e illegitimacy of the duke of Monmouth.

James, duke of Monmouth, was the king's natural son by Lucy Walters,
and born about ten years before the restoration. He possessed all
the qualities which could engage the affections of the populace; a
distinguished valor, an affable address, a thoughtless generosity, a
graceful person. He rose still higher in the public favor, by reason of
the universal hatred to which the duke, on account of his religion,
was exposed. Monmouth's capacity was mean; his temper pliant: so that,
notwithstanding his great popularity, he had never been dangerous, had
he not implicitly resigned himself to the guidance of Shaftesbury, a
man of such a restless temper, such subtle wit, and such abandoned
principles. That daring politician had flattered Monmouth with the hopes
of succeeding to the crown. The story of a contract of marriage, passed
between the king and Monmouth's mother, and secretly kept in a certain
_black box_, had been industriously spread abroad, and was greedily
received by the multitude. As the horrors of Popery still pressed harder
on them, they might be induced either to adopt that fiction, as they had
already done many others more incredible, or to commit open violation on
the right of succession. And it would not be difficult, it was hoped,
to persuade the king, who was extremely fond of his son, to give him the
preference above a brother, who, by his imprudent bigotry, had involved
him in such inextricable difficulties. But Charles, in order to cut off
all such expectations, as well as to remove the duke's apprehensions,
took care, in full council, to make a declaration of Monmouth's
illegitimacy, and to deny all promise of marriage with his mother. The
duke, being gratified in so reasonable a request, willingly complied
with the king's desire, and retired to Brussels.

But the king soon found that, notwithstanding this precaution,
notwithstanding his concurrence in the prosecution of the Popish plot,
notwithstanding the zeal which he expressed, and even at this time
exercised against the Catholics, he had nowise obtained the confidence
of his parliament. The refractory humor of the lower house appeared in
the first step which they took upon their assembling. It had ever been
usual for the commons, in the election of their speaker, to consult the
inclinations of the sovereign; and even the long parliament, in 1641,
had not thought proper to depart from so established a custom.