The Theater of Gods Judgments, Book 2 · Chapter 4
CHAP. IIII. Of such as have murthered their Rulers or Princes.
ZImri, Captaine of halfe the chariots of Elah, King of All this whole chapter, in regard of murther, belongeth to the 6 commandement. 1. King. 16.Israel, conspired against his Lord, as he was in Tirza drinking till he was drunke in the house of Arze his Steward, and came upon him suddenly, and smote him till hee died, and possessed the Kingdome in his roome. Howbeit, herein he was the Lords rod to punish the house of Baasha, yet when the punishment was past, the Lord threw the rod into the fire; for he enjoyed the Crowne but seven dayes: for all Israel, detesting his fact, made Omri King over them, who besieged him in Tirza, and drove him into that extremity, that hee went into the palace of the Kings house, and burnt himselfe and the house with fire.
Iozachar the sonne of Shimeah, and Ieozabed the sonne of Shomer, came King. 12. 22.to no better end for murthering Iehoash King of Iuda: for Amaziah his sonne after the kingdome was confirmed unto him, caused them both to be put to death: but their children he slew not, according to that which is written in the Booke of the law; The fathers shall not be put to death for the 2 King. 14. 5.children, nor the children for the fathers, but every man shall beare this owne sin.
Neither did Shallum, that slew Zacharia King of Israel, prosper any better; 2 King. 15.for he reigned but one month in Samaria, when Menahim the sonne of Gadi rebelled against him, and slew him as he had done his master.
Amon, the sonne of Manasseh, was slaine by his owne servants, but the Lord stirred up the people of the Land to revenge his death, and to kill all them that had conspired against their King.
But to let passe the holy histories of the sacred Scripture, wherein, ever after any treason, the Holy Ghost presently setteth downe the punishment of traitours, as it were of purpose to signifie how the Lord hateth all such Rebels that rose up against his owne ordinance: let us consider a little the consequents of these in prophane, yet credible authors, and apply them unto our purpose.
Archelaus King of Macedonia had a minion called Cratenas, whom hee loved most entirely; but he againe requited him not with love but Aelian. lib. 1.with hatred, and stretched all his wits to install himselfe in his kingdome, by deposing and murthering him: which though he accomplished, yet his deserts were cut short by the vengeance of God: for he continued not many dayes in his royalty, but he was served with the same sauce that he had made. Archelaus before him to taste of, even betraied and murthered, as he well deserved.
Lodovicus Sfortia to the end to invest himselfe with the Dukedome of Millain, spared not to shed the innocent bloud of his two Nephewes, the sonnes of Galenchus, together with their tutors, and one Francis Calaber, a worthy and excellent man; but the Lord so disposed of his purposes, that he (in stead of obtaining the kingdome) was taken prisoner by the King of France, so that neither he nor any of his off spring injoyed that which he so much affected.
When Numerianus was to succeed …arus his father in the Empire, Arrius Axer his father in law, to the end to translate the Empire unto himselfe, Philip Melanst Cbro 1. lib. 3.entered a conspiracy, and slew his sonne in law, that nothing mistrusted his disloyalty: but the Pretorian army understanding the matter, discharged Arrius, and elected Dioclesian in his roome, who laying hold upon his competitour, laied an action of treason to his charge, and put him to death in the sight of the multitude.
Theodoricke and Fredericke conspired against their owne brother Thurismund Chro. Sigebert.King of the Visigothes, to the intent to succeed him in his Kingdome: And albeit that nature reclaymed them from the act, yet they slew him without all compassion. But after thirteene yeres reigne the same Theodericke was requited by his other brethren with the same measure that he before meted to his brother Thurismund. And so though vengeance slept a while, yet at length it wakened.
Aelias Antonius Gordianus, Emperour of Rome, though so excellent Philip Melanct Chron.a young Prince, that he deserved to be called the Love and Iewell of the World, yet was he slaine by one promoted by himselfe to high honour, Aventin. lib. 2.called Philip Arabs, when he was but two and twenty yeres old: after whose decease this Philip got himselfe elected Emperour by the Band, and confirmed by the Senate. All which notwithstanding, after five yeres Decius rebelled, and his owne souldiers conspired against him, so that both he at Ingratitude punished.Verona, and his sonne at Rome, were slaine by them about one time.
After the death of Constantine the Great, his three sonnes dividing the Aventin. lib. 3.Empire betwixt them, succeeded their father. Constantine the eldest had for his share Spaine, France, the Alpes and England; Constance the second held Italy, Africa, Graecia, and Illyricum; Constantine the younger was King and Emperour of the East. But ambition suffered them not to enjoy quietly these their possessions: for when the eldest being more proud and seditious than the other, not content with his alotted portion, made warre upon his brother Constance his Provinces, and strove to enter Italy, he was slaine in a battell by Aquileia, when he was but five and twenty yeares old; by which meanes, all the provinces which were his, fell to Constance, and therewithall such a drowsinesse and Epicurisme for want of a stirrer up after his brothers death, that he fell into the gout, and neglected the governement of the Empire: Wherefore in A…sourge and in Rhetia they created a new Emperour; one Magnentius, whose life before time Constance had saved from the souldiers, and therefore his treachery was the greater. This Magnentius deprived and slew Constance, but was overcome by Constantine the third brother in Illyricum, yet in such sort, that the conqueror could not greatly brag, for he lost Notable ingratitude punished.an infinit company of his men, and yet missed of his chiefe purpose, the taking of Magnentius, for he escaped to Lyons, and there massacring all that he mistrusted, at last growing (I suppose) in suspition with his owne heart, slew himselfe also: and so his traiterous, ingratefull, and ambitious murther was revenged with his owne hands.
Victericus betrayed Lnyba king of Spaine, and succeeded in his place; seven yeares after, another traitour slew him, and succeeded also in his Ritius lib. 1. de regib. Hispan.place. Mauritius the Emperor was murthered by Phocas, together with his wife and five of his children, he seating himselfe Emperour in his roome: Howbeit, traitors and murtherers can never come to happy ends: for as he had slaine Mauritius; so Priscus, Heraclianus, and Phorius three of his chiefest captaines, conspiring against him, with three severall armies gave him such an alarme at once at his owne doores, that they soone quailed his courage, and after much mangling of his body, cut him shorter by the head and the kingdome at one blow.
In the time of Edward the second and Edward the third in England, one Sir Roger Mortimer committed many villanous outrages in shedding Lanquet.much bloud, and at last King Edward himselfe, lying at Barkley castle, to the end that he might (as it was supposed) enjoy Isabel his wife, with whom he had very suspitious familiarity. After this, he unjustly accused Edmund Earle of Kent of treason, and caused him to bee put to death therefore: and lastly, he conspired against King Edward the third, as it was suspected, for which cause he was worthily and deservedly beheaded.
Among this ranke of murtherers of Kings we may fitly place also Richard the third, usurper of the Crowne of England, and divers others Stow.which he used as instruments to bring his detestable purpose to effect: as namely Sir Iames Tirrèl Knight, a man for natures gifts worthy to have served a much better Prince than this Richard, if he had well served God, and beene endued with as much truth and honesty as he had strength and wit: also Miles Forest, and Iohn Dighton two villaines fleshed in murthers. But to come to the fact, it was on this sort: When Richard the usurper had enjoyned Robert Brackenbury to this piece of service of murthering the young King Edward the fifth, his Nephew, in the Tower, with his brother the Duke of Yorke, and saw it refused by him: he committed the charge of the murther to Sir Iames Tirrel; who hasting to the Tower, by the Kings Commission received the keyes into his owne hands, and by the helpe of those two butchers, Dighton and Forest, smothered the two Princes in their bed, and buried them at the staires feet: which being done, Sir Iames rode back to king Richard, who gave him great thankes, and as some say, made him knight for his labour. All which things on every part well pondered, it appeareth, that God never gave the world a notabler example, both of the unconstancy of worldly w…ale, and also of the wretched end which ensueth such despightfull cruelty: for first, to begin with the ministers, Miles Forest rotted away peecemeale at Saint Martins, Sir Iames Tirrel died at the Tower hill beheaded for treason, King Kichard himselfe (as it is declared elsewhere) was slaine in the field, hacked and hewed of his enemies, carried on horsebacke dead, his haire in despight torne and tugged like a dog: besides, the inward torments of his guilty conscience were more than all the rest: for it is most certainly reported, That after this abhominable deed hee never had quiet in his minde; when he went abroad, his eye whirled about, his body was privily fenced, his hand ever upon his dagger, his countenance and manner like one alwaies ready to strike, his sleep short and unquiet, full of fearefull dreames, insomuch that he would often suddenly start up and leap out of his bed, and runne about his chamber, his restlesse conscience was so continually tossed and tumbled with the tedious impression of that abhominable murther.