Page images
PDF
EPUB

With what indignation must the unnecessary cruelty of the punishment, and the noble intrepidity of the fufferer, have affected the spectators of this disgrace to justice and humanity!

JAMES THE FIRST.
[1603-1625.]

On the devolution of the kingdom of England to this Monarch, Henry the Fourth of France faid, En verité, c'est un trop beau morceau pour un pedant."

The entrance of this Prince into England is thus defcribed by Wilfon:

"But our King coming through the North, "(banqueting and feafting by the way,) the "applause of the people in fo obfequious and

fubmiffive a manner (ftil admiring change) "was checkt by an honest plain Scotsman (un"ufed to hear fuch humble acclamations) with

86

a prophetical expreffion: This people will spoyl "a gude King, The King as unused, fo tired "with multitudes, efpecially in his hunting, (which he did as he went), caufed an inhibi"tion to be published, to reftrain the people from hunting

[ocr errors]

66

"hunting him. Happily being fearfull of fo cr great a concourfe as this novelty produced, "the old hatred betwixt the Borderers, not yet

forgotten, might make him apprehend it to "be of a greater extent; though it was generally ❝ imputed to a defire of enjoying his recreations "without interruption."

L

James was extremely fond of hunting, and very fevere against those who disturbed him in the purfuit of that amusement. "I dare boldly fay," fays Ofborn with some spleen, "that one man "in his reign might with more fafety have killed "another than a rafcal deer; but if a ftag had "been known to have miscarried, and the author "fled, a proclamation, with the description of "the party, had been presently penned by the Attorney-General, and the penalty of his Ma

[ocr errors]

jesty's high displeasure (by which was under"ftood the Star-chamber) threatened against all "that did abet, comfort, or relieve him: thus

* fatyrical, or, if you please, tragical, was this

[ocr errors]

fylvan Prince against deer-killers, and indul

gent to man-flayers.-But, left this expreffion "fhould be thought too poctical for an historian, "I fhall leave his Majefty dreffed to pofterity in "the colours I faw him in the next progress "after his inauguration, which was as green as "the grafs he trod on, with a feather in his сар,

" and

"and a horn instead of a fword by his fide; how "fuitable to his age, perfon, or calling, I "leave others to judge from his pictures, he "owning a countenance not in the least regard "femblable to any my eyes ever met with, be"fides an hoft dwelling at Ampthill, formerly a fhepherd, and fo metaphorically of the fame profeffion."

66

[ocr errors]

This Monarch was extremely profufe in his prefents to his favourites. Sir Robert Cecil, afterward Earl. of Salisbury, his Treafurer, according to Ofborn, in his Memoirs of the Life of this Prince, took the following method to correct his extravagance :

"The Earl of Somerfet had procured from "King James a warrant to the Treasury for "20,000l. who, in his exquifite prudence, find

66

ing that not only the Exchequer, but that the "Indies themfelves would in time want fluency "to feed fo immenfe a prodigality, and, not "without reafon, apprehending the King as ignorant of the value of what was demanded, as of the defert of the perfon who begged it, laid the former mentioned fum upon the "ground, in a room through which his Majefty "was to pafs; who, amazed at the quantity,

[ocr errors]

as a fight not unpoffibly his eyes never faw "before, afked the Treafurer whofe money it

"was?

was? who answered, Yours, before you gave "it away. Thereupon the King fell into a paffion, protesting that he was abused, never

66

[ocr errors]

intending any fuch gift; and, cafting himself 66 upon the heap, fcrabbled out the quantity of "two or three hundred pounds, and fwore he "fhould have no more."

The King, on hearing a fermon in which there was more of politics than of religion, asked Bishop Andrews what he thought of it, and whether it were a fermon or not. "Pleafe your Majefty," replied the Bishop, "by very charitable con"struction it may pass for a fermon.”

James," according to Wilfon," in one of "his fpeeches to the Star-chamber, took notice. "of thofe fwarms of Gentrie, as he is pleafed to "call them, who, through the inftigation of their

66

wives, or to new-model and fafhion their

daughters, (who, if they were unmarried, "marred their reputations; if married, loft their

reputations, and robbed their husbands purfes,) "did neglect their country hofpitalitie, and cum"ber the city, (à general nuifance to the king"dom,) being as the spleen to the body, which "as in measure it overgrows, the body waftes;

and feeing that a proclamation would not keep "them at home, he requires that the power of

"the

"the Star-chamber may not only regulate them, "but the exorbitancy of the new buildings about "the city, which he much repined at, as being "a fhelter for them when they spent their estates "in coaches, lacqueys, and fine cloaths, like "Frenchmen; living miserably in their houses, "like Italians; and becoming apes to other "nations; whereas it was the honour of the English nobility and gentry (above all countries in the world) to be hofpitable amongst "their tenants; which," added this Prince, "they may better doe, by the fertility and abun"dance of all things."

[ocr errors]

"It was a hard question," fays Wilfon, "whe "ther the wisdom and knowledge of King James "exceeded his choler and his fear. Certainly "the last couple drew him with more violence, "because they were not acquifitions, but natu"ral: if he had not had that alloy, his high "towering and maftering reafon had been of a "rare and fublimed excellency."

Into what degrading fituations his choler occasionally led him, the following paffage in Wilfon will but too ftrongly evince:

"One day at Theobalds the King wanted "fome papers that had relation to the Spanish "Treaty, fo hot in motion, which raised him

"highly

« PreviousContinue »