Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	good_a	king_n	prince_n	3,500	5	5.4628	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34166	A compleat history of the pretended Prince of Wales from his supposed conception by the late abdicated Qeen [sic], to the fatal exit of his true mother Mrs. Mary Grey. Wherein all the depositions of the witnesses procur'd by King James, are fairly stated and examined, and all that has been writ upon that subject consulted, in order to set the whole intrigue in its true light.		1696 (1696)	Wing C5640; ESTC R219471	14,651	47

A Compleat HISTORY Of the Pretended PRINCE OF WALES FROM His supposed Conception by the Late Abdicated Qeen to the Fatal Exit of his True Mother Mrs. MARY GREY WHEREIN All the Depositions of the Witnesses procur'd by King James are fairly stated and examined and all that has been writ upon that Subiect consulted in order to set the whole Intrigue in its true Light LONDON Printed in the Year 1696. Price 6 d. A Compleat HISTORY Of the Pretended PRINCE OF WALES c. BEfore we come to relate the manner of this Imposture it will not be amiss to take notice of the State of affairs at the time when it was set on foot which we find to have been thus The late K. thought himself established on the Throne by his success against the Duke of Monmouth and the Earl of Argile and having a standing Army on Foot and being in good Terms with the Pope and the French King the Juncture seemed as proper as heart could wish to fall upon Methods for securing the Roman Catholicks against all future Enquiries into former Misdemeanors and to Introduce their Religion to be that of the Nation They knew the King to be growing old and infirm and Experience had taught them by Queen Elizabeth's Reign that a Protestant Successor could easily destroy the Romish Babel which a Popish Predecessor had Rebuilt and therefore the only way to prevent such an after-clap was to entail the Crown on a Popish Heir these were the true Causes that gave Birth to this horrid Imposture which being once resolved on was managed thus The Earl of Castlomain was sent on a splendid Embassy to Rome where tho' some might put Satyrical Taunts upon him by placing horns on the Gates at his publick Entrance yet he brought matters to a good understanding betwixt the King and the Pope in Testimony whereof Count D' Ada was sent bither as Nuncio during whose stay at Whitehall the matter was concerted and as necessary praludiums to such a Religious Cheat the Queens Mother must make presents to the Lady of Lorretto the King undertook a pilgrimage to St. Winefred's Well and the Queen to further her Conception makes a Journey to the Bath Such infallible means were enough to possess the Papists with an Invincible Faith that they must needs attain their end and therefore they gave it out with mighty assurance that the Queen would certainly have a Boy and Mrs. Celier in particular who was very well known to be an Incomparable Widwife for ushering Popish shams into the world in her printed Answer to the Queries of a certain Physician Vpbraided him and some others for Laughing at her because she said her Majesty was full of Children but it now proved so true that she hop'd we should have a Prince of Wales Then just about the time of this pretended Conception Father Peters was made a Privy Councellor to prevent its being contested by any of the Members of that Honourable board and to stir them up to make Orders concerning the Queen and the Child that so it might be spread thro' the Nation on the Credit of the Privy Council And the K. himself being Conscious of his own and the Queens Imperfections yet being willing to carry on the Imposture was pleased to say that her pregnancy was a very odd thing Insinuating as if Heaven had wrought a Miracle in favour of his Religion And to River the belief of her pregnancy in the minds of the people he takes a Journey to Chattam and in the mean time a feigned report of the Duke of Modena's death was ounningly conveyed to his Sister the Queen who pretended a danger of Miscarriage by the fright and on this occasion the King was sent for back in all haste Then about 22 Weeks after the supposed Conception it 's given out that her Majesty had Milk in her Breasts but tho several Protestants desired it they could never be permitted to View them nay nor the Princess of Denmark who was at that time going to the Bath and whose Testimony of its truth if the matter had been really so would have satisfied all those who entertained any doubt concerning it certainly had the thing been real it was so much the Interest of the Court to have had the Princesses attestation of that affair that they would without all doubt have solicited her to see and Witness it especially seeing they knew that a fallacy was suspected The same circumstances of an Imposture are to be offered concerning her belly which was never shown to nor suffered to be felt by any Protestant Lady and it was particularly observed by those who did make it their business that the Circumference thereof was not large enough for a Child so lusty nor was it natural like other Womens she did neither bend in the back nor had she the Extension and Protention of the Hips that is usual in Women with Child and that was particularly taken Notice of on this occasion in another Lady standing by her Another Evidence of the Imposture was the Parties immediately imployed about her such as Mrs. Wilks Delabadie Turini c. a busie rigid bigotted Villanous people who had cunning enough to manage such a Wickedness and a Conscience well enough prepared to digest it In was observed in the next place that no other Nurse was provided to be about her but this Mrs. Delabadie whereas every Person of Quality nay most rich Citizens Wives use to be better prepared neither was there any Wet Nurse nor men Midwives bespoke tho she used to be well provided in all those respects at her other Deliveries Nay her Doctors of Physick were not so much as ordered to attend against the 2d Reclioning and tho their Majesties Respective Drs. have Chambers appointed about their Lodgings at all their Courts and at all times whether there be occasion or none and do attend at such Chambers yet her Doctors attended not tho' the occasion was so great so that of four or five there was but one so near as to be there till after the pretended dedelivery the reason of which is plain lest they should have been so deligent as to follow the Court and by being too near about her discover the Cheat. Another mighty evidence of the Imposture was this that the Queen for preventing all octjcteions ought to have given notice of the House and Room where she intended to lie in that the Princesses or any for them might have searcht such Room to see whether there was no false door traps or other Conveniences for Juggling or if there were to nail 'em up and to have suffered no more but one door and to have likewise Guards kept at that door for some days before the delivery according to the direction of the Civil Law in such Cases and which if the pregnancy had been real the King and Queen would certainly have not only agreed to but solicited that it might have been done when they knew that a Cheat

was suspected but instead of this it was sometimes given out that she intended to lie in at Windsor at other times at Richmond sometimes at St. James's and anon at Windsor again The Law before mentioned doth also provide that the present Heir shall not only have Liberty to search such Womens belly before hand which was always denied in this Case but likewise tho they be satisfied of the pregnancy to make use of after Circumspection lest a dead Child should be changed for a living one or a Girl changed for a Boy And for the better prevention of an Imposture this Law doth moreover direct that the Heir or those deputed by them might keep the pregnant Woman from going out of their sight so many days before the pretended delivery and unless such directions be followed it presumes that an Heir is not truly born how much more then in this Case when they were wilfully omitted and refused For instead of due notice beforehand as Law and reason does require the Bed was set up at St. James's but one day before the pretended delivery and the Queen was not at the place above 12 hours before the time having neither Linen Nurse nor Midwife about her and that also in the night time when people were asleep and could not know of her going thither so that there was no time allowed to make due Observation of passages as the above mentioned Law requires in such cases We shall next Consider the place to which one would think she should have had the greatest A version imaginable because all her other Children born there died but however Inconvenient it might be upon that account it was the most Convenient place in the World for an Imposture by reason of the situation of the adjoining Convent and at the same time the Park Gates were kept Lockt for their farther security It must also be observed that the Queen gave out she would come in July and accordingly most of the Irish Nobility prepared to be here against that time but the Countess of Tyrconnel was here in June at the delivery because she was one of the principal Persons concerned in the Intrigue and therefore had better Intelligence of the time than the rest Another thing which diverted the thoughts of those who were observant and watchfull enough to enquire into all the proceedings of this affair was the unexpected Imprisonment of the Bishops which put all people into an amazement and consternation and prevented the attendance of those Prelates at the pretended Delivery Whose concern for the Protestant Religion and that Justice should be done the Princesses of Orange and Denmark would have put them upon demanding such satisfaction in the matter as should not have been consistent with an Imposture which could not have been reasonably denied to Persons of their Character and seeing their Testimony would have fully satisfied the Nation their being shut up in the Tower at that time gives strong ground of suspicion that their presence at the pretended Delivery could by no means have been admitted because then the Intrigue had been discovered and their being Prisoners in the Tower was the best pretence which could be made use of why they should not be present But there is yet a much stronger ground of suspicion than any of those hitherto mentioned viz. That tho we had an Ambassador residing in Holland yet the Princess of Orange was not invited till almost the 10th of June tho' her Royal Highness was the Party who by the Law abovementioned should have had notice of the Queens bigness when she intended to lie in and where and whom it was their Interest to have present for avoiding of all Objections and the Inconveniencies which might otherwise accrue but so it was that she had no Invitation till it was impossible for her to be here at the time of the Delivery whereas the Dutchess of Portsmouth was sent for in April and came in May. Nor is there any reason to be given why the Princess of Denmark should not have been urg'd to be present if the pregnancy had been real seeing her presence might have been had much more easily and would have every whitt been as satisfactory to the people as that of the Princess of Orange but so far were they from such a Just and fair procedure that it was so managed as the two Ladies who ought to have been at the labour for the Princess of Denmark did not come till the Child was dress't Then as to those Protestant Ladies who were present in the room at the time of the pretended Birth it was so ordered by the Kings Introducing men that there was a necessity of covering the Queen so that the said Ladies could not be Witnesses to every thing that they ought to have seen which gave the Midwife an opportunity of managing the Cheat as she pleased and thus instead of being able to depose that they saw the Child taken out of the Queens body they could only say that they saw it taken out of the Bed and that such things may be consistent with a Cheat is evident from the Instance in Siderfin's Reports Temp. Car. II where we have an account of a Woman who pretended to be delivered in bed by a Midwife but the Imposture was discovered afterward by the said Midwife and the true Mother Then quickly after the pretended Birth the Child is sent to Richmond separate from the Queen that she might be eas'd of the trouble of a forced fondness which being continually to have been acted must needs at last have grown so Nauseous that it would have been Observed whereas if the Child had been really her own her fondness would certainly never have admitted of such a separation considering that he was her only Child and one upon whose life the restitution of the Popish Religion did so much depend The next thing that occurs is the time and manner of taking the depositions to prove the reality of this pretended Prince's Birth The time was after they had been charged with the Imposture all over Europe and when the Prince of Orange was just ready to make his descent whereas if the thing had been fair they had it in their Choice to have avoided that trouble by having impartial Eye Witnesses present viz. such as either or both of the Princesses or their deputies whose Testimony would have satisfied the World Then as to the manner whereas Law and Reason require that when any thing is controverted the Opponent ought also to have Liberty to bring Witnesses and to put Cross Interrogatories to the Defendants Evidence here was no such thing practicable most of the Witnesses were of the party tho of different Religions many of them had their dependance on the Court and none of them durst swear any thing contrary to their humour without a manifest hazard of Life and Estate especially when the K. was present to overawe them Then as to the Depositions themselves they are all of