That he,
" the chancellor, had so much business already upon
" his hands, that he could not attend this other ;
" and the secretaries had enough to do : so he
" would have none of those.
" the chancellor, had so much business already upon
" his hands, that he could not attend this other ;
" and the secretaries had enough to do : so he
" would have none of those.
Edward Hyde - Earl of Clarendon
When they received the king's answer,
^ey cou ld not but acknowledge that it was as fair
as they could expect; and monsieur de Lionne
shewed it as such to the Dutch ambassador, who
finding that he was satisfied with it, and by him,
that the king was so too, fell into much passion, and
declared, " that it was not according to the consent
" he had given to the king and to monsieur de
" Lionne ; and that he must protest against any
" treaty to be entered into upon this declaration. "
He put him then in mind, " that he had informed
" the king, in his presence, that there was an article
" in the late treaty between England and Holland,
" by which they were obliged to deliver up the
" island of Poleroone in the East Indies to the East
" India company of London, which they had for-
" merly consented to with Cromwell, but had nei-
" ther delivered it then nor yet, and were resolved
" rather to continue the war than to part with it ;
" which he had declared, when with reference to all
" other things he consented to the alternative : and
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 215
" if the king would not 11 release that article of the 1667.
" former treaty, his masters would not enter upon ~~
" any new. "
Whether this was true or no cannot be known.
But monsieur de Lionne came in great disorder to
the lord of St. Alban's, and told him all that the
ambassador had said, and confessed it " to be very
" true, and that the king remembered it well, and
" promised that article should be released : but that
" he, not clearly understanding the delivery of it to
" be contained in a former treaty, and knowing it
" had" been many years in the possession of the Dutch,
" and that it still remained so, thought it had been
" comprehended in the alternative, and forgat to in-
" sert it in the paper that was sent to the king, for
" which he asked a thousand pardons ; and made it
". his suit to the king that he would yield to it, and
" that a treaty that was so necessary to the good of
"Christendom might not be extinguished upon his
" negligence and want of memory :" which was a
strange excuse for a minister of his known sagacity.
The earl of St. Alban's refused to transmit any
such tergiversation to the king, and said, " he knew
" the king would never consent to it ; and that this
" manner of proceeding, after that his majesty had
" consented to what themselves proposed, would
" shut out all future confidence of their sincerity. "
Monsieur de Lionne was exceedingly troubled and
out of countenance, as a man conscious to himself of
a great oversight, and desired him, " that he would
" meet the Dutch ambassador at his lodging, that
*' they might together endeavour to remove him
11 not] Omitted in MS.
p 4
216 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. "from the obstinacy he professed;" which the earl
"was contented to do, and the ambassador, how un-
willingly soever, was prevailed with to meet at the
time appointed : but they were no sooner met, and
monsieur de Lionne entered upon the argument of
Poleroone, but the ambassador fell into a rude pas-
sion, and said, " the war should determine it. " And
when the earl of St. Alban's began to speak of the
unreasonableness of the demand, and entered upon
the foul manner in which they had first taken that
island from the English, who were in possession of
it; 'he told him, " that he had nothing to say to
" him," and used much other language unfit for the
other to hear, and which * he had returned with in-
terest, if monsieur de Lionne had not interposed,
and been very desirous the conference should end,
the ambassador's insolence being not to be endured.
And so they parted, Lionne seeming very much of-
fended ; and he complained to the king, and the earl
gave the account of all to his majesty.
The French king was no less surprised and of-
fended when he heard what message the king had
sent to the States, (which he was advertised of by an
express from Holland,) than De Wit had been at the
delivery of it, who presently knew the drift of it,
and could not forbear to tell the States, " that the
" design was only to stir up the people against the
" magistrates, and indeed to make them the judges
" of the conditions of the peace :" and he knew well
that the people generally were no friends to the East
India company, (where himself had a great stock,
and therefore would never consent that a treaty en-
* which] Not in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 217
tered into should break only upon their interest; 1667.
which likewise was the reason, why they had pro-
vided that that particular should be first Consented
to, before any treaty should be agreed upon. And
hereupon he prevailed upon the States General forth-
with to declare in the negative, " that the treaty
" should not be at the Hague. " But at the same
time, after the naming again of Cologne and Franc-
fort, they added, " that if the king desired to do
" them the honour to appoint it in any place of their
" dominions, which they did not presume to propose,
" they should consent that it might be at Breda, or
" Maastricht," or a place or two that they named :
and this was resolved before the people heard that
the king had named the Hague, and wondered and
murmured at their refusal.
The king of France took it ill, that at a time when
he proceeded with so much openness, and had given
the first rise to a treaty, and opened the door which
the Hollander peevishly shut against it, by his own
offering the alternative, which the king had so far
approved as to make his election ; he should at the
same time, without communicating it to him, send
this overture to the Hague : which troubled him
the more, that it gave him matter of jealousy to
apprehend, that there was some other underhand
treaty that was concealed from him, and contrived
by the baron of I sola, who he knew had been pri-
vately at the Hague, and had conference with De
Wit. And the same imagination did more perplex
the queen mother and the earl of St. Alban's, who
looked upon this as a device to exclude them from
having any share in the peace ; the earl having di-
gested the conclusion in his own breast, that in what
218 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. place soever the treaty should be held, he should
~~ without doubt be intrusted in the managery of it.
However the king could not own his part of the
dislike, since his majesty might without any viola-
tion of friendship make the overture by message to
the Hague, as well as to or by him : therefore he
seemed to take no exception to it, and only sent
the king word, " that he believed the Dutch would
" quickly discern, that this condescension in his ma-
" jesty proceeded from some expectation of a party
" amongst the people to second it ; and therefore he
" was confident they would never consent to treat
" at the Hague. " But he proposed, " as the best
** way for expedition, that it might be at Dover,"
which he advised his majesty not to reject : " for if
" it were once begun there, it might possibly, and
" he would further it all he could, quickly be re-
" moved to Canterbury, and probably might be con-
" eluded in London. "
But before this message arrived, the other new
demand of Poleroone, with monsieur de Lionne's
acknowledgment of the defect of his memory, and
that he ought to have inserted it in the paper that
contained the alternative, with all the excuses he
made for it, was received ; which seemed to put an
The king end to all hopes of peace. The king was highly in-
fended. censed, and look i. 'il upon it as an affront contrived
by both parties to amuse him. Every body con-
cluded, that there could be no safety in depending
upon any thing that could be offered from France,
when they could never be without as reasonable a
pretence as they had at present, to disclaim or avoid
any concession they had made in writing: that
the particular demanded could never be consented
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 219
to by his majesty, without swerving from the com- 1667.
mon rules of justice, and the violation of his own~~
honour : that though it did not immediately con-
cern his majesty in his own interest and the interest
of the crown, which was an argument used in France
for his majesty's not insisting upon it, it was how-
ever an unquestionable and a very considerable in-
terest of his subjects, which he was in justice bound
to maintain, and which in justice he had no power
to release. It was an interest so valuable, that
Cromwell had insisted upon it so resolutely, that
they had consented to it as a principal article of the
peace he made with them ; by which he gained great
reputation with the people. And his majesty had
thought himself so much concerned in honour not to
suffer his subjects to be deprived of that right which
Cromwell had vindicated, (though by his death it
came not to be executed,) that he would never con-
sent to the treaty that had been concluded since his
happy return, until they consented to and renewed
the same article, and promised the redelivery of the
said island to the English by such a day : and their
having broken their faith in not delivering it accord-
ing to the last treaty, and with very offensive cir-
cumstances, his majesty had declared to be a prin-
cipal cause of the war, and made them unquestion-
ably to appear the first aggressor. And in that re-
spect, his honour could not receive a more mortal
wound than in releasing that article, which con-
cerned the estates of other men, and would in the
opinion of the world draw the guilt of the war upon
himself, or, which would be as bad, the reproach of
having purchased a peace upon very dishonourable
220 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. conditions to himself, at the charge and with the
""estates of his subjects.
And n- Upon the whole, the king resolved rather to un-
rontlnue dergo the hazard of the war, upon what disadvan-
kar ' tage soever, than to consent to a proposition so dis-
honourable : and a despatch was presently sent to
the earl of St. Alban's, with a very lively resent-
ment " of the indignity offered to the king in reced-
" ing from what was offered by themselves, and in
" asking what he was resolved never to grant. " And
all were enjoined to review all that had been re-
solved for the war, and to give the utmost advance-
ment to it that was > possible : and without doubt,
if Spain had yet put itself into any posture to defend
itself against the power that was even ready to in-
vade it, and to act any part towards the support of
a common interest, the king would hardly have been
persuaded to hav,e hearkened more to any proposi-
tions from France.
New over. Notwithstanding all this, new overtures and new
tures from . . . ,
France. importunities were sent from France. " It was
" true, that the Dutch had always protested against
" making a peace or consenting to a treaty without
" the release of Poleroone ; which his Christian ma-
" jesty had consented to, and could not recede from
** it without their consent, though the mention of it
" had been unfortunately omitted by monsieur de
" Lionne : but his majesty promised and engaged
" his royal word, that when the treaty should be en-
" tered into, he would use all his credit and author-
44 ity to persuade the States General to recede from
v was] could be
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 221
" their obstinacy, and to make no alteration in the 1GG7.
" last treaty ; but that all things should 7 - remain as
" had been settled by it. And if he could not pre-
" vail with them to satisfy him therein, as he did
" fear that there was upon their particular interest
" some peremptory resolution fixed, from whence
" they would not be removed as to the main ; yet in
" that case he did in no degree despair of obliging
" them to give a considerable sum of money for re-
" compense thereof, which he desired might satisfy
" the king, who would find himself at much ease by
" it. And if the commissioners once met and the
" treaty was begun, it would not be dissolved before
" a peace should be concluded ; and that the French
" ambassadors, as soon as they met, should propose
" a cessation from all acts of hostility, which he
" expected should be as soon yielded to as proposed ;
" and that already they had promised that their
" fleet should remain in their harbours till the mid-
" die of May, before which time the treaty might
" well begin. " And from the present time the
French king promised, " that no hostile act should
" be done by him, and that his own fleet should not
" stir out of their port ; and that his ambassadors
" should in all things behave themselves as his ma-
" jesty could wish, that particular only of Poleroone
" excepted a , in which they should do as he had
" promised. "
The king had by this time had recourse to all
the inventions and devices, which might yet enable
him to set out a fleet that might be able to fight
the enemy ; but in vain. He found all men of the
2 should] to a excepted] Omitted in MS.
222 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. same opinion they had been, that he must be upon
""the defensive in the manner expressed before, and
expect the end of the summer before he could draw
his ships together ; and that there was an universal
impatience for peace : so that when the warmth of
his indignation was a little remitted, he was very
willing to hear any thing that might revive the hope
of a treaty, when this last overture from Paris ar-
rived ; upon which he presently convened the coun-
cil, that he might take a speedy resolution what he
was to do, for he saw many conveniences might be
lost by the not speedily entering upon the treaty, if
it were to be entered upon at all. The protestation
and promise of France to assist in all things, that
particular only excepted, for his majesty's service,
and his promise even in that, made him willing to
believe that they might be real : the hope of recom-
pense for it seemed little inferior to the redelivery
of the island, and was an equal satisfaction to his
majesty's honour. And it seemed the more probable
to be compassed, in that De Wit in his private con-
ference with the baron of Isola, in all his passion, in
which he would not endure the mention of the deli-
very of Poleroone, and said, " that the States would
" perish before they would part with it," concluded,
" that he would not say, that they might not be per-
" suaded to give some recompense for it. "
And many believed that the East India company,
which was only concerned in the interest of it, would
choose rather to receive a good recompense than
the island itself, which was a barren, sandy soil,
which yielded no fruit, but only nutmegs, which was
the sole commodity it bore, and is a commodity of
great value. But when they were bound to give it
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 223
up to Cromwell, there had been immediate order 1667.
sent to cut down all the trees upon the island ; ~~
which order would be now again repeated,: and so
no less than seven years must expire before any fruit
could be expected from thence. And it was so far
from any English factory, and so near to the Dutch,
that they would easily possess themselves of it again
when they had a mind to it. And therefore if the
company might have money, or such a quantity of
nutmegs delivered to them, as might, besides being
enough for the expense of England, bear a part in
the foreign trade, (which had been mentioned by
some merchants of that company,) it might be rea-
sonably preferable to the island.
Whatsoever resolution should in the end be taken,
this expedient of recompense gave a hint to a coun-
sel that had not been yet thought of, which was to
leave the business of Poleroone to the sole managery
of the East India company, who should be advised
to choose some members of their own, who should
go over with the ambassadors, and receive all advice
and assistance from them in the conduct of their
pretences : and they would be the witnesses of what
the king insisted upon on their behalf; and would
likewise judge, if nothing prevented the peace but
that interest, how far it should be insisted on.
The East India company was sent for, and were The East
India com-
told " that the king had hope of a treaty for peace, P an y >n-
" which he presumed would be welcome to them : reiation'to
" he heard that the greatest difficulty and obstruc- 1)ol '' r """-
" tion that was like to arise would be concerning
" their interest in the island of Poleroone, which he
" was resolved never to abandon. But because he
" heard likewise that the Dutch did intend to offer
224 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. " a recompense rather than to restore the place, and
~" " that the recompense might be such as might l>e as
" agreeable to them, (of whicli he would not take
" upon him to judge, but leave it entirely to them-
" selves,) he had given them this timely notice of
" it, that they might bethink themselves what was
" fit for them to do, upon a prospect of all that might
" probably occur ; and that they might make choice
" of such persons amongst themselves, who best un-
" derstood their affairs, to the end that when the
" treaty should be agreed upon and the place ap-
" pointed, and his majesty had resolved what am-
" bassadors he would send, (of all which they should
" have seasonable notice,) those persons elected by
" them as their commissioners might h go over with
" the ambassadors ; that when that point came into
" debate, and the Dutch should call some of their
" East India company to inform them, they likewise
"-might be ready to advertise his ambassadors of
" whatsoever might advance their pretences : and
" if a recompense was to be considered, they might
" enter into that consultation with the other depu-
" ties ; and that they should be sure to receive all
" the advice and assistance from his ambassadors,
" that they could require or stand in need of. " The
company received this information from his majesty
with all demonstration of duty and submission, giv-
ing humble thanks for his majesty's lx)unty and care
of their interest ; and said, " they would not fail to
" make choice of a committee to attend the am-
" bassadors, when they should know it would be
" seasonable. "
The king thought it now time to receive the
b might] Omitted in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 225
advice of his whole council-board upon this affair, 1667.
which had been hitherto only debated before the Tlie king
committee for foreign affairs: and so they c being ^ ral . t8
assembled, an account was given of all that had council
upon the
passed, with all its circumstances, in France and in overtures
Holland, by the baron of Isola and by the Swedes France \
ambassadors. And his majesty said thereupon, " that
" he had yet taken no resolution, and had been so
" provoked by the miscarriage of France, that he
" would have been glad to have put himself into a
" better posture, and not thought further of a treaty,
" till there should appear a more favourable con-
" juncture : but they now understood as much as he
" did, with reference to the state he was in both at
" home and abroad, and that he was resolved to
" follow their advice. "
All the objections which had been foreseen before, winch ad-
and the considerations thereupon, were renewed and to enter
again debated : and in the end there was a general
concurrence, " that his majesty should embrace the
" opportunity of a treaty ; and if a reasonable peace
" could be obtained, it would be very grateful to
" the whole kingdom, that was weary of the war ;
" and that his majesty should lose no time in re-
" turning such a despatch to Paris, as might bring
" on the treaty. " And some of the lords proceeded
so far as to declare, " that the consideration of
" Poleroone was not of that importance, nor could
" be thought so by the East India company them-
" selves, as that the insisting upon it should deprive
" the kingdom of a peace that was so necessary for
" it. " But the king thought the entering upon that
c they] Nol in MS.
VOL. III. Q
upon the
treaty.
226 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
16G7. argument was not yet seasonable : but he gave order
~~ for the despatch to be prepared for France.
There were two material points not yet deter-
mined, the first of which was fit to l>e inserted into
the present despatch ; which was the nomination of
the place where the treaty should l>e. Some were
of opinion, " that his majesty should lay d hold of
" the overture that had been made from France,
" which was since likewise confirmed by Holland,
" that the treaty should be at Dover :" but they
changed their minds, when they well considered
that the same objections would be naturally made
against Dover on the king's behalf, that had lx? en
made by the Dutch against the Hague; and that
the people there, and less at Canterbury, were not
incapable of any impressions, which the numerous
trains of the French and the Dutch would be ready
to imprint in them. In a word, there was much more
fit to be considered upon that point, than is fit to be
Breda remembered. The conclusion was, " that Breda,
the place of" which had been offered by the Dutch, should be the
" place the king would accept ;" which was added to
the despatch for Paris, and presently sent away.
The other matter undetermined of was the choice
of ambassadors, which had been never entered upon.
The king had spoken with the chancellor, what
persons would be fit to be employed in that nego-
ciation, when the time should be ripe for it ; and
took notice, as he did frequently, of the small choice
he had of men well acquainted with business of that
nature : upon which he had named to the king the
lord Hollis, who had been lately ambassador in
J lay] Omitted in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 227
France, and was in all respects. equal to any busi-
ness, and Mr. Henry Coventry of his bedchamber, ~~
who had shewed so great abilities in his late nego-
ciation in Sweden. Upon the naming of whom his
majesty said, " they were both very fit, and that he
" would think of no other :" so that when all other i-ord Hoiii*
particulars were adjusted with reference to the Henry co-
treaty, the king, without further consulting it, de- pointed^ie-
clared, " that he intended to send those two his am- ^ tentia -
" bassadors for the treaty," before either of them
knew or thought of the employment. And when
his majesty told them of it, he bade them repair to
the chancellor for their instructions. And this gave
new thoughts of heart to the lord Arlington, who
had designed himself and sir Thomas Clifford, who
was newly made a privy counsellor and controller
of the household upon the death of sir Hugh Pol-
lard, for the performance of that service ; and
thought himself the better qualified for it by his
late alliance in Holland, by his marriage with the
daughter of monsieur Beverwaert, a natural son of
prince Maurice. And this disappointment went
very near him ; though the other had not the least
thought that he had any such thing in his heart, but
advised it purely as they were e the fittest persons
who could be thought of ; and their abilities, which
were well thought of before, were very notorious in
this negociation.
The Swedish ambassadors, who were the only The swe-
mediators, prepared likewise to go to the treaty, ^l^me-'
having agreed with the king, "that if the treaty lliators -
" should not produce a peace," of which they who
e they were] Not in MS.
228 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 667. hoped most were not confident, " that crown would
" immediately declare for the king, and unite itself
" to his interest both against the Dutch and the
" French ;" their army at that time, being held the
best in Europe, under the command of their general
Wrangel, being near the States' dominions. And
for the better confirming them in that disposition,
the chancellor had brought the baron of Isola to a
conference with the Swedes ambassadors, and begun
that treaty between them which was shortly after
finished, and known by the style of the Triple Alli-
ance, that was the first act that detached the Swede
from France : and for the present the king himself
found means to supply the crown of Sweden with
a sum of money for the support of their army.
All things being thus adjusted, and the place of
the treaty being on all hands agreed to be Breda,
and notice being sent from Paris, " that their am-
" bassadors were departed from thence ;" the king
thought himself as much concerned in the expedition
in respect of the cessation, which the French pro-
mised to obtain in the very entrance into the treaty ;
and it was now the month of May. And so his am-
bassadors were despatched, and arrived there before
the middle of that month, with an equipage worthy
their master who sent them.
The death There happened at this time an accident that
of south- made a fatal breach into the chancellor's fortune,
with a gap wide enough to let in all that ruin which
soon after was poured upon him. The earl of
Southampton, the treasurer, with whom he had an
entire fast friendship, and who, when they were to-
gether, had credit enough with the king and at the
board to prevent, at least to defer, any very unrea-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON.
sonable resolution, was now ready to expire with 1667.
the stone; a disease that had kept him in great"
pain many months, and for which he had sent
to Paris for a surgeon to be cut, but had deferred
it too long by the physicians not agreeing what
the disease was : so that at last he grew too weak
to apply that remedy. They who had with so
much industry, and as they thought certainty, pre-
vailed with the king at Oxford to have removed
him from that office, had never since intermitted
the pursuing the design, and persuaded his majesty,
" that his service had suffered exceedingly by his
" receding from his purpose ;" and did not think
their triumph notorious enough, if they suffered him
to die in the office : insomuch as when he grew so
weak, that it is true he could not sign any orders
with his hand, which was four or five days before
his death, they had again persuaded the king to
send for the staff. But the chancellor again pre-
vailed with him not to do so ungracious an act to a
servant who had served him and his father so long
and so eminently, to so little purpose as the ravish-
ing an office unseasonably, which must within five
or six days fall into his hands, as it did within less
time, by his death.
He was a person of extraordinary parts, of facui- His cimr
tcr
ties very discerning and a judgment very profound,
great eloquence in his delivery, without the least af-
fectation of words, for he always spake best on the
sudden. In the beginning of the troubles, he was
looked upon amongst those lords who were least in-
clined to the court, and so most acceptable to the
people : he was in truth not obliged by the court,
and thought himself oppressed by it, which his great
30 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 667. spirit could not bear ; and so he had for some years
forbore to be much seen there, which was imputed
to a habit of melancholy, to which he was naturally
inclined, though it appeared more in his counte-
nance than in his conversation, which to those with
whom he was acquainted was very cheerful.
The great friendship that had been between their
fathers made many believe, that there was a confi-
dence between the earl of Essex and him ; which
was true to that degree as could l>e between men of
so different natures and understandings. And when
they came to the parliament in the year 1640, they
appeared both unsatisfied with the prudence and
politics of the court, and were not reserved in declar-
ing it, when the great officers were called in ques-
tion for great transgressions in their several admin-
istrations : but in the prosecution there was great
difference in their passions and their ends. The
earl of Essex was a great lover of justice, and could
not have been tempted to consent to the oppression of
an innocent man : but in the discerning the several
species of guilt, and in the proportioning the degrees
of punishment to the degree of guilt, he had no fa-
culties or measure of judging ; nor was above the
temptation of general prejudice, and it may be of
particular disobligations and resentments, which pro-
ceeded from the weakness of his judgment, not the
malice of his nature. The carl of Southampton was
not only an exact observer of justice, but so clear-
sighted a discerner of all the circumstances which
might disguise it, that no false or fraudulent colour
could impose upon him ; and of so sincere and im-
partial a judgment, that no prejudice to the person
of any man made him less awake to his cause; but
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 231
believed that there is " aliquid et in hostem nefas," 1 667.
and that a very ill man might be very unjustly"
dealt with.
This difference of faculties divided them quickly
in the progress of those businesses, in the beginning
whereof they were both of one mind. They both
thought the crown had committed great excesses in
the exercise of its power, which the one thought
could not be otherwise prevented, than by its f being
deprived of it : the consequence whereof the other
too well understood, and that the absolute taking
away that power that might do hurt, would like-
wise take away some of that which was necessary
for the doing good ; and that a monarch cannot be
deprived of a fundamental right, without such a last-
ing wound to monarchy itself, that they who have
most shelter from it and stand nearest to it, the
nobility, could nots continue long in their native
strength, if the crown received a maim. Which if
the earl of Essex had comprehended, who set as
great a price upon nobility as any man living did,
he could never have been wrought upon to have
contributed to his own undoing ; which the other
knew was unavoidable, if the king were undone.
So they were both satisfied that the earl of Strafford
had countenanced some high proceedings, which
could not be supported by any rules of justice,
though the policy of Ireland, and the constant
course observed in the government of that king-
dom h , might have excused and justified many of
the high proceedings with which he was reproached:
1 its] Not in MS. h that kingdom] Ireland .
; not] Omitted in MS.
Q 4
232 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. and they who had now the advantage-ground, by
"" being thought to be most solicitous for the liljerty of
the subject, and most vigilant that the same out-
rages might not be transplanted out of the other
kingdom into this, looked upon him as having the
strongest influence upon the counsels of England as
well as governor of Ireland. Then he had declared
himself so averse and irreconcileable to the sedition
and rebellion of the Scots, that the whole nation had
contracted so great an animosity against him, that
less than his life could not secure them from the
fears they had conceived of him : and this fury of
theirs met with a full concurrence from those of the
English, who could not compass their own ends
without their help. And this combination too soon
drew the earl of Essex, who had none of their ends,
into their party, to satisfy his pride and his passion,
in removing a man who seemed to have no regard
for him ; for the stories, which were then made of
disobligations from the earl of Stratford towards the
earl of Clanrickard, were without any foundation of
truth.
The earl of Southampton, who had nothing of ob-
ligation, and somewhat of prejudice to some high
acts of power which had been exercised by the earl
of Strafford, was not unwilling that they should be
so far looked into and examined, as might raise
more caution and apprehension in men of great au-
thority of the consequence of such excesses. But
when he discerned irregular ways entered into to pu-
nish those irregularities, and which might 1>e at-
tended witli as ill consequences, and that they in-
tended to compound one great crime out of seve-
ral smaller trespasses, and, to use their own style, to
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 233
complicate a treason out of misdemeanours, and so 1 667.
to take away his life for what he might be fined"
and imprisoned ; he first dissuaded and then ab-
horred that exorbitance, and more abhorred it, when
he found it passionately and maliciously resolved by
a direct combination.
From this time he and the earl of Essex were
perfectly divided and separated, and seldom after-
wards concurred in the same opinion : but as he
worthily and bravely stood in the gap in the defence
of that great man's life, so he did afterwards oppose
all those invasions, which were every day made by
the house of commons upon the rights of the crown,
or the privileges of the peers, which the lords were
willing to sacrifice to the useful humour of the
other. And by this means, whilst most of the king's
servants listed themselves with the conspirators in
promoting all things which were ingrateful to him,
this lord, who had no relation to his service, was
looked upon as a courtier ; and by the strength of
his reason gave such a check to their proceedings,
that he became little less odious to them than the
court itself; and so much the more odious, because
as he was superior to their temptations, so his un-
questionable integrity was out of their reach, and
made him contemn their power as much as their
malice.
He had all the detestation imaginable of the civil
war, and discerned the dismal effects it would pro-
duce, more than most other men, which made him
do all he could to prevent it. But when it could not
be avoided, he made no scruple how to dispose of
himself, but frankly declared for the king, who had
a just sense of the service he had done him, and
CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. made him then both of his privy-council and gentlc-
~ man of his bedchamber, without the least applica-
tion or desire of his, and when most of those who
were under both those relations had chosen, as the
much stronger, the rebels' side: and his receiving
those obligations at that present was known to pro-
ceed more from his duty than his ambition. He had
all the fidelity that God requires, and all the affec-
tion to the person of the king that his duty sug-
gested to him was due, without any reverence for
or compliance with his infirmities or weakness ;
which made him many times uneasy to the king,
especially in all consultations towards peace, in
which he was always desirous that his majety should
yield more than he was inclined to do.
He was in his nature melancholic, and reserved
in his conversation, except towards those with whom
he was very well acquainted; with whom he was
not only cheerful, but upon occasion light and plea-
sant. He was naturally lazy, and indulged over-
much ease to himself: yet as no man had a quicker
apprehension or solider judgment in business of all
kinds, so, when it had a hopeful prospect, no man
could keep his mind longer bent, and take more
pains in it. In the treaty at Uxbridge, which was
a continued fatigue of twenty days, he never slept
four hours in a night, who had never used to allow
himself less than ten, and at the end of the treaty
was much more vigorous than in the beginning;
which made the chancellor to tell the king when
they returned to Oxford, " that if he would have
" the earl of Southampton in good health and good
" humour, he must give him good store of business
" to do. "
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 235
His person was of a small stature ; his courage, as 1 667.
all his other faculties, very great ; having no sign of
fear or sense of danger, when he was in a place
where he ought to be found. When the king had
withdrawn himself from Oxford in order to his
escape to the Scotch army, and Fairfax had brought
his army before the town ; in some debate at the
council-board, there being some mention of prince
Rupert with reference to his dignity in a large de-
gree above all of the nobility, the earl of Southamp-
ton, who never used to speak indecently, used some
expressions, which, being unfaithfully reported to
the prince, his highness interpreted to be disrespect-
ful towards him : whereupon he sent the lord Ge-
rard to expostulate with him. To whom the earl
without any apology related the words he had used ;
which being reported by him again to the prince,
though they were not the same which he had been
informed, yet he was not so well satisfied with
them, but that he sent the same lord to him again,
to tell him, " that his highness expected other sa-
" tisfaction from him, and expected to meet him
" with his sword in his hand, and desired it might
" be as soon as he could, lest it might be pre-
" vented. "
The earl appointed the next morning, at a place
well known ; and being asked " what weapon he
" chose," he said, " that he had no horse fit for such
" a service, nor knew where suddenly to get one ;
" and that he knew himself too weak to close with
" the prince : and therefore he hoped his highness
" would excuse him, if he made choice of such wea-
" pons as he could best use ; and therefore he rc-
" solved to fight on foot with a case of pistols only ;"
236 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. which the prince willingly consented to. And with-
out doubt they had met the next morning, the earl
having chosen sir George Villiers for his second;
but that the lord Gerard's coming to the earl so
often, with whom he had no acquaintance, had been
so much observed, that some of the lords who had
been present at the debate at the board, and heard
some replies which had been made, and thence con-
cluded that ill offices had been done, watched them
both so narrowly, and caused the town -gates to be
shut, that they ' discovered enough, notwithstanding
the denial of both parties, to prevent their meeting ;
and afterwards interposed till a reconciliation was
made : and the prince ever afterwards had a good
respect for the earl.
After the murder of the king, the earl of South-
ampton remained in his own house, without the
least application to those powers which had made
themselves so terrible, and which seemed to resolve
to root out the whole party as well as the royal fa-
mily ; and would not receive a civility from any of
them : and when Cromwell was near his house in
the country, upon the marriage of his son in those
parts, and had a purpose to have made a visit to
him ; upon a private notice thereof, he immediately
removed to another house at a greater distance. He
sent frequently some trusty person to the king with
such presents of money, as he could receive out of
the fortune they had left to him, which was scarce
enough to support him in that retirement : and after
the battle of Worcester, when the rebels had set a
price upon the king's head, and denounced the most
that they] Omitted in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON.
terrible judgment upon any person k , and his pos- 1667.
terity, that should presume to give any shelter or~
assistance to Charles Stuart towards his escape ;
he sent a faithful servant to all those persons, who
in respect of their fidelity and activity were most
like to be trusted upon such an occasion, that they
should advertise the king, " that he would most
" willingly receive him into his house, and provide
" a ship for his escape. " And his majesty received
this advertisement from him the day before he was
ready to embark in a small vessel prepared for him
in Sussex ; which his majesty always remembered
as a worthy testimony of his affection and courage
in so general a consternation. And the earl was
used to say, " that after that miraculous escape, how
" dismal soever the prospect was, he had still a con-
" fidence of his majesty's restoration. "
His own natural disposition inclined to melan-
cholic ; and his retirement from all conversation, in
which he might have given some vent to his own
thoughts, with the discontinuance of all those bodily
exercises and recreations to which he had been ac-
customed, brought many diseases upon him, which
made his life less pleasant to him ; so that from the
time of the king's return, between the gout and the
stone, he underwent great affliction. Yet upon the
happy return of his majesty he seemed to recover
great vigour of mind, and undertook the charge of
high treasurer with much alacrity and industry, as
long as he had any hope to get a revenue settled
proportionable to the expense of the crown, (towards
which his interest and authority and counsel contri-
k any person] whomsoever
238 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1067. buted very much,) or to reduce the expense of the
""court within the limits of the revenue. But when
he discerned that the last did and would still make
the former impossible, (upon which he made as fre-
quent and lively representations as he thought him-
self obliged to do,) and when he saw irregularities
and excesses to abound, and to overflow all the banks
which should restrain them ; he grew more dispirit-
ed, and weary of that province, which exposed him
to the reproaches which others ought to undergo,
and which supplied him not with authority to pre-
vent them. And he had then withdrawn from the
burden, which he infinitely desired to be eased of,
but out of conscience of his duty to the king, who
he knew would suffer in it ; and that the people who
knew his affections very well, and already opened
their mouths wide against the license of the court,
would believe it worse and incurable if he quitted
the station he was in. This, and this only, pre-
vailed with him still to undergo that burden, even
when he knew that they who enjoyed the benefit
of it were as weary that he should be disquieted
with it.
He was a man of great and exemplary virtue and
piety, and very regular in his devotions ; yet was not
generally believed by the bishops to have an affection
keen enough for the government of the church, lie-
cause he was willing and desirous, that somewhat
more might have been done to gratify the presby-
terians than they thought just. But the truth is ; he
had a perfect detestation of all the presbyterian prin-
ciples, nor had ever had any conversation with their
persons, having during all those wicked times strictly
observed the devotions prescril>ed by the church of
EDWARD EAHL OF CLARENDON. 239
England; in the performance whereof he had al- 1GG7.
ways an orthodox chaplain, one of those ] deprived
of their estates by that government, which disposed
of the church as well as of the state. But it is very
true, that upon the observation of the great power
and authority which the presbyterians usurped and
were possessed of, even when Cromwell did all lie
could to divest them of it, and applied all his interest
to oppress or suppress them, insomuch as they did
often give a check to and divert many of his designs;
he did believe that their numbers and their credit
had been much greater than in truth they were ll! .
And then some persons, who had credit with him by
being thought to have an equal aversion /rom them,
persuaded him to believe, that they would be satis-
fied with very easy concessions, w r hich would bring
no prejudice or inconvenience to the church. And
this imagination prevailed with him, and more witli
others who loved them not, to wish that there might
be some indulgence towards them. But that which
had the strongest influence upon him, and which
made him less apprehensive of the venom of any
other sect, was the extreme jealousy he had of the
power and malignity of the Roman catholics ; whose
behaviour from the time of the suppression of the
regal power, and more scandalously at and from the
time of the murder of the king, had very much irre-
conciled him towards them : and he did believe, that
the king and the duke of York had a better opinion
of their fidelity, and less jealousy of their affections,
than they deserved ; and so thought there could not
be too great an union of all other interests to con-
1 one of those] Omitted in MS. m they were] it was
240 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
IG67. trol the exorbitance of that. And upon this argu-
ment. with his private friends, he was more pas-
sionate than in any other.
He had a marvellous zeal and affection for the
royal family ; insomuch as the two sons of the duke
of York falling both into distempers, (of which they
both shortly after died,) very few days l>efore his
death, he was so marvellously affected with it, that
many l>elieved the trouble of it, or a presage what
might befall the kingdom by it, hastened his death
some hours : and in the agony of death, the very
morning he died, he sent to know how they did ;
and seemed to receive some relief, when the mes-
senger returned with the news, that they were both
alive and in some degree mended.
The king The next day after his death, which was about
put tbe the end of May, the king called the chancellor into
his closet ; and, the duke of York being only pre-
" to be treasurer, and therefore resolved, as he had
" long done, to put that office into commission ;''
and then asked, " who should be commissioners :" to
which he answered, " the business would be much
" better done by a single officer, if he could think
" of a fit one ; for commissioners never had, never
" would do, that business well. " The duke of York
said, " that he believed it would be best done by
" commission ; it had been so managed during all
" the ill times," (for from the beginning of the trou-
bles there had been no treasurer :) " and he had ob-
" served, (and the king found the benefit of it,) that
" though sir William Compton was an extraordinary
" person, and better qualified than most men for
" that charge, yet since his decease, that his majesty
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 241
" had put the office of the ordnance under the go- 1 667.
" vernment of commissioners, it was in much better ~
" order, and the king was better served there than
" he had ever been ; and he believed he would be
" so likewise in the office of the treasury, if fit per-
" sons were chosen for it, who might have nothing
" else to do. " And the king seemed to be of the
same mind.
The chancellor replied, " that he was very sorry, The chan-
" that they were both so much delighted with the vLsViiu
" function of commissioners, which were more suit- a * 8inst
" able to the modelling a commonwealth, than for
" the support of monarchy : that during the late
" troubles, whilst the parliament exercised the go-
" vernment, they reduced it as fast as they could to
" the form of a commonwealth ; and then no ques-
" tion the putting the treasury into the hands of
" commissioners was much more suitable to the rest
" of the model, than it could be under a single per-
" son. Besides, having no revenue of their own, but
" being to raise one according to their inventions
" and proportionable to their own occasions, it could
" never be well collected or ordered by old officers,
" who were obliged to forms which would not be
" agreeable to their necessary transactions : so that
" new ministers were to be made for new employ-
" merits, who might be obliged punctually to observe
" their new orders, without any superiority over
" each other, but a joint obedience to the supreme
" authority. But when Cromwell assumed the en-
" tire government into his own hands, he cancelled
" all those republican rules and forms, and appointed
" inferior persons to several functions, and reserved
" the whole disposition to himself, and was his own
VOL. III. R
242 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
Ifi67. " high treasurer: and it was well known that he
~~ " resolved, as soon as he should be able to reduce
" things to the forms he intended, to cancel all those
" commissions, and invest single persons in the go-
" vernment of those provinces. "
He said, " he would not take upon him to say
" any thing of the office of the ordnance, where the
" commissioners were his friends ; only he might
' say, that that kind of administration had not been
" yet long enough known to have a good judgment
" made of it : however, that it was of so different a
" nature from the office of the treasury, that no ob-
" servation of the one could be applied to the other.
" The ordnance was conversant only with smiths
" and carpenters, and other artificers and handi-
" craftsmen, with whom all their transactions were :
" whereas the treasury had much to do with the no-
" bility and chief gentry of the kingdom ; must have
" often recourse to the king himself for his parti-
" cular directions, to the privy-council for their as-
" sistance and advice, to the judges for their reso-
" lutions in matters of difficulty ; and if the ministers
" of it were not of that quality and degree, that
" they might have free recourse to all those, and find
" respect from them, his majesty's service would
" notoriously suffer. And that the white staff itself,
" in the hands of a person esteemed, did more to
" the bringing in several branches of the revenue,
" by the obedience and reverence all officers paid to
" it, than any orders from commissioners could do :
" and that how mean an opinion soever some men
" had of the faculties of the late excellent officer for
(t that administration, his majesty would find by ex-
" perience, that the -vast sums of money, which he
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 243
"had borrowed in these late years, had been in
" a great measure procured upon the general confi-
" dence all men had in the honour and justice of
** the treasurer ; and that the credit of commission-
" ers would never be able to supply such necessi-
" ties. "
The king said, " he was not at all of his opinion,
" and doubted not his business would be much bet-
" ter done by commissioners ; and therefore he
" should speak to the nomination of those, since he
" was sure he could propose no single person fit for
" it. " To which the chancellor answered, " that he
" thought it much harder to find a worthy man, who
" would be persuaded to accept it in the disorder in
" which his affairs were, than a man who might be
" very fit for it : and that if that subject who had
" the greatest fortune in England and the most ge-
" neral reputation would receive it, his majesty
" would be no loser in conferring it on such a one ;
" and till such a one might be found, he might put
" it into commission. But," he said, " he perceived
" well, that he would not approve the old course in
" the choice of commissioners ; who had always
" been the keeper of the great seal, and the two se-
" cretaries of state, and two other of the principal
" persons of the council, besides the chancellor of
" the exchequer, who used to be the sole person of
" the quorum. "
Neither n the king nor duke seemed to like any of
those ; and the chancellor plainly discerned from
the beginning that they were resolved upon the
persons, though his opinion was asked : and the
11 Neither] Not in MS.
R 2
244 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. king said, "he would choose such persons, whether
" privy counsellors or not, who might have nothing
" else to do, and were rough and ill-natured men,
" not to be moved with civilities or importunities
" in the payment of money ; but would apply it all
" to his present necessities, till some new supplies
*' might be gotten for the payment of those debts,
" which were first necessary to be paid.
That he,
" the chancellor, had so much business already upon
" his hands, that he could not attend this other ;
" and the secretaries had enough to do : so he
" would have none of those. " And then he named
sir Thomas Clifford, who was newly of the council
and controller of the house, and sir William Coven-
try ; and said, " he did not think there should IK?
" many :" and the duke then named sir John Dun-
combe, as a man of whom he had heard well, and
every body knew he was intimate with sir William
Coventry. The king said, "he thought they three
" would be enough, and that a greater number
" would but make the despatch of all business the
" more slow. "
The chancellor said, " he doubted those persons
" would not have credit and authority enough to go
" through the necessary affairs of that province ;
" that for his own part, he was not desirous to med-
" die in it ; he had indeed too much business to do :
" that he had no objection P to the three persons
" named, but that he thought them not known and
" esteemed enough for that employment ; and that
" it would be very incongruous to bring sir John
" Buncombe, who was a private country gentleman,
would] Not in MS. P objection] exception
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 245
" and utterly unacquainted with business of that 16*57.
" nature, to sit in equal authority with privy coun-
" sellers, and in affairs which would be often de-
" bated at the council-table, where he could not be
" present. " And he put his majesty in mind% that
" he must put the lord Ashley out of his office of
" chancellor of the exchequer, if he did not make him
" commissioner of the treasury, and of the quorum :"
and concluded, " that if he did not name the
" general, and some other person that might give
" some lustre to the others, the work would not be
" done as it ought to be ; for many persons would
" be sometimes obliged to attend upon the treasury,
" who would not think those gentlemen enough su-
" perior to them, how qualified soever. "
The king said, " he could easily provide against
" the exception to sit John Duncombe, by making
" him a privy counsellor ; and he did not care if he
" added the general to them. " The lord Ashley
gave him some trouble, and he said enough to make
it manifest that he thought him not fit to be amongst
them : yet he knew not how to put him out of his
place ; but gave direction for preparing the commis- commis-
sion for the treasury to the persons named before, the t^asur
and made the lord Ashley only one of the commis- Rppomted<
sioners, and a major part to make a quorum ; which
would quickly bring the government of the whole
business into the hands of those three who were de-
signed for it. And Ashley rather chose to be de-
graded, than to dispute it.
The king expected, that as soon as the ambassa- Negotia-
dors should meet at the Hague, a cessation would B? " d s a at
q in mind] Omitted in MS.
11 3
CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
16<>". be the first thing that would be agreed upon: and
"the French ambassadors did in the first place pro-
pose it, and in such a manner, as made it evident
that they depended upon it as a thing resolved
upon ; and their master had with their consent dis-
missed his own fleet, and theirs was yet in their
ports. Nor did the Dutch seem to refuse it ; but
The Dutch answered, " that the adjusting all things in order
fnlr'toT"" " to a cessation would require as much time as
cessation. would serve to finish the treaty, considering all
" material points were upon the matter already
" stated and agreed upon, the king having already
'* chosen the alternative :" and notwithstanding all
the earnestness used by the French ambassadors, no
other answer could be obtained as to a cessation ;
which, together with the supercilious behaviour of
the commissioners from Holland, made it apparent,
that they had no other mind at that time to peace,
than as they were compelled to it by France, that
was impatient to have it concluded. They would
not hear any mention for the redelivery of Pole-
roone, " which," they said, " the king of France had
" promised should not be demanded ;" and as little
for any recompense in money ; nor would suffer the
merchant-deputies from the English company to go
to Amsterdam, to confer with the East India com-
pany there for any composition. It quickly appear-
ed, that they had revenge in their hearts for their
last year's affront and damage at the Flie ; and De
Wit had often said, " that before any peace they
" would leave some such mark of their having been
" upon the English coast, as the English had left
" of their having been upon that of Holland. "
After the treaty was entered into, about the be-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 247
ginning of June, De Ruyter came with the fleet 1667.
out of the Wierings, and joining with the rest from The . it
the Texel sailed for the coast of England : and hav- tem P ts of
the Dutch
ing a fair wind, stood for the river of Thames ; up
which put the county of Kent into such an alarm, and cilat-
that all near the sea left their houses and fled into ld
the country. The earl of Winchelsea, who was
lord lieutenant of that county, was at that time am-
bassador at Constantinople, and the deputy lieute-
nants had all equal authority : so that no man had
power to command in that large county in so gene-
ral a distraction. Hereupon the king sent down
lieutenant general Middleton with commission to
draw all the train bands together, and to command
all the forces that could be raised : and he immedi-
ately went thither, and was very well obeyed, and
quickly drew all the train bands of horse and foot
to Rochester ; and other troops resorted to him
from the neighbour counties, all the people ex-
pressing a great alacrity in being commanded by
him.
There had been enough discourse all that year of
erecting a fort at Sheerness for the defence of the
river : and the king had made two journeys thither
in the winter, and had given such orders to the
commissioners of the ordnance for the overseeing
and finishing the fortifications, that every body be-
lieved that work done ; it having been the principal
defence and provision directed and depended upon,
(as hath been said before,) when the resolution had
been taken for the standing only upon the defence
for this summer. But whatever had been thought
or directed, very little had been done. There were
a company or two of very good soldiers there under
n 4
248 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
JM7. excellent officers; but the fortifications were r so
weak and unfinished, and all other provisions so en-
tirely wanting, that the Dutch fleet no sooner ap-
proached within a distance, but with their cannon
they beat all the works flat, and drove all the men
from the ground : which as soon as they had done,
with their boats they landed men, and seemed re-
solved to fortify and keep it.
This put the country into a flame, and the news
of it exceedingly disturbed the king. He knew the
consequence of the place, and how easily it might
have been secured, and was the more troubled that
it had been neglected : and with what loss soever,
it must be presently recovered out of those hands.
The general was immediately ordered to march to
Chatham, for the security of the navy, with such
troops of horse and foot as could be presently drawn
together out of the guards and from the neighbour
counties; and the city appeared very forward to
send such regiments of their train bands as should
be required. When the general came to Chatham,
he found Middleton in so good a posture, and so
good a body of men, that he had no apprehension
of any attempt the Dutch could make at land ; and
he writ very cheerful and confident letters to the
king and the duke, " that if the enemy should make
" any attempt, which he believed they durst not do,
" they would repent it. That he had put a chain
" over the river, which would hinder them from
" coming up : and if they should adventure to land
" any where, he would quickly beat them to their
" ships ;" as no doubt he had been very well able to
have done.
1 were] Nut in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 249
There was indeed no danger of their landing, and
they were too wise to think of it: their business
was in an element they had more confidence in and
more power upon. They had good intelligence how
loosely all things were left in the river : and there-
fore, as soon as the tide came to help them, they
stood full up s the river, without any consideration
of the chain, which their ships immediately brake
in pieces, and passed without the least pause ; there
being either no such device to be made that can ob-
struct such an enterprise, or that which was made
was so weak, that it was of no signification, but to
raise an unseasonable confidence in unskilful men,
that being disappointed must increase the confusion,
as it did. For all men were so confounded to see
the Dutch fleet advance over the chain, which they
looked upon as a wall of brass, that they knew not
what they were to do.
The general was of a constitution and temper so
void of fear, that there could appear no signs of
distraction in him : yet it was plain enough that he
knew not what orders to give. There were two or
three ships of the royal navy negligently, if not
treacherously, left in the river, which might have
been very easily drawn into safety, and could be of
no imaginable use in the place where they then were:
into one of those the general put himself, and in-
vited the young gentlemen who were volunteers to
accompany him ; which they readily did in great
numbers, only with pikes in their hands. But some
of his friends whispered to him, " how unadvised
" that resolution was, and how desperate, without
5 up] Omitted in MS.
250 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
liif>7. " possibility of success, the whole fleet of the enemy
~ *' approaching as fast as the tide would enable them. ''
And so he was prevailed with to put himself again
on shore : which except he had done, both himself
and two or three hundred gentlemen of the nobility
and prime gentry of the kingdom had inevitably pe-
rished ; for all those ships, and some merchantmen
laden and ready to put to sea, were presently in a
flame ; the Dutch, knowing that they could not
carry them off, giving order to burn them, the ge-
neral standing upon the shore, and not knowing what
remedy to apply to all this mischief. The people
of Chatham, which is naturally an army of seamen
and officers of the navy, who might and ought to
have secured all those ships, which they had time
enough to have done, were in distraction ; their chief
officers having applied all those boats and lighter
vessels which should have towed up the ships, to
carry away their own goods and household stuff, and
given l what they left behind for lost. And without
doubt, if the Dutch had prosecuted the present ad-
vantage they had, with that circumspection and cou-
rage that was necessary, they might have fired the
royal navy at Chatham, and taken or. destroyed all
the ships which lay higher in the river, and so fully
revenged themselves for what they had suffered at
the Flie : but they thought they had done enough,
and so made use of the ebb to carry them back
again.
Great am- But the noise of this, and the flame of the ships
sternation i i M i i* i i
in the city which were burned, made it easily believed in the
city of London, that the enemy had done all that
1 given] gave
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 251
they conceived they might have done : they thought 1667,
that they were landed in many places, and that their
fleet was come up as far as Greenwich. Nor was
the confusion there greater than it was in the court
itself: where they who had most advanced the war,
and reproached all them who had been or were
thought to be against it, " as men who had no pub-
" lie spirits, and were not solicitous for the honour
" and glory of the nation ;" and who had never spoken
of the Dutch but with scorn and contempt, as a na-
tion rather worthy to be cudgelled than fought with ;
were now the most dejected men that can be ima-
gined, railed very bitterly at those who had advised
the king to enter into that war, " which had already
" consumed so many gallant men, and would pro-
" bably ruin the kingdom," and wished " that a
" peace, as the only hope, were made upon any
" terms. " In a word, the distraction and consterna-
tion was so great in court and city, as if the Dutch
had not been only masters of the river, but had really
landed an army of one hundred thousand men.
They who remember that conjuncture, and were
then present in the galleries and privy lodgings at
Whitehall, whither all the world flocked with equal
liberty, can easily call to mind many instances of
such wild despair and even ridiculous apprehensions,
that I am willing to forget, and would not that the
least mention of them should remain : and if the
king's and duke's personal composure had not re-
strained men from expressing their fears, there
wanted not some who would have advised them to
have left the city. And there was a lord, who
would be thought one of the greatest soldiers in
Europe, to whom the custody of the Tower was com-
252 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. mitted, who lodging there only one night, declared,
~" that it was not tenable," and desired not to be
charged with it : and thereupon many, who had car-
ried their money and goods thither, removed them
from thence that they might be further from the
river. Nor did this unreasonable distemper pass
away, when it was known that the Dutch fleet had
not only left the river, but had taken away all their
men from Sheerness, which was a manifestation
very sufficient that they had no design upon the
land : but there remained still such a chagrin in the
minds of many, as if they would return again ; in
which they were confirmed, when they heard that
they were still upon the coasts, and gave the same
alarm now to Essex and Suffolk, as they had done
to Kent, not without making a show as if they
meant to attempt Harwich and Landguard v Point ;
which drew all the train bands of those counties to
the sea-side, and the duke of York went thither to
conduct them, if there should be occasion.
The king In this perplexity the king was not at ease, and
the less that every man took upon him to discourse
* ^ m ^ * ne distemper of the people generally over
prorogation. t ne kingdom, and to give him counsel what was to
be done : and some men had advised him to call the
parliament, which at the last session had been pro-
rogued to the 20th of October ; and it was now the
middle of June. And surely most discerning men
thought such a conjuncture so unseasonable for the
council of a parliament, that if it had been then sit-
ting, the most wholesome advice that could be given
would be to separate them, till that occasion should
be over, which could be best provided for by a more
v Landguard] Lunghorn
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 253
contracted council: however, not knowing else what lGf>7.
to do disposed the king to incline to that remedy.
And it being a current opinion, or rather an un-
questioned certainty, that upon a prorogation a par-
liament cannot be convened before the day, though
upon an adjournment it may ; they had brought Mr.
Prynne privately to the king to satisfy him, " that
" upon an extraordinary occasion he might do it ;"
and his judgment, which in all other cases he did
enough undervalue, very much confirmed him in
what he had a mind to.
In the beginning of the summer, when he had
resolved to have no fleet at sea, there were many
reasons which induced him to increase his forces at
land. And that he might do it without jealousy of
the people, he gave commission to three or four per-
sons of the nobility, of great fortunes and good
names, to raise regiments of foot, and to others for
troops of horse ; which was done at their own charge,
and with wonderful expedition : and upon their first
musters they all received one month's pay. Of
these levies some were sent to repossess Sheerness,
and extraordinary care was taken for the better ad-
vancement of those fortifications ; and others were
disposed to other posts upon the coast : but it was
in view, that upon the expiration of that month,
there must be new pay provided for those regiments
and troops. Then the train bands, which had been
drawn together, had continued for one month, which
was as long as the law required : and now they re-
quired, or were said to require, to be relieved or
dismissed, or that they might receive pay. There
were discontents and emulations upon command ;
and they who had usually professed, " that they
264 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
16C7. " would willingly serve the king in the offices of cor-
~" porals or sergeants, whatever command they for-
" merly had," now disputed all the punctilios, and
would not receive orders from any who had been
formerly in inferior offices". And all these way-
wardnesses were brought to the king, as matters of
the highest consequence, who found difficulty enough
in determining points of more importance.
The privy. They who for their own private designs desired
council con-
sulted about that the parliament might meet, and cared not in
the reas- . . .
g what humour they met, urged the king very impor-
" tunately, " that he would issue out a proclamation
" to summon them, as the only expedient to give
" himself ease, and to provide for all that was to be
" done :" and his majesty was most inclined to it,
and in truth resolved it ; though knowing that it
was contrary to the sense of many, he resolved to
debate it at the council. And there he told them,
" that they all saw the straits that he was in, the in-
" solence of the enemy, and the general distemper of
" the nation, which made it manifest that it was ne-
" cessary for him to have an army, that might be
" ready against any thing that might fall out. That
" he had no money, nor knew where to get any ;
" nor could imagine any other way to provide
" against the mischiefs which were in view, than by
" calling the parliament to come together, of which
" or any other expedient he was willing to receive
" their advice;" expressing so much of his own
sense, that it was plain enough that he thought that
remedy the best that could be applied. Three or
four of those who sat at the lower end of the board,
11 offices] office
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 255
and who were well enough known to have given 1667.
the counsel, and to be industrious that it might be
followed, enlarged themselves in the debate, " that
" the soldiers could not be kept together without
" money ; and they could not advise any other way
** to get money but by the convening the parliament,
" which they were confident might justly and regu-
" larly be done :" and they desired, " that they who
" were of another opinion would propose some other
" way how the king might get money. "
The chancellor discerned that the matter was
already concluded, what advice soever should be
given ; and that the three new commissioners of the
treasury, since they could find no way to procure
money, had been very importunate with the king to
try that expedient, and the more, because they well
knew that he was against it, he having not been at
all reserved upon several occasions in private dis-
courses, when they were present, to give many rea-
sons against it : and he knew as well, that they
would gladly make any use of any expressions which
might fall from him x , when the remembrance might
be applied to his prejudice. Yet his natural unwa-
riness in such cases with reference to himself, when
he thought his majesty's service concerned, to which
he did really believe the present advice would produce
much prejudice, prevailed with him to dissuade it.
He said, " he knew well upon what disadvantage The ci. an-
5 cellor op-
" he spake, and how unpopular a thing it was to poses it.
" speak against the convening the parliament in
" those straits, which seemed to be capable of no
" other remedy : yet since he thought the remedy
* from him] from them
256 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
16G7. " neither proper to the disease, nor that it could be
~ " applied in time, he could not concur with those
" who advised it. That most men who had any
" knowledge in the law did confess, that when the
" parliament stood prorogued to a certain day, the
" convening them upon a sooner day was very
doubtful ; and to him, upon all the disquisition he
" could make, it was very clear that it could not be
" done : and therefore he desired the judges might
" be consulted in that point, before any resolution
" should be taken. That the temper of both houses
" was well known ; and that it could not but be
" presumed, that when they came together, the first
" debate they would fall upon would be of the man-
" ner of their coming together, and whether they
" were in a capacity to act : and he doubted there
" would be very few who would be forward to pass
" an act in a season, when the validity of it might
" be questioned by those who had no mind to pay
" any obedience to it. And then if their meeting
" were only to confer together upon all occurrences,
" and they might presume of liberty to say what
" they had a mind to say, without power to conclude
" any thing ; it was well worth the considering, whe-
" ther, in so general a distemper such an assembly
' might not interrupt all other consultations and
" expedients, and yet propose none, and so increase
" the confusion. If the necessities were so urgent,
" that it was absolutely necessary that a parliament
" should be convened, and that which stood pro-
" rogued could not lawfully reassemble till the 20th
" of October, as he was confident it could not ;
" there was no question to be made, but that the
" king might lawfully by his proclamation presently
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 257
" dissolve the prorogued parliament, and send out 1667.
" his writs to have a new parliament, which might
" regularly meet a month before the prorogued par-
" liament could come together. " And many of the
council were of opinion, that it would most conduce
to his majesty's service to dissolve the one, and to
call another parliament.
This was an advice they believed no man had the
courage to make, and were sorry to find so many of
the opinion, which they had rather should have ap-
peared to be single. Many very warmly opposed
this expedient, magnified the affections and inclina-
tions of both houses : " and though there appeared
" some ill humour in them at their last being to-
" gether, and aversion to give any money for the
" present ; yet in the main their affections were
" very right for church and state. And that the
" king was never to hope to see a parliament better
" constituted for his service, or so many of the mem-
" bers at his disposal : but that he must expect that
" the presbyterians would be chosen in all places,
" and that they who were most eminent now for op-
" posing all that he desired would be chosen, and all
" they who were most zealous for his service would
" be carefully excluded ;" which was a fancy that
sunk very deep in the minds of the bishops, though
their best friends thought them like to find more
friends and a stronger support in any, than they would
have in that parliament. But the king quickly de-
clared his confidence in the parliament that was
prorogued, and his resolution not to dissolve it ;
which put an end to that debate. And the other
was again resumed, " what the king was to do to-
" wards the raising money ; or how he should be
VOL. III. S
258 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 6(? 7. " able to maintain his army, if he should defer call-
" ing the parliament till the day upon which they
" were to assemble by the prorogation :" and all men
were to restrain their discourse to that point.
The old argumerit, " that there could be no other
*' way found out," was renewed, and urged with more
earnestness and confidence ; and that they who were
against it might be obliged to offer their advice
what other course should be taken : and this was
often demanded, in a manner not usual in that
place, as a reproach to the persons. His majesty
himself with some quickness was pleased to ask the
chancellor, " what he did advise. " To which he re-
plied, " that if in truth what was proposed was in
" the nature of it not practicable, or being practised
" could not attain the effect proposed, it ought to
** be laid aside, that men might unbiassed apply
" their thoughts to find out some other expedient.
" That he thought it very clear that the parlia-
" ment could not assemble, though the proclamation
" should issue out that very hour, within less than
" twenty days ; and that if they were met, and be-
" lieved themselves lawfully qualified to grant a
" supply of money, all men knew the formality of
" that transaction would require so much time, that
" money could not be raised time enough to raise an
" army, or to maintain that part of it that was
" raised, to prevent the landing of an enemy that
" was already upon the coast, and (as many thought
" or seemed to think) ready every day to make
" their descent : and yet the sending out a procla-
" niation for reassembling the parliament would in-
" evitably put an end to all other counsels. That
" for his part he did believe, that the Dutch had al-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 259
" ready satisfied themselves in the affront they had? 1667.
" given, and could not be in any condition to pur-
" sue it, or have men enough on board to make a
" descent, without the king's having notice of it ;
" and that the Dutch, without a conjunction with
" the French, had not strength for such an under-
" taking : and that the French had no such purpose
" his majesty had all the assurance possible, and that
" their fleet was gone far from the coast of Eng-
" land. And his majesty had reason to believe, that
" the present treaty would put an end to this war in
" a short time, though the power and artifice of De
" Wit had prevented a cessation.
" However, for the present support of those
" troops which were necessary to guard the coasts,
" since money could not be found for their present
" constant pay, without which free quarter could
*' not be avoided ; the only way that appeared to
" him to be practicable, and to avoid the last evil,
" would be, to write letters to the lieutenants and
" deputy lieutenants of those counties where the
" troops were obliged to remain, that they would
" cause provisions of all kinds to be brought into
" those quarters, that so the soldiers might not be
" compelled to straggle abroad to provide their own
" victual, which would end in the worst kind of
" free quarter : and that the like letters might be
" written to the neighbour counties, wherein no
" soldiers were quartered, to raise money by way of
" contribution or loan, which should be abated out
" of the next impositions, that so the troops might
" be enabled to stay and continue in their z posts
> had] had already z their] the
S 2
260 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 667. " where they were, for defence of the kingdom ; in
"" " which those other counties had their share in the
" benefit, and without which they must themselves
" be exposed to the disorder of the soldiers, and
" possibly to the invasion of the enemy. "
It is very probable, that in the earnestness of this
debate, and the frequent interruptions which were
given, he might use that expression, (which was
afterwards objected against him,) " of raising con-
" tribution as had been in the late civil war. *'
Whatever it was he said, it was evident at the time
that some men were well pleased with it, as somewhat
they meant to make use of hereafter, in which his
innocence made him little concerned.
Thepariia- The conclusion was, though many of the lords
moned 8 " spake against it, and much the major part thought
it not counsellable ; that a proclamation should
forthwith issue out, to require all the members of
parliament to meet upon a day appointed in the be-
ginning of August, to consult upon the great affairs
of the kingdom : and this proclamation was pre-
sently issued accordingly.
The treaty All this time the treaty proceeded at Breda, as
fast as the insolent humour of the Dutch would suf-
fer it. The French king declared himself much of-
fended with their proceedings at sea : and his am-
bassadors spake so loud, that the States gave order
to their deputies to bring the treaty to a conclusion ;
and sent such orders to De Ruyter, that there was
no more hostility of any moment ; only the fleet re-
mained at sea, that it might appear they were mas-
ters of it. It cannot be denied that the French am-
bassadors, except in what referred to Poleroone, be-
haved themselves as candidly as could be wished:
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 261
and it is probable, that the same reason which 1667.
moved the French to use all possible diligence to~
bring the treaty to an end, prevailed likewise with
the Dutch to use all the delays they could, that it
might be prolonged.
Though there was no war- declared, it had been
long notorious that Flanders would be invaded:
and it was as notorious, that there was no provision
made there towards a resistance or defence ; the
marquis of Castelle Roderigo, who came governor
thither with a great reputation, not making good
the expectation in the sagacity he was famed for,
nor offering at any levies of men, or mending fortifi-
cations, until the French army was upon the bor-
ders. Then he sent into England to press the king
to assist him with an army of horse and foot ; and
it easily appeared the nation would gladly have en-
gaged in that war, not being willing that Flanders
should be in the possession of France : but the king
was engaged not to give any assistance to the ene-
mies of France until the treaty should be ended,
which yet it was not. However, he suffered the
earl of Castlehaven, under pretence of recruiting a
regiment in Flanders which he had formerly, to
raise a body of one thousand foot, which he quickly
transported to Ostend.
The king of France a was impatient to march,
and yet desired the treaty might be first concluded,
that both himself and the king of England might be
at liberty to enter into such an alliance as they
should think proper for their interest : and the
Dutch, who had no mind that the expedition should
a of France] Not in MS.
s 3
262 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. be prosecuted, and as much feared the consequence
""of such an alliance, though they were not wise
enough to consider the right means to prevent it,
desired that the treaty might not be concluded till
The French the winter drew nearer. But the French quickly
Filnder. . put an end to that their hope by marching into the
heart of Flanders, and so giving them new matter
for their present consultations ; not without intima-
tion, " that if they would not finish the treaty, that
" king would conclude for what concerned himself:"
and this put an end to it. Yet there were some al-
terations of small importance in some articles of the
former treaty, besides that of Poleroone, which the
ambassadors would not consent to without further
knowledge of the king's pleasure: and so. one of
them (Mr. Henry Coventry) came to attend his ma
jesty, to give him an account of all particulars, and
receive his own final determination.
The king in the first place sent for the East India
company, and let them know, " that the Dutch
" would not consent to the former article for the re-
" delivery of Poleroone, nor give any recompense
" for it ; and that he was resolved not to depart
" from them b , and so release their right without
" their consent : and therefore that they should con*
" sider what would be for their good. " They an-
The East swered, " that they thought a peace to be so neces-
pan'y give" " sary for the kingdom, that they would not that
"hum to PO- " anv particular interest of theirs should give any in-
teiTuption to it :" and they acknowledged, " that
" if the war continued, they should in many respects
" be greater losers, than the redelivery of Poleroone
b them] him
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 263
" would repair; and that they would gladly sacrifice 1667.
" that pretence to the public peace. "
Upon which answer the ambassador made his re-
port of all the particulars which were consented to
on both sides in the treaty, and what remained yet
in suspense ; and made answer to all questions which
any of the council thought fit to ask. And the king
requiring him to deliver his own opinion upon his
observation, and " whether he believed, that if his
" majesty should positively insist upon what they
" had hitherto refused to consent to, the Dutch
" would choose to continue the war ; and whether
" the French would join with them in it :" he an-
swered, " that it was very evident that the Dutch
" did not at present desire the peace, otherwise than
" to comply with France and for fear of it ; and
" that France was obliged not to abandon them in
" the point of Poleroone, which the other would
" never part with, nor give any recompense for,
" though the French ambassadors had used all the
" arguments to persuade them to it. But if that
" were agreed, he was confident they would be com-
" pelled to consent to whatsoever was else of mo-
" ment. And that the French had used some
" threatening expressions, upon some insolent pro-
" positions made by the Dane, which they thought
" proceeded from the instigation of Holland. And
" that at his coming away, the French ambassadors
" had used great freedom with him, and advised in
<* what particulars which were yet unagreed they
" wished his majesty would not consent, and in
' which they could not serve him, but believed a
" time would come, in which he would be repaired
*' for those condescensions: in other particulars he
s 4
264 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. " should positively insist, at least with some little
- *' variation of expression ; in which he expressed
" both his own and the opinion of the other ambas-
" sador. "
And the whole being in this manner clearly
stated, the king required all the lords severally to
deliver their judgment what he was to do ; and
every man did deliver his opinion in more or fewer
words. And it may be truly said, that, though one
or two adorned their passion with some expressions
of indignation against the Dutch for their presump-
tion, and as if they c did believe that the parliament
would concur with the king in all things which
might vindicate his honour from their insolent de-
mands, the advice was upon the matter unanimous,
The privy- * that the ambassadors should immediately return,
council ad-
vises the " and conclude the peace upon those conditions
cuKhe " " which were stated at the board. " And he did
treaty. presently return : and all matters were, within few
days after his arrival, adjusted, and put into proper
ministerial hands for engrossment, and all forms and
The peace circumstances agreed upon for the proclamation of
the peace, and the day appointed for the proclaiming
thereof; and such forms of passes as should be given
on all sides to merchants' ships, (which would be im-
patient for trade before the days could be expired,)
in which all ships of war should be obliged to
take notice that the peace was proclaimed.
Tbe par- All this was done before the day of the parlia-
1 iament f
. t
ment's convening upon the king's proclamation: so
diateiy pro- that there being now no use of an army, and reason
ro$ued. enou gh to disband those regiments which had been
c they] he
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 265
raised towards it, his majesty thought it not reason- 1667.
able that they should enter upon the debate of any ~~
business, but be continued under the former proro-
gation to the day appointed ; and in this there ap-
peared not one person of a different opinion. And
so, upon the day, the king went to the house, and
told them, " that since the condition of his affairs
" was not so full of difficulty as it had been when
" he sent out his proclamation, and since many
" were of opinion, that there might be doubts arise
" upon the regualrity of their meeting ; he was con-
" tent to dismiss them till the 20th of October :"
and so they separated without any debate.
The public no sooner entered into this repose, The storm
than the storm began to arise that destroyed all the ^ ns to
prosperity, ruined the fortune, and shipwrecked all a & a i i ns e t n th r e
the hopes, of the chancellor, who had been the prin-
cipal instrument in the providing that repose. The
parliament, that had been so unseasonably called to-
gether from their business and recreations, in a sea-
son of the year that they most desired to be vacant,
were not pleased to be so soon dismissed : and very
great pains were taken by those, who were thought
to be able to do him the least harm, because they
were known to be his enemies, to persuade the
members of parliament, " that it was the chancellor
" only who had hindered their continuing together,
" and that he had advised the king to dissolve
" them ;" which exceedingly inflamed them.
And sir William Coventry was so far from being sir wiiiiam
reserved in his malice, that the very day that the i n clnse7thc
parliament was dismissed, after he had incensed "J e e l " 1 b e u r s s e of
them against the chancellor, in the presence of six of commons
against
or seven of the members, who were not all of the him.
266 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. same mind, he declared, "that if at their next meet-
~" ing, which would be within little more than two
" months, they had a mind to remove the chancellor
" from the court, they should easily bring it to
" pass :" of all which he had quickly information,
and had several other advertisements from persons
of honour, " that there was a strong combination
" entered into against him ;" and they d mentioned
some particulars to have been told the king concern-
ing him, which had exceedingly offended his majesty.
Ail which particulars, being without any colour or
ground of truth, he believed were inventions (though
not from those who informed him) only to amuse
him.
Yet he took an opportunity to acquaint the king
with it, who, with the same openness he had always
used, conferred with him about his present business,
but only of the business. He besought his majesty
to let him know, " whether he had received any in-
" formation that he had done or said such and such
" things," which he made appear to him to be in
themselves so incredible and improbable, that it
could hardly be in his majesty's power to believe
them 6 ; to which the king answered, ** that nobody
" had told him any such thing. " To which the
other replied, "that he did really think they had
" not, though he knew that they had bragged they
" had done so, and thereby incensed his majesty
" against him ; which they desired should be gene-
" rally believed. "
The truth is ; the chancellor was guilty of that
himself which he had used to accuse the archbishop
ttwjy] Omitted in MS. them] it
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 267
Laud of, that he was too proud of a good conscience. 1 667.
He knew his own innocence, and had no kind of ap- '
prehension of being publicly charged with any
crime. He knew well he had many enemies who
had credit with the king, and that they did him all
the ill offices they could : and he knew that the
lady's power and credit increased, and that she de-
sired nothing more than to remove him from his
majesty's confidence ; in which he never thought
her to blame, since she well knew that he employed
all the credit he had to remove her from the court.
But he thought himself very secure in the king's
justice : and though his kindness was much lessened,
he was confident his majesty would protect him
from being oppressed, since he knew his integrity ;
and never suspected that he would consent to his
ruin. He was in truth weary of the condition he
was in, and had in the last year undergone much
mortification ; and desired nothing more, than to be
divested of all other trusts and employments than
what concerned the chancery only, in which he
could have no rival, and in the administration
whereof he had not heard of any complaint : and
this he thought might have satisfied all parties ;
and had sometimes desired the king, " that he
" might retire from all other business, than that of
" the judicatory," for he plainly discerned he was
not able to contend with other struggles.
I cannot avoid in this place mentioning an acci- A P ar-
i i r- 11 i ' 11 ticuiar re-
dent that fell out in this time, and enlarge upon alljatingto
the circumstances thereof, which might otherwise Bucking
be passed over, but that it had an immediate JB" ^enl'the
fluence on the fate of the person who is so near his fate of thc
chancellor.
fall. The king had been very much offended with the
268 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. duke of Buckingham, who had behaved himself
"much worse towards him than could be expected
from his obligations and discretion, and had been in
truth the original cause of all the ill humour which
had been in both houses of parliament in the last
session ; after the end of which he went into the
country without taking his leave of the king, and
in several places spake with greater license of the
court and government, and of the person of the
king, than any other person presumed to do ; of all
which his majesty had intelligence and information,
and was at that time without doubt more offended
with him than with any man in England, and had
really great provocation to jealousy of his fidelity,
as well as of his respect and affection. The lord
Arlington, as secretary of state, had received several
informations of dangerous words spoken by him
against the king, and of his correspondencies with
persons the most suspected for seditious inclinations,
the duke having made himself very popular amongst
the levellers, and amongst them who clamoured for
liberty of conscience, which pretence he seemed very
much to cherish.
An account The king was very much awakened to be jealous
be- ^ ^* m besides his behaviour in the parliament, by
r. some informations he received from his own servants.
There was one Braythwaite, a citizen, who had
been a great confident of Cromwell and of the coun-
cil of state, a man of parts, and looked upon as hav-
ing a greater interest with the discontented party
than any man of the city. Upon the king's return
this man fled beyond the seas, and after near a
year's stay there came again to London, but re-
mained there as incognito, came not upon the ex-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 269
change, nor was seen in public, and returned again 1667.
into Holland; and so made frequent journeys back-""
ward and forward for several months, and then
came and resided publicly in the city. This being
taken notice of by sir Richard Browne, who was
major general of the city, upon whose vigilance the
king very much and very justly depended, and the
man being well known to him, he had long endea-
voured to apprehend him f , till he understood that
he was a servant to the duke of Buckingham, and
in great trust with him, as he was ; for the duke
had committed the whole managery of his estate to
him, and upon his recommendation had received
many other inferior servants to be employed under
him, all of the same leaven with him, and all noto-
rious for their disaffection to the church and state.
The major general, being one day to give the king
an account of some business, told him likewise of
this man, " as one as worthy to be suspected for all
" disloyal purposes, and as like to bring them to
" pass, as any 'man of that condition in England;"
and seemed to wonder, " that the duke would en-
" tertain such a person in his service. "
At that time the duke had by his diligence, and
those faculties towards mirth in which he excelled,
made himself very acceptable to the king ; though
many wondered that he could be so, considering
what the king himself knew of him : insomuch that
his majesty told him what he had been informed of
his steward, and how much he suffered in his repu-
tation for entertaining such servants. The duke
received the animadversion with all possible submis-
f him] Omitted in MS,
270 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1G67. v "' n am ' acknowledgment of the obligation, and
then enlarged upon the commendation of the man,
" of his great abilities, and the benefit he received
" by his service ;" and besought his majesty, '* that
" he would vouchsafe to hear him, for he believed
" he would give an account of the state of the city,
" and of many particulars which related to his ma-
jesty's service, better than most men could do. "
And the king shortly after supping at the duke's
house, he found an opportunity to present Mr.
Braythwaite to him, who was a man of a very good
aspect, which that people used not to have, and of
notable insinuation. He made the king a narration
of the whole course of his life, in which he did not
endeavour to make himself appear a better man
than he had been reported to be ; which kind of in-
genuity, as men call it, is a wonderful approach to-
wards being believed. He related " by what degrees,
" and in what method of conviction, he had expli-
" cated himself from all those ill principles in which
" he had been entangled : and that it had been a
" principal motive to him to embrace the opportunity
" of serving the duke, that he might totally retire
" from that company and conversation to which he
" had been most accustomed. And yet he thought
" he had so much credit with the chief of them, that
" they could never enter into any active combina-
'* tion, but he should have notice of it : and assured
" his majesty that nothing should pass of moment
" amongst that people, but his majesty should have
" very seasonable information of it, and that he
" would always serve him with great fidelity. " In
fine, the king was well satisfied with his discourse,
and often afterwards upon the like opportunities
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 271
conferred with him, and believed him to be well ]G67.
disposed to do him any service.
During the last session of parliament, in which
the duke carried himself so disrespectfully to the
king, this man found an opportunity to get access
to his majesty, which he was willing to give him ;
when he said, " that he thought it his duty, and ac-
" cording to his obligation, to give his majesty an
" account of what he had lately observed, and of his
" own resolutions. " He told him, " that his lord
" was of late very much altered, and was fallen into
" the acquaintance and conversation of some men
" of very mean condition, but of very desperate in-
" tendons ; with whom he used to meet at unseason-
" able hours, and in obscure places, where persons
" of quality did not use to resort ; and that he
" frequently received letters from them : all which
" made him apprehend that there was a design on
" foot, which, how unreasonable soever, the duke
" might be engaged in. And for these and other
" reasons, and the irregular course of his life, he was
" resolved to withdraw himself from his service :
" and that he hoped, into what extravagancies so-
" ever the duke should cast himself, his majesty
" would retain a good opinion of him, who would
" never swerve from his affection and duty. "
The information and testimony, which the lord Ar-
lington brought to the king shortly after this adver-
tisement, made the greater impression ; and there
were many particulars in the informations that could
not be suspected to be forged. And it appeared that
there was a poor fellow, who had a poorer lodging
about Tower-hill, and professed skill in horoscopes,
to whom the duke often repaired in disguise in the
278 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 667. night : and the lord Arlington had caused that fel-
low to be apprehended, and his pockets and his
chamber to be searched ; where were found several
letters to the duke of Buckingham, one or two
whereof were in his pocket sealed and not sent,
and the rest copies, and one original letter from the
duke to him, in all which there were many unusual
expressions, which were capable of a very ill inter-
pretation, and could not bear a good one.
^ey cou ld not but acknowledge that it was as fair
as they could expect; and monsieur de Lionne
shewed it as such to the Dutch ambassador, who
finding that he was satisfied with it, and by him,
that the king was so too, fell into much passion, and
declared, " that it was not according to the consent
" he had given to the king and to monsieur de
" Lionne ; and that he must protest against any
" treaty to be entered into upon this declaration. "
He put him then in mind, " that he had informed
" the king, in his presence, that there was an article
" in the late treaty between England and Holland,
" by which they were obliged to deliver up the
" island of Poleroone in the East Indies to the East
" India company of London, which they had for-
" merly consented to with Cromwell, but had nei-
" ther delivered it then nor yet, and were resolved
" rather to continue the war than to part with it ;
" which he had declared, when with reference to all
" other things he consented to the alternative : and
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 215
" if the king would not 11 release that article of the 1667.
" former treaty, his masters would not enter upon ~~
" any new. "
Whether this was true or no cannot be known.
But monsieur de Lionne came in great disorder to
the lord of St. Alban's, and told him all that the
ambassador had said, and confessed it " to be very
" true, and that the king remembered it well, and
" promised that article should be released : but that
" he, not clearly understanding the delivery of it to
" be contained in a former treaty, and knowing it
" had" been many years in the possession of the Dutch,
" and that it still remained so, thought it had been
" comprehended in the alternative, and forgat to in-
" sert it in the paper that was sent to the king, for
" which he asked a thousand pardons ; and made it
". his suit to the king that he would yield to it, and
" that a treaty that was so necessary to the good of
"Christendom might not be extinguished upon his
" negligence and want of memory :" which was a
strange excuse for a minister of his known sagacity.
The earl of St. Alban's refused to transmit any
such tergiversation to the king, and said, " he knew
" the king would never consent to it ; and that this
" manner of proceeding, after that his majesty had
" consented to what themselves proposed, would
" shut out all future confidence of their sincerity. "
Monsieur de Lionne was exceedingly troubled and
out of countenance, as a man conscious to himself of
a great oversight, and desired him, " that he would
" meet the Dutch ambassador at his lodging, that
*' they might together endeavour to remove him
11 not] Omitted in MS.
p 4
216 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. "from the obstinacy he professed;" which the earl
"was contented to do, and the ambassador, how un-
willingly soever, was prevailed with to meet at the
time appointed : but they were no sooner met, and
monsieur de Lionne entered upon the argument of
Poleroone, but the ambassador fell into a rude pas-
sion, and said, " the war should determine it. " And
when the earl of St. Alban's began to speak of the
unreasonableness of the demand, and entered upon
the foul manner in which they had first taken that
island from the English, who were in possession of
it; 'he told him, " that he had nothing to say to
" him," and used much other language unfit for the
other to hear, and which * he had returned with in-
terest, if monsieur de Lionne had not interposed,
and been very desirous the conference should end,
the ambassador's insolence being not to be endured.
And so they parted, Lionne seeming very much of-
fended ; and he complained to the king, and the earl
gave the account of all to his majesty.
The French king was no less surprised and of-
fended when he heard what message the king had
sent to the States, (which he was advertised of by an
express from Holland,) than De Wit had been at the
delivery of it, who presently knew the drift of it,
and could not forbear to tell the States, " that the
" design was only to stir up the people against the
" magistrates, and indeed to make them the judges
" of the conditions of the peace :" and he knew well
that the people generally were no friends to the East
India company, (where himself had a great stock,
and therefore would never consent that a treaty en-
* which] Not in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 217
tered into should break only upon their interest; 1667.
which likewise was the reason, why they had pro-
vided that that particular should be first Consented
to, before any treaty should be agreed upon. And
hereupon he prevailed upon the States General forth-
with to declare in the negative, " that the treaty
" should not be at the Hague. " But at the same
time, after the naming again of Cologne and Franc-
fort, they added, " that if the king desired to do
" them the honour to appoint it in any place of their
" dominions, which they did not presume to propose,
" they should consent that it might be at Breda, or
" Maastricht," or a place or two that they named :
and this was resolved before the people heard that
the king had named the Hague, and wondered and
murmured at their refusal.
The king of France took it ill, that at a time when
he proceeded with so much openness, and had given
the first rise to a treaty, and opened the door which
the Hollander peevishly shut against it, by his own
offering the alternative, which the king had so far
approved as to make his election ; he should at the
same time, without communicating it to him, send
this overture to the Hague : which troubled him
the more, that it gave him matter of jealousy to
apprehend, that there was some other underhand
treaty that was concealed from him, and contrived
by the baron of I sola, who he knew had been pri-
vately at the Hague, and had conference with De
Wit. And the same imagination did more perplex
the queen mother and the earl of St. Alban's, who
looked upon this as a device to exclude them from
having any share in the peace ; the earl having di-
gested the conclusion in his own breast, that in what
218 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. place soever the treaty should be held, he should
~~ without doubt be intrusted in the managery of it.
However the king could not own his part of the
dislike, since his majesty might without any viola-
tion of friendship make the overture by message to
the Hague, as well as to or by him : therefore he
seemed to take no exception to it, and only sent
the king word, " that he believed the Dutch would
" quickly discern, that this condescension in his ma-
" jesty proceeded from some expectation of a party
" amongst the people to second it ; and therefore he
" was confident they would never consent to treat
" at the Hague. " But he proposed, " as the best
** way for expedition, that it might be at Dover,"
which he advised his majesty not to reject : " for if
" it were once begun there, it might possibly, and
" he would further it all he could, quickly be re-
" moved to Canterbury, and probably might be con-
" eluded in London. "
But before this message arrived, the other new
demand of Poleroone, with monsieur de Lionne's
acknowledgment of the defect of his memory, and
that he ought to have inserted it in the paper that
contained the alternative, with all the excuses he
made for it, was received ; which seemed to put an
The king end to all hopes of peace. The king was highly in-
fended. censed, and look i. 'il upon it as an affront contrived
by both parties to amuse him. Every body con-
cluded, that there could be no safety in depending
upon any thing that could be offered from France,
when they could never be without as reasonable a
pretence as they had at present, to disclaim or avoid
any concession they had made in writing: that
the particular demanded could never be consented
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 219
to by his majesty, without swerving from the com- 1667.
mon rules of justice, and the violation of his own~~
honour : that though it did not immediately con-
cern his majesty in his own interest and the interest
of the crown, which was an argument used in France
for his majesty's not insisting upon it, it was how-
ever an unquestionable and a very considerable in-
terest of his subjects, which he was in justice bound
to maintain, and which in justice he had no power
to release. It was an interest so valuable, that
Cromwell had insisted upon it so resolutely, that
they had consented to it as a principal article of the
peace he made with them ; by which he gained great
reputation with the people. And his majesty had
thought himself so much concerned in honour not to
suffer his subjects to be deprived of that right which
Cromwell had vindicated, (though by his death it
came not to be executed,) that he would never con-
sent to the treaty that had been concluded since his
happy return, until they consented to and renewed
the same article, and promised the redelivery of the
said island to the English by such a day : and their
having broken their faith in not delivering it accord-
ing to the last treaty, and with very offensive cir-
cumstances, his majesty had declared to be a prin-
cipal cause of the war, and made them unquestion-
ably to appear the first aggressor. And in that re-
spect, his honour could not receive a more mortal
wound than in releasing that article, which con-
cerned the estates of other men, and would in the
opinion of the world draw the guilt of the war upon
himself, or, which would be as bad, the reproach of
having purchased a peace upon very dishonourable
220 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. conditions to himself, at the charge and with the
""estates of his subjects.
And n- Upon the whole, the king resolved rather to un-
rontlnue dergo the hazard of the war, upon what disadvan-
kar ' tage soever, than to consent to a proposition so dis-
honourable : and a despatch was presently sent to
the earl of St. Alban's, with a very lively resent-
ment " of the indignity offered to the king in reced-
" ing from what was offered by themselves, and in
" asking what he was resolved never to grant. " And
all were enjoined to review all that had been re-
solved for the war, and to give the utmost advance-
ment to it that was > possible : and without doubt,
if Spain had yet put itself into any posture to defend
itself against the power that was even ready to in-
vade it, and to act any part towards the support of
a common interest, the king would hardly have been
persuaded to hav,e hearkened more to any proposi-
tions from France.
New over. Notwithstanding all this, new overtures and new
tures from . . . ,
France. importunities were sent from France. " It was
" true, that the Dutch had always protested against
" making a peace or consenting to a treaty without
" the release of Poleroone ; which his Christian ma-
" jesty had consented to, and could not recede from
** it without their consent, though the mention of it
" had been unfortunately omitted by monsieur de
" Lionne : but his majesty promised and engaged
" his royal word, that when the treaty should be en-
" tered into, he would use all his credit and author-
44 ity to persuade the States General to recede from
v was] could be
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 221
" their obstinacy, and to make no alteration in the 1GG7.
" last treaty ; but that all things should 7 - remain as
" had been settled by it. And if he could not pre-
" vail with them to satisfy him therein, as he did
" fear that there was upon their particular interest
" some peremptory resolution fixed, from whence
" they would not be removed as to the main ; yet in
" that case he did in no degree despair of obliging
" them to give a considerable sum of money for re-
" compense thereof, which he desired might satisfy
" the king, who would find himself at much ease by
" it. And if the commissioners once met and the
" treaty was begun, it would not be dissolved before
" a peace should be concluded ; and that the French
" ambassadors, as soon as they met, should propose
" a cessation from all acts of hostility, which he
" expected should be as soon yielded to as proposed ;
" and that already they had promised that their
" fleet should remain in their harbours till the mid-
" die of May, before which time the treaty might
" well begin. " And from the present time the
French king promised, " that no hostile act should
" be done by him, and that his own fleet should not
" stir out of their port ; and that his ambassadors
" should in all things behave themselves as his ma-
" jesty could wish, that particular only of Poleroone
" excepted a , in which they should do as he had
" promised. "
The king had by this time had recourse to all
the inventions and devices, which might yet enable
him to set out a fleet that might be able to fight
the enemy ; but in vain. He found all men of the
2 should] to a excepted] Omitted in MS.
222 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. same opinion they had been, that he must be upon
""the defensive in the manner expressed before, and
expect the end of the summer before he could draw
his ships together ; and that there was an universal
impatience for peace : so that when the warmth of
his indignation was a little remitted, he was very
willing to hear any thing that might revive the hope
of a treaty, when this last overture from Paris ar-
rived ; upon which he presently convened the coun-
cil, that he might take a speedy resolution what he
was to do, for he saw many conveniences might be
lost by the not speedily entering upon the treaty, if
it were to be entered upon at all. The protestation
and promise of France to assist in all things, that
particular only excepted, for his majesty's service,
and his promise even in that, made him willing to
believe that they might be real : the hope of recom-
pense for it seemed little inferior to the redelivery
of the island, and was an equal satisfaction to his
majesty's honour. And it seemed the more probable
to be compassed, in that De Wit in his private con-
ference with the baron of Isola, in all his passion, in
which he would not endure the mention of the deli-
very of Poleroone, and said, " that the States would
" perish before they would part with it," concluded,
" that he would not say, that they might not be per-
" suaded to give some recompense for it. "
And many believed that the East India company,
which was only concerned in the interest of it, would
choose rather to receive a good recompense than
the island itself, which was a barren, sandy soil,
which yielded no fruit, but only nutmegs, which was
the sole commodity it bore, and is a commodity of
great value. But when they were bound to give it
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 223
up to Cromwell, there had been immediate order 1667.
sent to cut down all the trees upon the island ; ~~
which order would be now again repeated,: and so
no less than seven years must expire before any fruit
could be expected from thence. And it was so far
from any English factory, and so near to the Dutch,
that they would easily possess themselves of it again
when they had a mind to it. And therefore if the
company might have money, or such a quantity of
nutmegs delivered to them, as might, besides being
enough for the expense of England, bear a part in
the foreign trade, (which had been mentioned by
some merchants of that company,) it might be rea-
sonably preferable to the island.
Whatsoever resolution should in the end be taken,
this expedient of recompense gave a hint to a coun-
sel that had not been yet thought of, which was to
leave the business of Poleroone to the sole managery
of the East India company, who should be advised
to choose some members of their own, who should
go over with the ambassadors, and receive all advice
and assistance from them in the conduct of their
pretences : and they would be the witnesses of what
the king insisted upon on their behalf; and would
likewise judge, if nothing prevented the peace but
that interest, how far it should be insisted on.
The East India company was sent for, and were The East
India com-
told " that the king had hope of a treaty for peace, P an y >n-
" which he presumed would be welcome to them : reiation'to
" he heard that the greatest difficulty and obstruc- 1)ol '' r """-
" tion that was like to arise would be concerning
" their interest in the island of Poleroone, which he
" was resolved never to abandon. But because he
" heard likewise that the Dutch did intend to offer
224 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. " a recompense rather than to restore the place, and
~" " that the recompense might be such as might l>e as
" agreeable to them, (of whicli he would not take
" upon him to judge, but leave it entirely to them-
" selves,) he had given them this timely notice of
" it, that they might bethink themselves what was
" fit for them to do, upon a prospect of all that might
" probably occur ; and that they might make choice
" of such persons amongst themselves, who best un-
" derstood their affairs, to the end that when the
" treaty should be agreed upon and the place ap-
" pointed, and his majesty had resolved what am-
" bassadors he would send, (of all which they should
" have seasonable notice,) those persons elected by
" them as their commissioners might h go over with
" the ambassadors ; that when that point came into
" debate, and the Dutch should call some of their
" East India company to inform them, they likewise
"-might be ready to advertise his ambassadors of
" whatsoever might advance their pretences : and
" if a recompense was to be considered, they might
" enter into that consultation with the other depu-
" ties ; and that they should be sure to receive all
" the advice and assistance from his ambassadors,
" that they could require or stand in need of. " The
company received this information from his majesty
with all demonstration of duty and submission, giv-
ing humble thanks for his majesty's lx)unty and care
of their interest ; and said, " they would not fail to
" make choice of a committee to attend the am-
" bassadors, when they should know it would be
" seasonable. "
The king thought it now time to receive the
b might] Omitted in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 225
advice of his whole council-board upon this affair, 1667.
which had been hitherto only debated before the Tlie king
committee for foreign affairs: and so they c being ^ ral . t8
assembled, an account was given of all that had council
upon the
passed, with all its circumstances, in France and in overtures
Holland, by the baron of Isola and by the Swedes France \
ambassadors. And his majesty said thereupon, " that
" he had yet taken no resolution, and had been so
" provoked by the miscarriage of France, that he
" would have been glad to have put himself into a
" better posture, and not thought further of a treaty,
" till there should appear a more favourable con-
" juncture : but they now understood as much as he
" did, with reference to the state he was in both at
" home and abroad, and that he was resolved to
" follow their advice. "
All the objections which had been foreseen before, winch ad-
and the considerations thereupon, were renewed and to enter
again debated : and in the end there was a general
concurrence, " that his majesty should embrace the
" opportunity of a treaty ; and if a reasonable peace
" could be obtained, it would be very grateful to
" the whole kingdom, that was weary of the war ;
" and that his majesty should lose no time in re-
" turning such a despatch to Paris, as might bring
" on the treaty. " And some of the lords proceeded
so far as to declare, " that the consideration of
" Poleroone was not of that importance, nor could
" be thought so by the East India company them-
" selves, as that the insisting upon it should deprive
" the kingdom of a peace that was so necessary for
" it. " But the king thought the entering upon that
c they] Nol in MS.
VOL. III. Q
upon the
treaty.
226 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
16G7. argument was not yet seasonable : but he gave order
~~ for the despatch to be prepared for France.
There were two material points not yet deter-
mined, the first of which was fit to l>e inserted into
the present despatch ; which was the nomination of
the place where the treaty should l>e. Some were
of opinion, " that his majesty should lay d hold of
" the overture that had been made from France,
" which was since likewise confirmed by Holland,
" that the treaty should be at Dover :" but they
changed their minds, when they well considered
that the same objections would be naturally made
against Dover on the king's behalf, that had lx? en
made by the Dutch against the Hague; and that
the people there, and less at Canterbury, were not
incapable of any impressions, which the numerous
trains of the French and the Dutch would be ready
to imprint in them. In a word, there was much more
fit to be considered upon that point, than is fit to be
Breda remembered. The conclusion was, " that Breda,
the place of" which had been offered by the Dutch, should be the
" place the king would accept ;" which was added to
the despatch for Paris, and presently sent away.
The other matter undetermined of was the choice
of ambassadors, which had been never entered upon.
The king had spoken with the chancellor, what
persons would be fit to be employed in that nego-
ciation, when the time should be ripe for it ; and
took notice, as he did frequently, of the small choice
he had of men well acquainted with business of that
nature : upon which he had named to the king the
lord Hollis, who had been lately ambassador in
J lay] Omitted in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 227
France, and was in all respects. equal to any busi-
ness, and Mr. Henry Coventry of his bedchamber, ~~
who had shewed so great abilities in his late nego-
ciation in Sweden. Upon the naming of whom his
majesty said, " they were both very fit, and that he
" would think of no other :" so that when all other i-ord Hoiii*
particulars were adjusted with reference to the Henry co-
treaty, the king, without further consulting it, de- pointed^ie-
clared, " that he intended to send those two his am- ^ tentia -
" bassadors for the treaty," before either of them
knew or thought of the employment. And when
his majesty told them of it, he bade them repair to
the chancellor for their instructions. And this gave
new thoughts of heart to the lord Arlington, who
had designed himself and sir Thomas Clifford, who
was newly made a privy counsellor and controller
of the household upon the death of sir Hugh Pol-
lard, for the performance of that service ; and
thought himself the better qualified for it by his
late alliance in Holland, by his marriage with the
daughter of monsieur Beverwaert, a natural son of
prince Maurice. And this disappointment went
very near him ; though the other had not the least
thought that he had any such thing in his heart, but
advised it purely as they were e the fittest persons
who could be thought of ; and their abilities, which
were well thought of before, were very notorious in
this negociation.
The Swedish ambassadors, who were the only The swe-
mediators, prepared likewise to go to the treaty, ^l^me-'
having agreed with the king, "that if the treaty lliators -
" should not produce a peace," of which they who
e they were] Not in MS.
228 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 667. hoped most were not confident, " that crown would
" immediately declare for the king, and unite itself
" to his interest both against the Dutch and the
" French ;" their army at that time, being held the
best in Europe, under the command of their general
Wrangel, being near the States' dominions. And
for the better confirming them in that disposition,
the chancellor had brought the baron of Isola to a
conference with the Swedes ambassadors, and begun
that treaty between them which was shortly after
finished, and known by the style of the Triple Alli-
ance, that was the first act that detached the Swede
from France : and for the present the king himself
found means to supply the crown of Sweden with
a sum of money for the support of their army.
All things being thus adjusted, and the place of
the treaty being on all hands agreed to be Breda,
and notice being sent from Paris, " that their am-
" bassadors were departed from thence ;" the king
thought himself as much concerned in the expedition
in respect of the cessation, which the French pro-
mised to obtain in the very entrance into the treaty ;
and it was now the month of May. And so his am-
bassadors were despatched, and arrived there before
the middle of that month, with an equipage worthy
their master who sent them.
The death There happened at this time an accident that
of south- made a fatal breach into the chancellor's fortune,
with a gap wide enough to let in all that ruin which
soon after was poured upon him. The earl of
Southampton, the treasurer, with whom he had an
entire fast friendship, and who, when they were to-
gether, had credit enough with the king and at the
board to prevent, at least to defer, any very unrea-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON.
sonable resolution, was now ready to expire with 1667.
the stone; a disease that had kept him in great"
pain many months, and for which he had sent
to Paris for a surgeon to be cut, but had deferred
it too long by the physicians not agreeing what
the disease was : so that at last he grew too weak
to apply that remedy. They who had with so
much industry, and as they thought certainty, pre-
vailed with the king at Oxford to have removed
him from that office, had never since intermitted
the pursuing the design, and persuaded his majesty,
" that his service had suffered exceedingly by his
" receding from his purpose ;" and did not think
their triumph notorious enough, if they suffered him
to die in the office : insomuch as when he grew so
weak, that it is true he could not sign any orders
with his hand, which was four or five days before
his death, they had again persuaded the king to
send for the staff. But the chancellor again pre-
vailed with him not to do so ungracious an act to a
servant who had served him and his father so long
and so eminently, to so little purpose as the ravish-
ing an office unseasonably, which must within five
or six days fall into his hands, as it did within less
time, by his death.
He was a person of extraordinary parts, of facui- His cimr
tcr
ties very discerning and a judgment very profound,
great eloquence in his delivery, without the least af-
fectation of words, for he always spake best on the
sudden. In the beginning of the troubles, he was
looked upon amongst those lords who were least in-
clined to the court, and so most acceptable to the
people : he was in truth not obliged by the court,
and thought himself oppressed by it, which his great
30 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 667. spirit could not bear ; and so he had for some years
forbore to be much seen there, which was imputed
to a habit of melancholy, to which he was naturally
inclined, though it appeared more in his counte-
nance than in his conversation, which to those with
whom he was acquainted was very cheerful.
The great friendship that had been between their
fathers made many believe, that there was a confi-
dence between the earl of Essex and him ; which
was true to that degree as could l>e between men of
so different natures and understandings. And when
they came to the parliament in the year 1640, they
appeared both unsatisfied with the prudence and
politics of the court, and were not reserved in declar-
ing it, when the great officers were called in ques-
tion for great transgressions in their several admin-
istrations : but in the prosecution there was great
difference in their passions and their ends. The
earl of Essex was a great lover of justice, and could
not have been tempted to consent to the oppression of
an innocent man : but in the discerning the several
species of guilt, and in the proportioning the degrees
of punishment to the degree of guilt, he had no fa-
culties or measure of judging ; nor was above the
temptation of general prejudice, and it may be of
particular disobligations and resentments, which pro-
ceeded from the weakness of his judgment, not the
malice of his nature. The carl of Southampton was
not only an exact observer of justice, but so clear-
sighted a discerner of all the circumstances which
might disguise it, that no false or fraudulent colour
could impose upon him ; and of so sincere and im-
partial a judgment, that no prejudice to the person
of any man made him less awake to his cause; but
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 231
believed that there is " aliquid et in hostem nefas," 1 667.
and that a very ill man might be very unjustly"
dealt with.
This difference of faculties divided them quickly
in the progress of those businesses, in the beginning
whereof they were both of one mind. They both
thought the crown had committed great excesses in
the exercise of its power, which the one thought
could not be otherwise prevented, than by its f being
deprived of it : the consequence whereof the other
too well understood, and that the absolute taking
away that power that might do hurt, would like-
wise take away some of that which was necessary
for the doing good ; and that a monarch cannot be
deprived of a fundamental right, without such a last-
ing wound to monarchy itself, that they who have
most shelter from it and stand nearest to it, the
nobility, could nots continue long in their native
strength, if the crown received a maim. Which if
the earl of Essex had comprehended, who set as
great a price upon nobility as any man living did,
he could never have been wrought upon to have
contributed to his own undoing ; which the other
knew was unavoidable, if the king were undone.
So they were both satisfied that the earl of Strafford
had countenanced some high proceedings, which
could not be supported by any rules of justice,
though the policy of Ireland, and the constant
course observed in the government of that king-
dom h , might have excused and justified many of
the high proceedings with which he was reproached:
1 its] Not in MS. h that kingdom] Ireland .
; not] Omitted in MS.
Q 4
232 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. and they who had now the advantage-ground, by
"" being thought to be most solicitous for the liljerty of
the subject, and most vigilant that the same out-
rages might not be transplanted out of the other
kingdom into this, looked upon him as having the
strongest influence upon the counsels of England as
well as governor of Ireland. Then he had declared
himself so averse and irreconcileable to the sedition
and rebellion of the Scots, that the whole nation had
contracted so great an animosity against him, that
less than his life could not secure them from the
fears they had conceived of him : and this fury of
theirs met with a full concurrence from those of the
English, who could not compass their own ends
without their help. And this combination too soon
drew the earl of Essex, who had none of their ends,
into their party, to satisfy his pride and his passion,
in removing a man who seemed to have no regard
for him ; for the stories, which were then made of
disobligations from the earl of Stratford towards the
earl of Clanrickard, were without any foundation of
truth.
The earl of Southampton, who had nothing of ob-
ligation, and somewhat of prejudice to some high
acts of power which had been exercised by the earl
of Strafford, was not unwilling that they should be
so far looked into and examined, as might raise
more caution and apprehension in men of great au-
thority of the consequence of such excesses. But
when he discerned irregular ways entered into to pu-
nish those irregularities, and which might 1>e at-
tended witli as ill consequences, and that they in-
tended to compound one great crime out of seve-
ral smaller trespasses, and, to use their own style, to
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 233
complicate a treason out of misdemeanours, and so 1 667.
to take away his life for what he might be fined"
and imprisoned ; he first dissuaded and then ab-
horred that exorbitance, and more abhorred it, when
he found it passionately and maliciously resolved by
a direct combination.
From this time he and the earl of Essex were
perfectly divided and separated, and seldom after-
wards concurred in the same opinion : but as he
worthily and bravely stood in the gap in the defence
of that great man's life, so he did afterwards oppose
all those invasions, which were every day made by
the house of commons upon the rights of the crown,
or the privileges of the peers, which the lords were
willing to sacrifice to the useful humour of the
other. And by this means, whilst most of the king's
servants listed themselves with the conspirators in
promoting all things which were ingrateful to him,
this lord, who had no relation to his service, was
looked upon as a courtier ; and by the strength of
his reason gave such a check to their proceedings,
that he became little less odious to them than the
court itself; and so much the more odious, because
as he was superior to their temptations, so his un-
questionable integrity was out of their reach, and
made him contemn their power as much as their
malice.
He had all the detestation imaginable of the civil
war, and discerned the dismal effects it would pro-
duce, more than most other men, which made him
do all he could to prevent it. But when it could not
be avoided, he made no scruple how to dispose of
himself, but frankly declared for the king, who had
a just sense of the service he had done him, and
CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. made him then both of his privy-council and gentlc-
~ man of his bedchamber, without the least applica-
tion or desire of his, and when most of those who
were under both those relations had chosen, as the
much stronger, the rebels' side: and his receiving
those obligations at that present was known to pro-
ceed more from his duty than his ambition. He had
all the fidelity that God requires, and all the affec-
tion to the person of the king that his duty sug-
gested to him was due, without any reverence for
or compliance with his infirmities or weakness ;
which made him many times uneasy to the king,
especially in all consultations towards peace, in
which he was always desirous that his majety should
yield more than he was inclined to do.
He was in his nature melancholic, and reserved
in his conversation, except towards those with whom
he was very well acquainted; with whom he was
not only cheerful, but upon occasion light and plea-
sant. He was naturally lazy, and indulged over-
much ease to himself: yet as no man had a quicker
apprehension or solider judgment in business of all
kinds, so, when it had a hopeful prospect, no man
could keep his mind longer bent, and take more
pains in it. In the treaty at Uxbridge, which was
a continued fatigue of twenty days, he never slept
four hours in a night, who had never used to allow
himself less than ten, and at the end of the treaty
was much more vigorous than in the beginning;
which made the chancellor to tell the king when
they returned to Oxford, " that if he would have
" the earl of Southampton in good health and good
" humour, he must give him good store of business
" to do. "
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 235
His person was of a small stature ; his courage, as 1 667.
all his other faculties, very great ; having no sign of
fear or sense of danger, when he was in a place
where he ought to be found. When the king had
withdrawn himself from Oxford in order to his
escape to the Scotch army, and Fairfax had brought
his army before the town ; in some debate at the
council-board, there being some mention of prince
Rupert with reference to his dignity in a large de-
gree above all of the nobility, the earl of Southamp-
ton, who never used to speak indecently, used some
expressions, which, being unfaithfully reported to
the prince, his highness interpreted to be disrespect-
ful towards him : whereupon he sent the lord Ge-
rard to expostulate with him. To whom the earl
without any apology related the words he had used ;
which being reported by him again to the prince,
though they were not the same which he had been
informed, yet he was not so well satisfied with
them, but that he sent the same lord to him again,
to tell him, " that his highness expected other sa-
" tisfaction from him, and expected to meet him
" with his sword in his hand, and desired it might
" be as soon as he could, lest it might be pre-
" vented. "
The earl appointed the next morning, at a place
well known ; and being asked " what weapon he
" chose," he said, " that he had no horse fit for such
" a service, nor knew where suddenly to get one ;
" and that he knew himself too weak to close with
" the prince : and therefore he hoped his highness
" would excuse him, if he made choice of such wea-
" pons as he could best use ; and therefore he rc-
" solved to fight on foot with a case of pistols only ;"
236 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. which the prince willingly consented to. And with-
out doubt they had met the next morning, the earl
having chosen sir George Villiers for his second;
but that the lord Gerard's coming to the earl so
often, with whom he had no acquaintance, had been
so much observed, that some of the lords who had
been present at the debate at the board, and heard
some replies which had been made, and thence con-
cluded that ill offices had been done, watched them
both so narrowly, and caused the town -gates to be
shut, that they ' discovered enough, notwithstanding
the denial of both parties, to prevent their meeting ;
and afterwards interposed till a reconciliation was
made : and the prince ever afterwards had a good
respect for the earl.
After the murder of the king, the earl of South-
ampton remained in his own house, without the
least application to those powers which had made
themselves so terrible, and which seemed to resolve
to root out the whole party as well as the royal fa-
mily ; and would not receive a civility from any of
them : and when Cromwell was near his house in
the country, upon the marriage of his son in those
parts, and had a purpose to have made a visit to
him ; upon a private notice thereof, he immediately
removed to another house at a greater distance. He
sent frequently some trusty person to the king with
such presents of money, as he could receive out of
the fortune they had left to him, which was scarce
enough to support him in that retirement : and after
the battle of Worcester, when the rebels had set a
price upon the king's head, and denounced the most
that they] Omitted in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON.
terrible judgment upon any person k , and his pos- 1667.
terity, that should presume to give any shelter or~
assistance to Charles Stuart towards his escape ;
he sent a faithful servant to all those persons, who
in respect of their fidelity and activity were most
like to be trusted upon such an occasion, that they
should advertise the king, " that he would most
" willingly receive him into his house, and provide
" a ship for his escape. " And his majesty received
this advertisement from him the day before he was
ready to embark in a small vessel prepared for him
in Sussex ; which his majesty always remembered
as a worthy testimony of his affection and courage
in so general a consternation. And the earl was
used to say, " that after that miraculous escape, how
" dismal soever the prospect was, he had still a con-
" fidence of his majesty's restoration. "
His own natural disposition inclined to melan-
cholic ; and his retirement from all conversation, in
which he might have given some vent to his own
thoughts, with the discontinuance of all those bodily
exercises and recreations to which he had been ac-
customed, brought many diseases upon him, which
made his life less pleasant to him ; so that from the
time of the king's return, between the gout and the
stone, he underwent great affliction. Yet upon the
happy return of his majesty he seemed to recover
great vigour of mind, and undertook the charge of
high treasurer with much alacrity and industry, as
long as he had any hope to get a revenue settled
proportionable to the expense of the crown, (towards
which his interest and authority and counsel contri-
k any person] whomsoever
238 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1067. buted very much,) or to reduce the expense of the
""court within the limits of the revenue. But when
he discerned that the last did and would still make
the former impossible, (upon which he made as fre-
quent and lively representations as he thought him-
self obliged to do,) and when he saw irregularities
and excesses to abound, and to overflow all the banks
which should restrain them ; he grew more dispirit-
ed, and weary of that province, which exposed him
to the reproaches which others ought to undergo,
and which supplied him not with authority to pre-
vent them. And he had then withdrawn from the
burden, which he infinitely desired to be eased of,
but out of conscience of his duty to the king, who
he knew would suffer in it ; and that the people who
knew his affections very well, and already opened
their mouths wide against the license of the court,
would believe it worse and incurable if he quitted
the station he was in. This, and this only, pre-
vailed with him still to undergo that burden, even
when he knew that they who enjoyed the benefit
of it were as weary that he should be disquieted
with it.
He was a man of great and exemplary virtue and
piety, and very regular in his devotions ; yet was not
generally believed by the bishops to have an affection
keen enough for the government of the church, lie-
cause he was willing and desirous, that somewhat
more might have been done to gratify the presby-
terians than they thought just. But the truth is ; he
had a perfect detestation of all the presbyterian prin-
ciples, nor had ever had any conversation with their
persons, having during all those wicked times strictly
observed the devotions prescril>ed by the church of
EDWARD EAHL OF CLARENDON. 239
England; in the performance whereof he had al- 1GG7.
ways an orthodox chaplain, one of those ] deprived
of their estates by that government, which disposed
of the church as well as of the state. But it is very
true, that upon the observation of the great power
and authority which the presbyterians usurped and
were possessed of, even when Cromwell did all lie
could to divest them of it, and applied all his interest
to oppress or suppress them, insomuch as they did
often give a check to and divert many of his designs;
he did believe that their numbers and their credit
had been much greater than in truth they were ll! .
And then some persons, who had credit with him by
being thought to have an equal aversion /rom them,
persuaded him to believe, that they would be satis-
fied with very easy concessions, w r hich would bring
no prejudice or inconvenience to the church. And
this imagination prevailed with him, and more witli
others who loved them not, to wish that there might
be some indulgence towards them. But that which
had the strongest influence upon him, and which
made him less apprehensive of the venom of any
other sect, was the extreme jealousy he had of the
power and malignity of the Roman catholics ; whose
behaviour from the time of the suppression of the
regal power, and more scandalously at and from the
time of the murder of the king, had very much irre-
conciled him towards them : and he did believe, that
the king and the duke of York had a better opinion
of their fidelity, and less jealousy of their affections,
than they deserved ; and so thought there could not
be too great an union of all other interests to con-
1 one of those] Omitted in MS. m they were] it was
240 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
IG67. trol the exorbitance of that. And upon this argu-
ment. with his private friends, he was more pas-
sionate than in any other.
He had a marvellous zeal and affection for the
royal family ; insomuch as the two sons of the duke
of York falling both into distempers, (of which they
both shortly after died,) very few days l>efore his
death, he was so marvellously affected with it, that
many l>elieved the trouble of it, or a presage what
might befall the kingdom by it, hastened his death
some hours : and in the agony of death, the very
morning he died, he sent to know how they did ;
and seemed to receive some relief, when the mes-
senger returned with the news, that they were both
alive and in some degree mended.
The king The next day after his death, which was about
put tbe the end of May, the king called the chancellor into
his closet ; and, the duke of York being only pre-
" to be treasurer, and therefore resolved, as he had
" long done, to put that office into commission ;''
and then asked, " who should be commissioners :" to
which he answered, " the business would be much
" better done by a single officer, if he could think
" of a fit one ; for commissioners never had, never
" would do, that business well. " The duke of York
said, " that he believed it would be best done by
" commission ; it had been so managed during all
" the ill times," (for from the beginning of the trou-
bles there had been no treasurer :) " and he had ob-
" served, (and the king found the benefit of it,) that
" though sir William Compton was an extraordinary
" person, and better qualified than most men for
" that charge, yet since his decease, that his majesty
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 241
" had put the office of the ordnance under the go- 1 667.
" vernment of commissioners, it was in much better ~
" order, and the king was better served there than
" he had ever been ; and he believed he would be
" so likewise in the office of the treasury, if fit per-
" sons were chosen for it, who might have nothing
" else to do. " And the king seemed to be of the
same mind.
The chancellor replied, " that he was very sorry, The chan-
" that they were both so much delighted with the vLsViiu
" function of commissioners, which were more suit- a * 8inst
" able to the modelling a commonwealth, than for
" the support of monarchy : that during the late
" troubles, whilst the parliament exercised the go-
" vernment, they reduced it as fast as they could to
" the form of a commonwealth ; and then no ques-
" tion the putting the treasury into the hands of
" commissioners was much more suitable to the rest
" of the model, than it could be under a single per-
" son. Besides, having no revenue of their own, but
" being to raise one according to their inventions
" and proportionable to their own occasions, it could
" never be well collected or ordered by old officers,
" who were obliged to forms which would not be
" agreeable to their necessary transactions : so that
" new ministers were to be made for new employ-
" merits, who might be obliged punctually to observe
" their new orders, without any superiority over
" each other, but a joint obedience to the supreme
" authority. But when Cromwell assumed the en-
" tire government into his own hands, he cancelled
" all those republican rules and forms, and appointed
" inferior persons to several functions, and reserved
" the whole disposition to himself, and was his own
VOL. III. R
242 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
Ifi67. " high treasurer: and it was well known that he
~~ " resolved, as soon as he should be able to reduce
" things to the forms he intended, to cancel all those
" commissions, and invest single persons in the go-
" vernment of those provinces. "
He said, " he would not take upon him to say
" any thing of the office of the ordnance, where the
" commissioners were his friends ; only he might
' say, that that kind of administration had not been
" yet long enough known to have a good judgment
" made of it : however, that it was of so different a
" nature from the office of the treasury, that no ob-
" servation of the one could be applied to the other.
" The ordnance was conversant only with smiths
" and carpenters, and other artificers and handi-
" craftsmen, with whom all their transactions were :
" whereas the treasury had much to do with the no-
" bility and chief gentry of the kingdom ; must have
" often recourse to the king himself for his parti-
" cular directions, to the privy-council for their as-
" sistance and advice, to the judges for their reso-
" lutions in matters of difficulty ; and if the ministers
" of it were not of that quality and degree, that
" they might have free recourse to all those, and find
" respect from them, his majesty's service would
" notoriously suffer. And that the white staff itself,
" in the hands of a person esteemed, did more to
" the bringing in several branches of the revenue,
" by the obedience and reverence all officers paid to
" it, than any orders from commissioners could do :
" and that how mean an opinion soever some men
" had of the faculties of the late excellent officer for
(t that administration, his majesty would find by ex-
" perience, that the -vast sums of money, which he
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 243
"had borrowed in these late years, had been in
" a great measure procured upon the general confi-
" dence all men had in the honour and justice of
** the treasurer ; and that the credit of commission-
" ers would never be able to supply such necessi-
" ties. "
The king said, " he was not at all of his opinion,
" and doubted not his business would be much bet-
" ter done by commissioners ; and therefore he
" should speak to the nomination of those, since he
" was sure he could propose no single person fit for
" it. " To which the chancellor answered, " that he
" thought it much harder to find a worthy man, who
" would be persuaded to accept it in the disorder in
" which his affairs were, than a man who might be
" very fit for it : and that if that subject who had
" the greatest fortune in England and the most ge-
" neral reputation would receive it, his majesty
" would be no loser in conferring it on such a one ;
" and till such a one might be found, he might put
" it into commission. But," he said, " he perceived
" well, that he would not approve the old course in
" the choice of commissioners ; who had always
" been the keeper of the great seal, and the two se-
" cretaries of state, and two other of the principal
" persons of the council, besides the chancellor of
" the exchequer, who used to be the sole person of
" the quorum. "
Neither n the king nor duke seemed to like any of
those ; and the chancellor plainly discerned from
the beginning that they were resolved upon the
persons, though his opinion was asked : and the
11 Neither] Not in MS.
R 2
244 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. king said, "he would choose such persons, whether
" privy counsellors or not, who might have nothing
" else to do, and were rough and ill-natured men,
" not to be moved with civilities or importunities
" in the payment of money ; but would apply it all
" to his present necessities, till some new supplies
*' might be gotten for the payment of those debts,
" which were first necessary to be paid.
That he,
" the chancellor, had so much business already upon
" his hands, that he could not attend this other ;
" and the secretaries had enough to do : so he
" would have none of those. " And then he named
sir Thomas Clifford, who was newly of the council
and controller of the house, and sir William Coven-
try ; and said, " he did not think there should IK?
" many :" and the duke then named sir John Dun-
combe, as a man of whom he had heard well, and
every body knew he was intimate with sir William
Coventry. The king said, "he thought they three
" would be enough, and that a greater number
" would but make the despatch of all business the
" more slow. "
The chancellor said, " he doubted those persons
" would not have credit and authority enough to go
" through the necessary affairs of that province ;
" that for his own part, he was not desirous to med-
" die in it ; he had indeed too much business to do :
" that he had no objection P to the three persons
" named, but that he thought them not known and
" esteemed enough for that employment ; and that
" it would be very incongruous to bring sir John
" Buncombe, who was a private country gentleman,
would] Not in MS. P objection] exception
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 245
" and utterly unacquainted with business of that 16*57.
" nature, to sit in equal authority with privy coun-
" sellers, and in affairs which would be often de-
" bated at the council-table, where he could not be
" present. " And he put his majesty in mind% that
" he must put the lord Ashley out of his office of
" chancellor of the exchequer, if he did not make him
" commissioner of the treasury, and of the quorum :"
and concluded, " that if he did not name the
" general, and some other person that might give
" some lustre to the others, the work would not be
" done as it ought to be ; for many persons would
" be sometimes obliged to attend upon the treasury,
" who would not think those gentlemen enough su-
" perior to them, how qualified soever. "
The king said, " he could easily provide against
" the exception to sit John Duncombe, by making
" him a privy counsellor ; and he did not care if he
" added the general to them. " The lord Ashley
gave him some trouble, and he said enough to make
it manifest that he thought him not fit to be amongst
them : yet he knew not how to put him out of his
place ; but gave direction for preparing the commis- commis-
sion for the treasury to the persons named before, the t^asur
and made the lord Ashley only one of the commis- Rppomted<
sioners, and a major part to make a quorum ; which
would quickly bring the government of the whole
business into the hands of those three who were de-
signed for it. And Ashley rather chose to be de-
graded, than to dispute it.
The king expected, that as soon as the ambassa- Negotia-
dors should meet at the Hague, a cessation would B? " d s a at
q in mind] Omitted in MS.
11 3
CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
16<>". be the first thing that would be agreed upon: and
"the French ambassadors did in the first place pro-
pose it, and in such a manner, as made it evident
that they depended upon it as a thing resolved
upon ; and their master had with their consent dis-
missed his own fleet, and theirs was yet in their
ports. Nor did the Dutch seem to refuse it ; but
The Dutch answered, " that the adjusting all things in order
fnlr'toT"" " to a cessation would require as much time as
cessation. would serve to finish the treaty, considering all
" material points were upon the matter already
" stated and agreed upon, the king having already
'* chosen the alternative :" and notwithstanding all
the earnestness used by the French ambassadors, no
other answer could be obtained as to a cessation ;
which, together with the supercilious behaviour of
the commissioners from Holland, made it apparent,
that they had no other mind at that time to peace,
than as they were compelled to it by France, that
was impatient to have it concluded. They would
not hear any mention for the redelivery of Pole-
roone, " which," they said, " the king of France had
" promised should not be demanded ;" and as little
for any recompense in money ; nor would suffer the
merchant-deputies from the English company to go
to Amsterdam, to confer with the East India com-
pany there for any composition. It quickly appear-
ed, that they had revenge in their hearts for their
last year's affront and damage at the Flie ; and De
Wit had often said, " that before any peace they
" would leave some such mark of their having been
" upon the English coast, as the English had left
" of their having been upon that of Holland. "
After the treaty was entered into, about the be-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 247
ginning of June, De Ruyter came with the fleet 1667.
out of the Wierings, and joining with the rest from The . it
the Texel sailed for the coast of England : and hav- tem P ts of
the Dutch
ing a fair wind, stood for the river of Thames ; up
which put the county of Kent into such an alarm, and cilat-
that all near the sea left their houses and fled into ld
the country. The earl of Winchelsea, who was
lord lieutenant of that county, was at that time am-
bassador at Constantinople, and the deputy lieute-
nants had all equal authority : so that no man had
power to command in that large county in so gene-
ral a distraction. Hereupon the king sent down
lieutenant general Middleton with commission to
draw all the train bands together, and to command
all the forces that could be raised : and he immedi-
ately went thither, and was very well obeyed, and
quickly drew all the train bands of horse and foot
to Rochester ; and other troops resorted to him
from the neighbour counties, all the people ex-
pressing a great alacrity in being commanded by
him.
There had been enough discourse all that year of
erecting a fort at Sheerness for the defence of the
river : and the king had made two journeys thither
in the winter, and had given such orders to the
commissioners of the ordnance for the overseeing
and finishing the fortifications, that every body be-
lieved that work done ; it having been the principal
defence and provision directed and depended upon,
(as hath been said before,) when the resolution had
been taken for the standing only upon the defence
for this summer. But whatever had been thought
or directed, very little had been done. There were
a company or two of very good soldiers there under
n 4
248 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
JM7. excellent officers; but the fortifications were r so
weak and unfinished, and all other provisions so en-
tirely wanting, that the Dutch fleet no sooner ap-
proached within a distance, but with their cannon
they beat all the works flat, and drove all the men
from the ground : which as soon as they had done,
with their boats they landed men, and seemed re-
solved to fortify and keep it.
This put the country into a flame, and the news
of it exceedingly disturbed the king. He knew the
consequence of the place, and how easily it might
have been secured, and was the more troubled that
it had been neglected : and with what loss soever,
it must be presently recovered out of those hands.
The general was immediately ordered to march to
Chatham, for the security of the navy, with such
troops of horse and foot as could be presently drawn
together out of the guards and from the neighbour
counties; and the city appeared very forward to
send such regiments of their train bands as should
be required. When the general came to Chatham,
he found Middleton in so good a posture, and so
good a body of men, that he had no apprehension
of any attempt the Dutch could make at land ; and
he writ very cheerful and confident letters to the
king and the duke, " that if the enemy should make
" any attempt, which he believed they durst not do,
" they would repent it. That he had put a chain
" over the river, which would hinder them from
" coming up : and if they should adventure to land
" any where, he would quickly beat them to their
" ships ;" as no doubt he had been very well able to
have done.
1 were] Nut in MS.
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 249
There was indeed no danger of their landing, and
they were too wise to think of it: their business
was in an element they had more confidence in and
more power upon. They had good intelligence how
loosely all things were left in the river : and there-
fore, as soon as the tide came to help them, they
stood full up s the river, without any consideration
of the chain, which their ships immediately brake
in pieces, and passed without the least pause ; there
being either no such device to be made that can ob-
struct such an enterprise, or that which was made
was so weak, that it was of no signification, but to
raise an unseasonable confidence in unskilful men,
that being disappointed must increase the confusion,
as it did. For all men were so confounded to see
the Dutch fleet advance over the chain, which they
looked upon as a wall of brass, that they knew not
what they were to do.
The general was of a constitution and temper so
void of fear, that there could appear no signs of
distraction in him : yet it was plain enough that he
knew not what orders to give. There were two or
three ships of the royal navy negligently, if not
treacherously, left in the river, which might have
been very easily drawn into safety, and could be of
no imaginable use in the place where they then were:
into one of those the general put himself, and in-
vited the young gentlemen who were volunteers to
accompany him ; which they readily did in great
numbers, only with pikes in their hands. But some
of his friends whispered to him, " how unadvised
" that resolution was, and how desperate, without
5 up] Omitted in MS.
250 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
liif>7. " possibility of success, the whole fleet of the enemy
~ *' approaching as fast as the tide would enable them. ''
And so he was prevailed with to put himself again
on shore : which except he had done, both himself
and two or three hundred gentlemen of the nobility
and prime gentry of the kingdom had inevitably pe-
rished ; for all those ships, and some merchantmen
laden and ready to put to sea, were presently in a
flame ; the Dutch, knowing that they could not
carry them off, giving order to burn them, the ge-
neral standing upon the shore, and not knowing what
remedy to apply to all this mischief. The people
of Chatham, which is naturally an army of seamen
and officers of the navy, who might and ought to
have secured all those ships, which they had time
enough to have done, were in distraction ; their chief
officers having applied all those boats and lighter
vessels which should have towed up the ships, to
carry away their own goods and household stuff, and
given l what they left behind for lost. And without
doubt, if the Dutch had prosecuted the present ad-
vantage they had, with that circumspection and cou-
rage that was necessary, they might have fired the
royal navy at Chatham, and taken or. destroyed all
the ships which lay higher in the river, and so fully
revenged themselves for what they had suffered at
the Flie : but they thought they had done enough,
and so made use of the ebb to carry them back
again.
Great am- But the noise of this, and the flame of the ships
sternation i i M i i* i i
in the city which were burned, made it easily believed in the
city of London, that the enemy had done all that
1 given] gave
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 251
they conceived they might have done : they thought 1667,
that they were landed in many places, and that their
fleet was come up as far as Greenwich. Nor was
the confusion there greater than it was in the court
itself: where they who had most advanced the war,
and reproached all them who had been or were
thought to be against it, " as men who had no pub-
" lie spirits, and were not solicitous for the honour
" and glory of the nation ;" and who had never spoken
of the Dutch but with scorn and contempt, as a na-
tion rather worthy to be cudgelled than fought with ;
were now the most dejected men that can be ima-
gined, railed very bitterly at those who had advised
the king to enter into that war, " which had already
" consumed so many gallant men, and would pro-
" bably ruin the kingdom," and wished " that a
" peace, as the only hope, were made upon any
" terms. " In a word, the distraction and consterna-
tion was so great in court and city, as if the Dutch
had not been only masters of the river, but had really
landed an army of one hundred thousand men.
They who remember that conjuncture, and were
then present in the galleries and privy lodgings at
Whitehall, whither all the world flocked with equal
liberty, can easily call to mind many instances of
such wild despair and even ridiculous apprehensions,
that I am willing to forget, and would not that the
least mention of them should remain : and if the
king's and duke's personal composure had not re-
strained men from expressing their fears, there
wanted not some who would have advised them to
have left the city. And there was a lord, who
would be thought one of the greatest soldiers in
Europe, to whom the custody of the Tower was com-
252 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. mitted, who lodging there only one night, declared,
~" that it was not tenable," and desired not to be
charged with it : and thereupon many, who had car-
ried their money and goods thither, removed them
from thence that they might be further from the
river. Nor did this unreasonable distemper pass
away, when it was known that the Dutch fleet had
not only left the river, but had taken away all their
men from Sheerness, which was a manifestation
very sufficient that they had no design upon the
land : but there remained still such a chagrin in the
minds of many, as if they would return again ; in
which they were confirmed, when they heard that
they were still upon the coasts, and gave the same
alarm now to Essex and Suffolk, as they had done
to Kent, not without making a show as if they
meant to attempt Harwich and Landguard v Point ;
which drew all the train bands of those counties to
the sea-side, and the duke of York went thither to
conduct them, if there should be occasion.
The king In this perplexity the king was not at ease, and
the less that every man took upon him to discourse
* ^ m ^ * ne distemper of the people generally over
prorogation. t ne kingdom, and to give him counsel what was to
be done : and some men had advised him to call the
parliament, which at the last session had been pro-
rogued to the 20th of October ; and it was now the
middle of June. And surely most discerning men
thought such a conjuncture so unseasonable for the
council of a parliament, that if it had been then sit-
ting, the most wholesome advice that could be given
would be to separate them, till that occasion should
be over, which could be best provided for by a more
v Landguard] Lunghorn
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 253
contracted council: however, not knowing else what lGf>7.
to do disposed the king to incline to that remedy.
And it being a current opinion, or rather an un-
questioned certainty, that upon a prorogation a par-
liament cannot be convened before the day, though
upon an adjournment it may ; they had brought Mr.
Prynne privately to the king to satisfy him, " that
" upon an extraordinary occasion he might do it ;"
and his judgment, which in all other cases he did
enough undervalue, very much confirmed him in
what he had a mind to.
In the beginning of the summer, when he had
resolved to have no fleet at sea, there were many
reasons which induced him to increase his forces at
land. And that he might do it without jealousy of
the people, he gave commission to three or four per-
sons of the nobility, of great fortunes and good
names, to raise regiments of foot, and to others for
troops of horse ; which was done at their own charge,
and with wonderful expedition : and upon their first
musters they all received one month's pay. Of
these levies some were sent to repossess Sheerness,
and extraordinary care was taken for the better ad-
vancement of those fortifications ; and others were
disposed to other posts upon the coast : but it was
in view, that upon the expiration of that month,
there must be new pay provided for those regiments
and troops. Then the train bands, which had been
drawn together, had continued for one month, which
was as long as the law required : and now they re-
quired, or were said to require, to be relieved or
dismissed, or that they might receive pay. There
were discontents and emulations upon command ;
and they who had usually professed, " that they
264 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
16C7. " would willingly serve the king in the offices of cor-
~" porals or sergeants, whatever command they for-
" merly had," now disputed all the punctilios, and
would not receive orders from any who had been
formerly in inferior offices". And all these way-
wardnesses were brought to the king, as matters of
the highest consequence, who found difficulty enough
in determining points of more importance.
The privy. They who for their own private designs desired
council con-
sulted about that the parliament might meet, and cared not in
the reas- . . .
g what humour they met, urged the king very impor-
" tunately, " that he would issue out a proclamation
" to summon them, as the only expedient to give
" himself ease, and to provide for all that was to be
" done :" and his majesty was most inclined to it,
and in truth resolved it ; though knowing that it
was contrary to the sense of many, he resolved to
debate it at the council. And there he told them,
" that they all saw the straits that he was in, the in-
" solence of the enemy, and the general distemper of
" the nation, which made it manifest that it was ne-
" cessary for him to have an army, that might be
" ready against any thing that might fall out. That
" he had no money, nor knew where to get any ;
" nor could imagine any other way to provide
" against the mischiefs which were in view, than by
" calling the parliament to come together, of which
" or any other expedient he was willing to receive
" their advice;" expressing so much of his own
sense, that it was plain enough that he thought that
remedy the best that could be applied. Three or
four of those who sat at the lower end of the board,
11 offices] office
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 255
and who were well enough known to have given 1667.
the counsel, and to be industrious that it might be
followed, enlarged themselves in the debate, " that
" the soldiers could not be kept together without
" money ; and they could not advise any other way
** to get money but by the convening the parliament,
" which they were confident might justly and regu-
" larly be done :" and they desired, " that they who
" were of another opinion would propose some other
" way how the king might get money. "
The chancellor discerned that the matter was
already concluded, what advice soever should be
given ; and that the three new commissioners of the
treasury, since they could find no way to procure
money, had been very importunate with the king to
try that expedient, and the more, because they well
knew that he was against it, he having not been at
all reserved upon several occasions in private dis-
courses, when they were present, to give many rea-
sons against it : and he knew as well, that they
would gladly make any use of any expressions which
might fall from him x , when the remembrance might
be applied to his prejudice. Yet his natural unwa-
riness in such cases with reference to himself, when
he thought his majesty's service concerned, to which
he did really believe the present advice would produce
much prejudice, prevailed with him to dissuade it.
He said, " he knew well upon what disadvantage The ci. an-
5 cellor op-
" he spake, and how unpopular a thing it was to poses it.
" speak against the convening the parliament in
" those straits, which seemed to be capable of no
" other remedy : yet since he thought the remedy
* from him] from them
256 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
16G7. " neither proper to the disease, nor that it could be
~ " applied in time, he could not concur with those
" who advised it. That most men who had any
" knowledge in the law did confess, that when the
" parliament stood prorogued to a certain day, the
" convening them upon a sooner day was very
doubtful ; and to him, upon all the disquisition he
" could make, it was very clear that it could not be
" done : and therefore he desired the judges might
" be consulted in that point, before any resolution
" should be taken. That the temper of both houses
" was well known ; and that it could not but be
" presumed, that when they came together, the first
" debate they would fall upon would be of the man-
" ner of their coming together, and whether they
" were in a capacity to act : and he doubted there
" would be very few who would be forward to pass
" an act in a season, when the validity of it might
" be questioned by those who had no mind to pay
" any obedience to it. And then if their meeting
" were only to confer together upon all occurrences,
" and they might presume of liberty to say what
" they had a mind to say, without power to conclude
" any thing ; it was well worth the considering, whe-
" ther, in so general a distemper such an assembly
' might not interrupt all other consultations and
" expedients, and yet propose none, and so increase
" the confusion. If the necessities were so urgent,
" that it was absolutely necessary that a parliament
" should be convened, and that which stood pro-
" rogued could not lawfully reassemble till the 20th
" of October, as he was confident it could not ;
" there was no question to be made, but that the
" king might lawfully by his proclamation presently
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 257
" dissolve the prorogued parliament, and send out 1667.
" his writs to have a new parliament, which might
" regularly meet a month before the prorogued par-
" liament could come together. " And many of the
council were of opinion, that it would most conduce
to his majesty's service to dissolve the one, and to
call another parliament.
This was an advice they believed no man had the
courage to make, and were sorry to find so many of
the opinion, which they had rather should have ap-
peared to be single. Many very warmly opposed
this expedient, magnified the affections and inclina-
tions of both houses : " and though there appeared
" some ill humour in them at their last being to-
" gether, and aversion to give any money for the
" present ; yet in the main their affections were
" very right for church and state. And that the
" king was never to hope to see a parliament better
" constituted for his service, or so many of the mem-
" bers at his disposal : but that he must expect that
" the presbyterians would be chosen in all places,
" and that they who were most eminent now for op-
" posing all that he desired would be chosen, and all
" they who were most zealous for his service would
" be carefully excluded ;" which was a fancy that
sunk very deep in the minds of the bishops, though
their best friends thought them like to find more
friends and a stronger support in any, than they would
have in that parliament. But the king quickly de-
clared his confidence in the parliament that was
prorogued, and his resolution not to dissolve it ;
which put an end to that debate. And the other
was again resumed, " what the king was to do to-
" wards the raising money ; or how he should be
VOL. III. S
258 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 6(? 7. " able to maintain his army, if he should defer call-
" ing the parliament till the day upon which they
" were to assemble by the prorogation :" and all men
were to restrain their discourse to that point.
The old argumerit, " that there could be no other
*' way found out," was renewed, and urged with more
earnestness and confidence ; and that they who were
against it might be obliged to offer their advice
what other course should be taken : and this was
often demanded, in a manner not usual in that
place, as a reproach to the persons. His majesty
himself with some quickness was pleased to ask the
chancellor, " what he did advise. " To which he re-
plied, " that if in truth what was proposed was in
" the nature of it not practicable, or being practised
" could not attain the effect proposed, it ought to
** be laid aside, that men might unbiassed apply
" their thoughts to find out some other expedient.
" That he thought it very clear that the parlia-
" ment could not assemble, though the proclamation
" should issue out that very hour, within less than
" twenty days ; and that if they were met, and be-
" lieved themselves lawfully qualified to grant a
" supply of money, all men knew the formality of
" that transaction would require so much time, that
" money could not be raised time enough to raise an
" army, or to maintain that part of it that was
" raised, to prevent the landing of an enemy that
" was already upon the coast, and (as many thought
" or seemed to think) ready every day to make
" their descent : and yet the sending out a procla-
" niation for reassembling the parliament would in-
" evitably put an end to all other counsels. That
" for his part he did believe, that the Dutch had al-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 259
" ready satisfied themselves in the affront they had? 1667.
" given, and could not be in any condition to pur-
" sue it, or have men enough on board to make a
" descent, without the king's having notice of it ;
" and that the Dutch, without a conjunction with
" the French, had not strength for such an under-
" taking : and that the French had no such purpose
" his majesty had all the assurance possible, and that
" their fleet was gone far from the coast of Eng-
" land. And his majesty had reason to believe, that
" the present treaty would put an end to this war in
" a short time, though the power and artifice of De
" Wit had prevented a cessation.
" However, for the present support of those
" troops which were necessary to guard the coasts,
" since money could not be found for their present
" constant pay, without which free quarter could
*' not be avoided ; the only way that appeared to
" him to be practicable, and to avoid the last evil,
" would be, to write letters to the lieutenants and
" deputy lieutenants of those counties where the
" troops were obliged to remain, that they would
" cause provisions of all kinds to be brought into
" those quarters, that so the soldiers might not be
" compelled to straggle abroad to provide their own
" victual, which would end in the worst kind of
" free quarter : and that the like letters might be
" written to the neighbour counties, wherein no
" soldiers were quartered, to raise money by way of
" contribution or loan, which should be abated out
" of the next impositions, that so the troops might
" be enabled to stay and continue in their z posts
> had] had already z their] the
S 2
260 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 667. " where they were, for defence of the kingdom ; in
"" " which those other counties had their share in the
" benefit, and without which they must themselves
" be exposed to the disorder of the soldiers, and
" possibly to the invasion of the enemy. "
It is very probable, that in the earnestness of this
debate, and the frequent interruptions which were
given, he might use that expression, (which was
afterwards objected against him,) " of raising con-
" tribution as had been in the late civil war. *'
Whatever it was he said, it was evident at the time
that some men were well pleased with it, as somewhat
they meant to make use of hereafter, in which his
innocence made him little concerned.
Thepariia- The conclusion was, though many of the lords
moned 8 " spake against it, and much the major part thought
it not counsellable ; that a proclamation should
forthwith issue out, to require all the members of
parliament to meet upon a day appointed in the be-
ginning of August, to consult upon the great affairs
of the kingdom : and this proclamation was pre-
sently issued accordingly.
The treaty All this time the treaty proceeded at Breda, as
fast as the insolent humour of the Dutch would suf-
fer it. The French king declared himself much of-
fended with their proceedings at sea : and his am-
bassadors spake so loud, that the States gave order
to their deputies to bring the treaty to a conclusion ;
and sent such orders to De Ruyter, that there was
no more hostility of any moment ; only the fleet re-
mained at sea, that it might appear they were mas-
ters of it. It cannot be denied that the French am-
bassadors, except in what referred to Poleroone, be-
haved themselves as candidly as could be wished:
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 261
and it is probable, that the same reason which 1667.
moved the French to use all possible diligence to~
bring the treaty to an end, prevailed likewise with
the Dutch to use all the delays they could, that it
might be prolonged.
Though there was no war- declared, it had been
long notorious that Flanders would be invaded:
and it was as notorious, that there was no provision
made there towards a resistance or defence ; the
marquis of Castelle Roderigo, who came governor
thither with a great reputation, not making good
the expectation in the sagacity he was famed for,
nor offering at any levies of men, or mending fortifi-
cations, until the French army was upon the bor-
ders. Then he sent into England to press the king
to assist him with an army of horse and foot ; and
it easily appeared the nation would gladly have en-
gaged in that war, not being willing that Flanders
should be in the possession of France : but the king
was engaged not to give any assistance to the ene-
mies of France until the treaty should be ended,
which yet it was not. However, he suffered the
earl of Castlehaven, under pretence of recruiting a
regiment in Flanders which he had formerly, to
raise a body of one thousand foot, which he quickly
transported to Ostend.
The king of France a was impatient to march,
and yet desired the treaty might be first concluded,
that both himself and the king of England might be
at liberty to enter into such an alliance as they
should think proper for their interest : and the
Dutch, who had no mind that the expedition should
a of France] Not in MS.
s 3
262 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. be prosecuted, and as much feared the consequence
""of such an alliance, though they were not wise
enough to consider the right means to prevent it,
desired that the treaty might not be concluded till
The French the winter drew nearer. But the French quickly
Filnder. . put an end to that their hope by marching into the
heart of Flanders, and so giving them new matter
for their present consultations ; not without intima-
tion, " that if they would not finish the treaty, that
" king would conclude for what concerned himself:"
and this put an end to it. Yet there were some al-
terations of small importance in some articles of the
former treaty, besides that of Poleroone, which the
ambassadors would not consent to without further
knowledge of the king's pleasure: and so. one of
them (Mr. Henry Coventry) came to attend his ma
jesty, to give him an account of all particulars, and
receive his own final determination.
The king in the first place sent for the East India
company, and let them know, " that the Dutch
" would not consent to the former article for the re-
" delivery of Poleroone, nor give any recompense
" for it ; and that he was resolved not to depart
" from them b , and so release their right without
" their consent : and therefore that they should con*
" sider what would be for their good. " They an-
The East swered, " that they thought a peace to be so neces-
pan'y give" " sary for the kingdom, that they would not that
"hum to PO- " anv particular interest of theirs should give any in-
teiTuption to it :" and they acknowledged, " that
" if the war continued, they should in many respects
" be greater losers, than the redelivery of Poleroone
b them] him
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 263
" would repair; and that they would gladly sacrifice 1667.
" that pretence to the public peace. "
Upon which answer the ambassador made his re-
port of all the particulars which were consented to
on both sides in the treaty, and what remained yet
in suspense ; and made answer to all questions which
any of the council thought fit to ask. And the king
requiring him to deliver his own opinion upon his
observation, and " whether he believed, that if his
" majesty should positively insist upon what they
" had hitherto refused to consent to, the Dutch
" would choose to continue the war ; and whether
" the French would join with them in it :" he an-
swered, " that it was very evident that the Dutch
" did not at present desire the peace, otherwise than
" to comply with France and for fear of it ; and
" that France was obliged not to abandon them in
" the point of Poleroone, which the other would
" never part with, nor give any recompense for,
" though the French ambassadors had used all the
" arguments to persuade them to it. But if that
" were agreed, he was confident they would be com-
" pelled to consent to whatsoever was else of mo-
" ment. And that the French had used some
" threatening expressions, upon some insolent pro-
" positions made by the Dane, which they thought
" proceeded from the instigation of Holland. And
" that at his coming away, the French ambassadors
" had used great freedom with him, and advised in
<* what particulars which were yet unagreed they
" wished his majesty would not consent, and in
' which they could not serve him, but believed a
" time would come, in which he would be repaired
*' for those condescensions: in other particulars he
s 4
264 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. " should positively insist, at least with some little
- *' variation of expression ; in which he expressed
" both his own and the opinion of the other ambas-
" sador. "
And the whole being in this manner clearly
stated, the king required all the lords severally to
deliver their judgment what he was to do ; and
every man did deliver his opinion in more or fewer
words. And it may be truly said, that, though one
or two adorned their passion with some expressions
of indignation against the Dutch for their presump-
tion, and as if they c did believe that the parliament
would concur with the king in all things which
might vindicate his honour from their insolent de-
mands, the advice was upon the matter unanimous,
The privy- * that the ambassadors should immediately return,
council ad-
vises the " and conclude the peace upon those conditions
cuKhe " " which were stated at the board. " And he did
treaty. presently return : and all matters were, within few
days after his arrival, adjusted, and put into proper
ministerial hands for engrossment, and all forms and
The peace circumstances agreed upon for the proclamation of
the peace, and the day appointed for the proclaiming
thereof; and such forms of passes as should be given
on all sides to merchants' ships, (which would be im-
patient for trade before the days could be expired,)
in which all ships of war should be obliged to
take notice that the peace was proclaimed.
Tbe par- All this was done before the day of the parlia-
1 iament f
. t
ment's convening upon the king's proclamation: so
diateiy pro- that there being now no use of an army, and reason
ro$ued. enou gh to disband those regiments which had been
c they] he
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 265
raised towards it, his majesty thought it not reason- 1667.
able that they should enter upon the debate of any ~~
business, but be continued under the former proro-
gation to the day appointed ; and in this there ap-
peared not one person of a different opinion. And
so, upon the day, the king went to the house, and
told them, " that since the condition of his affairs
" was not so full of difficulty as it had been when
" he sent out his proclamation, and since many
" were of opinion, that there might be doubts arise
" upon the regualrity of their meeting ; he was con-
" tent to dismiss them till the 20th of October :"
and so they separated without any debate.
The public no sooner entered into this repose, The storm
than the storm began to arise that destroyed all the ^ ns to
prosperity, ruined the fortune, and shipwrecked all a & a i i ns e t n th r e
the hopes, of the chancellor, who had been the prin-
cipal instrument in the providing that repose. The
parliament, that had been so unseasonably called to-
gether from their business and recreations, in a sea-
son of the year that they most desired to be vacant,
were not pleased to be so soon dismissed : and very
great pains were taken by those, who were thought
to be able to do him the least harm, because they
were known to be his enemies, to persuade the
members of parliament, " that it was the chancellor
" only who had hindered their continuing together,
" and that he had advised the king to dissolve
" them ;" which exceedingly inflamed them.
And sir William Coventry was so far from being sir wiiiiam
reserved in his malice, that the very day that the i n clnse7thc
parliament was dismissed, after he had incensed "J e e l " 1 b e u r s s e of
them against the chancellor, in the presence of six of commons
against
or seven of the members, who were not all of the him.
266 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. same mind, he declared, "that if at their next meet-
~" ing, which would be within little more than two
" months, they had a mind to remove the chancellor
" from the court, they should easily bring it to
" pass :" of all which he had quickly information,
and had several other advertisements from persons
of honour, " that there was a strong combination
" entered into against him ;" and they d mentioned
some particulars to have been told the king concern-
ing him, which had exceedingly offended his majesty.
Ail which particulars, being without any colour or
ground of truth, he believed were inventions (though
not from those who informed him) only to amuse
him.
Yet he took an opportunity to acquaint the king
with it, who, with the same openness he had always
used, conferred with him about his present business,
but only of the business. He besought his majesty
to let him know, " whether he had received any in-
" formation that he had done or said such and such
" things," which he made appear to him to be in
themselves so incredible and improbable, that it
could hardly be in his majesty's power to believe
them 6 ; to which the king answered, ** that nobody
" had told him any such thing. " To which the
other replied, "that he did really think they had
" not, though he knew that they had bragged they
" had done so, and thereby incensed his majesty
" against him ; which they desired should be gene-
" rally believed. "
The truth is ; the chancellor was guilty of that
himself which he had used to accuse the archbishop
ttwjy] Omitted in MS. them] it
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 267
Laud of, that he was too proud of a good conscience. 1 667.
He knew his own innocence, and had no kind of ap- '
prehension of being publicly charged with any
crime. He knew well he had many enemies who
had credit with the king, and that they did him all
the ill offices they could : and he knew that the
lady's power and credit increased, and that she de-
sired nothing more than to remove him from his
majesty's confidence ; in which he never thought
her to blame, since she well knew that he employed
all the credit he had to remove her from the court.
But he thought himself very secure in the king's
justice : and though his kindness was much lessened,
he was confident his majesty would protect him
from being oppressed, since he knew his integrity ;
and never suspected that he would consent to his
ruin. He was in truth weary of the condition he
was in, and had in the last year undergone much
mortification ; and desired nothing more, than to be
divested of all other trusts and employments than
what concerned the chancery only, in which he
could have no rival, and in the administration
whereof he had not heard of any complaint : and
this he thought might have satisfied all parties ;
and had sometimes desired the king, " that he
" might retire from all other business, than that of
" the judicatory," for he plainly discerned he was
not able to contend with other struggles.
I cannot avoid in this place mentioning an acci- A P ar-
i i r- 11 i ' 11 ticuiar re-
dent that fell out in this time, and enlarge upon alljatingto
the circumstances thereof, which might otherwise Bucking
be passed over, but that it had an immediate JB" ^enl'the
fluence on the fate of the person who is so near his fate of thc
chancellor.
fall. The king had been very much offended with the
268 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1667. duke of Buckingham, who had behaved himself
"much worse towards him than could be expected
from his obligations and discretion, and had been in
truth the original cause of all the ill humour which
had been in both houses of parliament in the last
session ; after the end of which he went into the
country without taking his leave of the king, and
in several places spake with greater license of the
court and government, and of the person of the
king, than any other person presumed to do ; of all
which his majesty had intelligence and information,
and was at that time without doubt more offended
with him than with any man in England, and had
really great provocation to jealousy of his fidelity,
as well as of his respect and affection. The lord
Arlington, as secretary of state, had received several
informations of dangerous words spoken by him
against the king, and of his correspondencies with
persons the most suspected for seditious inclinations,
the duke having made himself very popular amongst
the levellers, and amongst them who clamoured for
liberty of conscience, which pretence he seemed very
much to cherish.
An account The king was very much awakened to be jealous
be- ^ ^* m besides his behaviour in the parliament, by
r. some informations he received from his own servants.
There was one Braythwaite, a citizen, who had
been a great confident of Cromwell and of the coun-
cil of state, a man of parts, and looked upon as hav-
ing a greater interest with the discontented party
than any man of the city. Upon the king's return
this man fled beyond the seas, and after near a
year's stay there came again to London, but re-
mained there as incognito, came not upon the ex-
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 269
change, nor was seen in public, and returned again 1667.
into Holland; and so made frequent journeys back-""
ward and forward for several months, and then
came and resided publicly in the city. This being
taken notice of by sir Richard Browne, who was
major general of the city, upon whose vigilance the
king very much and very justly depended, and the
man being well known to him, he had long endea-
voured to apprehend him f , till he understood that
he was a servant to the duke of Buckingham, and
in great trust with him, as he was ; for the duke
had committed the whole managery of his estate to
him, and upon his recommendation had received
many other inferior servants to be employed under
him, all of the same leaven with him, and all noto-
rious for their disaffection to the church and state.
The major general, being one day to give the king
an account of some business, told him likewise of
this man, " as one as worthy to be suspected for all
" disloyal purposes, and as like to bring them to
" pass, as any 'man of that condition in England;"
and seemed to wonder, " that the duke would en-
" tertain such a person in his service. "
At that time the duke had by his diligence, and
those faculties towards mirth in which he excelled,
made himself very acceptable to the king ; though
many wondered that he could be so, considering
what the king himself knew of him : insomuch that
his majesty told him what he had been informed of
his steward, and how much he suffered in his repu-
tation for entertaining such servants. The duke
received the animadversion with all possible submis-
f him] Omitted in MS,
270 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1G67. v "' n am ' acknowledgment of the obligation, and
then enlarged upon the commendation of the man,
" of his great abilities, and the benefit he received
" by his service ;" and besought his majesty, '* that
" he would vouchsafe to hear him, for he believed
" he would give an account of the state of the city,
" and of many particulars which related to his ma-
jesty's service, better than most men could do. "
And the king shortly after supping at the duke's
house, he found an opportunity to present Mr.
Braythwaite to him, who was a man of a very good
aspect, which that people used not to have, and of
notable insinuation. He made the king a narration
of the whole course of his life, in which he did not
endeavour to make himself appear a better man
than he had been reported to be ; which kind of in-
genuity, as men call it, is a wonderful approach to-
wards being believed. He related " by what degrees,
" and in what method of conviction, he had expli-
" cated himself from all those ill principles in which
" he had been entangled : and that it had been a
" principal motive to him to embrace the opportunity
" of serving the duke, that he might totally retire
" from that company and conversation to which he
" had been most accustomed. And yet he thought
" he had so much credit with the chief of them, that
" they could never enter into any active combina-
'* tion, but he should have notice of it : and assured
" his majesty that nothing should pass of moment
" amongst that people, but his majesty should have
" very seasonable information of it, and that he
" would always serve him with great fidelity. " In
fine, the king was well satisfied with his discourse,
and often afterwards upon the like opportunities
EDWARD EARL OF CLARENDON. 271
conferred with him, and believed him to be well ]G67.
disposed to do him any service.
During the last session of parliament, in which
the duke carried himself so disrespectfully to the
king, this man found an opportunity to get access
to his majesty, which he was willing to give him ;
when he said, " that he thought it his duty, and ac-
" cording to his obligation, to give his majesty an
" account of what he had lately observed, and of his
" own resolutions. " He told him, " that his lord
" was of late very much altered, and was fallen into
" the acquaintance and conversation of some men
" of very mean condition, but of very desperate in-
" tendons ; with whom he used to meet at unseason-
" able hours, and in obscure places, where persons
" of quality did not use to resort ; and that he
" frequently received letters from them : all which
" made him apprehend that there was a design on
" foot, which, how unreasonable soever, the duke
" might be engaged in. And for these and other
" reasons, and the irregular course of his life, he was
" resolved to withdraw himself from his service :
" and that he hoped, into what extravagancies so-
" ever the duke should cast himself, his majesty
" would retain a good opinion of him, who would
" never swerve from his affection and duty. "
The information and testimony, which the lord Ar-
lington brought to the king shortly after this adver-
tisement, made the greater impression ; and there
were many particulars in the informations that could
not be suspected to be forged. And it appeared that
there was a poor fellow, who had a poorer lodging
about Tower-hill, and professed skill in horoscopes,
to whom the duke often repaired in disguise in the
278 CONTINUATION OF THE LIFE OF
1 667. night : and the lord Arlington had caused that fel-
low to be apprehended, and his pockets and his
chamber to be searched ; where were found several
letters to the duke of Buckingham, one or two
whereof were in his pocket sealed and not sent,
and the rest copies, and one original letter from the
duke to him, in all which there were many unusual
expressions, which were capable of a very ill inter-
pretation, and could not bear a good one.
