the hazard of great enmity and prejudice, can be a means to call great officers into question for their misdemeanours, but the commonwealth might languish under their pressures without redress: and whatsoever we shall do accordingly in this Parliament, we doubt not but it shall redound to the honour of the Crown, and welfare of your subjects...

D. The Commons' Declaration and Impeachment against the Duke of Buckingham.

[Presented to the House of Lords, May 10, 1626. Lords' Journals, iii. 619. See Hist. of Engl. vi. 98-107.]

For the speedy redress of great evils and mischiefs, and of the chief of these evils and mischiefs, which this kingdom of England now grievously suffereth; and of late years hath suffered, and to the honour and safety of our Sovereign Lord the King, and of his crown and dignity, and to the good and welfare of his people; the Commons in this present Parliament, by the authority of our said Sovereign Lord the King assembled, do, by this their bill, shew and declare against George, Duke, Marquis and Earl of Buckingham, Earl of Coventry, Viscount Villiers, Baron of Whaddon, Great Admiral of the kingdoms of England and Ireland, and of the principality of Wales and of the dominions and islands of the same, of the town of Calais and of the marches of the same, and of Normandy, Gascony, and Guienne, General Governor of the seas and ships of the said Kingdoms, Lieutenant General, Admiral, Captain General and Governor of His Majesty's Royal Fleet and Army, lately set forth, Master of the Horse of our Sovereign Lord the King, Lord Warden, Chancellor, and Admiral of the Cinque Ports and of the members thereof, Constable of Dover Castle, Justice in Eyre of all the forests and chases on this side of the river of Trent, Constable of the Castle of Windsor, Gentleman of His Majesty's Bedchamber, one of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy Council in his realms both in England, Scotland and Ireland, and Knight of the most Honourable Order of the Garter; the misdemeanours, misprisions, offences, crimes, and other matters, comprised in the articles hereafter following;

and him the said Duke do accuse and impeach of the said misdemeanours, misprisions, offences and crimes.

1. First, that whereas the great offices expressed in the said Duke's style and title have been the singular preferments of several persons eminent in wisdom and trust, and fully able for the weighty service and greatest employment of the State, whereby the said offices were both carefully and sufficiently executed, by several persons of such wisdom, trust, and ability; and others also that were employed by the royal progenitors of our Sovereign Lord the King, in places of less dignity, were much encouraged with the hopes of advancement; and whereas divers of the said places, severally of themselves, and necessarily, require the whole care, industry, and attendance of a most able person; he the said Duke, being young and inexperienced, hath of late years, with exorbitant ambition and for his own profit and advantage, procured and engrossed into his own hands the said several offices both to the danger of the State, the prejudice of that service which should have been performed in them, and to the great discouragement of others, that, by this procuring and engrossing of the said offices, are precluded from such hopes, as their virtues, abilities and public employments might otherwise have given them.

2. Whereas by the laws and statutes of this kingdom of England, if any person whatsoever give or pay any sum of money, fee or reward, directly or indirectly, for any office or offices, which in any wise touch or concern the administration of justice, or the keeping of any of the King's Majesty's towns, fortresses, or castles, being used, occupied or appointed as places of strength and defence, the same person is immediately, upon the same fee, money or reward, given or paid, to be adjudged a disabled person in the law to all intents and purposes, to have, occupy, and enjoy the said office or offices, for the which he so giveth or payeth any sum of money, fee or reward; he the said Duke did, in or about the month of January, in the sixteenth year of the late King James, of famous memory, give and pay unto the Right Honourable Charles then Earl of Nottingham, for the office of Great Admiral of England and Ireland, and the principality of Wales, and office of the General Governor of the seas and ships, to the intent that the said Duke

might obtain the said offices to his own use, the sum of three thousand pounds of lawful money of England; and did also about the same time, procure from the said King a further reward, for the surrender of the said office to the said Earl, of an annuity of a thousand pounds by the year, for and during the life of the said Earl; and, by the procurement of the said Duke the said King of famous memory, did by his letters patents, dated the 27th day of January, in the said year of his reign, under the Great Seal of England, grant to the said Earl the said annuity, which he the said Earl accordingly had and enjoyed during his life; and, by reason of the said sum of money so as aforesaid paid by the said Duke, and of his the said Duke's procurement of the said annuity, the said Earl of Nottingham did, in the same month, surrender unto the said late King of famous memory, his said offices, and his letters patents of them; and thereupon, and by reason of the premises, the said offices were obtained by the said Duke, for his life, from the said King of famous memory, by letters patents made to the said Duke of the same offices under the Great Seal of England, dated the 28th day of January, in the said sixteenth year of the said King of famous memory: And the said offices of Great Admiral and Governor, as aforesaid, are offices that highly touch and concern the administration and execution of justice, within the provision of the said laws and statutes of this realm; which notwithstanding, the said Duke hath unlawfully, ever since the first unlawful obtaining of the said grant of the said offices, retained in his hands, and exercised them against the laws and statutes aforesaid.

3. The said Duke did likewise, in and about the month of December, in the twenty-second year of the said late King James, of famous memory, give and pay unto the Right Honourable Edward late Lord Zouch, Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and of the members thereof, and Constable of the Castle of Dover, for the said offices, and for the surrender of the said offices of Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports and Constable of the said Castle of Dover to be made to the said late King, of famous memory, the sum of one thousand pounds of lawful money of England; and then also granted an annuity of five hundred pounds yearly to the said Lord Zouch, for the

life of the said Lord Zouch, to the intent that he the said Duke might thereby obtain the said offices to his own use; and for and by reason of the said sum of money so paid by the said Duke, and of the annuity so granted to the said Edward Lord Zouch the fourth day of December, in the year aforesaid, did surrender his said offices, and his letters patents of them, to the said late King; and thereupon, and by reason of the premises, he the said Duke obtained the said offices for his life from the late king, by his letters patents under the Great Seal of England, dated the sixth day of December, in the said twenty-second year. And the said office of the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, and of the members thereof, is an office that doth highly touch and concern administration of justice; and the said office of Constable of the Castle of Dover is an office that highly concerneth the keeping and defence of the town and port, and of the said Castle of Dover, which is and hath ever been, appointed a most eminent place of strength and defence of this kingdom; which notwithstanding, the said Duke hath unlawfully, ever since his first unlawful obtaining of the said offices, retained them in his hands, and executed them against the laws and statutes aforesaid.

4. Whereas the said Duke, by reason of his said offices of Great Admiral of the kingdoms of England and Ireland, and of the principality of Wales, and of Admiral of the Cinque Ports, and General Governor of the seas and ships of the said kingdoms, and by reason of the trust thereunto belonging, ought at all times since the said offices obtained, to have safely guarded, kept and preserved the said seas, and the dominion of them; and ought also, whensoever there wanted men, ships, munition or other strength whatsoever that might conduce to the better safe-guard of them, to have used, from time to time, his utmost endeavour, for the supply of such wants to the Right Honourable the Lords and others of the Privy Council, and by procuring such supply from his sovereign or otherwise; he the said Duke hath ever since the dissolution of the two treaties mentioned in the Act of Subsidy of the one and twentieth year of the late King, of famous memory, that is to say, the space of two years last past, neglected the just performance of his said. office and duty; and broken the said trust therewith committed

unto him; and hath not, according to his said offices, during the time aforesaid, safely kept the said seas, in so much that, by reason of his neglect and default therein, not only the trade and strength of this kingdom of England hath been, during the said time, much decayed, but the same seas also have been, during the same time, ignominiously infested by pirates and enemies, to the loss both of very many ships and goods, and of many of the subjects of our Sovereign Lord the King; and the dominion of the said seas being the undoubted patrimony of the Kings of England, is thereby also in most eminent danger to be utterly lost.

5. Whereas, about Michaelmas last year, a ship, called the St. Peter of Newhaven' (whereof John Mallewe was master) laden with divers goods, merchandises, monies, jewels and commodities, to the value of forty thousand pounds or thereabouts, for the proper account of Monsieur de Villiers, the then Governor of Newhaven, and other subjects of the French king, being in perfect amity and league with our Sovereign Lord the King, was taken at sea, by some of the ships of His Majesty's late fleet, set forth under the command of the said Duke, as well by direction from the said Duke as Great Admiral of England as by the authority of the extraordinary commission which he then had, for the command of the said fleet; and was by them, together with the said goods and lading, brought into the port of Plymouth, as a prize, amongst many others, upon probabilities that the said ship or goods belonged to the subjects of the King of Spain; and that divers parcels of the said goods and loading were thence taken out of the said ship of St. Peter's; that is to say sixteen barrels of cochineal, eight bags of gold, three and twenty bags of silver, two boxes of pearls and emeralds, a chain of gold, jewels, monies, and commodities, to the value of twenty thousand pounds or thereabouts; and by the said Duke were delivered into the private custody of one Gabriel Marsh, servant to the said Duke; and that the said ship with the residue of her said goods and lading, was sent from thence up the river of Thames; and there detained; whereupon there was an arrest at Newhaven, in the kingdom of France, on the seventh day of December last, of two English merchant ships trading

1 I.e. Havre de Grâce.