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STATE TRIALS, 43 ELIZ. 1600.-for High Treason.

majesty's service forward, and indeed in fair fight I would do the worst against her majesty's enemies: but when they submitted to my mercy, I ever used them but as became a soldier and a gentleman, as merciful

as any.

My lord of London told him, he knew it was 3 common thing in Ireland, they would not believe a man was dead till his head were off; and so you would not have any body persuaded that you were a traitor, unless her majesty (God bless her) were dead.

Lee. No, my lord, I never meant any such thing. You know, my lord, it was ever my fault to be loose and lavish of my tongue; and that was my fault now, and I am like to pay for it.

Then the Jury were put together, who quickly found hini Guilty.

Upon Verdict given, Mr. Attorney said, Now capt. Lee, you may do well to confess this matter, what you know, and who set you on.

Capt. Lee. What? I am not a fool to be set on like a dog upon a bear; nobody set me on, for I endeavoured nothing.

Mr. Recorder, with a very grave admonition to him, to make him see his fault and fly to

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God's mercy for pardon, pronounced Judgment;
which he took patiently.

They asked him, what he had to say: he
answered, nothing; but desired my lord of Lou-
don, that he might have one sent to him, fit for

a man in his case.

Lord of London. What? you would not have a jesuit or a priest?

Capt. Lee. No, I am a Protestant: I never liked those Paternoster fellows; but I desire a minister, and to receive the Sacrament: and further I desire, my lord chief justice, that my son may have no wrong, and that he may have that little that he had got together, and should leave behind him; for it was his by right, and his son might prove an honest man, and do his country good service one day.

L. C. J. He should have his right; nobody should be wronged.-So the Court broke up: Captain Lee still protesting he never intended any such thing against the queen as was laid to his charge; which he continued to affirm afterwards to Mr. Pasfield, to whom he confessed his other sins very freely, even taking his death upon it. He died the next day at Tyburn very Christianly, confessing his other vices, but still denying this.

73. The Trial of Sir CHRISTOPHER BLUNT, Sir CHARLES DAVERS, Sir JOHN DAVIS, Sir GILLY MERRICK, and HENRY CUFFE, at Westminster, for High Treason: 43 ELIZ. March 5, a. D. 1600.*

THE Commissioners were, The earl of Not- | tingham, Lord High Admiral, the lord Hunsdon, Lord Chamberlain, Mr. Secretary Cecil, L. C. J. Popham, sir John Fortescue, Chancellor of the Exchequer, Mr. Secretary Herbert, and divers of the Judges.

The Commission being read, the Court proceeded to the reading of the Indictment. After which the Clerk asked them if they were Guilty of the Indictment, or not Guilty.

Sir Christ. Blunt. My lords, we desire to know whether we may not confess part of the Indictment, and plead Guilty as to the rest.

L. C. J. Your pleading must be general to the whole, either Guilty or not Guilty.

Whereupon they all pleaded Not Guilty, and a substantial Jury was impanelled, which consisted of Aldermen of London, and other gentlemen of good credit.

Sir C. Blunt, sir Charles Davers, and sir John Davis, confessed, That it was their design to come to the queen with so strong a force, that they might not be resisted, and to require of her divers Conditions and Alterations of Government; nevertheless they intended no personal harm to the queen herself, and that was the reason why they could not confess the whole

* See a fuller account of this Trial, at p.1415; but as Merrick and Cuffe's Speeches are at the end of this Trial, and not there, we chose not to omit this, which introduces them.

VOLI.

Indictment, because the Indictment charges ́ that they intended and compassed the Death and Destruction of the Queen.'

L. C. J. Wherever the subject rebelleth, or riseth in a forcible manner to over-rule the royal will and power of the king, the wisdom and foresight of the laws of this land maketh this construction of his actions, that he intendeth to deprive the king both of crown and life; for the law judgeth not of the fact by the intent, but of the intent by the fact.

This construction is no Queen's Counsel. mystery or quiddity of law, but an infallible conclusion warranted by reason and experience: for the crown is not a garland, or mere outward ornament, but consists of pre-eminence and power; and therefore when the subject will take upon him to give law to the king, and to make the sovereign and commanding power become subject and commanded, such subject layeth hold of the crown, and taketh the sword out of the king's hand. The crown is so fastened upon the king's head, that it cannot be pulled off, but head and life will follow, as all examples both at home and abroad do manifest; and therefore when their words testify one thing and their deeds another, they are but like the protestations used by Manlius, lieutenant of Catiline, who conspired against the state of Rome, and yet began his letter, * Deos hominesque testumur, nos nihil aliud, &c. denying they intend

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* Sallust.

ed any thing against their country, but only to | ing in Essex-House, he was not there by force provide for their own safety.-But admitting and compulsion, but freely and voluntarily : that the Protestation of the prisoners was so far there was a distribution in the action, some true, that they had not at that time in their were to make good the house, and others to minds a formed and distinct cogitation to have enter the city; and the one part held corresdestroyed the queen's person, yet nothing is pondence with the other; and in treasons there more variable and mutable than the mind of can be no accessaries, all are principals. As man; and especially Honores mutant mores; to the Consultations at Drury-House, it was a when they were once aloft, and had the queen perfect Treason in itself, because the compassin their hands, and were peers in my lord of ing the queen's Destruction, which by JudgEssex's parliament, who could promise of what ment of law was concluded and implied in that mind they would then be? especially when it is consultation, was Treason in the very thought considered that my lord of Essex at his arraign- and cogitation, so as that thought be proved by ment defended his first action of imprisoning the an overt act: that same consultation was an privy counsellors, by pretence that he was forced overt act, though it had not been upon a list to it by his unruly company: so that if them- of Names and articles in writing, much more selves would not have had, or would not seem being upon matter in writing: and again, the to have had that extreme and devilish wicked-going into the city was a pursuance and carryness of mind, as to lay violent hands on the queen's sacred person; yet what must be done to satisfy the multitude and secure their party, must then be the question. The example of Richard the third may be remembered, who (though he were king in possession, and the rightful inheritors but infants) could never sleep quiet in his bed till they were made away; much less is it to be expected, that a Catilinary knot and combination of rebels (who have made an insurrection without so much as the fume of a title) would ever endure, that a queen, who had been their sovereign, and had reigned so many years in such renown and policy, should continue longer alive, than should make for

their own turn.

After this the aforesaid sir Christ. Blunt, sir Charles Davers, and sir John Davis said, That now they were better informed, and had entered into a deeper consideration of the matter, they were sorry they had given the Court so much trouble, and had not confessed the Indictment at first. However, the Queen's Counsel produced their Evidence to the Jury, which consisted principally of their several Confessions, and the rest of the Evidence used at the Trial of the earls of Essex and Southampton, as mentioned before in the said Trial.

Against Henry Cuffe was given in Evidence sir Charles Daver's Confession, who charged him, when there was a debating of the several enterprizes which they should undertake, that he did ever bind firmly and resolutely for attempting the court. Also the earl of issex's Accusation under his hand avouched by him to his face, that he was a principal instigator of him in his Treasons. But the chief evidence was a declaration of sir Henry Nevil, which described and set out the whole manner of his practising with him.

Cuffe. If my being within Essex-House the day of the Rebellion be a foundation to charge nie with High-Treason, you may as well charge a lion that is within a grate with treason: and for the consultation of Drury-House, it is no more treason than the child in the mother's belly is a child.

Solicitor General, (Fleming) As to his be

ing on of the enterprize against the court, and not a desisting or departing from it.

L. C. J. H many do conspire to execute Treason against the prince in one manner, and some of them do execute it in another manner, yet their act, though different in the manner, is the act of all of them who conspire, by reason of the general malice of the intent.

Against sir Gilly Merrick the Evidence produced proved him guilty of open Rebellion; for that he was a captain or commander over the house, and took upon him the charge to keep it and make it good as a place of retreat, for those who issued out into the city; and fortifyed and barricadoed the same house, making provision of muskets, powder, pellets, and other ammunition and weapons for the holding and defending it; and was a busy, forward and noted actor in that defence and resistance, made against the queen's forces brought against it by her majesty's lieutenant. It was further proved, that some few days before the rebellion, he had with great heat and violence displaced certain gentlemen who were lodged in an house close by Essex-House, and there posted divers of my lord Essex's followers and accomplices.-It was also proved that the afternoon before the Rebellion, Merrick with a great company of others, who were all afterwards in the act op, had procured to be played before them the play of deposing king Richard the second; neither was it casual, but a play bespoke by Merrick : and when it was told hitn by one of the players, that the play was old, and they should have loss in playing it, because few would come to it, there were forty shillings extraordinary given for it, and so it was played.

Upon this Evidence the Jury went from the bar, and after some time returned and brought them in all Guilty: and accordingly they received Sentence of Death; and were all exeand sir Charles Davers, who, being nobly descuted at Tyburn, except sir Christopher Blunt, cended, were beheaded upon Tower-Hill.

On the 13th of March, Merrick and Cuffe were drawn to Tyburn: when they were come to the gallows, Cuffe spake as follows:

I am brought hither to pay my last debt to

against such, as had unwarily espoused this unhappy cause.

Five days after, March 18, sir Christ. Blunt and sir Cha. Davers were executed on TowerHill. Davers bore his death with a most Christian calmness and composure, having first craved God's pardon and the queen's, to whom he wished all prosperity; as also the lord Grey's, who was there present, to whom he acknowledged he had been ill affected, not from any injury he had suffered from him, but purely on the earl of Southampton's account, to whom the lord Grey profest an absolute enmity. the

When sir Christopher Blunt came upon scaffold, he expressed himself in the following

< nature, and to suffer for crimes committed against God, my prince and my country; and as I cannot but discern the infinite justice of God, when I reflect on the multitude of my offences, so can I as little doubt but the severity of my punishment will make way for my admission into the embraces of his mercy. We are exposed here as sad spectacles and instances of human frailty; the death we are to undergo carries a frightful aspect, (for even the best of men desire life) besides, that it is as full of ignominy as terror; however, it is the portion of the best of saints, with whom I assuredly hope to rise again in Christ: not that I would be thought by any one to depend on my own merits, which I absolutely discard, but I place my entire trust and de< pendance in the atonement of my Saviour's blood. I am fully persuaded, that whoever 'feels a secret consolation within himself, 'whilst he groans under the infliction of any earthly punishment, is chastised by God with a paternal tenderness, and not in an angry and judicial way. But to come to the cause 6 of my death; there is nobody here can pos-memory, by reason of my late grievous wound: sibly be ignorant what a wild commotion was raised on the 8th of February, by a particular < great, but unadvised earl. I do here call God, his angels, and my own conscience to witness, that I was not in the least concerned therein, but was shut up that whole day within the house, where I spent the time in very melan-I understood of any dangerous discontent'choly reflections.'

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manner:

My lords, and you that be present, although I must confess that it were better fitting the little time I have to breathe, to bestow the same in asking God forgiveness for my mani'fold and abominable sins, than to use any ' other discourse, especially having both an imperfection of speech, and God knows, a weak

yet to satisfy all those that are present what 'course hath been held by me in this late enterprize, because I was said to be an instigator, and setter on of the late earl, I will truly, and upon the peril of my soul, speak the 'truth. It is true, that the first time that ever

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Here he was interrupted, and advised not to disguise the truth by distinctions, nor palliate his crime by specious pretences. Then he ceeded, I confess it is a crime as black as treason for a subject who lost his prince's favour, to force his way to the royal presence: for my own part, I never persuaded any man to take up arms against the queen, but am most heartily concerned for being an instrument in bringing that worthy gentleman, sir Henry Nevil, into danger, and do most earnestly intreat his pardon. And whereas said that one-and-twenty aldermen out of the 24 were devoted to the earl's interest, I only 'meant that they were his friends, and ready to serve him, but not in the way of open rebel

'lion.'

Here he was again interrupted, and so began to apply himself to his devotions, which he managed with a great deal of fervour: and then making a solemn profession of his Creed, and asking pardon of God and the queen, he was dispatched by the executioner,

After him sir Giles Merrick suffered in the same way, and with a most undaunted resolution: for, as if he were weary of living longer, he once or twice interrupted Cuffe, and advised him to spare a discourse, which however rational was not very seasonable, when he was taking leave of the world. He cleared the lord Mountjoy from having any acquaintance with the design; and intreated those noblemen who stood by, to intercede with the queen, that there might not be any farther proceedings

'ment in my lord of Essex, was about three years ago at Wansted, upon his coming one day from Greenwich. At that time he spake many things unto me, but descended into no 'particulars, but in general terms.-After which time he never brake with me any matter tending to the alteration of the state, (I pro'test before God) until he came into Ireland, ' other than I might conceive, that he was of 'an ambitious and discontented mind. But 'when I lay at the castle of Tho. Lee, called

Reban, in Ireland, grievously hurt, and 'doubted of my life; he came to visit me, and 'then began to acquaint me with his intent.'

As he thus spake, the Sheriff began to interrupt him, and told him the hour was past. But my lord Grey, and sir Walter Raleigh captain of the guard, called to the Sheriff, and required him not to interrupt him, but to suffer him quietly to finish his Prayers and Confessions. Sir Christ. Blunt said, Is sir Walter Raleigh there? Those on the scaffold answered, Yea; to whom sir Christopher spake on this manner :

'Sir Walter Raleigh, I thank God that you are 'present; I had an infinite desire to speak with you, to ask your forgiveness ere I died, both for wrong done you, and for my particular ill in'tent towards you: I beseech you forgive me.' Sir Walter Raleigh answered,That he most willingly forgave him, and besought God to forgive him, and to give him his divine comfort;" protesting before the Lord, that whatsoever sir Christopher meant towards him, for his part he never had any ill intent towards

A fuller Account of the Trial of Sir CHRISTOPHER BLUNT, Sir CHARLES DAVERS, Sir JOHN DAVIS, Sir GILLY MERRICK, and HENRY CUFFE. [From a MS. purchased at the Sale of the MSS. of Peter Le Neve, esq. Norroy King at Arms.*]

* Although in the Manuscript it is Sir That on the 8th day of Feb. last, at EssexCharles Davers,' yet on the margin is written in house, they conspired the death and disinMr. Le Neve's hand, Sir Charles Danvers;'herison of the queen's majesty, and on that