for at my hands Thus the Beams of Majesty had an influence upon every branch and leaf of the Kingdom by reflecting upon the Root their Representative Body every particular expecting what fruit this Sun-shine would produce striving as much to insinuate into him as he did into the general so that there was a Reciprocal Harmony between the King and the People because they courted one another But when the Kings Bounty contracted it self into private Favourites as it did afterwards bestowing the affection he promised the whole people upon one man when the golden showers they gaped for dropt into some few chanels their passions flew higher than their hopes The Kings aims were to unite the two Kingdoms so that the one might corroborate the other to make good that part of his Speech by this intermixtion wherein he divides England and Scotland into halves But the English stumbled at that partition thinking it an unequal division and fearing that the Scots creeping into English Lordships and English Ladies Beds in both which already they began to be active might quickly make their least half the predominant part But he was Proclaimed King of Great Britain England must be no more a Name the Scotish Coyns are made currant and our Ships must have Saint Georges and Saint Andrews Crosses quartered together in their Flags all outward Ensigns of Amity But those English that had suckt in none of the sweets of this pleasant Stream of Bounty repined to see the Scots advanced from blew Bonnets to costly Beavers wearing instead of Wadmeal Velvet and Satin as divers Pasquils written in that Age Satyrically taunted at Which is not set down here to vilifie the Scots being most of them Gentlemen that had deserved well of their Master but to shew how cross to the publick Appetite the Hony-comb is that another man eats But the King like a wise Pilot guided the Helm with so even an hand that these small gusts were not felt It behoved him to play his Master-prize in the Beginning which he did to the life for he had divers opinions humours and affections to grapple with as well as Nations and 't is a very calm Sea when no billow rises The Romanists bogled that he said in his Speech They were unsufferable in the Kingdom as long as they maintained the Pope to be their Spiritual Head and He to have power to dethrone Princes The Separatists as the King called them were offended at that Expression wherein he professed willingly if the Papists would lay down King-killing and some other gross errors he would be content to meet them half way So that every one grounded his hopes or his fears upon the shallows of his own fancy not knowng yet what course the King would steer But these sores being tenderly dealt with did not suddenly fester but were skinned over The King desirous of the Title Pacificus did not only close with his own Subjects but healed up also that old wound that had bled long in the sides of England and Spain both being weary of the pain both willing to be cured The King of Spain sent the Constable of Castile with a mighty Train of smooth-handed Spaniards to close up the wound on this side where the old Enmity being well mortified they were received with singular Respect and Civility The King of England sent his High Admiral the Earl of Notingham with as splendid a Retinue of English to close it on that Who being Personages of Quality accoutred with all Ornaments suitable were the more admired by the Spaniards for beauty and excellency by how much the Iesuits had made impressions in the vulgar opinion That since the English left the Roman Religion they were transformed into strange horrid shapes with Heads and Tails like Beasts and Monsters So easie it is for those Iuglers when they have once bound up the Conscience to tye up the Vnderstanding also EARL OF NOTTINGHAM GEORGE CAREW EARL OF TOTNES And to satisfie the Kings desires about an Vnion betwixt England and Scotland the Parliament made an Act to authorise certain Commissioners viz. Thomas Lord Ellesmere Lord Chancellor of England Thomas Earl of Dorset Lord Treasurer of England Charles Earl of Notingham Lord High Admiral of England Henry Earl of Southampton William Earl of Pembroke Henry Earl of Northampton Richard Bishop of London Tobie Bishop of Duresme Anthony Bishop of Saint Davids Robert Lord Cecil Principal Secretary Edward Lord Zouch Lord President of Wales William Lord Mounteagle Ralph Lord Eure Edmund Lord Sheffeild Lord President of the Council in the North Lords of the Higher House of Parliament And Thomas Lord Clinton Robert Lord Buckhurst Sir Francis Hastings Knight Sir Iohn Stanhope Knight Vice-Chamberlain to his Majesty Sir Iohn Herbert Knight second Secretary to his Majesty Sir George Carew Knight Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen Sir Thomas Strickland Knight Sir Edward Stafford Knight Sir Henry Nevill of Berk-shire Knight Sir Richard Bukley Knight Sir Henry Billingsley Knight Sir Daniel Dun Knight Dean of the Arches Sir Edward Hobby Knight Sir Iohn Savile Knight Sir Robert Wroth Knight Sir Thomas Chaloner Knight Sir Robert Maunsel Knight Sir Thomas Ridgeway Knight Sir Thomas Holcroft Knight Sir Thomas Hesketh Knight Atturney of the Court of Wards Sir Francis Bacon Knight Sir Lawrence Tanfield Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Henry Hubberd Knight Serjeant at Law Sir Iohn Bennet Doctor of the Laws Sir Henry Withrington Sir Ralph Grey and Sir Thomas Lake Knights Robert Askwith Thomas Iames and Henry Chapman Merchants Knights Citizens and Burgesses of the House of Commons or any eight of the said Lords and twenty of the said Commons Which Commissioners shall have power to assemble meet treat and consult with certain select Commissioners to be nominated and authorised by Authority of the Parliament of Scotland concerning such Matters Causes and things as they in their Wisdoms shall think and deem convenient and necessary for the honour of the King and common good of both Kingdoms Yet the good intentions of this Vnion took no effect as will follow in the sequel of this History But there were a great many good Laws made which are too voluminous for this place having a proper Sphere of their own to move in Thus the King sate triumphing as it were upon a Throne of his Peoples Affections and his beginnings had some settlement for being loth to be troubled he sought Peace every-where But our inbred distempers lay upon the Lee intermixt with other gross dregs that the Princes lenity and the Peoples luxury produced For the King minding his sports many riotous demeanours crept into the Kingdom the Sun-shine of Peace being apt for such a production upon the slime of the late War The Sword and Buckler trade being now out of date one corruption producing another the City of London being always a fit Receptacle for such whose prodigalities and wastes made them Instruments of Debaucheries divers Sects of vitious Persons going under the
and compunction asked him forgiveness and afterwards again of his own motion desired to have his like prayer of forgiveness recommended to his Mother who was absent And at both times out of the abundance of his heart confessed that he was to die justly and that he was worthy of death And after again at his Execution which is a kind of sealing time of Confessions even at the point of death though there were Tempers about him he did again confirm publickly that his Examinations were true and that he had been justly and honourably dealt with So here is a period of this man which was the subject of this calumny or affront of Iustice. Wherein Mr. Lumsden plays his part first who in the time between Westons standing mute and his Tryal frames a most odious and libellous Relation containing as many untruths as lines sets it down in writing with his own hand and delivers it to one of the Bedchamber to be put into the Kings hands falsifying all that was done the first day of Westons Arraignment turning the pike and point of his imputations upon the Lord Chief Justice of England whose name thus occurring I cannot pass by and yet I cannot skill of this same Flattery or vulgar Attribute but this I will say of him and I would say as much to Ages That never mans person and his place were better met in a business than my Lord Cook and my Lord Chief Iustice in the Cause of Overbury Now for the person of Master Lumsden I know he is a Scotch Gentleman and thereby more ignorant of our Laws but I cannot tell whether this doth extenuate his fault or increase it for as it may extenuate it in respect of ignorance so it doth aggravate it much in respect of presumption to meddle in that he understood not unless some other mans cunning wrought upon this mans boldness The infusion of a slander into a Kings ear is of all forms of Libels and Slanders the worst It is true that Kings may keep secret their information and then no man can enquire after them while they are shrined in their Breast but where a King is pleased that a man shall answer for his false information divers precedents of slanderous Petitions have been as severly punished as slanderous Libels For the Offence of Sir Iohn Wentworth and Sir Iohn Hollis which was to scandalize the Iustice already past or to cut off the thread of something that is to come these two Gentlemen came mounted on Horseback and in a ruffling and facing manner presumed to Examin Weston whether he did poyson Overbury or no directly cross to that which had been tried and judged For what was the Point tried That Weston had poysoned Overbury And Sir Wentworth's question was whether he did poyson him A direct Contradictory Whereupon Weston answered that he did him wrong and turning to the Sheriff said You promised me I should not be troubled at this time and yet nevertheless Wentworth prest him to answer that he might pray with him l know not that Sir Iohn Wentworth is an Ecclesiastick that he should cut any man from communion of Prayer and for all this vexing of the spirit of a poor man now in the gate of death Weston stood constant and said I die not unworthily my Lord Chief Iustice hath my mind under his hand and he is an honourable and just Iudg. Sir Iohn Hollis was not so much a Questionist but wrought upon the other Questions and like a Counsellor wisht him to discharge his Conscience and to satisfie the World What World I marvel It was the World at Tyburn For the World at Guildhall and the World at London were satisfied before Teste the Bels that rang every where But men have got a fashion now a-days that two or three busie bodies will take upon them the name of the World and broach their own conceit as if it were a general opinion Well what more When they could not work upon Weston Sir Iohn Hollis in an indignation turned about his horse as the other was turning to his death and said he was sorry of such a Conclusion That was to have the State honoured or justified Sir Iohn Hollis offence hath another Appendix before this in time which was at the day of the Tryal He presumed to give his Verdict openly That if he were of the Iury he would not doubt what to do Marry he saith he cannot well tell whether he spoke this before the Iury had given up their Verdict or after Wherein there is little gained for whether he were a Praejuror or a Postjuror the one was to prejudice the Iury the other was to attaint them The offence of these Gentlemen is greater and more dangerous than is conceived We have no Spanish Inquisition no Iustice in a corner no gagging of mens mouths at their death but they may speak freely to the last but then it must come from the free motion of the party not by tempting of Questions The Questions that are asked ought to tend to further revealing of their own or others guiltiness But to use a Question in the nature of a cross interrogatory to falsifie that which is Res judicata is intolerable That were to erect a Court or Commission of review at Tyburn against the Court of Westminster For if the Answer be according to the Judgment past it adds credit to Iustice if it be contrary it derogateth nothing yet it subjecteth the Majesty of Iustice to a popular vulgar talk and opinion My Lords these are great and dangerous offences for if we do not maintain Iustice Iustice will not maintain us Then the Examinations being read and further aggravated against these three Gentlemen there passed Judgment upon them of Fine and lmprisonment Sir Thomas Monson another of the Countesses Agents in this poysoning contrivance had past one days Tryal at Guildhall But the Lord Chief Justice Cook in his Rhetorical Flourishes at his Arraignment vented some expressions which he either deduced from Northamptons assuring the Lieutenant of the Tower that the making away of Sir Thomas Overbury would be acceptable to the King or from some other secret hint received as if he could discover more than the death of a private person intimating though not plainly that Overburies untimely remove had something in it of retaliation as if he had been guilty of the same Crime against Prince Henry blessing himself with admiration at the horror of such actions In which he flew so high a pitch that he was taken down by a Court Lure Sir Thomas Monsons Tryal laid aside and he soon after set at liberty and the Lord Chief Justices wings were clipt for it ever after And it was rumor'd that the King heightned to so much passion by this eruption of Sir Edward Cooks went to the Council Table and kneeling down there desired God to lay a Curse upon him and his posterity for ever if he were consenting to Overburies death But this
what he said in his own excuse My Lords and Gentlemen of both Houses I cannot but commend your Zeal in offering this Petition to me yet on the other side I cannot but hold my Self unfortunate that I should be thought to need a Spur to do that which my Conscience and Duty binds me unto What Religion I am of my Books do declare my Profession and Behaviour doth shew and I hope in God I shall never live to be thought otherwise surely I shall never deserve it And for my part I wish it may be written in Marble and remain to Posterity as a mark upon me when I shall swerve from my Religion For he that doth dissemble with God is not to be trusted with Men. My Lords for my part I protest before God That my Heart hath bled when I have heard of the increase of Popery God is my judge it hath been such a great grief to me that it hath been as Thorns in my Eyes and Pricks in my Sides and so for ever I have been and shall be from turning another way And my Lords and Gentlemen you shall be my Confessors that one way or other it hath been my Desire to hinder the growth of Popery and I could not be an honest Man if I should have done otherwise And this I may say further That if I be not a Martyr I am sure I am a Confessor and in some sense I may be called a Martyr as in the Scripture Isaac was Persecuted by Ismael by mocking Words for never King suffered more ill Tongues than I have done and I am sure for no cause yet I have been far from Persecution for I have ever thought that no way increased any Religion more than Persecution according to that Saying Sanguis Martyrum est Semen Ecclesiae Now my Lords and Gentlemen for your Petition I will not onely grant the Substance of what you craved but add somewhat more of my own For the Two Treaties being already anulled as I have declared them to be it necessarily follows of it self that which you desire and therefore it needs no more but that I do declare by Proclamation which I am ready to do That all Jesuits and Priests do depart by a Day but it cannot be as you desire by Our Proclamation to be out of all my Dominions for a Proclamation here extends but to this Kingdom This I will do and more I will Command all my Judges when they go their Circuits to keep the same Courses for putting all the Laws in Execution against Recusants as they were wont to do before these Treaties for the Laws are still in force and were never dispensed with by me God is my judge they were never so intended by me But as I told you in the beginning of the Parliament you must give me leave as a good Horse-man sometimes to use the Reins and not always to use the Spurs So now there needs nothing but my Declaration for the disarming of them that is already done by the Laws and shall be done as you desired And more I will take order for the shameful disorder of the Resorting of my Subjects to all forein Ambassadours of this I will advise with my Council how it may be best reformed It is true that the Houses of Ambassadors are privileged places and though they cannot take them out of their Houses yet the Lord Mayor and Mr. Recorder of London may take some of them as they come from thence and make them Examples Another Point I will add concerning the Education of their Children of which I have had a principal care as the Lord of Canterbury and the Bishop of Winchester and other Lords of my Council can bear me witness with whom I have advised about this Business For in good faith it is a shame their Children should be bred here as if they were at Rome So I do grant not onely your Desire but more I am sorry I was not the first mover of it to you But had you not done it I should have done it my self Now for the second part of your Petition You have there given me the best advice in the World For it is against the Rule of Wisdom that a King should suffer any of his Subjects to transgress the Laws by the intercession of other Princes and therefore assure your selves that by the Grace of God I will be careful that no such Conditions be foisted in upon any other Treaty whatsoever For it is fit my Subjects should stand or fall to their own Laws If the King had seriously and really considered the Minute of this Petition the very last Clause wherein the Glory of God and the Safety of his Kingdoms so much consisted as the Parliament wisely express and foresee and which the King saith is the best Advice in the World and which he promised so faithfully to observe in the next Treaty of Marriage for his Son it might perhaps have kept the Crown upon the Head of his Posterity But when Princes break with the People in those Promises that concern the Honour of God God will let their people break with them to their Ruin and Dishonour And this Maxim holds in all Powers whether Kingdoms or Common Wealths As they are established by Iustice so the Iustice of Religion which tends most to the Glory of God is principally to be observed The King grants them more than they desire but not so much as they hope for they have many good words thick sown but they produce little good fruit Yet the Parliament followed the Chace close and bolted out divers of the Nobility and Gentry of Eminency Popishly affected that had Earth'd themselves in Places of high Trust and Power in the Kingdom as if they meant to under-mine the Nation Viz. Francis Earl of Rutland the Duke of Buckingham's Wives Father Sir Thomas Compton that was married to the Duke's Mother And the Countess her self who was the Cynosure they all steered by The Earl of Castle-Haven The Lord Herbert after Earl of Worcester The Lord Viscount Colchester after Earl of Rivers The Lord Peter The Lord Morley The Lord Windsor The Lord Eure. The Lord Wotton The Lord Teinham The Lord Scroop who was Lord President of the North and which they omitted the Earl of Northampton Lord President of Wales who married his Children to Papists and permitted them to be bred up in Popery Sir William Courtney Sir Thomas Brudnell Sir Thomas Somerset Sir Gilbert Ireland Sir Francis Stonners Sir Anthony Brown Sir Francis Howard Sir William Powell Sir Francis Lacon Sir Lewis Lewkner Sir William Awberie Sir Iohn Gage Sir Iohn Shelly Sir Henry Carvel Sir Thomas Wiseman Sir Thomas Gerrard Sir Iohn Filpot Sir Thomas Russell Sir Henry Bedingfield Sir William Wrey Sir Iohn Conwey Sir Charles Iones Sir Ralph Connyers Sir Thomas Lamplough Sir Thomas Savage Sir William Moseley Sir Hugh Beston Sir Thomas Riddall Sir Marmaduke Wivel Sir Iohn Townesend Sir William Norris Sir
easily committed and concealed It is an offence that is Tanquam sagitta nocte volans it is the Arrow that flies by night it discerns not whom it hits for many times the poyson is laid for one and another takes it As in Sanders case where the poysoned Apple was laid for the Mother and the Child eat it And so in that notorious Case whereupon the Statute of 22 Hen. 8. cap. 9. was made where the intent being but to poyson one or two poyson was put in a little Vessel of Barm that stood in the Kitchen at the Bishop of Rochesters house of which Barm Pottage or Grewel was made wherewith seventeen of the Bishops Family were poysoned nay divers of the poor that came to the Bishops-gate and had the Pottage in Alms were likewise poysoned Here is great talk of Impoysonment I hope I am safe I have no enemies nor any thing men can long for that is all one for he may sit at the Table by one for whom poyson is prepared and have a drench of his Cup or of his Pottage and so as the Poet saith Concidit infelix alieno vulnere he may die another mans death and therefore it was most gravely judiciously and properly provided by that Statute that Impoysonment should be High-Treason because whatsoever offence tendeth to the utter subversion and dissolution of Human Society is in the nature of High-Treason But it is an offence that I may truly say of it Non est nostri generis nec sanguinis It is thanks be to God rare in the Isle of Britain It is neither of our Country nor of our Church You may find it in Rome and Italy there is a Religion for it if it should come among us it were better living in a Wilderness than in a Court. For the particular fact upon Overbury I knew the Gentleman it is true his mind was great but it moved not in any great good order yet certainly it did commonly fly at good things and the greatest fault that ever I heard by him was That he made his Friend his Idol But take him as he was the Kings Prisoner in the Tower and then see how the Case stands In that place the State is as it were a Respondent to make good the Body of the Prisoner and if any thing happen to him there it may though not in this Case yet in some others make an aspersion and reflexion upon the State it self For the person is utterly void of his own defence his own care and providence can serve him to nothing He is in the custody and preservation of Law and we have a Maxim in our Law that when a State is in preservation of Law nothing can destroy it or hurt it and God forbid but the like should be in Persons and therefore this was a circumstance of great aggravation Lastly To have a man chased to death in a manner as it appears now by matter of Record for other privacy of Cause I know not by poyson after poyson First Rosaker then Arsnick then Mercury sublimate then sublimate again it is a thing would astonish mans nature to hear it The Poets feign that the Furies had Whips and that they were corded with poysoned Snakes and a man would think that this subject were the very Case To have a man tied to a post and to scourge him to death with Serpents for so truly may diversity of poysons be termed It pleased my Lord Chief Justice to let me know that which I heard with great comfort which was the charge that his Majesty gave to himself and the rest of the Commissioners in this Case worthy to be written in Letters of Gold That the business should be carried without touch to any that was innocent not only without impeachment but without aspersion which was a most Noble and Princely caution for mens Reputations are tender things and ought to be like Christs Coat without seam And it was more to be respected in this Case because it met with two great Persons A Nobleman that his Majesty had favoured and advanced and his Lady being of a great and Honourable House though I think it be true that the Writers say that there is no Pomegranate so fair or so sound but may have a perished Kernel Nay I see plainly in those excellent Papers of his Majesties own hand-writing as so many beams of Iustice issuing from that Vertue which so much doth shine in him the business so evenly carried without prejudice whether it were a true Accusation on the one part or a practice or false Accusation on the other as shewed plainly that his Majesties judgment was Tanquam tabula rasa as a clean pair of Tables and his ears Tanquam janua aperta as a gate not side open but wide open to the Truth as it should be discovered And I may truly affirm that there was never in this Kingdom nor in any other the blood of a private Gentleman vindicated Cum tanto motu Regni or to say better Cum tanto plausu Regni If it had concerned the King or Prince there could not have been greater or better Commissioners The term hath been almost turned into a Iustium or Vacancy the people being more willing to be lookers on in this business than proceeders in their own There hath been no care of discovery omitted no moment of time lost and therefore I will conclude with the saying of Solomon this part of my Speech Gloria Deicelare rem and gloria Regis scrutari rem It is the glory of God to conceal a thing and it is the glory of the King to find it out And his Majesties honor is the greater for that he shewed to the World this business as it hath relation to my Lord of Somerset whose Case in no sort I do fore-judg being ignorant of the secrets of the cause but take him as the Law takes him hitherto for a suspect I say the King hath to his great honor shewed That were any man in such a case of blood as the Signet of his right-hand as the Scripture saith he would put him off Now will I come to the particular Charge of these Gentlemen And first I will by way of Narrative relate the Fact with the occasion of it This wretched man Weston who was the Actor or Mechanical party in this Impoysonment the first day being indicted by a very substantial Iury of selected Citizens to the number of nineteen who found Billa vera yet nevertheless at the first stood mute But after some days intermission it pleased God to cast out the Dumb Devil and he put himself upon his Trial and was by a Iury of great value upon his own Confessions and other testimonies found guilty So as thirty and one sufficient Iurors have past upon him and he had also his Judgment and Execution awarded After this being in preparation for another World he sent for Sir Overbury's Father and falling down upon his knees with great remorse
Doublet was Cloth of Gold imbroidered so thick that it could not be discerned and a white Beaver-hat suitable Brim-full of imbroidery both above and below This is presented as an Essay for one of the meanest he wore so that if this Relation should last longer than his old cloaths the Reader might well think it a Romance favouring rather of Fancy than Reality But this kind of Vanity had been long active in England For the last Parliament it was moved by some well-affected to Reformation of the Abuses of excess in Apparel that there might be a Regulation of this kind of Gallantry to the distinguishing of men one from another For it was said some of means Fortunes wore Garments fitter for Princes than Subjects and many Gentry of antient descent had wasted and impoverished themselves and their Posterities with this extravagancy so that it was very requisite to give some stop to this redundant humor To which was answered That if those of mean Fortunes went so richly attired and came not honestly by their ornaments they would be quickly found out and there were good Laws enough for such Transgressors But as there is no perpetuity of Being on Earth so there is a continual vicissitude and revolution in all sublunary things some are advanced and some decline God pulleth down one and setteth up another If any Noble or antiently descended Family will be so mad and foolish to beggar themselves and their Posterities with this or any other excess 't is very probable that some man of more wisdom and merit will injoy that which the other hath so idlely and prodigally mispent for to set such limitations will damp the spirits of Industry So the motion was declined But to return to the Lord Hayes Thus accoutred and accomplished he went into France and a day for Audience being prefixed all the argument and dispute betwixt him and his gallant Train which took up some time was how they should go to the Court Coaches like Curtains would eclipse their splendor riding on horsback in Boots would make them look like Travellers not Courtiers and not having all Foot-cloaths it would be an unsuitable mixture Those that brought rich trappings for their Horses were willing to have them seen so it was concluded for the Foot-cloth and those that have none to their bitter cost must furnish themselves This preparation begot expectation and that filled all the Windows Balcones and Streets of Paris as they passed with a multitude of Spectators Six Trumpeters and two Marshals in Tawny Velvet Liveries compleatly Suited laced all over with Gold richly and closely laid led the way the Ambassador followed with a great Train of Pages and Footmen in the same rich Livery incircling his Horse and the rest of his Retinue according to their Qualities and Degrees in as much bravery as they could devise or procure followed in couples to the wonderment of the beholders And some said how truly I cannot assert the Ambassadors Horse was shod with Silver-shooes lightly tackt on and when he came to a place where Persons or Beauties of eminency were his very Horse prancing and curveting in humble reverence flung his shooes away which the greedy understanders scrambled for and he was content to be gazed on and admired till a Farrier or rather the Argentier in one of his rich Liveries among his train of Footmen out of a Tawny Velvet bag took others and tackt them on which lasted till he came to the next troop of Grandies And thus with much ado he reached the Louure All Complements and outward Ceremonies of State being performed the Lord Ambassador made his business known by more private addresses which in appearance was well resented but indeed not intended and came to no effect For the Duke of Savoy had anticipated the young Ladies affection for the Prince of Pâ—emont his Son The Savoyan Agents bringing more Gold in their hands than on their backs had so smoothed the way that not only those about the Princess but the great ones themselves were made workers for him After the Ambassador had been feasted magnificently with all his gallant Train in several places to shew the Grandure of France he came over into England and practised it here making many times upon several occasions such stupendious Feasts and heaped Banquets as if all the Creatures had contributed to his excess I know not what limits or bounds are set to the glories of Princes Courts or Nobles minds We see the Sea it self and all his tributary Rivers do ebb and flow but if they swell so high to overflow that Bank that Reason hath prescribed to keep them in what Inundations of sad mischief follow Experience shews CHRISTINE DE FRANCE DVCHESSE DE SAVOYE Balt. Moncornet ex CAROLVS EMANVEL DVC DE SAVOYE ET PRINCE DE PIEDMONT Therefore to humble him more he is brought on his knees at the Council Table and three other Ingredients added to the Dose of a more active operation First He is charged That when he was the Kings Attorney in the beginning of his Reign he concealed a Statute of twelve thousand pounds due to the King from the late Lord Chancellor Hatton wherein he deceived the trust reposed in him Secondly That he uttered words of very high contempt as he sate in the seat of Iustice saying the Common Law of England would be overthrown and the light of it obscured reflecting upon the King And thirdly His uncivil and indiscreet carriage before His Majesty being assisted by his Privy Council and Judges in the Case of Commendams The last he contest and humbly craved his Majesties Pardon The other two he palliated with some colourable excuses which were not so well set off but they left such a tincture behind that he was commanded to a private life And to expiate the Kings anger he was injoyned in that leisurely retirement to review his Books of Reports which the King was informed had many extravagant opinions published for positive and good Law which must be corrected and brought to his Majesty to be perused But the Title of the Books wherein he stiles himself Lord Chief Iustice of England was to be expunged being but Lord Chief Iustice of the Kings Bench. And at his departure from the Council Table where he humbly acknowledged his Majesties mercy and their Lordships justice the Lord Treasurer gave him a wipe for suffering his Coachman to ride bare before him in the streets which fault he strove to cover by telling his Lordship his Coachman did it for his own ease But not long after the Lord Treasurer came under his lash in the Star-Chamber and he requited him for it Vera Effigies Viri clariss EDOARDI COKE Equitis aurati nuper Capitalis Iusticiarij ad Placita coram Rege tenenda assignati R White sculpsit Truly he was a Man of excellent parts but not without his frailties for as he was a Storehouse and Magazine of the Common Law for the present times
and the Infanta of Spain that was then in motion but to the infringement of the Peace and Amity established betwixt the two Crowns The King's fears being heightned to Anger he disavows the Action and lest others of his Subjects should by this example take the boldness to attempt the like Hostility against the King of Spain he puts out a Proclamation wherein he shews his detestation of such proceedings and threatens severe punishment to the enterprisers thereby to deter them Which gave Gondemar some satisfaction whose design being only to get Sir Walter Raleigh home after this brush vented little passion but so cunningly skinned over his malice that when Raleigh was in Ireland he found nor heard of no such great difficulties Dangers often flying upon the wings of rumor but that he might appear in England and the men not willing to be banished their own Country though some of them had France in their eye put in at Plimouth Raleigh was no sooner ashore but he had private intimation which gave him cause to suspect the smoothness of this beginning would have a rough end therefore he attempted an escape from â—hence in a bark of Rochel But being apprehended by Sir Lewis Stukly his Kinsman who had private warrant and instructions to that purpose so unnatural and servile is the spirit when it hath an allay of baseness there being many others sitter for that employment he is brought to London and recommitted to the Tower He was no sooner in the Tower but all his Transactions in this business are put to the Rack and tenter'd by his Adversaries They say he knew of no Mine nor did Kemish know that the Mine he aimed at was Gold but Kemish bringing him a piece of Ore into the Tower he fobb'd a piece of Gold into it in dissolving making the poor man believe the Ore was right that by these golden degrees he might ascend to Liberty promising the King to fetch it where never Spaniard had been But when Kemish found by better experience he was couzen'd by Raleigh he came back from the Mine And Raleigh knowing that none but Kemish could accuse him made him away This Vizard was put upon the face of the Action and all the weight of the Miscarriage was laid upon Raleigh's shoulders Gonaemar that looked upon him as a man that had not only high Abilities but Animosity enough to do his Master mischief being one of those Scourges which that old Virago the late Queen as he called her used to afflict the Spaniards with having gotten him into this Trap laid now his baits about the King There is a strange virtue in this spirit of Sol the intenseness makes men firm the ductilness brings them to be active French Crowns are not so pure not so piercing as Spanish Pistols Auri sacra fames quid non mortalia pectora cogis The King that loved his Peace is incensed by them that loved their Profit and the poor Gentleman must lay down the price of his life upon the old Reckoning Raleigh answered That he was told by his Council that Iudgment was void by the Commission his Majesty was pleased to give him since under the Great Seal for his last Employment which did give him a new vigour and life to that service The Lord chief Justice replyed that he was deceived and that the opinion of the Court was to the contrary Then he desired that some reasonable time might be allowed him to prepare for Death but it was answered That the time appointed was the next morning and it was not to be doubted but he had prepared himself for death long since Raleigh having a courageous spirit finding the bent of the King's mind and knowing Disputes to be in vain where Controversies are determined acquiesc'd was conveyed to the Gatehouse and the day following was brought to the Old Palace yard at Westminster and upon a Scaffold there erected lost his head He had in the outward man a good presence in a handsom and well-compacted person a strong natural wit and a better judgment with a bold and plausible tongue whereby he could set off his parts to the best advantage And to these he had the Adjuncts of general Learning which by Diligence and Experience those two great Tutors being now threescore years of age was augmented to a great perfection being an indefatigable Reader and having a very retentive memory At his Arraignment at Winchester his carriage to his Judges was with great discretion humble yet not prostrate dutiful yet not dejected Towards the Iury affable but not fawning not in despair nor believing but hoping in them carefully perswading them with Reasons not distemperately importuning them with Conjurations rather shewing love of life than fear of death Towards the King's Council patient but not insensible neglecting nor yielding to Imputations laid against him in words which Sir Edward Cook then the King's Attorney belched out freely and it was wondred a man of his high spirit could be so humble in suffering not being much overtaken in passion And now at his last when Deeth was presented before him he looked upon it without affrightment striving to vindicate his Actions by taking off the veil that false Reports had cast upon them especially the Imputation of his glorying and rejoycing in the fall at the death of the laâ—e E. of Essex which had stuck so many years in his breast this new miscarriage of Kemish's of a later date imputed to him for having provided himself privately for heaven clearing his Accounts with God before he came to the Scaffold He publickly at last reckon'd with man being to quit all soores and so made an end Times of Peace are accounted the happiest times and though they are great Blessings proceeding from the influence of supreme Mercy and the showers of Grace yet the branches of the Tree of Knowledge growing by this Sun shine for want of due pruning do often become so exuberant that their very fruits are not only their burthen but sometimes their ruin Prosperity is of an Airy constitution carried about with the breath of strange fancies which mount sometimes as high as Omnipotency but there finding-resistance they come down amain and beat the lower Region with a Tempest of Strife and Malice When the Romans wanted Enemies they digged them out of their own bowels Active Spirits will be set on work Our Neighbours of the Netherlands that had so long bounded the Spanish Power humbled their Pride so far as to acknowledg them a Free-State before they would so much as listen to an Overture of Peace had a fire kindled in their own bosomes It is now some time since the 12 years Truce betwixt Spain them began being in the Wain last Quarter While they had their hands full of business they had not their heads full of old Curiosities Now like Plethorique bodies that want letting blood they break out into distemper A Schism in the Church
who both by the attestations of the Divinity-Colleges at Basil and Heydelberg as also by manifest evidence out of his own Writings is convinced of a number of manifest Heresies These Reasons therefore namely the many enormous and horrible Heresies maintained by him the Instance of his Majesty grounded upon the welfare and honour of this Country the Requests either of all or of the most part of your Provinces the Petitions of all the Ministers excepting those only which are of Arminius's Sect should methinks prevail so far with my Lords the States of Holland as they will at the last apply themselves to the performance of that which both the sincerity of Religion and the service of their Country requireth at their hands Furthermore I have Commandment from his Majesty to move you in his name to set down some certain Reglement in matters of Religion throughout your Provinces that this licentious Freedom of Disputation may be restrained which breeds factions and part-takings and that you would absolutely take away the Liberty of Prophesying which Vorstius doth so much recommend unto you in the Dedicatory Epistle of his Anti-Bellarmine the book whereof his Patrons do boast so much And his Majesty doth exhort you seeing you have heretofore taken Arms for the Liberty of your Consciences and have endured a violent and bloody War the space of forty years for the Profession of the Gospel that now having gotten the upper hand of your miseries you would not suffer the Followers of Arminius to make your actions an example for them to proclaim throughout the World that wicked Doctrine of the Apostacy of the Saints The account which his Majesty doth make of your amity appears sufficiently by the Treaties which he made with your Lordships by the succours which your Provinces have received from his Crowns by the deluge of blood which his Subjects have spent in your Wars Religion is the only solder of this Amity For his Majesty being by the grace of God Defender of the Faith doth hold himself obliged to defend all those who prosess the same Faith and Religion with him But if once your zeal begins to grow cold therein his Majesty will then straightways imagin that your friendship towards him and his Subjects will likewise freeze by little and little The Right Honourable Sr. RALPH WINWOOD Kn. t This was the effect of Sir Winwood's Remonstrance to which after six weeks delay he received this cold and ambiguous Answer THat the States General had deliberated upon his Majestie 's Proposition and Letter dated the 6 Oct. 1611. and do give him humble Thanks for the continuance of his Royal affection towards the welfare of their Country and preservation of Religion And that they had entred into Consultation concerning the Articles charged against Vorstius and the Curators of Leyden did thereupon make an Order provisional that Vorstius should not be admitted to the Exercise of his Place but remain in Leyden only as an Inhabitant and Citizen And in case Vorstius should not be able to clear himself from those Accusations which were laid to his Charge at or before the next Assembly which was to be holden in Feb. following that then they would decide the Matter with good contentment to his Majesty But this Answer still savouring of delays could not in effect be esteemed less than an absolute refusal to yield to the King's desires besides the specious Separation of Vortius as a Citizen was only to satisfie the King at present for he after notwithstanding exercised his Place of Professor Whereupon Sir Ralph Winwood knowing the King's mind made this Protestation in their Publick Assembly My Lords THere is not any one of you I suppose in this Assembly that will not acknowledge the brotherly love wherewith the King my Master hath always affected the good of your Provinces and the fatherly care which he hath ever had to procure the establishment of your State In which respect his Majesty having understood that Vorstius was elected Divinity-Professor of Leyden a Person attainted by many Witnesses Iuris facti of a number of Heresies is therewith exceedingly offended And for the timely prevention of an infinite of evils did give me in charge to exhort you which I did the 21 of September last to wash your hands from that Man and not suffer him to come within your Country To this Exhortation your Answer was That all due observance and regard should be had unto his Majesty But his Majesty hath received so little respect herein that instead of debarring Vorstius from coming into the Country which even by the Laws of Friendship his Majesty might have required the Proceedings have been clean contrary for he is permitted to come to Leyden hath been received there with all honour taken up his habitation treated and lodged in the quality of a publick Professor His Majesty perceiving his first motion had so little prevailed writ a Letter to you to the same purpose full of zeal and affection persuading you by many Reasons not to stain your own honor and the honor of the Reformed Churches by calling unto you that wretched and wicked Atheist These Letters were presented to this Assembly the fifth of November last at which time by his Majesties command I used some speech my self to the same effect Some six weeks after I received an answer but so confused ambiguous and impertinent that I have reason to conceive there is no meaning at all to send Vortius away who is at present in Leyden received acknowledged respected and treated as publick Professor whether it be to grace that University instead of the deceased Ioseph Scaliger or whether to give him means to do more mischief in secret which perhaps for shame he durst not in publick I cannot tell For these reasons according to that charge which I have received from the King my Master I do in his name and on his behalf protest in this Assembly against the wrong injury and scandal done unto the Reformed Religion by receiving and retaining Conradus Vorstius in the University of Leyden and against the violence offered unto that Alliance which is betwixt his Majesty and your Provinces which being founded upon the preservation and maintenance of the Reformed Religion you have not omitted to violate in the proceeding of this cause Of which enormous indignities committed against the Church of God and against his Majestie 's person in preferring the presence of Vorstius before his amity and alliance the King my Master holds himself bound to be sensible and if Reparation be not made and that speedily which cannot be by any other means than by sending Vorstius away his Majesty will make it appear unto the World by some Declaration which he will cause to be printed and published how much he detests the Atheisms and Heresies of Vorstius and all those that maintain favour and cherish them To this the States promised a better Answer at their next Assembly but that producing no good
Common-wealth from ruin in so great a time of danger And thus they address themselves to their great Pilot. Most dread and gracious Soveraign WE your most humble and loyal Subjects the Knights Citizens and Burgesses assembled in the Commons House of Parliament full of grief and unspeakable sorrow through the true sence of your Majesties displeasure expressed by your Letter lately sent to Our Speaker and by him related and read unto Us Yet comforted again with the assurance of your Grace and Goodness and of the sincerity of our own intentions and proceedings whereon with confidence we can rely in all humbleness beseech your most excellent Majesty that the Loyalty and Dutifulness of as faithful and loving Subjects as ever served or lived under a gracious Soveraign may not undeservedly suffer by the mis-information of partial and uncertain Reports which are ever unfaithful Intelligencers but that your Majesty would in the clearness of your own Judgment first vouchsase to understand from Our selves and not from others what our humble Declaration and Petition resolved upon by the Universal Voice of the House and proposed with your Gracious favour to be presented unto your Sacred Majesty doth contain Upon what Occasion we entred into Consideration of those things which are therein contained with what dutiful respect to your Majesty and your Service we did consider thereof and what was our true intention thereby And that when your Majesty shall thereby truly discern our dutiful Affections you will in your Royal judgment free us from those heavy Charges wherewith some of our Members are burthened and wherein the whole House is involved And we humbly beseech your Majesty that you will not hereafter give Credit to private Reports against all or any of the Members of our House whom the whole have not censured until your Majesty have been truly informed thereof from our selves and that in the mean time and ever we may stand upright in your Majesties Grace and good Opinion than which no worldly consideration is or can be dearer unto us When your Majesty had reassembled us in Parliament by your Royal Commandment sooner than we expected and did vouchsafe by the mouths of three honourable Lords to impart unto us the weighty occasions moving your Majesty thereunto And from them we did understand these particulars That notwithstanding your Princely and Pious indeavours to procure Peace the time is now come that Janus Temple must be opened That the Voice of Bellona must be heard and not the Voice of the Turtle That there was no hope of Peace nor any Truce to be obtained no not for a few days That your Majesty must either abandon your own Children or ingage your self in a war wherein Consideration is to be had what foot what horse what money would be sufficient That the Lower Palatinate was seized upon by the Army of the King of Spain as Executor of the Ban there in quality of Duke of Burgundy as the Upper Palatinate was by the Duke of Bavaria That the King of Spain at his own Charge had now at least five several Armies on foot That the Princes of the Union were disbanded but the Catholick league remained firm whereby those Princes so dissevered were in danger one by one to be ruined That the Estate of those of the Religion in Foreign parts was miserable And That out of these Considerations we were called to a war and forthwith to advise for a Supply for keeping the forces in the Palatinate from disbanding and to fore-see the means for raising and maintaining the body of an Army for the war against the Spring We therefore out of our Zeal to your Majesty and your Posterity with more alacrity and colerity than ever was precedented in Parliament did address our selves to the Service commended unto Us. And although we cannot conceive that the honor and safety of your Majesty and your posterity the patrimony of your Children invaded and possessed by their Enemies the welfare of Religion and State of your Kingdom are matters at any time unfit for our deepest consideration in time of Parliament And though before this time we were in some of these points silent yet being now invited thereunto and led on by so just an occasion we thought it Our Duties to provide for the present supply thereof and not only to turn our eyes on a war abroad but to take care for the securing of our peace at home which the dangerous increase and insolency of Popish Recusants apparently visibly and sensibly did lead us unto The consideration whereof did necessarily draw us truly to represent unto your Majesty what we conceive to be the Causes what we feared would be the effects and what we hoped might be the remedies of these growing Evils Among which as incident and unavoidable we fell upon some things which seem to touch upon the King of Spain as they have relation to Popish Recusants at home to the Wars by him maintained in the Palatinate against your Majestie 's Children and to his several Armies now on foot yet as we conceived without touch of dishonour to that King or any other Prince your Majestie 's Consederate In the discourse whereof we did not assume to our selves any power to determin of any part thereof nor intend to incroach or intrude upon the Sacred bounds of your Royal Authority to whom and to whom only we acknowledg it doth belong to resolve of Peace and War and of the Marriage of the most noble Prince your Son But as your most Loyal and humble Subjects and Servants representing the whole Commons of your Kingdom who have a large interest in the happy and prosperous estate of your Majesty and your Royal Posterity and of the flourishing Estate of our Church and Common-wealth did resolve out of our Cares and Fears truly and plainly to demonstrate these things to your Majesty which we were not assured could otherwise come so fully and clearly to your knowledg and that being done to lay the same down at your Majesties feet without expectation of any other answer of your Majesty touching these higher points than what at your good pleasure and in your own time should be held fit This being the effect of that we had formerly resolved upon and these the occasions and reasons inducing the same our humble suit to your Majesty and confidence is that your Majesty will be graciously pleased to receive at the hands of these our Messengers our former humble Declaration and Petition and to vouchsafe to read and favourably to interpret the same And that to so much thereof as containeth our humble Petition concerning Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants the passage of Bills and granting your Royal Pardon you will vouchsafe an answer unto us And whereas your Majesty by the general words of your Letter seemeth to restrain us from intermedling with matters of Government or particulars which have their motion in the Courts of Justice the generality of which words
money from the people or for what other intention is unknown But the very next day he sends this further Direction by Endimion Porter RIght Trusty c. We have given you certain Instructions signed with Our hand to direct you how to express unto the King of Spain the feeling We have of the Dishonour put upon Us by the Emperour through Our Trust and Confidence in that King's Promises wherein you have Order to come away without further delay in case you receive not Satisfaction to your Demands in such sort as We have Commanded you to propound them Nevertheless We are to put you in remembrance of that which We have heretofore told you in case a Rupture happen between the King of Spain and Us that We would be glad to manage it at Our best advantage And therefore however you do not find the Satisfaction which We in those Instructions crave from the King of Spain and have Reason to expect yet would We not have your instantly come away upon it but advertise Us first letting Us know privately if you find such cause that there is no good to be done nor no Satisfaction as you judge intended Us though Publikely and Outwardly you give out the contrary that We may make use thereof with Our People in Parliament as We shall hold best for Our Service And this seâ— you do notwithstanding any thing in your other Instructions to the contrary Dated 4. Octob. 1622. The right Honorable John Digby Earle of Bristol Baron of Shirborne Vice Chamberlaine to his Mar. and one of the Lords of his Maiesties most Honorable privy Counsell and Embassador extraordinary to the high and Mightie Philip the fourth king of Spaine Are to be Souto by William Peake IOANNES THERCLAES Comes de Tilli While they were thus Wire-drawing time spun out Manheim the chief Strength and Fortress in the Palatinate was taken by Tilly the Emperour's General whereof Sir Horatio Vere was Commander surrendred upon honourable Conditions having neither strength of Men or means to resist an Enemy Heidelberg before it as the King expressed was taken by Assault Sir Gerard Herbert the Commander of the Castle slain after he had repulsed the Enemy from the Assault breaking six Pikes upon them with his own hand And now Tilly Winter comeing on greedy to finish his work sits down before Frankendale whereof Major Barrowes had the Command a man of as much valour and experience as Time the Director and Spirit the Actor could make a man capable of But all this and the Strength of the Town to boot could not have protected them their Wants being stronger than their Enemy if Tilly had not been drowned up in his Trenches which forced his remove And though Our King said in his last Answer to the Parliament's Petition That the Enemy would have swallowed up his Forces in the Palatinate in eight daies if my Lord Digby had not succoured it yet the weakest of the three Places which is Heidelberg was not taken in a moment for Tilly in Iune last set down before it and was constrained to raise his Siege being not strong enough and coming again with a greater Power in the end of Iuly following he was there above two moneths before he took so much as any of their Out-Works And Manheim and Frankendale are two such strong Holds that if they had been well furnished with Men and Provisions they might have stood out against Tilly nay the great Turk as well if not better than Vienna the Imperial City As soon as the King had notice of the taking of Manheim he gives Bristol intimation of it and was very well satisfied of the King of Spain's good intentions for the Relief of it though Order sent to the Infanta arrived not there till the Town was surrendred Which was the old Spanish plot of Philip the Second to get Portugal into his hand wherein he cheated the Pope himself delaying his solicitations by his Legate Cardinal Riario for Don Antonio Bastard of Portugal with specious and pleasing entertainments till he had gotten the Castle of St. Iulians the greatest strength of the Kingdom then besieged by him into his power And yet our King looked upon this Apparition as Real and thanked the King of Spain for the good he never intended And now the Articles of Marriage that had been long hatching flew up and down from hand to hand The French Historians mention them so doth Mr. Pryn in his hidden Works of darkness as they were found among the Lord Cottington's Papers These came to me from the Nest and I have kept them till this time and comparing them with other Copies there is scarce a feather amiss Nor should they have pestered this paper but to shew what great pains was taken to little purpose what Huge pretences shouldred in to make way for the Spanish Designs which at last dwindled to nothing The Articles are these 1. THat the Marriage be made by Dispensation of the Pope but that to be procured by the endeavour of the King of Spain 2. That the Marriage be once celebrated in Spain and Ratified in England in form following In the morning after the most gracious Infanta hath ended her Devotions in the Chappel She and the most excellent Prince Charles shall meet in the King's Chappel or in some other Room of the Palace where it shall seem most expedient and there shall be read all the Procurations by Virtue whereof the Marriage was celebrated in Spain And as well the most excellent Prince as the most excellent Infanta shall ratifie the said Marriage celebrated in Spain with all Solemnity necessary to such an Act so as no Ceremony or other thing intervene which shall be contrary to the Roman-Catholik-Apostolik-Religion 3. That the Gracious Infanta shall take with Her such Servants and Family as are convenient for her service which Family and all Persons to her belonging shall be chosen and nominated by the Catholik King so as he nominate no Servant which is Vassail to the King of Great Britain without his will and consent 4. That as well the most gracious Lady Infanta as all her Servants and Family shall have free use and publique exercise of the Roman Catholike Religion in manner and form as is beneath Capitulated 5. That she shall have an Oratory and decent Chappel in her Palace where at the pleasure of the most Gracious Infanta Masses may be celebrated which Oratory or Chappel shall be adorned with such decencie as shall seem convenient for the most gracious Infanta with a publike Church in London c. 6. That the Men-servants and Maid-servants of the most Gracious Infanta and their Servants Children and Descendents and all their Families of what sort soever serving her Highness may be freely Catholiks 7. That the most gracious Infanta her Servants and Family may be freely Catholiks in form following 8. That the most gracious Infanta may have in her Palace her Oratory and Chappel
good Gardiners you pluck up the weeds that will choak your labours and the greatest weeds among you are jealousies root them out for my Actions I dare avow them before God but jealousies are of a strange depth I am the husband and you the wife and it is subject to the wife to be jealous of her husband Let this be far from you It hath been talked of my remisness in maintainance of Religion and suspicion of a toleration but as God shall judge me I never thought nor meant or ever in word expressed any thing that savored of it It is true that at times best known to my self I did not so fully put those lawes in execution but did wink and Connive at some things which might have hindred more weighty Affaires But I never in all my Treaties agreed to any thing to the overthrow or disagreeing of those Lawes But in all I had a chief regard to the preservation of that Truth which I have ever professed And in that respect as I have a Charitable conceit of you I would have you have the like of me also in which I did not transgress For it is a good Horseman's part not alwayes to use the Spur nor keep streight the Reign but sometimes to use the Spur and sometimes to suffer the Reign more remiss So it is the part of a Wise King and my Age and experience have informed me sometimes to quicken the Laws with strict Execution and at other times upon just Occasion to be more remiss And I would also remove from your thoughts all jealousies that I might or ever did question or infringe any of your lawful liberties or privileges But I protest before God I ever intended you should injoy the fulness of all those that from antient times give good Warrant and Testimony of which if need be I will inlarge and amplifie Therefore I would have you as I have in this place heretofore told you as Saint Paul did Timothy avoid Genealogies and curious questions and quirks and jerks of Law and idle innovations and if you minister me no just Occasion I never yet was nor ever will be curious or captious to quarrel with you But I desire you to avoid all doubts and hindrances and to compose your selves speedily and quietly to this weighty affair Carry your selves modestly and my Prayers shall be to God for you and my love shall be alwayes with you that a happy Conclusion may attend this Parliament God is my Judge I speak it as a Christian King never any way faring Man in the burning drie and sandy Desarts more thirsted for water to quench his thirst than I thirst and long for the happy success of this Parliament that the good issue of this may expiate and aâ—quit the fruitless issue of the former And I pray God your Counsels may advance Religion the publick weal and the good of me and my Children When the King had thus ended the Lord Keeper Williams Bishop of Lincoln and Speaker to the House of Peers who uses always to make the King's mind further known if there because told the Parliament That after the Eloquent speech of his Majesty he would not say anything for as one of the Spartan Kings being asked whether he would not willingly hear a man that counterfeited the voice of the Nightingale to the life made answer He had heard the Nightingale So for him to repeat or rehearse what the King had said was according to the Latine Proverb to enamel a Golden Ring with studs of iron He doubted not but that the King's Speech had like Aeschines Orations left in their minds a sting And as an Historian said of Nerva that having adopted Trajan he was immediately taken away Nepost divinum et immortale factum aliquid mortale faceret So he would not dare after his Majesties Divinum et immortale dictum mortale aliquid addere HONORATISS et REUERENDISS Dê° IOHANES WILIAMES EPISC. LINC et MAG SIGILL ANG 〈◊〉 The right Honourable and right-reverend father in god Iohn Lorde Bishop of Lincolne Lord keeper of the greate Seale of England and one of his Ma.ties most hon ble princes Counsell But the Parliament though they knew there was an intention of a Toleration of Popery upon the close of the Spanish match sealed up as it were their lips and would not see the light that discovered it self through this cloud that the King cast before it though some of the Commons had much ado to hold which he takes notice of at the next Interview and thanks them for but they went on directly to his Business making it their own forgetting all former miscarriages And upon the 24. of this moneth the Duke of Buckingham accompanied with the Prince as his Remembrancer made a long Relation of all the transactions in Spain to both Houses with all the advantage he could to make good his own Actions some of the Particulars whereof are already related And he took the first Discovery of the intention of the King of Spain not to deal fairly with Our King touching the Restitution of the Palatinate from the Arch-dutchess jugling in the Treaty at Bruxels which was managed by Sir Richard Weston our King's Ambassadour there who urged for a Cessation of Armes in the Palatinate the Arch-Dutchess pretending Power to draw off the Spanish Forces if Our King would first draw off his it came to an Agreement but in the close after some Delayes she confessed she had no Power to admit of a Cessation till she had more particular warrant for it out of Spain That these shufflings made Our King send Porter into Spain for a more resolute answer in relation to the Match and the Palatinate and assigned him but ten dayes to stay there In which time Bristol fed him with Hopes which he found very Empty ones whereupon Porter went boldly to Olivares who in an open-hearted way told him plainly that Spain meant neither the Match nor Restitution of the Palatinate Bristol seeing Porter would return with this answer persuaded him to speak with Olivares again who coming to Olivares found him much incensed for relating the private intimation he gave him to Bristol the Publick minister and denyed to speak with Porter anymore Bristol still puffs up Our King with an assurance both of the Match and restitution of the Palatinate but they proceeding slowly the Prince desired that he might go himself into Spain which Buckingham first broke to the King who with Reasons laid down for it was drawn to it When the Prince came there the Match at first was absolutely denied unless he would be converted which Bristol perswaded the Prince unto at least in shew to expedite his Business Then the Spanish Ministers urged for a Toleration of Religion in England which they hoped as some of them expressed would cause a Rebellion and they offered the Prince an Army to Assist him for the Suppression of the same But the Prince finding the Spanish did
or wary in such an Eruption as this so contrary to his Nature as he saith himself a War was a new World to him fearing to lay out by it more than he should receive And in this he was like the Man that when his Master gave great Charge to go and gather up his Rents in the Country and to take a pair of Pistols with him to bring home his Money with the more security After the Master had appointed him to pay so much in one place and so much in another that the Man saw he should not receive so much as he should disburse Bid his Master take his Pistols again he should not use them So the King fearing that when the War was begun there would not be where withal to maintain it Thanked the Parliament for their Advice and he would consider better of it And they seeling the King's Pulse by his expressions resolved now not to let him flag but to keep up the temper of his Spirit that a little thing would make decline again And therefore they seriously settled to their Business and answered his Expectation fully which they presented unto him shortly after in these words to his great Satisfaction Most Gracious Soveraign WE your Majesties most Humble and Loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons in this present Parliament assembled do first render to your Sacred Majesty Our most Dutiful Thanks for that to Our unspeakable Comfort you have vouchsafed to express your Self so well satisfied with Our late Declaration made unto your Majesty of Our general Resolution in pursuit of Our Humble Advice to assist your Majesty in a Parliamentary way with Our Persons and Abilities And whereas your Majesty in your Great Wisdom and Iudgment foreseeing that it will make a deeper impression both in the Enemies of that Cause and in your Friends and Allies if they shall not onely hear of the Cheerful Offers but also see the Real performance of your Subjects towards so great a Work Your Majesty was pleased to descend to a particular Proposition for the advancing of this great Business We therefore in all humbleness most ready and willing to give your Majesty and the whole World an ample Testimony of Our Sincere and Dutiful Intentions herein upon Mature Advice and Deliberation as well of the Weight and Importance of this great Affair as of the present Estate of this your Kingdom the Weal and Safety whereof is in Our Iudgments apparently threatned if your Majesties Resolution for the Dissolving of the Treaties now in question be longer deferred and that Provision for defence of your Realm and aid of your Friends and Allies be not seasonably made have with a Cheerful Consent of all the Commons no one dissenting and with a Full and Cheerful Consent of the Lords Resolved That upon your Majesties publique Declaration for the Dissolution and utter Discharge of both the said Treaties of the Marriage and the Palatinate in pursuit of Our Advice therein and towards the Support of that War which is likely to ensue And more particularly for those four Points proposed by your Majesty Namely for the Defence of this your Realm the Securing of Ireland the assistance of your Neighbours the States of the United Provinces and other your Majesties Friends and Allies and for the setting forth of your Royal Navy We will grant for the present the greatest Aid which ever was given in Parliament That is to say Three intire Subsidies and three Fifteens to be all paid within the compass of one whole Year after your Majestie shall be pleased to make the said Declaration The Money to be paid into the Hands and expended by the Direction of such Committees or Commissioners as hereafter shall be agreed upon at this present Session of Parliament And We most humbly beseech your Majesty to accept of these First Fruits of Our Hearty Oblation dedicated to that Work which We infinitely desire may prosper and be advanced And for the Future to rest confidently assured That We your Loyal and Loving Subjects will never fail in a Parliamentary way to assist your Majestie in so Royal a Design wherein your Own Honour and the Honour of your most Noble Son the Prince the Antient Renown of this Nation the Welfare and very Subsistence of your Noble and Onely Daughter and her Consort and their Posterity the Safety of your Own Kingdom and People and the Prosperity of your Neighbours and Allies are so deeply ingaged The Parliament by this Declaration came up so close to the King that he could make no evasion but rested contented now in his Latter time when the Almonds as it were begun to Blossom upon his head to plunge himself into a War which brought him again to the Parliament to thank them for their Readiness to assist him telling them That he is willing to follow their advice in the Anulling and Breach of these two Treaties They having given enough to begin a War but when the end will be he said God knows Yet he will ingage for himself and his Son his Successour That no means shall be left unused for recovery of the Palatinate And for all his Old Age if it might do any good he would go in person to further the Business But as he is contented to have the Parliament Committees to dispose of the Moneys by their Directions so the Design must not be acted by publique Councels For whether he shall send Two thousand or Ten thousand whether by Sea or Land East or West by Diversion or Invasion upon the Bavarian or the Emperor that must be left to the King And this he did that there might be no jealousies but to smooth every Rub betwixt them And to put it in execution a Council of War is chosen out of the old and long discontinued Militia of Ireland and some others of the Nobility and upon result of their Counsels after some debate it was concluded to send fix thousand men for the present into the Low Countreys to joyn with the States Forces against the King of Spain's mighty Armies under the command of Marquess Spinola that threatned the next Summer to over-run the Netherlands that weakning the Spaniard in Flanders they might have the more free access into Germany The Dissolution of the Treaties with Spain and the preparation for War resounding in every Ear gave such an Allarm to the Spanish Ambassadour the Marquess of Inoiosa that whether out of Truth and Knowledge as he pretended or Malice only cannot be determined But he sent to the King to let him know that the Duke of Buckingham had some dangerous Machination a foot that tended to his Destruction and the best he could expect would be a confinement to a Countrey-house in some Park during his life the Prince being now in full abilities and ripe in Government This Concussion was strong enough to shake an old Building that was of a fearful and tottering Temper especially if he considered how his Mother was
put by her Government to say nothing of Prince Henry but the violence of it did not work because the Operation was somewhat mitigated by the Duke's Protestation of his Innocency For the King at the next Interview saying to him Ah Stenny Stenny which was the Familiar name he alwayes used to him Wilt thou kill me The Duke struck into an Astonishment with the Expression after some little Pause collected himself and with many asseverations strove to justify his Integrity which the good King was willing enough to Believe and Buckingham finding by some discourse that Padre Macestria the Spanish Iesuit had been with the King he had then a large Theme for his Vindication turning all upon the Spanish Iesuitical Malice which proceeded from the ruins of their quashed Hopes And the King knowing Inoiosa and all that Party very bitter against Buckingham and though he did not directly accuse the Prince to be in the Conspiracy with Buckingham yet he reflected upon him for such an attempt could never have been effected without his Privity therefore out of the Bowels of good Nature he did unbelieve it and after Examinations of some Persons the Duke's Intimates and their constant denyal upon oath which they had no good Cause to confess the King was content being loth to think such an Enterprize could be fostred so neer his own Bosom to have the Brat strangled in the Womb. And he presently sent into Spain to desire Iustice of that King against the Ambassadours false Accusation which he said wounded his Son's Honour through Buckingham's side which Sir Walter Aston represented to the King of Spain for Bristol was coming over to justifie his Actions to the Parliament But the Duke of Buckinghams reputation there procured no other Satisfaction than some little check of formality for when Inoiosa was recalled home he was not lessen'd in esteem Thus was this Information waved though there might be some cause to suspect that the great intimacy and Dearness betwixt the Prince and Duke like the conjunction of two dreadful planets could not but portend the production of some very dangerous effect to the old King But the Duke's Reputation though it failed in Spain held firm footing in England for Bristol no sooner appeared but he is clapt up in the Tower Their jugling practices whereof they were Both guilty enough must not yet come to light to disturb the Proceedings in Parliament Bristol had too much of the King's Commission for what he did though he might overshoot himself in what he said which was not now to be discovered Yet the Rigor of that imprisonment would have sounded too loud if he had not had a suddain Release who finding the Duke high mounted yet in power and himself in no Degree to grapple with him was content with Submission to gain his liberty and retire himself to a Country privacy The Lords being now at leisure began to consider of that stinging petition as the King called it against Papists how necessary it was to joyn with the Commons to supplicate the King to take down the pride of their high-flying Hopes that had been long upon the Wing watching for their prey and now they are made to stoop without it And after some Conferences betwixt both Houses about it the Petition was reduced to these two Propositions and presented to the King as two Petitions We your Majestie 's most humble and loyal Subjects the Lords and Commons assembled in Parliament do in all humbleness offer unto your Sacred Majesty these two Petitions following 1. That for the more safety of your Realms and better keeping your Subjects in Obedience and other important Reasons of State your Majesty would be pleased by some such course as you shall think fit to give present Order that all the Laws be put in due execution which have been made and do stand in force against Jesuits Seminary Priests and others having taken Orders by authority derived from the See of Rome and generally against all Popish Recusants And as for disarming that it may be according to the Laws and according to former Acts and Directions of State in that Case And yet that it may appear to all the World the Favour and Clemency your Majesty useth towards all your Subjects of what Condition soever And to the intent the Jesuits and Priests now in the Realm may not pretend to be surprized that a speedy and certain may be prefixed by your Majesties Proclamation before which day they shall depart out of this Kingdom and all other your Highness Dominions and neither they nor any other to return or come hither again upon peril of the severest Penalties of the Laws now in force against them And that all your Majesties Subjects may thereby also be admonished not to receive entertain or conceal any of them upon the Penalties and Forfeitures which by the Laws may be imposed on them 2. Seeing We are thus happily delivered from that danger which those Treaties now dissolved and that use which your ill-affected Subjects made thereof would certainly have drawn upon us and yet cannot but foresee and fear lest the like may hereafter happen which would inevitably bring much peril upon your Majesties Kingdoms We are most humble Suters unto your Gracious Majesty to secure the Hearts of your good Subjects by the ingagement of your Royal Word unto them that upon no occasion of Marriage or Treaty or other request in that behalf from any forein Prince or State whatsoever you will take away or slacken the Execution of your Laws against Jesuits Priests and Popish Recusants To which Our humble Petitions proceeding from Our most Loyal and Dutiful affections towards your Majesty Our Care of Our Countries good and our own confident persuasion that these will much advance the Glory of Almighty God the everlasting Honour of your Majesty the Safety of your Kingdoms and the incouragement of all your good Subjects We do most humbly beseech your Majesty to vouchsafe a gracious Answer The King was prepared for the Petition having given his own Resolution the Check at present that whatsoever he might do hereafter yet now he would comply and therefore he sends for both Houses to Whitehall to sweeten them with a gentle answer to this Petition that might take off those sour aspersions that this miscarriage in Government might happily cast upon him And we will not say but his intentions might rove towards the End though he gave too much liberty through a Natural easiness in himself to those that He trusted with Management of the great affairs by evil means to pervert that end which made him guilty of their Actions For where true Piety is not the Director Carelesness as often as Wilfulness carries men out of the way But he had this Principle and made often use of it like ill Tenants when they let things run to ruin to daub all up again when forced to it and find no other Remedy This was the effect of