against ye Spanyard on behalf of ye Prince Elector;1 & therefore my Lo. Keeper thinkes not fitt to hasten ye report of that conference: As soone as there shal be any order or resolucon in it by ye Parliam', I shall advertise it to yo' Matie. I sent yo' Maties letter to Sir Ph. Maynewaring2 by an expresse messenger into Northamptonsh: whither S Phillip was gonne 2 dayes before my receipt of yor Maties to him. Since Satterday last there hath beene noe business done in Parliam' of any publique nature that I can heare of; but only the order made by the Lodes touching y election of ye present Sheriff's of London, whereof I gave advertisem' to Mr. Thre'r' by myne of ye 23th 5 This day ye Lo. Mayor was att the Upper House to get an alteration of that their Lop order but the House would not recede from it in any p'ticular, whereat ye Lo. Mayor and cheif cittizens seeme to be much troubled. Charles Louis, Elector of Bavaria, Prince Palatine of the Rhine, and nephew to Charles I., being the son of his sister Elizabeth, Queen of Bohemia. He was of Over Peover, in Cheshire, and father to the first Baronet of that name, so created after the Restoration. He was Sheriff of Cheshire in 1639, and Captain in the Cheshire light horse. Collins does not mention his knighthood. 3 Again the Secretary is remiss, or at fault. Public business was certainly going forward. On the 25th of August the Lords sequestrated the temporalities of Dr. Roger Manwaring, Bishop of St. David's, for his contumacy to an order of the House; and, on the day on which Sir Edward wrote his letter, both Houses had a conference respecting a proposed recess of Parliament. 4 "Mr. Treasurer," that is, Sir Henry Vane the elder. 5 This evidently relates to the dispute then existing between the Lord Mayor and the Commons of London; the. former laying claim to the choice of one of the Sheriffs, by a prescription of three hundred years. The Livery refusing to abide by this, the Court of Aldermen petitioned the King to decide upon the affair; but the King referred it to the House of Lords, who, after some delay, ordered that the Commonalty should proceed to the choice of the two Sheriffs, at the same time recommending that they would have those who had already been nominated by the Mayor. The Sheriffs chosen were George Garret and George Clark. Sir William Acton, Bart., was the then Lord Mayor; but he was superseded by the Parliament, and replaced by Sir Edmund Wright, They came heere yesternight. There is here great expectation what recepcon yo' Matie will give to ye Comittees sent hence. I wishe yo Matie could have soe tymely expedited yo' affaires there, as that you might have bene reddy to come away before their arrivall there.1 Yesterday y Comons ordered that ye pay of Coll. Willmot, Ashbournham, & ye rest of ye soldiers (that are questioned in P'liam't) shalbe sequestred untill their busines shalbe heard & adjudged. And upon occasion of ye discourse of that busines, Mr. Selden did then in that house deliver his opinion with much confidence, that by y ACT OF OBLIVION Mr. Percy and Mr. Jermyn, & all ye rest that are questioned with them, are freed and pardoned, wh he argued so strongly out of the very words of that Act, as ye sages of that house, who oppugned his opinion, did not (in ye iudgem' of able men) give any reasonable or satisfactory answere to it: the House seemed to be much amazed att this slipp in that 'The names of the Commissioners were Lords Bedford and Howard of Esricke, Hampden, Fiennes, Sir Philip Stapleton, and Sir William Armyne. The Secretary seems to entertain a reasonable fear of the King's being brought into collision with such Commissioners. 2 Not recorded in the Parliamentary Debates. 3 Jermyn had been especially implicated, by the confession of Colonel Goring, in the alleged plot contrived by certain officers of the army to secure Strafford's escape, and overawe and dissolve the Parliament, by marching the army on London and making the King absolute. Balfour, the Lieutenant of the Tower, baffled that part of it relating to Strafford; and, a quarrel arising between the leaders of the design, Goring and Wilmot (Gorrein et Hailmot," as Madame de Motteville calls them in her account of the affair), which Jermyn had in vain done his best to reconcile, Goring made a quasi discovery of the plot to Lord Newark, from whom, through Lords Bedford and Kimbolton, it reached Pym. Goring subsequently asserted that for his own part he had refused concurrence with the proposals to put the army into a posture to serve the King, and send a Declaration to Parliament that Episcopacy should not be infringed upon, and that the King's revenue should be established; for he said that he thought it belonged to an army to maintain, not to contrive, acts of state. At the same time he professed that his particular object, in joining in the proposed measures, was to solicit "a redresse for the miseries of the souldiers." Act, & were not well pleased with him who delivered this opinion: some said that it was not in ye intencon of y' House to pardon them, whereupon it was replyed that lawes are to be understood according to the words in ye Act, & not according to the intencon of ye makers, further than ye words will beare. This day the House of Peers have comitted to prison ye man that printed the scandalous ballet concerning the Qu. Mother's going away, & will consider of further punishm for him, and they have ordered that these ballets shalbe burnt by y hand of ye hangman. Thanke him for his ac The inclosed from my Lo. Marshall' will give in my Name yo' Matie an account of ye cause of y* Qu. Mother's count. stay att Dover. full measure. Albeit this employmt wch yo' Matie hath bene pleased to honour me w'thall, hath drawne much Indeed ye envy vpon me, & (as I heare) set some on worke to have it in a prye into my accons past & present, yet since I enioy ye comfort of yo' Maties grac'ous opinion & acceptaunce of my poore & honnest endeavours, I shall not vallue any mans mallice, but rather smile att their ignoraunce, that conceave there is any other felicity in this imploym', then to deserve to be accounted an honest man, & Yo' Maties most humble & most obedient servaunt, I receaned this yester The Queene sent me word she had written lately day. to yo' Matie, & would not write by this dispatche. WESTMINSTER, 26° Aug. Written by the King, "EDEN. 31, 1641.” Further indorsement in the hand-writing of Sir E. N.: The King to Sir Edward Nicholas. Nicholas, I haue nothing to answer to yours of the 20 (wch I receaued yesterday in the euening), 1 Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel and Surrey. I am satis fied with this account. save onlie to thanke for your advertisments: but heering from good hand, that the House of Comons meanes to refuse my General Pardon,' I haue thought fitt to comand you, to comand my L. Keeper to thinke of a Declaration to be put fourth in my name (in case my Pardon be refused) to make my fauorable intentions knowen to all my English subjects, how I consulted it with the best lawers, to make it of most aduantadge that might bee for all my said people. This being the summe, for the forme & the penning, I leave it to bee consulted there: to wch end, I com'and you first to goe to my Wyfe, to receaue her directions in it (for she knowes my mynde fully in this particular) and according to what she shall direct you, to com'and my Lo. Keeper for the drawing of it, fitt for my hand, with all speede, & so I rest EDEN, 25 Aug: 1641. Your frend, Sir Edward Nicholas to the King. May it please yor most excellnt Matie, Yo'r Maties of the 25th of this moneth founde me at Oatlands on Sunday last, as I was attending the Queenes com'aunds, where I pesently pesented to her Royall hand yo' Maties ler, & acquainted her Matie what you had written to me concerning a Declarac'on; her Matie saith that she now vnderstands that ye Com❜ons will not suddainly refuse yo' Maties Pardon; but howsoever she com'aunded me to speake wth my Lo. Keeper about it according to yo' Maties leter, & to wishe him to consider of a fitting Declarac'on This will be found fully explained in a subsequent letter. The King appears to have wished to secure Percy, Wilmot, Ashburnham, and the others engaged with them, from the wrath of the Parliament, but, unwilling to pardon them expressly by name, he issued this General Pardon in order to include them, without appearing to confirm the charges brought against them as acting under his privity and directions. agreeable to yo' Maties direcc'ons, that it may be reddy in case the G'ral Pardon shal be refused, & this to be donne wth all possible secrecy. My Lo. Keeper promiseth to pepare such a Declarac'on against toomorrow, & hath wished me then to attend his LOPP to Oatlands, there to shew it to her Matie, & as soon as it shall be perfected to send it for yo' royal approbac'on. The busines will well beare this delay, for that ye Peers have this day adiourned their House till Munday next; and ye Com'ons (I heare) intend to adiourne too-morrow, also till Munday; & it is resolv'd that both Houses shall adiourne on Wensday se'night till yo 26th of Octob". I humbly desire to know yo' Maties pleasure whether when this Declarc'on shall be printed, it may not be fitt to shew ye same to my Lo. Banks or Mr. Attorney,' or both, before it show it to be engrossed for yo' Maties hand. I have bene tould that some take excepc'ons to yo' Maties Pardon, for that it excepts all matters of eccl'all cognisaunce, albeit ye same exceptions is in ye Pardon of 21° Jacobi, I am of your but I beleeve that this excepc'on of theirs is but a mynd; for their petition pretence, & that ye mayne thing that they dislike in to mee was it is, that Mr. Percy & ye rest of his company are neer to that comprehended in it. Both Houses have had a con- of 21 Jacobi ference upon yo' Maties answear and reasons sent by Mr. Nichols' touching ye com'ission, and I heare, thoughe many would have bene better pleased that yo' Matie had signed y com'ission for their co'mittees, yet they doe not much dislike yor Maties since by yo' grac'ous permission their com'ittees have leave to come to Edenburg to doe the busines they are principally sent for.3 I have herewh sent yo 1 Sir Edward Herbert, Knt. answeare, 2 This was Mr. Anthony Nichols, Member for Bodmyn, whom the Commons, on the 18th August, had ordered to be their messenger to carry the Petition, Commission, and Instructions to Edinburgh for the King's approbation. It is stated in the Parliamentary Records, that the sum of 1000l. was then ordered for the "Commissioner's Charges." 3 The King's answer was read to both Houses on the 30th, in which he said that he did not find it necessary to sign any such Commission; but was "graciously pleased to give leave both. to have it as as might bee. |