STEMMA SACRUM, THE Royal Progeny Delineated, and with some Notes explained, showing His SACRED MAJESTIES Royal and Lawful Descent to His Crown and Kingdoms, from all the Kings that ever reigned in this NATION. By Giles Fleming, Rector of Wadding-worth, in the diocese and County of LINCOLN. Blessed art thou O Land, when thy King is the Son of the Nobles, Eccles. 10.7. And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah, shall yet again take root downward, and bear fruit upward, 2 Kings 19.30. London, Printed for Robert Gibbs, at the golden Ball in Chancery-lane. 1660. STEMMA SACRVM The royal progeny Fleance the son of Banquo of the family of good King Duncan of Scotland fled out of Scotland into Wales for fear of the Tyrant Machbed who had murdered his father where he married the Prince of Wales his daughter and by her begot Walter who returned into Scotland & was made Lord high Stuart by the faithful discharge whereof he obtained for himself & family the name of Stuarts who were afterward Kings of Scotland & brought the blood royal of Wales to that crown. By computation of time it can be no other but this jago though the history mentioneth not the name of the Prince whose daughter he married. Aegidius Fleming deline auit Printed for Robert Gibbs at the Golden-Ball in Chancery Lane with a book explaining this Stem. To the Right Honourable, George, Lord Viscount CASTLETON, His much honoured Lord. My Lord, AMong many other choice passages of pleasant Histories, Aelian the Greek Historian hath this, That a certain musician solacing himself with the melody of his music wherein he was admirably skilful, it fortuned that the Treble-string of his Lute broken; but his good luck was to have it supplied again by a grasshopper, that leaping upon his instrument, gave her Note tunable to that string that was wanting. In this our public and unparallelled time of joy, if the Spheres of heaven could make music to be heard by men upon the earth, God hath given us a season of mirth fit for such a melody; the Lord our God is with us, and the shout of a King is amongst us; it is now a time necessary for every skilful and sweet singer of Israel, to bring his Harp to complete the music; if I come in but like this musicans Grasshopper, to contribute a Treble-string, or what else might be more mean, it is glory enough for me; I am not nice to tune so well as I can: He that can offer an Hecatomb, here is an Altar of thanksgiving worthy such a sacrifice; and I that have but one grain of frankincense, will fling on mine also, the best that I can do I present to the World here a Genealogy of the Kings Sacred Majesty, his Royal Descent from all the Kings that have ever reigned in this iceland, whereby the people may perceive how properly, rightly, legally, and entirely He is their own, whom they now thus joyfully receive; and I have annexed unto it a small Tractate for explanation of the Stem-Royal, for the help of those who are not versed in things of this nature; together with other observations and applications of such things that I thought needful. These I here presume to dedicate to your Honours Patronage, which I humbly beg that you would please benignly to accept of, and pardon my boldness. Though I be a stranger to your Person, yet truly my Lord I must needs say I am very well acquainted with your worth; nemo fefellit omnes. A good name, saith Solomon, is like a precious ointment, we may smell the fragrancy, though we never see the person that carrieth it about him; as the spices of Arabia are said to be lushiously redolent to those that are distant from it some hundreds of miles: The honourable deportment of yourself hath justly made you conspicuous and beloved over all our County of Lincoln, as appeared, when they so joyfully and numerously lately choose you for one of their Representatives in Parliament; and the sweet sent of this your noble worth, could not but come to me, though now aged and obscure, & living in recess and retirement; I must needs further be so bold as to challenge the relation to be your honours poor neighbour, in respect of some of your honours inheritances lying near us; and your late father of honourable memory, was( though I being but once in his company) pleased to honour me with affectionate and earnest invitation to come unto his house, and be better known unto him; but he changed this life for a better, before I could have opportunity to tender him my service. Though what I have here done be but mean, your honours name in the frontispiece will be my credit and encouragement further to serve you in any of my abilities, and to subscribe myself, Your honours humble servant, Giles Fleming. COme hither if you want a guide, To show you whom ye should obey; Look on this Stem, and see descried, To whom of right belongs the sway. If from your Fathers ye possess That Land you rightly call your own, By the same Law ye must confess That unto Charles belongs the Throne; And if a thousand years make good A title to the English Crown, Longer then so his Race hath stood; Then how can subjects put him down? Who art thou that within this Land, Dost challenge either birth or place? Look here, and thou shalt understand Who 'tis that dignifies thy Race. Art thou a Norman Noble Peer, And from them drawst thy high descent? Plantagenet, I present thee here Thy Lineages chief Ornament. Stout Saxon, with thy crooked Sword If that thou say, show me my King; Take it upon a Scholars word, King Edgars Heir to thee I bring. If thou sayst, Bold and Bonny, Scot, I ne're had King, but was mine own: A Steward's here thy happy lot, The lawful Heir of calydon. Rich ancient, Yeoman born in Kent, If that thou cry'st A Dane for me, Canutus blood I here present, The Heir to Denmarks Majesty. Old britain who in lyric verse Sangst of so many Kings of Yore, Tuders Blood-Royal I rehearse, Of whom thy Bards sang long before. STEMMA SACRUM, The Royal Progeny. polycrates King of Samos is celebrated in our graecian Histories for the most fortunate of Princes that ever reigned in the world for some part of his life; yea, Herodotus reports of him, That he was of such an irresistible felicity, that on a time, he wilfully cast a gold Ring with a Jewel in it of inestimable value, and wonderful virtue, into the Sea, that he might say he had lost something in his dayes; yet see the good fortune of the man; within a small time after he found it( says he) in the belly of a Fish that was served up to his Table. Let this be truth if you will, or let it be a Fable, or Greek tradition, of which sort indeed they have abundance set forth for Ornaments sake. But however it were, this I am sure of, That never any polycrates, nor Prince, no nor People, neither were more conspicuously attended by a constant course of felicity, than we the people of this iceland,( once not unproperly, it was called Insula Fortunata) were for above a Century of years together last past, till the beginning of these late distractions, according to the best Rule that Machiavel hath, trees boni principes miraculum constituunt in republica. And at the very Achme of those happy dayes, God had bestowed upon us a Jewel; yea, a precious Jewel; yea,( not the like again in every virtue and grace considered active and passive) hardly to be paralleled in any Age of the World: I mean, our gracious and late Sovereign, King CHARLES of sorrowful and heavenly memory: But we foolish and inconsiderate People, made wanton with the surfet of our own good fortune,( as it seemeth that polycrates was) wilfully cast away this Jewel, and lost it; mere mortuo, in the dead Sea; nay, in a read Sea of Manly English blood, gushing out for twenty years together. Yet see O ENGLAND, and see thy happiness at the present, and be more wise for the future. By the blessing of Him that dwelled in the Bush towards us, we have found this our precious Ring again, and God hath brought Him home again to our Doors, and very Tables, in the return of our gracious and most welcome sovereign, King CHARLES the second, the true Son and Heir of these His Fathers Crowns and Kingdoms; and the Image and true Character of His virtues. Let us Record it in our Annales, and writ up in Marble, the nine and twentieth day of May, was Natalis Regis, & Natalis Regni; the birth-day of the King, and the birth-day of the Kingdom; and let us forget all other Epoche's of time. What remarkable fatalities were there that ever fell amongst us, even from the beginning of our being a People, to this most happy day, that were not Nugae, even Trifles to it, if compared with this. Among all the judgements that God ever exercised us withall, Was there ever any like this? That for the space almost of twenty years, this Land should be without a King, and without a Teraphim? And among all the mercies that God ever shewed, not only to this, but to any other Kingdom in the world, was there ever any like this, that a Kingdom left utterly headless, and unmanned for so long a time as that; and floating like a ship upon the Surges, without either Mast or Tackle, Pilot or helm; and which conduced more to the peril and the ruin of it, when it was in the time of its Naufrage, so often attempted to be steered by wilful and unskilful hands, who could not carry it the length of a furlong, before they did impinge themselves, and the Vessel, upon some new and worse dangers; and such a Bark neither in all that woeful space not to become the prey of pirates, or the wrack of the Ocean; but at last should come safe and loaden home: So is it not as worthy of godly admiration and thankfulness, that this poor Nation thus desolately left( which had from her beginning even to an hour continued in a successive and hereditary Monarchy) should not in the space of such a vast vacuity, not only be preserved from Vassalage to our ambitious neighbours; but also to receive our own lawful Prince again, without the help of any other People that might engage us unto them, or without any blood shed amongst ourselves; and our Prince Himself not corrupted with the contagion of any foreign air; but to return pure out of Sodom, and a Protestant, according to the Profession of the Blessed Church of ENGLAND, though forced to reside from the first time that could begin any Maturition to his Judgement, even to this day, in those places that oppugned it, both on the right hand, and on the left! The perils that He escaped were admirable; but the constancy that he continued in both towards God and us, are justly worthy of an higher Hallelujah. It might easily be instanced, both from examples of our own and other Princes, how Kings in far less difficulties, and far shorter continuations of them, have prostituted themselves unto very unworthy conditions, and proffered the sale of their People upon very cheap terms of base and abject servility. But it is evident to all the World, who are not wilfully blinded, that our young gracious sovereign hath given us already this specimen both of His virtue and Piety; that like the true Mother that stood before Solomons Tribunal, He was content to stand still, and wait, and suffer; the interest that he had to his child, to hang in suspense till the 〈◇〉, and natural affection that was in Him towards it, who could not endure to see it destroyed, clearly made it evident, that He was the true Parent. Otherwise, How easily He might have abbreviated the bitter dayes of His Exile; and also how fully He might have satiated( if there had been in him that carnal gorge that is in too many in the World) the thirst of His own revenge upon His implacable enemies, a shallow judgement may easily apprehended. And what had then become of us all, if there had been the least morsel in Him of that Vulgar Leaven. Pereant Amici, modo pereant Inimici; Haec qui non videt, coecus est; qui non laudat, invidus; qui non admiratur, stupidus. Whatever unthankful men may censure of this, I know not; but most assuredly Almighty God for a just reward of this still and quiet possession of His soul in patience, gave Him this still and quiet possession of His Kingdoms without any forcible entrance. Ariston King of Sparta was a good King, and the delight of his People; only that which did alloy the sweetness of their comfort, was this, That he was without children; therefore out of their great desire to have the Issue of so good a King to govern them after his death, they repaired to their Temples, and made many Votes to beg that their King might have a Son; at last he had one, and the People, because that they conceived him to be the effect of their Orisons, would needs give him a Name, and called him Demaratus, which signifieth, Asked of God by the prayers of the People. Assuredly He, nor no other could have more hearty and instant prayer, though happily from a people not so sinful, nor more longing and fervent desires and wishes, than this Prince of ours had offered for his re-enjoyment, for above twelve years together: It was Gods goodness that He should not come to us only in the midnight of our despairs, but also without any power but His own. That we might know him to be the immediate gift of God, and so receive him. I conceive therefore that it will now be a suitable endeavour, to show to such as know it not, the just interest that he hath over us, and the near relation that we have every one of us unto Him, as the true fountain of mutual love between us both; and therefore the delineation of His Royal Genealogy, and illustration thereof, with some notes to help those that are not versed in our Chronicles, not to be improper. It is both a command and a blessing that God giveth to Israel, Deut, 17.15. That they take unto them a King of their Brethren; in which( as in many other things) God in his Providence hath been as propitious to this Nation, as to any other Nation in the World, if not above them. For though the changes in the Nation have been so frequent, and the people so divers, that have mingled themselves in habitation, that we may rightly be called, as sometimes we were, Durum saxi genus, such an heap of sundry stones, that we know not our own quarry, nor can we very well tell how to call ourselves by our own names; yet this is worth our very amazement at Gods gracious disposements, that in all the confluences of these sundry Nations, the Stem Royal of those that have come in, have still fallen in to mix themselves with the Royalty of the former Inhabitants, that we have rather been enriched and increased, than absorbed by them; and this must make our Kings Rights clear to us, and us again right dear to them, when we consider that He is bone of our bone, and flesh of our flesh, and all our shares so equal in Him, that if the contest should arise, as once it did between Israel and Judah, concerning their interest in King David, no one could challenge more of Him than another: For this end I thought it good, and not unseasonable to revive again the delineation of the Originals, and Successions of our Kings, that people may know the natural right and regality that they have over us, and behold their uninterrupted continuation, even from our first being a people; and be sensible of Gods special blessings in them, that we may not be debauched again, as we have been by wicked Impostors into rebellion and tumult, to our own ruin and confusion. Take therefore the distribution of the Nations, who have seated themselves in this iceland, as followeth; let them be thus distinguished. 1. Aborigines. 2. Indigenoe. 3 Inquilini. 4. Victores. 5. Convenae. 6. Advenae. ( So Civilians distinguish them.) Fuller then these a Nation cannot be, and of the coalition of all these we do consist, and are their generations. 1. Aborigines, or Natives, are such as beyond all Monuments of time and record have inhabited a place, and are so called, either because their beginning was coaeval with the first inhabitation of the Land; or privatively, because they cannot name their own Originals; such were the people under Latinus and Evander before Aeneas came amongst them with his Trojans. These with us are the Ancient Brittans, before whom we cannot account any people that dwelled here, nor they declare with any evidence of truth that they came from any other place hither; these a long while inhabited here by themselves, and were a people valiant in Arms, and wonderfully devout and religious, till at last they were oppressed by the Saxons, and driven into those Parts and Mountains that they do now inhabit; these in the very ruins of their condition fought right manfully, and continued under their own Kings a long while, when they had hardly any Kingdom; neither could all the several conquests made in this Land, so extinguish them, but they remained( like the Rechabits in Israel) a distinct people, and kept their language unto this day; certainly the most Ancient that is vernacular in the world; length of time, and inundations of their neighbouring people, rather wore out, than conquered their Kings and Princes, of whom there were many of great Name and famed throughout the World; and have this dignity above others, that the first Christian King in the World was Lucius, King of britain: And the first Christian Roman Emperour, was Constantine the great, born, and reigning here in Brittany; God after a long while mercifully looked upon them, and to regain them an interest in the blood-royal, first joined in marriage divers of the Kings of ENGLANDS Daughters with their Princes, and their Royal lineage; and at last, to their great contentation and comfort, brought King Henry the seventh to the Crown of ENGLAND, who was extracted out of their own Regality, and brought it into the English Throne, in the person of own Tuder his Grand-father; their ancient name of Tuder, or Theodore, who was descended from the Princes of South-wales by the fathers side, and of North-wales by the mothers side. And further,( to preserve them from all contempt, which is usually thrown upon the Aborigines of every Nation, though without any reason or justice, as we see at this day in Spain; the descendants of the Goth's outvie in honour the Ancient Spaniards, though they were those that held up the Bucklers so valiantly against the old Romans) God choose it to be the Asilum or Sanctuary, and likewise the birth-place in the time of the Tyranny of an Usurper, of him that gave a beginning to the Royal Family of the STUARTS, from whom sprung so many glorious Kings of Scotland, and to whom again we owe in a great part Him that is the breath of our nostrils, and the joy of our hearts, ROYAL KING CHARLES THE SECOND. 2. Indigenae, Whom we may call Inhabitants, they differ from the Aborigines in a strict acception, though both the terms be promiscuously used, as the Grammarians make between Gens and Natio; the one is of a greater latitude than the other, and they are such people who make inroads into a Country, either by force, or otherwise, spread themselves over a Nation, and utterly forsake their own country, and all relation to it; change their name, and bring their language into the country that they come into: Such were the Trojugenae among the Romans; the Vandals to the last Italians; the Goths to the Spaniards; the Franks to the French, &c. These were the Saxons which( for the greatest part of us) this day we are; these came over from Germany hither, and I believe lead the dance to the eruption of those northeast Nations, that over-spread most parts of Europe: These continued in a Kingdom here about six hundred years, being sometimes an Heptarchy, and afterward a Monarchy; but in a day of visitation they were first molested by the Danes, and after subdued by the Normans, and their own Kings displaced: But God in his mercy, in his own time looked upon them; and what they were not able to do by their own power, he wrought for them by his Divine Providence, as you shall find in the sequel. 3. Inquilini, or Intruders, are no other than Coasters or Adventurers, that are sent forth into a Nation to sack and spoil, and being not in themselves enough to possess it, yet are able to molest and grieve it, and make pillage and exaction out of it; such was Brennus and his Crew; first to the Romans in the time of Camillus, and afterward to the grecians; and such were the Philistines to the Israelites about the time of Saul, when they would not suffer so much as a Smith to be amongst them to make them armor. The Danes here with us were these, who first grievously molested us as hostile neighbours; and afterward Canutus their King set himself in the Throne over us, and kerbed the Land greatly: But again, God forgot us not; for Canutus fell in love with Emma a fair Lady, the Widow of Etheldred, formerly a Saxon King, who being married to him, first obtained( as Hester for the Jews) great favour and mitigation from him towards the English Saxons, and afterwards had issue by him Hardy Canutus, who to their joy was half their own country man, and was the occasion their own Saxon-line-royal came in again by Edward Confessor, and continued through the Race of divers other Kings; and also the Danes from molestful neighbours, mingled themselves in the Land, and became proper inhabitants, and made us a more numerous and warlike people than we were before; whose Progeny still is with us, whereof many Worshipful, yea, and some Noble Families are extracted, as in other parts, so especially in the County of Kent; whose procere bodies, sprightly minds, yellow locks,( and which is best of all) faithful hearts show them to be the issue of such a manly people. And to give them likewise an equal interest in their sovereign, we fee how instantly God closed the two Nations at the beginning, and how often our Females have been married to the Kings of Denmark since. And after in these our dayes, the Noble Lady Queen Anne, Daughter to Frederick, Sister to Christianus, both Kings of Denmark, lived a long while in sweet conjugal love with King James, who was the fruitful fountain of the present Blood-Royal; and the happy Grand-mother of him who in the mid-night of our sorrow, like a new created Star shining in the Firmament, comes to bring us happiness; ROYAL KING CHARLES THE SECOND. 4. Victores, or conquerors, are when two Princes, equal enemies, after demands of restitution, or reparation of some injury presumed to be committed one against the other, put the debate thereof to the arbitration of their Swords; those who overcome the other, challenge that which they call a right of Conquest, which although there can be no such determination by any Law of equity; yet custom hath so far prevailed with men, that after an hundred years( which they call seculum) continued, it passeth ( Jure Gentium) into a right; and their plea for this is, Quod fieri non debet factum valet. But of necessity it must needs be, that they be Justi Hostes,( as the Feudists call them) and that neither of them can challenge any right one of them over the other: For for the Vassal to claim a right of conquest against his Lord, is a tenant not only exploded by all Civilians, and civil Nations; but all Barbarians have ever detested it; and for mercenaries to make such a plea, is more monstrous than it; and therefore the Law-Feudary hath determined that prescription of never so long a time, prevaileth not for the Vassal against the Lord; for the which I red Blondus the great Civilian cited. In the sense first above-said, the common voice will have William Duke of Normandy with his Normans to make such a conquest over us: But to speak truly, William was rather a Conqueror over the King, than the Kingdom; for if we look upon the right between him and King Harold, both of them in consanguinity had a Relation alike to the Blood-Royal, though neither of them the heir; but William was thus much before him, that he did pled his Adoption and Designation to the Crown from Edward the Confessor, who dyed Orb or Childless; and also Harold had by holy Sacrament sworn and promised to keep the Kingdom for the behoof of Duke William. But understand the state of Affairs then with ENGLAND were thus. Edgar Etheling, the son of Edward, surnamed Outlawe, and the grandchild to edmond Ironside the true Heir of the Crown was driven out of the Kingdom by this Harold, who usurped his Throne, and he fled with his sister Margeret for his safety into Scotland. The English, who never could joy in any sovereignty, but in the true Heir of the Crown, grew very indifferent,( being they could not have him whose right it was) to submit to any one that could get the Garland; otherwise it had not been a single battle fought at Hastings, that could have got Duke William the Kingdom of ENGLAND; but King William won and wore it, and two of his sons after him. But now we come to the Providential Revolutions which I told you of, wherein God hath shewed himself so conspicuous in the continuation of our own right Kings unto us. Henry Beuclark, the last son of King William that reigned, being a right wise Prince, and well knowing that an Empire gotten by force could no longer remain, then that force continued, sent into Scotland, and took to wife Maud the Daughter of Queen Margaret, sister to Edgar Etheling,( who was now dead, and left no issue) whereby this Maud was the Heir of the Saxon Line, and in her brought back again to us the Ancient English Blood-Royal before it had descended beyond one Generation from the conqueror, in whose Line it continueth even unto this blessed day. By this it will appear unto the good Reader, that the vapours that the Souldiers made to us when they swagger'd in their quarters, that the King had no right to the Kingdom, but by conquest, and that they had now conquered it as well as he, Ergo, the Land was now theirs▪ betrayed as much ignorance as insolence, and that their premises were as false, as their conclusion was sottish. 5. Convenae, or Associates, are when two Nations for the mutual good of each other either voluntarily, or brought to pass by the descending of some right of a Prince over them, both agree together to communicate the Rights of one Nation interchangeably to another, sometime in whole, sometime in part. Such were the conventions that were made between the Romans and the Sabins under Romulus and Tatius, wherein Livy reciteth how equally the conditions were shared between them; the Metropolis, or chief City of residence should be Rome, the City of Romulus, and both the Nations should be called Quirites from Cures the Country of Tatius, and many the like equal partitions. God Almighty in these our dayes, ( ad cumulum usque misericordiae) knit us and the warlike people of the Scots together in this true lovers knot, by the coming of good King James, to unite all the Regality that ever had possessed this Land in one; and to reconcile those that for a long time had been to both their great damages such deadly enemies, and over and above to make them one people; which indeed he did begin by a most Oracular sagacity. First, In communicating to them both mutually, Jus Connubii, by marrying many Noble Families of the one to the other, according to a true State Rule, Status Politicus fundatur in Statu Oeconomico. Secondly, Jus Honorum; conferring upon many the honours and titles of one Nation, to them that were born in the other. Thirdly, Jus Petitionis, whereby Rights of Plea, and Rights of Inheritance might be claimed, and descend to either people from other, by the Statute of Post Nati. There wanted only that which is not essential to a union, especially under one Monarch, and cannot be brought to pass but sensim, and must be an Act of time, and that was Jus suffragii, which we may translate the Legislative Right of Vote, which as it will be the endeavour of every good time, so there is no doubt but it will be perfected in its due time by the blessing of God upon both Nations; Et Gens una sumus facti, sic simus in aevum. 6. Advenae sieve Hospites, Strangers are those, who either out of friendship, or pity in time of their misery, or for profit for the learning of some good Art or Science by them( as Solomon entertained the people of King Hiram) are admitted unto a Nation; this way we never had any people that in any remarkable number came at any time over unto us; only the Dutch indeed once in a time of inundation of waters, were entertained by King Henry the first out of love, because his mother Maud was a Dutch woman; these were sent into Pembrokshire, and there seated their generations; and the truth is, in one thing( as I have red) did more than all the Conquests of the other Nations could do; for they changed something in those parts, the Dialect of the Welsh tongue. Another time of the coming over of that Nation, was at the time of King Edward the third, who had married their Princess, Philip the daughter of William, earl of Henault, A mighty Prince, and rich; and this is worth our animadversion. First, Because it was( together with the likeness of our good dispositions) the beginning of that amity between the Dutch and us, which remaineth unto this day. And chiefly because that out of the fruitful womb of that Queen Philip, proceeded both the Royal Families of York and Lancaster, from which our present Princes are descended. Now judge good Reader by what thou hast here seen upon appeal to thy own distempered judgement. First, If there be any right, righteousness, justice, or any other thing that is called equal in the world, that a successive Monarchy, coaeval with the peopling of this Land, and beyond all the Records of time; and( as it is manifest) for two thousand years not interrupted an hour, should by an inconsiderable number of its own people, and those of the meanest condition, and mercenary only, and conscribed by others, and sent forth and avowed but to compose some unhappy National differences,( a thing indeed too often falling out in the world, when mens peevish distempers, and Gods just judgement for sin will not let them attend more moderate courses) possess themselves of a Kingdom, moul'd the Government thereof as they please, and against the minds of an hundred times their numbers, and of a thousand times their betters, extinguish that Regality that hath had such a continued sanction, and this interest and relation to every of the people. Secondly, Whether it could be feasible, or were only a foolish dream, whether such a warlike Nation, who through all the times of their Fathers had acted such glorious things under their Kings, and had spent more blood than now is in all our bellies to settle it in the true Line, should be ever brought to such an unmanly tameness, as to yield ourselves to the base subjection of our own servants. There was a two-fold falsination, that( as I conceive) both the people, and likewise that they themselves( at least in part) that attempted the alteration of the State, seduced themselves into. 1. That the Nation was inclined to receive any popular form, because of their great adoration that they shewed to Parliaments. 2. The opinion that some lewd spirits had distilled into weak capacities, that our Kings were now become farther distant from us, because they were born in those parts of the iceland that had been distinct from us. In both of these, no people could cheat themselves more grossly. First, To conceive, that because they had taken boggle at some State overtures that were falsely represented unto them, and disguised by others, therefore that they were weary of Kingship, was as skilfully concluded, as he that seeing a man in an hot fever to talk much, and use some wild and frantic expressions, should thereupon conclude that the man was stark mad, and would never recover his wits again; so indeed doth their fancy prevaricate with them who judge of the genius and inclination of any people by their present distempers: But the Crisis of the propensities of a people is best of all, and only judged of by their proper and perpetual constitution, which constantly remaineth with them, and to speak truth, is best seen when they ate sedati, and most themselves,( as the face is better discerned in the still water than in the troubled.) Now he that will look upon us this way, shall plainly see that we are a very marshal people as most in the World; our own former achievements all along evidence this; and those that have been able to look Philosophically upon us, have, and can evince this from the nature of our complexion, from our climate, and part of heaven in respect of our Polar Elevation, from the Montainous situation of our habitations, and many other proper Indices; and this is not a flattering and over-weening conceit of our own; impartial strangers pronounce as much of us. I remember about some four or five and forty years since, or thereabouts, there came over hither to King James an ambassador from the Emperour of Russia, the mans name( as I take it) was John Basilides, his negotiation was for aid against the Turk; I had at that time, though but then young, the happiness to hear him deliver his Oration, which was very elegant, and frequently copied out, and at last printed; in this Oration he gave this Character of the three Nations, Ferocissimi Angli, Bellicosissimi Scoti, Indomiti Hyberni; The fierce English, the warlike Scot, the untameable Irish. I have often since, especially in these times, seriously considered of the judicious mans words; and I verily believe no man( though he should live an whole age with us) could have more truly deciphered a people: More Instances I could add to confirm that we are a very virile people. They are wonderful shallow therefore that have imaginations that such a people as we will be governed by any other than by a King. First, Because the generosity of their minds will not let them stoop to those that have formerly been their Equals. Secondly, The high stomacks that are in them when they have got any power, lifts them up with a desire of sole rule, and an impatience of participation of Power; verifying that of the Poet, Nulla fides Regni omnisque sociis potestas Impatiens consortis erit. And he that had no other example to confirm him in this judgement but the late distempers, might easily be confirmed in it. We see what variety there was, and rolling of one government after another,( they themselves had an holy Nick-name for it, and called it pouring out from Vessel to Vessel) in the small space of twelve years, like tumbling waves they fell so thick one on the neck of another, that we could hardly distinguish them how they flowed, and followed: But that which to me was worthy of animadversion, was this, That I perceived ever as any new Government came and supplanted the former, it was very joyfully received; and as soon as that fell, that which succeeded had as good welcome again, and the former was exploded. This to me could not but make it appear that the People were quiter out of their bias and proper Inclinations; and like a dislocated bone, out of the proper joint, may be easily removed to any other place, but finds rest in none of them, till it knit into the perfect juncture. But for further confirmation of this, I will tell you a former passage that fell out in this Land; and I think neither unpleasant, nor unprofitable to be observed. If it please you but to look into the stem that I have here prefixed, you will find that Henry the third had a second son, called edmond Crouchback; and you will perceive that his great grandchild blanche, was wife to John of Gaunt, and Mother to Henry Bullingbrook, who was Henry the fourth. Now I pray understand that Henry Bullingbrook, though when he first undertook the War against his cousin Richard, made Oath and Sacrament that he came not for the Crown, but only to recover his own inheritance, to take away evil counsellors, and the like stale pretences: But afterwards having got the day, and intending then to take upon him the Government, all his perplexity was, that he found so many titles, that he could not tell which to choose, though one good one had been better than them all. First, He thought to claim it by Conquest; but that was judged so generally distasteful and illegal, that it would not be endured by any one. Secondly, Then by surrender from King Richard, which though he had, yet the Lawyers told him that the Crown was such a Fee-simple, and so inherent in the person of the King, that it could not pass from him by any dead of his own, though never so voluntarily made; besides, the King was then in prison; and what was so done, would be judged as done per Dures. The next that was thought upon, was, by Election of the people; but the Nobles would not endure that, because the Crown was always Hereditary, and not Elective. At last, to make all sure, he pronounceth himself the true Heir of the Crown, by right of his Mother blanche, who was Heir to this edmond Crouch-back, who, as he said, was the eldest son to King Henry the third; but because he was crooked and deformed, was put by by his father; and Edward, though the younger brother, was made King. Now though this was a very untruth, and palpable enough; for Edward was the elder brother, and this edmond Crouch-back was no way crooked, nor deformed, but a gallant proper Gentleman, and called only Crouch-back, because he wore the across upon his back, or on his Buckler, which he wore constantly at his back, to show that he had made his vow to go to Jerusalem, to recover the holy Sepulchre; and such Knights that had made such vows, usually went in that Garb; but our language receiving some alteration in the Dialect, in that space of time, which was about an hundred years, crutched, which then signified crossed, as Crutched Friers( were called quasi crossed from the across they carried) began vulgarly then to be taken for crooked. Now this mistake of the people he made use of; and though wiser men saw the fraud, yet they were content to let it pass; for they thought the wrong was only personal to the King, whom for his weakness they much esteemed not, and that the Crown itself suffered no great impeachment by it; and therefore this, with the addition of forty thousand men at the Parlliament House door,( as Sir John Heyward wittily observeth) passed at that time for a good plea and argument, though we all know it cost full dear afterward: This passage of History I thought good to propound unto you for two Reasons. First, To show how easily the people are imposed upon to believe any thing, though never so grossly false, what any power that hath first deluded them, and made themselves specious with them, and afterward got dominion over them, do propound it. Secondly, How tenaciously the people of England are naturally addicted and devoted to the true Heirs of their Crown, in that they would never submit themselves to any, how popular so ever he were,( as this Henry Bullingbrook) if he came not in as true Heir, or at lest made some pretence to it that way, though they may be forced or cheated for a time; but usque recurret; they have no lasting love for any intruder; but their own Princes( as Guiccardine excellently observeth) both of us and the French, that they follow them with a very kind of Divinity. Secondly, That idle delusion that they were strangers, is so ridiculous, that in itself I had not thought it worthy the taking notice of, if I had not accidentally met with( amongst those idle printed gazettes, that in these licentious times swarmed abroad daily; Plusque Muscarum cum coelum sudum est, & sol calet maxim, as Plautus neatly observes) a certain printed paper, that was the copy of a Solemn Oration spoken to a great Prince, by one that was sent from our then new Masters, where he doth affirm that our two last Kings were strangers, and very extreme in Government; whether this were spoken with that ingenuity and integrity that belongeth to a public Minister of State, I leave it to the world to judge, whether he call them strangers that were born in the same iceland, speaking the same language, educated the first for a great part of his life, the latter from his very infancy, in this Kingdom of England, with us, descended as lineally from the Blood-Royal of one Kingdom as from the other: Was it ever accounted with us that King Henry the second, though born in France, was a stranger? Nay, when every ston that might be gathered up, was flung against poor King Richard the second, Digna & indigna relatu, was this ever objected amongst all the Obloquy that forced Oratory could frame against him, that he was a stranger, because he was born in bordeaux, or against the Yorkshire Line, because they descended from John of Gaunt born in Flanders? Will any Spaniard in the World say that the present house of Austria are strangers, because that Charles the fifth, and his son Phillipes, who gave beginning to that Family, were both born in Germany? I had thought that a man of that knowledge and experience as the Gentleman either had, or would seem to have, could not but know but that it hath always been acknowledged by Civilians, Haeres Regni ubicunque natus semper est gentiles suo Regno; the Heir of the Crown, wheresoever he is born, is accounted to be a Native to that Crown he is born to; it is impossible that a King that hath divers principalities, should be born in them all. And he could not but know that the Kingdom of Scotland was once acknowledged a fiduciary Kingdom to the Crown of England, till a States-man here of the like stamp, in the minority of Edward the third, delivered up again to the Scots for his own private respects the Charter, called Ragman, which in all probability if he had not done, it had saved the lives of a million of men of both Nations, and we had long ago been united together in that amicability that we are now knit in. It is far amiss, when men do prostitute those parts and abilities that God hath given them, like Tertullus the Orator, to maintain every wicked course that may be advantageous to them, or to suppress truth. But I question not but our own Stem Royal,( though here but meanly delineated) will make it appear to all, not wilfully prejudicate, that our Kings of England are more entirely our own, than any other Kingdom in Christendom can challenge theirs to be. What strangers indeed might have come to be our Kings. by the frantic proceedings of those State-Empericks that lately tampered in the new moulding of our Government, as it was the fear of all wise men that sighed to behold it; so I hope it will be the object of our thankfulness to God all the dayes of our lives, for his divine and timely ptevention, beyond the hopes of the best of us. But Gloria Deo in excelsis; as it was foretold of that good young King of Israel in the sense of the History, and of the blessed Saviour of the world in the sense of the Mystery, by the Prophet Isaiah, Unto us a child is born, and unto us a Son is given, and his Name shall be called Wonderful, the Prince of Peace: So God hath mercifully brought unto us again this Royal child of Peace and Admiration; and I hope we shall learn ourselves, and our children after us, from the evils that we have suffered, and the imminent dangers we have escaped, to fear God and the King, and not to meddle with them that are given to change; nor to dote upon unexperienced and unpractical, whimsies, because some pragmatically can set them off with some finess of invention; but willingly to continue and rejoice in that best of Governments which God hath blessed us again withall, whether we would or no. The Administration of a Democracy ( at the best of it) can but be in the proportion Arithmetical, and the power so much in every body, that it quickly cometh to be in no body, but endeth in Anarchy; that of an Aristocracy,( if there were ever a Government in the world that could be properly so called undequaque) in the proportion being Geometrical; one order of men are but like ciphers, only serving to make the other that is above them the greater, and they as subservient to the next, that in a small time it must needs evade into Tyranny or Faction. But the stable condition of Monarchy( as Johannes Bodinus admirably, judiciously, and learnedly observeth) acteth in a proportion Harmonical, which like divers notes in music receive harmony one from the other; see the several conditions of men sweetly do conduce to the ecstasy and firmation of the whole; the King standing like the Center in the middle of the circled, and every subject, from the highest to the meanest, in respect of any dominion over his fellow-subjects, like degrees in the circumference, stand equally distant, which if truly considered, and with right judgement is weighed, is the greatest liberty, and truest happiness in the World. — Neque enim libertas gratior ulla est, Quam sub Rege pio. Monogramma Regum Anglorum, sieve Memoriale Chronicon. Gulielm. Con. Victor Neustriacis Gulielmus subjugat Anglos; Gulielm. Ruf. Quosque pater vicit, populatur Filius Agros. Hen. 1. Beuclark aequus erat populo, Fratri said iniquus. Stephan. Usurpat Stephanus 〈◇〉 variantibus armis. Hen. 2. Rex foelix, pater infoelix, Henrice second. Rich. 1. Palestina decus clarum dat corde-Leoni. Joh. Rex malus est, pejor Grex, pessima Nobilitasque. Hen. 3. Henricus magnam dat magno sanguine Cbartam. Edv. 1. Belliger in Scotos Gallosque Edvarde Triumphas. Ed. 2. Carnarvan nimio cecidit Ganemedis amore. Ed. 3. Edvardus Pater, & Gnatus dvo fulmina belly. Rich. 2. Parcere nec Stimulis, nec Loris noverit uti. Hen. 4. Sanguine quaesitum moderatur sanguine Regnum. Hen. 5. Gallorum terror, Rex Regum, Gloria mundi. Hen. 6. Rex pus, at debilis, quem perdit culpa parentum. Ed. 4. Mars, Venus & Bromius tibi Numina Plantagenette. Ed. 5. Infoelix Quintus teneris jugulatur in annis. Rich. 3. Gibbus, Monstrosus, Populoque Deoque Perosus. Hen. 7. Magnus Consiliis & magnus septimus Armis. Hen. 8. Optimus octavus Princeps & pessimus esto. Ed. 6. Edvardus sextus nulli pietate secundus. Maria. Martyrio multos( Maria) Corona Coronat. Elizab. Multae praeclarae, cunctis excellit Eliza. Jacobus. Pacificus doctusque Jacob, Solomonque secundus. Carol. 1. Ingratus populus non tali est Principe dignus. Carol. 2. Assequeris summum, sequeris si Carole patrem. FINIS.