The surgeons found
monsieur
le Fonde's wound
to be more dangerous than they had apprehended,
and that at least one of the bullets remained still in
the wound, and doubted that it might have hurt the
scull, in which case trepanning would be necessary ;
which made him resolve, though he was feverish,
presently to have a brancard made, and to be put
into it in his bed, and so with expedition to be car-
ried to Paris, where he was sure to find better
operators, besides the benefit and convenience of his
own house and family.
to be more dangerous than they had apprehended,
and that at least one of the bullets remained still in
the wound, and doubted that it might have hurt the
scull, in which case trepanning would be necessary ;
which made him resolve, though he was feverish,
presently to have a brancard made, and to be put
into it in his bed, and so with expedition to be car-
ried to Paris, where he was sure to find better
operators, besides the benefit and convenience of his
own house and family.
Edward Hyde - Earl of Clarendon
" In my humble opinion, the great misfortunes of
" the kingdom have proceeded from the war, to
" which it is notoriously known that I was always
" averse ; and may without vanity say, I did not only
44 foresee, hut did declare the mischiefs we should
" run into, by entering into a war before any alli-
44 ance made with the neighbour princes. And that
" it may not be imputed to his majesty's want of
44 care, or the negligence of his counsellors, that no
** such alliances were entered into ; I must take the
" boldness to say, that his majesty left nothing un-
44 attempted in order thereunto : and knowing very
44 well, that France resolved to begin a war upon
** Spain, as soon as his catholic majesty should de-
" part this world, (which being much sooner expected
44 by them, they had two winters before been at great
" charge in providing plentiful magazines of all pro-
" visions upon the frontiers, that they might be
" ready for the war,) his majesty used all possible
" means to prepare and dispose the Spaniard to that
" apprehension, offering his friendship to that de-
" gree, as might be for the security and benefit of
" both crowns. But Spain flattering itself with an
44 opinion that France would not break with them,
'* at least, that they would not give them any cause
44 by administering matter of jealousy to them, never
44 made any real approach towards a friendship with
44 his majesty ; but Ixrth by their ambassador here,
44 and to his majesty's ambassador at Madrid, always
44 insisted, as preliminaries, upon the giving up of
44 Dunkirk, Tangier, and Jamaica.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 343
" Though France had an ambassador here, to 1667.
" whom a project for a treaty was offered, and the ~
" lord Hollis, his majesty's ambassador at Paris, used
" all endeavours to promote and prosecute the said
'* treaty : yet it was quickly discerned, that the
'* principal design of France was to draw his ma-
" jesty into such a nearer alliance as might advance
" their designs ; without which they had no mind
<( to enter into the treaty proposed. And this was
" the state of affairs when the war was entered into
" with the Dutch, from which time neither crown
" much considered their making an alliance with
" England.
" As I did from my soul abhor the entering into
** this war, so I never presumed to give any advice
" or counsel for the way of managing it, but by
" opposing many propositions which seemed to the
" late lord treasurer and myself to be unreasonable;
*' as the payment of the seamen by tickets, and many
" other particulars which added to the expense.
" My enemies took all occasions to inveigh against
" me : and making friendship with others out of the
** council of more licentious principles, and who knew
*' well enough how much I disliked and complained
" of the liberty they took to themselves of reviling
" all councils and counsellors, and turning all things
" serious and sacred into ridicule ; they took all
" ways imaginable to render me ingrateful to all
" sorts of men, (whom I shall be compelled to name
" in my own defence,) persuading those who mis-
" carried in any of their designs, that it was the
" chancellor's doing ; whereof I never knew any
" thing. However, they could not withdraw the
" king's favour from me, who was still pleased to
z 4
344 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 667. " use my service with others ; nor was there ever
" any thing done but upon the joint advice of at
" least the major part of those who were consulted
" with. And as his majesty commanded my ser-
" vice in the late treaties, so I never gave the least
" advice in private, nor writ one letter to any per-
" son in either of those negotiations, but upon the
" advice of the council, and after it was read in
" council, or at least by the king himself and some
" others : and if I prepared any instructions or me-
" morials, it was by the king's command, and the
" request of the secretaries, who desired my assist-
" ance. Nor was it any wish of my own, that any
" ambassadors should give me an account of the
" transactions, but to the secretaries, with whom I
" was always ready to advise ; nor am I conscious
" to myself of having ever given advice that hath
" proved mischievous or inconvenient to his majesty.
" And I have been so far from being the sole man-
" ager of affairs, that I have not in the whole last
" year been above twice with his majesty in any
" room alone, and very seldom in the two or three
" years preceding. And since the parliament at
" Oxford, it hath been very visible that my credit
" hath been very little, and that very few things
" have been hearkened to which have been proposed
" by me, but contradicted eo nomine, because pro-
" posed by me.
** I most humbly beseech your lordships to re-
" member the office and trust I had for seven years ;
" in which, in discharge of my duty, I was obliged
" to stop and obstruct many men's pretences, and to
" refuse to set the seal to many pardons and other
" grants, which would have been profitable to those
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 345
" who procured them, and many whereof, upon my \6t\7.
" representation to his majesty, were for ever"
" stopped ; which naturally have raised many ene-
" mies to me. And my frequent concurring with
" the late lord treasurer, with whom I had the ho-
" nour to have a long and a fast friendship to his
" death, in representing several excesses and exor-
" bitances, (the yearly issues so far exceeding the
" revenue,) provoked many persons concerned, of
" great power and credit, to do me all the ill offices
" they could. And yet I may faithfully say, that I
" never meddled with any part of the revenue or
" the administration of it, but when I was desired
" by the late lord treasurer to give him my assist-
" ance and advice, (having had the honour formerly to
" serve the crown as chancellor of the exchequer,)
" which was for the most part in his majesty's pre-
" sence : nor have I ever been in the least degree
" concerned in point of profit in the letting any part
" of his majesty's revenue, nor have ever treated or
" debated it but in his majesty's presence : in which,
" my opinion concurred always with the major part
" of the counsellors who were present. All which,
" upon examination, will be made manifest to your
" lordships, how much soever my integrity is blasted
" by the malice of those, who I am confident do not
" believe themselves. Nor have I in my life, upon
" all the treaties or otherwise, received the value of
" one shilling from all the kings and princes in the
" world, (except the books of the Louvre print sent
" me by the chancellor of France by that king's di-
" rection,) but from my own master ; to whose entire
" service, and to the good and welfare of my coun-
" try, no man's heart was ever more devoted.
CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. " This being my present condition, I do most
" humbly beseech your lordships to retain a favour-
" able opinion of me, and to believe me to be inno-
" cent from those foul aspersions, until the contrary
" shall be proved ; which I am sure can never be by
" any man worthy to be believed. And since the
" distemper of the time, and the difference between
" the two houses in the present debate, with the
" power and malice of my enemies, who give out,
" that I shall prevail with his majesty to prorogue
" or dissolve this parliament in displeasure, and
" threaten to expose me to the rage and fury of the
" people, may make me looked upon as the cause
" which obstructs the king's service, and the unity
" and peace of the kingdom ; I must humbly be-
" seech your lordships, that I may not forfeit your
" lordships' favour and protection, by withdrawing
" myself from so powerful a persecution ; in hopes
" I may be able, by such withdrawing, hereafter to
" appear, and make my defence ; when his majesty's
" justice, to which I shall always submit, may not
" be obstructed nor controlled by the power and
" malice of those who have sworn my destruction. "
The chancellor knew very well, that there were
members enough in both houses who would be very
glad to take any advantage of his words and expres-
sions : and therefore as he weighed them the best
he could himself in the short time from which he
took his resolution to be gone ; so he consulted with
as iriany friends as that time would allow, to the end
that their jealousy and wariness might better watch,
that no expression might be liable to a sinister inter-
pretation, than his own passion and indisposition
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 347
could provide. And as they all thought it necessary 16G7.
that he should leave somewhat behind him, that"
might offer an excuse for his absence ; so they did
not conceive, that the words before mentioned could
give any offence to equal judges. But the least va-
riety or change of wind moved those waters to won-
derful distempers and tempests.
This address was no sooner read, by which they
perceived he was gone, but they who had contributed
most to the absenting himself, and were privy to all
the promises which had invited him to it, seemed
much troubled that he had escaped their justice ;
and moved, " that orders might be forthwith sent to
'* stop the ports, that so he might be apprehended ;"
when they well knew that he was landed at Calais.
Others took exceptions at some expressions,"which,"
they said, " reflected upon the king's honour and jus-
" tice :" others moved, " that it might be entered in
" their Journal Book, to the end that they might
" further consider of it when they should think fit ;"
and this was ordered.
The houses till this time had continued obstinate
in their several resolutions ; the commons every
day pressing, " that he might be committed upon
" their general accusation of treason," (for though
they had amongst themselves and from their com-
mittee offered those particulars which are mentioned
before, yet they presented none to the house of
peers ;) and the lords as positively refusing to com-
mit him, till some charge should he presented against
him that amounted to treason. But now all that
debate was at an end by his being out of their
reach, so that they pursued that point no further ;
which, being matter of privilege, should have been.
348 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. determined as necessarily as before, for the preven-
~~ tion of the like disputes hereafter. But the com-
mons wisely declined that contention, well knowing
that their party in the house, that was very pas-
sionate for the commitment of the chancellor, would
I if as much against the general order as any of the
rest had been : and the lords satisfied themselves
with sending a message to the house of commons,
" that they found by the address which they had
" received that morning, and which they likewise
" imparted to them, that the earl of Clarendon had
" withdrawn himself; and so there was no further
** occasion of debate upon that point. "
capoio- The address was no sooner read in that house,
by onk'of but tne y wno ^d industriously promoted the for-
b th mer resolution 1 were inflamed, as if this very instru-
Louses.
ment would contribute enough to any thing that
was wanting ; and they severally arraigned it, and
inveighed against the person who had sent it with
all imaginable bitterness and insolence: whilst others,
who could not in the hearing it read observe that ma-
lignity that it was accused of, sat still and silent, as if
they suspected that somewhat had escaped their ob-
servations and discovery, that so much transported
other men ; or because they were well pleased that
a person, against whom there was so much malice
and fury professed, was got out of their reach. In
conclusion, after long debate it was concluded,
*' that the paper contained much untruth and scan-
" dal and sedition in it, and that it should be pub-
* " licly burned by the hand of the hangman ;" which
vote they presently sent to the lords for their con-
i resolution] reason
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 349
currence, who, though they had not observed any 1GG7.
such guilt in it before, would maintain no further"*"
contests with them, and so concurred in the sen-
tence : and the poor paper was accordingly with so-
lemnity executed by the appointed officer, which made
the more people inquisitive into the contents of it ;
and having gotten copies of it, they took upon them
to censure the thing and the person with much more
clemency and compassion, and thought he had done
well to decline such angry judges.
When the chancellor found himself at Calais, he
was unresolved how to dispose of himself, only that
he would not go to Paris, against which he was able
to make many objections : and in this irresolution
he knew not how to send any directions to his chil-
dren in England, to what place they should send his
servants and such other accommodations as he should
want ; and therefore stayed there till he might be
better informed, and know somewhat of the temper
of the parliament. In the mean time he writ let-
ters to the earl of St. Alban's at Paris, from whose
very late professions he had reason to expect civility,
and that was all he did expect ; never imagining
that he should receive any grace from the queen, or
that it was fit for him to cast himself at her feet,
whilst he was in his majesty's displeasure. Only he
desired to know, " whether there would be any ob-The ci. an-
" jection against his coming to Roan," and desiring, tothV"'
' if there were no objection against it, that a coach f^for
" might be hired to meet him on such a day at Ab- leave to re -
move to
" beville. " The lieutenant governor of Calais had, Roan :
upon his first arrival there, given advertisement to
the court of it : and by the same post that he re-
ceived a very dry letter from the earl of St. Alban's,
350 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
I6G7. in which he said, " he thought that court would ap-
""" prove of his coming to Roan ;" he received like-
wise a letter of great civility from the count de
Louvois, secretary of state, in which he congratu-
lated his safe arrival in France, and told him, " that
granted.
" his majesty was well pleased with it, and with his
" purpose of coming to Roan, where he should find
" himself very welcome. " At the same time letters
were sent to the lieutenant governor of Calais, Bou-
logne, and Montrevil, "to treat him as a person of
" whom the king had esteem, and to give him such
" an escort as might make his journey secure ;" of
all which he received advertisement, and, " that a
" coach would be ready at Abbeville to wait for him
" at the day he had appointed. "
He begins And now he thought he might well take his reso-
hw journey : j ut j on . an( j thereupon gave direction, " that such of
" his family, whose attendance he could not be well
" without, might with all expedition be with him at
" Roan ; and such monies might be likewise return-
" ed thither for him, as were necessary," for he had
not brought with him supply enough for long time.
And so he provided to leave Calais, that he might
be warm in his winter-quarters as soon as might be,
which both the season of the year, it being now
within few days of Christmas, and his expectation
of a speedy defluxion of the gout, made very requi-
site. When he came to Boulogne, he found orders
from the marshal D'Aumont to his lieutenant for a
guard to Montrevil, the Spanish garrisons making
frequent incursions into those quarters : and at
Montrevil the duke D'Elboeuf visited him, and
invited him to supper, which the chancellor was so
much tired with his journey that he accepted not ;
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 351
but was not suffered to refuse his coach the next IGG7.
day to Abbeville, where he found a coach from""
Paris ready to carry him to Roan.
It was Christmas-eve when he came to Dieppe,
and it was a long journey the next day to Roan ;
which made him send to the governor, to desire that
the ports might be open much sooner than their
hour, which was granted: so that he came to a very
ill inn, well known at Tostes, near the middle way
to Roan, about noon. And when he was within
view of that place, a gentleman, passing by in a
good gallop with a couple of servants, asked, " whe-
" ther the chancellor of England was in that
" coach ;" and being answered, " that he was," he
alighted at the coach-side, and gave him a letter
from the king, which contained only credit to what
that gentleman, monsieur le Fonde, his servant in
ordinary, should say to him from his majesty. The
gentleman, after some expressions of his majesty's
grace and good opinion, told him, " that the king But receives
" had lately received advertisement from his envoy o" d er S e t T y
" in England, that the parliament there was so ! ^ ace
" much incensed against him, the chancellor, that if
" he should be suffered to stay in France, it would
" be so prejudicial to the affairs of his Christian ma-
" jesty, (to whom he was confident the chancellor
" wished well,) that it might make a breach between
" the two crowns ; and therefore he desired him to
" make what speed he could out of his dominions ;
" and that he might want no accommodation for his
" journey, that gentleman was to accompany him,
" till he saw him out of France. "
He was marvellously struck with this encounter,
which he looked not for, nor could resolve what to
,152 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
If,(i7. do, being at lilxjrty to make his journey which way
~~he would so he rested not, which was the only
thing he desired : so he desired the gentleman (for
all this conversation was in the highway) " to come
" into the coach, and to accompany him to Roan,
" where they would confer further. " The gentle-
man, though he was a very civil person, seemed to
think that it would be better to return to Dieppe,
and so to Calais, as the shortest way out of France :
but he had no commission to urge that, and so con-
descended to go that night to Roan ; with a decla-
ration, "that it was necessary for him to be the
" next day very early in the coach, which way
" soever he intended to make his journey. "
It was late in the night before they reached
Roan : and the coach was overthrown three times
in the gentleman's sight, who chose to ride his
horse ; so that the chancellor was really hurt and
bruised, and scarce able to set his foot to the
ground. And therefore he told the gentleman
HC rrpr*- plainly* " that he could not make any journey the
luteof""' " next da y : but that ne would presently write to
health to p ar i s to a friend, who should inform the king of
the court.
" the ill condition he was in, and desire some time
" of rest ; and that as soon as he had finished his
" letter, he would send an express with it, who
" should make all possible haste in going and com-
" ing. " Monsieur le Fonde assured him, " the mat-
" ter was so fully resolved, that no writing would
" procure any time to stay in France ; and therefore
" desired him to hasten his journey, which way so-
*' ever he intended it. " But when he saw there
was no remedy, he likewise writ to the court, and
the chancellor to the earl of St. Alban's, from whom
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 353
he thought he should receive offices of humanity, 1667.
and to another friend, upon whose affection he more ~~
depended : and with those letters the express was
despatched.
They who had prevailed so far against him in The cca-
J . sionofhis
England were not yet satisfied, but contrived those m treat-
ways to disquiet him as much in France, by telling
monsieur Ruvigny, (who was too easily disposed to
believe them,) "that the parliament was so much of-
" fended with the chancellor, that it would never
" consent that the king should enter into a close
" and firm alliance with France," which it was his
business to solicit, " whilst he should be permitted
" to stay within that kingdom :" when in truth all
the malice against him was contained within the
breasts of few men, who by incensing the king, and
infusing many false and groundless relations into
him, drew such a numerous party to contribute to
their ends.
When he was now gone, they observed to the
i i r> r. i
king, " what a great faction there was in both hi
" houses that adhered to the chancellor," who were
called Clarendonians ; and when any opposition was
made to any thing that was proposed, as frequently
there was, " it was always done by the Clarendon-
" ians :" whose condition they thought was not de-
sperate enough, except they proceeded further than
. was yet done. They laboured with all their power,
that he might be attainted of high treason by act of
parliament, and that both his sons might be remov-
ed from the court : both which, notwithstanding all
their importunity, his majesty positively refused to
consent to. Then they told him, "that the chancel-
" lor only waited the season that the parliament
VOL. nr. A a
im i
ai
864 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. " should be confirmed in ill humour, to which they
" " were inclined ; and then he would return and sit
" in the house to disturb all their counsels, and
" obstruct all his service : and therefore they pro-
" posed, since he had fled from the hand of jus-
" tice, that there could be no more prosecution for
" his guilt," (which was untrue, for they might as
well have proceeded and proved the crimes objected
against him if they could,) " a bill of banishment,"
which they had prepared, " might be brought in
" against him ;" which his majesty consented to,
notwithstanding all that the duke of York urged to
the contrary upon the king's promise to him, and
which had only betrayed the chancellor to making
his escape. But the king alleged, " that the conde-
" scension was necessary for his good, and to com-
" pound with those who would else press that which
" would be more mischievous to him. "
A bill of Whereupon a bill for his banishment was prefer-
banishment . ji'-i i
pawed a- red, only upon his having declined the proceeding or
justice by his flight, without so much as endeavouring
to prove one of the crimes they had charged upon
him : and this bill was passed by the two houses,
and confirmed by the king ; of whom they had yet
so much jealousy,, that they left it not in his power
to pardon him without the consent of the two houses
of parliament. And this act was to be absolute,
" except by a day appointed," (which was so short,
that it was hardly possible for him to comply with
it, except he could have rode post,) " he should ap-
" pear before one of the secretaries of state, or deli-
" ver himself to the lieutenant of the Tower, who
" was to detain him in custody till he had acquaint-
" ed the parliament with it : in the mean time no
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. i355
" person was to presume to hold any correspondence ]6(J7.
" with him, or to write to him, except his own chil-~
" dren or his menial servants, who were obliged to
" shew the letters which they sent or received to
" one of the secretaries of state,"
The express that had been sent to Paris return- He receives
orders a se-
ed with reiterated orders to monsieur le Fonde to tend time
hasten the chancellor's journey, and not to suffer him France,
to remain there ; who executed the commands he
had received with great punctuality and importunity.
The earl of St. Alban's did not vouchsafe to return
any answer to his letter, or to interpose on his be-
half, that he might rest till he might securely enter
upon his journey : only abbot Mountague writ very
obligingly to him, and offered all the offices could be
in his power to perform, and excused the rigour of
the court's proceedings, as the effect of such reason of
state, as would not permit any alteration whilst they
had that apprehension of the parliament; and there-
fore advised hint " to comply with their wishes,
" and make no longer stay in Roan, which would
" not be permitted. " But the general indisposition
of his body, the fatigue of his journey, and the
bruises he had received by the falls and overturnings
of the coach, made him not able to rise out of his
bed; and the physicians, who had taken much
blood from him, exceedingly dissuaded it. All
which, how visible soever, prevailed not with his
French conductor to lessen his importunity that he
would go, though it was evident he could not easily
stand ; of which no doubt he gave true and faithful
advertisement to the court, though the jealousy of
being not thought active enough in his trust made
A a 2
35C CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. his behaviour much less civil, than is agreeable to
"the custom of that nation.
He gin However, the chancellor, hardened by the inhu-
SMuJlte manity of his treatment, writ such a letter in Latin
the b Ftonch to monsieur de Lionne, by whose hand all the un-
court; gentle orders to monsieur le Fonde had been trans-
mitted, as expressed the condition he was in, and
his disability to comply with his majesty's com-
mands, until he could recover more strength ; not
without complaint of the little civility he had re-
ceived in France. And he writ likewise to the ab-
bot Mountague, " to use his credit with monsieur de
" Tellier," upon whose humanity he more depended,
" to interpose with his Christian majesty, that he
" might not be pressed beyond what his health
" would bear. " And since at that time he resolved
to make his journey to Avignon, that he might be
out of the dominions of France, he desired, " that he
" might have liberty to rest some days at Orleans,
" until his servants who were upon the sea, and
" brought with them many things which he wanted,
" might come to him ; and that he might after-
" wards, in so long a journey in the worst season of
" the year, have liberty to take such repose as his
" health would require ; in which he could not af-
" feet unnecessary delay, for the great charge and
" expense it must be accompanied with. "
1668. The answer he received from monsieur de Lionne
was tne renewing the king's commands for his speedy
e Departure, " as a thing absolutely necessary to his af-
" fairs, and which must not be disputed. " But
that which affected him the more tenderly, was the
sight of a billet which abbot Mountague sent to him,
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 357
that he had received from monsieur de Tellier, in 1668.
which he said, "that he had, according to his desire, ~
" moved his Christian majesty concerning the chan-
" cellor of England ; and that his majesty was much
" displeased that he made not more haste to comply
" with what was most necessary for his affairs, and
" that it must be no longer delayed ; and that if he
" chose to pass to Avignon, he might rest one day in
" ten, which was all his majesty would allow. "
This unexpected determination, without the least
ceremony or circumstance of remorse,, signified by a
person who 'he was well assured was well inclined
to have returned a more grateful answer, in the in-
stant suppressed all hopes of finding any humanity
in France, arid raised a resolution in him to get out
of those dominions with all the expedition that was
possible : which his French conductor urged with
new and importunate instance ; insomuch as though
there was sure information, that the ship, in which
the chancellor's servants and goods were embarked,
was arrived at the mouth of the river, and only kept
by the cross wind from coming up to the town ; he
would by no means consent to the delay 1 " of one day
in expectation of it, or that his servants might come
to him by land, as he had sent to them to do.
At this very time arrived an express, a servant of
his, sent by his children, with a particular account
of all the transactions in parliament, and of the bill
of banishment ; of nothing of which he had before
heard, and upon which the duke of York, who
looked upon himself as ill used by that prosecution,
was of opinion, "that the chancellor should make all
r delay] stay
A a 3
358 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
l(j68. possible haste, and appear by the day appointed,
" and undergo the trial, in which he knew his inno-
** oence would justify him. " This advice, with a
little indignation at the discourtesy of the court of
France, diverted him from any further thought of
Avignon. And though he did not imagine that his
strength would be sufficient to perform the journey
by the day assigned, (for the gout had already seiz-
ed upon both his feet,) nor did the arguments for his
return satisfy him ; and the breach of all the pro-
mises which had been made was no sign that they
meant speedily to bring him to trial, towards which
they had not yet made any preparation : yet he
resolved to make all possible haste to Calais, that it
might be in his power to proceed according to such
directions as he might reasonably expect to receive
there from his friends from England, and from
whence he might quickly remove into the Spanish
dominions ; though the climate of Flanders, well
known to him, terrified him in respect of the season
and his approaching gout. And with this resolution
he despatched the express again for England ; and
left order with a merchant at Roan, " to receive his
" goods when the ship should arrive, and detain
" both them and his servants till he should send fur-
" ther orders from Calais:" and at the same time he
writ to a friend in Flanders, to speak to the marquis
of Carracena, with whom he had formerly held a
fair correspondence, " to send him a pass to go
" through that country to what place he should
" think fit. " And having thus provided for his
journey, he departed from Roan, after he had re-
mained there about twenty days.
In lm\v ill a condition of health soever he was to
to Calais;
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 359
travel, when the days were at shortest, he resolv- i(>68.
ed to make no stay till he should reach Calais, to
the end, that if he met with no advice there to
the contrary, he might be at London by the day li-
mited by the proclamation, which was the first of
February that style : and it was the last of January where he is
the French style when he arrived at Calais, sobbed by a
broken with the fatigue of the journey and the de- utS
fluxion of the gout, that he could not move but as he
was carried, and was so put into a bed ; and the
next morning the physicians found him in a fever,
and thought it necessary to open a vein, which they
presently did. But the pains in all his limbs so in-
creased, that he was not able to turn in his bed ;
nor for many nights closed his eyes. Many letters
he found there from England, but was not in a con-
dition to read them, nor in truth could speak and
discourse with any body. Monsieur le Fonde, out
of pure compassion, suffered him to remain some
days without his vexation, until he received fresh
orders from Paris, " that the chancellor might not,
" in what case soever, be suffered to remain in Ca-
" lais :" and then he renewed his importunity, Yet he is re-
quired to re-
" that he would the next day leave the town, and tire out of
" either by sea or land, if he thought it not fit to territories.
" pass for England, put himself into the Spanish
" dominions, which he might do in few hours. "
He was so confounded with the barbarity, that he
had no mind to give him any answer ; nor could he
suddenly find words, their conversation being in La-
tin, to express the passion he was in. At last he
told him, " that he must bring orders from God Al-
" mighty as well as from the king, before he could
" obey : that he saw the condition he was in, and
A a 4
360 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. " conferred every day with his physicians, by which
~ " he could not but know, that he could neither help
" himself, nor endure the being carried out of that
" chamber, if the house were in a flame ; and there-
" fore that he did not use him like a gentleman, in
" adding his unreasonable importunities to the vex-
" ation he suffered by pain and sickness. That he
" might be very confident, his treatment had not
" been so obliging to make him stay one hour in
" France, after he should be able to go out of it :
" but he would not willingly endanger himself by
" sea to fall into the hands of his enemies. That
" he knew" (for he had shewed him his letter)
" that he had written into Flanders for a pass,
" which was not yet come : as soon as it did, if he
" could procure a litter and endure the motion of it,
" he would remove to St. Omer's or Newport, which
*' were the nearest places 'under the Spanish govern-
" ment. "
To all which he replied with no excess of courtesy,
" that he must and would obey his orders as he -had
" done ; and that he had no power to judge of his
" disability to remove, or of the pain he under-
" went. " And there is no doubt the gentleman,
who was well bred, and in his nature very civil, was
not pleased with his province, and much troubled
that he could not avoid the delivery of the orders
he received : and the conjuncture of their affairs
was such, with reference to the designs then on foot,
that every post brought reiterated commands for
the chancellor's remove ; which grew every day
more impossible, by the access of new pain to the
weakness he was in for want of sleep without any
kind of sustenance.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 361
Notwithstanding which, within few days after 1668.
the last encounter, upon fresh letters from monsieur"
de Lionne, the gentleman came again to him, told
him what orders he had received, and again pro-
posed, " that he would either make use of a boat to
" Newport or Ostend, or a brancard to St. Omer's ;
" either of which he would cause to be provided
" against the next morning, for the king's service
" was exceedingly concerned in the expedition. "
And when he saw the other was not moved with
what he said, nor gave him any answer, he told
him plainly, " that the king would be obeyed in his
" own dominions ; and if he would not choose to do
" that which the king had required, he must go to
" the governor, who had authority and power to
" compel him, which he durst not but do. " Upon
which, with the supply of spirit that choler adminis-
tered to him, he told him, " that though the king .
" was a very great and powerful prince, he was not
" yet so omnipotent, as to make a dying man strong
" enough to undertake a journey. That he was at
" the king's mercy, and would endure what he
" should exact from him as well as he was able : it
"was in his majesty's power to send him a prisoner
" into England, or to cause him to be carried dead
" or alive into the Spanish territories ; but he would
" not be felo de se, by willingly attempting to do
" what he and all who saw him knew was not possi-
" ble for him to perform. " And in this passion he
added some words of reproach to le Fonde, which
were more due to monsieur de Lionne, who in truth
had not behaved himself with any civility: where-
upon he withdrew in the like disorder, and for
362 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. some days forbore so much as to see him, in which
he had never before failed a day.
And the chancellor, who really did believe that
some force and violence would be used towards him,
presently Sent to desire the chief magistrates of the
town and the lieutenant governor to come to him ;
and then told them all the treatment he had receiv-
ed from monsieur le Fonde, and appealed to them,
" whether they thought him in a condition to per-
" form any journey. " And the physicians being
likewise present, he required them to sign such a
certificate and testimony of his sickness as they
thought their duty, which they readily performed ;
very fully declaring under their hands, "that he
" could not be removed out of the chamber in which
" he lay, without manifest danger of his life. " And
the lieutenant governor and the president of justice
seemed much scandalized at what had been so much
pressed, of which they had taken notice many days :
and the one of them wrote to the count of Charrou,
governor of the town and then at court, and the
other to monsieur de Lionne, what they thought
fit ; and the certificate of the physicians was en-
closed to the abbot Mountague, with a full relation
of what had passed. And it was never doubted, but
that monsieur le Fonde himself made a very faithful
relation of the impossibility that the chancellor
could comply with what was required, in the state
of sickness and pain that he was in at present.
The French By this time the French court discovered, that
deDiy*aUen<they were prevented of entering into that strait al-
they hoped with England, (and for obtaining
whereof they had gratified the proud and malicious
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 363
humours of the duke of Buckingham and lord Ar- 1668.
lington in the treatment of the chancellor,) by the~~
triple league, which they had used all those com-
pliances to prevent : so that by the next post after
the receipt of the certificate from the physicians,
monsieur de Lionne writ a very civil letter to the
chancellor, in which he protested, " that he had the
" same respect for him which he had always pro-
" fessed to have in his greatest fortune, and that it
" was never in the purpose of his Christian majesty
" to endanger his health by making any journey that
" he could not well endure ; and therefore that it , He ll! is
leave to
" was left entirely to himself to remove from Calais reside in
" when he thought fit, and to go to what place he
*' would. " And monsieur le Fonde came now again
to visit him with another countenance, by which a
man could not but discern, that he was much better
pleased with the commission he had received last,
than with the former ; and told him, " that he was
" now to receive no orders but from himself, which
" he would gladly obey. "
This gave him some little ease in the agony he
was in, for his pains increased to an intolerable de-
gree, insomuch that he could not rise out of his bed
in six weeks. And it was the more welcome to
him, because at the same time he received an ac-
count from his friend in Flanders, " that the marquis
" of Castille Roderigo, with as much regret as a
" civil man could express, protested, that the fear he
" had of offending the parliament at that time would
" not permit him to grant a pass : but if he would
" come to Newport, he should find the governor
" there well prepared and disposed to shew him all
" possible respect, and to accommodate him in his
3G4 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. " passage throughout the country, where it would
~~ " not l>e convenient for him to make any stay : and
" that he looked upon it as a great misfortune to
" himself, that he might not wait upon him in his
" passage. " This made it easy for him to discern,
that his enemies would not give him any rest in
any place where their malice could reach him : and
since they were so terrible that the marquis of
Castille Roderigo durst not grant him a pass, he
thought it would be no hard matter for them to
cause some affront to be put on him when he should
be without any pass ; though he had not the least
suspicion of the marquis's failing in point of honour
or courtesy.
At the same time he received advice from his
friends in England, " that the storm from France
" was over, and that he might be permitted to stay
"in any part thereof; and for the present they
" wished that he would repair to the waters of Bour-
" bon for his health, and then choose such a place
" to reside in, as upon inquiry he should judge most
" proper. " But he was not yet so far reconciled to
that court, though he liked the climate well, as to
depend upon its protection : and therefore he re-
sumed his former purpose of going to Avignon, and,
if he could recover strength for the journey before
the season should be expired for drinking the waters
of Bourbon to pass that way. And to that purpose
he sent to the court " for a pass to Avignon, with
" liberty to stay some days at Roan," where his goods
and his monies were, (for his servants had come '
from thence to him to Calais,) " and to use the wa-
" tors of Bourlxm in his way :" all which was readily
granted.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 365
It was the third of April, before he recovered 1668.
strength enough to endure a coach : and then, having "~
bought a large and easy coach of the president of
Calais, he hired horses there. And so he begun his He returns
journey for Roan, being still so lame and weak that
he could not go without being supported : and the
first day had a very ill omen by the negligence of
the coachman, who passing upon the sands between
Calais and Boulogne, when the sea was flowing,
drove so unadvisedly, (which he might have avoided,
as the horsemen and another coach did,) that the
sea came over the boot of the coach, to the middle
of all those who sat in it ; and a minute's pause
more had inevitably overthrown the coach, (the
weight whereof only then prevented it,) and they had
been all covered with the sea. And two days after,
by the change of the coachman for a worse, he was
overthrown in a place almost as bad, into a deep
and dirty water, from whence he was with difficulty
and some hurt drawn out. Both which wonderful
deliverances were comfortable instances that God
would protect him, of which he had within few days
a fresh and extraordinary evidence.
When he came to Roan, he received all those or-
ders he had desired from the court. And a letter
from abbot Mountague assured him, " that he need
" no more apprehend any discommodity from orders
" of the court, but might be confident of the con-
" trary, and of all respect that could be shewed him
" from thence : that he might stay at Roan as long
. " as his indisposition required; and when he had
" made use of the waters of Bourbon, he might re-
" tire to any place he would choose to reside in. "
Monsieur le Fonde had orders, " after he had ac-
366 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 668. " companied the chancellor two or three days' jour-
~~" ney towards Bourbon, except he desired his com-
" pany longer, to return to the court. " Only mon-
sieur de Lionne desired, " that he would not in
" his journey come nearer Paris than the direct
" way required him to do, because the emperor's
" agent at London, the baron of Isola, had con-
" fidently averred, that the king had one day gone
" incognito from the Bois de Vincennes to meet the
" chancellor, and had a long private conference with
him. "
From When he had stayed as long at Roan as was ne-
whence he ' 1*1
begins his cessary for the taking a little physic and recovering
A*Tgnon. a little strength, the season required his making
haste to Bourbon : and so on the 23d of April he
began his journey from thence ; and that he might
comply with the directions of monsieur de Lionne,
he chose to go by the way of Eureux, and to lodge
there that night. And because he was unable to
go up a pair of stairs, he sent a servant before, as
he had always done, to choose an inn where there
was some ground-lodging, which often was attended
with discommodity enough, and now (besides being
forced to go through the city into the suburbs) was
like to cost him very dear.
He is great- There happened to be at that time quartered
ly abused
by some there a foot company of English seamen, who had
* been raised and were entertained to serve the French
in attending upon their artillery, some of them being
gunners ; and none of them had the language, but
were attended by a Dutch conductor, who spake ill
English, for their interpreter. Their behaviour
there was so rude and barbarous, in l>eing always
drunk, and quarrelling and fighting with the towns-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 367
men who would not give them any thing they de- 1668.
manded, that the city had sent to the court their"
complaints, and expected orders that night for their
remove. They quickly heard of the chancellor's being
come to the town ; and calling their company toge-
ther declared, " that there were many months' pay
" due to them in England, and that they would
" make him pay it before he got out of the town. "
He was scarce gotten into his ill ground-lodging,
when many of them flocked about the house : upon
which the gates of the inn were shut, they making
a great noise, and swearing they would speak with
the chancellor ; and, being about the number of fifty,
they threatened to break open the gate or pull down
the house. The mutiny was notorious to all the
street ; but they had not courage to appear against
them : the magistrates were sent to ; but there was
a difference between them upon the point of juris-
diction, this uproar being in the suburbs. In short,
they broke open the door of the inn : and when
they were entered into the court, they quickly found
which was the chancellor's chamber. And the door
being barricadoed with such things as were in the
room, they first discharged their pistols into the
window, with which they hurt some of the servants,
and monsieur le Fonde, who with his sword kept
them from entering in at the window with great
courage, until he was shot with a brace of bullets
in the head, with which he fell : and then another
of the servants being hurt, they entered in at the
window, and opened the door for the rest of their
company, which quickly filled the chamber.
The chancellor was in his gown, sitting upon the
bed, being not able to stand ; upon whom they all
3G8 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 668. came with their swords drawn : and one of them
~ gave him a blow with a great broadsword upon the
head, which if it had fallen upon the edge must have
cleft his head; but it turned in his hand, and so
struck him with the flat, with which he fell back-
ward on the bed. They gave him many ill words,
called him " traitor," and swore, " before he should
" get out of their hands he should lay down all their
" arrears of pay. " They differed amongst them-
selves what they should do with him, some cry-
ing, " that they would kill him," others, " that they
" would carry him into England :" some had their
hands in his pockets, and pillaged him of his money
and some other things of value ; others broke up his
trunks and plundered his goods. When himself
recovered out of the trance in which he was stunned
by the blow, they took him by the hand who spake
of carrying him into England, and told him, " it
" was the wisest thing they could do to carry him
" thither, where they would be well rewarded :"
another swore, " that they should be better rewarded
" for killing him there. " And in this confusion, the
room being full, and all speaking together, the fel-
low who had given him the blow, whose name was
Howard, a very lusty strong man, took him by the
hand, and swore, " they should hurt one another if
" they killed him there ; and therefore they would
" take him into the court, and despatch him where
" there was more room. " And thereupon others
laid their hands upon him and pulled him to the
ground, and then dragged him into the court, being-
in the same instant ready to run their swords into
him together : when in the moment their ensign,
and some of the magistrates with a guard, came
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 369
into the court, the gate being broken ; and so he 1 668.
was rescued out of their bloody hands, and carried ~
back into his chamber.
Howard and many of the other, some whereof
had been hurt with swords as they entered at the
window, were taken and carried to prison, and the
rest dispersed, vowing revenge when they should
get the rest of their company together : and it can-
not be expressed with how much fear the magistrates,
and the poor guard that attended them, apprehended
their coming upon them together again.
The chancellor himself had the hurt before men-
tioned in his head, which was a contusion, and al-
ready swollen to a great bigness ; monsieur le Fonde
was shot into the head with a brace of bullets, and
bled much, but seemed not to think himself in dan-
ger ; two of the chancellor's servants were hurt with
swords, and lost much blood : so that they all de-
sired to be in some secure place, that physicians and
surgeons might visit them. And by this time many
persons of quality of the town, both men and wo-
men, filled the little chamber; bitterly inveighing
against the villany of the attempt, but renewing the
dispute of their jurisdiction. And the provost, who
out of the city was the greater officer, would pro-
vide an accommodation for them in his own house
in the city, and appoint a guard for them ; which the
magistrates of the city would not consent to, nor he
to the expedient proposed by them. And this dis-
pute with animosity and very ill words continued
in the chamber till twelve of the clock at night, the
hurt persons being in the mean time without any
remedy or ease : so that the magistrates, though they
were not so dangerous, were as troublesome as the
VOL. III. B b
370 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. eamen, against whom they were not yet secure
upon a second attempt.
In the end, monsieur le Fonde was forced to raise
his voice louder than was agreeable to the state he
was in, to threaten to complain of them to the king,
for their neglect before and after the mischief was
done : by wliich they were much moved, and pre-
sently sent to the governor of the duke of Bouillon's
castle, (which is a good and noble house in the
town,) " that he would receive the chancellor and
" monsieur le Fonde, with such servants as were
" necessary for their attendance ;" which he did with
great courtesy, and gave them such accommodation
as in an unfurnished house could on the sudden be
expected. And so physicians and surgeons visited
their wounds, and applied such present remedies as
were necessary, till upon some repose they might
. make a better judgment.
The same night there were expresses despatched
to the court to give advertisement of the outrage,
and to Roan to inform the intendant in whose pro-
vince it was committed : and he the next day with a
good guard of horse arrived at Eureux. After he
had visited the chancellor, with the just sense of the
insolence he had undergone, and of the indignity
that the king and his government had sustained ;
he proceeded in the court of justice to examine the
whole proceedings, and much blamed the magistrates
on all sides for their negligence and remissness.
Upon the whole examination there appeared no
cause to believe, that there was any formed design
in which any others had concurred than they who
appeared in the execution, who defended themselves
by being drunk, which did not appear in any other
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 371
thing than in the barbarity of the action. Yet it 1G68.
was confessed, that upon their first arrival at Dieppe, ~~
and whilst they were quartered there, the chancellor
then passing by between Roan and Calais, they had
a resolution to have robbed or killed him, if they
had not been prevented by his getting the gates
opened, and so going away before the usual hour.
The surgeons found monsieur le Fonde's wound
to be more dangerous than they had apprehended,
and that at least one of the bullets remained still in
the wound, and doubted that it might have hurt the
scull, in which case trepanning would be necessary ;
which made him resolve, though he was feverish,
presently to have a brancard made, and to be put
into it in his bed, and so with expedition to be car-
ried to Paris, where he was sure to find better
operators, besides the benefit and convenience of his
own house and family. And so the third day after
his misadventure, and after he had given his testi-
mony to the intendant, he was in that manner, and
attended by a surgeon, conveyed to Paris ; and, by
the blessing of God, recovered without the remedy
that had been proposed.
The chancellor, after he had been r bled once or
twice, found himself only in pain with the blow,
without any other symptoms which frequently attend
great contusions ; and therefore he positively rejected
the proposition of trepanning, which had been like-
wise earnestly urged by the surgeons : and upon
application of such plasters and ointments as were
prescribed, he found both the pain and swelling
lessen by degrees, though the memory of the blow
lasted long ; so that he thought himself fit enough
r been] Not in MS.
B b 2
372 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 G68. for his journey, and was impatient to be out of that
~~ unlucky town ; and his servants, having only flesh-
hurts, could endure the coach as well as he. The
intendant, who knew his desire, and was willing to
defer his judgment till he was gone from thence,
He remove* was very well content that he should proceed in his
toitourbSrj ourne y an d sent his sons w i tn n ^ s own troop to
convoy him two or three leagues out of the town ;
and appointed the provost with his troop of horse to
attend him to his lodging that night, and farther if
he desired it. And the next day he condemned
Howard and two others, an Englishman, a Scotch-
man, and an Irishman, (for the company consisted
of the three nations,) to be broken upon the wheel ;
which was executed accordingly. And shortly after
his arrival at Bourbon, monsieur de Lionne writ a
very civil letter to the chancellor, " of the trouble
" the king sustained for the affront and danger he
" had undergone ; and that his majesty was very ill
" satisfied, that so few as three had been sacrificed
" to justice for so barbarous a crime. "
And from When he had stayed as long at Bourbon in the
Avignon, use of the waters, as the physicians prescribed, (in
which time he foun'd a good recovery of his strength,
save that the weakness of his feet still continued in
an uneasy degree ;) and had 8 received great civili-
ties during his abode there from all the French of
quality, men and women, who came thither for the
same remedies, and with whom the town then
abounded ; he prosecuted his journey to Avignon :
and having stayed a week at Lyons, without any
new ill accident he arrived about the middle of
June there, by the pleasant passage of the Rhone.
had] having
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 373
Though he desired to make his journey as pri-
vately as he could, and had no more servants in his
train than was necessary to the state of health he
was in ; yet he was known in most places by the
presence of English, or by some other accident.
And some friends at Paris had given such adver- His good
tisement to Avignon, that when he arrived there, there/ '
he had no sooner entered into a private lodging,
which he procured the next day, but the vice-legate
came to visit him in great state and with much ci-
vility, offering all the commodities of that place, if
he would reside there. The archbishop, a very re-
verend and learned prelate, a Genoese, as the vice-
legate likewise was, performed the same ceremony
to him ; and afterwards the consuls and magistrates
of the city in a body, (who made a speech to him in
Latin, as all the rest treated him in that language,)
and all the principal officers of the court : so that
he could not receive more civility and respect in any
place ; which, together with the cheapness and con-
venience of living, and the pleasantness of the coun-
try about it, might have inclined him to reside there.
Yet the ill savour of the streets by the multitude of
dyers and of the silk-manufactures, and the worse
smell of the Jews, made him doubt that it could be
no pleasant place to make an abode in during the
heat of summer : and therefore receiving new con-
firmation by letters from Paris, " that he was en-
" tirely at liberty to reside where he would in
" France," he resolved to take a view of some places
before he would conclude where to fix ; and the fame
of Montpelier, that was within two little days' jour-
ney, invited him thither. And so after a week's He goes to
Montpelier;
stay at Avignon, and after having returned all the
Bb 3
374 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. visits he had received, he went from thence, and
~" came to Montpelier in the beginning of July.
where he It was his very good fortune, that an English lady
receives . .
Kreat civiii- of eminent virtue, and merit, the lady viscountess
the lady' Mordaunt, who had in the beginning of the winter
j n as gr ea t weakness of body as nature can
subsist with, transported herself thither, remained
still at Montpelier ; where she had miraculously, by
"the benefit of that air, recovered a comfortable de-
gree of health : and the news of her being still there
\Vas a great motive to his journey from Avignon thi-
ther. The chancellor had no mind to be taken no-
tice of; but some relations which that lady made to
his advantage, and the great esteem that city had
of her, made his reception there more formal and
ceremonious than he desired.
Great re- The marquis de Castro, governor of the city and
tEliiiM* 1 castle, visited him, and welcomed him to the town,
though he had not so much as a pass to come thi-
ther. The premier president, and all the other
courts, and the consul and other magistrates of the
city, visited him in their several bodies, and enter-
tained him in Latin. It is true, that some days
after, the intendant of the province (who was not
then in the town) came thither ; and he had received
orders from the court, as soon as it was known that
the chancellor was in Montpelier, " that he should
" be looked upon and treated as a person of whom
" the most Christian king had a good esteem :" and
so, as soon as he came to the town, he visited him
with much ceremony, and told him, " that he had
" received a particular command from the king to
" do him all the services he could in that city, and
" in the province of Languedoc. " And it must be
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 375
confessed, that during his residence in Montpelier, 1668.
which was not above one or two months less than ~
three years, he did receive as much civility and
formal courtesy from all persons of all conditions in
that place, or who occasionally resorted thither, as
could have been performed towards him, if he had
been sent thither as a public person. And when
the duke of Vernueil (who was governor of the pro-
vince, and used to convene the States thither every
year) came to Montpelier, as he did three times in
those three years, he always visited the chancellor,
and shewed a very great respect to him : which was
as great a countenance as he could receive.
' Yet he did always acknowledge, that he owed all Which he
. . imputes to
the civilities which he received at his first coming the friend-
thither, and which were upon the matter the first w
civilities he had received in France, purely to the
friendship of the lady Mordaunt, and to the great
credit she had there : and for which, and the con-
solation he received from her during the time of her
stay there, he had ever a great respect for her and
her husband ; who, coming likewise thither, when
he received information from England of a design
to assassinate him by some Irish, manifested a noble
affection for him, and stayed some months longer
than he intended to have done, that he might see
the issue of that design. Of which he had a just
sense, and transmitted the information of it to his
children, to the end that they and his friends might,
upon all opportunities, acknowledge it to them both.
And in truth the great respect the place had for
him was notorious, when l any English came thither,
f when] in that when
B I) 4
376 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. and forbore to pay any respect to the chancellor;
~~ as only one gentleman did, sir Richard Temple, who
publicly declared, " that he would not visit him,'*
and dissuaded others from doing it, as a matter the
parliament would punish them for, and shewed much
vanity and insolence in his discourses concerning
him: but" he found so little countenance from any
person of condition, though he called himself " the
" premier president of the parliament of England,"
and such a general aversion towards him ; that as
they who came with him, and his other friends, de-
serted him and paid their civilities to the chancellor,
so himself grew so ridiculous, that he left the town
sooner than he intended, and left the reputation be-
hind him of a very vain, humorous, and sordid per-
son.
And having thus accompanied the chancellor
through all his ill treatments and misadventures to
Montpelier, where he resolved to stay, it will be to
no purpose further to continue this relation ; other-
wise than as himself afterwards communicated his
private thoughts and reflections to his friends.
When he found himself at this ease, and with
those convenient accommodations, that he might rea-
sonably believe he should be no more exposed to the
troubles and distresses which he had passed through ;
he began to think of composing his mind to his for-
tune, and of regulating and governing his own
thoughts and affections towards such a tranquillity,
as the sickness of mind and body, and the continued
sharp fatigue in the six or seven precedent months,
had not suffered to enter into any formed delibera-
" but] Not in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 377
tion. And it pleased God in a short time, after '668.
some recollections, and upon his entire confidence in
him, to restore him to that serenity of mind, and re-
signation of himself to the disposal and good pleasure
of God, that they who conversed most with him
could not discover the least murmur or impatience
in him, or any unevenness in his conversations.
He resolved to improve his understanding of the
French language, not towards speaking it, the defect
of which he found many conveniences in, but for
the reading any books ; and to learn the Italian :
towards both which he made a competent progress,
and had opportunity" to buy or borrow any good
books he desired to peruse.
But in the first place he thought he was indebted He writes a
i t i i' i e> i r> vindication
to his own reputation, and obliged x for the informa- of himself.
tion of his children and other friends, to vindicate
himself from those aspersions and reproaches which
the malice of his enemies had cast upon him in the
parliament ; which, though never reduced into any
formal or legal charge, nor offered to be proved
by any one witness, were yet maliciously scattered
abroad and divulged to take away his credit. And
the performance of this work, that was so necessarily
incumbent to him, was the more difficult, by his
constant and uninterrupted fidelity and zeal for the
king's service, and his resolution to say nothing on
his own behalf and for his own vindication, that
might in the least degree reflect upon his majesty ;
which consideration had before kept him from
charging those who persecuted him, with such indi-
rect and naughty proceedings as might have put an
^ \
x obliged] Not in MS.
378 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. en d to their power. Nor did he think fit in that
"conjuncture, when his majesty had not yet met
with that compliance and submission from the par-
liament since the chancellor's remove, as had been
promised to him as the effect of that counsel, to
publish, that his coming away (which was the
greatest blot upon his reputation) was with the
king's privity, and at least with his approbation.
However, he was resolved to commit into the cus-
tody of his children, who he knew could never com-
mit a fault against his majesty, such a plain, parti-
cular defence of his innocence upon every one of the
reproaches he had been charged with, that them-
selves might infallibly know his uprightness and in-
tegrity in all his ministry, which they observed and
knew too much of to suspect ; and might likewise
manifestly convince other men, who were willing to
be undeceived : but the manner of doing it, in re-
spect of the former consideration, he left to their
discretion. And having prepared this, and caused
it to be fairly transcribed, before the lord and lady
Mordaunt returned for England; he committed it to
their care, who delivered it safely to the hands of
his sons.
They were themselves upon that disadvantage
under the reproach of their relation, that the eldest
of them was removed from his attendance upon the
queen for many months, without the allegation of
any crime ; and the other was retained only by the
goodness of the king, against the greatest importu-
nity that could be applied : and therefore it con-
cerned them to be very wary in giving any offence,
of which their adversaries might take any ad-
vantage. Besides, they observed that they, whose
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 379
credit and interest had done all the mischief to their l G68.
father, were now fallen out amongst themselves with ~"
equal animosity, and had all carried themselves so
ill with reference to the public, and so loosely and
licentiously in order to a good name, that their
being enemies brought little prejudice to any man's
reputation ; and many of those, who had been made
instruments to deprave the chancellor, were not
scrupulous in declaring how they had been cozened,
and how unjustly he had been traduced and ac-
cused : so that they made no other use of the an-
swer and vindication they had received, than to be
thereby enabled to make a perfect relation of some
particular matters of fact which were variously re-
ported, and could not be understood by any but
those who had been conversant in the transactions.
It will be therefore necessary in this place, since
there hath been before so methodical an account of
all that the committee brought into the house of
commons against him, and never after mentioned
when they had once accused him, to insert such a
short answer and defence to all that was alleged,
out of that vindication which he sent from Montpe-
lier, that nothing may remain in the possible
thoughts of any worthy and uncorrupted man that
may reflect upon his sincerity, or leave any taint
upon his memory ; the preservation of which from
being sullied by the misfortunes which befell him, is
the only end of this discourse, never to be communi-
cated or perused by any but his nearest relations ;
who, by the blessing of God, can never but retain
that affection and duty to the crown and for the
royal family, that by the laws of God and man is
due to it and them, and without which they can
380 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 668. never expect God's blessing in this or the world to
come. And in this I shall observe the order I used
* before in the mention of the several allegations,
of the omitting upon any particular the repetition of what
him. hath been at large already said in this discourse,
which shall be referred to for answer.
rst ar-
The first ar- To t j ie first then> That he had designed a stand-
" ing army, and to govern the kingdom there-
" by ; advised the king to dissolve the present
" parliament, and to lay aside all thoughts of
" future parliaments ; to govern by military
" power, and to maintain the same by free
". quarter and contribution," (which, if true,
whether it was treason or no, must worthily
have made him odious to all honest men. )
His answer. The answer which he then made, and which was
dated at Montpelier upon the 24th of July 1668,
within few days after his arrival there and resolution
to stay there, was in these words. He said, as no-
thing could be more surprising to him, nor he
thought to any man else, than to find himself, after
near thirty years' service of the crown in the highest
trust ; after having passed all the time of his ma-
jesty's exile with him beyond the seas and in his
service, and in which the indefatigable pains he took
was notorious to many nations ; and after he had
the honour and happiness to return again with his
majesty into England, and to receive from him so
many eminent marks of his favour,' and to serve him
near eight years after his return in the place of the
greatest trust, without ever having discovered that
his majesty was offended with him, or in truth that
he had ever the least ill success from any counsel he
had ever given him ; or that any persons of honour
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 381
and reputation, or interest in the nation, had ever 1668.
made the least complaint against him, or had any""
thought that the miscarriages (for miscarriages were
enough spoken of) had proceeded from him, or from
any advice of his : he said, that as after all this he
could not but be exceedingly surprised to find him-
self on a sudden, when he had not the least imagina-
tion of it, bereft of the king's favour, and fallen so
far from his kindness, even within three or four
days after his majesty had vouchsafed to condole
with him in his house for the death of his wife, that
he resolved to take the great seal from him ; so it
was no small comfort to him to see and know, that
very few men of honour and reputation approved or
liked what was done ; but that the same was con-
trived, pursued, and brought to pass by men and
women of no credit in the nation ; by men, who had
never served his majesty or his blessed father emi-
nently or usefully, but most of them of trust and
credit under Cromwell, or never of credit to do the
king the least service ; and who were only angry
with him for not being pleased with their vicious
and debauched lives, or for opposing and dissuading
their loose and unreasonable counsels, which they
were every day audaciously administering in matters
of the highest moment, with great license and pre-
sumption.
But above all, he said, it was of the highest con-
solation to him, when it was publicly and indus-
triously declared, " that the king was firmly resolv-
" ed to destroy him, and would take it very well
" from all men who would contribute thereunto,
" by bringing in any charge or accusation against
" him ;" when the most notorious enemies he had
382 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
ICC8. were the only persons trusted in employment, men
~~ who had most eminently disserved and maliciously
traduced the king, and had been to that time looked
upon as such by his majesty ; and when all, who
were believed to have any kindness for the chancel-
lor, were discountenanced and ill looked upon ;
when men of all conditions and degrees were daily
solicited and importuned, by promises and threats,
to declare themselves against him, at least if they
would not be wrought over to do any thing against
their conscience, that they would absent themselves
from those debates : that all this malice and conspi-
racy, with so long Deliberation and consultation,
should not be able at last to produce and exhibit
any other charge and accusation against him, but
such a one as most men who knew him, or who had
any trust or employment in the public affairs, were
well able to vindicate him from the guilt of, and
even his enemies themselves did not believe. The
particulars whereof, he said, as far as he could take
notice of them/ they having not been to that day re-
duced into any form, so much as in the house of
commons itself, he would then examine : and if he
should appear too tedious in the examination and
disquisition of them, and to say more than was ne-
cessary in his own defence, and to mention many
particular persons in another manner than is usual
upon occasions of this kind ; he desired it might be
remembered and considered, that this was not writ-
ten as a formal answer to an impeachment, nor like
to be published in his lifetime, a judgment of banish-
ment being passed against him (without the least
proof made or offered for the making good any one
article of treason or misdemeanour) by act of parlia-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 383
ment ; but that it was a debt due to his children 1 668.
and posterity, that they might know (how much"
soever they were involved or might be in the effects
of the sharp malice against him) how far he was
from any guilt of those odious crimes which had
been so odiously laid to his charge.
And that being his end, he might be excused if
he did so far enlarge upon all particulars, that it
might be manifest unto them how far he had been
from treading in those paths, or having been acces-
sory to those counsels, which had been the source
from whence all those bitter waters had flowed, that
had corrupted the taste even almost of the whole
nation. And in order to that so necessary discourse
and vindication of his integrity and honour, he could
only take notice of the printed paper of those
heads for a charge, that had been reported from the
committee to the house; all correspondence and com-
munication being so strictly inhibited to all kind of
men to hold any kind of commerce with him, ex-
cept his children and menial servants, who only had
liberty to write unto him of his own domestic af-
fairs ; and the letters which they should write or re-
ceive were to be first communicated to one of the
secretaries of state.
To the charge of the first article itself he said ; it
was no great vanity to believe, that there was not
one person in England of any quality to whom he
was in any degree known, who believed him guilty
of that charge : and that he wanted not a cloud of
witnesses (besides the testimony that he hoped his
majesty himself would vouchsafe to give him in that
particular) who, from all that they had heard him
say in council and in conversation, could vindicate
384 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. him from having that odious opinion. Having had
the honour, by the special command of his late ma-
jesty of blessed memory, to attend the prince, his
now majesty, into the parts beyond the seas, and to
be always with him and in his service those many
years of his exile, and till his happy return ; he had
always endeavoured to imprint in his majesty's
mind an affection, esteem, and reverence for the
laws of the land ; " without the trampling of which
" under foot," he told him, " that himself could not
" have been oppressed ; and that by the vindication
" and support of them, he could only hope and ex-
" pect honour and security to the crown. " Upon
that foundation and declared judgment, he said, he
came into the service of the king his father, by op-
posing all irregular and illegal proceedings in par-
liament ; and that he had never swerved from that
rule in any advice and counsel he had given to him
or to his son.
From the time of his majesty's happy return from
beyond the seas, he had taken nothing so much to
heart, as the establishment of the due administration
of justice throughout the kingdom according to the
known laws of the land, as the best expedient he
could think of for the composing the general dis-
tempers of the nation, and uniting the hearts of the
people in a true obedience unto, and reverence for,
his majesty's person and government. And with
what success he had served his majesty in that pro-
vince, (which he had been pleased principally to
commit to his care and trust,) he did appeal to the
whole nation ; and whether the oldest man could
remember, that in the best times justice was ever
more equally administered, and with less complaint
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 385
and murmur; which had been frequently acknow- 1GG8.
ledged from all the parts of the kingdom, and had~
been often taken notice of by the king himself with
great approbation, and confessed by most of the no-
bility upon several occasions. He said, he had often
declared in parliament the king's affection and re-
verence for the laws, and his resolution neither to
swerve from them himself, nor to suffer any body
else to do so : and upon the public occasions of
swearing the judges in any courts, he had always
enjoined them " to be very strict and precise in the
" administration of justice according to law, with all
" equality, and without respect of persons, which
" the king expected from them ; and that as his ma-
" jesty resolved never to interpose by message or
" letter for the advancement or favour of any man's
" right or title, so he would take it very ill, if any
" subject (how great soever) should be able to
" pervert them. " And he did believe there had
never passed so many years together in any age,
in which the crown had not in the least degree in-
terposed in any cause or title depending in West-
minster-hall, to incline the court to this or that side ;
or in which the crown itself -hath had so many
causes judged against it in several courts : at least
in which former practice and usage on the behalf
of the crown hath been less followed. And no-
thing is more known, than that from the time of
the king's blessed return into England, even to the
preparation of that charge against him, he had been
reproached with nothing so much as his too much
adhering to the law, and subjecting all persons to
it : and this reproach had not been cast upon him
so bitterly and so maliciously by any, and in places
VOL. III. C C
386 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. where they thought it might produce most prejudice
~~to him, as by those who now contrived that charge,
and who had been always great enemies to the law.
All this, and much more of the same kind, he
said, was manifest to all the world : and therefore he
needed not more to labour in that vindication. Yet
he could not but observe, that there was not in all
the king's forces, nor was when his forces were much
greater than they were at that present, one officer
recommended by him : and most of them were such
who professed publicly a great animosity against
him, having been, by the malice of some men, very
unreasonably persuaded that the chancellor was
their enemy ; that he desired that they might be
disbanded, or at least so obliged to the rules of the
law, that they should be every day cast into prison.
And they had indeed found, that in some insolencics
which the soldiers had committed contrary to the
law, and some pretences which they made to pri-
vileges against arrests, and the like, he had always
opposed their desires with more warmth than other
men had done ; as believing it might be the cause
of notable disorders, and more alienate the affection
of the people from the soldiers : so that it could not
be thought probable, that he should contribute his
advice for the raising a standing army, and that the
kingdom should be governed thereby ; when there
were very few men so like to be destroyed by that
army as himself, who was so industriously rendered
to be odious to it.
To the other part of that first article, " that he
" did advise the king to dissolve the present parlia-
" ment, and to lay aside all thoughts of parliaments
" for the future," &c. which it was said two privy
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 387
counsellors were ready to prove ; he made a relation l GGS.
of all that had passed in that consternation when"
the Dutch fleet came into the river as far as Chat-
ham, and when the debate was in council upon the
reconvening the parliament in August, when it
stood prorogued till October, which the chancellor
affirmed could not legally be done ; all which is more
at large related in this discourse y of the time when
those transactions passed, and so need not to be re-
peated in this place.
The second article was, " That he had, in the The second
" hearing of many of his majesty's subjects, ar
" falsely and maliciously said, that the king
*' was in his heart a papist, popishly affected,
" or words to that effect. "
He said, that he had occasion too often, through- His
out the whole charge, to acknowledge and magnify
the great goodness of God Almighty, that, since he
thought not fit (for his greater humiliation, and
it may be to correct the pride of a good conscience)
to preserve him entirely from those aspersions of
infamy, and those flagella lingua, those strokes of
the tongue, which always leave some mark or scar
in the reputation they desire to wound ; he had yet
infused into the hearts of his enemies, who had sug-
gested and contrived this persecution against him,
to lay such crimes to his charge as his nature is
known most to abhor, and which cannot only not
be believed, but must be contradicted, and a vindi-
cation of him from that guilt must be made, by all
men who know him to any degree, or who have been
much in his company. And as justice would have
y Page 247. &c. of this volume.
c c 2
388 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. required it, so the usual form in cases of this nature
"doth exact, that in so general a charge they should
have named one single person of those many, in
whose hearing lie had laid that odious imputation
upon the king: and every man will presume, that
one such person would have been named, if he could
have been found.
There was no man then alive, he said, who had
had the honour to be so many years about or near
the person of the king as he had been : no man, who
knew more of the temptation his majesty had un-
dergone, and the assaults he had sustained, in the
matter of religion, during the whole time of his
exile; when almost a total despair possessed the
spirits of most men of his own religion, that he
would recover his regality ; and the hopes and pro-
mises and assurances were so pregnant of very many
of all conditions, that he would suddenly recover it
if he would change it. No man knew so well, with
what Christian courage his majesty had repelled
those assaults, or with what pious contempt and in-
dignation he resisted and rejected those temptations.
Nor had any man, he thought, held so many dis-
courses with his majesty concerning religion as he
had done; and sooner and more clearly discerned
the reproaches he would 'undergo from that innate
candour in his princely nature, which disposed him
to receive any addresses, or to hear any discourses,
which those of several factions in religion with great
presumption have used to present to him : whilst his
majesty hath, with equal temper and singular be-
nignity, heard all ; and, pitying their errors, disr
missed them with evidence, that their arguments
were too weak to make impression upon his judg-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 389
ment. Which though they knew well, yet either
party, out of the vanity of their hearts, used all the
endeavours they could to get it believed, that the
king was propitious to them and their party. And
the papists, being most presumptuous in particular,
and in their dark walks in several counties making
it a special argument to their proselytes, and those
they endeavoured to make so, that the king favoured
them, and was of their religion in his heart, (of
which, and the great prejudice it brought upon his
majesty, he frequently received advertisements from
many persons of honour, and of warm affections to
the government ;) of which he had always informed
the king, who was exceedingly offended at their
folly and presumption, and wished " that some of
" them might be apprehended, and prosecuted with
" the utmost rigour ; and that some such prosecution
" might be made against all the Roman catholics,
" and that they might be convicted ;" which he al-
ways gave in charge to the judges accordingly.
And upon that and the like occasions he had a just
and necessary opportunity to enlarge, in the pre-
sence of many persons of honour and interest in the
kingdom, upon the sincerity of the king's religion,
and his constant exercise of it when he suffered by
it; giving such instances of many particulars as were
pertinent to the discourse : of which endeavours of
his, and of some fruit thereof, he doubted not but
that many of as considerable persons as are in Eng-
land would be ready to give him their testimony.
And, he said, he might without vanity say, that he
had more than an ordinary part in the framing and
promoting that act of parliament, that hath made
those seditious discourses, " of the king's being a
c c 3
390 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
J 668. papist in his heart, or popishly affected,*' so very
penal as they are*: and therefore there would be
need of an undoubted and uncontrollable evidence,
that he had so soon run into that crime himself.
Which was all he would for the present say upon
that second article.
The third The third article was, " That he had received
article.
" great sums of money for passing the Canary
" patent, and other illegal patents ; and granted
" several injunctions to stop proceedings at law
" against them, and other illegal patents for-
" merly granted. "
His answer. TO which he said, that he had presumed in his
humble address to the house of peers to assure their
lordships, *' that he had never received one penny
" over and above the just perquisites of his office,
" according to the precedents and practice of the
" best times, which he conceived to be those of the
" lord Coventry and the lord Ellesmere ; and which
" he had made his rule in all that he had receiv-
" ed, excepting only what he had from the imme-
" diate bounty of the king. " And as he had always
done all that was in his power to prevent and stop
all illegal patents, so he did believe that there would
be more patents then found in the office, which had
been stopped by him, than by any of his predeces-
sors in so short a time. He never granted any in-
junctions in the cases mentioned in the charge, nor
in any case, where, by the course of the court and
the rules of justice, it was not warranted. And for
the Canary patent, and the original, and all the pro-
ceedings thereupon, so much is said in the body of
1 they are] it is
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 391
this discourse, according to the time it was trans- ltiC8.
acted in a , that there needs no repetition of it in this
place.
The fourth article was, " That he had advised The fourth
article.
" and procured divers of his majesty's sub-
" jects to be imprisoned against law in remote
" islands, garrisons, and other places ; thereby
" to prevent them from the benefit of the law,
" and to introduce precedents for imprison -
" ing of other of his majesty's subjects in like
" manner. "
To which he said, he knew not what answer to His
make to that article, it being so general, and no
particular person being named : but, he said, it was
generally known, that he had never taken it upon
him to commit any man to prison, but such who,
by the course of the chancery, for matters of con-
tempt are justly and necessarily to be committed. It
was probable that he had been present at the coun-
cil-board, when many persons had been ordered to
be committed, and whose commitment hath by the
wisdom of that board been thought just and neces-
sary ; and therefore he was not to answer apart for
any thing done by them. Only he might say, that
he was frequently of opinion that the commitments
were very necessary : and it was notoriously known,
that by such commitments some rebellions or insur-
rections had been prevented ; and that other per-
sons, who were afterwards attainted and executed
for high treason, had upon their examinations and
at their death confessed, that their purpose had been
to rise in arms at such and such times, if their
a Vol. ii. p. 362. &c.
c c 4
392 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1(568. friends upon whom they had principally relied had
~~ not been then committed to prison. And, he said,
he did well remember, that it was thought fit that
most of the persons who stand attainted for the
murder of the late king, his majesty's royal father,
should be removed out of the Tower, and dispersed
into several islands and garrisons : and if any other
persons had been likewise sent thither, he presumed
it was upon such reasons, as upon a due examination
thereof would make it appear to be very just.
The fifth ar- The fifth article was, " That he had corruptly
" sold several offices contrary to law. "
His answer. This he positively denied.
The sixth The sixth was, " That he had procured his ma-
" jesty's customs to be farmed at underrates,
" knowing the same ; and great pretended
" debts to be paid by his majesty, to the pay-
" ment whereof his majesty was not in strict-
" ness bound ; and that he had received great
" sums of money for procuring the same. "
Hi answer. To this he said, he had never had any thing to
do in the disposing his majesty's customs or any other
part of his revenue, except for some short time
after his majesty's first arrival in England ; when
he, amongst others of the lords of the council, was a
commissioner for the treasury : during which time
there was no farm let of any of the revenue, and the
customs were put into the hand of commissioners, to
the end that a computation might be made as near
as was possible of the full value of them, before that
it should be put into a farm, which every man con-
ceived would be fit to be done as soon as might be.
The white staff was shortly after given to the earl
of Southampton, (to whom his majesty had de-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 393
signed it before he returned,) and the chancellorship 1 668.
of the exchequer to the lord Ashley, the lord chan-
cellor having resigned it into his majesty's hands,
which he had been possessed of for many years in
the time of the late king, and retained it till after
his majesty's return : and from the time that those
two officers of the revenue were made, which deter-
mined the former commission, he never intermeddled
in the customs, or in any other branch of the re-
venue ; except when the king commanded him to
be present in some consultations which he had with
the lord treasurer, and when there were other lords
of the council present. That excellent person, the
lord treasurer, always resorted to the king for his di-
rection, in all matters of the least difficulty which
occurred to him in the administration of his office ;
and frequently did desire to confer with the chancel-
lor (with whom he was known to have held a long
and a fast friendship) upon many particulars of his
office, believing that he was not altogether ignorant
in that administration, with which he had been for-
merly so well acquainted. And that he conceived
might be the reason, why he did oftentimes procure
him to be joined with him in . references from the
king, upon matters wholly relating to his own
office. But the chancellor did never then suffer
any particular application to be made to him in
those cases, nor had ever secret conferences with
any persons who were concerned in those preten-
sions.
What was meant " by his having procured his
" majesty's customs to be farmed at underrates,
" knowing the same ; and great pretended debts to
" be paid by his majesty, to the payment whereof
394 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1068. " his majesty was not in strictness bound ;" he said,
he could not imagine, except it did relate to the
payment of a debt due from his late majesty to
some of the fanners. In which though he had no
more to do, than in giving information and his par-
ticular advice to his majesty, in the presence of the
lord treasurer, the chancellor of the exchequer, and
other of the lords, and so was not himself respons-
ible for what his majesty did thereupon ; yet he
thought himself obliged upon this particular, which
so much concerned the honour and justice of the
late king and of his present majesty, to enlarge, and
relate all he knew of what their majesties did, and
what induced his present majesty to do his part in
it.
He said, it was notoriously known, that before
the late troubles, and in the very first entrance into
them, his majesty was necessitated to borrow very
great sums of money from his then farmers of his
customs, and to oblige them to stand personally
bound for many other great sums of money, which
other men lent to his majesty upon their security.
That thereupon^ and for the repayment of those
sums which the farmers had advanced, and for
securing them from any damage for those monies
which others had lent upon their obligations, his
late majesty, with the advice of the then lord trea-
surer and the chancellor of the exchequer, had grant-
ed a further lease of his customs to those farmers for
three or four years to come, after the expiration of
their former lease ; with a covenant on his majesty's
part, to pay the just interest for all such monies as
were advanced by them, or for which they stood
bound ; and likewise that they should, out of their
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 395
growing rent, deduct such sums of money by the 1668.
year, as they had lent or been bound for, according"
to such proportions yearly as was agreed upon.
That it was as well known, that shortly after the
beginning of the parliament in 1640, and before the
commencement of the second lease, the house of
commons did not only force the said farmers to pay
a very great sum of money for their presumption in
receiving customs and impositions upon merchandise
in the former years, when they pretended such pay-
ments were not due ; but took also from them their
new lease granted to them by the king, and so left
them without any capacity of reimbursing them-
selves of the money they had lent, and likewise at
the mercy of their creditors to whom they stood
bound ; many of whom quickly began to exercise
that severity towards them, that many of the poor
gentlemen had their estates extended upon judg-
ments and recognisances, and their persons taken in
execution and committed to prison ; where some of
them who had been known to have great estates, as
sir Paul Pindar and others, were forced to end their
lives.
There were very few circumstances in the late
king's misfortunes, which gave him more trouble, or
so much afflicted him as the sense he had of the hor-
rid and unjust sufferings those poor gentlemen un-
derwent for him, and their affection for his service ;
which he often publicly mentioned, and as often de-
clared, " that he held himself obliged to make them
" full reparation as soon as God should enable him. "
And he frequently spake to the chancellor, who was
then chancellor of the exchequer, of that affair ; of
the good opinion he had of the men, and of the great
3JK) CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. services they had done for his majesty; and com-
~~ manded him expressly, when it should fall within
his power, he should do them all the right he could.
And of this he had often informed his majesty dur-
ing the time he was abroad, and after his return,
without any other motive than his father's command
and his own honour, having himself never had any
degree of friendship with any of the persons con-
cerned, and a very ordinary acquaintance with
some of them. Upon his majesty's happy return,
those gentlemen who were alive of the old farmers,
who were sir John Jacob, sir Job Harby, sir Ni-
cholas Crispe, and sir John Harrison, applied them-
selves to the king, having lain several years and at
that time remaining in execution in several prisons,
and having had their estates sold, upon the prosecu-
tion of those creditors to whom they were bound for
money lent to his majesty.
As soon as measures were taken for collecting the
revenue, those four gentlemen named before, and
two others who had served his majesty very well,
were appointed his commissioners for the collecting
the customs and duties upon trade ; in which collec-
tion they continued a year or thereabouts ; during
which time many of their creditors, who had gene-
rously forbore to prosecute them whilst they were
in prison and undone, begun now to commence their
actions against them, presuming they were then or
would shortly be able to satisfy them. Whereupon
the king commanded the lord treasurer and the
chancellor, with some other lords, to send for those
creditors, and to declare to them, " that his majesty
" would in a short time enable his farmers to pay
" their just debts, which he well knew were con-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 397
" tracted for his service ; and that he would take it 1G68.
<c very well from them, if they would for the present
" give no obstruction to his service, by the prosecu-
" tion of those persons at law, whose time was
" solely taken up in the necessary service of his ma-
" jesty. " Whereupon they willingly desisted from
that prosecution ; and many of them finding now,
that by his majesty's favour they were like to re-
cover their debts they before thought to be despe-
rate, they frankly remitted the whole or part of
the interest, that in strictness of law was still due
to them.
His majesty shortly after, finding it best for his
profit to determine the collection by commission,
and to let the whole to farm, gave direction to the
lord treasurer to confer and treat with any fit per-
sons who desired to contract for the same. Many
overtures were made by several persons, and some
applied themselves directly to his majesty. Upon
which, and after a competent time in considering all
that had been proposed, the king appointed a day,
when he would be attended by the lord treasurer
and other of the lords, and when all the pretenders
should likewise be present, and he would then and
there declare his own judgment ; having first de-
clared to the commissioners, whereof four were the
old farmers to whom so much money was due, " that
" whosoever should take the farm, they should be
" obliged to pay them their just debt at such times,
" and by such proportions, as their service could
" bear. But as to the letting the farm itself, he
" would neither consider the debt he owed them,
" nor the sufferings they had undergone, but only
. " the rent they should offer ; which if as much as
398 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. " any Ixxly else would give, he would prefer their
~~ " persons taforc others ; but if any other fit men
" would offer more than they thought fit to give,
" they should be his farmers : and therefore wished
" them well to consider what they would propose to
" him. "
After two days spent by his majesty with the se-
veral pretenders apart, and finding that the proposi-
tions made to him by the old farmers, with whom
the other two were to be joined who had served
with them as commissioners, were at least as much
if not more for his profit than any that had been
made by any of the rest ; he did declare, that the
farm should be let to those who had been his com-
missioners : which at that time was understood to
be so far from being a good bargain, that the two
commissioners, who were not concerned in the great
debt, utterly refused to meddle with the farm at so
great a rent ; the other four publicly declaring at
the same time, " that they would not give the rent
" but in contemplation of their debt, which they
" thought they should sooner and better receive,
" when it should be assigned upon their own collec-
" tions, than when it should be charged upon new
" farmers. " But they were suitors to his majesty,
" that he would oblige the other two (sir John Wol-
'* stenholme and sir John Shaw) to be joint farmers
" with them ;" which his majesty did, by making
a gracious promise to them, " that if they should be
" losers, he would repair them :" and thereupon di-
rections were given to Mr. Attorney General to pre-
pare a grant accordingly. And, he said, he did not
know that there was one dissenting voice from what
his majesty inclined to do upon the whole matter,
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 399
the same appearing to every man to be most just 1G68.
and reasonable.
The farm being thus settled, the old farmers were
directed " to bring their accounts to the lord trea-
" surer and chancellor of the exchequer, by which it
" should manifestly appear how much the king was
" justly and truly indebted to them, and how the
" debts were incurred ; that so upon a just compu-
" tation such satisfaction might be made to them, as
" was consistent with the present state of his ma-
" jesty's affairs and occasions. " Many months, if
not a whole year, were spent in the examination of
those accounts before the auditors : who, besides the
exceptions they took for want of some formalities in
the proof of some money paid, which after twenty
years of license (in which all their books and papers
had been taken, their houses plundered, and their
persons imprisoned ; and in which so many persons
employed by the king to receive and by them to
pay money were dead) could hardly be made with
the usual exactness ; made likewise several certifi-
cates of particular cases, which required further di-
rections. And the lord treasurer would never take
upon himself to give those directions, only declaring
to them, as he had frequently done, " that in regard
" his majesty was not strictly bound in justice to
" pay that debt due from his father, but that his
" present majesty's generous and royal disposition
" had prevailed with him to pay that just debt,
" whereby they might be preserved from ruin, in
" which," he said, " he had fully concurred with his
" majesty ; but that he would never advise him, on
" the contrary he would always dissuade his majesty
" from paying or allowing any interest, though paid
k)0 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1G68. " by them, which would swell the debt to such a
~ " pro}>ortion, that his majesty could never undertake
" the payment of it. " Which determination, how
great soever their loss appeared to be, seemed to be
so just, at least so necessary for the king, that they
wholly referred it to his majesty ; hoping that it
might prevail with many of their creditors not to
exact it from them, though the sale of their whole
estates had made satisfaction to others for the whole
interest, as well as for the principal.
When the auditors' certificate was ready, and all
the doubts and questions that did arise thereupon
were clearly stated, his majesty vouchsafed again to
be present with the other lords, who. had from the
beginning assisted in the examination of that busi-
ness : and then the lord treasurer declared to his
majesty, what he had before said to the persons
concerned, " that b though he willingly approved his
" majesty's goodness in taking upon himself that
" great debt, yet that he would by no means give
" his advice or consent that he should pay or allow
" any interest for it. "
Upon the whole matter, and upon all the doubts
stated to his majesty, and after the rejection of se-
veral of the sums of money which were demanded
by them, and for the payment whereof such direct
proof is not made as is required by the course of the
exchequer, (though, he said, he thought most per-
sons who were present were in their private con-
sciences well satisfied, that those sums had been in
truth paid to his majesty's use, as had been alleged;)
there appeared to his majesty to be justly due to
l> that] and
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 401
them the sum of two hundred thousand pounds, 1GG8.
principal-money, for almost twenty years, and for
which they had paid the interest for many years
out of their own estates. And his majesty thought
it very just ; and, with many gracious expressions
of his purpose and resolution further to repair them
as he should be able, gave order to the lord trea-
surer, " that the said debt of two hundred thousand
" pounds should be paid to them in five years, that
" is, by forty thousand pounds for every year, out
" of the rent of the farm ; and that all instruments
" necessary for their satisfaction and security should
" be presently given to them, whereby they might
" be able to comply with their creditors, and avoid
" their importunity," wherewith his majesty begun
to be troubled as much as themselves.
He did confess himself to have been present at
those agitations, and to have contributed his humble
advice and opinion to his majesty that he should
pay this debt ; which he thought himself obliged to
da, as well as a faithful counsellor to his present
majesty, as in discharge of his duty and obligation
to his father. And, he said, he had very good rea-
son to believe, that if that two hundred thousand
pounds be paid according to his majesty's direction,
and of which the heirs and executors of those farm-
ers who are dead, as well as the four present farmers,
have their equal proportions ; the said persons have
not at this day half the estates they had in the year
1640, when they entered into those engagements
for his majesty. Nor was there any one person pre-
sent at the agitation of this affair, who seemed in
the least degree to differ in the opinion, or to dis-
VOL. in. D d
402 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. suade his majesty from giving that satisfaction for
~ that debt.
He said, he did likewise very willingly confess,
that he had in the manner aforesaid, and being
called to advise, given his opinion for the payment
of many other considerable debts incurred by his
late majesty, and for which many persons of honour,
who adhered to him during that war, were person-
ally bound for him, and whose estates had been ex-
tended and their persons imprisoned for the same;
many of whom were in execution and in prison for
the same when his majesty returned, and others
were then sued in Westminster-hall, in his ma-
jesty's own courts. His late majesty having granted
under his great seal of England, to several persons
intrusted for the rest, many of his forests, parks, and
other lands, for their security and indemnity who
were or should stand bound for him, for money that
was then borrowed for and applied to the necessary
support of himself and his army, and to no other
purpose ; in c that grant he had been particularly
trusted, as well by the desire of the persons parti-
cularly concerned, as by his majesty's command to
be solicitous for their satisfaction. And he did not
deny, that he was never more glad d , than when he
was able to procure satisfaction for those persons
who were so bound and so secured ; nor more trou-
bled, than that he could do no more, than that there
remained still so many unsatisfied, and almost un-
done, for those debts so contracted ; of which num-
ber he believed there were still too many.
c in] and in d never more glad] very glad
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 403
/
But having made those clear confessions of what 1 608.
was truth, and what he did do in those transactions, ~~
he said, he must as positively deny, that ever he
procured or advised the letting his majesty's cus-
toms, or any other part of his revenue, at underrates:
on the contrary, that he used all the ways he could
to advance the rents, without respect of persons;
and that he was never present at the letting any
farm that any men would have given more for, than
they did to whom it was let, what offers soever
were made afterwards, when his majesty himself
had made a contract, and when a grant was issued
accordingly under the great seal of England. And
he did as positively deny, that ever he received or
expected the least sum of money, or money-worth,
for any lease made by his majesty of his customs, or
any other part of his revenue ; or for the payment
of any one debt made by his majesty, to which he
was or was not bound : he having, he said, never
had any other motive for the performance of those
offices, but the pure and entire consideration of his
majesty's honour, justice, and profit, and his own in-
clination to gratify worthy persons, who in justice
ought to be or might with justice be gratified and
obliged, and who had commonly been such persons
to whom he had had no kind of obligation.
The seventh article was, " That he had received The seventh
article.
" great sums of money from the company of
" vintners, or some of them or their agents, for
" enhancing the prices of wines, and for free-
" ing them from the payment of legal penalties
" which they had incurred. "
He said, if he had been in the least degree guilty His answer.
of that charge, it would very easily have been
D d 2
404 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1668. proved; and the vintners would very gladly have
~~ helped them in it, being persons who never thought
themselves beholden to him, and so not obliged to
conceal any of his corruptions.
