The consequence was, it put arms into the hands of his subjects to
rebel against him; it embroiled him with his Parliament in England, to
whom he was fain to stoop in a fatal and unusual manner to get money,
all his own being spent, and so to buy off the Scots whom he could not
beat off.
I cannot but give one instance of the unaccountable politics of his
ministers. If they overruled this unhappy king to it, with design to
exhaust and impoverish him, they were the worst of traitors; if not,
the grossest of fools. They prompted the king to equip a fleet against
the Scots, and to put on board it 5000 land men. Had this been all,
the design had been good, that while the king had faced the army upon
the borders, these 5000, landing in the Firth of Edinburgh, might
have put that whole nation into disorder. But in order to this, they
advised the king to lay out his money in fitting out the biggest ships
he had, and the "Royal Sovereign," the biggest ship the world had ever
seen, which cost him no less than L100,000, was now built, and fitted
out for this voyage.
This was the most incongruous and ridiculous advice that could be
given, and made us all believe we were betrayed, though we knew not by
whom.
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