crave our Kings aid in their distress hurrieth and ferrieth over their Deputies to England to solicit our King for fresh supplies before the prodigious work should be compleated who good Prince affected with their Miseries and desirous rather to protect them from being slaves than to enable them to be Masters condescended to assure them of what assistance he could make But alas what could his assistance signifie who was as necessitous as themselves Did they want Men Ammunition Ships So did he seeing he wanted that which was all these Money and how and where should that be had His last borrowing Commissions was a course so displeasing to the Subject as would not admit of repetition and it would prove an odd payment of that Loan arrears to demand another But the King was now the Subject of a greater Potentate than himself Necessity and this Necessity put him upon several projects First he borroweth of the Common-Council of London One hundred and twenty thousand pounds for which and other debts he assures unto them Twenty-one thousand pounds per annum of his own Lands and of the East-India Company Thirty thousand pounds and yet he wants Next Privy-Seals are sent out by Hundreds and a new way of Levy by Excise resolved to be executed by Commission Dated the 3d of February and yet he wants but the best and most taking project of all was a Parliament whereby he hoped not only to supply his necessities but also to give some better repose to his troubled spirit for he felt no inward contentment whilst he the Head and the Body were at a distance or like intersects and flies tackt together by a Mathematical line or imaginary thread therefore he seriously resolved for his part to frame and dispose himself to such obliging complacency and compliance as might re-consolidate and make them knit again This Parliament was Summoned to meet on the 17th of March 1627 King Charles his Third Parliament assembled March 17. 1627. and the Writs being issued out the Loan-Recusants appeared the only men in the Peoples affections none thought worthy of a Patriots title but he that was under restraint upon that account so that the far greater number of the Parliament was formed of them And as their Sufferings had made them of Eminent remark for Noble Courage so did they for External respects appear the gallantest Assembly that ever those Walls immured they having Estates modestly estimated able to buy the House of Peers the King excepted One hundred and eighteen thrice over Thus were all things strangely turned in a trice topside t'other way they who lately were confin'd as Prisoners are now not only free but petty Lords and Masters yea and petty Kings Some few days before this Session a notable discovery was made of a Colledge of Jesuits at Clerkenwell The first Information was given by one Cross a Messenger to Secretary Coke who sent a Warrant to Justice Long dwelling near enjoyning to take some Constables and other aid with him and forthwith to beset the house and apprehend the Jesuits entring at first door they found at stairs-foot a Man and a Woman standing who told them My Masters take heed you go not up the stairs for there are above many resolute and valiant Men who are well provided with Swords and Pistols and will lose their lives rather than yield therefore if you love your lives be gone The Constable took their counsel and like cowardly Buzzards went their way and told Secretary Coke the danger whereupon the Secretary sent the Sheriff to attack them who coming with a formidable Power found all withdrawn and sneakt away but after a long search their place of security was found out it being a Lobby behind a new Brick-wall Wainscoated over which being demolisht they were presently unkennel'd to the number of Ten. They found also divers Letters from the Pope to them empowring them to erect this Colledge under the name of Domus Probationis but it proved Reprobationis Sancti Ignatii and their Books of Accounts whereby it appeared they had Five hundred pounds per annum contribution from their Penefactors and had likewise purchased Four hundred and fifty pounds per annum they had a Chappel Library and other Rooms of necessary accommodation with Houshold-utensils and implements marked †S. What became of these Jesuits will fall in afterward and what would have become of the Secretary for his double diligence in their prosecution you should have heard had not the Duke been cut off by an untimely end to himself but timely to the Popular Gust The Parliament being met the King began thus to them My Lords and Gentlemen THese times are for Action The Kings Speech for Action I say not for Words and therefore I shall use but few and as Kings are said to be Exemplary to their Subjects I wish you would imitate me in this and use as few falling upon speedy consultation No man is I conceive such a stranger to the Common Necessity as to expostulate the cause of this Meeting and not to think Supply to be the end of it And as this Necessity is the product and consequent of your advice so the true Religion the Laws and Liberties of this State and just defence of our Friends and Allies being so considerably concern'd will be I hope arguments enough to perswade supply For if it be as most true it is both my Duty and yours to preserve this Church and Common wealth this exigent time certainly requires it In this time of Common danger I have taken the most ancient speedy and best way for supply by calling you together if which God forbid in not contributing what may answer the Quality of my occasions you do not your Duties it shall suffice I have done mine in the conscience whereof I shall rest content and take some other course for which God hath impower'd me to save that which the folly of particular men might hazard to lose Take not this as a Menace for I scorn to threaten my Inferiors but as an Admonition from him who is tyed both by Nature and Duty to provide for your preservations And I hope though I thus speak your Demeanors will be such as shall oblige me in thankfulness to meet you oftener than which nothing shall be more pleasing unto me Remembring the distractions of our last Meeting you may suppose I have no confidence of good success at this time but be assured I shall freely forget and forgive what is past hoping you will follow that sacred advice lately inculcated To maintain the Vnity of the spirit in the bond of peace The Parliament seemed at first exceeding prompt to close with the Kings desires and as complyingly disposed as could be wished but they had not forgot the many pressures which made the subject groan something they must do for them who sent as well as for him who called them thither and to anticipate all manner of dispute in point of Precedence between
to whom he declined his ear in the posture of attention in the very instant of Sir Thomas his retiring from the Duke Felton with a back blow stabbed him in the left side into the very heart leaving the Knife which was a Tenpenny Coutel in his Body Some now thought that though his Majesty disliked the mode of this great mans dispatch yet with the thing he was well enough satisfied as if Providence had thereby rid him of the Subject of his so great perplexity whom he could not preserve with safety nor desert with honour but such as these were soon convinced of their error when they observed how his Majesty did treat his relations with so intense respect But whatever satisfaction the King received thereby certain it is the Common man was well enough pleased thereat For though Christianity and the Law found the Act Murder yet in vulgar sense it rather past for an Executioner of a Malefactor and an Administration of that Justice dispenced from Heaven which they thought was denied on Earth And because all those storms or publick miscarriages generated in the lower Region of the Parliament had of late been terminated in him as their grand efficient every man would now be wise and forespeak fair weather and a sweet harmony between the King and his Subjects but how truly a few Months will discover November the 29th Felton having been arraigned and found guilty at the Kings-Bench-Bar suffered at Tyburn His Confession was as sincere and full of remorse as could be wished the fact he much detested and renounced his former error in conceiving it would be for his glory to sacrifice himself for his Countreys good And whereas other Motives were suggested by report he protested upon his Salvation that he had no other inducement thereunto than the Parliaments Remonstrance His body was from thence transmitted to Portsmouth and there hung in Chains January the 20th The Parliament meet 1628 the Parliament meet again who soon found they were like to have work enough for Complaints came thronging in especially against the Customers for taking and distraining Merchants Goods for Tonnage and Poundage which the King taking notice of called them to the Banqueting-house and told them viz. That the occasion of that Meeting was a complaint made in the lower House for staying of some mens Goods for denying Tonnage and Poundage which difference might be soon decided were his words and actions rightly understood For if he did not take those Duties as an Appendix of his Hereditary Prerogative and had declared he challeng'd them not of right and only desired to enjoy them by the gift of his People Why did they not pass the Bill as they promised to him to clear his by-past actions and future proceedings especially in this his time of so great necessity Therefore he did now expect they should make good what they promised and put an end to all questions emergent from their delay The House of Commons said That Religion is above Policy God above the King and that they intend to reform Religion before they engage in any other consideration Nor was it agreeable to the Liberty of Consultation to have their Transactions proscribed so that they would at present lay aside the Bill of Tonnage and Poundage till they thought convenient and they were as good as their words For the first thing they resolved upon was the appointment of Committees which the Courtiers called an Inquisition one for Religion another for Civil Affairs and these to represent the abuses in both The Abuses then in the Church and likewise in the State as represented to the Commons by their Committees you may read at large Page 97 98 99 100 101. in the said Narrative But the distempers continued so long and with so quick and high a pulse as the King having every day notice of them He forthwith sent for the Serjeant of the Mace but the House would not permit him to depart but taking the key of the door from him gave it to Sir Miles Hobart a Member of the House to keep The King deeply incensed at these Exceedings of contempt sent Maxwell Usher of the Black Rod to Dissolve the Parliament but neither he nor his Message would be admitted Whereupon the King much enraged sent for the Captain of the Pensioners and the Guard to force an entrance But this passion that shut out the King yet let so much reason in as perswaded them it was good sleeping in a whole skin and understanding the Kings intentions they suddenly voided the House Soon after this the King came that very morning into the House of Lords and making a short though smart Speech unto them Commanded the Lord-Keeper to Dissolve that Parliament The King having thus Dissolved this Parliament The King sends forth a Declaration or rather broke up School those whom he now called Vipers had not in the House of Commons spit up all their Malignity but reserv'd some to disperse and dispose of in the Country whereby an ill odour might be cast upon his Government and the hearts of his People alienated from him As an antidote therefore against that poyson and to anticipate all misunderstanding he speedeth out a Declaration setting forth to all his Subjects the Motives perswading him to Dissolve the Parliament and a breviate of all the Transactions in this and the former Session withal minding them in the close of all that the Duke of Buckingham was decried while he lived as the solitary cause of all bad events in former Parliaments that he is dead and yet the Distempers not in the least abated which he takes as an argument that they were mistaken in the cause and that it was rather resident in some few Members of Parliament The King having as he hoped disabused his Subjects by his late Declaration next intended to proceed severely against those who had offended him and whose punishment he said he reserved to a due time upon this account the 18th of this Month he sent for Ten of the late Members to appear at the Council-Table viz. Mr. Hollis Mr. Selden Sir Miles Hobart Sir John Elliot Sir Peter Hayman Mr. Stroud Mr. Coriton Mr. Valentine Mr. Long Mr. Kirton These appearing Mr. Hollis was interrogated Wherefore contrary to his former use he did the morning the Parliament was Dissolved place himself by the Chair above divers of the Privy-Councellors He answered That he had some other times as well as then seated himself in that place and as for his sitting above the Privy-Councellors he took it to be his due in any place whatsoever unless at the Council-Board and for his part he came into the House with as much zeal for his Majesties Service as any one whatsoever and yet nevertheless finding his Majesty was offended with him he humbly desired that he might rather be the subject of his mercy than of his power To the which the Lord Treasurer answered You mean rather of his Majesties Mercy than
Gods house were notwithstanding advanced to the highest grison of Church-Dignities And if this Narrative presents some Ecclesiasticks blame-worthy the inference is fallacious that therefore our times are worse than former or that the accrimination overspreadeth all No what St. Augustine said of some Enormitans in his time is no less true of ours That though our Church had cause to grieve for the blemishes of some yet might she glory in the Ornaments of more And so much shall serve for my present purpose as to the former part of this Authors Preface Et si constrista mur de aliquâ—bus Purgamentis tamen consolamu◠〈◊〉 pluribus Ornâ—mentis Aug Epist 137. wherein he doth endeavour to satisfie his Readers that he will carry an even hand between either side and steer his course aright and so far I shall endeavour as much as in me lyes to write after his Copy But yet where persons are blame-worthy I shall not be Meal-mouth'd but let them know their failings and embecillities until they give me better satisfaction than I have at present concerning their Reformation And now to transcribe some of this Authors Narrative concerning the Reign of King Charles the First so wise so vertuous so temperate so chaste so learned and so religious a Prince and a strong assertor of the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England against the Old Gentleman at Rome and all his adherents yet that this Prince after his Death by the Pens-Militant instead of inserting this Parenthesis concerning him as they have done of many Princes after their decease of Ever blessed Memory should be constrained to counterchange their Dialect and say of Ever unfortunate and deplorable Memory I must confess is so profound a mystery unto me that I am not able to search and penetrate into the depth thereof and therefore must leave this I could wish I were not able to say so much by experience most unfortunate Prince though of Ever blessed Memory in some sense unto the searcher of all hearts and before whom all things are naked bare and open who worketh and wisely disposeth of all things both in Heaven and in Earth according to the infallible and most unerring Councel and Dictates of his own Will. But to proceed in my intended design to Transcribe from my Author some of the particular and most material Transactions as to matter of fact in those days and should I have transcribed the whole it would have been a new Edition of the said Narrative and would have swelled this small piece which was intended for no other in my primary cogitations unto a very large Bulk the which you may please to peruse in manner and form as followeth viz. King James surrendred his Soul to God and his Three Kingdoms to his Son at Theobalds Anno Domini March the 27th 1625. And now it will not be amiss saith the ingenious Historian nor vary from the usual ceremony ordained to the body of extinct Princes if I here represent in brief the pourtraicture of this Famous Monarch which I will do freely sincerely and with a spirit which equally disdains to libel or flatter him In the stile of the Court His Character he went for Great Britains Solomon nor is it any excursion beyond the Precincts of verity to say that neither Britain nor any other Kingdom whatsoever could ever since Solomon's days glory in a King for recondite learning and abstruse knowledge so near a match to Solomon as he And though he was a Universal Scholar yet did he make other Sciences their most proper imployment but drudges and servitors to Divinity wherein he became so transcendently eminent as he notoriously foil'd the greatest Clerks of the Roman See Nor did his Theological abilities more advantage the Cause of Religion abroad than at home they keeping the new-fangled Clergy aloof and at a distance as not daring to infuse into so solid a judgment their upstart and erroneous fancies no nor disquiet the Churches peace with Heterodox opinions by which it appears this Author and King James were both Calvinists as to their particular Sentiments in matters of Religion A stout adversary he was to the Arminians and Semi-Pelagians whom he called as Prosper before him and so doth the whole tribe of them ever since the Enemies of Gods grace And as slender a friend he was to the Presbytery here he intends in matters Ecclesiastical as to the form of Church-government and imposed Constitutions of whose Tyrannical and Antimonarchical principles he had from his cradle smart experience He was an excellent Speaker the Scheme of his Oratory being more stately than Pedantick and the Expressions argued him both a King and Scholar In his apparel and civil garb he seemed naturally to affect a Majestick carelesness which was so hectick and habitual in him as even in Religious exercises where the external demeanor is a grand part of that sacred homage he was somewhat too incurious and irreverent He was indulgent a little to his Palat and had a smack of the Epicure In pecuniary dispensations to his Favourites he was most excessive liberal yea though the exigence of his own wants pleaded retention Nor was Solomon himself more a Solomon according to the true notion of the word which imports a man of rest than he selecting for his Motto Beati Pacifici or the seventh Beatitude as most agreeable to his genius and natural constitution He was studious of peace somewhat over-much for a King in pursuit whereof Virtue flew to a lessening and in the opinion of many out of sight he incurring thereby the note of Pusillanimity very suspicious from his managing the Cause of the Palatinate for had not the thought of War been terrible unto him would he so long have endured his Son-in-law exterminated from his Patrimony while the Austrian Faction to his great dishonour cajol'd and kept him in delusory chat with specious fallacies Would he in those several Negotiations of Carlisle Bristow Belfast and Weston have spent so vast sums the moity whereof had they been disposed in Military-levies and preparations would have Modell'd an Army able when Hidleburgh Manhrein and Frankindale defended themselves to have totally dissipated all the forces of the Usurpers to have Master'd the imperious Eagle enforcing her to forego her Quary and reinstate the Paulsgrave Would he so tediously have courted the Alliance of Spain to the very great regret of his Subjects whom his Predecessor had so often baffled and whom England ever found a worse friend than enemy What stronger Evidence can be given in of a wonderful defect of courage As this faint-heartedness lost him the reputation and respects of his People so his heavy pressures upon them and undue Levies by Privy-Seals and the like alienated their affections especially considering how those Moneys were misemployed indeed rather thrown away partly in the two dishonourable Treaties of Spain and Germany and the consequential Entertainments and partly in Largesses upon his Minion Buckingham
House of Commons were Resolved into a Grand Committee when the Usher came from the Lords House with that Message and before they would permit the Solicitor then in the Chair to leave his seat they agreed upon a Protestation which Mr. Glanvill stood up and declared to this effect First To give his Majesty Thanks for his Gracious Answer to our Petition for Religion Next For his care of our health in giving us leave to depart this dangerous time Lastly A dutiful Declaration of our affections and loyalty and purpose to supply his Majesty in a Parliamentary-way in a fitting and convenient time This being done the Speaker took the Chair and admitting the Usher he declared his Message from the Lords concerning the Dissolution of the Parliament Now had the King an opportunity for his Summers past-time but that his own progress might not impede that of his affairs his Council were commanded to go along with him By whose general advice two things were most considerably resolved upon First That the Fleet should speedily be put to Sea. Secondly That a more strict Amity should be enter'd into with the States of the United Provinces Several were the Descants of such as pretended to judicious censure as fancy and affection swayed the ballance some blamed the Parliament for not supplying the Kings necessities whereby the Fleet put forth too late some reflected sinisterly upon the Duke saying It never was nor never will be well with England while the Sea is under the Command of an Admiral so young and withal so unexperienc'd others also made deduction from this miscarriage of Gades Voyage in reference to the King that because Commencements do often forespeak the qualification of future contingencies in the series and row of succeeding affairs they much feared this was but the earnest of some inauspiciousness which would attend the residue of his Reign Nor among the rest was Captain Brett's conjecture vain who told the Duke That the Fleet was never like to speed better wherein there went a long Bag without Money Cook without Meat and Love without Charity for so were the three Captains named and a great default there was doubtless of sufficient pay of wholesome meat and unanimity The Michaelmas Term was by reason of the infection at London translated to Reading from whence the King according to late Answer in Parliament issued out in November a Commission to the Judges to see the Laws against Recusants put in Execution This Commission was read in all the Courts of Judicature at Reading and withal a Letter was directed to the Archbishop of Canterbury enjoyning him to take special care within his Province for the discovery of Jesuits Seminary-Priests and other Recusants offenders against the Laws It was in truth high time for severe Proceedings against them they having contracted so much insolence and presuming upon protection by reason of the late Match that at Winchester and many other places they frequently passed through the Churches in time of Divine Service hooting and hallowing not only to the disturbance of that duty but to the scorn of our Religion yea and one Popish Lord when the King was at Chappel was heard to prate on purpose louder in a Gallery adjoyning than the Chaplain prayed whereat the King was so moved that he sent this Message too him viz. Either let him come and do as we do or else I will make him prate farther off On February the 2d this year Anno Domini 1625 the King was Crowned at Westminster with the usual though I cannot say Magnificent Ceremonies and Solemnities The Coronation being past the King prepareth for a Parliament now approaching the last he thought was somewhat uncivil towards the Duke and the Delinquents as he thought must be made examples Upon this account the Lord-Keeper Williams soon after the Dissolution of the late Parliament fell and his place was disposed of to Sir Thomas Coventry c. On the 16th of this February the Parliament met the Commons began their work where they last broke off at Oxford making Religion their first and which was their superlative care recollecting what a full and satisfactory Answer the King gave to their Petition against Recusants and his Commission issued out in pursuance of that Answer appointed a Committee for Religion impowring them most strictly to examine what abuses of his Majesties Grace had occurred since that time and who were the Authors and Abettors of the same The House of Commons being in expectation of some Discovery from their Committee at length Mr. Prin made a report of a Letter written to the Lord Mayor of York for reprieving some Jesuits Priests and other Recusants This Letter being under the Signet a sub-Committee was ordered to search the Signet-Office and compare it with the Original These Proceedings inwardly much displeased the King yet he smothered the indignity for a time though he did after intimate the same unto them among his other regrets And plying 〈◊〉 more important affairs with a most steady temper he sent a Message 〈◊〉 them by Sir Richard Weston to this effect viz. That his Fleet is returned and their Victuals spent the Men must of necessity be discharged and their wages paid them or else mutiny will follow which may be of dangerous consequence That he hath in readiness about 40 Ships to be set forth upon a second service which want a present supply of moneys That the Armies quartered on the Coasts want Victuals and Cloaths and they will Disband if not furnished The Companies of Ireland lately sent must speedily be provided for else they may be subject to rebel Lastly The season for providing healthful provision will be past if this Month of March be suffered through negligence to elapse And therefore he desired to know without more ado what present supplies he must depend upon from them that so accordingly he might shape his course Instead of a supply to his Message Mr. Clement Coke Son to Sir Edward Coke a Member of the House of Commons let fly this reply It is better to dye by a Foreign Enemy than to be destroyed at home and as if the Prerogative had not been sufficiently alarm'd by that expression one Turner a Doctor of Physick re-assaults it in these six Queries 1. Whether the King hath not lost the Regality of the Narrow Seas since the Duke became Admiral 2. Whether his going in the last Fleet as Admiral was not the cause of ill success 3. Whether the Kings Revenue hath not been impaired through his immense liberality 4. Whether he hath not ingrossed all Offices and preferred his kindred to unfit places 5. Whether he hath not made sale of places of Judicature 6. Whether Recusants have not dependance upon his Mother and Father-in-law This was uncouth language to a Princes Ear but who can expect that in so vast a Body and Mass of men all parcels should take salt alike and that no part should have rancidity in it Yet perhaps this clamour
at a better distance Such a prodigious Comet the Commons take this Duke of Buckingham to be And so the Commons do the Duke of York now cum multis aliis c. Anno Domini 1680 and 1681. and will doubtless several more when they shall meet 〈◊〉 to redress the present Grievances of the Nation against whom and his irregular ways there are by learned Gentlemen legal Articles of Charge to be delivered to your Lordships which I am generally first commanded to lay open First The Offices of this Kingdom that are the Eyes the Ears and the Hands of this Common-wealth these have been engrossed bought and sold and many of the greatest of them holden even in the Dukes own hands which severally and apart gave in former times and ages sufficient content to the greatest Favourites and were work enough for the wisest Councellors By means whereof what strange abuses what infinite neglects have followed The Seas have been unguarded Trade disturbed Merchants oppressed their Ships and even one of the Navy Royal by cunning practise delivered over into foreign hands and contrary to our good Kings intention employed to the prejudice I had almost said to the ruin of Friends of our own Religion Next Honours those most precious Jewels of the Crown a Treasure inestimable wherewith your Noble Ancestors my Lords were well rewarded for eminent and publick service in the Common-wealth at home for brave exploits abroad when covered all with dust and blood they sweat in service for the honour of this Crown What back-ways what by-ways have been by this Duke found out is too well known to your Lordships whereas it was anciently the honour of England as among the Romans the way to the Temple of Honour was through the Temple of Virtue But I am commanded to press this no further than to let your Lordships know one Instance may perhaps be given of some one Lord compelled to purchase Honour Thirdly As divers of the Dukes poor Kindred have been raised to great honours which have been and are likely to be more chargeable and burdensom to the Crown so the Lands and Revenues and Treasuries of his Majesty have been intercepted and exhausted by this Duke and his Friends and strangely misemployed with strange confusion of the Accompts and overthrow of the well-established ancient Orders of his Majesties Exchequer The last of the Charges which are prepared will be an injury offered to the Person of the late King of blessed memory who is with God of which as your Lordships may have heard heretofore you shall anon have farther information Now upon this occasion I am commanded by the Commons to take care of the honour of the King our Soveraign that lives long may he live to our comfort and the good of the Christian world and also of his blessed Father who is dead on whom to the grief of the Commons and their great distaste the Lord Duke did they conceive unworthily cast some ill ordure of his own foul ways Whereas Servants were anciently wont to bear as in truth they ought their Masters faults and not cast their own on them undeservedly It is well known the King who is with God had the same power and the same wisdom before he knew this Duke yea and the same affections too through which as a good and gracious Master he advanced and raised some Stars of your Lordships Firmament in whose hands this exorbitancy of Will this transcendency of Power such placing and misplacing of Officers such irregular running into all by courses of the Planets such sole and single managing of the great affairs of State was never heard of And therefore only to the Lord Duke and his own procurement by mis-informations these faults complained of by the Commons are to be imputed And whereas for our most gracious Soveraign that lives whose Name hath been used and may perhaps now be for the Dukes Justification The Commons know well that among his Majesties most Royal Virtues his Piety unto his Father hath made him a pious nourisher of his Affections ever to this Lord Duke on whom out of that consideration his Majesty hath wrought a kind of wonder making Favour hereditary But the abuse thereof must be the Lord Dukes own and if there have been any commands such as were or may pretend his misinformations have procured them whereas the Laws of England teach us that Kings cannot command ill or unawful things whenever they speak though by their Letters Patents or their Seals If the thing be evil these Letters Patents are void and whatsoever ill event succeeds the Executioners of such Commands must ever answer for them Thus my Lords in performance of my duty my weakness hath been troublesome unto your Lordships It is now high time humbly to intreat your pardon and to give way to a Learned Gentleman to begin against him a more particular Charge Sir Dudley Diggs his Prologue being ended the Impeachment of the Commons it self was next read the which if you please you may peruse Page 40. in the said Narrative before mentioned with the Dukes Answer Defence and Reply to every particular Article thereof The Answer of the Duke to his Impâ—achment was a kind of a new Grievance to his Adversaries for it being 〈◊〉 and so inlaid with modesty and humility it was like to have a 〈…〉 influence towards the conversion of many who expected a 〈◊〉 of another and more disdainful spirit Again it seemed to 〈…〉 and the Commons having charged him as they thought through and through loth they were to fall short of Victory And now having pursued him with such vehemency thought themselves 〈◊〉 should he now at the last make a saving game of it wherefore resolved they were to ply him with a speedy Reply But while they were hammering of it the King sent them a Letter demanding without farther delay their speedy producing their Bill of Subsidy to be passed to which to prevent their Dissolution they immediately conformed But first they had drawn up a Declaration of the same make and mind with their former Impeachment of the miserable estate of this Kingdom and not without some high Contest it was allowed by the House before the Bill of Subsidy Whereupon his Majesty was so exceedingly incensed King Charles his Second Parliament Dissolved as on the very next day June the 5th he Dissolved the Assembly though the Lords sent four of their House unto him beseeching him most earnestly that he would permit them to sit but two days longer but he answered Not a Minute The same afternoon the Earl of Bristol Arundel and Bristol confined the Dukes grand Prosecutor was committed to the Tower and the Earl of Arundel confined to his own house There came also forth from his Majesty a Proclamation for Burning all the Copies of the Commons Declaration made before the Parliaments Dissolution This Rupture of the Parliament The King charged with Imprudence being supposed to issue
from the Kings great affection to the Duke I find him charged with deep imprudence and high oversight to hazard the Love of Millions for him only On Monday before this doleful disaster there happened a terrible and prodigious spectacle upon the Thames The Water near Lambeth-Marsh began about Three of the Clock in the afternoon to be very turbulent and after a while arising like a Mist it appeared in a Circular form about Ten yards Diameter and about Ten foot elevated from the River This Cataract or Spout of Waters was carried impetuously cross the River and made a very furious Assault upon the Garden-Walls of Tâ—â—â— house where the Duke was then building his new Water-Stain at length after a fierce attempt it brake asunder sending up a 〈◊〉 and dusky smoak like that issuing out of a Brewers Chimney which ascended as high as was well discernable and so vanisht and at the very same instant there was in the City of London so dreadful a storm of Rain and Hail with Thunder and Lightning as a great part of the Church-Yard Wall of St. Andrews Church in Holbourn fell down and divers Craves being thereby discovered many Coffins tumbled into the middle of the Channel Not long after this there fell out a difference between England and France and his Majesty in process of time being on every side on the â—â—â—ing hand he was much distressed in mind what course to take to discharge himself of those impendent Calamities should he call a Parliament the time whose every moment was precious unto him would not permit to stay for their Convention and when met The King in great want should they prove as it was odds they would as Dilatory and disgustful as the former he were in a worse condition than before In this perplexed difficulty at 〈◊〉 his Council agreed to set that great Engine his Prerogative at work Many projects were hammered on that forge but they came all to small effect First they moved for a Contribution by way of Benevolence but this was soon dasht Then a resolution was taken to advance the value of Coyn Two shillings in the pound but this also was soon argued down by Sir Robert Cotton But that which the Council stuck closest to was the issuing of a Commission dated October the 13th Raiseth money by Loan for raising almost Two hundred thousand younds by way of Loan and the more to expedite and facilitate this Levy the Commissioners were instructed to represent to the Subject the deplorable estate of Rochel then closely beleaguer'd by the Duke of Guise and if not speedily relieved would fall irrecoverably into the hands of the Enemies of the Protestant Religion These were plausible insinuations For Rochel though scituated in another Countrey yet was looked upon as in the same parallel Belief with us And what will nor men suffer for others of the same perswasion especially when Fame reports them sufferers because of the same perswasion But all would not smooth the asperity of this most Illegal Tax Rochel and all other Foreign Considerations must stand by and aloof off when homebred Liberty is disputed so thought the almost Majority of the Kingdom who opposed it to Durance Upon this account of refusal Many refuse Prisoners some of the Nobility and most of the prime Gentry were daily brought in by scores I might almost say by Counties so that the Council Table had almost as much work to provide Prisons as to supply the Kings necessities This year Learning lost two Luminaries of the greatest Magnitude that ever this Nation enjoyed viz. Dr. Andrews Bishop of VVinchester and Sir Francis Bacon Vicount St. Albans Lord High Chancellor of England The Commission of Loan not answering in its product his Majesties expectation the Papists began now to plot their own advantage from the Kings wants and under pretence of Loyalty they of Ireland propounded to him That upon consideration of a Toleration of their Religion they would at their own charge furnish him with a constant Army of five thousand Foot and five hundred Horse But this project to their great regret proved Dow-baked the Protestants countermining them For in the next Spring Doctor Downham Bishop of London-Derry Preaching before the Lord Deputy and the whole State April 22. 1627. taking for his Text Luke 1. 74. That we being delivered from the hands of our Enemies might serve him without fear In the midst of his Sermon he openly read this Protestation subscribed by the Archbishops and all the Bishops of that Kingdom 1. That the Religion of the Papists is Superstitious and Idolatrous 2. Their Faith and Doctrine Erroneous and Heretical 3. Their Church in respect of both Apostatical To give them therefore a Toleration is to make our selves accessary to their abominations and to the perdition of their Souls But to sell them a Toleration is to set Religion to sale and with that their Souls which Christ hath redeemed with his most precious blood The Bishop having ended this Protestation added And let all the People say Amen which they did so as the Church almost shook with the noise The Deputy required of the Bishop a Copy of both his Sermon and Protestation who answered he would most willingly justifie it before his Majesty and feared not to read it And now although moneys came in but slowly yet was the Naval Force completed for expedition about Midsummer whereof the Duke appeared Admiral as ambitious of some meritorious service to earn a better gust or to correct the universal odium against him June the 27th he set Sail from Pertsmouth with about six thousand Horse and Foot and July the eleventh he published a Manifesto declaring the impulsive causes of his Majesties present Arming But the Duke had very ill success in this expedition for the English were routed at the Isle of Rhe The English routed at the Isle of Rhe. the sum of their loss were about fifty Officers but the greatest loss was that gallant man Sir John Burroughs who was slain by a Musquet Bullet from the Citadel while he was viewing the English works of Common Soldiers few less than two thousand Prisoners of Note thirty five Colours taken forty four hung up as Anthems at Paris in the Church of Nostredame our Honour lost The Prisoners Lewis graciously dismist home as an affectionate offertory to his Sister the Queen of England which made up another Victory superadded to the former and a conquest over us as well in the exercise of civilities as in feat of Arms only the Lord Montjoy was ransomed for the which he offering to the French King a round sum No my Lord. it is said the King replied your Redemption shall be only two couple of Hounds from England Some interpreted this a slender value of that Lord to be exchanged for a couple of Dogs but it was only in the King a modest estimate of his courtesie The Rechellers being besieged by the French King The Rochelers
cancell'd in the Kings presence Having thus secured the faults they removed the faulty and resolved upon a large Remonstrance to the King ripping up the Grievances themselves and the Authors of them This Remonstrance consisted of six Branches in sum these 1. The danger of Innovation and Alteration in Religion The Parliaments Remonstrance This occasioned by 1. The great esteem and favour many Professors of the Romish Religion receive at Court. 2. Their publick resort to Mass at Denmark-house contrary to his Majesties Answer to the Parliaments Petition at Oxford 3. The Letters for stay of Proceedings against them Lastly The daily growth of the Arminian-Faction favoured and protected by Neal Bishop of Winchester and Laud Bishop of Bath-and-Wells whilest the Orthodox party are silenced or discountenanced 2. The danger of Innovation and Alteration in Government occasioned by Billeting of Soldiers by the Commission of procuring One thousand German-Horse and Riders for the defence of the Kingdom by a standing-Commission granted to the Duke to be General at Land in times of Peace 3. Disasters of our Designs as the expedition to the Isle of Rhe and that lately of Rochel wherein the English have purchased their dishonour with the waste of a Million of Treasure 4. The want of Ammunition occasioned by the late selling away of 36 Last of Powder 5. The decay of Trade by the loss of Three hundred Ships taken by the Dunkirkers and Pirates within these three last years 6. The not Guarding the Narrow Seas whereby his Majesty hath almost lost the Regality Of all which Evils and Dangers the principal cause is the Duke of Buckingham his excessive power and abuse of that power and therefore they humbly submit it to his Majesties Wisdom whether it can be safe for Himself or his Kingdom that so great Power should be trusted in the hands of any one Subject whatsoever This Remonstrance being finished on Tuesday June the 17th they presented it as an Appendix with a Bill of Subsidies to the King in the Banqueting-house who having heard it out He told them That he little expected such a Remonstrance after he had so Graciously passed the Petition of Right As for their Grievances he would consider of them as they should deserve Some say that at his passing out the King gave the Duke his hand to kiss which others only suppose was no more than the Dukes low congy to his Majesties hand It is also reported That the King being informed that Mr. Denzil Hollis had an hand in this Remonstrance he replied in the words of Julius Caesar Et tu Brute I wonder at it for we two were fellow-Revellers in a Masquerade Three days before this Dr. Manwaring was questioned for some Seditious passages in two Sermons preached one before the King and the other at his own Parochial Church wherein he asserted viz. 1. That the Kings Royal Command in imposing without common consent in Parliament Taxes and Loans doth so far bind the Conscience of the Subjects of this Kingdom that they cannot refuse the payment of them without peril of Eternal damnation 2. That the Authority of Parliament is not necessary for the raising of Aids and Subsidies These things being too evident to be denied and too gross to admit of qualification his Sentence was 1. Imprisonment during the pleasure of the House 2. One thousand pound Fine to the King. 3. To make such submission and acknowledgment of his offence as shall be set down by a Committee in Writing both at the Bar of the Lords House and at the House of Commons 4 To be suspended for three years from the exercise of the Ministry 5. To be disabled from ever Preaching at Court hereafter 6. To be disabled for ever from having any Ecclesiastical Dignity or Secular Office. 7. That as his Book is worthy to be burnt so his Majesty may be moved to Grant a Proclamation for the calling of it in as also for the burning of it According to the third particular of which Sentence two days after he made his submission on his knees Whilest the Parliament was busie about this Doctor the King was as busie about the late Remonstrance to which he formed a formal Answer traversing and denying all their charge wherewith the Commons being somewhat irritated for it was a smart one fell downright upon another Remonstrance against Tonnage and Poundage But the King was unwilling to hear of any more Remonstrances of that nature and therefore resolved to frustrate it by Proroguing of the Parliament unto October the 20th And June the 26. 1628 being the last of this Session his Majesty calling both Houses together before his Royal Assent to the Bills delivered his mind unto them as you may read Page the 84th of the aforesaid Narrative The Parliament being thus Prorogued the Commons were exceedingly Male-content for they desired only a Recess and Adjournment whereby all matters then depending might be found in the same station and condition as at their next meeting wherein they at present left them In this Month Dr. Lamb a creature of the Dukes Dr. Lamb his Exemplary Death commended to him by Bishop Williams suffer'd for the testimony of a lewd conversation Having been at a Play-house at his return some boys began to affront him and call him the Dukes Devil whereupon he hired some to guard him home and taking in at a Cooks shop where he supt the people watcht his coming out but he was so strongly guarded as they durst not venture on him Then he went to the Windmill-Tavern in Lothoury and at length coming forth the tumult being much increased gave the onset and assaulted him so as he was forced to take refuge in the next house but the enraged multitude threatned to pull down the house unless Lamb were speedily delivered unto them The Master of the House was a Lawyer and fearing some sad consequence of this uproar discreetly sends for four Constables to guard him out but the furious multitude flew at him in the midst of his Auxiliaries struck him down and mauled him so as that they beat out one of his eyes and left him half dead upon the place In this plight he was carried into the Counter in the Poultrey no other house being willing to receive him where the next morning he changed this life either for a better or for a worse On August the 23d following The Duke of Buchingham Murdered the Duke of Buckingham by one John Feltâ—â— was stabbed at Portsmouth who being at breakfaâ—â— with Soubire and others of principal quality this Felton sometimes a Lieutenant to a Foot-Company in the Regiment of Sir John Ramsey who had but about a week before meditated the Act but had not yet contrived the means sneaks into the Chamber vigilantly to observe every opportunity serviceable for his purpose and finding the Duke ready to rise from the Table he withdraws into an Entry through which the Duke was to pass who coming by with Sir Thomas Fryer