though partial, I will deliver you my conscience. The Case is good queen Elizabeth's, the offence is committed against her sacred person, and she may (of her mercy) pardon it without prejudice to any. Then this I say, in few words, as a man more desirous to discharge his troubled conscience, than to live. Pardon poor Parry, and relieve him; for life without living is not fit for hita. If this may not be, or be thought dangerous, or dishonourable to the queen's majesty (as by your favours, I think it full of honour and mercy) then I beseech your lordships (and no other) once to hear me before I be indicted, and afterwards, if I must die, humbly to intreat the queen's majesty to hasten my Trial and Execution, which I pray God (with all my heart) may prove as honourable to her as I hope it shall be happy to me; who will while I live (as I have done always) pray to Jesus Christ for her majesty's long and prosperous reign.--From the Tower, the 18th of February, 1584. W. PARRY." These matters being read openly, for manifestation of the matter, Parry prayed leave to speak: Whereto Mr. Vice-Chamberlain said, If y you will say any thing for the better opening to the world of those your foul and horrible facts, speak on; but if you mean to make any excuse of that which you have confessed, which else would have been and do stand proved against you, for my part, I will not sit to hear you. Then her majesty's Attorney-General Popham stood up and said, It appeareth before you my lords, that this man hath been indicted and arraigned of several heinous and most horrible Treasons, and hath confessed them, which is before you of record; wherefore there resteth no more to be done, but for the Court to give Judgment accordingly, which here I require in the behalf of the queen's majesty. Then said Parry, I pray you hear me for discharging of my conscience. I will not go about to excuse myself, nor to seek to save my life: I care not for it; you have my confession of record, that is enough for my life: And I mean to utter more, for which I were worthy to die. And said, I pray you hear me, in that I am to speak to discharge my conscience. Then said Mr. Vice-Chamberlain, Parry, then do thy duty according to conscience, and utter all that thou canst say concerning those thy most wicked facts. peal to her own knowledge, and to my Lord Treasurer's, and master Secretary's. Then said my lord Hunsdon, Hast thou acknowledged it so often, and so plainly in Writing under thy hand, and here of record; and now, when thou shouldest have thy Judgment according to that which thou hast confessed thyself guilty of, dost thou go back again, and deny the effect of all? How can we believe that thou now sayest? Then said Master Vice-Chamberlain, This is absurd; thou hast not only confessed generally, that thou wert Guilty, according to the Indictment, which summarily, and yet in express words, doth contain, that thou hadst traiterously compassed and intended the Death and Destruction of her majesty; but thou also saidst particularly, that thou wert guilty of every of the Treasons contained therein, whereof the same was one, in plain and express Letter set down, and read unto thee. Yea, thou saidst that thou wert guilty of more Treasons too besides these. And didst thou not upon thy Examination, voluntarily confess, how thou wast moved first thereunto by mislike of thy state after thy departure out of the realm, and that thou didst mislike her majesty, for that she had done nothing for thee; how by wicked Papists and Popish Books thou wert persuaded that it was lawful to kill her ma jesty; how thou wert by reconciliation become one of that wicked sort, that held her majesty for neither lawful queen nor christian, and that it was meritorious to kill her? And didst thou not signify that thy purpose to the Pope by letters, and receivedst Letters from the Cardinal, how he allowed of thine intent, and excited thee to perform it, and thereupon didst receive absolution? And didst thou not conceive it, promise it, vow it, swear it, and receive the Sacrament that thou wouldst do it? And didst not thou thereupon affirm, that thy vows were in heaven, and thy letters and promises on earth to bind thee to do it? and that whatsoever her majesty would have done for thee, could not have removed thee from that intention or purpose, unless she would have desisted from dealing, as she hath done, with the catholics, as thou callest them? All this thou hast plainly confessed; and I protest before this great assembly, thou hast confessed it more plainly and in better sort than my memory will serve me to utter and sayest thou now, that thou never meantest it? Then said Parrý, My cause is rare, singular, and unnatural, conceived at Venice, presented Ah, said Parry, your honours know how my in general words to the pope, undertaken at Confession, upon mine Examination, was exParis, commended and allowed of by his holi-torted.-Then both the lord Hunsdon and ness, and was to have been executed in Eng-Master Vice-Chamberlain affirmed that there land, if it had not been prevented. Yea, I was no torture or threatening words offered have committed maoy Treasons, for I have him.-But Parry then said, that they told him, committed Treason in being reconciled, and that if he would not confess willingly, he should Treason in taking absolution. There hath have torture: whereunto their honours anbeen no Treason sithence the first year of the swered, that they used not any speech or word queen's reign touching Religion, but that I of torture to him. You said, said Parry, that am guilty of, (except for receiving of Agnus you would proceed with rigour against me, if I Dei's, and persuading, as I have said, and yet would not confess it of myself. But their Houever intending, to kill queen Elizabeth) I ap-nours expressly affirmed, that they used no such words. But I will tell thee, said Master | Vice-Chamberlain, what we said. I spake these words: If you will willingly utter the truth of yourself, it may do you good, I wish you to do so; if you will not, we must then proceed in ordinary course to take your examination. Whereunto you answered, that you would tell the truth of yourself. Was not this true? Which then he yielded unto. And hereunto her majesty's attorney-general put Parry in remembrance what speeches he used to the lieutenant of the Tower, the queen's majesty's serjeant at law, master Gawdie, and the same attorney, on Saturday the 20th of February last, at the Tower, upon what he was by them then examined by order from the lords; which was, that he acknowledged he was most mildly and favourably dealt with in all his Examinations: which he also at the bar then acknowledged to be true. Then Mr. Vice-Chamberlain said, that it was a wonder to see the magnanimity of her majesty, which, after that thou hadst opened those traiterous practices in sort as thou hast laid it down in thy confession, was nevertheless such, and so far from all fear, as that she would not so much as acquaint any one of her highness's privy counci! with it, to his knowledge, no not until after this thine enterprize discovered and made manifest. And besides that which thou hast set down under thine own hand, thou didst confess, that thou hadst prepared two Scotish daggers, fit for such a purpose; and those being disposed away by thee, thou didst say, that another would serve thy turn. And withal, Parry, didst thou not also confess before us, how wonderfully thou wert appalled and perplexed upon a sudden, at the presence of her majesty at Hampton-Court this last summer, saying, that thou didst think. thou then sawest in her the very likeness and image of king Henry 8.? And that therewith and upon some speeches used by her majesty, thou didst turn about and weep bitterly to thyself? And yet didst still call to mind that thy vows were in heaven, thy letters and promises on earth; and that therefore thou didst say with thyself, that there was no remedy but to do it? Didst thou not confess this? The which he acknowledged. Then said the Lord Hunsdon, sayest thou now, that thou didst never mean to kill the queen? Didst thou not confess, that when thou didst utter this practice of treachery to her majesty, that thou didst cover it with all the skill thou hadst, and that it was done by thee, rather to get credit and access thereby, than for any regard thou hadst of her person. But in truth thou didst it, that thereby thou mightest have better opportunity to perform thy wicked enterprize. And wouldst thou have run into such fear as thou didst confess that thou wert in, when thou didst utter it, if thou hadst never meant it? What reason canst tho shew for thyself? With that he cried out in a furious manner, I never meant to kill her: I will lay my blood upon queen Elizabeth and you, before God and the world. And thereupon fell into a rage and evil words with the queen's majesty's attorney-general. Then said the lord Hunsdon, this is but thy popish pride and ostentation, which thou wouldst have to be told to thy fellows of that faction, to make them believe that thou diest for popery, when thou diest for most horrible and dangerous Treasons against her majesty, and thy whole country. For thy laying of thy blood, it must lie on thine own head, as a just reward of thy wickedness. The laws of the realm most justly condemn thee to die, out of thine own mouth, for the conspiring the destruction both of her majesty, and of us all: therefore thy blood be upon thee; neither her majesty nor we at any time sought it, thyself hast spilt it. Then he was asked, What he could say, why Judgment of Death ought not to be awarded against him? Whereunto he said, he did see that he must die, because he was not settled.-What meanest thou by that? said Mr. Vice-Chamberlain. Said he, look into your Study and into your new Books, and you shall find what I mean.-I protest, (said his Honour) I know not what thou meanest : thou dost not well to use such dark Speeches, unless thou wouldest plainly utter what thou meanest thereby. But he said, he cared not for Death, and that he would lay-his blood amongst them. Then spake the Lord Chief Justice of England, being required to give the Judgment, and said: Parry, you have been much heard, and what you mean by being settled, I know not; but I see you are so settled in popery, that you cannot settle yourself to be a good subject. But touching that you should say, to stay Judgment from being given against you, your speeches must be of one of these kinds, either to prove the Indictment (which you have confessed to be true) to be insufficient in law: or else to plead somewhat touching her majesty's mercy, why justice should not be done of you. All other speeches wherein you have used great liberty, is more than by Law you can ask. These be the matters you must look to, what say you to them? Whereto he said nothing. Then said the Lord Chief Justice: Parry, thou hast been before this time indicted of divers most horrible and hateful. Treasons, committed against thy most gracious sovereign and native country: The Matter most detestable, the Manner most subtle and dangerous, and the occasions and means that led thee thereunto most ungodly and villainous. That thou didst intend it, it is most evident by thyself. The matter was the destruction of a most sacred and an anointed queen, thy sovereign and mistress, who hath shewed thee such favour, as some thy betters have not obtained; yea, the overthrow of thy country wherein thou wert born, and of a most happy commonwealth whereof thou art a member, and of such a queen, as hath bestowed on thee the benefit of all benefits in this world, that is, thy life, here tofore granted thee by her mercy, when thou hadst lost it by justice and desert. Yet thou her servant, sworn to defend her, meant'st, with thy bloody hand, to have taken away her life, that mercifully gave thee thine when it was yielded into her hands: This is the Matter wherein thou hast offended. The Manner was most subtle and dangerous, beyond all that before thee have committed any wickedness against her majesty: For thou making shew as if thou wouldest simply have uttered for her safety the evil that others had contrived, didst but seek thereby credit and access, that thou mightest take the apter opportunity for her destruction. And for the occasions and means that drew thee on, they were most ungodly and villainous, as the persuasions of the pope, of Papists, and popish books. The pope pretendeth that he is a pastor, when as in truth he is far from feeding of the flock of Christ, but rather as a wolf, seeketh but to feed on, and to suck out the blood of true Christians, and as it were thirsteth after the blood of our most gracious and Christian queen. And these Papists and Popish Books, while they pretend to set forth divinity, they do indeed most ungodly teach and persuade that which is quite contrary both to God and his Word; for the Word teaches obedience of subjects towards princes, and forbiddeth any private man to kill; but they teach subjects to disobey princes, and that a private wicked person may kill; yea, and who? A most godly queen, and their own natural and most gracious sovereign. Let all men therefore take heed how they receive any thing from him, hear or read any of their books, and how they confer with any Papists. God grant her majesty, that she may know by thee, however she trust such like to come so near her person. But see the end, and why thou didst it, and it will appear to be a most miserable, fearful, and foolish thing; for thou didst imagine that it was to relieve those that thou callest catholics, who were most likely amongst all others to have felt the worst of it, if thy devilish practice had taken effect. But sith thou hast been indicted of the Treasons comprised in the Indictment, and thereupon arraigned, and hast confessed thyself guilty of them, the court doth award, that thou shalt be had from hence to the place whence thou didst come, and so drawn through the open city of London upon an hurdle, to the place of execution, and there to be hanged and let down alive, and thy privy parts cut off, and thy entrails taken out and burnt in thy sight; then thy head to be cut off, and thy body to be divided in four parts, and to be disposed of at her majesty's pleasure: And God have mercy on thy soul. Parry (persisting still in his rage and passion) said, I here summon queen Elizabeth to answer for my blood before God. Whereupon the lieutenant of the Tower was commanded to take him from the bar, and so he did and as he was going away the people cried out, Away with the Traitor, away with him:' whereupon he was conveyed in a barge to the Tower again by water. Upon the 2d of March ensuing he was delivered by the lieutenant of the Tower, early in the morning, to the sheriffs of London and Middlesex, who reccived him at Tower-hili; and according to the Judgment caused him to be forthwith set on an hurdle, on the which he was drawn through the midst of the city of London unto the place for his execution in Palace-yard Westminster, where having long time of stay permitted him before his execution, be impudently denied that he was ever guilty of any intention to kill queen Elizabeth; and so (without any request to the people to pray for him, or using any outward prayer himself) he was turned off, and executed according to the Sen tence. 61. Inquisition of a Jury of the City of London before the Coroner, had upon occasion of the Death of the Earl of NORTHUMBER LAND: With a Report of his Treasons: 27 ELIZ. A. D. 1585. [Somers' Tracts. 4 Coll. vol 3. p. 420.] [THIS Article, though not strictly a Trial, is republished from the Somers's Tracts, because the earl of Northumberland who is the subjec of it, had been before found Guilty, by his own Confession, of conspiring to deliver the queen of Scots out of the earl of Shrewsbury's custody; and also because at the time of his death, he was imprisoned under a charge of Treason The transaction throws some light upon the History of queen Elizabeth, and Mary queen of Scots.] A true and summary Report of the Declaration of some part of the Earl of Northumberland's Treasons, delivered publickly in the Court at the Star-Chamber by the Lord To the READER. appertaining to her ugly nature, hath this one not interior to the rest and the worst, Incredulity, wherewith she commonly possesseth the minds and affections of all those that are infected with her, so blinding the eyes and judgment of the best and clearest sighted, that they cannot see or perceive the bright beams of the truth, although the same be delivered with never so great purity, proof, circumstance, and probability. It is said, that no truth passeth abroad unaccompanied with her contrary, and as they go, truth is ever constrained to yield the precedence and pre-eminence to her yoke-fellow falshood, whose lodging is always first made and prepared without a barbinger in the corrupt nature of mankind by whom he is first received, entertained and harboured at all times: whereof in our daily experience there happen many and dangerous demonstrations, especially in matters of the highest moment, tending to excuse or accuse the actions of the greatest personages.-There was of late delivered in publick by persons of honour, credit and reputation, a large Declaration of certain Treasons practised by the late earl of Northumberland, of the manner of his untimely Death, being with his own hand murdered in the Tower, and of the causes that wrought him thereunto: the particularities whereof are such and so many, as for the help of my memory (coming then to the Star-chamber by occasion, and not looking for any such presence of the nobility and privy council as I found there at that time, and not looking for any such cause of that nature to have been handled there that day) I took notes of the several matters declared by the Lord Chancellor, Mr. Attorney, and Solicitor-General, the Lord Chief Baron, and Mr. Vice Chamberlain: for, as I remember, they spoke in order as they are here marshalled, and therefore I place them in this sort, and not according to their precedence in dignity.-Upon hearing of the Treasons, with their Proofs and Circumstances, and the desperate manner of the earl's destruction delivered in that place, and by persons of that quality, I supposed no man to have been so void of judgment, or the use of common reason, that would have doubted of any one point or particle thereof, until it was my chance (falling in company with divers persons at sundry times, as well about the city of London as abroad) to hear many men report variably and corruptly of the manner and matter of this publick Declaration, possessing the minds and opinions of the people with manifest untruths: as, that the earl had been unjustly detained in prison, without proof or just cause of suspicion of Treason and that he had been murdered by device and practice of some great enemies, and not destroyed by himself. These slanderous reports have ministered unto me this occasion to set forth unto thy view and consideration, gentle reader, this short collection of the said Treasons and Murder, as near unto the truth as my notes taken may lead and permit me, with the view of some of the examina : tions themselves concerning this cause, for my better satisfaction since obtained: which I have undertaken for two respects; the one, to convince the false and malicious impressions and constructions received, and made of these actions, by such as are in heart enemies to the happy estate of her majesty's present government: the other, because it may be thought necessary for the preventing of a further contagion, like to grow, by this creeping infection, in the minds of such as are apt, though otherwise indifferent, in these and the like rumours, to receive the bad as the good, and they the most in number. Wherein, if I have seemed more bold than wise, or intermeddled myself in matters above my reach, and appertaining unto me, I crave pardon where it is to be asked, and commit myself to thy friendly interpretation to be made of my simple travail, and dutiful meaning herein. Upon the 23rd day of June last, assembled in the Court of Star-chamber, sir Thomas Bromley, knt. Lord Chancellor of England, William Lord Burleigh, Lord High Treasurer of England, George earl of Shrewsbury, Lord Marshal of England, Henry earl of Derby, Robert earl of Leicester, Charles lord Howard of Effingham, Lord Chamberlain, Henry lord Hunsdon, Lord Governor of Berwick, sir Francis Knollis knt. Treasurer, sir James Crofte, knt. Comptroller of her Majesty's Houshold, sir Christopher Hatton, knt. Vice-Chamberlain to the Queen's Majesty, the Lord Chief Justice of her Majesty's Bench, the Master of the Rolls, and the Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, and others; the audience very great of knights, esquires, and men of other quality, the Lord Chancellor began briefly and summarily to declare, that whereas Henry late earl of Northumberland, for divers notable Treasons and Practices, by him taken in hand, to the danger, not only of her majesty's royal person, but to the peril of the whole realm, had been long detained in prison, and looking into the guilt of his own conscience, and perceiving by such means of intelligence, as be, by corrupting of his keepers, and other like devices, had obtained, that his Treasons were by sundry Examinations and Confessions discovered, grew thereby into such a desperate estate, as that thereupon he most wickedly destroyed and murdered himself; which being made known to the lords of her majesty's Privy Council, order was thereupon taken, and direction given to the Lord Chief Justice of England, the Master of the Rolls, and the Lord Baron of the Exchequer, to examine the manner and circumstances of his Death, which they with all good endeavour and diligence had accordingly performed. And lest, through the sinister zeans of such persons as be evil-affected to the present estate of her majesty's government, some bad and untrue conceits might be had, as well of the cause of the earl's detainment, as of the manner of his Death, it was therefore thought necessary to have the truth thereof made known in that presence: and then lie required. her majesty's learned council there present, to deliver at large the particularities, both of the Treasons, and in what sort the earl had murdered himself. Then began John Popham, esq. her majesty's Attorney General, as followeth : verba: 6 • Middlesex. of her majesty's sacred person, and advancing particularities of the Treasons, leaving many declared. THE earl of Northumberland, about the time of the last Rebellion in the North, in the 11th year of her majesty's reign (then called by the title of Henry Piercy, kut.) had undertaken the conveying away of the Scotish queen; for the which, as appeareth by a record of the 14th year of her majesty's reign, in the court of her majesty's Bench he was indicted, he confessed the offence, and put himself to her majesty's mercy. At which time, upon his said Confession, Submission, and faithful promise of his duty and allegiance to her highness from thence-Throckmorton tended especially to the invading And for that the Treasons of forth, the queen's majesty, of her merciful na- of the realm with foreign forces, the purpose ture, was pleased not to look into his offence of that invasion long before intended, is proved with the extremity of her laws, but dealt therein, by sundry Examinations and Confessions taken as by way of contempt only, as may appear by here within the realm, as well of her majesty's the Record; the effect whereof was then shewed in court, under the hand of one of the written from and to the conspirators abroad own subjects as others, by letters intercepted, Clerks of her majesty's said Bench, in hæc and at home, and by other good advertisements and intelligences had from foreign parts, discovering the same. He declared, that in a Mem. That Henry Piercy, late of Tinmouth, Letter, written from Dr. Sanders to Dr. Allen in the County of Northumberland, kat. was out of Spain, in the year 1577, it is set down, indicted in the term of Easter, in the 14th among other things, that the State of Chrisyear of her majesty's reign, for that he, with tendom stood upon the stout assailing of Engdivers others, did conspire for the delivering land. That in a Letter sent to the same Allen of the queen of Scots out of the custody of from Rome, touching audience given by the the earl of Shrewsbury: upon which Indict- Pope to the ambassadors of certain foreign ment the same Henry Piercy did confess the princes, between the pope and whom a league 'offence, and did put himself to the queen's was agreed on against the queen's majesty, mercy, and thereupon Judgment was after there were inclosed certain Articles, containing given by the court, that the said Henry should in effect, that the realm should be invaded with pay to the queen for a fine for bis said offence, 20,000 men, at the charge of the said pope and 5000 marks, as appeareth by the Record princes, that her majesty should be deposed, 'thereof in court Per Micha. 14 & 15 Elizab. and some English catholic elected king.-That Regina, Rotulo quinto inter placista Regina. it was confessed, that the coming over of so Concordat cum Recordo. Per Jo. IvE.' many priests into the realm, was to win great By this Record it may appear, that the earl numbers to the catholic party, to join (if ophad his hand in that Rebellion. But for a fur-portunity served) either with foreign invasion, ther proof thereof, it is most manifestly discovered in a certain Tract, written by the bishop of Ross, wherein he sheweth how faithfully he behaved himself in the managing of those Treasons, at and about the time of that Rebellion, that the said earl was, in effect, as far plunged into the same, as the late earl his brother, nowsoever be wound himself out of the danger at that time.--Notwithstanding these traiterous practices, the queen's majesty was contented to remit all within a short time, and then accepted most graciously of him both in honour and favour, though unworthily bestowed upon bim; for that he utterly forgetting those graces and favours received at her majesty's merciful hands, with a graceless resolution was contented to enter into a new Plot, now lately contrived, not only for delivering the Scotish queen, but for the invading of the whole realm, the overthrow of the government, as well concerning the State of Religion, as otherwise, the danger or with tumult at home.--That at Narbonne in Provence, there was met an Englishman, being the bead preacher there, who gave intelligence to one of her majesty's subjects, that the realm should shortly be invaded by a foreign king, and the popish religion restored: and said further, that priests came into England, and dispersed themselves in counties, to make their party strong.-A message was sent in Nov. 1581 to Dr. Allen, from a subject of this realm, by a seminary priest then returning beyond the seas, that whereas he had received word from Allen at Allhallow-Tide before, that men and all things were in a readiness, if the place of landing might be known; that Allen should forthwith send word whether things were in such readiness or not; and if they were, be would then send him such perfect instructions as he could.-One Payne, executed for Treason, confessed, that this realm could not continue in the state wherein it was; for that the |