Selected quad for the lemma: parliament_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
parliament_n	house_n	king_n	officer_n	2,496	5	7.4181	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48068	A letter from Major General Ludlow to Sir E.S. [i.e. Sir Edward Seymour] comparing the tyranny of the first four years of King Charles the martyr, with the tyranny of the four years reign of the late abdicated King : occasioned by the reading Doctor Pelling's lewd harangues upon the 30th of January, being the anniversary or General Madding-day.	Ludlow, Edmund, fl. 1691-1692.	1691 (1691)	Wing L1489; ESTC R3060	20,681	33

the same without Act of Parliament is a breach of the fundamental Liberties of the Kingdom and contrary to the King's Answer to the 〈◊〉 of Right However by order of Council he commanded the Customs to be levyed Pursuant thereto the Custom-House Officers seized great quantities of the Goods of Mr. Vassal a Merchant because he refused to pay Customs and an Information being brought in the Exchequer Mr. Vassal pleaded Magna Charta and the Statute de 〈◊〉 non 〈◊〉 c. and that the 〈◊〉 was not 〈◊〉 seu certa 〈◊〉 and that it was imposed without assent of Parliament The Attorny 〈◊〉 having demurred to Mr. 〈◊〉 's Plea and he joyned in demurrer The Barons of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 denied to hear Mr. Vassal's Counsel to argue for him and said that the King was in Possession and they would keep him in Possession And shortly after they imprisoned Mr. Vassal for not paying the Customs as he had been before for refusing the Loan The Goods of Mr. John Rolls a Merchant and Member of Parliament and of Mr. Richard Chambers a Merchant being seized for Non-payment of Customs They brought Writs of Replevin to regain the Possession of their Goods but the Barons of the 〈◊〉 sent an Injunction to the Sheriffs of London commanding them not to execute the Writs Also the Warehouse of Mr. Rolls was lock'd up by 〈◊〉 at the time when he was sitting in Parliament Mr. Chambers was likewise prosecuted in the Star-Chamber for saying that the Merchants are in no part of the World 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 as in England That in Turkey they have more encouragement For this he was 〈◊〉 2000 〈◊〉 committed to the Fleet and ordered to make Submission which being drawn up and tendred to him he thus like a brave English Man underwrote it All the abovesaid Contents and Submission I do utterly abhor and detest as most unjust and false and never till death will acknowledge any part thereof Rich. Chambers To this he added Wo to them that devise Iniquity because it is in the power of their hand and they covet 〈◊〉 and take them by Violence and Houses and take them away So they 〈◊〉 a Man and his House even a Man and his Heritage Micah 2. 1 2. Now Sir to draw towards a Conclusion I shall observe that no Rank or Order of Men stood clear from the 〈◊〉 of this Tyrant He kept the 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 under Confinement near two Years without being charg'd with any Accusation or brought to Tryal or Permitted to answer for himself And upon his Petitioning the Lords to be 〈◊〉 to his Liberty and to his Seat in Parliament and 〈◊〉 an Accusation against the Duke of 〈◊〉 This King upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for him in Custody as a Delinquent and prosecuted him as such Also He committed the 〈◊〉 of Arundel to the Tower in time of Parliament without expressing any Cause of his 〈◊〉 in Violation of the 〈◊〉 of the 〈◊〉 This 〈◊〉 was long detained a Prisoner though the House of Lords presented a Remonstrance and many Petitions for 〈◊〉 him to Parliament And As he oppressed our best Patriots so 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sheltred the grand Enemies of the Commonwealth When the 〈◊〉 in Parliament prosecuted the Duke of 〈◊〉 as the Principal Patron and Supporter of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 set on foot to the Danger of the Church and State As a Perso notorious in Evil that all our Evils came by him As the Man who had cast the Body of the Kingdom into an high Consumption The King interposed to rescue 〈◊〉 When the Commons impeach'd him and by one of their Articles charg'd him in effect with the Murder of King James The King told the House of Lords that to approve Buckingham's Innocence he could be a Witness to clear him in every one of the Articles When the Earl of Bristol exhibited Articles to the Lords against the Duke the King took upon himself to become a Witness to accuse the Earl of Traiterous Practices some Years before Notwithstanding nothing grows to abuse but the House of Commons hath Power to treat of it and it hath been their Ancient and Undoubted Right and Usage to question and complain of all Persons of what Degree soever 〈◊〉 grievous to the Commonwealth Whereof there was a noted Instance in 30 Edw. 3. 〈◊〉 When they accused John de Gaunt the King's Son for misleading and misadvising the King and he went to the Tower for it yet our King told the House of Commons that he would not allow any of his Servants to be questioned amongst them much less such as were near him That he saw they aimed at the Duke but assured them he had not intermedled nor done any thing concerning the Publick but by his special Directions He added that he wondred at the foolish Impudence of any Man to think he should be drawn to offer such a Sacrifice He in scorn and defiance of the Parliament procured the Laudean Faction in the University of Cambridge who were gaping for Ecclesiastical Preferment to choose the Duke their Chancellor at the Time when he stood Impeach'd in Parliament He constantly gave interruption to the Parliament when they had the Duke's Offences under Examination not bearing their mentioning his Name and Misdoings And he dissolved three Parliaments when they were intent upon his Prosecution refusing a Petition of the House of Lords against one of those Dissolutions and denying them Access to his Person Upon the Dissolution of his second Parliament he sent Sir Dudly Diggs and Sir John Elliot Prisoners to the Tower to the infringing the undoubted Priviledges of the Commons for managing a Conference with the Lords upon their Impeaching the Duke He in the time of his 3 d. Parliament sent Warrants for sealing up of the Studies of Sir John Elliot Mr. Holles and Mr. Selden and also sent 〈◊〉 to Mr. Holles Sir Miles Hobart Sir John Elliot Sir Peter Hayman John Selden William Coryton Walter Long William Strode and Benjamin Valentine Esqrs all Members to appear before the Privy Council Mr. Holles Sir John Elliot Mr. Coriton and Mr. Valentine appeared and refusing to answer out of Parliament what was said and done in Parliament they were during the Parliament committed close Prisoners to the Tower and a 〈◊〉 was issued for apprehending Mr. Long and Mr. Strode who coming in were committed close Prisoners to the King's Bench And all the rest of the before named Members were committed to several Prisons These imprisoned Gentlemen in Trinity Term following 1629. brought their 〈◊〉 of 〈◊〉 Corpus and were brought to the King's Bench-Count where very learned Arguments were made on their behalf shewing the Illegality of their Imprisonment and being to be brought again upon another day to receive the Judgment of the Court they were by the unpresidented Arbitrary Practices of that time removed and shifted to other Prisons and toss'd from Goal to Goal and by that wicked Artifice as they were imprisoned in notorious Breach of the Priviledge

of Parliament so were they now deprived of the Fruit of the Habeas Corpus and of the Benefit of Freeborn Subjects for obtaining their Liberty and were long deteined in Prison and the brave Sir John Elliot ended his days in the Tower not without Suspicion of foul Play But why have I deteined you so long in recounting these particular Violations of the Priviledges of Parliament when 't is so evident that this King struck at the very being of Parliaments as many Instances fully demonstrate Sir Dudly Carleton his Vice-Chamberlain and a Privy-Counsellor whom he soon after created a Lord warned the Commons to take heed of bringing the King out of love with Parliaments and said that in all Christian Kingdoms Parliaments were anciently in use until the Monarchs began to know their own Strength and at last overthrew Parliaments throughout Christendom except here only with us He proceeded setting forth the wretched Condition of Subjects in Foreign Countries and said This is a Misery which yet We are free from Let us then be careful to preserve the King' s good Opinion of Parliaments lest 〈◊〉 lose the repute of a Freeborn Nation by our Turbulency in Parliaments The King himself sent a threatning Message to the Commons that if he had not a timely Supply he would betake himself to New Counsels Which could only mean the putting an End to the use of Parliaments At another time speaking to the Lords and Commons he said Remember that Parliaments are altogether in my Power therefore as I find the Fruits of them good or evil They are to continue or not to be At the opening of the Parliament the 17 th of March 1627. he told them if they should not contribute what the State needed he must use those other Means which God and Laud Sibthorp and Manwaring c. had put into his hands To this the Lord Keeper added that if the King found the readiness of their Supplies he might the better forbear the Use of his Prerogative That the King chose that way of Parliament not as the only way but as the 〈◊〉 Not as destitute of others but as most agreeable to his Disposition Thus Sir have I as I promised run through the first four Years of this King and shew'd you how our Liberties and Properties were invaded How our Religion and Government were undermined How an Army was raised to subject our Fortunes to the Will of Power and to make good the Breaches upon our Liberties And how Parliaments were contemned and cast off so that it was well and truly said in the House of Commons that the Subject suffered more in the first three Years of this King in Violation of Ancient Liberties than in three hundred Years before It remains now That I recal into your Memory what the Carriage of our Parliaments was under this Universal Oppression Why their Temper Mildness and Moderation was incredible as their Speeches Petitions and even Remonstrances do evince They dealt long with the King with no other Weapons but Sweetness Trust and Confidence and 't was their only Endeavour and End to make up all Rents and Breaches between the King and his Subjects but they found in him A sowerness of Temper Fierceness of Disposition and Pride joyned with a peevishness of Humour not to bear the having his Will disputed or 〈◊〉 by the established known Laws He was wilful and inexorable and knew not the things of his Peace Having Abdicated Parliaments for from this Time We had eleven Years Interval of Parliament He as idle Boys say when they act Mischief began to play absolute Reaks instead of Rex 'T is a certain Rule Nemo repente 〈◊〉 turpissimus and I have here given you but a Tast of the Miserable and Calamitous State under which he laid us as you must conclude when you remember how after the Dissolution of his third Parliament he betook himself to New Counsels and exerted his Sovereign Absolute Power and how despotically he used and exercised them Were I to continue his History as I may in another Letter if you accept this when I lead you into Westminster Hall you would see the Illegal and Wicked Judgments of the Courts there to the compleat Overthrow of the Liberty of our Persons and the Property of our Goods and in opening to you his accursed Star-Chamber and High Commission Courts I should shew you his most Cruel and Barbarous 〈◊〉 Pilloryings Stigmatizings c. His Suspending Excommunicating Depriving and Imprisoning the Conforming Clergy of the Church of England for Preaching against Popery for not Reading his Book for Sports on the Lord's Day and for not Making Corporal Reverence at the Name of Jesus I should not forget to lay before you his Billeting of Soldiers and his most Arbitrary Imposing and Exacting of Ship Money against the known Laws and contrary to his Late Promise in the Petition of Right and which is never to be forgotten his Accession to the Horrid Murders of those many Thousands of Miserable Protestants who fell in Ireland But To conclude your present Trouble We long bore our Heavy Burdens and the Yoke of this 〈◊〉 with Patience even almost to the Breaking of our Backs at length no other Moans availing to rescue Us from Utter Ruin We strugled to continue the English Liberties to our selves and to the Generations that should come after us and to leave our Posterity as free as our Ancestors left us And had we not so done and that in the way we did it where had your English Liberties been at this Day The Great Lord Hollis told you the Truth therein in his Letter to Van 〈◊〉 in the Year 1676 when he said That had not We in the Parliament of 1640 interposed the English Government must have sunk e're now for save what we did Not one true Stroke had been struck since Queen Elizabeth SIR Having now made an End with my Tyrant and by the Particulars which I have presented to your View set it beyond all possibility of rational Controul That the Tyrants of whom I have treated were at least Parallels I shall now offer one Word for my self which is That in whatsoever I have said I have had a Due and Faithful Regard to Truth and do challenge even Pelling himself who ought for his own Vindication to do it if he can to convict me of Falshood in any one Particular here charged upon his In comparable Prince and if you shall esteem me over-tart in any of my Expressions I say That if to call a Spade a Spade be unbecoming I have transgressed if not I cannot see how I ought to have expressed the Despotick and Arbitrary Pranks I have mentioned by any other Name than Tyranny nor to have stilled him who acted them other than a Tyrant And as to my Reverend Doctor it seems a Difficulty to me to find Words proper and severe enough whereby to brand and stamp a Character of Infamy upon him who with such Loathsome