[16] “Murdering Miles” Prance, the silversmith. Prance, the “Renegado,” one of the accusers of the popish Lords, and with Titus Oates, one of the discoverers of the popish conspiracy.
[17] The popish Lords and the secretary of State, Lord Danby.
[18] His name appears to have been Dancer, tanner and bailiff; he was also mayor at the time.
[19] This ballad was written by Charles Blount, a prolific pamphleteer, second son of Sir Henry Blount, who attended Charles I. at Edge Hill.
[20] In reply to the London and Wiltshire petitions against the vexatious prorogations—which Charles justified on the excuse “that the unsettled state of the nation made a longer interval necessary”—the king volunteered an audacious statement which was likely to astonish constitutional minds. He said that “he was the head of the Government, and the only judge of what was fit to be done in such cases, and that he would do that which he thought most for the good of himself and his people, desiring that they would not meddle with a matter that was so essential a part of his prerogative.” This brazen-faced assumption is so coloured by Carolian waggery, that we must fancy the Merry Monarch, if he saw the wit of his speech, making the reply in question with his “tongue in his cheek.”
[21] Sir Thomas Mompesson had sat in the parliament in 1679 for New Sarum, and in the Oxford Parliament he sat for Old Sarum.
[22] “The Presbyters.”
[23] Thomas Thynne, whose estate was £9000 a year. He was an invaluable ally of the Duke of Monmouth. Assassinated by hired bravoes in the pay of Count Königsmarck, who was in love with the rich heiress, a widow, to whom poor Thynne was (by the influence of her friends) betrothed, be it said, against the inclination of the lady herself.
[24] The celebrated Philippe de Comines (1445-1509). “L’on voit dans Comines, mieux que partout ailleurs, ce qu’étaient alors et les droits des rois et les privilèges des peuples. Il témoigne pour les Anglais, qui déjà savaient mieux que tout autre nation maintenir leurs libertés, une grande consideration.”
[25] Frank Smith and Benjamin Harris, publishers of many tracts, satires, and so-called “libels” against the Court.