there a better King that had better subjects if your Majestie would trust them Let them but see that you love them and constantly rely upon their humble advice and readie assistance and your Majestie will see how they will tear open their breasts to give you their hearts and having them your Majestie is sure of their hands and purses Cast but away some crums of your Crown amongst them and your Majestie will see those crums will make a miracle they will satisfie many thousands Give them assurance that your heart was alwayes at home though your eyes were abroad invite them to looke forward and not backward and constantly maintain that with confidence you undertake and your majestie will find admirable effects of this harmonious concord Your Majestie as
desperate tearmes had need of a desperate remedie The second had need of a better advocate then I to put any colour of defence upon it But his Highnesse had observed as great a weaknesse and follie as that in that after they had used him so ill they would suffer him to depart which was one of the first speeches he uttered after he was entred into the ship But did he say so said the Queen Yes Madam I will assure you quoth I from the witnesse of my own eares She smiled and replyed Indeed I heard he was used ill So he was answered I but not in his entertainement for that was as splendid as that countrie could afford it but in their frivolous delayes and in the unreasonable conditions which they propounded and pressed upon the advantage they had of his Princely Person And yet smilingly added I you here Madam use him far worse And how so presently demanded she In that you presse quoth I upon that most worthie and Noble Prince who hath with so much affection to your Majesties service so much passion to Madam sought this Alliance The same nay more unreasonable conditions then the other and what they traced out for the breaking of the match you follow pretending to conclude it very unseasonablely in this Conjuncture of time especiallie when the jealousies that such great changes in state are apt to beget are cunningly fomented by the Spanish Embassadour in England who vaunts it forth that there is not so great a change in La Vievilles particular person as there is in the general affections which did but follow before the stream of his Greatnesse and credit Thus casting in the Kings mind the seed of doubts whereunto the Conde de Olivares in Spain hath been willing to contribute by this braving speech to our Royal Masters Embassadour there That if the Pope ever granted a dispensation for the match with France the King of Spain would march with an armie towards Rome and sack it Vrayement nous l'en empescherous bien promptly answered She Car nous lui taglierous assez de besongne ailleurs Mais qu'est-ce qui vous presse le plus I represented unto her the unfitnesse of the seventh Article even qualified by that interpretationt hat it is and the impossibility of the last which requires and prescribes an oath And desired that the honour of the Prince with whom she pretended a will to match her Daughter might be dearer to her then to be ballanced with that which could add nothing to their assurance I also humbly besought her to imploy her Credit with the King her son her authority to the Ministers for a reformation of those two Articles especially and a friendly and speedy dispatch of all And if we must come to that extreamitie that more could not be altered then already was yet at least she would procure the allowance of this protestation by the King our Master when he should swear them that he intended no further to oblige himself by that oath then might well stand with the safety peace tranquility and conveniency of his State This shee thought reasonable and promised to speak with the King and Cardinal about it And if you speak as you can replied I I know it will be done Though when all is done I know not whether the King my Master will condescend so far yea or no. Here I intreated I might weary her Majestie no further but take the libertie she had pleased to give me in entertaining Madam with such Commandments as the Prince had charged me withall to her She would needs know what I would say Nay then smiling quoth I your Majestie will impose upon me the like Law that they in Spain did upon his Highnesse But the case is now different said she for there the Prince was in person here is but his Deputie But a Deputie answered I that represents his person Mais pour tout cela dit elle qu' est ce que vous direz Rien dis-re qui ne Soit digne des oreilles d'vne si vertueuse Princesse Mais qu' est ce redoubled she Why then Madam quoth I if you will needs know it shall be much to this effect That your Majestie having given me the libertie of some freer Language then heretofore I obey the Prince his Command in presenting to her his service not by way of Complement any longer but out of passion and affection which both her outward and her inward beauties the vertues of her mind so kindled in him as he was resolved to contribute the uttermost he could to the Alliance in question and would think it the greatest happinesse in the world if the successe thereof might minister occasion of expressing in a better and more effectual manner his devotion to her service with some little other such like amorous Language Allez Allez Il n'y a point de danger en tout cela smilingly answered she je me fie en vous je me fie en vous Neither did I abuse her trust for I varied not much from it in delivering it to Madam save that I amplified it to her a little more who drank it down with joy and with a low Curtesie acknowledged it to the Prince adding that she was extreamly obliged to his Highnesse and would think her self happie in the occasion that should be presented of meriting the place shee had in his good Graces After that I turned my speech to the old Ladies that attended and told them That sith the Queen was pleased to give me this liberty it would be henceforth fit for them to speak a suitable Language I let them know that his Highnesse had her Picture which he kept in his Cabinet and fed his eyes many times with the sight and contemplation of it sith he could not have the happinesse to behold her person All which and other such like speeches she standing by took up without letting any one fall to the ground But I fear your Lordship will think I gather together too much to enlarge my Letter thus far but it is that by these Circumstances your Lordship may make a perfect judgment of the issue of our negotiation which I doubt not but will succeed to his Majesties his Highnesse and your Lordships contentment And so yeeld matter of triumph to you and infinite joy to me Your Lordships Most most humble most obliged and most obedient servant Kensington The Lord Kensington to the Duke My most dear Lord THis Bearer your Cousen's going is in such haste as what you receive from me must be in very few words I was yesterday with the Marquesse de Vieville whom I find cordial to do good offices between ours and this Kingdome and he assures me by all the promises and protestations that may be he will ever use his credit and power to do so knowing these Kingdoms can as the King of Spain's power and ambition increases have no true safetie and good unlesse we joyn in
unto your worthie servant my Lord Duke as he hath written a private Letter unto the King the which I saw by the favour of a friend that he is in a condition of danger to be ruined by the furie and power of the Parliament And to confirm him in that opinion hath sent all the passages amongst them that concern my Lord Duke adding to that of great factions against him at the Councel Table and naming some Lords the which makes me see he hath intelligence with all those that he believes may contribute any thing towards the mischieving of him But those that know the magnanimitie and noblenesse of your Majesties heart know that so noble a vessel of honour and service as he is shall never be in danger for all the storms that can threaten him when it is in your Majesties hands not onely to calm all these tempests but to make the Sun and beams of your favour to shine more clearly upon his deservings then ever the which upon this occasion your courage and virtue will no doubt do to the encouragement of all deserving and excellent servants and to his honour and comfort that is the most worthie that ever Prince had And so affectionate that the world hath no greater admirations then the fortunes that the Master and servant have run together And certainly our good God will ever preserve that affection that in so many accidents and one may say afflictions hath preserved your Persons Sir this boldnesse that I take proceeds not from the least doubt these foolish rumours give me of changes but out of a passionate meditation of those accidents that your courage and fortune hath carried you through blessing God for your prosperitie the which will be by his grace most glorious and lasting according to the prayers of Your Majesties Most humble and most obedient Subject and servant Holland Paris 1 13. March 1625. The Earl of Holland to the Duke My dear Lord THis Messenger is so rigid and such an enemie to all Jantileise as by him I will not send any news in that kind but when the little Mercurie comes you shall know that which shall make you joy and grieve that you cannot injoy what your fate and merit hath so justly destined unto you We have such daily alarums here out of England from Blanvile of the beating of his servant and at the last the danger that of late he himself hath been in of being assassinated in his own house for the first word that his servant said unto the King and the whole Court was The Embassadour had run such a hazard of his life as no man that heard him believed he had escaped with lesse then 5. or 6. wounds Insomuch as your friend Bouteve asked Fait vn belle fine And this hath so animated this Court being as your Lordship knowes apt upon all occasions to be fired and stirred up as the King hath been moved to forbid us our entries and liberties here And yesterday Madam de Blanvile did openly petition the King to imprison us for the wrongs and injuries done unto her husband and his Embassadour that she feared was by this time dead But that had no other effect but to be laught at I never I confesse saw the Queen Mother in so much distraction and passion for she never speaks of her Daughter but with tears and yesterday with some heat and bitternesse to me about it the Circumstances I have taken the boldnesse to present unto his Majestie That which distracts me infinitely is to hear that they do traduce you as the cause of all these misfortunes and that you stirre up the King to these displeasures And so much impression it hath made into the Queen Mother as this day at the audience she told me That you had made the marriage and were now as she imagined and was informed resolved to destroy your work I asked her what particularitie could make her say and believe so against the general and continual actions and endeavours that the whole world ought to be satisfied of your infinite care and affection to fasten and tye together a good and constant intelligence and friendship between these Crowns She told me that you intreated Madam de St. George to do some service for you to the Queen the which she did and instead of giving her thanks you threatned the sending of her away I told her Though I had as yet heard nothing of this particularitie yet I knew your nature to be so generous as you would never do any action unjust I told her that she must distinguish between what you say as Commanded by the King and what you say of your self for if it be his pleasure to make the instrument to convey his will upon any occasion of his displeasure you are not to dispute but to obey his Command in that and in all other things I told her farther that I saw the continual malice of the Embassadour that invents daily injuries and falshoods of your Lordship to unload himself from his insolencies and faults but I hoped that nothing should light upon your Lordship but what you deserved the which to my knowledge was more value and esteem then any man in the world could or can ever merit from this Kingdome And I desired her not to entertain the belief of these things too hastily until we had newes out of England that we knew would contradict all these malitious discourses And I must tell your Grace that by a friend whom I am tyed not to name I was shewed the private Lettter that Blanvile wrote to the King in the which he sent him the whole proceedings of the Parliament and concludes they will ruine you naming great factions against you and as it were a necessitie to destroy you But I hope he and the whole world here will fall before any misfortunes should fall upon so generous and so noble a deserver of his Master and so excellent a friend and Patron unto Your Graces Most humble and most obedient servant Holland Postscript THough the Embassadour deserves nothing but contempt and disgrace as Blanvile yet I hope as Embassadour he shall receive for publique Honours and accustomed respect to Embassadours all possible satisfaction and it will be conceived a generous action My dearest Lord ALL the joy I have hath such a flatnesse set upon it by your absence from hence as I protest to God I cannot rellish it as I ought for though beautie and love I find in all perfection and fulnesse yet I vex and languish to find impediments in our designs and services for you first in the businesse for I find our mediation must have no place with this King concerning a Peace We must only use our power with those of the Religion to humble them to reasonable Conditions and that done they would as far as I can guesse have us gone not being willing that we should be so much as in the Kingdom when the Peace is made for
scrupulous that she had written a very sharp Letter full of good lessons and instructions to her that she had as clear a heart to your Grace as was possible had sent for Blanvil expressely to alter his instructions and that howsoever he like a hollow-hearted man had uttered in confidence to a friend of his That he would perswade the Queen of England to put on a reconciled countenance for a time till the way should be better prepared to give your Grace a dead lift yet the Queen Mothers intentions were assuredly sincere and good The Savoyards Embassadours voyage was not then resolved but his Secretarie prepared to make it in his room Of whom Pocheres by the way gave this touch That there was a great correspondence between Madamoiselle de Truges and him contracted upon occasions of frequent visits that had passed betwixt her Mother and the Embassadour and that therefore a careful eye was to be had of him Another who must be namelesse sent for me yesterday in the forenoone to tell me that Pore Berule's errand hither was only to make out-cries against the decree or proclamation against the Catholiques and to accuse your Grace as the Principal if not the only author who was now of a seeming friend become a deadly foe That the Earl of Arundel had out of his respect unto this State purposely absented himself that he might not be guilty of so pernicious a Councel That your Grace and my Lord of Holland had both but very slippery hold in his Majesties affections that if this King would imploy his credit as he might it would be no hard matter to root you both out thence that there were good preparatives for it alreadie and that my Lords Arundel and Pembroke would joyn hands and heads together to accomplish the effect Whereupon Blainville was sent for back to be more particularly instructed in the waies how to compasse it and would speedily post away in diligence The same party added that the propositions which the Marquesse de Fiatt had made bout the League and Fleet were before Brule's arrival somewhat well tasted but since slighted as those that became cheap by their offer to divers others as well as them that the said Marquesse should have visited Blainville at Paris and sounded him about his errand after this manner First whether he had order to disnestle Madam de St. George Whereto the answer was No and that it was against all reason of State so to do and when the other replyed that the world was come to a bad passe if reason of State descended as low as her Blainville remained silent Secondly whether he had commission to introduce the Dutchesse of Buckingham and the Countesse of Denbigh into the Queenes bed-chamber Answer was made that it was a nice and tender point and if that were once condescended to they would be continually whispering in the Queenes ear how dear she would be to the King her Husband how plausible and powerful among the people how beloved of all if she would change her religion against which they were in conscience here bound to provide and therefore conclude with a refusal of that likewise Thirdly whether he carried any good instructions about an offensive or defensive league whereunto the negative was still repeated but that he carried brave offers for the entertainment of Mansfelt And when the Marquesse replied that if that were all the contentment he carried he feared she would find but a very cold welcome the other added that perhaps he might be an Instrument to make the Queen and Duke friends This were good quoth the Marquesse if the Queen had not as much need of the Dukes friendship as the Duke of hers and upon these terms they parted The same lips that utterred all this gave caution likewise against the Savoyard Embassadour as a cunning deep hollow-hearted man And being felt by me how his pulse beat towards Porcheres told me he was a mercenarie man and no wayes to be trusted In the issue of all this his Councel was That your Grace would consider well your own strength and what ground you have in his Majesties favour If it be solid and good then a Bravado will not do amisse may be powerful here to make them to see their own errour and to walk upright so it end with a good close but if your station be not sure then he Counsels to prevent the storm for to break with all Spain France Puritanes Papists were not wisdom And desires that by any meanes you instantly dispatch a Currier to me to represent the true state of things at home and how you desire matters should be ordered for your service here abroad so that there may be fabriqued a more solid contentment to your Grace whose hands I most humbly kisse in quality of Your Graces Most humble most faithful most obeent and most obliged Servant Tho. Lorkin Postscript IF my stay be intended long it will be necessary that I use a Cypher which I humbly beseech your Grace to send me or to give me leave to frame one as I can As I was closing up my Letter Mr. Gerbier arrived who hath been somewhat indisposed in his health by the way but now is reasonably well God be thanked His coming is very seasonable and I assure my self will be useful By the discourse I have had with Mr. Gerbier I see a little clearer into the state of things here and think Porcheres his advertisement may be truer as being perhaps grounded upon knowledge the other springing only upon conjecture built upon Berule's clamours and overtures and the suddain sending for Mounsieur Blanville back Your Grace will see day in all shortly But assuredly the latter advice comes from a heart that is affectionately devoted to your Graces service This Bearer will kisse your Graces hands from the Authour and thereby you will know his name which he stipulated might not come in writing The Lord Herbert to his Majestie My most Gracious Soveraign NOw that I thank God for it his Highnesse according to my continual prayers hath made a safe and happie return unto your Sacred Majesties presence I think my self bound by way of Compleat obedience to these Commandements I received from your Majestie both by Mr. Secretary Calvert and my Brother Henry to give your Majestie an account of that sense which the general sort of people doth entertain here concerning the whole frame and Context of his Highnesse voyage It is agreed on all parts that his Highnesse must have received much contentment in seeing two great Kingdomes and consequently in enjoyning that satisfaction which Princes but rarely and not without great peril obtain His Highnesse discretion diligence and Princely behaviour every where likewise is much praised Lastly since his Highnesse journey hath fallen out so well that his Highnesse is come back without any prejudice to his person or dignity they say the successe hath sufficiently commended the Councel This is the most common censure
can my return since I know no other then to be Your Graces faithful servant Edw. Clark Madrid 6. Sept. 1623. Sir Anthony Ashley to the Duke May it please your good Lordship IF any thing had happened worth your knowledge I had either come or sent to Theobalds in your absence being ascertained that your Lordship had been already particularly informed of what passed in the Higher House betwixt the Earl of A. and the L. S. which is the onely thing of note and is thought will beget some noveltie Your Lordship may be most assured that your Adversaries continue their meetings and conferences here in Holborn how to give his Majestie some foul distaste of you as making you the onely authour of all grievances and oppressions whatsoever for your private ends And I hope to be able within few daies if promise be kept to give you good overture of a mutual oath taken to this purpose amongst them The rumour lately spread touching his Majesties untimely pardon of the late Lord Chancellours Fine and Imprisonment with some other favours intended towards him said to be procured by your Lordships only intimation hath exceedingly exasperated the rancor of the ill affected which albeit it be false and unlikely because very unseasonably It doth yet serve the present turn for the increase of malice against you I can but inform your Lordship of what I understand you may please to make use thereof as your self thinketh best I most humbly intreat your good Lordship to keep Letters of this nature either in your own Cabinet or to make Hereticks of them for I am well acquainted with the disposition of some Pen-men in Court. Upon Message even now received of my poor Daughters suddain dangerous sicknesse I am constrained unmannerly to post unto her being the onely comfort I have in this world and do purpose God willing a speedie return In the mean time and even with my heartie prayer I commend your good Lordship to Gods merciful and safe keeping This 12th of May 1621. Your honourable good Lordships faithfully devoted A. A. Sir Wa. Rawleigh to the Duke 12. Aug. IF I presume too much I humbly beseech your Lordship to pardon me especially in presuming to write to so great and worthie a person who hath been told that I have done him wrong I heard it but of late but most happie had I been if I might have disproved that villanie against me when there had been no suspition that the desire to save my life had presented my excuse But my worthie Lord it is not to excuse my self that I now write I cannot for I have now offended my Soveraign Lord for all past even all the world and my very enemies have lamented my losse whom now if his Majesties mercie alone do not lament I am lost Howsoever that which doth comfort my soul in this offence is that even in the offence it self I had no other intent then his Majesties service and to make his Majestie know That my late enterprise was grounded upon a truth and which with one Ship speedily set out I meant to have assured or to have died being resolved as it is well known to have done it from Plymouth had I not been restrained Hereby I hoped not onely to recover his Majesties gracious opinion but to have destroyed all those malignant reports which had been spread of me That this is true that Gentleman whom I so much trusted my Keeper and to whom I opened my heart cannot but testifie and wherein if I cannot be believed living my death shall witnesse Yea that Gentleman cannot but avow it that when we came back towards London I desired to save no other Treasure then the exact description of those places in the Indies That I meant to go hence as a discontented man God I trust and mine own Actions will disswade his Majestie Whom neither the losse of my estate thirteen years imprisonment and the denial of my pardon could beat from his service nor the opinion of being accounted a fool or rather distract by returning as I did ballanced with my love to his Majesties person and estate had no place at all in my heart It was that last severe Letter from my Lords for the speedie bringing of me up and the impatience of dishonour that first put me in fear of my life or enjoying it in a perpetual imprisonment never to recover my reputation lost which strengthened me in my late and too late lamented resolution if his Majesties mercie do not abound if his Majestie do not pitie my age and scorn to take the extreamest and utmost advantage of my errours if his Majestie in his great charitie do not make a difference between offences proceeding from a life-saving-natural impulsion without all ill intent and those of an ill heart and that your Lordship remarkable in the world for the Noblenesse of your disposition do not vouchsafe to become my Intercessour whereby your Lordship shall bind an hundred Gentlemen of my kindred to honour your memorie and bind me for all the time of that life which your Lordship shall beg for me to pray to God that you may ever prosper and over-bind me to remain Your most humble servant W. Rawleigh Sir Henry Yelverton to the Duke 15. March 1623. May it please your Grace MY humble heart and affection hath wrote many lines and presented many Petitions to your Grace before this time though none legible but one sent by my Lord Rochford within five daies after your most welcomed arrival from Spain I have learned the plain phrase of honest speech My Lord I have honoured your name long and your own virtue much I never found misfortune greater then this that still sailing after you in all humble desires of dutie I was still cast behind you I excuse nothing wherein your Grace may judge me faultie but will be glad to expiate my errours at any price Your noble heart I hope harbours no memorie of what did then distaste you Your own merits which have so much ennobled you will be the more compleat if I may but merit your forgetfulnesse of wrongs past If I seek your Grace before I deserve it enable me I beseech you to Deserve that I may seek If any on whom you have cast your eye most endear himself more to your service then I shall let me not follow the vintage at all Till this day I feared the rellish of sowr Grapes though I have sought you with many broken sleeps But this Noble Earl whose honour for this work shall ever with me be second to yours hath revived me with the assurance of your gracious pardon and libertie to hope I may be deemed your servant I protest to God it is not the affluence of your honour makes me joy in it nor the power of your Grace that trains me on to seek it but let the trial of all your fortunes speak thus much for me that I will follow you not as Cyrus his Captains and
And this use your Grace may make thereof to his Majesties service that now this King and Queen are both of them no lesse confident of your affection then they are of your sinceritie what you advise them in their affairs will be of much weight to sway them in the ballance of their judgment Which now a Proposition is made unto them on which their whole estate doth depend as well for themselves as their posteritie full of doubtful circumstances on both sides the choice not being as they conceive betwixt one thing certain and another uncertain but betwixt two unequal uncertainties it is hard to say which way they incline but if they be left to themselves I perceive they will rather stand to the hazard of the latter with preservation of their honour and lawful pretensions then submit themselves to the former with shame and disgrace and no assurance of better dealing then was used to the deported House of Saxe by a better Emperour then this accounted of which we have the Heir one of the worthiest Princes in Germanie here in hard Conditions amongst us And he serves as a spectacle to these Princes of their fortunes by the same way as his Predecessors took of submission Yet other things being before agreed of and settled in that sort as his Majestie hath alwaies assured these Princes to be his full intention of restitution to their Patrimonial Honours and estate This King I find will conform himself to what his Majestie shall think fit touching a due submission But this being a matter of ceremony the other of substance he judgeth that if this precede that is the Submission the other of restitution will never follow Neither can it be well seen how in possibility it may be effected considering that whilest things have been held sometimes in terms alwaies in talk of accommodation the Electoral is given to Bavier by the Emperour and avowed by a Congratulatory Embassage from Bruxels the upper Palatinate setled in his possession with some portion to Newburgh for his Contentation and ingagement A principal part of the lower Palatinate the Bergstrate given to the Elector of Mentz with the consent of those of Bruxels where he was lately in person to obtain it though they grossely dissemble it and promises of parts of the rest made to other Princes So as what is now pretended I must deal plainly with your Grace is no otherwaies interpreted then as experience doth teach of these three former years proceedings Ever new Overtures in Winter and new Ruptures in the Summer And as of two former Treaties with this Prince which passed my hands one a Consent to a Submission sent to Vienna the other a Ratification of a Suspension oftentimes sent to Bruxels no other use was made but with the first to accelerate Bethlem Gabor in his Treatie of Peace with the Emperour as then on foot and with the second to intimidate both the Electours Saxe and Brandenburgh with the Princes of the Nethes Saxe and Creyes from entring into Armes to which they were well disposed upon the discontentment they received of the preposterous courses that were taken in the Diet at Ratisbone and to this effect Copies of the very projects of the said Treaties were dispersed by the Imperialists before the Instruments themselves were perfected so it is here believed that now Gabor is again in armes and other Princes ready to imbrace any good occasion of redresse of affaires time is onely sought to be gained by this new Overture and the King of Bohemin's Credit with his friends and well wishers in Germanie to be weakned if not lost for if once he submit himself allowing the translation of the Electoral he shall thereby avow the Emperours undue procedings in that cause which have been protested against by Saxe and Brandenbergh and all the other Germane Princes excepting those onely of the Catholique league and by whom afterwards upon any ill dealing can he expect to be befriended who forsakes himself and his own cause This is the discourse of these Princes upon this occasion but when they are asked What then can you trust unto their recourse is to his Majestie who they hope knoweth the meanes to effect in their behalf what he hath so long and so constantly undertaken for them And though for these three or four years past affaires on this side have gone in a continual decadence and now threaten a final ruine unlesse it be withstood by some Princelie Resolution not of pettie but of great Princes yet here is no such discouragement but that it is thought there is yet strength and vigour enough left in the good Party not onely to subsist but to rise and flourish again as well as ever And in this cogitation the King and Queen remain not prescribing any thing to his Majestie nor willing to submit themselves anew to the same rod with which they have been so often scourged Your Grace was lately invited with my Lord of Richmond to christen their young Son which being excused by my Lord of Richmond in both your names And the King of France undertaking that office it was performed by that King and the King of Swede yesterday was seven-night represented by the French Embassadour here resident and the Prince of Orange in the same manner and the same Church as the Princesse Louise bearing the same name was christned the last year when the Duke Christien of Brunswick being invited to be Godfather though absent and for some respects of precedence could not have a Deputie was understood notwithstanding to be one of the Parrins and so do the King and Queen hold both your Grace and my Lord of Richmond I must now render your Grace my humble thanks for your manifestation of your favour to my self which you are pleased to do in such ample manner as to tell me farther for my Comfort who are my friends And a farther effect of friendship I could not expect of them then to procure me the assurance I now receive from your Grace who have won the reputation by your Constancie to those you take into your Care that your word is taken for your deed And though that which I thought fittest for my self failes me if your Grace can think me fit for any thing else towards the amendment of my poor fortune I shall attend the same with much patience of mind though great extreamitie otherwise by reason of a small estate charged with great debts which are no small burthen to an honest mind And ever remain Your Graces Most faithful devoted servant Dudley Carleton Hague 13th Decemb. 1623. Sir Dudley Carleton to the Duke May it please your Grace THe Queen of Bohemia desirous to draw the Prince of Orange to more then general professions of service to his Majestie hath sometimes in my presence when I waited on her highnesse given occasion of discourse her self and at other times I have spoken in her name with his Excellencie to the like effect as in my
We give it known unto thee That We by the sufferance of the great God named the Perpetuall and Universall God in earth most mighty Emperour Soldan in Babylon Lord of Armenia the most mightiest in Persipolis and Numidia the great helper of God Prince from the Rode of Barbary unto the mountains of Achaia King of Kings from the Meridian to the Septentrian of the earth from the rising place of the Sun to the setting of it the first and chiefest placed in the Paradise of Mahomet the destroyer of all Christendom and of all Christians and that do profess Christianity the keeper and defender of the Sepulcher of thy God crucified the onely victorious and triumphant Lord of all the world and of all Circuits and Provinces thereof Thou Maximilian which writest thy selfe King of our Kingdom of Hungary which is under our Crown and obeysance We will visit thee for that cause and also perswade thee that with our strength and force of thirteen Kingdoms with might and strength to the number of one hundred thousand as well Horsemen as Footmen prepared for war with all the power and strength of Turkish munition and with such power as thou nor none of thy servants have seen heard or had knowledge of even before thy chief Citie Vienna and the Countrey thereabouts We Solyman God on earth against thee with all thy assisters and helpers with our Warlike strength do pronounce protest your uttermost destruction and depopulation as we can by all means possible devise it And this we we will signifie unto thee to the which thou and thy miserable people may prepare your selves With us it is determined with our men appointed thee and all thy German Kingdoms and Provinces altogether to spoyl This misery we have consented unto against thee and thy Princes and have thou no doubt but we will come Dated in the City of Constantinople out of the which we did expulse your predecessors their wives children and friends and made them most miserable slaves and captives the year of our reign fourty seven Sir John Perrots Commission for Lord Deputy of Ireland ELizabetha Dei gratia c. omnibus ad quos presentes literae pervenerint salut Sciatis quod nos certis urgentibus causis considerationibus nos specialiter movendis de provida circumspectione industria praedilecti fidelis nobis Johannis Perrot milit plenius confidentes dejadvisamento Concilii nostri assignavimus fecimus ordinavimus constituimus deputavimus per praesentes assignavimus c. eundem Johannem Perrot milit Deputat nostrum Generalem Regni nostri Hiberniae habend tenend gaudend exercend occupand officium praedict eidem Johanni Perrot milit durante beneplacito nostro dantes concedentes eidem Deputat nostro Generali plenam tenore praesentium potestatem ad pacem nostram ac ad leges consuetudines regni nostri praedict custodiend custodiri faciend ad omnes singulas leges nostras c. The whole Contents of the Commission for the Lord Deputy TO conserve the peace to punish offenders to make Orders and Proclamations to receive offenders to grace to give pardons and impose fines to levy forces to fight and make peace to dispose Rebels lands to pardon all treasons saving touching the Queens person and counterfeiting of coyn to give offices saving the Chancellor Treasurer two chief Justices chief Baron and Master of the Rolls to dispose of Ecclesiasticall livings except Archbishops and Bishops to receive homage and the oath to make provision for his houshold according to the ancient custome to assemble the Parliament with her Majesties privity to receive the account of Officers saving the Treasurers to exercise martiall law The Queens Warrant to the Lords c. of Ireland for ministring the Oath and delivery of the Sword to him 31 Ian. 1583. RIght Reverend Father in God right trusty welbeloved and trusty and right welbeloved we greet you wel Whereas upon the departure from thence of our right trusty and welbeloved the Lord Gray of Wilton late our Deputy there we thought it meet for our government there to appoint you joyntly to have the place of our Justices until such time as we should resolve to send another thither to be our Deputy there We let you wit that meaning now no longer to burthen you with such a charge wherein you have according to the trust imposed in you very wisely behaved your selves greatly to our contentation we have chosen and appointed our right trusty and welbeloved Sir Jo. Perrot Knight this bearer to be our Deputy of that our said Realm that for that purpose to send him presently thither Wherefore our will and pleasure is and by vertue of these our Letters we authorize you upon the view of our letters Patents made and delivered unto him in that behalf both to minister unto him the oath accustomed to be given unto the Deputy there also to deliver unto him the Sword as heretofore hath been used And further that you communicate unto him amply the present estate of that our Realm and of all our affairs there for his better instruction at his entrance into that Government and the advancement of our service And these our Letters shall be your sufficient warrant and discharge in this behalf Given under our Signet c. the last of January 1583. the 26 year of our reign Another for his Entertainment there TRusty and welbeloved we greet you well Whereas we have now appointed our right trusty and welbeloved Sir John Perrot Knight to be our Deputy in that our Realm of Ireland for which Office allowance aswell of dyets as of entertainments for certain Horsmen is to be given him These be therefore to let you wit that we allow unto him for his ordinary dyet one hundred pounds sterling according to the last Establishment in March 1589. and for his Retinue fifty Horsmen and fifty Footmen with such wages for every Horsman and Footman and for their Officers as was allowed to Sir William Fitzwilliams and Sir Henry Sydney Knights in the late times of their Governments in that Realm After which rates as well for his own dyet as for the said fifty Horsmen and fifty Footmen and for their Officers We will and command you to make payment to him during his imployment and service in that place from the date of our Letters-Patents authorising him to that government And these our Letters shall be sufficient Warrant as well to you as to any Treasurer or Vice-treasurer there for the time being and to your and their Substitutes as also to the Auditor or his Deputies and to all other Commissioners to be appointed over your Accompts to pass and allow the same payments to you accordingly Given c. the fourth of April 1583. in the 26. year of our Reign of England c. The Queens Instructions to him YOU shall see immediately upon your arrival into that Realm assembled our Councel there and confer
the name of an undutifull Subject yet God knoweth that my heart and mind are always most lowly inclined to serve my most loving Prince so it may please her Highness to remove her heavy displeasure from me As I may not condemn my self of disloyalty to her Majesty so cannot I excuse my faults but must confess that I have incurred her Majesties indignation yet when the cause and means which were found and devised to make me commit folly shall be known to her Highness I rest in an assured hope that her most gracious Majesty will both think of me as my heart deserveth and also of those that wrung me into undutifulness as their cunning device meriteth From my heart I am sorry that folly bad councels sleights or any other thing hath made me to forget my duty And therefore I am most desirous to get conference with your Lordship to the end I may open and declare to you how tyrannously I was used humbly craving that you will vouchsafe to appoint some time and place where and when I may attend your Honour and then I doubt not to make it appear how dutifull a mind I carry how faithfully I have at mine own charge served her Majesty before I was proclaimed how sorrowfull I am for my offences and how faithfully I am affected ever hereafter to serve her Majesty And so I commit your Lordship to God the 5. of June 1583. Subscribed GIRALD DESMOND Sir Henry Wallop to the Queen 12. Aug. 1583. IT may please your Majesty a rumor hath been raised not long since at Dublin I know not how nor by what particular person but strongly confirmed since the last passage out of England neither doth your service now in hand upon this Northern border suffer me to examine it that your Majesty conceived some hard opinion of me from which your Highness is not yet removed but what the offence is or how conceived is neither by the reporters published nor secretly revealed unto me And like as it is easie to judge what effects this may work in the service of your Majesty or to a man in publick office as I am in such a government as this is where the obedience for the most is constrained and all reputation with the people either growing or diminishing as your Majesty graceth or disgraceth your Officers so how much this quiet burthen over-presseth my most devoted and dutifull mind towards your Majesty I feel to my exceeding grief and discomfort In examining my self in what root this your judgment should spring I confesse Madam I have viewed in my self many imperfections some in nature others perhaps for lack of ability and sufficiency to be a cooperator or an assistant in so great and so ticklish a government charge into which not ambition in me but your Majesties wil commandment hath intruded me But in all that my memory can hitherto present unto me I find my loyalty in your service and my sincerity in imploying your Majesties treasure according to your intent so unspotted and direct as I cannot but comfort my self in opposing my innocency to the envy of the informer or to any other his hard construction whatsoever yet since in generall consideration I cannot feel such a particular error as might settle in your Majesties grave judgement an offence meriting your disfavour I am most humbly to beseech your Majesty that by knowing my fault I may either purge my self by a just deniall or by confessing it crave pardon of your Highness and reform my self If therefore it shall stand with your Majesties good pleasure to declare to my honorable good friend Mr. Secretary Walsingham commanding him to charge me with it I will thereupon simply answer even as before the Lord God without concealing any matter of truth any wise for mine own defence This grace the sooner I shall obtain the apter I shall be found for your other services from which I find my self distracted because the end of my travels is none other but to purchase that grace and favour which I may now fear to be alienated from me till my cause be better explained And so I humbly end praying the Lord to bless you with a long and prosperous reign At your town of Dundalk August 11. 1583. Your Majesties most humble servant and subject HENRY WALLOP The Earle of Essex to Mr. Davison IF this Letter do not deliver you my very affectionate wishes and assure you that I am both carefull to deserve well and covetous to hear wel of you it doth not discharge the trust that I have committed unto it My love to your worthy Father my expectation that you will truly inherit his vertues and the proof that I have seen of your well spending your time abroad are three strong bands to tie my affection unto you to which when I see added your kindness to my self my reason tells my heart it cannot value you or affect you too much you have laid so good a foundation of framing your self as if now you do not perfect the work th' expectation you have raised will be your greatest adversary slack not your industry in thinking you have taken great pains already Nusquam enim nec opera sine emolumento nec emolumentum sine impensa opera est Labor voluptasque dissimilia natura societate quadam naturali inter se conjuncta sunt Nor think your self at any time so rich in knowledge or reputation as you may spend on the stock For as the way to vertue is steep and craggy so the descent from it is headlong It is said of our bodies that they do lente augescere cito extinguntur it may be as properly said of our minds Let your vertuous Father who in the middest of his troubles and discomforts hath brought you by his care and charge to what you are now in you receive perfect comfort contentment Learn virtutem ab illo fortunam ab aliis I write not this as suspecting you need be admonished or as finding my self able to direct but as he that when he was writing took the plainest and naturallest stile of a friend truly affected to you Receive it therefore I pray you as a pledge of more love then I can now shew you And so desiring nothing more then to hear often from you I wish you all happiness and rest White-hall Jan. 8. Your affectionate and assured friend R. ESSEX Earle of Essex to Secretary Davison SIR AS I have ever loved you so now taking leave of my good friends I cannot forget you of whose love I desire to be ever assured and whom I would desire to satisfie in all things that I shall do If you be troubled with the suddenness of my unlooked for journey let my resolute purpose to perform it which could not be without secresie excuse me if you call it rashness I wil better allow it to be heresie then error for many months ago it was resolved if you doubt of the successe or event
terrible blows but true Christian wisdom gives us armour of proof against all assaults and teacheth us in all estates to be content for though she cause our truest friends to declare themselves our enemies though she give heart then to the most cowardly to strike us though an hours continuance countervail an age of prosperity though she cast in our dish all that ever we have done yet hath she no power to hurt the humble and wise but onely to break such as too much prosperity hath made stiff in their own thoughts but weak indeed and fitted for renewing when the wise rather gather from thence profit and wisdom by the example of David who said Before I was chastised I went wrong Now then he that knoweth the right way will look better to his footing Cardan saith That weeping fasting and sighing are the chief purgers of griefes Indeed naturally they help to asswage sorrow but God in this case is the onely and best Physician the means he hath ordained are the advice of friends the amendment of our selves for amendment is both Physitian and Cure For friends although your Lordship be scant yet I hope you are not altogether destitute if you be do but look on good books they are true friends that will neither flatter nor dissemble be you but true to your self applying what they teach unto the party gtieved and you shall need no other comfort nor counsell To them and to Gods holy Spirit directing you in the reading of them I commend your Lordship beseeching him to send you a good issue out of these troubles and from henceforth to work a reformation in all that is amiss and a resolute perseverance proceeding and growth in all that is good and that for his glory the bettering of your self this Church and Common-wealth whose faithfull servant whilst you remain I remain a faithfull servant to you To Sir Vincent Skinner expostulatory Sir Vincent Skinner I See that by your needless delayes this matter is grown to a new question wherein for the matter it self if it had been staid at the begining by my Lord Treasurer and my Lord Chrncellor I should not so much have stood upon it For the great and daily travels which I take in his Majesties service either are rewarded in themselves in that they are but my duty or else may deserve a much greater matter Neither can I think amiss of any man that in furtherance of the Kings benefit moved the doubt that I knew not what warrant you had But my wrong is that you having had my Lord Treasurers and Mr. Chancellors warrant for payment above a moneth since you I say making your payments belike upon such differences as are better known to your self then agreeable to due respect of his Majesties service have delayed all this time otherwise then I might have expected either from our antient acquaintance or from that regard as one in your place may owe to one in mine By occasion whereof there ensueth to me a greater inconvenience that now my name in sort must be in question amongst you as if I were a man likely to demand that that were unreasonable or to be denied that that is reasonable And this must be because you can pleasure men at pleasure But this I leave with this that it is the first matter wherein I had occasion to discern of your friendship which I see to fall to this That whereas Mr. Chancellor the last time in my mans hearing very honourably said that he would not discontent any man in my place it seems you have no such caution But my writing to you now is to know of you where now the stay is without being any more beholden to you to whom indeed no man ought to be beholden in those cases in a right course And so I bid you farewell FR. BACON To Mr. Toby Matthews Mr. Matthews DO not think me forgetfull or altered towards you But if I should say I could do you any good I should make my power more then it is I do fear that which I am right sorry for that you grow more impatient and busie then at first which makes me exceedingly fear the issue of that which seemeth not to stand at a stay I my self am out of doubt that you have been miserably abused when you were first seduced and that which I take in compassion others may take in severity I pray God that understands us all better then we understand one another continue you as I hope he will at least within the bounds of loyalty to his Majesty and natural piety to your Country And I intreat you much to meditate sometimes upon the effect of Superstition in this last Powder-Treason fit to be tabled and pictur'd in the chambers of Meditation as another Hell above the ground and well justifying the censure of the Heathen that Superstition is far worse then Atheism by how much it is less evil to have no good opinion of God at all then such as are impious towards his divine Majesty and goodness Good Mr. Matthews receive your self back from these courses of perdition Willing to have written a great deal more I continue Your c. FR. BACON To the Lord Treasurer concerning the Sollicitors place AFter the remembrance of my humble duty though I know by late experience how mindfull your Lordship vouchsafeth to be of me and my poor fortune and since it pleased your Lordship during your indisposition when her Majesty came to visit your Lordship to make mention of me for my imployment and preferment yet being now in the Country I do presume that your Lordship who of your self had an honorable care of the matter will not think it a trouble to be sollicited therein My hope is this that whereas your Lordship told me her Majesty was somwhat gravelled upon the offence she took at my Speech in Parliament your Lordships favourable endeavour who hath assured me that for your own part you construe that I spake to the best will be as a good tide to remove her from that shelf And it is not unknown unto your good Lordship that I was the first of the ordinary sort of the lower House that spake for the Subsidie and that which I after spake in difference was but in circumstance of time which methinks was no great matter since there is variety allowed in Councel as a Discord in Musick to make it more perfect But I may justly doubt her Majesties impression upon this particular as her conceipt otherwise of my insufficiencie and unworthiness which though I acknowledge to be great yet it will be the less because I purpose not to divide my self between her Majesty and the causes of other men as others have done but to attend her business only hoping that a whole man meanly able may do as well as half a man better able And if her Majesty thinketh that she shall make an adventure in using one that is rather a man of study then of
far greater matter and if it were nothing else I hope the modesty of my suit deserveth somewhat for I know well the Sollicitors place is not as your Lordship left it time working alteration somewhat in the profession much more in that speciall place And were it not to satisfie my wives friends and to get my self out of being a common gaze and a speech I protest before God I would never speak word for it But to conclude as my honorable Lady was some mean to make me to change the name of another so if it please you to help me as you said to change mine own name I cannot be but more and more bounden to you And I am much deceived if your Lordship find not the King well inclined as for my Lord of Salisbury he is forward and affectionate Yours c. FR. BACON To King JAMES It may pleaase your excellent Majesty HOw honestly ready I have been most gracious Soveraign to do your Majesty humble service to the best of my power and in a manner beyond my power as I now stand I am not so unfortunate but your Majesty knows both in the Commission of Union the labour wherof for men of my profession rested most upon my hands and this last Parliament for the Bill of Subsidy both body and preamble In the Bill of Attainders of Tresham and the rest in the matter of Purveyance in the Ecclesiasticall Petitions in the grievances and the like as I was ever carefull not without good success sometime to put forward that which was good sometime to keep back that which was worse so your Majesty was pleased kindly to accept of my services and to say to me such conflicts were the warres of peace and such victories the victories of peace and therefore such servants as obtained them were by Kings that reign in peace no less to be esteemed then Conquerors in the warres In all which nevertheless I can challenge to my self no sufficiencie that I was diligent and reasonably happy to execute those directions which I received either immediatly from your Royall mouth or from my Lord of Salisbury At that time it pleased your Majesty also to assure me that upon the remove of the then Attorney I should not be forgotten but be brought into ordinary place and this was after confirmed unto me by many of my Lords And towards the end of the last Term the manner also in particular spoken of that is that Mr. Sollicitor should be made your Majesties Serjeant and I Sollicitor for so it was thought best to sort with both our gifts and faculties for the good of our service And of this resolution both Court and Country took notice Neither was this any invention or project of mine own but moved from my Lords I think first from my Lord Chancellor whereupon resting your Majesty well knoweth I never opened my mouth for the greater place although I am sure I had two circumstances that Mr. Attorney that now is could not alleadge the one nine years service of the Crown the other the being Cousin-german to my Lord of Salisbury for of my Fathers service I will not speak But for the less place I conceive it was never meant me but after that Mr. Attorny Hubbard was placed I heard no more of any preferment but it seemed to be at a stop to my great disgrace and discontentment For gracious Soveraign if still when the waters be stirred another shall be put in before me your Majesty had need work a miracle or else I shall be a lame man to do your services And therefore my most humble suit unto your Majesty is That this which seemed to me intended may speedily be performed and I hope my former service shall be but as beginnings to better when I am better strengthened For sure I am no mans heart is fuller I say not but many may have greater hearts but I say not fuller of love and duty towards your Majesty and your children as I hope time wil manifest against envy and detraction if any be To conclude I humbly crave pardon for my boldness c. Your c. FR. BACON Mr. Edmond Andersons Letter to Sir Francis Bacon Noble Sir THere is ever a certain presumption to be had of the favour of great men so as there be a reason added to accompany their justice mine that gives boldness to call upon your succour is that I am fallen more under the malignity of rumor then severity of laws though that hath ever set mine offence at the blackest mark to force this latter cloud away none can but the breath of a King th' other which threatneth and oppresseth more every good Spirit may help to disperse In this name honorable Sir I beseech your goodness to spend some few words to the putting of false fame to flight which hath so often endangered even the innocent And if the saving of a poor penitent man may come to be part of your care let it ever be reckoned to your vertue that you have not only assisted to preserve but create a person so corrected by necessity as the example of his repentance was not worthy to be lost who will live and die thankfully yours EDMOND ANDERSON Sir Thomas Bodeley to Sir Francis Bacon upon his new Philosophy Sir AS soon as the Term was ended supposing your leisure was more then before I was coming to thank you two or three times rather chusing to do it by word then letter but I was still disappointed of my purpose as I am at this present upon an urgent occasion which doth tie me fast to Fulham and hath made me now determine to impart my mind in writing I think you know I have read your Cogitata visa which I protest I have done with great desire reputing it a token of your singular love that you joyned me with those your friends to whom you would commend your first perusall of your draught for which I pray you give me leave to say but this unto you First that if the depth of my affection to your person and spirit to your works and your words and to all your ability were as highly to be valued as your affection is to me it might walk with yours arm in arm and claim your love by just desert but there can be no comparison where our states are so uneven and our means to demonstrate our affections so different insomuch as for mine own I must leave it to be prized in the nature that it is and you shall evermore find it most addicted to your worth As touching the subject of your Book you have set afoot so many noble speculations as I cannot chuse but wonder and I shall wonder at it ever that your expence of time considered in your publique profession which hath in a manner no acquaintance with Scholarship or Learning you should have culled forth the quintessence and sucked up the sap of the chiefest kind of Learning For howsoever in some
publiquely professed in England shall obtain at your hands For if our fault be like less or none at all in equity our punishment ought to be like less or none at all The Gates Arches and Pyramids of France proclaimed the present King Pater patriae Pacis restitutor that is the Father of his Country and Restorer of their peace because that Kingdom being well neer torn in peeces with Civil wars and made a prey to foraign foes was by his providence wisdom and valour acquitted in it self and hostile strangers expelled the which he principally effected by condescending to tolerate them of an adverse Religion to that which was openly professed Questionless Dread Soveraign the Kingdom of England through the cruel persecution of Catholiques hath been almost odious to all Christian Nations Trade and traffique is exceedingly decayed Wars and blood hath seldom ceased Subsidies and Taxes never so many discontented minds innumerable All which your Princely Majesties connivance to your humble suppliants the afflicted Catholiques will easily redness especially at this your Highness first ingress Si loquaris ad nos verba levia erunt tibi servi cunctis diebus 1 King 12.7 that is if you speak comfortable things unto them or if you hearken unto them in this thing they will be servants unto you or they will serve all their days say the sage Councellors of Solomon to Roboam For enlargement after affliction resembleth a pleasant gale after a vehement tempest and a benefit in distress doubleth the value thereof How gratefull will it be to all Catholique Princes abroad and honorable to your Majesty to understand how Queen Elizabeths severity is changed into your Royal clemencie and that the lenity of a man reedified what the misinformed anger of a woman destroyed that the Lyon rampant is passant whereas the passant had been rampant How acceptable shall your Subjects be to all Catholique Countries who are now almost abhorred of all when they shall perceive your Highness prepareth not pikes or prisons for the Professors of their Faith but permitteth them Temples and Altars for the use of their Religion Then we shall see with our eyes and touch with our fingers that happy benediction of Isa 14.7 in this Land that swords are turned into mattocks or ploughs and lances into sithes and all Nations admiring us will say Hi sunt semen cui benedixit Dominus that is these are the seed which the Lord hath blessed We request no more favour at your Graces hands then that we may securely believe and profess that Catholique Religion which all your happy Predecessors professed from Donaldus the first converted unto your late blessed Mother martyred a Religion venerable for antiquity majestical for amplitude constant for continuance irreprehensible for doctrine inducing to all kind of vertue and piety disswading from all sin and wickedness a religion beloved by all primitive Pastors established by all Oecumenicall Councels upholden by ancient Doctors maintained by the first and best Christian Emperours recorded almost alone in all Ecclesiasticall Histories sealed with the blood of millions of Martyrs adorned with the vertues of so many Confessors beautified with the purity of thousands of virgins so conformable unto naturall sense and reason and finally so agreeable with the sacred Texts of Gods Word and Gospell The free use of this Religion we request if not in publick Churches at the least in private houses if not with approbation yet with toleration without molestation Assuring your Grace that howsoever some Protestants or Puritans incited by morall honesty of life or innated instinct of nature or for fear of some temporall punishment pretend obedience unto your Highness Laws yet certainly the onely Catholiques for conscience sake observe them For they defending that Princes Precepts and Statutes oblige no subject under the penalty of sin will have little care in conscience to transgress them which principally are tormented with the guilt of sin But Catholiques professing merit in obeying and immerit in transgressing cannot but in Soul be grievously tortured for the least prevarication thereof Wherefore most mercifull Soveraign we your loving afflicted subjects in all dutifull subjection protest before the Majesty of God and all his holy Angels as loyal obedience and immaculate allegiance unto your Grace as ever did faithfull subjects in England or Scotland unto your Highness Progenitors and intend as sincerely with our goods and lives to serve you as ever did the loyallest Israelites King David or the trustiest Legions the Roman Emperours And thus expecting your Majesties customary favour and gracious bounty we rest your devoted suppliants to him whose hands do manage the hearts of Kings and with reciprocate mercy will requite the mercifull Your Majesties most devoted servants the Catholiques of England Sir Walter Raleigh to King James before his triall IT is one part of the Office of a just and worthy Prince to hear the complaints of his vassals especially such as are in great misery I know not amongst many other presumptions gathered against me how your Majesty hath been perswaded that I was one of them who were greatly discontented and therefore the more likely to prove disloyall But the great God so relieve me in both worlds as I was the contrary and I took as great comfort to behold your Majesty and always learning some good and bettering my knowledge by hearing your Majesties discourse I do most humbly beseech your Soveraign Majesty not to believe any of those in my particular who under pretence of offences to Kings do easily work their particular revenge I trust no man under the colour of making examples should perswade your Majesty to leave the word Mercifull out of your Stile for it wil be no less profit to your Majesty become your greatness then the word Invincible It is true that the Laws of England are no less jealous of the Kings then Caesar was of Pompey's wife for notwithstanding she was cleared for having company with Claudius yet for being suspected he condemned her For my self I protest before Almighty God and I speak it to my Master and Soveraign that I never invented treason against him and yet I know I shall fall in manibus eorum a quibus non possum evadere unless by your Majesties gracious compassion I be sustained Our Law therefore most mercifull Prince knowing her own cruelty and knowing that she is wont to compound treason out of presumptions and circumstances doth give this charitable advice to the King her Supream Non solum sapiens esse sed misericors c. cum tutius sit reddere rationem misericordiae quam judicii I do therefore on the knees of my heart beseech your Majesty from your own sweet and comfortable disposition to remember that I have served your Majesty twenty years for which your Majesty hath yet given me no reward and it is fitter I should be indebted unto my Soveraign Lord then the King to his poor Vassal Save me therefore most mercifull Prince
that I may ow your Majesty my life it self then which there cannot be a greater debt Limit me at least my Soveraign Lord that I may pay it for your service when your Majesty shall please If the Law destroy me your Majesty shall put me out of your power and I shall have none to fear but the King of Kings WALTER RALEIGH Sir Walter Raleigh to Sir Robert Car after Earl of Somerset SIR AFter many losses and many years sorrows of both which I have cause to fear I was mistaken in their ends It is come to my knowledge that your self whom I know not but by an honorable favour hath been perswaded to give me and mine my last fatal blow by obtaining from his Majesty the Inheritance of my Children and Nephews lost in Law for want of a word This done there remaineth nothing with me but the name of life His Majesty whom I never offended for I hold it unnatural and unmanlike to hate goodness staid me at the graves brink not that I thought his Majesty thought me worthy of many deaths and to behold mine cast out of the world with my self but as a King that knoweth the poor in truth hath received a promise from God that his Throne shall be established And for you Sir seeing your fair day is but in the dawn mine drawn to the setting your own vertues and the Kings grace assuring you of many fortunes and much honour I beseech you begin not your first building upon the ruines of the innocent and let not mine and their sorrows attend your first plantation I have ever been bound to your Nation as well for many other graces as for the true report of my trial to the Kings Majesty against whom had I been malignant the hearing of my cause would not have changed enemies into friends malice into compassion and the minds of the greatest number then present into the commiseration of mine estate It is not the nature of foul Treason to beget such fair passions neither could it agree with the duty and love of faithfull Subjects especially of your Nation to bewail his overthrow that had conspired against their most natural and liberal Lord. I therefore trust that you will not be the first that shall kill us outright cut down the tree with the fruit and undergo the curse of them that enter the fields of the fatherless which if it please you to know the truth is far less in value then in fame But that so worthy a Gentleman as your self will rather bind us to you being sixe Gentlemen not base in birth and alliance which have interest therein And my self with my uttermost thankfulness will remain ready to obey your commandments WALTER RALEIGH Sir Thomas Egerton Chancellor after Lord Ellesmere to the Earl of Essex SIR HOw things proceed here touching your self you shall partly understand by these inclosed Her Majesty is gracious towards you and you want not friends to remember and commend your former services Of these particulars you shall know more when we meet In the mean time by way of caution take this from me There are sharp eyes upon you your actions publique and private are observed It behoveth you therefore to carry your self with all integrity and sincerity both of hands and heart lest you overthrow your own fortunes and discredit your friends that are tender and carefull of your reputation and well-doing So in haste I commit you to God with my very hearty commendations and rest Your assured loving Friend THO. EGERTON C. S. At the Court at Richmond 21 Octob. 1599. Lord Chancellor Ellesmere to King James Most gracious Soveraign I Find through my great age accompanied with griefs and infirmities my sense and conceipt is become dull and heavy my memory decayed my judgment weak my hearing imperfect my voice and speech failing and faltering and in all the powers faculties of my mind body great debility Wherefore conscientia imbecilitatis my humble suit to your most sacred Majesty is to be discharged of this great Place wherein I have long served and to have some comfortable Testimony under your Royal hand that I leave it at this humble suit with your gracious favour So shall I with comfort number and spend the few dayes I have to live in meditation and prayers to Almighty God to preserve your Majesty and all yours in all heavenly and earthly felicity and happiness This suit I intended some years past ex dictamine rationis conscientiae Love and fear stayed it now Necessity constrains me to it I am utterly unable to sustain the burthen of this great service for I am come to St. Pauls desire Cupio dissolvi esse cum Christo Wherefore I most humbly beseech your Majesty most favourably to grant it Your Majesties most humble and loyal poor Subject and Servant THO. ELLESMERE Cane Again to the same King Most gracious Soveraign YOur royal favour hath placed and continued me many years in the highest place of ordinary Justice in this your Kingdom and hath most graciously borne with my many but unwilling errors and defects accepting in stead of sufficiencie my zeal and fidelity which never failed This doth encourage and stir in me an earnest desire to serve still But when I remember St. Pauls rule Let him that hath an office wait on his office and do consider withall my great age and many infirmities I am dejected and do utterly faint For I see and feel sensibly that I am not able to perform those duties as I ought and the place requires and thereupon I do seriously examine my self what excuse or answer I shall make to the King of Kings and Judge of all Judges when he shall call me to accompt and then my conscience shall accuse me that I have presumed so long to undergo and weild so mighty and great a charge and burthen and I behold a great Cloud of witnesses ready to give evidence against me 1. Reason telleth me and by experience I find Senectus est tarda obliviosa insanabilis morbus 2. I heard the precepts and councel of many reverend sage and learned men Senectuti debitur otium solve senectutem mature c. 3. I read in former Laws that old men were made temeriti rudè donati And one severe Law that saith Sexagenarius de ponte whereupon they are called Depontanei And Plato lib. 6. de legibus speaking of a great Magistrate which was Praefectus legibus servandis determineth thus Minor annis 50 non admittatur nec major annis 70 permittatur in eo perseverare And to this Law respecting both mine office and my years I cannot but yeeld But leaving foreign Laws the Stat. anno 13. E. 1. speaketh plainly Homines excedentes aetatem 70 annorum non ponantur in Assissis Juratis So as it appeareth that men of that age are by that Law discharged of greater painfull and carefull especially Judiciall Offices 4. Besides I find many examples of men
those Officers of the Inquisition attempting to lay hands on the subjects of another Prince your Majesties confederate offering none offence to the Laws or publike prejudice to their profession yea in divers parts of your Majesties dominions the subjects of my Master have suffered this restraint The Inquisitor-Generall lately deceased who in all his actions shewed himself a considerate Minister and carefull in regard of your Majesties honour of the observing of what you have capitulated upon my complaint never failed to give the remedy that in justice I required He being now with God and one of my Soveraigns subjects having been long without cause detained by the Inquisitors in Lisbon and another of good account a man moderate and temperate in all his actions lately apprehended by that Office in Almonte and restrained in their prison at Sivil I am commanded from his Majesty and importuned by my Country-men who all with one voice complain and protest that they dare not longer continue their commerce without present order for remedy of so extream and perillous an injustice do beseech your Majesty that you will be pleased not only to give present order for the release of those that without scandal are known for the present in your prisons but also that in time to come the true intention of that Article be observed which is That without known offence and scandal the King my Masters subjects be not molested The accomplishment of this considering how much it imports your Majesty in honour your Majesty and the Archduke having in that Article in no other sort then in all the rest covenanted by especial words that your selves would provide that in no case but only in giving scandal to others the subjects of my Soveraign should be troubled for their consciences I cannot but expect from so just and sincere a Prince And therefore will not trouble your Majesty with more words but offering my self in all things within my power to your Majesties service I remain with a desire to be reckoned in the number of your Majesties humble and affectionate servants C. C. Iuly 23 stilo novo 1608. Sir Charls Cornwallis to the Spanish King Jan. 16. 1608. THe largeness and liberality of your Majesties Royall hand being such that it hath made your Greatness and Munificence of so much note through most parts of this world I assure my self it is far removed from the thoughts of your Princely heart to straiten in matter of Justice that so naturally and necessarily belongeth to your Kingly Office your Majesty hath been pleased to refer to the Constable the Duke of Infantasque and two of the Regents of your Councell of Arragon the understanding and determining of the extream and barbarous usage outrage and spoyl committed by ships set out in course under the commission at the charge of your Majesties Viceroy of Sardinia and his son-in-law Don Lewis de Calatana and others by their procurement those Lords and others there authorized by that Commission very nobly and justly desiring that of the spoyl committed there might be made intire satisfaction gave order divers months since but your Majesties Viceroy adding to his former offence contempt of your Majesties authority hath not onely disobeyed in his own person but contradicted and withstood in others the accomplishment of your commandements it seemeth that God is pleased for the good of your Majesties Estate and Government to disvizard that man and make apparent to the world how unfit he is to be trusted with your command of so great importance whose covetous and ungodly condition is come to such height as hath drawn him not onely to spoil unlawfully and so barbarously to use the subjects of so great a King your confederate and thereby to hazard a breach of the amity between your Majesties so necessary for both your Estates and so utile to the whole Commonwealth of Christendom but also to neglect and contemn the authority of your Majesty his own Soveraign to whom besides the obligation of his naturall allegiance he is so infinitely bound for preferring and trusting him with a matter of so great consequence and dignity By this paper inclosed your Majesty shall understand the manner of proceeding of the King my Master against such of his subjects as commit the like crimes and outrage against any of yours and thereby conceive what my said Soveraign expecteth of your Majesty in this and the like and what I am commanded in conformity thereof to require which is that there be no proceeding in so clear and plain a case by way of processe or suit in Law which in this kingdom as by experience is known are immortall but that according to the sixth Article of the Peace and the most Christian and just example shewed by my Soveraign who so punctually and conscionably in all things observeth with your Majesty you will be pleased that there be not onely an intire and immediate satisfaction to the parties but that as well your said Viceroy and Don Lewis his son-in-law as all others their aiders partners and receivers in that crime may be criminally proceeded against and suffer such punishment as so enorm and unlawfull actions have justly deserved The performance of this considering with what patience the King my Master out of his love to your Majesty notwithstanding the daily complaints and importunities of the parties the generall exclamation of other his subjects who hold it rather agreeable with his honor and Kingly Office not so long to permit unsatisfied or unpunished so intollerable an outrage hath more then three whole years attended it I cannot but expect from so just and pious a Prince without further delay or protraction of time Jan. 16. novo stilo 1608. Sir Charls Cornwallis to the Spanish King WEll knoweth your Majesty in your Royall wisdom how necessary to Kings is the conservation of authority and respect to their Kingly dignities as also that the greatest and most absolute precept of Justice is to do to others what we would be done unto our selves How religiously punctually the King my master hath observed these unto your Majesty hath appeared by many demonstrations and not the least in the deniall he made to Antonio de Perez to abide in his Kingdom or to have accesse to his person onely out of a conceit he had that he came with a mind determined to disauthorize your Majesty in his speeches or to make offer of some practise against your estates in his overtures Your Majesties own Royall and gratefull inclination I know to be such as you are not without desire to pay my Soveraign with the like equivalent retribution but with your Majesties pardon and favour duty inforceth me plainly to tell you that the Ministers of these your Kingdoms shew not the like affection where not one but many my of Soveraigns worst affected subjects are daily received cherished and honored with entertainments in your service Were that sort of people contented onely to abuse your Majesties
there are those in Biscay and some in Portugal only excepted where we have not divers oppressions imprisonments and unjust imbargements in Sivil especially whereof forty several suits and as many false sentences given raised and pursued by a man now dead and therefore in charity left unnamed We have hitherto in your Majesties Councel of war where before those noble Lords all passed by the equal line of Justice not failed in my remembrance in the overthrowing of any save one mistaken that passed in a wrong name and another concerning merchandise that had their manufacture in Embden whereof I suppose those Lords were not rightly informed only excepted In that Court I must acknowledge we have had redress but yet with your Majesties favour a miserable one our gain being whether we shall be owners of our own or not our expences and charges certain and the time without measure large whereby many have been undone some dead in prison in England for want of what was unjustly detained from them here Yet neither the false Judges in Sivil nor Promoters ever chastised or for any thing that I yet have understood so much as ever reprehended or found fault with I haste to a conclusion fearing lest I should dwell too long in a matter so unsavoury and unpleasing to your Majesties pittifull ears and Christian heart so much of it self disposed to all clemency and piety I will for the next resort to the ships cordage corn and other victuals and provisions taken from the King my Soveraigns subjects for your Majesties own services and the relief of the extreme necessity in your Gallies and Garrisons of the Navy of whom some have been enforced for want of payment of their monies to send their ships home unfreighted a loss extreme to poor Merchants that live by trade and time to repair to this Court and here remain some of them 14 moneths and others two years and more till their very charges had eaten out a great part of what was due unto them and in the end recover only their own without any relief or recompence either for their expences times lost or damages I will only instance two because their causes are most strange and pittifull and yet unsatisfied the one named Thomas Harrison and the other Richard Morris The first served your Majesty with his ship till the same with one of his sons and all of his men were swallowed with the seas and hath been here more then four years suing for his recompence and salary recommended by the King my Soveraign by Letters from your Majesties Ambassadors in England and by my self all that long time furthered with my earnest sollicitation which hath begot infinite promises but to this day no manner of payment or performance The other who sometimes hath been a man of wealth and reputation and falling into great poverty served your Majesty with all that in the world he was worth and all that in value above 6000 Ryals I blush I protest to think of it and my heart is grieved to mention it to so great a King of whose liberality and magnificence the world taketh so much notice His right and his necessity being well known unto your Officers he hath been more then three years and a half fed with hopes and put off with schedules and sending from one Port to another for the receipt of his mony till he hath indebted himself the most part of the sum and at present wanteth wherewith both to feed and cover him Now at last he is promised payment out here of your Royal chests but after so many ceremonies and circumstances to be performed with your Officers in other parts as God knows hunger may end the poor man before they begin to satisfie him By all this will plainly appear to your Majesty that your Majesties subjects are by the favour and Christian justice of the King my master entred into the new Testament and law of Grace having restitution and remedy without the delayes of ceremony and formality and we still remain under the old and tyed in all things to the hand-writing of the Law to the burthenous circumstances and intolerable dilatory formalities of proceeding in this your Kingdom and what else your unpittifull Ministers will out of uncharitable and unsensible minds of other mens harms charge and impose upon us Well doth your Majesty conceive that would the King my Master wink at the like courses to be taken by his subjects and ministers with such of yours as they might meet upon the seas the English are not of so little invention but they could devise as good colours and pretences nor their Lawyers of so small skill and so much conscience but they could form and protract suits nor the ships of England so weakened and lessened but they could equal and surmount their losses I have out of mine own humble affection to your Majesty out of my generall and ever continuing desire to hold firm the ancient amity so necessary for your own estates and utile for the whole common-weal of Christendom out of the force of duty I owe to my King and Country thus far adventured to unburthen my soul and thoughts not doubting but your Majesties magnanimous and Christian heart will be moved as well in desire to equal the pious and immutable example of the King my Master as in a just compassion of a Nation now confederate with you and that so gladly would entertain any cause to love and serve you to give present remedy to those wofull and intolerable oppressions and that since you have firmed and consented by your Articles of Peace of new orders which being confirmed by your oath stand now in force of Laws you would be pleased in like manner to give them a new form of indilatory execution conformable to that of the King my Soveraign c. King James to the University of Cambridge Mar. 4. 1616. JACOBVS Dei gratia Magnae Britanniae Franciae Hiberniae Rex Fidei defensor c. Academiae Cantabrigiae communi salutem SI jus civitatis impetret à nobis Cantabrigia veremur ne aemula urbis potentia crescente minuatur Academiae securitas sat erit apud nos metus vestri judicium fecisse nec enim tam vobis convenit Academiae periculum deprecari quam nobis sponte nostra quicquid in speciem illi noxium sit avertere Glorietur urbs illa se à Majoribus nostris electam doctrinarum sedem ingeniorum officium sapientiae palestram Quicquid his titulis addi potest nimis non honestatur plebeia Civitatis appellatione Musarum domicilium vel sane literatorum dicatur Civitas vel quod in villa nostrae villae in incolitarum tegitur celebritate Haec ejus fuerint privilegia Academiae dignitatem comiter observare cujus frequentia facta seipsa major affluentia bonarum artium studiosos amicè excipere quorum congressu dislata est Literatorum deinque honori ancillari unde haec illa nata
est felicitas hae artes quibus crevit tenenda non aucupandam titulorum novitas incerti eventus facessat popularis vocabuli fastus unde certa oriatur aemulationis necessitas quae eo turpior urbi est futura quo majori erga Academiam obstrictam reverentiam nolumus sacrum illum musarum asylum minuti praetoris ense temerari nec strepere tetrica edicta ubi septem geminus vestri Chori auditur concentus satis in vetera purpura invidiae nova pompa tam illi futura supervacua quam vobis suspecta In nostra solvis tutela post Deum opt max. Alma scientiarum Mater nostro fovebitur sceptro indefessa illius foecunditas non abortiet ad praetorii gladii terriculum nullum honoris titulum Cantabrigiae indulgemus qui cum Academiae sollicitudine conjunctus sit Valete Datum è Palatio nostro Westmonast 4 Calend. Mar. 1616. JACOBUS REX Mr. Ruthen to the Earle of Northumberland My Lord IT may be interpreted discretion somtimes to wink at private wrongs especially for such a one as my self that have a long time wrastled with a hard Fortune and whose actions words and behaviour are continually subject to the censure of a whole State yet not to be sensible of publique and Nationall disgrace were stupidity and baseness of mind For no place nor time nor State can excuse a man from performing that duty and obligation wherein Nature hath tied him to his Countrey and to himself This I speak in regard of certain infamous verses lately by your Lordships means dispersed abroad to disgrace my Countrey and my self and to wrong and stain by me the honor of a worthy and vertuous Gentlewoman whose unspotted and immaculate vertue your self is so much more bound to admire and uphold in that having dishonorably assaulted it you could not prevail But belike my Lord you dare do any thing but that which is good and just Think not to bear down these things either by greatness or denyall for the circumstances that prove them are so evident and the veil wherewith you would shadow them is too transparant Neither would I have you flatter your self as though like another Giges you could passe in your courses invisible If you owe a spight to any of my countrey-men it is a poor revenge to rail upon me in verse or if the repulse of your lewd desire at the Gentlewomans hands hath inflamed and exasperated your choler against her it was never known that to refuse Northumberlands unlawfull lust was a crime for a Gentlewoman deserving to have her honour called in question For her part I doubt not but her own unspotted vertue will easily wipe out any blot which your malice would cast upon it and for me and my Countreymen know my good Lord that such blowes as come in rime are too weak to reach or harm us I am asham'd in your Lordships behalfe for these proceedings and sorry that the world must now see how long it hath been mistaken in Northumberlands spirit and yet who will not commend your wisdom in chusing such a safe course to wrong a woman a prisoner the one of which cannot and the other by nature quality of the place may not right his own wrongs Wherefore setting aside the most honorable order of the Garter and potesting that whatsoever is here said is no way intended to the Nobility and Gentry of England in generall which I doubt not but will condemn this your dishonorable dealing and for which both my self and I dare truly say all my Countrymen shall be even as ready to sacrifice our bloods as for our own mother Scotland I do not only in regard of our own persons affirm that whatsoever in those infamous Verses is contained is utterly false and untrue and that your self hath dealt most dishonorably unworthily and basely but this I 'll ever maintain If these words sound harshly in your Lordships ear blame your self since your self forgetting your self have taught others how to dishonour you And remember that though Nobility make a difference of persons yet Injury acknowledgeth none PATRICK RUTHEN Sir Henry Yelvertons submission in the Star-chamber My Lords I Humbly beseech you to think that I stand not here either to outface the Court or to defend this cause otherwise then justly I may only I desire in mine own person to second the submission which hath been opened by my Councel for hitherunto hath nothing been opened unto you but that which hath passed under the advised pen of others and hitherto hath appeared from my self neither open nor inward acknowledgment My Lords it may seem strange to the hearers that against a Bill so sharpned I should abruptly fall upon a submission or confession whereby I may seem to bow down my neck to the stroke But my Lords in this I weighed not my self but I did it to amplifie the honour and mercy of his Majesty from whom I may say Clemencie springs as the blood that runs in his own veins For my Lords when this Charter was sometime questioned divers of my Lords here present had out of their great wisdoms discovered that shame in it which I must here confess I did not then see had related the same to his Majesty it pleased his Maj. out of his great favour to me his unworthy servant to send me this message by two great honorable persons here present and therefore under your Lordships favour I think not fit to hide so great a favour of his Maj. from the eyes of the people who offered to my choice either to submit to himself in private or defend here openly and when I saw I fell into such faithful hands I remember my answer then was that the offer was gracious and the choice was easie and his mercy free After came this Information against me I took it but as trial whether I would make his Majesty King of my confidence or not And though there was offered unto me and my Councel such a way of defence as I might have escaped yet I protest I did reject it because I would not distrust his Majesties mercy to let go the anchor-hold I had thereof and whatsoever becomes of me I protest I shall still honour the King though I go lame to my grave I humbly confess the manifold errors of this Charter to your Lordships wherein I have miscarried and I beseech his Majesty and your Lordships to think they are rather crept in unawares then usher'd in by consent The errors are of divers natures some of negligence some of ignorance some of misprision I mistook many things I was improvident in some things too credulous in all things But I who was chosen when I had so much provoked his Majesty by mine unexperienced years and having since found so many favours from his Majesties hands and this day having served him full seven years who this day hath translated me from a low estate unto a place whereof I
business of the Match and delivered him the contents thereof in writing which I have sent to Mr. Secretary I received from him the same answer in effect as from the Conde de Olivarez That he desired the Match no less then your Majesty That on his part there should be no time lost for the bringing of it to a speedy conclusion In the business of the Palatinate I spake unto the King with some length repeating many particulars of your Majesties proceedings and how much your honour was like to suffer that now whilst you were treating Heidelborgh defended by your Garrisons was like to be taken The King answered me He would effectually labour that your Majesty should have entire satisfaction and rather then your Majesty should fail thereof he would imploy his Arms to effect it for you My Lord Ambassador Sir Walter Ashton accompanied me at my audience and was a witness of all that passed as wel with the King as with the Conde de Olivarez Within few dayes after the newes of the taking of Heidelbergh came hither whereupon I dispatched again to the King in such sort as I have at large advertised Mr. Secretary Calvert The effect of my Negotiation was that they on the 13. of October dispatched Letters away of the Emperors and Duke of Bavaria's proceedings But pressing them further in regard their former Letters have wrought so little effect they have given me at present a second Dispatch which I have sent unto the Infanta and whereof Mr. Secretary will give your Majesty an account which I conceive will procure your Majesties better satisfaction then hitherto you have received from the Emperor and his party For the business of the match I have written to Mr. Secretary what is to be said at present and will only add that as I should not willingly give your Majesty hope upon uncertain grounds so I will not conceal what they profess which is That they will give your Majesty real and speedy satisfaction therein And if they intended it not they are falser then all the Devils in hell for deeper oaths and protestations of sincerity cannot be made It will only remain that I humbly cast my self at your Majesties feet for that addition of Title wherewith it hath pleased you to honour me and my posterity My gratitude and thankfulness wanteth expression and shall only say unto your Majesty That as all I have either of fortunes or honour I hold it meerly of your bounty and goodness so shall I ever cheerfully lay them down with my life into the bargain for the service of your Majesty and yours So with my humble prayers for the health and prosperity of your Majesty I humbly commend your Majesty to Gods holy protection and rest Your Majesties most humble servant and subject BRISTOL Madrid Octob. 21. 1622. King Philip the third of Spain to the Conde of Olivarez THe King my Father declared at his death that his intention never was to marry my sister the Infanta Donna Maria with the Prince of Wales which your Uncle Don Baltezer well understood and so treated this match ever with an intention to delay it notwithstanding it is now so far advanced that considering withall the aversness unto it of the Infanta as it is high time to seek some means to divert the treaty which I would have you find out and I will make it good whatsoever it be but in all other things procure the satisfaction of the King of Great Britain who hath deserved very much and it shall content me so that it be not the match Conde Olivarez his Answer to the King Sir COnsidering in what estate we find the Treaty of marriage between Spain and Emgland and knowing certainly how the Ministers did understand this business that treated it in the time of Philip the third who is now in heaven that their meaning was never to effect it but by enlarging the treaties and points of the said marriage to make use of the friendship of the King of Great Britain as well in the matter of Germany as those of Flanders and suspecting likewise that your Majesty is of the same opinion although the demonstrations do not shew so joyning to those suspitions that it is certain that the Infanta Donna Maria is resolved to put her self into the Monastery the same day that your Majesty shall press her to make the marriage I have thought fit to present to your Majesty that which my good zeal hath afforded me in this occasion thinking it a good time to acquaint your Majesty withall to the end you may resolve of that which you shall find most convenient with the advice of those Ministers that you shall think fit The King of Great Britain doth find himself at this time equally in the two businesses the one is the marriage to the which he is moved by the conveniences which he finds in your Majesties friendship with making an agreement with those Catholiques that he thinks are secretly in his Kingdom and by this to assure himself of them as likewise to marry his son to one of the house of Austria knowing that the Infanta Donna Maria is the best born Lady in the world Th' other businesse is the restitution of the Palatinate in which he is yet more ingaged For besides that his reputation is at stake there is added the love and interest of his Grandchildren sons of his onely daughter So that both by the law of Nature and reason of State he ought to put them before whatsoever conveniences might follow by dissembling what they suffer I do not dispute whether the King of Great Britainy be governed in this business of the Palatinate by Art or friendship I think a man may say he hath used both but as a thing not precisely necessary to this discourse I omit it I hold it for a maxime that these two Ingagements in which he finds himself are unseparable for although the marriage be made we must fail in that which in any way of understanding is most necessary which is the restitution of the Palatinate This being supposed having made the marriage in the form as it is treated your Majesty may find your self together with the King of Great Brirain engaged in a war against the Emperour and the Catholique league so that your Majesty shall be forced to delare your self with your Arms against the Emperour and the Catholique league a thing which to hear will offend your Majesties godly ears or declaring your self for the Emperour and the Catholique league as certainly you will your Majesty will find your self ingaged in a war against the King of England and your sister married with his son with the which all whatsoever conveniences that was thought upon with this marriage do cease if your Majesty shall shew your self Newtrall as it may be some will expound The first will cause very great scandall and with just reason since in matters of lesse opposition then of Catholiques against Heretiques the Armes
you as a good ground for you to work on that our Son did write us out of Spain That that King would give us a Blank in which we might form our own Conditions concerning the Palatinate and the same our Son confirms to us now What observation and performance that King will make we require you to express and give us a speedy account c. Given c. Earl of Bristol in answer to King James Octob. 29. 1623. MAy it please your most excellent Majesty I have received your Majesties Letters of the 8. of October on the 21. of the same moneth some houres within night and have thought fit to dispatch back unto your Majesty with all possible speed referring the answer to what your Majesty hath by these Letters commanded me to a Post that I shall purposely dispatch when I shall have negotiated the particulars with this King and his Ministers wherein God willing all possible diligence shall be used But forasmuch as I find both by your Majesties Letter as likewise by Letters which I have received from the Prince his Highness that you continue your desires of having the Match proceeded in I held it my duty that your Majesty should be informed that although I am set free in as much as concerneth the doubt of the Infanta's entring into Religion for the delivering of the powers left with me by his Highness yet by this new direction I now received from your Majesty that the Deposories should be deferr'd till Christmas the said powers are made altogether useless and invalid it being a clause in the bodies of the said powers that they shall onely remain in force till Christmas and no longer as your Majesty may see by the copie I send herewith inclosed Your Majesty I conceive will be of opinion that the suspending of the execution of the powers untill the force and validity of them be expired is a direct and effectuall revoking of them which not to do how far his Highness is in his Honor ingaged your Majesty will be best able to judge by viewing the powers themselves Further if the date of these powers do expire besides the breach of the Capitulations although the match it self jealousies and mistrusts be hazarded yet the Princes coming at the Spring will be almost impossible For by that time new Commissions and Powers shall be after Christmas granted by the Prince which must be to the satisfaction of both parties I conceive so much of the year will be spent that it will be impossible for the Fleets and other preparations to be in a readiness against the Spring for it is not to be imagined that they will here proceed effectually with their preparations untill they shall be sure of the Desposorios especially when they shall have seen them severall times deferred on the Prince his part and that upon pretexts that are not new or grown since the granting of the Powers but were before in being and often under debate and yet were never insisted upon to make stay of the business so that it will seem that they might better have hindered the granting of them then the execution of them Now if there were not staggering in former resolutions the which although really there is not yet can it not but be suspected and the clearing of it between Spain and England will cost much time I most humbly crave your Majesties pardon if I write unto you with the plainness of a true-hearted and faithfull servant who ever hath cooperated honestly unto your Majesties ends I knew them I know your Majesty hath been long time of opinion that the greatest assurance you could get that the King of Spain would effectually labour the intire restitution of the Palatinate was that he really proceeded to the effecting of the match and my instructions under your Majesties hands were to insist upon the restoring the Prince Palatine but not to annex it to the treaty of the match as that therby the match should be hazarded for that your Majesty seemed confident that here it would never grow to a perfect conclusion without a setled resolution to give your Majesty satisfaction in the business of the Palatinate The same course I observed in the carriage of the business by his Highness and my Lord Duke at their being here who though they insisted on the business of the Palatinate yet they held it fit to treat of them distinctly and that the marriage should proceed as a good pawn for the other Since their departure my Lord Ambassador Sir Walter Ashton and my self have been pressed to have this Kings resolution in writing concerning the Palatinate and the dispatches which your Majesty will receive herewith concerning that business were writ before the receit of your Majesties Letters and doubtless it is now a great part of their care that that business may be well entred before the Infanta's coming into England And his Highness will well often remember that the Conde dé Olivarez often protested a necessity of having this business compounded and setled before the marriage saying otherwise they might give a Daughter and a War within three moneths after if this ground and subject of quarrell should still be left on foot The same language he hath ever held with Sir Walter Ashton and my self and that it was a firm peace and amity as much as an allyance which they sought with his Majesty So that it is not to be doubted but that this King concluding the match resolveth to imploy his uttermost power for your satisfaction in the restitution of the Prince Palatine The question now will be whether the business of the Prince Palatine having relation to many great Princes that are interessed therein living at distance and being indeed for the condition and nature of the business it self impossible to be ended but by a formall treaty which of necessity will require great length whether the conclusion of the match shall any way depend upon the issue of this business which I conceive to be far from your Majesties intention for so the Prince might be long kept unbestowed by any aversness of those which might have particular interest in the Princes remaining unmarried or dislike with his matching with Spain But that which I understand to be your Majesties aim is onely to have the conclusion of this match accompanied with a strong engagement as can be procured from this King for the joyning with your Majesty not onely in all good Offices for the entire restitution of the Palatinate but otherwise if need require of his Majesties assistance herein These days past I have laboured with all earnestness and procured this Kings publique answer which I am told is resolved of and I shall within these few days have it to send to your Majesty as also a private Proposition which will be put into your hands and shall not fail further to pursue your Majesties present directions of procuring this Kings Declaration in what sort your Maiesty may rely
some gracious answer to my Petition For though your Majesties thoughts cannot discern so low as to conceive how much it importeth a poor distressed Suppliant to be reviled neglected yet you may be pleased to believe that we are as highly affected and as much anguished with the extremities that press our little fortunes as Princes are with theirs Which I speak not out of any pride I take in comparing small things with great but only to dispose your Maiesty to a favourable construction of my words if they seem to be overcharged with zeal and affection or to express more earnestness then perhaps your Majesty may think the business merits as my self values it The suit I am to make to your Majesty is no sleight one it may be easily granted without references For I dare assure your Majesty upon my life it is neither against the Laws of the Kingdom nor will diminish any of your treasure either that of your coffers or that of your peoples hearts it being an act of clemencie or rather a word for even that will satisfie to create in your poor dejected Suppliant a new heart and send him away as full of content as he is now of grief and despair Nor is it for my self I thus implore your Majesties grace but for one that is far more worthy and in whom all that I am consists my dear Brother who I know not by what misfortune hath fallen or rather been pushed into your Majesties displeasure not in dark and crooked ways as corrupt and ill-affected subjects use to walk and near to break their necks in but even in the great road which both himself all good Englishmen that know not the paths of the Court would have sworn would have led most safely and most directly to your Majesties service from your Majesties displeasure there needs no other invention to crucifie a generous and honest-minded suppliant upon whom hath issued and been derived a whole torrent of exemplary punishment wherin his reputation his person and his estate grievously suffered For having upon the last process of Parliament retired himself to his poor house in the Countrey with hope a while to breathe after these troublesome affairs and still breathing nothing but your Majesties service he was sent for ere he had finished his Christmas by a Sergeant at Arms who arrested him in his own house with as much terror as belongs to the apprehending of treason it self But thanks be to God his conscience never started and for his obedience herein shewed it was not in the power of any authority to surprize it For at the instant without asking one minutes time of resolution he rendered himself to the officers discretion who according to his directions brought him up captive and presented him at the Councell Table as a Delinquent from whence he was as soon committed to the Tower where he ever since hath been kept close prisoner and that with so strict a hand as his own beloved wife and my self having sometime since urgent and unfaigned occasion to speak with him about some private business of his Family and hereupon making humble petition to the Lords of your Majesties most honorable Privy Councell for the favour of accesse we were to our great discomforts denied it by reason as their Lordships were pleased to declare unto us that he had not satisfied your Majesty fully in some points which being so far from being his fault as I dare say it is the greatest part of his affliction that he sees himself debarred from means of doing it The Lords Commissioners that were appointed by your Majesty to examine his offence since the first week of his imprisonment have not done him the honor to be with him by which means not onely his body but the most part of his mind his humble intentions to your Majesty are kept in restraint May it please therefore your most excellent Majesty now at length after five moneths imprisonment and extream durance to ordain such expedition in this cause as may stand with your justice and yet not avert your mercy either of them will serve our turns but that which is most agreeable to your Royall and gracious inclination will best accomplish our desire To live still in close prison is all one to be buried alive and for a man that hath any hope of salvation it were better to pray for the day of judgment then to lie languishing in such waking misery yet not ours but your Majesties wil be done For if in your princely wisdom you shall not think it a fit season to restore him to his former condition or to accept the fruit of his correction an humble and penitent submission for his unhappiness in offending your Majesty which I assure my self is long since ripe and grown to full perfection in so forward affection and so proper for all duties as his hath ever been If I say it be not yet time to have mercy but that he must still remain within the walls of bondage to expiate that which he did in these priviledged ones my hope is that he will die at any time for your Majesties service and will find patience to live any where for your Majesties pleasure only thus much let me beseech your Majesties grace again and again not to deny your humble and most obedient suppliant that you will at least be pleased to mitigate the rigor of his sufferings so far as to grant him the liberty of the Tower that he may no longer groan under the burthen of those incomodities which daily prejudice his health fortune in a higher degree I believe then either your Majesty knows or intends I am the more bold to importune your Majesty in the point of favour because it concerns my own good preservation For your Maj. shall deign to understand that I your suppliant have no means to live but what proceeds from his brotherly love and bounty so as if I may not be suffered to go to him and receive order for my maintenance I know none but Our Father which art in heaven to beg my daily bread on he that was my father on earth is long since departed if I have not been misinformed who was then beyond sea your Majesties anger was to him little better then the messenger of death though I perswade my self it was rather sent in your Majesties Name then in your Warrant For what use could your Majesty have of his not being who neither was nor could be ever but your faithful and affectionate servant who in his soul adored your Royal Majesty as much as ever mortal man did any mortal God lastly whose heart was so bent to please your Majesty as the very sound of your displeasure was enough to break it And more perfect obedience then this can no subject shew to make his Soveraigns savour equal to life and death Pardon me dread Soveraign if in this occasion I cannot hinder my Fathers ghost from appearing For how can it
persons of what estate soever they be that they and every of them as much as in them is shal uphold and maintain those Articles granted by our Soveraign Lord the King in all points and all those that in any point do resist or break those Ordinances or in any manner hereafter procure counsel or in any ways assent to resist or break those Ordinances or go about it by word or deed openly or privatly by any maner of pretence or colour We therefore the said Archbishop by our authority in this Writing expressed do excommunicate and accurse and from the body of our Lord Jesus Christ and from all the company of Heaven and from all the Sacraments of the holy Church do sequester and exclude Sir hearing that to morrow the Justices will be here about this busie work of Benevolence wherein you have both sent unto and talked with me and thinking that it may be you would deliver up the names of the not-givers Forasmuch as I think I shal scarcely be at home to make my further answer if I should be called for I pray you both hereby to understand my mind your self and if cause so require to let the Justices perceive as much So leaving others to their own consciences whereby in that last and dreadfull day they shal stand or fall before him who will reward every man according to his deeds I commend you to the grace of the Almighty and rest Your loving Neighbour and Friend OLIVER St. JOHN The Justices of Peace in the County of Devon to the Lords of the Councell THe Letters from his sacred Majesty unto the Justices of Peace in this County together with your Lordships have been opened and read according to the directions in your Locdships Letter to our high Sheriff expressed and the weighty business therein contained hath been maturely and speedily debated according to our most bounden duties to his excellent Majesty and the many concurring necessities which press the expedition of such a service and in those respects we can do no less then give your Lordships a timely knowledge of the vote and opinion of us all which was this day almost in the same words delivered by every of us That the sum enjoyned to be levied by the first of March is not to be so suddenly raised out of this County by any means much less by way of perswasion and hereof we had lately a certain experience in the business of the loans which notwithstanding the fear apprehended by the presence of the Pursivant hath come at least 6000. l. short of the expected sum and without him we suppose would have been much less and we are confident that nothing but extremities which had need also be back't by Law will raise his Majesty a sufficient quantity of treasure for his occasions For our selves at the time of the proposition of the forementioned Loans we did according to his Majesties proclamation and instruction then sent us engage our faithfull promise to our Countreymen that if they willingly yeilded to his Majesties necessities at this time we would never more be Instruments in the levy of aids of that kind his Majesties intentions so clearly manifested not to make that a president was the cause of that engagement and we conceive it cannot be for his honor or service for us to be the means of such a breach That his Majesties affairs and of his Allies do all want an instant supply of Royall provisions his provident and Princely Letter hath fully taught us but we have much more cauâ—â— to wish then hope that these parts so lately and so many ways impoverished can yeild it Your Lordships may vouchsafe to remember how much this County hath been charged since the beginning of the war though sometimes refreshed with payment which we acknowledge with humble thanks By our own late loan of 35000. l. and 6000. l. more sent by Sir Thomas Wise and Mr. Stroad and yet there remains due to it for the Coat and Conduct of their own imprest Soldiers for divers voyages for the Recruits intended for the Isle of Ree for the conduct of the whole Army hence besides three Companies stand yet here for Silly and no small number of scattered sick whose mortall infection hath more discouraged the people then the charge That many and almost unaccountable are our ways of expence few or none have we of in-come for the want of Trade how then can there be any quantity of money to disburse their bodies and goods are left which we are assured will be ever ready for his Majesties defence and to be imployed in his Majesties service as far forth as ever our forefathers have yeilded them to his Majesties Royall Progenitors Particular proofs we would have made of the peoples disability to have satisfied his Majesties demands but we had rather adventure our selves and this humble advertisement upon your Lordships private and favourable instructions then to expose his Majesties honor to publique deniall and misspend his pretious time which applied to more certain courses may attain his Princely and religious ends wherein to be his Majesties Instruments will be our earthly happiness and singular comfort to be your Lordships obedient servants The Archbishop of Canterbury to the Bishops concerning King James his Directions for Preachers with the Directions Aug. 14. 1622. RIght Reverend Father in God and my very good Lord and Brother I have received from the Kings most excellent Majesty a Letter the tenor whereof here ensueth Most reverend Father in God right trusty and right entirely beloved Councellor we greet you well Forasmuch as the abuses and extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have been in all times repressed in this Realm by some Act of Councell or State with the advice or resolution of grave and learned Prelates insomuch as the very licencing of Preachers had beginning by an Order of Star-Chamber the 8. day of July in the 19. year of King Henry 8. our Noble Predecessor and whereas at this present divers young Students by reading of late Writers and ungrounded Divines do broach many times unprofitable unsound seditious and dangerous Doctrine to the scandall of the Church and disquieting of the State and present Government We upon humble representation to us of these inconveniences by your self and sundry other grave and reverend Prelats of this Church as also of our Princely care and zeal for the extirpation of schisme and dissention growing from these seeds and for the setling of a religious and peaceable government both of the Church and State do by these our speciall Letters straitly charge and command you to use all possible care and diligence that these limitations and cautions herewith sent unto you concerning Preachers be duly and straitly henceforth observed and put in practice by the severall Bishops in their severall Diocesses within your jurisdictions And to this end our pleasure is that you send them forthwith severall Copies of these Directions to be by them speedily sent
Church-yards others in the streets some in their houses some on the floore others in their beds besides them that died without the Gates under hedges and in ditches round about the Towne which I saw my selfe when I was there halfe devoured with Ravens and other beasts and fowls of the aire In fine the like misery hath not been seene nor heard of The King on All-Saints day which was the day of his entry with a wax Candle in his hand together with the Cardinall and all the Nobility in like manner went all over the Town in procession with the B. Sacrament The chiefe Temple of the Hugonots shall be converted into a Church Cathedral and Rochel to be a Bishoprick All the fortifications and walls to Landwards to be razed and the Fosses filled so that a plough may passe as in arable Land The Maior with some of the chiefest are banish'd for ever others for a certaine time limited though quietly to possesse their goods moveable and immoveable and a general remission of all crimes past and all others that were in the Towne before the descent of the English into Rhee and when the Town was rendred shall likewise enjoy the same priviledge though no child or heir absent is or shall be capable to inherit the goods or lands of his parents or friends deceased but all is at the Kings disposing The King hath granted them free liberty of their Religion in the Town of Rochel which in short time will all be rooted out for no Forrainer though naturalized shall be admitted to repair and inhabit in Rochel nor French but Roman Catholicks The King hath added to the revenues of his Crown 20000 Franks per annum which was a rent belonging to the Town-house for the maintenance of the fortifications and State of Rochel The Town-house is to be razed and a pillar or pyramids with an ample inscription of the particulars of the siege and rebellion there to be erected The forts of the Isle of Rhee and Oleron to be razed as it is said most of all the chief forts of France except on the frontiers Four Regiments are yet in Rochel the rest of the Army at least the most part are gon to winter in those parts of France towards the coasts of Italy to be ready on all occasions to succor the Duke of Mantua as it is thought The Fathers of the society have very faire buildings given them for their establishing there and 1000 Franks to begin to build to which is added a revenue which I know not the place is said to be where the Hereticks kept their schools of Divinity and Councel of warre or rebellion And where the English had their Church the Oratorians are likewise established with large augmentations The Capuchins are where was the chiefest Fort called Le Bastion de Levangile The Minors are where the Dike was and divers other elsewhere There are at least 8000 houses in Rochel which are faine to fall to the King to dispose of for want of heirs The Parisians are preparing a most sumptuous and magnificent receipt for the King which is the cause he hath not been at Paris since his return from Rochel but is at St. Germins and thereabouts till all things are ready for his entry which is thought will exceede in bravery and magnificence all the presidents of many years The Jesuits are by the body of Paris imployed to make the speeches and inscriptions for that purpose which the body of the Sorbon take ill The Prince of Conde doth daily get ground of Rohan and hath lately taken prisoners as it is said thirty Captaines and eight hundred souldiers Those of Montauban boast as it is said that they have provision for three or four years and will stand out til the last though some of the best esteeme think it is only to draw the King to the best composition they can The Protestants of France to Charles King of Great Britain SIR the knowledg and resentment which it hath pleased your Majesty to take of the misery of the afflicted Churches of France hath given us the boldnesse to awaken your Compassion in such measure as our calamities are aggravated by the unmercifull rigour of our persecutors and as the present storme doth threaten neer at hand the total ruine and lamentable destruction of that which the mercy of God had yet kept intire unto us since the desolation of Rochel and as we have adored with humility the judgment of God in this bad successe which we impute only to his wrath justly kindled against us for our sins so our silence could be thought no lesse then ingratitude if we had not at the beginning of our Assembly resolved the most humble and most affectionate acknowledgment which wee now render to your Majesty for the great succour which you have sent us interessing your self so far in the grief of our oppression and in the means of our deliverance The most humble supplication which we do offer to your Majesty next after this our thansgiving is that your Majesty according to the sweet inclination of your goodnesse would permit us stil to present our complaints and discover our wounds before the eyes of your royall charity protesting unto your Majesty that we see none other hand under heaven by which we may be healed but your Majesties in case your Majesty will still vouchsafe to lift it up on the behalfe of oppressed innocents and of the Church of our Lord outragiously persecuted by the most invenom'd passion that our age or any age preceedent hath seen we most humbly beseech your Majesty to read this letter which is written with our tears and with our blood and according to your exquisite judgement your incomparable wisdome and the devotion of your zeale to the glory of God to consider our estate which is such that our persecutors upon the losse of Rochel supposing we had been put to utter discomfiture and into a weaknesse without recovery or resistance and boasting themselves that now there remained no more any eyes unto us but to bewaile our selves nor any sense but to feel the smart thereof without further imploying our hands or our arms for our defence have made use of this advantage with so much fiercenesse insultation and cruelty that they have not only sacked the houses and with an unheard of rudenesse and barbarisme rifled the goods of our poore brethren of this Province of Languedock relying themselves upon publick faith and the benefits of the edicts of pacification especially of the last which your Majesty had favourably procured and confirmed unto us dissipating whole families and exiling them with perfidious inhumanity but also they have laid wast and destroyed almost all the Churches of the sâ—me whâ—ch are at their command and discretion under the liberty of edicts imploying Monkes the Pâ—pes Emâ—ssaries assisted with force of souldiers and of the tyrannicall Authâ—rity of Governours to ravish mens souls and to draw the most constant with violence to
Vice Chamberlaine Mr. Secretary Cooke AT this Sitting the Lord Viscount Dorchester declared that his Majesty being informed of the bold and open repaire made to several places and specially to the houses of forraine Ambassadors for the hearing of Masse which the Lawes and Statutes of this Kingdome do expresly forbid his Subjects to frequent and considering in his Princely wisdome both the publick Scandals and dangerous consequence thereof is resolved to take present order for the stopping of this evil before it spread it selfe any further and for this purpose had commanded him to acquaint the Board with his pleasure in that behalfe and what course he thinketh fit to be held therein and withal to demand the opinion and advice of their Lordships concerning the same his Majesty being desirous to use the best and most effectuall expedient that can be found Hereupon his Lordship proceeding did further declare that his Majesty to shew the clearnesse and earnestnesse of his intention herein hath begun at his owne house viz. Wheresoever the Queens Majesty hath any Chappel being intended for the only service of her and for those French who attend her for which the Earl of Dorset Lord Chamberlaine to her Majesty hath been commanded to take special care according to such directions as he hath received from his Majesty That for so much as concerneth the repaire to the houses of Forraine Embassadors at the time of Masse his Majesty thinks fit that some messengers of the Chamber or other officers or persons fit for that service shall be appointed to watch all the several passages to their houses and without entring into the said houses or infringing the freedoms and priviledges belonging unto them observe such persons as go thither but at their coming from thence they are to apprehend them and bring them to the Board and such as they cannot apprehend to bring their names But to the end that the said Forraine Embassadours may have no cause to complaine of this proceeding as if there were any intention to wrong or disrespect them his Majesty doth likewise think fit that for the preventing of any such mistaking and sinister Interpretation the said Embassadors shall be acquainted with the truth of this businesse and likewise assured in his Majesties name that he is and wil be as careful to conserve all priviledges and rights belonging to the quality of their places as any of his Progenitors have been and in the same manner as himselfe expecteth that their Princes shall use towards his Embassadors Lastly That it is his Majesties expresse pleasure that the like diligence be used for the apprehending of all such as repaire to Masse in prisons or other places The Board having heard this declaration did unanimously conclude that there could not be taken a more effectuall course for the preventing of these evils then this which his Majesty in his wisedome hath set downe and therefore did order that the same be immediately put in strict and careful execution And it was likewise thought fit that the Lord Viscount Dorchester and Mr. Secretary Cooke should be sent to the forraine Embassadours severally to acquaint them with his Majesties intention as is before mentioned and that the messengers of the Chamber to be imployed in the service before specified shall be appointed and receive their charge from the Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury the Lord Bishop of London and the Secretaries who are to take a speciall care to see this put in execution King of Spaine to Pope Urban Sept. 21. 1629. MOst Holy Father I condescended that my forces should be imployed in the execution of Mountferrat to divert the introduction of strangers into Italie with so evident danger of Religion I suffered the siege of Cassal to run on so slowly to give time that by way of negotiation those differences might be composed with the reciprocal satisfaction of the parties interessed and to shew in effect what little reason all Italy had to be jealous of the Arms of my Crown for having possessed many places of importance some I have freely given away and others after I had defended them in a time the owners had need I presently restored with much liberality Upon this moderation the Duke of Nivers being hardned against the Emperor my Uncle and he perhaps and other Princes calling thither the most Christian King who not contenting himselfe to have attained that which he publickly professed to desire and having left Garrison in Mount-ferrat and in Suza and as I am told having fortified some places hath thereby given occasion to the Emperour my Uncle to give order his Army should passe into Italy to maintaine the Authority Jurisdiction and preheminency of the Empire with whom I can doe no lesse then concurre and give him assistance in respect of the great and strict obligation of Blood of Honour and of Conveniency which I hold with his imperial Majesty and for the which I doe acknowledge from the sacred Empire declaring now as I have done heretofore and as my Embassadours have told your Holinesse that in this businesse I do neither directly nor indirectly aim at any other end of mine own particular interest But beholding the numerous Armies of the Emperour in Italy and with extreme griefe foreseeing the harmes inconveniences and dangers that Italy must thereby suffer in matter of Religion being that which most importeth I doe not only resent it in respect of that portion which God hath given me in Christendome but especially as a King and Prince of Italy the peace of those Provinces being disturbed which my Progenitors with so much Judgment and providence and with so much Authority and benefit of the Natives had so many years preserved Wherefore I thought it my duty to present unto your beatitude that experience hath demonstrated that to oppose and straighten the Jurisdiction of the Emperour and to resist his commandments hath brought matters to these difficult terms and this way being still persisted in there must needs follow those mischiefs which we desire to shun Now the most convenient manner how to compose these businesses is that your Holinesse doe effectually perswade the Duke of Nivers to accomodate himself to the Justice and obedience of the Emperour and the King of France to recall his Armies out of Italy and the Princes that doe aid Nivers no more to interest themselves in the businesse even as from the beginning my Ministers have propounded to your Beatitude because this difference being ended juridically all the persons interessed shall come off with honour and reputation and so all of them shall have a ground to beseech the Emperour that out of his wonted clemency he wil take off that impression which he justly might have conceived against the Duke of Nivers whereupon things inclining to this issue I shal with a very good will imploy my best offices to the end that speedy and exact justice may be administred and also that his Caesarian Majesty may give experimental effects of his
magnanimity and stability desiring with a most sincere affection that so much Christian blood may be spared as would be spilt in this war and that those forces might be imployed to the service and not to the prejudice of Christendome Thus have I cleerly and sincerely delivered my meaning unto your Holinesse to the end that knowing my intention you may do those offices which your manifold wisedome shall find proper for the place whereto God hath advanced you and if God for our sins have decreed to chastise Christendome by continuing the war let this dispatch be a testimony of my good wil and real intention towards peace for the prosecuting whereof I on my part will alwaies imbrace any reasonable and proportionable meanes Oar Lord God preserve your Beatitude a thousand yeares The Councel of Ireland to King Charles in defence of the Lord Deputie Faulkland April 28. 1629 MAy it please your most excellent Majesty we stand so bounden to your royall Self and your most blessed Father our late deceased Soveraigne Lord and Master as we are urged in duty to prostrate this act of our faith at your Majesties feet as an assay to cleer some things wherein misinformation may seem to have approached your high Wisdome We understand that it is collected out of some late Dispatches from hence that there are such disorders in the Government here as by the present Governors are remedilesse all which is ascribed to the differences between persons of chief place We do in all humility testifiie and declare that we have not seen or known any inconvenience to the publick service by the difference between your Majesties Deputy and Chancellor neither have of late seen or heard any act or speech of contention between them Other difference between persons of any eminent Action wee understand none neither are any disorders here yet so overgrown as to surpasse the redresse of the present Governour especially so long as he hath such a standing English Army as your Majesty now alloweth if only we may receive some supply of Armes and munition which we have often written for do daily expect and which shall be no losse to your Majesty It is true most gracious Soveraign that in some late dispatches we mentioned three grievances in this government which in extent may threaten much if we be not timely directed from thence concerning them viz. the insolence and excrescence of the Popish pretended Clergie the disorder and offence of the Irish Regiment and the late outragious presumption of the unsetled Irish in some parts towards all which being parties perhaps otherwise conceived of there then understood here your Deputy and Councel have of late used particular abstinence holding themselves somewhat limited concerning them by late Instructions Letters and directions from thence And therefore lest countenance of that course might turn to greater damage we make choice seasonably to crave expression of the good pleasure of your Highnesse and the most Honourable Lords of your Councel lest our actions and zeal therein might vary from the purposes on that side and so want of unanimity in both States breake the progresse of the Reformation not that we any way make doubt to give your Majesty a good accompt of our selves therein and of the ful eviction of those evils in due time so we might be assured of your Majestys and their Lordships good allowance of our endeavours being confident in all humility to declare and affirme to your Sacred Majesty that the rest of this great body as to the civil part thereof is in far better order at this time then ever it was in the memory of man as wel in the current and general execution of Justice according to the Lawes in the freedome of mens persons and estates the present charge of the Army excepted and in the Universal outward subjection of all sorts of setled inhabitants to the Crowne and Lawes of England and also in the advancement of the Crowne Revenues and lastly in the competent number of Bishops and other able and Learned Ministers of the Church of England of all sorts which we especially attribute to the blessednesse of your time and to the Industryes Zeale Judgment and moderation of your Deputy as well in your Majesty service as towards this people having now well learned this great office and to the good beginnings of the two last precedent Deputies under direction of your most Renowned Father Secondly we understand that your Deputy and Councel are blamed for the present surcharge of your Revenues here far beyond the support thereof Herein your Royal Majesty may be pleased to cause a review of our dispatch from hence in August 1627. wherein it wil appear that their part in that offence hath been only obedience to extraordinary warrants from thence and that if those warrants had not beene fully performed out of your Revenues you had had about 40000 pound Irish to pay pensioners in your Coffers and answer other necessities which have since increased So as we humbly crave pardon freely to affirme that the fault hath not been here and further also to say for your Majesties honour and our comfort that during 200 years last past England hath never been so free of the charge of Ireland as now it is Thirdly we understand that your Deputy is accused for miscarriage in the legal prosecution of Phelim Mach Frogh and others adhering to him in certain treasonable Acts and Practises Herein we most humbly beseech your Majesty that a review may be of a declaration sent from hence about the beginning of your Deputies government signed by him and all the Counsel then here whereby wil appear how the parts of Lemster at least have been from age to age infested by him and his predecessors and the inhabitants of the territory of Ranelagh wherein he tooke upon him a Chiefery and therein will also appeare that it was the special affection and endeavour of several worthy Deputies here to have cleared that offensive plot which no wise State could suffer so neer the seat thereof and that they also severally attempted it by force the said Phelims Father being slain by actuall Rebellion by Sir William Russels prosecution but the generall Rebellion of the Kingdome alwaies interrupted the settlement thereof This being at that time the declaration of the State moved your Deputy being a stranger to have a wary aspect upon the people for the Common peace which he hath carefully performed Afterwards at the time when the general voice was amongst the Irish that the Spaniards would be here your Deputie had cause to examine several persons and causes concerning that Rumour wherby fell out to be discovered to him among others that this Phelim had confederated for raising a Commotion in Lemster and murthering a Scottish Minister and Justice of peace a ready instrument in Crown Causes inhabiting about the border of the said territory Before which time we never heard of any displeasure or hard measure born by your
Lord of Bristols last Letter which wil be done by the next duplicate of this same dispatch to acquaint him in the mean time with this Letter which his Majestie himself hath dictated unto me And so in haste I bid you farewell Yours c. G. B. Sir Walter Aston to the Duke of Buckingham Decemb. 22. 1623. May it please your Grace I Have comitted to the trust and secresie of this bearer Mr. Clark whom I find your Graces faithful servant certain advertisements to be delivered by him unto you which as one that shall God willing in all things shew himself your passionate servant I could no way conceale from you And howsoever your Grace may have many advertisements from hence the relations that come from England giving occasion to many discourses censuring the Prince and your Grace yet I hope to be so vigilant that there shall hardly be any resolution taken by these Ministers which may have any reflexion on your Person that I shall not one way or other get notice of and advertize unto you I have in all things with so much affection desired to serve your Grace every way to your satisfaction that it hath infinitely afflicted me that I should have done any thing whereby I might lessen your favourable opinions towards me but I hope your Grace hath by this time set me straight both with his Majestie and his Highnesse and restored me to the same place in your affection which I have formerly had Which I am the rather confident of since I cannot accuse any action or thought of mine that hath not born towards your Grace all possible respect and love I found by experience here that the favour which by your Graces meanes I received from his Highnesse and that which you were pleased likewise to honour me withal had raised me many enemies And I have reason to feare upon this occasion there may be some that well be busie to do me ill offices with you but I trust so much upon my own sinceritie that as I never made any second meanes unto your Grace but have ever singly depended upon the constancie of your goodnesse to me finding my self the same that I have ever been I make no meanes to resist such injuries as others may offer to do me but continue depending wholly upon that goodnesse and justnesse which I know in your Grace and which I assure my self will never fail me I have not been so carelesse a Servant of your Graces as not to have debated over and over with my self how far the proceedings or breaking of the present treaty here might concern your Grace which I have discoursed largely to Mr. Clark thinking them of too large a body to be contained in a Letter but I shall in all things submit my self to your better wisedome And when you shall please to impart unto me wherein his Majestie and his Highnesse shall be best served your Grace shall find in all my actions that my affections with all obedience shal run the same way and that my proceedings shall have those respects in them towards your Grace as you may expect from your faithful Servant And so c. Your G. c. W. A. The Copy of a Memorial given to the King of Spain 19. Jan. 1623. Stil Vet. Translated SIR SIR Walter Aston Embassadour of the King of great Brittain saith That the King his Master hath commanded him to represent unto your Majestie that having received so many promises from hence to procure the intire restitution of the Palatinate and Electoral dignitie to the Prince his Son in Law He commanded his Embassadour to presse your Majestie with all diligence that the said promises might take effect not as a condition of the marriage but desiring infinitely to see settled together with the marriage the peace and quiet of his Son in Law his Daughter and Grandchildren and having understood that this his desire hath received an interpretation far differing from his intention hath commanded him anew for the greater demonstration of the desire which he hath to preserve the good Correspondence with your Majestie to declare unto you that he hath not propounded the said restitutions as a condition of the marriage but according to that which he understood was most Conformable with the intention of your Majestie declared by the Conde de Olivarez for the surest and most effectual means to make the amitie which is betwixt your Majesties firm and indissoluble and that there might not remain any doubt or matter hereafter that should cause dispute he hath required that every thing might be settled under your Majesties hand desiring it likewise for the greater comfort of his onely Daughter and for to make the coming of that most excellent Princesse of more esteem unto his Subjects bringing with her besides the glory of her own vertue and worth the securitie of a perpetual peace and amitie and an everlasting pawn to his Kingdomes of the constancie and real performance of your Majesties promises with such satisfaction to his hopes grounded the said promises not as a Condition but as the fruit and blessing of the alliance Moreover he saith That the King his Master hath commanded him to make this Declaration unto your Majestie that you may know the truth and the sound intentions of his proceedings with the good end to which it aimes having renewed the powers and deferred the delivery of them onely to give time for the accomplishing and settling that which hath been promised for the satisfying his expectations and assuring the amitie betwixt your Majesties Persons and Crowns the King his Master hoping that your Majestie will likewise lay hold of this occasion which you now have in your hand to give him full satisfaction in that which with so much reason he desires and therewithal a reciprocal and everlasting blessing to both your Majesties Crownes Sir Walter Aston to the Duke 22. of Jan. 1623. Stil Vet. May it please your Grace HOwsoever upon the arrival of Mr. Greisley I took the occasion of the ordinary the day following to acknowledge unto your Grace the Comfort which I had received by your Letters understanding by them the favour which you had done me in diverting from me his Majesties and his Highnesse displeasure I shall notwithstanding intreat here leave by the same means by which I received so much happinesse to renue my humble and most thankful acknowledgment unto your Grâ—ce I most earnestly intreat your Grace to look upon me here as a servant that loves you in his heart and that shall faithfully in all things Comply with what you can expect from such an one and that therefore you will be pleased to preserve me still in the way how I may serve his Majestie and his Highnesse to their Content and perform towards your Grace those offices of a servant which may be most to your satisfaction For I am now here in a dangerous time in the greatest businesses that have been treated of many years and
prayers for your health and happinesse as Yours c. E. H. The Lady Elizabeth Norris to the Duke My Lord EVer since your Lordships first recommendation of my husband to me I have thought my self much ingaged to your Lordship for I must confesse after he had taken his leave of me I did love him never the lesse for immediately after my fathers death when in my Conscience he least expected to hear from me I did both send and write to him which he might interpret an incouragement or rather an invitation I did it the rather because I did not believe those which did him ill offices for those which were most for him on a sudden were most against him I must confesse that pitie did confirm my affection and I trust your Lordship will commiserate his estate as you do the fall of all mankind for I was the Eva and he was the Adam and I pray God the King and your Lordship may forgive us as I am confident God will pardon us Your Lordship may imagine my Mother was of the plot but I take God to witnesse that she was not only against it but contrarily I did believe she was wholly for your Brother And for your Brother my Mother recommended him to me whom I used like a Gentleman of high worth and qualitie But I did by no means abuse him by promise or taking guifts which I falsely suffer for in the opinion of the world I only took a ring by my mothers appointment which came as a token from my Lady your mother which was of very small value My husband and I am resolved rather to suffer in the opinion of the world then contradict any thing which shall be aggravated against us We must both honour you and think our selves much ingaged to your Lordship After God I protest you are the onely authour of it for by your means I first settled my affection I know there are those which do my husband and me ill offices I have reason to be jealous of the Lord Montgomery for he would have put tricks upon me in making me deny the Contract and when he failed in that he went about to make me believe Mr. Wray had denied his And to tell your Lordship true his violence and over-earnestnesse made me the more averse If my husband had not fetched me I would have come to him and so I sent him word Thus humbly beseeching your Lordship as you are happie in your wife that you would be pleased to make our peace with the King and seeing it is Gods act that you would honour us with your favour We shall be both bound to joyn in prayer that you may be ever happie in your Wife and in your Childrens Children And so with my humble respect to your Lordship I rest Your Lordships humble servant Elizabeth Norris Sir Edward Cecyl to the Duke My very good Lord HOw much my affection and ambition hath been to serve your Lordship before other men I hope I shall not need now to expresse considering it hath been clear and manifest to your own trial whereof I do bear still the testimonie and the continuance in mine own heart But in your noblenesse it will not appear impertinent to your Lordship that I put you in mind how much I suffered in the disgrace my enemies cast upon me about the imployment for the Palatinate when I was under your protection whether I suffered for mine own sake or for your Lordship I know not howsoever of this I am assured the greatest cause I gave them that had least reason was because I sought not them but your Lordship only And for the successe you may see by the miracles the imployment hath brought forth that it was carried another way rather for private malice then for any great zeal to the advancement of the publique Cause Now my Lord for your own honour and for the upholding of your servant make me so happie if there be any imployment for men of my profession as there is opinion that I may be the man by your Lordships means wherein you shall make me your obliged as I am now your affectionate servant For which you shall be assured of as thankful heart as any breathes in the whole world In the enjoying of which kind of service though you are accounted the most happie among great men yet you cannot have too much of it I could remember your Lordship of his Majesties gracious promise for my imployment before any other in the presence of the Prince and your Lordship and that I am the first General his Majestie ever made and that I had no ill successe in the perfecting of that service yet for all this I will onely trust in your Noblenesse if you resolve to make me your Creature And if it shall please his Majestie to hold me worthy of this honour I will undertake to save his Coffers as I have heretofore done the sixth part of the imployments charge and cost that any other man shall require who makes not a computation for the managing of it by a sufficient expence of his own I will not write more at this time but to wish your Lordship as much happinesse as your heart can desire and that you will give me an occasion to shew how much I am and will be Your Lordships most faithful and affectionate servant Ed. Cecil From our Army this 20. of Novemb. Sir Edward Cecil to the Duke May it please your Excellency THis Gentleman Sir George Blundel hath now cleerly quitted the service of the States for this especial reason as he assures me to be the more absolutely imployed in your Excellencies service This I know his friends here that love him which are many are very sorrie to part with him for there is no melancholy where he goes And therefore considering the condition of this place we shall be great losers being upon a melancholy place and service ill payed sick of all diseases in the world in a place that is next neighbour to hell if the book printed say true which saith that the Low-Countriemen are next neighbours to the devil And I am sure we are now seated lower then any part of these Countries for the waters are above us and about us and we live in more fear of them then of the enemy for we may be drowned at an hours warning if we do not continually work against it and yet and it shall please your Excellencie this is the Seat for a Winter War Many more inconveniencies we are daily sensible of of which I have endured so much as I dare say without vanitie that few of my rank and fortune have suffered more or longer then I have done in these Countries having served these 27. years together without intermission and all this for no other end for I am 900 l. a year the worse for the Wars then to make me able to serve my Prince and Countrie when occasion should be offered But since the time is
wholly upon Spain so that this King will protect him in his Electoral dignity and what he hath lately possessed himself of in those parts This offer of the Dukes hath been several dayes debated in Councel where the Marquesse Ynoiosa hath been busie in the behalf of the Duke but the wiser part of this Councel seeing how prejudicial the increase of the Dukes greatnesse may prove to the Empire do no way favour his pretentions They likewise hold fit to continue the state of things in a possibility of an accommodation without our Master The Arch-Duke Don Carlos hath brought power from the Emperour to proceed to the consummation of a marriage betwixt the Emperours son and the Infanta Donna Maria wherein he sayes he hath nothing to Capitulate but brings them a blanck paper and hath power and order to confirm what conditions they shall here set down The Emperour's Embassadour doth much presse to proceed to the Capitulations but there is yet nothing done The Infanta of Brussels hath lately written hither importing this King to admit of a treaty of marriage betwixt the Prince of Polonia and the Infanta his Sister extolling with many expressions the worth and parts of that Prince There hath been some moneths a general stop of their proceedings here in all suites of English Merchants depending in this Court but I have at last procured a Junto to be assigned for the hearing of all English Causes wherein I am promised there shall be a speedy Resolution taken of whatsoever is at present in Question The Duke of Feria hath lately advertised hither from Millain that the French King and the Duke of Savoy do minister much occasion of jealousie that they intend to attempt some novelty in those parts and doth therefore desire that his Troops may be augmented whereupon above the ordinary charge there was instantly remitted unto him 2000. Duckets The great annual Assiento which this King makes with the Genoueses is newly concluded it is for 7. millions whereof 4. are remitted for Flanders to be paid by monethly portions In a late meeting of the Councel of State upon a discourse that passed amongst them taking into consideration this Kings wants and the present distemper of his affairs the Inquisidor General expressing how necessary a time it was for his Majesties Subjects to assist his present occasions made offer of 100 Duckets for his part which the Conde of Olivares followed with a tender of 300 the Conde of Monterrey of 100 all the rest of the Councel of State following their example gave according to their quality Notice being taken of this abroad the Condestable wrote a Letter unto this King wherein he made tender of 200 Duckets the Marquesse of Castel Rodrigo of 100 the Marquesse of Carpio of the like summe Divers others have likewise declared themselves in this donative and it is hoped that it will go over the whole Kingdome and bring in an extraordinary Treasure into the Kings purse Thus with the remembrance of my duty I rest Your Graces c. W A. Archbishop Abbots to Secretarie Nanton 12. Septemb. 1619. Good Mr. Secretarie I Have never more desired to be present at any Consultation then that which is this day to be handled for my heart and all my heart goeth with it But my Foot is worse then it was on Friday so that by advice of my Physitian I have sweat this whole night past and am directed to keep my bed this day But for the matter my humble advice is That there is no going back but a countenancing of it against all the world yea so far as with ringing of Bells and making of Bon-fires in London so soon as it shall be certainly understood that the Coronation is past I am satisfied in my Conscience that the Cause is just wherefore they have rejected that proud and bloody man and so much the rather because he hath taken a course to make that Kingdom not elective but to take it from the donation of another man And when God hath set up the Prince that is chosen to be a mark of honor through all Christendom to propagate his Gospel and to protect the oppressed I dare not for my part give advice but to follow where God leads It is a great honour to the King our Master that he hath such a Son whose virtues have made him thought sit to be made a King And me thinks I do in this and that of Hungary foresee the work of God that by piece and piece the Kings of the earth that gave their power unto the beast all the Word of God must be fulfilled shall now tear the Whore and make her desolate as St. John in his Revelation hath foretold I pray you therefore with all the spirits you have to put life into this businesse and let a return be made into Germany with speed and with comfort and let it really be prosecuted that it may appear to the World that we are awake when God in this sort calleth us If I had time to expresse it I could be very angry at the shuffling which was used toward my Lord of Doncaster and the slighting of his Embassage so which cannot but touch upon our Great Master who did send him and therefore I would never have a Noble Sonne forsaken for respect of them who truly aym at nothing but their own purposes Our striking in will comfort the Bohemians will honour the Palsgrave will strengthen the Union will bring on the States of the Low Countries will stirre up the King of Denmark and will move his two uncles the Prince of Orange and the Duke of Bovillon to-together with Tremoville a rich Prince in France to cast in their shares And Hungarie as I hope being in that same cause will run the same fortune for the meanes to support the war I hope Providebit Deus The Parliament is the old and honourable way but how assured at this time I know not yet I will hope the best certainly if countenance be given to the action many brave spirits will voluntarily go Our great Master in sufficient want of mony gave some ayde to the Duke Savoy and furnished out a prettie army in the cause of Cleve We must trie once again what we can be done in this businesse of a higher nature and all the mony that may be spared is to be turned that way And perhaps God provided the Jewels that were layd up in the Tower to be gathered by the Mother for the preservation of her Daughter who like a noble Princesse hath professed to her Husband not to leave her self one Jewel rather then not to maintain so religious and righteous a cause You see that lying on my bed I have gone too far but if I were with you this should be my language which I pray you humbly and heartily to represent to the King my Master telling him that when I can stand I hope to do his Majestie some service herein So commending me unto you I
remain Your very loving friend Geo. Cant. The Lord Brook to the Duke 11. November 1623. May it please your Grace OUt of Spain we hear the world comes so fast after you since your departure as we assure our selves this great work is at a good end with contentment to our blessed Prince and like a Princely treaty with addition of honour to the Monarchie he intends to match with But Sir we hear of a new treaty sprung up between the Palsegraves Eldest son and the Emperours youngest Daughter A Labrynth into which what hope soever leades us I fear no one thread will be able to guide us well out Because in the passages between these for distant Princes education of children seemes like to be demanded Ballancing of Councels to the jelousie of friends Question whether the Palatinate shall be delivered in the Nonage before marriage or after Then whether sequestred into a Catholique or Protestants hands If into a Catholique a probable argument that both it and the Valtoline are equally reserved free to fall with associated forces upon our ancient Bulwark the Neither Lands at pleasure Lastly whether the Myter and the Scepter thus united with their advantage in number of swords and Deskes aboard their new springing partie at home strengthes by sea and land Constant ambition of adding Crown to Crown and perfect Auditt of their neighbours powers and humors even while the second Heire male of this Kingdom shall live in the hands of enemies and strangers I say whether these will not prove fearful in equalities casual to the lives of our King and Prince dangerous to the Crown by changing successive rights into tenures of Courtesie and charging of the peoples consciences with visions of confusion or bondage Against Sir admit this new project should vanish into smoak as undigested vapours use to do yet give me leave to question whether to your Grace you have overtlie protested against the intricate Courses of the Spaniard even the specitious issue of the Palatinates delivery before consummation of marraiage but not like to prove Mother of many Colourable and unavoydable delayes Because suppose the proposition should be granted yet who sees not that the effecting of it will prove an act of so many parts Viz the Pope Emperour King of Spain Duke of of Bavaria c. and of so great consequence joyntlie and severally to them all and must of necessity require divers assemblies commissions perchance Dietts c. And then what time the execution of the Minutes under these Heads will demand he that knowes the divers natures of Nations in treating may easily conceive To begin with the least what mony or other conditions can be offered like to satisfie the honour humour and huge expence of the Bavarian for quitting his Conquest to so unreconcileable a neighbour and if there be possibility yet out of whose estate or treasury are these conditions or large proportions of Dowrie probably to be expected touching the Emperour Is there any forraign alliance able to perswade this Prince who having by an untimely war changed all tenures of Election into succession and thereby shaken the ancient freedom of our Germany Princes what I say can in likelihood winn him to restore these dead forces of his Enemies to the prejudice of all he injoyes or aspires Besides what shall move this Emperour to take away the Bann from the Palsegraves person who hath so desparately hazarded not only his own private Kingdomes and Provinces but by his undertaking waved the main ambition of of the Austrian familie For the Spanish King if he be prest his answer will be ready and fair that he hath no right in him but mediation as appeares by the divisions already made Notwithstanding how little right soever pretends yet his Councel his instruments his charge by diversion Overt Ayde insensible succours the world sees have been used in all these wars so as this together with his right by strong hand gotten and kept by arts of depositing upon the Voltaline may lead us to discern clearly that he finds the passage of his forces through them equal and so resolves both to over-run the Low countries when he please Against which little State whether out of revenge or ambition of greater conquests by them he will constantly carry a warchfull and Griping enemies hand Concerning the Pope who knowes not that his universal affected supremacie howsoever dissembled yet hath doth and ever will urge his Holinesse to stir up colourable Warres of Religion Since Warres Contentions and tumults among Princes have been his old way of adding more wealth and power to his sanctified Sea How I say this new fashion'd Monarch shall be won to suffer Heidelberg the most dangerous nest of Heretiques after Geneva to return to her former strength is a poynt beyond my Capacity By these short hastie and imperfect images your Grace may yet judg that except the restitution of the Palatinate be instantly pressed and like a work of Faeries either furnished or broken off at once we may easily be over-shot in our own bowes by having the strengths and free Councels of England Scotland and Ireland during this treaty kept under a kind of Covert-baron and so long made a forge for other Princes ends as my Blessed Soveraigns trust may perchance find it self compelled to play an After-Game amongst discouraged friends and combination of powerful enemies such as under characters of Allyance will think they have won one great Step towards their inveterate Ambition of a Westerne Monarchie Noble Duke If you find me lifted above my earth in handling a subject to which I am utterly a stranger yet bear with a Monks humour in a man that is prisoner to old age Hide my follie from the eyes of Critiques And pardon my freedom that hath wearied you with a mind ever to remain Your Graces loving Grandchild and humble servant Tho. Brook Dr. Balcanquel to Secretarie Nanton 26. of March Right Honourable THe reason why I have not of late written to your Honour is the discontinuance of our Sessions of the Synod this great while but since my last unto your Honour we have thus spent our time The publique reading of all the Collegial judgments upon the 5. Articles was made an end of In which God be thanked for it there was a greater harmonie and consent then could almost be hoped for in such variety of learned men who did not know one of anothers judgment The onely difference was in the second Article After that the President never asking advice from the Synod took upon him to conceive and dictate the Canons himself to us but we who were sent by his Majestie conceiving that course to be altogether against the dignity of the Synod consulted with some of the Delegates who approved our Counsel and thought it fit that there should be some deputed by the Synod and joyned to the President for conceiving of the Canons that so whatsoever was done might be done by publique authority