7.

Calendar of State Papers, Venetian, 1621–1623.

Page 183.

Girolamo Lando (Venetian Ambassador in England) to the Doge and Senate. Dec. 23, 1621. [From the Secret Despatches in the Venetian Archives.]

I enclose a copy of the remarkable letter written by his Majesty to bridle the Parliament. I hear that the Ambassador Gondomar [the Spanish ambassador] had it the day before it was read in the assembly. . .

With these differences and passions so heated as they are at present, it seems to me that they are approaching a very dangerous crisis. I hear on good authority that one of those most frequently about him [King James] told him that if he does not now stand upon his dignity and authority and does not do what he said he would in this letter, he will have to submit to their rule ever after, and will no longer be King except in show and appearance only, like the chief of a republic, without authority.

8. Calendar State Papers, Domestic, James I., 1619– 23.

Page 326.

[Dec. 30 (?), 1621.] Account of the King’s coming to Council, and calling for the Clerk of Parliament to produce the Journal Book of the Commons, in which was recorded the protestation of privileges. He declared himself offended with it, because it was drawn up after his repeated assertions of his wish to preserve all the liberties of the House, and at the very time when he was receiving a deputation from them and promising compliance with their wishes for an adjournment, and because it was put to the question at six o’clock at night, when not a third of the members were present; also that it contains words which may be construed so as to invade most of the prerogatives of the crown; therefore in a full assembly of Council and in presence of the Judges, his Majesty erased it from the Journal Book with his own hand, and ordered an Act of Council to be entered thereof.

[Sir Edward Coke, Sir Robert Phelips, and Sir Edward Mallory were committed to the Tower, and the first two questioned by members of the Council about their speeches in Parliament.]