A detection of the court and state of England during the four last reigns and the inter-regnum consisting of private memoirs, &c., with observations and reflections, and an appendix, discovering the present state of the nation : wherein are many secrets never before made publick : as also, a more impartiall account of the civil wars in England, than has yet been given : in two volumes / by Roger Coke ...

CHAP. IV.

A Continuation of this Reign to King James his Death.

THE first Act the King did to make good his Promise in his Proclamation to govern well, was, his Commitment of Sir Ed∣ward Coke and Sir Robert Philips to the Tower, and Mr. Selden, Mr. Pym and Mr. Mallery to other Prisons; and Sir Dudley Diggs, Sir Thomas Crew, Sir Nathaniel Rich, and Sir James Parrot into Ireland. Sir Thomas Overbury had a Cause assigned for his Com∣mitment to the Tower, but yet it was observed an Hardship upon him, without any Precedent, that he should be confined a close Prisoner for a Contempt; whereas these were not only confined, but close Prisoners, (for ought I can find, I am well assured

Sir Edward Coke was) not only without any Cause shewed, but for performing a publick Trust reposed in them. Nor did the Commons only suffer under this Fury of the King for performing their Duty, but the Noble Earl of Southampton was imprisoned for his freedom of Speech, and for rebuking Buckingham for his disorderly speaking in the House of Lords, as you may see in the first Part of Keeper Williams's Life, fol. 62. tit. 8.

But of all others, this Storm fell most severely upon Sir Ed∣ward Coke, and by several ways his Ruin was contrived: First, By sealing up the Locks and Doors of his Chambers in London, and in the Temple. Secondly, By seizing his Papers, by virtue where∣of they took away his several Securities for Money, as a learned Lawyer, Mr. Hawles, hath observed. Thirdly, It was debated in Council, when the King would have brought in the General Par∣don, containing such Points as he should think fittest, by what ways they might exclude him from the benefit of it, either by pre∣ferring a Bill against him before the Publication of it, or by ex∣cepting him by Name. Fourthly, If the King's Name were used by Northampton and Somerset to confine Sir Thomas Overbury so close, that neither his Father nor Servants should come at him; so was the King's Name used here, that none of Sir Edward Coke's Children or Servants should come at him; and of this I am assured from one of Sir Edward's Sons and his Wife. Fifthly, In this Confinement, the King sued him in the King's-Bench for 30000 l. 2 s. 6 d. for an old Debt pretended to be due from Sir William Hatton to Queen Elizabeth; and this was prosecuted by Sir Henry Yelverton, with all Severity imaginable: but herein the King's Counsel were not all of one piece, for when a Brief against Sir Ed∣ward was brought to Sir John Walter (I think) then Attorney-General, he returned it again with this Expression, Let my Tongue cleave to the Roof of my Mouth whenever I open it against Sir Ed∣ward Coke; however after the Trial, the Verdict was against the King.

Mr. Selden got his Liberty by the favour of my Lord Keeper Williams; but the rest must abide by it till the breaking of the Spanish Match necessitated the King to call another Parliament.

But lest the King's Word in his Proclamation for governing well should not pass currant, and without dispute, the King ordered the Judges in their Circuits to give this in their Charges, That the King taking notice of the Peoples liberal speaking of Matters far above their reach, and also taking notice of their licentious undutiful Speeches touching State and Government, notwith∣standing several Proclamations to the contrary, the King was re∣solved no longer to pass it without severest Punishment; and thereupon to do exemplary Justice where they find any such Offenders.

The King having in the ninth Year of his Reign borrowed 111046 l. upon Privy-Seals, which the Writer of the Historical Narration of the first 14 Years of King James his Reign, Tit. Monies raised by him, fol. 14. says, were unrepay'd: Now, since he could receive no more Money in Parliament, orders the Privy-Council to issue out an Order for raising Money out of Parliament, for the Defence of the Palatinate; and also sent Letters to the Justices of the Courts in Westminster-Hall, and Barons of the Exchequer, to move them, and perswade others to a liberal Con∣tribution for the Recovery of the Palatinate, according to their Qualities and Abilities: Nevertheless, if any Person shall, out of Obstinacy or Disaffection, refuse to contribute thereto, proportio∣nably to their Estates and Means, they are to certify their Names to the Council-Board.

Letters to the same effect were directed to the High-Sheriffs of Counties, and Justices of Peace, and to the Mayors and Bayliffs of every City and Corporation within the Kingdom, requiring them to summon all before them of known Abilities within their Juris∣dictions, and to move them to a chearful Contribution, according to their Means and Fortunes, in some good measure answerable to what others well affected have done before them: And to make choice of meet Collectors of the Monies, and to return a Schedule of the Names of such as shall contribute, and the Sums that are offered by them; that his Majesty may take notice of the good Inclinations of the Subjects to a Cause of such Importance; as likewise of such others, if any such be, as out of Obstinacy or Disaffection shall refuse to contribute. These were the Ways which this pacifick King took in and out of Parliament, which I believe (except in the Reign of Edward the 4th) were never practised by any of our English Kings; and all this under the specious Pretence of recovering his Son-in-law's Patrimony, prodigally to squan∣der it among his Favourites, especially Buckingham, whose Avarice could not be supported otherwise by the Revenues of the Crown, and Venality of all Places Sacred and Civil.

These were the Noble Atchievements, which this pacifick King obtained over his Parliament, which presumed to advise him for his own Honour and the Nation's Safety; this was the Return he made for inverting the Methods of Proceedings in Parliament to pleasure him, by granting Subsidies before Grievances were re∣drest: A Prince foreign born to our English Laws and Constitutions; A Prince, as the noble Nani, Anno 1619. fol. 137, 138. observes, in whom Decorum, and want of Power, were commonly Opposites; he being Scotish by Birth, and come to the Crown by Inheritance, was the first that governed the two Nations by Natural Antipathy, and antient Emulation of Enemies; and designing to reclaim the Fierceness of those People with Ease and Idleness, had set up his Rest in Peace; and

avoiding, as much as possible, the calling of Parliaments, without which not having the Power to impose Contributions, nor levy Money, he contented himself rather to struggle with many Straits and Diffi∣culties, than to see them meet with a Jealousy of them; or being met, be obliged to separate them with the disgust of the People, or with the satisfaction of Prejudice to the Superior in Power. A Prince so poor before he came to the Crown of England, that if he had not been supported by the Pension which Queen Elizabeth allowed him, could not have maintained the Garb of many of our English Gen∣try; and being come to the Crown of England, not only the Sa∣cred Patrimony of it was squandered and embarassed upon de∣bauched and profane Favourites, but the People otherwise op∣pressed with almost infinite Monopolies and Projects, which the Nation never before heard of; and as they were new, so were they all illegal; and all these to make his Favourites rich, while he continued the poorest King that ever governed England: Justled in his Throne by the Presbytery in Scotland, yet nothing less than Sacred would down with him from the Clergy in England, tho his dissolute Life and profane Conversation were diametrically con∣trary.

These, by a twenty Years Habit, were so fixed in the King, a Prince of all others the most regardless of his Honour and Word, that they became natural: So that after the Parliament had given him two Subsidies, and intended another for carrying on the War for the recovery of the Palatinate; and after he had by such means, as before said, by such Terror raised Benevolences all Eng∣land over upon pretence of it; yet by the Advice of Buckingham and Gundamor, he placed the Anchor of his Hope to do it by the Match of his Son with the Infanta of Spain, when an unlooked-for Accident, reported by Nani, in his 5th Book, fol. 186. had like to have spoiled all.

For the King of Bohemia, weary of being amused, and deluded with the Hopes of his Father-in-law's Treaties, which he now saw were mocked by the Spaniards themselves, in a Disguise, with two Persons only, from Holland passes into France by Sea, and from thence through Lorrain, and through the midst of his Enemies Troops, arrives at Landau, where Count Mansfield (who then made War in the Palatinate in his Right) had a Garison, where he discovered himself, and from thence went to Germersheim, where he was re∣ceived with the general Applause of the whole Army.

This Escape of the King's Son-in-law confounded all the King's Measures which he had taken for him, by the Marriage of the In∣fanta with his Son, so that he was more alarm'd at it, than at the Commons Remonstrance and Protestation, tho he bore the Afflicti∣on with a much better Temper: So all Wits were set at work how to get the Elector out of the Hands of Mansfield back again into

Holland; for now the Proceedings at Brussels upon the Peace, were put to a full stop, the Spaniards alledging they could not proceed in the Treaty so long as the King's Son-in-law was in the Hands of Mansfield, their most inveterate and bitter Enemy.

It fell out luckily for the King's Designs, tho unluckily for his Son-in-law's, that Mansfield being worsted by the Spanish Arms in the Palatinate, and the Elector Palatine fearing that Mansfield in the Adversity of his Affairs would make him a Sacrifice, in giving him up to the Spaniard, to make his own Terms the better, was the more easily enveagled by the King's Agents to return again in∣to Holland, where the first News he heard was, that Tilly had taken Heidelburg (the Capital Seat of his Ancestors) by Storm, and Frankendal (his next City) reduced to Extremity by Cordua; so that, as Nani says, fol. 188. King James▪ who had published that his Son-in-law held that Country under his Protection, was laugh'd at by all the World, and forced to consent to a Truce for fifteen Months, during which Frankendal, and the rest of the lower Pa∣latinate, should be deposited into the Spaniards Hands, to restore them to the King (James) if within that time there were not a Peace concluded.

King James having thus deposited his Son-in-law's Patrimony in the Hands of the Spaniards in the Low Countries; now by the Direction of Buckingham (not only the Dictator over the King∣doms of England, Scotland and Ireland, but over the King him∣self, and 'twas feared more over the Prince) upon pretence that the Earl of Bristol was too remiss in prosecuting the Prince's Suit at Madrid, resolves to deposite the Prince in the Power of the Court of Spain, there to remain as an Hostage till he can procure the Infanta to be his Spouse.

This was such an Adventure, as Don Quixot never dream'd of in any of his; that because the King, the Prince his Father, was poor at home, and despised abroad, therefore by making his only Son an Hostage in another King's Court, where the Maxims both of Religion and State were directly contrary, he should think to perswade the King of Spain to overturn all, and also get such a Portion as was fourfold more than any Prince before had, to en∣rich himself, and to make War against the King of Spain, or Em∣peror, which the Spaniard esteemed all as one; and also that the King of Spain should restore the Palatinate, because the King knew not which way else to do it: Yet this Adventure must be run, because Buckingham would have it so; so pur-blind, nay, stark-blind, does Poverty and Covetousness make Man's Under∣standing and Reason.

But that we may take all before us, let's see in what Esteem King James was with the Spaniards, which might encourage him to pursue this Adventure. In their Comedies in Flanders, they imi∣tated

Messengers bringing News in haste, that the Palatinate was like∣ly to have a numerous Army shortly on foot: For the King of Denmark would shortly furnish them with a thousand Pickled-Herrings, the Hollanders with one hundred thousand Butter-Boxes, and England with one hundred thousand Ambassadors: They pictured King James in one place, with a Scabbard without a Sword; in another, with a Sword which no body could draw out, tho divers Persons stood pulling at it: In Brussels they painted him with his Pockets hanging out, and not one Penny in them, and his Purse turned upside down: In Ant∣werp they pictured the Queen of Bohemia like a poor Irish Mantler, with her Hair hanging about her Ears, with her Child at her Back, and the King (James) carrying the Cradle after her; and every one of the Pictures had several Motto's expressing their Malice. Such Scorns and Contempts were put upon the King (James) and in him the whole Nation. See the Preface to the History of the first 14 Years of the Reign of King James, and Wilson, fol. 192.

But tho Buckingham pursued this Match with such Eagerness, yet when it came to his Management in Spain, where the King's Proclamations forbidding Men to talk of State-Affairs had no effect, he proceeded wrong in every step of it; and to gratify his Ambi∣tion and Personal Disgusts, was the first and principal Instrument to break it off: but that we may not insist upon Generals;

1. The Prince's coming to Spain, and thereby putting himself into the King of Spain's Power, brake all the Earl of Bristol's Measures, whereupon the Negotiation, and all the Particulars of the Marriage was settled, and the Negotiation was put into a new Form. See Rushw. Collect. fol. 286.

Objection. This was but a Charge by the Earl of Bristol against the Duke, who prosecuted the Earl of High Misdemeanors, and there∣fore no Proof against the Duke.

Answer. Yet the Honour of so great a Statesman, and faithful a Counsellor as the Earl was, who had so honourably served the King in seven foreign Embassies, and had by the Expence of 10000 l. saved Heidelburg from falling into the Hands of the Spa∣niard; and having upon the Dissolution of the last Parliament given the King 500 l. upon the Benevolence, and never received a Check from the King in all his Negotiations, but always honou∣rable Testimonies from him for his faithful Services, before Buc∣kingham broke in upon him, may go a great way.

But it seems to me to be a clear Proof upon Buckingham, for Bristol twice answered Articles preferred against him, without any Reply; whereas rather than Buckingham should answer Bristol's Charge, King (Charles) dissolved his second Parliament.

2. Buckingham had not learned the Verse which is taught to every School-boy, Quum fueris Romae, Romano vivito more; for be∣ing French bred, he appeared in a French Garb (most hateful to the Spaniards) and by his Familiarity with the Prince, he seemed rather the Prince's Guardian and Companion, than Follower, which disrelished the Court of Spain, and the Spaniards in general, who are grave, sober and wary.

3. He by contrary Methods opposed all the Earl of Bristol's Methods, nay, fell at odds with him, tho, without Comparison, he was the ablest Statesman in all King James his Councils.

4. Whereas all other Ambassadors and Statesmen, in all great Affairs, make their Court to the King's Council, and prime Mini∣sters of State, to attain their Ends, Buckingham fell at open De∣fiance with Olivares (prime Minister of State in Spain) and 'twas generally said, made his Court to the Countess, which she ac∣quainted her Husband with, and instead of the Countess, put a tainted Whore to Bed with him.

5. The Earl of Bristol in the 9th Article of his Charge against him, shews what a Scandal Buckingham gave by his Personal Beha∣viour in Spain; and also employing his Power with the King of Spain for procuring Favours and Offices, which he bestowed upon base and unworthy Persons, for the Recompence and Hire of his Lust. These things as fit neither for the Earl of Bristol to speak, nor the Lords to hear, he left to their Lordships Wisdom, how far they please to have them examined: It having been a great Infamy to this Nation, that a Person of the Duke's great Quality and Employments, a Privy-Counsellor, and Ambassador, eminent in his Majesty's Favour, and solely in Trust with the Prince, should leave behind him in a Foreign Court so much Scandal as he did by his ill Behaviour.

6. The Earl of Bristol's sixth Article against Buckingham is, That his Behaviour in Spain was such, that he thereby so incensed the King of Spain and his Ministers, that they would admit of no Re∣conciliation, nor farther Dealings with him: Whereupon he seeing the said Match would be to his Prejudice, he endeavoured to break it, not for any Service to the Kingdom, nor of the Match it self, nor for that he had found (as since he pretended) the Spaniards did not really intend the said Match, but out of his particular Ends and Indignation: And the 7th Article says,

7. That after he intended to cross the said Match, he put in practice divers undue Courses, as making use of the Prince's Let∣ters to his own Ends, and not as they were intended; as likewise of concealing things of high Importance to the King (James) and thereby to overthrow the King's Purposes, and advance his own Ends.

Nor had my Lord Keeper Williams any better luck in this Adven∣ture of Buckingham's than the Earl of Bristol or Olivares; for tho the Prince's going into Spain was concealed from the Keeper as well as Council, yet after the Duke was gone, the Keeper's Letters followed him to Madrid, wherein the Keeper advised him to be circumspect in all his Actions, that no Offence might be taken at any of them by the King and Ministers of Spain; and to be ad∣vised by the Earl of Bristol, not only as a most able Statesman, but above all others, the most experienced in the Manners of the Spaniards and Court of Spain: but this Buckingham took as ill Manners in the Keeper, and was an occasion of his quarrelling with him, as you may read in the Life of the Lord Keeper, writ∣ten by the Bishop of Litchfield and Coventry.

But neither the danger of the Prince in Spain, nor the cross-grain'd going of the Match any way abated the King's Favour to his beloved Scholar and Disciple Buckingham; but he sent after him the Patent of being created a Duke, there being not another of England: So that now he is become Duke, Marquess and Earl of Buckingham, Earl of Coventry, Viscount Villiers, Baron of Whaddon, Great Admiral of the Kingdoms of England and Ireland, and the Principality of Wales, and of the Dominions and Islands of the same, of the Town of Calais, and of the Marches of the same, and of Normandy, Gascoign and Guienne, General Governor of the Seas and Ships of the Kingdom, Master of the Horse to the King, Lord Warden, Chancellor and Admiral of the Cinque Ports, and of the Members of the same; Constable of Dover-Castle, Justice in Eyre of all the Forests and Chases on this side of Trent, Constable of the Castle of Windsor, Gentleman of his Majesty's Bed-Chamber, one of his Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council in his Realms of England, Scotland and Ireland, and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter.

But tho all others worshipped this prodigious Favourite; yet Arch-bishop Abbot (a Prelate of Primitive Sanctity and Integrity) would not flatter neither the King nor his Favourite in their Courses, so dangerous to the Church and State, and dishonourable to the King; and, tho in Disgrace, he wrote this following Letter to the King, which you may read in Rushworth, fol. 85.

May it please your Majesty;M

I Have been too long silent, and am afraid by my Silence I have neglected the Duty of the Place it has pleased God to call me unto, and your Majesty to place me in: But now I hum∣bly crave leave I may discharge my Conscience towards God, and my Duty to your Majesty; and therefore freely to give me leave to deliver my self, and then let your Majesty do what

you please. Your Majesty hath propounded a Toleration of Religion; I beseech you to take into your Consideration, what that Act is, what the Consequence may be: By your Act you labour to set up the most Damnable and Heretical Doctrine of the Church of Rome, the Whore of Babylon: How hateful will it be to God, and grievous to your Subjects, the Professors of the Gos∣pel, that your Majesty, who hath so often and learnedly dispu∣ted and written against those Heresies; should now shew your self a Patron of those wicked Doctrines, which your Pen hath to the World, and your Conscience tells your self are super∣stitious, idolatrous and detestable? and hereto I add what you have done by sending the Prince into Spain, without the Con∣sent of your Council, the Privity or Approbation of your Peo∣ple; and altho you have a Charge and Interest in the Prince as the Son of your Flesh, yet the People have a greater, as Son of the Kingdom, upon whom, next after your Majesty, are their Eyes fixed, and their Welfare depends; and so tender∣ly is his going apprehended (as I believe) however his Return may be safe; yet the Drawers of him into this Action, so dan∣gerous to himself, so desperate to the Kingdom, will not pass away unquestion'd and unpunished. Besides, the Toleration which you endeavour to set up by your Proclamation, cannot be without a Parliament, unless your Majesty will let your Sub∣jects see that you will take to your self the Ability to throw down the Laws of the Land at your Pleasure. What dread Consequence these things may draw afterwards, I beseech your Majesty to consider, and above all, lest by this Toleration and discountenancing the true Profession of the Gospel, wherewith God hath blest us, and this Kingdom hath so long flourished under it, your Majesty doth not draw upon this Kingdom in general, and your self in particular, God's Wrath and Indig∣nation.

I have heard my Father say, that King James kept a Fool called Archy (if he were not more Knave) whom the Courtiers, when the King was at any time thoughtful or serious, would bring in with his antick Gestures and Sayings, to put him out of it. In one of these Modes of the King, in comes Archy, and tells the King he must change Caps with him; Why? says the King: Why who, re∣plies Archy, sent the Prince into Spain? But what, said the King, wilt thou say, if the Prince comes back again? Why then, said Archy, I will take my Cap from thy Head, and send it to the King of Spain: which was said troubled the King sore.

But if we look back into Spain, we shall see things of another Complection than when Buckingham came into it: For now he is disgusted, he put▪ the Prince quite out of the Match, as that tho

all things were agreed upon the coming of the Dispensation from Rome, so as King James said all the Devils in Hell could not break the Match (yet his Disciple and Scholar could) tho the Duke had certified the King the Match was brought to a happy Conclusion, and the Match publickly declar'd in Spain, and the Prince permit∣ted Access to the Infanta in the Presence of the King, and the In∣fanta was generally stiled the Princess of England; and in Eng∣land a Chappel was building for her at St. James's, and the King had prepared a Fleet to fetch her into England, which only proved to bring back his Son.

How things (especially actuated by Love) should stay here, may seem strange; yet such an Ascendant had Buckingham over the Prince, that the Affront put upon him (Buckingham) must quite deface the Prince's vowed Love and Affection to the Infanta; but how to prevail with King James to comply, might have an ap∣pearance of some Difficulty, since the King had set his Rest upon it, and had quarelled with the Parliament, and dissolv'd them in great Anger and Fury for but mentioning it.

After the Duke had gained the Prince to break, or at least not to observe the Conditions of the Treaty of the Marriage with the Infanta, so solemnly sworn to by both the Kings and the Prince; let's now see how he behaved himself to King James afterwards: but this will be better understood if we look back, and see how things stood before the Prince's and Duke's Arrival in Spain.

The Prince's going into Spain, was not only kept secret from King James's Council, but from my Lord Keeper Williams, tho the King confided in his Abilities above all the other of his Coun∣cil: but when it had taken vent, the King asked the Keeper what he thought, Whether the Knight Errant's Pilgrimage (meaning the Prince's) would prove lucky to win the Spanish Lady, and to convey her shortly into England? Sir, answered my Lord Keeper, If my Lord Marquess will give Honour to Conde Duke Olivares, and re∣member he is the Favourite of Spain; or if Olivares; will shew honoura∣ble Civility to my Lord Marquess, remembring he is a Favourite of England, the Wooing may be prosperous: but if my Lord Marquess should forget where he is, and not stoop to Olivares; or if Olivares, for∣getting what Guest he hath received with the Prince, bear himself haughtily, and like a Castilian to my Lord Marquess, the Provocation may be dangerous to cross your Majesty's good Intentions; and I pray God, that either one or both do not run into that Error.

The Answer of the Keeper took such Impression upon the King, that he asked the Keeper, if he had wrote to his Son and the Marquess clearly, and upon what Guard he should stand. Yes, said the Keeper, and to that purpose I have dispatched some Pac∣quets: Then continue, says the King, to help me and them in those Difficulties with your best Powers and Abilities, and serve me faith∣fully

in this Motion, which, like the highest Orb, carries all my Rac∣calta's, my Counsels at present, and Prospects upon the future with it, and I will never part with you. Which you may read in the first part of the Keeper's Life, fol. 115. tit. 127.

The Keeper hereupon continues to prosecute this Advice to the Marquess (after Duke) but hereby lost the Duke's Favour, who ever after sought all means to ruin the Keeper, which tho he could not effect in King James his Reign, he did it in the first Year of his Son's.

But when the King understood, that the Contraventions of the Duke with Olivares and Bristol was like to make a Rupture in the Treaty, he then began seriously to consider with himself the fickle State he stood in both at home and abroad; if the Marriage suc∣ceeded not; all the two Subsidies he had granted him by the Par∣liament, and the Benevolence he had raised after upon his Sub∣jects by his own Authority, was expended, and a great Debt con∣tracted besides; he also, besides the Benevolence, stood upon ill Terms with his Subjects, for petitioning him against the Spanish Match, and asserting their Privileges, by imprisoning them after he had dissolved the Parliament, the like whereof was never before done by any of his Predecessors: and now Buckingham had so vio∣lently caused a Rupture of the Match, wherein he placed his sole Felicity, he had not Courage so much as to frown upon him, who could contribute no Relief, whereas he dissolved the Parliament, and imprisoned the Members upon their Advice against the Match, who could have relieved him in his Necessities; besides, he now saw that Buckingham, by his Audacity, more worshipped the Sun in its Rise than in its Declination: Now did he not know to whom he should complain, nor was there any about him but the Keeper who durst give him any Advice.

In case a Rupture happened, the King after all this wild Ex∣pence of Foreign Embassies, and the Charge of his Son's Voyage to Spain, would be despised by all Foreign Princes and States, in case he did not endeavour to recover his Son-in-law's Patrimony, which would, in all appearance, bring on a War between him and the Emperor, and King of Spain, who kept nothing from him, and therefore had no cause to make War upon either.

Besides, in case the King made War for the Recovery of the Pa••atinate, he could not hope to do it upon his own single ac∣count, but in Conjunction with Foreign Confederates, and above all with the States of the Ʋnited Netherlands (who now had re∣newed the War against the King of Spain, the Truce made be∣tween them and the King of Spain in 1609, being expired.) But how uniust would this be, for the King to make War upon the Emperor, and King of Spain, who kept nothing from him, and join with the Dutch herein, who, against the Treaty made

between the King and them but three Years before, viz. in 1619, kept from the King and his Subjects the Isles of Amboyna, Seran, Nero, Waire, Rosingen, Latro, Cambello, Mitto, Larica, Lantare, Polaway and Machasser in the East-Idies, and Cabo de Bon Esperanza in Africk. But the Impolicy of such an Alliance would be as great as the Injustice of it, for hereby the English must lose the benefit of the Spanish Trade, which above all others enriched the Nation, and the King his Customs, which above any other did arise from it.

These Considerations fixed in the King's Mind, fearful of any War, so cleft his Heart, That, as the Bishop of Litchfield observes, he effected neither, yet he submitted himself to be ruled by some, whom he should have awed by his Authority, but wanted Courage to bow them to his Bent. A Prince that preserves not the Rights of his Dignity, and the Majesty of his Throne, is a Servant to some, but a Friend to none, and least to himself; as you may see in his Book, fol. 167. tit. 173.

In these Perplexities the King saw no visible Means under Hea∣ven to relieve him, but by closing with his next Parliament; and it was observed, that some Impressions were gotten into the King's Mind, that he was so resolved to be a Lover of Parliaments, that he would close with the next that was called; nor was there any likelihood that any Man's Incolumity, tho it were his Grace himself, should cause an unkind Breach between him and his People.

This Resolution of the King's was not concealed from a Cabi∣net, or Cabal of the Duke's which met at Wallingford-House, who hereupon set up to consider what Exploit the Duke should com∣mence to be the Darling of the Commons, and as it were to re∣publicate his Lordship, and to be precious to those who had the Vogue to be the chief Lovers of their Country; and resolve that all Attempts would be in vain, unless the Treaty of the Spanish Match were quash'd, and that the Breach thereof should fall upon the Duke's Industry; so that what the Duke did before in spite to Olivares and Bristol, he now pursues for his own Safety, tho the King had little reason to thank him for it. See the first Part of the Keeper's Life, fol. 137. tit. 147. And this took such Impres∣sion in the Duke, that the Bishop heard the Duke afterward in the Banqueting-House, before the King and both Houses of Parliament, ascribe to himself the sole Glory of breaking the Spanish Match; and you will soon see how the Prince and Duke after their return from Spain over-awed the King, and made his Authority bow to their Bent: for notwithstanding Buckingham blasted all the Raccalta's of his Counsels, and the Prospect of his future Hap∣piness placed in the Spanish Match, yet he shall become the Duke's Advocate herein, and note his Fidelity, Constancy and

Conduct in breaking it off; and from his Disciple become his Master, and teach him, that Dolosus versatur in Generalibus, and also keep back the Earl of Bristol from coming to the Parliament, that he might not spoil the ••ine Tale the Duke had told; yet at other times the King would say, If he had sent Williams into Spain with his Son, he had kept Heart-ease and Honour both, which he lacked. See the first part of the Bishop of Litchfield, fol. 168. tit. 174.

The Duke thus doubly engaged, resolved to break the Spanish Match; and to dispose the King (James) to it, the Prince writes to him, That he must look upon his Sister (the Queen of Bohemia) and her Children, never thinking more of him, and forgetting he ever had such a Son. Though it be evident the generous Spaniards were far enough from entertaining such a thought, however Buck∣ingham's Behaviour might have prompted them to it, that by the Authority of Litchfield and Rushworth, they entertained him with all imaginable Esteem, as a truly noble, discreet and well-deserving Prince; however the Prince himself had given them Cause suffi∣cient to have detained him, if the Prudence of Bristol had not been greater than Buckingham's Rashness and Zeal to break off the Match, solemnly sworn to by the Prince and Buckingham himself, and this upon the Day when the Prince parted from the King of Spain from the Escurial, as you may see in the Bishop of Litch∣field's Life of Dr. Williams, and Rushworth, fol. 284, 285.

For though the King of Spain and the Prince had solemnly sworn to accomplish the Marriage, and to make the Espousals within ten Days after the Ratifications should come from Rome, to which purpose the Prince made a Procuration to the King of Spain, and Don Charles his Brother, to make the Espousals in his Name, and left it in the Earl of Bristol's hands; yet he (the Prince) left in the Hands of one of the Duke's Creatures, Mr. Edward Clarke, a private Instrument, with Instructions to the Earl of Bristol, to stay the Delivery of the Proxies till farther Di∣rection from him. But when this private Instrument was delive∣red to Bristol, he told Buckingham's Favourite that it must for a time be concealed, lest the Spaniard coming to the knowledg•• of it, should give Order to stay the Prince. So that the Duke left the Earl's Instrument as perplexed and confounded when he went out of Spain, as he had made the Treaty of Marriage when he came into it.

The Temper and Dissimulation of the Duke is so strange at his taking leave of Olivares, as is I believe without all Example, and also without any Care of the Safety of the Prince; for the Duke told him, after he had delivered the Instrument to stay the De∣livery of the Proxy, That he was obliged to the King and Queen and Infanta in an eternal Tie of Gratitude, and that he would be an

everlasting Servant to them, and endeavour to do the best Offices for concluding the Match, and strengthning the Amity between the two Crowns; but as for himself (Olivares) he had so disobli∣ged him, that he could not without Flattery, make the least Pro∣fession of Friendship to him.

Nor was the Ingratitude and Dissimulation of the Prince less than that of Buckingham: for when the King of Spain had brought the Prince to the Escurial, where the Prince and Duke (after the delivery of the Instrument for staying the Proxy) solemnly swore the Treaty of Marriage, as you may read in Rushworth, fol. 285. and the King and Prince had sworn a perpetual League of Friend∣ship, as the Bishop of Litchfield says; the King at their Departure declared the Obligation which the Prince had put upon him (the King) by putting himself into his Hands, a thing unusual with Princes, and protested he earnestly desired a nearer Conjunction of Brotherly Affection, for the more intire Unity between them. The Prince answered him, magnifying the high Favour which he had found during his Stay in his Court and Presence, which had begotten such an Estimation of his Worth, that he knew not how to value it, but would leave a Mediatrix to supply his own Defects, if he (the King) would make him so happy, as to con∣tinue him (the Prince) in the good Opinion of her his Dear Mi∣stress. Yet the Prince so soon as he came on Ship-board, was ob∣served to say, That it was a great Weakness and Folly in the Spani∣ards, after they had used him so ill, to grant him a free Departure; and soon you'll see both the Prince and the Duke urge the King (James) to break off the Match so solemnly sworn by them all, and make War upon the Spaniards, which was so dangerous to the Parlia∣ment to mention.

Having thus taken a View of the Duke's Prudence and deep In∣sight in Mysteries of State in managing this Match, where King James's Proclamation could not restrain Men from talking of State-Affairs: We will now take a View of the Duke's Profession in Religion, that another may better judg, whether he were more eminent in Religion or State-policy; and herein I will take the Earl of Bristol's Charge upon him to be a full Proof, since the Earl an∣swered the Duke's Charges against him twice, first before King James, and afterward in Parliament in the 2d of King Charles, without any reply; and King Charles his dissolving the Parliament, rather than the Duke should come to a Tryal upon the Articles which the Earl exhibited against him.

1. The Earl, in the said Articles, charges the Duke, that he did secretly combine with the Conde of Gundamor Ambassador from the King of Spain, Anno 1622, to carry the Prince into Spain, to the end he might be informed in the Roman Religion, and thereby

have perverted the Prince, and subverted the true Religion esta∣blished in England.

2. That Mr. Porter was made acquainted therewith, and sent into Spain, and such Messages at his Return framed, as might serve for a Ground to set on foot this Conspiracy; the which was done accordingly, and thereby the King and Prince highly abu∣sed, and their Consents thereby gotten for the said Journey, viz. after the Return of the said Mr. Porter, which was about the latter end of December or beginning of January, 1622. whereas the Duke plotted it many Months before.

3. That the Duke at his Arrival in Spain, nourished the Spa∣nish Ministers, not only in the Belief of his being popishly affected, but did (both by absenting himself from all Exercises of Religion constantly used in the Earl of Bristol's House, and frequented by all other Protestant English, and by conforming himself to please the Spaniards in divers Rites of their Religion, even so far as to kneel and adore the Sacrament) from time to time give the Spani∣ards Hopes of the Prince's Conversion, the which he endeavoured to procure by all means possible; and thereby caused the Spanish Minister to propound far worse Conditions for Religion than had been propounded by the Earl and Sir Walter Ashton, setled and sign∣ed under the K. and Prince's Hand, with a clause of the K. of Spain's Answer, Dec. 12. 1622, that they held the Articles agreed on suffici∣cient, and such as ought to induce the Pope to grant the Dispensation.

4. That the Duke having several times moved and pressed the King (James) at the Instance of the Conde of Gundamor, in the pre∣sence of the Earl of Bristol, to write a Letter to the Pope, and to that purpose having once brought a Letter ready drawn wherewith the Earl of Bristol by his Majesty being made acquainted, did so strongly oppose the writing any such Letter, that during the Abode of the said Earl in England, the Duke could never obtain it; but not long after the Earl was gone, he (the Duke) procured such a Letter to be written from the King (James) to the Pope, and to have him stiled Sanctissime Pater.

5. That the Pope being informed of the Duke's Inclination and Intention in point of Religion, sent unto him a particular Bull in Parchment, for to perswade and encourage him in the Perversion of the Prince.

But how steady soever the Duke was in his French Garb in Spain, and of Compliance with the Spaniard in the Popish Religion; yet he was not so when he returned into England, for then he turns quite contrary, and assumes a popular Way, and joins with the Prince, and thereby over-ruled the King as they pleased, and closed with the Nobility, and Puritan Party, opposite to Spain: As you may read in Rushworth, fol. 107.

Nor was the Duke's Covetousness, and sacrilegious Desires of

robbing the Church's Patrimony, less than his Hypocrisy in Reli∣gion; for whilst he was in this Godly Fit, he treats with Dr. John Preston (Head of the Puritan Party) how the King might seize the Dean and Chapter Lands, as you may read in the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Doctor Williams, 1st Part, fol. 202.

After the Return of the Prince and Duke into England, and Bristol left in Spain, both contrive how to ruin the Earl of Bristol, bound up with contrary Instructions; and to dissolve the Prince's Match with the Infanta, so solemnly sworn by both Kings, and the Prince; and could find no other Pretence to do it, but by the King's Letter to the Earl of Bristol, before he delivered the Powers for con∣summating the Marriage, to procure from the King of Spain, either by publick Act or under his Hand and Seal, a direct Engagement for the Restitution of the Palatinate and Electoral Dignity, by Medi∣ation or Assistance of Arms; but in regard this must be now insisted upon, let's see how this stood during the Treaty.

In all the Treaty for this Match, the Restitution of the Palati∣nate was laid aside, as Rushworth observes fol. 91. and my Lord of Bristol in his Defence against the Duke's or King's Charge, fol. 302. says, that his Instructions from King James the 14th of March 1621, were express, that he should not make the Business of the Palatinate a Condition of the Marriage; and that of the King's of the 30th of December 1623 (I think it was 1622) were fully to the same Effect: But now the whole Treaty which was so solemn∣ly agreed upon and sworn to by both Kings and the Prince, and that the Marriage should be consummate within 10 days after the Dispensation came from Rome, which it did about the beginning of December 1623, must be all dasht without the Restitution of the Palatine to his Country and Electoral Dignity, which be∣ing perplext with such Variety of Interests, as the Duke of Ba∣varia's having possest himself of the upper Palatinate; and the Restitution of the Palsgrave, being an Act of the Emperor and Empire, was not in the King of Spain's Power: Nay the Proxies left with the Earl, would not admit of a Treaty in this Case, for the Marriage was to be consummate within ten Days after the Arrival of the Dispensation from Rome.

The Earl of Bristol for not obtaining these new, impossible and inconsistible Conditions, is recalled from his Embassy, and a new Treaty of Marriage between the Prince and the Princess Henrietta Maria, youngest Daughter of Henry the Fourth of France, is as suddenly set on Foot, as that of Spain abruptly broke off; and that by this time the King of Spain and the Earl had frequent Advice of the Prince and Duke's Designs to ruin the Earl. The King of Spain therefore made a threefold Proffer to the Earl, either to write to the King (James) and if need were to send a particular Am∣bassador, to mediate for him, to satisfy the Earl's Fidelity and

Exactness in all the Treaty; or to make him a Blank wherein the Earl should set down his own Conditions both in Title and Honour in Spain: whereunto the Earl answered, He was sorry and afflict∣ed to hear such Language, and desir'd they should understand, that neither the King, nor Spain, were beholden to him: For whatever he had done, he thought fit to do for his Master's Ser∣vice, and his own Honour, having no Relation to Spain; and that he served a Master, from whom he was assured both of Justice and due Reward; nothing doubting but his own Innocence would prevail against the Wrong intended by his powerful Adversaries; and were he sure to run into eminent Danger, he had rather go home and cast himself at his Majesty's Feet and Mercy, and therein comply with the Duty and Honour of a faithful Subject, though it should cost him his Head, than be Duke, or Infantado of Spain; and that with this Resolution, he would employ the utmost of his Power to maintain the Amity of the two Crowns, and to serve his Catholick Majesty: and thirdly, the King of Spain desired him in private to take 10000 Crowns to bear his Charges; but the Earl answered one would know it, viz. the Earl of Bristol, who would reveal it to his Majesty (King James.) Now if any Man can shew in any Authority antient or modern, wherein a Treaty of this Nature was thus begun, thus managed, and thus broken off; wherein a Noble Lady of highest Birth and noblest Fortune, adorned with all the Excellencies of Beauty in her Person, and the more excelling Virtues of her Mind, in all the Perfections requisite in her Sex, was thus baulkt, and see her self made a Stale, to advance the Avarice and covetous Desires of others, he shall be my great Apollo. So we'll leave this Affair here, and see what Comfort King James had of his Affairs elsewhere.

In the Year 1619, King James, and the Dutch States, entred into, and concluded a Treaty of Trade between the English and Dutch in the East-Indies; at this time, and for many Years before, the English had at Amboyna (one of the Scyndae, or Setibe Islands lying near Seran, which had several smaller Islands depending upon it) five several Factories, two at Hitto and Lerico, and two at Latro and Cambello, in the Island of Seran, but the principal of them was at Amboyna: Amboyna was, and is the principal Place in all the East-Indies, where Nutmegs, Mace, Cinamon, Cloves and Spice grow; and from these Factories the English supplied, not only England and Europe with Spice, but Persia, Japan, and other Countries in the East-Indies.

The Treaty of Commerce between the King and the Dutch States, was scarce three Years old, when the Dutch, in the East-Indies, contrive how they may dispossess the English of the Spice-Trade, which above all others, is the best in the East-Indies, at least which was then, or now is known. It seems, says my Au∣thor

William de Britain, in his Treatise of the Dutch Usurpation, fol. 14. that the English in all these Islands were better beloved than the Dutch, and had built a Fortress in Amboyna for the Safety of Trade, which, the Dutch having two Hundred Soldiers there, forced from the English; and thereupon feigning a Plot between the English and Japonesses, (I think he means the Natives of Amboyna) to betray the Fortress again to the English, the Dutch with Fire and Water in an horrible manner, massacred many English, and seized upon the English Factories there to the Value of four hundred thousand Pounds, and made the rest of the English Slaves, and sent them into other Islands, which the Dutch had possessed themselves of: This was in the Year 1622.

Nor did the Dutch stay here, but seized upon the English Facto∣ries in Seran, Nero, Waire, Rosingen, Latro, Cambello, Hitto, Larica, Lantare and Poloroone, possessing themselves of their Goods and Fa∣ctories there, and took 1800 English, which they sent into other Islands and Plantations, which they had forced from the Indians.

Let's see now how highly King James resented these things; he only sent to the Dutch Ambassador, and told him, He never heard, nor read a more cruel and impious Act than that of Amboy∣na: But I do forgive them, and I hope God will, but my Son's Son shall revenge this Blood, and punish this horrid Massacre; nor never further vindicated his own Honour, or his Subjects Blood, and loss of their Goods and Trade herein. Whereas about a Year before, when he heard of the Commons horrid Invasion upon his Prerogative, by asserting their Rights and Privileges; in a Fury he dissolves the Parliament, and sick as he was, (or seemed to be) to the indangering of his Health, he came in a hurry from Theobalds, called his Council and Judges about him, and propria Manu cut the Commons Protestation out of their Journal-Book, and com∣mitted many of their Members close Prisoners without Bail or Main-prize, and banished others.

That we may take a better View of the latter end of this Reign, and the following one of King Charles, it will be convenient to look into Holland; and herein observe, That Barnevelt and the Dutch States, after they had retrieved their Cautionary Towns from King James, Barnevelt, assisted by Hugo Grotius, nourished a Faction in Holland, called the Arminian, from Arminius, who maintained 5 Heads, contrary to what Calvin had taught in his In∣stitutions, which was the Doctrine of the Church set up in Hol∣land, and the other Ʋnited Provinces. By this Faction thus coun∣tenanced by Barnevelt and Grotius, they endeavoured to have de∣posed Maurice, Prince of Orange, State-holder, tho he, and his Father and Uncles were the principal Instruments, whereby the Dutch became States: But Maurice proved too hard for them, and cut off Barnevelt's Head, and had hanged Grotius, if his Wife had

not conveyed him away in a great Chest, pretending it contained Arminian Books: This was in the Year 1620.

Tho Barnevelt and Grotius propagated the Arminian Tenets to have deposed the Prince of Orange, and advanced their Democrati∣cal Government, yet the Church-men of England who preached the King's absolute Power, and exalted his divided Will from the Laws and Constitutions of the Nation, above his Royal Will in Governing by them, promoted these Tenets; and those that opposed them were stiled Puritans.

The principal Stickler herein was Dr. William Laud, a Man of a most turbulent and aspiring Disposition; and one of the first Acts for which he was taken notice of, was, to marry the Earl of Devonshire to the Lady Rich, (Mother to Robert Earl of Warwick, and Henry Earl of Holland) when her Husband was alive; but this was so far from advancing him, that the King was highly incensed against him for it.

Yet Laud's aspiring Humour could not contain him in a pri∣vate State, but follow the Court he would, yet could never arrive higher than to be one of the King's Chaplains, by means whereof he sometimes got the King's Ear. The King hated the Presbyteri∣an Government, and had got the Bishops in Scotland to be re-or∣dained by three of the English Bishops, as a distinct Order, which the Kirk in Scotland took for an abominable Usurpation over them; and also in the Year 1618, got the five Articles (commonly called The five Articles of Perth) to be settled, as more agreeable to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England, but this was to the further Indignation of the Kirk-party: and herein King James set up his rest, as having gained an high Point; but tho the King hated the Presbyterian Government, yet he opposed the Arminian Tenets.

Arch-bishop Abbot observed of him, when he was at Court, he was Buckingham's only inward Counsellor, sitting sometimes with him privately whole hours, and feeding his Humour with Malice and Spite; and when he was at Oxford, his Business was to pick Quarrels in the Lectures of publick Readers, and to ad∣vertise them to the Bishop of Durham, Neal, (the great Counte∣nancer of the Arminian Tenets, and Promoter of the King's Pre∣rogative) that he might fill the Ears of King James with Dis∣contents against the honest Men that took pains in their Places, and settled the Truth (which he called Puritanism) in their Audi∣tors: As you may read in Rush. fol. 444.

Nor could Laud forbear when he could get the King's Ear, but he urged him more than once, to promote the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England in Scotland after the obtain∣ing the passing of the five Articles at Perth; this frighted King James, who better knew the Temper of his Country-men, and

how difficultly he had got the Articles of Perth to pass, that Laud, ignorant of the Temper of the Scotish Nation, should be so audaci∣ous to put the King upon this, which might (as it after did) embroil all Scotland in Tumults and Wars, and now becomes more averse to Laua's Promotion than before.

But this was no Consideration to Buckingham; whether the King would or nor, Laud should rise: And soon after Williams was made Lord Keeper, the Bishoprick of St. Davids fell, and Buckingham resolved Laud should have it; and the Keeper must be the Man to propound it to the King, and receive no Denial. But it's fit to observe here, in what an humbling manner this Promotion was ac∣complish'd on the part of Laud; and take it as it was sent me by a Gentleman, with the Attestation of Col. L. and R. L. Esq who often heard Mr. Francis Osburn speak of it as a certain Truth, and who had taken notice of it in some of his Works not made publick. As soon as Laud had Information that the foresaid Bishoprick was vacant, he hastens to wait upon the Duke of Buckingham for that Preferment, but found the Duke was not stirring; but being im∣patient of Delay, prevails upon one of the Duke's Gentlemen to acquaint him he had earnest Business with his Grace, and begged immediate Admittance; which being granted, the Doctor enters his Grace's Chamber, and finds him a-bed with a Whore: the Duke asks his Business; Laud told him, the Bishop of St. Davids was dead, and that he came to beg his Grace to recommend him to the King for the vacant See. The Duke told him, that he had been represented to him as the proudest Man alive, and therefore he could not, in Honour, recommend him to the King: Laud as∣sures his Grace, that what had been said of him upon that Head, was utterly false, and the effect of Malice, &c. for he was so far acquainted with himself, as that he knew himself to be the hum∣blest Man alive: I'll try that presently, says the Duke, and so as a Testimony of his great Humility, orders him, Spaniel-like, to take several Turns over and under the Bed, (his Grace, and his Whore all the while lying in it) which he did to Content; and when 'twas over, Well, says the Duke, now I believe you, and you shall have the Bishoprick of St. Davids. Williams, who knew the Dis∣posal of the Seal was as Buckingham pleased, durst do no other∣wise than become Laud's Advocate to the King; but the King was at first utterly averse from it, giving Laud's Marriage of the Lady Rich, and his urging the King not to rest at the five Articles of Perth, for some Reasons: but the Keeper persisting, and alledging how sorry Laud was for these, the King at last said, And is there no hoe, but you will carry it! then take him to you; but on my Soul you will repent it; and so went away in Anger, using other fierce and ominous Words, which were divulged in Court, and are too tart to be repeated, as you may read, fol. 64. tit. 75. in the Life of Archbishop Williams.

It's observable, that Benefits conferred upon Ambitious Men, never create any Obligation of Gratitude; on the contrary, ill Men generally turn the Benefits received, to the Ruin and Overthrow of their Benefactors: More likely Instances hereof are rarely to be found than in Laud and Buckingham; this having received his first Admission into the King's Favour by the Mediation of the Arch∣bishop to the Queen Ann, none else being able to perswade her to it; yet before the Arch-bishop could bring the Queen to it, she often told him, My Lord, You and the rest of your Friends know not what you do; I know your Master (the King) better than you all: for if this young Man be once brought in, the first Persons that he will plague must be you that labour for him; yea, I shall have my part al∣so, the King will teach him to despise and hardly intreat us all, that he may be beholden to none but himself; as you may read in his own Narrative in Rushworth, from fol. 438, to fol. 461.

But Laud's Contrivance to ruin Williams after Bishop of Lincoln, takes up almost a Volume, reported by the Bishop of Litchfield, and by what villanous Instruments, Perjuries, Subornation, and keeping back of Witnesses, expunging and razing Records, and by displacing Sir Robert Heath from being Lord Chief Justice, because he would not do Laud's Drudgery, and bringing in Sir John Finch, who would jurare in Verba Magistri, as well as throw down the Bounds of the Forests to make the King's Subjects Inheritances to be a Prey to wild Beasts: yet after Laud had perpetrated all these, he confest he never read the Commission by which he acted. See the second Part of the Bishop of Lincoln's Life.

However, Laud could make no great Progress of his Malice against the Keeper in the Shortness of the Reign of King James, after he became Bishop: for the King had the Keeper's Parts and Learning in high Esteem, tho Buckingham both hated and feared the Keeper for them, no great sign of a wise Statesman, (see the Bishop of Litchfield's Life of Arch-bishop Williams, Part 1. fol. 148. tit. 156.) and had so little Wit as to say so: Yet Laud, now a Bishop, from a Stickler and Informer against those who op∣posed the Arminian Tenets, now becomes a Patron and Promoter of them; all Court-Favour now looked that way, and the Oppo∣sers of them were discountenanced, and ranked in the Degree of Puritans; all the Youth generally ran that way, and the Schools in both Universities rung loud upon those Tenets, and from thence were dispersed into all Parts of the Kingdom.

The King having spent the two Subsidies granted in Parliament, and the Benevolence, which he had by his own Authority raised all over England, for the Recovery of the Palatinate, upon the Prince's Expedition into Spain; Buckingham, to his Project of get∣ting the Dean and Chapters Lands, propounds the Sale of all the Crown-Lands: but this meeting with many Difficulties, and being

disswaded from the farther Prosecution of it, by the powerful Rea∣sons of my Lord Keeper Williams; there was now no other means left to get Money, but by calling a Parliament: And now Bucking∣ham courts the popular Humour, and appears most forward for to make appear in Parliament the Reasons which induced him to perswade the Prince to break off from the Match with Spain; which tho it took at present, yet it was but short-lived, for the Treaty of the Marriage between the Prince and Daughter of France spoil'd all: But this was not known during the sitting of the Parliament, which met upon the 16th of February 1623-24.

We hear of no Proclamation now against talking of State-Affairs, the debating of them in Parliament is not Sutor ultra crepidam; on the contrary, the King, in his first Speech to them the 19th of February, tells them, He craves their Advice, and that he would ad∣vise with them in Matters concerning his Estate and Dignity, and that he had ever endeavoured, by this and the like ways, to procure and cherish the Love of his People towards him: So he does hope, and his Hope exceeded by Faith, that never any King was more beloved by his People, &c. Let any Man compare this with what the King said and did last Parliament, and after, and judg of the Sincerity of this part of the King's Speech, especially when he remembred himself better, when in his last Speech to this Parliament, he boasted he had broken the Necks of three Parliaments, which were all that were in his Reign, but this.

But these were but Generals, of which he complains; after∣wards, having learn'd it of his Scholar Buckingham, in particular he asks their free Counsels in the Match of his Son; the debating of which, last Parliament, gave him so great Offence. Now at this time the King had broke off the Match in Spain, and was treating another with France, which was greedily entertained in the French Court, and some Progress made in it; of which the King never, that I can find, or do believe, mentioned one word to the Parliament.

The next Particular which the King communicated to them was of his Scholar, but now his Master, Buckingham, (in whom he (the King) ever reposed the most Trust of his Person) that he should be ever present with the Prince in Spain, and never leave him till he returned again safely to him; which he did, tho not with that Effect of the Business expected, yet not without Profit; for it taught him (the King) this point of Wisdom, Qui versatur in generalibus is easily deceived, and that Generality brings nothing to good Issue, but that before any Matter can be fully finished, it must be brought to Particulars; for when he thought the Affair had been, before their going, reduced to a narrow point, (but there is no point in Generalities) relying upon their general Pro∣positions (of which I do not find neither the King, nor the

Prince, or Buckingham after him named one) he found, when they came there, the Matter proved so raw, as if it had never been treated of, they generally giving them easy way to evade, and affording them means to avoid the effecting any thing. But it seems there were Particulars which the King would not then dis∣cover, but left them to the Prince and Buckingham to relate.

As for a Toleration of the Roman Religion, As God shall judg him, he said, he never thought, nor meant, nor never in word expressed any thing that savoured of it. How was Arch-bishop Ab∣bot mistaken, when he wrote his disswasive Letter against the King's Proclamation for the Toleration of Religion to Roman Catholicks? See Rushworth, fol. 85. And how was my Lord Keeper Williams mista∣ken, after the King had directed him and other Commissioners to draw up a Pardon for all Offences past by Roman Catholicks, with a Dis∣pensation for those to come, obnoxious to any Laws against Recusants; and then to issue forth two general Commands under the Great Seal, the one to all Judges and Justices of Peace, and the other to all Bi∣shops, Chancellors, and Commissaries, not to execute any Statute against them; and tho the Keeper past the Pardon as fully and amply as the Papists could desire to pen it, yet the Keeper put some stop to the vast Prohibition to the Judges and Bishops, for the Reasons he gave?

First, Because the publishing of this General Indulgence at one push, may beget a general Discontent, if not a Mutiny; but the instilling thereof into the Peoples knowledg by little and little, by the Favours done to Catholicks, might indeed loosen the Tongues of a few particular Persons, who might hear of their Neighbours Pardon, and having vented their Dislike, would afterward cool again; and so his Majesty might by degrees with more convenience enlarge his Favours.

Secondly, Because to sorbid the Judges against their Oaths, and the Justices of Peace, who are likewise sworn to execute the Laws of the Land, is a thing unprecedented in this Kingdom, and would be a harsh and bitter Pill to be digested without some Prepara∣tive: But this Delay disgusted the Spanish Ambassador; which you may read in Rushworth, fol. 101.

And as God was his Judg, he never thought, nor meant, nor ever in Word expressed any thing that savoured of a Toleration of the Popish Religion: So God was his Judg, and he spake as a Christian King. Never any wayfaring Man that was in the De∣sarts of Arabia, and in danger of Death for want of Water to quench his Thirst, more desired Water, than he did thirst and desire the good and comfortable Success of his Parliament, and Blessing upon their Counsels, that the good Issue of this may expiate and acquit the fruitless Issue of the former, and prayed God their Counsels may advance Religion and the publick Weal, and they of him and his Children. You may read the Speech at large in Rushworth, fol. 115, 116, 117.

But tho the King gloried that he had ever endeavoured to pro∣cure and cherish the Love of his People to him, which the Lords and Commons did represent; yet the Commons could remember a time not out of mind with the King; for they chose that honou∣rable Gentleman Sir Thomas Crew (newly returned from his Exile into Ireland, whither the King had sent him, as one of the ill-tempered Spirits who advised him against the Spanish Match, and presumed to assert the Privileges of the Commons) for their Speaker.

After the Ceremonies of Opening the Parliament, and the Choice of a Speaker was over, the first thing that appeared upon the Stage of Affairs, was the Narrative of the Proceedings in the Spa∣nish Match, made by the Duke of Buckingham, and assisted by the Prince: Which you may read at large in Rushworth, from fol. 119, to 125.

I shall not descant upon this long Narrative, but leave the An∣swering of it to the Earl of Bristol; but only take notice of the Preamble of the third Article of the Duke's Narrative, and the latter part of the fourth.

The Preamble of the third Article is, It is fit to observe this Pas∣sage, which is the thing whereupon all his Highness's (the Prince's) subsequent Actions did depend: He had never staid a Sennight longer in Spain; he had never left any Proxy with Bristol; he had never taken the Oath at the Escurial, or ever so much as have written a Letter of Compliment to the Lady, but that he had still before his Eyes, as his Cynosure, the Promise made by the Conde (I think the Duke meant Olivares) for the Restitution of the Palatinate.

Why was this Treaty between King James and the Conde? Or if the Restitution of the Palatinate were the Foundation upon which the whole Treaty moved, Why was it not so much as mentioned in all the Treaty, so solemnly sworn to by both Kings, the Prince, and Buckingham himself? Nay, King James himself, by two several Expresses to the Earl of Bristol, the first of the 14th of May 1621. and the other of the 30th of December 1623. commanded him, That he should not make the Business of the Palatinate a Condition of the Marriage; as you may read in Rushworth, fol. 302.

For the better understanding of Buckingham's Narrative in the fourth Article, it is fit to take notice, That the Reason in the In∣strument for not pursuing the Proxies of the Marriage so solemn∣ly sworn to by the Prince, and Buckingham himself, was not for the Restitution of the Palatinate, but (forsooth) for fear the Infanta might retire into a Cloister, and so deprive the Prince of a Wife; tho the Infanta, so far as the Gravity of the Spaniards would permit, ever expressed an entire Affection to the Prince: so that when the Prince took leave of the Infanta, she seemed to

deliver up her Heart to him, in as high Expressions as that Lan∣guage and her Learning could with her Honour set forth: for when the Prince told her, His Heart would never be out of Anxiety, till she had passed the intended Voyage, and were safe on the British Land; she answered, with a modest Blush, That if she were in danger upon the Ocean, or discomposed with the rolling brackish Waves, she should chear up her self, and remember all the way, to whom she was going: As you may read in the Life of Williams Lord Keeper, fol. 161. tit. 168. And Mr. Rushworth, fol. 104. says, She caused many divine Duties to be performed for the Prince's Return.

In the Proxies left with the Earl of Bristol, there was a Clause inserted, De non revocando procuratore; as much as to say, irrevo∣cable: And because the Earl did in his Letter to the Prince, of the First of November in 1623, press this vehemently to the Prince, the Prince vowed openly before both Houses, that he had never by Oath nor Honour engaged himself not to revoke those Powers, more than by the Clause De non revocando procuratore, in∣serted in the Instrument it self; and then he conceived the Clause to be matter of Form, and tho essentially of no binding Power, yet usually thrust into every such Instrument; and that the Civi∣lians hold, That it is lawful by the Civil and Canon Law, for any Man to revoke his Proxy of Marriage, notwithstanding it hath the Clause De non revocando procuratore inserted in it: Therefore the Duke concluded, as to this point, That the Earl of Bristol, in charging this Matter so highly upon the Prince, had much forget himself.

Can any Man believe, that when the Prince made the Procura∣tion to the King of Spain, and his Brother, to his Espousals with the Infanta in his Name, and left it in the Earl of Bristol's hands, with the Clause De non revocando procuratore, that he then had con∣sulted with the Civilians, that he might revoke it when he plea∣sed; or that this Marriage, nine Years in treating, was not founded upon the Honour and Oaths of the Kings, the Prince, and of Buckingham himself, but upon the Niceties and Quirks of the Civilians? Or did it become the Prince, or the Duke either, who when he parted from the King of Spain at the Escurial, solemnly to swear the Treaty of Marriage, and the Furtherance of it by all that was in his Power, in the presence of the Earl of Bristol, and Sir Walter Ashton, as you may read in Rushworth, fol. 285. and now in the face of the King and Parliament, to plead a Nicety of the Civilians, to absolve the Prince and himself? Now let us see what the Earl of Bristol says for himself, for the Duke's Charge up∣on him for Proceedings upon this Match. His Reasons were,

1. For that he had a Warrant under the Prince's hand, for his Proceedings to consummate the Match.

2. It was the main Scope of his Embassy.

3. He was enjoined by the King and Prince's Commission under the Great Seal.

4. He had positive Orders under his Majesty's hand (King James) since.

5. It was agreed by Capitulation, that it should be within so many days after the coming of the Dispensation.

6. The King (James) and Prince signified by their Letters to him, at the same time when they discharged him of his Command∣ment touching the Infanta's entring into Religion, that they in∣tended to proceed in the Marriage; which Letters bear date the 8th of October 1623.

7. The Proxies were to that end left in his hands; and after again renewed, after the Prince's return into England.

8. That he (the Earl) had overthrown the Marriage without Order; for tho Sir Walter Aston and himself had used all possible means for gaining time, and deferring the Desponsories, yet the King of Spain caused it to be protested, that in case the Earl should insist upon the deferring the Desponsories, he would free himself from the Treaty by the Earl's infringing the Capitulations: And in truth, altho the King of Spain should have condescended to have prolonged the Desponsories until one of the Days of Christmas, as by the Letter was required; yet the Prince's Proxies had been be∣fore that time expired, and he durst not, without a precise War∣rant, put such a Scorn upon so noble a Lady, whom he then con∣ceived was like to have been the Prince's Wife, as to nominate a Day of Marriage, when the Proxies were out of date, and he him∣self had sworn to the Treaty.

9. He (the Earl) could not, in Honour and Honesty, but en∣deavour to perform that publick Trust reposed in him, when the Proxies were deposited in his hands, with publick and legal Decla∣ration, with an Instrument by a Secretary of State to the King of Spain, leading and directing the Use of them: and the same being then Instrumentum Stipulatum, wherein as well the King of Spain was interested by the Acceptation of the Substitution, as the Prince by granting the Proxies; he could not in Honesty fail the publick Trust without clear and undoubted Warrant; which, so soon as he had, he obeyed. See Rushworth, fol. 301, 302.

The Duke's stating the Question, super totam materiam, was▪

Whether this, being the full Effect and Product of this Nego∣tiation, he had opened to them (the Parliament) be sufficient, super totam materiam, for his Majest to rely upon, with any Safe∣ty, as well for the Marriage of his only Son, as for the Relief of his only Daughter? Or, that these Treaties set aside, his Majesty were best to trust in his own Strength, and to stand upon his own Feet? So the Duke ended, That if the bringing us from

Darkness to Light, did deserve any Thanks, we must wholly ascribe it to his Highness the Prince.

Here is a Tale finely told, parte inaudita altera; but the Duke shall hear more of it, and indeed it was a Net so spread in the sight of every Bird, that it was a wonder it should catch any: for at this time the Match was quite broke off with Spain, and ano∣ther entered upon with France, when it must be suposed, for∣sooth, the Spanish Match was in Treaty, and now must be broken off by Advice in Parliament, which was before such a Mystery of State as not to be meddled with in Parliament.

But while the Prince and Duke were wrapt up in security of the Parliament, as well as the King's Affections, and that now the Duke was become as well the Peoples as the King's Favourite, a new Accident happened, out of which, if the Prince and Duke had not been extricated by the matchless Wit and lively Industry of the Keeper, in all appearance it would have put both Prince and Duke out of the King's Favour and Affections, dissolved this beloved Parliament, and have brought such a train of mischievous Consequences as could not have been foreseen, or prevented. I desire to be excused if I do not cite the Bishop of Litchfield's words in the Life of the Lord Keeper, for I think the Case will more clearly appear without his Paraphrases and Glosses.

While the Marriage between the Prince and Infanta was in Treaty, the King of Spain sent Don John, Marquess Inoiosa, his Ambassador to be resident in England; a Man of true Spanish Gra∣vity and Severity, and a most rigid Promoter of the Popish Inte∣rest in England; so that he was taken notice of to be the most surly and unpleasing Man that ever came to the Keeper about any Business.

If this Man were thus during the Treaty, it could not be ex∣pected he would become better natur'd upon the breaking of it; and the Duke of Buckingham was as jealous of him, that he should spoil the Narrative he had made of the Proceedings in the Spanish Match, as he was of the Earl of Bristol, and therefore would ne∣ver admit the Marquess to have any private Audience of the King in the Duke's Absence; so that Sir Walter Aston wrote from Spain, that it was complained of, that Marquess Inoiosa had advertised thi∣ther he had not been able to procure a private Audience of the King tho he often desired it, but what the Duke assisted at.

Inoiosa, impatient of any longer Delay, about the latter end of April 1624, contrived this Expedient to put the following Paper into the King's Hand; he and Don Carlo de Colonna came adventu∣rously to White-Hall, and whilst Don Carlo held the Prince and Duke in earnest Discourse, Inoiosa put this Paper into the King's Hand with a Wink, that the King should put it into his Pocket, wherein,

1. He terrifies the King, that he was not, or could not be ac∣quainted with the Passages either of his own Court, or of the Parliament, for he was kept from all faithful Servants that would inform him by the Ministers of the Prince and Duke, and that he was a Prisoner as much as King John of France in England, or King Francis at Madrid, and could not be spoken with, but before such as watched him.

2. That there was a strong and violent Machination in hand, which had turned the Prince, a most obedient Son, to a quite con∣trary Course to his Majesty's Intentions.

3. That the Council began last Summer at Madrid, but was lately resolved on in England, to restrain his Majesty from the Ex∣ercise of the Government of his Kingdoms; and that the Prince and Duke had designed such Commissioners under themselves, as should intend great Affairs, and the Publick Good.

4. That this should be effected by beginning of a War, and keeping some Companies on foot in this Land, whereby to con∣strain his Majesty to yield to any thing, chiefly being brought in∣to Straits for want of Monies to pay the Souldiers.

5. That the Prince and Duke's inclosing his Majesty from the said Ambassador, and other of his own Loyal People, that they might not come near in private, did argue in them a fear and di∣strust of a good Conscience.

6. That the Emissaries of the Duke had brought his Majesty into Contempt with the potent Men of this Realm, traducing him for slothful and unactive, for addiction to an inglorious Peace, while the Inheritance of his Daughter and her Children is in the Hands of his Foes; and this appear'd by a Letter which the Duke had writ into Holland, and they had intercepted.

7. That his Majesty's Honour, nay his Crown and Safety, did depend upon a sudden Dissolution of the Parliament.

8. They loaded the Duke with sundry Misdemeanours in Spain, and his violent Opposition to the Match.

9. That the Duke had divulged the King's Secrets, and the close Designs between his Majesty and their Master King Philip, about the States of Holland, and their Provinces, and laboured to put his Majesty out of the good Opinion of the Hollanders.

10. That the Duke was guilty of most corrupt dealing with the Ambassadors of divers Princes.

11. That all these things were carried on in the Parliament with an head-strong Violence, and that the Duke was the cause of it, who courted them only that were of troubled Humours.

12. That such Bitterness and Ignominies were vented in Parlia∣ment against the King of Spain, as were against all good Manners and Honour of the English Nation.

The 13th is a flat Contradiction to the Precedents, wherein they made the Prince privy to dangerous things; yet in this they say, That the Puritans (of whom the Duke was Head) did wish they could bring it about, that the Succession of the Kingdom might come to the Prince Palatine and his Children, in right of the Lady Eli∣zabeth.

In a Postscript, the Paper prayed the King, That Don Francisco Carondelet, Secretary to the Marquess Inoiosa, might be brought to the King, when the Prince and Duke were sitting in the Lords House, to satisfy such Doubts as the King might raise, which was performed by the Earl of Kelly, who watch'd a fit Season at one time for Francisco, and for Padre Maestro a Jesuit at another time, who told their Errand so spitefully, that the King was troubled at their Relations.

How far the Spanish Ambassador Carondelet, and the Jesuit Maestro, could make good this Paper, I cannot tell, nor does the Bishop say; however the King was apprehensive, that the Parlia∣ment was solicitous to engage him in a War for the Palatinate; which he so dreaded, that, as the Bishop says, he thought scarce any Mischief was so great as was worth a War to mend it; where∣in the Prince did deviate from him, as likewise in his Affection to the Spanish Alliance: But he stuck at the Duke more, whom ••e defended in one part to one of the Spanish Ministers, yet at the same time complaining, That he had noted in him a turbule•••• Spirit of late, and knew not how to mitigate it, so that casting up the Sum he doubted it might come to his turn to pay the Reckoning.

These Thoughts so wrought upon the King, that his Counte∣nance fell suddenly, that he mused much in Silence, and that he entertained the Prince and Duke with mystical and broken Speeches: this nettled them both, and enquiring the Reason, they could not go further, than that they heard the Spanish Secretary and the Jesuit Maestro had been with the King, and understood that some in the Ambassador's House had vaunted, that they had nettled the Duke, and that a Train would take fire shortly to blow up the Parliament.

In this Perplexity the King prepared to take Coach for Windsor, to shift Ground for some better Rest in this Unrest, and took Coach at St. James's Gate, and the Prince with him, and found a slight Errand to leave Buckingham behind; as the King was put∣ting his Foot into the Coach, the Duke besought him, with Tears in his Eyes, and humble Prayer, that his Majesty would let him know what could be laid to his Charge to offend so good and gra∣cious a Master, and vowed by the Name of his Saviour he would purge it, or confess it: The King did not satisfy him, but breathed out his Disgust, that he was the unhappiest alive to be forsaken

of them that were dearest to him, which was uttered and re∣ceived with Tears from his own Eyes, as well as the Prince's and Duke's, and made haste to Windsor, leaving the Duke behind: this was upon Saturday at the end of April.

The Duke forlorn, retires to Wallingford-House, and was in such Confusion and Distraction, that when my Lord Keeper, (who had notice of all these things, and was more careful of the Duke than he could be of himself) came to him, he found the Duke lying upon his Couch, in that immoveable Posture, that he would neither rise up nor speak, tho the Keeper invited him to it twice or thrice by courteous Questions. The Keeper told him by the Faith of a deep Protestation, that he came purposely to prevent more Harm, and to bring him out of that Sorrow into the Light of the King's Favour; That he verily believ'd God's directing Hand was in it, to stir up his Grace to advance him to those Favours, which he possessed, to do him Service at this Pinch of Extremity.

The Keeper besought the Duke to make haste to Windsor, and to shew himself to the King before Supper was ended; to deport himself with all amiable Addresses, and not to stir from him Day nor Night, for the Danger was, that some would thrust themselves to push on the King to break up the Parliament; and the next degree of their Hope was, upon the Dissolution of the Parliament to see his Grace committed to the Tower, and then God knows what would follow; the Keeper besought him to be secret, and be quick and judicious in the Prevention: More might not be said, because the Loss of Time might lose all. The Duke thankt him, and made haste to Windsor before he was lookt for, and was as inse∣parable from the King as his Shadow.

The Fineness of the Keeper's Wit, in unriddling this Mystery, is equal to that of Cicero, in finding out the Bottom of Catiline's Conspiracy; and by like means, viz. by Women, tho after a different manner: For Fulvia of her own accord discovered Cati∣line's Conspiracy, in Spite and Emulation to Sempronia; but the Keeper bribed one of Fulvia's Stamp, to get an Insight into this De∣sign, which so perplext the King.

It seems to me that the Prince and Duke had a Jealousy that the Spanish Ambassador might infuse something into the Keeper, which might spoil the Narrative which the Duke made in Par∣liament of the Spanish Match; and therefore the Keeper had gi∣ven express Orders, that neither the Spanish Ambassador, nor any of his Train, or Followers, should come at him, whereby the Keeper had been secluded for a Month from any Intelligence from thence.

But before, Don Francisco Carondelet, the Ambassador's Secreta∣ry, was frequently at the Keeper's; he was contrary to the Ambas∣sador, as well by Birth, for he was a Walloon, not a Castilian, and

Arch-D••a••on of Cambray, as by Nature, being learned, and of a free and pleasant Dispo••••tion; whereas the Spanish Ambassador was most austere and sowr, so as there was a great Intimacy be∣tween the Keeper and him, and out of him the Keeper got, what a Servant the Secretary was to some of our English Ladies of Pleasure; but above all to one in Mark-lane, who by her Wit so managed the Secretary, that he could keep no Secret from her which she would have had made known: With her the Keeper held Correspondence, and presented her bountifully, though he told the Prince he had never seen her; and by her the Keeper had the rough Draught of the De••••gn of the Paper which the Ambassador had put into the King's Hands: The Keeper had also notice of an English Priest, who lived in Drury-lane, which the Secretary loved above any other, and was dearer to him than his own Confessor, but whether the Keeper came to the Knowledge of this by the Lady in Mark-lane, or from the Secretary himself, the Bishop does not say.

The Commons had drawn up a Remonstrance against the Li∣berty which the Priests assumed, which the King called a Sting∣ing one, and which put the Priests into a great Terror; and in this Terror, he sent his Pursevant Captain Toothbie, to seize the Priest in Mark-lane, and not to commit him to Prison, but to keep him at his own House till further Order.

The Secretary soon heard of this, and was confounded what to do for the Priest's Delivery▪ he knew no other means to do it, but by my Lord Keeper, and from him he was banished; yet in this Extremity, he sent to the Keeper, to beg of him to see his Face but that Day, tho he never saw him more: this was it the Keeper de••••red, yet he seemed very unwilling to admit him; however if the Secretary came about eleven of the Clock at Night, the Keeper would order one of his Servants to let him in at the back-Door of the Garden.

When the Secretary came into the Keeper's Presence, he told the Keeper, That nothing but a Matter as dear to him as his own Life, should have forc'd him to break Rule to offend his Lordship with his Presence, and bewailed the Disaster of his Confrere's At∣tachment, and most passionately implored the Keeper to compass his De••iverance.

And would you have me, says the Keeper, run such an Hazard to set a Priest at Liberty, a dead Man by our Statutes, when the Eye of the Parliament is so vigilant upon the Breach of Justice, especially in this kind, to the sadding of godly Men, who detest them that creep hither out of Seminaries, above all other Malefactors, because they come with an intent to pervert them who have lived in the B••som of our Church?

My Lord, says Francisco, (accenting his Words with passionate Gesture) let not the Dread of this Parliament trouble you, for I can tell you, if you have not heard it, that it is upon Expiration: and then the Keeper pickt out of him the Heads of the Articles in the Paper the Ambassador had given the King, with all the Reasons, Circum∣stances, and distorted Proofs and Expositions to confirm them; and about two in the Morning dismist the Secretary, and ordered the Pursevant to release the Priest, with Caution that he should cross the Seas that Day, or the next.

The Keeper was as happy in his Memory, as in his Wit and In∣vention; for after the Secretary was gone, he neither slept, nor stirred out of the Room, till he had digested all the Secretary had told him in Writing, with his Observations upon each Particular; and when he had trimmed up a fair Copy, (but what it was the Bishop says not) he carried it to the Prince at St. James's: This was upon Tuesday morning, after the King went to Windsor.

The Prince read the Charges, and admired at the Virulency of them; with the Antiscripts of the Keeper, which were much commended, whereupon he caused his Coach to be made ready; but before he went, the Keeper humbly begg'd of him to conceal the Matter for two Reasons: First, for searching into the King's Counsels, which he would not should be opened: Secondly, that when he had found them out, to discover them, tho to his High∣ness; which the Prince promised, and then went to Windsor. When he came there, he called for the Duke, and shewed him the Paper pri∣vately, with the Apology in the other Column: the Duke humbly thankt the Prince, that his Case was interwoven with his Highness, and their double Vindication put into one Frame; and besought the Prince to know what Vitruvius had compacted a Piece of Architecture of such Vicinity in so short a time, but could not obtain it.

So they forthwith desired a private Hearing of the King, and gave the Schedule to his Majesty's Consideration; the King read it deliberately, and at many Stops said, 'twas well, very well, and drew the Prince and Duke near to him, and em∣braced them both, protesting he sorrowed much, that he had aggrieved them, with a Jealousy fomented by no better than Traitors: And that you may know, said the King, how little you shall pay me for Reconciliation, I ask no more but to tell me who is your Ingineer, that struck these Sparks out of the Flint to light the Can∣dle, to find the Groat which was lost. The Prince stood mute, and the Duke vowed, he knew not the Author. Well, said the King, I have a good Nostril, and will answer mine own Question; my Keeper had the main finger in it, I dare swear he bolted the Flower, and made it up into Past. Sir, said the Prince, I was precluded, by my Pro∣mise, not to reveal him, but I never promised to tell a Lie for him;

your Majesty has hit the Man: And God do him good for it, says the King; I need not tell you both what you owe him for this Service; he has done himself this Right with me, that I discern his Sufficiency more and more. This you may read in the Keeper's Life, Part 1. from fol. 195, to fol. 200. and much more of the Bishop, but I think but little more of the Keeper. And tho the Spanish Ambassador re∣ceived a sore Rebuke here, and was sent back into Spain, the Bi∣shop says he received no Frown nor Disfavour there.

Now let's see how the Duke requited the Keeper for his Service, which was but in May: In the beginning of Michaelmas-Term fol∣lowing, the Duke perswaded my Lord Chief Justice Hobart to tell the King, or give it under his hand, that my Lord Keeper was not fit for the Place, and he would undertake to cast the Keeper out, and put my Lord Hobart into his place; but my Lord Hobart said, Somewhat might have been said at first, but he should do my Lord Keeper great wrong that said so now. See fol. 201.

However, such was the Temper of the Times, that both Houses chimed in with the Duke in his Narrative, and justified him against the Spanish Ambassador, who took great Offence at the Duke's Re∣lation▪ as reflecting upon his Master's Honour, and demanded his Head for Satisfaction.

The King was so pleased with the Parliament's Justification of the Duke, as we have shewed before, that as he had been his Fa∣vourite Somerset's Advocate, to plead his Cause against the Opini∣on of Archbishop Abbot, to make the Countess of Essex to be virgo intacta, and so a fit Wife for Somerset; so now he becomes his Dis∣ciple Buckingham's Advocate, to make him a Favourite to the Nati∣on: and because of the Excellency and veracity of his Speech, which should dispose the Nation to it, we'll give it you verbatim, as it is to be seen in Rushworth, fol. 127.

My Lords and Gentlemen,

I Might have nothing to speak in regard of the Person where∣of you spake, but in regard of your Motion, it were not ci∣vil; for if I be silent, I shall neither wrong my self, nor that Noble Man which you now spake of, because he is well known to be such an one as stands in no need of a Prolocutor or Fide∣••ussor, to undertake for his Fidelity, or well carrying of the Bu∣siness: And indeed, to send a Man upon so great an Errand whom I was not to trust for the Carriage thereof, were a Fault, in my Discretion, scarce compatible to the Love and Trust I bear him. It is an old Saying, That he is a happy Man that serves a good Master; and it is no less true, That he is a happy Master that enjoys a faithful Servant.

The greatest Fault (if it be a Fault) or at leastwise the greatest Error, I hope, he shall ever commit against me, was, his desiring this Justification from you, as if he had need of any Justification from others towards me; and that for these Reasons.

First, Because he being my Disciple and Scholar, he may be assured he will trust his own Relation. Secondly, Because he made the same Relation to me which he did afterwards to both Houses, so as I was formerly acquainted with the Matter and Manner thereof; and if I should not trust him in the Carriage, I was altogether unworthy of such a Servant: He hath no Inte∣rest of his own in the Business: He had ill Thoughts at home for his going thither with my Son, altho it was my Command, as I told you before; and now he hath as little Thanks for his Relation on the other part, (he has the Thanks of the Parliament) yet he that serves God and a good Master, cannot miscarry for all this.

I have noted in the Negotiation, these three remarkable things, Faith, Diligence, and Discretion, whereof my Son has born Record unto me; yet I cannot deny, That as he thought to do good Service to his Master, he has given an ill Example to Ambassadors in time to come, because he went this long Jour∣ney upon his own Charge: This will prove an ill Example, if many of my Ambassadors should take it for a Precedent. He run his Head into the Yoke with the People here for underta∣king the Journey; and when he had spent there 40 or 50000 l. (where should he have this Money?) never offered his Account, nor made any Demand for the same, nor ever will: I hope other Ambassadors will do so no more. I am a good Master, that never doubted him, for I know him to be so good a Scholar of mine, that I say, without Vanity, he will not exceed his Master's Di∣ctates: and I trust the Report not the worst he made, because it is approved by you all, and I am glad he hath so well satisfied you, and thank you heartily for taking it in so good part, as I find you have done.

Did ever any old experienced King (as he stiles himself) so dote upon a young, raw, and unexperienced Gentleman, (bred up in no sort of Learning or Business, and scarce before he became a Courtier, unless in his Infancy, breathed any other than French Air) as in the face of the Nation, to magnify an invidious Tale, told by the Duke, to the Offence not only of the Spanish Ambassa∣dor, conversant in the whole Affair, but also without hearing the Earl of Bristol, who was the greatest Statesman of England, if not in Europe, and who had so honourably performed several Embassies, to the Honour of the King, so far as the thing would bear, and so

manifoldly owned by the King? That this Scholar of the King's, unacquainted with the Treaty, should break in upon the Earl, and not only unravel all, but quarrel with him, and in another King's Court with the prime Minister of State, by whom he might best have attained his End, if he designed any.

However, the Parliament address themselves to the King, and represent to him, That he cannot in Honour proceed in the Treaty of the Match with Spain, nor the Palatinate; and the Commons offer the King three Subsidies and three Fifteenths, for carrying on the War for the Recovery of the Palatinate, in case the King will break off the Treaties: which the King accepted, protesting to God, a Penny of this Money should not be bestowed but upon this Work, and by their own Committees; and the Commons took him at his Word, and appointed Treasurers to receive the Money, and a Council of War to disburse the same.

But the Commons having granted these Subsidies, drew up a Petition against the Licence the Popish Party had taken during the Treaty with Spain. He was so nettled at it, that he called it a Stinging One; and hearing the Commons were entring upon Grie∣vances, he could not endure it, and upon the 29th of May ad∣journed the Parliament to the 2d of November 1624, and from thence to the 7th of April, lest the King should hear of another stinging Petition, or a Disturbance in the French Treaty: but at this Adjournment he told them, at their next Meeting they might handle Grievances, so as they did not hunt after them, nor pre∣sent any but those of Importance; yet I do not find the Parlia∣ment ever met again, at least never did any thing: However the King passed a General Pardon, and the Parliament censured Lionel Earl of Middlesex, Lord Treasurer, for Corruption in his Office, 50000 l. to the King, and to be imprisoned in the Tower during the King's Pleasure, which was but three days after the Adjourn∣ment of the Parliament; for upon the first of June he was set free.

Whilst these things were doing in Parliament, the Earl of Bri∣stol was recalled from his Embassy; but before his Arrival, the Duke dealt by all means, that the Earl might be committed to the Tower before he should be admitted to the King's Presence: But fearing the Marquiss Hamilton, and my Lord Chamberlain, would oppose him herein, the Duke pressed them that they would con∣cur in it; vowing (as Somerset did to Sir Thomas Overbury) he intended the Earl no hurt, but only feared, that if he should be admitted to the King's Presence, he would cross and disturb the Course of Affairs: but neither of these Lords would condescend thereunto. This was attested by my Lord Chamberlain before the House of Lords.

This De••••gn of the Duke's failing, the Duke, to terrify the Earl from returning into England, writ to him, that if he kept not himself where he was, (in Spain) and laid hold of the great Of∣fers which he heard were made unto him (the Earl) it should be the worse for him.

At Bourdeaux the Earl heard of the Aspersions cast upon him by the Duke in Parliament; of which, the Earl did boldly afterward in the House of Lords, in the second Parliament of Car. 1. and in the Presence of the Duke, affirm, That there was scarce any one thing concerning him in the Declaration, which was not contrary to, or different from Truth.

From Bourdeaux the Earl took Post to get into England, to vin∣dicate himself from the Asper••ons which the Duke had cast upon him in Parliament: but when he came to Calais, tho he sent over to have one of the King's Ships allowed him, and for which pub∣lick Orders were given; and tho the King (James) had Ships which lay at Boloign, which might have every day been with him in three Hours, and the Wind fair, yet none came, tho the Earl waited for one eight Days; so that he was forced to pass the Sea to Dover in a Boat and six Oars.

When the Earl was landed at Dover, he was, by a Letter from my Lord Conway (a Creature of the Duke's) commanded in the King's Name to retire to his House, and not to come to Court, or the King's Presence, until he had answered to certain Questions, which his Majesty would appoint some of the Council to ask him: but this was not out of any ill meaning to him, but for fear the Parliament should fall too violently upon him; and this the Duke said to some of his Friends, was the Reason of the Earl's Restraint.

Hereupon the Earl humbly petitioned the King he might be ex∣posed to Parliament, and that if he had not served the King ho∣nestly in all things, he deserved no Favour, but to be proceeded against with all Severity; but received Answer from the King, That there should be but few days past before he would put an end to his Affairs: but the Parliament was adjourned before the few days passed, nor did he ever put an end to them. You may read the further Contrivances against him by the Duke, in Rushw. from fol. 259, to 265.

After the Adjournment of the Parliament (or, if you will, the Dissolution of it) tho the Earl of Bristol could not obtain Admis∣sion into the King's Presence, yet he obtained Leave to answer to all the Duke had, in his Absence, charged upon him in Parliament; and withal wrote to the Duke, that if he, or any Man living, was able to make Reply, he would submit himself to any thing which should be demanded: which tho the Duke presumptuously said, That it is not an Assertion to be granted, that the Earl of Bristol by his Answer had satisfied the King, the Prince, or himself, of his In∣nocence;

yet it so satisfied the King, that when the Duke after pressed the King that the Earl might submit, and acknowledg his Fault, the King answered, I were to be accounted a Tyrant, to engage an innocent Man to confess Faults of which he was not guilty. Tho the Earl said he could prove this upon Oath, yet the Duke wrote to him, that the Conclusion of all that had been treated with his Ma∣jesty was, that he (the Earl) should make the Acknowledgment as was set down in that Paper, tho at that time the King sent him word, that he would hear him against the Duke, as well as he had heard the Duke concerning him; and soon after the King died; which Promise of the King's, the Earl prayed God did the King no hurt: however, the Earl obtained Leave of the King to come to London, to follow his private Affairs. Mr. Rushworth therefore errs a little in point of time, where he says, fol. 149. the Earl was committed to the Tower in King James his time; for he was not committed till the 15th of January 1625. in the first Year of King Charles, as you may see in Stow's Life of King Charles, fol. 1042.

We have now done with the Spanish Match, at least during this King's Reign; yet the King's Desires of seeing his Son married, which he shall never see, were as impatient as those of getting the Infanta's huge Portion: and to that end, before the Meeting of the Parliament, and while the Treaty with the Infanta was yet breathing, the King sent my Lord Kensington (after Earl of Hol∣land) to feel the Pulse of the French Court, how it beat towards an Alliance between the Prince, and Princess Henrietta Maria, youngest Daughter of Henry IV. of France. A serene Heaven ap∣peared in France upon the Motion; not a Cloud to be seen in all the French Horizon; Lewis the King telling my Lord Kensington, he took it for an Honour, that he sought his Sister for the sole Son of so Illustrious a King, his Neighbour and Ally; only he desired he might send to Rome, to have the Pope's Consent, for the better Satisfaction of his Conscience. And now you shall see how a little French Artifice could work upon the Conscience of our wise and pacifick King, which we will give verbatim as the King says it, in return to the French King, and which you may read in Mr. Howel's Life of Lewis XIII. fol. 63.

Most High, most Excellent, and most Puissant Prince.

OUR dear and most beloved good Brother, Cousin, and an∣tient Ally: Altho the deceased King of happy Memory was justly called Henry the Great, for having reconquer'd by Arms his Kingdom of France, tho it appertained to him as his proper Inheritance, (so here King James determined his Title to France) yet you have made a greater Conquest; for the King∣dom

of France, though it was regained by the victorious Arms of your dead Father, it was his de Jure, and so he got nothing but his own; but you have lately carried away a greater Victo∣ry, having by your two last Letters, so full of cordial Courte∣sies, overcome your good Brother and antient Ally, and all the Kingdoms appertaining to him: for we acknowledg our Self so conquered by your more than brotherly Affection, that we can∣not return you the like; only we can promise and assure you, upon the Faith of an honest Man, that you shall always have Power, not only to dispose of our Forces and Kingdoms, but of our Heart and Person, and also of the Person of our Son if you have need, which God prevent, praying you to rest assured, that we shall not only be so far from cherishing or giving the least Countenance to any of your Subjects, of what Profession soever of Religion, who have forgot their natural Allegiance to you, but if we hear the least inkling thereof, we shall send you very faithful Advertisement; and you may promise your self, that upon such Occasion, or any other which may tend to the Honour of your Crown, you shall always have Power to dis∣pose of our Assistance as if the Cause were our own. So upon Assurances that our Interests shall be always common, we pray God, most High, most Excellent, most Puissant Prince, our most dear and most beloved Brother and Ally, to have you al∣ways in his most holy Protection. Newmarket the 9th of Fe∣bruary 1624. Your most affectionate Brother, Cousin, and an∣tient Ally,

James K.

So prodigal was King James of his Promises, and so negligent in their Performance, whether they were in his power or not. Now let's see what became of this bluster of Words, and how the Interest of King James was common in this very Treaty, with the most High, most Excellent, and most Puissant Prince, his most dear, and most beloved Brother, Cousin and Ally, Lewis.

Lewis, whilst King James was intent upon his Pleasures, and pursuing the Spanish and French Matches, had taken almost all the In-land Cautionary Towns which the Reformed held in France, and about the Beginning of this Treaty, by the Interposition of his Mother, had made Cardinal Richlieu prime Minister of State, who shall serve her as Buckingham shall serve the Arch-bishop of Can∣terbury, and Laud his Patron Williams, Lord Keeper; and to Rich∣lieu did Lewis commit the Management of this Treaty, another-guess Minister of State than Olivares was in Spain, and shall pay Buckingham his own again with Interest.

Nani, lib. 5. fol. 205. observes of Richlieu, that the King had no Inclination to him, there being a certain natural secret Aversi∣on to those, who with an Ascendant of Wit exceed: Sure it is,

the Cardinal possessed rather the Power of Favour than the Favour it self; nevertheless, he had the Great Art how to fix the mutable and suspicious Genius of the King, and the inconstant Nature of the People, governing as with a supream Dictatorship, the one and the other, even to his Death.

Richlieu had his Eyes in all the Corners of the Court of England, and was throughly informed of the King's Fondness of this Match, and of the Insufficiency of Buckingham to encounter him in the Transactions of it; and therefore how sweetly and desiredly so∣ever the Proposition was embraced in France, yet in the Treaty Richlieu stood upon his Tip-toes, now that of Spain was broke off.

In the first place, he would not abate one Iota of the Articles of Religion and Liberty to the Popish Recusants, which was agreed upon in Spain; nay, he raised them higher: for it was but sit, he said, His Master, who was the eldest Son of the Church, should not abate any thing of what was granted to the Catholick King: if there had been nothing else, this would have caused another stinging Petition from the Commons (as the King called it) if ever they had met again.

And though her Portion was but 800000 Crowns, (not one tenth of the Infanta's) yet the Consideration of it must be 18000 l. per Ann. Jointure, (which her Son encreased to 40000 l.) and be∣sides, the King (James) shall give her 50000 l. in Jewels, where∣of she shall have the Property, as of those she has already, and al∣so of what she shall have hereafter: The King also (James) shall be obliged to maintain her and her House; and in case she come to be a Widow, she shall enjoy her Dowry and Jointure, which shall be assigned in Lands, Castles, and Houses, whereof one shall be furnished and fit for Habitation, and the said Jointure be paid her wheresoever she shall desire to reside; she shall also have the free Disposal of all the Benefices and Offices belonging to the said Lands, whereof one to be a Dutchy or County.

And in case she survive her Husband, her Dowry shall be re∣turned to her entirely, whether she live in England or not: and in case she die before her Husband, without Children, the Moie∣ty of her Portion to be returned: yet this Portion must one half be paid the Year after the Contract, the other half the Year after that.

Having taken a view of the Temporal Articles of this Trea∣ty, let's see what was agreed to in those which referred to Re∣ligion.

The Articles of Marriage of the King of Great Britain, with Madam Henrietta Maria of France.

THIS Negotiation was so happy, that it caused the King to consent to all the Articles which were demanded for the Catholicks, and that his Majesty gave Charge to his Ambassadors to agree to them: they signed them with the Cardinal at Paris the 10th of November 1624, with these Considerations,

That Madame the King's Sister should have all sort of Liberty in Exercise of the Catholick, Apostolick and Roman Religion, and all her Officers and her Children; and that they should have for this Purpose a Chappel in all the Royal Houses, and a Bishop with 28 Priests to administer the Sacraments, and the Word of God, and to do all their Offices.

That the Children which should be born of that Marriage, should be nourished and brought up by Madame in the Catholick Religion, until the Age of 13 Years.

That all the Domesticks which she should carry into England should be French Catholicks, chosen by the Most Christian King; and when they died, she should take other French Catholicks in their Places, but nevertheless by the Consent of the King of Great Britain.

That the King of Great Britain, and the Prince of Wales his Son, should oblige themselves by Oath, not to attempt by any means whatsoever to make her change her Religion, or to force her to any thing that might be contrary thereto; and should promise by writing in the Faith and Word of a King and Prince, to give Order that the Catholicks, as well Ecclesiastical as Secular, who have been imprisoned since the last Edict against them, should be set at Liberty.

That the English Catholicks should be no more enquired after for their Religion, nor constrained to take the Oath, which contains some∣thing contrary to the Catholick Religion: That their Goods that have been seized since the last Edict, should be restored to them.

And generally that they should receive more Graces and Liberty in Fa∣vour of the Alliance with France, than had been promised them in con∣sideration of that of Spain.

The Deputation of Father Berule, Superior General of the Fathers of the Oratory to his Holiness, to obtain the Dispensation for the afore∣said Marriage.

THE Instructions which were given to Father de Berule, were to render himself with all Diligence at Rome, to obtain the Pope's Dispensation, and to this Effect to represent to his Holiness, That the King of Great Britain having demanded of the King his Sister Madame Henrietta Maria, for a Wife for the Prince of Wales,

his Son; his Majesty hearken'd the more willingly to this Propo∣sition, in that he esteem'd it very profitable towards the Conver∣sion of the English, as heretofore a French Princess married into England, had induced them to embrace Christianity: but the Ho∣nour which he had vowed to the Holy See, and particularly to his Holiness, who baptized him in the Name of Pope Clement VIII did not permit him to execute the Treaty without having obtain∣ed his Dispensations. That this Marriage ought to be look'd upon, not only for the Benefit of the English Catholicks, but of all Chri∣stendom, who would thereby receive great Advantage: That there was nothing to be hazarded for in Madame, seeing that she was as firm in the Faith and in Piety as he could desire: That she had a Bishop and 28 Priests to do their Duties: That she had not a Domestick that was not Catholick, and that the King of Great Bri∣tain, and the Prince of Wales, would oblige themselves by Wri∣ting, and by Oath, not to solicit her directly or indirectly, nei∣ther by themselves, or by Persons interposed, to change her Reli∣gion. On the contrary, having nothing to fear for her, he had great Cause to hope, that she being dearly beloved of the King, who was already well enough disposed to be a Catholick, and of the Prince of Wales, she might by so much the more contribute to their Conversion, as Women have wonderful Power over their Husbands, and their Fathers-in-law, when Love hath given them the Ascendant over their Spirits: That she was so zealous in Reli∣gion, that there was no doubt but she would employ in this pious Design, all that depended upon her Industry; and that if God should not bless Intentions in the Person of King James, and of the Prince of Wales, it was apparent that their Children would be the Restorers of the Faith which their Ancestors had destroyed, seeing she would have the Charge to educate them in the Belief and in the Exercises of the Catholick Religion till the Age of 13 Years; and that these first Seeds of Piety being laid in their Souls, cultivated with Care at the time when they should be more sus∣ceptible of Instructions, would infallibly produce stable and per∣manent Fruits, that is to say, a Faith so firm, that it may not be shaken by Heresy in a riper Age. That after all, the Catholicks of England would receive no small Profit at present, since the King of Great Britain, and the Prince of Wales, would both oblige themselves upon their Faith, and by Writing, no more to enquire after them, nor punish them when they should be discovered; to enlarge all those that had been imprisoned, and to make them Re∣stitution of Money and of other Goods that had been taken from them since the last Edict, if they were yet in being; and gene∣rally to treat them with more Favour than they could have ex∣pected from the Alliance with Spain. And further, He had Or∣ders to let the Pope understand, that to render more Respect to

the Church, it had been agreed that Madame should be affianced and married according to the Catholick Form, and agreeable to that which was followed at the Marriage which Charles IX. made of Madam Margaret of France with the late King Henry IV. then King of Navarre. All these things spoke themselves, and appeared so visibly, that they would admit of no doubt; so this Father that wanted neither Spirit nor Fire, represented them dexterously to the Pope; and his Holiness made him hope for a speedy and fa∣vourable Answer, &c. See the Life of Cardinal Richlieu, print∣ed at Paris 1650. fol. 14, 15.

How does this agree with the King's Speech at the opening of the Parliament, in the 18th Year of his Reign, That if the Treaty of the Match between his Son and the Infanta of Spain were not for the Benefit of the Established Religion at home, and of the Reformed abroad, he was not worthy to be their King? And how does this agree with that part of the King's Speech at the opening of this Parliament, That as for the Toleration of the Roman Religion, as God shall surely judg him, he said, he never thought nor meant, nor never in Words expressed any thing that savoured of it?

Do not Religion, Truth, and Justice support the Thrones of Princes? and Hypocrisy, Falshood, and Injustice undermine and overthrow them? What future Happiness then could either the King or Prince hope to succeed this Treaty, sworn to by them both, so diametrically contrary to the Laws and Constitutions of this Nation, wherein the Majesty of the King, as well as the Safe∣ty of the Nation, is founded? and to govern by these, and ob∣serve this Treaty, will be impossible. What Peace could the Prince find at home, even in his Bed, when an imperious French Wife shall be ever instigating him to break his Coronation-Oath, to truckle to that imposed upon him by her Brother of France?

These Pills, how bitter soever, must be swallowed by the King, rather than his Son shall be baulk'd a second time; nay, it seems they were very sweet to him: For Mr. Howel, in the Life of Lewis III. says, fol. 66. that King James said passionately to the Lords of the Council of the King of France;

My Lords, the King of France has wrote unto me, That he is so far my Friend, that if ever I have need of him, he will render me Offices in Person, whensoever I shall desire him: (the Truth of this you will see by and by.) Truly he hath gained upon me more than any of his Predecessors; and he may believe me, that in any thing that shall concern him, I will employ not only my Peoples Lives, but my own; (Bravely spoken, and like K. James) and whosoever of his Subjects (Lewis's) shall rise against him, either Catholicks or others, shall find him (James) a Party for him (Lewis). 'Tis true, if he be provoked to infringe his

Edicts, he shall impart as much as in him lies, by Counsel and Advice, to prevent the Inconveniencies. Who ever expected he should do more, or ever did?

But Venus must not have the only Ascendant in this Treaty; for the Cardinal will have Mars to be in Conjunction with her: and 'twas high time; for at this time Monsieur Sobiez had provided a great Fleet of Men of War (as Times went then with the French) and had entered and surprised the Fort of Blavet in Bretaign, and took and carried away six of the French great Men of War out of it, and also taken the Isles of Rhe and Oleron, which he began to fortify; and being absolute Master of the Sea, triumphantly, with a Fleet of 75 Men of War of all sorts, landed a considerable Force at Medoc near Bourdeaux.

The Court of France was never so alarmed as at this, notwith∣standing all the King's Victories over the Reformed by Land; and therefore the Cardinal threw another Article into the Treaty, That King James should lend the French a Fleet of Ships to repress Sou∣biez; and in lieu thereof, the French should permit Mansfield, who had raised an Army of 10000 Foot and 2000 Horse in England, to land at Calais; where the French should join him with another Body of Horse and Foot, for the Recovery of the Palatinate.

But see the French Faith, and how well Lewis made good his Promise to King James, to render him all Offices in his own Per∣son, whensoever King James should desire him: for at this time the Army being shipt at Dover, and put over to Calais, where being denied Entrance, and having no other Instructions, and wanting Provisions, they lay neglected at Sea; and in this Distress a Pestilence raged among them, so that they were forced to sail to Zealand, where having no Orders, they were denied Landing there: and this being the most terrible Season of the Year, in December, what by Hunger, Cold, and Pestilence, above two thirds of them perished, before Leave could be obtained to land them in Holland; so that they never did the King of Spain near so much Hurt, as they had done in England before they were shipt, living upon Plunder and Free-Quarter.

These were sad Presages of future Happiness from the designed Marriage, yet these things no ways discomposed the quiet Repose of our pacifick King: so as he might see his only Son married to a Daughter of France, was all his Business; no matter how. The Thirst (which God was his Judg, and as he was a Christian King, he had contracted, equal to that of the wayfaring Man in the Desarts of Arabia, and in danger of Death for want of Water) for the good Success of the Parliament, is now asswaged by the granting of three Subsidies and three Fifteenths: Here's no men∣tion of marrying his only Son with the Tears of his only Daugh∣ter; and he is still ready, with the Lives of his Subjects, and his

own, to assist the most High, most Excellent, and most Puissant Prince, his most dear, and most beloved Brother, Cousin, and an∣tient Ally, Lewis.

The Managers of this Treaty were, Hay a Scots-man, created Earl of Carlisle; and the Lord Kensington, for the more Honour of it, created Earl of Holland; two of the King's Favourites of the second Rate, but who bare no proportion to the Sagacity, Wis∣dom, and Integrity of the Earl of Bristol. Bristol was all Heare of Oak, and would not bend to Buckingham's Pride and Ambition; but they were Willows, that were liable to every Nod and Wind of Buckingham's Breath.

But how comes Buckingham, who must have an Oar in every Boat, to be absent from this Treaty? The Reason was, tho he were not wise, yet he was jealous, lest King James, in his Ab∣sence, should hear Bristol against him, as the King had promised, as well as he had heard Buckingham against him; which was so dangerous a Rock, as our Land-Admiral would not venture to run against.

Notwithstanding all this Haste for consummating this desired Marriage, the Thread of the King's Life was spun out before; for upon the 27th of March, Ann. 1625. he died at Theobalds, in the 58th Year of his Age, having reigned twenty two Years com∣pleat. Having had an Ague, the Duke of Buckingham did upon Monday the 21st before, when in the Judgment of the Physici∣ans the Ague was in its Declination, apply Plaisters to the Wrists and Belly of the King, and also did deliver several quantities of Drink to the King, tho some of the King's Physicians did disallow thereof, and refused to meddle further with the King, until the said Plaisters were removed; and that the King found himself worse hereupon, and that Droughts, Raving, Fainting, and an in∣termitting Pulse, followed hereupon; and that the Drink was twice given by the Duke's own hands, and a third time refused: and the Physicians, to comfort him, telling him, that this second Impairment was from Cold taken, or some other Cause; No, no, said the King, it is that which I had from Buckingham. I confess, this was but a Charge upon the Duke, upon the Impeachment of the Commons, as you may read in Rushworth, fol. 355, 356. yet it was next to positive Proof; for King Charles, rather than this Charge should come to an Issue, dissolved the Parliament, which was a Failure of Justice, tho the Commons had voted him four Subsidies, and four Fifteenths, before it was passed into an Act.

The Character of King James.

He was the first of that Name King of England, and the first King of the whole Isle of Britain, and the first King, since Henry the first, that was born out of the Allegiance to the King of Eng∣land, and was the first (at least since Rich. 2.) that affected and endeavoured to introduce an Arbitrary Power in England, foreign to the Laws and Constitutions of it; and in all his Reign was more governed by Flatterres and Favourites, than by the Advice of his Parliament, or a wise Council.

His Flatterers and Favourites seldom spake of him but under the Appellation of Most Sacred, rarely I think or never before used to any of the Kings of England; and of the Solomon of the Age, though never were two Kings more unlike, unless it were in their Sons, Charles and Rehoboam: for Solomon died the rich∣est of all the Kings of the World, King James the poorest; Solo∣mon was inspired above all other Kings with Wisdom, and his Proverbs Divine Sentences, for Improvement of Vertue and Mo∣rality; whereas this King's Learning, wherein he and his Flatterers so much boasted, was a Scandal to his Crown: for all his Writings against Bellarmine and Peron, of the Papal Power of King-Killing and King-Deposing, were only Brawls and Contentions, and 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Learning on one side or the other: A Power disclaimed by our Saviour when the Devil would have given him it; and denied any such Power in this World, even when the Jews were ready to crucify him, John 18. 36.

And as there were no Reasons for these Brawls, so was the End of them, Arrogance on the Popish Part, to impose a foreign Power or Jurisdiction upon the King and Kingdom, and as foolish on the King's Part, it being exploded by the Nation, and under the seve∣rest Penalty, the asserting such a Power prohibited; and how could the King by his Writings further secure himself and the Nation against it?

But it seems the King was in this more zealous for himself and the Preservation of his Inherent Birth-right to the Crown of Eng∣land, than for the Honour of God and our Saviour, against the Pope's Usurpations other ways; for in his Speech at the Opening the first Parliament of his Reign, he calls the Church of Rome a 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Church, and our Mother-Church, and if they would lay aside their King-killing and King-deposing Doctrine, and some Niceties, (but names them not) he was content to meet them mid-way.

Does not the Pope exalt himself above God, and is Antichrist, i•• forbidding the Laity the Cup in the partaking the Sacrament a Christ's last Supper? If any Man makes a Question of it, I'll de∣monstrate

it by a better Syllogism, than can be made up of Ari∣stotle's Analyticks.

For whosoever shall forbid what another commands, exalts him∣self above that other.

But the Pope forbids the Drinking of the Cup at the Sacrament to the Laity who are Christ's Members as well as the Priests.

And our Saviour commands the Cup with an Emphasis, Drink ye All of it.

Therefore the Pope exalts himself above our Saviour, and is Antichrist; which was to be demonstrated: and this Mutilation makes this the Pope's, and not a Sacrament of our Saviour's In∣stitution.

COROLLARY.

By the same Reason, I say, the Pope exalts himself above God, in forbidding Marriage to the Priests.

For Marriage is an Institution of God in Paradise, Gen. 2. and commanded by God, Gen. 9. 1. and the Pope forbids the Marriage of Priests; which St. Paul says is the Doctrine of Devils: and it's worthy Observation, that the Pope makes Marriage to be a Sacra∣ment, yet denies it to Priests; and our Saviour commands the Cup in the Sacrament of his last Supper to be drunk by all, yet this is denied the Laity, and only allowed to Priests.

I say Pope Julius the 2d in dispensing with Henry the 8th to marry his Brother Arthur's Wife, exalted himself above God.

For whosoever shall dispense with, or allow what another for∣bids, exalts himself above that other.

But Julius dispensed with Henry's Marriage of his Brother's Wife.

And God forbids the Marriage of a Man's Brother's Wife, Lev. 18. 16.

Therefore Julius exalted himself above God, which was to be demonstrated.

It's true, I do not find the Marriage of a Man's Sister's Daughter particularly forbidden by the Levitical Law; yet by the 17th verse it is by inference forbidden, and is abhorrent to Nature: So that when Cambyses asked the Magi, if it were not lawful to marry his Sister's Daughter, they told him it was not; yet like Flatterers, they told him he might do what he pleased; and Platina (I think it is in the Life of Pope Boniface the 5th, or Honorius) ex∣claims against the Emperor Heraclius his marrying his Sister's Daughter, as an Impiety scarce ever heard of: yet three Popes successively dispensed with Philip the 2d, Philip the 3d, and Phi∣lip the 4th, Kings of Spain, marrying with their own Nieces, viz. their Sisters Daughters.

It were endless to enumerate the Doctrines of the Church of Rome, how dishonourable they are to God, and his sacred Laws. I'll give Instances only in two: 1. Their Invocation of Saints after Death, many of which are of their own making, thereby attri∣buting to them a concurring Power with God, in his Omniscience, which is a robbing God of his Honour; and if Saints after Death be not Omniscient, it were in vain to pray to them.

The other is dispensing with Mens Promises and their own, tho they have bound themselves to the Performance of them by an Oath; whereby the Popes render themselves Enemies of Man∣kind, and Humane Society: for these are founded in Truth, and Mens mutual Performance of their Promises. That this for several hundreds of Years hath been practised by the Popes upon those Princes and Subjects, whom they please to call Hereticks, (when the Popes are greater) is well known to those conversant in their Histories: I'll give but one Instance of the Liberty the Popes take to themselves herein.

Upon the Death of Pope Marcellus 2d, Ann. 1555. the Cardi∣nals in the Conclave, before they proceed to the Election of a∣nother Pope, mutually swore, That whosoever should be chosen, should call a Synod in six Years, and not make more than 4 Cardi∣nals in two Years after the Election, and Paul the 4th was chosed. See the Council of Trent, Anno 1555.

Some small time after this Election, Paul entred the Conclave, to declare his Intentions of a Promotion of Cardinals; and the Cardinal of St. James's pressed to him, and put him in mind of his Oath before his Election: but the Pope thrust the Cardinal back, and told him, This was to bind the Pope's Authority; that it is an Article of Faith, that the Pope cannot be bound, much less bind him∣self; that to say otherwise was manifest Heresy, from which he did ab∣solve those who spake it, because he thought they did not speak obstinate∣ly; but if any should say the same again, he would give Order the In∣quisition should proceed. And this being spoken in the Conclave, was in Cathedra, and infallible, and never since retracted by him, or any other Pope. These are the Heresies in the Church of Rome, for which Men must be slaughtered and burnt, and for not belie∣ving them against the Evidence of a Man's Senses to the contra∣ry, and against the Nature of a Sacrament, That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament after Consecration, is Christ's organical Body and Blood: This is that true and Mother-Church which the King would meet mid-way, if it would let him and his Inherent Birth-right alone.

This is that Prince who to prosecute these Brawls, and to wal∣low in sensual Pleasures, neglected the foreign and domestick Af∣fairs of his Kingdom; only Great in making himself little, and not beloved at home, and contemptible and dishonoured abroad

A Prince who squandred away the sacred Patrimony of the Crown amongst Flatterers and Favourites, thereby becoming not able to maintain the Honour of the Nation abroad; and neglecting the Encrease and Repair of his Navy-Royal, not only rendred the Na∣tion in an unsettled and dangerous Peace at home, but notwith∣standing the Treaty with the Dutch for Licence to fish upon the Coasts of England and Scotland, suffered them with Men of War to guard their Fisheries, and to do it whether he would or not. A Prince, that by his dissolute Life, and prophane Conver∣sation, debauched and effeminated the Genius of the English Nation, whereby it became more scandalized for Swearing and Drinking, than in any Age before. A Prince that broke all the Measures by which Hen. 8. and Queen Elizabeth were the Arbitrators of Chri∣stendom. A Prince fearful of all his Enemies abroad, while he was only great by exercising a Tyrannical Arbitrary Power over his Parliaments and Subjects, who could only have made him great a∣broad, and honoured at home; whereby he became little beloved at home, and suffered the Dutch to redeem their Cautionary Towns upon their own Terms, and to dispossess the English at Amboyna, and their other Factories in the East-Indies and Africa. He only stood still looking on, while the French upon the Matter supprest the Reformed in France; and suffered Ferdinand the 2d to over-run, and near subdue the Protestant Princes in Germany, as well as his own Son-in-law: And tho he were the 6th of that Name, King of Scotland, from John, alias Robert Stuart, the Son of Robert Stuart, by his Paramour Elizabeth Moor; yet if Sir James Melvil says true, that Cardinal Bethoun poisoned James the 5th, he was the first of that Name who died a natural Death, if he did so; for James the first was murdered by his Uncle the Earl of Athol, his Grand-father's legitimate Son, in his Queen's Arms, with eight and twenty Wounds, the Queen receiving two to defend him. This was in the Year 1436.

James the II. was killed by the breaking of a Piece of Cannon, while he besieged the Castle of Roxburgh, the 3d of Aug. 1460.

James the III. having his Army routed by an Army headed by his Son James, was killed at Bannoch-Burn, by the Lord Gray, and Robert Sterling of Ker, after Sir Andrew Brothick, a Priest, had shriven him. This was in 1488.

James the IV. was killed the 9th of December 1514, at Flowden∣field, by the English commanded by the Earl of Surrey, and his Body never found: and if James the 5th was poisoned, then none of these Jameses died a natural Death, neither did King James his Mother, being put to death Ann. 1587, for conspiring the Death of Queen Elizabeth.

After the Dissolution of the Spanish Match, the King as gree∣dily prosecuted the French; and tho he lived not to see it settled,

yet he saw the Army raised under Count Mansfield, for the Re∣covery of the Palatinate, ruined by trusting to the French Faith in this very Treaty. When he died, he not only left an empty Exchequer, but a vast Debt upon the Crown, yet was engaged in a foreingn War; and the Monies given by the Parliament for carry∣ing it on, were squandred away in carrying on the French Treaty, and the Nation imbroiled in intestine Feuds and Disorders.

At his Death he left a Son and Heir, and one Daughter: Before he died he saw his Son over-ruled by his Favourite, against his determinate Will and Pleasure, and the Prince's own Honour and Interest; which was a great Mortification to him, and which he often complained of, but had not Courage to redress: and so strongly was 〈◊〉〈◊〉 Favourite possessed of his Power over his Son, in the King's Life, that the Prince little regarded his Father's Pre∣cepts, or the Counsels of any else, after his Death; whereby he encreased the Internal Feuds, Jealousies and Discords of the Na∣tion, which ended in a sad Catastrophe, both of the Favourite and the King.

At the King's Death, his Daughter, with her Husband, and her many Children, were driven into Exile and Poverty in the Domini∣on of the Dutch States, where they were more relieved by the States, the Prince of Orange, and some Bishops and Noblemen of England, than by either of the Kings, Father, or Son.