Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	king_n	parliament_n	prerogative_n	4,603	5	10.2111	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A97273	A brief view of the late troubles and confusions in England, begun and occasioned by a prevailing faction in the Long Parliament: deduced to the auspicious [sic] coming in of General Monck, and the most glorious and happy restitution of King Charles the Second. / By William Younger.	Younger, William, 1605-1662.	1660 (1660)	Wing Y198; Thomason E1873_2; ESTC R204143	45,037	159

A BRIEF VIEW OF The late troubles and confusions in England begun and occasioned by a prevailing Faction in the Long PARLIAMENT Deduced to the auspicious coming in of GENERAL MONCK And the most glorious and happy Restitution of KING CHARLES the SECOND By WILLIAM YOUNGER Psal 118.22 The same stone which the builders refused is become the head stone of the Corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvellous in our eyes London Printed for Robert Gibbs at the golden Ball in Chancery-lane 1660. AN ADVERTISEMENT TO THE Reader THis brief Relation was composed Chiefly out of the Authors own observation of the transactions in these late sad times Many things are purposely omitted especially in the former part for brevity sake which otherwise might have been inserted For his intentions at first were to leave it in the Register book of his Parish in which he first began it for the use of his successors but it growing too big for that design he drew the rest down in papers to the coming in of General Monck and the happy Restitution of King Charles the Second to his Throne He hath endeavoured herein to set down nothing but truth and hopeth he hath not much failed therein However if any errors or mistakes be they are not wilfull and possibly not much material His purpose only is to set forth the stupendious mercy of God in raising up a temporary Saviour such a one he accounts General Monck to be for the deliverance of this sinful Nation from an oppression or slavery as bad as Egyptian and from a confusion no less than Babylonish If God may have the glory by an humble ackowledgement and real thanks to be given him by the people of these Kingdoms it is all the Author expects or desires A Brief View of the late troubles and confusions in England begun and occasioned by a prevailing faction in the Long Parliament ANNO 1640. Novem. 3. began the Parliament called the Long Parliament year 1640 we may truly term it the Black or the Bloody Parliament that involved the three Nations in blood and destroyed the King the Parliament it self and thee Kindoms The King in the beginning of this Parliament had for the security of the Subjects in their Persons Liberties and Estates passed many and several Acts of grace to the no small diminution of his Royal Prerogative more than all his Predecessors Kings of England from the Conquest downward had ever done and all this to remove from them all jealousies and fears After this in May 1641. he gives way at the great and pressing importunity of the House of Commons ●●●1 to the Condemnation and Execution of the Earle of Strafford a loyal Subject and a most able and accomplish'd counsellour as any Prince in Christendome ever had The King was very hardly moved to yield either to his attaindor or execution as not being satisfied in conscience of any guilt or crime in him deserving such punishment but yield at length he did though with much reluctancy to satisfie the importunity of the people and indeed at the request of the Earle himself who desired Jonah-like to be cast over-board thereby to appease the violent rage of a tempestuous people The truth is this Nobleman as also the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury afterwards Anno 1644. were meerly sacrificed to the malice and revenge of the Scots In August following the King goes into Scotland to compose differences there between himself and his Subjects of that Kingdom which done he returns again to London and is there received with exceeding joy and triumph of the people in or about the beginning of December The House of Commons to welcome his Majesty home instead of giving him thanks for the many gracious Acts he had lately passed they present him with a Remonstrance Dec. 15. laying open all the miscarriages and misfortunes of his whole Government from the beginning of his Raign even to that present and this they publish contrary to his express desire to the whole Kingdom whereby they gave occasion to the people to conceive jealousies and suspicions of a malignant party about the King still carrying on their own designs both against Religion and the Laws of the Land After the publishing of this Remonstrance fears and jealousies encrease among the people the vulgar rabble in and about London frequently flock down to Westminster with Petitions and clamours against the Bishops and Popish Lords and disaffected Members as they termed them in the House of Commons and no redress could be had again them though the House of Lords and the King himself had moved the House of Commons to declare against them The truth is they were favored and countenanced under hand by some Members of that House The King to avoid the danger of these tumults withdraws from White-hall to Windsor from thence afterwards to Newmarket and so by Cambridge into the Northern parts and thence to York The Parliament soon after his removal from Whitehall petition Him at Newmarket and elsewhere for the Militia to have it put into such hands as the two Houses shall think fit but he denyes them telling them that the Law hath setled it in Him that to divest Himself of the power of the Sword is to bereave Himself of power to protect his people and support the Laws This Petition was much insisted on by the Parliament under pretence of feares and jealousies but the King absolutely and peremptorily denyes it The King by several journeys comes year 1642 to York in the beginning of the year 1642 and there he settles His Court. Soon after his coming into those parts he was denyed enterance into Hull by Sir John Hotham when he offer'd to go into the Town but with twenty persons attending Him The King thereupon fearing lest the same armed force that kept Him out of Hull might surprize His Person at York he entertaines a guard of the Gentry of that County This by the house of Commons is Voted a levying of War against the Parliament though they themselves had long before three times as many of the Trainedbands of the City to guard the houses dayly Many Petitions Answers and Declarations passed between the King and Parliament during his Majesties being at York wherein it is evident to all understanding men that the King had the better cause and was more able to maintain it by the pen and by reasons and arguments than the Parliament was for the truth is his Declarations and Answers to their Messages Petitions and Propositions were unanswerable But words and writings not being sufficient to compose these differences they proceed from words to blows About July they Vote that the King is seduced by evill and Malignant Counsellers and thereupon they Vote an Army to be raised under the Command of Robert Earle of Essex the pretence is for King and Parliament against these Malignant Counsellers but they accuse or name none in particular The same year Aug. 24. the King sets up his Standard at

Protector It is probable the Protector foresaw that little or nothing would be done by this Parliament and therefore to make sure work he and his Council besides this Ordinance for his stile and Title for the issuing out Writs and for Law-proceedings to go according to that Stile and Title and some others of the like nature made in the beginning of his government immediately upon the Change I say besides these before the Convening of this Parliament a very few dayes he publishes by Authority of himself and his Council above twenty Ordinances as some reckoned them which were observed as valid Laws and amongst them one remarkable one for the Ejecting of Ignorant scandalous and insufficient Ministers by any five or more of the Commissioners therein named and by which in a quarter of a years time they ejected many Ministers especially in Norfolk out of their livings scarce one of twenty that were accused or complained of but were ejected And this was done I suppose to gratifie the Anabaptistical and Independent party who hitherto beheld Oliver with an evil eye since he was Protector looking as they thought too like a King The Parliament convened according to appointment at Westminster Septemb. 3. they presently question the Protectors Authority though he had at their first meeting in a very large speech presently after printed and published magnified the same as if he had been called to the Place by the concurrent and universal consent of the whole Nation It is true they consented because they could do no otherwise being forced thereunto by his armed power to silence and suppress this question within a few dayes after their sitting he enjoyns a Recognition or acknowledgement of his power by a particular subscription of every one of the Members before they were admitted to enter the House any more and such as would not subscribe were forcibly secluded by a guard of Souldiers but at last all or most of them subscribed No sooner were they set again but they fall in hand with the Instrument of Government examining it in every particular and the Protector suffered them to go on without interruption They would have been content to have made him Protector but they would not allow of the Instrument of Government in all things Ye must know by the way that one Article of the Government was that the Parliament called and convened must sit five months if themselves think good and during that time the Protector had not power to dissolve them but afterwards at any time he might It was further ordained that whatsoever Acts they made and tendred to him if he did not consent within thirty dayes or satisfie them to the contrary they were to be Laws valid and binding without him To conclude they spent so long time in tuning the instrument that just at the five moneths end counting precisely twenty eight dayes to a moneth the Protector calls them together tells them he thought they had been asleep having not of a long time heard from them That they had sate long and done nothing and therefore tells them they may repaire every one to his several home Thus they are dissolved with a kind of jeer Ianuary 22.1654 But I must tell you the Parliament would not tender him any Bill to passe nor receive any Laws from him till such time as they had regulated the Government of the Nation and confirmed his authority upon him The truth is they thought him not to have power to enact Laws till themselves had given it him And therefore they would have nothing pass till altogether were done and finished After the breaking up of this Parliament it was generally thought we should never have had any more in his time For the Protector betakes himself to other Methods of government That year 1655. year 1655 he institutes his Major General He divides the whole Kingdom into seven Provinces or Cantons three four or five more or fewer Counties in a Province And over every of these he placeth a Major General with his Deputy and sufficient Authority not only in Military affairs but also in Ecclesiastical and Civil none came amiss to them they would meddle in all upon occasion on complaint Especially in Church-affairs they take upon them the soveraign power they put out silence and inhibit what Ministers they please by vertue of the late Ordinance against scandalous Ministers and other orders private instructions to them from the Protector his Council They will not suffer any ejected Minister to teach a School either publickly or privately to pray or preach or to perform any Ministerial duty in any Church or private Family in a word they would have starved them if they could denying all means of livelyhood to them and theirs And because divers ejected Ministers had during the sitting of this last Parliament and soon after commenced suits in Law for the recovery of their Livings and had gotten some of them damages against their Intruders and had hopes of recovering the possession of their Livings and some of them had already got into possession by Law The Protector publisheth a Proclamation thereby strictly commanding them to quit their possessions and to release all judgements obtained and further inhibiting all Attournies Lawyers and Advocates to commence or prosecute any Suits for or to plead in the behalf of such Clients And all Judges are likewise inhibited to admit of any such Actions or Pleas in any of their Courts All which was apparently to deny them the benefit of the Law which is the highest Act of Arbitrary and Tyranni-power that can be and consequently to condemn that Authority as illegal by which they were first ejected Furthermore upon occasion of a rising in the Spring by some of the Kings party in the West he not only proceeds against Col. Iohn Penruddock and divers other Gentlemen by Capital punishment but he decimates all the Cavaleers or Gentlemen of the late Kings party that had been in arms for him all over England that is he enjoyns them to pay yearly the tenth part of their whole Revenue notwithstanding their former Compositions made for their Estates and their Pardon 's sued out as the Parliament had enjoyned and also the late Act of Oblivion anno 1651. And this Decimation was put in execution by these Major Generals And in this Government he much resembled the Turk Himself like the Grand Signior ruling by sole command had his standing Army as a guard for his Person answerable to the Janizaries and his Major Generals representing the Bashaws in their several Provinces And besides these he had his Auxiliaries lately set up in every County viz. certain Troops of horse and Companies of foot armed and ready upon all occasions maintaining and finding their own horses and arms for a constant yearly salary the horsemen had 8 li. per annum and the foot 3 li. and these were upon any occasion to be drawn forth and march in a few hours warning Anno 1656. The Protector

In the mean time while the Parliament thus deferre the Treaty Cromwel is first sent into Wales to subdue them where he found work enough for most part of the Summer Fairfax is sent against the Kentishmen where though he were worsted at Rochester Bridge and lost many men yet at Maidston he had the better got the Town and dispersed them Presently after five thousand of the Kentishmen under the command of the Lord Goring Earl of Norwich being denied passage through London transport themselves over the Thames and so into Essex where after some skirmish about Bow-bridge with some of the Parliament Forces they march to Rumford and so to Chelmesford and joyn with the Essexmen at that time there Rendezvouz'd Fairfax pursues them with all expedition they march to Colchester but were scarce set down in the Town before Fairfax with his Army was at their heels A sore fight there was in the Suburbs June 13. the next day after their coming into the Town a thousand men and more slain upon the place most of them of Fairfax his party Had they of Colchester pursued that dayes victory it is probably thought they might easily have destroyed Fairfax his Army The Kings Party fortifie the Town hoping the Gentry of Suffolk and Norfolk will come in to their assistance Fairfax on the contrary by degrees begirts the Town forcing all the Country thereabout both Essex and Suffolk to assist him against it During the siege of Colchester the Duke of Buckingham with Lord Francis his brother the Earl of Holland and the Earl of Peterborough appear in Armes with five or six hundred Horse at Bamsted Downe in Surrey or thereabouts where they would soon have increased had they not been suddenly surprized by a party of the Army out of London the Lord Francis was slain and the rest scattered Buckingham escaped but Holland was soon after taken at St. Neots in Huntingtonshire cowardly yielding himself without resistance The Scots mean time lingered and came on slowly insomuch as Cromwel having subdued them in Wales he marches immediately from thence into Lancashire and at Wiggon and Preston defeats them taking Duke Hamilton prisoner basely yielding himself in his Chamber Aug. 18 19. From thence he pursues his victory into Scotland even to the City of Edenburgh where he is highly applauded and magnified by Argile and the Churchmen who were alwayes against this engagement of Hamilton Colchester after this pressed with a long siege and pinched with hunger at last yields to Fairfax upon very hard termes Aug. 28. where the very same day that they entred the Town they caused Sir Charles Lucas and Sir George Lisle too gallant men as ever England bred to be shot to death in the Castle Yard All the rest of the Nobility and Gentlemen of quality were carried away Prisoners The Treaty with the King is at length begun a fixed number of days are at first appointed that expired a fortnight more is added so that upon the finishing of the treaty a little before all was concluded Cromwel returnes with his victorious Army out of Scotland The Army fearing the Parliament would agree with the King and re-establish him in his Throne though the conditions were extream hard on his side they first publish that shameless vile Remonstrance at Saint Albans Novemb. 16. 1648. wherein they declare their resolutions to question the King for his life as the Capital Enemy or grand Delinquent to bring him to trial They prefix a time for the appearing of the Prince now beyond Sea to answer for his crimes and in case he refuse to come in and submit to a tryal to banish his person as a Rebel and Traytor and confiscate his estate This Remonstrance was sent to the House of Commons with a Letter signed by Fairfax the General whom Cromwel abused and made his Stale in all this action to take it speedily into consideration as a matter admitting no delay But the Commons laying it aside and making the more speed to conclude with the King upon the Treaty voting his concessions satisfactory so far as to be ground of peace Suddenly on Tuesday December 5. A Party of the Army seize upon the Members of the House whom they conceive to be opposite to their design They imprison many and seclude and deterre more in all to the number of above two hundred leaving about sixty or seventy if that in the House and those either Army men or devoted vassals to Cromwel and his faction these vote the Kings concessions not satisfactory and thereupon break off the Treaty The Army then presently seize upon the King in the Isle of Weight they remove him in the night from Caresbrow Castle to Hurst Castle in Hampshire an unwholesom place standing two or three mile into the sea upon a very narrow neck of Land there they closely imprison him and soon after obtain a Vote in their new modell'd House of Commons to bring him to trial The Lords refusing to consent they proceed without them and draw up an impeachment against his Majesty by the advice of one Dorisley an outlandish Doctor of Law and that many years before had been History-Reader in Cambridge preferred thither by the Lord Brooks to read that Lecture by him first founded but soon after silenced and put out by the Vice-chancellor and Head of the University for seditious Doctrine by him there delivered against Monarchy For the Kings Trial they appoint seventy or eighty Persons the most of them Army-men all of them his mortal enemies to be his Judges the Judges of the Land and most eminent Lawyers refusing to joyn with them or assist them they appoint one Bradshaw a poor petty-fogging Lawyer but of an audacious impudent forehead to be President of their high Court of Justice so they call it more properly their Court of high injustice The King is brought from Hurst Castle to Windsor about Christmas where they would not allow him a Minister to keep the Festival with him From thence they bring him to White-Hall and Saint James about the tenth of January by water And there afterwards being brought four several times before their pretended Court of Justice where he every time refusing to answer and disclaiming their authority offering to give his reasons but they refusing to hear him at last Saturday January 27. he is condemned to the block and his head cut off on a Scaffold erected before his Palace gate at White-Hall on Tuesday following January 30. to the unexpressable grief and sorrow of all true English People And thus perished the best the wisest and the most Religious King that ever England had The House of Lords that had basely complyed with the Commons and supported them from the beginning hitherto against their King because they would not go along with them in this last most wicked act are kickt off by a Vote The very same day that they voted the abolition of Regal Government February 7. 1648. they voted down the House of