King's prerogative in the issuing of patents for unjust and vexatious monopolies, by which the rights and liberties of the people were grievously infringed. James augmented the prevailing discontents by adjourning the Parliament on his own authority, from June till November, and, at length, on the 6th of January, 1621-2, he finally dissolved it in great displeasure, by a proclamation beginning with these remarkable words,-" Albeit the assembling, continuing, and dissolving of Parliaments be a perogative so peculiarly belonging to our Imperial Crown, and the times and seasons thereof so absolutelie in our owne power, that we neede not give any account thereof unto any, yet, &c."* This proclamation was followed by another, in which all discourses on state affairs were forbidden under severe penalties; and the Judges, in their circuits, were ordered to put the laws in force against licentious tongues. Soon afterwards several members of the House of Commons, who had been most zealous in defending its privileges, and among them Sir Edward Coke, Mr. Pym, and the learned Selden, were committed to prison by the King's orders. The former had dared to call the King's prerogative" an overgrown monster;" his committal therefore was in perfect keeping with the unlimited power which James assumed, and which had prompted him, in March, 1609, to tell the Parliament, "That to dispute what God may do is blasphemy; so is it sedition in subjects to dis Vide Rushworth's "Collections," vol. i. p. 54. pute what a King may do in the height of his power."* After this dissolution the King's next endeavour was to supply his pecuniary wants by a general, but forced Benevolence, and the Judges, High Sheriffs, and other officers to whom his mandatory letters were directed, were commanded to intimate that "the King would not be satisfied with what should e voluntarily offered, if it was not proportionate to the giver's abilities."+ Notwithstanding the general disposition of the late Parliament, there were many belonging to it that appear to have been wholly devoted to the King's good pleasure, or otherwise the following severe sentence could not have been pronounced against an impeached member for a few words, which, in the present times would be regarded rather as an injudicious pleasantry than as any thing seditious. The ferocious inhumanity displayed by different members on that occasion would not be credited, if a brief abstract of their speeches had not been recorded in the "Journals" of the House of Commons. Edward Floyde, or Lloyde, of Clannemayne, in the county of Salop, Esq. who had been committed to the Fleet by the Privy Council, was impeached before the House for saying, "I have heard that Prague is taken, and Goodman Palsgrave and Goodwife Palsgrave have taken their heels and run away, See King James' Speech to the Lords and Commons, at Whitehall, in his own "Works," p. 531. Rushworth's "Collections," vol. i. p. 60. and as I have heard, Goodwife Palsgrave is taken prisoner." He was declared guilty, and on the 1st of May, 1621, the ensuing opinions were given in a conversation on the infliction of a proper sentence. For the better understanding of the meaning of the respective speakers it must be premised that the accused member was reported to have had "beads found in his pocket, and the girdles of Monks in his trunks." "Robert Phillips proposed for his punishment, to have him carried from Westmynster gate, with his face to an horse-tail, a paper upon him in great letters · A Popish wretch, for dishonouring the King's children,' to the Tower, and there to lie in Little ease. "Sir Thomas Row. Because a prisoner committed from the Lords of the Council, to go to the Lords to let them know we desire to have him whipped through London. Sir D. Digges as Sir Thomas Row. "Sir Francis Kinaston. That Floyde be put in the commission of the peace. "Sir George Moore. No punishment too great for this offence. Precedents have a beginning, to whip him back to the Fleet. "Mr. Whitson voucheth a precedent of the [quære Inquisition,] in Spain. "Mr. Raynscroft. 1000l. fine, to be employed in the wars of the Palatinate, to spare his whipping. "Mr. Neale. To carry him in a disgraceful manner to the Tower; and he there to remain till further directed by the Lords. 66 Sir Francis Seymour. To go from Westminster at a carts tail, with his doublet off, to the Tower, the beads about his neck, and as many lashes by the way as beads." "Mr. Salter. To punish first here, then he may be punished by the Lords, to send him to the Towerwhipping—beads-Tower-little ease. "Sir Edward Gyles. Sorry so unworthy a wretch should bear the name of an Englishman; yet might evade, and say he were a Welshman. Pillory here, with a paper on his head containing his vile words. Whipped, his beads and crucifix, and especially his friar's girdle about him; if these can defend him from good whipping, well. So many more at the Court gate, and so at the Temple and Cheapside: then to return him to the Fleet, cannot put him into a worse prison. "Sir Ralph Hopton. To suspend our judgment till his papers be examined, for they may aggravate his offence. "Sir Francis Darcy addeth, Boring through his tongue. "Sir J. Horsey. To have his tongue cut out, or slit at least. Doubteth he be an intelligencer, which may be discovered by his papers. "Sir Edward Cecil. To bore through his tongue, and a B on his forehead. 66 Sir George Goring. To have him set upon an ass: twelve stages as twelve beads; at every one to swallow a bead, and twelve jerks to make him." At length these sapient ministers of prerogatorial vengeance, sentenced poor Floyde to stand in the pillory two hours before Westminster Hall, with a paper on his hat inscribed, "For false, malicious, and despiteful speeches against the King's daughter and her husband;" to ride thence on an unsaddled horse, with the tail for a bridle, to the Exchange, there to be pilloried two hours, and from there to the Fleet prison, to stand and ride the next day, and pay 1000l. fine.-The atrocity of such a vindictive sentence needs no comment. EPITAPH ON KING JAMES THE FIRST. King James died suddenly at Theobalds, in Hertfordshire, on the 27th of March, 1625, and he was buried in great state on the 17th of May, in Henry the Seventh's Chapel, at Westminster, his successor, Charles the First, being chief mourner. His illness was caused by a tertian ague, but strong suspicions were entertained that his death was accelerated by poison. No monument has been raised for him, nor has any epitaph been inscribed over his grave, but the following adulatory verses are printed with that appellation at the end of Sanderson's " History" of his reign, in which that unblushing panegyrist of his actions affirms, as "a positive and measured truth,"-. "That there has not been since Christ's time, a King, or Temporal Monarch, who hath been so learned in all Literature and Erudition, Divine and Humane." Those that have eyes awake and weep, Death's iron hand hath clos'd those eyes Which were at once three kingdoms' spies, Both to foresee, and to prevent Dangers so soon as they were meant. |