Providence The Duke of Albemarle in his way to Oxford gave a needless visit to his Father the Duke of York who sitting at the Table chanced to spy something like a Scrole or Parchment in his Sons Breast whereupon he demanded what it was and being not satisfied suddenly he snatched it out with some passion and upon view finding it to be a Counterpart of the Indenture of Confederacy he ordered his Horses to be immediately made ready with intention to go to the King then at Windsor to discover the Plot to him but Youth being more active then Age the Son got before him and being himself the first Accuser of himself obtain'd his Pardon before his Father could come to prove him Guilty The rest of the Lords suspecting by his not keeping time with them that all was discover'd fly to Arms and setting up a Counterfeit Richard who they pretended was escaped out of Prison they advanced to Windsor where not finding the King for he distrusting his Cause no less then his Power had posted before to London they sell upon desperate Counsels Some were of Opinion to march to Leeds in Kent where King Richard till then was and rescue him out of Prison before their Property was found out Others thought it best to march directly up to London and set upon the Usurper before he were ready for his Defence Some again advised to make a defensive War till they might have Aid from the King of France which last Proposal took place as being most agreeable to that Irresolution which their Guilt had brought upon them and accordingly they retreated to Reading and from thence marched down to Leicester led by the hand of Destiny to receive there their fatal Doom accelerated by an Accident not less unexpected then the former For it so happen'd that the Grand Conspirators coming out of their Camp to repose themselves in the Town the Duke of Surrey and Earl of Salisbury lying in one Inne the Duke of Exeter and the Earl of Gloucester in another the Bayliff of the Town by what occasion provoked or by what Spirit directed is not known with a Party of his Fellow Townes-men set upon the two first and stormed them in their Quarters and without consideration that their Army was so near press'd so hard upon them as to kill divers of their Retinue that defended the place and indanger'd their Persons so far that the other two Lords to divert their Fury fired the Town in several places but this not prevailing to give any Relief they retired to bring their Army to rescue them but when they came there they found the same means by which they design'd to save them was the occasion of their loss for those in the Camp hearing the Noise of the Onset and seeing the Town in Flames believing it could be nothing less then the Kings Forces that had done it fled every one their several wayes and so left the distressed Duke and Earl to mercy who like two Lions in a Toil baited with Dogs dyed fighting being rather wearied then vanquished And so King Henry that never could get their Hearts living had the good Fortune to recover their Heads being dead and not long after found a way to reduce the other two under the same Fate the Abbot suddenly dying upon the apprehension of their being dissipated This last Insurrection cost so much of the best English Blood that those of the Welch Blood thought the State so much weakned by it that they might venture to wrastle a Fall with them and accordingly they put in for the recovery of their antient Liberties being incouraged by one Owen Glendour a private Gentleman of more then ordinary Reputation amongst them who mov'd with the sense of a particular Grudge of his own incited them to a general Defiance of the English And first setting upon the Lord Gray of Ruthin who had recover'd certain Lands from him at Law took him Prisoner and repossess'd himself of them after this storming the Castle of Wigmore he took the great Earl of Maâ—ch Prisoner the true Heir of the Crown after the death of King Richard and prevail'd so far that had he been as skilful in keeping as he was in getting of Victories he might have made himself Master of that Greatness as would have been as much above his Enemies Prevention as his own Ambition King Henry hearing that Mortimer was taken caus'd it to be bruted abroad that it was done with his own Consent and thereupon refus'd to redeem him which so incens'd Henry sirnamed Hotspur Son of the first Earl of Northumberland of the Family of the Peircy's who had married his Daughter that he together with his Uncle the Earl of Worcester went over to Glendour and entring into a Tripartite League with him agreed to Depose the Deposer and divide the whole Kingdom betwixt them Wales that is all the Land beyond Severn Westward was to be the Principality of Glendour The Countries from Trent Northward was the Lot of the Peircy's in memory whereof the same being in the Geographical Form of a half Moon they have since given the Crescent for the Cognizance All the rest betwixt Severn and Trent Eastward and Southward was consign'd to Mortimer as his Portion Thus the Dragon the Lion and the Wolf conspired against the Antelope as he before against the Hart his Soveraign and taught by himself they assaulted him with Arms and Articles the last perhaps more dangerous then the first by how much they fought him at his own Weapons The first Article was That he had by his Letters procured Burgesses and Knights of Parliament to be chosen unduly which being one of the Arrows out of his own Quiver with which he had wounded King Richard before troubled him not a little to see it return'd back upon himself The second Article was That he had falsified the Oath made at his first landing when he swore he came over for no other end but to recover his Inheritance The third was That he had not only taken Arms against his Soveraign but having imprison'd him took first his Crown away and after his Life And lastly That ever since his death he had detain'd the Crown from the true Heir Edmund Earl of March their Allie for which Causes they defied him and vowed his Destruction This was the second Earth-quake in this Kings Reign and so much more terrible then the former in that it shuck the very Foundation of all his Greatness by the noise of their Calumniations wherewith as they batter'd him several wayes so they left him the prospect of nothing but dismal Confusion to ensue The Welch goaded him on the one side the Scots on the other those English of Mortimer's party allarm'd him every way But he that wanted not Confidence whilst he wanted a Title to aspire to the Crown when it was uncertain whether he should ever get it or no having got it could not want Courage to keep it and if he were able being
when he was so seemingly lost by the help of the same Invisible Hand that after led his Son thorow many greater dangers and brought him home safe beyond all hope but stooping to this low Pitch to subject himself to those who had so much despis'd all Subjection they thought it a Complement to him to estimate him at so high a rate as that of their Arrears Had he cast himself upon the Parliament in the first place 't is possible by letting go his hold so unexpectedly as he did he might have given them the Fall when they were so hard tugging with him it being more then probable that the long abus'd People finding how he not only sought Peace but pursu'd it might have been mov'd to have indeavour'd his Restoration as tumultuously as they did his Dethronation restoring his Dignity as disorderly as they took it from him which how much the Hogen Mogens of Westminster dreaded appears by the surprize upon them when a little before his giving himself up to the Scots it was bruted that he was conceal'd in London But as in great Storms great Pilots are forc'd when they can no longer bear Sail to let the Vessel drive and take its chance so he being no longer able to Stem the Tide after having done all that could be hop'd for from Prudence was fain to commit himself to Providence and follow it without Light or Compass thorow many dark Dispensations and fantastick Changes the result of their Inconstancy Inhumanity and Impiety from whom he was afterward to expect his doom Trust makes us our own Traytors nor could he Alâ—yn Vit. H. 7. Be sav'd by Faith but Infidelity Having now lost his Authority from the time he lost his Liberty as the last was the occasion of ending the first Civil War so the first was the cause of beginning a second For now all the Doggs fell together by the Ears over the Marybone The Army quarrelled with the Parliament they with one another the Commons differed from the Lords the Scots divided as much from the English the Presbyterians from the Independants Great was the Dissention amongst the Brethren and all for Place Power or Profit for either of which the King appearing to be the best Pawn the Army took him from the Parliament Commissioners to secure him in their own Custody which was so ill resented by the ruling Members that all their Consultations were about disbanding them Upon which the Army drew up a Charge and disbanded Eleven of them the first * The now Lord Hollis whereof was the first of those Five Members impeached by the King who were so little able to trifle with them as they did with him that they were fain not only to quit the House but the Kingdom After this the Army sent up a †The A mies Representation An. 1647. Representation as they call'd it to the two Houses propâ—sing 1. To purge out all those that ought not to sit there meaning all the Presbyterian Party 2. To disable those who had shew'd themselves disaffected to the Army that they might do no mischief meaning those who had voted with the Eleven Secluded Members 3. To settle a determinate Period for their Sitting intending to have all rul'd by the Sword 4. To give Accompt of the vast Sums they had received during the War intending the Overplus to be divided amongst themselves This so incouraged the Independent Party that they voted in favour of the Army to take the Militia of the City of London out of the Citizens hands who were for the most part of the Presbyterian Faction Upon which a Party of Apprentices came down and making the grand Representatives Prisoners in their own House did as I may say ram their Vote down their Throats making them not only retract it but Vote the Militia back again to the City Hereupon they call'd for Aid to the Army and the apprehensions of what Effects their coming up might have divided the Common-Councel of London as much as the last Riot had those of Westminster so that the General easily entred at the breach and possess'd himself of the Strength of the City Now as Maggots are ingendred by warmth out of Corruption so by the heat of these corrupted Factions there was kindled a Generation of Vermin call'd Agitators which were like the Locusts that rose out of the smoak of the bottomless Pit mentioned in the Revelations c. 9. v. 3. to whom sayes the Text was given power like as the Scorpions of the Earth have power who not liking that the King should continue so near as Hampton-Court found an expedient to fright him from thence by muttering something like an intended Assassination the discovery whereof they knew would quickly be brought to him and tempt him to make a private Escape knowing well that they had him as a Bird in a string and could take him again when they pleas'd which Counsel if it had been rejected by him 't is probable he had been murther'd in good earnest but he flying thereupon to the Isle of Wight where he was secur'd by their fast Friend the * Hamen Governour there they thought they might adventure to treat with him at that distance Accordingly they consented that the Parliament should tender him these four modest Propositions following to be reduced into Acts. 1. That it should be lawful for the Parliament to order and dispose the Militia as they pleas'd for the future without his consent and Treason for any to assemble in Arms above the number of Thirty without Commission from them 2. That the Houses should sit at what time they pleas'd and adjourn their sitting to what place they pleas'd and meet at their own pleasure and discretion for ever after 3. That all Oaths Interdictions and Declarations set forth in Publick by the King against either House should be accompted and declared void 4. That all whom the King had dignified with any Titles from the time himself departed with the Great Seal should be degraded of their Honour Which the Scotch Commissioners we must remember it to their Honour thought so derogatory to that of the Kings and contrary to former Ingagements that they follow'd after the Parliament Commissioners with a kind of State Hue and Cry and protested against them I hope it was not all a Juggle for they had been undone doubtless if the King had sign'd them but it took effect as they desired The King refused them and thereby gave them as they would have it thought just cause to refuse him Whereupon they pass'd that never to be forgotten Vote of Non-Addresses After which the Agitators vanish'd and the Committee of Darby-house took place which consisting most of Officers were now the Plenipotentiaries of the Kingdom And near the same time the Power of England was thus given up to them they had the Resignation made of that of Ireland too The King being now civilly dead and one would think buried the Prisons of Princes proving
their Gentility by Charters from St. Edward and others from King Edgar whose Pedigrees do yet fall short of many of the Welch by many Descents In fine from the Normans we first learn'd how to appear like a People compleatly civiliz'd being as more elegant in our Fashions so more sumptuous in our Dwellings more magnifick in our Retinue not to say choicer in our Pleasures yet withal more frugal in our Expences For the English being accustomed to bury all their Rents in the Draught knowing no other way to out-vie one another but as a †Jaq. Praslin Progmat French Writer expresses it by a kind of greasie Riot which under the specious Name of Hospitality turn'd their Glory into Shame began after the Conquest to consume the Superfluity of their Estates in more lasting Excesses turning their Hamlets into Villes their Villages into Towns and their Towns into Cities adorning those Cities with goodly Castles Pallaces and Churches which being before made up of that we call Flemmish Work which is only Wood and Clay were by the Normans converted into Brick and Stone which till their coming was so rarely used that Mauritius Bishop of London being about to re-edifie Paul's Church burn'd in the Year 1086. was either for want of Workmen Materials or both necessitated not only to fetch all his Stone out of Normandy but to form it there So that we may conclude if the Conqueror had not as he did obliged the English to a grateful continuance of his Memory by personal and particular Immunities yet he deserv'd to be Eterniz'd for this that he elevated their minds to a higher point of Grandeur and Magnificence and rendred the Nation capable of greater Undertakings whereby they suddenly became the most opulent and flourishing People of the World advanc'd in Shipping Mariners and Trade in Power External as well as Internal witness no less then two Kings made Prisoners here at one time one of them the very greatest of Europe whereby they increased their publick Revenues as well as their private Wealth even to the double recompensing the loss sustain'd by his Entry whilst himself however suppos'd by that big sounding Title of Conqueror to have been one of the most absolute Princes we had got not so much ground while he was living as to bury him here when he was dead but with much ado obtain'd a homely Monument in his Native Soil THE ORDER AND SUCCESSION OF THE Norman Kings I. date of accession 1066 WILLIAM I. known by that terrible Name of the Conqueror gave the English by one single Battel so sad experience of their own weakness and his power that they universally submitted to him whereby becoming the first King of England of the Norman Race he left that Glory to be inherited by his second Son II. date of accession 1087 WILLIAM II. surnam'd Rufus who being the eldest born after he was a King and a Native of this Country succeeded with as much satisfaction to the English as to himself but dying without Issue left his younger Brother III. date of accession 1100 HENRY I. surnam'd Beauclark to succeed in whose Fortune all his Friends were as much deceiv'd as in his Parts his Father only excepted who foretold he would be a King when he scarce left him enough to support the dignity of being a Prince As he set aside his elder Brother Robert Duke of Normandy so he was requited by a like Judgment upon his Grandson the Son of his Daughter Maud who was set aside by IV. date of accession 1135 STEPHEN Earl of Blois his Cousin but she being such a woman as could indeed match any man disputed her Right so well with him that however she could not regain the Possession to her self she got the Inheritance fixed upon her Son V. date of accession 1155 HENRY II. Plantaginet the first of that Name and Race and the very greatest King that ever England knew but withal the most unfortunate and that which made his misfortunes more notorious was that they rose out of his own Bowels his Death being imputed to those only to whom himself had given life his ungracious Sons the eldest whereof that surviv'd him succeeded by the Name of VI. date of accession 1189 RICHARD I. Coeur de Leon whose undutifulness to his Father was so far retorted by his Brother that looking on it as a just Judgment upon him when he dyed he desired to be buried as near his Father as might be possible in hopes to meet the sooner and ask forgiveness of him in the other World his Brother VII date of accession 1199 JOHN surnam'd Lackland had so much more lack of Grace that he had no manner of sense of his Offence though alike guilty who after all his troubling the World and being troubled with it neither could keep the Crown with honour nor leave it in peace which made it a kind of Miracle that so passionate a Prince as his Son VIII date of accession 1216 HENRY III. should bear up so long as he did who made a shift to shuffle away fifty six years doing nothing or which was worse time enough to have overthrown the tottering Monarchy had it not been supported by such a Noble Pillar as was his Son and Successor IX date of accession 1272 EDWARD I. a Prince worthy of greater Empire then he left him who being a strict Observer of Opportunity the infallible sign of Wisdom compos'd all the differences that had infested his Fathers Grand-fathers and Great-Grand-fathers Governments and had questionless dyed as happy as he was glorious had his Son X. date of accession 1307 EDWARD II. answer'd expectation who had nothing to glory in but that he was the Son of such a Father and the Father of such a Son as XI date of accession 1328 EDWARD III. who was no less fortunate then valiant and his Fortune the greater by a kind of Antiperistasis as coming between two unfortunate Princes Successor to his Father and Predecessor to his Grandson XII date of accession 1377 RICHARD II. the most unfortunate Son of that most fortunate Father Edward commonly call d the Black Prince who not having the Judgment to distinguish betwixt Flatterers and Friends fell like his Great-Grand-father the miserable example of Credulity being depos'd by his Cosin XIII date of accession 1399 HENRY IV. the first King of the House of Lancaster descended from a fourth Son of Edward the Third who being so much a greater Subject then he was a King 't was thought he took the Crown out of Compassion rather then Ambition to relieve his oppress'd Country rather then to raise his own House and accordingly Providence was pleas'd to rivat him so fast in the Opinion of the People that his Race have continued though not without great Interruption ever since His Son XIV date of accession 1412 HENRY V. was in that repute with the People that they swore Allegiance to him before he was crown'd an honour never done to any of his Predecessors