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 HISTORY 
 
 BISHOP BURNET'S HIS 
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 EDITOR'S NOTE 
 
 " IT seems," said Horace Walpole, speaking of Burnet and his 
 History of My Own Times," "as if he had just come from the King's 
 oset or from the apartments of the men whom he describes, and 
 as telling his readers, in plain honest terms, what he had seen and 
 ;ard." 
 
 So plain and honest, indeed, and so free-spoken, was Bishop 
 Burnet's chronicle, that, realizing its certain effect on his contem 
 poraries, he arranged that it should not be published for six years 
 ter his death. 
 
 He died in 1715 ; and it was not actually published till 1723, eight 
 
 sars afterwards. It led to a great outcry, in which the voice of 
 
 wift was heard, with a Jacobite chorus sustaining the burden. 
 
 . His Secret History," said Swift, " is generally made up of coffee- 
 
 ,^ ouse scandals . . . his vanity runs intolerably through the whole 
 
 ; ook. . . . He is the most partial of all writers that ever pretended 
 
 o much to impartiality." Pope, too, derided Burnet's egotistic 
 
 -cyle in his " Memoirs of P. P., Clerk of this Parish." 1 But the 
 
 1 ehemence of the criticism is the measure of the life and lifelike 
 
 2 ness of the work. For the latter half of the seventeenth and 
 
 : ic opening of the eighteenth century, the History is a familiar 
 
 g mirror of the clearest kind, though no doubt the medium has here 
 
 nd there a deflecting warp or flaw. Gilbert Burnet was born in 
 
 Edinburgh in 1643, son of an Episcopalian father and a Pres- 
 
 ^ .yterian mother. He was a great and eloquent preacher; was 
 
 i Preacher of the Roll's Chapel, and Lecturer of St. Clement's, until 
 
 ', ne was inhibited by Charles II., after Burnet had attended Lord 
 
 William Russell to the scaffold, and written his significant record 
 
 f that event. He became Bishop of Salisbury on his return to 
 
 England in 1688-9, after his exile at the Hague. His "History 
 
 f the Reformation" is the other work by which he is best 
 
 emembered to-day. 
 
 The following is a complete list of his published works : 
 
 ^ Discourse on Sir Robert Flelcher of Saltoun, 1665 ; A Modest and Free 
 Conference between a Conformist and Nonconformist, in Seven Dialogues, 
 
 1 Works (ed. by Courthope and Elwin), vol. x. p. 435. 
 
 434535
 
 viii Editor's Note 
 
 1669 ; Vindication of the Authority, Constitution and Laws of the Church 
 and State of Scotland, 1673 ; The Mystery of Iniquity Unveiled, 1673 5 
 Rome's Glory ; or, a Collection of Divers Miracles wrought by Popish 
 Saints, 1673 ; A Relation of a Conference held about Religion at London, 
 3rd April, 1676 ; Memoirs of James and William, Dukes of Hamilton, 
 1676 ; A Vindication of the Ordinations of the Church of England, 1677 
 1688 ; Two Letters upon the Discovery of the Late Plot, 1678 ; History 
 the Reformation of the Church of England, 1679-1714 ; abridgment of sam 
 1682, 1719 ; Some Passages of the Life and Death of John Wilmot, Ea 
 of Rochester, 1680 ; The Infallibility of the Romish Church Examined ant 
 Confuted, 1680 ; News from France ; Letter on the Present Difference 
 between the French King and the Court of Rome, 1682 ; History of the 
 Rights of Princes in the Disposing of Ecclesiastical Benefices, etc., 1682 ; 
 Life and Death of Sir Matthew Hale, 1682 ; Life of Dr. William Bedel, 
 Bishop of Kilmore, 1685 ; Reflections on Mr. Varilla's History of the 
 Revolutions . . . in Europe in Matter;- of Religion, etc., 1686, 1687; Travels 
 in France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland, 1687 ; Six Papers (against 
 the Test Act, on Citation of Author for High Treason, Liberty of Con 
 science, and other tracts), 1687 ; Collection of Eighteen Papers, written 
 during the reign of James II., 1689 ; A Discourse concerning the Pastoral 
 Care, 1962 ; Four Discourses to the Clergy of the Diocese of Salisbury, 
 1694 ; Essay on the Memory of Queen Mary, 1695 > Exposition of the 
 Thirty-nine Articles, 1699; Exposition of the Church Catechism, 1710; 
 Speech on the Impeachment of Sacheverell, 1710; Four Letters between 
 Burnet and Henry Dodwell, 1713; History of His Own Time, vol. i., 
 1723 ; vol. ii., 1734. 
 
 Burnet's Sermons, 1674-1714, were published separately ; collections of 
 them in "Tracts and Discourses," 1704; Sermons preached on Several 
 Occasions," etc., 1713. Other writings are extant under headings : Dis 
 courses and Tracts in Divinity ; Tracts against Popery ; Tracts Polemical, 
 Political, and Miscellaneous ; History and Historical Tracts. 
 
 1906.
 
 BISHOP BURNETS 
 HISTORY OF HIS OWN TIMES 
 
 BOOK I 
 
 A RECAPITULATION OF AFFAIRS IN SCOTLAND, BOTH IN CHURCH 
 AND STATE, FROM THE BEGINNING OF THE TROUBLES TO 
 THE RESTORATION OF KING CHARLES II. FROM 1603 TO 
 1660 
 
 DURING the minority of King James the administration of 
 affairs was in the hands of those who fell in with the prevailing 
 humour of the nation ; but when that prince grew up to be of 
 age, and to take the government upon himself, he found two 
 parties in the kingdom ; the one consisting of such as were 
 well-wishers to the Queen his mother, dependent on the Court 
 of France, and either professed Papists or persons of indifference 
 as to all religions ; the other, of such as were her inveterate 
 enemies, zealous for the Reformation and fixed in their depend 
 ence on the Court of England. 
 
 This party (how well soever affected to the King's interest) 
 was a little too jealous of his authority, and too apt to encroach 
 upon it, which made him listen to such insinuations as the 
 other had in store for him ; and these insinuations the House 
 of Guise, then at the head of affairs in France and the implac 
 able enemy to the Reformation, took care to improve ; for, 
 under the pretence of keeping up the old alliances between 
 France and Scotland, the creatures of that house were sent as 
 ambassadors there, and one of them became so great a favourite 
 that the King made him Duke of Lennox, a known Papist, 
 though he pretended to be a Protestant. 
 
 The English ministers took umbrage at this conduct ; and 
 when they found that applications to gain the young King 
 proved ineffectual, they infused such a jealousy of him into all 
 their party in Scotland as alarmed both nobility and clergy. 
 The King, however, disguised, or at least denied, everything 
 that gave offence in his behaviour ; and when the Duke of 
 
 B
 
 2 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Guise war.. killed at Blgis^ Henry III. murdered soon after, and 
 Henry IVr-sUcteedefl/iii Vife.'roJom, he withdrew from French 
 counsels, and put himself" entirely under the management of 
 Queerv 'Elizabeth iancl';rter jmjfm'stei's. 
 
 It is very observable' that; 6 long as the Duke of Guise lived, 
 the King, though then three-and-twenty and the only person 
 of his family, would never hearken to any proposition for 
 marrying a Protestant ; but no sooner was the Duke removed 
 than he presently married a daughter of Denmark, and, after 
 his marriage, endeavoured all that was possible to remove the 
 suspicions that had been conceived of him. He granted the 
 Kirk all the laws that they desired, and got his temporal 
 authority better established than it was before. The jealousies, 
 however, of his fickleness in religion still remained, which 
 occasioned many new disgusts, and were indeed the true cause 
 of all the rude opposition which that King met with from the 
 Kirk, and which wrought in him such an inveterate hatred of 
 Presbytery, though Archbishop Spottiswood, in his History, 
 thinks proper to conceal it. 
 
 It was time now for the King to think of securing his succes 
 sion to the crown of England, and because he was apprehen 
 sive of some opposition from the Popish party in Scotland, he 
 therefore employed several persons in posts of great trust 
 (Elphinstone was Secretary of State, and Seaton afterwards 
 Chancellor), who were known to be Papists, though they com 
 plied outwardly, and by their means gave the party assurance 
 of his intended connivance at their religion. The like assurance 
 he gave to the Pope in a letter, which, when it came to be 
 published by Bellarmine, his secretary took upon himself, and 
 assoiled the King of, though this was accounted no more than 
 a collusion to allay the jealousies of the King's favouring 
 Popery, which all his writing upon the Revelation, and calling 
 the Pope " Antichrist," could never totally clear him of. 
 
 Cecil was, at this time, secretary to Queen Elizabeth. With 
 him he entered into a particular confidence ; and by the good 
 management of his ambassador, Bruce, procured an engage 
 ment, signed by all the great men of England, without their 
 privity to each other, or the Queen's suspecting anything of it, 
 to assert and stand by his right of succession to the English 
 crown. Cecil and Bruce were well rewarded for this piece 
 of service, and he succeeded to the crown without any 
 molestation. 
 
 When the King came to England, his settled aversion to the
 
 Before the Restoration 3 
 
 Kirk made him the more willing to set up Episcopacy in Scot 
 land, and to reduce that nation to a conformity, in matters of 
 religion, with England. To this purpose it was enacted that a 
 form of prayer should be drawn for Scotland ; the sacrament 
 received kneeling, and given to the sick ; confirmation and the 
 use of the cross in baptism retained ; certain chief holy-days 
 observed ; and the habits in which Divine offices were to be 
 performed left to the King's appointment. These things passed 
 first in General Assemblies, composed of bishops and the 
 deputies chosen by the clergy, but not without violent opposi 
 tion, and too good reason to suspect that some were frightened 
 and others corrupted into a compliance. 
 
 One great difficulty in the thing was want of fit revenues for 
 the bishops. The tithes and Church lands had been all vested 
 in the Crown during the King's minority, and thence granted 
 out to those who were in power ; but out of these a competent 
 proportion was sequestered in every parish for the maintenance 
 of him who served the cure, so that bishops were forced to hold 
 their former cures, with some small addition, till the King 
 should buy, from the grantees, guch estates as belonged to the 
 bishoprics. In the meantime, the bishops grew generally 
 haughty, attenders at Court, negligent of their functions, and 
 lost in the esteem of the people, the few who were more learned 
 and strict, grossly leaning to Popery ; so that the King became 
 weary of the opposition he met with, apprehensive of some 
 ill effects it might produce, and, either through sloth or fear 
 went no further in his designs on Scotland. He had three 
 children. His eldest, Prince Henry, was a prince of great 
 hopes ; but so little like his father that he rather feared than 
 loved him. So zealous a Protestant was that young prince, 
 that when his father was entertaining propositions of marrying 
 him to two different Popish princesses, 1 he requested, in a letter 
 he wrote to him, that it might be to the younger of them, 
 because there were more hopes of her conversion, and that any 
 liberty given to her religion might be kept as private as 
 possible. Whether his aversion to Popery might hasten his 
 death or not, is unknown ; but it is very probable, and what 
 King Charles I. did not hesitate to say, that he was poisoned 
 by the Earl of Somerset's means. 
 
 He married his only daughter to a Protestant prince, one of 
 the most zealous and sincere of them all, the Elector Palatine, 
 
 1 Once to the Archduchess, and another time to a daughter of Savoy.
 
 4 Bishop Bur net's Own Times 
 
 who, upon the deposing of Ferdinand for his cruel persecution 
 of his Protestant subjects, and violating the privileges secured 
 to them by law, was by an Assembly of the States elected King 
 of Bohemia, and upon the encouragement of his two uncles, 
 Maurice Prince of Orange and the Duke of Boulogne, accepted 
 of it. This acceptance was notified to King James. The 
 English nation was very well inclined to support it, and it was 
 not doubted but that so near a conjunction with the King 
 would have pleaded in his favour. But whether it was the 
 invincible aversion he had to war, or his opinion of such a 
 Divine right in kings as allowed none to be accountable to 
 their subjects, it so happened that he would neither acknowledge 
 his son-in-law's title, nor give him any assistance for the support 
 of his new dignity. Maurice, at the same time, had so embroiled 
 Holland by espousing the controversy about the decrees of God 
 in opposition to the Arminian party, and by erecting a new 
 and illegal court, whereby Barneveldt was condemned to death, 
 and several others to imprisonment and deprivation, that he 
 was in no condition to send any considerable succours to his 
 nephew, in consequence of whicji the poor King was soon over 
 thrown, and driven not only out of his new dominions, but out 
 of his hereditary countries likewise, and forced to flee to 
 Holland, where he ended his days. Thus was a glorious occa 
 sion of establishing the Reformation lost, and a very near 
 relation given up for a sacrifice. But this was not the only 
 inglorious instance in King James's reign. 
 
 The States had borrowed great sums of money of Queen 
 Elizabeth, and had delivered up the Brill and Flushing, with 
 some other places of less note, to be kept by the English till 
 the money was repaid. Soon after his coming to the crown of 
 England, the King entered into secret treaties with the Spaniard, 
 and, to compel the States to a peace, promised to deliver these 
 places into his hand in case the other proved obstinate. The 
 thing was known, and therefore, as soon as the truce was made, 
 the States sent an offer to redeem the mortgage by repaying 
 the money that England had lent. The offer was accepted 
 without ever consulting the Parliament about it, the money 
 paid, the places evacuated, and the great keys of Holland and 
 Zealand given up for what amounted to no more than a few 
 presents among his servants and favourites. But there is a 
 nearer instance than this. 
 
 The Crown had a great estati over all England, which was 
 let out upon leases for years, and a small rent reserved. l'>y
 
 Before the Restoration 5 
 
 this means most great families were tenants to the Crown, and 
 many great boroughs depended on the estates so held. The 
 renewal of these leases brought in fines, and the fear of being 
 denied such renewal kept all in dependence on the Crown. 
 The King obtained of his Parliament a power of granting i. e. 
 of selling those estates for ever, with a reserve of the old quit- 
 rent ; so was the Crown stripped of its authority, and all the 
 money raised by this means profusely squandered away. 
 
 His parting with the guardianship of wards (another branch 
 of the regal authority), by which a dependence on the Crown 
 was destroyed, and many families made a prey to the oppres 
 sions of exacting favourites, may deserve a milder censure, 
 when it is considered in what a strange manner he dealt with 
 one of the greatest men of that age Sir Walter Raleigh. The 
 first condemnation of him was very black, but the executing 
 him after so many years, and after an employment that he 
 himself had given him, was thought both barbarous and illegal. 
 The whole business of the Earl of Somerset's rise and fall, of 
 the Countess of Essex and Overbury, the putting the inferior 
 persons to death for that infamous poisoning, and the sparing 
 the principals, both the Earl of Somerset and his lady, are so 
 odious and inhuman, that it quite sunk the reputation of 
 a reign that, on many accounts, was exposed to contempt 
 enough already. 
 
 In the latter end of this king's reign, the Duke of Bucking 
 ham treated him with such an air of insolence, that he was 
 minded to throw him off, and readmit the Earl of Somerset 
 into favour. To this purpose, they met together one night in 
 the gardens at Theobalds : the King embraced him tenderly, 
 and with many tears ; but though there were no more than 
 two bedchamber-men privy to the interview, yet the Earl of 
 Somerset believed that the secret was not well kept, for soon 
 after the King was taken ill with some fits of an ague, and died 
 of it, not without some suspicion of ill practice in the matter. 
 But however that be, it is certain that no king could die less 
 lamented or less esteemed than he was. He sunk the credit 
 of the bishops in Scotland, and his reign in England was one 
 continued course of mean practices. The great figure that the 
 Crown of England made in Queen Elizabeth's days was so 
 eclipsed, if not totally darkened in his, that he became the 
 scorn and derision of the age ; and, while hungry writers 
 flattered him out of measure at home, he was despised by all 
 abroad as a pedant without true judgment, courage, or steadi-
 
 6 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 ness, subject to his favourites, and delivered up to the counsels, 
 or rather the corruption, of Spain. 
 
 When King Charles succeeded to the crown, he resolved to 
 carry on two designs that his father had set on foot, but let 
 the prosecution of them fall : the recovery of the tithes and 
 Church lands, and the full establishment of Episcopacy in 
 Scotland. 
 
 In the execution of the first of these, the two great families 
 of Hamilton and Lennox led the way ; for the former sold to 
 the King the Abbey of Arbroath, and the latter the Lordship 
 of Glasgow ; and all who pretended to any favour at Court 
 offered at first to do the same. But when, in the third year of 
 this reign, the Earl of Nithsdale was sent down with a power 
 to take the surrender of Church lands, and to assure all who 
 were willing to surrender that the King would use them well, 
 but proceed with the utmost rigour against those who refused 
 to submit their rights to his disposal, the ferment on this 
 occasion grew so high, that the Earl looked upon the service 
 as a little too desperate, and so returned to Court, without ever 
 opening his full instructions. 
 
 In the year 1633 the King came down in person, and was 
 crowned with such an expensive magnificence as proved detri 
 mental to the country. Matters in Parliament, while he stayed, 
 were carried with a high hand, and some in such an arbitrary 
 manner that a petition was drawn up, to be signed by the 
 Lords, and by them offered to the King, setting forth their 
 grievances, and praying for redress. That design, however, 
 was laid aside for the present, and the petition left in the Lord 
 Balmerinoch's hand ; but it was not so cautiously kept but that 
 Spottiswood, Archbishop of St. Andrews, got a sight of it, and 
 immediately went to London, beginning his journey, as he 
 often did, on Sunday, which in that country is a very odious 
 thing. 
 
 There are laws in Scotland that make it capital to spread lies 
 of the King or his government, or to alienate his subjects from 
 him ; it is likewise capital to know of any that do so, and not 
 discover them ; but this last was never once put in execution. 
 The petition was thought to be within this act; so an order 
 was sent down for committing Lord Balmerinoch, and soon 
 after a special commission for his trial. He made a very good 
 defence for himself, and there were warm debates on both 
 sides ; but when it came to the vote, seven of the jury (there 
 called assize) acquitted, but eight cast him ; so sentence was
 
 Before the Restoration 7 
 
 given. The clamours and menaces of the people upon this 
 occasion, either to force the prison and set him at liberty, or 
 to revenge his death upon those who had condemned him, were 
 so loud that the Earl of Traquair, who had been the great 
 manager in the trial against him, advised the King against his 
 execution, and procured his pardon, which the other accounted 
 no manner of obligation, considering how much he had been 
 injured in the prosecution. And indeed the violence of this 
 proceeding was one thing that in a great measure ruined the 
 King's affairs in Scotland. 
 
 The King's other design was to establish Episcopacy through 
 out Scotland, and a form of worship and discipline according 
 to the model of the Church of England. To this end the 
 bishops of Scotland fell a framing a Liturgy and body of canons, 
 which were never examined in any public assembly of the 
 clergy ; but all was managed by three or four aspiring bishops 
 Maxwell, Bishop of Ross, Sydserf of Galloway, Whitford of 
 Dunblane, and Banautine of Aberdeen. And these, without 
 any further consult or approbation, were in several dioceses 
 enforced with such rigour and severity as savoured of an 
 Inquisition. 
 
 But I go no further in opening the beginnings of the troubles 
 of Scotland. This only I may be allowed to observe in the 
 whole, that the provocations of the administration must needs 
 be very great when they drew such a vehement and universal 
 concurrence against it. 
 
 After the first pacification, and when new disputes arose, 
 the Earls of Loudoun and Dunfermline were sent up with a 
 petition from the Covenanters. The Lord Saville came to them, 
 and informed them how highly the King was incensed against 
 them, and took some pains to persuade them to come with their 
 army into England, showing them an engagement under the 
 hands of the most considerable men of the nation, as he pre 
 tended, to join and assist them when they came; but this 
 proved to be his own forgery. 
 
 The men of the greatest confidence with the Covenanters at 
 that time were the Earl of Rothes, the Earl of Argyll, and one 
 Mr. Warriston. The Earl of Rothes was a man of pleasure, 
 but of a most obliging behaviour ; he had all the arts of making 
 himself popular, only there was too much levity in his temper, 
 and too much liberty in his course of life. The Earl of Argyll 
 was a more solemn sort of a man, grave and sober, free of all 
 scandalous vices, of an invincible calmness of temper, and a
 
 8 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 pretender to high degrees of piety. Warriston was a man of 
 great application to business ; he had a fruitful imagination, 
 a happy memory, and a great fluency of speech upon all occa 
 sions ; but his notions about the sacredness of the Covenant 
 and the efficacy of his own long-winded prayers were entirely 
 wild and extravagant. 
 
 Having these abettors and encouragements to go, the Scots 
 began their march into England with a very sorry equipage. 
 Every soldier carried a week's provision of oatmeal, and they 
 had a drove of cattle with them for their food. They had like 
 wise an invention of iron guns tinned, and done about with 
 leather, and so corded withal that they could serve for two or 
 three discharges. These were light, and carried on horses, and 
 when they came to Newburn, the English that defended the 
 ford were so surprised with the discharge of their artillery, that 
 some thought it magic, all were put in disorder, and the whole 
 army fled with such a violent precipitation, that Sir Thomas 
 Fairfax, who then commanded in it, did not scruple to own that 
 till he passed the Tees his legs trembled under him. The 
 Scots, upon this defeat, became masters of a great part of the 
 north, and the King's affairs were reduced to great perplexity. 
 His treasure was gone, his subjects were irritated, and his 
 ministry all frightened, as exposed to the anger and justice of 
 the Parliament ; so that he had brought himself into great 
 straits, but had not the dexterity to extricate himself out of 
 them. He loved high and rough methods, but had neither skill 
 to conduct them, nor height of genius to manage them. He 
 hated all who offered prudent and moderate counsels, as pro 
 ceeding either from Republican principles, or a care to preserve 
 themselves by sacrificing his authority ; and even when he saw 
 it necessary to follow such advices, yet he still hated those who 
 gave them. The Queen, on the other hand, was a woman of 
 great vivacity in conversation, and loved, all her life long, to 
 be in intrigues of all sorts, but was not so secret in them as 
 such times and such affairs required. She was a woman of no 
 manner of judgment ; she was bad at contrivance, but much 
 worse in the execution, but by the liveliness of her discourse 
 she made always a great impression upon the King ; and to her 
 little practices, as well as to the King's own temper, the sequel 
 of all his misfortunes was owing. But these are what I mean 
 not to pursue ; they are fully related by other historians ; and 
 my purpose is only to make mention of those things that are 
 not to be met with elsewhere.
 
 Before the Restoration 9 
 
 The Kirk was now settled in Scotland with a new mixture of 
 ruling elders, who at first were some of the chief gentry of the 
 nation ; but the ministers, finding these not so pliant to their 
 purposes, brought inferior people, who depended more on them, 
 into their eldership, and so gained a majority. Their manner 
 was to have Synods of their clergy in one or more counties 
 twice a year, and a General Assembly once a year. This 
 Assembly, at their parting, named a certain body of men, called 
 the Commission of the Kirk, who were to sit in the intervals 
 to prepare matters for the next Assembly, to take care of the 
 concerns of the Church, and to inspect the proceedings of the 
 State, so far as they related to religion. By this means they 
 became terrible to all their enemies. In their sermons, and 
 chiefly in their prayers, all that passed in the State was can 
 vassed : men were in a manner named, and either recommended 
 or complained of to God, as they were acceptable or unaccept 
 able to them. This humour was first taken up when the King 
 and Bishops were the popular themes, but it soon ran into such 
 a petulant licentiousness as could not be restrained. Hender 
 son and Douglas were men of the best temper and most gravity 
 among them ; the rest were much of the same make. They 
 affected all great sublimities in devotion, and poured themselves 
 out in their prayers with a loud voice, and oftentimes with 
 abundance of tears. Their stock of learning was but small 
 something of Hebrew and a very little Greek : books of con 
 troversy with Papists, but more especially with Arminians, were 
 the height of their study. Their method of preaching ran in 
 the common road of doctrine, reason, and use ; but in their 
 manner of initiating young divines there was something sin 
 gular. What they recommended to their reading was usually 
 some German systems, some commentators on the Scripture, 
 books of controversy, and practical books. When they had 
 made their round in these, they were not suffered to preach as 
 expectants (so they called them) till after a trial or two before the 
 ministers alone : then two or three sermons were to be preached 
 in public, some more learnedly, some more practically ; a head 
 of divinity was next to be common-placed in Latin, and the 
 person to maintain a thesis upon it ; after that came his trial 
 in Greek and Hebrew, and Scripture chronology; and last of 
 all his questionary trial, wherein every minister was at liberty 
 to ask him what questions he pleased. When all this was 
 passed through with approbation, the person was allowed to 
 preach when invited ; and when he was called or presented to 
 
 B 2
 
 io Bishop Burnetfs Own Times 
 
 a church, he was to go through a new set of the same trials, by 
 which means, though they had no men of very great learning 
 among them, they had very few who could be called ignorant. 
 
 To this description of the constitution of the Kirk and its 
 members we may add their great rigour in forcing all people 
 to take the Covenant, whereupon the greatest part of the 
 Episcopal clergy, among whom were two bishops, came and 
 renounced their former principles, and desired to be received 
 into their body ; their great pains to maintain their authority 
 among the people ; their laboriousness in their vocation ; their 
 strictness of piety and good life : all which was lost in the wars, 
 when a fierceness of temper, a copiousness of long sermons, 
 and much longer prayers, and a grace before and after meat of 
 a full hour's continuance, came to be the chief distinction of 
 the party. 
 
 When the war broke out in England, the Scots had a great 
 mind to go into it, promising themselves great advantages 
 thereby. The Duke of Hamilton was at that time entrusted with 
 the King's affairs, and had powers to make large offers, if he 
 could but engage them on the King's side. Northumberland, 
 Cumberland, and Westmoreland were to be united to Scotland ; 
 Newcastle to be the seat of government ; the Prince of Wales 
 to hold his Court always among them ; the King every third 
 year to visit them ; and every office in his household in the 
 third turn to be given to a Scotchman. But it was impossible 
 to bribe them into the King's quarrel the bent of the nation 
 was quite another way; and therefore another course was 
 resolved on by those who favoured the King viz., to fall in 
 with the inclinations of the people for war, thereby to procure 
 to themselves and their friends the chief commissions ; hoping 
 that when the army was in England, and separate from the 
 rest of the kingdom, it might be easier to gain it over to the 
 King's service than it was then to work upon the whole 
 nation. 
 
 This policy might have taken, had not some accidents quite 
 changed the face of affairs. The Earl of Montrose, a young 
 man well learned, who had travelled, but had taken upon him 
 the part of a hero too much, made some offers to the Duke of 
 Hamilton for the King's service, which, by reason of their im- 
 practicableness, were rejected. Upon this he came to Oxford, 
 and complained to the King of the treachery of the Hamiltons, 
 and how easily Scotland might have been secured, had but his 
 propositions been entertained. He was a bold man, and full
 
 Before the Restoration n 
 
 of undertakings ; so the King gave him what powers he desired, 
 and sent him down into Scotland to manage for him in the 
 room of the Duke of Hamilton. He went into the Highlands, 
 and, with his own forces, joined himself to a great body of Mac- 
 donalds, who were come out of Ireland to recover Cantire, a 
 county in the Highlands, which the Argyll family had driven 
 them out of fifty years before. The Scots at that time had 
 two armies, one in England, and another in Ireland, but they 
 thought it not necessary to call either home ; so they raised a 
 tumultuary one on a sudden, and put it under the command of 
 some who were remarkable for their want of courage, and of 
 others that were well-wishers to the contrary side. Montrose's 
 men were desperate, they met with small resistance, and so 
 this army of the Covenanters was easily routed : the Marquis 
 had but three horses and one round of powder before, but after 
 this action he was better provided with both. From this time 
 he began to make a figure ; and his successes the next year 
 were very considerable. But they had this mischievous effect, 
 that they elated him above measure, and proved, eventually at 
 least, the ruin of his master's cause. The King was before 
 inclinable to peace, and willing to accept it, even upon the hard 
 conditions that were offered by the Parliament ; he saw the 
 decline of his own affairs apace, and how impossible it would 
 be to continue the war another year, when the news of the 
 Lord Montrose's great success, the strength he already had, 
 and his growing hopes for the next year, made him change his 
 resolution, and prevailed with him to think that his affairs 
 would mend, and that he might afterwards treat upon better 
 terms; and this unhappily occasioned the limitation he put 
 upon those he sent to Uxbridge, which made the whole design 
 of that treaty miscarry. 
 
 All this while the Marquis of Montrose had made himself 
 master of no strong places, nor formed any regular scheme how 
 to fix his conquests. The Highlanders were better plunderers 
 than fighters, and, as soon as they had got as much as they 
 could carry away, made no scruple to desert. The Macdonalds 
 went to regain their possessions, and revenge themselves upon 
 the Argyll family. The Marquis, however, thought that his 
 name would do all, and bear down everything before it. But 
 he found his mistake ; for, while he was vaunting over his 
 conquests from Dan even to Beersheba, and inviting his royal 
 master to come down and take the city, lest it should happen 
 to be called by his name, he was miserably defeated, and his
 
 12 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 poor dispersed army was by the country-people, and at the 
 instigation of their teachers, who called upon them not to spare, 
 nor do the work of the Lord deceitfully, cruelly knocked on the 
 head in cold blood. 
 
 But this was not the only ill effect of the Lord Montrose's 
 success. It lost, as was said, the opportunity of Uxbridge ; it 
 alienated the Scots from the King ; it exalted all those who 
 were enemies to peace ; and gave the world a suspicion (though 
 very unjustly) of his abetting the Irish rebels, when they saw 
 the very worst tribe of them employed in his service. 
 
 I say very unjustly, because, upon the best inquiry I could 
 make into the Irish massacre and rebellion, it does not appear 
 that the King was ever in the least accessory to either, though 
 the Queen certainly kept a correspondence with Lord Antrim, 
 one of the chief agents in that bloodshed, and was induced to 
 hearken to the propositions made by the Irish ; first, of taking 
 the government of Ireland into their hands, which they thought 
 they could compass, and then assisting the King to subdue 
 the hot spirits at Westminster. This was all the design of that 
 insurrection. The massacre was not intended at first ; that 
 was a thing they fell upon afterwards, and chiefly by the insti 
 gation of their priests. 
 
 In the year 1648, when the Parliament declared they would 
 engage to rescue the King from his imprisonment, and the 
 Parliament of England from the force it was put under by the 
 army, all the nobility, except a very few, went into the design. 
 The King had signed an engagement to make good to the nation 
 his offers of the northern counties, with the other conditions 
 above mentioned ; and particular favours were promised to 
 those that concurred in it. The Marquis of Argyll gave out 
 that the Hamiltons had no sincere intentions to their cause, but 
 that they were in a confederacy with the malignants in England, 
 and engaged to serve the King on his own terms. This jealousy 
 he spread among the people. Hereupon the General Assembly 
 declared against it as an unlawful engagement, and the 
 preachers laid out all their force to decry it, and oppose the 
 levies all they could, by solemn denunciations of the wrath and 
 curse of God on all that were concerned in it. 
 
 The south-west counties of Scotland have seldom corn enough 
 to serve them the year round, and therefore they come to Leith 
 in summer to buy ; and from the word whtggam, used in 
 driving their horses, they came to be called Whigamores, and 
 for shortness, Whigs, which has been a name of distinction
 
 Before the Restoration 13 
 
 for those who opposed the Court, since transferred to England. 
 Now, when the news came of the Duke of Hamilton's defeat, the 
 ministers animated their people to rise, and at the head of their 
 parishes they came marching up to Edinburgh with an unheard- 
 of fury, praying and preaching all the way. This was called the 
 Whigamores' inroad. The Marquis of Argyll with his party 
 came and headed them ; Cromwell assisted them ; so that 
 there was no withstanding them, and the Committee of the 
 States was compelled to deliver up the government to them. As 
 soon as they got into power, they declared all who had served 
 or assisted in the engagement incapable of any employment 
 till they had first satisfied the Kirk with the truth of their 
 repentance, and made public professions of it. The churches 
 were full with mock penitents on this occasion, and some, to 
 gain more credit with the party, made their acknowledgment 
 with plenty of tear?. The Earl of Loudoun, who was Chan 
 cellor, was threatened by his wife, a strong Covenanter, and 
 from whom he had his honour and estate, with a process of 
 adultery, unless he would come over to her party ; so he com 
 pounded the matter by deserting his friends, and in the church 
 of Edinburgh made public profession of his change, confessing 
 his weakness in yielding to the temptation of what had a show 
 of honour and loyalty in it, for which he expressed a hearty 
 sorrow. 
 
 Cromwell went down to Scotland to settle this new model ; 
 and the Parliament, in his absence, seeing the army at such a 
 distance, began the Treaty of the Isle of Wight. Sir Henry 
 Vane and some others who wanted a change in the government 
 went to the treaty on purpose to delay matters till the army 
 could be brought up to London ; but those who wished well to 
 the treaty prayed the King to despatch matters with all pos 
 sible haste, and to make full concessions at once. The King, 
 however, fancied that in this struggle between the House of 
 Commons and the army he should at length find his account, 
 and be enabled to obtain better terms ; and thus the treaty 
 went on with a fatal slowness, and, by the time it was come to 
 any maturity, Cromwell came up with his army, and over 
 turned all. 
 
 It was during this quarrel between the House of Commons 
 and the army that Cromwell gave the world a specimen of his 
 great dissimulation and hypocrisy. In a meeting of officers it 
 was proposed to purge the army better, in order to know whom 
 they might depend on. Cromwell said " he was sure of the
 
 14 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 army, but there was another body," naming the House of Com 
 mons, " that had more need of purging, and that the army only 
 could do it." This was reported to the House by Grimston, 
 and the witnesses attested it at the bar ; whereupon Cromwell 
 fell down on his knees, and made a solemn prayer to God, attest 
 ing his innocence and great zeal for the service of the House. 
 He submitted himself to God's providence, who thought fit to 
 exercise him with slander and calumny, but his cause he com 
 mitted to Him. This he did with great vehemence and many 
 tears, after which he made a long speech, justifying himself 
 and the rest of the officers, except a few, who seemed inclinable 
 to return back to Egypt (as he called it), and so wrought upon 
 the House that what the witnesses said was very little believed ; 
 and had the motion been made, it is very probable that both 
 they and Grimston had been sent to the Tower. But no sooner 
 was Cromwell out of the House than he resolved not to trust 
 himself there again ; so he went to the army, and thence treated 
 the Parliament just as he pleased. 
 
 It was much about this time that Commissioners were sent 
 from Scotland to protest against putting the King to death. 
 They laid, indeed, a great load upon the King ; but by a clause 
 in the Covenant to which they had sworn, by the terms upon 
 which Scotland had engaged in the war, and by the solemn 
 declarations that they had so often published to the world, they 
 were obliged, they said, to be faithful in the preservation of his 
 Majesty's person. Cromwell undertook to answer them by 
 showing " that a breach of trust in a King ought to be 
 punished more than any other crime whatever ; that they had 
 sworn to the preservation of the King's person only in defence 
 of the true religion ; but that when the true religion was ob 
 structed by the King, their oath was no farther obligatory ; 
 that the Covenant did bind them to bring all malignants, incen 
 diaries, and enemies to the cause, to condign punishment ; and 
 that those on whom public justice had been done (as in the 
 matter of Montrose) were but small offenders in comparison ; 
 they acted by commission from the King, who was therefore 
 the principal, and so the most guilty." 
 
 But notwithstanding all this declaration of himself, Crom 
 well was in some suspense about the King's death ; Ireton was 
 the man who drove it on, and found out Cook and Bradshaw, 
 two bold lawyers, as proper instruments to manage it. He had 
 indeed the principles and temper of a Cassius in him, and 
 stuck at nothing that might have turned England into a com-
 
 Before the Restoration 15 
 
 monwealth. Fairfax was much distracted in his mind, and 
 changed purposes every day. The Presbyterians and the body 
 of the city were utterly against it, and were everywhere fasting 
 and praying for the King's preservation. The King's party 
 was dispirited, but they never believed that his death was really 
 intended till it was too late. The King himself showed a calm 
 and composed firmness, which was more remarkable, because it 
 was not natural, and therefore imputed to an extraordinary 
 measure of Divine assistance. Bishop Juxon did the office of 
 his function honestly, but too coldly to raise the King's 
 thoughts ; so that it was owing wholly to somewhat within him 
 self that he suffered so many indignities with so much true 
 courage, without any show of disorder, or any sort of affecta 
 tion. Thus he died, greater than he lived, and verified what 
 has been observed of the whole race of the Stuarts, that they 
 bore misfortunes better than prosperity. 
 
 His reign, both in peace and war, was a continual series of 
 errors, so that his judgment could hardly be good. He was 
 out of measure set upon following his own humour, but was 
 unreasonably feeble to those he trusted. His notion of regal 
 power was carried too high, and every opposition to it he thought 
 rebellion. He minded little things too much, and was more 
 concerned in drawing a paper than in fighting a battle. He 
 had a firm aversion to Popery, but was much inclined to a 
 middle way between Protestants and Papists, whereby he lost 
 the one, without gaining the other. 
 
 What made his character suffer much in the opinion of 
 foreign Protestants was his engaging the Duke of Rohan in the 
 war of Rochelle and then not assisting him, and his discover 
 ing the design of making the Spanish Netherlands a common 
 wealth. The Duke of Buckingham had a secret conversation 
 with the Queen of France, for which he was ordered imme 
 diately to leave the Court. When he came home, he prevailed 
 with the King to enter into a treaty with the Duke of Rohan 
 about raising an insurrection in France. The war was resolved 
 on, in which the share that our Court had is well enough known ; 
 but the infamous part was, that Cardinal Richelieu prevailed 
 with that easy king to engage his wife to write the Duke an 
 obliging letter, giving him assurance that, if he would let 
 Rochelle fall without assistance, he should have leave to come 
 over and settle the whole matter of religion according to their 
 edicts. Upon this the Duke made that shameful campaign of 
 the Isle of Rhe ; but, as he found himself deluded with a false
 
 1 6 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 hope, he was going next year to prosecute the war with more 
 vigour, when Felton stabbed him. 
 
 The other thing wherein the King's conduct was equally 
 blamed was in the matter of the Spanish Netherlands. When 
 Isabella Clara Eugenia grew old, some of her Council, fore 
 seeing the misery of falling into the hands of the Spaniard 
 again, formed the design of making themselves a free common 
 wealth, and, to that end, of entering into a perpetual alliance 
 with the States of the United Provinces. This they communi 
 cated to Henry Frederick, Prince of Orange, who thought that 
 the King of England's concurrence was necessary, and, upon 
 the promise of absolute secrecy, imparted the whole to him. 
 But the secret was ill kept. By some means or other the 
 Court of Brussels had an account of it ; whereupon one minister 
 lost his head, and the others, taking the alarm betimes, made 
 their escape into Holland. After this the Prince of Orange 
 had no commerce with our Court, and often lamented the 
 unhappy loss of so great a design. 
 
 The King's death had an effect quite contrary to what his 
 enemies expected. Lord Stratford's suffering raised his cha 
 racter, and cast a lasting odium upon that way of proceeding. 
 Archbishop Laud was a learned, sincere, and zealous man, 
 regular in his own life and humble in his private deportment ; 
 but he was very hot and indiscreet, and too eager in pursuing 
 some matters of very small moment. His setting the com 
 munion-table to the east, bowing to it, and calling it an altar ; 
 his suppressing the Walloons' privileges, leaving off lectures, 
 and encouraging sports on the Lord's day ; his severity in the 
 Star Chamber and in the High Commission Court ; and above 
 all, his violent and outrageous prosecution of Bishop Williams, 
 were such visible blemishes as nothing but the putting him to 
 death in so unjust a manner could hide. His diary shows him 
 to be an abject fawner on the Duke of Buckingham, and a 
 superstitious regarder of dreams. His defence of himself is a 
 mean performance, and the arguments he produces for his jus 
 tification are weak and delusory ; and yet his learning, wisdom, 
 and great abilities are extolled by some men, and his notions 
 are become the standard of true orthodoxy ever since. 
 
 The like effect ensued on the death of King Charles, whose 
 serious and Christian deportment in it made all his former 
 errors forgotten, and raised a compassionate regard to him, and 
 a lasting hatred to the contrivers of it. 
 
 What contributed not a little to his credit and the estimation
 
 Before the Restoration 17 
 
 of his memory was a book entitled 'Ei/cwv Bao-iAtKr/, which was 
 published soon after, and universally believed to be his. There 
 was in it a nobleness and justness of thought, with a greatness 
 of style, that made it be looked upon as a masterpiece in the 
 English tongue ; and the piety of the prayers in it incensed 
 mankind against the murderers of a prince who thought so 
 seriously of all his affairs in his meditations before God. The 
 goodness of the book has occasioned much disputing about the 
 author of it. The work, as I said at first, was generally 
 believed to be the King's, and some who lived in those days 
 assure us that they have heard from the King's own mouth 
 several periods occurring in the book ; but if the testimony of 
 King James II. may in this case be received, the book was 
 written by Dr. Gauden, and carried down by the Earl of 
 Southampton to the King, during the Treaty of Newport, who 
 read and approved it as very well agreeing to his sentiments, 
 and that the merit of this service was the true reason of 
 Gauden's promotion, notwithstanding the strong opposition 
 that was made against him, and yet it is very strange that all 
 Gauden's other works are written with so small a force in 
 comparison of this, and so little similitude of style, that no one 
 upon that account would judge him the author of this incompar 
 able piece. 
 
 After the death of King Charles, the Scots proclaimed his son 
 King, and sent Sir George Winram to treat with him while he 
 was in the isle of Jersey. The person then in greatest favour 
 with the King was the Duke of Buckingham, a man wholly 
 given up to mirth and pleasure ; he had the art of turning 
 persons and things into ridicule above all men of the age, and 
 by that means possessed the young King with very ill principles 
 both as to religion and morality, and no very honourable 
 opinion of his father, whose stiffness he frequently made the 
 subject of his raillery. At his instigation the King entered into 
 a negotiation with the Scots ; so the Hague was named for the 
 place of the treaty, and two of the Chief Commissioners from 
 Scotland were the Earls of Casillis and Lothian. 
 
 When the King came to the Hague, the Marquis of Montrose 
 waited on him and undertook to restore him to his kingdoms by 
 main force, if he would but give him power to act in his name, 
 a reasonable supply of money, and a letter to the King of 
 Denmark to furnish him with a ship and such arms as he could 
 spare. He had what he requested, and arrived in the High 
 lands, but was able to perform nothing of what he had under-
 
 1 8 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 taken. At last he was betrayed by one Macleod of Assynt, whom 
 he had trusted, brought to Edinburgh, carried through the 
 streets with all the infamy that brutal men could contrive, 
 and in a few days hanged on a high gibbet, and his head and 
 quarters set up in divers places in the kingdom. His behaviour 
 under all that barbarous usage, which he looked upon with a 
 noble scorn, was great and firm to the last. The cruelty of his 
 enemies raised horror in all sober people, and the triumphs that 
 the preachers made upon this occasion rendered them odious, 
 and contributed to make his hard fate more pitied and lamented. 
 All this while the treaty went on at the Hague (for the King 
 could not be prevailed upon to send the Commissioners away 
 upon this cruelty to a person who acted by his authority), and 
 was soon concluded, upon the hard condition of the King's 
 taking the Covenant himself, and suffering none about him but 
 who did the same. 
 
 When the King came to Scotland (for the Prince of Orange 
 sent him home with a Dutch fleet, and all the money and arms 
 that his credit could procure him) the Marquis of Argyll was 
 then in absolute credit, and the Duke of Buckingham took all 
 the ways imaginable (except the amendment of his own disso 
 lute life) to gain him and the ministers who depended on him. 
 The King, too, wrought himself into as grave a deportment as 
 he could, hearing many prayers and sermons, and sometimes 
 very long ones ; but the mischief was, if at any time he chanced 
 to break into any gay diversions, he was sure to be reproved 
 for it, and sometimes with so much rigour and indiscretion as 
 was a great means to beget in him an aversion to all sorts of 
 strictness in religion. He was not allowed so much as to walk 
 abroad on Sundays. The Duke of Hamilton, the Earl of 
 Lauderdale, and all who were his father's friends, were ordered 
 to keep at a distance from him ; and because the common 
 people showed some affection for him, the crowds that pressed 
 to see him were kept off from coming near him. 
 
 While the King was treated at this rude rate, Cromwell, with 
 his army, was in Scotland, obstructing the motions that were 
 making in his favour ; but on the approach of the Scots, who 
 were much superior in number, he was forced to retire 
 towards Dunbar, where his ships and provisions lay. Here it 
 was that Cromwell was in great distress, and gave himself up 
 for lost. The Scots were posted on a hill, where there was no 
 attacking them ; there was no marching to Berwick, the ground 
 was too narrow no going back into the country without
 
 Before the Restoration 19 
 
 separating from his ships and starving his army ; he had not 
 above three days' forage for his horses, so his resolution was to 
 kill them, and put the army on board, and to sail to Newcastle. 
 In this perplexity he called his officers together to seek the 
 Lord, as the style then was, and at that time pretended to have 
 received such an answer to his prayer as gave him assurance of 
 victory. Leslie commanded the Scotch army, but he had a 
 Committee of the States, among whom Warriston was one, to 
 give him orders. These were weary of lying so long in the 
 fields, and called upon their general daily to fall on and destroy 
 those sectaries, as they called them ; and with their instigations, 
 even against his own opinion, he was forced to comply. The 
 army was all the night employed in coming down the hill, and 
 in the morning, before they could be put in order, Cromwell 
 fell upon them, and routed them quite. There were but two 
 regiments that stood their ground ; the rest ran away shame 
 fully, and left all their artillery and baggage a prey to the 
 conqueror, who immediately advanced to Edinburgh, where he 
 was received without opposition ; and the castle, that might 
 have made a long resistance, capitulated, so that all the 
 southern part of Scotland was under his control. 
 
 After this defeat a Parliament was called, that sat sometimes 
 at Stirling (which was the advanced garrison of the King's 
 side) and sometimes at Johnston, and a question was pro 
 posed, both to the Committee of the States and to the Commis 
 sioners of the Kirk, whether in this extremity those who had 
 made the defection, or heretofore had been too backward in the 
 work, might not, upon the profession of their repentance, be 
 received into public trust, and admitted to serve in defence of 
 their country; and it was resolved that upon the profession 
 of their repentance they might. 
 
 This occasioned a great division in the Kirk : those who had 
 adhered to this determination were called Public Resolutioners, 
 and those who opposed it Protesters. When this resolution and 
 protestation were passed, a great many people of the western 
 counties met and formed an association apart both against the 
 army of sectaries and against this new defection of the Kirk. 
 They drew up a Remonstrance, wherein were contained many 
 bitter and invidious things against the King, and a desire at last 
 that he might be excluded from having any share in the adminis 
 tration of the government. The Remonstrance was rejected with 
 some indignation as divisive, factious, and scandalous ; but 
 then, to satisfy in some measure those who sent it, the King
 
 2O Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 was prevailed on (but with very much reluctance) to publish a 
 Declaration of a very odd contexture. He owned the sin of his 
 father in marrying into an idolatrous family, and acknowledged 
 that the blood shed in the late wars lay at his door. He 
 expressed a deep sense of his own ill education, and confessed 
 that all the former part of his life had been a course of enmity 
 to the work of God. He repented of his commission given to 
 Montrose, and of everything he had done that gave offence ; 
 and then, with some solemn protestations, affirmed that he was 
 now sincere in his Declaration, and would abide by it to the end 
 of his life. But when this was published it gave no satisfac 
 tion, because neither side believed that he spoke the sentiments 
 of his heart. These impositions upon the King made him very 
 uneasy, so that he fled away by night to a party of old Cavaliers 
 not far from Dundee, who had promised to protect him ; and 
 though he was prevailed on to come back again, yet his going 
 away had this good effect, that it procured him better treat 
 ment for the future. On the ist of January he was crowned, 
 and again renewed the Covenant, after which time all people 
 were admitted to come to him, and to serve in the army ; so 
 that as the summer came on, and when all the forces he 
 expected were come to him, he resolved to march into Eng 
 land. 
 
 When Cromwell followed the King into England, he left 
 Monk in Scotland with an army sufficient to reduce the rest of 
 the kingdom, which was easily done, because no place in the 
 Low Countries made any resistance except Dundee, which, 
 after some days' siege, was taken by storm, wherein much 
 blood was shed, and the town severely plundered. But in the 
 year 1653 a body of the nobility who were zealous for the 
 King went into the Highlands and declared for him. The Earl 
 of Glencairn, a grave and sober man, engaged the family of the 
 Macdonalds ; the Earl of Balcarres, a virtuous and knowing 
 man, but somewhat too morose in his humour, joined them ; 
 and the Lord Lorn, son of the Marquis of Argyll, who had 
 retired into his country when the King went into England, 
 came with about a thousand men, but was a little suspected 
 upon his father's account. 
 
 Among others, there was one Sir Robert Murray, who had 
 served some time in France with great reputation : he was a 
 man universally beloved and esteemed. In the midst of armies 
 and courts, he spent many hours every day in devotion, had 
 gone through the easy parts of the mathematics, and knew the
 
 Before the Restoration 21 
 
 history of nature exceedingly well. He was afterwards the 
 original institutor of the Royal Society, its first president, 
 and while he lived, the life and soul of that body. He had an 
 equality of temper that nothing could alter, a most diffusive 
 love of all mankind, a superiority of genius and comprehension, 
 and one of the plainest, and withal the softest, way of re 
 proving people for their faults, that was ever known. His 
 credit with the army was very great, till the Lord Glencairn, 
 by help of a forged letter from Antwerp, that gave some 
 account of a bargain Sir Robert had made with Monk for 
 killing the King, endeavoured to ruin it, and expose him to 
 the fury of an enraged multitude. Hereupon the Earl of 
 Balcarres left the Highlands, and went to the King, to per 
 suade him to send a military man over, as the most proper to 
 command that body. Middleton, a gallant and good officer, 
 who had been taken at Worcester fight, and made his escape 
 out of the Tower, was sent ; and soon after the King was 
 invited to come among them, but in the end of the year 1654 
 they were routed and dispersed. 
 
 After this the kingdom was kept in good order during the 
 rest of the usurpation. Strict discipline was observed in the 
 army, justice was administered, and vice punished. Garrisons 
 were put into some castles in the Highlands, which were a 
 bridle upon the unruly inhabitants; a considerable force, of 
 about seven or eight thousand men, was kept in Scotland ; and 
 the pay of the army, which was very regular, brought so 
 much money into the kingdom, that it continued all the while, 
 as to its civil administration, in a flourishing condition. 
 
 But matters in the Church went not on so well. A General 
 Assembly was in course of meeting, and sat at St. Andrews ; so 
 the Commission of the Kirk wrote a circular letter to all the 
 Presbyteries, complaining of the Protesters, and desiring them 
 to choose none of that party to represent them in the next 
 General Assembly. This was looked upon as a limitation on 
 the freedom of elections, which inferred a nullity on all their 
 proceedings. Hereupon warm debates arose ; but as they were 
 ready to break out into censures on both sides, commissioners 
 were sent down from the Commonwealth of England to settle 
 Scotland. Some of these were for using means to unite the 
 two parties ; but Sir Henry Vane moved that they might be 
 left at liberty to fight out their own quarrels, and so be kept in 
 a greater dependence on the temporal authority when both 
 sides were obliged to appeal to it.
 
 22 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 This advice was followed, and so the division went on. The 
 Protesters were fewer, but they made up in fierceness what 
 they wanted in number. They had more of the Government's 
 countenance, because their principles were more agreeable to 
 what prevailed in the army; and they came readily into the 
 injunction of not praying for the King, which the others did 
 not without some hesitation. They spared no pains likewise 
 to make themselves popular. They preached often and long, 
 and seemed to carry their devotions to a greater sublimity than 
 others did. But, above all, their chief singularity lay in their 
 communions. On the Wednesday before, they held a fast-day, 
 with prayers and sermons about eight or ten hours long. On 
 the Saturday there were two or three preparation sermons, and 
 on Sunday they had so very many, that the action continued 
 above twelve hours in some places, and all ended with three or 
 four sermons on Monday for thanksgiving. To this solemnity 
 a great many ministers came from several parts. Crowds were 
 so great that no churches could contain them, or voices reach 
 them ; so that at the same time they had sermons in two or 
 three different places, and all was performed with a great show 
 of zeal and sanctity. The Resolutioners tried to imitate them 
 in these actions, but could not come up to their perfection. They 
 were not accounted so spiritual, nor had they so many followers. 
 
 These emulations and disputes proceeded at length to cen 
 sures and deprivations, according as each side had the majority. 
 These censures drew on appeals to the Privy Council that 
 Cromwell had set up in Scotland, and that Council remitted 
 them to Cromwell himself; whereupon both parties sent up 
 their deputies to London. The Protesters went in great num 
 bers, but the Resolutioners sent up in their name one Sharp, 
 who had lived long in England, an active and eager man, 
 zealous for Presbytery, and who had an acquaintance with the 
 ministers in London, whom Cromwell, at that time intending 
 to make himself king, was courting much, by reason of their 
 credit in the City. And this will lead me to mention some 
 particulars relating to Cromwell's great address and manage 
 ment of affairs that are not recorded in other histories. 
 
 When Cromwell first assumed the government, he had three 
 great parties in the nation against him the Episcopal, the 
 Presbyterian, and the Republican party. From the Episcopal 
 or Cavalier party he was afraid of assassination and other 
 plottings. To prevent the former, he was wont to declare often 
 and openly that assassinations were such detestable things that
 
 Before the Restoration 23 
 
 he would never begin them, but if any of the King's party 
 should endeavour to assassinate him, and fail in it, he would 
 make an assassinating war of it, and destroy the whole family ; 
 and for this he pretended he had instruments ready whenever 
 he pleased, and by the terror of this he was better secured than 
 by his guards. That their plottings against him might do him 
 no harm, he prevailed on Sir Richard Willis (who was Chan 
 cellor Hyde's great confidant, and to whom the designs of the 
 whole party were communicated), by bribery and false pretences, 
 to let him know all the plots that were on foot, only to discon 
 cert them so, as he said, that none of the party, for whom he 
 pretended to have a great regard and tenderness, might suffer 
 by them. For this piece of service he offered Willis what money 
 he would have, but Willis durst take no more than about two 
 hundred pounds a year. 
 
 This was so true that after Cromwell's death Willis continued 
 the same practice of giving intelligence of everything to his 
 secretary, Thurlow; and to complete his perfidy, when there 
 was a design among the Cavaliers of a general insurrection, and 
 the King desired to come over, he laid a snare for him that had 
 probably taken effect had not Morland, Thurlow's undersecre 
 tary, discovered the correspondence between Thurlow and 
 Willis, and warned the King of his danger. 
 
 Cromwell's way of gaining the Presbyterians was by protect 
 ing them against the fury of the Republicans (many of whom, 
 being now turned deists, were for destroying all clergymen, 
 pulling down churches, discharging the tithes, and leaving 
 religion free, as they called it, without either settlement or 
 restraint), and by assuring them that he intended to maintain 
 a public ministry with all due encouragement ; and the Repub 
 lican party he studied to divide among themselves by setting 
 the Fifth Monarchy men and other enthusiasts against those 
 who pretended to have little or no religion, and who acted only 
 upon the principles of civil liberty. 
 
 When he came to take upon him the sovereign power, it was 
 no easy matter for him to satisfy the enthusiasts of his good in 
 tentions ; but his way was to tell them (not without some tears) 
 " that though greatness was his aversion, yet at that time it was 
 necessary to prevent the common enemy and preserve the nation 
 from distraction ; that he therefore stepped in between the living 
 and the dead, as he phrased it, till God should direct them to 
 a happy establishment of things ; and that, when that once came, 
 he would lay down the heavy load of power with a joy equal to
 
 24 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 the grief and trouble wherewith he was then forced to sustain it." 
 This discourse commonly ended in a long prayer. All this 
 while the people were treated with great freedom in the terms 
 of their old equality, and sent away at last with powerful notions 
 of the Protector's humanity and self-denial. Thus he cajoled 
 the enthusiasts, but the other Republicans he called heathens, 
 and professed he could never manage them rightly, though his 
 deep dissimulation carried matters very far with all sorts of 
 people, considering the difficulties he met with him from his 
 Parliaments. 
 
 Debates now began to run high for setting up a king. The 
 great lawyers of the House were of opinion that no new govern 
 ment could be settled legally without one, and that men's lives 
 and fortunes were precarious as things then stood, and that no 
 warrants could be pleaded, no grants or sales valid, but what 
 were confirmed by an act passed by King, Lords, and Commons ; 
 and therefore, how temporary soever they might make this in 
 stitution, yet a king was at that time necessary to establish any 
 form of government upon a legal bottom. This was made out 
 beyond all contradiction ; and though some who opposed the 
 creation of a king seemed to name the lawful heir, if they must 
 needs have one, yet the generality of the House pointed at the 
 Protector, and the true reason that determined him to refuse 
 that offer was this : The day before the Parliament made him 
 an offer of the kingship, Fleetwood and Desborough who had 
 married, one his daughter, and the other his sister met him in 
 the park, and, as the discourse turned upon the subject then 
 in hand, they told him plainly " that as they could not serve 
 him to set up the idol they had put down, and had sworn to 
 keep down, so they would not engage in anything against him, 
 but would retire and look on ; " and hereupon they offered him 
 their commissions, since they were resolved not to serve a king. 
 This remonstrance, from persons so nearly related to him, and 
 whose example, he feared, might have a fatal influence upon 
 others, wrought so far upon him, that next morning he refused 
 the title of a king, though he accepted the continuance of his 
 Protectorship ; but had he lived to have seen the debate re 
 sumed, it is generally believed he would not have refused it 
 a second time. 
 
 His management with relation to foreign affairs was no less 
 remarkable than what he practised at home. He made it a rule 
 with himself to spare no cost for the procuration of intelligence 
 abroad ; and because the Jews, by reason of their negotiation of
 
 Before the Restoration 25 
 
 money in all countries, were excellently qualified for that purpose, 
 he therefore brought over a company of them into England, and 
 gave them leave, not so much out of a principle of toleration as 
 to serve his own turn, to build themselves a synagogue ; and it 
 was by the intelligence of one of these, who came to him once 
 in a poor and beggarly habit, that he intercepted a large sum of 
 money that the Spaniards, who were then at war with him, sent 
 in a Dutch man-of-war to pay their army in Flanders. 
 
 The greatest difficulty upon him in his foreign administration 
 was which side to choose, France or Spain ; for great application 
 was made to him from both. Spain ordered their ambassador, 
 a great and able man, Don Alonso de Cardenas, to compliment 
 him, and to engage, in case he would join with them, that 
 they would not make peace till he should recover Calais (which 
 had been lost a hundred years to France) into the possession of 
 England. The Prince of Conde' likewise, who was then in hos 
 tility with France and supported by Spain, offered to turn Pro 
 testant, and, upon Cromwell's assisting him, to make a descent 
 in Guienne, where he doubted not but that the Protestants 
 would join him, and enable him so to distress France as to 
 obtain for themselves and for England what conditions the 
 Protector pleased to dictate. But that prince's pretensions, 
 upon farther inquiry, were found to be ill-grounded and vain. 
 AIazarin,on the other hand, endeavoured to outbid Spain by offer 
 ing to assist Cromwell to take Dunkirk, then in the Spaniards' 
 hands, and a place of much more importance than Calais, and 
 at the same time threatened that, in case he did join Spain, an 
 army of Huguenots, headed by the King or his brother, should 
 make a descent on England, which at that time might be of 
 dangerous consequence to him, considering how many enemies 
 he had at home and how few friends. 
 
 This, indeed, was the thing that determined him to join with 
 France : and in consequence of the treaty the King and his 
 brother were dismissed the kingdom with many excuses, some 
 money, and large promises of a constant supply, which were 
 never meant to be performed. 
 
 Before the King left Paris he changed his religion, but by 
 whose persuasion it is not yet known, only Cardinal de Retz 
 was in the secret, and Lord Aubigny had a great hand in it. 
 The Duke of York was not at that time converted, for it was 
 later than this when the nun's advice in a monastery in 
 Flanders, desiring him to pray every day that if he was not in 
 the right way God would bring him into it, made such an im-
 
 26 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 pression upon him that, as he said, it never left him till he 
 changed. The two brothers at first retired to Cologne ; but 
 when the Spaniards found they could not gain Cromwell, they 
 were invited to Brussels, where great appointments were settled 
 for their maintenance, though very little was performed, and 
 the subjects of the three kingdoms invited to serve under them, 
 though few came, except from Ireland, and of these some regi 
 ments were formed. 
 
 Before Cromwell had perfectly joined France, and was as it 
 were balancing in his mind which side to take, upon the in 
 formation of one Gage, how weak and how wealthy the 
 Spaniards were in the West Indies, he concluded that it would 
 be both a great and an easy conquest to seize on their 
 dominions, and thereupon he equipped a fleet with a force 
 sufficient, as he thought, to have taken Cuba and Hispaniola, 
 whereupon the conquest of the whole was supposed to depend. 
 He miscarried, however, in the enterprise ; and though the 
 fleet took Jamaica, yet that was thought but a small acquisi 
 tion in comparison with the main design, though much magni 
 fied to cover the disgrace of failing in the other. The war after 
 that broke out, in which Dunkirk was indeed taken and put 
 into Cromwell's hand ; but trade suffering more in that than in 
 any former war, he lost the heart of the city of London to a 
 great degree. 
 
 During his administration there were two signal occasions 
 given Kim to show his zeal in protecting the Protestants, which 
 advanced his character abroad. The Duke of Savoy raised a 
 new persecution of the Vaudois ; whereupon Cromwell sent to 
 the French Court, demanding of them to oblige that duke, 
 whom he knew to be in their power, to put a stop to his unjust 
 fury, or otherwise he would break with them ; and accord 
 ingly a stop was put to the persecution, and reparations from 
 England made to the poor people for what they had suffered in 
 it. At another time there happened a tumult at Nismes, 
 wherein some disorder had been committed by the Huguenots. 
 They, being apprehensive of severe proceedings upon it, sent 
 over one with great expedition to Cromwell to desire his inter 
 cession, and he, in an hour's time, despatched the messenger 
 with a very effectual letter to his ambassador, requiring him 
 either to prevail for a total immunity of that misdemeanour or 
 immediately to come away. His ambassador at that time was 
 Lockhart, a Scotchman, who had married Cromwell's niece, 
 and was in great favour with him ; he was at the same time
 
 
 Before the Restoration 27 
 
 Governor of Dunkirk, a wise and gallant man, calm and vir 
 tuous, and one who carried the generosities of friendship very 
 far. At his application the disorder was overlooked, and 
 though the French Court complained of this way of proceeding 
 as a little too imperious, yet the necessity of their affairs 
 made them comply. 
 
 There was a further design very advantageous to the Pro 
 testant cause, wherewith Cromwell intended to have begun his 
 kingship, had he taken it upon him, and that was the insti 
 tuting a Council for the Protestant Religion in opposition to the 
 Congregation de Propaganda Fide at Rome. This body was to 
 consist of seven councillors and four secretaries for different 
 provinces. The secretaries were to have five hundred pounds 
 salary apiece to keep correspondence everywhere ; ten thou 
 sand pounds a year was to be a fund for ordinary emergencies ; 
 farther supplies were to be provided as occasion required ; and 
 Chelsea College, then an old decayed building, was to be fitted 
 up for their reception. This was a great design, but how far 
 he would have pursued it is left to conjecture. 
 
 To conclude his character and other actions, though he 
 affected to do many things grateful, yet he never could shake 
 off the roughness of his education and temper. He spoke 
 always long and very ungracefully, and the enthusiast and dis 
 sembler mixed so equally in a great part of his deportment that 
 it was not easy to tell which was the prevailing character. One 
 standing principle he had viz., that moral laws were only 
 binding on ordinary occasions, but that upon extraordinary 
 ones they might be superseded ; so that when his own designs, 
 or anything extraordinary did not lead him out of the way, he 
 was a great lover of justice and virtue, but upon the interposi 
 tion of anything of this nature he fell into all the practices of 
 the vilest falsehood and cruelty. What he showed his good un 
 derstanding in was his seeking out capable and worthy men 
 for all employments, and more especially for the courts of law, 
 which gave a general satisfaction ; and that wherein he gratified 
 the vanity which is natural to Englishmen was his main 
 taining the honour and dignity of the nation in all foreign 
 countries. For this reason, though he himself was no crowned 
 head, he would have his ministers, he said, treated with the 
 same respect that king's ambassadors were ; and when Blake, 
 upon some ill-usage to his seamen at Malaga, sent a trumpet to 
 the Viceroy to demand the priest who was the chief instrument 
 of it, or otherwise within three hours he would beat down the
 
 28 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 town, he was so pleased with his conduct that he mentioned it 
 in Council with great satisfaction, and said he hoped to make 
 the name of an Englishman as great as ever that of a Roman 
 had been. 
 
 The truth is, his own name was become formidable every 
 where. His favourite alliance was with Sweden, for Charles X. 
 (Gustavus) and he lived in great conjunction of counsels ; but 
 the States of Holland were in such a dread of him that they 
 took care to give him no manner of umbrage, insomuch that 
 when the King or his brother came at any time to visit their 
 sister, the Princess Royal, a deputation of the States was in 
 stantly with them to let them know that there they could have 
 no shelter. All Italy in like manner trembled at his name, and 
 seemed to be under a panic fear as long as he lived. His fleet 
 scoured the Mediterranean, and the Turks durst not offend 
 him, but delivered up Hyde, the King's ambassador there, who 
 was brought over and executed for assuming that character. 
 
 Thus he lived, and at last died on his auspicious 3rd of 
 September, of so slight a sickness that his death was not 
 expected ; whereupon Goodwin, who but some minutes before 
 had assured the people in a prayer that he was not to die, had 
 now the impudence to say to God, "Thou hast deceived us, 
 and we are deceived." He had two sons and four daughters. 
 His sons were weak but honest men. Richard, the eldest, was 
 declared Protector in pursuance of a nomination pretended to 
 be made by his father ; and the city of London, as well as all 
 the counties and cities in England, sent him addresses con 
 gratulatory as well as condoling. The Commonwealth party, 
 however, cried out upon his assuming the Protectorship as a 
 high usurpation ; and when the Parliament met, though some 
 attempts were made to have his title recognised, yet Fleetwood, 
 who had married Ireton's widow, set up a council of officers, 
 who were resolved to lay him aside, as having neither genius, 
 nor friends, nor treasure, nor army to support him. When he 
 saw this he withdrew very quietly, upon the promise of having 
 his debts paid (which was never performed), and so became a 
 private man. The other son had more spirit of the two, and 
 by his father was made Lieutenant of Ireland ; but he could 
 not stand his ground when once his brother had quitted his 
 authority. One daughter was married to Claypole, and died a 
 little before himself; another to the Earl of Falconbridge ; and 
 a third to the Earl of Warwick's heir first, and afterwards to 
 one Russell, both worthy persons.
 
 Before the Restoration 29 
 
 Upon Richard's leaving the stage, the Commonwealth was 
 again set up, and the Parliament, which Cromwell had dis 
 solved, was again brought together. But the army and they 
 fell into new disputes ; so they were again broken by the army, 
 and the nation, upon that, was likely to fall into so great con 
 vulsions, that many thought it necessary to call home the King 
 in order to settle things in their old channel. 
 
 Lambert was the man who had the chief sway in the army ; 
 and, upon his forcing the Parliament, great application was 
 made to Monk, who was then in Scotland, to come up and 
 oppose him. All this while Monk kept himself mightily upon 
 the reserve, declaring only for the Parliament, and against any 
 single person, particularly against the King ; so that some 
 imagined he meant to set up for himself, and others believed 
 that he had no settled design any way, but intended only to act 
 according as occasion should offer. As he came near the 
 borders, Lord Fairfax in Yorkshire, with a hundred gentlemen 
 and their servants, appeared in favour of his design ; and so 
 great a credit had this lord retained in the army, that the 
 very night after a brigade of twelve hundred horse came over 
 to him. Lambert, seeing this, resolved to march back to 
 London ; but in his retreat the army forsook him, and himself 
 was taken prisoner and put in the Tower. Not long after he 
 made his escape, and gathered some troops about him in 
 Northamptonshire; but Ingoldsby, one of the King's judges, 
 raised Buckinghamshire against him, took him prisoner again, 
 and brought him to Northampton. 
 
 Upon the dispersing of Lambert's army, Monk marched 
 southward. When he came into Yorkshire, he offered to resign 
 the chief command to Lord Fairfax, but that lord refused it, 
 and pressed him only to declare for a free Parliament, in which 
 he found him so reserved, that he knew not well how to depend 
 upon him. When he came up to London he was again 
 pressed to declare himself; but at first he would only declare 
 for the Parliament that Lambert had forced, there being then 
 a great fermentation all over the nation, and no small jealousy 
 between him and the Parliament, how highly soever they 
 expressed their confidence in each other ; for the Parliament 
 soon after put him upon a very ungracious office, that of break 
 ing down the gates of the city of London, on purpose to make 
 him odious. But, so soon as he perceived his error, that very 
 night he sent the City assurance that if they would but forgive 
 it, he would make them ample amends ; and the day following,
 
 30 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 when he was invited to dine at Guildhall, he declared for the 
 secluded members, as those were then called who by the army 
 were driven from the House in the year '47 and '48. Upon 
 this occasion, some happening to call the body that then sat 
 at Westminster but the rump of a Parliament, a sudden humour 
 ran, like a madness, through the whole City, of roasting the 
 rumps of all sorts of creatures, to express a derision and con 
 tempt of them. Upon this declaration, the secluded members 
 met, but all they could do at present was to give orders for the 
 summoning of a new Parliament on the ist of May, and so 
 declare themselves dissolved. 
 
 Care in the meantime was taken by Monk so to regulate 
 the army, by mixing the well and ill affected together, by 
 scattering them up and down in different quarters, and above 
 all, by keeping no more troops (and those the best affected) 
 than were necessary about the City, as to make it rather assistant 
 than obstructive to the design then in hand. Admiral Mon 
 tague, who had then the chief command at sea, was soon pre 
 vailed upon to be for the King, and dealt so effectually with 
 the whole fleet as to make a general turn in it without any 
 revolt or opposition. The temper of the people at this time, 
 too, conspired not a little to the same end. The Republicans 
 had lost their spirit and power; elections for members of 
 Parliament ran everywhere against them, for enthusiasm was 
 now evaporated, and the nation returning to its wits again. 
 Chancellor Hyde, on the other hand, was all this while very 
 busy, writing in the King's name, prevailing with the King to 
 write several letters himself in a very obliging manner, and 
 sending over Dr. Morley, who was more acceptable because he 
 professed to be a Calvinist, to treat with the Presbyterians of 
 moderation, in order to bring the King home. 
 
 When the new Parliament (afterwards called the Convention, 
 because it was not summoned by the King's writ) met, such a 
 unanimity appeared in their proceedings, that there was not 
 the least dispute among them, except upon one single point. 
 Hale, afterwards Lord Chief Justice, moved that a committee 
 might be appointed to look into the propositions which had been 
 made, and the concessions that had been offered, by the late 
 King during the war, that from thence they might digest such 
 overtures as they should think fit to send over to the King. 
 But, in answer to this, Monk told the House " that as there 
 was yet, beyond all men's hopes, universal quiet throughout 
 the kingdom, he could not answer for the peace either of the
 
 Before the Restoration 31 
 
 nation or army (considering the many incendiaries still on the 
 watch, and ready to raise a flame) if any delay were put to 
 the sending for the King ; and therefore he moved that they 
 would immediately appoint commissioners to bring him over, 
 laying all the blame of the blood and mischief that might other 
 wise ensue on the heads of those who should still insist on any 
 motion that might obstruct the present settlement of the 
 nation." This was received with so general a shout and appro 
 bation of the House, that the debate was never resumed, and 
 was, indeed, the great service that Monk did ; for as to the 
 Restoration itself, the tide ran so strong that he only went 
 into it dexterously, to get himself much fame and great 
 rewards, which he afterwards lived long enough to show how 
 little he deserved. 
 
 Thus we have passed through the times of public ruin and 
 confusion, and are now entering upon a more regular history, 
 and a scene of action more delightful.
 
 BOOK II 
 
 OF THE FIRST TWELVE YEARS OF THE REIGN OF KING 
 CHARLES II. FROM 1660 TO 1673 
 
 As soon as matters were fixed in Parliament for the King's 
 restoration, every one was going over to make his court; 
 and among the rest, one Sharp, by a letter of recommendation 
 from the Earl of Glencairn to Hyde, soon after made Earl of 
 Clarendon (as the only person capable of managing the affair of 
 setting up Episcopacy in Scotland), was received into great 
 confidence. This Sharp, as has been said before, had a long 
 time been maintained in London by the Presbyterians in Scot 
 land, who were called Resolutioners, as their agent ; and had 
 all along made solemn protestations both by word and letter, 
 appeals to God for his sincerity in acting for Presbytery upon 
 all occasions, and dreadful imprecations upon himself if he did 
 prevaricate. This he had done so often, and to so many 
 different persons, that when he came to throw off the mask, 
 about a year after, his character for perfidy and dissimulation 
 became detestable. 
 
 With the restoration of the King a spirit of extravagant joy 
 overspread the nation, which was soon attended with all manner 
 of profaneness and immorality. The hypocritical pretences of 
 former times gave great advantages and matter enough to the 
 mockers at religion ; and some were so weak as to fall in with 
 them, to avoid the more odious imputation of being hypocrites. 
 Men's hearts were elated after their return from want ; and 
 riot and excess, under the colour of drinking the King's health, 
 were made a compensation for what they had suffered under a 
 state of much affliction. 
 
 The King was then thirty years of age, and past, one would 
 think, the levities of youth and extravagances of pleasure. He 
 had a good understanding, was well acquainted with the state 
 of affairs both at home and abroad, and had an easy affability 
 and softness of temper that charmed all who came near him, 
 until they were made sensible how little his good looks, and 
 kind words, and fair promises, wherein he was liberal to excess, 
 were to be depended on. His apprehension was quick, and his 
 imagination and memory good, which enabled him to tell
 
 Charles II. First Part 33 
 
 stories with a good grace ; but these being sometimes too long, 
 and sometimes too often repeated, made him become an ever 
 lasting talker. His compass of knowledge was very considerable ; 
 for he understood physic and chemistry, mechanics and naviga 
 tion well, and the architecture of a ship a little more exactly 
 than what became a prince. His sense of religion was so very 
 small that he did not so much as affect the hypocrite ; but at 
 prayers and sacraments let every one, by his negligent be 
 haviour, see how little he thought himself concerned in these 
 matters. His Popery he concealed to the last, but it would 
 sometimes break out in the commendation of an infallible 
 guide in matters of religion, and an implicit faith and sub 
 mission in the people. His political notions were chiefly taken 
 from the French Government ; for a king that might be con 
 trolled or have his ministers called to an account by Parliament 
 was, in his opinion, but a creature of the people and a king by 
 name. His private opinion of people was very odd. He thought 
 no man sincere, nor woman honest, out of principle ; but that 
 whenever they proved so, humour or vanity was at the bottom 
 of it. No one, he fancied, served him out of love, and there 
 fore he endeavoured to be quits with the world by loving others 
 as little as he thought they loved him. But what was the 
 ruin of his reign, and of all his affairs, was his giving himself 
 up to a mad range of pleasures from the very first, and at a 
 time that required his utmost application. His first and longest 
 mistress was a Villiers, married to one Palmer, a Papist, soon 
 after made Earl of Castlemaine ; and she, when separated from 
 him, was advanced to be Duchess of Cleveland l a woman of 
 great beauty, but enormously vicious and ravenous, foolish but 
 imperious, very uneasy to the King, and always carrying on 
 intrigues with other men, even while she pretended to be 
 jealous of him. His passion for her, and her strange behaviour 
 to him, disordered him so that he was oftentimes neither 
 master of himself nor capable of business, and therefore 
 committed the care of all to the management of the Earl of 
 Clarendon. 
 
 The Earl of Clarendon was bred to the law, and grew eminent 
 in that profession, as well as considerable in the House of 
 Commons. When the war broke out, he followed the King's 
 fortunes abroad, and returned an absolute favourite. He was 
 a good minister, indefatigable in business, but a little too 
 
 1 By her he had five children.
 
 34 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 magisterial, and not well enough acquainted with foreign 
 affairs. He was a good chancellor, and impartial in the 
 administration of justice, but a little too rough. He had a 
 levity in his wit, and a loftiness in his carriage, that did not 
 well become the station he was in ; for those who addressed to 
 him, and those who thought themselves neglected, he was 
 apt to reject with contempt and some disparagement of their 
 services, which created him many enemies, and at last procured 
 his fall. 
 
 The Duke of Ormond, next in favour with the King, was 
 every way fitted for a Court ; of a graceful appearance, a lively 
 wit, and a cheerful temper ; a man of great expense, but decent 
 even in his vices, for he always kept up the form of religion ; 
 too faithful not to give always good advices, but when bad ones 
 were followed too complaisant to be any great complainer. He 
 had gone through many transactions with more fidelity than 
 success, and in the siege of Dublin miscarried so far as to 
 lessen the opinion of his military conduct ; but his constant 
 attendance on his master, his easiness to him and great suffer 
 ings for him, raised him to be Lord Steward of the Household 
 and Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 
 The Earl of Southampton was next to these a man of great 
 virtue and good parts, of a lively imagination and a sound 
 judgment, who had merited much by his constant adherence to 
 the King's interest during the war, and the large remittances 
 he made him in his exile. He was made Lord Treasurer ; but, 
 by reason of his frequent affliction with the stone and uneasi 
 ness at the King's conduct, he retired from Court more than 
 was consistent with that high post, and left the business of the 
 Treasury wholly in the hands of his secretary, Sir Philip 
 Warwick, a weak man, but so very honest and incorrupt that 
 in the course of seven years he acquired to himself but a very 
 moderate fortune out of that profitable employ. 
 
 The man who was in the greatest credit with the Earl of 
 Southampton was Sir Anthony Ashley Cooper, who had married j 
 his niece, and was afterwards raised to be Earl of Shaftesbury; 
 a man of popular eloquence, who could mix the facetious and 
 the furious way of arguing very agreeably, and who had got 
 the art of governing parties, and making himself the head 
 of them, just as he pleased. His religion was that of the deist I 
 at the best ; he had the dotage of astrology in him to a great de- 
 gree, and fancied that our souls, after death, lived in stars. His 
 learning was superficial he understood little to the bottom ;
 
 Charles II. First Part 35 
 
 but his vanity in setting himself out was ridiculous and dis 
 gusting. His reasoning was loose, his discourse rambling, and 
 he had a better way of bantering or bearing down an argument 
 than he had in supporting it. After all, his chief strength lay 
 in knowing mankind, their understandings and tempers, and in 
 applying himself to them so dexterously that though, by his 
 changing sides so often, it was visible he was not to be de 
 pended upon nay, though he himself was not ashamed to 
 recount the many turns he had made, and to value himself 
 upon them, yet he still could create a dependence, and make 
 himself the centre of any discontented party. 
 
 Another man, much of the same stamp, and who passed 
 through many great employments, was Annesley, afterwards 
 created Earl of Anglesea ; a man of grave deportment, strong 
 application, and great knowledge, especially in the law, who 
 understood our government well, and had examined far into 
 the original of our constitution. He was an indefatigable but 
 very ungraceful speaker, and too apt to forget that raillery, 
 which he was always attempting, was no part of his talent ; 
 but, what was the worst in him, he stuck at nothing, -"and was 
 ashamed of nothing, insomuch that he seemed to disregard 
 common decencies ; for he sold everything in his power, and 
 himself, so oft, that at last the price fell so low that he grew 
 useless and contemptible. 
 
 Hollis was a man of great courage, and as great pride, the 
 head of the Presbyterian party for many years, and who, during 
 the whole course of his life, never once changed his side. He 
 had indeed the soul of an old stubborn Roman in him, was a 
 faithful but a rough friend, and a severe but open enemy. 
 His sense of religion was just, his course of life regular, and his 
 judgment, when passion did not bias him, sound enough. He 
 was well versed in the records of Parliament, and argued 
 well, but too vehemently, for he could not bear any con 
 tradiction. 
 
 The Earl of Manchester was a man of no great depth, but of 
 a soft obliging temper, and therefore universally beloved, be 
 cause he was both virtuous and generous to a great degree. 
 The Lord Roberts was sour and cynical ; just in his administra 
 tion, but vicious under the semblance of virtue ; learned above 
 any of his quality, but stiff and obstinate, proud and jealous, 
 and every way intractable. 
 
 These last five, by reason of their great credit with the 
 Presbyterian party, were powerful instruments in the Revolu-
 
 36 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 tion, and were therefore advanced to posts of great trust by the 
 Earl of Clarendon, though he suffered very much in the opinion 
 of most of the Cavaliers by so doing. 
 
 At the King's first coming over, Monk and Montague were 
 most considered : they both had the Garter, and noble estates 
 given them ; the one was made Duke of Albemarle, and the 
 other Earl of Sandwich ; but Albemarle, as well as his wife, who 
 was a mean contemptible woman, became so exceeding raven 
 ous, begging and selling everything within his reach, that he 
 lost his credit everywhere, though the King, in acknowledgment 
 of his services, showed him all the outward appearance of 
 respect, at the same time that he despised him. He had two 
 persons (besides his own kinsman, Sir John Greville, who 
 thought of nothing but getting and spending money) who 
 depended on him, and whom he raised. The one was Clarges, 
 his wife's brother, an honest but haughty man, and who after 
 wards became considerable for his opposing the Court in 
 Parliament, and his frugal management of the public money. 
 The other was Morrice, who had first prevailed with him to 
 declare for the King, and for that service was made Secretary 
 of State : a very learned man, but full of pedantry and affecta 
 tion, and no good judge about foreign affairs. 
 
 The other Secretary, equally unskilled in affairs abroad, was 
 Nicholas, a man of great virtue, but unqualified to fall in with 
 the King's humour, or to make himself acceptable to him, 
 though he had served his father with great fidelity during the 
 late war; and therefore Bennet, afterwards Earl of Arlington, was 
 promoted to that office soon after the Revolution a proud man, 
 whose parts were solid, though not quick, and who had got the 
 art of observing the King's temper, and of managing it, above 
 all the men of that time. His great friend was Charles Berkeley, 
 Earl of Falmouth, who, without any visible merit but that of 
 managing the King's amours, and some generosity in his ex 
 pense, was the most absolute of all his favourites. These two 
 had the management of the King's mistress ; and all who were 
 enemies to the Earl of Clarendon, the chief of whom were the 
 Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of Bristol, resorted to them. 
 
 The Earl of Bristol was a man of courage and learning, of a 
 bold temper, and a lively wit ; but he had no judgment or 
 steadiness in him. He was counted a good speaker, but was too 
 copious and too florid. During the war at Oxford he was in 
 the Queen's interest ; and when he went abroad he turned 
 Papist, which set him at the head of that party.
 
 Charles II. First Part 37 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham had a noble presence, a great 
 liveliness of wit, and a peculiar faculty of turning anything 
 into ridicule. He was devoid of all kind of literature, only he 
 pretended to chemistry, and for some years fancied he was near 
 the philosopher's stone. He had no principles of religion, 
 virtue, or friendship ; no truth or honour, no steadiness or con 
 duct in him, and was therefore too fit an instrument to corrupt 
 the King's notions and morals. He could keep no secret, nor 
 execute any design without spoiling it. Pleasure, and frolic, 
 and extravagant diversion were indeed all he minded : by his 
 eager pursuit of these he ruined one of the greatest estates 
 in England, and perhaps one of the finest wits and finest 
 personages that the world then knew, and became at last so 
 contemptible and poor, so sickly and sunk in his parts, that 
 he lived to see his conversation as much avoided as it was 
 once courted. 
 
 These were the chief persons who composed the Court, and 
 had the administration of public affairs committed to their 
 hands. Those who sprang up in their room, or came upon 
 the stage afterwards, as well as those who presided in the 
 affairs of Scotland in particular, must be characterised in their 
 proper places. 
 
 The King, as was said, when he came to the crown gave 
 himself so totally to pleasures that he devolved the manage 
 ment of all his affairs to the Earl of Clarendon, who proceeded 
 with great moderation, as unwilling to stretch the prerogative 
 beyond what it was before the wars, though he took care to 
 have all things that were extorted from the Crown by the Long 
 Parliament restored ; the dispute of the power of the militia 
 determined; and a revenue of ^1,200,000 a year (more than 
 ever king had before) allowed for the ordinary expenses of the 
 Government. 
 
 While these things were in agitation, and the King scarce yet 
 well seated on his throne, one Venner, a violent Fifth Monarchy 
 man, got together some of the most furious of his party, well 
 armed, but not above twenty in number, and ran into the 
 streets, crying out, " No king but Christ ; " and some of them 
 were so mad as to believe that Christ would come down and 
 head them. They scoured the streets before them, and killed 
 many, while some were afraid and all amazed at this extrava 
 gance ; but at last they were overpowered by numbers, and all 
 either killed or taken and executed. 
 
 On this occasion some troops of guards were raised, and 
 
 434535
 
 38 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 there was then much talk of forming such an army as might 
 inject terror, and prevent all such tumults for the future ; but 
 upon the Earl of Southampton's expostulation with Lord Clar 
 endon, who represented the ill consequences of it to the King, 
 as destructive to the liberties of the subject, that design was 
 laid aside ; the army disbanded with great tokens of respect, as 
 they were indeed a brave, a sober, and well-disciplined body ; 
 and no more of them retained than what were necessary 
 for the ornament and security of the King, and the preser 
 vation of the nation's peace, and these all recommended by 
 Monk. 
 
 The regicides at this time were odious beyond all expression ; 
 but when they came to die they appeared with such a firmness 
 of mind, and show of piety, and seeming joy for suffering on 
 that account, as abated the common indignation against them. 
 The first who suffered was Harrison, a man of great resolution, 
 but a fierce and bloody enthusiast, and who had offered to the 
 army, if it was thought best to kill the King privately, to do it 
 with his own hand. When he was brought to the place of 
 execution he spoke boldly in vindication of what he had done, 
 as the cause and the work of God, and underwent all the in 
 dignities and severities that were inflicted on him with a calm 
 ness, or rather a cheerfulness, that astonished the spectators. The 
 only person among them who died dastardly was Hugh Peters, a 
 very vicious man, but a sort of buffoon preacher, who had been 
 serviceable to Cromwell on several accounts, and a fierce insti 
 gator of the King's death. He had neither honesty to repent of 
 his sin, nor strength of mind to suffer for it as the rest had 
 done, but was perpetually drinking some strong cordial liquors 
 to keep up his spirits or make him insensible. 
 
 Among those who suffered on this occasion, one of principal 
 note, and who was thought to have a little hard measure, was 
 Sir Henry Vane. He had been all along for changing the 
 constitution and deposing the King ; but when designs were 
 carrying on to take his life he withdrew from the scene, and 
 would not act. This was represented in his behalf to the King 
 by both Houses of Parliament, and the King gave them, in 
 general terms, a favourable answer ; but the great hand he had 
 in subverting the Government before, and his great capacity to 
 embroil matters again, made it convenient to have him out of 
 the way. He was a man of dark notions in religion, inclinable 
 to Origen's opinion of universal salvation, and the doctrine of
 
 Charles II. First Part 39 
 
 pre-existence. The sect that he adjoined himself to were called 
 " Seekers," as being satisfied with no form of opinion yet extant, 
 but waiting for further discoveries ; and in their meetings he 
 used to pray and preach frequently, but in such an abstruse 
 manner as few could understand. When he came to die (for he 
 was beheaded on Tower Hill) some strains of a peculiar nature 
 were expected in his speech, and therefore drummers were 
 placed under the scaffold, who, upon the sign given them, when 
 he came to speak of the Government, struck up their drums. 
 This put him in no disorder, for he knew the meaning of it ; he 
 therefore went to his devotions, and as he was taking leave of 
 his friends, with some observations upon the times, the drums 
 struck up again ; so he gave over, and died with more courage 
 and composedness than was expected from his natural 
 timidity. 
 
 What made his death not so well digested was an unaccount 
 able clemency extended to some who were thought equally 
 culpable, and deserving the same fate. Henry Martin, a vile 
 and impious man, and who, even in his imprisonment, gave 
 himself up to vice and blasphemy, gained friends by that means : 
 and, upon that account, was said to be spared, though he had 
 been a most violent enemy to monarchy all his life long. John 
 Goodwin had not only justified but applauded the King's 
 murder both in his sermons and books. John Milton had 
 appeared with great boldness, but with equal wit and elegance, 
 against Salmasius and others, upon the argument of the King's 
 death, and had treated his royal person and family, and mo 
 narchy itself, with the utmost virulence and contempt ; and yet 
 neither of these was censured nor excepted out of the Act of 
 Indemnity. 
 
 The truth is, that act passed with so very few exceptions that 
 it gave a general disgust to the Cavaliers. They promised them 
 selves some reparation for their losses out of the fines and con 
 fiscations of the estates of such as were busy agents in the late 
 troubles ; but when they saw the extent and comprehensiveness 
 of the act, and themselves excluded from offices besides, they 
 were not a little exasperated against the Earl of Clarendon, the 
 supposed adviser of these things, and used sarcastically to say 
 that the King had passed an Act of Oblivion for his friends, 
 and of Indemnity for his enemies, because the title of it was an 
 Act of Oblivion and Indemnity. Upon these discontents a de 
 sign was laid, the next Parliament, of repealing this Act of 
 Indemnity, and bringing in another ; but the King, upon Lord
 
 40 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Clarendon's instances, absolutely rejected it as a thing incom 
 patible with his own honour and his people's security. 
 
 While these things were transacted in the State, the affairs of 
 the Church came likewise under consideration. Juxon was 
 promoted to Canterbury, but more for decency, because he had 
 assisted the late King in his last hours, than any capacity he 
 had to fill that great post ; for he was never in his life a great 
 divine, and at that time was very much superannuated. Sheldon 
 was first made Bishop of London, and upon Juxon's death 
 translated to Canterbury. He had a great quickness of appre 
 hension, a true judgment, a dexterity in business, and a plea 
 santness of conversation perhaps too great. He was very 
 generous and charitable, and had got the art of treating all who 
 came near him in the most obliging manner, but few depended 
 on his professions of friendship. His learning had been esteemed 
 before the wars, but it was then all lost in politics, and his 
 sense of religion was not much, if any at all ; for he used to 
 speak of it as an engine of State, which gained him credit with 
 the King as a wise and honest clergyman. The bishopric of 
 Worcester was designed for Dr. Hammond, a man of great 
 learning and most eminent merit, and who, in the worst of 
 times, had maintained the cause of the Church with great con 
 stancy and moderation, studious to reform abuses, and to raise 
 in the clergy a proper sense of their obligation ; but he dying a 
 little before the Restoration, Morley was nominated to that see, 
 and not long after removed to Winchester, upon the death of 
 Duppa, who had been the King's tutor, but no way competent for 
 that charge : a meek and humble man, and much beloved for the 
 sweetness of his temper ; but he made not that use of the great 
 wealth that flowed in upon him as was expected. Morley at 
 first was known to the world as Lord Falkland's friend, and for 
 many years continued Lord Clarendon's domestic chaplain. He 
 was a pious and charitable man, very exemplary in his life, but 
 extremely passionate, and not a little obstinate ; a Calvinist in 
 relation to the Arminian controversy, and before the wars a 
 supposed friend to the Puritans, but of that he took care to 
 clear himself abundantly when once he was promoted in the 
 Church. 
 
 These were the bishops who, upon the Restoration, had the 
 greatest credit at Court ; and when matters came to be debated, 
 the first point was whether concessions should be granted and 
 pains taken to gain the Dissenters, especially the Presbyterians.
 
 Charles II. First Part 41 
 
 The King at first, by Lord Clarendon's persuasion, approved of 
 the design ; and accordingly published a Declaration soon after 
 his coming concerning ecclesiastical affairs. But the bishops 
 and their party knew that the Presbyterians were possessed of 
 most of the greatest benefices in the Church, chiefly in the city 
 of London and the two universities ; that many of them had 
 gone into the design of restoring the King with as much zeal 
 and readiness as any ; that they were men of great credit in 
 several places, and very influential in the election of members 
 of Parliament ; and that some of them still retained their old 
 leaven and confirmed animosity against the Church ; and 
 therefore, to divest them of their livings, as well as preclude 
 them from any claim of merit or power of doing ill, they 
 thought it advisable, instead of using any methods to bring 
 them in, to apply the most effectual ones to keep them out 
 of the bosom of the Church, and accordingly prevailed with 
 the King to fix the terms of conformity on what they had 
 been before the war, without making the least abatement or 
 alteration. 
 
 A show of moderation, however, was still carried on, and 
 soon after the Declaration was published a commission was 
 granted to twelve of a side, with nine assistants to each side, to 
 meet at the Savoy, and consider of means for uniting them in 
 one communion. At their first meeting the Dissenters were 
 desired, before they came to treat of particulars, to offer all at 
 once the exceptions they had, and the alterations they required, 
 and that in writing. Some were for insisting only upon a few 
 important things, leaving the rest to be gained after the union ; 
 but Baxter, who was a man of great zeal, much simplicity, and 
 a considerable share of learning, had he not meddled with too 
 many things; a moving and pathetic writer, but too voluminous, 1 
 and most unhappily subtle and metaphysical in everything ; he 
 persuaded them that by the words of the Commission they 
 were obliged to offer everything they thought might conduce 
 to the good and peace of the Church, without any consideration 
 how it might be taken. And thereupon they moved that 
 Bishop Usher's Reduction 2 should be laid down as a ground- 
 
 1 He wrote nearly two hundred books, and three of them large folios. 
 Of these, one hundred and sixty-eight are enumerated by Orme, in his 
 Life of Baxter, prefixed to the complete edition of his works, published 
 in 1830. 
 
 2 " The Reduction of Episcopacy to the Form of the Synodical Govern 
 ment in the Ancient Church," 1658. 
 
 C 2
 
 42 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 work to treat on, and that bishops should not govern their 
 diocese by their single authority or by lay-officers in their 
 courts, but take along with them the counsel and concurrence 
 of their presbyters. They offered several exceptions against 
 the Liturgy, against the many responses of the people, against 
 the old translation of the Psalms, and against lessons taken 
 out of apocryphal books. They found fault with many parts 
 of the Office of Baptism that import the inward regeneration of 
 all who were baptized, and insisted much against kneeling at 
 the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, against the sign of the 
 cross in baptism, the institution of sponsors, the use of the 
 surplice, and the observation of holy-days. And as they pro 
 posed these amendments, so they did also offer a Liturgy new 
 drawn by Baxter. 
 
 The largeness of these demands raised a great outcry against 
 them as people who could never be satisfied. At last the whole 
 matter was reduced to this single point ; viz., whether it was 
 lawful, in the worship of God, to impose things indifferent ; 
 and upon this there was a free conference, that lasted some 
 days. 
 
 The two persons who had the chief management of the debate, 
 but the most unqualified to heal matters that could be thought 
 on, were Baxter and Gunning, who was first made Bishop of 
 Chester, and afterwards advanced to Ely. He was a man of 
 great reading, knew all the arts of sophistry, and would upon 
 every occasion make use of them as confidently as if they had 
 been sound reasoning. Honest and sincere he was to a great 
 degree ; but, having no sound judgment or prudence in affairs, 
 he was unweariedly active to very little purpose, and was so 
 fond of reconciling us to the Church of Rome in some points, 
 and of conforming us to the rules of the Primitive Church, 
 even in the smallest rituals, that he gained the reputation of 
 being a well-wisher to Popery without any just cause. He and 
 Baxter, to the great diversion of the town, spent some days in 
 logical wrangling, without settling one article of the dispute 
 till the date of the commission was out ; and the Conference 
 broke up with complaints and accusations, as well as a large 
 increase of bitterness on both sides; and the bishops, after 
 this, were so far from relaxing anything, that they endeavoured 
 to make the terms of conformity much stricter than they were 
 before the war. For all the clergy, lecturers as well as incum 
 bents, were obliged to subscribe an unfeigned assent and consent 
 to all and every particular contained in the Book of Common
 
 Charles II. First Part 43 
 
 Prayer ; they were to declare that the Covenant was in itself an 
 unlawful oath ; that it laid no obligation on them, or any other 
 person, to endeavour any change or alteration in Church or 
 State ; and that to take up arms by the King's authority against 
 his person was a traitorous position ; nor was any one allowed 
 to hold any ecclesiastical benefice who had not Episcopal 
 ordination. 
 
 The Convocation had now revised the Book of Common 
 Prayer, and made some alterations in the Liturgy. The Prayer 
 for all Conditions of Men, the General Thanksgiving, and some 
 new collects were added, particularly one for the Parliament, 
 wherein the epithet of " religious " was added to the King's title, 
 which gave some offence, and occasioned much indecent raillery. 
 More lessons were taken out of the Apocrypha, particularly the 
 story of Bel and the Dragon ; more new holy-days, St. Bar 
 nabas and the conversion of St. Paul, were instituted ; new 
 offices for two new days, the 3oth of January and the 2Qth of 
 May, were composed; and the Declaration of the Reasons of 
 our Kneeling at the Sacrament, which in Queen Elizabeth's 
 time had been left out, reinserted. These alterations were 
 offered to the King, who sent them to the House of Commons ; 
 and upon that the Act of Uniformity (that deprived all who did 
 not conform to the Liturgy by the 24th of August, 1662, of 
 their ecclesiastical benefices, without any provision for their 
 subsistence) was prepared. The act passed with no great 
 majority, and not without much opposition ; but when the day 
 came, the impression of the books went on so slowly, and the 
 demand for them was so large, that few or none were to be had ; 
 so that many, who were too conscientious to subscribe to what 
 they had never seen, left their livings upon that account. 
 Reynolds accepted the bishopric of Norwich ; but Calamy and 
 Baxter refused Lichfield and Hereford. Many of their brethren 
 suffered very much, and the number of them that fell under 
 this parliamentary deprivation was, as they give out, about two 
 thousand. 
 
 The clergy, being thus possessed of all the livings, had a. 
 fair opportunity of doing great and glorious things with this, 
 accession of great wealth. Almost all the leases of the Church 
 estates were now fallen in, there having been no renewal for 
 twenty years. The fines raised by renewing these leases 
 amounted to a million and a half. In some sees forty or fifty 
 thousand pounds were raised, but, instead of being converted
 
 44 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 to the use of the Church, it was applied to the enriching of 
 the bishop's family. What the bishops did was a pattern to 
 all lower dignitaries ; and so the money that was everywhere 
 raised by renewals was either laid out in purchases, or expended 
 in luxury and high living ; while the clergy themselves became 
 lazy and negligent of their proper duties, leaving preaching and 
 writing to others, and buried their parts in ease and sloth, inso 
 much that the credit of the Church had been quite extinct, had 
 not a new set of men of a different stamp, who had their 
 education chiefly in Cambridge, under Dr. Whichcote, Cudworth, 
 Wilkins, Worthington, and More, rose up and become a great 
 ornament to it. 
 
 Whichcote was a man of rare temper, very mild and obliging, 
 and a great friend to liberty of conscience ; for the credit he 
 had with some who had been eminent in the late times he 
 made no other use of than to protect good men of all per 
 suasions. He was an enemy to the dry systematical way that 
 was then in vogue, and a promoter of nobler thoughts ; and 
 therefore set young students much on reading the ancient 
 philosophers, and considering the Christian religion as a doctrine 
 sent by God to elevate and sweeten human nature. Cudworth 
 carried this on with a great strength of genius, and a vast 
 compass of learning : a man of much conduct and prudence, 
 but what his enemies falsely called craft and dissimulation. 
 Wilkins was first of Oxford, but removed to Cambridge, where 
 he joined himself to those who made it their endeavour to take 
 men off from narrow notions and superstitious conceits in 
 matters of opinion. He was a great promoter of experimental 
 philosophy; and though he had married Cromwell's sister, 
 and was well in his favour, yet he made no other use of that 
 alliance than to protect the university and do good offices ; 
 for he was a lover of mankind, and delighted to do good, and 
 though naturally ambitious, yet a very wise clergyman. Worth 
 ington was a man of eminent piety and great humility, and 
 who practised a most sublime way of self-denial and devotion ; 
 and More, an open-hearted, sincere Christian philosopher, who 
 studied to establish men in the great principles of religion 
 against atheism, that was then beginning to gain ground 
 by the help of a very wicked book with a very strange title, 
 " The Leviathan," that Hobbes, in the late times of confusion, 
 had ventured to publish. His main principles were, that all 
 mankind were influenced by an absolute necessity; that the 
 universe was God, our souls material, and thought nothing else
 
 Charles II. First Part 45 
 
 but subtle and imperceptible motion ; that fear and interest 
 were the chief instruments of society ; that all morality con 
 sisted in following our private will and advantage ; that religion 
 had no other foundation than the laws of the land; and that 
 all law was in the will of the prince, or of the people ; for he 
 wrote his book at first in favour of absolute monarchy, but, 
 upon some disgust at Court, changed it afterwards to gratify 
 the Republicans. 
 
 To antidote the world against these opinions, which for their 
 novelty and boldness were but too greedily imbibed, this set of 
 men at Cambridge studied to assert and examine the principles 
 of religion and morality on clear grounds and in a philo 
 sophical way; and because in doing this they allowed a 
 greater freedom both in philosophy and divinity than had been 
 taken before, men of narrower thoughts and hotter tempers 
 called them Latitudinarians because they read Episcopius, 
 and were willing to account for the reason of things, their 
 enemies would have them to be Socinians ; and because they 
 were zealous against Popery, and strong assertors of the 
 Reformation, the Papists endeavoured to decry them as atheists, 
 deists, and what not. So ungrateful a work it is to awaken a 
 spirit of inquiry or to point out new lights to a people that is 
 blinded with prejudice ! 
 
 The most eminent of those who were formed under these 
 great men that have been mentioned were Tillotson, Stilling- 
 fleet, Patrick, and Lloyd. Tillotson was a man of a clear head 
 and a sweet temper. He had the brightest thoughts, the most 
 correct style, and the happiest way of explaining things of 
 any of our divines. He was eminent for his opposition of 
 Popery, persecution, and atheism, and for above twenty years 
 was universally esteemed and beloved. But at last the malice 
 of his adversaries, that had been long levelling at him, broke 
 out upon him to a great degree. Stillingfleet was a man of 
 much more learning, but more reserved and haughty in his 
 temper. His knowledge of the laws and records and the 
 original of our Constitution was very great; but his books 
 of controversy gained him his lasting fame. When he was 
 young he wrote an " Irenicum " for healing our divisions, with 
 such learning and moderation that it was accounted a master 
 piece; but he afterwards retracted it, and ran into contrary 
 notions a little more eagerly than became him. After that, he 
 wrote against infidelity beyond any who had gone before ; and 
 when he came to engage against Popery, he did it with such
 
 46 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 exactness and liveliness as made him be read and admired 
 above all the writers in that controversy. Patrick was a great 
 preacher l and a great writer, particularly on the Scriptures ; 
 laborious in his function, and exactly strict in his life, but a 
 little too severe against those who differed from him. Lloyd 
 was a great critic in the Greek and Latin tongues, but chiefly 
 in the Scriptures ; an exact historian, and the most punctual 
 chronologist of all our divines. He had read so many books 
 with so good a judgment, and had made such large extracts 
 from them, that he could write volumes upon any subject with 
 great readiness and facility ; for, besides his great store of 
 materials, he had an imagination more lively than might seem 
 consistent with such a laborious course of study. In a word, 
 he was a holy, humble, and patient man, ever ready to do 
 good, and in his ministerial capacity 2 so laborious, that he was 
 an example, or rather a reproach, to the clergy who were about 
 him. He had the comfort, however, to see himself succeeded 
 by Dr. Tenison, who carried on and advanced all the good 
 methods that he had begun in the management of so great a 
 cure. He was a learned man, and took much pains to state 
 the notions and practices of heathenish idolatry, in order to 
 fasten that charge on the Church of Rome.. He endowed 
 schools, set up a public library, and stood, as it were, in the 
 front of the battle all King James's reign, maintaining as well 
 as managing the dangerous post he was in with great conduct 
 and magnanimity. 
 
 These were the greatest divines in their times ; and it is to 
 their example and good taste that the method of preaching 
 in England, which before was overrun with pedantry and 
 mixed quotations, with points of controversy and different 
 expositions, in a style either flat or low, or swelled up to a 
 false sublime, was so wonderfully reformed. For the style of 
 their discourses was generally clear and plain ; they gave a 
 short paraphrase of their text, laying aside all unnecessary shows 
 of learning, and applying themselves directly to the matter, in 
 which they opened the nature and reason of things so fully, and 
 with that simplicity, that their hearers felt another kind of in 
 struction than what they were accustomed to; and many, by 
 their means, were won off from their prejudices against the 
 Church. 
 
 The truth is, a spirit of learning came in with the Restora- 
 
 1 He was rector of St. Paul's, Covent Garden. 
 
 2 He was vicar of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields.
 
 Charles II. First Part 47 
 
 tion, and the laity as well as the clergy were possessed with 
 a generous emulation of surpassing one another in all kinds of 
 knowledge. Mathematics and the new philosophy were in great 
 esteem ; and the meetings that Wilkins had begun at Oxford 
 were now held in London too, and that in so public a manner 
 that the King himself encouraged them much, and had some 
 experiments made before him. 
 
 The men who formed the Royal Society in London were Sir 
 Robert Murray ; the Lord Brunker, a profound mathematician ; 
 and Dr. Ward, soon after made Bishop of Exeter, and from 
 thence removed to Salisbury. Ward was one of a great reach ; 
 he went deep in mathematical studies, and was a very dex 
 terous man, if not too dexterous, for his sincerity was much 
 questioned. A profound statesman all allowed him, but most 
 reputed him a very indifferent clergyman. Many physicians 
 and other ingenious men went into the Society for Natural 
 Philosophy ; but he who laboured most at the gravest charge, 
 and with the greatest success in experiments, was Robert Boyle, 
 the Earl of Cork's youngest son. He was a very devout Chris 
 tian, humble and modest almost to a fault, and of a most 
 spotless and exemplary life in all respects. He was highly 
 charitable, a mortified and self-denied man, and one who 
 delighted in nothing so much as in doing good. He neglected 
 his person, despised the world, and, amidst a Court of great 
 licentiousness and intrigue, lived abstracted from all pleasures, 
 designs, and interests. The Society for Philosophy grew so 
 considerable that they thought fit to take out a patent, which 
 constituted them a body. But their history is written with such 
 justice and politeness by Dr. Sprat, that I refer my reader to it 
 as a most elegant entertainment. l 
 
 This was the state of affairs, both civil and ecclesiastical, in 
 England, from the Restoration to the end of the year 1661 ; and 
 to help the reader to an equal knowledge of what passed in 
 Scotland during that time, it may not be improper to give some 
 account of the chief of the Scots, and of the parties that were 
 formed among them. 
 
 The Earl of Lauderdale, afterwards made Duke, had been 
 for many years a zealous Covenanter ; but, in the year '47, 
 he turned to the King's interest, and at Worcester fight was 
 taken prisoner and detained in custody till the affair of the 
 Restoration was set on foot. In his person he made but an ill 
 
 1 "History of the Royal Society," 410, 1667. Reprinted in 1722 and 
 1734-
 
 48 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 appearance. His stature was large, his hair red, his tongue too 
 big for his mouth, and his whole manner rough and boisterous, 
 and very unfit for a Court. His temper was intolerable, for he 
 was haughty beyond expression to all who had expectances 
 from him, but abject where himself had any ; and so violently 
 passionate that he oftentimes, upon slight occasions, ran him 
 self into fits like madness. His learning was considerable, for 
 he not only understood Latin, in which he was a master, but 
 Greek and Hebrew ; had read a great deal of divinity, almost 
 all historians, both ancient and modern ; and having besides 
 an extraordinary memory, was furnished with a copious but 
 very unpolished way of expression. The sense of religion that 
 a long imprisonment had impressed on his mind was soon 
 erased by a course of luxury and sensuality, which ran him 
 into great expense, and which he stuck at nothing to support ; 
 and the fury of his behaviour heightened the severity of his 
 ministry, and made it more like the cruelty of an Inquisition 
 than the legality of justice. After all, he was no lover of 
 Popery or arbitrary power, but retained his aversion to King 
 Charles I. and his party to the hour of his death ; for he was 
 the coldest friend and the most violent enemy that ever was 
 known. 
 
 Among those who were Lord Lauderdale's friends, the Earl 
 of Crawford, who had been his fellow-prisoner for ten years, 
 was, upon that account, admitted to the post he held before, 
 that of Lord Treasurer. He was a sincere but weak man, 
 passionate and indiscreet, and continued still a zealous Presby 
 terian. The Ear!, afterwards Duke of Rothes, had married his 
 daughter, and had the merit of a long confinement likewise to 
 recommend him. He had ready dexterity in the management of 
 affairs, with a soft and winning address, a quick apprehension, 
 and a clear judgment ; but he had no advantage of education, 
 no sort of literature, no improvement from travel : all in him 
 was pure nature. 
 
 The Earl of Tweeddale was a man early engaged in business, 
 and continued in it to a great age, by which means he under 
 stood all the interests and concerns of Scotland well. He had 
 a great stock of knowledge, with a mild and obliging temper ; 
 was blameless, or rather exemplary, in his life, but he had some 
 loose notions both of civil and ecclesiastical government, and 
 seemed to think that what form soever was uppermost it 
 might be complied with ; and therefore he had been in Crom 
 well's Parliament, and abjured the royal family, which thing
 
 Charles II. First Part 49 
 
 lay heavy on him, otherwise he was the ablest and worthiest 
 man of the nobility, though a little too cautious and too 
 fearful. 
 
 The Earl of Selkirk, made Duke of Hamilton by marrying 
 the heiress of that family (for when the heiress of a title in 
 Scotland marries one of a lower rank, it is usual, at her desire, 
 to give her husband the title for life), was a candid and sincere 
 man, -but rough, boisterous, and sullen, neither fit to govern 
 nor submit, for he was mutinous when out of power, and im 
 perious in it ; he wrote well, but spoke ill, for his judgment, 
 when calm, was better than his imagination. He had a great 
 knowledge of the laws, the history, and the families of Scot 
 land ; seemed to have a good regard to justice, and love to his 
 country; but his narrow and selfish temper made him incapable 
 of any great designs. 
 
 Another person who made a good figure on that side was 
 Bruce, afterwards Earl of Kincardine, a man fit to govern any 
 affairs but his own, which, by a wrong turn and a love for the 
 public, he neglected to his ruin. His thoughts went slow, and 
 his words came much slower ; but a deep judgment appear 
 ing in what he said and did, made a compensation. He had a 
 noble zeal for justice, in which even friendship could not bias 
 him, and a powerful sense of religion and virtue, which showed 
 themselves with great lustre upon all occasions ; and from such 
 principles it is less wonder that he became a faithful friend and 
 a merciful enemy. 
 
 The Cavalier party, that was now become fierce and full of 
 merit, was headed by the Earls of Middleton and Glencairn. 
 Middleton had two friends who were principal agents under him ; 
 the one Sir Archibald Primrose, a subtle and dexterous man in 
 business, who had always expedients ready for every difficulty, 
 and an art of speaking to all men according to their sense of 
 things, so as to draw their secrets out of them, at the same 
 time that he concealed his own. He was always for soft 
 counsels and slow methods, and thought the chief thing that 
 a great man had to do was to raise his family and enrich him 
 self. The other was Sir John Fletcher, a bold and fierce man, 
 who hated all mild proceedings, and could scarce speak with 
 decency or patience of those of the other side. Such as were 
 faulty in the late times looked upon him as an Inquisitor- 
 General ; but Primrose, on the other hand, took money libe 
 rally, and was the intercessor for all who made such effectual 
 applications to him.
 
 50 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 These were the principal men who formed the different 
 parties, and on whom the negotiation of public affairs in Scot 
 land, for some time after the Restoration, rested. And the first 
 thing that was thought on, with relation to that kingdom, was 
 the manner in which persons concerned in the late rebellion 
 were to be treated. The King, in a letter to the Parliament of 
 England from Breda, promised a full indemnity to all except 
 such as were concerned in his father's death ; but there was no 
 such promise made to Scotland, and the Cavaliers were in good 
 hopes of having the estates of such as should be found guilty 
 divided amongst them. The Earl of Lauderdale opposed all 
 sanguinary proceedings with the strongest arguments that he 
 could, but the Earl of Middleton and his party prevailed ; 
 and so they desired that the Marquis of Argyll, whom they 
 charged with an accession to the King's murder, and some few 
 of those who had joined the Remonstrance while the King 
 was in Scotland, might be proceeded against. The Marquis of 
 Argyll, upon the Restoration, had retired into the Highlands 
 for some time, but his son, the Lord Lorn, was come to Court, 
 and well received by the King, and by him the Marquis wrote 
 to the King to have leave to come and wait on him. The King 
 returned an answer that had a show of encouragement in it, 
 but a little too equivocating for a prince ; upon which the 
 Marquis came up, but when he sent his son to beg admittance, 
 instead of that, he was seized and sent to the Tower. Swinton 
 was likewise sent prisoner to Scotland, and orders were issued 
 out for apprehending three of the Remonstrators, whereof War- 
 riston was one, and not the least culpable, for he had gone fully 
 into Cromwell's counsels in the last year of his government ; 
 had been summoned up as one of his peers ; put in the Council 
 of State after Richard's deposition ; and sat in another court, 
 erected by the army, called the Committee of Safety ; but he 
 had notice sent before the messenger came, and so made his 
 escape beyond sea. 
 
 The Earl of Lauderdale was thus defeated in his hopes of 
 prevailing for an indemnity for Scotland ; but he gained another 
 point very beneficial to that kingdom, and wherein the Earl 
 of Middleton thought not proper to oppose him, which was 
 that the citadels which Cromwell had built and garrisoned 
 with English soldiers should be all evacuated and slighted as 
 soon as money could be raised in England to pay and disband 
 the army. 
 
 The next thing that fell under consideration was the Church,
 
 Charles II. First Part 51 
 
 and whether bishops were to be restored or not. And upon 
 this the Earl of Lauderdale endeavoured to persuade the King 
 that the attempt of establishing Episcopacy in Scotland had 
 ruined both King James's and his father's affairs, raised dis 
 contents in the nation, and made it utterly useless to the Crown ; 
 whereas, to let them follow the grain of their inclination (as he 
 called it), was to attach them to his service, if ever any dispute 
 should happen between him and the Parliament of England. 
 It was then the honeymoon, he told him ; all things were 
 smooth and easy then ; but, in case of an alteration, as he 
 could not but expect one ere long, nothing could keep 
 England so much in awe as to see a neighbouring nation ready 
 at any call to assist him, fixed in their duty and affections to 
 him. And therefore he laid down for a maxim in policy that 
 Scotland was to be kept quiet and in good humour ; that the 
 opposition of the two kingdoms was to be kept up, and height 
 ened ; and that no uniformity in religion was to be attempted, 
 for fear of embroiling his subjects and weakening his power 
 among them. And to confirm these advices he wrote a long 
 letter down into Scotland, that a number of good sensible men 
 might be sent up, but without any noise, to inform the King of 
 the aversion the nation had to Episcopal government, and to 
 assure him that, if he would but forego that point, he might 
 depend upon them in everything else. 
 
 These debates about Episcopacy soon alarmed the Kirk ; and 
 the Resolutioners, who had employed Sharp, urged him to 
 procure something from the King that might look like a con 
 firmation of their government, and put to silence all discourses 
 of an intended change ; and he, by the Earl of Lauderdale's 
 means, obtained a letter from the King to the presbytery of 
 Edinburgh, and thence to be communicated to the other presby 
 teries, confirming the Presbyterian government as it was by 
 law established ; confirming the General Assemblies that sat 
 at St. Andrews and Dundee while he was in Scotland ; and 
 ordering all such as would not submit to them to be proceeded 
 against and censured. Sharp procured this, as he said, to 
 lull the Presbyterians asleep, that they might not attend to 
 what was contriving against them, and to hound the parties 
 at one another, that, upon a general distraction, the impossi 
 bility of maintaining the government of the Church in a parity 
 might be seen, and an Episcopal power called in to restore 
 peace. 
 
 When the King settled the ministry in Scotland, the Earl of
 
 52 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Middleton was declared his Commissioner for holding the Par 
 liament, and General of the Forces that were to be raised. The 
 Earl of Glencairn was made Chancellor, the Earl of Lauderdale 
 Secretary of State, the Earl of Rothes President of the Council, 
 the Earl of Crawford Treasurer, and Sir Archibald Primrose 
 Clerk-Register, which is very much like the Master of the Rolls 
 in England. The rest depended on these ; and a Council was 
 appointed to sit in Whitehall on Scottish affairs, to which every 
 one of the Scotch Privy Council who happened to be in town 
 should be admitted ; with this addition, that, as two Scotch 
 lords were called to the English Council, so six of the English 
 Council were to be of the Scotch a wise institution, that con 
 tinued for two or three years, and which probably might have 
 saved the nation much injustice and violence had it continued 
 longer. But as Lord Lauderdale opposed it first with all his 
 might, as a matter that would create too great a dependence 
 upon England, so, when he got into the chief management, 
 and was resolved to govern Scotland in the way that his 
 pride and passion guided him, he took care to have it super 
 seded. 
 
 One irreparable damage that Scotland sustained this year 
 was the loss of all her public records, which Cromwell, when he 
 overran that kingdom, brought up and lodged in the Tower of 
 London, in imitation of what King Edward I. had done before. 
 An order was granted for sending them down ; but they were 
 so long detained in search of the original Covenant that the 
 King had signed, and some other declarations that were 
 thought to reflect upon his honour, that it was winter before 
 they were put on board, and the ship by some easterly gusts 
 being cast away near Berwick, they were all, to the number of 
 fifty hogsheads full, lost. 
 
 Before the convention of Parliament, the Earl of Glencairn 
 was sent down to call together the Committee of Estates ; for, 
 when the Parliament made a recess, they appointed some of 
 every state to sit and act in their name till the next session, 
 for which they were to prepare matters and to give an account 
 of their proceedings. When the Parliament of Stirling was 
 adjourned, at which the King was present, a Committee was 
 named, and such of them as were yet alive were summoned 
 now to meet and take care of the national peace till the Parlia 
 ment could be brought together. The very day that the Com 
 mittee met, about ten or twelve protesting ministers were got 
 together, and had before them a paper that one Guthrie had
 
 Charles II. First Part 53 
 
 prepared, wherein, after some cold compliment to the King 
 upon his restoration, they put him in mind of the Covenant 
 which he had so solemnly sworn when he was among them. 
 They lamented his setting up the Common Prayer and order of 
 Bishops in England contrary to that oath, and denounced the 
 heavy judgments of God upon him if he did not repent of 
 these things and amend. The Earl of Glencairn had notice of 
 this meeting, and sent and seized the men and their Remon 
 strance. The Remonstrance was voted seditious, and the men 
 committed to prison ; but, after a short confinement, they were 
 all set at liberty except Guthrie, who, having occasioned 
 this meeting, and treated the King, while he was at Stirling, 
 with vast indignity in his sermons, was reserved for greater 
 severity ; for it was resolved to strike terror in all by making 
 an example of him, and to reduce pulpits, which for many 
 years had been places where preachers were wont to vent their 
 spleen and arraign public proceedings, to a little more silence 
 as to that particular, and a better regulation. 
 
 In the end of the year the Earl of Middleton came down 
 with great magnificence. His way of living was very splendid, 
 but, at the same time, very scandalous ; for vices of all kinds, 
 especially prodigious drinking, were the open practices of those 
 about him ; and such as had seen the piety and gravity that ap 
 peared in the former administration began to look with an evil 
 eye on everything that was done by such a set of lewd liber 
 tines. 
 
 He opened the Parliament on the ist of January, 1661, with 
 a speech setting forth the blessing of the Restoration, and mag 
 nifying the King's person and affection to his ancient kingdom ; 
 hoping that they would make suitable returns of zeal, by con 
 demning all invasions on the regal authority, by asserting the 
 just prerogatives of the Crown, and by giving supplies for 
 keeping up such a force as was necessary for the public peace, 
 and the prevention of such calamities as they had so long 
 felt. 
 
 The parliamentary constitution of Scotland is somewhat 
 different from what it is in England, and therefore it may not be 
 amiss, for the better understanding of what is to follow, to give 
 some account of it. 
 
 The Parliament was anciently the King's Court, where all 
 who held any land of him were bound to appear. All sat in 
 one House, but were considered as three estates. The first was 
 the Church, represented by the bishops, mitred abbots, and
 
 54 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 priors ; the second was the baronage, the nobility and gentry, 
 who held their baronies of the King ; and the third was the 
 boroughs, who held of the King by barony, but in a com 
 munity. So that the Parliament was truly the baronage of the 
 kingdom. The lesser barons, /'. e. the gentry and boroughs, 1 
 growing weary of this attendance, were allowed to send as 
 many proxies as they would to represent them in Parliament ; 
 but they neglected this, until the nobility, in King James VI. 's 
 time (upon the removal of the mitred abbots and the non- 
 appearance of the titular bishops), began to carry matters as they 
 pleased] in Parliament, and give the King uneasiness, and then 
 they resumed the right, which for nearly two hundred years 
 they had made no use of, and were allowed to send two repre 
 sentatives from a county, but in smaller ones only one ; and 
 these representatives were called Commissioners, because they 
 who chose them signed a commission to him who represented 
 them, which commission, upon any controversy, was ex 
 amined in Parliament, so that the Sheriff had no share of the 
 return. 
 
 The Parliament, when they met, was anciently accustomed 
 to sit but two days, the first and the last. On the first they 
 chose eight persons for every state, to whom the King joined 
 eight officers of State, and these were called Lords of the 
 Articles, because they were to receive all articles or heads of 
 grievances, and to form them into bills as they thought fit ; 
 and on the last day these bills were all read, and either 
 approved or rejected by the whole body. These Lords of the 
 Articles were at first named by the general vote, but in process 
 of time the nobility came to choose eight bishops, these bishops 
 were to choose eight noblemen, and these noblemen and 
 bishops together to choose eight barons (so the representatives 
 of counties are called) and eight burgesses; and by this 
 means the King, upon the matter, had the nomination of the 
 whole. 
 
 As soon as Earl Middleton's speech was ended, the Parlia 
 ment wrote an answer to the King's letter, full of duty and 
 thanks, and after naming the Lords of the Articles, they pro 
 ceeded to grant him an additional revenue for life of forty 
 thousand pounds a year, upon which two troops and a regi 
 ment of foot-guards were to be raised ; to order that the Mar 
 quis of Montrose's quartered remains should be brought together 
 
 1 This happened in King James I.'s time, during the reign of Henry IV. 
 of England.
 
 Charles II. First Part 55 
 
 and buried in great state ; and to repeal those acts that had 
 limited the prerogative in former times, and to assert it to its 
 full extent. 
 
 In one act, that asserted the King's power in treaties of peace 
 and war, all leagues with any other nation not made by the 
 King's authority were declared treasonable : and, in conse 
 quence of this, the League and Covenant made with England in 
 the year 1643 was condemned. The Covenant was the Presby 
 terians' idol, and the striking at it provoked some angry zealots 
 so, that one Marquair, a hot man, but considerably learned, 
 openly protested in his church at Glasgow against the act as 
 contrary to the oath of God, and so void of itself, for which he 
 was condemned to perpetual banishment ; l but he, and some 
 others who had afterwards the same fate, settled at Rotterdam, 
 where, by keeping a correspondence with the malcontents in 
 Scotland, and writing many seditious books, they did less 
 courtesy to the Government than their stay would have done 
 harm. 
 
 In the acts that the late King passed in the year '41, and 
 the present King had passed while he was in Scotland, there 
 were several infringements on the prerogative ; but what to do 
 with them the Lords of the Articles knew not, because the 
 Presbyterian government was ratified therein, and to strike at 
 that as yet would give a universal alarm. It was proposed, 
 therefore, that the better and shorter way would be to pass a 
 general act rescissory (as it was called), annulling all the Parlia 
 ments that had been held since the year 1633, during the whole 
 time of the war, as faulty and defective in their constitution, 
 but where to fix their defectiveness cost them some debate. At 
 last it was resolved into force and violence, or a distress put 
 upon the King's affairs, which was equivalent to it ; and so the 
 bill was put to the vote, carried by a great majority, and 
 passed by the Earl of Middleton without ever staying for the 
 King's instructions about it 
 
 This was a most extravagant act, making a fatal precedent, 
 and destroying all security in government, which the Earl of 
 Lauderdale was not backward to aggravate to the King in such 
 a manner that the Lord Middleton complained to the Parlia 
 ment how their best services were represented to the King as 
 detrimental to his honour and prejudicial to his affairs, and 
 thereupon desired that they would send up some of their body 
 
 1 To protest against an Act of Parliament in Scotland was treason by 
 their law.
 
 56 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 to give him a true account of their proceedings ; but his 
 meaning in this was to have them accuse the Earl of Lauder- 
 dale of what the Scottish law calls " leasing-making," which 
 either to the King of the people or to the people of the King 
 is capital. 
 
 The two who were deputed by the Parliament were the Earls 
 of Glencairn and Rothes, and Sharp went up with them, in 
 reality to urge the speedy setting up of Episcopacy, now that 
 the enemies of it were in a general consternation, though he 
 undertook with his brethren (for he was still a Presbyterian, 
 and full of concern for their welfare) to procure an instruction 
 for a new establishment of Presbytery upon a better bottom. 
 The Lords soon satisfied the King with the good designs of the 
 Parliament and the justice of their proceedings ; but they were 
 dissuaded from exhibiting any charge against Lord Lauderdale 
 as a thing dangerous in itself, ungrateful to the Court, and 
 what, instead of shaking him, might perhaps ruin them and 
 root him faster in the King's favour, and so that design was 
 laid aside. 
 
 But how just soever these proceedings of Parliament might 
 appear in London, they certainly, in Scotland, had another 
 construction ; and what gave the Presbyterians a further uneasi 
 ness this session was the discountenance which everything that 
 came from them, and the kind reception that all petitions and 
 addresses that had a contrary aspect, met with in Parliament. 
 None but the bold aspiring men of the clergy were appointed 
 to preach before the House ; most of them took care to insinuate 
 the necessity of a greater authority than was then in the Church 
 for keeping them in order; and when the presbytery of 
 Edinburgh complained of this as an affront to the law and the 
 King's letter, they were sent away with some fair speeches, but 
 no further notice was taken of it. 
 
 The Synod of Fife was resolved to address the King and 
 Parliament for an act to establish their government that was 
 then dissolved ; but upon Sharp's information of their design 
 the Synod was dissolved, and the ministers commanded to 
 return home, under pain of high treason ; but when the Synod 
 of Aberdeen presented their address (which was the only one 
 presented of that sort), praying that the King and Parliament 
 would settle their government, conform to the Scriptures, and 
 the rules of the Primitive Church, which all understood to point 
 at Episcopacy, they were received with all the encouragement 
 they could wish.
 
 Charles II. First Part 57 
 
 The truth is, Scotland at this time was in a very distracted 
 condition ; the Rescissory Act had unhinged everything ; an 
 Act of Indemnity had not yet passed ; and the severe, or rather 
 cruel, proceedings against such as were attainted, hung like a 
 black and lowering cloud over every one's head, uncertain 
 where the storm was next to fall. 
 
 The first and chief of those who were attainted was the 
 Marquis of Argyll. The articles against him were most of 
 them reducible to these three heads : i. His own public actings 
 during the war ; 2. The many murders and barbarities com 
 mitted by his officers; and 3. His concurrence with Cromwell 
 and the usurpers in opposition to those who appeared for the 
 King. To the first of these he said that as to the things 
 charged upon him before the year 1641 he was not bound to 
 answer, because the late King had buried them in an Act of 
 Oblivion then passed, as the present King had also done since, 
 in 1651 ; but as to other things, he was but one among many, 
 and had always acted by the authority of Parliament and the 
 instructions that were sent him. To the second he said that it 
 was very well known how the Macdonalds had burnt his whole 
 country, and done great outrage to his people ; and therefore 
 it was no wonder that, when they had got the better of them, 
 they took cruel revenges. This was to be imputed to the heat 
 of the times and the temper of the people, but in no sense to 
 him, since he was in London when these barbarities were com 
 mitted, and neither blamable for any hand he had in them, 
 nor any orders he gave about them. He owned indeed, as to 
 the third article, that he had complied with the usurpation, but 
 it was more to save himself and his family than with any design 
 to oppose the King's interest ; for he had stood out until the 
 nation was quite conquered, and, in that case, it was the 
 received opinion both of divines and lawyers that men might 
 lawfully submit to a usurpation when forced to it by an inevit 
 able necessity. This was the substance of his defence in a 
 long speech, which he delivered in such a graceful manner as 
 gained him great reputation ; but it so happened that, in excus 
 ing his compliance with Cromwell, he chanced to mention the 
 King's Advocate, Sir John Fletcher, who had equally taken the 
 engagement; and this enraged the Advocate so, that he not 
 only gave him opprobrious language, but put in an additional 
 article against him, which charged him with an accession to 
 the King's death. 
 
 All this while the Lord Lorn continued at Court, soliciting
 
 58 Bishop Burners Own Times 
 
 his father's interest, and obtained a letter from the King to 
 the Earl of Middleton, requiring that no public transactions 
 before the Indemnity he himself had passed in the year 
 1651 might be insisted on, and that the whole process might 
 be sent up to him before the Parliament should give sentence. 
 But this part of the order the Earl prevailed with the King 
 to revoke, as implying a distrust of the justice, and a dis 
 couragement to the proceedings, of so loyal and affectionate a 
 Parliament. 
 
 While this was adjusting, the process stood still, and the 
 Lord Argyll was persuaded to make his escape ; but his heart 
 misgave him after he had put on his lady's clothes, and was 
 going into the chair, and the fear of discovery, which he 
 thought would hasten his execution, made him not attempt 
 it. 
 
 The business was now to prove him guilty of accession to the 
 King's death ; but for this they had but a slender presumption. 
 Cromwell had been in Scotland in September, 1648; Argyll 
 had at that time many conferences with him ; and immediately 
 upon Cromwell's return to London the King was brought to 
 his trial, and thence to the block ; so the inference was that 
 Cromwell and he had concerted the matter between them. 
 But this was a presumption so remote, and a way of procedure 
 so enormous, that the Parliament acquitted him, as to the 
 point of accession, by a great majority, at which he expressed 
 so much joy, that he seemed little concerned at anything that 
 might happen to him afterwards. 
 
 The only thing remaining was to make his compliance with 
 the usurpers appear to be treason ; but while it was doubtful 
 how that debate would end, Monk, with inexcusable baseness, 
 had searched among his letters, and found some that were 
 written by Argyll to himself in a strain too zealous to make it 
 believed that his compliance was feigned or extorted from him. 
 He sent them down by an express, and when they were read in 
 Parliament there was no more to be said in his vindication. 
 His friends went out, and he was found guilty, and sentenced 
 to be beheaded, and his head to be set up where Lord Montrose's 
 had been. 
 
 The day before his death he wrote to the King, justifying his 
 intentions in what he had done in the matter of the Covenant, 
 protesting his innocence as to the death of his father, wishing 
 him a long and happy reign, casting his wife and children upon 
 his royal mercy, and praying that they might not suffer for his
 
 Charles II. First Part 59 
 
 fault. When he came to the scaffold (which was on the 27th of 
 May) he appeared undaunted, and spoke for half an hour with 
 great serenity, vindicating himself from any accession to the 
 King's death, justifying the Covenant, and exhorting the people 
 to adhere to it, forgiving all his enemies, and submitting to his 
 sentence and execution as the will of God. He parted with 
 his friends decently, and after some time in his private devotions 
 was beheaded. 
 
 Some days after Guthrie was executed. He had been the 
 minister of Stirling when the King was there, and for some invec 
 tives against him in his sermons was cited to appear before him, 
 which he refused to do, as accountable to none in points of doc 
 trine but the judicatories of the Kirk ; and thereupon protested 
 for a remedy at law against the King for thus disturbing him 
 in the exercise of his functions. This behaviour, the seditious 
 paper above mentioned, and a book entitled " The Causes of 
 God's Wrath upon the Nation," wherein much vehemence was 
 expressed against the King, were the matters objected to him ; 
 and instead of a legal defence, he confessed and justified them 
 all, as agreeing with the principles and practices of the Kirk ; 
 so that there was not much labour to find him guilty, nor any 
 great interposition made upon his account, only the Earl of 
 Tweeddale moved that he might be banished, because banish 
 ment hitherto had been the severest sentence that had been 
 inflicted on preachers for their opinions. When he came to die, 
 he showed a contempt, rather than any fear, of death, and 
 spoke for an hour with the composedness of one delivering a 
 sermon, rather than his last words. With him was executed one 
 Govan for deserting the army when the King was in Scotland, 
 and going over to Cromwell a man of no consideration, till 
 they made him so by putting him to death on such an account, 
 and at such a distance of time. 
 
 Warriston had made his escape beyond sea, so his crimes 
 were enumerated how he had presented the Remonstrance, had 
 acted under Cromwell's authority, confirmed his Protectorship, 
 sat in his Parliament, and in the Committee of Safety, and he 
 was attainted. Swinton had been attainted before, in the 
 Parliament of Stirling, for going over to Cromwell, and when 
 he was brought in to show why the sentence should not be 
 executed on him, with a sort of eloquence peculiar to his sect 
 (for he was then become a Quaker), and a seeming indifference 
 what became of him, he so laid open his own errors, and the 
 evil spirit he was in when he committed the things that were
 
 6o Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 charged against him, that he moved compassion in the House, 
 and prevailed so far that they recommended him to the King as 
 a fit object of his mercy. Macleod of Assynt, who had betrayed 
 the Marquis of Montrose, was brought over to be tried for it ; 
 but while he was in prison he struck up to a high pitch of vice 
 and impiety, and gave great entertainments, which, notwith 
 standing the baseness of the man and his crimes, begat him so 
 many friends, that he was suffered to escape without any cen 
 sure a brand of ignominy upon the corruption of the ministry 
 and the gross impiety of the Court. 
 
 When the session of Parliament was ended, the Earl of Mid- 
 dleton went up to Court full of merit and full of pride, and on 
 the first day that the Scotch Council met gave a long account 
 of the proceedings of Parliament, and magnified the zeal and 
 loyalty that many had expressed, while others who had been 
 pardoned and highly trusted by the King, as he said, had been 
 often backward and sometimes repugnant to his service. And 
 when the Earl of Crawford called upon him, with some vehe 
 mence, to explain what he meant by the reflection, and to name 
 the persons concerned in it, he, to get off, named the Earl of 
 Tweeddale (who was then in Scotland), and for an instance 
 mentioned that little opposition he had made to the sentence 
 passed on Guthrie ; and no one venturing to stand up in his 
 vindication, an order was sent down for committing him to 
 prison, and for examining him upon the point. But he soon 
 sent up such an account of his words, and such an explanation 
 of them, as satisfied the King, and gained the Earl of Middleton 
 no great credit. 
 
 The Earl of Middleton was now raising the Guards, who 
 were to be paid out of an excise on beer and ale granted by 
 Parliament ; and because he knew that the excise would over 
 pay them, and was in good hopes, if the collection were put in 
 his hands, to obtain a grant of the overplus at the year's end, 
 he therefore moved that the excise might be raised by collectors 
 named by himself as general, that so he might not depend upon 
 the Treasury for the pay of the forces ; but in this too the Earl 
 of Crawford carried the point, and Lord Middleton was blamed 
 for putting his interest at Court on such an issue, where the 
 pretension was so unusual and so unreasonable. 
 
 When the affair of setting up Episcopacy in Scotland came to 
 be debated in Council, there was such a variety of opinions, 
 some for it and some against it, and most upon different mo 
 tives, that it was thought advisable to write to the Privy
 
 Charles II. First Part 61 
 
 Council of Scotland some intimations of the King's design to 
 establish Episcopacy there, and to demand their advice upon it. 
 The Earl of Glencairn took care to have the men ready that he 
 knew would speak warmly for it, in order to intimidate those 
 that he thought would oppose it ; so that when the thing was 
 opened, there was little or no opposition at that board, and a 
 letter was written from thence, encouraging the King to go 
 on, and assuring him that the change he intended to make 
 would give a general satisfaction to the main body of the 
 nation. 
 
 This advice determined the design ; but in what manner to 
 proceed, or where to find proper persons to be employed in it, 
 was the question. Sheldon and the English bishops had an 
 aversion to all who had been engaged in the Covenant, and 
 therefore they proposed that the Episcopal clergy driven out of 
 Scotland in the beginning of the troubles should be sought out 
 for and preferred. This was excluding Sharp with a witness, 
 and therefore he took care to urge to Lord Clarendon that those 
 who had been long absent from their country, and exasperated 
 with ill-usage, could neither be such judges of men and things, 
 such masters of their tempers, nor so uniform in their actings, 
 as men of moderate principles would be ; and therefore he 
 undertook to find out fit men of this character to fill up all the 
 sees, and himself at the same time had the promise of St. An 
 drews. Sydserf was the only surviving Scotch bishop, and 
 might have expected it ; but he was old and poor, had few 
 friends, and many enemies among the English clergy, because 
 he had held private ordinations for some time in England, 
 without requiring either oaths or subscriptions ; so he was only 
 translated to Orkney. Hamilton was designed for Galloway, 
 and Fairfoul for Glasgow. Hamilton was brother to Lord Bel- 
 haven, a good-natured man, but weak, always believed to be 
 Episcopal, though he counterfeited zeal for the Covenant some 
 what extravagantly, the better to screen himself from suspicion. 
 Fairfoul was a better physician than divine, for he was eminent 
 in nothing that belonged to his own function, and his life was 
 scarce free from scandal. He was a pleasant and facetious 
 man, crafty and insinuating ; but soon after his consecration 
 his parts sunk so fast that, in a few months, from one of 
 the most cunning men in Scotland he became in a manner a 
 changeling. 
 
 The fourth who was appointed to be made a bishop was
 
 62 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Robert Leighton, 1 a person whose character deserves to be 
 fully appreciated. He had a great quickness 01 parts, a 
 lively apprehension, and a charming vivacity of thought and 
 expression. He was a perfect master of Greek and Hebrew, 
 had the greatest command of the purest Latin, the whole 
 compass of theological learning, and the highest and noblest 
 sense of Divine things that man could have. He had that 
 abstinence as to his person, that low opinion of himself and 
 his abilities, and that just contempt of fame, riches, and 
 reproaches, that few now-a-days endeavour to attain. He had 
 so subdued the natural heat of his temper as never to be 
 angry, brought himself to such a composed gravity as never 
 to laugh, seldom to smile, and kept himself under that constant 
 recollection as never to be heard to speak one idle word. But 
 what is an uncommon thing, with all this strictness he was no 
 cynic, but the sweetest-tempered man imaginable. He had no 
 superstition, no censuring, no imposing his own method upon 
 others ; all was free and easy, and the liveliness of his conver 
 sation was a very becoming ornament and commendation to the 
 gravity and great sobriety of it. He was a great preacher, 
 though he would never account himself so ; and in all his 
 sermons there was that sublimity of thought, and majesty of 
 style, and grace of pronunciation as left lasting impressions 
 upon his hearers. His only infelicity was that he was bred up 
 with a strong aversion to the Church of England ; but he soon 
 got the better of that prejudice when he came to see the follies 
 of the Presbyterians, and to be better acquainted with the 
 Episcopal party. 
 
 He had a brother at Court, Sir Elisha, a very ingenious but 
 immoral man, who at that time was secretary to the Duke of 
 York (for he had changed his religion for promotion), and very 
 intimate with Lord D'Aubigny, then a priest, though a very vicious 
 man, and who had probably been a cardinal if he had lived a 
 little longer. D'Aubigny's interest with the King was indis 
 putable, and Sir Elisha considering that to have his brother a 
 bishop might be a means to raise his own character, not only 
 brought him acquainted with Lord D'Aubigny, but possessed 
 
 1 He was son of Dr. Leighton, who, in Archbishop Laud's time, was 
 condemned in the Star Chamber to have his ears cut and his nose slit for 
 writing "Zion's Plea against the Prelates." There are two editions of 
 Bishop Leighton's works : I, in six vols. 8vo, published in 1808, and 2, in 
 four vols. 8vo, in 1825.
 
 Charles II. First Part 63 
 
 that lord with such an opinion of him, that he made the King 
 believe that a man of his piety and notions and monastic course 
 of life might contribute not a little to prepare the nation for 
 Popery, and promote the design of introducing it. The King, 
 therefore, named him of his own proper motion ; and when, by 
 his brother's persuasions, he was prevailed upon at last to accept 
 a bishopric, he made choice of Dunblane, a small diocese, as 
 well as a little revenue. 
 
 These were the men who for the present, and till more could be 
 found, were to settle Episcopacy, and to preside in all ecclesiasti 
 cal matters in Scotland. But when the time for their consecration 
 came on (Sharp and Leighton having never received Episcopal 
 ordination), the English bishops insisted on it that they must be 
 ordained deacons and priests before they could be consecrated. 
 Sharp stuck more at this than might have been expected from a 
 man who had swallowed much greater matters before ; but 
 Leighton made no scruple of it ; so they were both ordained 
 privately, and were afterwards all together consecrated publicly 
 in the Abbey of Westminster. 
 
 Not long after their consecration Leighton proposed to 
 Sharp two points necessary, as he thought, to be settled before 
 they went to Scotland. The one was, how to proceed in the 
 design of uniting Presbyterians to them ; and the other, how to 
 try to raise in the people a truer sense of piety, thereby to draw 
 them off from their extemporary method to a more regular 
 form of worship ; but Sharp was for forming no scheme about 
 these matters ; he left all to the determination of Parliament ; 
 and Fairfoul, when he talked to him, had always a merry tale 
 at hand to divert any serious discourse, which he was not 
 indeed capable of. This was a sad indication to him how the 
 affair of Episcopacy was likely to be carried on ; and the truth is, 
 Sharp, who had the greatest hand in it, was so full of dissimu 
 lation, the rest of the order were so mean and selfish, and the 
 secular men who conducted it were so openly impious and 
 vicious that it was a scandal to religion to be managed by such 
 instruments, and no wonder at all that Providence blasted their 
 undertakings. 
 
 But it is time now to return to England. 
 
 It was natural for the King, upon his restoration, to look out 
 for a proper match. He had no inclination to marry a Pro 
 testant ; the Germans he despised, and the northern crowns 
 were too inferior to him ; France had no sister ; the Duke
 
 64 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 of Orleans' daughters he had seen, and liked none of them ; 
 Spain had only two Infantas, and the one was to be married to 
 the King of France, and the other to the Emperor, so that the 
 House of Portugal only remained ; and they, of late, were so 
 full of dreadful apprehensions, by being abandoned by France 
 in the Treaty of the Pyrenees, that they made vast offers if the 
 King would marry their Infanta, and take them under his pro 
 tection ; and accordingly, at the King's first coming, they sent 
 an embassy of congratulation, with proper instructions to 
 negotiate that business. It was visible that this marriage would 
 make a great alteration in their affairs, and secure that kingdom 
 from the incursions of Spain ; and therefore no wonder that the 
 Spanish ambassador endeavoured to dissuade the King from it 
 by insinuating, among other things, that the Infanta was 
 incapable of having children. But Spain, in this case, was too 
 much a party to have any great credit given to what they said ; 
 and the veneration paid to the memory of the late King, who 
 had intended, as some affirmed, a marriage between his son and 
 this Infanta, made the proposition better accepted. 
 
 Monsieur Fouquet was at this time sent to the King with 
 a project of an alliance between France and England ; and to 
 make everything go down the better, he sent Lord Clarendon 
 an offer of ten thousand pounds and a promise of renewing the 
 same present every year. But that noble lord rejected it with 
 a proper indignation and a great commendation of his master's 
 generosity to him. And when he afterwards acquainted the 
 King and his brother with what had been offered him, and they 
 both advised him to accept it, he thence took occasion seriously 
 to warn the King of the great danger of suffering any about 
 him to become pensioners to other princes, and to desire him 
 earnestly to watch over that corruption ; for if taking of money 
 were once connived at, it would soon grow a habit, and spread 
 like an infection through the whole land. 
 
 While this match with Portugal was thus in agitation, an 
 incident of an extraordinary nature happened in the Court. 
 The Earl of Clarendon's daughter, being with child and near 
 her time, called upon the Duke of York to own his marriage 
 with her. She had been maid of honour to the Princess Royal, 
 and the Duke, who was amorous even in old age, tried to gain 
 her to his desires ; but she managed the matter with such 
 address as to prevail with him to marry her. The marriage 
 was kept secret (for the father was ignorant of it until it broke 
 out), and the Duke, sometimes by threats and sometimes by
 
 Charles II. First Part 65 
 
 promises, thought to have shaken her from her claim ; but she 
 was a woman of a great spirit, and resolved to declare herself 
 his wife, come what would of it. The thing occasioned many 
 speculations ; but after some bishops and judges had examined 
 the proofs she had to produce, and reported the marriage valid 
 and good, the King was loath to break with Lord Clarendon, 
 and so enjoined the Duke to live with his wife. 
 
 The Duke was very brave in his youth, and so much magni 
 fied by Monsieur de Turenne, that until this match lessened him 
 he really clouded the King, and passed for the superior genius. 
 He was naturally candid and sincere, though somewhat eager 
 and revengeful, and a very firm friend, until his religion had 
 corrupted his first principles and inclinations. He had a great 
 desire to understand business, though not an equal capacity ; 
 for his judgment was not good, always too flexible to those 
 he trusted and too obstinate against other advices. In his 
 expenses he was both frugal and magnificent ; in his amours 
 not too nice ; in his notions of kingly authority too extensive ; 
 and in the matter of religion a confirmed Papist, though he 
 many years dissembled it and seemed zealous for the Church 
 of England. When he was reconciled, as they call it, is not 
 well known ; but the doctrine of a real, but inconceivable 
 presence of Christ in the sacrament, wherein Dr. Steward 
 taught him to believe, led him, as he used to say, half-way 
 to transubstantiation, and was an inlet to other Popish 
 articles. 
 
 The Duchess of York was a very extraordinary woman. 
 She had great knowledge and a lively sense of things, was 
 bred to a great strictness in religion, and practised secret 
 confession from her very youth. She was a generous friend, 
 but too severe an enemy ; and soon came to understand what 
 belonged to princes, and took rather too much state upon her. 
 
 The King's third brother, the Duke of Gloucester, was 
 active and loved business, and had a kind, insinuating temper 
 that was generally very acceptable. He would have made a 
 great man ; but the mirth and entertainments of that time 
 raised his blood so high that he took the small-pox, of which 
 he died, much lamented by all, but chiefly by the King ; for he 
 loved him better than the Duke of York, and was never in 
 his whole life seen so much concerned as he was on this 
 occasion. 
 
 Not long after him the Princess Royal died, likewise of the 
 small-pox, but was not much lamented. She had lived in her 
 
 D
 
 66 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 widowhood for some years with great repute, kept a decent 
 Court, and supported her brothers very liberally ; but upon 
 her mother's persuasion that the King of France might be 
 brought to marry her, she went to Paris, kept an equipage 
 above her ability, ran herself in debt, sold her jewels, sold her 
 estates, and was not only disappointed of her vain expectation, 
 but fell into some misfortunes that brought a tarnish upon her 
 character. Thus were two branches of the royal family soon 
 after the Restoration cut off; and the Princess Henrietta was 
 so pleased with the diversions of the French Court, that she 
 was glad to go thither again, to be married to the King's 
 brother. 
 
 As the treaty with Portugal went on, France engaged in the 
 concerns of that crown, though contrary to their treaty with 
 Spain ; but to cover their proceedings, Count Schomberg, a 
 German by birth and Calvinist in religion, and who would 
 therefore be less suspected, was sent thither to negotiate some 
 matters very privately. He was the Prince of Orange's particular 
 favourite, but had so great a share in the last violent actions of 
 his life that he left the service upon his death, and gained in 
 France, next after the Prince de Conde and the Mare'chal de 
 Turenne, the reputation of one of the best generals they had. 
 He had been intimately acquainted with the King at the Hague, 
 and therefore, as he passed through England, he had much free 
 discourse with him, and took an occasion to give his advice as 
 to the business then in agitation the sale of Dunkirk. He 
 told him that, considering the naval power of England, it was a 
 place that could not be taken, and that the holding of it would 
 keep both France and Spain in dependence upon him; but the 
 military men of England, who were supposed to be bribed, were 
 of another opinion ; and Monk positively advised to let it go 
 for the sum that France offered. The money that was to be 
 paid for it the King promised to lay up in the Tower, not to be 
 touched but upon extraordinary occasions ; but it was soon 
 squandered all away among his mistresses' creatures. 
 
 The sale of this place mightily impaired the King's credit 
 abroad, and the damage we have suffered from it since has 
 made the bargain often reflected on with severity at home. 
 But to alleviate this loss it was soon pretended that Tangier, 
 which was offered as a part of the Infanta of Portugal's dowry, 
 was a place of much greater consequence both to command the 
 Mediterranean and to secure our East and West Indian trade. 
 The place might have been valuable indeed, and answered the
 
 Charles II. First Part 67 
 
 purposes that were pretended, had the making a mole proved 
 somewhat more practicable ; but in that there was so much 
 difficulty, and so many delays and miscarriages, that, after an 
 immense charge, the Court grew weary of it, and in the year 
 1683 they sent a squadron of ships to bring away the garrison 
 and to destroy all the works. 
 
 The marriage at last between the King and the Infanta was 
 concluded, and the Earl of Sandwich was sent over for her as 
 the King's proxy in the nuptial ceremony. The King met her 
 at Winchester, and the Archbishop of Canterbury came to 
 perform the office ; but the Queen was so bigoted that she 
 would neither say a word nor bear the sight of him. So the 
 King said over his part hastily, and the Archbishop pronounced 
 them married ; but they were afterwards married again by the 
 Lord D'Aubigny according to the Roman ritual. She was a 
 woman of a mean appearance and of no agreeable temper, and 
 therefore the King had no great consideration for her ; and 
 though at first he observed some decencies, and did not visit his 
 mistress openly, yet he soon grew weary of that restraint, and 
 ran into the same course of uncontrolled licentiousness as 
 1 before. To proceed. 
 
 A little before St. Bartholomew's day, whereon the Act of 
 Uniformity took place, there was a great debate in council 
 whether the act should be immediately executed or respited till 
 next convention of Parliament ; and others moved that it might 
 be executed in the main, only a little favour showed to some 
 eminent men, by putting curates into their churches to officiate 
 according to the Common Prayer, and leaving them to preach 
 on until they should die out. But it was carried against all 
 moderate methods, upon a supposition that most would conform, 
 though it afterwards appeared that great numbers stood out, 
 some from principle, and some to bear their friends company, 
 thereby to show their strength, and by that means either pro 
 cure new laws in their favour, or a reversal of what had passed. 
 These were many of them persons of distinguished zeal and abili 
 ties ; and, casting themselves thus upon the providence of God 
 and the charity of their friends, they made a good show of a 
 firm disposition to suffer persecution for conscience' sake. This 
 begot esteem and compassion, and raised in their followers 
 such resentment and indignation that there were several con 
 sultations among them about leaving the kingdom. 
 
 The Earl of Bristol took this opportunity to call together as 
 many principal Papists as were in town ; and, after an oath of
 
 68 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 secrecy, told them that now was the time for them to do some 
 thing towards the advancement of their religion, by using their 
 best interest to procure a toleration for the Nonconformists 
 (that was the candid title then), but to be expressed in general 
 terms, that they themselves might be comprehended in it. His 
 advice was followed, and their application so far prevailed that 
 in December the King set out a Declaration, wherein he ex 
 pressed his aversion to all severities on the account of religion, 
 but more particularly to all sanguinary laws, and gave hopes 
 both to Papists and Nonconformists that he would find out such 
 ways for tempering the severities of the laws that all his sub 
 jects should be made easy under them. The wiser part of the 
 Nonconformists received this very coldly, because they might 
 easily perceive for what purpose it was intended ; but the 
 Papists went on warmly, and were preparing schemes for their 
 toleration, while the Church party were amazed, as it were, and 
 knew not what to think of such procedure ; for though they 
 were unwilling to suspect the King and the Duke, yet the 
 management for Popery was so visible that in the next session 
 of Parliament the King's Declaration was severely arraigned, 
 and the authors of it plainly enough pointed at. 
 
 What contributed to heighten these suspicions was an act of 
 Parliament a little unadvisedly made, and construed in another 
 sense than what it was intended. Cardinal de Retz, for whom 
 the King had a particular esteem, had come over incognito, 
 and had been several times with the King in private ; and 
 therefore, to let the King see how fatal the effects of his being 
 suspected of Popery would be, the Earl of Clarendon got some 
 of his friends to move in the House of Commons for an act to 
 render it capital to say the King was a Papist ; for he reasoned 
 thus : that the King must needs perceive that the suspicion of 
 Popery would make him very odious to the people when the 
 bare spreading of such reports was made so penal by the law. 
 But this was taken by another handle, as if it was intended to 
 stop men's mouths ; and though the design of bringing in 
 Popery was become never so visible, yet that none should 
 dare to speak of it. 
 
 But the apprehensions of Popery made not more alarm in 
 England than did the dread of Episcopacy, which was now 
 coming down upon them, occasion in Scotland ; for upon the 
 bishops' consecration, as was said, the presbyteries that were 
 still sitting began to declare themselves openly, and to prepare 
 protestations and other instruments against them. Sharp seeing
 
 Charles II. First Part 69 
 
 this, and being minded to get the reins of the Church entirely 
 into his hands, moved the King that since he had set up Epis 
 copacy, he would be pleased to issue out a proclamation for 
 bidding clergymen to meet in any presbytery or other judicatory 
 till the bishops should settle a method of proceeding in 
 them. 
 
 Upon the setting out this proclamation an end was put to all 
 presbyteries, only the ministers met once, and entered into 
 their books a protestation against the proclamation itself, as an 
 invasion on the liberties of the Church, and a declaration that 
 they paid obedience to it for a time only and for peace' sake. 
 The Earl of Lauderdale was not sorry to see Sharp drive on 
 precipitately, and commit errors at first setting out; for the 
 worse management there was among them, the more his advices 
 would be approved ; nor was he at all concerned to find Lord 
 Middleton and his party perpetually drunk, because, whatever 
 the King might do now and then by way of frolic, he had a 
 settled bad opinion, he knew, of those who had got the habit 
 and love of drunkenness. 
 
 The bishops, soon after their consecration, set out for Scotland 
 ' all in one coach ; but Leighton, who hated all appearance of 
 vanity, finding they were to be received with some pomp, left 
 them at Morpeth, and got to Edinburgh some days before them, 
 which made the others represent him as a man of odd notions 
 and affected singularities. The Lord Chancellor, with all the 
 nobility and Privy Councillors then in Edinburgh, together with 
 the magistracy of the city, went out to meet them, and brought 
 them in with a sort of triumph and cavalcade that little became 
 the humility required in their function. Soon after their arrival 
 six other bishops were consecrated, but not ordained priests 
 and deacons. Wishart, who had been the Marquis of Montrose's 
 chaplain, and used with much cruelty in the gaol of Edinburgh, 
 was advanced to that see ; and as soon as the session began, a 
 deputation of some of every state was sent to invite them to 
 come and sit among them in Parliament. 
 
 The first act that passed in this session was for restoring 
 Episcopacy, by which the whole government and jurisdiction of 
 the Church, in the several dioceses, was declared to be lodged 
 in the bishops, which they were to exercise with the advice and 
 assistance of such of their clergy as were of known loyalty and 
 prudence ; and all men who held any benefices in the Church 
 were to own and submit to the government of the Church 
 as now by law established. This gave a general disgust, as
 
 70 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 carrying Episcopacy to a higher pitch than ever it was known 
 in Scotland ; for in the former establishments of it the body of 
 the Presbyterians had their share in the administration, and 
 bishops were no more than settled presidents with a negative 
 voice ; but here the whole power was lodged in them ; their 
 assistants were to be of their own choosing, consequently their 
 creatures, without any separate authority ; and, what is an odd 
 circumstance, without any other requisite than loyalty and pru 
 dence, though piety and learning were always accounted the 
 chief qualifications of the clergy. Nay, the very Episcopal 
 clergy who had never carried the argument further in Scotland 
 than for a certain precedency, with some authority in ordina 
 tion and a negative in matters of jurisdiction, thought themselves 
 injured in being excluded from all share in the administration, 
 and a license given to bishops to act without their consent, and 
 in what manner of imperiousness they pleased ; so that there 
 were a great number on both sides who refused to own the 
 legality or submit to the jurisdiction of a Church thus estab 
 lished. 
 
 Under these provocations, some Presbyterian ministers had 
 made free with Episcopacy in their sermons, and when they 
 were called before the Parliament, and no allegations could be 
 made good against them, it was resolved to tender them the 
 Oath of Allegiance and Supremacy that had been enacted in the 
 former Parliament, as a test of their loyalty. They refused not 
 to take it if they might be indulged their own explanation of it, 
 which they presented to the Lords of the Articles, with a 
 petition to that purpose ; but the petition was rejected, and 
 they were required to take the oath as it stood in the law, with 
 out putting any sense upon it, which when they refused to do, 
 they were condemned to perpetual banishment, as men who 
 denied their allegiance to the King. But this was not thought 
 test enough by the Parliament, and therefore all who were in 
 the magistracy or possessed of any public employment were 
 obliged to abjure the Covenant, both the League and the 
 National Covenant, by which means all the Presbyterians were 
 turned out, because to abjure that was, in their opinion, little 
 less than an open apostasy from God, and a dereliction of their 
 baptismal vow. 
 
 The main business of this session of Parliament, now that 
 Episcopacy was settled and these oaths enacted, was to pass the 
 Act of Indemnity. The Earl of Middleton had obtained of the 
 King an instruction to consent to the fining the chief offenders,
 
 Charles II. First Part 71 
 
 or inflicting other punishments upon them not extending to 
 life ; but in the fines there was to be this limitation that they 
 should be only for offences committed since the year 1650, and 
 not exceed the annual rent of their estates. When the act itself 
 came to be formed, it was proposed by some that, besides the 
 power of fining, the King should be moved to grant an instruc 
 tion to put some under an incapacity likewise of holding any 
 public trust. Sir George Mackenzie, afterwards Lord Tarbet 
 and Earl of Cromarty, was a young man of great vivacity of 
 parts, but full of ambition, who had the art of recommending 
 himself to all sides and parties by turns, and was at that time 
 the Earl of Middleton's chief favourite : he was sent up to the 
 King with two drafts of an Act of Indemnity, the one con 
 taining an exception of some persons to be fined, drawn at the 
 desire of the Parliament ; and the other, besides this exception, 
 containing an incapacitating clause, but not extending to above 
 twelve persons, penned according to the Earl's instructions. 
 The Earl of Lauderdale made no exception to the clause, 
 because he could not conceive himself concerned in it, and 
 therefore the King consented to it; and when Lord Tarbet 
 
 returned into Scotland he took the Duke of Richmond and the 
 Earl of Newburgh with him, by whose wild and ungoverned 
 extravagancies the Earl of Middleton's whole conduct fell under 
 such a universal odium, that, had not the King dismissed him 
 for his own mismanagement, he could not have served there 
 much longer with any tolerable reputation. 
 
 One instance of the mad severity of those times was occasioned 
 by the interception of a letter of Lord Lorn's to Lord Duffus, 
 complaining of the practices of his enemies (too truly, but a 
 little unguardedly) in endeavouring to possess the King against 
 him with many lies. This was brought into Parliament, and 
 represented as a fact that came under the Statute of Leasing- 
 making, whereupon they petitioned the King that he would 
 send him down to be tried for it. The King was willing to 
 deny nothing to so zealous a Parliament ; so Lord Lorn was 
 sent down upon his parole, but at the same time positive orders 
 were sent to the Earl of Middleton not to proceed to the 
 execution of any sentence that might be passed upon him. 
 When he appeared to his indictment he made no defence, only 
 
 he represented the many provocations he had been under, and 
 that such hard usage as he had felt might well be allowed to 
 have extorted some severities from him ; but he protested he 
 
 meant no harm to any man, and so submitted to the justice of
 
 72 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Parliament, and cast himself on the King's mercy. He was 
 upon this condemned to die, but the time of his execution was 
 left in Lord Middleton's breast. 
 
 Never was anything more universally cried out on than this 
 proceeding, as leaving to posterity a precedent of parliamentary 
 judgment, by which a man may be condemned for a letter of 
 common news. But this was not the ultimate of their fury ; 
 for at the same time they passed an act against all persons who 
 should move the King for restoring the children of those who 
 were attainted by Parliament an unheard-of restraint on 
 applications to the throne for grace and mercy. 
 
 After this affair was over, the Act of Indemnity was resumed, 
 and a number of men appointed for stating the fines ; but in 
 this they proceeded without any regard to the rules that the 
 King had set them. The most obnoxious compounded privately, 
 and as to the rest, no consideration was had either of their 
 crimes or estates ; no proofs were brought ; not so much as 
 any inquiries were made ; but fines were set higher or lower 
 as officious men brought them information, and all transacted 
 by a secret committee. The other point, concerning the in 
 capacity, was carried much further. A great many people 
 were made to believe that the King was grown weary of Lord 
 Lauderdale, and wanted the assistance of the Parliament to 
 throw him off decently ; but others were apprehensive that he 
 might possibly be offended at their falling upon a minister 
 without his privity ; and therefore, to answer both these, a 
 double expedient was proposed, that the thing should be done 
 by ballot, every member bringing twelve names in a paper, 
 and that a secret committee, of three of every estate, should 
 make a scrutiny ; and they, without making any report to the 
 Parliament, should put those twelve names upon whom the 
 greater number fell in the Act of Incapacity; which act (to 
 ward against the King's displeasure) should have a clause in it 
 implying that the whole should be of no force, nor the names 
 in it so much as known, unless the King should think fit to 
 approve it. When things were thus settled, emissaries were 
 sent to every Parliament man, directing him how to make his 
 list, and that the Earls of Lauderdale and Crawford and Sir 
 Robert Murray, for sure, might be three of them. This was 
 managed so carefully that, by a great majority, they were three 
 of the incapacitated persons, and Lord Middleton presently 
 passed the act, though he had no instructions to do it in this 
 form. The thing, however, was not so secretly kept but that
 
 Charles II. First Part 73 
 
 Lord Lorn found means to apprise the Earl of Lauderdale of 
 it (and he took care to acquaint the King with it) before the 
 Duke of Richmond and Lord Tarbet got to Court. The King 
 received them very coldly when they came, though they were 
 loaded with commendations, and brought with them a letter 
 from the Parliament, magnifying the Earl of Middleton's 
 services, and another from the bishops, setting forth his zeal 
 for the Church and care of them all ; and when they delivered 
 the Act of Indemnity to him, he told them, with some severity 
 of reproach, that it should never be opened by him, and 
 immediately ordered Lord Middleton to come up, and give an 
 account of himself and his proceedings. But he, hoping that 
 time would assuage the King's displeasure, and a little zeal in 
 the execution of some acts made in favour of the Church would 
 atone for the many errors of his administration, excused his 
 coming up upon that account, and set about the thing with 
 great vigour. 
 
 An act passed in the last Parliament to restore the right of 
 patronage, whereby all who had been elected by the Church 
 session and lay elders (as was then the custom) were declared 
 unlawful possessors of their livings, and required to take pre 
 sentations from the proper patrons, and get themselves insti 
 tuted by the bishops, otherwise their churches were declared 
 vacant on Michaelmas day. This was owning the bishops' 
 authority, and renouncing their former principles ; and there 
 fore the heads of the party who were then at Edinburgh, when 
 they saw the storm coming upon them, settled these measures, 
 and. sent advices to them all round the country, that they 
 should do or say nothing that might give a particular distaste, 
 but look on and do their duty as long as they were connived 
 at, and when any proclamation commanded them to be silent, 
 obey it all at once, for they thought that if great numbers 
 were turned out at once, it would make such a vacancy and 
 destitution of Divine service in the nation, that the Govern 
 ment, unable to fill their places on a sudden, would be obliged 
 to take them in again, if it were but to allay the popular 
 clamour. The Earl, on the other hand, had such a mean 
 opinion of them, that he believed they would comply with 
 anything rather than lose their benefices ; so a proclamation 
 was issued out, without ever consulting the bishops about it, 
 requiring all who held their livings without presentations, 
 and who had not obeyed the late act, to give over all 
 further preaching and attendance on their cure, and withdraw 
 
 D 2
 
 74 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 immediately from their parishes; and the military men of 
 the country were ordered to pull them out of their pulpits if they 
 presumed to go on in their function. The submission, how 
 ever, was universal, and without any opposition or noise, 
 which, in a party so little accustomed to it, was much magni 
 fied at Court as the effect of Lord Middleton's steady conduct 
 and zeal ; but the clamour of putting thus several counties, as 
 it were, under an interdict, was so great that all endeavours 
 were used to get the vacancies filled up as fast as possible, and 
 an invitation, much like a hue and cry, was sent over the 
 kingdom to all persons to accept of benefices in the west, 
 where the ministers were most of them protesters, and would 
 not comply with the act. The livings in that part of the king 
 dom were generally well endowed, and the parsonage-houses in 
 good repair ; and this drew many worthless persons thither, 
 who had little learning, less piety, and no manner of discretion, 
 but great prejudices conceived against them, and many diffi 
 culties to contend with. 
 
 The former incumbents were a grave, solemn sort of people. 
 Their spirits were eager and their tempers sour ; but they had 
 an appearance that created respect. They were related to the 
 chief families in the country, either by blood or marriage, and 
 had lived in so decent a manner that the gentry paid them 
 great respect. They used to visit their parishioners much, to 
 live in great familiarity with them, and, in matters of religion, 
 to make them their partners, as it were, and companions. They 
 were so full of the Scriptures, and so ready at extemporary 
 prayer, that from thence they grew to practise extemporary 
 sermons ; and their method of preaching was so clear in raising 
 observations on points of doctrine out of the text, then proving 
 these observations by reasons, and so showing the use that was 
 to be made of the whole for instruction and terror, for exhorta 
 tion and comfort, for trial of themselves, and for furnishing 
 them with proper helps and directions, that the people could 
 follow a sermon through every branch of it with a small reten 
 tion of memory. They kept scandalous persons under very 
 severe discipline. For a breach of the Sabbath, an oath, or the 
 least disorder in drunkenness, persons were cited before the 
 Church Session, which consisted of ten or twelve of the chief of 
 the parish, together with the minister, and were solemnly re 
 proved for it. For fornication they were three Sundays suc 
 cessively, and in the time of Divine service, seated on a high 
 place in the church called the stool or pillar of repentance, there
 
 Charles II. First Part 75 
 
 to receive exhortations and make professions of their sorrow 
 for their sin ; but for adultery they were to sit six months in 
 that place, covered with sackcloth. These things had a grave 
 appearance, and, in conjunction with the pains they took in 
 their parishes, gained them great reverence and esteem ; for 
 their faults and defects were not so conspicuous, though they 
 were men of no learning, little capacity, and much passion and 
 indiscretion ; affected in their deportment, and very apt to cen 
 sure those who differed from them ; superstitious and haughty 
 in their temper, but servile and ready to fawn upon all who did 
 admire them ; in their sermons, railers at courts and govern 
 ments ; and, in their principles of Church independency, sowers 
 of strife and fomenters of sedition. 
 
 These ministers had, for many months before their ejection, 
 been infusing into their people that all that was designed in 
 the change of Church government was to destroy the power of 
 godliness and to give an impunity to vice ; that prelacy was a 
 tyranny in the Church set up by ambitious and covetous men, 
 who aimed at nothing but authority and wealth, luxury and 
 idleness, and to procure to themselves a party among the 
 impious and immoral. These suggestions, with what the people 
 saw of the Earl of Middleton's extravagances while he was 
 among them, and with what they heard of Sharp's treachery 
 to those who had employed him, and the rest of the bishops' 
 prevarication, wrought very strong prejudices in them, which 
 the weakness and wickedness of the new incumbents tended 
 mightily to confirm ; for they were the worst preachers that 
 ever were heard, ignorant to a reproach, and many of them 
 openly vicious a disgrace indeed to their function, and the 
 very dregs and refuse of the North ; and of the few who rose 
 above contempt and scandal, their tempers were so violent that 
 they were as much hated as the others were despised. 
 
 These were the fatal beginnings of restoring Episcopacy in 
 Scotland, and the success could not well be expected to be 
 prosperous, where such incompetent agents were employed in 
 the work. But to proceed now with the affairs of England. 
 
 The declaration for a general toleration occasioned a great 
 alarm among the Church party, and some of Lord Clarendon's 
 friends not only inveighed against it with great severity, but 
 made strong indications likewise that the Earl of Bristol was 
 the first adviser and procurer of it. The Earl of Bristol was 
 highly displeased at this, and resolved to leave no method
 
 76 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 unattempted to ruin Lord Clarendon. He had a great skill in 
 astrology, and, by the principles of that art, pretended to 
 demonstrate to the King that he was to fall by his brother's 
 means, if not by his hand. Lord Clarendon consequently was 
 to be suspected of the conspiracy, and this would be a means, 
 he thought, to alienate the King from them both ; but it had 
 a contrary effect in this particular that however it affected the 
 Earl of Clarendon, it made the King only more afraid to offend 
 the Duke ever afterwards. 
 
 When this would not do, the Lord Bristol resolved to offer 
 articles of impeachment against the Earl of Clarendon to the 
 House of Lords; and when the King, in a soft and gentle 
 manner, was dissuading him from it, he told him plainly that 
 if he deserted him in that prosecution he would raise such 
 disorders as not only all England, but he himself should largely 
 feel a threat that must have proceeded from his being in the 
 secret of the King's religion. And accordingly next day he 
 carried a charge against Lord Clarendon, of a very strange and 
 mixed nature, to the House ; but as soon as he put it in he 
 very likely repented of what he had done, for he thought proper 
 to abscond till the storm he had raised was over, though at the 
 same time he made the matter worse in a letter to the Lords, 
 expressing his fear of the danger he conceived the King's person 
 was in from the Duke's having guards, and was ever after that 
 looked upon as a man whose resentments would carry him to 
 any extravagances. 
 
 Notwithstanding the King's declaration, the Parliament this 
 session expressed a firm resolution of maintaining the Act of 
 Uniformity, and passed another (wherein they showed great 
 confidence in the King) repealing that of Triennial Parliaments, 
 which had been obtained with no small difficulty, and was 
 accounted the main security of the subject's liberty. They gave 
 the King likewise four subsidies, and the Convocation did the 
 same ; but this was the last aid that the clergy gave separately ; 
 their benefices were afterwards taxed as temporal estates, and 
 Convocations thenceforward, being no more necessary to the 
 Crown, became less considerable, and, though meeting some 
 times for form's sake, were usually prorogued or discontinued 
 at pleasure. 
 
 The French counsels at this time began to show their pre 
 valence in our Court, and without any visible cause of war, 
 except a ship taken or some such slight offence, were fomenting 
 a quarrel between England and Holland, in hopes that their
 
 Charles II. First Part 77 
 
 fleets would mutually weaken one another so much that the 
 naval force of France, which was then considerably increasing, 
 might become a match for either of them when shattered by 
 war. And to this purpose, while they encouraged us to insist 
 on some extravagant demands, they at the same time pressed 
 the Dutch not to yield to them ; and as they put them in hopes 
 that if a rupture should follow, they would assist them accord 
 ing to their alliance, so they assured us that they would not 
 interfere in the thing or give us any molestation. Downing 
 had been Cromwell's ambassador in Holland, where he had 
 offered personal affronts both to the King and his brother ; but 
 by some base practices had got himself so effectually recom 
 mended by the Duke of Albemarle that all his former offences 
 were forgiven, and he sent again with the character of the 
 King's ambassador into Holland : a crafty, fawning man, who 
 was ready to turn to every side that was uppermost, and to 
 betray those who, by their former friendship or services, thought 
 they might depend on him. 
 
 When the King declared his resolution of entering into a war 
 with the Dutch, the House of Commons was so far from ex 
 amining into the grounds of it, that, without any difficulty, 
 they gave the King two millions and a half for carrying it on. 
 A large fleet was set out, which the Duke of York commanded 
 in person, as Opdam did the Dutch fleet. But much about the 
 time that the war commenced a great comet appeared, that 
 raised the apprehensions of those who did not understand the 
 nature of such-like phenomena ; and a most terrible plague broke 
 out, that depopulated the city of London, ruined the trade of 
 the nation, and swept away about a hundred thousand persons. 
 These were looked upon as characters of Divine wrath, and gave 
 but a melancholy prospect of the issue of the war. However, 
 when the two fleets met and engaged, the advantage was so 
 manifest on the English side, that had they pursued their 
 success, as they might, in all probability they had either taken 
 or sunk the whole Dutch fleet. But herein lay the miscar 
 riage : when the Dutch, finding themselves in danger, began to 
 steer off, the Duke ordered all the sail to be set on, that he 
 might overtake them ; and, after a council of war to concert the 
 method of action, went to sleep, bidding those about him give 
 him a call as soon as they were come up with them. What 
 passed between him and Brunker, who was of his bedchamber, 
 and then in waiting, is not so well known ; whether his sense 
 of the obstinate courage of the Dutch, who are never so gallant
 
 78 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 as when they are desperate ; or the charge that the Duchess 
 had given all his servants, not to suffer him to engage too far ; 
 or his seeing the Earl of Falmouth and two other persons of 
 quality killed so very near him, might alter his mind, or make 
 some timorous impression upon him ; but so it was, Brunker 
 went, as from the Duke to Penn, who commanded under him, 
 and said the Duke ordered the sails to be slackened, and Penn, 
 without any further examination, obeyed it a little too hastily 
 not to be in the secret. Thus was a most advantageous oppor 
 tunity lost ; and though the Duke denied that he ever gave such 
 an order, yet his neither punishing Brunker for carrying it, nor 
 Penn for obeying it, occasioned surmises that so much lenity 
 upon such a provocation was an argument of some confederacy, 
 more than the result of his temper. 
 
 De Witt was at this time pensioner of Holland, and, imputing 
 this misfortune of the fleet to some errors in conduct, he deter 
 mined the next year to go on board himself. He was a frank, 
 sincere man, without fraud, or any other artifice but silence ; 
 he had a great clearness of apprehension, a large compass of 
 mathematical knowledge, and had applied algebra to matters 
 of trade more than any man before him. He had made him 
 self so entirely master of the state of Holland, that he under 
 stood exactly the concerns of their revenue, and what sums, 
 and in what manner, could be raised upon any emergency. But 
 he knew nothing of modern history, nothing of the state of 
 Courts, and was eminently defective in all points of form. He 
 laid down this for a maxim that all princes and states followed 
 their own interests ; and by attending to what their true interests 
 were, he thought he could calculate what they were about ; but 
 he did not enough consider how far passions, amours, humours, 
 and opinions wrought on the world, and chiefly on princes. He 
 was, however, as to the administration of justice at home, and 
 the management of their trade and their forces by sea, the 
 ablest minister that the Dutch ever had ; and when he undertook 
 the conduct of their fleet, attained a perfect understanding of all 
 sea affairs in a very short time, and that very year recovered 
 the disgrace of their former losses by keeping at sea after the 
 English fleet was forced to put in. 
 
 Sir Gilbert Talbot was at this time envoy at the Court of 
 Denmark, when that King one day complaining of the States 
 of Holland, and how they had drawn the Swedish war upon 
 him, on purpose to make him depend on them for supplies of 
 money and shipping, thereby to get the customs of Norway and
 
 Charles II. First Part 79 
 
 the Sound into their hands for their security, Sir Gilbert pro 
 posed that, now their Smyrna fleet, with many rich East and 
 West Indian ships were come into Bergen, he should seize them 
 all before their convoy could come up ; and offered him assist 
 ance from the King his master to enable him to do it, upon 
 condition that England might have half the spoil. The King 
 consented ; and the design was approved by the Court of 
 England, and might happily have been executed, if the Earl 
 of Sandwich, who came for that purpose, had forced the port at 
 once, without observing forms or sending to the Viceroy of 
 Norway to demand entrance, which, in messages backward and 
 forward, wasted so much time that the Dutch had fortified it 
 in such a manner that, though it was attacked with very great 
 courage, it could not be carried ; but, after a loss of many men 
 and some ships, the attempt was given over as impractic 
 able, and a fleet worth many millions of money suffered to 
 escape. 
 
 England was at this time in sad distraction. The plague 
 continued for most part of the summer in and about London, 
 and began to spread around the country ; many ministers were 
 driven from town, and several churches were shut up, when 
 people were in a more than ordinary disposition to profit by 
 good sermons ; whereupon some of the Nonconformists went 
 into the empty pulpits, and preached with great freedom, 
 reflecting on the vices of the Court and the severities that they 
 themselves had been made to suffer. This was represented at 
 Oxford (where the Parliament was then sitting) in very odious 
 colours ; and so a bill was brought in and passed, requiring all 
 the silenced ministers to take an oath declaring that it was not 
 lawful, on any pretence whatever, to take arms against the 
 King, or any commissioned by him, or at any time to endeavour 
 an alteration in the government of the Church or State. And 
 such as refused to do this were not allowed to come within five 
 miles of a city or Parliament borough, or any church where 
 they had once served ; which severity, in a time of war and 
 public calamity, as it drew hard censures on the promoters 
 of it, so it raised a compassion for the recusants, and occa 
 sioned many plentiful contributions for the relief of their 
 necessities. 
 
 While the fleets were refitting against the next year, Alger 
 non Sidney, and some others of the Commonwealth party, came 
 to De Witt, and pressed him to think of an invasion of Eng 
 land and Scotland, giving him great assurance of a powerful
 
 8o Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 assistance, and hopes of a general insurrection in both nations ; 
 but he would not engage in so hazardous a design. All that 
 he aimed at was to weaken the trade of England, and to destroy 
 her fleet, in which he succeeded the next year beyond ex 
 pectation. 
 
 The English fleet was divided into two squadrons. Monk 
 commanded the greater (for the Duke was not to go to sea this 
 year), which consisted of between fifty and sixty ships of the line, 
 and Prince Rupert was sent with a squadron of about five-and- 
 twenty to meet the French fleet, and hinder their conjunction 
 with the Dutch, which the French had promised, but never 
 once attempted. The Dutch fleet came out, having De Witt 
 and some of the States on board, and engaged the English for 
 two days, in which they had a manifest superiority, for they 
 were more in number, and so well furnished with chain-shot (a 
 contrivance that De Witt had the honour to be thought the 
 inventor of), that the English fleet was quite unrigged, and 
 being in no condition to work themselves off, must inevitably 
 have been all lost, had not Prince Rupert, who was still in 
 the Channel, and heard the engagement by the continued 
 roaring of the guns, come up very seasonably to their relief, 
 and made the Dutch (who had suffered very much likewise), 
 upon the accession of such a force, steer off. Thus was our 
 fleet very happily saved; but when the Court gave out that 
 it was a victory, and appointed public thanksgivings for it, 
 they seemed not unwilling, for a little national boast and glory, 
 to incur the imputation both of mocking God and lying unto 
 men. 
 
 To complete the miseries of this year, no sooner was the 
 plague so abated in London that the inhabitants began to 
 return to their houses, than a most dreadful fire, on the 2nd of 
 September, broke out in the City, and raged for three days, as 
 if it had commission to devour everything that was in its way. 
 Above twelve thousand houses were burnt down, with the 
 greatest part of the furniture and merchandise that were in 
 them. All means used to stop it proved ineffectual, for the 
 wind was so high that flakes of fire and burning matter were 
 carried in the air across several streets, and spread the con 
 flagration everywhere. But what is a very miraculous circum 
 stance, amidst all this destruction and public confusion, no 
 person was known either to be burnt or trodden to death in the 
 streets. The King and the Duke, with the Guards, were almost 
 all the day on horseback, seeing to all that could be done,
 
 Charles II. First Part 81 
 
 either for quenching the fire or for carrying off persons and 
 goods to the fields. The King was never observed to be so 
 much struck with anything in his whole life ; but the Duke's 
 behaviour was a little too gay and negligent for such an 
 occasion, and a jealousy of his being concerned in it was upon 
 that account spread about with great industry, but with very 
 little appearance of truth. The question was then and is still 
 a secret, whether this fire came casually or on design ; and 
 however the general opinion might be that it was casual, yet 
 there are some presumptions on the other side of a very odd 
 nature. 
 
 The English fleet had some time before landed on the Vly, an 
 island near the Texel, and burnt it, upon which some came to 
 De Witt, and offered, in revenge, if they were but assisted, to set 
 London on fire. But he rejected the proposal, and thought no 
 more on it till the city was burnt. In the April before some 
 Commonwealth's men were found in a plot and hanged, and at 
 their execution confessed that they had been requested to assist 
 in a design of burning London on the 2nd of September. When 
 the city was burnt, one Hubert, a French Papist, was appre 
 hended in Essex as he was endeavouring to make his escape. 
 He owned that he was the person who first set it on fire, and 
 persisted in that confession to the very last, for he was hanged 
 upon no other evidence, though the broken account he gave of 
 the whole matter made some believe that he was melancholy 
 mad. But the passage of most suspicion was, that one Grant, 
 a Papist, being employed by the Countess of Clarendon to take 
 care of her estate in the New River that was brought from Ware 
 to London, and having upon that account a right to view the 
 works at Islington as oft as he pleased, came thither on the 
 Saturday before, and calling for the key of the place where 
 the heads of the pipes were, he turned the cocks and stopped 
 the water, and went away carrying the keys with him : so that 
 when the fire broke out next morning, and the pipes in the 
 streets were opened, there was no water to be found, and it was 
 a long time before they could come at any to quench it. These 
 were some presumptions of the City's being burnt by design ; 
 but when they came to be laid before a Committee of the House 
 of Commons appointed for the purpose, they were found of no 
 weight, and the many stories that were published at that time 
 with great assurance were, upon strict examination, void of all 
 credibility, as the Committee reported. 
 
 To go now to the affairs of Scotland.
 
 82 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 The Incapacitating Act by way of ballot had so provoked the 
 King, that when the Earl of Middleton came up to London 
 he was but coldly received, and at the first meeting of the 
 Scottish Council the Earl of Lauderdale accused him of many 
 malversations in the great trust he had been in, and aggravated 
 them severely. Lord Middleton's excuse was, that though he 
 might have transgressed in point of form, being not so well 
 acquainted with the law, yet his whole purpose had been to 
 promote the King's service, to provide for his friends, to humble 
 his enemies, and to encourage a loyal Parliament ; and in doing 
 this, that he had kept everything so entirely in the King's 
 power, that he could not be involved in any difficulties occa 
 sioned by his administration. Nor wanted he friends to inter 
 cede for him. Sheldon was very earnest with the King to 
 forgive him, as the only means to support the change so lately 
 made in the Church. The Duke of Albemarle represented that 
 Lord Middleton's friends were the only persons of zeal and 
 capacity to carry on the King's service ; and Sharp, upon this 
 occasion, pretended to go up and lay before the King that his 
 standing or falling must be the standing or falling of the 
 Church. But when he came to London and saw that the King 
 was quite alienated from Lord Middleton, he made a most 
 abject submission to the Earl of Lauderdale, with tears for his 
 former attachment to a contrary party, and promises of an 
 entire resignation of himself for the future. 
 
 While these things were in agitation, an accident happened 
 that hastened Lord Middleton's disgrace. The Earl of Lauder 
 dale had laid before the King the Committee's unjust proceed 
 ings with relation to fines, and had procured a letter to the 
 Council of Scotland, ordering them to issue out a proclamation 
 for superseding the execution of the Act of Fining till further 
 orders. Soon as Lord Middleton knew of this, he wrote down 
 to the Council to countermand it by the King's direction, as he 
 pretended ; but the King protested he knew nothing of it, and 
 accordingly resented it ; for in the latter end of May he called 
 many of the English councillors together, and having ordered 
 the allegations against Lord Middleton to be read, he declared, 
 in bar of all further intercessions for him, that his errors had 
 been so many and so great that the credit of his affairs must 
 suffer if he continued them any longer in such hands ; and so 
 in a few days sent a warrant to demand his commission, which 
 was afterwards given to the Earl of Rothes, one who was 
 always dependent on the Lord Lauderdale, notwithstanding
 
 Charles II. First Part 83 
 
 his high character, and in his whole ministry directed by his 
 counsels. 
 
 One of the first things that was done in this session of Parlia 
 ment was the execution of Warriston, who, before his attainder, 
 had made his escape, but was afterwards delivered up by 
 France, whither he had fled for refuge, into the King's hands. 
 He had lived formerly in great friendship with the Earl of 
 Lauderdale, but at this critical juncture he would not interpose 
 in his favour, though he was so disordered both in body and 
 mind that it was really a reproach to the Government to pro 
 ceed against him. His memory was so far gone that he did not 
 know his own children ; and when he was brought before the 
 Parliament, to show cause why his execution should not be 
 awarded, his words were disordered, and his deportment un 
 equal, as might be expected from a man in his condition. When 
 he came to die, however, he showed more composedness and 
 serenity ; and, in a long speech, which he read twice on the 
 scaffold, justified all the proceedings in the Covenant, and 
 asserted his own sincerity ; but he condemned his joining with 
 Cromwell and the sectaries, though, even in that, his designs, 
 he said, had been upright, for the good of his country and the 
 security of religion. 
 
 The Parliament proceeded next to lay open the whole affair 
 of balloting last session, which both finished Lord Middleton's 
 disgrace, and discarded all his friends from their employments. 
 They then passed an act declaring the constitution of a 
 national synod, much of the same model with the English 
 Convocation ; an act of great severity against conventicles, 
 almost in the same terms with what had been passed in 
 England ; and two more, wherein they seemed to place great 
 confidence in the King, and to make him no small compliment ; 
 for in the one of them they left the laying cf impositions on 
 all foreign merchandise wholly to him, and in the other they 
 offered him an army of twenty thousand foot and two thou 
 sand horse, to be ready upon summons, to march with forty 
 days' provision into any part of his Majesty's dominions, to 
 suppress insurrections, or in any other cause wherein his 
 authority, power, or greatness was concerned. And after these 
 acts were passed the Parliament was dissolved, to the general 
 satisfaction of the country (for they were a furious set of 
 people), and the Government was left in the Earl of Glencairn's 
 hands, who was always an enemy to Sharp's violent proceed 
 ings, but he lived not long to molest him.
 
 84 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 When the Parliament was up, the Privy Council was not so 
 forward to put acts in execution as was expected ; and there 
 fore Sharp went to London to complain of their remissness, as 
 destructive to the Church, and to desire a letter from the King, 
 giving him the precedence of the Lord Chancellor (which was 
 thought an extravagant piece of vanity), and a special commis 
 sion to some persons for executing the laws relating to the 
 Church, which was to be a kind of High Commission Court ; 
 but his success in these points was not till after the Earl of 
 Glencairn's death, which set him at ease, and put him upon a 
 new design of procuring the Seals to himself; but when he 
 could not succeed therein (though no art or dissimulation was 
 wanting in the management of it), he prevailed, however, that 
 the Earl of Rothes might have them, because he knew him to 
 be a person whom he could entirely govern ; and so, when they 
 had got such instructions as they required to prepare matters 
 for a National Synod, and in the meanwhile to execute the laws 
 relating to the Church with a steady firmness, they both came 
 down to Scotland, where a furious scene of illegal violences 
 began. 
 
 The people of the West, upon the exclusion of the old 
 ministers, became very sullen and refractory, and complained 
 of the new set that was sent among them as stupid, ignorant, 
 and immoral. They treated them with a great deal of contempt, 
 and the aversion they had to them broke out sometimes into 
 violence and injustice. Nor were the ministers wanting to 
 complain in their turns, and to possess the bishops with many 
 stories of designs and plottings against the State, so that many 
 were brought before the Council and the new Ecclesiastical 
 Commission, for pretended riots, for using their ministers ill, 
 but chiefly for not coming to church, and holding conventicles ; 
 and when proofs were defective, and lay rather in presumptions 
 than any clear evidence, the punishments proposed were often 
 arbitrary and unwarranted by law. Great numbers were by 
 this means cast in prison, where they were kept long, and ill 
 used ; some were fined, and the younger sort were whipped 
 about the streets ; all which did but increase their aversion, and 
 raise keener resentments in their minds. 
 
 Burnet, who, upon the death of Fairfoul, was promoted to 
 the archbishopric of Glasgow, was of himself a soft, good- 
 natured man, tolerably learned, and of a blameless life, but so 
 much in the power of others, that, though himself was in 
 clinable to moderate counsels, yet he was apt to take, even to
 
 Charles II. First Part 85 
 
 a great degree, a contrary impression, if it was given him, very 
 easily. He was sent up to possess the King with the apprehen 
 sions of a rebellion in the beginning of the Dutch war, and 
 proposed that if about twenty of the chief gentlemen in 
 those parts were secured, the peace of the country might be 
 preserved. The gentlemen were secured accordingly ; but 
 the whole odium of their imprisonment was charged upon 
 the clergy, and increased the people's hatred and animosity 
 against them. 
 
 Wherever the people had forsaken their churches, guards 
 were quartered through the country. Sir James Turner, who 
 commanded them, was naturally fierce, but mad when drunk, 
 and that was very often. He went about the country, and 
 received such lists as the ministers brought him of those who 
 came not to church, and then, without any proof or legal con 
 viction, set such a fine on them as he thought they were able 
 to pay, and sent soldiers to quarter upon them till the payment 
 was made ; but in this he was not so much to blame as others. 
 He was a military man, and knew no other rule but to obey 
 orders ; and though he was often chid, as he said, both by 
 Lord Rothes and Sharp, for not acting up to the rigour of 
 them, he was never once found fault with for any of his illegal 
 methods of oppression or cruelty. 
 
 The truth is, the whole face of the Government looked more 
 like the proceedings of an Inquisition than of legal courts ; but 
 Sharp was never satisfied, and, the next time he went to Court, 
 he complained to the King of the Earl of Lauderdale, even 
 before his face, as of one who had obstructed the interest of the 
 Church, and given secret encouragement to the fanatics (as was 
 then their name of reproach), to persist in their opposition to 
 the Government. But when Lord Lauderdale, by the King's 
 directions, demanded his accusation in writing, and vowed in 
 an angry tone that, unless he could make it good, he would 
 prosecute him upon the Statute of Leasing-making, he began to 
 tremble and cry, and, for fear of further mischief, went to the 
 King and retracted all he had said in so gross a manner that 
 the King said afterwards Lord Lauderdale was ill-natured to 
 press it so heavily, and to force Sharp on giving himself the 
 lie in such coarse terms. 
 
 The proceedings of the Ecclesiastical Commission were 
 everywhere so violent, and gave such offence to many good 
 men, that Bishop Leighton was prevailed on to go up to Court, 
 and to give the King a true account of them ; and his purpose
 
 86 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 was likewise to resign his bishopric, and to retire, since he 
 could not be accessory to what was done in this manner, and 
 retain a good conscience, though there were no violences com 
 mitted in his diocese ; for he went round it continually every 
 year, preaching and catechizing in every parish ; he continued 
 in his private and ascetic course of life, and gave all his income, 
 beyond the small expense of his own person, to the poor ; he 
 studied to raise in his clergy a greater sense of spiritual matters, 
 and of the care of souls ; and was in all respects a burning 
 light, highly esteemed by the greater part of his diocese, and 
 not disregarded by those who dissented from him. 
 
 The King seemed concerned for the state the country was 
 in, and, speaking with some severity against Sharp, assured 
 Leighton that he would in a short time put a stop to such 
 violent proceedings ; and accordingly gave orders that the 
 Ecclesiastical Commission should be discontinued, because 
 another way of management was necessary to his affairs ; and 
 indeed it was high time, for not only those who suffered under 
 them, but many of the most eminent Episcopal clergy likewise, 
 were highly offended at these severities, as contrary to the meek 
 spirit of the gospel, and tending only to confirm men's prejudices 
 against the Church. 
 
 Nairn was the politest man of all the Scotch divines; he 
 had formed clear and lively schemes of things, and was the 
 most eloquent of all their preachers ; he considered the pastoral 
 function as a dedication of the whole man to God and his 
 service ; he read the moral philosophers much, and had wrought 
 in himself the same equal temper, so far as was consistent 
 with his natural fervour, all which he turned into melting 
 devotion. He had a true notion of superstition, as a narrow 
 ness of soul and meanness of thought in religion; and studied 
 to raise in all who conversed with him right conceptions of 
 God and a universal charity to mankind ; and this made him 
 pity the Presbyterians, as men of low notions and sullen tempers, 
 and therefore more likely to be wrought upon by lenity than 
 persecution. 
 
 Charteris was a man of a composed and serene gravity, but 
 without affectation or sourness ; for he had a great sweetness 
 in his temper, and endeavoured to make religion amiable in 
 his whole deportment. His contempt of the world and neglect 
 of himself, his silence in company and prudence in conduct, 
 fervent love and fervent piety, were very remarkable ; for he 
 was indeed a very perfect friend, and a most sublime Christian.
 
 Charles II. First Part 87 
 
 He had gone through the chief parts of learning, had read the 
 fathers much, and was often used to lament that among all the 
 searches that had been made into them to state the nature of 
 Church government, no care had been yet taken to set out in 
 a proper light their notions of the sacred function, of the pre 
 paration of mind and inward vocation wherewith men ought 
 to come to holy orders, or of the strictness of life, the heavenly 
 temper, and constant application to do good that afterwards 
 became them. These were two clergymen of singular note; 
 and together with these, many vrho set themselves to read 
 history, and to observe the state of the Primitive Church and 
 the spirit. of those times, could not but perceive a vast repug 
 nancy in the present management of things, and so great a 
 difference between the constitution of the Church under those 
 bishops and their own, that they seemed to agree in nothing 
 but the name ; for all the present set (except Scougal, Bishop 
 of Aberdeen, who was a man of a rare temper and great piety 
 and prudence) were not only furious against all who stood out 
 against them, but very remiss in all the parts of their function. 
 Some did not live within their dioceses, and those who did 
 seemed to take no care of them ; they showed no zeal against 
 vice ; they took no pains to keep their clergy strict to rules. 
 On the contrary, the most eminently wicked in the country 
 were their confidants ; and about themselves there was such a 
 levity and carnal way of living as scandalised the author of 
 this history, and put him upon drawing up a memorial, when 
 he was but three-and-twenty years old, of some grievances 
 occasioned by their ill-conduct ; wherein he showed that, by 
 neglecting their diocese, meddling so much in secular affairs, 
 raising their families out of the revenues of the Church, and, 
 above all, by their violent persecuting of those who differed 
 from them, they had quite departed from the constitution of 
 the Primitive Church. This memorial he sent in manuscript 
 to several of the bishops. This nettled Sharp to such a degree 
 that he was for summarily depriving and excommunicating 
 the author, but that the rest of the bishops refused to give in 
 to the fury of his resentment. 
 
 The King, by this time, came to have a very indifferent 
 opinion of Sharp's integrity, which was every day confirmed to 
 him by one incident or other. He had received intelligence 
 from Holland that the Dutch were encouraging an insurrection 
 in Scotland, whereupon he called together as many of the 
 Privy Councillors of that kingdom as were then in town (for
 
 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 the Scottish Council at Whitehall was discontinued after Lord 
 Middleton's fall), and asked their advice about some addi 
 tional forces that he thought necessary to be raised upon that 
 occasion. The money that came in upon fines was given by 
 act of Parliament among those who had served and suffered 
 for the King, and the King was only intrusted with the dis 
 tribution of it ; so when the question was put how the new 
 forces were to be paid, Sharp readily answered, that the money 
 collected by fines was not yet disposed of, and proposed the 
 application of it to that use. By this means all the Cavaliers, 
 who were come up with their pretensions, were disappointed in 
 their last hopes of finding a recompense for their sufferings ; 
 and when they charged Sharp with giving his advice, he called 
 it a wicked and diabolical invention, wherein they had no 
 share, which was afterwards carried to the King ; and, to com 
 plete his disgrace, Lord Lauderdale got many of his letters, 
 which he had wrote to the Presbyterians, after the time he was 
 negotiating for Episcopacy, in which he continued to protest 
 with what zeal he was soliciting their concerns, not without 
 dreadful imprecations upon himself if he did prevaricate with 
 them. These he laid before the King, and from that time 
 forward the King looked on him as one of the worst of 
 men. 
 
 The severities exercised in the west put that part of the king 
 dom in a great fermentation. The people were told that the 
 nation was in a general disposition to revolt, and that the fire 
 of London had put things in that confusion at Court, that any 
 vigorous attempt would disorder all the King's affairs, and 
 rescue them from the tyranny under which they groaned. 
 Hereupon a body of men got together, and, under the conduct 
 of two officers, Colonel Wallace and Learmoth, who had served 
 in the late wars, marched directly to Dumfries, where they sur 
 prised Turner before he could get to arms, and at the same 
 time seized all his papers and instructions, and a good quantity 
 of money, that had partly been sent to pay his men and partly 
 raised by fines levied in the country. 
 
 Upon the first suspicion of an insurrection, the King had sent 
 for two gallant officers who had served him in the wars, and, when 
 these were over, had gone with his letters to serve in Muscovy 
 (where one of them, Dalzell, was advanced to be a general, 
 and the other, Drummond, was made a lieutenant-general, and 
 Governor of Smolensk), designing to put the new-raised forces 
 under their command. Sharp, in the absence of the Earl of
 
 Charles II. First Part 89 
 
 Rothes, was at the head of the Government, so that he took the 
 management of this little war upon him, and ordered Dalzell to 
 draw all the force he had together and march westward. But 
 the report of their late success made many run to the rebels, 
 who now came to be called Whigs, and began to appear in the 
 form of an army, and published their manifesto, wherein they 
 denied that they took up arms against the King, but com 
 plained of the oppressions they had suffered, and desired that 
 Episcopacy might be put down, Presbytery and the Covenant 
 set up, and their ministers restored to them again; and then 
 they promised that in all other things they would approve 
 themselves obedient subjects. 
 
 Sharp, all this while, was in a dreadful consternation. He 
 wrote dismal letters to the Court, magnifying the strength of the 
 enemy, and praying that more forces might be sent down ; and 
 once he moved in Council that they should all go and shut 
 themselves up in the Castle of Edinburgh ; but that was 
 thought a little too inglorious. The Whigs marched on to 
 wards Edinburgh, and came within two miles of the place, but 
 finding neither town nor country declare for them, and their 
 number decreasing and dropping away apace, they lost heart, 
 and as they were returning into the west again, Dalzell, who 
 had pursued them very closely, on the 28th of November, a 
 little after sunset, came up with them, and they, perceiving 
 that they could not get off, stopped their march. They had 
 the advantage of being posted on a hill ; their ministers did all 
 they could, by preaching and praying, to infuse courage into 
 them, and the first charge of the King's troops they received 
 very resolutely, and put them in some disorder ; but that was 
 the whole action, for immediately they threw away their arms, 
 and ran for their lives. About forty were killed on the spot, a 
 hundred and thirty were taken, and the rest were favoured by 
 the darkness of the night and the weariness of the King's forces, 
 who were neither in a condition to pursue them, nor had, indeed, 
 any great inclination to it, for they were a poor harmless com 
 pany of men, exasperated by wrongs, and made mad by oppres 
 sion. 
 
 The two archbishops were now delivered out of their fear, 
 and the common observation that cruelty and cowardice go 
 together was too visibly verified upon this occasion. The Earl 
 of Rothes came down full of rage, and, by their instigation, was 
 resolved to proceed with the utmost severity against the pri 
 soners. Burnet advised the hanging of all who would not
 
 QO Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 renounce the Covenant and conform to the laws for the future ; 
 and Sharp encouraged the ministers in disaffected counties to 
 bring in what information they could get, not only against the 
 rebels, but against all who had been concerned with them ; and 
 the ministers, on this occasion, acted a part so ill befitting their 
 character, that they became detestable, and were looked upon 
 as wolves, not as shepherds. The best of the Episcopal clergy, 
 indeed, advised the bishops to make use of this opportunity of 
 recovering the affections of the country by becoming inter 
 cessors for these poor people; and some of the bishops both 
 entered into this, and sent largely to their support in prison, 
 especially Wishart, Bishop of Edinburgh, who, though a rough 
 man and exasperated by ill-usage, expressed a very kind and 
 Christian temper on this occasion. But nothing could mollify 
 Sharp ; . he not only laboured to procure evidence against them, 
 but precluded the mercy of others, and urged their execution. 
 Ten of them were hanged upon one gibbet at Edinburgh, and 
 five-and-thirty more were sent to their respective counties, and 
 hanged before their own doors. They were most of them mean 
 and inconsiderable persons in all respects, and had the offer of 
 their lives if they would renounce the Covenant, but they were 
 firm and inflexible in their persuasions, and, when they came 
 to die, avowed their cause, and expressed great joy in their 
 sufferings. 
 
 Among the rest there was one M'Kail, a probationer preacher 
 only, who had been chaplain in Sir James Steward's house, and, 
 upon one account or other, being supposed to know more of 
 the matter than the rest, was put to the torture which they call 
 the boots, 1 to draw a confession from him ; but he bore it with 
 great constancy, and notwithstanding the intensity of his pain, 
 died in a rapture of joy, and with these last words in his mouth : 
 " Farewell, sun and moon and stars, farewell kindred and friends, 
 farewell world and time, farewell weak and frail body ; welcome 
 eternity, welcome angels and saints, welcome Saviour of the 
 world, and welcome God, the Judge of all ! " which he spoke 
 with such a voice and manner as affected deeply all who heard 
 him, and the outcry against his death became more popular 
 when it was afterwards known that Burnet, who was come down 
 before his execution, had brought with him a letter from the 
 
 1 The torture of the boots in Scotland is when they put a pair of iron 
 boots close on the legs, and then drive wedges between them. The com 
 mon way is to drive them in at the calf of the leg, but in some cases they 
 are driven upon the shin-bone.
 
 Charles II. First Part 91 
 
 King, prohibiting any further effusion of blood, and ordering 
 that such as would conform to the Government should be dis 
 charged, and the incorrigible sent to plantations, which letter 
 he never produced until after the execution was over. 
 
 After the suppression of this rebellion the forces were 
 ordered to lie in the west, where Dalzell acted the Muscovite 
 too grossly, and committed many monstrous barbarities. Some 
 he threatened to spit and roast alive ; others he killed in cold 
 blood, or rather in hot, for he was almost always drunk ; and 
 those who refused to come to church he used to quarter so 
 many soldiers upon as were enough to eat them up in one 
 night. By this means a terror was struck into the country, 
 and people began to come regularly to church for fear. This 
 delighted the clergy highly, who, looking upon the soldiery as, 
 in this respect, their best patrons, were not a little solicitous to 
 be constantly in their company, and not at all ashamed to run 
 with them into all riots and excess, if not to go before them in 
 some gross instances of wickedness and immorality. 
 
 This was the state of Scotland, harassed with cruelty and 
 overrun with oppression and vice, when affairs in England were 
 under the last distraction. The Parliament had given about 
 five millions towards the expense of the Dutch war ; but 
 through the luxury and waste of the Court, this money was so 
 squandered away that the King could neither set out fleet nor 
 defend his coasts. It was pretended that the peace at Breda 
 was so near a conclusion that there was no necessity to put the 
 nation to further expense, and so the Dutch sailed up the Medway, 
 and with little or no obstruction fell upon our ships at Chat 
 ham, and might, no doubt, have done much more mischief had 
 they come up the Thames and pursued the advantage of our 
 first consternation. The damage sustained by this action was 
 not greater than was the disgrace of it, and the King's beha 
 viour in a time of such imminent danger was not much 
 applauded ; for, instead of appearing at the head of his people, 
 he only sent down the Duke of Albemarle, and was intending 
 himself to retire to Windsor ; but, being prevailed on to stay, 
 was very pleasant that night at supper with his mistresses, 
 which occasioned odd reflections, and drew upon him many 
 libels wrote with such a wit and malice as brought him under 
 a general contempt. 
 
 Under these disadvantages the King foresaw that he could 
 not meet his Parliament without reproach, and therefore he 
 thought that the disgracing a public minister, who, by being
 
 92 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 long in a very eminent post, had drawn upon himself much 
 envy and many enemies, would assuage some discontents and 
 cover himself and the rest of the Court. 
 
 The Earl of Clarendon, ever since the declaration of the 
 Duke's marriage with his daughter, found his credit declining. 
 The Earl of Bristol, upon this presumption, had exhibited 
 articles against him ; the Lady Castlemain was violently 
 enraged at him ; and whenever the Duke of Buckingham was 
 admitted to any familiarities with the King, he studied, with 
 all his wit and humour, to make his counsels appear ridiculous. 
 The projecting a match between the King and the Infanta of 
 Portugal, to wrong the nation of an heir, and, by that means, to 
 raise his own grandchildren, and the diminution of what autho 
 rity and revenue some intended to have given the King at his 
 Restoration, with many more crimes of the like nature, were 
 charged upon him to exasperate the King against him. His 
 building a large house in the time of public calamity, amount 
 ing to the expense of almost fifty thousand pounds, occasioned 
 a general outcry ; and his employing the stones designed for 
 the reparation of St. Paul's to that purpose (how slight soever 
 it might be in itself) had a great effect by the management of 
 his enemies. And, what was a great misfortune to him at this 
 time, he had lost his chief friend, to whom he trusted most, and 
 who was his greatest support, the Earl of Southampton, who 
 died of the stone, and in most exquisite torture, but bore it all 
 with the firmness of a great man, and the submission of a good 
 Christian. 
 
 Lord Clarendon, being thus pushed at on every side, had his 
 fall hastened and the King's anger sharpened against him by a 
 certain disappointment in one of his amours. The Queen- 
 mother had brought over with her from France one Mrs. 
 Steward, a very beautiful woman, who had gained so much 
 on the King, and yet had kept her ground with such a firmness, 
 that the King seemed to design, if possible, to legitimate his 
 addresses to her, when he saw no hope of succeeding any other 
 way. Whether the Earl of Clarendon suspected the thing or no is 
 uncertain, but the King was informed that he persuaded the lady 
 by all means to marry the Duke of Richmond, who made pre 
 tensions to her at the same time ; and as she found herself 
 pressed by the King, he prevailed with her at last to go pri 
 vately from Whitehall and be married to him, without giving 
 the King any notice. A disappointment of this nature made 
 that deep impression upon the King that he was resolved to
 
 Charles II. First Part 93 
 
 ruin Lord Clarendon for being the supposed adviser of it ; and 
 accordingly he took the Seals from him, and gave them to Sir 
 Orlando Bridgeman, Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas, 
 then in great esteem, but which he did not maintain long after 
 his advancement ; for he was always bred to another court, 
 and seemed not to apprehend what equity was. 
 
 At the very first opening of the Parliament there seemed 
 to be a conspiracy in the Lower House to destroy Lord 
 Clarendon. Twenty-three articles were exhibited against him, 
 and when he made the offer that if any one could be proved 
 fairly he would submit to the censure due upon them all, they 
 declined that offer as conscious of the insufficiency of the proof, 
 and sent up at the same time a general impeachment of high 
 treason to the bar of the Lords, demanding that he might be 
 committed upon it. 
 
 The Duke was at this time taken with the small-pox, and so 
 was out of the debate ; but the opinion of the House was, that 
 the general accusation was only a clamour, and that their 
 dignities signified little if a clamour was enough to send them 
 to prison ; and so, after several debates and conferences and 
 protestations, the majority of the House stood firm, and adhered 
 to their resolution against commitment. All this while Lord 
 Clarendon's friends pressed the King in his behalf that at 
 least he might be suffered to go off without censure, since he 
 had served both his father and himself so long, so faithfully, 
 and with so good success ; but the King was inflexible, and 
 expressed such a violent and irreconcilable aversion to him as 
 shocked the sentiments of all who were not engaged in the 
 party. He desired his brother, however, to persuade Lord 
 Clarendon to go beyond seas, as the only expedient to make 
 up the breach between the two Houses, and let fall some kind 
 words in case he would comply. Lord Clarendon was all 
 obedience ; and so, partly to serve the King, and partly to 
 save himself and family, he went privately beyond sea ; and 
 when he was at Calais wrote a letter to the House of Lords, 
 protesting his innocence in all the points objected against him, 
 and desiring them to believe that it was not any consciousness 
 of guilt that made him withdraw himself, but an unwillingness 
 to be any longer the unhappy occasion of any difference 
 between the two Houses, and obstruction to public business. 
 This his enemies called a confession of guilt, and a flying from 
 justice; and therefore they brought in a bill, and passed it with 
 a good deal of opposition, to banish him the King's dominions
 
 94 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 for ever, and to make it treason for any, without the King's 
 permission, to correspond with him. 
 
 Thus fell the great Earl of Clarendon under the common fate 
 of ministers of his high rank, whose employment exposes them 
 to envy, and draws upon them the indignation of all who are 
 disappointed in their pretensions. Their friends forsake them, 
 and sometimes turn violently against them ; and princes are so 
 little sensible of their services that they sometimes sacrifice 
 them to the humour of a mistress or the passion of a rising 
 favourite. He had two sons : the elder, who succeeded to the 
 title after his decease, was a man naturally sincere, friendly, 
 and good-natured. He was very early engaged in great 
 secrets, for his father employed him as his secretary when very 
 young; and in that capacity he was so discreet, as well as 
 faithful, that nothing was ever discovered by him. His con 
 versation was somewhat tedious, and his judgment not much to 
 be depended on, for he was often carried away by vulgar pre 
 judices and false notions. Of all the family he was the most 
 trusted and best beloved by his father, for he was humble and 
 obliging, though sometimes peevish ; and by his father's ill-usage 
 was so provoked that he struck in violently with the party that 
 opposed the Court, which made the King always speak of him 
 with scorn and severity enough. His brother, the Earl of 
 Rochester, was a man of far greater parts : a good writer, but 
 no very graceful speaker, though otherwise a great master of 
 insinuation and address. During the whole dispute concerning 
 his father he made his court so dexterously that no resentment 
 ever appeared on that head. As he came into business, and 
 rose to high posts, he grew violent, and gave up his own 
 notions to his party, that he might lead them ; but he was 
 always incorrupt, and thought to be sincere, because he seemed 
 to have too much heat to be false. 
 
 As soon as the Earl of Clarendon was gone, the Government, 
 which ran all in favour of the Church party before, began to 
 put on another aspect. Bridgeman, who succeeded to the Seals, 
 was a person of great integrity, and had serious impressions of 
 religion on his mind. He was always on the side of the Church, 
 but had a great tenderness for the Nonconformists, and (the 
 bishops having disobliged him by their adherence to Lord 
 Clarendon) was now in a disposition to befriend them. The 
 Duke of Buckingham, since Lord Clarendon's fall, was received 
 into great favour, and set up for a patron of liberty of conscience. 
 Wilkins, who was lately promoted to the see of Chester, was a
 
 Charles II. First Part 95 
 
 man of moderation, and yet had a courage in him that could 
 stand against a current, and against all reproaches that an ill- 
 natured clergy could throw upon him. The King, too, who had 
 that command of himself that, whenever his interest led him to 
 court any sort of men, he could do it so dexterously and with 
 such an air of sincerity as would easily impose upon them, 
 made it now believed, both by his behaviour and constant 
 declarations against the ambition, covetousness, and many 
 scandals of the clergy, that since the Church of England was 
 gone off from him, he was resolved to show some favour to 
 sectaries, both to soften them and to force the others to come 
 back to their dependence upon him. 
 
 Upon this presumption Bridgeman and Wilkins set on foot a 
 treaty for a comprehension of such of the Dissenters as could 
 be brought into the communion of the Church, and a toleration 
 for the rest ; and a project was prepared, consisting chiefly of 
 those things that the King had promised by his Declaration in 
 the year 1660. Only in the point of re-ordination this temper 
 was proposed that those who had Presbyterian ordination 
 should be received to serve in the Church by an imposition 
 of hands, accompanied with a form of words importing that 
 the person so ordained was received now to serve in the Church 
 of England. This treaty became the subject of all conversa 
 tions, and many wrote against it with too much severity. 
 The author of the " Friendly Debate," though a very good 
 man, was culpable in this respect ; but the most virulent of all 
 was Parker, afterwards made Bishop of Oxford by King James, 
 a man full of satirical vivacity, but of no judgment, little virtue, 
 and, as to religion, rather impious. After he had for some years 
 entertained the nation with his wit and spleen, he was at last 
 attacked by one of the liveliest drolls of the age, 1 who wrote 
 in a burlesque strain, but in so peculiar and entertaining a 
 manner as humbled the whole party, and gained all the laugh 
 on his side. But whatever advantages the men of compre 
 hension might have in other respects, the majority of the 
 House of Commons was so possessed against them, that when 
 it was known in a succeeding session that a bill was ready to be 
 offered to the House for that end, a very extraordinary vote 
 passed that no bill to that purpose should be received. The 
 temper, however, that the King pretended to upon the matter 
 of this comprehension, as well as the figure that he now seemed 
 
 1 Andrew Marvel in "The Rehearsal Transposed."
 
 96 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 to make m the affairs of Europe (for he had brought about the 
 peace between Castile and Portugal, and made an alliance with 
 the Dutch, which was called the Triple Alliance, 1 because the 
 King of Sweden, though then but a child, was engaged in it) ; 
 this, I say, had a very good effect upon people's minds with 
 relation to the King, and disposed them to forgive all that was 
 past, and to renew their confidence in him, which was much 
 shaken by the whole conduct of the Dutch war. 
 
 The King's affairs in England, and the disposition that he 
 seemed now to be in, made him think of altering his measures 
 and softening his government everywhere. In the Scottish 
 constitution it was an ancient custom to summon a Convention 
 to meet within twenty days, who had power to levy money 
 or petition for the redress of grievances ; but could make no 
 new laws, nor meddle with anything but that for which they 
 were convened. In the Convention last year Sharp had 
 presided, as named by the King's Commissioner ; but in this 
 the King by a special letter appointed the Duke of Hamilton 
 to preside, and sent orders to Sharp to stay within his diocese 
 and come no more to Edinburgh, under which slight disgrace 
 he showed as much abjectness as he had insolence before, 
 when he was in favour. After the Convention was over, the 
 Earl of Rothes sent up Drummond to represent to the King 
 the ill-affection of the western parts, and to propose as an 
 expedient that he would give the Council a power to require all 
 persons whom they suspected to renounce the Covenant, and, 
 upon their refusal, to proceed against them as traitors. Drum 
 mond had a great measure of knowledge and learning, and 
 some true impressions of religion in him ; but he had too much 
 of the air and temper of Russia, and thought that upon such 
 powers granted there would be a great dealing in bribes and con 
 fiscations, which he promised himself a share in. In com 
 pliance, however, with so public a message, an instruction was 
 sent down such as was desired ; but at the same time a private 
 letter to the Earl of Rothes, ordering no use should be made 
 of it, because it was designed not to be executed, but only to 
 strike terror in the ill-affected. The Convention continued the 
 assessment for another year at six thousand pounds a month, 
 which proved a great charge to the nation ; and therefore 
 Burnet was sent up at another time with a proposition of a 
 
 1 Sir William Temple has given us a particular account of that alliance 
 himself. His Works were published in 2 vols. folio in 1720 ; and in 4 vols. 
 8vo in 1757, 1770, and 1814.
 
 Charles II. First Part 97 
 
 very extraordinary nature, viz., that the western counties 
 should be cantoned under a special government, and have 
 peculiar taxes, together with the quartering of soldiers for 
 that they were the occasion of keeping up the army imposed 
 upon them. But the proposition was rejected as not counte 
 nanced by law, and Burnet was sent down with no other 
 comfort but abundance of good words; for the King was 
 now resolved to remove Lord Rothes, and put the affairs of 
 Scotland under another management. 
 
 During the war the Scots had sent out many privateers, and 
 with them brought in many rich prizes ; and the Dutch, being 
 provoked at this, sent Van Ghent with a good fleet into the 
 Frith to burn the coast, and to recover such ships as were 
 in that part. And he might, no doubt, have done great mis 
 chief had he attacked Leith harbour immediately, which was 
 then full of ships; but he soon sailed out again, and joined 
 De Ruyter in the shameful attempt upon Chatham. The 
 country-people, however, ran down to the coasts and made 
 a good appearance; but Lord Rothes being out of the way 
 when this alarm happened was so aggravated by Lord Lauder- 
 dale that it prevailed with the King to begin the intended 
 change sooner perhaps than he otherwise would ; for he sent 
 down a letter in June to remove the Lord Rothes from the 
 Treasury, which was put in commission, though in compensa 
 tion he gave him the Seals ; and as soon as the peace of Breda 
 was concluded, he signified his pleasure to the Council of having 
 the army disbanded, by which means his authority as general, 
 as well as his commission, was now at an end, after it had 
 lasted three years. The pretence of his commission was to 
 prepare matters for a National Synod, yet in all that time there 
 was not one step made towards one ; for the bishops seemed 
 concerned for nothing except their authority and their revenues, 
 nor took they any care of regulating either the worship or 
 discipline of the Church. 
 
 To keep the nation quiet, after the disbanding of the army, 
 it was proposed, as an expedient, that, instead of renouncing 
 the Covenant (to which many were so averse), a bond should 
 be given for keeping the peace, and against rising in arms; 
 and at the same time a county militia raised and trained, but 
 in places not so well affected, no foot, but only some troops of 
 horse. And so an indemnity of a more comprehensive nature 
 . was proclaimed, requiring no more than a bond for the security 
 of the national peace, which was accounted a test so mild that 
 
 E
 
 98 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 all, except some melancholy, superstitious persons, whose heads 
 were always full of scruples, submitted to it ; and a general 
 satisfaction after this change, and a great appearance of public 
 tranquillity, were everywhere seen. 
 
 The Earl of Lauderdale had acted with much steadiness and 
 uniformity before ; but at this time there happened a great 
 alteration in his temper, which continued to the end of his life, 
 occasioned by the humours of a profuse, imperious woman. 
 Mr. Murray, of the bedchamber, had been page and whipping- 
 boy to King Charles I. He was turned for a Court; very 
 insinuating, very false, and of so revengeful a temper, that, 
 rather than the counsels of his enemies should succeed, he 
 would reveal them, and betray both them and the King. He 
 was, however, in great credit with him, and had got a warrant 
 to be made an earl, but lost that honour by not passing it 
 under the Great Seal during the King's life. His eldest 
 daughter, however, who was married to Sir Lionel Talmash, 
 laid claim to the honour, and took upon her the title of 
 Countess of Dysart. She was a woman of great beauty, but of 
 far greater parts ; had a wonderful quickness of apprehension, 
 and an amazing vivacity in conversation ; had studied not only 
 divinity and history, but mathematics and philosophy ; but, 
 what ruined these accomplishments, she was restless in her 
 ambition, profuse in her expense, and of a most ravenous 
 covetousness ; nor was there anything she stuck at to compass 
 her end, for she was violent in everything a violent friend, 
 and a much more violent enemy. She had been early in an 
 acquaintance with Lord Lauderdale, not without some censure ; 
 and, after her husband's death, became so intimate with him, 
 and gained such an ascendant over him, as much lessened him 
 in the opinion of the world. For all applications were made to 
 her ; she sold places and disposed of offices, and took upon her 
 not only to determine everything of this nature, but to direct 
 his private conduct likewise, and, as the conceit took her, would 
 make him fall out with all his friends. 
 
 Sir Robert Murray was in Scotland (when she took the 
 advantage of his absence to foment a misunderstanding between 
 Lord Lauderdale and him), administering public affairs with 
 very great credit. Lord Tweeddale and he went on with 
 unanimity, and reduced things to a much better regulation ; all 
 payments were duly made, and an overplus of ^10,000 a year 
 saved out of the revenue. A magazine of arms was bought with 
 it, and several projects were set on foot for the encouragement
 
 Charles II. First Part 99 
 
 of trade and manufactures ; all vice was discouraged, justice 
 impartially administered, and, to make some amends for the 
 violences of the late administration, as well as to cast the odium 
 of the late rebellion upon Lord Rothes and Burner, a commis 
 sion was sent to the western counties to examine into all the 
 complaints of unjust and illegal oppressions by Turner, Dalzell, 
 and others, and at the same time to take some cognisance of 
 the lives and other qualifications of the clergy. Turner and 
 some others had their commissions taken from them ; but this 
 did not satisfy the country, for the breaking an officer or two, 
 they thought, was but a small reparation for so much blood 
 shed, and a less discouragement to the like proceedings for the 
 future. 
 
 The clergy were ignorant and scandalous enough in all con 
 science ; but they were so linked together in a brotherhood of 
 iniquity, that they themselves would not accuse one another ; 
 and the people of the country pretending that to accuse a 
 minister before a bishop was recognising his authority, which 
 they denied, there was no other remedy but to constitute a 
 court by a special commission from the King, made up of some 
 of the laity as well as the clergy, to inquire into the truth of 
 the scandalous reports that went upon them. This design 
 Sharp seemed to be pleased with, though he abhorred it in his 
 heart, as savouring of Erastianism. Burnet complained loudly 
 of it as an infringement upon his particular jurisdiction, and a 
 kind of declaration that he was not thought capable to judge 
 his own clergy ; and the clergy themselves called it a delivering 
 them up to the will of their enemies, who hated them for their 
 function's sake, and, upon a small encouragement, would testify 
 any manner of falsehood against them ; and these remonstrances 
 (though it was very much approved of above) put a stop to the 
 design. 
 
 The Presbyterians, hereupon finding a relaxation in the 
 execution of the laws, and the clergy falling under some dis 
 countenance with the Government, began to grow insolent, and 
 to treat them, in many places, with much roughness ; and the 
 clergy, seeing the protection of the Government withdrawn, and 
 some designs formed against them to turn them out, began to 
 be very uneasy, and hearing of better encouragement in Ireland, 
 they, for a sum of money which the inhabitants were very 
 ready to give, in hopes of having their old ministers restored, 
 were prevailed on to desert their cures, and so a great number 
 of vacancies in a very short time were made all over these
 
 ioo Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 counties ; and in this condition we leave affairs in Scotland, 
 and return to the intrigues of the Court. 
 
 The Lord Clarendon's enemies thought that they could never 
 be in safety so long as the Duke of York, who was hearty in 
 his interest, had so much credit with the King, and the Duchess 
 so much influence over him ; and therefore they fell into propo 
 sitions of a strange nature, to defeat their expectances and 
 alienate the King from them. The Duke of Buckingham 
 pressed the King to declare a marriage with the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth's mother, and undertook to get witnesses to attest it, as 
 the Earl of Carlisle did to move it in the House ; and the dis 
 course that passed upon that occasion was carried to the Duke 
 of Monmouth, and got fatally into his head. When the King 
 would not consent to that, the project of a divorce was next set 
 on foot ; for they saw that the King had children by so many 
 different creatures, that there was no fear of issue, had he but 
 a wife capable of any, and were got quit of this. And to facili 
 tate the matter, several pretences were offered, as that the King 
 was never legally married, that the Queen was barren by a 
 natural cause, that she had a certain secret defect in her person ; 
 and, if none of these took, that there was no reason, in law or 
 nature, why polygamy might not be lawful. 
 
 An accident happened at that time that seemed to give some 
 sanction to this design. The Lord Roos, afterwards Earl of 
 Rutland, brought proofs of adultery against his wife, and ob 
 tained a sentence of divorce in the Spiritual Court, which, 
 amounting only to a separation from bed and board, he moved 
 for a bill entirely to dissolve the bond, and enable him to marry 
 another wife. The King and the Duke appeared in this in 
 stance so zealous on different sides, the one for and the other 
 against the divorce, that it occasioned much observation ; and 
 when the bill passed, the King was advised to lay hold on the 
 precedent, and to order a bill to be brought in for his own 
 divorce ; but when matters were prepared, and the very day 
 agreed on to make the motion in the House of Commons, the 
 King relented, and the thing was let fall. 
 
 Another scheme of the Duke of Buckingham's was to steal 
 the Queen away, if the King would give him leave, and send 
 her to a plantation, where she should be well and carefully 
 looked to, but never heard of more ; but the King rejected the 
 contrivance with horror. He came, however, into this proposi 
 tion at last, which was to deal with the Queen's confessor,
 
 Charles II. First Part IOI 
 
 that he might persuade her to leave the world, and to turn 
 religious, and so the Parliament might easily be prevailed on 
 to pass a divorce. What obstructed the effect of this design is 
 not so well known ; but it is gene/a^.y, jeU.eved that* apon this 
 occasion the Duchess of York s.ent'an express to Rome, with the 
 notice of her conversion, and that orders ye -re sent from 'thence 
 to all about the Queen to persuacte frer' against* stich' a proposi 
 tion, if any should suggest it to her. The Queen, in short, had 
 no mind to be a nun. The Duchess of York hated the thoughts 
 of another queen, and the mistress, then made Duchess of 
 Cleveland, foresaw she must fall a sacrifice to her ; and there 
 fore they all, in their different ways, conspired to prevent the 
 intended divorce, which, when the Duke of Buckingham per 
 ceived, he broke with the mistress, and endeavoured to draw 
 the King from her by a train of new amours ; and because he 
 knew him to be delighted with a gaiety of temper, he engaged 
 him to entertain two women of the stage, Davies and Gwynne, 
 one after another. The former did not keep her hold long ; 
 but Gwynne, the most indiscreet and the wildest creature that 
 ever was in a Court, continued in great favour to the end of his 
 life, for she acted all persons in such a lively manner, and was 
 such a constant diversion to the King, that even a new mistress 
 could not drive her away. Roberts, a clergyman's daughter, 
 was another mistress, who was managed by the Earl of Shaftes- 
 bury ; but the principles of a good education were so well 
 rooted in her that, though they could not restrain her from 
 many scandalous disorders, yet they made her uneasy in them, 
 and brought her at last to a due sense and repentance of them. 
 These amours made the Duchess of Cleveland, when she saw 
 herself superseded, fall into an equal inconstancy, and in one 
 of her affairs, by Buckingham's artifice, she was discovered to 
 the King in person, and the party concerned obliged to leap 
 out of the window. 
 
 All this occasioned infamous rumours, and libels full of wit 
 and satire came teeming from the press almost every day ; but 
 the King was insensible, and equally fortified against conviction 
 and shame. 
 
 The most eminent wits of that time, on whom all the lively 
 libels were fastened, were Lord Dorset, Lord Rochester, and 
 Sir Charles Sedley. Lord Dorset was a generous, good-natured 
 man, and a very merry companion when once a little wine had 
 got the better of his phlegm. Never was there so much ill- 
 nature in any pen as in his, joined with so much good-
 
 IO2 Bishop Burners Own Times 
 
 nature as was in himself. He was bountiful, even to run 
 himself into difficulties ; and so charitable, that he commonly 
 gave away all he had about him when he met with a moving 
 object of compassion."; btitfhe was lazy and indolent, and though 
 courted to be a favourite, would not give himself the trouble 
 of being .o're/and'tri^ yat$e.r because he hated the Court and 
 despised the "King" when" h'e' saw 'he was neither generous nor 
 tender-hearted. Lord Rochester had a brightness in his wit 
 to which none could ever arrive, and was not destitute of natural 
 modesty till the Court corrupted him ; but he had not been 
 long there before he gave himself up to all sorts of extravagance, 
 to gross impiety and profaneness, and committed the wildest 
 frolics that a wanton fancy could devise ; for he would have 
 gone about the streets as a beggar, made love as a porter, set 
 up a stage as a mountebank, and for some years he was 
 perpetually drunk, and ever doing mischief. He loved not the 
 King, nor went often to Court ; but to gain him intelligence 
 there, he employed a footman, who knew almost everybody, to 
 stand, all winter long, every night as a sentinel at such ladies' 
 doors as he believed might be in any intrigues. By this means 
 he made many discoveries, and, when he was thus furnished 
 with materials, he retired in the country and wrote libels. 
 Sedley had a more sudden and copious wit, which furnished a 
 perpetual run of discourse ; but he was not so correct as Lord 
 Dorset, nor so sparkling as Lord Rochester. The writings of 
 these witty men, however, made no more impression, except 
 a little laughter upon occasion, than did the more serious 
 labours of another kind ; for the Court was become profli 
 gate, and the nation not a little offended at the Parliament 
 for giving away money so lavishly to feed and sustain their 
 vices. 
 
 The resentment of this raised a party among the Commons 
 that opposed the measures of the Court, and appeared at all 
 times against such profuse liberality ; and they, with some 
 struggle, carried one great point viz., that a committee, all of 
 their own members, should be named to examine the account 
 of the money that was given during the Dutch war, which, by 
 reason of the place where they sat, was called Brook House 
 Committee. Lord Brereton was the chief of them, and had the 
 chair a philosophical man, who for all his life long had been 
 in search of the philosopher's stone, by which he neglected his 
 own affairs, but a man of great integrity, and who was not to be 
 gained by the flatteries, hopes, or threatenings of the Court.
 
 Charles II. First Part 103 
 
 And another of the most distinguished note was Sir George 
 Savile, raised at last to be Marquis of Halifax : he was a man 
 of great and ready wit, full of life, and very pleasant, but much 
 turned to satire. His imagination was too hard for his judg 
 ment, and a severe jest took more with him than all arguments 
 whatever. He let his wit run much on matters of religion, 
 which got him the reputation of a confirmed atheist ; but he 
 denied the charge, though he could not, as he said, digest iron 
 as an ostrich, or take into his belief things that would burst 
 him. Friendship and morality were great topics with him, and 
 punctuality and justice more remarkable in his private dealings, 
 because, in relation to the public, he went backwards and 
 forwards, and changed sides so often, that, in the conclusion, 
 no side would trust him. When this committee came to make 
 their inquiry, the carelessness and luxury of the Court were so 
 much exposed, that the King's spirit was highly exasperated 
 at it, and the flatterers about him began to magnify the happy 
 advantages of a more absolute and uncontrollable dominion ; 
 but the common method that was then so much in use was at 
 length thought advisable, viz., to take off (as the word then 
 was for corrupting) the principal members and promoters of 
 the inquiry ; and so the report was let fall, and the matter no 
 more insisted on. 
 
 Money bills, all this while, went successfully on, though the 
 country party (as they now began to be called again) were 
 always watching an opportunity to clog the wheel. It is a 
 common practice in the House, when those who oppose such 
 bills fail in the main vote, to endeavour next to lay the money 
 on such funds as will be unacceptable or prove deficient ; and 
 they proposed at this time to lay a tax on the playhouses, 
 which, by Mr. Dryden's means, a great master of dramatic 
 poesy, but a monster of immodesty and impurity of all sorts, 
 were defiled beyond all example, and become nests of prostitu 
 tion. The other party, in opposing this, chanced to say that 
 players were the King's servants, and part of his pleasure ; 
 whereupon Sir John Coventry asked whether the King's pleasure 
 lay among the men or the women that acted, which was carried 
 to Court with great indignation, and sunk so deep into the 
 King's resentment, that, contrary to the Duke of York's per 
 suasions, he ordered some of the guards to watch in the streets 
 where Sir John lodged, and leave a mark upon him. Sands 
 and O'Brian and some others undertook the office, and as Sir 
 John was going home they drew upon him ; but he stood up
 
 IO4 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 to the wall, and, snatching the flambeau from his servant, with 
 that in one hand, and his sword in the other, he defended him 
 self gallantly, and wounded some of them ; but he was soon 
 disarmed, and had his nose cut to the bone, for that was the 
 mark that the ruffians were ordered to give him. This put the 
 House of Commons in a furious uproar, and they immediately 
 passed a bill of banishment against the actors of it, and put in 
 a clause in it that it should not be in the King's power to 
 pardon them. 
 
 An act passed a session or two before for rebuilding the city 
 of London, which gave Lord Chief Justice Hale a great reputa 
 tion ; for it was drawn with so true a judgment and so great 
 a foresight that the whole city was raised out of its ashes with 
 out one lawsuit, and in four years' time was rebuilt with so 
 much beauty and magnificence as made all Europe wonder 
 where wealth could be found, after so vast a loss, to answer so 
 prodigious an expense. 
 
 While the city lay in ashes, conventicles abounded in every 
 part of it, for it was thought hard to hinder men from worship 
 ping God in any way they could when there were no churches 
 or ministers to look after them. But now that the city was 
 pretty well rebuilt, and tabernacles everywhere raised till a 
 public allowance could be settled for building of churches, an 
 act was proposed reviving the former act against conventicles, 
 wherein was a clause added laying a heavy fine on such 
 justices of the peace as should not execute the law when infor 
 mations were brought them. Upon this, many justices, who 
 would not be instruments in such severities, left the bench, 
 and many of the sects either discontinued their meetings, or 
 held them very privately and in small numbers. Only the 
 Quakers went on in their old way. They met at the same 
 place and at the same hour as before. When they were seized, 
 they went none of them out of the way ; when they were sent 
 to prison, they stayed till they were dismissed, for they would 
 pay no fines, not so much as the gaol fees. When dismissed, 
 they went back to their meeting-houses again ; and when these 
 were found shut against them, they held their assemblies in 
 the streets, and before the doors of these houses. Some called 
 this obstinacy, and some resolution, in them ; but the people 
 gained their point by it, for the Government grew weary with 
 having to do with so much perverseness, and so let them alone. 
 But to look back to the condition that we left the affairs of 
 Scotland in.
 
 Charles II. First Part 105 
 
 Many churches were already vacant by the desertion of the 
 ministers, made uneasy by the people, who fell entirely from 
 the Episcopal clergy in the western counties, and by a set of 
 hot, fiery young preachers who went about among them, inflam 
 ing them more and more ; so that something was necessary to 
 be done by way of remedy. Leighton had been sent up to the 
 King, upon the late change, to lay before him the madness of 
 the former administration of Church affairs, and the necessity 
 of turning to more moderate counsels ; so when he came down, 
 he proposed in Council that some expedients should be thought 
 on in order to accommodate differences, and to change the 
 laws that had carried Episcopal authority to a much greater 
 height than was necessary. In particular, he proposed that the 
 Church should be governed by bishops and their clergy mixing 
 together in the Church judicatories, in which the bishop should 
 act only as a president, and be determined by the majority of 
 his presbyters, both in matters of jurisdiction and ordination, 
 without claiming superiority or any negative voice ; that 
 bishops should go to the respective churches where those who 
 were to be ordained were to officiate, and there ordain them, 
 with the concurrence of the presbytery ; and that such as were 
 ordained should have leave to declare their opinion if they 
 thought the bishop no more than the head of the presbyters. 
 He also proposed that there should be Provincial Synods to sit 
 in course every third year, or oftener if the King pleased, in 
 which complaints against the bishops should be heard, and they 
 censured accordingly ; and that the laws which settled Epis 
 copacy and the authority of a National Synod should be altered 
 according to this scheme; and, last of all, proposed that a 
 treaty should be set on foot for bringing the Presbyterians to 
 accept of these concessions. 
 
 The next thing under consideration was how to dispose of 
 the many vacancies, and to put a stop to conventicles. The 
 King had written a letter to the Privy Council, ordering them 
 to indulge such of the Presbyterians as were peaceable and 
 loyal so far as to suffer them to serve in vacant churches, 
 though they did not submit to the present Establishment ; and 
 he required them to prescribe them such rules as might preserve 
 order and peace, and to look well to the execution of them. 
 On the first Council-day after this letter was read, twelve of 
 the ministers were indulged ; and, not long after, about thirty 
 more, who had all churches assigned them, and together with 
 the warrants for their admission to them, had a paper of rules 
 
 E 2
 
 io6 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 likewise put in their hands for their behaviour. At first the 
 people of the country ran to them with a transport of joy. 
 They were in hopes that they would have begun their ministry 
 with a public testimony against all that was done in opposi 
 tion to what they called the work of God ; but when they found 
 that they were silent as to that particular, and preached only 
 the doctrines of Christianity, they soon changed their sentiments, 
 and with some severe invectives against them, as betrayers of 
 their brethren and deserters of their principles for filthy lucre's 
 sake, returned again to conventicles, though they endeavoured 
 to retain them by mean compliances and servile methods of 
 popularity. 
 
 The suppression of conventicles was another point under the 
 Council's consideration ; and Burnet and his clergy coming up 
 to Edinburgh with high complaints that churches were uni 
 versally forsaken and conventicles abounded in every corner of 
 the country, a proclamation was issued out, in imitation of the 
 English act, setting a fine of ^50 upon every landlord on whose 
 ground any conventicle was held ; and not long after a Synod of 
 the clergy, held at Glasgow, drew up an address representing 
 the miseries they were under occasioned by the Indulgence, 
 which was as contrary to law as repugnant to the act for restoring 
 Episcopacy, and fatal to the Church. The address was designed 
 to be kept secret until advice could be had upon it ; but a copy 
 was procured by indirect means and sent to the King, where 
 upon he ordered that Burnet should not be suffered to come to 
 Parliament, but be proceeded against according to the severity 
 of the law. 
 
 The Parliament was opened in November, when Lord Lauder- 
 dale's speech ran upon two heads : the one was the recommend 
 ing to their care the preservation of the Church as established 
 by law, upon which he took occasion to express great zeal for 
 Episcopacy ; and the other related to the union of the two king 
 doms, a project that was then much talked of, but never much 
 intended. 
 
 The acts of most importance that passed in this Parliament 
 were the first two. The one explained and asserted the King's 
 supremacy, declaring that the settling all things relating to the 
 external government of the Church was a right of the Crown, 
 and that all things relating to ecclesiastical meetings, matters, 
 and persons were to be ordered according to such directions as 
 the King should send to his Privy Council ; and that these should 
 be published by them, and have the force of laws. The other act
 
 Charles II. First Part 107 
 
 related to the militia raised in the recess of the Parliament, and 
 amounting to above two thousand horse and sixteen thousand 
 foot, wherein it was declared that they should still be kept up 
 in a readiness to serve the King upon all occasions, and that 
 orders should be transmitted to them from the Council board. 
 Burnet first felt the severity of the Supremacy Act. By it the 
 King was absolute master and disposer of all ecclesiastical 
 persons whatsoever, and therefore a pension was offered him if 
 he would submit and resign, otherwise he was threatened to be 
 used with more rigour if he pretended to stand out. He chose 
 to comply, and retiring to a private state of life, bore his disgrace 
 better than he had done his honours. He lived four years in 
 the shade, and was generally much pitied ; for he was good- 
 natured and sincere, though too much influenced by others, 
 and his application to what he did not understand (for he could 
 never have made a statesman) made him entirely negligent of 
 what was his proper business, the spiritual part of his function, 
 and wherein he was intelligent to a great degree. 
 
 Upon Burnet's deposition, Leighton, with many entreaties 
 and much reluctancy, undertook the administration of the see 
 of Glasgow ; and when he held the first Synod of the clergy, in 
 which nothing was heard but complaints of desertion and ill- 
 usage, he preached a sermon wherein he exhorted them to 
 look up more to God ; to consider themselves as the ministers 
 of the Cross of Christ ; to bear the contempt and ill-usage that 
 they met with as an exercise of their faith and patience ; to lay 
 aside all the appetites of revenge ; to humble themselves before 
 God ; to have many days for secret fasting and prayer ; to 
 meet often together to quicken and assist one another in those 
 holy exercises ; and then they might expect blessings from 
 Heaven upon their labours. But this was a comfortless doctrine 
 to them, and what they were not accustomed to. There was in 
 all this no forcing people to come to church, no raising fines, 
 no sending soldiers among them ; all was peace and patience ; 
 and so they went home as little edified with their new bishop as 
 he was with them. 
 
 His next essay was upon the chief of the indulged ministers, 
 to try if he could prevail with them to hearken to any proposi 
 tions of peace ; but they received what he had to say with so 
 much indifference, or rather neglect, as would have cooled any 
 zeal less warm and less active than his. With much ado 
 he persuaded them to meet him in an amicable conference, 
 where he exhorted them to unity, and laid before them such
 
 io8 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 concessions as the Government had given him authority to make ; 
 but after some deliberation they rejected them upon no reason, 
 but a groundless presumption that the King was weary of 
 supporting Episcopacy in Scotland, and so willing to clog his 
 Government with it no longer ; and the concessions that were 
 therefore made proceeded not from any tenderness to them, but 
 from an artifice to preserve Episcopacy, which would otherwise 
 fall with its own weight. This was their reserved meaning ; 
 and the love of popularity, which they must have lost had they 
 come into the bosom of the Church, was another reason that 
 made them reject all overtures of a reconciliation. In the con 
 clusion he was forced to tell them, " that as the design of their 
 meeting was to procure peace and promote religion, he had 
 offered some things which he was sensible were great diminu 
 tions of the just rights of Episcopacy ; that these offers did not 
 flow from any mistrust of the cause : he was persuaded Epis 
 copacy was handed down through all the ages of the Church 
 from the Apostles' days. Perhaps he had wronged the order by 
 the concessions he had made ; but he was confident God would 
 forgive it, as he hoped his brethren would excuse it. Yet since 
 they thought fit to reject these concessions without offering any 
 reason for it, or any expedient on their side, the blame of all 
 future divisions and the fatal consequences of them must lie 
 at their doors, both before God and man." 
 
 Thus was the treaty broken off, and conventicles went every 
 where on. There had been a great one held at Fife, near 
 Dunfermline, where none had ever been held before. Some 
 gentlemen of estates were among them, and the novelty of the 
 thing drew a great crowd together, and some came in their 
 ordinary arms. This was called the rendezvous of rebellion, 
 and a bad representation made of it at Court ; so that severe 
 acts passed upon it, wherein all field conventicles were declared 
 treasonable; and house conventicles crowded without doors, or at 
 the windows, were esteemed the same. In the preacher they 
 were made capital, in the landlord whose ground they were 
 held upon highly finable, and in those that were at them 
 punishable arbitrarily, unless they discovered all that were 
 present whom they knew. This was a severe law, but designed 
 more for terror than to be put in execution ; and with these 
 transactions this session of Parliament ended. 
 
 The Court was now going into other measures. The Parlia 
 ment had granted the King all the money he had asked (and
 
 Charles II. First Part 109 
 
 some repined they had granted so much) for repairing his 
 fleet and furnishing his stores and magazines, under pretence 
 of supporting the Triple Alliance ; and when the Court 
 saw how little reason they had to expect further supplies the 
 Duke of Buckingham told the King that now was the time for 
 him both to revenge the attempt on Chatham and to shake off 
 the uneasy restraint of a House of Commons, if he would 
 enter into an alliance with France to conquer Holland and to 
 make himself absolute in his own kingdoms. When the over 
 ture was made to France, the French king ordered the King's 
 sister, the Duchess of Orleans, to propose an interview with 
 her brother upon that affair. She was a woman of fine wit, 
 great gallantry, but of keen resentment where she thought 
 herself slighted. The King of France had once made love to 
 her ; but she was highly incensed at it when she saw it was 
 only a pretence to cover his addresses to Mademoiselle La 
 Valliere, one of her maids of honour, whom he afterwards 
 declared to be his mistress. He had made some overtures of 
 the same nature to Madame Soissons likewise ; but when they 
 found themselves both deluded they entered into a friendship 
 and a resolution of revenge. They had each of them a gallant ; 
 the Duchess of Orleans had the Comte de Guiche, and Madame 
 Soissons the Marquis de Verdes. So they fell all into a com 
 bination, and to pleasure the ladies formed a letter as from the 
 King of Spain to his daughter, then Queen of France, reproach 
 ing her for her tameness in suffering such an affront as the 
 King put on her by his amours, with reflections full of con 
 tempt and anger upon the King himself. The letter, in short, 
 was brought to the King, and the forgery detected ; but before 
 the matter came to such issue the Duchess happened to fall 
 in love with her friend's gallant, and had so little command of 
 herself as to tell her she was her rival. Madame Soissons, by 
 an odd piece of extravagance, sent for the Marquis de Verdes, 
 and told him that since she found he was in the Duchess's 
 favour she would release him of all obligations, and deliver 
 him over to her. But he, thinking this only an artifice of 
 gallantry to try how faithful he was to his amours, declared 
 himself incapable of changing, in terms full of respect to the 
 Duchess, but passion to the other, which the Duchess took in 
 such high disdain that she went to the King and acquainted 
 him how far the Marquis was concerned in the forgery of the 
 letter, whereupon he not only lost the favour he had at Court, 
 but was kept a long while prisoner in Aigues Mortes. But this
 
 no Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 is but a small story of her by-the-bye. The Duchess, accord 
 ing to order, met her brother at Dover, and proposed an alliance 
 with France in order to the conquest of Holland. The King 
 was for beginning at home, and conquering his own people first, 
 but that thought was laid aside as not so consistent with policy ; 
 and so the resolution was taken to begin with Holland, and 
 attack it vigorously both by sea and land, and upon success 
 therein all the rest, they concluded, would be an easy work. 
 The King was so charmed with his sister that everything she 
 proposed and everything she asked was granted her. But the 
 journey proved fatal to her; for the Duke of Orleans had 
 heard such things of her behaviour that it was said he ordered 
 a great dose of sublimate to be given to her in a glass of 
 succory-water, whereof she died a few hours after in great 
 torment. As she was in her agony she said, " Adieu, Treville ; " 
 for she had had an intrigue with the Comte de Treville ; and so 
 struck was he with this accident that it had a good effect on 
 him, for he retired from the world, and went and lived many 
 years with the Fathers of the Oratory, and became both a 
 learned and devout man. 
 
 Upon the Duchess of Orleans's death, as the Marshal Belle- 
 fonds came from France with the compliment to the Court of 
 England, so the Duke of Buckingham was sent thither on 
 pretence to return the compliment, but in reality to finish the 
 treaty, wherein it was finally agreed that England should have 
 ^350,000 a year during the war, together with a fleet from 
 France ; that England should attack the Dutch by sea, while 
 France invaded them by land with a mighty army ; that in the 
 division of their country England should have Zealand, and 
 France all the rest, except Holland, which was to be given to 
 the Prince of Orange, if he would come into the alliance ; and 
 that it should still continue a trading nation, but without any 
 capital ships. 
 
 When the war was thus resolved on, some pretences were to 
 be found out in order to execute it ; and there happened an 
 accident not long before that the Court laid great hold on. The 
 Dutch fleet lay off the coast of England the former year, when 
 one of the King's yachts sailing by expected that they should 
 strike to her. The Dutch refused not to strike to any man- 
 of-war ; but they did not think that such honour belonged to 
 so inconsiderable a vessel. However, they offered to make all 
 satisfaction for the future in that matter, though they were 
 loath to send their admiral over as a criminal, as was
 
 Charles II. First Part in 
 
 demanded ; and upon such refusal all accommodation was 
 at an end. This accident, and some pretensions on Surinam 
 not fully satisfied, some traitors harboured in Holland, and some 
 pictures and medals made there, in derision of the King, were 
 the pretended reasons for this war ; and to assert the King's 
 empire in the four seas, which Selden in his " Mare Clausum " 
 had made so popular, was accounted an enterprise full of 
 renown. All this while the French deluded the Dutch ambas 
 sador at Paris with a false persuasion that they had no ill 
 intent against the States. However, to ward against the worst, 
 the States entered into a negotiation both with Spain and the 
 Emperor, with the King of Denmark, the Elector of Bran 
 denburg, and the Duke of Luneburg. The King of Sweden 
 was as yet under age, and the ministry there desired a 
 neutrality. 
 
 The Court, being thus resolved on a war, did not sufficiently 
 consider the situation of affairs, or where to get money to 
 carry it on. The King had been running in debt ever since his 
 restoration, and to keep his credit, had dealt with some bankers, 
 and assigned over the revenue to them. The King paid them 
 at the rate of eight per cent. ; but others who put their money 
 in their hands received from them but six per cent., so that 
 their advantage was considerable, and their credit very great ; 
 for payments were made punctually, and the King had in some 
 proclamations given his faith that he would continue to make 
 good all his assignments till the whole debt was paid, which 
 was growing up to almost a million and a half. But to supply 
 the King with money upon this occasion, it was thought advis 
 able to put a stop to these payments for a year only, because in 
 a year's time it was supposed the King would be out of all 
 necessities, by the great acquisitions he would make by the war. 
 And accordingly a stop was put, whereby the bankers were 
 broken, and great multitudes who had trusted their money in 
 their hands were ruined by this dishonourable and perfidious 
 action. 
 
 But this did no more than give the King his revenue again : 
 other ways were to be found for the increase of treasure to 
 answer the demands of a war. By the peace of Breda it was 
 provided, in order to the security of trade, that no merchant 
 ships should, for the future, be fallen on till six months after a 
 declaration of war. The Dutch had then a rich fleet coming 
 from Smyrna and other parts of the Mediterranean, supposed 
 to be worth a million and a half, under the convoy of a few
 
 ii2 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 men-of-war. Our Court had advice of this, and ordered Holmes 
 to wait for them with eight men-of-war, near the Isle of Wight, 
 and take them. Holmes accordingly fell upon them ; but their 
 convoy behaved so well, that not only the whole fleet sailed off, 
 while they kept them in play, but they themselves escaped at 
 last, being happily favoured by a mist. This was such a breach 
 of faith as Mahometans would have been ashamed of, and 
 the unsuccessfulness of it made it seem as ridiculous as it 
 was base. 
 
 To crown all, a Declaration was ordered to be set out, sus 
 pending the execution of all penal laws both against Papists 
 and Nonconformists. Papists were no more to be prosecuted 
 for their way of worship in their own houses, and the Noncon 
 formists were allowed to have open meeting-houses, for which 
 they were to take out licenses, and were not to be disturbed in 
 their exercise of Divine worship by virtue of these licenses. 
 This Declaration was judged so contrary to law, that Lord 
 Keeper Bridgman refused to put the seal to it ; whereupon he 
 was dismissed, and the Earl of Shaftesbury was made Lord 
 Chancellor. Great endeavours were used at Court to persuade 
 the Nonconformists to make addresses and compliments upon 
 it ; the Presbyterian ministers came in a body, and Dr. Manton, 
 in their name, thanked the King for this indulgence to them ; 
 but that offended many of their best friends. There was, 
 besides, a yearly pension of fifty pounds ordered to be given to 
 most of them, and to some of the most eminent a hundred, 
 which few refused in comparison with the number of those 
 who suffered themselves thus to be bribed to silence, and were 
 compliant to the bad purposes of the Court. But the Church 
 of England was not so submissive, nor were her pulpits silent : 
 Popery was everywhere preached against ; the authority of the 
 laws much magnified ; and the bishops, particularly the Bishop 
 of London, charged the clergy to inform the people of the con 
 troversy between us and the Church of Rome, and of the 
 wicked and idolatrous tendency of many of her doctrines. 
 For though the Duke of York was known to be a Papist, yet 
 it was still thought unreasonable that, while the King professed 
 himself a Protestant, the clergy should not be bold to preach 
 in defence of a religion which they believed, and which he 
 continued to profess; and so the preaching against Popery 
 went on. 
 
 While things were in this fermentation, the Duchess of York 
 died. She for some time had been suspected of wavering in
 
 Charles II. First Part 113 
 
 her religion, from her neglecting to come to the sacrament, 
 and taking all the opportunities of excusing the errors of the 
 Church of Rome. Before she died she left behind her a paper, 
 written with her own hand, setting forth the reasons of her 
 conversion to that faith ; and yet, to her very dying day, she 
 never owned to Morley, who had been her confessor, and taken 
 care to direct her religion, any the least scruple that way, 
 though he had several times conjured her to it, which made 
 him conclude that that princess had been prevailed on to give 
 falsehoods under her hand, and to pretend that these were the 
 grounds of her conversion. Her sickness, however, made no 
 discovery of what her real sentiments were ; for a long decay 
 of health came at last to a quicker crisis than had been appre 
 hended ; and, all of a sudden, she fell into the agony of death. 
 Blandford, who was sent for to prepare her for it, was a man 
 too modest on such an occasion. He spoke but little, and 
 fearfully ; and when he happened to say he hoped she con 
 tinued still in the truth, she instantly asked, " What is truth ? " 
 And then her agony increasing, she repeated the word, " Truth, 
 truth," oftentimes, and in a few moments expired, very little 
 beloved, and not much lamented : for her haughtiness had 
 raised her many enemies, and though she was a firm and kind 
 friend, yet the supposed change of her religion made most of 
 her friends reckon her death rather a blessing than any loss at 
 that time ; and her father, when he heard of her wavering in 
 religion, was more struck with it than all his other misfortunes, 
 and wrote her a very serious letter upon it, but she was dead 
 before it arrived in England. 
 
 The alliance with France was now fully concluded, and 
 matters were everywhere ready for an open rupture; but 
 before we come to consider the progress of the war, it will not 
 be amiss to give some account of the affairs of the States at 
 that time. 
 
 When the Prince of Orange was of full age, it was proposed 
 in many places of the United Provinces that he should have 
 the supreme command. De Witt, who had been an enemy to 
 the family for the attempt his father had made upon the public 
 liberty, saw the tide was too strong to be resisted, and therefore 
 came into the proposal of making him general ; but with this 
 limitation, that he should bind himself by an oath never to 
 pretend to be Stadtholder, nor to accept it, though it should 
 be offered him. This condition was but of hard digestion, but
 
 ii4 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 it was thought necessary to be complied with at that time, and 
 to leave the dissolution of it to futurity. 
 
 To facilitate their way to the conquest of Holland, the French 
 prevailed with the Elector of Cologne to put his country into 
 their possession, and deliver himself, with all his dominions, 
 into their hands, which when he had done, all upon the 
 Rhine were struck with such a consternation that there was 
 no spirit or courage left in them. The King of France came 
 down to Utrecht like a land-flood, and struck the Dutch with 
 such just terror that nothing but great errors in his manage 
 ment could have kept them from delivering themselves entirely 
 up to him. When he was at Utrecht, they sent ambassadors 
 to know what it was that he demanded. His demand was that 
 they should deliver up Maestricht, Bois le Due, Breda, and all 
 the other places without the Seven Provinces that were in their 
 possession ; that they should pay a vast sum of money for the 
 charge of that campaign ; should give up the chief church in 
 every town for the exercise of the Popish religion ; should put 
 themselves under the protection of France ; should send an 
 ambassador every year with a medal acknowledging it; and 
 should enter into no treaties or alliances but by the direction 
 of France : on these conditions that he would withdraw his 
 army, and leave the Seven Provinces entire to them. The Dutch 
 ambassadors were amazed when they found the demands rise 
 to such an extravagant pitch, and one of them swooned away 
 when he heard them read ; for he could neither think of yield 
 ing to them, nor see any possibility to resist them. The French 
 possessed themselves of Naerden, and a party having entered 
 into Muyden, had the keys of the gates brought to them ; 
 but understanding not the importance of the place, and how, 
 by the command of water, it was able to drown all Amster 
 dam, they threw the keys into the ditch ; and when, upon 
 better intelligence, they returned to take possession of it, they 
 found themselves prevented by two battalions that the 
 Prince of Orange had sent to secure the place and preserve 
 Amsterdam. 
 
 All this time the States at the Hague were very near the 
 extremities of despair : they had not only lost their towns, but 
 the garrisons too. Guelder, Overyssel, and Utrecht were in 
 the enemy's hands ; the Bishop of Miinster was making a 
 formidable impression on Groningen ; and, to complete their 
 ruin, a rumour was spread abroad that they were betrayed by
 
 Charles II. First Part 115 
 
 those in the Government, and that De Witt intended all should 
 perish rather than the family of Orange should be set up. 
 With this melancholy prospect of things, whenever they assem 
 bled they looked on one another like men amazed, and some 
 times all in tears, till the Spanish ambassador advised them to 
 put on another countenance ; to publish that they had good 
 news ; that their allies were on the march ; that their fleet had 
 been successful at sea ; or any such probable stories that might 
 keep the poor people in heart. 
 
 The success of their fleet at sea was not long after the pro 
 mulgation of such-like stories, wherein De Ruyter had the glory 
 of surprising the English in Solebay before they were prepared 
 for an engagement ; and where the French took more care of 
 themselves than became gallant men, unless they had orders to 
 look on, and leave the English and Dutch to fight it out, while 
 they preserved the force of France entire. It was here that De 
 Ruyter disabled the ship in which the Duke was, whose conduct 
 was most blamed, and his courage called in question, for quitting 
 it so soon ; it was here that the admiral of the blue squadron 
 was burnt by a fire-ship, in which the Earl of Sandwich, re 
 fusing to leave the ship, too courageously perished, with many 
 brave men more who chose to die with him ; and here the 
 Duke of Buckingham was reconciled to the Church of Rome 
 when he saw the Dutch fleet appear in view, to make sure of 
 another world, as he called it ; not from any sense of religion, 
 but to recommend himself to the Duke's confidence. 
 
 In the circumstances of such distress the Dutch had no other 
 way than to try if it was possible to separate England from 
 France, and because they conceived that it would be a grateful 
 offer to make the King's nephew their Stadtholder, ambassadors 
 were therefore sent away with that proposal, but were strangely 
 amazed when they found no regard was had to that whereby 
 alone they thought to have gained the Court. All the answer 
 they obtained was that the King could do nothing separately, 
 but would send over his ambassadors to treat at Utrecht, and 
 accordingly the Duke of Buckingham and Lord Arlington 
 were ordered over ; and to give the nation (which at the 
 rejection of the Dutch ambassadors was disgusted) more satis 
 faction, Lord Halifax was sent afterwards, but was not in the 
 secret. 
 
 The Dutch, hearing that their ambassadors were com 
 ing over without making peace with England, ran together 
 in great numbers to Maeslandsluys, and resolved to cut
 
 n6 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 them to pieces at their landing ; but as they were crossing 
 the Maese, a little boat met them, and told them their danger, 
 and advised them to land in another place, whereby they 
 escaped the storm then, but it broke out fatally at the Hague 
 the next day. 
 
 As De Witt was one night going home from the States, four 
 persons set on him to murder him. He showed on that occasion 
 both an intrepid courage and a great presence of mind ; for 
 though he was wounded in several places, yet he got out of 
 their hands, and one of them was taken and condemned for it. 
 The young man confessed his crime, and repented of it, and 
 protested he was led to it by no other consideration but that of 
 zeal for his country and religion, which he thought were be 
 trayed, and he died as in a rapture of devotion, which made a 
 great impression on the spectators. At the same time a barber 
 accused De Witt's elder brother of tampering with him to 
 murder the Prince ; and though there was no probability in the 
 story, yet Cornelius De Witt was put to the torture upon it, 
 which he bore with great firmness and constancy to his own 
 innocence. He was, however, sentenced to be banished, and as 
 his brother was carrying him out of town in his coach, some 
 furious agitators who pretended zeal for the Prince gathered the 
 rabble together, and by the vile action that followed, 1 gave his 
 enemies an opportunity of casting the infamy of it upon him, 
 though he was always known to speak of it with the utmost 
 horror and detestation. 
 
 Upon the death of so ruling a man as De Witt had been, there 
 soon followed a great change of the magistracy in all the pro 
 vinces, and a repeal of the Perpetual Edict to make way for the 
 Prince of Orange's advancement to the Stadtholdership, which 
 (as soon as the people had released him from the oath he 
 had lately taken) he was willing to accept. But when the 
 States of Amsterdam were for going higher, and presented 
 him with the sovereignty of their town, he rejected the offer ; 
 for he was fully satisfied, as he told them, with the power 
 already lodged with him, and would never endeavour to carry 
 it further. 
 
 The Prince's advancement gave a new life to the whole 
 country. He was then but very young, and little acquainted 
 with the affairs of State or war ; yet he applied himself so to 
 
 1 They barbarously murdered him, dragging his body through the streets, 
 hanging it on the gallows by the heels, and afterwards inhumanly tearing it 
 and cutting it to pieces.
 
 Charles II. First Part 117 
 
 both, that notwithstanding the sad condition in which he found 
 matters, he neither lost heart nor committed errors. The Duke 
 of Buckingham and Lord Arlington tried all they could with 
 the King of France to gain better terms for the Dutch ; but he 
 was now become so elated with his late successes, that he 
 slightly regarded any intercession from England ; and the 
 Prince, on the other hand, was so steady in his resolutions, that 
 the ambassadors soon saw that their offices could be of no avail. 
 At parting, however, the Duke pressed the Prince to put him 
 self entirely in the King of England's hands, and assured him 
 that he would take care of his affairs as much as of his own. 
 The Prince answered that as his country had trusted him, he 
 would neither deceive nor betray them for any private views 
 whatever. " Your country is lost," replied the Duke ; " do not 
 you see your country is lost ? " " My country is in great 
 danger," answered the Prince ; " but there is a sure way never 
 to see it lost ; and that is, to die in the last ditch " a saying 
 that bespoke a gallant soul, full of affection for his country, 
 hope of success, and a magnanimous resolution, come what 
 would. 
 
 When the Prince undertook the administration of affairs his 
 age and own experience were not so great but that he knew very 
 well there would be a necessity to have wise counsellors about 
 him; but the misfortune was that the wisest and most con 
 siderable men in their towns that had been acquainted with the 
 conduct of affairs formerly were either under a cloud or retired 
 from business; and many hot poor men who had signalised 
 their zeal in the late turn, came to be called the Prince's 
 friends, and were everywhere put in the magistracy ; but these 
 quickly lost all credit, having little discretion, no authority, too 
 much partiality in government, and oppression to those on the 
 other side. The Prince saw this sooner than he could remedy 
 it ; but by degrees the men of better abilities came in to assist 
 him in the generous design of expelling the French and saving 
 their country. 
 
 The person whom the Prince chiefly relied on as to the affairs 
 of Holland was Fagel, a man very learned in the law, and who 
 had a quick apprehension, a clear and ready judgment, with a 
 copious eloquence, but more popular than correct, and therefore 
 the fitter to carry matters with a torrent in a numerous assem 
 bly. He had joined with De Witt in carrying the Perpetual 
 Edict, and was made Greffier, or Secretary to the States-General, 
 which is the most beneficial place in Holland. His piety and
 
 ii8 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 virtue were very considerable, but he had something too eager 
 and violent in his temper ; had heart enough when matters went 
 well, but wanted the courage that became a great minister on 
 uneasy and difficult occasions. 
 
 Prince Waldeck had been their chief general, a man of great 
 compass of knowledge and true judgment, equally able in the 
 cabinet and the camp ; but he was always unsuccessful, because 
 he was never furnished according to the schemes he had laid 
 down ; and the opinion that armies had of him as an unfortu 
 nate general made him really so, for soldiers have seldom a 
 good heart to fight where they have not an entire confidence in 
 their chief commander. 
 
 Dickvelt was thought so attached to the De Witts that at 
 first he was left out of the Government ; but his great abilities, 
 and the insinuating smoothness of his temper, procured him so 
 many friends that the Prince was prevailed on to receive him 
 into his confidence, which he retained to the last, as he justly 
 deserved it. He had a perfect knowledge of all the affairs of 
 Europe, and great practice in many embassies ; his manner of 
 speaking was long, and with too much vehemence ; his private 
 deportment was regular and religious; but in the administration 
 of his province (which was Utrecht, and chiefly trusted to 
 him) there were complaints of partiality and of a defective 
 justice. 
 
 Van Beuningen was a man of powerful interest in the town 
 of Amsterdam, and governed it for a long while like a dictator. 
 He had a wonderful vivacity, but too much levity in his 
 thoughts, and an inconstancy in his temper that proceeded 
 from a giddiness of mind more than any falsehood in his nature. 
 He had a great knowledge of all sciences, and such a copious 
 ness of invention, with such a pleasantness as well as variety of 
 conversation, that he was not unlike the Duke of Buckingham 
 in this respect, only he was virtuous and devout, but not 
 without some tincture of enthusiasm. 
 
 Halewyn was a man of no less interest in his town of Dort, 
 one of the judges of the Court of Holland, and next to Fagel 
 in the Prince's favour. He had a great compass of learning, 
 besides his own profession, wherein he was eminent; had 
 studied divinity with great exactness ; and was well read in all 
 history, but most particularly in the Greek and Latin authors. 
 He had a great vivacity, a quick apprehension, a correct judg 
 ment, and though he spoke not long, yet there was always life 
 in what he said. He had a courage and vigour in his counsels
 
 Charles II. First Part 119 
 
 that became one who had formed himself upon the best models 
 of the ancient authors ; and as he had great credit in the court 
 where he sat, so he took care that the partialities of friendship 
 should not mix in the administration of justice ; for he had all 
 the best notions in him of a great patriot and a true Christian 
 philosopher. 
 
 These were the men of the most distinguished merit, best 
 exercised in affairs, and most conversant in the Prince's coun 
 sels when he set about the work of rescuing his country from 
 the heavy yoke of oppression and servitude ; and as soon as he 
 saw both that the French demands ran so high that there was 
 no complying with them, and that the English could not be 
 drawn into a separate alliance, so that there was no dependence 
 on them, he got the States to call an Extraordinary Assembly, 
 where, in a very long and judicious speech, he first laid open 
 the ill effects and consequences of accepting the French propo 
 sitions ; that a compliance with them would ruin their country, 
 and a bare treating about them but distract and dispirit the 
 people. Next he showed the possibility of making head against 
 the enemy, notwithstanding their present ill circumstances, by 
 enumerating the strength of their allies that were flocking to 
 their assistance, and by observing that it would not be long 
 before the Parliament of England would engage their king to 
 enter into other measures, and the Germans, who were coming 
 down the Lower Rhine, oblige the French to leave the country 
 as fast as they came into it. Then he proceeded to the possi 
 bility of raising such taxes as might answer the vast and 
 unavoidable expense that the exigence of their affairs re 
 quired, and named a great variety of projects for that purpose ; 
 and so, for a conclusion, advised every one, and the ministers 
 more especially, to exhort one another to a cheerful submission 
 to the present extremity and whatever should be laid upon 
 them, in order to deliver them out of it, as the only means 
 to support the minds of their own people and intimidate the 
 enemy. 
 
 Every one who was present seemed amazed to hear so young 
 a man speak to so many things with so much knowledge, and 
 so true a judgment. It raised his character wonderfully, and 
 contributed not a little to put new life into a country almost 
 dead with fear and disconsolate with their losses. They all 
 resolved to maintain their liberty to the last, and, if matters 
 were run to that extreme, rather than be slaves, to flee into 
 the East Indies ; for which purpose the state of their shipping
 
 I2O Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 capable of so long a voyage was examined, and the computa 
 tion was, that they were able to transport about two hundred 
 thousand people thither. 
 
 But all these resolutions of courage would very probably 
 have availed them little had the King of France been pre 
 vailed on either to stay in Utrecht longer, or to make a better 
 disposition of his army when he left it. But he made haste to 
 go back to Paris, some say upon a call to adjust some quarrel 
 among his mistresses, others in haste to receive the flatteries 
 prepared for him, and others in fear of the desperate temper of 
 the Dutch, who were capable, he was told, of any design, how 
 black soever, against his life, rather than perish. But what 
 ever was the motive of his return, had he dismantled the towns 
 as he took them, and not put garrisons in them, or had he left 
 Turenne in command of the army instead of Luxemburg, 
 things might have gone on with the same rapidity of success ; 
 but the main of his army was dispersed in garrisons, and so 
 capable of no great enterprises ; Turenne was sent against the 
 Elector of Brandenburg, an ally of the States, and coming 
 down to assist them ; and Luxemburg, who was naturally rough 
 and had no regard to articles, made all people see what was to 
 be expected when they should come under a foreign yoke, and 
 contributed not a little to confirm the Dutch in the desperate 
 resolution they had taken. 
 
 If the King's design in hastening to Paris was to receive 
 the incense and adulation of his people, he had enough to 
 surfeit any reasonable man. Speeches, verses, inscriptions, 
 triumphal arches, and medals were prepared with a profusion 
 and excess of flattery beyond what had been offered to the 
 worst of the Roman emperors, bating the ceremony of adora 
 tion. Solemn debates were held by what proud title he was to 
 be called, nor were blasphemous impieties wanting to raise and 
 feed his vanity. 
 
 In the meantime there seemed to be, in some instances, a 
 kind of miraculous interposition of Providence for the deliver 
 ance of the Dutch ; for when the English fleet appeared before 
 Scheveling, not far from the Hague, where the Dutch were in 
 no condition to oppose them, and intended to land the forces 
 that were to make descent the next flood, the flood, contrary 
 to its usual course, was so short, and the ebb so very long, that 
 it carried the ships back again to sea, and before the return 
 of the tide De Ruyter came up with his fleet to defend the 
 coast.
 
 Charles II. First Part 121 
 
 Not long after they escaped another design that might have 
 been equally fatal to them. The Earl of Ossory, eldest son 
 of the Duke of Ormond, had undertaken to the King to seize 
 Helvoetsluys, a place of great consequence, but very badly 
 looked to by the Dutch, because they thought that the danger 
 of entering its harbour was a sufficient security to it. He had 
 got proper pilots and everything necessary for the expedition, 
 when, the very night before the Earl was to go on board, the 
 King communicating the design to the Duke of Buckingham, 
 he, who was an utter enemy to the Duke of Ormond and Lord 
 Ossory both, and would have seen the King and all his affairs 
 perish rather than any person whom he hated should have the 
 honour of a meritorious enterprise, turned all his wit and humour 
 to make the thing appear ridiculous and impracticable ; and, 
 by his malicious insinuations, prevailed with the King to 
 lay an attempt aside which, had it been attended with 
 success, as probably it might, would have sorely distressed the 
 Dutch. 
 
 But the most providential escape of all was from that in 
 vasion which Luxemburg designed against them, near the end 
 of this year, which would have had a very tragical conclusion 
 if a happy turn of weather had not saved them. Many feints 
 were used by the French to amuse the Dutch so skilfully that 
 there was no suspicion of their true intent till all was ready 
 for an irruption into their country as soon as the frost should 
 come. It came at last ; and when it had continued so long 
 that, upon examining the ice, it was thought impossible to be 
 dissolved by any ordinary thaw in less than two days, they 
 marched out about midnight from Utrecht towards Leyden. 
 But the moment they began their march, a thaw-wind blew 
 very fresh, and before next morning the frost was so far 
 gone that they could not return the same way. They came 
 to Summerdam and Bodegraven, where they committed many 
 outrages of crying lust and barbarous cruelty, but in all pro 
 bability had been cut off from their retreat, had not one 
 Painevine, who commanded a fort through which they were to 
 pass, shamefully deserted his post, and given them an opportu 
 nity to escape, for which he was thrice tried, and at first con 
 demned to infamy as a coward, which was to have his sword 
 broken over his head, and himself banished from the States' 
 dominions; but that not satisfying the towns of Holland, he 
 was at last sentenced to lose his life, the Prince finding it 
 necessary, in the present situation of affairs, to settle a severe
 
 122 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 discipline, and to look to the rigorous execution of it, by which 
 means he soon wrought up his army to such a pitch of obedience 
 and courage, of sobriety and good order, that things began to 
 put on another face. 
 
 While the world was in this general combustion, the King, 
 it seems, was so indolent and unconcerned at everything except 
 love, that he declared a new mistress this year, and created 
 her Duchess of Portsmouth. She had been maid of honour to 
 Madame the King's sister, and came over with her to Dover 
 where the King had expressed such a regard to her that 
 the Duke of Buckingham (who hated the Duchess of Cleve 
 land heartily, and was minded to do France a lasting kindness) 
 easily induced him to invite her over. The Duke had assured 
 the King of France that he could never be sure of the King of 
 England without giving him a mistress who would be true to 
 his interests ; and accordingly he took care to provide him 
 one who, by studying to please and humour him in everything, 
 so gained upon his affections, that he not only maintained her 
 at vast charge and passed the rest of his life in great fondness 
 for her, but, by her means, was so thoroughly engaged in the 
 French interest that it threw him many times into great diffi 
 culties, and exposed him to contempt abroad and distrust at 
 home. 
 
 While the King was thus engaged in his amours at home, the 
 Duke stayed a long while sauntering at sea in hopes to have 
 got the Dutch East India fleet ; but they came sailing so near 
 the German coast that they passed him before he was aware of 
 it, so that he was forced to return home ingloriously, having 
 lost the glory of the action that happened at Solebay, and 
 missed the great wealth of the fleet that he was so long waiting 
 for. 
 
 To conclude the transactions of this memorable year with the 
 affairs of Scotland. About the end of May, Duke Lauderdale 
 (for so he was lately created) came down with his lady (for now 
 he had married the Lady Dysart) in great pomp and splendour, 
 much lifted up with the French success, and treating all people 
 with such scorn and contempt that few were able to bear it. 
 He adjourned the Parliament for a fortnight, that he might 
 carry his lady round the country, and was everywhere waited 
 on and entertained with as much respect and at as great a 
 charge as if the King had been there in person. They lived at 
 a vast rate, but she set everything to sale to raise money,
 
 Charles II. First Part 123 
 
 carrying herself with a haughtiness that would have been 
 shocking in a queen, and talking of every one with such an 
 ungoverned freedom as made her be universally hated. Upon 
 the insolence of this behaviour many of the nobility made 
 great application to the Duke of Hamilton to lead a party 
 against Duke Lauderdale, and to oppose the tax that he 
 demanded of a whole year's assessment. But the other declin 
 ing the noise and popularity of the thing for the present, all 
 the business of Parliament this session went on smoothly and 
 without any opposition. 
 
 But the unsettled condition of the Church gave him some 
 trouble and made him very inconsistent in his actings. When 
 some furious zealots had broken into the ministers' houses, 
 wounding and robbing and compelling them to swear that they 
 would never again officiate in their churches, such of them as 
 were apprehended were condemned and executed. When some 
 letters brought over by one Carstairs, supposed to encourage an 
 insurrection, were taken in a ship that came from Rotterdam, 
 though it was almost impossible to decipher their meaning, 
 yet a severe persecution was raised against conventicles upon 
 the bare supposition, and a great deal of money was raised by 
 arbitrary fines. But, on a sudden, all was calm and quiet 
 again. The benefit of the Indulgence was extended to forty 
 more churches. Conventicles were everywhere connived at, 
 and the remissness of the Government in this respect was 
 such as deserved the same censure and reproach as did their 
 former seventy. 
 
 Sharp and his instruments took an occasion from hence to 
 complain that the Church was going to be undone by Leigh- 
 ton's means, and that such a license as this went so far beyond 
 what a principle of moderation could suggest, that it implied a 
 formal design to ruin and overturn the constitution. These 
 clamours, and the unsuccessfulness of his labours on both sides 
 (for as he gained no ground on the Presbyterians, so he was 
 suspected and hated by the Episcopal party), made that good 
 man resolve to retire from all public employments, and give 
 himself wholly to prayer and meditation, since he found he 
 could not accomplish his great design of uniting and reforming 
 a divided and degenerated Church, if the King, as he re 
 quested, would have accepted of his resignation, which, a year 
 after this, he was prevailed upon to do; so that Burnet, upon 
 his submission, being restored to the archbishopric of Glas 
 gow, Leighton retired to a private house in Sussex, where he
 
 124 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 lived ten years in a most heavenly manner, and with a shining 
 conversation. 
 
 Thus we have come to the period that was set to this book, 
 and carried the reader through the first twelve years of King 
 Charles II. 's reign calm and easy days (at home, at least) in 
 respect of the years that are to follow.
 
 BOOK III 
 
 OF THE REST OF KING CHARLES II. 'S REIGN FROM 1673 
 TO 1685 
 
 THE proceedings of the former year had opened all men's 
 eyes. The King's own religion was suspected, his brother's 
 declared, and the whole conduct showed a design to govern by 
 a French model. Count Schomberg, a man of true judgment, 
 of great probity, of a humble and obliging temper, and who 
 at any other time would have been acceptable to the English, 
 now that he was brought over from France, as it was said, to 
 bring our army under a French discipline, was hated by the 
 nation, and by reason of his religion (for he was a firm Pro 
 testant) not much beloved by the Court. The ministry 
 which was used to be called the CABAL, because every letter 
 in that word is the first of these five, Clifford, Ashley, Bucking 
 ham, Arlington, and Lauderdale had clung together hereto 
 fore, and conspired to sell their country to France ; but a spirit 
 of division had now got among them, and disconcerted all their 
 measures. The Duke of Buckingham was alone, hated by all, 
 as he hated all the rest ; but he went so entirely into all 
 their ill designs, that the King, either out of love or fear, 
 showed him great countenance. Lord Clifford stuck firm to 
 the Duke of York, and was heated with the design of bringing 
 in Popery even to enthusiasm. The Earl of Arlington thought 
 that the design was now lost, and that it was necessary for the 
 King to make up matters with his people in the best manner 
 he could. Duke Lauderdale was taken off in conducting the 
 affairs of Scotland, and the Earl of Shaftesbury was resolved to 
 save himself at any rate. 
 
 But what was a more melancholy consideration still, the King 
 was engaged in an expensive war ; all his money was exhausted, 
 nor was there any visible means of procuring more, but from 
 his Parliament ; and therefore, in the beginning of the year, 
 one was called. The Earl of Shaftesbury, when he came to the 
 Seals, endeavoured to recommend himself to the confidence of 
 the Court by a new strain never before thought of. He said that 
 the writs for choosing the members of the House of Commons 
 in the room of the deceased might be issued out in the inter 
 vals of a session, and the elections made upon them returned
 
 126 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 into Chancery, and settled there. Accordingly writs were issued 
 out; but whether any "elections and returns were made upon 
 them is not known. At the opening of the session the King 
 excused the issuing out the writs in this manner, as only done 
 to save time, and to have a full House at their first meeting ; 
 but this he left to their determination. He expressed his reso 
 lution to maintain his Declaration for liberty of conscience, as 
 having seen the good effects of it ; and as he was engaged in a 
 war for the honour of the nation, he demanded such supplies as 
 were necessary to carry it on. This was the substance of his 
 speech, and on these heads Lord Shaftesbury enlarged very 
 plausibly ; but while he was thus abetting the Court and the 
 war he was in a secret management with another party. 
 
 When the House of Commons came to consider the King's 
 speech, the first point they went upon was the matter of his 
 Declaration, and whether it was agreeable to law or not. Some, 
 to divert this, were for inquiring into the issuing out of the 
 writs, as willing to make Lord Shaftesbury the sacrifice, which 
 when he perceived, he was resolved to change sides with the 
 first opportunity. But upon the debate the House soon came 
 to a very unanimous resolution that the Declaration was against 
 law, and set it forth in an address to the King, in which they 
 prayed that it might be called in. Nor did this content them, 
 for they brought in a bill likewise, disabling all Papists from 
 holding any employment or place at Court, and requiring all 
 persons in public trust to receive the sacrament in a parish 
 church, to carry an attested certificate of that into Chancery or 
 the County Sessions, and there to make a declaration, renouncing 
 transubstantiation in full and positive words. This, when it 
 passed, was called the Test Act, and the penalty, upon failure, 
 was ^500 to the discoverer. The Court upon this occasion was 
 in great perplexity : if they gave way to the proceedings of the 
 House of Commons, there was a stop put to the design of 
 Popery ; if they gave not way to them, there was an end put to the 
 war. The French could not furnish so much money as was ne 
 cessary, and the shutting up the Exchequer had put an end to all 
 credit. When the matter came before the Cabinet, Lord Clifford 
 was for having the King stand his ground : "The people now 
 saw through his designs, and therefore he must either resolve 
 to make himself master at once, or for ever be subject to 
 jealousy and contempt." The Duke of Buckingham offered to 
 the King that if he would bring up the army to town, he 
 would take out of both Houses the members that made the
 
 
 Charles II. Last Part 127 
 
 opposition. The Duke of Lauderdale talked of bringing an 
 army out of Scotland, and seizing on Newcastle, and pressed it 
 as vehemently as if he had been able to execute it. But the 
 Earls of Shaftesbury and Arlington were, on the other hand, 
 for giving the Parliament full content, and undertook, upon 
 this condition, to procure money to carry on the war, and at 
 the same time persuaded the French ambassador to engage his 
 master's application to the King in favour of their advice. 
 
 When the Declaration, by the King's consent and approba 
 tion, came to be debated in the House of Lords, Lord Clifford 
 undertook to assert the Declaration with all the force and all 
 the arguments he was able, though he did it with too much 
 heat, and many indecent expressions. But when he had done, 
 the Earl of Shaftesbury, to the amazement of the whole House, 
 said, " He must differ from the lord who spoke last toto ccelo. 
 While those matters were debated out of doors, indeed, he 
 might think, with others, that the Supremacy, asserted as it 
 was by law, might warrant the Declaration ; but now that such 
 a House of Commons, so loyal and affectionate to the King, 
 were of another mind, he submitted his reason to theirs. They 
 were the King's great Council ; they must advise and support 
 him ; they had done it, and would do it still, if their laws and 
 their religion were once secured to them." The King was all in 
 a rage to be thus forsaken by his Chancellor, but his Chancellor 
 soon found out an expedient to pacify his fury ; for he and Lord 
 Arlington, the very same afternoon, got all the leading mem 
 bers of the House of Commons on whom they had an influence 
 to go privately to the King, and tell him " that, upon Lord 
 Clifford's speech, the House was in such fury that probably 
 they would have gone to some high votes and impeachments, 
 if Lord Shaftesbury's speaking on the other side had not 
 restrained them ; that Lord Shaftesbury was supposed to speak 
 the King's sense, as Lord Clifford was the Duke's ; and this 
 calmed all, so that the Chancellor had done him great service ; 
 and now was the time, they said, both for the King to obtain 
 his ends and his ministers an indemnity, if he would part 
 with the Declaration, and pass the bill." This was managed 
 with so much dexterity, that before night the King's sentiments 
 were quite changed, and matters were so represented to him 
 that he sent Lord Clifford word by the Duke that his indis 
 cretion had raised such a flame that he could not with con- 
 veniency make use of his service any longer. 
 
 Lord Clifford, however, together with the Duke of Buckingham,
 
 128 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 had still that interest with the King as to recommend Sir 
 Thomas Osborne, a Yorkshire gentleman, and of an impaired 
 estate, to succeed in the Treasury. He had been always among 
 the High Cavaliers ; but, missing of preferment, he opposed the 
 Court much, and was one of Lord Clarendon's bitterest enemies. 
 He was a very plausible speaker, but too copious, and could 
 not easily make an end ; and in his common discourse he gave 
 himself great liberty, not seeming to have any regard to truth, 
 or so much as the appearance of it. He was an implacable 
 enemy, but had a peculiar way of making his friends depend on 
 him, and believe him faithful to them. After all, he was a 
 positive and undertaking man, and therefore gave the King 
 great ease by assuring him that all things should go according 
 to his mind in the next session of Parliament ; and whenever 
 he failed in his assurances, he had always some excuse at hand 
 to fax the miscarriage upon, by which means he gained the 
 highest degree in the King's confidence, and maintained it 
 longer than any who ever served him. 
 
 Soon after this, letters came from the Court of France, press 
 ing the King to do all that was necessary to procure money 
 from the Parliament, since their king could not bear the charge 
 of the war alone, which determined him to disannul his Declara 
 tion, and to pass the Test Act, together with an Act of Grace, 
 which was chiefly designed to cover his too obnoxious ministers ; 
 whereupon the Parliament granted him ^"1,200,000, twice the 
 sum that was intended by the generality of those who opposed 
 the Court, but procured by the corruption of Galloway and 
 Lee, two leading men in that opposition ; so that the King was 
 now enabled to carry on the war another year, to the great 
 amazement of the Dutch, who relied on the Parliament, and 
 did not doubt but that a peace with England would have been 
 procured by their interposition. 
 
 After the session was over the Duke carried all his commis 
 sions to the King, and wept when he delivered them up ; but 
 the King expressed no concern. He put the Admiralty in 
 commission ; Osborne, soon after made Earl of Danby, was put 
 in the Treasury ; the Earl of Shaftesbury, though continued 
 Chancellor, had lost his favour quite ; and so had Lord Arling 
 ton the Duke's. Prince Rupert was sent to command the fleet, 
 and had two or three engagements with the Dutch ; but none 
 of the French ships engaged except one, and when the captain 
 thereof charged the Admiral for his ill conduct he was put in 
 the Bastile for it. This opened the eyes and mouths of the
 
 Charles II. Last Part 129 
 
 whole nation ; all men cried out and said, " We were engaged 
 in a war by the French, that they might have the pleasure to 
 see the Dutch and us destroy one another, while they knew our 
 seas and ports, and learned our management of things, but 
 took all care to preserve themselves.'' And the clamour of 
 this was so great that when Count Schomberg expostulated the 
 matter with the French ambassador, and could get no other 
 satisfaction from him than a tacit intimation that the French 
 admiral had acted according to his instructions, he made haste 
 to get out of England, to prevent his being sent away by an 
 address." 
 
 A mediation about this time was offered by the Swedes, in 
 order to a peace. Cologne was proposed to be the place of 
 treaty, and the Earl of Sunderland was made choice of by the 
 King for one of his plenipotentiaries. He was a man of a clear 
 and ready apprehension, and quick decision of business ; but 
 he had too much heat, both of imagination and passion, was 
 apt to speak freely both of persons and things, and raised 
 himself many enemies by a contemptuous treatment of those 
 who differed from him. His own notions were always good, 
 but he was a man of great expense, and, in orde^ to support 
 that, he went into the prevailing counsels at Court, arid changed 
 sides often, with little or no regard either to religion or the 
 interest of his country. He had the dexterity of insinuating 
 himself so entirely into the greatest degrees of confidence with 
 three princes successively, who set up all on different interests, 
 that he came, by this, to lose himself so much that even those 
 who esteemed his parts depended little on his probity. 
 
 The Treaty of Cologne was of short continuance ; for the 
 Emperor having ordered that Elector's plenipotentiary to be 
 seized, as a subject of the empire who had betrayed it, the 
 French looked upon this as such a violation of the passports, 
 that they laid it down for a preliminary to have him set at 
 liberty before they would enter upon the treaty. Upon this 
 occasion the treaty was dissolved, and the French took Maes- 
 tricht this summer, where their King was present, and where 
 the Duke of Monmouth distinguished himself so eminently 
 that he was much considered and commended for it. 
 
 The Duchess of York had been now so long dead that it was 
 thought a decent time enough for the Duke to look out for 
 another wife. He had made his addresses to the Lady 
 Belasyse, widow to the Lord Belasyse's son, a woman of much 
 wit and great vivacity, but of a very small proportion of beauty ;
 
 130 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 and she had gained on his affections so, that he gave her a 
 promise, under his hand, to marry her. Her father-in-law, 
 Lord Belasyse, was a strong Papist, and knew her to be a firm 
 Protestant, and inflexible in her way. He gave the design, 
 therefore, of bringing in their religion for gone, if that match 
 was not prevented ; and thereupon went to the King, and, 
 under pretence of duty to him and zeal for the Duke's honour, 
 gave him intimations of what he apprehended ; and the King, 
 by remonstrances to his brother, made him alter his mind, 
 and, by threatening the lady, made her relinquish the promise. 
 
 After that a match was proposed to the Duke of Modena's 
 daughter, which in a short time took effect ; and the Earl of 
 Peterborough, who had the negotiation of that matter, and was 
 the Duke's proxy in the ceremony of marriage, was bringing 
 the lady over through France, when the Duke, apprehensive 
 that the Commons would intermeddle in the matter, moved 
 the King to prorogue the Parliament for a week, and a com 
 mission was ordered for it ; but the Chancellor Shaftesbury 
 designedly delayed it so long that the Commons came to a 
 vote for stopping the marriage, and when the prorogation was 
 over they addressed the King against it, but he gave them no 
 answer, so that all further application ceased, and in the 
 winter following the Duchess came over. She was then very 
 young, about sixteen, but of a full growth, a very graceful 
 person, with a good measure of beauty, and so much wit and 
 cunning, that during all this reign she behaved herself in so 
 obliging a manner, and seemed so innocent and good, that she 
 gained upon all who came near her, and possessed them with 
 such impressions of her, that it was long before her behaviour, 
 when she came to be queen, could make them change their 
 sentiments of her. With such art and dexterity did she 
 manage herself upon all occasions, that she was enough to 
 deceive even the eldest and most judicious persons. She 
 avoided the appearance of a zealot or a meddler in business ; 
 all her diversion was innocent cheerfulness, with a little mixture 
 of satirical wit that would now and then break out ; but it was 
 taken well, and imputed to the levity of youth not enough 
 practised in the world ; and upon these accounts she was 
 universally esteemed and beloved as long as she was duchess. 
 
 The Parliament in their last session had discovered an 
 uneasy temper, which the King, with all his concessions, could 
 hardly satisfy. They disliked the Dutch war, they were disgusted 
 at the Duke's religion, and had made remonstrances against;
 
 Charles II. Last Part 131 
 
 his intended marriage with an Italian Papist ; and therefore it 
 was the advice of some of the most moderate in his ministry, 
 especially the Earls of Shaftesbury and Arlington, to send the 
 Duke for some time from the Court, as a good expedient, at 
 the beginning of a session, to mollify matters ; and the King so 
 far complied with their proposal that he suffered them to 
 acquaint the Duke with it. But he never forgave any one who 
 was accessory to the advice, and Lord Shaftesbury, whom 
 he reckoned a principal in it, was immediately dismissed 
 from the Seals, which were given to Finch, then Attorney- 
 General, and made afterwards Earl of Nottingham. He was 
 a man of probity, and well versed in the laws, long admired for 
 his eloquence, but it was stiff and affected, and, before he died, 
 he saw it neglected and fall under contempt. He had no 
 manner of knowledge of foreign affairs, and yet he loved to talk 
 much of them, which exposed him to the derision of those who 
 understood them. He was an uncorrupt judge, and in that 
 province resisted the strongest applications, even of the King 
 himself, though he did it nowhere else, for he thought himself 
 bound to justify the Court in all debates in the House of 
 Lords, which he did with the vehemence of a pleader more than 
 the gravity of a senator. His original, which has proved a 
 traditional fault, was to be too eloquent on the bench, in the 
 House of Lords, and in common conversation ; but one thing 
 he did of great commendation he took care to fill the Church 
 livings with learned men, and obliged them to constant resi 
 dence. 
 
 When the House of Commons met, they were not in so good 
 a temper but that they were resolved to make a sacrifice of 
 some obnoxious ministers. They began with the Duke of 
 Lauderdale, and voted an address to remove him from the 
 King's councils and presence for ever. They went next to 
 the Duke of Buckingham, but he, desiring to be heard at the 
 bar, laid such a load on the King and Duke, and especially on 
 Lord Arlington, as lost him the King's favour for ever, though 
 it contributed nothing to save himself. Lord Arlington was 
 the next that they fell upon, and when he appeared before the 
 House he excused himself, though most obnoxious, as being 
 Secretary of State, without any odious imputations on the King, 
 in such a manner that he was acquitted by a small majority ; 
 but the King did not well approve of his defence. 
 
 All this while the Commons were silent as to the giving any 
 money towards the continuance of the war, for they were
 
 132 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 resolved, by their retentiveness, to compel the King to make 
 peace with the Dutch. When this was perceived, Lord Arlington 
 applied to the Spanish ministers that they would persuade the 
 States and the Prince of Orange to get a proposition of peace 
 set on foot ; and, that the King's honour might be preserved, 
 and the first overtures seem to proceed from them, that they 
 would offer the sum of two or three hundred thousand pounds, 
 which should be repaid to the Prince, in discharge of the debt 
 which the King had long owed him. 
 
 This proposition was made, and with much reluctancy on 
 the King's part agreed to ; but he could not help it ; there was 
 no drawing money, which he much wanted, from the Parliament 
 without it. And when he made his complaint to the French 
 envoy to this purpose, he told him he would extricate him 
 from all difficulties and dishonourable circumstances by pre 
 vailing with his master to make him the arbiter and mediator 
 of a peace between the Dutch and France. What made the 
 French the readier to offer this proposal was the success that 
 attended the Prince of Orange's arms, which in a year and a 
 half s time had quite changed the face of affairs. He had taken 
 Naerden, taken Bonn, and by that means cut off the supplies 
 that the French sent down to their garrisons on the Rhine and 
 Isel. The Emperor had come into an alliance, and both the 
 Elector of Cologne and the Bishop of Miinster made a peace 
 with the States ; so that the French were inclinable enough to 
 get out of the war, and when they were so, it was an easy com 
 pliment to the King to accept of his mediation. 
 
 The Court was at this time not a little disturbed with some 
 discoveries that had been made in Holland. Sir Joseph 
 Williamson, one of the plenipotentiaries at Cologne, on his 
 return from thence, prevailed with Wicquefort, the Dutch 
 secretary who translated all the intelligences that came from 
 England, to deliver some of the original letters into his hand, 
 and, upon examination, most of them proved to be written by 
 Lord Howard's brother, and who was afterwards Lord Howard 
 himself, a man of wit and learning, but always poor, and ready 
 to undertake anything that was bold. He had run through 
 many parties in religion ; in Cromwell's time had been re- 
 baptized, and preached in London ; and, upon his usurpation 
 of the Government, set up against him as a strong Common 
 wealth's man. In the beginning of the war he offered to serve 
 De Witt ; and when the Prince was advanced, he undertook 
 both to send him good intelligence and to make him a party in
 
 Charles II. Last Part 133 
 
 England. In some of his letters he pressed the Prince to 
 make a descent on England, only to force the King to call a 
 Parliament, and drew a manifesto to that purpose, such as he 
 believed would be acceptable to the nation. He was put in 
 the Tower, and the Government would have proceeded with 
 great severity against him, but, when notice was sent thereof 
 to Holland, the States immediately ordered Wicquefort to be 
 secured, and sent the King word that if any person suffered 
 in England on account of the letters betrayed by him, his 
 head should go for it ; by which threat Howard was saved, 
 but Wicquefort was kept so long in prison that it ruined him 
 quite. 
 
 Upon these discoveries Lord Arlington offered to go over to 
 Holland with the Earl of Ossory, upon presumption that they 
 had interest enough with the Prince not only to come to the 
 bottom of things, but to bring him likewise into an entire 
 dependence on his uncle, and dispose him to a general peace, 
 which France began to want, and the crown of England was to 
 mediate. But Lord Arlington treated the Prince with such a 
 superior air, and seemed to talk to him in the strain of a 
 governor, presuming much on his youth and want of experience, 
 that he lost him entirely, and, with all his endeavours after 
 wards, could never gain any confidence in him. This was 
 Lord Arlington's last essay, and, as he succeeded in it very 
 poorly, he ever after that withdrew from business. 
 
 Sir William Temple had been sent over to Holland the year 
 before to dispose the people's minds to a peace. Lord Arlington 
 had thrown him off when he went in with the French interest, 
 and the other was too proud to bear contempt, or forget such 
 an injury soon. He was a vain man, much blown up in his 
 own conceit, which he showed too indecently on all occasions. 
 He had a true judgment in affairs, and very good principles 
 with relation to government j but in what related to religion 
 he was very corrupt himself, and endeavoured to infect all who 
 came near him. He was a great admirer of the sect of Con 
 fucius in China, who were atheists themselves, but left religion 
 to the rabble. That all things were, as they are now, from 
 eternity, was one of his darling notions, and his practice was 
 accordingly ease and luxury and studied pleasure. In his 
 Letters, however, he has given us a full and true representation 
 of our affairs abroad, and handed down to posterity a character 
 so sublime, as well as so genuine, of the Prince of Orange, as 
 raises him much above all the performances of panegyric ; and,
 
 134 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 to them we refer the reader who is desirous of fuller satisfaction, 
 and proceed now in an account how matters were carried on in 
 Scotland. 
 
 The Parliament had in the year 1663 given the King in 
 trust a power to lay impositions on foreign commodities, and 
 accordingly a heavy duty was laid on French salt, brandy, 
 and tobacco, which, being things of general consumption, lay 
 heavily upon the body of the people. This and Duke Lauder- 
 dale's insolence, as well as engrossing all things o himself and 
 a few of his friends, raised a very high discontent all over the 
 nation, so that when the Parliament was opened, and the 
 King's letter read, desiring their assistance in carrying on the 
 war with Holland, Duke Hamilton, as it was concerted, moved 
 that the state of the nation might be first considered, that so 
 they might see what grievances they had, and devise proper 
 means to have them redressed, and was followed in the motion 
 by twenty men one after another. This put Duke Lauderdale 
 in a great consternation ; and after he had put off the session 
 for some time he called a Council, and desired that the grievances 
 complained of in Parliament might be brought before him there, 
 and that he was ready to redress them in the King's name ; 
 but Duke Hamilton and his party would consent to no such 
 thing ; they were for bringing the grievances before the Parlia 
 ment, because they were minded to have the instruments of 
 their oppression punished, as well as the oppression itself 
 removed. When the like complaint, however, was brought in 
 Parliament the next session, the Duke of Lauderdale managed 
 matters so that he procured a vote referring all complaints to 
 the Lords of the Articles, by which means he silenced all 
 clamours against his administration for the future, because the 
 Lords of the Articles being all upon the matter named by the 
 King, would take care to bring before the Parliament nothing 
 that should offend the King's commissioner. 
 
 Duke Lauderdale, however, perceived by this attempt made 
 upon him what a faction was rising up against him, and took 
 all possible methods to make himself more popular. He con 
 nived at the insolence of the Presbyterians, who had taken 
 possession of one of the vacant churches in Edinburgh, and 
 preached in it for some months. The Earl of Argyll and Sir 
 James Dalrymple, a man of great temper and mild deportment, 
 but no small share of cunning, were the persons on whom the 
 Presbyterians depended most. They had been formerly at
 
 Charles II. Last Part 135 
 
 variance with the Duke, but were now taken into chief confi 
 dence, and proved, indeed, of great service to draw in many 
 Presbyterians to his support. 
 
 But this sudden change in the Duke, and strange conduct 
 with relation to the Presbyterians, provoked the clergy out of 
 measure, and some hot men, who were not preferred according 
 to their merit as they thought, grew very mutinous, and raised 
 a grievous outcry against the negligence of the administration, 
 and for want of a National Synod to regulate the worship and 
 government of the Church. 
 
 Another disorder broke out which had greater effects. A 
 cause being judged in the Supreme Court of Session, the party 
 that had not justice done him, as he thought, appealed to the 
 Parliament. This was looked on as a high contempt, done on 
 design to make the Parliament a court of judicature, that so 
 there might be a necessity of frequent Parliaments. The judges 
 required all the lawyers to condemn it as contrary to law, and 
 the King sent down an order to put all men from the bar who 
 did not condemn it ; and, when that would not do, a proclama 
 tion was issued out to banish them from Edinburgh and twelve 
 miles about it, and without their submission by such a day, 
 never to admit to practice again. Sir George Lockhart, the 
 greatest lawyer and best pleader in the nation, with many more 
 who depended on him, stood it out, and the day lapsed with 
 out their submitting. They, however, afterwards renounced 
 appeals, in the sense of the Roman law, and were restored to 
 their practice again, but this made a stop for a whole year in all- 
 legal proceedings. 
 
 The boroughs of Scotland have by law a privilege of meeting 
 once a year in a body to consider of trade, and to make by 
 laws relating to it. At a Convention held this year a petition 
 was agreed on, and sent to the King, complaining of some late 
 acts that obstructed trade, and praying that when the King 
 should send down his commissioner to hold a session of Par 
 liament (of which there was great need), he might be instructed 
 in relation to the repeal of them. But this petition was con 
 demned as seditious, and those who promoted it were fined and 
 imprisoned for it. 
 
 Thus Duke Lauderdale was lifted up out of measure, and 
 resolved to crush all who stood in his way. He was made Earl 
 of Guildford in England, had a pension of ,3,000, and let him 
 self loose to every ungoverned fury. Twelve magistrates of 
 Edinburgh he turned out by the King's letter, declaring them
 
 136 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 for ever incapable of public trusts, and prevailed with him to 
 have the author of this history struck out of the list of the 
 chaplains, forbidden the Court, and banished, as it were, into 
 Scotland. But he neglected to go, and it was not long before 
 the Parliament had occasion for him ; for when the House of 
 Commons fell upon the Duke of Lauderdale, as they did the 
 next session, he was four times called before their bar to testify 
 what he knew concerning the Duke's design of arming the 
 Irish Papists to quell the Presbyterians in Scotland, and of 
 bringing a Scottish army into England to assist the King in 
 making himself absolute. And his testimony was such that 
 the House three times addressed the King against the Duke ; 
 but the King's answer was, " That though he would protect no 
 man against law and justice, yet he would condemn none with 
 out special matter well made out." The author was not a little 
 blamed for his conduct in this respect, and the King was so far 
 incensed against him that he sent Secretary Williamson to 
 Sir Harbottle Grimston, then Master of the Rolls, desiring 
 him to dismiss him from being his preacher ; but the Master 
 answered, "That he was an old man, and fitting himself for 
 another world; that he found the author's ministry useful to 
 him in that respect, and thereupon prayed that he might be 
 excused." 
 
 Sir Harbottle had to the very last (and he lived till eighty- 
 two) a great soundness of health, of memory, and of judgment. 
 In the beginning of the Long Parliament he was a great 
 assertor of the laws, and inveighed severely against all who 
 had been concerned in the former illegal oppression. When 
 that Parliament engaged in the league with Scotland, he would 
 not swear the Covenant, and so discontinued sitting in the 
 House. When the Covenant was laid aside, he came back 
 and joined the Presbyterians in a high opposition to the 
 Independents, and Cromwell in particular. He was afterwards 
 one of the secluded members, the Speaker of the House that 
 called home the King; and for that service was made Master 
 of the Rolls, where he continued to his death with great repu 
 tation and renown, for he was a just and righteous judge, a good 
 and charitable man, and a very pious and devout Christian, an 
 enemy to Popery and arbitrary power, and steadfast in the 
 communion of the Church, though with great tenderness to 
 Dissenters. 
 
 When the Earl of Danby came into the ministry he set up to 
 be the patron of the Church party and of the old Cavaliers.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 137 
 
 The King had neglected his best and surest friends too long, it 
 was said, and therefore a new measure was taken up to do all 
 possible honours to the memory of King Charles I. and all who 
 had been in his interest. To this purpose a statue of brass, on 
 horseback, that had been long neglected, was bought and set 
 up at Charing Cross, 1 and a very magnificent funeral was ap 
 pointed for him. And to distinguish men of loyalty, as well as 
 exclude all Dissenters, a Declaration renouncing the lawfulness 
 of resistance in any case whatever, and an engagement to 
 endeavour no alteration in Church or State, was designed to be 
 a necessary qualification of all who might choose or be chosen 
 members of Parliament. 
 
 When this came to be debated in the House of Lords it met 
 with strong opposition, and the House sat ofttimes upon it till 
 midnight. Lord Danby, Lord Finch, and some of the bishops 
 were the chief arguers for it ; and the necessity of having some 
 method to discriminate the good subjects from the bad, of pre 
 serving a good constitution by all prudent methods, of prevent 
 ing the designs of men of bad principles, and of securing the 
 nation from relapsing into such miseries as it had lately escaped 
 from, were the chief topics that they insisted on. 
 
 That all tests in public assemblies were dangerous, and con 
 trary to public liberty ; that they were of no use to the purpose 
 intended, nor any restraint upon the generality of mankind ; that 
 to bind the legislature by any previous limitation was incon 
 gruous ; and to exclude any freeholder from the liberty of voting 
 was depriving him of his birthright ; that to bind men up against 
 making any alteration, against making any resistance, was un 
 reasonable, since every new law was so far an alteration, and 
 some cases there might be wherein resistance might be lawful ; 
 these were the arguments on the other side ; and Lord Shaftes- 
 bury took care to distinguish his resentment against the Court 
 by putting some cases : " If a king should make us a province 
 and tributary to France, should subdue the nation by a French 
 army, or bring us under the Papal authority, must we be 
 bound in that case tamely to submit ? " with many more 
 cutting things, spoken with that boldness and that caution at 
 the same time, that how highly soever the Court might be 
 
 1 The statue was cast by Le Seurs in 1633, at the expense of the Howard- 
 Arundel family, and sold during the great rebellion to John River, a brazier 
 in Holborn, with strict orders to break it to pieces. He buried it till the 
 Restoration, and in 1678 it was placed where it stands, upon the pedestal 
 executed by Grinling Gibbons. 
 
 F 2
 
 138 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 provoked at him, and how insidiously soever watch his words, 
 they could find no pretence or umbrage to send him to the 
 Tower. In the debate, though the Court carried every question 
 in favour of the Test, yet it was with great opposition and pro 
 testations made upon every step; and an unlooked-for emer 
 gency came at last, that put an end to the Test and the session 
 both at once. 
 
 Ever since the end of King Charles I.'s reign petitions of 
 appeal from decrees in Chancery were brought to the House of 
 Lords. A petition of appeal was brought against a member of 
 the House of Commons. The Lords received it and made an 
 order upon it. The member, being served with the order, 
 brought it into the House, and they voted it a breach of 
 privilege for the Lords to meddle with any of their House, 
 and passed a vote against any lawyers that should plead at 
 the Lords' bar in this case. The lawyers, however, ventured 
 to plead, and as they went from the bar were, by an order from 
 the House of Commons, sent to the Tower ; but there were, by 
 another order from the Lords, set at liberty ; so that the two 
 Houses now being entered into a kind of war, it was necessary 
 to have them prorogued, and there were some apprehensions 
 that this breach, unless timely cured, would force the Court to 
 a dissolution, which, after long practising upon the members 
 and knowing their complexions so well, would have given them 
 no small mortification. 
 
 The Earl of Danby had a method of managing the House of 
 Commons different from those who were in the ministry before 
 him. They had taken off the great and leading men, and left 
 the herd as a despised company; but he reckoned that the 
 major number was the surer game, and that ten of these might 
 be purchased cheaper than one of the great ones ; and there 
 fore he made his applications to them. But then they were 
 generally persons of such a low size and mean abilities that 
 they were baffled in all debates, and others who were well 
 enough inclined to vote in all obedience were ashamed to 
 appear on a side that upon every turn was so manifestly run 
 down in point of argument. 
 
 The ablest man of his party was Seymour, descended of a 
 great family, and a graceful man, bold and quick. But he 
 had a kind of pride peculiar to himself, wherein he retained 
 neither shame nor decency, and till he had forced himself into 
 good posts was always violent against the Court. He was the 
 first Speaker of the House of Commons not bred to the law,
 
 Charles II. Last Part 139 
 
 and the most assuming Speaker that ever sat in the chair. 
 But he knew the House and every man in it so well that 
 by looking about it he could tell the fate of any question. So, 
 if anything was put when the Court-party was not well gathered 
 together, by wilfully mistaking or misstating the question, he 
 would have kept the House in suspense till a majority was 
 come in, and then would very fairly state the question when he 
 saw the party was sure to carry it. 
 
 The management in these matters was so glaringly visible 
 that many of the Court were glad to be out of the way at 
 critical times, and some ventured to vote on the contrary side. 
 And so, when Harvey, who was treasurer to the Queen, had 
 voted one day against what the King desired, and was severely 
 chided for it, and the next day upon some important question 
 had voted as the King would have him, and the King took 
 notice of it and said, " You were not against me to-day," he 
 replied, " No, sir, I was against my conscience to-day." Nor 
 seemed the King to be offended at the answer, though there 
 was a peculiar sharpness in it that made it much remarked. 
 
 A new session met next winter ; but before the King could 
 obtain any supply, the petition of appeal, that had broken the 
 former session, was brought into the House of Lords. The 
 Lords went upon it, and the Commons opposed it so vigorously 
 that there was a necessity for another prorogation, and some 
 in the House of Lords moved for a dissolution, since all due 
 correspondence between the two Houses was so irrecoverably 
 gone. 
 
 The dissolution of the Parliament was a thing that terrified 
 many of the House of Commons, who were ruined in their 
 fortunes, and lived upon their privileges and pensions. They 
 were some of them high for the Church, others high for the 
 Prerogative, and upon that account had been chosen, when the 
 nation was in a fit, or rather a fury, of loyalty. But they had 
 but small hopes of coming into Parliament again in case it 
 should be dissolved. This was a party attached to the Court, 
 and that lived chiefly by the places and pensions of it. And in 
 opposition to these there was another party formed, that 
 declared more heartily for the Protestant religion and for the 
 interest of England. The person of greatest credit among 
 these was Sir William Coventry, one who had a perfect 
 knowledge of affairs, and laid open the errors of the Govern 
 ment with more authority, because he mixed no passion or 
 private resentment in his speeches. Colonel Birch was a man
 
 140 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 of a peculiar character. He had been a carrier at first, and 
 retained still, even to an affectation, the clownishness of his 
 education. In the progress of the war he became a colonel, 
 was concerned in the excise, and his usefulness in that par 
 ticular obtained him a considerable post at the Restoration. 
 He was the roughest and boldest speaker, and perhaps best 
 qualified to carry a popular assembly before him, of any in the 
 House ; for he spoke with much life and heat in the phrase and 
 language of a carrier, but with a beauty and eloquence that 
 were always acceptable, and made an atonement for his want of 
 judgment. Waller was the delight of the House, for even at 
 eighty he spoke the liveliest things among them ; but he was a 
 vain though witty man, and aimed more at applause in what 
 he said than the good of his country or the business of the 
 House. This, however, is peculiar in his commendation, that he 
 was one of the greatest refiners of our language and poetry, 
 and for nearly sixty years one of our best writers that way. 
 Lord Russell was a man of great candour and general reputation, 
 universally beloved and trusted, of a generous and obliging 
 temper, and if there had been any defect in his understanding 
 (as there was none when he came to consider things at his own 
 leisure), his virtues were so many and so eminent that they out 
 balanced that by a great deal of overweight. Lord Cavendish, 
 afterwards Earl, and then Duke of Devonshire, had the courage 
 of a hero, with an unusual proportion of wit and knowledge, 
 and a peculiar softness in his exterior deportment; but he 
 was too much a libertine, both in his principle and practice. 
 Powle was very learned in precedents and Parliament journals, 
 which got a great way in debates ; and when he had time to 
 prepare himself was a clear and strong speaker. But Lyttleton 
 was the ablest and most vehement arguer of them all. He com 
 monly lay quiet till the end of the debate, and he often finished 
 it, for he spoke with a strain of conviction and authority that 
 was not to be resisted. Sir Thomas Lee was a man who valued 
 himself upon artifice and cunning, in which he was a great 
 master, without being out of countenance when it was dis 
 covered ; and Vaughan, the Chief Justice's son, was a man of 
 integrity, and though he had much pride, yet he did much 
 service. 
 
 These were the chief men who preserved the nation from a 
 very deceitful Court and a very corrupt House of Commons ; 
 and by their skill and firmness, from a small number that 
 began the opposition, grew at last to be the majority. And
 
 Charles II. Last Part 141 
 
 in this situation were matters of Parliament when the long 
 prorogation came upon them. 
 
 It was much about this time when Lockhart, the ambassador 
 in France, died a good minister, and who in several instances 
 had acted with great spirit and resolution in relation to his 
 master's honour, one of which it may not be improper to mention 
 as a lesson of instruction to such persons as sustain the characters 
 of princes. He had a French Papist servant who was dying, 
 and sent for the sacrament. When the sacrament was brought 
 him in the pomp and procession usual on such occasions, Lock- 
 hart, hearing thereof, ordered his gates to be shut, his men to 
 stand to their arms, and, in case any violence was offered, to 
 fire. And when all was over he went to Court and expostu 
 lated the matter, how an open triumph had been attempted on 
 his master's religion and an affront put upon him, and there 
 upon demanded reparation for so public an injury. The King 
 of France was not well pleased with this resolute behaviour, 
 but the Court of England was forced to justify him in it, and 
 thought it advisable to send him a letter of thanks for it ; but 
 soon after this he fell into a languishing, which in some few 
 months carried him off. 
 
 The Earl of Danby had, in a former session, been struck at 
 in Parliament, but acquitted, and began now to seek popu 
 larity by declaring in all companies against France and Popery. 
 And the see of London being now vacant by the death of 
 Henchman, he brought in Compton, brother to the Earl of 
 Northampton, to succeed him in it a man very zealous against 
 Popery, and a great patron of converts from it, and such 
 refugees as, for the Protestant religion, were forced over from 
 France. He had carried arms for some years, but when he 
 was past thirty he took orders, and applied himself more to 
 his function than bishops had commonly done, for he went 
 much about his diocese, and preached and confirmed in many 
 places ; but his preaching was without much life or learning, 
 for he had not gone through his studies with all the exactness 
 that was requisite to form a divine. In fine, he was a humble 
 and modest man, but weak and wilful, and strangely wedded 
 to a party. 
 
 About a year after that, Sheldon dying, Sancroft, Dean of St. 
 Paul's, was promoted to the see of Canterbury. He was a man 
 of solemn deportment, had a sullen gravity in his looks, put on 
 a monastic strictness, lived abstracted from company, and was 
 considerably learned. These things, together with his being
 
 142 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 unmarried, and fixed in the old maxims of high loyalty, and a 
 superstitious valuing of little things, made the Court conclude 
 that he was a man who might be entirely gained to serve all 
 their ends, or at least give them no opposition in what they 
 were to attempt when they had more promising opportunities. 
 The truth is, he was a dry, cold man, reserved and peevish, 
 loved by none and esteemed by few ; yet the High Church 
 party were well enough pleased with his promotion. 
 
 As Lord Danby thus raised his creatures in the Church, so 
 he got all men turned out of their places that did not entirely 
 depend on him, and went on in his credit with the King, still 
 assuring him that if he would leave things to his conduct he 
 would certainly recover the whole Cavalier party again to him. 
 
 All this while the Papists were not idle ; they tried their 
 strength with the King to get the Parliament dissolved, thereby 
 to divide him and his people and confirm his dependence on 
 France. Coleman was a man who had been long bred among 
 the Jesuits, and understood the art of managing controversies, 1 
 particularly the great one of the authority of the Church, better 
 than any of their priests. He had a great easiness in writing 
 in several languages, and was, indeed, the chief correspondent 
 the party had in England. He was a bold man, resolved to 
 raise his fortune, lived at a vast expense, and talked in so posi 
 tive a manner that he discovered a consciousness of being well 
 supported. He had been set about the Duchess at her first 
 coming over as her secretary, but was then dismissed her 
 service at the instances of the Bishop of London ; yet he was 
 still in much favour with the Duke, and was perpetually 
 writing many letters to all places, but chiefly to the Court of 
 France, 2 setting forth the good state of the Duke's affairs, the 
 great strength he daily acquired, and giving all assurances that 
 if a peace could be brought about so that the King of France 
 might be at liberty to assist them with money and forces, they 
 were now in a hopeful way of succeeding in the great design of 
 rooting out the pestilent heresy that had so long overrun these 
 northern kingdoms. 
 
 He had a correspondent, one Sir William Throgmorton, whom 
 he had sent over and recommended to the King's confessor, F. 
 Ferrier, and might have been of great service to him, had he 
 
 1 He once maintained a conference alone with the author and Dr. 
 Stillingfleet, at Sir Philip Terwit's house, for the satisfaction or con 
 viction of his lady, which has since been published. 
 
 2 Upon these letters he was afterwards convicted and executed.
 
 
 Charles II. Last Part 143 
 
 not come to an untimely end ; but one day, when he was 
 visiting an English gentlewoman of the same religion, one 
 Lady Brown, he received a deep stab with a knife in his thigh, 
 which pierced the great artery and made such an effusion of 
 blood as could not be stopped. How he came by this wound 
 whether the lady did it to defend herself, or he to show the 
 violence of his passion was not known, nor could the am 
 bassador who was then at Paris ever come at the secret of the 
 matter. Coleman, however, soon got him another correspond 
 ent, one F. St. German, a Jesuit, and was in such high con 
 fidence with the Duke that when Howard was made a cardinal, 
 and the King and Duke upon that occasion sent compliments to 
 Rome, which opened a negotiation with that Court, which 
 negotiation was put in the hands of the internuncio at Brussels, 
 the Duke sent Coleman over to manage it with him. The pro 
 posal was to give the King a sum of money if, in return, some 
 answerable favours for those of their religion could be obtained ; 
 but when Coleman came he found the sum offered so small, and 
 the conditions demanded so high, that he made no progress in 
 the negotiation. Only he took care to make his own market, 
 and drew from the French ambassador two thousand five 
 hundred guineas at once to gain his master some friends, as he 
 pretended ; but he applied it all to furnish out his own 
 expense. 
 
 At this time the Earl of Essex came over from being Lord 
 Lieutenant of Ireland. He was the son of Lord Capell, and 
 though his education was neglected by reason of the war, yet 
 when he came to man's estate he made himself master of the 
 Latin tongue, and attained a considerable knowledge in mathe 
 matics, in the laws and constitution of his own country, and in 
 many other parts of learning. He had some early resentments 
 against the Court, but the King was resolved to make use of 
 him, and accordingly sent him his ambassador to Denmark, 
 where his behaviour in the affair of the flag, 1 and his wise 
 
 1 The King of Denmark had ordered the Governor of Groonenburg 
 to make all ships that passed strike to him ; and when Lord Essex 
 was sailing by, he sent to him either to strike or sail by in the night, 
 or keep out of reach, otherwise he must shoot first with powder and next 
 with ball. But Lord Essex sent answer again that neither would he strike, 
 nor sail by in private, nor keep at a distance, for the Kings of England 
 made ships of all other nations strike to them, and therefore, if he did 
 shoot at him, he would defend himself. And afterwards, when he came to 
 the Court of Denmark, he justified his behaviour in such a manner as 
 gained him great reputation.
 
 144 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 vindication of it, even out of the Danish records and customs, 
 redounded both to his own and the nation's glory. Upon his 
 return from Denmark he was sent over to Ireland, where, by 
 his studying the interest and constitution of the nation, by his 
 preferring men of merit, and preventing corruption in all that 
 were about him, he made his government exceed all that had 
 gone before him, and is ever since considered as a pattern to 
 those who come after him. The Earl of Ranelagh had at that 
 time the management of the revenue of Ireland, and was one 
 of the ablest men that island had bred, capable of all affairs, 
 even in the midst of a loose run of pleasure and much riot ; he 
 had a pleasantness in conversation that took much with the 
 King, had engaged to furnish him with money for the rebuild 
 ing of Windsor, and did probably pay the Duchess of Ports 
 mouth a great yearly pension out of his office. For this reason, 
 when the King was very pressing with Lord Essex to pass Lord 
 Ranelagh's accounts, "As accounts, he said, he could not pass 
 them ; but if the King would forgive Lord Ranelagh, he would 
 pass a discharge for him, but not an ill account." The King 
 was not pleased with this answer, nor with his exactness in 
 that government, which reproached his own too much ; and 
 therefore he took a resolution to place the Duke of Ormond in 
 it again. 
 
 There was about this time a proposition made for farming 
 the revenue of Ireland, and Lord Danby for some time 
 seemed to favour one set of men, but afterwards, all on a 
 sudden, flew off to another. This occasioned some suspicion of 
 bribery, and when examination was made at the Council- 
 table, Lord Widrington owned that he had made an offer of a 
 round sum to Lord Danby, but denied that the other accepted 
 it; whereupon Lord Halifax observed, "That the Lord 
 Treasurer had rejected the offer very mildly, not in a manner 
 to discourage a second attempt ; and the meaning was obvious, 
 he said, if a man should ask the use of another man's wife, 
 and the other indeed refuse it, but with great civility." 
 
 This reflection nettled Lord Danby so, that he got him dis 
 missed from the Council-board ; whereat the Duke of York 
 was not displeased, because, in the debates of the House of Lords 
 on the declaration for a toleration, among other severe things, he 
 had said, " That if we could make good the Eastern compliment, 
 O King, live for ever ! he could trust the King with everything ; 
 but since that was so much a compliment that it could never 
 become real, he could not be implicit in his confidence ; " an
 
 Charles II. Last Part 145 
 
 imputation of such disparity between the two brothers and 
 their designs as the Duke's temper would not easily allow him 
 to forgive ! 
 
 The Parliament had now been prorogued for about a year 
 and some months by two different prorogations, and at the 
 opening of this session a debate was brought on in the House 
 of Lords about the legality of the late prorogation. The Duke 
 of Buckingham, the Lords Shaftesbury, Salisbury, and Whar- 
 ton, were the supporters of it; and their allegation was, "That 
 since by the ancient laws a Parliament was to be held once a 
 year, a prorogation that ran beyond a year, and hindered the 
 Parliament for sitting that year, was illegal, and implied a 
 dissolution of it." But how stiffly soever they maintained the 
 argument, they were defeated in the vote by a great majority ; 
 and thereupon ensued another debate, viz., whether these 
 lords were not liable to censure for offering a debate that 
 might create distractions in the subjects' minds concerning the 
 legality of Parliament. It was carried, to oblige them to ask 
 pardon as delinquents, which if they refused, it was resolved to 
 send them to the Tower. They refused to ask pardon, and so 
 were sent to the Tower, where they continued close prisoners 
 for some months ; but, upon their petitioning the King, were 
 at length set at liberty. 
 
 The debate about the dissolution of the Parliament in the 
 House of Lords put many of the other House in a terrible 
 fright, and made them very free in their concessions to the Court, 
 for they voted ^"600,000 for the building of thirty ships ; they 
 continued an additional excise for three years longer ; and were 
 in all things so compliant that the Court had not seen for many 
 years so hopeful a session as this. But the good humour they 
 were in did not last long, and was in a great measure rebated 
 by the conquests that the King of France was making in 
 Flanders, enough to cause other nations to look about them. 
 For though the Prince of Orange had the last year gone up to 
 his very camp, and offered him battle, while he was besieging 
 Bouchain, and lay with his army covering it, yet this did not 
 stop the progress of his arms, for he was now making one of 
 his early campaigns, in which he first took Valenciennes, and 
 then dividing his army into two parts, with one he sat down 
 before Cambray, and the other, which his brother commanded, 
 besieged St. Omer. The death of Turenne, who was killed by 
 a random cannon-shot, when a great design, which would 
 have probably proved fatal to the German army, died with him,
 
 146 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 was a great loss to the King of France ; for he was the most 
 cautious and most obliging general that ever commanded an 
 army. The Duke de Cond^ was sent to command in his stead, 
 but he was inferior to him in all that related to the command, 
 unless it was in the day of battle, in which the presence of 
 mind and vivacity of thought, which were wonderful in him, 
 gave him some advantage ; but he had too much pride to 
 be as civil and condescending, and was too much a slave to 
 pleasure to be as careful and diligent in business as the other was. 
 
 After the taking of Valenciennes, the Prince of Orange, 
 looking on St. Omer as a more important place than Cambray, 
 went thither, and ventured a battle a little too rashly. 
 Luxemburg, with a great body of horse, came into the Duke of 
 Orleans's army just as they were engaging; some regiments 
 of marines, on which the Prince depended much, basely ran 
 away, yet the other troops fought so well that he lost not much 
 besides the honour of the day, only the consequence of the 
 action was, that St. Omer did immediately capitulate, and 
 Cambray within a few days. 
 
 These things happening during this session of Parliament 
 made great impression on people's minds, and both Houses 
 were of opinion that the progress of the French arms would 
 end in the ruin of the United Provinces, and prove of fatal 
 consequence to the interest of England ; and therefore they 
 frequently addressed the King to withdraw his mediation, and 
 enter into an alliance against France. But he rejected their 
 addresses with angry messages, and at last dismissed them 
 with a very unwelcome speech, "That peace and war were 
 undoubtedly his prerogative, and therefore they did wrong in 
 going so far in matters that were above them, and wherein he 
 himself was only concerned," though there had been many 
 precedents alleged to justify their conduct in interfering in 
 things of so high a nature. 
 
 When the session was over Lord Danby saw his ruin was 
 unavoidable if he could not bring the King off from a French 
 interest and attach him to another ; and therefore he failed not 
 to give, by the mediation of Sir William Temple, all possible 
 assurances to the Prince of Orange, pressing him likewise to 
 make some compliances on his side, and possessed him with 
 hopes of bringing about a match with the Duke's daughter, 
 which was universally desired of the Protestant party, both at 
 home and abroad. In short, he prevailed with him so far as 
 to ask the King's leave to come over at the end of the cam-
 
 Charles II. Last Part 147 
 
 paign ; and after he was come over, Lord Danby, pretending 
 that it was the common advice of the King's best friends, and 
 what would give a general satisfaction to the Parliament, pre 
 vailed with the King to consent himself, and to lay his com 
 mands upon the Duke, that his daughter should be married to 
 the Prince ; and accordingly, before any instruments could be 
 employed to prevent it, got the marriage declared in Council, 
 to the great joy of England, as well as disappointment of the 
 King of France's expectations. 
 
 Upon the general satisfaction that this marriage gave the 
 whole nation, a new session of Parliament was called in the 
 beginning of this year, to which the King declared the sense 
 he had of the dangerous state their neighbours were in, and 
 that it would be necessary for him to be put in a posture to 
 bring things to a balance ; and, to effect this, the House was 
 pressed to supply the King with money sufficient to maintain 
 both an army and a fleet. There were several arguments against 
 a land army as the danger that might follow on it, the little 
 use that could be made of it, and the great charge it must put 
 the nation to ; but the King had promised so many commis 
 sions to men of both Houses, that it was carried for an army ; 
 and it being pretended that the Spaniards were willing to put 
 Ostend and Nieuport into our hands, it would neither be 
 honourable nor safe, they said, to commit the custody of them 
 to foreign forces. After this a severe act passed, prohibiting 
 all importation of French manufactures or growth for three 
 years ; a Poll Bill was granted, together with the continuance 
 of the additional customs, that were near falling off; and 
 ^600,000 given for the land army and fleet. 
 
 While these preparations were making in England, the King 
 of France made a step that struck terror into the Dutch, and 
 inflamed the English out of measure. Louvois proposed to 
 him the taking of Ghent, as a place so in the neighbourhood 
 of the Dutch that it could not but dispose them to a peace ; 
 and to that end he laid such a scheme of marches and counter 
 marches as amused all the allies till Ghent was all on a sudden 
 invested, and both the town and citadel quickly taken. This 
 was Louvois' masterpiece, and had the intended effect ; for it 
 brought the Dutch to resolve on a peace, and gave such an 
 alarm to England that the Duke of Monmouth was immediately 
 sent over with some of the guards. 
 
 But it is time now to look back to Scotland. The field
 
 148 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 conventicles, as was said before, increased mightily, and men 
 came armed to them, upon which great numbers were out 
 lawed, and a writ was issued, that was legal indeed, but 
 seldom used, called Intercommuning, because it made all that 
 harboured such persons, or did not seize them when they had 
 them in their power, to be involved in the same guilt. By 
 this means many, apprehending a severe persecution, left their 
 houses, went about like a sort of banditti, and fell into a fierce 
 and savage temper, insomuch that the Privy Council was 
 forced to place garrisons in several parts for the suppression 
 of these riotous meetings, and the counties were required to 
 supply them with all things necessary. 
 
 A strange thing had happened to Sharp in July, 1668; for, 
 as he was getting into his coach, a man came up and discharged 
 a pistol at him ; but missing him, it shattered the Bishop of 
 Orkney's arm, who was with him, and so the man went off; 
 for though it was full daylight, and in the High Street, yet so 
 universally was Sharp hated that nobody offered to seize the 
 assassin. But Sharp had viewed him so narrowly that six 
 years after he knew him, and had him taken up and examined. 
 The man denied all at first, but, upon a promise of pardon 
 made in the King's name, he offered to confess. Accordingly 
 he was brought before the Council, and when Duke Lauder- 
 dale, who was then the King's Commissioner, had promised 
 him his life, the man kneeled down and confessed the fact, and 
 told the whole manner of it ; and in punishment of his crime 
 was committed to a castle that was on the Bass, 1 there to remain 
 a prisoner for life. The thing had almost been forgot after four 
 years, and Mitchel (for that was his name) was a man in all 
 respects very inconsiderable ; but, notwithstanding this, Sharp 
 was now resolved to have his life, and accordingly brought him 
 to Edinburgh in order for his trial. The trial was solemn, and 
 Lockhart, who was his counsel, made a long and learned defence, 
 but every plea was overruled by the court ; his confession was 
 found judicial; his promise of life was denied; and when a copy 
 of the act of Council that made express mention of it was pro 
 duced, neither were the books allowed to be sent for, nor the 
 copy admitted in evidence ; and so the poor man's defence was 
 rejected, and he was cast and condemned. After this, when his 
 case came to be considered in Council, and some were for re 
 spiting his death, and referring him to the King's mercy, Sharp 
 complained that such procedure would upon the matter be the 
 1 The Bass is a high rock on the mouth of the Firth of Forth.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 149 
 
 exposing his person to any man who would attempt to murder 
 him, since favour was to be shown to such an assassin ; where 
 upon Duke Lauderdale followed with this impious jest, " Then 
 let Mitchel glorify God in the grass-market, which was the place 
 where he was to be hanged." This action, with all concerned in 
 it, was looked on by all people with horror ; and was probably 
 one reason, both in the just judgment of God and the inflamed 
 fury of men, that brought Sharp, two years after, to such a 
 dismal end. 
 
 The conventicles in the west went still on, and the people, by 
 the instigation of some hot and hare-brained preachers, became 
 very giddy and furious, which lessened Duke Lauderdale's credit 
 at Court, and enraged him to that degree that he threatened to 
 ruin and lay waste the whole country if a speedy stop was not 
 put to them. To this purpose he first published an order 
 requiring all landlords in the western counties to enter into a 
 bond for themselves, their wives, children, servants, tenants, 
 and all that lived upon their estates, that they should not go 
 to conventicles, nor harbour any vagrant teachers or any 
 intercommuned persons, and that they should in all points 
 live according to the laws, under the penalties thereof. This 
 was generally refused as a thing contrary to law and impossible 
 for them to do, as not having such control over their servants 
 and tenants ; and upon their refusal Duke Lauderdale wrote to 
 the King that the country was in a state of rebellion, and that 
 it was necessary to proceed to hostilities for reducing them. 
 The King left it to him and the Council to take care of the 
 public peace in the best manner they could ; and so all the 
 forces were sent into the west with some cannon, as if they had 
 been going upon a dangerous expedition, and the lords of the 
 Highlands were required to summon all their strength to assist 
 the King's army, insomuch that eight thousand men were 
 brought into the country and let loose upon free quarter. Duke 
 Hamilton and others, who were grieved to see such waste made 
 on their estates, came to Edinburgh to try if they could mitigate 
 such proceedings ; but a proclamation was issued out requiring 
 all the inhabitants of those counties to repair to their houses, 
 and be assistant to the King's host, and obey such orders as 
 should be sent them ; and by another proclamation all men 
 were forbidden to go out of the kingdom without leave from the 
 Council on the pretence that their stay in it would be necessary 
 for the King's service. All this was done so palpably to force 
 a rebellion that the people saw through it, and bore the present
 
 150 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 oppression more quietly than otherwise they would have done ; 
 but Duke Lauderdale's party was so sanguine in their hopes of 
 fomenting one, that they began to reckon upon confiscated lands, 
 and on Valentine's day, instead of drawing for mistresses, drew 
 for estates. 
 
 When this would not do, another expedient was tried. All 
 the chief men of the country were summoned before a committee 
 of the Council, and charged with many great crimes, of which 
 they were required to purge themselves by oath, otherwise they 
 were to be proceeded against as guilty. It was in vain to 
 repine at the illegality of this practice : take the oath they must, 
 or stand to the penalty of it, and so they all took it ; nor did 
 there appear, upon the strictest examination, one single circum 
 stance of an intended insurrection. When all things failed 
 them they had recourse at last to a writ, 1 which a man who 
 suspects another of ill designs against him may serve him with. 
 This lies against the whole family, and the master is answerable 
 if any of the household break it. So here, by a new and un 
 heard-of practice, this writ was served upon the whole country 
 at the King's suit, and upon serving it security was to be given, 
 much like our binding men to their good behaviour. Many 
 were put in prison for refusing to give such security, and Duke 
 Hamilton had intimations sent him that there was a design to 
 proceed in the same manner against him ; for what occasioned 
 their suspicion and indignation against him was an accident that 
 happened some time before. 
 
 One Carstairs, a loose and vicious man, who had wasted his 
 estate, and now got some money by procuring informations 
 against those who frequented conventicles, decoyed Kirkton, an 
 eminent preacher among them, and brother-in-law to Baillie of 
 Jerviswood, a gentleman of great parts, but of much greater 
 virtue, into his lodgings ; and there, under pretence of having 
 a warrant to carry him to prison, endeavoured to extort money 
 from him, and used him very roughly. Baillie had information 
 of it, and as he came to the rescue of his brother-in-law he heard 
 him cry out " Murder ! " whereupon he forced the door, drew his 
 sword, and made Carstairs, whom he found sitting upon him, 
 come off, and then demanded to see the warrant, which the 
 other refusing to show, he took Kirkton along with him, and so 
 went away without the offer of any violence. Carstairs had, in 
 truth, then no warrant; but before next Council-day he pro- 
 
 1 The writ was called Law-boroughs, because it was most used in 
 boroughs.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 151 
 
 cured one signed by nine Privy Councillors and antedated ; and 
 when Baillie was cited before the Council for making a riot, 
 though he brought his witnesses to prove his behaviour, they 
 would not so much as examine them, but without liberty of 
 making his defence they fined him in the sum of ,500, and 
 condemned him to a year's imprisonment. Duke Hamilton 
 and Lord Kincardine, who were then of the Council, could not 
 but argue against this method of proceeding, as more like a court 
 of Inquisition than any legal government ; and for this they were 
 turned out of the Council as enemies to the Church and as 
 favourers of conventicles. 
 
 Under these circumstances Duke Hamilton had reason to 
 suspect the worst ; and therefore he and ten or twelve of the 
 nobility, with about fifty gentlemen of quality, went up to 
 London to complain of all this ; but the King refused to see 
 them, because they came out of their country in contempt of a 
 proclamation ; though a proclamation, as they urged for them 
 selves, when it hindered them from bringing their complaints 
 to the King, was one of the greatest grievances they had to 
 complain of. 
 
 The arrival of the Scotch nobility in town happening in the 
 time of the session of Parliament occasioned a great noise, and 
 men began to make constructions, from the management in 
 Scotland, what the true spirit of the Government was. The 
 House of Commons hereupon made a new address against Duke 
 Lauderdale, and that was followed with one of a higher strain, 
 representing to the King the ill effects of not hearkening to 
 their addresses in the former year with relation to foreign 
 affairs, desiring him to change his ministry, and to dismiss all 
 those who had advised the prorogation at that time, and his 
 delaying so long to assist the allies. The Duke of Lauderdale, 
 however, to obviate all complaints against him, took the ad 
 vantage of these noblemen's absence to desire leave from the 
 King to summon a Convention of Estates, from whom he might 
 more certainly understand the sense of the kingdom ; and laid 
 the matter so that before they could get home all the elections 
 were over, and he master of above four parts in five of that 
 assembly. So they granted an assessment for three years, in 
 order to maintain a greater force, and wrote a letter to the 
 King not only to justify, but highly commending Duke 
 Lauderdale's government, which was so base and abject 
 a thing that it brought the whole nation under great 
 contempt.
 
 152 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 All this while, though England was certainly in a secret 
 negotiation with France, and Lord Danby had ordered Mon 
 tague, our ambassador there, to treat with that Court for a 
 separate peace, in case they would pay the King ^300,000 a 
 year for three years, yet the treaty at Nimeguen went on, where 
 Temple and Jenkins were our plenipotentiaries; and though 
 the Prince of Orange was against it, the States were resolved 
 on a peace, now that they might have what belonged to them 
 restored, and a tolerable barrier besides granted them in 
 Flanders. The only difficulty was concerning the King of 
 Denmark and the Elector of Brandenburg, their allies, who 
 had fallen upon the Swede when he declared for France, and 
 had beaten him out of Germany. The Swede was certainly to 
 be restored ; and France undertaking to satisfy Denmark and 
 Brandenburg by repaying the charge of the war against Sweden, 
 the treaty was finished and ratified, and a general peace soon 
 after ensued. 
 
 Before the news of the peace was known, the Prince of 
 Orange was marched with his army to the relief of Mons, 
 which the French, under the command of Luxemburg, had 
 blocked up. He had no intimations of the peace, no order to 
 stop, nor any apprehension of a new embroilment, but rather 
 wished it ; and therefore he fell upon them, and, notwithstand 
 ing the advantage of their situation, made it appear how much 
 the Dutch army was now become superior to the French. The 
 Earl of Ossory commanded the English forces that were in the 
 States' service, which struck such terror into the French that 
 Rouvigny, afterwards Earl of Galway, was sent over to negotiate 
 matters, and offered a good sum of money for the disbandment 
 of the army. But the army was brought over, and kept up 
 under pretence that there was not money enough to pay them ; 
 so that things began to look dark, and the party against the 
 Court gave all for lost, when a sudden and unlooked-for 
 accident made a great alteration, and put the nation into 
 such a ferment that it well deserves to be opened very 
 particularly. 
 
 Titus Oates was the son of an Anabaptist teacher, who after 
 wards conformed, got into orders, and took a benefice, as this 
 his son did. He was proud and ill-natured, haughty, but 
 ignorant. He had been complained of for some indecent 
 expressions concerning the mysteries of religion ; had been 
 once presented for perjury ; and was turned out from being 
 chaplain in one of the King's ships upon a complaint of some
 
 Charles II. Last Part 153 
 
 unnatural practices not to be named. He got a qualification 
 from the Duke of Norfolk as one of his chaplains, and there 
 he first expressed his inclination to be instructed in the Popish 
 religion, and had one Hutchinson, a Jesuit, for his instructor. 
 After his conversion he was kept for some time at St. Omer's, 
 from thence sent through France into Spain, and was now 
 returned into England. He had been long acquainted with 
 one Dr. Tonge, a chemical man, full of notions and projects 
 that kept him poor, but a very poor divine, and a little simple 
 and credulous, though sincere. To him he made his first dis 
 covery ; and he, by the means of one Kirby, a chemist, who 
 was sometimes in the King's laboratory, had an audience ; but 
 he told the King such an unconnected story of many passages, 
 all relating to take away his life, that he knew not what to 
 make of it ; and when he communicated the thing to Lord 
 Danby, he, believing nothing of it, was too remiss l in the 
 prosecution of it, for otherwise the truth or importance of it 
 might have certainly been discovered. 
 
 At last, on Michaelmas-eve, Gates was brought before the 
 Council, and entertained them with a long relation of many 
 discourses he had heard among the Jesuits, and of their design 
 to kill the King. He named persons, places, and times almost 
 without number. He said many Jesuits had disguised them 
 selves, and were gone into Scotland, and held field conventicles 
 there to distract the Government; that he was sent to St. 
 Omer's, thence to Paris, and from thence to Spain, to negotiate 
 this design ; that upon his return, when he brought many 
 letters and directions from beyond sea, there was a great meet 
 ing of the Jesuits held in London, in a tavern near St. 
 Clement's ; and that the result of their consultation was a 
 resolution to kill the King by shooting, stabbing, or poisoning 
 him, and that Coleman was privy to the whole design. This 
 was the substance of what he declared the first day ; whereupon 
 many Jesuits were seized that night and next day, and their 
 papers sealed up. 
 
 There were many things in this declaration that made it look 
 like an imposture. Gates did not know Coleman at first, but 
 when he heard him speak in his own defence, he named him ; 
 he named Wakeman, the Queen's physician, though he did not 
 know him at all; Langhorne, who was the great manager for 
 the Jesuits, he did not name ; and when the King asked him 
 what sort of man Don John (with whom he pretended to be 
 
 1 From the first information till Oates's examination was six weeks.
 
 154 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 intimate) was, he answered he was a tall, lean man, when the 
 King knew him to be the very reverse. These were strong 
 indications of a forgery. But what took away that suspicion 
 was the contents of Coleman's letters, since by them it appeared 
 that so many years ago the design of converting the nation and 
 rooting out the northern heresy, as they called it, was so near 
 its execution, since in them the Duke's great zeal was often 
 mentioned with honour, and many indecent reflections made 
 on the King for his inconstancy and disposition to be brought 
 to anything for money ; and since by them their dependence 
 was expressed to lie in the French King's assistance, and his 
 expeditious conclusion of a general peace, as the only means 
 that could finish their design. 
 
 A few days after this a very extraordinary thing happened, 
 that contributed more and more to confirm the belief of this 
 evidence. Sir Edmondbury Godfrey was an eminent justice of 
 peace, who lived near Whitehall. He had stayed in London, 
 and had kept things in order in the time of the plague, which 
 gained him great reputation, and for which he was afterwards 
 knighted. A zealous Protestant he was, and a true lover of 
 the Church of England, but had kind thoughts of the Noncon 
 formists, was not forward to execute the laws against them, 
 and, to avoid doing that, was not apt to search for priests or 
 mass-houses, so that few men of the like zeal lived on better 
 terms with the Papists than he. Gates went to him the day 
 before he appeared at the Council-board, and declared upon 
 oath the narrative he intended to make, which Godfrey after 
 wards published a little imprudently, and was thereupon severely 
 chid for seeming to distrust the Privy Council, and presuming 
 to intermeddle in so tender a matter. 
 
 On Saturday, the i2th of October, he went abroad in the 
 morning, was seen about one o'clock near St. Clement's Church, 
 but was seen no more till his body was found, on the Thursday 
 night following, in a ditch about a mile out of town, near St. 
 Pancras Church. His sword was thrust through him, but no 
 blood was on his clothes or about him ; his shoes were clean, 
 his money was in his pocket ; a mark was all round his neck, 
 which showed he was strangled ; his breast was bruised, his 
 neck was broken, and there were many drops of white wax- 
 lights on his breeches, which being only used by priests and 
 persons of quality, made people imagine in whose hands he 
 had been. 
 
 Oates's evidence was, by means of this murder, so far be-
 
 Charles II. Last Part 155 
 
 lieved that it was not safe to seem to doubt of it ; and when the 
 Parliament met he was called before the bar of the House of 
 Commons, where he made a fresh discovery. He said that 
 the Pope had declared England to be his kingdom, and accord 
 ingly had sent over commissions to make Lord Arundel of 
 Wardour, Chancellor ; Lord Powys, Treasurer ; Sir William 
 Godolphin, then in Spain, Privy Seal ; Coleman, Secretary of 
 State; Belasyse, General of the Army; Petre, Lieutenant- 
 General ; Ratcliffe, Major-General ; Stafford, Paymaster- 
 General; and Langhorne, Advocate-General, besides many 
 other commissions for subaltern officers. And he now swore, 
 upon his own knowledge, that both Coleman and Wakeman 
 were iu the plot ; that Coleman had given eighty guineas to 
 four ruffians to murder the King at Windsor ; and that Wake 
 man had undertaken to poison him for ^15,000; and he 
 excused his not knowing them before by the fatigue and want 
 of rest he had been under for two nights before, which made 
 him not master of himself. 
 
 There were great inconsistencies in all this. That one man 
 should not know another that was a principal in a plot wherein 
 he himself was concerned ; that one man should have ^ 15,000 
 for a safe way of dispatching, and four but twenty guineas 
 apiece for doing it openly ; that he should love the King so 
 well as he then pretended, and yet suffer these ruffians to go 
 down to kill him, without giving notice of the danger these 
 and some other incongruities in the pretended commissions (for 
 Belasyse was perpetually gouty, Petre was no military man, 
 and Ratcliffe lived chiefly in the north), were characters suffi 
 cient of a fictitious discovery, had not some other incidents 
 concurred to give it a further confirmation. 
 
 Bedloe was a man of a very vicious life, had gone by many 
 false names, and defrauded many persons ; had travelled over 
 many parts of France and Spain as a man of quality, and made 
 a shift to live by his wits, or rather by his cheats, so that 
 conscience could hardly be the motive ; and yet so it was that 
 he delivered himself to the magistrates of Bristol, pretending 
 he knew the secret of Godfrey's murder, and accordingly was 
 brought to London and examined by the Secretary. He said 
 he had seen Godfrey's body at Somerset House, and was 
 offered by Lord Belasyse's servant ^4,000 to assist in carrying 
 it away, whereupon he had gone out of town as far as Bristol, 
 but was so pursued with horror that he could not forbear dis 
 covering it, but at the same time denied that he knew anything
 
 156 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 of the plot, till, on the next day, when he was brought to the 
 bar of the House of Lords, he made a full discovery of it, 
 confirming the chief points of Oates's evidence, and pretending 
 that his rambling over so many parts of Europe before was 
 only in order to carry on the design. 
 
 While things were in this ferment at London, Carstairs, a 
 person made mention of before, came from Scotland to complain 
 of Duke Lauderdale's neglect in apprehending the chief 
 preachers of conventicles when by certain stratagems he had 
 decoyed them into his power. He had brought up such wit 
 nesses as he always had by him to prove the thing ; and as he 
 was looking about for a lucky piece of villainy, he chanced to 
 go into an eating-house in Covent Garden, where one Staley, a 
 Popish banker, was in the next room, and pretended that he 
 heard him say in French that the King was a rogue, and per 
 secuted the people of God, and that he himself would stab him 
 if nobody else would. With these words he and one of his 
 witnesses went to him next day, and threatened to swear them 
 against him unless he would give them a sum of money. 
 The poor man foresaw his danger, but he chose rather to leave 
 himself to their malice than become their prey ; so he was ap 
 prehended, and in five days brought to his trial. The wit 
 nesses gave full evidence against him to the purpose above 
 mentioned, nor could he offer anything to invalidate their 
 credit. All that he urged was, the improbability of his saying 
 such dangerous words in a quarter of the town where almost 
 everybody understood French ; so he was cast, and prepared 
 himself seriously for death, all along protesting that he knew 
 of no plot, nor had ever said the words sworn against him, nor 
 anything to that purpose. Carstairs, after some other instances 
 of his villainy, died in great horror of conscience, ordering 
 himself to be cast into some ditch as a dog, for he said he was 
 no better. 
 
 There was one accident now fell in that tended not a little to 
 impair Oates's credit. He had declared before the House of 
 Lords that he had then informed concerning all persons of any 
 distinction that he knew to be engaged in the plot, and yet 
 after that he deposed that the Queen had a great share in it, 
 and was, in his hearing, consenting to the King's death. But 
 his pretence for not accusing her before was so lame and 
 frivolous that it would not satisfy people, though Bedloe, to 
 support his evidence, swore things of the like nature. 
 
 While examinations were thus going on, and preparation
 
 Charles II. Last Part 157 
 
 was making for the trial of the prisoners, a bill was brought 
 into the House of Commons requiring all members of both 
 Houses, and all such as came into the King's Court or presence, 
 to take a test against Popery, in which not only transubstantia- 
 tion was renounced, but the worship of the Virgin Mary and 
 saints, as practised in the Church of Rome, was declared 
 idolatrous. It passed both Houses without much opposition, 
 only Bishop Gunning asserted that the Church of Rome was 
 not idolatrous, nor the test to be taken with a good conscience, 
 though he himself afterwards took it in the throng. The Duke, 
 with much entreaty and many solemn protestations of his duty 
 to the King and zeal for his country, whatever his private 
 religion might be, obtained a proviso for himself; and a proviso 
 was inserted for nine ladies about the Queen, which she said 
 should be distributed by lot, but she carried her complaisance 
 to the Duchess of Portsmouth so far as to name her, without 
 exposing her to the uncertainty of chance. 
 
 When Coleman was brought to his trial, Gates and Bedloe 
 swore flatly against him what was mentioned before ; and he, to 
 invalidate their evidence, insisted on Oates's not knowing him 
 when they were confronted ; on his being in Warwickshire at 
 the same time that Gates swore he was in town ; and on the 
 improbability of his transacting such dangerous matters with 
 two such men as he had never seen before. His letters to 
 Pere la Chaise were the heaviest part of the evidence, and to 
 these he did not deny but that he had intentions to bring in 
 the Catholic religion, but only by a toleration, not by rebellion 
 or blood, and that the aid he had requested from France for 
 that purpose was meant only of the advance of some money and 
 the interposition of that Court. After a long trial he was found 
 guilty, and sentence passed upon him to die as a traitor. He 
 suffered with much composedness and devotion, and died much 
 better than he lived, denying with his last breath every tittle of 
 what the witnesses had sworn against him, though many were 
 sent from both Houses, offering to interpose for his pardon if 
 he would confess. 
 
 The nation was now so much alarmed that all people were 
 furnishing themselves with arms, and a bill passed both 
 Houses for raising the militia, and for keeping it together for 
 six weeks, but the King rejected it, though he gave his consent 
 to the disbanding the army ; wherein the Commons were so 
 diffident of him that they ordered the money to be brought, not 
 into the Exchequer, but into the Chamber of London, and
 
 158 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 appointed a committee of their own members for paying it off 
 and disbanding it. 
 
 While things were in this confusion a new incident happened 
 that embroiled them yet more. The Earl of Danby had broken 
 with Montague, even though he was conscious what secrets he 
 had trusted him with ; and therefore he resolved to be before 
 hand with him, for which purpose he prevailed with the King 
 to send a message to the House of Commons that he purposed 
 to bring Montague to a trial for being a confederate with Rome, 
 and concerned in the plot to bring in Popery, and at the same 
 time sent to secure his papers. But Montague was too cunning for 
 them. He had put Lord Danby's letters into a safe hand, and 
 when the thing came to be debated in the House, he produced 
 two of them, containing instructions to him to treat with the 
 King of France for ^300,000 a year for three years, because 
 it was not convenient for the King to meet his Parliament in 
 that time. This was declaimed against in the House as a 
 design to betray the allies, sell the nation, and subvert the 
 Government, and by a great majority was voted high treason. 
 But when the impeachment was carried up next day, there was 
 a majority in the House of Lords against his commitment, 
 which so enraged the other House, clamouring for want of 
 justice, that the King, foreseeing that a storm was likely to 
 arise, kept peace between them by two prorogations, and in 
 January following dissolved them. 
 
 The courts of justice in the meanwhile were not idle, for in 
 December, Ireland the Jesuit, and Grove and Pickering, two 
 servants in the Queen's chapel, were brought to their trial. 
 Gates and Bedloe swore home against Ireland that in August 
 last he had given particular orders for killing the King ; but 
 he, in his defence, by many witnesses endeavoured to prove 
 that on the 2nd of August he went into Staffordshire, and did 
 not return till the 1 2th of September. Yet, in opposition to that, 
 a woman swore that she saw him in London about the middle 
 of August ; and so, because he might have come up post in one 
 day and gone down in another, this did not satisfy. Against 
 Grove and Pickering they swore that they undertook to kill the 
 King at Windsor ; that Grove was to have .1,500 for doing 
 it, and Pickering thirty thousand masses, which, at twelve- 
 pence a mass, amounts to the same money ; that they 
 attempted it three several times, but that once the flint was 
 loose, at another time there was no powder in the pan, and at 
 a third the pistol was only charged with bullets. This was
 
 Charles II. Last Part 159 
 
 strange stuff, but all was imputed to a Divine Providence. So 
 the evidences were credited, and the prisoners condemned and 
 executed, but they denied to the last every particular that was 
 sworn against them. 
 
 This began to shake the credit of the evidence, when a more 
 composed and credible person came in to support it. One 
 Dugdale, who had been bailiff to Lord Aston, and lived in a 
 fair reputation in the country, when he was put in prison for 
 refusing to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, denied 
 absolutely that he knew anything of the plot, but made after 
 wards great discoveries. He said that the Jesuits in London 
 had acquainted Evers, Lord Aston's Jesuit, with the design of 
 killing the King, and desired him to find out proper men to 
 execute it ; that Evers and Gavan, another Jesuit, had pressed 
 him to undertake it ; that they had promised to canonise him 
 for it, and Lord Aston offered him ^500 if he would set about 
 it. And one instance to confirm the truth of what he asserted 
 was his speaking in a public company (as several testified) of 
 Godfrey's death, the Tuesday after he was missing, which he 
 swore he saw in a letter written by Harcourt to Evers, which 
 letter must have been sent on the very night that Godfrey was 
 killed. 
 
 At the same time, a particular discovery was made of Godfrey's 
 murder. Prance, a goldsmith that wrought for the Queen's 
 Chapel, was, at the instigation of one who lodged in his house, 
 seized upon suspicion ; and as Bedloe was accidentally going 
 by, knowing nothing of the matter, was challenged by him to 
 be one of those whom he saw about Godfrey's body. Prance 
 denied everything at first, but made afterwards this confession : 
 that Gerald and Kelly, two priests, engaged him and three 
 others Green, who belonged to the Queen's Chapel ; Hill, who 
 had served Godden, one of their famous writers ; and Berry, 
 the porter of Somerset House in this wicked deed ; that they 
 had several meetings, wherein the priests persuaded them that 
 it was a meritorious action to dispatch Godfrey, in order to 
 deter others from being so busy against them ; that the morning 
 before they killed him Hill went to his house to see if he was 
 yet gone out, and spoke to his maid ; that they waited his 
 coming out, and dogged him all day, till he came to a place 
 near St. Clement's, where he stayed till night ; that as Godfrey 
 passed by Somerset House water-gate two of them pretending 
 to quarrel, another ran out to call a justice, and with much 
 importunity prevailed with him to come and pacify them ; that
 
 160 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 as he was coming along Green got behind him and threw a 
 twisted cravat about his neck, and so pulled him down and 
 strangled him ; and that Gerald would have run his sword 
 through him, but was hindered by the rest lest the blood might 
 discover them ; that when the murder was done, they carried 
 the body into Godden's room (for he was in France), and Hill 
 had the key of it ; that two days after they removed it into 
 a room across the upper court, but that being thought not so 
 convenient, they carried it back to Godden's lodgings ; that on 
 Wednesday night they carried it out in a sedan, and when they 
 had got clear of the town Green carried it on horseback to the 
 place where it was found. 
 
 This was a consistent story, which was supported in some cir 
 cumstances by collateral proofs ; and yet when he came before 
 the King and Council he denied all he had sworn, and said it was 
 a mere fiction ; but when he was carried back to prison, he said 
 all was true again, and that the horror and confusion he was in 
 made him deny it. Thus he continued saying and unsaying 
 for several times ; but at last he persisted in his first attestation ; 
 and by this and what Bedloe brought in evidence against them, 
 Green, Hill, and Berry were found guilty and condemned. 
 Green and Hill died, as they had lived, Papists, and with solemn 
 protestations denied the whole thing ; but Berry declared him 
 self a Protestant, though he had personated a Papist for bread, 
 for which dissimulation he thought this judgment had befallen 
 him. But he denied what was charged against him, and to the 
 last minute declared himself altogether innocent ; and his dying 
 a Protestant, and yet denying all that was sworn against him, 
 was a triumph to the Papists, and gave them an opportunity to 
 say that it was not the doctrine of equivocation, nor the power 
 of absolution, but merely the force of conviction that made 
 those of their religion do the same. 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice at this time was Sir William Scroggs, 
 a man more valued for a good readiness in speaking well than 
 either any learning in his profession or any moral virtue. His 
 life had been indecently scandalous, and his fortune very low ; 
 and it was a melancholy thing to see so bad, so ignorant, and 
 so poor a man raised up to that high post. Yet now, seeing 
 how the stream ran, he went into it with so much zeal and 
 heartiness that he became the people's favourite, and strove in 
 all trials even with an indecent earnestness to get the prisoners 
 convicted. 
 
 But their resolute manner of dying and protestations of
 
 Charles II. Last Part 161 
 
 innocence to the last began to make impression on people's 
 minds, and impair the credit both of the judge and witnesses, 
 till one Jennison, the younger brother of a Jesuit, and a gentle 
 man of family and estate, but now turned Protestant, came 
 in, as it were, to their relief; for, in contradiction to what 
 Ireland died affirming, viz., that he was in Staffordshire at the 
 time that Gates swore he was in London, he wrote a letter to a 
 friend attesting that he was in company with Ireland on the 
 i gth of August, and had much familiar talk with him, so that his 
 dying affirmations were false. The letter was printed, and this 
 use was made of it to vacate the truth of those denials where 
 with so many ended their lives. But what afterwards destroyed 
 the credit of the letter was the solemn protestation that the 
 author made, as he desired forgiveness of his sins and hoped for 
 the salvation of his soul, that he knew nothing of the plot; 
 and yet the summer after he published a long narrative, wherein 
 he said that himself was invited to assist in the murder of the 
 King, and named the four ruffians who went to Windsor to 
 do it. 
 
 While the witnesses were thus weakening their own credit, 
 some practices were discovered that did very much support it. 
 Reading, a lawyer of some subtlety but no virtue, who was 
 employed by the lords in the Tower to solicit their affairs, had 
 offered Bedloe some money of his own accord (as it afterwards 
 appeared) to mollify his evidence against the lords, and had 
 drawn up a paper to show him by how small a variation in his 
 depositions he might bring them off. But Bedloe was too 
 cunning for him. He had acquainted Prince Rupert and the 
 Earl of Essex with the whole negotiation, and placed two wit 
 nesses in his room, when he drew Reading into a renewal of the 
 proposal so commodiously that the attempt of corruption was 
 plainly proved upon him, and he was set in the pillory for it. 
 Some that belonged to the Earl of Danby conversed much with 
 Oates's servants, who told them that their master was daily 
 speaking odious things against the King; and one of them 
 affirmed that he had once made an abominable attempt upon 
 him. But when Gates smelt this out, he soon turned the 
 tables upon them ; for he prevailed with his servants to deny 
 all, and had the others set in the pillory as defamers of the 
 King's evidence. And to bring things of the same sort all 
 together, one Tashborough, who belonged to the Duke's Court, 
 proposed to Dugdale, in the Duke's name, but without his 
 authority, that he should sign a retraction of what he had
 
 1 62 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 sworn, and go beyond seas, and have a considerable reward for i 
 so doing. But the other outwitted him likewise, and proving i 
 such practices upon him, had him both fined and set in the i 
 pillory. 
 
 This was the true state of the plot and of the witnesses who 
 proved it, and men's minds were divided about the credibility I 
 of it. The generality were of an opinion that the bulk of what } 
 the evidences had deposed was true, though to all appearance 
 they had dressed it up with very improbable circumstances. 
 The Parliament was totally persuaded of the thing, and some 
 men of learning who knew the principles of the Jesuits their j 
 doctrine of deposing kings and murdering them at pleasure 
 and that pernicious tenet of making the goodness of anything 
 depend upon the intention, and every kind of wickedness, for 
 the sake of Mother Church, pass into a meritorious action 
 gave little heed to their solemn denials even at their execution 
 But others thought that what doctrines soever men might 
 hold in speculation, the near approaches of death could not 
 but oblige them to speak truth, and that the seriousness 
 of their whole deportment was a certain indication of it. 
 And thus we leave it to the reader's private sentiments and 
 determination. 
 
 While things were in this situation, the country abounded 
 with contests about the choice of Parliament men ; but the late 
 discovery of the plot and the dread of Popery made elections 
 almost everywhere go against the Court. The King, being 
 apprehensive that it would be impossible to meet a Parliament 
 of this complexion to advantage without doing some gracious 
 thing beforehand, prevailed with his brother to go beyond seas ; 
 but before he went away he gave him all possible satisfaction 
 with relation to the Duke of Monmouth, who was now become 
 popular ; and made a solemn declaration in Council, and signed 
 it, and took his oath on it, that he was never married nor 
 contracted to the Duke's mother, nor to any other woman 
 except the present Queen. The Duke hereupon parted with 
 the King, who seemed not a great deal concerned, with much 
 regret and many tears, and went to Brussels, where he was but 
 coldly received. 
 
 At the first meeting of the Parliament it was usual for one 
 who was of the Privy Council to name a Speaker, which nomi 
 nation was supposed to proceed from the King ; and the person 
 thus named was put in the chair and presented to the King 
 next day. The Court named Meres, but the House, taking no
 
 Charles II. Last Part 163 
 
 notice of that, proceeded to the choice of Seymour, who was then 
 at enmity with Lord Danby, and, by striking in with great heat 
 against Popery last session, was become very popular. How 
 ever, when they presented him as their Speaker next day, the 
 King, under pretence of having other indispensable occasions 
 for him, refused to confirm their election. This occasioned 
 much heat and long debates in the House, but at last they 
 came to a compromise. Seymour's election was let fall, but the 
 point was settled that the right of election was in the House, 
 and that the royal confirmation was no more than a thing of 
 course ; and so another man was chosen Speaker. 
 
 Lord Danby was conscious what a storm this had raised in 
 the House, and how the fury of it was pointed at him, and 
 therefore, to cover himself, he took out a pardon under the 
 Great Seal ; but the Earl of Nottingham not daring to pass it, 
 the Seal was set to it in the King's presence, who afterwards 
 declared to the Parliament that as Lord Danby had done 
 nothing but by his order, he had not only pardoned him, but 
 if there were any defect in the pardon that he would pass it 
 over and over again till it was undeniably legal. 
 
 Upon this a great debate arose whether the King's pardon, in 
 bar of an impeachment, was good in law ; but after much 
 vehemence on both sides, at length this temper was proposed 
 that upon Lord Danby's going out of the way an act of banish 
 ment should pass against him like that which had passed 
 against Lord Clarendon ; and accordingly, when the Lords 
 voted his commitment, he withdrew, and a bill of banishment 
 passed in the House of Lords and was sent down to the Com 
 mons. But the Commons were then in that rage against him 
 that though there were further overtures made of degrading 
 him from his honours as well as banishing him, and of pro 
 viding an act that no pardon for the future should be pleaded 
 in bar of an impeachment, the bill for banishment was thrown 
 out, and instead of it a bill of attainder for his wilful absence 
 was brought in, and passed immediately, and sent to the Lords 
 for their concurrence. But when it came to the third reading 
 Lord Danby surrendered, was sent to the Tower, and not long 
 after moved for his trial. 
 
 The King was weary of this vexation, and willing to be easy 
 himself and make others easy if he could, and, to satisfy the 
 people, was resolved upon great alterations in his ministry. 
 The Treasury he put in commission, and the Earl of Essex was 
 at the head of it. The Earl of Sunderland was made Secretary
 
 164 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 of State. The whole Council, which was made up of Lord 
 Danby's creatures, was dismissed. Lord Shaftesbury was made 
 President of the new Council, and the chief of both Houses 
 members of it. The Admiralty and Ordnance were taken from 
 the Duke's friends and put in commission ; and what was as 
 grateful a change as any, those sad tools of judges that Lord 
 Danby had brought upon the bench were dismissed, and men 
 of worth and learning promoted to those important posts. 
 
 But after all these alterations there was one thing wanting to 
 satisfy the people's minds, viz., what security the King might 
 offer to quiet the fears of the nation upon the account of the 
 Duke's succession ; for all concluded that it was dangerous to 
 have a Papist sit upon the throne. The Earl of Shaftesbury, at 
 the head of his party (for the Council was divided upon the 
 question), proposed an absolute exclusion, and making the 
 succession go on as if he were dead ; but this was thought 
 destructive to the constitution of an hereditary monarchy. The 
 Earls of Essex and Halifax proposed, on the other hand, such 
 limitations of the Duke's authority, when the crown should 
 devolve upon him, as would disable him from doing any harm 
 either in Church or State. But this by the other side, who 
 were more in number, was called an institution of democracy ; 
 and so a bill was ordered for excluding the Duke of York from 
 a succession to the crowns of these realms. 
 
 Those who argued for the exclusion seemed to maintain that 
 it was as much in the power of the King and Parliament, who 
 had the whole authority of the nation in their possession, to 
 exclude the next heir, as it was for a father to disinherit his 
 son ; that the Holy Scripture had made no provision for the 
 next in blood to succeed in kingdoms, but was pregnant with 
 various examples to the contrary ; that in different kingdoms 
 different forms of succession were in use ; that in our own there 
 were several instances of exclusion ; and that the power of the 
 Parliament in this respect was according to law, and founded on 
 an act in Queen Elizabeth's time to limit the succession of the 
 crown. They argued that Government was appointed for those 
 who were to be governed, and not for governors themselves ; 
 and therefore all things that related to it were to be measured 
 by the people's safety and the public interest ; but then that 
 the Popish religion was so contrary to the public good, so- 
 repugnant to the very frame and constitution of our Govern 
 ment, that a Papist seemed to be brought under a disability 
 either to protect a Protestant people, or to preserve the dignity
 
 Charles II. Last Part 165 
 
 of his crown ; and that the Duke in particular was so bigoted 
 to that religion, and had given such proofs of a violent temper, 
 that when he once came to the throne it was much to be feared 
 all limitations would be broken through. 
 
 Those who stood up for the limitation seemed to assert that 
 an exclusion was unlawful in itself, and contrary to the funda 
 mental maxims of our constitution ; that the oath of allegiance 
 bound us to the King and his heirs, and that his heirs were the 
 persons then apparent ; that changes in the succession, which 
 were but the result of prosperous rebellions, were but a bad 
 precedent ; and the act of Queen Elizabeth, which was designed 
 for the exclusion of Mary Queen of Scots, ended too fatally, and 
 was too great a blemish in her reign, to be insisted on with 
 decency. They urged that though a man might disinherit his 
 son, yet it was always presumed upon a just reason ; but to 
 cut a person off from so great a possession as a crown, merely 
 for his opinion, was a severity that Protestants disavowed and 
 complained of in others. The nation, they said, ought to be 
 secured against the ill effects of that opinion, but a limitation 
 of the King's power would answer all that ; whereas a total 
 exclusion, besides the reflection it brought upon the King's 
 honour, might provoke other princes to assist the Duke in the 
 recovery of his right, might stir up many in England to espouse 
 his cause, might encourage the Scotch, in hopes of his future 
 favour, to assert his title, and so kindle a war round about us, 
 as well as raise distractions at home. 
 
 These were the chief arguments upon which the debate was 
 managed ; and all the progress that was made in the matter 
 this Parliament was that the bill was twice read in the House 
 of Commons, and the Parliament after that dissolved. But 
 before their dissolution the Earl of Danby appeared at the bar 
 of the House of Lords, and by the advice of Pollexfen, a very 
 learned but perplexed lawyer, made use of no other plea but the 
 King's pardon, to which the Commons put in a reply, importing 
 that as in the case of murder an appeal lay from which the 
 King's pardon did not cover the person, so the offences of 
 ministers of State being injuries done to the public, the King's 
 pardon could not hinder a prosecution in Parliament, which 
 seemed to be one of the chief securities of our constitution. If 
 it could, then might evil ministers act as boldly as they pleased, 
 since they knew so easy a way to be secured against the danger of 
 impeachments. 
 
 This was the substance of their reply, whereupon they
 
 1 66 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 demanded a trial and judgment ; and then arose a famous debate, 
 viz., whether bishops had a right of voting in any part of a trial 
 for treason. It was agreed that they could not vote in the final 
 judgment, but the question was, whether they had not a right 
 to do so in the preliminaries. Those who argued for that 
 right said that bishops were one of the three estates of which 
 the Parliament was composed, and ought, therefore, to have a 
 share in all parliamentary proceedings. In the times of Popery, 
 indeed, they were for withdrawing from the King's Court and 
 forming themselves into a state apart ; but when our kings 
 would not admit of that, they obtained leave to withdraw in 
 judgments of life and death, as unbecoming their profession. 
 But their very withdrawing showed that they had originally a 
 right to judge in such matters, and that their foregoing that 
 right was a voluntary act which the Crown was willing to 
 indulge them in, and not any restraint laid upon them ; that 
 the very form of their desiring leave to withdraw implied the 
 voluntariness of it ; and the words of the Article of Clarendon l 
 were certainly construable in this sense, viz., that they might 
 sit during the trial till it came to the final sentence, and by 
 consequence might vote in all preliminaries. 
 
 On the other hand, it was argued that on the preliminaries 
 the final sentence sometimes depended as it did in the present 
 case and therefore voting in one was in effect voting in the 
 other ; that bishops could not judge the temporal lords as 
 their peers, for since their honour was not hereditary, they could 
 not be the peers of those whose blood was dignified ; and 
 therefore, though they were a part of the House in relation to 
 the legislature, yet they had no right to be of it when a tem 
 poral lord came to be tried for high treason. The custom of 
 Parliament, in short, they said, was the law of Parliament, and 
 since they had never judged in these cases before, they had no 
 pretence to claim such a privilege now. 
 
 Thus the point was argued on both sides ; and Dr. Stilling- 
 fleet upon this occasion gave a learned proof of his great 
 abilities in any argument ; for he published a treatise on this 
 subject, whereby he put an end to the controversy in the opinion 
 of all impartial men, and proved, beyond all contradiction, that 
 bishops had a right to vote in those preliminaries both from 
 our records and constitution. The bishops' right to vote was 
 carried by a majority, and upon that the Commons refused to 
 
 1 Constitutions of Clarendon, January 25th, 1164, passed to retrench the 
 power of the clergy.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 167 
 
 proceed unless the bishops were made to withdraw the whole 
 trial ; and when matters came to this issue the Parliament 
 was first prorogued, and then dissolved. 
 
 This raised a great clamour against the bishops, and hot 
 people began everywhere to censure them as a set of men who, 
 for their own ends and any punctilio they pretended to, would 
 expose the nation and the Protestant religion to ruin. In 
 revenge for this, many began to declare openly in favour of the 
 Nonconformists ; and the Nonconformists, upon such encourage 
 ment, became too insolent. The act that had restrained the 
 press was now expired, so that many virulent pamphlets both 
 against the Court and clergy were published, wherein the Non 
 conformists had so great a hand that they provoked the other 
 party to write with the like vehemence against them. The 
 chief manager of these paper wars was Sir Roger L'Estrange, 
 a man who had lived in all the late times, and was furnished 
 with many passages and an inexhaustible copiousness of writing. 
 He for four years published three or four sheets a week, under 
 the title of the " Observator," all tending to defame the Dis 
 senters, and to raise in the clergy a vain apprehension of the 
 approaching ruin of the Church ; and the clergy, being thus 
 sharpened and furnished by these papers, delivered themselves 
 up to much heat and indiscretion both in the pulpit and 
 private conversation. The fears of Popery were changed into 
 the apprehensions of a rebellion. The year forty-one, wherein 
 the wars broke out, was a common topic among them ; and, 
 instead of defending the principles of the Protestant religion, 
 they seemed to be so busy in nothing as in drawing parallels 
 between the late times and theirs. This raised much censure 
 and hatred, though the lives and labours of many worthy and 
 eminent men 1 among them did in a great measure rescue the 
 Church from those reproaches that the follies of others drew 
 upon it. 
 
 When the Parliament was up, the courts of justice went on 
 in their proceedings against the prisoners, and five of the 
 Jesuits who were accused before, viz., Whitebread, Fenwick, 
 Harcourt, Gavan, and Turner, were brought to their trial. 
 Gates repeated his former evidence against them ; and they, in 
 their defence, brought over sixteen persons from their house 
 at St. Omer's, who testified that Gates stayed among them all 
 the while from December, 1677, till June, 1678; that he sat at 
 
 1 Such were Tenison, Sharp, Patrick, Sherlock, Fowler, Scot, Calamy, 
 Claget, Cudworth, the two Mores, Williams, and many others.
 
 1 68 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 a table by himself in the refectory, and was therefore more 
 observable ; and that they saw him every day except one or 
 two that he was in the infirmary ; and thereupon they inferred 
 that he could not possibly be in London in the April between, 
 wherein he had sworn those consultations for killing the King 
 were held. But in opposition to this Gates had found out 
 seven or eight persons who deposed that they saw him in 
 England about the beginning of May ; and an old Dominican, 
 who was still of that Church and order, swore also that he saw 
 him and spoke frequently with him about that time. This 
 quite blasted the credit of the St. Omer's scholars, and gave 
 more sanction to what Dugdale and Bedloe swore against the 
 Jesuits, so that the jury was soon determined in the verdict, 
 and condemned them ; but at their execution they did, with 
 the greatest solemnity and the deepest imprecations possible, 
 deny the whole evidence upon which they suffered, protesting 
 that they held no opinions either of the lawfulness of assas 
 sinating princes, or of the Pope's power to depose them, and 
 that they accounted all equivocation and lying for a good cause 
 odious and sinful. 
 
 Langhorne the lawyer was tried next, and to invalidate Oates's 
 deposition he made use of the St. Omer's scholars, but to no 
 purpose, for their testimony was blasted before. He insisted 
 on some contradictions in Oates's evidence at several trials. 
 He urged the reasonableness of his being seized and searched 
 at first, had such commissions been lodged with him as was 
 pretended, whereas he was let alone, and not so much as 
 named till six weeks after the first discovery. And in answer 
 to what Bedloe swore, viz., that he saw him enter some of 
 Coleman's treasonable letters (wherein mention was made of 
 killing the King) in a register, he showed the improbability 
 for a man of his great compass of business to be set to register 
 letters. But all this was of no use to him. He was cast ; and 
 though great pains were taken to persuade him to disclose what 
 he knew of the plot, and his execution upon that account was 
 delayed for some weeks, yet he protested he had no discovery 
 of that kind to make, and persisted in this to his death. He 
 died with great constancy of mind, and spent the time in which 
 his execution was respited in writing some devout and well- 
 composed meditations; for he was in all respects a very ex 
 traordinary man, learned and honest in his profession, but out 
 of measure bigoted in his religion. 
 
 Gavan, the Jesuit, had protested, at his late execution, that
 
 Charles II. Last Part 169 
 
 he never thought it lawful to murder kings, upon which one 
 Serjeant, a secular priest, who was always at enmity with the 
 Jesuits, but a very zealous Papist in his own way, appeared 
 before the Council upon security given, and averred that the 
 last time Gavan was in Flanders he said to a very devout man, 
 from whom Serjeant had it, that he thought the Queen might 
 lawfully take away the King's life for the injuries he had done 
 her, but much more because he was a heretic. But this being 
 a testimony only at second hand, it was not much considered ; 
 and in truth the building so much and shedding so much blood 
 upon what was the weakest part of the plot, the credit of the 
 witnesses, raised a general prejudice against it all, and took 
 away the force of what was incontestably true, viz., that the 
 whole party was contriving a change in religion, and trying to 
 effect it by foreign aid. 
 
 Wakeman, the Queen's physician, came next upon his trial. 
 Gates swore to his hand from a bill he saw him once write to 
 Ashby the Jesuit, then going to Bath, and wherein he advised 
 him to pump and make use of milk diet ; and he swore like 
 wise that he saw at another time a letter written by the same 
 hand, wherein he made mention of his zeal in the design of 
 killing the King. Bedloe deposed that he saw him receive a 
 bill of 2,000 from Harcourt, in part of a greater sum, and he 
 heard Harcourt tell him for what use and purpose it was given 
 him. Against Oates's evidence Wakeman proved that at first 
 he only accused him upon hearsay, and did solemnly protest 
 that he knew nothing personally against him, that the note 
 which he mentioned was not written by himself, but by his 
 servant, and that the pretended prescription of a milk diet was 
 a plain indication of a gross forgery, since nothing was so 
 inconsistent with Bath water as milk ; and against what Bedloe 
 averred he showed the great improbability of trusting himself 
 in such matters to such a person. 
 
 Three Benedictine priests were tried at the same time with 
 Wakeman, against whom Gates deposed that they were all in 
 the plot for killing the King, and that one of them, being their 
 superior, had engaged to give ^6,000 towards carrying it 
 on ; and Bedloe swore something circumstantial to the same 
 purpose against two of them, but he had nothing to charge the 
 third with. In opposition to this they proved that another 
 person had been their superior for several years ; that Gates 
 was never suffered to come within their house ; that the night 
 before he made his discovery, when he took Pickering out of 
 
 G 2
 
 170 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 his bed, he protested he had nothing to allege against them, 
 with many more things of the like nature, to destroy the truth 
 of what was attested ; so that when Scroggs came to sum up 
 the evidence, he, contrary to his former practice, did it very 
 favourably for the prisoners, and they were thereupon acquitted, 
 to the great discredit and mortification of the witnesses. 
 
 But it is time now to look back to Scotland. The party that 
 opposed Duke Lauderdale began to take heart upon this great 
 turn in England, were encouraged by the ministry to bring an 
 accusation against him, and had a solemn hearing upon it. 
 Mackenzie, the King's advocate, was sent for to defend the 
 administration, and Lockhart and Cunningham were to argue 
 against it. The latter had not Lockhart's quickness and talent 
 of speaking, but he was a learned and judicious man, and had 
 the most general, and, indeed, the most deserved reputation for 
 integrity and virtue of any man, not only of his own profession, 
 but of the whole nation. They made out beyond the possi 
 bility of an answer many sore grievances in the administration, 
 and particularly that commissions given to an army to live on 
 free quarter in a time of peace was against the whole constitu 
 tion as well as express laws of the kingdom. But this did not 
 move the King, nor change his sentiments of Lord Lauderdale, 
 though the very notion of calling the King's Commissioner to 
 an account was a triumph to his adversaries, and set the people 
 who ran about with the field conventicles, and had found the 
 weight of his indignation, into a kind of frenzy. 
 
 As the Archbishop of St. Andrews was going home from the 
 Council one day, and had sent his servants some one way and 
 some another, so that there were no horsemen about the coach, 
 a party of these furious men came upon him, and because they 
 found him unattended, they, in their mad enthusiastic notions, 
 concluded that God now had delivered their greatest enemy 
 into their hand, whereupon seven of them rode up to the 
 coach, one firing a pistol at him, which burnt his gown, but did 
 not go into his body. They fancied that he had some magical 
 secret to secure him against shot, and so, dragging him out of 
 his coach, and with many repeated stabs, murdered him bar 
 barously. This was the dismal end of that unhappy man. It 
 struck terror into all people, and softened his enemies into 
 some tenderness and commiseration ; so that those who had no 
 respect for him during his life were concerned for his end, and 
 treated his memory with decency ever after.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 171 
 
 But their fury did not end here, for about a week after this 
 there was a great field conventicle held within ten miles of 
 Glasgow, where a body of the guards that was sent to disperse 
 them was repulsed, and, with the loss of thirty of their number, 
 forced to retire. The people, flushed with this success, marched 
 directly to Glasgow, where their numbers were so magnified 
 that a company or two of the King's forces quitted the place 
 at their approach, and the Earl of Linlithgow, who was sent 
 with a thousand foot, two hundred horse, and two hundred 
 dragoons against them (upon intelligence that they were now 
 above eight thousand strong), retired, as not daring to venture 
 the King's forces upon such an inequality ; but this he was 
 rather thought to do at Lord Lauderdale's instigation, on pur 
 pose to give the rebels time to increase to such a number, and 
 to proceed to such a pitch of madness, as might justify the 
 violences of his administration. This certainly was the effect 
 of his retreat that the rebels, now seeing themselves become 
 formidable, and the country left to their discretion, began to 
 fancy that their numbers would increase apace, and therefore 
 published a sort of manifesto, wherein they complained of 
 the oppressions they, lay under, asserted the obligation of 
 the Covenant, and concluded with a demand of a free 
 Parliament. 
 
 After such an affront as this the King was resolved to lose 
 no time, but sent down the Duke of Monmouth post, with full 
 powers to command in chief, and directions to some troops 
 that lay in the north of England to march upon his orders ; 
 and positive instructions were sent down after him not to treat 
 with the rebels, but fall on them immediately. Upon the 
 Duke's approach, they sent some of their people to treat with 
 him, but his answer was that he had no such commission, only 
 if they would lay down their arms, and cast themselves upon 
 the King's mercy, he would endeavour to interpose for their 
 pardon. But such was their infatuation that they had neither 
 grace to submit nor courage to fight. The bridge l that was 
 over the Clyde was a pass that every one believed they intended 
 to dispute, but instead of that they stood looking on, like men 
 who had lost their senses, till the Duke made himself master of 
 it, and upon the first charge threw down their arms and ran 
 away. The Duke stopped the execution his men were making 
 as soon as he could, which was afterwards objected to him as a 
 
 1 Called Bothwell Bridge, not far from Hamilton, where the rebels fixed, 
 and from whence the action had its denomination.
 
 172 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 violation of the King's injunction. But he could not, he said, 
 kill men in cold blood ; that was the work of a butcher, as 
 the action, indeed, was bloody enough, for there were between 
 two and three hundred men killed, and twelve hundred taken 
 prisoners. 
 
 The Duke came to Court as soon as he had settled matters, 
 sent home the militia, put the troops under discipline, and 
 restored tranquillity in the country ; and he then moved the 
 King to grant an Act of Indemnity for what was past, and a 
 liberty to hold meetings 1 by licence or connivance for the 
 future. But the Act of Indemnity was so drawn up that it 
 least of all favoured those for whom it was principally intended. 
 All preachers, gentlemen, and officers were excepted out of it, 
 so that two of their chief preachers were hanged, to deter 
 others. Two hundred of the prisoners were sent to Virginia, 
 but cast away at sea ; the rest were let go upon signing a 
 bond to keep the peace ; and in this manner that wild and 
 tumultuary rebellion ended. 
 
 Not long after this the King was taken ill at Windsor of an 
 intermittent fever, and the fits were so long and so severe that 
 the physicians began to apprehend theje was some danger. 
 This made him order the Duke to be sent for, but with great 
 secrecy. The danger, however, was over before the Duke 
 arrived, and when the King enjoined him to return again, he 
 refused not to comply, on this condition that the Duke of 
 Monmouth, whom he had reason to suspect of ambitious views, 
 should be put out of all command, and equally ordered to go 
 beyond sea. And the Duke of Monmouth's friends advised 
 him to comply with this, as a sure way to raise his interest in 
 the nation, for that the Parliament, they said, would without 
 doubt address the King for his recall upon their first meeting. 
 But, to prevent this, the Duke of York had prevailed with the 
 King not to call a Parliament that winter, in hopes that the 
 heat of the nation would, by the help of time, grow cooler, and 
 the party that now began to declare for the right of succession 
 gain strength. Thus both the Dukes were sent abroad, and so 
 that enmity, which before was hid in complaisance and court 
 civility, broke out openly, and appeared without disguise. 
 
 The party that began to be made for the Duke of York were 
 now endeavouring to foment jealousies everywhere. They* 
 
 1 Meetings were, by the King's order, opened for awhile ; but upon the 
 Duke of Monmouth's disgrace that order was recalled, and they were 
 immediately shut up again.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 173 
 
 pretended, and sent advertisements thereof to the chief of the 
 ministry, that on a day when the Common Hall was to meet 
 in the City a design was laid to seize on the Tower and do all 
 such violences as attend a popular fury ; but that day passed 
 without disturbance, or the least appearance of any other 
 design besides the business for which the Hall was summoned. 
 And now a whisper ran about that an extraordinary thing 
 would quickly break out, which would carry off the plot from 
 the Papists, and cast it upon the contrary party. For one 
 Dangerfield, a subtle and dangerous man, who had gone 
 through all the shapes and practices of roguery, and in par 
 ticular was a false coiner, undertook now to coin a plot for the 
 benefit of the Papists. He was in gaol for debt, and in an ill 
 intrigue with one Cellier, a Popish midwife, a woman of wit, 
 but abandoned to lewdness, who took him out of prison and 
 carried him to the Countess of Powys, with whom it was con 
 cluded that he should engage others with himself to swear that 
 commissions had been offered them to assist in the subversion 
 of the Government, which was to be totally changed, and the 
 King and royal family sent away. 
 
 To countenance this fiction, he had placed in a dark corner 
 of one Colonel Mansel's room a bundle of seditious but ill- 
 contrived letters, which was afterwards found by some searchers 
 sent from the Custom House, pretending to look for forbidden 
 goods. But the letters, upon examination, were so palpably 
 counterfeit, that inquiry was made into the forgery ; and at one 
 of Dangerfield's haunts a paper was found in a meal-tub (which 
 thence gave a name to the plot) containing a scheme of the 
 whole contrivance, which Dangerfield upon his commitment 
 made a full confession of. The Earls of Essex and Halifax 
 were set down among others to be sworn against, and upon this 
 they pressed the King with much vehemence to call a Parlia 
 ment immediately. But he refusing to do that, for fear that 
 men's minds should be exasperated by this new discovery, Lord 
 Essex left the Treasury, and Lord Halifax soon after fell into 
 such a melancholy and dejection of spirit, that, though he *vas 
 offered to be made Secretary of State, he refused it, and with 
 drew for some time from public business. 
 
 Upon the Duke of Monmouth's removal beyond sea, the 
 nobility in Scotland were apprehensive that Lord Lauderdale 
 would be continued in his posts, and act over again his former 
 extravagances, and therefore they got it moved to the King 
 that it would be more honourable and more for the Duke of
 
 174 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 York's interest to live in Scotland than to live abroad, for they 
 thought that this would put a stop to Lord Lauderdale's 
 coming down, as well as give the Duke a handsome opportu 
 nity of making himself acceptable to the nation. The motion 
 pleased the King, and the Duke was appointed to come over 
 and meet him at Newmarket in October ; which when Lord 
 Shaftesbury knew, he called a Council at Whitehall, and laid 
 before them the danger the King was in by having the Duke so 
 near him, and pressed them to represent this to him. But they 
 did not agree to do it, and he, when the King came home, was 
 turned out, and Lord Roberts, then made Earl of Radnor, 
 a morose man, but severely just, and as wise as his cynical 
 humour could allow him to be, was made Lord President in 
 his stead. 
 
 The Duke went to Scotland soon after, and upon that the 
 Duke of Monmouth grew impatient, and begged the King's 
 leave to return ; but when he saw no hope of obtaining it, he 
 came over without leave, and gave himself fatally up to Lord 
 Shaftesbury's conduct, who encouraged him to disobey the King 
 requiring him to go back again, and to run into all the methods 
 imaginable to make himself popular. For it was by his insti 
 gation that he went round many parts of England, under the 
 pretence of hunting and horse-matches, to show himself to 
 the people ; and by his procurement that petitions for a Par 
 liament were set on foot, in order to secure the King's person 
 and the Protestant religion, all which was bad policy. It 
 showed the weakness of the party, and made many well- 
 meaning men suspect that an alteration in government was 
 really intended, especially when a proclamation was published 
 against them, and counter-petitions were promoted by the Court, 
 and signed by much greater numbers, expressing an abhorrence 
 of all seditious practices, and referring the time of calling a Par 
 liament wholly to the King. 
 
 The worst effect of these movements against the King was, 
 that they obliged him to declare in favour of the Duke, and 
 fixed his resolutions of passing the winter without a Parlia 
 ment, which made some of the new councillors 1 request to be 
 excused from their attendance in Council, and several who had 
 been put in the Admiralty and other commissions desire to be 
 dismissed, by which means the whole weight of the adminis 
 tration fell upon the Earl of Sunderland, Lord Hyde, and Lord 
 Godolphin. 
 
 1 The Lords Russell and Cavendish, Sir Henry Capel, and Mr. Powel.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 175 
 
 The last of these was a younger brother of an ancient family 
 in Cornwall, who had been bred about the King for a page, and 
 was now accounted one of the ablest men in the Court, as he 
 was the most modest and silent man that perhaps was ever bred 
 in one. He had a clear apprehension, and dispatched business 
 with great temper and method. But for a man of business he 
 was a great gamester, only he gave this reason for it that it 
 delivered him from the obligation of talking much. His 
 notions were for the Court, but his true principles of religion 
 and virtue, his behaviour free from pride and vanity, his con 
 tempt of wealth, and incorrupt and sincere way of managing 
 the concerns of the Treasury, created in all people a very high 
 esteem of him, and entitled him to the confidence of four 
 succeeding princes. 
 
 There was in this year at midsummer a new practice begun 
 in the City that produced very ill consequences. The shrievalty 
 of London and Middlesex is, by its charter, in the City ; and 
 when the day of election came, the common method was for 
 the Lord Mayor to name one of the sheriffs by drinking to 
 him on a public occasion, which nomination was first confirmed 
 by the Common Hall, and then they proceeded to the choice of 
 another. The office of a sheriff was very expensive. Men 
 usually in that post lived up to the rate of ^5,000 a year, so 
 that the City's first care was to find out men who would bear 
 the charge of it without compounding the matter (as the 
 custom was) for ^400 fine. All juries were returned by the 
 sheriffs, but that was commonly left to their under-sheriffs, 
 who were generally attorneys, and might be brought under the 
 management of the Court. So now it was thought proper that 
 the sheriffs should be chosen with a little more care, and not 
 so much to keep good tables as return good juries. The 
 person whom the Mayor drank to was set aside, and Bethel 
 and Cornish were chosen sheriffs for the ensuing year, both 
 Independents and Republicans in principle, and Bethel par 
 ticularly obnoxious for some indecent expressions he was said 
 to make use of, approving the late King's death. So that the 
 Court looked on this with a jealous eye, as done on design 
 to pack juries, in order to screen the party in all prosecutions, 
 and to debar the King in all his pretensions from common 
 justice. 
 
 The Duke came to England in the spring, and continued 
 about the King till near the winter, when he returned into 
 Scotland again, and the Parliament sat, and went once more
 
 176 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 upon the Bill of Exclusion. Lord Russell moved it first in 
 the House of Commons, and was seconded by several of the 
 most eminent speakers. The chief manager for the Court was 
 Jenkins, now made Secretary of State in Coventry's place. 
 He was a man of exemplary life, and considerably learned, but 
 dull and slow ; unjustly suspected of an inclination to Popery, 
 though exact in every punctilio of the Church of England 
 even to superstition ; a friend to the prerogative, and a great 
 assertor of the Divine right of monarchy ; so that his speeches 
 and arguments against the exclusion were heard with indigna 
 tion, and a bill was brought in and passed the House, and 
 carried up to the Lords for their concurrence. The Earls of 
 Shaftesbury and Essex argued most for it, and the Earl of 
 Halifax was the champion on the other side. He gained 
 great honour in the debate, and in the opinion of the whole 
 House had a manifest superiority over Lord Shaftesbury, 
 which to him was triumph enough, though he enraged the 
 House of Commons by it to that degree that they voted an 
 address to the King to remove him from his councils and pre 
 sence for ever, on pretence that he had advised the dissolution 
 of the last Parliament, but in reality because he had destroyed 
 their bill. 
 
 The King of France, since his successes in the Netherlands, 
 had set up a Court at Metz, in which many princes, under the 
 pretence of dependencies and other old titles, were judged to 
 belong to the new French conquest. Hereupon the Prince of 
 Orange projected an alliance against France : most of the 
 German princes were ready to come into it, and the King 
 pretended a disposition to do the same as soon as matters could 
 be well adjusted at home. And to that purpose he sent many 
 messages to the House of Commons, pressing for a supply 
 both for the relief of Tangier, then in danger from the King 
 of Fez, and for enabling him to enter into alliances necessary 
 for the common preservation. But, instead of an answer, the 
 House returned him a long representation of the danger that 
 both he and they were in, with assurances to do everything 
 for him that he could desire as soon as they were sufficiently, 
 secured. They then went on to renew their addresses against 
 the Earl of Halifax, and to request the dismission of several 
 other lords from his service, as persons inclined to Popery. 
 They impeached some judges for illegal charges and judgments, 
 and Seymour for corruption and maladministration in the 
 treasury of the navy. They impeached Scroggs for high treason ;
 
 Charles II. Last Part 177 
 
 but what was alleged against him amounting to no more than 
 misdemeanours, the Lords rejected the impeachment. They 
 asserted the people's right to petition for a Parliament, and, 
 because some in their counter-petitions had expressed an 
 abhorrence of this practice, they voted all such abhorrers betrayers 
 of the liberties of the nation. They voted all anticipations on 
 the public revenue contrary to law, and that whosoever lent his 
 money on the credit of these anticipations was a public enemy 
 to the kingdom ; and proceeded at last to an association, in 
 imitation of that in Queen Elizabeth's time, for revenging the 
 King's death upon all Papists, if he should happen to be killed. 
 But all these were the extravagances of resentment and high 
 indignation, and not so consistent with the prudence of a 
 legislature. 
 
 After the rejection of the Bill of Exclusion, Lord Halifax 
 pressed the House to go on to limitations ; but the Duke's 
 friends abhorred the motion, and Lord Shaftesbury's party 
 laughed at it ; and when it was proposed in the House to enter 
 into an association to maintain such expedients as should be 
 thought proper, and have some cautionary towns put into the 
 hands of the associators during the King's life, to make them 
 good after his death, this was thought too dangerous an 
 invasion of the prerogative to be insisted on, and gave the 
 King umbrage to think that he himself was levelled at chiefly, 
 though for decency's sake his brother was only named. 
 
 The Duchess of Portsmouth acted a very odd part all this 
 while, but the reason of her acting so was not so visible. She 
 went in heartily with the Commons as to the matter of exclu 
 sion, and promised her best endeavours to induce the King to 
 a compliance ; and for this service it was proposed that, if she 
 could bring the King to that, and to some other popular things, 
 the Parliament would go next to prepare a bill for securing his 
 person, and for empowering him to declare his successor to the 
 crown, as had been done in Henry VIII. 's time ; that she con 
 sequently, having such an ascendant over his affections, might 
 probably induce him to declare her son his successor. And 
 the thing was once carried so far, that for ^800,000, which was 
 afterwards brought down to ^600,000, the King consented to 
 it ; but the Parliament and he were so diffident of each other, 
 that they would not part with the money till he had passed 
 the act, nor would he pass the act till they had given him the 
 money. The King, however, reconciled the Duke to the 
 Duchess of Portsmouth's conduct in all this by pretending that
 
 178 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 she did it by his order, to sift into the designs of the party and 
 to defeat the limitations, which the Duke dreaded, by pretend 
 ing a zeal for the exclusion, which the King was resolved should 
 never pass. 
 
 The other great business of this Parliament was the trial of 
 the Viscount Stafford, younger son of the old Earl of Arundel, 
 and uncle to the Duke of Norfolk, a weak but fair-conditioned 
 man, and who in his younger days had run into great vices, 
 that had almost proved fatal to him. He was on ill terms 
 with his nephew's family, not gracious with the King, and of 
 small consideration with the Duke; so that his fall may be 
 ascribed not so much to his guilt as his want of friends to 
 support him. His trial was pompous ; it continued for five 
 days, and the Earl of Nottingham was High Steward. On the 
 first day the Commons brought only general evidence to prove 
 the reality of the plot, to which he said not much, only he 
 mentioned the solemn protestations of innocence wherewith 
 all the prisoners hitherto had died, and his own sentiments 
 concerning the illegality of the Pope's power to depose princes. 
 
 On the second day they brought in their evidence to prove 
 him guilty. Bedloe died the summer before at Bristol, but it 
 being then the time of assizes, he sent for North, Lord Chief 
 Justice of the Common Pleas, and confirmed upon oath all 
 that he had sworn formerly, except what related to the Queen 
 and the Duke, which retraction had an appearance of sincerity, 
 and made his confirmation have more weight. Gates deposed 
 that Lord Stafford had a patent to be paymaster-general to the 
 army ; Dugdale swore that he had offered him ^500 to kill 
 the King ; and Turberville in like manner deposed that he had 
 begun the same proposition to him in Paris in '75, had taken 
 much pains to persuade him to it, and had sent him over to 
 England by way of Dieppe, himself intending to come that 
 way, but afterwards sent word that he was to go by Calais. 
 
 On the third day he brought his evidence to discredit the 
 witnesses. Gates, he said, had acknowledged that he had gone 
 in among them on purpose to betray them ; so that he had 
 been for some years taking oaths and receiving sacraments in 
 so treacherous a manner, that no credit could be given to a man 
 who was so black by his own confession. Dugdale he proved 
 had never been in his chamber but once, while he was at Lord 
 Aston's, and that on all times he had sworn to he was not at 
 Lord Aston's, but either at Bath or Badminton. And whereas 
 Turberville had said he was then in a fit of the gout when he
 
 Charles II. Last Part 179 
 
 made him the above proposition, he proved that he never had a 
 fit of the gout in his life ; that he did not intend to come by 
 Dieppe, but had sent for a yacht to meet him at Calais ; that 
 since his coming to England Turberville had never once been 
 with him, but was often heard to say that he was minded to 
 turn evidence, because he saw nobody live so well as they. 
 
 On the fourth day proofs were brought in to support the 
 evidence, and it was made appear that Dugdale had served the 
 Lord Aston long and with great reputation, that he had been 
 very frequently in Lord Stafford's company, that the news 
 about Godfrey's death was what 'he had reported, and that one 
 of the witnesses brought against him was, to Lord Stafford's 
 knowledge, scandalous in all respects. Turberville described 
 both the room and street in Paris wherein he saw Lord Staf 
 ford ; he produced a witness who saw him at Dieppe, and 
 heard him complain of a certain lord who had disappointed him, 
 and proved by several that Lord Stafford was often lame, which 
 he might reasonably enough mistake for the gout. 
 
 On the fifth day Stafford resumed all his evidence, and 
 urged every particular very strongly. Jones, in the name of 
 the Commons, did the same against him with great force ; and 
 though he thought it convenient to drop Gates, because the 
 objection against him was unanswerable, yet he made it very 
 clear that Dugdale and Turberville were two good witnesses, not 
 at all discredited by anything that was brought against them. 
 When it came to the vote, above fifty of the peers, among whom 
 were four Howards, his kinsmen, condemned him, and above 
 thirty acquitted him. His behaviour during the whole trial and 
 at the receiving his sentence was with more constancy than was 
 expected from him. He supped and slept all the night before 
 his execution, and when he came to die he had no signs of fear 
 or disorder upon him, but went out of life very composedly, 
 denying to the last all that the witnesses had sworn against 
 him. 
 
 Lord Stafford's death put a period to all further prosecution 
 of the plot ; and not long after, when the King saw there was 
 no hope of prevailing with the Commons without granting 
 the exclusion, he first prorogued and then dissolved the Parlia 
 ment. But the morning before their prorogation two votes 
 were carried in the House of Commons of a very extraordinary 
 nature. The one was, " That the laws made against recusants 
 ought not to be executed against any but those of the Church 
 of Rome ; " and the other, " That it was the opinion of the
 
 180 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 House that the laws against Dissenters ought not to be put in 
 execution." This was thought so great an invasion of the 
 legislature, when one House pretended to suspend the execution 
 of laws and to dictate to courts and juries how they were to 
 proceed, that instead of being a kindness to the Nonconformists, 
 it raised a new storm against them all over the nation. 
 
 The King was resolved to try a Parliament once more, 
 and because he imagined that they were encouraged, if not 
 inflamed, by the City of London, he summoned the next to meet 
 at Oxford. Elections, however, went generally in the country 
 for the members who had served before, and in some places it 
 was given as an instruction not to recede from the Bill of 
 Exclusion. 
 
 The press in the meantime was very licentious, and though 
 several printers were indicted for scandalous libels upon the 
 Government, yet the grand juries were so packed that they 
 always returned an Ignoramus upon the bills against them. 
 
 One Fitzharris, an Irish Papist, was taken up, a little before 
 the Oxford Parliament met, for framing a malicious and trea 
 sonable libel against the King and his whole family. Cornish 
 the sheriff went to see him, and because he desired to have a 
 justice brought to him (for he pretended to make a discovery of 
 the plot far beyond all that was yet known), Cornish acquainted 
 the King with it, and the King sent the two secretaries, 
 with some Privy Councillors, to take his examination, which 
 consisted of a long relation of a practice to kill the King, 
 wherein the Duke was concerned, with many more particulars 
 needless to be mentioned, because they were all fictions. He 
 still persisted in his desire to have some justice of the City 
 brought to him, so Clayton and Treby went, and to them he 
 made the same pretended discovery ; but seeming in this to 
 distrust the King's ministers, he was soon removed to the 
 Tower, which the Court resolved to make the prison for all 
 offenders till sheriffs could be chosen more agreeable to the 
 King's mind. 
 
 In March the King opened the Parliament at Oxford with 
 some severe reflections on their former proceedings. He was 
 resolved, he said, to maintain the succession of the crown in 
 the right line, but for quieting his people's fears he was willing 
 to put the administration of the Government into Protestant 
 hands, which was generally understood of a prince regent, 
 with whom the regal prerogative was to be lodged during the 
 Duke's life. The expedient was debated for some time, but it
 
 Charles II. Last Part 181 
 
 being thought contrary to law to separate the prerogative from 
 the person of the King, and introductive of a civil war to set 
 up two rival powers in one nation, the proposition was rejected, 
 to the joy of the Duke's party, who dreaded this expedient most 
 of all, and a resolution was taken to go again to the Bill of 
 Exclusion. The Commons resolved likewise to take the manage 
 ment of Fitzharris's affair out of the hands of the Court. 
 They therefore carried an impeachment to the bar of the House 
 of Lords against him, and upon its being rejected, passed a 
 furious vote that justice was denied them by the Lords, and 
 that all those who concurred in trying Fitzharris in any other 
 court were betrayers of the liberties of their country. 
 
 By these steps the King foresaw what might be expected 
 from them, and therefore coming to the House of Lords, he put 
 on his robes in haste, and calling up the Commons, he dissolved 
 the Parliament without any previous notice, and departed 
 instantly to Windsor. 
 
 Soon after this the King published a Declaration for the 
 satisfaction of his people, in which he reckoned all the hard 
 things that had been done by the last three Parliaments, and 
 set out their undutiful behaviour in many instances; yet in 
 conclusion he assured his good subjects that nothing should 
 ever alter his affection to the Protestant religion, as established 
 by law, nor his love to Parliaments ; and when this Declaration 
 passed in Council, the Archbishop of Canterbury moved that 
 an order might be added to it, requiring the clergy to publish 
 it in all the churches of England. The Declaration was 
 answered with spirit and judgment enough in a paper penned by 
 Sidney, revised by Somers, and corrected by Jones ; but it had 
 no great effect, whereas the Declaration raised over England 
 a humour of making addresses to the King, as it were in 
 answer to. it. The grand juries and bench of justices, the cities 
 and boroughs, the franchises and corporations, many manors 
 and companies in towns, and at last the very apprentices, sent 
 up addresses, some in a modest strain, expressing their joy at 
 the assurances they saw in the King's Declaration, and dedicat 
 ing thereupon their lives and fortunes to his service ; others in 
 a higher tone, arraigning the late Parliament as guilty of 
 sedition and treason, reflecting severely on the Nonconformists, 
 and desiring the laws to be put in execution against them ; but 
 the greater number, and the most acceptable, were such as 
 declared they would adhere to the succession of the crown in 
 the lineal descent, and condemned the exclusion with some
 
 1 82 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 bitterness. These addresses were high panegyrics upon the 
 King's person and government Those who brought them 
 up were usually knighted and well treated at Court. Many 
 zealous healths were drunk among them, and in their cups the 
 old valour and swaggerings of the Cavaliers seemed to be 
 revived again. 
 
 The clergy on this occasion carried matters higher still. 
 They cried up the Duke's succession, as if a Popish king had 
 been a special blessing of Providence, and gave themselves a 
 loose against Nonconformists, as if there were no other danger 
 but from that quarter. The apprehensions of Popery were 
 quite forgotten in their sermons, and the whole bent of their 
 zeal turned against Dissenters, who were now to be proceeded 
 against according to law; and to promote this, pamphlets of 
 all sorts were sent into the country to expose them and decry 
 the late Parliament, commissions of all kinds were everywhere 
 altered, nor was there one left on the bench or in the militia 
 who did not come heartily into the measures of the Court. 
 
 At this time the encouragement given in England to good 
 swearers brought over some lewd Irish priests, and others of 
 that nation, who thought themselves well qualified for that 
 employment. Plunkett, the Popish Primate of Armagh, a wise 
 and sober man, and who was for living quietly and in due sub 
 mission to the Government, without engaging in the intrigues 
 of State, had censured some of these priests for their vicious- 
 ness, and they drew in others to swear that there was a plot in 
 Ireland to bring over the French and massacre all the English, 
 and that Plunkett had a great bank of money prepared, and an 
 army listed to assist in the design. He had nothing to say in 
 his own defence but to deny all, so that he was condemned, 
 and suffered very decently, expressing himself in many particu 
 lars as became a bishop, and denying everything thaUhad been 
 sworn against him with his last breath. 
 
 Scroggs was at this time turned out, and Pemberton made 
 Chief Justice. In his youth he had mixed with such lewd 
 company that he quickly spent all he had, and ran so deep in 
 debt that he was cast into prison, where he lay many years ; 
 but he followed his studies so closely there, that he became 
 one of the most able men of his profession. He had been a 
 judge before, but turned out by Scroggs's means, and being not 
 entirely compliant, was turned out a second time, when the 
 Court would be served by none but men of thorough-paced 
 obsequiousness. When Fitzharris came before him, he pleaded
 
 Charles II. Last Part 183 
 
 the impeachment in Parliament, but that being overruled, the 
 proof against him was so full that he was cast. When he saw 
 no hopes, he said that Lord Howard, with whom he had some 
 familiarity, was the author of the libel for which he was con 
 demned ; but the paper was so ill penned, and so little disguised 
 in the treasonable part, that it appeared plainly the work of a 
 much meaner hand. Lord Howard, however, was committed 
 upon it, but when the bill against him was brought to the 
 grand jury, Fitzharris's wife and maid, who were the evidence, 
 so grossly forswore themselves, that the Attorney-General 
 thought fit to withdraw it, and Fitzharris, when he came to die, 
 disavowed all his former discovery, and laid it on the sheriffs 
 and two justices as a subornation of theirs, though it was 
 manifestly impossible for that to be true. 
 
 Not long after this, Dugdale, Turberville, Smith, and the 
 Irish witnesses came under another management, and dis 
 covered a plot to be executed at Oxford, wherein the King was 
 to be killed and the Government changed. One College, a 
 joiner by trade, an active and hot man, and who came to be 
 known by the name of the Protestant Joiner, was apprehended 
 on this account. He had spoken often with great indecency 
 of the King, and in his manner threatened that they would 
 make him pass the Bill of Exclusion ; but his design of seizing 
 on the King was so notorious a falsehood that the grand jury 
 returned Ignoramus. The witnesses, however, deposed that he 
 went down to Oxford upon that design, and so he was carried 
 thither to be tried. The evidences swore positively against 
 him. College endeavoured to show how little credit was due 
 to their testimony ; but that would not do, so he was condemned, 
 and suffered with great constancy and appearance of devotion, 
 denying his knowledge of any plot, and protesting his innocence 
 of any ill design against the King, though the heat of his 
 temper might have carried him oftentimes into some undutiful 
 expressions against him. 
 
 In attempting to invalidate Dugdale's credit, College objected 
 to him that when by his lewdness he had become diseased, 
 he, to cover that, gave it out that he was poisoned by the 
 Papists ; upon which he protested solemnly he never had 
 become diseased, and that if it could be proved against him he 
 was content all the evidence he had ever given should be dis 
 credited for ever. And he was taken at his word; for Dr. 
 Lower, then the most noted physician in London, proved, both 
 by his bills and by the apothecary who served him, that he had
 
 184 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 been under his hands for the cure of that disease ; and so he 
 never appeared as an evidence any more. 
 
 The Earl of Shaftesbury, who had been a very busy man, 
 and drove on with great fury in the prosecution of the former 
 plot, was now committed and sent to the Tower upon the 
 evidence of Turberville and the Irish witnesses. His papers 
 were at the same time seized, but there was nothing material 
 found among them except a draft of an association, by which 
 the King, if it had taken place, would have reigned only at the 
 discretion of the party, but it was neither written nor marked 
 in any place with his own hand, nor was there any witness but 
 one to attest its being found upon him ; so that when an 
 indictment was presented to the grand jury against him, though 
 the witnesses swore many strange things, mixed with other 
 matters that looked like his extravagant way of talking, and 
 though the copy of the association was brought in confirmation 
 of his treason, yet the jury returned Ignoramus upon the bill, 
 which enraged the Court highly. And upon this a new set of 
 addresses went round the kingdom, expressing an abhorrence of 
 associations, and complaining that justice was denied the King ; 
 whereupon a dispute arose, What sort of evidence, whether 
 real and true, or only slight and probable, was sufficient to 
 authorise a jury to make their presentments ? and Lord Somers 
 upon the argument wrote a very judicious book in the defence 
 of these Ignoramus juries. 
 
 In a few days after Lord Shaftesbury's trial Turberville was 
 taken with the small-pox, and the symptoms were so bad upon 
 him that the physician told him he had no hopes of his 
 recovery. Upon this he composed himself to die, and sent for 
 Mr. Hewes, the curate of St. Martin's, a grave and worthy 
 man, to prepare him for it. Hewes charged him to examine 
 himself, and if he had sworn falsely against any man, to con 
 fess his sin and glorify God, though it were to his own shame. 
 But he protested, both in his discourse and when he received 
 the sacrament, that he had sworn nothing but the truth in what 
 he had deposed both against Lord Stafford and the Earl of 
 Shaftesbury, and renounced the mercies of God and the benefits 
 of Christ's death if he did not speak the plain and naked truth, 
 without any reservation. His understanding and memory were 
 all along perfect ; his sense of another state, and of the account 
 he was to give to God for his past life, real and undissembled ; 
 and yet he continued in this mind, and with these declarations
 
 Charles II. Last Part 185 
 
 in his mouth, to the last. And Tongue, who first brought out 
 Gates, dying about a year before this, protested to all who came 
 to see him that he knew of no subornation in the whole matter, 
 nor was he himself guilty of any ; so that what to think in this 
 case we cannot tell. Here are the last words of dying men 
 against the last words of those who suffered ; and in this mist 
 of incertitude must matters be left till the great revelation of 
 all secrets. And so we pass on to observe how affairs were 
 managed in Scotland during the great disorders here. 
 
 The Duke of York, upon his first coming to Scotland, be 
 haved himself in so obliging a manner that the nobility and 
 gentry, who had been long trodden on by the Duke of Lauder- 
 dale and his party, found a sensible alteration. He persuaded 
 the bishops to proceed moderately, he showed in matters of 
 justice an impartial temper, and encouraged all propositions 
 relating to trade ; by which means he overcame the prejudices 
 conceived against him, and, considering the aversion that nation 
 had to his religion, made a greater progress in their affections 
 than was expected. 
 
 The Duke, being thus universally esteemed for his prudent 
 administration, was advised to hold a Parliament in the summer 
 of 1 68 1, and to take the character of the King's Commissioner 
 upon himself ; but, before that time came, a strange spirit of 
 infatuation seized on a company of Presbyterians, who were 
 called Cargillites, from one Cargill, once a minister of Glasgow, 
 and then of no great repute, but now much followed, to the 
 great reproach of the nation. 
 
 Their opinion was that the King had forfeited his right by 
 breaking the covenant he had sworn at his coronation ; and 
 therefore in a formal declaration they renounced all allegiance 
 to him, and affixed the same to the Cross of Dumfries. The 
 guards fell upon a party of them whom they found in arms, 
 when Cameron, one of their furious teachers (from whom they 
 were also called Cameronians), was killed ; but Hackston, who 
 was one of Archbishop Sharp's murderers, and Cargill were 
 taken. Hackston, when brought before the Council, would not 
 own their authority ; so he was summarily condemned to have 
 his hands cut off, and then to be hanged. He suffered this 
 with amazing constancy, and seemed to be all the while in an 
 enthusiastic rapture, and insensible of what was done to him ; 
 for when his hands were cut off, he asked, like one unconcerned, 
 if his feet were to be cut off too, and when his heart was cut
 
 1 86 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 out, notwithstanding his great effusion of blood, it continued 
 for some time to palpitate after it was on the hangman's knife. 
 Cargill and many others of that mad sect suffered with so 
 particular an obstinacy, that though the Duke sent them a 
 pardon on the scaffold if they would only say " God bless the 
 King," yet they refused it with neglect. One of them, a 
 woman, said very calmly she was sure God would never bless 
 him, and therefore she would not take God's name in vain ; 
 and another said more sullenly that she would not worship that 
 idol, nor acknowledge any other king but Christ. About fifteen 
 or sixteen died under this delusion, and then the Duke ordered 
 a stop to be put to their prosecution, and the rest to be sent to 
 a house of correction, and put to hard labour, as the only way 
 to settle their distracted brains. 
 
 When the time of the sitting of the Parliament came, the first 
 act that passed was for the confirmation of all the laws formerly 
 made against Popery, which seemed a good popular thing to 
 begin with ; the second was for the unalterableness of the suc 
 cession of the crown, which passed without one contradictory 
 vote ; the next for an additional revenue for some years to keep 
 up more forces ; and another for the regulation of the courts of 
 the Lords of Regalities, and for subjecting them to superior 
 judicatories ; but the words of this act were so penned that 
 they devolved all the justice and property of the nation into 
 the King's will and pleasure, and instead of appeals to other 
 courts, made everything end in a personal appeal to him. 
 
 While the public business was thus going on, one stood up 
 in Parliament, and accused Lord Halton, Duke I^auderdale's 
 brother, of perjury, because he had sworn at Mitchell's trial 
 that there was no promise of a pardon made him, and yet, 
 according to his own letters to the Earl of Kincardine, there was 
 express mention made of his pardon. The matter was plain 
 upon inspecting the letters, nor was the Duke sorry to have 
 Lord Lauderdale and his brother thus at mercy; but instead 
 of determining the matter in a parliamentary way, he moved 
 that it might be referred to the King, which was readily agreed 
 to, and so no censure was ever put upon that base action. The 
 Lord Bargeny, brother to Duke Hamilton, had been put in 
 prison, as concerned in the rebellion of Bothwell Bridge, and 
 after several appointments for his trial, was at last discharged 
 without having one thing objected to him. He made an inquiry 
 afterwards into the reason of that procedure, and found that 
 Lord Halton and some others had been tampering with some
 
 Charles II. Last Part 187 
 
 people to turn evidence against him, had prepared them depo 
 sitions in form, and promised them a large share of the con 
 fiscated estates if they went through in the business, but that 
 still, as the day of his trial drew near, these people's hearts 
 misgave them, and so they did not proceed. Lord Bargeny had 
 full proofs of all this ready to be offered, but the Duke prevailed 
 to have this likewise referred to the King, and so it was never 
 heard of, which was no great instance of the Duke's zeal for 
 justice, since, by pretending to refer matters to the King, where 
 he knew they would never be inquired into, he stopped the course 
 of parliamentary proceedings, and gave a shelter and impunity 
 to perjury and subornation. 
 
 In the beginning of the Parliament it had been promised 
 that as soon as an act for maintaining the succession was 
 passed, all imaginable security should be given for the Pro 
 testant religion, and many zealous men began now to require 
 an execution of that promise ; whereupon a test was proposed, 
 "for all that should be capable of any office in Church or 
 State, or of electing or being elected members of Parliament, 
 that they should adhere firmly to the Protestant religion." 
 But then the Court party threw in additional clauses renouncing 
 the Covenant, condemning all resistance under any pretence 
 whatever, and expressing an obligation to defend all the King's 
 rights and prerogatives ; to treat of no matter, civil or ecclesi 
 astical, but by his permission ; never to endeavour any altera 
 tion in the government of Church or State ; and to swear all 
 this according to the literal sense of the words. There were 
 several objections against these additions; but the great difficulty 
 was by what definition or standard to fix the signification of so 
 general a term as that of the Protestant religion. And to this 
 Dalrymple proposed the Confession of Faith agreed on in the 
 year 1559, and enacted in Parliament in 1567, as the only 
 confession of faith that had then the sanction of law. That 
 was a book so worn out of use l that scarce any in the whole 
 Parliament had ever read it. None of the bishops had, as 
 appeared afterwards, and yet they went blindly into it ; and the 
 Duke and his party set it on so earnestly, that upon one day's 
 debate the act passed, and the Parliament of Scotland was soon 
 after dissolved. 
 
 As soon as the Test, with the Confession of Faith, was printed, 
 there was a universal murmuring among the best of the clergy. 
 
 1 The Confession of Faith that was then read in Scotland was that which 
 the Assembly of Divines at Westminster, anno 1648, had set out.
 
 1 88 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Some were averse to swear to a system of faith made up of 
 so many propositions, and whereof some were at least doubtful ; 
 many were offended at the great extent of the prerogative in 
 the point of supremacy ; and almost all complained of the 
 unreasonable obligation not to alter anything in a Church that 
 was so manifestly destitute both of liturgy and discipline ; so 
 that about eighty of the most pious and learned of their clergy 
 chose to leave all rather than comply with the terms of the 
 Test ; and the bishops, who thought their refusal a reproach to 
 those that complied, treated them with great contempt, and put 
 them to the hardship and necessity of seeking their bread in 
 other countries. 
 
 The Earl of Argyll was a man of such power in Scotland, that 
 the Duke, when he first came thither, thought it necessary 
 either to gain him or ruin him. He was then of the Privy 
 Council, and one of the Commissioners of the Treasury ; and 
 when he was called upon to take the Test, as his main objection 
 was against that part of it that prohibited any alteration either 
 in Church or State, which he accounted a limitation upon the 
 legislature, he declared that as he did think that the Parliament 
 did not intend an oath which implied contradictions, so he 
 took it, as it was consistent with itself, and with a reserve of 
 not restraining himself thereby from endeavouring to amend 
 anything that was amiss in the Church or State, so far as was 
 consistent with the Protestant religion and the duty of a good 
 subject ; and this he took as part of his oath. It passed the 
 Council-table without observation ; but when he came to make 
 the same declaration at the Treasury Chamber, and was desired 
 to write it down, which he did, he was immediately sent prisoner 
 to the Castle, and it was pretended that his insinuating con 
 tradictions to be in an oath imposed by Parliament, and assum 
 ing to himself the liberty of explaining it, and taking it in his 
 own sense, was defaming parliamentary proceedings, taking 
 upon himself a legislative power, and incurring, consequently, 
 the crime of high treason. 
 
 When he was brought to his trial, the court that was to judge 
 the point of law (or, as it is called in Scotland, the relevancy of 
 the libel) consisted of a Justice-General, the Justice Clerk, and 
 five Judges ; but the Justice-General never votes unless the 
 court is equally divided. One of the judges was deaf, and so 
 very old that he could not sit out the whole trial, and therefore 
 went home and to bed. The other four were equally divided ; 
 whereupon they sent for the old one again, who turned it
 
 Charles II. Last Part 189 
 
 against the Earl of Argyll, and condemned him. Never was 
 sentence so universally cried out on as this. Men spoke of it, 
 and of the Duke that drove it on, with horror, and the only 
 apology made for it was that the Earl of Argyll had such an 
 extensive jurisdiction in the Highlands that it was necessary 
 to attaint him, in order to lay some proper limitations upon it 
 when he came to be restored ; but it was never once imagined 
 that the Duke intended to proceed to execution. Things, how 
 ever, began to put on another appearance ; more guards were 
 ordered up to Edinburgh, and rooms were fitted for the Earl in 
 the common gaol, to which peers were removed before their 
 execution, when he happily made his escape out of the castle in 
 disguise, and came and lived for some time concealed in London, 
 till he found it necessary to go beyond sea. 
 
 But this was not the only instance of severity during this 
 year's administration. One Home was charged by a kinsman 
 of his own with having been at Bothwell Bridge, and by the 
 Act of Indemnity all gentlemen of estates concerned in that 
 affair were exempted from the benefit of pardon. There was no 
 evidence to prove him there, only one swore that he saw him 
 go into a village and seize on arms. But he proved the contrary, 
 that he was in another place at that time, and manifestly dis 
 credited the witness ; and yet upon that single evidence, which 
 was proved so infamous, he was convicted, and when inter 
 cessions were made for his life, the Duke would not hearken 
 to any. 
 
 But another trial went much deeper, and struck terror into 
 the whole country. One Weir of Blakewood was accused of 
 treason for having kept company with a person who had been 
 engaged in the matter of Bothwell Bridge. All the lawyers 
 Avere of opinion that nothing could be made of this prosecution, 
 and therefore Weir made use of no secret application, as thinking 
 himself in no danger. But when his trial came on, the court 
 fell into a very severe sentence by this odd way of reasoning : 
 they judged that all men who suspected any to have been in 
 the rebellion were bound to discover such their suspicion, and 
 to give no harbour to such persons ; that the bare suspicion 
 made it treason to harbour a person suspected, whether he were 
 guilty or not ; that if any person was under such suspicion, it 
 was to be presumed that all the neighbourhood knew it ; and 
 it being proved that the person with whom Weir had conversed 
 lay under that suspicion, Weir was thereupon condemned as 
 guilty of high treason ; and though he was not executed, yet the
 
 190 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 very precedent was a terrible thing, for most of the gentry might 
 be as obnoxious as Weir was, and none could have the comfort 
 to know when he was safe. 
 
 The Court, however, was resolved to prosecute this further, 
 and accordingly a proclamation was put out in the beginning of 
 the next year by which the King appointed Circuit Courts to be 
 sent round the western and southern counties, to inquire after 
 all who had been guilty of harbouring or conversing with those 
 that had been in the late rebellion, even though neither process 
 nor proclamation had been issued out against them, and to 
 prosecute all that were found guilty of such converse as traitors, 
 unless they immediately took the Test, which was to entitle 
 them to indemnity. Upon this, great numbers ran in to take 
 it, declaring at the same time that they did it against their 
 consciences ; but all who refused it were trying how to sell and 
 settle their estates, being resolved to leave the country, where 
 they were both disinherited of their birthright, the power of 
 choosing their representatives in Parliament, and put under the 
 cruelties of an Inquisition, because they would not violate their 
 consciences. 
 
 When the affairs of Parliament were over, the Duke met 
 the King at Newmarket, and there obtained leave to come and 
 live at Court again ; but as he went back to Scotland to bring 
 home the Duchess, the ship wherein he was struck on a bank 
 of sand. He took care of his dogs, and of some unknown 
 persons, supposed to be priests ; but the long-boat went off with 
 a few people in it, when it might have contained above eighty 
 more, and left a hundred and fifty souls, some men of great 
 quality, to be swallowed up by the waves. 
 
 Before the Duke left Scotland he declared the new ministers. 
 Gordon was made Chancellor, and Queensberry Treasurer, and 
 to them was the care of all affairs committed, for Duke 
 Lauderdale died this summer. At his parting he recommended 
 the Council to preserve the public peace, to support the Church, 
 and to oblige all men to live regularly, and in obedience to the 
 laws. The bishops made their court to him with so much zeal, 
 that they wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 praising in a very exalted strain his wise conduct, his affection 
 for the Church, and care for them all. And this they did the 
 rather because the severe execution of the laws against con 
 venticles had obliged all people to come to church, which the 
 clergy much magnified as the happy effect of the Duke's 
 administration, though they could not but perceive that it
 
 Charles II. Last Part 191 
 
 was all done in hypocrisy. The people came to church 
 indeed, but it was more from the fear of the law than for the 
 worship of God. Their behaviour accordingly was awkward 
 enough ; they either sauntered, or slept, or talked all Divine 
 service. From this state of indevotion they fell by degrees 
 into a neglect of all religion, and from thence a spirit of 
 atheism and infidelity, which before was a stranger in that 
 kingdom, took its rise, and has ever since been cultivated and 
 improved with too much care and too great success. 
 
 When the Duke came to London he found the Court every 
 where triumphant. His own conduct in Scotland had crushed 
 a contumacious party there, and the effects of the King's 
 Declaration in England made them conceive great hopes of 
 freeing themselves from the fears of troublesome Parliaments 
 for the future. The cities and boroughs had in their addresses 
 carried their compliments very high ; and to complete the 
 demonstration of their loyalty, they were now invited and 
 prevailed on to surrender up their charters, and to take new 
 ones, modelled as the Court thought fit a vile and inglorious 
 action to deliver up the privileges and customs that their 
 ancestors held so sacred for the bad purpose of packing a 
 Parliament to make way for a Popish king ! 
 
 Their success in other places made them expect the same 
 compliance from the city of London ; but the city was too 
 jealous of its privileges, and had of late been too ill-used by the 
 Court's pretending to control all public elections, to be easily 
 brought into such a surrender. The Mayor at that time was 
 Sir John Moor, a person in all things compliant to the Court, 
 because the Court had befriended his election ; and when the 
 day came whereon it is usual for the Mayor to mark out a 
 person for one of the next sheriffs by the ceremony of drinking 
 to him, he drank to North, a merchant, who was brother to the 
 Chief Justice. The Common Hall, however, on Midsummer- 
 day proceeded to the choice of two sheriffs, without any regard 
 to the Mayor's nomination ; whereupon it was pretended that 
 the ceremony of drinking to a person was not a bare nomina 
 tion, which the Common Hall might receive or refuse as they 
 thought fit, but that it properly made the sheriff, and that the 
 Common Hall was bound to receive and confirm him in course. 
 And so, adjourning the court that the Sheriffs had called, and 
 disannulling the poll that was then going on, the Mayor 
 appointed himself another, to which none were admitted but 
 those who were content to vote only for one, and to approve
 
 1 92 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 his nomination for the other. By this management North and 
 Rich, though they had not so many as those of the Sheriffs' 
 poll by several hundreds, were returned and sworn in for the 
 ensuing year, leaving the other two to seek their remedy by law 
 where they could find it. 
 
 The like indirect dealing was used in the choice of a mayor 
 this year. The poll was closed when the Court thought they 
 had the majority ; but upon casting it up, it appeared they were 
 mistaken, whereupon they demanded a scrutiny, and made so 
 many exceptions to those of the other side, that they discounted 
 as many voices as gave them a majority at last. But both these 
 matters were managed in so gross a manner that they made it 
 visible the Court was minded at any rate to have the govern 
 ment of the City and the appointment of juries in their hands 
 for some wicked purposes that did not yet appear. 
 
 This made the City still more averse to surrender their 
 charter, whereupon the Court, impatient of any further delay, 
 was resolved to take it by force, and to have it condemned by a 
 judgment in the Queen's Bench. The two points upon which 
 they rested the cause were, that the Common Council had 
 petitioned the King, upon a prorogation of the Parliament, that 
 it might meet upon the day to which it was prorogued, and had 
 taxed the prorogation as that which occasioned a delay of 
 justice, which was raising sedition, and possessing the people 
 with an ill opinion of the King and his Government. The 
 other point was, that the City had imposed new taxes on their 
 wharfs and markets, which was an invasion of the liberty and 
 property of the subject, and contrary to law ; and therefore, 
 misbehaving in these particulars, they were liable to have their 
 liberties, which were originally a grant of the Crown, seized. 
 
 The chief argument against these allegations was, that crimes 
 committed by persons intrusted with the government of corpo 
 rations were personal things, which were chargeable only on 
 those who committed them, but could not affect the whole 
 body ; that if the petition they presented to the King was 
 seditious, the King might proceed against every one that was 
 concerned in it ; or if the taxes that had been levied upon any 
 had been exorbitant, they might bring their actions against 
 those who had levied them ; but since no such thing was ever 
 yet done, it seemed strange that the whole body should suffer 
 in common for that which none of those who were immediately 
 concerned in it had been so much as brought in question for 
 in any court of law ; and lastly, that if the Common Council's
 
 Charles II. Last Part 193 
 
 petition for the sitting of the Parliament was more earnest than 
 what became them, it ought to be ascribed to their zeal for the 
 King's safety and the Protestant religion ; and that if the tolls 
 and taxes were higher than usual, it ought to be considered 
 that the City, since the fire, had been at vast charge to make 
 their wharfs and markets much more noble and convenient than 
 they were before, and that to defray the debt contracted in 
 building them by making others pay proportionably for the use 
 of them was every whit as reasonable as for a man who rebuilds 
 his house to raise the rent of it. This and the ill consequences 
 of such a disfranchisement were the rational part of the argu 
 ment. But it availed not much, for judgment was given that 
 a city might forfeit its charter, that the malversations of the 
 Common Council were the acts of the whole City, and that the 
 two points set forth in the pleadings were just grounds for 
 the forfeiting of a charter, upon which the proper conclusion 
 seemed to be that therefore the City of London had forfeited 
 its charter ; but this was a consequence of too tender a nature 
 to be mentioned at present, and the Attorney-General, con 
 trary to the custom in such cases, moved that the judgment 
 might not be recorded. 
 
 There were other very severe proceedings at this time with 
 relation to particular persons. Pilkington was Sheriff of London 
 the former year, an honest but indiscreet man, and who 
 gave himself great liberties in talking. He, being desired to go 
 along with the Mayor and aldermen to compliment the Duke 
 upon his return from Scotland, refused to do it, and made some 
 reflections on him, as if he had been concerned in burning the 
 City. Two of the aldermen swore it against him ; but Sir 
 Patience Ward, the Mayor of the former year, deposed that to 
 the best of his remembrance he did not hear him say those 
 words; whereupon Pilkington was cast in ^100,000 damages, 
 the most extravagant that ever were given, and Ward indicted 
 for perjury, found guilty, and, had he not gone out of the way, 
 would have certainly been set in the pillory for it. The truth 
 is, juries became at that time the shame of the nation, as well 
 as a reproach to religion ; for they were packed and prepared to 
 bring in verdicts as they were directed, and not as matters 
 appeared upon just evidence. 
 
 These hardships on private persons and infringements on 
 public liberties made some begin to think of an alteration of 
 government in earnest. The Earl of Shaftesbury was for 
 making use of the heat the City was in during the contest about
 
 194 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 sheriffs, and thought that they might on that occasion have 
 created a great disturbance, and made themselves masters of 
 the Tower; but when he found that his counsel was rejected, 
 and that the Court had gained their point in the election of 
 sheriffs (being conscious of his own obnoxiousness, and appre 
 hensive what forward sheriffs, willing juries, mercenary judges, 
 and bold witnesses might do against him), he went out of Eng 
 land in good time ; for fear, anger, and disappointment had so 
 broken his understanding that his notions were become all wild 
 and impracticable, and himself in no capacity to assist, but 
 rather perplex, his party. 
 
 When the Earl of Shaftesbury was gone, the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth resolved to be advised chiefly by Lord Essex ; but Lord 
 Essex was unwilling to be alone in a matter of such conse 
 quence, and named first Lord Russell, against whom there was 
 no exception, and next to him Algernon Sidney, brother to the 
 Earl of Leicester, a man of most extraordinary courage, steady 
 even to obstinacy, and sincere, but too rough and boisterous in 
 his temper to bear contradiction. He seemed to be a Christian, 
 but in a particular form of his own ; for Christianity, he thought, 
 was to be like a Divine philosophy in the mind, without all 
 public worship, or any other sign of a visible Church. Stiff he 
 was in all Republican principles, and such an enemy to every 
 thing that looked like monarchy, that he opposed Cromwell 
 after he was made Protector. But he had studied the history 
 of government in all its branches, had a large knowledge of 
 mankind and of their tempers, and could insinuate himself 
 into people who would hearken to his notions with a wonderful 
 dexterity. At this time he had got far into Lord Essex's con 
 fidence, and having a great kindness for Lord Howard, as an 
 avowed hater of the King and monarchy, he prevailed with him 
 and Lord Russell, contrary to the ill opinion they had of the man, 
 to receive him into their secrets. John Hampden, the grandson 
 of him who pleaded the cause of England with King Charles I. 
 in the point of ship-money, and whose father was zealous in 
 the exclusion, was thought another person proper to be admitted 
 to their consultations. He was a young man of great parts 
 and consummate learning, of heat and vivacity enough, but a 
 little unequal in his temper, and much corrupted in his prin 
 ciples by Frere Simon's conversation at Paris. 1 
 
 These were the men of the best distinction among the Eng- 
 
 1 Hampden translated Simon's " Hisroire Critique du Vieux Testament " 
 into English, which was published in 1682.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 195 
 
 lish with whom the Duke of Monmouth had frequent meetings. 
 His interest in Scotland, both by the dependence that his wife's 
 great estate brought him and by the confidence he knew they 
 all had in him, made him look upon that kingdom as the most 
 proper scene for action ; for which purpose he had many confer 
 ences with Lord Argyll, while he was in London, about the 
 state of the nation, and sent up for others whom the party had 
 confidence in to advise what was proper to be done ; and among 
 these, the person that was trusted most, and to whom the 
 journey proved fatal, was Baillie of Jerviswood, whose unjust 
 treatment, upon Carstairs's information, we have given an account 
 of before. 
 
 There was at the same time a lower company of Lord Shaftes 
 bury's creatures, who met continually in the Temple, at the 
 chambers of one West, a witty and active man, but full of talk, 
 and believed to be a determined atheist. Rumsey and Fergu 
 son came constantly thither. The former of these had been an 
 officer in Cromwell's army, and going afterwards over with 
 some forces that served under Schomberg in Portugal, did a 
 brave action in that service, for which he was recommended to 
 the King, and by Lord Shaftesbury's means rewarded with a 
 place. He was a bold-talking man, and by many suspected to 
 be all along a Court spy ; but his being privy to the secret of 
 Lord Shaftesbury's going beyond sea without discovering it 
 may make it be believed that, at this time at least, he was not 
 admitted into that employment. Ferguson was a hot, confi 
 dent man, having a spirit naturally turned to plotting, and a 
 temper that delighted in mischief. He had been turned out 
 from the Presbyterians, and so betook himself to the Inde 
 pendents, where his boldness raised him to some figure, though 
 his abilities were very mean and his vanity very great ; for 
 having the management of a secret press, whence most of the 
 pamphlets on that side were published, he affected to be thought 
 the author of them, accounting the glory thereof so considerable 
 as to be purchased with infinite danger. 
 
 The Duke of Monmouth had some time before carried Lord 
 Russell, Lord Grey, and Sir Thomas Armstrong to one Shep 
 herd's, a wine merchant, upon appointment to meet Lord 
 Shaftesbury or some of his friends, in order to clear himself of 
 some jealousies that Lord Shaftesbury had infused into the 
 citizens, as if he was playing a double game ; but when they 
 came thither, and found none met but this Rumsey and Fer 
 guson, they liked not their company, and were going, only
 
 196 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Lord Russell calling for a taste of some wines, which occasioned 
 a small stay, Rumsey began a discourse of surprising the 
 Guards, and insisted much on the easiness of doing it. But 
 Armstrong, who had once commanded them, showed him his 
 mistake therein, and as soon as Lord Russell (who had not spoken 
 a word upon the subject) had tasted what wines he pleased, 
 they all went away. This was the only time Lord Russell was 
 ever in their company, but it proved of fatal consequence to 
 him. 
 
 There were besides these one Goodenough, who had been 
 under-sheriff of London in Bethel's year, Holloway of Bristol, 
 and Walcot, an Irish gentleman who had been of Cromwell's 
 army, who met at the same place in the Temple, and had some 
 rambling discourse about forming an insurrection and preparing 
 a declaration proper for the occasion. Rumsey, Ferguson, 
 and West were averse to the project of a rising ; they thought 
 the shorter and surer way would be to kill both the brothers, 
 which they expressed by the term " lopping ; " and while they 
 were going on in this wicked talk, one Rumbold, who was 
 likewise of their company, mentioned a farm he had near 
 Hoddesdon, through which the King, on his way to Newmarket, 
 sometimes passed, not altogether incommodious for that 
 purpose. They upon that ran into much wicked talk about 
 the way of executing it, but there was nothing fixed on ; all 
 was but talk. The King, however, went to Newmarket 
 in October, but upon a fire breaking out there, and consum 
 ing a part of the town, he returned a week sooner than he 
 intended. 
 
 While things were in this agitation there was one Keeling, 
 an Anabaptist, in London, whom Goodenough had often em 
 ployed to try their strength in the City, and to compute what 
 number of sure hands might be depended on in case of a rising ; 
 he had let him likewise into the secrets of their cabal, and had 
 some discourse with him about killing the two brothers. 
 Keeling was now going down in the world, and thinking to 
 raise himself by turning evidence, he acquainted the Secretary 
 with all that he knew, and drew in his brother for a corroborating 
 evidence ; but the Secretary was so dilatory in his proceeding, 
 that the brother, who was trepanned into the thing, had time 
 to send Goodenough, and all the other persons whom he had 
 named, notice to get out of the way. 
 
 Within three days after Keeling's discovery the plot broke 
 out, and became the whole discourse of the town. Many
 
 Charles II. Last Part 197 
 
 examinations were taken, and several persons were seized ; and 
 among others, one Wildman, who had been an agitator in 
 Cromwell's army, and after the Restoration, being looked on as 
 a high Republican, was kept long in prison, where he had 
 studied law and physic so much, that he passed for a man very 
 knowing in those matters. He had a way of creating in others 
 a high opinion of his sagacity, had great credit with the Duke 
 of Buckingham, and was now very active under Sidney's con 
 duct. When he was apprehended, and his house searched, 
 there were two small field-pieces belonging to the Duke of 
 Buckingham, which were removed, when York House was to 
 be pulled down, to Wildman's, and being found in the cellar, 
 made a great noise ; for they were carried to Whitehall, and 
 exposed to public view as an undeniable proof of an intended 
 rebellion, since here was their cannon. 
 
 Two days after this a proclamation was published for seizing 
 on some who could not be found ; and among these Rumsey 
 and West were named. Ruinsey and West were resolved to put 
 themselves upon the footing of witnesses ; and, that they might 
 not contradict one another, they laid their heads together, and, 
 from some foregoing passages, contrived this story, viz. : " That 
 the design of the rising was to be executed on the iyth of No 
 vember, the day of Queen Elizabeth's coming to the crown, on 
 which less notice would be taken, because the citizens used to 
 run together in great multitudes on that day, to carry about 
 Popes in procession, and burn them ; that forty men, well 
 armed and mounted, were appointed to kill the King and the 
 Duke ; that they were to be divided into two parties Walcot 
 to command that which was to engage the Guards, and Rumsey 
 the other, which was to do the murder; that Rumbold had 
 offered them his house, called Rye and thence the whole plot 
 had its appellation as a convenient place to execute their de 
 sign in, and what prevented the execution of it was the King's 
 return from Newmarket a week sooner than was expected ; that 
 the Duke of Monmouth and other lords were in consultation 
 with the gentlemen from Scotland to promote an insurrection 
 in that kingdom ; that Lord Russell was in the design of 
 seizing the Guards, and Trenchard had undertaken to raise a 
 body out of Taunton." 
 
 This was the substance of their discovery, which, how in 
 credible soever in some parts of it, it was dangerous at that 
 time not to believe ; for there was a general outcry against the 
 heinousness of it, and both preachers and poets had a noble
 
 198 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 subject to enlarge on, and to show how much the King and the 
 Duke were under the watchful care of Providence. 
 
 When the Council found that the Duke of Monmouth and 
 Lord Russell were named, they wrote to the King, who was then 
 at Windsor, to come to London, not venturing to go any further 
 without his presence and approbation. Lord Russell, though he 
 might have made his escape, yet in confidence of his innocence 
 stayed at home till a messenger was sent to carry him to the 
 Council, and was thence, after his examination, committed close 
 prisoner to the Tower. Sidney's examination lasted not long. 
 He told them that he was to make the best defence he could, if 
 they had any proof against him, but that he would never fortify 
 their evidence by anything he should say. Trenchard, upon his 
 examination, denied all ; but there was one point of his guilt 
 well known he was the first who had moved for the Exclusion 
 in the House of Commons, and upon that account was reckoned 
 a lost man. Baillie came next before the Council. The King 
 questioned him about the design against his person and the in 
 tended insurrection in Scotland. The former he solemnly de 
 nied ; but when he desired to have the questions relating to the 
 other particular given him in writing, that he might better know 
 how to return proper answers, he so provoked both the King 
 and the Duke with this demand, and with the air of neglect 
 wherewith he received their threats, that, by a special direction, 
 he was loaded with such heavy irons as made him, for some 
 weeks, weary of his life. 
 
 As soon as the Council rose the King went to the Duchess of 
 Monmouth's, and seemed so much concerned for the Duke that 
 he wept when he spoke to her. He told her that some would 
 come and search her lodgings, but that he had given order they 
 should not enter her apartments, so that she might well enough 
 conceal the Duke there. But the Duke would not trust him ; 
 and it was well he did not, for the very first place they went to 
 was the Duchess's rooms ; and this the Duke gave sometimes for 
 a reason why he would never put any confidence in the King's 
 words afterwards. Lord Grey behaved before the Council with 
 great presence of mind ; and when he was sent to the Tower, 
 the gates being shut, he was obliged to stay in the messenger's 
 hands all night ; but he plied the messenger so with wine that 
 he made him dead drunk, and next morning, as they went to 
 the Tower, the messenger falling asleep, he called himself at the 
 Tower gate to bring the Lieutenant to receive a prisoner ; but 
 afterwards bethinking himself that there might be some danger
 
 Charles II. Last Part 199 
 
 if, to confirm Rumsey's deposition, another witness should 
 chance to rise up, he called for a pair of oars and went away, 
 leaving the drunken messenger fast asleep. 
 
 Four days before Lord Russell's trial, Lord Howard, who had 
 all this while protested that he knew nothing of the plot, was 
 taken in his own house after a long search, and found standing 
 up within a chimney. As soon as he was apprehended he fell a 
 crying ; and, at his first examination, told a long story of Lord 
 Shaftesbury's design of raising the City, of Trenchard's under 
 taking to bring a body of men from Taunton, and that the iyth 
 or i gth of November last was the day appointed for the rising. 
 He owned likewise that there was a council of six settled, 
 whereof himself was one ; that they had several debates con 
 cerning an insurrection, and where it was to begin, whether in 
 the City or in the country ; but that, being first minded to know 
 the disposition of the Scotch, they had sent down Aaron Smith 
 to bring them sure information, and given him sixty guineas 
 for his journey. 
 
 Lord Essex might have made his escape ; but his tenderness 
 for Lord Russell, and a fear that his absconding might have 
 an ill influence at his trial, made him stay all this while at his 
 country house, till a party of horse was sent to bring him up. 
 When he came before the Council he was in much confusion ; 
 when he was lodged in the Tower he fell under a great depres 
 sion of spirits. He sent by a servant, whom he had long 
 trusted, a very melancholy message to his wife, " that what he 
 was charged with was true, and that he was sorry he had ruined 
 her and her children." He ordered many things to be sent 
 him ; and, among others, asked several times for a penknife 
 with which he used to pare his nails ; but that being in 
 the country, he called for a razor, and said that would do 
 as well. 
 
 The King and Duke came to the Tower that morning to 
 see some invention about the ordnance, and as they were 
 going into their barge, the cry ot what had happened to 
 Lord Essex came after them ; for his man, thinking that he 
 stayed longer than ordinary in his closet, had the door 
 broken open, and found him dead on the floor with his throat 
 cut. 
 
 A boy and a girl, about twelve years of age, reported that 
 they heard great crying in his lodgings, and saw a bloody razor 
 flung out at the window, which was taken up by a woman who 
 belonged to the house; and the simplicity of the children,
 
 2oo Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 together with the ill opinion that was generally had of the 
 Court, inclined many to believe that he was murdered. But 
 the truth is, Lord Essex had got into an odd set of principles ; 
 particularly, he thought that every man was master of his 
 own life, and might rid himself of it when he saw occasion ; 
 and these principles meeting with the spleen to which he 
 was naturally inclined, made more probable what his own 
 surgeon seemed to demonstrate from the position of the 
 wound, that the violence must have proceeded from his own 
 hand. 
 
 When Lord Russell was brought to his trial (which was on 
 the very day that Lord Essex was found dead), Rumsey and 
 Shepherd deposed against him that he had expressed his con 
 sent to the seizing of the Guards, though they did not swear to 
 any one word of his that imported such consent ; and, as Lord 
 Howard began his evidence, news being brought into court of 
 Lord Essex's death, he stopped, and said that he could not go 
 on till he had given vent to his grief in some tears ; but he 
 soon recovered himself, and told all his story. Lord Russell 
 defended himself by several who appeared to speak to his great 
 worth, and to discredit Lord Howard's testimony, in that he 
 had so often disavowed all knowledge of a plot ; and he himself, 
 in a short speech, touched on all the material points of law that 
 had been suggested to him ; but all would not do. The King's 
 counsel would have it, that consultations to seize on the Guards 
 were an overt act of a design against the King's person. Finch 
 summed up the evidence, but in a manner that showed more 
 of a vicious eloquence in turning matters with some subtlety 
 against him than of solid and sincere reasoning. Jeffreys, to 
 show his zeal, made an insolent declamation (such as all his 
 speeches were), full of fury and indecent invectives. Pemberton, 
 who was the head of the court, seemed to proceed very fairly 
 at first, but in conclusion he told the jury that a design to seize 
 the Guards was certainly a design against the King's life ; and, 
 upon these suggestions, the jury, which was too well inclined 
 to do the Court all the favour it could, brought in a verdict 
 against him, and he received sentence. 
 
 All possible methods after this were used to save his life. 
 Money was offered to the Lady Portsmouth, and to all who had 
 interest, and that without measure. Petitions and intercessions 
 were made by his relations, and himself was brought to promise 
 to live beyond the sea, in any place the King should name, and 
 meddle no more with English affairs. But all was in vain ; the
 
 Charles II. Last Part 201 
 
 King and Duke both were fixed in their resolutions that he 
 should die. Nor was he, by any hopes of mercy, diverted from 
 making preparation for it. The last week of his life he was 
 shut up all the mornings, as he himself desired ; and about 
 noon I came to him and stayed with him till night. Dr. 
 Tillotson and I attended him every day, to administer to him 
 the offices of religion and concerns of his soul; and to us he 
 discovered a sincere contrition for his sins, a conversation that 
 savoured of godliness, a Christian temper, without sharpness or 
 resentment, and a deportment in many instances that looked 
 like a triumph over death. 
 
 The day before his death he received the sacrament with 
 much devotion, and retired into his chamber till towards the 
 evening, when he suffered his children (who were very young), 
 and some of his friends, to take leave of him, in which he 
 maintained his constancy of temper, though he was a very fond 
 parent. He parted with his lady at the same time with a com 
 posed silence, and she had that command of herself as to give 
 him no disturbance, though, when she was gone, he said the 
 bitterness of death was past ; for he loved and esteemed her 
 beyond expression. 1 
 
 The morning before his execution he was not ill pleased with 
 the account of the dying speeches of such as had suffered the 
 day before. Walcot denied the whole business of the Rye 
 Plot, or any engagement on his part to fight the Guards, while 
 others were to kill the King. Hone, a poor tradesman of 
 London, had been drawn in by Keeling and Lee, who was 
 another witness, to promise his assistance in the design of 
 killing the King; but he neither knew when nor where, nor 
 how it was to be executed, and with his last breath declared 
 that those who swore it against him were the only persons that 
 had engaged him in the thing. Rowse had the same things 
 sworn against him ; but he denied that he had ever any thought 
 against the King's life, and vindicated all his acquaintance 
 from being any way concerned in the matter, or from ap 
 proving any such black designs. And it was these men's 
 dying in the manner they did that brought such a disgrace on 
 the witnesses, that the Court thought it proper to lay them 
 aside. 
 
 Before Lord Russell was carried out, Lord Cavendish came 
 
 1 "Lady Rachel Russell's Letters, with the Trial of Lord William 
 Russell," were published in 1792. 
 
 H 2
 
 2O2 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 and generously offered to manage his escape, and to stay in 
 prison for him while he should go away in his clothes, but he 
 would not hearken to the motion ; and the Duke of Monmouth 
 sent him word that if he thought it would do him any service, 
 he would come in and run fortunes with him, but his answer 
 was, that it would be no advantage to him to have his friends 
 die with him ; and so he proceeded to the place appointed for 
 his execution, which was in Lincoln's Inn Fields. He had 
 written the King a letter, wherein he had asked pardon for 
 everything he had said or done contrary to his duty ; wherein 
 he protested his innocence as to all designs against his person 
 or government ; complained of the hard usage he had met with, 
 but forgave all, from the highest to the lowest, who had been 
 concerned in it ; and concluded hoping that his Majesty's dis 
 pleasure at him would terminate with his life, and no part of it 
 fall upon his wife and children. When he came to the scaffold 
 he delivered a paper to the Sheriff, wherein he made profession 
 of his dying a sincere Protestant, and in the communion of the 
 Church of England, for the preservation of which he would 
 have ventured his life, but had never been engaged in a black 
 design. His aversion against Popery, he said, was very strong, 
 because he looked upon it both as an idolatrous and bloody 
 religion ; for this reason he had been very earnest both in the 
 prosecution of the Popish plot, and in the matter of the Exclu 
 sion, but had acted in both out of the sincerity of his heart, and 
 with a purpose to secure the King's person and the Protestant 
 religion. He was sensible, he said, that his present sufferings 
 proceeded from thence ; his sentence he thought was very hard, 
 and that killing by forms of law was the worst kind of murder. 
 But he forgave all who had procured his death ; charged his 
 friends to think of no revenge ; prayed for the King, that his 
 person and government might be happy ; and concluded the 
 whole with some devout ejaculations. After he had delivered 
 the paper he made a short speech to the people, and having 
 ended his private devotions, laid his head on the block without 
 the least change of countenance, which, at two strokes, was 
 severed from his body. 
 
 This was the end of that great and good man, who both by 
 his own experience found, as he told Lord Cavendish, 
 and by his example showed, how prevalent the power of 
 religion is, both to comfort and support our spirits in the time 
 of extremity. 
 
 At this time Prince George of Denmark came to England to
 
 Charles II. Last Part 203 
 
 marry the Duke's second daughter. The Prince of Hanover 
 had come over two years before to make his addresses to her; 
 but he had scarcely arrived when he received orders from his 
 father not to proceed in that design, because he had agreed on 
 a match for him, which at that time would better accommodate 
 the family, with his brother, the Duke of Zell, for his daughter, 
 Sophia Dorothea ; so that his pretensions were superseded, and 
 the match that was now made with the brother of Denmark did 
 not so well please the nation, because, as the proposition came 
 first from France, they were apprehensive he would be induced 
 to change his religion. But in that they were mistaken ; for he 
 not only continued firm in the Protestant faith, but lived in all 
 respects as happy with the Princess as possible, except in one 
 particular that all his children (as he had many) were taken off 
 young. 
 
 The affairs abroad were now everywhere in a great fermenta 
 tion. The Emperor had governed Germany so strangely as at 
 once to persecute the Protestants and to oppress the Papists in 
 their liberties, upon which the malcontents ran to arms, and 
 had possessed themselves of several places in Upper Hungary ; 
 but, being unable to maintain their ground against the Emperor's 
 whole force, they offered all submissions to the Turk, and begged 
 his protection. Upon this that great war broke out, and the 
 siege of Vienna began ; and had it been prosecuted as it was 
 first undertaken, the town must have surrendered, and with 
 that the Emperor and his whole family been ruined ; while the 
 King of France, who encouraged the rebellion in Hungary, and 
 drew the Turk into Christendom, was ready with a great army 
 on the frontier of Germany to raise himself to the empire upon 
 the other's ruin. But Vienna was relieved, and the King of 
 France disappointed of his hope. He sent Humiers, however, 
 into the Spanish Netherlands, to destroy and ruin the country, 
 and to take possession of Luxemburg ; and it was said that he 
 gave ^300, ooo to gain the King's consent to do this, for which 
 Lady Portsmouth valued herself not a little, and called it the 
 last service she did to the Court of France. 1 
 
 1 At this time I went over to France, principally to be out of the way, 
 as I was fallen on in almost every libel, and many insinuations in the new 
 set of addresses, now running about the nation, looked towards me. In 
 France, Rouvigny, who was Lady Russell's uncle, studied to get me much 
 visited and known. There my acquaintance with Marshal Schomberg 
 began ; and by him I was acquainted with Marshal Bellefonds, who was 
 a devout but weak man, a great reader of the Scriptures, and one that
 
 204 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Addresses now went round the nation with more heat and 
 pompous eloquence than the former, and all magnifying the 
 providential fire at Newmarket, that had happily occasioned 
 the King's deliverance. Presentments were made against all 
 who were esteemed Whigs and Nonconformists ; great pains 
 were taken to find out more witnesses ; pardons and rewards 
 were offered very freely, but none came in. Pemberton was 
 turned out of the Common Pleas, and Jones was put in his 
 place ; and Jeffreys (to the indication of some black design) was 
 made Lord Chief Justice. For he was not only scandalously 
 vicious, drunk every day, and furiously passionate, but he even 
 betrayed the decencies of his post by not affecting to appear 
 impartial, as became a judge, and by running upon all occasions 
 into noisy declamations, void of any show of learning in his 
 profession, and in a luxuriant eloquence that was neither correct 
 nor agreeable. 
 
 The first thing that the King did, after he had thus fitted 
 himself with judges, was to send a new message to the city of 
 London, requiring the Common Council to deliver up their 
 charter; but, upon their refusal, he ordered the judgment 
 before mentioned to be entered, seized on their liberties, turned 
 out the aldermen and other officers, put others in their places, 
 and for some time let them continue a city without a charter 
 or Common Council; and then the remainder of the trials 
 came on. 
 
 Howard gave the only evidence against the prisoners of better 
 rank, so other things had to be found out as a supplement 
 
 seemed to practise the virtues of the desert in the midst of that Court. I 
 knew the Archbishop of Rheims, a rough, boisterous man, with good notions 
 of the episcopal duty in all things, except that of setting a good example to 
 his clergy. The Duke of Montausier was a pattern of virtue and sincerity, 
 for which reason he was made the Dauphin's governor ; and in that capacity 
 used his utmost care, but without success. The Prince of Conde had a great 
 quickness of apprehension, and was thought the best judge in France both 
 of wit and learning. Faure, of the Sorbonne, was the best read in ecclesi 
 astical history, and Pique best acquainted with the Scriptures of any of their 
 order, and both averse to the Papal authority. St. Amour, the author of the 
 journal of what passed at Rome in the condemnation of the five propositions 
 of Jansenius, was a sincere and worthy man, but had more judgment than 
 either quickness or learning. The Pere Bourdaloue, esteemed the greatest 
 preacher of the age, was a man of a sweet temper, and not at all violent 
 against the Protestants, for that he believed good men among them mighl 
 be saved ; and Spanheim, envoy from the Elector of Brandenburg, was an 
 excellent critic in all ancient learning, a man of great ability in affairs, and, 
 what seldom meets in very learned men, of a very frank and cheerful con 
 versation. With all these persons I was acquainted.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 205 
 
 to support it. Sidney had written part of an answer to a book 
 of Filmer's, entitled, " Patriarcha, or the Divine Right of Mon 
 archy upon the Son's succeeding to the Authority of the Father," 
 which was found among his papers ; and in it he had asserted 
 that princes had their power from the people, with restrictions 
 and limitations, and that they were liable to the justice of the 
 people if they abused their power to the prejudice of the subjects, 
 or against established laws. And so, because there was but one 
 witness against him, this, by an innuendo, was said to be a 
 proof of his being in the plot against the King's life, and was 
 insisted on that it ought to stand for a second witness. There 
 were several persons of great rank and quality who appeared to 
 invalidate Lord Howard's evidence. Sidney showed how im 
 probable it was that one who could not raise five men, nor pay 
 them five shillings, should be taken into such consultations ; 
 and as to the book, he proved that it was not written by him, 
 since similitude of hands in capital cases passed for nothing, 
 and that it was written some years ago, and consequently could 
 be no proof of the late plot; that it contained nothing but 
 private speculations of government, which had not yet been 
 published ; and that its not being finished made it impossible 
 for any one to conjecture what its design was, or its conclusion 
 might be. But all was in vain. Finch aggravated the matter 
 of the book as a proof of his intentions, and pretended that it 
 was an overt act ; and Jeffreys delivered it as law, that two 
 witnesses, one to the treason, and another to a circumstance 
 only, were all that the statute required. So Sidney was cast ; 
 and when the Sheriffs brought the warrant for his execution he 
 expressed no concern only he desired them to consider, not 
 for his (for the world was now nothing to him), but for their 
 own sakes, how guilty they were of his blood, who had returned 
 a packed jury, and as they were directed by the King's solicitor ; 
 and one of the Sheriffs was so struck with the admonition that 
 he wept. In his imprisonment he had sent for some Independent 
 preachers, and expressed to them a deep remorse for his past 
 sins, and great confidence in the mercies of God ; and, indeed, 
 he met death with an unconcernedness that became one who 
 had set up Marcus Brutus for his pattern. He was but a very 
 few minutes on the scaffold at Tower Hill, where he delivered a 
 paper to the Sheriff, in which he showed his own innocence and 
 Lord Howard's infamy ; vindicated the subject of the book at 
 large ; and concluded with a prayer that the nation might be 
 preserved from idolatry and tyranny. After that he spoke
 
 2o6 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 but little, prayed very short, and his head was cut off at one 
 blow. 
 
 Hampden was the only man of the six that was left ; yet, 
 there being nothing but Howard's evidence against him, without 
 one circumstance to support it, he was only indicted of a mis 
 demeanour, but found guilty by Jeffreys's direction to the jury, 
 and fined ^40,000, which amounted, indeed, to an imprisonment 
 for life. 
 
 The Duke of Monmouth was all this summer lurking in 
 England, and intending to go beyond sea and engage in the 
 Spanish service, when Lord Halifax prevailed with him to write 
 to the King, and penned him several letters with such extra 
 ordinary force that the King was mollified, and inclined to 
 restore him to favour upon this condition that he should 
 make a humble confession of his offences in general words to 
 the King, and a common compliment of asking pardon to the 
 Duke. He did so, and the King received him with an extra 
 ordinary fondness, as the Duke put on the appearance of being 
 well enough pleased ; but when the King next day told some 
 about him that the Duke of Monmouth had confirmed what 
 Howard had sworn, and the Duke denied it with some 
 vehemence, calling Howard a liar and a rogue, the King in 
 sisted that he should give it under his hand that he had con 
 fessed the plot. " Plot was but a general word, that might 
 signify as much or as little as a man pleased. They had certainly 
 dangerous consultations among them, which might well enough 
 be called plots." And, upon these suggestions, Lord Halifax 
 persuaded him to comply with the King's demand. But no 
 sooner had he done so than he went to the King full of 
 uneasiness, and desired that he might have his letter again 
 in the terms of an agony like despair. The King gave it back, 
 pressing him vehemently to comply with his desire ; but never 
 after that could he be brought to any such acknowledgment. 
 Upon this behaviour he was forbidden the Court, and went 
 into Holland, and was treated by the Prince of Orange with 
 very great civility and respect, but not without the King's 
 consent and approbation ; for, when that prince was last in 
 England, the King showed him one of his seals, and told him 
 that whatever he might write to him, unless it was sealed with 
 that seal, he might look upon it as drawn from him by im 
 portunity. Though, therefore, he wrote some terrible letters 
 to the Prince against the countenance he gave the Duke of 
 Monmouth, yet, as they were not sealed with that seal, the
 
 Charles II. Last Part 207 
 
 Prince looked upon them as a tacit direction to him to keep 
 him about him, and to use him well. 
 
 Some time in the spring Holloway was brought over from the 
 West Indies under an outlawry for treason, and was prevailed 
 on, by the hope of pardon, to confess all he knew of the plot. 
 He owned there had been some consultations among them 
 about raising an insurrection, and the seizing of Bristol by the 
 help of some who were to come from Taunton, but that they had 
 made no progress in the design. And he acknowledged that in 
 their meetings Rumsey and West were often talking of lopping 
 the King and the Duke, but that he had never entered into any 
 discourse with them about the subject, nor did he believe that 
 there were above five persons who approved it. So that, after 
 all the story that was made of the plot, it had gone no further, 
 according to his confession, than that a company of seditious 
 and inconsiderable people were framing among themselves some 
 treasonable schemes that were never likely to come to anything, 
 and that Rumsey and West had pushed on the execrable design 
 of an assassination, which very few agreed to, though too many 
 who heard it from them were so foolish and wicked as not to 
 discover it. Holloway, however, was not thought sincere in 
 his confession, and so he was executed dying with a firm 
 constancy, and leaving behind him a speech that expressed a 
 deep sense of religion, and a prayer that was an excellent 
 composure. 
 
 Sir Thomas Armstrong was seized by the scout at Leyden for 
 5,000 guilders, and delivered to Chudley, the King's envoy to the 
 States, who sent him over in great haste. He was now under 
 an outlawry ; but the statute was express, that if any outlawed 
 person came in at any time within the year, he was to have the 
 liberty of a trial, notwithstanding his outlawry. So, when he 
 was brought to the King's Bench bar, he claimed the benefit of 
 the act, and to have a fair trial for his life ; but that was denied 
 him, upon pretence of his being seized, and not coming in of 
 his own accord. 
 
 His carriage during his imprisonment and at his death was 
 far beyond what could have been imagined. He turned himself 
 wholly to the thoughts of God and another state ; was con 
 tinually praying ; and seemed to rejoice in that he was brought 
 to die in such a manner, since it was scarce possible in any 
 other way to have awakened him into a due sense of his former 
 sins. His pride and resentments were so entirely conquered 
 that he seemed to be another man to what he was formerly ; and
 
 208 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 in his last minutes his mind was so quiet, and his whole de 
 portment so serene, that there scarce was ever known a more 
 eminent instance than what appeared in him of the grace and 
 mercy of God. He was treated very cruelly ; for he was carried 
 to Tyburn in a sledge, there quartered, and his quarters set up ; 
 and the reason the King gave for using him with such severity 
 was, that he was once sent over by Cromwell to murder him, and 
 when he was discovered, had confessed his design to the King ; 
 whereas, in the paper he delivered to the Sheriff, he declared 
 solemnly he had never been beyond sea but once, and that 
 when sent over by the Earl of Oxford and some other Cavaliers 
 with a considerable present to the King in money ; that he 
 delivered it faithfully, and brought back letters of thanks from 
 the King to those who had employed him ; that Cromwell, 
 having some notice of this, clapped him up in prison, where he 
 continued almost a year; and that, upon the merit of this 
 service, he was made captain of horse soon after the Restoration 
 a story much different from what the King reported, and was 
 probably one reason why the Court ordered no such reflections 
 to be made upon his speech as had been published on others. 
 And with these executions we leave the affairs of England, to 
 carry our readers on to the like proceedings in the North. 
 
 Great pains were taken in Scotland to make a further dis 
 covery of the negotiation between the English and the Scots. 
 A gentleman who had been at Bothwell Bridge was taken up at 
 Newcastle, with letters written in odd cant, which he was carry 
 ing from some Cameronians to their friends in Holland ; and 
 the fright he was in had so seized him that he was easily 
 managed to pretend to discover anything that was suggested to 
 him. But, as he had never been in London, his story was so 
 ill laid together that the Court was ashamed to make use of 
 him, and the thing turned heavily upon himself, for he went 
 mad upon it. There were two others who came in and accused 
 Sir Hugh Campbell of Cessnock, an ancient gentleman of good 
 estate, of having promoted the rebellion of Bothwell Bridge; 
 but, when the first witness was examined, Campbell charged him 
 to look him full in the face, and to consider well what he was 
 going to say of him, for he took God to witness he had never 
 seen him before as far as he could remember, which struck him 
 so that he owned he knew nothing of him ; and, the other 
 witness being equally confounded, the jury acquitted Campbell ; 
 but they received such a severe reprimand from the Earl
 
 Charles II. Last Part 209 
 
 of Perth, who was then Justice-General, as showed how ready 
 he was to sacrifice both justice and innocent blood to his 
 ambition, which in this case was still grosser because his brother 
 was promised that gentleman's estate when it should be con 
 fiscated. 
 
 In the meantime a great breach was formed, and appeared 
 on all occasions between the Earls of Aberdeen and Queens- 
 berry, wherein Queensberry gaining the superiority, Aberdeen 
 was dismissed, and Lord Perth was made Chancellor an 
 honour that he had long been aspiring at, and wherein he 
 studied to gratify the Duke's temper, which he found was 
 inclined to unrelenting severity. 
 
 When any are to be struck in the boots, as they call it, it is 
 done in the presence of the Council ; and, upon that occasion, 
 almost all offer to run away. The sight is so dreadful, that, 
 without an order restraining such a number to stay, the board 
 would be forsaken. But the Duke, while he had been in Scot 
 land, was so far from withdrawing, that he stood all the while 
 with an unmoved indifference, and with an attention as if he 
 had been looking on some curious experiment. The rule about 
 the boots was, that upon one witness and presumptions both 
 together, the question (as they term it) might be given ; but it 
 was never known to be twice given, or that any other species of 
 torture might be used at pleasure. There was one Spence, a 
 servant of the Earl of Argyll, who, being taken up in London 
 only on suspicion, and sent down to Scotland, was required to 
 take an oath to answer all questions that should be put to him. 
 He refused to do it, and was struck in the boots ; but, when 
 that would not do, he was kept from sleep eight or nine nights ; 
 and, when that would not do likewise, he had steel thumb 
 screws put on him, which proved such exquisite torment that 
 he sank under it. But all he had to tell them was who were his 
 master's correspondents, and in what manner the cipher was to 
 be unfolded that he corresponded by. 
 
 When the torture had had this effect upon Spence, they 
 offered the same oath to Carstairs ; and, upon his refusing to 
 take it, they put his thumbs in the screws, and drew them so 
 hard that they could not unscrew them till the smith who made 
 them was brought with his tools to take them off. The extreme 
 torture made him confess all he knew, which amounted to no 
 more than some loose discourses about the taking of the Duke, 
 which he said his principles would never agree to ; but he had 
 some secrets of great consequence from Holland, trusted to him
 
 2io Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 by Fagel, which they had no suspicion of, and which his con 
 cealing at that time recommended him to the Prince of Orange's 
 favour, and was the foundation of the great confidence he put 
 in him as long as he lived. 
 
 Upon what was extorted from these two persons, the Earl of 
 Tarras and six or seven more men of quality were committed to 
 prison ; but the main design in their commitment was to destroy 
 Baillie of Jerviswood, by putting in force this new method of 
 proceeding against him. An accusation was sent him, not in 
 the form of an indictment, or grounded on any law, but on a 
 letter of the King's, wherein he was charged both with a con 
 spiracy to raise a rebellion, and with an engagement in the Rye 
 Plot, of all which he was now required to purge himself by 
 oath, otherwise the Council would hold him guilty of it, and 
 proceed accordingly against him. A committee of the Council 
 was sent to tender him the oath and to take his examination. 
 He protested his innocence and abhorrence of all designs 
 against the King or the Duke's life, but steadfastly refusing to 
 take the oath, he was adjudged guilty by the Council, fined 
 ^6,000, and ordered to lie in prison till it was paid, where he 
 was still used with the same severity, his friends denied access, 
 and not one of his own family allowed to attend him in his ill 
 ness. But all this was not enough to satisfy the Duke's malice ; 
 and therefore the ministry applied their arts to Tarras and the 
 other prisoners, threatening them with all the extremities of 
 misery if they would not witness some treasonable matter 
 against him ; and, in conclusion, they prevailed with Tarras, and 
 one Murray of Philipshaugh, to depose to some discourses that 
 Baillie had with them before he went to London, disposing 
 them to a rebellion. And the evidence was swelled to that 
 degree that Baillie was found guilty ; and, for fear that he should 
 die too quick for them as the cruelties of his imprisonment 
 had brought him very near it was condemned to be executed 
 that very day. 
 
 But all this barbarity affected him but little. His languish 
 ing in so solitary a manner made him embrace death as a 
 welcome deliverance. And, indeed, his whole behaviour looked 
 like the reviving of the spirit of the noblest of the old Greeks 
 and Romans, or rather of the primitive Christians and first 
 martyrs in those best ages of the Church. He showed in his 
 speech at his execution that in several particulars the witnesses 
 had wronged him. He still denied all knowledge of any design 
 against the King's life, or the Duke's, or of any plot against the
 
 Charles II. Last Part 211 
 
 Government. But, as he thought it was lawful for subjects, 
 being under such pressures, to try how they might be relieved 
 from them, so he protested that the whole affair wherein he 
 had been engaged had never gone any further, though those 
 who cut him off made it an apology for this infamous prosecu 
 tion that he was certainly guilty, and had the whole secret of 
 the negotiation between the two kingdoms entrusted with 
 him. 
 
 Thus died a very learned and worthy gentleman ; and, with 
 his death, there was a cessation of severities during this reign, 
 and several alterations both in Church and State did ensue. 
 Burnet died in Scotland, and Ross (a poor ignorant and worth 
 less man, but in whom obedience and fury were so eminent 
 that they supplied all other defects) was raised to be Primate of 
 Glasgow. Sterne, Archbishop of York, a sour, ill-tempered man, 
 and suspected of Popery because he was too compliant to the 
 Court, and zealous for the Duke, died very old and very rich ; l 
 and Dolben, Bishop of Rochester, who succeeded him, was a man 
 of more spirit than discretion, an excellent preacher, but of so 
 free a conversation that he laid himself open to much censure 
 in a vicious court. Gunning of Ely died this summer, a man 
 of great reading, with all the subtilty and disputing humour of 
 a schoolman ; but he had so great a confusion of things in his 
 head that he could bring nothing into method, and was there 
 fore a very dark and perplexed preacher. He was succeeded by 
 Turner, a sincere and good-natured man, but of too quick an 
 imagination, and too defective a judgment, and one who had 
 been conversant more with men than books. Old Morley, 
 Bishop of Winchester, died this winter, a very eminent man in 
 many respects, zealous against Popery, and yet a great enemy 
 to the Dissenters, with a considerable share of learning, and a 
 great vivacity of thought; but he had no command of his temper, 
 and was too apt, upon any slight opposition, to be provoked. 
 Mew, Bishop of Bath and Wells, succeeded him, who had been 
 a captain during the wars, knew very little of divinity or any 
 other learning, yet by his zeal and obsequiousness was raised 
 through several steps to this great see. Ken succeeded him in 
 Bath and Wells, a man of an ascetic course of life, and yet of a 
 very lively temper, if not too hot. He had a very edifying way 
 
 1 He was a native of Mansfield, Notts : chaplnin to Laud, and Master 
 of Jesus College, Cambridge, in 1633. Charles II. made him Bishop of 
 Carlisle, and translated him to York. He was a very learned man, and one 
 of the revisers of the Liturgy.
 
 212 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 of preaching, but it was more apt to move the passions than 
 instruct the reason ; and though his manner of doing it was 
 very taking, yet there always appeared more beauty than 
 solidity in his sermons. 
 
 There was one man more, whom we have had frequent occasion 
 to mention in the course of this history, who died this year, 
 viz., Bishop Leighton, who had resigned the prelacy of Glasgow, 
 and lived ten years after that in great retirement. He 
 used often to say that if he were to choose a place to die in, it 
 should be in an inn, because it not only looked like a pilgrim 
 going home (as this world was no more than an inn), but was 
 free likewise from that officious tenderness and concern of 
 friends which was an entanglement to a departing soul. And 
 accordingly he obtained his desire, for he died at the Bell Inn 
 in Warwick Lane ; and having not long before received the 
 last remittance he expected from Scotland, in this circumstance 
 he was fortunate too, that his provision and his journey failed 
 both at once. He was a man of a truly pious and apostolic 
 spirit ; often used to lament the gross ignorance and insensibility 
 of the common people of England in matters of religion ; often 
 used to blame the cruelty, and corruption, and secular spirit 
 that appeared in the Church of Rome, and to look on the 
 state that the Church of England was in with very melancholy 
 reflections. He allowed, indeed, that our Church was happily 
 constituted in her doctrine, her worship, and a main part of her 
 government ; but as to the administration, both with relation 
 to the Ecclesiastical Courts and the pastoral care, he accounted 
 it one of the most corrupt he had ever seen, and thought that 
 we looked like a fair carcass without a spirit, without that zeal, 
 that strictness of life, and that laboriousness of the clergy 
 which became us. 
 
 Besides these alterations in the Church, there happened this 
 year several changes at Court. Jenkins had done all the 
 drudgery they had for him to do, and was now dismissed from 
 being Secretary of State, and Godolphin succeeded him. The 
 Earl of Radnor was discharged from being President of the 
 Council, and Lord Rochester was put in his room. The Lord 
 Godolphin grew weary of the labour of being Secretary, and 
 chose rather to be First Commissioner of the Treasury; and 
 the Earl of Middleton, son to him who was Commissioner in 
 Scotland, was put in the office a man of generous temper, with 
 sufficient learning, a good judgment, and a lively apprehension,
 
 Charles II. Last Part 213 
 
 but not much religion. Dissenters all this year were severely 
 prosecuted, and not only prohibited from going to conventicles, 
 but compelled to go to church. The Earl of Danby, who had 
 been five years in the Tower, was admitted to bail ; and so were 
 the Popish lords that were sent thither upon Oates's informa 
 tion. Gates himself was prosecuted at the Duke's suit, and 
 fined ^100,000 and imprisonment for life, till a fit opportunity 
 should happen to carry matters further against him. Many 
 were sued in actions of scandalum magnatum by the Duke of 
 Beaufort, Lord Peterborough, and some others, and great 
 damages were given by obsequious juries. An information of 
 a higher nature was brought against Williams, Speaker of the 
 House of Commons, for licensing the printing of the votes, 
 whetein were some matters of scandal relating to certain lords ; 
 but he demurred to the jurisdiction of the Court, and so it went 
 on further. 
 
 Three women in Michaelmas term came and deposed against 
 Roswell, a Presbyterian preacher, treasonable words which he 
 had delivered at a conventicle, and swore to two or three periods 
 without the least variation. Roswell made a strong defence. 
 He proved that the persons were infamous ; that they were not 
 seen at his meeting that day, nor were they capable of re 
 membering so long a period so very minutely ; that he himself 
 had always been a loyal man ; that the words were too gross to 
 be delivered in a mixed assembly, had no relation to his text, 
 nor were ever heard, or anything like them, by any that were 
 there, or that took down the sermon in shorthand. But all his 
 defence availed nothing. Jeffreys laid it down for a foundation 
 that all preaching in conventicles was treasonable, and so ought 
 to dispose the jury to believe any evidence whatever on that 
 head ; whereupon they brought him in guilty. But when the 
 importance of the words came to be examined by men learned 
 in the law, they were found not to be treason by any statute ; 
 so Roswell moved for an arrest of judgment till counsel should 
 be heard on that point, which was granted him. But the 
 verdict that declared a preacher guilty for things said to be 
 uttered in a sermon, even against so many proofs and proba 
 bilities to the contrary, might nevertheless have been a pre 
 cedent very fatal to any of the clergy. 
 
 But there was another trial the same term of more importance 
 to the Court. When Armstrong was taken, there was found in 
 his pocket-book a letter of credit written by Hayes, a banker in 
 London, but directed to another name in Holland. Much pains
 
 214 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 were used with Hayes to prevail with him to discover the cabal 
 of men that sent money through his hands for the support of 
 those who had escaped beyond sea on account of the plot. 
 But, when they found him inflexible, they brought him to his 
 trial ; and Jeffreys, with his usual vehemence, urged the jury 
 to find him guilty of high treason, telling them withal that the 
 King's life and safety depended upon their verdict. The jury, 
 however, were too considerate to be wrought up to such a pitch. 
 It appeared to them that a banker's business was not to examine 
 into other men's concerns, but only give bills of exchange or 
 letters of credit as they were desired ; and thereupon, to the great 
 mortification of the Court, that began to reckon juries now 
 absolutely under their direction, they acquitted him. The 
 truth is, the King had now given up the reins of government 
 entirely into the Duke's hands, who in these and many more 
 instances drove on with vast precipitation, while the other 
 affected to be fast asleep. 1 
 
 If foreign affairs could have awakened him, there were trans 
 actions this year sufficient, one would think, to have done it. 
 The French King had not only made himself master of Luxem 
 burg, but, upon a very slight provocation, sent a fleet against 
 Genoa, with orders to bombard and take it. The Genoese, 
 however, made a better defence and beat off the French with 
 more courage than was expected from them. They made their 
 application next to the two great maritime powers to protect 
 them ; but when they saw that we would not, and the Dutch, 
 without us, could not undertake their protection, they were 
 forced to send the Doge and some senators to Versailles to ask 
 the King's pardon, though it was not easy to tell for what, 
 unless it was because they presumed to resist his invasion. As 
 little care was also taken in our Government to call the King of 
 France to account for his severe prosecution of his Protestant 
 subjects, contrary to his own edicts and solemn engagements : 
 all that we did was to give them some shelter as they came over 
 
 1 By way of note I must here mix in somewhat with relation to myself, 
 which set me at liberty to go round some parts of Europe. By the King's 
 orders I was discharged from preaching the Thursday's lecture at St. 
 Clement's ; and for a sermon preached at the Rolls Chapel, on the 5th of 
 November, on these words, " Save me from the lion's mouth ; thou hast 
 heard me from the horns of unicorns," which was thought of dangerous 
 construction, because the lion and the unicorn were the two supporters of 
 the King's escutcheon, I was by the King's order also dismissed from being 
 preacher of the Rolls ; so, having such public marks of jealousy set on me, 
 I thought it convenient to withdraw.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 215 
 
 this year in great numbers to England. As little care, too, to 
 assist the Emperor (who was now grown low and exhausted) 
 with proper supplies to push the war of Hungary against the 
 Turks with success, as it might have been done if, after the 
 King of Poland had raised the siege of Vienna, the Emperor 
 had been enabled to have taken the advantage of their conster 
 nation. And as little care, lastly, to protect our own trade, 
 when we suffered the Dutch to drive us out of Bantam this 
 year, and slighted all our works in Tangiers (which gave us the 
 key of the Mediterranean), even when they were well-nigh 
 brought to perfection, for no other reason but only to save 
 charge, and that the Court might be enabled to hold out the 
 longer without a Parliament. For the truth was, we were too 
 busy at home to mind any affairs beyond sea, and had private 
 designs carrying on that would not abide the inspection of Par 
 liament, and therefore made use of all the most abject means to 
 procure money without them. 
 
 A gentleman of a noble family being at a public supper with 
 much company, some hot words passed between him and another, 
 which raised a sudden quarrel, wherein one of them fell. The 
 proof could carry it no further than manslaughter, no marks of 
 any preceding malice appearing ; but the young gentleman was 
 prevailed on to confess the indictment, and let sentence pass on 
 him for murder, on assurance of a pardon. He had a pardon 
 indeed ; but, because his family was rich, and not well affected 
 to the Court, it cost him ; 16,000, of which the King had one 
 half, and the other was divided between the two ladies that were 
 in most favour. A monstrous perversion of justice this, to set 
 the blood of subjects for sale, not as a compensation to the family 
 of the person murdered, but to the Prince himself, and to some 
 that were in his good graces upon no commendable motives ! 
 And there was another thing that happened about this time, 
 though not exactly of the same nature. The Lord Clancarty, 
 who was sprung from the noblest and richest family in Ireland, 
 that had all along been Papists was by his father left to his 
 mother's guardianship, who, being a zealous Protestant, and 
 fearful lest her son should be infected with the religion of the 
 family, brought him over to Oxford, and committed him to 
 Bishop Fell's care, who was then also Dean of Christchurch, 
 for his education. He had an uncle, Colonel Maccarthy, who 
 was in most things where his religion was not concerned a man 
 of honour ; but here, to pervert his nephew, as well as make his 
 own court, he got the King to write to the Bishop to let the
 
 216 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 young lord come up and see the diversions of the town at 
 Christmas. But when he came, being then at the age of con 
 sent, he was married to one of Lord Sunderland's daughters, 
 whereby he soon broke through the restraint of his education, 
 and became a Papist. Thus the King suffered himself to be 
 made an instrument in one of the greatest of crimes the taking 
 of an infant out of the hands of a guardian, and marrying him 
 privately. 
 
 The King might, however, think that he commuted for the 
 sin of this by his being the cause of having that lord brought 
 up in the Popish religion, for which he, according to the general 
 opinion here and advices from abroad, was now in a disposition 
 to declare. It is certain that the Court of France was in full 
 expectation of it, which might probably be occasioned by this 
 that one of our East Indian ships had brought over a missionary 
 from Siam, a man of warm imagination, and who talked of his 
 having converted and baptized many thousands in that king 
 dom. He was well received at Court, and diverted the King 
 much with the relation of his adventures and other passages of 
 his travels. Upon this encouragement he desired a private 
 audience, in which he pressed the King with great vehemence 
 to return to the bosom of the Church. The King entertained 
 him civilly, and gave him such answers as he took for indica 
 tions of his intention to do so ; whereupon he wrote to Pere- 
 la-Chaise that they would quickly hear news of the King's 
 conversion. The confessor carried it to the French King, the 
 King gave hints of it at his levee and table, and so the rumour 
 of it was remitted to us. 
 
 But to go on with our missionary. He was directed by some 
 to apply himself to Lord Halifax, to try if he could convert him. 
 Lord Halifax found him to be a very vain and empty man ; 
 and, among other questions to which he returned very simple 
 answers, he desired to know why they had not endeavoured to 
 convert the King of Siam himself, since, according to his own 
 account, he was very favourable to their rejigion. The mission 
 ary told him that the King put his conversion on this issue, 
 viz. : " That, since they pretended the Author of their religion 
 had left with his followers a power of working miracles, if they 
 would apply that power to him, so as to expel the palsy from 
 his arm and his leg, he would change immediately. Their 
 bishop of the mission, as he said, was bold enough to undertake 
 it. The day was set ; the Bishop with his priests came ; and, 
 after some prayers, the King told them he felt some heat and
 
 Charles II. Last Part 217 
 
 motion in his arm, but the palsy was more rooted in his leg, 
 so he desired the Bishop to go on. The Bishop told him that 
 since their God had made one step to him, he must at least 
 make the next to God, and meet him half-way. But the King 
 was obstinate, and would have the whole miracle finished before 
 he would change. The Bishop, on the other hand, thought he 
 had ventured enough, and would engage no further, and so the 
 whole matter went off." Upon which Lord Halifax said that 
 since the King was such an infidel, they ought to have prayed 
 the palsy instantly into his arm again, which might have proved 
 both a means of his conviction and a sanction of their miracle. 
 This put the poor missionary into some confusion, and the air 
 of contempt wherewith Lord Halifax spoke of him and his 
 narration, both to the King and Duke, made him appear no 
 more at Court. 
 
 All this, however, had a favourable aspect towards Popery ; 
 and things, indeed, were come to such a crisis, that it became 
 necessary for the patriots of their country to attempt something 
 in order to rescue it from the imminent danger of it; and, 
 for this purpose, a new scheme at this time was formed to 
 alienate the King from the Duke's management; and how 
 contrived, or how to be carried on, is not so easy to penetrate. 
 This only is certain that the thing was laid at Lady Ports 
 mouth's lodgings; that Barillon, Lord Sunderland, and Lord 
 Godolphin were the managers of it; that the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth came over secretly upon it, and went back well satisfied 
 with his journey ; and that the thing was to begin with sending 
 the Duke of York into Scotland, for which purpose the King 
 had laid his positive commands upon him to go. 
 
 While things were in this situation the King was all of a 
 sudden taken very ill. His stomach was gone, his speech and 
 memory failed him ; and, on Monday, the 2nd of February, he 
 was seized with a violent fit that looked like an apoplexy. His 
 face was black, and his eyes were turned in his head ; but, 
 upon being bled, he came out of the fit, though the effects of 
 it hung so visibly about him, that, in case of a return, the 
 physicians could not but look on him as a dead man. The 
 Bishop of London took this occasion to remind him to prepare 
 for his latter end; but he did it in a cold and unaffecting 
 manner. Sancroft made a very weighty exhortation to him, in 
 which he used a good degree of freedom, which was necessary, 
 he said, because he was going to be judged by One that was 
 no respecter of persons. But the King answered neither of
 
 218 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 them a word, which some imputed to his insensibility, but 
 others more truly to his attachment to another religion, as it 
 appeared soon after. 
 
 On Thursday a second fit returned ; and when the physicians 
 told the Duke that the King was not likely to see the day to 
 an end, he immediately sent for Hudleston, a priest more 
 acceptable to the King, because he had a great hand in saving 
 him at Worcester fight. When Hudleston was come, and all 
 things were ready, the Duke whispered to the King, and the 
 King ordered all, except the Earls of Bath and Feversham, to 
 withdraw. The company went out, and the door was double 
 locked only Lord Feversham opened it once, and called for a 
 glass of water, when the Host stuck in the King's throat. 
 Hudleston had soon done his office, or at best did it very 
 superficially ; for in the compass of one half-hour he made the 
 King, according to what account he sent to Rome, go through 
 some acts of contrition and make his confession ; gave him 
 absolution, the sacrament, extreme unction, and what not ; 
 and then the company was suffered to come in again. Ken, 
 at this juncture, applied himself much to awaken the King's 
 conscience ; he spoke with an elevation of thought and expres 
 sion like a man who was inspired ; he exhorted him six or 
 seven times to receive the sacrament ; he pressed him to 
 declare his dying in the communion of the Church of England; 
 but the King said nothing. He pronounced short ejaculations 
 and prayers, that affected all but him they concerned chiefly ; 
 and read at last the Absolution over him, for which he was 
 mightily blamed, as prostituting the peace of the Church to 
 one who had led a very immoral life, and seemed then to 
 harden himself against everything that could be said to him ; 
 for, except that one expression, "That he hoped he should 
 climb up to heaven's gate," there was not one word heard to 
 come from him that savoured of religion. He went through 
 the agonies of death, however, with a calm and constancy that 
 amazed all who were about him. And his agonies were very 
 grievous ; for, besides the convulsions of nature, he complained 
 much how he was burnt up within, but he did it with great 
 decency. At last he gathered all his strength together to speak 
 his last words to the Duke, and every one was attentive to 
 them. He expressed great kindness to him, and that he now 
 delivered all into his hands with joy, recommending to his care, 
 over and over again, Lady Portsmouth and her son, the Duke 
 of Richmond, and desiring him to be kind to his other children,
 
 Charles II. Last Part 219 
 
 and not let poor Nelly l starve ; but he said not one word of 
 his queen, his people, or his servants, nor gave him any advice 
 about religion or government, the interest of the nation, or any 
 other subject that would have better become this serious and 
 important moment. 
 
 When he had done the agonies returned upon him, and 
 about eleven o'clock he died, on the 6th of February, 1685, in 
 the fifty-fourth year of his age, and after he had reigned, if we 
 reckon from his father's death, thirty-six years and eight days, 
 but if from his restoration, only twenty-four years, eight months, 
 and nine days. His dying so critically, as it were, in the 
 minute in which he seemed to begin a new turn of affairs, 
 made it generally believed that he had not fair play for his life. 
 He had come but just before to a final resolution of sending 
 away his brother, and of calling a Parliament, which was to be 
 executed the next day after he fell into the fit whereof he died. 
 Lady Portsmouth was in this secret ; and she speaking of it 
 to her confessor, he very likely told it to some who took this 
 wicked means to prevent it. It is certain that both Lower and 
 Needham, two famous physicians, plainly discerned two or 
 three blue spots on the outside of the stomach ; and, when 
 Needham called twice to have it opened, the surgeons seemed 
 not to hear him, and busied themselves in inspecting some 
 other parts, till the stomach, when called for again, had been 
 carried away. Sharp, another physician, spoke more confi 
 dently than others of the thing; but, soon after, he himself 
 was poisoned (as he verily believed, with a draught of worm 
 wood wine, that he had in the house of a Popish patient not 
 far from Tower Hill) for speaking so freely of the King's death. 
 
 After all, there was no suspicion of such practices laid upon 
 the Duke. They might have been done without his knowledge; 
 but that which drew hard censures upon him was, that he let 
 the King's body lie neglected, as it did, without any state and 
 magnificence, and gave it a funeral at last not so great and 
 expensive as that of any ordinary nobleman. The truth is, 
 there was something more due to the royal remains of a brother 
 who, how ungracious soever he might be to others, was certainly 
 very kind to him. 
 
 Thus lived and died King Charles II., who was one of the 
 
 1 The actress, Eleanor Gwynne, by whom he had the Duke of St. 
 Alban's, ancestor of the present duke.
 
 22O Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 greatest instances in history of the various revolutions that ever 
 could befall any one man. He was bred up, the first twelve 
 years of his life, with the splendour that became the heir of 
 three kingdoms. After that, he passed through eighteen years 
 in great inequalities, unhappy in the war, in the loss of his father, 
 and of the crown of England. While he was abroad he never 
 seemed to lay anything to heart, but pursued his diversions and 
 irregular pleasures with the same serenity as if things about him 
 had been in a happy condition. During what should have been 
 the active part of his life he was given up to sloth and lewdness 
 to such a degree that he hated business, and could not bear to 
 engage in anything that put him to the least trouble or constraint. 
 In his administration the softest thing that can be said of him 
 is, that he wanted steadiness and good conduct. His entering 
 into two Dutch wars upon a frivolous pretence, his sacrificing 
 Lord Clarendon to public resentment, his shutting up the 
 Exchequer, his declaration for toleration, his selling his own 
 country, and contributing so much to raise the greatness of 
 France, his professing to be of the Church of England while he 
 secretly was reconciled to the Church of Rome, with many more 
 instances that have been mentioned in the course of this history, 
 were a chain of black actions flowing from such black designs as 
 were enough to discredit all the fulsome flatteries that addresses 
 came loaded with. 
 
 In short, his person and temper, his vices as well as his 
 fortunes, resemble the character we have given us of Tiberius 
 so much, that it is no hard matter to draw a parallel between 
 them. Tiberius's banishment, and coming afterwards to reign ; 
 his hatred of business, and his love of pleasure ; his raising 
 of favourites, and trusting them entirely ; his pulling them 
 down, and hating them excessively ; his covering his revenge 
 with an appearance of softness, his craft and artifice with a 
 show of sincerity; and deceiving all who trusted him by fair 
 words and artful insinuations, bring them so near a likeness that 
 it is less wonder there should have happened, at such a distance 
 of time, so remarkable a resemblance of their face and 
 person. 1 
 
 However ungrateful the task has proved to myself, thinking 
 
 1 At Rome I saw one of the last statues made for Tiberius after he had 
 lost his teeth. But abating the alteration which that made, it was so like 
 King Charles, that Prince Borghese and Signor Dominico, to whom it 
 belonged, agreed with me that it looked as if the statue had been made 
 for him.
 
 Charles II. Last Part 221 
 
 the labour would be of some use to posterity, I have gone 
 through all that I know of the long and tedious reign of King 
 Charles II. with the strict regard to truth of one who believes 
 that he must give an account to God of what he writes, as well 
 as of what he says and does, with an earnest desire to preserve 
 what I think may prove instructive to mankind, regardless of 
 party or braggadocio.
 
 BOOK IV 
 
 OF THE REIGN OF KING JAMES II 
 
 I AM now to prosecute this work, and to give the relation of 
 an inglorious and unprosperous reign, that was begun with 
 great advantages, yet was so badly managed that all came in 
 conclusion to one of the strangest catastrophes that is in any 
 history. Such an unexpected revolution deserves to be well 
 opened ; I will do it as fully as I can. 
 
 As soon as the King was dead, orders were presently given 
 for proclaiming his brother. But as there were few tears shed 
 for the former, so there were as few acclamations of joy for the 
 present King. It was a heavy solemnity, and a dead silence, 
 without any disorder or tumult, followed it through the streets. 
 When the Privy Councillors came back from the proclamation 
 and waited on the new King, he made a short speech to them, 
 wherein he began with "an expostulation for the ill opinion 
 that had been entertained of him ; promised that he would 
 maintain the liberty and property of the subject ; gave them his 
 word that he would defend the Church, because it was a friend 
 to monarchy; but gave them withal to understand that he 
 would not depart from any one branch of his prerogative." And, 
 upon the King's promise to defend the Church, a new set of 
 addresses went round England, full of loyalty and obedience, 
 without limitation or restriction, as the University of Oxford 
 worded theirs ; but the clergy of London taking care to insert 
 that it should be the religion established by law, dearer to them 
 than their lives. For this they were much taken notice of, as 
 people who used a menacing form. 
 
 All employments ended with the death of the late King ; but 
 there were no great alterations made, except in the posts of the 
 household, to which those who attended the King while he was 
 Duke of York were promoted. The Earl of Rochester was 
 declared Lord Treasurer; the Earl of Clarendon, Lord Privy 
 Seal ; the Marquis of Halifax, Lord President of the Council ; 
 the Earl of Sunderland was, to the wonder of mankind, continued 
 in his post ; and Lord Godolphin put in a high station in the 
 Queen's household. 
 
 The King had not long sat on the throne before he forgot his
 
 James II 223 
 
 promise of maintaining the liberty and proj orty of his subjects ; 
 for though the customs and additional excis.- were only granted 
 to the late King for his life, and so deter nined with it, yet 
 orders were sent to the commissioners to le y the customs as 
 usual ; and a form, made after the late King's dtath, with a 
 false date put to it, was produced for continuing the excise, 
 which gave but a melancholy prospect to such pe' pie as con 
 sidered what the probable consequences of a reign would be 
 that set out thus at first with fraud and violence. 
 
 Persons of all ranks went in great crowds to pay their duty 
 to the King, Most of the Whigs that were admitted were 
 received but coldly at best, some were reproached with their 
 former behaviour, and others were denied access. In this and 
 many other things the King acted without dissimulation ; for, 
 the second Sunday he came to the throne, he went openly to 
 mass, and soon after sent Caryl to Rome with letters to the 
 Pope, but without any public character. 
 
 In some things, however, he seemed to comply with the genius 
 of the nation; for he declared that he would maintain the 
 balance of Europe ; would live in great confidence with the 
 Prince of Orange and the States of Holland; would not be 
 biassed by French counsels, but in all things act in an equality 
 with their haughty monarch. And accordingly, when Lord 
 Churchill was sent over to the Court of France, to give notice 
 of his brother's death, he ordered him to observe minutely the 
 state and ceremony wherewith he was received, that he might 
 show the very same to him who should be sent over with the 
 compliment. But for all these mighty boasts, the King of 
 France used to say of him that he was willing to take his money 
 as well as his brother had done. He promised the Queen, and 
 his priests too, that he would see Mrs. Sedley no more, but apply 
 to business, and live a very virtuous life. And accordingly Mrs. 
 Sedley was ordered from her lodgings in Whitehall, though he 
 still continued a secret connection with her ; and for many hours 
 a day he used to sit with the Council, the Treasury, and the 
 Admiralty, and seemed very sedulous in the administration of 
 things. And with these good appearances he began his reign. 
 
 As soon as the King had put his affairs in method, he resolved 
 to hasten his coronation, and to have it performed with great 
 magnificenCe. Bishop Turner was ordered to preach his 
 sermon ; and the best thing in it was his descant on that part 
 of Constantius Chlorus's history in which he tried who would 
 be firm to their religion, and thence inferred that those would
 
 224 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 be faithfullest to himself who were truest to their God. Both 
 the King and Queen resolved to have all done in the Protestant 
 form, and to assist in all the prayers. The King, however, 
 would not receive the sacrament, which is always a part of the 
 ceremony ; and though he took the oath as usual, yet he either 
 did it as a sin, with a resolution not to keep it, or with a reserved 
 meaning and construction of it in his own mind. All things 
 were gay and pompous in the appearance; and yet, on the 
 whole, it did not look well, though the Queen and peeresses 
 made a very graceful figure. The crown was not well fitted for 
 the King's head it came down too far, and covered the upper 
 part of his face ; the canopy carried over him broke ; his son 
 by Mrs. Sedley died that day ; and some other smaller things 
 looked a little unfortunate, and, by people of superstitious 
 fancies, were magnified into ill omens. 
 
 At the same time a Parliament was called, and much art used 
 to manage elections so as to procure one that would please the 
 King. In the new charters that had been granted, the choice 
 of the members was taken out of the hands of the inhabitants, 
 and restrained to the corporation men, leaving all out who were 
 not acceptable to the Court. In some boroughs they could not 
 find a sufficient number to depend on, and so the neighbouring 
 gentlemen were made corporation men ; and, in other places, 
 persons of different counties, and not so much as known in the 
 borough, were named. Nay, in the county of Cornwall, which 
 sends up forty-four members, the very officers of the Guards were 
 named in many charters, by which method a Parliament was 
 returned of a very odd complexion ; for, as they were neither 
 men of parts nor estates, so there was no hope left either of 
 working on their understandings or making them sensible of 
 their interest. All was fury and violence in them, and a settled 
 resolution to recommend themselves to the King by putting 
 everything in his power, and ruining all those who had been 
 for the Exclusion. 
 
 The continuance of the frost had shut up the Dutch ports so 
 long, that the account of the late King's sickness and death, and 
 of the beginning of the new King's reign, came to them all at 
 once. The Prince of Orange was in great perplexity what to do 
 with the Duke of Monmouth. He knew that the King would 
 immediately ask to dismiss him, if not to deliver hun up ; and 
 the States, he was sensible, would not undertake to protect him. 
 And therefore he thought it the most prudent way to part with 
 him at first as decently as he could, rather than incur the
 
 James II 225 
 
 King's displeasure, and stay till compulsion were put upon 
 him. And it was well he did ; for, besides the dismission of the 
 Duke of Monmouth, the King expected of him likewise that he 
 should break all those officers who had waited on him while he 
 was in Holland, seeing he could not trust him, nor depend on 
 his friendship, so long as he employed such men in his service. 
 This was a proposal of hard digestion to the Prince ; but, as 
 the officers might easily be employed again, or allowed their 
 appointments during their recess, it was advisable at this time 
 to comply with it, which laid the foundation of the King's 
 future confidence in him. 
 
 The Duke of Monmouth, in the meantime, retired to Brussels, 
 where he knew he could not stay long, and was thinking to go 
 to Vienna, or some other court in Germany, when those that 
 were about him studied to enflame him both against the King 
 and the Prince of Orange. They said that the Prince, by 
 casting him off, had cancelled all former obligations, and that 
 the King intended to make him a vagabond upon the face of 
 the earth ; that therefore, instead of shamefully retreating, he 
 ought to set himself about delivering his country, and raising 
 his party and friends, who were now likely to be very ill used 
 for adhering to him and to his interest. 
 
 Meanwhile, the deliberations in Holland among the English 
 and Scotch who had fled thither began to ripen faster than was 
 expected. The Earl of Argyll had all along proposed to make an 
 attempt in Scotland, and to raise five thousand men in his own 
 country, which, as he imagined, would draw all the western and 
 southern counties about him. But the grand stop of the design 
 lay in the want of a sum of money to furnish him out, which 
 when a zealous rich widow in Amsterdam heard of, she sent to 
 him and supplied him with ^"10,000, wherewith he bought a 
 stock of arms and ammunition, and had them put secretly on 
 board. 
 
 The Duke of Monmouth had been secretly at their consulta 
 tions, and would willingly have gone along with them himself ; 
 but, instead of offering him the command, Lord Argyll pressed 
 him to make a descent upon England at the same time ; and 
 the little council he had about him, but chiefly Lord Grey and 
 Lady Wentworth, were incessantly urging him to set about it. 
 Lady Wentworth had followed him to Brussels, desperately in 
 love with him ; and both he and she came to fancy that he 
 being married to his duchess when he was indeed of the age of 
 consent, but not capable of a free consent, their living together 
 
 I "
 
 226 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 was no way offensive to God, because his marriage was in itself 
 null ; and she, among others, had a great hand in persuading 
 him that as soon as he landed, all the West would come about 
 him ; that London was in a disposition to revolt, and ready to 
 declare for him ; and that the apprehension of tumults so near 
 the King's person would hinder him from sending any con 
 siderable force against him till he had formed an army, and was 
 able to fight him on equal terms. 
 
 This appeared a mad and desperate undertaking to the Duke 
 of Monmouth himself. He knew what a weak body a rabble 
 was, and how unable to deal with troops long trained. He had 
 neither money nor officers, nor any encouragement from men 
 of estates and interest in the country. It seemed too early yet 
 to venture on such a design, and looked like throwing away all 
 his hopes in one day. But Argyll's going, and the promise he 
 had made him of coming to England in all possible haste, had 
 fixed him so, that all further deliberations being laid aside, he 
 pawned a parcel of jewels, and bought up arms, and they were 
 put on board a ship and freighted for Spain. 
 
 Argyll had a very prosperous voyage, and was so favoured by 
 the winds that in a very few days he arrived in Argyllshire. 
 But, at his landing, he found that the early notice the Council 
 had had of his design (for the gentlemen of the country were, by 
 their order, brought into Edinburgh), had spoiled his whole 
 scheme. He got together, however, about five-and-twenty 
 hundred, and with these, had he gone over to the west counties 
 of Ayr and Renfrew, he might have given the Government 
 much trouble ; but he lingered so long in the Highlands, in the 
 hopes of collecting more strength, that all the country was sum 
 moned to come out against him ; and when he understood that 
 a party of the King's troops had forced the castle wherein he 
 had lodged his arms, he, apprehending all was lost, put himself 
 in a disguise, and attempting to make his escape, was taken. 
 The chief of the prisoners besides were Sir John Cochrane, 
 Rumbold, and Ayloffe. Thus ended this rebellion, with the 
 effusion of very little blood in action, and not a great deal shed 
 in justice; for it was considered that the Highlanders were 
 under such ties by their tenures that it was somewhat excusable 
 in them to follow their lord. 
 
 When the Earl of Argyll was brought to Edinburgh, he ex 
 pressed a cheerful calm under all his misfortunes, and no con 
 cern of conscience for what he had done. His illegal attainder, 
 he said, had dissolved his allegiance, and it was no more than
 
 James II 227 
 
 justice to himself and family to endeavour to recover what had 
 been extorted from him, though he could not but blame the Duke 
 of Monmouth for delaying his coming so long, and assuming 
 the title of King, both of which were contrary to their agree 
 ment at parting. When the day of his execution came, Mr. 
 Charteris, who had attended him in his confinement, happening 
 to come to him as he was ending dinner, he pleasantly said, 
 " Sero venientibus ossa." He prayed often with him, and by 
 himself, and then went to the scaffold with great serenity, 
 where he died pitied by all ; for his death being pursuant to the 
 sentence that was passed upon him three years before, was 
 thought by most people no better than murder. 
 
 Cochrane had a rich father, the Earl of Dundonald, who 
 offered the priests ,5,000 to save his son, and interposed so 
 effectually that the bargain was made. However, to cover it, 
 he was made to petition the Council that he might be sent to 
 the King, having some secrets of great consequence, which 
 were to be communicated to none but him. The Council 
 accordingly sent him, and when he had been some time in 
 private with the King, it was pretended that the importance 
 of his discoveries had merited his pardon, and so he was let 
 
 g?- 
 
 ' jgoimbold >as the man who dwelt at the Rye House, where 
 the plot was laid for murdering the late and present King ; and 
 when he came to die, he denied the truth of that conspiracy, 
 though he did acknowledge that many propositions had been 
 started in West's chambers about killing the two brothers, 
 about the commodiousness of his house for the purpose, and 
 the manner in which it might be managed ; but he affirmed it 
 was nothing but talk, nor was ever any step towards execution 
 so much as resolved on. He declared he was for no common 
 wealth, but a kingly government, according to the laws of 
 England ; but then his opinion was that the ties between 
 prince and people were mutual, and that, if one depart from the 
 legal measures of government, the other had a right to assert 
 their liberties and restrain him ; for it could never enter into 
 his thoughts, as he expressed it, that God had made the greater 
 part of mankind with saddles on their backs and bridles in 
 their mouths, and some few booted and spurred to ride the rest. 
 Ayloffe, another English gentleman, and nephew to the old 
 Earl of Clarendon by marriage, to prevent the course of justice, 
 had stabbed himself with a penknife in several places, but not 
 mortally ; whereupon he was sent up to London, as capable of
 
 228 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 making great discoveries. But the King could draw nothing 
 from him, though he told him it was in his power to pardon 
 him ; but only this severe repartee, that he knew it was in his 
 power, but not in his nature to pardon. And accordingly it 
 proved, for he suffered with the rest. 
 
 Upon the Earl of Argyll's execution a Parliament was held 
 in Scotland, and the Marquis of Queensberry, soon after made 
 a duke, was appointed the King's Commissioner. He was 
 naturally violent and imperious in his own temper, and seeing 
 the King's inclination to such measures, he thought to have 
 recommended himself effectually by being an instrument in 
 setting up an absolute and despotic form of government. To 
 this purpose he proposed an instruction obliging all people to 
 take the Test under pain of high treason, and projected severe 
 laws that left an arbitrary power in the Privy Council. But, 
 without delivering up his religion likewise, which he was resolved 
 to maintain, he found at last that all would not satisfy the King's 
 expectations. 
 
 The Parliament did not sit long, for all matters went on 
 without opposition. The Duke of Queensberry gave very full 
 assurances on the point of religion that the King would not 
 alter it ; and the Parliament, in return, gave the King for life 
 all the revenues that had been given his brother, with some 
 additional taxes. But there was one particular act that was 
 both the shame and iniquity of this session. 
 
 When Carstairs was put to the torture, he gained a promise 
 of the Council, before he would discover anything, that no use 
 should be made of his deposition against any man whatever. 
 In his deposition he said something that affected Sir Hugh 
 Campbell and his son with high treason. They had been taken 
 up in London two years before, been all that while kept close 
 prisoners, and the Earl of Melfort had got the promise of their 
 estate, which was worth ^1,000 a year, as soon as they should 
 be convicted. So now an act passed which was to last but for 
 six weeks, "that if within that time any of the Privy Council 
 could depose that any man was proved to be guilty of treason, 
 he should, upon such proof, be attainted." Hereupon the two 
 Campbells were produced and brought to the bar, to show 
 cause why sentence should not be executed. The old gentleman, 
 then near eighty, seeing the ruin of his family was determined, 
 took courage, and said " that the oppression they had laboured 
 under had driven them to despair, and made them think of 
 means to secure their lives and liberties ; that upon this occasion
 
 James II 229 
 
 they had gone to London, had some meetings with Baillie and 
 others, but that they had sent down one to hinder all risings, and 
 had refused the oath of secrecy that had been offered to them." 
 This was called a confession of their crime ; and though they 
 were pardoned out of a show of mercy, yet Lord Melford 
 possessed himself of their estate, and the old gentleman died 
 soon after, heart-broken with his long imprisonment and this 
 most abominable conclusion of it. 
 
 There were the like severe proceedings in the courts of 
 justice in England as there were in the Scottish Council. For 
 Gates, being convicted of perjury by the testimony of the wit 
 nesses from St. Omer's, who had been brought over before to 
 discredit his, but were not believed by the jury then, was con 
 demned to have his priestly habit taken from him ; to be a 
 prisoner for life ; to be set in the pillory in all the public places 
 of the City : after that to be set in the pillory four times a year 
 during his life ; and to be whipped by the common hangman 
 from Aldgate to Newgate one day, and from Newgate to 
 Tyburn the next. His whipping was performed with so much 
 rigour that his back seemed to be all over flayed ; but, as he 
 was an original in all things, he bore it with a constancy that 
 amazed all who saw him. 
 
 Dangerfield, another witness in the Popish plot, was sentenced 
 to the same punishment. But it had a more terrible conclusion 
 in him ; for, just as he had got his last lash, a student of the 
 law, transported with the heat of the times, gave him such a 
 blow on his head with his cane that he died immediately. 
 The person was apprehended, and being left to the course of 
 the law, notwithstanding all intercessions for his life, he was 
 executed. 
 
 When the Parliament met, the King's speech ran much upon 
 the same subject as did that to the Council upon his first 
 accession to the throne, only he added that it was a wrong 
 notion to think of having frequent Parliaments by keeping him 
 low their way to compass that was to be liberal, and use him 
 well. And accordingly the revenue was not only granted for 
 life, but everything that was asked given with such readiness, 
 that the King was ashamed not to stop the profusion of the 
 Commons by a message to the House that he desired no more 
 that session. And what is very remarkable, the persons who 
 had such propensity to give in this reign were set on by Mus- 
 grave and others, who pretended afterwards to be frugal patriots 
 and careful managers of the public treasure.
 
 230 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 This propensity to serve the Court made others mention 
 something in the way of an additional security to the Protestant 
 religion ; but it was carried in the House that to take the 
 King's word in that matter would be a tie upon his honour, 
 and gain his heart so entirely that it would avail more than all 
 laws whatever. And accordingly, in their address to the King, 
 they expressed a singular satisfaction in the promise he had 
 given them, under which they thought themselves and their 
 religion entirely safe. 
 
 When petitions concerning elections were presented, Seymour 
 spoke very high, and with great weight, that irregularities in 
 elections had been so flagrant as to make some men question 
 whether this was a true representative of the nation or not, and 
 that the petitioners had little reason to expect justice where so 
 many were too guilty to judge impartially. But the charge was 
 so true and so general at that time, that no one had the inno 
 cence or assurance to second him. 
 
 The courtiers, on the other hand, were projecting many laws 
 to ruin all who opposed their designs, and had brought in a bill 
 declaring words spoken against the King or his government to 
 be treason ; which Serjeant Maynard opposed with great weight 
 of argument, showing the inconvenience thereof, and hoping, 
 as he concluded, that they would keep to the law of the 25th of 
 Edward III., by which an overt act was made the proof of ill 
 intentions. But though this made some stand for the present, 
 yet, had not the Duke of Monmouth's landing put this session 
 to a speedy conclusion, it is certain that everything of this 
 nature would have passed. The House of Lords, however, were 
 more reserved ; they did justice to the Popish lords who were 
 in the Tower ; and, when the Commons waved their impeach 
 ment, set them at liberty. But they stuck at reversing the 
 attainder of the Lord Stafford, as being loath to condemn past 
 proceedings. 
 
 While things were in this agitation, the Duke of Monmouth 
 landed at Lyme, in Dorsetshire; and he, with his small company, 
 which consisted but of eighty-two persons, came on shore in 
 good order, but with too much daylight, which discovered how 
 few they were ; and, upon the report and belief of the thing, 
 an act of attainder passed both Houses in one day ; a sum of 
 money was set on his head ; and with that the session of 
 Parliament ended. 
 
 Upon the Duke of Monmouth's landing, he published a 
 Manifesto, whtrein he charged the King with burning London,
 
 James II 231 
 
 with the Popish plot, with Godfrey's murder, with the Earl of 
 Essex's death, with poisoning the King, with taking away the 
 old charter, and all other hard things done in the last reign. 
 He set forth that the King's religion made him incapable of 
 the crown ; that three Houses of Parliament had successively 
 voted his exclusion ; that the present Parliament was no proper 
 representative of the people ; that his pretensions should be 
 submitted to the determination of a free Parliament ; and that 
 liberty, both in spirituals and temporals, should be given to 
 men of all persuasions. But the Declaration was heavy and 
 dull, full of black malice, and tedious long periods, which 
 showed it to be Ferguson's composing. 
 
 But for all the dulness of his Declaration, he had soon men 
 enough about him (though few of the gentry came in to him) 
 to employ all his arms. He took great pains in training and 
 animating them, and was himself so obliging in his behaviour 
 that he became master of all their hearts. But he quickly 
 found what it was to be at the head of undisciplined men who 
 knew nothing of war and were unaccustomed to rigour. 
 
 Lord Grey, soon after their landing, had given too visible a 
 proof of his cowardice to have the command of the horse (as it 
 was designed) committed to him alone, and therefore the Duke 
 intended to have joined Fletcher, a Scotch gentleman of great 
 parts and many virtues, but extravagantly passionate, in the 
 command with him. But he met with a sad disappointment. 
 Fletcher was ordered out one day with a party, and having no 
 horse ready, took the first that came in his way, which chanced 
 to belong to a person that had brought in a good body of men 
 from Taunton. Upon his return the owner of the horse re 
 proached him in very injurious terms, which the other bore 
 longer than could have been expected from his impetuous 
 temper ; but when the man persisted in his foul language, 
 and attempted to strike him, Fletcher unhappily drew a pistol 
 and shot him dead. The country-people were coming in a 
 body to demand justice, so that Fletcher was obliged to make 
 his escape. 
 
 The great error in the Duke's conduct was, that while the 
 country was open, and the militia in no great disposition to 
 oppose him, he did not immediately enter upon some hardy 
 action, and then march directly either to Bristol or Exeter, 
 where he would have found a sufficient support, instead of 
 lingering, as he did, in the neighbourhood of Lyme until the 
 forces from Scotland employed against Argyll, and the regi-
 
 232 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 ments that were in the service of the States, were all sent over, 
 and marching down against him. 
 
 The Prince of Orange, when he sent over the forces, offered 
 in his own person to come and fight in defence of the King ; 
 but the King, with great expressions of acknowledgment, 
 refused it. The King of France offered him, in like manner, 
 some assistance ; but, for fear of disgusting the nation, he 
 would not accept it. He himself seemed not inclinable to take 
 the command of the army upon him ; the Prince of Denmark 
 had it not offered him, and did not ask it ; and so the Earl of 
 Feversham, who was of French parentage, and nephew to 
 M. de Turenne, an honest, brave, and good-natured man, but 
 extremely weak withal, had it conferred upon him. 
 
 The Duke of Monmouth now began to find his mistake in 
 staying so long about Lyme, and was under a necessity (being 
 straitened sore for want of bread) to come to a speedy decision. 
 He had laid a design to surprise Lord Feversham (who took no 
 care to have parties out abroad to bring in intelligence) while 
 he and his army were asleep ; but being misled in his march, 
 whereby he lost an hour, and stopped a considerable time in 
 passing a ditch, the King's forces took the alarm, and had time 
 to dress and put themselves in order before he came upon 
 them. His army at most was but between five and six thou 
 sand men ; the small body of horse ran upon the first charge, 
 which was imputed to Lord Grey's want of courage ; the foot 
 stood longer than could be expected, but being forsaken by the 
 horse, and gp.lled by the enemy's cannon, they ran at last. 
 About a thousand were slain and five hundred taken prisoners, 
 and the Duke himself quitted the field sooner than might have 
 been expected in a man of his courage and pretensions ; for he 
 suffered himself a few days before to be called king. He rode 
 towards Dorsetshire as far as his horse would carry him. When 
 that was tired he changed clothes with a shepherd, and went 
 on foot till he was weary, accompanied with none but a German, 
 whom he had brought over with him. The party that pursued 
 first found the shepherd in the Duke's clothes, who showed 
 them the way he took, and came afterwards to the German, 
 who pointed at the place where he lay; for he had covered 
 himself with some hay in a field, in hopes to lie unseen till 
 night, and then endeavour a farther escape. 
 
 When he was taken out of this cover, his body was so sunk 
 with fatigue and his mind dejected with fear, that he asked his 
 life in a manner not agreeable with the former part of it. He
 
 James II 233 
 
 wrote to the Earl of Feversham and to the Queen and Queen 
 Dowager to intercede for his life ; and when he came before 
 the King he made new and unbecoming submissions, with 
 some insinuations of a readiness to change his religion. But 
 all would not do ; the King's temper, as well as interest, would 
 not suffer him to pardon him ; and so on Wednesday, the 
 second day after his examination, orders were given for his 
 execution. 
 
 The two divines appointed to attend him were Turner and 
 Ken, the Bishops of Ely and of Bath and Wells. They en 
 deavoured to convince him of the sin of rebellion, and of the 
 sin of adultery, in living with the Lady Wentworth in the 
 manner he had done ; but he seemed very insensible of either, 
 though he was sorry, he said, for the blood that was spilled in 
 the one case, and made his marrying so young the excuse for 
 his transgressing in the other. He showed great neglect of his 
 duchess, and her resentment of his ill-usage made her part 
 with him with a good deal of indifference. He begged one 
 day more of life with much importunity ; but when he found it 
 was to no purpose, he composed himself to die. His whole 
 behaviour was easy and calm, not without a decent cheerful 
 ness. He prayed God to forgive him all his sins, unknown as 
 well as known, seemed confident in his infinite mercies, and 
 went to the place of execution, on Tower Hill, with an air of 
 undisturbed courage. His speech to the people was ve'ry short. 
 He gave the executioner a very great charge to dispatch him 
 quickly, and left him as much more money in his servant's 
 hands if he cut off his head cleverly ; but the executioner was 
 in such disorder and trembling all over, that, when he had 
 given him two or three strokes without finishing the matter, he 
 threw away the axe ; but the Sheriff forcing him to take it up 
 again, at three or four strokes more he severed his head from 
 his body. 
 
 Thus died this unfortunate young man, who had several good 
 qualities and some very bad ones. He was soft and gentle 
 even to excess, was sincere and good-natured, and understood 
 war well ; but he was immoderately given to pleasure and 
 favourites. Lord Grey compounded for his life at a very high 
 rate, and upon inglorious conditions ; for he was a witness for 
 the conviction of others, though a promise was made him that 
 none should die upon his evidence. Hampden was prevailed 
 on to plead guilty, and begged his life with such meanness as 
 himself was ashamed of afterwards, and could never get over 
 
 I 2
 
 234 Bishop Burners Own Times 
 
 the depressions it brought upon his spirits, which in the end 
 had a terrible conclusion, for about ten years after he cut his 
 own throat. 
 
 Had the King improved the advantage of this conjuncture 
 by a speedy execution of such as were fit to be made public 
 examples, and by a general indemnity to the rest, he had laid 
 the foundation of peace and tranquillity in the kingdom ; but, 
 instead of that, his army was kept for some time in the western 
 counties, where they lived at free quarters, and treated all that 
 they thought disaffected with rudeness and violence insuffer 
 able. 
 
 Kirk, who had commanded long at Tangiers, was by the 
 neighbourhood of the Moors become so savage, that some 
 days after the battle he ordered several prisoners at Taunton 
 to be hanged up ; and being then at an entertainment, as every 
 new health was drunk he had a fresh man turned off; and 
 observing how they shaked their legs in the agonies of death, 
 he called it dancing, and ordered music to play to them. 
 Jeffreys went the circuit to try the prisoners. He hanged 
 about six hundred persons, and persuaded many who had a 
 good defence in the law to plead guilty in hopes of pardon ; 
 but, instead of that, he had them executed instantly, without 
 allowing them a minute's time to say their prayers ; and the 
 King was so well pleased with his proceedings, that when he 
 came back from so much bloodshed he created him a baron 
 and peer of England. 
 
 Among other severities of this time there were two execu 
 tions of a very remarkable nature. One Gaunt, a woman who 
 was an Anabaptist in London, but singularly charitable to 
 people of all professions, harboured one of the rebels in her 
 house, and was contriving means for him to make his escape 
 beyond sea, when, by an unheard-of baseness, he went and 
 delivered himself, and accused her who harboured him. 
 
 The King had declared that he would look upon those who 
 harboured rebels as more criminal than the rebels themselves. 
 The woman accordingly was seized and tried, and though the 
 crime of harbouring a traitor was only proved against her by 
 this infamous evidence, yet she was condemned and burned, 
 as the law directs in case of a woman convicted of treason. 
 She died with a constancy, or even with a cheerfulness, that 
 struck amazement into the spectators, rejoicing that God had 
 honoured her to be the first who suffered by fire in that reign, 
 and that her suffering was a martyrdom, rather than anything
 
 James II 235 
 
 else, for that religion which taught her charity and was all 
 love. 
 
 Lady Lisle's husband had been a regicide, and was one of 
 Cromwell's lords ; but at the Restoration he went beyond sea, 
 and lived at Lausanne, where three desperate Irishmen, in 
 hopes of raising their fortunes by such service, killed him as he 
 was going to church, and being well mounted and ill pursued, 
 got into France. His lady was a woman of great piety and 
 charity, and a contrary principle to him, for she was much 
 affected with the King's death, and not easily reconciled to her 
 husband for the share he had in it. Hicks, a violent preacher 
 among the Dissenters, and one Nelthorp, came the night after 
 the battle to her house. As soon as she understood they had 
 been with Monmouth, she ordered her servant to carry an 
 information concerning them to the next justice of peace, but 
 in the meanwhile to suffer them to make their escape. But 
 before this was done, a party came about the house, and took 
 both them and her for harbouring them. There was no legal 
 proof brought that she knew them to be rebels : their names 
 were in no proclamation, and it was insisted on as a point of 
 law that till the persons found in her house were convicted she 
 could not be guilty. But, for all this, Jeffreys charged the jury 
 in a most violent manner to find her guilty ; and though twice 
 they brought her in not guilty, yet when he threatened them 
 with an attaint of jury they were overcome with fear, and 
 brought her in the third time guilty. Jeffreys had obtained of 
 the King a promise that he would not pardon her ; so that all 
 the favour shown her was the changing of her sentence from 
 burning to beheading, under which she died with great con 
 stancy of mind. 
 
 Most of those who suffered on this occasion expressed at their 
 death such a calmness and such a zeal for their religion, which 
 they believed to be in danger, as made great impression on the 
 spectators, though some of them were base enough to endeavour 
 to save themselves by accusing others. Goodenough, who had 
 been Under-Sheriff of London the year that Cornish was 
 Sheriff, joined with Rumsey to swear Cornish guilty of that for 
 which Lord Russell had suffered ; and the matter was driven 
 on so fast, that he was seized, tried, and executed within the 
 week. When he came to die he asserted his innocence with 
 great vehemence, and with some acrimony complained of the 
 methods taken to destroy him ; and his innocence so clearly 
 appeared soon after his execution, that his estate was restored
 
 236 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 to his family, and the two witnesses were sent to remote prisons 
 for life. 1 
 
 The King had raised new regiments and given some com 
 missions to Papists, which, during the time of danger, wherein 
 every one's service was acceptable, was overlooked ; but now, 
 that time being expired, their commissions, which were expected 
 to cease, were nevertheless continued, and the King declared 
 openly that he must look on all those who would not consent 
 to the repeal of such laws as excluded them from offices in 
 the next session of Parliament to be his enemies ; and in one 
 instance, to teach his subjects his intention, he dismissed the 
 Marquis of Halifax, because he refused to consent to such repeal, 
 from being President of the Council, and put Lord Sunderland, 
 who at the same time was continued Secretary of State, in that 
 post. 
 
 In Scotland the Duke of Queensberry was not only turned 
 out of all his employments, upon suggestions of his great zeal 
 against Popery by the Earls of Perth and Melfort, who were 
 lately turned Papists, but a deep design was likewise laid to 
 ruin him, and encouragement given to all persons to bring 
 accusations against him, either with relation to the adminis 
 tration of the Government or of the Treasury. In Ireland the 
 Duke of Ormonde had been a great curb and impediment to the 
 Papists, and the Archbishop of Armagh, though very compliant 
 to the Court in other respects, was not thought thorough-paced 
 enough at this conjuncture; and therefore Sir Charles Porter, 
 who was a zealous promoter of everything that the King pro 
 posed, a man of ready wit, but being very poor, was thought a 
 fit person to be made a tool of, was declared Lord Chancellor, 
 and the Earl of Clarendon, whose poverty equally qualified 
 him for the service, was declared Lord Lieutenant of Ireland ; 
 but the army was put under Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel, which 
 he soon began to new model. 
 
 When the administration was everywhere put in such hands 
 as were disposed to carry out the measures at Court, the next 
 design was to obtain a repeal of the acts that excluded all 
 Papists from public offices, and a parliamentary establishment for 
 a general toleration. But before we come to relate the attempts 
 that were made that way, it may not be improper to mention a 
 remarkable transaction abroad, that made a great impression on 
 all men's minds, and conduced in some measure to defeat them. 
 
 1 Swift noted in his copy of "Burnet's Own Times" that Goodenough 
 after this retired to Ireland, and practised as an attorney.
 
 James II 237 
 
 For some years the priests were everywhere making conver 
 sions in France. The hopes of pensions and preferments 
 wrought on many, the plausible colours that the Bishop of 
 Meaux put on the errors of Rome deluded some, and the reso 
 lution that the King had taken to have his subjects all of one 
 religion prevailed with others to conform. But all this brought 
 in but a small number. 
 
 Those who were for a toleration in matters of religion objected 
 to the King how happy France had been for this fifty years, 
 occasioned chiefly by the great quiet it was in with relation 
 to these matters ; how great numbers of people, wealthy and 
 industrious, and all contributing to the public revenue, would 
 leave the kingdom, and transplant their wealth and industry 
 into other countries in case any force were put upon their con 
 sciences ; how the Court of Rome, upon the removal of such 
 men, would grow as absolute in France as it was in Spain, for 
 asmuch as nothing was so effectual a check to its usurpations 
 on any kingdom as a number of dissenters from its communion 
 allowed to live quietly in it ; how the experiment at last would 
 become fatal to the peace of the kingdom, would precipitate some 
 into desperate courses, and so change a most glorious reign into 
 a dismal scene of blood and horror. 
 
 This old Rouvigny, who was then Deputy-General of the 
 Churches, laid before the King in a full audience ; but the 
 King, by the instigation of the Bishop of Paris and his con 
 fessor, was so fixed in his purposes to the contrary, that though 
 he hoped the matter would not proceed to bloodshedding, yet 
 he considered himself so indispensably bound, he said, to 
 endeavour the conversion of his subjects and the extirpation 
 of heresy, that if cutting off one of his own hands with the 
 other were necessary to effect it, he would willingly submit 
 to it. 
 
 M. de Louvoy, when he saw the King thus immovable in 
 his resolution, put him upon an experiment that he thought 
 would cut the matter short and prove effectual, which was to 
 let loose some bodies of dragoons to live upon the Protestants 
 at discretion. The experiment was begun in Berne, and having 
 there all imaginable success, was carried on to most places of 
 Guienne, Languedoc, and Dauphine', where the greatest number 
 of Protestants were ; and they, overcome with the fear and con 
 sternation of a military execution, did pretty generally comply. 
 Upon these compliances the King published an edict repealing 
 the Edict of Nantes (though that was declared to be a law per-
 
 238 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 petual and irrevocable), and whoever refused to be of the King's 
 religion after this was treated with great severity. 
 
 Men and women of all ages were not only stripped of all 
 they had, but driven from place to place, and hunted out of 
 their retirements. The women were carried into nunneries, 
 where they were starved, whipped, and barbarously used ; the 
 men were condemned to the galleys ; and even the new con 
 verts, if they received not the sacrament at their death, were 
 denied burial, and thrown out among other dead carcasses, 
 to be devoured by wolves or dogs. And all this the greatest 
 part of the clergy, the Regulars especially, admired so mightily 
 in their King, that their sermons were full of the most inflamed 
 eloquence that could be invented, to the glory of his zeal, in 
 strains too indecent and blasphemous to be mentioned by me. 1 
 
 1 I stayed at Paris till the beginning of August. Barillon sent me word 
 that the King had some suspicion of me, and bid me look to myself; but I 
 determined not to stir from Paris till the prisoners taken in Monmouth's 
 rebellion had been examined and tried. When that was over, General 
 Stouppe told me in confidence that M. de Louvoy had said to him that the 
 King was resolved to put an end to the business of the Huguenots that sea 
 son, adding that M. de Louvoy, as the General would not change his creed, 
 had recommended him to make a tour of Italy ; so we resolved to make that 
 journey together. From the day after I came to Rome, Pope Innocent XL, 
 Odescalchi, who knew who I was, sent to me, offering me a private audience 
 in bed, to save me from the ceremony of the pantoufle ; but knowing the 
 noise this would make, I declined it. Cardinal Howard and Cardinal 
 d'Estrees treated me with great kindness, and I had a discourse with the 
 latter about the validity of the Church of England's ordination, which he 
 admitted was canonical and regular in the beginning of Queen Elizabeth's 
 reign. Cardinal Howard treated me with much civility, and committed 
 advices of great importance from England to Rome, and from thence to 
 England, to my care. I stayed in Rome till Prince Borghese came to me 
 and told me it was time for rne to go, as, though I never provoked discussion, 
 I always boldly argued with those who opposed our Protestant principles. 
 After leaving Rome I continued my journey through the southern parts of 
 France till I came to Geneva and Switzerland, where I stayed three or four 
 months. I also stayed among the Lutherans at Strasburg and Frankfort, and 
 among the Calvinists at Heidelberg and in Holland, and was acquainted with 
 most of their eminent men. Though they were all in danger at that time 
 of having their religion extirpated, yet they kept up their old contests with 
 more eagerness than ever ; and though they were well enough qualified in 
 the knowledge of the Scriptures, original tongues, and points of controversy, 
 and attended diligently on their flocks, yet they were but dry preachers, 
 careless and indevout readers, and in some things, wherein they placed an 
 orthodoxy, superstitious to a fault. Upon reaching Utrecht, I found letters 
 from some of the Prince of Orange's Court, inviting me to reside at the 
 Hague, where I was received with great kindness by the Prince and Princess. 
 I had much private discourse with them, and in many instances was much 
 trusted by them.
 
 James II 239 
 
 This persecution in France drove many people of the neigh 
 bouring places into Orange, which was then a distinct principality 
 belonging to the Prince of Orange by an article of the treaty of 
 Nimeguen, whereof the King of England was guarantee. Upon 
 this the King of France not only wrote a letter to the Govern 
 ment there, requiring them to put all his subjects out of their 
 territory (which they did), but ordered Tesse, who commanded 
 in those parts, to march his dragoons likewise into the town, and 
 use them in the same manner as he had done the subjects of 
 France, forcing them to comply in point of religion ; and not 
 many months after he united Orange to the rest of Provence, 
 suppressing all the rights it had as a distinct principality, not 
 withstanding the several memorials that the Prince of Orange 
 gave in to the Court of England for redress. 
 
 Among other places whereunto the Protestants from France 
 were forced to flee, great numbers came over into England 
 (first and last there were between forty and fifty thousand of 
 them), and made a most dismal recital of the persecution. The 
 King did all he could to suppress the clamour of it, speaking 
 publicly against it with a vehemence that favoured of affecta 
 tion, distributed much money to several of them himself, order 
 ing a brief for a charitable collection for them over the nation, 
 and ordering them to be denised without paying fees, with other 
 great and valuable immunities ; but this was too glaring an 
 instance of a cruel and persecuting spirit in Popery to be stifled, 
 and came before the beginning of a Parliament very seasonably 
 to open the eyes of the nation. 
 
 When the Parliament was opened, the King told them " how 
 happy his forces had been in reducing a dangerous rebellion, 
 wherein it appeared how insignificant the militia was, and how 
 necessary an army would be for all their security ; that he had 
 put some in commission of whose loyalty he was well assured ; 
 that they had served him faithfully ; and therefore he hoped 
 they would not put such an affront on both him and them as to 
 turn them out ; that a good understanding between him and his 
 Parliament was a happiness that the world saw and they all 
 felt ; and therefore he hoped again that as he on his part had 
 observed all he had promised, they on theirs would do nothing 
 to interrupt it." 
 
 As soon as the King's speech was ended, there were some 
 debates in the House of Lords about thanking him for it. The 
 courtiers pressed it as a piece of respect that was always paid ; 
 and the Earl of Devonshire said he was for giving thanks because
 
 240 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 the King had spoke out so plainly, and forewarned them of what 
 they were to expect a standing army and a violation of the 
 Test Act. It was carried, however, in that House for an address 
 of thanks for the speech ; but in the House of Commons, where 
 the debates were more solemn and important, instead of any 
 thanks, an address was unanimously voted to the King that he 
 would maintain the laws, particularly that concerning the Test, 
 on which condition they would pass a bill indemnifying those 
 who had broken that law, and were ready to consider their 
 service in the supply they intended to give. 
 
 The King expressed his resentment of this with much 
 vehemence when the address was brought to him ; but not 
 withstanding his angry answer, the Commons were resolved to 
 insist on their address, though they thought proper to send one 
 Cook, who in the heat of a dispute chanced to say that they 
 were Englishmen, and not to be threatened, to the Tower, and 
 to oblige him to ask pardon for such indecent words. 
 
 In the House of Lords, upon the death of Lord Guildford 
 (which nothing but his successor made to be remembered with 
 regret), Jeffreys was advanced to the Seals ; and when the parts 
 of the King's speech came to be debated and remarked upon, 
 he began to talk in his rough manner, but was soon taken down, 
 and received as great a mortification as such a brutal man was 
 capable of. The truth is, all who argued for the repeal had no 
 more to say than this that it was against the rights of the Crown 
 to deny the King the service of all his subjects, and an in 
 sufferable affront done him to oblige all those whom he should 
 employ to swear his religion was idolatrous ; whereas those on 
 the other side declared (and among these Compton, Bishop of 
 London, spoke not only as his own sense, but as the sense of 
 the whole bench) that the Test was the best fence they had for 
 their religion, which, if once given up, all the rest would follow ; 
 and that if the King might by his authority supersede such a 
 law, fortified with so many clauses, and, above all, with that of 
 an incapacity, it was in vain to think of law any more ; the 
 Government would then become absolute and arbitrary. 
 
 When the King saw that both Houses were now so fixed that 
 nothing could be carried in either unless he would depart from 
 his speech, he prorogued the Parliament, and by frequent pro 
 rogations kept it still on foot for about a year and a half with 
 out ever holding a session. It was now that the term of 
 " closeting " came to be in use ; for the King was wont to call 
 most of those who had either spoken or voted for the Test into
 
 James II 241 
 
 his closet, and there talk very earnestly to them upon the subject. 
 Some gave him flat and hardy denials ; others were more silent, 
 but no less steady. But among those who positively denied 
 him, the story of Admiral Herbert (considering his manner of 
 life and former zeal for the King's service) was the most re 
 markable. When the King pressed him to promise that he 
 would vote the repeal of the Test, and he answered plainly that 
 he could not do it either in honour or conscience, the King said 
 he knew him to be a man of honour, but the course of his life 
 did not bespeak so great a regard to conscience ; whereupon he 
 boldly replied that though he had his faults, yet they were such 
 as those who talked more of conscience were equally guilty of ; 
 and though he was poor, and had much to lose (having places 
 to the value of ^4,000 a year), yet he would choose to lose them 
 all rather than comply. Whereupon, the King perceiving that 
 neither promises nor threats would prevail upon such inflexible 
 tempers, he dismissed them from their places, and dissolved the 
 Parliament. 
 
 Soon after the prorogation of the Parliament the Lord Dela- 
 mere was brought to his trial. Some witnesses swore high treason 
 against him, in that he designed to raise a rebellion in Cheshire 
 and to join with the Duke of Monmouth ; but this being sworn 
 only upon a report, was not admitted as any evidence in law. 
 One witness swore home against him that he and two more had 
 given him treasonable messages to carry to some others in 
 Cheshire ; but the two gentlemen making it appear by un 
 questionable proof that they were all the while never out of 
 London, the single evidence was discredited, though there was 
 this circumstance to support him, that the Lord Delamere did 
 secretly go from London into Cheshire at the time of the Duke 
 of Monmouth ; s landing, and after a stay of two or three days 
 in the country did as secretly return to London. But he pre 
 tending that the secrecy of his journey was to prevent confine 
 ment (he having a long time been prisoner in the Tower upon 
 bare suspicion), and the true purpose to visit his children, who 
 were actually in these different places, sick (as was well attested 
 by his physicians and domestics), the Lords unanimously 
 acquitted him, to the great joy of the town, notwithstanding 
 the Solicitor-General Finch, pursuant to the doctrine he had 
 maintained in former trials, made a violent declamation to prove 
 that one witness, with presumptions, was sufficient to convict a 
 man of high treason. 
 
 This was the first year of King James II.'s reign, and a fatal
 
 242 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 year it was to the Protestant religion. In February the King 
 of England declared himself a Papist. In June, Charles, the 
 Elector Palatine, dying without issue, the electoral dignity went 
 to the house of Neuburg, a most bigoted Popish family. In 
 October the King of France recalled and vacated the Edict of 
 Nantes. In December the Duke of Savoy recalled the edict 
 which his father had granted to the Vaudois ; and in England, 
 again, the King was for annulling the only security which his 
 subjects had against Popery, and setting up a dispensing power, 
 which he afterwards, in the following manner, accomplished. 
 
 Sir Edward Hales, a gentleman of a noble family in Kent, 
 declared himself a Papist, and not taking the Test according to 
 the statute, his coachman was set up to inform against him, and 
 to claim the ^500 that the law gave to the informer. As the 
 cause came nearer to a trial the judges' opinions were sifted, 
 and such as would not comply with the Court were instantly 
 turned out, and those of a more obedient understanding 
 put in their places. Among these, Sir Edward Herbert, 1 a 
 well-bred man, generous and good-natured, whose gravity and 
 virtues, and chiefly his succeeding such a monster 2 as had gone 
 before him, gave him great advantages, though he had but 
 small knowledge of law, with a set of high notions relating to 
 the King's prerogative, to recommend him, was made at once 
 Lord Chief Justice without any application of his own. So 
 that when the coach man's^cause came to be argued (which was 
 done with a most indecent coldness by such as were appointed 
 to expose and betray it), it was said in favour of the prerogative 
 that the government of England was entirely in the King ; 
 that the crown was an imperial, meaning an absolute, crown, 
 and that all penal laws were powers lodged in it only to enable 
 the King to force the execution of the law, but were not bars to 
 limit or bind up his power ; that acts of Parliament had been 
 often superseded ; and that, as the King could pardon all offences 
 against the law, and forgive the penalties, so he might, by the 
 same reason, dispense with the laws themselves. 
 
 These were the arguments for the King's dispensing power, 
 which, how weak and ludicrous soever, were not answered at 
 the bar, although every one was sensible that since the preroga 
 tive was limited by law, and the penalties in the act were 
 declared indispensable without a repeal from the whole legis 
 lature, it was overturning the Government to say that the 
 Prince might dispense with them ; that since in the Test Act a 
 1 Brother of Admiral Herbert. 2 Jeffreys.
 
 James II 243 
 
 fine was set upon the offender, and given to the informer, the 
 King could no more pardon that than he could take away men's 
 property ; that though laws of small consequence, where there 
 was a manifest error in their composition, might be superseded, 
 yet it was not fit to use the same practice in a law whereon the 
 security of the whole Government depended, and which was 
 made on purpose to exclude the prerogative ; and that if such 
 a law might be dispensed with, another might be the same, and 
 so by degrees the whole constitution soon dissolved. 
 
 These were arguments in every one's mouth, and obvious to 
 common reason. But the judges, who were determined before 
 hand how to square their opinions, gave their judgment for the 
 defendant, without giving any reasons to support it, as if it had 
 been in a common cause. By this determination a door was now 
 opened, and all regard to the Test was laid aside, insomuch 
 that those who intended to recommend themselves took employ 
 ment, and accepted of the King's dispensing power, among 
 which were some Protestants, though the far greater number of 
 them continued to qualify themselves according to law. 
 
 The King having thus broken through the Test Act by the 
 force of his dispensing power, made it his next endeavour to 
 introduce a universal toleration of religion, thereby the sooner 
 to establish his own. For this purpose he used to enlarge, 
 with a great variety of topics, on the policy, the reasonableness, 
 and Christianity of such a toleration, and blamed the Church of 
 England much for inflicting severities on Dissenters. Their 
 preachers were now encouraged to set up conventicles ; intima 
 tions were given that none should be molested in their public 
 worship ; and, to make all whole again, Herbert was sent down 
 into the West, after Jeffrey's bloody circuit, to pity and disavow 
 the past persecutions of the Dissenters, and to offer everything 
 that could alleviate their sufferings. Upon this encourage 
 ment, some of them began to grow insolent, but the wiser men 
 amongst them perceived what ill designs lay hid under all this 
 sudden show of grace and kindness. 
 
 The clergy of the Church of England, at this conjuncture, 
 acted a part that very well became them. They began generally 
 to preach against Popery, which the Dissenters did not; and 
 examined into all points of controversy between us and the 
 Church of Rome, with a solidity of judgment, a clearness of 
 argument, a depth of learning, and a vivacity of writing far 
 exceeding anything that before that time had appeared in our 
 language. And when the writers on the other side were dis-
 
 244 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 guising the malignity of Popery, to make it more plausible 
 among the people, they defeated their design in this by inquiring 
 into the true opinions of their Church, as they were laid down 
 in books of authority among them, viz., the decisions of Coun 
 cils, and the established offices at Rome and other Popish 
 countries, and not as they were misrepresented by artful 
 writers. And this they did in so convincing a manner that the 
 whole mystery of Popery was detected, and the nation let into 
 a fuller understanding of it than ever. The truth is, the writers 
 on the other side were perhaps a set of the weakest that ever 
 appeared in the defence of Popery ; for their books were 
 poorly but insolently written, and had no learning in them but 
 what was borrowed from French authors, and put into very bad 
 English ; so that a victory over them need not to have been so 
 complete a performance, though the writers 1 against them were 
 certainly some of the ablest, and their pieces the most finished 
 of any that ever appeared on the Protestant side. 
 
 The Popish priests, seeing their religion thus exposed and 
 themselves baffled in all their arguments, were enraged out of 
 measure, and prevailed with the King to proceed severely 
 against some popular preachers, in order to intimidate the rest. 
 Dr. Sharp, then rector of St. Giles's, a very pious man, and who 
 had a peculiar talent of reading his sermons with much life and 
 zeal, had, as he was coming out of the pulpit, a paper sent him 
 by an unknown hand, containing a sort of a challenge upon 
 some points of controversy touched upon by him in some of his 
 sermons. The doctor answered the paper in the next Sunday's 
 sermon, and when he had confuted it, showed the unreasonable 
 ness of a Protestant's changing his religion on such incompetent 
 grounds. This was carried to Court as a reflection on the King 
 for changing his ; and upon this, Compton, the Bishop of 
 London, was required, in the King's name, to suspend Sharp 
 immediately, and then to examine into the matter. But the 
 Bishop answered that he had no power to proceed in such 
 a summary way ; that he would desire Sharp, indeed, to abstain 
 from officiating till the matter was better understood ; but to lay 
 such a censure as suspension was on a clergyman, without proof 
 
 1 The chief of which were Tillotson, Stillingfleet, Tenison, and 
 Patrick. Next to them were Sherlock, Williams, Claget, Gee, Aldrich, 
 Atterbury, Whitby, Hooper ; and above all, Wake, now Archbishop 
 of Canterbury, who being long in France, chaplain to Lord Preston, 
 brought over with him many curious discoveries that were both useful and 
 surprising.
 
 James II 245 
 
 in a judiciary proceeding, was contrary both to law and justice, 
 and what he could not do. Whereupon they resolved to pro 
 ceed against the Bishop for contempt, but in what manner to 
 do it was the question. 
 
 Jeffreys, at this pinch, came to their relief; and, by a bold 
 stretch of the prerogative, advised the setting up an Ecclesiastical 
 Commission (which might be called no more than a standing 
 Court of Delegates), though with full power to proceed in a 
 summary manner, without limitations from any rule of law in 
 their proceedings. The advice was taken, and the persons with 
 whom the power was lodged were the Archbishop of Canterbury, 
 the Bishops of Durham and Rochester, the Lord Chancellor, the 
 Lord Treasurer,and the Lord Chief Justice the Lord Chancellor 
 being made President of the Court sine qua non. The Arch 
 bishop of Canterbury, at the first opening of the court, sent his 
 reasons why he could not sit and act in it, because he judged 
 it contrary to law. 1 But Durham was lifted up with the thoughts 
 of it, saying that his name would now be recorded in history ; 
 and Rochester, in hopes of succeeding Dolben in the arch 
 bishopric of York, showed no great averseness to the office. 
 
 When the Bishop of London appeared before the court (for 
 he was the first person that was summoned), he came attended 
 with a great train of persons of quality, which gave a fresh 
 offence, and desired a copy of the commission that authorised 
 them to judge him, for he said their court was a new thing. 
 And when he came to make his defence, he first excepted to 
 the authority of the court, as contrary to the express words 
 of the act of Parliament that put down the High Commission, 
 and then justified his own conduct, in that he had silenced Dr. 
 Sharp, though he could not suspend him, or lay any censure 
 on him, without a proper process, which he confirmed by the 
 practice of all Ecclesiastical Courts, as well as the judgment of 
 lawyers. But all arguments are unavailable when the sentence 
 is determined beforehand. 
 
 The Chancellor and the poor-spirited Bishop of Durham 
 were for suspending him during the King's pleasure ; the Earl 
 and the Bishop of Rochester, and the Lord Chief Justice 
 Herbert, were for acquitting him ; but when the Earl of 
 Rochester was given to understand that he must either concur 
 in the sentence or part with the white staff, interest prevailed, 
 
 1 The act that put down the High Commission in 1640 provided, by a 
 clause as full as could be conceived, that no courts of the like nature, 
 besides the ordinary Ecclesiastical Courts, should at any time be set up.
 
 246 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 and the Bishop was suspended ab officio. This, however, was 
 but a poor triumph to the Court, as it made the Bishop more 
 popular, more respected by his clergy, and more considerable 
 in his character abroad ; for the Princess of Orange (in that he 
 had both confirmed and married her) wrote a letter of inter 
 cession to the King, for which she was sharply reproved, and 
 another of condolence to him (as did likewise the Prince), 
 expressing the great share they both of them took in the trouble 
 that had befallen him. 
 
 Affairs in Scotland went on much at the same rate as they 
 did in England. The King sent down the Earl of Murray, a 
 convert to the Roman religion, to be his Commissioner to hold 
 a Parliament ; and recommended to them, in most earnest 
 words, the repealing of all penal laws and tests in relation to 
 religion. But there were two accidents, a little before the open 
 ing of the Parliament, that made a great impression upon men's 
 minds, and were a probable means of preventing any relaxation 
 of the laws against Popery. Whitford, son to one of the bishops, 
 before the wars, was the person who killed Darislaus in Holland. 
 He, to get out of Cromwell's reach, turned Papist, went into 
 the Duke of Savoy's service, and was there when the last 
 massacre was committed on the Vaudois. At the Restoration 
 he returned to Scotland, and, a few days before the Parliament 
 met, died, declaring his renunciation of Popery and abhorrence 
 of its cruelties. He said he had been guilty of some execrable 
 murders in Piedmont, both of women and children, which had 
 pursued him with an intolerable horror of mind ever since ; 
 that he had gone to priests of all sorts, the strictest as well as 
 the easiest, to ask their advice upon, his case ; that they had all 
 justified him in what he had done, and given him absolution ; 
 but his conscience pursued him so, that he died in despair, 
 crying out against that sanguinary religion. 
 
 The other instance was in Sir Robert Sibbald, doctor of 
 physic, and the most learned antiquary in Scotland. He had 
 lived in a course of philosophical virtue, but in great doubt as 
 to revealed religion, and was prevailed on by the Earl of Perth 
 to turn to the Church of Rome without any previous examina 
 tion of her principles; but, when he came to search into them, 
 he was so fully convinced of the errors of Popery, that he 
 could not be at quiet till he had published his recantation 
 openly in a church. The Bishop of Edinburgh was so far a 
 courtier that, for fear of noise and giving offence, he sent him
 
 James II 247 
 
 to a country church to do it. But the recantation of so learned 
 a man, after so much study and mature deliberation, had 
 nevertheless a great effect upon many, insomuch that the 
 Parliament, notwithstanding all the art that was used to carry a 
 total abolition of the penal laws, in compliance with the King's 
 letter, could be brought to nothing further than to consent to a 
 suspension of them during the King's lifetime only ; which the 
 King, despising to accept of, dissolved the Parliament, and, 
 soon after that, turned out the Archbishop of Glasgow and the 
 Bishop of Dunkeld for opposing his desire in this particular ; 
 put Paterson, for his great indication of zeal, into Glasgow, 
 and made one Hamilton, noted for profaneness and impiety 
 that sometimes broke out into blasphemy, Bishop of Dun 
 keld. 
 
 The nation now began to return again to its old zeal against 
 Popery, and in some instances to show its aversion to it. The 
 Earl of Perth had prevailed with his lady, as she was dying, 
 to change her religion ; and, in a few weeks after, married very 
 indecently, and without a dispensation from the Pope (which 
 he could hardly afterwards obtain), his first cousin, the Duke 
 of Gordon's sister, and had set up a private chapel in the 
 Court for mass, which was not kept so private but that many 
 frequented it. This alarmed the people of Edinburgh, and the 
 rabble broke in with such violence one day, that they defaced 
 everything in it, and had not the Earl himself been conveyed 
 away in disguise, he had probably fallen a sacrifice to popular 
 fury. Some of the rabble, however, were taken, and one of the 
 ringleaders executed for it, who, when he came to die, told the 
 minister who attended him that his life had been offered him 
 if he would have accused the Duke of Queensberry as the 
 instigator of the tumult, but that he refused it upon the condition 
 of so false a calumny. The minister went from the execution 
 to the Archbishop of St. Andrews, and told him what had 
 passed. The Archbishop acquainted the Duke of Queensberry 
 with it ; the Duke complained to the King of it ; the King 
 ordered an examination into it ; and the poor minister, having 
 no witness to attest what the criminal had said to him, was 
 declared the forger of the calumny, and turned out of his 
 preferment; but the consequence was, that the minister's 
 evidence was believed, and as his misfortune was pitied, so 
 the Earl of Perth's malice and treachery were as much 
 detested. 
 
 In Ireland things went on more to the King's mind ; for,
 
 248 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 though the Earl of Clarendon, upon his first coming over, gave 
 public and positive assurances that the King would maintain 
 their Act of Settlement, and proceeded himself accordingly, 
 yet the Earl of Tyrconnell not only put Irish Papists into such 
 posts in the army as became vacant, but, upon the slightest 
 pretence, broke the English Protestant officers, and in con 
 clusion, without so much as pretending any excuse, turned 
 them all out at once. This occasioned uneasy apprehensions 
 in the people, and complaints to the Lord Clarendon ; 
 which when he represented to the King, the King recalled 
 him, and made the Earl of Tyrconnel Lord-Lieutenant in 
 his stead. This struck the people with anxiety and terror, 
 when they saw a man of his temper so absolutely trusted 
 and depended on by the Irish, capable of the boldest 
 undertakings, and of the cruellest execution, have now the 
 government put entirely in his hands. But the King knew 
 what he did. He was resolved to govern by a military force, 
 and to have no more to do with Parliaments. If, therefore, 
 his army should fail him, or not prove sufficient to keep his 
 subjects under, he had here a considerable body of men, 
 placed under a trusty commander, and bound to him by the 
 ties of their religion, ready to come over to his assistance at the 
 first call. 
 
 The King was willing, however, to draw over by fair means 
 as many as he could to his persuasion ; and because he had 
 many about him who lived loosely enough, and seemed indif 
 ferent as to all religions, the priests were directed to them as 
 the most proper persons to make converts of. One of these 
 was the Earl of Mulgrave, then Lord Chamberlain. He heard 
 them gravely arguing for transubstantiation, and was willing, he 
 said, to receive instruction ; but, as he had taken much pains 
 to bring himself to believe in God, who made the world and 
 all men in it, so it must be no ordinary argument that could 
 make him believe that man could be quits with God, and make 
 God again. The Earl of Middleton was another ; and when the 
 priest began to demonstrate transubstantiation to him in this 
 manner, "You believe the Trinity," Middleton stopped and 
 said, " Who told you so ? But suppose I did, I expected to be 
 convinced of your belief, and not to be questioned about my 
 own," which disordered the priest so, that he could proceed no 
 further. The King gave the Duke of Norfolk one day the 
 sword of state to carry before him, and when he came to the 
 chapel door he stopped. " Your father," said the King, " was
 
 James II 249 
 
 a good man, and would have gone further." "And your 
 Majesty's father," replied the Duke, " was the better man, and 
 would not have gone so far." And what was as smart a reply 
 as any, when Kirk was asked to change his religion, he told 
 them he was unhappily pre-engaged, for that if ever he 
 changed he had promised the King of Morocco to turn 
 Mahometan. 
 
 These were some of the repartees which, whether true or 
 false, were then current about town, and received with satis 
 faction ; but the most solemn attack that was made upon any 
 was upon the Earl of Rochester, then Lord Treasurer, en 
 couraged, as some say, by certain hints his lady might give to 
 the Queen, and repulsed in the manner it was upon informa 
 tion sent him the very day before the conference, that no com 
 pliance could preserve him in his post. However this may be, 
 when the priests, who began the argument, had gone through 
 what they had to say, the Earl replied, "That if that was all 
 they had to urge, he himself would undertake to answer them, 
 without troubling those learned men" (Dr. Patrick and Dr. 
 Jane, who were called in to sustain the controversy), and ac 
 cordingly answered all that was advanced with much heat and 
 spirit, not without some sallies of scorn upon those who were 
 induced to change their religion upon such frivolous grounds, 
 insomuch that the King, seeing what temper he was in, broke 
 off the conference, and took the white staff from him ; but, in 
 lieu thereof, settled upon him a pension of ^4,000 a year, both 
 for his own life and his son's. 
 
 But, as busy as the priests were in gaining proselytes, they 
 took no due care to reform the King. He still continued his 
 intimacy with Mrs. Sedley, who prevailed so far on him as to be 
 created Countess of Dorchester. 
 
 The Queen was alarmed at this new honour, as an avowed 
 declaration of her being his mistress. The priests complained 
 of it heavily, as a stain to his honour, and obstruction to their 
 best endeavours. But, to pacify them both, he promised that 
 he would see the lady no more ; that he purposed to send her 
 into Ireland, and had only given her that title to part with her 
 more decently. But this was all pretence. The lady went into 
 Ireland indeed, but in a few months she returned again, and 
 the old ill commerce went on. 
 
 The Queen was at this time in a bad state of health, and had 
 a sickness upon her which gave a melancholy presage that 
 even if she should live, she could have no children. The
 
 250 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 priests, therefore, foreseeing that unless she had a son all their 
 designs must stand still for the present, and prove abortive in 
 the conclusion, endeavoured all they could to embroil the 
 King with the Prince of Orange, in hopes of excluding him 
 thereby from the succession to the crown in right of his wife ; 
 and they carried the thing so far, that, though the King was 
 then in full peace with all his neighbours, he gave orders to have 
 the whole fleet, with all imaginable dispatch, put in a condition 
 to go to sea, which was enough to give the Prince of Orange, 
 considering the ill condition of the States' fleet, an uneasy 
 umbrage. 
 
 The Prince of Orange was in his temper cold and reserved, 
 regardless of himself, not apt to suspect designs upon his person, 
 and even when information was brought him thereof, from a 
 principle of predestination early imbibed, was regardless of them. 
 He had a gravity in his whole deportment, and a way that was 
 affable and obliging to the Dutch ; but he could not bring him 
 self to comply enough with the temper of the English. He had 
 an aversion to constraint, for which reason he neither loved 
 company nor business, though he sometimes put on the appear 
 ance of application. The daily diversion of his life was hunting ; 
 the governing passion of his soul, the depression of France. 
 He had no vice but of one sort, in which he was very cautious 
 and secret. He liked the constitution of the English State, and 
 the limitation of the regal authority very well, and blamed all 
 illegal extensions of it. He was pleased with the worship of 
 our Church, and thought the government thereof much better 
 than a parity ; but he blamed our divines for condemning 
 foreign Churches, and wished that some of our ceremonies, such 
 as the surplice, the cross in baptism, and bowing at the altar, 
 were laid aside. 
 
 The Princess possessed all that conversed with her with 
 admiration. Her person was majestic, and created respect ; 
 she had great knowledge, with a true judgment and a noble 
 expression ; a sweetness there was in her deportment that 
 charmed, an exactness in her piety and virtue, a frugality in 
 her expenses, an extensiveness in her charities, and a peculiar 
 grace in bestowing them, so as to make her a pattern to all who 
 saw her. She read much, both in history and divinity, and 
 when the humour in her eyes forced her from that exercise, she 
 set herself to work with such constant diligence, that all the 
 ladies about her were ashamed to be idle. But, above all, she 
 was a singular instance of conjugal obedience and affection,
 
 James II 251 
 
 insomuch that when it was put to her by me, What she in 
 tended the Prince should be if she came to the crown ? her 
 answer was, " That the rule and authority should be his ; for 
 she only desired that he would obey the command of ' Hus 
 bands, love your wives,' as she should do that of ' Wives, be 
 obedient to your husbands in all things.' " 
 
 The King was very sensible how much it would promote his 
 designs to have the concurrence of two such persons so nearly 
 related to the Crown, and so much concerned in the affairs of 
 England ; and therefore he sent over Penn l the Quaker, a great 
 favourite, as being the Vice-Admiral's son, and suspected to be 
 a concealed Papist, because he was much with Father Petre, 
 and particularly trusted by the Earl of Sunderland. He was a 
 vain, talking man, and had such an opinion of his faculty of 
 persuasion that he thought none could stand before it, though 
 in that opinion he was singular, for his tedious and affected 
 manner was not so apt to overcome a man's reason as to tire 
 his patience. He undertook, however, to persuade the Prince 
 to come into the King's measures of repealing the Tests and 
 a general Toleration, and left nothing unsaid that might move 
 him to comply in point of interest. The toleration of Papists, 
 as well as Dissenters, the Prince was not averse to (for he 
 thought that conscience was only subject to God), provided it 
 was proposed and passed in Parliament ; but he looked upon 
 the Tests as such a real security, and indeed the only one, 
 when the King was of another religion, that he would join in 
 no councils with those who intended to repeal the laws that 
 enacted them ; and the King, being resolved to have all or 
 nothing, Penn's negotiation with the Prince had no effect. 
 
 But to look back to England. 
 
 There died this year two most eminent men in the Church 
 Pearson, Bishop of Chester, and Fell, Bishop of Oxford, who 
 were succeeded by two entire creatures of the Court. Pearson 
 
 1 Founder of Pennsylvania. He was born in 1644, educated at Chig- 
 well, and Christ Church, Oxford ; was a law student of Lincoln's Inn 
 during the plague year ; became acquainted with Low, a Quaker preacher, 
 and finally a member of the Society of Friends, and an itinerant preacher 
 in 1668, for which he was imprisoned in the Tower, where he wrote his 
 "No Cross, no Crown," an'l " Innocency, with her Open Face," which 
 obtained his release. Charles II. owed him money, and wiped the debt 
 off by giving him a province of North America. He was a constant 
 attendant at Court after the Restoration till his death at Ruscomb, near 
 Twyford, in 1718.
 
 252 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 was certainly the greatest divine of his age a man of much 
 learning, strong reason, and clear judgment (as his incom 
 parable "Exposition of the Creed" shows), a grave and judicious 
 preacher, but more instructive than affecting, of a spotless life 
 and excellent temper, but a little too remiss in his diocese, and 
 not sufficiently active in his episcopal function. But this 
 might be imputed to some decay in his intellects ; for his 
 memory went from him, and he became a child some years 
 before he died. Cartwright succeeded him, a man of good 
 capacity and some progress in learning, but ambitious and 
 servile, cruel and boisterous ; one who allowed himself scanda 
 lous liberties of the worst sort, but whose high notions of the 
 regal power derived from God, and superior to all law, made 
 amends, in the King's eyes, for all blemishes. Fell was both 
 Bishop of Oxford and Dean of Christchurch, a man of great 
 strictness of life, much devotion, and much learning (as appears 
 by his noble edition of St. Cyprian), a zealous promoter of 
 learning in the university, a warm opposer of Popery, but a 
 little too hot in our disputes with Dissenters, and perhaps too 
 peremptory in his correction of abuses. Parker succeeded him. 
 He was at the Restoration a violent Independent ; after that 
 he struck into the highest form of the Church of England, and 
 became a great extoller of the King's power in matters of 
 religion ; but when he missed the preferment he expected, he 
 wrote several books that raised the authority of the Church to 
 an independency of the State. In short, he was a covetous 
 and ambitious man, and seemed to have no other sense of 
 religion than a politic interest ; for he seldom came to prayers 
 or any exercises of devotion, and was so lifted up with pride 
 that he became insufferable to every one who came near him. 
 The deanery of Christchurch was given to Massey, a new 
 convert to Popery, but whose sole merit was that, for he had 
 neither the gravity, the learning, nor the age that was suitable 
 to such a dignity. The priests, having thus happily placed one 
 of their religion, were now thinking to lay waste the fences of 
 both universities by procuring a general admission into the 
 several degrees thereof. To this purpose they prevailed with 
 the King, as a small essay at first, to give his letter or mandamus 
 ordering the Frere Francis, an ignorant Benedictine monk, to 
 be received a Master of Arts in the university of Cambridge. 
 The university refused the mandamus with great unanimity ; 
 not that there was much in the concession of a degree (they 
 were distributed promiscuously on several occasions, and the
 
 James II 253 
 
 Morocco ambassador's secretary, who was a Mahometan, had 
 once that very degree given him), but they were apprehensive 
 that all the King's priests would be let in upon them that way, 
 which at present might occasion great distraction, and in time 
 grow to a majority in the Convocation, and therefore they 
 stood fixed in their refusal, upon which the Vice-Chancellor 
 was summoned before the Ecclesiastical Commission to answer 
 this contempt. He was a very honest, but a very weak man, 
 and being but able to make a poor defence, it was no small 
 reflection upon their body that their chief magistrate was found 
 so incompetent to assert their privileges and justify their pro 
 ceedings. He was turned out of office; but when another 
 of more spirit and better abilities was chosen in his room, the 
 Court waived the dispute, and there was no more said of the 
 matter. 
 
 Their next attempt was upon Oxford. Magdalen College is 
 esteemed the richest foundation in England, perhaps in Europe, 
 and the presidentship thereof is in the election of the fellows. 
 Their President now was dead, when the King sent a mandamus 
 requiring them to choose one Farmer, an ignorant and vicious 
 person, and who had no other qualification that could recom 
 mend him to so high a post except the change of his religion. 
 The fellows of the college, without taking notice of the King's 
 letter, proceeded to the choice of Dr. Hough, in all respects a 
 statutable man. as well as a man of integrity and firmness. 
 They carried their election, as the statutes require, to the 
 Bishop of Winchester, their visitor, who confirmed it. This 
 was highly resented at Court, and the fellows were summoned 
 to appear before the Ecclesiastical Commission for it ; where, 
 when they had exhibited such exceptions against Farmer as 
 made the Court ashamed of him, they were commanded to 
 proceed to a new election in favour of Parker, Bishop of 
 Oxford, as recommended by the King, and in the meantime 
 Hough's election was declared void and their house put under 
 suspension. To excuse themselves from this, they alleged that, 
 being bound by their oaths to maintain their statutes, they 
 were forbidden by them to enter upon a new election until the 
 former was annulled in some court of law. But the statutes of 
 colleges, they were told, were things that depended entirely on 
 the King's pleasure, and that no oaths to observe them could 
 bind when they were in opposition to his command ; and so 
 they were dismissed. But continuing still firm in their refusal, 
 a subaltern commission, whereof Cartwright was head, and
 
 254 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 acted with insufferable insolence, was sent from the High 
 Ecclesiastical Court, who turned out the new President, broke 
 open the door to give Parker possession, and expelled all 
 the fellows except two, who were so abject as to make their 
 submission. 
 
 This was a proceeding so violent that not only the university, 
 but the whole nation, expressed an indignation at it ; for it was 
 no better than an open piece of robbery and burglary for men 
 unauthorised by any legal power to come and forcibly turn 
 others out of their freehold. And the clergy were so enraged 
 at it that they sent very pressing messages to the Prince of 
 Orange, desiring him to take the concerns of the Church under 
 his care, and to break with the King if his interposition could 
 not prevail for a redress. 
 
 Thus ended the second year of this reign, with the destruction 
 of all law by the substitution of a dispensing power ; with the 
 institution of an Ecclesiastical Commission, to proceed arbi 
 trarily against the clergy ; with the obtrusion of Popery upon 
 the nation, the suspension of an English bishop, and the 
 infringement of the rights and privileges of both universities ; 
 and it was easy to see that there was no maintaining such pro 
 ceedings without a standing army. 
 
 The occasion of the late rebellion had raised one, and instead 
 of disbanding it, the King was willing now to make a parade 
 with it ; and to inject more terror into the nation, ordered the 
 troops to encamp on Hounslow Heath, and to be exercised all 
 the summer long. This was done with great magnificence, and 
 at a vast expense. But that which abated the King's joy in 
 seeing so brave an army about him was, that it appeared visibly 
 on all occasions that his soldiers had as strong an aversion to 
 his religion as had the rest of his subjects, and that this encamp 
 ment gave them an opportunity of encouraging one another, 
 and forming combinations never to depart from the Protestant 
 religion. 
 
 The veil was now pulled off, and the King's design of con 
 verting the nation to Popery was too manifest to be concealed ; 
 and therefore the priests advised him to take heart, and no 
 longer manage a correspondence with Rome privately, but to 
 send a proper person invested with a public character. The 
 person the King made choice of was Palmer, Earl of Castle- 
 maine, a man hot and eager in all his notions, and whose 
 success in the negotiation was answerable to all the other 
 unfortunate passages of his life.
 
 James II 255 
 
 The Pope was a jealous and fearful man, who had no know 
 ledge of any sort but in the matters of the revenue ; for he 
 was so extremely ignorant, that when he was made cardinal 
 he had a master to teach him what little Latin he had occasion 
 for at high mass. He understood nothing of divinity, but had 
 some knowledge of the business of the Regale, in that it related 
 to the temporalities of the Church, and took those under his 
 protection who would not submit to it. The Jesuits he hated, 
 and expressed great esteem for the Jansenists; not that he 
 understood the points of difference between them, but merely 
 because the one were in high favour and the other disregarded 
 in France ; for at that time there was no good understanding 
 between the two Courts, which was improved upon this 
 occasion. 
 
 In Rome all those of a nation put themselves under the 
 protection of their Ambassador, and are, upon occasions of 
 ceremony, his cortege. They were usually lodged in his neigh 
 bourhood, pretending to belong to him, and were exempt from 
 the orders and justice of the city, as part of his family. The 
 houses and streets where they lodged were called franchises, as 
 not subject to the Government of Rome ; but the disorders 
 which arose thereby were so many that the Pope was resolved 
 to suppress them, and to reduce the privileges of ambassadors 
 to their own families within their own palaces. Other princes 
 were willing to comply ; but the King of France declared that 
 he would maintain all the privileges and franchises that his 
 ambassadors were possessed of; and when it was suggested 
 that the Pope's legate at Paris had no privilege but for his own 
 family, it was returned with scorn enough, " that the Pope was 
 not to pretend to an equality with so great a king, nor to have 
 his nuncios put upon a level with ambassadors that passed 
 between sovereign princes." And upon this fresh matter of 
 dispute arose when the King's Ambassador arrived at Rome. 
 
 All things were provided with great splendour, and at a vast 
 expense ; but when the day set for his audience came, there 
 happened to be such an extraordinary thunder and deluge of 
 rain as disgraced the show, and heightened the opinion of the 
 ominousness of his embassy. What the Ambassador was com 
 missioned to request was, first, the making of Pere Renaldi of 
 Este, the Queen's uncle, a cardinal, wherein he succeeded ; and 
 then to try if it were possible to get Father Petre, a man of no 
 learning, nor in any way famed for his virtue, but descended of 
 a noble family, and for his zeal and boldness in great favour
 
 256 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 with the King, advanced to the like honour. But the Pope 
 was too great an enemy to Jesuits ever to confer the purple 
 upon any of that order. 
 
 The Ambassador pressed Cibo, who was then Cardinal Patron, 
 in his master's name to put an end to the differences between 
 the Pope and the King of France in the matter of franchises, 
 that the world might see his Holiness had a due regard to one 
 king who had extirpated heresy, and to another who was 
 endeavouring to bring three kingdoms into the sheepfold ; and 
 for an encouragement he added that if the Pope would join with 
 him in the design, they would set about the destruction of heresy 
 everywhere ; would begin with the Dutch, and immediately fall 
 upon them, a company of rebels and pirates as they were, 
 without any formal declaration of war. But Cibo, whether 
 displeased with the man's haughty carriage or with the proposal 
 itself, gave information thereof to the Imperial Cardinals, they 
 sent it to the Emperor, and the Emperor transmitted it to 
 the Prince of Orange, who made a proper advantage of the 
 information. 
 
 When the Ambassador saw that his remonstrances to the 
 Cardinal Patron were ineffectual, he demanded an audience of 
 the Pope, wherein he lamented the disregard paid to two such 
 great kings, reflected on the Pope's worldly-mindedness, to the 
 scandal of Christendom, and, if his master's intercessions were 
 so little considered, threatened to be gone, to which the Pope 
 replied, lei padrone, he might if he would ; for he was so 
 offended at his freedom, that he gave him to know he never 
 intended him another private audience. And so the Ambassador 
 left Rome, not a little disgusted at his cold reception, and per 
 haps ignorant of the true reason of it, which was this that as 
 the Romans have very little sense of religion, so they considered 
 the reduction of England as a royal boast, more than a thing 
 that was practicable ; or if it were accomplished, they saw that 
 the King was so much in the interest of France, and under the 
 conduct of the Jesuits that there could be no relying on him, 
 nor would the kingdom under such management bring into their 
 offices any great profits, by way of bulls and compositions, which 
 is the only thing they have an eye to in the conversion of any 
 nation. 
 
 The King thought it commodious to his own affairs to keep 
 a seemingly fair understanding with the Prince of Orange, 
 whatever hidden designs he might have against him ; and 
 therefore he removed Skelton, who was become offensive to the
 
 James II 257 
 
 Prince, to Paris, and sent over White, an Irishman, who had 
 been a spy to the Spaniards, and upon their want of money had 
 accepted of the title of Marquis d'Albeville in part payment 
 for his services a cunning man to corrupt under-secretaries, 
 and by that means find out some secrets of state, but a mean 
 and despicable agent when he came to negotiate matters of a 
 higher form. He assured the Prince and States that the King 
 was firmly resolved to maintain his alliance with them, and 
 that the naval preparations he was making were only to enable 
 him to preserve the peace of Europe. He told the Prince and 
 Princess in private that the King was so far from intending to 
 wrong them in their right of succession, that all that he was 
 engaged in now was only to assert the prerogatives of the 
 Crown, which they in their turn would reap the advantages of; 
 and therefore he desired their concurrence in the repeal of the 
 penal laws and tests, which were a restraint on the King's 
 liberty, and a great discouragement to some of his most faithful 
 subjects. 
 
 The Prince and Princess were both fixed in a principle against 
 persecution in matters of conscience ; but they could not think 
 it reasonable, they said, to let Papists sit in Parliament, or 
 serve in public trusts. The restless spirits in some of that 
 religion, particularly the clergy ; the power they had over the 
 King, even to make him forget the promise he made at his 
 coronation ; and the strong aversion he had conceived against 
 the Church of England, that had given such signal proofs of 
 its affection and fidelity, were but too just grounds of jealousy. 
 The enlargement of the prerogative was what they desired not, 
 what was not safe, and what might end in the ruin of the con 
 stitution. It was already large enough, and the King might be 
 both happy at home and glorious abroad, if he improved the 
 advantages that were now in his hands ; but that, if he entered 
 into contrary measures, their consent should never be granted 
 to the abolition of those laws which were the only security of 
 the Church of England. 1 
 
 The Prince, in return, was advised to send over Dyckveldt, 
 and gave him instructions how to treat with all sorts of people 
 
 1 White brought letters from the King to the Prince and Princess 
 to forbid me the Court. The Princess showed them to me, and to 
 prevent an open rupture this was done ; but, by the express wish of 
 the Prince, I had still a communication of their counsels, and had the 
 whole secret of English affairs brought to me. This confidence was 
 never withdrawn from me. 
 
 K
 
 258 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 with the King, with those of the Church, and with the Dissenters. 
 With the King he was ordered to expostulate decently but firmly 
 upon the methods he was pursuing both at home and abroad. 
 The Church party he was to assure that the Prince would always 
 be firm to the Church of England, and to all our national 
 interests. The Dissenters he was to dissuade from being drawn 
 in by Court promises, and to offer them a full toleration, and 
 likewise a comprehension, if possible, whenever the Crown should 
 devolve on the Princess. And to all people he was to clear up 
 the Prince's character, satisfying the Church party that he was 
 no Presbyterian, and the Dissenters that he was not arbitrary 
 and imperious, as some had represented him. 
 
 With these instructions he went, and followed them very 
 closely. But while he was in London a great discovery was 
 made of the intentions of the Court by the Jesuits of Liege, who, 
 in a letter to their brethren in Friburg, told them that the 
 King of England was received into a communication of the 
 merits of their order; that he expressed great joy at his be 
 coming a son of the society, and was resolved to bring about the 
 conversion of England, or to die a martyr in endeavouring it ; 
 but that he must be expeditious in it, otherwise, if he died 
 before its accomplishment, he should leave them worse than he 
 found them. They added, among other particulars, that when 
 one of them kneeled down to kiss his hand, he took him up, and 
 would not suffer him ; and when another lamented that his next 
 heir was a heretic, his answer was, that God would provide him 
 an heir. This letter was sent over to Dyckveldt, which, when 
 the King was making quite contrary professions, he remonstrated 
 to him, and gave him a copy of; but the King's making no 
 mention of it afterwards was thought a tacit confession that the 
 thing was no forgery. 
 
 Thus Dyckveldt's negotiation at London, and D'Albeville's at 
 the Hague, ended without any effect on either side. Only this 
 good advantage the Dutch minister made of his instructions 
 that he formed a society of some of the nobility l who wished 
 well to their religion and country, who were to consult such 
 advices and advertisements as might be fit for the Prince to know 
 from time to time, that he might govern himself thereby. And 
 it was by their directions that the Prince formed all his motions, 
 
 1 The chief of these were the Marquis of Halifax, the Earls of Shrews 
 bury, Devonshire, Danby, and Nottingham ; the Lords Mordaunt, Lumley, 
 Herbert, Russell, and the Bishop of London. Their common place of 
 meeting was at the Earl of Shrewsbury's.
 
 James II 259 
 
 and by their encouragement that he engaged at last in the great 
 design of delivering the kingdom. 
 
 The King, being conscious that he had lost the Church of 
 England by his bad usage of them, was now looking out for a 
 counterpoise, and making strong application to the Dissenters 
 to persuade them to accept of the favour he intended them, and 
 to concur with him in his designs. The Dissenters at that time 
 were divided into four main bodies the Presbyterians, the 
 Independents, the Anabaptists, and the Friends, or Quakers. 
 The two former had not the visible distinction of different rites. 
 That wherein they chiefly differed was, that the Presbyterians 
 were not so adverse to Episcopal ordination and a Liturgy, 
 and were friends to civil government and a limited monarchy ; 
 whereas the Independents were for a commonwealth in the 
 State, and a popular government in the Church, and no set 
 form of worship ; but both were enemies to the repeal of the 
 Tests and the toleration of Popery. The Anabaptists were 
 generally men of virtue and universal charity; but, being at 
 too great a distance from the Church of England, they were 
 for a toleration of all religions, as the only means to capacitate 
 themselves for favour and employments. And the Friends, 
 or Quakers, had set up such a visible distinction in the 
 matter of the hat, and their odd forms of speech, besides 
 the great difference in many points of doctrine, that they 
 were generally supposed, for the same reason, to be for the 
 toleration. 
 
 "TTiese were the men that the King had now taken under 
 his wing ; and, to give them a specimen of what favours he 
 intended for them in England, he sent down a proclamation 
 to Scotland, wherein he repealed all the severe laws that were 
 passed in his grandfather's name during his infancy; all that 
 lay an inability on his Roman Catholic subjects ; all that 
 imposed tests on those who were in employments ; and all 
 that were made against moderate Presbyterians ; wherein he 
 promised never to force his subjects to change their religion, 
 and required only that they would renounce the principles 
 of rebellion, and oblige themselves to support him in his 
 absolute power against all opposers. But this proclamation 
 being found liable to many just exceptions, another was sent 
 down, whereby full liberty was granted to all Presbyterians 
 to set up conventicles in their own way. This was received 
 with great rejoicing, and as an extraordinary work of Providence, 
 that had moved the heart of a prince from whom they expected
 
 260 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 an increase of the severities under which they laboured, to 
 grant them an unconfined liberty of conscience ; but few 
 were so ignorant as not to know what the intent of all this 
 indulgence was. 
 
 To put both nations under the same regulation, the King sent 
 out in April a Declaration of Toleration and Liberty of Con 
 science for England, wherein he expressed his aversion to persecu 
 tion on account of religion ; suspended all penal and sanguinary 
 laws in matters of this nature; suppressed all oaths and tests 
 that excluded any of his subjects from employments ; and re 
 newed his promise of maintaining the Church of England and 
 all his subjects in their properties, and particularly in the pos 
 session of the abbey lands. The mention of abbey lands made 
 it believed that the design of setting up Popery was well-nigh 
 accomplished, and that the King concluded he had a sure game 
 in his hand ; but, for all that, the Dissenters were very full of 
 their acknowledgments, and seemed to outvie all that had gone 
 before them in the abject strains of submission and flattery. 
 They all magnified the King's mercy and favour, and made 
 great professions of fidelity and gratitude ; but some carried the 
 matter higher, making severe reflections on the clergy and their 
 proceedings, and promising to send such representatives to 
 Parliament as would confirm by their act what the King had so 
 graciously granted. Nay, some of the bishops who were gained 
 by the Court carried their compliance to the same shameful 
 pitch, and encouraged addresses of thanks to the King for the 
 bare promise in his Declaration that he would maintain the 
 Church of England. 
 
 These addresses elated the King and his priests beyond 
 measure. They thought now that they had gained the whole 
 nation, and conquered those who had been their most irrecon 
 cilable enemies. They spoke of the clergy with much disdain, 
 as the abettors of persecution, and obstructors of the King's good 
 intentions for a toleration long before. And, to expose them to 
 the censure of the world as much as might be, the King ordered 
 an inquiry to be made into all the vexatious suits that had 
 brought Dissenters into the Ecclesiastical Courts, and into all 
 the compositions they had been forced to make to redeem 
 themselves from further trouble, which, as the practice was 
 then, were very scandalous, and required a redress, but pro 
 ceeding from a better motive than revenge. 
 
 The King being now got into a method of popularity, as he 
 hought, was resolved to make a progress this summer, while the
 
 James II 261 
 
 Queen was at Bath for the recovery of her health ; but, before 
 he set out, he gave the Pope's nuncio, Cardinal Dada, who, in 
 return for Lord Castlemaine's embassy, came over hither, a 
 public audience at Windsor, whereat the Duke of Somerset, 
 being the Lord of the Bedchamber then in waiting, refusing to 
 attend, was turned out of all his employments with expres 
 sions of high displeasure. 
 
 The King began his progress, and went from Salisbury all 
 round as far as Chester. But in most places where he came 
 he saw such a visible coldness, both in the nobility and gentry 
 (though he himself was very obliging to all that came near 
 him to Dissenters especially, and those who were thought 
 Republicans), that he shortened his journey, and returned to 
 the Queen at Bath, having left behind him everywhere injunc 
 tions to choose such Parliament men as would ratify the 
 toleration he had granted, and repeal the tests as he had 
 done. 
 
 When the King came back, he changed the magistracy in 
 most of the cities in England in favour of the Dissenters, but 
 was surprised to find that the new Lord Mayor and aldermen j 
 of London took the Test, and ordered the observation of Gun- j 
 powder Treason day to be continued ; that they disowned the 
 invitation of the Pope's nuncio to dinner, and entered it in 
 their books that he came without their knowledge ; and that 
 they continued the service of the Church of England in 
 Guildhall Chapel, notwithstanding the King sent them a per 
 mission to use what form of worship they pleased. 
 
 The like ill success he found in the orders he sent to the 
 lord-lieutenants of counties to examine the gentlemen and 
 freeholders upon these questions, viz. : whether, in case they 
 should be chosen to serve in Parliament, they would consent 
 to repeal the penal laws and tests ? Whether they would vote 
 for men who would engage to repeal them, and whether they i 
 would maintain the King's Declaration ? For in most counties I 
 the lord-lieutanants themselves either declared against those 
 questions, and refused to put them at all, or they did it in so 
 negligent a manner that it was plain they did not desire to be 
 answered in the affirmative. Many counties, too, answered 
 boldly in the negative, and others refused to answer anything, 
 as did the Lord Mayor of London, and most of the new alder 
 men ; and, for this contempt, many were turned out of their 
 commissions. 
 
 Nor had the King much better success in the attempt he
 
 262 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 made upon the Princess of Orange to pervert her in her 
 religion, in a letter he sent her over by D'Albeville when he 
 returned to the Hague ; wherein he acquainted her how he 
 himself had been brought up in the doctrine of the Church of 
 England by Dr. Stewart ; had been zealous in that way, and 
 thought it a point of honour not to change his religion, until 
 he observed more devotion, more charity, and more sanctity of 
 life among the Catholics than Protestants, which set him upon 
 examining both religions ; that, upon inquiry, he found the 
 Reformation was not the work of the Spirit of God, but set up 
 by men who had their heads full of temporal matters ; that 
 Christ had certainly an infallibility in his Church ; that the 
 Church of Rome was the only one that either had or pretends 
 to have this infallibility ; that submission was necessary to the 
 peace of the Church, and a licentious expounding of Scripture 
 productive of sects and wild opinions ; that the Church of 
 England, ever since the Reformation, had persecuted those 
 who dissented from her, though she pretended to no infalli 
 bility ; and that the Dissenters in England had as much right 
 to separate from her as she had to separate from the Church of 
 Rome. 
 
 This was the substance of the King's letter, and the Princess's 
 answer ran upon these heads : That she had neither taken up 
 her religion on trust, nor stuck to it upon a point of honour, 
 but had both examined it herself, and been instructed therein 
 by others. She conceived, therefore, that it was no prejudice 
 against the Reformation that those who possessed it led ill 
 lives, since none of the principles of their religion allowed them 
 to do so. She supposed that there was an equality among the 
 Apostles, and that St. Paul, when he withstood St. Peter to the 
 face because he was to be blamed, was not at all inferior to 
 him. She imagined that if there was an infallibility in the 
 Church of Rome, it was not yet concluded where to place it, 
 and almost impossible to tell where it then resided, when there 
 were two or three popes at a time, acting one against another, 
 and all, as they pretended, with the assistance of General 
 Councils. She was satisfied that the ill use some made of the 
 Scriptures ought not to deprive others of them, since there 
 were so many precepts, both in the Old and New Testament, 
 directing us to a constant perusal of them. And lastly, as to 
 the point of separation, she said that we had parted from the 
 Church of Rome no further than she had parted from the 
 primitive institution ; that the grounds of our separation from
 
 
 James II 263 
 
 her were of a different nature from those that had separated 
 Dissenters from us ; nor was the persecution of them any 
 imputation to the Church, since the laws against them were 
 thought necessary at that time, and made by the State, and not 
 by the Church. This was the substance of her answer ; and 
 her repulsing this attack made upon her faith with so much 
 vigour and resolution bespoke such love, as well as knowledge, 
 of her religion, as prevented all attempts of the like nature 
 upon her ever after. l 
 
 Thus ended the third year of this reign, with the terror of 
 a standing army, with the pomp of an embassy to Rome, with 
 a return of a nuncio thence, with encouragement to Dissenters, 
 with indignation against the Church, a Proclamation in 
 Scotland, and a Declaration in England for dissolving penal 
 laws and tests ; and we are now entering upon the year 1688, 
 that will ever be memorable for the great Revolution that it 
 produced. 
 
 D'Albeville, before his going over into England, had given 
 in to the States a threatening memorial relating to the business 
 of Bantam, which looked like a prelude of a declaration of 
 war; and, at his return, he gave in another, but in a milder 
 strain, desiring that commissions might be sent over to 
 determine that dispute. But, upon an answer exhibited to 
 these memorials, the King thought proper to let the matter 
 drop ; for he was still desirous to bring the Prince, if possible, 
 into his measures. 
 
 To this purpose, he employed one Steward (who had been a 
 lawyer in Scotland, but relinquished his profession because he 
 would not renounce the Covenant, a man of great parts, and of 
 
 1 After I had stayed a year in Holland, I heard from many hands that 
 the King seemed to forget his own greatness when he spoke of me, which 
 he took occasion to do very often. I had published " Travels through 
 France, Italy, Germany, and Switzerland" in 1686, written on purpose to 
 expose Popery and tyranny, and had sent over little papers, which were 
 printed in Holland, and reflected on the proceedings in England. This so 
 provoked the King that he ordered a process against me in Scotland for 
 high treason, which came at last to an outlawry ; and menaces were made 
 of seizing me, and carrying me away forcibly. Three memorials were suc 
 cessively delivered to the States, requiring them to surrender me as a rebel 
 and fugitive, or to banish me the Provinces. So I was called before the 
 Deputies of the States to answer the allegations against me, but fully satis 
 fied them ; and being then a subject of Holland (for I was naturalised), 
 claimed iheir protection ; but, when they refused to give me up, men were 
 employed to assassinate me, and five or at least three hundred pounds offered 
 at the Secretary's office for a person to seize or destroy me.
 
 264 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 as great ambition), to manage the matter with pensioner 
 Fagel, with whom he had a considerable confidence. Steward 
 pressed the pensioner in the King's name, and by his direction, 
 to persuade the Prince to concur with him in procuring a 
 repeal of the laws, for that the number of Papists was too 
 inconsiderable to be dreaded, and the severities on Dissenters 
 too grievous to be borne; but then he made it a condition 
 that the tests should go along with them. This, when he had 
 urged it to the pensioner in several letters, the pensioner was 
 at last desired by the Prince to answer ; and, when matters 
 were come to such a height that Father Petre was brought 
 into the Council-board ; that four Popish bishops were making 
 a circuit round England to confirm, and do other episcopal 
 / offices ; that D'Albeville had given it out in Holland how the 
 Church of England would not have a being two years to an 
 end ; and the Prince's conduct with relation to the Tests was 
 industriously misrepresented, the Prince ordered the answer to 
 be printed. 
 
 It set forth in a very lively manner that both the Prince and 
 Princess were against all persecution on account of religion ; 
 that they freely consented to cover Papists from the severity of 
 all penal laws, and to grant full liberty to Dissenters ; but they 
 could not agree to the repeal of those laws that imported no 
 punishment, but an incapacity from public employments only ; 
 that this was a caution observed in all nations to restrain those 
 of a different communion, and was now necessary for the 
 established religion. If, then, the number of Papists was so 
 small, it was not reasonable to make so great an alteration in 
 the laws for the sake of a few ; and, if they were people of 
 temper and modesty, they ought to waive their pretensions 
 to public places for the sake of their brethren, upon whom the 
 penal laws lay so heavy. These were the heads of the answer 
 which, when published and sent into England, was received 
 with universal joy. The Dissenters saw themselves safe in 
 the Prince's intentions towards them ; the Church party was 
 confirmed in his zeal for maintaining the Tests ; and even 
 the lay Papists were not dissatisfied with the proposal, but 
 complained rather of those ambitious priests and hungry 
 courtiers who were resolved to leave them exposed to the 
 severities of the law, rather than lay aside their pride and 
 avarice. Only the King and those about him were grievously 
 offended at it, and resolved to fix some mark of indignation 
 upon the Prince for it.
 
 James II 265 
 
 There were in the service of the States six regiments of the 
 King's subjects three English and three Scotch that had 
 some of them been of an old establishment, others raised but 
 lately, but all received without any capitulation, or reserved 
 authority to the King to call them home at pleasure. The 
 King, however, took occasion to express his resentment, 
 and sent to the States to return the regiments that were in 
 their service. The States excused themselves that they could 
 not part with them, for they reckoned them their own forces, 
 having paid levy money for them, and received them under 
 no capitulation ; but, whatever officers wished to return, they 
 denied not them their conge. Whereupon thirty or forty 
 officers desired to be dismissed, a set of insolent and un 
 governable persons whom the Prince was glad to get quit 
 of, and the rest were so modelled as to be depended on upon 
 occasion. 
 
 Whether the King imagined that he could vacate the force 
 of the laws by his repeated insults over them, or was willing to 
 bring the clergy either under contempt for compliance, or under 
 penalties for disobedience to his injunctions, but so it was 
 that, about the end of April, he thought fit to renew his last 
 year's Declaration for Liberty of Conscience, with an addition 
 that he would adhere firmly to it, and put none in employ 
 ment but such as would concur in maintaining it ; and with 
 an order of Council requiring the bishops to send copies 
 thereof to their clergy, and to enjoin them to read it on several 
 Sundays in time of Divine service. 
 
 The clergy, upon this occasion, were under great difficulties, 
 and had several meetings in and about London, where they 
 argued the point. On the one hand, it was said that reading 
 the Declaration did not imply their approbation of it ; it was a 
 publication of the King's act, and no way imputable to them ; 
 whereas a refusal to do it would certainly expose them to 
 greater severities than prudence required for so slight a matter. 
 On the other hand, it was said that the publication of it was 
 imposed upon them to make them odious; would be a bad 
 precedent to the gentry, and an encouragement to the King to 
 lay harder tasks upon them ; that, whatever the toleration was, 
 the Declaration, which was founded upon a dispensing power, 
 was illegal, and to have any hand in promulgating it was 
 abetting it. Be the danger then what it would, they saw their 
 ruin was determined, and it would be an inglorious thing to 
 defer it a little by doing that which would dragon them the 
 
 W K 2
 
 266 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 hatred of their friends and the contempt of their enemies. 
 These reasons happily prevailed, and were communicated with 
 such secrecy to the clergy in the country, that they were 
 generally engaged to agree in their conduct before the Court 
 had any notice of it. 
 
 Bancroft, Archbishop of Canterbury, acted on this occasion a 
 part suitable to his post and character, lie wrote to all the 
 bishops of his province to come up and consult about this 
 matter of great importance ; and of such as could not, he desired 
 their opinions. Eighteen bishops, and the main body of the 
 clergy, concurred in the resolution against reading the Declara 
 tion ; and he and six more signed a petition to the King, con 
 taining their reasons for noJibeying the order of Council that 
 had been sent them, yiz.;-/-That their refusal proceeded not from 
 any disrespect to his Majesty, or unwillingness to show favour 
 to Dissenters; but, the Declaration being founded on a dis 
 pensing power which was known to be illegal and destructive 
 both to Church and State, they could not in prudence, honour, 
 and conscience make themselves so far parties to it as the 
 publication of it in time of Divine service must amount to. 
 
 The Archbishop himself was in an ill state of health, and not 
 able to go ; but he sent the other six l with the petition to the 
 King, who, when he understood the contents of it, told them 
 roughly that he was their King, and would be obeyed, other 
 wise he would let them feel the weight of his displeasure. Their 
 answer was, "The will of God be done," and so they returned 
 from the Court in a sort of triumph. 
 
 Upon this emergency, the King consulted with those who 
 were about him what was proper to be done, and talked with 
 men of all persuasions. Lob, an eminent man among the 
 Dissenters, was for sending the bishops to the Tower; Father 
 Petre was transported with joy, and broke out into a very in 
 decent expression upon it ; but the Popish nobility pressed him 
 earnestly to let the matter fall, for they perceived a combination 
 among the clergy not to read the Declaration ; and accordingly 
 it proved, for only seven in London, and not above two hundred 
 all England over, read it; and of these some read it the first 
 Sunday, but not the second ; others declared in their sermons, 
 that though they obeyed the order, they did not approve the 
 Declaration; and one, rnoje_ pleasantly than the rest, told his 
 
 1 The six bishops were St. Asaph, Ely, Bath and Wells, Peterborough, 
 Chichester, and Bristol.
 
 James II 267 
 
 rpngrf.gatinn that though he was obliged to read it, they were 
 not obliged to hear it, and so, when they were all gone out, he 
 read it to _lKe walls. . 
 
 After a fortnight's consultation, violent counsels seemed to 
 agree best with the King's temper and resentment, and so the 
 bishops were cited to appear before the Council; where, after 
 being examined whether the petition was of their penning, and 
 owning it whether of their publication, and denying it they 
 were asked at last whether they would enter into bonds to 
 appear at the King's Bench, and answer to an information of 
 misdemeanour; but, upon their right of peerage, refusing to 
 do it, they were sent to the Tower. 
 
 Never was the City, in the memory of man, in such a 
 fermentation as upon this occasion. The banks of the river (for 
 the bishops went by water) were crowded with people, kneeling 
 down, and asking their blessings, and with loud shouts ex 
 pressing their good wishes and hearty concern for their pre 
 servation. In the Tower the soldiers and officers did the same, 
 and a universal consternation appeared in all peoples' faces. 
 The King only remained unmoved ; and though he had a fair 
 opportunity of doing a gracious thing, upon the pretended birth 
 of his son, which happened two days after, yet his eager 
 appetite of revenge, or of vindicating his insulted authority as 
 he called it, made him inexorable. After a week's confinement, 
 however, the bishops being brought, upon a habeas corpus, to 
 the King's Bench bar, were admitted to bail, and required to 
 answer the information that should be exhibited against them 
 that day fortnight. 
 
 When the day appointed for their trial came, Powis was 
 Attorney-General, and Sir William Williams (who had been 
 Speaker in two successive Parliaments, a zealous promoter of 
 the Exclusion, and a bold pleader in causes against the Court, 
 but himself a corrupt and vicious man, and who had no principle 
 but his own interest), was Solicitor. Powis acted his part as 
 fairly as his post would allow him, but Williams took very in 
 decent liberties, and oftentimes bore very hard upon Sawyer and 
 Finch, the bishops' counsel, who were remarkable for their 
 precedents and proceedings, when they themselves were of the 
 King's. They could not, however, prove either the bishops' 
 hands, or their publication of the petition, and were therefore 
 forced to have recourse to the confession they had made at the 
 Council-board, which was thought very inglorious. 
 
 The bishops' defence was, that having received an order to
 
 268 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 which they could not pay obedience, they thought it incumbent 
 on them to lay before the King their reasons for it ; that, as 
 subjects, they had a right to petition ; as peers, and of his great 
 Council, they had a further claim ; and, as bishops, they were 
 concerned to look after matters of religion; and that the 
 King's Declaration being of that nature, and founded on a power 
 that was contrary to law, they thought it both their right and 
 duty to make such representation to him. But the sacredness 
 of the King's authority, and the seditiousness of petitioning in 
 any point of government out of Parliament, were much objected 
 on the other side. They were, however, at last acquitted, 
 to the inexpressible joy of the City, the army, and the whole 
 nation. 
 
 But though the bishops had escaped, the King was resolved 
 to pursue his revenge, and to make the inferior clergy suffer for 
 their contempt in not reading the Declaration. And accordingly 
 citations were issued out, requiring the chancellors and arch 
 deacons to send in the lists of all the clergy, both of those who 
 had and those who had not obeyed the order of Council ; 
 which they refusing to do, the Bishop of Rochester, on the very 
 day to which they were cited, withdrew from the Court, and 
 sent a letter to the Commissioners, importing, " that though he 
 himself had obeyed the order, which he protested he did out of 
 a principle of conscience, yet, as he did not doubt but that those 
 who had refused it went upon the same motive, he would "now 
 choose rather to suffer with them than concur in making them 
 suffer ; " which stopped the proceedings of that day, and in the 
 event put an end to that Court for ever. 
 
 Things were now come to that pass, and the King, by assuming 
 to himself a power to make laws void, had so broken the govern 
 ment and legal administration of it, that it was high time for 
 the nation to look to its preservation. Admiral Russell had a 
 sister in Holland, and under pretence of coming to see her, he 
 was desired by some men of great power and interest in Eng 
 land to wait on the Prince, to acquaint him with the disposition 
 of the nation, and to know his resolutions what he proposed to 
 do. And the thing was pressed with greater earnestness at that 
 time, because the Queen's confinement of a son, which was 
 generally thought to be an imposture, had dissatisfied people's 
 minds more and more. 
 
 The Queen had been for six or seven years in such an ill state 
 of health, and had long relinquished all prospect of such an 
 increase, that those who were about her were very well assured
 
 James II 269 
 
 she would have no more children. She was at Bath when the 
 King went his progress, and at his return he called upon her 
 in September, and stayed some few days with her. On the 6th 
 of October, she came to the King at Windsor, and it was at that 
 time that her mother, the Duchess of Modena, made a vow to 
 the Lady of Loretto, that her daughter, by her means, might 
 have a son ; and the daughter, it was said, believed in the 
 vitality of the child the very moment her mother made that 
 vow. After she had expressed this belief, all things about her 
 person were managed with a mysterious secrecy, into which 
 none were admitted but a few Papists. The Princess of Orange 
 was not acquainted with it ; the Princess of Denmark, with all 
 her inquisitiveness, could get no certain knowledge of it ; and, 
 when it came to be suspected and bantered in some libels as a 
 cheat and imposture, the turn the Queen gave it was, that she 
 scorned to satisfy those who suspected her capable of so black 
 a contrivance. 
 
 On Monday in Easter week the Queen, being apprehensive 
 of a miscarriage, sent for the King, who was then at Rochester 
 viewing some naval preparations. The Countess of Clarendon 
 was in the bedchamber that same day, and both heard the 
 Queen often bemoan herself, saying, " Undone, undone," and 
 saw some signs of a miscarriage (as Dr. Walgrave testified the 
 same), when the Countess of Powis ordered her to withdraw, 
 and a woman of the bedchamber charged her to speak nothing 
 of what she had seen that day. The King at this time pressed 
 the Princess of Denmark, with a more than usual importunity, 
 and contrary to the opinion of her friends and physicians, to go 
 to Bath. But she had not long been there before, pretending 
 that the waters did not agree with her, she sent word of her 
 intentions to return within a few days. 
 
 The Queen had no sooner notice of this, but she was for 
 going the very next day to be confined, at St. James's (for 
 those about her had now altered her reckoning to the time 
 the King was with her at Bath), and was accordingly carried 
 at night from Whitehall, not through the park, as usual, but by 
 Charing Cross and along Pail-Mall, with a sort of affectation ; 
 her train giving it out that she was going to be confined 
 some saying it would be next morning, and others affirming 
 it would be of a boy. There was no mistake in the conjecture, 
 if it was one, for next morning, about nine o'clock, she sent 
 word to the King that she was in labour. The Queen-Dowager, 
 the Countess of Sunderland, and the Lady Belasyse came in
 
 270 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 time; but, it being Trinity Sunday, all the Protestant ladies 
 about Court were gone to church before the news was let go 
 abroad. The King brought with him a great many peers and 
 Privy Councillors ; and, while they stood at the further end of 
 the room, the ladies within the alcove, and the Queen, with 
 the curtains close drawn, and none within them but the mid 
 wife and an under-dresser, lay in bed. A warming-pan was 
 brought in, which, not being looked into, was thought a matter 
 of suspicion afterwards, and, in a very short time (a little before 
 ten), the Queen cried out as in a strong pain, and the midwife 
 said aloud she was happily delivered, and gave some indication 
 to Lady Sunderland, who touched her forehead, a sign pre 
 viously agreed upon by which the King was assured that it was 
 a son. 
 
 The child was not heard to cry, nor was he shown to any 
 in the room ; but the under-dresser huddled away something 
 in her arms, pretending more air was necessary, into a dressing- 
 room hard by, that had communication with other apartments ; 
 and the King, delaying some minutes to follow her, made it 
 seem as if he had been minded to give time for some clandes 
 tine management. No satisfaction, in the meantime, was 
 given to the ladies who came in that the birth was real : 
 the Princess, when she returned from Bath, had no sure 
 conviction of it ; and Chamberlain, the man-midwife, not 
 having been called in to the labour, as usual, heightened 
 the probability of an imposture. If there was no imposture, 
 the matter, in short, was so unaccountably managed as to 
 give sufficient grounds of suspicion, and might therefore ex 
 cuse the nation for being so cold in their expressions of joy, 
 and so formal in their congratulatory addresses upon this 
 occasion. 
 
 But if a child was born, there are further presumptions 
 that it soon died, and another was put in his room. The 
 Queen's children were all naturally very weak, and died young. 
 That very night a man l of credit overheard it said in an 
 eminent Papist's house (Brown, brother to the Viscount Mont- 
 acute), that "the Prince of Wales is dead." Next morning 
 all access was denied to the young Prince, and the Countess 
 of Clarendon herself was not admitted. However, two days 
 after this, a child was produced, that looked too strong, as 
 most thought, for one so newly born. And that child, again, 
 fell into such fits, some weeks after, that four physicians were 
 1 Hemings, an eminent apothecary in St. Martin's Lane.
 
 James II 271 
 
 sent for, and all looked upon him as dead ; but when, after 
 dinner, they were called in again, they were shown a sound 
 lusty child, that had no kind of illness on him, whom they 
 could not think the same, though they durst not speak their 
 minds. 
 
 However this may be, the Prince of Orange thought it 
 proper to send over Zulestein, both to congratulate upon this 
 occasion and to feel the pulse of the nobility and chief gentry 
 with relation to his coming over ; and, upon his return, Zule 
 stein brought such advices and assurances to the Prince, as 
 determined his resolution. It was advised that the Prince 
 could never hope for a more favourable conjuncture ; that 
 the proceedings against the bishops and the pretended birth 
 of a prince had made people imagine that the ruin of their 
 religion was intended, and Popery and slavery entailed upon 
 the nation ; that the army continued well affected ; the seamen 
 showed the same inclination ; and the whole nation, in short, 
 was now in a proper disposition to be made use of. The army, 
 indeed, were so exasperated against the Papists that were among 
 them, that the King found it necessary to part them by breaking 
 up the camp, and sending them into winter quarters. And the 
 fleet had like to have mutinied upon Strickland's bringing priests 
 aboard to say mass, and dismissing the chaplains on a slight 
 pretence. 
 
 The Earl of Sunderland at this time declared himself a 
 Papist ; and his change was so sudden, without any previous 
 conference or instruction, that it looked like a man who, 
 having no religion, took up one to serve a turn more than 
 to satisfy his conscience. The true secret of his conversion, 
 however, was not an intention to ruin the King by thus gaining 
 greater credit with him while he carried on a separate corre 
 spondence with the Prince of Orange, for the Prince of Orange 
 had never any participation of counsels with him, but to raise 
 himself thence in the Queen's esteem, that he might have the 
 better opportunity to press his advice for more moderate 
 measures with more authority, and by that means destroy the 
 designs which he probably understood were carrying on in 
 Holland. To this purpose he told the Queen " that the state 
 of affairs was now quite altered since she had a son ; that there 
 was no necessity for driving on so hastily what time would bring 
 about by easy steps, now the succession was sure ; that it 
 would be her interest to set up for gentle counsels, and to allay 
 the flame that was kindled by a different administration ; that
 
 272 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 by this means she would gain the hearts of the nation both 
 to herself and her son, and be probably chosen Queen-Regent, 
 if the King should die during his minority." This was the 
 scheme he laid, and the end he proposed, in the change of 
 his religion ; and it might have possibly had its intended effect, 
 and stilled the ferment of the nation by promises of a milder 
 administration for the future, but that it wanted a sufficient 
 time to operate. 
 
 The Prince of Orange, having this encouragement from Eng 
 land, set himself with great application to prepare for his 
 intended expedition. The old Elector of Brandenburg was now 
 dead. He was a prince of great courage, and very skilful in 
 affairs, both civil and military ; he had an excellent memory 
 and quick apprehension ; was regular in the conduct of his own 
 life, and zealous in the concerns of religion ; but a little too 
 choleric in his temper, and too intent upon his own interest 
 when it came before him. He kept a splendid Court, and, to 
 maintain that and his large armies, he pressed his subjects with 
 heavy taxes ; nor was he sufficiently sensible of their miseries. 
 His son had not his genius : he had neither strength of body 
 nor force of mind capable of great undertakings ; but he had a 
 true zeal for the Reformed religion, and a fond admiration of 
 his cousin, the Prince of Orange ; and therefore, when his 
 father was dead, and the Prince sent over Bentinck with a 
 compliment to the new Elector, acquainting him at the same 
 time with his design on England, and requesting to know how 
 much he might depend on his assistance, he offered him all 
 that he could ask, and more. 
 
 The Prince resolved to carry over to England an army of 
 nine thousand foot, and four thousand horse and dragoons ; 
 and, for the security of the States under such a diminution 
 of their strength, he concerted with the new Elector, the 
 Landgrave of Hesse, and the Duke of Lunenburg and Zell, 
 to furnish such a number of troops as might supply that 
 deduction, and prevailed with the States to settle a fund for 
 nine thousand seamen, and to have their naval preparations in 
 such a condition that they might be ready to put to sea upon 
 the first orders. 
 
 While these things were in secret management, the Elector 
 of Cologne's death, who was likewise Bishop of Liege and 
 Miinster, came happily in to cover the preparations that the 
 Dutch were making. Miinster lay between them and the 
 northern parts of Germany, and from thence their best recruits
 
 James II 273 
 
 came. Cologne commanded twenty leagues of the Rhine, 
 and was an inlet into Holland; and Liege, a country full 
 of people and wealth, opened an entrance into Brabant, which, 
 if Maestricht were taken, commanded the Maese down to 
 Holland ; so that it nearly concerned the Dutch to observe 
 who succeeded in the electorate ; and their movements on that 
 occasion were so little suspected, and thought so reasonable, 
 that neither the Court of England nor the Court of France, for 
 above two months, took the alarm. 
 
 The first of the English nobility that came over to the Prince 
 was Lord Mordaunt, a man brave and generous, with much 
 heat, many notions, and full of discourse; but his judgment 
 was not true, his thoughts crude and undigested, and his secrets 
 too easily known. He pressed the Prince to the undertaking, 
 and represented the facility of it in too romantic a manner to be 
 depended on. 
 
 The Earl of Shrewsbury came over next, who had been bred 
 a Papist, but forsook that religion upon a critical inquiry into 
 the points of controversy ; a man of strict honour and probity, 
 with a large share of learning, a correct judgment, a sweetness 
 of temper, and modesty of deportment that charmed all who 
 knew him, and raised him highly in the estimation of his 
 prince. He only represented the state of affairs to the Prince, 
 and, without pressing them too much, left it to his own con 
 sideration and resolves. 
 
 Russell came over in May, and brought the matter nearer a 
 crisis. He had been bred at sea, and was a bedchamber-man 
 to the King when Duke of York ; but, upon his cousin-german 
 the Lord Russell's death, he retired from Court, being a man of 
 much honour and great courage, of good principles, and resolute 
 in maintaining them. To him the Prince declared " that in a 
 design of such consequence his honour and his conscience both 
 were to be satisfied, and therefore he expected a formal and 
 direct invitation before he embarked in it ; or, if there were 
 danger in trusting such a secret with so many, that such a 
 competent number as might be supposed to understand the 
 sense of the nation best would do it, and he would then in 
 stantly engage." 
 
 Admiral Herbert came over in July, and was received with a 
 particular regard to his pride and ill-humour. He was a man 
 of a good understanding, but profusely luxurious, and upon 
 every occasion so sullen and peevish that it was plain he 
 valued himself much, and expected the same of others. And
 
 274 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 it was thought his private quarrel with Lord Dartmouth, for 
 having more of the King's confidence than himself, was the 
 root of his resentment against the King, from whence his 
 firmness in the present undertaking grew ; but the reputation 
 he had gained for his steadfastness in England, his great skill in 
 sea affairs, and the near prospect of employing him in that 
 capacity, made it necessary to endeavour to keep him in good 
 temper, so far as homage and observance could do it. 
 
 But the man to whom the conduct of the whole design was 
 chiefly committed was Mr. Sidney, brother to Algernon and 
 the Earl of Leicester, who, being envoy in Holland in the 
 year 1679, entered into a particular confidence with the Prince, 
 and had the highest degree of his trust and favour that ever 
 Englishman had. A graceful man he was, who had lived 
 long in the Court, and run into some adventures that became 
 very public; but of a sweet, endearing temper, and who had 
 no fault, no malice in his heart, but too great a love for 
 pleasure. His business was to sound the sentiments of some 
 of the nobility, and to fix their purposes about the Prince's 
 coming over. 
 
 Lord Halifax, when he proposed the thing to him, thought 
 it too hazardous and impracticable. Lord Danby readily went 
 into it, and drew the Bishop of London into an approbation of 
 it. Lord Nottingham had great credit with the Church party, 
 as being a man possessed with their notions, grave and virtuous 
 in his course of life, and in no share of confidence with the 
 Court all this reign. He had some knowledge of the law and 
 the records of Parliament, and was a copious speaker, but too 
 florid and tedious, though mightily admired by some. Upon 
 the first proposition he embraced it ; but afterwards (pretending 
 conscience, and the opinion of some divines upon the matter) 
 he could not go along with them, he said, but he would so far 
 assist them-as his good wishes would avail, and be so far criminal 
 as concealment would make him. The Earl of Devonshire was 
 eager for it, and so were three of the principal officers in the 
 army Kirk, Trelawny, and Lord Churchill. Trelawny per 
 suaded his brother, the Bishop of Exeter, to agree to it ; and 
 Churchill engaged as many officers as he could well trust with 
 the secret. 
 
 Lord Churchill was a man of a noble and graceful appearance, 
 bred up in the Court, without any literature ; but he had a solid 
 and clear understanding, with a constant presence of mind. He 
 knew the arts of living in a Court most exquisitely, caressed all
 
 James II 275 
 
 men with a soft and obliging deportment, and was always ready 
 to do good offices. But, as he began the world with no fortune, 
 he entered too deeply into the methods of acquiring one ; nor 
 did he relinquish that pursuit, so as to suit his expenses to the 
 state he could well have maintained from the posts he held, 
 when he came to be raised to a higher elevation. But, making 
 some kind allowances for this, he was certainly one of the 
 greatest men of the age. He was very high in the King's favour, 
 and has therefore been often censured as both ungrateful and 
 perfidious to a kind and liberal master ; but as he was always 
 averse to the King's violent proceedings, and suggested more 
 moderate counsels whenever he was consulted as he always 
 declared he would leave the King and withdraw from his ser 
 vice whenever he found him attempting an alteration in the 
 constitution the cause of religion and liberty was then a suffi 
 cient reason, and is still a sufficient apology, for his doing so. 
 His lady was a woman of little knowledge, but of a clear appre 
 hension and true judgment. She was a warm and hearty 
 friend, violent and sudden in her resolutions, and a little too 
 impetuous in her way of speaking. She was thought proud 
 and insolent on the favour she was in with Princess Anne, which 
 indeed was very great, though she used none of the common 
 arts of flattery and dissimulation to maintain it ; and it was 
 probably by her prevalency that both that Princess and her 
 husband, the Prince of Denmark, were induced to encourage 
 the expedition. 
 
 With these promises and invitations, the Earl of Shrewsbury 
 came over in September, and, not long after, Sidney brought 
 over a full scheme of advices, together with the heads of a 
 Declaration, which were all penned by the Earl of Danby. And 
 though the secret was now in many thousand hands, yet so 
 true were they to one another, that there was not the least dis 
 covery made till France took the alarm, and sent information 
 thereof to the King. The King published the advertisements he 
 had from France a little too rashly, for the people were animated 
 when they understood that the Prince's coming was in agitation, 
 and put themselves in a disposition to receive him. But, to 
 allay their expectations, it was afterwards given out that the 
 preparations were either against France or Denmark, for, con 
 sidering the good understanding between the King and Prince, 
 they could not possibly be against England. The King, how 
 ever, discovered his apprehensions of it when he ordered 
 fourteen more ships to be put to sea, with many fire-ships, and
 
 276 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 gave the chief command of the fleet to Lord Dartmouth, one of 
 the worthiest men of his Court, who, having been long in his 
 service and confidence, though much against the present 
 conduct of affairs, was nevertheless resolved to stick to him at 
 all hazards. 
 
 Under this apprehension, the King plainly saw by his late 
 encampment that there was no depending on the army without 
 new moulding it ; and therefore he proposed the putting such 
 a number of Popish recruits, brought over from Ireland, into 
 every regiment, as would soon swell to a majority, and form an 
 army at his devotion. The experiment was first made in the 
 Duke of Berwick's regiment, and five Irishmen were ordered 
 to be put into every company; but when Beaumont, the 
 lieutenant-colonel, and five of the captains refused to receive 
 them, and desired leave to lay down their commissions rather 
 than do it, they were put in arrest, brought before a council of 
 war, broke with reproach, and declared incapable to serve the 
 King any more. The precedent, however, had this good effect, 
 that it provoked other officers to declare their unwillingness to 
 mix with those of another nation and religion, and discouraged 
 all future attempts of the like nature. 
 
 When the King of France sent an account of the preparations 
 in Holland, he made the King an offer of what forces he 
 pleased, and proposed that Portsmouth might be put in their 
 hands to keep open a communication with France. But the 
 nation was beholden to the Earl of Sunderland for diverting 
 this proposal, by suggesting to the King that a small force 
 from France would do no good ; would but alienate his people, 
 and drive the army to desertion ; and a great one might prove 
 dangerous, might turn their arms in time upon England, and 
 make him but a viceroy to their Prince. And the advice so 
 far prevailed that, the King not heartily embracing the pro 
 posal, the French envoy sent word to his master that he might 
 employ his forces that winter another way, which proved fatal 
 advice to the King. 
 
 The Court had long denied any apprehensions of an expedi 
 tion from Holland against them ; but now they began to 
 discover themselves, and, in a memorial presented to the 
 States, demanded to know what was the design of those great 
 and surprising preparations at such a season ; which when the 
 States, according to their slow method, delayed answering, the 
 French envoy gave in one of a menacing nature, wherein he 
 told them that, as his master understood their preparations
 
 James II 277 
 
 were designed against England, he was to let them know the 
 alliance between him and that crown was so strait that he 
 would resent every attempt upon it as an invasion of his 
 own. But there were other disputes between the French and 
 Dutch at this time, which made the States less affected with 
 this threatening, and befriended the Prince's undertaking much. 
 
 All the manufactures of Holland, both linen and woollen, 
 and the importation of herrings, except such as were cured 
 with French salt, were prohibited in France. This was a 
 breach upon the articles of commerce ; and the States, in 
 return, forbade the importation of French wine and brandy 
 till trade should be brought to another regulation. But the 
 French King was so far from making overtures of this kind, that 
 he seemed now to despise all the world, and was publishing 
 terrible manifestoes against all who pretended to control him. 
 
 The Emperor of Germany stood in his way, and obstructed 
 the election of his friend, Cardinal Fiirstemburg, to the Elec 
 torate of Cologne ; whereupon he set forth a long Declaration, 
 which was afterwards the foundation of a lasting war, ' ' That 
 whereas the Emperor, and the Elector Palatine by his 
 encouragement, had offended him in several instances, he 
 would possess himself of Philipsburg, and then demolish it; 
 he would take Kaiserslautern from the Palatine, and keep 
 it ; and was resolved to support the Cardinal's pretensions to 
 Cologne." 
 
 The Pope had some difference with him about the franchises, 
 which he thought he had a right, in his own capital, to sup 
 press ; but the King was so offended at it, that when he sent 
 Count Lavardin, his ambassador, he made him enter Rome in 
 a hostile manner, with some troops of horse, though not in 
 the form of troop^, keep guards about his house and in the 
 franchises, and affront the Pope's authority on all occasions ; 
 so that the Pope, though he seemed to bear it patiently, grew 
 sullen upon it, and would neither admit him to an audience 
 nor receive any message from his master. This enraged the 
 King so, that he set forth a Declaration, in the form of a letter 
 to Cardinal d'Estrees, to be given to the Pope ; wherein, after 
 a long complaint of many affronts and abuses that had been put 
 upon him, and some severe reproaches to his Holiness for 
 breaking the canons of the Church, for neglecting the extirpa 
 tion of heresy, and for encouraging, by his supineness, the 
 Prince of Orange to invade England, and his emissaries to call 
 the Prince of Wales an impostor, he told him plainly that he
 
 278 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 was resolved to separate the character of the most Holy Father 
 from that of a temporal prince, and would seize on Avignon 
 and Castro until he should satisfy the pretensions of the Duke 
 of Parma. 
 
 There was another incident that was not unfavourable to the 
 Prince's design. Marshal Schomberg, when the persecution in 
 France began, came into Holland, and was thence invited to 
 Berlin by the old Elector of Brandenburg, made Governor of 
 Prussia, and set at the head of the Elector's armies. The son 
 treated him with the same regard, and sent him to Cleves to 
 command the forces that the Emperor had ordered to cover 
 Cologne, and garrison the town against the impressions of the 
 French. When the States thus saw that Cologne was put in 
 secure hands, themselves were out of danger, and the French 
 armies likely to have employment enough this winter, they 
 unanimously concurred in the resolution of furnishing the 
 Prince with the best of their forces, of raising ten thousand 
 more men, and of accepting thirteen thousand Germans that the 
 Prince, as was said before, had stipulated for ; so that all things 
 were in a happy disposition, and nothing more was to be dreaded 
 but the wind and waves. 
 
 It was late in the season when the Dutch fleet, consisting of 
 about fifty sail, set to sea, commanded by officers of their own, 
 but superintended by Herbert, representing the Prince's person, 
 as Lieutenant-General-Admiral. This was done with a political 
 view, both to gratify the man's pride, and probably to procure 
 a defection in the English fleet, he having been at the head of 
 it so lately. A transport fleet of above five hundred vessels 
 was hired to carry over the army, and arms supernumerary 
 were provided for twenty thousand men. 
 
 While all things were in this forwardness, Sidney came over 
 with proper invitations from the persons formerly mentioned, 
 and with such advices as they thought convenient for the Prince 
 to follow. They advised him to come with a large fleet, but a 
 small army, for fear that a large one might raise jealousies, as 
 though he meant a conquest ; to land in the north, because the 
 country was well affected, abounded in horses, and had good 
 roads till within fifty miles of London ; but not in the west, by 
 reason that Monmouth's ill success, and the late severities 
 thereupon, had dispirited many. Above all, they pressed him 
 to dispatch, and make all possible haste. 
 
 The Prince would by no means consent to go over with a 
 small army : he could not tell how the country might be affected
 
 James II 279 
 
 at his landing, and whether the King's forces might revolt or 
 not; and therefore he resolved to provide against the worst. 
 Herbert and the rest of the seamen were against landing in the 
 north, as a dangerous coast for the fleet at that season of the 
 year to ride in ; and thought the Channel not only much safer 
 for the fleet, but necessary to be guarded, in order to prevent 
 assistance from France. And when some proposed that the 
 Prince would divide his force, land himself with the greatest 
 part in the north, and send a detachment, under Marshal 
 Schomberg, into the west, the Prince readily agreed to take 
 the Marshal with him, and obtained the Elector's consent to let 
 him go; but he rejected the motion of dividing the fleet or 
 army, as apprehensive that the defeat of a detachment might 
 prove the ruin of the whole. 
 
 All this while he continued to cover his design, as if it looked 
 towards Cologne, and ordered a review of the army, with an 
 encampment for two months, at Nimeguen. But there was 
 still one thing wanting how to find money necessary for so 
 expensive an expedition. And in this he was very fortunate 
 again ; for the States having raised four millions of guilders 
 for the reparation of their fortresses on the Rhine and the Yssel, 
 when they apprehended a war in the bishopric of Cologne, and 
 now being eased of that fear for this winter, they all consented 
 to lend the Prince the whole money, without so much as one 
 disagreeing vote. 
 
 Nothing now was wanting but a Declaration proper for the 
 Prince to publish at his landing ; and as pensioner Fagel drew 
 it up (though not to every one's taste and liking), it set forth 
 the many violations of the laws of England during the King's 
 reign in the matters of religion, civil government, and the 
 administration of justice ; and that, as all milder remedies had 
 proved ineffectual, and applications for redress been accounted 
 criminal, the Prince, at the earnest invitation of men of all 
 ranks, came over to rescue the constitution from ruin, to pre 
 serve the Church and established religion, to assert his Princess's 
 right to the succession, and to call a free Parliament, to whom 
 he would refer the examination of the Queen's delivery, and 
 abide by their decision. And at the same time he ordered 
 letters to be written in his name, inviting both the soldiers, 
 seamen, and others to come and join with him, in order to 
 secure their religion, laws, and liberties. 
 
 When all matters were thus provided, the troops marched 
 from Nimeguen in the beginning of October, to be put on
 
 280 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 board in the Zuyder Zee, where they lay above ten days before 
 they could get out of the Texel. The wind came about to the 
 east on the i6th, when orders were given to haste to Helvoets- 
 luys, and the Prince, taking his leave of the States, told them 
 "that as he was very sensible of their kindness on several 
 occasions, so he had hitherto served them with the utmost 
 fidelity, and whatever errors had been in his judgment, his 
 heart and intentions were always fixed on their prosperity ; 
 that now he was going to England for no other purposes than 
 were expressed in his Declaration. How God would dispose of 
 him he knew not ; but he committed his country to their care, 
 and recommended his Princess to their protection, and what 
 ever happened to him, he hoped they would not forsake her." 
 The parting was sad, but very kind. Some of every province 
 offered at an answer ; but they were all melted into tears and 
 passion, so that their speeches were much broken, very short, 
 and extremely tender. 1 
 
 When the Prince came to Helvoetsluys, the transport fleet 
 had consumed so much of their provisions that three days of 
 good wind were lost before they could be furnished with fresh 
 supplies. On the igth of October he went aboard, and the whole 
 fleet sailed out at night ; but the next day the wind chopping 
 about, and settling in the north-west, it blew so strong a storm 
 for four-and-twenty hours, that, the wind being contrary and 
 the ships in danger of running foul of one another, a signal 
 was given to go in again, and in a few days they got all safe 
 into port without any considerable loss, except five hundred 
 horses that died for want of air. 
 
 Great consultations were in the meantime held at Court, and 
 strong preparations made for a defence. The Earl of Melfort 
 and others proposed to seize all suspected persons, and to send 
 them to Portsmouth ; but the Earl of Sunderland diverted that 
 notion, and advised the King rather to do such popular things 
 as might give content and abate the ferment of the nation. But 
 however his advice was followed, himself was soon turned out 
 of all for giving it, as a betrayer of the King's counsels, and 
 Lord Preston was made Secretary of State. 
 
 A strong fleet was put to sea, which, had it met the Dutch 
 
 1 I was invited to go along with the Prince as his chaplain, and 
 accepted the appointment, being well satisfied of the lawfulness of the 
 undertaking. The Princess had no scruple about the lawfulness of the 
 design, but seemed to have a great load on her spirits. She was very 
 solemn and serious, and prayed God earnestly to bless and direct us.
 
 James II 281 
 
 (considering the many transports they had to cover), would 
 have probably been too hard for them. All the forces in Scot 
 land were ordered up, some regiments in Ireland were brought 
 over, and the King's army, when all together, was reckoned 
 about thirty thousand strong. 
 
 The King sent for the bishops, and assuring them of his 
 affections to the Church, and how an equal liberty of conscience 
 was all that he intended, he desired them to declare their 
 abhorrence of the unnatural invasion the Prince was designing, 
 and to give him their advice what to do. They declined the 
 point of abhorrence; but they advised him to summon a 
 Parliament, to dissolve the Ecclesiastical Commission, to 
 reverse the proceedings against the Bishop of London and 
 Magdalen College, and to put the laws again in their proper 
 channel ; and he followed their advice so far, that the old 
 charters were restored, some writs for a Parliament were sealed 
 and given out, and an order was sent to the Bishop of 
 Winchester to put the President of Magdalen College in 
 possession again. But when news was brought that the Prince 
 and his fleet were blown back, the writs were called in again, 
 and the order was countermanded, which plainly showed what 
 it was that influenced the Court to such compliance, and how 
 long that influence was likely to last. 
 
 But the point wherein the King thought himself most con 
 cerned to give the nation satisfaction was the birth of the 
 Prince of Wales ; and therefore he called together not only the 
 judges and Privy Councillors, but all the nobility likewise then 
 in town, and complaining much of the injury that was done 
 both him and the Queen in charging them with so black an 
 imposture (few princes having been born in the presence of 
 more witnesses than were at his son's birth), he desired them to 
 hear what the proofs were of that matter. It was proved that 
 the Queen was delivered while many were in the room, who 
 saw the child soon after her delivery ; but the midwife was the 
 only evidence in this article. It was proved that milk was 
 seen to flow from the Queen's breasts, and the marks were 
 observed upon her linen ; but the time of seeing it was said to 
 be before, not after, her delivery. Mrs. Price, the laundress, 
 deposed that she once took linen from the Queen's body that 
 carried the marks of a delivery ; but she spoke but of once. 
 The Countess of Sunderland and Lady Wentworth deposed to 
 other proofs of the Queen's maternity ; and being both un- 
 bribable to utter an untruth, they were probably mistaken or 
 deceived. However this was, these depositions, when they
 
 282 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 came to be published, were thought at that time so apparently 
 defective, that instead of lessening, they did but increase the 
 jealousy, making the people impatient for the Prince's arrival, 
 and wish for an east wind, which on that occasion was called a 
 Protestant wind. 
 
 The Protestant wind came at last, which both locked the 
 English ships up in the river, and carried the Dutch fleet out to 
 sea. On the ist of November, O.S., we sailed out with the even 
 ing tide, and having the sea clear and a fair navigation, shaped 
 our course to the west. On the 3rd we passed between Dover 
 and Calais, and before it grew night came in sight of the Isle 
 of Wight. The next was the anniversary of the day on which 
 the Prince was born and married, and to land on that day he 
 fancied would seem auspicious, and animate the soldiers ; but 
 the day following, it was thought (being Gunpowder Treason 
 day), would most sensibly affect the English. Torbay was 
 thought the best place for the fleet to lie in, and it was 
 proposed to land the army as near as possible ; but when it 
 was perceived next morning that we had overrun it, and had 
 nowhere to go now but to Plymouth, where we could promise 
 ourselves no favourable reception, the Admiral began to give 
 up all for lost, till the wind abating, and turning to the south, 
 with a soft and gentle gale carried the whole fleet into Torbay 
 in the space of four hours. 
 
 The foot immediately went on shore, the horse were next 
 day landed, and the artillery and heavy baggage sent to 
 Topsham, the seaport of Exeter, where the Prince intended to 
 stay some time, both to refresh his men and to give the country 
 an opportunity to declare its affections. When the Prince 
 entered Exeter, the Bishop and Dean ran away, the clergy stood 
 off, the magistrates were fearful, and it was a full week before 
 any gentlemen of the country joined him, though they saw 
 every day persons of condition coming in to him among the 
 first of whom was Lord Colchester, eldest son to the Earl of 
 Rivers, Lord Wharton, Lord Abingdon, and Mr. Russell, Lord 
 Russell's brother. 
 
 Seymour was then Recorder of Exeter. He joined the 
 Prince, with several other gentlemen of quality and estate, and 
 gave the good advice of having an association l signed by all 
 
 1 I drew it up, and it was engrossed on parchment, and signed by all those 
 who came in to the Prince. It was an engagement to stick together in pur 
 suing the ends of the Prince's Declaration, and, if any attempt should be 
 made on his person, to revenge it on all by whom or for whom such 
 attempt should be made.
 
 James II 283 
 
 who came in, as the only means to prevent desertion, and to 
 secure them entirely to the Prince's party. 
 
 The heads of the university of Oxford sent Dr. Finch, son to 
 the Earl of Winchelsea, then made Warden of All Souls Col 
 lege, to assure the Prince that they would declare for him, 
 inviting him at the same time to come to Oxford, and to accept 
 of their plate if he needed it. A sudden turn from those 
 principles which they carried so high not many years before ! 
 But all this was but a small accession. 
 
 The King came down to Salisbury, and sent his troops 
 twenty miles farther; whereupon the Prince, leaving Devon 
 shire and Exeter under Seymour's government, with a small 
 garrison and the heavy artillery under Colonel Gibson, who was 
 made Deputy Governor as to the military part, advanced with 
 his army ; and understanding that some officers of note (Lord 
 Cornbury, Colonel Langston, and others) designed to come 
 over and bring their men with them, but that they could not 
 depend on their subalterns, he ordered a body of his men to 
 advance, and favour their revolt. The parties were within two 
 miles of one another, when the whisper ran about that they 
 were betrayed, which put them in such confusion that many 
 rode back, though one whole regiment, and about a hundred 
 besides, came over in a body, which gave great encouragement 
 to the Prince's party, and (as it was managed by the flatterers) 
 was made an instance to the King of his army's fidelity to him, 
 since those who attempted to lead their regiments away were 
 forced to do it by stratagem, which, as soon as they perceived, 
 they deserted their leaders and came back. 
 
 But all this would not pacify the King's uneasy mind. His 
 spirits sank, his blood was in such a fermentation that it gushed 
 out of his nose several times a day, and with this hurry of 
 thought and dejection of mind all things about him began to 
 put on a gloomy aspect. The spies that he sent out took his 
 money, but never returned to bring him any information ; so 
 that he knew nothing but what common report told him, which 
 magnified the number of his enemies, and made him believe 
 the Prince was coming upon him before he had moved from 
 Exeter. The city of London, he heard, was unquiet ; the Earls 
 of Devonshire and Danby and Lord Lumley were drawing 
 great bodies of men in Yorkshire ; the Lord Delamere had a 
 regiment in Cheshire ; York and Newcastle had declared for 
 the Prince ; and the bulk of the nation did so evidently 
 discover their inclinations for him, that the King saw he had
 
 284 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 nothing to trust to but his army ; and the army, he began to 
 fear, was not to be relied on. In conclusion, when he heard 
 that Lord Churchill and the Duke of Grafton (who was one of 
 King Charles's sons by the Duchess of Cleveland), and the 
 most gallant of all he had, were gone to the Prince, and soon 
 after that Prince George, the Duke of Ormond, and the Lord 
 Drumlanrig, eldest son to the Duke of Queensberry, had 
 forsaken him, he was quite confounded, and not knowing whom 
 to depend on any longer, or what further designs might be 
 against him, he instantly went to London. 
 
 The Princess Anne, when she heard of the King's return, 
 was so struck with the apprehension of his displeasure, and 
 what possibly might be the consequence of it, that she per 
 suaded Lady Churchill to prevail with the Bishop of London 
 to carry them both off. The Bishop, as it was agreed, received 
 them about midnight at the back-stairs, and carried them to the 
 Earl of Dorset's, where they were furnished with what they 
 wanted, and so conducted them to Northampton, where that 
 Earl soon provided a body of horse to serve the Princess as 
 her guard ; and not long after a small army was formed about 
 her, which, according to their desire, was commanded by the 
 Bishop of London. 
 
 At this time there was a foolish ballad l went about, treating 
 the Papists, and chiefly the Irish, in a ridiculous manner, 
 which made an impression on the army, and thence on the 
 whole country, not to be imagined but by those who saw it; and 
 a bold man adventured to publish in the Prince's name another 
 Declaration, setting forth the desperate designs of the Papists, 
 and the great danger the nation was in by their means, and 
 requiring all persons to turn them out of their employments, to 
 secure all strong places, and to do their utmost in order to 
 execute the laws, and bring all things again into their proper 
 channel. The paper was penned with a good spirit, though 
 none ever claimed the merit of it, and no doubt being made 
 but that it was published by the Prince's direction, it set 
 everything to work, and put the rabble and apprentices to 
 pulling down mass-houses and doing many irregular actions. 
 
 When the King saw himself thus forsaken, not only by 
 those whom he had trusted and favoured most, but even by his 
 own children, the army in the last distraction, the country on 
 every side revolting, and the City in an ungovernable fer- 
 
 1 The ballad has for its burden, said to be in Irish, " Lero, lero, 
 lillibulero. "'
 
 James II 285 
 
 mentation, he called a general meeting of all the Privy Coun 
 cillors and peers in town to ask their advice and what was fit to 
 be done. The general advice was that he should send com 
 missioners to the Prince to treat with him, which, though sore 
 against the King's inclination, the dejection he was in and the 
 desperate state of his affairs made him consent to. The 
 persons appointed were the Marquis of Halifax, the Earl of 
 Nottingham, and the Lord Godolphin; and when they had 
 waited on the Prince at Hungerford, desiring to know what it 
 was that he demanded, after a day's consultation with those who 
 were about him, he returned answer "that he desired a Parlia 
 ment might be presently called, and no one continued in any 
 employment who would not qualify himself according to law ; 
 that the Tower of London might be put in the keeping of the 
 City, and the fleet and all strong places in the hands of Protes 
 tants ; that the armies on both sides might not, while the Parlia 
 ment was sitting, come within twenty miles of London ; that a 
 proportion of the revenue might be set apart for the payment 
 of the Prince's army, and himself allowed to come to London 
 with the same number of guards that the King had." 
 
 These were the Prince's demands, which, when the King 
 read, he owned were more moderate than he expected ; but 
 before they came to his hands he had engaged himself in other 
 resolutions. The priests and all violent Papists, who saw that 
 a treaty with the Prince would not only ruin their whole design, 
 but expose them as a mark and sacrifice to the malice of their 
 enemies, persuaded the Queen that she would certainly be 
 impeached, that witnesses would be set up against her and 
 her son, and that nothing but violence could be expected. 
 With these suggestions they wrought upon her fear so far, 
 that she not only resolved to go into France herself, and 
 take the child with her, but prevailed with the King like 
 wise to follow her in a few days. The Queen went down 
 to Portsmouth, and from thence in a man-of-war went over 
 to France, taking along with her the midwife and those who 
 were concerned in her son's birth, who not long after were 
 all so disposed of that it never could be yet learned what 
 became of them ; and on the loth of December, about three 
 in the morning, the King went away in disguise with Sir 
 Edward Hales, whose servant he pretended to be. They 
 passed the river, throwing the Great Seal into it, which was 
 afterwards found by a fisherman near Vauxhall, and in a 
 miserable fisher-boat, which Hales had provided to carry them
 
 286 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 over to France, when, not having gone far, some fishermen 
 of Feversham, who were watching for priests and such other 
 delinquents as they fancied were making their escape, came up 
 to them, and, knowing Sir Edward Hales, took both the King 
 and him, and brought them to Feversham. 
 
 It was strange that a great king, who had a good army and 
 a strong fleet, should choose rather to abandon all than either 
 try his fate with that part of the army that stood firm to him, 
 or stay and see the issue of Parliament. This was variously 
 imputed to his want of courage, his consciousness of guilt, or 
 the advice of those about him ; but so it was that his deserting 
 in this manner, and leaving them to be pillaged by an army 
 that he had ordered to be disbanded without pay, was thought 
 the forfeiture of his right and the expiration of his reign ; and 
 with this notion I now proceed to relate what passed in the 
 Interregnum (though under the same title still) until the throne, 
 which was then left vacant, came to be filled. 
 
 When it was noised about town that the King was gone, the 
 apprentices and rabble, supposing the priests had persuaded 
 him to it, broke out again with fresh fury upon all suspected 
 houses, and did much havoc in many places. They met with 
 Jeffreys as he was making his escape in disguise, and he, being 
 known by some of them, was insulted with all the scorn and 
 rudeness that malice could invent, and after some hours' 
 tossing about, was carried to the Lord Mayor to be committed 
 to the Tower, which Lord Lucas had now seized, and in it 
 declared for the Prince. 
 
 The Lord Mayor was so struck with the terror of the rude 
 populace, and with the disgrace of a man who had made all 
 people tremble before him, that he fell into fits, of which he 
 died soon after ; but to prevent all future disorders in the City, 
 he called a meeting of the Privy Councillors and Peers at 
 Guildhall, who all agreed to send an invitation to the Prince, 
 desiring him to come and take the government of the nation 
 into his hands until a Parliament should meet and reduce all 
 things to a proper settlement. 
 
 The Prince was at Abingdon when the news of the King's 
 desertion and the City's disorder met him, and upon this it was 
 proposed that he should make all imaginable haste to London ; 
 but some were against it, because, though there had been but 
 two small actions, one at Winkinton, in Dorsetshire, and the 
 other at Reading, during the whole campaign, in neither of 
 which the King's forces gave them much reason to dread them,
 
 James II 287 
 
 yet there were so many of the disbanded soldiers scattered along 
 the road, all the way to London, that it was thought unsafe 
 for the Prince to advance faster than his troops could march 
 before him, which delay was attended with very bad conse 
 quences. 
 
 When the people of Feversham understood that it was the 
 King they had in their custody, they changed their rough 
 usage into all the respect they could possibly pay him. The 
 country came in, and were moved with this astonishing instance 
 of all worldly greatness, that he who had ruled three kingdoms, 
 and might have been arbiter of all Europe, was now found in 
 such mean hands, and in so low an equipage ; and when the 
 news was brought to London, all the indignation that was 
 formerly conceived against him was turned into pity and com 
 passion. The Privy Council upon this occasion met, and agreed 
 to have the King sent for. The Earl of Feversham went with 
 the coaches and guards to bring him back. In his passage 
 through the City he was welcomed by great numbers with 
 loud acclamations of joy, and at his coming to Whitehall 
 had a numerous Court ; but when he came to reflect on the 
 state of his affairs, he found them in so ruinous a condition, 
 that there was no possibility of making any stand ; and there 
 fore he sent the Earl of Feversham (but without demand 
 ing a pass) to Windsor, to desire the Prince to come to St. 
 James's and consult with him the best means of settling the 
 nation. 
 
 The Prince had some reason to take this procedure of 
 the Council amiss, after they had invited him to take the 
 government into his own hands; and because the Earl of 
 Feversham had commanded the army against him, and was 
 now come without a passport, it was thought advisable to put 
 him in arrest. The tender point was how to dispose of the 
 King's person ; and when some proposed rougher methods, such 
 as keeping him in prison or sending him to Breda, at least 
 until the nation was settled, the Prince would not consent to it; 
 for he was for no violence or compulsion upon him, though he 
 held it necessary for their mutual quiet and safety that he should 
 remove from London. 
 
 When this was resolved on, the Lords Halifax, Shrewsbury, 
 and Delamere were appointed to go and order the English 
 guards to be drawn off, and sent into country quarters, while 
 Count Solms with the Dutch was to come and take all the 
 posts about Court. The thing was executed without resistance,
 
 288 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 but not without murmuring, and it was near midnight before 
 all was settled, when the lords sent notice to the King that 
 they had a message to deliver to him. They told him " the 
 necessity of affairs required that the Prince should come 
 presently to London, and they thought it would conduce both 
 to the safety of the King's person and the quiet of the City 
 to have him retire to some house out of town, and they 
 named Ham ; adding that he should be attended with a guard, 
 but only to secure his person, and not give him any disturb 
 ance." When the lords had delivered their message they 
 withdrew ; but the King sent immediately after them to know 
 if the Prince would permit him to go to Rochester. It was 
 soon seen that the intent of this was to forward his escape, 
 and therefore the Prince willingly consented to it ; and as the 
 King next day went out of town, the Prince came through 
 the park privately to St. James's, which disgusted many who 
 had stood some time in the wet to see him. The next day 
 all the bishops in town (except the Archbishop, who had once 
 agreed to do it), the clergy of London, and the several com 
 panies of the City came to welcome him, and express a great 
 deal of joy for the deliverance wrought by his means. As the 
 Prince took notice of Serjeant Maynard's great age, and how he 
 had outlived all the men of the law, he answered he had like to 
 have outlived the law itself, had not his Highness come over 
 to their relief. 
 
 When compliments were over, the first thing that came 
 under consultation was how to settle the nation. The lawyers 
 were of opinion that the Prince might declare himself king, as 
 Henry VII. had done, and then call a Parliament, which would 
 be a legal assembly ; but their notion in this was so contrary 
 to the Prince's Declaration, and so liable to give offence, that it 
 could not be admitted. Upon this the Prince called together 
 all the peers and members of the three late Parliaments that 
 were in town, together with some of the citizens of London, 
 desiring their advice in the present conjuncture. They agreed 
 in an address to him that he would write missive letters round 
 the nation, in such manner as the writs were issued out, for 
 sending up representatives, and that in the meantime he would 
 be pleased to take the administration of the government into his 
 hands. 
 
 While these things were carrying on in London, the King 
 at Rochester was left in full liberty, and had all the respect 
 paid to him that he could wish. Most of the Dutch guards
 
 James II 289 
 
 that attended him happened to be Papists; and when he 
 went to mass they went with him, and joined very reverently 
 in the devotion ; whereupon, being asked how they could 
 serve in an expedition that was intended to destroy their own 
 religion, one of them answered briskly that his soul was God's, 
 but his sword was the Prince of Orange's. The King con 
 tinued there a week, and many who were zealous for his 
 interest went to him, and desired him to stay and see the 
 result. But while he was distracted between his own inclina 
 tions and his friends' importunities, a letter came from the 
 Queen reminding him of his promise, and upbraiding him 
 for not performing it, which determined his purpose ; and on 
 the last day of this memorable year he went from Rochester 
 very secretly, and got safely into France, leaving a paper on 
 his table, wherein he reproached the nation for forsaking him, 
 and promised that, though he was going to seek for foreign 
 aid to restore him to his throne, yet he would make no use of 
 it either to overthrow the established religion or the laws of the 
 land. 
 
 Thus was the Revolution brought about in England, with 
 the general applause of the nation : only some few steps in the 
 latter part of it were not so well approved. The waking the 
 King out of his sleep in his own palace, and ordering him to be 
 gone, when he was ready to submit to anything ; the placing 
 a strange guard about him, dismounting his own, and posting 
 the Dutch where the English used to stand, looking like a com 
 pulsion upon his person, gave some disgust, and furnished an 
 excuse for his going away. 
 
 In Scotland the people discovered their inclination to the 
 Revolution, and an approbation of what had been done. As 
 soon as the news of the King's desertion came to Edinburgh, 
 the rabble got together as they had done in London, broke into 
 all Popish chapels, defaced the church of Holyrood House, 
 which had been richly adorned for a royal chapel, seized on 
 all who were thought delinquents, and had them committed 
 to prison. In the western counties the Presbyterians went 
 further, and, to revenge themselves for their former sufferings, 
 broke in upon the Episcopal clergy with great cruelty, carried 
 them about the parishes in a mock procession, and then drove 
 them with great violence from their churches and houses. The 
 bishops, when they heard that the Dutch fleet was blown back, 
 had written an indecent letter to the King, full of injurious 
 expressions towards the Prince, expressing their abhorrence of
 
 290 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 the design, and wishing the King might have the necks of all 
 his enemies. Now they themselves began to find the effects of 
 it. The whole Episcopal party, in short, finding themselves 
 under a cloud, had no other refuge but to shelter themselves 
 under the Earl of Dundee, an able officer, who had served some 
 years in Holland, a man of great parts and some very valuable 
 virtues, but extremely proud and ambitious, as well as severe in 
 the execution of all penal orders in the late administration ; for 
 the whole kingdom, except the Castle of Edinburgh, had declared 
 for the Prince. The nobility and men of quality had sent an 
 address, much in the same terms with what had been made him 
 here in England, and the whole Isle of Great Britain, in short, 
 was now put in his hands. 
 
 But things had not the same favourable aspect in Ireland. 
 Tyrconnel, who was the Lord-Lieutenant, gave out new com 
 missions for levying thirty thousand men, and a report was 
 spread about that a general massacre of the Protestants was 
 intended in November, upon which the Protestants began to 
 run together for their common defence both in Munster and 
 Ulster. In Ulster they had some strength to make a defence 
 with, and a set of brave young men had secured two towns, 
 Londonderry and Enniskillen, which had a good situation, 
 but no great store of provisions in them, refusing to admit 
 a Popish garrison, and resolved to stand it out till supplies 
 should be sent them from England ; but in Aiunster the 
 people, not being in any condition to make resistance, came 
 over in great numbers to England, full of petitions for 
 assistance and of dismal apprehensions for those they had 
 left behind. 
 
 When these petitions were brought before the Council, some 
 were of opinion that Ireland would follow the fate of England, 
 and that Tyrconnel (as he made them believe) would deliver 
 up the government, upon assurance of good terms for himself 
 and the Irish. Others thought it might be useful at the present 
 conjuncture to leave Ireland in that dangerous state, in order 
 to induce the Convention, when it met, to settle the govern 
 ment of England more speedily. The Prince himself did not 
 sufficiently apprehend the consequences of this revolt in Ireland, 
 and was much blamed for not attending to it in more critical 
 time ; but the truth is he knew not whom to trust. The 
 English army was now turning against him as fast as they 
 had come in to him before, and would have probably joined 
 Tyrconnel had they been sent over on a different errand.
 
 James II 291 
 
 His own troops were what he had to depend on to maintain 
 the quiet of England ; and though raising new forces would 
 be a work of time, the magazines were empty, and until new 
 stores were provided there was no ammunition to spare ; but 
 supposing there had been, there was no ship-of-war in those seas 
 to secure the transports ; and to send a small force and supply, 
 which was all that could be done at present, would only be 
 throwing both them and it away. 
 
 Under these considerations, one Hamilton was recommended 
 to the Prince by the Temples (for Sir William had a brother 
 and a son who made a considerable figure at that time) as a 
 man fit to negotiate the surrender of Ireland. He was a Papist, 
 but thought to be a man of honour, and had certainly had 
 great credit with the Earl of Tyrconnel ; but when he came to 
 Dublin, instead of executing the message he was sent upon, he 
 represented to Tyrconnel that things in England were turning 
 fast in favour of the King, and that if he stood his ground a 
 little, all would come round again : only he was to amuse them 
 in London with sham pretences of surrendering until a fleet and 
 some supplies could be brought from France. This gave the 
 beginning to the war in Ireland, and had that terrible effect 
 upon Sir William Temple's son, who had raised in the Prince 
 a high opinion of Hamilton's honour, that he soon after threw 
 himself overboard from a boat in the Thames, and was 
 drowned. 
 
 Before the Convention (for so the Parliament was called that 
 was summoned by the Prince's letters) was met to settle the 
 nation, there was a loan begun in the City for the payment of 
 the English and Dutch forces, and for disbanding such troops 
 as were known to be Papists among the English, which had 
 this good effect that it made a discovery who were well and ill 
 affected to the Prince, the one pretending there was no security 
 for the repayment of their money, and the other subscribing 
 liberally, in confidence that a parliamentary provision would 
 be made for repayment in due time. And besides this, it gave 
 some probable indications of what the result of the ensuing 
 Convention might be. 
 
 The Convention was opened on the 24th of January, with a 
 full house of bishops and lords temporal. Only Sancroft, the 
 Archbishop of Canterbury, came not to take his place, which at 
 .such a conjuncture, and considering his high station in the 
 Church, was thought very unbecoming of him. If anything 
 was doing amiss, he ought to have opposed it ; but he was a
 
 292 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 poor-spirited and fearful man, and in all this great transaction 
 acted a very mean part. When the debates began to come on, 
 there appeared three different parties upon the matter of settling 
 the nation. The first was for calling back the King, the second 
 for appointing a Prince Regent, and the third for setting the 
 Prince of Orange on the throne. 
 
 Those who were for restoring the King were at the same time 
 for laying him under such restraints, and treating with him for 
 such security to religion and the laws, as might put them out 
 of danger of an arbitrary and dispensing power for the future ; 
 but the imposing limitations on the crown was so contrary to 
 their own doctrine of absolute submission and obedience, and 
 so unlikely to be observed when once the King was reinstated, 
 that the proposition was dropped, and the men who first 
 advanced it fell into the notions of such as were for putting 
 a Prince Regent into the administration. 
 
 Those who were for this expedient (among whom the Earls 
 of Nottingham, Clarendon, and Rochester were chief in the 
 debate) were of opinion that the King, by his maladministration, 
 having brought himself into an incapacity of holding the 
 exercise of the sovereign power any longer in his own hand, 
 there might another be appointed to the exercise thereof (as in 
 case of infants and lunatics), and the right of sovereignty still 
 remain in him, which would be an effectual means to save the 
 nation, and at the same time secure the honour of the Church 
 of England and the sacredness of the crown. And for the 
 support of their opinion in this matter they urged both from 
 the laws and history of England that not only the person, but 
 authority of the King too, was sacred ; that they could not set 
 him aside without making the crown precarious, and breaking 
 in upon the lineal succession ; that the law had provided a 
 remedy, which was a Regent, in cases of incapacity, and the 
 King having brought himself into such a state, the putting the 
 nation under such a regulation was both providing for its 
 security and keeping the constitution entire ; whereas all other 
 expedients only gratified a Republican party, made up of 
 Dissenters and men of no religion, who wanted nothing more 
 than a titular and precarious king. And to this scheme 
 a majority among the Lords and a third part of the House of ; 
 Commons adhered, but with different views ; some from a real 
 persuasion of the great expediency of the thing, and others out j 
 of hopes of restoring the King by this means both to the sove 
 reign power and exercise thereof after some short interval of time.
 
 James II 293 
 
 Those who were for setting aside King James, and placing 
 another on the throne, were of opinion that, both from pre 
 cedents in history and the ancient forms of coronation still in 
 use, there was a mutual contract between the King and the 
 people of England ; that as the one promised obedience to their 
 prince, the other engaged to defend his subjects, and govern 
 according to law ; and that when he acted contrary thereunto 
 he had forfeited his title to their allegiance and all right to 
 rule over them. Now the King, they said, had broken the 
 laws in many public and avowed instances, had set up an open 
 treaty with France, had shaken the settlement of Ireland, had 
 assumed a dispensing power to invalidate all laws, had set up 
 an Ecclesiastical Commission to oppress the Church, and had 
 finally deserted his people, and fled to a foreign power and 
 known enemy to the nation, rather than stay and submit to 
 the determination of a free Parliament ; upon which they 
 inferred that he had both lost his right and left the govern 
 ment, and that the throne was then vacant, and ought to be 
 filled. 
 
 And for the defence of this opinion, and opposition to a 
 Prince Regent, they urged that though, in cases of incapacity, 
 the law directed a Regent, yet the Regent was in law the same 
 person with the King ; and the King having no will of his own, 
 his will was properly the King's ; whereas, in the present case, 
 there would, in effect, be two kings, with different wills and 
 investitures one with the title, and another with the power, 
 in perpetual contests with one another the one to recover his 
 power, and the other to preserve his authority, which would 
 involve the nation in daily wars and conflicts, and disable the 
 subject either to serve the Crown or pay his obedience with 
 security ; as, on the other hand, their scheme, they said, would 
 put all things in the same channel, preserve the monarchy as 
 it was before, and, by virtue of a statute made by Henry VII., 
 secure the subject in obeying the king appointed. But among 
 these two parties there were men of different views. Some 
 thought on this occasion to depress the Crown, and raise the 
 power of the people upon the ruin of monarchy ; and others 
 only proposed it as the least deviation from the constitution, 
 the best expedient for the present exigence, but never to 
 be used as a precedent, except in cases of the like neces 
 sity. And upon the prevalence of these considerations, the 
 Commons came to a resolution: "That King James, by 
 breaking the original contract and withdrawing himself from
 
 294 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 his people, had abdicated the government, and that the throne 
 was thereby become vacant ; " and sent this vote to the 
 Lords, praying their concurrence, upon which a free conference 
 began. 
 
 Some found fault with the original contract, asking where 
 it was kept, or how it might be come at. But this, it was 
 answered, was always implied in any legal government where 
 there was a mutual stipulation between prince and people. 
 Others did not like the word abdicate, as being sometimes taken 
 in an active sense, and denoting the full consent of him that did 
 it. . But authorities were brought to prove that when a person 
 did a thing which ought to vacate his office, he was properly 
 said to abdicate. The most important debate among them was, 
 how the throne could be said to be vacant, since it was a known 
 maxim that the King of England never died : though, therefore, 
 it were allowed that the King had abdicated for himself, yet the 
 throne was that instant filled by the next heir. And to this 
 the supporters of the abdication answered, that if the King 
 forfeited for himself, he forfeited for his heirs likewise ; that, if 
 subjects might put themselves in a state of security against the 
 King by excluding him, they might do the same against those 
 who would probably study to dissolve and revenge all they had 
 done ; and that though, in point of natural right and for quiet 
 of the nation, the lineal succession ought to be adhered to, yet, 
 in cases of an extraordinary nature (as this was known to be), 
 it might be suspended. 
 
 This, however, brought on a motion that the birth of the 
 pretended Prince of Wales might be inquired into ; not that 
 those who made it intended to assert his right to the vacant 
 throne in case it was found real, but they thought it might 
 justify the nation, and more particularly the Prince and two 
 Princesses, in the present procedure, if, upon inquiry, it was 
 found to be an imposture. The motion, however, was rejected 
 with indignation. He was sent out of England, it was said, 
 to be bred up in France, an enemy both to the nation and 
 established religion : whether he was the same person that had 
 been carried over it was impossible for the people of England 
 to know. Those who were privy to the affair of his birth were 
 conveyed away, none knew whither ; nor was it, indeed, worth 
 the nation's while to send into another country for witnesses to 
 prove that he was their prince. The truth is, the King had 
 succeeded so ill in proving the reality of his son's birth that he 
 made it more suspected ; and unless the imposture, on the
 
 James II 295 
 
 other hand, could be made out beyond the possibility of con 
 tradiction, the examining into it, they thought, would but 
 strengthen the pretension of its reality ; besides that it would 
 be a good security to the nation to have a dormant title to the 
 crown in store, thereby to oblige our princes to govern well, 
 for fear of a revolting to a pretender. 
 
 Thus, when the throne was declared vacant, the King abdi 
 cated, and his son excluded from the succession, the next thing 
 in debate was, who should fill the throne and take possession 
 of the kingdom. The Earl of Halifax, to make atonement for 
 his late coming in, moved that the crown should be given to 
 the Prince, and to the two Princesses after him. And whatever 
 the Prince's sentiments might be, it is certain that Bentinck 
 had his arguments for it, viz. : " That a man's wife ought to be 
 his wife, in subjection to him ; that the sovereignty was most 
 properly in one person ; that a division of it might be attended 
 with fatal consequences ; and that the people were bound to do 
 this for the Prince, in return for what he had done for them." 
 To this I answered, with some vehemence, that this was a very 
 ill return for the steps the Princess had made to the Prince 
 three years ago ; it would be thought both unjust and un 
 grateful ; it would meet with great opposition, and give a 
 general ill impressing of the Prince, as insatiable and jealous in 
 his ambition : there was already an ill-humour spreading itself 
 through the nation and through the clergy, which such a step 
 would be sure to increase. We talked over the whole thing for 
 many hours, till it was pretty far in the morning. I saw he 
 was well instructed in the argument ; and he himself was 
 possessed with it. So next morning I came to him, and 
 desired my conge. I would oppose nothing in which the Prince 
 seemed to be concerned, as long as I was his servant ; and 
 therefore I desired to be disengaged, that I might be free to 
 oppose this proposition with all the strength and credit I had. 
 He answered me that I might desire that when I saw a step 
 made ; but till then he wished me to stay where I was. This 
 opinion of Lord Halifax, however, had but a few abettors. 
 Others moved that the Princess of Orange might be put in the 
 throne, and after that consign what share, either of dignity 
 or power, she should think fit to the Prince. But the most 
 prevailing proposition was, that the Prince and Princess should 
 be made conjoint sovereigns ; only that, for the prevention 
 of any distractions, the administration should be singly in 
 him.
 
 296 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 The Earl of Danby sent over an account of these debates to 
 the Princess, desiring to know her sense of the matter, for that, 
 if she desired it, he thought he was able to carry the point for her 
 alone. But her answer was that, as she was the Prince's wife, 
 she would never do anything but in conjunction with him, and 
 should take it very ill in any, under a pretended concern for her 
 right, to set up a divided interest between them ; and, to dis 
 courage all such practices for the future, she sent to the Prince 
 both Lord Danby's letter and her own answer. But the Prince 
 was so far from expostulating against this double dealing with 
 him, that he not only continued to employ and trust him, 
 but advanced him afterwards, first to be a marquis, and then a 
 duke. 
 
 The truth is, the Prince's behaviour during these debates in 
 Parliament was very mysterious. He stayed at St. James's, went 
 little abroad, saw few people, heard all that was said, answered 
 nothing, neither affected to be affable or popular, nor took any 
 pains to gain over one person to his party. At last, after a long 
 course of reservedness, he called some leading men of the House 
 of Lords to him, and explained himself more distinctly. He 
 told them that he had been silent all that while because he 
 would not, in any degree, hinder their freedom of debate in 
 matters of such importance ; but understanding that some were 
 for putting the government in the hands of a Regent, he thought 
 proper to acquaint them that he would never accept of that 
 office, and therefore he wished them to look out another person, 
 if they persisted in that resolution. Others," he said, "were 
 for putting the Princess singly on the throne, and making him 
 reign by her courtesy ; but, if that was their design, he desired 
 to have nothing to do with the government, and would go back 
 to Holland, where he could live very happy and contented with 
 out a crown. In conclusion, he said he could never think 
 of accepting any dignity unless it were settled on his own person, 
 and for the term of his own life, though he thought it right 
 that the issue of the Princess Anne should be preferred in the 
 succession to any issue he might have by any other wife, in case 
 he survived the Princess. 
 
 This was delivered in a cold and unaffected manner ; and 
 those who did not know him, and judged of others by them 
 selves, took it all for artifice and contrivance. It helped, how 
 ever, not a little to bring the debates in Westminster to a speedy 
 determination ; and, as the matter stuck with the House of 
 Lords, it was brought at last to so near an equality, the party
 
 James II 297 
 
 for a regency being for some time the most prevailing in a 
 House of about one hundred and twenty, that to agree with 
 the Commons in voting the abdication and vacancy of the 
 throne, was carried by a majority of but two or three, and not 
 without a numerous protest ; and the vote to desire the Prince 
 and Princess of Orange to accept of the crown, and to declare 
 them King and Queen, went very hardly. The poor Bishop of 
 Durham merited at least a pardon for the past by voting for 
 the new establishment, which was thought, however, very in 
 decent in him, though not unbecoming the rest of his life and 
 character. 
 
 There was nothing now remaining but to frame an instru 
 ment setting forth the chief heads of King James's ill govern 
 ment, and in opposition to these the rights and liberties of the 
 people of England, to be like a Magna Charta between prince 
 and subject, and to instruct posterity in the reasons of this 
 new establishment. And to make all uniform and of a piece, 
 it was thought advisable to adjust the oaths of allegiance, &c., 
 to this settlement, and in the beginning of a new govern 
 ment at least to make them as general and comprehensive as 
 might be. 
 
 All things were ready for filling the throne ; and the very 
 night before it was to be done, the Princess arrived from 
 Holland, and put on an air of gaiety which did not so well be 
 come her, considering the sad catastrophe of her father's fate ; 
 but the Prince's injunction was at first, at least, that she should 
 not show discontent in her looks. The next day, which was the 
 1 2th of February, the two Houses waited upon their Royal 
 Highnesses with the offer of the crown. And thus I have 
 given the fullest and most particular account I could gather of 
 all that passed during this weak, inactive, violent, and super 
 stitious reign of a weak, unfortunate prince, who by the per 
 suasion of a revengeful Italian lady, and by the projects of a 
 set of hot, meddling priests, was induced to make that reign, 
 whose rise was bright and prosperous, soon set in darkness and 
 disgrace. 
 
 L 2
 
 BOOK V 
 
 REIGN OF KING WILLIAM III AND MARY II 
 
 I NOW begin, on the first day of May, 1705, to prosecute this 
 work, and have before me a reign that drew upon it a 
 universal expectation of great things to follow from such 
 auspicious beginnings, and from so general a joy as was spread 
 over these nations and all the neighbouring kingdoms and 
 states, of whom some had apprehended a general depression, 
 if not the total ruin of the Protestant religion ; and all of 
 them saw such a progress made by the French in the design of 
 enslaving the rest of Europe, that the check which the Revolu 
 tion in England seemed to promise, put a new life in those 
 who before were sunk in despair. It seemed to be a double- 
 bottomed monarchy, where there were two joint sovereigns ; 
 but those who knew the Queen's temper and principles had no 
 apprehensions of divided counsels or of a distracted govern 
 ment. 
 
 That which gave the most melancholy prospect was the ill 
 state of the King's health, whose stay so long at St. James's 
 without exercise or hunting, which was so much used by him 
 that it was become necessary, had brought him under such a 
 weakness as was likely to have very ill effects ; and the face he 
 forced himself to set upon it, that it might not appear too 
 much, made an impression on his temper. He was apt to be 
 peevish ; it put him under a necessity of being much in his 
 closet, and of being silent and reserved, which, agreeing so 
 well with his natural disposition, made him go off from what 
 all his friends had advised, and he had promised them he 
 would set about, of being more visible, open, and communica 
 tive. The nation had been so much accustomed to this in the 
 two former reigns, that many studied to persuade him it would 
 be necessary for his affairs to change his way, that he might be 
 more accessible and freer in his discourse. He seemed resolved 
 on it, but he said his ill-health made it impossible for him to] 
 execute it; and so he went on in his former way, or rather, 
 he grew more retired, and was not easily come at nor spoken 
 to. And in a very few days after he was set on the throne 
 he went out to Hampton Court, and from that palace hef
 
 William and Mary 299 
 
 came into town only on Council days, so that the face of a 
 Court, and the rendezvous usual in the public rooms, were 
 now quite broken. This gave an early and general disgust. 
 The gaiety and the diversions of a court disappeared, and 
 though the Queen set herself to make up what was wanting 
 in the King, by a great vivacity and cheerfulness, yet when 
 it appeared that she meddled not in business, so that few 
 found their account in making their court to her, though she 
 gave a wonderful content to all that came near her, yet few 
 came. 
 
 The King found the air of Hampton Court agreed so well 
 with him that he resolved to live the greatest part of the 
 year there ; but that palace was so very old built, and so 
 irregular, that a design was formed of raising new buildings 
 there for the King and the Queen's apartments. This showed a 
 resolution to live at a distance from London, and the entering 
 so soon on so expensive a building afforded matter of censure 
 to those who were disposed enough to entertain it. And this 
 spread a universal discontent in the city of London ; and 
 these small and almost undiscernible beginnings and seeds 
 of ill-humour have ever since gone on in a very visible increase 
 and progress. 
 
 The first thing the King did was to choose a ministry and 
 to settle a Council. The Earl of Shrewsbury was declared 
 Secretary of State, and had the greatest share of the King's 
 confidence. No exception could be made to the choice save 
 on account of his youth ; but he applied himself to business 
 with great diligence, and maintained his candour and temper 
 with more reservedness than was expected from one of his 
 age. 
 
 The High Church party did apprehend that the opposition 
 they had given the King's advancement, and the zeal that 
 others had showed for it, would alienate him from them, and 
 throw him into other hands, from whom no good was to be 
 expected for them, and they looked for severe revenges for 
 the hardships they had put on these in the end of King 
 Charles's reign. This grew daily upon that party, and made 
 them begin to look back toward King James. So, not to 
 provoke so great a body too much, it was thought advisable to 
 employ the Earl of Nottingham. The great increase of Chan 
 cery business had made many apprehend it was too much to 
 be trusted to one person, so it was resolved to put the Chancery 
 in commission, and the Earl of Nottingham was proposed to
 
 300 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 be the first in the commission, but he refused it. So Maynard, 
 Keck, and Rawlinson, three eminent lawyers, were made the 
 three Commissioners of the Great Seal ; and soon after that 
 the Earl of Nottingham was appointed Secretary of State. 
 This gave as much satisfaction to all the High party as it begot 
 jealousies and distrust in pthers. The Earl of Danby was 
 made Marquis of Carmarthen, and President of the Council ; 
 and Lord Halifax had the Privy Seal. Lord Mordaunt was 
 made Earl of Monmouth, and First Commissioner of the 
 Treasury ; and Lord Delamere, made Earl of Warrington, 
 was Chancellor of the Exchequer. Lord Godolphin was 
 likewise brought into the Treasury, to the great grief of the 
 other two, who soon saw that the King considered him more 
 than them both ; for, as he understood Treasury business well, 
 so his calm and cold way suited the King's temper. 
 
 Nothing gave a more general satisfaction than the naming 
 of the judges. The King ordered every Privy Councillor to 
 bring a list of twelve, and out of these twelve very learned and 
 worthy judges were chosen. This nomination was generally 
 well received over the nation. The first of these was Sir John 
 Holt, made Lord Chief Justice of England, then a young man 
 for so high a post, who maintained it all his time with a high 
 reputation for capacity, integrity, courage, and great dispatch, 
 so that since the Lord Chief Justice Hale's time that bench had 
 not been so well filled as it was by him. 
 
 The King's chief personal favour lay between Bentinck and 
 Sidney. The former was made Earl of Portland and Groom 
 of the Stole, and continued for ten years to be entirely trusted 
 by the King, and served him with great fidelity and obse 
 quiousness, but he could never bring himself to be acceptable 
 to the English nation. The other was made, first, Lord Sidney, 
 and then Earl of Rumney, and was put in several great posts. 
 He was made Secretary of State, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, 
 and Master of the Ordnance ; but he was so set on pleasure 
 that he was not able to follow business with a due application. 
 The Earls of Devonshire and Dorset had the white staves ; the 
 first was Lord Steward, and the other was Lord Chamberlain, 
 and they being both Whigs, the household was made up of 
 such, except where there were buyers for places which were 
 set to sale ; and though the King seemed to discourage that, 
 yet he did not encourage propositions that were made for the 
 detecting of those practices. Thus was the Court, the Minis 
 try, and the Council composed. The Admiralty was put in
 
 William and Mary 301 
 
 commission, and Herbert, made Earl of Torrington, was first 
 in the commission. He tried to dictate to the Board, and 
 when he found that did not pass upon them, he left it, and 
 studied all he could to disparage their conduct ; and it was 
 thought he hoped to have been advanced to that high trust 
 alone. 
 
 In order to avoid the excitement of a new election, a bill 
 to convert the Convention into a Parliament passed through 
 both Houses, and had the royal assent on the 23rd of February. 
 Eight bishops absented themselves, who were Sancroft of 
 Canterbury, Thomas of Worcester, Lake of Chichester, Turner 
 of Ely, Lloyd of Norwich, Ken of Bath and Wells, Frampton 
 of Gloucester, and White of Peterborough. But in the mean 
 while, that they might recommend themselves by a show of 
 moderation, some of them moved the House of Lords, before 
 they withdrew from it, for a bill of toleration and another 
 of comprehension, and these were drawn and offered by the 
 Earl of Nottingham ; and, as he said to me, they were the 
 same that he had prepared for the House of Commons in 
 King Charles's time, during the debates of the Exclusion, 
 but then things of that kind were looked on as artifices to lay 
 the heat of that time, and to render the Church party more 
 popular. 
 
 Upon the bishops refusing the oaths, a bill was brought into 
 the House of Commons requiring all persons to take them by 
 a prefixed day, under several forfeitures and penalties. The 
 clergy that took them not were to fall under suspension for six 
 months, and at the end of those they were to be deprived. 
 This was followed with a particular eagerness by some who 
 were known enemies to the Church, and it was then generally 
 believed that a great part of the clergy would refuse the oaths ; 
 so they hoped to have an advantage against the Church by this 
 means. Hampden persuaded the King to add a period to a 
 speech he made concerning the affairs of Ireland, in which he 
 proposed the admitting all Protestants to serve in that war. 
 This was understood to be intended for the taking off the 
 sacramental test, which was necessary by law to qualify men 
 for employments, and was looked on as the chief security the 
 Church of England had, as it excluded Dissenters from all 
 employments. And it was tried if a bargain could be made for 
 excusing the clergy from the oaths, provided the Dissenters 
 might be excused from the sacrament. The King put this into 
 his speech without communicating it to the ministry, and it had
 
 302 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 a very ill effect. It was not only rejected by a great majority 
 in both Houses, but it very much heightened the prejudices 
 against the King, as bearing no great affection to the Church 
 of England, when he proposed the opening such a door, which 
 they believed would be fatal to them. The rejecting this made 
 the act imposing the oaths to be driven on with more zeal. 
 This was in debate when I came into the House of Lords ; for 
 Ward, Bishop of Salisbury, died this winter. Many spoke to 
 the King in my favour without my knowledge. The King 
 made them no answer ; but a few days after he was set on the 
 throne, he of his own motion named me to that see ; and he 
 did it in terms more obliging than usually fell from him. When 
 I waited on the Queen, she said she hoped I would now put in 
 practice those notions with which I had taken the liberty often 
 to entertain her. All the forms of the conge <?elire and my 
 election were carried on with dispatch. But a great difficulty 
 was in view. Sancroft would not see me, and he refused to 
 consecrate me; so, by law, when the mandate was brought to 
 him, upon not obeying it, he must have been sued in a prae- 
 munire ; and for some days he seemed determined to venture 
 that ; but, as the danger came near, he prevented it by granting 
 a commission to all the bishops of his province, or to any three 
 of them, in conjunction with the Bishop of London, to exercise 
 his metropolitical authority during pleasure. Thus he did 
 authorise others to consecrate me, while yet he seemed to think 
 it an unlawful act. This was so mean that he himself was 
 ashamed of it afterwards ; but he took an odd way to overthrow 
 it, for he sent for his original warrant, and so took it out of the 
 office and got it into his own hands. 
 
 I happened to come into the House of Lords when two 
 great debates were managed with much heat in it. The one 
 was about the toleration and comprehension, and the other 
 was about the imposing the oaths on the clergy. And I was 
 engaged, at my first coming there, to bear a large share in 
 both. 
 
 That which was long insisted on in the House of Lords was, 
 that instead of the clause positively enacting that the clergy 
 should be obliged to take the oaths, the King might be 
 empowered to tender them, and then the refusal was to be 
 punished according to the clause as it stood in the act. It 
 was thought such a power would oblige them to their good 
 behaviour, and be an effectual restraint upon them ; they 
 would be kept quiet at least by it ; whereas, if they came
 
 William and Mary 303 
 
 under deprivation, or the apprehensions of it, that would make 
 them desperate, and set them on to undermine the Govern 
 ment. It was said that the clergy, by the offices of the Church, 
 did solemnly own their allegiance to God in the sight of all 
 their people ; that no oath could lay deeper engagements on 
 them than those acts of religious worship did; and if they 
 should either pass over those offices, or perform them other 
 wise than as the law required, there was a clear method, pur 
 suant to the Act of Uniformity, to proceed severely against 
 them. It was also said that, in many different changes of 
 government, oaths had not proved so effectual a security as 
 was imagined; distinctions were found out, and senses were 
 put on words by which they were interpreted so as to signify 
 but little when a government came to need strength from 
 them ; and it ill became those who ha'd formerly complained 
 of those impositions to urge this with so much vehemence. On 
 the other hand, it was urged that no man ought to be trusted 
 by a government, chiefly in so sacred a concern, who would not 
 give security to it, especially since the oath was brought to such 
 low and general terms. The expedient that was proposed 
 would put a hardship upon the King, which was always to be 
 carefully avoided. The day prefixed was at the distance of 
 some months, so that men had time sufficient given them to 
 study the point ; and if in that time they could not satisfy 
 themselves as to the lawfulness of acknowledging the Govern 
 ment, it was not fit that they should continue in the highest 
 posts in the Church. An exception of twelve was proposed, 
 who should be subject to the law upon refusing the oaths when 
 required to it by the King ; but that was rejected, and all the 
 mitigation that was obtained was a power to the King to 
 reserve a third part of the profits of any twelve benefices he 
 should name to the incumbents who should be deprived by 
 virtue of this act, and so it passed. *I was the chief manager of 
 the debate in favour of the clergy, both in the House of Lords 
 and at the conferences with the Commons ; but seeing it could 
 not be carried, I acquiesced the more easily, because, though at 
 the beginning of these debates I was assured that those who 
 seemed resolved not to take the oaths, yet prayed for the King 
 in their chapels, yet I found afterwards this was not true, for 
 they named no king nor queen, and so it was easy to guess whom 
 they meant by such an indefinite designation. I also heard 
 many things that made me conclude they were endeavouring to 
 raise all the opposition to the Government possible.
 
 304 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 The Bill of Toleration passed easily. It excused Dissenters 
 from all penalties for their not coming to church, and for 
 going to their separate meetings. There was an exception of 
 Socinians ; but a provision was put in it in favour of Quakers ; 
 and though the rest were required to take the oaths to the 
 Government, they were excused upon making in lieu thereof a 
 solemn declaration. They were to take out warrants for the 
 houses they met in, and the justices of peace were required 
 to grant them. Some proposed that the act should only be 
 temporary, as a necessary restraint upon the Dissenters, that 
 they might demean themselves so as to merit the continuance 
 of it when the term of years now offered should end. But this 
 was rejected ; there was now a universal inclination to pass the 
 act, but it could not be expected that the nation would be in 
 the same good disposition towards them at another time. I 
 showed so much zeal for this act as very much sunk my credit, 
 which had arisen from the approbation I had gained for 
 opposing that which enacted the taking the oaths. As for the 
 Act of Comprehension, some progress was made in it ; but a 
 proviso was offered, that, in imitation of the acts passed in 
 King Henry VIII. 's and King Edward VI. 's time, a number of 
 persons, both of the clergy and laity, might be empowered to 
 prepare such a reformation of things relating to the Church 
 as might be offered to King and Parliament, in order to the 
 healing our divisions, and the correcting what might be amiss 
 or defective in our constitution. This was pressed with great 
 earnestness by many of the temporal lords. I at that time did 
 imagine that the clergy would have come into such a design 
 with zeal and unanimity, and I feared this would be looked on 
 by them as taking the matter out of their hands, and for that 
 reason I argued so warmly against this that it was carried by a 
 small majority to let it fall. But I was convinced soon after 
 that I had taken wrong measures, and that the method pro 
 posed by these Lords was the only one likely to prove effectual ; 
 but this did not so recommend me to the clergy as to balance 
 the censure I came under for moving, in another proviso of that 
 bill, that the subscription, instead of assent and consent, should 
 only be to submit with a promise of conformity. There was a 
 proviso likewise in the bill for dispensing with kneeling at the 
 sacrament, and being baptized with the sign of the cross, to 
 such as, after conference upon those heads, should solemnly 
 protest they were not satisfied as to the lawfulness of them. 
 That concerning kneeling occasioned a vehement debate ; for
 
 William and Mary 305 
 
 the posture being the chief exception that the Dissenters had, 4 
 the giving up this was thought to be the opening a way for 
 them to come into employments ; yet it was carried in the 
 House of Lords. And I declared myself zealous for it ; for, 
 since it was acknowledged that the posture was not essential in 
 itself, and that scruples, how ill grounded soever, were raised 
 upon it, it seemed reasonable to leave the matter as indifferent 
 in its practice as it was in its nature. 
 
 Those who had moved for this bill, and afterwards brought 
 it into the House, acted a very disingenuous part ; for, while 
 they studied to recommend themselves by this show of modera 
 tion, they set on their friends to oppose it, and such as were 
 very sincerely and cordially for it were represented as the 
 enemies of the Church, who intended to subvert it. When the 
 bill was sent down to the House of Commons, it was laid on 
 the table, and, instead of proceeding in it, they made an 
 address to the King for summoning a Convocation of the 
 clergy to attend, according to custom, on the session of 
 Parliament. The party that was now beginning to be formed 
 against the Government pretended great zeal for the Church, 
 and declared their apprehensions that it was in danger, which 
 was imputed by many to the Earl of Nottingham's manage 
 ment. These, as they went heavily into the Toleration, so 
 they were much offended with the Bill of Comprehension, 
 as containing matters relating to the Church in which the 
 representative body of the clergy had not been so much as 
 advised with. 
 
 Nor was this bill supported by those who seemed most 
 favourable to the Dissenters. They set it up for a maxim that 
 it was fit to keep up a strong faction both in Church and State, 
 and they thought it was not agreeable to that to suffer so great -^. 
 a body as the Presbyterians to be made more easy or more 
 inclinable to unite to the Church ; they also thought that the 
 toleration would be best maintained when great numbers should 
 need it, and be concerned to preserve it ; so this good design 
 being zealously opposed and but faintly promoted, it fell to the 
 ground. 
 
 The clergy began now to show an implacable hatred to the 
 Nonconformists, and seemed to wish for an occasion to renew 
 old severities against them ; but wise and good men did very , 
 much applaud the quieting the nation by the toleration. It 
 seemed to be suitable both to the spirit of the Christian religion 
 and to the interest of the nation. It was thought very un-
 
 306 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 reasonable that while we were complaining of the cruelty of the 
 Church of Rome, we should fall into such practices among 
 ourselves, chiefly while we were engaging in a war in the pro 
 gress of which we would need the united strength of the whole 
 nation. 
 
 This bill gave the King great content. He in his own 
 opinion always thought that conscience was God's province, 
 and that it ought not to be imposed on ; and his experience 
 in Holland made him look on toleration as one of the wisest 
 measures of Government. He was much troubled to see so 
 much ill-humour spreading among the clergy, and by their 
 means over a great part of the nation. He was so true to his 
 principle herein that he restrained the heat of some who were 
 proposing severe acts against Papists. He made them appre 
 hend the advantage which that would give the French to 
 alienate all the Papists of Europe from us, who from thence 
 might hope to set on foot a new Catholic League, and make 
 the war a quarrel of religion, which might have very bad effects. 
 Nor could he pretend to protect the Protestants in many places 
 of Germany and in Hungary, unless he could cover the Papists 
 in England from all severities on account of their religion. 
 This was so carefully infused into many, and so well under 
 stood by them, that the Papists have enjoyed the real effects of 
 the toleration, though they were not comprehended within the 
 statute that enacted it. 
 
 While domestic matters were raising great heats at home, we 
 saw the necessity of making vigorous preparations for the war 
 abroad, and in Ireland. The King laid before both Houses 
 the alliances formerly made by the Crown of England with the 
 States and with the Empire, together with the new ones that 
 were now proposed, which made a rupture with France neces 
 sary. So, by the advice of both Houses, war was declared 
 against France ; and the necessary supplies, both for the quota 
 that the King was to furnish, and for the reduction of Ireland, 
 were provided. 
 
 The next care was a revenue for the support of the Govern 
 ment. By a long course and the practice of some ages, the 
 customs had been granted to our kings for life ; so the King 
 expected that the like regard should be shown for him ; but 
 men's minds were much divided in that matter. Some Whigs 
 who, by a long opposition and jealousy of the Government, 
 had wrought themselves into such Republican principles that 
 they could not easily come off from them, set it up as a maxim
 
 William and Mary 307 
 
 not to grant any revenue but from year to year, or at most for 
 a short term of years. This they thought would render the 
 Crown precarious, and oblige our kings to such a popular _ 
 method of government as should merit the constant renewal 
 of that grant. And they hoped that so uncertain a tenure 
 might more easily bring about an entire change of government. 
 For, by the denying the revenue at any time (except upon 
 intolerable conditions), they thought that might easily be 
 effected, since it would render our kings so feeble that they 
 would not be able to maintain their authority. The Tories, 
 observing this, made great use of it to beget in the King <; 
 jealousies of his friends, with too much colour, and too great 
 success. They resolved to reconcile themselves to the King 
 by granting it, but at present only to look on till the Whigs, 
 who now carried everything to which they set their full strength, 
 should have refused it. 
 
 A bill was prepared concerning the militia, which upon the 
 matter, and in consequence of many clauses in it, took it in a 
 great measure both from the Crown and out of the Lord- 
 Lieutenants, who being generally peers, a bill that lessened their 
 authority so much was not likely to pass in the House of 
 Lords ; so it was let lie on the table. By this likewise, which 
 was chiefly promoted by the Whigs, the King came to think 
 that those who had raised him to the throne, intended to ^ 
 repress his prerogative as much as they had exalted his person. 
 He seemed to grow tender and jealous upon these points, the 
 importance of every one of them being much aggravated by 
 the Earl of Nottingham, who had furnished him with a scheme 
 of all the points of the prerogative, and of their dependence 
 one upon another; and he seemed so possessed with this, 
 that many of those who had most of his confidence found a 
 coldness growing upon him, which increased their disgust, 
 and made them apprehend they should again see a reign full 
 of prerogative maxims. One thing the House of Commons 
 granted, which was very acceptable to the King ; they gave 
 the States about ^600,000 for the charge they had been at in 
 the fleet and the army which they furnished the King with at 
 the Revolution. 
 
 There was a bill of great importance sent up by the Commons 
 to the Lords, that was not finished this session ; it was a bill 
 declaring the rights and liberties of England, and the succes 
 sion to the crown, as had been agreed by both Houses of 
 Parliament, to the King and Queen and their issue ; and after
 
 308 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 them, to the Princess Anne and her issue ; and after these, to 
 the King and his issue. A clause was inserted, disabling all 
 Papists from succeeding to the crown ; to which the Lords 
 added, " or such as should marry Papists." To this I proposed 
 an additional clause, absolving the subjects, in that case, from 
 their allegiance. This was seconded by the Earl of Shrewsbury ; 
 and it passed without any opposition or debate, which amazed 
 us all, considering the importance of it. But the King ordered 
 me to propose the naming the Duchess of Hanover and her 
 posterity next in the succession. He signified his pleasure in 
 this also to the ministers ; but he ordered me to begin the 
 motion in the House, because I had already set it on foot. 
 And the Duke of Hanover had now other thoughts of the 
 matter, and was separating himself from the interests of France. 
 The Lords agreed to the proposition without any opposition ; 
 so it was sent down to the Commons. There were great 
 debates there upon it. Hampden pressed it vehemently ; but 
 Wildman and all the Republican party opposed it. Their 
 secret reason seemed to be a design to extinguish monarchy, 
 and therefore to substitute none beyond the three that were 
 named, that so the succession might quickly come to an end. 
 But it not being decent to own this, all that they pretended 
 was, that there being many in the lineal succession, after the 
 three that were named, who were then of the Church of Rome, 
 the leaving to them a possibility to succeed, upon their turning 
 Protestants, might have a good effect on them, and dispose 
 them to hearken to instruction, all which would be defeated by 
 a declaration in favour of the Duchess. 
 
 To this it was answered, in a free conference, that for that 
 very reason it was fit to make this declaration, since nothing 
 could bring us into a more certain danger than a pretended 
 conversion of a false convert, who might by such a disguise 
 ascend the throne, and so work our ruin by secret artifices. 
 Both Houses adhered after the free conference, so the bill fell 
 for that time ; but it was resolved to take it up at the opening 
 of the next session. And the King thought it was not then 
 convenient to renew the motion of the Duchess of Hanover, of 
 which he ordered me to write her a particular account. It 
 was fit once to have the bill passed that enacted the perpetual 
 exclusion of all Papists ; for that, upon the matter, brought 
 the succession to their door. And if any in the line, before 
 her, should pretend to change, as it was not very likely to 
 happen, so it would not be easily believed. So it was resolved
 
 William and Mary 309 
 
 to carry this matter no further at this time. The bill passed 
 without any opposition in the beginning of the next session, 
 which I mention here, that I might end this matter all at 
 once. 
 
 One accident happened this summer, of a pretty extraordinary 
 character, that deserves to be remembered. A fisherman be 
 tween Lambeth and Vauxhall, was drawing a net pretty close c_ 
 to the channel, and a great weight was, not without some 
 difficulty, drawn to the shore, which, when taken up, was 
 found to be the Great Seal of England. King James had called 
 for it from the Lord Jeffreys, the night before he went away, 
 as intending to make a secret use of it for pardons or grants. 
 But it seems, when he went away, he thought either "that the 
 bulk or weight of it made it inconvenient to be carried off, or 
 that it was to be hereafter of no more use to him ; and there 
 fore, that it might not be made use of against him, he threw it 
 into the Thames. The fisherman was well rewarded when he 
 brought the Great Seal to the King ; and by his order it was 
 broken. 
 
 But now I must look over to the affairs of Ireland, and to 
 King James's motions. Upon his coming to the Court of 
 France, he was received with great shows of tenderness and 
 respect ; the French King assuring him that, as they had both 
 the same interests, so he would never give over the war till he 
 had restored him to his throne. The only prospect he now 
 had was to keep up his party in Ireland and Scotland. The 
 messages from Tyrconnel for speedy supplies was very pressing ; 
 and his party in Scotland sent one Lindsay over to him to 
 offer him their service, and to ask what assistance they might 
 depend upon. The French ministry was at this time much 
 divided. Louvois had the greatest credit, and was very suc 
 cessful in all his counsels, so that he was most considered ; but 
 Seignelay was believed to have more personal favour, and to be 
 more entirely united to Madame de Maintenon. These two 
 were in a high competition for favour, and hated one another. 
 Seignelay had the marine, as the other had the army, for his 
 province ; so, King James having the most dependence on the 
 marine, and looking on the secretary for that post as the most 
 powerful favourite, made his chief application to him, which 
 set Louvois to cross and retard everything that was proposed 
 for his service, so that matters for him went on slowly and 
 very defectively. There was another circumstance in King
 
 3io Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 James's affairs that did him much hurt. Lauzun, whose adven 
 tures will be found in the French history, had come over 
 to King James, and offered him his service, and had attended 
 on the Queen when she went over to France. He had obtained 
 a promise of King James that he should have the command of 
 such forces as the King of France would assist him with. 
 Louvois hated Lauzun, nor did the King of France like to 
 employ him ; so Louvois sent to King James, desiring him to 
 ask of the King of France, Souvray, a son of his, whom he 
 was breeding to serve in war, to command the French troops. 
 But King James had so engaged himself to Lauzun that he 
 thought that he could not in honour depart from it. And ever 
 after that, we were told, that Louvois studied, by all the ways 
 he could think of, to disparage him, and all the propositions he 
 made ; yet he got about five thousand Frenchmen to be sent over 
 with him to Ireland, but no great supplies in money. Promises 
 were sent the Scots of great assistance that should be sent 
 them from Ireland : they were encouraged to make all possible 
 opposition in the Convention ; and, as soon as the season of the 
 year would admit of it, they were ordered to gather together in 
 the Highlands, and to keep themselves in safe places there till 
 further orders should be sent them. With these, and with a 
 small supply of money, of about five or six thousand pounds, 
 for buying ammunition and arms, Lindsay was sent back. I 
 had such a character given me of him, that I entertained good 
 thoughts of him ; so, upon his return, he came first to me, and 
 pretended he had gone over on private affairs, being deeply 
 engaged in debt for the Earl of Melfort, whose secretary he 
 had been. I understood from him that King James had left 
 Paris to go to Ireland, so I sent him to the Earl of Shrewsbury's 
 office. But there was a secret management with one of the 
 Under Secretaries there for King James ; so he was not only 
 dismissed, but got a pass warrant from Dr. Wynne to go to 
 Scotland. I had given the Earl of Shrewsbury such a character 
 of the man, that he did more easily believe him ; but he knew 
 nothing of the pass warrant. So my easiness to think well of 
 people was the chief occasion of the mischief that followed on 
 his not being clapped up and more narrowly examined. Upon 
 King James's landing in Ireland, he marched his army from 
 Kinsale to Ulster ; and, when it was all together, it consisted of 
 thirty thousand foot and eight thousand horse. It is true the 
 Irish were now as insolent as they were undisciplined ; and they 
 began to think they must be masters of all the King's counsels.
 
 William ana iviary 311 
 
 A jealousy arose between them and the French ; they were soon 
 on very bad terms, and scarcely ever agreed in their advices. 
 All King James's party in the isle of Britain pressed his settling 
 the affairs of Ireland the best he could, and his bringing over 
 the French, and such of the Irish as he could best govern and 
 depend on, and advised him to land in the north of England or 
 in the west of Scotland. 
 
 But the first thing that was to be done was to reduce Lon 
 donderry. In order to this, two different advices were offered. 
 The one was to march with a great force, and to take it imme 
 diately ; for the town was not capable of resisting if vigorously 
 attacked. The other was to block it up so that it should be 
 forced in a little time to surrender, and to turn to other more 
 vigorous designs. But whereas either of these advices might 
 have been pursued with advantage, a third advice was offered, 
 but I know not by whom, which was the only bad one that 
 could be proposed ; and yet, by a sort of fatality which hung 
 over that King, it was followed by him ; and that was to press 
 the town by a slow siege, which, as was given out, would bring 
 the Irish into the methods of war, and would accustom them 
 to fatigue and discipline. And this being resolved on, King 
 James sent a small body before it, which was often changed, 
 and by these he continued the siege above two months, in 
 which the poor inhabitants formed themselves into great order, 
 and came to generous resolutions of enduring the last extremi 
 ties. They made some sallies, in which the Irish always ran 
 away and left their officers, so that many of their best officers 
 were killed. Those within suffered little but by hunger, which 
 destroyed nearly two-thirds of their number. One convoy, 
 with two regiments and provisions, were sent to their relief; 
 but they looked on the service as desperate, being deceived by 
 Lundy, who was the governor of the place, and had undertaken 
 to betray it to King James ; but he, finding them jealous of 
 him, came to the convoy, and persuaded them that nothing 
 could be done, so they came back, and Lundy with them. Yet 
 the poor inhabitants, though thus forsaken, resolved still to 
 hold out, and sent over such an account of the state they were 
 in, that a second and greater convoy was sent, with about five 
 thousand men, commanded by Kirke, who, after he came in 
 sight, made not that haste to relieve them that was necessary, 
 considering the misery they were in. They had a river that 
 came up to their town ; but the Irish had laid a boom and 
 chains across it, and had planted batteries for defending
 
 312 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 it : yet a ship sailing up with wind and tide broke through ; 
 and so the town was relieved, and the siege raised in great 
 confusion. 
 
 Enniskillen had the same fate : the inhabitants entered into 
 resolutions of suffering anything rather than fall into the hands 
 of the Irish. A considerable force was sent against them ; 
 but through their courage, and the cowardice of the Irish, they 
 held out. 
 
 All this while an army was preparing in England to be sent 
 over for the reduction of Ireland, commanded by Schomberg, 
 who was made a duke in England, and to whom the Parliament 
 gave ^100,000 for the services he had done. The levies were 
 carried on in England with great zeal, and the bodies were 
 quickly full. But, though both officers and soldiers showed 
 much courage and affection to the service, yet they were raw, 
 without experience, and without skill. Schomberg had a quick 
 and happy passage, with about ten thousand men. He landed 
 at Belfast, and brought the forces that lay in Ulster together. 
 His army when strongest was not above fourteen thousand 
 men, and he had not above two thousand horse. He marched 
 on to Dundalk, and there posted himself. King James came 
 to Ardee, within five or six miles of him, being above thrice 
 his number. Schomberg had not the supplies from England 
 that had been promised him much treachery or ravenousness 
 appeared in many who were employed and he, finding his 
 numbers so unequal to the Irish, resolved to lie on the defen 
 sive. He lay there six weeks in a very rainy season ; his men, 
 for want of due care and good management, contracted such 
 diseases that he lost nearly one-half of his army. Some blamed 
 him for not putting things more to hazard ; it was said that he 
 measured the Irish by their numbers, and not by their want of 
 sense and courage. Such complaints were sent of this to the 
 King, that he wrote twice to him, pressing him to put some 
 what to the venture ; but he saw the enemy was well posted 
 and well provided, and he knew that they had several good 
 officers among them. If he had pushed matters, and had met 
 with a misfortune, his whole army, and consequently all Ireland, 
 would have been lost ; for he could not have made a regular 
 retreat. The sure game was to preserve his army, and that 
 would save Ulster, and keep matters entire for another year. 
 This was censured by some ; but better judges thought the 
 managing this campaign as he did was one of the greatest parts 
 of his life.
 
 William and Mary 313 
 
 Our operations on the sea were not very prosperous. Her- 
 bsrt was sent with a fleet to cut off the communication between 
 France and Ireland. The French had sent over a fleet with a 
 great transport of stores and ammunition. They had landed 
 their loading, and were returning back. As they came out of 
 Bantry Bay, Herbert engaged them. The wind was against 
 him, so that it was not possible for the greatest part of the 
 fleet to come up and enter into action, and so those who 
 engaged were forced to retire with some disadvantage. But 
 the French did not pursue him. He came back to Portsmouth, 
 in order to refit some of his ships, and went out again, and lay 
 before Brest till the end of summer. But the French fleet did 
 not come out any more all that summer ; so that ours lay 
 some months at sea to no purpose. But if we lost few of our 
 seamen in the engagement, we lost a great many by reason of 
 the bad victualling. Some excuse this because it was so late in 
 the year before funds were made for it, while others imputed 
 it to base practices and worse designs. So affairs had every 
 where a very melancholy face. 
 
 I now turn to give an account of the proceedings in Scotland. 
 A Convention of the States was summoned there in the same 
 manner as in England. Duke Hamilton was chosen President ; 
 and a letter being offered to them from King James by 
 Lindsay, they would not receive nor read it, but went on to 
 state their several violations of their constitution and laws made 
 by King James. Upon these it was moved that a judgment 
 should be given, declaring that he had forfeited his right to the 
 crown. Upon this three parties were formed : one was composed 
 of all the bishops and some of the nobility, who opposed these 
 proceedings against the King as contrary to their laws and 
 oaths ; others thought that their oaths were only to the King, 
 as having the executive power to support him in that, but 
 that, if he set himself to invade and assume the legislature, he 
 renounced his former authority by subverting that upon which 
 it was founded ; so they were for proceeding to a declaratory 
 judgment. A third party was formed of those who agreed with 
 the former in their conclusion, but not in coming to so speedy 
 a determination. They thought it was the interest of Scotland 
 to be brought under the laws of England, and to be united to 
 the Parliament of England, and that this was the most proper 
 time for doing that to the best advantage, since England would 
 be obliged, by the present state of affairs, to receive them upon
 
 314 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 good terms. They were therefore willing to proceed against 
 King James ; but they thought it not reasonable to make too 
 much haste in a new settlement, and were for maintaining the 
 Government in an interregnum till the union should be per 
 fected, or at least put in a probable way. This was specious, 
 and many went into it ; but, since it tended to the putting a 
 stop to a full settlement, all who favoured King James joined 
 in it, for by this more time was gained. To this project it was 
 objected that the union of the two kingdoms must be a work of 
 time, since many difficulties would arise in any treaty about it ; 
 whereas the present circumstances were critical, and required 
 a speedy decision, and quick provision to be made for their 
 security, since, if they continued in such a neutral state, they 
 would have many enemies and no friends, and the zeal that was 
 now working among them for Presbytery must raise a greater 
 aversion than ordinary in the body that was for the Church of 
 England to any such treaty with them. 
 
 While much heat was occasioned by this debate, great num 
 bers came armed from the western counties, on pretence to 
 defend the Convention ; for the Duke of Gordon was still in the 
 castle of Edinburgh, and could have done them much harm, 
 though he lay there in a very inoffensive state. He thought 
 the best thing he could do was to preserve that place long for 
 King James, since to provoke the Convention would have 
 drawn a siege and ruin upon him with too much precipitation, 
 while there was not a force in the field ready to come and 
 assist him. So it was said there was no need of such armed 
 companies, and that they were come to overawe and force the 
 Convention. 
 
 The Earl of Dundee had been at London, and had fixed a 
 correspondence both with England and France, though he had 
 employed me to carry messages from him to the King, to know 
 what security he might expect if he should go and live in Scot 
 land without owning his government. The King said, if he 
 would live peaceably and at home, he would protect him. To 
 this he answered that, unless he was forced to it, he would live 
 quietly. But he went down with other resolutions, and all the 
 party resolved to submit to his command. Upon his coming to 
 Edinburgh, he pretended he was in danger from those armed 
 multitudes, and so he left the Convention, and went up and 
 down the Highlands, and sent his agents about to bring together 
 what force they could gather. This set on the conclusion of the 
 debates of the Convention.
 
 William and Mary 315 
 
 They passed the judgment of forfeiture on King James, and 
 on the nth of April, the day in which the King and Queen 
 were crowned with the ordinary solemnities at Westminster, 
 they declared William and Mary King and Queen of Scotland. 
 But with this, as they ordered the coronation oath to be tendered 
 to them, so they drew up a claim of rights, which they pre 
 tended were the fundamental and unalterable laws of the 
 kingdom. By one of these it was declared that the Reforma 
 tion in Scotland having been begun by a parity among the 
 clergy, all prelacy in that Church was a great and insupportable 
 grievance to that kingdom. It was an absurd thing to put this 
 in a claim of rights, for which not only they had no law, but 
 which was contrary to many laws then in being ; so that, though 
 they might have offered it as a grievance, there was no colour 
 for pretending it was a national right. But they had a notion 
 among them that every article that should be put in the claim 
 of rights became an unalterable law, and a condition upon 
 which the crown was to be held ; whereas grievances were such 
 things as were submitted to the King and Parliament to be 
 redressed, or not, as they should see cause ; but the bishops, 
 and those who adhered to them, having left the Convention, 
 the Presbyterians had a majority of voices to carry everything 
 as they pleased, how unreasonable soever. And upon this the 
 abolishing Episcopacy in Scotland was made a necessary article 
 of the new settlement. 
 
 Soon after the King came to St. James's the Episcopal party 
 there had sent up the Dean of Glasgow, whom they ordered to 
 come to me ; and I introduced him to the then Prince. He was 
 sent to know what his intentions were with relation to them. He 
 answered, he would do all he could to preserve them, granting 
 a full toleration to the Presbyterians. But this was in case 
 they concurred in the new settlement of that kingdom ; for if 
 they opposed that, and if, by a great majority in Parliament, 
 resolutions should be taken against them, the King could not 
 make a war for them, but yet he would do all that was in his 
 power to maintain such of them as should live peaceably in their 
 functions. This he ordered me likewise to write back, in 
 answer to what some bishops and others had written to me 
 upon that subject. But the Earl of Dundee, when he went 
 down, possessed them with such an opinion of another speedy 
 revolution that would be brought about in favour of King 
 James, that they resolved to adhere firmly to his interests. So 
 they declaring in a body with so much zeal in opposition to
 
 316 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 the new settlement, it was not possible for the King to preserve 
 that Government there ; all those who expressed their zeal for 
 him being equally zealous against that order. 
 
 Among those who appeared in this Convention none distin 
 guished himself more than Sir James Montgomery, a gentleman 
 of good parts, but of a most unbridled heat, and of a restless 
 ambition. He bore the greatest share of the whole debate, and 
 promised himself a great post in the new Government. Duke 
 Hamilton presided with great discretion and courage ; so that 
 the bringing the settlement so soon to a calm conclusion was 
 chiefly owing to him. A petition of grievances, relating to the 
 Lords of the Articles, the judges, the coin, and several other 
 matters, was also settled ; and three Commissioners were sent, 
 one of every state, to the King and Queen, with the tender of 
 the crown, with which they were also to tender them the 
 coronation oath and the claim of rights. And when the oath 
 was taken, they were next to offer the petition for the redress 
 of grievances. The three Commissioners were, the Earl of 
 Argyll for the lords, Sir James Montgomery for the knights, 
 or, as they call them, for the barons, and Sir John Dalrymple 
 for the boroughs. When the King and Queen took the oaths, 
 the King explained one word in the oath, by which he was 
 bound " to repress heresies," that he did not by this bind him 
 self to persecute any for their conscience. And now he was 
 King of Scotland, as well as of England and Ireland. 
 
 The first thing to be done was to form a ministry in Scotland, 
 and a Council, and to send instructions for turning the Conven 
 tion into a Parliament, in which the Duke of Hamilton was 
 to represent the King as his Commissioner. Before the King 
 had left the Hague, Fagel had so effectually recommended 
 Dalrymple, the father, to him, that he was resolved to rely 
 chiefly on him for advice ; and though he had heard great 
 complaints of him, as indeed there was some ground for them, 
 yet, since his son was sent one of the three upon so great a 
 deputation, he concluded from thence that the family was not! 
 so much hated as he had been informed, so he continued still 
 to be advised by him. The Episcopal party were afraid of; 
 Montgomery's being made Secretary, from whom they expected 
 nothing but extreme severities ; so they set themselves to divert 
 that, and the Lord Melville, who had married the Duchess of] 
 Monmouth's sister, and had continued from 1660 firm to Pres4 
 bytery, and had been of late forced to leave the kingdom, was 
 looked on as an easy man, who would have credit enough to
 
 William and Mary 317 
 
 restrain the fury of that party. So he was made sole Secretary 
 of State, which proved a very unhappy step ; for, as he was by 
 his principles bigoted to Presbytery, and ready to sacrifice 
 everything to their humours, so he proved to be in all respects 
 a narrow-hearted man, who minded his own interest more than 
 either that of the King or of his country. This choice gave 
 a great distaste, and that was followed by a ministry, in the 
 framing of which he had the chief hand, who were weak and 
 passionate men. All offices were split into commissions, that 
 many might have some share ; but it rendered them all con 
 temptible. And though Montgomery had a considerable post 
 offered him, yet his missing that which he aimed at struck deep, 
 and began to work in him an aversion to the King, which broke 
 out afterwards into much fury and plotting against him. Nor 
 did Duke Hamilton think that he was considered in the new 
 model of the ministry as he deserved, and might justly have 
 expected. 
 
 I now return to the affairs of England during the recess. 
 The clergy generally took the oaths, though with too many 
 reservations and distinctions, which laid them open to severe 
 censures, as if they had taken them against their conscience. 
 The King was suspected by them by reason of the favour 
 shown to the Dissenters, but chiefly for his abolishing Episco 
 pacy in Scotland, and his consenting to the setting up Pres 
 bytery there. This gave some credit to the reports that were 
 with great industry infused into many of them of the King's 
 coldness at best, if not his aversion, to the Church of England. 
 The leading men in both universities, chiefly Oxford, were 
 possessed with this ; and it began to have very ill effects over 
 all England. Those who did not carry this so far as to think, 
 as some said they did, that the Church was to be pulled down, 
 yet said a latitudinarian party was likely to prevail and to engross 
 all preferments. These were thought less bigoted to outward 
 ceremonies ; so now it was generally spread about that men 
 zealous for the Church would be neglected, and that those who 
 were more indifferent in such matters would be preferred. 
 Many of the latter had managed the controversies with the 
 Church of Rome with so much clearness and with that success, 
 that the Papists, to revenge themselves, and to blast those 
 whom they considered as their most formidable enemies, had 
 cast aspersions on them as Socinians, and as men that denied 
 all mysteries. And now some angry men at Oxford, who
 
 318 Bishop Biirnet's Own Times 
 
 apprehended that those divines were likely to be most con 
 sidered in this reign, took up the same method of calumny, 
 and began to treat them as Socinians. The Earl of Clarendon 
 and some of the bishops, who had already incurred the sus 
 pension for not taking the oaths to the Government, took much 
 ill-natured pains to spread these slanders. Six bishoprics 
 happened to fall within this year : Salisbury, Chester, Bangor, 
 Worcester, Chichester, and Bristol ; so that the King named 
 six bishops within six months. And the persons promoted to 
 these sees were generally men of those principles. The pro 
 ceedings in Scotland cast a great load on the King ; he could 
 not hinder the change of government of that Church without 
 putting all his affairs in great disorder. The Episcopal party 
 went almost universally into King James's interests ; so that 
 the Presbyterians were the only party that the King had in 
 that kingdom. The King did indeed assure us, and myself in 
 particular, that he would restrain and moderate the violence of 
 the Presbyterians. Lord Melville did also promise the same 
 thing very solemnly, and at first he seemed much set upon it ; 
 but when he saw so great a party formed against himself, and 
 since many of the Presbyterians inclined to favour them, and 
 to set themselves in an opposition to the Court, he thought it 
 was the King's interest, or at least his own, to engage that 
 party entirely, and he found nothing could do that so effec 
 tually as to abandon the ministers of the Episcopal persuasion 
 to their fury. He set up the Earl of Crawford as the head of 
 his party, who was passionate in his temper, and was out of 
 measure zealous in his principles ; he was chosen to be the 
 President of the Parliament. He received and encouraged all 
 the complaints that were made of the Episcopal ministers. The 
 Convention, when they had passed the votes declaring the King 
 and Queen, ordered a proclamation to be read the next Sunday 
 in all the churches of Edinburgh, and in all the other churches 
 in the kingdom by a certain prefixed day, but which was so 
 near at hand that it was scarcely possible to lay proclamations 
 all round the nation within the time, and it was absolutely 
 impossible for the clergy to meet together, and come to any 
 resolution among themselves. For the most part the proclama 
 tions were not brought to the ministers till the morning of 
 the Sunday in which they were ordered to be read ; so this 
 having the face of a great change of principles, many could 
 not on the sudden resolve to submit to it. Some had not the 
 proclamations brought to them till the day was past : many of
 
 William and Mary 319 
 
 these read it the Sunday following. Some of those who did 
 not think fit to read the proclamation, yet obeyed it, and con 
 tinued after that to pray for the King and Queen. Complaints 
 were brought to the Council of all those who had not read nor 
 obeyed the proclamations, and they were in a summary way 
 deprived of their benefices. In the executing this, Lord 
 Crawford showed much eagerness and violence. Those who 
 did not read the proclamation on the day appointed had no 
 favour, though they did it afterwards ; and upon any word 
 that fell from them, either in their extemporary prayers or 
 sermons, that showed disaffection to the Government, they were 
 also deprived. All these things were published up and down 
 England, and much aggravated, and raised the aversion that 
 the Church had to the Presbyterians so high, that they began 
 to repent their having granted a toleration to a party that, 
 where they prevailed, showed so much fury against those of 
 the Episcopal persuasion ; so that such of us as had laboured 
 to excuse the change that the King was forced to consent to, 
 and had promised in his name great moderation towards our 
 friends in that kingdom, were much out of countenance when 
 we saw the violence with which matters were carried there. 
 These things concurred to give the clergy such ill impressions 
 of the King, that we had little reason to look for success in a 
 design that was then preparing for the Convocation, for which 
 a summons was issued out to meet during the next session of 
 Parliament. 
 
 When the Convocation was opened, the King sent them a 
 message by the Earl of Nottingham, assuring them of his 
 constant favour and protection, and desiring them to consider 
 such things, as by his order should be laid before them, with 
 due care and an impartial zeal for the peace and good of the 
 Church. But the Lower House of Convocation expressed a 
 resolution not to enter into any debates with relation to 
 alterations, so that they would take no notice of the second 
 part of the King's message ; and it was not without difficulty 
 carried to make a decent address to the King, thanking him 
 for his promise of protection. But because in the draft which 
 the bishops sent them they acknowledged the protection that 
 the Protestant religion in general, and the Church of England 
 in particular, had received from him, the Lower House thought 
 that this imported their owning some common union ^with 
 the foreign Protestants ; so they would not agree to it. There 
 was at this time but a small number of bishops in the
 
 320 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Upper House of Convocation, and they had not their metro 
 politan with them ; so they had not strength nor authority 
 to set things forward. Therefore they advised the King to 
 suffer the session to be discontinued; and thus, seeing they 
 were in no disposition to enter upon business, they were 
 kept from doing mischief by prorogations for a course of ten 
 years. 
 
 I now turn to a more important as well as a more trouble 
 some scene. In winter a session of Parliament met full of 
 -^ jealousy and ill-humour. The ill conduct of affairs was imputed 
 chiefly to the Lord Halifax ; so the first attack was made on 
 him. The Duke of Bolton made a motion in the House of 
 Lords for a Committee to examine who had the chief hand in 
 the severities and executions in the end of King Charles's 
 
 \ reign, and in the quo warrantos, and the delivering up the 
 charters. The inquiry lasted some weeks, and gave occasion 
 to much heat, but nothing appeared lhat could be proved, 
 upon which votes or addresses could have been grounded ; 
 yet the Lord Halifax having during that time concurred with 
 the ministry in Council, he saw it was necessary for him to 
 withdraw now from the ministers, and quit the Court ; and 
 soon after he reconciled himself to the ^Tories, and became 
 wholly theirs ; he opposed everything that looked favourably 
 towards the Government, and did upon all occasions serve the 
 Jacobites and protect the whole party. But the Whigs began 
 to lose much of the King's good opinion by the heat that they 
 showed in both Houses against their enemies, and by the 
 coldness that appeared in everything that related to the public, 
 as well as to the King in his own particular. He expressed an 
 earnest desire to have the revenue of the Crown settled on him 
 for life. He said he was not a king till that was done ; with 
 out that the title of a king_wa^_only a pageant. And he spoke 
 of this with more than ordinary vehemence ; so that sometimes 
 he said he would not stay and hold an empty name unless 
 that was done. He said once to myself he understood the 
 good of a commonwealth, as well as of a kingly government, and 
 it was not easy to determine which was best ; but he was sure 
 the worst of all governments was that of a king without 
 treasure and without power. But a jealousy was now infused 
 into many that he would grow arbitrary in hjs government 
 if he once had the revenue, and would strain for a high 
 stretch of prerogative as soon as he was out of difficulties and 
 
 /necessities.
 
 William and Mary 321 
 
 The Tories, seeing the Whigs grow sullen, and that they 
 would make no advances of money, began to treat with the 
 Court, and promised great advances if the Parliament might be 
 dissolved and a new one be summoned. Those propositions 
 came to be known; so the House of Commons prepared a 
 bill, by which they hoped to have made sure of all future 
 Parliaments. In it they declared that corporations could not 
 be forfeited, nor their charters surrendered ; and they enacted 
 that all mayors and recorders who had been concerned in the 
 private delivering up of charters without the consent of the 
 whole body, and who had done that in a clandestine manner 
 before the judgment that was given against the charter of 
 London, should be turned out of all corporations, and be 
 incapable of bearing office in them for six years. This was 
 opposed in the House of Commons by the whole strength of 
 the Tory party ; for they saw the carrying it was the total ruin 
 of their interest through the whole kingdom. They said a 
 great deal against the declaratory part ; but whatsoever might 
 be in that, they said, since the thing had been so universal, it 
 seemed hard to punish it with such severity. It was said that 
 by this means the party for the Church would be disgraced, * 
 and that the corporations would be cast into the hands of 
 Dissenters. And now both parties made their court to the 
 King. The Whigs promised everything that he desired if he 
 would help them to get this bill passed ; and the Tories were 
 not wanting in their promises, if the bill should be stopped and 
 the Parliament dissolved. The bill was carried in the House 
 of Commons by a great majority. When it was brought up to 
 the Lords, the first point in debate was upon the declaratory 
 
 part, whether a corporation could be forfeited or surrendered ? 
 
 Holt and two other judges. w_ere for the affirmative, but all the 
 rest were for the negative. No precedents for the affirmative 
 were brought higher than the reign of King Henry VIII., in 
 which the abbeys were surrendered, which was at that time so 
 great a point of state that the authority of these precedents 
 seemed not clear enough for regular times. The House was 
 so equally divided that it went for the bill only by one voice, 
 after which little doubt was made of the passing the act. But 
 now the applications of the Tories were much quickened ; they 
 made the King all possible promises, and the promoters of the 
 bill saw themselves exposed to the corporations, which were to 
 feel the effects of this bill 30 sensibly, that they made as great 
 promises on their part". The matter was now at a critical 
 
 M
 
 322 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 issue : the passing the bill put the King and the nation in the 
 hands of the Whigs, as the rejecting it, and dissolving the 
 Parliament upon it, was such a trusting to the Tories, and such 
 a breaking with the Whigs, that the King was long in suspense 
 what to do. 
 
 He was once very near a desperate resolution. He thought 
 
 ^ he could not trust the Tories, and he resolved he would Rot 
 trusTthe Whigs ; so he fancied the Tories would be true to the 
 Queen, and confide in her, though they would not in him. 
 He therefore resolved to go over to Holland, and leave the 
 Government in the Queen's hands ; so he called the Marquis 
 of Carmarthen, with the Earl of Shrewsbury and some few 
 more, and told them he had a convoy ready, and was resolved 
 to leave all in the Queen's hands, since he did not see how he 
 could extricate himself out of the difficulties into which the 
 animosities of parties had brought him. They pressed him 
 vehemently to lay aside all such desperate resolutions, and to 
 
 , -, comply with the present necessity. Much passion appeared 
 among them ; the debate was so warm, that many tears were 
 shed. In conclusion, the King resolved to change his first 
 design into another better resolution of going over in person 
 to put an end to the war in Ireland. This was told me some 
 time after by the Earl of Shrewsbury ; but the Queen knew 
 nothing of it till she had it from me, so reserved was the King 
 to her, even in a matter that concerned her so nearly. 
 
 The King was making all possible haste to open the cam 
 paign as soon as things could be ready for it in Ireland. The 
 day before he set out he called me into his closet. He seemed 
 to have a great weight upon his spirits from the state of his 
 affairs, which was then very cloudy. He said, for his own 
 part, he trusted in God, and would either go through with 
 his business or perish in it. He only pitied the poor Queen, 
 repeating that twice with great tenderness, and wished that 
 those who loved him would wait much on her, and assist her. 
 He lamented much the factions and the heats that were among 
 us, and that the bishops and clergy, instead of allaying them, 
 did rather foment and inflame them ; but he was pleased to 
 make an exception of myself. He said the going to a campaign 
 was naturally no unpleasant thing to him ; he was sure he 
 understood that better than how to govern England. He 
 added that though he had no doubt nor mistrust of the cause 
 he went on, yet the going against King James in person was 
 hard upon him, since it would be a vast trouble, both to
 
 William and Mary 323 
 
 himself and to the Queen, if he should be either killed or taken 
 prisoner. He desired my prayers, and dismissed me very 
 deeply affected with all he had said. 
 
 I had a particular occasion to know how tender he was of 
 King James's person, having learned an instance of it from the 
 first hand. A proposition was made to the King that a third- 
 rate ship, well manned by a faithful crew, and commanded by 
 one who had been well with King James, but was such a one 
 as the King might trust, should sail to Dublin, and declare for 
 King James. The person who told me this offered to be the 
 man that should carry the message to King James (for he was 
 well known to him), to invite him to come on board, which he 
 seemed to be sure he would accept of ; and when he was aboard 
 they should sail away with him, and land him either in Spain 
 or Italy, as the King should desire, and should have twenty 
 thousand pounds to give him when he should be set ashore. 
 The King ^thought it was a well-formed design, and likely 
 enough to succeed, but would not hearken to it. He said he 
 would have no hand in treachery, and King James would 
 certainly carry some of his guards and of his Court abroad 
 with him, and probably they would make some opposition, and 
 in the struggle some accident might happen to King James's 
 person, in which he would have no hand. I acquainted the 
 Queen with this, and I saw in her a great tenderness for her 
 father's person, and she was much touched with the answer 
 the King had made. 
 
 He had a quick passage to Ireland, where matters had been 
 kept in the state they were in all the winter. Charlemont was 
 reduced, which was the only place in Ulster that was then left 
 in King James's hands. The King had a great army ; there 
 were about thirty-six thousand men, all in good plight, full of 
 heart and zeal. He lost no time, but advanced in six days 
 from Belfast, where he landed, to the river Boyne, near 
 Drogheda. King James had abandoned the passes between 
 Newry and Dundalk, which are so strait for some miles, that 
 it had been easy to have disputed every inch of ground. King 
 James and his Court were so much lifted up with the news of 
 the debates in Parliament, and of the distractions of the city 
 of London, that they flattered themselves with false hopes that 
 the King durst not leave England, nor venture over to Ireland. 
 He had been six days come before King James knew anything 
 of it. Upon that, he immediately passed the Boyne, and lay,, 
 on the south side of it. His army consisted of twenty-six
 
 324 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 thousand men, his horse were good, and he had five thousand 
 French foot, for whom he had sent over in exchange five 
 thousand Irish foot. He held some councils of war to consider 
 what was fit to be done whether he should make a stand there, 
 and put all to the decision of a battle, or if he should march 
 off and abandon that river, and, by consequence, all the country 
 on to Dublin. 
 
 Our concerns at sea were then the chief thing to be looked 
 to. An unhappy compliment of sending a fleet to convoy a 
 queen to Spain proved almost fatal to us. They were so long 
 delayed by contrary winds, that a design of blocking up Toulon 
 was lost by it. The great ships that lay there had got out 
 before our fleet could reach the place. Our squadron returned 
 back, and went into Plymouth to refit there, and it was joined 
 by that which came from the Irish seas. These two squadrons 
 consisted of about thirty ships of the line. The Earl of 
 Torrington, who had the chief command, was a man of pleasure, 
 and did not make the haste that was necessary to go about and 
 join them ; nor did the Dutch fleet come over so soon as 
 was promised, so that our main fleet lay long at Spithead. 
 The French understood that our fleets lay thus divided, and 
 saw the advantage of getting between them ; so they came in 
 the Channel with so fair a wind, that they were near the Isle of 
 Wight before our fleet had any advice of their being within 
 the Channel. The Earl of Torrington had no advice-boats 
 out to bring him news; and though notice thereof was sent 
 post overland as soon as the French came within the Channel, 
 yet their fleet sailed as fast as the post could ride ; but then 
 the wind turned upon them, otherwise they would in all 
 probability have surprised us. But after this first advantage 
 the winds were always contrary to them, and favourable to us ; 
 so that the French officers in Ireland had reason to look for 
 that fleet of smaller vessels which was promised to be sent to 
 destroy the King's transport ships, and for these reasons all 
 King James's officers were against bringing the war to so 
 speedy a decision. 
 
 In opposition to all their opinions, King James himself was 
 positive that they must stay and defend the Boyne. If they 
 marched off and abandoned Dublin, they would so lose their 
 reputation that the people would leave them and capitulate. 
 It would also dispirit all their friends in England ; therefore 
 he resolved to maintain the post he was in, and seemed not a 
 little pleased to think that he should have one fair battle for
 
 William and Mary 325 
 
 his crown. He spoke of this with so much seeming pleasure, 
 that many about him apprehended that he was weary of the 
 struggle, and even of life, and longed to see an end of it at any 
 rate, and they were afraid that he would play the hero a little 
 too much. He had all the advantages he could desire the 
 river was deep, and rose very high with the tide, there was a 
 morass to be passed after the passing the river, and then a 
 rising ground. 
 
 On the last of June the King came to the banks of the 
 river, and as he was riding along, and making a long stop in 
 one place to observe the grounds, the enemy did not lose their 
 opportunity, but brought down two pieces of cannon, and, with 
 the first firing, a ball passed along the King's shoulder, tore off 
 some of his clothes and about a hand-breadth of the skin, out 
 of which about a spoonful of blood came, and that was all the 
 harm it did him. It cannot be imagined how much terror this 
 struck into all that were about him. He himself said it was 
 nothing ; yet he was prevailed on to alight till it was washed 
 and a plaster put upon it, and immediately he mounted his 
 horse again, and rode about all the posts of his army. It was 
 indeed necessary to show himself everywhere, to take off the 
 apprehensions with which such an unusual accident filled his 
 soldiers. He continued that day nineteen hours on horseback ; 
 but, upon his first alighting from his horse, a deserter had gone 
 over to the enemy with the news, which was carried quickly 
 into France, where it was taken for granted that he could not 
 outlive such a wound ; so it ran over that kingdom that he was 
 dead. And upon it there were more public rejoicings than had 
 been usual upon their greatest victories, which gave that Court 
 afterwards a vast confusion when they knew that he was still 
 alive, and saw that they had raised in their own people a high 
 opinion of him by this inhuman joy, when they believed him 
 dead. 
 
 But to return to the action of the Boyne. The King sent 
 a great body of cavalry to pass the river higher, while he 
 resolved to pass it in the face of the enemy ; and the Duke of 
 Schomberg was to pass it in a third place, a little below him. 
 I will not enter into the particulars of that day's action, but 
 leave them to military men. 
 
 It was a complete victory ; and those who were the least 
 disposed to flattery said it was almost wholly due to the King's 
 courage and conduct, and, though he was a little stiff by 
 reason of his wound, yet he was forced to quit his horse in the
 
 326 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 morass, and to go through it on foot, but he came up in time 
 to ride almost into every body of his army. He charged in 
 many different places, and nothing stood before him. The Irish 
 horse made some resistance ; but the foot threw down their 
 arms, and ran away. The most amazing circumstance was, 
 that King James stayed all the while with the Guards at a safe 
 distance, and never came into the places of danger nor of action, 
 and, when he saw his army was everywhere giving ground, 
 was the first that ran for it, and reached Dublin before the 
 action was quite over ; for it was dark before the King forsook 
 the pursuit of the Irish. His horse and dragoons were so weary 
 with the fatigue of a long action in a hot day, that they could 
 not pursue far, nor was their camp furnished with necessary 
 refreshments till next morning ; for the King had marched 
 faster than the waggons could possibly follow. The army of 
 the Irish were so entirely forsaken by their officers, that the 
 King thought they would have dispersed themselves, and sub 
 mitted, and that the following them would have been a mere 
 butchery, which was a thing he had always abhorred. The 
 only alloy to this victory was the loss of the Duke of Schom- 
 berg. He passed the river in his station, and was driving the 
 Irish before him, when a party of desperate men set upon him 
 as he was riding very carelessly, with a small number about 
 him. They charged, and in the disorder of that action he was 
 shot ; but it could not be known by whom, for most of all the 
 party were cut off. Thus that great man, like another Epami- 
 nondas, fell on the day in which his side triumphed. 
 
 King James came to Dublin under a very indecent conster 
 nation. He said all was lost ; he had an army in England that 
 could have fought, but would not, and now he had an army 
 that would have fought, but could not. This was not very 
 gracefully nor decently spoken by him, who was among the 
 first that fled. Next morning he left Dublin. He said too 
 much blood had been already shed ; it seemed God was with 
 their enemies. The Prince of Orange was a merciful man ; so 
 he ordered those he left behind him to set the prisoners at 
 liberty, and to submit to the Prince. He rode that day from 
 Dublin to Duncannon Fort; but, though the place was con 
 siderably strong, he would not trust to that, but lay aboard a 
 French ship that anchored there, and had been provided by 
 his own special directions to Sir Patrick Trant. His courage 
 sank with his affairs to a degree that amazed those who had 
 known the former parts of his life. The Irish army was
 
 William and Mary 327 
 
 forsaken by their officers for two days. If there had been a 
 hot pursuit it would have put an end to the war of Ireland ; 
 but the King thought his first are ought to be to secure 
 Dublin ; and King James's officers, as they abandoned it, went 
 back to the army, only in hopes of a good capitulation. 
 Dublin was thus forsaken, and no harm done, which was 
 much apprehended ; but the fear the Irish were in was such, 
 that they durst not venture on anything which must have 
 drawn severe revenges after it. So the Protestants there being 
 now the masters, they declared for the King. Drogheda did 
 also capitulate. 
 
 But, to balance this great success, the King had, the very 
 day after the battle at the Boyne, the news of a battle fought in 
 Flanders, between Prince Waldeck and the Marshal Luxem 
 burg, in which the former was defeated. 
 
 On the day before the battle of the Boyne the two fleets 
 came to a great engagement at sea. The squadron that lay at 
 Plymouth could not come up to join the great fleet, the wind 
 being contrary ; so it was under debate what was fittest to be 
 done. The Earl of Torrington thought he was not strong 
 enough, and advised his coming in till some more ships that 
 were fitting out should be ready. Some began to call his 
 courage in question, and imputed this to fear. They thought 
 this would too much exalt our enemies, and discourage our 
 allies, if we left the French to triumph at sea, and to be the 
 masters of our coast and trade, for our merchants' richest ships 
 were coming home ; so that the leaving them in such a supe 
 riority would be both very unbecoming and very mischievous 
 to us. The Queen ordered Russell to advise both with the Navy 
 Board and with all who understood sea affairs ; and, upon a 
 view of the strength of both fleets, they were of opinion that 
 though the French were superior in number, yet our fleet was 
 so equal in strength to them, that it was reasonable to send 
 orders to our admiral to venture on an engagement ; yet the 
 orders were not so positive but that a great deal was left to a 
 council of war. The two fleets engaged near Beachy, in Sussex. 
 The Dutch led the van, and, to show the"iF~cburage, they 
 advanced too far out of the line, and fought in the beginning 
 with some advantage, the French flying before them. And our 
 blue squadron engaged bravely ; but the Earl of Torrington 
 kept in his line, and continued to fight at a distance. The 
 French, seeing the Dutch come out so far before the line, fell 
 on them furiously, both in front and flank, which the Earl of
 
 328 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Torrington neglected for some time; and when he endeavoured 
 to come a little nearer, the calm was such that he could not 
 come up. The Dutch suffered much, and their whole fleet had 
 perished if their admiral, Calembourg, had not ordered them 
 to drop their anchors while their sails were up. This was not 
 observed by the French ; so they were carried by the tide, 
 while the others lay still, and thus in a few minutes the Dutch 
 were out of danger. They lost many men, and sank some of 
 their ships which had suffered the most, that they might not 
 fall into the enemy's hands. It was now necessary to order the 
 fleet to come in with all possible haste. Both the Dutch and 
 the blue squadron complained much of the Earl of Torrington, 
 and it was a general opinion that if the whole fleet had come 
 up to a close fight, we must have beaten the French ; and con 
 sidering how far they were from Brest, and that our squadron 
 at Plymouth lay between them and home, a victory might have 
 had great consequences. Our fleet was now in a bad condition, 
 and broken into factions ; and if the French had not lost the 
 night's tide, but had followed us close, they might have 
 destroyed many of our ships. Both the admirals were almost 
 equally blamed ; ours for not fighting, and the French for not 
 pursuing his victory. 
 
 Our fleet came in safe, and all possible diligence was used in 
 refitting it ; the Earl of Torrington was sent to the Tower, and 
 three of our best sea officers had the joint command of the 
 fleet; but it was a month before they could set out, and in all 
 that time the French were masters of the sea, and our coasts 
 were open to them. 
 
 Whilst the misfortunes in Flanders and at sea were putting us 
 in no small agitation, the news first of the King's preservation 
 from the cannon-ball, and then of the victory gained the day 
 after, put another face on our affairs. The Earl of Nottingham 
 told me that when he carried the news to the Queen, and 
 acquainted her in a few words that the King was well, that 
 he had gained an entire victory, and that the late King had 
 escaped, he observed her looks, and found that the last article 
 made her joy complete, which seemed in some suspense till she 
 understood that. The Queen and Council upon this sent to 
 the King, pressing him to come over with all possible haste, 
 since, as England was of more importance, so the state of 
 affairs required his presence here ; for it was hoped the 
 reduction of Ireland would be now easily brought about. 
 The King, as he received the news of the battle of Fleurus the
 
 William and Mary 329 
 
 day after the victory at the Boyne, so on the day in which he 
 entered Dublin he had the news of the misfortune at sea to 
 temper the joy that his own successes might give him. He had 
 taken all the Earl of Tyrconnel's papers in the camp, and 
 he found all King James's papers left behind him in Dublin. 
 By these he understood the design the French had of burning 
 his transport fleet, which was therefore first to be taken care 
 of; and, since the French were now masters at sea, he saw 
 nothing that could hinder the execution of that design. 
 
 The King was pressed to pursue the Irish, who had retired 
 to Athlone and Limerick, and were now joined by their officers, 
 and so brought again into some order ; but the main concern 
 was to put the transport fleet in a safe station ; and that could 
 not be had till the King was master of Waterford and Dun- 
 cannon Fort, which commanded the entrance into the river. 
 Both these places capitulated, and the transports were brought 
 thither. But they were not now so much in danger as the 
 King had reason to apprehend; for King James, when he 
 sailed away from Duncannon, was forced by contrary winds to 
 go into the road of Kinsale, where he found some French 
 frigates that were already come to burn our fleet. He told 
 them it was now too late all was lost in Ireland. So he 
 carried them back to convoy him over to France, where 
 he had but a cold reception ; for the miscarriage of affairs in 
 Ireland was imputed both to his ill conduct and his want of 
 courage. He fell under much contempt of the people of France ; 
 only that King continued still to behave himself decently towards 
 him. 
 
 The King sent his army towards the Shannon, and he him 
 self came to Dublin, intending, as he was advised, to go over 
 to England ; but he found there letters of another strain. 
 Things were in so good a posture, and so quiet in England, 
 that they were no more in any apprehension of a descent ; so 
 the King went back to his army, and marched towards 
 Limerick. Upon this Lauzun, who commanded the French, 
 left the town, and sent his equipage to France, which perished 
 in the Shannon. It was hoped that Limerick, seeing itself 
 thus abandoned, would have followed the example of other 
 towns, and have capitulated. Upon that confidence the King 
 marched towards it, though his army was now much diminished. 
 He had left many garrisons in several places, and had sent 
 some of his best bodies over to England, so that he had not 
 now above twenty thousand men altogether. Limerick lies on 
 
 M 2
 
 33 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 both sides of the Shannon, and on an island that the river 
 makes there. The Irish were yet in great numbers in 
 Connaught ; so that, unless they had been shut up on that 
 side, it was easy to send in a constant supply both of men and 
 provisions. Nor did it seem advisable to undertake the siege 
 of a place so situated with so small an army, especially in that 
 season, in which it used to rain long, and by that means both 
 the Shannon would swell, and the ground, which was the best 
 soil of Ireland, would be apt to become deep, and scarce 
 practicable for carriages. Yet the cowardice of the Irish, the 
 consternation they were in, and their being abandoned by the 
 French, made the King resolve to sit down before it. Their 
 outworks might have been defended for some time ; but they 
 abandoned these in so much disorder, that it was from hence 
 believed they would not hold out long. They also abandoned 
 the posts which they had on the other side of the Shannon, 
 upon which the King passed the river, which was then very 
 low, and viewed these posts ; but he had not men to maintain 
 them, so he continued to press the town on the Munster 
 side. 
 
 He sent for some more ammunition and some great guns. 
 They had only a guard of two troops of horse to convoy them, 
 who despised the Irish so much, and thought they were at such 
 distance, that they set their horses to grass, and went to bed. 
 Sarsfield, one of the best officers of the Irish, heard that the 
 King rode about very carelessly, and upon that had got a small 
 body of resolute men together, on design to seize his person ; 
 but now, hearing of this convoy, he resolved to cut it off. The 
 King had advertisement of this brought him in time, and 
 ordered some more troops to be sent to secure the convoy. 
 They, either through treachery or carelessness, did not march 
 till it was night, though their orders were for the morning ; but 
 they came a few hours too late. Sarsfield surprised the party, 
 destroyed the ammunition, broke the carriages, and burst one 
 of the guns, and so marched off. Lanier, whom the King had 
 sent with the party, might have overtaken him ; but the general 
 observation made of him (and of most of those officers who 
 had served King James, and were now on the King's side) was, 
 that they had a greater mind to make themselves rich by the 
 continuance of the war of Ireland, than their master great and 
 safe by the speedy conclusion of it. 
 
 By this the King lost a week, and his ammunition was low ; 
 fur a great supply that was put on shipboard in the river
 
 William and Mary 331 
 
 Thames before the King left London still remained there, the 
 French being masters of the Channel. Yet the King pressed 
 the town so hard, that the trenches were run up to the counter 
 scarp, and when they came to lodge there, the Irish ran back 
 so fast at a breach that the cannon had made, that a body of 
 the King's men ran in after them, and if they had been 
 seconded, the town had been immediately taken. But none 
 came in time, so they retired; and though the King sent another 
 body, yet they were beaten back with loss. As it now began 
 to rain, the King saw that if he stayed longer there, he must 
 leave his great artillery behind him. He went into the trenches 
 every day, and it was thought he exposed himself too much. 
 His tent was pitched within the reach of their cannon. They 
 shot often over it, and beat down a tent very near it ; so he 
 was prevailed on to let it be removed to a greater distance. 
 Once, upon receiving a packet from England, he sat down 
 in the open field for some hours, reading his letters, while 
 the cannon-balls were flying round about him. The Irish 
 fired well, and showed they had some courage when they 
 were behind walls, how little soever they had shown in the 
 field. 
 
 The King lay three weeks before Limerick ; but at last the 
 rains forced him to raise the siege. They within did not offer 
 to sally out and disorder the retreat. This last action, proving 
 unlucky, had much damped the joy that was raised by the first 
 success of this campaign. The King expressed a great equality 
 of temper upon the various accidents that happened at this 
 time. Dr. Hutton, his first physician, who took care to be 
 always near him, told me he had observed his behaviour very 
 narrowly upon two very different occasions. 
 
 The one was, after the return from the victory at the Boyne, 
 when it was almost midnight, after he had been seventeen 
 hours in constant fatigue, with all the stiffness that his wound 
 gave him, he expressed neither joy nor any sort of vanity; 
 only he looked cheerful ; and when those about him made such 
 compliments as will be always made to princes, even though 
 they do not deserve them, he put all that by with such an 
 unaffected neglect, that it appeared how much soever he might 
 deserve the acknowledgments that were made him, yet he did 
 not like them. And this was so visible to all about him, that 
 they soon saw that the way to make their court was neither to 
 talk of his wound, nor of his behaviour on that day. As soon as 
 he saw his physician, he ordered him to see that care should be
 
 33 2 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 taken of the wounded men, and he named the prisoners as well 
 as his own soldiers. And though he had great reason to be 
 offended with Hamilton, who had been employed to treat with 
 the Earl of Tyrconnel, and was taken prisoner in his sight, and 
 was preserved by his order, yet, since he saw he was wounded, 
 he gave particular directions to look after him. Upon the 
 whole matter the King was as grave and silent as he used to 
 be, and the joy of a day that had been both so happy and so 
 glorious to him did not seem to alter his temper or deportment 
 in any way. 
 
 He told me he was also near him when it was resolved to 
 raise the siege of Limerick, and saw the same calm, without 
 the least depression, disorder, or peevishness. From this he 
 concluded that either his mind was so happily balanced, that 
 no accident could put it out of that situation ; or that, if he had 
 commotions within, he had a very extraordinary command over 
 his temper, in restraining or concealing them. 
 
 While he lay before Limerick he had news from England 
 that our fleet was now out, and that the French were gone to 
 Brest ; so, since we were masters of the sea, the Earl of Marl- 
 borough proposed that five thousand men who had lain idle all 
 this summer in England should be sent to Ireland, and, with 
 the assistance of such men as the King should order to join 
 them, they should try to take Cork and Kinsale. The King 
 approved of this, and ordered the Earl to come over with them, 
 and he left orders for about five thousand more who were to 
 join him. And so he broke up this campaign, and came over 
 to Bristol, and from thence to London. The contrary winds 
 stopped the Earl of Marlborough so, that it was October before 
 he got to Ireland. He soon took Cork by storm, and four 
 thousand men that lay there in garrison were made prisoners 
 of war. In this action the Duke of Grafton received a shot, 
 of which he died in a few days. He was the more lamented 
 as being the person of all King Charles's children of whom 
 there was the greatest hope ; he was brave, and probably would 
 have become a great man at sea. From Cork the Earl of 
 Marlborough marched to Kinsale, where he found the two 
 forts that commanded the port to be so much stronger than 
 the plans represented them to be, that he told me, if he had 
 known their true strength, he had never undertaken the expedi 
 tion in a season so far advanced ; yet in a few days the place 
 capitulated. The Irish drew their forces together, but durst 
 not venture on raising the siege ; but, to divert it, they set the
 
 William and Mary 333 
 
 country about, which was the best built of any in Ireland, all in 
 a flame. 
 
 Thus those two important places were reduced in a very 
 bad season, and with very little loss, which cut off the quick 
 communications between France and Ireland. Count Lauzun, 
 with the French troops, lay all this while about Galway, without 
 attempting anything. He sent over to France an account of 
 the desperate state of their affairs, and desired ships might 
 be sent for the transport of their forces. That was done; 
 yet the ships came not till the siege of Limerick was raised. 
 Probably, if the Court of France knew how much the state 
 of affairs was altered, they would have sent contrary orders; 
 but Lauzun was weary of the service, and was glad to get out 
 of it ; so he sailed away, without staying for new orders, by 
 which he lost the little reputation that he was beginning to 
 recover at the Court of France. The Earl of Tyrconnel went 
 over with him, and gave full assurances that though the Irish 
 were likely to suffer great hardships next winter, yet they would 
 stand it out, if they were still supported from France. It had 
 appeared on many occasions that the French and the Irish soldiers 
 did not agree well together ; therefore, he proposed that no more 
 soldiers, but only a number of good officers, together with arms, 
 ammunition, and clothes, might be sent over to them. In the 
 meanwhile the Irish formed themselves into many bodies, which, 
 by a new name, were called Rapparees. These, knowing all 
 the ways, and the bogs, and other places of retreat in Ireland, 
 and being favoured by the Irish that had submitted to the King, 
 robbed and burned houses in many places of the country ; while 
 the King's army studied their own ease in their quarters more 
 than the protection of the inhabitants. Many of them were sus 
 pected of robbing in their turn, though the Rapparees carried 
 the blame of all. Between them, the poor inhabitants had a 
 sad time, and their stock of cattle and corn was almost entirely 
 destroyed in many places. 
 
 The House of Commons passed a vote to raise a million of 
 money out of the forfeitures and confiscations in Ireland ; and 
 in order to that, they passed a bill of attainder of all those who 
 had been engaged in the rebellion of Ireland, and appropriated 
 the confiscations to the raising a fund for defraying the expense 
 of the present war ; only they left a power to the King to grant 
 away a third part of those confiscated estates to such as had 
 served in the war. and to give such articles and capitulations to 
 those who were in arms as he should think fit. Upon this bill
 
 334 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 many petitions were offered, the creditors of some, and the 
 heirs of others, who had continued faithful to the Government, 
 desired provisos for their security. The Commons, seeing that 
 there was no end of petitions for such provisos, rejected them 
 all, imitating in this too much the mock parliament that King 
 James held in Dublin, in which about three thousand persons 
 were attainted without proof or process, only because some of 
 them were gone over to England, and others were absconding, 
 or informed against in Ireland. But when this bill was brought 
 up to the Lords, they thought they were in justice bound to 
 hear all petitions. Upon this the bill was likely to be clogged 
 with many provisos, and the matter must have held long ; so the 
 King, to stop this, sent a message to the Commons ; and he spoke 
 to the same purpose afterwards, from the throne, to both Houses. 
 He promised he would give no grants of any confiscated estates, 
 but would keep that matter entire, to the consideration of 
 another session of Parliament, by which the King intended 
 only to assure them that he would give none of those estates 
 to his courtiers or officers ; but he thought he was still at liberty 
 to pass such acts of grace, or grant such articles to the Irish, as 
 the state of his affairs should require. 
 
 There were no important debates in the House of Lords. 
 The Earl of Torrington's business held them long ; the form 
 of his commitment was judged to be illegal ; and the martial 
 law, to which, by the statute, all who served in the fleet were 
 subject, being lodged in the Lord High Admiral, it was 
 doubted whether, the Admiralty being now in commission, that 
 power was lodged with the Commissioners. The judges were 
 of opinion that it was ; yet, since the power of life and death 
 was too sacred a thing to pass only by a construction of law, it 
 was thought the safest course to pass an act declaring that the 
 powers of a Lord High Admiral did vest in the Commissioners. 
 The secret enemies of the Government, who intended to 
 embroil matters, moved that the Earl of Torrington should 
 be impeached in Parliament. Proceedings in that way being 
 always slow, incidents were also apt to fall in that might create 
 disputes between the two Houses, which did sometimes end in 
 a rupture ; but the King was apprehensive of that, and though 
 he was much incensed against that lord, and had reason to 
 believe that a council of war would treat him very favourably, 
 yet he chose rather to let it go so than to disorder his affairs. 
 The Commissioners of the Admiralty named a court to try 
 him, who did it with so gross a partiality, that it reflected much
 
 William and Mary 335 
 
 on the justice of the nation ; so that, if it had not been for 
 the great interest the King had in the States, it might have 
 occasioned a breach of the alliance between them and us. He 
 came off safe as to his person and estate, but much loaded in 
 his reputation ; some charging him with want of courage, while 
 others imputed his ill conduct to a haughty sullenness of 
 temper that made him, since orders were sent him contrary 
 to the advices he had given, to resolve indeed to obey them, 
 and fight ; but in such a manner as should cast the blame on 
 those who had sent him the orders, and give them cause to 
 repent of it. 
 
 The King had suffered the deprived bishops to continue 
 now above a year at their sees ; frieY all the while neglected 
 the concerns of the Church, doing nothing, but living privately 
 in their palaces. I had, by the Queen's order, moved both the 
 Earl of Rochester and Sir John Trevor, who had great credit 
 with them, to try whether, in case an act could be obtained to 
 excuse them from taking the oaths, they would go on, and do 
 their functions in ordinations, institutions, and confirmations, 
 and assist at the public worship, as formerly ; but they would 
 give no answer ; only they said they would live quietly, that is, 
 keep themselves close, till a proper time should encourage 
 them to act more openly. So all the thoughts of this kind 
 were upon that laid aside. One of the most considerable men 
 of the party, Dr. Sherlock, upon King James's going out to 
 Ireland, thought that this gave the present Government a 
 thorough settlement ; and in that case he thought it lawful to 
 take the oaths, and upon that not only took them himself, but 
 publicly justified what he had done, upon which he was most 
 severely libelled by those from whom he withdrew. The 
 discovery of the Bishop of Ely's correspondence and engage 
 ment in the name of the rest gave the King a great ad 
 vantage in filling those vacant sees, which he resolved to 
 do upon his return from Congress, to which he went over in 
 January. 
 
 In his way he ran a very great hazard. When he got within 
 the Maese, so that it was thought two hours' rowing would 
 bring him to land, being weary of the sea, he went into an 
 open boat with some of his lords, but by mists and storms he 
 was tossed up and down above sixteen hours before he got safe 
 to land. Yet neither he nor any of those who were with him 
 were the worse for all this cold and wet weather. And when 
 the seamen seemed very apprehensive of their danger, the king
 
 336 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 said in a very intrepid manner, "What! are you afraid to die 
 in my company ? " 
 
 To return to the Low Countries : the King of France 
 resolved to break off the conferences at the Hague, by giving 
 the alarm of an early campaign ; Mons was besieged ; and the 
 King came before it in person. It was thereupon given up as 
 a lost place ; for the French ministers had laid that down 
 among their chief maxims, that their King was never to under 
 take anything in his own person but where he was sure of 
 success. The King broke up the Congress, and drew a great 
 army very soon together ; and if the town had held out so long, 
 as they might well have done, or if the Governor of Flanders 
 had performed what he undertook, of furnishing carriages to 
 the army, the King would either have raised the siege, or 
 forced the French to a battle. But some priests had been 
 gained by the French, who laboured so effectually among the 
 townsmen, who were almost as strong as the garrison, that they 
 at last forced the Governor to capitulate. Upon that, both 
 armies went into quarters of refreshment, and the King came 
 over again to England for a few weeks. 
 
 He gave all necessary orders for the campaign in Ireland, in 
 which Ginkell had the chief command. Russell had the 
 command of the fleet, which was soon ready, and well manned. 
 The Dutch squadron came over in good time. The proportion 
 of the quota settled between England and the States was, that 
 we were to furnish five, and they three ships of equal rates and 
 strength. 
 
 The next thing the King did was to fill the sees vacant by 
 deprivation. He judged right that it was of great consequence, 
 both to his service and to the interests of religion, to have 
 Canterbury well filled ; for the rest would turn upon that. By 
 the choice he was to make, all the nation would see whether 
 he intended to go on with his first design of moderating 
 matters and healing our breaches, or if he would go into the 
 passions and humours of a high party, that seemed to court 
 him as abjectly as they inwardly hated him. Ur. Tillotson had 
 been now well known to him for two years ; his soft and pru 
 dent counsels, and his zeal for his service, had begotten, both 
 in the King and Queen, a high and just opinion of him. They 
 had both, for above a year, pressed him to come into this post, 
 and he had struggled against it with great earnestness : as he 
 had no ambition nor aspiring in his temper, so he foresaw what 
 a scene of trouble and slander he must enter on, now in the
 
 William and Mary 337 
 
 decline of his age. The prejudices that the Jacobites would 
 possess all people with, for his coming into the room of one 
 whom they call a confessor, and who began now to have the 
 public compassion on his side, were well foreseen by him. He 
 also apprehended the continuance of that heat and aversion 
 that a violent party had always expressed towards him, though 
 he had not only avoided to provoke any of them, but had upon 
 all occasions done the chief of them great services as often as 
 it was in his power. He had large principles, and was free 
 from superstition; his zeal had been chiefly against atheism 
 and Popery ; but he had never showed much sharpness against 
 Dissenters. He had lived in a good correspondence with many 
 of them ; he had brought several over to the Church by the 
 force of reason, and the softness of persuasion and good usage; 
 but was a declared enemy to violence and severities on those 
 heads. Among other prejudices against him, one related to 
 myself: he and I had lived, for many years, in a close and 
 strict friendship ; he laid before the King all the ill effects that, 
 as he thought, the promoting him would have on his own 
 service; but all this had served only to increase the King's 
 esteem of him, and fix him in his purpose. 
 
 The Bishop of Ely's letters to St. Germain gave so fair an., 
 occasion of filling those sees at this time, that the King resolved 
 to lay hold on it ; and Tillotson, with great uneasiness to him 
 self, submitted to the King's command ; and soon after, the see 
 of York falling void, Dr. Sharp was promoted to it : so those 
 two sees were filled with the best two preachers that had sat in 
 them in our time, only Sharp did not know the world so well, 
 and was not so steady as Tillotson was. Dr. Patrick was 
 advanced to Ely, Dr. Moore was made Bishop of Norwich, 
 Dr. Cumberland was made Bishop of Peterborough, Dr. Fowler 
 was made Bishop of Gloucester, Ironside was promoted to Here 
 ford, Grove to Chichester, and Hall to Bristol ; as Hough, the 
 President of Magdalen's, was the year before this made Bishop 
 of Oxford. So that in two years' time the King had named 
 fifteen bishops ; and they were generally looked on as the 
 most learned, the wisest, and best men that were in the 
 Church. 
 
 As soon as this was over, the King went back to command 
 his army in Flanders. Both armies were now making haste to 
 take the field. But the French were quicker than the con 
 federates had yet learned to be. Prince Waldeck had not got 
 above eighteen thousand men together, when Luxemburg,
 
 338 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 with an army of forty thousand men, was marching to have sur 
 prised Brussels ; and at the same time Boufflers, with another 
 army, came up to Liege. Waldeck posted his army so well that 
 Luxemburg, believing it stronger than indeed it was, did not 
 attempt to break through, in which it was believed he might 
 have succeeded. The King hastened the rest of the troops, and 
 came himself to the army in good time, not only to cover 
 Brussels, but to send a detachment to the relief of Liege, which 
 had been bombarded for two days. A body of Germans, as 
 well as that which the King sent to them, came in good time to 
 support those of Liege, who were beginning to think of capitu 
 lating. So Boufflers drew off; and the French kept themselves 
 so close in their posts all the rest of the campaign, that though 
 the King made many motions, to try if it was possible to bring 
 them to a battle, yet he could not do it. 
 
 Matters went on at sea with the same caution. Dunkirk was 
 for some time blocked up by a squadron of ours. The great 
 fleet went to find out the French, but they had orders to avoid 
 an engagement, and though for the space of two months Russell 
 did all he could to come up to them, yet they still kept at a 
 distance, and sailed off in the night ; so that though he was 
 sometimes in view of them, yet he lost it next day. The trading 
 part of the nation was very apprehensive of the danger the 
 Smyrna fleet might be in, in which the Dutch and English 
 effects together were valued at four millions ; for though they 
 had a great convoy, yet the French fleet stood out to intercept 
 them ; but they got safe into Kinsale. The season went over 
 without any action ; and Russell, at the end of it, came into 
 Plymouth in a storm, which was much censured, for that road 
 is not safe, and two considerable ships were lost upon the 
 occasion. Great factions were among the flag officers ; and no 
 other service was done by this great equipment but that our 
 trade was maintained. 
 
 But while we had no success either in Flanders or at sea, we 
 were more happy in Ireland, even beyond expectation. The 
 campaign was opened with the taking of Baltimore, on which 
 the Irish had wrought much, that Athlone might be covered by 
 it. We took it in one day, and the garrison had only ammu 
 nition for a day more. St. Ruth, one of the most violent of all 
 the persecutors of the Protestants in France, was sent over with 
 two hundred officers to command the Irish army. This first 
 action reflected on his conduct, who left a thousand men with 
 so slender a provision of ammunition that they were all made
 
 William and Mary 339 
 
 prisoners of war. From thence Ginkell advanced to Athlone, 
 where St. Ruth was posted on the other side of the Shannon, 
 with an army in number equal to his. The river was deep, but 
 fordable in several places. The castle was soon turned to a ruin 
 by the cannon ; but the passing the river in the face of an 
 enemy was no easy thing, the ford being so narrow that they 
 could not pass above twenty in front. Parties were sent out to 
 try other fords, which probably made the enemy imagine that 
 they never intended to pass the river just under the town, where 
 the ford was both deep and narrow. Talmash, a general officer, 
 moved that two battalions might have guineas apiece to en 
 courage them ; and he offered to march over at the head of 
 them, which was presently executed by Mackay with so much 
 resolution, that many ancient officers said it was the most gallant 
 action they had ever seen. They passed the river and went 
 through the breaches into the town, with the loss only of fifty 
 men, having killed above a thousand of the enemy ; and yet 
 they spared all that asked quarter. St. Ruth did not upon this 
 occasion act suitably to the reputation he had formerly acquired ; 
 he retired to Aghrim, where he posted himself to great advan 
 tage, and was much superior to Ginkell in number ; for he had 
 abandoned many small garrisons to increase his army, which 
 was now twenty-eight thousand strong, whereas Ginkell had 
 not above twenty thousand ; so that the attacking him was no 
 advisable thing, if the courage of the English and the cowardice 
 of the Irish had not made a difference so considerable as 
 neither numbers nor posts could balance. 
 
 St. Ruth had indeed taken the most effectual way possible to 
 infuse courage into the Irish. He had sent their priests about 
 among them to animate them by all the methods they could 
 think of; and, as the most powerful of all others, they made 
 them swear on the sacrament that they would never forsake 
 their colours. This had a good effect on them ; for as, when 
 Ginkell fell on them, they had a great bog before them, and the 
 grounds on both sides were very favourable to them, with those 
 advantages they maintained their ground much longer than 
 they had been accustomed to do. They disputed the matter so 
 obstinately, that for about two hours the action was very hot, 
 and every battalion and squadron on both sides had a share in 
 it. But nature will be always too strong for art ; the Irish in 
 conclusion trusted more to their heels than to their hands ; the 
 foot threw down their arms and ran away. St. Ruth and many 
 more officers were killed, and about eight thousand soldiers and
 
 34-Q Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 all their cannon and baggage were taken, so that it was a 
 total defeat ; only the night favoured a body of horse that got 
 off. From thence Ginkell advanced to Galway, which capitu 
 lated ; so that now Limerick was the only place that stood out. 
 A squadron of ships was sent to shut up the river. In the 
 meanwhile, the Lords Justices issued out a new proclamation, 
 with an offer of life and estate to such as within a fortnight 
 should come under the King's protection. 
 
 Ginkell pursued his advantages ; and, having reduced all 
 Connaught, he came and sat down before Limerick, and bom 
 barded it. But that had no great effect ; and though most of 
 the houses were beaten down, yet as long as the Connaught side 
 was open, fresh men and provisions were still brought into the 
 place. When the men-of-war were come up near the town, 
 Ginkell sent over a part of his army to the Connaught side, who 
 fell upon some bodies of the Irish that lay there and broke 
 them, and pursued them so close, as they retired to Limerick, 
 that the French governor, D'Usson, fearing that the English 
 would have come in with them, drew up the bridge, so that 
 many of them were killed and drowned. This contributed 
 very much towards heightening the prejudices that the Irish 
 had against the French. The latter were so inconsiderable, 
 that if Sarsfield and some of the Irish had not joined with 
 them, they could not have made their party good. The Earl 
 of Tyrconnel had, with a particular view, studied to divert the 
 French from sending over soldiers into Ireland; for he designed, 
 in case of new misfortunes, to treat with the King, and to 
 preserve himself and his friends ; and now he began to dispose 
 the Irish to think of treating, since they saw that otherwise 
 their ruin was inevitable. But as soon as this was suspected, all 
 the military men, who resolved to give themselves up entirely 
 to the French interest, combined against him, and blasted 
 him as a feeble and false man who was not to be trusted. 
 This was carried so far that, to avoid affronts, he was advised 
 to leave the army ; and he stayed all this summer at Limerick, 
 where he died of grief, as was believed ; but, before he died, 
 he advised all that came to him not to let things go to extremi 
 ties, but to accept of such terms as could be got ; and his 
 words seemed to weigh more after his death than in his life 
 time, for the Irish began generally to say that they must take 
 care of themselves, and not be made sacrifices to serve the 
 ends of the French. This was much heightened by the 
 slaughter of the Irish whom the French governor had shut out
 
 William and Mary 341 
 
 and left to perish. They wanted no provisions in Limerick ; 
 and a squadron of French ships stood over to that coast, which 
 was much stronger than ours that had sailed up to the town. 
 So it was to be feared that they might come into the river to 
 destroy our ships. 
 
 To hinder that, another squadron of English men-of-war was 
 ordered thither. Yet the French did not think fit to venture 
 their ships within the Shannon, where they had no places of 
 shelter; the misunderstanding that daily grew between the 
 Irish and the French was great ; and all appearance of relief 
 from France failing, made them resolve to capitulate. This 
 was very welcome to Ginkell and his army, who began to be 
 in great wants ; for that country was quite wasted, having 
 been the seat of war for three years ; and all their draught 
 horses were so wearied out that their camp was often ill 
 supplied. 
 
 When they came to capitulate, the Irish insisted on very high 
 demands, which were set on by the French, who hoped they 
 would be rejected ; but the King had given Ginkell secret 
 directions that he should grant all the demands they could make 
 that would put an end to that war, so everything was granted, 
 to the great disappointment of the French, and the no small 
 grief of some of the English, who hoped this war would have 
 ended in the total ruin of the Irish interest. During the 
 treaty, a saying of Sarsfield's deserves to be remembered, for it 
 was much talked of all Europe over. He asked some of the 
 English officers if they had not come to a better opinion of 
 the Irish by their behaviour during this war; and whereas 
 they said it was much the same that it had always been, Sars- 
 field answered, "As low as we now are, change but kings with 
 us, and we will fight it over again with you." Those of Limerick 
 treated not only for themselves, but for all the rest of their 
 countrymen that were yet in arms. They were all indemnified 
 and restored to all that they had enjoyed in King Charles's 
 time. They were also admitted to all the privileges of subjects, 
 upon their taking the oaths of allegiance to their Majesties, s. 
 without being bound to take the_oath_of supremacy. Not only 
 the French, but as many of the Irish as had a mind to go over 
 to France, had free liberty and a safe transportation ; and upon 
 that about twelve thousand of them went over. And thus 
 ended the war of Ireland ; and with that our civil war came to 
 a final end. 
 
 There was at this time a very barbarous massacre committed
 
 342 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 in Scotland, which showed both the cruelty and the treachery 
 of some of those who had unhappily insinuated themselves into 
 the King's confidence. The Earl of Breadalbane formed a 
 scheme of quieting all the Highlanders, if the King would give 
 twelve or fifteen thousand pounds for doing it, which was 
 remitted down from England. And this was to be divided 
 among the heads of the tribes or clans of the Highlanders. He 
 employed his emissaries among them, and told them the best 
 service they could do King James was to lie quiet, and reserve 
 themselves to a better time ; and if they would take the oaths, 
 the King would be contented with that, and they were to have 
 a share of this sum that was sent down to buy their quiet. 
 But this came to nothing ; their demands rose high ; they 
 knew this lord had money to distribute among them ; they 
 believed he intended to keep the best part of it to himself; so 
 they asked more than he could give. Among the most clamor 
 ous and obstinate of these were the Macdonalds of Glencoe, 
 who were believed guilty of much robbery and many murders, 
 and so had gained too much by their pilfering war to be easily 
 brought to give it over. The head of that valley had so 
 particularly provoked Lord Breadalbane, that, as his scheme 
 was quite defeated by the opposition that he raised, so he 
 designed a severe revenge. The King had, by a proclamation, 
 offered an indemnity to all the Highlanders that had been in 
 arms against him, upon their coming in, by a prefixed day, to 
 take the oaths : the day had been twice or thrice prolonged, 
 and it was at last carried to the end of the year i6ojfrith a 
 positive threatening of proceeding to military execution against 
 such as should not come into his obedience by the last day of 
 December. 
 
 All were so terrified that they came in; and even that 
 Macdonald went to the governor of Fort William on .the, last 
 of December, and offered to_ take the oaths ; but he, being 
 OTriy a military man, could not, or would not, tender them, 
 and Macdonald was forced to seek for some of the legal 
 magistrates to tender them to him. The snows were then 
 fallen ; so four or five days passed before he could come to a 
 magistrate. He took the oaths in his presence on the 4th or 
 5th of January, when, by the strictness of law, he could claim 
 no benefit by it. The matter was signified to the Council, and 
 the person had a reprimand for giving him the oaths when the 
 day was past. 
 
 This was kept from the King ; and the Earl of Breadalbane
 
 William and Mary 343 
 
 came to Court to give an account of his diligence, and to bring 
 back the money, since he could not do the service for which he 
 had it. He informed against this Macdonald, as the chief 
 person who had defeated that good design, and that he might 
 both gratify his own revenge and render the King odious to all 
 the Highlanders, he proposed that orders should be sent for a 
 military execution on those of Glencoe. An instruction was 
 drawn by the Secretary of State, Lord Stair, to be both signed 
 and countersigned by the King (that so he might bear no part 
 of the blame, but that it might lie wholly on the King), that 
 such as had not taken the oaths by the time limited should be 
 shut out of the benefit of the indemnity, and be received only 
 upon mercy. But wITeh IF was found that this would not 
 authorise what was intended, a second order was got to be 
 signed and countersigned, that if the Glencoe men could be 
 separated from the rest of the Highlanders, some examples 
 might be made of them, in order to strike terror into the rest. 
 The King signed this without any inquiry about it ; for he was 
 too apt to sign papers in a hurry, without examining the im 
 portance of them. This was one effect of his slowness in 
 dispatching business ; for, as he was apt to suffer things to run 
 on till there was a great heap of papers laid before him, so then 
 he signed them a little too precipitately. But all this while the 
 King knew nothing of Macdonald's offering to take the oaths 
 within the time, nor of his having taJf pn thpm snnn after it was " 
 past, when he came to a proper magistrate. As these orders 
 were sent down, the Secretary of State wrote many private 
 letters to Livingstone, who commanded in Scotland, giving him 
 a strict charge and particular directions for the execution of 
 them ; and he ordered the passes in the valley to be kept, 
 describing them so minutely, that the orders were certainly 
 drawn by one who knew the country well. He gave also 
 a positive direction that no prisoners should be taken, that 
 so the execution might be as terrible as was possible. He 
 pressed this upon Livingstone with strains of vehemence that 
 looked as if there was something more than ordinary in it : 
 he indeed grounded it on his zeal for the King's service, 
 adding that such rebels and murderers should be made 
 examples of. 
 
 In February a company were sent to Glencoe, who were 
 kindly received and quartered over the valley ; the inhabitants 
 thinking themselves safe, and looking for no hostilities. After 
 they had stayed a week among them, they took their time in the
 
 344 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 night and killed about six-and-thirty of them, the rest taking 
 the alarm and escaping. This raised a mighty outcry, and was 
 published by the French in their gazettes, and by the Jacobites 
 in their libels, to cast a reproach on the King's government as 
 cruel and barbarous, though in all other instances it had 
 appeared that his own inclinations were gentle and mild rather 
 to an excess. The King sent orders to inquire into the matter ; 
 but when the letters written upon this business were all 
 examined, which I myself read, it appeared that so many 
 were involved in the matter, that the King's gentleness pre- 
 vailed on him to a fault, and he contented himself with dis 
 missing only the Master of Stair from his service. The High 
 landers were so inflamed with this, that they were put in as 
 forward a disposition as the Jacobites could wish for to have 
 rebelled upon the first favourable opportunity ; and indeed the 
 not punishing this with a due rigour was the greatest blot in 
 this whole reign, and had a very great effect in alienating that 
 nation from the King and his government. 
 
 An incident happened near the end of this session that had 
 very ill effects, which I unwillingly mention, because it cannot 
 be told without some reflections on the memory of the Queen, 
 whom I always honoured beyond all the persons I had ever 
 known. The Earl of Nottingham came to the Earl of Marl- 
 borough with a message from the King, telling him that he had 
 no more use for his services, and therefore he demanded all 
 his commissions. What drew so sudden and so hard a message 
 was not known ; for he had been with the King that morning, 
 and had parted with him in the ordinary manner. It seemed 
 some letter was intercepted, which gave suspicion : it is certain 
 that he thought he was too little considered, and that he had 
 upon many occasions censured the King's conduct, and reflected 
 on the Dutch. But the original cause of his disgrace arose from 
 another consideration : the Princess Anne thought herself too 
 much neglected by the King, whose cold way towards her was 
 soon observed. After the King was on the throne, no proposi 
 tions were made to her of a settlement, nor any advances of 
 money. So she, thinking she was to be kept in a necessitous 
 dependence on the Court, got some one to move in the House 
 of Commons, in the year 1690, when they were in the debate 
 concerning the revenue, that she should have assignments 
 suitable to her dignity. This both King and Queen took amiss 
 from her. The Queen complained more particularly that she 
 was ill after the lying-in of the Duke of Gloucester at Hampton
 
 William and Mary 345 
 
 Court, and that she herself was treating her and the young 
 child with the tenderness of a mother, and that yet such a 
 motion was made before she had tried, in a private way, what 
 the King intended to assign her. The Princess, on the other 
 hand, said she knew the Queen was a good wife, submissive 
 and obedient to everything that the King desired ; so she 
 thought the best way was to have a settlement by Act of Parlia 
 ment. On the other hand, the custom had always been that 
 the royal family (a Prince of Wales not excepted) was kept in 
 a dependence on the King, and had no allowance but from his 
 mere favour and kindness ; yet in this case, in which the 
 Princess was put out of the succession during the King's life, 
 it seemed reasonable that somewhat more than ordinary should 
 be done in consideration of that. The act passed, allowing her 
 a settlement of ^"50,000. But upon this a coldness followed 
 between not only the King, but even the Queen and the 
 Princess. And the blame of this motion was cast on the 
 Countess of Marlborough, as most in favour with the Princess ; 
 and this had contributed much to alienate the King from her 
 husband, and had disposed him to receive ill impressions of 
 him. 
 
 Upon his disgrace, his lady was forbidden the Court. The 
 Princess would not submit to this ; she thought she ought to 
 be allowed to keep what persons she pleased about herself ; 
 and when the Queen insisted on the thing, she retired from the 
 Court. There were, no doubt, ill offices done on all hands, as 
 there were some that pressed the Princess to submit to the 
 Queen, as well as others who pressed the Queen to pass it 
 over, but without effect. Both had engaged themselves before 
 they had well reflected on the consequences of such a breach, 
 and the matter went so far that the Queen ordered that no 
 public honours should be shown the Princess, besides many 
 other lesser matters, which I unwillingly reflect on, because I 
 was much troubled to see the Queen carry such a matter so 
 far ; and the breach continued to the end of her life. The 
 enemies of the Government tried what could be made of this 
 to create distractions among us ; but the Princess gave no 
 encouragement to them, so that the misunderstanding had no 
 other effect but that it gave enemies much ill-natured joy and 
 a secret spiteful diversion. 
 
 The King gave Russell the command of the fleet, though he 
 had put himself on ill terms with him, by pressing to know the 
 grounds of the Earl of Marlborough's disgrace. He had not
 
 346 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 only lived in great friendship with him, but had carried the 
 first messages that had passed between him and the King when 
 he went over to Holland : he almost upbraided the King with 
 the Earl of Marlborough's services, who, as he said, had set 
 the crown on his head. Russell also came to be on ill terms 
 with the Earl of Nottingham, who, as he thought, supported a 
 faction among the flag officers against him ; and he fell indeed 
 into so ill a humour on many accounts, that he seemed to 
 be for some time in doubt whether he ought to undertake 
 the command of the fleet or not. I tried, at the desire of 
 some of his friends, to soften him a little, but without 
 success. 
 
 The King went over to Holland in March to prepare for an 
 early campaign. He intimated somewhat in his speech to the 
 Parliament of a descent designed upon France ; but we had 
 neither men nor money to execute it. And, while we were 
 pleasing ourselves with the thoughts of a descent on France, 
 King James was preparing for a real one on England. It was 
 intended to be made in the end of April. He had about him 
 fourteen thousand English and Irish ; and Marshal Bellefonds 
 was to accompany him with about three thousand French. 
 They were to sail from Cherbourg and La Hogue, and some 
 other places in Normandy, and to land in Sussex, and from 
 thence to march with all haste to London. A transport fleet 
 was also brought thither. They were to bring over only a small 
 number of horses ; for their party in England undertook to 
 furnish them with horses at their landing. At the same time 
 the King of France was to march with a great army into 
 Flanders ; and he reckoned that the descent in England would 
 either have succeeded, since there was a very small force left 
 within the kingdom, or at least that it would have obliged the 
 King to come over with some of his English troops ; and in 
 that case, which way soever the war of England had ended, he 
 should have mastered Flanders, and so forced the States to 
 submit ; and in case other designs had failed, there was one in 
 reserve, managed by the French ministry and by Luxemburg, 
 of assassinating the King, which would have brought about all 
 their designs. The French King seemed to think the project 
 was so well laid that it could not miscarry ; for he said publicly, 
 before he set out, that he was going to make an end of the war. 
 In the beginning of May, about forty of our ships were on the 
 coast of Normandy, and were endeavouring to destroy their 
 transport ships, upon which orders were sent to Marshal
 
 William and Mary 347 
 
 Tourville to sail to the Channel and fight the English fleet. 
 They had a westerly wind to bring them within the Channel ; 
 but then the wind struck into the east, and stood so long there, 
 that it both brought over the Dutch fleet and brought about 
 our great ships. By this means our whole fleet was joined, 
 so that Tourville's design of getting between the several 
 squadrons that composed it was lost. The King of France, 
 being then in Flanders, upon this change of wind sent orders 
 to Tourville not to fight ; yet the vessel that carried these was 
 taken, and the duplicate of these orders, that was sent by 
 another conveyance, came not to him till the day after the 
 engagement. 
 
 On the i gth of May, Russell came up with the French, and 
 was almost twice their number ; yet not above the half of his 
 ships could be brought into action by reason of the winds. 
 Rooke, one of his admirals, was thought more in fault. The 
 number of the ships that engaged was almost equal. Our men 
 said that the French neither showed courage nor skill in the 
 action. The night and a fog separated the two fleets, after an 
 engagement that had lasted some hours. The greatest part of 
 the French ships drew near their coasts ; but Russell not casting 
 anchor, as the French did, was carried out by the tide, so next 
 morning he was at some distance from them. A great part of 
 the French fleet sailed westward through a dangerous sea, called 
 the Race of Alderney. Ashby was sent to pursue them, and he 
 followed them some leagues; but then the pilots pretending 
 danger, he came back ; so twenty-six of them, whom if Ashby 
 had pursued, by all appearance, he had destroyed them all, got 
 into St. Male's. Russell came up to the French admiral and the 
 other ships that had drawn near their coasts. Delaval burnt 
 the admiral and his two seconds; and Rooke burnt sixteen 
 more before La Hogue. 
 
 The French succeeded in the siege of Namur, a place of great 
 importance, that commanded both the Maese and Sambre, and 
 covered both Liege and Maestricht. The town did soon 
 capitulate, but the citadel held out much longer. The King 
 came with a great army to raise the siege; Luxemburg lay 
 in his way with another to cover it, and the Mehaigne lay 
 between. The King intended to pass the river and force a 
 battle ; but such rains fell the night before he designed to do 
 it, and the river swelled so much, that he could not pass it for 
 some days. He tried by another motion to come and raise 
 the siege; but the town having capitulated so early, and the
 
 348 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 citadel lying on the other side of the Sambre, he could not 
 come at it ; so after a month's siege it was taken. This was 
 looked upon as the greatest action of the French King's life ; 
 that, notwithstanding the depression of such a defeat at sea, 
 he yet supported his measures so as to take that important 
 place in the view of a great army. The King's conduct was 
 on this occasion much censured ; it was said he ought to have 
 put much to hazard, rather than suffer such a place to be taken 
 in his sight. 
 
 After Namur surrendered, that King went back to Paris 
 in his usual method ; for, according to the old Persian luxury, 
 he used to bring the ladies with him, with the music, poems, 
 and scenes for an opera and a ball, in which he and his 
 actions were to be set out with the pomp of much flattery. 
 When this action was over, his forces lay on the defensive, and 
 both armies made some motions, watching and waiting on one 
 another. 
 
 At Steinkirk the King thought he had a favourable occasion 
 for attacking the French in their camp ; but the ground was 
 found to be narrower and less practicable than the King had 
 been made to believe it was. Ten battalions began the attack, 
 and carried a post with cannon, and maintained it long> doing 
 great execution on the enemy ; and if they had been supported 
 or brought it off, it would have proved a brave attempt, but they 
 were cut in pieces. In the whole action the French lost many 
 more men than the confederates did, for they came so thick 
 that our fire made great execution. The conduct of this affair 
 was much censured. It was said the ground ought to have 
 been better examined before the attack was begun, and the 
 men ought to have been better maintained than they were ; 
 for many thought that if this had been done we might have 
 had a total victory. Count Solmes bore the blame of the errors 
 committed on this occasion. The English had been sometimes 
 checked by him, as he was much disgusted with their heat and 
 pride ; so they charged all on him, who had some good qualities, 
 but did not manage them in an obliging manner. We lost in 
 this action about five thousand men, and many brave officers. 
 Here Mackay was killed, being ordered to a post that he saw 
 could not be maintained. He sent his opinion about it ; but 
 the former orders were confirmed ; so he went on, saying only, 
 " The will of the Lord be done." He was a man of such strict 
 principles, that he would not have served in a war that he did 
 not think lawful. He took great care of his soldiers' morals,
 
 William and Mary 349 
 
 and forced them to be both sober and just in their quarters ; 
 he spent all the time that he was master of in secret prayers, 
 and in reading of the Scriptures. The King often observed 
 that when he had full leisure for his devotions, he acted with 
 a peculiar exaltation of courage. He had one very singular 
 quality ; in councils of war he delivered his opinion freely, and 
 maintained it with due zeal ; but how positive soever he was in 
 it, if the council of war overruled, even though he was not con 
 vinced by it, yet to all others he justified it, and executed his 
 part with the same zeal as if his own opinion had prevailed. 
 After the action at Steinkirk there was little done this campaign. 
 A detachment that the King sent from his army, joined with 
 those bodies that came from England, broke in some way into 
 the French conquests ; they fortified Dixmude and Furnes, and 
 put the country about them under contribution, and became 
 very uneasy neighbours to Dunkirk. The command of those 
 places was given to the Count of Horn, who understood well 
 the way to make all possible advantages by contributions ; but 
 he was a man of no great worth, and of as little courage. This 
 disgusted the English still more, who said the Dutch were 
 always trusted and preferred, while they were neglected. They 
 had some colour to censure this choice the following winter ; 
 for, upon the motion of some French troops, Horn, without 
 studying to amuse the enemy, or to gain time, upon which much 
 may depend in winter, did immediately abandon Dixmude. All 
 he had to justify himself was a letter from the Elector of Bavaria, 
 telling him that he could send him no relief; and therefore he 
 ordered him to take care of the garrison, which was of more 
 importance than the place itself. Thus the campaign ended in 
 Flanders ; Namur was lost ; the reputation of the King's con 
 ducting armies was much sunk ; and the English were generally 
 discontented and alienated from the Dutch. 
 
 The session of Parliament was opened under great dis 
 advantages. The Earl of Marlborough and some other peers 
 had been put in the Tower upon a false accusation of high 
 treason, which was evidently proVed to be a conspiracy designed 
 by some profligate creatures, who fancied that forgeries and 
 false swearing would be as acceptable and as well rewarded 
 in this reign as they had been formerly. But, till this was 
 detected, the persons accused were kept in prison, and were 
 now only out upon bail ; so it was said to be contrary to the 
 nature and freedom of Parliament for prisoners to sit in it. It 
 was confessed that in time of danger, and such was the former
 
 350 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 summer, it must be trusted to the discretion of a government 
 to commit such persons as were suspected ; but when the 
 danger was over by our victory at sea, those against whom 
 there lay nothing besides suspicions ought to have been set 
 at liberty ; and this was thought reasonable. There was an 
 association pretended to be drawn against the Government, to 
 which the subscriptions of many lords were set so dexterously, 
 that the lords themselves said they could not distinguish between 
 their true subscriptions and those that were forged for them. 
 But the manner of the discovery, with several other circum 
 stances, carried such marks of imposture, that the Lords of the 
 Council ordered a strict prosecution of all concerned in it, which 
 ended in a full conviction of the forgery ; and those who had 
 combined in it were whipped and pilloried, which, to the 
 reproach of our constitution, is the only punishment that our 
 law has yet provided for such practices. The Lords passed 
 some votes asserting their privileges ; and were offended with 
 the judges for detaining some in prison, though there was no 
 reason nor colour for their displeasure. But where the privilege 
 or the dignity of peerage is in question, it is not easy to keep 
 the House within bounds. 
 
 The debate went off in a bill that indemnified the ministry 
 for those commitments, but limited them for the future by 
 several rules, all which rules were rejected by the Commons. 
 They thought those limitations gave a legal power to commit 
 in cases where they were observed ; whereas they thought the 
 safer way was to indemnify the ministry when it was visible 
 they did not commit any but upon a real danger, and not to 
 set them any rules, since as to the committing of suspected 
 persons, where the danger is real and visible, the public safety 
 must be first looked to and supersede all particular laws. When 
 this was over, an attempt was made in both Houses for the 
 abjuration of King James : the King himself was more set on it 
 than he had been formerly. It was rejected by the House of 
 Commons, and though some steps were made in it by the 
 Lords, yet the opposition was so great that it was let fall. 
 
 When this failed, another attempt was made in the House of 
 Lords, in a bill that was offered, enacting that a session of 
 Parliament should be held every year, and a new Parliament 
 be summoned every third year, and that the present Parliament 
 should be dissolved within a limited time. The statutes for 
 annual Parliaments in King Edward I. and King Edward III.'s 
 time are well known ; but it is a question whether the supposi-
 
 William and Mary 351 
 
 tion "if need be" falls upon the whole act, or only upon 
 those words " or oftener." It is certain these acts were never 
 observed, and the non-observance of them was never complained 
 of as a grievance. Nor did the famous act in King Charles I.'s 
 time carry the necessity of holding a session further than to - 
 once in three years. Anciently, considering the haste and 
 hurry in which Parliaments sat, an annual Parliament might 
 be no great inconvenience to the nation ; but by reason of the 
 slow methods of session now, an annual Parliament in times 
 of peace would become a very insupportable grievance. A 
 Parliament of a long continuance seemed to be very dangerous - 
 either to the Crown or to the nation. If the conjuncture and 
 their proceedings gave them much credit, they might grow very 
 uneasy to the Crown, as happened in King Charles I.'s time ; 
 or, in another situation of affairs, they might be so practised 
 upon by the Court that they might give all the money and all 
 the liberties of England up when they were to have a large 
 share of the money, and were to be made the instruments of 
 tyranny, as it was likely to have been in King Charles II. 's time. 
 All that was objected against this was, that frequent elections 
 would make the freeholders proud and insolent, when they 
 knew that applications must be made to them at the end of 
 three years ; this would establish a faction in every body of\ 
 men that had a right to an election ; and whereas now an 
 election put men to a great charge all at once, then the charge 
 must be perpetual all the three years, in laying in for a new 
 election, when it was known how soon it must come round. 
 And as for the dissolution of the present Parliament, some were 
 for leaving it to the general triennial clause, that it might still 
 sit three years. They thought that, during so critical a war as 
 that in which we were now engaged, it was not advisable to 
 venture on a new election, since we had so many among us 
 who were so ill affected to the present establishment ; yet it ~ 
 was said this Parliament had already sat three years, and 
 therefore it was not consistent with the general reason of the 
 act to let it continue longer. So the bill passed in the House 
 of Lords ; and though a bill from them, dissolving a Parliament, 
 struck only in the House of Commons, the Lords being still 
 the same men, so that upon that single account many thought 
 they would have rejected it, yet they also passed it, and fixed 
 their own dissolution to the 25th of March in the next year; 
 so that they reserved another session to themselves. The King 
 let the bill lie for some time on the table, so that men's eyes
 
 352 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 and expectations were much fixed on the issue of it. But, in 
 conclusion, he refused to pass it ; so the session ended in ill 
 humour. The rejecting a bill, though an unquestionable right 
 of the Crown, has been so seldom practised, that the two 
 Houses are apt to think it a hardship when there is a bill denied. 
 Two years subsequently, however, the Triennial Bill was passed, 
 in November, 1694. 
 
 But now I go on to the transactions of this summer. The 
 King had, in his speech to the Parliament, told them he intended 
 to land a considerable army in France this year ; so, after the 
 session, orders were given for hiring a fleet for transports, with 
 so great a train of artillery, that it would have served an army 
 of forty thousand men. This was very acceptable to the whole 
 nation, who loved an active war, and were very uneasy to see 
 so much money paid, and so little done with it ; but all this 
 went off without any effect. 
 
 The two armies lay long in Flanders, watching one another's 
 motions, without coming to action. In July Luxemburg went 
 to besiege Huy, and carried it in two or three days. The 
 King moved that way, on design either to raise the siege or to 
 force a battle. Those in Huy did not give him time to come to 
 their relief; and Luxemburg made a feint towards Liege, 
 which obliged the King to send some battalions to reinforce the 
 garrison of that place. He had also sent another great detach 
 ment, commanded by the Duke of Wiirtemburg, to force the 
 French lines, and to put their country under contribution, 
 which he executed with great success, and raised above four 
 millions. Luxemburg thought this was an advantage not to 
 be lost ; so that, as soon as he had received orders from the 
 King of France to attack the King in his camp, he came up to 
 him near Landen, upon the river Gitte. He was about double 
 the King's number, chiefly in horse. The King might have 
 secured himself from all attacks by passing the river ; and his 
 conduct in not doing it was much censured, considering his 
 strength and the enemy's. He chose rather to stay for them, 
 but sent away the baggage and heavy cannon to Mechlin, and 
 spent the whole night in planting batteries and casting up 
 retrenchments. On the 2Qth of July the French began their 
 attack early in the morning, and came on with great resolu 
 tion, though the King's cannon did great execution. They 
 were beaten off with the loss of many officers in several attacks ; 
 yet they came still on with fresh bodies, till at last, after an 
 action of seven or eight hours' continuance, they broke through
 
 William and Mary 353 
 
 in a place where there was such a body of German and Spanish 
 horse, that the army on no side was thought less in danger. 
 These troops gave way ; and so the French carried the honour 
 of the day, and were masters both of the King's camp and 
 cannon ; but the King passed the river, and cut the bridges, 
 and lay secure out of reach. He had supported the whole action 
 with so much courage and so true a judgment, that it was 
 thought he got more honour that day than even when he 
 triumphed at the Boyne. He charged himself in several places; 
 many were shot round about him with the enemy's cannon ; 
 one musket-shot carried away part of his scarf, and another 
 went through his hat, without doing him any harm. The 
 French lost so many men, and suffered so much in the several 
 onsets they had made, that they were not able to pursue a 
 victory which cost them so dear. We lost in all about seven 
 thousand, and among these there was scarce an officer of note ; 
 only the Count de Solmes had his leg shot off by a cannon-ball, 
 of which he died in a few hours. By all the accounts that came 
 from France, it appeared that the French had lost double the 
 number, with a vastly greater proportion of officers. The 
 King's behaviour during the battle, and in the retreat, was 
 much magnified by the enemy, as well as by his own side. 
 The King of France was reported to have said upon it, that 
 Luxemburg's behaviour was like the Prince of Conde's, but the 
 King's like Marshal Turenne's. His army was in a few days as 
 strong as ever by recalling the Duke of Wiirtemburg and the 
 battalions he had sent to Liege, and some other bodies that 
 he drew out of garrisons. And the rest of the campaign 
 passed over without any other action, only at the end of it, 
 after the King had left the army, Charleroi was besieged by 
 the French. The country about it had been so eaten up, that 
 it was not possible to subsist an army that might have been 
 brought to relieve it. The garrison made a brave resistance, 
 and held out a month, but it was taken at last. Thus the 
 French triumphed everywhere. 
 
 But while the campaign in all its scenes was thus unequal 
 and various, the French, though much weaker at sea, were the 
 most successful there ; and though we had the superior strength, 
 we were very unprosperous, and by our ill conduct we lost 
 much, both in our honour and interest on that element. The 
 great difficulty that the French were under in their marine was 
 by reason of their two great ports, Brest and Toulon, and from 
 the bringing their fleets together, and sending them back again. 
 
 N
 
 354 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 The danger they ran in that, and the delays that it put them 
 under, were the chief occasions of their losses last year ; but 
 these were, in a great measure, made up to them now. We 
 were sending a very rich fleet of merchant ships to the Medi 
 terranean, which was valued at many millions ; some of these 
 had lain ready a year and a half, waiting for a convoy, but were 
 still put off by new delays ; nor could they obtain one after 
 Russell's victory, though we were then masters at sea. They 
 were promised a great one in winter. The number of the mer 
 chant ships did still increase ; so that the convoy which was at 
 first designed was not thought equal to the riches of the fleet, 
 and to the danger they might run by ships that might be sent 
 from Toulon to intercept them. The Court of France was watch 
 ing this carefully. A spy among the Jacobites gave advice that 
 certain persons sent from Scotland to France, to show with how 
 small a force they might make themselves masters of that king 
 dom, had hopes given them for some time, upon which several 
 military men went to Lancashire and Northumberland to see 
 what could be expected from thence, if commotions should 
 happen in Scotland. But in February the French said they 
 could not do what was expected ; and the Scottish agents were : 
 told that they were obliged to look after the Smyrna fleet, which 
 they reckoned might be of more consequence than even the 
 carrying Scotland could be. The fleet was ready in February, 
 but new excuses were again made ; for it was said the convoy 
 must be increased to twenty men-of-war. Rooke was to command 
 it. A new delay was likewise put in, on the pretence of 
 staying for advice from Toulon, whether the squadron that was 
 laid up there was to lie in the Mediterranean this year, or to 
 come about to Brest. The merchants were very uneasy under 
 these delays, since the charge was likely to eat up the profit of ; 
 the voyage ; but no dispatch could be had, and very probable 
 reasons were offered to justify every new retardment. The 
 French fleet had gone early out of Toulon, on design to have! 
 destroyed the Spanish fleet, which lay in the Bay of Puzzuoli ; 
 but they lay so safe there, that the French saw they could not 
 succeed in any attempt upon them. Afterwards they stood off to 
 the coast of Catalonia, to assist their army, which was making 
 some conquests there. Yet these were only feints to amuse 
 and to cover their true design. The fleet at Brest sailed away 
 from thence so suddenly, that they were neither completely 
 manned nor victualled ; and they came to Lagos Bay in Algarve. 
 Tenders were sent after them, with the necessary complement
 
 William and Mary 355 
 
 of men and provisions. This sudden and unprovided motion of 
 the French fleet looked as if some secret advice had been sent 
 from England, acquainting them with our designs. But at the 
 Secretary's office not only there was no intelligence concerning 
 their fleet, but when a ship came in that brought the news of 
 their having sailed from Brest, they were not believed. Our 
 main fleet sailed out into the sea for some leagues with Rooke 
 and the merchant ships ; and when they thought they were out 
 of danger, they came back. Rooke was unhappy in that which, 
 upon any other occasion, would have been a great happiness : 
 he had a fair and a strong gale of wind, so that no advice sent 
 after him could overtake him ; nor did he meet with any ships 
 at sea that could give him notice of the danger that lay 
 before him. He doubled Cape St. Vincent, and had almost 
 fallen in with the French fleet before he was aware of it. He 
 dreamed of no danger but from the Toulon squadron, till he 
 took a fire-ship, .the captain whereof endeavoured to deceive 
 him by a false story, as if there had been only fifteen men-of- 
 war lying at Lagos, that intended to join D'Estrees. The 
 merchants were for going on, and believed the information. 
 They were confirmed in this by the disorder the French seemed 
 to be in ; for they were cutting their cables, and drawing near 
 the shore. The truth was, when they saw Rooke's fleet, they 
 apprehended by their numbers that the whole fleet of England 
 was coming towards them ; and indeed, had they come so far 
 with them, here was an occasion offered, which perhaps may 
 not be found again in an age, of destroying their whole strength 
 at sea. But as the French soon perceived their error, and 
 were forming themselves into a line, Rooke saw his error like 
 wise, and stood out to sea, while the merchants fled as their 
 fears drove them, a great many of them sticking still close to 
 him ; others sailed to Cadiz, and some got to Gibraltar, and, 
 instead of pursuing their voyage, put in there ; some ships 
 were burnt or sunk, and a very small number were taken by 
 the French. They did not pursue Rooke, but let him sail 
 away to the Madeiras ; and from thence he came, first to 
 Kinsale, and then into England. The French tried what they 
 could do upon Cadiz, but found that it was not practicable. 
 They next came to Gibraltar, where the merchants sunk their 
 ships, to prevent their falling into their hands ; from thence 
 they sailed along the coast of Spain, and burnt some English 
 and Dutch ships that were lying at Malaga, Alicant, and in 
 some other places. They hoped to have destroyed the Spanish
 
 356 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 fleet ; but they put in at Port Mahon, where they were safe. 
 At length, after a very glorious campaign, the French came 
 back to Toulon. It is certain, if Tourville had made use of 
 all his advantages, and had executed the design as well as it 
 was projected, he might have done us much mischief: few of 
 our men-of-war or merchantmen could have got out of his 
 hands. The loss fell heaviest on the Dutch ; the voyage was 
 quite lost, and the disgrace of it was visible to the whole 
 world, and very sensible to the trading part of the nation. 
 
 The King came over to England in November. He saw the 
 necessity of changing both his measures and his ministers ; he 
 expressed his delight of the whole conduct at sea; and named 
 Russell for the command of the fleet next year. He dismissed 
 the Earl of Nottingham, and would immediately have brought 
 the Earl of Shrewsbury again into the ministry ; but when that 
 lord came to him, he thought the King's inclinations were still 
 the same that they had been for some years, and that the turn 
 which he was now making was not from choice, but force ; so 
 that went off, and the Earl of Shrewsbury went into the country ; 
 yet the King soon after sent for him, and gave him such 
 assurances that he was again made Secretary of State, to the 
 general satisfaction of the Whigs. But the person who had the 
 King's confidence to the highest degree was the Earl of Sunder- 
 land, who, by his long experience and his knowledge of men 
 and things, had gained an ascendant over him, and had more 
 credit with him than any Englishman ever had. He had brought 
 the King to this change of counsels by the prospect he gave him 
 of the ill condition his affairs were in, if he did not entirely both 
 trust and satisfy those who, in the present conjuncture, were 
 the only party that both could and would support him. It was 
 said that the true secret of this change of measures was, that 
 the Tories signified to the King plainly that they could carry 
 on the war no longer, and that, therefore, he must accept of 
 such a peace as could be had. This was the most pernicious 
 thing that could be thought on, and the most contrary to the 
 King's notions and designs ; but they being positive, he was 
 forced to change hands, and to turn to the other party ; so the 
 Whigs were now in favour again, and everything was done that 
 was likely to put them in good humour. 
 
 Among other funds that were created, one was for constituting 
 a bank, which occasioned great debates. Some thought a bank 
 would grow to be a monopoly ; all the money of England 
 would come into their hands, and they would in a few years
 
 William and Mary 357 
 
 become the masters of the stock and wealth of the nation. 
 Others argued for it that the credit it would have must 
 increase trade and the circulation of money, at least in bank 
 notes. It was visible that all the enemies of the Government 
 set themselves against it with such a vehemence of zeal, that 
 this alone convinced all people that they saw the strength 
 that our affairs would receive from it. I had heard the Dutch 
 often reckon up the great advantages they had from their 
 banks ; and they concluded that, as long as England continued 
 jealous of the Government, a bank could never be settled among 
 us, nor gain credit enough to support itself; and upon that they 
 judged that the superiority in trade must still lie on their side. 
 This, with all the other remote funds that were created, had 
 another good effect ; it engaged all those who were concerned 
 in them to be, upon the account of their own interest, zealous 
 for maintaining the Government, since it was not to be doubted 
 but that a revolution would have swept all these away. The 
 advantages that the King, and all concerned in tallies, had 
 from the bank, were soon so sensibly felt, that all people saw 
 into the secret reasons that made the enemies of the constitution 
 set themselves with so much earnestness against it. 
 
 The King went beyond sea in May, and the campaign was 
 opened soon after. The armies of both sides came very near 
 one another : the King commanded that of the confederates, as 
 the Dauphin did the French. They lay between Brussels and 
 Liege, and it was given out that they intended to besiege 
 Maestricht. The King moved towards Namur, that he might 
 either cut off their provisions or force them to fight ; but they 
 were resolved to avoid a battle, so they retired likewise, and 
 the campaign passed over in the ordinary manner, both of 
 them moving and watching one another. The King sent a 
 great detachment to break into the French country at Pont 
 Esperies ; but though the body he sent had made a great 
 advance before the French knew anything of their march, yet 
 they sent away their cavalry with so much haste, and in so 
 continued a march, that they were possessed of the pass before 
 the body the King had sent could reach it, whereby they 
 gained their point, though their cavalry suffered much. This 
 design failing, the King sent another body towards Huy, who 
 took it in a few days. It was become more necessary to do 
 this for the covering of Liege, which was now broken into 
 faction ; their bishop was dead, and there was a great division 
 in the chapter; some were for the Elector of Cologne, and
 
 358 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 others were for the Elector Palatine's brother ; but that for the 
 Elector of Cologne was the stronger party, and the Court of 
 Rome judged in their favour. The differences between that 
 Court and that of Versailles were now so far made up that the 
 bulls for the bishops whom the King had named to the vacant 
 sees were granted, upon the submission of all those who had 
 been concerned in the articles of 1682. Yet after all that recon 
 ciliation, the real inclinations of the Court of Rome lay still 
 towards the confederates : the alliance that France was in with 
 the Turk was a thing of an odious sound at Rome. The taking 
 of Huy covered Liege, so that they were both safer and quieter. 
 The confederates, especially the English and the Dutch, grew 
 weary of keeping up vast armies that did nothing else but lay 
 for some months advantageously posted in view of the enemy 
 without any action. 
 
 The King came to England in the beginning of November, 
 and the Parliament was opened with a calmer face than had 
 appeared in any session during this reign. The supplies that 
 were demanded, the total amounting to five millions, were 
 all granted readily. 
 
 But I am now coming towards the fatal period of this book. 
 The Queen continued still to set a great example to the whole 
 nation, which shined in all the parts of it. She used all possible 
 methods for reforming whatever was amiss. She took ladies off 
 from that idleness which not only wasted their time, but exposed 
 them to many temptations ; she engaged many both to read 
 and to work ; she wrought many hours a day herself with her 
 ladies and her maids of honour working about her, while one 
 read to them all. The female part of the Court had been in 
 the former reigns subject to much censure, and there was great 
 cause for it ; but she freed her Court so entirely from all 
 suspicion, that there was not so much as a colour for discourses 
 of that sort. She did divide her time so regularly between her 
 closet and business, her work and diversion, that every minute 
 seemed to have its proper employment ; she expressed so deep 
 a sen<=e of religion, with so true a regard to it ; she had such 
 right principles and just notions ; and her deportment was so 
 exact in every part of it, all being natural and unconstrained, 
 and animated with due life and cheerfulness ; she considered 
 everything that was laid before her so carefully, and gave such 
 due encouragement to a freedom of speech ; she remembered 
 everything so exactly, observing at the same time the closest 
 reservedness, yet with an open air of frankness ; she was so
 
 William and Mary 359 
 
 candid in all she said, and cautious in every promise she made ; 
 and, notwithstanding her own great capacity, she expressed such 
 a distrust of her own thoughts, and was so entirely resigned to 
 the King's judgment, and so constantly determined by it, that 
 when I laid all these things together, which I had large oppor 
 tunities to observe, it gave a very pleasant prospect to balance 
 the melancholy view that arose from the ill posture of our 
 affairs in all other respects. It gave us a very particular joy 
 when we saw that the person whose condition seemed to mark 
 her out as the defender and perfecter of our Reformation, was 
 such in all respects, in her public administration as well as in 
 her private deportment, that she seemed well fitted for accom 
 plishing that work for which we thought she was born. But 
 we soon saw this hopeful view blasted, and our expectations 
 disappointed, in the loss of her. 
 
 The small-pox raged this winter about London, some thousands 
 dying of it, which gave us great apprehensions with relation to 
 the Queen, for she had never had it. 
 
 In conclusion, she was taken ill, but the next day that seemed 
 to go off. I had the honour to be half-an-hour with her that 
 day, and she complained then of nothing. The day following 
 she went abroad ; but her illness returned so heavily on her 
 that she could disguise it no longer ; she shut herself up long 
 in her closet that night, and burned many papers, and put the 
 rest in order. After that she used some slight remedies, think 
 ing it was only a transient indisposition ; but it increased upon 
 her, and, within two days after, the small-pox appeared, and 
 with very bad symptoms. I will not enter into another's 
 province, nor speak of matters so much out of the way of 
 my own profession ; but the physicians' part was universally 
 condemned, and her death was imputed to the negligence or 
 unskilfulness of Dr. Radcliffe. He was called for, and it 
 appeared but too evidently that his opinion was chiefly con 
 sidered, and was most depended on. Other physicians were 
 afterwards called, but not till it was too late. The King was 
 struck with this beyond expression. He came on the second 
 day of her illness, and passed the bill for frequent Parliaments, ^ 
 which, if he had not done that day, it is very probable he would 
 never have passed it. The day after he called me into his 
 closet, and gave a free vent to a most tender passion ; he burst 
 out into tears, and cried out that there was no hope of the 
 Queen, and that, from being the most happy, he was now going 
 to be the most miserable, creature upon earth. He said during
 
 360 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 the whole course of their marriage he had never known one 
 single fault in her ; there was a worth in her that nobody knew 
 besides himself, though he added that I might know as much 
 of her as any other person did. Never was such a face of 
 universal sorrow seen in a Court, or in a town, as at this time : 
 all people, men and women, young and old, could scarcely 
 refrain from tears. On Christmas-day the small-pox sank so 
 entirely, and the Queen felt herself so well upon it, that it was 
 for awhile concluded she had the measles, and that the danger 
 was over. This hope was ill grounded, and of a short con 
 tinuance ; for, before night, all was sadly changed. It appeared 
 that the small-pox marks were now so sunk that there was no 
 hope of raising them. Archbishop Tenison attended on her ; 
 he performed all devotions, and had much private discourse 
 with her. When the desperate condition she was in was evident 
 beyond doubt, he told the King he could not do his duty 
 faithfully unless he acquainted her with the danger she was in. 
 The King approved of it, and said, whatever effect it might 
 have, he would not have her deceived in so important a matter. 
 And, as the Archbishop was preparing the Queen with some 
 address, not to surprise her too much with such tidings, she 
 presently apprehended his drift, but showed no fear nor dis 
 order upon it. She said she thanked God that she had always 
 carried this in her mind, that nothing was to be left to the last 
 hour ; she had nothing then to do but to look up to God, and 
 submit to his will. It went further, indeed, than submission, 
 for she seemed to desire death rather than life ; and she con 
 tinued to the last minute of her life in that calm and resigned 
 state. She had formerly written her mind, in many particulars, 
 to the King, and she gave order to look carefully for a small 
 scrutoire that she made use of, and to deliver it to the King ; 
 and, having dispatched that, she avoided the giving herself or 
 him the tenderness which a final parting might have raised in 
 them both. She was almost perpetually in prayer. The day 
 before she died she received the sacrament, all the bishops who 
 were attending being admitted to receive it with her. We were, 
 God knows, a sorrowful company ; for we were losing her who 
 was our chief hope and glory on earth. She followed the whole 
 office, repeating it after the Archbishop ; she apprehended, not 
 without some concern, that she should not be able to swallow 
 the bread, yet it went down easily. When this was over, she 
 composed herself solemnly to die. She slumbered sometimes, 
 but said she was not refreshed by it ; and said often that nothing
 
 William and Mary 361 
 
 did her good but prayer. She tried once or twice to have said 
 somewhat to the King, but was not able to go through with it. 
 She ordered the Archbishop to be reading to her such passages 
 of Scripture as might fix her attention and raise her devotion. 
 Several cordials were given, but all was ineffectual ; she lay 
 silent for some hours; and some words that came from her 
 showed her thoughts began to break. In conclusion, she 
 died on the 28th of December, about one in the morning, 
 in the thirty-third year of her age, and in the sixth of her 
 reign. 
 
 N 2
 
 BOOK VI 
 
 OF THE LIFE AND REIGN OF KING WILLIAM III 
 
 THE two Houses of Parliament set an example that was fol 
 lowed by the whole nation, of making consolatory and dutiful 
 addresses to the King. The Queen was buried with the 
 ordinary ceremony, and with one piece of magnificence that 
 could never happen before ; for both Houses of Parliament 
 went in procession before the chariot that carried her body to 
 Westminster Abbey, where places were prepared for both 
 Houses to sit in form, while the Archbishop preached the 
 funeral sermon. This could never happen before, since the 
 sovereign's death had always dissolved our Parliaments. 
 
 A bill was set on foot, which was long pursued, and in 
 conclusion carried by the Tories. It was concerning trials for 
 treason ; and the design of it seemed to be to make men as 
 safe in all treasonable conspiracies and practices as was 
 possible. Two witnesses were to concur to prove the same 
 fact, at the same time ; counsel in matters of fact, and wit 
 nesses upon oath, were by it allowed to the prisoners ; they 
 were to have a copy of the indictment and the panel in due 
 time. All these things were in themselves just and reasonable. 
 
 Towards the end of the session complaints were made of 
 some military men who did not pay their quarters, pretending 
 their own pay was in arrear ; but it appearing that they had 
 been paid, and the matter being further examined into, it was 
 found that the superior officers had cheated the subalterns, 
 which excused their not paying their quarters. Upon this the 
 inquiry was carried further, and such discoveries were made 
 that some officers were broken upon it, while others prevented 
 complaints by satisfying those whom they had oppressed. It 
 was found out that the Secretary of the Treasury had taken 
 two hundred guineas for procuring the arrears due to a 
 regiment to be paid ; whereupon he was sent to the Tower, 
 and turned out of his place. Many were the more sharpened 
 against him because it was believed that he, as well as Trevor, 
 the Speaker, was deeply concerned in corrupting the members of 
 the House of Commons. He had held his place both in King 
 Charles's and King James's time ; and the share he had in the
 
 William III 363 
 
 secret distribution of money had made him a necessary man 
 for those methods. 
 
 But the House, being on this scent, carried the matter still 
 further. In the former session of Parliament an act had passed, 
 creating a fund for the repayment of the debt owing to the 
 Orphans by the Chamber of London : and the Chamber had 
 made Trevor a present of a thousand guineas for the service he 
 did them in that matter : this was entered in their books, so 
 that full proof was made of it. It was, indeed, believed that 
 a much greater present had been made him in behalf of the 
 Orphans; but no proof of that appeared, whereas what had 
 been taken in so public a manner could not be hid. This was 
 objected to Trevor as corruption and a breach of trust, and 
 upon it he was expelled the House ; and Mr. Paul Foley was 
 chosen Speaker in his room, who had got great credit by his 
 integrity, and his constant complaining of the Administration. 
 
 One discovery made way for another. It was found that in 
 the books of the East India Company there were entries made, 
 of great sums given for secret services done the Company, that 
 amounted 10^170,000 ; and it was generally believed that the 
 greatest part of it had gone among the members of the House 
 of Commons. For the two preceding winters there had been 
 attempts eagerly pursued by some for breaking the Company, 
 and either opening a free trade to the Indies, or at least erecting 
 a new company ; but it was observed that some of the hottest 
 sticklers against the Company did insensibly not only fall off 
 from that heat, but turned to serve the Company as much as 
 they had at first endeavoured to destroy it. Seymour was among 
 the chief of these, and it was said that he had ; 12,000 of their 
 money under the colour of a bargain for their saltpetre. Great 
 pains and art were used to stifle this inquiry; but curiosity, 
 envy, and ill- nature, as well as virtue, will on such occasions 
 always prevail to set on inquiries. Those who have had nothing 
 desire to know who have had something, while the guilty persons 
 dare not show too great a concern in opposing discoveries. Sir 
 Thomas Cook, a rich merchant, who was Governor of the Com 
 pany, was examined concerning that great sum given for secret 
 service, but he refused to answer ; so a severe bill was brought 
 in against him, in case he should not, by a prefixed day, confess 
 how all that money had been disposed of. When the bill was 
 sent up to the Lords, and was likely to pass, he came in and 
 offered to make a full discovery, if he might be indemnified for 
 all that he had done, or that he might say, in that matter. The
 
 364 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 enemies of the Court hoped for great discoveries that should 
 disgrace both the ministers and the favourites ; but it appeared 
 that whereas both King Charles and King James had obliged 
 the Company to make them a yearly present of ,10,000, that 
 the King had received this but once ; and that though the 
 Company offered a present of ^50,000 if the King would grant 
 them a new charter, and consent to an act of Parliament con 
 firming it, the King had refused to hearken to it. There were, 
 indeed, presumptions that the Marquis of Carmarthen had 
 taken a present of five thousand guineas, which were sent back 
 to Sir Thomas Cook the morning before he was to make his 
 discovery. The Lords appointed twelve of their body to meet 
 with twenty-four of the House of Commons to examine into 
 this matter ; but they were so ill satisfied with the account that 
 was given them by the four persons who had been intrusted 
 with the secret, that by a particular act, that passed both 
 Houses, they were committed to the Tower of London till the 
 end of the next session of Parliament, and restrained from 
 disposing of their estates, real or personal. 
 
 The Queen, when she was dying, had received a kind letter 
 from, and had sent a reconciling message to, the Princess 
 Anne, and so that breach was made up. It is true the sisters 
 did not meet ; it was thought that might throw the Queen into 
 too great a commotion, so it was put off till it was too late ; yet 
 the Princess came soon after to see the King, and there was 
 after that an appearance of good correspondence between them ; 
 but it was little more than an appearance. They lived still in 
 terms of civility and in formal visits ; but the King did not 
 bring her into any share in business, nor did he order his 
 ministers to wait on her and give her any account of affairs. 
 And now that he was to go beyond sea, she was not set at the 
 head of the Councils, nor was there any care taken to oblige those 
 who were about her. This looked either like a jealousy and 
 distrust or a coldness towards her, which gave all the secret 
 enemies of the Government a colour of complaint. They 
 pretended zeal for the Princess, though they came little to her ; 
 and they made it very visible, on many occasions, that this was 
 only a disguise for worse designs. 
 
 About the end of May the armies were brought together in 
 JFlanders ; the King drew his main force towards the French 
 lines, and the design was formed to break through and to 
 destroy the French Flanders. Luxemburg died this winter ; 
 so the command of the French armies was divided between
 
 William III 365 
 
 Villeroi and Boufflers, but the former commanded the stronger 
 army. An attempt was made on the fort of Knock, in order 
 to force the lines, and there was some action about it ; but all 
 on the sudden Namur was invested, and the King drew off the 
 main part of his army to besiege that place, and left above 
 thirty thousand men under the command of the Prince of 
 Vaudemont, who was the best general he had ; for Prince 
 Waldeck died above a year before this. With that army he 
 was to cover Flanders and Brabant, while the King carried on 
 the siege. 
 
 As soon as Namur was invested, Boufflers threw himself into 
 it, with many good officers and a great body of dragoons. The 
 garrison was twelve thousand strong. A place so happily 
 situated, so well fortified, and so well furnished and com 
 manded, made the attempt seem bold and doubtful. The dry 
 season put the King under another difficulty ; the Maese was 
 so low that there was not water enough to bring up the barks 
 laden with artillery and ammunition from Liege and Maestricht, 
 so that many days were lost in bringing these overland ; and if 
 Villeroi had followed the King close, it is thought he must 
 have quitted the design ; but the French presumed upon the 
 strength of the place and garrison, and on our being so little 
 practised in sieges. 
 
 Villeroi attacked Dixmude and Deinse. The garrisons were 
 not, indeed, able to make a great resistance ; but they were ill 
 commanded. If their officers had been masters of a true 
 judgment or presence of mind, they might at least have 
 got a favourable composition, and have saved the garrisons, 
 though the places were not tenable ; yet they were basely deli 
 vered up, and about seven thousand men were made prisoners 
 of war. 
 
 Villeroi marched towards Brussels, and was followed by 
 Prince Vaudemont, whose chief care was to order his motions 
 so that the French might not get between him and the King's 
 camp at Namur. He apprehended that Villeroi might bom 
 bard Brussels, and would have hindered it if the town could 
 have been wrought on to give him the assistance that he 
 desired of them. Townsmen upon all such occasions are more 
 apt to consider a present, though a small expense, than a 
 great, though an imminent danger ; so Prince Vaudemont 
 could not pretend to cover them. The Electoress of Bavaria 
 was then in the town ; and though Villeroi sent a compliment 
 to her, yet he did not give her time to retire, but bombarded
 
 366 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 the place for two days with so much fury that a great part of 
 the lower town was burnt down. When this execution was 
 done, Villeroi marched towards Namur : his army was now so 
 much increased by detachments brought from the Rhine, and 
 troops drawn out of garrisons, that it was said to be one 
 hundred thousand strong. 
 
 The siege was carried on with great vigour : the errors to 
 which our want of practice exposed us were all corrected by the 
 courage of our men ; the fortifications, both in strength and in 
 the extent of the outworks, were double to what they had been 
 when the French took the place. Our men did not only succeed 
 in every attack, but went much further. In the first great 
 sally the French lost so many, both officers and soldiers, that 
 after that they kept within their works and gave us no dis 
 turbance. Both the King and the Elector of Bavaria went 
 frequently into the trenches. The town held out one month, 
 and the citadel another. Upon Villeroi's approach, the King 
 drew off all the troops that could be spared from the siege, and 
 placed himself in his way with an army of sixty thousand 
 men ; but he was so well posted, that after Villeroi had looked 
 on him for some days he found it was not advisable to attack 
 him. Our men wished for a battle, as that which would not 
 only decide the fate of Namur, but of the whole war. The 
 French gave it out that they would put all to hazard rather 
 than suffer such a diminution of their King's glory as the 
 retaking that place seemed to be. But the signal of the 
 citadel's treating put an end to Villeroi's designs ; upon which 
 he, apprehending that the King might then attack him, drew 
 off with^so much precipitation that it looked more like a flight 
 than a retreat. 
 
 The capityjation was soon ended and signed by Boufflers, 
 who, as was said, was the first marshal of France that had ever 
 delivered up a place. He marched out with five thousand men ; 
 so it appeared he had lost seven thousand during the siege, and 
 we lost in it only about the same number. This was reckoned 
 one of the greatest actions of the King's life, and indeed one of 
 the greatest that is in the whole history of war. It raised his 
 character much, both at home and abroad, and gave a great 
 reputation to his troops. The King had the entire credit of the 
 matter, his general officers having a very small share in it, being 
 most of them men of low genius, and little practised in things 
 of that nature. 
 
 Our fleet was all the summer master of the Mediterranean.
 
 William III 367 
 
 The French were put into great disorder, and seemed to appre 
 hend a descent, for Russell came before Marseilles and Toulon 
 oftener than once : contrary winds forced him out to sea again, 
 but with no loss. He himself told me he believed nothing could 
 be done there; only the honour of commanding the sea, and of 
 shutting the French within their ports, gave a great reputation 
 to our affairs. 
 
 We had another fleet in our own Channel that was ordered 
 to bombard the French coast. They did some execution upon 
 St. Malo, and destroyed Grandville, that lay not far from it. 
 They also attempted Dunkirk, but failed in the execution. 
 Some bombs were thrown into Calais, but without any great 
 effect, so that the French did not suffer so much by the 
 bombardment as was expected. The country, indeed, was much 
 alarmed by it ; they had many troops dispersed all along their 
 coast, so that it put their affairs in great disorder, and we were 
 everywhere masters at sea. Another squadron, commanded by 
 the Marquis of Carmarthen (whose father was created Duke of 
 Leeds, to colour the dismissing him from business, with an 
 increase of title), lay off from the Isles of Scilly, to secure our 
 trade and convoy our merchants. He was an extravagant man, 
 both in his pleasures and humours. He was slow in going to 
 sea ; and when he was out he fancied the French fleet was 
 coming up to him, which proved to be only a fleet of merchant 
 ships ; so he left his station and retired into Milford Haven, by 
 which means that squadron became useless, which proved fatal 
 to our trade. Many of our Barbadoes ships were taken by 
 French cruisers and privateers. Two rich ships coming from 
 the East Indies were also taken, one hundred and fifty leagues 
 to the westward, by a very fatal accident, or by some treacherous 
 advertisement, for cruisers seldom go so far into the ocean ; 
 and to complete the misfortunes of the East India Company, 
 three other ships that were come near Galway, on the west of 
 Ireland, fell into the hands of some French privateers. Those 
 five ships were valued at a million, so here was great occasion 
 of discontent in the city of London. They complained that 
 neither the Admiralty nor the Government took the care that 
 was necessary for preserving the wealth of the nation. A 
 French man-of-war at the same time fell upon our factory on 
 the coast of Guinea, took the small fort we had there, and 
 destroyed it. 
 
 There was a Parliament held in Scotland, where the Marquis
 
 368 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 of Tweeddale was the King's Commissioner. Everything that 
 was asked for the King's supply, and for the subsistence of his 
 troops, was granted. The massacre in Glencoe made still a 
 great noise, and the King seemed too remiss in inquiring into 
 it ; but when it was represented to him that a session of Parlia 
 ment could not be managed without high motions and com 
 plaints of so trying a matter, and that his ministers could not 
 oppose these without seeming to bring the guilt of that blood 
 that was so perfidiously shed both on the King and on them 
 selves, to prevent that, he ordered a Commission to be passed 
 under the Great Seal for a precognition in that matter, which is 
 a practice in the law of Scotland of examining into crimes before 
 the persons concerned are brought upon their trial. This was 
 looked on as an artifice to cover that transaction by a private 
 inquiry ; yet when it was complained of in Parliament, not 
 without reflections on the slackness in examining into it, the 
 King's Commissioner assured them that, by the King's order, 
 the matter was then under examination, and that it should be 
 reported to the Parliament. The inquiry went on, and in the 
 progress of it a new practice of the Earl of Breadalbane's was 
 discovered ; for the Highlanders deposed that while he was 
 treating with them, in order to their submitting' to the King, he 
 had assured them that he still adhered to King James's interest, 
 and that he pressed them to come into that pacification only to 
 preserve them for his service till a more favourable opportunity. 
 This, with several other treasonable discourses of his, being 
 reported to the Parliament, he covered himself with his pardon, 
 but these discourses happened to be subsequent to it, so 
 he was sent a prisoner to the Castle of Edinburgh. He 
 pretended he had secret orders from the King to say any 
 thing that would give him credit with them, which the King 
 owned so far that he ordered a new pardon to be passed for 
 him. 
 
 The report of the massacre of Glencoe was made in full 
 Parliament. By that it appeared that a black design was laid, not 
 only to cut off the men of Glencoe, but a great many more clans, 
 reckoned to be in all above six thousand persons. The whole 
 was pursued in many letters, that were written with great 
 earnestness ; and though the King's orders carried nothing 
 in them that was in any sort blamable, yet the Secretary 
 of State's letters went much further ; so the Parliament justified 
 the Kings instructions, but voted the execution in Glencoe 
 to have been a barbarous massacre, and that it was pushed
 
 
 William III 369 
 
 on by the Secretary of State's letters beyond the King's 
 orders. 
 
 In this session an act passed in favour of such of the 
 Episcopal clergy as should enter into those engagements to the 
 King that were by law required; that they should continue in 
 their benefices under the King's protection, without being 
 subject to the power of the Presbytery. This was carried with 
 some address before the Presbyterians were aware of the con 
 sequences of it, for it was plainly that which they call Eras- 
 tianism. A day was limited to the clergy for taking the oaths ; 
 and by a very zealous and dexterous management, about 
 seventy of the best of them were brought to take the oaths to 
 the King; and so they came within the protection promised 
 them by the act. 
 
 Another act passed that has already produced very fatal con 
 sequences to that kingdom, and may yet draw worse after it. 
 The interlopers in the East India trade, finding that the Com 
 pany was likely to be favoured by the Parliament, as well as by 
 the Court, were resolved to try other methods to break in upon 
 that trade. They entered into a treaty with some merchants in 
 Scotland ; and they had, in the former session, procured an act * 
 that promised letters patent to all such as should offer to set up 
 new manufactures, or drive any new trade, not yet practised by 
 that kingdom, with an exemption for twenty-one years from all 
 taxes and customs, and with all such other privileges as should 
 be found necessary for establishing or encouraging such pro 
 jects. But here was a necessity of procuring letters patent, 
 which they knew the credit that the East India Company had 
 at Court would certainly render ineffectual ; so they were now 
 in treaty for a new act, which should free them from that diffi 
 culty. There was one Paterson, a man of no education, but of 
 great notions, which, as was generally said, he had learned from 
 the buccaneers, with whom he had consorted for some time. 
 He had considered a place in Par i en, where he thought a good^ 
 settlement might be made, with another over against it in the 
 South Sea ; and, by two settlements there he fancied a great 
 trade might be opened both for the East and West Indies, and 
 that the Spaniards in the neighbourhood might be kept in great 
 subjection to them. So he made the merchants believe that he 
 had a great secret, which he did not think fit yet to discover, 
 and reserved to a fitter opportunity, only he desired that the 
 West Indies might be named in any new act that should be 
 offered to the Parliament. He made them in general understand
 
 370 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 that he knew of a country, not possessed by Spaniards' 
 where there were rich mines, and gold in abundance. While 
 these matters were in treaty, the time of the King's giving the 
 instructions to his Commissioner for the Parliament came on ; 
 and it had been a thing of course to give a general instruction 
 to pass all bills for the encouragement of trade. Johnston told 
 the King that he heard there was a secret management among 
 the merchants for an act in Scotland, under which the East 
 India trade might be set up; so he proposed and drew an 
 instruction empowering the Commissioner to pass any bill pro 
 mising letters patent for encouragement of trade, yet limited so 
 that it should not interfere with the trade of England. When 
 they went down to Scotland, the King's Commissioner either did 
 not consider this, or had no regard for it ; for he gave the royal 
 assent to an act that gave the undertakers, either of the East 
 India or West India trade, all possible privileges, with exemp 
 tion of twenty-one years from all impositions ; and the act 
 directed letters patent to be passed under the Great Seal, without 
 any further warrant for them. When this was printed, it gave 
 a great alarm in England, more particularly to the East India 
 Company ; for many of the merchants of London resolved to 
 join stock with the Scotch Company, and the exemption from all 
 duties gave a great prospect of gain. Such was the posture of 
 affairs in Scotland. 
 
 As soon as the campaign was over in Flanders, the King 
 intended to come over directly into England ; but he was kept 
 long on the other side by contrary winds. The Parliament was 
 brought to a conclusion, and a new one was summoned. The 
 King made a progress to the North, and stayed some days at 
 the Earl of Sunderland's, which was the first public mark of the 
 high favour he was in. The King studied to constrain himself 
 to a little more openness and affability than was natural to him ; 
 but his cold and dry way had too deep a root not to return too 
 oft upon him. The Jacobites were so descried that few of them 
 were elected ; but many of the sourer sort of Whigs, who were 
 much alienated from the King, were chosen : generally, they 
 were men of estates ; but many were young, hot, and without 
 experience. Foley was again chosen Speaker ; the demand of 
 the supply was still very high, and there was a great arrear of 
 deficiencies ; all was readily granted, and lodged on funds that 
 seemed to be very probable. 
 
 In the beginning of February one Captain Fisher came to the
 
 William III 371 
 
 Earl of Portland, and in general told him there was a design to 
 assassinate the King; but he would not, or could not then, 
 name any of the persons who were concerned in it. He never 
 appeared more, for he had assurances given him that he should 
 not be made use of as a witness. A few days after that, one 
 Pendergrass, an Irish officer, came to the Earl of Portland, 
 and discovered all that he knew of the matter ; he freely told 
 him his own name, but would not name any of the conspirators. 
 De la Rue, a Frenchman, came also to Brigadier Levison, and 
 discovered to him all that he knew. These two (Pendergrass 
 and De la Rue) were brought to the King apart, not knowing 
 of one another's discovery. They gave an account of two 
 plots then on foot the one for assassinating the King, and 
 the other for invading the kingdom. The King was not easily 
 brought to give credit to this till a variety of circumstances, in 
 which the discoveries agreed, convinced him of the truth of 
 the whole design. 
 
 It has been already told in how many projects King James 
 was engaged for assassinating the King. But all these had 
 failed ; so now one was laid that gave better hopes, and looked 
 more like a military action than a foul murder. Sir George 
 Barclay, a_Scotchman, received a commission from King James_ 
 to go" and attack the Prince of Orange in his winter quarters. "" 
 Charnock, Sir William Parkyns, Captain Porter, and De la Rue 
 were the men to whose conduct the matter was trusted. The 
 Duke of Berwick came over, and had some discourse with them 
 about the method of executing it. Forty persons were thought 
 necessary for the attempt. They intended to watch the King as 
 he should go out to hunt, or come back from it in his coach ; 
 some of them were to engage the guards, while others should 
 attack the King, and either carry him off a prisoner, or, in case 
 of any resistance, kill him. This soft manner was proposed to 
 draw military men to act in it as a warlike exploit. Porter and 
 Knightly went and viewed the grounds, and the way through 
 which the King passed as he went between Kensington and 
 Richmond Park, where he used to hunt commonly on Saturdays ; 
 and they pitched on two places where they thought they might 
 well execute the design. King James sent over some of his 
 guards to assist in it ; he spoke himself to one Harris, to go 
 over and to obey such orders as he should receive from Barclay. 
 He ordered money to be given him, and told him that, if he 
 was forced to stay long at Calais, the president there would 
 have orders to furnish him.
 
 372 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 De la Rue told all particulars with the greatest frankness, 
 and named all the persons that they had intended to engage in 
 the execution of it; for several lists were among them, and 
 those who concerted the matter had those lists given them, 
 and took it for granted that every man named in those lists was 
 engaged, since they were persons on whom they depended, as 
 knowing their inclinations, and believing that they would 
 readily enter into the project, though it had not been at that 
 time proposed to many of them, as it appeared afterwards. 
 The design was laid to strike the blow on the 1 5th of February, 
 in a lane that turns down from Turnham Green to Brentford ; 
 and the conspirators were to be scattered about the green, in 
 taverns and alehouses, and to be brought together upon a signal 
 given. 
 
 The King ordered the coaches and guards to be made ready 
 next morning, being the i5th of February, and a Saturday, his 
 usual day of hunting ; but some accident was pretended to 
 cover his not going abroad that day. The conspirators continued 
 to meet together, not doubting but that they should have occa 
 sion to execute their design the next Saturday ; they had some 
 always about Kensington, who came and went continually, and 
 brought them an account of everything that passed there. On 
 Saturday, the 22nd of February, they put themselves in readi 
 ness, and were going out to take the posts assigned them ; but 
 were surprised when they had notice that the King's hunting 
 was put off a second time. They apprehended they might be 
 discovered ; yet, as none were seized, they soon quieted them 
 selves. Next night a great many of them were taken in their 
 beds, and the day following the whole discovery was laid before 
 the Privy Council. 
 
 After most of the conspirators were taken, and all examina 
 tions were over, some of them were brought to their trials. 
 Charnock, King, and Keys were begun with. The design was 
 fully proved against them. At his death Charnock delivered a 
 paper, in which he confessed he was engaged in a design to 
 attack the Prince of Orange's guards ; but he thought himself 
 bound to clear King James from having given any commission 
 to assassinate him. King's paper, who suffered with him, was 
 to the same purpose ; and they took pains to clear all those of 
 their religion from any accession to it. King expressed a sense 
 of the unlawfulness of the undertaking, but Charnock seemed 
 fully satisfied with the lawfulness of it. Keys was a poor 
 ignorant trumpeter, who had his dependence on Porter, and
 
 William III 373 
 
 now suffered chiefly upon his evidence, for which he was much 
 reflected on. 
 
 Sir John Friend and Sir William Parkyns were tried next. 
 The first of these had risen from mean beginnings to great 
 credit and much wealth. He was employed by King James, and 
 had all this while stuck firm to his interests. His purse was 
 more considered than his head, and was open on all occasions 
 as the party applied to him. While Parkyns was formerly in 
 the Tower, upon information of an assassination of the King 
 designed by him, he furnished the money that corrupted his 
 keepers, and helped him to make his escape out of the Tower. 
 He knew of the assassination, though he was not to be an 
 actor in it ; but he had a commission for raising a regiment for 
 King James, and he had entertained and paid the officers who 
 were to serve under him. He had also joined with those who 
 had sent over Charnock in May, 1695, w ith *he message to 
 King James mentioned in the account of the former year ; it 
 appearing now that they had then desired an invasion with 
 eight thousand foot and one thousand horse, and had promised 
 to join these with two thousand horse upon their landing. In 
 this the Earl of Aylesbury, the Lord Montgomery, son to the 
 Marquis of Powys, and Sir John Fenwick were also concerned. 
 Upon all this evidence Friend was condemned, and the Earl 
 of Aylesbury was committed prisoner to the Tower. 
 
 In the beginning of April Friend and Parkyns were executed 
 together. Three other conspirators, Rookwood, Lowick, and 
 Cranborn, were tried next. The first two were Papists. They 
 expressed their dislike of the design, but insisted on this that 
 as military men they were bound to obey all military orders ; 
 and they thought that the King, who knew the laws of war, 
 ought to have a regard to this, and to forgive them. Cranborn 
 called himself a Protestant, but was more sullen than the 
 other two, to such a degree of fury and perverseness had the 
 Jacobites wrought up their party. Knightly was tried next. 
 He confessed all ; and upon that, though he was condemned, 
 he had a reprieve, and was afterwards pardoned. These were 
 all the trials and executions that even this black conspiracy 
 drew from the Government ; for the King's inclinations were so 
 merciful, that he seemed uneasy even under these acts of 
 necessary justice. 
 
 Cook was brought next upon his trial on account of the 
 intended invasion, for he was not charged with the assassina 
 tion. His trial was considered as introductory to the Earl of
 
 374 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Aylesbury's, for the evidence was the same as to both. Porter 
 and Goodman were two witnesses against him. They had 
 been with him at a meeting in a tavern in Leadenhall Street, 
 where Charnock received instructions to go to France with the 
 message formerly mentioned. The evidence was believed, and 
 Cook was found guilty and condemned. He obtained many 
 short reprieves upon assurances that he would tell all he knew ; 
 but it was visible he did not deal sincerely. His punishment 
 ended in banishment. Sir John Fenwick was taken not long 
 after, going over to France, and was ordered to prepare for his 
 trial, upon which he seemed willing to discover all he knew ; 
 and in this he went off and on, for he had no mind to die, and 
 hoped to save himself by some practice or other. Several days 
 were set for his trial, and he procured new delays by making 
 some new discoveries. At last, when he saw that slight and 
 general ones would not serve his turn, he sent for the Duke 
 of Devonshire, and wrote a paper as a discovery, which he gave 
 him to be sent to the King ; and that Duke, affirming to the 
 Lords Justices that it was not fit that paper should be seen 
 by any before the King saw it, the matter was suffered to rest 
 for this time. 
 
 The great business of this session that held longest in both 
 Houses was a bill relating to Sir John Fenwick. The thing 
 was of so particular a nature that it deserves to be related in a 
 special manner ; and the great share that I bore in the debate 
 when it was in the House of Lords makes it more necessary 
 for me copiously to enlarge upon it, for it may at first view 
 seem very liable to exception that a man of my profession should 
 enter so far into a debate of that nature. Fenwick, when he 
 was taken, wrote a letter to his lady, setting forth his misfortune, 
 and giving himself for dead unless powerful applications could 
 be made for him, or that some of the jury could be_ hired to 
 starve out the rest ; and to that he added, " This, or nothing, 
 can save my life." This letter was taken from the person to 
 whom he had given it. At his first examination before the 
 Lords Justices he denied everything till he was shown this 
 letter, and then he was confounded. In his private treaty with 
 the Duke of Devonshire he desired an assurance of life upon 
 his promise to tell all he knew ; but the King refused that, and 
 would have it left to himself to judge of the truth and the 
 importance of the discoveries he should make ; so he, resolving 
 to cast himself on the King's mercy, sent him a paper, in which, 
 after a bare account of the consultations among the Jacobites
 
 William III 375 
 
 (in which he took care to charge none of his own party), he said 
 that King James and those who were employed by him had 
 assured them that both the Earls of Shrewsbury and Marl- 
 borough, the Lord Godolphin and Admiral Russell, were 
 reconciled to him, and were now in his interests and acting 
 for him. This was a discovery that could signify nothing but 
 to give the King a jealousy of those persons ; for he did not 
 offer the least shadow or circumstance, either of proof or of 
 presumption, to support this accusation. The King, not being 
 satisfied herewith, sent an order for bringing him to trial, unless 
 he made fuller discoveries. He desired to be further examined 
 by the Lords Justices, to whom he, being upon oath, told some 
 more particulars ; but he took care to name none of his own 
 side but those against whom evidence was already brought, or 
 who were safe and. beyond sea. Some few others he named, 
 who were in matters of less consequence that did not amount 
 to high treason ; he owned a thread of negotiations that had 
 passed between them and King James, or the Court of France ; 
 he said the Earl of Aylesbury had gone over to France, and 
 had been admitted to a private audience of the French King, 
 where he had proposed the sending over an army of thirty 
 thousand men, and had undertaken that a great body of gentle 
 men and horses should be brought to join them. It appeared, 
 by his discoveries, that the Jacobites in England were much 
 divided ; some were called Compounders, and others Non- 
 compounders. The first sort desired securities from King 
 James for the preservation of the religion and liberties of 
 England ; whereas the second sort were for trusting him upon 
 discretion without asking any terms, putting all in his power, 
 and relying entirely on his honour and generosity. These 
 seemed, indeed, to act more suitably to the great principle upon 
 which they all insisted that kings have their power from God, 
 and are accountable only to Him for the exercise of it. Dr. 
 Lloyd, the deprived Bishop of Norwich, was the only eminent 
 clergyman that went into this ; and therefore all that party had, 
 upon Sancroft's death, recommended him to King James to 
 have his nomination for Canterbury. 
 
 Fenwick put all this in writing, upon assurance that he 
 should not be forced to witness any part of it. When that 
 was sent to the King, all appearing to be so trifling, and no 
 other proof being offered for any part of it except his own 
 word, which he had stipulated should not be made use of, 
 his Majesty sent an order to bring him to his trial ; but as
 
 376 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 the King was slow in sending this order, so the Duke of 
 Devonshire, who had been in the secret management of the 
 matter, was for some time in the country. The Lords Justices 
 delayed the matter till he came to town ; and then the King's 
 coming was so near, that it was respited till he came over. 
 By these delays Fenwick gained his main design, which was 
 to practise upon the witnesses. Witnesses might conspire to 
 swear a falsehood, but in this case the circumstances took 
 away the possibility of a doubt ; and therefore the Parliament, 
 without taking any notice of Goodman's evidence, might well 
 judge Fenwick guilty, for no man could doubt of it in his 
 own mind. 
 
 Fenwick, seeing no hope was left, prepared himself to die. 
 He desired the assistance of one of the deprived bishops, which 
 was not easily granted ; but in that, and in several other 
 matters, I did him such service that he wrote me a letter of 
 thanks upon it. He was beheaded on Tower Hill, and died 
 very composed, in a much better temper than was to be 
 expected, for his life had been very irregular. At the place 
 of his execution he delivered a paper in writing, wherein he 
 did not deny the facts that had been sworn against him, but 
 complained of the injustice of the procedure, and left his thanks 
 to those who had voted against the bill. He owned his loyalty 
 to King James, and to the Prince of Wales after him ; but 
 mentioned the design of assassinating King William in terms 
 full of horror. 
 
 The negotiation for a peace was held at Ryswick, a house of 
 the King's, between the Hague and Delft. The chief of our 
 plenipotentiaries was the Earl of Pembroke, a man of eminent 
 virtue, and of great and profound leUrning, particularly in the 
 mathematics. This made him a little too speculative and 
 abstracted in his notions. He had a great application ; but 
 he lived a little too much out of the world, though in a public 
 station : a little more practice among men would have given 
 him the last finishing. There was somewhat in his person 
 and manner that created him a universal respect ; for we had 
 no man among us whom all sides loved and honoured so much 
 as they did him. There were two others joined with him in 
 that embassy. 
 
 The King by this peace concluded the great design of putting 
 a stop to the progress of the French arms, which he had con 
 stantly pursued from his first appearance on the stage in the 
 year 1672. There was not one of the allies who complained
 
 William III 377 
 
 that he had been forgotten by him, or wronged in the treaty ; 
 nor had the desire of having his title universally acknowledged 
 raised any impatience in him, or made him run into this peace 
 with any indecent haste. The terms of it were still too much 
 to the advantage of France ; but the length and charge of the 
 war had so exhausted the allies that the King saw the necessity 
 of accepting the best conditions that could be got. The 
 French got, indeed, nothing by a war which they had most 
 perfidiously begun ; they were forced to return to the peace of 
 Nimeguen ; Pignerol and Brisach, which Cardinal Richelieu 
 had considered as the keys of Italy and Germany, were now- 
 parted with, and all that base practice of claiming so much 
 under the head of reunions and dependencies was abandoned : 
 the duchy of Lorraine was also entirely restored. It was 
 generally thought that the King of France intended to live 
 out the rest of his days in quiet ; for his parting with Barcelona 
 made all people conclude that he did not intend to prosecute 
 the Dauphin's pretensions upon the crown of Spain, after that 
 king's death, by a new war, and that he would only try how to "~ 
 manage it by negotiation. 
 
 The King came over to England about the middle of 
 November, and was received by the city of London in a sort 
 of triumph, with all the magnificence that he would admit. 
 The King ordered many of his troops to be disbanded soon 
 after the peace ; but a stop was put to that, because the French 
 were very slow in evacuating the places that were to be restored 
 by the treaty, and were not beginning to reduce their troops ; 
 so, though the King declared what he intended to do, yet he 
 made no haste to execute it till it should appear how the 
 French intended to govern themselves. The King thought it 
 was absolutely necessary to keep up a considerable land force : 
 he knew the French would still maintain great armies, and 
 that the pretended Prince of Wales would certainly be assisted 
 by them if England should fall into a feeble and defenceless 
 condition. 
 
 Papers were written on both sides for and against a standing 
 
 force. On the one hand, it was pretendecffhat a standing army 
 was incompatible with public liberty, and, according to the 
 examples of former times, the one must swallow up the other. 
 It was proposed that the militia might be better modelled and 
 more trained, which, with a good naval force, some thought 
 would be an effectual security against foreign invasions, as well 
 as it would maintain our laws and liberties at home. On the
 
 378 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 other side it was urged that, since all our neighbours were 
 armed, and the most formidable of them all kept up such a 
 mighty force, nothing could give us a real security but a good 
 body of regular troops ; nothing could be made of the militia, 
 chiefly of the horse, but at a vast charge ; and if it was well 
 regulated and well commanded, it would prove a mighty army ; 
 but this of the militia was only talked of to put by the other, 
 for no project was ever proposed to render it more useful. 
 A force at sea might be so shattered, while the enemy kept 
 within their ports (as it actually happened at the Revolution), 
 that this strength might come to be useless when we should 
 need it most ; so that, without a considerable land force, it 
 seemed the nation would be too much exposed. The words 
 " standing army " had an odious sound in English ears, so the 
 popularity lay on the other side ; and the King's ministers 
 suffered generally in the good characters they had hitherto 
 maintained, because they studied to stop the tide that ran so 
 strong the other way. 
 
 The King, before his leaving England in July, settled a 
 household about the Duke of Gloucester ; the Earl of Marl- 
 borough, who was restored to favour was made his governor ; 
 and I was named by the King to be his preceptor. I used all 
 possible endeavours to excuse myself. I had hitherto no share 
 in the Princess's favour or confidence. I was also become 
 uneasy at some things in the King's conduct. I considered 
 him as a glorious instrument raised up by God who had done 
 great things by him. I had also such obligations to him, that 
 I had resolved, on public as well as on private accounts, never 
 to engage in any opposition to him ; and yet I. could not help 
 thinking he might have carried matters further than, he did, 
 and that he was giving his enemies handles to weaken his 
 government. I had tried, but with little success, to use all 
 due freedom with him. He did not love to be found fault 
 with ; and though he bore everything that I said very gently, 
 yet he either discouraged me with silence, or answered in such 
 general expressions that they signified little or nothing. These 
 considerations disposed me rather to retire from the Court and 
 town than to engage deeper in such a constant attendance for 
 so many years as this employment might run out to. The 
 King made it, indeed, easy in one respect ; for, as the young 
 Prince was to be all the summer at Windsor, which was 
 in my diocese, so he allowed me ten weeks in the year for 
 the other parts of my diocese. All my endeavours to decline
 
 William III 379 
 
 this were without effect ; the King would trust that care 
 only to me, and the Princess gave me such encouragement 
 that I resolved not only to submit to this, which seemed to 
 come from a direction of Providence, but to give myself wholly 
 up to it. 
 
 The Parliament of England had now sat its period of three 
 years, in which great things had been done. The whole money 
 of England was rejoined ; the King was secured in his govern-^ 
 ment ; an honourable j>eace was made ; public credit was 
 restored ; and the payment of public debts was put on sure 
 and good funds. The chief conduct now lay in a few hands. 
 The Lord Somers was made a baron of England ; and as he 
 was one of the ablest and the most incorrupt judges that ever 
 sat in Chancery, so his great capacity for all affairs made the 
 King consider him beyond all his ministers, and he well 
 deserved the confidence that the King expressed for him on 
 all occasions. In the House of Commons, Mr. Montague had 
 gained such a visible ascendant over all that were zealous for 
 the King's service, that he gave the law to the rest, which he 
 did always with great spirit, but sometimes with too assuming 
 an air. The fleet was in the Earl of Oxford's management, 
 who was both Treasurer of the Navy and at the head of the 
 Admiralty. He had brought many into the service who were 
 very zealous for the Government; but a spirit of impiety and 
 dissolution ran through too many of them, so that those who 
 intended to cast a load upon the Government had too great 
 advantages given by some of these. There was a new Parliament 
 called, and the elections fell generally on men who were in the 
 interests of the Government ; many of them had, indeed, some 
 popular notions, which they had drunk in under a bad govern 
 ment, and thought they ought to keep them under a good one ; 
 so that those who wished well to the public apprehended great 
 difficulties in managing them. The King himself did not seem 
 to lay this to heart so much as was fitting. He stayed long 
 beyond sea : he had made a visit to the Duke of Zell, where 
 he was treated in a most magnificent manner. Cross winds 
 hindered his coming to England so soon as he intended, upon 
 which the Parliament was prorogued for some weeks after the 
 members were come up. Even this soured their spirits, and 
 had too great a share in the ill-humour that appeared among 
 them. 
 
 About this time the King set up a new favourite. KepjDeJ, 
 a gentleman of Guelders, was raised from being a page into the
 
 380 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 highest degree of favour that any person had ever attained 
 about the King. He was now made Earl of Albemarle, and 
 soon after Knight of the Garter ; and, by a quick and unac 
 countable progress, he seemed to have engrossed the royal 
 favour so entirely, that he disposed of everything that was in 
 the King's power. He was a cheerful young man, who had the 
 heart to please, but was so much given up to his own pleasures 
 that he could scarcely submit to the attendance and drudgery 
 that were necessary to maintain his post. He never had yet 
 distinguished himself in anything, though the King did it in 
 everything. He was not cold nor dry, as the Earl of Portland 
 was thought to be, who seemed to have the art of creating 
 many enemies to himself, and not one friend ; but the Earl of 
 Albemarle had all the arts of a court, was civil to all, and 
 procured many favours. 
 
 I published this year an " Exrjpsition_ of the Thirty-nine 
 Articles of Religion." It seemed a work much wanted, and it 
 was justly to be wondered at that none of our divines had 
 attempted any such performance in a way suitable to the 
 dignity of the subject ; for some slight analyses of them are not 
 worth either mentioning or reading. It was a work that required 
 study and labour, and laid a man open to many malicious 
 attacks. This made some of my friends advise me against 
 publishing it. In compliance with them I kept it five years by 
 me after I had finished it ; but I was now prevailed on by the 
 Archbishop and many of my own order, besides a great many 
 others, to delay the publishing it no longer. It seemed a 
 proper addition to the " History of the Reformation," to 
 explain and prove the doctrine which was then established. I 
 was moved first by the late Queen, and pressed by the late 
 Archbishop to write it. I can appeal to the Searcher of all 
 hearts that I wrote it with great sincerity and a good intention, 
 and with all the application and care I was capable of. 
 
 Some pirates had got together in the Indian seas, and robbed 
 some of the Mogul's ships, in particular one that he was send 
 ing with presents to Mecca : most of them were English. The 
 East India Company having represented the danger of the 
 Mogul's taking reprisals of them for these losses, it appeared 
 that there was a necessity of destroying these pirates, who were 
 harbouring themselves in some creeks in Madagascar ; so a 
 man-of-war was to be sent out to destroy them, and one Kidd 
 was pitched upon, who knew their haunts, and was thought a 
 proper man for the service. When this Kidd was thus set out,
 
 William III 381 
 
 he turned pirate himself; so a heavy load was cast on the 
 ministry, chiefly on him who was at the head of the justice of 
 the nation. It was said he ought not to have engaged in such 
 a project ; and it was maliciously insinuated that the privateer 
 turned pirate in confidence of the protection of those who 
 employed him, if he had not secret orders from them for what 
 he did. 
 
 The great business of this session was the report brought 
 from Ireland by four of the seven Commissioners that were 
 sent by Parliament to examine into the confiscations and the 
 grants made of them. The Commissioners who had been sent 
 to inquire concerning the grants of the Irish forfeited estates 
 were the Earl of Drogheda, Sir Richard Leving, Sir Francis 
 Brewster, Mr. Annesley, Mr. Trenchard, Mr. Hamilton, and 
 Mr. Langford. The first three were Whigs, and had refused to 
 sign the report ; the others were zealous Tories. There is no 
 doubt that a large portion of the forfeitures had been given to 
 the King's Dutch supporters, and a large part of the ex-King's 
 estates had been bestowed upon William's mistress. This was 
 ill-judged, and offensive to the nation. The debates upon the 
 Bill of Resumption were violent and lengthy in both Houses, 
 and it was not until the King directed his friends not to persist 
 in their opposition that it was passed in the House of Lords. 
 When he gave the royal assent to it, and put an end to the 
 session in April, with becoming dignity he did not accompany 
 the dismissal with the usual speech. 
 
 The sudden death of our young Prince at home brought a 
 great change on the face of affairs. I had been trusted with 
 his education now for two years, and he had made an amazing 
 progress. His birthday was the 24th of July, and he was then 
 eleven years old. He complained a little the next day, but we 
 imputed that to the fatigues of a birthday ; so that he was too 
 much neglected. The day after he grew much worse, and it 
 proved to be a malignant fever. He died the fourth day of his 
 illness, to the great grief of all who were concerned in him. 
 He was the only remaining child of seventeen that the Princess 
 had borne, some to the full time, and the rest before it. She 
 attended on him during his sickness with great tenderness, but 
 with a grave composedness that amazed all who saw it. She 
 bore his death with a resignation and piety that were indeed 
 very singular. His death gave a great alarm to the whole 
 nation ; the Jacobites grew insolent upon it, and said, now the 
 chief difficulty was removed out of the way of the -Prince of
 
 382 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 Wales's succession. Soon after this, the House of Brunswick 
 returned the visit that the King had made them last year, and 
 the eyes of all the Protestants in the nation turned towards the 
 Electoress of Brunswick, who was daughter to the Queen of 
 Bohemia, and was the next Protestant heir, all Papists being 
 already excluded from the succession. Thus, of the four lives 
 that we had in view as our chief security, the two that we 
 depended most on, the Queen and the Duke of Gloucester, 
 were carried off on the sudden before we were aware of it ; and 
 of the two that remained (the King and the Princess), as there 
 was no issue, and little hopes of any by either of them, so the 
 King, who at best was a man of a feeble constitution, was now 
 falling under an ill habit of body. His legs were much swelled, 
 which some thought was the beginning of a dropsy, while others 
 thought it was only a scorbutic distemper. 
 
 And now I am come to the end of this century, in which 
 there was a black appearance of a new and dismal scene. 
 France was now in possession of a great empire, for a small 
 part of which they had been in wars (broken off, indeed, in 
 some intervals) for above two hundred years ; while we in 
 England, who were to protect and defend the rest, were, by 
 wretched factions and violent animosities, running into a feeble 
 and disjointed state. The King's cold and reserved manner 
 upon so high a provocation made some conclude that he was 
 in secret engagements with France; that he was resolved to 
 own the new King of Spain, and not to engage in a new war. 
 This seemed so different from his own inclinations, and from 
 all the former parts of his life, that it made many conclude that 
 he found himself in an ill state of health, the swelling of his 
 legs being much increased, and that this might have such 
 effects on his mind as to make him less warm and active, less 
 disposed to involve himself in new troubles ; and that he 
 might think it too inconsiderate a thing to enter on a new 
 war that was not likely to end soon, when he felt himself 
 in a declining state of health ; but the true secret of this 
 unaccountable behaviour in the King was soon discovered. 
 
 We were in full peace ; and it was commonly said that nobody 
 thought any more of King James, and therefore it was fit, for 
 the King's service, to encourage all his people to come into his 
 interests by letting them see how soon he could forget all that 
 was past. These considerations had so far prevailed with him, 
 that before he went out of England he had engaged himself 
 secretly to them. It is true the, death, first of the Duke of
 
 William III 383 
 
 Gloucester, and now of the King of Spain, had very much 
 changed the face of affairs both at home and abroad ; yet the 
 King would not break off from his engagements. 
 
 Soon after his return to England, the Earl of Rochester was 
 declared Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, and he had the chief 
 direction of affairs. And that the most eminent man of the 
 Whigs might not oppose them in the new Parliament, they got 
 Mr. Montague to be made a baron, who took the title of 
 Halifax, which was sunk by the death of that marquis without 
 issue male. The man on whose management of the House ot 
 Commons this new set depended was Mr. Harley, the jieir of a 
 family which had been hitherto the most eminent of the Presby 
 terian party. His education was in that way; but he, not 
 being considered at the Revolution as he thought he deserved, 
 had set himself to oppose Jhe Court in everything, and to find 
 fault with the whole Administration. He had the chief hand 
 both in the reduction of the army and in the matter of the 
 Irish grants. The high party trusted him, though he still kept 
 up an interest among the Presbyterians ; and he had so par 
 ticular a dexterity, that he made both the High Church party 
 and the Dissenters depend upon him ; so it was agreed that he 
 should be Speaker. 
 
 The new King of Spain wrote to all the Courts of Europe, 
 giving notice of his accession to that crown, only he forgot 
 England ; and it was publicly given out that he had promised 
 the pretended Prince of Wales that in due time he would take 
 care of his interests. The King and the States were much 
 alarmed when they beheld the French possessed of the Spanish 
 Netherlands. A great part of the Dutch army lay scattered up 
 and down in those garrisons, more particularly in Luxemburg, 
 Namur, and Mons ; and these were now made prisoners of 
 war. Neither officers nor soldiers could own the King of 
 Spain, for their masters had not yet done it. At this time the 
 French pressed the States very hard to declare themselves. A 
 great party in the States were for owning him, at least in form, 
 till they could get their troops again into their own hands, 
 according to capitulation ; nor were they then in a condition to 
 resist the impression that might have been made upon them 
 from the garrisons in the Spanish Guelders, which could have 
 attacked them before they were able to make head; so the 
 States consented to own the King of Spain. That being 
 done, their battalions were sent back ; but they were ill-used, 
 contrary to capitulation, and the soldiers were tempted to
 
 384 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 desert their service, yet very few could be prevailed on to 
 do it. 
 
 On the ist of April the House of Commons brought up a 
 general impeachment of the Earl of Portland for high crimes 
 and misdemeanours ; but the chief design was against the Earl 
 of Orford and the Lords Somers and Halifax. Their enemies 
 tried again what use could be made of Kidd's business, for he 
 was taken in our northern plantations in America, and brought 
 over. He was examined by the House, but either he could 
 not lay a probable story together, or some remnants of honesty, 
 raised in him by the near prospect of death, restrained him ; he 
 accused no person of having advised or encouraged his turning 
 pirate ; he had never talked alone with any of the lords, and 
 never at all with Lord Somers. He said he had no orders 
 from them but to pursue his voyage against the pirates in 
 Madagascar. All endeavours were used to persuade him to 
 accuse the lords ; he was assured that, if he did it, he should 
 be preserved, and if he did it not, he should certainly die for 
 his piracy. Yet this could not prevail on him to charge them ; 
 so he, with some of his crew, was hanged, there appearing not 
 so much as a colour to fasten any imputation on those lords ; 
 yet their enemies tried what use could be made of the grant of 
 all that Kidd might recover from the pirates, which some bold 
 and ignorant lawyers affirmed to be against law. 
 
 The Commons were very sensible that those impeachments 
 must come to nothing, and that they had not a majority in the 
 House of Lords to judge in them as they should direct; so they 
 resolved on a shorter way to fix a severe censure on the lords 
 whom they had thus impeached. They voted an address to 
 the King for excluding them from his presence and councils 
 for ever. This had never gone along with an impeachment 
 before. The House of Commons had, indeed, begun such a 
 practice in King Charles II. 's time. When they disliked a 
 minister, but had not matter to ground an impeachment 
 on, they had taken this method of making an address against 
 him ; but it was a new attempt to come with an address after 
 an impeachment. This was punishing before trial, contrary to 
 an indispensable rule of justice, of not judging before the parties 
 were heard. The Lords saw that this made their judicature 
 ridiculous, when, in the first instance of an accusation, applica 
 tion was made to the King for a censure, and a very severe 
 one, since few misdemeanours could deserve a harder sentence. 
 Upon these grounds the Lords prevented the Commons, and
 
 William III 385 
 
 sent some of their body to the King with an address, praying 
 him that he would not proceed to any censure of these lords 
 till they had undergone their trial. The King received these 
 addresses, so contrary one to another, from both Houses, but 
 made no answer to either of them, unless the letting the 
 names of these lords continue still in the Council books 
 might be taken as a refusing to grant what the Commons had 
 desired. 
 
 While this was in agitation, a letter came to the King from 
 the King of Spain, giving notice of his accession to that crown. 
 It was dated the day after he entered into Spain, but the date 
 and the letter were visibly written at different times. The King 
 ordered the letter to be read in the Cabinet Council ; there was 
 some short debate concerning it, but it was never brought into 
 any further deliberation there. 
 
 While all these things were in a ferment, the declaring a 
 Protestant successor, after the Princess and such issue as she 
 might have, seemed to be forgotten by our Parliament, though 
 the King had begun his speech with it. The manner in which 
 this motion of the succession was managed did not carry in it 
 great marks of sincerity ; it was often put off from one day to 
 another, and it gave place to the most trifling matters. At last, 
 when a day was solemnly set for it, and all people expected that 
 it would pass without any difficulty, Harley moved that some 
 things previous to that might be first considered. Yet in con 
 clusion it passed, and was sent up to the Lords, where we 
 expected great opposition would be made to it. Some imagined 
 the act was only an artifice designed to gain credit to those 
 who, at this time, were so ill thought of over the nation that 
 they wanted some colourable thing to excuse their other pro 
 ceedings. Many of the Lords absented themselves on design. 
 Some little opposition was made by the Marquis of Norman by ; 
 and four lords the Earls of Huntingdon and Plymouth, and 
 the Lords Guildford and Jefferies protested against it. Those 
 who wished well to the act were glad to have it passed any way, 
 and so would not examine the limitations that were in it ; they 
 thought it of great importance to carry the act, and that at 
 another time those limitations might be better considered ; so 
 the act passed, and the King sent it over by the Earl of 
 Macclesfield to the Electoress, together with the Garter to the 
 Elector. We reckoned it a great point carried that we had 
 now a law on our side for a Protestant successor ; for we 
 plainly saw a great party formed against it in favour of the 
 
 o
 
 386 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 pretended Prince of Wales. He was now past thirteen, bred 
 up with a hatred both of our religion and our constitution, in 
 an admiration of the French Government ; and yet many who 
 called themselves Protestants seemed fond of such a successor 
 a degree of infatuation that might justly amaze all who 
 observed it, and saw the fury with which it was promoted. 
 
 The impeachments lay long neglected in the House of 
 Commons, and probably they would have been let sleep if the 
 lords concerned had not moved for a trial. On their motion 
 messages were sent to the Commons to quicken their pro 
 ceedings. At last articles were framed and brought up, first 
 against the Earl of Orford. He was charged with taking great 
 grants from the King. Kidd's business was objected to him. 
 He was also charged with abuses in managing the fleet, and 
 victualling it, when it lay on the coast of Spain, and for some 
 orders he had given during his command ; and, in conclusion, 
 with advising the Spanish Partition Treaty. In setting this 
 out, the Commons urged that the King, by the alliance made 
 with the Emperor in the year 1689, was bound to maintain his 
 succession to the crown of Spain, which they said was still in 
 force. So the Partition Treaty was a breach of faith contrary 
 to that alliance, and this passed current in the House of 
 Commons, without any debate or inquiry into it ; for every 
 thing was acceptable there that loaded that treaty and these 
 lords. But they did not consider that by this they declared 
 they thought the King was bound to maintain the Emperor's 
 right to that succession ; yet this was not intended by those 
 who managed the party, who had not hitherto given any 
 countenance to the Emperor's pretensions. So apt are parties 
 to make use of anything that may serve a turn without 
 considering the consequences of it. 
 
 A day being set for the Lord Somer's trial, it was put off for 
 some time. At last a peremptory day was fixed for it ; but the 
 Commons refused to appear, and said they were the only 
 judges when they were ready with their evidence, and that it 
 was a mockery to go to a trial when they were not ready to 
 appear at it. When the day set for the trial came, the other 
 lords who were also impeached asked the leave of the House 
 to withdraw, and not to sit and vote in it. This was granted 
 them, though it was much opposed and protested against by 
 the Tory party, because the giving such leave supposed that 
 they had a right to vote. The Lords went down in form to 
 Westminster Hall, where the articles against the Lord Somers
 
 William III 387 
 
 were first read. Lord Somers's answers were next read ; and 
 none appearing to make good the charge, the Lords came 
 back to their House, where they had a long and warm debate 
 of many hours. The Lords then went again to the Hall ; and 
 the question being put, "Whether he ought to be acquitted of 
 the impeachment ? " fifty-six voted in the affirmative, and 
 thirty-one in the negative. 
 
 A few days after this the Earl of Orford's trial came on, but, 
 all the lords of the other side withdrawing, there was no 
 dispute ; so he was acquitted by a unanimous vote. The 
 Lords also acquitted both the Earl of Portland and the Lord 
 Halifax; and because the Commons had never insisted on 
 their prosecution of the Duke of Leeds, which they had begun 
 some years before, they likewise acquitted him, and so this 
 contentious session came to an end. 
 
 I am now come to the last period of the life of the 
 unfortunate King James. He had led for above ten years a 
 very inactive life in France. In the beginning of September 
 he fell into such fits that it was concluded he could not live 
 many days. The King of France came to see him, and seemed 
 to be much touched with the sight. He, with some difficulty, 
 recommended his Queen and son to his care and protection. 
 The French King answered, he would reckon their concerns as 
 his own ; and when he left him, he promised those of his Court 
 that he would, upon King James's death, own the Prince of 
 Wales as King of England, and that he would take care of 
 them all. King James died on the i6th of September. 
 
 All this summer the King continued at Loo, in a very ill 
 state of health. New methods gave some relief; but when he 
 came to the Hague, on his way to England, he was for some 
 time in so bad a condition that they were in great fear of 
 his life. He recovered, and came over in the beginning of 
 November. 
 
 The first thing that fell under debate upon his return was, 
 whether the Parliament should be continued or dissolved, and 
 a new one called. The new ministry struggled hard against a 
 dissolution, and when they saw the King resolved on it, some 
 of them left his service. This was thought so critical a con 
 juncture, that both sides exerted their full strength. Most of 
 the great counties and the chief cities chose men that were 
 zealous for the King and Government, but the rotten part of 
 our constitution, the small boroughs, were in many places 
 wrought on to choose bad men. Upon the whole, however, it
 
 388 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 appeared that a clear majority was in the King's interests, yet 
 the activity of the angry side was such that they had a majority 
 in choosing the Speaker, and in determining controverted 
 elections ; but in matters of public concern things went on as 
 the King desired, and as the interest of the nation required. 
 
 And now I am arrived at the fatal period of this reign. The 
 King seemed all this winter in a very fair way of recovery. He 
 had made the royal apartments in Hampton Court very noble, 
 and he was so much pleased with the place that he went 
 thither once a week, and rode often about the park. In the 
 end of February the horse he rode on stumbled, and he, being 
 then very feeble, fell off and broke his collar-bone. He seemed 
 to have no other hurt by it, and his strength was then so much 
 impaired that it was not thought necessary to let him bleed, 
 no symptom appearing that required it. The bone was well 
 set, and it was thought there was no danger ; so he was brought 
 to Kensington that night. He himself had apprehended all 
 this winter that he was sinking. He said to the Earl of Port 
 land, both before and after this accident, that he was a dead 
 man. It was not in his legs, nor now in his collar-bone, that 
 he felt himself ill ; but all was decayed within, so that he 
 believed he should not be able to go through the fatigue of 
 another campaign. During his illness he sent a message to 
 the two Houses, recommending the Union of both kingdoms 
 to them. 
 
 On the 3rd of March the King had a short fit of an ague, 
 which he regarded so little that he said nothing of it. It 
 returned on him next day. I happened to be then near him, 
 and observed such a visible alteration as gave me a very ill 
 opinion of his condition. After that he kept his chamber 
 till Friday. Every day it was given out that his fits abated. 
 On Friday things had so melancholy a face that his being 
 dangerously ill was no longer concealed. There was now such 
 a difficulty of breathing, and his pulse was so sunk, that the alarm 
 was given out everywhere. He had sent the Earl of Albemarleover 
 to Holland to put things in readiness for an early campaign ; and 
 he came back on the yth of March, in the morning, with so good 
 an account of everything, that, if matters of that kind could 
 have wrought on the King, it must have revived him j but the 
 coldness with which he received it showed how little hopes 
 were left. Soon after he said, "Je tire vers ma fin" (I draw 
 towards my end). The Act of Abjuration and the Money 
 Bill were now prepared for the royal assent; thft Council
 
 William III 389 
 
 ordered all things to be in readiness for the passing of those 
 bills by a Special Commission, which, according to form, 
 must be signed by the King, in the presence of the Lord 
 Keeper and the clerks of the Parliament. They came to the 
 King when his fit began, and stayed some hours before they 
 were admitted. Some in the House of Commons moved for 
 an adjournment, though the Lords had sent to them not to 
 adjourn for some time. By this means they hoped the Bill of 
 Abjuration should be lost; but it was contrary to all rules to 
 adjourn when such a message was sent them by the Lords ; so 
 they waited till the King had signed the Commission and the 
 bills, and thus those acts passed in the last day of the King's life. 
 The King's strength and pulse were still sinking as the 
 difficulty of breathing increased, so that no hope was left. 
 The Archbishop of Canterbury and I went to him on Saturday 
 morning, and did not stir from him till he died. Between 
 seven and eight o'clock the rattle began, the commendatory 
 prayer was said for him, and as it ended he died, on Sunday, 
 the 8th of March, 1702, in the fifty-second year of his age, 
 having reigned thirteen years and a few days.
 
 BOOK VII 
 
 OF THE LIFE AND REIGN OF QUEEN ANNE 
 
 BY the death of King William, pursuant to the act that had 
 settled the succession of the crown, it devolved on Anne, the 
 youngest daughter of King James by his first marriage. She 
 was then entered on the thirty-eighth year of her age. Upon 
 the King's death, the Privy Council came in a body to wait on 
 the new Queen. She received them with a well-considered 
 speech. She expressed great respect to the memory of the 
 late King, in whose steps she intended to go for preserving 
 both Church and State, in opposition to the growing power of 
 France, and for maintaining the succession in the Protestant 
 line. She pronounced this, as she did all her other speeches, 
 with great weight and authority, and with a softness of voice, 
 and sweetness in the pronunciation that added much life to all 
 she spoke. These her first expressions were heard with great 
 and just acknowledgments. Both Houses of Parliament met 
 that day, and made addresses to her full of respect and duty. 
 She answered both very favourably, and she received all that 
 came to her in so gracious a manner that they went from her 
 highly satisfied with her goodness and her obliging deportment ; 
 for she hearkened with attention to everything that was said to 
 her. Two days after she went to the Parliament, which, to 
 the great happiness of the nation, and to the advantage of her 
 government, was now continued to sit, notwithstanding the 
 King's demise, by the act that was made five years before, upon 
 the discovery of the assassination plot. In her speech she 
 repeated, but more copiously, what she had said to the 
 Council upon her first accession to the throne. 
 
 The coronation was on the 23rd of April, on St. George's 
 day. It was performed with the usual magnificence. The 
 Archbishop of York (Dr. Sharp) preached a good and wise 
 sermon on the occasion. The Queen immediately after that 
 gave orders for naming the Electoress of Brunswick, in the 
 collect for the royal family, as the next heir of the crown, and 
 she formed a ministry. 
 
 The Lord Godolphin was made Lord Treasurer. This was 
 very uneasy to himself, for he resisted the motion long ; but
 
 Queen Anne 391 
 
 the Earl of Marlborough pressed it in so positive a manner, 
 that he said he could not go beyond sea to command our 
 armies unless the Treasury was put in his hands ; for then he 
 was sure that remittances would be punctually made him. He 
 was declared Captain-General, and Prince George, the Queen's 
 husband, had the title of Generalissimo of all the Queen's 
 Forces by Sea and Land. The Prince was also made Lord 
 High Admiral, which he was to govern by a council. The 
 legality of this was much questioned, for it was a new court, 
 which could not be authorised to act but by an Act of 
 Parliament ; yet the respect paid the Queen made that no 
 public'question was made of this, so that objections to it never 
 went beyond a secret murmur. The Earl of Nottingham and 
 Sir Charles Hedges were made Secretaries of State. The 
 Tories would trust none but the Earl of Nottingham, and he 
 would serve with none but Hedges. The maxim laid down at 
 Court was to put the direction of affairs in the hands of the 
 Tories. The Earl of Marlborough assured me this was done, 
 upon the promises they made to carry on the war, and to 
 maintain the alliances. If they kept these, then affairs would 
 go on smoothly in the House of Commons ; but if they failed 
 in this, the Queen would put her business in other hands, which 
 at that time few could believe. The Marquis of Normanby 
 was, to the admiration of all men, made Lord Privy Seal, and 
 soon after Duke of Buckingham. The Earl of Abingdon, 
 Viscount Weymouth, Lord Dartmouth, Seymour, Musgrave, 
 Granville, Howe, Lugon (Levison), Gower, Harcourt, with 
 several others who had, during the last reign, expressed the 
 most violent and unrelenting aversion to the whole Administra 
 tion, were now brought to the Council-board, and put in 
 good posts. 
 
 The Queen, in her first speech to her Parliament, had renewed 
 the motion made by the late King for the Union of both 
 kingdoms. Many of those who seemed now to have the 
 greatest share of her favour and confidence opposed it with 
 much heat, and not without indecent reflections on the Scotch 
 nation ; yet it was carried by a great majority that the Queen 
 should be empowered to name Commissioners for treating of a 
 Union. It was so visibly the interest of England, and of the 
 present Government, to shut that back-door against the 
 practices of France and the attempts of the pretended Prince 
 of Wales, that the opposition made to this first step towards a 
 Union, and the indecent scorn with which Seymour and others
 
 392 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 treated the Scots, were clear indications that the posts they 
 were brought into had not changed their tempers ; but that, 
 instead of healing matters, they intended to irritate them further 
 by their reproachful speeches. The bill went through both 
 Houses, notwithstanding the rough treatment it met with at 
 first. 
 
 The affairs of Scotland began to be somewhat embroiled. 
 By an act made soon after the Revolution, it was provided that 
 all princes succeeding to the crown should take the coronation 
 oath before they entered upon their regal dignity; but no 
 direction was given concerning those who should tender it, or 
 the manner in which it should be taken. So this being left 
 undetermined, the Queen called together all the late King's 
 ministers for that kingdom, and in the presence of about twelve 
 of them she took the coronation oath. Men who were disposed 
 to censure everything said that this ought not to be done but 
 in the presence of some deputed for that effect either by the 
 Parliament, or at least by the Privy Council of that kingdom. 
 
 The Parliament, however, by one act recognised the Queen's 
 title ; by another they empowered her to name Commissioners 
 to treat of the Union of the two kingdoms ; and by a third they 
 gave a tax sufficient to keep up the force that was then in 
 Scotland for two years longer. 
 
 Ireland was put under Lords Justices named by the Earl of 
 Rochester, and the trustees continued still in their former 
 authority. 
 
 While our affairs were in this posture at home, all the North 
 of Germany was united, and ready to declare against France. 
 The first step of this war was to be made in the name of the 
 Elector Palatine, in the siege of Kaiserwerth, which, whilst in 
 the enemy's hands, exposed both the circle of Westphalia and 
 the States' dominions ; for their places on the Waal, being in no 
 good condition, were laid open to the excursions of that garrison. 
 Negotiations were still carried on in several Courts. Methuen 
 was sent to try the Court of Portugal. He came quickly back, 
 with full assurances of a neutrality and a freedom of trade in 
 their ports. Insinuations were given of a disposition to go 
 further, upon a better prospect and better terms, so he was 
 presently sent back to drive that matter as far as it would go. 
 The Pope pretended he would keep the neutrality of a common 
 father, but his partiality to the French appeared on many occa 
 sions ; yet the Court of Vienna had that veneration for the 
 see, that they contented themselves with expostulating, without
 
 Queen Anne 393 
 
 carrying their resentments further. The Venetians and the 
 great Duke followed the example set them by the Pope, though 
 the former did not escape so well, for their country suffered on 
 both hands. 
 
 The Prince of Baden drew together the troops of the empire. 
 He began with blocking up Landau, and that was soon turned 
 to a siege. Catinat was sent to command the French army in 
 Alsace, but it was so weak that he was not able to make head 
 with it. In the end of April the Dutch formed three armies : 
 one, under the Prince of Nassau, undertook the siege of Kaiser- 
 werth ; another was commanded by the Earl of Athlone, and lay 
 in the duchy of Cleve, to cover the siege ; a third, commanded 
 by Cohorn, broke into Flanders, and put a great part of that 
 country under contribution. Marshal Boufflers drew his army 
 together, and having laid up great magazines in Roermond 
 and Venloo, he passed the Maese with his whole army. The 
 Duke of Burgundy came down post from Paris to command, it. 
 The States apprehended that so great a prince would at his first 
 appearance undertake somewhat worthy of him, and thought 
 the design might be upon Maestricht ; so they put twelve 
 thousand men in garrison there. The auxiliary troops from 
 Germany did not come so soon as was expected, and cross winds 
 stopped a great part of our army, so that the Earl of Athlone 
 was not strong enough to enter into action with Marshal 
 Boufflers, but he lay about Cleve watching his motions. The 
 siege of Kaiserwerth went on slowly ; the Rhine, swelling very 
 high, so filled their trenches that they could not work in them. 
 Marshal Tallard was sent to lie on the other side of the Rhine, 
 to cannonade the besiegers, and to send fresh men into the 
 town. The King of Prussia came to Wesel, from whence he 
 furnished the besiegers with all that was necessary. There was 
 one vigorous attack made, in which many were killed on both 
 sides. In conclusion, after a brave defence, the counterscarp 
 was carried, and then the town capitulated, and was razed, 
 according to agreement. 
 
 Soon after this the Earl of Marlborough came over and took 
 the command of the army. The Earl of Athlone was set on by 
 the other Dutch generals to insist on his quality of Field 
 Marshal, and to demand the command by turns. He was now 
 in high reputation by his late conduct, but the States obliged 
 him to yield this to the Earl of Marlborough, who, indeed, used 
 him so well that the command seemed to be equal between 
 them. The Earl of Athlone was always inclined to cautious 
 
 o 2
 
 394 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 and sure, but feeble, counsels ; but the Earl of Marlborough, 
 when the army was brought together, finding his force superior 
 to the Duke of Burgundy, passed the Maese at the Grave, and 
 marched up to the French. They retired as he advanced. This 
 made him for venturing on a decisive action ; but the Dutch 
 apprehended the putting things to such a hazard, and would 
 not consent to it. The Pensioner, and those who ordered 
 matters at the Hague, proceeded the more timorously, because, 
 upon the King's death, those who had always opposed him 
 were beginning to form parties in several of their towns, and 
 were designing a change of Government ; so that a public mis 
 fortune in their conduct would have given great advantages to 
 those who were watching for them. The Pensioner was par 
 ticularly aimed at. This made him more unwilling to run any 
 risk. Good judges thought that if the Earl of Marlborough's 
 advices had been followed, matters might have been brought to 
 a happy decision, but as he conducted the army prudently, so 
 he was careful not to take too much upon him. The Duke of 
 Burgundy, finding himself obliged to retreat as the confederate 
 army advanced, thought this was not suitable to his dignity ; 
 so he left the army, and ended his first campaign very in- 
 gloriously ; and it seems the King was not satisfied with Marshal 
 Boufflers, for he never commanded their armies since that 
 time. The Earl of Marlborough went on, taking several 
 places which made little or no resistance ; and seeing that 
 Marshal Boufflers kept at a safe distance, so that there was no 
 hope of an engagement with him, he resolved to fall into the 
 Spanish Guelders. He began with Venloo. There was a fort on 
 the other side of the river that commanded it, which was taken 
 by the Lord Cutts in so gallant a manner, that it deserved to 
 be much commended by everybody but himself; but he lost 
 the honour that was due to many brave actions of his by talking 
 too much of them. The young Earl of Huntingdon showed 
 upon this, as upon many other occasions, an extraordinary 
 heat of courage. He called to the soldiers who had got over 
 the palisades to help him over, and promised them all the 
 money he had about him, which he performed very generously, 
 and led them on with much bravery and success. Upon the 
 fort being taken, the town capitulated. Roermond and 
 Stevenswaert were taken in a few days after; for Marshal 
 Boufflers did not come to their relief. Upon these successes, 
 that came quicker than was expected, the Earl of Marlborough 
 advanced to Liege, which was a place of more importance, in
 
 Queen Anne 395 
 
 which he might put a great part of his army in winter quarters. 
 The town quickly capitulated, the citadel was carried by storm, 
 and another fort in the town likewise surrendered. Here was 
 a very prosperous campaign. Many places were taken with 
 little resistance, and an inconsiderable loss either of time or of 
 men. The Earl of Marlborough's conduct and deportment 
 gained him the hearts of the army. The States were highly 
 satisfied with everything he did, and the Earl of Athlone did him 
 the justice to own that he had differed in opinion from him in 
 everything that was done, and that therefore the honour of their 
 success was wholly owing to him. 
 
 Soon after his return to England the Queen made him Duke 
 of Marlborough ; and both Houses of Parliament sent some of 
 their number to him with their thanks for the great services he 
 had done this campaign. 
 
 I now change the element to give an account of our opera 
 tions at sea. Rooke had the command. The fleet put to sea 
 much later than we hoped for. The Dutch fleet came over 
 about a month before ours was ready. The whole consisted of 
 fifty ships of the line, and a land army was put on board of 
 twelve thousand men, seven thousand English and five thousand 
 Dutch. 
 
 They were for some time stopped by contrary winds, acci 
 dents, and pretences, many of which were thought to be 
 strained and sought for ; but the wind being turned wholly 
 favourable after some cross winds, which had rendered their 
 passage slow and tedious, they came, on the i2th of August, 
 into the Bay of Cadiz. Rooke had laid no disposition before 
 hand how to proceed upon his coming thither. Some days 
 were lost on pretence of seeking for intelligence. 
 
 The council of war, in which their instructions were read, 
 came to a resolution not to make a descent on the island of 
 Cadiz; for they had met with intelligence there that the 
 Spanish plate fleet, with a good convoy of French men-of-war, 
 had put in at Vigo, a port in Galicia, not far from Portugal, 
 where the entrance was narrow and capable of a good defence. 
 It widened within land into a bay or mouth of a river, where 
 the ships lay very conveniently. He who commanded the 
 French fleet ordered a boom to be laid across the entrance, and 
 forts to be raised on both sides. He had not time to finish what 
 he designed, otherwise the place had been inaccessible ; but, as 
 it was, the difficulty in forcing this port was believed to be 
 greater than any they would have met with if they had landed
 
 396 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 on the isle of Cadiz. As soon as this fleet had put in at Vigo, 
 Methuen, the Queen's minister at Lisbon, sent advertisements 
 of it to all the places where he thought our advice-boats might 
 be ordered to call. Rooke had given no orders for any to call, 
 and so held on his course towards Cape Finisterre. But one of 
 his captains, Hardy, whilst he watered in Algarve, heard the 
 news there, upon which he made all the sail he could after 
 Rooke, and overtook him. Rooke, upon that, turned his course 
 towards Vigo, very unwillingly as was said, and, finding the 
 advice was true, he resolved to force his way in. The Duke of 
 Ormonde landed with a body of the army, and attacked the forts 
 with great bravery, while the ships broke the boom and forced 
 the port. When the French saw what was done, they left their 
 ships, and set some of the men-of-war and some of the galleons 
 on fire. Our men came up with such diligence that they 
 stopped the progress of the fire ; yet fifteen men-of-war and 
 eight galleons were burnt or sunk; but our men were in time 
 to save five men-of-war and five galleons, which they took. 
 Here was a great destruction made, and a great booty taken, 
 with very little loss on our side. One of our ships was set on 
 fire by a fire-ship, but she too was saved, though with the loss 
 of some men, which was all the loss we sustained in this im 
 portant action. The Duke of Ormonde marched into the 
 country and took some forts, and the town of Ritondella, 
 where much plunder was found. The French seamen and 
 soldiers escaped, for we, having no horse, were not in a condi 
 tion to pursue them. A great deal of the treasure taken at 
 Vigo was embezzled, and fell into private hands. One of the 
 galleons foundered at sea. The public was not much enriched 
 by this extraordinary capture, yet the loss our enemies made 
 by it was a vast one ; and, to complete the ruin of the Spanish 
 merchants, their King seized on the plate that was taken out 
 of the ships upon their first arrival at Vigo. Thus the cam 
 paign ended very happily for the allies, and most gloriously 
 for the Queen, whose first year, being such a continued course 
 of success, gave a hopeful presage of what might be hereafter 
 expected. 
 
 The session of Parliament comes next to be related. 
 
 The House of Commons very unanimously, and with great 
 dispatch, agreed to all the demands of the Court, and voted all 
 the supplies that were necessary for carrying on the war. Upon 
 the Duke of Marlborough's coming over, a new demand for an 
 additional force was made, since the King of France had given
 
 Queen Anne 397 
 
 out commissions for a great increase of his armies. Upon that 
 the States moved the Queen for ten thousand more men. 
 This was consented to, but it was insisted on that, before the 
 pay of these new troops should begin, the States should prohibit 
 all trade with France, and break off all correspondence with 
 that kingdom. 
 
 The Queen sent a message to the Commons, desiring them 
 to make some suitable provision for Prince George, in case he 
 should outlive her. He was many years older than the Queen, 
 and was troubled with an asthma that every year had very ill 
 effects on his health ; it had brought him into great danger 
 this winter, yet the Queen thought it became her to provide for 
 all events. Howe moved that it should be ; 100,000 a year. 
 This was seconded by those who knew how acceptable the 
 motion would be to the Queen, though it was the double of 
 what any Queen in England ever had in jointure ; so it passed 
 without any opposition. 
 
 At this time the Earl of Rochester quitted his place of Lord- 
 Lieutenant of Ireland. He was uneasy at the preference which 
 the Duke of Marlborough had in the Queen's confidence, and 
 at the Lord Godolphin's being Lord Treasurer. The Queen 
 sent a message to him, ordering him to make ready to go to 
 Ireland ; for it seemed very strange, especially in a time of war, 
 that a person in so great a post should not attend upon it ; but 
 he, after some days advising about it, went to the Queen, and 
 desired to be excused from that employment. This was readily 
 accepted, and upon that he withdrew from the Councils. It 
 was immediately offered to the Duke of Ormonde, and he was 
 made Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland. 
 
 The death of his only son, who died at Cambridge of the 
 small-pox, delayed the departure of the Duke of Marlborough ; 
 but upon his arrival on the other side the Dutch brought their 
 armies into the field. The Duke speedily took Bonn, Huy, 
 Limburg, and Guelders. It was in this year, on the 27th of 
 November, that the great storm, more violent than any in the 
 memory of man, visited England, doing immense mischief both 
 by sea and land. 
 
 During the session of 1704, and on her own birthday, which 
 was the 6th of February, the Queen- sent a message to the 
 House of Commons, signifying her purpose to apply that 
 branch of the revenue that was raised out of the first-fruits 
 and tenths paid by the clergy to the increase of all the small 
 benefices in the nation. This branch was an imposition, begun
 
 398 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 by the Popes in the time of the Holy Wars, and it was raised 
 as a fund to support those expeditions. So this became a 
 standing branch of the Papal revenue, until Henry VIII. 
 seemed resolved to take it away. It was first abolished for a 
 year, probably to draw in the clergy to consent the more 
 willingly to a change that delivered them from such heavy 
 impositions ; but in the succeeding session of Parliament this 
 revenue was again settled as part of the income of the Crown 
 for ever. 
 
 When I wrote the " History of the Reformation," I considered 
 this matter so particularly that I saw here was a proper fund 
 for providing better subsistence to the poor clergy, we having 
 among us some hundreds of cures that have not of certain 
 provision twenty pounds a year, and some thousands that have 
 not fifty. Where the encouragement is so small, what can it be, 
 expected clergymen should be ? It is a crying scandal that at 
 the restoration of King Charles II., the bjshops and other 
 dignitaries, who raised much above a million in fines, yet did 
 so little this way. I had possessed the late Queen with this, so 
 that she was fully resolved, if ever she had lived to see peace and 
 settlement, to have cleared this branch of the revenue of all the 
 assignations that were upon it, and to have applied it to the 
 augmentation of small benefices. 
 
 Upon the Queen's message, a bill was brought in, enabling 
 her to alienate this branch of the revenue, and to create a 
 corporation by charter to apply it to the use for which she now 
 gave it ; they added to this a repeal of the Statute of Mortmain, 
 so far as that it might be free to all men, either by deed or 
 by their last wills, to give what they thought fit towards the 
 augmenting of benefices. 
 
 I turn to give an account of the affairs abroad. The Emperor 
 was reduced to the last extremities ; the Elector of Bavaria was 
 master of the Danube all down to Passau ; and the malcontents 
 in Hungary were making a formidable progress. The Emperor 
 was not in a condition to maintain a defensive war long on 
 both hands, so r';at when these should come to act by concert, 
 no opposition could be made to them. Thus his affairs had a 
 very black appearance, and utter ruin was to be apprehended. 
 Vienna would be probably besieged on both sides, and it was 
 not in a condition to make a long defence ; so the House of 
 Austria seemed lost. Prince Eugene proposed that the Emperor 
 should implore the Queen's protection. This was agreed to, 
 and Count Wratislaw managed the matter at our Court with
 
 Queen Anne 399 
 
 great application and secrecy. The Duke of Marlborough saw 
 the necessity of undertaking it, and resolved to try if it was 
 possible to put it in execution. Under the blind of a project 
 for carrying the war to the Moselle, everything was prepared 
 that was necessary for executing the true design. When the 
 Duke went over the second time, that which was proposed in 
 public related only to the motions towards the Moselle ; so he 
 drew his army together in May. He marched towards the 
 Moselle, but he went farther ; and, after he had gained the 
 advance of some days of the French troops, he wrote to the 
 States from Ladenburg, to let them know that he had the 
 Queen's order to march to the relief of the empire. So he 
 marched with all possible expedition from the Rhine to the 
 Danube, which was a great surprise to the Court of France, as 
 well as to the Elector of Bavaria. 
 
 The two armies were now in view one of another. The 
 French were superior to us in foot by about ten thousand ; but 
 we had three thousand more horse than they. The post of 
 which they were possessed was capable of being, in a very little 
 time put out of all danger of future attacks ; so the Duke 
 of Marlborough and Prince Eugene saw how important it 
 was to lose no time, and resolved to attack them the next 
 morning. 
 
 Our men quickly passed the brook, the French making no 
 opposition. This was a fatal error, and was laid wholly to 
 Tallard's charge. The action that followed was for some time 
 very hot ; many fell on both sides. Ten battalions of the 
 French stood their ground, but were in a manner mowed down 
 in their ranks. Upon that the horse ran many of them into the 
 Danube. Most of these perished. Tallard himself was taken 
 prisoner. The rest of his troops .were posted in the village of 
 Blenheim : these, seeing all lost, and that some bodies were ad 
 vancing upon them, which seemed to them to be thicker than 
 indeed they were, and apprehending that it was impossible to break 
 through, they did not attempt it, though brave men might have 
 made their way. Instead of that, when our men came up to 
 set fire to the village, the Earl of Orkney first beating a parley, 
 they hearkened to it very easily, and were all made prisoners of 
 war. There were about thirteen hundred officers and twelve 
 thousand common soldiers who laid down their arms and were 
 now in our hands. Thus all Tallard's army was either killed in 
 the action, drowned in the Danube, or become prisoners by 
 capitulation. Things went not so easily on Prince Eugene's
 
 400 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 side, where the Elector and Marsin commanded. He was 
 repulsed in three attacks, but carried the fourth, and broke 
 in ; and so he was master of their camp, cannon, and baggage. 
 The enemy retired in some order, and he pursued them as far 
 as men wearied with an action of about six hours, in an 
 extremely hot day, could go. Thus we gained an entire victory. 
 In this action there were on our side about twelve thousand 
 killed and wounded ; but the French and the Elector lost 
 about forty thousand killed, wounded, and taken. The 
 Elector marched with all the haste he could to Ulm, where 
 he left some troops, and then with a small body got to 
 Villeroi's army. Now all Bavaria was at mercy. The Electress 
 received the civilities due to her sex, but she was forced to 
 submit to such terms as were imposed on her. Ingolstadt and 
 all the fortified places in the electorate, with the magazines 
 that were in them, were soon delivered up ; Augsburg, Ulm, 
 and Meming quickly recovered their liberty; so now Marl- 
 borough, having put a speedy conclusion to the war that was 
 got so far into the bowels of the empire, marched quickly back 
 to the Rhine. 
 
 This he executed with that diligence that the French aban 
 doned every place as he advanced with such precipitation that 
 they had not time given them to burn the places they forsook, 
 according to the barbarous method which they had long prac 
 tised. The Duke got to Trier, and that being a large place, 
 he posted a great part of his army in and about it, and left a 
 sufficient force with the Prince of Hesse for the taking of 
 Traerbach, which held out some weeks, but capitulated at last. 
 Landau was not taken before the middle of November. Thus 
 ended this glorious campaign, in which England and Holland 
 gained a very unusual glory. Prince Eugene, too, had a just 
 share in the honour of this great expedition. 
 
 I now turn to the other element, where our affairs were 
 carried on more doubtfully. Rooke fell in upon Gibraltar, 
 where some bold men ventured to go ashore in a place where 
 it was not thought possible to climb up the rocks, yet they 
 succeeded in it. When they got up, they saw all the women of 
 the town were come out to a chapel there, to implore the 
 Virgin's protection. They seized on them, and that contri 
 buted not a little to dispose those in the town to surrender. 
 The Prince of Hesse, with the marines that were on board the 
 fleet, possessed himself of the place, and they were furnished 
 out of the stores with everything that was necessary.
 
 Queen Anne 401 
 
 In Spain the rival sovereigns were in the midst of intestine 
 war. King Philip V. had obtained some advantages in his 
 invasion of Portugal; and Charles III. had been repulsed by 
 the Duke of Berwick in his attempt upon Castile. The Earl 
 of Peterborough was sent to the aid of the latter, and landed 
 on the coast of Catalonia. Lerida and Tortosa surrendered ; 
 Barcelona capitulated ; and almost the whole of Valencia and 
 Catalonia then acknowledged King Charles. 
 
 But now I come to 1706, and turn to another and a greater 
 scene. The King of France was assured that the King of 
 Denmark would stand upon some high demands he made to 
 the allies, so that the Duke of Marlborough could not have the 
 Danes, who were about ten or twelve thousand, to join him for 
 some time ; and that the Prussians, almost as many as the 
 Danes, could not come up to the confederate army for some 
 weeks ; so he ordered the Elector of Bavaria and Villeroi to 
 march up to them, and to venture on a battle, since, without 
 the Danes, they would have been much superior in number. 
 The States yielded to all Denmark's demands ; and the Prince 
 of Wiirtemburg, who commanded their troops, being very well 
 affected, reckoned that, all being granted, he needed not stay 
 till he sent to Denmark, nor wait for their express orders, but 
 marched and joined the army the day before the engagement. 
 The French left their baggage and heavy cannon at Jodoigne, 
 and marched up to the Duke of Marlborough. He was 
 marching towards them on the same design ; for, if they had 
 not offered him battle on the i2th, he was resolved to have 
 attacked them on the 1 3th of May. They met near a village 
 called Ramillies (not far from the Mehaigne), from whence the 
 battle takes its name. The engagement was an entire one, 
 and the action was hot for two hours : both the French 
 mousquetaires and the cuirassiers were there. The Elector of 
 Bavaria said it was the best army he ever beheld. But, after 
 two hours, the French gave way everywhere ; so it ended in an 
 entire defeat. 
 
 At home another matter of great consequence was put in a 
 good and promising method. The Commissioners of both 
 kingdoms sat close in a treaty till about the middle of July. In 
 conclusion, they prepared a complete scheme of an entire Union 
 of both nations, some particulars being only referred to be 
 settled by their Parliaments respectively. When everything 
 was agreed to, they presented one copy of the treaty to the 
 Queen, and each side had a copy, to be presented to their
 
 402 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 respective Parliament, all three copies being signed by the 
 Commissioners of both kingdoms. It was resolved to lay the 
 matter first before the Parliament of Scotland, because it was 
 apprehended that it would meet with the greatest opposition 
 there. The Union of the two kingdoms was a work of which 
 many had quite despaired, in which number I was one; and 
 those who entertained better hopes, thought it must have run 
 out into a long negotiation for several years ; but, beyond all 
 men's expectation, it was begun and finished within the 
 compass of one. The Union was to commence on the ist of 
 May, and until that time the two kingdoms were still distinct, 
 and their two Parliaments continued still to sit. 
 
 On the Upper Rhine the two Electors continued looking on 
 one another without venturing on any action ; but the great 
 scene was laid in Flanders. The French princes came to Mons 
 in the spring of 1708, and there they opened the campaign, and 
 advanced to Soignies, with an army of a hundred thousand 
 men. The Duke of Marlborough lay between Enghien and 
 Halle with his army, which was about eighty thousand. The 
 French had their usual practices on foot in several towns in 
 those parts. A conspiracy to deliver Antwerp to them was 
 discovered and prevented. The truth was, the Dutch were 
 severe masters, and the Flandrians could not bear it. Though 
 the French had laid heavier taxes on them, yet they used them 
 better in all other respects. Their bigotry, being wrought on 
 by their priests, disposed them to change masters, so these 
 practices succeeded better in Ghent and Bruges. The Duke 
 of Marlborough resolved not to weaken his army by many 
 garrisons ; so he put none at all in Bruges, and a very weak 
 one in the citadel of Ghent, reckoning that there was no 
 danger as long as he lay between those places and the French 
 army. The two armies lay about a month looking on one 
 another, shifting their camps a little, but keeping still in safe 
 ground, so that there was no action all the while. But near 
 the end of June some bodies drawn out of the garrisons about 
 Ypres came and possessed themselves of Bruges without any 
 opposition ; and the garrison in Ghent was too weak to make 
 any resistance, so they capitulated and marched out. Upon 
 this the whole French army marched towards those places, 
 hoping to have carried Oudenarde in their way. The Duke of 
 Marlborough followed so quick that they drew off from 
 Oudenarde as he advanced. In one day, which was the last of 
 June, he made a march of five leagues, passed the Scheldt
 
 Queen Anne 403 
 
 without any opposition, came up to the French army, and 
 engaged them in the afternoon. They had the advantage both 
 of numbers and of ground ; yet our men beat them from every 
 post, and, in an action that lasted six hours, we had such an 
 entire advantage that nothing but the darkness of the night 
 and weariness of our men saved the French army from being 
 totally ruined. There were about five thousand killed and 
 about eight thousand made prisoners (of whom one thousand 
 were officers), and about six thousand more deserted ; so that 
 the French lost at least twenty thousand men, and retired in 
 great haste and in greater confusion to Ghent. On the 
 confederates' side there were about one thousand killed and 
 two thousand wounded ; but our army was so wearied with a 
 long march and a long action, that they were not in a condition 
 to pursue with that haste that was to be desired, otherwise 
 great advantages might have been made of this victory. Prince 
 Eugene's army of about thirty thousand men was now very 
 near the great army, and joined it in a few days after this 
 action ; but he himself was come up before them, and had a 
 noble share in the victory, which, from the neighbourhood of 
 that place, came to be called the battle of Oudenarde. 
 
 Sardinia surrendered to the fleet under Sir John Leake, and 
 declared for King Charles III. ; and Minorca was afterwards 
 taken by the Admiral. These complicated misfortunes made 
 King Louis sue for peace. 
 
 In 1709 the chief scene of the war was in Flanders, where 
 the Duke of Marlborough, trusting little to the shows of peace, 
 had everything in readiness to open the campaign as soon as 
 he saw what might be expected from the Court of France. 
 The army was formed near Lille, and the French lay near 
 Douay. The train of artillery was, by a feint, brought up the 
 Lys to Courtray ; so it was believed the design was upon Ypres, 
 and there being no apprehension of any attempt on Tournay, 
 no particular care was taken of it ; but it was on the sudden 
 invested, and the train was sent back to Ghent, and brought up 
 the Scheldt to Tournay. The siege was carried on regularly : 
 no disturbance was given to the works by sallies, so the town 
 capitulated within a month, the garrison being allowed to retire 
 into the citadel, which was counted one of the strongest in 
 Europe, not only fortified with the utmost exactness, but all 
 the ground was wrought into mines ; so that the resistance of 
 the garrison was not so much apprehended as the mischief 
 they might do by blowing up their mines. A capitulation was
 
 404 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 proposed for delivering it up on the 5th of September, if it 
 should not be relieved sooner, and that all hostilities should 
 cease till then. This was offered by the garrison, and agreed 
 to by the Duke of Marlborough ; but the King of France would 
 not consent to it unless there were a general suspension, by 
 the whole army, of all hostilities ; and that being rejected, the 
 siege went on. Many men were lost in it, but the proceeding 
 by sap prevented much mischief: in the end no relief came, 
 and the garrison capitulated in the beginning of September, 
 but could obtain no better conditions than to be made prisoners 
 of war. 
 
 After this siege was over, Mons was invested, and the troops 
 marched thither as soon as they had levelled their trenches 
 about Tournay ; but the Court of France resolved to venture 
 a battle rather than to look on and see so important a place 
 taken from them. Boufflers was sent to join with Villars in the 
 execution of this design. They possessed themselves of a wood 
 at Malplaquet, and entrenched themselves so strongly, that in 
 some places there were three entrenchments cast up, one 
 within another. The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene 
 saw plainly it was not possible to carry on the siege of Mons 
 while the French army lay so near it ; so it was necessary 
 to dislodge them. The attempt was bold, and they saw the 
 execution would be difficult, and cost them many men. This 
 was the sharpest action in the whole war, and lasted the longest. 
 The French were posted so advantageously that our men were 
 often repulsed; and, indeed, the French maintained their 
 ground better, and showed more courage than appeared in the 
 whole course of the war ; yet in conclusion they were driven 
 from all their posts, and the action ended in a complete victory. 
 The number of slain was almost equal on both sides, about 
 twelve thousand of a side. We took five hundred officers 
 prisoners, besides many cannon, standards, and ensigns. 
 Villars was disabled by some wounds he received, so Boufflers 
 made the retreat in good order. The military men have always 
 talked of this as the sharpest action in the whole war, not 
 without reflecting on the generals for beginning so desperate an 
 attack. The French thought it a sort of victory that they had 
 animated their men to fight so well behind entrenchments, 
 and to repulse our men so often and with so great loss. They 
 retired to Valenciennes, and secured themselves by casting up 
 strong lines, while they left our army to carry on the siege of 
 Mons, without giving them the least disturbance. As soon as
 
 Queen Anne 405 
 
 the train of artillery was brought from Brussels, the siege was 
 carried on with great vigour, though the season was both cold 
 and rainy ; the outworks were carried with little resistance, and 
 Mons capitulated about the end of October. With that the 
 campaign ended, both armies retiring into winter quarters. 
 
 The Duke of Marlborough went beyond sea in February, to 
 prepare all matters for an early campaign, designing to open it 
 in April, which was done. The French had wrought so long 
 upon their lines that it was thought they would have taken as 
 much care in maintaining them, but, upon the advance of our 
 army, they abandoned them ; and though they seemed resolved 
 to make a stand upon the scarp, yet they ran from that like 
 wise, and this opened the way all on to Douay ; so that was 
 invested. The garrison was eight thousand strong, well 
 furnished with everything necessary to make a brave defence. 
 The besieged sallied out often, sometimes with advantage, but 
 much oftener with loss. It was the middle of May before the 
 French could bring their army together. It appeared that they 
 resolved to stand upon the defensive, though they had brought 
 together a vast army of two hundred battalions and three 
 hundred squadrons. They lay before Arras, and advanced to 
 the plains of Lens. Villars commanded, and made such 
 speeches to his army that it was generally believed he would 
 venture on a battle rather than look on and see Douay lost. 
 The Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene posted their 
 army so advantageously, both to cover the siege and to receive 
 the enemy, that he durst not attack them ; but after he had 
 looked on a few days, in which the two armies were not above 
 a league distant, he drew off. So the siege going on, and no 
 relief appearing, both Douay and the fort escarp capitulated on 
 the 1 4th of June. 
 
 I have now completed my first design in writing, which was 
 to give a history of our affairs for fifty years, from the 2gth 
 of May, 1660; so, if I confined myself to that, I should here 
 give over. But the war seeming now to be near an end, and 
 the peace in which it must end being that which will probably 
 give a new settlement to all Europe, as well as to our affairs, I 
 resolve to carry on this work to the conclusion of the war. 
 
 After Douay was taken our army sat down before Bethune, 
 and that siege held them a month, at the end of which the 
 garrison capitulated ; and our army sat down at one and the 
 same time before Aire and St. Venant, to secure the head of 
 the Lys. St. Venant was taken in a few weeks ; but the
 
 406 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 marshy ground about Aire made that a slower work, so that 
 the siege continued there about two months before the garrison 
 capitulated. This campaign, though not of such lustre as the 
 former, because no battle was fought, yet was by military men 
 looked on as a very extraordinary one in this respect, that 
 our men were about a hundred and fifty days in open trenches, 
 which was said to be a thing without example. During these 
 sieges the French army posted themselves in sure camps, but 
 did not stir out of them, and it was not possible to engage 
 them into any action. Nothing considerable passed on the 
 Rhine, they being equally unable to enter upon action on 
 both sides. 
 
 As the Duke of Marlborough was involved in the general 
 censure passed on the former ministry, so he had not the usual 
 compliment of thanks for the successes of the former campaign. 
 When that was moved in the House of Lords, it was opposed 
 with such eagerness by the Duke of Argyll and others, that it 
 was let fall. For this the Duke of Marlborough was prepared 
 by the Queen, who, upon his coming over, told him that he 
 was not to expect the thanks of the two Houses, as had been 
 formerly. She added that she expected he should live well 
 with her ministers, but did not think fit to say anything of the 
 reasons she had for making those changes in her ministry. 
 Yet he showed no resentment for all the ill-usage he met with ; 
 and, having been much pressed by the States and our other 
 allies to continue in the command of the army, he told me 
 upon that account he resolved to be patient, and to submit to 
 everything, in order to the carrying on the war ; and finding the 
 Queen's prepossession against his Duchess was not to be over 
 come, he carried a surrender of all her places to the Queen. 
 She was Groom of the Stole, had the Robes, and the Privy 
 Purse, in all which she had served with great economy and 
 fidelity to the Queen, and justice to those who dealt with the 
 Crown. The Duchess of Somerset had the first two of these 
 employments, and Mrs. Masham had the last. 
 
 The campaign was now opened on both sides in the Nether 
 lands, though later than was intended ; the season continued 
 long so rainy that all the ways in those parts were impracticable ; 
 nothing was yet attempted on either side ; both armies lay 
 near one another, and both were so well posted that no attack 
 was yet made ; and this was the present state of affairs abroad 
 at the end of May. At home Mr. Harley was created Earl 
 of Oxford, and then made Lord High Treasurer, and had
 
 Queen Anne 407 
 
 now the supreme favour. The session of Parliament was not 
 yet at an end. There had been a great project carried on for 
 a trade into the South Sea ; and a fund was projected for paying 
 the interest of nine millions that were in arrear for our marine 
 affairs. 
 
 The Duke of Marlborough's army was not only weakened by 
 the detachment that Prince Eugene carried to the Rhine, but 
 by the calling over five thousand men of the best bodies of his 
 army for an expedition designed by sea, so that the French 
 were superior to him in number. They lay behind lines that 
 were looked on as so strong that the forcing them was thought 
 an impracticable thing, and it was said that Villars had written 
 to the French King that he had put a ne plus ultra to the Duke 
 of Marlborough ; but, contrary to all expectation, he did so 
 amuse Villars with feint motions, that at last, to the surprise of 
 all Europe, he passed the lines near Bouchain, without the loss 
 of a man. 
 
 This raised his character beyond all that he had done 
 formerly : the design was so well laid, and was so happily 
 executed, that in all men's opinions it passed for a masterpiece 
 of military skill ; the honour of it falling entirely on the Duke 
 of Marlborough, no ether person having any share except in 
 the execution. When our army was now so happily got within 
 the French lines, the Dutch deputies proposed the attacking the 
 French, and venturing a battle, since this surprise had put 
 them in no small disorder. The Duke of Marlborough proposed 
 the besieging Bouchain, which he thought might oblige the 
 French to endeavour to raise the siege, and that might give 
 occasion to their fighting on more equal terms, or it would 
 bring both a disreputation and a disheartening on their army if 
 a place of such importance should be taken in their sight. 
 Both the Dutch deputies and the general officers thought the 
 design was too bold, yet they submitted to him in the matter. 
 It seemed impracticable to take a place situated in a morass, 
 well fortified, with a good garrison in it, in the sight of a 
 superior army, for the French lay within a mile of them. There 
 was also great danger from the excursions that the garrisons of 
 Valenciennes and Conde might make to cut off their provisions, 
 which were to come to them from Tournay. All about the 
 Duke studied to divert him from so dangerous an undertaking, 
 since a misfortune in his conduct would have furnished his 
 enemies with the advantages that they waited for. He was 
 sensible of all this, yet he had laid the schemes so well that he
 
 408 Bishop Burnet's Own Times 
 
 resolved to venture on it. After twenty days from the opening 
 the trenches, the garrison of Bouchain capitulated, and could 
 have no better terms than to be made prisoners of war. As 
 this was reckoned the most extraordinary thing in the whole 
 history of the war, so the honour of it was acknowledged to 
 belong wholly to the Duke of Marlborough, as the blame of a 
 miscarriage in it must have fallen singly on him. Villars's 
 conduct on this occasion was much censured ; but it was 
 approved by the King of France, and with this the campaign 
 ended in those parts. 
 
 On the 7th of December the Queen opened the Parliament. 
 In her speech she said, notwithstanding the arts of those who 
 delighted in war, the time and place were appointed for treating 
 a general peace ; her allies, especially the States, had by their 
 ready concurrence expressed an entire confidence in her, and 
 she promised to do her utmost to procure reasonable satisfaction 
 to them all. She demanded of the House of Commons the 
 necessary supplies for carrying on the war, and hoped that none 
 would envy her the glory of ending it by a just and honourable 
 peace. She in particular recommended unanimity, that our 
 enemies might not think us a divided people, which might 
 prevent that good peace of which she had such reasonable 
 hopes and so near a view. 
 
 I look next to Utrecht, where the treaty was opened. The 
 Emperor and the empire sent their ministers very late and un 
 willingly thither ; but they submitted to the necessity of their 
 affairs, yet with this condition that the French proposals (for 
 so the propositions that were formerly called preliminaries came 
 to be named) should be no ground to proceed on, and that a new 
 treaty should be entered on, without any regard to them. 
 It was also agreed, to save the loss of time in settling the 
 ceremonial, that the plenipotentiaries should assume no 
 character of dignity until all matters were adjusted and made 
 ready for signing. 
 
 After a long expectation we at last knew that on the i3th 
 of March the treaty of peace between England, France, and 
 the States was signed. Upon this the Parliament was opened 
 on the Qth of April. The Queen in her speech told the two 
 Houses that she had now concluded a peace, and had obtained 
 a further security for the Protestant succession, and that she 
 was in an entire union with the House of Hanover. She asked 
 of the Commons the necessary supplies, and recommended to 
 both Houses the cultivating the arts of peace, with a reflection
 
 Queen Anne 409 
 
 upon faction. By the treaty of peace the French King was 
 bound to give neither harbour nor assistance to the Pretender, 
 but acknowledged the Queen's title and the Protestant succes 
 sion as it was settled by several acts of Parliament. Dunkirk 
 was to be razed in a time limited within five months after the 
 ratification. Newfoundland, Hudson's Bay, and St. Christo 
 pher's were to be given to England ; but Cape Breton was left 
 to the French, with liberty to dry their fish on Newfoundland. 
 This was the main substance of the articles of peace. The 
 treaty of commerce settled a free trade according to the tariff in 
 the year 1664, excepting some commodities that were subjected 
 to a new tariff in the year 1699, which was so high that it 
 amounted to a prohibition. All the productions of France were 
 to come into England under no other duties but those that were 
 laid on the same productions from other countries ; and when 
 this was settled, then commissaries were to be sent to London 
 to agree and adjust all matters relating to trade. With regard 
 to the general objects of the alliance, it was agreed that Naples, 
 Milan, and the Spanish Netherlands should be assigned to 
 the Emperor; that the Duke of Savoy should possess Sicily as 
 King ; that Sardinia should be assigned to the Elector of 
 Bavaria, with the title of King; that the States of Holland 
 should add Namur, Charleroy, Luxemburg, Ypres, and Nieuport 
 to their other possessions in Flanders, but restore Lille and its 
 dependencies ; and that the King of Prussia should exchange 
 Orange and the possessions belonging to that family in' Franche 
 Comte for Upper Guelders. Great Britain was left in possession 
 of Gibraltar and Minorca. 
 
 THE END
 
 RICHARD CLAY & SONS, LIMITED, 
 
 BREAD STREET HILL, B.C., AND 
 
 BUNGAY, SUFFOLK.
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY 
 
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