A short view of the life and reign of King Charles (the second monarch of Great Britain) from his birth to his burial.

1627.

But the next yeare this design was followed with greater vigour by the Duke of Buckingham, who hoped there∣by to make himself of some conside∣ration in the eyes of the people. The gaining of the Isle of Re, which lay be∣fore the Town of Rochel, and im∣barred their Trade, was the matter aim∣ed at; and he had strength enough both for Sea and Land to have done the work, if he had not followed it more like a Courtier then a Souldi∣er; suffering himself to be comple∣mented out of the taking of their chief Fort, when it was almost at his mer∣cy; and standing upon points of Honour in facing those Forces which were

sent from the French King to raise the siege, when he might have made a safe retreat unto his ships without losse or danger.

In the mean time his Majesty neither neglected his Affairs at home nor his Friends abroad: At home he found the Puritan faction to be much increased by the remisnesse of the goverment of Arch∣bishop Abbot, whom therefore he sus∣pended from all his Metropoliticall Ju∣risdiction, and confined him to his House at Ford in Kent, committing the exercise thereof to the Bishops of London, Dur∣ham, Rochester, Oxford, Bath and Wells, by Letters Patents, bearing date the 9. day of October, Anno 1627. A∣broad he found the Princes of Germany wormed out of their Estates, one after another, by the Emperours Forces, the King of Denmark (whom they had made the Head of their League) being driven out of the Countrey by Count Tilly, and hardly able to defend his own Dominions. No Prince so fit for the

prosecution of that cause, as Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, whom there∣fore he elects into the Noble Order of the Garter, and solemnly invests him with it in the midst of his Army, then lying at the Siege of Darsaw, a Town of Pome∣rella belonging to the Crown of Poland, on Sunday the twenty third of October, of the same year also. At which time he laid the grounds of that Confedera∣cy, which being seconded by the French, the States of the Ʋnited Provinces, and the distressed Princes of the Empire, brought that King into Germany; where he gave the first great check to the Em∣perours fortunes, and had restored the Prince Elector Palatine to his ancient Pa∣trimony, if he had not fallen unfortu∣nately at the Battell of Lutzen.