AN ENGLISH GARNER STUART TRACTS 1603-1693 WITH AN INTRODUCTION BY C. H. FIRTH FELLOW OF ALL SOULS COLLEGE, OXFORD WESTMINSTER ARCHIBALD CONSTABLE AND CO., LTD. PUBLISHERS' NOTE THE texts contained in the present volume are reprinted with very slight alterations from the English Garner issued in eight volumes (1877-1890, London, Svo) by Professor Arber, whose name is sufficient guarantee for the accurate collation of the texts with the rare originals, the old spelling being in most cases carefully modernised. The contents of the original Garner have been rearranged and now for the first time classified, under the general editorial supervision of Mr. Thomas Seccombe. Certain lacunae have been filled by the interpolation of fresh matter. The Introductions are wholly new and have been written specially for this issue. The references to volumes of the Garner (other than the present volume) are for the most part to the editio princeps, 8 vols. 1877-90. Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. CONSTABLE. TABLE OF CONTENTS Sir Robert Carey. Account of the Death of Queen Elizabeth.. The True Narration of the Entertainment of his Majesty from his departure from Edinburgh till his receiving at Time Triumphant. By Gilbert Dugdale, 1604, . The famous and wonderful Recovery of a Ship of Bristol, A true Relation of a brave Stratagem practised upon a Sea-town The Sequestration of Archbishop Abbot from all his ecclesi- astical offices in 1627. By John Rushworth (1659), Thomas Lord Fairfax. Short Memorials of some things to be cleared during my Command in the Army, and A Short Memorial of the Northern Actions during the war there. vi STUART TRACTS A true Relation of Major-General Sir Thomas Morgan's Progress A Relation of the Great Sufferings and Strange Adventures of A true and exact Account of the Retaking of a Ship called the PAGE 403 425 431 477 INTRODUCTION THE tracts which stand first in this volume describe the accession of James I. and the rejoicings which accompanied his progress from Scotland to London. To them is prefixed, in order to explain the narratives followed, Sir Robert Carey's account of the circumstances of Queen Elizabeth's death, and of the manner in which he brought the news to Edinburgh. Carey, whose Memoirs were first published by the Earl of Cork in 1759, was the youngest son of Henry Carey, first Lord Hunsdon, and the grandson of Mary, sister of Ann Boleyn. His kinship to the Queen and his gifts as a courtier secured him the favour of Elizabeth, and when that sovereign died he held the office of Warden of the Middle Marches. As soon as Carey perceived that her end was near, he resolved to use the opportunity to gain the favour of her successor, in the conviction, as he tells us, that it was neither 'unjust nor unhonest' for him to do so. The candid selfishness of his defence explains his character, but contemporaries as well as later historians censured his haste to profit by the death of his kinswoman and benefactress. It hath set so wide a mark of ingratitude on him,' writes Weldon, 'that it will remain to posterity a greater blot than the honour he obtained afterwards will ever wipe out.' Carey would willingly have borne this general censure, but what he could not endure without lamenting was the failure of the 1 Secret History of the Court of James I., i. p. 314. |