Mitred Head that had got an Ascendant over his Master's Conscience and Counsels that both the Monarchy and Hierarchy ow'd afterwards their Fall The Division betwixt Archbishop Abboâ— and Bishop Laud. To trace this matter a little higher there arose in the preceding Reign two opposite Parties in the Church which became now more than ever exasperated against each other the one headed by Archbishop Abbot and the other by Bishop Laud. Abbot was a Person of wonderful Temper and Moderation and in all his Conduct shew'd an unwillingness to stretch the Act of Vniformity beyond what was absolutely necessary for the Peace of the Church or the Prerogative of the Crown any further than conduc'd to the good of the State Being not well turn'd for a Court though otherwise of considerable Learning and Gentile Education he either could not or would not stoop to the Humour of the Times and now and then by an unseasonable Stiffness gave occasion to his Enemies to represent him as not well-inclin'd to the Prerogative or too much addicted to a Popular Interest and therefore not fit to be employ'd in Matters of Government Upon the other hand Bishop Laud as he was a Man of greater Learning and yet greater Ambition and Natural Parts so he understood nicely the Art of pleasing a Court and finding no surer way to raise himself to the first Dignitices of the Church than by acting a quite contrary part to that of Archbishop Abbot he went into every thing that seem'd to favour the Prerogative of the Crown or enforce an Absolute Obedience upon the Subject The King 's urgent Necessities and the backwardness of the Parliament to supply them had forc'd him upon unwarrantable Methods of raising Money and the readiness the Roman-Catholicks express'd to assist him in his Wants did beget in him at first a Tenderness towards them and afterwards a Trust and Confidence in them which was unhappily mistaken by his other Subjects as if he inclin'd to their Religion Among other means of raising Money that of Loan was fallen upon which met with great difficulties and was generally taken to be illegal One Sibthorp an obscure Person in a Sermon preach'd at the Assizes at Northampton would make his Court by asserting not only the Lawfulness of this way of imposing Money by Loan but that it was the indispensible Duty of the Subject to comply with it At the same time Dr. Manwaring another Divine preach'd two Sermons before the King at Whitehall in which he advanc'd these Doctrines viz. That the King is not bound to observe the Laws of the Realm concerning the Subjects Rights and Liberties but that his Royal Word and Command in imposing Loans and Taxes without Consent of Parliament does oblige the Subject's Conscience upon pain of eternal Damnation That those who refus'd to pay this Loan did offend against the Law of God and became guilty of Impiety Disloyalty and Rebellion And that the Authority of Parliaments is not necessary for raising of Aids and Subsidies Every body knew Abbot was averse to such Doctrines And to seek an advantage against him Sibthorp's Sermon with a Dedication to the King was sent him by Order of his Majesty to License Abbot refus'd and gave his Reasons in writing which Bishop Laud answer'd and with his own hand Licens'd both Sibthorp's and Manwaring's Sermons Upon this Archbishop Abbot was confin'd to his Countrey-House and suspended from his Function the Administration of which was committed to Bishop Laud and some others of his Recommendation Archbishop Abbot died in disgrace and was succeeded in the See of Canterbury by Bishop Laud while in the mean time things went on from bad to worse and hasten'd to a Crisis The two first Parliaments King Charles had call'd pressing him hard for Redress of Grievances and pushing on the Resentments begun in the preceding Reign he was prevail'd with not only to dissolve them but to leave the Nation without Parliaments for Twelve Years together and all this contrary to the Advice of some of the best and wisest men about him who foresaw the ill consequences that might follow if ever any unlucky Iuncture of Affairs should necessitate him to call one Such a Iuncture fell out The Rise of King Charles's Troubles and the worst that could be the manner thus The Scots had been of a long time sowr'd by the Encroachments they said were made upon their Rights and Liberties and particularly in the matter of Church-Government Archbishop Laud's Zeal for an Vniformity between the two Nations in point of Liturgy prov'd the fatal Torch that put the Two Kingdoms into a flame And it was the sooner kindled there being so much Fuel laid up for many Years that the least Spark was enough to set fire to the Pile In the Year 1637. The Scotch Troubles the Scots had not only in a Tumultuous manner refus'd the Liturgy that was sent them from England of Archbishop Laud's composing but had afterwards assum'd to themselves the Liberty and Power of holding a General Assembly of their Church and in it to abolish Episcopacy and do several other things that were judg'd inconsistent with the Duty of Subjects Upon which they were declar'd Rebels and King Charles thought his Honour was concern'd to reduce them to Obedience by the Sword Instead of venturing to call a Parliament to enable him to prosecute this Design he was necessitated to levy Money another way Great Sums were rais'd by Loan and Benevolence to which the Roman Catholicks and the Clergy of Laud's Faction contributed most The King thus supplied march'd to the North with a Gallant Army and the Scots came as far as the Borders in a posture of Defence To prevent matters coming to extremity the Scots presented his Majesty with their humble Supplication and Remonstrance setting forth their inviolable Fidelity to the Crown and that they desir'd nothing more but the peaceable enjoyment of their Religion and Liberties and that all things may be determin'd and settled by a Free Parliament and General Assembly At length through the Intercession of the Moderate Party about the King and some of the highest Rank in both Kingdoms his Majesty was plea'd to comply with the desires of the Scots by a solemn Pacification sign'd in view of both Armies near Berwick in Iune 1638. This Treaty was but short-liv'd and but ill observ'd on either side The same men that counsell'd the King to the first push'd him on to a second War against the Scots Parliaments had been now discontinu'd for some Years together and there appear'd no great Inclination in the King to call any more if this emergent occasion had not fallen out But his pressing Necessities and this new War oblig'd him once more to try the Affections of his People in a Parliamentary way Accordingly a Parliament meets in April 1640. at the opening of which the King acquainted them with the Affronts he had receiv'd from the Scots and demanded a Supply to reduce
people of the fruit of his own gracious Intentions and their humble desires of procuring the publick peace safety and happiness of this Realm For the preventing of those miserable effects which such malicious endeavours may produce We have thought good to declare 1. The root and the growth of these mischievous Designs 2. The Maturity and Ripeness to which they have attained before the beginning of the Parliament 3. The effectual means which hath been used for the extirpations of those dangerous evils and the Progress which hath therein been made by his Majesties goodness and the Wisdom of the Parliament 4. The ways of obstruction and opposition by which that Progress hath been interrupted 5. The courses to be taken for the removing those Obstacles and for the accomplishing of our most dutiful and faithful intentions and endeavours of restoring and establishing the Ancient Honour Greatness and Security of this Crown and Nation The Root of all this mischeif We find to be a malignant and pernicious design of subverting the Fundamental Laws and Principles of Government upon which the Religion and Iustice of this Kingdom are firmly establisht The Actors and Promoters hereof have been 1. The Iesuited Papists who hate the Laws as the Obstacles of that Change and Subversion of Religion which they so much long for 2. The Bishops and the corrupt part of the Clergy who cherish formality and superstition as the natural effects and more probable supports of their own Ecclesiastical Tyranny and Vsurpation 3. Such Counsellors and Courtiers as for private ends have engaged themselves to further the interests of some foreign Princes or States to the prejudice of his Majesty and the State at home The common Principles by which they moulded and governed all their particular Counsels and Actions were these First To maintain continual differences and discontents betwixt the King and the People upon Questions of Prerogative and Liberty that so they might have the advantage of siding with him and under the notions of men addicted to his service gain to themselves and their parties the places of greatest trust and power in the Kingdom A second To suppress the purity and power of Religion and such as were best affected to it as being contrary to their own ends and the greatest impediment to that Change which they thought to introduce A third To conjoyn those parties of the Kingdom which were most propitious to their own ends and to divide those who were most opposite which consisted in many particular Observations to chrish the Arminian part in those points wherein they agree with the Papists to multiply and enlarge the difference between the common Protestants and those whom they call Puritans to introduce and countenance such Opinions and Ceremonies as are fittest for accomodation with Popery to increase and maintain ignorance looseness and prophaneness in the people That of those three parties Papists Arminians and Libertines they might compose a body fit to act such counsels and resolutions as were most conducible to their own ends A fourth To disaffect the King to Parliaments by slanders and false imputations and by putting him upon other ways of supply which in shew and appearance were fuller of advantage than the ordinary course of Subsidies though in truth they brought more loss than gain both to the King and People and have caused the distractions under which we both suffer As in all compounded bodies the Operations are qualified according to the predominant Element So in this mixt party the Jesuited Counsels being most active and prevailing may easily be discovered to have had the greatest sway in all their determinations and if they be not prevented are like to devour the rest or to turn them into their own nature In the beginning of his Majesties Reign the party begun to revive and flourish again having been somewhat dampt by the breach with Spain in the last year of King Iames and by his Majesties Marriage with France the interests and Councils of that State being not so contrary to the good of Religion and the prosperity of his Kingdom as those of Spain and the Papists of England havving been ever more addicted to Spain than France yet they still retained a purpose and resolution to weaken the Protestant parties in all parts and even in France whereby to make way for the change of Religion which they intended at home The first effect and evidence of their recovery and strength was the dissolution of the Parliament at Oxford after there had been given two Subsidies to his Majesty and before they received relief in any one Grievance many other more miserable effects followed The loss of the Rochel Fleet by the help of our Shipping set forth and delivered over to the French in opposition to the advice of Parliament which left that Town without defence by Sea and made way not only to the loss of that important place but likewise to the loss of all the strength and security of the Protestant Religion in France The diverting of his Majesties course of Wars from the West-Indies which was the most facile and hopeful way for this Kingdom to prevail against the Spaniard to an expenceful and successless attempt upon Cales which was so ordered as if it had rather been intended to make us weary of War than to prosper in it The precipitate breach with France by taking their Ships to a great value without making recompence to the English whose Goods were thereupon imbarr'd and confiscate in that Kingdom The Peace with Spain without consent of Parliament contrary to the promise of K. Iames to both Houses whereby the Palatine Cause was deserted and left to chargeable and hopeless Treaties which for the most part were managed by those who might justly be suspected to be no Friends to that Cause The charging of the Kingdom with Billeted Soldiers in all parts of it and that concomitant design of German Horse that the Land might either submit with fear or be enforced with rigour to such Arbitrary Contributions as should be required of them The dissolving of the Parliament in the second year of his Majesties Reign after a Declaration of their intent to grant five Subsidies The exacting of the like proportion of five Subsidies after the Parliament dissolved by Commission of Loan and divers Gentlemen and others imprisoned for not yielding to pay that Loan whereby many of them contracted such sicknesses as cost them their Lives Great sums of Money required and raised by Privy Seals An unjust and pernicious attempt to extort great payments from the Subject by way of Excise and a Commission issued under Seal to that purpose The Petition of Right which was granted in full Parliament blasted with an illegal Declaration to make it destructive to it self to the power of Parliament to the Liberty of the Subject and to that purpose printed with it and the Petition made of no use but to shew the bold and presumptuous injustice of such Ministers as durst
fully acquainted with the Native Strength and peculiar Interest of the Nation I mean the Affairs of the Navy in which he had acquir'd deservedly a great Reputation He had met with but too many occasions to understand the Genius and Temper of the People he was to govern and to know how far it was impracticable to overturn the Establish'd Religion or to introduce a New one for he had wrestled through a great many Difficulties upon the account of his own He could not but have a true value for hâ—s Brother's great Parts and Abilities and be acquainted with the Arts by which he gain'd and preserv'd the Affections of his People notwithstanding all the Hardships he had been induc'd sometimes to put upon them And he had seen how fearful and averse he had been to push things too far or to drive his Subjects to Extremitities He had before him the Fatal Example of a Father who though he was a Protestant yet upon a false Suspicion of having a Design to introduce Popery was sent to his Grave by a violont Death and he was almost a Man when that Tragedy happen'd and had suffer'd Ten Years Banishment among other Consequences that attended it He had been acquainted abroad with a Princess fam'd for Parts and Learning who Resign'd her Crown apprehending she might be divested of it for embracing the Romish Religion by those very Subjects that held her before in the greatest Veneration both upon her own account and that of a Father who had rais'd them to the highest Pitch of Glory that ever the Suedish Nation arriv'd to And he might have remembred what his Mother said upon her Return to Somerset-house after the Restoration That if she had known the Temper of the People of England some Years past as well as she did then she had never been oblig'd to leave that House But the History of his Ancestors might have more fully inform'd him Tâ—at those that grasp'd at Immoderate Power or a Prerogative above the Law were always Unfortunate and their Reigns Inglorious There was also a Passage at his Father's Death which he would have done well to have observ'd He deliver'd his George to Dr. Iuxon upon the Scaffold and bid him Remember without saying more The Council of State was willing to know the meaning of that Expression and call'd the Doctor before them to give them an Account of it who told them That the King immediately before his coming out to the Place of Execution had charg'd him to carry to the Prince his Son his George with these his Two last Commands That he should forgive his Murtherers And That if he ever came to the Crown he should so govern his Subjects as not to force them upon Extremities Over and above all this one of the best Historians of the Age Puffendorf ut supra who had the advantage of all the late Elector of Brandenburgh's Papers and Memoirs acquaints us That King Charles the Second delivering to King Iames at his Death the Key of his Strong Box advis'd him not to think upon introducing the Romish Religion into England it being a thing that was both dangerous and impracticable And that the late Don Pedro Ronquillor the Spanish Ambassador at his first Audience after the Death of King Charles having ask'd leave to speak his mind freely upon that occasion made bold to tell him That he saw several Priests about him that he knew would importune him to alter the Establish'd Religion in England but he wish'd his Majesty would not give Ear to their Advice for if he did he was afraid his Majesty would have reason to repent of it when it was too late This Author tells us That King Iames took ill the Freedom of the Spanish Ambassador and ask'd him in Passion Whether in Spain they advis'd with their Confessors Yes Sir answer'd Ronquillor we do and that 's the reason our Affairs go so ill The same Historian does likewise inform us but he does not tell us upon what grounds Pope Innocent XI th's Letter to K Iames. That Pope Innocent XI writ a Letter to King Iames upon his Accession to the Crown to this purpose That he was highly pleas'd with his Majesty's Zeal for the Catholick Religion but he was afraid his Majesty might push it too far and instead of contributing to his own Greatness and to the Advancement of the Catholick Church he might come to do both It and himself the greatest Prejudice by attempting that which his Holiness was well assur'd from long Experience could not succeed This Letter does very well agree with what I shall have occasion to mention afterwards concerning the Earl of Castlemain's Embassy to Rome How far he profited by all these Advantages on the one hand and Examples and Advices on the other will appear in the Sequel The first Speech he made as King the day his Brother died gave hopes of a Happy Reign and even those that had appear'd with the greatest Warmth against him before were willing now to own themselves to have been mistaken and were ready to express their Repentance for what was past For he told them That since it had pleas'd Almighty God to place him in that Station and that he was now to succeed to so good and gracious a King as well as so very kind a Brother he thought fit to declare to them That he would endeavour to follow his Example and especially in that of his great Clemency and Tenderness to his People And that though he had been reported to be a Man for Arbitrary Power yet he was resolv'd to make it his Endeavour to preserve the Government of England both in Church and State as it was then Establish'd by Law That he knew the Principles of the Church of England were for Monarchy and that the Members of it had show'd themselves good and Loyal Subjeâ—ts therefore he would always take care of it and defend and support it That he knew that the Laws of England were sufficient to make the King as Great a Monarch as he could wish And that as he would never depart from the just Rights and Prerogatives of the Crown so he would never invade any manâ—s Property Concluding That as he had often hitherto ventur'd his Life in defence of this Nation so he was resolv'd to go as far as any man in preserving it in all its just Rights and Liberties If a Trajan or an Antoninus had been to lay down a Scheme of Government to make their People happy they could not have done it in better Terms nor could the Nation well desire or in reason wish for more If his subsequent Actions had come up to it he had eterniz'd his Name and might have reviv'd in himself the Memory of those of his Ancestors who have deservedly given them by Posterity the Character of Good and Great This promising Speech was not many days old nor King Charles's Ashes well cold when the Nation was alarm'd with a Proclamation
Inclinations of the Prince and Princess of Orange in that matter The Prince and Princess had look'd on with a silent Regret upon all the unlucky Steps that were making in England and were unwilling to publish their Opinion of them since they knew it could not but be displeasing to King Iames. To know their Highnesses mind in the business of the Penal Laws and Test was a thing the most desir'd by the Protestants but there was no possible way to come to this knowledge if King Iames himself had not help'd them to it Mr. Stuart The Prince and Princess of Orange's Opinion about the Penal Laws and Test declar'd in Pensionary Fagell's Letter since Sir Iames Stuart had been pardon'd by King Iames and receiv'd into Favour after a long Banishment He had been acquainted in Holland with the late Pensionary Fagel and persuaded himself of a more than ordinary Friendship with that Wise Minister The King foresaw it was his Interest to find out some one way or other the Prince and Princess's Thoughts of these matters which if they agreed with his own were to be made publick if otherwise were to be conceal'd And Mr. Stuart took that Task upon himself Pensionary Fagel was in a great Post in Holland and in a near Intimacy with the Prince one that was entirely trusted by him and ever firm to his Interest To know the Pensionary's Opinion was thought to be the same with knowing the Prince's since it was to be suppos'd that he would not venture to write of any thing that concern'd England especially such a nice Point as was then in question without the Prince's Approbation at least if not his positive Direction Upon these Considerations and upon a Mistake that Mr. Stuart was in about the Constitution of Holland as if the Roman-Catholicks were not there excluded from Employments and Places of Trust he writ a Letter to Pensionary Fagel It 's needless to give any account of the Letter it self since Fagel's Answer together with what has been already said do give a sufficient Hint of the Design and Scope of it So averse were the Prince and Princess of Orange to meddle and so unwilling to allow Pensionary Fagel to return to this Letter an Answer which they knew would not be pleasing that Mr. Stuart writ by the King's direction five or six more before it was thought fit to answer them But at length their Highnesseâ— were in a manner forc'd to it by the Reports that were industriously spread abroad in England by the Emissaries of the Court as if the Pensionary in an Answer to Mr. Stuart had acquainted him That the Prince and Princess agreed with the King in the Design of taking off the Penal Laws and Test. This was not all for the Marquess de Albeville the English Envoy at the Hague was put upon writing over to several persons That the Prince of Orange had told him the very same thing which Letter of Albeville's was likewise made publick Such Reports were enough to shake the Constancy of all those that design'd to stand firm to the Interest of the Establish'd Church in the ensuing Parliament and to make them give all up for lost To do themselves Justice and to disabuse a Nation they had so near an Interest in Pensionary Fagel was directed by the Prince and Princess to write one Answer to all Mr. Stuart ' s Letters to this purpose That being desir'd by Mr. Stuart to let him know the Prince and Princess of Orange's Thoughts concerning the Repeal of the Penal Laws and more particularly concerning the Test he told him That he would write without Reserve since Mr. Stuart had said in his Letters that they were writ by the King's Knowledge and Allowance That it was the Prince and Princess's Opinion That no Christian ought to be persecuted for his Conscience or be ill us'd because he differs from the Publick and Establish'd Religion And therefore that they can consent That the Papists in England Scotland and Ireland be suffer'd to continue in their Religion with as much Liberty as is allow'd them by the States of Holland in which it cannot be denied but they enjoy a full Liberty of Conscience And as to the Dissenters their Highnesses did not only consent but did heartily approve of their having an entire Liberty for the full Exercise of their Religion And that their Highnesses were ready to concur to the setling and confirming this Liberty and protect and defend it and likewise confirm it with their Guarantee which Mr. Stuart had mention'd And if his Majesty continues the Pensionary desires their Concurrence in Repealing the Penal Laws their Highnesses were ready to give it provided these Laws remain still in their full force by which the Roman-Catholicks are shut out of both Houses of Parliament and out of all Publick Employments Ecclesiastical Civil and Military as likewise those other Laws which confirm the Protestant Religion and which secure it against all the Attempts of the Roman-Catholicks But their Highnesses cannot agree to the Repeal of the Test and those other Penal Laws last mention'd that tend to the Security of the Protestant Religion since the Roman-Catholicks receive no other Prejudices from these than the being excluded from Parliament and Publick Employments More than this adds Pensionary Fagel their Highnesses do think ought not be ask'd or expected and they wondred how any that profess'd themselves Christians and that may enjoy their Religion freely and without disturbance can judge it lawful for them to disturb the Quiet of any Kingdom or State or overturn Constitutions that so they themselves may be admitted to Employments and that these Laws in which the Security and Quiet of the Establish'd Religion consists should be shaken And as to what Mr. Stuart had writ That the Roman-Catholicks in Holland were not shut out from Employments and Places of Trust he tells him He was grosly mistaken The Pensionary concludes That their Highnesses could not concur with his Majesty in these matters for they believ'd they should have much to answer to God for if the consideration of any present Advantage should carry them to consent to things which they believe would not only be dangerous but mischievous to the Protestant Religion Thus far Pensionary Fagel And I would not have dwelt so long upon this Letter of his if it were not for the Noble Scheme of a just Liberty in matters of Conscience that 's therein contain'd Notwithstanding it was still given out at Court and that even after it came to Mr. Stuart's hands That he had writ the quite contrary though it 's but Charity to suppose that Mr. Stuart was a Man of more Honour than to contribute to the Report At last there was a necessity of making publick the Pensionary's Letter in several Languages which had wonderful Influence upon the Minds of the Protestants of England and was highly resented by King Iames. However King Iames had more than one Method in his View how
Attainder past in Parliament in order to which evey Member of the House of Commons return'd the Names of all such Protestant Gentlemen as liv'd near them or in the County or Borough for which he serv'd and if he was Stranger to any of them he sent to the Countrey for Information about them When this Bill was presented to the King for his Assent the Speaker of the House of Commons told him That many were attainted in that Act upon such Evidence as satisfied the House and the rest upon common Fame In this Act there were no fewer Attainted than Two Archbishops One Duke Seventeen Earls Seven Countesses Twenty eight Viscounts Two Viscountesses Seven Bishops Eighteen Barons Thirty three Baronets Fifty one Knights Eighty three Clergymen Two thousand one hundred eighty two Esquires and Gentlemen And all of them unheard declar'd and adjudg'd Traytors convicted and attainted of High Treason and adjudg'd to suffer the pains of Death and Forfeiture The famous Proscription of Rome during the last Triumvirate came not up in some respects to the Horror of this for there were condemn'd in this little Kingdom more than double the Number that were proscrib'd through the vast Bounds of the Roman Empire And to make this of Ireland yet the more terrible and to put the Persons Attainted out of a possibility of escaping the Act it self was conceal'd and no Protestant allow'd a Copy of it till Four Months after it was past Whereas in that of Rome the Names of the Persons proscrib'd were affix'd upon all the Publick Places of the City the very day the Proscription was concerted and thereby opportunity was given to many of the Noblest Families in Rome to preserve themselves by a speedy flight for better Times There remain'd but one Kingdom more for the Romish Party to act their Designs in and that was Scotland where they reap'd a full Harvest of their Hopes and there were scarce left the least Remains of Ancient Liberty in that Nation Their Miseries were summ'd up in one new-coin'd Word which was us'd in all the King's Declarations and serv'd to express to the full their Absolute Slavery which was this That his Subjects were oblig'd to obey him without Reserve A Word that the Princes of the East how Absolute soever they be did never yet pretend to in their Stile whatever they might in their Actions But I leave the Detail of the Encroachments that were made upon the Laws and Liberties of that Kingdom to others that may be thought more impartial as having suffer'd less in their Ruins While King Iames was thus push'd on by a headstrong Party The Interest that Foreign Princes and States had in England to enslave his Subjects the other Princes and States of Europe look'd on with quite different Sentiments according as their own Interests and Safety mov'd them The greater part did commiserate the Fate of these Three Kingdoms and wish'd for their Deliverance The Protestants saw with Regret that they themselves were within an immediate Prospect of losing the most considerable Support of their Religion and both they and the Roman-Catholicks were equally convinc'd that it was their common Interest to have England continue in a condition to be the Arbiter of Christendom especially at a time when they saw they most needed it On the other hand it was the Interest of another Prince that not only the King of England should be his Friend but the Kingdom of England should become inconsiderable abroad which it could not fail to be when enslav'd at home King Iames had been again and again sollicited not only by Protestant Princes but those of his own Religion to enter into other Measures for the common Safety of Europe at least not to contribute to its Ruin by espousing an Interest which they judg'd was opposite to it The Emperor among others had by his Ambassador made repeated Instances to him to this purpose but with no better Success than the rest as appears by a Letter he writ to him after his Abdication The Emperor's Letter to K. Iames in Latin printed at London 1689. which has been Printed in several Languages and was conceiv'd in Elegant Latin as all the Publick Dispatches of that Court are But all these Remonstrances had no weight with King Iames though they had this good effect in the end as to put those Princes and States upon such Measures as secur'd to them the Friendship of England in another way The Power of France was by this time become the Terror and Envy of the rest of Europe and that Crown had upon all sides extended its Conquests The Empire Spain and Holland seem'd to enjoy a precarious Peace while the common Enemy of the Christian Name was making War with the Emperor and the State of Venice and was once very near being Master of the Imperial Seat whereby he might have carried the War into the Bowels of Germany The main Strength of the Empire being turn'd against the Turks and that with various Success there was another War declar'd against the Emperor by France so that it came to be absolutely necessary for Spain and Holland to interpose not as Mediators for that they were not to hope for but as Allies and Partners in the War These last as well as the other Princes and States that lay nearest the Rhine were expos'd to the Mercy of a Prince whom they were not able to resist if England should look on as Neuters or take part against them the last of which they had reason to fear Thus it happen'd that the Fortune of England and that of the greatest part of Christendom came to be link'd together and their common Liberties must of necessity have undergone one and the same Fate The latter from a Natural Principle of Self-Preservation were resolv'd to make their last Effort to break the Fetters which they saw were ready to be impos'd upon them And the other animated by the Example of their Ancestors and the Constitution of their Countrey which is diametrically opposite to Tyranny were resolv'd to venture All to retrieve themselves and their Posterity from the Chains that were already put upon them Both the one and the others might have struggled in vain to this day with the Ruin that threaten'd them The Interest the Prince of Orange had in England if Heaven in pity to their Condition had not provided in the Person of the Prince of Orange the only Sanctuary that was left them to shelter their sinking State This Prince by his Mother was a Nephew of England and in Right of the Princess his Wife the Presumptive Heir of the Crown By his Father's side he was Heir of an Illustrious Family that had eterniz'd their Name by delivering their Countrey from Slavery and laying the Foundation of a mighty Commonwealth which has since prov'd the greatest Bulwark of the Protestant Religion and the chief Support of the Liberty of Christendom A Family born for the good of Mankind to
be the Scourge of Tyrants and Deliverers of the Oppress'd The Father of this Prince died young The ill Circumstances of the House of Orange at his Birth possess'd of Hereditary Dignities he deriv'd from his Ancestors in the States of the Vnited Provinces which had plac'd them upon a Level with most Princes of Europe and had given them a Figure in the World equal to some Crown'd Heads He had married a Princess of England the Eldest Daughter of King Charles I. and left her with Child of this only Son at a Time when the Royal Family of England was not only bereft of their Regal Power at Home but forc'd to seek Refuge Abroad The Father was scarce dead and the Son yet unborn when a Party in Holland that always oppos'd the House of Orange took hold of that unhappy Juncture to divest the Family by a Publick Decree of all the Dignities and Offices they had enjoy'd since the first Foundation of that Commonwealth and which they had so justly acquir'd as the Rewards of so many glorious Services they had done their Countrey Under these dismal Circumstances was the Prince of Orange now King of England born And in Apartments hung with Mourning for the Untimely Death of a Father and the Murther of a Royal Grandfather he first saw Light He was about Ten Years of Age when his Uncle King Charles the Second was restor'd and whether it proceeded from want of Power or of Will in the one the Condition of the other was little better'd by that Change It 's true King Charles in his Wars with Holland did always mention the Injury done to his Nephew as one of the Motives of his breaking with the States Yet neither in the Treaty of Breda in 1667. nor in the Alliance made at the Hague in 1668. nor that of the Peace concluded at London in 167 1 4. was there any notice taken of the Prince of Orange's Interest In this last it 's confess'd it was needless seeing some little time before he was Restor'd to all his Hereditary Offices and Dignities upon the following Occasion King Charles The manner he was restor'd to the Dignities of his Family the French King and the Bishop of Munster had enter'd into a mutual League against the Hollanders in the Year 1672. While in pursuance of that League King Charles without any previous Declaration of War did send out a strong Squadron of Ships to intercept their Smyrna Fleet and ruin their Trade at Sea and while the Bishop of Munster did invade the Provinces that lay next to him the French King at the Head of a Royal Army of at least 118000 Foot and 26000 Horse broke in upon them on the other side Like an Impetuous Torrent he carried all before him without any remarkable opposition making himself Master in a few Weeks of above Forty Towns and places of Strength some without firing a Gun and the rest with little or no Resistance This Army was compos'd of the best Troops that had been seen together for some Ages before and was made up of several Nations Over above the French themselves there were 3000 English 3000 Catalans 3000 Genoese and other Italians 6000 Savoyards 1200 German Horse 10000 Swissers without reckoning into the Number the Ancient Regiments of that Nation in the French Service and which was altogether new and extraordinary there was a Regiment of Swiss Horse Under the King in Person this Army was commanded by Two of the greatest Generals of the Age the late Prince of Conde and the Mareschal Turenne Never was any State nearer its Ruin The desperate Condition of Holland An. 1672. than that of Holland was upon this Irruption and in the opinion of all the World the end of that flourishing Republick was then at hand The French pierc'd into the Bowels of Holland as far as Vtrecht where the King kept a splendid Court and receiv'd Embassies from all Parts He was already Master of Three of the Seven Provinces and a Fourth was in the hands of the Bishop of Munster his Ally The Consternation was so great in the rest that it 's said it was debated at Amsterdam whether they should send the Keys of that Town to the French King at Vtrecht or hold out a Siege Scarce any thing can paint out in livelier Colours the low Ebb the Common-wealth of Holland was brought to at that time than the Declaration which the French King publish'd at Arnheim plac'd at length in the Appendix Appendix Numb 23. In this the French King declar'd that all the Inhabitants of the Towns in Holland that should render themselves willingly his Subjects and receive his Troops should not only be treated favourably but likewise be maintain'd in their Liberties and Privileges and enjoy the free Exercise of their Religion But upon the contrary whoever of them did not submit themselves of whatever degree or condition they be or should endeavour to resist his Arms by opening their Sluces or any other way they should be punish'd with the utmost Rigor his Majesty being resolv'd to give no Quarter to the Inhabitants of those Towns that shall resist his Arms but an Order to pillage their Goods and burn their Houses Among the more immediate Causes of this surprizing Desolation of Holland The Causes of that Desolation upon the Irruption of the French Army there were chiefly these two 1. The supine Security or rather profound Lethargy they were of late fallen into And 2. Their Intestine Divisions As to the first A vast Opulent Trade through most parts of the World had wonderfully enrich'd them and brought them to neglect and forget the Art of War A Peace that had continued without any remarkable Interruption for about Twenty Years at Land lull'd them so fast asleep with false Notions of their own Strength that they had neglected their Fortifications and Martial Discipline and were brought to believe that their Neighbour's Garisons and Strong Places were sufficient to cover them from all Insults As to the second Their Ancestors at the first founding their State taking into their Consideration that they were to raise a Commonwealth out of a great many distinct Governments independent originally of one another and govern'd by Customs and Laws peculiar to every Town and Province and how difficult it was to prevent Intestine Divisions in a Body thus aggregated did wisely provide against such a destructive Inconvenience by constituting an Hereditary Stadtholder and Captain General whose Office and Power was to be the Center in which all the various Lines of their Constitution should meet and the Cement that should keep the whole Frame together This High and Important Dignity was lodg'd in the Family of Orange and it was to the Auspicious Conduct of the Princes of that House that the States of Holland ow'd their first Settlement and the Figure they have made ever since in the World What their Ancestors foresaw and had thus wisely provided against came to pass
MEMOIRS Of the Most Material Transactions IN ENGLAND FOR The Last Hundred YEARS Preceding the Revolution in 1688. By JAMES WELWOOD M. D. Physician in Ordinary to His Majesty and Fellow of the College of Physicians London LONDON Printed for Tim. Goodwin at the Queen's-Head against St. Dunstan's-Church in Fleetstreet 1700. TO THE KING SIR THE Great Patrons of Liberty have not thought it below them to become the Patrons of History And any thing of that kind which concerns England does naturally claim the Protection of a Prince who by his Valour and Conduct has not only Restor'd to the English Nation that Figure they had lost in the World for near an Hundred Years past but has rais'd them to a Greater than ever they had before A Prince who in all He has done for the Common Safety of Europe could have no Brighter Examples to follow than those of his own Family For when Others have fought for Dominion and Power vain empty Notions and destructive to Mankind It has ever been a Glory peculiar to the House of Nassau to have fought for LIBERTY the Noblest Cause and the Greatest Stake that Mortals can contend for Let some Princes pretend to Fading Lawrels by depopulating Countries oppressing their Neighbours and enslaving Free People The surest and best way to transmit a Glorious Name to Posterity is to relieve the Oppress'd break off their Fetters and set the World free These require no varnish to set off their true Lustre whilst those are oblig'd to make use of false Colours to palliate the highest Injustice Let them value themselves upon a Greatness that 's borrow'd from Schemes that could hardly fail as being transmitted to them from the long Experience of the Ablest Ministers and most Refin'd Statesmen of the Age That Prince who without these Helps at his first Appearance on the Stage has by the mere Strength of his own Genius surmounted Difficulties that would have pall'd any Courage but his own and at length has broke all those Measures that had of a long time been concerting towards the enslaving of Christendom cannot fail to make one of the Noblest and Brightest Figures in History If it be the Prerogative of an Almighty Power and Goodness to set Bounds to the Raging Sea it must be the highest and most justifiable Imitation of It to put a Stop to the Ambition of Men and to shelter Nations from their Fury It is in this sense chiefly that Kings may be called Gods And it were a pity that the Lives of such were not as Immortal as their Deeds The Memory of that Prince must be lasting who in all the Wars he has been engag'd in and in all the Treaties that have been made to restore Peace to his Countrey has never made any Terms for Himself except once when the Interest of Three Kingdoms and his Own were become one and the same When succeeding Ages shall see scarce any other Coin in England but of one Stamp they must look back with Amazement upon the Reign of a Prince whose Image it bears and wonder how it was possible That during the Heat of the most Expensive War that ever was so vast a Treasure could be new minted and at so prodigious a Loss While at the same time they will commend and bless a People that with so much Cheerfulness assisted Him with Supplies suitable to such Mighty Undertakings They will be no less surpriz'd to find That amidst a great many Hardships and Disappointments which could not be avoided his Armies follow'd Him with an Inviolable Fidelity and Inimitable Courage And will hardly believe That it was within the Compass of Human Prudence to Cement so many Jarring Interests and unite so many Princes of different Religions into one Alliance and to influence their firm Adherence to that Alliance till the Glorious Conclusion of a General Peace SIR All these Great Things were reserv'd for Your MAJESTY which will be Admir'd and Extoll'd by Posterity no less than they are by the present Age And it 's but reasonable that the Memory of such Actions should live for ever The following Sheets containing a Short View of the various Disposition of Affairs in England for a whole Century before Your MAJESTY's Happy Accession to the Crown I humbly beg Leave to Lay them at Your MAJESTY's Feet with the most profound Submission and Duty that becomes May it please Your Majesty Your Majesty's most Humble most Faithful and most Obedient Subject and Servant James Welwood To the Reader THESE Sheets were writ some Years ago by the Encouragement of One whose Memory will be ever Sacred to Posterity It 's needless to mention the Occasion And they had not been publish'd now if a Surreptitious Copy of a Part of the Manuscript had not crept abroad I can hardly expect they should please in an Age like this that is fond only of what is writ for or against a Party For I have trac'd Truth as near as I could without espousing any one Interest or Faction I hope I may venture to say That I have tread as softly as was possible over the Graves of the Dead and have not aggravated the Errors of the Living As to the latter it 's enough that we are deliver'd from their Power without insulting over their Misfortunes and it is unworthy of a Generous Mind to trample upon those that are already down Most of the Accounts I have seen of the Transactions of those Times are partial to some one Side which being one of the greatest Blemishes of History I have endeavour'd to avoid But whether I have fallen into the same Error my self it is the Reader must be now Iudge I leave Satyr and Panegyrick to others I envy no man the Art of making Court to the Great by Flattery and have not Ill Nature enough for Detraction The Design of these Memoirs being only to give a Short Idea of the Thread of Affairs in England for the Space of a Hundred Years it is not to be expected that I should have observ'd the Rules of a Regular History much less any Niceness of Method or Exactness in the Narration As to the Stile I have taken very little pains about it and all I have aim'd at is to be understood In the Account I have given of the Last Reign I would not be thought to Reflect upon the Roman-Catholicks in general for what a Party among them is chargeable They were chiefly the Bigots of some Religious Orders and the New Converts that advis'd and carried on those Violences that in the end overturn'd their Master's Throne And it is hop'd the Roman-Catholicks have reason to be satisfied with their Condition under the present Reign since they enjoy an unenvied Liberty of their Religion without incurring the Hatred of their Fellow-Subjects for being in a Design to overturn the Establish'd Church which was their Case under the late King James And as I am far from wishing them less Liberty than they have yet cannot but
regret the Hard Usage which the Protestants meet with in other Countries and wish they were but as well treated there as the Roman-Catholicks are here Before I have done I beg leave to take notice of a Pamphlet that came out last Summer call'd Cursory Remarks upon the Proceedings of the Last Session of Parliament The Gentleman that wrote it had not only the Honesty to publish an Answer to his own Book but in that Answer to insinuate that I was the Author of it All the Use I shall make of this unusual Liberty of the Press is to declare That I have not publish'd any one Paper Pamphlet or Book these Six Years And though I have but little Leisure and yet less Inclination to appear again in Print yet if ever I alter my Resolution and publish any thing hereafter I will certainly put my Name to it as I have done to these Memoirs THE CONTENTS THE Excellencies of the English Constitution and the various Changes that have happen'd in it Page 1 The State of England under Queen Elizabeth 3 Her Character 5 The Character of her Ministers particularly of Walsingham Cecil c. and of the Members of the House of Commons in her time 8 Her Conduct towards Mary Queen of Scots 15 King James the First 's Accession to the Crown and the Condition of England under his Reign 19 His Character 20 The Character and Deathof Prince Henry 23 The Character of the Queen of Bohemia and King James's Conduct in the Business of the Palatinate 27 The Fate of Sir Walter Raleigh 28 King James's Conduct in teh Interdict of Venice 34 King Charles the First 's Accession to the Crown and the Condition of England at that time 37 The Breach betwixt Archbishop Abbot and Bishop Laud 38 The Rise of King Charles's Troubles and the first and second War with the Scots 41 The meeting of the Parliament November 1640. 45 The Fall and Character of Wentworth Earl of Strafford 47 The Fall and Character of Archbishop Laud 55 The Famous Petition and Remonstrance of the state of the Nation and the King's Answer 61 His coming to the House of Commons in Person to demand the Five Members and the Consequences of it 63 His Leaving the Parliament and the beginning of the Civil Wars and who began it 66 The Treaty of Uxbridge how unsuccesful and the Marquis of Montrose's fatal Letter the Cause 63 The Character and Fall of King Charles the First 74 His Opinion of Defensive Arms in the bisiness of Rochel 79 The Character of his Favourite Buckingham 84 The true Cause of the Scot's coming into England being a forg'd Letter 91 King Charles's design beâ—ore his Death to Resign the Crown And the Army 's to set up the Duke of Gloucester 98 His Consulting the Sortes Virgilianae 100 The Vsurpation and Character of Oliver Cromwell 102 The Restoration of King Charles the Second and the Manner of it with Monk's part in it and the Risk Monk ran in Scotland 114 One of the true Causes of the Fall of Chancellor Clarendon 122 The discovery of the Popish Plot and its Consequences 123 The Bill of Exclusion the design of it and how manag'd 125 The Disgrace of the Duke of Monmouth and the Consequences of it 131 The Protestant Plot and the Effects of it 133 The Death of King Charles the Second and the Suspicions about the Manner of it discuss'd 135 His Character 143 The Reign of King James the Second 148 The Advantages and Examples he might have maâ—e use of 150 His Brother's and Pope Innocent II.'s Advice to him 152 His first Speech to his Privy Council 153 His first Speech to his Parliament 156 His Second Memorable Speech to his Parliament 157 Two Letters from a Foreign Minister to their Ambassador in England upon the occasion of this Speech 159 Monmouth's Invasion and the Grounds of it 160 Some Passages out of Monmouth's Pocket-Book 166 Monmouth's Character 167 His Letter in his Retirement 169 King James's Speech to the Parliament upon Monmouth's Defeat 171 The Parliament's Address thereupon 173 The Sense of a Foreign Minister of this last Speech 175 The Advances made to the Subversion of the English Constitution 177 King James's Ambassy to Rome and how received 178 The Panegyricks of King James upon that occasion 182 The Manner how King James had been treated by another Pope in his Marriage with the Princess of Modena 187 King James grants a Toleration of Religion 191 He assumes a dispensing Power 194 He sets up an Ecclesiastical Commission 197 The Suspension of the Bishop of London 198 The Proceedings against Magdalen-College 201 His Second Declaration for Liberty of Conscience 206 The Affair of the Seven Bishops 208 The Birth of a pretended Prince of Wales 212 A new Parliament design'd and to what end 213 The Prince and Princess of Orange's Opinion about the Penal Laws and Test and how obtain'd 215 The Army Modell'd 220 The Methods us'd in Ireland and Tyrconel's Advancement 222 The Regulating of the Corporations and the Severities against the Protestants 228 The Act of Attainder there 232 The Interest that Foreign States had in England 234 The Emperor's Letter to King James 236 The Interest of the Prince of Orange 237 The bad Circumstances of the House of Orange at the Birth of the Present Prince of Orange now King of England 238 How he came to be Restored in Holland 240 The Desolation of Holland in 1672 242 The Reasons of that Desolation 244 The Difficulty the Prince of Orange had to grapple with 247 The Duke of Luxemburgh's Cruelties at Swammerdam 249 The Affair of Overall's Convocation and how resented by King James 255 His Letter to Dr. Abbot on that Occasion 257 ERRATA PAGE 62. Line 14 15. for the King's Answer to it at its delivery read Answer to them at their delivery MEMOIRS Of the most Material Transactions in England c. THERE is not a Natiâ—n in Europe that from the Constitution of its Government might have promis'd it self a more firm and lasting Repâ—se than England And yet scarce any Kingdom we know upon Earth has suffered so many and various Convulsions As if some malevolent Planet had over-rul'd one of the best of Human Constitutions and by an unaccountable Fatality had render'd ineffectual all the Endeavours of our Ancestors to make themselves and their Posterity happy under a Limited Monarchy A Monarchy in which the Prerogative of the Prince and the Liberty of the People are so equally temper'd that there seems nothing wanting that may tend to the Happiness of either The King of England has the Glory to Rule over a Free People The Excellency of the English Constitution and the People of England that of being subject to a Monarch who by the Laws of the Countrey is invested with as much Power and Greatness as a Wise and Beneficent Prince can reasonably wish for To compleat all the Crown of England has been for many Ages Hereditary and fix'd in
a mind to do you good but you must not expect a Monopoly of my Favours I have other Subjects to show my Bounty to and I will give and take back again when and as often as I please If you pretend to command here I 'll find ways to humble you I know of no Master but I will make you know there is a Mistress And take care upon your peril that no hurt be done Bower for I 'll make you answer for him The Misfortune of the Earl of Essex every body knows Though otherways a brave Gentleman and endow'd with excellent Qualities yet he valued himself too much upon the Queen's Favour which together with the Contrivances of his Enemies hurried him on to Courses that in the end lost him his Head A Monarch supported with a Burleigh a Walsingham a Salisbury for the Cabinet a Nottingham a Drake a Raleigh for War with a great many others equally fit for both could scarce fail of being great and fortunate nor can any thing reflect more Lustre upon her Wisdom than her choice of such men Walsingham was a Pattern for all Statesmen to copy after The Character of Sir Francis Walsingham By his Vigilance and Address he preserv'd his Mistress's Crown and Life from daily Attempts and Conspiracies against her and by a refin'd piece of Policy defeated for a whole Year together the Measures Spain had taken for fitting out their Armado to Invade England The vast Preparations that were making for a considerable time in Spain kept all Europe in suspense and it was not certain against whom they were design'd though it was the general Opinion they were to subdue the Netherlands all at once which Spain was sensibâ—e could not be done without a greater Force by Sea as well as Land than had been hitherto employ'd for that Service Queen Elizabeth thought fit to be upon her Guard and had some Jealousies that she might be aim'd at but how to find it out was the difficulty which at length Walsingham overcame He had Intelligence from Madrid That Philip had told his Council that he had dispatch'd an Express to Rome with a Letter writ with his own Hand to the Pope acquainting him with the true Design of his Preparations and asking his Blessing upon it which for some Reasons he would not yet disclose to them till the return of the Courier The Secret being thus lodg'd with the Pope Walsingham by the Means of a Venetian Priest retain'd at Rome as his Spy got a Copy of the Original Letter which was stolen out of the Pope's Cabinet by a Gentleman of the Bed-Chamber who took the Keys out of the Pope's Pocket while he slept How upon this Intelligence Walsingham found a way to retard the Spanish Invasion for a whole Year by getting the Spanish Bills protested at Genoa which should have supplied them with Money to carry on their Preparations being properly a Mercantile Affair is needless here to mention I shall only give one Instance more of Walsingham's dexterity in employing and instructing his Spies how to get him Intelligence of the most secret Affairs of Princes The Court of Queen Elizabeth had reason to have an Eye upon the King of Scots as being the next Heir to the Crown and who they knew was courted with all possible Insinuations into the French Interest In order to fathom King Iames's Intentions there was one Wigmore sent to Scotland who pretending to be disoblig'd in England fled thither for Protection Sir Francis Walsingham gives him above Ten Sheets of Paper of Instructions all writ with his own Hand which I have read in the Cotton Library so distinct and so digested as a Man of far inferior parts to Wigmore could hardly fail to be a Master in his Trade In these Papers he instructs him how to find out King James ' s Natural Temper his Morals his Religion his Opinion of Marriage his Inclinations to Queen Elizabeth to France to Spain to the Hollanders and in short to all his Neighbours He likewise directs him how to behave himself towards the King At Table when a Hunting upon his receiving good or bad News at his going to Bed and indeed in all the Publick and Private Scenes of his Life Walsingham was not mistaken in his Man for though there past a constant Correspondence betwixt them Wigmore liv'd in the greatest Favour and Familiarity with King Iames for Nine or Ten Years together without the least Suspicion of his being a Spy Walsingham also laid the Foundation of the Civil Wars in France and the Low Countries which put a final stop to the vast Designs of the House of Austria Upon which occasion he told the Queen at his Return from his Embassy to France That she had no reason to fear the Spaniard for though he had a strong Appetite and a good Digestion he had given him such a Bone to pick as would take him up Twenty Years at least and break his Teeth at last So her Majesty had no more to do but to throw into the Fire he had kindled some English Fuel from time to time to keep it burning This Great Man after all the Services he had perform'd for his Queen and Countrey gave a remarkable Proof at his Death how far he had preâ—err'd the Publick Interest to his own for he died so poor that his Friends were oblig'd to bury him privately in the Night for fear his Body should be arrested for Debt A Fault which few Statesmen since his time have been guilty of Such Ministers also for Capacity and Application were Cecil Lord Burleigh and his Son the Earl of Salisbury the Inheritor of his Father's great Qualities and Places How refin'd a Politician he was and how throughly acquainted with the most secret Designs of Foreign Courts cannot be better express'd than in the words of the same Nauntwell Appendix Numb 2. to which the Reader is referr'd But to return to Queen Elizabeth It appears by her whole Conduct she had no Inclination to Marriage being loth to share her Power with any other It 's true she seem'd sometimes to give Ear to Propositions that were made her by several Princes but this was done either to gain time or manage their Friendship to her own Ends. When the Parliament address'd her to Marry she handsomly excus'd her self in a Pathetick Speech concluding with this Expression To me said she it shall be a full satisfaction â—oth for the Memorial of my Name and for my Glory also if when I shall let my last Breath it be engraven upon my Marble Tomb Here lies Elizabeth who reign'd a Virgin and dy'd one The whole Speech is of so Noble a Strain Appendix Numb 3. that it deserves a place in the Appendix She was very sparing of Honours insomuch that Sir Francis Walsingham had been employ'd in several Embassies and other Matters of State for many Years before she could be prevail'd with to make him a Knight notwithstanding it appears that
egregiously imposâ—d upon for there was no way to come at the Town but through Parts of Germany that were in the hands of Spain and so the Spaniards continued Masters of Frankendale When several other Princes were some time after upon entring into a League for Restitution of the Palatinate and the House of Austria was beginning to doubt the Success Gundomar play'd another Engine to break their Measures by proposing a Match with the Infanta of Spain for the Prince of Wales as the easiest and surest way to restore the Palatine Family which like all the rest was only to amuse King Iames and was equally unsuccessful It were too long to give the Detail of King Iames's Conduct in this Affair which was all of a piece The Author sums up the ills that attended it in this That thereby the Protestant Religion was entirely rooted out of Bohemia the Electoral Dignity transferr'd from the Palatine Family the Palatinate it self lost the Liberty of Germany overthrown and which he mentions with a sensible Regret the famous Library of Heidelburgh was carried to Rome to the irreparable Prejudice of Learning So that Gundomar had good reason to say in one of his Letters to the Duke of Lerma printed in the History of that Duke's Life That he had lull'd King James so fast asleep that he hop'd neither the Cries of his Daughter nor her Children nor the repeated Sollicitations of his Parliament and Subjects in their behalf should be able to awaken him There are two Passages more very observable in this Author The Court of Spain finding King Iames had broke off the Spanish Match and was brought to see how egregiously he had been abus'd in it they ventur'd upon a bold Attempt to trouble his Affairs by whispering in his Ears some things to make him jealous of his Son And that a good while after when King Charles and his Parliament were entring upon vigorous Measures to espouse the Palatine Cause they found ways to sow Divisions between him and his People that in progress of time broke out into a Civil War The latter needs no Commentary and the former is sufficiently explain'd Hacket's Life of Bâ— William by what a late Author has writ in the Life of Bishop Williams concerning that Prelate's being instrumental in making up some secret differences betwixt King Iames and his Son the Prince of Wales a little before King Iames's Death Spanhemius sums up what relates to this Affair with this Remark That never Prince was more oblig'd to a Sister than King Charles the First was to the Queen of Bohemia since it was only the Consideration of her and her Children who were then the next Heirs to the Crown of England that prevail'd with the Court of Spain to permit him to see England again As in most Foreign Transactions King Iames was unhappy In the Interdict of Venice so more particularly in the difference between Pope Paul V. and the Venetians There appear'd at that time a wonderful Disposition in that State to work a Reformation in the Church and throw off the Papal Yoke In order to advance it King Iames dispatch'd Sir Henry Wotton his Ambassador to Venice and hearing that Spain had declar'd for the Pope he declar'd for the Venetians and acquainted Iustiniani their Ambassador in England That he would not only assist Them with all the Forces of his Kingdom but engage all his Allies in their Defence At Sir Henry Wotton's Arrival the Breach between the Pope and the Republick was brought very near a Crisis so that a total Separation was expected not only from the Court but the Church of Rome which was set on by the Learned Padre Paulo and the Seven Divines of the State with much Zeal and conducted with as great Prudence The Ambassador at his Audience offer'd all possible Assistance in his Master's Name and accus'd the Pope and Papacy of being the chief Authors of all the Mischiefs in Christendom This was receiv'd with great Deference and Respect to King Iames And when the Pope's Nuncio objected That King Iames was not a Catholick and so was not to be rely'd upon the Doge took him up briskly and told him That the King of England believ'd in Iesus Christ but he did not know in whom some others believ'd King Iames had sent with Wotton his Premonition to all Christian Princes and States translated into Latin to be presented to the Senate which Padre Paulo and the other Divines press'd might be done at his first Audience telling him they were confident it would have a very good effect The Ambassador could not be prevail'd with alledging he had positive Orders to wait till St. Iames's Day which was not far off This Conceit of presenting K. Iames's Book on St. Iames's Day spoil'd all for before that day came the Difference was made up and that happy Opportunity lost So that when he had his Audience on St. Iames's Day and had presented the Book all the Answer he got was That they thank'd the King of England for his good will but they were now reconcil'd to the Pope and that therefore they were resolv'd not to admit of any Change in their Religion according to their Agreement with the Court of Rome How little Reputation he acquir'd in the Matter of the Venetian Interdict appears yet more plainly in this That in all the numerous Collections we have of Letters that pass'd on that Subject between the Cardinals of Ioyeuse and Perron the Marquis de Fresnes and Henry IV. there is not the least notice taken of King Iames or his Embassy To have done with King Iames it was said That he divided his time betwixt his Standish his Bottle and his Hunting The last had his fair Weather the two former his dull and cloudy and therefore that it was no wonder his Writings were so variable and that after he had pleaded for Witchcraft and the Pope's being Antichrist Somerset's Affair and the Spanish Match cur'd him of both After having enjoy'd for the most part of his Life a firm Health he died of a Quartan Ague in the Fifty ninth Year of his Age and with such suspicious Circumstances as gave occasion of Enquiry into the manner of his Death in the two first Parliaments that were call'd by his Son all which came to nothing by reason of their sudden Dissolutions King Charles the First came to the Crown under all the Disadvantages that have been mention'd The Reign of King Charlâ—s I. and yet the Nation might have hop'd that their Condition would be mended under a Prince of so much Virtue as indeed he was if the Seeds of Discontent which were sown in his Father's time had not every day taken deeper Root and acquir'd new Growth through the Ill Management of his Ministers rather than any Wilful Errors of his own Some of them drove so fast that it was no wonder the Wheels and Chariot broke And it was in great part to the indiscreet Zeal of a
few days before his Return to fall into new Heats about Innovations in Religion the Rebellion in Ireland Plots said to be laid in Scotland the disabling the Clergy to exercise Temporal Iurisdiction and excluding the Bishops from Votes in Parliament All which matters together with Reports that were buzz'd about of some Designs against the Parliament led the House into that Remarkable Petition and Remonstrance of the State of the Nation The Petition and Remonstrance of the II of Commons to King Charlâ—s in which they ript up again all the Mismanagements in the Government since the King 's coming to the Crown and attributed all to Evil Counsels and Counsellors and a Malignant Party about the King This Remonstrance was roughly penn'd both for Matter and Expression and met with great Opposition in the House the Debate lasting from Three a Clock in the Afternoon till Ten a Clock next Morning and was presented to his Majesty the Eighth Day after his Return from Scotland It was no wonder King Charles was surpriz'd at this Petition and Remonstrance considering how much he had done to comply with his Parliament in all they desired And since from these two Papers and from the King's Answer to it at its delivery and the Declaration he publish'd more at large afterwards to the same purpose the Reader will be better enabled to make a Judgment of the Cause and Arguments on both Sides for the Civil War that ensued I have plac'd all the Four in the Appendix Appendix Numb 9. The Length of them may be more easily pardon'd since upon the Matters contain'd in them the whole almost of all the Differences that came to be decided by the Sword happen'd to turn Things were now going fast on towards lessening the Confidence betwixt the King and Parliament K. Charles's coming to the II. of Commons to demand the Five Members And yet there were not wanting Endeavours on both Sides to accommodate Matters by soft and healing Methods when the King 's coming to the House of Commons in Person to demand Five of their Members whom he had order'd the day before to be impeach'd of High-Treason did put all into a Combustion and gave occasion to the House to assert their Privileges with a greater Warmth than ever This was the most unlucky Step King Charles could have made at that Juncture And the Indiscretion of some that attended the King to the Lobby of the House was insisted upon as an Argument that the King was resolv'd to use Violence upon the Parliament which it 's to be presum'd was a thing far from his thoughts The Five Members had hardly time to make their Escape just when the King was entring and upon his going away the House adjourn'd in a Flame for some days ordering a Committee to sit in Guildhall in the mean time as if they were not safe at Westminster Whoever they were that advis'd the King to this rash Attempt are justly chargeable with all the Blood that was afterwards spilt for this sudden Action was the first and visible Ground of all our following Miseries It was believ'd That if the King had found the Five Members in the House and had call'd in his Guards to seize them the House would have endeavour'd their defence and oppos'd Force to Force which might have endanger'd the King's Person But the Consequences were bad enough without this for immediately upon it there was nothing but Confusion and Tumults Fears and Iealousies every where which spread themselves to Whitehall in the rudest manner so that his Majesty thinking himself not safe there he retir'd with his Family to Hampton Court The King leaving the Parliament in this manner there were scarce any hopes of a thorough Reconciliation But when after a great many Removes from place to place The Beginning of the Civil Wars his Majesty came to set up his Standard at Nottingham there ensued a Fatal and Bloody War which it's reasonable to believe was never design'd at first by either Side Each Party blam'd the other for beginning this War and it 's not easy to determine which of them began it Though the King made the first Steps that seem'd to tend that way such as raising a Troop for a Guard to his Person summoning the Gentlemen and Freeholders of several Counties to attend him in his Progress to the North and ordering Arms and Ammunition to be bought in Holland for his use Yet the Parliament did as much at the same time for they likewise rais'd Guards of their own and took care that the Magazine of Hull should not fall into the King's hands So that the King and Parliament prepar'd themselves insensibly for War without considering that these Preparations must gradually and inevitably come to Blows in the end The King 's setting up his Standard at Nottingham was not the first publick Notice of this War as has been commonly reported by Historians that should have known better for that was not done till August 22. 1642. and yet the House of Commons past these Two Votes the 12 th of Iuly before 1. That an Army should be forthwith rais'd for the Safety of the King's Person Defence of both Houses of Parliament and of those who have obey'd their Orders and Commands and preserving of the true Religion Laws Liberty and Peace of the Kingdom And 2. That the Earl of Essex should be General and the Earl of Bedford General of the Horse To which Votes the House of Lords agreed Whoever begun the War it was carried on in the beginning with equal Success and it was hard to determine which Side had the better Till in the Sequel the Loss of Essex's Army in the West and other disadvantages brought the Parliaments Affairs to a low Ebb and seem'd to promise the King an entire Mastery To retrieve their sinking Fortune the Parliament was oblig'd to call in the Scots to their Assistance which so far turn'd the Scale that the King lost ground every day after And the Defeat of his Army at the Battels of Marston-Moor and Naseby put him out of capacity to keep the Field and broke entirely all his Measures During the whole Course of this Vnnatural War it was hard to divine what would be the Fate of England whether an Absolute Vnlimited Monarchy a new huddled-up Commonwealth or a downright Anarchy If the king should prevâ—il the first was to â—e fearâ—d considering that the many Indignities put upon him might imbitter him against the Parlâ—ament If the Parliament should prevail the second was to be apprehended And if the Army should set up for themselves as afterwards they did the last was inevitably to follow All which some of the best men about the King wisely foresaw and trembled at the Event of every Battel that was fought whoever happen'd to be Victors It was the dread of these Misfortunes that hinder'd the Lords and Commons whom the King call'd to Oxford to assume to themselves the Name of The Parliament
nothing short of Strafford or Falkland the Two most Celebrated Pens of that time As to his Religion he was Protestant and in the strictest sense of the Church of England and for the Divine Right of Episcopacy But his consenting personally to the total Abolition of that Order in Scotland does not well agree with this part of his Character especially considering his repeated Protestations at the Treaties of Vxbridge and Newport That he could not supersede it but for a time in England What his Opinion was about Subjects defending their Religion and Liberties by Force of Arms appear'd in the business of Rochell For though some would have had us believe of late That Defensive Arms were inconsistent with the Principles of the Church of England it 's hop'd they will not deny but King Charles I. understood the Doctrine and Principles of that Church as well as any other Person can pretend to do and yet its certain that in his Practice and Declarations he allow'd of the People of Rochell's vindicating their Religion and Liberties from the Encroachments made by their Sovereign and that by Force of Arms and assisted them in so doing King Charles did not only assist the Rochellers after the War was actually begun His assisting the Rochellers but we have reason to believe that he encourag'd them to it at first if we look into the Duke of Rhoan 's Memoirs and Apology where that Great Man acquaints the World in what manner he was brought into that War in these words as near as I can translate them from the Original When all our Privileges says he were violated and our Religion brought to Ruin and the City of Rochell in the greatest Danger I could see no possibility to escape but was upon the sad thoughts of submitting our selves to the Mercy of the King meaning Lewis the XIIIth Being in this desperate state there came a Gentleman to me from the King of England who told me from his Master That he seeing our Privileges were violated and our Religion in danger of being subverted had taken compassion on our Sufferings and thought himself oblig'd in Honour and Conscience to assist and protect us which he was resolv'd to do by employing all his Kingdoms and his own Person in so just a War Provided we would join our Arms with his and not enter into any Treaty with the King meaning the French King without him and for that effect he would make War against the French King both by Sea and Land Intreating me continues the Duke of Rhoan not to abandon my Party in so just and honourable a War And a little after in the same Apology he has these words I refer it to all the World if I can be justly call'd the Author of the Third War considering I was sollicited to it by the King of Great Britain But suppose there were no Credit to be given to the Duke of Rhoan whose Honour and Veracity even his very Enemies never call'd in question and suppose it were false which all the World knows to be true that King Charles did actually assist the Rochellers again and again against their Prince yet we have Authentick Accounts of several Speeches made by the Duke of Buckingham's Secretary to the Rochellers and of several Messages sent to them from the Duke in name of the King his Master all to the same purpose And likewise a Manifesto publish'd by him and sign'd with his own Hand dated Iuly 21. 1627. aboard the Admiral Ship in which he has this Expression No private Interest says he has oblig'd my Master to make War against the French King but merely the Defence of the Protestant Church My Master's design is the Re-establishment of the Church their Good is his Interest and their Contentment his End We have also Authentick Copies of the League betwixt King Charles and the People of Rochell in which there is this Expression That the Rochellers may be deliver'd from the Oppressions they groan under And to sum up all there were two Letters writ by King Charles with his own Hand to the Rochellers which are mention'd by Monsieur Mervault a Syndic of that Town and who was active in the whole matter and present during the whole Siege of which the Copies follow To the Mayor Sheriffs Peers and Burgesses of the City of Rochell Gentlemen BE not discouraged though my Fleet be return'd Hold out to the last for I am resolv'd that my whole Fleet shall perish rather than you be not reliev'd For this effect I have order'd It to return back to your Coasts and am sending several Ships to reinforce it With the Help of God the Success shall be happy for you At Westminster May 19. O. S. 1628. Your Good Friend CHARLES R. The other Letter directed as before runs thus Gentlemen I Have been very much troubled to hear that my Fleet was upon the point of returning home without obeying my Orders in supplying you with Provisions cost what it will I have commanded them to return to your Road and not to come away until you are supply'd or at least till they are reinforc'd which I have order'd to be done with all diligence Assure your selves That I shall never abandon you and that I shall employ the whole Power of my Kingdom for your deliverance until God assist me to obtain for you an assured Peace Given at our Palace of Westminster May 27. O. S. 1628. Your Good Friend CHARLES R. I have dwelt the longer upon this Subject because it is easy to draw a Parallel betwixt this Case of King Charles's assisting Subjects against their King in the Defence of their Religion and Liberties and that of another Prince's doing the same upon a late occasion But as the former had no other Right to interpose in the one but the common Interest of Religion so the other had over and above that the Right of a Prince of the Blood and the Interest of the Presumptive Heir of the Crown all which alter'd the Case greatly to the advantage of the latter King Charles was as unfortunate in this War with France as he was in all others he engag'd in The poor City of Rochell after a long and Cruel Siege amidst the Horrors of Famine and Death was at last forc'd to submit to the Will of the Conqueror and the loss of that Bulwark of the French Liberty was in some time follow'd by the total Ruin of the Protestant Interest in France The English Fleet lay within view of the Town when it was taken and which added to the Misfortune that mighty Dyke that had been rais'd at inestimable Charges to block up the Harbour fell down the very next day after the Surrender and open'd a Passage for the Fleet that came to relieve it when it was now too late During this War he lost his Favourite The Character of the D of Buckingham George Villiers Duke of Buckingham This Gentleman was one of the greatest Prodigies of Fortune that
declare himself in his Life-time If he had any design of introducing Popery he knew the Temper of the Nation too well to imagine it could be brought about in a short time or by such open and barefac'd Methods as his Brother was pleas'd afterwards to put in practice But the truth is King Charles was neither Bigot enough to any Religion nor lov'd his Ease so little as to embark in a Business that must at least have disturb'd his Quiet if not hazarded his Crown The Romish Emissaries knowing this were resolv'd to make sure of one of the Brothers And the Duke was now the Rising Sun King Charles having no prospect of Issue by the Queen It was not the Roman-Catholiâ—ks alone that began to pay him their Early Devotions there were others that came nothing short of them in their Addresses to him He had in the time of his Banishment and after the Restoration acquir'd the Reputation of being Brave and skill'd in the Art of War Flanders and the Ocean were the Theatres on which he had given unquestionable Proofs of both having Commanded the Spanish Horse in the one and the English Fleet on the other From a Prince thus possess'd of a Warlike Character and thus devoted to the See of Rome it was no wonder the Roman Catholicks expected and the Protestants fear'd some extraordinary Change in England if ever he should come to wear the Crown And therefore as it was the Interest of the first to have him upon the Throne so it was equally the Interest of the latter to exclude him from it It 's said King Charles came in at first to the Bill of Exclusion or seem'd to do so The Favourite Mistress was prevail'd with from secret Motives and Prospects of her own to concur with others in persuading him to abandon his Brother and waving the Duke's Right to accept of an Act of Parliament in his own favour like that made in the Reign of Henry VIII by which he should have a Power invested in him to dispose of the Crown at his Death under such Restrictions and Limitations as should be agreed on Whether any such Act was really intended it 's hard to determine but it 's certain such an Offer was made to King Charles with a Promise of a considerable Sum of Money towards the supplying his pressing Wants It 's likewise certain that King Charles seem'd willing to accept of it till it happen'd that a Foreign Court whose Interest it was to support the Duke of York struck up a Bargain with the King to give him more Money for refusing than had been offer'd him for consenting to the Bill of Exclusion Some time before the Popish Plot came upon the Stage King Charles had been prevail'd with to Marry the Eldest of his Nieces to the Prince of Orange as he did afterwards the Youngest to the Prince of Denmark The happiest Actions of his Life and by which he made a sufficient Attonement for all the Errors of his Reign It were Ingratitude to enquire too narrowly into the Motives that induc'd him to these Matches It 's enough to entail a lasting Honour on his Name that he did it and did it against the Advice of his Brother and in spight of all the Sollicitations that were made to him from Abroad to marry them to Princes of the Romish Religion The Parliament had in their view the Princess of Orange in the Bill of Exclusion and it was She and the Prince her Husband that were to have fill'd the Throne upon the Death of their Uncle But King Charles either not daring or not willing to consent to the Bill he dissolv'd both that and the next Parliament at Oxford merely to ward off the Blow that threaten'd his Brother After the Dissolution of the Oxford Parliament King Charles shew'd but little Inclination to call any more and was prevail'd with to enter into harsher Measures than hitherto he had taken and which seem'd contrary to his Natural Goodness and Temper The Charters of the City of London and other Corporations stood in the way of an Absolute Government and it was resolv'd to break through this Barrier In order to which Quo Warranto's were brought against them and in progress of time they were either surrendred by the Corporations themselves or vacated in Westminster-Hall by a Set of Iudges pickt out for that purpose And it was resolv'd thereby to make one of the Estates of Parliament depend entirely upon the Will and Nomination of the Prince While these Quo Warranto's were going on whole Peals of Anathema's were rung out against those Patriots that had stood up for the Liberties of their Countrey in the preceding Parliaments And it was look'd upon as a Crime against the State for any one to regret the approaching Fate of his Countrey Even the Holy Scriptures themselves were made a Stale for Arbitrary Power and the Laws which were given to the Iews as they were a Political State were now brought in upon every occasion to countenance the Designs of the Court. As if those Laws which were intended only to support the Political Government of the Iews were the real Foundation of the Christian Religion or that the Constitution of England was founded upon the Iewish Doctrine All which was not much for the Honour of those Gentlemen that broach'd that Notion This was a Time never to be forgot when to wish well to our Countrey was a Crime and when Heaven it self was rank'd upon our Enemies side by some that pretended to expound its Will In some places a new kind of Funeral Harangues came in fashion Our Laws our Liberties our Parliaments our Native Rights were to be buried but instead of dropping a Tear at their Funeral fulsom Panegyricks were made upon their Murtherers and Curses denounc'd against those that would have retriev'd them from Destruction All these Transactions were attended with the Publick Disgrace of the Duke of Monmouth The Disgrace of the Duke of Monmouth and its Consequences This Gentleman stood possess'd of all the Qualities requisite to gain the Love of the People and stir up the Jealousy of the Duke of York King Charles had heap'd Honours upon him and nothing pleas'd him so much as to see him Great He had been sent to Scotland in the Year 1678 to suppress an Insurrection which the Severity of Lauderdale's Administration had occasion'd where his Lenity towards a People made by Oppression mad gain'd him the ill will of a Predominant Party at Court The Zeal he shew'd some time after in the prosecution of the Popish Plot and his Friendships with some that were profess'd Enemies to the Duke concurr'd to his Fall Yet King Charles still continued underhand the same Tenderness for him though he was declar'd in Publick to be in Disgrace The Duke's Faction at home and a Foreign Interest abroad were too powerful for King Charles to grapple with even though the Fortune of a Favourite Son was at stake The more he was
Yatchts were waiting to Transport some Person of Quality without mentioning who it was or whither bound The Romish Party that manag'd about Court were observ'd to be more than ordinary diligent and busy up and down Whitehall and St. Iames's as if some very important Affair was in agitation and a new and unusual Concern was to be seen on their Countenances Nor was it any wonder for in this suspected Change they were like to be the only Losers and all their teeming Hopes were in a fair way to be disappointed How far the Principles of some of that Party might leave them at liberty to push on their Revenge for this design'd Affront as well as to prevent the Blow that threaten'd them though without the Privacy much less the Consent of the Duke of York is left to the Reader to judge There was a Foreign Minister that some days before the King fell ill order'd his Steward to buy a considerable Parcel of Black Cloth which serv'd him and his Retinue after for Mourning And the late Ambassador Don Pedro Ranquillor made it no Secret that he had a Letter from Flanders the Week before King Charles died that took notice of his Death as the News there But both these might fall out by mere Accident There remains two things more that deserve some Consideration in this matter When his Body was open'd there was not sufficient time given for taking an exact Observation of his Stomach and Bowels which one would think ought chiefly to have been done considering the violent Pains he had there And when a certain Physician seem'd to be more inquisitive than ordinary about the Condition of those Parts he was taken aside and reprov'd for his needless Curiosity In the next place his Body stunk so extremely within a few Hours after his Death notwithstanding the Coldness of the Season that the People about him were extremely offended with the Smell Which is a thing very extraordinary in one of his strong and healthful Constitution and is not a proper Consequent of a mere Apoplectical Distemper There was some Weight laid upon an Accident that fell out at Windsor some Years before his Death For the King drinking more liberally than usual after the Fatigue of Riding he retir'd to the next Room and wrapping himself up in his Cloak fell aslep upon a Couch He was but a little time come back to the Company when a Servant belonging to one of them lay down upon the same Couch in the King's Cloak and was found stabb'd dead with a Ponyard Nor was it ever known how it happen'd but the matter hush'd up and no Enquiry made about it To conclude Dr. Short who was a Man of great Probity and Learning and a Roman-Catholick made no scruple to declare his Opinion to some of his intimate Friends That he believ'd King Charles had foul Play done him And when he came to dye himself express'd some suspicion that he had met with the same Treatment for opening his mind too freely in that Point So much for the Circumstances of King Charles's Death that seem to have an Ill Aspect There are others that seem to destroy all Suspicions of Treachery in the matter As First He had liv'd so fast as might enervate in a great measure the Natural Force of his Constitution and exhaust his Animal Spirits and therefore he might be more subject to an Apoplexy which is a Disease that weakens and locks up these Spirits from performing their usual Functions And though in his later Years he had given himself more up to the Pleasures of Wine than of Women that might rather be the effect of Age than of Choice Next it 's known he had been once or twice attack'd before with Fits that much resembled those of which he afterwards died And yet as the manner of them is told they look rather to have been Convulsive Motions than an Apoplexy seeing they were attended with violent Contorsions of his Face and Convulsions of his whole Body and Limbs This is the more confirm'd by a Passage that happen'd during the Heat of the Popish Plot. King Charles had some secret Matter to manage at that time by the means of a Romish Priest then beyond Sea whom he order'd to be privately sent for And the Gentleman employ'd betwixt the King and him from whom I had the Story was directed to bring him in a Disguise to Whitehall The King and the Priest were a considerable time together alone in the Closet and the Gentleman attended in the next Room At last the Priest came out with all the marks of Fright and Astonishment in his Face and having recover'd himself a little he told the Gentleman That he had run the greatest Risque ever man did for while he was with the King his Majesty was suddenly surpriz'd with a Fit accompanied with violent Convulsions of his Body and Contorsions of his Face which lasted for some Moments and when he was going to call out for help the King held him by force till it was over and then bid him not to be afraid for he had been troubled with the like before the Priest adding what a condition he would have been in considering his Religion and the present Juncture of Affairs if the King had died of that Fit and no body in the Room with him besides himself But leaving this Story to the Credit of the Priest there might be another Natural Cause assign'd for King Charles's falling into such a Fit as that of which he died which is this He had had for some time an Issue in his Leg which run much and consequently must have made a great Revulsion from his Head upon which account it 's probable it was made A few Weeks before his Death he had let it be dried up contrary to the Advice of his Physicians who told him it would prejudice his Health Their Prognostick was partly true in this that there came a painful Tumor upon the place where the Issue had been which prov'd very obstinate and was not thoroughly heal'd up when he died In fine it is agreed on all hands that King Charles express'd no Suspicion of his being poyson'd during all the time of his Sickness Though it must be also observed that his Fits were so violent that he could not speak when they were upon him and show'd an Aversion to speaking during the Intervals And there was not any thing to be seen upon opening his Body that could reasonably be attributed to the force of Poyson Yet to allow these Considerations no more weight than they can well bear this must be acknowledg'd That there are Poysons which affect originally the Animal Spirits and are of so subtle a nature that they leave no concluding Marks upon the Bodies of those they kill Thus Reign'd The Character of King Charles II. and thus Died King Charles the Second a Prince endow'd with all the Qualities that might justly have rendred him the Delight of Mankind and entitled him
me and having formerly serv'd me on several Occasions and always approv'd the Loyalty of their Principles by their Practices I think them now fit to be Employ'd under me and will deal plainly with you That after having had the benefit of their Services in such time of need and danger I will neither expose them to Disgrace nor my self to the Want of them if there should be another Rebellion to make them necessary to me And at last he tells them That he was afraid some may hope that a difference might happen betwixt Him and his Parliament on that occasion which he cannot apprehend can befal him or that any thing can shake them in their Loyalty to him who will ever make all returns of kindness and protection and venture his Life in the Defence of the true Interest of the Nation It was no wonder That this Speech surpriz'd a people who valu'd themselves so much upon their Liberties and thought themselves secure of them both from the Constitution of their Government and the solemn repeated promises of their Prince They found too late that their fears in the former Reign of a Popish Successor were too well grounded and how inconsistent a Roman Catholick King is with a Protestant Kingdom The Parliament did in humble manner represent the inconvenience that might attend such Measures The Parliaments Address to K. Iames upon that Speech at least to render him inexcusable for what might Ensue And that they might not be wanting to themselves and their Posterity they Voted an Address wherein they told him That they had with all duty and readiness taken into Consideration His Majesty's Gracious Speech And as to that part of it relating to the Officers of the Army not qualified for their Employment according to the Act of Parliament they did out of their bounden duty humbly Represent to His Majesty That these Officers could not by Law be capable of their Employments and that the Incapacities they bring upon themselves that way could no ways be taken off but by an Act of Parliament Therefore out of that great Reverence and Duty they ow'd to His Majesty they were preparing a Bill to indemnify them from the inconveniences they had now incurr'd And because the continuing them in their Employments may be taken to be a dispensing with Law without an Act of Parliament the consequence of which was of the greatest concern to the Rights of all his Subjects and to all the Laws made for the security of their Religion Therefore they most humbly beseech His Majesty That he would be graciously pleas'd to give such Directions therein that no Apprehensions or Iealousies might remain in the hearts of his Subjects Over and above what was contain'd in this Address the House of Commons were willing to capacitate by an Act of Parliament such a Number of the Roman Catholick Officers as King Iames should give a List of But both this Offer and the Address was highly resented and notwithstanding that they were preparing a Bill for a considerable Supply to Answer his extraordinary Occasions and had sent to the Tower one of their Members for speaking indecently of his Speech King Iames was influenc'd to part with this his first and only Parliament in displeasure upon the Fourth day after they presented the Address As his former Speeches to his Council and Parliament had put a Foreign Court to a Stand what to think of him so this last put them out of pain and convinc'd them he was intirely Theirs Their sense of it can hardly be better express'd than in a Letter from Abroad contain'd in the Appendix Appendix Numb 17. which by its Stile though in another Hand seems to be from the same Minister that writ the two former In which he tells the Ambassador here That he needed not a surer Character of King James and his Intentions than this last Speech to the Parliament by which they were convinc'd of his former Resolution to throw off the Fetters which Hereticks would impose upon him and to act for the time to come En Maistre as Master A word till then altogether Foreign to the English Constitution What other Effects this Speech had upon the Minds of People at Home and Abroad may be easily guess'd from the different Interests they had in it Nor is it to be pass'd over without some Remark That the Revocation of the Edict of Nants which probably had been some time under Consideration before was now put in Execution to the Astonishment of all Europe The Parliament being dissolv'd and no visible means left to retrieve the Liberties of England King Iames made haste to accomplish the Grand Design which a head strong Party about him push'd on as the certain way in their opinion to Eternize his Name in this World and to merit an Eternal Crown in the other They foresaw that this was the Critical Iuncture and the only one that happen'd since the days of Queen Mary to Restore their Religion in England And if they were wanting to themselves in making use of it the prospect of a Protestant Successor would infallibly prevent their having any such opportunity for the future King Iames was pretty far advanc'd in years and what was to be done requir'd Expedition for all their labour would be lost if he should die before the accomplishment If he had been Younger or the next presumptive Heir had not been a Protestant there had been no such absolute necessity for Dispatch But the Uncertainty of the King's Life call'd for more than ordinary diligence in a Design that depended meerly upon it The Party being resolv'd for these Reasons to bring about in the Compass of one Single Life and that already far spent what seem'd to be the Work of a whole Age they made large steps towards it Roman-Catholicks were not only Employ'd in the Army but brought into Places of greatest Trust in the State The Earl of Clarendon was forthwith remov'd from the Office of Privy-Seal and the Government of Ireland to make room for the Earl of Tyrconel in the one and the Lord Arundel in the other Father Peters a Iesuit was sworn of the Privy Council And though by the Laws it was High-Treason for any to assume the Character of the Pope's Nuncio A Pope's Nuncio in England yet these were become too slender Cobwebs to hinder a Roman Prelate to appear publickly at London in that Quality Duke of Somerset and one of the greatest Peers of England was disgrac'd for not paying him that Respect which the Laws of the Land made Criminal To bear the Publick Character of Ambassador to the Pope An Ambâ—ssador sent to Rome was likewise an open Violation of the Laws But so fond was the governing Party about King Iames to show their new-acquir'd Trophies at Rome that the Earl of Castlemain was dispatch'd thither Extraordinary Ambassador with a Magnificent Train and a most Sumptuous Equipage What his Secret Instructions were may be
partly guess'd by his Publick ones which were To Reconcile the Kingdoms of England Scotland and Ireland to the Holy See from which they had for more than an Age fallen off by Heresy Innocent XI And slighted by the Pope receiv'd this Embassy as one that saw further than those who sent it The Ambassador had but a cold Reception of the Holy Father and none of the Cardinals but those of a particular Faction and the good-natur'd Cardinal of Norfolk took any further notice of it than Good Manners oblig'd them The Court of Rome were too refin'd Politicians to be impos'd upon with Show and Noise and knew the World too well to expect great Matters from such hasty ill-tim'd Advances as were made to them Not only so but Innocent having an Aversion in his Nature to a Faction he knew King Iames was embark'd in which he never took pains to dissemble was not over-fond of an Embassy from a Prince who was in an Interest he had long wish'd to see humbled King Iames met with nothing but Mortifications at Rome in the Person of his Ambassador which occasion'd his making as short a Stay as was possible In which may be seen the vast difference there was at that time betwixt the Politicks of Italy and those of a head-strong Party in England And however the World has been impos'd upon to believe that the Pope's Nuncio at the English Court who is since made a Cardinal was an Instrument to push on things to extremities yet certain it is he had too much good sense to approve of all the Measures that were taken and therefore desir'd often to be recall'd lest he should be thought to have a hand in them Although the Earl of Castlemain was pleas'd upon his Examination before the Parliament to say that his Embassy to Rome was only such as is between Two Temporal Princes about Compliment and Commerce yet Father Warner in his Manuscript History quoted by a Learned Author * Dr. Gee's Animadversions on the Iesuits Memorial for the Intended Reformation of England under the first Popish Prince London 1690. gives us another account of it in these words Things being thus setled says he within the Realm the next care his Majesty had was to unite his Countries to the Obedience of the Bishop of Rome and the Apostolick See which had been cut off by Heresy about an Age and a half before To try the Pope's Inclination In the Year 1685. he sent Mr. Carryl thither who succeeding according to his Wishes and being recall'd the Earl of Castlemain was sent the next Year as Extraordinary Ambassador to the Pope in the Name of the King and the Catholicks of England to make their Submission to the Holy See Castlemain had several Audiences of the Pope but to little purpose for whenever he began to talk of Business the Pope was seasonably attack'd with a Fit of Coughing which broke off the Ambassador's Discourse for that time and oblig'd him to retire These Audiences and Fits of Coughing continued from time to time while Castlemain continued at Rome and were the subject of diversion to all but a particular Faction at that Court. At length he was advis'd to come to Threats and to give out that he would be gone since he could not have an opportunity to treat with the Pope about the Business he came for Innocent was so little concern'd for the Ambassador's Resentment that when they told him of it he answer'd with his ordinary Coldness E bene se vuol andarsene ditegli adonque che si levi di buon matino al fresco e che a mezzo giorno si reposi per che in questi paesi non bisogna viaggiare al caldo del giorno Well! let him go and tell him It were fit he rise early in the Morning that he may rest himself at Noon for in this Countrey it 's dangerous to travel in the Heat of the Day In the end he was recall'd being able to obtain of the Pope two trifling Requests only that could hardly be denied to an ordinary Courier The one was a License for the Mareschal d' Humiers's Daughter to marry her Vncle Mercure Historick pour Iune 1687. And the other a Dispensation of the Statutes of the Iesuits Order to Father Peters to enjoy a Bishoprick The want of which says my Author was the reason that the Archbishoprick of York was kept so long vacant Though the Pope carried himself in this manner towards the English Ambassador The Jesuits Noble Entertainment of the English Ambassador at Rome yet the Iesuits paid him the highest Respect imaginable which did him no service with the Old Man for He and That Order were never hearty Friends They entertain'd him in their Seminary with the greatest Magnificence and nothing was wanting in Nature or Art to grace his Reception All their Stores of Sculpture Painting Poetry and Rhetorick seem to have been exhausted upon this Entertainment And though all the Inscriptions and Emblems did center upon the Triumph of the Romish Religion and the Ruin of Heresy in England yet Care was taken not to omit such particular Trophies and Devices as were adapted to their new-acquir'd Liberty of setting up their Publick Schools at London Among a great many other Panegyricks upon King Iames the following Distich was plac'd below an Emblem of England Restituit Veterem tibi Religionis honorem Anglia Magnanimi Regis aperta sides The open Zeal of this Magnanimous King has restor'd to England its Ancient Religion There was also this Inscription put round King Iames's Picture Potentissimo Religiosissimo Magnae Britanniae REGI JACOBO II. Generosâ Catholicae Fidei Confessione Regnum Auspicanti ET INNOCENTIO XI P. M. Per Legatum Nobilissimum Sapientissimum D. Rogerium Palmerium Comitem de Castelmain Obsequium deferenti Collegium Romanum Regia Virtutâ—m Insignia dedicat To the most Potent and most Religious JAMES the Second King of Great Britain beginning his Reign with the Generous Confession of the Catholick Faith AND Paying his Obedience to Pope INNOCENT XI By the most Noble and most Wise D. Roger Palmer Earl of Castlemain The Roman College Dedicates These Royal Emblems of his Virtues In the Great Hall the Ambassador was Harangued by the Rector of the College in a Latin Speech which to show the vain Hopes they had of King Iames and their own Fortune at that time is plac'd in the Appendix Appendix Numb 18. Nouveau Voyage d' Italie Edit 3. Tom. 2. Par Monsicur Misson with a Translation of it into English Referring the Reader for the rest of that Solemnity to an Ingenious Gentleman that was then upon the Place and has given a particular Account of it But yet it may not be amiss to mention what the same Gentleman tells us of a Device that related to King Iames's having a Son which was A Lilly from whose Leaves there distill'd some Drops of Water which as the Naturalists say
Error too late and found they had been us'd but as Tools to prevent the Dissenters from uniting with the Church of England whenever the common Danger should come to threaten both This Toleration could not subsist K. Iames grants a Toleration of Religion being contrary to the Establish'd Laws of the Realm unless a new Monster was introduc'd to give it life under the Name of a Dispensing Power When King Iames came to assume to himself this Power as his Prerogative and Right he unhindg'd the Constitution all at once for to Dispense with Laws already made is as much a part of the Legislature as the making of new ones And therefore in aarogating to himself such a Dispensing Power he invaded the very Essence of the English Constitution by which the Legislature is lodg'd in King Lords and Commons and every one of them has a Negative upon the other two Charles II. was the first King of England that ever aim'd at any thing like a Dispensing Power In the Year 1662. he was prevail'd upon for some Reasons of State to issue out a Proclamation dispensing with some few things that related to the Act of Vniformity but without the least regard to Roman-Catholicks And though in his Speech to the Parliament upon that occasion he did in a manner acknowledge that he had no such Power in saying That if the Dissenters would demean themselves peaceably and modestly he could heartily wish he had such a Power of Indulgence to use upon occasion Yet the Parliament was so jealous of this Innovation that they presented the King with an Address against the Proclamation and plainly told him That he had no Power to dispense with the Laws without an Act of Parliament King Charles made another Attempt of the like nature in the Year 1672 and in a Speech to Both Houses did mention his Declaration of Indulgence and acquainted them with the Reasons that induc'd him to it telling them withal how little the Roman Catholicks would be the better for it Upon which the House of Commons made an Address to him for recalling this Declaration Wherein they plainly told him That in claiming a Power to dispense with Penal Laws his Majesty had been very much misinform'd since no such Power was ever claim'd or exercis'd by any of his Predecessors and if it should be admitted might tend to the interrupting of the free course of the Laws and altering the Legislative Power which has always been acknowledg'd to reside in his Majesty and his Two Houses of Parliament King Charles was so far satisfied in the matter contain'd in this Address that he immediately thereupon cancell'd his Declaration of Indulgence and order'd the Seal to be torn off and acquainted both Houses That he had done so with this further Declaration which was enter'd upon Record in the House of Lords That it should never be drawn into Example or Consequence The next that attempted such a Dispensing Power though of a far larger Extent was King Iames as has been said And how any thing that look'd that way was relish'd by the House of Commons does appear by their Address against the Roman Catholick Officers which also has been mention'd It was not enough for King Iames to assume this Dispensing Power And assumes a dispensing Power and to act by it but such was the Misery and hard Fate of England that the Party about the King would hâ—ve had us believe That a Power in the King to dispense wiâ—h Laws was Law To maintain this Monstrous Position there were not only Mercenary Pens set a-work but a Set of Iudges found out that to their Eternal Reproach did all was possible for them to Compliment the King with the Liberties of their Countrey For these Gentlemen gave it for Law That the Laws of England are the King's Laws That therefore it 's an incident inseparable Prerogative of the Kings of England as of all other Sovereign Princes to dispense with all Penal Laws in particular Cases and upon particular necâ—ssary Reasons That of those Reasons and Necessities the King is the sole Iudge And which is a Consequent thereupon That this is not a Trust invested in or granted to the King but the Ancient Remains of the Sovereign Power of the Kings of England which never was yet taken from them nor can be Thus were we fallen under the greatest Misfortune that can possibly happen to a Nation To have our Laws and Constitution trampled upon under colour of Law And those very Men whose Office it was to support them became now the Betrayers of them to the Will of the Prince This mighty Point being gain'd or rather forc'd upon us the Roman-Catholicks were not wanting to make the best use of it for themselves The free and open Exercise of their Religion was set up every where and Jesuit Schools and Seminaries erected in the most considerable Towns The Church of England had now but a Precarious Title to the National Church and Romish Candidates had swallow'd up its Preferments and Dignities already in their Hopes Romish Bishops were publickly Consecrated in the Royal Chappel and dispatch'd down to exercise their Episcopal Function in their respective Diocesses Their Pastoral Letters directed to the Lay-Catholicks of England were openly dispers'd up and down and printed by the King 's own Printer with Publick License The Regular Clergy appear'd in their Habits in Whitehall and St. Iames's and made no scruple to tell the Protestants They hop'd in a little time to walk in Procession through Cheapside A mighty Harvest of New Converts was expected and that Labourers might not be wanting Shoals of Priests and Regulars were sent over from beyond Sea to reap it The only Step to Preferment was to be of the King's Religion And to preach against the Errors of Rome was the height of Disloyalty because forsooth it tended to alienate the Subjects Affections from the King An Order was directed to the Protestant Bishops about Preaching which was upon the matter forbidding them to defend their Religion in the Pulpit when it was at the same time attack'd by the Romish Priests with all the Vigor they were capable of both in their Sermons and Books This Order was taken from a Precdent in Queen Mary's time for the first Step she made to introduce Popery notwithstanding her Promises to the Gentlemen of Suffolk and Norfolk to the contrary upon their appearing first of any for her Interest upon the Death of her Brother was to issue out a Proclamation forbidding the Preaching upon controverted Points of Religion for fear it was said of raising Animosities among the people But notwithstanding this insnaring Letter of K. Iames's the Clergy of the Church of England were not wanting in their Duty For to their Immortal Honour they did more to vindicate the Doctrine of their own Church and expose the Errors of the Church of Rome both in their Sermons and Writings than ever had been done either at Home or Abroad since
so great moment and consequence to the whole Nation that they could not in Prudence Honour or Conscience so far make themselves Parties to it as the distribution of it all over the Kingdom and the solemn Publication of it even in Gods House and in the Time of his Divine Service must amount to in common and reasonable Construction Therefore did humbly and earnestly beseech his Majesty That he would be graciously pleas'd not to insist upon their Distributing and Reading the said Declaration This Petition tho the humblest that could be and deliver'd by Six of them to the King alone in his Closet was so highly resented that the Six Bishops that presented it and the Archbishop of Canterbury that writ it but was not present at its delivery were committed Prisoners to the Tower They were a few days after brought to the King-Bench Bar and Indicted of a High Misdemeanor for having falsly unlawfuly maliciously seditiously and scandalously fram'd compos'd and writ a false malicious pernicious and seditious Libel concerning the King and his Royal Declaration for Liberty of Conscience under the pretence of a Petition And that they had publish'd the same in presence of the King There was a great Appearance at this Trial and it was a Leading Case for upon it depended in a great measure the Fate of the rest of the Clergy of the Church of England It lasted long and in the end the Seven Bishops were Acquitted with the Acclamations of all but the Court-Party There were two things very remarkable in this Trial The Dispensing Power was learnedly and boldly argued against by the Counsel for the Bishops and demonstrated by invincible Arguments to be an open Violation of the Laws and Constitution of the Kingdom So that in one of the greatest Auditories that was ever seen in Westminster-Hall and upon hearing one of the most Solemn Causes that was ever Tried at the Kings-Bench-Bar King Iames had the Mortification to see his new-assum'd Prerogative baffled and its Illegality expos'd to the World The other thing observable upon this Trial was That the Tables were so far turn'd that some that had largely contributed to the Enslaving their Countrey with false Notions of Law were now of another Opinion While at the same time others that had stood up for the Liberty of their Countrey in two successive Parliaments and had suffer'd upon that account did now as much endeavour to stretch the Prerogative beyond its just Limits as they had oppos'd it before So hard it is for Mankind to be in all times and upon all turns constant to themselves The News of the Bishops being acquitted was receiv'd with the highest Expressions of Joy throughout the whole Kingdom Nor could the King 's own Presence prevent his Army that was then encamp'd at Hounslow-Heath from mixing their loud Acclamations with the rest This last Mortification might have prevented his Fate if his Ears had been open to any but a Hot Party that were positively resolv'd to push for all cost what it would And it was easily seen by the Soldiers Behaviour upon this occasion How impossible it is to debauch an English Army from their Love to their Countrey and their Religion While the Bishops were in the Tower the Roman-Catholicks had their Hope 's â—rown'd with the Birth of a pretended Prince of Wales The Birth of a pretended Prince of Wales The fears of a Protestant Successor had been the only Allay that render'd their Prosperity less perfect Now the happiness of having an Heir to the Crown to be bred up in their own Religion quash'd all those Fears and atonâ—d for the Uncertainty of the King's Life It was so much their Interest to have one and there were so many Circumstances that seem'd to render his Birth suspicious that the Nation in general were inclinable to believe that this was the last Effort of the Party to accomplish our Ruin All things seem'd now to conspire towards it A new Parliament design'd and to what End There was only a Parliament wanting to ratify and approve all the Illegal Steps that had been made which was to be done effectually by taking off the Penal Laws and Test the two chief Barriers of our Religion To obtain such a Parliament no Stone was left unturn'd nor no Threaâ—s nor Promises neglected Regulators were sent-down to every Corporation to model them to this end though a great part of their Work had been done to their hand for in most of the New Charters there had been such Regulations made and such sort of Men put in as was thought would make all sure But to be yet surer Closetting in fashion and to try the Inclinations of People Closetting came into fashion and King Iames was at pains to sound every man's mind how far he might depend upon him for his concurrence with those Designs If they did not readily promise to serve the King in his own way which was the distinguishing word at that time there was some Brand put upon them and they were turn'd out of Place if they had any Nor did King Iames think it below his Dignity after the Priests had fail'd to bring in New Converts to try himself how far his own Arguments might prevail and he Closetted men for that purpose too Some few of no Principles and a great many others of desperate Fortunes complimented him with their Religion and were generally thereupon put into Employments And so fond was the King of making Proselites at any rate that there were of the Scum of the People that pretended to turn Papists merely for the sake of a Weekly small Allowance which was regularly paid them It 's a question after all whether the Parliament which K. Iames was thus labouring to model would have answer'd his Expectation had they come to sit for mens eyes were open'd more and more every day and the Noble Principles of English Liberty began to kindle afresh in the Nation notwithstanding all the endeavours had been usâ—d of a long time to extinguish them Though the Dissenters who might be chosen into Parliament upon this new Model would probably have made Terms for themselves to prevent their falling under any future Persecution yet being as a verse to Popery as any others whatsoever it is not to be imagin'd that they would upon that Consideration have unhindg'd the Constitution of England to enable the Roman Catholicks to break in upon the Establish'd National Church which in the end must have inevitably ruin'd both it and themselves But there fell out a little before this time an Accident that help'd mightily to buoy up the sinking Spirits of the Nation and which was occasion'd by the forward Zeal of some about the King contrary to their Intentions While the Project was going on to take off the Penal Laws and Test and the Protestants were in a maze what to expect the good Genius of England and King Iamâ—s's ill Fate set him on to make a Trial of the
to smell out what was done in the Conclave and his good old Father was so well seen in the Mathematicks as that he could tell you through all Spain every part every Ship with the Burthens whither bound what preparation what Impediments for diversion of Enterprizes Counsels and Resolutions And that we may see as in a little Map how docible this little Man was I will present a Taste of his Abilities My Lord of Devonshire Mountjoy upon the certainty the Spaniard would invade Ireland with a strong Army had written very earnestly to the Queen and the Council for such Supplies to be sent over that might enable him to march up to the Spaniard if he did land and follow on his Prosecution against the Rebels Sir Robert Cecil besides the general Dispatch of the Council Earl of Salisbury as he often did wrote this in private for these two began then to love dearly My Lord Out of the abundance of my Affection and the care I have of your well-doing I must in private put you out of doubt for of Fear I know you cannot be otherwise sensible than in the way of Honour that the Spaniard will not come unto you this Year for I have it from my own what Preparations are in all his Parts and what he can do for be confident he beareth up a Reputation by seeming to embrace more than he can gripe but the next Year be assured he will cast over unto you some Forlorn Hopes which how they may be reâ—inforced beyond his present Ability and his first Intention I cannot as yet make any certain Iudgment but I believe out of my Intelligence that you may expect their landing in Munster and the more to distract you in several places as at Kingsale Beerhaven Baltimore where you may be sure coming from Sea they will first fortify and learn the Strength of the Rebels before they dare take the Field howsoever as I know you will not lessen not your Care neither your Defences and whatsoever lies within my power to do you and the Publick service rest thereof assured Note All came exactly to pass as this Letter insinuates NUMB. III. Queen Elizabeth's Speech to the House of Commons Cambden's Hist. of Q. Eliz. p 26 27. in Answer to their Address about her Marriage IN a matter most unpleasing most pleasing to me is the apparent Good-Will of you and my People as proceeding from a very good mind towards me and the Commonwealth Concerning Marriage which ye so earnestly move me to I have been long since persuaded that I was sent into this World by God to think and do those things chiefly which may tend to his Glory Hereupon have I chosen that kind of life which is most free from the troublesome Cares of this World that I might atttend the Service of God alone From which if either the tendred Marrriages of most Potent Princes or the danger of Death intended against me could have removed me I had long agone enjoyed the Honour of an Husband And these things have I thought upon when I was a private Person But now that the publick Care of governing the Kingdom is laid upon me to draw upon me also the Cares of Marriage may seem a point of inconsiderate Folly Yea to satisfy you I have already joined my self in Marriage to an Husband namely the Kingdom of England And behold said she which I marvel ye have forgotten the Pledge of this my Wedlock and Marriage with my Kingdom And therewith she drew the Ring from her Finger and shewed it wherewith at her Coronation she had in a set form of words solemnly given her self in Marriage to her Kingdom Here having made a pause And do not saith she upbraid me with miserable lack of Children for every one of you and as many as are Englishmen are Children and Kinsmen to me of whom if God deprive me not which God forbid I cannot without injury be accounted Barren But I commend you that ye have not appointed me an Husband for that were most unworthy the Majesty of an Absolute Princess and unbeseeming your Wisdom which are Subjects born Nevertheless if it please God that I enter into another course of life I promise you I will do nothing which may be prejudicial to the Commonwealth but will take such a Husband as near as may be as will have as great a care of the Commonwealth as my self But if I continue in this kind of life I have begun I doubt not but God will so direct mine own and your Counsels that ye shall not need to doubt of a Successor which may be more beneficial to the Commonwealth than he which may be born of me considering that the Issue of the best Princes many times degenerateth And to me it shall be a full satisfaction both for the Memorial of my Name and for my Glory also if when I shall let my last Breath it be engraven upon my Marble Tomb Here lieth ELIZABETH which Reigned a Virgin and died a Virgin NUMB. IV. Queen Elizabeth's Letter to King Henry the Fourth of France Ibid. p. 475. upon his changing his Religion ALas what deep Sorrow what vehement Grief what Sighs have I felt at my Heart for the things which Morlante hath told me of Alas is the World come to this pass Was it possible that any Worldly matter should make you quit the fear of God Can we expect any happy Issue of such a Fact Or could you think that he who hath hitherto with his own Right Hand upholden and preserved you would now forsake you It is a very dangerous thing to do Evil that Good may come of it Yet I hope a sober Spirit will put you into a better Mind In the mean time I will not omit to make it a principal part of my Prayers the recommending you to God beseeching him that the Hands of Esau may not lose you the Blessing of Iacob Whâ—reas you do religiously and solemnly offer me your Friendship I know to my great Cost I have well deserved it neither should I repent that had you not changed your Father Verily from henceforth I cannot be your Sister by the Father for the truth is I shall ever more dearly love and honour mine own Father than a false and counterfeit one which God knoweth very well who I beseech him bring you back again to a better Mind Subscribed Your Sister if it be after the old manner as for the new I have nothing to do with it Elizabeth R. NUMB. V. An Account of what was Remarkable upon opening the Body of Prince Henry FIrst Truth brought to Light or the first 14 Years of K. Iames p. 33. we found his Liver paler than ordinary in certain places somewhat wan his Gall without any Choler in it and distended with Wind. Secondly his Spleen was in divers places more than ordinarily black Thirdly his Stomach was in no part offended Fourthly his Midriff was in divers places black
the State and still while we endeavour to reform their abuses they make us the Authors of those mischiefs we study to prevent For the perfecting of the work begun and removing all future impediments we concieve these courses will be very effectual seeing the Religion of the Papists hath such principles as do certainly tend to the destruction and extirpation of all Protestants when they shall have opportunity to effect it It is necessary in the first place to keep them in such condition as that they may not be able to do us any hurt and for avoiding of such connivance and favour as hath heretofore been shewed unto them That his Majesty be pleased to grant a standing Commission to some choice men named in Parliament who may take notice of their increase their counsels and proceedings and use all due means by execution of the Laws to prevent any mischievous designs against the peace and safety of this Kingdom That some good course be taken to discover the counterfeit and false conformity of Papists to the Church by colour whereof Persons very much disaffected to the true Religion have been admitted into place of greatest authority and trust in the Kingdom For the better preservation of the Laws and Liberties of the Kingdom that all illegal grievances and exactions be presented and punished at the Sessions and Assizes and that Judges and Justices be careful to give this in charge to the Grand Jury and both the Sheriff and Justices to be sworn to the due execution of the Petition of Right and other Laws That his Majesty be humbly Petitioned by both Houses to employ such Counsellors Ambassadors and other Ministers in managing his business at home and abroad as the Parliament may have cause to confide in without which we cannot give his Majesty such supplies for support of his own estate nor such assistance to the Protestant party beyond the Sea as is desired It may often fall out that the Commons may have just cause to take exceptions at some men for being Counsellors and yet not charge those men with Crimes for there be grounds of diffidence which lye not in proof there are others which tho they may be proved yet are not legally criminal To be a known favourer of Papists or to have been very forward in defending or counâ—enancing some great offenders questioned in Parliament or to speak contemptuously of either Houses of Parliament or Parliamentary proceedings or such as are Factors or Agents for any Foreign Prince of another Religion such as are justly suspected to get Councellors places â—r any other of trust concerning publick imployments for Money For all these and divers others we may have great reason to be earnest with his Majesty not to put his great Affairs into such hands though we may be unwilling to proceed against them in any legal way of charge or impeachment That all Councellors of State may be sworn to observe those Laws which concern the Subject in his liberty that they may likewise take an Oath not to receive or give Reward or Pension from any Foreign Prince but such as they within some reasonable time discover to the Lords of his Majesties Council and although they should wickedly forswear themselves yet it may herein do good to make them known to be false and perjured to those who imploy them and thereby bring them into as little credit with them as with us That his Majesty may have cause to be in love with good Counsel and good men by shewing him in an humble and dutiful manner how full of advantage it would be to himself to see his own Estate setled in a plentiful condition to support his honour to see his People united in ways of duty to him and endeavours of the publick good to see Happiness Wealth Peace and Safety derived to his own Kingdom and procured to his Allies by the influence of his own power and government That all good courses may be taken to unite the two Kingdoms of England and Scotland to be mutually aiding and assisting one another for the common good of the Island and honour of both To take away all differences amongst our selves for matters indifferent in their own nature concerning Religion and to unite our selves against the common enemies which are the better enabled by our divisions to destroy us all as they hope and have often endeavoured To labour by all offices of friendship to unite the Foreign Churches with us in the same cause and to seek their liberty safety and prosperity as bound thereunto both by charity to them and by wisdom for our own good For by this means our own strength shall be encreased and by a mutual concurrence to the same common end we shall be enabled to procure the good of the whole body of the Protestant Profession If these things may be observed we doubt not but God will crown this Parliament with such success as shall be the beginning and foundation of more honour and happiness to his Majesty than ever yet was enjoyed by any of his Royal Predecessors His Majesties Answer to the Petition which accompanied the Declaration presented to him at Hampton Court Dec. 1. 1641. WE having received from you soon after our Return out of Scotland a long Petition consisting of many desires of great moment together with a Declaration of a very unusual nature annexed thereunto We had taken some time to consider of it as befitted Us in a matter of that consequence being confident that your own reason and regard to Us as well as Our express intimation by our Comptroller to that purpose would have restrained you from the publishing of it till such time as you should have reeceived our Answer to it But much against our expectation finding the contrary that the said Declaration is already abroad in Print by directions from your House as appears by the printed Copy we must let you know that we are very sensible of the disrespect Notwithstanding it is our intention that no failing on your part shall make us fail in ours of giving all due satisfaction to the desires of our People in a Parliamentary way And therefore we send you this Answer to your Petition reserving our self in point of the Declaration which we think unparliamentary and shall take a course to do that which we shall think fit in prudence and honour To the Petition we say that altho there are divers things in the Preamble of it which we are so far from admiting that we profess we cannot at all understand them as Of a wicked and malignant party prevalent in the Government Of some of that party admitted to our Privy Council and to other Employments of trust and nearest to Vs and our Children Of Endeavours to sow among the People false scandals and imputations to blemish and disgrace the proceedings of the Parliament All or any of which did we know of we should be as ready to remedy and punish as you to complain of
Charles Stuart and the whole Line of the late King James and of every other person as a single person pretending to the Government of these Nations of England Scotland and Ireland and the Dominions and Territories thereunto belonging And that I will by the grace and assistance of Almighty God be true faithful and constant to this Commonwealth against any King single person and House of Peers and every of them and hereunto I subscribe my Name NUMB. XII King James the IId's promising Speech to the Parliament May 30. 1685. My Lords and Gentlemen I Thank you very heartily for the Bill you have presented me this Day and I assure you the Readiness and Chearfulness that hath attended the Dispatch of it is as acceptable to me as the Bill it self After so happy a beginning you may believe I would not call upon you unnecessarily for an extraordinary Supply But when I tell you the Stores of the Navy are extreamly exhausted That the Anticipations upon several Branches of the Revenue are great and burthensome and the Debts of the King my Brother to his Servants and Family are such as deserve Compassion That the Rebellion in Scotland without putting more Weight upon it than it really deserves must oblige me to a considerable Expence extraordinary I am sure such Considerations will move you to give me an Aid to provide for those things wherein the Security the Ease and the Happiness of my Government are so much concern'd But above all I must recommend to you the Care of the Navy the Strength and Glory of this Nation That you will put it into such a Condition as will make us considerable and respected abroad I cannot express my Concerns upon this occasion more suitable to my own Thoughts of it than by assuring you I have a true English Heart as jealous of the Honour of the Nation as you can be And I please my self with the hopes that by God's Blessing and your Assistance I may carry its Reputation yet higher in the World than ever it has been in the time of any of my Ancestors And as I will not call upon you for Supplies but when they are of publick Use and Advantage so I promise you That what you give me upon such Occasions shall be managed with good Husbandry And I will take care it shall be employed to the Uses for which I ask them NUMB. XIII Two Remarkable Letters of a Foreign Minister to their Ambassador in England relating to King Iames's precedeing Speech Translated from the Originals Paris June 29. 1685. Monsieur THE Copy of his B. M.'s Speech to the Parliament inclos'd in yours of the 9 th Instant S. V. affords sufficient matter of thoughts here It is of a strain that looks quite contrary to what we expected or what you your self in yours of the 11 th of the last Month made us believe it would be The King can scarce believe there is any Change in the Affections of that Prince towards him And yet knows not what to make of that new Manner of expressing himself on so publick an Occasion If he and his Parliament come to a cordial Trust in one another it may probably change all the Measures we have been so long concerting for the Glory of our Monarch and the Establishment of the Catholick Religion For my own part I hope the Accession of a Crown has not lessen'd the Zeal that on all occasions appear'd in him when but Duke of York Nor will the King 's inviolable attachment to the Interest of the Duke in the most difficult Emergents permit him now when King to forget his Obligations and Engagements to him There is better things to be hop'd for from one that has run so great hazards upon the account of his Religion and who has so often express'd his Resentments of the good turns the King did him in his Brother's Life-time Yet it 's fit you take all possible care to search into the Motives and Advisers of this Speech And I am commanded to tell you That this is one of the greatest pieces of Service you can do his Majesty in this Iuncture There are not wanting some here that would attribute it to a Change in the King of England's Inclinations and they pretend to have Hints of it from some about his Person What truth is in this Suggestion you are to spare nothing to find out If the Parliament come once to settle a Revenue upon him such as may put him out of our Reverence your Business there will be the more difficult to manage for doubtless he must have Ambition and likewise a desire to please a Nation who had but an ill opinion of him before And nothing can be more taking with them than a Breach with us It will be strange indeed if in the Death of King Charles France has chang'd for the worse But whatever others fear I must once more confess for my self That I am of the same Opinion I was always of even that we must necessarily gain by the Change Your Bills are sent this Post. Nothing can be more earnestly recommended to you in his Majesty's Name than a narrow Enquiry into this Affair by Monsieur Your most humble Servant The other runs thus Iuly 8. 1694. Monsieur IT 's unlucky that hitherto you have not been able to find out what we are to expect from this Change in England In yours of the 13 th of the last Month S. V. you seem to call in question that King's Inclinations to the Common Cause and you surprize us with your Fears that he may come to forget his Obligations to the King With the same Post we receiv'd better News from a sure Hand yet you are to watch as narrowly as if your Fears were well grounded There is a great matter in dependance with relation to the Edict of Nants which must not be declar'd till that King's Inclinations be fully known And yet there is nothing in the world the King desires more eagerly to see done than it if once it might be done safely Receive inclos'd an Answer to every one of your Queries which make use of as occasion offers Only the last is referr'd to your own discretion it depending entirely upon your own knowledge of the Person If he can be brought in it will be a notable piece of Service Much may be known by enquiring exactly how the Prince of Orange stands in the King's Affections and how the Ministers are affected towards him For the Hollanders in general he seem'd on all occasions neither to love nor fear them nothing has fallen out of late to alter his mind On Friday Monsieur Less comes off who is to show you his Dispatches and you are to act in concert with him I am NUMB. XIV Some Passages out of the Duke of Monmouth's Pocket-Book that was seiz'd about him in the West An ORIGINAL L. Came to me at Eleven at Night from 29. Octob. 13. Told me 29 could never be brought to
may be heard as our great Patroness against that Haman whose Pride and Ambition of being honoured as his Master may have hitherto kept us in Slavery And though we wish none the fate of so dreadful an Example but rather a timely Penitence and Conversion we yet humbly crave your Majesty's Protection against all such if it may consist with your Royal Wisdom and Pleasure to which we with all humility submit in the establishing of the said Earl of Tyrconnel in such Authority here as may secure us in the Exercise of our Function to the Honour of God and offering up our Prayers and Sacrifice for the continuation of your Majesty's long and prosperous Reign over us Dublin the of July 1685. Your Majesty's most Dutiful and Obedient Subjects NUMB. XXII Colonel Luttrel's Order State of Ireland c. p. 430 431. forbidding above Five Protestants meeting any where c. By the Governor of Dublin June 18. 1690. WHereas several Disaffected Persons of the Protestant Religion are of late come to this City of Dublin and some of them Arm'd with Swords Pistols and other Weapons contrary to his Majesties express Commands by his Royal Proclamation bearing Date the 20 th day of Iuly 1689. I. These are therefore to Will and Require all Men whatsoever of the Protestant Religion now residing or being within the said City of Dublin or within the Liberties of St. Sepulchre Donnor or Thomas Court who are not House-keepers or have not followed some lawful Vocation therein these Three Months past to depart within Twenty four Hours after the Publication hereof out of the said City and Liberties and repair to their respective Habitations or usual places of Abode in the Country upon pain of Death or Imprisonment and to be farther proceeded against as Contemners of his Majesties Royal Commands and as Persons designing the Disturbance of the Publick Peace II. And likewise That all Protestants within the said City and Liberties not being of his Majesties most Honourable Privy Council nor in his Army or actual Service shall within the time aforesaid deliver up all their Arms both Offensive and Defensive aud all their Ammunition into his Majesties Stores in the said City upon pain of Death III. And that no Protestant whatsoever do presume at his peril to walk or go in the Streets from Ten of the Clock at Night till Five in the Morning nor at any time when there is an Alarum In which case all such Persons are required for their Safety and for the Security of the Publick to keep within Doors till such an Alarum is over IV. â—nd Lastly For the prevention of Riotâ— and unâ—awful Assemblies These are therefore to Will and Require all the said Protestants that no greater number of them than Five shall Meet and Converse at any time either in any House within the said City or Liberties over and above the Family of the House or in the Streets and Fields in or about the same or elsewhere Hereby declaring That all Persons who shall offend against any Clause in this present Order shall suffer Death or such other Punishment as a Court-Martial shall think fit NUMB. XXIII The French King's Declaration Memoirs pour servir a l' Histoire de la Paiâ— de Ryswick par Du Mont. Tom. 2 p. 66 67. publish'd at his Camp at Arnheim to oblige the Hollanders to surrender their Country to him Anno 1672. De par le Roy. SA Majesté considerant combien il a plû à Dieu de benir ses justes desseins faire prosperer les enterprises qu'il a faites depuis son arrivée à la Campagne Et voulant traiter avec la derniere douceur les Peuples des Provinces où elle pourra étendre ses Victoires afin de leur faire scavoir ce qu'ils auront à faire pour se rendre dignes de ses bontez sa Majesté a fait déclarer déclare par la presente que tous les Habitans des Villes de Hollande qui se rendront volontairement à son obéïssance recevront les Troupes qu'elle trouvera bon de leur envoyer pour leur sûreté pour leur défense seront non seulement traitez aussi favorablement qu'ils pourtroient desirer mais aussi seront maintenus dans tous leurs Privileges Franchises auront toute liberté de conscience avec le libre exercice de leur Religion Mais au contraire que ceux quine se vou dront pas soûmettre de quelque qualité ou condition qu'ils soient tâcheront de resister aux forces de sa Majesté par l'inondation de leurs Digues ou autrement seront punis de la derniere rigueur Et cependant on exercera toutes sortes d' hostilitez contre tous ceux qui voudront s'opposer aux desseins de sa Majesté lors que les glaces ouvriront le passage de tous côtez sa Majesté ne donnera aucun Quartier aux Habitans des Villes mais donnera ordre que leurs biens soient pillez leurs maisons brûlées Fait à l' Armée devant Aernhem ce 24 Iuin 1672. Signé LOUIS Et plus bas Le Tellier The Declaration HIS Majesty considering how it has pleas'd God to bless his just Designs and prosper his Vndertakings since his Arrival in the Army and it being his Intention to treat the People over whom he shall extend his Victories with the highest Clemency to the intent therefore that they may deserve his great Goodness his Majesty has caused to be declared and does by these presents declare That all the Inhabitants of the Cities of Holland who shall voluntarily submit to him and receive the Troops he shall send for their Security and Defence shall be treâ—ted as favourably as they can desire and shall be maintained in all their Privileges and Immunities and have Liberty of Conscience and the Free Exercise of their Religion On the contrary All of whatever Quality and Condition who shall refuse to comply with these Offers and shall resist his Majesty's Forces either by the Inundation of their Diâ—â—es or otherwise shall be punished with the utmost Rigor At present all â—â—stilities shall be used against those who oppose his Majesty's Designs and when the Ice shall open a Passage on all sides his Majesty will not give any Quarter to the Inhabitants of such Cities but give Order that their Goods be plunder'd and their Houses burnt Given at the Camp before Arnheim this 24th of Iune 1672. Sign'd LOUIS And underneath La Tellier FINIS Books Printed for and Sold by Tim. Goodwin THE History of the Revolution in Portugal in the Year 1640 or an Account of their Revolt from Spain and setting the Crown on the Head of Don Iohn of Braganza Father to Don Pedro the present King and Katherine Queen Dowager of England Written in French by the Excellent Pen of the Abbot Vertat Author of the History of the Revolutions in Sueden and