THAT, as Histories and Chronicles informe us, The Kingdom of the Scots was first erected in the Person of our K. Fergus the First, in the dayes of Alexander the Great some 330. years before the birth of our Saviour; So hath the Royalty of Scotland been lawfully enjoyed (what in Descendants, what in Colla­terals) by the Off-spring of this same First Fergus, without the interruption of any other Line, for beyond twentie Centuries, unto this very day. Nor was this our King Primier, Ʋnus ex Plebe, but the Son of a Noble Irish Prince, Ferquhard, deriving (as they say) his pedegree from Gaal-Glasse or Gathelus, the Father and Prince of the Scots from Gallicia, even as well the Albinenses, as the Hibernenses, and some think our Isles were as soon by them inhabited as Ireland, for Ierne signifies but a place to the West­ward. Lo here then, is our very first King blessed to be the Son of Nobles.

But the reason of representing this Genealogicall descent, and why it did not run from Fergus the First, be pleased to understand thus.

The Commons of England having in some late Successive Par­liaments, very much pressed his Sacred Majesty to disinherit his only Brother JAMES Duke of Albany and York, from the Imperial Crown of England, as being alledged a Papist, it was thought worth the while to publish (at the opening of our last Parliament) a Brief account of His Majestie's, and his Royall Brothers descent, from Kings or true Princely Cadets, in a Line-Male, [Page 4] without interruption, for beyond Fifteen Hundred years That so, some men (if possible) might see but at least their unmannerliness, in urging such a Christian Monarch, to disinher [...] such a Brother; And that his Majesty might, to his other argu [...] ments, from Religion and Justice, adde and presse home bu [...] this single one, from Affection, Nature and Providence, [...] asking how his Feudatorie Subjects, who have given him the [...] oaths of Homage and Fealtie, promising to be faithfull to Hi [...] and his Heirs, come now so earnestly to addresse him to seclu [...] his only Brother, and in the present case, not only his next apparent heir, but in the case of survivage, the only Childe of the [...] late martyred Soveraigne, yea and the onely immediat Heir Ma [...] of Britain and its Crowns, And who besides the other adva [...] tages, he may Challenge from such a Race of Kings, doth equaly with his Majesty enjoy this very singular blessing, of bein [...] lawfully descended of Kings & true Princely Cadets, in ane un-interrupted Line-male, through the various vicissitudes of 1500 years, and that before Christianity it self, (much more befor [...] Popery, Protestanisme, or any subdivided profession of either was well known, at least by authority embraced, or countenanced here.

May never then a misled, or too forward a zeale, prompte [...] on by discontented Grandees or others (for perhaps their ow [...] more sinistrous ends) wheedle the unwarry to engage in method [...] and lay foundations, for shaking of the hereditary Monarchy [...] under the specious pretence of preserving us from Popery, i [...] otherwayes threatned upon us, then from our own remote je [...] lousies and fears, in a case, but on the one hand dubious, an [...] on the other uncertain.

Let us not then studie too much, to patronize that repudia [...] and dangerous error, That Rule and Dominion (which is but [...] Ray of Gods Power in the Kingdom of his Providence) is, or necessarily ought to be, founded in Grace, by denying the Suprem [...] Magistrate, and Hereditarie Prince, his true and undoubte [...] right of Blood and Succession, except he be precisely of the Rel [...] gion and perswasion of his Predecessors; or greater part of h [...] Subjects. For questionless, Religion as such (being a thing [...] choise and perswasion) is neither essentially constitutive, nor i [...] dispensably seclusive of Magistracie, where the Royalty is S [...] preme and Hereditary. And so much is owned in the Westminst [...] Confession, asserting that difference in Religion, does not nul [...] fie, nor make void the office of the Magistrate.

Confident then, yea perhaps too peremptory, was that A [...] dresse [Page 5] which offered to assure, his Majesty, that it was beyond the verge of possibility to seeure the Protestant interest in Eng­land,, unlesse the Duke were disinherited. Oh Christians! cannot the true Religion, taught by the Holy JESUS, planted by his Apostles, contained in the Scriptures, propagated by the Fathers, confirmed by the Councils, and sealed by the Martyrs, be preserved, secured, and to succeeding Generations here trans­mitted, without hazarding upon an Act, in its consequences, more then probably full of unavoidable inconveniences, both to Crown and Church. Or is, O Protestants, a concerning Zeale, grown now in this cold age, more warme then that of the Re­formers? Why did not Cranmer, Ridley, and Jewell fall upon this Topick, from difference in Religion, to disinherit Marie, but choosed rather to water the Church with their blood, then to unhinge, or in the least offer to justle the hereditary Monarchy, in its ordinary, right, and providentiall course of descent? And consider but, had this dangerous Maxime been entertained by any of the Popish Marie's when in power, what had be fal­len Elizabeth, or her Successor? Yea, and may it not here deserve a considering thought, how far in this case the Duke might claime the benefit of the 29. Chap. of the Magna, Charta, [...]gainst some things in, if not the whole procedure of the vote of Seclusion; for sure the Son of the King, and in the stated case next Heir of the Crown (els why should he be secluded) cannot be in a worse condition in point of Right, and Priviledge, then the meanest native of England. Read me but seriously at your leasure, the above-cited Chapter with the ordinary glosse there­upon, and compare them impartially with the Addresse and Vote of seclusion, and be like you may incline to think there were both Reason and Law for the King to refuse the one, and the Peers to reject the other. Let then our Loyalty here be ne're a whit [...]he lesse, because we have Princes from an un-interrupted Stem Royall, through a series of moe years, then stand betwixt the Pro­ [...]ise made to the Father of the Faithfull in Haran, and the Finisher [...]f our Faith his Inning in the Manger. And whatever truth may [...]e in Gathelus his marrying of SCOTA, the daughter of [...]haraoh, and uptaker of Moses; or of the fatall Marble (which [...]hey brought along with them) being the Stone whereupon [...]acob saw his vision; Sure the Kings of this Isle, yea and of this [...]orner of it, have brought acceptable presents to the Virgin's Em­manuel, for early did this Island hear of his Fame. And let us [...]ot therefore be the more slack, and backward in our obe­dience, because the Pair of Royall Brothers enjoy so much of the [Page 6] blessing pronounced by Ieremy, for Ionadab the Son of Rhehab, as can run them in a direct Line-Male, from the Loyns of the first Ethodius, who coming to the Crown, in right of his Mother, did make necessarly a gape and stop in the Ascent-male to the First Fergus.

I. For Ethodius the first of that name, and 25 King of the Scots, was Sister-son to K. Mogallus, and succeeded to his Cousin K. Co­narus, about the year of our Lord 162. (when the two Collegiat Antonin's, Philosophus and Verus governed the Roman Empire) This Ethodius was our last heathnish King by descent, for Sa­trael was his Brother, as was also Donald 1. our first Christian King. So early did even this line embrace Christianitie, never thence forward returning to Heathnisme. For

II. King Ethodius 2. Son to the First, succeeded in the Faith, after the death of his Unckle Donald, but being a King of too easie a nature, & having indulg'd too much of the reins of Government to his Nobles, was at last killed by his Guard and Servants. But his Son

III. Athirco, a King of another temper, before he would be reduced (or as the gentler word now goes, Reformed) by his No­bles, did rather out of discontent dispatch himself. Whose third Son

IV. K. Donald 2. being wounded in battell and overcome, died of displeasure in the first year of his Reigne. But his Son

V. King Fincormachus, as so commonly called, who should yet more justlie have been named but Cormachus only, for the Syllable Fin does not here signify Filius, for though he was Feun-Cormeich, that is but, the Faire Cormeich, for Pheun or Feun is in the old Highland Language Faire, & the Highlanders use but the Syllables Mack and Vick, when they expresse Patronimicks, So our Historians, either not well understanding, or adverting to the old Irish, have wrote him Fincormachus quasi Filius Cormachi for Feun-Cormeich. i. e. Cormachus Pulcher. But be this our King the Son of Cormeich, or Cormeich the Faire, he was still Grand-Child by a Son to Athirco, and much favouring Christianity, died in peace in the 47. year of his Reigne. For in his time it was that many Christians persecuted by Dioclesian fled hither, and were kindly received, and from whose, & their Successours Solitary and devout retirements dignified by their godlie lives, we yet have (as from the Latine Cellae, derived to us the names of severall Kirks, and of old, Religious places, under such words as Icolm-kill, Kill-marnoch, Kill-mairs, Kill-Patrick, and such like.

VI. Achadius or Ethodins, second Son to Feun-Cormeich was after the death of his Brother K. Eugenius the first, banished by that [Page 7] Victorious Roman Legat, Maximus, together with his Son

VII. Erthus, and some say his Oy

VIII. King Fergus the 2. who (whether borne in Scotland or Denmark) was present with Alarick and his Goths at the ran­sacking of Rome, from whence he brought severall Manuscripts of value, particularlie of Titus Livius, which having first lodged in Icolm-kill, they were after the ruine of the Picts transported to Restennoth in Angus, and at last either destroyed, or carried away with Langshanks of England. But this our second Founder, having after severall battels recovered the Thron of his Ancestors, was at last killed by the Romans. And here the English Geographer Heylen, with some of his Countrey-men, endeavour to wrong our antiquity, in not allowing our Kingdom elder then this, its but for­tunat Recoverer, and not first Founder, who was the other Fer­gus from Ireland, many ages before, But though our partiall nighbours grudge to allow us older then their own Saxon Hengist, yet disinteressed Historians do not so farre unbefriend the truth, for does not Tacitus mention our Corbred Gaald, under the name of his Galgacus, and does not Orosius and Eutropius speak of our el­der Caractacus, and their own venerable Beda of our yet more antient Reutha, who lived near 200. years before the birth of our Saviour, and does not the most and better part of Chronologues still state the founding of our Kingdom contemporary with the Establishing of the Grecian Monarchy.

IX. King Dongardus, 2. Son to Fergus 2. succeeded his elder brother King Eugenius the 2. An. Chr. 451. in the Reignes of thir two brethren flourished Palladius sent hither (by Pope Celes­tine, as they say) for resisting the Pelagian heresie. Padi-Kirk at Fordon in the Mearnes was built by him, and in which he was interred, and where his memorie was much honoured thereafter, But Dongardus second Son

X. King Conranus or Goranus, succeeding to his Brother Con­gallus, concluded a good and honorable peace betwixt Ʋther-Pen­dragon, of the Brittons, and Lothus King of the Picts.

XI. King Aidanus was Crowned by Columba, to whose honour thereafter King Alexander the Fierce, builded the Abbacie of St. Colmes Inch in the Firth.

XII. King Eugenius the 4. who having had the benefit of St. Columba's education, liv'd a good & valiant King & died in peace, much lamented of his People, An. Chr. 621. and of his Reigne the 16. year, whose second Son

XIII. King Donald the 4. succeeding his Brother King Fer­quhard the 1. sent to Oswald King of Northumberland, Aidanus [Page 8] (first Bishop of Landisfarne or Holy-Island) with diverse learned and godlie Monks, to instruct Oswalds Saxons in Christianitie, but was himself, when fishing upon Tay, unfortunatly drowned Anno Chr. 646. Whose second Son

XIV. Dongardus or Drugardo (brother to King Maldwine) was father to

XV. King Eugenius the 5. who lived contemporary with the Saxon Egfrid, and was killed in battell by the Picts, the 4. year of his Reigne, leaving a Son

XVI. Findanus, whose Second Son

XVII. King Eugenius the 7. succeeding to his Brother Am­birkelethus, seasonablie concluded a peace with the Picts, by marry­ing Spondana, daughter to their King Garnadus. He ordained that the Acts of our Kings should be recorded by the Monks, in their Monasteries, perhaps the first rise of our publick records, but his Son

XVIII. K. Ethfinus, having governed in peace 31. years, left his 2. Son

XIX. K. Achaius, to succeed his brother K. Fergus 3. and who partly by vertue of his Marriage with Fergusiana Daughter to Hungus King of the Picts, and partly of ane old league be­twixt the two Crowns did upon the failzure of issue secure that Kingdom for his Son, as the next Heir. He also made that famous League with Carle-maine, so often renewed by his Successors, and which continued till the first Monarch of Brittain, carryed his Court from Haly-rude-house to Whitehall; yea so fortunat a Co­venanter was Achaius, that he hath for ever Leagu'd the Lillies to his Lyon, in that his Noble Counterfloured double Tressure. But his Son

XX. K. Alpin who being (contrary to his right and the agree­ment) refused the Crown of the Picts, due unto him, after the death of his Cousins Dorstolorgus and Ethanus, he was necessitat to vindicat his right by Arms, till at last he was taken with many of his Nobles at a Battell, near Dundie, called of old Alectum, and basely beheaded by the Picts, who affixt his head upon a Pole, on the West port of Abernethie, then their Chief City. But observe the severe vengeance of God, for the unjust and Barbarous usage of him, whose right it was to rule, soundly executed by his Son

XXI. K. Kenneth 2. who having wheedled his refactory No­bles into a warre, by the stratagem of making one covered with dryed fish skins, awake them out of a deep sleep in a darke night, with ane exhortation through a hollow reed, to undertake it, which as from an Angell they forthwith so chearfully engadged in, that he utterly subdued and possest himself of the Pictish Kingdom, [Page 9] equallie upbraiding the disloyaltie of the Picts, and quickning the courage of the Scots, with his military Tessera or word at the Battell, Remember Alpine; and so indeed they did, not only with their sword and bow, but in transmitting to posterity the whole some constitutions of his Son, under the Title of M^c. Alpins Laws, and giving to the place of his Murder, the name of Bassal­pin, to remember his death to this day.

XXII. K. Ethus, second Son to the valiant Kenneth, succeeded to his Brother King Constantine 2. (from whom is His Majestie in another branch, for here is only the Line-male) and who was killed by the Danes near Craile, where Ethus rallied the broken Army after the Danes retired to their Ships, and did not outlive his bro­ther many Moneths. He was for his swiftness in running surnamed Alipes or Light-foot. He left issue K. Constantine the 3. and

XXIII. Dorus, his second Son, who had also two Sons Ga­rethus and

XXIV. Murdocus, who likewayes left two Sons Donald, who in some hopes of the Crown, privately murdered K. Duf­fus at his Castle of Forresse in Murray and

XXV. Pheaquhar or Ferquhard, whose Son

XXVI. Kenneth, was Father to

XXVII. Bancho, the famous and valiant Thane of Lochaber, who was told by the Weird-sisters, that though he could not be a King himself, yet his Posterity should be Kings over the Land, for many Generations, which Macbeth remembering, and having experienced the truth of the Prophecies given to himself, begins to fear those of Bancho, and being jealous of his greatness, and knowing his relation to the Crown, he causeth murder him at Innernesse, designing the same Fate for his Son

XXVIII. Fleance who escaping, fled to Wales, where he had by the Prince's Daughter (Maria Mesta) a Son

XXIX. Walter, who returning to his Cousin K. Malcome Kanmore was kindly by him received, and for his good services rewarded and dignified with the office of Stewart of his house and Chamberlain of his Revenues, leaving thereupon to his Posteritie the Surname of Stewart, whose Son

XXX. Allan, went to the Holy Warres, with Godfrey De Bul­loigne, and was slaine at the Seige of Antioch, Anno Chr. 1099. yet left he behinde him a Son

XXXI. Walter 2. advanced by K. Malcome the Maiden, to be Magnus Senescallus Scotiae, Great Stewart of Scotland, or He­reditarie Captain Generall of the Kings Forces, where ever the Royall Banner stands displayed.

[Page 10]XXXII. Alexander the first (who as sayes our Clerk-Regi­ster Skene, and our Historian Leslie,) builded the Abbay of Paisly.

XXXIII. Allan 2. a great Benefactor to the Abbacie of Paisly, and honourably mentioned in severall Charters, in K. Alexander the 2. time, under the Titles of Senescalus, Justitiari­us Scotiae, owned also by Fordon in these words, (Obijt Walte­rus filius Allani junioris, Anno Dom. 1241.) to be Father to

XXXIV. Walter the 3. commonly called of Dundonald, who was sent by K. Alexander the 2. to the holy wars, in that first expedition of K. Lewes the 9. of France, He had three Sons, John who was killed in Africk by the Moors, in the second expedition of the same K. Lewes; Alexander who beat Acho, with his Danes and Norvegians at the Largs in Cunyngham, Anno 1263. and of which Alexander are descended the Kings of the surname of Stuart unto, and with Q. Marie: And a third Son had this Walter also, named

XXXV. Robert, Lord Torboultoun, who added to his E­state Cruixtoun and Darnly by marrying of the Heretrix, And died Anno 1304. Whose Son

XXXVI. John Lord Darnly, was one of the Chief hostages to King Edward the 3. of England, for the ransome of K. David the Bruce, taken at the battell of Durham. This Lord Darnly died Anno 1360. and left Issue

XXXVII. Robert Lord Darnly, who was Father of

XXXVIII. John 2. Lord Darnly, slaine in battell against the English at Crevant in Burgoyne in France, Anno 1422. but lest issue John the first Lord Aubignie, and the first who augmented his Paternall Armes, with the Coat of France, within a bordoure G. charged semy de Fermoul [...] O. with the Motto Avant Darnlie, from the mouth of Charles the 7. as appears by his Patent dated at Ploys, An. 1427. He was slain at a battell near Orleans, An. 1429. Sans issue. But his brother

XXXIX. Allan Lord Darnly, added more of fortune and means to the Familie, by marrying a Daughter of Murdoch, Duke of Albanie, and Isabel Countesse of Lennox, daughter to E. Duncan: which being a little disclosed, will make the Storie be understood, why so brave a Prince as K. Iames 1. was so severe as to send her the four heads, of her Father, Husband, and two sons, to Tantallon, some 40. miles from Stirling, And why so sober an expression came to be uttered by so stalwart a wife: they were sent then, not that mulier ferox (as sayes Bucha­nan) animi Secreta revelaret, if he meant the discovery of any plot or Treason, but that upon so gastly a sight, her passions might tempt her to utter such expressions, as might bring her under [Page 11] the compasse of Law; for to their disapointment they found she stood infeft in the Earldome of Lennox, undenuded in favours of her Husband. But the Politick King catcht no advantage of the warrie Virago, who said no more, But, if the crimes were true, the King was just. And so the wylie Dutches, by keeping her tongue, preserved her estate, and to make up the loss of her Husband, and Sons, for the Family wisely joyned (by her daughter) the Stewart of Fife, from the Stewart of Len­nox, to the Stewart of Darnly, yet this Allan, though called an Earl by the vulgar, was never so created by King James the 1. having outlived him but a year, dying Anno 1438. But his Son

XL. Iohn, was in right of his Maternall Progenitors created, Earl of Lennox, And dying Anno 1488. left his eldest Son

XLI. Mathew Earl of Lennox, who had to wife the Lady Margaret Hamiltoun, daughter to Iames Earl of Arran; and the Lady Mary, daughter to K. Iames the 2. This E. Mathew was killed at the Field of Floudon, whose Son

XLII. E. Iohn, was (in his service to King Iames 5.) killed at Linlithgow, by Iames, Bastard to the Earl of Arran, Anno 1526. whose eldest Son

XLIII. Earl Mathew, married Lady Margaret Douglas only daughter to Archbald 7. Earl of Angus of the name of Douglas; and Q. Margaret Relict of King Iames 4. and eldest daughter to K. Henry the 7. of England; and was (when Regent to his Oy) slain at Stirling, Anno 1572. whose eldest Son

XLIV. Henry Lord Darnly, was created Duke of Rothesay, and taken by Q. Marie (Daughter and Heir to K. Iames 5.) for her Second Husband, but basely murdered, by the Earl of Bothwell, Anno 1567. yet leaving a most happie Son

XLV. K. JAMES the Sixth (borne in the Castle of Edin­burgh, the 19. of Iune, 1566) who after the death of Q. Eliza­beth, succeeded to the Crowns of England, and Ireland, as nearest Heir, in the Right of his Progenitors, to K. Henry the 7. of England, and by his own Queen, Ann of Denmark, left An: 1625.

XLVI. K. CHARLES, his Second Son, Heir of his Crowns and Vertues, who having a hopefull, and numerous issue by his Queen, Marie, daughter to the Great K. Henry of France, was to the high Scandal of Christianity, and shame of his people, forced, by a cursed crew of his Rebellious Subjects, to lay his head to the Block, for defending the Right of the Crown and Church, Anno 1648. Yet notwithstanding to this Royal Martyr Succeeded.

[Page 12]XLVII. Our present gracious Soveraigne CHARLES the Second, By the Grace of GOD of Scotland, England, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith, &c. who, to instance and confirme by three immediat successive Monarch's the Florentin's politick Secretarie's Aphorisme of, Tres boni Principes miraculum constituunt in Republicâ, was miracu­lous from the Star at his Birth, miraculous in his Escape at Worcester, but more miraculous in his unparallelled Restau­ration whom God long preserve for a mercy to thi [...] Lands, together with his Royall Consort Q. Catharin of Portugall, His Royall Brother JAMES Duke of Albany and York, and all the Branches of the Royall Familie, that there may never want of this Line, to sway the Scepters of their Ancestors.

AMEN.