OBSERVATIONS UPON Some particular PERSONS and PASSAGES, in a Book lately made public; entitled, A complete HISTORY of the LIVES and reigns OF MARY Queen of SCOTLAND, AND OF HER SON JAMES, The Sixth of Scotland, and the First of England, France and Ireland. Written by a Lover of the Truth.  Mat. 7. 5. First cast out the beam out of thine own eye, and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother's eye. Ecclus. 4. 25, 26. In no wise speak against the truth, but be abashed of the error of thine ignorance. Be not ashamed to confess thy sins, and force not the course of a river. 
LONDON, Printed for GA. BEDELL and THO. COLLINS, at the middle-Temple Gate, Fleetstreet, 1656.   

THere is one Mr. Sanderson, who hath lately written a book which he calls a complete History of Mary Queen of Scotland, and James (her son) the sixth of Scotland, and first of England: In which, he hath compiled, not a History, but a Libel against all the good men and good actions of those times, and with most servile flattery, praised and exalted the bad, both men and matters. His whole book is a rhapsody of notes and scattered papers, from other men, collected without either order or method; being exceedingly defective both in time, place and nominations: and written in so unseemly and disjointed a stile, that you may easily perceive he hath taken up other men's words, without understanding their matter; and unless it be where he rails on persons of honour (which he doth plainly, and often, though sometimes very falsely) his language is dark, harsh, and unintelligible. But that you may the better know what beware you are like to have out of this man's shop, I shall give you his character, and trace him from his parent. His father was a Gentleman, though poor, (but that I take to be no sin, though this man doth, and how he can clear himself from that offence, I know not) he was of kin to Sir Walter Raleigh, and in the time of his prosperity and greatness was his servant, and entrusted with receiving great sums of money for him, out of his Office of Wines, and other his places, by which he became in arrears to Sr. Walter Raleigh, in divers great sums: which after his troubles (being a prisoner in the Tower) Sr. Walter sent unto Sanderson for; But he was so far from paying them (presuming that Raleigh was there friendless) that he pretended Sr. Walter Raleigh should owe him 2000 li. Whereupon Sir Walter in great anger, commenced a suit against Sanderson, which was managed by his servant and solicitor, John Shelbury; And Sanderson being overthrown and found in arrears to Sir Walter Raleigh, in very great sums, was cast into prison, and there died a poor contemptible beggar. And hence originally sprang all the spleen and malice of this man to Sir Walter Raleigh. For this man himself, he lived, for aught I could ever hear, at first very obscurely, and (as I conjecture by some passages in his book) studied Hiraldry, for he often brings in many impertinent digressions to show his skill that way. But afterwards, he tells us he was servant to the Lord Ross, in his Spanish embassy; a fit servant, no doubt, for such a Master: For what that Lord was, I shall not need to mention, it being so notoriously known to most men yet living. After this he tells us, he was at the siege of Breda, under the Earl of Oxford; to whom in his book he was pleased to give the title of a deboyst Lord; with many other unhandsome epithets. But I cannot learn that this man had ever any relation to the Court (more than at large) until he became Secretary to the Earl of Holland, when he was Chancellor of Cambridg, where he behaved himself so corruptly, that he was with great disgrace and scorn, turned out of his place, for taking Bribes of divers Scholars to make them Doctors, and bachelors of Divinity, when the King came to an entertainment at Cambridg: So that for a long time after, these men were by every boy called, Sandersons Doctors. A pretty while after this, he married the late Queen's laundress, and so might perchance creep again into her chamber below stairs; but for any other employment in Court, after his Secretary-ship, I could never hear he had any: And now you may guess what liquour you are like to draw out of a vessel thus seasoned.  
I shall proceed to examine some particulars in his book, wherein I shall absolutely decline saying any thing concerning the Queen of Scots, or that part of the Story, both the errors, and excellencies of that Lady, and the inevitable causes of her deplorable destiny, being sufficiently known to all. Only I shall observe, that in some passages of Queen Elizabeth's reign, he gives a harsher censure upon Essex, and his offences, than any writer heretofore. As likewise in fol. 128. he seems to intimate out of some discourse between Davison the Secretary, and Queen Elizabeth, That she would have had the Queen of Scots poisoned, by Paulet and Drury her keepers; which they refused. But is it likely Kings should want fit ministers for such mischiefs, when common men can hire them daily? I think not; and if they refused, others might easily have been had; But this is a scandal raised upon that excellent Princess, which I never heard, or read of before. There is no Innocence so clear, which this man's pen will not slubber: For what need she have gone so foully to work to take away her life, whom the whole Parliament of Eng. petitioned her to execute? which this Author confesseth, fol. 117. and I hope it is no secret, that her death proceeded even from the Scots themselves; yea even from those whom K. James sent to solicit for her: Witness that speech of the Master of Gray, tua non mordet. As for her Son, King James, truly I believe none will deny him to be a Learned Prince, and of great experience, which the troubles and vexations he had endured in his youth, by his own undutiful and headstrong Scots subjects, had well taught him. But it cannot be denied, that he failed even in that which he most boasted of, his King craft; for he never treated with any Prince, or State in Christendom, that he was not overreached; he spent more in frivolous Embassies, then would have raised an army to have settled his Children in their inheritance: and being wooed, and courted to have been head of all the Protestant Princes in Christendom, (which would have empowered him to give the Law to all this part of the world) he refused; and inclined to their enemies, whereby (as much as in him lay) he ruined the one, and advanced the other.  
And whereas his accession to this kingdom hath been thought by some the greatest happiness that ever befell the Nations, it hath proved (by what secret predetermination of the alseeing God no man knoweth) the greatest misfortune to both. For after a miserable and wasting civil war, we see his posterity (deserving Princes in their own persons) overthrown, and cast out of their inheritance, and (according to human reason) very unlikely to repossess it.  
And for his own haereditary kingdom (who were a people famous in war, and high in reputation,) they are become the most despicable conquered people, upon the face of the whole earth. They who within this twenty years looked upon themselves as conquerors of this nation; they who in the last two Kings reigns had all the power, riches, offices, marriages, wealth and greatness, within their command in both kingdoms, are now ruined at home, both in Kirke and State. The former (unto which by fair or foul play, they endeavoured to model all the Reformed Churches of the West) hath now, nowhere a being: And the latter subjugated to a foreign power. All their great and Ancient Families (of which they so much boasted) even plucked up by the roots, and those few remaining, so poor, as they can not show their faces. This is the Lord's doing, and it is marvellous in our eyes; but according to human judgement, much of this may be attributed to the greatness, power, and prodigality of that nation, in their access to England, (whereby they became insolent and proud, apted thereby for any undertaking; and perchance, for some falsehoods and treacheries, even to their own native Princes;) to King James his dying in distaste with the Parliament; to his often deserting the Protestant cause, both at home and abroad: And to his leaving the Crown poor, and in debt, whereby his Successor was often put to his shifts, and forced to open the purse-strings of his Subjects, whereby he shut their hearts towards him, and encouraged them to demand such things, as nothing but extreme poverty and necessity, could enforce a Prince to grant.  
But enough of this, I shall only now take notice of such aspersions as this Author is pleased to bestow on particular persons of honour and worth, as if he meant throughout his whole book, to make it his business to rail at good men, and defend the bad.  
And first we light upon Cobham, and Raleigh's Treason: where in the character of Raleigh, he allows him a grand enemy to the Spaniard, and opposer of the peace; yet immediately after, believes him a conspirer with the Spaniard; but tells us not in what particular he should have served him. Fol. 284. he tells us that the seventh of Novemb. 1603 was the day of Raleigh's arraignment, and the Jury called to the Bar, being a Middlesex Jury, against whose persons he did not except. 'tis true, he did not, for he knew not any one of their faces; and being confident of his own innocence, only wished they might have honesty, and understanding; both which they wanted. But there was appointed for him another Jury, the foreman of which was Sir Michal Stanhope, the next, Sir Edward Darcy, the next, Sir William Killigrew, all men of honour, and near servants to the late Queen Elizabeth; But these being found not for their turn, they were all changed over night, and those others put in their places. The arraignment is in Print, therefore I shall not trouble myself with the particulars of it. I shall only demand why Cobham was not brought face to face to accuse Raleigh, being under the same roof with him, in so much, that King James himself taking notice of it, said, that if Cobham could have said any thing against Raleigh, they would have brought him from Constantinople to have accused him. And I would fain know, what it was that ever Cobham accused Raleigh of; for yet I never could. Likewise, whether ever any man was condemned by a single witness, and he not present neither. And it is certain, that letter of Cobham's under his own hand written the night before his trial, wherein upon his salvation he clears Raleigh from all manner of Treasons, against the King or State, is yet extant, and was produced at a Committee of Parliament, by Mr. Carew Raleigh. But you may perceive the spleen of this Author to Raleigh, in that he saith, he tired the Court and Jury with impertinencies, when as all other men present at his arraignment, thought never man spoke better for himself; nay divers which came thither his enemies, went away with pity, and commiseration of his injuries and misfortunes; and even Cook the Attorney himself, being retired into a garden to take some air, when his man brought him word that the Jury had condemned Raleigh of Treason, answered, surely thou art mistaken; for I myself accused him but of misprision of Treason; and this relation upon the word of a Christian, I have received from Sir Edward Cook's own mouth.  
And since we are now fallen upon this business, we will take it all together, and see what he saith concerning Raleigh's last voyage, and death, though it happened 14 years after. Fol. 459 and Anno. 1617. he tells us, that Sir Walter Raleigh, wearied with long imprisonment, and having there spent his time well in the History of the World, made his petition more passable to the K. whose love to learning, granted him now at last his liberty, and not long after gave him leave to wander after a design, to the Western world, where be had been in several climates before. Whereas it is well known, King James forbade Sir Walter Raleigh's book, for some passages in it which offended the Spaniard, and for being two plain with the faults of Princes in his Preface. Sir William St. John's, and Sir Edward Villiers, the 〈◊〉 of Buckingham's half-Brother, procured Sir Walter Raleigh's liberty, and had 1500 li. for their labour, and for 700 li. more, offered him his full pardon, and liberty not to go his Voyage, if he pleased; both which he refused; and the rather, because he was told by the Lord Chancellor Verulam (who was no fool, nor no ill Lawyer) That his commission from the King under the great seal of England (wherein the King made him General of his forces by Land and Sea, and gave him Marshal law over his people) was as good a pardon for all former offences, as the law of England could afford him.  
And for the aspersions which he lays upon his Voyage; as that it was a trick only to get his liberty, and that he knew of no Mine; If so, Raleigh was a mad man to hazard his life in such a long Sea journey, and to expend above 10000 li. of his own estate (as 'tis well known upon oath he did) when he might have avoided that trouble and stayed at home for the disbursing 700 li. But it is most certain, that Raleigh did really and truly believe in the mine, and so did Kemish too, upon good and just grounds, having had a true trial of the ore, and not with false and chemical tricks, as this trifling liar would intimate.  
But for the particulars of these passages, and the true cause of the failing of that Voyage, I shall refer you to Sir Walter Raleigh's own Apology, now in print, and to be had everywhere; upon the verity of which he took his death. And for this Authors base aspersion, and surmise upon the death of Kemish, it was so well known to all those who were in the ship, how, and in what manner he killed himself, (first shooting himself with a Pistol, and then stabbing himself with a knife, to dispatch, lest he should be prevented upon the noise of the Pistol, his cabin door being locked on the in side,) that there can be nothing more plain and evident, then that he killed himself: But this unworthy Author will seek scandals from every thing. So he saith, he set out this Voyage with other men's money; when it is well known (though he had many adventures) that he received 8000 li. from the Countess of Bedford in ready money, which he had lent her; that he sold a house and land at Micham in Surry, for 2500 li. all which money, and more, he spent every farthing in this Voyage; for ten ships (and he had no less) with their men, ammunition, and victuals, would not be set out with the adventures of a few fifty, and hundred pounds alone.  
This Author likewise saith; That Raleigh had but a mean fortune, which he meant to advantage by this Voyage. He may thank K. James for the meanness of his fortune, who took away Sherborne from him for want of a word, after he had been 7 years in the tower, and gave it to his favourite, Summerset; But when K. James came into England, Raleigh was Lord Warden of the Stanneries, Lord lieutenant of Devonshire and Cornwall, Captain of the Guard, and Governor of Jersey; he had a long lease of the Office of Wines; he had most of the Earl of Desmond's estate in Ireland; he had the daughter and heir of Basset to his ward, to marry to his son; her estate worth 3000 li. per. an. who was taken from him, and married to Mr. Henry Haward, who died suddenly at the table; and she after married to the Earl of Newcastle, who professed he would never have married her, if young Walter Raleigh had been alive; conceiving her before God to be his wife, for they were married as much as children could be; he had likewise Sherborn, which was lately valued by the State at 5000 li. per-an. and this was no beggarly estate, all which he lost for his supposed treason: And it is certain that many years after, he and Cobham being prisoners, upon the suit of Q. Ann (being thereunto pressed by Sr. W. R.) Cobham was reexamined before some of the Lords of the council at the tower, and did clear Sir W. R. from all treasons whatsoever.  
'tis likewise true, that the whole design and intention of his Voyage, was by K. James (under Raleigh's own hand) delivered to Gondomare, and thereupon there was 300 Spaniards sent to St. Thomae, which made that resistance there that was: and Raleigh found his own letter, under his own hand, in the Governor of St. Thomas Closet, which letter he brought back, and showed it to the Lords of the Counsel.  
Now whereas he saith, They had matter enough to take away his life in this his last business, why did the Lords of the council then, for a whole year together examine him at the Tower every week, to pick out what they could to condemn him? and yet, when all was done, they were fain to tell the King, that if he would take away his life, he must take advantage of his former condemnation, which was accordingly done.  
The next scandalous passage we meet with, is fol. 365. concerning Will. Earl of Pembroke, and Philip Earl of Montgomerie his brother, who he saith were men of considerable descents, though of no fame in their merits; when all men know William Pembroke was a man of Honour, Valour, and Learning; and as well beloved as any man in this Nation. But he leaves not the other brother so, but farther saith, though the King was no quarreller, yet he hated a coward. (Strange! that the King should hate that in his favourite, which was so predominant in himself) and turned Montgomery out of his affection, for being switcht by a mean Gentleman (Ramsey) a Scot, at a public horse-race. T●ough this favourite was urged to revenge, and backed by the English, forty to one, to defend him: he basely put it up to his death, and the dishonour of a Gentleman. That this passage in the main parts of it is true, cannot be denied; but aggravated with these circumstances, most slanderous and base, and in every part of it most unfit to be left to posterity in Print, being a particular and malicious blot upon a noble family, and no way fit to be recorded by a Chronicler: & it is most notoriously false that the King deserted Montgomery for this action; for though he were then in fancy with Carr, yet after this he gave Montgomery greater gifts, and was kinder to him then ever he had been before in all his life; and the rather, for putting up this injury, lest it should have bred a national quarrel (which it had like to have done) and which King James dreaded above all things in the world; for it is certain there was a sword put into montgomery's hand (being in an hunting posture without weapon) to revenge himself; and he sought for Ramsey all over the field, but he was conveyed out of the way by the Scots; and Mr. Pinchback by name, said to Montgomery, My Lord, let us break our fast with them here (meaning the Scots) and sup with them at London. For which speech King James ever hated Pinchback to his dying day. Ramsey was committed close prisoner to the Tower, and there lay until he had made all possible submissions that could be invented; and it is well known that King James was always kind to Montgomery to the very last, as this Author himself confesseth in another place of his book, fol. 592 therefore a false and malicious suggestion, merely brought in to brand Montgomery with a lasting disgrace.  
The next business we shall take notice of, is, the poisoning of Overbury, wherein he strives all he can to extenuate that foul murder, both in Summerset and his Wife; and magnifying the justice which was done therein, forgets that Summerset and his Wife, who were principals, and drew in all the rest (for money and rewards) were pardoned, and only the poor accessaries hanged. And what an unworthy character doth he give of that poor unfortunate Gentleman Overbury, saying, That he was of an impudent and Thrasonical disposition, that he had little in him that was solid, for religion or moral virtue, and that he was nought, and corrupt, making him the bawd to Somerset's lust with Essex his Wife; and making him brag of that employment? when as all men that ever I met with, have ever held Overbury to have been a sober, religious, and learned Gentleman, and so it appeareth by what hath come out in public of his writing; besides, he doth in this disparage Summerset, whom he would defend, by making him choose so weak, and vicious a person, for his most intimate friend, and indeed his governor. Haply Overbury might have some tincture of pride in him, (as indeed who would not, that had the power and interest of such a favourite at his command; that commanded the King himself, and often was known to threaten him if he denied what he desired?) But that he should be his bawd to Essex his Wife, is most unlikely, when all the world knows he was her greatest enemy, and that his hatred to her, and the House of the Hawards was his ruin. How doth this passage agree with that which follows after, wherein this Author says (in the relation of this Lady's Divorce from Essex) that she was a pure Virgin, and so delivered in upon oath from the inspection of divers Ladies? But this Author often forgets and contradicts himself: Haply Overbury had hindered, or thwarted this Gentleman in some illegal projects (of which they say, he had always store) which he had offered to Summerset, and therefore he is not only contented his body should have been poisoned whilst alive, but he will (as far as in him lies, if any would believe such a fellow) murder his fame too, after his death.  
I shall next only mind you of a letter which he sets down fol. 421 of Somerset's to the King, wherein there is this passage, speaking concerning his estate, which he desired the King to spare. And I may say further, that the Law hath not been so severe upon the ruin of innocent posterity, nor yet canceled nor cut off the merits of Ancestors, before the politic hand of State had contrived it into these several forms, as fitted to their ends and government. And yet this man (Summerset) could beg all the lands of Raleigh, could beg the 10000 li. fine of the Earl of Northumberlands, and could enjoy the greatest part of the forfeited Lands of the Earl of Westmoreland, without any scruple. But we are always blind in our own affairs.  
And in fol. 429 I take notice of another scandal which he throws upon his quondam Master, Henry Ritch, Baron Kensington, and Earl of Holland, scoffing at him for imitating the Earl of Carlisle, in his expensive ways, and calling him the natural son of the than Earl of Warwick; which why he should do, I can not imagine, for certainly, the Lady Ritch was the then lawful wife of the Lord Ritch, after Earl of Warwick, and if any of her children were to be styled natural, it were those which she had by the Earl of Devonshire, not these by Ritch: For as this Author saith in another place, King James told Devonshire, that he had gotten a fair Wife, with a foul soul; But no doubt this Author had a pick at Holland, for turning him out of his service, as is mentioned before.  
I omit his slight character of Abbot Archbishop of Canterbury, scoffing at his judgement in the business of Essex his Divorce, calling him Puritan, and a fomentor of factions: His despising our Nation in the expedition of the Palatinate, branding them with the fag end of an old Ballad; saying, they went abroad to fight, and so came home again; as if they had only danced a morris thither; when it is well known, they defended Manheinu, and Frankendale nobly, and Hydelburge with so much honour, that Sir Gerard Herbert (Commander in chief there) lost his life at push of Pike.  
How contemptuously doth he speak of the Earls, Oxford, and Essex, terming them young men, apprehending no danger, and so ignorant, they knew not how to avoid any? How improbably doth he cast the compiling of the History of the council of Trent upon a Protestant, thereby to vilify the work, as partial? fol. 471 And how doth he throughout his whole book, contemn and vilify, both the Reformers, and Reformation of Religion?  
I shall now only give you an Item, of some few of his mistakes. He tells us that King Hen. 8 was a Lutheran, when all Story assures us, he lived and died a Papist. 'tis true, he put down Monasteries for his own profit, and he declined the Pope's Supremacy for his own pleasure; and for defending of these, he put Sir Thomas Moor, and Bishop Fisher to death, with many others: But at the same time, he put multitudes to death, for not subscribing and submitting to the six Articles, which were all of them rank Popery.  
He tells us, fol. 487 that all our marriages with Spain have been unfortunate to this Crown; and then ravels into the story of the Black Prince, as if he had married in Spain; but if he will read our English Chronicles, he shall find, to speak the truth, (though I love not the nation) that the Spanish wives were good; and that it was the French wives which proved so unfortunate to our Kings. Such was Elinor, Wife to Hen. 2, who set all his Sons together by the ears with him. Such was Isabel, Wife to Ed. 2, who for the love of Mortimer, suffered her husband to be miserably, and cruelly murdered. And such was Margaret, Wife to Hen. 6, who by her pride, perverseness, and evil government, was one of the chief causes in the ruin of that meek and gentle Prince; whom she lived to see murdered in the tower, and her only Son, the Prince, stabbed to death at Tewxbury field, and herself sent home poor and miserable, to her more poor and beggarly Father, in Provence: I need name no more.  
Another mistake he hath concerning the Duke of Buckingham's talking with Yeluerton in the Tower; which surely the Duke never did: But that Sir William Balfore should tell him so, as being then Lieutenant of the Tower, can not be, for Balfore came in to be Lieutenant, after Sir George More, which was long after this time.  
Another such mistake he hath in point of time, relating the public combat, which should have been between the Lord Rey, and David Ramsey, which he saith, was in the time of King James; when in truth, it was in the Reign of King Charles, and after the Marquis Hamiltons expedition into Germany.  
Speaking of the troubles of the Earl of Middlesex, he tells us, that to his knowledge the Duke bought Chelsey house; for the truth of this, I refer myself to the Widow Countess of Middlesex, now living, who hath told me many times, that the Duke had Chelsey for nothing, and that her husband never received one penny for it.  
In another story, he inverts the same just upon Middlesex; saying, that he bought Copthall of the Countess of Winchelsey, when I myself know very well, that the Lady gave Copthall, furniture and all, to Middlesex and the Duke of Lenox, to be made Countess; and Middlesex indeed bought out the Duke's estate; but his mistakes, ignorances, and wilful errors, are infinite, both in the language, and the matter. I shall therefore conclude with that wholesome advice, which once that Grave and Learned Lord Chancellor Elsemore, gave to Sir Edmond Scony, presenting him with a book, in hope he would have given him something, (being then very poor, his father yet alive) which book, the Chancellor having read over, saith to Sir Edmond: Sir Edmond Scony, you gave me a book, for which I will give you [I humbly thank your Lordship, cries Sir Edmond] I will give you good counsel; Read more, and write less, Sir Edmond; for indeed it is a very foolish book: So say I, Read more, and write less, Mr. Sanderson; for indeed it is not only a very foolish, but a very false, and scandalous book, far fitter for the fire, then for the press.  
FINIS.