Chap. II. The HIST'ORYof the PQRITAN3. 489 Tate being afked his opinion as a privy counfellor, while he was con- Kingjames7. fined to his bed with the gout, wrote the following letter to the fecretary 16'8' of Rate. ' That it was his opinion, that the elector fhould accept. the Cabba " crown ; that England fhould fupport him openly ; and that as foon as B. 1. p.12. " ° news ofhis coronation fhouldarrive the bells fhould be rung, guns fired, s' and bonfires made, to let all Europe fee, that the king was determined. " to countenance him." The archbifhop adds, " it is a great honour 60 to our king, to have filch a fon made a king ; tnethinks I forefee in " this the work of God, that by degrees the kings of theearth (hail leave " the whore to defolation. Our flriking in, will comfort the Bohemians, and bring in the Dutch and the Dane, and Hungary will run the fame " fortune. As for money and means let us truft God and the parliament, C° as the old and honourable way of railing money. This from my bed. " (lays the brave old prelate) September pith. a619. and when I can " Rand I will do better fervice." But theking difliked the archbifhop's letter, as built upon puritan prin- Bat djtláed ciples,; he hadan ill opinion of elective kingdoms, and of the peoples power by the Eng- to difpofe of crowns; befides, he was afraid of difobliging the roman ca- tholick powers, and in particular the king of Spain, a near relation of the new emperor's, with whom he was in treaty for a wife for his fon ; fo that the elector's envoy, after long waiting, was fent back with an ad- mónition to his fon in law to refufe the crown ; but this being too late,.. he took it into his head to perfuade him to refign ir, and flood fä11, offer- ing l is mediation and fending ambaffadors, while the emperor railed_a powerful army, not only to reduce the kingdom of Bohemia, but to dif- poffefs the ele&or of his hereditary dominions. Several princes of Europe gave king names notice of the defign, and exhorted him to fupport the proteflant religion in the empire ; but his majefly was deaf to all advice, and for the fake of a Spani/h wife for his fon, fuffered his own daughter, with a numerous family of children, to be lent a begging, and the balance of proteflant power to be loft in the empire ; for the next fummer the em- peror and his allies having conquered the Palatinate entered Bohemia, and about the middle of November fought the decifive battle of Prague, wherein Frederick's army was entirely routed; his hereditary dominions,' which had been the fanituary of the proteflants in queen Mary's reign, were given to the duke of Bavariaa papift ; the noble library of Heidel- burgh was carried off to the vatican at Rome, and the elector himfelf with his wife and children, forced to fly into Holland in a flarving condition. Had the kingof Englandhad any remains of honour, courage, or efteen)'Remarks, for the proteftant religion, he might have preferved it in the. Palatinate, and eftablithed it in Bohemia, by which the balance of power would have been on that fide; but this cowardly prince would not draw his,fword for the Voi. I. R r r belt
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